The apartheid system in South Africa Essay Example for Free

The apartheid system in South Africa Essay The term apartheid was one of the most politically charged words in the second half of the 20th century, and still remains notorious today. Apartheid translated from Afrikaans means separateness or apartness. However when the National Party came to power in South Africa in 1948, it took on a much more sinister meaning and today is associated with racial and ethnic discrimination. The roots of apartheid stem deep into South African history. It started way back during European settlement, and was enforced and maintained right up until the end of the 20th Century. It will forever leave a mark on South Africa and indeed the world; a dark period in human history from which we have and will continue to learn. Tensions between Europeans and native Africans have existed since the first days of settlement and the earliest signs of what would snowball to become apartheid can be traced to these times. In 1488, the Portuguese first sailed past the Cape of Good Hope, eventually landing there and trading for food with people who called themselves Khoikhoi. It wasnt until the 1600s though, when the Dutch East India Company set up a base in Southern Africa, that the roots for what is today known as South Africa were put down. Initially contacts between the Khoikhoi and the new Europeans were peaceful, but over time the situation grew hostile. Aided by their guns, as well as the diseases they brought with them, the Europeans took more and more land and disrupted the natives lifestyle. By 1795 15000 Europeans and their slaves were scattered throughout the Cape colony. Violence between the natives and the Europeans was inevitable. There had been fights between the groups in small battles, but it wasnt until the late 18th Century that there was a large scale frontier war between them. The natives were driven back, but in 1806 Britain took over the Dutch Cape Colony, bringing British settlers to the area. This wasnt a real problem to the Boers, the earliest European settlers, at first, but conflict soon ensued. In 1833 Britain ended slavery throughout its empire, including the Cape. The Boers strongly disagreed with this and they wanted to keep their independence as they believed they had a God-given right to own African land and slaves. In the late 1830s they migrated north and eastwards far from British Rule to establish their own independent republics, in the Transvaal and the Orange Free State. However when diamonds and gold were found later in the 19th Century the British interest in these interior areas was re-activated. The Anglo-Boer War was fought as a result during the years 1899-1902. This war was one of the epic conflicts in the building of an Afrikaner ideology and sense of identity. The hate of the British afterwards greatly contributed to the firm Afrikaner belief that they were chosen by God to rule the land, a belief that would be shown and implemented in the apartheid system. Leading up to the First World War, South Africa remained a deeply divided country. Only 21.5 percent of the population were white, Boers were still resentful over the Anglo-Boer war and the majority black population was divided amongst itself. It was also during this time and after the war that the roots of apartheid began to emerge. Policies, such as the Mine and Works Act of 1911, which forced blacks into the category of cheap labour, and the Natives Land Act of 1913, paved the start of the pathway that would lead to apartheid. Even repression from the police was evident in this time, when in 1920 African mineworkers went on strike and were killed in Port Elizabeth for their efforts. Even before the National Party, that would implement apartheid to its extreme, was elected, apartheid was occurring and existed throughout the country. In summary the policy of apartheid was a product of the late colonial era and came into existence due to events during early settlement, and events later such as the Anglo-Boer, that sparked and ignited a mentality that couldnt be suppressed. In1948 a Nationalist Party government under Dr Daniel Malan was elected, promising a white South Africa and a total system of apartheid between blacks and whites. Apartheid came about in South Africa because of an Afrikaner belief of their god-given right to Africa, which was also a racist one. Apartheid was therefore a means to support and institutionalize their view on how the country should be run. Apartheid was kept in place through various means, mainly the use of legislation and technology. The main way that the government implement  apartheid was through legislation. There were countless laws and bills passed, which over time stripped black Africans of their rights, all the while favoring the white elite of South Africa. Race laws affected every social aspect of life in apartheid South Africa. The early policies that were made when the National Party first came into power set the base for the later policies to take effect and branch off. These policies embodied what the apartheid regime was all about, notably two of the earliest policies made, being the Population Registration Act and the Group Areas Act. Both were made in 1950, with the Population Registration Act requiring al South Africans to be racially classified into either white, black or colored, and the Group Areas Act which geographically separated the racial groups. These laws and policies prevented the black population having the same privileges, standards of living and status as the white South Africans. Under the apartheid system everyday life was greatly affected by such laws. For example, under the Reservation of Separate Amenities Act in 1953, people of different races were prohibited from using the same public facilities such as restaurants, transport services, restrooms etc. Under the Population Registration Act different members of the same family found themselves in different race groups. Some of these laws essentially made black Africans foreigners; the correct term was guest laborers who were only allowed to work in South Africa if they held a temporary work permit. The Bantu Education Act of 1953 meant the government took over control of all schools and institutions. The emphasis in black schools was heavily on agriculture and this was another way of controlling black Africans as well as upholding the apartheid system. The annual expenditure on education from the government per pupil was $45 for blacks and $696 for whites. These are just a few examples of laws and policies that were implemented to maintain the apartheid system. Another way the government was able to enforce apartheid was through technology, primarily computers. More than any other single technological advancement; the computer fostered the concentration of administrative power in the hands of Africas white elite.1 Computers were used in almost every government agency, particularly in the police system and the military. The  vast majority of these computers came from America and IBM was the largest computer supplier in South Africa during the time when apartheid was active. The first computer transported from the US to South Africa was an electric tabulator to IBM South Africa, in 1952. Through computers and technology the apartheid regime was able to control every aspect of life, particularly for black Africans. It meant that the government and its organizations could track people their history, their movement, etc and through this shut down protests and silence protesters. The computerized population register is regarded as the instrument that made the biggest contribution to the apartheid system. It was responsible for the passbook system that affected more than 25 million black Africans. Through these devices, information on a persons racial classification, name, sex, date of birth, dates of departure and return to the country, fingerprints and places of work and study could all be recorded onto a database. The passbooks and the computer database meant a person could instantly be identified and checked for a history of government opposition. The population registry wasnt the only computerized resource the government used to control its citizens there were other foreign and imported products used as well. X-Ray machines, passbook fingerprinting equipment and communications logging recorders were also available to the police. Various government departments used computers for financial and other non repressive purposes, when in reality they used them to track opponents of apartheid, and once they found them, police brutality and torture were used and the opponents were often held political prisoners without trial. Also, as the largest part of the government, a majority of the computer equipment purchased by the state inevitably must have found its way into the military, which utilised this equipment against its people. Apartheid was conceived and administered as an ideology for the total organization of the South African society for the exclusive benefit of the white part of the population. This system was implemented and enforced strictly and with brutality for more than forty years. In that time the National Party government achieved a high degree of success in creating  apartheid on a personal, urban and state level. Although this system ultimately failed (in 1991 laws enforcing apartheid were abolished) its mark on South Africa and the world will be present for a very long time and the apartheid era will be a massive legacy to be fully overcome for future generations of South Africans and indeed the world. References: 1 Automating Apartheid U.S. Computer exports to South Africa and the Arms Embargo. Omega Press, Philadelphia, 1982Bibliography:Books:Meisel,J. (1994) South Africa At The Crossroads. Cape Town; The Millbrook PressChristopher,A. (1994) The Atlas of Changing South Africa. London; RoutledgeTames,R. (2000) The End of Apartheid: a New South Africa. Oxford: Heinemann LibraryInternet Sites:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apartheid_in_South_Africahttp://www-cs-students.stanford.edu/~cale/cs201/apartheid.hist.htmlhttp://www.africanaencyclopedia.com/apartheid/apartheid.html

Everyman Must Have Been An Awesome Tool Religion Essay

Everyman Must Have Been An Awesome Tool Religion Essay The play Everyman must have been an awesome tool for witnessing to the churched and unchurched alike during medieval times. There were dramatic performances during spring and winter festivals in most countries during this period in history. This approach to drama helped to shape what came to be called the drama of the church. This form of public worship called liturgical services was most popular around Easter and Christmas. In the medieval society, there were many things to keep people preoccupied to the point where they did not focus on the salvation of their souls. In lines 74 through 82 Death describes some of these things, he says à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Everyman will I beset that liveth beastly Out of Gods laws, and dreadeth not folly. He that loveth riches I will strike with my dart, His sight to blind, and from heaven to depart-Except that Almsdeeds be his good friend-In hell for to dwell, world without end. Lo, yonder I see Everyman walking: Full little he thinketh on my coming; His mind is on fleshly lusts and his treasure,à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ Everyman depicts the inevitable as the reading suggests, facing death and coming to terms with life. The character Everyman is confronted with his present condition of sin and is about to be judged. In lines 103 through 110 Death tells him, On thee thou must take a long journay: Therefore thy book of count with thee thou bring, For turn again thou cannot by no way. And look thou be sure of thy reckoning, For before God thou shalt answer and shew Thy many bad deeds and good but a few-How thou hast spent thy life and in what wise, Before the Chief Lord of Paradise. Everyman thinks that he can put off Death until he is ready by giving him money and asking Death to be kind, which is ironic. In lines 120 through 125 Everyman states, O Death, thou comest when I had thee least in mind. In thy power it lieth me to save: Yet of my good will I will give thee, If thou will be kind, Yea, a thousand pound shalt thou have-And defer this matter till another day. Now faced with death you would think that Everymans main focus would be his salvation, but instead he thinks that Fellowship, Kindred, Cousin, Goods, and Good Deeds can go with him to help him to plead his case. Only Good Deeds was able to point him in the right direction towards Knowledge, who was the only one who could go with him at first. In lines 486 through 488 Good Deeds states, Here I lie, cold in the ground: Thy sins hath me sore bound That I cannot stear-(stir or move). After Good Deeds introduced Everyman to Knowledge, he was finally headed in the right direction. Knowledge said to him, Everyman, I will go with thee and be thy guide, In thy most need to go by thy side. The lessons in plays such as Everyman were intended by the church to educate and steer medieval Christians in the right direction toward the salvation of their souls. This was important in their lives because of their belief that the salvation of the medieval Christians soul is achieved only through the church. Also important were the seven sacraments-key spiritual events in the life of medieval Christians. Knowledge leads Everyman to Confession so that he could ask for mercy, to be cleansed, and receive his Good Deeds. Everyman prayed for the sacraments of Baptism and Confirmation saying, in lines 544 through 553, O glorious fountain that all uncleanness doth clarify, Wash from me the spots of vice unclean, that on me no sin may be seen. I come with Knowledge for my redemption, Redempt with heart and full contrition, For I am commanded a pilgrimage to take An great accounts before God to make. Now I pray you, Shrift, mother of salvation, Help my Good Deeds for my piteous exclamation. Next, in lines 581 through 608, Everyman prayed for the sacraments of Penitence-admitting guilt and sorrow for his sins and also for Penance-the punishment for his sins. He also prayed for Eucharist, which is Holy Communion, Holy Orders and Marriage. After this prayer Good Deeds returned to be with him to go w ith him and help him declare his good works. Now with Everyman on his journey is Knowledge, Good Deeds, Discretion, Strength, Beauty, and Five-Wits. Knowledge tells Everyman about the sacrament of Extreme Unction in lines 706 through 711, Everyman, hearken what I say: Go to Preisthood, I you advise, And receive of him, in any wise, The holy sacrament and ointment together; Then shortly see ye turn again hither: We will all abide you here. After this Five-wits tells him about the importance of the priesthood. In lines 712 through 727 he says to everyman, Yea, Everyman, hie you that ye ready were. There is no emperor, king, duke, ne baron, That of God hath commission As hath the least priest in the world being: For of the blessed sacraments pure and bening He beareth the keys, and thereof hath the cure For mans redemption-it is ever sure-Which God for our souls medicine Gave us out of his heart with great pine, Here is this transitory life for thee and me. The blessed sacraments seven there be: Baptism, confirmation, with priesthood good, And the sacrament of Gods precious flesh and blood, Marriage, the holy extreme unction, and penance: These seven be good to have in remembrance, Gracious sacraments of high divinity. In the society of the medieval Christian it is the priest who dispenses the seven holy sacraments of the Christian life. The final act ends with everyone leaving Everyman except Good Deeds and Knowledge, who stayed with him until the end. Everyman gives a final warning for everyone to learn from his mistakes in lines 864 through 869, he says, Methink, alas, that I must be gone To make my reckoning and my debts pay, For I see my time is nigh spent away. Take example, all ye that this do hear or see, How they that I best loved do forsake me, Except my Good Deeds that bideth truly. This ending was definitely one that the medieval Christian church wanted everyone in this society to understand and it is, that you can not take anyone or anything with you even if it is buried with your body, you will stand alone before God to be judged and things as well as other people will be of no use to you. They stressed the importance of being a part of the church and doing good works and living according to the seven holy sacraments so that your good works would not be in vein.

Life And Works Of Robert Mapplethorpe Film Studies Essay

Life And Works Of Robert Mapplethorpe Film Studies Essay The third of six children, Robert Mapplethorpe was born into a working-class Catholic family in Floral Park, Long Island on November 4th 1946. His childhood and adolescence were difficult because of his gawky physicality, his brothers athletic and academic success and his own early demonstration of artistic talent. After an accelerated career in high school, Mapplethorpe entered the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn to study technical illustration and where he became a member of the ROTC (Reserve Officers Training Corps) in a bid to placate his father who disapproved of his artistic ambitions. Because of his experimentation with hippy culture and his fathers hostility, he never completed his degree at Pratt; instead he moved to Manhattan just before the summer of 1969. Mapplethorpes early artistic endeavours focused on collage work with found objects and jewellery design. In 1970 a fellow resident of the Chelsea Hotel introduced him to photography with the gift of a Polaroid camera and Mapplethorpe started by experimenting with self-portraits. Mapplethorpe had his first one-man show in November 1970, but did not achieve recognition in the New York art world until 1977. On February 4th 1977, Mapplethorpe had joint shows at the Holly Solomon Gallery and the Kitchen. Although both shows were organised by Solomon, the mainstream exhibition featured his flowers and portraits while the avant-garde exhibit consisted of his sex pictures. This segregation of subject matter would continue throughout Mapplethorpes career. Just over a decade later, Mapplethorpe was the subject of retrospectives in Amsterdam, London and the United States. In July of 1988 the Whitney Museum of American Art honoured Mapplethorpe with a retrospective exhibition, their first for a photographer. In December 1988, a slightly larger retrospective, The Perfect Moment, opened at the Institute of Contemporary Art in Philadelphia. Mapplethorpe was able to experience his rise to the pinnacle of the art world, but, as he commented to numerous interviewers, he was unable to take advantage of the fame. He died from complications related to Aids on March 9th 1989. Memorial services were held at the Catholic Church Mapplethorpe had attended as a child in Floral Park and at the Whitney Museum in New York. Populated mainly with members of New York Citys social and artistic elite, Robert Mapplethorpes book of portraits, Certain People, has a title with more than one possible meaning as noted in Susan Sontags essay. There is certain in the sense of some and not others; and certain in the sense of self-confident, sure, clear. Certain People are, mostly, people found, coaxed or arranged into a certainty about themselves. That is what seduces, that is what is disclosed in these bulletins of a great photographers observations and encounters. Although they are not famous in the same way as Annie Liebovitz, Philip Glass or Bruce Chatwin people who appear in Certain People Brian Ridley and Lyle Heeter are exceptional in their own right. In their stance and with their defiant gaze, they have the same self-assurance as the celebrities that Mapplethorpe photographed. His camera treats them with the same dignity as that reserved for Lord Snowdon or Louise Bourgeois. Their portrait exemplifies many of the formal and thematic concerns that inform Mapplethorpes larger body of work. Brian Ridley and Lyle Heeter (1979) (fig. 1) is a portrait staged according to the conventions of the royal couple portrait of Enlightenment Europe or the formal family portrait of the Victorian Age. Ridley and Heeter are centred in the frame and positioned frontally with respect to the viewer. Ridley is seated with Heeter standing at his side. The setting for the portrait is clearly domestic, presumably the living room of the couple. The heavy buttoned wing-backed leather chair in which Ridley is seated, the Oriental carpet beneath his feet, the modern lines of the console table to his right as well as the objets dart on the various surfaces indicate a degree of taste and wealth. The just-so arrangement of the furniture clearly signifies a gay male aesthetic of a particular kind. The parallel costuming of Ridley and Heeter indicate a gay male aesthetic of a very different but equally stylised kind. Heeter stands to Ridleys left casually holding two metal rings from which hangs a chain connected to the studded leather collar around Ridleys neck. In his left hand, Heeter holds a riding crop, angled toward Ridley, resting inside the arm of the chair, in ominous proximity to Ridleys body; much as a rider would hold it against the flank of his mount. Heeter is adorned in full leather drag: cap, jacket, studded belt, cod-piece trousers and biker boots. To emphasise the confidence with which he carries his power, he leans against Ridleys chair and crosses his right foot over his left in a relaxed, semi-swaggering stance. Ridleys leather uniform is virtually identical to Heeters biker boots, leather chaps, biker jacket. The differences between Ridleys and Heeters costumes indicate their respective positions in the relationship: instead of a cap, Ridley wears a collar, instead of a riding crop, he sports chains; these differences, along with the pairs physical positions gesture toward the power differential that the couple perform. From this description of the photograph, Brian Ridley and Lyle Heeter could be characterised as a family portrait of a sadomasochistic couple. Although hardly as shocking as many of Mapplethorpes other sadomasochistic-themed photographs, the image is still unsettling. First, the portrait disturbs the classificatory terms it invokes. Is it possible for family, sadomasochism or portrait to mean the same thing independently and jumbled up together? If the picture grants Heeter and Ridley a certain kind of elegance, beauty and dignity, is this evidence that notions of family, domesticity and coupling are sufficiently elastic to incorporate sadomasochistic eroticism? If Ridley and Heeter are able to pose their unconventionally adorned bodies according to the codes of the conventional family portrait, is this evidence that family, domesticity and coupling have always already incorporated sadomasochistic eroticism? Second, aside from complicating dominant narratives of familial relationship s, this portrait exposes something about the relationship between the practices of photography and self-presentation. What does the staging of Ridley and Heeter in full leather drag show about the ideological work of portraiture writ large? What does this photograph expose about the relationship between power, eroticism, theatricality and image making? Given that both sets of questions relate to the tension between the pictures subject matter and its representational codes, is it fair to conclude that the relationship between content the sadomasochistic couple and form the family portrait makes Brian Ridley and Lyle Heeter such an arresting photograph? More precisely, is it the photographs combination of form and content which helps us to see the never-before-related phenomena sadomasochistic couple and formal portrait in a different way, that makes this photograph worthy of critical analysis? In the following chapters I will focus on the relationship between form and content in Mapplethorpes images, with attention to his sex pictures. The interaction of form and content in these images, I contend, trains the viewer to see in a new way: not only to see the specific subject matter differently, but to see the practice of image making in art or in life differently. The beauty of Mapplethorpes images renders culturally unpalatable subject matter attractive and desirable. The stylised composition of Mapplethorpes images also reflects in the forms of self-stylisation within the images, using photographic style to expose personal styling as an equivalent staging, construction and performance. Form and content, then, function sometimes co-operatively, sometimes in opposition to make the spectator aware of the assumptions they bring to the photograph. The analysis of Mapplethorpes images will attend not only to how he represents masculinity and the performance of gay male ident ity but also to how his images draw attention to the dynamics of representation itself. Most commentators identify the curious disjunctionà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ between the visual appeal of his photographs as pictures and the discomforting nature of his subject matter as the quintessential element of Mapplethorpes pictorial style. Arthur Danto, one of Mapplethorpes staunchest defenders characterises the artists work as both Dionysian and Apollonian at once. According to Danto, the sexual energy of the images content has a dialectic relationship to their chastely classic style of presentation; this tension is so profound, Danto finds Hegels notion of aufhebung a useful concept with which to addressà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ Mapplethorpes images. The forbidden and unsettling content of Mapplethorpes images is not erased by their pristine and mannered formalisation, and even the most sexually explicit of Mapplethorpes images both go beyond and fail as pornography, precisely because of their crisp beauty and clean elegance. The content is preserved. But it is also negated, and it is transcen ded, and that means the work cannot merely be reduced to its content. Ingrid Sischy, one of the most eloquent writers on Mapplethorpes sexual imagery, identifies this tension between form and content as the source of shock in Mapplethorpes photographs: What shocks isnt just the material, but how it is so artfully presented. The content, lighting, composition, sense of order and aesthetics all combine to give the photograph an unforgettable impact. The photographs impact depends on the audacious choice to present the forbidden, the transgressive, the underground, the violent, and the repressed in a beautiful manner. As Sischy goes on to observe, Mapplethorpes eye for beauty enables the pictures to challenge, among other things, prevailing notions about sadomasochism and homoeroticism. Germano Celants essay in the catalogue from a Guggenheim exhibition compares Mapplethorpes photographs with Mannerist paintings. He argues that Mapplethorpes style works to both defuse and legitimise th e content of his images by linking them to aesthetic codes of the past. Extending Dantos observation about the importance of the tension between form and content for understanding Mapplethorpes work aesthetically, Sischy and Celant argue that this tension is the key to evaluating Mapplethorpes images politically. Brian Ridley and Lyle Heeter illustrates how the relationship between form and content functions across Mapplethorpes body of work. As already noted the tension between the mundanity of the portraits setting and style and the atypicality of the subjects costume and identity generates the images energy and arrests the viewers attention. As Danto observes: They look as though this were the most natural thing in the world for them to be doing in their middle-class living roomà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦. [But] what is a sexual slave doing sitting that way in a comfortable armchair? Form and content also generate tension with respect to time. To what historical moment does this photograph r ightfully belong? As several commentators have noted, Mapplethorpes sex photographs are important, if for no other reason, because they document a certain gay male subculture whose adherents failed to survive the ravages of Aids. This subject matter, closely tied to the sexual exploration of the 70s, was captured, however, using a visual aesthetic associated with late-nineteenth and early-twentieth century photography, if not older notions of symmetry, order and perfection. As Joan Didion observed in her introductory essay to Mapplethorpes collection of female portraits, Some Women: Robert Mapplethorpes work has often been seen as an aesthetic sport, so entirely outside any historical or social context, and so new, as to resist interpretation. This newness has in fact become so fixed an idea about Mapplethorpe that we tend to overlook the source of his strength, which derived, from the beginning, less from the shock of the new than from the shock of the oldà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦. There was, above all, the perilous imposition of order on chaos, of classical form on unthinkable images. Didions comments clarify that Mapplethorpes images are neither without historical context nor fixed within a single historical context. Instead, subject and style belong to different, and seemingly disparate, historical moments and social milieu. The form of Mapplethorpes photographs, however, renders the content of his images thinkable, palatable, legitimate. Mapplethorpes combination of form and content, then, is anything but dilettantism. Brian Ridley and Lyle Heeter also plays with the distinction between public and private spaces. The space of the picture is a living room, a domestic space, a space hidden from the worlds prying eyes and attendant judgements. The sexual identity evoked by the subjects costumes also signifies private space; they are culturally understood as taboo, necessitating secrecy. The space of the portrait, both generally as a visual form and specifically as an artefact in a book or gallery, is, however, public. The staged presentation of these subjects underlines that they are opening their private space[s] to public scrutiny. This picture is not a snapshot; it is not a candid photo; it is not an image captured on the sly as in the work of Garry Winogrand. It is, instead, a formal portrait that required preparation and planning. As Danto points out, when emphasising the relationship of trust that Mapplethorpe must have developed with his photographic subjects, indicated by the settings, the sta ging, the careful execution and the use of names, in the photographs titles, it is clear that Brian Ridley and Lyle Heeter, like Mapplethorpes other subjects, have consented to having this image made. They have admitted Mapplethorpe (and, consequently, the viewer) into their lives, such that the photographer [and, consequently, the viewer] shares a moral space with them. Heeter and Ridleys consensual act of opening their home works to situate the spectator non-consensually in a common, private space. This exposure of the taboo to public scrutiny compels the viewer to accept this intrusion into the public sphere; by voluntarily opening the walls of their private space, Ridley and Heeter have challenged the boundaries of what is acceptable in the public space. The form of the photograph as a posed portrait, then, sharpens the political challenge of its content. The troubling of the boundary between public and private establishes a complicated relationship between the image and temporality. As a portrait, Brian Ridley and Lyle Heeter is the memorialisation of a single instant in the life of this couple. At the same time, given the disconnection between their regalia and their setting, the portrait necessarily invokes a before and an after. Insofar as Heeters and Ridleys costumes signify a particular set of sexual practices, they are not practices that likely take place (primarily) in the space in which they are photographed. Their costumes suggest the space of the playroom, the dungeon, the sex club places significantly different from the one they occupy. The portrait evokes a place and time outside the environs of the setting for the erotic activity it suggests. Because the sexual activity suggested by this photograph is understood as taboo, as requiring a private space, even though it is being exposed to a public viewing, the portrait als o intimates that these costumes and these roles are not the totality of the lives of these portrait subjects. Just as the picture suggests other times and places for sexual activity, the specificity of the intimated sexual activity, by negative implication, suggests non-sexual times and places in these subjects lives that require different styles of self-presentation. The temporal and spatial limitations on this particular self-stylisation are underlined by the incongruity of costume and setting. The form/content distinctions of this image, then, invest it with a temporal dimension. The photograph suggests a relationship of dominance and submission; the power dynamics at play in the image, however, are neither simple nor singular. On the most basic level, there is the power of the gaze, a power generated by the image that situates both the spectator and the pictorial subject. This gaze arguably belongs to Mapplethorpe and the spectator and is exercised against Heeter and Ridley. Even if Heeter and Ridley have been costumed, posed, lit and framed by Mapplethorpe, to claim that they have been objectified by his gaze fails to account for the complexity of the image. Ridley and Heeter both look at the camera with hard and fixed stares; they are not giving over their bodies, their lives or their subjectivities to the spectator. Ridley and Heeter each adopt a physical pose that underpins the defiance of their respective looks; Heeters nonchalant stance and Ridleys open-legged seating position situate them in the full solidity of their corporeal frames. When looking at Heeter and Ridley, the spectator is just as likely to feel intimidated, challenged and threatened as in control of the image. In this way, the power Ridley and Heeter retain vis-à  -vis the gaze relates to and underscores their consent to the image-making process. At the same time, their tight leather outfits draw attention to the precise contours of their bodies. The silver studs on Heeters codpiece and the positioning of Ridleys legs and hands also draw visual attention to their respective genital regions. In this way the portrait trades in traditional mechanisms of eroticising and objectifying its subjects. Because they have been trapped in the image, and because this photograph will now circulate freely outside of their control, however, their resistance to the power of the scopic regime is limited and partial. The photograph, then, transforms Heeter and Ridley into objects for contemplation. The spectators visual inspection of them, however, is disrupted by their respective l ooks, their physical poses and the iconography of sadomasochism within the photograph. The gaze that structures this image is neither straightforward nor unidirectional. The power dynamic between the portraits subjects is also complex. Heeters superior vertical position along with his grasp of the riding crop and Ridleys chains are evidence of his dominance. At the same time Ridley is foregrounded in the pictorial space and his face is both more clearly visible and more brightly lit, making him the focus of visual attention. Ridleys name is also given priority in the portraits title. While this priority is consistent with Western left-to-right titling practice, it runs against the perceived practice of many sadomasochistic practitioners who often deny the submissive partner the referential use of a name, personal pronouns or even capital letters. As Richard Meyer observed when arguing that the formal properties of Mapplethorpes photographs often work to undo the power dynamics of his images content: The contradictions of this portrait defeat any essentialist interpretation of Ridley and Heeter in (or as) their sadomasochistic roles. Building on a clo se reading of the Meyer article, I would add that it is the compositional elements of the picture that serve to disrupt the meaning of its specific iconography. In other words, with respect to how the picture trades in the erotics of dominance and submission, the form of the image undercuts its manifest content. The incongruity of costume and setting also works to complicate the readings of power in the image. In an essay largely critical of Mapplethorpes images, C. S. Manegold writes that the dreamà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ promised by this portrait is one of pain, of submission, of servitude, a willing walk toward death. She goes on to claim that Mapplethorpes sadomasochistic photographs are funded by a fascistic aesthetic. While I agree that this image trades in the iconography of domination and submission, I would dispute that the leather gear is Nazi-esque, it is merely hyper-masculine and owes much more to the motorcycle cop or the cowboy than any sort of Nazi influence, there are certainly no badges or insignia to indicate such a position and is merely Manegold herself showing what her personal/political history brings to the table in terms of domination. Any characterisation of the image as representing only a single form of erotic or gendered self-presentation founders on the details of the ph otograph itself. Looking only at Heeters riding crop and studded cod-piece or only at Ridleys handcuffs and locked collar, Manegolds characterisation of the image as one infused with pain and death and fascinated with a fascistic masculinity may seem self-justified. What happens, however, when the spectator notices the antique brass clock, the carefully arranged books or the delicate figurines that are also part of the picture? Are these details irrelevant? Do they also signify death and embody fascism? Or do they expose the sadomasochistic self-presentation of Ridley and Heeter as convincing, chilling, arousing, and disturbing as it might be as, at root, a performance, a ritual, an enactment? Although it is implicit in what I said about the image and temporality previously, it bears emphasising that insofar as the portrait highlights the performative nature of (sadomasochistic or masculine) identity, this also relates to the temporality of the image. Because a performance require s a repeated bodily gesture, it also requires temporal duration. In other words, does the incongruity between the general setting and the specific costuming show that each signifies an alternative way to fashion a life? A less incongruous picture could have been crafted by stripping the room bare of furniture, positioning Ridley on his knees and painting the walls black. Equally less incongruous a picture could also have been crafted by stripping Ridley of his chains, positioning Heeter on the arm of the chair and dressing the pair in flannels and blazers. The posing of this master-slave duo in a well-appointed, to the point of chi-chi, living room, however, shows that the respective systems of decoration are fully parallel, even though they might imply different relationships to hegemonic masculinity. What Mapplethorpe has done is signify hyper-masculinity and then gone on to problematise it. By focusing the spectators attention on the stylisation of their clothing and props through its sharp focus and bright lighting, the style of the portrait underlines that Ridley and Heeters gear is drag, a costume, a mode of self-presentation, a performance. In addition, by staging Brian Ridley and Lyle Heeter in a setting where their self-presentation as devotees of sadomasochistic eroticism would stand out in exaggerated bas-relief, the portrait calls attention to the artifice, the staginess of their chosen identity. The inherent theatricality of the picture is further emphasised by the dynamics of sadomasochistic erotic play itself. Given its emphasis on roles, costumes, props, scenes, the adornment of the body and implements of sexual arousal, sadomasochism despite the reality of the pain/pleasure experienced by its participants is a complex set of ritualised gestures. With these features in mind, it becomes easier to see how form and content are not merely in productive tensio n, but are virtually undone almost reversed by the portrait. Previously I identified the sadomasochistic couple as the content of the portrait, but the emphasis on performance, artifice and theatricality demonstrates that the term sadomasochistic couple is as much a formal trope enabling a reading of a situation as it is a pre-interpretive category with content. The viewer identifies Lyle Heeter and Brian Ridley as practitioners of sadomasochism not because their portrait contains sexual content, but because it trades in the signifying codes of the leather uniform. Brian Ridley and Lyle Heeter provides no evidence that its subjects participate in sadomasochistic acts; it reveals only that they understand how to participate in sadomasochistic signification. If this portrait were placed next to one of a gay male couple in jeans and t-shirts posed in their living room and another couple in biker gear in a fetish bar, the mobility of sadomasochistic couple as an interpretive grid would be much clearer. By the same token, the classical and mannered stylisation of the image is not merely the formal code by which this portrait has been organised; it is the very subject matter of the photograph. On the one hand, Heeter and Ridley, as a sadomasochistic couple, are irrelevant i.e. negated and transcended. They are little more than one possible signifier that enables a set of meanings and associations to attach to an image. Other visual and cultural incongruities could have been used to achieve the same kind of shock and disorientation. On the other hand, Ridley and Heeters identity as a sadomasochistic couple is absolutely essential to the image, not because it is at odds with the domestic setting of the portrait, but because sadomasochism as a highly theatrical, self-aware, ritualised mode of erotic behaviour fraught with its own contradictions and tensions provides the most useful set of signifying codes for exploring the formal concerns about self-stylisation with which the portrait engages. The theatricality of sadomasochis m, captured in a highly stylised portrait exposes the performance of masculinity that Heeter and Ridley and countless others are attempting. In this way that portraits iconography both participates in and potentially disrupts certain fantastic constructions of the masculine self. Sadomasochism, then, is a useful point of entry into Mapplethorpes larger body of work not only because it is the subject matter of a large number of his photographs or it is the subject matter that catapulted him to fame, but because sadomasochism as a practice is so directly parallel to the notions of theatrical self-presentation with which Mapplethorpes images deal. As noted previously, it is not only the thematic of the photographs that are important, but also how they train the viewer to see.

Crisis in Software Patents and Copyrights Essay -- Intellectual Proper

Crisis in Software Patents and Copyrights Introduction Gaining the knowledge and skills to provide computer technology products, services and software requires a significant amount investment of both time and money. The individuals who do such a work should receive financial rewards for their efforts. These rewards create an atmosphere of creativity and competitiveness that becomes a driving force of the economy of the world. The products of this creativity must therefore be protected and we call it intellectual property. Simply, intellectual property is a product of human intellect that has a commercial value. There are three major mechanisms that US law offers to protect software intellectual properties. These are trade secrets, copyrights and patents. Trade secrets have broad applicability to various subjects that can range from microprocessors to sorting algorithms. Trade secrets are valuable because they are separate from patents and copyrights, and even can be available when copyright or patent rights are not. The basic premises of trade secrets are satisfied when knowledge is kept in secret and not commonly known. Copyrights protect all types of original creative expressions that are produced by programmers. Copyright law does not protect the ideas and concepts underlying an expressive work. It only protects the literal form that the expressive work takes. Patent law gives the inventor of a new and non-obvious invention the exclusive right to use that invention for a limited term. Patent protection offers the broadest protection for technological industry. A software patent protects against unauthorized use or sale of software that is defined as an invention. In order to obtain a patent, the inventor is ... ...pers haunted by Patent madness† 5 The British philosopher who developed a duty-based ethical (deontological) theory 6 Arnold W.Bragg. Software Patents 7 National Research Council. The Digital Dilemma. References: Deborah G.Johnson and Helen Nissenbaum. Computers Ethical & Social Values Prentice-Hall, NJ, 1995 Kallman & Grillo. Ethical Decision Making and Information Technology, Mitchell McGraw-Hill, CA, 1993 National Research Council. The Digital Dilemma, National Academy Press, DC, 2000 Richard W.Severson. The principle of Information Ethics, M.E.Sharpe,Inc, 1997 IEEE Software. Karl Dakin, What if there is no software piracy? January 1997 IEEE Software. Gregory Ahoronian. Does the Patent Office respect the software community? July/August. 1999 IEEE IT Professional. Arnold W.Bragg. Software Patents. July/August 2001

Global Warming - We CAN Make a Difference Essay -- Greenhouse Gases Ef

Global Warming - We CAN Make a Difference What is global warming, and how is it affecting the Earth and its inhabitants? The greenhouse effect and global warming both correspond with each other. The green house effect is incoming solar radiation that passes through the Earth's atmosphere and heats the earths surface. It absorbed much of the outgoing infrared radiation re-radiated by the Earths surface. As they absorb the infrared the atmosphere becomes warmer. The gases key to this process are water vapor and carbon dioxide and methane. The natural greenhouse effect has kept the Earth's average surface temperature around 33 degrees Celsius, warmer than it would be if there were no atmosphere. The natural gases in the greenhouse effect are water vapor (H2O), carbon dioxide (CO2), ozone (O3), as well as other trace gases. Life could not exist if there was no natural greenhouse effect. The reason for the natural greenhouse effect is so that all the creatures living on Earth can live and breathe. The global warming refers to a long-term rise in the average temperature of the Earth. The greenhouse effect may be what is causing the temperature on the Earth to rise, and creating many problems that will begin to occur in the coming decades. What are potential consequences to high global air temperature? The warning will be the greatest at the higher latitudes of the Northern Hemisphere, with the largest temperature rises occurring in winter. Storms would become more severe all around the world. The Northern Hemisphere will dry out and a greater occurrence of lightning strikes will set massive forest fires. The burning of the Earth by natural and man-made forest fires will release large quantities of carbon dioxide into ... ...ler, Mercedes and Honda are working on hybrid cars that use two engines, one electric and the other gas-powered. They successfully combine the speed and range of a gas-fueled car with the eco-friendly benefits of an electric one. Plant materials and animal waste is being used to produce cleaner fuels such as ethanol and methanol. In addition to sugars and corn kernels new woods and grasses are being grown to produce alcohol fuels. Municipal solid waste is already being drilled to collect methane. The methane can then be gasified to produce clean-burning hydrogen, or fermented into ethanol. All of these things together can make a huge impact on our Earth and our atmosphere. I think that man is the primary cause of global warming and we can do something about it. But if we continue to live as we do now, there could be major consequences to suffer in the future.

Latin History

MEXICO ECONOMY Mexico is located in North America and known as United Mexican States. It consists of thirty-one states and a federal district with the capital of Mexico City. It is most populous city in the Earth. The GDP is $1.149 trillion and per capital income is $11,249. the income per capita is $7.310. It is 12th largest economy in the world as measured in Gross Domestic product. The GDP real growth rate is 4.8%. The average annual GDP growth during 1972 to 1981 was 5.5% whereas during 1981-1986 it was only 1.5%. The GDP’s main share is from services 69.4% and the industry captured 26.7%. From Agriculture it is only 3.9%.   The public debt is 23.3% of GDP. Mexico is highly dependent on exports to the United States. The quarter share of the country’s GDP is based on the exports to the United States. Hence the Mexican economy is strongly linked with the U.S. business. The 1994-year is Mexico’s bad year. Of course it starts with acceptance of NAFTA in the year beginning with United States and Canada and ends with dark Christmas with peso devaluation. During the year there are many political problems like Chiapas rebellion, assignations of political leaders. There was such situation the Mexico attacked with the crisis during 1982 and it got recovered by 7 years whereas during 1994 peso devaluation, it takes for 7 months only to get recovery.   During December 19, 1994, the exchange rate is 3.50 pesos per dollar. The consumer demand for goods collapsed. The Mexican interest rate on loans dramatically increased creating a shock in the banking system. Some businesses closed due to increase of market share. The exports increased with high exchange rate TRADE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN MEXICO AND UNITED STATES 90% of Mexican trade has been put under free trade agreements with over 40 countries. The North American Free Trade Agreement is significant in this regard. 9% of Mexican exports go to the United States and Canada. And imports recognized 65% from these two countries. The exports to Untied States are 88.4% and imports from United States are 68.4%. Mexico is dependent on trade with United States. The U.S. exports to Mexico include electronic equipment, motor vehicle parts and chemicals and in case of Mexican exports to the United States are Petroleum, cars and electronic equipment. Mexico depends more than on U.S. economy whether it may be good or bad. The NAFTA relation between U.S and Mexico completed more than 10 years. Of course, after the peso devaluation, the Mexico economy become stable, perhaps the United States plays major role. Initially, there was a free trade agreement between Canada and United States called Free Trade Agreement during 1988. Thereafter it was included Mexico and fresh agreement is established in the name of NAFTA. It is trilateral agreement. It is an agreement among the United States, Canada and Mexico. The agreement indicates elimination of tariffs of the produced traded in the respective nations i.e. United States, Canada and Mexico. It is planned to phase out tariffs over a period 15 years. Besides the restrictions were said to be removed from many categories, which includes motor vehicles, computers, textiles and agriculture. MEXICO POLITICAL The type of government is Federal republic. Representing political parties are Institutional Revolutionary Party, National Action Party, Party of the Democratic Revolution, Green Ecological Party, Labor party and several small parties. The politics of Mexico are dominated by the three political parties in Mexico i.e. National Action Party (PAN), Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD) and the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI). The recent federal presidential elections were held on July 2, 2006. President Zedillo and president Fox continued with trade liberalization and several FTAs were signed with Latin American and European countries. Thus Mexico became one of the most open countries in the world of trade. Most Important reform during President Fox period is implementation of Freedom of Information laws. With this effect Mexico City and 26 states supposed to fight against corruption. Hence Mexico becomes international model by usage of FOIA laws and enforcement mechanisms. REFERENE: https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/mx.html http://countrystudies.us/mexico/65.htm http://web.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/COUNTRIES/0,,pagePK:180619~theSitePK:136917,00.html http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/bgn/35749.htm   

Domestic Violence Speech Essay

Domestic violence is the leading cause of injury to women—more than car accidents, muggings, and rapes combined. The CDC reports that 15 million children are abused every year. Recently, the NFL has been under a lot of scrutiny for their domestic violence policy. There are as many opinions as there are teams on how they should react. To me, that is the problem. See, reaction means to have an action performed in response to a situation. However, action stands for the fact or process of doing something, typically to achieve an aim. The NFL, NBA, MLB and all other pro sport leagues need to band together and set the example. Say they will no longer tolerate violence against women. After all, pro athletes are role models for our youth. How they behave on and off the field can make a difference. However, domestic violence is much bigger than pro sports. We just seem to talk about it more when a pro athlete is involved. Statics show that men who as children witnessed their parents’ domestic violence were twice more likely to abuse their own wives than sons of nonviolent parents and girls who witnessed domestic violence were 50% more likely to be abused as women. The most common reaction people have on domestic violence is to ask â€Å"why does they stay? They do not believe they are abused. They are made to believe they caused it. They are too afraid. Yet you still ask, why do they stay? It is extremely dangerous to leave an abuser, because the final step in a domestic violence pattern is to kill her. Over 70% of domestic violence murders happen after the victim as ended the relationship, after she has gotten out. Because then the abuser has nothing left to lose. Other outcomes include long term stalking, even after the abuser remarries. Denial of financial resources, and manipulation of the family court systems to terrify the victim and her children, who are regularly forced by family court judges to spend unsupervised time with the man who beat their mother. And still we ask, why doesn’t she just leave? We tend to stereotype victims as self-destructive women, or damaged goods. The question, why does she stay is code for some people for, it’s her fault for staying. As if victims intentionally chose to fall in love with men who are intent on destroying them. Maybe the better question is â€Å"why does the abuser do it?† rather than â€Å"why does she stay?† Instead of blaming the victim of the abuse, let’s turn our attention towards the person who is causing the harm. As a society, we can no longer stand by and let these victims continue the cycle. We have to find a way to break it. I would love to say it starts at home, but that is where the abuse is, so the schools have to take a larger role in this problem. We teach our children math, reading and science, but how about relationship skills. Our schools need to help educate our children that violence will not be tolerated. If we want to attack this problem, we need to teach how to be respectful in relationships. We need to do more to decrease the abuse that happens not just the physical abuse, but all abuse. Maybe you are thinking, wow this is fascinating, but this whole time I have been talking to you about it there have been 24 victims a minute beaten. A woman or child has died. I promise you, there are several of you listening to me right now who are currently being abused or know someone who is being abused, or maybe were abused as children, or are the abusers. Abuse could be affecting your sister, cousin, or friend right now. So what are you going to do? Conclusion Domestic violence thrives when we are silent. But if we take a stand and work together, we can end domestic violence. We can end it by telling our friends and family that we will not tolerate domestic violence and by asking them to take a stand with us. We can end it by supporting the programs and shelters that provide refuge and safety for hundreds of thousands of survivors every year. We can end it by ensuring that our communities hold abusers accountable for their actions. Join the National Network to End Domestic Violence and help raise awareness. Together, we can make a difference. Say NO MORE!!