Alessandro Scarlatti essays

Alessandro Scarlatti essays Alessandro Scarlatti was a composer during the Baroque Era. When compared with its music predecessors, Baroque music is said to be have more lavish textures, and more intense. This period of music introduced Operas, Oratorios, and Cantatas. It also brought along orchestral forms, though Operas became very popular. Operas were very popular because Italian intellectuals wanted to recapture the Greek Dramas, in which music played a major role. A distinguishing feature of the Baroque Era was the emphasis on the musics volume, texture, and pace. The previous era, (Late Renaissance) did not focus on these very much. Cannons and Fugues (strict forms of imitative polyphony) were also very popular during the Baroque Era. In this Era, composers were expected to prove their expertise whenever asked. To this, they were expected to improvise complex Fugues on a moments notice. Only the best were able to do this. Alessandro Scarlatti was born in Palermo on May 2nd 1660. Not much is known about his family, other than the fact that he had two sisters, and his parents were Sicilian, and most likely from Artistic families themselves. At the age of twelve, Alessandro and his two sisters were sent to Rome to live with relatives. There were rumors that Alessandro studied with Carissimi while there. Carissimi was an Italian composer who composed hundreds of motets and cantatas in addition to Masses, and other sacred music. When Alessandro was seventeen, he married, and not quite nine months later, their first of six children was born. At the age of eighteen, he composed his first opera, Gli Equivoci nel sembiante, which was a great success. Some may argue that this was actually his second opera. There are rumors that he composed an earlier opera, but it was never performed, and the title is unknown. Sometime between the time he was married, and his first composition, hi...

Teen Drinking Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Teen Drinking - Essay Example However, our society has not caught up with the evolution of the teenager. They are still viewed as members of our society who need to be constantly policed and told what to do and when. This is the situation that applies to the drinking laws in relation to American teenagers. The rest of the world though, have come to acknowledge that it is better to recognize that teenagers will drink alcohol due to exterior influences and, therefore, society must learn to adapt and ensure that they drink responsibly instead. That is the focus of the T.R. Reid essay â€Å"Let My Children Drink†, while Joseph Califano Jr. chooses to oppose the view of Reid in his own essay titled â€Å"Don't Make Teen Drinking Easier†. Although I see the point of Mr. Califano, I must agree with the benefits as described in Mr. Reid's essay. That is because teenage drinking does happen and it cannot be ignored. The three points that I will be raising in this paper are that: 1. Teenagers who know their p arents trust them to drink responsibly make for more mature adults. 2. Anything done illegally is more likely to draw teenagers to try the activity and go overboard in the process. Teens will also commit crimes regardless of being drunk or not. 3. Lowering the drinking age will make teenagers mature faster in terms of personal responsibility and logical thinking. The worst age that a human being can be stuck in would have to be the wild, wonderful, and sometimes wacky teenage years. It is during this time in a teenagers life that he learns to experiment and differentiate for ourselves what, as adults, shall be the right and wrong actions for him. This is the time when releasing the parental restraints slowly reaps its benefits most specially in terms of teenage drinking. As Mr. Reid put it so effectively in his essay (Reid): As a wandering Post correspondent, I have raised teenagers in three places: Tokyo, London and Colorado. No parent will be surprised to read that high school and college students had easy access to alcohol in all three places. In all three countries, kids sometimes got drunk. But overseas, they did their drinking at a bar, a concert or a party. There were adults -- and, often, police -- around to supervise. As a result, most teenagers learned to use alcohol socially and responsibly. And they didn't have to hide it from their parents. By allowing teenagers to drink in a supervised situation, they are forced to take responsibility for their actions stemming from alcohol consumption. The presence of adults and other persons of authority is a clear indication to them that they will be allowed to have fun but not go overboard about it. This is the kind of situation that directly appeals to teenagers. It is obvious that the lower drinking age works for the teens mentioned in Reid's article because they are given full responsibility for their actions. You choose to drink, you take responsibility for whatever happens if you get drunk. End of story. That is the kind of maturing life lesson that teenagers so badly need in their lives. It is probably a stand that, if presented to most underage teenagers in America today, they would gladly agree to in order to prove that they can actually be as responsible as their adult counterparts if not more. However, Mr. Califano strongly disagrees with Mr. Reid simply because he is overprotective and unable to trust that a teenager, when given the freedom to choose, will choose to do the right thing. His data that explains that (Califano); â€Å"British fifteen and sixteen year olds were more than twice as likely as Americans to binge drink (50% vs. 24%) and to have been intoxicated within the past thirty days (48% vs. 21%).†

Societys Fascination with Reality TV Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Societys Fascination with Reality TV - Essay Example Watching a standard TV program is like escaping into a world of fiction and fantasy, where the shocks and jolts that are associated with real life may sometimes be absent. But reality TV offers the lure of so-called truth. It portrays life as it happens, with all its disappointments, hope, anxieties and unexpected events, as well as its mundane, daily grind. The fascination of reality TV for the viewer is in gaining insight into the fears, dreams and expectations of real people. Reality TV programs focus on ordinary, working and middle-class citizens, so it becomes easier for viewers to identify with the characters. To some extent, the fascination for reality TV may also lie in the fact that participants reveal some of the most intimate aspects of their lives. For example the Celebrity Big Brother TV show in the UK where celebrities are asked to live together without contact with the outside world and satisfy certain conditions (www.tv.com). Such programs offer viewers the opportunit y for a voyeuristic look into other peoples’ lives, while for the ones participating in the programs, the focus is a narcissistic one. With the onset of more and sensational kinds of programs on TV, reality TV which attempts to compete with it, offers an equal amount of shock value but drawn from â€Å"reality†, which packs a bigger thrill for viewers as compared to standard TV programs, where viewers are aware that the events are fictional or doctored up in some way. For example, TV shows like â€Å"The Bold and the Beautiful† and â€Å"Dynasty† are enjoyed by viewers, but they are aware of the fictional content of these programs. Reality TV, however, does not represent â€Å"fluff† in any sense of the word. In some instances, it may offer valuable insight into the fears, perceptions and feelings of actual people and viewers are irresistibly drawn by the lure of participating, even temporarily, in other peoples’ lives.

Geographic Information Systems Essay Example for Free

Geographic Information Systems Essay The future prospects of geographic technologies such as GIS (Geographic Information Systems), satellite images, remote sensing, and more are increasingly discussed in literature (Matthews and Herbert 2005). Today, GIS software can be used in a highly efficient way. In 18 years, people are likely to be amazed by what is being done with it. This paper projects the possible impacts of the technologies for the public service and democratic society of Auckland in the year 2025. The capabilities of GIS will be analysed. In doing so, an overview of GIS is followed by an analysis of the relationship between this technology and democratic values and implications of this relationship for Auckland society. Future Horizons Hardware and software costs for both personal computers and workstations have been declining steadily during recent years. This trend, combined with the rapid increases in technology development, will dramatically benefit the GIS market. Geographic data are of great size and require several unique hardware and software adaptations for data entry, processing, and output (Donaldson 120). These adaptations include hardware equipment and digitizers, scanners, and plotters. With a healthy development of GIS market, these adaptations will become more sophisticated, easier to use, and less expensive. The GIS market also will supply a variety of hardware and software innovations from which to choose. Bottom-Up GIS In the year 2025, GIS will be cheaper, faster, easier to use, and supplied with more and better data. As large amounts of local data will become easily available in GIS format, the outlook for GIS in local area planning will look very bright. Besides using GIS to inform and analyze in the traditional sense, planners will consider using it as a cognitive tool. In this new approach, people learn to use GIS data to exchange their views concerning planning processes, neighborhood issues, and future wishes. This new view of how GIS can be used in planning emerged from recent concern that traditional use of GIS in planning is top-down, controlled, and technicist (Brown 246). Donaldson (2002) have noted that GIS that is merely technological in orientation will fail to address important issues. Therefore, it is likely that GIS will be used in local communities in a way that is not technicist in a fundamental way. One could predict that GIS will have a more democratic approach to planning in which the processes of communication and interaction are considered. As a result, GIS will be used in a bottom-up way that will let the citizens of Auckland characterize their local environment. As a way to ensure a more bottom-up approach to GIS, planners will focus on the inclusion of local knowledge in GIS. There are some examples in regard to planning. Some researchers (Craig Elwood 1998) studied how local knowledge was incorporated in the creation of GIS databases. Such information as how residents value their homes or their feelings about the concerns of a given area was incorporated. Because these approaches have an objective to provide local residents with greater access to GIS, they are integrated with other community-based uses of GIS (Matthews and Herbert 2005). New approaches will enable residents to use GIS to communicate how they perceive their neighborhood or the locality in which they live, via their description, evaluation, or propositions for their local environment. New approach will be both the tool used to explore an issue and the means of its expression. It will be using GIS as a spatial language tool to have access to local knowledge and communicating residents observations, rather than presenting only objective facts. With this new approach, the citizens of Auckland will be able to redefine the questions asked within GIS. For instance, â€Å"Where are roads most overcrowded? † becomes â€Å"What streets do I consider as inconvenient due to traffic jam? † â€Å"What is the location of parks relative to the location of children? † becomes â€Å"What parks are most frequently visited in my neighborhood and how many children use them? † (Craig Elwood 104) The answers of the residents to the first type of question create an entirely different image than the answers to the second type. The result is that the content of the analysis may be significantly improved. Using this new approach, analysis of residents observations that result through traditional visioning processes in answers such as â€Å"We need to have a better system of transporting† become answers such as â€Å"Here are places where we need to travel and where we prefer to travel,† and â€Å"Here is where we at present can and cannot travel† (Donaldson, 189).

In Love and War Essay -- essays research papers fc

â€Å"In Love and War† Abstract: Women of Afghanistan are forced to live under oppressive regulations set forth for them by the men of their societies. Women have virtually no rights to do anything for themselves. There entire lives are controlled by and lived for someone else. Through their songs, they lament the conditions of their lives and are able to convey a beauty in their verses that all people can identity with. (67 words) Key Words: Pashtun, women, honor, oppression, songs Love and war, two concepts that are so contradictory it is hard to believe they could ever coexist simultaneously in one society. War is a state of conflict, hostility and chaos which reeks havoc on civilizations as opposing forces struggle to defend their cause not matter what the price. Throughout history the world has seen the devastation such conflict can bring; from the gory conquests of the ancient Romans, to the horrific Nazi Holocaust in World War II, to the bloody battles between government forces that raged in Afghanistan. It is in this world of mayhem and cruelty that Pashtun women must carry on their lives. They attempt in whatever possible to find and salvage any kind of love and beauty amidst the turmoil of their warring nation. These women must find ways to stay strong and resist the oppression forced upon them by their patriarchal society which coerces them into hard physical labor as well as demeans their humanity as their status is reduced to nothing more than prope rty (Majrouh XIII, XIV). The song of the Pashtun woman is her escape, her release, and her joy as she unites with other women in her community and sings out against her oppression. Through these landays, or songs, one sees another dimension to the lives of Pashtun women as they transform the misery and grief of their everyday lives into a spirit of beauty as they lament against their oppressors and find ways to love even in a time of war.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  In order to fully appreciate and understand what is conveyed through the songs of these women, one must understand the historical, social and political context in which they are living. Afghan women have lived and continue to live in an oppressive patriarchal society where they are not even regarded as full fledged citizens, and where men control all political, social and economic powers. In the Saur Revolution in April 1978, civil war in... ...xists in the lives of Pashtun women, their songs live on to communicate a spirit of beauty amidst their helpless plight. Through careful analysis of her songs, we are able to see behind the veil and reach the rich heart of the Afghan woman. There is a joy in her songs that illustrates the perseverance of the human spirit. No matter how demoralized one’s life may be, there is a spirit within us all to survive; a spirit that cannot be crushed even in the bloodiest of wars or the most hostile of oppressions. It is this universal desire the endure and find quench the thirst for human happiness that connects us all the Pashtun women and their beautiful songs. (1915 words) Works Cited Majrouh, Sayd Bahodine, ed. Songs of Love and War Afghan Women’s Poetry. Paris:   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚     Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Editions Gallimard, 1994. Moghadam, Valentine M. Revolution, Islamist Reaction, and Women in Afghanistan.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ed. Mary Ann Tetreault. Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 1994. Works Consulted Moghadam, Valentine M, ed. Gender and National Identity Women and Politics in Muslim Societies. London: Oxford University Press, 1994.

Who Was to Blame for the Cuban Missile Crissis

Who was to blame for the Cuban missile crisis? The U. S had part of this crisis as they overreacted to the fact that the U. S. S. R was importing missiles into Cuba. They made Cuba tense because they tried to invade Cuba twice. The Cubans needed and help and the U. S. S. R were there to help. If the U. S didn’t try to invade Cuba then it wouldn’t cause so much tension thus the crisis not happening. Also if they haven’t set up a base in Turkey then this wouldn’t have led the Russians to put missiles in Cuba. Over-reacted to situation and led to escalation of conflict. The U.S wanted to help Cuban exiles to overthrow the Castro government (which was hostile to USA). CIA under President Eisenhower had sought to help the anti-Castro rebels to overthrow the regime. Organised Operation Zapata that was carried out on 17th April 1961. Failed miserably. America followed this with Operation Mongoose which aimed to destabilise Cuba through acts of sabotage, economic warfare through embargo on Cuban imports, increasing Cuban’s diplomatic isolation through its expulsion from the Organisation of American States and simulating military exercises (code named Ortsac) aimed at toppling an imaginary dictator. Edwards, 2002: 127-8). America was trying to topple Castro through isolating Cuba, and in doing so, increased the hostility of the Castro regime against the USA and accentuated the fear of invasion, thereby prompting Castro to turn to Moscow for help to defend Cuba from America. (Because Castro was aware that Cuba could not possibly defend herself against America. ) (Edwards 2002: 126, 128) The U. S. S. R is also to blame as they were taking advantage of the fact that Cuba was close to the U. S. This creates tension for the U.S as this poses a threat to their security. This act made the U. S feel threatened thus taking action. Should not have gotten involved with Cuba? Feb 1960: Extended $100 million worth of credits to Cuba. (Edwards, 2002 : 125) May 1962: USSR deployed regiments and weapons to Cuba, including nuclear cruise missiles and mid-range ballistic missiles that could strike targets in USA’s interior. Had stationed 40,000 military personnel in Cuba. This was an indication of economic expansion into an area that ranked high on America’s defence priority.Sponsorship of Castro’s regime and subsequent creation of a de-facto military base in Cuba appeared to be a deliberate affront to America’s national security. Cuba’s strategic importance to America can be likened to Poland’s importance to USSR. Transporting of military aid (especially missiles) to Cuba thus escalated a crisis between 2 neighbouring countries into a Cold War issue that threatened World peace. Cuba can also be blamed, they got paranoid over the U.S invasion so they used one of the powerful countries to guarantee its safety. If they weren’t as paranoid Manipulated super-power politics to guarantee s ecurity of borders and to legitimise the new Castro regime . E. g. Turned to USSR for economic and military help, so that it would not have to play the role of a submissive little brother to America. Castro: â€Å"Moscow is our brain and our great leader. † By using USSR as a counter-weight to USA, Cuba was shrewdly manipulating super-power politics for its own advantage.Castro was aware that Cuba’s distance from Moscow meant that it would be given a large measure of independence from Moscow, as opposed to the tight leash that it would be kept on had they decided to concede to American superiority. Therefore, the escalation of conflict was to some extent orchestrated by Cuba for her own benefit, as it meant that she would not have to fight the American behemoth on her own, but had USSR’s backing. Consequences to missile Cuban crisis-) Led to a thaw in USA-USSR relations, as both parties were aware that their rivalry had almost led to an all-out nuclear war (mutu ally-assured destruction).Establishment of direct hotline from Washington White House to Kremlin to facilitate high level discussion between leaders of the 2 countries so as to help defuse tensions. (20th June 1963)Signing of the nuclear test-ban treaty (June 1963). Both countries agreed to cease atmospheric testing of nuclear weapons. But underground testing was still permitted. However, take note that although the Cuban Missile Crisis ended, US hostility towards Cuban regime continued, even though Kennedy briefly explored the option of negotiating with Castro via unofficial channels.Resumption of Operation Mongoose June 1963. Acts of economic sabotage organised by CIA. Plans to assassinate Castro (Operation Condor) remained in place. Therefore, this shows clearly that it was USSR’s involvement that made the conflict between Cuba and USA escalate into the Cuban Missile Crisis in the first place, due to USSR’s provision of missiles to Cuba. Without USSR’s involv ement, it would have remained a conflict between America and Cuba. USSR, USA and Cuba all had a part to play in the utbreak of the Cuban Missile Crisis, but it was USA who first over-reacted to the threat posed by a leftist regime in Cuba, and had created a self-fulfilling prophecy by taking unjustified pre-emptive strikes such as Operation Zapata and Mongoose that scared Cuba into thinking that her national security was threatened, and thus made her turn to USSR as a strong backer in order to secure her own security. Thus USA was chiefly to blame as she tried to secure her national interest at the expense of other nations, and thus led to the escalation of tensions as nations sought to secure their self-interest by scaring the other into retreat.Had USA not over-reacted, a peaceful compromise could have been achieved earlier and the scare that was the Cuban Missile Crisis could have been averted. Moreover, USSR’s delving into the conflict was also partly in response to previ ous US stationing of Jupiter missiles in Turkey, which had essentially held USSR at gun-point, thus USSR’s decision to place missiles in Cuba was justified as it was trying to make USA understand the peril of being placed at gun-point. Therefore, I disagree with the above statement, as USA, more than USSR was to blame for the outbreak of the Cuban Missile Crisis.

Procter & Gamble Global Business Services: A Case Study Essay

A Time to Make a Change at P&G Some of the signs and signals experienced by an organization which indicates that it is time to make a change are: experiencing rapid growth or a decline in growth, a decline in productivity, a decline in resources, stakeholder pressures on management, environmental crises, sociopolitical influences on the organization, environmental turbulence and changes to customer expectations and behavior. The highly competitive global marketplace where Procter & Gamble operates is forcing the company to continuously do more with less. Advancements in technology, the pace of competition, globalization, the need to control cost and the increased efficiency coupled with the increasing customer expectations mean that the organization has to evolve and regenerate in order to survive. This is all the more important because if business has to know anything about the future, it is that it will be different from the present. Whatever is, will change. There’s no way to avoid it. But it can be managed. The inevitable changes in the organization will take P&G to a higher level, and will bring them to new avenues opened up for growth, in the face of the increasingly boundless global market that the nature of the consumer goods business is mercilessly made to put up with. Communicating Change to Employees Within the popular management literature, John Kotter (1996) has put forward an eight-stage model on how to successfully manage change. This is very applicable to the situation in P&G and comprises of: (1) communicating a sense of urgency; (2) creating a vision; (3) communicating the vision; (4) forming a powerful coalition; (5) empowering others to act; (6) planning short-term wins; (7) consolidating change and (8) institutionalizing new approaches. He argues that change leaders should communicate their vision in many different forums over and over again if they wish to develop an effective implementation strategy. The question of what to communicate should be all information that interrelate employees in their work in order to inform, to convince and to determine action during a time when the employees are most confused and apprehensive of the circumstances within the firm. The matter of when to communicate should be at all times, when there are new developments in the change that seems to be in the scope of concern of the employees, as they would naturally ant to be informed of any progress that the transition is taking. Effective communication in times of change helps facilitate smoother change management. Recommendations One effective strategy to overcome expected resistance is to think beyond it. The Procter & Gamble management must attend to the more specific reasons for resistance, such as loss of control or loss of self-efficacy, to diagnose problems more accurately and to overcome them more efficiently and effectively (Dyer, Dalzell and Olegario, 2004). It must also be kept in mind the context of the change and focus on explanations other than individual resistance for why change may not be successfully implemented. Likewise, senior management must think beyond the wisdom that people resist change by challenging themselves to consider the role they, as change leaders may play in creating resistance. The unavoidable changes in corporate culture should be supported through revamping internal reward systems and introducing training programs in order to improve result orientation among employees. It sold its rigorous training to potential recruits during that time in much the same way that the US Army sells its educational opportunities to its own recruits. Two integration programs are seen as useful for these types of changes: training & development and reinforcement. Training and development, as any decision that would be reached would inevitably bring about change within the company. Reinforcement is necessary also, in which the staff will become so used to the changes that the tendency to resist it fades as they are bound to ultimately follow such policies if they are to stay in the organization and contribute to its continued growth. WORK CITED Dyer, D., Dalzell, F. & Olegario, R. (2004). Rising Tide: Lessons from 165 Years of Brand Building at Procter & Gamble. Massachusetts: Harvard Business School Publishing. Kotter, J. (1996) Leading Change. Harvard: Harvard Business School Press.