Monday, September 30, 2019

Jean Froissart Essay

The French historian and poet Jean Froissart (c. 1333-c. 1405) was educated for the church but at the age of nineteen began to write a history of the wars of his time. In 1360 he went to England, where he received a gracious welcome from Philippa of Hainault, wife of Edward III, who appointed him clerk of her chamber. In 1364 he traveled in Scotland, where he was the guest of King David Bruce and of the Earl of Douglas. In 1366 he went to Aquitaine with the Black Prince; in 1368 he was in Italy, possibly with Chaucer and Patriarch, at the marriage of the Duke of Clarence. About 1390 he settled in Flanders, and resumed work on his Chronicle. In 1395 he revisited England, and was cordially welcomed by Richard II. He then returned to Chimay, where he had obtained a canonry, and where he may have died. This essay will explore the three places where Jean had visited and her description on loyalty, nationality and chivalry. Go Normandy instead of Taking Gascoyne, testing the loyalty of the King. During the plan attacked to Gascoyne to rescue his men were sore constrained in the castle of Aiguillon. Lord of Harcourt suggested to the King of England to change the route instead of taking Gascoyne, he wanted rather to set a land to Normandy. He reasons out â€Å"jeopardy of my head, if ye will land there, there is none that shall resist you; the people of Normandy have not been used to the War, and all the knights and squires of the country are now at the siege before Aiguillon with the duke and I require you to believe me in this voyage. † By this reasons he wanted the King to believe in him. (Boss, p. 6) Because of the loyalty of the King he agrees with the lord of Harcourt. The King then he commanded the mariners to set their course to Normandy, and he took into his ship. (Page 6). However, the King before deciding he should first think and consult also all other lords, earls, barons and knights. (Page 5). I believe more head is better than one head. The decision of the King display loyalty to only one person. He didn’t draw a plan that if he takes Normandy what consequences they are going to face and the positive possibilities might happen. If they take Gascoyne what are some advantages and disadvantages. Loyalty is good to see in a person just like what Froissart wanted and like to have in a person. Conquering the Hogue Saint-Vaast is the only means of giving joyful to his men. The Knights sees the negative signed when they arrived in Hogue Saint-Vaast. This signed is the fallen of the King to the ground, that the blood brast out of his nose. (Page 7). So they wanted to warn the King that might evil things will happen. The knights want the Kings and the whole groups’ safety. But the King answered quickly and said: â€Å"Wherefore? This is a good token for me, for the land desired to have me. ‘ Of which answer all his men were right joyful† (Page7). In this passage he never believed his knight and even don’t want to listen to the idea that his knights was pointing out. The King believed that conquering this place would be the only great joyful to his people. He doesn’t take the advice of his knights. He is not loyal to his knights he thinks that the taking the place can give happiness to his people by robbing the other country and burning the house. These acts break the code of chivalric. Where Jean Froissart hated especially the cruelty they display. The only way in succeeding the war is being Loyal to the King and the constable. During the battle of Caen, the men of lord of France display loyalty to their Kings and constable for they will not do any fights with out the King and the constable. The men feel power and courage if they have the King and the constable in their sides. They believed that loyalty to the king and constable made them win in the war. Succeeding in the war can be harvested if the King and the constable showed their full support and braveness. The King of France and constable agrees with his men says ‘In the name of God be it, ye shall not fight without me. ‘(p. 12) Then they issued out in good order and made good face to fight and to defend them and to put their lives in adventure†. (Tetterton, 1993). The King and constable believed that if they are with the men in the war they will have the glory. Their presence can make the men brave and assertive in the war. To a certain extend they are right. Their loyalty to the King and constable are plays a lot especially pleasing their Kings. But they forget that they must first loyalty to one self and create confident and courage to their heart to win the war. Loyalty to self is the most important to all endeavors. Loyalty to one self can make a person brave. It can even do the impossible things that are extraordinary to others. If a person lacks this loyalty to others and to one self failure might occur. That’s maybe they are fought in the battle of Caen over the England. Nationalism is the only way in retrieving the lost country. The King of France shows nationalism in acting to retrieve his country that devastated by the Englishmen men. (Tetterton, 1993) His country was Brent, exiled, robbed, wasted and pilled the good with the Englishmen. He felt that his people pain and swear and said how they should never return again defaulted withal, and that such hurts and damages as they had done should be dearly revenged. (p. 10) By these barbaric act done by the opponents, the King of France call all the great leaders in his country and plan in retrieving and depending his people who are now under the hands of the England. In response to the call of the King of France all the great leaders come and set with the King of France. Like the lord John of Hainault, who came to him with a great number: also the king sent for other men of arms, dukes, earls, barons, knights and squires, and assembled together the greatest number of people that had been seen in France a hundred year before (P. F. Collier & SON). Lord John of Hainault responded because he has Nationalism in his country if that’s the reason he agree with the King sacrificing his life in defending the people who are violated by the Englishmen. I agree with the King of France in retrieving his country against the opponent. And I believed that Jean Froissart also agree for he love nationalism. Nationalism should be live in heart for every human. Defending the nation is great honor for every citizen. Dying for one’ country is a great privilege for a servant. Conclusion This essay shows nationalism is important to the King of France in defending their country. The King call all his great leaders and sacrificing his safety for the good of his people. While the King of England shows more loyalty to his trusted arm men who happen to be his cousin the lord of Harcourt. Finally, the scene above as stipulated by Jean Froissart shows nationalism greater in France and lesser in England, by the way they acted on the situation during the war. Jeans Foissart who loves chivalry who is violated both the France and England during the war. The cruelty done to women who Foissart disagree to see was there. The men in the war did not show politeness to the citizens. All they think is there happiness in taking advantages to the captured enemy. Loyalty and nationalism should be done and accomplished not to violate human rights of others. It should be put and live in our heart. References Boss, Judy. The Chronicles of Froissart. 22 November 2006, from Conversion to TEI-conformant markup: University of Virginia Library Electronic Text Center. : 1994

Art History: Hall Of Bulls And Chinese Horses Essay

Art in the earliest of days was a bit interesting because of what we know now about art and its history. The first period/discovery of art was between 40,000 and 8,000 b.c.e or more known as the Path eolithic period, this period included artistic forms such as cave paintings and smaller objects used for legion purposes. One of the first caves to be discovered was Lascaux Cave in 1940, says to be dated from 15,000s b.c.e. This cave contains very important and rare drawings such as â€Å"Hall of bulls†, and â€Å"Chinese horses†. The next period was called the Neolithic Period dating back to 8000-2300 b.c.e, the reason this period is important is because it starts the art work of pottery, metal work and massive stone arrangement’s called Dolmens and Cromlech. One of the most remarkable stone arrangements on the southern shore of the Bay o Skaill in the west mainland parish Sand Wick is the Neolithic Village Brae called Skara Brae in 1850 it was hit by a massive storm and revealed the stoned village and thee ancient houses that was buried. Another massive stone monument was the burial mounds that were also discovered around this time, they include dolmens which are slab of stone used to support the vertical slabs creating support for all the stones that were placed on top of the mound. Dolmens were used for single burials, passage graves for communal burials. Another type of burial ground introduced around this era was the Newrange which was a kidney shaped mound covering one acre of land which retained curbstones, some even richly decorated ; it was constructed over 5,000 years ago, it was created by a farming community that proposed on the rich lands of the Boyne valley. This place was recognized to be much more than just a burial tomb. It was a place of astrologic, spiritual religious and ceremonial importance. As we talk about Art in the prehistoric past, you can’t forget to mention the art of the near east. This includes Mesopotamia: â€Å"between the river† Tigris and Euphrates and major trade routes. The specific areas are the Mediterranean coastal cities lapis lazuli and chlorite. The types of art the established here were Technical expertise and financial resources, and the basic building material were mud brick and half-timber construction. These mounds where located near water supply and near a source of raw material making it easier to build and cop with. All of these monuments and projects that were discovered in caves and building show that human culture back then had a sense of creativity, and was also a way to express yourself through drawings and paintings and also providing stories and memories. This type of art can also be known to communicate through different cultures and religion when talking about the way there culture buried people and the different types of ways they did it, Whether it was building dolmens to bury them into or just a burial underground.

Saturday, September 28, 2019

Practical Demonkeeping Chapter 26

26 TRAVIS'S STORY Augustus Brine sat in one of the big leather chairs in front of his fireplace, drinking red wine from a balloon goblet and puffing away on his meerschaum. He had promised himself that he would have only one glass of wine, just to take the edge off the adrenaline and caffeine jangle he had worked himself into during the kidnapping. Now he was on his third glass and the wine had infused him with a warm, oozy feeling; he let his mind drift in a dreamy vertigo before attacking the task at hand: interrogating the demonkeeper. The fellow looked harmless enough, propped up and tied to the other wing chair. But if Gian Hen Gian was to be believed, this dark young man was the most dangerous human on Earth. Brine considered washing up before waking the demonkeeper. He had caught a glimpse of himself in the bathroom mirror – his beard and clothing covered with flour and soot, his skin caked with sweat-streaked goo – and decided that he would make a more intimidating impression in his current condition. He had found the smelling salts in the medicine cabinet and sent Gian Hen Gian to the bathroom to bathe while he rested. Actually he wanted the Djinn out of the room while he questioned the demonkeeper. The Djinn's curses and ravings would only complicate an already difficult task. Brine set his wineglass and his pipe on the end table and picked up a cotton-wrapped smelling-salt capsule. He leaned over to the demonkeeper and snapped the capsule under his nose. For a moment nothing happened, and Brine feared that he had hit him too hard, then the demonkeeper started coughing, looked at Brine, and screamed. â€Å"Calm down – you're all right,† Brine said. â€Å"Catch, help me!† The demonkeeper struggled against his bonds. Brine picked up his pipe and lit it, affecting a bored nonchalance. After a moment the demonkeeper settled down. Brine blew a thin stream of smoke into the air between them. â€Å"Catch isn't here. You're on your own.† Travis seemed to forget that he had been beaten, kidnapped, and tied up. His concentration was focused on Brine's last statement. â€Å"What do you mean, Catch isn't here? You know about Catch?† Brine considered giving him the I'm-asking-the-questions-here line that he had heard so many times in detective movies, but upon reflection, it seemed silly. He wasn't a hardass; why play the role? â€Å"Yes, I know about the demon. I know that he eats people, and I know you are his master.† â€Å"How do you know all that?† â€Å"It doesn't matter,† Brine said. â€Å"I also know that you've lost control of Catch.† â€Å"I have?† Travis seemed genuinely shaken by this. â€Å"Look, I don't know who you are, but you can't keep me here. If Catch is out of control again, I'm the only one that can stop him. I'm really close to ending all this; you can't stop me now.† â€Å"Why should you care?† â€Å"What do you mean, why should I care? You might know about Catch, but you can't imagine what he's like when he's out of control.† â€Å"What I mean,† Brine said, â€Å"is why should you care about the damage he causes? You called him up, didn't you? You send him out to kill, don't you?† Travis shook his head violently. â€Å"You don't understand. I'm not what you think. I never wanted this, and now I have a chance to stop it. Let me go. I can end it.† â€Å"Why should I trust you? You're a murderer.† â€Å"No. Catch is.† â€Å"What's the difference? If I do let you go, it will be because you will have told me what I want to know, and how I can use that information. Now I'll listen and you'll talk.† â€Å"I can't tell you anything. And you don't want to know anyway, I promise you.† â€Å"I want to know where the Seal of Solomon is. And I want to know the incantation that sends Catch back. Until I know, you're not going anywhere.† â€Å"Seal of Solomon? I don't know what you're talking about.† â€Å"Look – what is your name, anyway?† â€Å"Travis.† â€Å"Look, Travis,† Brine said, â€Å"my associate wants to use torture. I don't like the idea, but if you jerk me around, torture might be the only way to go.† â€Å"Don't you have to have two guys to play good cop, bad cop?† â€Å"My associate is taking a bath. I wanted to see if I could reason with you before I let him near you. I really don't know what he's capable of†¦ I'm not even sure what he is. So if we could get on with this, it would be better for the both of us.† â€Å"Where's Jenny?† Travis asked. â€Å"She's fine. She's at work.† â€Å"You won't hurt her?† â€Å"I'm not some kind of terrorist, Travis. I didn't ask to be involved in this, but I am. I don't want to hurt you, and I would never hurt Jenny. She's a friend of mine.† â€Å"So if I tell you what I know, you'll let me go?† â€Å"That's the deal. But I'll have to make sure that what you tell me is true.† Brine relaxed. This young man didn't seem to have any of the qualities of a mass murderer. If anything, he seemed a little naive. â€Å"Okay, I'll tell you everything I know about Catch and the incantations, but I swear to you, I don't know anything about any Seal of Solomon. It's a pretty strange story.† â€Å"I guessed that,† Brine said. â€Å"Shoot.† He poured himself a glass of wine, relit his pipe, and sat back, propping his feet up on the hearth. â€Å"Like I said, it's a pretty strange story.† â€Å"Strange is my middle name,† Brine said. â€Å"That must have been difficult for you as a child,† Travis said. â€Å"Would you get on with it.† â€Å"You asked for it.† Travis took a deep breath. â€Å"I was born in Clarion, Pennsylvania, in the year nineteen hundred.† â€Å"Bullshit,† Brine interrupted. â€Å"You're not a day over twenty-five.† â€Å"This is going to take a lot more time if I have to keep stopping. Just listen – it'll all fall into place.† Brine grumbled and nodded for Travis to continue. â€Å"I was born on a farm. My parents were Irish immigrants, black Irish. I was the oldest of six children, two boys and four girls. My parents were staunch Catholics. My mother wanted me to be a priest. She pushed me to study so I could get into seminary. She was working on the local diocese to recommend me while I was still in the womb. When World War I broke out, she begged the bishop to get me into seminary early. Everybody knew it was just a matter of time before America entered the war. My mother wanted me in seminary before the Army could draft me. Boys from secular colleges were already in Europe, driving ambulances, and some of them had been killed. My mother wasn't going to lose her chance to have a son become a priest to something as insignificant as a world war. You see, my little brother was a bit slow – mentally, I mean. I was my mother's only chance.† â€Å"So you went to seminary,† Brine interjected. He was becoming impatient with the progress of the story. â€Å"I went in at sixteen, which made me at least four years younger than the other boys. My mother packed me some sandwiches, and I packed myself into a threadbare black suit that was three sizes too small for me and I was on the train to Illinois. â€Å"You have to understand, I didn't want any part of this stuff with the demon; I really wanted to be a priest. Of all the people I had known as a child, the priest seemed like the only one who had any control over things. The crops could fail, banks could close, people could get sick and die, but the priest and the church were always there, calm and steadfast. And all that mysticism was pretty nifty, too.† â€Å"What about women?† Brine asked. He had resolved himself to hearing an epic, and it seemed as if Travis needed to tell it. Brine found he liked the strange young man, in spite of himself. â€Å"You don't miss what you've never known. I mean I had these urges, but they were sinful, right? I just had to say, ‘Get thee behind me Satan', and get on with it.† â€Å"That's the most incredible thing you've told me so far,† Brine said. â€Å"When I was sixteen, sex seemed like the only reason to go on living.† â€Å"That's what they thought at seminary, too. Because I was younger than the others, the prefect of discipline, Father Jasper, took me on as his special project. To keep me from impure thoughts, he made me work constantly. In the evenings, when the others were given time for prayer and meditation, I was sent to the chapel to polish the silver. While the others ate, I worked in the kitchen, serving and washing dishes. For two years the only rest I had from dawn until midnight was during classes and mass. When I fell behind in my studies, Father Jasper rode me even harder. â€Å"The Vatican had given the seminary a set of silver candlesticks for the altar. Supposedly they had been commissioned by one of the early popes and were over six hundred years old. The candlesticks were the most prized possession of the seminary and it was my job to polish them. Father Jasper stood over me, evening after evening, chiding me and berating me for being impure in thought. I polished the silver until my hands were black from the compound, and still Father Jasper found fault with me. If I had impure thoughts it was because he kept reminding me to have them. â€Å"I had no friends in seminary. Father Jasper had put his mark on me, and the other students shunned me for fear of invoking the prefect of discipline's wrath. I wrote home when I had a chance, but for some reason my letters were never answered. I began to suspect that Father Jasper was keeping my letters from getting to me. â€Å"One evening, while I was polishing the silver on the altar, Father Jasper came to the chapel and started to lecture me on my evil nature. â€Å"‘You are impure in thought and deed, yet you do not confess,' he said. ‘You are evil, Travis, and it is my duty to drive that evil out!' â€Å"I couldn't take it any longer. ‘Where are my letters?' I blurted out. ‘You are keeping me from my family.' â€Å"Father Jasper was furious. ‘Yes, I keep your letters. You are spawned from a womb of evil. How else could you have come here so young. I waited for eight years to come to Saint Anthony's – waited in the cold of the world while others were taken into the warm bosom of Christ.' â€Å"At last I knew why I had been singled out for punishment. It had nothing to do with my spiritual impurity. It was jealousy. I said, ‘And you, Father Jasper, have you confessed your jealousy and your pride? Have you confessed your cruelty?' â€Å"‘Cruel, am I?' he said. He laughed at me, and for the first time I was really afraid of him. ‘There is no cruelty in the bosom of Christ, only tests of faith. Your faith is wanting, Travis. I will show you.' â€Å"He told me to lie with arms outstretched on the steps before the altar and pray for strength. He left the chapel for a moment, and when he returned I could hear something whistling through the air. I looked up and saw that he was carrying a thin whip cut from a willow branch. â€Å"‘Have you no humility, Travis? Bow your head before our Lord.' â€Å"I could hear him moving behind me, but I could not see him. Why I didn't leave right then I don't know. Perhaps I believed that Father Jasper was actually testing my faith, that he was the cross I had to bear. â€Å"He tore my robe up the back, exposing my bare back and legs. ‘You will not cry out, Travis. After each blow a Hail Mary. Now,' he said. Then I felt the whip across my back and I thought I would scream, but instead I said a Hail Mary. He threw a rosary in front of me and told me to take it. I held it behind my head, feeling the pain come with every bead. â€Å"‘You are a coward, Travis. You don't deserve to serve our Lord. You are here to avoid the war, aren't you, Travis?' â€Å"I didn't answer him and the whip fell again. â€Å"After a while I heard him laughing with each stroke of the whip. I did not look back for fear he might strike me across the eyes. Before I had finished the rosary, I heard him gasp and drop to the floor behind me. I thought – no, I hoped – he had had a heart attack. But when I looked back he was kneeling behind me, gasping for air, exhausted, but smiling. â€Å"‘Face down, sinner!' he screamed. He drew back the whip as if he were going to strike me in the face and I covered my head. â€Å"‘You will tell no one of this,' he said. His voice was low and calm. For some reason that scared me more than his anger. ‘You are to stay the night here, polish the silver, and pray for forgiveness. I will return in the morning with a new robe for you. If you speak of this to anyone, I will see that you are expelled from Saint Anthony's and, if I can manage it, excommunicated.' â€Å"I hadn't ever heard excommunication used as a threat. It was something we studied in class. The popes had used it as an instrument of political control, but the reality of being excluded from salvation by someone else had never really occurred to me. I didn't believe that Father Jasper could really excommunicate me, but I wasn't going to test it. â€Å"While Father Jasper watched, I began to polish the candlesticks, rubbing furiously to take my mind off the pain in my back and legs, and to try to forget that he was watching. Finally, he left the chapel. When I heard the door close, I threw the candlestick I was holding at the door. â€Å"Father Jasper had tested my faith, and I had failed. I cursed the Trinity, the Virgin, and all the saints I could remember. Eventually my anger subsided and I feared Father Jasper would return and see what I had done. â€Å"I retrieved the candlestick and inspected it to see if I had done any damage. Father Jasper would check them in the morning as he always did, and I would be lost. â€Å"There was a deep scratch across the axis of the candlestick. I rubbed at it, harder and harder, but it only seemed to get worse. Soon I realized that it wasn't a scratch at all but a seam that had been concealed by the silversmith. The priceless artifact from the Vatican was a sham. It was supposed to be solid silver, but here was evidence that it was hollow. I grabbed both ends of the candlestick and twisted. As I suspected, it unscrewed. There was a sort of triumph in it. I wanted to be holding the two pieces when Father Jasper returned. I wanted to wave them in his face. ‘Here', I would say, ‘these are as hollow and false as you are. I would expose him, ruin him, and if I was expelled and damned, I didn't care. But I never got the chance to confront him. â€Å"When I pulled the two pieces apart, a tightly rolled piece of parchment fell out.† â€Å"The invocation,† Brine interrupted. â€Å"Yes, but I didn't know what it was. I unrolled it and started to read. There was a passage at the top in Latin, which I didn't have much trouble translating. It said something about calling down help from God to deal with enemies of the Church. It was signed by His Holiness, Pope Leo the Third. â€Å"The second part was written in Greek. As I said, I had fallen behind in my studies, so the Greek was difficult. I started reading it aloud, working on each word as I went. By the time I was through the first passage, it had started to get cold in the chapel. I wasn't sure what I was reading. Some of the words were mysteries to me. I just read over them, trying to glean what I could from the context. Then something seemed to take over my mind. â€Å"I started reading the Greek as if it were my native language, pronouncing the words perfectly, without having the slightest idea of what they meant. â€Å"A wind whipped up inside the chapel, blowing out all the candles. Except for a little moonlight coming through the windows, it was completely dark, but the words on the parchment began to glow and I kept reading. I was locked into the parchment as if I had grabbed an electric wire and couldn't let go. â€Å"When I read the last line, I found I was screaming the words. Lightning flashed down from the roof and struck the candlestick, which was lying on the floor in front of me. The wind stopped and smoke filled the chapel. â€Å"Nothing prepares you for something like that. You can spend your life preparing to be the instrument of God. You can read accounts of possession and exorcism and try to imagine yourself in the situation, but when it actually happens, you just shut down. I did, anyway. I sat there trying to figure out what I had done, but my mind wouldn't work. â€Å"The smoke floated up into the rafters of the chapel and I could make out a huge figure standing at the altar. It was Catch, in his eating form.† â€Å"What's his eating form?† Brine asked. â€Å"I assume from the deal with the flour that you know Catch is visible to others only when he is in his eating form. Most of the time I see him as a three-foot imp covered with scales. When he feeds or goes out of control, he's a giant. I've seen him cut a man in half with one swipe of his claws. I don't know why it works that way. I just know that when I saw him for the first time, I had never been so frightened. â€Å"He looked around the chapel, then at me, then at the chapel. I was praying under my breath, begging God for protection. â€Å"‘Stop it!' he said. ‘I'll take care of everything.' Then he went down the aisle and through the chapel doors, knocking them off their hinges. He turned and looked back at me. He said: ‘You have to open these things, right? I forgot – it's been a while.' â€Å"As soon as he was gone I picked up the candlesticks and ran. I got as far as the front gates before I realized that I was still wearing the torn robe. â€Å"I wanted to get away, hide, forget what I had seen, but I had to go back and get my clothes. I ran back to my quarters. Since I was in my third year at seminary, I been given a small private room, so, thankfully, I didn't have to go through the dormitory ward rooms where the newer students slept. The only clothes I had were the suit I had worn when I came and a pair of overalls I wore when I worked in the seminary fields. I tried to put on the suit, but the pants were just too tight, so I put the overalls on and wore the suit jacket over them to cover my shoulders. I wrapped the candlesticks in a blanket and headed for the gate. â€Å"When I was just outside the gate, I heard a horrible scream from the rectory. There was no mistaking; it was Father Jasper. â€Å"I ran the six miles into town without stopping. The sun was coming up as I reached the train station and a train was pulling away from the platform. I didn't know where it was going, but I ran after it and managed to swing myself on board before I collapsed. â€Å"I'd like to tell you I had some kind of plan, but I didn't. My only thought was to get as far away from St. Anthony's as I could. I don't know why I took the candlesticks. I wasn't interested in their value. I guess I didn't want to leave any evidence of what I'd done. Or maybe it was the influence of the supernatural. â€Å"Anyway, I caught my breath and went into the passenger car to find a seat. The train was nearly full, soldiers and a few civilians here and there. I staggered down the aisle and fell into the first empty seat I could find. It was next to a young woman who was reading a book. â€Å"‘This seat is taken,' she said. â€Å"‘Please, just let me rest here for a minute,' I begged. ‘I'll get up when your companion returns.' â€Å"She looked up from her book and I found myself staring into the biggest, bluest eyes I'd ever seen. I will never forget them. She was young, about my age, and wore her dark hair pinned up under a hat, which was the style in those days. She looked genuinely frightened of me. I guess I was wearing my own fright on my face. â€Å"‘Are you all right? Shall I call the conductor?' she asked. â€Å"I thanked her but told her that I just needed to rest a moment. She was looking at the strange way I was dressed, trying to be polite, but obviously perplexed. I looked up and noticed that everyone in the car was staring at me. Could they know about what I'd done? I wondered. Then I realized why they were staring. There was a war on and I was obviously the right age for the Army, yet I was dressed in civilian clothes. ‘I'm a seminary student,' I blurted out to them, causing a breeze of incredulous whispers. The girl blushed. â€Å"‘I'm sorry,' I said to her. ‘I'll move on.' I started to rise, but she put her hand on my shoulder to push me back into my seat and I winced when she touched my injured shoulder. â€Å"‘No,' she said, ‘I'm traveling alone. I've just been saving this seat to ward off the soldiers. You know how they can be sometimes, Father.' â€Å"‘I'm not a priest yet,' I said. â€Å"‘I don't know what to call you, then,' she said. â€Å"‘Call me Travis,' I said. â€Å"‘I'm Amanda,' she said. She smiled, and for a moment I completely forgot why I was running. She was an attractive girl, but when she smiled, she was absolutely stunning. It was my turn to blush. â€Å"‘I'm going to New York to stay with my fianc's family. He's in Europe,' she said. â€Å"‘So this train is going east?' I asked. â€Å"She was surprised. ‘You don't even know where the train is going?' she asked. â€Å"‘I've had a bad night,' I said. Then I started to laugh – I don't know why. It seemed so unreal. The idea of trying to explain it to her seemed silly. â€Å"She looked away and started digging in her purse. ‘I'm sorry,' I said, ‘I didn't mean to offend you.' ‘You didn't offend me. I need to have my ticket ready for the conductor.' â€Å"I'd completely forgotten about not having a ticket. I looked up and saw the conductor coming down the aisle. I jumped up and a wave of fatigue hit me. I almost fell into her lap. â€Å"‘Is something wrong?' she asked. â€Å"‘Amanda,' I said, ‘you have been very kind, but I should find another seat and let you travel in peace.' â€Å"‘You don't have a ticket, do you?' she said. â€Å"I shook my head. ‘I've been in seminary. I'd forgotten. We don't have any need for money there and†¦' â€Å"‘I have some traveling money,' she said. â€Å"‘I couldn't ask you to do that,' I said. Then I remembered the candlesticks. ‘Look, you can have these. They're worth a lot of money. Hold them and I'll send you the money for the ticket when I get home,' I said. â€Å"I unrolled the blanket and dropped the candlesticks in her lap. â€Å"‘That's not necessary,' she said. â€Å"I'll loan you the money.' â€Å"‘No, I insist you take them,' I said, trying to be gallant. I must have looked ridiculous standing there in my overalls and tattered suit jacket. â€Å"‘If you insist,' she said. ‘I understand. My fianc is a proud man, too.' â€Å"She gave me the money I needed and I bought a ticket all the way to Clarion, which was only about ten miles from my parent's farm. â€Å"The train broke down somewhere in Indiana and we were forced to wait in the station while they changed engines. It was midsummer and terribly hot. Without thinking, I took off my jacket and Amanda gasped when she saw my back. She insisted that I see a doctor, but I refused, knowing that I would only have to borrow more money from her to pay for it. We sat on a bench in the station while she cleaned my back with damp napkins from the dining car. â€Å"In those days the sight of a woman bathing a half-naked man in a train station would have been scandalous, but most of the passengers were soldiers and were much more concerned with being AWOL or with their ultimate destination, Europe, so we were ignored for the most part. â€Å"Amanda disappeared for a while and returned just before our train was ready to leave. ‘I've reserved a berth in the sleeping car for us,' she said. â€Å"I was shocked. I started to protest, but she stopped me. She said, ‘You are going to sleep and I am going to watch over you. You are a priest and I'm engaged, so there is nothing wrong with it. Besides, you are in no shape to spend the night sitting up in a train.' â€Å"I think it was then that I realized that I was in love with her. Not that it mattered. It was just that after living so long with Father Jasper's abuse I wasn't prepared for the kindness she was showing me. It never occurred to me that I might be putting her in danger. â€Å"As we pulled away from the station, I looked out on the platform, and for the first time I saw Catch in his smaller form. Why it happened then and not before I don't know. Maybe I didn't have any strength left, but when I saw him there on the platform, flashing a big razor-toothed grin, I fainted. â€Å"When I came to, I felt like my back was on fire. I was lying in the sleeping berth and Amanda was bathing my back with alcohol. â€Å"‘I told them you'd been wounded in France,' she said. â€Å"The porter helped me get you in here. I think it's about time you told me who did this to you.' â€Å"I told her what Father Jasper had done, leaving out the parts about the demon. I was in tears when I finished, and she was holding me, rocking me back and forth. â€Å"I'm not sure how it happened – the passion of the moment and all that, I guess – but the next thing I knew, we were kissing, and I was undressing her. Just as we were about to make love she stopped me. â€Å"‘I have to take this off,' she said. She was wearing a wooden bracelet with the initials E + A burnt into it. ‘We don't have to do this,' I said. â€Å"Have you, Mr. Brine, ever said something that you know you will always regret? I have. It was: ‘We don't have to do this.' â€Å"She said: ‘Oh, then let's not.' â€Å"She fell asleep holding me while I lay awake, thinking about sex and damnation, which really wasn't any different from what I'd thought about each night in the seminary – a little more immediate, I guess. â€Å"I was just dozing off when I heard a commotion coming from the opposite end of our sleeping car. I peeked through the curtains of the berth to see what was happening. Catch was coming down the aisle, looking into berths as he went. I didn't know at the time that Catch was invisible to other people, and I couldn't understand why they weren't screaming at the sight of him. People were shouting and looking out of their berths, but all they were seeing was empty air. â€Å"I grabbed my overalls and jumped into the aisle, leaving my jacket and the candlesticks in the berth with Amanda. I didn't even thank her. I ran down the aisle toward the back of the car, away from Catch. As I ran, I could hear him yelling, ‘Why are you running? Don't you know the rules?' â€Å"I went through the door between the cars and slid it shut behind me. By now people were screaming, not out of fear of Catch, but because a naked man was running through the sleeping car. â€Å"I looked into the next car and saw the conductor coming down the aisle toward me. Catch was almost to the door behind me. Without thinking, or even looking, I opened the door to the outside and leapt off the train, naked, my overalls still in hand. â€Å"The train was on a trestle at the time and it was a long drop to the ground, fifty or sixty feet. By all rights I should have been killed. When I hit, the wind was knocked out of me and I remember thinking that my back was broken, but in seconds I was up and running through a wooden valley. I didn't realize until later that I had been protected by my pact with the demon, even through he was not under my control at the time. I don't really know the extent of his protection, but I've been in a hundred accidents since then that should have killed me and come out without a scratch. â€Å"I ran through the woods until I came to a dirt road. I had no idea where I was. I just walked until I couldn't walk anymore and then sat down at the side of the road. Just after sunup a rickety wagon pulled up beside me and the farmer asked me if I was all right. In those days it wasn't uncommon to see a barefoot kid in overalls by the side of the road. â€Å"The farmer informed me that I was only about twenty miles from home. I told him that I was a student on holiday, trying to hitchhike home, and he offered to drive me. I fell asleep in the wagon. When the farmer woke me, we were stopped at the gate of my parents' farm. I thanked him and walked up the road toward the house. â€Å"I guess I should have known right away that something was wrong. At that time of the morning everyone should have been out working, but the barnyard was deserted except for a few chickens. I could hear the two dairy cows mooing in the barn when they should have already been milked and put out to pasture. â€Å"I had no idea what I would tell my parents. I hadn't thought about what I would do when I got home, only that I wanted to get there. â€Å"I ran in the back door expecting to find my mother in the kitchen, but she wasn't there. My family rarely left the farm, and they certainly wouldn't have gone anywhere without taking care of the animals first. My first thought was that there had been an accident. Perhaps my father had fallen from the tractor and they had taken him to the hospital in Clarion. I ran to the front of the house. My father's wagon was tied up out front. â€Å"I bolted through the house, shouting into every room, but there was no one home. I found myself standing on the front porch, wondering what to do next, when I heard his voice from behind me. â€Å"‘You can't run from me,' Catch said. â€Å"I turned. He was sitting on the porch swing, dangling his feet in the air. I was afraid, but I was also angry. â€Å"‘Where is my family?!' I screamed. â€Å"He patted his stomach. ‘Gone,' he said. â€Å"‘What have you done with them?' I said. â€Å"‘They're gone forever,' he said. ‘I ate them.' â€Å"I was enraged. I grabbed the porch swing and pushed it with everything I had. The swing banged against the porch rail and Catch went over the edge into the dirt. â€Å"My father kept a chopping block and an ax in front of the house for splitting kindling. I jumped off the porch and snatched up the ax. Catch was just picking himself up when I him in the forehead with it. Sparks flew and the ax blade bounced off his head as if it had hit cast iron. Before I knew it I was on my back and Catch was sitting on my chest grinning like the demon in that Fuselli painting, The Nightmare. He didn't seem at all angry. I flailed under him but could not get up. â€Å"‘Look,' he said, ‘this is silly. You called me up to do a job and I did it, so what's all the commotion about? By the way, you would have loved it. I clipped the priest's hamstrings and watched him crawl around begging for a while. I really like eating priests, they're always convinced that the Creator is testing them.' â€Å"‘You killed my family!' I said. I was still trying to free myself. â€Å"‘Well, that sort of thing happens when you run away. It's all your fault; if you didn't want the responsibility, you shouldn't have called me up. You knew what you were getting into when you renounced the Creator.' â€Å"‘But I didn't,' I protested. Then I remembered my curses in the chapel. I had renounced God. ‘I didn't know,' I said. â€Å"‘Well, if you're going to be a weenie about it, I'll fill you in on the rules,' he said. ‘First, you can't run away from me. You called me up and I am more or less your servant forever. When I say forever, I mean forever. You are not going to age, and you are not going to be sick. The second thing you need to know is that I am immortal. You whack me with axes all you want and all you'll get is a dull ax and a sore back, so just save your energy. Third, I am Catch. They call me the destroyer, and that's what I do. With my help you can rule the world and other really swell stuff. In the past my masters haven't used me to the best advantage, but you might be the exception, although I doubt it. Fourth, when I'm in this form, you are the only one who can see me. When I take on my destroyer form, I am visible to everyone. It's stupid, and why it's that way is a long story, but that's the way it is. In the past they decided to keep me a secret, but there's no rule about i t.' â€Å"He paused and climbed off my chest. I got to my feet and dusted myself off. My head was spinning with what Catch had told me. I had no way of knowing whether he was telling the truth, but I had nothing else to go on. When you encounter the supernatural, your mind searches for an explanation. I'd had the explanation laid in my lap, but I didn't want to believe it. â€Å"I said, ‘So you're from hell?' I know it was a stupid question, but even a seminary education doesn't prepare you for a conversation with a demon. â€Å"‘No,' he said, ‘I'm from Paradise.' â€Å"‘You're lying,' I said. It was the beginning of a string of lies and misdirections that have gone on for seventy years. â€Å"He said, ‘No, really, I'm from Paradise. It's a little town about thirty miles outside of Newark.' Then he started laughing and rolling around in the dirt holding his sides. â€Å"‘How can I get rid of you?' I asked. â€Å"‘Sorry,' he said, ‘I've told you everything that I have to.' â€Å"At the time I didn't know how dangerous Catch was. Somehow I realized that I was in no immediate danger, so I tried to come up with some sort of plan to get rid of him. I didn't want to stay there at the farm, and I didn't have anywhere I could go. â€Å"My first instinct was to turn to the Church. If I could get to a priest, perhaps I could have the demon exorcised. â€Å"I led Catch into town, where I asked the local priest to perform an exorcism. Before I could convince him of Catch's existence, the demon became visible and ate the priest, piece by piece, before my eyes. I realized then that Catch's power was beyond the comprehension of any normal priest, perhaps the entire Church. â€Å"Christians are supposed to believe in evil as an active force. If you deny evil, you deny good and therefore God. But belief in evil is as much an act of faith as belief in God, and here I was faced with evil as a reality, not an abstraction. My faith was gone. It was no longer required. There was indeed evil in the world and that evil was me. It was my responsibility, I reasoned, to not let that evil become manifest to other people and thereby steal their faith. I had to keep Catch's existence a secret. I might not be able to stop him from taking lives, but I could keep him from taking souls. â€Å"I decided to remove him to a safe place where there were no people for him to feed on. We hopped a freight and rode it to Colorado, where I led Catch high into the mountains. There I found a remote cabin where I thought he would be without victims. Weeks passed and I found that I had some control over the demon. I could make him fetch water and wood sometimes, but other times he defied me. I've never understood the inconsistency of his obedience. â€Å"Once I had accepted the fact that I couldn't run away from Catch, I questioned him constantly, looking for some clue that might send him back to hell. He was vague, to say the least, giving me little to go on except that he had been on Earth before and that someone had sent him back. â€Å"After we had been in the mountains for two months, a search party came to the cabin. It seemed that hunters in the area of the cabin, as well as people in villages as far as twenty miles away, had been disappearing. When I was asleep at night, Catch had been ranging for victims. It was obvious that isolation wasn't going to keep the demon from killing. I sent the search party away and set myself on coming up with some kind of plan. I knew we would have to move or people would discover that Catch existed. â€Å"I knew there had to be some sort of logic to his presence on Earth. Then, while we were hiking out of the mountains, it occurred to me that the key to sending Catch back must have been concealed in another candlestick. And I had left them on the train with the girl. Jumping off the train to escape Catch may have cost me the only chance I had to get rid of him. I searched my memory for anything that could lead me to the girl. I had never asked where she was going or what her last name was. In trying to recall details of my time with her I kept coming up with the image of those striking blue eyes. They seemed etched into my memory while everything else faded. Could I go around the eastern United States asking anyone if they had seen a young girl with beautiful blue eyes? â€Å"Something nagged at me. There was something that could lead me to the girl; I just had to remember it. Then it hit me – the wooden bracelet she wore. The initials carved inside the heart were E + A. How hard could it be to search service records for a soldier with the first initial E? His service records would have his next of kin, and she was staying with his family. I had a plan. â€Å"I took Catch back East and began checking local draft boards. I told them I had been in Europe and a man whose first name began with E had saved my life and I wanted to find him. They always asked about divisions and stations and where the battle had taken place. I told them I had taken a shell fragment in the head and could remember nothing but the man's first initial. No one believed me, of course, but they gave me what I asked for – out of pity, I think. â€Å"Meanwhile, Catch kept taking his victims. I tried to point him toward thieves and grifters when I could, reasoning that if he must kill, at least I could protect the innocent. â€Å"I haunted libraries, looking for the oldest books on magic and demonology I could find. Perhaps somewhere I could find an incantation to send the demon back. I performed hundreds of rituals – drawing pentagrams, collecting bizarre talismans, and putting myself through all sorts of physical rigors and diets that were supposed to purify the sorcerer so the magic would work. After repeated failures, I realized that the volumes of magic were nothing more than the work of medieval snake-oil salesmen. They always added the purity of the sorcerer as a condition so they would have an excuse for their customers when the magic did not work. â€Å"During this same time I was still looking for a priest who would perform an exorcism. In Baltimore I finally found one who believed my story. He agreed to perform an exorcism. For his protection, we arranged to have him stand on a balcony while Catch and I remained in the street below. Catch laughed himself silly through the entire ritual, and when it was over, he broke into the building and ate the priest. I knew then that finding the girl was my only hope. â€Å"Catch and I kept moving, never staying in one place longer than two or three days. Fortunately there were no computers in those days that might have tracked the disappearances of Catch's victims. In each town I collected a list of veterans, then ran leads to the ground by knocking on doors and questioning the families. I've been doing that for over seventy years. Yesterday I think I found the man I was looking for. As it turned out, E was his middle initial. His name is J. Effrom Elliot. I thought my luck had finally turned. I mean the fact that the man is still alive is pretty lucky in itself. I thought that I might have to trace the candlesticks through surviving relatives, hoping that someone remembered them, perhaps had kept them as an heirloom. â€Å"I thought it was all over, but now Catch is out of control and you are keeping me from stopping him forever.†

Friday, September 27, 2019

Clarifying your goals Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Clarifying your goals - Essay Example Wisdom and knowledge will help me to make suitable decisions in my personal and professional context. Knowledge and wisdom will ensure my contribution towards my profession significantly (Por & Molloy, 2000). In order to enhance my wisdom and knowledge level, I am required to identify a rational objective of my goal. In this regard, the milestones for achieving my objectives will be time management and innovation. The milestones will aid in developing my creativity skills to develop and enhance my personal as well as professional knowledge base (Por & Molloy, 2000). I will need around four months to enhance my wisdom and knowledge level. During this four months period, I will learn more about the changing technologies of modern era, which will ensure my efficiency level by possessing adequate knowledge about the modern technologies used in different business operations. In a similar manner, the time management skill will assist in building my creativeness. I am required to look for a mentor, who will assists me in developing my competencies for accomplishing mu objectives effectively. Moreover, I have developed an action plan in order to ensure that I accomplish my goal successfully (Por & Molloy, 2000). I have identified that to ensure my goal, I will require a mentor to teach me the techniques based on which I will be able to accomplish my objectives successfully, so that I become competent for my MBA program and professional life. Accordingly, I have developed a time line, which will aid me in accomplishing my desired objectives and goal within stipulated

Thursday, September 26, 2019

Decision Making in Trade Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Decision Making in Trade - Essay Example carvings found in the early tombs reveal the types of cattle kept, milking methods and other interesting facts† (EL- Rafey, n.d). There are about two million cattle and buffalo in Egypt, producing approximately 1.5 million tons of milk valued at 50 million euros. About 60 percentage of the milk-producing animals are buffaloes. The milk produced is utilized in the following fields: 145000 tons for market milk; 560000 tons for cheese manufacture; 700000 tons for butter manufacture; and 95000 tons for miscellaneous use. In the recent years, considerable attention has been given to ways of improving production and supply of milk to large towns, and the installation of modern pasteurization and processing plants. 1) The structure of diary product market in Egypt. It is estimated that a yearly increase in milk production equivalent to 30 kg per animal, could replace the imported milk products, provided that plant facilities are available for their manufacture. The per capita consumpt ion of milk and milk products is very low, amounting to only about 60 kg of milk. From the nutritional point of view, milk consumption should be increased 300%, thus, plans are being devised to increase milk production. â€Å"The dairy market consists of retail sales of cheese, chilled desserts, cream, fromage frais, milk, spreadable fats and yogurt† (Datamonitor, 2011). Egyptian cuisine consists of the local culinary traditions of Egypt. Egyptian cuisine heavily uses legumes and vegetables, which are produced in large quantities due to the fertile land present near the Nile valley and delta. Dairy products also have a good demand in the market, mainly because people in Egypt are conscious of having hygienic and healthy food. That is the reason why they purchase more dairy products. The main ingredient in the dairy product, as mentioned earlier, is milk. The milk production in Egypt has various stages, the two million buffaloes and cows are distributed over six million feddan s of agricultural land, which constitute the Nile valley. About 80% of cattle are distributed in over one million farms, where each farmer owns from one to three animals. These farms are grouped into 4000 villages. The average number of dairy cattle is 500 per village. Milk produced by these animals is rather low, being one ton a year per buffalo and half a ton per cow. It is estimated that farm animals in Egypt provide an income of ?E 45 million to the farmers and manure valued at ?E 10 million. Experiments have shown that when dairy cattle are kept for milk production only, they respond exceedingly well to balanced rations and better management, and usually double their milk production. This indicates the potentiality for increasing milk production without raising the number of cattle. Distribution channels: The Dairy product companies implemented an action plan, during last few years to increase and condense the local components, based on the fact that the company products depend basically on milk and that the milk production in Egypt reaches about 7000 MT per day. Mainly by individual distributors and local manufacturers, the companies are collecting this milk through the collection units spread in the Delta region, to utilize it in manufacture instead of depending on imports. That is to use this milk to produce all kinds of dairy products within the country. â€Å"The companies offer a variety of products in two areas:

MGMT338 U2 DB Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

MGMT338 U2 DB - Assignment Example Police detective and engineering manager are paid on base plus incentive arrangement. Here, they are compensated at 80% of the compensation plus an incentive component which offers them the chance to reward goal oriented performance (Armstrong, 2003). The benchmarking productivity is crucial for maintaining the standards of the group. Registered nurse and landscaper are paid straight salaries. Here, they are paid predetermined amount of cash annually. One of the effects of the compensation is a reduction in utilisation. The nurses and landscapers are no longer compensated for prescribing treatment and offering landscaping services respectively. Conversely, a mechanical engineer is paid on hourly basis. Here, an engineer is paid their time using hourly rates. This computes the compensation by multiplying the number of hours entered on the transaction sheet by the hourly rate. An engineer is paid depending on the number of hours (Khan, & Jain,

Wednesday, September 25, 2019

Classroom management Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Classroom management - Research Paper Example This article written by Simonsen et al focuses on classroom management as a â€Å"critical skill area† and asserts that elementary level teachers need to be taught â€Å"practices that are backed by evidence† (2008: 351). The article further seeks to provide an â€Å"update† on what is currently known about classroom management as well as provide necessary guidelines for translating this knowledge into â€Å"practical classroom practice† (352). The article thus presents the methodology used for literature search, the results of the search, a â€Å"self-assessment tool† as well as â€Å"implications for future research† (352). Thus in this light, the researchers thoroughly examined various literature related to classroom management and finally identified â€Å"20 practices† that could be effectively implemented.Furthermore, the 20 practices identified as a result of the literature search have been group into five, that is, maximising st ructure; posting, reviewing as well as emphasising expectations, making students engage in ways where they can be observed, using various strategies to encourage and appreciate appropriate behaviour and also developing proper responses to inappropriate behaviour. The researchers believe that these features can be enforced with proper planning before the term session begins as well as throughout the school year. However, the limitation in their study is that the literature they used for the research purpose is over twenty years old.

Tuesday, September 24, 2019

To what extent today's business broke through limits of ethics and Essay

To what extent today's business broke through limits of ethics and respect towards others - Essay Example This comes with the augmentation of the need for land as a major investment asset and factor, creating a worldwide land market. Globalization and liberalization of land asset rights and subsequent promotion of foreign investments in the Tanzanian dispensation offer fertile background and chance to the contemporary land acquisition deals. Moreover, the rapid hiking of such investments triggered a huge debate in their eventual impacts in Tanzania. Since it is greatly affirmed that agriculture in developing nations is in need of exploitation and investment, there exists a controversy in the ethics of foreign involvement in acquiring these lands. Supporters argue that the acquisition and investment results into new income generating opportunities, advanced technology and infrastructural advancements in the rural areas while the critics claim evidence of rights violations, food insecurity and degradation of natural resources on land (Mteti). Introduction This report succinctly generates a n assessment of valid information regarding the acquisition of land by transnational affiliation from foreign countries. Additionally, it espouses on various cases relating to the same while questioning whether such cases reflect positive or negative ethics by both parties. Is it the Tanzanian government that does not have statutes and stipulations in place or is it the people that do not embrace economic and social transformations? The other question would be whether the foreign investors reasonably acquire the agricultural land and whether they distribute the benefits to Tanzania fairly. In addition, this report expounds on the merits and demerits associated with the practice, the ethical perspectives applied in their evaluation and eventually recommendations for the Tanzanian government and people in embracing and establishing a mutual and fair relationship with the foreign investors that undoubtedly contribute to national and global economy. Findings Driving Factors to Foreign L and Acquisition After a number of decades of low investment in the agricultural and fuel sector in the Tanzanian dispensation and other nations, the epoch of the late 20s witnessed a hike in foreign direct investment in fundamental agricultural production. The reasons behind this surge are complicated and diverse but the critical drivers can be connected to the immense increase in commodity prices in the period of up to 2008 and the knowledge that demand for fixed natural resources is normally set to augment significantly in the oncoming decades (Larsen). Moreover, the increase in food and fuel prices mandated nations that immensely rely on imported food and fuel to invest in the other countries where land among other resources are plentiful with an aim to secure supply. This obviously is one of the factors that foreign affiliations resorted to invest in Tanzania. In addition, the need for sustainable energy solutions is another strong driving factor that pushed into an increasing l arge-scale investment in Tanzania’s land sector majorly by foreign investors. In Tanzania and Africa generally, global concerns have risen to attention by large scale land acquisitions and foreign direct

Monday, September 23, 2019

Should Abortion be Legal Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Should Abortion be Legal - Essay Example Abortion is a very sensitive issue and proponents of abortion believe that it is the right of the woman to opt for this decision. This stand has been opposed by people who believe that the fetus bears the potential to turn into a complete human being and abortion is equivalent to the ending of an individual’s life. Abortion is a controversial issue and it should only be legally allowed in the circumstances where the life of the mother may be in danger owing to the pregnancy and this practice should not be permitted legally in other circumstances. Abortion has been opposed on ethical, religious as well as medical grounds. An individual should use his liberty and thinking to opt for what he considers correct or incorrect. But this freedom should not be used in a wrong way so that it leads to negative effects. Pope John Paul II explained this issue and presented that all human beings should maintain a correct balance between their rights of liberty and the important decisions of their life. Abortion is an example where this balance is lost. The negativities of abortion should be considered before opting for this strong step. Pro-life supporters and ethical groups argue that abortion should be a practice that should only be restricted for cases where the pregnancy can prove to be a risk for the life of the mother or in other untoward incidents like in victims of sexual assault. But these reasons are the least common reasons which account for abortion cases in the United States. It is seen that only one percent of abortions are carried out under these circumstances and 99 percent of the abortions are done as a method of birth control or for other reasons given by women. A better way should be opted by the government to tackle these issues rather than providing for options like abortion. Better techniques include proper and managed awareness programs for the pregnant woman as well as her family. Furthermore, appropriate health management and support should be provided (Quito 2007). Abortion is also highlighted to be wrong by the religious groups. The religious groups claim that reproduction is a natural process of life and it is an ability provided by God to human beings. To disregard and alter this process is incorrect and not justified even on moral grounds. The role of parents is to care and nurture for their children and this role should not be changed into a brutal step of killing one’s own child for reasons like free will. The drawbacks of abortion have also been put forward by many medical groups on the basis of different studies and researches. A research that was published in the year 1994 in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute provided insight into the fact that a complete pregnancy improved the health status of a woman and proved to be a shield against the occurrence of breast cancer. The chances of breast cancer are 50 percent greater in females who opt for abortion. This risk following is even higher in femal es who already have a genetic susceptibility of the development of breast cancer owing to the occurrence of the condition in family members. According to Dr. James Moran who was the Director at the Cancer Institute, the initial increase in the levels of estrogen in the female body during pregnancy can alter the normal breast cells. In the initial phase,

Sunday, September 22, 2019

Pearl Harbor Essay Example for Free

Pearl Harbor Essay When we were asked to consider a question to answer, which would have been suitable for our personal study, I knew straight away that I would want to structure my question around Pearl Harbor. Since childhood, watching movies about Pearl Harbor always caught my attention. From most movies and books it seemed to me as if the Japanese people were just cruel and evil people, who had no basis to attack America; so was this the reason for the bombing? That they were just cruel people? Or did they have a legitimate reason which had been completely cut out of history by authors and the Hollywood directors? That question was embedded in my mind, and I always thought that I would research it when I had time, or to speak the truth, be motivated to. After sitting a few classes in lower sixth history, which was based upon our personal studies; I had realised that this was the time I was looking for. I could answer a question that really made me think, and not only that I would also be doing it as a little study. This furthered my interest on such a crucial time during World War Two. I went to the library and took out a couple of books regarding Pearl Harbor. Once I had read the books; I assumed I would now know the reason for Japan bombing Pearl Harbor, but the books I read had something in common, it told me how the bombing took place, how many were killed or injured etc, but never once mentioned why this all had taken place. The bombing by a few historians was seen as a focal point in that era, which helped secure a win for the Allies, so why was only half of the story published? In-fact it I possessed the same amount of knowledge on this particular topic, as I had done previously. This was when I decided to take it a step further and took out a selection of books regarding the bombing of Pearl Harbor, and also did some research on the internet. At first it was overwhelming having so much information in front of my eyes and now knowing how I should analysis it all. This was when I decided that I would read each book/site at different times of the day so I did not get confused. After each book or site I had read, I took a notepad and jotted down all the crucial sentences, phrases, and even copied pictures which would give me jump start. Now knowing that the question was answerable, I submitted it to my history teacher. Whilst I was awaiting her acknowledgment, I for some unknown reason had left everything unfinished. It was only during Christmas holidays, did I really start to think about a basic plan for my personal studies. I knew that in total I should be aiming to have at least three chapters (which did not include my conclusion). I would separate them into three separate categories; time leading up to the bombing, the day the bombing had taken place, and finally a key reason for the atrocity following a conclusion to tie up the lose ends. After receiving a conformation on the title, all I had to do was to read my notes which had been previously written a little while before. I would say that making my notes before writing the study had helped me a lot. I did not have to waste my time finding and analysing facts, as I had already done so. By the end of January, I had completed my first complete draft. It seemed to me that I had covered all the relevant issues which had to be mentioned which would help me get an answer. In total my first draft was made up of two-thousand one-hundred words, around a little more than a thousand words short than the maximum allowed. I took advantage of this and decided that I would use this gap to analysis each fact I presented. This was a good idea as I could comment on whether I thought a source was reliable or not. Overall I was satisfied with what I had achieved, in the space of time I had left. In future if I were ever given a similar task as this, I would remember to use the time wisely, and not take it for granted. I am sure if I had done that this time round, I would have been able to go through more sources, which would have given me a much better image to discuss. Another aspect of this study, which I am happy about is the fact it has shown me that I am capable of answering such an awkward question, and can make a sound judgment on what are relevant facts and what are just unreliable. This study also gave me a new perspective on the whole topic surrounding the incident at Pearl Harbor; I got an answer to my question, and had been implanted a new question in my head. Did America provoke Japan into making the first move, which would secure the fate of America fighting the Nazi regime? Who knows, some time in the future when I have the motivation I may be very well be answering that question, and am sure I could to a reasonable job of it due to the skills I have picked up from answering this study. Please Note: The writing in italic is the quote and the writing in bold is my comment on the source. The letter or number beside the quote indicates where I got it from, the list of books and sites can be seen on the last page. Chapter One Events leading up to the attack of Pearl Harbor The Japanese attack on the American fleet based at Pearl Harbor was less an attempt to provoke the United States into a declaration of war than a final admission that war between the United States and Japan was bound to come. Through hindsight I know that this quote is quiet reliable; it shows that there was hostility between the twp nations which had provoked the bombing. When trying to answer the question (above) and you come across such quotes; you can see the jigsaw taking shape. On the other hand, I still have to be cautious as this was written thirty-nine years after the bombing, and could have been exaggerated to make Japan look as if they were ware mongers. This signaled the end of a long period of increasing bitterness between the two nations. The struggle was centered on Japans ambitions for an unchallenged hegemony in the Far East. During the early 1920s the Americans held a conference in Washington. This was in direct result of Japan ceasing Manchuria. The reason America had condemned and refused to recognize the state of Manchukuo (which was set up to replace Manchuria) was solely due to the fact that the Japanese troops had just marched into Manchuria and took it over, as well as the fact that it presented a direct threat to the open door policy. Japan was becoming an increasingly crowded country; Manchuria offered around 200,000 square kilometers of land, which to the Japanese looked as an attractive offer. By 1931 Japan had invested vast sums of money into the economy of Manchuria, which at that time was controlled by the South Manchuria Railway Company. In order to protect the money Japan had invested, they stationed a large army in the South of Manchuria. An explosion on a section of the South Manchuria Railway had given the Japanese an excuse to blame the local population of sabotage and to occupy Manchuria. The Americans in Washington stated that Great Britain, United States, and Japan would be allowed to have the amount of ships in a naval fleet at the ration of 5:5:3. Obviously the Japanese were the ones to pull the short straw. As years went by, there were several more treaties signed and enforced, which furthermore restricted Japan and its naval fleet. The same treaties also had an impact on the United States and Great Britain, but it had a deeper impact on Japan, rather than on the western super powers. In December of 1936 Japan has urged the United States to be lenient and allow them (Japan) to have naval parity, but this was rejected on the grounds of pre-existing treaties. The rejection had given no other alternative, but to withdraw from the London Conference, which was going to be held on January of 1936. Within a year of the withdrawal, the Japanese construction of naval vessels had, exceeded that of France, Italy, Germany and Russia. They were now looking to be a formidable rival to the American fleet in the Pacific. As they were re-arming their forces, they had noticed that many countries in Asia seemed to fear the Japanese. This to Japan looked like a new opportunity for Japan to conquer Asia. Already Japans leaders were declaring a policy of Japanese hegemony over Eastern Asia. When President Roosevelt declared I hate war in a speech in 1936, Japan must have sensed that they would most probably get away with attacking USA. When President Roosevelt said that he hated war, I would say that it had a hidden agenda behind it. Knowing that the only way he could go to war was is someone from the axis would attack the USA; he knew that Hitler was scared to bring in America, so they had to provoke another member of the axis, as Italy was to far, it would have to be Japan. Knowing that if Japan was provoked they would make a rash move, he set out to trap them. First say he hates ware, then secondly move and rename a fleet to the pacific, giving a mirage which showed that American troops were sitting ducks which was not capable of defending itself from an attach. This source is quiet reliable as it has from the President of America during the period it question, and it also had a direct correlations with the study title, as it shows that America was trying to play a cat and mouse game with Japan. In the month of July of the year 1937, Japan had ceased the opportunity and moved its forces to Inner Mongolia, and Northern China. The reason they did this was because they could extend their control of power. The Americans had sympathized with the Chinese and public opinion asked for something stronger to be done, rather than moral gestures put forward. President Roosevelt replied with nothing more forceful than his Quarantine speech of October 1977. The President saw war as a disease and that the best thing would be to stop the contagion spreading. He suggested A quarantine of the patients in order to protect the health of the community against the spread of the disease. The League of Nations in 1932 had condemned the actions that were inflicted by Japan, which violated the Nine Power Treaty and the Kellogg Pact. To show Japan and the entire world, that the League of Nations would not accept such atrocities, they offered to hold a conference in Brussels. As anticipated, Japan bluntly did not attend. Shortly after this, the Americans had decided that they were going to evacuate all their nationals from Chinese territories. The Japanese militarists saw this move as a sign of weakness. To test the ever so fragile cabinet and leader of the Americans, Japan had bombed and sunk Gunboat Panay, on 13th December 1937 in the Yangtze River. The Americans immediately protested, demanding reparations. Japan apologized promptly and paid indemnities. Japan had taken over most of Northern and Central China by 1938. This led America to urge to manufactures to put a moral embargo on the shipments of aircrafts and other ware attributed material. This did not seem to disturb, nor stop the Japanese from invading. By 1940 they had marched to the French-Indo China region, and had taken control. By now, there was sharp disagreement on United States policy towards Japan in American government circles, with the cabinet itself divided. Experienced diplomats and statesmen such as Henry Morgenthal and Henry L. Stimsom said that some sort of ultimatum should have been given to Japan. In mounting pressure Roosevelt issued an order restricting the supply of strategic materials, especially petroleum products to Japan. After much deliberation, he also allowed a naval fleet to re-base itself from San Diego to Pearl Harbor, which was in Honolulu, Hawaii. They were later renamed to the Pacific Fleet. Now tensions between the two nations were going to increase to a new level. The Japanese had to avoid provoking the Americans into war diplomatically, whilst still taking their exploiting their opportunity to the fullest possible.

Saturday, September 21, 2019

The Inelastic Price Demand For Wheat

The Inelastic Price Demand For Wheat From a case study South Africas price of an agricultural commodity wheat fall because their suppliers United States had a boosted productivity of wheat caused by snowfall weather conditions. It is therefore concluded that the supply of wheat is elastic as the production of wheat can vary from year to year due to competition on market and whether conditions .The demand of wheat is inelastic because the consumer responsiveness is small when there is a decrease in the price of wheat .Wheat can also be viewed as normal good. [Word Count 887] South Africas wheat price fall for the first time after the price of the grain in the US dropped as snowfall in US boosted harvest. This increase in productivity of wheat in United States has an impact on South Africas wheat price because South Africa is a net importer of wheat. The nation is the regions biggest importer after Nigeria and Sudan, according to US Department of Agricultural data (Bloomberg News, 2013, 1).The snowfall resulted in more productivity of wheat therefore creating a high competitive market between the suppliers and consumers since wheat has a number of daily products .The price of wheat is therefore forced by market competition to decrease to P0 also creating a new market equilibrium E1. P S0 S1 P1 E0 P0- E1 D Quantity 0 q1 q2 q3 Therefore this production increases according to Parkin et el An increase in supply brings a shift of the supply curve to the right, (Parkin et al, 2010:104). Therefore the quantity of wheat supplied by United States will results in the supply curve S0 shifting to the as shown by the bold arrow .In this article the wheat production was boosted by snowballs falling on wheat farms, making the weather more favourable to produce more of wheat. This is an example of natural cause of production as there was no any human input to increase production. On the other natural causes can also have negative impacts for example if wheat is attacked by some kind of disease or pest the production will be very low. Other factors that increases the quantity supplied are, technology according to Econport production technology is involved in the process part. Increases in the level of production technology can make that process more efficient, (Econport, 2013).Technological advancements for example if a new wheat harvester machine is introduced the results are more wheat productivity and more surplus. This production is also affected by the number of suppliers in wheat market which when there are many they create a competitive market whereby the suppliers will not determine prices Supply for wheat is elastic since the supply of wheat varies every year which is caused by weather, in this case snowfalls and also the market competition as shown by the supply curve S0 which are less steeper and elasticity is greater than 1.Therefore a small change in the price of wheat will result will result in a larger change of quantity demanded for example if the price of wheat increases 2% quantity demanded will change by 7%. The determinants causing shifts in supply are, proportion of income for example consumers prefer commodities they can afford, the amount of the commodity demanded for example if the demand is high the suppliers are most likely to raise the commoditys price, price of related goods consumers usual prefer cheaper commodities, substitute goods related for example if the price of coffee increases the demand for tea will be high. In this case wheat is a normal good which is inelastic as consumers are less responsive to change in price. Change in demand for wheat in this article will be a small increase in amount (q1-q0).In this article the small increase is caused by price fall and in this situation consumers are more willing to buy more of wheat. The responsiveness of consumers is very small. If the price was increasing the consumers will buy less and more likely to substitute wheat with the next available alternative. Other factors include level of income if the price increases it makes a negative effect to consumers income therefore they will buy less. Consumers choice and wiliness to buy. The size of the population a larger population consumes more wheat than a smaller one and government policies for example if the government sets its minimum price above the equilibrium point the quantity demanded is reduced. Price movements are shown on the vertical axis .before the price of wheat fall the price was p1 and equal to the market equilibrium E0 where the supply and demand curves intersect. When the supply curve moved to the right the equilibrium also moved to our new equilibrium E1.As wheat price decreased our supply curve shifted to supply curve S1.This results in the shift of the market equilibrium to E1.The quantity change is (q1-q0).Looking at the demand curve we can see that it is steep therefore it has a elasticity value closer to 0 .This means wheat is relatively inelastic that is elasticity ranges between 0 and 1. This implies that change in price of wheat is greater than the change in quantity .This classifies wheat as normal goods. Thus according to Tutor2u Inferior goods have a negative income elasticity of demand, demand falls as income rises(Tutor2u,2013).For example at ceteris paribus if the price of wheat increases by 8% the quantity demanded will changes with a small percenta ge like 1%.Other types of goods are normal, luxury goods. Wheat is an agricultural commodity that is needed to produce products like bread and pastas therefore it is normal commodity and in this case consumer responsiveness to change in price is small therefore wheat is income inelastic. As wheat farmers produce more there will create a competitive market which gives us a new lower price and a new market equilibrium point E1.The supply of wheat is elastic which means a small change in price will result in a large change in quantity demanded.

Friday, September 20, 2019

The Rogerian approach to therapy has severe limitations

The Rogerian approach to therapy has severe limitations Carl Rogers (1902-1987) was a major force for psychology in the twentieth century. His theory on client centred therapy is still used today in mainstream counselling though now it is more widely known as person centred. To whether client centred therapy is supportive rather than reconstructive, Rogers work focused on phenomenology and his three core conditions to a working relationship; Unconditional Positive Regard, Empathy and Congruence. I will explore which aspects are supportive and which are reconstructive and whether there are any limitations to this approach. Rogers believed that everyone has the ability to change for the better and they hold all the answers within them even if they do not know it yet. His theory was based around three core conditions that the therapist should abide by in order to help the client feel at ease, feel confident in themselves and develop their own answers. These core conditions are Empathy, Congruence and Unconditional Positive Regard (UPR). This essay will look at Rogers theory on client-centred therapy; Phenomenology and the three core conditions. The essay will also evaluate whether there are any limitations to Rogerian theory due to it being supportive rather than reconstructive. In 1928, Carl Rogers went off to Rochester, NY where he took his first job at the Rochester Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children where he worked essentially as a child clinical psychologist until 1938. In 1936 Rogers became interested in the Rankian approach to therapy after attending a series of Otto Ranks lectures. Rogers always stated that Rankian influenced the shape that person centered counseling took, especially its emphasis on the positive characteristics of the individual, the quality of the therapeutic relationship, and a focus on responding to feelings. I became infected with Rankian ideas. (Kramer cited in www.ottorank.com) When Rogers was at Rochester he worked with a mother whose son was displaying behavioural problems. Dryden (2007) wrote that Rogers saw the root of the problem as the mothers rejection of her son as a baby. Rogers could not get the mother to see this and was about to give up when she asked for adult counselling for herself. This shift in focus served as a catalyst for her to speak about all her problems she was experiencing. Rogers found this case a turning point in what therapy should be about; the client (Rogers 1939). It began to occur to me that unless I had a need to demonstrate my own cleverness and learning, I would be better to rely upon the client for the direction of movement in the process. (Dryden 2007:145) Around the time of Rogers, theorists such as Strange (1950) saw counselling as a relationship, which encourages growth in both and therapist and the client. Smith (1955) defined counselling as therapist led in that they would assist the client in interpreting their problems and thoughts (cited in Chadra Gupta 1989:187) In 1951 Rogers published Client-Centred Therapy which established him highly in the psychotherapeutic community. Rogers claimed that behavioural therapists were preventing their clients from self-actualizing and discovering their own solutions. Carl Rogers (1951) developed his client-orientated approach to meet the demand of personal freedom (Chadra Gupta 1989:187) in that it seats the client at the centre of the process with the therapist just walking alongside. Rogers work was based on the belief that the client know what is best for themselves rather than followers of psychoanalysis and behavioural theories which sees the therapist interpreting the problem and what is solution is. Rogers try to make clients feel unique, he wanted to understand how the client felt and reflected their statements back to them. Rogers (1951) saw the purpose of counselling being a more broadly based structure of self, an inclusion of a greater projection of experience as a part of self and a more comfortable and realistic adjustment to life. (Chadra Gupta 1989:11) Rogers tended to distance himself from already established theories as he felt that it attempted to fit the client into a mould rather than seeing the client as they are. He found then that he could devote his energy instead to relating deeply to his clients and discovering with them what worked. (Thorne 2003:24) Rogers had an understanding that a person was not just made up of ID and Ego (Freudian theory) but was also a product of his or her environment, family and values. He saw a persons behaviour as subjective to himself or herself. To Rogers, the equality between the client and therapist was integral to a healthy and positive therapeutic relationship. Rogers felt that if the therapist were to be seen as the expert it would throw the relationship off balance, as it is the client who is the one with all the answers, not the therapist. The issue of power is central to his understanding of the therapeutic relationship. (Thorne 2003:25) The subjective experience of the client is key to Rogers client centred approach and if the therapist is the one with the power then the client may feel no validity in their own thoughts and self understanding. Hence, the therapeutic relationship breaks down and the client will never achieve success in finding his or her own answers (i.e. Conditional Regard of what the therapist wants). Rogers therapy is supportive in that the therapist accompanies the client on their journey whilst displaying UPR, congruence and empathy but it is also reconstructive as it enables the client to make the right changes for themselves without any judgement of the therapist. The therapist should be a facilitator not an authorative expert. In my opinion, Rogers seeing the clients as client and not patients is what sets aside this form of working from the doctor-patient medical model. Rogers way of working encouraged therapy o be a process about the individual and their needs, not a diagnostic tool which is generic to every patients symptoms. The process is the key factor. (Dryden 2007:186) Phenomenology holds the belief that all humans behave in response and accordance of their own subjective understanding and awareness of where we are in the world. The therapists function is to aid the client in the exploration and discovery of his or her own inner resources. (Thorne 2003:25) Central to Rogers phenomenological theory is optimism and that a human has a basic optimistic view and if supported in finding an understanding in their subjective world, then the client would start to engage in behaviours and thoughts that were positive. This concept became known as The Actualising Tendency. Carl Rogers believed that there was one motivational force that determined the development of the human being. He called this the Actualising Tendency. (Mearns Thorne 2008:12) In Rogers understanding and anthropological research he found that humans, in nature, have an innate desire to move towards progress, positiviness and their potential. Like a flower sown in rough soil surrounded by darkness and poisons, it will strive towards even a glimmer of light in order to survive and grow. Rogers saw peoples behaviour as no different. Rogers continued this analogy by explaining that the rougher and poorer soil (i.e. the environment someone is in), the more water and nourishment theyll need. The harder a persons situation and circumstances, the more support they will need to find and grow towards their Actualising Tendency. Depending on the person, this process can be slow and sometimes even stop depending on their self-perception or other parts of them, which can be, more resistant to change or self-realisation. The Human Organism itself manifests this tendency and has infinite inner resources. For Rogers the tendency to actualise the self is essentially a subsystem of the Actualising tendency. (Thorne 2003:27) This supportive element of Rogers worth explored questions such as How does it feel and What it be like toà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦known as Spotlighting. Although Rogers is directing the conversion, the client is still recognising their own behaviours and coming to their own conclusions about any changes that need to be implemented; self-actualizing. This is reconstructive an example of this would be weight loss: Within the framework of the Self Actualizing Tendency Rogers believed that humans have enormous resources for successful living and to achieve a happy and fulfilled life. Rogers believed that your body knows what it wants and needs and when it is full; you just need to listen to it. The body and mind are connected together with Phenomenology. To the client food may represent more than food, it may represent comfort, acceptance and stress relief and the natural relationship is changed. This can also happen when people starve themselves or diet unhealthily to be an acceptable size by size 0 society norms. When people are pregnant they tend to listen less to society and more to their body and less to society and previous conditioned values i.e. I might be getting bigger but my baby needs me to eat more. Rogers supported in clients in feeling open enough to talk about their relationship with food and would help them peel back the onion layers i.e. you overeat due to stress, lets address the feelings of stress first. The client then can rebalance their emotional need without eating to feel normal. Through Empathy, UPR and Congruence, the client begins the process of self-actualizing without any limitations imposed from the therapist. This is when the therapist reflects what they key issues that need to be addressed. Although this seems to conflict with Rogers belief that the client finds their own answers, once the key issues are spotlighted, the client then decides what they want to focus on, even if the therapist sees the answers lying elsewhere. Fully Functioning (Rogers 1963) people are as Rogers described are psychologically healthy persons who have been fortunate enough to be surrounded by others whose acceptance and approval have enabled them for at least some of the time to be in touch with their deepest feelings and experiences. (Mearns Thorne 2008:15) Fully Functioning clients have trust in the organismic valuing process and feel confident. Others who are not fully functioning are those who have faced or continue to face negativity, conditional positive regard and judgement. The key to Rogers client centred approach was the concept of self worth. Rogers identified that when we are born we have a tendency towards actualisation. This gets cloudy the older we get, once we inherit parental values, different environments and conditions of worth, reward and our need for positive regard increases. We require at some level and in some way, however minimal, to feel good about ourselves and if this need is not met it is difficult to function in the world. (Thorne 2003: Rogers theory of self was based on the principle that if we are raised in a supportive and positive environment where we receive positive reinforcement for who are and want to do, then we trust in own abilities and our thoughts and feelings in order to make the correct decisions in line with our perception of the world. If however, we are raised in an environment filled with conditions of worth such as If you do x then you will be good or Mummy will love you if, then our need for positive regard in dependant on other people. We will grow up only recognising achievements depending on values and responses of others rather than feeling fulfilled in whom we are and the life we lead; we are only dependent on ourselves. Psychological disturbances will be perpetuated if an individual continues to be dependent to a high degree on the judgement of others for a sense of self worth. (Mearns Thorne 2008:153) Rogers believed that this dissonance between our innate need for approval and our inner self-wisdom is the root cause of much inner disturbance and lack of self-confidence to make positive decisions on our own, for ourselves. Rogers saw this as a lack of self-trust in the organismic valuing process. If people are not raised in a supportive environment where they are listened to and valued then the supportive environment of Rogerian therapy might be their first experience of feeling valued. Rogers believed in a mixture of his therapy being supportive as well as reconstructive and the process should emphasise the thinking with the individual, not for the individual. People cannot only be affected by their inter-personal relationships but also by their social and cultural norms. An example of this affecting a persons Actualizing Tendency is when the media and society portrays a size 0 image as what is the new definition of beautiful. For those that arent that particular size it could make them feel devalued by society and could impact on their esteem and confidence levels. This is turn could affect and superseded their Unconditional Positive Regard (UPR) they received from their parents saying they are ok the way they are and leave the person feeling lost and insecure. Rogers highlighted the importance of giving UPR in sessions, empathising with clients and building a good rapport and level of trust. Through this client-focused medium, the client can start working on the issues they feel are negative to them; comparing themselves and valuing themselves against the size 0 images in magazines. The therapist aims to create an environment in which the client can be supported to achieve personal growth by reconnecting with their Organismic Valuing Process (how I feel), Self-Actualizing Tendency (what do I need) and their Internal Locus of Control (I am worthy). These supportive key elements to Rogers theory highlight the persons need for unconditional positive regard, empathy and congruence. The therapist provides a relationship of trust, warmth and UPR that encourages clients to talk about themselves and their feeling. (Heap Aravind 2002:186) Empathy by Collins dictionary definition is the power of understanding and imaginatively entering into another persons feelings. (www.freedictionary.com) Empathy is the therapists ability to understand the clients subjective perceptual world and how they see themselves and the world around them. It is a process. In person centred therapy the counsellor tries to enter the clients frame of reference and walk alongside him in his world. (Mearns Thorne 2008:69) It is important that the therapist remains reliable and strong and not get sucked down into the clients world so much that they lose sight of their role in this process. A good analogy of where that boundary is and why is The Well. If a client is stuck at the bottom of a well there is little point the therapist getting down into the well with them to find out how they are as then they would both be stuck. Instead, the therapist could sit on the edge of the well, talking to the client and empathising that this situation must be hard, lonely etc without being down there and equally stuck. Rogers believed that an empathetic approach required the therapist to be secure within themselves before entering into a clients world: the As If factor. This is to state that the therapist should enter to clients world as if they were there, not get lost in it. When this is achieved, there can be movement in the clients self-concept and worth, as the therapist is able to express empathetic responses, which show the client they are being understood. Although each person experiences the world differently, a therapists understanding and appreciation of a persons problems and hardship can be supportive to the client. Rogers believed that empathy could be shown in therapy through good body language, summarising and reflection. Empathy is a continuing process whereby the counsellor lays aside her own way of experiencing and perceiving reality, preferring to sense and respond to the experiencing and perceptions of her client. (Mearns Thorne 2008:67) Communication is key to this core condition. When a client feels accepted, valued and understood it aids feelings of alienation, loneliness and desperation. Rogers referred back to these core conditions as integral to person centred counselling therapy. Unconditional Positive Regard (UPR) as non-judgemental acceptance of a client and is key to the client feeling safe enough to work through their negative feelings. Rogers believed in peoples honesty when not faced with judgment and rejection; the client should be accepted as they are not as they want to be or how the therapist feels they should be. Rogers advocated that the client should be totally accepted with no exceptions. If the therapist accepts you, that is one step closer to self-acceptance. If the therapist can show UPR regardless of what the client says i.e. I hate my mother and want to kill her and empathise with how they feel, they will be in a relaxed trustworthy environment to open up to what might be underlying these feelings. Rogers believed these core conditions can help the client come to terms with their emotions and in turn, their self-regard will improve. Although this could be seen as facilitating a change I see it as more reconstructive as it can go far deeper than the presenting need and the therapist might never be aware of where the change is actually happening i.e. being able to talk about hating their mother might spark revelations that can now be accepted i.e. Its not my fault. In practical terms it can be hard for some therapists to let go of the power or lead the client to elicit change. This will lead the client down their own path of self-change and correction of negative behaviours and false statements which is far more powerful. Rogers saw that most people accessing therapy had little UPR in their life and saw this is a root of their problems. Unconditional positive regard is the label given to the fundamental attitude of the person centred counsellor towards her clientà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦and is not deflected in that valuing by any particular client behaviours. (Mearns Thorne 2008:95) Rogers believed that this consistent unconditional regard aids the clients process of feeling valued and break down barriers the client might be putting up in order to feel accepted. Unconditional Positive Regard is important as it directly conflicts with the self-defeating cycle. This cycle (Mearns Thorne 2008:99) promotes a clients condition of worth, which they might have carried around all their life. With the therapist counteracting this, it can aid the client in finding a break through in their negative patterns. These core conditions to Rogerian client-centred therapy are both supportive; the UPR, but also reconstructive as the client is the one finding their own answers, without condition or judgment from the therapist. Yet this can only be achieved with empathy and congruence otherwise it may seem false. Congruence is characterised by the therapist being transparent to the client, not superior to them. It is genuine, authentic and real. The therapist conveys this genuine realness and allows the client to see them as a human being not a doctor hiding behind certificates and metaphorical white coats. Congruence can be displayed verbally; thats terrible, I dont understand, please say that again, and non-verbal communication such as facial expressions and body language which reflects, not mimics, the clients. This process of the three core conditions supports the client in feeling relaxed and confident to look at their problems honestly and without judgement though it is reconstructive as the client is the one in the drivers seat; making the changes for themselves. From the reading I have done for this essay I feel that the one main limitation to Rogerian theory regarding its supportive nature would be that Rogers non-directive approach to therapy is not consistent as reconstructive as with techniques such as summarising and selective reinforcement, answers and reactions can be shaped. I have found another limitation is Rogers belief in the potential of the fully functioning person, which is not achievable in reality. Although the idea is something to aim for! Does supportive mean it cant be reconstructive? Only the client knows what they need and once they connect with that, only they will know how they feel. The therapist can support them in their journey but it is actually made by the client. Rogation therapy is based on both a supportive and reconstructive stance as the client benefits from the empathy, Unconditional Positive Regard and congruence the therapist gives them but ultimately it is the client who recognises where changes could be beneficial and implicates them. One of the most rewarding moments in a counselling process comes when a client discovers or re-discovers the dependability of his organismic valuing process however temporary or partial this may be. (Mearns Thorne 2008:14) I feel in conclusion that Rogerian therapy can be both supportive and reconstructive and that is the mix of the two, which takes away any major limitations. WORD COUNT: 3449