Thursday, September 26, 2019

Marketing Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 93

Marketing - Essay Example The cupcakes are paired with an espresso that compliments the distinct flavors (Larson et al. 7). Customers who are widely located in the Seattle area receive good attendance in addition to after-sales-services. Cupcake Royale offers delivery to customers who are unable visit the location. In addition, the company provides rental of Cupcake Royale’s party cart. The cart can be brought to any place the customer is in the Seattle area. Trophy Cupcakes (TC) is the top competitor to Cupcake Royale. Trophy Cupcake has dominated the social media to capture more customers. It uses Facebook and Twitter to post events, polls and promotions such as cupcake happy hour. TC has collaborated with Molly Moons ice cream shop where they sell cupcakes at all Moon Locations (Larson et al. 9). The grocery store has also undermined the market of Cupcake Royale Company. Cupcake Royale, however, has maintained the competition by improving its products and increasing its market cover. In addition to 10 new flavors of ice cream to the existing cupcake has expanded Cupcake Royale to six branches (Jones 1). The new Rodeo donut is of exceptional quality. It is made from brioche dough, which includes eggs yolks, eggs, and butter instead of shortening like normal dough (Guanco 1). The brioche has flavor featuring vanilla beans, orange flower water, orange zest and honey instead of sugar. Cupcake Royale Company’s goal emphasizes quality over quantity. That has allowed its current market situation has grown. Guanco, Frank. Rodeo Donut Pop Up At Ballard’s Cupcake Royale. Komonews. March 26, 2015. Web. May 25, 2015 Jones, Sara. Cupcake Royale Owner and Pastry Chef Launch 3 New Ventures. Seattle. March 23, 2015. Web. May 25, 2015 Larson, Devin., Newby,

Wayne Williams Assessment Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Wayne Williams Assessment - Research Paper Example The route taken by the accused could be a human rights preference, and it is also highly probable that he took that route to dump the body of one of his murder victims. The taunts that Wayne directed at the investigators cannot be overlooked as they could have two implications to the case. The investigations were slated at a time when race related matters were at an all time high. This could mean that Wayne was reacting to the maltreatment that he received which was a direct result of his race. On the other hand, it could be that he was highly corky and overconfident because he knew that there was no evidence that would eventually link him to the murders (Deadman, 1982). This paper will support the conclusion that Wayne Williams was guilty in the murder of some of the victims, as an outcome of fiber evidence analysis and linkage. Despite all the numerous challenges in the provision of evidence, in the above stated claims, there are certain aspects of the case that remain hazy. It is not possible for Wayne to claim that he was travelling to scout and recruit Cheryl Johnson, who could not be traced. There is no existing evidence that shows that they had previously communicated or even agreed to meet on the said date. Evidence that was gathered from his home intimated that he had taken time to acclimatize himself on the procedures to follow when trying to beat a polygraph test. It is a result of non-binding evidence that the prosecutors thought it prudent to rely on fiber evidence (Deadman, 1982). It is prudent to note that fiber evidence has contributed greatly in drawing resolute conclusions in criminology. The process, analysis, correlation and merging of fibers has the capacity of solving mysteries that would have otherwise remain unresolved. In the case of Wayne, the fibers processed and analyzed from the murdered victims were of a rare kind (Ramsland, 1991). However, investigators were able to

Wednesday, September 25, 2019

Theology Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words - 2

Theology - Essay Example This paper intends to discuss why would an intelligent mind believe or not believe in the existence of God, and what my opinion about the nature and existence of God is. A 90 minute debate was held in Alys Stephens Center in Birmingham, Alabama, on October 03, 2007 between two Oxford University colleagues; an atheist and secular humanist, Professor Richard Dawkins, and a Christian apologist, Professor John Lennox. The topic of the debate was the existence of God based upon the atheistic views that Dawkins presented in his book, The God Delusion. In the debate, Dawkins explains his theses regarding the rejection of God’s existence saying that science is based on evidence-based grounds whereas faith is blind and is based merely on satisfactory beliefs and thus it drags humans to believe what is told in religion without the need of understanding and exploring. This makes us say that an intelligent mind believes that science does not support religion; rather, it supports rationalism or atheism. Marx conception of God’s existence is purely atheistic. He affirms that an intelligent mind must argue that the designer God, if there is one, must need another designer to design him. Freud does not believe in God and asserts that â€Å"the sooner one accepts that God does not exist, the better† (qtd. in McFaul 9) if one wants to step into mature adulthood. Christianity poses dangers to the existence of humans as all wars and destructions come as a result of the religious beliefs and difference in faiths. Dawkins explains an argument from his book, that is, faith is blind whereas science is evidence-based (92) in which he argues that faith is by no reasons strengthening its grounds in the 21st century when it has nothing to do with evidence. On the other hand, according to Dawkins, â€Å"science uses evidence to discover the truth about the universe† and scientific discoveries are based on research and

Tuesday, September 24, 2019

SIOP Lesson Plan Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

SIOP Lesson Plan - Research Paper Example Learners in all the grades benefit both in the content area and the bilingual aspects. This paper will prepare a SIOP lesson plan for grade five students under the food and nutrition topic whereby, working in collaborative groups, they will be required to identify the nutritional values of food served in the school cafeteria. This paper will describe a learning project whose length is five class periods covering multiple content and sheltered instructional approaches that address learners with special needs and the ELLs. The standards used are contained in the New York State ELA, and the Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL). New York State ELA Standards Standard 1: The students will read and write, then listen and speak for the purpose of understanding and information. Standard 3: The students will read and write, then listen and speak for the purpose of evaluation and critical analysis. This lesson plan will address the above requirements by ensuring students r ead, listen, write and speak effectively so as to comprehend content, present information, communicate with fellow students and evaluate their own progress. TESOL Standards Standard 1: Within the school environment, ELLs will communicate in English for both instructional and social purposes Standard 2: ELLs will communicate ideas, concepts and information that facilitate their academic success in the art of language. The lesson plan will require the ELLs to use English in their communication of ideas, concept and information throughout the project (Tharpe & Gallimore, 1988). Content Objectives Students will be able to know nutritional values of food offered for lunch on the school menu by engaging in learning groups and investigative methods to research on the content. They will then present their findings in PowerPoint form in groups. Language Objectives Students will be able to communicate information verbally. They will re-tell the contents of the curriculum and use appropriate v ocabulary to describe what they have learnt. Although content and language objectives are presented as distinct objectives, they are with the standards as well as each other. Vocabulary The key vocabulary words are vitamin, sodium, fiber, mono-unsaturated fat, poly-unsaturated fat, protein, carbohydrate and calorie. Materials KWL chart, graphic organizer created by the teacher, computer projection screen, PowerPoint, classroom laptops, internet resources, and recipe cards. Strategies The strategies are driven by language and content standards, and the implementation is done with consideration to the theories of language acquisition that appeal to an assorted scope of learners. The learners are presented with an opportunity to utilize technology resources and graphic organizers, re-state information, work in mutual learning groups and discover information through research. Because the plan is designed for both learners with special needs and ELLs, strategies like jigsaw are used for their proven instructing effectiveness. A meaningful, thematic mode of instruction facilitates acquisition of second language, gives room for collaboration, provides scaffolding, and allows opportunities for use of oral and written English while building background. Based on Bloom’s Taxonomy, the strategies are also designed to develop the learners’ mental skills, grow their emotional or feelings aspects and enhance their

Monday, September 23, 2019

Music Festival Campaign at Montgomery Social Hall Essay - 7

Music Festival Campaign at Montgomery Social Hall - Essay Example The reason why we settled on the model is because of it elaborateness in listing the ten stages while elaborately explaining them. Analysis being the very first step that is listed by Gregory is very important (Gregory, 2000). The gives room for the analysis of the analysis and definition of the problem. In undertaking the analysis will enable the campaign to have a good grounding upon which several activities will be conducted logically thereby resulting in a successful campaign. In the case of this extravaganza we used we employed the use of secondary research methods and other researched external information (Gordon, 2011). Secondary research therefore helped us to establish some of the facts the support the theme of our music festival. Most of the research conducted towards seeking to establish an understanding of the importance of music in human life. Research indicates a lot of positives about music while leaving room for future researchers to perhaps establish the negative part of it. According to the researchers music is a language spoken and understood by different parties despite not fathoming the meanings of the words or even understanding the language being used. Research has also established that music is therapeutic and it relieves off stress that one might have been subjected to during the course of work or duty. Further, due to the captivating and as well as lulling voices of singers and the instruments, music has been established.

Sunday, September 22, 2019

The House in Zapote Street Essay Example for Free

The House in Zapote Street Essay Quijano de Manila is the pen name of Nick Joaquin. He started writing before the war and his first story, â€Å"Three Generations† has been hailed as a masterpiece. He has been recipient of almost all the prestigious awards in literature and the arts, including the National Artist Award for Literature in 1976. He was also conferred, among other recognitions, the Republic Cultural Heritage Award for Literature in 1961, the Journalist of the Year Award in the early 1960s, the Book of the Year Award in 1979 for his Almanac for Manileà ±os, the national Book award for several of his works, the Ramon Magsaysay Award for Journalism, Literature, Creative Communication Arts (the Asian counterpart of Nobel Prize) in 1996, and the Tanglaw ng Lahi Award in 1997. Dr. Leonardo Quitangon, a soft-spoken, mild-mannered, cool-tempered Caviteno, was still fancy-free at 35 when he returned to Manila, after six years abroad. Then, at the University of Santo Tomas, where he went to reach, he met Lydia Cabading, a medical intern. He liked her quiet ways and began to date her steadily. They went to the movies and to basketball games and he took her a number of times to his house in Sta. Mesa, to meet his family. Lydia was then only 23 and looked like a sweet unspoiled girl, but there was a slight air of mystery about her. Leonardo and his brothers noticed that she almost never spoke of her home life or her childhood; she seemed to have no gay early memories to share with her lover, as sweethearts usually crave to do. And whenever it looked as if she might have to stay out late, she would say: Ill have to tell my father first. And off she would go, wherever she was, to tell her father, though it meant going all the way to Makati, Rizal, where she lived w ith her parents in a new house on Zapote Street. The Quitangons understood that she was an only child and that her parents were, therefore, over-zealous in looking after her. Her father usually took her to school and fetched her after classes, and had been known to threaten to arrest young men who stared at her on the streets or pressed too close against her on jeepneys. This high-handedness seemed natural enough, for Pablo Cabading, Lydias father was a member of the Manila Police Depatment. After Lydia finished her internship, Leopardo Quitangon became a regular visitor at the house on Zapote Street: he was helping her prepare for the board exams. Her family seemed to like him. The mother Anunciacion, struck him as a mousy woman unable to speak save at her husbands bidding. There was a foster son, a little boy the Cabadings had adopted. As for Pablo Cabading, he was a fine strapping man, an Ilocano, who gave the impression of being taller than he was and looked every inch an agent of the law: full of brawn and guts and force, and smoldering with vitality. He was a natty dresser, liked youthful colors and styles, decorated his house with pictures of himself and, at 50, looked younger than his inarticulate wife, who was actually two years younger than he. When Leonardo started frequenting the house on Zapote Street, Cabading told him: ill be frank with you. None of Lydias boy friends ever lasted ten minutes in this house. I didnt like them and I told them so and made them get out. Then he added laying a hand on the young doctors shoulder: But I like you. You are a good man. The rest of the household were two very young maids who spoke almost no Tagalog, and two very fierce dogs, chained to the front door in the day time, unchained in the front yard at night. The house of Zapote Street is in the current architectural clichà ©: the hoity-toity Philippine split-level suburban style—a half-story perched above the living area, to which it is bound by the slope of the roof and which it overlooks from a balcony, so that a person standing in the sala can see the doors of the bedrooms and bathroom just above his head. The house is painted, as is also the current fashion, in various pastel shades, a different color to every three or fou r planks. The inevitable piazza curves around two sides of the house, which has a strip of lawn and a low wall all around it. The Cabadings did not keep a car, but the house provides for an eventual garage and driveway. This, and the furniture, the shell lamps and the fancy bric-a-brac that clutters the narrow house indicate that the Cabadings had not only risen high enough to justify their split-level pretensions but were expecting to go higher. Lydia took the board exams and passed them. The lovers asked her fathers permission to wed. Cabading laid down two conditions: that the wedding would ba a lavish one and that was to pay a downy of P5.000.00. The young doctor said that he could afford the big wedding but the big dowry. Cabading shrugged his shoulders; no dowry, no marriage. Leonarado spent some frantic weeks scraping up cash and managed to gather P3.000.00. Cabading agreed to reduce his price to that amount, then laid down a final condition: after the wedding, Lydia and Leonardo must make their home at the house on Zapote Street. I built this house for Lydia, said Cabading, and I want her to live here even when shes married. Besides, her mother couldnt bear to be separated from Lydia, her only child. There was nothing. Leonardo could do but consent. Lydia and Leonardo were on September 10 last year, at the Cathedral of Manila, with Mrs. Delfin Montano, wife of the Cavite governor, and Senator Ferdinand Marcos as sponsors. The reception was at the Selecta. The status gods of Suburdia were properly propitiated. Then the newlyweds went to live on Zapote Street and Leonardo almost immediately realized why Lydia had been so reticent and mysterious about her home life. The cozy family group that charmed him in courtship days turned out to be rather too cozy. The entire household revolved in submission around Pablo Cabading. The daughter, mother, the foster-son, the maids and even the dogs trembled when the lifted his voice. Cabading liked to brag that was a killer: in 1946 he had shot dead two American soldiers he caught robbing a neighbors house in Quezon City. Leonardo found himself within a family turned in on itself, self-enclosed and self-sufficient — in a house that had no neighbors and no need for any. His brothers say that he made more friends in the neighborhood within the couple of months he stayed there than the Cabadings had made in a year. Pablo Cabading did not like what his to stray out of, and what was not his to stray into, his house. And within that house he wanted to be the center of everything, even of his daughters honeymoon. Whenever Leonardo and Lydia went to the movies or for a ride, Cabading insisted on being taken along. If they seated him on the back scat while they sat together in front, be raged and glowered. He wanted to sit in front with them. When Leonardo came home from work, he must not tarry with Lydia in the bedroom chatting: both of them must come down at once to the sala and talk with their father. Leonardo explained that he was not much of a talking: Thats why I fell in love with Lydia, because shes the quiet type too. No matter, said Cabading. They didnt have to talk at all; he would do all the talking himself, so long as they sat there in the sala before his eyes. So, his compact family group sat around him at night, silent, while Cabading talked and talked. But, finally, the talk had stop, the listeners had to rise and retire and it was this moment that Cabading seemed unable to bear. He couldnt bear to see Lydia and Leonardo rise and go up together to their room. One night, unable to bear it any longer he shouted, as they rose to retire: Lydia, you sleep with your mother tonight. She has a toothache. After a dead look at her husband, Lydia obeyed. Leonardo went to bed alone. The incident would be repeated: there would always be other reasons, besides Mrs. Cabadings toothaches. What horrified Leonardo was not merely what being done to him but his increasing acquiesces. Had his spirit been so quickly broken? Was he, too, like the rest of the household, being drawn to revolve, silently and obediently, around the master of the house? Once, late at night, he suddenly showed up at his parents’ house in Sta. Mesa and his brothers were shocked at the great in him within so short a time. He looked terrified. What had happened? His car had broken down and he had had it repaired and now he could not go home. But why not? You dont know my father-in-law, he groaned. Everybody in that house must be in by a certain hour. Otherwise, the gates are locked, the doors are locked, the windows are locked. Nobody can get in anymore!† A younger brother, Gene offered to accompany him home and explain to Cabading what had happened. The two rode to Zapote and found the house dark and locked up. Says Gene: That memory makes my blood boil my eldest brother fearfully clanging and clanging the gate, and nobody to let him in. 1 wouldnt have waited a second, but he waited five, ten, fifteen minutes, knocking at thai gate, begging to be let in. I couldnt have it! In the end the two brothers rode back to Sta. Mesa, where Leonardo spent the night. When he returned to the house on Zapote the next day, his father-in-law greeted him with a sarcastic question: Where were you? At a basketball game? Leonardo became anxious to take his wife away from that house. He talked it over with her, then they went to tell her father. Said Cabading bluntly: If she goes with you, Ill shoot her head before your eyes. His brothers urged him to buy a gun, but Leonardo felt in his pocket and said, Ive got my rosary. Cried his brother Gene: You cant fight a gun with a rosary!. When Lydia took her oath as a physician, Cabading announced that only he and his wife would accompany Lydia to the ceremony. I would not be fair, he said, to let Leonardo, who had not borne the expenses of Lydias education, to share that moment of glory too. Leonardo said that, if he would like them at least to use his car. The offer was rejected. Cabading preferred to hire a taxi. After about two months at the house on Zapote Street, Leonardo moved out, alone. Her parents would not let Lydia go and she herself was too afraid to leave. During the succeeding weeks, efforts to contact her proved futile. The house on Zapote became even more closed to the outside world. If Lydia emerged from it at all, she was always accompanied by her father, mother or foster-brother, or by all three. When her husband heard that she had started working at a hospital he went there to see her but instead met her father coming to fetch her. The very next day, Lydia was no longer working at the hospital. Leonardo knew that she was with child and he was determined to bear all her prenatal expenses. He went to Zapote one day when her father was out and persuaded her to come out to the yard but could not make her make the money he offered across the locked gate. Just mail it, she cried and fled into the house. He sent her a check by registered mail; it was promptly mailed back to him. On Christmas Eve, Leonardo returned to the house on Zapote with a gift for his wife, and stood knocking at the gate for so long the neighbors gathered at windows to watch him. Finally, he was allowed to enter, present his gift to Lydia and talk with her for a moment. She said that her father seemed agreeable to a meeting with Leonardos father, to discuss the young couples problem. So the elder Quitangon and two of his younger sons went to Zapote one evening. The lights were on in Cabading house, but nobody responded to their knocking. Then all the lights were turned off. As they stood wondering what to do, a servant girl came and told them that the master was out. (Lydia would later tell them that they had not been admitted because her father had not yet decided what she was to say to them.) The last act of this curious drama began Sunday last week when Leonardo was astounded to receive an early-morning phone call from his wife. She said she could no longer bear to be parted from him and bade him pick her up at a certain church, where she was with her foster brother. Leonardo rushed to the church, picked up two, dropped the boy off at a street near Zapote, then sped with Lydia to Maragondon, Cavite where the Quitangons have a house. He stopped at a gasoline station to call up his brothers in Sta. Mesa, to tell them what he had done and to warn them that Cabading would surely show up there. Get Mother out of the house, he told his brothers. At about ten in the morning, a taxi stopped before the Quitangon house in Sta. Mesa and Mrs. Cabading got out and began screaming at the gate: Wheres my daughter? Wheres my daughter? Gene and Nonilo Quitangin went out to the gate and invited her to come in. No! No! All I want is my daughter! she screamed. Cabading, who was inside the waiting taxi, then got out and demanded that the Quitangons produce Lydia. Vexed, Nonilo Quitangon cried: Abah, what have we do with where your daughter is? Anyway, shes with her husband. At that, Cabading ran to the taxi, snatched a submachinegun from a box, and trained it on Gene Quitangon. (Nonilo had run into the house to get a gun.) Produce my daughter at once or Ill shoot you all down! shouted Cabading. Gene, the guns muzzle practically in his face, sought to pacify the older man: Why cant we talk this over quietly, like decent people, inside the house? Look, were creating a scandal in the neighborhood.. Cabading lowered his gun. I give you till midnight tonight to produce my daughter, he growled. If you dont, you better ask the PC to guard this house! Then he and his wife drove off in the taxi, just a moment before the mobile police patrol the neighbors had called arrived. The police advised Gene to file a complaint with the fiscals office. Instead, Gene decided to go to the house on Zapote Street, hoping that diplomacy would work. To his surprise, he was admitted at once by a smiling and very genial Cabading. You are a brave man, he told Gene, and a lucky one, And he ordered a coke brought for the visitor. Gene said that he was going to Cavite but could not promise to produce. Lydia by midnight: it was up to the couple to decide whether they would come back. It was about eight in the evening when Gene arrived in Maragondon. As his car drove into the yard of this familys old house, Lydia and Leonardo appeared at a window and frantically asked what had happened. Nothing, said Gene, and their faces lit up. Were having our honeymoon at last, Lydia told Gene as he entered the house. And the old air of dread, of mystery, did seem to have lifted from her face. But it was there again when, after supper, he told them what had happened in Sta. Mesa. I cant go back, she moaned. Hell kill me! Hell kill me! He has cooled down now, said Gene. He seems to be a reasonable man after all. Oh, you dont know him! cried Lydia. Ive known him longer, and Ive never, never been happy! And the brothers at last had glimpses of the girlhood she had been so reticent about. She told them of Cabadings baffling changes of temper, especially toward her; how smiles and found words and caresses could abruptly turn into beatings when his mood darkened. Leonardo said that his father-in-law was an artista, Remember how he used to fan me when I supped there while I was courting Lydia? (At about that time, in Sta. Mesa, Nonilo Quitanongon, on guard at the gate of his familys house, saw Cabading drive past three times in a taxi.) I cant force you to go back, said Gene. Youll have to decide that yourselves. But what, actually, are you planning to do? You cant stay forever here in Maragondon. What would you live on? The two said they would talk it over for a while in their room. Gene waited at the supper table and when a long time had passed and they had not come back he went to the room. Finding the door ajar, he looked in. Lydia and Leonardo were on their knees on the floor, saying the rosary, Gene returned to the supper table. After another long wait, the couple came out of the room. Said Lydia: We have prayed together and we have decided to die together.† Well go back with you, in the morning. They we’re back in Manila early the next morning. Lydia and Leonardo went straight to the house in Sta. Mesa, where all their relatives and friends warned them not to go back to the house on Zapote Street, as they had decided to do. Confused anew, they went to the Manila police headquarters to ask for advice, but the advice given seemed drastic to them: summon Cabading and have it out with him in front of his superior officer. Leonardos father then offered to go to Zapote with Gene and Nonilo, to try to reason with Cabading. They found him in good humor, full of smiles and hearty greetings. He reproached his balae for not visiting him before. I did come once, drily remarked the elder Quitangon, but no one would open the gate. Cabading had his wife called. She came into the room and sat down. Was I in the house that night our balae came? her husband asked her. No, you were out, she replied. Having spoken her piece, she got up and left the room. (On their various visits to the house on Zapote Street, the Quitangons noticed that Mrs. Cabading appeared only when summoned and vanished as soon as she had done whatever was expected of her). Cabading then announced that he no longer objected to Lydias moving out of the house to live with her husband in an apartment of their own. Overjoyed, the Quitangons urged Cabading to go with them in Sta. Mesa, so that the newlyweds could be reconciled with Lydias parents. Cabading readily agreed. When they arrived in Sta. Mesa, Lydia and Leonardo were sitting on a sofa in the sala. Why have you done this? her father chided her gently. If you wanted to move out, did you have to run away? To Leonardo, he said: And you are angry with me? house by themselves. Gene Quitangon felt so felt elated he proposed a celebration: Ill throw a blow-out! Everybody is invited! This is on me! So they all went to Maxs in Quezon City and had a very merry fried-chicken party. Why, this is a family reunion! laughed Cabading. This should be on me! But Gene would not let him pay the bill. Early the next morning, Cabading called up the Sta. Mesa house to pay that his wife had fallen ill. Would Lydia please visit her? Leonardo and Lydia went to Zapote, found nothing the matter with her mother, and returned to Sta. Mesa. After lunch, Leonardo left for his classes. Then Cabading called up again. Lydias mother refused to eat and kept asking for her daughter. Would Lydia please drop in again at the house on Zapote? Gene and Nonilo Quitangon said they might as well accompany Lydia there and start moving out her things. When they arrived at the Zapote house, the Quitangon brothers were amused by what they saw. Mrs. Cabading, her eyes closed, lay on the parlor sofa, a large towel spread out beneath her. She has been lying there all day, said Cabading, tossing restlessly, asking for you, Lydia. Gene noted that the towel was neatly spread out and didnt look crumpled at all, and that Mrs. Cabading was obviously just pretending to be asleep. He smiled at the childishness of the stratagem, but Lydia was past being amused. She wont straight to her room, were they heard her pulling out drawers. While the Quitangons and Cabading were conversing, the supposedly sick mother slipped out of the sofa and went upstairs to Lydias room. Cabading told the Quitangons that he wanted Lydia and Leonardo to stay there; at the house in Zapote. I thought all that was settled last night, Gene groaned. I built this house for Lydia, persisted Cabading, and this house is hers. If she and her husband want to be alone, I and my wife will move out of here, turn this house over to them. Gene wearily explained that Lydia and Leonardo preferred the apartment they had already leased. Suddenly the men heard the clatter of a drawer falling upstairs. Gene surmised that it had fallen in a struggle between mother and daughter. Excuse me, said Cabading, rising. As he went upstairs, he said to the Quitangons, over his shoulder, â€Å"Dont misunderstand me. Im not going to coach Lydia. He went into Lydias room and closed the door behind him. After a long while, Lydia and her father came out of the room together and came down to the sala together. Lydia was clasping a large crucifix. There was no expression on her face when she told the Quitangon boys to go home. But I thought we were going to start moving your things out this afternoon,, said Gene. She glanced at the crucifix and said it was one of the first things she wanted taken to her new home. Just tell Narding to fetch me, she said. Back in Sta. Mesa, Gene and Nonilo had the painful task of telling Leonardo, when he phoned, that Lydia was back in the house on Zapote. Why did you leave her there? cried Leonardo. Hell beat her up! Im going to get her. Gene told him not you go alone, to pass by the Sta. Mesa house first and pick up Nonilo. Gene could not go along; he had to catch a bus for Subic, where he works. When Leonardo arrived, Gene told him: Dont force Lydia to go with you. If she doesnt want to, leave at once. Do not, for any reason, be persuaded to stay there too. When his brother had left for Zapote, Gene realized that he was not sure he was going to Subic. He left too worried. He knew he couldnt rest easy until he had seen Lydia and Leonardo settled in their new home. The minutes quickly ticked past as he debated with himself whether he should stay or catch that bus. Then, at about a quarter to seven, the phone rang. It was Nonilo, in anguish. Something terrible has happened in Lydias room! I heard four shots, he cried. Who are up there? Lydia and Narding and the Cabadings. Ill be right over. Gene sent a younger brother to inform the family lawyer and to alert the Makati police. Then he drove like mad to Zapote. It was almost dark when he got there. The house stood perfectly still, not a light on inside. He watched it from a distance but could see no movement, Then a taxi drove up and out jumped Nonilo. He had telephoned from a gasoline station. He related what had happened. He said that when he and Leonardo arrived at the Zapote house, Cabading motioned Leonardo upstairs: Lydia is in her room. Leonardo went up; Cabading gave Nonilo a cup of coffee and chatted amiably with him. Nonilo saw Mrs. Cabading go up to Lydias room with a glass of milk. A while later, they heard a woman scream, followed by sobbing. There seems to be trouble up there, said Cabading, and he went upstairs. Nonilo saw him enter Lydias room, leaving the door open. A few moments later, the door was closed. Then Nonilo heard three shots. He stood petrified, but when he heard a fourth shot he dashed out of the house, ran to a gasoline station and called up Gene. Nonilo pointed to the closed front gate; he was sure he had left it open when he ran out. The brothers suspected that Cabading was lurking somewhere in the darkness, with his gun. Before them loomed the dark house, now so sinister and evil in their eyes. The upper story that jutted forward, forming the houses chief facade, bore a curious sign: Dra. Lydia C. Cabading, Lady Physician. (Apparently, Lydia continued- or was made- to use her maiden name.) Above the sign was the garland of colored lights that have been put up for Christmas and had not yet been removed. It was an ice-cold night, the dark of the moon, but the two brothers shivered not from the wind blowing down the lonely murky street but from pure horror of the house that had so fatally thrust itself into their lives. But the wind remembered when the sighs it heard here were only the sighing of the ripe grain, when the cries it heard were only the crying of birds nesting in the reeds, for all these new suburbs in Makati used to be grassland, riceland, marshland, or pastoral solitudes where few cared to go, until the big city spilled hither, replacing the uprooted reeds with split-levels, pushing noisy little streets into the heart of the solitude, and collecting here from all over the country the uprooted souls that now moan or giggle where once the carabao wallowed and the frogs croaked day and night. In very new suburbs, one feels human sorrow to be a grass intrusion on the labors of nature. Even barely two years ago, the talahib still rose man-high on the plot of ground on Zapote Street where now stands the relic of an ambiguous love. As the Quitangon brothers shivered in the darkness, a police van arrived and unloaded quite a large contingent of policemen. The Quitangons warned them that Cabading had a submachinegun. The policemen crawled toward the front gate and almost jumped when a young girl came running across the yard, shaking with terror and shrieking gibberish. She was one of the maids. She and her companion and the foster son had fled from the house when they heard the shooting and had been hiding in the yard. It was they who had closed the front gate. A policeman volunteered to enter the house through the back door; Gene said he would try the front one. He peered in at a window and could detect no one in the sala. He slipped a hand inside, opened the front door and entered, just as the policeman came in from the kitchen. As they crept up the stairs they heard a moaning in Lydias room. They tried the door but it was blocked from inside. Push it, push it, wailed a womans voice. The policeman pushed the door hard and what was blocking it gave. He groped for the switch and turned light. As they entered, he and Gene shuddered at what they saw. The entire room was spattered with blood. On the floor, blocking the door, lay Mrs. Cabading. She had been shot in the chest and stomach but was still alive. The policeman tried to get a statement from her but all she could say was: My hand, my hand- it hurts! She was lying across the legs of her daughter, who lay on top of her husbands body. Lydia was still clutching an armful of clothes; Leonardo was holding a clothes hanger. He had been shot in the breast; she, in the heart. They had died instantly, together. Sprawled face up on his daughters bed, his mouth agape and his eyes bulging open as though still staring in horror and the bright blood splashed on his face lay Pablo Cabading. Oh, I cursed him! cries Eugenio Quitangon with passion. Oh, I cursed him as he lay there dead, God forgive me! Yes, I cursed that dead man there on that bed, for I had wanted to find him alive! From the position of the bodies and from Mrs. Cabadings statements later at the hospital, it appears that Cabading shot Lydia while she was shielding her husband, and Mrs. Cabading when she tried to shield Lydia. Then he turned the gun on himself, and its an indication of the mans uncommon strength and power that, after the first shot, through the right side of the head, which must have been mortal enough, he seems to have been able, as his hands dropped to his breast, to fire at himself a second time. The violent spasm of agony must have sent the gun a .45 caliber pistol- flying from his hand. It was found at the foot of the bed, near Mrs. Cabadings feet. The drama of the jealous father had ended at about half-past six in the evening, Tuesday last week. The next day, hurrying commuters slowed down and a whispering crowd gathered before 1074 Zapote Street, to watch the police and the reporters going through the pretty little house that Pablo Cabading built for his Lydia.

Saturday, September 21, 2019

Are Human Rights a Western Concept?

Are Human Rights a Western Concept? Do you agree that human rights are a western or modern concept, if not please cite two imperial examples of universal Human Rights in practice during pre-historic times. And the unending challenges in conflict with diversity, culture and religion in contemporary times? This essay will defined, explore and analyse the historical, theoretical and philosophical concept of universal human rights with comparative analysis of international instruments and its applications of human rights both in theory and context with empirical examples from different countries, culture and religion. The evolution of Human Rights in terms of its enduring challenges and successes will also be explored. The crux of this essay will focus on the controversial clash of culture and religious in practice against the backdrop in adapting to the concept of universal human rights. For example, this essay will attempt to present both opposite views and justification from a cultural and religious perspectives and against the practice of Female Gentile Mutilation (FGM) in Sierra Leone, and the violation of certain womens rights in Saudi Arabia, from a universal human rights perspective, which others tend to view as western liberal ideology. The first part of this essay will focus on the historical and theoretical aspect of human rights with comparative analysis of contemporary challenges and success in an attempt to juxtapose universal human rights against national laws and its direct challenge to cultural and religious justification in national defence with respect to these controversial topics, with an example of which both national activists and International actors continue to campaign against cultural practice such as FGM around the world with a direct focus on Sierra Leone. The Third section will explore and analyses human rights in Saudi Arabia and the cultural and religious influence with respect to the conflicting laws and individual rights challenges, particularly women. The fourth section will draw comparative analysis with Western countries like UK and USA in an attempt to explain cultural relativism with respect to the differences and common accepted human rights practices among these states. Human right history has been a long and controversial subject that stem from little known concept and history of human rights before 1945 around the same period the United Nations was established. Before then, certain intellectuals tend to hold the view that contemporary human rights history stems from the United Nations concept. The international convention on Economic, Social and cultural rights, is known as one of the fundamental declarations adopted by the General Assembly of the UN in the Declaration of Human Right, with provision for everyone to take part in cultural life, to enjoy the benefit of scientific progress and its applications, and to enjoy the protection of scientific, literary or artistic works. Article 13 points the rights of everyone to education, which shall be directed to the development of human personality and the sense of its , (UNESCO: 1998; 1). Although cultural rights are also indicated in numerous UNESCO conventions and recommendations, likewise in severa l other international documents, there is yet an unending challenges to implement cultural rights to its full potential. There is a clear evidence to suggest that there is a common relation between cultural rights and fundamental freedoms and individual rights such as freedom of belief and religion, the right to education, freedom of association and freedom of expression. (1998; 1). On Lockes view in his famous and influential Letter Concerning Toleration 1689 the state is concerned with external acts of human beings and not with the care of their souls and hence has no right to restrict individuals liberty in matters of faith. Churches are to be be understood as a voluntary societies for the public worship of God. Their members do not surrender their natural liberty in matters of religion to their church and so the church has no right to coerce its members beyond that of expelling them for appropriate reasons. (Charvet and Kaczynska- Nay: 2008; 29) The major theorist of the seventeen century who invented the individualist doctrine of natural rights were all Northern European protestants: Hugo Grotius of the Netherlands, Thomas Hobbs and John Locke of England and Samuerl Pufendorf of Germany. They developed a new understanding of the idea of natural law that was to serve as the foundation of a legitimate social and political order. Hugo Grotius who is widely known as the founder of modern natural law theory is also accepted as the originator of modern theory of international law, which is grounded on the law of nature, which is also grounded of the domestic theory. However, there is also a more inquisitorial common view of a long human right history way beyond contemporary history of human rights, which many refers to as a much better approach. Even though it is plagued with controversy, but it gives an opportunity to search beyond 1945 and challenge the former position with respect to the historical and philosophical aspects and concepts of human rights. Some argues that the concept of Human has a universal history in the various religious and philosophies of the world. The code of Hammurabi (c.1792-50 BC), King of Babylon, is said to be the oldest surviving text establishing the rule of law, Cyrus the Great (died 529 BC), King of Persia, proclaimed a policy of religious tolerance and abolished slavery. The Buddhist King Ashoka of India (c.264-38 BC) also proclaimed a policy of religious tolerance, provided for the health and educations of his people, and appointed officials to prevent wrongful punishments (Weeramantry 1997: 7-8). (Freeman 2011: 15-16). There are numerous challenges towards the view that human right is a western concept, such as the self evident of protections with non western cultural settings, which weakens the position of those claiming human rights to be a western concept. In1979, the UN General Assembly adopted the convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), the realization of this document stemmed from a cummulation of over three dacdes of work by the UN Commission on the Status of women including years of efforts by Womens rights activist and governments. This was initially commission in 1947 under the Commission of Human Rights as a sub-commission, with unending demands from women activists it was eventually promoted to a full commission, This is seen as the authoritative instrument of Womens bill of rights, which seek to protect women around the world. The Convention defines discrimination against women as: Any distinction, exclusion or restriction made on the basis of sex which has the effect or purpose of impairing or nullifying the recognition, enjoyment or exercise by women, irrespective of their marital status, on a basis of equality of men and women, of human rights and fundamental freedoms in the political, economic, social, cultural, civil or any other field (Article 1), (2008;201) Whiles most states have ratified CEDAW, there have been an exceptionally high number of reservations made to it by states ratifying, several countries have entered reservations to Article 2 and 16 in particular; for example, Bangladesh and Egypt on grounds that they conflicts with Sharia law (Bangladesh subsequently withdrew its observation to Article 16). Saudi Arabia entered a general reservation stating that: [i]n case of contradiction between any term of the convention and the norms of Islamic law, the Kingdom is not under obligation to observe the contradictory terms of the convention. An Elimination of Discrimination Against Women stated: Article 2 and 16 are considered by the committee to be core provision of the convention. Although some states parties have withdrawn reservations to those articles, the committee is particularly concerned at the number and extent of the reservations entered to those articles. The commission holds the view that article 2 is central to the objec ts and purpose of the Convention. States parties which ratify the Convention do so because they agree that discrimination against women in all its form should be condemned and that the strategies set out in article 2, subparagraph (a) to (g), should be implemented by States parties to eliminate it. Neither traditional, religious or Cultural practice nor incompatible domestic laws and policies can justify violations of the convention. The Committee also remains convinced that reservations of article 16, whether lodged for national, traditional, religious or cultural reasons, are incompatible with the Convention and therefore impermissible and should be reviewed and modified o withdrawn. (2008; 204) In 1517, Martin Luther pinned his famous ninety-five these stacking Catholic practices and beliefs to a church door in Wittenberg, which eventually led to the unbelievable split of the Christian Church in the West known as the Reformation. Because of the anxiousness exhibited by leaders who were desperate to free themselves from the interference of the pope and emperors, they seized the opportunity to affirm their total independence by embracing the new protestant version of Christianity, which had achieved wide spread popularity. During this period the liberty of religious conscious was never acknowledged by the Medieval Catholic Church, violent persecution of heretical beliefs was frequent by the state. This eventually led series of suppression and war in the West. It has to be said that Protestant were not really reacting to the persecution by the Catholics. The main reformed churches, Lutheran, Calvinist and Anglecan, were as ardent persecutors of those who did not accept the true faith as the catholics. The indirect influence of the Reformation on the movement for the huge and continuing scale of the religiously inspired carnage and the direct influence of the Reformation on support of toleration came from the radical protestant sect such as; the Anabapitists and Baptist, Socinians and Unitarians. The main natural rights theories were directly involved in these concerns. Their main argument was that the naturalness of radical disagreement between human beings over religion and their idea of natural law was that it constitutes common ground in abstraction from areas of disagreement. Thus, they supported a minimalist view of Christian dogma and both Pufendorf and Locke wrote widely read works specifically on toleration using an argument from natural liberty. (Charvet and Kaczynska- Nay: 2008; 29) The complexity and contradiction of human rights law is nothing new when it comes to the human rights law and the relationship with the subject of culture and religious with respect to oppression and injustice, which is not always compatible. Human Rights law may have operated and practice around the world, but there is a disparity in terms of its universal acceptance and approaches different member States, which sometimes operates more or less in the same context, but sometimes produce inconsistent results. The process of ratification or legalizing human rights law have proved to be challenging, especially the subject of Womens rights and its relationship with religion, Culture and traditional resistance. Particularly the parochial world that view such move as threats to male privilege or centuries old practices, which others interpreted as an attempt by Western liberal to subjugate their culture, religion or traditional heritage. The 1993 Vianna World Conference on Human Rights can be noted as another defining moment in the struggle of Womens rights history to gain the recognition of womens rights and Human rights, which is another result derived from the complex and contradictory quagmire of legalizing womens rights. It is a heterogeneous project which precludes any formulation of grand theory. Its commonality lies in providing critical and necessary challenges to explanations about womens subordination that have been furnished by liberal and Western feminist positions, especially those that come to occupy the international human rights arena in their understanding and articulation of concerns of Third World women. Post colonial feminism furnishes the tools for exposing the imperial and essentialist assumptions about the Third World women and culture and a reliance on a centre-periphery model or world culture that have come to inform lrgal responses to womens human rights concerns. (Kapur 2005). (Meckled-Garcia and Cali: 2006;103) Women and the veil However, the cantering of a womens claims to social justice to human rights, the law has also have some serious limitation. The pursuits of women human rights has come to focus on laws and legal strategies, encouraging the view that the law is the exclusive language in which to express claim to social justice and emancipation and consequently marginalize the benefit of others/emancipatory and vocabularies (Kennedy 2004; 5). It encourages the belief that freedom and emancipation lie in the objectivity, universality and rational basis of human rights laws. (106) These claims made in and through Human rights law ultimately rely on a universal subject: a subject that resembles the uncomplicated subject of liberal rights discourse. Cultural essentialism tends to reinforce the notion of human rights as a primary concern with relation to the law, with main focus on the consequences and effects of violence against women in third world countries. Alhough they are invariably portrayed as victims of their culture, reinforcing stereotyped and racist representations of that culture and privileging the culture of the West. Many human rights law textbooks address the issue of violence against women in other contexts, primarily in a chapter on universality and cultural Relativism implying that universality is not a cultural concept that emerged from a specific historical and political context, and reinforcing the inaccurate assumption that the primary wary in which women in the Third world experience violence is through some particularly egregious cultural practice. This portrayal of women in Sierra Leone that practice FGM or (Bondo society) for example is encouraged by traditional and some influential members of that country, even though others vehemently opposed this practice as proposed by some feminist and human rights activist particularly in the international realm, which reminiscent of imperial interference in the lives of na tive people, which they often interpret as the backwardness of African culture and women society and uncivilized culture. It recreates the imperialist move that views the native subject as different and civilizationally backward (Sinha: 2000). And this culture is cast in opposition to the universal project of human rights. Some Cultural practices have come to occupy our imaginations in ways that are totalizing of a culture and its treatment of women, and are nearly always overly simplistic or a misrepresentation of the practice. For example, the multiple meanings of the veil, through different cultural and historical contexts, get subsumed in the legal arguments that focus on almost exclusively on veiling as an oppressive and subordinating practice that typifies Islam and its degrading treatment of women. It is read in a uniform, linear manner as an oppressive practice because it erases womens physical and sexual identity and is symbolic of the subjugation of women in Islam. For som e it does not represent honor, and an effective mechanism on avoid tempting men. More significantly, the veil has also been a very empowering symbol for muslim women in some countries. In Iran it was the sign of rebellion and rejection of the shah and Western imperialism. Amongst immigrants communities in the West, it is the symbol of an exclusive cultural space, where women are often marginalised. (Merinissi: 1994; 112-22). This complexity has been obscured in several recent attempts to ban or uphold the ban on headscarves. The European Court on Human REoights in Strasbourg has recently upheld the ban on the wearing of headscarves in class at University of Istanbul. It upheld Turkish Constitutional Courts ruling that wearing of a headscarves was in contravention of the principle of secularism and gender equality and that the upholding of such a ban did not violate rights to religious freedom and practice. One of the factors considered by the Court was the fact that there were extremist political movements in Turkey which sought to impose on society as a whole th eir religious symbols and conception of a society founded on religious (Meckled-Garcia and Cali: 2006;106) Conclusion