The Concept of Resilience Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 4250 words

The Concept of Resilience - Essay Example As the report stresses resilience plays a major role in the provision of vital ideologies that would emancipate any form of organization from ills, consequently, create a milieu whereby sustainable development would be achievable. It is important to focus on the issue of vulnerability in the context of resilience and development. Vulnerability cannot be alienated from the issue of resilience. Vulnerability to a social issue, leads to the need to devise methods by the concerned countries to come up with methods that would allow them fit in their current situations, either through finding a solution of coming out of the problem undyingly. This paper declares that contemporary studies focus mostly on vulnerability and the implications; it has had on the resilience capacity of the concerned states. In relation to this concept, Oslon indicates that, for communities to survive in today’s tough situations, an understanding of resilience and vulnerability cannot be escaped. An application of resilience machinery would be beneficial for assistance of alleviating vulnerabilities in the society. If a country is able to maintain its systems and its populace despite, the pressures imposed on them, it would be justified to argue that, the country has developed and sustained resilience. In essence, resilience can be defined as, the aptitude of a state to deal with hard-hitting situations in the country. The capacity to recuperate from such tough situations, whether natural disasters, poverty or inflation, may be indicated as resilience adapted systems.

Nazi Germany and Virginia Holocaust Museum Essay Example for Free

Nazi Germany and Virginia Holocaust Museum Essay In this paper, I articulate my experience at the Virginia Holocaust museum, paying particular attention to my emotional and cognitive reactions. As a student of social work, I benefit from knowledge of the National Association of Social Workers (NASW) Code of Ethics, which I employ in reflecting upon the dichotomization and construction of the other that fueled the Nazi intolerance towards Jews and other ethnically diverse populations and led to their genocide. By examining the current genocide in the South Sudan, I highlight commonalities between the Holocaust and the modern plight of marginalized South Sudanese populations. Finally, I utilize the NASW ethical principles of Social Justice and Dignity and Worth of the Person to imagine how I would have reacted, as a social worker, to the Holocaust. Through this process of reflection, I gain insight into the mechanisms of intolerance and better position myself to be a positive change agent. Keywords: dichotomization, ethics, genocide, holocaust, Nazi, social work, Sudan Examining the Holocaust from a Social Worker’s Perspective Introduction The purpose of this paper is to reflect upon my experience at the Virginia Holocaust Museum on September 11, 2012. By providing a detailed and thoughtful examination of one of the most shameful chapters in human history, the Virginia Holocaust Museum elicits a strong emotional and cognitive reaction. As a student of social work and an active participant in the current political landscape, I am able to use current events and my understanding of the National Association of Social Workers (NASW) Code of Ethics as a lens in which to examine the atrocities of the Holocaust. By understanding the threads of intolerance that connect the Holocaust to the current genocide in the Sudan and applying the NASW ethical principles of social justice and the dignity and worth of the person, I am able to gain a richer understanding of the Holocaust and the millions of lives it affected. My Experience Growing up in the Virginia public school system, impersonal statistics and broad textbook generalities taught me about the Holocaust in history class. While I remember feeling unsettled and recognizing in some undefinable way that this event was truly terrible, the emotional weight of sadness and terror that the Holocaust commands did not truly sink in until my family brought me to visit the National Holocaust Museum in Washington DC. Walking slowly through the exhibits, I recall vividly the feeling that I was being turned inside out, my emotional nerve endings exposed to the pain and depravity of the collective nightmare of 11 million individuals. This was a profound experience for my young mind. The question â€Å"How could this happen? † tattooed itself on my consciousness and never received a truly satisfying answer. This question took on a renewed resonance as I took part in a School of Social Work fieldtrip to the Virginia Holocaust Museum. Returning for another in-depth look at the Holocaust, this time as an adult with infinitely more life experience, I again found myself emotionally raw. From the moment we arrived our docent, John Hagadorn, began immersing us in the facts and contextual details of the Holocaust. John overwhelmed us with the blunt statistics, sharing about the 6 million Jews and 5 million Czechs, Hungarians, Gypsies, LGBT and disabled persons who were systematically destroyed before the Allied forces of Great Britain, France, Russia and the United States were able to intervene. Hearing these numbers and the multitude of groups affected, I was struck by the Nazi’s tendency to aggregate, or lump together, different groups that did not meet the German’s ethnocentric, heteronormative, and physicalist perspectives (Rosenblum Travis, 2012). After aggregating these groups, the Nazi’s were able to dichotomize, or set themselves apart from these groups and declare them non-German and impure, their very existence in opposition to Nazi ideals (Rosenblum Travis, 2012). Despite knowing that racism, homophobia, and anti-Semitism were forces at play in the everyday German culture of the time, I find it hard to imagine that even the most relentless socialization could lead a human being to actively participate in or take a passive (but complicit) part in the extermination of millions of people based upon arbitrary differences. I know that fairness requires that I acknowledge istorical and cultural relativism when examining the Holocaust. However, as a person benefiting from an upbringing rich in openness and respect for the innate worth of all living beings, it is difficult for me to understand how so many Germans could let such atrocities culminate in the destruction of 11 million lives, and even help to perpetuate those atrocities. After being emotionally primed by the facts about the massive populations affected by the Nazi’s racist, ethnocentric, sexist, heteronormative, and physicalist campaign of hatred, I was profoundly affected by the photographs of the personal lives destroyed. From the moment we began the tour in the â€Å"Liberation† section, photograph after photograph of decimated humans greeted me with a palpable sense of sadness. Seeing the glassy eyed, hollow cheeked portraits of Jewish men, women and children reduced to emaciated skeletons gave me an entirely new perspective on human suffering. I imagine the slow, methodical torture of feeling my body wither away, day after day, and the madness of feeling powerless to feed my family or myself. Our docent, John Hagadorn, reminded us that even the most oppressive cultures often recognize children as especially vulnerable and spare them some of the abuses that adults endure. This was not the case in Nazi Germany and the photographs of children wounded and disfigured by â€Å"medical experiments† involving chemical burns, skin grafts, and â€Å"exploratory surgeries† made my stomach curdle. The replication of the experimental chamber the Nazis employed to test high altitude oxygen deprivation on concentration camp prisoners was especially gruesome. Imagining the terror and agony of the victims who endured this torture gave me a deeper understanding of the depth of dehumanization the Nazis felt for Jews. The photograph that stood out the most for me included no terrorized faces or emaciated bodies, but was simply a huge crate filled with wedding rings. With tens of thousands of rings piled atop one another, I could imagine all the families destroyed by this evil. I imagined the love that united untold couples, the dreams of children, homes, and experiences shared that were shattered. I thought of the stories created through a lifetime of shared love and humanity, destroyed before ever being written. As I imagined my parent’s wedding bands in that crate, I felt an overwhelming emptiness. I realized that mine and my sisters lives and all the moments of joy and love we have shared as a family would have been snuffed out before ever having the chance to flourish, all based on some arbitrary distinction of race, ethnicity or religious affiliation. Today’s Issues Sadly, the systematic genocide of the Holocaust is not an isolated incident in human history. Since the liberation of the Nazi concentration camps in Poland in 1945, intolerant despots have carried out numerous other genocidal campaigns in Rwanda, Bosnia and Iraq. According to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, today one of the largest genocidal and humanitarian crises of the 21st century continues to unfold in the Sudan, with over two million civilians murdered and four million displaced (United states holocaust, 2012). According to the Virginia Holocaust Museum, since taking power of the Sudanese government in 1989, Omar al-Bashir has recruited Arab tribal militias, or Janjaweed, to eliminate the ethnic Fur, Masalit, and Zaghawa tribal groups (2012). These Nuba mountain ethnic groups and any civilians who represent a perceived threat to Bashir’s National Congress Party (NCP) continue to be targets of aerial bombing, mass starvation and displacement, torture, rape, and enslavement (United states holocaust, 2012). Just as the Nazis used the ethnic variance of Jews, Czechs, Hungarians and other â€Å"Non Aryan† populations as the basis for violence and oppression, the NCP based their current violence in South Sudan upon perceived ethnic differences. While the Nazis dichotomized anyone who did not fit their definition of the German race, the NCP continues to dichotomize the Nuba, Fur, Masalit, and Zaghawa populations because of their ethnic differences. By employing this process of dichotomization, both the Nazis and the NCP are able to marginalize entire populations and construct them as â€Å"others† who are distinctly different and â€Å"in opposition to the dominant group† (Rosenblum Travis, 2012). This extreme process of othering plants the seeds of intolerance and hatred that later manifest as systematic violence, as the current rape, displacement and murder of millions in South Sudan illustrates. NASW Code of Ethics Social Justice  The NASW Code of ethics defines the principle of Social Justice as â€Å"challeng[ing] social injustice† and â€Å"pursu[ing] social change, particularly with and on behalf of vulnerable and oppressed individuals and groups of people† (NASW Delegate Assembly, 2008). When considering the Holocaust there are abundant opportunities to apply the principle of social justice. As a social worker, I would have had an ethical responsibility to take action to relieve the suffering of the Holocaust victims. The Nazis systematically oppressed the Jewish, Czech, Hungarian, disabled, and LGBT populations in horrific ways. Had I been a social worker at the time, I would have made it my priority to encourage social change by educating anyone I could about the violence and oppression that decimated these vulnerable populations. By spreading knowledge and encouraging others to raise their awareness of the suffering in Nazi Germany, I could have organized rallies and campaigns designed to apply pressure to our government to intervene earlier. I could have encouraged sensitivity to these diverse cultures by constructing a dialogue about diversity and challenging apathetic civilians to challenge themselves to empathize with these oppressed groups and imagine themselves as victims. Dignity and Worth of the Person The NASW Code of Ethics describes the principle of Dignity and Worth of the Person as â€Å"respect[ing] the inherent dignity and worth of the person† and â€Å"treat[ing] each person in a caring and respectful fashion, mindful of individual differences and cultural and ethnic diversity† (NASW Delegate Assembly, 2008). The very foundation of the Holocaust and the genocide of 11 million individuals was a lack of respect for cultural and ethnic diversity. The Nazi regime targeted anyone who did not meet its narrow perception of the â€Å"pure† German race. The Nazis considered any physical or mental divergence from the Nazi racial, ethnic, heteronormative, and physicalist norms a threat. Had I been a social worker at the time, it would have been my obligation to resist these oppressive views and aid marginalized people in any way that I could. By encouraging others to recognize the innate value of all human beings and the arbitrary nature of racial and ethnic distinctions, I could have assisted others in achieving a more empathetic awareness that could serve as motivation to take action to end Nazi oppression. Conclusion The Holocaust remains one of the darkest, most disturbing scars upon modern human history. Examining the mechanisms of intolerance that fueled the decimation of over 11 million lives allows me insight into the subversive nature of evil. These mechanisms of socialization, dichotomization, and the various ways in which human beings construct differences in others must be understood if such evil is to be prevented in the future. Unfortunately, as in the case of the Sudan and other marginalized regions of the world, these mechanisms are still fueling the widespread oppression of entire populations. By raising my awareness of historical and modern oppression and endeavoring to embody the NASW ethical principles like social justice and the dignity and worth of the person, I can better position myself to be an active change agent and a better human being.

Plagiarism In Education System Education Essay

Plagiarism In Education System Education Essay Introduction: Plagiarism has stained our education system for long. The reason behind highlighting this problem is that people, especially in our society are unaware of the consequences of this practice, and it is deemed normal without any sense of guilt or dishonesty. And further the expansion of the internet has made it easier for people to fetch and present someone elses work as their own. So this problem has to be identified so that this unethical practice can be eradicated. The first step in the eradication should be to bring reforms in the educational sector, because students carry on these habits into their practical lives causing social dilemma. This report discusses the reasons for plagiarism and its proposed, and some tried and tested solutions. What is Plagiarism? : Plagiarism is the copying of ideas, wording, or anything else from another source without appropriate reference or acknowledgement so that it appears to be ones own work. (grips,2011) Some others define Plagiarism asà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦the reproduction or paraphrasing, without acknowledgement, from public or private (i.e. unpublished) material (including material downloaded from the Internet), attributable to, or which is the intellectual property of another, including the work of students. (University of Southampton). à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦the copying or paraphrasing of other peoples work or ideas into your own work without full acknowledgement (University of Oxford). From above definitions we deduce following important points about plagiarism that it is: using someone elses work, or ideas. and doing so without proper acknowledgement. mere rephrasing of someone elses work does not alleviate one from the crime. Plagiarism is unethical and dishonest. It is unfair to ones fellows who actually worked hard and did the given work/assignment themselves. It like stealing from someone. It can damage ones own credibility along with the credibility of the one whose work the person has plagiarized. Further it Prevents Learning. Hence awareness has to be brought among the students so they can avoid these dire consequences of this practice. Methodology: Plagiarism has existed throughout the history of mankind in one form or the other, but the rise of the technological era and especially internet has made access to information ( others work) exceptionally easier, which has increased the instances of plagiarism considerably. The practice of plagiarism causes damage to the both the doer and the victim. So this practice has been deemed unethical and awareness needs to be brought to every person related to education, so that this practice can be eliminated. This problem can be solved by going through following steps Recognizing plagiarism and its origin Reasons for why students plagiarize Educating and forming anti plagiarism policies. Each of these steps has been based on surveys/studies that were done by credible authorities during the past decade or so. I have gone through these surveys and articles published by my peers, and made my own understanding of this problem. This approach has been employed in the past to highlight such problems and I have thus adopted it to present the problem and its various solutions in this report. Recognition of Plagiarism: Recognizing plagiarism is one of the most important steps towards the eradication of this crime. Everyone needs to recognize the problem of student plagiarism in this internet era. The extent to which this problem has affected the academia is very deep. The reason behind the difficulty in the recognition of the problem is that it is not easy to define plagiarism as there is a very fine line between what can be borrowed and what cant be. So everyone in the environment i.e., peers, instructors have to help students fetch information and guide them the right way to gain the information they seek. Next we have to look into: The reasons why students plagiarize. The General attitude towards plagiarism. The role of academic institution. Means used by students to plagiarize. Ways by which academic institutions detect plagiarism? Available Potential Solutions One important thing is the extent to which this problem has affected our system and how deep it has spread into the education system Reason behind Plagiarism: To get an insight into various reasons why student plagiarize various studies have been done.. In 2002 a survey was conducted of some 35000 U.S college students 36 % admitted to have done copy n paste plagiarism some time in their academic life. (McCabe, 2003). While in a 2006 Canadian survey, more than half of the undergraduates and 35 percent of the graduate students surveyed admitted to some form of cheating on written course work, such as failing to footnote, turning in someone elses work, or falsifying a bibliography (Birchard,2006). The same situation is here in our country where plagiarism, especially in university students has grown considerably and without any check. Here copying of each others assignments is considered normal and no one penalizes them for this practice. Hence students are being encouraged. The problem with such surveys is that the fear of penalties resulting from the conviction of plagiarism causes many students to be dishonest. So the statistics coming out of such surveys have to be regarded as the minima. Academic institutes attitude: In my opinion it is an ethical issue and hence universities cant do much in this regard, besides making strict policies because just by creating mere policies and penalties this cant be controlled effectively as students will find a way around detection. This is an issue that has to be solved by teaching and talking to students about plagiarism in a friendly way. But our teachers do not give heed to plagiarism and once detected do not do the official procedure for the punishment, A few reasons behind such attitude are: The time required is not worth it. The time required in follow up procedures can effect concentration from teaching and learning, the procedures are very stressful, Its not always the students fault because of the culture from they came can be different and they may not know the seriousness of the issue. Internet- the ultimate seduction: A part from the culture students come from, the major reason behind the rise of plagiarism is the rise of the internet. The ease with which information is available has tempted everyone to do less work Researching and spend more time Searching. This is done extensively by students and without proper citation and hence they gain more by doing minimum work. The arrival of bit torrent sites has made it possible for students to get their hands on material with a few clicks, that couldnt have been borrowed without written permission of author before. These comforts have made plagiarism attractive to most of the students. One serious issue is that now there are paper mill or commonly known as cheat sites. Which not only provide students with the material which they can copy and paste but they also encourage them to do less work and hence be efficient they proudly announce that they are aiding students while in reality they are doing a serious offence and ruining the learning phase of many students. These sites enable students to buy material that is exactly what they need without even making the effort to search it online. Once reasons behind plagiarism are known and we know the means by which students can plagiarize we can take better measures to counter plagiarism. Plagiarism Detection: Plagiarism detection used now a day is still very simple because it is based on text matching and they rely on existing databases. Such plagiarism detection has two weak points: . A minor paraphrasing or rephrasing of the copied work will make the plagiarized work undetectable, such sites are effective against students who have make no attempt to amend the text. Also such sites rely on existing databases so material copied from stuff that is not in their database will go undetected. Such as material copied from books, magazines and fellow students, which are not available online. Despite these shortcomings recent studies have shown that these plagiarism detection tools have been somewhat effective in indicating the instances of plagiarism. Some of these are: Turnitin.com is the most widely used plagiarism tool, according to its official website it enables instructors to manage grades and assignments online and instantly identify papers containing unoriginal material. Apart from it, other software such as MyDropbox Suite, Easy Verification Engine (EVE2, MOSS are also very efficient. These are machine based plagiarism detection tools which have their limitations, if we are to eradicate this practice we have to resort to the more conventional ways of human persuasion. We have to make sure that students know the ethical importance of this matter, the dire consequences this can have in their coming life. So that they can avoid this unnecessary ill practice. And resort to the way of learning the right way. Penalties Honor codes: One effective way to prevent plagiarism is through introducing strict penalties on plagiarism and using honor codes at the time of admission and professing them so that students avoid unnecessary disciplinary action against them. Results: The point of the methods described previously was to Identify and Prevent plagiarism. The success of these methods has been measured by many studies. First step was to recognize plagiarism, Tsang and Choys (2005) study was conducted after their seminars on plagiarism, where they educated students about it in those seminars. Before and after seminar they asked students to fill in their questionnaires, which consisted of questions regarding programming and text plagiarism. The results show that before the seminar series only 8-9 percent of the students knew the correct meaning of plagiarism while after the series 90 percent of students knew the correct meaning of plagiarism. Results show the high success rate of such seminars that help students understand and Recognize plagiarism. Next step was to identify the reasons why students plagiarize the results of Tsang and Choy (2005) have been compiled in the following graph. graph.jpg This survey and studies done by (McCabe, 2003) (Birchard, 2006) highlight following major reasons behind plagiarism: Students plagiarize because they dont care about the difference between searching researching. Sometimes due to high expectations students tend to copy others work that is presented in better wording that their own. Lack of knowledge on how to cite references in their work. Pressure to get good grade. Poor time management and organizational skills. The plagiarism Culture i.e. everyone around them is doing the same then why should they restrain themselves. Then the means by which students plagiarize, according to a studies conducted by Roberts (2007) Stoerger (2006) major mean by which students plagiarize is through internet. And the trend of using paper mill sites is gaining popularity such sites include: Schoolsucks.com, Termpapersmonthly.com, Coursework.info, and Essayschool.com. Plagiarism detection tools have been very successful in recent times as indicated by following survey conducted by the turnitin.com, on number of teachers using turnitin each year: instructors_by_AY.png (University of IOWA, 2011) Lastly, the effectiveness of Plagiarism Detection Software and the actions taken, I have generated the following from figures presented in (turnitin.com, 2010). graph2.jpg The results are very much as expected in the previous sections of the report. The reasons why students plagiarize have been generalized and the instances of plagiarism have increased alarmingly. The results of these surveys clearly show that although plagiarism can be detected quite efficiently now days, cases of plagiarism are increasing every year. The penalizing is not happening proportionally. Hence plagiarism is being encouraged indirectly by not taking action against it. Discussion: The purpose of this report was to propose efficient ways to Identify and Prevent the plagiarism in our education sector, the results clearly show favor to the suggested methods i.e., alone relying on machine base solutions does not ensure the attainment of our goals as indicated in figure 3, although instructors caught many cases of plagiarism, no disciplinary actions were taken. Hence there is no point in detecting plagiarism if correct action is not to be taken. So a Mixture of software based methods and proper human guidance are both necessary to control plagiarism. The software based methods have their limitations, so they are not the enough to prevent the instances of plagiarism. As indicated in the results, the seminars and conferences are very effective in educating students on plagiarism and the most effective way to do so is to enable them to realize that it is an ethical and moral issue rather than a professional problem. In this way they can be mentally prepared to counter this problem. Most cases of plagiarism can be avoided, however, by citing sources. Simply acknowledging that certain material has been borrowed, and providing your audience with the information necessary to find that source, is usually enough to prevent plagiarism. It is obvious that instructors see plagiarism as a wrong practice and they think that students should be penalized for it. However it is also a fact that instructors ignore many aspects of plagiarism and do not teach students how to avoid it. So the attitude towards plagiarism is correct but the process of tackling instances of plagiarism is not. It should be focused on preventing plagiarism due to ignorance. Only then when instances of plagiarism are caught one can say that it was intentional and strict action is justified. The students should be taught the skill of avoiding plagiarism, and academic institutions should be patient with this as it will take time for students to learn wholly this skill. Carroll (2002) has discussed the complexities that arise in teaching students about plagiarism. In our institutes students are simply given a brief overview of plagiarism and then a website is given to them for details. Such practice is not teaching anyone, anything. Instead, it should be taught gradually, so that students are familiar with core aspects of plagiarism. Also it should be presented as an aspect of academia and not as a crime. Searching vs. Researching Today students try to avoid the brainstorming that is required when researching content. Because it involves reading information and then processing it in their minds to get the idea and use it for their research. Instead an attractive alternative is to search the content efficiently and then using it as it is without processing it and forming ones own understanding of the topic. Promotion of Ethical Behavior: Although Official Polices and awareness lectures do stress the seriousness of the issue among the students but they do not tell the students what it really entails and why they should not do plagiarism?. The punishments do not effectively prevent plagiarism; instead they just make them more cautious. So students themselves should be able to form an opinion that they should not plagiarize and that they themselves should learn skills to write without copying. Plagiarism, as an ethical issue requires students to change their mentality and actively seeking ways to avoid it. Possible New Directions: The plagiarism prevention methods discussed in this report i.e. moralistic, disciplinary and software based, all have their shortcomings. So new innovative approaches may be used to counter plagiarism: Use of Technology by Students: First of all students themselves should be able to detect plagiarism instead of their instructors, this will give them an idea of how much they have unintentionally copied, so that they can refine their work and do plagiarism check again and again until the software clears them out. This method saves the students the embarrassment of unintentional plagiarism. Another way is to develop software that can catch the rephrasing that is done by the students to prevent plagiarism. Control to instructor: Instead of depending on future technologies, we can use an approach which is practical, the procedures of officially dealing with plagiarism are very cumbersome so instead, the student shall be given a chance to convince the instructor that he has learnt the meaning of the thing, hence the goal has been achieved. This can be done by conducting an exam of some sort by assessor and see whether the student has really learned something or not. But this scheme only works within certain courses, for publications and research work there is zero tolerance for any kind of plagiarism. Conclusion: Well, by analyzing the definitions of plagiarism, the attitude of education sector toward it, the current ways of educating students about plagiarism and the consensus that offending students should be punished, explained in this report. We conclude that Plagiarism is a serious issue and needs to be addressed. But the problem cannot be solved by increasing the use of machine based plagiarism detection software only or using even more strict policies, but by educating all the involved parties and by using balanced combination of software and human based solutions.

Gender Bias in Othello Essay -- Othello essays

Gender Bias in Othello  Ã‚  Ã‚        Ã‚  Ã‚   Shakespeare’s tragic play Othello is an unfortunate example of gender bias, of sexism which takes advantage of women. The three women characters in the drama are all, in their own ways, victims of men’s skewed attitudes regarding women. Let us delve into this topic in this essay.    Barbara A. Mowat and Paul Werstine comment in the Introduction to Shakespeare: Othello that sexism is a big factor   in the play:    At this point in our civilization the play’s fascination and its horror may be greater than ever before because we have been made so very sensitive to the issues of race, class, and gender that are woven into the texture of Othello. [. . .] The issue of gender is especially noticeable in the final scenes of the play – with the attacks on Bianca, Emilia, and Desdemona – which are vivid reminders of how terrible the power traditionally exerted by men over women can be. (xiii-xiv)    In the opening scene, while Iago is expressing his hatred for the general Othello for his having chosen Michael Cassio for the lieutenancy, he contrives a plan to partially avenge himself (â€Å"I follow him to serve my turn upon him†), with Roderigo’s assistance, by alerting Desdemona’s father, Brabantio, to the fact of his daughter’s elopement with Othello: â€Å"Call up her father, / Rouse him: make after him, poison his delight [. . .].† Implied in this move is the fact of a father’s assumed control over the daughter’s choice of a marriage partner. Brabantio’s admonition to Roderigo implicitly expresses the same message:    The worser welcome:   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   I have charged thee not to haunt about my doors:   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   In honest plainness thou hast heard me say   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   My daughter is not for th... ...on: Twayne Publishers, 1985.    Mack, Maynard. Everybody’s Shakespeare: Reflections Chiefly on the Tragedies. Lincoln, NB: University of Nebraska Press, 1993.    Mowat, Barbara A. and Paul Werstine, ed. Introduction. Shakespeare: Othello. New York: Washington Square Press, 1993.    Pitt, Angela. â€Å"Women in Shakespeare’s Tragedies.† Readings on The Tragedies. Ed. Clarice Swisher. San Diego: Greenhaven Press, 1996. Reprint from Shakespeare’s Women. N.p.: n.p., 1981.    Shakespeare, William. Othello. In The Electric Shakespeare. Princeton University. 1996. http://www.eiu.edu/~multilit/studyabroad/othello/othello_all.html No line nos.    Wayne, Valerie. â€Å"Historical Differences: Misogyny and Othello.† The Matter of Difference: Materialist Feminist Criticism of Shakespeare. Ed Valerie Wayne. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1991.   

Reflective Statement Cit Sem1

Reflective Statement CIT Sem1 In the last two years I have had two major transitions, the first was when I transferred from industry into lecturing, finding myself in a college on the one side of the desk. The second was then being enrolled as a student and discovering myself on the other side of the desk. Both steps have taken me very much away from my comfort zone of getting production lines to work, to all the way back to my university days staring at a blank page trying to get my brain to work. The first session of the CIT course has gone very quickly with a surprising amount of material covered leaving me with a lot to take on board.Watching someone teach seemed to be a good place to begin, our first opportunity was to watch a video of a Vocational lesson taking place with level 2 and level 3 students, a similar setup to my Engineering TFS class. Reflecting on this lesson, some of the strategies I could take from it were the way the lesson was structured with clear instructions at the start, a variety of activities, using the more experienced students to help the first year students, motivating them and consolidating what they have learned.Peer observation was a good opportunity to see how an experienced teacher within my own college and subject structured their lesson and the techniques they used, it also made me appreciate how difficult it is to formally reflect on someone else’s teaching. The Gardner’s theory of various learning styles of visual, kinaesthetic and auditory showed me that not all activities are going to work for all students, hence the need for variety with in the lesson to stimulate the learner.The introduction to the LLUK and the Domain A professional values and practice was probably the biggest step in the course, where you are asked to plan the learning by creating schemes of work and detailed lesson plans. â€Å"Fail to Plan, Plan to Fail†. This was then broken down further in the Domain D where the individual ne eds of the students being taught had to be considered. This was put into practice, first in a group activity, were a scheme of work was designed and lesson plan extracted from it. This gave a good opportunity to coordinate or efforts as a group and presents our work to the rest of the class.The second opportunity to do this and receive feed back was during the first class observation which allowed us show progression within our teaching and start putting in practice what had been learned so far. Teachers and the Law, was a useful reminder of the responsibility we have as teacher within the class room, that we have a duty of care towards the learner, especially when they are under 18. Not only is it a legal obligation, but it is set out as a contractual duty of care also covered in the LLUK in Domain A and our signed contract of employment.The most inspirational part of the course to date would be the Behaviour Management presentation, which served to confront the teacher’s fe ar of the disruptive class or impossible child. Developing positive relationships with the students seems to be at the heart of this topic, which in some cases could be time consuming and hard work, but inevitably rewarding. Key skills in achieving good classroom management are rewarding the student with constructive praise, giving clear instruction and introducing novel stimuli and humour to create a stress free environment.In addition to the presentation on Behaviour management, I have been able to sign up to the Behaviour Needs mini course and receive some very useful materials and tools that have help with my class room management to try an make it a more stimulating learning experience. Domain BK1. 2 Probably the most nerve wrecking experience of the first session, more so than the lesson observation was the Micro Teaching activity. Looking back, it was actually enjoyable and worthwhile when you could see yourself in the playback, and identify the type of teacher you are, again laid out in Domain BK2. 6 which ask you to evaluate your own practice.This gives me the opportunity not just to suit lessons to fit the learner but also my own teaching style. The exercise made me really think of what goes into the different stages of a lesson, i. e. the BEM principle. â€Å"The view is that we learn more in the first 12 minutes and the last 8 minutes of a lesson† (Duckett. I and Tatarkowski. M; 2005,27), taking that into consideration we should have 3 BEM’s in a typical lesson. The function of a good opening is â€Å"To induce in participants a state of readiness appropriate to the task to follow, through establishing rapport, arousing motivation and gaining attention† ( Hargie.O and Dickson. D 2004,262). Setting out the objectives, displaying them for the students to see, so they know what the expectations of the lesson will be has now become a fundamental part of my teaching. Before we looked into Blooms taxonomy, I thought there were just q uestions and answers, now I am aware of effective questioning on so many different levels. In the past I have used questioning considerably within my lesson, but would like to develop this skill so that it can be more â€Å"effective†. Conclusion.Experiencing teaching for only one year, with no formal training, was a huge challenge, but one which I felt I dealt with to best of my abilities. The course so far, has enhanced my teaching abilities, which should make me a more reflective teacher willing to try new strategies and learning from want can go wrong in a class and maximising on what went right. (958) References: Duckett,I. and Tatarkowski, M. , 2005. Practical strategies for learning and teaching on vocational programmes. London: Learning and Skills Development Agency, p. 27. Hargie, O. and Dickson, D. 2004. Skilled Interpersonal Communication. 4th ed. London: Routledge, p. 262.

Digital Fortress Chapter 107-109

Chapter 107 Susan had no idea how much time had passed. A burning in her throat pulled her to her senses. Disoriented, she studied her surroundings. She was on a carpet behind a desk. The only light in the room was a strange orange flickering. The air smelled of burning plastic. The room she was standing in was not really a room at all; it was a devastated shell. The curtains were on fire, and the Plexiglas walls were smoldering. Then she remembered it all. David. In a rising panic, she pulled herself to her feet. The air felt caustic in her windpipe. She stumbled to the doorway looking for away out. As she crossed the threshold, her leg swung out over an abyss; she grabbed the door frame just in time. The catwalk had disappeared. Fifty feet below was a twisted collapse of steaming metal. Susan scanned the Crypto floor in horror. It was a sea of fire. The melted remains of three million silicon chips had erupted from TRANSLTR like lava. Thick, acrid smoke billowed upward. Susan knew the smell. Silicon smoke. Deadly poison. Retreating into the remains of Strathmore's office, she began to feel faint. Her throat burned. The entire place was filled with a fiery light. Crypto was dying. So will I, she thought. For a moment, she considered the only possible exit-Strathmore's elevator. But she knew it was useless; the electronics never would have survived the blast. But as Susan made her way through the thickening smoke, she recalled Hale's words. The elevator runs on power from the main building! I've seen the schematics! Susan knew that was true. She also knew the entire shaft was encased in reinforced concrete. The fumes swirled all around her. She stumbled through the smoke toward the elevator door. But when she got there, she saw that the elevator's call button was dark. Susan jabbed fruitlessly at the darkened panel, then she fell to her knees and pounded on the door. She stopped almost instantly. Something was whirring behind the doors. Startled, she looked up. It sounded like the carriage was right there! Susan stabbed at the button again. Again, a whirring behind the doors. Suddenly she saw it. The call button was not dead-it had just been covered with black soot. It now glowed faintly beneath her smudged fingerprints. There's power! With a surge of hope, she punched at the button. Over and over, something behind the doors engaged. She could hear the ventilation fan in the elevator car. The carriage is here! Why won't the damn doors open? Through the smoke she spied the tiny secondary keypad-lettered buttons, A through Z. In a wave of despair, Susan remembered. The password. The smoke was starting to curl in through the melted window frames. Again she banged on the elevator doors. They refused to open. The password! she thought. Strathmore never told me the password! Silicon smoke was now filling the office. Choking, Susan fell against the elevator in defeat. The ventilation fan was running just a few feet away. She lay there, dazed, gulping for air. She closed her eyes, but again David's voice woke her. Escape, Susan! Open the door! Escape! She opened her eyes expecting to see his face, those wild green eyes, that playful smile. But the letters A-Z came into focus. The password†¦ Susan stared at the letters on the keypad. She could barely keep them in focus. On the LED below the keypad, five empty spots awaited entry. A five-character password, she thought. She instantly knew the odds: twenty-six to the fifth power; 11,881,376 possible choices. At one guess every second, it would take nineteen weeks†¦ As Susan Fletcher lay choking on the floor beneath the keypad, the commander's pathetic voice came to her. He was calling to her again. I love you Susan! I've always loved you! Susan! Susan! Susan†¦ She knew he was dead, and yet his voice was relentless. She heard her name over and over. Susan†¦ Susan†¦ Then, in a moment of chilling clarity, she knew. Trembling weakly, she reached up to the keypad and typed the password. S†¦ U†¦ S†¦ A†¦ N An instant later, the doors slid open. Chapter 108 Strathmore's elevator dropped fast. Inside the carriage, Susan sucked deep breaths of fresh air into her lungs. Dazed, she steadied herself against the wall as the car slowed to a stop. A moment later some gears clicked, and the conveyor began moving again, this time horizontally. Susan felt the carriage accelerate as it began rumbling toward the main NSA complex. Finally it whirred to a stop, and the doors opened. Coughing, Susan Fletcher stumbled into a darkened cement corridor. She found herself in a tunnel-low-ceilinged and narrow. A double yellow line stretched out before her. The line disappeared into an empty, dark hollow. The Underground Highway†¦ She staggered toward the tunnel, holding the wall for guidance. Behind her, the elevator door slid shut. Once again Susan Fletcher was plunged into darkness. Silence. Nothing except a faint humming in the walls. A humming that grew louder. Suddenly it was as if dawn were breaking. The blackness thinned to a hazy gray. The walls of the tunnel began to take shape. All at once, a small vehicle whipped around the corner, its headlight blinding her. Susan stumbled back against the wall and shielded her eyes. There was a gust of air, and the transport whipped past. An instant later there was a deafening squeal of rubber on cement. The hum approached once again, this time in reverse. Seconds later the vehicle came to a stop beside her. â€Å"Ms. Fletcher!† an astonished voice exclaimed. Susan gazed at a vaguely familiar shape in the driver's seat of an electric golf cart. â€Å"Jesus.† The man gasped. â€Å"Are you okay? We thought you were dead!† Susan stared blankly. â€Å"Chad Brinkerhoff,† he sputtered, studying the shell-shocked cryptographer. â€Å"Directorial PA.† Susan could only manage a dazed whimper. â€Å"TRANSLTR†¦Ã¢â‚¬  Brinkerhoff nodded. â€Å"Forget it. Get on!† The beam of the golf cart's headlights whipped across the cement walls. â€Å"There's a virus in the main databank,† Brinkerhoff blurted. â€Å"I know,† Susan heard herself whisper. â€Å"We need you to help us.† Susan was fighting back the tears. â€Å"Strathmore†¦ he†¦Ã¢â‚¬  â€Å"We know,† Brinkerhoff said. â€Å"He bypassed Gauntlet.† â€Å"Yes†¦ and†¦Ã¢â‚¬  The words got stuck in her throat. He killed David! Brinkerhoff put a hand on her shoulder. â€Å"Almost there, Ms. Fletcher. Just hold on.† The high-speed Kensington golf cart rounded a corner and skidded to a stop. Beside them, branching off perpendicular to the tunnel, was a hallway, dimly lit by red floor lighting. â€Å"Come on,† Brinkerhoff said, helping her out. He guided her into the corridor. Susan drifted behind him in a fog. The tiled passageway sloped downward at a steep incline. Susan grabbed the handrail and followed Brinkerhoff down. The air began to grow cooler. They continued their descent. As they dropped deeper into the earth, the tunnel narrowed. From somewhere behind them came the echo of footsteps-a strong, purposeful gait. The footsteps grew louder. Both Brinkerhoff and Susan stopped and turned. Striding toward them was an enormous black man. Susan had never seen him before. As he approached, he fixed her with a penetrating stare. â€Å"Who's this?† he demanded. â€Å"Susan Fletcher,† Brinkerhoff replied. The enormous man arched his eyebrows. Even sooty and soaked, Susan Fletcher was more striking than he had imagined. â€Å"And the commander?† he demanded. Brinkerhoff shook his head. The man said nothing. He stared off a moment. Then he turned back to Susan. â€Å"Leland Fontaine,† he said, offering her his hand. â€Å"Glad you're okay.† Susan stared. She'd always known she'd meet the director someday, but this was not the introduction she'd envisioned. â€Å"Come along, Ms. Fletcher,† Fontaine said, leading the way. â€Å"We'll need all the help we can get.† Looming in the reddish haze at the bottom of the tunnel, a steel wall blocked their way. Fontaine approached and typed an entry code into a recessed cipher box. He then placed his right hand against a small glass panel. A strobe flashed. A moment later the massive wall thundered left. There was only one NSA chamber more sacred than Crypto, and Susan Fletcher sensed she was about to enter it. Chapter 109 The command center for the NSA's main databank looked like a scaled-down NASA mission control. A dozen computer workstations faced the thirty-foot by forty-foot video wall at the far end of the room. On the screen, numbers and diagrams flashed in rapid succession, appearing and disappearing as if someone were channel surfing. A handful of technicians raced wildly from station to station trailing long sheets of printout paper and yelling commands. It was chaos. Susan stared at the dazzling facility. She vaguely remembered that 250 metric tons of earth had been excavated to create it. The chamber was located 214 feet below ground, where it would be totally impervious to flux bombs and nuclear blasts. On a raised workstation in the center of the room stood Jabba. He bellowed orders from his platform like a king to his subjects. Illuminated on the screen directly behind him was a message. The message was all too familiar to Susan. The billboard-size text hung ominously over Jabba's head: ONLY THE TRUTH WILL SAVE YOU NOW ENTER PASS-KEY ______ As if trapped in some surreal nightmare, Susan followed Fontaine toward the podium. Her world was a slow-motion blur. Jabba saw them coming and wheeled like an enraged bull. â€Å"I built Gauntlet for a reason!† â€Å"Gauntlet's gone,† Fontaine replied evenly. â€Å"Old news, Director,† Jabba spat. â€Å"The shock wave knocked me on my ass! Where's Strathmore?† â€Å"Commander Strathmore is dead.† â€Å"Poetic fucking justice.† â€Å"Cool it, Jabba,† the director ordered. â€Å"Bring us up to speed. How bad is this virus?† Jabba stared at the director a long moment, and then without warning, he burst out laughing. â€Å"A virus?† His harsh guffaw resonated through the underground chamber. â€Å"Is that what you think this is?† Fontaine kept his cool. Jabba's insolence was way out of line, but Fontaine knew this was not the time or place to handle it. Down here, Jabba outranked God himself. Computer problems had away of ignoring the normal chain of command. â€Å"It's not a virus?† Brinkerhoff exclaimed hopefully. Jabba snorted in disgust. â€Å"Viruses have replication strings, pretty boy! This doesn't!† Susan hovered nearby, unable to focus. â€Å"Then what's going on?† Fontaine demanded. â€Å"I thought we had a virus.† Jabba sucked in a long breath and lowered his voice. â€Å"Viruses†¦Ã¢â‚¬  he said, wiping sweat from his face. â€Å"Viruses reproduce. They create clones. They're vain and stupid-binary egomaniacs. They pump out babies faster than rabbits. That's their weakness-you can cross-breed them into oblivion if you know what you're doing. Unfortunately, this program has no ego, no need to reproduce. It's clear-headed and focused. In fact, when it's accomplished its objective here, it will probably commit digital suicide. â€Å"Jabba held out his arms reverently to the projected havoc on the enormous screen. â€Å"Ladies and gentlemen.† He sighed. â€Å"Meet the kamikaze of computer invaders†¦ the worm.† â€Å"Worm?† Brinkerhoff groaned. It seemed like a mundane term to describe the insidious intruder. â€Å"Worm.† Jabba smoldered. â€Å"No complex structures, just instinct-eat, shit, crawl. That's it. Simplicity. Deadly simplicity. It does what it's programmed to do and then checks out.† Fontaine eyed Jabba sternly. â€Å"And what is this worm programmed to do?† â€Å"No clue,† Jabba replied. â€Å"Right now, it's spreading out and attaching itself to all our classified data. After that, it could do anything. It might decide to delete all the files, or it might just decide to print smiley faces on certain White House transcripts.† Fontaine's voice remained cool and collected. â€Å"Can you stop it?† Jabba let out a long sigh and faced the screen. â€Å"I have no idea. It all depends on how pissed off the author is.† He pointed to the message on the wall. â€Å"Anybody want to tell me what the hell that means?† ONLY THE TRUTH WILL SAVE YOU NOW ENTER PASS-KEY ______ Jabba waited for a response and got none. â€Å"Looks like someone's messing with us, Director. Blackmail. This is a ransom note if I ever saw one.† Susan's voice was a whisper, empty and hollow. â€Å"It's†¦ Ensei Tankado.† Jabba turned to her. He stared a moment, wide-eyed. â€Å"Tankado?† Susan nodded weakly. â€Å"He wanted our confession†¦ about TRANSLTR†¦ but it cost him his-â€Å" â€Å"Confession?† Brinkerhoff interrupted, looking stunned. â€Å"Tankado wants us to confess we have TRANSLTR? I'd say it's a bit late for that!† Susan opened her mouth to speak, but Jabba took over. â€Å"Looks like Tankado's got a kill-code,† he said, gazing up at the message on the screen. Everyone turned. â€Å"Kill code?† Brinkerhoff demanded. Jabba nodded. â€Å"Yeah. A pass-key that stops the worm. Simply put, if we admit we have TRANSLTR, Tankado gives us a kill-code. We type it in and save the databank. Welcome to digital extortion.† Fontaine stood like rock, unwavering. â€Å"How long have we got?† â€Å"About an hour,† Jabba said. â€Å"Just time enough to call a press conference and spill our guts. â€Å"Recommendation,† Fontaine demanded. â€Å"What do you propose we do?† â€Å"A recommendation?† Jabba blurted in disbelief. â€Å"You want a recommendation? I'll give you a recommendation! You quit fucking around, that's what you do!† â€Å"Easy,† the director warned. â€Å"Director,† Jabba sputtered. â€Å"Right now, Ensei Tankado owns this databank! Give him whatever he wants. If he wants the world to know about TRANSLTR, call CNN, and drop your shorts. TRANSLTR's a hole in the ground now anyway-what the hell do you care?† There was a silence. Fontaine seemed to be considering his options. Susan began to speak, but Jabba beat her to it. â€Å"What are you waiting for, Director! Get Tankado on the phone! Tell him you'll play ball! We need that kill-code, or this whole place is going down!† Nobody moved. â€Å"Are you all insane?† Jabba screamed. â€Å"Call Tankado! Tell him we fold! Get me that kill-code! NOW!† Jabba whipped out his cellular phone and switched it on. â€Å"Never mind! Get me his number! I'll call the little prick myself!† â€Å"Don't bother,† Susan said in a whisper. â€Å"Tankado's dead.† After a moment of confused astonishment, the implications hit Jabba like a bullet to the gut. The huge Sys-Sec looked like he was about to crumble. â€Å"Dead? But then†¦ that means†¦ we can't†¦Ã¢â‚¬  â€Å"That means we'll need a new plan,† Fontaine said matter-of-factly. Jabba's eyes were still glazed with shock when someone in the back of the room began shouting wildly. â€Å"Jabba! Jabba!† It was Soshi Kuta, his head techie. She came running toward the podium trailing a long printout. She looked terrified. â€Å"Jabba!† She gasped. â€Å"The worm†¦ I just found out what it's programmed to do!† Soshi thrust the paper into Jabba's hands. â€Å"I pulled this from the system-activity probe! We isolated the worm's execute commands-have a look at the programming! Look what it's planning to do!† Dazed, the chief Sys-Sec read the printout. Then he grabbed the handrail for support. â€Å"Oh, Jesus,† Jabba gasped. â€Å"Tankado†¦ you bastard!†