Malcolm X Essays (617 words) - African-American Muslims,

Malcolm X I read an excerpt from the book, The Autobiography of Malcolm X, by Malcolm X and Alex Haley. In this part of the book Malcolm discusses his quest for knowledge. He starts off by telling us about how he wrote his Harlem, hustler friends and told them all about Allah and Mr. Elijah Muhammad, the two main figures in the Islam religion. He never got a single reply and figured it was because the average hustler and criminal couldnt read. He also thought that maybe they thought he had gone crazy, because after all he was writing them about the devil; the white devil. Maybe his letters never even got there. White men, men who might have just thrown the letters out, censored all of his mail. However, no one ever said anything to him about them or ever treated him differently because of it. As Malcolm X be3gan to write more letters to a wide variety of people he became frustrated with the fact that he could not communicate with them as he wanted to. It was because of these letters that I happened to stumble upon starting to acquire some kind of homemade education. He hated it because he had been the most articulate hustler on the streets of Harlem, and could get anyones attention with his words. He was admired for the eloquent words he spoke and was not used to being ignored. For now even the simplest English was hard for him to write. His quest for an education had begun, but it would be a long one. He decries how it all really began while he was being held at the Charlestown Prison. Bimbi, a fellow prisoner, was very intelligent and Malcolm envied his gift. Bimbi encouraged him to read and Malcolm would try but would end up quitting because he would skip the words he didnt know and keep reading. The problem with this was that he could never fully understand what he was reading and would put the book down. So he decided that he needed to learn how to read and write properly. He decided that the best way to go about it would be to get a hold of a copy of a dictionary and study it. He requested a dictionary, some pencils and some pads of paper. When he first got the book he spent a while just looking through it wondering where to start. He decided that the best place to start would be with the As. So he just started copying. He copied every word and punctuation mark on the first page. It took him the entire day, and when he finished he read aloud what he had written over and over again. The next day he woke up thinking about the words that he had written and to his surprise he even remembered what some of them meant. So he went back over the list again until he knew what every word meant. He was so fascinated that he copied the next page and had the same experience when he woke up the next morning and reviewed them. He eventually copied the entire dictionary while he was in prison. As his word-base broadened he was able to pick up a book and read it all the way through. Being able to do his made him feel important and smart. He became so good at reading that he spent all of his free time reading, and because of this his time in jail went by quickly. In fact, up to then, I never had been so truly free in my life. English Essays

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none1 essays Introduction Hyper inflation has plagued most of the worlds developing countries over the past decades. Countries in the industrialised world, too, have at times duelled with dangerously high inflation rates in the post WWII era. With varying degrees of success, all have employed great efforts to bring their inflation rates within acceptable limits. Generally, a moderate rate of inflation has been the ultimate goal. More recently, however, a few countries have pursued policies that strive to eradicate inflation altogether through complete price stability. This has proven to be a contentious enterprise, which clearly indicates that there is still no universally accepted solution to the inflation problem. Indeed, there is not even an agreed consensus regarding the source of inflation itself. The monetarist perception that the root of inflation is solely the excessive creation of money remains. So too does the belief that inflation originates in the labour market. And amongst a variety of others, the opinion that inflation serves the critical social purpose of resolving incompatible demands by different groups is also strong. This last, and more widely accepted, case shows that the problem is hardly a technical one; but rather a political one. It highlights the now unquestionable fact that politics and inflation are inextricably linked. And as with all inherently political issues, consensus is difficult, if not impossible, to achieve. But, political characteristics do provide flexibility. In some countries, high rates of inflation have clearly been compatible with rapid economic growth and fast rising standards of living. In such cases, it is quite reasonable to suggest that higher rates of inflation are acceptableperhaps even necessary. In this setting, it is by no means clear that pursing a policy to stop moderate inflation is either required, or in the best interests of the mass of the population at all. While infla...

Welfare, a Broken System Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Welfare, a Broken System - Essay Example This essay discusses that the policy of most states, given their new discretionary powers, is and will continue to be to ‘persuade’ women off welfare roles and to work outside of the home, many times well outside the home, with no regard as to their families’ needs. Because of federal budgetary constraints, the safety net of welfare benefits and programs such as Medicare that assist impoverished children is expected to diminish. The welfare system as it stands today is lacking in resources and innovative methods by which to alleviate child poverty despite the extensive welfare restructuring in the U.S. and its continued expansion. It would be a gross understatement to declare that the U.S. welfare system does not compare to European countries. Most countries in Europe have opposing views to those in the U.S. regarding the virtues of a comprehensive welfare system. The U.S. version of welfare largely subsists in the temporary benefits provided to a fraction of the most impoverished of families. Other monetary benefits to families are practically nonexistent. By contrast, in Sweden and Germany for example, benefits are made available to all citizens regardless of earnings. It is a cruel irony. The U.S. is the most powerful economic society in the history of the world yet is not willing to ease the miseries of those in desperate poverty residing within its own borders. European countries that have had their economies decimated by two world wars over the last hundred years yet still take care of their own.

The Problem of Moral Judgment Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

The Problem of Moral Judgment - Essay Example It is reality beyond suspicion that every political establishment and social set up observes some specific code of law that permits or prohibits the actions of the people, violation of which declares the law breakers as offenders and punishment and penalties are inflicted upon them. Nevertheless, moral values maintain imperative worth everywhere in the world and no society can do away without moral values altogether. Consequently, moral judgment has been debatable subject for theorists, scholars, intellectuals and philosophers since ever. The theorists are in conflict regarding the evaluation of moral judgment. One group of the scholars, led by Sir Bertrand Russell, views moral judgment as entirely the outcome of one’s personal opinion about the goodness or evil of an action i.e. subjectivism, while the other school of thought, led by Blanchard, views moral judgment to be based on objectivism, where it is estimated on the foundation of universal morality and truthfulness, and thus it has no relation with the personal yardstick to measure whether an act or intention is virtue and right or vice and wrong. Hence, conflict of opinion makes moral judgment a problem to be solved in an intellectual manner. Renowned philosopher Ewing is an arch supporter of the idea of objectivism. He is of the opinion that a person cannot be wrong in making statement regarding moral judgment, and thus his views are valid and accurate that must be accepted to be true and apposite one. Moral judgment is a complex phenomenon; consequently it cannot be made by everyone without analyzing the available facts and figures. On the contrary, scholars and intellectuals endorse their statements to accept or reject its validity. No Continuity/Unity to Subjective Agreements: Ewing has explained his argument in six points in favor of the opinion he has made while defining moral judgment, where he submits to state that it seldom occurs in real life while

Stats Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Stats - Essay Example The median age of the buyer is 46 years and the middle half of the buyer’s age is in-between 40 years and 52.25 years (interquartile range = 12.25 years). The minimum and maximum age of the buyers are 21 years and 73 years, respectively. There are 4 mild outliers (21, 72, 72, and 73 years) in the data, as one buyer age is under 21.6 years (below the lower inner fence) and three buyers age is above 70.6 years (above the upper inner fence). There are no extreme outliers in the data. b. As shown in the scatter diagram depicting the relationship between vehicle profits and age of the buyer, there appears a positive linear relationship between vehicle profits and age of the buyer. The profits on vehicles for younger buyers are less as compared to the profits on vehicles for older buyers. Thus, Applewood Auto Group’s marketing departments belief that younger buyers purchase vehicles on which lower profits are earned and the older buyers purchase vehicles on which higher profits are earned is correct. d. Based on the above analysis, the Applewood Auto Group should go ahead with the advertising campaign as planned. The correlation coefficient value of 0.262 suggests that there is a weak positive linear relationship between vehicle profits and age of the buyer. The coefficient of determination value of 0.068 indicates that buyer’s age explains about 6.8% variation in vehicle profit. Thus, the buyer’s age has a small effect on vehicle profit. However, since, the sample size is very large (n = 180), this relationship is statistically significant. Therefore, the Applewood Auto Group’s marketing department should use this information as part of an upcoming advertising campaign to try to attract older buyers on which the profits tend to be higher. As shown in figure 1, there appears an increasing trend in house prices in the UK, London and North East from 1986 until 2013. In the year 1986, the average house price in the London, North East and UK were

The Success of the First Crusade

The Success of the First Crusade The first crusade was a military expedition by European Christians to regain the holy lands and occurred in 1095. It was viewed as an unprecedented success by historians of the day and by contemporary historians. The reasons for this great success, if it can be named great at all, are numerous. From Pope Urban IIs fiery call to arms at the Council of Clermont, to the lack of preparation from the Turks, there are many reasons for this success. Indeed the extreme faith displayed by the crusaders, the quality of their leaders, and the allies which they gained during their extensive journey were further factors which contributed to their success. After receiving the call for military aid from Alexius I, the Byzantine Emperor in 1095, Pope Urban II seized upon this opportunity for him to renew Papal control and influence in the east and to reunite the churches of Rome and Constantinople. Through his highly charismatic sermon given on 27th November 1095 at the Council of Clermont, Urban was able to arouse enthusiasm from the clergy and nobles present for a Holy War on the Muslims in the east. They then went out to their diocese and spread the command of a call to arms from God. This call to arms created a huge influx of people from all works of life and they were all keen to embark on this pilgrimage to the holy land. This was a good thing as more people would mean a larger army for which to defeat the Muslims with. However a lot of people who showed enthusiasm for this pilgrimage were not knights or trained soldiers but were ordinary men, women and children, and so they can be seen as more of a hindrance than of help. On the o ther hand, by there being women, usually wives, on the journey they would have undoubtedly helped the men on this hazardous journey by providing them with the necessary motivation needed to complete this pilgrimage. However the crusaders did not answer the call for arms from Pope Urban likely; they knew that it would be an arduous journey. But for most it was their undoubted faith which made them embark on this journey and it was faith which was a key factor that carried them to Jerusalem. Until recently it has been thought that one of the main motives for people embarking on the crusade was power and profit which could be gained in the supposedly lucrative east. But contemporary historians now believe that a lot of the crusaders were just devout Christians and wished to secure their place in heaven which the Pope had stated would happen if they liberated Jerusalem from the infidel. Faith is a powerful tool; it can make people push beyond their limits and to achieve unattainable goals, as is stated by Setton and Baldwin ‘without zeal and a burning faith it could never have been achieved and hence it was definitely a positive factor in helping the success of the crusaders. The crusaders wer e from all different parts of Europe and spoke many different languages. It was their belief in achieving the one aim of capturing Jerusalem that made them work effectively together as a fighting force. This can be seen when the crusaders captured Antioch. As soon as they captured Antioch, after a gruelling siege of seven months, the crusaders themselves were besieged by an army of Kerbogha of Mosuls. The crusaders were hungry and tired. Furthermore their morale was dangerously low, they were fighting night and day to keep the besiegers out, and just when they thought that all was lost a minor monk called Peter Bartholomew claimed to have discovered the holy lance in the city. This was enough of a sign to give the crusaders faith that they would win and made them fight on. On June 28th they defeated Kerboghas forces. This is a prime example to prove that it was their faith which encouraged the Crusaders to go forth and to face the enemy head on instead of giving up. The first crusaders were indeed many but they were in foreign lands, far away from home and without a reliable source of supplies and so it was important for them to make allies within the region. Though there were some troubles between the crusaders and the Byzantines, the Byzantine Emperor Alexius I was very willing to help the crusaders with supplies, a small military force and engineers. The engineers were extremely useful and necessary for the building of siege engines from which they made the capture of towns much easier. Hence the alliance with Alexius was a necessity for the success of the crusade. A further asset to the crusaders was the help from the Armenians. With their help some of the crusaders were able to conquer Edessa and hence form the first of the crusader states called the County of Edessa of which Baldwin was their ruler. Also it was an Armenian guard who Bohemond bribed at Antioch to open the cities gates. Furthermore, it was also an Armenian commander who help ed the crusaders capture Jerusalem by surrendering his tower on the main walls to them. Otherwise the crusaders quite possibly would have had to have gone through a lengthy siege in which many of them would have died. Baldwin of Boulogne also had an Armenian called Pakrad on his staff whom he relied on for advice on the area and the diplomatic stance between states and rulers. Another main ally who the crusaders had but were not as prominent was the Christian people who were already there. They tried their best to help the crusaders by giving them what provisions they could spare and by trying to help overthrow the garrisons of towns of which the crusaders were trying to capture. But there is evidence that a lot of Christians within these Muslim states were quite content with their Muslim overlords and so were not keen in helping a foreign army even if it was a Christian one. Another key factor which can be seen during the first crusade is that of the competency of the crusaders leadership. The crusaders were in the hands of experienced princes whom had seen combat in various wars. This can be seen through the tactics which they employed, such as them used on June 30th 1097 when Bohemonds army was surrounded by a Turkish army. The papal legate Adhemar of Le Puy performed an ingenious diversion of crossing the mountains to flank the enemy and come up on their rear, ‘which caused them to flee in panic and confusion'[1]. But even though the crusaders leaders were highly skilled at leading they were not always a unifying force. There was a growing tension between Raymond and Bohemond. But other than that there was not much quarrelling within the army itself. Some of the main leaders were driven to a degree by their own ambition and this sometimes led to atrocities occurring. An example of this is the massacre of 300 Norman troops who Baldwin of Boulogne had forced to camp outside the walls of his newly captured town of Tarsus because he did not trust them and hence they were slaughtered by the towns former garrison under nightfall. But through all of the bad decisions, most of the time when they were needed to unify and attack together they did just that. They worked as one army, even if they disagreed on tactics when they assaulted and besieged major cities such as Antioch and Jerusalem. Indeed the assault on Jerusalem was impeded time wise by the arguing between the leaders over who should be given Antioch, but when they eventually got there the remaining princes worked together to gain success. But the fact that most of the princes true ambitions lay in their own personal gain is shown by Bohemond who selfishly never took any further part in the crusade after becoming Prince of Antioch. He never even went to Jerusalem. This was a major reason in why it took so long for the crusaders to take Antioch, because Raymond had wanted t o storm the city but Bohemond refused and wanted to besiege it even though there wasnt enough troops to encircle the city. Bohemonds decision to siege was due to his own greed; he wanted Antioch for himself and so wanted it intact. The siege was perhaps harder on the crusaders than the defenders as they quickly ran out of food which led to desertion and cannibalism. Even though these blasphemous events were occurring, Bohemond still held the siege which shows that he didnt care much about the religious side to the crusade but by taking Antioch he did succeed in completing his own agenda and furthered the crusaders cause. One of the most important reasons for the success of the first crusade was the disunity within the Muslim nations in and around the holy land and their underestimation of the threat to which the crusaders posed. During the time of the first crusade, Anatolia, Syria, Palestine, and Egypt were all under Muslim control. But they were politically and, to some extent, culturally fragmented and hence this would have certainly contributed to the success of the first crusade. These differences can be seen through the internal rivalry which had been going on between competing territories. Anatolia and Syria were controlled by the Sunni Seljuks, and used to be unified in one big empire but in 1092 Malik-Shah, the Seljuk sultan, died and his sons quarrelled over who would succeed him. So the sultans once large empire was split between the competing sons. Hence when the crusaders came marching through, these states were on the whole more concerned with consolidating their own territories and gai ning control of their neighbours, than with cooperating against the crusaders. There was also a failure to react quickly enough to the crusading threat by the Turks and the rest of the Muslim states. During the Peoples crusade The Turkish king Kilij Arslans capital, Nicaea was situated close to where the crusaders were based. He was happy enough to watch them ravage the countryside but as soon as they threatened his city he easily defeated them. This easy defeat of the Christian forces lulled him into a false sense of security. When he heard that another Christian force had amassed at Constantinople he assumed that it would be of the same type of incompetent soldiers as before and so took the majority of his army to attack a rival state, ‘he had not foreseen that the crusading army would be so strong'[2]. This same sort of misconception of the crusading forces was common among many of the Muslim leaders, and hence played a major part in the success of the first crusade. This can be proven by the failure of the second crusade. It contained around the same amount of people as the first crusade but by this time the Muslim leaders were more prepared and swiftly defeated the crusaders in two battles[3]. Even though the main reason for the success of the first crusade was the disunity between the Muslim states, all of the factors mentioned contributed to the crusades success. The crusaders allies played their part in helping the crusaders to succeed in their goals. Also the faith of the people played a major part. Their faith cannot be underestimated, it kept them going and forced them onwards to Jerusalem; it was their faith which stopped them from turning back even when they were dying from starvation and disease. It was ultimately their faith which drove them to succeed. Bibliography Asbridge, T. S. , The First Crusade: A New History,(London, 2004). Baldwin, M. W. ed. , A History of the Crusades Volume I: The First Hundred Years, (Philadelphia, 1958), pp. 177 343. Phillips, J. P. , The First Crusade: Origins and Impact, (Manchester, 1997). Phillips, J. P. , ‘Who Were the First Crusaders?, History Today 47:5 (Manchester, 1997), pp. 16-22. Riley-Smith J. , The Crusades: Idea and Reality 1095-1274, (London, 1981). Riley-Smith, J. , The First Crusade and the idea of crusading, (London, 1986). Rochester, R. W. , Military Operations in the First Crusade 1097-1099 A.D.,(Liverpool, 1955). Runciman, S. , The First Crusade, (Cambridge, 1980). Wolf, K. B. , ‘Crusade and Narrative: Bohemond and the Gesta Francorum, Journal of Medieval History 17 (Oxford, 1991), pp. 207-16. [1] M. W. Baldwin, ed. , A History of the Crusades Volume I: The First Hundred Years, (Philadelphia, 1958), p. 293. [2] M. W. Baldwin, ed. , A History of the Crusades Volume I: The First Hundred Years, (Philadelphia, 1958), p. 289. [3] J. Riley-Smith , The Crusades: Idea and Reality 1095-1274, (London, 1981), p. 14.

An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge Essay -- essays research papers

à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridgeà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬? Ambrose Bierce weaves a tale of intrigue and captivation, by using shifts of voice and time in the story à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridgeà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬?. In the first four paragraphs, Bierce begins the story using third person, and in this point of view, he creates reality. We can view the situation and all aspects while it is written in third person; we know precisely what is going on, we know it is real. Near the end of the fourth paragraph, the author shifts cleverly from third person to limited omniscient. After having us view the story in third person, Bierce transfers from reality, to the main characters' thought processes, having us view Peyton's thoughts and dreams also as reality. "He looked a moment at his "unsteadfast footing," then let his gaze wander to the swirling water of the stream racing madly beneath his feet." (P.67) it is here where Bierce shifts and starts to mislead us, by using Peyton Farquhar's thought processes as a filter. It is a clever shift, because in this moment, we are getting closer to the time of Farquhar's death, and we have previously read reality. Time then slows down; the explanation of the phenomenon, of Peyton Farquhars's death, is both detailed and plausible, and there is a special trick: "He closed his eyes in order to fix his last thoughts upon his wife and children"(P.67) It is in this sentence that Ambrose Bierce starts to evoke hope in the reader. The author knows th...