Reflection Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 43

Reflection - Essay Example This is particularly so in the sense that the film lacks formal play and obstacles. On the other hand, the Antichrist clarifies the fact that von Trier is not as renowned as he appears to be. This is majorly because some years back he came up with a film that involved Satan creating the world, but his idea eventually melted away. Definitely, certain elements of the film had characteristic forest-like creatures that made the movie both weird and scary. When it comes to the movie The Ballet Dancer  (1911), Jean seduces Camilla when she comes to sing in soirà ©e. Surprisingly, jean is having another affair with another man’s wife. Fundamentally, the whole scene is commenced by Simon, who is a major character in the film. Since the mirror lies in the upper part of the frame Camilla manages to get out of the frame before coming to the center of the shooting area. After a short while, the hostel leaves the frame before Camilla follows with a song. From a distance in the mirror, one can easily notice Jean extending a kiss to the hostess. It is evident that Lars Von’s desire to create films is unending and he continues to produce even more films including leading the Dogme 95 movement. Currently, he wants to find more about the shooting of his films and the viewership in terms of the level of enjoyment. Perhaps this will help him identify and improve on the imperfections so that his films are unrivalled in the entertainment and film industry. For instance, Lars Von makes great improvement in the movie the Boss of It All. He does this by incorporating a control technique that gives his camera anew dimension. This technique is known as automavision and has worked perfectly well so far. Additionally, Von Trier uses theatrical technique when it comes to engaging with the viewers. This is especially so in that the use of backdrops and transparent scenery is very common in the movie. This

Job - Specific Orientation Plan (Care Giver) Essay

Job - Specific Orientation Plan (Care Giver) - Essay Example The Plan The first step during the orientation shall involve provision of the employees with a handout; this document shall include all the fundamental knowledge that shall guide the new employees during the orientation. The handout shall cover specifically; basic instructions that the new employee shall be required to acquaint her/him with. Additionally, within the handout there shall be information concerning time schedule of the orientation: That is, time allocated for each activity of the orientation process. Consequently, the handout shall provide the employee with the knowledge on who is responsible for provision of guidance during the orientation. Informative notes on a variety of pertinent topics relating to the job shall be included in the handout in order to facilitate the orientation process. The information contained in the handout shall be arranged I respect to each orientation activity and shall be followed strictly. This will ensure that time is not wasted due to confu sions on which program should be covered. In order to ensure that the employees are equipped with all the necessary knowledge concerning the job, they shall be provided with reference documents. This shall act as the employee handbook. It shall contain information concerning the definition as well as description of the employment status of the new job. Additionally, this document shall contain information concerning the employee’s code of conduct: Service and patient’s concerns, how to handle confidential data, integrity of records and reporting mechanisms. The reference document shall also provide the employee with data related to benefits (workers compensation). Further information shall be provided on the reference document concerning hours of work such as; reporting time and leaving time, absenteeism and specific time to conduct a particular duty. Other information that shall be included in the reference document is: Dress code, punctuality,

The Representation Of Black Identity in Films

The Representation Of Black Identity in Films The debates over race and representation of African American in films have been highly contentious for over a century. Blacks have generally been perceived and stigmatized, throughout history, as trouble makers, incapables, intellectually limited, inferior, lazy and irrational, amongst the many other demeaning labels attached to them. These labels are connected not only to the history of colonization but also, importantly, to the exploitation, perpetuation, and careful maintenance of stereotypes through cinematic clichà ©s which have imposed themselves easily and significantly on the popular imagination. As rightly stated by Wijdan Ali, the projection of harmful and negative stereotypes onto marginal or ineffectual groups within a society has always been an easy and useful method for making scapegoats.  [1]  Effectively, films form the ideal platform/space to circularize and preserve the labels which the mainstream audience desires to attach to the black community. Five decades of the Civil Rights Movement have gone by, and the degree of change in the black community, though undeniably real and noticeable, remains perplexingly complex and inadequate. Although the fact that we now live in a time in history where Americans have voted for a black President, where blacks now occupy positions of power and are ostensibly less subject to institutional discrimination than in the past, the black community nevertheless remains inadequately poor, unemployed, undereducated and negatively labeled. Therefore, adopting a writing-back style in Bamboozled (2000), Spike Lee satirically attacks the way in which African Americans have historically been misused and misrepresented on screen. Through Bamboozled (2000), the director attempts both to entertain and to educate his audience about the history of African American representation within popular culture, with the word bamboozled itself indicating the state of having been cheated or conned. Bamboozled (2000) presents American mass entertainments history of discrimination through abasing minstrel stereotypes, which first started to be performed in musical theatres and which were later brought to cinema with films such as The Wooing and Wedding of a Coon (1905), The Sambo Series (1909- 1911) and D.W Griffiths controversial The Birth of a Nation( 1915). Consequently, the purpose of this study is to analyze both the African American evolution in the American film industry and the social construction of black identity through symbolic representation in cinema. These will in turn help to understand why the integration of African Americans is considered as a problematic issue even in a sophisticated era where racism seems to be a thing of the past, and where people are supposedly no longer judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.  [2]  This paper will also analyze the effect of stereotypes on black identity using Spike Lees film, and will explore the impact of such a film in the deconstruction of stereotypes and the renegotiation of a stigmatized identity. But before getting to what Bamboozled (2000) actually brings to the table of African American films, it is important to look at the history and evolution of black representation in Hollywood cinema, which the following paragraphs are going to deal with. African American in American Films: A Brief Retrospective African Americans first started to be represented in minstrel shows in the late 1820s and later on television in the early 20th century.  [3]  Through blackface minstrelsy, a performance style where white males parodied the culture, clothing, songs, dances and speech patterns of Southern blacks  [4]  using blackface makeup and exaggerated lips, Americas conceptions of blackness and whiteness were shaped by these mocking caricatures. While whiteness was posited as the norm, every black face was a statement of social imperfection, inferiority, and mimicry that [was] placed in isolation with an absent whiteness as its ideal opposite.  [5]  Consequently, for over a hundred years, the belief that blacks were racially and socially inferior to whites was ingrained and accepted by legions of both white and black minstrel performers and audiences. The caricatures took such a firm hold on the American imagination that audiences naturally came to expect any person with dark skin, ir respective of his/ her background, to conform to one or more of the following stereotypes; Jim Crow, a dull-witted and subservient plantation slave; Zip Coon, a gaudily dressed, lazy man from the city representing the proud newly- freed slave; Mammy, the contended, happy, loyal and ever-smiling female slave (as evidence of the supposed humanity of the institution of slavery,); Uncle Tom, the good Negro; submissive, hearty, faithful no matter what, stoic, selfless, and oh-so-very-kind,  [6]  Buck, the proud and menacing Black man always interested in white women; Wench/ Jezebel, the temptress; the mixed race Mulatto and Pickaninnies, who have bulging eyes, unkempt hair, red lips and wide mouths into which they stuff huge slices of watermelon.  [7]   As time moved on, black appearance in mainstream films became more and more frequent, as well as the increase in the number of independent black directors, from Oscar Micheaux to Daniel Lee and Spike Lee. Since The Birth of a Nation, which marked a change in emphasis from the pretentious but harmless Jim Crow to the threatening savage Nigger, black filmmakers have responded by creating race movies and blaxploitation films which were tailored to black audiences . The 1970s witnessed a resurgence of the blaxploitation genre with films such as Sweet Sweetbacks Baadassss Song (1971), Shaft (1971), Black Caesar (1973) and Foxy Brown (1974). Since such films were themselves in turn accused of using the negative to hyperbolize issues pertaining to blacks , this genre saw its end in the late 1970s to give way to a new wave of black directors, such as S. Lee and John Singleton, who focused on black urban life. However, we cannot afford to simply celebrate the achievements of black filmmakers for the so-called ethnic arts. And as Stuart Hall remarks, we have come out of the age of innocence, which says that its good if its there.  [8]  The mere fact that such films have had a considerable increase does not mean that the black self is undergoing a positive change although it may be true that the level of clear-cut racism has known an important decrease, or even a disappearance. This can be backed up by Appiahs statement that changes in the representation of blacks do not ipso facto lead to changes in their treatment.  [9]   In Bamboozled (2000), Spike Lee directly addresses this issue of African American representability as being a discourse of white essentialism. Through Bamboozled (2000) the director invites his audience to realize that although nobody goes around in blackface anymore,  [10]  it does not entail that Hollywood has altogether abandoned/given up essentialist discourse. The name of the blackface show in Bamboozled (2000) is in itself very symbolic; Mantan: The New Millennium Minstrel Show. Here, Lee suggests that minstrelsy has not disappeared in the new millennium. In his own words therefore, it has only gotten more sophisticated. Gangsta rap videos, a lot of the TV shows on UPN and WB- a lot of us are still acting as buffoons and coons.  [11]  Clearly, his aim in this satirical film is to show that even today, the American film industry is still concealing essentialist discourses within contemporary films. Consequently, as essentialism involves ongoing human and social interacti on as well as limitation, identity regulation and enforcement takes place within this kind of racist discourse, whereby blacks have to undergo identity dilemma while trying to seek approval. Appiah, K. A. (1993). No Bad Nigger: Blacks as the Ethical Principle in the Movies. In: Garber, M, Matlock, J and Walcowitz, R, L Media Spectacles. New York: Routledge. 77-90. Bogle, D. (2001). Black Beginnings: From Uncle Toms Cabin to The Birth of a Nation. In: Bogle, D Toms, Coons, Mulattoes, Mammies and Bucks: An Interpretive History of Blacks in American Films . 4th ed. London: The Continuum International Publishing Group Inc. p1-18. Crowdus, G. and Georakas, D. (2002). An Interview with Spike Lee. In: Cynthia Fuchs Spike Lee: Interviews. United States of America: University Press of Mississippi. 202-217. Mercer, K. (1994). Diaspora Culture And The Dialogic Imagination: The Aesthetics Of Black Independent Film In Britain. In: Mercer, K Welcome to the Jungle: New Positions in Black Cultural Studies. New York: Routledge. 53-68. Wijdan, A. (2003). Muslim Women: Between Clichà © and Reality. Diogenes. 50 (3), 77-87.

Pollution and Environment Essay - Man Must Dominate Nature and the Envi

Man Must Dominate Nature and the Environment      Ã‚   How shall we deal with the environment? is an ethical question much discussed, but rarely answered with any well-thought-out justifications. Rather, individuals attempting to answer it have often made claims stating that certain things are "obvious." In this paper, I intend to analyze one of these ethical principles which is considered to be inherently obvious. For every culture has regarded certain things as "obvious" and needing no further explanation -- and every culture differs vastly on what it considers to be an "obvious truth." Thus, it seems that these "truths" are not, in themselves, "obvious." Rather, they require further scrutiny to determine their validity. Hence, in this paper I analyze a common environmental claim: "Everything natural has inherent value, and we should respect its right to exist." This paper is not meant to be a complete examination of environmental ethics; that would be beyond its scope. This question, however, lies at the heart of environmenta l ethics, and is certainly worth exploring.    Must we go through life refusing to do harm to any other natural entity, "living in harmony" with it, or "respecting its rights?" Or, if it is not true that we must, is it true that we should? In "Environmental Ethics," Barbara MacKinnon explains that ecocentrists believe "that we ought ... to regard nature with admiration and respect, because of their view that nature and natural beings have intrinsic value." (MacKinnon 327) MacKinnon also states that "ethical questions ... become matters of determining what is in the best interests of these life forms or what furthers or contributes to, or is a satisfactory fit with, some ecosystem." (MacKinnon 326)... ...n as the dominant species on the planet; moreover, it provides another explanation of why the proper concern of humankind is humankind, rather than an ecosystem or "life as a whole." If we are to remain a strong, healthy species, capable of employing the power of becoming everything that we can become, we must continue to see humanity as our own proper study.    Works Cited: MacKinnon, Barbara. "Environmental Ethics" in Ethics: Theory and Contemporary Issues, Second Edition. Ed Barbara MacKinnon. Albany: Belmont, 1998. Morris, Desmond. The Naked Ape. New York: Dell, 1967. Nietzsche, Friederich. Beyond Good and Evil. Trans. Walter Kaufmann. New York: Vintage, 1966. Nietzsche, Friederich. Thus Spoke Zarathustra in The Portable Nietzsche. Ed. and Trans. Walter Kaufmann. New York: Viking, 1954. Voltaire. Candide. New York: Dover, 1991.   

Looking for Alaska – Miles’ Eulogy

Looking For Alaska Book Report – Eulogy Hello everyone. I would like to thank you all for coming to honor our friend, Alaska Young. I am Miles Halter, known to most as Pudge. I transferred to Culver Creek Boarding School from Florida to ‘seek a Great Perhaps’, to leave behind the insignificant things I was doing, to seek something that was perhaps greater. I collect people’s dying words and â€Å"I go to seek a Great Perhaps†, were the last words of Francois Rabelais, but unlike him, I did not want to wait to die to start seeking it. This school has given me very many of my firsts: first friend, first dose of mischief and the first and last girl. Alaska was the most enigmatic and mysterious person I have ever met. Every element of her being fascinated me, from her smell of cigarettes, vanilla and sweat, her creativity when planning pranks on our headmaster, her surprising ability to succeed in pre–calculus, and her obsession with strawberry wine, which we had to drink in secrecy. The first time I had a real conversation with her she told me the last words of Simon Bolivar, which I had never heard before â€Å"Damn it, how will I ever get out of this labyrinth! When I asked her what the labyrinth was, she told me that that was the mystery. Is the labyrinth living or dying? Are we all trying to escape the world, or the end of it? This quote completely juxtaposes my Great Perhaps, I looked to seek and she looked to escape. After she died I found a note in one of her books in her ‘life long library†™, a collection of books that she had bought from garage sales that she had been accumulating ever since she was young. She had written that the only way out of the labyrinth was straight and fast. Alaska taught me to live in the moment and not to plan ahead. She said â€Å"Imagining the future is a kind of nostalgia, you spend your whole life stuck in the labyrinth thinking about how you’ll escape it one day, and how awesome it will be, and imagining the future keeps you going, but you never do it. You just use the future to escape the present. † (John Green, Looking For Alaska) I know people have whispered among themselves wondering whether Alaska’s death was a suicide or a pure accident. I have been wondering the same. People who do not know Alaska may see her death as selfish, seeing the people close to her terribly heart broken. I have to clear her name. When Alaska was 8 years old, she watched her mother having a seizure and pass away. Alaska was frozen in fear and did not call 911 and she never forgave herself. The day Alaska died, was the anniversary of her mother’s birthday. Alaska had been drinking and I remember her waking up in the middle of the night cursing and crying, telling us that we had to distract our headmaster so she could drive to her mother’s grave. She crashed into a truck on her way without any attempt to turn the car. I realize now the labyrinth was not life or death, it was suffering, doing wrong and having wrong things happen to you. How do you get out of the labyrinth of suffering? Alaska chose straight and fast, whether it was on purpose or not. I knew Alaska for one hundred and thirty – six days, but I do not think anyone truly knew her. Her death threw me into the realization that I have always been trapped in a labyrinth of suffering. Before I got to this point, I thought for a long time that the way out of the labyrinth was to pretend it did not exist, but to build a small, self – sufficient world in the back corner of the endless maze to pretend that I was not lost, but home. I hated Alaska and I hated everything for a while after she was gone. I hated myself for being a coward and not stopping her from leaving that night. It all just felt so terribly unfair, all of it, the inarguable injustice of loving someone who might have loved you back, but can not due to deadness. I loved Alaska because she showed me both my labyrinth and my Great Perhaps – she had proved to me that it was worth it to leave my minor life for grander maybes, and now she is gone and with her my faith in perhaps. Alaska is still teaching me a lesson; the only way out of the labyrinth is to forgive. I wish Alaska had realized this too before it had to end this way. Her mother forgave her; just as I am sure Alaska forgives all of us now. You see â€Å"we are all going, nothing can last, not even the earth itself. (John Green, Looking For Alaska) The Buddha said that suffering was caused by desire, and that the cessation of desire meant the cessation of suffering. So when you stopped wishing things would not fall apart, you would stop suffering when they did. So Alaska, I have some last words for you, Thomas Edison’s, â€Å"It’s very beautiful over there. † I do not know where there is, but I believe it is somewhere and I hope it is beautiful. After all of this I will learn no more last words because I know so many, but I will never know hers.

An Examination of the Power of the Dark Side

Entrepreneurship does have a Dark Side and It Is powerful, Indeed. With rare exceptions, the literature about entrepreneurship Is positive and supportive and implies that uniform benefits accrue to the economy, to businesses, and to individuals as a result of entrepreneurship. This is only half the story. A small number of researchers have examined the dysfunctional aspects of entrepreneurship and pointed out that a Dark Side definitely exists (Sets De Varies, 1985; Solomon & Winslow, 988; Winslow & Solomon, 1987; 1989).This paper will look at those who turned to the Dark Side for their very existence. The authors have surveyed prisoners who have been convicted of a felony and who are serving sentences In a Federal Prison in the Midwest. The participants were enrolled In a continuing education course Involving entrepreneurship and small business startup Ideas and they all espoused a desire to â€Å"go straight† when their sentences had been served. How did they become criminal s? Did they view their criminal satellites as entrepreneurial ventures? Will they become legitimate entrepreneurs in the future?Can entrepreneurship education alleviate the problems faced by these offenders when released and is there a greater or lesser chance of acidifies when these inmates are given the opportunity to study entrepreneurship while still incarcerated? If they exist, are Dark Side Entrepreneurs different from main stream Entrepreneurs? These were the questions which drove our research. A major problem facing society today Is the Impact that the growing number of inmates serving sentences have on the economic vitality of our nation.The problem has been exacerbated because our Jails are not only filled with first time-offenders but with a large population of repeat offenders, those returned to prison because nee were unmade to malting a crime-Tree Testily rater Deluge released. According to the Bureau of Justice (2000), in the United States released prisoners were re-a rrested at an average rate that was greater than 60%. The high percentage of re-arrested former prisoners is a clear indication that Just serving one's sentence is not a deterrent to committing more criminal acts.The economic cost to society and to those directly affected by criminal activity is tremendous. According to the Bureau of Justice (2000), one of every fifteen people in the U. S. Will be incarcerated. That figure is staggering. During the past 25 years, the penal system in the United States has implemented a strategy of â€Å"lock ‘me up and throw away the key. † As a result, there has been an unprecedented growth in the prison population in the number of incarcerated inmates even though the crime rate has been decreasing.Further exacerbating the situation is that incredibly high rate of recidivism. According to the Three State Recidivism Study (Stouter, Smith, and Tracy, 2001) released inmates reported that less than half had a Job awaiting them after they we re freed from prison. While most (about 87% of those who had received training hill in prison and 83% of those who did not participate in training) believed that they had a place to stay after they were released, the remainder were released as homeless, left to roam the streets, mostly in urban areas.The economic cost of incarceration and the cost to society of criminal activity, plus the lost wages due to imprisonment of convicted workers and the cost of providing welfare for their families is creating a substantial burden on local, state and federal budgets. The combination of rising costs multiplied by an ever greater number of incarcerated inmates is putting pressure on the penal system to find an alternative, deter strategy for success after release. Is there a strategy that can lead to a lower prisoner population through a decrease in recidivism?

Independence essays

Independence essays A democracy is a system of government controlled by the people, not by one certain group or individual. In the Declaration of Independence it states that all men are created equal, an idea which leads to the concept that all citizens should have the same rights, responsibilities, and influence in the governing of their country. The philosophy of the Declaration of Independence in writing by Thomas Jefferson was trying to break his ties with the harsh and non-democratic rule of the British and begin a new, equal society and government for America. The Declarations statement of equality and unalienable rights is very closely connected to the idea of democracy. To have a democracy that works well you must have equality between people, and the citizens must feel that the government represents their concerns. By eliminating the control of a monarchy, Jefferson envisioned a country where all men would have the opportunity to control their own destinies. Jefferson foresaw a government where individual rights would be recognized and the new government would represent the interests of all its citizens. In a democracy all these are possible to achieve. By writing this document, Thomas Jefferson was trying to separate himself and the great country he lived in from the unfair and controlling British. He believed that it was time for America to break away from Britains rule and become its own nation, which could govern itself. To do this he had to write powerful statement and it was the Declaration of Independence. Jefferson felt that Britain was doing nothing but hurting America with unfair rules and all sorts of ridiculous taxes. The colonies and colonists had no rights in determining the very laws which dictated the way they led their lives. The Declaration of Independence was a formal document stating that the people of America were breaking away from Britain and that the American colonies were now Free ...