The Mystery of Mind free essay sample

The human mind has many mysteries to be solved, and it always being a challenge to study and to understand its working process. In Carol Dwecks article Brainology: Transforming Students Motivation to Learn, the author shows us that our brain change constantly; we have two distinct classifications of mindset; growth mindset and fixed mindset. The challenging point is to understand how these mindsets work, and how it affects our life. Individuals with fixed mindset do not believe in their potential; they believe that each person has just a certain amount of intelligence which is unchangeable. On the other hand, the person with the growth mindset believes that everyone can improve their abilities through effort and education. The process of motivation works differently with different mindsets. Students with fixed mindset try to avoid the feeling of being unsuccessful by keeping them away from challenges and mistakes; therefore, they simply choose to stay in their comfort zone. We will write a custom essay sample on The Mystery of Mind or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page When the students with fixed mindset faces setbacks they struggle; they do not think about to work harder to get better, and they easily feel demoralized. On the other hand, students with growth mindset believe that intelligence can be developed, so they do not feel afraid of effort and do not want to quit after a setback. Growth mindsets see setbacks as a challenge, an opportunity to study harder and learn more. In Dweck research with 7th grade students, she clarifies that students with fixed mindset care so much about how smart they will appear; they have the need to pose as intelligent than actually learning. In contrast, students with growth mindset are more interested in learning not just looking smart, and they believe that everyone can improve their abilities. Dweck emphasizes that two aspects can affect the development of children mindsets; those are praise and self-esteem. Through Dwecks research, she shows us that in 1990s parents and schools believe that the most important matter for children to have was self-esteem, and it was necessary to praise kids for their intelligence for them to feel confident. However, Dweck makes the point that praising children for their inborn intelligence and talent, might tell them that intelligence cannot be developed. As a result, this can promotes a fixed mindset and its vulnerabilities. According to Dweck, the children praised for their intelligence lost their confidence as soon as the problems  got more difficult (Dweck 3). What Dweck emphasizes here is that the students should be praised for their effort, this way they can maintain their confidence and overcome their obstacles. Dwecks research has immense significance in the field of education, because it proves that individuals can grow their intelligence through effort. Analyzing myself, I am a growth mindset in most of the cases. I am not super smart, but I am hard worker, and I am always open to learning even if it takes me more time. Sometimes, I can also be a fixed mindset; for example, when I am doing something that I do not believe that it is useful in my life, I procrastinate. In my opinion, being a growth mindset can be a real challenge, because you have to be a resilient person, and it might be not so easy. However, Dweck shows us through her research, that the students praised for their effort are more motivated to study and more successful than the others praised for their intelligence, with that, it make me feel that I am in the right way to reach my objectives. The human mind fascinates me. I have learned lots of interesting points through this article, for example, how important is to challenge ourselves and do not be afraid to make mistakes. Regardless, if you consider yourself smart or not, the most important thing is to connect hard work to self-esteem, and try to overcome your obstacles. When we talk about kids and how to teach them and what is the right way to praise them, Dweck in my opinion, presented an important point about praise them for their effort. This article will be very helpful for me in the future, as I raise my own children and teach them how important is to challenge themselves.

Think You Know What to Do Youve Already Lost the Game.

Think You Know What to Do Youve Already Lost the Game. My salsa partner raises his left hand. I wonder, what does it mean? Does he want me to do a right turn? Or turn in another direction? Will he drop his hand over my head for a neck drop? Is there some other option I haven’t thought of? As soon as I start asking these questions, I’ve pretty much lost the game. The game is to feel what there is to do. As one of my teachers coached, â€Å"Where I feel, I go.† If only it were so easy. My brain thinks it knows what my partner is going to do. When I first started dancing, a raised hand always meant a right turn. But now there are more options, and my brain’s predictions get me into trouble. My job is to stop anticipating and go with what is happening in the moment. Predicting the future can get us into trouble in our careers and in business as well. Especially because we’re often wrong. Example #1: Annual Reviews (or Where Our Brains Take Us) I have a friend with a past history of getting fired from several jobs. He has now been with the same organization for six years and has gotten bonuses and raises at most of his annual reviews. Nevertheless, this year, when his annual review came up, his â€Å"stinking thinking† told him that some challenging dynamics with his new supervisor would lead to his getting fired. There really was no possibility of his losing his job. But thoughts of getting fired are his brain’s right turn. He goes to those thoughts even when he has not been led there. We all have these â€Å"go-to† thoughts, and they are probably the hardest thing to control, especially after we have trained ourselves so well to think them! But changing these thoughts is probably the most impactful move we can make on the career â€Å"dance floor.† If we can wait for real information and direction before defaulting to our patterned thinking, we can avoid a lot of internal, and external, struggle. Example #2: Client Request I had a client (I’ll call him Tom) sent to me by a larger organization. A representative of that organization (I’ll call her Liz) called to say that Tom wanted a different format and tone in his resume. This was one of our early projects for the organization, before we had hit our stride and started consistently producing the type of executive resumes their clients love. My first instinct was to train the initial writer who worked with Tom on the formats and style that the client wants. But I did not know whether Tom would be open to that. The â€Å"lead’s† hand was raised – but was this a signal to turn? I asked Liz to connect with Tom and got further information that indicated we needed to change direction. A new writer was able to deliver exactly what Tom wanted. I took Liz’s direction and created a win for everyone involved. Example #3: Automation and Innovation It used to be that when you had to fill an order, you got a human to find the item and put it in a box. It used to be that when you wanted to get a shipment delivered, you had an employee get in a truck and drive it there. These things are changing. The companies that resist the true direction that things are going are not going to survive. Just because you’ve always done something the way you knew to do it doesn’t mean it’s going to keep working, or that the market wants you to do it that way, this time. And just because there’s an option to automate something does not mean it will be the most efficient or the best way. The lead’s hand is raised†¦ but wait before you turn. What if You’re the Boss? As a supervisor or business owner, our job is to do the best we can to provide clear direction so that those who follow us don’t get the wrong idea – and so that they feel like we are partnering with them fully. It helps to remember that we are followers too – of our clients and customers. If we can all manage ourselves in our respective roles, we can truly wow people on the dance floor! How do you see these principles of â€Å"lead† and â€Å"follow† playing out in your career or business? Please share below! Save Save

Culture and Technology Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Culture and Technology - Essay Example In a book of Lederach J. P. (1995) says, "Culture is the shared knowledge and schemes created by a set of people perceiving, interpreting, expressing and responding to the social realities around them." People wakeup, take breakfast and go to their offices for work. In the evening they came back take rest, enjoy with family, go out to refresh their minds, have dinner and sleep at nights. The next day they do the same with slightly ups and down. So this is a culture of mankind community to eat, work, enjoy and sleep on daily basis. Changing this culture is impossible. Now if we take an example of an Accountant who daily writes hundreds of ledger pages using pen and paper giving pain to his fingers and stress on mind in hours now can do all this using a technology named as Computer, in few minutes through few clicks. Technology is increasing and updating in day by day. Abacus gives rise to Computer. Computer get advance gave rise to a technology known as Internet. Internet is used to communicate the world from one end to another. Not only this, but there are many uploaded free books and libraries that makes studies more comfortable and enhanced. Computer and major Internet becomes part of daily lives. Instead of having big expensive machines, people start buying personal computers. Computers get to be in reasonable price and technology rises to home to home. Internet starts being part of students, professionals and every field of man's life. The technology raised and internet and computer starts playing important role in business and large organization which tends people carry their work with them and Laptops or mini computers on mobile are evolved. Carrying laptops from one place to another was getting difficult, as laptops are expensive and a doubt to get theft increased. Tough technology with these thoughts researched and developed a Remote Computer. A Computer now can be operated via Internet anywhere. This technology is simple but allows you to access your business computer in office from home or computer at your home from far seven seas away. Windows XP as its component also introduced remote Computer. But it flopped at the time of low bandwidth Internet or Windows 95 and Windows XP difference. Development and Implementation Remote Installation Services uses different techniques to install and compile the remote computer for the use on different computers. RIS uses network communication while the remote sharing of computer. The network infrastructure should be slid so that it allows easily downloading the material from one end to another. Besides network, RIS uses special image transferring API's. Different Images heavy or light handled by RIS. Though after activation of RIS on computers a restart is required so that all setting gets fixed up while booting the computer. RIS allows client and server to communicate through images and commands. The continuous exchange of requests and responses allows the remote sharing. The architecture of Remote Sharing can be explained in a manner that client logs in to the network and uses its IP address. RIS helps to transfer the request to server. Serve accomplish the request and take image and send back to the client. The RIS on client computer receives the image and shows up. Clients move the mouse on its own computer desktop or do any other action the

Outdoor Adventure Activities Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Outdoor Adventure Activities - Essay Example (Leeuwen, 1996, P. 65) Caving is the act of visiting caves. Cave can be described as natural physical environment in which the rocks are arranged in a way that they appear like houses. Caves have been known as the home of traditional men when they were not civilized enough to construct houses. Caves have become one of the most attractive outdoor activities not only for leisure but also as a way of learning geography of a place and also the history of the people. They are important sites for archaeologist as they try to dig deep into the history of the people. Caves are important place to learn civilization as people go to explore the arts of painting on these caves which tell moir about the civilization of these people. However those who go for caving do so for leisure activity in the sense that they want to have an experience of those gone days. They want to feel link those old people felt when they stayed in the caves. Other just wants to have a relaxing atmosphere where they can relax in quietness with out disturbance in the unusual environment. On the other hand canoeing is a water based activity which involves travelling on the water in a canoe. This activity may be carried out for leisure or for the purpose of travelling. If used for leisure individuals will be c engaging in the activity for fun or for exploring water geography. (Rivkin, 1995, P. 21) Both of the above mentioned activities will have several environmental impacts. This arise form the fact that both outdoor activities involve a form of interaction with the environment. Let us look at each of the issue. Environmental effect of caving During caving there are various instances at which individuals are likely to interfere with the set up of the environment. First many of the caves are located secluded areas which are not always visited by people as a result as people go to these caves they interfere with the natural environmental set up. Fore example if the cave is located in deep forest as is the case with many caves individual are likely to interfere with the set up of natural environment. This may involve clearing of the forest in order to pave way for their entrant into these caves. Therefore tone of the environmental effect that caving may have is that it may lead to clearance of the environment in order to pave way for entrance into these caves. Caves also hold their own economical habitats. Apart from home of flying mammal like bats, they are also home to a variety of insects and other small rodents. Therefore as individuals go caving, there are likely to interfere with the natural life of these animals. This may have an effect of making the animal relocate to other areas which leads to loss to their natural ecology and therefore disruption of the food chain. For those who go caving they are likely to carry foods and other items. If there is no proper disposal of the wastes, it may lead to pollution of the environment. In many cases, some of these wastes may be poisonous to the animals and as they consume tem they may dies. Therefore one of the most serious problems that may be associated with caving is pollution of the environment. There should be a proper waste disposal mechanism should ensure that poisonous materials like

Direct and Digital Marketing Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 5250 words

Direct and Digital Marketing - Essay Example Identity theft is basically the illegal use of an individual's personal information including such identifiers as social security numbers, driving license numbers, financial cards and account information, usually for frauds and crimes without the consent if the original owner. This crucial information can be used to fraudulently obtain such things as loans, credit, employment, healthcare services, rentals, and mortgages. Identity theft has become a global problem. It was regarded the worst in US until recently because, in US, the traditional use of the social security numbers is identification - a piece of information that, when linked to the name and address of the individual, makes it relatively easy for a thief to get all the necessary information regarding an individuals identity. However, the problem has caught up in Europe too with the UK Home Office estimation that identity theft is growing at 165% per year in the UK and is currently costing the country  £1.3 billion annually. An interesting fact about the increase of identity theft is that it is greatest at rising in Eastern Europe and Southeast Asia - two of the new hotspots in the current trend of outsourcing. According to a survey on internet security by the Cyber Security Industry Alliance, about 97% of the users online consider the identity theft a very serious problem. These underlying perceptions of people are having dire effects on the businesses trying to market their products online (digital marketing) or directly through phone or email. Another interesting fact is that fraud committed during card-not-present transactions accounts for 60% of fraud which has made people further cautious of any kind of online transaction they make.   Companies and businesses are starting to realize that the increasing ratio of identity theft and its dire consequences on the perception of people has made the use of credit cards and sharing of other personal data even for authentic business purposes very limited.  

South China Sea And East China Sea Disputes Politics Essay

South China Sea And East China Sea Disputes Politics Essay During introduction the paper will draw the aspects related to South China Sea and later on East China Sea issues will be pointed out. The South China Sea is strategically an enormously important region. Dominance over it is claimed by states of Brunei, China, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam.  [1]  While China has, over the last 20 years, made general progress towards improving relations with its Southeast Asian neighbours, growing tensions over these competing rights threaten to challenge its effectiveness. Since the military exercises performed by Chinese ships against the US ocean surveillance ship USNS Impeccable in March 2009 in the South China Sea, situation attracted greater diplomatic and press consideration  [2]  . Some observers see Chinas behaviour in the South China Sea as a sign of assertive diplomacy.  [3]  The sovereignty disputes are more than disputes over who owns particular landscapes. They: involve major themes of grand strategy and territorial defence, including the protection of sea lines of communication, energy, food and environmental security. They may also be linked to rising populist nationalism. The stakes are too high for imminent resolution; the rulers of states with maritime territorial claims in the South China Sea are convinced that compromise is not in their national interest.  [4]   Actors (also states without claims and non-state actors, such as energy companies) focus not so much on dispute resolution but rather on dispute management, with the aim of preventing conflict and preserving freedom of navigation and over flight. The non-binding Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea, signed in November 2002 by China and by 10 ASEAN member states, dedicates the parties to work towards adopting a legally binding law whilst exercising self-restraint in the conduct of activities that would complicate or escalate disputes   [5]   One must point out that the obligation to self-restraint has not put an end to unannounced and potentially provocative reinforcement of already occupied islands.  [6]  While diplomats on all sides points out the weaknesses of 2002 declaration, some states undertook one-sided military, bureaucratic and jurisdictional initiatives in the South China Sea, with the sole purpose of changing the political and military status quo.  [7]  One must say, that Chinas initiatives have been particularly prominent.  [8]  Following the Impeccable incident, Washington has been paying increased attention to developments in the South China Sea.  [9]  Although careful to loose its distance regarding sovereignty disputes, the United States has more aggressively highlighted its interest in protecting the free transit of vessels, both commercial and military.  [10]  Such passage is vital for Americas position in Asia, for the integrity of its regional security, and for its ability to obs erve Chinese military developments.  [11]  The US desire to retain this ability to monitor Chinese military development, including the developing Chinese naval base on Hainan, and the Chinese rejection of this right, might be one of the main factors behind the rising tensions.  [12]  In testimony to the Senate Armed Services Committee in March 2009, the commander of the US Pacific Command, Admiral Timothy Keating, argued that : The Impeccable incident was a troubling indicator that China, particularly in the South China Sea, is behaving in an aggressive and troublesome manner, and theyre not willing to abide by acceptable standards of behaviour or rules of the road   [13]   Moreover, in July 2009, the US Senate Committee on Foreign Relations held hearings on Maritime disputes and sovereignty issues in East Asia to observe how these were impacting on the region and US interests there. In January 2010, the new commander of the Pacific Command, Admiral Robert F. Willard, highlighted to Congress how Chinese naval patrols in the South China Sea had shown an : increased willingness to confront regional nations on the high seas and within the contested island chains  [14]   In February, the US-China Economic and Security Review Commission held an all-day hearing on Chinas activities in Southeast Asia, with experts reporting about Chinas growing belligerence in the South China Sea and advising that the United States needed to engage more with the region to protect its interests, including taking a more active interest in dispute management.  [15]  Concerns over Chinas actions in these waters continued to grow through 2010. At the ASEAN Regional Forum in Hanoi in July 2010, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton made the strongest and most direct public statement of US engagement on the issue to date, declaring that the United States had : a national interest in open access to Asias maritime commons and respect for international law in the South China Sea.  [16]   Calling for a collaborative diplomatic process, she highlighted US opposition to the use or threat of force by any claimant, a remark aimed primarily at China.  [17]   This is clashes directly with Chinas recent statement that the South China Sea is its core interest.  [18]  Tension was raised when the joint naval and air drills conducted by the US and South Koreaee in the Yellow Sea in July and August 2010 where conducted  [19]  In response, the Chinese Peoples Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) carried out military exercises in the South China Sea and the Yellow Sea. At the same time, there have been renewed tensions in the East China Sea. On 7 September 2010, two Japanese Coast Guard patrol ships collided with a Chinese fishing boat while they carried out law enforcement activities in the waters off the Diaoyu/ Senkaku Islands.  [20]  Chinese captain Zhan Qixiong was detained on the order of an Okinawa local court, sparking demonstrations in Beijing and diplomatic protests from China  [21]  On the day of the collision, Chinas Foreign Ministry spokeswoman, Jiang Yu, demanded that: Japanese patrol boats refrain from so-called law enforcement activities in waters off the Diaoyu Islands.  [22]   The Japanese ambassador to China was summoned six times over the incident, once by Chinese State Councillor Dai Bingguo. The event was not resolved until China suspended diplomatic and civilian exchanges with Japan and threatened to stop rare earth exports  [23]   Of course, these events may ultimately prove to be just minor indifferences in diplomatic relations. Whatever the ultimate significance, these developments raise fundamental questions about the future directionality of territorial disputes in Chinas borderline seas. Particularly the importance of the disputes between China, Japan, and the ASEAN nations. The thing is that given their close geographical proximity, disputes in these regions have very different dynamics.  [24]  In both cases, China, as a dominant power, is an important claimant state. In the East China Sea, on the opposite side of the ocean from China, is Japan, another major regional power in East Asia. Their mutual relationship is strained due to such factors as their competition for regional leadership and the historical memories of animosity between them.  [25]   So far, there has been no military conflict between them per se as a result of the territorial dispute, but political tensions have been intense.  [26]  In the South China Sea, China faces a group of ASEAN nations (including Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines and Vietnam) that represent a more asymmetric balance of power when compared with the East China Sea. Given the long-standing nature of these disputes, these frameworks enable us to track the record of conflicts and the shifts in the relative power balances of the claimants, eventually leading to the conclusion that certainty and stability have improved in the South China Sea, with the converse outcomes happening in the East China Sea. 2. Core National Interest According to Edward Wong, the Beijing-based correspondent for The New York Times: In March [2010], Chinese officials told two visiting senior Obama administration officials, Jeffrey A. Bader and James B. Steinberg, that China would not tolerate any interference in the South China Sea, now part of Chinas core interest of sovereignty, said an American official involved in China policy. It was the first time the Chinese labelled the South China Sea a core interest, on par with Taiwan and Tibet, the official said.  [27]   There were no U.S. officials denying the NYT report. Its is clear the Chinese are trying to distance themselves from their self-imposed policy on this one  [28]  . In March, Assistant Minister of Foreign Affairs Cui Tiankai told two senior U.S. officials that China now views its claims to the 1.3 million-square-mile sea on par with its claims to Tibet and Taiwan, an island that China says belongs to Beijing.  [29]   Once the remarks were reported in public Chinese officials felt constrained about denying outright that the South China Sea was a not core national interest for fear of provoking a domestic backlash among Chinese nationalists. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has disclosed that at the 2nd U.S.-China Strategic and Economic Dialogue in Beijing (24-25 May 2010) the Chinese stated they viewed the South China Sea as a core interest. Clinton stated in an interview: à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦and when China first told us at a meeting of the Strategic and Economic Dialogue that they viewed the South China Sea as a core interest, I immediately responded and said, We dont agree with that. So they were on notice that if they were Question: Was that Dai Bingguo that said that to you? Yes, yeah. So if they were in the process of extending their efforts to claim and control to the detriment of international law, freedom of navigation, maritime security, the claims of their neighbors, that was a concerning matter. And therefore, we worked with a lot of the ASEAN countries who are directly impacted and 12 of us raised it a the ASEAN Regional Forum last July to make it clear that issues like that have to be resolved in accordance with the rule of law.  [30]   Since the initial report, Chinese officials have been equivocal when questioned whether or not the South China Sea has been raised officially to a core interest or core national interest. For example, a correspondent who attended the Shangri-la Dialogue in Singapore in June 2010 stated that a Peoples Liberation Army Major General told him the South China Sea : was not quite the same as Tibet or Taiwan.  [31]   The Chinese media frequently use the term core interest, particularly in the July- August 2010 period.  [32]  For example, an editorial in a leading English-language paper asserted: Chinas tolerance was sometime taken advantage of by neighbouring countries to seize unoccupied islands and grab natural resources under Chinas sovereignty. Chinas long-term strategic plan should never be taken as a weak stand. It is clear that military clashes would bring bad results to all countries in the region involved, but China will never waive its right to protect its core interest with military means.  [33]   A review of Chinese academic and media commentary on this question concluded: While no Chinese official has spoken about what core national interests means, there is a growing chorus from within the country for the Peoples Liberation Army to defend these core interests in the disputed region. Recent news coverage has brought the term core national interests into the same spotlight as national sovereignty: and territorial integrity and raises the issue of how China defines the term and what it covers.  [34]   Walter Lohman, an expert with Washington-based Heritage Foundation, determined that : Chinas characterization of South China Sea as a core interestà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ is just a big misunderstanding or in the process of being walked back by the Chinese.  [35]   As a result of the foregoing, Chinese assertiveness in the South China Sea has generated special concerns.  [36]  In March 2010, U.S. media reported that Chinese officials told senior State Department envoys that the South China Sea had been elevated to a core interest along with Taiwan and Tibet and China would not tolerate any interference in the South China Sea.  [37]  Chinese officials repeated this assertion in private conversations with foreign diplomats and the term core interest was used in Chinese media reports. These statements generated a new level of concern about Beijings strategic ambitions in the South China Sea. Subsequently, Chinese officials backtracked and now deny making such a statement .  [38]  Still , the issue remained as valid. 3.Legal aspects A) Nature and Status of the South China Sea Claims The vast South China Sea region also includes island chains and submerged reefs that have been the subject of disputes, including the Spratly Islands, the Paracel Islands and Macclesfield Bank.) The area became a possible target for exploration by multinational oil companies. In addition, the likelihood of conflict has increased as international maritime laws have slowly been codified and institutionalized following World War II. Motivated by the desire to extend control over sea-based resources, neighbouring states in the area have increasingly come into verbal conflict and even sporadic military confrontations over sovereignty, sovereign rights, jurisdiction, and arms control efforts in the South China Sea.  [39]   During the 1980s and 1990s, most of the disputing states have found themselves in a race to bolster their claims to sovereignty by gaining occupation of the islands that can support a physical presence or by establishing markers on the islands where physical occupation is not feasible.  [40]  In some cases claimants have even built structures on features that are completely submerged at high tide, maintaining a physical presence on these island specks under arduous and mind-numbing physical conditions. Currently, Vietnam occupies more than twenty islets or rocks, China occupies eight, Taiwan one, the Philippines eight, and Malaysia three to six.  [41]   The race for occupation of the Spratly Islands has increased the likelihood of international conflict, resulting in three cases of military intimidation in recent years (setting aside Chinas use of military force against Vietnamese troops to enforce its claim to the Paracels in 1974), the first of which led to military conflict.  [42]  This confrontation occurred between the Chinese and Vietnamese over the occupation of Fiery Cross Reef (Yung Shu Jiao) in 1988, at which time the PRC sank three Vietnamese vessels, killing seventy-two people.  [43]  In 1992 the Chinese announcement of an oil exploration concession to the U.S. Crestone Company, combined with the occupation of Da Lac Reef and subsequent deployment of three Romeo-class conventional submarines to patrol the area, aroused alarms among the ASEAN states, which had just called for the non-use of force in resolving the Spratly Islands dispute in the Manila Declaration on the South China Sea.  [44]  The third inciden t began with the discovery that the Chinese had occupied Mischief Reef (Meijijiao/Panganiban), a circular reef well within the Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) of the Philippines (following the Philippines announcement of a desktop oil exploration concession in the Mischief Reef area), and involved encounters between military vessels from the Philippines and the PRC in March and April 1995. It was the aptly named Mischief Reef confrontation that has catalyzed the most recent wave of interest and concern over the Spratly Islands issue. That concern was reinforced by PRC military pressures against Taiwan. B)International Laws Related to the Dispute The documentary background for the various territorial claims in the South China Sea is quite thin, and the historical records are often contradictory.  [45]  None of the claimants offers unassailable historical or legal claims. The International Court of Justice (ICJ) has used effective occupation and discovery as primary considerations in evaluating the legitimacy of island territorial claims, although a features location, its history, and whether other claimants have a record of protesting illegal occupation may be considered in determining the legitimacy of sovereignty claims to particular features.  [46]  Separate from the issues of who owns the islands and rocks and whether the submerged reefs of the Spratly Islands can themselves generate maritime zones is the question of whether the islands can sustain human habitation or economic life of their own, the minimum criterion for an island to generate its own continental shelf or EEZ  [47]  . Even if human life can be sustained, islands carry less weight than continental borders in generating EEZs under the prevailing interpretations of the Law of the Sea. Artificial islands on which structures have been built are entitled to a 500-meter safety zone, but they cannot generate a territorial sea, much less a continental shelf or EEZ. Features that appear only at low tide can generate a partial twelve-mile territorial sea only if they are within twelve nautical miles of any feature that generates a territorial sea. Features submerged at low tide are not subject to sovereignty claims and generate no maritime zones at all. The acceptance by the disputing parties of the prevailing interpretation of these provisions to islands in the South China Sea has the potential to greatly reduce the area of overlapping claims, since some disputants have based their claims on an interpretation that the features themselves can generate an EEZ of up to 200 nautical miles. A strict interpretation of the Law of the Sea provision regarding a features ability to sustain human habitation or economic life of their own may well leave few if any of the features in the Spratly Islands able to generate an EEZ, greatly reducing the potential area of overlapping claims. Even if these islands were capable of generating an EEZ, it is unlikely that they would be considered able to generate one of 200 nautical miles.  [48]  After sovereignty of the islands is decided, the question of how EEZs might be defined is critical to determining the size and scope of the areas where negotiations might be necessary to resolve territorial disputes. The Law of the Sea Convention stipulates that in areas where EEZs overlap, the dispute should be settled through peaceful negotiation among the parties concerned, or the parties might voluntarily agree to third-party mediation or to judicial consideration by the ICJ. There is a slowly evolving body of international legal precedents for evaluating the validity of various claims based on the Law of the Sea, and many disputants have found creative ways to avoid sensitive sovereignty issues through limited bilateral joint resource development schemes. The Chinese and Vietnamese claims to sovereignty i n the South China Sea are both based on historical claims of discovery and occupation.  [49]  The Chinese case is better documented, but the extent of the Chinese claims remains ambiguous and contradictory.  [50]  The Japanese occupied the Spratly Islands during World War II and used the island of Itu Aba (Taiping Dao) as cover for surveillance and as a supply depot, but the Japanese claim lapsed with their defeat in World War II.  [51]  Taiwans claims to Chinese ownership of the South China Sea are similar to those of the PRC, and there has been some evidence of coordination of positions on the Chinese claims in the Indonesian Workshops on the South China Sea. The Philippine claim is based on the discovery of the unclaimed islands of Kalayaan (Freedomland) by an explorer, Tomas Cloma, in 1956. This is one of the most challenged claims, and the U.S.-Philippines security commitment has been consistently interpreted by the United States as excluding Kalayaan. The Malaysian claim is based on its continental shelf claim. The Bruneian claim is also based on a straight-line projection of its EEZ as stipulated by the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea.  [52]   C) Chinas Claims over the Spratly Islands in detail Rightly or wrongly, many Western academics have emphasized Chinas approach to handling its claims in the South China Sea as a critical test of Beijings role as a regional and global power in Asia in the twenty-first century.  [53]   In particular, many ASEAN analysts worry that China has since the late 1980s been working to acquire a blue-water navy and other offensive force projection capabilities, such as longer-range aircraft, aerial refueling capabilities, and more modern, harder-to-detect submarine technology, with potential negative implications for the security interests of neighboring countries in Southeast Asia. The Peoples Liberation Army navy has adopted a strategic doctrine of offshore active defense.  [54]  This doctrine envisions a midterm (10-15 years) ocean-going naval capability in which the PLA navy would be able to assert effective control of the seas within the first island chain, presumably including Taiwan and the South China Sea.  [55]  Although the Chinese navy is currently limited in its offshore capabilities and although development of indigenous production capability is taking place at a rather slow pace, concerns among Southeast Asian countries about the future development of the PLAs force projection capabilities have heightened ASEAN sensitivities to Chinese naval actions in the South China Sea region. Off-the-shelf purchases of foreign military technology such as SU-27s, Kilo-class submarines, and other military equipment from Russia that could speed up Chinas military development have attracted notice from Chinas neighbors; however, the time required to learn new technologies and integrate them into Chinas existing force structure and to make them operational suggests that any increase in Chinas military capacity will be incremental rather than dramatic  [56]  . In response, some Southeast Asian countries have begun to take limited but significant military modernization steps of their own, meant to enhance their command and control capabilities, thereby creating the potential for a regional arms race around the South China Sea. There is conflicting analysis of Chinas strategy and tactics in pursuing its claims to the Spratly Islands area. Given t he PRCs limited capability to take and hold the islands it claims, some see a pattern of hot-and-cold tactics by China that is intended to throw the other claimants off balance until the PRC is able to enforce its claim through intimidation or force.  [57]  These analysts point to Chinese salami tactics, in which China tests the other claimants through aggressive actions, then backs off when it meets significant resistance.  [58]  Chinas ambiguity on the extent and nature of its claims is regarded as a tactical plot to stall or defer any attempt to achieve a negotiated settlement until China is prepared to get what it wants through military strength.  [59]   Other analysts emphasize that while the political issue of sovereignty is a particularly sensitive one during a period of political transition in Beijing, the top goal of the PRC leadership for the foreseeable future is to maintain a stable environment conducive to Chinas economic development. These analysts assert that Chinas defense strategy of active defense is still focused primarily on continental defense and the ability to react to localized conflicts.  [60]  Chinas actions in the Spratly Islands area are seen as primarily defensive, preserving Chinas options vis-à  -vis the other claimants as the Law of the Sea is applied. In addition, some experts have suggested that the South China Sea dispute cannot be solved in isolation from Chinas other maritime disputes in the East China Sea and the Yellow Sea.  [61]  These experts suggest that China may feel landlocked and therefore geographically disadvantaged.  [62]  Such a condition might make these maritime border disp utes more difficult to settle because the strategic stakes for a China encircled by discrete maritime boundaries would be too high. Given the reverberations from sporadic military confrontations in the South China Sea in recent years, all parties have reason to be vigilant for opportunities to pursue progress on the Spratly Islands issue. Ef

The Grapes of Wrath - Lifestyle in the 1930s Essay -- essays research

The Grapes of Wrath is a historical and fictional novel that was written by John Steinbeck in 1939. He wanted to show his point of view of life in US during the years of Great Depression. This essay will talk about the lifestyle the public had during that time which dramatically changed conditions that the environment in we stern part of US had. The plot of Steinbeck?s work of fiction is rooted in the historical and social events of 1930s America, specifically the environmental disaster in Oklahoma. Drought had been a serious problem for the Great Plains region of the United States for many decades prior to the 1930s. Meanwhile, poor farming techniques of numerous sharecroppers had decimated the agricultural capacity of the land, the harsh cotton crops robbing soil of its nutrients. These two conditions combined to make if difficult for farmers to make a profitable crop. With the stock market crash of 1929 and the following decline in the U.S. economy, banks became desperate for a way to get back losses. Maintaining that it was more lucrative to be cultivated by a corporation, land companies began removing families from their farms. In the novel The Grapes of Wrath, the subsequent events described as adventures of the main characters of the novel. The novel begins as the main character, Tom Joad, is released from an Oklahoma state prison after serving four years for killing a man. He makes his way back to his family?s farm and meets Jim Casy, a former preacher who is not preaching anymore. He goes with Tom to his home and finds out that it deserted. Muley Graves, an old neighbor, tells that everyone has been expelled off the land. The next day, Tom and Jim go to Uncle Jones place. When they arrive, Tom finds Ma and Pa Joad pa... ... cycle. In Casy?s statement that ?maybe it?s all men an? all omen in love,? we find the idea of humanism. John Steinbeck?s The Grapes of Wrath was published in 1939. It has a great historical significance to American history. It discusses the life in Oklahoma, California and other states of America during the period of Great Depression. This novel illustrates life of poor people who had to leave their land, move to a new place and try to survive there. However, the book covered only the occurrence of this period in one part of US history, which was west side. The Grapes of Wrath could have also included what was life like in eastern part of the country. It would also be helpful if the author included the role of the government in that period. Through the novel The Grapes of Wrath, John Steinbeck wanted to demonstrate the lifestyle of the people in the 1930?s.