Gender Stigma Of Girls Self Esteem Drops Dramatically...

Society has ascribed to women the negative gender stigma that they are weak and incapable. One obvious manifestation of this is the mocking phrase that someone does something, such as run, fight, or hit, â€Å"like a girl†. While most people say this phrase as a joke, it truly does have an effect on young girls. In the Always â€Å"Like a Girl† commercial, parent company Proctor and Gamble presents the statistic that girls self esteem drops dramatically during puberty (AlwaysBrand). Although Always is attempting a new tactic to reverse the negative gender stigmas of women by focusing on the core of the problem, puberty, the point in girls lives when they stop perceiving themselves as strong and capable, Always’ morals have flaws. Large advertisement campaigns like Always determine how well a product will sell based on the response from the viewers. These advertisements represent large marketing investments balanced by the hope of reaping high increases in resu lting sales. By juxtaposing the two ideas of the adolescent target market and the apparently feminist marketing campaign, this paper will examine the psychological changes during puberty and marketer’s focus on adolescent stigmas in an effort to demonstrate that the brand Always is not actually bringing a new face to feminism, just exploiting the issue for their own self-interested profit in sales. Always’ centers the storyboard of their commercial by portraying the differing views of girls that occur as they move through

Community Justice Models - 1416 Words

Abstract My paper describes the four community justice models; involvement, partnership, mobilization and intermediary model. I expanded on the neighborhood watch since it is a perfect example of the mobilization model. In addition, I vouched for the involvement model as being the most effective approach to community justice strategies. In community justice several approaches have been made in order to help members of the community and the justice systems develop a critical understanding of some of the variation in community justice activity. Some of these strategies imposed are the involvement model; the partnership model; the mobilization model and the intermediary model. In the involvement model, citizen participation and policing†¦show more content†¦As community boundaries relate to the purpose of the partnership, so do the relevant stakeholders. However, because community justice initiatives aim to articulate the voice of the community and improve quality of life for everyone that uses or provides resources to the community, the range of stakeholders is very broad. Following the partnership model we move on to the mobilization model whereby the unity of the community is reinforced in order to suppress criminal activity. The essence of the mobilization approach is to bring people together to confront their own problems, to organize people with respect to the quality of their lives (Cardora 2003). A perfect example of the mobilization approach is the neighborhood watch program. In essence, Neighborhood Watch is a crime prevention program that stresses education and common sense. It teaches citizens how to help themselves by identifying and reporting suspicious activity in their neighborhoods. In addition, it provides citizens with the opportunity to make their neighborhoods safer and improve the quality of life. Neighborhood Watch groups typically focus on observation and awareness as a means of preventing crime and employ strategies that range from simply promoting social interaction and watching out for each other to active patrols by groups of citizens. Most neighborhood crime prevention groups are organized around a block or a neighborhood and are started with assistanceShow MoreRelatedRestorative Justice among the Aboriginal People1336 Words   |  5 PagesRestorative justice can be defined as a theory related to justice that is concerned on repairing the harm that is caused or revealed by a criminal behavior (Barsh 2005: 359). Over the years, restorative justice has been seen as an effective way of dealing with both social as well as cultural issues of the aboriginal people. Because of these, restorative justice is used in many of the local communities in an effort to correct criminal behavior. This concept is seen as a conceptualization of justice whichRead MoreEssay on Gang Reduction Program1407 Words   |  6 Pagesresponse to communities with a large amount and growing number of youth gangs the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP), a branch of the U.S. Department of Justice, initiated the Gang Reduc tion Program (GRP) (U.S. Department of Justice 2008). The formation of gangs is seen as a response to system failures and community dysfunction. As a result, one of OJJPD’s anti-gang initiatives is to make communities safer and have a pro-social environment (U.S. Department of Justice 2008).Read MoreThe Role Of The Juvenile System For Young People1543 Words   |  7 Pageslikely to commit in risky and anti social behaviors influenced by their peers (Aic.gov.au, 2015). In Australia, both welfare and justice model is used in the criminal justice system where the welfare model argues for the need for rehabilitation for young offenders whereas, the justice model adopts the concept that it’s within the young offender’s choice to commit crime. The models above is what shapes the juvenile systems where in the past 10 years many alterations has been made by key players such asRead MoreCommunity Justice And Criminal Justice980 Words   |  4 PagesCommunity justice is a broad term that includes many aspects of involving the community. The main goal is to enhance the lives within the community through the creation of problem solving strategies and strengthening the standards within the community by restoring victim’s quality of life, and reintegrating offenders of crimes. Although community justice can be traced back hundreds of years. The model is still considered a nontraditional approach in today’s criminal justice sector. Due to its broadRead MoreSolving The Consensus And Conflict Model942 Words   |  4 Pagesme to discuss the consensus and conflict models as explanations to the origin of criminal law. First it is important to distinguish the difference between the two models. According to the textbook â€Å"Criminal Justice Today† the consensus model is defined as a criminal justice perspective that assumes that the system’s components work together harmoniously to achieve the social product we call justice a nd the conflict model is defined as a criminal justice perspective that assumes that the system’sRead MoreJuvenile Justice754 Words   |  3 PagesJuvenile justice has traditionally followed a punitive model when faced with young transgressors. Most juvenile justice departments have then also followed this model, creating a system that is in effect not only separate from the community, but also from the family unit. Many juvenile offenders are then physically removed both from their communities and their families to be incarcerated into punitive institutions. According to the Balanced and Restorative Justice model, however, accountability isRead MoreCesare Beccaria s Influence On Criminal Justice Essay1023 Words   |  5 Pages he is well remembered for his writings on â€Å"On Crimes and Punishments† written in 1764, which condemned torture and the death penalty, and was a founding work in the field of penology and the Classical school of criminology by promoting cr iminal justice. (citation) Cesare Beccaria’s credentials include he received his early education in the Jesuit college at Parma. Subsequently, he graduated in law from the University of Pavia in 1758. (citation) *****The key principle made in Beccaria s On CrimesRead MoreThe Limits Of The Criminal Sanction Written By The Criminologist Scholar Herbert Packer Essay1619 Words   |  7 Pages The criminal justice system is finding ways and doing their absolute best to prevent crime and protect their citizens. Preventing crime is not an easy job, the system prevents crime by using their powers to arrest, prosecute, and sentences criminals to prison. Citizens need to feel safe in their environment that they are living in. However, since we are living in a constitutional and democratic society, where citizen rights need to be protected and have due process where people can be innocentRead MoreHow Crime Affects The Community1536 Words   |  7 PagesCrime affects the community any numerous ways. On the individual level, crime makes people feel unsafe, especially if they witness crime. Areas where crime rates are above average, residents deal with reduction in housing equity and property va lue. Gangs especially divided neighborhoods previously built by family’s in their post WWII economic boom. These neighborhoods are now territories in both urban and rural areas. By which, gang activity advocates deviant behavior ranging from prostitution andRead MoreCommunity Justice By David R. Analysis980 Words   |  4 PagesIntroduction In this analysis we analyze chapters one, two and three from the text What Is Community Justice by David R. Karp and Todd R. Clear. We will then break down a specific case from a chapter in this text. The first chapter is about a placed called Ventura County and in this chapter it also discusses the theory of community justice as a whole as well as the community justice model. Chapter two is a bit broader and discusses neighborhood probation offices, the philosophy behind them and

So Much More free essay sample

â€Å"The aggregate of all our joys and sufferings; thousands of confident religions, ideologies and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilizations, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every hopeful child, every mother and father, every inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every superstar, every supreme leader, every saint and sinner in the history of our species, lived there on a mote of dust, suspended in a sunbeam.† –Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future in Space, Carl Sagan The flame licked our skin as we spoke. The smoke felt good in my lungs. Its heat warmed my heart as the autumn air brushed my skin. I exhaled. Chills scattered down my arms and a smile stretched across my face. We poured our souls into that bonfire, fueling it as it seemed to swallow the world around us. We will write a custom essay sample on So Much More or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page We called it a â€Å"fireside chat,† mimicking FDR’s signature radio broadcasts. For hours we sat and talked about anything. About everything. Life itself slowed. Paul, Dan, Evan and I have been inseparable for ages, essentially living out of Evan’s â€Å"man cave.† As our final year together approached, we had gathered that night to ponder our futures. Paul began. He told a tale of simple pleasure and mediocrity; an American ideal. Evan and Dan followed suit, spinning stories about their average aspirations. I sat unmoving, gaze transfixed near the core of the fire. It cracked and fizzled as a break in conversation approached. â€Å"So what about you, Kevin?† Dan questioned. â€Å"You’ve been awfully quiet this whole time.† Silence was my immediate reply. I scoured my brain for an obvious answer, but I merely continued my stare straight ahead. With a long blink I replied simply: â€Å"I dunno.† I turned my head toward the stars, again looking at nothing in particular. â€Å"Not specifically, anyway.† The quiet echoed in the air. â€Å"I mean all that’s great, having a family and everything, but, it’s not enough. Not for me.† â€Å"It’s all too ordinary. I want to make an impact. A huge one. Helping the world one case at a time isn’t enough, I want to redefine it; change the way everyone thinks and everything works.† â€Å"And I’m not sure how I’m going to do it yet. I’ve got so many talents, so much potential, the opportunities are endless. I can’t pick just one way to go from here.† â€Å"So I’m alright not knowing for now†¦but when I do, everyone will.† I nodded lightly and reflected in approval of my speech, my vision again redirected toward the fire. Our voices became part of the crackling flame, the cadence of the wind overtaking the air. I was truly at peace. In that moment, I wasn’t merely a saint or sinner. On our mote of dust, we are defined by our ambitions and our impacts. I want to be so much more than a king forgotten in history. That moment I was something more. I was someone who planned to clutch our world in his hands, someone who could not be overlooked with time. As moments become months, that feeling remains. I am going to make an impact. Our world; our lives cannot be simplified into a single sentence. My life is going to be extraordinary and I refuse to be simply suspended in a sunbeam.

Time in the Great Gatsby free essay sample

People of the Old Money are a tight-knit group; their connections with other rich and powerful families have been created in the past and maintained for a long time, so they possess a certain amount of grace, taste and social subtlety that other classes lack. These connections, and other factors, are what make this social class powerful, and therefore they are able to stay safe and comfortable behind their money and status. In the final chapters, Daisy commits an unpardonable crime by running Myrtle down while driving Gatsbys car. Myrtle dies, but Daisy, because of her money and status, escapes without accepting any responsibility. Gatsby represents New Money. Such nouveau-riche has gained wealth in the post-war economic boom of the 20s, and in Gatsbys case, through illegal activities. However, even with the acquisition of immense wealth, Fitzgerald shows it is impossible for a person born into a lower class to move up the hierarchy. We will write a custom essay sample on Time in the Great Gatsby or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page Many of these people are ostentatious and lack the social graces and taste of the Old Money class. This factor is obvious in Gatsbys monstrous mansion, his yellow Rolls Royce and his weekly parties. In fact, the whole of West Egg is described as vulgar (Daisy), if seen through the eyes of the more dignified and reserved residents of East Egg. When the Buchannans attend one of Gatsbys parties, Daisy is appalled by West Egg, stating that it had raw vigour that chafed under the old euphemisms. (pg. 103) Despite his wealth, it is apparent that Gatsby will never fully belong to the Old Money class. This is explained when Tom, Mr Sloane and a lady visit Gatsbys house. When the lady includes Gatsby in the invitation to her house for supper, he completely misses the subtle reluctance in her offer and accepts. The fact that the offer was just out of politeness can be seen when Tom states, Doesnt he know she doesn’t want him? (pg. 100) Furthermore, Gatsby does not have any social connections with other aristocratic people, and this is shown best when he distances himself from his guests. Gatsby can never really escape his humble origins. He was essentially herded†¦ along a short cut from nothing to nothing (pg. 03) Nothing symbolises his poverty-stricken boyhood, but also foreshadows that eventually, he will end up with nothing. He has played host to a multitude of people at his extravagant parties, but dies friendless and almost alone. In the America of the 1920s, many people acquired wealth, but that did not guarantee acceptance into the ranks of those who were considered Old Money. As a novel about wealth, Fitzgerald makes a distinct s tatement that Gatsby, a representative of the New Money group, does not have the innate qualities of people such as Tom and Daisy. Thus, it is impossible for these classes to integrate completely.

Pharmaceutical Engineering

Pharmaceutical Engineering Introduction Recently, the pharmaceutical industry has grappled with an increased cost in production partly because of uncertainty with regards to the necessities for regulatory compliance. Of particular interest is the validation of particularly the automation systems as well as the accreditation of Practices for Heating, Ventilation and Air Conditioning (HVAC).Advertising We will write a custom essay sample on Pharmaceutical Engineering specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More Initially, the existence of many yet acceptable interpretations of these regulatory requirements led to confusion between manufacturers leading to inconsistencies in processing practices. With the inception of these practices, a part from increased costs in production, there has been a decrease in the rate at which new products come to market. (World Health Organization, 1997) In the year 1994, a body representing the pharmaceutical engineers in conjunction with both the International Society for Pharmaceutical Engineers (ISPE) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) agreed on a common course that led to the creation of Baseline Pharmaceutical Engineering Guides. These guides are aimed at aiding pharmaceutical manufacturers â€Å"in the design, construction and commissioning of facilities that comply with the requirements of FDA† (ISPE Baseline Pharmaceutical Engineering Guides for New and Renovated Facilities, 1999). As such, pharmaceutical industries are required to meet the current good manufacturing practices (cGMPs) which ought to coincide with the entire governing laws and policies. The joint interpretation of these regulations is important for the purpose of consistency, flexibility and enhancement of innovative approach in the design, construction and validation. The scope of this guideline is limited to the development of new products as well as the existing ones which tend to have limited baseline description. However, these guidelines are not intended to substitute the existing laws and regulations which apply to the same. To supplement this document, there is need to incorporate the existing laws and regulations to the same for the purpose of completeness. Basically, this guide owes its guidance from the following sensitive parameters: the critical processing step, product exposure, level of protection, critical parameters, critical instruments and systems, Good Engineering Practice (GEP) and enhanced documentation.Advertising Looking for essay on health medicine? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More With regards to critical processing step, this is significant in defining consistent regulatory requirements and as such, it specifies the extent of product exposure and the level of protection. However, due to environmental regulations upon a specific methodology employed, standard operating procedures (SOPs) are used hence; this enhances fle xibility in manufacturing designs thereby reducing the processing costs within the regulatory requirements. With regards to critical parameters, this has an effect on the quality of a product. This ought to be identified, regularly checked and controlled to maintain the product quality. In order to identify these parameters, manufacturers should have knowledge about the processing steps and as such document the rational for afterward examination. Critical parameters define critical instruments and systems and just like the parameters, they require in-depth documentation. As regards GEP’s, the guide requires that all processing elements in a facility to â€Å"routinely undergo some form of commissioning† (Milton, 2002). Basically all the engineering aspects of a processing system needs to be inspected regularly, tested and above all recorded down for documentation. GEP requires that prior to setting of the plant, all the stakeholders be involved in â€Å"the planning, design, construction and commissioning phases to ensure systems are documented once† (Latham, 1995). Enhanced documentation is a plus to the Good Engineering Practices. The essence of doing an exhaustive documentation stems from the fact that most systems and commissioning documents do not undergo regular update long after inception. Regulations entail change control with respect to certain document. Moreover, validation for the regular inspection of the critical systems to enhance consistency in quality has to be supported by documentation (Wichmann, 1997). Guide with respect to design of sterile manufacturing facilities Traditionally, the design and construction of a Bulk pharmaceutical chemical (BPC) plant is just like a chemical manufacturing plant and as such, they have ceased from being pharmaceutical dosage-form industries.Advertising We will write a custom essay sample on Pharmaceutical Engineering specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn M ore While chemical manufacturers give tolerances for traces of contaminants in the final product, â€Å"pharmaceutical facility and processing design requires provision for minimizing cross contamination and trace contamination† (International Conference on Harmonisation (ICH), 2009). In the ISPE guide concerning the recent facility design of BPC, the principles are based on the dosage-form pharmaceutical industries. Consequently, the guideline has become a vital tool in helping a project team meet the minimum restrictions for a facility design in line with cGMPs requirements. Just like in BPC, ISPE gives guidelines with respect to sterile chemicals manufacture in ‘Sterile Manufacturing Guide’. This document was obtained courtesy of great minds in the pharmaceutical fraternity composed of a task force of 50 personalities. The essence of this guide which dwells on engineering issues is meant at providing cost efficient facilities. It generally focuses on t he aseptic processes that ultimately lead to terminal sterility of the final product. The primary features of this guide are: Product requirement, â€Å"GMP critical parameters† and â€Å"Critical Devices†, Terminal sterilization, Aseptic processing area, Protection of the product, Flow of people and material, integrated facility design, Barrier-isolator technology, Consistent HVAC principles, In operation condition for HVAC, Good Engineering Practice, Direct impact systems, Enhanced documentation and Indirect impact systems (International Conference on Harmonisation of Technical Requirements for Registration of Pharmaceuticals for Human Use (ICH), 2007). The product requirement decides the vital aseptic needs of a given facility and as such, the ‘critical parameters’ can be established. The aseptic processing area is a region where formulation of the product takes place after which is packaged and sealed. This is a critical area where control of persons a nd materials ought to be perfect to bar cross contamination. An efficient way of a voiding this is by barrier-isolator technology which ought to be incorporated in the design initially during installation. HVAC principles give the baselines for aseptic manufacturing processes. Engineers and designers should take heed of this stage of operation where â€Å"regulators are particularly interested with the in the environment during in-operation condition† (Orange Guide, 2007). This is so because it is believed that this is the time when the product may be exposed. Designers should be in a position to identify the potential sources of microbial/ particulate contamination and the ways of ensuring quality air free of contamination.Advertising Looking for essay on health medicine? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More Baseline standards also come in handy in the selection of materials as well as finishes since this impact directly on the quality of the final product. It would be insignificant for one to spend much in instrumentation and control yet the no GMP is achieved. As regards Good Engineering Practice, this needs to be applied to the entire facility to ensure compliance of the product with respect to quality needs. This guide brings forth the term ‘direct Impact System’ which basically means the facilities which have a direct impact on the product. Moreover, it highlights the term ‘Indirect Impact System’ which generally means the opposite of the former term. These systems ought to be â€Å"supported by enhanced documentation† (International Cleanroom Standards, 2007). Qualification for compressed air The facilities designed to support pharmaceutical operations ought to comply with the GEP and cGMP. These systems just like as it has been stated initially, t hey may have either direct or indirect impact on the quality of the product. The former system ought to be comprehensively documented and inspected with respect to critical GMPs limits. The stakeholders should agree on the degree of qualifications prior to the installation process. The impact assessment process is represented in the flowchart below: With regards to direct system, the fundamental parameters that ought to be analyzed are: purified water, water for injection, clean steam and HVAC and compressed special gas. The indirect systems that need to be checked are raw water treatment, cooling system, effluent treatment, heating system and boiler house. Commissioning overview normally takes â€Å"equipments from installation to operation as well as incorporating a systematic method for testing and documentation† (European Commission, 2005). Both commissioning and validation procedures come up with equipment lists, component lists, utility verification forms, systematic drawings and operating procedures. However, while validation focuses on user responsibility, commissioning focuses on supplier responsibility. Moreover, while validation is approved by the quality assurance team, commissioning is approved by engineering project team. Since compressed air system is a direct system, qualification work is needed. User Requirement Specification (URS) requires that quality of air be generated from the system at generation and point of use is determined. Furthermore, it calls for safety measure and prevention of contamination. Qualification for Nitrogen gas Air monitoring methods are used to regulate the emission of dangerous gases in the environment by keeping them within the set emission limits. The gases with limited emission limit include Carbon monoxide, compounds of Nitrogen Oxides, Ozone, Sulphur Dioxide and Hazardous air pollutants. The roles of industries are to mitigate these toxic emissions within safe limits. This is achievable through â€Å" Air Pollution Control Devices that include: Mechanical collectors (Hepa filters), Hazardous solvents (thermal oxidation, gas absorption scrubbers and adsorption) and selective catalytic reduction techniques† (Daly, 1985). Qualification for Steam systems Steam is widely used in processing of pharmaceutical products important for treatment. Steam exhaust from boilers also referred to as utility steam come in contact with products directly acting as potential source of ‘direct impact system’. This may be in form of condensate which settles on the products depositing contaminants (rust and additives) on the product. The quality of steam is determined by the Good Manufacturing Practices (GMPs) which determines the final quality of the product. Steam comes in handy when carrying sterilization processes that include: Manufacture of Injectable or Parenteral solutions, which are always sterile. Biopharmaceutical manufacturing and manufacture of sterile solution e.g. ophtha lmic products (D’Elia 1994). Clean steam may cause contamination through humidification among other forms of contamination. Clean steam system design enhances formation of quality products. This is achieved by: â€Å"avoidance of corrosion, prevention of entry of contaminants into the system and, preventing microbial growth in the system† (Reeuwijk, 1998). For the purpose of validation process of steam utility, a sequential process ensures generation clean steam: â€Å"Develop a User Requirement Specification (URS), develop a Functional Specification (FS), Undergo Design Qualification (DQ), Installer Qualification (IQ), Operational Qualification (OQ) and finally Performance Qualification (PfQ)† (Commission Directive 2003 EC, 2003). Conclusion In a conclusion, for any pharmaceutical manufacturing industry, the need for ISPE Guide in the initial installation of facilities is vital to minimize cost due to redesigning of the entire system. The validation and commiss ioning of the processes should be done for once and for all by involving all the stakeholders to limit redesigning costs. Essentially, by implementing ISPE guidelines one will have basically met all the requirements for accreditation procedures set for pharmaceutical industry. This is so because it coincides with the requirements for FDA and WHO (Heinemann, 2003) Bibliography Commission Directive 2003 EC, 2003. Laying dawn the principles and guidelines of good manufacturing practice in respect of medicinal products for human use and investigational medicinal products for human use. London: Department of Health. D’Elia, L., 1994. â€Å"Bioprocess Engineering-Systems, Equipments Facilities†.Utility for Biotechnology Production Plants. New York City: John Wiley and Sons, Inc. Daly B., 1985. Woods practical guide to fan engineering. Colchester, Woods of Colchester Ltd. Third impression. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. European Commission, 2005. The rules governing medicinal products in the European Community, Volume IV. Good manufacturing practice for medicinal products. European Commission. Brussels: ViVio. Retrieved fromhttps://www.cen.eu/Pages/default.aspx Heinemann, D., 2003. Good Laboratory and Clinical Practices, Techniques for the Quality Assurance Newnnes, Oxford. International Cleanroom Standards, 2007. International Organization for Standardization. Brussels: ViVio. Available at: https://www.iso.org/developing-standards.html International Conference on Harmonisation (ICH), 2009. Quality Risk Management – 09. London: Department of Health. Web. International Conference on Harmonisation of Technical Requirements for Registration of Pharmaceuticals for Human Use (ICH), 2007. Good Manufacturing Practice Guide for Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients 07 , London: Department of Health. Retrieved from: ISPE Baseline Pharmaceutical Engineering Guides for New and Renovated Facilities, 1999. Sterile Manufacturing Facilities, First Edition . London: Department of Health. Latham, T., 1995. â€Å"Clean Steam Systems†. Pharmaceutical Engineering.15 (2), p. 3. Milton, A., 2002. GLP Quality Audit Manual. Interpharm Press, third edition, ISBN 1-57491-106-6 (2002). Orange Guide, 2007.Rules and Guidance for Pharmaceutical Manufacturers and Distributors, commonly known as the, MHRA, February 2007, New York University Press. Reeuwijk, P., 1998. FAO Soils Bulletin 74, Guidelines for quality management in soil and plant laboratories, New York University Press. Wichmann, B., 1997. Software in scientific computing, National Physical Laboratory. Measurement Good Practice Guide No. 5. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. World Health Organization, 1997. Quality Assurance of Pharmaceuticals. A compendium of guidelines and related materials, Volume 1. Geneva: ILO Publications.

The Simple Present Tense of Verbs

The Simple Present Tense of Verbs In English grammar, the simple present tense is a form of the verb that refers to an action or event that is ongoing or that regularly takes place in present time. For example, in the sentence he cries easily, the verb cries is an ongoing action that he easily does.   Except in the case of the word be, the simple present is represented in English by either the base form  of the verb like in I sing or the base form plus the third-person singular -s  inflection  as in She sings. A verb in the simple present tense can appear alone as the main verb in a sentence; this finite  verb form is called simple because it doesnt involve aspect. In English grammar, there are seven accepted functions of the usage of the simple present for of verbs: to express permanent states, general truths, habitual actions, live commentary, performative actions, past time or historic present, and future time. Basic Meaningof the Simple Present There are a variety of uses for the simple present in verb conjugation, but mostly it serves to keep the sentence structure itself grounded in the events happening presently, or as they relate to the here and now. Michael Pearces The Rutledge Dictionary of English Language Studies expertly lays out the seven commonly accepted functions of the simple present form of verbs: 1) Permanent state:  Jupiter  is  a very massive planet.2) General truth:  The earth  is  round.3) Habitual action:  Her daughter  works  in Rome.4) Live commentary:  In each case I  add  the two numbers: three plus three  gives  six . . ..5) Performative:  I  pronounce  you man and wife.6) Past time (see historic present):  He  moves  to the window alongside, and  sees  her inside the office moving away from the door. He  shoots  twice through the window and  kills  her.7) Future time:  My flight  leaves  at four thirty this afternoon. In each of these cases, the simple present serves to keep the verb form in the here and now, even when referring to past or future actions, the sentence is grounded in the present by these verbs, but there are more ways than one to express the present. Simple Present Versus Present Progressive As far as English grammar goes, the simple present does not fully function in describing ongoing events and instead the present progressive form of a verb must be used, although the simple present may be accepted colloquially to entail an ongoing action. Laura A. Michaelis describes this relationship through the example of the verb falls in Aspectual Grammar and Past Time Reference, wherein she says present-tense event predications, if intended as reports upon circumstances ongoing at present, must appear in the present progressive. In the instance of he falls, then, the verb may be interpreted as habitual, but it would be better to use he is falling instead. Using the present progressive, therefore, is more correct than using the simple progressive when stating something as ongoing rather than habitual.

Organisational change management Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words - 1

Organisational change management - Essay Example Firstly, the nature of change is highly problematic. Forces that are responsible for change are economic conditions due to business cycle (external force) and changes in business strategy (internal force). Such change requires modifications in organisational processes. The change being introduced is transformative which may appear abrupt and highly random to the workforce (Bovey and Hede, 2001). Such implementation of the desired cost-cutting regime can introduce panic and anxiety in the existing workforce. The main challenge is to keep the existing workforce after the shutdown motivated and willing to be on job for a longer period as employee turnover can add to more costs. Secondly, the product development team is basically responsible for innovation in D2’s products that have been the main competitive edge of the workforce. Therefore, it is important for D2 to retain this talent. However, relocating this whole team may not be viable as team members may resist it. Forced rel ocation would not provide steady developmental progress (Baker, 1989). The given scenario presents resistance from employees be the central challenge faced by the management. Where cost-cutting is the intended objective, heavy employee turnover can add to HRM costs. ... Another challenge faced by the management is the manner in which change is lead by the key managers. Since employees are highly vulnerable whenever change is introduced, therefore being authoritative and forceful instead of providing support and open communication channels can initiate change failure (Bovey and Hede, 2001; Yuh-shy, 2011). All these factors are dependent on employees’ resistance that may take place due to multiple reasons. Theoretically speaking, it can be seen that there are environmental, perceptual, cognitive, emotional and cultural blocks that may hamper effectiveness of the change management process (Piderit, 2006). Detailed analysis of main factors behind employees’ resistance can be lack of job security, loss of autonomy and career growth, social factors and lack of support from management (Bryant, 2006; Dent and Goldberg, 1999; Robbins and Judge, 2009). Jobs have tendency of affecting personal and professional needs of the employees. Once a porti on of a workforce is laid off, rest is likely to feel threat to their own economic stability. In addition to that, some of the employees resist change not for only specific reason but to display their power and influence when a threat to their authority is perceived. These changes are also perceived to bring alterations in organisational culture and policy model that may not be welcomed by the workforce. In the given scenario, position of B2 team is of specific importance. This is so because this team is responsible to provide D2 with products that provide management an edge over other market players. This team greatly benefits from its strategic location. It is present amidst of region where major product development activities of auto industry take

Class Research methods Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Class Research methods - Essay Example Bullying in early life is often the beginning of bullying in the future adult social life, and once it begins, the bully and victim, both are never the same. Bullying is a problem in our schools and hence in the society. Despite extensive research, no acceptable solution to the problem of bullying is not yet available. The consequences of bullying have been well documented in the research, and these findings suggest that bullying as an event has concrete psychosocial parameters. Therefore, intervention can be designed guided by these evidences to change this practice of bullying in schools from a social intervention strategy. Greif, Furlong, and Morrison (2003) define bullying as the systematic abuse of power. Greif and coworkers deals with the topic by operationally defining bullying, and according to them, there will always be power relationships in social groups, by virtue of strength or size or ability, force of personality, and/or by sheer numbers or recognised hierarchy (Greif, Furlong, and Morrison, 2003). Bullying is a psychosocial phenomenon in the sense that it has both psychological and social reasons and psychological and social impacts. Despite different intervention measures, still bullying in early life is prevalent which can be the starting points of future bullying in the society. Therefore, there remains scope for further studies in this area, and this can be the topic of this social research since knowledge about the factors may help the scientists to design interventions that may prevent this. Why it is worth Studying Qualitative researchers usually focus on an aspect of a topic that is poorly understood and about which little is known. The general topic area may be narrowed and clarified on the basis of self-reflection and discussion with colleagues, but researchers may proceed with a fairly broad research question that allows the focus to be sharpened and delineated more clearly once the study is underway (Kumar, 1999). Since the best way to prevent is to know why bullying occurs at the school level, this research may throw light into the different facets of this problem. In this regard, a theoretical framework of social change would best be adopted, since that would guide the intervention and would serve as a tool to evaluate the intervention. In this theoretical framework, there is an attempt to interpret the human behavior on the perspectives of social process and pragmatism. Thus all human behavior is actually an expression of interactions leading to a social process, and all of them have su bjective meanings. Bullying has subjective aspects of social life, both from the perspectives of the bully and the bullied, and they fail to respond to the objective macrostructural aspects of the social life. Drawing on this, it can be stated that social and psychosocial initiatives can bring about a change in the behavior of those who bully and change in psychological and social reactions in those who are bullied. Qualitative findings often are the basis for formulating hypotheses that are tested by quantitative researchers, and for developing measuring instruments for both research and clinical purposes. Qualitative findings can also provide a foundation for designing effective nursing interventions. Qualitative studies help to shape the researchers' perceptions of a

Air force fume billboard Essay Example for Free

Air force fume billboard Essay Air force fume billboard Introduction   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   There are observable characteristics, which attract customers to the product. Basing our argument on the above film are lifestyles, standards, color, physical appearance, taste, motivations, opinion, and desires. These take account of distinctiveness such as cheerful, preservationist, and safety-cognizant, value-oriented, class-driven. In our case, color attracts ones attention such that the distant-customers move closer.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   In 1943 John Garfield, John Ridgley, Gig Young  » The troop of an Air Force bomber disembark in the Harbor in the outcome of the Japanese assault and is mailed on to Manila to provide a hand with the attack of the Philippines (Suids, 1996).   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Color information is supportive in identifying objective. It can be, sometimes, misleading. One of the tribulations with regard to images is the equivalent objects might have dissimilar colors and intensities when the illumination situation changes or there are dimness. It occurs predominantly often in our assignment. The billboard images for patterns were taken independently in a different circumstance from the unambiguous game in the video progression. However, in the live match dissemination, the lighting condition is diverse and they even revolutionize often during the match (Toyoshima, (2008).   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Furthermore, there are numerous shadows caused by the players ahead of the billboards. When we to make use of the template color as the sample color and try to come across areas with the related color in the edge. The tolerant level is sky-scraping, a lot of gratuitous area will be incorporated and the diminution in searching area is not very considerable; on the other hand, if the lenient level is low, we have the risk of ignoring the main area. The brightly brown color captures awareness to the customers. The billboards exhibit great advertisements to fleeting pedestrians and even drivers. Characteristically, screening outsized, apparently amusing slogans, and distinguishing visuals. The billboards are exceedingly noticeable in the summit in market places. The bulletins are the leading modern-size billboards. They are located mainly on major highway, expressway and market zones to attract or capture peoples’ attention (Toyoshima, 2008)   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   More so, imagery as a stylistic device applies during advertisement. For instance, â€Å"AIR FORCE† here implies war. This is the war of the crew against the Japanese as explained on synopsis. This type of film designed in such a way that it entails different styles. Since it is in a class of luxury has to be standard and specially designed to reach the test of customers. Primarily a good copy communicates to the ideal clients. In this case, the copy creates a great physical impression to the customers. In so doing more, sales are systematical done due to its unique appearance on the customers’ eyes (Suid, 2002).   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Addition to that, customers like a description on the product in the market. Therefore, the synopsis contained on the copy gives customer detailed-evidence information in the copy. Furthermore, copywriter includes power words, which are very patting to the clients. Occasionally, these words are termed as power words which a very influential to the customer. They are advisable to apply in the language. In the above copy, â€Å"AIR FORCE† is an example of power words. Edges are very noteworthy illustration features in image processing. They are the points with high passion contrast and portray margins of objects contained in an image. Using periphery information of a copy also significantly condenses the amount of data while preserving the essential structural properties of an image. This gives a good impression to sight hence encouraging more purchases (Toyoshima, 2008). References Suid, L. H. (1996). Sailing on the silver screen: Hollywood and the US Navy. Annapolis, Md: Naval Inst. Press. Suid, L. H. (2002). Guts glory: The making of the American military image in film. Lexington: University Press of Kentucky. Toyoshima, Y. (2008). Japanese movie billboards: Retro art from a century of cinema. Tokyo, Japan: DH Publishing Inc. Source document

Essay --

The effects of observational learning on children Does allowing children to watch violent television and what they see on a daily basis in their lives from peers and adults effect their actions, and thoughts? The answer is simply yes! When it comes down to the facts, children’s behaviors are greatly influenced from what they see going on around them. Children can be taught to be violent or they can be taught to be kind, they can be taught to be confident, or they can be stripped of their self-confidence, they can be taught to be great or they can be taught to fail in life all from observing how adults and peers in their life act. Children start out in life observing everything that everyone and everything around them are doing. They learn to walk, talk, and feed themselves from observing what their parents, siblings, and other people around them do. They learn these things from observing and then imitating them. â€Å"It has been found that infants as early 6 weeks old imitate facial expressions and infants 6 and 9 months of age have shown to exhibit deferred imitation of actions demonstrated with objects† (Jones, Hebert. 197). â€Å"Recently researchers at the University of Washington and Temple University have found the first evidence revealing a key aspect of the brain processing that occurs in babies to allow this learning by observation† (â€Å"Baby Brains Learn Through Imitation†). In their study they found that when a baby observed an adult touch a toy with their hand the same part of the brain that controls the same hand on the child would light up. The same was true if they obs erved an adult touch the toy with their foot, the foot part of the child’s brain would light up. These results showed that when babies observed someone els... ...Jones and Hebert found that infants as early as 6 weeks old imitate facial expressions and infants 6 to 9 months of age have shown to exhibit deferred imitation of actions demonstrated with objects. Greer, Dudek-Singer and Gautreaux found that even weeks after their study was completed that the children’s behavior was still able to be reinforced with the plastic discs that were used in their experiment. The exposure to chronic alcoholism by parents effect children well into adulthood and in almost every area of their lives from health to relationships and Huesmann, L. R., Moise-Titus, J., Podolski, C., & Eron, L. D. found that exposure to early childhood violence on television effects children well into adulthood. These studies are proof that what children observe growing up does effect what they learn and can have horrible effects on who they are when they grow up.

Capitalism Is Not the Best Route of Happiness Essay

For example, US. In the US, the shares of earnings and wealth of the households in the top 1 percent of the corresponding distributions are 15 percent and 30 percent, respectively. As a result of implementing Capitalism, there is a big range of wealth between the rich and poor people. The rich will become richer, the poor will become poorer. As such a negative situation occurs, the crime rate in such country will be higher. When a country is implementing capitalism, the government have no right to intervene in the free market. When such a situation happened, who are going to help those who are poor? The free market will be monopolized by those rich people. For the poor, they have no modal, no resources, no power, and no ability to compete in such an unfair market. How are they going to compete? Even if they owned the ability, the qualification, but they have no the fundamental term to fight with rich people that is money. In a free market, when you are rich, you will only become richer as u have a lots of money and resources to invest into. For the poor, they are not the one who demands how much salary from employer, but they are the one who are looking for how much the employer willing to pay them. As a result, they are forced to accept low wages in order to survive. The paid they get, not worth the effort they pay out. Normally, the wages they get, only enough to support their basic cost of living. As a result, They have no extra modal to help them to grow and to expand their ability. The low wages also influence buying power. As a result, poverty rate will be higher. Some critique argues that the allocation of resources in capitalism is inefficient. For example, in 1995, around 200 million of Indians faced the problem of hunger. In the same year, India economy had exported around $ 625 million of wheat and $ 1. 3 million of rice. In this case, Indian economy is able to export food worth around $ 650 million, but its citizen faced the problem of hunger. Why not the economy allocates those foods to its citizen? It’s because of in capitalism, the property and resources is totally owned by private parties. They have the right to use the resources to maximize their profit. It’s their right and freedom to overlook the problem around them that may stop them to achieve higher profit. There is also an unfair working condition in workplace. Those labors have to work for 14 hours per day. Why are these labors forced to accept such unfair working condition? Without this job opportunity, they are unable to live their life. The owner of resources in capitalism does not work, and exploit its worker. In such situation, it’s exploiting human right. We are all human, have the equal right to live in this world and share the resources together.

Black House Chapter Twenty-five

25 OH, FORGET about that. We know where Jack Sawyer went when he disappeared from the edge of the cornfield, and we know who he is likely to meet when he gets there. Enough of that stuff. We want fun, we want excitement! Luckily for us, that charming old party Charles Burnside, who can always be depended upon to slip a whoopee cushion under the governor's seat during a banquet, to pour a little hot sauce into the stew, to fart at the prayer meeting, is at this moment emerging from a toilet bowl and into a stall in the men's room on Daisy wing. We note that Ol' Burny, our Burn-Burn, hugs Henry Leyden's hedge clippers to his sunken chest with both arms, actually cradling them, as if he were holding a baby. On his bony right arm, blood slides out of a nasty gash and rolls down toward his elbow. When he gets one foot, clad in another resident's bee slipper, on the rim of the bowl, he pushes himself up and steps out, wobbling a bit. His mouth is twisted into a scowl, and his eyes look like b ullet holes, but we do not suppose that he, too, carries a weight of heavy-duty sorrow. Blood soaks the bottoms of his trousers and the front of his shirt, which has darkened with the flow of blood from a knife wound to his abdomen. Wincing, Burny opens the door of the stall and walks out into the empty men's room. Fluorescent lights on the ceiling reflect from the long mirror above the row of sinks; thanks to Butch Yerxa, who is working a double shift because the regular night man called in drunk, the white tiles of the floor gleam. In all this sparkling whiteness, the blood on Charles Burnside's clothes and body looks radiantly red. He peels off his shirt and tosses it into a sink before plodding down to the far end of the bathroom and a cabinet marked with a piece of tape on which someone has printed BANDAGES. Old men have a tendency to fall down in their bathrooms, and Chipper's father thoughtfully installed the cabinet where he thought it might be needed. Drops of blood lay spattered across the white tiles. Burny rips a handful of paper towels from a dispenser, dampens them with cold water, and lays them on the side of the nearest sink. Then he opens the bandage cabinet, removes a wide roll of tape and a wad of gauze bandages, and tears off a six-inch strip of the tape. He wipes blood off the skin around the wound in his belly and presses the wet paper towels over the opening. He lifts away the towels and presses a pad of gauze to the cut. Awkwardly, he flattens the strip of tape over the gauze. He dresses the stab wound on his arm in the same fashion. Now swirls and scoops of blood cover the white tiles. He moves up the row of sinks and runs cold water over his shirt. The water turns red in the bowl. Burny keeps scrubbing the old shirt under cold running water until it has turned a pale rose only a few shades brighter than his skin. Satisfied, he wrings the shirt in his hands, flaps it once or twice, and puts it back on. That it clings to him bothers Burny not at all. His goal is a very basic version of acceptability, not elegance: insofar as it is possible, he wants to pass unnoticed. His cuffs are soaked with blood, and Elmer Jesperson's slippers are dark red and wet, but he thinks most people will not bother to look at his feet. Within him, a coarse voice keeps saying, Fazzdur, Burn-Burn, fazzdur! Burny's only mistake is that, while buttoning up his damp shirt, he looks at himself in the mirror. What he sees stops him cold with shock. Despite his ugliness, Charles Burnside has always approved of the image returned to him by mirrors. In his opinion, he looks like a guy who knows where to find the corners sly, unpredictable, and foxy. The man staring at him from the other side of the mirror is nothing like the canny old operator Burny remembered. The man facing him looks dim-witted, worn-out, and seriously ill. Sunken, red-rimmed eyes, cheeks like craters, veins crawling across his bald, skull-like crown . . . even his nose looks bonier and more twisted than it once had. He is the sort of old man who frightens children. You shud fry-den cheerun, Burn-Burn. Dime do ged moo-vuhn. He couldn't really look that bad, could he? If he did, he would have noticed long before this. Nah, that wasn't how Charles Burnside faced the world. The bathroom's too damn white, that's all. A white like that makes you look bleached. Makes you look skinned, like a rabbit. The dying old horror in the mirror takes a step nearer, and the spotty discolorations on his skin seem to darken. The spectacle of his teeth makes him close his mouth. Then his master is like a fishhook in his mind, pulling him toward the door and muttering, Dime, dime. Burny knows why it's dime: Mr. Munshun wants to get back to Black House. Mr. Munshun comes from some place incredibly distant from French Landing, and certain parts of Black House, which they built together, feel like the world of his home the deepest parts, which Charles Burnside seldom visits, and which make him feel hypnotized, weak with longing, and sick to his stomach when he does. When he tries to picture the world that gave birth to Mr. Munshun, he envisions a dark, craggy landscape littered with skulls. On the bare slopes and peaks stand houses like castles that change size, or vanish, when you blink. From the flickering defiles comes an industrial cacophony mingled with the cries of tortured children. Burnside is eager to return to Black House, too, but for the simpler pleasures of the first set of rooms, where he can rest, eat canned food, and read his scrapbooks. He relishes the particular smell that inhabits those rooms, an order of rot, sweat, dried blood, must, sewage. If he could distill that fragrance, he would wear it like cologne. Also, a sweet little morsel named Tyler Marshall sits locked in a chamber located in another layer of Black House and another world and Burny cannot wait to torment little Tyler, to run his wrinkled hands over the boy's beautiful skin. Tyler Marshall thrills Burny. But there are pleasures yet to be reaped in this world, and it is dime to attend to them. Burny peeks out through a crack in the bathroom door and sees that Butch Yerxa has succumbed to weariness and the cafeteria's meat loaf. He occupies his chair like an oversized doll, his arms on the desk and his fat chin resting on what would be a neck on a normal person. That useful little painted rock stands a few inches away from Butch's right hand, but Burny has no need of the rock, for he has acquired an instrument far more versatile. He wishes he had discovered the potential of hedge clippers long ago. Instead of one blade, you get two. One up, one down, snick-snick! And sharp! He had not intended to amputate the blind man's fingers. Back then he thought of the clippers as a big, primitive variety of knife, but when he got stabbed in the arm, he jerked the clippers toward the blind man and they more or less bit off his fingers by themselves, as neatly and swiftly as the old-time butchers i n Chicago used to slice bacon. Chipper Maxton is going to be fun. He deserves what he is going to get, too. Burny figures that Chipper is responsible for the way he has deteriorated. The mirror told him that he is about twenty pounds less than he should be, maybe even thirty, and no wonder look at the slop they serve in the cafeteria. Chipper has been chiseling on the food, Burny thinks, the same way he chisels on everything else. The state, the government, Medicaid, Medicare, Chipper steals from all of them. A couple of times when he thought Charles Burnside was too out of it to know what was happening, Maxton had told him to sign forms that indicated he'd had an operation, prostate surgery, lung surgery. The way Burny sees it, half of the Medicaid money that paid for the nonexistent operation should have been his. It was his name on the form, wasn't it? Burnside eases into the hallway and pads toward the lobby, leaving bloody footprints from the squishing slippers. Because he will have to pass the nurse's station, he shoves the clippers under his waistband and covers them with his shirt. The flabby cheeks, gold-rimmed glasses, and lavender hair of a useless old bag named Georgette Porter are visible to Burnside above the counter of the nurses' station. Things could be worse, he thinks. Ever since she waltzed into D18 and caught him trying to masturbate stark naked in the middle of the room, Georgette Porter has been terrified of him. She glances his way, seems to suppress a shudder, and looks back down at whatever she is doing with her hands. Knitting, probably, or reading the kind of murder mystery in which a cat solves the crime. Burny slops nearer the station and considers using the clippers on Georgette's face, but decides it is not worth the waste of energy. When he reaches the counter, he looks over it and sees that she is holding a paperback book in her hands, just as he had imagined. She looks up at him with profound suspicion in her eyes. â€Å"We sure look yummy tonight, Georgie.† She glances up the hallway, then at the lobby, and realizes that she must deal with him by herself. â€Å"You should be in your room, Mr. Burn-side. It's late.† â€Å"Mind your own business, Georgie. I got a right to take a walk.† â€Å"Mr. Maxton doesn't like the residents to go into the other wings, so please stay in Daisy.† â€Å"Is the big boss here tonight?† â€Å"I believe so, yes.† â€Å"Good.† He turns away and continues on toward the lobby, and she calls after him. â€Å"Wait!† He looks back. She is standing up, a sure sign of great concern. â€Å"You aren't going to bother Mr. Maxton, are you?† â€Å"Say any more, and I'll bother you.† She places a hand on her throat and finally notices the floor. Her chin drops, and her eyebrows shoot up. â€Å"Mr. Burnside, what do you have on your slippers? And your pants cuffs? You're tracking it everwhere!† â€Å"Can't keep your mouth shut, can you?† Grimly, he plods back to the nurses' station. Georgette Porter backs against the wall, and by the time she realizes that she could have tried to escape, Burny is already in front of her. She removes her hand from her throat and holds it out like a stop sign. â€Å"Dumb bitch.† Burnside yanks the clippers out of his belt, grips the handles, and clips off her fingers as easily as if they were twigs. â€Å"Stupid.† Georgette has entered a stage of shocked disbelief that holds her in paralysis. She stares at the blood spilling from the four stumps on her hand. â€Å"Goddamn moron.† He opens the clippers and rams one of the blades into her throat. Georgette makes a choked, gargling sound. She tries to get her hands on the clippers, but he pulls them from her neck and raises them to her head. Her hands flutter, scattering blood. The expression on Burny's face is that of a man who finally admits that he has to clean his cat's litter box. He levels the wet blade in front of her right eye and shoves it in, and Georgette is dead before her body slides down the wall and folds up on the floor. Thirty feet up the hallway, Butch Yerxa mumbles in his sleep. â€Å"They never listen,† Burny mutters to himself. â€Å"You try and try, but they always ask for it in the end. Proves they want it like those dumb little shits in Chicago.† He tugs the clippers' blade out of Georgette's head and wipes it clean on the shoulder of her blouse. The memory of one or two of those little shits in Chicago sends a tingle down the length of his member, which begins to stiffen in his baggy old pants. Hel-lo! Ah . . . the magic of tender memories. Though, as we have seen, Charles Burnside now and again enjoys erections in his sleep, in his waking hours they are so rare as to be nearly nonexistent, and he is tempted to pull down his pants and see what he could make it do. But what if Yerxa wakes up? He would assume that Georgette Porter, or at least her corpse, aroused Burny's long-smoldering lusts. That wouldn't do not at all. Even a monster has his pride. Best to carry on to Chipper Maxton's office, and hope that his hammer doesn't go limp be fore it is time to pound the nail. Burny tucks the clippers into the back of his waistband and yanks at his wet shirt, pulling it away from his body. Down the corridor of Daisy wing he shuffles, across the empty lobby, and up to the burnished door further distinguished by the brass nameplate reading WILLIAM MAXTON, DIRECTOR. This he reverentially opens, summoning to mind the image of a long-dead ten-year-old boy named Herman Flagler, otherwise known as â€Å"Poochie,† one of his first conquests. Poochie! Tender Poochie! Those tears, those sobs of mingled pain and joy, that yielding to utter helplessness: the faint crust of dirt over Poochie's scabby knees and slender forearms. Hot tears; a jet of urine from his terrified little rosebud. There will be no such bliss from Chipper, but we may be sure there will be something. Anyhow, Tyler Marshall lies bound and waiting in Black House, helpless as helpless could be. Charles Burnside plods through Rebecca Vilas's windowless cubicle, Poochie Flagler's pallid, deeply dimpled backside blazing in his mind. He places a hand on the next doorknob, takes a moment to calm himself, and noiselessly revolves the knob. The door opens just wide enough to reveal Chipper Maxton, only monarch of this realm, leaning over his desk, his head propped on one fist, and using a yellow pencil to make notations on two sets of papers. The trace of a smile softens the tight purse of his mouth; his damp eyes betray the suggestion of a gleam; the busy pencil glides back and forth between the two stacks of papers, making tiny marks. So happily absorbed in his task is Chipper that he fails to notice he is no longer alone until his visitor steps inside and gives the door a backward kick with his foot. When the door slams shut, Chipper glances up in irritated surprise and peers at the figure before him. His attitude almost immediately changes to a sly, unpleasant heartiness he takes to be disarming. â€Å"Don't they knock on doors where you come from, Mr. Burnside? Just barge right on in, do they?† â€Å"Barge right on in,† says his visitor. â€Å"Never mind. The truth is, I've been meaning to talk to you.† â€Å"Talk to me?† â€Å"Yes. Come on in, will you? Take a seat. I'm afraid we might have a little problem, and I want to explore some possibilities.† â€Å"Oh,† Burny says. â€Å"A problem.† He plucks his shirt away from his chest and trudges forward, leaving behind him progressively fainter footprints Maxton fails to see. â€Å"Take a pew,† Chipper says, waving at the chair in front of his desk. â€Å"Pull up a bollard and rest your bones.† This expression comes from Franky Shellbarger, the First Farmer's loan officer, who uses it all the time at the local Rotary meetings, and although Chipper Maxton has no idea what a bollard may be, he thinks it sounds cute as hell. â€Å"Old-timer, you and me have to have a heart-to-heart discussion.† â€Å"Ah,† Burny says, and sits down, his back rigidly straight, due to the clippers. â€Å"Hardz zu hardz.† â€Å"Yeah, that's the idea. Hey, is that shirt wet? It is! We can't have that, old buddy you might catch cold and die, and neither one of us would like that, would we? You need a dry shirt. Let me see what I can do for you.† â€Å"Don't bother, you fucking monkey.† Chipper Maxton is already on his feet and straightening his shirt, and the old man's words throw him momentarily off his stride. He recovers nicely, grins, and says, â€Å"Stay right there, Chicago.† Although the mention of his native city sends a prickling sensation down his spine, Burnside gives nothing away as Maxton moves around the side of his desk and walks across his office. He watches the director leave the room. Chicago. Where Poochie Flagler and Sammy Hooten and Ferd Brogan and all the others had lived and died, God bless 'em. Stalks of grain, blades of grass, so foul so beautiful so enticing. With their smiles and their screams. Like all Caucasian slum children, pure pale ivory white under the crust of dirt, the fishy white of the city's poor, the soon-to-be-lost. The slender bones of their shoulder blades, sticking out as if to break through the thin layer of flesh. Burny's old organ stirs and stiffens as if it remembers the frolics of yesteryear. Tyler Marshall, he croons to himself, pretty little Ty, we will have ourselves some fun before we turn you over to the boss, yes we will yes indeedy yes yes. The door slams behind him, yanking him out of his erotic reverie. But his old mule, his old hoss, it stays awake and on its mettle, bold and brash as ever it was in the glory days. â€Å"No one in the lobby,† Maxton complains. â€Å"That old bag, what'shername, Porter, Georgette Porter, down in the kitchen stuffing her face, I bet, and Butch Yerxa sound asleep in his chair. What am I supposed to do, ransack the rooms to find a dry shirt?† He strides past Burnside, throws up his hands, and drops into his chair. It's all an act, but Burny has seen much better than this. Chipper cannot intimidate Burny, not even if he knows a few things about Chicago. â€Å"I don't need a new shirt,† he says. â€Å"Asswipe.† Chipper leans back in his chair and clasps his hands behind his head. He grins this patient amuses him, he's a real card. â€Å"Now, now. There's no need for name-calling here. You don't fool me anymore, old man. I don't buy your Alzheimer's act. In fact, I don't buy any of it.† He is nice and relaxed and he oozes the confidence of a gambler holding four aces. Burny figures he is being set up for some kind of con job or blackmail, which makes the moment all the more delicious. â€Å"I gotta hand it to you, though,† Chipper goes on. â€Å"You fooled everybody in sight, including me. It must take an incredible amount of discipline to fake late-stage Alzheimer's. All that slumping in your chair, being fed baby food, crapping in your pants. Pretending you don't understand what people are saying.† â€Å"I wasn't faking, you jackass.† â€Å"So it's no wonder you staged a comeback when was that, about a year ago? I would have done the same. I mean, it's one thing to go undercover, but it's another to do it as a vegetable. So we have ourselves a little miracle, don't we? Our Alzheimer's gradually reverses itself, it comes and it goes, like the common cold. It's a good deal all around. You get to walk around and make a nuisance of yourself, and there's less work for the staff. You're still one of my favorite patients, Charlie. Or should I call you Carl?† â€Å"I don't give a shit what you call me.† â€Å"But Carl's your real name, isn't it?† Burny does not even shrug. He hopes Chipper gets to the point before Butch Yerxa wakes up, notices the bloody prints, and discovers Georgette Porter's body, because while he is interested in Maxton's tale, he wants to get to Black House without too much interference. And Butch Yerxa would probably put up a decent fight. Under the illusion that he is playing a cat-and-mouse game in which he is the cat, Chipper smiles at the old man in the wet pink shirt and rolls on. â€Å"A state detective called me today. Said I.D. on a local fingerprint had come back from the FBI. It belonged to a bad, bad man named Carl Bierstone who's been wanted for almost forty years. In 1964 he was sentenced to death for killing a couple of kids he molested, only he escaped from the car taking him to prison killed two guards with his bare hands. No sign of him since then. He'd be eighty-five by now, and the detective thought Bierstone just might be one of our residents. What do you have to say, Charles?† Nothing, evidently. â€Å"Charles Burnside is pretty close to Carl Bierstone, isn't it? And we have no background information on you at all. That makes you a unique resident here. For everybody else, we damn near have a family tree, but you sort of come out of nowhere. The only information we have about you is your age. When you turned up at La Riviere General in 1996, you claimed to be seventy-eight. That would make you the same age as that fugitive.† Burnside gives him a truly unsettling smile. â€Å"I guess I must be the Fisherman, too, then.† â€Å"You're eighty-five years old. I don't think you're capable of dragging a bunch of kids halfway across the county. But I do think you're this Carl Bierstone, and the cops are still eager to get their hands on you. Which brings me to this letter that came a few days ago. I've been meaning to discuss it with you, but you know how busy things get around here.† He opens his desk drawer and pulls out a single sheet torn from a yellow notepad. It bears a brief, neatly typed message. † ? ®De Pere, Wisconsin,' it says. No date. ? ®To Whom It May Concern' is how it starts. ? ®I regret to inform you that I am no longer able to continue monthly payments on behalf of my nephew, Charles Burnside.' That's it. Instead of writing her signature, she typed her name. ? ®Althea Burnside.' â€Å" Chipper places the yellow notepaper before him and folds his hands together on top of it. â€Å"What's the deal here, Charles? There's no Althea Burnside living in De Pere, I know that much. And she can't be your aunt. How old would she be? At least a hundred. More like a hundred and ten. I don't believe it. But these checks have been coming in, regular as clockwork, since your first month here at Maxton's. Some buddy, some old partner of yours, has been looking out for you, my friend. And we want him to continue what he's been doing, don't we?† â€Å"All the same to me, asswipe.† This is not precisely truthful. All Burny knows of the monthly payments is that Mr. Munshun organized them long ago, and if these payments are to stop, well . . . what comes to an end with them? He and Mr. Munshun are in this together, aren't they? â€Å"Come on, kiddo,† Chipper says. â€Å"You can do better than that. I'm looking for a little cooperation here. I'm sure you don't want to go through all the mess and trouble of being taken into custody, getting fingerprinted, plus whatever might happen after that. And me, speaking personally, I wouldn't want to put you through all of that. Because the real rat here is your friend. It sure looks to me like this guy, whoever he is, is forgetting that you probably have something on him from the old days, right? And he's thinking that he doesn't have to make sure that you have all your little comforts anymore. Only that's a mistake. I bet you could straighten the guy out, make him understand the situation.† Burny's mule, his old hoss, has softened up and dwindled like a punctured balloon, which increases his gloom. Since entering this oily crook's office, he has lost something vital: a feeling of purpose, a sense of immunity, an edge. He wants to get back to Black House. Black House will restore him, for Black House is magic, dark magic. The bitterness of his soul went into its making; the darkness of his heart soaked through every beam and joist. Mr. Munshun helped Burny see the possibilities of Black House, and he contributed many and many a touch of his own devise. There are regions of Black House Charles Burnside has never truly understood, and that frighten him, badly: an underground wing seems to contain his secret career in Chicago, and when he drew near that part of the house, he could hear the pleading whimpers and pungent screams of a hundred doomed boys as well as his own rasps of command, his grunts of ecstasy. For some reason, the proximity of his earlier triumphs made him feel small and hunted, an outcast instead of a lord. Mr. Munshun had helped him remember the scale of his achievement, but Mr. Mun-shun had been of no use with another region of Black House, a small one, at best a room, more accurately a vault, which houses the whole of his childhood, and which he has never, ever visited. The merest hint of that room causes Burny to feel like an infant left outside to freeze to death. The news of the fictitious Althea Burnside's defection has a lesser version of the same effect. This is intolerable, and he need not, in fact cannot, endure it. â€Å"Yeah,† he says. â€Å"Let's have some straightening out here. Let's have some understanding.† He rises from the chair, and a sound from what seems to be the center of French Landing speeds him along. It is the wail of police sirens, at least two, maybe three. Burny doesn't know for sure, but he supposes that Jack Sawyer has discovered the body of his friend Henry, only Henry was less than perfectly dead and managed to say that he had recognized his killer's voice. So Jack called the cop shop and here we are. His next step brings him to the front of the desk. He glances at the papers on the desk and instantly grasps their meaning. â€Å"Cooking the books, hey? You aren't just an asswipe, you're a sneaky little numbers juggler.† In an amazingly small number of seconds, Chipper Maxton's face registers a tremendous range of feeling states. Ire, surprise, confusion, wounded pride, anger, and disbelief chase across the landscape of his features as Burnside reaches back and produces the hedge clippers. In the office, they seem larger and more aggressive than they did in Henry Leyden's living room. To Chipper, the blades look as long as scythes. And when Chipper tears his eyes away from them and raises them to the old man standing before him, he sees a face more demonic than human. Burnside's eyes gleam red, and his lips curl away from appalling, glistening teeth like shards of broken mirrors. â€Å"Back off, buddy,† Chipper squeaks. â€Å"The police are practically in the lobby.† â€Å"I ain't deaf.† Burny rams one blade into Chipper's mouth and closes the clippers on his sweaty cheek. Blood shoots across the desk, and Chipper's eyes expand. Burny yanks on the clippers, and several teeth and a portion of Chipper's tongue fly from the yawning wound. He pushes himself upright and leans forward to grab the blades. Burnside steps back and lops off half of Chipper's right hand. â€Å"Damn, that's sharp,† he says. Then Maxton comes reeling around the side of the desk, spraying blood in all directions and bellowing like a moose. Burny dodges away, dodges back, and punches the blades into the bulge of the blue button-down shirt over Chipper's belly. When he tugs them out, Chipper sags, groans, drops to his knees. Blood pours out of him as if from an overturned jug. He falls forward on his elbows. There is no fun left in Chipper Maxton; he shakes his head and mutters something that is a plea to be left alone. A bloodshot, oxlike eye revolves toward Charles Burnside and silently expresses an oddly impersonal desire for mercy. â€Å"Mother of Mercy,† Burny says, â€Å"is this the end of Rico?† What a laugh he hasn't thought of that movie in years. Chuckling at his own wit, he leans over, positions the blades on either side of Chipper's neck, and nearly succeeds in cutting off his head. The sirens turn blaring on to Queen Street. Soon policemen will be running up the walk; soon they will burst into the lobby. Burnside drops the clippers onto Chipper's broad back and regrets that he does not have the time to piss on his body or take a dump on his head, but Mr. Munshun is grumbling about dime, dime, dime. â€Å"I ain't stupid, you don't have to tell me,† Burny says. He pads out of the office and through Miss Vilas's cubicle. When he moves out into the lobby, he can see the flashing light bars on the tops of two police cars rolling down the far side of the hedge. They come to a halt not far from where he first put his hand around Tyler Marshall's slender boy-neck. Burny scoots along a little faster. When he reaches the beginning of the Daisy corridor, two baby-faced policemen burst through the opening in the hedge. Down the hallway, Butch Yerxa is standing up and rubbing his face. He stares at Burnside and says, â€Å"What happened?† â€Å"Get out there,† Burny says. â€Å"Take 'em to the office. Maxton's hurt.† â€Å"Hurt?† Incapable of movement, Butch is gaping at Burnside's bloody clothes and dripping hands. â€Å"Go!† Butch stumbles forward, and the two young policemen charge in through the big glass door, from which Rebecca Vilas's poster has been removed. â€Å"The office!† Butch yells, pointing to his right. â€Å"The boss is hurt!† While Yerxa indicates the office door by jabbing his hand at the wall, Charles Burnside scuttles past him. A moment later, he has entered the Daisy wing men's room and is hotfooting it toward one of the stalls. And what of Jack Sawyer? We already know. That is, we know he fell asleep in a receptive place between the edge of a cornfield and a hill on the western side of Norway Valley. We know that his body grew lighter, less substantial, cloudy. That it grew vague and translucent. We can suppose that before his body attained transparency, Jack entered a certain nourishing dream. And in that dream, we may suppose, a sky of robin's egg blue suggests an infinity of space to the inhabitants of a handsome residential property on Roxbury Drive, Beverly Hills, wherein Jacky is six, six, six, or twelve, twelve, twelve, or both at the same time, and Daddy played cool changes on his horn, horn, horn. (â€Å"Darn That Dream,† Henry Shake could tell you, is the last song on Daddy Plays the Horn, by Dexter Gordon a daddy-o if there ever was.) In that dream, everyone went on a journey and no one went anywhere else, and a traveling boy captured a most marvelous prize, and Lily Cavanaugh Sawyer capt ured a bumblebee in a glass. Smiling, she carried it to the swinging doors and launched it into the upper air. So the bumblebee traveled far and away to Faraway, and as it journeyed worlds upon worlds on their mysterious courses trembled and swayed, and Jack, too, journeyed on his own mysterious course into the infinite robin's-egg blue and, in the bee's accurate wake, returned to the Territories, where he lay sleeping in a silent field. So in that same darned dream, Jack Sawyer, a person younger than twelve and older than thirty, stunned by both grief and love, is visited in his sleep by a certain woman of tender regard. And she lies down beside him on his bed of sweet grass and takes him in her arms and his grateful body knows the bliss of her touch, her kiss, her deep blessing. What they do, alone in the faraway Territories, is none of our business, but we compound Sophie's blessing with our own and leave them to what is after all, with the gentlest possible urgency, their busine ss, which blesses this boy and this girl, this man and this woman, this dear couple, as nothing else can, certainly not us. Return comes as it should, with the clean, rich smells of topsoil and corn, and a rooster's alarm-clock crowing from the Gilbertson cousins' farm. A spiderweb shining with dew stitches the loafer on Jack's left foot to a mossy rock. An ant trundling across Jack's right wrist carries a blade of grass bearing in the V of its central fold a bright and trembling drop of newly made water. Feeling as wondrously refreshed as if he, too, were newly created, Jack eases the hardworking ant off his wrist, separates his shoe from the spiderweb, and gets to his feet. Dew sparkles in his hair and his eyebrows. Half a mile back across the field, Henry's meadow curves around Henry's house. Tiger lilies shiver in the cool morning breeze. Tiger lilies shiver . . . When he sees the hood of his pickup nosing out from behind the house, everything comes back to him. Mouse, and the word given him by Mouse. Henry's house, Henry's studio, his dying message. By this time, all the police and investigators will have gone, and the house will be empty, echoing with bloodstains. Dale Gilbertson and probably Troopers Brown and Black will be looking for him. Jack has no interest in the troopers, but he does want to talk to Dale. It is time to let Dale in on some startling facts. What Jack has to say to Dale is going to peel his eyelids back, but we should remember what the Duke told Dean Martin about the whisking of eggs and the making of omelettes. In the words of Lily Cavanaugh, when the Duke spoke up, ever'-dang-body lissened up, and so must Dale Gilbertson, for Jack wants his faithful and resolute company on the journey through Black House. Walking past the side of Henry's house, Jack puts the tips of his fingers to his lips and brushes them against the wood, transferring the kiss. Henry. For all the worlds, for Tyler Marshall, for Judy, for Sophie, and for you, Henry Leyden. The cell phone in the cab of the Ram claims to have three saved messages, all from Dale, which he deletes unheard. At home, the answering machine's red light blinks 4-4-4, repeating itself with the ruthless insistence of a hungry infant. Jack pushes PLAYBACK. Four times, an increasingly unhappy Dale Gilbertson begs to know the whereabouts of his friend Jack Sawyer and communicates his great desire to converse with the same gentleman, largely in reference to the murder of his uncle and their friend, Henry, but it wouldn't hurt to talk about the goddamn slaughter at Maxton's, would it? And does the name Charles Burnside ring any bells? Jack looks at his watch and, thinking that it cannot be correct, glances up at the clock in his kitchen. His watch was right after all. It is 5:42 A.M., and the rooster is still crowing behind Randy and Kent Gilbert-son's barn. Tiredness suddenly washes through him, heavier than gravity. Someone is undoubtedly manning the telephone on Sumner Street, but Dale is just as certainly asleep in his bed, and Jack wishes to speak only to Dale. He yawns hugely, like a cat. The newspaper hasn't even been delivered yet! He removes his jacket and tosses it onto a chair, then yawns again, even more widely than before. Maybe that cornfield was not so comfortable after all: Jack's neck feels pinched, and his back aches. He pulls himself up the staircase, shucks his clothes onto a love seat in his bedroom, and flops into bed. On the wall above the love seat hangs his sunny little Fairfield Porter painting, and Jack remembers how Dale responded to it, the night they uncrated and put up all the paintings. He had loved that picture the moment he saw it it had probably been news to Dale that he could find such satisfaction in a painting. All right, Jack thinks, if we manage to get out of Black House alive, I'll give it to him. And I'll make him take it: I'll threaten to chop it up and burn it in the wood-stove if he doesn't. I'll tell him I'll give it to Wendell Green! His eyes are already closing; he sinks into the bedclothes and disappears, although this time not literally, from our world. He dreams. He walks down a tricky, descending forest path toward a burning building. Beasts and monsters writhe and bellow on both sides, mostly unseen but now and then flicking out a gnarled hand, a spiky tail, a black, skeletal wing. These he severs with a heavy sword. His arm aches, and his entire body feels weary and sore. Somewhere he is bleeding, but he cannot see or feel the wound, merely the slow movement of blood running down the backs of his legs. The people who were with him at the start of his journey are all dead, and he is he may be dying. He wishes he were not so alone, for he is terrified. The burning building grows taller and taller as he approaches. Screams and cries come from it, and around it lies a grotesque perimeter of dead, blackened trees and smoking ashes. This perimeter widens with every second, as if the building is devouring all of nature, one foot at a time. Everything is lost, and the burning building and the soulless creature who is both its master and its prisoner will triumph, blasted world without end, amen. Din-tah, the great furnace, eating all in its path. The trees on his right side bend and contort their complaining branches, and a great stirring takes place in the dark, sharply pointed leaves. Groaning, the huge trunks bow, and the branches twine like snakes about one another, bringing into being a solid wall of gray, pointed leaves. From that wall emerges, with terrible slowness, the impression of a gaunt, bony face. Five feet tall from crown to chin, the face bulges out against the layer of leaves, weaving from side to side in search of Jack. It is everything that has ever terrified him, injured him, wished him ill, either in this world or the Territories. The huge face vaguely resembles a human monster named Elroy who once tried to rape Jack in a wretched bar called the Oatley Tap, then it suggests Morgan of Orris, then Sunlight Gardener, then Charles Burnside, but as it continues its blind seeking from side to side, it suggests all of these malign faces layered on top of one another and melting into one. Utter fear turns Jack to stone. The face bulging out of the massed leaves searches the downward path, then swings back and ceases its constant, flickering movement from side to side. It is pointed directly at him. The blind eyes see him, the nose without nostrils smells him. A quiver of pleasure runs through the leaves, and the face looms forward, getting larger and larger. Unable to move, Jack looks back over his shoulder to see a putrefying man prop himself up in a narrow bed. The man opens his mouth and shouts, â€Å"D'YAMBA!† Heart thrashing in his chest, a shout dying before it leaves his throat, Jack vaults from his bed and lands on his feet before he quite realizes that he has awakened from a dream. His entire body seems to be trembling. Sweat runs down his forehead and dampens his chest. Gradually, the trembling ceases as he takes in what is really around him: not a giant face looming from an ugly wall of leaves but the familiar confines of his bedroom. Hanging on the wall opposite is a painting he intends to give to Dale Gilbertson. He wipes his face, he calms down. He needs a shower. His watch tells him that it is now 9:47 A.M. He has slept four hours, and it is time to get organized. Forty-five minutes later, cleaned up, dressed, and fed, Jack calls the police station and asks to speak to Chief Gilbertson. At 11:25, he and a dubious, newly educated Dale a Dale who badly wants to see some evidence of his friend's crazy tale leave the chief's car parked beneath the single tree in the Sand Bar's lot and walk across the hot asphalt past two leaning Harleys and toward the rear entrance.

Muslim perceptions on Islam

Muslim perceptions on Islam Introduction Muslims are the second largest religious community in the world after the Catholics (Saenz, 2005). Even though they are racially and ethnically diverse, they have taken on to themselves various connotations and there have been various perceptions regarding how Muslims are viewed across the world.Advertising We will write a custom research paper sample on Muslim perceptions on Islam specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More In the same respect, it is also evident that different Muslims in different countries behave differently depending on the cultural practices surrounding them. This therefore means that they perceive the Islamic teachings differently and that the practice is not the same all Muslims. In some countries for example, it is mandatory for women to wear a veil while in other countries, this is not compulsory (Curtis, 2006). Going by the foregoing arguments, in spite of them being deeply rooted in their faith, Muslims f rom different parts of the world view Islam differently. This does not however mean that their practices are dwindling; it only illustrates that faith and religion are as good as one’s beliefs and perceptions. As such, the essay below is an attempt to analyze the teachings of Islam and thereafter, illustrate how they are interpreted and perceived by different Muslims from different countries. Islam: Beliefs and Practices The Islamic religion is characterized by many beliefs and practices that have to be adhered to by members of this religious group. According to Saenz (2005), there are over one billion Muslims living in the European countries and in other continents like Asia and North Africa. In addition, there are approximately 40 Muslim dominated countries in the world (Saenz, 2005). Even though the various practices of Islam are different from one country to another, nonetheless, we do have basic fundamental elements and teaching that they all look up to. The basic teachi ngs of Islam revolve around Prophet Muhammad as the teachings were first revealed to him in the (Saenz, 2005). Prophet Muhammad later collected these teachings that he had received and compiled them into the Holy Quran. In order to get guidance and teachings in their day- to- day lives, the Quran is a very important asset of the Muslim faithful since they rely on it as a basis for leading an Islamic way of life, according to the teachings of Allah, though Prophet Muhammad.Advertising Looking for research paper on social sciences? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More Besides being a prophet who role was to gather the materials in the Quran, Prophet Muhammad lived a life that was exemplary and that deserves to be emulated by all the Muslims. Five Pillars of Islam Every Muslim is required to adhere to the Islamic teachings which require that they follow the five pillars of Islam. The first of these pillars states that every Muslim has to confess his/her faith. In this case, all Muslims supposed to declare that besides Allah, there are no other gods (Esposito, 1998). This means that the Muslims are required to declare and acknowledge the monopolistic nature of the religion. Under the teachings of Islam, Muslims have to observe the second pillar of Islam which is prayer. In this case, they are required and instructed to pray at certain times of the day and in total, ensure that they pray at least five times a day. The sequence of the prayer guideline begins with the azan prayer which is a call for all Muslims to come together and pray. They are then required to follow an order in the recitation and proclaiming of messages in the Quran (Esposito, 1998). This entails taking successive bows while facing towards the city of Mecca, the holy land. In addition, Muslims are also to offer an amount of tax which is the equivalent of an offering that is dedicated for the poor and the needy among the Muslim members of the society. This particular pillar is compulsory to all Muslims, as opposed to being voluntary. The fourth pillar is observing the Holy Month of Ramadan through fasting from sunrise to sunset, based on the sayings of the lunar calendar. During this period, Muslims area also required to reflect on their lives in regards to the wealth they have attained or the health that they have been endowed with. They are then required to look out for the less fortunate in the society (Esposito, 1998). The last pillar that the Muslim faithful are supposed to observe according to their teachings is the pillar of pilgrimage where they are required to visit the holy city of Mecca in pilgrimage at least once in their entire lifetime. Interpretations of the Islamic teachings across the world The above teachings have however been interpreted differently by Muslims from different countries thus forming different sects in the Muslim community. This means that the practices by each sect differ vastly f rom those of other sects. Some of the different sects that have emerged in Islam include the Sunni and Shiite Muslims. The Sunni Muslims are the majority in the Muslim world (Armstrong, 2000).Advertising We will write a custom research paper sample on Muslim perceptions on Islam specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More On the other hand, the Shia are a group of Muslims who practice a more decentralized type of Islam than the Sunni.The Sunni are of the view that it is not necessary to have one authoritarian religious leader but deem it important to rely on scholars that have been widely educated and on the profound religious texts (Denny, 2006). With regard to the interpretation of the Quran, the Sunni are more literal in comparison with the Shia. On the other hand, the Shia rely too much on their religious leaders and view them as people that have been divinely elected by God to help them in their spiritual growth especially in the analysis of the Quran. In the same regard, their views on Islamic teachings are more authoritarian than communitarian. In countries like the United States can be categorized as being liberal not in the sense that they do not observes the Islamic teachings but due to the fact they are entirely the type that do not need guidance or constant contact with their religious leaders in order to know what is required of them (Denny, 2006). The same applies to other developed countries like the United Kingdom, Russia and Germany. However, in countries like Saudi Arabia, Indonesia and Nigeria, the Muslims are more intertwined with their leaders and this is reflected even in their religious practices and in their conservative nature. They tend to keenly uphold the prayer times with constant visits to the mosques for spiritual nourishment. Another sect that has emerged in the same aspect is the Sufi’s who are deemed to be a different group of Muslims that perceive Islamic teachings in a different manner. They interpret the Islamic teachings as symbols and allegories and thus practice very mystic religious activities as compared to the latter groups (Denny, 2006). In order to meet the qualities and characteristics that Muhammad showcased during his time, the Sufi’s have chosen to neglect their natural being by not recognizing material wealth and in order for them to be more committed on the love and meditation of God. In a survey that was recently conducted in the Muslim community on how they view Islam and how they practice it in their lives, the results were varied especially when compared with Muslims from other countries (Saenz, 2005).Advertising Looking for research paper on social sciences? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More In spite of the fact that all the participants agreed on the core commitment to God, nonetheless, they differed in their level of commitment, openness to certain Islam teachings and interpretations in regards to their faith and in acceptance of the above sects as mentioned earlier. In the Middle East and the North African countries there was a very high belief in God and the prophet Muhammad followed by the Asian countries (Saenz, 2005). Central Asia and sub-Saharan Africa were ranked fourth and fifth respectively with Europe being the last of the group with 85%. Through the survey, it emerged that most of the Muslims in the countries where Islam was ranked as first and second largest religion regarded it as a very important aspect of faith and by extension, their lives. However, in the United States, Only 69% of the Muslims regarded their faith very important to them (Saenz, 2005). Nonetheless, in some nations that have only recently emerged communism like Russia, Muslims have very little concerns as regards their teachings and what their religion requires of them. It was noted in the survey that not more than half of the Muslims in the county quoted religion as important to their lives. The same characteristic was also predominant in the Balkans. However, 67% of the Muslims who took part in the survey in Turkey stated that to them religion was very important (Saenz, 2005). These religious differences as highlighted above were also mainly characterized by the difference in age groups with those who are older being more deeply rooted in their religion than those that are younger. It was also noted that there was gender disparity on how the Islamic faith and teachings were perceived among the different countries. In central and south Asia, majority of the women have been quoted to have never attended a mosque. It was also noted that in countries where there is strict compliance with the Muslim teachings and laws like in Saudi Arabia , Morocco, and majority of t he countries in the Middle East and northern Africa, there have been very poor statistics of women attending prayers at the mosque(Nasr, 2003). This is especially due to the fact that the cultural norms of the people in these countries do not permit women to be liberal in certain religious activities. However, women still actively participate in the daily rituals or prayers required of them though not in the limelight as men do. Regarding the element of holy war as a teaching in the Islamic faith, there is a very wide disparity on the level of disagreement. While majority of the Muslims in the Middle East countries and part of northern Africa are strong believers in the holy war, their counterparts in countries like the United States and the United Kingdom seem to be against it (Nasr, 2003). They state that in most cases the holy war end up affecting innocent civilians other than those it was aimed at fighting. As such, it is not fair and rightly targeted (Curtis, 2006). On the othe r hand, Muslims from Saudi Arabia and Morocco are strong advocates for the jihad war, stating that the holy war is aimed at helping to salvage the requirements of the Islamic faith. However, it is also clearly depicted that holy war is not terrorism.To most of the Muslims however, holy war is acceptable. In contrast, Muslims from the south and central Asian countries like India are characterized by low levels of commitment to their religion in terms of the practices that they are obligated to fulfill (Bloom Blair, 2000). These are among others, veiling of the women and conducting prayers and rituals from time to time. However, those in Turkey have a high level of commitment and they strive to practice their religious duties as required of them. The women are very keen on practices like veiling. In some other countries for instance, veiling is not a compulsory law and there are no clearly stipulated Islamic laws in place. In the United States for instance, there are no laws that see m to support Islamic teachings at all.In fact Islam is viewed as a terrorist religion especially after the effects of the September 11th attacks (Armstrong, 2000). In Germany, although Islam is viewed in an important dimension, it is not compulsory that women veil and there are no laws to reinforce the practice. In the middle eastern countries like Egypt, Saudi Arabia and many more, women are required to strictly comply with the shariah laws and thus it is a rule that they should veil their heads at all times without any compromise. Conclusion Islam is ranked as the second largest religion in the world, after Catholicism. In addition, nearly 40 countries in the world are regarded as being predominantly Islam. Regardless of their cultural settings location, Muslims across the world are guided by the five basic beliefs and practices. For example, all Muslims recognize Prophet Muhammad as the holy messenger of Allah, and that there is no other god but Allah. We also have five basic pil lar of the Islamic faith that is common among all Muslims. However, the interpretations of the Islamic faith across the world differ, based on cultural backgrounds and religious sects. For example, whereas the Shia relies a lot on the teachings of religious leaders, on the other hand, the Sunni are a bid liberal on this issue. Also, the older generation in Islam is very much attached to their faith, while the younger generation is not so much attached to it. The holy war is also viewed differently by Muslims from various parts of the word. Reference List Armstrong, K. (2000). Islam: A Short History. New York: Modern Library. Bloom, J., Blair, S. (2000). Islam: A Thousand Years of Faith and Power. New York: TV Books. Curtis, E. E. (2006). Black Muslim Religion in the Nation of Islam, 1960–1975. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press. Denny, F. M. (2006). An Introduction to Islam. 3rd ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall. Esposito, J. (1998). Islam the Straight P ath. 3rd ed. Oxford, U.K.: Oxford University Press. Nasr, S, H. (2003). Islam: Religion, History, and Civilization. San Francisco: Harper San Francisco. Saenz, R. (2005). The Changing Demographics of Roman Catholics. Retrieved from https://www.prb.org/thechangingdemographicsofromancatholics/