Profile and Key Facts About President Harry Truman

Profile and Key Facts About President Harry Truman Truman was conceived on May 8, 1884 in Lamar, Missouri. He experienced childhood with ranches and in 1890 his family settled in Independence, Missouri. He had awful visual perception from a young however he wanted to peruse having been instructed by his mom. He particularly preferred history and government. He was a great piano player. He went to neighborhood evaluation and secondary schools. Truman didn't proceed with his training until 1923 on the grounds that he needed to help bring in cash for his family. He attended two years of graduate school from 1923-24. Quick Facts: Harry S Truman Conceived: May 8, 1884, Lamar, MODied: December 26, 1972Parents: John Anderson Truman and Martha Ellen Young TrumanTerm of Office: April 12, 1945 - Jan. 20, 1953Spouse: Elizabeth Bess Virginia Wallace (1919)Children: Mary Jane TrumanMajor Events in Office: Atomic Bombsâ dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki (1945), finish of World War II (1945), formation of United Nations (1945), Nuremburg Trials (1945-1946), Truman Doctrineâ (1947), Taft-Hartley Act (1947), making of Israel, Marshall Planâ (1948-1952), NATO Treaty (1949), Korean Conflictâ (1950-1953), Twenty-Second Amendment Ratifiedâ (1951), Hydrogen Bomb Detonated (1952)Famous Quote: Im going to contend energetically. Im going to create some serious trouble for them. Family Truman was the child of John Anderson Truman, a rancher and domesticated animals broker and dynamic Democrat and Martha Ellen Young Truman. He had one brother, Vivian Truman, and one sister, Mary Jane Truman. On June 28, 1919, Truman married Elizabeth Bess Virginia Wallace. They 35 and 34, separately. Together, they had oneâ daughter, Margaret Truman. She is a vocalist and an author, composing histories of her folks as well as puzzles. Harry S Trumans Career Before the Presidency Truman worked at random temp jobs subsequent to moving on from secondary school to enable his family to make a decent living. He helped on his dads ranch from 1906 until he joined the military to battle in World War I. After the war he opened a cap shop which flopped in 1922. Truman was made an adjudicator of Jackson Co., Missouri, which was a regulatory post. From 1926-34, he was the head judge of the area. From 1935-45, he filled in as a Democratic Senator speaking to Missouri. At that point in 1945, he expected the bad habit administration. Military Service Truman was an individual from the National Guard. In 1917, his unit was called up into normal help during World War I. He served from August 1917 until May 1919. He was made an officer of a Field Artillery unit in France. He was a piece of the Meuse-Argonne hostile in 1918 and was at Verdun toward the finish of the war. Turning into the President Truman assumed control over the administration upon Franklin Roosevelts passing on April 12, 1945. At that point in 1948, the Democrats were from the start uncertain about sponsorship Truman however inevitably energized behind him to choose him to run for president. He was contradicted by Republican Thomas E. Dewey, Dixiecrat Strom Thurmond, and Progressive Henry Wallace. Truman won with 49% of the well known vote and 303 of the conceivable 531 constituent votes. Occasions and Accomplishments of Harry S Truman’s Presidency The war in Europe finished in May, 1945. In any case, America was still at war with Japan. One of the most significant choices made by Truman or perhaps some other president was the utilization of theâ atomic bombs in Japan. He requested two bombs:â one against Hiroshimaâ on August 6, 1945 and one against Nagasaki on August 9, 1945. Trumans objective was to stop the war rapidly maintaining a strategic distance from further misfortunes of associated troops. Japan sued for tranquility on August tenth and gave up on September 2, 1945. Truman was president during the Nuremberg Trialsâ which rebuffed 22 Nazi pioneers for various wrongdoings including violations against mankind. 19 of them were seen as blameworthy. Also,â the United Nationsâ was made so as to attempt to stay away from future universal wars and to help settle clashes calmly. Truman made the Truman Doctrineâ which expressed that it was the obligation of the U.S. to help free people groups who are opposing endeavored oppression by equipped minorities or outside weights. America got together with Great Britain to battle against a Soviet bar of Berlin via transporting more than 2 million tons of provisions to the city. Truman consented to help revamp Europe in what was calledâ the Marshall Plan. America spent over $13 billion dollars to help get Europe in a good place again. In 1948, The Jewish individuals made the province of Israel in Palestine. The U.S. was among the first to perceive theâ new country. From 1950-53, America took an interest in the Korean Conflict. North Korean Communist powers had attacked South Korea. Truman got the UN to concur that the U.S. could oust the North Koreans out of the South. MacArthur was sent in and called for America to do battle with China. Truman would not concur and MacArthur was expelled from his post. The U.S. didn't accomplish its goal in the contention. Other significant issues of Trumans time in office were the Red Scare, the section of the 22nd Amendmentâ limiting a president to two terms,â the Taft-Hartley Act, Trumans Fair Deal, and anâ assassination attemptâ in 1950. Post Presidential Period Truman chose not to look for re-appointment in 1952. He resigned to Independence, Missouri. He stayed dynamic in supporting Democratic contender for the administration. He passed on December 26, 1972. Authentic Significance It was President Truman who settled on an official conclusion to utilize the nuclear bombs on Japan to accelerate the apocalypse War II. His utilization of the bomb was not just an approach to stop what could have been a ridiculous battle on the territory yet additionally to make an impression on the Soviet Union that the U.S. was not reluctant to utilize the bomb if essential. Truman was president during the beginnings of the Cold War and furthermore during the Korean War.

The American Red Cross (ARC) free essay sample

The American Red Cross was established by Clara Barton in 1881. Barton, a common war nurture, was credited with setting up the early works of what is at present known as the American Red Cross. The strategic the American Red Cross is to offer alleviation to survivors of fiascos and to assist residents with preparing, forestall and react to crises. This association was based on the reason that a large portion of its help would come as volunteers basically offering back to their kindred Americans in the midst of hardship. Throughout the years, the American Red Cross changed into a business intended to deal with fiscal gifts just as labor for those requiring help in the midst of catastrophes or crises. Normally the American Red Cross would have created business morals to administer itself appropriately. Business morals is contained standards, qualities, and guidelines that manage conduct in the realm of business (Ferrell, 2011). The chief is the thing that the business defines as its limits for good business practices and will frequently remain inside the domains of what is adequate for the association. We will compose a custom exposition test on The American Red Cross (ARC) or then again any comparable theme explicitly for you Don't WasteYour Time Recruit WRITER Just 13.90/page Partners screen and focus on the moral practices of its association. The result will decide how the business is seen by the outside world. Qualities are what is regularly acknowledged by society. Business morals have a few advantages which incorporate representative responsibility, financial specialist steadfastness, consumer loyalty, and the primary concern. Worker responsibility depends on those representatives that have made an individual guarantee of penance for that specific business or association. They have connected their work future to the organization and will remain for quite a while. Speculator reliability relies upon how the business capacities regarding keeping its code of morals at a significant level. The notoriety of an organization has a significant impact of whether a financial specialist keeps on partner with the organization. The company’s moral culture can directly affect its benefits also. Hence, picking up investors’ trust and certainty is indispensable to supporting the money related solidness of the firm (Ferrell, 2011). Consumer loyalty is the most significant sponsor of business morals. The organization must make a solid effort to keep up the endorsement looked for through the fulfillment of the steadfast client base. It can do as such by staying aware of the preferences of its clients just as structure a technique that will reinforce the connection between the clients and the partners. The main concern is benefits that the organization can appear toward the year's end. Benefits add to the achievement of the organization and help with its endurance later on job that it plays in deciding whether the organization will stay in presence. Decide and talk about the job that ARC’s partner direction played in this situation. Partner direction is summarized as a comprehension of the necessities of its partners and how those requirements are met as per the general inclination of the partners. Hierarchical capacities include the blend, coordination and arrangement of authoritative abilities, which are coordinated towards the vital motivation behind the association (Keelson, 2013). Hierarchical capacities can likewise be depicted as an authoritative capacity to play out a planned errand, using authoritative assets, to accomplish a specific final product (Keelson, 2013). Three parts of the stakeholder’s direction are: 1) gathering information about the partners, 2) that the data accumulated be dispersed all through the organization by the representatives, 3) the response of the organization to cling to the principles of the partners and what is being done to educate all regarding the desires to surpass or maintain what is normal. The American Red Cross has a commitment to satisfy its job as a non-benefit beneficent association to the partners. Any negative movement or conduct of the association has an immediate reflection on the partners. Beginning with those picked to lead the American Red Cross. Starting with the timespan of 1999, the Red Cross has had seven acting or for all time selected chief to leave office without finishing their full terms. Each left because of an unfortunate behavior on their parts. The American Red Cross was turning into an office known for employing and terminating as opposed to building up a solid authoritative base. In extra to the high pace of executives being terminated or leaving, they would get generous severance pay sums as a piece of their end. Initiative at the lower levels likewise gave indications of shortcoming and doubt as there were episodes of fumbled assets and misappropriation. The American Red Cross refreshed it â€Å"Ethics Rules and Policy† proclamations. All workers and volunteers related with the association were required to sign the record. Congress constrained the American Red Cross to be increasingly noticeable with their practices in 2006 in the midst of charges of missing assets and different bad behaviors. In 2005, after a catastrophic event, an article was distributed in the New York Times relating to the American Red Cross. A few publications relating to the ARC, for example, one raising doubt about the trust and dedication that is allowed to the association (Groscurth, 2013). As indicated by this publication, the American Red Cross speaks to all that is good and bad with the American inclination for bureaucratic calamity reaction to be done by private volunteers as opposed to government (Groscurth, 2013). Decide and talk about the manners by which ARC’s corporate administration neglected to give formalized duty to their partners. There are a few different ways that the American Red Cross corporate administration neglected to give formalized duties to their partners. Starting in the year 1999, with the acquiescence of Elizabeth Dole, the job of the Board of Directors seat individual has been frail. The American Red Cross has sat around idly looking for applicants that have not satisfied the prerequisites need to effectively deal with an enormous combination, for example, the Red Cross. The absence of authority caused a negative impact on the notoriety of an industry that took a long time to construct. There was no standard of discipline for the activities of those trusted to run an association, for example, the Red Cross. The Red Cross didn't investigate refreshing their strategies and techniques until some other time. Partners can be educated by permitting various divisions to participate in comparable practices to be mindful to and address the requests of their different partners (Maigan, 2011). By joining these practices, organizations would get ready to oversee and follow up on partner data substantially more deliberately and productively (Maigan, 2011). Prescribe steps that ARC could follow to improve their partner point of view. To improve their partner point of view, the American Red Cross could be to persistently address stakeholder’s needs as a continuous exertion. They ought to talk about and reexamine the job of the American Red Cross and look for approaches to consistently enhance it. Audit what the ARC rely on and what the stakeholder’s desires are so as to satisfy the requirements adequately. The American Red Cross must keep on checking the entirety of its activities with the goal that errors of the past are not rehashed. All partners ought to be given responsibility for their jobs and permitted to look at what need patching up or rebuilding so the Red Cross can stay an incredible association. References

Fresh Ink May 6, 2014

Fresh Ink May 6, 2014 HARDCOVER RELEASES The Bees by Laline Paull (Ecco)   Born into the lowest class of her rigid, hierarchical society, Flora 717 is a sanitation worker, an Untouchable fit only to clean and remove the bodies of the dead from her orchard hive. As part of the collective, she is taught to Accept, Obey, Serveâ€"work and sacrifice are the highest virtues, and worship of her beloved Queen the only religion. Her society is governed by the priestess class, questions are forbidden, and all thoughts belong to the Hive Mind.  But Flora is not like other beesâ€"a difference that holds profound consequences. With circumstances threatening the hive’s survival, her curiosity is regarded as a dangerous flaw but her courage and strength are an asset. She is allowed to feed the newborns in the royal nursery and then to become a forager, flying alone and free to collect pollen. She also finds her way into the Queen’s inner sanctum, where she discovers mysteries about the hive that are both profound and ominous.  But when Flora breaks the most sacred law of allâ€"daring to challenge the Queen’s fertilityâ€"enemies abound, from the fearsome fertility police who enforce the strict social hierarchy; to the high priestesses jealously wedded to power. Her deepest instincts to serve and sacrifice are now overshadowed by an even deeper desire, a fierce maternal love that will bring her into conflict with her conscience, her heart, her societyâ€"and lead her to unthinkable deeds. The Snow Queen by Michael Cunningham (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)   It’s November 2004. Barrett Meeks, having lost love yet again, is walking through Central Park when he is inspired to look up at the sky; there he sees a pale, translucent light that seems to regard him in a distinctly godlike way. Barrett doesn’t believe in visionsâ€"or in Godâ€"but he can’t deny what he’s seen. At the same time, in the not-quite-gentrified Bushwick neighborhood of Brooklyn, Tyler, Barrett’s older brother, a struggling musician, is tryingâ€"and failingâ€"to write a wedding song for Beth, his wife-to-be, who is seriously ill.  Tyler is determined to write a song that will be not merely a sentimental ballad but an enduring expression of love. Barrett, haunted by the light, turns unexpectedly to religion. Tyler grows increasingly convinced that only drugs can release his creative powers. Beth tries to face mortality with as much courage as she can summon. The Painter by Peter Heller (Knopf)   Jim Stegner has seen his share of violence and loss. Years ago he shot a man in a bar. His marriage disintegrated. He grieved the one thing he loved. In the wake of tragedy, Jim, a well-known expressionist painter, abandoned the art scene of Santa Fe to start fresh in the valleys of rural Colorado. Now he spends his days painting and fly-fishing, trying to find a way to live with the dark impulses that sometimes overtake him. He works with a lovely model. His paintings fetch excellent prices. But one afternoon, on a dirt road, Jim comes across a man beating a small horse, and a brutal encounter rips his quiet life wide open. Fleeing Colorado, chased by men set on retribution, Jim returns to New Mexico, tormented by his own relentless conscience. History of the Rain by Niall Williams (Bloomsbury USA)   We are our stories. We tell them to stay alive or keep alive those who only live now in the telling. That’s how it seems to me, being alive for a little while, the teller and the told. So says Ruthie Swain. The bedridden daughter of a dead poet, home from college after a collapse (Something Amiss, the doctors say), she is trying to find her father through storiesâ€"and through generations of family history in County Clare (the Swains have the written stories, from salmon-fishing journals to poems, and the maternal MacCarrolls have the oral) and through her own writing (with its Superabundance of Style). Ruthie turns also to the books her father left behind, his library transposed to her bedroom and stacked on the floor, which she pledges to work her way through while she’s still living. In her attic room, with the rain rushing down the windows, Ruthie writes Ireland, with its weather, its rivers, its lilts, and its lows. The stories she uncovers and recounts bring back to life multiple generations buried in this soilâ€"and they might just bring her back into the world again, too. But Enough About You: Essays by Christopher Buckley (Simon Schuster)   In his first book of essays since his 1997 bestseller,  Wry Martinis, Buckley delivers a rare combination of big ideas and truly fun writing. Tackling subjects ranging from “How to Teach Your Four-Year-Old to Ski” to “A Short History of the Bug Zapper,” and “The Art of Sacking” to literary friendships with Joseph Heller and Christopher Hitchens, he is at once a humorous storyteller, astute cultural critic, adventurous traveler, and irreverent historian. Reading these essays is the equivalent of being in the company of a tremendously witty and enlightening companion. Praised as “both deeply informed and deeply funny” by  The Wall Street Journal, Buckley will have you laughing and reflecting in equal measure. After the End by Amy Plum (HarperTeen)   Juneau has grown up knowing that she and the rest of the people in her village are some of  the only survivors of World War III. But when Juneau returns from a hunting trip one day and discovers that everyone in her village has disappeared, she sets off to find them. Leaving the boundaries in remote Alaska  for the very first time, she learns a horrifying truth: There never was a war.  Everything was a lie.Juneau must now make her way in a modern world she never knew existed. But while she’s struggling to rescue her friends and family, someone else is looking for her. Someone who knows the extraordinary truth about the secrets of her past. The Last Kind Words Saloon by Larry McMurtry (Liverlight)   Opening in the settlement of Long Grass, Texas-not quite in Kansas, and nearly New Mexico-we encounter the taciturn Wyatt, whiling away his time in between bottles, and the dentist-turned-gunslinger Doc, more adept at poker than extracting teeth. Now hailed as heroes for their days of subduing drunks in Abilene and Dodge-more often with a mean look than a pistol-Wyatt and Doc are living out the last days of a way of life that is passing into history, two men never more aware of the growing distance between their lives and their legends. Along with Wyatts wife, Jessie, who runs the titular saloon, we meet Lord Ernle, an English baron; the exotic courtesan San Saba, the most beautiful whore on the plains; Charlie Goodnight, the Texas Ranger turned cattle driver last seen in McMurtrys  Comanche Moon, and Nellie Courtright, the witty and irrepressible heroine of  Telegraph Days. McMurtry traces the rich and varied friendship of Wyatt Earp and Doc Holiday from the town of Long Grass to Buffalo Bills Wild West Show in Denver, then to Mobetie, Texas, and finally to Tombstone, Arizona, culminating with the famed gunfight at the O.K. Corral, rendered here in McMurtrys stark and peerless prose. With the buffalo herds gone, the Comanche defeated, and vast swaths of the Great Plains being enclosed by cattle ranches, Wyatt and Doc live on, even as the storied West that forged their myths disappears. As harsh and beautiful, and as brutal and captivating as the open range it depicts,  The Last Kind Words Salooncelebrates the genius of one of our most original American writers. The Book of You by Claire Kendall (Harper)   Most people dread the prospect of jury duty, but university administrator Clarissa wants nothing more than to be selected for a trial. Every day she serves means a day away from her colleague Rafe, an academic expert on the darker side of folk tales with whom Clarissa spent one drunken night. That encounter only serves to fuel his growing obsession with her, and he is not about to let her slip away.The Book of You is a riveting portrait of a woman terrorizedâ€"emotionally and physicallyâ€"by a man bent on possessing her. As a disturbingly violent crime unfolds in front of her in court, Clarissa finds herself experiencing an equally harrowing nightmare in real life. Realizing that she bears the burden of proof, she uncovers piece by piece the twisted, macabre fairytale Rafe has spun around them both, discovering that the ending he envisions for them is more awful than she could have ever imagined. All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr (Scribner)   Marie Laure lives with her father in Paris within walking distance of the Museum of Natural History where he works as the master of the locks (there are thousands of locks in the museum). When she is six, she goes blind, and her father builds her a model of their neighborhood, every house, every manhole, so she can memorize it with her fingers and navigate the real streets with her feet and cane. When the Germans occupy Paris, father and daughter flee to Saint-Malo on the Brittany coast, where Marie-Laure’s agoraphobic great uncle lives in a tall, narrow house by the sea wall.In another world in Germany, an orphan boy, Werner, grows up with his younger sister, Jutta, both enchanted by a crude radio Werner finds. He becomes a master at building and fixing radios, a talent that wins him a place at an elite and brutal military academy and, ultimately, makes him a highly specialized tracker of the Resistance. Werner travels through the heart of Hitler Youth to the far-flung outskirts o f Russia, and finally into Saint-Malo, where his path converges with Marie-Laure. The Unwitting by Ellen Feldman (Spiegel Grau)   During the Cold War, many liberal anti-communist writers, artists, musicians, and intellectuals ended up working for organizations that were CIA fronts. CIA protocol dictated that one individual in the various organizations would be investigated, sworn to secrecy, and told about the CIA connection and funding. That individual was, in Agency parlance, witting. Everyone else was unwitting.  The Unwitting  is about a husband who is witting, a wife who is unwitting, and the unraveling of her life when she discovers that the person she is closest to in the world, the husband she loved and trusted, has betrayed her not with another woman but with an allegiance. Wonderland by Stacey DErasmo (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)   Anna Brundage is a rock star. She is tall and sexy, with a powerhouse voice and an unforgettable mane of red hair. She came out of nowhere, an immediate indie sensation. And then, life happened. Anna went down as fast as she went up, and then walked off the scene for seven years. Without a record deal or clamoring fans, she sells a piece of her famous fathers art to finance just one more album and a European comeback tour. Anna is forty-four. This may be her last chance to cement her place in the life she chose, the life she struggled for, the life shes not sure she can sustain. She falls back easily into the ways of the road-sex with strangers, the search for the perfect moment onstage. To see Anna perform is something-watch her find the note, the electric connection with the audience, the transcendence when it all comes together and the music seems to fill the world. ________________________ PAPERBACK RELEASES Authority by Jeff VanderMeer (FSG Originals)   For thirty years, the only human engagement with Area X has taken the form of a series of expeditions monitored by a secret agency called the Southern Reach. After the disastrous twelfth expedition chronicled in  Annihilation,  the Southern Reach is in disarray, and John Rodriguez, aka “Control,” is the team’s newly appointed head. From a series of interrogations, a cache of hidden notes, and hours of profoundly troubling video footage, the secrets of Area X begin to reveal themselvesâ€"and what they expose pushes Control to confront disturbing truths about both himself and the agency he’s promised to serve. And the consequences will  spread much further than that. The Rathbones by Janice Clark (Anchor)   Mercy, fifteen years old, is the diminutive scion of the Rathbone clan. Her father, the last in the dynasty of New England whalers, has been lost at sea for seven years-ever since the last sperm whale was seen off the coast of Naiwayonk, Connecticut. Mercys memories of her father and of the time before he left grow dimmer each day, and she spends most of her time in the attic hideaway of her reclusive Uncle Mordecai. But when a strange visitor turns up one night, Mercy and Mordecai are forced to flee and set sail on a journey that will bring them deep into the haunted history of the Rathbone family. From the depths of the sea to the lonely heights of the widows walk; from the wisdom of the worn Rathbone wives to the mysterious origins of a sinking island, Mercy and Mordecais enchanting journey will bring them to places they never thought possible. Instructions for a Heatwave by Maggie OFarrell (Vintage)   London, 1976. In the thick of a record-breaking heatwave, Gretta Riordans newly-retired husband has cleaned out his bank account and vanished. Now, for the first time in years, the three Riordan children are converging on their childhood home: Michael Francis, a history teacher whose marriage is failing; Monica, with two stepdaughters who despise her and an ugly secret that has driven a wedge between her and the little sister she once adored; and Aoife (pronounced EE-fah), the youngest, whose new life in Manhattan is elaborately arranged to conceal her illiteracy. As the siblings track down clues to their fathers disappearance, they also navigate rocky pasts and long-held secrets. Their search ultimately brings them to their ancestral village in Ireland, where the truth of their familys past is revealed.   The Residue Years by Mitchell S. Jackson (Bloomsbury USA) Mitchell S. Jackson grew up black in a neglected neighborhood in America’s whitest city, Portland, Oregon. In the ’90s, those streets and beyond had fallen under the shadow of crack cocaine and its familiar mayhem. In his commanding debut autobiographical novel, Mitchell writes what it was to come of age in that time and place, with a breakout voice that’s nothing less than extraordinary. The Residue Years  switches between the perspectives of a young man, Champ, and his mother, Grace. Grace is just out of a drug treatment program, trying to stay clean and get her kids back. Champ is trying to do right by his mom and younger brothers, and dreams of reclaiming the only home he and his family have ever shared. But selling crack is the only sure way he knows to achieve his dream. In this world of few options and little opportunity, where love is your strength and your weakness, this family fights for family and against what tears one apart. The Daughters of Mars by Thomas Keneally (Washington Square Press)   In 1915, Naomi and Sally Durance, two spirited Australian sisters, join the war effort as nurses, escaping the confines of their father’s farm and carrying a guilty secret with them. Used to tending the sick as they are, nothing could have prepared them for what they confront, first on a hospital ship near Gallipoli, then on the Western Front.Yet amid the carnage, the sisters become the friends they never were at home and find themselves courageous in the face of extreme danger and also the hostility from some on their own side. There is great bravery, humor, and compassion, too, and the inspiring example of the remarkable women they serve alongside. In France, where Naomi nurses in a hospital set up by the eccentric Lady Tarlton while Sally works in a casualty clearing station, each meets an exceptional man: the kind of men for whom they might give up some of their newfound independenceâ€"if only they all survive. A Guide to Being Born: Stories by Ramona Ausubel (Riverhead Trade)   Major new literary talent Ramona Ausubel combines the otherworldly wisdom of her much-loved debut novel, No One Is Here Except All of Us, with the precision of the short-story form. A Guide toBeing Born is organized around the stages of lifeâ€"love, conception, gestation, birthâ€"and the transformations that happen as people experience deeply altering life events, falling in love, becoming parents, looking toward the end of life. In each of these eleven stories Ausubel’s stunning imagination and humor are moving, entertaining, and provocative, leading readers to see the familiar world in a new way. In “Atria” a pregnant teenager believes she will give birth to any number of strange animals rather than a human baby; in “Catch and Release” a girl discovers the ghost of a Civil War hero living in the woods behind her house; and in “Tributaries” people grow a new arm each time they fall in love. Funny, surprising, and delightfully strangeâ€"all the stories have a strong emotional core; Ausubel’s primary concern is always love, in all its manifestations. Seven Lives and One Great Love, Memories of a Cat by Lena Divani (Europa Editions)   If you have ever lived with cats you know how cunning, tender, ferocious, underhanded, ingenious, foolish and completely adorable they can be. The same words can be used to describe the hero of this novel, Sugar. This is the storyâ€"a love story of epic dimensionsâ€"of Sugar, a cat with a keen wit and a reflective nature, and his human, Madamigella, a writer with a frenetic and impossibly dispersive life. In this his seventh life, Sugar has countless stories to tell and a remarkable talent for telling them. But his real area of expertise lies in his preternatural ability to domesticate his humansâ€"whatever you do, don’t even suggest that we are the ones who domesticate him and his feline relatives! With wit and a broad repertoire of cultural references, Sugar recounts his days and nights spent with Madamigella in a novel that fits squarely into the illustrious tradition of feline literature a la T.S. Eliot, Edgar Allen Poe, Baudelaire, Bukowski, and Celine. The Orphans of Race Point by Patry Francis (Harper Perennial)   Set in the close-knit Portuguese community of Provincetown, Massachusetts,  The Orphans of Race Pointtraces the relationship between Hallie Costa and Gus Silva, who meet as children in the wake of a terrible crime that leaves Gus parentless. Their friendship evolves into an enduring and passionate love that will ask more of them than they ever imagined. On the night of their high school prom, a terrible tragedy devastates their relationship and profoundly alters the course of their lives. And when, a decade later, Gusâ€"now a priestâ€"becomes entangled with a distraught woman named Ava and her daughter Mila, troubled souls who bring back vivid memories of his own damaged past, the unthinkable happens: he is charged with murder. Can Hallie save the man she’s never stopped loving, by not only freeing him from prison but alsoâ€"finallyâ€"the curse of his past? Save Yourself by Kelly Braffet (Broadway Books)   When Patrick and Mike Cusimanos drunken father is sent to jail on manslaughter charges, they find themselves at the apex of local targeting. Patrick struggles to balance public shame, loss, and inappropriate, awkward temptation. He is desperately in love with Mikes live-in girlfriend, Caro, and amid his efforts to do the right thing, a beautiful but troubled high school bad-girl named Layla develops an unsettling obsession for him. As these two young women push Patrick to a dangerous breaking point, Mike settles further and further into a rut of idle avoidance. Meanwhile, Laylas little sister, Verna, is suffering through her first year of high school. Shes become a prime target for her cruel classmates, not just because of her strange name and her fundamentalist parents: Laylas bad-girl rep proves too heavy a shadow for Verna, so she falls in with her sisters circle of outcasts and misfits whose world is far darker than she ever imagined. The Love Affairs of Nathaniel P by Adelle Waldman (Picador)   Nate Piven is a rising star in Brooklyn’s literary scene. After several lean and striving years, he has his pick of both magazine assignments and women: Juliet, the hotshot business reporter; Elisa, his gorgeous ex-girlfriend; and Hannah, “almost universally regarded as nice and smart, or smart and nice,” who is fun and holds her own in conversation with his friends. In  Nate’s  world, wit and conversation are not at all dead. But is romance? Novelist Waldman plunges into the psyche of a modern man who thinks of himself as beyond superficial judgment yet struggles with status anxiety; who is drawn to women yet has a habit of letting them down. With tough-minded intelligence and wry good humor  The Love Affairs of Nathaniel P.  is an absorbing tale of one young man’s search for happiness and an inside look at how he really thinks about women, sex, and love. An Untamed State by Roxanne Gay (Grove Press, Black Cat)   Mireille Duval Jameson is living a fairy tale. The strong-willed youngest daughter of one of Haitis richest sons, she has an adoring husband, a precocious infant son, by all appearances a perfect life. The fairy tale ends one day when Mireille is kidnapped in broad daylight by a gang of heavily armed men, in front of her fathers Port au Prince estate. Held captive by a man who calls himself The Commander, Mireille waits for her father to pay her ransom. As it becomes clear her father intends to resist the kidnappers, Mireille must endure the torments of a man who resents everything she represents. Norwegian by Night by Derek Miller (Mariner Books)   Sheldon Horowitz-widowed, impatient, impertinent-has grudgingly agreed to leave New York and move in with his granddaughter, Rhea, and her new husband, Lars, in Norway-a country of blue and ice with one thousand Jews, not one of them a former Marine sniper in the Korean War turned watch repairman. Not until now, anyway. Home alone one morning, Sheldon witnesses a dispute between the woman who lives upstairs and an aggressive stranger. When events turn dire, Sheldon seizes and shields the neighbors young son from the violence, and they flee the scene. As Sheldon and the boy look for a safe haven in an alien world, past and present weave together, forcing them ever forward to a wrenching moment of truth. The Conditions of Love by Dale M. Kushner (Grand Central Publishing)   In 1953, ten-year-old Eunice lives in the backwaters of Wisconsin with her outrageously narcissistic mother, a  manicureeste  and movie star worshipper. Abandoned by her father as an infant, Eunice worries that she will become a misfit like her mother. When her mothers lover, the devoted Sam, moves in, Eunice imagines her life will finally become normal. But her hope dissolves when Sam gets kicked out, and she is again alone with her mother. A freak storm sends Eunice away from all things familiar. Rescued by the shaman-like Rose, Eunices odyssey continues with a stay in a hermits shack and ends with a passionate love affair with an older man. Through her capacity to redefine herself, reject bitterness and keep her heart open, she survives and flourishes. In this, she is both ordinary and heroic. At once fable and realistic story,  The Conditions of Love  is a book about emotional and physical survival. Through sheer force of will, Eunice saves herself from a doomed life. Scissors by Stephane Michaka (Anchor)   Based on the life of the famed short-story writer Raymond Carver, particularly his final, postalcoholic decade,Scissors  is the story of an author whose life is fraught with personal and creative struggle. Raymonds first marriage is intense, passionate, and deeply unhealthy, but his second, to a poet, is filled with love and support. Throughout both, Raymond (and to some extent, his wives) is in an escalating conflict with his editor, Douglas. As his success and confidence grow, Raymond strives harder and harder to ensure that his stories, the most important part of his life, are published as written, but Douglas, who considers the stories as much his as their authors, is determined to publish them only in a heavily edited form. Raymonds former alcoholism and his past and present relationships always lurk in the background; his wives offer their own perspectives on both; and in the end, after Raymonds death, it is Joanne who finally confronts Douglas in a way that Raymond never could .

Effects Of Power Fettweis On American Foreign Policy

There have been numerous books written in the past by various political scientists on how to improve U.S. foreign policy. However, Fettweis’s Pathologies of Power provides a very interesting and somewhat unusual dig at U.S. foreign policy. In his book Pathologies of Power Fettweis is highly critical of the below average foreign policy performance of the United States over the last few decades and he strives to shed some light on why the U.S. keeps repeating the same mistakes over and over again. In his view, the many blunders in American foreign policy can be attributed to the nation’s deep connection to a series of closely held pathological beliefs that he collectively describes as fear, honor, glory, and hubris. Professor Fettweis in his book also discusses the origins of these deep pathological beliefs. He strongly argues that some of the major foreign policy disasters like the Iraq War, the Bay of Pigs and the Vietnam War was a result of these strongly held patholog ical beliefs. He also recommends that American foreign policy performance can be improved significantly if these strongly held pathological beliefs are identified and eradicated and replaced with prudence and restraint. The first among the pathological beliefs is fear which Fettweis strongly believes is a sort of paranoia where one believes that the world is full of enemies and makes decisions based on these deeply held beliefs which is often misguided. He then provides example of how America’s paranoia aboutShow MoreRelatedChina’s Rise and Policy Options for the United States Essay1599 Words   |  7 PagesThe rise of China as a great power will most likely be one of the greatest potential challenges facing the United States in the 21st century. The rapid growth of China’s military and economic power – and the simultaneous decline in American capabilities –could become a source of tension and perhaps conflict between the two countries as the responsibilities that each state feels it should take on begin to change. There is reason for optimism, however, as specific economic factors, the general â€Å"openness†

Orthodox House Warming - 4539 Words

ir Ck Jdgn; (At the time of the house warming service, a cross. Two candles lighted, and a bowl with water to be blessed and sprinkled, shall be placed on a table facing to the East of convenient place of the house. All others including the Celebrant, who is conducting the service, must stand behind it. Now it is time to start the house warming ceremony) ir Ck Jdgn cau; Qgk SaCSaH Qgk dkgjCk; g!k d\jv saqkdkfjgj uk; Qgk elYf\jH ilq[\j Ck Jdgjv[ fxj)lrk= si=ik; djq)k emj lyluj ir\jsRy ] ik; cOdgUak= ÃÅ'lr\k siu[)kd. CkYCo rm\lrk= ekSgl|jfR KXs/sm th^ligk; Tfjrk ej#jhluj rjH)k d. TS/lX irilq[i[ :glPr fkm*lrk= caualuj HOUSE WARMING KAUMA CELEBRANT: In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, one true God:†¦show more content†¦Splir Ck jdgn; PERSON: DEACON/ALTAR SERVICE PERSON Stoumen kalos ¨oà ­Ã‚ ªhuJ ¡Ã‚ ©k ¡o ® RESPONSE: Kurielaison dkyjSuhlujSclR CELEBRANT: Let us all pray and beseech of the Lord, mercy and Compassion. ekSgl|jfRà ¢ rl; th^ligk; Yel jv[ d\lijSrlm[ Là «Yz |*xk; dgknuk; ulvj)n;. RESPONSE: O merciful Lord, have mercy upon us and help us YefjildU;à ¢ Là «Yz|jà §#irlu d\lSi! B*Sxlmk d gkn svià ­Ã‚ ® B*sx c|luj)nsa. CELEBRANT: Make us worthy to raise up praise and thanksgiving, homage and holy exaltation, unceasingly, continuously, perpetually, and without intermission in every season and at all times. Glory be to that doer of mercy open to all sinners; that haven of life, which vivified the mortals; that purifying hyssop which cleans the unclean; that cleaning lustraction which brightens those who are defiled. Unto him is meet and glory, honour and whorship at this time of the hallowing of this house, and at all festivals and times, hours and seasons, and during all the days of our life, fo r ever. 7 HOUSE WARMING : ir Ck jdgn; B’kilahun Yowmoso D’hayayil L’olmeen. RESPONSE: Amen. ekSgl|jfRà ¢elejdX)luj fky#jMjgj)k# dgknuksm il ekSgl|jfRà ¢ fjhk; agnak=isg wJij/jvflu g uksm fkyakD ik; LCk sg simj/l)k# Scl/luk; ahjrsgsiN aul)k# fxj/k; :u d\lijrk oà ­Ã‚ ¤Y ¢. fsÊ plc sÊ ir Ck Jdgn\jsÊ TO cau\k; cdh se gk#lxkdxjhk; dlh*xjhk;Srg*xjhk; B*xksm L iclr rlX sisguk; frj)k; fsÊ ekYfà «; fsÊ e gjCk yo|lu[)k; oà ­Ã‚ ¤Y ¢uk;  ©oà ­Ã‚ ¡Yfik; dSg kduk;Show MoreRelatedAnalysis Of The Book Gore A Political Life By Bob Zelnick949 Words   |  4 PagesGore Junior is the son of Al Gore senior and Pauline LaFon Gore. He was on of two children. AL Gore Junior had an older sister named Nancy, who was ten years older. Gore was born on March 31, 1948 in Washington D.C. 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The Drive to Destroy Enlightenment Values Free Essays

The history of wars and revolution is flooded with personalities with almost mythical qualities. The heroes of wars and revolutions declared new social orders based on the principles of justice and public service. These individuals, after their assumption to power and material wealth, declared the supremacy of their respective cultures. We will write a custom essay sample on The Drive to Destroy Enlightenment Values or any similar topic only for you Order Now In history, this happened many times, as in the case of the Athenian and Roman Empires, the Napoleonic Era, the Holy Roman Empire, and many others. Yet, out of these wars and revolutions, ideologies developed. These ideologies usually offered alternative ways of life, that is, new philosophies for managing civilizations. However, some ideologies became the background for advancing rationalism and progress. Out of revolutions at the latter part of the 18th century, a general atmosphere of Enlightenment clouded the countries of Europe. This ideology declared the innate greatness of man, his love for liberalism, and his drive towards order and self-regulation. The Enlightenment proposed the idea that man, given his limitations and tendencies to innovate, can achieve freedom by imputing liberal values both in the state and the society. This can be done in two ways. An individual, in association with other individuals can establish a government that promotes liberal ideas. If the state is unresponsive to the waves of liberalism or obstructs its growth, then the only answer is revolution. Here, the term â€Å"revolution† acquires a positive character. Although the new ideology was borne out of the French Revolution, it was eventually accepted by European monarchs as an alternative way of dealing with their liberal subjects. They saw the Enlightenment as vital to the survival of European civilization and advancement of science and technology. A civilized way of life can only be maintained so long as the â€Å"spirit of times† matches the needs of the populations. As one will see later, the values advanced by the Enlightenment were threatened by the wars and revolutions of the 20th century. Sigmund Freud’s Civilization and its Discontents According to Freud, the foundation of civilization can be traced to the conflict between sexual need and social mores. The former is the source of mankind’s libidinal energy; expressed in love and satisfaction. The latter is the source of dissatisfaction, frustration, and ultimately aggression. Harmony can only be achieved when an individual learned to control his violent impulses. Here, Sigmund Freud made the following assertions about the nature of man and civilization. Some of his assertions are as follows. Destructive forces or its source are exhibited in all individuals. Thus, man by nature, is an anti-social and anti-cultural. â€Å"Men are not gentle, friendly creatures wishing for love, who simply defend themselves if they are attacked, but that a powerful measure of desire for aggression has to be reckoned as part of their instinctual endowment† (Freud:1930/1989:51). Because of the anti-social nature of man, he finds difficulty in keeping promises; And, aggression is seen as an original self-subsisting instinctual disposition in man: â€Å"the greatest impediment to civilization† (Freud, 1930/1989:58). Because Freud saw man as anti-social and anti-cultural, he assumed that civilization was the product of struggle between the libidinal instinct and social mechanisms for controlling behavior. In history, according to him, some individuals were able to subdue their â€Å"feeling of obedience to social mores† to aggression. Genghis Khan, Emperor Neo, Attila the Hun, and many others were revealed as savage beasts to whom â€Å"the thought of sparing their own kind as alien† (Freud, 1930/1989:54). Freud saw aggression then as the real threat to civilization, all the more that aggression is present in all individuals. The society then is forced to use violent means to curb the threat; a form of violent reprisal of a violent tendency. Every institution in the society are called to reinforce the values of humanity, or more specifically of civilization (the values of liberalism and rationalism). This struggle between the two tendencies only increases the propensity of a bloody end. The values of civilization to which societies were built would be compromised to suit the demands of the â€Å"outlaw.† Here, Freud made his remarks about the struggle. â€Å"Civilization expects to prevent the worst atrocities of brutal violence by taking upon itself the right to employ violence against criminals, but the law is not able to lay hands on the more discreet and subtle forms in which human aggressions are ex- pressed. The time comes when every one of us has to abandon the illusory anticipations with which in our youth we regarded our fellow-men, and when we realize how much hardship and suffering we have been caused in life through their ill-will. It would be unfair, however, to reproach culture with trying to eliminate all disputes and competition from human concerns. These things are undoubtedly indispensable; but opposition is not necessarily enmity, only it may be misused to make an opening for it† (Freud, 1930/1989:61). Conrad’s Heart of Darkness Heart of Darkness is a literary piece showing the conflict between two civilizations or more accurately two competing ideologies. The struggle between these two ideologies results to bloodshed and animosity among men; a sort of social anomie Durkheim referred to as the deterioration of social norms. In Chapter III of the book, Conrad showed that men are induced to violence when demands and priorities conflict. The main character of the story, Kurtz, found his way in conflict with the natives and the ship’s manager over the value of the ivory tusks. â€Å"The manager enters the cabin to speak with Kurtz, and Marlow withdraws to the steamer’s deck. From here he sees two natives standing near the river with impressive headdresses and spears, and a beautiful native woman draped in ornaments pacing gracefully along the shore. She stops and stares out at the steamer for a while and then moves away into the forest. Marlow notes that she must be wearing several elephant tusks’ worth of ornaments. The Russian implies that she is Kurtz’s mistress, and states that she has caused him trouble through her influence over Kurtz. He adds that he would have tried to shoot her if she had tried to come aboard. The trader’s comments are interrupted by the sound of Kurtz yelling at the manager inside the cabin. Kurtz accuses the men of coming for the ivory rather than to help him, and he threatens the manager for interfering with his plans† (Conrad, 1971:27). Other Europeans though were eager to compete against Kurtz in acquiring ivory tusks from the natives. Thus, Marlow (a character in the story) and a Russian trader ended up aligning with Kurtz against their competitors. Philosophically speaking, the story presented the staggering change of heart of Marlow. Instead of presenting himself as a man of humility, he was forced to redefine his values (Enlightenment values). He suddenly became obsessed of acquiring more and more wealth. He loathed the Africans for their irrationality and savagery. He accused the Europeans of exploiting the natives while he himself indulged in every form of luxury. In the end, he became violent and indignant to the basic principles of civilization; the same thing Sigmund Freud said (although the manner Freud assumed it was academic). Thadeus Borowitz’ This Way for the Gas Ladies and Gentleman Borowitz thesis can be summed up as follows: violence can be magnified using fear as the catalyst (Borowitz, 1976). In this book, the author portrayed the brutal murder of the Jews during the Second World War, specifically during Hitler’s Final Solution to the Jewish Question. Fear erased all the hopes of survival for the Jews. Death was the only way to surrender one’s claim to this world; the only way to escape further punishment and suffering. The Author emphasized the following as the outmost determinants of fear and its intended consequences: Fear raised the morale of the aggressor. The Nazis believed that the Jewish race was a perversion in the world; a race induced in violence and cultural disintegration. Thus, the only way to exterminate a violent race was to match it with greater violence. Survival is only a temporary stage of bliss. Memories of loved ones who perished in the gas chambers will soon follow suit. â€Å"Millions of other citizens were killed for no reason at all except for the fact that they were Jewish. To survive a life full of sick competiveness, never-ending fear, and the loss of loved ones is a huge accomplishment.† Summary Freud, Conrad, and Borowitz are basically examining the basic urge in man: violence. Violence can destroy values which have been cherished since the birth of a powerful ideology. Only the methods of telling the message differed. Freud approach was academic, that of Conrad literary, that of Borowitz historical. References Borowitz, Thadeus. 1976. This Way for the Gas Ladies and Gentleman. New York: Penguin Books. Conrad, Joseph. 1971. Heart of Darkness. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Freud, Sigmund. 1930/1989. Civilization and Its Discontents. W. Norton Company; Reissue edition. How to cite The Drive to Destroy Enlightenment Values, Essay examples The Drive to Destroy Enlightenment Values Free Essays The history of wars and revolution is flooded with personalities with almost mythical qualities. The heroes of wars and revolutions declared new social orders based on the principles of justice and public service. These individuals, after their assumption to power and material wealth, declared the supremacy of their respective cultures. We will write a custom essay sample on The Drive to Destroy Enlightenment Values or any similar topic only for you Order Now In history, this happened many times, as in the case of the Athenian and Roman Empires, the Napoleonic Era, the Holy Roman Empire, and many others. Yet, out of these wars and revolutions, ideologies developed. These ideologies usually offered alternative ways of life, that is, new philosophies for managing civilizations. However, some ideologies became the background for advancing rationalism and progress. Out of revolutions at the latter part of the 18th century, a general atmosphere of Enlightenment clouded the countries of Europe. This ideology declared the innate greatness of man, his love for liberalism, and his drive towards order and self-regulation. The Enlightenment proposed the idea that man, given his limitations and tendencies to innovate, can achieve freedom by imputing liberal values both in the state and the society. This can be done in two ways. An individual, in association with other individuals can establish a government that promotes liberal ideas. If the state is unresponsive to the waves of liberalism or obstructs its growth, then the only answer is revolution. Here, the term â€Å"revolution† acquires a positive character. Although the new ideology was borne out of the French Revolution, it was eventually accepted by European monarchs as an alternative way of dealing with their liberal subjects. They saw the Enlightenment as vital to the survival of European civilization and advancement of science and technology. A civilized way of life can only be maintained so long as the â€Å"spirit of times† matches the needs of the populations. As one will see later, the values advanced by the Enlightenment were threatened by the wars and revolutions of the 20th century. Sigmund Freud’s Civilization and its Discontents According to Freud, the foundation of civilization can be traced to the conflict between sexual need and social mores. The former is the source of mankind’s libidinal energy; expressed in love and satisfaction. The latter is the source of dissatisfaction, frustration, and ultimately aggression. Harmony can only be achieved when an individual learned to control his violent impulses. Here, Sigmund Freud made the following assertions about the nature of man and civilization. Some of his assertions are as follows: 1) Destructive forces or its source are exhibited in all individuals. Thus, man by nature, is an anti-social and anti-cultural. â€Å"Men are not gentle, friendly creatures wishing for love, who simply defend themselves if they are attacked, but that a powerful measure of desire for aggression has to be reckoned as part of their instinctual endowment† (Freud:1930/1989:51). 2)Because of the anti-social nature of man, he finds difficulty in keeping promises; 3)And, aggression is seen as an original self-subsisting instinctual disposition in man: â€Å"the greatest impediment to civilization† (Freud, 1930/1989:58). Because Freud saw man as anti-social and anti-cultural, he assumed that civilization was the product of struggle between the libidinal instinct and social mechanisms for controlling behavior. In history, according to him, some individuals were able to subdue their â€Å"feeling of obedience to social mores† to aggression. Genghis Khan, Emperor Neo, Attila the Hun, and many others were revealed as savage beasts to whom â€Å"the thought of sparing their own kind as alien† (Freud, 1930/1989:54). Freud saw aggression then as the real threat to civilization, all the more that aggression is present in all individuals. The society then is forced to use violent means to curb the threat; a form of violent reprisal of a violent tendency. Every institution in the society are called to reinforce the values of humanity, or more specifically of civilization (the values of liberalism and rationalism). This struggle between the two tendencies only increases the propensity of a bloody end. The values of civilization to which societies were built would be compromised to suit the demands of the â€Å"outlaw.† Here, Freud made his remarks about the struggle. â€Å"Civilization expects to prevent the worst atrocities of brutal violence by taking upon itself the right to employ violence against criminals, but the law is not able to lay hands on the more discreet and subtle forms in which human aggressions are ex- pressed. The time comes when every one of us has to abandon the illusory anticipations with which in our youth we regarded our fellow-men, and when we realize how much hardship and suffering we have been caused in life through their ill-will. It would be unfair, however, to reproach culture with trying to eliminate all disputes and competition from human concerns. These things are undoubtedly indispensable; but opposition is not necessarily enmity, only it may be misused to make an opening for it† (Freud, 1930/1989:61). Conrad’s Heart of Darkness Heart of Darkness is a literary piece showing the conflict between two civilizations or more accurately two competing ideologies. The struggle between these two ideologies results to bloodshed and animosity among men; a sort of social anomie Durkheim referred to as the deterioration of social norms. In Chapter III of the book, Conrad showed that men are induced to violence when demands and priorities conflict. The main character of the story, Kurtz, found his way in conflict with the natives and the ship’s manager over the value of the ivory tusks. â€Å"The manager enters the cabin to speak with Kurtz, and Marlow withdraws to the steamer’s deck. From here he sees two natives standing near the river with impressive headdresses and spears, and a beautiful native woman draped in ornaments pacing gracefully along the shore. She stops and stares out at the steamer for a while and then moves away into the forest. Marlow notes that she must be wearing several elephant tusks’ worth of ornaments. The Russian implies that she is Kurtz’s mistress, and states that she has caused him trouble through her influence over Kurtz. He adds that he would have tried to shoot her if she had tried to come aboard. The trader’s comments are interrupted by the sound of Kurtz yelling at the manager inside the cabin. Kurtz accuses the men of coming for the ivory rather than to help him, and he threatens the manager for interfering with his plans† (Conrad, 1971:27). Other Europeans though were eager to compete against Kurtz in acquiring ivory tusks from the natives. Thus, Marlow (a character in the story) and a Russian trader ended up aligning with Kurtz against their competitors. Philosophically speaking, the story presented the staggering change of heart of Marlow. Instead of presenting himself as a man of humility, he was forced to redefine his values (Enlightenment values). He suddenly became obsessed of acquiring more and more wealth. He loathed the Africans for their irrationality and savagery. He accused the Europeans of exploiting the natives while he himself indulged in every form of luxury. In the end, he became violent and indignant to the basic principles of civilization; the same thing Sigmund Freud said (although the manner Freud assumed it was academic). Thadeus Borowitz’ This Way for the Gas Ladies and Gentleman Borowitz thesis can be summed up as follows: violence can be magnified using fear as the catalyst (Borowitz, 1976). In this book, the author portrayed the brutal murder of the Jews during the Second World War, specifically during Hitler’s Final Solution to the Jewish Question. Fear erased all the hopes of survival for the Jews. Death was the only way to surrender one’s claim to this world; the only way to escape further punishment and suffering. The Author emphasized the following as the outmost determinants of fear and its intended consequences: 1)Fear raised the morale of the aggressor. The Nazis believed that the Jewish race was a perversion in the world; a race induced in violence and cultural disintegration. 2)Thus, the only way to exterminate a violent race was to match it with greater violence. 3)Survival is only a temporary stage of bliss. Memories of loved ones who perished in the gas chambers will soon follow suit. â€Å"Millions of other citizens were killed for no reason at all except for the fact that they were Jewish. To survive a life full of sick competiveness, never-ending fear, and the loss of loved ones is a huge accomplishment.† Summary Freud, Conrad, and Borowitz are basically examining the basic urge in man: violence. Violence can destroy values which have been cherished since the birth of a powerful ideology. Only the methods of telling the message differed. Freud approach was academic, that of Conrad literary, that of Borowitz historical. References Borowitz, Thadeus. 1976. This Way for the Gas Ladies and Gentleman. New York: Penguin Books. Conrad, Joseph. 1971. Heart of Darkness. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Freud, Sigmund. 1930/1989. Civilization and Its Discontents. W. Norton Company; Reissue edition. How to cite The Drive to Destroy Enlightenment Values, Essay examples

Business Elements Achievements and Sustainability

Question: Discuss about the Business Elements Achievements and Sustainability. Answer: Introduction The following assessment would look into various segments of the company. During the report key areas is to be highlighted. The report is mainly focusing on the business and business elements of the company. Its achievements and the role in sustainability are also to be highlighted. Woolworths is one of the largest retailer of foods and other products was founded on September, 22, 1924 by Percy Christmas, Stanley Chatterton, Cecil Scott Waine, George Creed, Ernest Williams having its headquarters are at Bella Vista, New South Wales, Australia and the area served by the company is Australia, New Zealand and India. About Woolworths Limited The main divisions are Supermarkets ( Woolworths, Countdown, Thomas Dux, Food for Less, Flemings, Petrol (Caltex Woolworths), Liquor(BWS, Dan Murphys), General Merchandise (Big W), Home Improvement( Masters), Hotels and Gambling(ALH Group). The Company is registered in Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) and the main area of functioning is in retailing mostly in large scale in Australia and New Zealand. Woolworths is the second largest company in Australia in terms of revenue after Perth based retails group Wesfarmers. It is also second largest in New Zealand and the largest takeaway liquor retailer in Australia and largest retailer in the world. It is a public limited company (Woolworthslimited, Woolworths Supermarkets, 2016). Woolworths opened its first store, the Woolworths Stupendous Bargain Basement, at Pitt Street, Sydney which is now Westfield Sydney on 5th December, 1924. The capital was Pound 25,000 and later on shares issued of 15,000 but only 11,707 shares were subscribed for by 29 people including five founding members. The Woolworths stores are extremely innovative and have the most detailed variety of foods and other edible products. Christmas started a New Zealand operation with general merchandise on 1929 in Wellington area including the first food store in Auckland in 1956 and supermarkets in 1971 (ASX, 2016). The company growth started to happen and the second store in Sydney and more stores in Perth, Brisbane in late 1920s, Melbourne in 1933, Adelaide in 1936 . The World War II affected the growth story of Woolworth group. But despite all this the 200th store was opened in 1955 in Canberra. The company bought various retail chains like Edments Ltd., Rockmans chain of womens clothing, Dick Smith Electronics chain, Tandy chain, etc. the key highlights of finanacial performance of the is as following; Sales excluded of petrol after 131 Caltex operated site exit was recorded at 2.5% growth although if petrol sales included then the total sales is dropping by 0.2% to $60.7 billion. Gross profit increased to 27.5% as a percentage of sales after petrol exit and considering the higher margin products outweighing the gross profit margin drop in both New Zealand and Australian supermarkets due to lower price investment and introduction. Earnings per share drop down to 195.2 cents by 0.7% while net profit after tax and before significant items and uncontrolled interests increased to 0.1% on the prior year. The involvement of the net financing cost decreased by 0.2% on earlier years as a result of interest savings by repayment of high debt in part by lowering the capital bearing interest cost. Future projection Proper Capital management by restructuring entire capital setup for better capital cost management and interest on capital reduction. Proper debt financing so that fully hedged financed interest cost involved are managed rightly to reduce extra cost burden. Proper debt maturities are too managed in such a way as to highlight the loan facility in more transparent manner. Vision mission To have better management on entire retail set up after the exit of electronics chain. To manage the business in better way by not taking up any business which can make loss in the gross business system like that of Petrol business with Caltex where huge loss was incurred due to 131 Caltex sites under Woolworths face value which ultimately affected the total business setup grossly. To take up or make new acquisitions in a very careful manner with profit motive in target. Progress and strategic priorities: Long term shareholder values are given important and disciplined capital allocation and portfolio management is maintained. New introduction of the products of global repute in the stores like Honda mowers, Loctite adhesives, Sherwin-Williams Paints. Australian supermarket are taken care of by investing more than $200 million in lower prices for 9000 items to regain the market share in 2015 , 2nd half. All three format of liquor business of BWS, Dan Murphys and The Wine Quarter have performed superbly to keep the greater share. The lean retail model is developed against a target of $500 million by group wise transformation with real dollar cost in a low inflation stage. BIG W is to be placed for 80% growth out of non production inventory rolled out to 63 new stores and the online increased to product range to 28000 products. Significant Issue inChairman's Report The Chairman of Woolworths Limited Mr.Gordon Cairns who joined the Woolworths Board in September, 2015 have stated in the Annual Report of FY15 various issues which are significant for the company. The points of discussion may be stated as below $2.45 billion of Net Profit after tax but before significant items delivered. Net profit after tax has increased by significant terms 0.1% on the last year to $2,453.3 million. The net profit after tax and after significant items decreased by 12.5% to $2,146.0 million. Group sales reached $60.7 billion which is a decrease by 0.2%. Group sales excluding petrol reached $55.0 billion which is a increase by 2.5%.The Board increased a 1.5% of dividends per share to 139 cents for FY 2015 from 137 cents in FY 2014. A very significant change has been made in the senior management team. Lower employee incentive based remuneration, store operations efficiency with improved support functions helped to control to some extent the Cost of doing business which was affected by Woolworths and Caltex alliance limitation and subdued sales growth. The cost of business to sales increased 42 bps on last year to 21.3% due this limitation (Woolworthslimited, Annual Report, 2016). Emergingissuesin MD"s report The CEO and Managing Director Mr.Grant OBrien who since October, 2011 served as CEO and the company for 28 years have informed the Board of his intention to step down from CEO and Managing Director position. A very extensive global search is being done to find the right replacement of Mr.Grant. Till such time Mr. Grant will continue to enrich the company. In February, 2015 Brad Banducci was appointed as the Managing Director of Food Group of Woolworths replacing Tjeerd Jegan. Brad is replaced as Managing Director of Liquor Group of Woolworths by Martin Smith, former General Manager of Dan Murphys. Dave Chambers was positioned as Director of Woolworths Supermarkets. Pat McEntee is positioned as Acting Managing Director of Progressive Enterprises in New Zealand. Alistair McGeorge, the Managing Director of BIGW left the company in August, 2015 and was replaced by Penny Winn. The significant issues reported in FY 2015 by Managing Director Mr.Grant may be stated below FY 2015, the profit to be returned to shareholders as dividends before significant items are 72% will be $1.8 billion. By size the company is 30% larger than the nearest competitor in Australian market in liquor business. For focus on fresh and shelf availability almost 56000 hours per week is reused in service in store format. Liquor business is growing further and it has already is a global leader. Woolworths is the Australias largest domestic online retailer. ALH is Australias largest hotel chain operator. Home timber and Hardware sales for FY15 increased by 20.9% to $937 million. Masters sales for FY15 increased by 23.7% to $930 million. Home Improvement sales for FY15 increased by 22.3% to $1.9 billion. 330 new refurbished hotels at 39 important venues during FY15. Hotel sale for FY15 increased by 0.2% on earlier year to $ 1,475 million. 63 stores for new party category was introduced with another 67 planned in FY16. Total sales for FY15 decreased by 5.7% to $ 4.1 billion. Loyalty program for 900,000 members were launched as a part of Dan Murphys. 41 new Australian liquor stores opened in FY15. 30 new Australian supermarkets opened in Fy15. $200 million investment in lower prices benefited most of the food customers for variety of new cheaper products. $7.7 billion total liquor sales are an increase by 4.2%over last year. Operational management of stock at retail business may help competitors. Needs to improve computer network disturbance and system failures. Joint ventures needed to be rethinking before taking due to risk behaviour. High market competition is affecting new business hence to review. Future risks out of acquisitions and value depreciation due to such activities. Risk of non-compliance and legal and regulatory activities may affect business. A substantial decline in economic activities in Australia and New Zealand has greatly affected almost all business formats which are to be taken care of (Woolworthslimited, Reports, 2016). Significant issues in Corporate Responsibility Report: Woolworths is a major FoodandStaples retailer in Australian market. Woolworths is recognized as the Sustainability Leader in the Dow Jones Sustainability Indices. This is a major achievement for the company in terms of sustainability. Globally and locally Woolworths has earned respect for the integrity towards corporate responsibility programs.Woolworths is diverse and complex industry and directly touching lives of millions. The goal of the company is to serve people with best choice, value for money and satisfaction. The company currently employs more than 2,00,000. Literally the company is leader in corporate responsibility and earned the respect over a period of time (Federation, 2016). The highlights of the achievements are listed below; Earning trust and respect of customers are stakeholders are to be considered as the biggest achievements for the company. The company bus responsibly and source sustainably and ethically. The quality and the sustainability are paramount to the business. The business and the animal husbandry is important aspect of the business. Woolworths offer cage-free egg choices toits customers. The hens are housed indoors in barns and they lay eggs when nest boxes. The chicken meats produced and sold in the supermarkets are RSPCA approved or equivalent. The company has achieved the goals it set for 2012 (Woolworthslimited, 2016). As responsible citizen it attained significant targets in 2012; The company has managed to reduce emission from its own trucks by 25%. The company has managed to reduce emission by 30% from the company car fleet. The baseline data for all tucks and cars are closely monitored. The company has increased use of hybrid powered trucks for home deliveries. The company has reduced water usage by 200 million liters by 2010. The suppliers forums are created by the company for supply of sustainablepackaging. The company is also practicing and complying with Environmental Code of Practice for Packaging (ECOPP). The company also reports about it packaging quality to Packaging Covenant (APC). PIQET assessments on meat trays, wine bottles are also conducted regularly. The responsibility comes with source and supply of hygienic foods. This is the primary corporate responsibility of Woolworths. The company is aware of the packaging impact on the environment. The sustainability and preservation of environmental substances is the way for the future growth of the company. The organized food retailing is important for sustainability (Woolworths, 2016). Calculation of Key ratios: PROFITABILITY 2015 $ Woolworths RETURN ON ASSETS 8.44% PAT 2137.4 ASSETS 25336.8 RETURN ON EQUITY 19.20% NET INCOME 2137.4 EQUITY 11132 GROSS PROFIT MARGIN 27% GP 16523.6 SALES 60868.4 NET PROFIT MARGIN 4% PAT 2137.4 SALES 60868.4 LIQUIDITY 2015 $ Woolworths CURRENT RATIO 0.83555832 CA 7660.9 CL 9168.6 QUICK RATIO 0.30415767 CA-INVENTORY 2788.7 CL 9168.6 TURNOVER 2015 $ Woolworths INVENTORY TURNOVER 9.10159681 COGS 44344.8 AVERAGE INVENTORY 4872.2 ASSETS TURNOVER 2.40237125 NET SALES 60868.4 TOTAL ASSETS 25336.8 FIXED ASSET TURNOVER 6.04927401 NET SALES 60868.4 FIXED ASSETS 10062.1 WORKING CAPITAL TURNOVER -40.371692 NET SALES 60868.4 WORKING CAPITAL -1507.7 GEARING RATIO 2015 $ Woolworths GEARING RATIO 0.21667968 LONG TERM DEBT 3079.3 SHAREHOLDER'S FUND + LONG TERM DEBT 14211.3 INTEREST COVERAGE 13.0396389 EBIT 3322.5 INTEREST 254.8 SHAREHOLDERS' 2015 $ Woolworths EPS 0.84925302 PAT 2137.4 NUMBER OF SHARES 2516.8 DIVIDEND PAYOUT RATIO 1.63673248 TOTAL DIVIDEND 3498.352 PAT 2137.4 Value creation or diminution in terms of six capitals: The much talked about of a corporate is Financial Capital. There are other capitals also which plays an important role to the development of business and industry. These capitals are lesser known from financial point of views manufactured, intellectual, human, and social and relationship and natural capital. Each capital depicted above is interlinked to the corporate responsibility of a company. Investment and savings of money is directly linked to financial capital. Woolworths Limiteds applied retail models helped it to save $500 million in terms of cost reduction for FY 2015-16. This enabled increased investment in the operation of the company leading customer satisfaction. Human capital is linked to wellbeing of employees and customers. Grant OBrien, CEO Woolworths Limited can be quoted saying as we will do whatever it takes to improve its position in the retail market through commitment towards customers. This policy of the company can be said as preservation of human capital. The intellectual capital includes processing of foods and offering better quality service to the customers. Improvement and investment in technology to source good quality food with little wastage of the resources can be termed as intellectual capital of the company, like the company is offering good quality foods with better hygiene and packaging. The social and relationship capital is nothing but building relationship with customers and other stakeholders. The price is the key driver to the growth, the competitive pricing and the quality would drive the growth for the company in future (Woolworthslimited, 2016). Recommendation on investing in Woolworths: The CEO has listed some targets for the company to achieve in long run which would boost the performance of the company in longer run. The momentum in food products has to be regained by offering better food and adding variety to it. The liquor division is the clear market leader, the company would hold the leadership position as long as it offers new product in different category. The maintenance of disciplined allocation of investment and portfolio management would underpin growth plans. These are the fundaments of the company that will drive growth in future. Warren Buffet once said I would prefer buying those stocks which can be seen, used and felt. Here, Woolworths Limited can be seen, can be felt. It would be better for an investor to hold on to that company for longer term. The track record of the company says that it does what it commits. Therefore, it would be advisable to hold on to that company but investor need to remember one sentence from the same man Its far better to buy a wonderful company at a fair price, than a fair company at a wonderful price (Town, 2016). References: ASX. (2016, 09 10). WOOLWORTHS LIMITED (WOW). Retrieved 09 10, 2016, from www.asx.com.au: https://www.asx.com.au/asx/statistics/announcements.do?by=asxCodeasxCode=WOWtimeframe=Dperiod=M6 Federation. (2016, 09 12). federation.edu.au. Retrieved 09 12, 2016, from federation.edu.au: https://federation.edu.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0018/190044/General-Guide-to-Writing-and-Study-Skills.pdf Town, P. (2016, 09 12). 29 Warren Buffett Quotes on Investing Success. Retrieved 09 12, 2016, from www.ruleoneinvesting.com: https://www.ruleoneinvesting.com/blog/how-to-invest/warren-buffett-quotes-on-investing-success/ Woolworths. (2016, 09 12). Environment. Retrieved 09 12, 2019, from www.woolworthslimited.com.au: https://www.woolworthslimited.com.au/page/A_Trusted_Company/Environment/ Woolworthslimited. (2016, 09 12). Annual Report. Retrieved 09 12, 2016, from www.woolworthslimited.com.au: https://www.woolworthslimited.com.au/icms_docs/182381_Annual_Report_2015.pdf Woolworthslimited. (2016, 09 12). Corporate Responsibility. Retrieved 09 12, 2016, from https://www.woolworthslimited.com.au/page/A_Trusted_Company/Corporate_Responsibility/: https://www.woolworthslimited.com.au/page/A_Trusted_Company/Corporate_Responsibility/ Woolworthslimited. (2016, 09 12). Reports. Retrieved 09 12, 2016, from www.woolworthslimited.com.au: https://www.woolworthslimited.com.au/page/Invest_In_Us/Reports/Reports/ Woolworthslimited. (2016, 09 12). Woolworths Limited. Retrieved 09 10, 2016, from www.woolworthslimited.com.au: https://www.woolworthslimited.com.au/page/The_Newsroom/Latest_News/Lean_Retail_Model_to_drive_three-year_growth_plans/ Woolworthslimited. (2016, 09 10). Woolworths Supermarkets. Retrieved 09 10, 2016, from www.woolworthslimited.com.au: https://www.woolworthslimited.com.au/page/Who_We_Are/Our_Brands/Supermarkets/Woolworths/.

The KGB A Historical Review

Abstract The KGB was a Russian secret police agency that played a significant role in the totalitarian Soviet Union. This paper engages in an informative discussion of the KGB to highlight the agency’s evolution and its role in Communist Russia. The paper begins by tracing the formation of the KGB to the establishment of the Extraordinary Commission to Combat Counterrevolution in 1917.Advertising We will write a custom term paper sample on The KGB: A Historical Review specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More It then traces the numerous evolutions of the organization; from the State Political Directorate (GPU) in 1922, the OGPU in 1923, the NKVD in 1934, and eventually the KGB in 1953. Efforts to decrease the power of the KGB after 1953 proved effective for only a short while. Under the leadership of Andropov, the agency was able to regain its previous prestige and autonomy. The discussion provided clearly reveals that the KGB was a highly penetrative agency that had vast amounts of power over the state and the society. The paper concludes by discussing the activities that led to the collapse of the powerful KGB. Introduction The Russian Komitet Gosudarstvennoi Bezopasnosti (KGB) was the Russian secret political police that gained worldwide repute for its efficiency in covert affairs. The KGB is regarded as the â€Å"most efficient political police system in modern history† (Waller 333). Historians record that the KGB system was so effective that other totalitarian states structured their own political police systems after it in order to enhance their grasp of power. This security agency was able to survive for decades and play an instrumental part in reinforcing the position of Communism in Russia. White and Kryshtanovskaya assert that the KGB acted as a guarantor of a system of single-party dominance in Russia (170). Up until its dissolution, the KGB was used as a tool for countering internal and exte rnal threats to the state. To effectively execute its directives, the KGB possessed exceptional powers, which were often abused leading to a repression of individual freedoms and violation of human rights both in Russia and abroad. Considering the huge significance that the KGB had in Russian life for over 8 decades, this paper will endeavor to provide an informative discussion on the KGB. It will discuss the creation and evolution of these security apparatus and highlight the role that it played in Communist Russia. The paper will conclude by highlighting the downfall of this once mighty security apparatus.Advertising Looking for term paper on government? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More Origins of the KGB The birth of the KGB can be traced to December 1917 when the newly empowered Bolshevik regime in Russia created a police system that was to act as the party’s machine for destroying all opposition (Waller 334). A numb er of the prominent factors in Russia at the time made the formation of a secret political police necessary. To begin with, the Bolshevik party came to power following a coup against the Tsar. During its reign, the Tsar made use of a security service that constantly infiltrated the Bolshevik Party. The Bolshevik party therefore took power in an atmosphere of conspiracy and mistrust with factions being formed and the leadership undermined by party members and non-members. A means for consolidating the Bolshevik’s supremacy was needed and the secret political police provided a solution. Thus, the KGB was founded in 1917 as the Extraordinary Commission to Combat Counterrevolution (Cheka) and the commission was required to fulfill a number of key responsibilities on behalf of the regime. The core responsibility was to stop all attempts and acts of counterrevolution in the motherland and execute judgment over any counterrevolutionary elements without involving the judicial system. The agency was also to work out ways of stopping any rebellious elements and make investigations to help in their suppression. The organization was also mandated to set up surveillance over potential saboteurs and impose sanctions against these enemies of the people. From the initial goal of suppressing the few counterrevolutionary elements in the state, the Cheka expanded its mandate and went into killing political and military opponents of the Bolshevik party. The Cheka operated with total impunity and citizens were publicly executed for minor violations of the rigid laws set in place by the Party (Waller 335). Such atrocities were allowed to happen since they assisted the Bolshevik party in its power consolidation campaign. These actions led to a popular opposition to the Bolshevik party and ordinary citizens expressed resistance to the authoritarian rule. This deep resentment to the Bolshevik party rule across the Russian society led to random attack on party officials by ordin ary citizens and counterrevolutionaries.Advertising We will write a custom term paper sample on The KGB: A Historical Review specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More In retaliation to such attacks, the political police apparatus engaged in mass executions and a myriad of terror tactics against innocent civilians. Under Lenin’s rule, the agency carried out executions of entire classes of the population. Population categories such as clergymen, ethnic groups, socialist rivals, and farmers were targeted and killed within a short duration (Waller 335). At the end of the Civil War, the Cheka began to be viewed as a liability. The terrorization that the commission had engaged in during the Civil War made many Russians hate the commission. In addition to his, many Bolshevik leaders were horrified by the actions of the Cheka and they sought to bind its actions in any form of legality. There was therefore an intention to reform the securit y police force and make it more agreeable to the public. The Cheka was therefore abolished and in its place, the State Political Directorate (GPU) was created. This new organization continued carrying out the work of the Cheka albeit under a different name. Knight documents that while the GPU purported to have less power than the Cheka and was actually under the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the organization still answered to the Party and maintained all the powers of its predecessor, the Cheka (14). The GPU was separated from the Ministry of Internal Affairs in 1923 and renamed OGPU. A year later, Lenin died and the new leader Stalin started using the OGPU as a weapon against his political rivals. The status of the agency rose with Stalin giving it power above the party apparatus. By giving the agency such great power, Stalin was able to perpetrate great terror on the citizens and an estimated 14.5 million peasants died between 1930 and 1933 (Dziak 38). Stalin continued to use the OGPU to eliminate prominent party figures and Army officials whom he perceived as threats. The OGPU was further restructured by merging it with the interior ministry to create the People’s Commissariat of Internal Affairs (NKVD). The NKVD wielded enormous power and Stalin’s dominance of these police apparatus gave him near absolute power in Russia.Advertising Looking for term paper on government? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More The KGB The death of Stalin on March 1953 necessitated a change in the security organization. The new leader of the Soviet Union, Nikita Khrushchev, embarked on a mission to de-Stalinize the country and one of his goals was to diminish the power of the security organs. These reforms were backed by Party leaders who were keen to ensure that the security organization would never again be at the command of one man as it had been under Stalin. The political police system was therefore split and renamed the Committee for State Security (KGB) with loyal communists appointed to run it in order to bring the agency under strict party control (Sakwa 125). The Russian secret political police maintained its new name from 1954 until its final disbanding by Boris Yeltsin in 1991. The KGB was veiled in secrecy and its protocols and budget were kept secret. There was no oversight from the legislative arm of the government and control of the organization rested with top party officials. The deep rel ationship between the KGB and the Party can be seen from the fact that the heads of the KGB top organs were highly placed members of the Party. A significant difference between the KGB and its predecessor the NKVD was that the surveillance abilities of the KGB were curtailed. Specifically, the KGB was forbidden from spying on Party officers or carrying out operations against them. The Party officials enforced these restrictions since they wanted to remove the danger to themselves that the police system had presented under Stalin’s reign. The powers of the agency were also reduced and government officials such as judges and the State procurators were placed out of KGB reach. During Khrushchev’s rule, the KGB was placed under strict party control. Even so, the agency was still used as a tool by Khrushchev to gain control within the party. Without support from the KGB, Khrushchev was successfully deposed in 1964 and Brezhnev took his post as Party Secretary. After Brezhne v took over, KGB leadership was reshuffled with some of the agency’s responsibilities being given to the Party. The KGB was placed under even firmer Party control leading to a period of relative tranquility and stability for the party and the KGB. The KGB was not only responsible for domestic security intelligence but also foreign intelligence. As such, this agency was involved in numerous intelligence and counterintelligence activities. Fleron and Hoffmann contend that the KGB operated the world’s largest and most far-reaching foreign intelligence apparatus with numerous intelligence officers being placed in most Western nations (467). The KGB did not have trouble recruiting personnel for its foreign missions since the high salaries acted as adequate incentives for the vast pool of eligible Russian youths. The US was the target of most of the KGB’s intelligence gathering efforts and up to 40% of Soviet officials engage in intelligence gathering were placed in t he US (Fleron and Hoffmann 467). The Andropov Era A new era for the KGB emerged under the leadership of Yuri Vladimirovich Andropov from 1964 to 1982. Dziak documents that the agency experienced a remarkable transformation during the leadership of Andropov (52). The KGB’s power had been significantly weakened in the years following the death of Stalin. The agency no longer commanded the authority and influence that it had exerted from its formation in 1917. Albats and Fitzpatrick articulate the revolutionary nature of Andropov’s leadership by noting that â€Å"it was precisely with the coming of Andropov, that the KGB once again became the state within a state it had been in the pre-Khrushchev era† (176). Steps were taken to professionalize the KGB by raising educational standards among recruits and establishing numerous scientific and research facilities. Andropov’s era in the KGB was marked by a greater orientation towards electronic espionage. Because of this, the KGB played a role in the technological advancement of Russia’s military during the 1980s. Through its intelligence network, the agency collected significant Western military technology and this was passed on to the relevant military entities who used it to improve the soviet military. The success of these collection efforts lightened the burden on Soviet research and improved the technical performance of Soviet military equipment (Fleron and Hoffmann 469). Because of these professionalization efforts, the KGB took on additional roles within the Communist party. In addition to the security roles fulfilled by the organization, it started to perform ideological, governance, and economic roles. Intensified crackdown on dissidents was also carried out through an expansive labor camp system and increased surveillance of Soviet society (Dziak 159). The KGB developed a countrywide system of secret informants completely infiltrated the society. These informants reported i ncidents of even the slightest dissent and retaliatory action was taken against the offenders. To create an atmosphere of unease and apprehension, the KGB encouraged voluntary informers in every segment of Russian society. The voluntary informers proved to be a valuable asset since they gave the impression that the organization possessed an all-seeing eye. In this way, the KGB was able to isolate the individual to the extent that people could not trust each other. The KGB had been demoted in 1956 but through Andropov’s efforts, the KGB was once again elevated to ministry status in 1978 and this gave the agency jurisdiction all over the USSR. In addition to this, the Soviet Constitution was amended which made cooperation with the KGB a duty of all Soviet citizens. Failing to comply with the KGB was a crime against the state and severe penalties were served to offenders. These new powers allowed Andropov to instigate a highly sophisticated system of control within the USSR. And ropov was able to reinvent the KGB as an uncorrupt institution that was necessary for the stability of the state. By the late 1970s, the KGB began an intensive crackdown on corruption in the country. Many investigations were carried out and party officials were implicated in scandals. Deriabin and Bagley report that these ambitious crackdowns against corrupt party officials signaled the height of the KGB’s power with its leader, Andropov, being seen as a likely candidate for Party leadership (85). Andropov’s death in 1984 marked an end to the recreation of the counterintelligence state that Andropov had successfully achieved in less than two decades. The KGB during Gorbachev’s Leadership Following Andropov’s death, the KGB remained instrumental in Party affairs and it played a role in the appointment of Chernenko as the new General Secretary. When Chernenko died in 1985, the KGB backed Gorbachev who took the position of General Secretary. Ebon documents t hat Gorbachev came to power with KGB backing and in his first years in power, his policies were but fresh implementations of Andropov’s blueprint (39). Considering the relationship between Gorbachev and the KGB, Gorbachev tried to make use of the secret police while avoiding the danger of being used by it. Gorbachev and the KGB chief Chebriko fell out in 1988 owing to a difference in opinion between the two. Gorbachev wanted to reform the state and the KGB to adhere to liberal principles. Chebriko considered liberal principles an attack on the state and felt that authoritarian control from the top was necessary to stabilize the country (Ebon 40). Chebriko disapproved of some of Gorbachev’s actions including the freeing of the distinguished dissident Andrei Sakharov who had been under KGB house arrest. These differences led to the replacement of Chebriko by Kryuchkov who would remain hold the position of KGB chief until 1991. Kryuchkov did not hinder the political and l egal reforms that Gorbachev embarked on. Demise of the KGB The KGB’s demise was initiated by the series of changes initiated by Mikhail Gorbachev to reform the USSR. Before the creation of a standing parliament by Mikhail Gorbachev in 1989, few people dared to challenge the KGB. Individuals who called for change in the KGB were mostly dissidents and the international human rights community. White and Kryshtanovskaya observe that these changes saw the KGB placed under the scrutiny of a parliamentary committee. The agency’s finances were placed under the control of the state auditor with an official budget of the KGB being made public (169). The KGB began to adopt a more public oriented approach and it even opened a public relations office in 1991. By late 1991, the surveillance capabilities of the KGB were curtailed and the agency made a public announcement that it would no longer engage in the invasive practice of monitoring conversations of private citizens. In spite of these changes to fit in with the times, the KGB was heavily implicated in the attempted coup of August 1991. The Chairman of the agency, Vladimir Aleksandrovich Kryuchkov, was a prominent member of the abortive coup and he was accused of organizing a crime against the state (White and Kryshtanovskaya 170). Because of this, the KGB was placed under the jurisdiction of the Russian presidency and by October, the agency had altogether disappeared. It was replaced by a group of new security agencies that were headed by reformers. Conclusion This paper set out to provide an in-depth discussion of the infamous political enforcement system, the KGB. The paper began by providing a historical overview of the agency. It traced the agency’s history with a detailed review of the KGB’s predecessors. The paper has outlined how KGB officials on orders from party leadership engaged in the murder of innocent people, deprived citizens of basic freedoms and created a society of spies a nd informers. Through these activities, the KGB was able to play the role of guarantor of single-party dominance in Russia. In addition to the intelligence services in the country, the KGB was also reputed for its espionage abroad. The paper has also discussed how the KGB was able to engage in internal and external changes to remain important in Russian leadership. It concluded by highlighting the events that led to the eventual demise of the once powerful secret political police organization. From the discussions presented in the paper, it is clear that the KGB did not serve society; rather it served the ruling party and its leaders. The Russian leaders were able to successfully keep the KGB powerful and effective while at the same time maintaining its loyalty and subservience. Works Cited Albats, Yevgenia and Catherine A. Fitzpatrick. The state within a state: The KGB and its hold on Russia – Past, Present, and Future. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1994. Print. Deria bin, Peter, and Bagley Tahid. The KGB: Masters of the Soviet Union. New York: Hippocrene Books, 1990. Print. Dziak, John. Chekistry: A history of the KGB. Lexington: Lexington Books, 1988. Print. Ebon, Martin. KGB: Death and Rebirth. NY: Greenwood Publishing Group, 1994. Print. Fleron, Fredric and Erik Hoffmann. Soviet Foreign Policy, 1917-1991: Classic and Contemporary Issues. Boston: Transaction Publishers, 1991. Print. Knight, Amy. The KGB: Police and Politics in the Soviet Union. Boston: Unwin Hyman, 1990. Print. Sakwa, Richard. Soviet Politics: In Perspective. NY: Routledge, 1998. Print. Waller, Michael. â€Å"Russia: Death and Resurrection of the KGB†. Demokratizatsiya 12.3 (2004): 333-355. EBSCOHost.com. Web. White, Stephen and Ol’ga Kryshtanovskaya. â€Å"Public attitudes to the KGB: A research note†. Europe-Asia Studies 45.1 (1993): 169-176. Print. This term paper on The KGB: A Historical Review was written and submitted by user Christina Wagner to help you with your own studies. You are free to use it for research and reference purposes in order to write your own paper; however, you must cite it accordingly. You can donate your paper here.