Water war in the Middle East

Wichcraft and Heresy essays

Wichcraft and Heresy essays The Growing Association of Witchcraft with Heresy During the Middle Ages the concept of the witch was developing. During ancient times, there had existed an image of the sorcery, but the traditional typology of the witch did not exist. The development of this typology dealt with many aspects of the witch. There was the growing association between witchcraft and heresy. The practices that came to be viewed as witchcraft had their foundation in ancient practices. Those ancient practices were not seen as heretical but as folk practices. However, by the 15th century the image of the witch had been vilified. This vilification can bee seen in the conception of the witches sabbath. Early writers did not believe in witchcraft. When Augustine writes of witchcraft in his On Christian Teachings, he talks about witchcraft in terms of superstitions. He counsels Christians to reject and avoid the specialist in this kind of futile and harmless superstition. Augustines objection is not because he sees them has having any diabolical power but because the practitioners are engaging in unchristian pursuits. He opposes the worship or idols not because of the power of the idol but because it is worshiped to in a manner due only to god. Augustine does not call witches heretics and does not believe they have any powers. Yet, in 426, he is introducing the ideal that Christians should not associate with people who practice magic. This ideal presumes that the practitioners of magic are not Christian and are doing something wrong. Regino of Prm makes a bolder statement on the connection between witchcraft and heresy. He quotes the apostle when directing bishops on how to deal with people engaged in sortilegium and maleficium, Avoid the man that is a heretic... Thus in 906 the practice of witchcraft is established as heretical. Even the distinction of being heretical does not lead to belief in the pr...

Human Resources Management Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words - 1

Human Resources Management - Essay Example Training is the most applicable tool that Tesco can use to educate its employees. The company must invest heavily on training and development process for motivational reasons. It is important to understand what make, satisfies or dissatisfies employees. Additionally, the company should carefully analyze and plan its training needs to have a tremendous influence and impact on the employee’s performance (McDowall & Mark 2010, p610). Tesco must establish the group that needs training, areas that need improvement, and the resources required for the training process to be effective. Indeed, companies that pay a great attention and invest a lot in their training and development process, often have the best results such as an increase in work performance, productivity, morale, and satisfaction just to name a few. Solutions to having the best training and development process depends more on the communication strategies used. In other words, communication must be the main drive to orga nizational development and encourages employees to generate and learn from one another. Some of the potential applications and strategies that Tesco may adopt to take full advantage of modern technology and enhance their training and development process might include the following. The most important strategy is the capacity or ability to broadcast messages from different offices across the world. The innovation of technology reduces the cost of international travel, thus allowing executives to be in meetings virtually and interact effectively (Cherniss, Grimm & Liautaud 2010, p415). With this, technology can be used to enhance communication in training and development by breaking distance barriers that may hinder effective interaction. Technology boosts communication process in the sense that, trainers do not have to travel in miles training trainees. The trainer only needs to record the message and send it to the company or the organization in need. Tesco should embrace this strat egy to boost its communication in training and development. For instance, the holographic technology is a potential technological tool that would benefit Tesco. Employers could use this technology to increase company meetings, internal communication and learning, and development. According to Kissack & Callahan (2010, p366), the systems of holographic technology is supplied by a projector or an LED screen that enhances reflected images on the onstage. The company should embrace this technology to enhance a great impact in communication process. Most companies experience challenges in getting their message across and understanding the people that need to learn. Thus, it is important to connect to people emotionally by making them understand what is expected of them in the workplace. The company must embrace the investment of technology such as holographic against the savings on international accommodations and flights. By utilizing the modern technology, Tesco’s employees woul d be more connected to learning process. Still, employers would be in a better position to enlist technologies that help them stay connected to experts across the globe. Instead of hiring experts to come and train the organization, Tesco would only need to broadcast messages by different experts and stay connected, enriched, and motivated

Detailed Summary of the article Relflections on the Economics by Essay

Detailed Summary of the article Relflections on the Economics by William D. Nordhaus - Essay Example He emphasis the importance of "global change" and the "threat of green house warming" which is taking place at a rapid speed all over the world. The approach is ideal because instead of jumping to conclusion, he explores the issue of green house warming and its impact on the world. The "Green house effect" part is given more space than required, which could have been avoided, as writing two paragraphs just to define the Green House effect is too much, especially if the audience are scientists, and are knowledgeable about the topic. Even the second paragraph seems a bit out of space, the better approach would have to combine two paragraphs, into one paragraph and add only the importance part relevant to the topic, such as "concentration of CO2" in the atmosphere. The figure1" projection of global temperature increase" is an excellent way to show the scale of the problem; the readers can easily see scale of the problem. The figure shows two hundred years change (1900 to 2100), which is enough time to see the visible changes in the climate. It clearly shows, how the temperature has increased over the time and how much it will f urther increase. However he counters the argument of dooms day prediction with his own model and mentions that it is not exactly possible to predict the climatic conditions as the scientists have claimed in their model. The reason he mentions is that climatic model depends on economic models, and slower economies and higher fuel prices will decrease the emission of gases in the atmosphere. And another reason against the climatic catastrophe is that "climate flips from one locally stable equilibrium to another" and it is not possible for climatologist at present to exactly predict what will happen, unless they come up with bigger and exhaustive models. The writer moves to "Impacts of the Climate Change" and mentions that two centuries ago man was highly dependent on day and light timing, but technology has changed he slavery to natural timing and now man is no longer dependent for his economic and agricultural needs upon natural environment. He provides solid arguments by mentioning the case of a business firm which wish to start business is not concerned about climate, even if the difference is as great as Moscow and Hong Kong (Moscow has an extreme cold temperature, while Hong Kong is an island and has mild temperature). The contrast is purposely mentioned to give the readers an idea of difference in temperature and making a business decision (Economic activity). The reason for such change is technology, which has enabled man to overcome the climatic difference and work in all kind of environments. He brings another arguments against the impact of climatic change, by mentioning the factors, such as precipitation, draughts, and natural disasters, which often have "socioeconomic impact" yet ignored by scientists. Normally scientists mention only temperature as a main factor to be influenced by climate for the reason that it is an easy way to refer to the climatic change. In reality this approach is flawed and more generic and is ignoring the impact of climate on the less developed countries of the world. Thus the conclusion is that the climatic prediction does not portray a full picture of the problem nor does it provide sufficient information as predicted by the scientists. The author does

Economic globalization Essay Example for Free

Economic globalization Essay Economic globalization has changed the concept of crime and justice from being unique to one area to now knowing no boundaries. Terrorism is the most recent issue brought before the world and knows no boundaries. Is terrorism a crime that screams for justice? Or a declaration of war? If we use traditional meanings we cannot use the term war because war is started by a state and the terrorist acts of today are by small groups with fundamental ideas. The United States has declared war on terror calling for justice after 911. The world was outraged and shocked. The terrorist attacks were intended to destroy the foundation of western society. The events did not change the world order, but did change the world none the less. Technology that has helped business to go global also enhanced criminal networks to go global also. Global crime begs for global justice. The increase in global crime needs a global response. There has been progress towards global law such as the international criminal tribune that began in the 1990’s for Rwanda and The International Criminal Courts, ICC, created in 1998 in Yugoslavia. These organizations created treaties that were recommended for use by the European Parliament (Delmar-Marty, 287). But the reluctance of the United States to acknowledge a need for global justice has prevented the concept from developing to its fullest potential. How the U. S. defines terrorism conflicts with international interpretation and this fact won’t help to end global crime. International criminal law, on the other hand, would help in global crime. The creation of these global courts would â€Å"guarantee the independence and impartiality of judges, for it recognizes that they represent different legal traditions, including that of Muslim states† (Delmar-Marty, 291). The concept of crime or what is deemed a crime varies from culture to culture, so that fact alone calls for an international court that can accomplish more than relying on each countries law for justice. In the article â€Å"Global Crime Calls for Global Justice†, the author suggests instead of using the word terrorism to decide criminality the term â€Å"crime against humanity† should be used. Giving recognition of universal values that would ensure not only protection of human rights but also dignity of human beings around the globe (2002, 292). So when looking at 911 one should consider it a terrorist act, but instead as a crime against humanity. The global war on terrorism is constricting the flow of financial support to terror groups through Argentina, Paraguay, and Brazil. To circumvent these measures, transnational terrorist organizations are moving deeper into organized criminal activity. This transition poses a tremendous challenge to states struggling with a threat that has changed significantly since September 11. As terror groups transform into hybrid criminal/terror entities and partner with criminal syndicates, the threat to the United States increasing every day. Over the past few years and increasingly in recent months, leading intelligence and national security minds have noted the growing threat created by the transformation and convergence of transnational organized crime and terrorist groups. While there is some debate as to whether these groups are converging or transforming, it is clear that this growing threat is complex and increasingly difficult to counter with standard law enforcement and military counter-measures. As the United States and other nations adjust to the post 911 world of stubborn problems such as the Iraqi insurgency, Afghanistan, and Al Qaeda, the nexus of organized crime and terrorism, especially between the tri-borders of Argentina, Paraguay and Brazil could prolong these challenges and lead to further disruptions and threats to global security and prosperity. Impediments to wholesale cooperation between the two parties remain, but the merging of transnational organized crime and international terrorism in these countries is nonetheless on the rise (Sanderson, 2007). Global economics has truly been the core of crime that is called terrorism. There has been a connection to terrorism and money from oil. In an article by D. Ekman Kaplin he suggests billions of dollars in oil money goes to fund global terror and their networks. The article in U. S. News and World Report showed that I the 1980’s Saudi Arabia’s somewhat official charities became the primary source of funding for the jihad movement that spanned some 20 countries. The money was used to run paramilitary training camps, buy weapons and recruit new members. The charities the Saudi’s had started was in hopes of spreading their fundamentalists ideas globally. The money that was raised went to build hundreds of radical mosques, schools and Islamic centers that supported networks for the jihad movement. This is despite the fact that the United States had knowledge of this since 1996. The U. S. felt that foreign terrorism outweighed fighting terrorism at that time. In 1998, when terrorist struck two U. S. Embassies in East Africa officials in the White House felt a better picture of just how much money and where this money was coming from was needed. This was where the connection was found and it was shocking. The White House enlisted the help of the CIA to answer questions into the funding of Al Qaeda and of the leaders, Osama Bin Laden’s personal finances. Most of the money Al Qaeda had was a direct source of fundraising by Saudi Arabia. An ally to America and the world’s largest producers of oil. Many believed and probably still do today, that Osama Bin Laden’s personal fortune and businesses in Sudan was the source of this funding. William Wechsler, director of the task force NSC (responsible for the investigation), stated that, â€Å"Al Qaeda was a constant fundraising machine† (Kaplan, 18). U. S. officials did not confront the Saudi’s about this fact until after Sept 11, 2001. In 25 years the Saudi’s have been â€Å"the single greatest force in spreading Islamic Fundamentalism. † (20). The Saudi’s unregulated charities have funneled hundreds of millions of dollars to Al Qaeda cells and jihad groups globally. U. S. Ambassadors, CIA station Chiefs and Cabinet secretaries were encouraged by Saudi’s using billions of dollars in contracts, grants and salaries, to turn a blind eye. When Washington refused to confront the Saudi’s on their part of the terrorist’s network. This was the failure point in sounding the alarm of the rising of the jihad movements globally and of the events of 911. The Saudi’s argued that their charities have done an enormous amount of good work and blames the problems on what they call â€Å"renegade offices† (22). Foreign advisor to the crown prince of Saudi Arabia promises that steps are being taken that will ensure that it never happens again. The fear is that some of the Saudi’s charities played more of a role in terrorist activities. These charities helped to make the more primitive jihadists and insurgents into a more sophisticated global movement. It seems that individuals that were spreading the Wahhabist doctrine, a doctrine held by the Saudi royal family, turned out to be the most radical of the believers in the holly wars. They poured huge sums of money into the newly formed Al Qaeda network. According to a 2002 report Al Qaeda and others jihadists received $300 million and $500 million from Saudi Charities and private donors (Kaplan, 2003). To fund the mujahideen in Afghanistan. Washington and Riyadh helped with some $3. billion to aid in the fight with soviets. Bin Laden personally helped gain millions from clerics in the Muslim world to aid in this cause. The Saudi charities were able to operate in some of the hottest spots around the globe. There was no control on how the money was spent, U. S. officials said. The charities were perfect front’s organizations. They provided safe houses, false identities, travel documents and arms. All the organization were able to dispense large amounts of cash with little or no documentation. The private foundations were not what Americans would call charities. At the time terrorism was not views as a threat and the link of Saudi Arabia with terrorism was not deem as important and kept on the back burner (Kaplan, 2003). In 1998 the CIA began an investigation in Chicago which led them to over $1. 2 million terrorist gained from a local chemical firm. The money had been sent t Hamas and the source of the money came from a Saudi charity. Saudi’s spread the money through-out Washington by the millions that helped to buy friends and influences. One group, Carlyle Group in particular, made huge amounts of money dealings with the Saudi’s. Top advisors for the group included former President George H. W. Bush, James Baker, his secretary of state and Frank Carlucci, former Secretary of Defense. Saudi investment in America was as much as $600 billion in U. S. banks and stock markets. In 1998 attacks on the U. S. Embassies in Kenya and Tanzania changed all of that. A Task force on terrorist’s finances was formed and in 1999 the charities were even closer linked to the jihad movement. In June of 2003 Saudi officials finally admitted something had gone very wrong and felt they were not at fault for their shortcomings on how funds from the charities were handled. But in 2003 a lawsuit was filed by the 900 members of families of the victims of 911 totaling over $1 trillion dollars and names Saudi princes, businessmen and charities that handled terrorist responsible for the 911 attacks. Reform for the Saudi’s society will be the ultimate test (Halloran, 2006). Presidents Bush’s military tribunal system is another way of the U. S. is attempting to control crime and terrorism. The system is struggling with issues that range from questions that arise such as, what would qualify an individual as a combatant and are the same rules for war applicable to the war on terror (Waldman, 2006). The United States government has come to another problem with the war on terror. In recent years U. S. anti-terrorism units has been slowly decreasing the assets that were frozen stating the effort to â€Å"lack of urgency† as the reason. President Bush disagrees and believes that in order to stop terrorism the flow of money must stop (Johnson, 2007). Since it is clear that terrorism is here for sometime and funding is a key force to keeping them active and needs to eliminated, it is still clear that international laws governing terror is still another key focus the globe needs to address.

My Philosophy of Education :: Teaching Education Essays

My Philosophy of Education As a future educator with a concentration in reading and social studies, I believe that students learn better in an environment where they are actively learning and teaching one another. I also believe children learn best through actively learning and applying the concepts they should be learning. I will hold myself to the following ethical foundations. I believe that every child, no matter who he/she is or what his/her circumstances are, deserves to receive a good education. I believe that equality for all children is absolutely necessary in the classroom., along with fairness, truth and honestly which play important roles in education. Therefore, I see myself as an existentialist in that children need freedom in education to find out who they are and to discover things for themselves. I also see myself as a progressivist. I believe that the classroom should a place where children feel comfortable and secure. I believe each child is different, and I must adapt my teaching to the way the child best learns. I believe axiology is important in education. The goal of education should not be that the child passes a test, but whether or not he or she actually learns what is needed to be known, and can use that knowledge in their life. My purpose is to guide and help them learn the things they will need for their lives and to do that with a positive attitude. My classroom will be a place where children can feel secure and equal. There will always be diversity in the classroom since no one is ever the same, but everyone deserves to have the best education possible and should not be looked down upon because of their ethnic background or race. I want the classroom to have a positive family-type atmosphere where everyone is supported and no one is put down. It will be a room that encourages the imaginations of the children and their curiosities.

Definition of Culture and Its Importance Essay

Human beings are considered the highest form of animals, behaving passionately social as a group, using language and understanding, and doing teamwork and intergroup rivalry. Culture then relates to everything that humans have, think and do as a member of the social group. Both existent and make-believe, humans have stuff like tools, weapons, languages, laws, music, art, material resources, technologies and systems that when taken jointly will give details of the past and describes the present. On the other hand, when ideas, values, attitudes, beliefs and ideologies are taken as a group, help explains religious partiality, political directives, mores and extensive range of social associations. In addition, humans do or perform activities among specific group or society based on nationality, religion, ethnic boundaries and even occupation and academic, which later on collectively form the prescribed accepted behavior. (Holt, D. & Wigginton, K. 2002). In 1997, culture was described by Geert Hofstede in his book, Cultures and Organizations as the â€Å"software of the mind†. While individuals all have the identical â€Å"hardware†, which is the human brain, their â€Å"software† or â€Å"programming† is rather diverse. It is an identical experience when interrelating with somebody from a dissimilar culture – their language, suppositions, body language and movement, morals, and other facets of their culture will not be logical when relocated to another’s orientation structure. There are three fundamental logical reasoning when it comes to culture, namely: 1. Superiority of experience in the fine arts and humanities; 2. A combined blueprint of human knowledge, trust, and manners that relies upon the aptitude for figurative thinking and social knowledge; and 3. The set of divided outlooks, principles, purposes, and practices that distinguishes an association, society or group. According to Holt and Wigginton (2002), culture is a concept in the field of anthropology that concerns with shared structure of attitudes, way of life, ownership, traits, tradition and morals that describes group actions, which can be observed in a family, ethnic group, a business organization or a society. Authority, leadership, work attitudes and ethical practices on the part of management are influenced by this shared structure. Workers also are influenced by cultural antecedents on how they recognize and understand quality performance, work responsibilities, their function in decision-making and attitude in following orders from superior, as well as insight of human rights. The daily demeanor of workers in terms of punctuality, following rules on safety standards and personal hygiene are also affected. Slight differences between any two or more cultural groups can be observed, which therefore requires sensitivity to understand cultural differences, especially in manners of proper handling of business transactions. This way, when difficulties are encounter they will be solved readily with positive results. Understanding Differences in Culture The basic requirements for human survival are standard, which means for people to live they need water, food, clothing, housing and security. However, scarcity of these necessities compels human to creatively expand manners of acquiring them in order to give solutions to these survival problems. For simple societies, economic and social behavior consists of uncomplicated activities like looking for and cooking food, crafting clothes, building houses and rearing children. On the other hand, for developed societies, roles go beyond work and domestic related actions and extend to production and distribution of goods and services in order to sustain their big areas of responsibilities. It is essential to know that differences in culture would mean that different cultures have a diversity of styles in looking at things, ways of dressing and expressing individuality and/or goodness. Education, social rank, religion, individuality, belief composition, precedent experience, warmth shown in the domicile, and a countless of other factors will influence an individual’s manners and mores. A good deal of dissimilarities in culture has something to do with foodstuff preparation, music, and what each culture considers good manners. There are really cultural and philosophy disparities and it is fine to have an appreciation about a civilization’s way of life. Hofstede’s Model of Cultural Dimensions A Dutch researcher by the name of Geert Hofstede made a cross-cultural study of organizational behavior using managers from different countries to produce profile of cultural differences. This model is the most famous Hofstede’s Model composed of five dimensions namely power distance, individualism, uncertainty avoidance, masculinity and long term orientation, which gives a comparative evaluation of group attributes. Said dimensions when used jointly, provide management sensible outlook regarding contradicting values and prototypes of manners among countries and groups. Power distance as a dimension relates to the degree of human inequalities. Hierarchical position and authority are the main focuses of a culture with high power distance. Less dominant member of the society acknowledge just being subordinates, who should always follow those who are leading. In societies with high power distance as exemplified by Japan, formal authority comes from the hierarchy where employees hardly ever go against a chain of command or subject into scrutiny the decisions of top management. The reverse is true with societies like the United States, Australia and New Zealand with low power distance, where both higher-ups and subordinates coordinate their decisions with one another and authority is not a big deal. However, for societies like Great Britain, Israel and Canada in particular, though they refuse to accept parity in social level, still they value the right of each person’s accomplishment (Holt, D. & Wigginton, K. , 2002). Individualism pertains to the degree of initiative in becoming independent against that of collective endeavor. Societies with high individualism placed importance on personal triumphs, advancement, escapades and self-sufficiency. This implies ignoring the extensive necessities of the society and making oneself and ones family the priority. Contradictory, culture with low degree of individualism supports family relationship, group synchronization, social order and devote to compromised ideas. Uncertainty avoidance (Holt, D. & Wigginton, K. , 2002) is the degree of open-mindedness for uncertainty and ambiguity, particularly to man’s search for Truth. It means the feeling of contentment and discontentment in shapeless circumstances which are unusual, unknown and unexpected. For majority of the societies, their religious beliefs stand as their manner of knowing the Absolute Truth. Japanese culture for instance, typifies a society that avoids uncertainty by creating detailed laws and standards in consonance with the norms of the society. There are also societies with dual philosophical beliefs that they do not consider any Absolute Truth and so they accept uncertainty within their organizations. Canadians, as an example do not prioritize ceremonies and company rites unlike the Japanese. The degree of motivational behavior based on value systems that are depicted in terms of being masculine or feminine is another dimension in the Hofstede’s Model termed masculinity. The focus of the said model is not on biological perspectives; however, the behavior is portrayed using gender. In countries with high masculinity, like Japan, men work and hold top positions in organization, while women stay at home to perform household chores and nurture children. In other words, there are distinct roles that women and men do in society. The priorities of people living in societies with high masculinity are achievement, wealth and expansion. Working professionals spent much of their time in work related activities and seldom take vacations to relieve their stress. When confronted with problems, the manners of settling these conflicts are done aggressively. On the opposite, countries that score low in masculinity give significance to their family, relationships and quality of life. There is equality in terms of positions for both men and women which could be observed in all aspects of their lives. Negotiation for people in societies with low masculinity is the best way to resolve misunderstandings and disagreements. They are also fond of working in flexible hours to give way for more vacations and relaxation. The fifth and newest cultural dimension is the long term orientation, founded on the teaching of Confucius on the East. Countries with high long term orientation can be described as being persistent, thrifty, having a sense of shame and organizing and observing relationship by status. On the other hand, those cultures with short term orientation have personal control and firmness, shield ones â€Å"face†, value ritual and give back to greetings, favors, and gifts.