Marketing Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 21

Marketing - Assignment Example Mr. Khan a banker as well as an expert swimmer was a participant of this fateful underwater reality challenge which was co created by the two multinational giants, Unilever and mindshare, who are still unable to account for the tragic accident that took place. During the execution of the same stunt, Mr. Khan apparently lost control, he tossed, turned and struggled but could never recover and eventually drowned while performing this challenge for the program. Daunted and terrified co-contestants and crew hurried and tried to save but could not find him in the murky, misty waters of the lake. It is believed, that the personal security precautions were inadequate at the time of shooting the stunt, while participants also seem to lack training or briefing for the very harsh fateful reality show. Besides the inadequate security measures, the underlying question of corporate social responsibility of the two multinational giants, in the making of this reality show still remains unanswered. And it seems there was no document regarding the planning and preparation of the show. Moreover, Unilever, being the fastest growing FMCG in the world, had control over the media, and swept away any news regarding the dreadful event. The traditional media was put on silence and was forbidden to utter any word related to Mr. khan’s tragic death. This avoidance of media, has called into question the social, ethical, as well as the moral responsibilities of the

Pros and Cons of Capital Punishment Essay Example for Free

Pros and Cons of Capital Punishment Essay The most severe of all sentences: that of death. Also known as the death penalty, capital punishment is the most severe form of corporal punishment. It has been banned in many countries, in the United States, an earlier move to eliminate capital punishment has now been reversed and more and more states are resorting to capital punishment for serious offenses such as murder. An Eye for and eye, a life for a life, who has never heard of the famous Lex Talionis? The Bible mentions it, and people have been using it regularly for centuries. We use it in reference to burglary, adultery, love and many other situations. However, some people use it on a different level, some people use it in reference to death. One steals from those who have stolen from him, one wrongs those who have wronged him, but do we really have the right to kill those who have killed. Today, there is a big controversy over capital punishment whether or not it works, or if it is morally right. We have a certain privilege on our own lives, but do the lives of others belong to us as well? Do we have the right to decide the kind of lives others can or cannot live? We find someone guilty of murder and sentence him to death, does that not make murderers out of ourselves? Can justice justify our acts? Those who assist in the death penalty are they not partners in crime? Is the death penalty a Cruel and Unusual punishment or is it now a necessary tool in the war on crime? With the increase in crime and violence in our society, how does the death penalty affect a North American family. Use of the death penalty has declined throughout the industrial Western World since the 19th century. In 1972, movement in America to have the death penalty declared unconstitutional during the landmark case of Furman v. Georgia, which declared the death penalty cruel and unusual punishment. However, after a supreme court decision in 1975, Gregg v. Georgia, which stated capital punishment did not violate the eighth Amendment, executions commenced again under state supervision. (Van der Haag, 1975, 3-4). There are seven main types of execution: Hanging, where the prisoner is blindfolded and stands on a trap door, with a rope around his neck. The trap door is opened suddenly. The weight of the prisoner’s body below the neck causes traction separating the spinal cord from the brain. The second most widely used technique is shooting, where a firing quad shoots the prisoner from some meters away. Another method is Guillotine, a device consisting of a heavy blade held aloft between upright guides and dropped to behead the victim below. Then there was garroting, in which a tightened iron collar is used to strangle or break the neck of a condemned person. One of the more recent is Electrocution where the prisoner is fastened to a chair by his chest, groin, arms and legs. Electrodes are placed around a band around the head, then jolts of 4-8 amperes at voltage between 500 and 2000 volts are applied at half a minute at a time. The newest forms of execution are Lethal Injection where a lethal poison is injected into the prisoners arm or the Gas Chamber where the prisoner is placed in a room with Sodium Cyanide crystals and left to die. (Meltser, 1973, 21-26) There are four major issues in the capital punishment debate, the first being deterrence. A major purpose of criminal punishment is to deter future criminal conduct. The deterrence theory suggests that a rational person will avoid criminal behavior if the severity of the punishment outweigh the benefits of the illegal conduct. It is believed that fear of death deters people from committing crimes. Most criminals would think twice before committing murder if they knew their own lives was at stake. That if attached to certain crimes, the penalty of death exerts a positive moral influence by placing a stigma on certain crimes like manslaughter, resulting in attitudes of disgust and horror to such acts. (McCuen, 1985, 11) Studies of the deterrent effect of the death penalty have been conducted for several years, with varying results. Most of these studies have failed to produce evidence that the death penalty deterred murders more effectively then the threat of imprisonment. The reason for this is that few people are executed and so the death penalty is not a satisfactory deterrent. If capital punishment were carried out more it would prove to be the crime deterrent it was partly intended to be. During highly publicized death penalty cases the homicide rate is found to go down but it goes back up when the case is over. (Bailey, 1994, 42) When comparisons are made between states with the death penalty and states without, the majority of death penalty states show murder rates higher than non-death penalty states. The average murder rate per 100,000 population in 1996 among death penalty states was 7.1, the average murder rate among non-death penalty states was only 3.6. A look at neighboring death penalty and non-death penalty states show similar trends. Death penalty states usually have a higher murder rate than their neighboring non- death penalty states. (Death Penalty Information Center) The second issue in the capital punishment debate is retribution. The need for society to express sufficient condemnation for heinous murders. Supporters of the death penalty contend that the only proper response to the most vile murders is the most sever punishment possible. Therefore, society should literally interpret the â€Å"eye for an eye† principle when an individual takes a life, society’s moral balance will remain upset until the killer’s life is also taken. (Block, 1983, 112) Although death penalty opponents disagree society should be able to express its outrage with a vile crime by inflicting capital punishment. They suggest that they are showing outrage for taking a life by talking the life of another. (Bedau, 1982, 88) Use of the death penalty as intended by law could actually reduce the number of violent murders by eliminating some of the repeat offenders thus being used as a system of justice, not just a method of deterrence. Modern supporters of capital punishment no longer view the death penalty as a deterrent, but just as a punishment for the crime, one source said, in recent years the appeal of deterrence has been supplanted by a frank desire for what large majorities see as just vengeance.† (Bailey, 1994, 55) The third major issue is arbitrariness determined by or arising from whim or impulse rather than judgment or reason. â€Å"From the days of slavery in which black people were considered property, through the years of lynching and Jim Crow laws, capital punishment has always been deeply affected by race. Unfortunately, the days of racial bias in the death penalty are not a remnant of the past.† (NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund) Fairness requires that people who break the same law under similar circumstances should meet with the same punishment, however the justice system is not consistent. Statistics show that a black man who kills a white person is 11 times more likely to receive the death penalty than a white man who kills a black person. And blacks who kill blacks have even less to worry about. Its almost like we kind of say, Oh, well, he needed killing anyhow.† (NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund) The fourth debate is the danger of mistake. In the past, there were many people wrongfully executed for crimes that they did not commit all in the name of justice. It has happened that after the execution of the alleged guilty party, the real murderer confessed to elevate his guilty conscience. â€Å"No matter how careful courts are, the possibility of perjured testimony, mistaken honest testimony, and human error remain all too real. We have no way of judging how many innocent persons have been executed, but we can be certain there were some.† J. Marshall (Bailey, 1994, 38) The unique thing about the death penalty is that it is final and irreversible. Since 1970, 77 people have been released from death row with evidence of their innocence. Researchers Radelet Bedau found 23 cases since 1900 where innocent people were executed, and the numbers are growing. With stories of people like Rolando Cruz, released after 10 years on Illinoiss death row, despite the fact that another man had confessed to the crime shortly after his conviction; and Ricardo Aldape Guerra, who returned to Mexico after 15 years on Texass death row because of a prosecution that a federal judge called outrageous and designed to simply achieve another notch on the prosecutors guns. (Death Penalty Information Center) There are safeguards guaranteeing protection of those facing the death penalty. These safeguards are : The defendant can not be insane, and the man’s real or criminal intent must be present. Also, minors very rarely receive the death penalty because they are not fully mature and might not know the consequences of their actions. Finally the mentally retarded are very seldom executed. The reason for not executing the retarded is that they often have difficulty defending themselves in court, have problems remembering details, locating witnesses, and testifying credibly on their own behalf. These safeguards are to try to insure that justice will be served without having it suffer. (Bailey, 1994, 147) It costs up to three times the amount to keep a prisoner on death row than it would be to keep them in prison for the rest of their lives. The expense comes from the long drawn out appeals process that we are giving our criminals, and the court appointed attorneys that the poor are receiving. (Death Penalty Information Center) The death penalty costs the state of North Carolina 2.6 million per execution while it costs the whole nation [United States] 700 million since 1976. And it’s the same everywhere, Florida spent an estimated $57 million on the death penalty from 1973 to 1988 to achieve 18 executions that is an average of $3.2 million per execution. (Miami Herald, July 10, 1988). In Texas, a death penalty case costs an average of $2.3 million, about three times the cost of imprisoning someone in a single cell at the highest security level for 40 years. However it is also a form of insurance that the criminal will never commit another crime again. (Death Penalty Information Center) In the Hebrew Scriptures (Old Testament) the death penalty was required for a wide range of offenses, both civil and religious. In the following passages from the King James Version of the Bible, Jehovah required the state to execute a person for murder: Genesis 9:6 states: Whoso sheddeth mans blood, by man shall his blood be shed: for in the image of God made he man. If sufficient proof were provided that a person had committed a crime, the state imposed the death penalty on the guilty person(s). They were either stoned to death, impaled or burned alive. Witnesses who testified at the trial would often participate in the killing. To their credit, the courts of ancient Israel required very high levels of proof of criminality before they would order the death penalty (Horwitz, 1973, 36) Of course, a person may think it is immoral to kill someone no matter what they have done. When I say it is retributive justice to take the life in turn for the taking of another life, it could be argued that a criminal is not able to learn a lesson since he dies as an immediate result of the punishment. How can this be called punishment if no lesson is taught? In my opinion, the only way for justice to be served is to have the criminal pay with their life, â€Å" an eye for an eye.† Many people believe that capital punishment does not belong in a civilized society. I believe it is needed because we do not live in a civilized society, if we did there would be no crime. We live in a day and age where killing happens everyday, and many get away with it. Those who do get caught, don’t stay in a jail cell for the rest of their live. If we could rig our streets of murderers, it could mean a safer place for everyone. Men and women could feel safer jogging or doing errands at night. Single women could feel safer in their homes. Children could feel safe playing in their yards. No executed murderer has ever killed again. References The Death Penalty in America 256-63 (H. Bedau ed., 3d ed. 1982) E. Van den Haag, Punishment as a Device for Controlling the Crime Rate, 33 Rutgers L, Rev. 706, 719 (1981) H. Gross, A Theory of Criminal Justice 489 (1979) Ehrlich Gibbons, On the Measurement of the Deterrent Effect of Capital Punishment and the Theory of Deterrence, 6 J. Legal Stud. 35 (1977). Bedau Radelet, Miscarriages of Justice in Potentially Capital Cases (1st draft, Oct. 1985) E. Van der Haag, Punishing Criminals 196-206 (1975). C.F. Phllips, The Deterrent Effect of Capital Punishment: New Evidence on an Old Controversy, 86 Am. J. Soc. 139 (1980). Baumgart, R. A. McCuen, Gary E. Reviving the Death Penalty. Madison, WI: Gary McCuen, 1985: 22. Electrocution. Academic American Encyclopedia. Vol. 7. New York: Grolier, 1993: 113. Clark, Lesley. Florida execution of 350-pound inmate turns bloody. Miami Herald. 10 July 1988.

What Happened To School Food Essay Example for Free

What Happened To School Food Essay What happened to school food? I use to be excited for what was for lunch but now I just hope it is something edible. Since I started high school the quality of our lunches has been on the decline. With Michelle Obama’s National School Lunch Program now requiring less than 300 calories per meal the school is losing money from students not eating and the students are losing fuel that their bodies need to survive. Park Hill South should drop the National School Lunch Program and this is why. My first issue is the new amount of calories that can be in a lunch. Reducing the maximum amount of calories to 300 is ridiculous. The U. S. Department of Agriculture recommends that the average teenage boy consume between 2,400 and 2,800 calories per day. That means that only one eighth of your daily calories is in one of our school lunches. To some students lunch many be their only quality meal of the day and if it’s such a small amount of food they won’t have enough energy to get them through the day. Also athletes need to eat good, nutritional food to give them enough energy for afterschool practices. Since they aren’t getting the amount of calories they need their performance will be decreased. My second issue is the overall quality of the food getting served. The food ranges from okay to disgusting, with most on the lower end of the scale. Back when I was a freshman the pasta bar had a delicious breadstick that was as long as the tray and soft, but now after all the changes we get a little stubby piece of hard bread. Changes like that have been made for almost every meal that is served by the school. Since the quality of our food as gone down many students now bring their lunch or don’t eat at all. With fewer lunches being bought the school has to be losing a substantial amount of revenue. I went from eating around $4. 00 of food last year to only $0. 50 this year. If 25 students do the same thing that’s a loss of $87. 50 per day! The issue with school lunches need to be changed. If Park Hill South would leave the National School Lunch Program they would benefit greatly. From the happiness and health of the students to the boosts in money that will be made from better sales. I now it won’t be done overnight but hopefully in the next few years they will decide to start making better food.

TRANSACTIONAL LEADERSHIP STYLE ANALYSIS

TRANSACTIONAL LEADERSHIP STYLE ANALYSIS Management is doing things right; leadership is doing the right thing Peter F. Drucker A leader is a person who guides others toward a common goal, showing the way by example, and creating an environment in which other team members feel actively involved in the entire process. Leadership remains a very important factor to successful organizations. Ensuring that effective leaders are selected, trained and developed is of significance importance to todays organizations. Three major types of organizational leaderships have been presented throughout the years; transactional leadership, transformational leadership, and charismatic leadership. Each type of leadership contains a certain number of attributes which distinguishes it from the others, however many theories converge into the position that each type can be used separately or in conjunction with the others. In transformational leadership the leaders motivate their followers to perform beyond expectations by fostering a climate of trust and by creating and representing an inspiring vision of the future. In charismatic leadership, leaders differ from others by their ability to foster an impression that they and their mission are extraordinary. As such, individuals choose to follow such leaders in management settings not only because of formal authority but out of perceptions of extraordinariness. However in some extent transformational and charismatic leadership are similar and compatible. On the other hand transactional leadership is complementary to the other two types of leadership and is based on an exchange process in which the leader provides rewards in return for the followers effort and performance. In this paper we are going to define what transactional leadership is and then we are going to present the attributed behaviours that transactional leaders have and how these behaviours affect the organizational identification, the organizational commitment, trust and organizational citizenship behaviours of the followers. TRANSACTIONAL LEADERSHIP: All research and studies that have been conducted throughout the years about transactional leadership have accepted the definition given by Bass (1985) that transactional leaders clarify for their followers the followers responsibilities, the expectations the leaders have, the tasks that must be accomplished and the benefits to the self-interests of the followers for compliance. Transactional leaders usually operate within the boundaries of the existing system, emphasize process rather than substance as means of control and are effective in stable and predictable environments. The primary factors of transactional leadership model include contingent reward, management-by-exception and laissez-faire. The leaders, who engage in transactional behaviours, focus mainly on low order construct such as broad performance goals due to the absence of experience which is required in order to focus on higher level organizational visions. In cases when the leaders confront these kinds of situations, they engage in strategic processes so as to find a novel way to encourage their subordinates to work towards that vision. However, in most cases they emphasize on specific goals and performance outcomes such as increase in team productivity and establishment of effective working relationships within the groups. Additionally, transactional leaders expect their followers to have attributes such as commitment to goals, expectancy of goal attainment, expectancy of rewards and need for role clarity. In order to achieve the highest subordinate performance, these leaders use rewards and punishments as tools. For a given performance failure, transactional leaders are likely to make an attribution to lack of goals or lack of expectations of a reward from the side of the follower and therefore they respond with goal setting, instruction and training, work assignment and reward or punishment. Finally, transactional leaders focus on environmental conditions in which they are able to interact with the followers to increase motivation through goal setting, increase action-to-action and outcome-to-outcome expectancies, and influence follower skills and abilities through training. Such conditions may include increasing resources, technology, social support and equipment. However, it is very important to determine whether all the above attributes that transactional leaders possess are adequate enough to affect the followers and increase their performance. EVALUATION OF TRANSACTIONAL LEADERSHIP: There are two ways for an employee to determine if he/she has been treated fairly in his/her job; distributive justice which is related to the fairness of the outcome an employee receives and procedural justice which is related to the fairness of the procedures used to determine those outcomes. Transactional leaders are more likely to motivate and persuade the employees who are concerned about the fairness of the outcome because their relationship with their leaders is based on the rewards they receive in exchange for their efforts. Since one of the main attributes of the transactional leader is to make rewards contingent on performance and specify the outcomes that the individual can expect in exchange for good performance, job satisfaction will be increased when these conditions will be satisfied. On the other hand in environments where procedural justice is the main way to determine the fairness of treatment to subordinates, the leader-employee relationship is outside the economic contract. In that case interpersonally fair treatment is very crucial. However, as we mentioned earlier transactional leaders are based on the exchange procedures to motivate their employees and less on interpersonal relationships. Therefore, in these cases transactional leadership might have no positive effect on job satisfaction. Additionally, transactional leadership directly affects the organizational commitment of the employees. Despite the fact that emotional attachment is the major characteristic of organizational commitment many subordinates consider organizational commitment an important instrument to obtain rewards and recognition. Therefore, leaders who use economic exchanges to appraise good performance are more likely to increase the commitment of their employees. On the other hand transactional leadership does not affect the relationship of trust between the leader and the subordinates. As we mentioned transactional leaders emphasize on specific goals and performance outcomes by requesting from their employees commitment to goals and expectancy of goal attainment. The feedback that they provide to their subordinates for their performance is either a reward or a punishment. This kind of interaction does not affect the feeling of trust from the side of the employees. This can be enhanced by the fact that transactional leaders focus on low order constructs such as broad performance goals and not on organizational visions which require the trust of the subordinates to successfully achieve these visions. Finally, under certain conditions transactional leadership can play an important role in the organizational identification which affects the effectiveness of the company, increases the organizational citizenship behaviours and reduces turnover. As organizational identification we define the perception of belongingness to an organization, of which the person is a member. Since transactional leaders provide the employees with useful information about their roles in the organization and about what is expected of them in their work, they help them to understand what the organization stands for and what it is like to be a typical member of it. However, the effectiveness of this type of leadership will also depend on the subordinates identity level. In cases where the employees are characterized by individual identities, transactional exchanges such as performance evaluations through rewards and punishments will overemphasize the individual contributions against the organizational goals an d therefore will not increase the organizational identification. Therefore, transactional leadership will only have an effect on employees who think and behave in ways that emphasize collaboration with the others. Additionally, despite the fact that transactional leaders provide clarity, direction and sense of security to their employees they are not able to convince employees who experience feelings of stress and anxiety to establish a strong connection with the organizational collective. This can be explained by the fact that transactional leaders do not use inspiration and mentoring to heighten the followers sense of belongingness. IMPLEMENTATION OF TRANSACTIONAL LEADERSHIP IN THE ORGANIZATIONS: According to the previous paragraphs, transactional leadership is the type of leadership in which the leaders emphasize in the clarification of roles and task requirements and provide followers with material or psychological rewards contingent on the fulfilment of contractual obligations. In order for the managers to apply this type of leadership in their organizations first they must discuss with their followers what is required and clarify how these outcomes are to be achieved and the reward they will receive in exchange for their satisfactory effort and performance. This can be done by clearly defining the job descriptions of each employee, and the rules regarding work duties and then by using performance appraisals. Therefore, when the leader assigns work to its employee, it is the responsibility of the employee to see that the assigned task is finished on time. If the assigned task is not completed on time or does not have the optimum result then the manager will have the right to punish his/her employee for the failure. But if they accomplish the task in time then the followers will receive the rewards for successfully completing the task. Furthermore, the managers must provide rewards in cases where the followers exceed the requested expectations. Through this policy the transactional leader can increase the job satisfaction and the expected performance of his/her employees. PERSONAL OPINION: As concerns my view I believe that transactional leadership can be potentially applicable and effective only in certain organizational situations. The conditions which favour the emergence of transactional leadership are characterized by stability. In stable predictable environments, organizations tend to be strictly controlled and formalized. Such organizations favour the elaboration of certain rules and regulations and determine specified performance measurement systems and hierarchical distribution. In these environments transactional leaders can emerge and become effective by emphasizing on specific goals, processes and performance outcomes. However, there are conditions that require a leader with characteristics more than those of the transactional leader. In cases when tasks are not analyzable, standard operating procedures are not helpful, and progress cannot be easily measured, employees are likely to be frustrated and discouraged, and transactional leadership might not be applicable. The only way for a leader to motivate its members under such conditions is to infuse their tasks with an ideological meaning and purpose. Additionally, as mentioned in the previous paragraphs transactional leaders do not focus on organizational visions but they stick on the accomplishment of specific goals. Therefore, in situations where the conditions dynamically change it is likely to be difficult for them to provide a feasible solution. For example in cases of crisis where performance goals cannot be easily specified and where leaders cannot link rewards to individual performance, employees tend to follow the person who has a vision, and novel ideas. In that case the leader must be able to establish relationships of trust and respect with its employees in order to inspire them and convince them that he/she is capable of providing inspiring strategic and organizational goals for the future. As a conclusion I believe that a leader must combine the characteristics of transactional leadership with the characteristics which are applied in the other two types of leadership; charismatic and transformational. Therefore, he/she must be able to recognize the conditions that emerge in each situation and try to implement the right type of leadership in this situation so as to proceed with the optimal solution.

A Qualitative Exploration of the Spatial Needs of Homeless Drug Users L

With homelessness levels rapidly increasing in the UK (Fitzpatrick et al., 2012), the necessity for a study analysing the spatial needs of homeless individuals who suffer from drug abuse and are housed in hostels/night shelters was paramount. The task of the critical appraisal is to firstly, summarise the research article A Qualitative Exploration of the Spatial Needs of Homeless Drug Users Living in Hostels and Night Shelters (2013), discuss the methodology presented throughout it and further examine if whether it was appropriate for the topic. Towards the end, the research findings will be discussed and an assessment of whether the article is beneficial for the housing sector or not, will be provided, along with any possible recommendations. The subject matter of the aforementioned journal article is an exploration of a sub-category of homeless individuals, namely drug users homeless. The correlation between homelessness and drug abuse and the vicious impact that each issues has on the other one, is sought throughout the article, reinforcing the need to tackle each one separately in order to reach an effective end result. After defining terms such as homelessness, drug use and night shelters, it continues to present a seven-fold categorisation of spatial needs that seem to not be met entirely by homeless accommodation providers. It argues that, according to Fitzpatrick and LaGory (2000), every individual requires a sense of privacy, safety, personal space and reasonable human interaction in order to maintain a healthy life and follows to provide definitions for the concepts of privacy and personal space. After presenting the layout of the article, it proceeds to discuss the methods applied for its research analysis and i ntrodu... ... Greg Guest, Emily E. Namey, Marilyn L. Mitchell (2013) Collecting Qualitative Data, A Field Manual for Applied Research, Sage Publications Given, L.M. (2008) The Sage Encyclopedia of Qualitative Research Methods. Sage Publications Markle, D. T., Richard E. West & Peter J. Rich, Markle, D. Thomas; West, Richard E. & Rich, Peter J. (2011). Beyond Transcription: Technology, Change, and Refinement of Method [49 paragraphs]. Forum Qualitative Sozialforschung / Forum: Qualitative Social Research, 12(3), Art. 21, Wholey, J.S., Hatry H.P., Newcomer K.E. (eds.) (2004) Handbook of Practical Program Evaluation , 2nd Edition. San Francisco: Jossey- Bass Patton, M.K (2002) Qualitative Research & Evaluation Methods, 3rd Edition. Sage Publications . Maslow, A. H., A theory of human motivation Psychological Review, 50(4), Jul 1943, pp. 370-396. doi: 10.1037/h0054346

Stuck In Time :: essays research papers

It's 2139 and Charles Stimatra, head of the ITEDRC (International Time Exploration and Defense Research Company), has figured out a formula and machine enabling one person at a time to be transported to another time. The glitch he is working on is the person can only be estimated where he will be when he gets transported. The closest they can get is three kilometers within the configured destination. Seven out of twenty three men have been lost and killed because one ended up inside a rock, another 300 feet in the air and the last got stuck in another person causing a time malfunction and creating an explosive object. The others whereabouts are unknown. The other men went back again and tried to save as many from dying as they could because it could cause a chain reaction through history and completely change everything. The future is a whole different matter. Since the future can always be changed, sending someone to the future could change the past. Charles and his associates are not the only ones experimenting in time travel. These people are called hackers, which is why there are Time Police. They devote their lives to protecting the past. For example, if someone went back and killed Hitler, it could change everything. The Time Police stop these people from doing so. Captain of the Time Police used to be Sergeant Carl Lamberg. He was one of the many that had to erase their identity and lives so they could protect the future of the human race. Which brings us to the story of how Carl died. How do I know? Because I am Carl Lamberg. "Control, I'm ready to transmit. Confirm safety for time transport." I let go of the intercom button and waited for the confirmation. "This is Control, we confirm transport. You have the go ahead." This is my thirteenth time and I still get nervous. I reach for the bottom of my shirt to wipe my forehead but the chair starts to shake and I end up in 1642 five feet above the ground. I drop and absorb the impact with my knees. My mission is to find a gold transport to a king and stop a hacker from robbing it. Hackers can easily kill people from the past because they use modern weapons, while the people they are robbing have to reload after every shot. I brush myself off and set off down the road.

Voodoo :: essays research papers fc

Voodoo Fon is spoken by over half the people of Benin and it is the mother tongue of voodoo. In Fon the root word for voodoo is vodoun that means spirit or god. Voodoo had its origins over 350 years ago in West Africa. In fact Allada, a small town in Benin, is often called the 'cradle of voodoo'. In 1996, January 10th became National Voodoo Day in honor of its followers that make up 65% of Benin population. The religion Vodoun was a by-product of the slave trade. This Yoruban religion was carried to Haiti in a slave trade from Dahomey, which is currently called Benin. Once in Haiti, the slaves were forced to adopt Catholicism. Desiring to keep their native practices, the slaves continued to perform their rituals in private. They transposed Catholic saints onto the tribal deities, called loa, to please their owners. Instead of hindering the faith of the slaves, the incorporation of the saints added something new to their religion. Because of this they included into their rituals statues of the saints, candles, and other Christian relics. It is combinations like this that form religions such as Santeria, a blend of Voodoo and Spanish Catholicism, that proves what a malleable religion it is. Voodoo has spread throughout the world into major communities on Rio de Janeiro, New Orleans, Miami, and New York city. Vodoun has as many as 50 million followers throughout the world now.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Although varieties of this religion occur in different regions there are some basic tenets common among them. They all believe that the pulse of life resides in nature's elements like fire or wind. This force is also in union with the dead and thus fosters a belief that they should be respected through rituals. They believe that all things are the creation of the loa, and at the same time part of the lao and are to be servants to them. The loa take part in our world and act as intermediaries between human being and the higher god, Bodye. The practitioners of Vodoun believe that when a soul dies it become a sprit or loa. These spirits often 'posses' the living during rituals. When 'possessed' the believer dances, offers animal sacrifices, falls into a trance, or may even disappear. When these rituals are performed a group (societe) come together in a sanctuary (hounfort) where they are revolved around a priest (hougan) or priestess (mamba). These societes are crucial in the structure within small Haitian villages. They are positive forces in establishing communal cohesion and over-riding gender barriers.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  For whatever good is served, Voodoo can also bring evil.