The eNotes Blog eNotes Book Club Novemberâ€December Finds

Book Club November–December Finds In this installment of our book club, we looked for thoughtful, dark reads fitting for a foggy November and December. Cozy up with a cup of tea with us and read on. â€Å"Rough Deeds† by Annie Proulx Id recently read The Shipping News and wanted to start the next round of our book club with something â€Å"November-y.† You know, lots of nature, maybe some adventure, and a little dark. Lo and behold, I found a short story by Annie Proulx called â€Å"Rough Deeds† published in The New Yorker. Released in anticipation of her novel Barkskins, a 700+ page bear which I have but am intimidated to read, â€Å"Rough Deeds† is an account of historical fiction, following the life of Duquet, a man of French origin living in North America during the 18th century. â€Å"In New France, which people more and more called Canada, for the old Iroquois word kanata, Duquet was everywhere- examining, prying, measuring, observing, and calculating.† We all acknowledged that Duquet is cunning, ruthless, and prideful. We also agreed that hes a terrible person. For some, this was enough to make the story unenjoyable at first, but further discussion around Proulxs language brought them around. We found the story gripping, its language evocative, and were compelled to follow Duquets years-long journey from rough-cut entrepreneur to wealthy businessman. So, why should you read a story about an ambitious, morally suspect, 18th-century man? Well, for one, its a brilliant look at life in the 18th century. For another, Proulxs language illustrates a master at work: â€Å"During the early evening, the mildness went out of the weather. The sky filled with clouds the color of dark grapes, torn by flailing stems of lightning. An hour of rain moved along, and behind it the temperature dived into winter. Duquet woke at dawn, shivering. There was not a breath of wind, but every twig and branch bristled with spiky hoarfrost. In the distance, wolves howled messages to one another, their cries filleting the morning.† - Wes â€Å"The Buddhist† by Alan Rossi This time around, I chose the short story â€Å"The Buddhist† by Alan Rossi. I found the story and writing style interesting- the prose is fairly simple, but what interested me the most was investigating the details that make up the Buddhist’s past and help explain the self-deprecating behavior he portrays throughout the story. Reading the story introduces questions like, â€Å"What does it mean to be human?† and, â€Å"When does something helpful become something harmful?† The protagonist is seen mentoring a woman and telling her about his own introduction to Buddhism. I’m sure he meant for his story to come across as inspiring, but†¦ Well, read for yourself: â€Å"Why wasn’t I interested in climbing or kayaking anymore; why didn’t I care about playing any of the instruments I used to play? I didn’t joke the way I used to; I didn’t drink, didn’t do drugs or even seem to enjoy eating- everyone was basically saying the same thing.† Reading â€Å"The Buddhist† was like watching a trainwreck. Readers will wait helplessly as the Buddhist further isolates himself from other people and the things that once brought him joy. He justifies these actions to himself and his mentee through an unfortunate string of circular logic that follows him throughout the story. We can only read between the lines and hope that the Buddhist begins to change his perspective after the story ends. â€Å"I tried to show her that her feelings contained no reality, they were impermanent, based on the belief of a false self.† - Kate â€Å"St. Lucy’s Home For Girls Raised By Wolves† by Karen Russell As we rounded out 2018 and looked to our future book clubs, we decided that come the new year our discussions would be guided by predetermined themes. So for our last theme-less club- aside from us trying to identify â€Å"November mood† which is a smidge tougher than October, as you can imagine (Halloween provides much more short-story fodder than, say, public-domain texts about turkey or stuffing)- I decided to simply pick another Karen Russell piece. Last time around I had us read â€Å"Bog Girl† which we all seemed to thoroughly enjoy. I figured that, well, wolves eat a lot of birds (check!) and there’s definitely maybe fog rolling around a facility named St. Lucy’s (double check!). â€Å"A low granite wall surrounded St. Lucy’s, the blue woods humming for miles behind it. There was a stone fountain full of delectable birds. There was a statue of St. Lucy. Her marble skin was colder than our mother’s nose, her pupil-less eyes rolled heavenward. Doomed squirrels gamboled around her stony toes. Our diminished pack threw back our heads in a celebratory howl- an exultant and terrible noise, even without a chorus of wolf brothers in the background.† As we dived into the story, no one seemed to mind the exceptionally loose interpretation of â€Å"foggy-November piece† nor a ham-fisted Russell doubleheader. We had another satisfying discussion, as lycanthropic lineage ponderings replaced the bog’s borderline-necrophilic coming-of-age arguments. â€Å"And there was Mirabella, shucking her plaid jumper in full view of the visiting cardinal. Mirabella, battling a raccoon under the dinner table while the rest of us took dainty bites of peas and borscht. Mirabella, doing belly flops into compost.† The nuns of St. Lucy’s are tasked with transforming young wolves, with names like Hwraa! and Gwarr!, into well-to-do, civilized young ladies, with names like Jeanette and Claudette. This piece is cleverly written and full of charm (a â€Å"proper fairy tale† as Caitlin put it) as well as, personally, quite heartbreaking. As the only one whose formative years consisted of being stuffed into Catholic school- where tartan skirts battled the crisp Collared Shirts of Untucked Sovereignty to the north as they tickled forever-fresh knee scrapes to the south- I think I took to this piece a little more than the rest of the group. My untamed calf hair itches under the ghosts of stocking past just thinking about it. â€Å"The sisters swept our hair back into high, bouffant hairstyles. This made us look more girlish and less inclined to eat people, the way that squirrels are saved from looking like rodents by their poofy tails. I was wearing a white organdy dress with orange polka dots. Jeanette was wearing a mauve organdy dress with blue polka dots. Linette was wearing a red organdy dress with white polka dots. Mirabella was in a dark corner, wearing a muzzle.† A great story for your next book club; a most excellent story if your book club consists of a wild pack of werewolves. - Sam â€Å"I’ll Be Waiting† by Raymond Chandler There’d been a joke after finishing â€Å"The Buddhist† that November’s theme was â€Å"unlikeable protagonists.† My selection was easy- I love Chandler, but I’ve found few of his characters â€Å"likeable.† Besides, one doesn’t get much darker than noir. â€Å"I’ll Be Waiting† takes place in a hotel with filled with â€Å"shadowy loungers† and â€Å"memories like cobwebs.† It is fair to say that little happens in the story: the â€Å"house dick† meets a woman, meets the man who’s come looking for her, and convinces the man to leave. A lack of narrative motion and a sense of emotional detachment- the characters have no interiority, so that feeling must be gleaned from appearance and action- made it hard for some of us to invest in the story. But the language eventually drew us all in. â€Å"I’ll Be Waiting† was published in 1939, before the literary tropes associated with pulp and noir became so ubiquitous as to border on self-parody. There is no self-consciousness displayed in passages such as â€Å"I was married to him once. I might be married to him again. You can make a lot of mistakes in just one lifetime.† and â€Å"He held a gun. He held it as though he knew about guns.† While sentences like these filled me with a low-level glee, others were drawn in by the strong stylism of Chandler’s language. Water imagery appears throughout, seen first in protagonist Tony Reseck’s â€Å"quiet, sea-gray eyes† which later become â€Å"as simple as forest water.† Repetition of descriptions and frequent anaphora create a strong sense of rhythm. Descriptive sentences are both lush and taciturn, avoiding commas and conjunctions when a period could do. Adjectives rarely deploy without a partner. I won’t spoil our thematic discoveries for you, because it’s well worth diving into this story with a group of your own. Beneath the tropish trappings, something truly strange and intricate lurks. - Caitlin Three Poems by Wallace Stevens For our second round of readings, I chose a trio of poems by American poet Wallace Stevens. The three poems we discussed are â€Å"Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird† (1923), â€Å"The Idea of Order at Key West† (1934), and â€Å"Of Mere Being† (1955). The three poems differ in significant ways but all exemplify Stevens’s taste for plump, surprising phrases and his penchant for producing perplexion in his readers’ minds. â€Å"Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird† contains a series of thirteen brief, oblique vignettes, each of which is pierced by the enigmatic blackbird: â€Å"It was evening all afternoon. / It was snowing / And it was going to snow. / The blackbird sat / In the cedar-limbs.† This is Stevens at his concisest and- dare I say?- his cheekiest. â€Å"The Idea of Order at Key West† finds Stevens striking a Shakespearean pose, rolling out grand lines of pentameter in an exploration of poetry itself, which Stevens calls: â€Å"Words of the fragrant portals, dimly-starred, / And of ourselves and of our origins, / In ghostlier demarcations, keener sounds.† â€Å"Of Mere Being† is the final poem Stevens wrote. It offers the elusive image of â€Å"the palm at the end of the mind,† in which sits a â€Å"gold-feathered bird.† The poem, an homage to the impossibility of understanding, is both elegiac and light-hearted, and the final line leaps off the page with its sonorousness and humor: â€Å"The bird’s fire-fangled feathers dangle down.† - Zack Check out our past reads and other reading recommendations, and follow our Instagram for real-time book club updates. For our next installment, we will be following the theme of â€Å"Noir.† Have a theme suggestion for our next round? We’d love to hear from you! Send us an email at sburton@ with the subject line â€Å"Book Club Recommendation†.

Financial Management Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 8

Financial Management - Essay Example real side of facts, however, the corporate goal of shareholder’s wealth maximization does not cause any negative or positive effect to the weight given to the ethical consideration given by market participants (Donald & Nelson, 2000). This paper is therefore meant to research whether the two goals of business ethics and value maximization are conflicting or not. It remains a traditional ideology where it was argued that wealth maximization is inconsistent with ethical behavior in a business. It has often been suggested that the people’s desire for value maximization in general and shareholders’ wealth maximization directly oppose the ethical concepts such as honesty, fairness and corporate social responsibility, or the good of the society. In maximizing the firm’s corporate value, an ethical firm may do this by maximizing the stock prices. In this way, the firm makes the stock as desirable as possible to investors. As we know, market prices can reflect ethics just as they can reflect other valuable items in the market such as cash flows. Investors who care about ethical issues therefore will the stock of unethical firm undesirable. This will make its stock price become lower than that of an ethical firm (Smith, 1992). In our day to day life, if a manager would like to hire someone to perform unethical work for certain ill-gain in the business, they will have to part with much more pay than if they hired someone to do some ethical duty for them which will gain the business positively. From this, it is evident that one cannot get into any unethical behavior with an aim of maximizing the corporate value of the firm. One of the ethical behaviors of managers in a business is that of corporate social responsibility. However, a firm that involves in corporate social responsibility lowers its ability to maximize its corporate value. For instance, a firm would like to donate some amount of money to a non-profit making organization to support a certain cause. By

Perform critical analysis of images used by the media, example, Research Paper

Perform critical analysis of images used by the media, example, commercial - Research Paper Example The audience which this was based on could range from those who were only beginning to drive to individuals who were looking for upgrades for their car for either longer road trips or to drive within the city. The tone of the commercial is inclusive of two voice overs, both males. The commercial takes the tone of boys that are playing with toy cars and which are ‘pretending’ to take specific turns with the car to overcome danger, make the commercial and to present a specific viewpoint about what the car represents. The tone is also inclusive of an undertone of believing in everything that the car can do, despite the sense of make – believe which is being conducted through the two voice overs. The message that is stated is based on the spoken communication, which includes everything one wants to be in the car, ranging from the hot woman driving â€Å"super fast† to overcoming a chase to being a school teacher. The stated message then moves into the slogan of â€Å"Chevy Runs Deep’ to show that the car is for everyone. The implied message goes into the car being able to be every person who drives the car is able to achieve all of their dreams. The concept of the film and the message which is created goes into the brand meeting the mental model of consumers. The concept used through the narration is first given as a speed effect, which elevates mood. This is done with a 1 minute commercial which continuously changes speed, has fast talking men thinking about the commercial and which shows the message of how the car can allow an individual to be anything. This elevates the mood, specifically toward the end when they end the clip with the woman driver being a teacher. However, the message which is implied moves beyond this. The car goes through the scenes that are from other cars, such as driving through a desert, going on a high speed chase in the city and jumping from a building. These are known not to be realistic which makes a mockery out of the past commercials and of the competitors, showing that a car used for everyday life still has the same capacities for those who need a high – quality car. The exposure to the settings of other car commercials, as well as the implications with the fast speech and imagination which leads into reality then creates a personal connection of what it means to own a car which is needed for everyday life (Sutherland, 1). Film Techniques The techniques which are used through the film continue with adding in the persuasion of the commercial. The beginning only has the voice overs and a black scene, which then moves into â€Å"I have a great idea for the Camero commercial† followed by seeing the desert and a car in the distance. This landscape shot is followed by moving close in to the car but not distinguishing the features, which is then followed by the voice overs saying â€Å"bam! It’s super fast.† These two first shots build the curiosity of th e consumer and grab the attention of those who are watching the commercial. The curiosity and attachment to the film continues to build with a quick clip which changes into another close up of showing the car swerving through mirrors. The camera angle uses a slant instead of a straight shot to show that there is a sense of not carrying a sense of reality. This

The Tourism Industry In Spain

The Tourism Industry In Spain Spain developed its tourism during the last years of dictators Franco governance, when the country became a popular place for summer holidays, especially for tourists from Northern Europe (UK, France, Germany and Scandinavia). It is said that mass tourism started that time because Francos government needed money and dedided to open up its coasts for tourism. . At that time, Mallorca, Costa del Sol and all multi-storey buildings on the coast were built. Murcia and Almeria were not built because there did not have a good network. This was what protected them. However, in the minds of the locals this was the cause of their poverty (Barke et al. 1996:120). Since then, Spain has become the second the most visited country in the world (the first one is France). 60 million foreign tourists arrived in Spain in 2007, according to the data provided by the World Tourism Organization (2007), that its offices are in Madrid. The cost of tourism in Spain is over $ 46 billion per year, the highest tourism expenditure worldwide except for U.S. that has tourism expenditure of $ 74 billion (Sinclair et al. 2008:75). Summer resorts and beaches This form of tourism was the first that was developed in Spain, and today is the one that has received more income grants and subsidies form the state economy. The nice and warm climate during the whole year and the long beaches on the Mediterranean and South Atlantic, as well as Balearic Islands and the Canary Islands have been visited by tourists from northern Europe for decades. These summer resorts are popular among Spaniards as well. The Spanish coasts that suitable for summer holidays include: à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Costa Dorada, Costa Brava and del Maresme, located in Catalonia, which are very popular for local and French tourists, including the popular resorts like Salou and the city of Barcelona which is also the largest port in Spain. à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Costa del Azahar, whose main city is Valencia and Costa Blanca, (one of the most developed Spanish coastal regions, extremely popular for tourists from Great Britain and Germany, having Benidorm as the main summer city of Spain. à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Costa Calida. à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ The side de Almerà ­a, the tropical side, Costa del Sol and Costa de la Luz, all of them are found in Andalucà ­a. Some of its summer resorts are famous all over the world, like Marbella, a tourist resort for tourists with important spending capacity. Finally, one of the largest Spanish ports, is Malaga (Fsadni and Selwyn 1997:66). The volcanic Canary Islands in the Atlantic, and the Balearic Islands are two famous Spanish archipelagos. Many Spaniards and foreigners visit them because they are very popular. Apart from the summer tourism, there are other forms of tourism such as cultural, sport or fun tourism. Two cities, Barcelona and Valencia (the two largest ports in the Mediterranean side of Spain) are among them. Tourism of the beaches (Beach Tourism) has also contributed to the development of nightlife, as well as to the Spanish excellent food culture. Important from the ecological and natural aspect are many places both coastal and island Theme and water-fun parks like Port Aventura are also popular among the local population and foreigners (Eden 1996:48). Long ago it became known in Europe Senior Tourism program that allows people over 55 to enjoy a holiday social tourism in Spain with low cost. The program subsidizes the EU holiday in the Balearic Islands and Andalusia in periods of low tourist traffic from October 2009 until April 2010. The indicative costs where the agency is about 400 euros for 8 days 4stars at selected hotels with full board, tickets, tours, and more. Tourist Packages in Spain are part of the program Calypso approved by Parliament with a budget of 1 million euros and refers to the promotion of social tourism with the participation of Member States. Cultural and business tourism Spain is a country full of culture and therefore, it is a popular destination for cultural tourism due to its historical importance, including cities like Seville, Granada, Cà ³rdoba and Toledo. UNESCO has declared the following Spanish cities as World Heritage Cities: Alcalà ¡ de Henares, à vila, Cà ¡ceres, Cà ³rdoba, Cuenca, Ibiza, Salamanca, La Laguna SAN Cristà ³bal de, Santiago de Compostela, Segovia, Tarragona and Toledo (Maiztegui-Onate 1996:84). Madrid and Barcelona (two big Spanish metropolis) are famous historical places and are also part of cultural tourism. In addition, there are other important places in Spain with cultural importance are: Coruà ±a and Vigo, in Galicia, Santander Cantabria, Oviedo and Gijà ³n Asturias, Bilbao and San Sebastià ¡n in the Basque country. North Spain has such a green landscape that resembles to the UKs and Ireland landscape and this is why it is Green Spain. They have many important folklore, nature and culinary aspects and they are even suitable for summer vacations despite the fact that the beaches of North Spain are colder than the Mediterranean ones. Spain is also an important place for religion, mainly Judaism and Christianity.The city of Santiago de Compostela Galicia (northwest Spain) are holly places. This city is the third holiest place in the christian world after the Vatican City of Rome and Jerusalem. The fourth holiest place is Camino de Santiago followed by the sanctuary Caravaca de la Cruz in the southeast area. These places attract tourism from all over the world (Robinson 1996:210). The many celebrations and festivals in Spain. A very famous one is the Holy Week in cities like Seville and Carthage. Very popular also is the Seville Exhibition or Feria de Abril in Spanish, the celebrations of Spring (Fiestas de Primavera) which include the famous Entierro de la Sardina (Burial of the sardine) and La Huerta EL Bando de (the area of the orchard) This festival attracts crowds from both inside and outside Spain. There are also the festivals Carthaginians and Romans of Carthage, the festival of San Fermin of Pamplona famous worldwide, the Fiestas del Pilar in Zaragoza etc. The celebrations in small towns are also very popular. Spain has a lot of cultural festivals, including the Carnival all over Spain, but particularly the festivals of the Canary Islands and Cadiz. San Sebastian, Malaga and Sitges have famous film festivals. The Lorca Rock, FIB, Festimad, and Primavera sound are some indicative music festivals. Several cities have hosted international events:Catholic exhibition in 1888 and 1929 in Barcelona, the Olympics of 1992, also in Barcelona, the catholic exhibition of 1992 in Seville, the 2008 world exhibition in Zaragoza and the Americas Cup in Valencia (Selwyn 1997:93). The Europe Senior Tourism program is another tourist attraction source of Spain. This program allows people over 55 to enjoy low cost holidays of social tourism in Spain. It is an EU program that subsidizes vacations in the Balearic Islands and Andalusia in periods of low tourist traffic namely, from October 2009 until April 2010. The indicative cost depending on the tourist agency is about 400 euros for 8 days at selected 4stars hotels with full board, tickets, tours etc. Tourist Packages in Spain are part of the program Calypso which was approved by the European Parliament with a budget of 1 million euros and refers to the promotion of social tourism with the participation of Member States. Tourism in Spain and financial data The sightseeing visits and payments in 2008 (Sinclair et al. 2008:85)are the following: Greece Spain Italy France Turkey Visitors (in millions) 17 57,4 42.7 79.3 25 Revenue ($ billions) 17.1 61.6 41.7 55.6 22 . From the above numbers, it is easily concluded that Spain is a major tourist destination, but it also attracts high-level tourists who spend enough money, since it has the best revenue ratio per visitor among the major European destinations! The tourist development of the country is organized. Some areas are developed for very high level tourism as Marbella. Some areas are selected for mass tourism, as for example Benidorm which is a Spanish Miami with 4 million visitors every year or not Liouret de Mar and Rosas in Costa Brava. In addition, tourism is organized in large hotels, which have lower costs and higher bargaining power with the major tour operators. One example is the Sol Melia which has a revenue of 1.3 billion euros, 35,000 employees at 270 hotels from Brazil to China. Another example is Iberostar with 102 hotels in 15 countries and 1 billion revenue, 23,000 employees and around 70,000 beds. However, if financial data get more analyzed the following will be concluded: Spain in 2008 (Sinclair et al. 2008:94) welcomed 57.4 million visitors, representing 1.8 million fewer than last year, which means a fall of 3.1%. This fact has occurred since 1997, the year when, the statistical monitoring of the tourist industry began. This decline is mainly due to the decrease in arrivals from France and the United Kingdom which are two of the three main countries of foreign tourists in Spain. The ratio of reduced tourist traffic is attributed to a decline in the economies of these two countries. So, after the sectors of construction and industry, there was the turn of the tourism sector to cope with crisis. This sector represents 10.7% of Spanish GDP and employs 13.5% of the workforce of the country. The areas with the highest tourist traffic in 2008 were: Catalonia with 14,193,952 tourists (-6.7%), the Balearic Islands with 10,288,958 tourists (+1.4%), the Canary Islands with 9,363,219 tourists , (-1%), Andalusia with 8,147,688 tourists (-4%), the region of Valencia with 5,655,801 tourists (+0.2%) and Madrid with 4,564,345 tourists (+3.6% ). The tourists in the country in 2008 and the percentage change compared to 2007 is as follows: Table 1 Countries of origin Number of tourists % change compared to 2007 United Kingdom 15.749.000 -3.0 Germany 10.048.939 -0.2 France 8.151.449 -8.5 Scandinavian countries 3.574.398 +3.0 Italy 3.464.241 -5.8 Netherlands 2.502.060 +0.4 Portugal 2.291.146 -3.5 Ireland 1.659.327 +1.5 Belgium 1.626.983 -4.7 Switzerland 1.282.740 -6.7 Rest of Europe 3.262.834 +11.6 USA 1.133.801 -1.5 Rest of America 1.331.449 -6.1 Rest of the world 1.339.499 -12.2 TOTAL 57.417.871 -2.6 Source: Spanish Ministry of Industry, Tourism and Commerce Table 2 Year Number of tourists (in millions) % change compared to 2007 1997 39.5 1998 41.8 5.9 1999 45.4 8.5 2000 46.4 2.1 2001 48.5 4.7 2002 50.3 3.6 2003 50.8 1.0 2004 52.4 3.1 2005 55.9 6.6 2006 58.1 4.1 2007 59.1 1.7 2008 57.4 -3.1 Source: Spanish Ministry of Industry, Tourism and Commerce Criticism of the Spanish model of tourism The Spanish model has disappointed its original supporters. The promising North European market turns its back to Spain. The temporary economic gains in the housing market and in the construction market of vacation houses have already begun to subside. Unlike the most optimistic forecasts of the real estate lobby, these investments in 2005 showed a decrease of 16.7%. The decrease of 6% in 2004 was interpreted as a slight variation, and not as a big change (Casado Diaz 2006:78). Foreign investments in the real estate sector dropped by 0.9%. The property market in Spain has began to have a negative reputation among potential customers of northern Europe, while international organizations talk about the need to manage a soft landing of the specific market to avoid unpleasant and extended economic consequences. The rampant construction of holiday homes and hotels in coastal areas has begun to generate negative consequences. The freely accessible places on the beaches have been reduced overcrowding and disturbing activities are increasing, the water quality is deteriorating having as an effect the undermining of the overall tourism policy in Spain. The professional organizations of hoteliers call for an immediate discontinuation of coastal areas building programs. Lastly, there is the growing trend for creating golf courses at the new holiday home complexes and the subsequent environmental consequences (Wall 1997:105). Indeed, it is planned an increase in golf areas despite the saturation of these facilities. It is estimated that each year 10 new stadiums are built and in ten years, there will be 500 golf areas (Mc Laren 2002:187). The strengthening of trend of creating new golf areas is based on the fact that golfers spend on average much more money per person. The reaction to this new situation was an attempt to redefine tourism policy (Newton 1996: 150). The fall in profits encouraged the adoption of positions that until recently was criticized inthe tourism industry. The Mediterranean coasts of Spain gather 15,600,000 residents who represent 39% of the total population. The length of its coastline is 7268. and 68% of the population lives in an area of 100 km from the coast, where the corresponding figure for the entire world population is 39%. Urbanization is so widespread that 85% of the population the Mediterranean coast lives in cities with populations over 10,000 inhabitants (Kirkby 1996:240). In general, in recent years, there has been recorded a significant deterioration of the coastal areas of Spain despite the existence of relative specific legislation. The situation in some coastal areas is as follows (Casado Diaz 2001:77): In the region of Catalonia, nearly 50% of one kilometre lane from the coast is built. 59% of the coastline has already been built. It is estimated that 70% of the coast will be built within the next years. Specific parts of the coasts of Mà ¡laga have been built 100% and this trend is spreading to the shores of Granada, Almeria, Kadid and Huelva. 90% of the Andalusian coast faces already problems of environmental degradation. Even natural area parks, such as the Cabo de Gata-Nijar in Almeria, have become an area of housing development programs and projects. The rapid urbanization and population growth of the region of Murcia has led to an increase of population growth in two years (1999 2000) by 15% bringing a significant pressure for further residential development and reduction of free and public spaces. Many coastal regions of Valencia have been built. 33% of the total coastal area shows residential development. Specific areas such as Alicante have been built at a rate exceeding 40% of its coasts. The urban development plans of the region have occasionally been the subject of study and complaints from the European Commission (Bramwell 1996:453). Indeed, the latter has proposed the imposition of a moratorium on the urban development to address the related deficiencies in design and ensure the protection of the environmental conditions of the development process (Casado Diaz et al. 2004:363). Conclusion Spain remains a country of great beauty and high tourist interest. The model, however, of mass tourism that has followed does not seem to be as successful as it was in the past and the country should follow modern tourism practices that will help it remain competitive in the future. A basic prerequisite for a successful redefined tourism strategy should be the concern for the environment and the reduction of residential development (Hunter Jones et al.1997:291).

Media Violence and Its Effects Essay -- Media

Imagine one day you lost your television. You lost your favorite talk show, your CNN, your favorite cartoon and all of your connections to the whole world. Throughout decades, media have became one of the most powerful weapons in the world. As time passed, more and more varieties of media were shown, like television, magazines, and internet. From reporting the news to persuading us to buy certain products, media became the only connection between people and the world. But violence in media is shown everywhere, it is hard to turn on your media source and not find violence displayed on the screen, no matter its television, internet, print media, or even radio. Eventually, media became a contributing factor to violent and aggressive behavior of youngsters, especially teenagers. Media violence has caused many negative effects in society. The main reasons for the unstoppable growth of media violence are because of the continue disregard of this matter, the demand for violence from the aud ience, and the effects it has on youngsters. The society is accepting everything media shows as a ...

Wilmot Proviso

It could be said that the American Civil War was brought on by Americans need to expand its territories and the one sided Mexican War. The whole debate or controversy over this expansion was David Wilmot’s (and his squad of backers: Hamlin, Brinkerhoff, and King) trying to implement the Wilmot Proviso into the funding for the Mexican territories we acquired. The proviso actually fueled the debate over slavery into the newly acquired territories by trying to make the territories slave free acquisitions. The Wilmot Proviso was a simply desire to make newly acquired territories free from slavery.As pointed out in the opening of this discussion however, banning slavery in these territories was a mute point in the fore front. So what impact did the Wilmot Proviso have on the debate over slavery in America? It actually seemed to create a debate were one did not actually exist. The debate or desire to ban slavery was created by Democratic House members (anti-slavery members) who were afraid that the Whig party would spin the War with Mexico into their desire to expand slavery. [1] So the very party that supported slavery issues had the desire to ban slavery in the new territories anyway.Although these few anti-slavery Democrats did not represent the whole, the desire was there and they wanted the territories to be free. Given, this move was to keep the Whig party from making the accusations that the Democrats were moving to expand the real estate for slavery. McPherson, Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War Era, even points out that Congressman from the northern states tried to enact a proviso banning from the territories acquired by a war in which two-thirds of the volunteer soldiers had come from slave states. General Taylor was a slaveholder but opposed the expansion of slavery when he became president. 2] McPherson examines the irony of this fact as well as many other ironies that were to do with the Mexican War and the Civil War.Another point that McPherson makes is that the men won the Mexican War because of the marksmanship and elan of their mixed divisions of regulars and volunteers and above all because of the professionalism and courage of their junior officers. Yet the competence of these men foreshadowed the ultimate irony of the Mexican War, for many of the best of them would fight against each other in the next war. 3] This is pretty powerful stuff that McPherson is feeding us, pointing out the fact that nearly the same group of men who fought the Mexican War would face one another again during the Civil War. The fact that they were so successful in the first led them to face one another in the second partly due to the Wilmot Proviso and other factors that revolved supposedly around the slavery issue. Taking a different avenue of approach on the supposed fact that slavery and the Wilmot Proviso was the cause and sole factor of the Civil War.During and in the heat of the Wilmot Proviso debate, many southern lawmakers began to question the right of Congress to determine the status of slavery in any territory. According to John Calhoun, the territories belonged to all the states. Why should a citizen of one stated be denied the right to make his property, including slave, into territory owned by all? This line of reasoning began to dominate the southern argument. [4] So here now enters the government encroaching on the rights of the southern states and overreaching its authority to tell them what they could and could not do in their territories.So, although slavery was the catalyst, the southerners began to turn the whole issue into â€Å"rights† issue that revolved around properties. The federal government began meddling in the rights of the states to govern its domain. So the fact that the Wilmot Proviso was trying to govern who and who â€Å"could not† have slaves was a violation of the state’s rights. The issue moved from one of abstraction to one involving practical matters. The n ature of the Constitution, slavery, the value of free labor, political power, and ultimately political realignment were all involved in the debate. 5] The southerners started to become enraged at the fact they were being told what to do and how to do it. So what was the impact of the Wilmot Proviso on the debate over slavery in America? Some would say that the Wilmot Proviso is one of the top five reasons or causes for the Civil War and I might have to agree with that as well. In my opinion, the proviso just fueled the fire on the slavery debate simply due to the fact that it was pointless in the sense they were trying to impose a ban on in area that would have not really benefited from the use of slaves anyway.The areas of Texas, Arizona, and California were not geographic areas where slaves would have made a great deal of difference anyway so the proviso was pointless to them. The proviso was trying to impose a ban on slavery in areas where there was to be little need for slaves a nyway. So the proviso was just a platform to them to impose slavery bans in the south and expand their agenda on the issue. The southern states saw the proviso as an insult to the Southern states and their stand on slavery.Of course, I do think they were moving in the right direction from a humanitarian standpoint they were going about it the wrong way. The debate should have been over the constitutionality of the issue all together and the rights of all men/women. They even entertained the thought of popular sovereignty but that would just have let the issue as is because the southern states would have left it like it was and the northern states would have moved to abolish it all together. Let us not forget that the southern states were not the only areas that possessed slaves.The northern states and citizens did indeed possess slaves in large numbers and many of the politicians pushing the issue of banning it were slave owners themselves. So, in a hypocritical fashion, they were p reaching one thing and practicing another. This could not have been favorable to their standpoint at all. Sounds a lot like our politicians today and the way they practice government of late. The point made and known today is that slavery was wrong, inhuman, and unjust and we know that today. The reasons or thought process they used then to justify what they were doing boggles the mind and makes you wonder.It should have been made law without question and the Wilmot Proviso was a move towards that fact. The only ones that were offended or involved were the ones that were practicing this and most of those were wealthy farmers and beau crates and the most common of people could have cared less.[1] http://blueandgraytrial. com/event/Wilmot_Proviso [2] James McPherson, Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War Era. Oxford Press 1988, p. 4 [3] Ibid, p. 4 [4] www. ushistory. org/us/30b [5] Michael F. Holt, The Political Crises of the 1850 s. 1978, p. 50

Types Of Social Research Methods - 1120 Words

Assessment Item 1 Both quantitative and qualitative research are identified as 2 of the 5 ideal ‘types’ of social research methods. Quantitative research can be identified as closed questioned and predetermined whereas qualitative research is characterised as being open and inclusive of subject influence. Quantitative research is the oldest form of social research, developing from the intellectual tradition known as ‘positivist or realist’ studies. The research type is based on the theory that there is an objective reality that can be accurately measured and that works through â€Å"natural laws† that can be discovered though extensive research. Research is done from an objective standpoint conducted from the ‘outside’, with the theory†¦show more content†¦(Chonody, n.d.) Qualitative research contradicts quantitative research as it identified as inductive, as the research can be characterised as developing from detailed viewpoints or interactions to more general ideologies. Qualitative researchers begin their research with no preconceived ideas of the patterns of the research, they allow the patterns to develop naturally as the research progresses. Qualitative research is based on the concept of immersing yourself as a researcher in the world of your subjects, with the attempt to understand how they experience life. This is achieved through the use of careful observations, in depth interviews and a variety of other open question based methods. The theories that qualitative researches make are built from the patterns they observe in their data after they have done their questioning, as opposed to quantitative researchers that will conduct a hypothesis before interviewing their subjects. Another key difference in quantitative and qualitative research is the researcher’s standpoint on objective research. Quantitative researchers proclaim the importance of objectivity and a value free approach to their research; whereas qualitative researchers dismiss the concept of objective research and argue that social research can never be value free. (Alston, Bowles, 2012, p.13). A form of quantitative research