Growth and Development of Characters: Gustad Noble and Elaine Risley Essay

In order to adapt in an ever-changing society, teeming with benevolence and intrigue, an individual must be able to adapt to differentiating surroundings. The human mind and body must grapple with disturbing memories or enthralling dramas of life. These thoughts are channelled through various emotions. Emotions are physical or mental expressions, often involuntary, related to feelings, perceptions or beliefs about elements, objects or relations between them, in reality or in the imagination. The growth and transformation of any entity cannot be justly physical, but also mental strength and wisdom. Past experience of any manner colours the human being for future of constant change. Gustad Noble of Rohinton Mistry’s Such A Long Journey and Elaine Risley of Margaret Atwood’s Cat’s Eye demonstrate the pattern of the â€Å"circle of life†: karma, religion, family and friends. The readers can visualize modest lifestyles maturing in the wake of sudden changes. These modifications have the characters questioning their moral heart as their life charts towards uncharted waters. The authors’ interpretations of these realistic situations construct a model for the readers to judge their lifestyles by. Mistry and Atwood use literary devices, diction, and clever wordplay to enhance the reading experience for the audience. The readers witness the protagonists becoming better individuals through adversity, as they overcome unforeseen challenges. Eastern and Western societies are so different in so many ways, and yet there are some elements that are universal: betrayal, love, compassion, family, and friendship. The emphasis of Elaine and Gustad’s struggles creates an illusion that their tragedies are the readers’ tragedies as well. The central theme of both novels is the need to embrace emotions, especially sadness, and not to run from them and also their different perspectives of change and isolation. It depicts that life has its fair share of bumps in the road, but with persistence and determination, they can be overcome. In the storylines of both novels, friendship and betrayal become quite evident and explicit. In Cat’s Eye, Elaine Risley allows her body and mind to be abused by her so-called â€Å"friends† and to question her sense of identity. This teasing by the girls, Cordelia, Grace, and Carol, shatters Risley’s self-esteem and leads her to adopt disturbed habits, such as peeling her skin, biting her nails, and chewing her hair. In the aftermath of the bridge incident, Elaine stands up for herself and takes a step forward for freedom the girls’ torment and torture. Realization comes crashing down on her, of how she had fallen for the illusion of false friendship. Her childhood was scarred from all the emotional pain she endured. Similarly, in Such A Long Journey, Gustad Noble had also believed he had been betrayed by his closest friend, Major Jimmy Bilimoria. The Major had sent him a large sum of money to be deposited in the bank, however it was money supposedly to be used to aid rebels in East Pakistan in its war effort. Gustad first thought it would be a heroic mission, aiding the army, but he soon realizes the danger he is bringing to his family and career. Unlike Elaine, who was emotionally attached to her â€Å"best friends†, Bilimoria’s actions came as a sudden shock. Jimmy was like family to the Nobles, the children respected and loved him, and provided so much enjoyment to all. First, he departed without a goodbye and then left the Noble family into a trap of deception. Gaustad has his suspicions, but sees this as a test of loyalty to his old friend. His entire family was against it, and for the most part, so was he. However, Gustad would not let his friend’s call go unanswered, but needed a little persuasion. In both situations, the readers want to reach out and help, and make the ordeal seem less complicated, but both characters are emotionally attached to their friends. When it comes to whether friendship was of importance, Elaine and Gustad stand on opposite sides. Gustad was the more open-minded of the two, even showing respect to the mentally unstable Tehmul, while Elaine shunned Cordelia physical, but was still shaken by her past traumas. Gustad does not prefer change as his life in the past is described as paradise to him. It is with change, comes problems. He blames the theme of change of causing his son not to go to IIT, as his son has changed into a different person from before who does not respect him. He also blames the theme of change on Jimmy’s betrayal as Jimmy in the past was seen as the â€Å"loving brother† but now, he focuses on deceiving Gustad to gain his own selfish goals. Gustad’s reluctance to change is further emphasized by the black wall which represents his life in the past during the war, and by leaving those on his windows he emphasizes that he wants things to be just as how they were back then. The black wall is another symbolist element used to represent change, although Gustad is disgusted by its pungent odour, he doesn’t want the wall to be demolished as it is the source of his isolation and separates himself from the rest of the world. On the contrary, with Elaine, change is almost constant throughout the novel. Her suffering in the hands of Cordelia, Grace, and Carol have left her scrambling for answers and questioning her sense of identity. As she matures into an adult, her haunting memories of her childhood continue to stay with her. Constant flashbacks remind her of the past, and how she overcame it. The marble of the cat’s eye is used to represent change, as it was like a talisman that protected Elaine from her past hardships. Before, it was Cordelia who held the upper hand in their relationship, but as they became adults, Elaine realized how both their lives ended in completely contradictory paths. Since everything did not go her way in her past, everything must be perfect in the future, and thus constant change. Both Elaine and Gustad explore the nature of memory and identity, and how experience of the present is coloured by past events. Spirituality and religion also impact the growth and development, as it plays a crucial theme in the lives of Elaine and Gustad. As the world seemed to crash down on him, such as Roshan’s illness, Sohab’s attitude towards going to IIT, Major Jimmy’s issue and his quarrel with a neighbour, Gustad would always turn to his prayers to solve these problems. In Hinduism and Christianity/Catholicism, a person of pure heart is always commended with good fortune, and this was displayed with both Gustad and Elaine. Elaine can be depicted as an immigrant from the start of her arrival in Toronto, different physically and mentally. She was raised as a boy, growing up with her brother Stephen, and was interested in different things than what â€Å"normal† girls would like. The other girls used Elaine like a lower being, in order to feel good about their sub-par appearance. The emotional pain Elaine felt was cured with the aid of the Virgin Mary. One can imagine the Virgin Mary speaking through Elaine as she rejected Cordelias’ demands, freeing her from her prison of unjust treatment. Likewise, Gaustad and his kusti allowed him too overcome the various obstacles in his life. For example, his sacrifice to save an elder’s life left him only with a minor limp, as his friend Major Bilimoria saved him from extensive damages. Also, as the stress began to mount to its peak on Gustad, the readers can easily identify his Gustad’s misfortunes began turning the other way; Roshan recovering, Sohab returning, and learning of Jimmy’s true motifs of the money. One can imagine the wall of divine beings, an idea of Gustad himself, helped alleviate these burdens. This wall became a temple itself, as provided a diverse mental comfort to those to look at it. Gustad would always praise the street artist who brought this monument to life, as it depicted the spiritual beings that the mortals worshipped to prosper in various aspects of life. Faith is almost always the first thing people turn to in times of need and quite different in both Elaine and Gustad’s cases. Elaine did not even believe in any superior beings, until Grace invited her to attend church. It’s peculiar because afterwards, as she prays to Jesus, that she is demanding her prayers are granted. She imagined God as someone who would answer all her problems in a heartbeat. In reality, sometimes life doesn’t turn your way all the time, and Elaine did not know that. This may be why she converted into a Catholic and worshipped the Virgin Mary. Gustad, on the contrary, seems to have been a religious man since his childhood. His childhood memories were fantasizing about protecting a castle and fighting off dragons with his sacred kusti. In the current timeframe of the novel, the readers learn countless people made it theirs. The wall had a certain calming aura about it, and that it is his morning ritual to pray before he commences anything else. Although both Gustad and Elaine’s thoughts upon faith and religion are quite different, one can say that it was divine intervention that aided them throughout all their hardships and suffering. Individuality or independence can be defined as the state or quality of being free from subjection or from the influence, control, or guidance of individuals, things, or situations. Gustad and Elaine feel the necessity of isolation, and confining themselves in their minds, without expressing inner emotions for a majority of the novels. The readers can witness the evolution of Gustad’s character as the novel progresses, before problem after problem began to amount. One can only imagine the internal pain he feels as Roshan falls ill, Sohrab defying his father’s ambitions, and Bilimoria’s apparent betrayal, it is hard not to wonder how he manages to cover his emotions. Gustad is one who does not like to express his emotions publicly, but is very open with his wife Dilnavaz. They both share a special bond, where they continuously support one another through the rough times. Again, the black wall comes into significance again. Gustad covers the windows of Khohad Building to isolate it from the atrocities of the world. The wall can be symbolism to support, protect, or guard something; similarly this is the same idea in the confines of Gustad’s mind as the wall represents the congested emotions trapped in his head. By demolishing the wall, it is as though he is letting himself become vulnerable and open. This represents the theme of isolation, as Gustad locks his emotions and only releases them when he cannot bear it anymore, especially when Tehmul dies and Sohrab returns towards the end. Elaine can also relate to isolation as well. As the other girls were tormenting her, she was always alone, no one to turn to. Her parents were completely oblivious to what was going on with their daughter. For example, after Elaine fell into the river and returned home, her mother did not accuse the other girls at all, even though Elaine covered up for their sake. She kept all her thoughts and feelings to herself, not knowing the load she had put on herself. Even as an adult, she continued to hide things from her closest family; another example being hiding her relationship with Josef from Jon after they were married. The readers understand Elaine’s behaviour; she cannot trust another person because of her past experiences. She hasn’t fully recovered from the entire ordeal. However, the one true difference between the two is that Gustad always turns to his family, while Elaine keeps to herself. When analyzing Mistry’s Such a Long Journey and Atwood’s Cat’s Eye one can clearly distinguish the significant components of both novels that the protagonists evolving as an individual and adapting tot their changing societies with a fair amount of struggle. Gustad Noble and Elaine Risley share many similarities, and also a variety of differences. They have both been through tough situations, and recovered in an assortment of ways. The readers witness the protagonists becoming better individuals through adversity, as they overcome unforeseen challenges. Eastern and Western societies are so different in so many ways, and yet there are some elements that are universal: betrayal, love, compassion, family, and friendship. Gustad had to let go of a simple lifestyle and found himself innocently drawn into a dangerous network of lies and deception. Elaine on the other hand found herself not being able to let go of a horrific childhood where a trio of other girls torment ed her. This impact on her life caused her to become more cautious in the future and also developing an obsession over those who caused her the misery. Family, friendship, karma, religion along with change and isolation affected how both Gustad and Elaine solved their problems. Gustad was amounted with family problems, with is daughter falling ill and his eldest son defying his ambitions. Gustad turned to his faith in order to find some sort of compassion and sympathy in his darkest hours. He did not express his emotions publicly, only releasing them to Dilnavaz when he could not bear them anymore. Change was not an option for Gustad, as he was not ready to accept them all; one example being the apparent betrayal for Major Jimmy Bilimoria. Unlike Gustad however, Elaine had no one to turn to discuss her issues. Due to the traumatic ordeal with Cordelia, Grace and Carol, Elaine had her self-esteem and body image shattered as she scrambled for answers. These events lead her to living a very conservative life, almost turning into the person she very well hated. As both she and Cordelia became adults, it is almost as if there fortunes had turned tables, on opposite ends of life. The same with Gustad, his good-natured character allowed his suffering to be minimal. Religion and spirituality had different affects and meanings with both protagonists. Gustad believed all his problems would be answered if he prayed with the right mindset. Elaine thought that her troubles would just disappear because of the abilities of superior begins, and the reason why she began attending church. Material objects also play important roles, Gustad’s black wall and Elaine’s marble. The black wall represented isolation and protection from the horrors and filth of the outside world. Even though it was treated without value, it provided Gustad with a special comfort, and probably the reason he turned it into a shrine. Elaine used the cat’s eye marble was used as a talisman, protecting her from her dilemmas. Even as she grew, one of her most influential paintings was the image of her marble, showing how she recovered from her horrific past. Thus, both Gustad Noble and Elaine Risley were impacted differently by family and friends, the themes of change and isolation, and most importantly, their understanding of their past experiences allowed them to mature as individuals.

How to Teach Listening and Speaking in Mandarin Essay

Design a listening – speaking task. You need to clarify the level of the students (e.g. how many hours they have learnt Chinese, how many characters they have mastered, etc.), the purposes of the exercises, how you are going to operate these exercises and the reasons why you design and operate the task like this. In the teaching of spoken language, the views of listening went through different phases. Earlier views considered listening as the mastery of discrete skills such as recognizing cohesive structure in texts or identifying key words in a text etc. Later views introduced the notions of bottom-up and top-down processing and emphasized the importance of prior knowledge and schema in comprehension. At the same time, the understanding of the role of the listener developed into current views which encourages his/her active participation in listening, applying strategies to assist, monitor and evaluate his/her own listening. (J. C. Richards, 2008) Speaking takes place in real time, it’s produced in response to the speech of the person we talk to. This shows its contingent nature. In language teaching, speaking ability increases along with the learner’s other abilities in the foreign/second language such as vocabulary, listening skill, knowledge of culture etc. Mandarin is a spoken language, so its learning process is also in line with general rules of language learning/teaching. However, as Mandarin has unique features as a language system, which includes five tones and changing tones in certain circumstances, it’s important to take these features into consideration while designing a listening – speaking task. The following is a listening – speaking task I tried to design for Mandarin teaching. Listening – speaking Task Cover Sheet Time: 50 minutes (2 sessions) Class Level: Later Beginners to Lower Intermediate Main Aims: By the end of the lesson, the learners will be able to: 1. Grasp Location Words and Place Expressions. 2. Exercise listening to gist and details. 3. Ask for directions and ask questions politely. Subsidiary Aims 1. Improve reading skill. 2. Group/pair cooperation Assumptions: The learners already had knowledge of Location Words and Place Expressions from Lesson 8, which will help their comprehension of the listening material. Anticipated Problems 1. Students might be confused with the direction words. 2. Form: how to ask questions. 3. Pronunciation: tones and intonation of some words. Class Profile The students are 12 adults who come to study in the evening. They have one lesson every week which lasts 2 hours. Some of them travel to China for business trips. The text book they use is Contemporary Chinese I (2003). They’ve spent roughly 60 hours so far to learn Mandarin. They have a good command of 325 Chinese words and expressions, 244 Chinese characters, 22 grammar items and 23 communicative, thus have a basic command of Mandarin. Timetable Fit The students have learnt in lesson 8 about Direction Words and Places Expressions. This lesson intends to provide them a chance to use the words in real situations. After the lesson, students will be given a sketch map to practise at home by using these direction words to describe how to get from one place to another. In the next lesson, some students will tell the class about their homework. Materials 1. A self-designed conversation based on Lesson 8 of Contemporary Chinese I. 2. A live activity designed by the author. Exercise I: How can they get to the Summer Palace? Time: 20-30 minutes Purpose: Listening for gist and details. Review what the students learnt in Lesson 8 in the textbook about Location Words and Place Expressions. Preparation: A tape recorder with the following conversation. Ã¥ ¥ ³: 我ä » ¬Ã§Å½ °Ã¥Å" ¨Ã¥Å½ »Ã© ¢ Ã¥â€™Å'å› ­Ã¥  §Ã¯ ¼Å'Ã¥ ¥ ½Ã¥ â€"? ç” ·: Ã¥ ¥ ½Ã¥â€¢Å Ã£â‚¬â€šÃ¤ ¸ Ã¨ ¿â€¡Ã¯ ¼Å'我ä ¸ Ã§Å¸ ¥Ã© â€œÃ¦â‚¬Å½Ã¤ ¹Ë†Ã¥Å½ »Ã©â€š £Ã¥â€ž ¿Ã¯ ¼Å'ä ½  Ã¥â€˜ ¢? Ã¥ ¥ ³: æÅ"‰ä º ºÃ¥â€˜Å Ã¨ ¯â€°Ã¦Ë†â€˜Ã¥  ¯Ã¤ » ¥Ã¥  Ã¦ ± ½Ã¨ ½ ¦Ã¥Å½ »Ã¯ ¼Å'ä ½â€ Ã¦Ë†â€˜Ã¥ ¿ËœÃ¤ ºâ€ Ã¦Ëœ ¯Ã¥ ¤Å¡Ã¥ °â€˜Ã¨ · ¯Ã¤ ºâ€ Ã£â‚¬â€š ç” ·: 我ä » ¬Ã©â€" ®Ã¤ ¸â‚¬Ã¤ ¸â€¹Ã¥  §Ã£â‚¬â€š (ä ¸â‚¬Ã¤ ¸ ªÃ¨ · ¯Ã¤ º ºÃ¦ ­ £Ã¥ · §Ã§ » Ã¨ ¿â€¡) ç” ·: è ¯ ·Ã©â€" ®Ã¯ ¼Å'我ä » ¬Ã¨ ¦ Ã¥Å½ »Ã© ¢ Ã¥â€™Å'å› ­Ã¯ ¼Å'Ã¥ ºâ€Ã¨ ¯ ¥Ã¥  Ã¥ ¤Å¡Ã¥ °â€˜Ã¨ · ¯Ã¨ ½ ¦? è · ¯Ã¤ º º: ä ½  Ã¤ »Å½Ã¨ ¿â„¢Ã¥â€ž ¿Ã¥ ¾â‚¬Ã¥  ³Ã¨ µ °Ã¯ ¼Å'Ã¥  379è · ¯Ã¯ ¼Å'Ã¥  Ã¥â€ºâ€ºÃ§ «â„¢Ã¯ ¼Å'Ã¥Å" ¨Ã¤ º ºÃ¦ °â€˜Ã¥ ¤ §Ã¥ ­ ¦Ã¤ ¸â€¹Ã¯ ¼Å'ç„ ¶Ã¥ Å½Ã¥ ¾â‚¬Ã¥ Å½Ã¨ µ °Ã¤ ¸â‚¬Ã§â€š ¹Ã¯ ¼Å'æ  ¢332è · ¯Ã¯ ¼Å'ä ¸â‚¬Ã§â€º ´Ã¥  Ã¥Ë† °Ã¥ ¤ ´Ã¯ ¼Å'Ã¥ ° ±Ã¥Ë† °Ã© ¢ Ã¥â€™Å'å› ­Ã¤ ºâ€ Ã£â‚¬â€š ç” ·:ä ¸â€¹Ã¨ ½ ¦Ã¥ Å½Ã¨ ¿ËœÃ¨ ¿Å"Ã¥ â€"? è · ¯Ã¤ º º: ä ¸ Ã¨ ¿Å"ï ¼Å'ä ½  Ã¤ ¸â€¹Ã¨ ½ ¦Ã¥ Å½Ã¥ ¾â‚¬Ã¥ · ¦Ã¦â€¹ Ã¯ ¼Å'è ¿â€¡Ã© © ¬Ã¨ · ¯Ã¯ ¼Å'Ã¥ ° ±Ã¨Æ' ½Ã§Å"‹è § Ã© ¢ Ã¥â€™Å'å› ­Ã§Å¡â€žÃ¥ ¤ §Ã©â€" ¨Ã¤ ºâ€ Ã£â‚¬â€š ç” ·: Ã¥ ¦â€šÃ¦Å¾Å"é ªâ€˜Ã¨ ½ ¦Ã¥Å½ »Ã¯ ¼Å'è ¡Å'Ã¥ â€"? è · ¯Ã¤ º º: ä ¸ Ã¨ ¡Å'ï ¼Å'Ã¥ ¤ ªÃ¨ ¿Å"ä ºâ€ Ã£â‚¬â€š ç” ·: Ã¥ ¥ ½Ã§Å¡â€žÃ¯ ¼Å'è ° ¢Ã¨ ° ¢Ã£â‚¬â€š è · ¯Ã¤ º º: ä ¸ Ã¥ ® ¢Ã¦ °â€Ã£â‚¬â€š Procedure: 1. Give students an exercise sheet, with following questions. (A) True or false: tÄ mà ©n xiÇŽng zhÄ «dà  o zÄ•nme qà ¹ yà ­hà ©yuà ¡n a. ä »â€"ä » ¬Ã¦Æ' ³Ã§Å¸ ¥Ã© â€œÃ¦â‚¬Å½Ã¤ ¹Ë†Ã¥Å½ »Ã© ¢ Ã¥â€™Å'å› ­ () yà ­hà ©yuà ¡n bà ¹ yuÇŽn b. é ¢ Ã¥â€™Å'å› ­Ã¤ ¸ Ã¨ ¿Å" () (B) Answer the following questions: a. Can they get to the Summer Palace by taking bus 379? b. Which direction should they turn to get to the Summer Palace after leaving the bus? c. Why can’t they go to the Summer Palace by bike? 2. Explain to the students that the conversation is about asking for direction, and review the Location Words and Place Expressions of Lesson 8, provide the new vocabulary Summer Palace (é ¢ Ã¥â€™Å'å› ­). 3. Play the tape once, ask the students to do the exercise sheet. 4. Go through the questions, let the students discuss if their answers are different from each other. 5. Ask the students to pay more attention to some of the details related to their answers. Play the tape again. 6. Go through the questions again, give the right answers. 7. Tell the students that they are going to give details about the direction after the listening, so make notes if necessary. Play the tape for third time. 8. Ask students to work as a group to give details of direction so you can draw a map on the board to show how to get to the Summer Palace. 9. Check the answer by listening to the tape again. Reasons for the design and operation of this exercise: This exercise is designed to provide an opportunity for the students to use all-round skills including listening, speaking, reading and writing. By giving tasks in steps, students will gradually understand the listening material to a thorough extent. This will hopefully enable them to use what they learnt in a fluent way. Exercise II: Guest speaker (G White, 1998, P52) Time: 5 minutes in one session, 15-20 minutes in the next session Purpose: To listen for gist and details; to give the students the experience of listening as an audience. Preparation: 1. The teacher dresses up as a Guest speaker. 2. The Guest Speaker writes a brief note for the class, giving a few details about interesting places he has been to. The note can be completely fictitious to make it more fun. E.g. 2005 I went to the Moon for a holiday Procedure: 1. Hand out the copies of the note to the class, put the students in pairs, and ask each pair to think of one question they would like the Speaker to answer. Then the students choose the best 4 questions to be written down. The teacher/the Speaker should not know these questions. 2. Ask the students to think of a list of topics for the Speaker which will be most likely to produce the answers to the questions. Write the topics down. e.g. ‘transportation’, ‘places’ etc. 3. Give the list of topics to the Speaker. These will provide guidelines for him in preparing the talk. If the Speaker can prepare some photographs or slides during his talk, it’ll be more interesting. 4. With the students, practise polite ways of asking questions. Also review vocabulary related to touring and food etc. 5. In the next session, the Speaker gives his talk. The students should listen to see if their questions are answered. 6. If some of the questions have not been answered in the talk, the students could ask the Speaker in a question-and-answer session after the talk. 7. After the Q&A session, go through the questions with the students and check the answers. Reasons for the design and operation of this exercise: This exercise is designed with the intention to train the students to listen to a live talk, as well as speaking spontaneously. To help the students to achieve the best result from this exercise, in the pre-listening phase, the teacher prepares the students for both top-down and bottom-up processing through activities involving handing out the note, reviewing vocabulary, making predictions (preparing the list of topics) and familiarizing the polite ways of asking questions (so to create a more natural language environment). During the talk, students therefore can listen for comprehension by gist listening, selective listening, sequencing etc. In the post-listening phase, questions are asked by the students to elicit answers, and then answers are checked to ensure that students have good comprehension of the talk. This exercise also encourages the students to work together by discussing what questions they want to ask and how to decide the topics accordingly after deciding the questions. This provides a good chance for students to practise words and phrases they grasped so far, especially Direction Words and Places Expressions. Homework: At the end of lesson, give each student a sketch map with banks, post office, bus station, and a park on it. Divide students into three groups, each group will be given a task to describe how to get somewhere from a place. Next lesson, each group will have one student come to the front to tell the whole class. This is to encourage further use of Direction Words and Places Expressions. References J C Richards (2008), Teaching Listening and Speaking From Theory to Practice, Cambridge University Press http://www.cambridge.org/elt/teacher-support/pdf/Richards-Teaching-Listening-Speaking.pdf G. White (1998) Listening, Oxford University Press Zhongwei Wu (2003) Contemporary Chinese I, Sinolingua

CYBERLAW Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 4500 words

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Impact of micro and macro policies on the elderly with dementia Essay

Impact of micro and macro policies on the elderly with dementia - Essay Example For instance, the kind of policies governing the care of children would be very different from those governing adults especially the elderly. Therefore, sensitivity on the handling of these two classes of people is essential to reflect on the absolute care required by them. In this regard, this paper will take a keen look into the micro and macro policies surrounding the provision of quality healthcare in relation to adults with special needs. Moreover, its emphasis will be on the elderly people in the society whose needs appear to be unique as compared to other groups of people. A key eye will be on the elderly especially those with dementia by raising their safeguarding alerts (East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust 7). Lastly, it will also be in contact with the effects of one macro policy through the implementation of the micro level processes. Introduction Dementia is a brain related complication characterized by reduced function on the brain’s responsibilities that may incl ude thinking, speech, behavior, and memory function. Mainly, its experience is due to the occurrence of certain brain diseases that create imparity in the normal brain function. Some of the diseases that this loss of brain functionality associates with are Parkinson’s disease, Huntington’s disease; Alzheimer and in some cases AIDS. ... Additionally, this condition interferes with a person’s routine and daily function, as their brains no longer respond to brain commands. Unfortunately, this condition is irreversible therefore; the individuals affected require high attention and care. Further, the condition it has two categories; either being Alzheimer or Non Alzheimer related. Alzheimer is the leading cause of dementia in people who are in their late stages of life. The policy statement formulated around the vulnerable adults outlined that maintenance of the patients health was at the focus of quality delivery of health care services. Each health providing facility’s dedication was on maintaining the dignity and privacy of their patients. The achievement of this heavily relies on ensuring that no possible avoidable harm comes to them. This macro policy realization was to be through trust committees charged with delivering reasonable accommodation for this special group of people. The most vulnerable in this case would be the elderly affected by dementia. Therefore, this made up the Macro policy regulating the code of practice around the provision of specialized care for them. As a micro policy, the Trust committee in East Lancashire’s responsibility was to oversee the latter implementation of the Macro policy. Certain mechanisms came in place to meet the requirements. Concerning accommodation, they have to make sure that each gender has its own place for accommodation to uphold privacy. These include same gender toilet and bathroom facilities other than the bed area. However, same gender interactions would only occur in specialized cases like intensive care and not under any other circumstance. This is subject to choice and preference of the patients and if

The Advantages and Disadvantages of Free Trade Essay

The Advantages and Disadvantages of Free Trade - Essay Example It is also because of free trade that multilateral organizations such as the World Trade Organization, North American Free Trade Agreement, and Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation were formed. Generally, the aim of these formations is to reduce tariffs and to abolish these ultimately in order to remove barriers to free trade. Globalization itself is an offspring of the free trade concept. The objective of globalization is to remove national borders and to have a world economy that is governed not by states but by the abstract laws of the market. However, free trade has been found to have serious flaws too. It may have advantages but its disadvantages are also just as significant. Because of this, the debate on whether it is really good or bad to the economy of a country has been brought to the fore. One camp insists that free trade brings about economic development that would benefit society while the other asserts that it leads to more serious social inequalities and unfair trading pr actices. In order to determine whether it is really beneficial or not, it would be necessary to discuss the advantages and the disadvantages of free trade. By doing so, one can weigh the pros and cons and come up with a conclusion as to whether free trade is generally positive or negative. The Advantages of Free Trade One of the very first points that are often raised regarding the advantage of free trade is related to increased production. In order for a country to trade with others, it is compelled to heighten its production of commodities in which it is specialising in. The premise here is that every country has a comparative advantage. David Ricardo explains that â€Å"a nation was said to possess comparative advantage in those products for which its labour was relatively productive† (Yoffie 1993: 4). If a country has to exchange goods with another it would be compelled to increase its production to equalize the trade. It is through the increase of production that other b enefits and advantages of free trade would follow. Whatever comparative advantage a country may have would be lost though if production is inefficient. One that does not engage in international trade would naturally be less inspired to improve the efficiency of its production. In a world with a free market system though, competition among the traders inevitably becomes intense. Consequently, such competition would prompt the manufacturers or producers not just to enhance the quality of their products but also raise the efficiency of their production. Through better efficiency, more could be produced and less wastage is achieved. If the commodities produced by a particular country are of better quality than those of its competitors, these would gain the advantage in the market. This is obviously good for the economy of the said nation. Improving production efficiency would also prompt technological advances. Apparently, it is only through automation that many types of commodities can be produced in large quantities while raising the level of its quality. With the manufacture of more machines and devices in support of automation, production or the creation of value by a society consequently increases. The two aforementioned advantages of free trade lay the basis for the following other benefits. Free trade is beneficial to the consumers or the buying public in a country that is engaged in it.

How to use modern technology Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

How to use modern technology - Essay Example These young minds must therefore, be educated through events or activities on the benefits of modern technology. Consequently children equipped with knowledge on modern technology will provide a stable future for the country. Use of technology is central to the philosophy of developing a system equipped for the future and, to that end all children must have access to tools that form part of the fabric of their everyday lives. Technology is a tool, not a subject (Verma 78). Digital cameras have dramatically changed the way we take photographs. By suing cameras during the modern technology week fair children will be able to take photographs and later write projects and add pictures into them. In the process off this activity students get to know more about their community its surroundings and local people. In addition to this, they will also be gaining knowledge about modern technology as they handle the digital camera. In the event, a multicultural activity may be used to teach childr en about their community and also the use of modern technology. Multicultural education includes teaching children about their own culture and their ethnic heritage. It means exposing children to other diverse culture and helping them be comfortable with and respect all the ways in which people appear different to each other. This may be achieved by teaching the children how to relate to one another and how to play fairly. This encourages children to notice and think about fairness and challenges them to do something about the unfairness towards people they perceive in their world. Through activities like photography and use of other modern technological equipment children will get to intermingle with other people in society who come from different ethnic groups. This will help create a rapport as kids share the equipment and also put in efforts to attain set objectives of the modern technological event (Verma 78). Another activity in the modern technology fair includes the designin g of a community library. Emerging multi-ethnic populations in many communities and the increasingly urgently need for literacy and information technology skills call for a change in the design of library buildings(Verma 75).Libraries could become key communication centers, for mobile populations and their design will need to reflect the different levels and layers of entry or different temporal zones. Young people in this event get actively involved in the design of the service that would benefit hem in future. Through voicing their ideas by drawing or art or photography or in question and answer segment in the event, valuable information will be acquired of how to run a community library. Movies and short films may be aired in the event. During the event short films may be aired to be viewed by the children. Short films and movies offer the most visual and engaging learning tool for today’s children. This technology enhances the curriculum children are taught at school. On the spot, teachers can show video clips about almost any topic mainly those relating to the

Language Use and Culture Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Language Use and Culture - Essay Example Informal language on the other hand is used in situations that are more relaxed and often involve people that we are very familiar with. Formal language is mostly used in writing, whereas informal language is used in speech. There are times, however, when informal language is used in writing. Such situations involve writing letters, emails and text messages to friends or family members. Informal Use of spoken language can also be formal. For instance, when a lecturer is giving lectures to students mostly the language is formal. For instance, a statement like ‘We went to Barcelona for the weekend. We have a lot of things to tell you’, is a formal statement. When said informally the statement would be ‘Went to Barcelona for the weekend. Lots to tell you. In his speech, John McWhorter says that people have stopped giving speeches formally and have now changed gradually to give informal speeches. He says that the kind of speech given in an old movie where one clears his throat before giving the speech I and go, â€Å" Ahem, ladies and gentlemen,† is a thing of the past. He continues to say that even the way we write has gradually changed from formal to informal. John says that people, especially young people write as if they are talking not giving about capital letters or punctuation especially when texting. John refers to texting as fingered speech because it is basically a form of speech in writing. Informal language sometimes involves use of slang. Slang may be described as a subset of a language used by a particular group of people. Slang usually consists of words and phrases which are not in the English dictionary. These words and phrases could be distortions of already existing English words or entirely new creations. Slang is used by almost all groups of people in society who have common interests or situations. The group of people that uses slang

Black Feminism in Britain Essay Example for Free

Black Feminism in Britain Essay Black feminism in Britain is a very strong issue. This topic could be addressed in so many ways, so I decided to address the issue through others writings. Black women have been pressing the issue of equality for a very long time now, and being black women presents a two -fold issue on equality. Being Black automatically make you a minority and being a woman takes away from your standpoint even more. This is why Hazel Carby feels that being just a feminist is nit enough; there are more issues than those that are addressed by whit feminist for the black woman. Hazel Cardy’s article White Woman Listen! Black Feminism and the Boundaries of Sisterhood, examines the way in which feminist revisionist history has reconstructed itself by appropriating the power of privilege of the historiography in order to marginalize black women in their absences and misrepresent them in their presence. In my view, it is precisely the incorporation of feminism in the worlds system and power. The concern is not one with the feminist theory and more with the misuse and abuse of black women in Britain. Black women in Britain have had a lot of battles to fight to get to where they are today, and even today they are still not equal with men in society. The black women of Britain had to not only endure migration, but hey had to also endure loosing high education positions for lower paying jobs and many had to leave their families and come to Britain alone. They did come to Britain for the fast cars and big cities; these women came over to make a living so that their families could survive. They thought that they were coming to the land of opportunity, but when they arrived in Britain they were in for a rude awakening. There the push and pull factor that is present in this situation. In the Caribbean there were little to no jobs available and that is the push factor, the pull factor is tha t in Britain there were many jobs opening up for the people. The thing that many did not know, who made this journey, was that these jobs were the jobs that the British thought that they did not want to do. This entire process alone put the Black peoples on a lower level. Being that these people were also women they were even lower than so men were. In recent reassessments of Caribbean women’s political roles both during and after slavery suggest that their leadership was crucial to popular collective action throughout Britain. Many of these women were characterized as feisty females who were used as a joke to the public. This satire reduced women’s acts of resistance to individual willfulness. The historical record to the contrary indicates that the black woman of Britain emerged in the contest of the supportive networks of families, communities, and collective work groups. This resistance soon became known as black feminism. The history of women leader in Jamaica begins under slavery, and here we are introduced to the particular spokeswoman the petticoat rebellion, which was a name from a Jamaican slave owner to show just what he thought about the Black women rising up together. Assertions of special female prerogatives and criticisms of the abuse of women had extra resonance in the British Victorian setting, with its sharp delineation of boundary between the masculine and the feminine. A crucial aspect of laying foundation for subsequent oppositional cultures in Jamaica was black women’s promotion of a popular ‘voice’ both within the missionary churches and, more radically, by forming their won Afro-Christian religious association. Thus there became a third realm of opposition other than violence and hidden resistance. There became a movement. An early public challenge to black women’s subordination is the dissenting churches occurred in the Baptist congregation. Many women of color, including those who were illiterate, participated in activities of a public and political nature through their churches, including but not limited to elections and petitions. Even the relatively conservative Presbyterian Church required ever communica nt to vote for the elders, bringing non-white men into leadership. Popular democratic procedures, and participation meetings. By literate women were perceived as a threat to the English Missionaries control over the society. Young concluded his attack on democratic procedure by noting that the Kingston petitions were a kind of test case, part of a larger agitation for popular independent control of the churches, and the society must clarify its stance on the privilege of petitioning conference ‘. By making a formal distinction between home and foreign stations, the society sought to contain not only dangerous democratic currents, but also the women who exercised the role of leadership within their churches; a major difference between home and Jamaica, after all was the degree to which women as a matter of course ‘ discussed and decided all questions brought forward. Many examples of violent language recorded in the British records were spoken by women, whether during slavery and apprenticeship, or later courthouse riots, or scuffles, whe n violence occurred, working class women were often at the forefront using insults and provocations, and weapons as well. Many of those women were black. In an earlier reference I gave the example of a slave caricature that was use to mock slaves, the urban women carried on her hard-hitting tradition of political protest. Swithin begun to trace women’s participation not only back to the plantation labor but also urban riots. Even when riots rose in religious or cultural issues, the following example show that they were always political in so far as the demonstrated black physical power and numerical strength against representatives of the state. A new urban political culture was emerging on the streets of Kingston. The Family ties have been one important aspect of some women’s participation in the Morant Bay Rebellion. Many women were accused of throwing stones at the volunteers and burning down the courthouse. Black feminist were looked at very negatively in he eye of the British from white Jamaican joke to Quasheba jokes, that ridiculed strong black women, their speech, families, and working class culture. It rest on the ideology of white women as ‘angels in he house’, whose domestic life is heaven rather than the hell that the black woman had to endure, this parody arises a question, if they have black women on record cursing, where do we find the recorded ‘voices’ of these working-class black women in the historical record? Contrary to this fake ‘voice’ the actual records of protest that have been considered in this paper suggest that black family solidarity, and community self protection with the understanding of violence against black women came most often form the wider white society. The few preserved accounts of Afro-Jamaican women’s leadership and political protest exist precisely because of the contradictory position they occupied in the colonial symbolic mapping of social order and disorder. Their words speak for themselves, while their troubled embedding in government archives, and newspapers suggest their powerful impact.

Great Expectations, Romeo and Juliet and To Kill a Mocking Bird Essay Example for Free

Great Expectations, Romeo and Juliet and To Kill a Mocking Bird Essay Great Expectations, To Kill a Mocking Bird, and Romeo and Juliet are all very diverse pieces of literature. Each piece of literature is unique to one another, but they all share common characteristics and themes. All of the works include a key character that gains understanding of himself resulting from events in his life that caused confusions or prejudice. Pip, the main character of Great Expectations, learns a great amount resulting from confusion in his life. His confusion is caused by his love for Estella, a beautiful and proper girl of the upper-class. Pip becomes intrigued by Estella the moment Ms. Havisham, Estellas guardian, has him over to visit. Ms. Havisham encourages and strengthens Pips feeling for Estella by always reminding him of Estellas beauty and intelligence. As Pip grows older, his love for Estella never fades. Pip becomes confused when Estella makes him think that he may have a chance with her when in reality she doesnt love him at all. Estella is incapable of loving because Ms. Havisham taught her to hide her affection and love and to never open up to a man. Once Pip realizes that he will never marry Estella he learns never to set his mind on one thing and that he must keep an open mind. Jem, the main character of To Kill a Mocking Bird, learns a lot from the prejudice he must experience in his life resulting from a trial his dad is involved in. Jems dad is defending a black man who was accused of raping a young girl in town. This is especially hard for Jem because he is growing up in a very racist southern town and time. Even though the majority of the people in the town know the black man is innocent, his color causes them to discriminate against him and accuse him as being guilty. The things Jem must experience as a result of the trial, such as getting beat up by a grown man, teach him many things about his life. He learns to give every person a chance no matter what their race, gender, or any other classifying features are. Most importantly, Jem learns to never cower down from what he believes in and to never give up. Juliet, the main character of the play Romeo and Juliet, also learns a lot from the confusion in her life. Romeo and Juliet fall in love at first sight. Unfortunately Romeo and Juliet must express their love in secret  because their families are arch enemies. Juliet becomes confused a number of times throughout the play because she is put in the position of choosing between her lover and her family. For example, when Romeo kills Juliets cousin, she doesnt know who to side with. Juliet decides to go against her family and quickly forgive Romeo. She figures love is the most important thing. Juliet learns that to be happy you must follow your heart. Even though the play ends in tragedy, the only thing that would make Juliet happy was to be with Romeo, even if it was in the afterlife. As one can see Pip, Jem, and Juliet all learned important lessons from their experiences. The confusion in Pip and Juliets lives and the prejudice in Jems cause them all to come to conclusions about themselves and their lives. Overall, the lessons each character learned helped them to become a better person who was more aware of himself.

Theory Of Orientalism And Disneys Aladdin Film Studies Essay

Theory Of Orientalism And Disneys Aladdin Film Studies Essay Using the concepts and theory of Orientalism from the lecture topic race and whiteness this essay will analyse the 1992 Disney film Aladdin. This essay will use the theory of Orientalism to analyse how Western culture depicts a constructed reality open the Eastern oriental body in order to promote an inferior East and a powerful West. This essay will first discuss what the concept and theory of Orientalism is before giving a brief synopsis of the movie Aladdin. This essay will then analysis the film Aladdin in relation to the constructed stereotypes that surround the oriental figure such as Western concepts of Eastern ideologies, physical appearance and the sexualising of the oriental figure. The concept of Orientalism can be described as the Wests objectifying and stereotyping of the East. What this means is Orientalism believes that western culture creates an identification of Eastern culture by assigning the East distinctive features and characteristics. These features and characteristics are assigned negative connotations, which are repeated through sources such as media until these negative connotations become the normalised way of seeing. Said suggests the stereotyping of Oriental representations functions to reduce the East to the status of inferior other of the West (Said, as cited in Pugliese, 2008, p.207). This essay uses the theory of Orientalism to analyse the film Aladdin and to deconstruct the Western themes of Orientalism imposed upon the Eastern other. The 1992 Disney film Aladdin is set in the ambiguous Middle Eastern city of Agribah. According to the Disneys website, the film follows the street-smart young thief protagonist Aladdin, as he pursues the beautiful Princess Jasmine, a liberated young lady who seeks to escape her present lifestyle. This plot is forwarded when the evil vizier, Jafar attempts to gain possession of a magical lamp in an attempt to rise to power, and decides he needs Aladdin a diamond in the rough (Disney, n.d.). We are able to see, even in the synopsis how Western media attempt to impose ideas upon Eastern figures. The Western protagonists are described as street-smart and beautiful and liberated, where as the Middle Eastern character of Jafar is described as evil. Western culture constructs and ideology of Eastern culture and beliefs and imposes these constructed ideas onto Eastern culture. From the beginning of the film there is an attempt at displaying the separation of ideologies between Eastern and Western cultures. With the people of the Middle Eastern city of Agrabah described as those who will cut off your ear if they dont like your face (Clements Musker, 1992). This description of the Eastern figure immediately imposes the idea of a barbaric individual and one other from normal society. It attempts to impose the idea that Eastern individuals carry a lack of morals and ethics. This is not the only imposed ideas on Eastern individuals, as later displayed in scenes with the antagonist characters Jafar and Gazeem. As Gazeem and Jafar attempt to enter Cave of Wonders the Western construction of the Eastern lack of morals is displayed. As Jafar asks Gazeem for the key to the cave Gazeem quips that he had to slit a few throats to get it (Clements Musker, 1992). This comment goes unrecognised by Jafar, and attempts to convey the Eastern individuals lack of compassion towards murder, and attempts to dehumanise the two Eastern characters. The Eastern character Gazeem then attempts to enter the Cave of Wonders, before moments later being engulfed by the mouth of the cave. The film has no sympathy for the Eastern villain and his death is shrugged off by the master villain Jafar stating Gazeem was obviously less than worthy (Clements Musker, 1992). The Western ideology is input through the films protagonist Aladdin. Aladdin encompasses the Western dream in his rags to riches story. Aladdin believes that he can one day make something of himself and be something of importance, an ideology which is seen as a goal in many Western societies. Throughout the film Aladdin must learn to be himself, and discovers the value of truth and honestly. Aladdins ideology of a life where he can be treated as an equal contrasts Jafars Eastern ideology that he can rise to power, and posses dominant control (Disney, n.d.). Jafars attempt at a rise to power'(Disney, n.d.) is symbolic of the Westerns fear of Eastern control, and inevitably Jafar/East must be stopped. In order to make the removal of the Eastern oriental figure favourable to audiences, the Eastern ideology is negatively constructed. Within the final scenes to prove Jafars difference and lack of morals Jafar is seen raising his hand to hit female protagonist Jasmine, an act condemned by many Western cultures. This act suggests the Easts lack of respect of women, and suggests an inferior and weak identity. In the film Aladdin the Western and Eastern characters do not only carry different ideologies but distinctively different appearances. Within the film the evil antagonist Jafar and henchmen Gazeem both carry the stereotypical Eastern appearance. The characters are both depicted as having darker skin, large noses and beards, and headdress which has become a characteristic associated with Middle Eastern appearance. These distinctive features as well as thick middle eastern accent become a signifier for the antagonists within the film. The characters such as the police and the man in the market place which threaten protagonists Aladdin and Jasmine both carry these characteristics. Within the film although the protagonists Aladdin and Jasmine are both intended to be of Eastern appearance they both carry American accents, and are lighter skinned than their Eastern counterparts. These characteristics allow the Western audience to accept these characters although they are also Eastern. Osuri suggests that whiteness emerges as a way of identifying groups of people associated with superiority (Osuri, 2008, p.199). What this means in terms of the film Aladdin is that the characters whiteness allows the audience to recognise subconsciously the superiority of these characters. This in turn positions these characters as the heroes and their whiteness allows the audience to support Aladdin and Jasmine, although they are also paradoxically Eastern. The gendered body also comes in to question when analysing the Oriental figure. As Pugliese suggests Orientalist discourses invariably represent the Orient as phallocentrically feminine contrasting the masculine West (2008, p.209). In Aladdin the oriental antagonist Jafar carries feminine attributes such as thin wrists, and it can be suggested his mannerisms carry that of a female. His use of large hand gestures is seen as inherently female, and his possession of jewellery carries female connotations. This characterising of the feminine oriental is intended to show the inferiority and weakness of the East in contrast to the masculine West. The masculine West is represented through the protagonist character of Aladdin, who contrasts the thin feminine oriental Jafar as the strong, muscular masculine West bounding through the streets of Agrabah. It should also be noted that throughout the film whilst all other males are seen wearing pants, Jafar the main Eastern antagonist is pictured wearing a long dress robe. The Middle Eastern appearance is much different from that of Western culture, and with Western Cultures very limited understanding of Middle Eastern culture the attempt at putting Jafar in a dress can be seen as a way of emasculating him as a male character. The emasculation of the male character also addresses his sexuality, and in the case of the oriental figure sexuality has always haunted its figuration. When examining the oriental figure, the sexualising of the oriental male accompanies its configuration. The Islamic male is displayed as the sexual deviant, indulging in a perverse form of sexual behaviour. In the film Aladdin the movies antagonist Jafar encompasses the characteristics of the sexualised oriental in the scene where he captures the female protagonist Jasmine. In this scene Jafar has the character Jasmine chained up, restricted in her movements. Her attire has now changed from her usual blue outfit to red, which can be seen as a symbol of Jafars ownership due to his trademark red attire throughout the movie. The movie also suggests Jafars sexual intent with Jasmine through scenes displayed at the beginning of the movie. Though subtle, Jasmines red outfit matches that of the suggested prostitutes which swoon over protagonist Aladdin as he bounds through the market place in his opening scene. By placing Jasmine in the same outfit the film suggests Jafars sexual intent, and the confinement from her chains suggests Jafar intends on keeping her as a sexual slave. This representation of the sexually frustrated oriental Jafar perpetuates the Western perspective that all Islamic men indulge in a perverse sexuality. As Puar and Rai suggest we often believe of the sexually frustrated Muslim men who are promised the heavenly reward of sixtyor even seventy virgins (2002, p.126). This representation of the sexualised oriental East perpetuates the difference and otherness which the West attempts to construct between East and West. The character Aladdin is representative of the Wests ideology of sexuality, and further constructs the idea of good Western sexuality, and evil East sexuality. In the opening scenes we see the masculine Aladdin running through the town of Agrabah being chased by the buffoonish Arab police. As he is doing so the audience is displayed a scene in which women are seen swooning over the young protagonist. Aladdin is seen talking to young women, as well as older women as he appears to effortlessly charm them with his Western charisma. Women are seen to be attracted to the analogy of the young Western male, initiating conversation in an attempt to be seen by him. This contrasts the Eastern Oriental male who is displays a perverse sexuality and must capture his female audience to gain attention. In conclusion when analysing the film Aladdin we are able to see how Orientalism affects the construction, and the reading of the film. While the film may first encompass the ideology of the rags to riches story, we are able to see that in order to further the Western protagonists story it must distort the Easts. This essay has displayed how Western culture enforces a constructed idea upon Eastern culture through constructing Western concepts of Eastern ideologies, physical appearance of the East and the sexualising of the oriental figure. These constructed ideas work to enforce the inferior East and the powerful West and create a cultural and racial hierarchy which works to promote the Wests cultural ideas.

Colonialism in India Essay -- British Invasion, Massive Boycotts

The British invasion formed into a historical development of British colonialism in India. Despite India under the British rule, Mahatma Gandhi played an important role in gaining Independence. He not only changed India but also strongly fought for India's independence, using various strategies. The British Empire ruled as long as they could to reform India both politically and socially. India was the first major Asian civilizations to fall victim to European predatory activities (Duiker 31). With conquering India, the British had various purposes behind it. Their main purpose was to achieve a monopolistic trading position (The Economic and Social Impact of Colonial Rule in India). The second purpose was the control of India; this was a key element in the world power structure, in terms of geography, logistics and military manpower (The Economic and Social Impact of Colonial Rule in India). When the East India Company continued to trade under the British, huge armies were created, largely composed of Indian sepoys (Marshall). The armies were used to defend the Company’s territories protect the Indian states (Marshall). With major control over India, the British used a combination of firepower & guile to consolidate their power over the country by expanding from their base areas along the coast into the interior (Duiker 31). Some territories were also taken over the privately run East India Company, which at the time was given authority to administer Asian territories under British occupation, while others were ruled by local maharajas (Duiker 31). British governance brought order and stability to a society that had recently been wrecked by the wars from the different empires (Duiker 31). Since the British wanted to refo... ...tween the Hindus and Muslims, Jinnah felt that Muslims had no future in India (Overfield 216). With the end of British rule in 1947, not only did India gain its independence but also along with it was born an other country, Pakistan where Jinnah served as the first governor (Overfield 216). With the gain of India’s independence, Gandhi was shot the following year in 1948 by a Hindu zealot who resented his commitment to Hindu – Muslim harmony (Overfield 212). Despite numerous conflicts with the British and with the Muslims, India fought for its rights by doing what they felt was right. India under the British rule had some benefits as the new school system and outlawing sati but they did manage to trouble the Indians with taxation and other laws. Gandhi who was an outstanding, important figure in India’s way for independence who taught to fight with nonviolence.

Cigarette Advertising :: miscellaneous

Cigarette Advertising Cigarette advertising restrictions do not have and intended effect, and despite that in many societies there is an increase in cigarette consumption. Only who is affected with those restrictions are the cigarette companies which are in danger of becoming a form of commercial censorship. However, I do not want to claim against consumer protection laws against false or misleading advertising claims. The end result of cigarette advertising restrictions and any other legal products leads to a limited choice, block of free flow of information, emasculate competition and canceling its benefits. Besides this it also penalizes the advertising media by starving them of revenue, and restrains commercial investments and employment. Not only that it endangered current investments, but it also places powers of censorship in the hands of self-centered pressure groups or legislative committees, who have no commercial experience or responsibility to be able to exercise them. The intended effects of cigarette advertising restrictions also have harmful side effects. For example in Croatia for last couple of months on the television you could find commercials with detailed development of tumor on lounges and ruining of aortas. Theses commercials did nothing but discussed large number of population, and even non smokers couldn’t look at the full add, while the smokers felt discriminated and exploited to society as disease and treat. There are also adds which offer 24-7 telephone lines for people who wish to quit smoking, and in these situations they were offering some pride winning rewards, which was a short term stimulant for people to quit smoking. How really can we think that people are that narrow minded that they will do what ever the media tells them to, and that they were not aware of their health risk before. People die of cancer caused by smoking, the tumor is painful and incurable; while on the other side many old people smoked almost all of their life and didn’t face this huge health problem. Maybe the times changed, the cigarettes changed, but the immunity of ones organism depends from one person to another and how it will affect somebody will vary among the society. It is a pleasu re and risk just as getting on roller coaster, running too fast by the dangerous street, stealing vegetables from the neighbor since u might get a gun shot if they catch you, and many other human activities that are practiced in everyday life. Cigarette Advertising :: miscellaneous Cigarette Advertising Cigarette advertising restrictions do not have and intended effect, and despite that in many societies there is an increase in cigarette consumption. Only who is affected with those restrictions are the cigarette companies which are in danger of becoming a form of commercial censorship. However, I do not want to claim against consumer protection laws against false or misleading advertising claims. The end result of cigarette advertising restrictions and any other legal products leads to a limited choice, block of free flow of information, emasculate competition and canceling its benefits. Besides this it also penalizes the advertising media by starving them of revenue, and restrains commercial investments and employment. Not only that it endangered current investments, but it also places powers of censorship in the hands of self-centered pressure groups or legislative committees, who have no commercial experience or responsibility to be able to exercise them. The intended effects of cigarette advertising restrictions also have harmful side effects. For example in Croatia for last couple of months on the television you could find commercials with detailed development of tumor on lounges and ruining of aortas. Theses commercials did nothing but discussed large number of population, and even non smokers couldn’t look at the full add, while the smokers felt discriminated and exploited to society as disease and treat. There are also adds which offer 24-7 telephone lines for people who wish to quit smoking, and in these situations they were offering some pride winning rewards, which was a short term stimulant for people to quit smoking. How really can we think that people are that narrow minded that they will do what ever the media tells them to, and that they were not aware of their health risk before. People die of cancer caused by smoking, the tumor is painful and incurable; while on the other side many old people smoked almost all of their life and didn’t face this huge health problem. Maybe the times changed, the cigarettes changed, but the immunity of ones organism depends from one person to another and how it will affect somebody will vary among the society. It is a pleasu re and risk just as getting on roller coaster, running too fast by the dangerous street, stealing vegetables from the neighbor since u might get a gun shot if they catch you, and many other human activities that are practiced in everyday life.

Anti-Bullying Laws

Anti-bullying laws â€Å"When people hurt you over and over, think of them like sand paper. They may scratch you and hurt you a bit, but in the end, you end up polished and they end up useless†. A quote by Chris Colfer. The number of kids that get bullied everyday are increasing in the state of Arizona. In order to stop the bullying in the schools of mesa, Arizona must create a stronger anti-bullying law. To begin with, over the years the percentages of kids getting bullied are getting tremendously big.According to Winnie Hu kids think that there parents will laugh and teachers wont care that’s the reason they won’t speak up (Hu 13). everyday half a dozen of complaints said Dr. Bergacs from New York Times Magazine (Bergacs 8). Secondly kids are too scared to speak up and tell someone. Kids say it’s hard to tell someone if they are getting bullied. DeSean Jackson says at a young age it’s hard to do anything about it. They say they put their own lives in danger (Jackson 12).Finally, some kids that get bullied at school can affect their concentration at school. Parents will know something is wrong because there kids are doing bad at school . they say the bullying will just get worst. In conclusion, the anti-bullying law must work to stop bullying in the schools because bullying hurts kids and the number of kid being bullying is increasing each year. Bullying must be taken away from schools because bullies or bullied get hurt. This way kid ca stop getting hurt.

Internal Controls

Risks surrounding the identified accounts The Audit of TON Ltd has highlighted number of risks. The risks highlighted In the audit are discussed throughout the report. Below is a table of the risks and tests to carry out, based on the five accounts highlighted as being of risk. The common assertion that is common to the five accounts is valuation and allocation. Account Assessment of Risk Substantive audit procedure Accounts Receivable Account Receivable has Increased while sales has decreased.Days In receivables ratio has also Increased considerably. This highlights a high risk of overstatement of the assets. Subsequent assessment of sales receipts, aged receivable trial balance, and follow up on amounts that are overdue. Inquiry with key persons as to how and when overdue balances are classified as bad debts. Current Investments The decrease In current Investments needs Investigating, as well as why It has been Impaired and has the Impairment correctly been done. Review the share c ertificates, to vary they are held, and how many are held. Review the share prices used in the balance to the ASS listed prices. Property Assets Due to the property market being in decline, why hasn't the property in the financial reports not also decreased considerably? There could be an overstatement of property assets. Inquiry on why the directors valued the property the way they did and reasoning for It. External valuation by an expert. Intangible Assets No movement in intangible assets is unusual, particularly considering technology does not have an indefinite life.Overstatement of assets could be in use. Inquiry on why the directors valued the asset they way they did and reasoning for It. External valuation by an expert. Deferred Developmental Expenditure Even though analytical procedures can only be used, deferred development expenditure requires Investigation, due to the more than significant increase. Added to that the information that a competitor has successfully develope d and patented a similar device the future economic benefits from the deferred development expenditure is in question.Is there / could there be an overstatement? Assessment of accounting procedures used to create the deferred development expenditure balance. Inquiry to directors, and experts about the obsolescence of the company's laser development. Expert analysis of the technology. After all analytical procedures have been used to evaluate any risks to the financial reports of TON Ltd a number of risks have been highlighted in other accounts. Although It Is highly unlikely for a business to genuinely manipulate expenses to A) is certainly a major concern for TON Ltd.The operating expenses has also doubled in percentage of total sales (Appendix C). The decrease in inventories whilst also having an increase in accounts receivable is very unusual, mainly due Tao decrease in sales revenue. This highlights that accounts are not being written off to (increase he company's assets), falsi fied sales (increase the company's assets), or even theft of inventory. Business Risk The business risk for TON Ltd has increased from previous years. The primary business risk of concern is the loan agreement placed on the money borrowed to fund research projects.As the agreement with the bank states, that if the company's debt to equity ratio increases to over 1. 2:1. 0 the bank is allowed to demand immediate repayment. The analytical procedure has shown that the debt to equity ratio has increased from 1. 02:1. 0, to 1. 11:1. 0 (Appendix B). This is of great concern to he going concern of the business, and points out that the entities is highly leveraged and may be incapable to meet its debt obligations. Other factors concerning going concern are the other profitability ratios (Appendix B).This risk of going concern can create considerable pressure for the manipulation, falsification or modification of financial records in order to meet the agreement in place. The decline of the p roperty market is also another increased business risk, as one on TON Lad's major activities is investing in the property market. The decrease in the property market ultimately decreases the value of assets in TON Ltd and such presents the risk of overstatement of the value, or understatement of the impairment of the property.This influences the current liquidity ratios, and may be the reason for an increased ratio (Appendix B), when there should be a decline as indicators have presented. This is mainly apparent in the director's valuation of investment properties. (Note 8 of the financial reports). One property has not decreased from the previous year, and one was purchased in the current year. This could be an indication of a fraudulent misstatement. Competitors are another business risk for TON Ltd. One competitor of TON Ltd have developed and patented a device similar to the one in which TON Ltd spent a considerable amount on.This highlights a risk of obsolescence of inventory f or the company and an overstatement of assets as the expenditure hasn't been written off. The reporting of this expense into other non-current assets account has lead to an increase of 1900 percent in the trend statement (Appendix A), and an increase in the percentage of total assets by almost 13% (Appendix C). As with the property, the treatment of expenditure affects the current liquidity ratio, making impasse liquidity look better than it actually is (Appendix B).If the amount was written off, due to it not providing any future economic benefit to the company then it would decrease the assets of the business, and increase the tax liability of the company. The factors highlighted above would have placed pressure on the directors of the company. Considering the directors value certain financial report balances, these balances have a risk of being fraudulently misstated. These accounts are Investments (non-current), Property Plant and Equipment, and Intangible Assets (non- current). As discussed previously, the decline in the property market would indicate a decline to the value of the property held by TON Ltd. However, TON Ltd has not The pressures that might been placed on the directors, may have lead to the directors to not devalue the property. This can also be said for the intangible assets account which contains technologies that's valued by the directors. These technologies have not been impaired which is not normal, considering technology is regularly improving and therefore obsolete in a shorter period than other intangibles. Plant and Equipment also needs be looked at.Although there is no indication of misstatement in this account, in fact it has decreased in the trend and common size statements (Appendix A and C) should be looked into. Appendix A Trend Statement 2013 2012 2011 sales 100% Cost of goods sold 68% 85% 100% Gross profit% 109% 100% other Revenue 100% operating 154% 100% Finance costs 150% 128% 100% profit before Tax 103% 100% Tax Expense 1 03% 100% Net profit 103% 100% 9000 $'000 $'000 cash 139% 100% Trade and other receivables 131% 111% 100% Investments 110% 100% Inventories 110% 107% 100% other% 92% 100% Total current Assets 110% 108% 100% Non Current AssetsInvestments 150% 145% 100% Property, plant & equipment 84% 92% 100% Intangibles 200% 200% 100% otherness% 100% 100% Total Non-current Assets 158% 130% 100% Total Assets 140% 122% 100% Current Liabilities Trade and other payable 104% 118% 100% provosts 59% 100% Total current Liabilities 101% 116% 100% Non Current Liabilities sank Loans 188% 125% 100% provosts 116% 114% 100% Total Non-current Liabilities 179% 124% 100% Total Liabilities 144% 120% 100% Net Assets 135% 123% 100% Equity Share capital 100% 100% 100% Reserve 107% 100% 100% Retained Earnings 190% 163% 100% Total Equity% 123% 100% Appendix BActivity Ratios Receivables Turnover 4. 55 6. 32 Days in Receivables 80 58 Inventory Turnover 2. 19 2. 85 Days in Inventory 166. 53 127. 89 Profitability Ratios Gross profit 0. 32 0. 30 0. 25 Net profit 0. 07 0. 14 0. 13 Return on Total Assets 0. 03 0. 09 0. 11 Return on Shareholders' Equity 0. 07 0. 19 Solvency Ratios 0. 22 Times Interest Earned 0. 63 1. 76 Liquidity Ratios current Ratio 1. 80 1. 54 1. 66 Quick Asset Ratio 0. 90 0. 79 0. 83 Appendix C Common Size Statement $'000 $'000 $'000 sales Revenue 100% 100% 100% 2. 17 Cost of goods sold 68% 70% 75% Gross profit% 25% other Revenue 7% 7% operatingFinance cost 11% 8% 6% profit Before Tax Tax Expense 6% 5% Net profit $'000 $'000 Current Assets cash 0. 15% 0. 25% 0. 22% Trade and other receivables 11. 15% 10. 79% Investments 3. 36% 5. 91% 6. 56% Inventories 14. 80% 16. 45% 18. 75% other. 22% 0. 31% 0. 41% Total current Assets 29. 68% 33. 70% 37. 81% Investments 33. 59% 37. 26% 31. 25% Property, plant & equipment 14. 33% 17. 99% Intangibles 8. 96% 10. 28% 6. 25% 23. 75% Total Non-current Assets 70. 32% 66. 30% 62. 19% Total Assets 100% 100% 100% Trade and other payable 29. 99% 40. 2% 41. 68% pr ovosts 1. 28% 2. 55% 3. 13% Total current Liabilities 31. 6% 43. 27% 44. 81% sank Loans 63. 80% 50. 91% 49. 04% provosts 4. 93% 5. 82% 6. 15% Total Non-Current Liabilities 68. 74% Total Liabilities 100% 100% 100% Net Assets 56. 73% 55. 19% Share capital 23. 65% 25. 94% 31. 88% Reserve 25. 30% 25. 94% 31. 88% Retained Earnings 51. 05% 48. 11% 36. 24% Total Equity% 100% 100% Question 2 – Internal Controls The client of ACT Ltd has stated they have established improvements to their systems surrounding their internal controls.From the information that has been provided by the audit manager containing the new internal controls implemented at ACT Ltd, the allowing table contains a list of the four internal controls that are potentially effective, the risk each one could mitigate, and the appropriate tests of each of the identified controls. Strengths Effective Control Risk Addressed Test of Control l. Documentation which allows the follow up of partially filled orders by the dispat ch department manager. (Preventative control. ) l. Deals with the custody that happens in the sales process, dealing with shipping/delivery in particular.The control helps to prevent the overstatement of sales by accounting for partially filled orders and not listing them as complete orders. It also helps to prevent the understatement of inventory by keeping a correct record of what has actually been dispatched. This deals with the occurrence and completeness assertions Examination of the reconciliation of shipments to invoices Monitor the checking of shipments, or inspect selected shipments, including partially filled shipments Inspection of documentation relating to shipments, and partially filled shipments IV.Computing and updating the customer volume ratings that are used to apply discounts. Provides a segregation of duties by having the ratings calculated by one person, and authorized by another individual. It encourages the right recording of sales, and discounts applied. It a llows discounts to be applied, with accordance to the company's policy. This deals with the accuracy assertion. Select a sample of invoices (with discounts applied to them), and check the evidence that the discount applied can be traced back to the approved list. Check against previous sales totals of the customer VIII.Reviewing of the trade receivables analysis to detect and highlight any accounts that are past 90 days. Allows the financial manager to follow up with the trade receivables clerk, and receive reasoning for the outstanding balances. Detective control) VIII. Deals with accounts receivable and mainly outstanding accounts. The control is in place to allow the detection of any abnormal balances, and bad debts. It encourages the chasing up of debtors before 90 days, the correct assessment of bad debts expense, It also helps to detect any customers that are of concern in these areas. The assertion here is classification. Assessment of outstanding accounts, and make inquiries with key staff about the outstanding amounts, and the chance of payment. Examine against company, and accounting, policy on bad and doubtful debts. X. Chasing up outstanding receivables. Also makes sure that customers do not go over credit limits by putting a hold on / delaying of shipments until a payment is received from the customer. (Preventative control) ‘X. Deals with accounts receivable, bad debts, and sales/ inventory. The control allows for a plan that's been in placed to follow up on any outstanding debts, and or detect bad and doubtful debts.The control is in placed to ensure sales/inventory are not completed and thus shipped to customers who have outstanding accounts that the financial manager is uncomfortable with. It encourages correct credit procedures, chasing up outstanding accounts, and the correct valuation of accounts receivable. An assessment of outstanding accounts, and inquires with key staff about the outstanding amounts, and the chance of payment. Eva luate against company, and accounting, policy on bad and doubtful debts. Review the credit approval process, against customers with outstanding debt.Check against company policy The above table highlighted the potentially effective controls that ACT Ltd has set in place. However though not all of the controls in placed were effective that the Audit Manager's extract has identified, five out of the nine controls that ACT Ltd have in place had some weaknesses. The following section of this report will highlight the five sales and receivables internal controls, and the weaknesses inherent in each one. Weaknesses The first weakness to be highlighted is the weakness of control two, this weaknesses completeness and occurrence.The lack of separation of duties in this control, allows an employee to misappropriate assets. The employee can cover up any misappropriation as they are involved in both the shipping of goods and the good turned whilst without any appropriate supervising or authoriz ing. Another weakness in this control is that the trade receivables clerk is the one individual in charge of all credit notes. Again, by the lack of segregation of duties, allows the employee to cover up falsified actions by having control of both transactions.The weaknesses in control three are related to fraudulent activities, as with errors in the financial report, concerning unintentional mistakes. The IT system is fairly new and is looked after by the sales director and not an IT expert. This weakness can raise the risk of errors in the IT system. The prices of stock are gathered from the selling price master file, and as there is no password protection necessary for access to databases, the selling price master files, and every other file are all subject to inappropriate changes.This allows for any fraudulent activities and as well, honest mistakes dealing with the changing of database files. The most evident weakness in this control is the simple screen check performed by the trade receivables clerk to verify the accuracy of the invoices. A high risk of misstatement can arise, whether intentionally or unintentionally. Some simple controls of passwords, authorization of hangers, authorization and approval of invoices would help to reduce the weaknesses, and thus the risk. Control five has a few weaknesses that allow the risk of fraudulent activities, and segregation of duties.This control entitles the trade receivables clerk, who also creates invoices, to post them the general Journal. As there is not segregation of duties, this can allow the clerk to cover up any fraudulent activities they may be par taking in. Add to this weakness, not only can fraudulent activities be covered up, but unintentional errors may not be highlighted before the sales invoices are posted to the general ledger. Segregation of these duties, posting to the ledger, and/or receiving approval and authorization of the sales invoices and general ledger, can minimize the risk surround ing the weaknesses of control.As stated above, segregation of duties is visibly a weakness in the sales and receivables of ACT Ltd. This weakness also exists in control 6. The trade receivables clerk, who computes all the data for the invoices, is also the same person who accepts the receipts from debtors, compute the payments, prepares the bank deposit slip, and reconciles the trade receivables ledger to the debtors control account in this control. This is plainly raising the risk that the clerk could possibly partake and conceal any fraud during their normal course of duties.Sufficient segregation of duties is very vital to reducing this risk, and therefore reduces the weaknesses highlighted in this control. Control seven's main weakness deals around the controls in the IT system and the controls around the databases. Control seven includes the computer generating an aged analysis at the end of the month, based upon all invoices completed. However with insufficient controls as hig hlighted in control three and our, the information in the report is likely to have errors. The fact that anyone can easily access the database means that the invoices computed can be fraudulently created, deleted or modified.Therefore occurrence and accuracy assertions can plainly be found to be inaccurate. Control seven can only be strengthened if the controls in place, the likely hood of misstatement in this control is only going to carry on. Assessment of Internal Controls As highlighted in the report the new internal controls that are in placed at ACT Ltd have both strengths and weaknesses. As such the reliance on these internal controls fifers in different areas. The strengths outlined above are obviously of less concern then the weaknesses outlined.The controls recognized as effective require more tests of control rather than substantive testing, as they can be relied upon more than the controls that have been recognized with weaknesses. As for the controls with weaknesses, th ey are require to have more substantive testing as the controls cannot be relied upon as much. The strengths highlighted surround delivery and shipping (control 1), the accuracy of discounts applied (control 4), aged trade receivables, allow up of aged trade receivables, and the accuracy of bad and doubtful debt expense (controls 8 and 9).The assertions attributed to these areas can therefore be relied upon more than the other controls. The tests of controls outlined above should be undertaken on these controls identified to ensure that the controls exist and can be relied upon. The controls around these areas can be class as less than high. The weaknesses highlighted concern largely the segregation of duties, and controls around the IT system. These two weaknesses are common across all the weaknesses identified. As such, these controls cannot be relied upon, at least until the management of ACT Ltd correct the weaknesses identified.Therefore the risk assessment of these areas can b e classed as high, and thus require no test of controls, and a greater emphasis on substantive testing. References: Gay, G. E. , & Sentiments, R. (2012). Auditing and assurance services in Australia (5th deed. ). Roseville: McGraw Hill. ACACIA. (2014 or 2013). Auditing and assurance handbook. Brisbane: John Wiley & Sons Australia. Accounts Receivable Account Receivable has increased while sales has decreased. Days in receivables ratio has also increased considerably.This highlights a high risk Current Investments The decrease in current investments needs investigating, as well as why it has been impaired and has the impairment correctly been done. Reasoning for it. External valuation by an expert. For it. Used, deferred development expenditure requires investigation, due to the more obsolescence of the company's laser development.

Yayoi Kusama Biography

Yayoi Kusama  is 82 years old. But when she is wheeled in, on her blue polka-dotted wheelchair, she looks more like a baby, the sort you might see played by an adult in a British pantomime. Her face is large for a Japanese woman and at odds with her smallish frame. Apart from her intense, saucer-shaped eyes and the arc of deep red lipstick across her mouth, there is something masculine about her features. She wears a lurid red wig and a dress covered in engorged polka dots. Coiled around her neck is a long red scarf decorated with worm-like black squiggles.When she is out of the spotlight, without her splashy red wig and garish outfits, she looks like a nice, grey-haired old lady. But in public situations Kusama’s art and Kusama the artist converge. It is as if the patterns she has obsessively replicated since childhood have seeped off the canvas and into the three-dimensional world of flesh and blood. Rarely has an artist so clearly articulated the art of the Sixties as the Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama. The significance of her work has to do with the specific time period in which she grew up and her perception of art is determined by an inner energy.Her work also transcends earlier established and traditional border lines between disciplines of art and between art and life itself. Kusama’s career is rooted in her Japanese origin. Born in Matsumoto in 1929 she studied at the Arts and Crafts School in Kyoto. In 1957 she moved to New York, which was at the time the world center of contemporary. This move was based on her early awareness that only in New York could she continue her development as a contemporary artist.During the years she lived in New York it become apparent that compared to the conventional image of the Japanese woman, she was a human dynamo of creative energies and abundant human resources. The results of these first years in the art of Kusama were large paintings, one of them 33 feet long, of white nets which, without center and compositional features, obsessively covered the canvas with such intensity that one had the feeling the nets could continue beyond the borders. â€Å"My nets grew beyond myself and beyond the canvasses I was covering them with.They began to cover the walls, the ceiling, and finally the whole universe. I was standing at the center of the obsession over the passionate accretion and repetition inside me. † (Kusama) These early works with their radical and hypnotic repetitive energies were first exhibited in small, unknown galleries in New York and Washington. It wasn’t long before they made an international impact and were shown in the Monochrome Painting Exhibition in the Museum Schloss Morsbroich in Leverjusen, Germany in 1960.This international exhibition was a comprehensive documentation of a new concept in the arts after World War II and included works by Lucio Ponatana and Piero Manzoni from Italy, Mark Rothko from the USA, Yves Klein from France, and Otto Piene an d Guenter Uekcker from Germany. Yayoi Kusama was the only representative from Japan, and her work was a unique and independent articulation of the new art. The early Sixties in New York were years of experimentation, and one of the prime innovators in context became the Japanese immigrant Kusama.She expanded the thematic core of her work into themes like sex obsession and repetitive imagery which only much later were related to terms such as Pop Art and artists such as Andy Warhol, Claes Oldenburg and Roy Lichtenstein. Since 1962 Kusama has created soft sculptures, sometimes also referred to as a sewing-machine sculptures, and pieces of phallic furniture which gave expression to her underlying obsessive motif of sex.In connection with one of her early shows in the Gertrude Stein Gallery in New York in 1963 she said â€Å"these new types of sculptural works arose from a deep driving compulsion to realize in visible form the repetitive image inside of me. When this image is given fre edom, it overflows the limits of time and space. People have said that presents an irresistible force†¦that goes by its own momentum once it has started. † It is evident that the artist liked to be part of these new works of sculpture as she often posed in the nude on her own creations of phallic furniture.The Infinity Nets helped Kusama stay absorbed in her life. She wasn’t concerned about Surrealism, Pop Art, Minimal Art, or whatever, just staying in her own head. I interpret the dot motifs as representing a hallucinatory vision. Proliferating dots append themselves to scenes around Kusama, trying to flee from psychic obsession by choosing to paint the very vision of fear, from which a person would ordinarily avert their eyes. The dots make you lose yourself and then that makes you face more of what’s real within your mind.Kusama said â€Å"I paint them in quantity; in doing so, I try to escape†. Mirror Room (Pumpkin) was an installation with a neat conflation of two of her mirror installations from the mid 1960s, the Peep Show and the Infinity Mirror Room, the 1993 Mirror Room (Pumpkin) consisted of a large gallery papered floor to ceiling with a yellow and black polka dot pattern. In the centre of the space stood a mirrored box the size of a small room, with a single window in a manner reminiscent of the 1965 Peep Show.At the opening of the exhibition Kusama appeared in the room dressed in a long sorcerer’s robe and peeked hat, both of which matched her surroundings and caused her to merge with them in a manner that recalled early interactions with her Infinity Nets and Accumulations. Visually a part of the installation, Kusama was also an active agent, offering tiny yellow and black polka dotted pumpkins to anyone who entered the space.These little pumpkins were a direct reference to the 2,000 lire mirror balls that the artist had outrageously hawked from her Narcissus Garden at her first Venice Biennale. In recent y ears, the practice of Yayoi Kusama, now in her eighties, has developed in astounding ways. Already, she has transcended gender and generation, coming to resemble no less than some eternal being liberated from the cycle of reincarnation. But, come to think of it, Kusama has defied categorization for a long time, perhaps even transcending our very notion of art.In the Asian view of the cosmos — in particular, the ancient Indian cosmology of the Vedic period — the fundamental principle of the universe involves that of Brahman, enveloping the entire cosmos, and Atman, the self, with the two connected by an invisible energy; while the unification of Brahman and Atman allows an escape from reincarnation and the endless cycle of life and death. This is an idea widely accepted by Brahmanism, Hinduism and the Jains.In Buddhism, however, though the idea of reincarnation and escape from its cycle by attaining nirvana is accepted, the Buddha stressed the cosmic connectedness of al l things as causal interdependence, or pratityasamutpada. This way of thinking, which views human existence, consciously or unconsciously, as one part of the whole of creation believes in an invisible connectedness or relationship of cause and effect, and could also be described as the spatial concept underlying everything Eastern. Contemplating Yayoi Kusama’s practice in light of this cosmic view, we begin o see how her awareness of existence shares this same vast sense of scale. The hallucinations, both visual and auditory, Kusama experienced from her younger years have been attributed to a nervous disorder known as depersonalization syndrome. Those afflicted are said to perceive and experience the self as if observing from outside, divorced from their own mental processes and corporeal body. This is also explained by Kusama’s comment that, through the acts of painting and performance, ‘I have released this into a chaotic vacuum’;  Ã¢â‚¬Ëœthis' being t he mysterious something that only she can see and hear. I do find the small works on paper from the Fifties and Sixties has this world in a grain of sand, this minute but galactic quality to it. When looking, you have that feeling of, ‘my God what scale am I? ’ You get lost in this extraordinary cosmos and then are taken aback when you consider that they’re only four inches wide. I think these macroscopic realms are really extraordinary. And they’re incredibly beautiful. I was completely stunned when I first saw them. I managed to see her exhibition at the Tate Modern in London.I think it’s extraordinary that somebody so young, so far away and brought up in such a traditional environment was so able to absorb the influence of Miro and Ernst and Klee whose work she probably only saw in reproduction, then taking it all on and going on to produce work of such originality and in such great quantity. What I love is the idea that all the dayglow â€Å"br andiness† of her spots all comes back to this incredible energy from her early twenties. She also staged dozens of Happenings—what you could call â€Å"Body Festivals†Ã¢â‚¬â€in her studio and in public spaces around New York.Some were sites of authority, such as MoMA or Wall Street. Other sites, such as Tompkins Square Park and Washington Square Park, were associated with New York’s psychedelic hippie culture. She played the role of high priestess and painted the nude bodies of models on the stage with polka dots in five colors. When a Happening was staged at Times Square under her direction, a huge crowd flocked to it. Yayoi was never nude, publicly or privately. At the homosexual orgies she directed, she always stayed at a safe place with a manager in the studio to avoid being arrested by police.The studio would have been thrown into utter confusion if she had ever been arrested. The police were primarily after a bribe. When she was arrested while direc ting a Happening in Wall Street and taken into police custody, they demanded that she pay them if I wanted to be set free. Bribes ranged from $400 to $1,000. Since she paid them every time I was arrested, my Happenings ended up as a good out-of-the-way place for them to make money. Painting bodies with the patterns of Kusama’s hallucinations obliterated their individual selves and returned them to the infinite universe. This is magic.Nudity was central to Kusama’s work in those years: in addition to the Happenings, she opened a fashion boutique offering clothes she designed that were â€Å"nude, see-through, and mod. † The shop had private studios and nude models available for body painting or photographing. Kusama also opened the Church of Self-Obliteration in a SoHo loft, appointing herself the â€Å"High Priestess of Polka Dots† so she could officiate at a wedding of two gay men in 1968. She designed a large bridal gown that both men wore. Minimal art, or Minimalism, was one of the major artistic tendencies to emerge from the United States in the 1960s.Though never a unified movement — the majority of the artists associated with it actively rejected the term — it described a significant trend toward interrogating the communicative authority of the artist and the exalted status of the art object by reducing it to its basic components. The term is notoriously slippery, but it has generally come to be associated with the reductive paintings, sculptures and ‘specific objects’ — neither paintings nor sculptures — of Carl Andre, Dan Flavin, Donald Judd, Robert Morris, Blinky Palermo, Richard Serra and Frank Stella, occasionally extending to Agnes Martin, Ad Reinhardt, Anne Truitt and others.Unlike many of their abstract expressionist predecessors, the minimalists steadfastly avoided emotionally charged gestures, often to the point of having their works industrially produced. Minimalism did not e merge in isolation, developing in dialogue with Pop art, color field painting and concrete art. Nor was its prominence particularly long-lasting; indeed, part of the tendency’s importance was the influence that its questioning of artistic convention had on subsequent developments like conceptual art and Postmodernism.When Kusama arrived in New York in 1958, the city’s powerful art scene was still in thrall to the legacy of Abstract Expressionism. The net paintings she began producing shortly after her arrival, and first exhibited the following year, were therefore received as a major revelation. Abstract expressionist critic Dore Ashton called her show a ‘striking tour de force’, while Sidney Tillim declared the artist ‘one of the most promising new talents to appear on the New York scene in years’.Though never a ‘pure’ monochrome painter, Kusama was one of the few artists working in the city who proposed that a surface could be r educed to a single, undifferentiated field, unbroken by figuration or abstract compositional devices. As Donald Judd observed on first encountering the works, her net paintings took the expansive color fields of ‘cooler’ abstractionists like Mark Rothko, Clyfford Still and Barnett Newman as a point of departure, but added something entirely new. In his review of the exhibition for  Art News, Judd described the paintings as ‘strong, advanced in concept and realized’.He continued: â€Å"The space is shallow, close to the surface and achieved by innumerable small arcs superimposed on a black ground overlain with a wash of white. The effect is both complex and simple. Essentially it is produced by the intersection of two close, somewhat parallel, vertical planes, at points merging at the surface plane and at others diverging slightly but powerfully. † (Pollock) Unlike Abstract Expressionism, the optical effects of the net paintings’ undulating f ields owed more to the material qualities of the painted surface than to any illusions of pictorial depth.Nor was their composition bound by a relationship to the painting’s frame; they were, as Kusama herself described them, ‘without beginning, end or centre’. The nets propagated according to their own internal logic, a system in which they could go on reproducing themselves across an entire room if it weren’t for the edge of the canvas, which, as a limit, was purely physical, rather than structural. This suggested that painting might be considered as a phenomenal, rather than illusory, practice — a painted surface could be thought of as a single plane of a three-dimensional object, rather than a two-dimensional pictorial ‘window’.Kusama is engaged in a never-ending mission to release the microcosms within herself to the outside, in order to project it on the macrocosms and the infinite space to which our imaginations do not extend. By facing up to this endless mission, Kusama herself is also elevated to the status of eternal being, so to speak — one who, though but a speck of dust in the universe, also has a bird’s-eye view of the entire universe.It is her infinite consciousness that transcends the time, generation, gender, region and culture, as well as the various vocabularies of contemporary art. It is also the reason Yayoi Kusama is so well-received around the world — and the reason why the force driving her is like an eternally bubbling spring. Bibliography Chadwick, Whitney, and Dawn Ades. Mirror Images: Women, Surrealism, and Self-representation. Cambridge, MA: MIT, 1998. Kusama, Yayoi, and Lynn Zelevansky. Love Forever: Yayoi Kusama, 1958-1968.Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1998. Kusama, Yayoi. Yayoi Kusama: Recent Works. New York: Robert Miller Gallery, 1996. Kusama, Yayoi, and David Moos. Yayoi Kusama: Early Drawings from the Collection of Richard Castellane. Birmin gham, Ala. : Birmingham Museum of Art, 2000. Kusama, Yayoi, and Bhupendra Karia. Yayoi Kusama: A Retrospective. New York: Center for International Contemporary Arts, 1989. Pollock, Griselda. Psychoanalysis and the Image: Transdisciplinary Perspectives. Malden, MA: Blackwell Pub. , 2006.