Cultural and Thematic factors of the two version of the film Let the Essay

Cultural and Thematic factors of the two version of the film Let the Right One in - Essay Example The theme of bullying occurs as a major one in forming the plot and in building the main characters’ friendship. The cultural aspect that is enriched by this theme is the absenteeism of a male or father figure in the boy’s life, which makes it hard for him to speak out. The result is an identity crisis with no reliable model and coming from a broken family. It is culturally wrong for a boy child especially in the years the movie is set in to confide in their mother or a woman. The twist comes in when the boy confides in the new girl and this makes their connection point. The immediate theme related to bullying is the coming-of-age of the boy and the girl (Ajvide Lindqvist & Segerberg, 2008). The boy has to take care and defend himself for the first time while the girl is forced to look for food all by herself when her benefactor â€Å"father† dies. This maturity process is culturally appropriate and their ages, early teens, are perfect for the themes exploration. The theme of gender and sexuality is explored in the film’s main characters with the remake of the film portraying a more contemporary boy-girl relationship than the original version. The rationale behind this is the difference in setting, where the original film is set in Stockholm, while the remake is set in New Mexico. A great distance exists between the two settings culturally in that the original is more conservative in terms of the relationship portrayed between the two lead acts, while the remake alludes to a more open society where gender/sexuality is not something to be ashamed of at all stages. The other cultural difference is in the setting of the movies (Wright, 2010). The theme of loneliness and identity loss occasioned by growing in an impoverished and dark kind of neighborhood comes out in the film. The original being set in Sweden manages to convey a darker neighborhood with no history, no church, and the buildings/complexes are a bit eerie. The

Bernard Montgomery Vs. Erwin Rommel Term Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Bernard Montgomery Vs. Erwin Rommel - Term Paper Example Montgomery was a fascinating organizer and an exceptional field commanding officer, whose knowledge and years of learning, writing and arranging for a forthcoming warfare distinguished him out as of his recreational colleagues as complete professional. A man of words and actions, Monty at all times spoke his thoughts, owned an inborn air of power and had a clear strength of mind to succeed which rapidly disabused those who considered that he was not capable enough. Montgomery was forever a general for soldier’s who acknowledged the vital significance of confidence and developed successful way of setting up a lasting connection of communal faith and self-assurance with his official and staff. He was an inspiring person in charge, an accomplished coach of parades and masterful diplomat, whose approval of how to carry out war below progressive circumstances made him as a rule effectual general that Britain appointed in Northwest Europe throughout World War 2. Comparatively Rommel ’s functioning in World War 1 deserve him a place in the minor post-war military of the Weimar Republic, the Reichswehr. Once more, he neither did extremely well nor was unsuccessful and would have mainly almost certainly finished his profession as a divisional or at greatest service chief officer if it wasn’t for his near affiliation with Hitler. Owing to his association he was offered authority of one of the ten divisions of Panzer that waged war and succeeded the movement in 1940 in the West in spring.

Systemic Risk and SIFI and Global Economic Crisis Essay

Systemic Risk and SIFI and Global Economic Crisis - Essay Example However, between 1940s and 1980s, there were less bank runs in USA, mainly due to tight legal framework and due to the transformed atmosphere. However, the banking tighter regulation in U.S.A not proved to be satisfactory as more than 250 banks filed insolvency petitions between 1980s and 1990s. In 1990s, Asian countries witnessed an economic turmoil as a result many banks in those regions failed. The issue started with individual bank and slowly enveloped into the whole banking system of a nation and finally impacted the creditworthiness of such nation itself. Likewise, the subprime mortgage crisis occurred in the 2007 -2008 started with U.S financial institutions and U.S banks and finally impacted many financial institutions around the world. However, bank failures or bank runs are not occurring in all the nations. For instance, there is no bank failure at all in Ireland and in Switzerland. Rochet (2008) is of the view that interferences by politicians can play a significant role i n bank runs. Many frequent bank failures and bank runs urged the need to recognise and deter financial agonies in the future well before they commence. Hence, there is a necessity to establish a well-structured supervision system in the financial sector, and it should be given authority to identify â€Å"systemic risks.† Bini Smaghi (2009) is the first to emphasise the theoretical issues of systemic risk, and the agency established for the same is to be well versed in detection of risks, evaluation of risk, and finally giving warnings about risks. (Eijffinger 2009:44). This research will make an earnest effort to elucidate w what is meant by ‘systemic risk’ and discuss the relevance of ‘systemically important financial institutions’ for policymakers and the ways and means to avoid future bank and financial institution failures. â€Å"What is Systemic Risk?† Systemic risk is a peril that is widespread in a nation or the economy as a whole and cannot be avoid ed by coalescing the assets in well-diversified and large portfolios, and it is also called as non-diversifiable risk. Systemic risk starts off in various sizes, shapes and magnitude. In some countries, systemic risk has occurred due to foreign exchange risks and economic shocks and in some other nations, it has occurred due to internal or external war or due to political instability. In between 1992 to 2002, there were about eight regional / global economic crisis happened in Europe, Asia and U.S.A. In case of banks, the systemic risk area includes forex risk and interest rate risks. The low-quality credit assets will first collapse when the systemic risks deteriorate. A portfolio approach is the need of the hour to recognise such unique and susceptible sectors and credit asset allocations, which may witness a negative effect in various economic conditions. Hence, it is essential to structure the portfolio to be fine-tuned methodologically so that the rigorousness of varying macro- economic crisis is minimised. It is to be noted that systemic risk differs from industry to industry. (Joseph 2007:242). As per G10, a systemic risk is one where an incident will activate a deprivation of confidence or diminution of economic value and may result in vagueness that would compel the major segment of the financial system to destabilize due to negative impact on the real economy. Thus, a systemic risk will have four significant ingredients namely erosion of faith, a sudden spurt of vagueness, major segment of the financial system that might be impacted and poignant negative impact on the real economy.†(Eijffinger 2010 :44).†

Arbitration and Adjudication Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Arbitration and Adjudication - Essay Example These three sets of circumstances demand specific considerations and pose their own set of problems. I would like to begin, however, by briefly outlining some important qualifications for a study of these two methods of conflict resolution. One of the most problematic issues that arise when considering the efficacy of arbitration, as compared to adjudication, is the comparative lack of detailed information regarding the involved parties. In fact, as Walter Matti remarks, "the study of the practice of international commercial arbitration is like peering into the dark" (2001, p 919). Such cases by nature tend to be far less publicised than those settled through litigation, and indeed, many of the parties - be they individuals or companies - who seek private arbitration do so precisely because they wish to avoid the risk of having private information made public. The information used to argue either for or against the inherent superiority of arbitration cannot, therefore, be considered exhaustive. At the same time, however, Matti points out that the popularity of arbitration, particularly as a means of resolving international disputes, has increased exponentially over the past thirty years (2001, p 920). Since it may be assumed that the number of cases settled through arbitration would not have increased were arbitration not an effective method of resolution, it can be reasonably concluded that an increasing number of parties find arbitration to be more appealing than adjudication as a means of resolving disputes. In addition, arbitration possesses an inherent degree of flexibility that is not present when going through the legal system: "Unlike judges in public courts, who must follow fixed rules of procedure and apply the laws of the land, arbitrators can dispense with legal formalities and may apply whatever procedural rules and substantive law best fit a case" (Matti 2001, p 920). On the other, this flexibility carries with it considerable risks. Since arbitrators are not bound by legal formalities, they may of course exploit this flexibility, to the unfair advantage a party that cannot appeal to a court for clarification or support (Bonn 1972, p 257). Although this risk is always present, there are nevertheless significant benefits to pursing arbitration. In the case of arbitration as a means of conflict resolution between private individuals, the arguments in favour of arbitration appear to be quite strong. The emotional and financial demands on both the plaintiff and the defendant are considerably reduced, the overall resolution process is conducted in a less stressful environment, and decisions are often rendered more quickly. Arbitration is routinely used as a means of settling disputes between landlords and tenants, divorcing spouses, and accident victims suing for damages (Bonn 1972, p 256). In additional the arbitration process holds additional appeal because, although it is an alternative to the court system, is not entirely cut off from the it - rather, the two systems are complementary since "the provisions of an arbitrator's award can be enforced judicially under common or statutory law" (Bonn 1972, p 256). In addition, Plaintiffs therefore have the additional security of knowing

Deforestation And Displacement Of Tribals Environmental Sciences Essay

Deforestation And Displacement Of Tribals Environmental Sciences Essay Today we are living in a globalized world where we measure everything in terms of profit and with a sole aim of development. We lead our lives even without looking back for once. This competition motive may take us to a developed, technologically advanced era, but we are losing our own lives by destroying the environment without thinking for the consequences. Environment before fifty years and the condition of today has a hell and heaven difference. In the name of development we are using all the natural resources that are available to us, and displacing indigenous people from their own land, to construct big dams, industries and urbanizing that area to get a better employment opportunity and to raise our standard of living, but we are forgetting that nature has also limitation, it is also losing its automatic cleansing capacity. People who are forced to flee from a disaster or conflict usually receive sympathetic attention and international aid from outside. The same cannot be said for the millions of people worldwide who have been displaced by development, because everyday this process is continuing in various parts of the world. The argument that has been put forth by so called developed and modern people that displacement is necessary for this traditional society to change them into a modern and developed society. Seen in this light, large-scale, capital-intensive development projects accelerated the pace toward a brighter and better future. If people were uprooted along the way, that was deemed a necessary evil or even an actual good, since it made them more susceptible to change.  In recent decades, however, a new development paradigm has been articulated, one that promotes poverty reduction, environmental protection, social justice, and human rights. In this paradigm, development is seen as both bringing benefits and imposing costs. Among its greatest costs has been the displacement of millions of vulnerable people. If people have to push out from thei r place for any natural disaster then media come out with various reports but when people are displaced everyday for any mega projects then nobody shows sympathy to them. Odisha is a State which is the best example of how developmental projects exploiting innocent people and in the light of human rights these developmental projects are showing the way towards destruction. A state gifted with rich mineral resources, yet so poor, Plenty of resources, plenty of poverty too, why Orissa is so poor with so much abundant natural resources? Orissas poverty unexplainable, these are among the most talked about statements on Orissa. A summary of the standard and typical statements and interpretations on the state and its situations would suggest that the State of Orissa is endowed with plenty of natural resources like forests, inland water, mineral deposits, raw materials, very beautiful long coastal belt full of natural beauty and amazing lake like chiliki, which the most essential elements required for pursuing the goal of modern development. Its long coastline combined with potentially viable ports inspires for developing Special Economic Zones (SEZ) and turning Orissa into one of the most industrially developed states. Planners, developers, and Government, all are tensed that even after all these mega projects and natural beauty, Odisha is still poor and peo ple are compelled to starve. Surveyors and researchers point out that the State has come one-step down from an All India rank of 14th in 1960-61 to that of 13th in 1997-98 in terms of Industrialization. The poverty ratio of the state is still one of the highest in the country. The state is generally taken as a poor, traditional, backward and non- industrial State and it is suggested that there is no way out to deal with the problems of poverty unless a process of rapid industrialization is initiated. However the Government is using big capitalist to make noticeable change in the State by investing multi-dollar projects in various areas where natural resources are easily available. The entire mineral, forest, water, and fertile agricultural land are handed over to national and multinational corporations to ruthlessly loot the state and pauperize local populations. Today Odisha is the symbol of starvation deaths, farmers suicides, large-scale labour migration, destitution and poverty. Its own rulers are throwing away the natural resources to the multinational sharks for their super profit. But Odisha also has become the beacon of hope for the struggling workers and peasants of this country in their heroic struggle against the predatory mining and industrialization of the state uprooting the toilers of the soil. Massive peoples resistance is going along the length and breadth of the state. Some prominent ones are Kalinga Nagar, Niyamgiri, anti-POSCO (Korean Steel Company), and anti- Vedanta University peoples struggles. CHAPTER-2 AN OVERVIEW Since Independence, different rulers in Odisha have sold the mineral resources cheap, and have given very low priority to agriculture, which has resulted in a phenomenal drain of mineral wealth and absolute impoverishment of broad masses of Oriya people. Even after more than sixty years of Independence the social indicators is leading the country in chronic poverty and starvation deaths, massive labour migration, displacement, under-nutrition, high maternal and infant mortality rate, etc. Though Odisha is very rich in natural resources like land forest, and minerals, its indices in human development are very low, in fact the lowest in India. (Source- www.HYPERLINK http://www.mapsofindia.com/mapsHYPERLINK http://www.mapsofindia.com/ofindia.com) There are thirty districts in Odisha and the districts are divided in to various mining zones by the State Pollution Board according to the mining sector and its impact on environment. These are, Zone-1 Keonjhar, Sundergarh Iron Manganese ore area Zone-2 Angul Talcher coalfield area. Zone-3 Sambalpur, Jharsuguda coalfield area. Zone-4, Jajpur,Dhenkanal Keonjhar Chromite area. Zone-5 Koraput Rayagada Kalahandi Bauxite area. Zone-6 Biramitrapur Limestone Dolomite belt Zone-7 Baula-Nuasahi chromite belt of Keonjhar and adjacent Balasore district. Zone-8 Gandhamardhan adjacent areas of iron ore in Keonjhar Zone-9 Mayurbhanj district, Iron ore China clay area. Zone-10 Beach sand mining area of Ganjam district and adjacent Puri district. Zone-11 Tumudibandh (Gangam, Gajapati and adjacent areas)- Graphite area Zone-12 Bolangir-Baragarh areas- Bauxite and Graphite Zone-13 Kalahandi district around Titlagarh- Graphite, Quartzite and Gemsstones Zone-14 Boudh, Sonepur Phulbani area- Small deposits of bauxite and graphite, but potential area for coal, diamond, gold, gemstones and dimensional stones Zone-15 Cuttack adjacent Dhenkanal areas Khurda district Zone-16 Western Orissa, Malkalgiri Nawarangapur, Nuapara district- Good potential for limestone dolomite, China clay, iron ore, tin ores, bauxite, besides gold, diamond, graphite, gemstones and dimensional stones While talking about mines and ores Odisha has 60% of bauxite reserve, 25% coal, 28% iron, 92% nickel, and 28% manganese reserve in India. It has rich forests, agricultural land and a long coastline with the most beautiful beaches in the world like Chandipur. The most important thing is that Odisha is a State where all type of natural resources are available, so the State can be used and developed for tourists and it can earn huge amount of money out of tourism, but regretfully the available mines and ores are being used for industrial establishment in the name of development and the tourism side has been neglected by the Government since a long. Perhaps this is the reason that the State is poor and its resources are neither used by good purposes and in a proper way, but are only exploited by the multi-dollar companies. It is one of the poorest states in India in a wide variety of socio-economic indicators. It has the lowest per capita income and very high below poverty level compared to all-India average. Odishas Human Development Index compared with other states is 27. Inspite of various mega projects that have been taken by the Government, the number people below poverty line and unemployment is increasing, the annual rate of growth in the year 1993 94 to 2003-04 was 1.75% compared to the all India grant of 6.19%. The National Infrastructure Index was 107, while for Odisha it was 75. The development policy pursued by successive government in Odisha after Independence produced massive poverty and displacement in Odisha. The National Advisory Council estimates 90 lakh people have been displaced from different development projects in Odisha. CHAPTER-3 MINING OPERATION AND MAGNITUDE OF DISPLACEMENT Mining and displacement caused by mega projects like big dams and senseless industrialization is one of the most important factors in the present predicament of Odisha. Mining is a very large factor in large-scale deforestation in Odisha. From 1980 to 2005 the Government of Odisha has given permission for mining in 15,386 hectares of forestland. Odishas contribution is second in India regarding the income from mining sector in India. According to the Indian Bureau of Mines (IBM) in the year 2004-2005 out of the total minerals extracted, 10% was from Odisha, the market price of which was Rs. 5,820 crores at that time. Metals comprise the main component in the mineral extraction in Odisha. There have been a lot of changes in the mining sector in Odisha. If one takes into account the data shows that the market price of 1997-98, it has increased three times. In 1997-98 the price of total minerals extracted in Odisha  was Rs. 2,237 crores. From 1997-98 to 2001-02 it grew by 6%, but from year 2002-03 it grew at a phenomenal rate by 27%. The reason being globalized modern market and the growing investment sector, which plays a vital role in this regard. According to income from minerals, Odishas main two mineral resources are coal and iron ore. In the year 2004-05 the income from coal was 46%, and 35% from iron or other main minerals one chromite 12%, and the other bauxite 2%. Due to stiff resistance in bauxite mining areas like Kashipur, Niyamgiri and Gandhmardhan, exploitation of bauxite is not high in Odisha until Nalco bauxite mining and alumina complex was established in early 1980s. In Panchpatmalli which is in Koraput district, the local Adivasis (tribals) are resisting bauxite mining by Hindalco Company and others. According to IBM, Odisha had also extracted minor minerals worth 45 crore US dollars in the year 2004-05. By the year 2004-05 mineral extraction was in done in 99,952 hectares. In the year 2005, 605 leases were granted in Odisha  for mining, out of which around 45% was not functional. Odisha  Mining Corporation controls around 20% of mines. Most of the districts, except Jajpur and Angul, are predominantly trib al; they have been evicted from their traditional habitats through predatory mining. Mining is one of the major reasons for the displacement of Adivasis but they are putting up stiff resistance to mining in Niyamgiri, Deomali, Khandadhar, Kashipur and Keonjhar as they donot want to be displaced from their soil where they are residing since time immemorial. Apart from that mining has caused widespread deforestation, soil erosion and degradation, and drying up of water sources. The mining trade is extremely exploitative and messy in Odisha, where successive rulers of Odisha have given mines to national and international big capital at a throw away price. After the economic reforms in 1991, the process has accelerated, and various policies and sector specific policies have been proving as catalyst for these big companies to start partnership and to inaugurate their projects. For bauxite and manganese minerals, the Government of Odisha  gets royalty from Rs. 20 to 25 a tonne, while the international price is about Rs. 3,000 to Rs. 5,000 per tonne. Khandadhar iron ore mines, which will displace about 30 villages, are being given as   captive mines to POSCO who will make super profit only from mining, apart from its steel plant at Jagatsinghpur. POSCO is facing stiff resistance from both these places. Displacement A conservative estimate puts the number of displaced people from Independence to the end of the millennium at about   1 crore. It is one-fourth of the present population of Odisha.   Almost 80% of the people displaced are Adivasis and Dalits because where they live, the natural resources are also available in plenty of amount in those hilly areas. It is shocking but true that most of the displacement took place in the areas of Adivasi districts of west and south Odisha, including districts like Sundergarh, Keonjhar and Mayurbhanj, which are predominantly Adivasi districts, where most of the large dams, mines and factories are located. The following Table shows the amount of land and village lost due to mega projects. Type of project No of villages displaced/ affected No of families displaced/ affected Total land acquired (in hectare) mines 79 3143 10,947.00 industries 177 10704 48,358.00 Thermal power 73 2426 3155.31 Irrigation/hydro power 1181 64903 595918.6 total 1446 81176 623463.94 (Source Kundan Kumar Dispossessed and displaced: A brief paper on tribal issues in Orissa. epgorissa.orgApril 2007.) The large dam at Hirakud on Mahanadi River was the first mega development project in post-independent Odisha,   which submerged more than 1.53 lakhs of fertile agricultural land and displaced around 350 villages in the then districts of Sambalpur. Nobody knows their fate now. The undivided district of Koraput is the tragic story of tribal displacement and destitution in India. The Adivasis like kandhas, bandas and kolhas of Koraput, who were once the lords of the forests, now work as casual and manual labourers in different industrial centres and their wives work as maid servants. First they were displaced in the Kolab and Machkund dams, and Hindustan Aeronautics Limited at Sunabeda in the 1960s and again in Nalco Alumina Refinery and mines at Damanjodi and Indravati Dam in the 1980s and 1990s. Rourkela Steel Plant displaced hundreds of Adivasi villages in Sundergarh district in the early decades after independence; Rengali Dam displaced more than 250 villages in then undivided Sam balpur and Dhekanal districts. It was supposed to be a multipurpose dam, after spending thousands of crores and displacing lakhs of farmers it could irrigate only 10% of the proposed command area. After 1990s,   thousands of acres of Adivasi land were acquired for setting up the steel hub at Kalinga Nagar. Vedanta Aluminium Limited has displaced scores of villages in Lanjigarh Block to set up the alumina refinery polluting and poisoning the entire area which has an adverse impact on local agriculture. Thousands of acres of fertile land all over the state were acquired for thermal power stations and other projects. People of Baliapal fought against the national missile testing range in the 1980s and successfully stopped it, thus preventing the displacement of hundreds of prosperous villages. People of Gopalpur in Ganjam district under the banner of Gana Sangram Samity fought a heroic battle against TATAs in 1990 and successfully stalled it, though TATAs still have 3,500 acres in th eir possession. In the early 1990s the fishermen of Chilka fought against the privatization of Chilka Lake for industrial shrimp cultivation. After economic liberalization, the successive governments of Odisha  have signed hundreds of memorandum of Understanding (MoUs) with national and international corporate houses. 43 MoUs have been signed for steel plants alone, which will require 4,013 million tons of iron ore for a total installed capacity to produce 58.04 million tons of steel. Decades of destructive development projects have totally pauperized and dispossessed the rural poor in Odisha, overwhelmingly the Adivasis and Dalits. It has deprived them of  land, water and forests. Without any sources of gainful employment in their own villages, they migrate to other states to work as contract and casual labourers. The loss of agricultural land and drying up of water sources has endangered the food security of the rural poor. The Donghria Kondhs are resisting bauxite mining by Vedanta in Niyamgiri hills. The farmers of Dhinkia, Gobindpur, Patna and Nuagaon are fighting against the TATAS proposed steel plant by POSCO in Jagatsinghpur district under the banner of POSCO Pratirodh Sangram Samity. In Kalinga Nagar, the Adivasis under the banner of Visthapan Virodhi Janmanch have put up a heroic resistance against the TATAs proposed steel plant. The adivasis under the banner of Vishthapan Viredhi Janmanch have put up a heroic against the TATAs proposed steel plant. The Adivasis of Kashipur are fighting against bauxite mining and alumina refinery for the past 15 years under the banner of Prakrutik Sampad Suraksha Samity. There is a struggle going on against bauxite mines in Deomali in Koraput district, and also against displacement caused by a big dam at lower Sukhtel in Bolangir district. The Adivasis in Narayan Patna Block in Koraput district are fighting against  bondage and alienation of their land. To keep the situation under control Odisha Government often using illegal detention as a weapon and in some instances are there where police has fired bullets in extreme conditions and killed Adivasis on the spot. For example the police fired on the peaceful crowd in Maikanch, in Kashipur Block of Rayagada district and killed 3 people who were protesting against Utkal Alumina in Kashipur. It has detained scores of activists of Kashipur struggle for months on false criminal charges. Since the past six months inhuman combing operations are going on in Narayan Patna where the cobra, central paramilitary forces and state armed police go on demolishing Adivasi homes, sexually assaulting Adivasi women, destroying their household belongings and brutally beating up the male members. What we are witnessing in Odisha and other places in India is a kind of revolutions generated by tribals demanding the protection of their rights and which ends in blood and dead-bodies. The Government of India has launched Operation Green Hunt to handover the rich mines, forests, water resources and agricultural land to national and international corporate houses. Operation Green Hunt seeks to open up mineral resources for appropriation and plunder. As per the Ministry of Mines, the states that fall under the proposed area of Operation Green Hunt, Andhra Pradesh Chhatisgarh, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha and Bengal, account for 59% of the countrys mineral production. In the period 2006-2009 environmental clearance was given to 120 projects to either expand existing or to open new mines in Jharkhand and Odisha. These mineral rich areas are home to the poorest of the poor and mostly Adivasis and Dalits. The state has launched a brutal repression to suppress all the democratic move ments which oppose handing over their land, water and forests to profit-hungry corporations. But the peasants, workers and Adivasis of Odisha have refused to buckle under state pressure; they have put up stiff resistance to corporate plunder and forcible eviction all over the state. Niyamgiri, Jagatsinghpur and Kalinga Nagar have become advanced outposts of anti-imperialist resistance. CHAPTER-4 IMPACT OF MINING AND SPECIAL FOCUS ON ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES The exploitation of mineral resources through surface and underground  mining has in the past caused a wide range of environmental  problems such as health degradation, air, water and noise pollution,  decline in agricultural production, deforestation, displacement  and other socio-economic impacts. However, over the past number  of years, stakeholders in the industry have been striving to  avoid and mitigate the potential detrimental effects of mining  on fragile ecosystems and local communities. Governments are   increasingly formulating and adopting policies to ensure the  sustainable development of their countrys mining industry  and mining companies are striving to be better environmental  citizens. Environmental groups have become increasingly involved  in mining disputes. However, a lot has to be achieved to ensure  mining in carried out in a sustainable way.   There are various problems which arise due to mining sectors. Such as, Adverse impact on Land, Atmosphere, Water Regime, Ecology and Society. Increase in temperature in the area- due to industrial activity and decrease in vegetation. Drilling and blasting contribute to explosive fumes. Changes in surface and ground water regime. Pollution of surface water bodies Run off from mines Leaching from dumps Noise pollution due to blasting and subsequent vibration drives away wild animals. The present Government minomics is resulting in decreasing in breeding of various aquatic animals, such as crocodiles and the Olive Reedley tortoises. Mining operations cut off the corridors and results in elephants deaths and most of the time men-elephant conflicts. The mining companies must be asked to regulate blasting time which is ideally 9a.m. to 11 a.m. but very sadly these are not being implemented by the State Government. The ground water is polluted and all the rivers have lost their natural cleansing systems. Various operational methods like drilling, blasting, hauling, loading, transporting, crushing causes noise and air pollution by fugitive emissions of gases like methane, sulphur dioxide, nitrogen oxides and carbon monoxide and it ultimately results in Green house gas effect and acid rain fall. The water is used for spraying haul roads; therefore it leads to excess exploitation of ground water resources. Run-off water causes water pollution leading to harm to the aquat ic animals and sea plants. To mitigate the problem, the Environmental action plan should be regulated which include Domestic Effluent Treatment Plant, Workshop effluent treatment plant, Mine Water Discharge Sedimentation plant, Dust Suppression majors, tree plantation, and spreading for Bio reclamation and environmental monitoring. It also leads to climate change and the bio diversity areas of Odisha is being adversely affected by the mining operations. Never before have had wild animals and habitat faced the kind of threat they face today and just as dangerous is the threat to the survival of species from habitat destruction. Ecological destruction due to lopsided development projects and organized poaching has threatened the very existence of the species. The current paradigm of development has resulted not only in the depletion of natural resources of the state, but also threatens to wipe out irreplaceable ecosystems. According to reports, more than 100 open cast iron ore mines c overing over 60,000 hectares of land area is in operation and maximum area is under illegal operation within Keonjhar forest division. Orissas Baitarani Elephant Reserves (ERs) in Keonjhar and Jharkhands Dalma wildlife sanctuary of Singhbhum ERs, both corridors have been virtually cut-off because of the mining activities. The Schedule-I Gharial crocodile is also under threat. The sensitive crocodiles are fast vanishing from the river systems of the country. The ground water experts and Odishas Pollution Control Board scientists have declared the alarming situation. According to the wildlife conservation strategy, 2002, lands falling within 10 kms of the boundaries of national parks and sanctuaries should be notified as ESAs under provisions of Environment Protection Act, 1986. Acting on the orders of the apex court, the ministry of Environment and Forests had written to all states in 2006 to identify such areas. Declaration of such areas surrounding protected areas is vital in order to safeguard the interests of wildlife by preventing disturbing activities like mining or industries being located close to their borders. CHPTER-5 HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATION OF DISPLACED PEOPLE Out of 414 principal tribes found in the country, as many as 62 ethnic groups are found in the old hilly districts of Oridha. Statistical figures say, till 2000, about 29 lakh people have been directly affected by development projects. Their problems are uncountable and some of them are as follows, Common property turns into State property or you can say, nature turns into property. No compensation could be adequate for them, who have lost their culture, monuments, art and natural habitats and togetherness and kinship. Impediments towards rights to development. It also leads to child labour and child prostitution in that area. People run out from their State and work as daily labour in other State and people exploit them very easily, because these people are very simple in nature and they do not know how to survive in this complicated outside world. It also leads to health problems. Right to healthy environment is or constitutional right.. but vety sadly I can say that due to poison gas emissions and the metals that mix with water it leads to dangerous diseases, sometimes causes serious impact on children and women. It also raises temperature in air. Since last 10 years Odisha is facing this problem. One of the area called titlagarh in Bolangir district where the temperature rises to 50 degree centigrade in hot summer. Human rights watchdog Amnesty International alleged that the government and Vedanta had failed to protect Orissas indigenous communities from health hazards of mining, but the mining major hit back saying the claims were based on an outdated document. It also alleged that the 8,000 strong community, mainly adivasis (tribals) in Orissas Lanjigarh suffered violations of human rights to water and health, due to pollution by Vedantas aluminium refinery. Vedanta Aluminium Ltds alumina refinery has led to water and air pollution, seriously undermining the quality of life and threatening the health of nearby communities, some of whom live only a few hundred yards from the refinerys boundary walls. The Amnesty report said that it also alleged that the Centre failed to obtain free, prior and informed consent of the Dongria Kondh people living in forests of Niyamgiri Hills before approving this project.The Centre, on its part, said it is yet to receive the Amnestys report and as such, a new Act (the Mines and Minerals Development and Regulation Act) is on the anvil to take care of issues, including tribal rights and welfare.Reacting to the report, Vedanta said: The majority of the report is based on an outdated document which was subjected to intense scrutiny by the Supreme Court.The firm claimed that it offered for joint verification of allegations in eight villages, and dialogue on every aspect of the report but it was rejected. CHAPTER-6 CASE ANALYSIS AND NATIONAL AND SECTOR SPECIFIC POLICY Kalinga Nagar situation The situation is real shape of a beast. Kalinga nagar in Jajpur district, the activists from the Visthapan Virodhi Jana Manch clashed with the supporters of the upcoming Tata Steel Project. And the activists were attacked with traditional weapons and police have deployed platoons at the site to prevent any further incidents. The SP and DM acted there as pro-Tata people, they turned priest for Tats bhumi puja and officially resumes the construction work that had stopped after 2nd January,2006 massacre. The work has been done on the area where people were displaced and not accepted the rehabilitation and resettlement package. A crowd of women stood and protested but the media came up with the news very shamelessly that those tribal women welcomed and did bhumi puja for Tata. Since the past three months a reign of terror has been unleashed in Kalinga Nagar. The people there have been peacefully agitating against the construction of an approach road. Instead of negotiating with the peopl e, the state government has reacted with brutal force. There has been a virtual blockade in Kalinga Nagar for the past few months. 29 platoons of armed police, 2 platoons of NSG, 70 police officers and 7 magistrates were deployed in Kalinga Nagar a week before the police brutally fired on peacefully agitating men, women and children. On 28thMarch 2010 the District Collector of Jajpur told the people of Kalinga Nagar that the district administration is willing for a negotiated settlement of the issues raised by them. However, shockingly on 30th  morning the police forces entered the village of Baligotha and started to fire indiscriminately on unarmed men, women and children. More than 30 villagers were injured; 7 of them are still battling for life. This explains how brutal force is used in Odisha to evict people from their habitat and handover mineral rich areas including fertile agricultural land to national and international big businesses. For the past few years hundreds of peo ple have been arrested in Kalinga Nagar, Jagatsinghpur and Narayan Patna on false criminal charges. This anti-people white terror is perpetrated on the peasants, workers, Adivasis and Dalits of Odisha to handover thousands of acres of fertile land, water and forests to the profit-hungry corporations displacing millions from their homes and habitat. Vedanta and illegal expansion Niyamgiri Hill is located in the Lanjigarh block of Kalahandi district. It is a scheduled V area, and is inhabited by Dongaria Kondhs, a primitive tribal group. Niyamgiri hills belong to the Eastern Ghats, and in-situ reserves of metallurgical grade bauxite have been reported from this area. More than 75% of  the Niyamgiri hills landmass is covered with dense forests and it is one of the biodiversity hotspots of Eastern Ghats. The northernmost hill of this hill country is proposed to be mined by Vedanta Alumina Ltd. who is also setting up an alumina refinery at the bottom of the hill by displacing local Kondh tribals.  The proposed mining and refinery has led to local and tribal people resistance as well as opposition by environmentalists. A case against the Vedanta Alumina Ltd. was filed  in the Supreme Court, where the petitioners have indicated that massive irregularities have taken place in the proposed project, especially on the environmental aspects along with human right s violations. The Central Empowered Committee of the Supreme Court strongly recommended that the Niyamgiri shouldnt be allowed to be mined on environmental and biodiversity grounds. Unfortunately, the Supreme Court overruled the recommendations of its own Central Empowered Committee and decided to allow Vedanta to carry out mining on Niyamgiri. At present, Vedanta is awaiting the final clearance for mining the Niyamgiri from Ministry of Environment and Forests, Government of India. Meanwhile on ground the local tribals, including the Dongaria Kondhs have vowed to oppose the mining of Niyamgiri at all costs. The working process continues till March 2010, but Vedanta could not start mining on Niyamgiri due to strong oppositions by tribal peoples. Recently, a committee of the Ministry of Environment and Forest, Government of India has submitted detailed reports documenting violation of environmental and forest laws by Vedanta which says that Vedanta has violated Forest Rights Act, with out taking consideration of the tribal rights and environmental aspects in to account and started work on the p

Pulp Fiction By Quentin Tarantino | Analysis

Pulp Fiction By Quentin Tarantino | Analysis If you take no pleasure in popular culture, with all its manic excesses, then you are likely to be bewildered and even offended, by Quentin Tarantinos extraordinary film, Pulp Fiction. Tarantino unapologetically enjoys popular culture at the same time that he satirizes it. Unfortunately, he also seems to specialize in violence. Still, taken on its own terms, Pulp Fiction is a rare accomplishment; it opens a new aesthetic horizon in film. Like Van Goghs sunflowers, the ordinary suddenly takes on a striking vibrancy; from the dazzling title colors on, it is easy to recognize the artist, but almost impossible to imagine how one could imitate him. Tarantino, a one-time video store clerk, now the hottest director in Hollywood, has memory banks packed with movies and he draws on some of the most ordinary to create something brilliantly original. This is no experimental film of intellectual pretensions and high-brow obscurantism. Pulp Fiction has built a cult following, even as its mother-f reaking language and graphic violence offends others. Violence in film is a serious matter, and for some people an inexcusable offense. They can see no justification for the scene in which John Travoltas character accidentally blows a young mans brains out. Even worse for those concerned about film violence, most of the audience laughed despite the spatter of blood and brain tissue and with spontaneous amusement, not the nervous hysteria often heard at horror films. The violence of Pulp Fiction is essential to its aesthetic; though he knew that many would complain, Tarantino meant the audience to laugh. Deliberately violating the conventions of action-violence films, Tarantino re-imagines stylized moments of violence and exaggerates them until they are almost surrealistic. Then he creates dialogue that leads up to the violence and then away from it. When most directors would be building tension and suspense, Tarantino has his killers chatting. When most directors would cut away from the violence, Tarantino stays with the aftermath. And he has achieved something I would have thought impossible; he has made violence humorous by doing it tongue-in-cheek and the tongue has a stud in it. Tarantinos film garnered top honors at the Cannes Film Festival but will probably pay for its punkness at the Oscars. Its box office success, however, should comfort the many aspiring Hollywood directors who dream of doing something different. But they will not find it easy to follow in Tarantinos tracks. His film is put together with touch, spin, and nuance, and then goes off in your face like a letter bomb. What Tarantino has crafted in this film can be best appreciated in the performance he has extracted from John Travolta. In 1977, Travolta gave his unforgettable portrayal of the cock-of-the-walk dancer in Saturday Night Fever. Far from a natural dancer, he nonetheless gave a heart-winning performance. Ever since then, he has been fighting the battle of the bulge and trying with less and less success to prove that he can act. One might have concluded that he was too old, too fat, and too far over the hill for Pulp Fiction. But it turns out that he is brilliantly cast in the film; everything wrong about him is right for this part. In his early-forties he still has a teenagers winning vulnerability. His broad mouth and high cheek bones are now bejowled but there is still a promise of sensuality in that ruined face. His appealing and familiar presence brings just the feel of movie nostalgia Tarantino wanted. Travolta plays a laid back, get-along kind of guy who is living a depraved and drug-addicted life as a paid killer, but has an astonishingly innocent soul, as do most of Tarantinos low-life characters. This innocence in depravity is Pulp Fictions central theme. It keeps the film from being an exercise in sado-masochistic perversity; it is the source of its humor and its creative energy. The film title Pulp Fiction harks back to the 30s and 40s when newsstands featured an array of monthly short story magazines. Among the most popular were those about hard-nosed private investigators. Written by such authors as Dashiell Hammet, Raymond Chandler, and James M. Cain, these stories were the forerunners of dark, city crime movies that became film noir. Pulp fiction stories typically began in the front of the magazine, competing for the readers attention, and were then continued in the back. Tarantino, though not old enough to remember this genre of pulp fiction, has put his film together as if he had that structure in mind. We begin with one short story: a hopped-up British couple (Amanda Plummer and Tim Roth) deciding to rob the coffee shop where they are having breakfast. Before they do, we turn the page a dark screen to the next story of Travolta and Jackson going off to retrieve a mysterious briefcase and to kill some drug dealers who didnt pay off their boss. Then another dark screen to the childhood of the Bruce Willis character who grows up to be the boxer who refuses to throw the fight. Unlike the old pulp fiction magazines, the triptych of stories eventually comes together as the seemingly disparate plots are interwoven by coincidence and by Tarantinos central theme. Because the film is set in Los Angeles, its anthology structure may of course owe much more to Robert Altmans Shortcuts or to his brilliant Nashville than to pulp fiction magazines. But Tarantinos borrowings are no defect. He is winking at his audience; he wants them to be aware of his references. The more they recognize the more they will enjoy the texture of his tapestry. It is because John Travolta carries so much baggage that he is so wonderful in this film. Moreover, everything Tarantino borrows is a clichà © that has been given an original spin. Pulp Fiction takes the dead genre of film noir and gives it new life. Finally, Tarantinos startling humor takes his film beyond anything he has drawn from others. Tarantinos interweaving of his three stories complicates the linear time structure of each plot. The most surprising result is that the Travolta character is killed only to reappear in the final scene of the movie, which took place earlier and is presented out of sequence. Once you figure out the puzzle, it becomes clear that Tarantino is playing with convention rather than rejecting or deconstructing it. Tarantinos entire film is playful, but he is playing with the imaginary world of film, not with reality itself. There can be no doubt that the self-taught Tarantino intends to shock his audience. The many scenes of graphic violence testify to that. European film-makers are concerned that violence in American film is pornography that appeals to the lowest common denominator and, like American fast food, is destroying the taste for better things. Some psychologists believe that film and TV violence teach Americas young people to be violent, or at the very least, inure them to real-life violence. Perhaps most troubling is the idea that graphic violence, like pornography, exploits an appetite in our basest instincts that degrades rather than edifies. Many people are refusing to see this film and a surprising number of my middle-aged friends report that their teenage children love it but have warned them they will hate the film. These reactions to the violence are too important to be dismissed, but I do not believe that Tarantino has dismissed them. His film exploits violence but as the jury at Can nes recognized he is neither lacking in moral sensibility nor, even though he wallows in popular culture, is he a Philistine. If violence is a form of pornography, then like pornography it presents the same problem of line-drawing between exploiting our passions and edifying them. But as our modern courts have recognized, it is necessary to go beyond that simple categorical distinction and ask whether an admittedly exploitive work of art has redeeming social value. When Shakespeare wrote Hamlet and King Lear, he intended to exploit his audiences violent passions as well as to edify them. There is, after all, a great deal of violence, even graphic violence, in Lear remember out vile jelly as Cornwall gouges out Gloucesters eyes on stage. The greatest works of Western Civilization mock those who count graphic violence as ipso facto unredeemable exploitation. This is not to say that Tarantino intends to redeem the violence; if anything, he seems to be mocking the arbiters of good taste with his wicked humor. This is most blatant, not in the scenes of violence, but in the quirky introduction to the Bruce Willis/boxer story. Christopher Walken, an actor who will be remembered for his Oscar-winning performance in Deer Hunter (a Vietnam war-film), makes a brief appearance in Pulp Fiction as a former Vietnam POW. He has come to deliver his dead cellmates gold watch to the young boy who never knew his father. The Walken character begins to tell the boy what happened to his father in standard heroic pulp fiction rhetoric, but then veers perversely into a description of the intestinal orifice where the father hid the watch, and the intestinal disorders that complicated its concealment. It is an account that no sane adult would give a child and a scene right out of a graffiti imagination. Other directors are capable of imagining such graffiti, but Tarantino was brash enough to keep it in his film. Like all toilet graffiti it can be understood as an example of adolescent bad taste and Tarantino knows that. It is gross, it is inappropriate, it is irreverent, and one can understand why the younger generation would be warning off their fuddy-duddy parents. Yet even this heavy-handed moment belongs in the film. The scene begins as a patriotic-die-for-your-country clichà © in which the reality of how the gold watch survived would have been unimagined. Tarantinos script takes up the challenge of an explanation and as he veers into scatology, he gives the finger to the false norm of noble death in all such war clichà ©s. But Tarantino is interested less in making an anti-war gesture than in doing a send-up of a movie clichà ©. Similarly, this is not an anti-violence film . It is a send up of movie violence. One astute teenage critic remarked that Tarantino learned something from his first film, Reservoir Dogs. All the guys in her high school loved the macho violence but there was not much in this male-oriented film for her and her female friends. Despite its violence and male orientation, Pulp Fiction has something for the female gender, particularly the scenes between Travolta and Uma Thurman. This teenage critic and her girl friends especially enjoyed the episode in which the Travolta character is required to entertain the black crime boss white wife (Uma Thurman). The previous man charged with this task had given her a foot massage; the boss took umbrage and had the massager thrown out of a four-story window. The Travolta-Thurman episode quickly turns into an over-the-top parody of a blind date. Travolta prepares himself by going to his drug dealer for a batch of the ultimate hit a mixture of cocaine and heroin that only a seasoned addict could tolerate. Travolta mainlines the stuff the way a nervous guy might take a drink to boost his confidence before a date. Meanwhile, Uma Thurman is sniffing cocaine, not because shes uneasy, but because she is a man-eater whetting her appetite. Thurman takes Travolta to a dance contest where they do the twist, to the delight of Saturday Night Fever fans. Tarantinos elaborate set features vintage 50s convertibles as booths, pop culture look-alikes as servers, top-of-the-charts music, all of it so extravagant in its evocation of nostalgia as to be unreal. The scene is somehow true to the spirit of Pulp Fiction, a film that parodies popular culture without ever condescending to those who take pleasure in it. The Travolta/Thurman blind date has clever dialogue, the twist is a trip, and the sexual tension escalates as they tango back into her home at the end of the evening. But while Travolta is in the toilet (it turns out he is always in the toilet at critical moments) Thurman finds his drug stash, snorts it, and overdoses. Instead of a sexual conclusion, the evening ends with a slapstick resuscitation involving a huge syringe stuck in her sternum. In this funny and surreal scene it becomes clear that Travolta and his low-life friends are playing overaged adolescents. Indeed the whole film has the spirit, energy, and sensibility of adolescence. No wonder teenagers love it. Although Tarantino wants to shock us with violence, his film is politically correct. There is no nudity and no violence directed against women; in fact a man, the crime boss, gets raped and the only essentially evil people in the film are two sadistic honkies straight out of Deliverance who do the raping. The film celebrates interracial friendship and cultural diversity; there are strong women and strong black men, and the director swims against the current of class stereotype. It is the British couple who, out of place in Los Angeles in the very first scene, fill the sound track with British-accented mother fuckers. Amanda Plummer, who was born to play Ophelia, does a crazed Honey Bunny to Tim Roths Pumpkin. They are two waifs holding hands in the storm of their strung-outness on drugs and their hare-brained career of sticking up liquor stores. The juxtaposition of their lost teddy bear attachment to each other with their nervous trigger-finger desperation establishes Tarantinos tone of innocence in depravity. Samuel Jackson, who will best be remembered as the drug-addicted older brother in Spike Lees Jungle Fever, sustains that tone as Travoltas hit-man partner. His presence on the screen is a match for Travolta; he has a face that looks different in every camera angle and he radiates strength. These professional killers engage first in an earnest discussion about the European nomenclature of American fast foods and then a subtle analysis of the sexual si gnificance of the foot massage as they make their way to the apartment where they will kill three men. The Jackson character miraculously eludes a point-blank fusillade of bullets. As they leave, they debate whether he was saved by divine intervention or simple luck. Jackson, who quotes from Ezekiel to spellbinding effect when he kills people, suddenly understands his Biblical text in a quite different way. As it turns out, his life and perhaps if it is possible for a killer his soul will be saved by this epiphany. This theme of redemption is present in each of the three stories. Willis as Butch the boxer rescues his would-be killer, the black crime boss, from the honkey rapists. Butch, who was to be their next victim, has the opportunity to escape, but goes back. Redeemed by this act of solidarity, he is forgiven by the crime boss for not throwing the fight and is sent on his way. The British couple are also saved. They try to rob Jackson who has ended up in the restaurant where the film began. He has drawn his gun under the table and could easily blow them both away. Instead, in the spirit of justice and honor that prevails among the low-lifes in this film, Jackson does the right thing. He stares the amateur criminals down, letting them take his own money but not the mysterious briefcase that he is dutifully returning to the crime boss. We believe that the strung-out British couple are capable of a killing rampage in the restaurant Amanda Plummer is a remarkable sight standing on a restaurant table screaming obscenities and waving a Saturday-night special. We also know that the day before Jackson would have killed them without blinking an eye, and that he will have to kill them today if they try to take the boss briefcase. Instead Jackson sends the couple peacefully out of the restaurant clutching each other and a trash bag filled with stolen money. But the best scenes involve Jackson and Travolta. When they are not killing, they are like college sophomores, one black, one white both amateur philosophers eager to share their ideas and experiences. Tarantinos ingenious dialogue humanizes their homocidal partnership. The improbable juxtaposition of their earnest dialogue and the violence is the stylistic twist that allows us to laugh at the spatter of brains and blood in the backseat of their car. Travolta reacts like a teenager unjustly blamed by his buddy for accidentally spilling the beer. And like children of over-indulgent parents, they have no idea how to clean up the mess. Yes, they seem oblivious to the fact that a person has been killed. In that light their conversation is ludicrous. But this absurd dialogue unexpectedly transforms the meaning of the violence clichà ©. If Tarantino wanted to defend his film, this is where he could make his strongest arguments. Pulp Fiction unmasks the macho myth by making it laughable and deheroicizes the power trip glorified by standard Hollywood violence. But Tarantino is irreverent, not didactic. He goes from Road-Runner cartoon-violence humor in the Bruce Willis segment to whips and chain homosexual rape that silences the laughter. Tarantino will stop at nothing and yet never loses control. He dives into a nightmare and comes up with something funny, taking his audience up and down with him. Though Tarantino thinks his screenplay is funny, and would be disappointed if no one laughed, he doesnt consider Pulp Fiction a comedy. He is quite right; but if you dont get the studded tongue-in-cheek humor, you may not li ke this extraordinary movie.

Reflective Paper Essay

Mathematics for Elementary Teachers is a two- part course designed to prepare potential educators the mathematical concepts need to teach to elementary schools students K-8. The two-part course also addresses the relationship concepts to the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics Standards for K-8 instruction (Billstein, Libeskind & Lott, 2010). This semester, which presented the second half the two-part course, the MTH/157 curriculum gave appropriate statistical methods to analysis data, applied basic concepts of probability, applied and identified geometric figures and shapes for problem solving, and identified applications of measurements. This class introduced very interesting, exciting and fun ways how to teach the above mathematical concepts like probability in the form of games. There are several types of probabilities: Theoretical Probability and Experimental Probability. Theoretical probability examples can be used to illustrate the predictions of the â€Å"Coin Flip† or â€Å"Dice Roll† probability games. Yang’s example: If there are n equally outcomes and an event A for which there are k of these outcomes, then the expression of the probability that the event A will happen looks like this P(A) = k/n (p. 283, para. 4). What I experience while playing the â€Å"Coin Flip† game was that the probability of flipping the coin and it turning up heads was P (H) =  ½. To include, the probability of flipping the coin and it turning up tails was P (T) =  ½. So, if the chance of the coin flipped and turning up heads is 0.50 then the probability of two coins coming up heads is 0.5 x 0.5 = 0.25. What I experience while playing the â€Å"Dice Roll† game was that with both dice being rolled the outcome, sample space and events of the probability could be many. Rolling the two dice there would have been 36 different ways to predict the outcomes. I decided to roll one die instead of two dice so that I could fine the  probability of the die turning up an even number which resulted P (E) = 3/6 =  ½. When dealing with real life situations, it is impossible to use the theoretical probability method. The experimental probability method is best used in these instances by performing an experiment or survey. The experiment is used to predict occurrences that will happen in the future (Yang, 2012). Probability of independent and dependent events might be the most difficult concepts for students to grasp. Independent events are those where the outcome of one event is not affected by the other, and dependent events are events where the outcome of one is affected by the other. The formula for these events could cause the student to become confused if not learned correctly. The course introduced the concepts of geometry in a fun way by giving me the opportunity to modify a geometry manipulative activity. My activity was to show kindergarten thru first grade students how to identify three geometric shapes and how to select and count a specific shape out of a mixed group of shapes. The student will trace on the colored paper the example of the shape on the blackboard which will be displayed one at a time by the instructor. Each time that the example shape is placed on the blackboard the student will call out the name of the shape. The instructor will then hold up that specific shape and its color so that the student can call out both the shape and its color to trace. After the student has identified and traced all of the shapes on its specific colors, the instructor will place on the student’s desk 10 cut out shapes consisting of 3 red circles, 5 yellow squares, and 2 green triangles. The instructor will ask the student to place all of the different shapes in 2 lines consisting of five shapes (assistance might be needed). While the instructor is observing each line of shapes, the instructor will ask the student to put all of the same colored shapes together in the lines. The instructor will then ask the student to count and to tell the instructor the number of each shape that is in the mixed group of shapes. After the first question is answered correctly, the instructor can then ask question like: â€Å"Are there more squares then circles in the first group or second group? â€Å"Or â€Å"How many more squares are there then triangles in the first group or second group of mixed shapes?† and â€Å"Tell me what shapes is closest to the squares?† MTH/157 not only introduced a curriculum that would help potential math teachers how  the above mathematical concepts to elementary students, it also teaches the math teacher what concepts that the students might have difficulty with and gives information on how to help that individual student to grasp the concepts. In my opinion, the best way to make sure that every student learns any mathematical concept is to make it â€Å"fun and game† learning. In this way, students are more successful in clearly understanding and comprehending the fundamentals of the subject and have a better chance of not forgetting, at least, the beginning steps. I have learned from this class that the above is very vital to achieve the characteristics of a professional mathematics teacher. If I were to recommend anything in the way to add to the course curriculum, it would be very little because I felt like the course was designed for someone like me an individual who has always found math courses to be very difficult. This course has been simplified to a dream that has influenced my ideas philosophy of teaching and that is that â€Å"the most difficult can be fun learning!† References: Billstein, R., Libeskind, S., & Lott, J. W. (2010). A problem solving approach to Mathematics for elementary school teachers (10th Ed.). Boston, MA: Wesley Yang, Rong. (2012). A-Plus Notes for Beginning Algebra: Pre-Algebra and Algebra, Publisher, A-Plus Notes Learning Center. Los Angles California