Relativity Theory Essays - Albert Einstein, Theory Of Relativity

Relativity Theory The theory of relativity was introduced by Albert Einstein around the early nineteen hundereds. It is a theory which enables the human mind to understand the possible actions of the universe. The theory is divided into two parts, the special, and the general. In each part, there is a certain limit to which it explains and helps to comprehend. In the special, Einstein explains ways of understanding the atom and other small objects, while the general is designed for the study of large objects, such as planets. The theory of relativity having being created, succeeded the two hundred year old mechanics of Isaac Newton, thus showing Einstein as more of a futuristic thinker and adapter. Einstein introduced the concept of Relativity, which means that there is no absolute motion in the universe. Einstein showed that humans are not in a flat, absolute time of everyday experience, but in a curved space-time. Take for example the Earth as a whole. The earth has a circumference of around twenty five thousand miles, and it can be covered within a twenty-four hour time frame. Having this completion of distance covered within the set amount of time, shows that the Earth rotates a little over one-thousand miles per hour. it can be assumed that something in the solar system is not moving, and we can measure how fast the earth is moving by relative to the object. However, no matter what object is chosen, it is moving as well, thus showing that nothing is fixed and that everything is moving, and it is unknown how fast or in what direction. The Theory of Relativity is a theory compressing mechanics, gravitation, and space-time. Having known this, it is seen so that all things are related, but can not be thought of as individual. The Theory of Relativity is known for having two parts to it. The first part is the special relativity; the other is the general relativity. Special relativity is known for it's publication in 1906; it is used for microscopic physics, such as atoms and small objects. The other type of relativity, the general, is known for its publication in 1916, well after the birth of it's counterpart. The general half of the theory is intended for astrophysics and cosmology, such as solar systems, planets, and large objects. A British Astronomer named Sir Arthur Eddington, was one of the first to fully understand the Theory of Relativity. A little humor about his intelligence can be seen to when he was asked about there being three people who understood the Theory of Relativity, his response was "who is the third?" The discovery of Quasars, the 3 kelvin microwave background radiation, pulsars, and possibly blackholes were studied with to see the accuracy of the Theory of Relativity with gravity. This led the development of the space program, telescopes, computers, etc...to make better calculations of the accuracy of the theory. The Theory of Relativity has two main parts, the special and the general. The internal part of the special theory is in reference to any region, such as a free falling laboratory, in which objects move in straight lines and have uniform velocities. In the lab, nothing would appear to be moving if everything in the lab was falling, the movement of the lab is relevant to the person that is in the lab. The principle of relativity theorizes that experiments in an internal frame, is independent from uniform velocity of the frame. An example of this is the speed of light. The speed of light within the internal frame is the same for all, regardless of the speed of the observer. Two events that are simultaneos in one frame, may not be simultaneos when viewed from a frame moving relative to the first one. Movement looks different depending on where the observer is located, how fast it is moving, and in what direction. An interesting fact about the special relativity, is that the mechanical foundations of special relativity were researched in 1908 by a german mathmetician named, Hermann Minkowski. Minkowski ler einstein to postulate the vanishing of gravity in free fall. In any free fall, laws of physics should take on special relitavistic forms, this is what led to the EEP(Eisteins Equivalence Principle.) A consequence of EEP is that the space time must be curved. It is techinical, consider two frames falling freely, but on opposite sides of the Earth. According to Minkowski, spare time is valid locally in each frame, but since the frames are accelerating towards each other, the two

History of the Byzantine Empire essays

History of the Byzantine Empire essays The Byzantine Empire is sometimes referred to as the East Roman Empire. The word Byzantine, in fact, comes from "Byzantium," which is the Greek name for a city on the Bosphorus. It was established with the foundation of Constantinople, the capital. The Empire included parts of both southern and Eastern Europe, the Middle East, and northern Africa. The ancient Roman Empire having been divided into two parts, an East and West with the east being the Byzantine. It was around between 312-1453AD and it reached its most powerful point in the 500's A.D. People of the Empire called themselves Romans, although they weren't really Romans; they were descendants of various ancient people. They were a mixture of mainly Greeks and Latin The Byzantine Empire was greatly influenced by the Greeks, who colonized the area, in the mid 600's BC. When Constantine the Great moved the capital of the Roman Empire from Rome to Byzantium, which he renamed after himself Constantinople, in 330 AD, When the Empire began to grow in number and power. The Empire lasted close to 1250 years until the Ottoman Turks came in and beat Constantine the Great and renamed it Istanbul, which it is known as today. Christianity influenced the culture of Byzantine including art, music, and architecture. Being that Constantinople was the capital of the Empire it was where everyone would go to read and write the language of ancient Greece. This period made many beautiful works of arts and fine poetry. Visual arts also flourished, too. Most of the artist worked as servant s of the court or belonged to religious orders, and they remained anonymous, which explains why most Byzantine artwork has no artist, so one or many people could have made these great works, and we would never know. The artworks on churches were also very popular the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, known to the Byzantines as the Church of the Resurrection at the order of Emperor Constantine probably took ten years...

A Babel of Tongues †The Dialectic of Communication and Solitude in Virginia Woolf

A Babel of Tongues – The Dialectic of Communication and Solitude in Virginia Woolf Virginia Woolf’s answer to Mr. Ramsay’s philosophical pursuits in To the Lighthouse is a reconciliation of both worlds – subjective perception and interpretation, and external objectivity. The first chapter of the novel is entitled â€Å"The Window,† and serves to represent the point of contact between subjective and objective states. This, Woolf believes to be our reality. External facts are arbitrary and meaningless until they are apprehended by a subjective state which gives them form; on a social level, communicating as a participant in society exposes the individual to an incoherent tumult of impressions that have to be reorganized into a coherent whole in solitude. Only then can one achieve peace. The individual is hence continually in search of an equilibrium in the dialectic of communication and solitude. Peter Walsh summarizes this concept in Mrs. Dalloway: For this is the truth about our soul†¦our self, who, fish-like inhabits deep seas and plies among obscurities†¦suddenly she shoots to the surface and sports on the wind-wrinkled waves; that is, has a positive need to brush, scrape, kindle herself, gossiping. However, to re-enter society as a participant entails at least a partial suspension of one’s subjectively constructed reality. Creative organisation is forfeited, and the â€Å"infinite richness† of life that Peter experienced a moment ago gives way to anxiety and a sense that events are spiraling out of one’s control. The city appears to be â€Å"floating off in a carnival,† and the febrile party of life – â€Å"the flare and the glare† – becomes lurid and chaotic. The coherent whole fragments and becomes meaningless isolated elements of reality that wash past Peter in an incomprehensible manner: â€Å"the cold stream of visual impressions failed him now as if the eye were a cup that overflowed and let the rest run down its china walls unrecorded.† The consequence of this is that â€Å"the brain must wake now†¦the soul must brave itself to endure.† Previously, as an invisible flà ¢neur amidst the bustling city, Peter could relax his mind to appreciate the myriad impressions of London life. To join the party would entail shedding invisibility and arresting these mental excursions in order to function socially. He takes out his pocketknife again, as he did when he first went to see Clarissa in the morning. T.E Apter suggests that the pocketknife is â€Å"a tool with which to pare down his perceptions, to preen his identity, and to defend himself against others’ views.† This is observed in Peter Walsh’s proleptic defense constructed in his thoughts against society’s voice, including Clarissa’s. He defends himself against the labels â€Å"Socialist† and â€Å"failure,† asserting that the future of civilization lies in the â€Å"hands of young men like[himself],† a nd diminishes Clarissa’s negative opinions of him by suggesting that she is superficial and snobbish. While Apter feels that Peter Walsh’s pocketknife is not a â€Å"worn-out masculine symbol,† Peter’s self-defensive maneuvers are undeniably offensive. Watching Peter handle his pocketknife, Clarissa imaginatively formulates his self-defense as revealed in his interior monologue – that she was â€Å"frivolous; empty minded; a mere chatterbox.† His self-defense invariably becomes an attack – interaction and communication hence turn into a battleground. Clarissa retaliates â€Å"like a Queen whose guards have fallen sleep and left her unprotected,† and â€Å"summoned to her help the things she did; the things she liked; her husband; Elizabeth; her self, in short†¦to come about her and beat off the enemy (my italics).† Her self, violated by misrepresentation, seeks to validate itself and emerges as the â€Å"indomitable egotism† that safeguards her vanity by overriding Peter’s claims. As a result, both Peter and C larissa â€Å"challenge each other† as in a â€Å"battle.† Clarissa validates her identity through external indicators – â€Å"the things she did; the things she liked; her husband; Elizabeth.† This is because a pattern of symbolic interpretation preexists the objects she names. Husband, daughter and hobbies can therefore be used as symbols representing success and felicity to vindicate Clarissa’s choices in life and challenge Peter’s position. However, these external indicators often make reductive summaries of their characters that they would not accept so easily in solitude. Clarissa chooses to define herself in these terms insofar as they offer her protection against Peter’s accusations; they cannot, however, fully represent her essential being, which explains â€Å"the feeling†¦of dissatisfaction† she often experiences of â€Å"not knowing people; not being known.† On the other hand, using social language to â€Å"preen one’s identity† does scale down the task of defend ing oneself against the whole of society into manageable proportions. One tactic Peter employs is in reproducing the external indicators imposed upon him in a dismissive tone (hence â€Å"preening his identity†), as he does later during the party. This subverts the significance of the criticisms and places him in a more enviable light than the term â€Å"failure† would normally allow. This is done without necessitating a head-on battle against society’s rather ill-founded impositions and labels – a task which would only make him appear insecure and, indeed, even more of a â€Å"failure.† Another means of self-defense is to appeal to another set of external indicators, which Peter does in response to Clarissa’s attack. He draws upon his â€Å"praise; his career at Oxford; his marriage† and tackles society’s implicit criticisms with another implicit social argument, and hence simultaneously defends and misrepresents himself. When one is alone, the self is relieved of the tedious tasks of self-defense and self-validation. The individual is allowed his own subjective understanding of events passing in the world and meets no resistance in his interpretation. Peter, upon leaving Clarissa, can therefore criticize her as having â€Å"something cold,† â€Å"a sort of timidity which in middle age becomes conventionality,† without facing Clarissa’s offensive self-defense. These criticisms are individual interpretations and are expressed in terms that are more subjective and descriptive, though less peremptory (which reduces their defensive power) than the predetermined arguments implicit in reductive and generalized social indicators. While these interpretations would afford a more meaningful debate, their lack of defensive power causes them to be eschewed on social battlegrounds where the more imperious external indicators are favoured. Only in solitude is Peter able to organize a more meani ngful representation of reality based on his own subjective interpretation of the events around him. Social language can be seen to impose frameworks of identity on characters, denying them the validity of their subjectively construed self-representations. It is this imposition of identity that characters in The Hours find unbearable. Cunningham describes his text as a â€Å"riff† on Mrs. Dalloway. Faithfully enough, his text is informed by the same theories of identity as a fluid concept as is seen in Woolf, where the self is constantly foiled and resurrected in an etiology concerning identity shaped by communication and solitude. Richard feels that the party could go on â€Å"with the idea of [him].† His self identity has been subsumed into facile social categorization, and he is defined as the tragic and sick artist who writes â€Å"weird book[s].† It is for this reason that he feels he â€Å"got a prize for [his] performance†¦for having AIDS and going nuts and being brave about it.† The external indicators – his sickness and his lengthy book – once again triumph over the true qualities of the self, here partially represented by the actual contents of his work, which nobody seems to understand. Laura Brown likens her anxieties about meeting her husband to the feeling one gets when â€Å"about to go onstage and perform in a play for which [one] is not appropriately dressed, and for which [one] has not adequately rehearsed.† She is acutely aware of the disparity between her self-perceived identity and the identity society has constructed for her, which she has to assume. She finds social identity – â€Å"the inchoate, tumbling thing known as herself, a mother, a driver† – superficial and meaningless, and liberates herself from the constraints of being a wife in a perfect home by escaping into a hotel. She experiences there â€Å"a sensation of deep and buoyant release,† which is the solace of self-reconstruction in solitude. Having â€Å"slipped out of her life† and escaped social imposition, she experiences â€Å"a sensation of unbeing,† for she has just lost social definition. Formerly, the being and the living had been the existence defined by society – the meaningless performance. The dissolution of the social â€Å"I† in solitude allows her self to emerge and conceive how â€Å"it is possible to die,† how death has a â€Å"dreadful beauty.† The â€Å"neutral zone† of the hotel room is void of socially imposed reality, and it is there, for the first time, that L aura is able to understand the appeal of death. This appeal is Laura’s subjective interpretation of the world (and of death in particular), and is an interpretation that has thus far been suppressed by social definition. Her â€Å"patriotism† for her husband – her civic responsibility to remain by his side and uphold the social tenets of familial duties – previously made such an idea unthinkable. A more insidious aspect of social interaction and communication is highlighted in Mrs. Dalloway and is represented by the two â€Å"Goddesses† of â€Å"Proportion† and â€Å"Conversion.† These are essentially abstractions of social establishments that enforce definitions regarding moral, political, emotional, or aesthetic realities, and which are given a satirical mythological status. They â€Å"smite out of [the] way roughly the dissentient, or dissatisfied† and â€Å"bestow†¦blessing on those who†¦catch submissively from [their] eyes the light of their own,† asserting their blinkered positions to be the only truths. Hugh Whitbread, who kissed Sally Seton to â€Å"punish her for saying that women should have votes,† could be said to be an agent of â€Å"Proportion† and â€Å"Conversion.† He masquerades under the â€Å"venerable name† of â€Å"kindness† and does more harm than â€Å"the rascals who get h anged for battering the brains of a girl out in a train.† Having been converted, he becomes a proponent of the â€Å"Goddesses†: by embodying outward social perfection without real depth of character, he is empowered, under the aegis of society, to stifle imagination, creativity and understanding, and repudiates Sally’s self-conceived reality, which made only the very modest claim that equal voting opportunities are appropriate in a civic moral society. Michael Cunningham, in The Hours, examines Woolf’s â€Å"Proportion† and â€Å"Conversion† in the context of the homosexual identity. By transposing Woolf’s diegesis of anomie onto the postmodern constructionistic concepts of identity, Cunningham is able to intensify the paradoxical tensions concerning the need for validation of one’s subjective experiences and the longing for social acceptance and integration. Walter Hardy, desiring acceptance, succumbs to â€Å"Conversion.† He possesses physical health, wealth and happiness – the touchstones of social success – leaving not a trace of the â€Å"overweight, desperately friendly† child â€Å"able to calibrate the social standing of other ten-year-olds to the millimeter.† But by accepting society’s criteria for judging success, he affirms its truth. Richard is hence justified in saying that â€Å"eternally youthful gay men do more harm to the cause than do me n who seduce little boys.† At least in seducing little boys, these men are affirming their subjective life experiences (which are their homosexual attractions and emotions), whereas men like Hardy, by their outward subscription to the social norm and passive assimilation of society’s ideological truths, allow the cycle of self-invalidation to continue into the next generation, and end up as simulacra of the â€Å"boys who tortured them in high school,† becoming the very forces that convert other individuals into the â€Å"Proportions† of masculinity and success. Oliver St. Ives is another character that embodies â€Å"Proportion.† Sally remarks â€Å"how much Oliver resembles himself.† The Oliver as movie star is almost identical to the Oliver of real life. As a movie star his image on television is defined through popular appeal, through society’s ideals. That his private image should correspond so well with society’s golden standard reveals Oliver’s lack of true self-identity – â€Å"as if all other brawny, exuberant, unflinching American men were somehow copies of him.† He is the face of the American male. Characteristically, his movie panders to society’s â€Å"Proportion†: an action thriller with a guy â€Å"who saves the world, one way or another.† An additional caveat attached reveals that â€Å"this one would have a gay man for a hero.† Unfortunately, saying that â€Å"it’s not a big deal. He wouldn’t be tortured about his sexuality. He wouldn ’t have HIV† is once again to deny the homosexual experience, to insist homosexuals had â€Å"never been strange children, never taunted or despised,† and to reinforce the experiences of society’s heterosexual norm. As David Bergman points out in â€Å"Gaiety Transfigured: Gay Self-Representation in American Literature,† â€Å"the child who will become gay conceives his sexual self in isolation. I cannot think of another minority that is without cultural support in childhood.† This precarious identity developed in solitude is allowed to be stampeded by the need for social confirmation, and Oliver becomes the very force of â€Å"Conversion.† Sally’s anger with â€Å"every optimistic, dishonest being† who denies their subjectively construed identity in favour of society’s brutal misrepresentation is hence vindicated. Such are the perils immanent in social participation that make a retreat into solitude so appealing. â€Å"Our apparitions, the things you know us by, are simply childish† – here, Mrs. Ramsay recognizes that the self is inevitably distorted by and heavily concealed from society. Human relations are â€Å"flawed,† â€Å"despicable† and â€Å"self-serving at their best,† because people inevitably choose to understand the world in a manner most gratifying to one’s vanity. She relishes the solitude wherein â€Å"she needs[s] not think about anybody,† and needs not continually fight for self-validation. â€Å"Having shed its attachments,† her self is free to wander uninhibited, and â€Å"the range of experience seem limitless.† These â€Å"strangest adventures† are not merely Mrs. Ramsay’s escapist fantasies of traveling to Rome and India; they are life experiences that are reorganized and refashioned by the â₠¬Å"unlimited resources† within one, and which form a subjectively conceived coherence – â€Å"a summoning together, a resting on a platform of stability.† Society foists itself on the individual, and it is only through â€Å"losing personality† and escaping social participation – whether as mother, wife or host – that the external world is held back, enabling one to lose â€Å"the fret, the hurry, the stir† and create â€Å"this peace, this rest, this eternity† by and for oneself. In retreating into the â€Å"wedged-shape core of darkness† of her self, subjective experience seemingly overwhelms the external objective world and turns it into a self-referential mirror – â€Å"She (Mrs. Ramsay) became the thing she looked at.† This mirror affords â€Å"peace† because it is the expression of the â€Å"core of darkness,† the moi splanchnique. Seeing the self reflected on the face of the world lets i t conceive of a harmonious unity, as if the essential truths of reality are indeed within oneself. Woolf, however, as a lover of parties, maintained that communication with the external world is not only desirable, but also necessary. Septimus’ decline into solipsistic insanity corroborates the idea that â€Å"communication is health; communication is happiness.† Septimus may also be seen as Clarissa’s doppelgà ¤nger. The tragic force gathers him, the alienated individual, in its nihilist folds and leads him to a premature death just as the comic force in Clarissa repeatedly pulls her back into society’s embrace in an affirmation of the positive and the social order. Shell-shocked after the war, Septimus appears to repudiate the impositions of the objective world – the social and the external – and constructs a reality based almost exclusively on his thoughts and emotions. His preoccupation with Evans conjures up images of him with hardly any objective stimulus – he hears him sing and speak where there could only possibly be birds singing or people talking. The objective world is lost to him, and he reveals: â€Å"I went under the sea†¦ but let me rest still.† He has collapsed into himself; his reality implodes. â€Å"Under the sea† he stays immersed in his own self and society’s call for him to emerge is feverish, lurid and cacophonic: But let me rest still; he begged†¦and as, before waking, the voices of birds and the sound of wheels chime and chatter in a queer harmony, grow louder and louder and the sleeper feels himself drawing to the shores of life, so he felt himself drawing towards life, the sun growing hotter, cries sounding louder His â€Å"doom† was hence â€Å"to be alone forever.† By the end of the novel he turns away from life and his doctors who are â€Å"forcing (his) soul,† committing suicide to preserve â€Å"the thing†¦that mattered.† This is the self which is â€Å"wreathed about with chatter, defaced, obscured†¦let drop every day in corruption, lies, chatter.† â€Å"Closeness draws apart† because social language is inadequate. He cannot survive in this solitude and appealed to death for â€Å"death was an attempt to communicate.† Clarissa does come to intuit his self-identity in the solitude of her â€Å"little room† by imaginative recreation of his death, drawing material from her own experiences and emotions. She feels his â€Å"terror; the overwhelming incapacity,† the â€Å"indescribable outrage† of a â€Å"soul† being â€Å"forc[ed]† and experiences his death vicariously – â€Å"her dress flame d, her body burnt.† She appeals to her own understanding of the world, remembering how she once felt â€Å"if it were now to die, ’twere now to be most happy.† She seeps into Septimus’ consciousness thus by an empathetic subjective understanding. If Septimus’ death is a triumph against Time’s transience and an offering to the epiphanic moments of life, then Clarissa’s quote from â€Å"Othello† would be representative. In solitude, through these references to her subjective world she achieves communication with Septimus. Woolf thus presents a paradox of opposites which is developed further in To the Lighthouse. Lily Briscoe, the artist, finds that â€Å"distance had an extraordinary power.† Distance enables withdrawal from social participation. As she paints, Lily retreats into solitude, going â€Å"out and out†¦further and further, until one [she] seemed to be on a narrow plank, perfectly alone, over the sea,† in order to peer into â€Å"the chambers of the mind and heart† of Mrs. Ramsay. To understand the â€Å"sacred inscriptions† of Mrs. Ramsay’s soul, Lily has to rely on her subjective understanding of the people and places which completed her. As Clarissa Dalloway suggests, â€Å"to know†¦anyone, one must seek out the people who completed them; even the places.† It would hardly be conceivable to accomplish this mammoth task physically. Lily, however, is able to â€Å"make up scenes,† of which â€Å"not a word†¦was true.† While objectively speaking these events had never occurred they are nonetheless completely plau sible, extrapolated hypothetically based on one’s understanding of other people. Fiction, formed by the creative self, is hence a useful tool for exploring human responses to various situations and elucidating their characters. Lily realizes that â€Å"it was what she knew them by all the same,† and views and reviews Mrs. Ramsay from the subjective viewpoints of the Rayleys, of Mr. Carmichael, Mr. Bankes and the other Ramsays. She felt she needed â€Å"fifty pairs of eyes to see with† in order achieve reconciliation amongst the kaleidoscopic representations of Mrs. Ramsay, so that her portrait is not saturated with her limited perspective. Eventually, like Clarissa, she has to experience Mrs. Ramsay’s emotional and intellectual experiences vicariously to achieve understanding. â€Å"What did the hedge mean to her, what did the garden mean to her, what did it mean to her when a wave broke?† – all these questions Lily strives to answer through imaginative enactment of events. She eventually manages to apprehend the world through Mrs. Ramsay’s consciousness and her fear for Mr. Ramsay segues into love and need – â€Å"she wanted him.† This is probably one aspect of Mrs. Ramsay’s emotional response to her husband which Lily has never shared. In this rare instance of human communication, Lily achieves the same unity and peace that Mrs. Ramsay experienced with the lighthouse beam earlier on, for she had become, â€Å"like waters poured into one jar, inextricably the same, one with the object [Mrs. Ramsay] one [she] adored.† The mirror returns, and she solves Mr. Ramsay’s philosophical conundrum – the relationship between subjective and objective worlds – by creating a work of art that affirms the expression of the subjective self using material from the objective world. Her portrait is accurate for the â€Å"odd-shaped triangular shadow† corresponds with the â₠¬Å"wedge-shaped core of darkness† so essential to Mrs. Ramsay’s identity; the finishing stroke scored through the middle of the canvass is also reflective of the severance in human relationships that Mrs. Ramsay has always fought against. Lily, like Woolf herself, rejects the notion of art as mimesis. â€Å"To be on level with ordinary experience† is to experience the phantasmagoric flux of fact and dream, to interweave between objective reality and subjective organization of that reality. Her painting is hence a â€Å"razor edge balance between two opposite forces; Mr. Ramsay and the picture† – the uncompromising facts of objective reality embodied in Mr. Ramsay and Lily’s own subjective understanding of them come together, equipoised, â€Å"clamped together with bolts of iron. Objectivity in society and subjective latitude in solitude soldered together – this is Woolf’s answer to the dialectic of the comforts of solitude and the asperity of communication in external society.

Characteristics of japanese schooling Research Paper

Characteristics of japanese schooling - Research Paper Example This essay stresses that there is a large number of people who want the system to be more flexible to the students because the current level of strictness has caused many to send their children to schools in addition the regular public schools children attend during the daytime. Japan conventionally follows a strict layout of curriculum and coursework for education at all levels and room for modification in curriculum or the educational trends in Japan is little, despite the fact that it contrasts with the diverse level of competency among the Japanese students. This paper makes a conclusion that increasing general reliance of people on part-time educational institutions like jukus and yobikos has paved way for many businessmen to adopt this as their profession since the practice guarantees huge monetary benefits. However, an in-depth analysis of the routine of students that go to these institutions suggests that these students spend a major portion of their day in schools. This is adversely affecting their social life as they do not get enough time to socialize with their friends and family. This may result in the production of a silo-minded generation in which the individuals lack bondage. In addition to that, people’s trust in jukus and yobikos more than on public schools speaks bad of the role of formal educational institutions in the overall academic nurturing of students in Japan.

Post World War I jewry in america Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Post World War I jewry in america - Essay Example Rarely did the attacks turn violent although there were few recorded cases. Such include 1902 attack of Irish workers and police on the funeral procession of Rabbi Jacob Joseph in New York City, the lynching of Leo Frank in 1915, the murder of Alan Berg in 1984, and the Crown Heights riots of 1991. Anti-Jewish waned off following the Second World War and the rise of the American Civil Right Movement. Claims by The Black Nation of Islam that Jews were responsible for black labor exploitation, introduction of drugs and alcohol and unfair denomination into the community was conclusively done away with following a survey done in 1964 by the Anti-Defamation League. The survey revealed attitudes on anti-Semitism with the majority percentage of 29 Hispanic being most Anti-Semitic trailed by 36% for blacks and 9% for whites. The Jewish population has remained strong politically, mostly liberal with the democratic pattern continuing heavily into the 21st century. The vast majority of Jews, since 1936, have been recorded to have been Democrats. This saw to the 74% of the Jewish populous voting for John Kerry, a Catholic of partial Jewish descent in the year 2004. Again in the year 2006 87% voted for Democratic candidates for the House (Mendes-Flohr and Judah, 62). Jews were fast becoming prominent in Congress and state governments through the country in the year 1990 and significantly proved to be ardent supporters of the American Civil Rights Movement. American Jews have since prospered throughout the early 21st century with them being disproportionately represented in academia, business, and politics. Going by Forbes, Forty-five percent of the top 40 of the 400 richest Americans are Jewish. Twenty percent of professors in leading universities being Jews, Forty percent of partners in the leading law firms in New York and Washington, Thirty percent of American Nobel prize winners in science and 37 percent of all American Nobel winners are

The crusaders and muslims in palestine :: essays research papers

Crusaders and Muslims in Palestine   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Throughout time, history has had a tendency to repeat itself. It has done so in good means as well as bad. People learn from the past and apply it to their every day lives. Although people try to do the right thing and not follow mistakes that have been already made, they just seem to come about. Today, our country is experiencing a situation that is extremely similar to the situation occurred in 11th, 12th, and 13th centuries. Crusades now can be defined as well all wars undertaken in pursuance of a vow and directed against infidels. Back in the middle ages, it was known as any military expedition undertaken by the Christians of Europe. The history of the crusades is filled with the mercilessness of the crusaders and the kind-heartedness of the Muslims. The Muslims were massacred everywhere the crusaders arrived, while the Christians were treated kindly by the Muslims. The Christians and the Muslims were fighting against one another in order to spread their relig ion, or end the other.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The event leading up to the start of the holy wars was the invasions of the Holy Land, Jerusalem. Jerusalem was a holy site for the Christians as well as the Muslims. For the Christians, it was a sacred place because Jesus was crucified and on the site where his body was placed in a tomb. They built a church of Holy Sepulchure which stands of the hill where Christ was believed to have been crucified, died, buried, and where he rose again. For the Muslims, this place was cared because they believed that the founder of their religion, Muhammad, was able to visit heaven from there. For that reason, they built many masques and the most famous one is the Dome of the Rock. Islam was spreading very fast. Europe’s greatest threat came from the forces of Islam. These threats became real. Battles broke out and these battles turned to wars that lasted from 1095 to 1229. These years of bloodshed were led by men of power to gain control over the Holy Land of Jerusalem. Jerusalem was extremely important to the Muslims and Christians at this time. Many religious events had happened there, and many of the landmarks of both religions were located in Jerusalem. It was all over for one city, Jerusalem the Holy Land. At first, Christians occupied Jerusalem. The Christian people head out from giving up their land to their invaders, the Muslims.

E-Banking: Trend, Status, Challenges and Policy Issues

E-banking: Status, Trends, Challenges and Policy Implications 1. Introduction In addition to introduction (section I) and conclusion (section VI), the paper includes four sections. Section II addresses the definition and current situation of e-banking. Then, section III addresses the impact of e-banking on banking business. After that, section IV addresses the major application of e-banking. That is also the bottom line whether e-banking can be viable in a country. Section V addresses the new challenges e-banking has brought and policy implications from the perspectives of society, banks, and regulatory authority as well as government. . Status 2. 1. Definition †¢ The Internet includes all related web-enabling technologies and open telecommunication networks ranging from direct dial- up, the public World Wide Web, cable, and virtual private networks. (BIS-EBG, 2003) †¢ Internet banking (e-banking) is defined to include the provision of retail and small value banking product s and services through electronic channels as well as large value electronic payments and other wholesale banking services delivered electronically. (BIS-EBG, 2003) 1 2. 2. Fundamental characteristicsComparison between the current round financial innovation (e-banking) and past financial innovations The current innovation (ebanking) Content Delivery channel innovation-deliver banking business via internet. Impact Wider Past financial innovations Products and services, i. e. , delivery, swap Narrow 2. 3. Levels/Scope of e-banking business †¢ †¢ Basic information e-banking/web sites that just disseminate information on banking products and services offered to bank customers and the general public; Simple transactional e-banking /web sites that allow bank customers o submit applications for different services, make queries on their account balances, and submit instructions to the bank, but do no permit any account transfers; †¢ Advanced transactional e-banking/web sites that allow bank customers to electronically transfer funds to/from their accounts pay bills, and conduct other banking transaction online. †¢ Usually, e-banking refers to types II and III. 2. 4. Current development situations (in industrial countries) †¢ E-banking products and services are getting more and more advanced and increasing in variety.From providing information at the early stage to providing transactional activities. 2 †¢ †¢ Both volume and share in the total banking business are getting bigger and bigger very fast (Graph, Europe) E-banking customer base is getting bigger quickly. 2. 5. Status in developing countries Developing countries are in catching up in e-banking: †¢ †¢ †¢ †¢ †¢ †¢ The average e-banking penetration for developing countries by the end of 1999 was close to 5% (World Bank Survey, 2001). In Brazil, the number of e-banking users reached 8 million in 2000. In Mexico, the number of e-banking users reached 1. 5 million in 2000. In India, over 50 banks are offering online banking services. ICICI Bank’s e-banking is very impressing. E-banking in Korea, Thailand, Malaysia, and Singapore, Hong Kong and Taiwan (China) is thriving. In Ghana and some other African countries, smart cards based on Visa Horizon proximately technologies are getting started. 3. Prospects–Impact of E-banking on traditional banking 3. 1. The early conventional wisdom: †¢ †¢ Internet banking would destroy the traditional banking business model and promote the entry of newcomers from the outside of the banking industry.Developing countries could have the â€Å"opportunities to leapfrog† in the adoption of efinance on a large scale. 3. 2. In reality, e-banking develops fast, but not damaging as conventional wisdom projected. †¢ The notion of leapfrog has not worked in many developing countries due to various impediments. This can be verified by UNCTAD report. â€Å"Some positive si gns are 3 already visible, including a high level of acceptance of technology by customers and financial institutions†¦. H(h)owever, most projects have not yet been deployed on a large scale. † (UNCTAD 2002. It provides a comprehensive look at the status of efinance in developing countries.It covers arrange of areas related to e- finance including e-banking, e-payments, e-trades, and e-credit information). †¢ †¢ Even in industrial countries, e-banking is still a complementary tools to traditional banking. Lots of pure e-banking businesses have been forced out of market. Internet-only banks have been substantially less profitable. They generate lower business volumes and any savings generated by lower physical overheads appear to be offset by other types of non-interest expenditures, notably marketing to attract new customers. (De Young 2001). 3. 3.Prevailing vision †¢ The prevailing view today is that Internet banking can only succeed if it is thoroughly in tegrated within the existing banking infrastructure, which should combine â€Å"click† (e-banking) with â€Å"mortar† (physical branches) due to the importance of public trust in banks, the value of an established brand name, and the desire of customers to do something physically. †¢ According to this view, Internet is regarded simply as another distribution channel as a complement to physical braches, phone banking and ATM networks. The dominance of the so-called â€Å"click and mortar† model can be explained by its success on the ground.Two good examples are Wells Fargo in the US and Nordea in Scandinavia. 3. 4. Case-study–experience from the two most successful cases Two most successful examples: †¢ †¢ Wells Fargo (US), has actually the highest absolute number of online customers, more than 3 million out of its total 24 million customers in 2001. Nordea (Scandinavia), has 2. 3 million online customers, representing over 20% of its total customer base. It has the highest share of online customers. 4 They share the following common elements: †¢ †¢ †¢ †¢ †¢ Both are leaders in their traditional markets and thus can capitalize on a sizable customer base.Furthermore, their customer base is technologically sophisticated. California and Scandinavia have extremely high rates of Internet use. Both are technologically advanced and started early in Internet deployment. Wells Fargo started e-banking business as early as in 1989. Both have tightly integrated Internet in their operations and their existing infrastructure. Both have large number of SME customer base. 3. 5. Prospects Bottom line: the ability to mainstream SME and individuals into E-banking. 4. Trend: The major application of e-banking—SME finance E-banking is used more and more for improving access to finance.Financial constraints for SMEs have never been effectively solved and have been thought inevitable. This section will cover t he advantages of e-banking on this aspect. 4. 1. Obstacles to SME’s access to finance 4. 1. 1. from banks’ perspective †¢ †¢ †¢ High costs and low profitability of SME loans because of the small loan size. High risks of SME loans due to lack of business track record, credit history, and transparent information. Evaluating SME risk is â€Å"too labor- intensive† to be profitable. 5 †¢ Many banks lack strategies and skills to tackle impediments associated with SME finance.In many developing countries, the staff of banks lack necessary skills to appropriately assess credit risks of SMEs 4. 1. 2. from SME’s perspective †¢ Inappropriate products and services, which are rigidly supply-driven instead of demand-driven. Commercial bank products are usually designed to meet the needs of large corporations; few products and service are specifically tailored to the needs of SMEs. SME sector is usually underserved. †¢ †¢ †¢ High interest rates. SMEs usually require much smaller loans than large enterprises. banks, therefore, usually charge high margins to cover the costs. Cumbersome procedures.Over insistence on collaterals and guarantees. SMEs usually have low- level of fixed assets and relatively high- level of working capital. Therefore, when lending to an SME, a bank needs to assess the SME’s economic viability and future cash flows instead of collaterals. However, in many developing countries, banks are still in the very early stage of mastering sound lending policies and good credit practices. Their lending appears to simply rely on collateral rather than cash- flow projections. banks’ lack of capacity of non-collateral credit assessment has caused them unable to provide lending services to SMEs. Inflexible credit criteria—one size fits all. 4. 2. New Technology, New Hope for SME Finance 4. 2. 1. From bank’s side, new technology (e-banking) makes SME finance economically p ossible (i) lower operational costs of banks †¢ †¢ †¢ Automated process Accelerated credit decisions Lowered minimum loan size to be profitable (ii) potentially lower margins 6 †¢ †¢ †¢ †¢ †¢ †¢ Lower cost of entry Expanded financing reach Increased transparency (iii) expand reach through self-service Lower transaction cost Make some corporate services economically feasible for SMEs Make anytime access to accounts and loan information possible . 2. 2. From SMEs’ perspective E-banking business makes access to finance from banks attractive. SMEs have benefited from the development of E- finance and gradually stepped out of the informal sector. In particular, E- finance offers the following attractive benefits for SMEs: †¢ †¢ †¢ †¢ †¢ Ease of use Lower costs of financing Convenience Time savings Operational efficiency 4. 2. 3. From the government’s perspective New technologies have provided the incentiv es/benefits for the government to improve SME finance by †¢ †¢ †¢ †¢ Increasing employment. Contributing to poverty reduction. Contributing to economic development.Reducing the informal sector and cash economy1 . 1 Lack of SME’s access to FIs is one of the major reasons why there are usually big informal economic sector (cash economy) in many developing countries. Improved SME access to formal financial institutions is expected to reduce the informal economic sector. 7 5. Challenges and policy implications 5. 1. Cross-border e-banking activities and its policy implications 5. 1. 1. definition †¢ Definition: Cross-border e-banking is defined as the provision of transactional on- line banking products or service by a bank in one country to residents of another country. BIS, 2003) †¢ †¢ A note on the definition: A bank delivering its e-banking activities via its physical branches/ subsidiaries in a host country does count into cross-border e-ba nking. A further note: banks can use the new delivery channel (e-banking) reach customers in another country without as much reliance on physical presence and the significant investment that it entails (example). 5. 1. 2. Two scenarios †¢ †¢ The in-out scenario—In-country institutions providing banking services to customers outside the home country.The out- in scenario—institutions based outside the home country providing banking services to parties within the home country. 5. 1. 3. Raised many challenges and questions for banking regulatory authorities (both home and host) †¢ Who should take the supervision responsibility? Borderless nature of e-banking increase the potential for jurisdictional ambiguities with respect to the supervisory responsibilities of different national authorities. Such situations could lead to insufficient supervision of cross-border e-banking activities. †¢ †¢ Does it need to be licensed?Banks that engage in cross-bor der e-banking may face increased legal risk. Specifically, unless banks conduct adequate due diligence they run the risk of potential non-compliance with different national laws and regulations, including 8 applicable consumer protection laws, record-keeping and reporting requirements, privacy rules, AML rules. †¢ Non-banks may offer with greater facility bank- like services without any type of supervisory approval or oversight due to definitional ambiguities that may exist wit regard to what constitutes a bank (or banking services). †¢ †¢ †¢ Which country’s law applies to cross-border e-banking activities.Role and responsibilities of the home country banking supervisor and local supervisor. Supervisors need to recognize that the Internet allows for the provision of e-banking services that can span geographic borders and potentially call into question existing jurisdictional authorization requirements and the regulatory processes; †¢ Supervisors need to recognize the implications of taking a restrictive approach toward currently regulated banks without an even-handed treatment of foreign organizations that may conduct identical or nearly identical activities via the Internet in the local jurisdiction. Supervisors should ensure that banks appropriately manage the legal uncertainty during the period while the legal infrastructure for cross-border e-banking remains under construction. 5. 1. 4. Its policy implications †¢ Policy goal: The objective of both the host and home supervisors should be to avoid or minimize legal risks stemming from jurisdictional ambiguities, and to ensure that e-banking activities are adequately supervised with clearly defined supervisory responsibilities. †¢Basic principle: Focus attention on the need for effective home country supervision of cross-border e-banking activities on a consolidated basis as well as continued international cooperation between home and local banking supervisors regardi ng such activities given the possible absence of a physical banking presence in local jurisdiction. Such as focus is essential to promote safe and sound cross-border e- 9 banking without creating undue regulatory burden or impediments to banks’ use of the internet delivery channel to meet customer needs. Complementary principle : Home supervisors should provide host supervisors with clear information on how they oversee a bank’s e-banking activities on a consolidated level. Host supervisor would generally rely on the home supervisor to effectively carry out its supervisory program. Where there are concerns about the effectiveness of a home supervisor’s oversight program, the host would approach the home supervisor on a bilateral basis. The host supervisor will need to consider what actions may be appropriate to protect local residents and their banking system. Cooperation among national supervisors . Rapid pace of development of e-banking and the associated risk s will require supervisory agility, resources and, in the crossborder context, cooperation between home and host supervisors. 5. 2. From the society’s perspective 5. 2. 1. Challenges 1. Theft of personal identity 2. Privacy issues 3. Who take the responsibility in case of fraud 5. 2. 2. Policy implications 1. Essential are efforts to define the privacy framework and to use technology to solve contract enforcement problems. . 3. From bank’s perspectives 5. 3. 1. Risk management challenges †¢ Adaptation to Technology issues: The speed of change relating to technological and customer service innovation in e-banking is unprecedented. This intensifies challenges to the management to ensure that adequate strategic assessment, risk 10 analysis and securities reviews are conducted prior to implementing new e-banking applications. †¢ Outsourcing issue: E-banking increase banks’ ependence on information technology, thereby increasing the technical complexity of many operational and security issues and furthering a trend towards more partnerships, alliances and outsourcing arrangements with third parties, many of whom are unregulated. †¢ †¢ Increased legal and reputational risks E-security issue: The internet is ubiquitous and global by nature. It is an open network accessible from anywhere in the world by unknown parties, with routing of messages through unknown locations and via fast evolving wireless devices.Therefore, it raises significant challenges on security controls, customer authentication techniques, data protection, audit trail procedures, and customer privacy standards.  § While companies have been keen to embrace the potential offered by these technologies, few understand the inherent vulnerability and risks associated with e- finance. Since 1999, Brazil has seen a 418% increase in electronic security incidents; Korea has seen a 932% increase and Japan has seen over 1000% increase in malicious electronic security i ncidents (Tom Glaessner et al, 2003).  § Over 57% of all hack attacks in 2002 were initiated against the financial sector (Tom Glaessner et al, 2003). Identity Theft has exploded and incidents are expected to reach almost 2 million per year by 2005 wit a cost of almost US$10 billion. †¢ Outsourcing issue: E-banking increase banks’ dependence on information technology, thereby increasing the technical complexity of many operational and security issues and furthering a trend towards more partnerships, alliances and outsourcing arrangements with third parties, many of whom are unregulated. †¢ Increased legal and reputational risks 11 5. 3. 2. Policy implications/recommendations . Establish a comprehensive security control process. †¢ †¢ †¢ †¢ Authentication of e-banking customers Appropriate measures to ensure segregation of duties Establishment of clear audit trails for e-banking transactions Non-repudiation and accountability for e-banking trans actions 2. Centralized-back office to free staff time in sales and services areas and to consolidate process consistently across the organization. 3. Develop automated credit authorization system by developing appropriate credit scoring system and cash- flow scoring system to reduce operating costs, improve asset quality, and increase client profitability.One of the major benefits of credit scoring system is that lenders can make credit decisions without necessarily obtaining financial statement, credit reports, or other time-consuming and hard-to-get information. In particular, the financial statements of SMEs are often not complete and difficult to get. Banks can more closely align their specific credit policies and marketing strategies with the analytics, making the decision process more costefficient. (I. e. , Fair, Isaac has developed a credit scoring system specialized in SME finance—SBSS 5. (small business scoring services), which has been increasingly used by many ban ks as their SME credit decision making model. ) 4. Comprehensive due diligence and management oversight process for outsourcing relationships and other third-party dependencies. 5. Integrate cross-border e-banking risks into the bank’s overall risk management framework. 6. Legal and reputational risk management †¢ †¢ †¢ †¢ †¢ Appropriate disclosures for e-banking services Privacy of customer information Capacity, business continuity and contingency planning to ensure availability of e-banking systems and services Incident response planning.Segregation of duties 12 †¢ Due diligence on risk assessment 5. 4. From the authorities’ perspective (banking supervisor, central bank, related government depts. ) 5. 4. 1. Challenges from e-banking 1. Oversight of outsourcing and partnership arrangements, and the oversight of security and data integrity and controls and safeguards, especially when the supporting operations are located in another jurisdi ction . 2.The ability to adopt global technology to the local requirements: A adequate level of infrastructure and human capacity building are required before developing countries can adopt the global technology for their local requirements. 3. The ability to create the necessary level of regulatory and institutional frameworks: The lack of regulatory frameworks, trust, security and privacy standards, high trade barriers, customer and investor protections impede progress in many developing countries to implement e- finance projects. 4. E-security challenges 5. 4. 2.Policy implications/recommendations 1. †¢ †¢ †¢ †¢ Improve system infrastructure environment for e-banking business Strengthen payment system (including RTGS, bulk/low value payment system). Improve the settlement system (e. g. , for credit cards and other forms of electronic transactions). Build-up transaction reporting/reconciliation services. Establish credit information registry and disseminating s ystem. Credit information registries, commonly known as credit bureaus in many countries, can reduce the extent of asymmetric information by making a borrower’s credit history available to 3 potential lenders. Lenders armed with this data can avoid making loans to high risk customers, with poor repayment histories, defaults, or bankruptcies. Once a lender makes a loan, the borrower knows that their performance will be reported to the credit bureau. The information contained in a credit registry becomes part of the borrower’s â€Å"reputation collateral†; late payments or defaults reduce the value of this â€Å"collateral† providing an additional incentive for timely repayment. At the same time, by reducing the information monopoly that banks have over their existing borrowers,