International law Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

International law - Essay Example 2002). Under the principle of restrictive sovereign immunity, states will only be immune from suit if it is exercising government functions but not when it is doing private acts or entering into commercial transactions (Tunks M. 2002). When the immunity of the state from suit is restricted, the immunity of its officials is also restricted. Accordingly, there are three distinct principles that involve the idea of the immunity of the head of state and other government officials who are visiting other countries like the United States. These three principles are the state sovereign immunity principle, the diplomatic immunity principle and the head of state immunity principle (Tunks 2002). The origins of the principle of head-of-state immunity derives from the idea that the state and its rulers are one and the same ( Mallory J. 1986). As the alter ego of the state, the state officials are therefore accorded with some degree of immunity which, like that of the immunity of the state itself, is subject to restrictions. Although there are some decided cases involving the immunity of state officials from prosecution for international offences, this area had remain gray for most part. If we take a closer look at the laws and treaties governing the United States and its visiting foreign state officials, there has not really been a clear cut policy of government on the extent of the immunity enjoyed by state officials form prosecution for international offences (Bederman D. 2001). We shall discuss this principle more thoroughly in the later part of the paper. On the other hand, diplomatic immunity is anchored on the principle that diplomats are representatives of their country and that without such immunity; they will not be able to carry out property their official functions. Under the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations, the purpose of diplomatic immunity was clearly

Great Expectations Essay Example for Free

Great Expectations Essay Great Expectations by Charles Dickens is a novel that focuses on the life of Philip Pirrip and his expectations. Throughout the book these expectations change and as they do, the reader comes to realise the key theme of how a characters upbringing and environment can dehumanise them. This essay will examine this key theme and how it demonstrates and helps the reader understand Pips growth as a character.  Initially, Pip is a very compassionate and sensitive character. We see this right from the start as the first scene describes him at his families grave crying. The reason for this behaviour at this stage of the book is Pips sister and guardian Mrs Joe Gargery. She concluded by throwing me- I often served her as a connubial missile-  This quote shows that Pip feels in most ways inadequate to his sister and that this domination is the reason for his sensitive and compassionate appearance at this stage of the book.  However, when Pip receives his expectations from Mr Jaggers, and he moves into lodging with Herbert, this domination is no longer valid. As Pip falls deeper and deeper into debt with his flippant spending, he moves further away from Joe and his old home. This gap becomes more apparent after Mrs Joes funeral, when Pip has an awkward conversation with his used to be good friend Biddy. In this conversation Pip presents himself as much more of a selfish and uncompassionate young man: Biddy, said I in a virtuously self-asserting manner, I must request to know what you mean by this?  This quote demonstrates Pips growth as a character as it shows the speed at which he has changed into more arrogant and self-righteous Pip since his childhood. It helps the reader understand the theme of how a characters upbringing and environment can dehumanise them, by showing that in his new, wider-boundary environment, Pip has become somewhat dehumanised. This dehumanisation is demonstrated in this conversation, as Pips manner is made to seem selfish and arrogant to underline the gap between Pips humanised place of upbringing and his somewhat dehumanised state in London. After Mrs Joes death, Pip seems more compassionate and thoughtful. This is because his visit back to his place of birth has helped him realise the change that he has undergone while he has been away by showing him the emotional distance he has put between himself and his family, and the consequences these distances have had on his relationships with his friends and family back home. This compassionate change is reinforced when he sets up Herberts job in a bid to see his friend more financially stable. I did really cry in good earnest when I went to bed, to think that my expectations had done some good to somebody.  This quote shows that Pip has realised the main theme of how a characters environment and upbringing can dehumanise them, by acting in this compassionate and thoughtful way. Also by referring to Herbert as somebody at the end of this quote, Pip shows the reader that he does not believe that his expectations have done himself that much good. In conclusion, Pip reacted throughout the novel towards his environment and upbringing in both negative and in the end positive ways. At the beginning of the novel, he seemed a very modest and sensitive young boy. However when he receives his expectations this marks the beginning of the changes and dehumanisation that he undergoes whilst he is in London. Thankfully though, after his experience at Mrs Joes funeral Pip realises these changes that he has undergone and endeavours to be more compassionate and thoughtful. This shows the reader that Pip has almost completed a full circle of growth, in terms of his behaviour in relation to his upbringing and environment, and this was reinforced by the main theme of how a characters upbringing and environment can dehumanise them.

Analysis of Dubais Economy

Analysis of Dubais Economy Dubais Financial Crisis: Dubai is usually characterized by sky piercing towers, rotating buildings, spectacular architectural designs, flow of petro-dollars which refers to the income coming from exporting oil and its products to other countries, broad and clean road networks, etc. It represents a face of modernization and advancement and has earned a place amongst one of the most technically advanced countries in the world. This rapid development of the country was a result of the focus of the government on tourism thus promoting the real estate sector with the help of revenues coming from export of oil and natural gas. With the largest real estate company of Dubai Emaar properties becoming bankrupt in the United States and vaDubai proposal to delay the repayment of all its debts for a period of 6 months on November 26, 2009 the financial crisis in Dubai was exposed in front of the world which had bad effects on countries around the world. The debts were as large as $59 billion causing a stop to the investm ent cycle of Dubai for 6 months. The Dubais real estate industry was based on huge loans which they expected to pay through the revenues they earn from them but with recession hitting the industry badly their plans failed. Thus the Dubais financial crisis to a large extent can be said to be a consequence of real estate bubble burst in Dubai. Dubais Economy: Before getting to the financial crisis it is important to know the structure of the Dubais economy which is one of the most unique and unusual in the world. It is divided into free zones setup by the government of Dubai. The zones are industry specific with Jebel Ali free zone being the fastest growing in the world. The Jebel Ali free zone offers a set of products and services such as: ready to use offices, Business centers, factories, Warehouses, infrastructure ready plots etc. Jebel Ali free zone commonly referred to as Jafza is a part of Dubai based; a state owned Economic Zones World. It is one of the worlds biggest developers of Economic Zones, Logistics and Research and development driven Industrial Parks. The main free zones of Dubai are Jebel Ali free zone, Dubai Internet City, Dubai Media City, and Dubai Maritime City which are based on the industries they are related with. People have false misconception about Dubais economy they believe that its mainly driven by oil and gas although the oil sector comprises of less than 6% economy of Dubai that was primarily dependent on oil as a main source of revenue in the past. Dubai being a part of the United Arab Emirates is expected to be great producer of oil, petroleum and natural gas although it is a good producer but compared to other countries of the United Arab Emirates it produces relatively lesser quantities of oil. Dubai produces 240,000 barrels of oil per day and its revenues from natural gas constitute only 2% of the total revenue that United Arab Emirates gets from natural gas. Although it is true that Dubais economy was initially build on the revenues generated by its reserves of oil and natural gas but with time its oil reserves have reduced significantly as a result of a large increase in the demand for oil and oil products around the world and over the years and Dubai exporting a great amount of oil to other countries it is expected that Dubais reserves of oil will get exhausted in the next 20 years and so it has concentrated on the tourism industry to generate good revenues at that time. (Dubai hit hard) Another large contributing sector of Dubais economy is the real estate which forms 22.6% of the economy of Dubai. The great success of this industry is owed to the focus on tourism. Over the years the government of Dubai has concentrated largely on tourism they have invested large capitals in order to promote their tourism in the process they have built sky scrapers, clean and well knit network of roads. The government has focused on providing world class facilities in Dubai in the process creating architectural designs and buildings which attracts tourists from all around the world. As the real estate industry is closely related to the tourism industry it has developed as a major industry in Dubai and contributes greatly to its economy. According to a survey in 2007 the largest contributing sectors for the Dubais economy other than oil were real estate and construction, trade and financial services which contribute 22.6%, 16% and 11% respectively to the Dubais economy. From the facts mentioned above it can be ascertained that there has been a shift in Dubais economy from being solely dependent on oil to development of other sectors by using the large amounts of money coming from the oil to development of other sectors like tourism but it has been stuck badly due to fall in prices of buildings and as most of them were based on loans vaDubai formally announced that the biggest of its real estate companies would not be able to repay their debts for a period of at least six months leading to the financial crisis. The Policy of diversifying to Real Estate: The funds had always been flowing into Dubai due to its large reserves of oil that it posses and initially the whole economy of Dubai was dependent mainly on income coming from oil and natural gas but there has been a shift as the Dubai government now aims at making the tourism industry the biggest industry of Dubai and has invested a huge capital in developing this industry. In the year 2000 the establishment of Dubai Financial Market (DFM) as a secondary market for trading of trading securities and bonds both locally and globally was major step in diversifying Dubais economy. The establishment of Dubai Financial market was a part of the governments plan to diversify Dubais economy from a trade based economy to the one which is tourism and service oriented made real estate more valuable in Dubai. The inclination of the government towards tourism did turn out to be a promoter for the real estate and construction industry and the real estate industry grew at a rapid pace in Dubai becoming one of the largest industries in Dubai. As a result of the governments promotion to tourism Dubai witnessed a real estate boom which resulted in appreciation of property prices in Dubai from 2004-2006. These policies transformed Dubai into a center for large scale real estate development projects and made it a home for many large projects and tallest skyscrapers of the world which are now amongst famous buildings of the world. The results of these policies are visible through buildings like the Burj Dubai, the Palm Islands, the Emirates Towers, and the worlds most expensive hotel, the Burj Al Arab which reflect the rapid development and the great advancement of the real estate and construction industry in Dubai making it a world class tourist destination. All the results of these policies led to a great change in Dubais landscape which also led to a great amount of foreign investments in Dubai as Dubai became a great destination for investors around the world. For many years Dubai has given great returns to investors around the world with an aggregate of approximately more than 40% per annum which has attracted clients from around the world trying to get the investment ladder ready but during the last few months being hit badly by recession these profits have turned into losses with a depreciation in property prices creating a situation of financial crisis in Dubai. Although Dubai has given great returns in the past but the ugly face of the Dubai model that it was based on speculation and debt that was somewhere in the breakneck boom in Dubai and with the prices of buildings falling in the recent past this face was exposed as the largest real estate companies were not able to repay their debts that were due till December 2009 and the government asked the investment companies delay the collection of all their funds for at least a period of 6 months which hit badly the finance industry of Dubai which is one of the major industries of Dubai. The Dubai World: The Dubai world which is an investment company acts as a regulatory company in Dubai. It manages a portfolio of businesses projects for the Dubai government. It functions across a wide range of industries and projects which promote Dubai as a hub for trading and commerce. Sultan Ahmed bin Sulayem is the chairman of the company. Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Prime Minister and Vice President of the United Arab Emirates is the major stake holder of the company. The company was established by Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum under a decree ratified on March 2nd 2006 with an aim to regulate and promote trade in Dubai. The stature of Dubai world is quite large in the global market and it has large investments not only within Dubai but also in countries around the world. Some of its major investments range from MGM Mirage Las Vegas Casino Company to Standard Chartered Plc a London-traded bank and luxury retailer Barneys New York through asset management firm named Istithmar PJSC. The Initial success of Dubai in the Period of global financial Crisis In the early period of global financial system Dubais financial structure, dynamic construction and tourism industries and relished tax free incentives seemed to be a great advantage for it and many people even expected it to remain free from any sort of recession. A major factor that created this illusion in the minds of people was the continuance of investment activities and construction at a feverish pace even when there was a lack of capital in all other parts of the world and no other country was even thinking of such investments Dubai announced to construct a new tallest building of the world just after Lehman Brothers collapsed in the United States. All these steps along with the booming infrastructure of Dubai attracted many investors from around the world who thought of Dubai as a good prospect for investment and expected good returns from it. Dubai has built one of the finest infrastructures of the world and it is quite natural for investors to be attracted towards such a p lace which lead to the initial success of Dubai in a period when the world was facing recession and lacking investments but its overdependence on debts caused the financial crisis. Seeds of trouble The global financial crisis during 2008-09 resulted in major downfall of Dubais real estate market. It led to slow down of the economy of Dubai. The economic revenue generated was not coming as efficient as before which greatly hindered Dubais growth and as most of its plans were based on money borrowed by investment companies and there were no plans to face any downturns in the economy it became difficult for them to repay that loan. As the main aim of Dubais economy was the tourism industry a slump in the global markets was always bound to affect the economy of Dubai. At the international press council conducted by Mohammed al Abbar, senior enough to abide Dubais Ruler and UAEs Vice President or Prime Minister. He was placed at the designation of the Director General of Dubais Department for Economic Development and also as a chairman for Emaar properties the largest real estate company in December 2008 declared the credits that Emaar enterprise had which had an adverse effect on the economy as a whole. Emaar Enterprise had credits for over 70 billion US Dollars. In addition to it they also had additional 10 billion US Dollars in Dubai with holdings estimated above 350 billion as a real estate asset. Earlier in 2009, situation was worse due to the global economic crisis, heavy tolls on employment, property values, constructions, etc. also added into it and resulted in the decrease in costs of these prices due to slow down in the world markets also hit the real estate sector of Dubai which was expecting a rapid development in order to repay all its debts in stipulated time. This not only hit the real estate industry of Dubai but also the finance industries which financed most of the projects of construction. In Feb 2009, the estimated foreign debt for Dubai was approximated at 100 billion US Dollars. It leads 250,000 United Arab Emirates national to be responsible for more than 400,000 US Dollars of foreign debts which is a very large amount although Dubai had been hit by a financial crisis in the past also. In the year 1999 Dubai was hit by a similar crisis but at that time the debts were much less than the amounts this time and at that time Abu Dhabi supported it but the amounts are very high this time as the main focus of Dubai government in the recent past has been tourism industry and the real estate is closely related to it. The assessment of Dubai market of property has shown a lot of depreciation or decrement. The property loss was more than 65% of their values since 2001 till November 2008 which has been one of the main causes of the financial crisis as the property market was expecting an increase in prices but the decrease proved to be fatal for it. The construction companies were expecting a rapid increase in the property prices and were expecting to repay their debts using the incomes created from it but that did not happen and lead to the financial crisis In addition to all these failures in key businesses, consumer satisfaction, wealth etc. is estimated to be in trillions of US Dollars. The financial commitments incurred by governments proved a fatal loss in economic activity. The Burst of Bubble Dubai which is governed by Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum borrowed approx 80 billion US Dollars in a period of 4 years of construction for booming the construction market of economy of regional tourism as their main focus was on tourism as they expect that it would lead to a concrete source of income for them even when their oil reserves get exhausted. Emirates suffered a huge loss in the worlds steepest property slump as a result of global recession. The home prices dropped by 50 percent from their value in 2008 leaving Dubai in a situation where they were not able to generate adequate money in order to repay the debts that they had taken in order to promote the real estate industry. Dubai had 59 billion US Dollars of liabilities in agreement to the standstill of creditors. The debt included more than 3.5 billion dollars of bonds dated December 14. This property unit is from Nakheel PJSC a firm from Dubai. Analyst said that the prime reason for the financial crisis in Dubai was the mismanagement or the wrong decision of Sheikh Mohammed. He invested all his as well as the Dubai government wealth in the real estate market in United State and had no plans to deal with any kinds of shocks faced in their road to success such as recession. He thought that Dubai would never be stuck with any sort of recession which was a result of lack of adequate planning for bad phases during their journey. The foreign investment of Emaar claimed to be the second largest builders in United States. They ultimately went bankrupt because of the recession and/or filed for chapter 11, which allows reorganization of a company under the laws of bankruptcy for United States. United States bankruptcy code permits the reorganization of any of the company under the bankruptcy laws of United States of America. Dubai shifted to their crisis mode with their large and dangerous building boom. Their lending bonanza soon vanished due to the crisis. Government and banks took huge steps to provide some backup to the organization and to rescue the falling organization. The bankruptcy of Emaar properties was a big shock for people around the world and even bigger for the people in Dubai as it acted as a hint of the financial crisis that had begun in Dubai which was considered to be one of the flourishing economies of the world. Announcement and the impact of official moratorium: Dated: 25 November, 2009, the final announcement came in by the government of Dubai. They announced that the company intends to ask all its providers for financing to Dubai World, its subsidiary Nakheel to remain standstill and extend the maturities until at least the date 30 May 2010. This announcement meant a great decrease in the inflow of money for all the financial companies who had invested in various projects in Dubai and also sent a bad message to the world which had come to know that Dubai was in a financial crisis. Several months before the announcement Dubai world accounted for $59-billion debt which accounted for nearly three fourth of the emirates total debt of US$80-billion. These debts also included a $3.5-billion debt which the company was unable to pay by its December deadline. This announcement not only led to a degradation of Dubais goodwill among investment companies but also had a bad impact on the global markets which were recovering from the impacts of recessio n, the announcement in a way pushed the recovering markets back when they had started growing. The impact was very severe as it degraded the investment status of Dubai amongst various investment companies. The governments announcement led both Standard Poors Investors Services and Moodys who were the key investors of Dubai heavily downgraded the debt of various Dubai government-related entities with interests in commercial operations, utilities, property, and commodities trading which meant that it became harder for companies to get money for their projects. For Moody, the downgrade meant that the affected agencies would lose their investment grade status which would help Moody to make it very difficult for them to get the money required for their businesses. The effect was not only internal its impact was felt by all major markets of the world who experienced a drop in their stock indices. The main European markets shattered on November 26 followed by huge drops in Asian stocks on November 27 creating a bad impact on these markets that were recovering from the shocks of recession. Possibilities of Recovery: Although Dubai is presently suffering with a financial crisis there are still possibilities that it will recover from this crisis. Abu Dhabi the capital of the United Arab Emirates which is also the richest country of the United Arab Emirates is the brightest ray of hope for Dubai. Dubai has already asked Abu Dhabi to bail it out of the crisis. The hope even increases as Abu Dhabi has helped Dubai in the past when Dubai was in Crisis although the demand is much higher than the past. Abu Dhabi has helped Dubai with an amount of $10 billion in order to bail out the Dubai world. A recent report by HSBC which says that Abu Dhabi has the cash liquidity to support its own companies and banks is even more positive response as Dubais point of view. Thus Abu Dhabi may use some of this liquidity to bail out Dubai from this phase of crisis. With the U.A.E central bank showing positive signs by confirming that its board has discussed plans for supporting real estate business by lending Dubai as well as remaining United Arab Emirates has increased the probabilities of recovery for Dubai to a great extent. Impact on Indian Economy: Indian banks have communicated to the Reserve Bank of India that their sheets show insignificant investments in Dubai as compared to their revenues generated. The main investments are those of State Bank of India, Bank of Baroda and ICICI combined together denote investments of around Rs 7000 crores with SBI having Rs 1500 crore in the combined charts. However Bank of Barodas spreadsheet has Rs 4000 crore invested in UAE with only Rs 600 crores in real estate markets and has no negative impact on the health of the bank. However the professional front may face losses as Indians constitute 40% of the population of Dubai and are all in the business or service sector and so it may affect the remittances to India could decline provided the company is able to work out a bailout from this scenario. UAE has not been a significant source of investment in the Indian portfolio however the crises as already stated will affect the remittances or permanent transference of money to the relatives of Indians settled in Dubai was an important component of Indian Economy as in the first quarter of fiscal year 2010 as it formed 45% of the invisibles. But the crises have created intense pressure on employment thereby reducing the invisibles coming to the country. Dubai Worlds subsidiary DP World has investments in the Indian sea ports and planned investments of $ 500 million can hamper Indias water strength. Dubai crises and Indian exports are closely linked and reached a massive 13% in the fiscal of 2010 as is shown in the graph below. These figures give an estimate of how the exports could falter the critical situation and hamper the export market. Indian real estate developers who had ventured into Dubai like Nagarjuna Constructions, BSEL Infra, Larsen and Toubro etc References Dubai Crisis 2009. (n.d.), Retrieved on March 15, 2010 from http://www.gktoday.in/2009/11/what-is-dubai-crisis-2009.html Dubai Economic Crisis. (n.d.), Retrieved on March 15, 2010 from http://www.docstoc.com/docs/23974903/Dubai-Economic-Crisis-And-Its-Impacts-On-India Dubai hit hard. (n.d.), Retrieved on March 15, 2010 from http://www.globalcrisisnews.com/real-estate/dubai-hit-hard-by-financial-crisis/id=625/

Cover Bands :: essays research papers

Is the cover a good thing or a bad thing? Are there any cover songs that you have heard and have grown to like more than the original? Perhaps there are songs that you have heard and have later come to the realization that it is indeed a cover song. This is the case for me. However, my feelings on cover songs vary depending on the particular instance. I think the cover is a good thing now days. There are many new songs that I have heard and have later realized that it is a cover song. I probably would have never heard the original song if it wasn’t covered. On the other hand, in the 50s when rock and roll was building a foundation for itself, I believe that cover songs were a bad thing.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  First, I would like to explain why I believe that cover songs are now a good thing. â€Å"Behind Blue Eyes† covered by Limp Bizkit is a song that I would have never heard had it not been covered. The Who originally recorded this song in 1971. Limp Bizkit is an alternative band that many younger people have great interest in. Many people my age are not as interested in what is now called â€Å"Classic Rock† as they are in alternative music. Therefore, this song would have never been heard if it wasn’t for Limp Bizkit. Another good example of a song that has been covered is â€Å"Simple Man† by Shinedown. This song was originally recorded by Lynyrd Skynyrd in 1973. This is another example of a song that younger generations would not have heard if it wasn’t covered by Shinedown. However, a person may ask â€Å"Is it fair for the original artist if one of their songs is covered?† I believe the answer to this question is yes. M any artists that have covered songs have also had their songs covered. This causes a never-ending loop of music that seeks different genres of music and also people of different ages.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  On the other hand, I believe that cover songs in the 50s were a bad thing. These songs were covered for different purposes than they are today. Race was the primary issue as to why many songs were covered. Perhaps the key song for rock and roll that has been covered is â€Å"Rock Around the Clock† originally recorded by Sonny Dae and His Knights in 1954.

“American Sniper” by Chris Kyle: Summative Essay Essay

The book I chose for the summative essay assignment was â€Å"American Sniper† by Chris Kyle. This book is about the courageous and thrilling memoir of the most lethal sniper in U.S. military history. With over 100 documented kills during his four tours of duty, Chris Kyle has shed light on the dangerous brave life of a sniper. During his four tours of duty in the Iraq war he has come close to death and saved countless lives. He changed a lot from just being a country boy and became what he describes as a man. The war really changed his perspective on his civilian life. The significance of the Iraq war was to help free the Iraqi civilians of their dictator, Saddam Hussein, and the radical Islamic insurgents who terrorized the Iraqi’s after the fall of Saddam Hussein. The time period this book is set in is right before 9/11 and during the Iraq war (1999-2009). As he grows up in Odessa, Texas he grow interested into being a ranch manager. By becoming a ranch hand he found himself in the state of Colorado where he enlisted for the Navy a second time. He joined the Navy in February 1999 and trained to be a Navy SEAL in Coronado, Calif. The rugged challenging training he had to go through to become a Navy SEAL really showed him that it isn’t easy being a solider and that he had to work extremely hard and not give into the powerful temptation of quitting. The tough training conditions and activities really molded him into one of the best U.S. sniper of all time. Nothing he could have imagined would come close to the gruesome scarring experience of war. After serving in the war torn country of Iraq you come out a different person and as he puts it â€Å"Continually going to war, you gravitate to the blackest parts of existence.† Chris Kyle grew up in small towns in north-central Texas. Having loved the ranch lifestyle he became a professional bronco rodeo rider. Then at the end of his freshman year at TSU a bronco flipped onto him breaking his ribs, dislocating his shoulder, a bruised lung and kidney ending his career. After being rejected before from the Marines, he enlisted for the Navy and was turned down at first but then received an unexpected call from the recruiter  little did he know that call would change his life forever. After surviving and passing all of the training needed to become a SEAL, Chris was placed in SEAL Team 3 along with his friends from training, Marc Lee and Ryan Jobs. He married Taya and had a son, they met while he was off base. He finished his 10 years of military service as a CPO and receiving a silver and bronze stars as well as other awards for his contributions as well as over 100 kills. Chris received his nick name of â€Å"The Devil or Ramadi† given to him by the insurgents when he was deployed there. They knew he was a deadly sniper and were terrified of him up to the point of placing an $80,000 bounty on him. In Sadr City he made a 1.9 km shot and killed a rocket launcher holding insurgent. He deployed to locations such as Fallujah, Baghdad, and Ramadi. â€Å"Just then, an RPG hit the outside wall right near me. Some of the building smashed into my face, giving me a couple of beauty marks and temporary tattoos courtesy of the insurgency.† He describes his close encounter with death in Baghdad after getting off the phone with his wife. â€Å"Taya had turned on the television†¦I saw smoke pouring out of the World Trade Center in New York†¦an airplane flew right into the side of the second tower.† He now describes the horrible time when he found out the depressing news of the terrorist attack on the U.S. If I were to rate this book on a scale from 1-10, this book would defiantly earn a 10. This book for me was extremely inspiring how he never gave up even when given the chance, even when all the odds were stacked against him he stayed strong and continued on. He really explained the life of a soldier, and not the usual way we look at soldiers but showed a different side to them, one only they could fully understand. As well as the fact that he let his wife write a few pages here and there explaining the difficulties of being a SEAL’s wife really showed that he wanted the reader to fully understand a SEAL’s life and so on. The only way you would really enjoy reading this book would be if you like reading war books and have an interest in the military. This book is a great book as well if you are looking for a book that you will absolutely not want to put down it and he explains everything that is going on with vivid details. Another pro to this  book is that he transitions from all the events in an orderly way so you will never get lost and have to re-read. I do not dislike any aspect of this story at all, personally it was put together just right to create an exceptionally great war memoir. Overall this book was truly one of my favorite war books I have ever read. It has been crafted carefully by a man who has been through a lot in his life and has stayed strong through the worst times and has enjoyed the best times of his life. Though Chris is no longer with us I am positively sure he would have continued to be the great man that he was, and his legacy will always live on. Christopher Scott Kyle truly was the most lethal U.S. sniper.

Research Paper on Photography

Research Paper on Photography When I looked at this specific picture many words came into my head, but the first five words that I immediately thought of were rejection, poor, depression, sadness, and helpless. As I examined this photo further I began to ponder about what the story behind this specific picture was. This helped me think of three important questions that were; what happened to these people? How are they feeling? And most importantly, who are they? When I look at this picture there are many things that I have to guess, but there are some things that I know for certain. Looking at this photograph I notice that there is a boy and a girl sitting somewhere, by the looks of it on some type of road or sidewalk. When I focus my attention on the boy I can tell that he’s holding up a sign that reads â€Å"Poverty Owning People†¦Can you spare us some change?† The boy is also wearing a hat with some type of bandana on underneath and his eyes are closed. The girl is sitting beside the boy and she’s squinting in the light, which obviously tells the viewer that this certain picture was taken in the morning or mid afternoon. She looks like she’s wearing a long sleeved sweater or wool shirt. Standing in this picture myself I would see a busy street with a lot of traffic probably somewhere downtown where there are many stores and a lot of people that I could convey this message of mine, about being poor to. Downtown personally is a good choice because there are a lot of homeless and poor people that have to survive there so these people would probably fit in perfectly. Taking a closer glance at the picture I learned that this picture was titled â€Å"The Poverty Owning People,† and was photographed by Anna Moonshrek which was taken in the year 2003. This picture’s actual dimensions were not given, but it was taken in color. As I look at this picture I can see that the main focus of this picture is the boy and girl because of how they are placed and how the photograph was taken, which was close up. This photographer has used many techniques so it’s easy for the viewer to get a better perspective on what this picture could be about like the rule of thirds. This technique has been used well because it places the subjects eyes on 1/3 of the page which clearly makes the viewers attention travel around the picture since it’s not entirely in the centre. These different techniques are a great asset in the outcome of photographs overall because they help the compositions acquire balance. When a picture is appropriately balanced a viewer knows that it is a good picture since there aren’t any blank areas and the viewers eyes travel around the entire picture and not just one part that really sticks out. For example in this picture my eyes travel to the brightest thing which is the piece of board the boy is holding. This piece of board has the message of â€Å"The Poverty Owning People† on it. Since there is a message, and it is a pretty strong one even though it doesn’t seem like it at first the viewers eyes eventually travel around the entire picture. Color is also an important factor in the way a photographer wants the person’s eyes to travel. It’s usually pretty obvious that the brighter the colour the more attractive it is and that is usually what a viewer would focus on at first. Therefore if you have dull colors in your photograph they aren’t going to look as fabulous as you would want them too. Another important technique when taking photographs is texture. Texture is important because usually a lot of people like to know what the picture would feel like. Many people are curious about what they’re looking at, so when the photographer makes the variety of textures seem more realistic usually it’s to the photographers own advantage. For instance texture can be spotted in this photograph on the boys hat which looks like it’s mesh because u can see through it, he’s also wearing a jacket which looks like it has some sort of rivets on it, and his skin also has a texture because when you look at it, it looks as if it was burned by the sun because it’s red. So one comes to the conclusion that he has been outside for a pretty long time. The girl is wearing pants that look like jeans and they look pretty worn out by the marks on them. This just goes to show that texture can also tell a lot about what is going on in a picture. An additional technique a photographer uses is light. Light is also a vital principal in taking good photographs. You can see in this picture that the light is very bright because the subjects are sitting outside in the sun. Even though the light makes this picture look very bright and happy the moods of the people in the picture are the total opposite and they tell a totally different story. Technique is one of the things that help a person understand a photograph. When most people look at a photograph they interpret what they see because most photographs don’t have captions that tell the viewer what’s going on. That is why we have to make an educated guess about what the photograph could be about, but to understand what the photograph could be a bout the viewer (me in this case) has to take a very good look at the specific item which is being viewed and than talk about their observations or what they figured out by doing so. In this picture the boy and girl look like normal people but when you read the sign it tells you a totally different story about poverty and how they would like someone to give them some money so they can survive. It also shows me that since they have no money and they’re asking for it, they are depressed, and sad because of the look on their faces. I can also guess that they are helpless because no one seems to be helping them out which shows rejection. They have obviously been rejected from someone, otherwise why would they be asking for money on the street. These educated guesses are my own opinion, the story about this photograph could be totally different but that is what I thought of when I saw this picture. The photographer could have created this image to portray to the society that we should be thankful for what we have so we don’t end up in a situation like this. She could be a journalist or she could be doing a project on poverty. Also since â€Å"The Poverty Owning People† sounds like an organization she could be trying to raise money for it. This photograph like every photograph has its own uniqueness and that’s what makes it so different from others. The positioning, the content and view make it a really good piece of photography and that’s mainly why I decided to chose it. It also really attracted my attention because the color co-ordination was very bright and crisp. This picture has a lot of potential because whenever you look at you see a different story about what this photograph could be about. I really liked it since it expressed not only one opinion but many variations of different prospects just waiting to be found. It wasn’t spectacular like many other pieces but it was still pretty good.