Le Grand Meaulnes :: essays research papers

Titre: Le Grand Meaulnes Autor: Alain Fournier Genre: Roman d’adventure Date de Publication: 1913 Temps: Se deroule en 1890 et dure a peu pres 6 ans Lieu: Sainte-Agathe en Sologne et puis a Paris Personnages principaux: Augustin Meaulnes, Franà §ois Seurel, Ynonne de Galais et Frantz de Galais. Personnages secondaire: Mme Meaulnes, M. et Mme Seuriel,Mouchboef, Valentine Blondeau, Les Charpentiers, M. de Galais, Ganache, oncle Florentin. Resume Brief Augustin Meaulnes arrive comme interne dans l’à ©cole de M. Seurel, pere de Francois Seurel, le narrateur. C’est un garcon original qui bouleverse la tranquillità © de cette vie campagnarde. Un jour,il s’à ©gare dans le bois et parvient à ¡ un chà ¢teau oà º se dà ©roule une fà ©te à ©trange, en l’honneur des fiancailles du maitre, Frantz de Galais. La fiancà ©e ne viendra pas. La fete s’achevà ©, et Frantz s ‘à ©nfuit. Mais Meaulnes a rencontrà © Yvonne de Galais,la sÅ“ur de Frantz. Elle est belle. Il en tombe amoreux.Il doit cependant rentrer à ¡ l’à ©cole. Dà ©sormais Meaulnes ne cesse de la rechercher, de meme qu’il essaie avec Francois de retrouver,en vain, le domaine mysterieux. Frantz reparait,fait promettre à ¡ Meaulnes par un serment de rà ©pondre à ¡ tout appel au secours.Meaulnes part pour Paris,retrouve Valentine la fiancà ©e de Frantz tandis que Francois retrouve Yvonne que Meaulnes à ©pouse f inalment.Mais le matin des noces,là ¡ppel de Frantz se fait entendre. Meaulnes fifà ©l au serment y rà ©pond,part en abadonant sa jeune femme qui mourra en couche.Meaulnes reveindra chercher sa fille un an plus tard et partira avec elle pour de nouvelles aventures. Personnages Principaux Augustin Meaulnes: C’est le hà ©ros du roman. Il est aventurier, idà ©aliste absolu et toujours insatisfait. Il veut toujours plus, il n’est jamais content de ce qu’il a. Quand il n’obtient pas quelque chose, il se donne a fond pour l’obtenir et quand il l’a, il veut dà ©ja autre chose. Il vit d’inquià ©tude, cherche autour de lui quelque chose qui soit capable de le contenter totalement et de lui faire conquà ©rir le royaume des reves. En plus de cela, il est un entraineur, un chef. Il n’accepte pas le monde tel qu’il est fait par les autres. Il est illuminà © et crà ©e autour de lui comme un monde inconnu. Pour y arriver, il organise des escapades et une de ses escapades le conduit a Yvonne, dont il tombe amoureux. Dà ©s le debut du rà ©cit on remarque que le mot â€Å"fuite† est associà © au pesonnage de Meaulnes. Un premier portrait de Meaulnes nous est fait par sa mere au debut du livre.

Texting and Driving Should Be Banned

Have you ever considered reading a book while driving? If not then why would you text and drive? Driving is something that requires your full attention. When you open up your cell phone to send a text or receive a text then you might as well get out a book and start reading. Suppose you are driving down the road and your phone alerts you that you have a text message coming in, when you grab for that phone you are a victim of visual, cognitive, and manual distraction. Many people have lost their lives due to visual distraction. When you take your eyes off of the road, it only takes one second to cause an accident. I am sure if sixteen year old Ashley Johnson could start her day over she would. On May the 15 this exceptional, popular tenth grader had been texting while driving when she hit a pickup head on. She was in critical care for several days before dying sustained to injuries that occur during her accident. Not only did she lose her life but someone lost their daughter, granddaughter, sister and friend. If only she could have waited until she stopped driving. Patrick Sims is another prime example of why you should not text and drive. Patrick and his girlfriend were driving down the road the day before Thanksgiving. Patrick was texting a friend when his girlfriend started screaming, as he looked up there was a bicyclist so close to the front of his vehicle that he could not avoid hitting him. This was a sixty three year old grandfather that was out riding his bike for health reasons, minding his own business. Now this is something that this young man has to deal with for the rest of his life. He told CBS during an interview that he wished that he could have another chance; he also told them that the image of this man lying on the street dead would never leave his mind. I remember texting one time while I was driving and it was the first time and the last. I got a text message and I wasn’t going to read it but I was scared it was my mom or about my mom because she was sick. I was going to wait till I stopped at the red-light to check it but it was just too tempting to wait so I grabbed my phone to read my text when I ran off of the side of the road. That was a stupid decision on my behalf. It was only my niece wanting to know what I was doing. It was not just my life in danger it was also my children’s. I decided that day that I would never read a text again while driving. I am just thankful and fortunate that I got another chance. I honestly believe when you put yourself or someone else’s life in jeopardy by texting it is not an accident. You know exactly what you are doing when you open that phone and start typing or reading. Texting should not be just ban from people that drive automobiles but it should also be for people who drive trains and buses. It is a cognitive distraction when you take your mind off of what you are doing. On September the twelfth two thousand and ten, Robert Sanchez a commuter train engineer started his day like every other day. I’m sure when he left his home that morning he never thought it would be his last day returning home. During the day Robert was texting and receiving text from a young guy who he mentors. Robert did not yield and hit a freight train head on killing twenty five people and injuring eighty more. Roberts’s life was taking that day instantly. His life was taken just because he answered a text letting this young boy know where he was. This could have been prevented. Not only is his family grieving but so are all of the innocent lives that were taking that day. If you feel like you are too tempted to text while driving then you need to turn off your phone until you get stopped or put it away where you cannot reach it. Texting don’t only cause you to take your mind off of your driving but when your texting you don’t have on your hands on the wheel. When you are driving it is important that you drive with your hands not your knees or your forearm. I’m sure some people don’t think manual distraction is such a big issue when it comes to driving, but trust me it is. It is just as important as visual or cognitive distraction. Any time that you are driving you need to avoid all three distractions. You have a better chance reacting to a situation if you are driving with both hands. I know a young lady that went to school with my nephew. She was driving home one day after school, it was her and her little brother Ben. Sarah was texting while driving, Ben said that she had her knee up under the steering wheel driving and she came upon a curve and she just couldn’t react fast enough and lost control, she was killed. Her brother survived this terrible tragedy physically but not mentally. It has been ten years now and this young man is still seeing his sister lay beside him in this car bleeding from the head and not responsive. I feel like people are just selfish when it comes to texting. I know a lot of people don’t think about the consequences but it’s time that people wake up and see what texting and driving can do to families. I understand that texting is the new fad and some people rather text then talk. Texting is not a necessity to life. Many people have lost their lives because they made the wrong choice. I’m sure if the victims that have been involved in a misfortune could have another chance to drive without texting and take more responsibility for their actions they would. Driving is something that takes all the attention you can offer. That includes watching where you’re going, keeping your mind on what you’re doing and keeping both hands where they need to be. If you feel like you just can’t wait to text pull over to a safe place and text. Before you text and drive again visualize a loved one in your life and ask yourself this question, is it fair to them that I am being so selfish, not caring if I take my life or someone else’s life? I promise you that you’re not going to die if you have to wait to text but if you don’t wait to text you will definitely die.

Develop Health and Safety and Risk Management Policies Essay

An act is passed by Parliament, which is the highest form of law in the land. An act of parliament is the primary legislation of the UK. A law is considered to be an act when it has already been duly passed by a legislative body. It is for this reason that certain acts vary from one state to another. A regulation, on the other hand, is one that is approved by a group of individuals based on an act that has already been passed. These regulations are based on the act that has been approved and served as a means to make the act a lot easier to follow and adhere to. Delegated or secondary legislation allows the Government to make changes to the law using powers confered by an Act of Parliament. Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 The Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 , also referred to as HSWA, HSW Act or HASAWA, is the primary piece of legislation covering occupational health and safety in Great Britain. The Health and Safety Executive with local authorities (and other enforcing authorities) is responsible for enforcing the Act and a number of other Acts and Statutory Instruments relevant to the working environment. General duties of the act: †¢ To maintain or improve standards of health and safety at work, to protect other people against risks arising from work activities, to control the storage and use of dangerous substances and to control certain emissions into the air. †¢ Contains the duties placed upon employers with regard to their employees. †¢ Places duties on employers and the self-employed to ensure their activities do not endanger anybody (with the self-employed that includes themselves), and to provide information, in certain circumstances, to the public about any potential hazards. †¢ Places a duty on those in control of premises, which are non-domestic and used as a place of work, to ensure they do not endanger those who work within them. †¢ Places duties on manufacturers, suppliers, designers, importers etc. in relation to articles and substances used at work. †¢ Places duties upon employees. †¢ Places a duty on everyone not to intentionally or recklessly interfere with or misuse anything provided in the interests of health, safety and welfare. †¢ Provides that an employer may not charge his employees for anything done, or equipment provided for health and safety purposes under a relevant statutory provision. It also establishes the Health & Safety Commission (HSC) and Executive (HSE), lays out the systems for enforcing the act, including the penalties for breaches of law and is the source of Crown immunity. The Health and Safety Commission (HSC) is responsible for health and safety regulation in Great Britain. The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) (and local authorities) are the enforcing authorities who work in support of the HSC. Both are statutory bodies, established under the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974 (the HSW Act). HSC’s statutory functions include conducting and sponsoring research; promoting training; providing an information and advisory service; and submitting proposals to Ministers for new or revised regulations and approved codes of practice. HSE advises and assists HSC and has specific statutory responsibilities of its own, notably for enforcing health and safety law. Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 (amended 2003) These Regulations require an employer to implement preventive and protective measures on the basis of general principles of prevention set out in EU legislation. There is also a new regulation requiring that a competent person in the employer’s employment shall be appointed for the purpose of assisting him in undertaking the measures he needs to take to comply with the requirements and prohibitions imposed upon him by or under statutory provisions (not one who is not in his employment as in previous legislation). Employers must also arrange any necessary contacts with external services, especially as regards first-aid, emergency medical care and rescue work, that might be needed. In the event of failure to comply with these Regulations, it is not an adequate defence that it was caused by his employee or by any other. RIDDOR 1995 Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations It places a legal duty on employers, the self-employed and those in control of premises to report some work-related accidents, diseases and dangerous occurrences to the relevant enforcing authority for their work activity. This can be the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) or one of the local authorities. Responsible persons are generally employers but also include various managers and occupiers of premises. Though the regulations do not impose a specific obligation on employees, they have a general obligation under section 7 of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 to take care of safety. The Health and Safety Executive recommends that they report incidents to their employer and encourages voluntary notification to the relevant regulating authority. COSSH 1994 (amended 2002) COSHH is the law that requires employers to control substances that are hazardous to health. You can prevent or reduce workers exposure to hazardous substances by: †¢ finding out what the health hazards are †¢ deciding how to prevent harm to health †¢ providing control measures to reduce harm to health †¢ making sure they are used †¢ keeping all control measures in good working order †¢ providing information, instruction and training for employees and others †¢ providing monitoring and health surveillance in appropriate cases †¢ planning for emergencies Most businesses use substances, or products that are mixtures of substances. Some processes create substances. These could cause harm to employees, contractors and other people. Sometimes substances are easily recognized as harmful. Common substances such as paint, bleach or dust from natural materials may also be harmful. Manual Handling Operations 1992 This is defined, in Regulation 2, as ‘any transporting or supporting of a load (including the lifting, putting down, pushing, pulling, carrying or moving thereof) by hand or by bodily force. The regulations apply to all work that involves carrying or holding loads such as lifting boxes, packing goods, or pushing or pulling trolleys. They specify all factors employers must consider if they employ manual workers. These include whether manual tasks involve awkward movements, moving loads over long distances, holding goods that are difficult to grasp and the capabilities of the worker. Employers are required to provide adequate training to staff on safe handling and lifting techniques relevant to the task. Manual handling is a major source of injury and the HSE have provided a lot of supporting materials and guidance for employers on how to minimize the risks involved in MH operations. Food Safety Act 1990 The Food Safety Act 1990 is wide-ranging legislation on food safety and consumer protection in relation to food throughout Great Britain. The Act covers activities throughout the food distribution chain, from primary production through distribution to retail and catering. It gives the Government powers to make regulations on matters of detail. The Food Standards Agency is the principal Government Department responsible for preparing specific regulations under the Act. The main aims of the Act are: †¢ to ensure that all food meets consumers expectations in terms of nature, substance and quality and is not misleadingly presented; †¢ to provide legal powers and specify offences in relation to public health and consumers’ interest; and †¢ to enable Great Britain to fulfill its part of the United Kingdoms’ responsibilities in the European Union. Food Hygiene Regulations 2006 The way in which you achieve the following points depends on the individual setting. Whichever policy you have, it should firstly include a written statement that outlines your food safety procedures, and secondly be reviewed at regular intervals. You should always bear in mind that it has been developed to encourage businesses put in place food safety management procedures, and to comply with food hygiene regulations. It applies to everyone who works in the food business, from owners and managers right through to food handling staff. Businesses can range from a supermarket, cafe, pub, mobile food stall, exclusive restaurant, right through to a school dining area. All sectors are covered including; caterers, primary producers (such as farmers), manufacturers, distributors and retailers. It relates to public or private organizations involved in any of the following activities; †¢ preparation of food †¢ processing of food †¢ manufacture of food †¢ packaging of food †¢ storage of food †¢ transportation/distribution of food †¢ handling of food †¢ Offering food for sale. Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order (FSO) 2005 The Order applies to virtually all buildings, places and structures other than individual private dwellings e.g. individual flats in a block or family homes, and it is your responsibility to make sure your workplace reaches the required standard and employees are provided with adequate fire safety training. The Fire Safety Order places the emphasis on risk reduction and fire prevention. Under the Order, people responsible for commercial buildings i.e. the employer, owner, or any other person who has control of any part of the premises, are required to carry out a mandatory detailed fire risk assessment identifying the risks and hazards in the premises.

John Paul Vann

John Paul Vann is the central character of Sheehan's book, the character around whom the whole Vietnam War seems to turn. Fearless, misguided, Vann appears to stand for America itself. American ambassador and commanding general were informing the Kennedy administration that everything was going well and that the victory was theirs. Vann saw Vietnam War otherwise. In the end Vann was killed when his helicopter crashed and burned in rain and fog in the mountains of Vietnam's Central Highlands, leaving behind a most extraordinary legend.He succeeded in imposing himself as the real commander of a whole region in Vietnam, and the Pentagon, in an unprecedented move, gave him authority over all U. S. military forces in his area. He commanded as many troops as a major general. Vann never hesitated to use whatever level of force was necessary to achieve his ends, but considered it morally wrong and stupid to wreak violence on the innocent (another reason for his popularity with the anti-war p eople). The influence he wielded both within the U. S.civil-military bureaucracy and the Saigon government made him, by general agreement, the most important American in Vietnam after our ambassador and commanding general, a position recognized at his Arlington funeral, attended by the entire Washington military establishment. Neil Sheehan's book is now popular with both critics and public, and Hollywood would even think of making a film portraying an American military hero from the Vietnam War with such sympathy. DEVELOPMENT OF THEME Both John Paul Vann and Neil Sheehan went to Vietnam in the early 1960s, Vann as a military advisor, Sheehan as a reporter for United Press International (UPI).As the months passed, Vann’s disillusionment with the war’s progress eventually led him to share his frustrations with Sheehan and other reporters, and the advisor became one of the correspondents’ most valuable sources of information on the true dynamics of the situation ou t in the countryside. In the mid-1960s Sheehan left Vietnam for assignments in the United States, but Vann remained and, after assuming a civilian position, rose to become one of the most powerful Americans in the country.In 1972, a short time after Vann’s death in a helicopter crash, Sheehan began work on a biography of the soldier. Sixteen long years later, the book was finally published to a chorus of critical praise. John Paul Vann went to Vietnam in March 1962 at age thirty-seven. A lieutenant colonel in the U. S. Army, he served as senior advisor to the South Vietnamese Army’s 7th Infantry Division, which was headquartered at My Tho in the Mekong Delta south of Saigon. An intelligent, fearless man possessed of terrific stamina and a deeply held belief in the legitimacy of U.S. involvement in Vietnam, Vann was an ideal advisor in many respects. Sheehan wrote in A Bright Shining Lie that the military man’s character and education had ‘‘combined t o produce a mind that could be totally possessed by the immediate task and at the same time sufficiently detached to discern the root elements of the problem. He manifested the faith and the optimism of post–World War II America that any challenge could be overcome by will and by the disciplined application of intellect, technology, money, and, when necessary, armed force. (134)’’But as the months passed and the Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN) troops that he was advising continued to flounder, Vann’s frustration grew. South Vietnamese commanders proved reluctant to commit troops to confrontations because of political concerns back in Saigon and their own instinct for self-preservation, and the rosy forecasts of American policymakers troubled him as well. Moreover, Vann felt that both the South Vietnamese government and U. S. officials did not appreciate the significance of the social problems plaguing the country, and he argued that U. S.bombing po licies and the Strategic Hamlets program (in which peasants were forcibly removed from their homes and placed in group encampments) were eroding already tenuous support for the Diem regime out in the countryside. By the end of his first year in Vietnam, wrote Sheehan, ‘‘Vann saw that the war was being lost. The ambassador and the commanding general in South Vietnam were telling the Kennedy administration that everything was going well and that the war was being won. Vann believed then and never ceased to believe that the war could be won if it was fought with sound tactics and strategy† (102).Sheehan and the other members of the Saigon press corps bucked attempts by U. S. and Vietnamese officials to spoon-feed the media information on the war’s progress, and relations between the camps quickly deteriorated. Within a matter of months, however, the adventurous UPI reporter had developed an effective network of independent sources and established a productive p artnership with David Halberstam of the New York Times. One of the correspondents’ best sources in the U. S. military was John Paul Vann.Writing in A Bright Shining Lie, Sheehan described the relationship between Vann and the reporters in similar terms: ‘‘Vann taught us the most, and one can truly say that without him our reporting would not have been the same†¦. He gave us an expertise we lacked, a certitude that brought a qualitative change in what we wrote. He enabled us to attack the official optimism with gradual but steadily increasing detail and thoroughness’’ (254). Sheehan noted that he and most of the other correspondents initially supported America’s presence in Vietnam.‘‘We believed in what our government said it was trying to accomplish in Vietnam, and we wanted our country to win this war just as passionately as Vann and his captains did,’’ (211) Sheehan said. But the reports of Vann and other sourc es, coupled with their own firsthand observations out in the field, convinced the press corps that the U. S. prosecution of the war was fundamentally flawed. While attending the funeral for John Paul Vann in 1972, Sheehan was struck by the stature of those in attendance (from General William Westmoreland, who served as a pallbearer, to Ellsberg, who had been one of Vann’s closest friends).Upon returning home, Sheehan secured a two-year leave of absence from the New York Times, along with a contract from a publisher, and began work on a biography of Vann. The writer felt that by studying Vann’s life, he would also be able to examine America’s role in Vietnam. As he wrote in A Bright Shining Lie, ‘‘The intensity and distinctiveness of his character and the courage and drama of his life had seemed to sum up so many of the qualities Americans admired in themselves as a people. By an obsession, by an unyielding dedication to the war, he had come to person ify the American endeavor in Vietnam.He had exemplified it in his illusions, in his good intentions gone awry, in his pride, in his will to win† (325). As the 1970s blurred into the early 1980s, Sheehan’s obsession with Vann’s story grew. Month after month passed by as the writer tried to reconcile Vann’s dark secrets (a troubled childhood, a sexual appetite that doomed his army career) with the honorable soldier he had known in the Mekong Delta. And over it all lay the shadow of the war itself, the contradictions of which Sheehan continued to see encapsulated in Vann. Sheehan fell into a reclusive routine in which his waking hours were dominated by the book.In August 1986 Sheehan finally completed the manuscript for A Bright Shining Lie. Over the course of the next year, the author pared the book down to 360,000 words, still a massive work. In 1988—sixteen years after Sheehan began work on the Vann biography—A Bright Shining Lie was finally published. Paralyzed by our own Newtonian paradigm, we defeated ourselves by persistently viewing the Vietcong as being different from us in degree, when in fact they were different in kind. Underestimating them as being different only in degree, the U. S.military often contemptuously referred to them as â€Å"those raggedy-assed little bastards† (205). To Americans, the Vietcong simply had less technology to fight with; but the Vietcong knew they had a different kind of technology – the land, and they used it to great advantage against U. S. technology. In his A Bright Shining Lie, Sheehan relates a story that perfectly expresses how the Vietcong used nature in concert with their kind of technology. A Captain James Drummond is told by a prisoner that â€Å"the most important Vietcong training camp in the northern Delta is located in clumps of woods above a hamlet.When he gets there, Drummond finds . . . four thatched-hut classrooms furnished with blackboards under th e trees . . . † (88). The very idea that â€Å"blackboards under the trees† – a virtual oxymoron in American thinking -could be used to defeat the United States, is, once again, â€Å"unthinkable. † It represents what psychiatrist Charles J. Levy calls â€Å"inverted warfare,† which Gibson explains as â€Å"the sense in which American common sense on how the world operates was reversed or inverted in Vietnam†.A Bright Shining Lie confirms, that the core of the U. S. news operation in Vietnam during the crucial years from 1961 to 1963, came under the influence of a mid-level U. S. Army adviser, Lieutenant Colonel John Paul Vann, who was convinced that he had solved the riddle of how to galvanize what was essentially a fifteenth-century South Vietnamese army into a twentieth-century fighting force: Get rid of South Vietnamese President Ngo Dinh Diem, and have the United States take over the war, in toto.On January 2, 1963, the ARVN 7th Infantry Division, which was under the command of General Huynh Van Cao, carried out orders to destroy a Vietcong radio transmitter located in the hamlet of Tan Thoi in the Mekong Delta. Acting on intelligence that indicated that the transmitter was protected by a force of about one hundred Vietcong in nearby Ap Bac, Vann and his staff settled on a plan of attack that featured his usual precise calculations. ‘‘Vann saw an opportunity to use the ARVN’s advantages in mobility, firepower, and armor to destroy a Viet Cong unit,’’ noted Harry G.Summers, Jr. in the Historical Atlas of the Vietnam War. But instead of wreaking havoc on the guerrillas (whose hit-and-run tactics had frustrated the American advisors over the preceding months), the operation proved disastrous for Cao’s troops. Larger-than-expected Vietcong forces at Ap Bac and Tan Thoi were ready for the attack, having intercepted radio messages concerning the upcoming operation. When the raidâ⠂¬â„¢s first helicopters arrived, they were met with withering ground fire, and three of the H-21 helicopters and one Huey (UH-1) gunship were promptly downed.The first few minutes of the battle set the pattern for the rest of the clash. As the hours dragged by, ARVN forces committed a series of strategic blunders—some over the objections of Vann and his staff—that served to further deteriorate their position. Finally, Vann felt that Cao’s forces showed little appetite for battle, a factor that further contributed to the debacle. By the next morning the Vietcong guerrillas had slipped away, leaving behind eighty ARVN dead and another one hundred wounded. Significantly, three Americans had been killed as well.Later in the morning, Cao ordered a fraudulent air strike on the area, nearly killing Sheehan and two other Americans who were surveying the long-abandoned battlefield. In the battle’s aftermath, U. S. and South Vietnamese officials tried to call the clash at Ap Bac a victory, but Vann and his staff quickly disabused the press corps of any such notions. Enraged by the whole operation, Vann called the ARVN effort ‘‘a miserable damn performance,’’ and even though correspondents who used the quote did not reveal his identity, U. S. officials familiar with Vann knew whose voice it was.‘‘As a battle it did not amount to much, but Ap Bac would have profound consequences for the later prosecution of the war,’’ wrote Summers. ‘‘Prior to Ap Bac,’’ Sheehan pointed out, ‘‘the Kennedy administration had succeeded in preventing the American public from being more than vaguely conscious that the country was involved in a war in a place called Vietnam†¦. Ap Bac was putting Vietnam on the front pages and on the television evening news shows with a drama that no other event had yet achieved’’ (421). Vann retired from the army several mont hs later.When those who knew him learned of his departure, many assumed that he had selflessly sacrificed his military career so that he could comment on the war with greater freedom, and his reputation was further enhanced. His admirers were unaware that Vann’s myriad sexual indiscretions (including a valid statutory rape charge that he ultimately beat) had permanently scarred his record, effectively limiting his advancement anyway. In 1965 Vann returned to Vietnam as a civilian, serving as a provincial pacification representative for AID (the Agency for International Development).As American involvement in the war expanded, Vann’s authority increased, even though he continued to be an outspoken critic of some aspects of the war’s prosecution. ‘‘His leadership qualities and his dedication to the war had assisted his promotion, as had a realization by those in power in Saigon and Washington that his dissent over tactics or strategy was always meant t o further the war effort, not hinder it,’’ wrote Sheehan (436). In May 1971 Vann was promoted to an advisory position that gave him authority over all U. S. military forces in Vietnam’s Central Highlands and adjacent provinces along the central coastline.The unprecedented arrangement gave Vann more power than he could have ever wielded had he stayed in the army. By this point, some people who knew Vann felt that the years of involvement in the war had changed the man, and not for the better. They noted that Vann had adopted a much more lenient philosophy about appropriate methodologies for winning the bitter war. Those who recalled his harsh criticisms of bombing strategies earlier in the conflict for the toll that they exacted on civilians found that he had become an enthusiastic proponent of intensive bombing campaigns.Sheehan wrote about an exchange between Vann and Washington Post reporter Larry Stern that dramatically reflected Vann’s change of heart : ‘‘Anytime the wind is blowing from the north where the B-52 strikes are turning the terrain into a moonscape, you can tell from the battlefield stench that the strikes are effective,’’ (365) Vann reportedly told Stern. In March 1972, North Vietnamese forces launched the three-pronged Easter Offensive, a bold effort to overwhelm South Vietnam by attacks on three strategic regions.All three thrusts were ultimately turned back, however, as the NVA (North Vietnamese Army) was handed a major setback. Vann was widely credited with being a key figure in the defense of An Loc, a site seventy-five miles north of Saigon that had been one of the NVA’s primary targets in the offensive. In June of that year, however, Vann was killed in an air crash when his helicopter, flying low over an otherwise treeless valley at night, hit a small group of trees standing over a primitive Montagnard cemetery (Montagnards are aboriginal tribespeople who make their homes in so me of Vietnam’s more mountainous areas).EVALUATION OF THE THEME AND BOOK PRESENTATION As the months passed, and disastrous events such as the Ap Bac debacle and the Buddhist uprising erupted, Sheehan emerged as one of the war’s finest—and most controversial—correspondents. He did so despite struggling with an almost paralyzing certainty that death would claim him when he went out into the field. When he first arrived in Vietnam, Sheehan had been exhilarated by violent, dangerous excursions out in the countryside, but the events at Ap Bac changed his attitude in dramatic fashion.While surveying the scene of the battle, Sheehan and two others (reporter Nick Turner and Brigadier General Robert York) had nearly been blown apart by General Cao’s fraudulent attack against the abandoned Vietcong positions in the area. In June 1964 Sheehan left UPI for the New York Times. A year later he returned to Saigon, where he stayed until 1966, when he was transferr ed to Washington, D. C. That same year he wrote an article, ‘‘Not a Dove, but No Longer a Hawk,’’ that reflected his growing disillusionment with America’s involvement in Vietnam. In the late 1960s he served as the newspaper’s Pentagon and White House correspondent.By 1971 Sheehan had come full circle; he emerged as a critic of the war. In 1971 Ellsberg’s disenchantment with U. S. policies led him to give Sheehan a massive collection of confidential government memorandums and reports on the war that came to be known as the Pentagon Papers. To opponents of the war, the records in this archive—commissioned by Defense Secretary McNamara back in 1967, they included reports dating back to the 1940s—provided stark evidence that U. S. involvement in Southeast Asia had too often been characterized by deceit, misjudgments, and bureaucratic arrogance.Sheehan’s massive tome garnered many awards (Pulitzer Prize, National Book A ward for nonfiction, Columbia Journalism Award, Robert F. Kennedy Book Award, and others) and laudatory reviews in the months following its publication. Boosted by the recognition, the book became a best-seller. Reviewers were almost unanimous in their praise for Sheehan’s work (the harshest dissent with the critical consensus appeared in the National Review). New York Times Book Review critic Ronald Steel commented that if there is one book that captures the Vietnam War in the sheer Homeric scale of its passion and folly, this book is it.Indeed, reviewers recognized that the book worked in large measure because of its choice of subject matter. Critics felt that, in John Paul Vann, Sheehan had found a larger-than-life figure whose experiences in Vietnam offered valuable insights into the character and nature of American involvement in the conflict. Making more sense of what happened in the conflict than most books, this is a thoughtful, well-made work. References Sheehan, Nei l. (1988). A Bright Shining Lie: John Paul Vann and America in Vietnam. New York: Random House.

Gender Stereotypes in the Australian Media Essay

Gender Stereotypes in the Australian Media - Essay Example Women become over-zealous in their attempt to mirror the body image of the fashion models seen on television and in advertisements. The consumer is literally caught inside a media pinball machine as they are sold the latest 'fat-burger' and are left with a guilty conscious. Fashion, sports, entertainment, advertising, and society all conspire to push our ideal of the perfect body to an unobtainable position. There has been a substantial amount of research concerning the media's unrealistic and stereotypical portrayal of the body image. While much of the research has taken place in the US, other Western cultures including Australia, Canada, Great Britain, New Zealand, and the Netherlands have noted similar results and have found women "living with near constant exposure to narrowly defined and highly unrealistic beauty ideals".1 Television and print advertising are at the core of the drive to sustain a connection between the public and a structure that is acceptable to the members of an in-group. Verri et al. (1997) and Tiggermann (1996) found a direct correlation between the amount of, and the dependence upon, television viewing and the vulnerability to developing an eating disorder.2 In addition, Sanders et al. (1995) found a direct correlation between the numbers of magazines read by 12-year-old girls and the probability that they would consider themselves overweight.3 However, this p henomenon is not unique to females, as men also suffer from poor body image. Bergstrom and Neighbors state, "Body dissatisfaction among men is influenced by many of the same factors as that among women. Significant research has focused on various sociocultural influences on the male ideal body figure, which may contribute to body dissatisfaction" and an unrealistic obsession with muscularity.4 Likewise, the research has also shown that this problem is pervasive from a very young age on through adulthood. Children as young as six are affected by the stereotyping of ideal body image, as are the elderly, though the effect is mediated by older age.5, 6 The media's influence on body image begins early in childhood and continues through the later stages of life for both genders. Most people are dissatisfied with some aspect of their body, and many people have a distorted view of it or an unrealistic evaluation. There are two types of body image distortions that lead to dissatisfaction. The first, known as body-size distortion, is a perception that is distorted where the individual "misperceives his or her body size, or the size of various body parts, as being larger than they objectively are".7 This distortion is often a precursor and a marker for the eating disorders of anorexia or bulimia. According to Bergstrom and Neighbors, "The second type of body image disturbance, termed body dissatisfaction, refers to the cognitive, affective, or attitudinal nature of negative body image".8 This dissatisfaction is more likely to lead to unhealthy dieting practices, extreme bodybuilding, or cosmetic surgery that may be unnecessary and have long lasting negative effects. Whether people have a distorted image or are simply dissatisfied with their body, the media fuels the problem and people are motivated to take actions that may have negative consequences. This research will focus on the attention that the media places on a

K6 academic content and ELD standards Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

K6 academic content and ELD standards - Essay Example Mathematics Lesson Plan 2 Opening: The lesson will start by discussing the previously learnt lesson where the topic of discussion was conversion of percentages to fractions and percentages to decimals. The day's topic of discussion will be simple financial transactions where the students will learn about simple interest, compound interest, hire purchase, commission, discounts, and money exchange rates and about profit and loss. The lesson will start by quickly reviewing the previously learnt lesson where I will display charts with already solved problems of the previously learnt lesson of conversion of percentage to fraction and percentage to decimals. Statement of Objective: At the end of the lesson, the students should be in a position to do simple financial transaction problems like calculating simple and compound interests, discounts, commission, profit and loss and money exchange. The student should also be in a position to apply the knowledge they will acquire in the topic practically, in their day to day activities. Instructions: The lesson will begin by defining terms like interest, commission, discounts, profit and loss. Then a number of problem will be solved in class and handouts with already solved mathematical problems issued to the students. The students will also be allowed to solve some problems in groups. Assessment: To ensure that the students have understood the day's content, they will be required to solve individual problems in class to assess whether the teachers teaching objectives have been achieved. Connection: To ensure that the day's lesson is relevant, I will connect the lesson with what the student learnt in their previous lesson and the lesson they will... With this kind of a lesson plan, I am very sure my teaching objectives will be achieved in teaching Mathematics since the subject involves a lot of practice by students in order for them to understand. topic of discussion was conversion of percentages to fractions and percentages to decimals. The day's topic of discussion will be simple financial transactions where the students will learn about simple interest, compound interest, hire purchase, commission, discounts, and money exchange rates and about profit and loss. The lesson will start by quickly reviewing the previously learnt lesson where I will display charts with already solved problems of the previously learnt lesson of conversion of percentage to fraction and percentage to decimals. discounts, profit and loss. Then a number of problem will be solved in class and handouts with already solved mathematical problems issued to the students. The students will also be allowed to solve some problems in groups. My teaching objectives will be achieved in teaching Mathematics to students since for the students to understand the subject, it should be prepared to work more mathematical problems on their own rather than being lectured by the teacher.

Management case study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Management - Case Study Example There is a feeling of job insecurity. Shank’s social needs have not been met too by her previous employer. She did not feel a sense of belonging because the owners just did not seem to care about their employees. Shank’s esteem needs were not satisfied too. The company did not show any appreciation for their employees. She did not feel that she is being valued as an employee and she felt that she was taken for granted; thus, her self-esteem and personal worth was at a low. Her ideas were not important to management. Even her self-actualizing needs were not met because they were not concerned with her personal growth. There are several things that can be done to meet these missing needs such as recognizing achievements of employees through promotions, bonuses and salary increases, so they will feel appreciated and valued. Job security should also be provided for including the giving of retirement benefits. Management should also provide employees opportunities to reach t heir full career potential. Use the Expectancy Theory and/or the Equity Theory of motivation to explain how feeling underpaid might affect the work of a Flight 001 associate and what a manager can do to increase the employee's motivation.