Argumentative Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 1

Argumentative - Essay Example In absence of this, a reader will stop reading. For instance, an argumentative writing with no coherence demeans reading since readers cannot follow any organized logical flow of ideas. Such writings have disintegrated parts that the reader find hard to connect to derive any meaning or understanding of the reading. In addition, lack of a complete and sensible story discourages readers from engaging with an argumentative writing. Argumentative essays should be clear, complete, and relevant to the main point. For instance, an argumentative writing that fails to address both sides of an argument is incomplete, biased, and insufficient to the reader’s needs. All argumentative essays should be factual and grammatically correct to appease the reader and convince them to support the ideas presented in the text. An argumentative writing that presents incorrect information or uses an informal language discourages reading. Ideally, convincing texts must depict originality, creativity, and simplicity in presenting the central idea. Complex and unoriginal texts also discourage reading. For instance, argumentative writing that only presents what the reader knows is not

Dissertation in Science Education Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

In Science Education - Dissertation Example Example of the nature of the structuring that makes it possible for in-depth science research knowledge to be impacted includes the intensiveness of the program. For instance some teachers are brought up close with Cornell Center for Materials Research (CCMR) laboratories, which are facilitated by specialized laboratory managers, faculty and former students for as long as six weeks without a break (Cook et al, 2000). Normally, such mathematics and science teachers do not get the opportunity of having dedicated times with laboratory experiences with the standard of the CCMR Shared Experimental Facilities. Another relevant component of the RET program that is set to make it very easy for shared experiences to impact deep into teachers attending the program is the fact that the programs are structured such that participants work together as team. In effect, basic concepts that could prove difficult in their understanding are easily shared among team members for practical resolution. Ind eed, for the fact that the structure of the program is intense and focused on problem solving skills, set out by trained and skilled facility managers Sadler et al (2009) have noted that it has always been possible and easier for teachers attending the RET programs to have the kind of experiences that the programs require them to have. But it is important to note that the essence and idea behind the RET programs does not end with the mere acquisition of knowledge on research experiments for teachers. Rather, the major target of the program is the student, meaning that after teachers gain the experiences from the program, they should be in a position to passing these on to their students (Polloway, Patton and Serna, 2008). As teachers, it has always been expected that there will be the use of learner-centered and other creative approaches to teaching that make absorption of concepts taught easier for learners. However, some key factors have often inhibited this noble vision. Subseque ntly, students, who are the target products of the RET programs have not benefited fully from the programs (Rao, 2009). 1.3 Purpose of the Study Based on the background given and the problem identified earlier, the researcher seeks to use this proposal to clearly identify and spell out the factors that aid in the successful implementation of science and engineering practices into the regular classroom experience of teachers. Furthermore, ways by which teachers can be supported in their classroom after completion of any RET program to make implementation of experiences and subsequently improvement of student learning possible, shall also be outlined. 2.0 Background Literature 2.1 Measuring success of RET programs in Learners Several researchers in the area of science and mathematics education have studied the need to making the learner the end product of teachers’ success with the RET program. In this, a number of debates and arguments have come up was to why the focus on the systematic structure of the

Articles about Economy Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Articles about Economy - Research Paper Example Given the inelastic nature of the supply curve, the impact of a negative demand shock had been rather hard for the market. The result of this oversupply was a depreciation in house price by 45% from what it had been in 2008. In Dubai alone, the fall in equilibrium demand price had been as much as 58%, owing to a sharp fall in the number of tourists. Falling demand for houses is also evident from depreciation in the amount of rents being paid on houses; statistics show this fall amounting to 10% in 2010 from what it had been in 2008. An even more pestering issue is that the nation had invested so much into high-end ventures, that there arises no question of turning back which is why the UAE housing market is preparing to introduce another 26,000 units by 2011 (Menon, â€Å"More sharp falls ahead for UAE house prices†). 3 The stock market of UAE, for example, is a market that follows a competitive structure. Similar to the traits of a monopolistically competitive market, the stocks are found to be somewhat different in their innate features, either due to the brand names that are associated with them or due to the different rates of return that they offer. However, while the former is an apparent factor, dependent upon the perception of the investor, the latter is a variable one. In fact, it is the returns that a stock offers which determine the popularity of the same; the moment a rumour hits the market about a possible downfall, the demand for such a stock falls simultaneously. Hence, competitive market forces are the reason why there are any absences of barriers preventing the economic units to act according to the market moves. For instance, the global financial meltdown resulted to a downward revision of the UAE stock indices as was the case for almost every other nation around the world. Such a development resulted to a reduction in the number of investors in the UAE

How Accurate Is It to Say That the Black Power Movements Essay Example for Free

How Accurate Is It to Say That the Black Power Movements Essay In some ways I agree that the Black power Movements of the 1960’s achieved nothing for the Black people because by 1968 little had changed, and it is therefore easy to claim that Black Power movements achieved nothing, and in fact had a negative impact on black Americans. However in some ways I disagree because the Black Power movements in the early 1960s coincided with the peak of success for the Civil Rights campaign such as the freedom cities of 1966 or the Free D. C. movement. Firstly I agree that the Black Power Movements achieved nothing for Black people relations between King and other Civil Rights groups were never entirely secure, and he was often accused of taking credit for the efforts of others, for example in the student sit-ins of 1961. He was criticised for a cynical use of children in the Birmingham campaign of 1963 and for cowardice in halting the first Selma March. These attacks reflect internal rivalries that had nothing to do with Black Power. They increased after 1966 when he moved his focus to the north. The Chicago campaign of 1966 was a dismal failure and also revealed a cultural gap between the respectable bible-belt leaders of the south and the ghetto-based youth of the north, who found Malcolm X a more inspiring figure. The whole situation was made much worse by the war in Vietnam, which diverted money and media attention and created a widening gap between black and white communities. Many black people resented having to fight for a country that valued them so little, while white public opinion saw the refusal of some to serve, like Mohammed Ali, as unpatriotic. The most important point, however, is that once legal equality had been achieved in 1965 and the focus shifted to the social and economic effects of long-term discrimination, King’s methods were ineffective. Secondly the Chicago campaign. The Albany movement Thirdly the Memphis Sanitation workers strike. The Mississippi Freedom Summer On the other hand the Freedom cities were aimed to bring ‘home rule’ to the black community of Washington D. C. The project was started with the demonstration against the way the local schools were administered. Towards the end of 1966 the black citizens of Washington D. C. had won the right to elect their own school boards. SNCC gained $3 million worth of government funding to improve community policing. SNCC innovated similar projects for example in New York the campaign saw black people take control of the intermediate School in Harlem as well as in Mississippi set up a Child Development Group in which the group raised $1. 5 million from the churches and the federal government in order to set up 85 head start centres to support young children . Furthermore the March on Washington was a massive success groups such as the SCLC. SNCC, CORE and the NAACP were involved it was also to commemorate the 100 years since the Emancipation Proclamation was created the campaigned was initially designed to pass a Civil Rights Bill. 250,000 people marched to the Lincoln memorial to hear Kings famous ‘I have a dream speech’ as well as other figures of the Civil Rights Movement. The March drew a vast amount of media attention. The March ensured support for new civil rights legislation which gave the government power to desegregate southern states. It presented the civil rights movement as a united front. Additionally the Birmingham campaign aimed to desegregate the city’s largest shopping areas schools and public parks as well as demanding an end to racial discrimination in employment. ‘Bull’Connor obtained a court injunction against demonstrations in certain precincts to weaken protests. The 3rd of May the police demonstrators with high pressure fire hoses and arrested and imprisoned 1300 children which caused a media frenzy Kennedy was sickened by the images of police violence from Birmingham. The significance of the campaign was that the department stores were desegregated and the racial discrimination was ended. The Greensboro sit-ins were a success it aimed to desegregate public places such as restaurants or swimming pools. In February 1960 the sit-in escalated to 300 students by the fourth protest it became highly influential as there were similar protests like watch-ins in cinema which by the start of 1961 over 70,000 people black and white had taken part in demonstrations. The significance of the sit-ins brought a mass of media attention which increased the support towards the civil rights campaigns. By the end of 1961 810 towns had desegregated their public places. Woolworths lost decreased by a third during the campaign which showed the economic power of black people. Finally the Freedom rides designed to turn de jure victories of Morgan v. Virginia and Boynton v. Virginia into de facto desegregation of interstate transport and interstate transport facilities set up by SNCC and CORE. The significance of the freedom rides was that it showed that Kennedy supported the civil rights movement and that it marked a new high cooperation within the civil rights movements. The Poor Peoples Campaign aimed to create a coalition big enough to solve the social and economic problems identified during the Chicago campaign In conclusion the Black Power declined very quickly in the late 1960s because its organisation was very poor and it had little money to support itself. It also declined because the government preferred King’s the peaceful methods to the violence and hatred of Black Power. Thus it seemed as if Black Power had not achieved anything of real importance for black people, and was a factor in the ending of the civil rights movement as a whole. However, it can be said that Black Power did manage to achieve something for black people as a whole. Black Power leaders did try to help the people in the inner-city ghettos, and they did increase black pride and a sense of Black Nationalism. Malcolm X in particular was very important in raising the morale of many black people, and became a hero to young black people in the USA and around the world. The emergence of the Black Power movements in the early 1960s coincided with the peak of success for the Civil Rights campaign the legislation of 1964-65. Thereafter, the focus of campaigns had to move the practical issues related to social and economic deprivation, and the ability to exercise the rights that had been gained. By 1968 little had changed, and it is therefore easy to claim that Black Power movements achieved nothing, and in fact had a negative impact on black Americans. It is hard to deny that the Black Power movements had a damaging impact in the 1960s. The preaching of Elijah Mohammed and later Malcolm X that integration was impossible and undesirable, that white people were devils and Christianity just a legacy of slavery, created a mirror of white racism that could only be divisive. They rejected the support of white liberals and divided white from black. They subjected integrationist leaders like Martin Luther King to campaigns of personal abuse, calling him a hypocrite, a coward and an Uncle Tom. They even indulged in vicious internal feuding, such as the assassination of Malcolm X by members of the Nation of Islam in 1965. Incidents of violence, such as attacks on white people, the race riots of Harlem in 1964 and Watts in 1965, damaged the black community and created a white backlash. This threatened the promised government expenditure on housing, schools and job creation under the Great Society. As casualties from Vietnam increased, they campaigned against the draft and argued that black youths should not serve, infuriating an increasingly patriotic public and media. The existing Civil Rights movement disintegrated, as the student organisations led by SNCC under Stokely Carmichael adopted Black Power symbols and slogans, and refused to co-operate with Martin Luther King’s SCLC. The government and many white Americans saw the black communities as ungrateful, and King as a spent force. The links that had helped him to gain reforms and investment disappeared, and nothing of significance was achieved for black Americans after 1966. The emergence of Black Power was totally negative. 24. In many ways, however, this argument is over-simplified. The problems faced by the Civil Rights movement in the 1960s had begun to surface before the Black Power movements developed, and could be said to have contributed to their growth. Relations between King and other Civil Rights groups were never entirely secure, and he was often accused of taking credit for the efforts of others, for example in the student sit-ins of 1961. He was criticised for a cynical use of children in the Birmingham campaign of 1963 and for cowardice in halting the first Selma March. These attacks reflect internal rivalries that had nothing to do with Black Power. They increased after 1966 when he moved his focus to the north. The Chicago campaign of 1966 was a dismal failure and also revealed a cultural gap between the respectable bible-belt leaders of the south and the ghetto-based youth of the north, who found Malcolm X a more inspiring figure. The whole situation was made much worse by the war in Vietnam, which diverted money and media attention and created a widening gap between black and white communities. Many black people resented having to fight for a country that valued them so little, while white public opinion saw the refusal of some to serve, like Mohammed Ali, as unpatriotic. The most important point, however, is that once legal equality had been achieved in 1965 and the focus shifted to the social and economic effects of long-term discrimination, King’s methods were ineffective. This means that by 1966, methods of campaigning to improve conditions for black people had to change, and the Black Power movements did offer some alternatives. When the Black Panthers set up community projects and policed the housing estates of Chicago, they offered a more direct and practical form of help. More generally, Black Power offered black people a sense of their own culture and pride in their identity. The late 1960s saw changes in music, fashion and style that celebrated black identity rather than attempting to look like whites, such as the Afro hairstyles, the growth of a new soul music and the later development of hip-hop and rap. The use of Black Power salutes by American athletes offended many whites, but it drew the attention of the world to the continuing levels of discrimination suffered by many black Americans. It is difficult to measure the results, but it can be argued that by helping to maintain attention on the problems and demanding change, the Black Power movements helped the black communities to keep fighting for better conditions. By comparison with the gains made through ‘peaceful’ protest, the impact of Black Power was mixed and its achievements limited, but to claim that it achieved nothing for black people is an exaggeration.

OnLive: The Future of Gaming or Technological Disaster? Essay

OnLive: The Future of Gaming or Technological Disaster? The OnLive Company first proposed their plan to provide cloud-based gaming service to the public at the E3 conference, June 2009. To many of the enthusiasts at the conference, it seemed that an On-Demand service for video games was only natural, given that movies and music have already adopted cloud distribution. As Microsoft and Nintendo premiered their new resource-hungry consoles, OnLive demoed Crysis, a graphics intensive videogame, on an iPhone. The crowd was astonished by the games low-latency, and quality. CEO Steve Perlman also points out â€Å"we can deliver anything† through the cloud, including design applications, movies, and other forms of multimedia. OnLives idea to deploy the innovative service has not gone without criticism; many people are skeptical of their business plan and believe it to be impractical. In prospect, the OnLive service will revolutionize the gaming industry. After using the service for only a few minutes, I mused that gaming consoles would never again dominate the market. Along with games, OnLive’s interface is also a social network. It allows users to interact and share information, such as "Brag Clips" which are user-selected 10 second clips of memorable moments in their gameplay. Perhaps most importantly OnLive can be played through nearly every new device with an Internet connection, including iPhones, iPads, and Android devices. Currently on pre-order is OnLive’s â€Å"MicroConsole", a cigarette package-sized device that can connect to OnLive to a Television. Even the old IBM computer that has been sitting in your garage for years can run the newest games through OnLive. Whereas in the past gamers were forced to purchase the new Sony Pla... ...Perlman Gives Us His Post-launch Perspective.† Interviewed by Rich Brown. CNET News. Communication Network Inc., 15 July 2010. Web. 4 Nov. 2010. . Paul, Ryan. "40GB for $55 per Month: Time Warner Bandwidth Caps Arrive." Ars Technica. 3 June 2008. Web. 10 Nov. 2010. . MMOGchart. MMOG Subscriptions Market Share - April 2008. Digital image. MMOGchart.com. MMOGchart, Apr. 2008. Web. 7 Nov. 2010. . Rayburn, Dan. "The Rapid Decline in Bandwidth Costs Since 2005 -- Seeking Alpha." Seeking Alpha. Seeking Alpha, 2 June 2009. Web. 1 Nov. 2010. . "What Is MMOG?" GamesTotal.com. Games Total. Web. 6 Nov. 2010. . "What Is Pandora Radio?" WiseGEEK: Clear Answers for Common Questions. WiseGEEK. Web. 3 Nov. 2010. .

Comparing and Contrasting two Distinct Cultures Essay

Culture is a unique attribute of human beings that demarcate people over world on basis of their customs, beliefs, ideas, morals, characteristics, knowledge and set of values. Culture has been the greatest determinant of progress of civilization, binding the separate, isolated groups of individuals in form of societies founded on certain common principles while retaining scope of individual expansion and intellectual growth (Aronson, 1995). The distinction and variation induced due to numerous cultural components has resulted in the immense diversity and broadness, enriching the experience of human civilization. This paper looks at different cultural components that demarcate United States of America and Mexico, two neighbor countries sharing same geographical location, but widely different in their individual social, political, economic, and cultural evolution. Value component of culture The value component of various culture are generally measured over four parameters of (i) Individualism/Collectivism component; (ii) Hierarchy component; (iii) Risk taking/Conventional approach; (iv) gender power (Hofstede, 1980). USA and Mexico show considerable variance on these parameters. The cultural progression of Mexico makes it a society that focuses on collective performance and collective more than individual achievements, whereas USA’s culture is prominently reflected in it being a highly individualistic country. The society of Mexico shows a high degree of hierarchy, where personal and social power is divided on basis of position. In contrast, USA has a well structured meritocracy based system, where every individual is entitled every position of power, based on their individual capacity and faculties. Mexico is a high gender society, where males predominate in social, economic and political spheres while USA is a egalitarian, equality based country that principally and effectively treats every individual alike (Diaz and Draguns, 1999). Social Component of Culture The social component of culture defines the placeholder and roles of individual, family, friends, spouse, children and peers in the context of self, society and the nation (Diaz and Draguns, 1999). Mexicans conform to a family oriented society, with deep emotional affiliation within families, great emphasis on inter-personal relations, love, care and obedience to elders, forwarding the interests of family members, spouse and children before the self. Mexican parents have an extended role to play in life of their children, from ensuring their education to their acculturization in the family and social system. Mexican society prefers joint family system with two or three generations sharing the same roofs. American family system, on the other hand, is strictly limited to the nuclear scale of husband, wife and kids, placing high value on individual happiness and accomplishments (ibid). While Mexican families are deeply bounded by love and care and hence are closely knit, American families are focused on aggressively pursuing economic interests and promote the spirit of risk undertaking, traveling and even opt for possible settlements in distant geographic regions as the need comes. Thus Mexican culture has strongly embedded components of unity, collectivism, cohesion, and mutual help. On the other hand, the culture of USA is strongly oriented towards individual self reliance and economic preferences that define their behavioral framework. Reference Rolando Diaz-and Juris G. Draguns Personality and Person Perception across Cultures: Yueh-Ting Lee – editor, Clark R. McCauley – editor, Juris G. Draguns – editor. Publisher: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. Place of Publication: Mahwah, NJ. Publication Year: 1999 Hofstede, G. ( 1980). Cultures consequences: International differences in work-related values. Beverly Hills, CA: Sage.

Homosexuality in Hitchcock’s “Rope”

Discuss the representation of homosexuality in Sigmund Fraud's â€Å"The Sexual Aberrations† and Alfred Hitchcock Rope.. Based on the true murder case of Leopold and Loeb, Alfred Hitchcock Rope (1948) depicts the tale of two intelligent young men and there attempts to execute the perfect murder. With the entire film taking place in one apartment, we watch as Brandon Shaw and Phillip Morgan strangle there friend David, hide his body in a trunk, and proceed to have a party, all the while with the corpse hidden in plain sight.In this essay, I will address the issue of homosexuality within the text, a hero which, due to the strict nature of the times, is only hinted at within the movie. To do this, I will use Fraud's essay on The Sexual Aberrations (1905) and provide parallels between the two texts. In particular I will focus on Fraud's discussion of degeneration, sadism, masochism and finally fetishism. What is interesting when discussing homosexuality within this text, especiall y when viewed in context of what was believed to be sexually normal at the time, is whether the two murderers sexuality actually has any bearing on the crime itself.Or, more to he point, (and particularly when viewed with relevance to Fraud's Aberrations) is it the sexuality, or society's view on the sexuality that led Shaw and Morgan to the conclusion of murder? Freud, when discussing the term â€Å"degenerate†, disregards any preconceived beliefs of a link between it and homosexuality. He argues that a simple digression from normality does not qualify a person as degenerate (I. E morally corrupt).Therefore, an invert, or person of a homosexual inclination is not, at least as a result of their natural sexuality, a person of degenerate nature. To Freud, generation is as much a possibility within heterosexuals as homosexuals. The deviation from normality, in itself, has no bearing on it. â€Å"That the inverted are not degenerates in this qualified sense can be seen from the following facts:01. The inversion is found among persons who otherwise show no marked deviation from the normal. 2.It is found also among persons whose capabilities are not disturbed, who on the contrary are distinguished by especially high intellectual development†¦ † (Freud, The Sexual Aberrations, 1905) So, having established that the chances of degeneration are equal across the playing for field for all people of raying sexuality, are our two protagonists degenerate? The domineering force of Brandon Shaw would seem to fit nicely into Fraud's second category of being â€Å"distinguished by especially high intellectual development†¦ And, despite the guilt that slowly riddles itself into Phillips slightly cold demeanor, there is no hiding the obvious pleasure both gained from the planning and executing of their â€Å"perfect murder†. This pleasure would appear to be twofold; firstly in the physical act of the strangulation (note the phallic-like weapon of ch oice, changed from the original blunt hisses used by Leopold and Loeb), and secondly in the intellectual challenge and sense of superiority gained from committing and then hiding the act.These divergences lend themselves towards the category of sadism. From the offset, the authoritarian manner is quickly proven to be the driving force in the relationship; a fact that he relishes, and Philip excepts. This is exemplary of a sadomasochistic partnership. The Online Oxford dictionary defines sadism as, â€Å"the tendency to derive pleasure, especially sexual gratification, from inflicting pain, suffering, or humiliation on others† (http://expectoration's. Mom/definition/sadism? =sadism), and is, according to Freud, almost inseparable from its counterpart, masochism, the desire to be controlled and dominated by another. His belief that the two behaviors are often found coexisting within the same person, is explored in our two main characters. Firstly, we have Brandon, our sadist. I ntelligent, forceful and imperious, his real-life counterpart Richard Loeb was believed to be the driving force behind the Bobby Franks murder of 1924, as would seem to be the case in Hitchcock Rope.All these actions, in sequence, would seem to mirror and metaphors the generic sexual act: a physical encounter (again, note the symbol of the flaccid, phallic-like rope), a climax, slighted by Davit's final scream, and the moment of close, silent reflection between the two. What is key however, is the addition of one final action that Brandon and Phillip undergo before speaking and breaking their erotic spell: the hiding of the body, the evidence of their of their sexual deviations.They have replaced the act of sex, forbidden by concepts of social normality, with the act of murder, and, Just as they would have had to hide their physical relationship from the world, they hide the body. â€Å"The body's in the trunk and the sex is in the closet, yet both are hidden in plain sight† (Bourne, Review of Rope). This brings me back to the original question of whether it is the sexuality, or society's view of the sexuality that resulted in the murder.We have already established through Fraud's discussion of degeneration that moral corruption is not an inherent characteristic of have also acknowledged the fact that Brandon is, without a doubt, a sadist. I believe to properly interpret the actions of Brandon and Phillip, we must further investigate the strange link between aggression and eroticism seen in the opening scene.As mentioned before, homosexuality at the time, or any other form of deviation from the tankard male-female relationship, was socially feared and condemned as immoral and wrong. Freud, in his Civilization and its Discontents (1929) discusses the difficulties that arise with such discrimination, â€Å"As regards the sexually mature individual, the choice of an object is restricted to the opposite sex, and most extra- genital satisfactions are forbid den as perversions.The requirement, demonstrated in these prohibitions, that there shall be a single kind of sexual life for everyone, disregards the dissimilarities, whether innate or acquired, in the sexual constitution f human beings; it cuts Off fair number of them from sexual enjoyment, and so becomes a source of serious injustice† (Freud, Civilization and its Discontents, p. 549). It is this sense of injustice and frustration, both mental and physical that could potentially lead the invert into a state of degeneration.For Brandon and Phillip, their pent up sexual frustrations, symbolized in the limp rope, must be directed down a different avenue, unbalancing the mental process and disturbing the function of the libido. For both, this resulted in a release of sadistic aggression. â€Å"The sexuality of cost men shows a taint of aggression, it is a propensity to subdue, the biological significance of which lies in the necessity of overcoming the resistance of the sexual o bject by actions other than mere courting.Sadism would then correspond to an aggressive component of the sexual impulse which has become independent and exaggerated and has been brought to the foreground by displacement† (Freud, The Sexual Aberrations, 1905) But where Brandon would appear to be firmly planted in the category of ‘sadist', Phillip, confirming Fraud's previously mentioned belief of masochism nearly always accompanying sadism, is far more the sadomasochist. While obviously gaining Just as much pleasure from the violence as Brandon, Phillip doesn't seem to gain any such satisfaction from the sense of intellectual superiority that his partner does.While retaining his fascination with aggression and strangulation, (â€Å"You're quite a good chicken strangler as I recall†¦ (Rupert to Phillip, Rope, 1948), Phillip would appear content being dominated by Brandy's charm and force. When asked by Brandon about who else they might have killed instead of David, P hillip replies, â€Å"You perhaps, you frighten me, you always have, from that very iris day in prep school†¦ Part of your charm I suppose. † (Phillip, Rope, 1948).Even the smallest detail of having to ask for a drink gives evidence towards the obvious power- relationship between the two, and Leeds us to the conclusion that Phillip gains as much pleasure from his own dominance and suffering as he does from doing the same to others. Sadism is associated with activity, and masochism with passivity, of which both traits can be seen in Phillip, and only one in Brandon. â€Å"A sadist is simultaneously a masochist, though either the active or the passive side of the reversion may be more strongly developed and thus represent his preponderate sexual activity. (Freud, The Sexual Aberrations, 1905). And, in true masochistic fashion, Phillips twisted desire to be tortured (as far as the film is concerned only mentally) is matched only by Brandy's desire to play the torturer. The constant their guests, not only exercises his sense of intellectual supremacy over his guests, but also his power over the nervy Phillip. Brandon Shaw: Mrs.. Wilson, champagne! Kenneth: Oh, it isn't someone's birthday is it? Brandon Shaw: Don't look so worried, Kenneth. It's, uh, really almost the opposite. (Rope, 1948) These endless quips leave Phillip a helpless victim, suffering mentally, a fact which Brandon is clearly aware of and excited by. So strong is Phillips psychological discomfort, that, when the oblivious Mrs.. Wilson mistakenly greets Kenneth as David, Phillip squeezes and breaks his glass. The lingering of the camera on Phillips now bloody hand, and his slow, almost fascinated expression as he observes the bleeding wound, hints at the fixation he has with pain; a further, subtle, reference to his masochistic nature.Although on the surface, Brandon and Phillip seem entirely efferent in demeanor, there are definite traits that both characters share. I have already men tioned the fact that Freud argues the belief that sadism and masochism can often be found coexisting in the same person, and that this fact is confirmed with Phillips character, (his role in the murder, and his history of strangling the chickens), giving the two men a shared obsession with sadism. However, the more obvious similarity is in their fixation on the rope itself.While the main Freudian concept seen in Morgan and Shah's murder is that of sadomasochism, the concept of ethicist is also a possible tool of understanding within the text. What is interesting to note, and what draws attention to the object as much as its use as the title for the film, is Hitchcock decision to change the original murder weapon from a blunt chisel, to a rope. The symbol of their sexual frustrations, it also becomes a point of fixation for the two men.Freud when discussing fetishism as, † cases in which for the normal sexual object is substituted another which is related to it but which is tot ally unfit for the normal sexual aim†¦ The substitution for the sexual object is in mineral a part of the body but little adapted for sexual purposes, such as the foot, or hair, or an inanimate object which is in demonstrable relation with the sexual person, and mostly with the sexuality of the same† (Freud, The Sexual Aberrations, 1905).While the possibility of the rope being a a thing of fetishistic obsession for the two men could be argued, I believe the symbolism behind the object overrides this theory. I believe it is more the act of strangulation and murder that excites the two men, and that the rope itself merely acts as a symbolic image of their unfulfilled desires, and there need to hide those desires. Phillip Morgan: I was sure she'd notice it Brandon Shaw: Notice what? Phillip Morgan: The rope of course.Brandon we've got to hide it. Brandon Shaw: It's only a piece of rope Phillip, an ordinary household article, why hide it? It belongs in the kitchen drawer. (Ro pe, 1948) infamous for it's long, unbroken shots, thoughtful and witty dialogue and brooding sense of tension. However it is only when viewed with relevance to Freudian ideas of sexual inversion and perversion that the text takes on an entirely new level of intellectual depth. Fraud's essay on The Sexual Aberrations (1905) and Hatcheck'sRope (1948), would appear to be complimentary of each other in concepts of sexual aggression and sadomasochistic relationships, with each giving power and thought to concepts found in the other. It is my opinion, that this new level of understanding gained through Fraud's writings, elevates this movie to higher class which maintains its impact almost 60 years after it was originally filmed. Mark Bourne, Rope, http://www. DVD]urinal. Com/reviews/r/rope. SHTML Civilization and its Discontents, Freud 1929 http://www. Bartlett. Mom/278/1 . HTML http://expectoration's. Com/definition/sadism? Q=sadism t is the balance between the libidinal forces of the in dividual and the requirements of society, as represented through the superego, which constitutes a state of normalcy and is precisely what the boys were not able to produce The sexuality of most men shows a taint of aggression, it is a propensity to subdue, the biological significance of which lies in the necessity of overcoming the resistance of the sexual object by actions other than mere courting.Sadism would then correspond to an aggressive component of the sexual impulse which has become independent and exaggerated and has been brought to the foreground by displacement Brandon Shaw

Global Biodiversity Data and Information Essay Example

Global Biodiversity Data and Information Essay Example Global Biodiversity Data and Information Essay Global Biodiversity Data and Information Essay 1964). Other datasets available under this category are presented in the Tables 1 and 2. Table 1 List of selected global biodiversity data Data Major world ecosystem (Olson et al. 1983) Global eco-regions (Bailey, 1989) Global biodiversity â€Å"hot spots† Mathews vegetation, cultivation intensity and albedo Mathews global vegetation, land use and seasonal albedo World vegetation cover (Fedorova et al. , 1994) Global primary productivity:phytomass, NPP, and mortmass (Bazilevich, 1994) World wilderness areas Natural wetlands (Mathews and Fung) World vegetation map (Murai and Honda, 1987) FAO-UNESCO soil map of the world Frontier forests of he world Status of the worlds coral reefs Monthly global vegetation index Forest resources of the world Global assessment of human induced soil degradation World terrestrial biomes (Cox and Moore, 1993) BSL = Blackwell Scientific, London GRID= Global Resource Information Database FAO = Food and Agriculture Organization UNEP = United Nations Environm ent Programme WRI = World Resources Institute Format Digital raster Digital vector N/a Digital raster Digital raster Digital raster Digital raster Digital vector Digital raster Digital raster Digital vector N/a 100 x 100 Digital raster Tabular data Digital vector paper Spatial resoluton 0. 0 x 0. 50 0. 30 x 0. 30 N/a 10 x 10 10 x 10 100 x 100 100 x 100 1:2 M 10 x 10 12. 7kmx12. 7km 1:5 M N/a 4 km x 4 km 100 x 100 1:10 M Source GRID-Geneva GRID-Geneva CI NGDC NGDC NGDC NGDC UNEP GRID-Geneva GRID-Geneva FAO WRI WRI NGDC FAO ISIRC BSL CI = Conservation International NGDC = National Geophysical Data Center WCMC = World Conservation Monitoring Center ISIRC= International Soil Reference and Information Centre 5 Table 2. Data available for Marine Resources Data Data Source Coastline data World Resources Institute Marine fisheries data FAO Coral reefs data WCMC, UNEP, and IUCN Inshore marine fishes data International Centre for Living Aquatic Resources Management (ICLARM), FAO and IUCN Seagrasses Incompletely collated Mangrove Available from various sources Marine Turtles Available from various sources Paine (1997) prepared a world ranking of mega-biodiversity countries (see Table 3). These countries have been ranked according to the species richness of mammals, birds and flowering plants of all the countries of the world. Table 3. World ranking of mega-biodiversity countries (Paine,1997) Country Mammals Mexico 450 Indonesia 436 Zaire 415 Brazil 394 China 394 Colombia 359 Peru 344 India 316 Venezuela 305 Ecuador 302 Cameroon 297 Malaysia 286 Australia 252 South Africa 247 Panama 218 Papua New Guinea 214 Vietnam 213 Costa Rica 205 Philippines 153 Madagascar 105 Birds 1,026 1,531 1,096 1,635 1,244 1,695 1,678 1,219 1,296 1,559 874 736 751 790 926 708 761 850 556 253 Flowering Plants 25,000 27,500 11,000 55,000 30,000 50,000 17,121 15,000 20,000 18,250 8,000 15,000 15,000 23,000 9,000 10,000 7,000 11,000 8,000 9,000 4. Conservation areas data There are currently about 30,350 protected areas in the world covering more than 13. 23 million square kilometers i. e. about 8. 83% of the land on Earth (Green and Paine, 1997). Of these, 2,149 protected areas (2. 5 million square kilometers) are known to have at least some marine element, of which 824 are island-protected areas. A comprehensive list of 6 these prot ected areas can be found in â€Å"the 1997 United Nations List of National Parks and Protected Areas† (IUCN, 1998). The UN list provides information on the protected areas of the world which are greater than 1,000 ha. nd falling under one of the IUCN categories. The IUCN classification designed for cross-country comparisons omits some significant sites such as areas less than 1,000 ha. , hunting reserves, and areas managed by private organizations. The World Conservation Monitoring Centre (WCMC) maintains a larger database of protected areas that includes forestry reserves, private nature reserves and other protected areas and indigenous reserves in addition to IUCN defined protected areas. Both UN list and protected areas database can be accessed through the WCMC database at www. wcmc. org. The Man and Biosphere program (MAB) is guided by the MAB International Cocoordinating Council consisting of 34 Member States elected by the UNESCO General Conference. Programme activities are conducted in more than 100 countries under the direction of MAB National Committees or focal points. As of December 1999, there are about 357 MAB reserves worldwide. Biosphere reserves are alternative types of protected areas designed primarily for â€Å"in situ† conservation of natural and semi- natural areas, sustainable management of natural resources for local people, scientific research and monitoring, and environmental education and training. The MAB Programme is an interdisciplinary programme of research and training intended to develop the rational use and conservation of the resources of the biosphere, and to improve global relationship between people and the environment. A detailed list of the Man and Biosphere Reserves can be found at the UNESCO Biosphere Reserve Directory at unesco. org/mab/bios1-2. htm. UNESCO also operates a COastal and MARine programme (COMAR) for marine environment. There are about 1,011 Ramsar wetlands covering an area of over 71. million hectares. These areas as designated following The Convention on Wetlands, signed in Ramsar, Iran, in 1971. The Conventions mission is â€Å"the conservation and wise use of wetlands by national action and international cooperation as a means to achieving sustainable development throughout the world†. Detailed information on the Ramsar sites can be found at www. ramsar. org. Currently, there are about 582 â€Å"World Heritage Sites† of which 445 are cultural, 117 are natural, and 20 are of mixed types. These areas are classified as â€Å"outstanding universal value† with the principal aim of fostering international cooperation in safeguarding these important sites. World Heritage lists are established following the convention concerning the protection of the world cultural and natural heritage in Paris in 1972. Detailed information of these sites are available at UNESCO’s official website www. unesco. org/whc/heritage. htm. 4. 3 Species data Species information is considered as the basic unit of documenting and describing biological diversity. This is supported by sound theoretical as well as operational reasons (Stanton and Lattin, 1989). Microbiologists, however, are in disagreement with this approach who highlighted the importance of having a different approach in defining 7 biodiversity. Serious attempts are in place to us e alternative basis for measuring biological diversity. It is extremely difficult to inventory all the species on Earth. This is the reason why the exact number of species on Earth is unknown. A conservative estimate ranges from 3 to 100 million species. For practical purposes, a total of 12. million species has been estimated as the known species. Out of this, only 1. 7 million species have been described. (see Table 4). This figure suggests that only 13% of species on Earth have yet been described. Furthermore, comprehensive catalogues of all 1. 7 million species are not available and are poorly known in biological terms. Table 4. Known and estimated total number of species on Earth (WCMC, 1992). G roups Known Estimated total % number of number of known species species species 950,000 8,000,000 11. 9 70,000 1,000,000 7. 0 75,000 750,000 10. 15,000 500,000 3. 0 5,000 500,000 1. 0 4,000 400,000 1. 0 250,000 300,000 83. 3 40,000 200,000 10. 0 40,000 200,000 10. 0 70,000 200,000 35. 0 40,000 150,000 26. 7 45,000 50,000 90. 0 1,700,000 12,500,000 13. 6 Insects Fungi Arachnids Nematodes Viruses Bacteria Plants Protozoans Algae Molluscs Crustaceans Vertebrates World Total The available information, in some cases, is inaccurate and biased. Inaccurate because it contains errors of taxonomic judgment and biased because a detailed and relatively accurate information is available only for some groups. As shown in the Table 4, description of species has dominated by the world of animals and plants, frequently ignoring fungi and micro-organisms. Viruses, bacteria, fungi, insects, algae and nematodes are among the least described species (Table 5. ). 8 Table 5. Approximate number of described species, number of estimated species and working figure (in thousands) of least described species group (UNEP, 1995) Species Described species 4 4 72 40 270 25 950 1,362 Number species low of estimated Working figure high 1,000 400 3,000 1,000 2,700 1,500 1,000 400 500 320 1,000 400 100,000 8,000 109,200 12,020 Viruses Bacteria Fungi Algae Plants Nematodes Insects Total 50 50 200 150 300 100 2,000 2,850 Continental distribution of these described species (global total) shows that Africa, Asia and the Pacific, and Latin America has the highest biodiversity. Moist tropical forests cover approximately 8% of the world’s land surface but holds more than 90% of the world’s species. The information on species richness would consist of a complete catalogue of all the species occurring in the country or area under consideration. In practice, this is extremely difficult to achieve. Species composition changes through time and majority of the species are very small and are difficult to identify and count in situ. Moreover, collecting and counting all micro-organisms even for a small area is extremely difficult. For this reason, country species diversity data are predominantly available for mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, freshwater fishes, flowering plants, conifers and cycads, ferns and higher plants. In practice, overall species counts tend to be used for terrestrial vertebrates (mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians), for some group of fishes and for few well-known invertebrate groups such as butterflies and dragonflies. Under such circumstances, information on endemism, which refers to a species confined entirely to that area or country, is important in relation to its importance in a wider context Out of 250,000 flowering plant species, around 200 have been domesticated as food plants of which 25-30 are a crop of major world importance, judged largely by global production and economic criteria. FAO 1984 data suggest that there are more than 100 species that are significant at the national level. However, this database does not cover crops from home-gardens and data from many countries are missing. A list of data and information on species available from various sources are presented in the Table 6. 9 Table 6. A List of available data and information on Species 1. 2. 3. Known numbers of invasive and native species in various countries/areas The percentage of threatened terrestrial vertebrate species affected by introductions in the continental landmasses of the different biogeographic realms and on the worlds islands. Countries species diversity (mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, freshwater fishes, flowering plants, conifers and cycads, ferns and higher plants) including total species, endemic species, and breeding species IUCN red list of Threatened species including endangered, vulnerable, rare, indeterminate and insufficiently known for mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, fishes, invertibates and plants The numbers of new species of organisms described as new to science in 1992 compared with the number of authors involved and the number of known and stimated species National red data books Major food crops with family/species, production, origin of species, major germplasm collections, no. of species in genus, species status, distribution of genus, other species in genus used and conservation notes Domestic livestock Approximate number of described species currently recognized together with number of estimated species (low and high) and working figure with accuracy The number of species o f flowering plants recorded in floras of areas of different sized from all parts of the world. Number of recorded species extinctions since 1600 Estimates of the number of described species and possible undescribed species of microorganisms Major groups of organisms: described species as proportions of the global total Major groups of organisms: possibly-existing species as proportions of the global total Regions of high bryophyte diversity Selected orders and families of mosses Selected orders and families of liverworts (including hornworts) Lichen diversity by specific region Orders and families of larger green algae Orders and families of brown algae Orders and families of red algae Diversity of marine algal (Seaweed) floras Stonewort diversity Distribution of higher plants by continents Species richness and endemism: higher plants (flowering plants, gymnosperms, ferns, number of endemics, %endemism) 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20. 21. 22. 23. 24. 25. CITES, the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, ma intains a data base of the most endangered species (Appendix I) and other species at risk (Appendix II and Appendix III). Appendix I include all species threatened with extinction, which are or may be affected by trade. Appendix II includes all species that are not necessarily threatened with extinction but may become extinct in the future and other species, which are similar to these species. Appendix III includes all species that any party identifies as being subject to regulation within its jurisdiction for the purpose of preventing or restricting exploitation. The following table provides an update of number of species on the CITES Appendices 10 Table 7. Number of Species on the CITES Appendices Appendix I Species Sub species Populns Appendix II Species Sub species Populns Appendix III Species Sub species Populns Mammals Birds Reptiles Amphibians Fish Invertebrates Plants (estimate) Total 219 145 62 8 64 310 821 21 13 4 5 3 47 14 2 5 1 22 364 1263 383 54 32 10 14 1 3 1 18 56 149 19 5 229 11 11 1 1 68 2006 1 24881 3 28993 100 A number of international initiatives are in place to describe and document species at the global level. The WCMC provides information on globally threatened animals and plants, including searchable databases of the IUCN Red Lists. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Plants and Animals provides taxonomic, conservation status and distribution information on species that have been evaluated using the IUCN Red List categories. In general, the Red List of Threatened Plants and Animals provide information on the relative threat and risk of overall extinction. The rate of decline and population status are considered for categorizing species as â€Å"Critically Endangered†, â€Å"Endangered†, or â€Å"Vulnerable†. The 1996 Red List also includes information on species that are categorized as â€Å"Extinct†, â€Å"Extinct in the Wild†, â€Å"Lower Risk†, and â€Å"insufficient data†. Insufficient data is for the species that cannot be assessed or information on the species in not available. Data and information on birds are available from Birdlife International. The National Red Data Books, on the other hand, provide information on the national flora and fauna that are subjected to highest risk of extinction. The 1996 IUCN Red List of Threatened Animals includes 7,123 threatened species including Extinct, Extinct in the Wild, Critically Endangered, Endangered, Lower Risk and Data Deficient. Out of the total, 639 species are believed to be either Extinct (E) or Extinct in the Wild (EW). Similarly, 5,205 species are classified as Endangered (EN), or Vulnerable (VU) or at Lower Risk (LR). In addition, 1279 species are classified as Data Deficient (DD). Vulnerable species are further subdivided into conservation dependent (134 species), near threatened (1997 species), and least concern (973 species). The 1997 IUCN Red List of Threatened Plants include 33,798 species that includes Extinct (Ex), Extinct/Endangered (Ex/E), Endangered (E), Vulnerable (V), Rare (R), and Intermediate. The 1997 IUCN Red Lists of Threatened Plants and Threatened Animals are presented in Fig. 2 and Fig. 3, respectively. . 11 4070 380 371 14504 6522 Ex Ex/E E V R 7951 I Fig. 2. The 1997 IUCN Red List of Threatened Plants (UNEP, 1999) Fig. 3 IUCN Red List of Threatened Animals by Continents (UNEP, 1999) In 1994, WCMC, in collaboration with IUCN, UNEP, and WWF, published a biodiversity data source book, available in both tabular and map format, providing information on country species diversity, threatened species by country, national red data books, major food crops by country, marine resources, forest in the tropics, and national protected areas and systematics collections. SPECIES 2000 initiative of the International Organization of Plant Information (IOPI) provides an index of the world’s known species. The project aims to provide a uniform and validated quality index of names of all known species for use as a practical tool. This is an electronic database of species list, which provides a database of species index and special annual checklist available through electronic media (i. e. internet and CD). SPECIES 2000 can be accessed in www. species2000. org 12 CAB International is well known for providing abstracts of internationally published scientific research literature. Plant sciences program of CAB International covers information on all â€Å"plant species of economic importance†. A detailed list of species can be found in the â€Å"list of proposed species for Global Module of Forestry Compendium†. The information can be accessed from www. cabi. org. The World Species List (WSL), Plants, Animals and Microbes, established in 1994, also maintains data on species including animals, plants, microbes and endangered species that can be accessed from http://envirolink. rg/species/. 4. 4 Genetic Data Data and information on genetic diversity are available at three levels: Genetic variability between individuals within population; Genetic variations among populations within species; and Diversity among species. Genetic resources data are basically a repository of samp les of living materials of animals, plants, fungi, or micro-organisms, generally in a dormant or other phase in which they are not actively growing (Hawksworth, 1995). Genetic resources information are collected mainly to ensure the conservation of genetic diversity in the future, the main purpose of which is to use it for breeding purposes. The collection can also be used as a source material for its characterization and evaluation. Thus, it is extremely important to conserve adequate stocks followed by regular monitoring and updating. The collections might include stores of gametes, pollen, seeds, spores, tissue cultures and embryos (Hawksworth, 1995). The storage can be maintained in long-term storage facilities as well as in field gene banks. Materials that are not possible to maintain in the dormant form can be maintained in field gene banks, as in the case of some cultivated crops (IPGRI, 1993). The following table provides information on the types of genetic resources collection. Table 8. Types of genetic resources collection Plant genetic resource Animal genetic resource Microbial genetic collections collections resource collections Seed samples Embryos and Cultures of algae, Spore samples semen under bacteria, fungi Pollen samples cryogenic storage Protozoa and Field gene banks Groups of living viruses as well as Embryos animals kept under materials derived Tissues supervision in an from them in the Cell suspensions exclusive area form of cDNA, etc. Networks of plasmids, vectors, breeding groups cell lines etc. 13 The conservation of genetic resources can be managed in situ or ex situ. In situ conservation is maintained in their original habitat and reproducing within the environment in which they evolved and continue to do so. Ex situ conservation is maintained outside their habitats, stored in a reproductively dormant condition. Worldwide over 150 major crop gene banks are held by international, regional, and national institutions, both public and private (Hawksworth, 1995). International Agricultural Research Centres (IARCs) by the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) concentrate on land races and cultivars of particular crops and their wild relatives while the storage of seed and other propagules of wild plants is the primary focus of most botanic garden gene banks. Collectively, CGIAR centers hold the largest ex situ collection in the world with some 510,000 accessions (about 10% of the total holdings), but this is believed to correspond to approximately 35% of all accessions held in ex situ collections (FAO, 1994). Regional gene banks include the Nordic Gene Bank and the Southern African Development Community (SADC) Gene Bank. Few examples of national gene banks include the National Bureau of Plant Genetic Resources (India), the plant Genetic Resources Centre (Ethiopia), the M. I. Vavilov Institute of Plant Industry (Russia), and the United States Plant Germ Plasm System (Plucknett et al. 1987). A sizable number of botanic gardens and arboreta are also serving as a seed bank. There are about 528 botanic gardens and arboreta having a seed bank (Hawksworth, 1995). What is the minimum requirements of genetic variation in wild species that need to be stored for the future is a question that has not yet been answered. However, there is a general agreement on the fact that the current system of germplasm collections (mainly seed banks) does not provide an adequate representation of the world’s flora. Some species is well represented while others are not. For example, less than 1% of the world’s plant species comprise more than 60% of the accessions (Halloy, 1990). Similarly, there are 333,413 accessions of rice (Oryza sativa) alone (WCMC, 1992). In contrary to this, the existing gene banks contain a mere 0. 5% of the species actually used by humans. The genetic resources collections of animal husbandry are poorly represented. For example, there are only a few genetic resouce collections of local wild populations of salmon (Salmo salar) from different rivers in Norway and Iceland (Gausen, 1993). In several countries one or more of the indigenous breeds of livestock are represented in genetic resource collections, organized in ways, which reflect the livestock traditions of that country, without having collections from other countries (Hawksworth, 1995). Efforts are being placed to store microbial collections that are important for both biosystematics and human utilization. The World Data Center for Microorganisms (WDCM) holds a database of 786,328 microorganism strains held by 482 collections from 58 countries of which 44% are fungi including yeasts, 43% bacteria, 2% viruses, 1% live cells and 10% others i. e. plasmids, plant cells, and algae (Sugawara et al. 1993). Fur ther 35% of all strains are held by only ten collections (Hawksworth, 1995). The World Federation of Culture Collections (WFCC) coordinates the activities of culture collections at the global level. There are other organizations at regional and international levels, such as the European Culture Collection Organization (ECCO), Microbial Strain 14 Data Network (MSDN), and the Microbian Resource Centers (MIRCENs) of UNESCO, actively involved in culture collections. International Plant Genetic Resources Institute (IPGRI) is also involving in setting priorities for research and inventory and furthering development of a network of national and regional centers for plant germplasm conservation. 4. Biological reference collections Biological reference collections comprise of permanently preserved specimens, recording and photographs maintained in museums, universities, botanic gardens, zoological and similar institutions or by individual scientists. Such collections are the major tools n ecessary for basic investigation and assessment of biodiversity. Duckworth et al. (1993) estimate that there are some 2. 5 billion specimens in preserved biological reference collections, out of which around 2 million museum specimen records are now available in the Internet (Mille, 1993). There are almost 1,600 botanic gardens and arboreta worldwide and majority of the gardens are located either in Europe or in North America (Hawksworth, 1995). A total of 431 botanic gardens are found in North America alone. This clearly indicates that the distribution and dimensions of biological reference collections is skewed towards developed countries in temperate regions. Nevertheless, significant holdings are being built up in less developed regions; for example, the natural history museum of Zimbabwe holds 5. 3 million specimens representing at least 58,000 different species (Cotterill et al. 1993). The total number of accessions of taxa held in botanic gardens is over 3. 2 million consisting of 80,000 species (WWF and IUCN). This represents about 30% of the known species of flowering plants and ferns and 25% of those estimated in the world. The global database maintained by Botanic Gardens Conservation International (BGCI) has already documented holdings of 250,000 accessions and includes records from over 350 institutions, representing about 30,000 species (Leadley et al. 1993). Data held by BGCI indicate that the floras of many major tropical and sub-tropical continental countries, such as Brazil, Colombia, Indonesia, and Zaire as well as othe rs especially in Africa and South America are poorly represented in botanic garden collections. The floras of North America, temperate South America, and Asia, Australia and New Zealand and South Africa are well represented. Also well represented are the endemic floras of many oceanic island groups, especially Macronesia, the Mascarene Islands and Hawaii. Usually, exotic species are given priority in many botanic gardens for aesthetic purposes. A recent trend, however, is to focus on and give priority to the cultivation of indigenous species particularly those that are threatened or endangered. This novel initiative, appreciated by many, will add significantly to the scientific as well as conservation value to the endemic species recourses. 15 5. Major International Conventions The following sub-sections provides brief descriptions on the major international conventions. CBD: Convention on Biological Diversity: The Convention on Biological Diversitys objectives are the conservation of biological diversity, the sustainable use of its components and the fair and equitable sharing of the benefits arising out of the utilization of genetic resources. The Convention is thus the first global comprehensive agreement to address all aspects of biological diversity: genetic resources, species, and ecosystems. It recognizes for the first time that the conservation of biological diversity is a common concern of humankind and an integr al part of the development process. To achieve its objectives, the Convention in accordance with the spirit of the Rio Declaration on Environment and Development promotes a renewed partnership among countries. Its provisions on scientific and technical cooperation, access to genetic resources, and the transfer of environmentally sound technologies form the foundations of this partnership. As of January, 2000, 176 countries have ratified the convention. CMS: Convention on Migratory Species The Convention on Migratory Species (CMS) aims to protect those species of wild animals that migrate across or outside national boundaries. This includes conservation of terrestrial, marine and avian species over the whole of their migratory range. The convention was concluded in 1979 and came into force on 1 November 1983. As of December 1999, 68 states have ratified the convention. CITES: The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora CITES, is an international treaty drawn up in 1973 to protect wildlife against overexploitation and to prevent international trade from threatening species with extinction. The treaty entered into force on 1 July 1975 and now has a membership of 146 countries. Ramsar Convention: Convention on Wetlands of International Importance The Convention on Wetlands, signed in Ramsar, Iran, in 1971, is an intergovernmental treaty that provides the framework for national action and international cooperation for the conservation and wise use of wetlands and their resources. There are presently 117 Contracting Parties to the Convention. The World Heritage Convention The Convention Concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage (the World Heritage Convention) was adopted by the General Conference of UNESCO in 1972. As of October 1999, more than 158 countries have signed the convention. This is one of the most universal international legal instruments for the protection of the cultural and natural heritage. 16 6. International Efforts The following are the discussion on the major initiatives of generating and maintaining biodiversity data and information at the global level. BIONET BONET (Biodiversity Action Network) was established in 1993. BIONET aims â€Å"to help build international agreement among governments on concrete actions and targets needed to achieve the objectives of the CBD, with a special focus on forests and marine/coastal systems and to help catalyze specific national- level action to implement the CBD†. Its mission is to advocate the effective implementation of the Biodiversity Convention worldwide, primarily through coordinated, joint NGO programs and information dissemination designed to catalyze governmental action. For additional information please refer to Appendix-1. DIVERSITAS Diversitas programme of IUBS (International Union of Biological Sciences), SCOPE (the Scientific Committee on Problems of the Environment) of the International Council of Scientific Unions (ICSU) and UNESCO was initiated in 1992. DIVERSITAS attempts â€Å"to inventorying and monitoring of biodiversity at the global level†. It has 3 main themes: (i) inventorying and monitoring of overall biodiversity at all levels from genes to ecosystems incorporating both marine and terrestrial ecosystem, (ii) dentify scientific issues and promote research requiring international coordination on the ecosystem function of biodiversity, the origins, maintenance and the practical consequences of current changes on the natural and managed ecosystems that support mankind, and (iii) develop prioritized agendas for research. For additional information please refer to Appendix-1. CENPLANK The Centre for Plankton Collection, Sorting and Identification (CENPLANK) of Szczecin and Gynia, Poland, is an international project, the objective of which is to focus on long-term changes in the status of coastal marine ecosystems using plankton as a means of inventorying and understanding variability in the species biodiversity and abundance levels of ichthyplankton (fish, egg and larvae) and zooplankton components of large marine ecosystems. For additional information please refer to Appendix-1. FISHBASE The FISHBASE project developed by ICLARM and FAO is a database of fishes that provides information on nomenclature, distribution, ecology, reproduction, growth and mortality. For additional information please refer to Appendix-1. FOREST RESOURCES ASSESSMENT (FRA): FRA-2000 of Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations aims to perform a global analysis of the distribution of forest ecosystem. Forest resources assessment and deforestation data are available for 1980 and 1990 in a country by country basis. For additional information please refer to Appendix-1. 17 GBIF: The Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) was proposed by the OECD Megascienc e Forum working group on biological informatics subgroups for biodiversity informatics. The broad goal of the GBIF is to provide the most up-to-date and thorough biodiversity information in timely manner to policy- and decision makers, science and society, in all countries. For additional information please refer to Appendix-1. GOOS Global Ocean Observing System (GOOS) was set up by UNESCOs International Oceanographic Commission. It is a permanent international system for gathering, processing and analyzing oceanographic observation from the open ocean and from coastal and shelf seas. For additional information please refer to Appendix-1. GTOS The Global Terrestrial Observing System (GTOS) is a joint initiative by the FAO, WMO, UNEP, UNESCO and the International Council of Scientific Unions (ICSU). GTOS aims â€Å"to provide scientific coordinated, permanent, observational framework with adequate spatial coverage and temporal continuity to produce data to enable to detect, quantify, locate and understand changes in the capacity of terrestrial ecosystems to support sustainable development†. For additional information please refer to Appendix-1. ICTVdB The database of ICTVdB (International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses DataBase) is an Index of Virum authorized by ICTV and has been constructed by Cornelia BuchenOsmond, Bioinformatics Group, Australian National University. The index provides a list of approved virus names linked to virus descriptions coded from information in Virus Taxonomy and includes updates subsequently approved by ICTV. For additional information please refer to Appendix-1. IOPI and Species 2000 The International Organization for Plant Information (IOPI) aims â€Å"to produce a checklist of the worlds vascular plant species through a coordinated effort involving numerous specialists and institutions†. IUBS in their 25th General Assembly in 1994 introduced SPECIES 2000 program the goal of which is â€Å"to provide a uniform and validated quality index of names of all known species for use as a practical tool†. The index will be used to provide (i) an electronic baseline species list for use in inventorying projects worldwide; (ii) the index for an Internet gateway to species databases worldwide; (iii) a reference system for comparison between inventories; and (iv) a comprehensive worldwide catalogue for checking the status, classification and naming of species. For additional information please refer to Appendix-1. 18 ISIS The International Species Inventory System (ISIS) is a global network designed to (i) help the management of zoological collection; and (ii) enable zoos to meet their increasing conservation responsibilities. The ISIS maintains a centralized computer database of census, demographic, genealogical and laboratory data for wild species held in captivity. For additional information please refer to Appendix-1. LME The Large Marine Ecosystem program (LME) aims to monitor Large Marine Ecosystem consisting of fish, plankton, marine mammals and birds by coastal nations. The principal focus of which, however, is on fish. For additional information please refer to Appendix1. MICRENS MIRCEN (Microbial Resources Centres) program of UNESCO is a network of existing academic and/or research institutes in developed and developing countries. These centres, in co-operation with the concerned National Commissions of Member States and governmental authorities, participate in a global collaborative network effort to: provide a global infrastructure which would incorporate national, regional, and interregional co-operating laboratories geared to the management, distribution, and utilization of the microbial gene pools; reinforce the conservation of microorganisms, with emphasis on rhizobium gene pools, in developing countries, with an agrarian base; foster the development of new inexpensive technologies native to specific regions; promote the economic and environmental applications of microbiology; and serve as focal centres in the network for the training of manpower. For additional information please refer to Appendix-1. Systematics Agenda 2000 International SA 2000 is a proposal of discovery and research proposed by a Consortium of three international societies of systematic biologists: the American Society of Plant T axonomists, the Society of Systematic Biologiest and the Willi Hennig Society in cooperation with the Association for Systematic Collection. The Systematics Agenda 2000 International aims â€Å"to promote systematic/taxonomic research in all countries and regions in order to support ongoing activities to conserve and sustainably use their biodiversity†. The main activities will be to develop international programs of systematic inventorying, phylogenetic research, the creation of systematic knowledge bases, and the promotion of systematic infrastructure and training. For additional information please refer to Appendix-1. 19 Trichoptera World Checklist The checklist is maintained by the Trichoptera Checklist Coordinating Committee and the searchable database is hosted by Clemson University of USA. For additional information please refer to Appendix-1. Besides above, the following initiatives are also worth mentioning. Bin-21: Biodiversity Information Network; Biome Summaries maintained by SI/MAB program of Smithsonian Institution; Forestry compendium published by CAB International; ETI: Expert center for Taxonomic Identification, University of Amsterdem is a database describing all existing animals and plants of the world in digital form; The World Heritage List from UNESCO; Frontier forests of the world by WRI; Biodiversity â€Å"Hot Spots† by Conservation International; and Protected areas database, 1997 UN list of protected areas, conservation database of species, forest, marine and national biodiversity profiles, the world list of threatened trees, The 1996 IUCN red list of threatened animals and threatened plans of the world, world distribution of coral reefs and mangroves maintained by WCMC. 7. Selected Global Biodiversity information centres. The following is a list of selected global biodiversity information centres. This is not a comprehensive list but provides information on the major initiatives. ) 2) 3) 4) 5) 6) 7) 8) 9) 10) 11) 12) 13) BirdLife International Botanic Gardens Conservation International Conservation Inernational CAB International Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research Clearing house mechanism of the Convention on Biological Diversity European Environment Agency Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations International Council of Scientific Unions International Centre for Living Aquatic Resources Management International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis International Plant Genetic Resources Institute International Species Information System 14) IUCN The World Conservation Union 15) National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration 16) The Nature Conservancy 17) TRAFFIC International 18) UNEP Global Resource Information Database 19) UNEP International Environmental Information System 20) United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization 21) United Nations Statistical Division: UNSTAT 22) United States Geological Survey 23) Wetland Internati onal 24) World Conservation Monitoring Centre For detailed information please refer to Appendix-1. 20 8. Resources on the Web Increasingly more and more global biodiversity data and information are available on the web. Appendix-1 presents a list of biodiversity resources on the web. 9. Present Direction Considering the enormous amount and varieties of biodiversity data and information, it is difficult to generalize the present direction of these datasets, however, the general trend is that majority of the data are increasingly available in digital form. The recent trend is that many of these datasets are being collected, maintained and/or distributed using Internet. User friendly Internet mapping techniques are emerging in which a user could prepare and print a map based on his or her criteria. A sizeable number of biodiversity data are also available in CDs. The available datasets are biased i. e. detailed datasets are available for few parameters while a limited amount of data are available for others. However, core data sets are improving, expanding and becoming more easily available. More encouragingly, a number of INGO’s such as WWF, IUCN, Conservation International, and Wetland International are actively contributing to the generation and maintenance of global biodiversity data and information. 10. Problems/Obstacles Problems and obstacles of the availability and accessibility of global biodiversity data are vast and varied. This is primarily because biodiversity data comes from different disciplines and the data volume is extremely large. Moreover, biodiversity data are represented by terrestrial, marine and freshwater ecosystems ranging from ecosystem to genetic levels, thus making it difficult to compile and distribute all the data globally. It is hard to generalize problems and obstacles of biodiversity data and information but a common pattern observed is that the barriers to the availability and accessibility of these products are of the social characteristics rather than technical. For example, many organizations and individuals generating these datasets are reluctant to share available data and information in the fear of loosing their importance in the future. They also feel ownership of the data and reluctant to share with others. A common bias has been observed in collecting and maintaining biodiversity data and information at the global level. Less data are available on utilization aspects of biodiversity conservation compared to conservation. Similarly, more detailed data sets are available for some species as opposed to very limited amount of data for others. Problems and obstacles of biodiversity data and information can be summarized into the following two broad categories. 21 1. Technical Lack of capabilities: Users are unable to use the data; Some of the available data are outdated. In some cases we are working with 70’s and 80’s data in the absence of regular monitoring mechanism. Species data/information is inaccurate and in many cases contradictory primarily because it is extremely difficult to inventory all species on Earth; The availability of coarse resolution digital data with a spatial resolution of 1 KM to 16 KMs. These data sets have little meaning at the implementation level; Lack of basic biological knowledge on species and their variability; Poor understanding of genetics and population biology of the taxa in question; Lack of appropriate techniques for long-term preservation of specimens and genetic resources; Methodology/software not fully developed to collect and manage large volume of biodiversity data; Although collections of some of the world’s major crops are extensive and relatively secure, the situation for many other crop and tree gene pools is far less satisfactory; Biodiversity sample surveys and validation are difficult to implement internationally; Unknown data quality: very little information is available about data quality; Data conversion is a problem because of the incompatible data format; Lack of data consistency including both spatial and temporal; and Quality control of the data available on the Internet is an issue needs closer attention. Many organizations an d scientists are not willing to placed their primary data and informa tion on the web. 2. Management Lack of knowledge of existence: available datasets are not known to the user communities; Lack of willingness to share: the importance of data and information is not fully realized; Information does not meet user requirements because of incorrect format, inadequate documentation, poor quality data, not scientifically credible etc. Data acquisition is being carried out independent of the interest of end users; Not enough feedback and validation during the process of data collection among data collectors, collators, disseminators and users; High cost involved in data collection, constant update, and regular monitoring; Inadequate resources available to discover, describe and catalogue the species of organisms found on Earth; Lack of secure funding and funding mechanism especially in the long term; Shortage of trained people to collect and classify specimens data; Poor social and political awareness on the use of global biodiversity data; and Poor awareness of the strategic and long-term value of genetic resource collections among policy makes researchers and potential users. 22 Poor accessibility of global biodiversity data and information has been cited as one of the major problem for the use of the data for decision-making. The accessibility is hindered by numerous factors, including the following: The cost associated with the data; Restricted access; Lack of knowledge of existence; Lack of integration; and The poor channels of communication. 11. Recommendations for Future directions The following are the set of recommendations for future directions. 1. Data generation is a long-term process that calls for constant commitment from the concerned agencies and individuals. At this point, it is necessary to assess biodiversity data and information already available within existing collections and identification and prioritization of missing or under represented species, geographic regions and environments; 2. Development of a framework and guidelines for future global biodiversity database development is necessary to improve the quality and usefulness of the data; 3. Greater efforts are necessary to generate new global biodiversity datasets, maintain the existing ones, distribute the available data dynamically and use the data appropriately; 4. It is very important to ensure that the resulting information is useful and used by their target audiences. Target audiences might include policy and decision makers, science and society across the globe. One of the basic requirements to achieve this is to improve communication between data producers and users. 5. Concerted effort is essential towards the development and use of technological, sociological, organizational tools and approaches for the dynamic acquisition, indexing, modeling, dissemination, storage, querying, retrieval, visualization, integration, analysis, synthesis, sharing, and publication of global biodiversity data and information. 6. Partnership and collaboration is necessary to maximize benefits. To achieve this, distributed data collectio n approach should be adopted, wherever possible; 7. Availability of higher resolution (better resolution) data is needed in many cases. This could be facilitated by the use of satellite data such as Landsat TM, SPOT, IRS WIFS, and MODIS; 8. Multi-scale approach of data generation should be adopted so as to collect 1:1 million data at the global level, 1:500K to1:250K at the regional level; 1:250K to 1:100K at the sub-regional level, 1:50K at the national level and 1:10K to 1:5K and better at the local level. Emphasis should be placed in generating data that are useful at the national level; and 9. Development of improved management methods for long-term secure conservation, including the maintenance of genetic integrity is necessary. The use of existing genetic collections as part of sustainable development is equally important. 23 Summary An attempt has been made to review the availability and accessibility of global biodiversity data and information. Published reports and Internet resources were the major sources of information for the review. This is by no means a comprehensive review of all the available global biodiversity data and information. The availability and accessibility of global biodiversity data and information have been described under five main categories, namely: global data, conservation area data, species data, genetic data and biological reference collections. Because biodiversity data nd information are vast and varied, it is extremely difficult to generalize the findings. However, it was evident that majority of the data are increasingly available in digital form. The available datasets are biased i. e. detailed datasets are available for few parameters while a limited amount of data are a vailable for others. Similarly, available datasets are concentrated in developed countries in the temperate regions. In general, core data sets are improving, expanding and becoming more easily available. More encouragingly, a number of INGO’s such as WWF, IUCN, Conservation International, and Wetland International are actively contributing to the generation and maintenance of global biodiversity data and information. Users of global biodiversity data include national institutions, regional groupings, international institutions, international funding agencies, bilateral development agencies, international environmental and conservation groups and scientific communities. The barriers to the availability and accessibility of global biodiversity data and information are of the social characteristics rather than technical. Problems and obstacles in collecting, maintaining and distributing biodiversity data and information have been listed. A set of recommendation to improve the present situation has been proposed. 24 References: Bailey, R. G. , 1989. Ecoregions of the Continents. U. S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Washington D. C. , USA Bisby, F. A. , 1995. Characterization of Biodiversity, Global Biodiversity Assessment. United Nations Environment Programme, Nairobi, Kenya. Chauvet, M. , Oliver, L. , 1993. La biodiversite Enjeu planetaire. Preserver notre patrimoine genetique. Editions Sang de la Terre, Paris. Cotterill, E. P. D. , Hustler, C. W. , Sparrow, A. L. , and Broadley, D. G. , 1993. Conservation of biodiversity in Africa: the role of Natural History Museum of Zimbabwe. The Zimbabwe Science News 27:32-34. Cox, C. B. , and Moore, P. D. , 1993. Biogeography: An ecological and evolutionary approach. Blackwell Scientific Publications, London. Duckworth, W. D. , Genoways, H. H. , and Rose, C. L. , 1993. Preserving Natural Science Collections: Chronicle of our environmental heritage. National Institute for the Conservation of Cultural Property, Washington, DC, USA. FAO, 1994. STRIPE Study on Genetic Resources in the CGIAR, AGR/TAC:IAR/94/2. 1 The Secretariat, Aprial 1994, Rome. Green, M. J. B. , and Paine, J. , 1997. State of the world’s protected areas at the end of the twentieth century. Paper presented at IUCN World Commission on Protected Areas Symposium on â€Å"Protected Areas in the 21st . Century: From Islands to Networks†, Albany, Australia, 24-29 November, 1997. Halloway, J. , 1983. The role of taxonomy, reference works and insect collections in tropical ecology. Antenna 7:50-53. Hawksworth, D. L. , 1995. The Resources Base for Biodiversity Assessments. Global Biodiversity Assessment, United Nations Environment Programme, Kenya. Hayden, B. P. , Ray, C. G. , and Dolan, R. , 1984. Classification of coastal and marine environments. Environmental Conservation. 11:199-207. Hengeveld, R. , 1990. Dynamic Biogeography. Cambridge Unicvversity Press, Cambridge, UK. Holdridge, L. R. , 1967. Life Zone Ecology. Tropical Science Center, San Jose, USA IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resouces) 1998. 1997 United Nations List of Protected Areas. Prepared by WCMC and WCPA. IUCN, Gland, Switzerland and Cambridge, UK. 1xii + 412pp. 25 IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resouces), 1994. IUCN Red List Categoeis. IUCN, Gland. IPGRI, 1993. Diversity for Development. The Strategy of the International Plant Generic Resources Institute. International Plant Genetic Resources Institute, Rome. Leadley, E. , Wyse Jackson, D. , and Wyse Jackson P. , 1993. Developing the BGCI database of botanic gardens and their collections worldwide. Botanic Gardens Conservation News 2 (2): 61-64. Lovejoy, T. E. , 1980a. Conservation Biology: An evolutionary-ecological perspective, v- ix. Sinauer Associates, Suderland, USA. Lovejoy, T. E. , 1980b. Changes in Biological Diversity. The Global 2000 report to the president. Vol. 2 (the technical report), Penguin Books, USA. McNeely, J. A. , Miller, K. R. , Reid, W. Mittermeier, R. and Werner, T. , 1990. Conserving the World’s Biological Diversity. IUCN, WRI, World Bank, WWF-US, CI, USA. Miller, S. E. , 1993. Biological Collections databases available on Internet. Pacific Science Association Bulletin 45:14-15. Norse, E. A. , Rosenbaum, K. L. , Wilcove, D. S. , Wilcox, B. A. , Romme, W. H. , Johnston, D. W. , and Stout, M. L. , 1986. Conserving Biological Diversity in our Natural Forests. The Wilderness Society, Washington, USA. Olson, J. S. , Watts, J. A. , and Allision, L. J. , 1983. Carbon in Live Vegetation of Major World Ecosystems. Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, USA Paine, J. R. , 1997. Status, trends and future scenarios for forest conservatin including protected areas in the Asia-pacific Region. Asia-Pacific Forestry Sector Outlook Study Working Paper Seris No. 4, FAO, Rome. Plucknett, D. L. , Smith, N. J. M. , Williams, J. T. , and Anishetty, M. N. , 1987. Gene Banks and the World Food. Princeton University Press, Princeton, USA. Reid, W. V. , and Miller, M. R. , 1989. Keeping Options Alive. World Resources Institute, Washington, USA. Stanton, N. L. , and Lattin, J. D. , 1989. In defence of species. Bioscience 36:368-373 Sugawara, H. , Ma, J. , Miyazaki, S. , Shimura, J. and Takishima, Y. (eds), 1993. Word directory of collections and cultures of Microorganisms: Bacteria, fungi, and yeasts. 4th . Edn. WFCC, World Data Cemter on Micororganisms, Japan. Takhtajan, A. , 1969. Flowering plants, Origins and Dispersal. Oliver and Boyd, Edinburgh, UK. Udvardy, M. D. F. , 1975. A Classification of the Biogeographical Provinces of the World. IUCN Occasional Paper No. 18 IUCN, Gland, Switzerland. 26 UNEP, 1999. Global Environment Outlook-2000. United Nations Environment Programme, Nairobi, Kenya. UNEP, 1995. Global Biodiversity Assessment. United Nations Environment Programme, Nairobi, Kenya. UNEP, 1993. Guidelines for Country Studies on Biological Diversity. United Nations Environment Programme, Nairobi, Kenya. WCMC, 1992. Global Biodiversity: Status of Earth Living Resources. World Conservation Monitoring Center, Cambridge, UK. Wilson, E. O. , 1984. Biophilia. Harward University Press, Cambridge, USA Wilson, E. O. , and Peters, F. M. , (eds), 1988. Biodiversity. National Academy Press, Washington DC. USA. 27 Appendix-1: List of Biodiversity Resources on the Web Agenda 21 Alice Software: for creating and managing biodiversity databases

buy custom Incapacitating the Terrorist Networks essay

buy custom Incapacitating the Terrorist Networks essay There needs to be a long lasting solution to be issue of terrorism. The fact that these groups keep on uniting when they are disbanded calls for their incapacitation. The federal government and its allies are making attempts to deny the terrorists what they require to survive and operate overseas. The United States aims to uncover the terrorists hideouts away from the homeland. To achieve this, the government has made efforts to understand the trends, actions and events that take place on the land air, space and maritime (Bush, 2007, par. 14). This calls for the understanding of the daily occurrence of the activities. With such knowledge it becomes quite easy to identify any anomaly in the occurrence of events which could be indications of terrorist activities. This is made possible by the use of Intelligence led policing. Is it possible to incapacitate the al Qaeda? It should be noted that as much as Intelligence led policing might be good strategy to understanding anomaly occurrences in the society; it might at times be not quite effective in curbing the spread of terrorism. The reason for this stand is the dynamism displayed by the members of the al Qaida. Bush (2007) believes that terrorists are likely to change their tactics of waging terrorism (par. 15). This should not be taken for granted because as knowledge is being dispersed it becomes possible for terrorists to understand the security systems. Furthermore, it can be simple for the terrorists to strike individually. These are just some of the challenges which are being faced by the government. Still there are further worries about the ease with which some of the weapons can be devised. If we take the example of the improvised explosive devices (IED) the same which were disrupted in the 2006 U.K based plot to blow up some commercial airline (Bush p. 20). The terrorist do ot have to bother carrying around these weapons as they ca n be easily devised in the homeland. Is not possible to devise such weapons from the homeland hotels rooms? To answer that consider what Bush (2007) writes concerning their devising, given the ready availability of IED components and the relative technological ease with which they can be fashioned (Bush par. 20). This shows the vulnerability of to which the nation is exposed to. Are the arguments above meant to demean the efforts being out forth by the homeland security measures? The answer is no. Actually, according to Carafano (2007) there have been 19 attempted which have thwarted by homeland security (check in the index diagram II) (par. 3). The arguments above are meant, in fact, to strengthen the home land security system. If you consider Diagram 1 below, the homeland security system operates in four levels which keep on switching as explained above. The homeland security system should use these facts to make improvements in its operations. The department should engage more intelligence agents from outside America to enable it fight terrorism. The nations of the world should view terrorism as a common enemy of peace and therefore pool resources especially intelligence reports to enable the tracking down of the terrorists havens and also thwart any planned terrorist act. It will be of significant help if the government steps to the hideouts of the terrorist groups and uproot them. President Obama has taken initiatives to take the war to the safe havens of the terrorist. The president advocates for collaboration process to take place especially between the government of U.S. and Pakistan which is known to provide a safe haven for the terrorists (Eisenhower, 2009, par. 6). Eisenhower (2009) argues that the al Qaida leadership has crossed over from the Afghanistan to the remote parts of Pakistan. In these areas the group leeaders have been conducting training for new members and communicating with the rest of the group members (Eisenhower, 2009, par. 7). By uprooting these groups there will have no base to operate from hence they would have been incapacitated. The Obama administration are on the right track though there are regions which are providing or can easily provide safe havens for the al Qaida group. An example of such a region is Somali. This region does not have a stable government and of late there have been so many cases of high sea piracy originating from this region. The Somali pirates have caused a lot anxiety to the ship plying that route of the sea. Such a region a region can easily attract a group such as al Qaida to settle in the region and use piracy as a means of getting money in form of ransom to achieve its objectives. The U.S. should prompt the UN to stabilize the region to avoid another breeding region for the al Qaida. Bush (2007) makes very far sighted recommendation on the terrorism issues. He believes that there is a need for the Islamic nations to teach ideologies which promote peace. Structure should be put in place to ensure that the ideologies are taught. Spreading of hatred literature should be put to stop (Bush, 2007, par. 17). This will lead to a new blood generation which harbors no hatred. There is a need for solutions to found or developed for issues which draw some tension between the western world and the Islamic states. Such issues include the boundary issues between the Israel and its neighbors especially Palestine. The fight of terrorism is one which requires a pool of efforts from different regions. The U.S. through its homeland security has made much effort to ensure that terrorists do not infiltrate the homeland region. The terrorists are quite dynamic and as such the security the need for security needs to be tightened. Buy custom Incapacitating the Terrorist Networks essay

Grant Writing Tips

Grant Writing Tips Grant Writing Tips Grant Writing Tips By Guest Author This is a guest post by Cristy Rodriguez. If you want to write for Daily Writing Tips check the guidelines here. A grant is a simple request for funds that entails a description of a specific need and the proposed program that will fill that need. It is the applicant’s responsibility and goal to present a strong enough case to convince a possible funder that they are worthy of receiving a grant. There is a basic format that can be followed and used as an outline when putting a grant together. Many funding organizations and foundations have different sets of guidelines that should be followed. It is important that you carefully research each foundation’s mission, area of interests and grant guidelines. Look to answer these questions and any others that seem relevant to your search. What is their sole basis for setting funds aside for this call for proposals? What program areas are they looking to fund? Are they only considering awarding funds to certain entities (non-profits, schools, churches, etc.), certain geographic areas or populations? Do not overlook their funding restrictions, some foundations list what they do not accept and or fund. Make sure your program and needs match with the foundations scope. You must also gather information from the organization (who you are writing for) to help put the grant together. Meet with the organization’s key contacts to plan out a program design. Find out what kind of grant they are looking for, what important needs need to be met. What do they hope to accomplish through this proposed program? Discuss what their plans for sustainability are. The feedback you receive is quite vital to the grant layout and presentation. Gather materials on the organization’s background, mission and list of past and former programs and activities. Once you have chosen a foundation and have gathered all your research materials, you are now ready to begin writing a grant. Most of what is detailed here is what foundations are looking for in a grant. The following can be used as a guide to get you started on the grant writing process. 1. Executive Summary- Usually one page Proposed program summary Solution- What the program will accomplish Program cost Organization experience and capacity- Brief statements to establish credibility with similar programs 2. Statement of Need- Two pages Reason(s) proposed program is needed, supported with statistical information Reasons the organization is the right candidate to fulfill those need(s) 3. Program Description- Three pages Program design and implementation Goals and Objectives Methods- Steps taken to accomplish program objectives Program Evaluation- The methods for reporting program results, by whom and when. How will you measure success? What are your plans for improvement? Plan for sustainability- How will the program continue once funding is gone? Program staff 4. Organizational Information- One page Mission and History Summary of past and former programs Accomplishments 5. Program Budget- One page Provide an outline of all program costs and expenses. Be sure to review their guidelines on what they do not fund. 6. Attachments- Varies 501 Â © 3- Tax exemption letter Organization Bylaws and Articles of Incorporation List of Board members Financial Statements Letters of support When you have compiled all these elements you will now have a basic draft or model to use for future grant writing projects. Of course, this is to give you an idea of what most foundations ask for. You should always follow their grant guidelines and instructions. About the author: Cristy Rodriguez, former grant writer and a regular contributor to Associated Content. Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Business Writing category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:Types of RhymeComma Before ButStarting a Business Letter with Dear Mr.