Absolutism and Consitutionalism

The 17th century was the turning point of absoluteism in Western Europe. In the beginning of the century, we spent a religious war dating from 1618 to 1648 called war today for 30 years. Cardinal Richelieu, Principal Minister of King Louis XIII, was able to maintain absolute authority over France during the war. Unlike Richelieu, Charles I in the UK has not been as successful as the Diet and does not struggle. France continued to prosper under this absolute monarchy, but the UK gradually began to shift to constitutionalism. France 's absolute principle is the political system related to Louis XIII, especially King Louis XIV. From the 16th century to the 17th century, the whole Europe developed absolute or absolute monarchy. Important politicians such as Cardinal Richilieu are faithful supporters of absoluteism. The absolute law means that the power of the monarch is theoretically infinite except for sacred law or so-called natural law. In absolute society, the only person who can cha nge the power of the monarch is his / her own lord. Therefore, it is difficult for an absolute monarch to dilute his authority and authority. In the 17th century, a new keyword called absoluteism was born. Absolutism is the political theory that all power should belong to rulers / juniors or dictators. Therefore, the absolute monarch is a ruler who governs by himself and does not undergo legal or constitutional rule. The monarch of an absoluteist considers himself a sacred right of the emperor. In other words, they can be held responsible only by God and can not judge beyond God. An ideal example of an absolute monarch of this era was Louis XIV who crowned the King of France in 1643. There are many points to show that he is considered to be an important absolute leader. During the transition from feudalism * to early capitalism *, the word absoluteism is often used with the monarchs of Europe, and the description of the absolute monarch was specifically discovered in the 17th and 18 th centuries. It is generally considered that the age of absoluteism began during the reign of Louis XIV (1643 - 1715) and ended with the French Revolution (1789). The main motivation of absoluteism is the 16th and 17th centuries. Protestant reform (1517-1648) brought about a series of violent and bloody religious wars, during which thousands of innocent people were murdered. For example, during the 30-year war (1618-48), the German state's population has declined by about 30% from about 15%, compared with 16% in the French population reduced by 16-18 million . During the French Religious War (1562 - 98) 2 million to 4 million *

This is a PERSUASIVE paper arguing that VIOLENCE ON TV AND IN MUSIC Essay

This is a PERSUASIVE paper arguing that VIOLENCE ON TV AND IN MUSIC causes individuals to perform physically aggressive behavior which can result in injury, and - Essay Example Now that television has spread out into the world in such a big way, there is obviously no way one can turn the clock back and wish it a perennial goodbye. It is a necessity, but it could also be a menace, depending on the way it is used. Psychologists and social activists have time and again, over the years, conclusively established that without proper parental guidance, children are being adversely affected by exposure to the wrong programs in TV. Tender, impressionable, and receptive, the mind of a child is eager and ready to accept thrilling encounters and heroic feats. Therefore, while watching violent encounters and high decibel music, not only he enjoys the pulsating effect but also begins to build a personal bond with the characters in the movie. Eventually, within a short period of time, the child has decided that these are the programs and characters that he is going to be relating with for the rest of his life. In Chicago, two boys, both outsiders, enter, a maths classroom, and are locked in a fight. When the students and teacher try to break it up, one of the students gets fatally stabbed by the outsiders who then flee. Two teenagers burst into their Colorado high school about one year ago and gunned down 13 people. Then they shot themselves. Though it had appeared to be a spur of the moment event, it emerged later that the two had the bloodshed meticulously planned "down to the last bullet and explosive" for nearly a year. It was a murder-cum-suicide mission. Their bigger plan had been to blow up the entire school with pipe bombs attached to their bodies. Society is benefiting in terms of gross national product with everyone, including women, working. However, Kevin Dwyer, president of the National Association of School Psychologists (NASP) is not pleased. He is direct to the point, "Kids are growing up without the supports they had in the past." Due to the abysmal lack of parental care, the television has become the stalwart companion after school hours for children. A child spends about 2 minutes communicating with his or her parents on an average day as compared to 16 hours a day glued to the television, writes journalist George Howe Colt in his 1991 book, The Enigma of Suicide. Studies are noncommittal on how exposure to images of murders and assaults on the television affects children's behavior, though many psychologists are convinced that violent television shows, movies, and computer games inflame destructive tendencies. Tellingly, more than 86 percent of television shows and movies portray characters who have their interpersonal problems solved with violence, according to NASP. According to the Center for Media Education in Washington, by the time he completes his elementary

Portfolio Management & Construction Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 9000 words

Portfolio Management & Construction - Essay Example Qatar produces nearly 776 thousand barrels of oil each day and this current level of production is estimated to last for 54 years. When it comes to natural gas, the country is richest if all in the GCC countries. At the end of 2008, its natural gas reserves stood at 25.56 trillion cubic meters, representing nearly 61% of the entire GCC natural gas reserves and nearly 14% of the world’s natural gas reserves. In the GCC region, the country can be called as one of the most stable countries, given its prudent macroeconomic management and combination of natural resources. Due to higher global demand of energy, the economic boom continued till the end of 2008. In the past six years, the economy of Qatar grew as much as five times in size from 2002 to 2008, with an annual rate of 31.6% on average that makes nearly $19.6 billion (2002) to $100.4 billion (2008). The reason of such massive growth is steady increase in energy prices as well as surging gas and oil production. The country has allowed significant foreign investment in the production of its gas field in the past decade and is predicted to become world’s largest Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) exporter in the future period of time. The country is also pursuing to attract foreign investment in the production of its other sectors such as non-energy projects by liberalize the economy even more. However, the global economy experienced drop in oil prices in late 2008 as well as economic and global financial crises that ultimately reduced the budget surplus of the economy and resulted in sluggish pace of development projects and investments in 2009. It is expected that economic growth will rebound and the economic policy emphasizes on developing the non-associated natural gas reserves of Qatar and improving foreign and private investment in non-energy sectors but gas and oil sector is still central in the

Compensation Practice Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Compensation Practice - Assignment Example Their award winning online banking has served 30 million users. Through their big size, capability and commitment the bank is able to serve the community with superior economic value and services (Our Vision, 2013). Compensation refers to all forms of financial return in terms of tangible services and benefits that the employee receives as a part of employment relationship. It is an integral part of the human resource management that helps in employee motivation and improvement in the organizational effectiveness by paying salary or wage. Salary refers to the payment of the managers or professionals, whose payments are calculated on monthly or annual basis. In contrast, wage is the payment that is received by the workers in hourly or daily basis or for overtime (Bhattacharya & Sengupta, 2009, p. 2).This study deals in understanding the compensation policy of Bank of America Compensation Strategy Compensation strategy is designed depending upon the business strategy and goal. The busi ness goals and objectives are aligned with the Human Resource strategies. The compensation committee devises the compensation plan. The strategy depends upon both the internal and external factors as well as on the life cycle of an organization (Bhattacharya & Sengupta, 2009, p. 3). ... Practices followed by Bank of America The Bank of America follows â€Å"pay-for-performance compensation program† (BOA Compensation Principles, n.d.) which, provides rewards for long term and sustainable result that are aligned to the shareholder’s interest. The primary objective is to provide a tie up between payment and performance while at the same time providing a balancing reward with practical business decision and efficient risk management. All the compensation programs are designed to be consistent with the Compensation Principles, which ensures that the compensation practice does not encourage excessive risk, focuses the employees in managing the company towards long term goals and sustainable values for the shareholders and provides an appropriate realization of the rewards overtime (BOA Compensation Principles, n.d., p. 1). The benefits that the generally provide to their employees include health and dental benefits from the first day of employment, â€Å"Li fe Insurance, Accidental Death, Dismemberment coverage and Disability benefits† (Bank of America, Careers, 2013), retirement benefits, leave benefits like paternity leave, fitness centers, employee cafes and Associate discount program. They also provide a three week vacation when the position starts from entry level. Analysis of the compensation principle The pay of the executive is linked to the performance of the company, which in turn is supposed to increase the stakeholder’s wealth. Compensation also influences the employee wok behavior and organizational performance. This is the measure of paying the employee, which affects the quality of work, attitude towards customers and willingness to be flexible, learning new skills or suggesting

Television in Australia Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Television in Australia - Essay Example Notably, the difference comes in where the television has to involve a camera to capture images that are to be displayed on the screen. A television camera converts the images into electronic waves and as well as the microphone. These signals are then converted back to images by an electron gun at the back of the television set (Herd, 2006:119). Television was first introduced in Australia on 1929. It was however, launched officially twenty-five years later because the Australian government wanted to observe the reaction of countries which had introduced themselves to the system. The official launch was on September 1956 with a studio called the communication network (TCN) being the only TV station in the country. Bruce Gyngell was the first presenter of the television station and his first words are still documented up-to-date (Hartley, 2007:44). The incision of the television in Australia drew the attention of many. Debates in the various cultural bodies and public interest groups struggled to define the impact the television would have to the country. The debates that came about were whether Australia was to have a television service at all and whether it should have a public or private owned television system (Byes, 2006:160). There were also controversies on whether any privately owned system would be in scrutiny by the government agencies. The people also wanted to know whether there would be control on ownership in order to prevent the influence of foreign companies in the ownership or overconcentration by local companies bringing unhealthy competition (Spigel, 2001:385). The country also had debates on whether there was to have protection of the Australia-made television materials against the imported material. Generally, the debates in the country revolved around ownership, control and the regulation of the materials that had come up due to the introduction of the television. The many controversies surrounding the television industry posed numerous que stions on the cultural aspect. The people were concerned on the role of the audience in response to determining the nature of the TV programming. There was also a desire to know the role of the government in the real matter considering that Australia was a liberal democratic country (Arrow, 2009:91). There was also a question on whether the models adopted by the United States were appropriate for Australia. There was a major contradiction between the politics and culture of the country. These debates and controversies overrode in the context of the cold war era and the great depression of the world super powers a global confrontation, which had powerful repercussions in the world countries and certainly within Australia (Hazelhurst, 1982:112). The Australian government showed much consideration on the matters concerning the establishment of the television in the country. It thus appointed an interim committee to look into the matter (Hartley, 2007:46). The report of the committee wa s to be significant, as it would lay regulations on the radio, which in turn would lay the basis for the television industry. The committee established a policy where all radio stations were to have operation licenses. It also determined the roles of ABC radio, which was the national broadcasting station (ABC). The general finding of the committee was that the government officials were optimistic about the introduction

Feminist and Post-Colonal Theory on a literary text Essay

Feminist and Post-Colonal Theory on a literary text - Essay Example This essay demonstrates that every culture had a way to resist the epic changes that were being imposed by the British Government. And in this story â€Å"Good Advice is Rarer than Rubies† (Rushdie). We see this resistance by the way the way men treat their women in Indian settings. Even though they are modernized they still practice their traditions like arranged marriages and the women also wear the veils except our main character Rehana and some other few women she points out.This essay demonstrates that every culture had a way to resist the epic changes that were being imposed by the British Government. And in this story â€Å"Good Advice is Rarer than Rubies† (Rushdie). We see this resistance by the way the way men treat their women in Indian settings. Even though they are modernized they still practice their traditions like arranged marriages and the women also wear the veils except our main character Rehana and some other few women she points out. In the story al ong a line is described outside the British consulate, this is symbolic of Euro-centrism that those people think that England is better to live in than India (Rushdie). Rehana surprises Muhammad Ali by turning down his offer of a free British visa. She also fails her exams on purpose, and when Ali asks her, she says, â€Å"there are some boys who need me† (Rushdie). Rehana symbolizes resistance to a new culture and thinking.   This paper makes a conclusion that the way the women are interrogated in the British consul symbolizes neo-colonialism (Forster).

The Creation Story of Ancient Babylon Essay Example for Free

The Creation Story of Ancient Babylon Essay The Enuma Elish is one of the most famous stories in the Babylonian corpus of mythology. It is a creation story that is erroneously through to have led to the creation story in Genesis. Some, such as Bracher (2006) hold that this story is no more than the recitation of much older stories personifying the agricultural movement between birth (Spring) and death (later fall, after the harvest). The two major figures are Tiamat and Apsu, both gods of water, but two distinct properties of water: the one, the water used to fertilize fields, water that is fresh and good, but the other, salty and chaotic, the goddess of the Ocean, that is Tiamat. Timat, the female, with her husband Apsu gives birth to two gods of intermediate rank: that of the sky, and their names are Anshar and Kishar. These gods begin, like so many gods do, by behaving badly, and they ultimately need to be destroyed. Eah, the grandson of Tiamat, once this plan to have them destroyed is realized, he seeks to murder his grandfather Apsu. Once this is done, Eah and Damkina, his wife, give birth to the chief of the Babylonian pantheon, Marduk, the patron of the city and of Babylonian civilization. So far, it is quite a stretch to see how this has anything to do with the story of creation found in Genesis. Marduk is similar to the Greek god Apollo, for he the god of the sun, of geometry and order, all things necessary to build a city. He is the god of â€Å"re-creation† or re-creating an allegedly bad earth through the ingenuity of man, urban, civilized man. Once the murder of Apsu is discovered, Tiamat marries again and seeks to wreak havoc on the children and grandchildren. In the first tablet (section 90), Marduk is described in this way: He rendered him perfect and endowed him with a double godhead. Greatly exalted was he above them, exceeding throughout. Perfect were his members beyond comprehension, Unsuited for understanding, difficult to perceive. Four were his eyes, four were his ears; When he moved his lips, fire blazed forth. Tiamat, as said before, is chaos. She is the sea, not only dangerous, but useless in that one cannot drink it and one cannot grow crops by watering them with it. She, however, is a perennial element in the universe, the chaos of which all urban, civilized societies fear. The second tablet says: â€Å"Her decrees are firm, they are beyond resisting. † In other words, all civilizations fail. Man and technics can only go so far in taming her. He is the primal nature seeking revenge against the forces of man who have slashed into her with civilization: with technology (that Babylon had in abundance,) building of stone and cutting down trees of fuel and building materials. It seems here that Marduk is this god of civilization, that needs to â€Å"cut into† Tiamat in order to build their civilization. That the Babylonians had learned to harness water might have something to do with this fear of chaos. At the end of section 20 of Tablet II, this description of Tiamat’s army is given: She has set up the Viper, the Dragon, and the Sphinx, The Great-Lion, the Mad-Dog, and the Scorpion-Man, Mighty lion-demons, the Dragon-Fly, the Centaur Bearing weapons that spare not, fearless in battle Many of these objects and creatures became part of later mythological constructions. The Sphinx is the most fascinating, but its adoption by Egypt makes little sense, not only in that the two civilizations were bitter enemies, but that if the Sphinx is part of the arsenal of disorder, in that it works for Tiamat, how was it adopted as a major figure by Egypt? The Great Lion was used in Israel and Ethiopia, the Dragon is well known throughout ancient mythology of both eastern and western background (a dragon is just an old name for the dinosaur). It seems that this anti-pantheon is very important to mythology and might speak of either the land based forces of chaos and their affect on man (i. e. the scorpion man). In the meantime, Eah has learned of Tiamat’s plan, but it is clear that resisting her is futile. As both Eah and Anu both fail to stop this vengeful symbol of chaos and the passions, there is great fear from the progeny of the first couple, through it must be said that this second tablet is damaged, and only so much can be taken from it. The only one that has the ability to stand up to the forces of chaos now is Marduk himself, and ths is the purpose of tablet III. Significantly, section 130 of Tablet III has Marduk confronting chaos with rhetoric of civilization: Unalterable shall be what I may bring into being; Neither recalled nor changed shall be the command of my lips! Now hasten here and promptly fix for him your decrees, That he may go forth to face your mighty foe! When Lahmu and Lahamu heard this, they cried out aloud, All the Igigi wailed in distress: How strange that they should have made this decision! We cannot fathom the doings of Tiamat! They made ready to leave on their journey, All the great gods who decree the fates Several issues bear discussion at this point. First, Marduk, the god of order and civilization, says that his life will be forever. â€Å"Unalterable shall be what I bring into being. † But what he brings into being is identical to Apollo. Civilization and order, man’s fight against an alleged â€Å"mal-formed† universe, the very heart of Gnosticism and the secret societies who claim ( to this day) to have preserved the wisdom of Apollo, Marduk and Osiris. A council of the gods is called in the beginning of Tablet IV. This council suggests a sort of divine oligarchy of power that will be imitated in Babylon, an oligarchy of wealth, as all civilizations are. The wisdom of Marduk, it seems, is only for the powerful. The gods need to test his abilities, and a test is the destruction and re-creation of matter, things that science, with some reservations, says is impossible. The creation and re-creation of prime matter (really any matter) is the real holy grail for science, since it would permit the scientific elite to create (or re-create) the world nearly from zero, it is the grail of true revolution (cf Hoffman, 2001, for a detailed discussion of this). He passes this particular test and makes a cloak disappear and re-appear, a trick that has substantial ritual overtones. What is interesting here is that Marduk is no dictator, he is commissioned, as some say, to fight Tiamat by the council or pantheon of gods, all springing from the original union of Tiamat and Apsu. His weapons are the four winds of destruction, which seems to suggest that the forces of order can use, but not necessarily control, the forces of disorder for their own purposes (e. g. the water wheel, or the use of wind to harness power). It is this wind, and the chariot of destruction that Marduk rides, that eventually with destroy Tiamat: she is â€Å"inflated† by the use of the winds of destruction, and she is then killed by an arrow. With the carcass of Tiamat, Marduk will fashion the earth, with its laws, joining form with matter, as well as â€Å"setting the bounds† of the waters in an ordered universe. I’m still waiting to see exactly how this has anything to do with the Genesis story that many authors claim show â€Å"unmistakable† connections (see Heidel, 1966). At the very end of Tablet IV, at section 150 (which is apparently cut off) it is written: He crossed the heavens and surveyed the regions. He squared Apsus quarter, the abode of Nudimmud, As the lord measured the dimensions of Apsu. The Great Abode, its likeness, he fixed as Esharra, The Great Abode, Esharra, which he made as the firmament. Anu, Enlil, and Ea he made occupy their places. This is of immense importance, since out of chaos, civilization is born, everything, both man and matter, â€Å"has its place† and function with the rationally organized whole. But in order to do this, Marduk and his allies needed the â€Å"tablets† of knowledge that the goddess of Chaos had. But Tablet IV says that â€Å"these are not rightly his† (first line, section 130). Hence, the manipulation and destruction of the pristine nature (rather than chaos) is not the right of civilization. Marduk has created civilization and ordered the universe with form and number, law and regularity that civilization will take as its hallmark. But Marduk has no right to do this. His is the right of conquest. Tablet V is the most interesting of all the sections of this story. It is really the description of the infusion of order and number into chaos. It is the creation of the universe by the infusing of wisdom, that is, form, into chaos, that is, matter. The seasons of the agricultural year are ordered in the cycle of birth and death that already plants the seeds (so to speak) of all civilization’s eventual destruction. He creates the planets and their movements, and lastly, given the law giving of the natural world, he creates the human city, the lowest of the orders of nature, law of the city is the law of form in matter. It is the later natural law theory of human relations. This section of the tablet sums it up: Below I have hardened the ground for a building site, I will build a house, it will be my luxurious abode. I will found therein its temple, I will appoint its inner rooms, I will establish my sovereignty. When you come up from the Apsu for assembly, You will spend the night in it, it is there to receive all of you. When you descend from heaven for assembly, You will spend the night in it, it is there to receive all of you. I will call its name Babylon which means the houses of the great gods, I shall build it with the skill of craftsmen (section 130) This is likely the most important section of the story, in that it describes, not an Adam and Eve in a non-civilized paradise ordered by God, but civilization, the domination of men over nature under the decrees of Marduk. Nothing more different could be imagined. It is worth noting that only after Cain had killed his brother is the first city formed. The city is the place of sin, the place where the elite oppress the poor in the name of law and order. In the Babylonian story, it is the opposite, the very structure of Marduk’s wisdom is manifest in the city, that is a city only in that it is established by the sovereignty of Marduk. Tablet VI is the story of human creation, again without the slightest relation to the Hebrew story. Man, in short, is created by the blood of the second husband of Tiamat, the leader and instigator of the revenge on Tiamat’s progeny, and that is Kingu. Man is created with the blood of the first rebel, the consort of the goddess of chaos. Man is created, basically, to work as slaves for the gods, to manifest their wisdom and order at the lowest, material level. Several issues should be taken from the above: first, that man is a creation of two forces, light and darkness, chaos and order, wisdom and passion. These are opposite in the sense of bearing dialectical movement to higher and higher levels of synthesis. Second, that this is the pagan wisdom so beloved of the Masons and other societies, it is the beginnings of magic. Magic, given the above, is the ability to balance the order of the universe with its underlying drive to destruction and atomization. Force is at the root of this synthesis: force brought order and chaos together, form and matter. Force destroyed Tiamat, force created the world. Hence, all is force, all is manipulation. Magic takes its start from here. Man will not rest content begin the plaything of the Gods. He is made from the blood of rebellion, yet the order of the universe is to be found in him. This IS the very foundation of magic: making of one’s own order, not the god’s order. The creation and re-creation of matter in the council where Marduk proves his mettle is a symbolic and ritual form that shows the coming rebellion of men: to seek the power of the gods for themselves, for them to become gods themselves. This later myth is brought to fruition in Prometheus and Lucifer. Marduk and his creation of man is the fulness of man’s development, through it is far from clear that this development is a good thing. Civilization partakes of both forms of existence, chaos and order: it uses order in its general affairs, seeks the domination of Tiamat through technology, but also uses chaos, things such as subterfuge, massacre in war and other devices to maintain this order. Order is self defeating in that it must, like Marduk himself, use disorder in the maintenance of order. These two principles of the universe are at the root of all paganism: the moral equivalence of light and dark, order and disorder. There is no sin, only inappropriateness, something that any good magician would know. The nature of pagan religion here is manifest in the last Tablet: Who produces riches and treasures, establishes abundance; Who has turned all our wants to plenty; Whose favoring breeze we felt in sore distress. Let them speak, let them exalt, let them sing his praises! (Section 30) Marduk is not a god of mercy or of goodness, but he is the later Baal, the god who one approaches to ask for things. Through civilization, Marduk gives prosperity and treasure, but at a price. Civilization demands sacrifice, sacrifice through war, accident, disease and overcrowding. It seems that only the elite will share in Marduk’s wisdom. It is the continued multiplication of want and desire. It is the never ending cycle of spring and winter, want and satisfaction, good and bad, life and death, war and peace. References: Enuma Elish. (2006) Translated and Introduced by Dennis Bratcher. CRI Institute Press. Hoffman, Michael. (2001) Secret Societies and Psychological Warfare. Independent Press. (Excellent resource for explaining how the ancient pagan creation myths are used by modern civilization as a form of control). Heidel, Alexander. (1963). The Babylonian Genesis. University of Chicago Press.