The Chimney Sweeper and the Road Not Taken free essay sample

Also, Tom Dacre dreamed of â€Å"thousands of sweepers, Dick, Joe, Ned, and Jack, were all of them lock’d up in coffins of black† (Blake, 1789/2007). â€Å"Though his [the speaker] few years seniority have given him a protective sense of responsibility, they have robbed him of little of his innocence† (Harrison, 1978). The speaker retells Tom’s dreams sincerely and reports on certain lines as if he believes them completely. †Tom may weep more readily; Tom may dream of liberating angels more readily; but the speaker reports Tom’s visions as Tom told it to him, wholly without irony† (Harrison, 1978). The Road Not Taken can also be interpreted as telling about a loss of innocence although; it is more about how the choices made shape lives. Those choices, however, can lead to a loss of innocence. The choices not only affect the person that made the choice but also the people close to them including their spouse, children, parents, and siblings. We will write a custom essay sample on The Chimney Sweeper and the Road Not Taken or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page †[Because,] in the poems stated intimation of the truth about human existence, as stated by Frost, is the idea of rut [the track carved out by wheels from the surface over which they travel] in its relationship to the ego† (Cervo, 1989). Each choice a person makes leads them down a different path and the effect of that choice could be a loss of innocence. â€Å"The poem’s persona is no â€Å"spiritual drifter†; the persona is an individual has opposed to a â€Å"loner’† courageous and self-reliant, searching for his destiny† (Bassett, 1981). It is in this way that the interpretations of both The Chimney Sweeper and The Road Not Taken are similar. The Road Not Taken is about the choices each of us makes in life and the direction each of those choices takes us. Each choice a person makes shapes who that person is and who they will become. Each path in The Road Not Taken represents a choice. Most people want to be individual and hope to make different choices from everyone else. The difficult thing about that is â€Å" both that morning equally lay and leaves no step had trodden black† (Frost, 1915/2007) meaning, all paths or choices have been taken before. Each choice changes lives and leads to more choices. The Chimney Sweeper tells about the loss of innocence that happens to everyone. Normally, it happens slowly, over many years as a person grows to an adult. Unfortunately, this is not always the case and sometimes, circumstances or events cause the process to be sped up or slowed down. This seems to be the case in The Chimney Sweeper. The speaker seems to have experienced events that caused an early loss of innocence whereas; with Tom the process seems to be about normal. â€Å"There’s little Tom Dacre, who cried when his head, that curled like a lamb’s back, was shaved† (Blake, 1789/2007). Both the speaker and Tom are children that have been made to work as chimney sweepers. Each poet has different life experiences and those experiences shaped their writings. Surely, William Blake’s experiences shaped his writing of The Chimney Sweeper as well as, Robert Frost’s shaped his writing of The Road Not Traveled. From an early age, William Blake is said to have spoken of having visions. † At four he saw God† put his head to the window†; around the age nine, while walking three the countryside, he saw a tree filled with angels† (Academy of American Poets, 2012). When his brother, Robert, passed away from an illness in the winter of 1787, Blake was said to have seen his brother’s spirit rise up through the ceiling. He believed that Robert’s spirit visited him throughout his life and claimed that through a dream Robert taught him the printing method he used in Songs of Innocence. Similarly, Robert Frost’s life and the events of it affected his writings, although in different ways. † Frost drifted through a string of occupations after leaving school, working as a teacher, cobbler, and editor of the Lawrence Sentinel† (Academy of American Poets, 2012). He spent most of his youth in New England, where The Road Not Traveled seems to be set but, during his adult life also lived in several other places. Each of the different places he lived and visited, as well as the people he met, had some type of impact on his life. Everything around a writer has some impact or influence on their writing. The meanings and thoughts behind The Chimney Sweeper and The Road Not Traveled may never be truly known but there are several possibilities behind William Blake’s writing of The Chimney Sweeper and Robert Frost’s writing of The Road Not Taken. It is believed by many experts and people that knew him, that Blake had a mental illness. Many types of mental illnesses can change the way a person thinks and perceives the world around them. It is also known that William Blake did research on mental disorders and it is thought that many of his theories were incorporated into his writings. †[However,] William Blake theorized about cognitive dysfunction like no other poet of his time and his ideas challenged the prevailing Zeitgeist of opinion† (Ryan, 2011). Similarly, there are several possibilities behind Robert Frost’s writing The Road Not Taken. It has been noted by many critics that Frost was a loner that preferred living in the country (Bassett, 1981). It is also thought that he felt purposeless, uncertain, and possibly depressed. These would be understandable feelings considering the losses during his life. His father, mother, younger sister, wife, Elinor, and four of his children preceded him in death, most at young ages. With all of these things going on in their real life, death, loneliness, and mental disorders, it is no wonder that William Blake and Robert Frost wrote about choices and the loss of innocence within The Chimney Sweeper and The Road Not Taken. It is difficult to know exactly what the writer was thinking while creating each different piece because each person has different experiences that help them create their works. A person’s experiences never end, and each new experience changes that person, just a little. Each person that reads a written work uses their own life experiences and knowledge in order to interpret that work. This creates an innumerable amount of different interpretations, none of which are necessarily right or wrong, just different. What they were thinking that prompted them to write these works and as they were writing will never be known, so all that can be done is speculate upon their intended meaning. Bibliography Academy of American Poets. (2012). Robert Frost.

How to Use the Rack Application in Ruby

How to Use the Rack Application in Ruby In the previous article, you learned what Rack is. Now, it’s time to start using Rack and serve up some pages. Hello World First, let’s start with a â€Å"Hello world† application. This application will, no matter what type of request it’s given, return ​with a status code of 200 (which is HTTP-speak for â€Å"OK†) and the string †Hello world† as the body. Before examining the following code, consider again the requirements that any Rack application must meet. A Rack application is any Ruby object that responds to the call method, takes a single hash parameter and returns an array containing the response status code, HTTP response headers and the response body as an array of strings. class HelloWorlddef call(env)return [200, {}, [Hello world!]]endend As you can see, an object of the type HelloWorld will meet all of these requirements. It does so in a very minimal and not terribly useful way, but it does meet all of the requirements. WEBrick That’s pretty simple, now let’s plug it into WEBrick (the HTTP server that comes with Ruby). To do this, we use the Rack::Handler::WEBrick.run method, pass it an instance of HelloWorld and the port to run on. A WEBrick server will now be running, and Rack will be passing requests between the HTTP server and your application. Note, this isn’t an ideal way to launch things with Rack. Its only shown here to get something running before diving into another feature of Rack called Rackup, which is shown below. Using Rack::Handler in this way has a few problems. First, it’s not very configurable. Everything is hard-coded into the script. Second, as you’ll notice if you run the following script, you can’t kill the program. It won’t respond to Ctrl-C. If you run this command, simply close the terminal window and open a new one. #!/usr/bin/env rubyrequire rackclass HelloWorlddef call(env)return [200, {}, [Hello world!]]endendRack::Handler::WEBrick.run(HelloWorld.new,:Port 9000) Rackup While this is quite easy to do, it isn’t how Rack is normally used. Rack is normally used with a tool called rackup. Rackup does more or less what was in the bottom section of the code above, but in a more usable way. Rackup is run from the command-line, and is given a .ru â€Å"Rackup file.† This is just a Ruby script that, among other things, feeds an application to Rackup. A very basic Rackup file for the above would look something like this. class HelloWorlddef call(env)return [200,{Content-Type text/html},[Hello world!]]endendrun HelloWorld.new First, we had to make one tiny change to the HelloWorld class. Rackup is running a middleware app called Rack::Lint that sanity-checks responses. All HTTP responses should have a Content-Type header, so that was added. Then, the last line just creates an instance of the app and passes it to the run method. Ideally, your application shouldn’t be written entirely within the Rackup file, this file should require your application into it and create an instance of it that way. The Rackup file is just â€Å"glue,† no real application code should be there. If you run the command rackup helloworld.ru, it’ll start a server on port 9292. This is the default Rackup port. Rackup has some more useful features. First, things like the port can be changed on the command line, or in a special line in the script. On the command-line, simply pass in a -p port parameter. For example: rackup -p 1337 helloworld.ru. From the script itself, if the first line starts with #\, then it’s parsed just like the command line. So you can define options here as well. If you wanted to run on port 1337, the first line of the Rackup file could read #\ -p 1337.

Heritage Assessment Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Heritage Assessment - Assignment Example The music called compas has been passed down to my children. They know many of the lyrics to the music I listen to. I have also maintained the Haitian language. It is French Creole. As a result I speak French, Spanish, Creole, and English. The religion practiced in Haiti and here for my family is Baptist. Religion is very important to me. Although I live in the United States, I have not forgotten where I have come from. My religion, food, family, and culture are deeply rooted in Haiti. Although my family came to the United States for greater opportunities, this never impacted my feelings about my culture. I am Haitian. My traditions and beliefs have remained strongly rooted in my birthplace. My large family is unique in American culture. Coming from a large family has helped me understand sacrifice, love, and tradition. I will admit that I have become Americanized to a degree, but I will always be Haitian. That is the good thing about America. I can live here, but still retain my own culture. My ethnic, cultural, and religious heritage will be useful to my healthcare related career in many ways. The first way my ethnic, cultural, and religious heritage will be useful is by knowing the Haitian people. For example, many Haitian children are not vaccinated. When I encounter a parent or child from Haiti that would be one of the first questions I ask. Another question would be if the patient from Haiti had a TB test. Haiti has a higher rate of TB than other countries. Other healthcare providers might not know these facts. Informing my colleges and fellow Haitians would help patients better understand each other. Sometimes Haitians that have newly arrived do not trust the government, medical staff, or others due to immigration status. If it is revealed that the child or adult does not have immunizations or a TB scan, the patient might feel that INES might be called. This can be very dangerous to the patient and everybody in contact with the patient. I would be

Communication in business Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Communication in business - Essay Example BASF is headquartered in Ludwigshafen, Germany3. II. Aspect of BASF social performance: Verbund BASF always prided itself with its â€Å"Verbund† philosophy which meant total integration strategy which provided the company a competitive edge by improving its efficiency by restructuring4. One of the aspect of Verbund for instance is how they used byproducts of their production which could have been discarded as waste as an input for other production. Concretely is how BASF ingeniously capture heat energy into its plants and convert it into power to drive other machines in their plants5. Verbund has also allowed BASF to extend itself to a wide array of product lines with a well diversified revenue portfolio that brings in stability in the company while catering to a broader customer base6. But this concept of Verbund or integration which is the core of BASF corporate philosophy might have been taken into excess because it has been sued 35 class actions for price fixing in violat ion of the Anti-trust Law the United States. In the same vein, it was also sued in the United Kingdom for infringement of Fair Trade Policy (UK’s equivalent for Antitrust) for unethically â€Å"integrating† with other companies to the point of collusion that retards the mechanism of the market. III. Details of the case against BASF It is quite bothersome for a huge company such as BASF which is considered to be the largest chemical company in the world has 35 class action suit filed against it in the United States alone7. It indicates that there is something wrong with the company’s business practices. If it was only several cases, it could have been dismissed as a nuisance, but with 35 class action suits, the cases are worth to look at because it appears to be a business trend which is not exactly ideal. The cases hurled against BASF are serious that ranged from unfair company practice such as violation on anti-trust laws on price fixing, to exposing its employ ees to contaminated chemicals in the production of its fertilizers. Both allegations are serious offenses for it boils down to unfair business practice and total disregard for its employees’ safety and well-being. The lawsuit begun in 2004 when BASF together with Huntsman, Bayer, Dow and LyondellBasell were accused of price fixing. They were accused of price fixing â€Å"propylene  oxide (PO)-based polyether  polyols; methyl di-p-phenylene isocyanate (MDI); and  toluene  di-isocyanate (TDI) that were purchased from 1 January 1999 through 31 December 20048†. All of the parties that were accused opted to settle out of court with BASF offering a settlement amount of $51 million. It denied guilt to price fixing and justified that it was settling to save itself with the cost of a dragged litigation and the distraction of court hearing that will bother the company. This may have been approved by the Department of Justice in December of 2011 but still, the company is still facing a separate price fixing lawsuit from its isocyanates customers9.   Apparently, BASF has also a Fair Trading (Antitrust version in United Kingdom) case in UK which indicates that their alleged price fixing practices are not isolated in the US10. In Brazil, BASF together with Shell also faced class lawsuits and was in fact convicted to pay damages to its former employees. The class lawsuit was about contaminating its â€Å"

Adam Smiths Contribution to Classical Political Economy

Adam Smiths Contribution to Classical Political Economy Assess the contribution of Adam Smith to the tradition of Classical Political Economy Important Assignment Related Notices Penalties: University policy requires that a penalty be deducted from the actual mark achieved for each working day the assignment is late until 0 is reached. There is a strict deadline of 11:59pm on day of submission. One grade step will be deducted for very 11:59pm deadline that is missed. Any written assessment that exceeds the stated word limit by more than 10% will receive a one grade step mark deduction. Extensions Plagiarism Information: For more information about extensions and plagiarism please refer to your One Stop Shop course. An Originality Report (OR) is generated by Turnitin every time a piece of work is submitted. The OR shows where matches have been found between the submitted document and other existing sources in the Turnitin database. Please note that all assignments will achieve a OR score due to the use of standard coversheets. C. Canvas Assignment Discussions Canvas provides a Discussion Area for each assignment. Both staff and students can leave messages in this area. Please ensure that all communication is undertaken in a professional and polite manner. Remember that: Electronic discussions do not have the benefit of the nonverbal and vocal cues that normally convey meaning in a traditional face-to-face conversation. Satire, sarcasm and â€Å"heat of the moment† feelings can come across as rudeness. Please check your tone before you post a Comment. Instant delivery of a message does not mean an instant reply. Please make an appointment within advertised office hours in the first instance to discuss any matter of assignment feedback and grading. It is College policy that staff will not be actively engaging in debate over matters of feedback and grades with individual students via Canvas’ online Speed Grader system. Assignment Grade: 100 98 93 88 85 83 78 75 73 68 65 63 58 55 53 48 45 43 38 33 28 23 18 13 8 3 0 Admin Note: Marker please a) highlight or box the grade from the above Grade Mark Steps that this assignment has achieved and b) insert the same % into the grade box in the right hand column of Canvas Speedgrader. Feedback Overview of submission (Definition of question, integration of theoretical and empirical material where appropriate, engagement with relevant themes and issues, engagement with relevant academic literature) Quality of research and analysis (Clarity and depth of argument, scope of argument, originality of approach, range of sources used, critical use of sources) Evidence of key skills (Structure, clarity of expression, proper referencing and accompanying bibliography, formatting, evidence of sustained research) Potential areas for improvement (How could a future submission be enhanced?) Assess the contribution of Adam Smith to the tradition of Classical Political Economy Introduction Adam Smith’s contribution to the tradition of classical political economy was hugely influential. This essay will discuss two of his major theories outlined in the Wealth of Nations; the division of labour and then the invisible hand, whilst briefly touching upon Smith’s view on the role of the state and the free-market. Smith was a moral philosopher from the late 18th Century and wrote; â€Å"An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations† in 1776, to critique the political-economic system of the time; mercantilism. This was an economic theory and practice that encouraged imperialism and state intervention into the allocation of scarce resources. Smith was writing at the outset of the Industrial Revolution when the world was changing. In the Wealth of Nations, Smith proposed many revolutionary economic theories including; the division of labour, the labour theory of value, the role of the state in an economy and the invisible hand among others, which he thought would build a nations’ wealth. Classical political economy is a group of theories that developed in the 17th – 19th Century to try and understand society on the basis of its economic foundation. Smith viewed political economy as a branch of science of statesmen, aimed at providing its citizens with plentiful revenue or subsistence and sufficient revenue for state for public service. It proposed to enrich both the people and the sovereign. (Smith, 2008, p. 275; Burnham, P., 2014, A). Smith believed that society should be market-based, which he believed were characterised by the three factors of production; land, labour and capital. These factors of production produce three classes within society: landowners, capital owners and labour. Each clas s receives revenue, and all are independent of each other. Smith’s main point in the Wealth of Nations was that all classes could gain from an increase in the scope of the market; anything that impedes the free-market is a problem (Burnham, P., 2014, B). Discussion One of Smith’s key theories, proposed in the Wealth of Nations, was that of the division of labour. This refers to the separation of different parts of the production process according to the worker’s ability and/or the worker’s equipment. Smith believed that the benefits were clear; it enhanced the production process leading to a more efficient use of scarce resources as well as lowering the cost of production (Smith, 2008, Book I, ch.1). Furthermore, Smith strongly believed that the division of labour greatly increased the quantity a worker and/or firm could produce. The results of dividing labour are; the increase in the skill of the worker; reduced time loss upon switching production process, and the invention of machines which aids workers and enables one man to do the work of many. By reducing the worker’s part of the production process to one, simpler operation performed solely by the worker, this increases the worker’s skill and performance. As no worker needs to change task, more time can be dedicated to the production process. The specialisation of workers would enable firms to employ machinery, thus producing more goods more efficiently compared to human capital, reducing the number of workers required to make a certain quantity of goods, and therefore reducing the cost of production (Smith, 2008, pp.15-17). In the 18th Century when The Wealth of Nations was published, factory owners adopted his principle of people specialising in particular jobs as shown in his example of the pin-maker. This principle of specialisation has continued to modern industrial occupations, such as car manufacturing. However, Smith believed that the division of labour was limited by the extent of the market. For example, if the market is so small that a worker cannot sell their produce of labour efficiently, the worker will make losses, and so, on this basis, may work in an industry for which they are not skilled in. Smith argued that division of labour will only take place when the population is large, that will create enough demand for specialised services (Smith, 2008, Book I, ch. 3). Karl Marx disagreed with Smith’s theory, as he believed that specialisation would lead to the alienation of workers as the work becomes repetitive and reduces the value of the worker from a human being to that of a machine (Marx, 1988, p.72). In addition when work becomes more specialised, less training is required for each job, and so, the individual workers become less skilled than if one worker performed the whole task (Marx, 1999, p.119). Smith also critiques the division of labour; he believed that if a worker devoted their life to performing one or a few simple operations of which the effects are similar or the same, the worker has no occasion to discover methods for removing difficulties that never occur. Smith argues that because of this, the worker would generally become as stupid and ignorant as is possible for a human to be (Smith, 2008, pp. 429 430). Another one of Smith’s most prominent ideas was the concept of the ‘Invisible Hand’ and the idea of a free-market (Smith, 2008, Book IV, ch. 2). What Smith actually meant by ‘Invisible Hand’ is still a contested idea between economists, but it is widely believed that it is a metaphor to describe the guide of the allocation of scarce resources in a free-market. A free-market is a market free from government intervention and so the market price of goods are determined by the interaction between supply and demand. Smith stated that all actors, buyers and sellers, act in their own self-interest (Burnham, P., 2014, B). Smith claimed that, due to the absence of government intervention, buyers are free to choose where to buy goods from and seller are free to choose which goods they want to supply and at what price and quantity. Smith believed that this method would benefit society as buyers, acting in their own self-interest, would buy goods from the cheapest sellers. This would mean that firms would compete against each other, trying to gain as many customers as possible to maximise their own self-interest; profit. This would lead to firms cutting their prices in order to gain buyers. In turn, the inefficient firms with higher costs and whose use of resources are inefficient, will not be able to cut their prices, so are forced out of the market. An obvious example of this is budget airlines competing against each other, Laker Airways became bankrupt in 1982 trying to compete. This inevitably leads to a more efficient use of resources, with buyers getting their goods at a cheaper price and/or higher quality; improving their utility whilst the efficient firms reap the benefits of increased profits. Smith believed that because of this, the free-market is the best way to allocate scarce resources and that indi viduals trying to maximise their utility would in turn increase the utility of society (Smith, 2006, p.316). The most obvious example of the free-market theory in practice today is America – whether or not it is successful in allocating resources efficiently or lowering prices is debatable. A common misconception is that Smith wanted no state intervention whatsoever. However, although he wanted a small state, he saw four main roles for the state to play: to uphold the rule of law, to protect society from people who are against the market, to maintain public infrastructure, and to foster â€Å"justice† (Burnham, P. 2014 B). Not everyone agrees with Smith’s theory of the invisible hand and that the free-market benefits society. The free-market does not work efficiently when externalities exist. An externality is an action of an individual that has an impact on others, which the individual does not pay for/the other individual is not compensated for, so therefore, the market price does not reflect the true cost to society (Mankiw Taylor, 2014 p. 189). Marx argued that the capital class, that is those who own the modes of production, do not work and therefore exploit the workers. He also believes that capitalists would eventually accumulate more and more capital, further exploiting the working class (Marx, 1999, Vol. 7). More recently, Joseph Stiglitz identifies that markets are too short-term driven, and are unlikely to invest in research and development, which historically has been done by the government. As well as this, Stiglitz believes that due to asymmetric information and individuals pursui ng their own personal interest, the free-market will inevitably lead to those with the information to benefit at the expense of others, therefore, markets will not be efficient (Stiglitz, 2004). This can be seen in George Akerlof’s example of a used car salesman, who has more information than the customer, and so can gain at the expense of the customer (Akerlof, 1970). Conclusion Adam Smith was immensely influential and made a huge contribution to the tradition of classical political economy. He produced the building blocks for basic liberal economics that of the free-market – and many of his theories are still used in some way today. Smith’s works influenced many prominent economically liberal academics of the 20th Century, including Milton Friedman and Friedrich Hayek. Smith’s theories have been adopted by governments, most notably Margaret Thatcher’s and Ronald Reegan’s, and have been adapted to suit the different situation of modern society. With hindsight, and through criticisms from prominent academics, such as Karl Marx, we now know that there are faults with some of Smith’s key theories, such as asymmetric information and externalities in a market. However, in the 18th Century, Smith’s theories were revolutionary and helped change the political-economic system of Britain from that of mercantilism to cl assical political economy. Smith’s theories also helped to kick-start Britain’s Industrial Revolution in the 18th Century, which aided Britain’s ascension to be the most powerful and wealthy country in the world (Hudson, 2011). Therefore, it could be argued that his contribution was immense and nearly two hundred and fifty years later, he continues to influence political and economic thinking. Bibliography Smith, A. (2008)An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations: A Selected Edition. New York: Oxford University Press, USA Burnham, P. (A) (2014) What is political economy-2.ppt, 08 20891 Political Economy. [online via internal VLE] University of Birmingham available at: https://canvas.bham.ac.uk/courses/7985/files/845717?module_item_id=147603 Burnham, P. (B) (2014) Economic liberalism.pptx, 08 20891 Political Economy. [online via internal VLE] University of Birmingham available at: https://canvas.bham.ac.uk/courses/7985/files/845717?module_item_id=147603 Marx, K. (1988)Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844 and the Communist Manifesto (Great Books in Philosophy). Prometheus Books Marx, K. (1999)Das Kapital: A Critique of Political Economy. Regnery Publishing, Inc., An Eagle Publishing Company Smith, A. (2006)The Theory of Moral Sentiments. 7 vols. United States: Waking Lion Press Mankiw, G. and Taylor, M. (2014)Economics. 3rd ed. Boston, Massachusetts, USA: Cengage Learning Stiglitz, J. (2004)The Roaring Nineties: A New History of the World’s Most Prosperous Decade. Norton, W. W. Company, Inc. Akerlof, G. (1970) The Market for â€Å"Lemons†: Quality Uncertainty and the Market Mechanism.The Quarterly Journal of Economics[online], 84 (3). Available from: http://socsci2.ucsd.edu/~aronatas/project/academic/Akerlof%20on%20Lemons.pdf Hudson, P. (2011) The Workshop of the World. BBC [online], 29 March. Available from: http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/victorians/workshop_of_the_world_01.shtml [Accessed 4 December 2014]

Racism in “Heart of Darkness” and “Apocalypse Now” Essay

The book â€Å"Heart of Darkness† and the movie â€Å"Apocalypse Now† are two works dealing with deep issues of evil. (Beyond imperialism, because the evil of imperialism has a root. For example, crack the nut) They refer places boiling down to a discussion of racism. The Thames River as in any mythology is a source of life. At the end, Marlow comes upon Kurtz’s Intended and said, â€Å"An object of the fecund†. Also, these two works deal with how a man is surrounded by evil acts and evil minds to fight of the fire fueled by the society. They also talks about how a character is a racist, when that character clearly condemns his way of life by leaving the Congo, and confirms the ills of society by lying about them. Firstly, I think that the racism claims are overstated, in two ways. A) Conrad’s racism, such as it is, is directed not at black people as a whole but rather as Africans. I think the prejudice must be recognized as activism, or whatever the proper term is, rather than as racism. B) Conrad is critical, not solely of Africans and their way of life, but also of European culture. He’s just as anti-white as he is also anti-black. Additionally, I think that Conrad may be considered a racist if and only if you decide that the definition of racism is thinking your race is better, but I really don’t think that he could be considered a white supremacist or that he really contained a deep hatred for Africans. In fact, I don’t think that he was even that serious on his own race. It is because that overtime he describes the presence of the white imperialist or any white people in general, he describes them in a bitter, dark way. And while he describes the Africans in a sort of blunt way as natural, rustic, raw people. I also think he does it in a much lighter way. I don’t think he criticizes the way they were. I just think he is ignorant of the political correctness found in today’s society. Moreover, I don’t consider the answer is simple enough to just say one is good and the other is bad. We have to keep in mind when this book was written. In that time period the other didn’t really have much perception at all on what the African people were like. He only could go by the common knowledge of the day that wasn’t very pleasant. I don’t think that we can expect an author in that time to be a non-racist. Ever since I read that article, I have thought of the book as being pretty disturbing. I don’t know if I would have considered this book quite so frustrating. If I had not read that article, since the racism is the only part of the book that I have been able to focus on. I still think it is very well written and interesting, but it is more difficult to enjoy it, knowing that the author was so racist. Then again, I suppose one cannot expect much more coming from a story written at a time when whites didn’t know hardly anything about other races, and cultures. Ultimately, I believe that there is a definitely a strong element of racism in both Heart Of Darkness and Apocalypse Now. However, I believe that the article on ‘Achebe’ overreacts. Granted Conrad displays no respect for the African Culture, this is historical fact and granted that it is not good. It is a part of history in which it cannot be ignored, so it will never happen again stating that black people should be grateful of the white because they were the ones who got them out of slavery in the first place.

An Arguement Against Peter Singer’s Famine, Aflunity, and Influence

In his paper â€Å"Famine, Affluence, and Morality† Peter Singer argues that a lack of benevolence from affluent countries to people suffering from poverty in other countries is unjustified and is comparable to doing nothing if one sees a baby drowning in water a few feet away. In the following paper I will discuss how residing in an affluent country does not put individuals under obligation to donate, and the efforts that are already made by individuals and governments in affluent countries are sufficient enough to be considered benevolent.I will present the following arguments to provide reasoning for this. First I will explain how singers drowning baby analogy fails to make a proper comparison to donating. Second, I will show how the assumed responsibility that affluent country should give to the needy is flawed. Third will discuss how donating may actually be counterproductive in the long term. Lastly I will give a comparison towards donating to poverty is no better or mor e beneficial to donating to crime prevention.The main concern addressed in this essay is the analogy Singer makes when he compares the ease of saving a drowning baby to the ease of making a donation to a country in poverty (Singer, par. 6). Singer’s analogy is only correct on the basis that the baby and people living in poverty are both in circumstances out of their control. The difference though, is that the baby he describes is moments away from death, while people living in poverty are mostly not on the brink of death. I believe the vast majority of people would save the baby, yet only a small percentage of people will take the time to donate.Furthermore, I rule out Singer’s argument for proximity (par. 8). Walking around a city like Toronto, one may walk right past homeless people in very dire circumstances, and many people still do not bother to give any assistance. Thus, since being in a very close proximity will usually not yield a donation, in most likelihood, witnessing someone very close to death is probably the best way to evoke enough emotion for an individual to make a donation. Another flaw in Singers paper is that he makes the argument in his thesis that affluent countries should be responsible for countries that are in poverty (par. 3).By being in a â€Å"global village† as singer puts it, then a logical thing to do is donate to country that has the most poverty. Looked at another way we already donate through the government. Foreign aid comes from our tax dollars. So, in essence we are donating, but the government takes care of all the work. I call this the apathetic donor. In contrast though, Canada is considered a very affluent country yet still has small but significant part of its population below the poverty line. An argument could easily be made that a priority should be placed towards the homeless and people living below the poverty line within Canada first.Once dealt with properly, giving the remains out to the res t of the needy world will follow. If Canada cannot take care of the suffering within its own borders, then its priorities should be reviewed. Lastly, if I was forced into a situation to give to a Canadian living in poverty or someone in a foreign country I would place a priority on someone within Canada. A consequence of giving to countries in poverty may actually cause more poverty. Singer claims that the morally right thing to do is to avoid suffering (par. 6).Yet, by donating to a country in need of food that has a significantly fast population growth rate will lead to future famine. The world simply cannot sustain continued population growth. For example Pakistan has a significant part of its population living in poverty and has a high birth rate. At the same time Pakistan has a space program in place. As a result it appears that Pakistan finds space technology is more important than feeding its poor. Additionally, many nations in Africa have been getting foreign aid for decades yet most of these countries remain poor.If donations must be made, the most good that can come from it would be to see my money go towards helping a government get itself prioritized, and certain that the money goes to where it is intended, not the corrupt politicians or leaders that have no care for the suffering. A fair extension of Singer’s argument would be to donate money to stopping violent crime or terrorism around the world. Crime results in the death of good and innocent people just like famine. Also, many people are born into crime countries or situations out of their control much like poverty.Dealing with organized crime in a poor country would certainly save lives, just as dealing with poverty. Also, an individual would be more motivated to take action to donate through fear than sympathy. As noted previously, seeing my money go towards a controllable situation such as crime within my own country of Canada would be a more worthwhile and pragmatic investment. Dona ting to crime prevention in Canada would naturally have a much more beneficial effect for me than giving my money to a foreign nation.Essentially various forms of any crime left unabated in Canada are more likely to spread out affect me at home than a person in poverty in a foreign country. In conclusion, I believe the reasons given refuting Peter Singer’s paper show that donating to people in poverty, and the need to change our moral conceptual scheme is unnecessary in our affluent society. His attempt to evoke an emotional and sympathetic response in the reader by describing the mental image of a drowning baby only hurts his attempt to convince a rational person to donate.Also, if I do choose to donate, does this make me less charitable to donate to someone within my own country, while there may someone needier in another country? Is donating at all even justifiable? especially when some countries only seem to be getting worse off with runaway birthrates, and with corrupt l eaders not doing what’s best for their nation. If I was forced into a situation to choose between putting aside money for myself, my family’s future, or giving it to someone whom I’ve never met in a situation less desirable than mine, the choice is easy and clear.