Overcoming Challenges in Channeary by Steve Tolbert :: essays research papers

In this novel by Steve Tolbert, we experience the life of a young girl by the name of Channeary. Channeary lives in a small fishing village in Cambodia. During her life, she faces many challenges, like the loss of her family to the ruthless Khmer Rouge soldiers. She overcomes many of the tragedies faced, but some still haunt her to this day. In this essay, I intend to explore several of those challenges, including how she overcame them. The first major obstacle faced in Channeary?s life was when the ruthless Khmer Rouge soldiers invaded their small fishing village. They had selected a few people from the village to come forcefully with them. You, as Angkar?s Ancient People you will fully co-operate in battle to rid our land of reactionary capitalist filth and their imperialist supporters!?(1) Knowing the Khmer Rouge, they probably were killed. Later, they cleaned their village in silence. After cleaning, the villagers gathered around the Buddha figure and prayed. At this time, Channeary would have felt very scared that the soldiers might take her away, there was a feeling of discomfort and uncertainty in the mind of Channeary at that point in time. From the fear of the Khmer Rouge invading the village again, some residences were forced to leave for bordering Thailand. ?We must leave tonight...possibly to Thailand? Channeary?s mother said.(2) Most fled only for the welfare of their children. Channeary would have ex perienced great sadness when leaving her home that was full of her childhood memories with her family. With the help of Mith constantly encouraging them, the villagers continuously pushed themselves. Many characters had began to get weak and weary resulting, to the lose lives. Overcoming Challenges in Channeary by Steve Tolbert :: essays research papers In this novel by Steve Tolbert, we experience the life of a young girl by the name of Channeary. Channeary lives in a small fishing village in Cambodia. During her life, she faces many challenges, like the loss of her family to the ruthless Khmer Rouge soldiers. She overcomes many of the tragedies faced, but some still haunt her to this day. In this essay, I intend to explore several of those challenges, including how she overcame them. The first major obstacle faced in Channeary?s life was when the ruthless Khmer Rouge soldiers invaded their small fishing village. They had selected a few people from the village to come forcefully with them. You, as Angkar?s Ancient People you will fully co-operate in battle to rid our land of reactionary capitalist filth and their imperialist supporters!?(1) Knowing the Khmer Rouge, they probably were killed. Later, they cleaned their village in silence. After cleaning, the villagers gathered around the Buddha figure and prayed. At this time, Channeary would have felt very scared that the soldiers might take her away, there was a feeling of discomfort and uncertainty in the mind of Channeary at that point in time. From the fear of the Khmer Rouge invading the village again, some residences were forced to leave for bordering Thailand. ?We must leave tonight...possibly to Thailand? Channeary?s mother said.(2) Most fled only for the welfare of their children. Channeary would have ex perienced great sadness when leaving her home that was full of her childhood memories with her family. With the help of Mith constantly encouraging them, the villagers continuously pushed themselves. Many characters had began to get weak and weary resulting, to the lose lives.

big bang theory :: essays research papers

Big Bang Theory We certainly know that our universe exists, however, this knowledge alone has not satisfied mankind's quest for further understanding. Our curiosity has led us to question our place in this universe and furthermore, the place of the universe itself. Throughout time we have asked ourselves these questions: How did our universe begin? How old is our universe? How did matter come to exist? Obviously, these are not simple questions and throughout our brief history on this planet much time and effort has been spent looking for some clue. Yet, after all this energy has been expended, much of what we know is still only speculation. Yet in 1927 a man by the name of Georges Lemaitre from Belgium proposed that the universe began with a bang. â€Å"He proposed that a primeval atom exploded and that is how the universe formed itself. His proposal came after observing the red shift in distant nebulas by astronomers to a model of the universe based on relativity.† Before I was enrolled in S urvey of Astronomy I wasn’t sure what to believe. But after sitting through the class I started to realize that all the pieces are starting to fit together like, why the galaxies are increasing in velocity away from us and also explaining the cosmic background radiation.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  About 15 billion years ago a tremendous explosion started the expansion of the universe. This explosion is known as the Big Bang. At the point of this event all of the matter and energy of space was contained at one point. What existed prior to this event is completely unknown and is a matter of pure speculation. This occurrence was not a conventional explosion but rather an event filling all of space with all of the particles of the embryonic universe rushing away from each other. The Big Bang actually consisted of an explosion of space within itself unlike an explosion of a bomb were fragments are thrown outward. The galaxies were not all clumped together, but rather the Big Bang lay the foundations for the universe. Even more recently, NASA’s COBE satellite was able to detect cosmic microwaves emanating from the outer reaches of the universe. These microwaves were remarkably uniform which illustrated the beginning of the early stages of the universe. How ever, the satellite also discovered that as the universe began to cool and was still expanding, small fluctuations began to exist due to temperature differences.

Imperfect Punishments Essay

Imagine a place where tyrants stand up to their ears in boiling blood, the gluttonous experience monsoons of human filth, and those who commit sins of the flesh are blown about like pieces of paper in a never-ending wind storm. Welcome to Dante’s Inferno, his perspective on the appropriate punishments for those who are destined to hell for all eternity. Dante attempts to make the punishments fit the crimes, but because it is Dante dealing out the tortures and not God, the punishments will never be perfect because by nature, man is an imperfect creature. Only God is capable of being above reproach and of metering out a just punishment. While Dante’s treatment towards the tyrants is fitting, his views on the inhabitants of the Ante Inferno and Limbo seem to be backwards and these poor people are doomed to suffer misguided punishments. Therefore, despite Dante’s best attempts to justly punish each sinner, he makes a few mistakes because he is not God and Dante is un able to unbiasedly judge each sinner. If you were to attempt a journey through Hell, the first unlucky hellions you would encounter are the inhabitants of the Ante Inferno. The residents of this â€Å"not quite heaven, not quite hell† domain were placed here because while living, they chose to neither side with God nor with the Devil. By choosing neither good nor evil, these people sinned because they never chose to live by a set of Christian ideals. The punishment for these sinners is to constantly chase a white flag. The color of the flag symbolizes the blank and empty life the sinners led because they did not choose to follow God. The sinners are also bitten by wasps because in real life, they were never forced into any type of moral decision, so in the Ante Inferno, the wasps sting them and force them to chase the white flag. While the ordeal these sinners face seems entirely appropriate, their physical location in hell, or lack there of, is what makes their punishment wrong. This becomes very obvious when the punishment for those in Limbo is considered. Limbo is the First Circle of Hell and it is the final resting place for the people who died before the birth of Christianity or who were never baptized. Notable figures like Moses and Noah are former residents of Limbo, until  Christ granted them a pardon. Virgil resides in Limbo and has been given a temporary leave of absence to guide Dante through Hell because Beatrice, Dante’s former love who holds a high place in heaven, is worried that he is headed on the path towards Hell. Dante shows pity for those who are stuck in Limbo because as Virgil describes, â€Å"Some lived before the Christian faith, so that They did not worship God aright – and I Am one of these. Through this, no other fault, We are lost, afflicted only this one way: That having no hope, we live in longing†(Canto IV 28-32). Dante is said to be seized with â€Å"heartfelt grief† (Canto IV 33) after hearing this, but no pity is supposed to be felt towards sinners who are receiving just punishments. But how just is it that people who never knew the word of Christ and had no knowledge of Heaven or Hell are sentenced to Hell? It is not a fair punishment to doom those unlucky enough to be born before Christianity to Hell when they were not given a fair chance to learn how to gain entrance to Heaven, especially when you consider that those living in the Ante Inferno were perfectly aware of God and knew the consequences of not living a Christian life. Knowing about God and simply ignoring him seems to be a worse crime than being born before Christ. Perhaps some of the residents of Limbo may have ended up in Hell had they know about Christianity, but some may not have. The people in Limbo were never given the choice to live a life with God, so their punishment and placement in Hell should be less severe t han the people who ignored their chance to gain entrance to Heaven. If Limbo and the Ante Inferno could geographically switch positions, Dante’s reasonsing and punishments for the two groups would make more sense. The sinners in the Ante Inferno experience what seems to be a greater punishment  than what one would face in Limbo. Being constantly stung by wasps and forced to chase a white flag would be mentally and physically exhausting and seems to be a torture straight out of hell†¦ yet they aren’t even technically in hell. On the other hand, in Limbo one merely walks around and talks to other luckless souls, which does not seem to be a punishment constant with what other sinners face in hell. Dante correctly assigned the right punishments to each group of sinners, but he misplaced both groups. Limbo should be outside of Hell because they did not have the knowledge of either Heaven or Hell. The Ante Inferno should be the first level of Hell, reserved for those who knew about Heaven and Hell, choose neither side, and now must fac e the fact that by their indecision, are bound to suffer in Hell. While Dante may have geographically misplaced these two groups of sinners, he did correctly punish most of the sinners in Hell. For example, â€Å"the river of blood – in which boils everyone / Whose violence hurt others† (Canto XII 41-42) describes the perfect punishment for those who were violent while they were alive. The degree of the violence committed also factors into the punishment. Tyrants who slaughtered many people are completely covered in boiling blood, while those who were violent against only a few suffer with blood up to their torsos. This is the perfect punishment because violence is a crime of passion and causes bloodshed. It is appropriate for these sinners to be in boiling blood, which would have been similar to their blood, simmering with rage and passion, while they committed their sin. Being immersed in this disgusting pool of heated blood would be a terrible punishment and it is just that those who commit the crime of violence and murder should s uffer this endless torment. In order to place the sinners in the appropriate levels of Hell, Dante relies on his personal experiences and opinions about the crimes committed. The little bit that we know about Dante and his life, we learn through the opening scenes of the epic and conversations he has with spirits in Hell. The epic opens with Dante, â€Å"In dark woods, the right road lost† (Canto I 2). This shows the Dante is neither a devout Christian, nor is he a sinner. At his place in his life, being neither good nor bad, Dante would most likely be sentenced to life in the Ante Inferno. Throughout the epic, Dante likens  himself to Virgil, but at the same time appears to know that his work is not quite as good as Virgil’s. Perhaps by placing himself and the Ante Inferno in a level of Hell less severe than Limbo, Dante may still not be as good of a poet, but he is able to represent himself as a better person morally. This may not seem just to me, but to Dante this is a perfectly reasonable pu nishment. Dante feels the need to be superior to Virgil and since he was not able to accomplish this in life, he supercedes Virgil in the afterlife. It is also evident that Dante has a personal bias towards those who commit the sin of violence. While venturing through their circle of Hell, Dante says there â€Å"in that crowd / Were many I recognized† (Canto XII 114-115). He mentions that Alexander resides there and that â€Å"he held Sicily under / For many a sad year† (Canto XII 100-101). Dante may have placed such a harsh, yet still just, punishment on the Violent because he is avenging his country and people for the violent crimes committed against them. Alexander was responsible for an innumerable amount of Italian lives during his occupancy of Sicily and Dante is making sure that he is correctly punished for his sins. In life, Dante was unable to stop Alexander from committing his atrocities, but he is able to condemn him in Hell. Had Dante and his country not experienced the terrors of a tyrant, it is possible that without his need for revenge, Dante may have awarded the Violent a lesser punishment. Our personal experiences and feelings are what make us human, but yet they also lead us to biases, which prevent us from being as fair and just as God. It is obvious that those in Limbo who were never given a chance to have their soul saved by Christ should not be doomed eternally to a lower level of Hell than those in Ante Inferno who ignored the chance to save their soul. Yet Dante misplaces these two domains of Hell to put himself in a level nearer to Heaven than Dante will ever be able to acheive. While Virgil’s literary abilities will always be remembered as better pieces of work, by making Virgil his guide to salvation, Dante will reach Heaven, the ultimate goal of a Christian, while Virgil never will. The punishment of the Violent is a strong statement against those who have brought bloodshed to Italy and reflects Dante’s hope for peace in Italy. Dante shows that while these sinners may have dominated the lives of others on Earth, that in hell  the Violent are completely overwhelmed by the blood that they created. Despite Dante’s good intentions of creating a Hell where the punishment fits the crime, his opinions cloud his judgement. He uses Hell as a way to punish or degrade those whom he had some sort of a conflict with while alive. It is obvious that I do not agree with all of his ideas about Hell, but then again I am also not a fourteenth century Italian male. A just hell is different for everyone, depending on your own beliefs or lack of beliefs. The only universally just Hell that can be experienced is a Hell of God’s making and hopefully I will never know how his punishments compare to Dante’s.

Digital Signatures

Signature is an important aspect of any document or agreement between two parties. Only handwritten signatures are valid for legal documents. The modern world is currently doing lot of proposals and agreements through computers and internet. In order to use in the online documents, technologists has developed a new signature method called digital signature. This paper examines the technology, validity and reliability of digital signatures Introduction Digital signature is an electronic signature which is used to identify the validity of a document.With the help of digital signature one can verify that the message he received is original and unchanged. Nobody can reject the fatherhood of a message if it is signed digitally. Digital signature is a process which involves some kind of encryption and decryption of data. The person who sends the message will encrypt the message which can be decrypt only by the addressee. â€Å"A digital signature is a â€Å"stamp† places on the dat a which is unique to somebody, and is very difficult to forge.In addition, the signature assures that any changes made to the data that has been signed cannot go undetected. † (David Youd) Digital signatures 3 Digital signature – Technology â€Å"After creating a document, using special software one can obtain a message hash (mathematical summary) of the message. Then using a private key obtained from a public-private key authority, the message is been hashed. This encrypted hash is the digital signature of the message.The receiver of the message makes a hash of the received message to ensure the validity of the message. He will then make use of the public key provided by the sender to decrypt the message hash. If the hashes matched, then the received message is valid. † (Digital signature) Legality of Digital signature Many countries like, US, European Union, and Australia have approved digital signatures legally just like other handwritten signature documents. Most of the e-commerce activities are making use of digital signatures to authenticate the documants.â€Å"Stimulated by the development of the American Bar Association Digital Signature Guidelines, electronic signature legislation began with the Utah Digital Signature Act, which was enacted in 1995 and focused solely on issues raised by cryptography-based digital signatures. Soon thereafter, legislation was introduced in several other states† (Thomas J. Smedinghoff and Ruth Hill Bro) Digital signatures 4 Issues and concerns of digital signatures Like most of the other secure documents have suffered by the intrusion of hackers, digital signature technology is also under the constant threats from the e-frauds.â€Å"How do you verify the actual consent and authority of a person relating to these new electronically-signed transactions, or know that the electronic signature wasn't stolen from a PC by some inside or outside entity? † (Lauren Weinstein) Conclusion Digital si gnatures are extensively used in e-commerce activities. It is legally approved in many countries just like the hand written signatures. Like most of the other secure documents in internet, the digital signatures are also under threat from intruders or hackers.

Corrections Purpose and History Essay

The history of punishment is a unique one, since the dawn of man human kind has punished one another. Man did not merely throw someone in a chamber and let them contemplate their crimes such as we do in today’s society; rather, during those early times, punishment was harsh and swift. Criminals were not drawn through the litigation processes; instead, they were found immediately guilty of a crime and brought forth to be punished in an open forum, serving to the masses as an example of the consequences of crime. The early forms of punishment in Europe varied greatly but all forms were meant to inflict unimaginable pain upon the recipient, and it is from the European methods of imprisonment from which the U.S. drew inspiration. Punishment such as crucifixion, burning on pyres, guillotines, and gauntlets are but a few examples of what methods were utilized as early methods of punishment in early Europe. This illustrates the underlying ideology that punishment should be administer ed with two principles in mind, deterrence and retribution. Purpose and History Methods of imprisonment introduced near the turn of the eighteenth century England inspired and revolutionized the way we punish and house inmates. In England during the fifteenth and sixteenth century’s corporal punishment reined supreme. Public beatings were carried out in the streets with whips; beheadings and torture were the norm for serious crimes; and enslavement was common for petty offenders. During the seventeenth century in England and other European countries, imprisonment for lesser offenses started to occur but conditions were less than desirable or humane. These facilities were overcrowded, unsanitary, and, worst of all, gender/age neutral, which meant that male felons frequently took liberties with incarcerated women and children (â€Å"Incarcerated: The History of the Penitentiary from 1776-Present†, 1997). The American Colonies quickly embraced the idea of imprisonment, because of the religious freedoms English settlers sought when they colonized this nation. The Quakers were a religious group that settled in the northeast United States and they developed new laws to govern punishment and incarcerations that focused on prolonged imprisonment to serve as retribution for crimes committed. The Quakers belief system focused on of morality, peace, non-violence, and humanity. As such they showed mercy on offenders by allowing them to shed their anti-social behaviors through long term incarceration and a penance of hard labor. It is from this that modern the concept of reformation was established. Since this form of incarceration gained popularity, it has held onto two core principles: that a criminal can make restitutions for his/her crimes and that a convict can be eventually reintegrated back into society. The new form of punishment provided an alternative to the implemented punishments of yesteryear. Auburn versus Cherry Hill Pennsylvania System This reformation of how society punished criminals served as the foundation for new and competing theories on incarceration and punishment. In America around the early 1800’s, two prison systems were the dominant models of confinement: the Pennsylvania and the Auburn State. The first model was the Pennsylvania model, which was first used at Cherry Hill prison. This model used solitary confinement as its primary tool: convicts were perpetually detained without interactions with other individuals or time outside of confinement. The idea was that solitary confinement would lead to inward reflection and religious motivation and result in a penitent convict. In fact the word penitentiary actually comes from the Pennsylvania model of perpetual confinement because it had religious implications. At first, particularly in Cherry Hill, a Bible would be left in the solitary confinement cells in the hopes it would help prisoners repent. The second model was the Auburn State prison system, which supported the labor penance model. It operated under the assumption that hard, physical labor could not only serve as restitution but as a means of helping a convicted criminal reintegrate into society fully reformed. Often, prisoners worked during the day in total silence and would be hosed down them at night. A main criticism of the Auburn system was that prisoners were being used essentially as slave labor. Inmates were being farmed out to private business owners, who had contracts with the state, which in turn lined the pockets of the private businesses and cut costs for the state. As such, the Auburn model became the popular model, because states faced significantly less prison and prisoner care costs. Businesses paid a fee in order to use the prisoners and the prisoners acted as unpaid labor for the businesses. The state prisons pocketed the fees thus creating a revenue stream that could be used to support the prisons, rather than tapping into state funds, i.e. tax payer dollars (Colvin, 1997). Around the 1920’s to 1930’s many changes occurred due to the state of the economy and activists pressing the government for prison reform. One of the main changes occurred when Congress enacted the Hawes Cooper Act, which effectively stymied the sale of prison-made goods or the us e of prison-labor by making such goods subject to state punitive laws. This act was passed in no small part due to the jobs that were needed by good upstanding citizens—jobs that were being taken away during extremely tough financial times by cheap prison labor. Congress had the authority to pass such a law thanks to its power to control and tax interstate commerce. The Ashurst-Sumners Act was the final nail in the coffin by prohibiting transport companies from accepting prison-made products (McShane & Williams,1996). The changes that stemmed from the Depression helped shape the correctional system into the rehabilitation-oriented program we have today. Prisoners are now classified into the likelihood of rehabilitation and the type of crimes that were committed, and this determines what type of facility an offender is incarcerated. Since 1935, the government made it clear that prisons must separate prisoners on the basis of gender and age. Now, facilities specifically for juvenile offenders have been established and the handling procedures for yo unger offenders have been defined. Furthermore, there are programs to rehabilitate all types of offenders whether their needs are as simple as talking to someone during counseling sessions or educational opportunities. In some ways this system has been detrimental to corrections as a whole because it arguably results in overcrowding and a more lenient attitude: if you commit a crime then you will only have to contend with years off your life rather than hard labor and making reparations for the crime (Seiter, 2011). Over-population has resulted in more money taken from the taxpayers because if there are more people in the correctional system, more facilities and care are needed. Crime levels have dissipated over the years but not dramatically enough to really prove that this system is the true solution to our problems. Conclusion Modern principles of rehabilitation and reform have brought about the institution of facilities to incarcerate convicted individuals; these structures are called penitentiaries, jails, and prisons. Current prisons are more aptly concerned with long-term detention rather than a temporary housing prior to punishment like it was used as in the past. Today’s Prisons are a shell of the former institutions. Inmates in facilities today would never allow themselves to be used for labor outside prison walls it would be considered cruel and unusual punishment. For now the correctional system work, but soon it could be on the verge of collapse and any moment the flood gates could burst and the concept of rehabilitation could come to an end. References: Mcshane, M. D., & Williams, F. P. (1996). Encyclopedia of American Prisons (2nd ed.). Taylor and Francis. INCARCERATED: THE HISTORY OF THE PENITENTIARY FROM 1776- PRESENT. (1997). Retrieved from http://www.richeast.org/htwm/jails/Jails.html Colvin, M. (1997). Penitentiaries, Reformatories, and Chain Gangs: Social Theory and the History of Punishment in Nineteenth Century America. : St. Martin’s Press. Seiter, R. (2011). Corrections an Introduction (3rd ed.). Upper saddle Hall, NJ: Pearson/Prentice Hall.

Article on issues addressing a contracting issue Essay

Article on issues addressing a contracting issue - Essay Example In this paper the study of Akintan & Morledge will be discussed with its potential use in the defense sector. In the particular sector the challenges for those involved in contracts can be many. By improving the relationship between contractors and sub-contractors in the above industry the risks related to the industry’s contracts would be significantly limited. For Akintan & Morledge (2013) the current structure of ‘traditional construction procurement’ (Akintan & Morledge 2013 p.1) favors main contractors. Sub-contractors, in opposition, are left with no particular power to intervene in the construction process, even if the development of construction projects is quite demanding and the non-involvement of sub-contractors increases the risks for failures (Akintan & Morledge 2013, p.1). After highlighting the particular problem Akintan & Morledge (2013, p.2) present the benefits that the effective collaboration between contractors and sub-contractors would have in the construction industry. These benefits could also refer to other industries where a similar problem, i.e. poor collaboration between contractors and sub-contractors, appears. At the next level, Akintan & Morledge (2013) try to analyze the potential causes for the conflicts developed between contractors and sub-contractors. Emphasis is given to the key criterion on which contractors tend to choose their sub-contractors: price (Akintan & Morledge 2013, p.3). Building a business relationship only on this criterion can result to many risks as no room is allowed for trust and communication to be developed (Akintan & Morledge 2013). Other practices of contractors that increase the chances for conflicts between them and sub-contractors are the following: a) too strict contracting terms, b) most of risks related to the contract are transferred to sub-contractors and c) the use of ‘professional stereotypes’ (Akintan & Morledge 2013, p.3); in the context of

Theory and practice of human rights Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Theory and practice of human rights - Essay Example I shall then conclude by proffering an argument on how these premises can be limited so as to offer a reasonable and justifiable balance between the two competing interest. The Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights states that Human rights are rights inherent to all human beings, whatever our nationality, place of residence, sex, national or ethnic origin, color, religion, language, or any other status. Persons are all equally entitled to human rights without discrimination. These rights are all interrelated, interdependent and indivisible. Accordingly, the normative totality of Human Rights revolves around: the Universality, indivisibility, interdependence, equality and obligations of parties and the State. UDHR though not a legally binding document, it values are immense. First, it set the pace for the States’ recognition and protection of Human Rights based on the Rule of Law. At the time of its promulgation, the UN General Assembly then proclaimed the Declaration to be; â€Å"a common standard of achievement for all peoples and all nations, to the end that every individual and every organ of society, keeping this Declaration constantly in mind, shall strive by teaching and education to promote respect for these rights and freedoms and by progressive measures, national and international, to secure their universal and effective recognition and observance, both among the peoples of member states themselves and among the peoples of territories under their jurisdiction.† The 1993 Vienna World Conference on Human Rights1, for example, noted that it is the duty of States to promote and protect all human rights and fundamental freedoms, regardless of their political, economic and cultural systems. It provides in its preamble that; â€Å"Emphasizing the responsibilities of all States, in conformity with the Charter of the United Nations, to develop and encourage respect for human rights and fundamental