Kosovo Conflict Essays - AlbaniaSerbia Relations, Kosovo War

Kosovo Conflict Kosovo Background of Kosovo: -The Balkans have been a very unstable region for hundreds of years. The reason for contention is because of ethnic origin and disputes of which race owns which land.. That is the reason for the dispute over Kosovo is because of the same thing. This is a very complicated situation, that I don't really know everything about. I just kind of know the basics. Back in the 1500 hundreds, the Serbs conquered the Kosovo area, slowly and gradually over the years the Ethnic Albanians started occupying the territory, until before the bombing began, Kosovo consisted of 90% Ethnic Albanians. Well, the Serbs didn't like this, especially Milosevic who is the ruler over Serbia. Since Kosovo has many historical ties to the Serbs, and the Serbs conquered that territory back in the 1500 hundreds, Milosevic wanted to reclaim their rightful territory. And his method to do this was through ethnic cleansing Kosovo. Stats: -Milosevic has been doing this subtlety for years, and as of last fall has increased his killing of ethnic Albainians. To date, there are now 200,00 people dead as a result of Milosevic's ethnic cleansing. That is probably a very low figure. 100,000 Kosovar men are now missing, which might be the reason for the mass graves that have been pictured. Nearly one half a million people have been expelled from their homes, many forced out at gunpoint, while the Serbian troops destroyed their identity papers, making them unable to return to their homes. This flood of refugees have overwhelmed neighboring countries, who are economically weak, and are unable to take in all the refugees. 600,000 Kosovars are surviving off the land in mountains nearby. Controversy: -You might wonder what business the U.S. has in a country on the other side of the world, where it seems to be no political interest whatsoever. That is a big controversery of whether or not NATO should be involved. At first I was against NATO involvement for just those reasons, why should NATO get involved where there would be no benefit to us, because this was more of a humanitarian issue. But as I researched this and read more about it, I am in favor of NATO involvement. I believe that we should do everything possible to help stop Tyrants from killing innocent people. Which is what was and is occuring in Kosovo. -But I am against NATO in who, why and how NATO is handling this conflict. Who: -NATO is very hypocritical by saying they got involved in this situation purely because of humanitarian reasons. There have been many occasions where the U.S. looked the other way on bigger humanitarian disasters. In West Africa, there was a similar ethnic cleansing situation where the U.S. did not get involved. Why: -In the begging, where NATO was on the verge of bombing Kosovo, Clinton spoke in a public meeting about why we were getting involved. He said, trying to get public approval, that the reason the U.S. is getting involved is largely an economical reason. He said that this war would help the U.S. financially. By getting involved, we would become partners with Europe, thus increasing a trade relationship. That is what I am against. I am against the U.S./Clinton thinking more about how much money we can get, rather than saving innocent lives from being brutally murdered. -After the bombing had dragged on for longer than expected, which was only about a week in some people's opinion, the objectives were stated as follows: To stop ethnic cleansing, stop flood of refugees into nieghboring countries, stop NATO from splitting, prevent Milosevic from strengthening his grip on the Balkan region. And, after over 2 months of involvement, NATO has not been able to meet those objectives. -Bob Bennet said that the current bombing has been no help to the Albanians and Macedonians, who have seen hundreds of thousands of refugees flood across the borders into their ill-equipped countries. It has been of no help to NATO, an alliance that has seen its military stocks drawn down to dangerously low levels, with no effects on the atrocities going on in the killing fields. -One speculated reason to get involved was because of the military stategic point in the

How planet of the apes is an anti-war film

How planet of the apes is an anti-war film Some things aren't always what they seem, sometimes there more sometimes there less. In many cases there is a hidden meaning or clues that suggest theirs more than meets the eye. One particular film that caught my attention is planet of the apes the story of slavery, and history repeating itself. Its cryptic value is so hard to see I had to watch it three times to find it. When I finally found it I wondered how I missed it the two times earlier. The movie itself is intensely interesting and entertaining. But I have learned to look past the prevalent and see the unseen. Past all the make-up and special effects theirs significance to the fact that apes have taken mans place.Man has always had an obsession with death and war. Its nothing we can explain or rationalize. Man will always slay one another and destroy everything that could ever matter.English: Total world nuclear power capacity, in GW...In planet of the apes man destroys man leaving only apes to take their place. We blew each other up until there was almost nothing left we could blow up. We lead ourselves to our own destruction. Without cause or reason we will attack our brother, our friend, our family. There is a point where man could kill his own blood for a futile motive like land, money, drugs, and power or privilege. When you really think about it it's so ludicrous we could think of it as laughable. In fact we have even put it in comedies like half-baked, lion king, and a bugs life. We think of these as simple and innocent movies with a safe moral. A man will kill a man for something as small as a bag with a plant in it or seat in a castle. Is a crown worth...

EBay, Net-a-porter, and Topshop Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

EBay, Net-a-porter, and Topshop - Essay Example The transaction at eBay is all through auction, and the auction period can be set for 3, 5 or 7 days at the discretion of the seller. Once the successful bidder is decided based on the highest bid through the auction, e-mail is sent automatically to both the parties. The contract has to be concluded within three days, and in the event that the contract is not concluded within the stipulated time, the seller has the option to start a fresh contract with the purchaser that has suggested the second highest bid. Â  The purchaser has the right and option to inquire about the quality, delivery method and period, payment and condition of the auction products before placing the bid. This results from the philosophy of eBay that they do not guarantee the quality of the products auctioned at eBay. They leave this to the two parties concerned. eBay only performs the role that connects the seller and purchaser and is not concerned about the items enlisted in the auction. They get their fees according to the rules set, such as registration fee of the auction advertisements and the final value fee after sales from the seller, in case the transaction is made as per agreement Since eBay does not wholesale or retail the products directly, the transportation, package, and management related to the inventory do not arise. Â  There is no cost in participating in the auction to purchase the product as the membership is free. There may be no visitors if cost is levied to participate in the auction. eBay auctions are open even to the nonmembers, and in case they want to participate in the auction, all that is required is to register as a member. Â  Anyone who has an email ID can have access to eBay or have a virtual account.

The Federal Reserve Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

The Federal Reserve - Essay Example Monetary policies are conducted through open market purchases, changing the discount rate, and determining the reserve requirement among banks. The main premise of any monetary policy instituted by the Fed is that any change in the money supply will consequently affect aggregate demand, price level, and the GDP deflator. Open market purchases allow Fed to buy and sell T-bills and T-bonds at discounts in order to take advantage of the gains from the purchase price and maturity value. These instruments are generally considered as less risky investments as they assure Fed of a sure yield at maturity dates. Fed, with its discretionary power, can also opt to purchase and sell stocks. However, as Fed is mandated is act like a "prudent person" and limit itself to less risky financial instruments, it will not engage in such operations. Accordingly, Fed is not allowed to enter in transactions that a prudent man will not undertake. It should be noted that stock markets like the NYSE are highly volatile and stocks are high risk investments. Selling and buying stocks will expose Fed into the risk of losing all its investments with the failure and collapse of business organizations.

Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 78

Essay Example To begin with, there is the creation of employment opportunities resulting from activities brought by hydro industry. Thus in turn brings income, generates tax, and some time due to the effects healthcare centers are built to cater for those affected health wise. However, the mining activities cause resettlement, loss of land previously used for cultivation. There is also an element on economies of various countries in which the hydros are found given the high number of employees both temporary and contractual. Aluminum plants activities in various countries are believed to have indirect impacts as a result of investments in the sector and the operation of the particular plant. The inve4stmentws are huge and in billions of pounds and dollars plus the dependence of operations on lamp sum of raw materials, energy and goods and services. These activities including taxes, production and consumption out of these activities create external employment. Given the hydro’s in the supply chain consume a lot of energy, raw materials and other accompanying services, her operation create business opportunities as there are many suppliers to deliver the requirements . Here systems are place to ensure suppliers are monitored at any given time. There are also cases of restrictions formation of trade unions mandated to influence the work situations of employees especially in china but most countries give allowance for formation of trade unions. There are adverse social and economic effects in the glass manufacture industry. Firstly the employees are reported to have committed suicide several times as a result of minimal wages which is not enough form the employers to use in settling rent arrears and at the same time spend on their families back in the villages. Instances of high demand for new products made out of glass can some time cause challenges. For instance, every time an iphone model is released into the market there is always high demand for the product given

Imparting or acquiring general knowledge

Imparting or acquiring general knowledge The supposed purpose of education, as marketed by the education industry, is career advancement, higher pay, and empowering a college graduates job search. [However, this should be considered only as] the current personal importance of education (BFuniv.com, 2010, para. 2) and the result of being educated for the selfish benefits of the individual instead of the society instead of being the purpose of education. The purpose of education, or of being educated, is more than that. In the past, the purpose of education is to pass on social, cultural and moral values, traditions and religions, and skills to the next generation (Kendall, D., Murray, J. Linden, R., 2004) to ensure the survival of the culture and future generation. Today, education is still widely viewed as a mean to impart knowledge and skills, and to help people develop the ability to make the correct choices and decisions. However, as stated in Confucianism, in order to be truly educated, one must first and foremost be able to learn extensively, enquire accurately, reflect carefully, distinguish clearly and last but not less, practice earnestly (Yao, 2001, p. 212). From this, the purpose of the education can easily be concluded as to create morally upright, knowledgeable, analytical and action-initiative citizens and leaders who are able to contribute to the different aspects social, economical and political of a society. The first aspect of the purpose of education is to instill knowledge in the learners. There are two different kinds of knowledge, the scientific knowledge and the history and cultural knowledge. Scientific knowledge consists of facts and information that are acquired through long tedious process of testing and reviewing before it is accepted and acknowledged by the society (BusinessDictionary.com). History and cultural knowledge, on the other hand, are records of past events and ideas that are gained from past experiences (Hoerr, 2007, para. 1). One can only be considered as knowledgeable when one has the combined understanding and awareness of both scientific and history and cultural knowledge. However, equipped with only knowledge, it is not enough for an individual, even only as a follower, to contribute much to the society. Equipped with knowledge, the next aspect of the purpose of education is to nurture these knowledgeable individual to be analytical people. Education does not desire the production of a generation of people whose brain are so packed with only knowledge and the sole ability to memorize and regurgitate facts. With the ability to analyze every piece of knowledge gained from books or experiences and learn from it, one need not have fear when faced with problems and challenges in life as they can be overcome through careful analysis, followed by suitable applications of knowledge and skills. Individuals who are successfully equipped with these two aspects of the purpose of education will be able to think out of the box and contribute to the society economically or even politically. With the rise of countries like China and India who have an abundance of cheap labour, Singapore can no longer compete effectively in the labour-intensive manufacturing market. As quoted by Alvin Toffler (1990), The most important economic development of our lifetime has been the rise of a new system for creating wealth, based on longer on muscle but on mind. (p. 9). To ensure its survival, Singapore shifted its focus to working towards a knowledge-based society which calls for creative and critical thinking skills. The change from a labour-intensive industry to a service-driven market affects the demand for education, the uses put to education, and the demands made on education for tailoring the workforce to those demands. (Riddell, 1996, p. 1363). In other words, this change calls for more independent learning, creativity and innovations. Hence, the Teach Less, Learn More1 scheme (TLLM) that is started in 2006 under the Thinking School, Learning Nation2 (TSLN) vision is implemented in the Singapore education system to fulfill the first two aspects of the purpose of education. Teach Less, Learn More is about teaching better to engage the learners and prepare them for life, rather than teaching more for tests and examinations (MOE). It builds on the foundation laid in place under the TSLN vision and the spirit of Innovation and Enterprise3 (IE). The relationship between TSLN, IE and TLLM can be seen in the Figure 1 (taken from MOE website) below. Figure 1: Chart showing the relationship between TSLN, IE and TLLM Figure 1: Chart showing the relationship between TSLN, IE and TLLM TLLM aims to help learners broadened their scope of knowledge, other than the ones needed to score well in tests and examinations, and also encourage learners to be analytical as it is no longer about memorizing and regurgitating facts and data. While IE also encourages learners to be analytic, its main aim is to promote the willingness to try new and untested routes without fear of failure and produces leaders who are prepared to be flexible, to multitask, to take responsibility and to inspire teams and organizations to take leaps of innovation (MOE). As quoted by Riddell, he believes that the most important skill that education can inculcate in the learner is flexibility (1996). This leads to the third aspects of the purpose of education which is to cultivate leadership, initiative and flexibility in the individual. This is to ensure that there will always be a group of leaders that is willing to take the first step out and lead the rest of the society towards success in the uncertain future by being flexible and open to new untested ideas when travelling the road to victory. These three aspects of the purpose of education will of course have several implications on the teachers and students in Singapore. Teachers have to be innovative in teaching so as to make sure that learning was meaningful and enjoyable to the students (Ho, 2009) and effectively encourage self-directed learning in all students. This means that there should be less dependence on drill, practice and rote learning (MOE). Thus, the role of a teacher should be that of a mentor, facilitator and model instead of being someone who only do teacher talk and lecturing (MOE). Teachers are also required to be prepared in curriculum development, research and pedagogical skills by attending workshops on curriculum development and various pedagogies, and with the establishment of the Research Activist Scheme, teachers can learn more on research methodologies (Ho, 2009). All these preparation and learning is to ensure that teachers are able to recognize and cater better to students unique and differi ng learning needs. For the students, they will no longer to be spoon-fed by the teachers. This calls for self-directed and self-motivated learning which is in tune with the Desired Outcomes of Education. Students now have to take up the mantle of being a self-directed learner who takes responsibility for his own learning, who questions, reflects and perseveres in the pursuit of learning (MOE) and an active contributor who is able to work effectively in teams, exercises initiative, takes calculated risks, is innovative and strives for excellence (MOE). Furthermore, as syllabuses will be trimmed, students will have more time and energy to focus on core knowledge and skills (MOE) or even to widen their scope of knowledge. Students will also be required to know how to apply their knowledge to solve or overcome the problems and challenges presented to them. Merely memorizing and regurgitating knowledge will not be enough to score well. An example of this Problem-Based Learning will be the Project Work4 intr oduced into the Junior College syllabus to encourage knowledge analysis and applications. The above three aspects of education may successfully mold a generation of globally competitive citizens much sought after by the global market but it does not automatically ensure that these capable people would not use their intelligence to create trouble for the society or even just abandon their homeland to pursuit a high-flying career. As Teo said, Of what use is the education system if it produces smart crooks or selfish individualists who feel no obligation to society, or loyalty to nation? Education must imbue the next generation with the right value system. Through values education, we must develop future citizens with upright character who can contribute to their community. We must also inculcate in our young a deep sense of bonding to the nation, so that they will be prepared to stay and fight in times of adversity. (1998). This leads us to the last and most important aspect of the purpose of education which is to create morally upright individuals that is devoted to serving and contributing to their country. As values are a set of social norms that guides the actions of an individual and the society, values education is thus used as a mean to instill a sense of morality in the learners. Values à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ are either innate or acquired. Innate values are [the] inborn divine virtues such as love, peace, happiness, mercy and compassion as well as the positive moral qualities such as respect, humility, tolerance, responsibility, cooperation, honesty and simplicity. Acquired values are those external values adopted at [ones] place of birth or place of growth and are influenced by the à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ environment. (Reddy). Hence, values education consists of character education, which builds on the innate values, and the national education, which can be considered as a part of the acquired values as it is influenced by the government of the country. Character education ensures that the individual will abide by the law and protect the peace and harmony of the society through social and emotional learning, moral reasoning/cognitive development, life skills education, health education; violence prevention, critical thinking, ethical reasoning, and conflict resolution and mediation (Lickona, 1998). The well-being of the society and the health and benefits of the other individuals will be made certain. National education seeks to inculcate national loyalty and a sense of belongingness in the learners. This is vital in the economic and social development of a society as the survival of a country depends heavily on the contributions of its citizens be it working to keep ones country ahead of others in the global market or being the next educator to the future generations. In Singapore context, values education takes the form of the curriculum subject Civics and Moral Education5 (CME), National Education6 (NE) initiatives (2008) and Social Studies7. Especially at the edge of the 21st century and with the spread of globalization, students are more likely to exhibits traits like materialism and unhealthy consumerism which may have severe economic repercussions in the future for a resource-limited small country like Singapore (2008). The job of the teacher in this case would be to instill a sense of thriftiness in these students and at the same time. During these lessons, instead of merely preaching about good governance, teachers should allow the students to identify the pros and cons of certain policies like the implementation of the Central Provident Fund7 (CPF) or the Electronic Road Pricing8 (ERP) and get them to see the need for these policies in the perspective of the government so as to [foster] social cohesion and rootedness to Singapore. Moreove r, instead of merely droning on and on about the moral issues and values that arises in Singapores society, teachers can attempt to interest the students by getting them to think critically about these issues and draw up possible solutions. To successfully engage students in values education, teachers themselves should play an active role in imparting the values to the students and not use the NE or CME classroom period[s] à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ for revision of other academic subjects (2008). Students should not study Social Studies for the sake of scoring well in the compulsory and examinable subject. Values should be learn and taken away to be applied in the later part of their life when they step into the society of virtues and vices. In conclusion, in order for a country or society to flourish, it is crucial that the educational policies implemented by the country leaders must be in line with the purpose of education. This is especially significant when a nation wants to prepare and equip its citizens with the necessary tools to combat the challenges of globalization. Education in the 21st century will be flexible, creative, challenging, and complex as it addresses the many issues that will arise from the rapid evolution of the world (21st Century Schools, 2008, para. 3) but there should also be a greater emphasis of values education so as to counteract any undesirable traits that are bound to show up in the whirlwind of seemingly impossible changes. The future of Singapore rests in the hands of its future citizens; hence the education of todays youth must not be taken lightly.

Essay --

5 SOFTWARE REQUIREMENT SPECIFICATIONS This chapter discusses the software requirement specification about the project followed the functional and non-functional requirement of the â€Å"INTERACTIVE SKETCHED BASED IMAGE SEARCH†. 5.1 Purpose When a sketch is input by a human there will clearly be a degree of accuracy to which the point of reference and scale of the shapes will remembered, and so errors with comparison to the target image or images will be present. The edges of objects and neighborhood within the image define shapes; extraction of these shapes can be used for image similarity. This supports indexing leads to imaginative memory usage since the indexes are always smaller than images themselves. Indexing speeds up the search process lengthily which is very important in the image search application. 5.2 Scope The input plan of this project is the improvement of a system to allow the searching of database of images using the visual data stored within the images. Here the aim is to develop a system which allows query upon the image content of the images, with the user providing a sketch of the image or images that they desire to retrieve. The key aim is the development of a speedy and correct algorithm for the extraction and comparison of the visual data from images. Some important point takes in consideration while development they are as follows: †¢ Identification of the restriction of current content based images retrieval systems so that these areas can be improved upon. †¢ Research into the field of content based image retrieval and rapid algorithm development. †¢ Design and accomplishment of a system to perform content based image retrieval using sketched input. †¢ Expansion of an algorithm for the extraction and sim... ... for that. In Unit testing, is the first level of testing and is performed prior to integration testing. All error handling paths should be tested. Drivers and/or stubs need to be developed to test incomplete software. 7.2.2 Integration Testing In integration testing the individual tested units are grouped as one and the interface between them is tested. There are mainly three approaches to do integration testing, Top-down approach, Bottom-up approach Big bang approach Integration testing is a software testing methodology used to test individual software components or units of code to verify interaction between various software components. Main program used as a test driver and stubs are substitutes for components directly subordinate to it. Subordinate stubs are replaced one at a time with real components (following the depth-first or breadth-first approach).