A Cultural Event I Ever Witnessed Essay

Kenyatta University is known beyond African continent for its annual culture week, an event during which activities that reflect diverse African culture are performed. The much awaited cultural week is characterized by songs, drama, poems, drama among other topical activities. I was privileged to attend the cultural week organized during the month of September, 2007 and held both at the universities cultural village and the finals held at the Kenyatta International Conference Centre, Kenya. The most interesting was a traditional song presented in one of the native languages reflecting the manner with which the interest of others present and could not understand the local languages were catered for. Most of the songs were presented by groups composed of members from different communities, a clear indication of the cooperation and sharing within the communities at that time. A great artistic skill was depicted in the manner in which the singing group combined the different sounds to produce an enjoyable song, with coming in at different times and parts. It was accompanied by both traditional and modern instruments, stringed, drums, the piano and projected by the loud speakers for many to be able to hear. The performing group wrapped a lesso on their bodies. However, most of the traditional costumes were missing, enough to predict that the communities were moving away from the traditional dressing codes. The song was introduced by two of the performers, who played different parts in turn, the dance was in pairs and the group also left the stage in pairs. Through out the song though at different points, tonal variation was employed and this caught interest of the audience. All these reflected a great style. The lead singer who happened to be a lady demonstrated a great ability in tonal variation and dancing more than others in the team. Others could be heard whispering that â€Å"she is genius†, and actually she was and in all her performances, none matched her. It was a fact that the song described above had a lot in common with other forms of cultural expression at that time. Other forms as well included more than one performer, and involved the use of sound to communicate. Many forms of expression adhere to a specific style during performance and involve some degree of individual inherent exceptional ability, even though training also efficiently enhance success of such forms. They are performed during a cultural event and need audience. However, in contrast, most of the forms of cultural expression at that time were in a common language (that is English language) and did not involve cultural accompamyments neither was dance a common characteristic even though some element of demonstration were evidenced. REFERENCES Cook, N (1990) music imagination and culture. New York: Oxford University Press. Bratton, J. S (Ed. ) (1986) music Hall: Performance and Style. Philadelphia: Open University Press. Sloboda, J. A (1985) The Musical Mind: The cognitive Psychology of Music. New York: Clarendom Press.

Psychological Terror in “the Minister’s Black Veil”

I think that, as a general rule, humans love to categorize things. We like to organize things. We like things to fit into our neat, little organized view of reality, whether it’s a can of soup we buy, a movie we watch, or a person we meet. Everything needs to fit into some sort of category and if it doesn’t fit, we create a category for it to fit into. Categories give us certain expectations about the thing we are dealing with. Stories are no exception to this idea. For example, a romance novel should be romantic, obviously; but we would assume that it also contains some sort of conflict for the hero or heroine to overcome, which eventually leads him or her to their true love, or some sort of happiness at the end. But what effect do these expectations have on our interpretation of a story? Since my goal with this essay is to attempt to categorize the â€Å"The Minister’s Black Veil† by Nathaniel Hawthorne, I will need to investigate what characteristics are present, in hopes that these characteristics will lead me to some sort of definitive answer about the genre of this story. First, we must look at the elements of the story; tone and diction are very important when trying to categorize a story. The tone of the story is somewhat gloomy, and quite isolated. We are drawn into this small town’s world, as they become increasingly terrified of Minister Hooper and his strange veil. And the way the congregation of Hooper’s church see the veil when he first wears it makes it seem as though it was something much more sinister than a â€Å"simple piece of crape† (938). As he preaches about â€Å"secret sin, and those mysteries which we hide from our nearest and dearest† (938), no one can see his face, and thus everyone feels as though Hooper is looking at them, directing his sermon at them: Each member of the congregation, the most innocent girl, and the man of hardened breast, felt as if the preacher had crept upon them, behind his awful veil, and discovered their hoarded iniquity of deed or thought. Many spread their clasped hands on their bosoms. There was nothing terrible in what Mr. Hooper said, at least, no violence; and yet, with every tremor of his melancholy voice, the hearers quaked. 938 The congregation is so unsettled by this strange addition to the Minister’s visage that they cannot stop thinking about it during his sermon; â€Å"[s]o sensible were the audience of some unwonted attribute in their minister, that they longed for a breath of wind to blow aside the veil, almost believing that a stranger’s visage would be discovered, though the form, gesture, and voice were those of Mr. Hooper† (938). No one is immune to the terror that this black piece of crape invokes. The entire town is on edge and speculative as to what the veil means. And the words used to describe the veil and its effects are definitely indicative of this fear; â€Å"terrible thing† (939); â€Å"ghostlike† (939); â€Å"horrible† (940); â€Å"gloom† (940); â€Å"dismal shade† (941). This piece of fabric has separated Hooper from his beloved congregation. While they thought him a happy and benevolent man before, they now feel fear and distrust when they see him. One lady of his congregation remarks, â€Å"I would not be alone with him for the world. I wonder that he is not afraid to be alone with himself† (939). But Hooper is not immune to the sinister effects of the veil. At the wedding he officiates later the same day, he sees his reflection, and what he sees terrifies him: At that instant, catching a glimpse of his figure in the looking-glass, the black veil involved his own spirit in the horror with which it overwhelmed all others. His frame shuddered, his lips grew white, he spilt the untasted wine upon the carpet, and rushed forth into the darkness. For the Earth, too, had on her Black Veil. 940 If we take â€Å"The Minister’s Black Veil† as a horror story, it leads us to certain conclusions about the nature of the veil and Hooper’s refusal to take it off. If horror is something that centers upon the horrifying or macabre, especially concerning the supernatural, one can see that this story could belong. Hooper never divulges the exact nature of the veil, and we are left to speculate about what it could possibly mean. Several possibilities present themselves if we think of this story as a horror story; it could be that the veil is covering Hooper’s face to be a constant reminder to his congregation and all who see him of secret sin. It seems that the idea that he could possibly know someone’s secret sin is terrifying to the townspeople. Indeed, this veil does give Hooper â€Å"awful power over souls that were in agony for sin† (943). Sinners fear him, because they feel that the black veil is a reference to their own personal secret sins. And the veil gives him an association with the dead and ghostly qualities; after the girl’s funeral at the beginning of the story, one woman remarks that she thought she saw Hooper walking hand in hand with the ghost of the dead girl. Such things would not have been imagined if he had never donned the veil. But however terrifying the veil is, I think this story lacks any visceral or shocking scenes. The idea of the veil hiding sins, the image of it on Hooper’s face is incredibly creepy, to be sure. But I think horror stories especially rely on the supernatural and the unknown to make them unsettling. And while this story does use the veil as an unknown, and it is unsettling, I think that the part of the story that really gets to me is the psychological torment and uneasiness that the veil casts not only on the townspeople, but on Hooper himself. Let us take the definition of a psychological story as something that focuses on the mental and emotional aspects of the characters. The terror in this story, then, is largely in the way that this simple piece of fabric gets under everyone’s skin. It isn’t a horrifying object in and of itself, and I think that is what draws me away from thinking of this as a horror story. This black piece of crape is enough to turn people against Hooper. They avoid him, stop inviting him over for dinner, picture him capable of all sorts of acts that they never would have thought him capable of prior to the veil. And imagine Hooper’s existence. He has vowed to wear the veil until death! No one knows why, although when explaining to Elizabeth why the veil must always be kept on, he says that â€Å"I, perhaps, like most other mortals, have sorrows dark enough to be typified by a black veil† (941). What sorrows these are, we never find out. This again plays a large role in the psychological aspect of the story: we never know exactly what drove Hooper to end his days with the black veil on his face. Perhaps it is related to the girl that died at the beginning of the story; he first wears the veil the same day as her funeral, and in Perkins footnote to â€Å"The Black Veil†, Hawthorne is shown to have made reference in his own footnotes to Joseph Moody, a clergyman in New England who accidentally killed a friend of his in his childhood. After his friend`s death, Moody wore a black veil until his own death (Perkins and Perkins, 937). Perhaps Hawthorne`s reason for detailing this true story with â€Å"The Minister’s Black Veil† is a clue; if we take Hooper’s black veil as a sign of his own personal sin, and he is wearing the veil as a reminder to himself that he is a sinner, and can only be redeemed after death, then all of the effects that the veil has on the townspeople are unintentional. I think that this idea is very plausible. Hooper was generally thought to be a pushover by his congregation, who thought that it must be a phase that he would get over and take the veil off. But Hooper’s strange dedication to the veil does seem to indicate some sort of personal attachment to the idea of secret sin. Perhaps he did have something to do with the girl’s death, or was in a relationship with her before she died. Either way, the presence of the veil seems to indicate that he feels guilty about something, and feels that it is necessary to always live behind this veil as a result of that guilt. That it has an effect on other people is secondary; or at best preventative: maybe Hooper is attempting to thwart other’s sins by making public that he has his own. (1487) Works Cited Hawthorne, Nathaniel. â€Å"The Minister’s Black Veil. † The American Tradition in Literature. Ed. George Perkins and Barbara Perkins. 12th Ed. Vol. 1. Toronto: McGraw Hill, 2009. 937 – 945. Perkins, George, and Barbara Perkins. Footnote 1 to â€Å"The Minister’s Black Veil†. The American Tradition in Literature. Ed. George Perkins and Barbara Perkins. 12th Ed. Vol. 1. Toronto: McGraw Hill, 2009. 937 – 945.

Barriers For Speakers Of Other Languages English Language Essay

Barriers For Speakers Of Other Languages English Language Essay Multilingual and bilingual education programs have been increasing tremendously over the recent past. This follows the increasing diversity in modern-day classrooms in most parts of the world. Such diversity reflects the ever evolving migration patterns and the hence the increasing need to address the issue of multilingual education programs. These programs target communicative proficiency in at least more than two languages. In connection to this, research on issues of bilingual education has been growing. The popularity of these programs can be attributed to the important role played by bilingual education such as in the accomplishment of various sociopolitical goals (Holliday 21). In most US schools currently, a larger percentage of students use English as a second language. Due to such statistics, the English only philosophy of adopted by the federal government through the Structured English Immersion has been subject to great criticism. However, ESL students encounter great bar riers as they learn the English language. These barriers are either with respect to linguistic factors or cultural factors (Eugene 32). This draws from the fact that ESL learners have their culture which is so different from that of any native English speaking country as well as certain linguistic aspects based on their primary (mother tongue) language. These aspects are difficult to abandon and hence they tend to present a barrier to the effectiveness with which an ESL students learns English. This paper discuses these barriers in detail and also presents a range of strategies that can be employed to addresses such challenges. Cultural Factors One of the important cultural barriers affecting ESL education draws from the fact that most ESL programs instructors are in most cases native English speakers. This is because irrespective of the importance of having ESL education taught by teachers from the language minority groups, the government mostly has in place native speakers teachin g English to ESL learners (Eugene 47). Research has also shown that the native speakers teaching ESL education differ greatly in terms of their cultural and social economic endowments with their ESL students (Huang and Brown, 645). For instance, in US, most of the ESL program teachers are Americans who of course are culturally very different from the L2 learners. This is due to the poor performance as regards to the objective of ensuring that individuals from the minority language community(ies) are developed into being credentialed teachers through relevant training, to enhance the development of ESL education (Nasr 65). These native teachers employ socioeconomically and culturally different styles of teaching ESL education as compared to those ESL learners are used to, from their culture. This presents a lack of connection of the two cultures especially if the teacher fails to employ effective instructional approaches mean such as collaboration. This is made worse by the lack of z eal among the native teachers to learn these different cultures and become part of the ESL learning community (Zimmerman 17). In most instances, the trainers fail to reflect on how their sociocultural backgrounds impact on their perceptions of the community and therefore on how they teach.

Keeping the Air Flair Virgin Blue Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Keeping the Air Flair Virgin Blue - Essay Example The various value additions to the core competencies of the airlines facilitate better response and provide the firm with necessary differentiating elements to gain leverage against the new entrants and other competitors.  The businesses across the regions have become highly competitive because the technology and rapid globalization have significantly altered the dynamics of business across the globe. Strategic marketing plans have become the crucial part of promoting products and services of an organization because they involve development and execution of goal oriented procedures to deliver value to the customers. Hence, to maintain competitive advantage, Virgin Blue Airlines needs to identify and analyze factors so as to meet the challenges of fast changing business environment.  Virgin Blue airline is one of the leading airlines that are facing stiff competition from other low-cost airlines. In the cutthroat environment of competitive business, the company needs to evolve the innovative business strategy to gain leverage over its competitors. The company has adopted creative communication strategy to promote the changes. The price war amongst the various airlines has significantly impacted the performance outcome of Virgin Blue. It also faces challenges from the rising cost due to inflationary trend and competition from new entrants in the industry. Thus, the highly competitive environment of global business has forced the Virgin to evolve new business strategies. The company has adopted more aggressive communication strategy to promote its strategic goals and value added product and services.  Virgin blue has realized the futility of entering into the price war and instead decided to change its business strategy to maintain its market position. It has adopted best-cost strategy that encompasses competitive pricing with distinct differentiating elements which would make it attractive to the customers. In a fiercely competitive business environment whe n the global economy is under tremendous pressure.

The Role of Jeremiah in Judah and Israel Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

The Role of Jeremiah in Judah and Israel - Essay Example This was a very difficult period in Jewish history. The Jews were being mercilessly persecuted and were subject to great abuse. No one knew what would become of them. It might be expected that people were ready to listen to a real seer who could lead them away from misfortune, but this wasnt exactly the case. No one really listened to Jeremiah very much. He knew a lot, and had a lot of gravity and respect, but few people followed him. This is an excellent description of the way he came to be what he was and how people viewed him:    Jeremiah witnessed the fall of the Assyrian Empire and the death of King Josiah. Though the people deeply mourned the death of their beloved King Josiah, the chief mourner was the prophet Jeremiah, for he knew very well that with the untimely passing of this last pious king, the end of Judea as an independent state was unavoidable. Indeed, after Josiahs death the people soon reverted to idolatry. Jeremiah was shocked by the new relapse of his people and strove hard to stem the tide of spiritual depravity which was threatening to undermine their high moral standards. The book of Jeremiah reveals an introspective person, a prophet struggling and often overcome by the role into which he has been placed by God. He doesnt quite know who is or how he can best serve God and in what capacity exactly. He doesn’t even especially want to be a prophet. Jeremiah made many efforts to warn the people of Israel—which they did not listen to—and also made prayers to God to grant the people mercy. In fact, he did this so much that he was ordered by God to â€Å"pray no more for this people† (Jer. 7:16, 14:11). Sometimes Jeremiah engages in what may seem like strange behaviour, acting out parables, for example by walking about in the streets with a yoke about his neck and trying to get people to pay attention to him. Others engage in rival acts that parody and critique his. He is taunted, put in jail, and at one point

Strategy and management Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Strategy and management - Assignment Example This company saw this as an opportunity to expand by capturing the market that had been left by the major industry players. A competitive marketing strategy has been adopted in seeking to help the company to capture the desired market. There different markets available within the industry have prompted competitive strategies to be adopted by the airlines operating within the industry in order to compete effectively. The deregulation of the industry left all the markets and routes open to the available firms. Due to the changing market demographics, there is need to develop products that meet the needs of each market based on the characteristics of the market (Kotler & Keller 2011). These characteristics of the market vary in terms of distance, number of firms in the market and the daily demand for the airline seats. The company has adopted a pricing strategy that is aimed at ensuring all the markets that are available have been accessed. Accessing these markets will enable the company to become competitive within the industry by reaching a wide range of markets. The company has adopted an approach of flying once within each route in seeking to ensure that they have an extensive reach. As time progresses, there is hope to increase the number of flights to different routes to maximise on the widening customer base. The company is focused on flying within routes that terminate at large cities as they have large airline connecting and their clients can connect too many destinations. This approach has been adopted in order to ensure the customers are satisfied by the services as they can reach destinations where they connect to other airlines (Middleton & Clarke 2012). The preference for many customers is direct flights and the company has adopted such routes, except the route D, which has a stop-over. The scheduling element of the flight remains a crucial factor that can

Do you have free will or are you determined Essay

Do you have free will or are you determined - Essay Example The paper describes two examples of philosophers (W.T. Stace and Baron d'Holbach), who believe in determinism, but with qualifications. While d'Holbach represents a determinism-only view, Stace offers a view compatible with a free will, and this compatibilist thesis is more correct. Compatibilism, as represented by W.T. Stace, is the view that free will and determinism are compatible without being logically inconsistent. This allows claims about individual autonomy in actions to make sense, whereas under the incompatabilism approach, it is logically inconsistent to speak of the coexistence of free will with determinism. An incompatabilist such as Baron d'Holbach, rules out a kind of metaphysical free will because determinism, the view that all of our actions are the result of antecedent causes, means that no actions are truly free in the sense that the person actually chose to do them. With this foundation, we can differentiate the views of Stace and d'Holbach with respect to freedom of the will. d'Holbach argues that human beings are very similar in nature to a machine, which is created with a very narrow range of functions. In his System of Nature, d'Holbach writes, â€Å"There is no such entity as a soul, but we are simply material objects in motion, having very complicated brains that lead the unreflective to believe that they are free†. In fact, human beings are so complex that they actually believe their actions are free, which is the symptom of religious beliefs, according to d'Holbach. Claiming that all of man’s ideas and senses can be reduced to his physical characteristics, the philosopher believes that these ideas and senses are involuntary and forced upon him. This incompatabilist, hard determinist stance is impossible to prove, which makes it difficult to accept d'Holbach’s arguments (Pojman 335). He argues primarily from analogy to machines and other human artifacts, which seems to undermine the premise that man is incapable o f original, free thoughts. In addition, it is difficult to get past the brute fact that if all of man’s arguments are determined by antecedent causes, then d'Holbach’s claims here are determined and therefore possibly false. In contrast, W.T. Stace offers a compatibilist (or soft determinist) view that upholds the truth of morality. Stace defines an act that was produced from free will as one that is directly caused by a person’s thoughts, emotions, and desires (Roberts). In other words, an act is only free if it is the result of internal mental states, not the outside influences of other antecedent causes. For instance, fasters on hunger strikes do not consume food because it is theoretically within their power to abstain from food, while someone who fasts because he does not have access to food is not doing so according to his free will. Stace defends compatibilism because of how he defines the notion of free will.

Theories of visual culture and social semiotics Assignment

Theories of visual culture and social semiotics - Assignment Example Infusing the visual culture studies especially in art education involves embracing the postmodern conceptions and posing a challenge to the modern ideals. Also, it involves the instructions whereby there is knowledge sharing among all the learners. The images are critically examined with intelligent and understanding actions as the aim rather than artistic appreciation. One of the main aims of art facilitators is to involve students in learning activities, both through and in art. Nevertheless, most of the facilitators do argue that visual culture art education offer a successful means of engagement. Although the lessons may originate from the visual culture theory, they may result in the lessons which may go back to modern concepts and ideas as well as principles of formal design. However, one of the key shortcomings of the programs is caused by the counterfeit logic that may result from the use of the formalistic theories so as to discuss and understand very well the concept of vis ual culture and postmodernism(Pincus, 2011). The visual culture theory usually requires that the artwork should be put into consideration in relation to the social context and the social context. Cultural studies The theory of visual culture is critically indebted to some form of cultural studies. In essence, the idea of cultural studies is a very complicated and interdisciplinary field. It was first discussed in England in early 1960s, but currently it is a global field of study. It is mainly concerned with giving significance to cultural practices in terms of people’s experiences as well as the structural dynamics of modernize society. According to Harrison, (2003), he argues that the theory bases on the belief that the society should be structured and that the signifying practices should be seen as a means of maintaining and establishing power. However, people can interpret for themselves. The latest studies on visual culture, which emerged in the mid 1990s, are much diver sified and it advocates most on the critical edge of the cultural studies. A visual culture study, as a field, encompasses two main principle concerns. These are the visible objects and our perception on them; normally called the ‘seen and the seer’. With this respect, visual culture studies have no significant difference from other philosophical studies. This is because its concerns aim at giving a clear description of the objects under study and their natural aesthetic gaze. However, the main difference is the fact that visual culture studies put into consideration a lot of artifacts and several ways of appearance as opposed to philosophical aesthetics. The studies of visual culture address the inner meaning of the images in photography, advertising and painting. Visual culture refers to those cultural aspects which are manifested in visible form i.e. paintings, photographs, prints, video and scene images. They mainly focus on images themselves so that they can bring out the cultural link attach to them (Herrmann, 2005). At some instance, it is very difficult to distinguish regalia from images. This is because some images appear real since they give an expression and representation of constituted reality (Pincus, 2011). The approach of visual culture from the visual culture studies begin and end with the contemporary cultural sites.

Research proposal Dissertation Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Research proposal - Dissertation Example According to Hopwood (1991) According to Hopwood (1991) â€Å"accounting can be conceived as a technical development formed by the cultures, the socio-historical situations and the institutional forms of the definite societies from which it issues.† Perera (1989, p.42-43) indicates that culture influences accounting pattern as it is a human action and only not a physical process. According to him culture as such is a commanding environmental attribute which impacts the accounting arrangement of a country. Accounting is a socio-technical activity and demands wherewithal from both human being and machine with an interface between human and machine. Although the technological aspect implicated in reporting is little reliant on culture, the human aspect is more reliant and as the two acts jointly, accounting can not be free of culture. This paper probes the kinship between culture and reporting and makes a study as to whether accounting is dependent on a country’s culture. ... Literature Review Belkaoui (1995, p.3) states that: â€Å"Culture in its real meaning influences the judgment or decision procedure involved in accounting. Culture, by its constituents, factors and proportions, prescribes the organisational construction acquiring the micro-organisational conduct and the psychoanalysis operation of individuals, in a manner which finally affects their opinion or assessment course when they are confronted with an accounting or auditing development.† Since accounting is culture dependent, it is essential to comprehend which vistas of culture determine accounting pattern and how it is affected. Doupnik and Salter (1995) suggest that the accord of how culture affects cross-national accounting variety can contribute towards the attempts made to reduce that diversity and increase comparison of accounting info collectively. Perera (1989, p.43) indicated 2 linked modes to study the ethnical squeezes on accounting patterns. The 1st implies fixing some pr ecise societal measures or ethnic elements probably to link straightaway with reporting pattern. The 2nd is to authenticate whatsoever connection between social measures and exact report exercises. By surveying Hofstede and Gray’s (1988) works, Perera (1989) extended an academic model for probing the influence of civilization on method of accounting. He debated that the method of accounting patterns and arrangements of diverse nations are determined by their ethnical measures thus regulating their method of accounting patterns. He submitted that the decisions of former works disclose a universal variety of reporting wants and exercises that are predominately understandable with relation to the internal ethnical deviations. He in addition indicated that â€Å"any exercise