Othello - A Racist Play Essays (902 words) - Othello, Iago

Othello - A Racist Play? Othello - A Racist Play? Although there are lots of things to suggest this is a racist play I don't think that racism actually dominates the play, even though it has a racist theme. There is a romantic union between black and white which gets destroyed because most people think the relationship is wrong. At the time the play was written, 1604, even the Queen of England was racist so there must have been a strong hatred of blacks around that time. Most racist comments in the play are said by people that are angry or upset. For example, when Emilia found out that Othello had killed Desdemona she was extremely mad and she called Othello a "Blacker devil", this was the only time in the play that she had said anything racist about Othello. The main characters that have racist attitudes are Iago, Brabantio, Roderigo and Emilia, with the hatred of Othello as the basis for their racist actions and comments towards him. Iago is the most racist character in the book as he has it in for Othello right from the start. What sparks off Iago's hate towards him is the fact that when Othello chose his lieutenant , it was Cassio who was chosen instead of Iago. What made Iago angry was the fact that Cassio had no experience in war when he did and Cassio was chosen instead of him. Iago does not say anything racist to Othello's face but he has a lot to say against him behind his back. He schemes to destroy Othello and anything in his way including Cassio and Desdemona. The first time we hear one of his racist comments is when he's talking to Brabantio about Othello and Desdemona, "Even now, very now, an old black ram is tupping your white ewe". Iago says this to try and turn Brabantio against Othello. Iago uses racist comments all the way through the play, as he tries to turn people against Othello, for example calling him a "Barbary Horse". He never says anything racist to Othello's face because in his plot he had to be his best friend, so as not to make him suspicious that Iago was causing all the trouble for him. Iago is jealous of Othello for many reasons, one being that Othello has higher ranking in the army than him, and also he has a good marriage with Desdemona which Iago does not have himself with Emilia. These are the main causes of his hatred for Othello and the reason he adopts such a racist attitude. Roderigo is another one of the racist characters in the play, being so right from the start. He is Iago's accomplice and will do anything that Iago wants him to. I think he does this because of the way Iago can twist a situation to make it sound as if Roderigo would get something good from it but in the end he doesn't. One of the racist names he calls Othello behind his back is "Thick-lips" . He hates Othello because he's jealous of him as he also loves Desdemona but cannot have her. I don't think he views Othello in a very bad, racist way but uses the racism against Othello because he's jealous of him. Neither Roderigo or Iago would say anything racist to Othello's face as he is the general of the army. Brabantio is also a racist character, and is enraged when he finds out that his daughter, Desdemona, has been seeing"the moor" behind his back. Brabantio is so mad he sends out his guards to catch Othello and put him in prison. Brabantio views Othello as a foul and dirty no good black, I think this racist view of his is because he's angry when he finds out that his daughter has been seeing this "moor". Unlike Iago and Roderigo, Brabantio will openly make racist comments about Othello to his face such as, "lascivious moor", "Wheeling stranger". Brabantio can do this because he is the Senator of Venice and is higher in rank than Othello. The other character who is racist towards Othello is Emilia, the lady in waiting to Desdemona. Emilia is disgusted with Othello when she finds out that Othello had killed Desdemona this is the time she gets a chance to express her feelings about Othello, "O, the more angel she, and you the blacker devil!" Although this is the only time she says what she thinks of him, I think that she was racist towards Othello all through the play and did not approve of his

The Imjin War, Japanese Invasions of Korea

The Imjin War, Japanese Invasions of Korea Dates: May 23, 1592 - December 24, 1598 Adversaries:  Japan versus Joseon Korea and Ming China Troop strength:   Korea - 172,000 national army and navy, 20,000 insurgent fighters Ming China - 43,000 imperial troops (1592 deployment); 75,000 to 90,000 (1597 deployment) Japan - 158,000 samurai and sailors (1592 invasion); 141,000 samurai and sailors (1597 invasion) Outcome:  Victory for Korea and China, led by Korean naval successes. Defeat for Japan. In 1592, the Japanese warlord Toyotomi Hideyoshi launched his samurai armies against the Korean Peninsula. It was the opening move in the Imjin War (1592-98). Hideyoshi envisioned this as the first step in a campaign to conquer Ming China; he expected to roll over Korea quickly, and even dreamed of going on to India once China had fallen. However, the invasion did not go as Hideyoshi planned. Build-up to the First Invasion    As early as 1577, Toyotomi Hideyoshi wrote in a letter that he had dreams of conquering China. At the time, he was just one of Oda Nobunagas generals. Japan itself was still in the throes of the Sengoku or Warring States period, a century-long era of chaos and civil war among the different domains. By 1591, Nobunaga was dead and Hideyoshi was in charge of a much more unified Japan, with northern Honshu the last major region to fall to his armies.   Having accomplished so much, Hideyoshi began to give serious thought once more to his old dream of taking on China, the major power of East Asia.   A victory would prove the might of reunified Japan, and bring her immense glory. Hideyoshi first sent emissaries to the court of Joseon Koreas King Seonjo in 1591, requesting permission to send a Japanese army through Korea on its way to attack China. The Korean king refused.   Korea had long been a tributary state of Ming China, while relations with Sengoku Japan had seriously deteriorated thanks to incessant Japanese pirate attacks all along Koreas coast.   There was simply no way that the Koreans would allow Japanese troops to use their country as a staging ground for an assault on China. King Seonjo sent his own embassies to Japan in turn, to try and learn what Hideyoshis intentions were. The different ambassadors returned with different reports, and Seonjo chose to believe those who said that Japan would not attack. He made no military preparations. Hideyoshi, however, was busy gathering an army of 225,000 men. Its officers and most of the troops were samurai, both mounted and foot soldiers, under the leadership of some major daimyo from Japans most powerful domains.   Some of the troops were also from the common classes, farmers or craftsmen, who were conscripted to fight. In addition, Japanese workers built a huge naval base on western Kyushu, just across the Tsushima Strait from Korea. The naval force that would ferry this enormous army across the strait consisted of both men-of-war and requisitioned pirate boats, manned by a total of 9,000 sailors. Japan Attacks The first wave of Japanese troops arrived at Busan, on Koreas southeast corner, on April 13, 1592. Some 700 boats offloaded three divisions of samurai soldiers, who rushed Busans unprepared defenses and captured this major port in a matter of hours. The few Korean soldiers who survived the onslaught sent messengers running to King Seonjos court in Seoul, while the rest retreated inland to try to regroup. Armed with muskets, against Koreans with bows and swords, the Japanese troops quickly swept toward Seoul. About 100 kilometers from their target, they met the first real resistance on April 28 - a Korean army of about 100,000 men at Chungju. Not trusting his green recruits to stay on the field, Korean general Shin Rip staged his forces in a swampy y-shaped area between the Han and Talcheon Rivers.   The Koreans had to stand and fight or die.   Unfortunately for them, the 8,000 Korean cavalry riders bogged down in flooded rice paddies and Korean arrows had a much shorter range than the Japanese muskets. The Battle of Chungju soon turned into a massacre. General Shin led two charges against the Japanese, but couldnt break through their lines. Panicking, the Korean troops fled and jumped into the rivers where they drowned, or got hacked down and decapitated by samurai swords.   General Shin and the other officers committed suicide by drowning themselves in the Han River. When King Seonjo heard that his army was destroyed, and the hero of the Jurchen Wars, General Shin Rip, was dead, he packed up his court and fled north. Angry that their king was deserting them, people along his flight path stole all of the horses from the royal party. Seonjo didnt stop until he reached Uiju, on the Yalu River, which is now the border between North Korea and China. Just three weeks after they landed at Busan, the Japanese captured the Korean capital of Seoul (then called Hanseong). It was a grim moment for Korea. Admiral Yi and the Turtle Ship Unlike King Seonjo and the army commanders, the admiral who was in charge of defending Koreas southwest coast had taken the threat of a Japanese invasion seriously, and had begun to prepare for it.   Admiral Yi Sun-shin, the Left Navy Commander of Cholla Province, had spent the previous couple of years building up Koreas naval strength.   He even invented a new kind of ship unlike anything known before. This new ship was called the kobuk-son, or turtle ship, and it was the worlds first iron-clad warship. The kobuk-sons deck was covered with hexagonal iron plates, as was the hull, to prevent enemy cannon shot from damaging the planking and to ward off fire from flaming arrows. It had 20 oars, for maneuverability and speed in battle. On the deck, iron spikes jutted up to discourage boarding attempts by enemy fighters. A dragons head figurehead on the bow concealed four cannon that fired iron shrapnel at the enemy. Historians believe that Yi Sun-shin himself was responsible for this innovative design. With a much smaller fleet than Japans, Admiral Yi racked up 10 crushing naval victories in a row through use of his turtle ships, and his brilliant battle tactics. In the first six battles, the Japanese lost 114 ships and many hundreds of their sailors. Korea, in contrast, lost zero ships and 11 sailors. In part, this amazing record was also due to the fact that most of Japans sailors were poorly-trained former pirates, while Admiral Yi had been carefully training a professional naval force for years. The Korean Navys tenth victory brought Admiral Yi an appointment as the Commander of the Three Southern Provinces. On July 8, 1592, Japan suffered its worst defeat yet at the hands of Admiral Yi and the Korean navy. In the Battle of Hansan-do, Admiral Yis fleet of 56 met a Japanese fleet of 73 ships. The Koreans managed to encircle the larger fleet, destroying 47 of them and capturing 12 more. Approximately 9,000 Japanese soldiers and sailors were killed.   Korean lost none of its ships, and just 19 Korean sailors died. Admiral Yis victories at sea were not simply an embarrassment for Japan. The Korean naval actions cut off the Japanese army from the home islands, leaving it stranded in the middle of Korea without supplies, reinforcements, or a communication route. Although the Japanese were able to capture the old northern capital at Pyongyang on July 20, 1592, their northward movement soon bogged down.   Rebels and Ming With the tattered remnants of the Korean army hard-pressed, but filled with hope thanks to Koreas naval victories, the ordinary people of Korea rose up and began a guerrilla war against the Japanese invaders. Tens of thousands of farmers and slaves picked off small groups of Japanese soldiers, set fire to Japanese camps, and generally harried the invading force in every possible way. By the end of the invasion, they were organizing themselves into formidable fighting forces, and winning set battles against the samurai. In February, 1593, the Ming government finally realized that the Japanese invasion of Korea posed a serious threat to China as well. By this time, some Japanese divisions were battling with the Jurchens in what is now Manchuria, northern China. The Ming sent an army of 50,000 which quickly routed the Japanese from Pyongyang, pushing them south to Seoul.   Japan Retreats China threatened to send a much larger force, some 400,000 strong, if the Japanese didnt withdraw from Korea. The Japanese generals on the ground agreed to withdraw to the area around Busan while peace talks were held. By May of 1593, most of the Korean Peninsula had been liberated, and the Japanese were all concentrated in a narrow coastal strip on the southwestern corner of the country. Japan and China chose to hold peace talks without inviting any Koreans to the table. In the end, these would drag on for four years, and emissaries for both sides brought false reports back to their rulers. Hideyoshis generals, who feared his increasingly erratic behavior and his habit of having people boiled alive, gave him the impression that they had won the Imjin War. As a result, Hideyoshi issued a series of demands: China would allow Japan to annex the four southern provinces of Korea; one of the Chinese emperors daughters would be married to the Japanese emperors son; and Japan would receive a Korean prince and other nobles as hostages to guarantee Koreas compliance with Japanese demands. The Chinese delegation feared for their own lives if they presented such an outrageous treaty to the Wanli Emperor, so they forged a much more humble letter in which Hideyoshi begged China to accept Japan as a tributary state. Predictably,  Hideyoshi was incensed  when the Chinese emperor replied to this forgery late in 1596 by granting Hideyoshi the bogus title King of Japan, and giving Japan status as a vassal state of China. The Japanese leader ordered preparations for a second invasion of Korea. Second Invasion On August 27, 1597, Hideyoshi sent an armada of 1000 ships carrying 100,000 troops to reinforce the 50,000 who remained at Busan. This invasion had a more modest goal - simply to occupy Korea, rather than to conquer China. However, the Korean army was much better prepared this time, and the Japanese invaders had a tough slog ahead of them. The second round of the Imjin War also began with a novelty - the Japanese navy defeated the Korean navy at the Battle of Chilcheollyang, in which all but 13 Korean ships were destroyed. In large part, this defeat was due to the fact that Admiral Yi Sun-shin had been the victim of a whispered smear campaign at court, and had been removed from his command and imprisoned by King Seonjo.  After the disaster of Chilcheollyang, the king quickly pardoned and reinstated Admiral Yi.   Ã‚   Japan planned to seize the entire southern coast of Korea, then march for Seoul once more. This time, however, they met a joint Joseon and Ming army at Jiksan (now Cheonan), which held them off from the capital and even began to push them back toward Busan. Meanwhile, the reinstated Admiral Yi Sun-shin led the Korean navy in its most astonishing victory yet at the Battle of Myongnyang in October of 1597. The Koreans were still trying to rebuild after the Chilcheollyang fiasco; Admiral Yi had just 12 ships under his command.   He managed to lure 133 Japanese vessels in to a narrow channel, where the Korean ships, strong currents, and rocky coastline destroyed them all. Unbeknownst to the Japanese troops and sailors, Toyotomi Hideyoshi had died back in Japan on September 18, 1598. With him died all will to continue this grinding, pointless war. Three months after the warlords death, the Japanese leadership ordered a general retreat from Korea. As the Japanese began to withdraw, the two navies fought one last great battle at the Noryang Sea. Tragically, in the midst of another stunning victory, Admiral Yi was hit by a stray Japanese bullet and died on the deck of his flagship.   In the end, Korea lost an estimated 1 million soldiers and civilians in the two invasions, while Japan lost more than 100,000 troops. It was a senseless war, but it did give Korea a great national hero and a new naval technology - the famous turtle ship.

NoTopic Needed Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

NoTopic Needed - Essay Example The first factor is culture. Culture has been termed as a people’s way of life comprising of people’s beliefs, values and norms. Culture affects consumption habits, people’s lifestyles and even access to information. Obesity educators in order to solve this barrier have to understand a community culture before they can propose any strategy to deal with obesity. A cultural assessment must be done to elicit beliefs, values, norms and language in order to design effective obesity education programs (Tripp-Reimer, Skemp, Choi, & Enslein, 2001). The second barrier is the content of the programs such that these provide too much detail on the pathophysiology and too little regarding the daily management of the illness. To solve this, educators must engage with the community in focus groups before initiating programs to address those areas of greatest concern (Tripp-Reimer, Skemp, Choi, & Enslein, 2001). Third is learning styles such that different communities and people require different learning styles. Some cultures have a strong oral tradition and therefore patient education should be centered on metaphors, storytelling etc. to convey health messages (Tripp-Reimer, Skemp, Choi, & Enslein, 2001). Obesity can be prevented with through the use of effective strategies. The best approach or strategies that can be used in the prevention of obesity are the primary prevention strategies. These aim at addressing the root cause of the problem, reducing the likelihood of development of a disease or disorder. Disease prevention aims at reducing the likelihood that a disease will affect a community or individual, interrupting or slowing its progress or the reduction of disability (Dehghan, Akhtar-Danesh, & Merchant, 2005). The first of such strategies is the activity. Physical activity has been found to be one of the best strategies to prevent obesity. Running, jogging and walking, engaging in sporting activities all help in burning access calories

Women's studies Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Women's studies - Assignment Example It can be liposuction which is also known as tummy reduction, breast enlargement and reduction and more popularly, Cosmetic Surgery has been used by the older generation of women who feel that they need to look better than they already do. By this we mean that they want to alter parts of their bodies to slow down the aging process. The most common and most frequent form of cosmetic surgery that is normally performed on these women is abdominoplasty which mainly involves reshaping the abdomen to give it a firm characteristic as well as shape it. The other is the blepharoplasty which is normally the reshaping of the eyelids and the areas around the eye. Aging in the women is normally on the faces and this procedure involves the removal of the excess tissue and in the process reinforcing the muscles. The criticism that is levelled against these women is that they should accept who they really are and should also be proud of their age. The procedure is also considered ethical and immoral as well as one that goes against nature where age cannot be reversed. Women who don’t undergo the procedure are those who are proud of their age and those who feel they are still beautiful despite having grown and matured. My thought on the issue is that if the procedure is not a medical case, it is best to accept who we are as change such as aging is inevitable. Gender reassignment is a surgical procedure where the gender factors of an individual such as the resemblance, the physical appearance as well as the way of life are changed to be like those of the opposite sex. The procedure is normally performed mainly at an early age as therapy and treatment for gender identity disorder or transgender. The person who undergoes the procedure is thus referred to as transgender. The procedure normally involves a series of activities where the genitals are changed

USA economy Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

USA economy - Essay Example of the most important responsibilities of the Fed is to ensure monetary stability in the economy, which can be achieved through a combination of stable prices of goods and services across the economy coupled with a low inflation level and level of confidence of the investors in the currency of the country. The Fed comes out with monetary policy in order to ensure a certain key objectives like delivering price stability with a low inflation level coupled with an objective to support the Government’s economic objectives of growth and employment. To understand how the Fed monitors price related regulations to keep a check on inflation, we may consider a small example of the regulation of house and property prices. To take any decisions related to interest rates keeping in mind the ongoing inflation rate, the Fed must be thorough with the booming property prices and must take steps to ensure that the prices are not artificial. Government intervenes through its central bank to regulate the prices of many commodities, similarly it also regulates the prices of houses like any other important commodity. Fed has the responsibility to keep a check on asset prices including the prices of houses. There can be a number of reasons why the prices of houses may shoot up, like the simple rule of demand and supply has a definite impact. (Demand and Supply for Housing). The central bank sets a fixed interest rate at which it lends money to financial institutions and depending on this interest rate, individual banks and other financial institutions set up their own interest rates, which apply to the whole economy. This step is of indispensable importance to the economy, as this is very widely used to contain inflation. The only purpose behind such a step is just to contain undue inflationary levels prevailing in an economy. The point to be noted here is that, this interest rate set by the Bank of England is so effective and powerful that it chips in greatly to regulate the whole

Method of Doubt by Descartes

Method of Doubt by Descartes Renà © Descartes, the father of modern philosophy, adopted the method of doubt to reach the truth. Descartes philosophical attitude started in his youth when he realized that he had been accepting many false opinions for true. He wanted to get rid of all the opinions that he had accumulated over the years. Descartes wanted to build a foundation on which all further intellectual enquiries could be built. He felt reason should follow and arrive at certain philosophical truths. There should be no further doubts left after this, which meant that the foundation had to be sound. This approach was known as the Method of Doubt but his rationale and approach has been a subject of controversy for years. He believed never to accept anything as the truth, which he could not accept as obviously true. Everything should be so clearly presented to the mind that there are no doubts left at all. Anything that can be doubted has to be rejected. Reasons to believe something should be ample. The second step is to divide the subject into as many divisions as possible or whatever would help him to understand it better. The third step involved directing his thoughts, taking one step at a time, to reach the underlying complex knowledge. At the end of this, his reviews were so comprehensive, his enumerations so complete, that nothing was left to doubt. The three steps adopted by Descartes is what is adopted in mathematics. He wanted to use this method to reach the truth in philosophy. S V Keeling argues that his method as above rests on three mental operations intuition, deduction, and enumeration (cited by Burnham, 2006). These operations are based on human reason, on the ability to disseminate information, analyze, and review. Since it is based on the capability of human mind, there is a risk of error due to faulty memory. In the Meditations on First Philosophy Descartes proves the existence of God and the immortality of the soul. He also brings out the real distinction between the mind and the body. He starts this by asserting the need â€Å"to demolish everything completely and start again right from the foundations† (AT 7:17). Although the first step was termed as skeptical his skepticism was not for the sake of doubting. He wanted to arrive at the truth through systematic analysis and discarding the untruth. Descartes defines knowledge in terms of doubt: I distinguish the two as follows: there is conviction when there remains some reason, which might lead us to doubt, but knowledge is conviction based on a reason so strong that it can never be shaken by any stronger reason (cited by Norman, 2005). Descartes skeptical approach is based on the principle that there is a distinction between belief and truth (Bellotti, n.d.). It was this conviction that gave rise to the Method of Doubt. After making a cup of tea one may leave it to brew on the kitchen table under the belief that it is ready to be poured and consumed. The truth may be different from the belief, in the sense, someone could have poured the tea and taken it in the meantime. The pot may be empty by this time. The Method of Doubt removes all uncertain beliefs and only beliefs that are true beliefs remain. Descartes applied this theory to a group of beliefs so that beliefs need not be dealt individually. A common characteristic could be determined but this concept again leads one to believe that doubts would be on the entire group or class of beliefs. Here Descartes uses the malicious demon thought experiment. Gassendi criticized this theory saying that Descartes could just have regarded the previous knowledge as uncertain (cited by Norman) instead of demolishing everything. It is not necessary to consider everything as false. He felt that such an approach convinces the human mind that there is a devil who tricks us. It is simpler to admit the weakness of human nature. Gassendi pointed out the universal and hyperbolic nature of the Method of Doubt. Descartes argues that it is not possible to free ourselves of all the errors that the human mind has been soaked in. He firmly believes that universal and hyperbolic nature is necessary for the Method of Doubt to succeed. Descartes in his argument to demolish everything and start afresh applies the universal character and gives the analogy of a basket full of apples. To select and retain the good ones and discard the bad ones, it is wiser to empty the basket, then select the good ones and keep them in the basket. He feels this is a better and simpler way than picking out the rotten ones from the basket full of apples. He believes in first rejecting all beliefs as if they were false and then after careful analysis, adopt only the ones, which are true. One bad apple can rot the whole basket so if we were to pick out the bad ones, there is every possibility of overlooking one bad apple. On the other hand, if the whole basket is first emptied and then the good ones placed back, we can be sure of only adopting the truth. Descartes method of doubt, as foundation of knowledge does seem more effective than what has been suggested by Gassendi. When the basket is totally empty, it can be cleaned and then fresh, good apples picked and placed in the basket. It is a much faster process than negating the bad. Secondly, when the basket is empty, the stains left behind by the rotten apples can be seen and cleaned, which is not possible when the bad apples are picked out from the lot. His argument to discard everything as false relies on his argument that the mind believes on whatever it perceives through the physical eye. He did not believe that anything should be left to imagination. This has a sound basis, as the mind cannot imagine what it has not seen. In order to support that all prior beliefs are wrong, he discussed three stages the sense, dreams and the evil demon hypothesis. Descartes asserts that these do not have the power to falsify what we ‘seem to perceive. What we see through the sense mislead us. We cannot begin with doubt. Descartes even goes to the extent of affirming that even the external world that we perceive is an illusion, a dream and hence false. The enquiry has to start after eliminating all such perceptions. The next argument that arises is whether the escape from hyperbolic provides a satisfactory foundation for knowledge? This can be explained by an analogy of a building, which requires the use of a bulldozer to demolish it. A light bulldozer would make the ground appear immovable. Hence, a bigger bulldozer is more effective, which means the more hyperbolic the doubt, the better it is. According to Descartes, the Evil Genius Doubt is the most powerful doubt. This evil genius makes us believe the false as true. For instance, the transparent truths like 2+3=5 or that a square has only four sides, are knowable. For people to know, understand, and accept these truths, they have to be firmly grounded in the face of the most powerful doubts. The evil genius tries to shake even such hyperbolic doubts. People also firmly deny the existence of God. Descartes believes that the Evil Genius Doubt is just one of the factors that can motivate the hyperbolic doubt. The basic doubt is that the human m ind is flawed, and the mind is aware that it has been distorted despite God having given a nature to turn to him. The human mind keeps remembering all the past incidents and visions, and gives them the right to occupy the mind. It is not easy to accept that the world we see everyday is an illusion. It is only through deep introspection and a strong will that a person can accept the truth that God exists and all else is false. He has to be fixed in this belief and arrive at the knowledge of truth. He has to arouse himself from the deep slumber of falsehood. The more hyperbolic the doubt, the mind is activated better. Hence, the best approach is to discard everything as false and start afresh. Descartes philosophical approach through the Method of Doubt is a sound method. It is in fact the best approach to investigation. It is an investigation of the self by the self to reach the self or the truth. To reach the truth, through the Method of Doubt, an individual has to negate the external world around him. If he feels this world to be true or feels a part of this illusionary world, he can understand or realize the existence of God. The program of demolition is not only hyperbolic but also universal in nature. To face the Evil Genius there has to be an equally powerful doubt. Escape from hyperbolic cannot provide a satisfactory foundation for knowledge. References: Bellotti T (n.d.), Descartes Mehod of Doubt, 01 April 2006 Burnham D (2006), The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy, 01 April 2006 Newman, Lex, Descartes Epistemology, The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Summer 2005 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.), URL 01 April 2006

Providences Black Chinese: A Love Story :: China Short Stories Papers

Providence's Black Chinese: A Love Story On the morning of February 23rd, 1901, Chung Yick stood chatting with Mr. Joseph Hoffman, the proprietor of the picture frame shop on the ground floor of the Charles Street house the two men shared with several other tenants. The house wasn't much better than a tenement building, with its dirty wooden face and narrow crooked stairs. A crude sign on one side said "PICTURES" in bold letters, marking the entrance to Hoffman's store. The Yicks lived on the other side, along with the Rileys and the widow Driscoll, who were cramped up on the second floor. Still, it was a decent street to live on, with a mixture of small shops and residential homes and the Mosshassuck River creeping alongside it like an emaciated and sleepy serpent. Chung was a gaunt man in his forties with hollow cheeks and intense brown eyes-he projected a certain gravity that was somehow incongruous with popular notions of the jolly, docile Chinaman. Instead of the traditional Chinese collarless jacket, he sported a conservative brown suit, complete with vest, tie, and polished black shoes. Chung was a cook by trade and a good one, too-well enough respected for the Providence Journal to dub him one of the city's "best-known Chinese restauranteurs." Most likely, he was an employee of the Wah, Yee, Hong & Co. eating house, the Chinese restaurant located closest to his home, just a brisk fifteen-minute walk away at the bottom of College Hill. It was a windy Saturday morning with temperatures well below freezing, and Chung relished these last moments of warmth inside the store before he'd have to venture out into the cold. Several thousand miles away from his old home in southern China, where temperatures fluctuated between hot and hotter, Chung still hadn't quite adjusted to Providence's bitter winters. That walk would be especially brisk today! "John," Mr. Hoffman said suddenly, addressing Chung by his chosen American name, "What's all that racket?" Indeed, some great noise-frantic footsteps and shouting-could be heard coming from the general direction of Chung's kitchen where, minutes earlier, he had left his wife and stepdaughter bustling about their morning chores. "It's a fire!" someone shouted from outside. "The attic's on fire!" The first official Chinese resident in Rhode Island appeared on the state census in 1865, but there may have been at least one "Chinaman" in Providence even earlier.

Reality Television Does More Harm Than Good Essay

1. Economy Reality TV stimulates the economy The Reality TV industry produces a stimulus for the economy. â€Å"If I pay a reality star 1/50 of what I’d pay Johnny Depp, my return is going to come back much quicker,† said Mark Young, a professor at USC’s Marshall School of Business. Judge, this is obviously a huge good that come out of reality TV. CNN reports that reality TV decreases unemployment rates in the US. â€Å"Career Makeover, a new series that promises to tap into the frustrating low points of millions of today’s out-of-work and underemployed Americans. The show will give viewers something that’s perhaps more telling than the government’s eagerly-awaited monthly employment report.† According to Washington Post, winning big on a reality television cooking show has helped catapult the careers of even established chefs. As Geoffrey Zakarin, a food network iron chef, stated â€Å"TV is the gigantic tide that lifts all boats† Advertising is also a huge factor since Tens of Millions of people watch reality TV- TIME Advertising†¦.as most know occurs during the show in the middle of small breaks between the show. Heres the twist. Reality TV has advertising inside the show. New York Times—->It is typically easier to weave a product into an episode of a reality show like â€Å"American Idol† or â€Å"Survivor† than into a scripted series like â€Å"Grey’s Anatomy† or â€Å"Two and a Half Men.† Lets give an example. Lets say there is a family in a reality tv show using a vacuum cleaner. The actors in the reality tv show would compliment the cleanliness of the vacuum cleaner and this is a form of advertising. Oregon State University—-> 23 million tuned in â€Å"Multi-Millionaire† and 51 million watched the finale of â€Å"Survivor†. This was an advertisers dream. This is why we see advertisers paying $2.1 million for sponsorship on â€Å"The Mole† The initial â€Å"Survivor† sponsors paid $4 million but â€Å"Survivor 2† price tag jumped to $12 million (Friedman, Harsh ‘Reality,’ 2000:4 & Grover, Off the Island, 2000: 48). How do the networks benefit? CBS collected about $52 million in advertising for the initial â€Å"Survivor† (Grover, Off the Island, 2000: 48). ABC’s â€Å"Millionaire† brought up it’s operating income by 33% (Lacter, â€Å"Blair Witch TV, 2000:64). The impact is that reality TV not only creates jobs and boosts employment rates, but it also boosts the economy and businesses through advertising. 2. It helps society Reality TV is an easy way to make money and stimulate the economy. It costs very little to run and It is cheap. It gives oppurtunities for many of the unemployed. As we said in our 1st contention, Career Makeover is giving oppurtunities. We have to take advantage. These shows teach others how to do different things. For example, Yankee Workshop teaches about building and constructing. American Idol and America’s Got talent shows the love of music. The Impact is that If you lose, you got an opportunity and if you win, you win an oppurtunity. According to Martha Airth-Kindree, executive director of  the Mile Bluff Medical Center Foundation, â€Å"Scores of people have been inspired by â€Å"The Biggest Loser†. † The popular reality television show is the inspiration for a new weight-loss program in Juneau County According to an article written by Dr. Michelle Golland, a mental health professional, she believes that reality tv can be a good thing. As she states in her article, the shows â€Å"Intervention† and â€Å"Obsessed† bring us into the lives of people suffering with mental health problems, drug and alcohol addiction, and obsessive-compulsive disorder. â€Å"Intervention† helps treat people who seek help on the show and also pays for their treatment, which many of them may otherwise be unable to afford. It also allows us to witness the damage inflicted on every person in an addict’s life and the devastating impact on them. This show can help those who view it to realize they need help, or encourage a family member to stage their own intervention with the help of a professional, which they may never have had the courage to do until watching it on TV. â€Å"Obsessed† is a painful display of people who have severe anxieties and are seeking treatment for them. The impact is that Reality TV helps society by helping the economy, teaching different things, inspiration for better health, and showing the world the lives of those with health problems. i accept your definitions and weighing mechanism so i will start with my contentions Contention 1: The sheer number of reality programmes is now driving TV producers to create filthier, more corrupt reality shows. Reality TV is actually getting worse as the audience becomes more and more used to the genre. In a search for ratings and media coverage, shows are becoming ever more vulgar and offensive, trying to find new ways to shock. When the British Big Brother was struggling for viewers in 2003, its producers responded by attempting to shock the audience that little bit more. â€Å"Big Brother† programmes have also shown men and women having sex on live TV, all in a desperate grab for ratings to justify their continued existence. Others have involved fights and racist bullying. Do we let things continue until  someone has to die on TV to boost the ratings? Contention 2: Reality TV encourages people to pursue celebrity status, and discourages the value of hard work and an education. Reality shows send a bad message and help to create a cult of instant celebrity. They are typically built about shameless self-promotion, based on humiliating others and harming relationships for the entertainment of each other and the viewers at home. These programmes suggest that anyone can become famous just by getting on TV and â€Å"being themselves†, without working hard or having any particular talent. Kids who watch these shows will get the idea that they don’t need to study hard in school, or train hard for a regular job. As John Humphrys points out, ‘we tell kids what matters is being a celebrity and we wonder why some behave the way they do. As American lawyer Lisa Bloom fears, ‘addiction to celebrity culture is creating a generation of dumbed-down women. Reality shows encourage such addictions and promote the generally m isguided belief that they should aspire to be the reality stars they watch on their televisions. Contention 3: Reality shows make for bad, lazy and corrupting television, encouraging such behaviour in society. They mostly show ordinary people with no special talents doing very little. If they have to sing or dance, then they do it badly – which doesn’t make for good entertainment. They rely on humiliation and conflict to create excitement. Joe Millionaire, where a group of women competed for the affections of a construction worker who they were told was a millionaire, was simply cruel. The emotions of the contestants were considered expendable for the sake of making viewers laugh at their ignorance. Furthermore, the programmes are full of swearing, crying and argument, and often violence, drunkenness and sex. This sends a message to people that this is normal behaviour and helps to create a crude, selfish society. One American reality show, â€Å"Are You Hot?†, in which competitors submit to a panel of judges for ‘appearance-rating’, was blamed by eating disorder experts as encouraging the notion that ‘appearance is the most important. Contention 4: Reality TV is dishonest – it pretends to show â€Å"reality† but it  actually distorts the truth to suit the programme makers. The shows are not really â€Å"real† – they are carefully cast to get a mix of â€Å"characters† who are not at all typical. Mostly they show a bunch of young, good-looking self-publicists, who will do anything to get on TV. Usually the programme makers try to ensure excitement by picking people who are likely to clash with each other. They then place them in unnatural situations, such as the Big Brother house or the Survivor island, and give them strange challenges in order to provoke them into behaving oddly. In The Bachelor, where a group of women compete for the affections of an eligible male, the ‘intimate dates’ they go on are filmed in front of any number of camera; that is not reality (Poniewozik, 2003). Finally the makers film their victims for hundreds of hours from all angles, but only show the most dramatic parts. Selective editing may be used to create â€Å"storylines† and so further manipulate the truth of what happened.

How to Write Without Really Trying

How to Write Without Really Trying How to Write Without Really Trying How to Write Without Really Trying By Maeve Maddox A paradox of our times is that, although schools no longer insist that students master standard writing conventions in order to graduate, more people are writing for publication than at any previous time in human history. According to one estimate, more than 152 million blogs populate the Internet, with more joining them every day. And then there are the books: in the years between 2007 and 2012, self-published titles rose 422 percent. As might be expected, much of this verbal outpouring is rife with nonstandard grammar, sloppy style, and a general lack of respect for the reader. Here, for example, is a notice written by an online purveyor of fan fiction: Please Note, alot of typoes and grammatical errors  will  be found. i just posted this recently and have not had a chance to edit yet. so  bare with me will  be eiditing soon. Professional journalists, on the other hand, might reasonably be expected to pay attention to the conventions of formal written English. Or so I thought, until I read an article about a spate of burglaries in a residential neighborhood in California. The article appears on the site of an ABC affiliate. Presumably, the writer was paid to write it. Here are a few extracts, with comments: It [a manhunt] started with a stolen getaway car that the burglars left behind when they took off to hide inside people’s homes. The expression â€Å"to take off† in the sense of â€Å"to leave in a hurry† is at best informal usage. I suppose the writer chose â€Å"took off† because he’d already used left in â€Å"left behind.† By replacing â€Å"left behind† with abandoned, he could have used left instead of took off to mean depart. The three burglary suspects were believed to be holed up in someone’s house. The expression â€Å"to hole up† or â€Å"to be holed up† is definitely slang. Conventional usage: â€Å"were believed to be hiding in someone’s house.† Snipers in camouflage climbed on roof tops and officers made sure every inch of the neighborhood was covered, from backyards, to front porches, dogs hunted for the suspects scent. i. The word rooftops is a closed compound. ii. A comma usually separates independent clauses joined by and: â€Å"Snipers in camouflage climbed on rooftops, and officers made sure† iii. The sentence is actually two sentences, incorrectly joined by a comma splice. The first sentence should end with â€Å"from backyards to front porches.† The next sentence is â€Å"Dogs hunted for the suspects’ scent.† iv. The dog sentence is less than satisfying. Did the dogs really hunt the scent? Or were they following the scent as they hunted the suspects? Police are praising the woman at the start of the day who called police when she heard the burglars inside her home. This is an example of a misplaced modifier. The hunt for the burglars began when the woman phoned the police that morning. Better: â€Å"Police are praising the woman who called police at the start of the day when she heard the burglars inside her home.† Shortly after writing this post, I heard about the availability of software applications designed to write articles with a minimum of human input. According to an online advertisement, one such revolutionary application includes templates and phrase lists that will enable a blogger to produce a 500-word article â€Å"on any topic in under a minute.† Who knows? A machine may have written the story about the burglars. Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the General category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:Masters Degree or Master's Degree?Yay, Hooray, Woo-hoo and Other Acclamations45 Idioms About the Number One

The Birth Of Venus Essays

The Birth Of Venus Essays The Birth Of Venus Paper The Birth Of Venus Paper The Birth of Venus is a painting familiar especially to those who know about mythology. Sandra Bottling wanted to show the birth of Venus one of the Greek gods In his own point of view. He demonstrates this by how he painted Venus and whom he painted in the drawing with Venus. He also shows it by the type of media he used and what he painted it on. For this painting, he had used tempera on canvas. HIS Inspiration for painting Venus came about during the Renaissance era. It Is one of the first non-biblical female nudes In Italian art (Birth of Venus). Bottling was Influenced to paint Venus from reading Homers Scripts. In particular, one of homers scripts was about how Crocus had clashed with his father Uranus. During the clash, Crocus emasculates Uranus and because he had done Venus Is born. In this work, he shows Venus coming of a shell nude covering her body In a modest way. It would signify not only her birth to a new world but also show humanism. The background of the painting shows the ocean which Is how she was able to be born In the first place (Botulisms Birth of Venus). Also, he Includes Zephyrs, the god of the wind and he Is shown holding on to a nymph named Colorist. The wind signifies a guidance so it would make sense to why Zephyrs is in the painting since he leading Venus. Furthermore, he also includes Pomona the goddess of the spring she awaits Venus with a mantle which is blowing in the wind from Zephyrs. It shows how Pomona is welcoming the new goddess. Moreover, he painted Venus in such a beautiful way that it shows that he had studied the subject of the painting. It demonstrates that Bottling had thoroughly thought over about how he would want to present Venus. Thus, Bottling had shown many symbols in his painting that corresponds to Homers work.

Seeds of Freedom Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Seeds of Freedom - Essay Example The improvement of technology has led to a change in farming techniques. Human labour has been replaced with the use of machines and the use of organic fertilizer is also alternated with chemically induced inorganic fertilizers. The use of chemicals in farming has led to the introduction of chemical hybrid seeds which has made the seed to lose its vitality. In traditional farming, sowing of seeds depended on their adaptive environment. The modern farming technologies have led to the introduction of seeds which are compatible and highly adaptive to climate change (Nelson 16). Scientists attribute this changes to climate alterations, biodiversity and nutrition change. Their basic argument is that there is need for various places around the world to grow different forms of crops regardless of their climatic differences. Private organizations have privatized the world food system by controlling the seed hybrid. Mono-crops such as tea and coffee have replaced the traditional indigenous crops. Genetically modified crops have replaced the natural crops in the world market since most farmers have adapted to the new farming system because the GM crops have higher yields compared to the natural crops and are also resistant to drought (Nelson 23). Since the introduction of genetic engineered crops in 1954, the world has experience loss of biodiversity as farmers are currently forced to use super pesticides and super weed control chemicals as weeds and pests have also formed adaptive features thus the need of to use stronger control mechanisms. In this case, the seed has become more dangerous rather than useful. India and Mexico have recently reported cases of food poisoning which were affiliated to genetically modified crops. it is important to consider human life before focusing towards making

The Presence of Racism is Shakespeare's Othello Essay

The Presence of Racism is Shakespeare's Othello - Essay Example Therefore, after the Reformation, it represented an antagonistic political and religious force against Protestantism in England. At that time, Italy was the site of classical Roman history and civilization which paved the way for the "Renaissance" of European culture from the fifteenth to the seventeenth century. (Nostbakken, 2000) Differences matter. Othello was not a Venetian by birth and therefore his status is ambivalent: he both belongs and does not belong to the city of Venice. He belongs because he is Venice's military general whose main role was to defend the city from possible invaders, and he is a Christian who shared a common religion with his fellow Venetian citizens. However, he is also a real stranger from a strange country, a foreigner and an outsider. The play manifests the inherent tension which exists between the differences that set him apart and the qualities that allow him to play a respected and vital role in the city's day-to-day life. Cassio, another key character of this play, is an outsider but he is less of a stranger compared to Othello for he is a European gentleman. Cassio comes from the beautiful Italian city of Florence. Othello, in contrast comes from the unknown and misunderstood world of Africa. (Nostbakken, 2000) The courtesans of Venice were prostitutes serving an upper-c... In this play, Shakespeare presents the strong positive and negative impact of identity by exploiting many degrees of difference between various characters of the play as distinguished by their rank and status, and by their places of origin, adoption, or conquest. Shakespeare wrote this play for English audiences in the early seventeenth century and this play reflected and responded to problems, situations, and problems of the period. Hence, the play showed identities defined by differences as well as similarities. In a sense, the responses of English audiences were also influenced by their own sense of identity as a nation.Iago's character speaks for the corruption and intrigue in Venice. In the first scene, he implies the practice of political prejudice, as opposed to impartiality, by explaining that friendship gained Cassio the title of lieutenancy while Iago's attempts had failed. Iago acts as a model of self-interest rather than duty. Iago's advice to Roderigo to "put money in th y purse" exemplified the naked greed that foreigners identified with Venice's highly prosperous merchant economy. Iago is inherently revengeful, scheming, and manipulative. His dominance in the play mirrors the dark side of humanity and also the dark side of Venice. Iago is a true native of Venice and he belongs there in a way that Othello, the outsider, does not. (Nostbakken, 2000) Venetian women were perceived to be very deceptive. Desdemona was shown as a "super-subtle Venetian" and suspects practically every man and woman as being unfaithful, adulterous, or promiscuous. However, Desdemona does not fit the Venetian stereotype of infidelity and deception. She was a faithful woman.