Introduction to Visual Cultures and Narrative Form Essay

Introduction to Visual Cultures and Narrative Form - Essay Example Said (1979, pp. 1-3) in his criticism of orientalism redefined it as the constellation of false assumptions that underlay the attitude of the Western nations towards the Middle East. The Western nations, America and European thereby used orientalism culture and romanticized images of Middle East and Asia as a justification of their colonial and imperial ambitions. Said fiercely denounces this culture and equally criticizes the Arab elites whose practices revolved around internalized ideas from British and American orientalists. The danger linked to the orientalism culture by the West is that some East can treat it as truth thereby affecting relations and ideologies. However, Said (1979) emphasizes that it is hard to label half of the continent as orient and manage to generalize that what applies to Egyptians equally applies to Chinese. Orientalism in this paper supports Edward Said’s critical theory approach to international relations theory where the West forms a one-way imag e of the Oriental. The discussion focuses on definition of terms, orientalism and Occident, and early orientalism and contemporary orientalism. The orient according to Said (1978, p. 4) refers to a representations’ system enclosed by forces from politics that introduced the orient into western consciousness, Western learning, and Western Empire. The system of representation results from the condensation of diverse attributes into a single image not from facts but from perceptions that are regarded as a standard of comparison (Hall, 1992). In addition, orientatlism offers a criterion for evaluation that other world societies rank negatively or positively thereby functioning as an ideology. For the West, the orient is constructed relative to the West and has largely assisted in the definition of Europe or the West since it is views as the contrasting image, experience, idea, and personality (Said, 1979, pp. 1-2). The

The Violent Content in Mein Kampf Essay Example for Free

The Violent Content in Mein Kampf Essay Im a parent in West Allis, WI and Im writing a letter to all the schools of Wisconsin to put the book Mein Kampf by Adolf Hitler under review because of its R rated material that should be banned from all schools. This book must to be banned from all Wisconsin schools because of its violent, racist, and anti-semitic content. This book should not be allowed in schools what so ever and there needs to be a end to it now. First off the book Mein Kampf needs to be banned because of its violent content. For example in the book it says how hitler envisioned the mass murder of Jews, and a war against France to precede a war against Russia. There should not be books allowed in schools that tell you about how killing Jews was okay. Second off the book has to be banned from schools because of its racist and anti-semitic content. In the book its explains hitlers racist and anti-semitic vision for Germany. Which has a negative impact on people. This R-Rated material should not be allowed in schools in Wisconsin nor anywhere because of its inappropriate content. These are just a couple of reasons why this book must be banned from schools. The book Mein Kampf by Adolf Hitler must be banned from all Wisconsin schools because of it violent, racist, and anti-semitic content. It is important that this book gets banned from all Wisconsin schools because there is no need for students to read or learn about all this inappropriate and R-Rated content. Yes I believe there is a need to read and learn about World War Two, but I also believe that there is Dear Wisconsin Schools

Walt Whitman as a Voice for the People Essay examples -- Walt Whitman

Walt Whitman as a Voice for the People "The proof of a poet is that his country absorbs him as much as he absorbs his country." This brilliant quote from Walt Whitman thus ends his preface to Leaves of Grass, and thereafter begins the poem "Song of Myself." To many, upon their first reading, this was a crude, shocking and distasteful piece of work. but to me...this was a celebration of life. And not just a celebration of his own life, but of every life, of the American life. Walt Whitman is the "voice of the people" and this I believe because, while he did write of things that were not seen as aesthetically beautiful by many...including homosexuality, loneliness, and death. And while these topics were not picturesque to many people, they are life. Real life. And this is what I, as a reader, loves the most about "Song of Myself". His voices is a fresher wind from those that came before him. Whitman offered an entirely new style that could make even similar subject matter seem incredibly different, and embody entirely opposite emotions. America was finally allowed to step out into the windà ­ and learn how refreshing truth can be. Walt Whitman was the voice of every American. First of all, I love the awareness that Whitman has of his own life, and of everyone elseà ­s life. He hides nothing of himself from the reader, and offers himself truthfully, saying: "Welcome is every organ and attribute of me, and of any man hearty and clean, Not an inch nore a particle of an inch is vile, and none shall be less familiar than the rest" (section 3, lines 49-51) We are able to see that this poet has such a love of life, acceptance of order, and honesty to offer. In turn he allows the ... ...e. Nothing is insignificant when seen through Whitmanà ­s eyes. Also, in this subject, we really see his Pantheist view coming out loud and clear when we writes: "I hear and behold God in every object, yet I understand God not in the least, Nor do I understand who there can be more wonderful than myself." (lines 1274-5) I found Walt Whitman to be an incredible poet, and I loved his writing style. He had the ability to make everything significant, and natural. He had a way of letting everything fall into ità ­s own place, without casting a certain order. I will conclude by leaving you with Whitmanà ­s own words, in the hopes that they will inspire you as much as they have me: "Long enough have you dreamed contemptible dreams, Now I wash the gum from your eyes, You must habit yourself to the dazzle of the light and of every moment of your life."

Change: Discovering the Leader

Introduction:This paper seeks to prepare a book report for Deep Change: Discovering the Leader Within by Robert E. Quinn. The paper will discuss the perceived purpose of the author in writing the books and how he tried to support his claims. The paper hopes to either confirm or deny what the author tries to impart on the basis of the relevance of the author’s claims to reality and the personal experience of writer of this paper.The purpose of the authorThe purpose of the author (Quinn) in writing the book is to challenge the reader to recognize that everyone is a potential change agent. The author believes that people are capable of deep changes if they willing to take the difficult but essential steps to experience the same.   He built his thesis on a strong foundation by first contrasting   between deep change and incremental change. He argues that in general, most change that takes place in the life of an individual is incremental due to the fact that people are uncomfo rtable with major changes.   Incremental changes just involved movement in small steps that most people would like to take.The authors provided possible exception to the choice of incremental change and that this occurs when a person is faced with a major crisis.   To explain the author’s position, the case of a person who experienced a heart attack may be used as an example of major crises. It is common knowledge that people would like to survive and would do everything to prevent another attack after the first one. Under this scenario the person who suffered attack would be motivated to make deep lifestyle changes in habits.These changes could include changes such as stopping smoking and become choosy about dietary requirements.   The same major crises may also be observed when a family marriage is on the brink of divorce. Under said situation, marriage partners will be forced to make comprehensive changes in these communicate or handle conflict. But, when there are n o major crises in the life of during periodic times many people will agree that people typically make changes in a slow and incremental manner instead of making needed deep change.The observable fact that was illustrated above on a personal level can also be could also be observed in the life of organizations. The tendency towards small incremental change rather deep change happens because people are normally resistant of change of big changes in their personal lives.   It could be argued that such is observation is a natural phenomenon since people in their individual capacities are still the same people when they find themselves in organizations.   It could also be argued that leadership needs to be mindful of bringing people along in the midst of change, but in the life of organizations there are really times that organizations need to experience deep change to survive.This could be observed in the case of joint ventures and mergers.   These business combinations are someti me reactions to economic changes in the environment.  Ã‚   Managers need to have better returns and they find the expected synergy that would be created from mergers and joint ventures. If companies would stay as they are, there are possibilities that the they have reached their points of stagnancy. This could be observed in the case of cell phone companies.Sony are Ericsson are separate companies until they see the need to compete with other mobile companies there companies that dominate the market. Seeing the profitability of the industry, Sony and Ericsson combined in a joint venture (Steinbock, 2002) to product to produce Sony Ericsson cell phones. If one analyses however what happened, one could see that the cause was external to the organizations.   Without the mergers, the separate companies might be just earning much to sustain operations and before they know it, they would have forgone the great opportunities that they are now enjoying after the merger.   In this cont ext, author Quinn is correct in stating that without deep change, habitual patterns may just make organizations to move continuously toward decay and stagnation (Quinn, 1996).While it may be argued that organizations must react to changes in the  environment, there seems to be more wisdom in the belief that organizations must anticipate changes by doing strategies that would help the company make use of is internal strengths to taking advantage of its opportunities.   In other words organizations must have its plans for the future implemented by considering what it has internally and not just reacting to external events. The latter makes the company responsible and control of its purposes while in the first the companies by analogy just get swayed by waves of external changes.The logic of task pursuitWhat could be keeping organization to seek their chances for deep changes for growth without the external factors?   In answer to this question, Quinn has discussion of the logic of task pursuit.   A good number of people, when under pressure for task completion, simply manifest lack of chance to consider routine maintenance. This could be illustrated by the fact that if a person does not take time to experience physical regeneration by resting and exercising, his or her body will experience exhaustion.This is applicable with the spiritual life of such person. People need to spend some time to detach themselves from the pursuit of tasks to spend time alone. Solitude could generate strength in character. If applied to an organization, it would appear that each person in management needs to set aside time to revisit its company’s mission and to ensure that the work of the company is in alignment with that mission. The failure to set aside the logic of pursuit to visit the company’s mission and vision provided the grounds for Quinn's observation that organizational change doesn't take place. He posits that that the leading coalition in an organi zation is rarely interested in considering deep changes of this logic of task pursuit.   He supported his theory by the fact of pressures within most organizations to conform to the prevailing structure (Quinn, 1996).Based on this, the author could be credited for a wonderful job of identifying the barriers of bureaucratic culture, ingrained conflict, and personal time restrictions. The author is therefore very much meaningful to suggest to management of companies to give time for managers to develop deeper relationships within themselves to prepare to be ready and willing to that deep change.   Ã‚  In opting for the need to reflect, it could be argued that in most cases people do not need new skills and competencies.   What these people really need is a new perspective that permits them to act as empowered leaders in a changing organization. This new perspective must come from within the personal reflections of the organizational leaders who have renewed their commitment to t he company.There is therefore basis to agree with the author that that personal deep change must come before deep change within a system or organization. He argues while normally if not most of the time organizational change must come from the top as it flows down below, he strongly the author believes that it can also happen to start from the bottom towards the top.   In subscribing to the fact that deep change requires a personal evaluation of the ideologies that under bind the organizational culture, the author saw that in the final analysis it is still the people who will make the decision. Thus Quinn believed that as people desire to see change in the lives of others, from many areas like in parenting, marriage or work relationships, these same people must examine first what changes need to happen in themselves.   He observed that it is true that people do not easily recognize the part that they play in the problem; this it is really very hard to realize that one is part of the problem (Quinn, 1996). It is easier for people to blame others that to accept the responsibility for the error. If is easier to judge people by looking at the speck in one’s eye than to not one plank in is his or her own eye.ConclusionThe author believes in deep changes that people experience when under major crisis in their lives. His observation that people normally choose incremental change   over deep is very much validated in the lives of people The   fact that he also has observed deep changes in cases of   major crises among people has helped him to discover that deep changes do happen the same way in organizations in case of external events. Such external events are normally challenges for survival for these organizations.In explaining the reason why changes could not happen with out the external changes to organizations, the author found the logic of task pursuit with out routine maintenance.   In arguing therefore that the organizations need to go back to its mission and vision to redirect its efforts toward the proper direction, the author appears convincing in his position that personal deep change must precede deep change within a system or organization. Based on authors claims and supporting examples this paper humbly confirms the validity of the claims made as discussed in the text.Reference:Quinn, R. (1996) Deep Change: Discovering the leader within, Jossey-BassSteinbock, Dan (2002) Wireless Horizon: Strategy and Competition in the Worldwide Mobile Marketplace, AMACOM Div American Mgmt Assn

The Hole in the Wall

Today I finally found an apartment to live in, it's not much but what can you expect? I'm still in college so this is all can afford. The apartment is pretty run down, i was cleaning it up the best i could when i discovered a hole in the wall, it had paper stuffed inside it. I pulled all the paper out to find out that the hole travels all the way to the apartment room next door to mine. You have a clear view of the whole apartment, i could easily spy on my neighbour if i really wanted to. At least it's not a big hole i thought to myself, it's about the size of a golf ball. I reached for my phone to check the time. It's 8:20am. I grabbed the paper and forced it back into the little hole and rushed out the door, i was going to be late for class. When classes ended for the day i decided to go straight home, exhausted, i dragged myself into the elevator. The door was starting to close when this young woman was heading quickly for the elevator. I pushed the button to hold the door open for her, she thanked then we stood in silence. I took a glance her way to realize how attractive this woman was, she had long brown hair and gorgeous green eyes, she looked really smart and put together, i couldn't take my eyes off her. When the elevator stopped on my floor i was surprised to see her get off behind me. I walked for my apartment door to find out that this very attractive woman is my neighbour! I walked into my apartment with a huge grin on my face, thrilled that she was living next door. Later on that night my curiosity got the best of me, I had to take a little peek into the hole in the wall to see what my neighbour was up to. Lucky for me i caught her in the middle of changing. I watched her for a few minutes then decided to cover the hole back up, i don't want to push my luck. After i covered the hole up I did my homework and went to bed. I woke up to someone heavy breathing, it was really strange. At first i thought it was in my dreams but then I realized this was real life. It sounded like someone was struggling, gasping for air. And I'm pretty sure it's coming from my neighbours apartment. Completely terrified, i slowly pulled the paper out of the little hole in the wall. I pressed my face up against the wall and let my eyes adjust to the dark. I was completely horrified from what i saw, someone was stabbing my neighbour to death. I must of watch this person stab her a dozen times. Who ever they were really wanted to make sure she was dead that's for sure. I kept as quiet as i could, waiting for the murderer to leave the apartment, hoping to get a look at their face. When the murderer turned to leave i caught a glimpse of their face, it was a man, very tall with a very narrow face with an abnormally large nose. He would be fairly easy to identify if i were ever to see him again. I backed away from the hole and raced for my phone. I was just about to call the police when i realized I couldn't. If i called them I would have to explain that i was spying on my neighbour through a hole in my wall which sounds creepy and also suspicious. So i put my phone down and sat in my bed, trembling and scarred from what i have just seen. I didn't sleep for the rest of the night and decided to leave for school at the crack of dawn so that i wouldn't be around when someone realizes that my neighbour has been killed. I came home late that night to find two policeman outside my apartment. They started to ask me questions about my neighbour and where i was last night. They came inside my house and took a look around and they found the hole in the wall. I explained that i have only been living here a few days and it's clear that there are still some renovations that need to take place. After hours of questions the police left, tired of getting repetitive answers but I'm not going to reveal my secret so i kept with my story. I decided to put it all behind me and try to move on, the first couple nights i had a hard time sleeping but after a week everything was going good. Then again, i woke up to the same noise in the middle of the night, heavy breathing. It was coming from the apartment next door again. This time i completely panicked because there is no one living in that apartment now. It's still all taped off from the crime scene investigation, no one was been in that room other than the police. I found the courage to rise to my feet, my legs quivered as i walked over to the hole in the wall, not knowing what to expect when i remove the paper from it. I took a deep breath a pulled the paper out. I looked through the hole and saw nothing, there was no one there. I backed away from the wall and forcefully ran my fingers through my hair, i think I’m starting to lose my mind. Then i heard the noise again so i turned towards the hole again. There was a wide-open bloodshot eye starring back at me. The hideous unblinking eye starred at me as i crouched to the floor frozen with fear. Then the silence was broken by a woman’s raspy voice saying â€Å"i know you saw.†