Envisioning America & What Caused the Pueblo Revolt Essay - 7

Envisioning America & What Caused the Pueblo Revolt - Essay Example There was no meeting ground between them which finally ended in the Pueblo revolt. According to Mancall, â€Å"Richard Hakluyt the elder, a prominent London lawyer, succinctly described the rationale for those efforts. After enumerating the varied rewards, he further stated three goals of colonization. 1. To plant Christian religion 2.To trafficks 3.To conquer.†(p.1) Weber states, "Pueblos religious beliefs were more important than Apache raids or drought in causing them to revolt" (p. 22). In his review of Webers’s book Lorraine Coops writes, â€Å"Primary sources also help the students to "get inside the heads" of people in the past--to try and understand individuals motivations and experiences from their perspective. Peeling away the layers of the colonial facade can help students discover both sides of the story. If our goal as teachers is to make history "real" to the students, then primary sources need to be incorporated into our work.† The goal of the colonists was selfish. They did not arrive with friendly intentions. But something unexpected also happened which worked to the tremendous disadvantage of the American Indians. Mancall observes, â€Å"When the Spaniards moved across the Atlantic, they became the first Europeans to unleash deadly diseases among the native peoples of the Americas.†(p.5) The American Indians suffered exploitation from all ends, people starved and many thousands died of diseases, for which they had no immunity or medicines. Considering the Pueblo revolt: Is there any room for disagreement within each group? Did the Pueblos have cause to support the Spanish? Were there Spaniards who opposed the subjugation of the Pueblos (or at least the way(s) in which people told the stories of conquest and subjugation)? Would a common Spanish soldier relate the same story as a Captain? A New Mexican colonist and a Franciscan friar? No room for disagreement

The Institute Of Professional Sociologists Nigeria Essay Example for Free

The Institute Of Professional Sociologists Nigeria Essay Ever since Africa became a continent, most of her problems have been policy and policy management. First, it was the colonial policy makers who introduced the Indirect Rule system (as was the case of British colonial Administration) and the assimilation policy system (as was the case of the French colonial Administration).The Colonial masters adopted these policies largely because of administrative convenience and nothing more. They did not consider the social structure, the culture or the social thought of the African people. And it was little wonder that these policies left the continents in utter disarray. The people are still living under the burden of their consequences. The next anathema was the post-colonial imperialist policies that we term ‘Divide and Rule’. Many of the foreign policies relating to Africa in the past five decades fall within this spectrum. Today most policy makers, Governments and government apparatus in Africa seem to follow the trend of the colonial masters when formulating their policies .a case in point is the last fuel increment or subsidy removal in Nigeria. The people vehemently resisted the policy even if it were to their benefit. They would not want to know any long term or short term benefits or whatsoever. As long as the governments would not want to be people-centric, their policies will always meet with ardent resistance. Most policy finds their way through to the people who have little or no knowledge of the social thought or social systems as do the social scientists. Many politicians rely on armchair theorizing about what and what would or would not work. A policy made by a trial and error methodology does much harm, its makes the people as it were, a laboratory rat. Men are not rats and no one government or Authority should ever treat its people like one. That a particular ideas worked somewhere in the world, do not mean it can work else where. Man is enigmatic and so complex. Culture varies from place to place and globalization will not stop that. The differences among people may create the conflicts of interest, ethnic differences, xenophobia,’ we and they’ factors etc. However when properly perceived these seeming difference is a grand design of what forms the social systems, social thoughts, and the social structure of a people. If culture is a way of life of a people, which involves foods, clothing, Knowledge, idea etc why should someone force an Amala, or Tuwo (Local foods in Nigeria) into the throat of an Asian man? Who don’t know how they are made or how they are eaten? Meanwhile this is exactly what the colonial masters did. The indirect rule system and the system of Assimilation were forced through to the people, regardless they accepted it or not. And most Government in Africa inherited this ‘force it through attitude’. Their policies are tested on the people who they see as lab rats. And they are forced to accept it, whether they like it or not, whether it is compactable with their social systems or not. And because muscle and whips are exacted, the people accept it with malicious obedience. They accept the policy but break the rules. And as those who make these policies do all they can to make it work, those whom it is supposedly made for live how they have ever lived, and is making it not work. We now have is a cycle that has left the continent undeveloped for decades. The ways we proffer here are not exhaustive, as there are all other ways to solve the problem of underdevelopment in Africa. Meanwhile we present hereunder these measures that may revolutionize governance in Africa. The concept of research is almost alien to most African politicians. They wonder why their counterpart in the occidental and oriental worlds succeeds, and yet never know that research is the key to development. Social research in Africa is mostly either not founded or they are not encouraged. Worst still is the fact that most studies are being piloted by international donor/organizations who found these researches for their own sake. And their findings, whether real or doctored, becomes the only available data for all to peruse. If we most move ahead in Africa, governments and other agencies most begin to fund and pioneer research not just for its own sake, but for the sake of national or continental development . Social scientists are not just a group of academic puppets or parakeets as most politicians think. They have a good role to play in societal engineering, especially in developing societies of Africa. Instead of using the people as lab rats, the politician could use the knowledge and research ability of the social scientist, to orchestrate a pilot study or even a laboratory experiment for intended policies before they can be tagged a public policy. However the social scientist must avoid the temptation of using research as a propaganda tool. Rather He/she must hold sacrosanct the ethical value of the profession, and the confidence the people lay on him/her as a custodian of the social systems.

The War on Drugs and U.S. Foreign Policy Essay -- American Drug Policy

Introduction The War on Drugs has been a common phrase in the United States for many decades. What exactly does this mean and how does it shape U.S. foreign policy? The War on Drugs can be defined as the systematic and aggressive policy that is determined to undermine and stop the flow of illegal drugs into the United States. This policy is backed by several U.S. institutions including the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), U.S. Army, U.S. Coast Guard, and U.S. Customs. Also, included in this list are the numerous local law enforcement agencies across the country. The U.S. government has instituted the following ways for enforcing its foreign drug policy: interdiction, eradication, legislative reform. Interdiction is the attempt to stop drugs as they are en route to the United States. This remains to be a formidable task; because of the enormous size of the United States, policing its vast borders has proven to be extremely difficult. For example, the United States has over 12,000 miles of shoreline, through 300 ports of legal entry, and over 7,500 miles of border with Canada and Mexico. The jurisdiction of these border points fall under all of the above mentioned agencies and military branches. Herein lays the first problem of foreign policy on drugs, determining which agency/branch has rightful control over which part of the border. The DEA and FBI have overlapping roles in when it comes to enforcing drug policy. Miscommunication often happens when attempting to interdict drugs because of overlapping jurisdiction between two governme nt agencies. According to the Drug Policy Alliance, the United States has spent over $25 billion on s... ...ment with local towns to pinpoint the appropriate crops to be exterminated. Strong legal punishment is needed to deter would be drug traffickers from committing crimes. All of these crucial steps need to be followed in order to start winning the war on drugs. Works Cited http://www.druglibrary.org/schaffer/library/basicfax.htm#q7 http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/co.html#Econ http://www.usdoj.gov/dea/pubs/intel/02006/#4c http://www.tni.org/drugs/pubs/drugsum.htm http://www.drugpolicy.org/news/02_12_03fuzzy.cfm http://www.drugpolicy.org/global/drugpolicyby/latinamerica/ http://www.drugwarfacts.org/military.htm http://www.drugwar.com/interdiction.shtm http://www.fpif.org/briefs/vol6/v6n22andes.html http://www.globalpolicy.org/empire/intervention/2004/0512colombia.htm http://www.tni.org/drugs/research/airbridg.htm

Sharon Wood and Marilyn Bell Di Lascio

In the passages â€Å"The true story of Lake Ontario† and â€Å"Sharon Wood: No Limits†, two amazing women gets introduced accomplishing their life-risking goals; both women had astonishing performances, but Sharon Woods defiantly stood out more than Marilyn Bell Di Lascio which came to a conclusion that Sharon Woods would be a better Role Model. Sharon Wood, the mind blowing mountain climber believed that â€Å"fear is healthy† (Georgi&Wojna p. 2).This fascinating statement declared from Sharon Wood was something no one would expect. Usually, people would think fear is unhealthy to the human body because it makes the human body nervous and uncomfortable. But Sharon Wood was different from the rest and believed in something unusual. Not only did Wood have a different state of mind, but she also had patience. Wood tried her best to wait for her helpless partner stuck on the mountain. She made a smart move by â€Å"wait[ing] 30 minutes† (Georgi&Wojna p. 1) f or him. If she climbed back for her partner in the mountain, she could’ve gotten hurt, stuck or ran out of oxygen. Even though she did abandon her partner for the rest of the trip down, she did it for an important, significant reason. Moreover, after she came back from her long trip from Everest, unlike Marilyn she found a â€Å"small, independent, non-denominational school in Canmore† (Georgi&Wojna p. 18). Marilyn Bell Di Lascio, was a brave swimmer that was first to swim across Lake Ontario.Marilyn was a strong hearted woman that had a passion for swimming. She â€Å"put her into [swimming]† (Di Lascio p. 3) Di Lascio was a magnificent woman, but she had some little troubles that interrupted her becoming the better role model. Di Lascio first said that she was determined to do something but, she lost all her â€Å"confidence about competing the swim, and the idea terrified [her]† (Di Lascio p. 9). This fear overcame her and made her terrified which was mostly the reason why she got budged off the better role model position.Furthermore, she had to get her friend wake her up in the middle of her swim which showed that she couldn’t concentrate hard enough. In the end when she came back from her swim, all she did was accept different prizes and awards and did nothing else-unlike Sharon Wood. Though Marilyn Bell Di Lascio and Sharon Wood both finished their life-risking goals, Sharon Wood would be the stronger, better role model because she was intelligent, different from others and also thought about her children and contributed to the society.

Bag of Bones CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

After that I was mostly in the zone. I came out a few times when that scratched-out scrap of genealogy fell from inside one of my old steno books, for instance but those interludes were brief. In a way it was like my dream of Mattie, Jo, and Sara; in a way it was like the terrible fever I'd had as a child, when I'd almost died of the measles; mostly it was like nothing but itself. It was just the zone. I was feeling it. I wish to God I hadn't been. George came over, herding the man in the blue mask ahead of him. George was limping now, and badly. I could smell hot oil and gasoline and burning tires. ‘Is she dead?' George asked. ‘Mattie?' ‘Yes.' ‘John?' ‘Don't know,' I said, and then John twitched and groaned. He was alive, but there was a lot of blood. ‘Mike, listen,' George began, but before he could say more, a terrible liquid screaming began from the burning car in the ditch. It was the driver. He was cooking in there. The shooter started to turn that way, and George raised his gun. ‘Move and I'll kill you.' ‘You can't let him die like that,' the shooter said from behind his mask. ‘You couldn't let a dog die like that.' ‘He's dead already,' George said. ‘You couldn't get within ten feet of that car unless you were in an asbestos suit.' He reeled on his feet. His face was as white as the spot of whipped cream I'd wiped off the end of Ki's nose. The shooter made as if to go for him and George brought the gun up higher. ‘The next time you move, don't stop,' George said, ‘because I won't. Guaranteed. Now take that mask off.' ‘No.' ‘I'm done fucking with you, Jesse. Say hello to God.' George pulled back the hammer of his revolver. The shooter said, ‘Jesus Christ,' and yanked off his mask. It was George Footman. Not much surprise there. From behind him, the driver gave one more shriek from within the Ford fireball and then was silent. Smoke rose in black billows. More thunder roared. ‘Mike, go inside and find something to tie him with,' George Kennedy said. ‘I can hold him another minute two, if I have to but I'm bleeding like a stuck pig. Look for strapping tape. That shit would hold Houdini.' Footman stood where he was, looking from Kennedy to me and back to Kennedy again. Then he peered down at Highway 68, which was eerily deserted. Or perhaps it wasn't so eerie, at that the coming storms had been well forecast. The tourists and summer folk would be under cover. As for the locals . . . The locals were . . . sort of listening. That was at least close. The minister was speaking about Royce Merrill, a life which had been long and fruitful, a man who had served his country in peace and in war, but the old-timers weren't listening to him. They were listening to us, the way they had once gathered around the pickle barrel at the Lakeview General and listened to prizefights on the radio. Bill Dean was holding Yvette's wrist so tightly his fingernails were white. He was hurting her . . . but she wasn't complaining. She wanted him to hold onto her. Why? ‘Mike!' George's voice was perceptibly weaker. ‘Please, man, help me. This guy is dangerous.' ‘Let me go,' Footman said. ‘You'd better, don't you think?' ‘In your wettest dreams, motherfuck,' George said. I got up, went past the pot with the key underneath, went up the cement-block steps. Lightning exploded across the sky, followed by a bellow of thunder. Inside, Rommie was sitting in a chair at the kitchen table. His face was even whiter than George's. ‘Kid's okay,' he said, forcing the words. ‘But she looks like waking up . . . I can't walk anymore. My ankle's totally fucked.' I moved for the telephone. ‘Don't bother,' Rommie said. His voice was harsh and trembling. ‘Tried it. Dead. Storm must already have hit some of the other towns. Killed some of the equipment. Christ, I never had anything hurt like this in my life.' I went to the drawers in the kitchen and began yanking them open one by one, looking for strapping tape, looking for clothesline, looking for any damned thing. If Kennedy passed out from blood-loss while I was in here, the other George would take his gun, kill him, and then kill John as he lay unconscious on the smoldering grass. With them taken care of, he'd come in here and shoot Rommie and me. He'd finish with Kyra. ‘No he won't,' I said. ‘He'll leave her alive.' And that might be even worse. Silverware in the first drawer. Sandwich bags, garbage bags, and neatly banded stacks of grocery-store coupons in the second. Oven mitts and potholders in the third ‘Mike, where's my Mattie?' I turned, as guilty as a man who has been caught mixing illegal drugs. Kyra stood at the living-room end of the hall with her hair falling around her sleep-flushed cheeks and her scrunchy hung over one wrist like a bracelet. Her eyes were wide and panicky. It wasn't the shots that had awakened her, probably not even her mother's scream. I had wakened her. My thoughts had wakened her. In the instant I realized it I tried to shield them somehow, but I was too late. She had read me about Devore well enough to tell me not to think about sad stuff, and now she read what had happened to her mother before I could keep her out of my mind. Her mouth dropped open. Her eyes widened. She shrieked as if her hand had been caught in a vise and ran for the door. ‘No, Kyra, no!' I sprinted across the kitchen, almost tripping over Rommie (he looked at me with the dim incomprehension of someone who is no longer completely conscious), and grabbed her just in time. As I did, I saw Buddy Jellison leaving Grace Baptist by a side door. Two of the men he had been smoking with went with him. Now I understood why Bill was holding so tightly to Yvette, and loved him for it loved both of them. Something wanted him to go with Buddy and the others . . . but Bill wasn't going. Kyra struggled in my arms, making big convulsive thrusts at the door, gasping in breath and then screaming it out again. ‘Let me go, want to see Mommy, let me go, want to see Mommy, let me go ‘ I called her name with the only voice I knew she would really hear, the one I could use only with her. She relaxed in my arms little by little, and turned to me. Her eyes were huge and confused and shining with tears. She looked at me a moment longer and then seemed to understand that she mustn't go out. I put her down. She just stood there a moment, then backed up until her bottom was against the dishwasher. She slid down its smooth white front to the floor. Then she began to wail the most awful sounds of grief I have ever heard. She understood completely, you see. I had to show her enough to keep her inside, I had to . . . and because we were in the zone together, I could. Buddy and his friends were in a pickup truck headed this way. BAMM CONSTRUCTION, it said on the side. ‘Mike!' George cried. He sounded panicky. ‘You got to hurry!' ‘Hold on!' I called back. ‘Hold on, George!' Mattie and the others had started stacking picnic things beside the sink, but I'm almost positive that the stretch of Formica counter above the drawers had been clean and bare when I hurried after Kyra. Not now. The yellow sugar cannister had been overturned. Written in the spilled sugar was this: ‘No shit,' I muttered, and checked the remaining drawers. No tape, no rope. Not even a lousy set of handcuffs, and in most well-equipped kitchens you can count on finding three or four. Then I had an idea and looked in the cabinet under the sink. When I went back out, our George was swaying on his feet and Footman was looking at him with a kind of predatory concentration. ‘Did you get some tape?' George Kennedy asked. ‘No, something better,' I said. ‘Tell me, Footman, who actually paid you? Devore or Whitmore? Or don't you know?' ‘Fuck you,' he said. I had my right hand behind my back. Now I pointed down the hill with my left one and endeavored to look surprised. ‘What the hell's Osgood doing? Tell him to go away!' Footman looked in that direction it was instinctive and I hit him in the back of the head with the Craftsman hammer I'd found in the toolbox under Mattie's sink. The sound was horrible, the spray of blood erupting from the flying hair was horrible, but worst of all was the feeling of the skull giving way a spongy collapse that came right up the handle and into my fingers. He went down like a sandbag, and I dropped the hammer, gagging. ‘Okay,' George said. ‘A little ugly, but probably the best thing you could have done under . . . under the . . . ‘ He didn't go down like Footman it was slower and more controlled, almost graceful but he was just as out. I picked up the revolver, looked at it, then threw it into the woods across the road. A gun was nothing for me to have right now; it could only get me into more trouble. A couple of other men had also left the church; a carful of ladies in black dresses and veils, as well. I had to hurry on even faster. I unbuckled George's pants and pulled them down. The bullet which had taken him in the leg had torn into his thigh, but the wound looked as if it was clotting. John's upper arm was a different story it was still pumping out blood in frightening quantities. I yanked his belt free and cinched it around his arm as tightly as I could. Then I slapped him across the face. His eyes opened and stared at me with a bleary lack of recognition. ‘Open your mouth, John!' He only stared at me. I leaned down until our noses were almost touching and screamed, ‘OPEN YOUR MOUTH! DO IT NOW!' He opened it like a kid when the nurse tells him just say aahh. I stuck the end of the belt between his teeth. ‘Close!' He closed. ‘Now hold it,' I said. ‘Even if you pass out, hold it.' I didn't have time to see if he was paying attention. I got to my feet and looked up as the whole world went glare-blue. For a second it was like being inside a neon sign. There was a black suspended river up there, roiling and coiling like a basket of snakes. I had never seen such a baleful sky. I dashed up the cement-block steps and into the trailer again. Rom-mie had slumped forward onto the table with his face in his folded arms. He would have looked like a kindergartner taking a timeout if not for the broken salad bowl and the bits of lettuce in his hair. Kyra still sat with her back to the dishwasher, weeping hysterically. I picked her up and realized that she had wet herself. ‘We have to go now, Ki.' ‘I want Mattie! I want Mommy! I want my Mattie, make her stop being hurt! Make her stop being dead!' I hurried across the trailer. On the way to the door I passed the end-table with the Mary Higgins Clark novel on it. I noticed the tangle of hair ribbons again ribbons perhaps tried on before the party and then discarded in favor of the scrunchy. They were white with bright red edges. Pretty. I picked them up without stopping, stuffed them into a pants pocket, then switched Ki to my other arm. ‘I want Mattie! I want Mommy! Make her come back!' She swatted at me, trying to make me stop, then began to buck and kick in my arms again. She drummed her fists on the side of my head. ‘Put me down! Land me! Land me!' ‘No, Kyra.' ‘Put me down! Land me! Land me! PUT ME DOWN!' I was losing her. Then, as we came out onto the top step, she abruptly stopped struggling. ‘Give me Stricken! I want Stricken!' At first I had no idea what she was talking about, but when I looked where she was pointing I understood. Lying on the walk not far from the pot with the key underneath it was the stuffed toy from Ki's Happy Meal. Strickland had put in a fair amount of outside playtime from the look of him the light-gray fur was now dark-gray with dust but if the toy would calm her, I wanted her to have it. This was no time to worry about dirt and germs. ‘I'll give you Strickland if you promise to close your eyes and not open them until I tell you. Will you promise?' ‘I promise,' she said. She was trembling in my arms, and great globular tears the kind you expect to see in fairy-tale books, never in real life rose in her eyes and went spilling down her cheeks. I could smell burning grass and charred beefsteak. For one terrible moment I thought I was going to vomit, and then I got it under control. Ki closed her eyes. Two more tears fell from them and onto my arm. They were hot. She held out one hand, groping. I went down the steps, got the dog, then hesitated. First the ribbons, now the dog. The ribbons were probably okay, but it seemed wrong to give her the dog and let her bring it along. It seemed wrong but . . . It's gray, Irish, the UFO voice whispered. You don't need to worry about it because it's gray. The stuffed toy in your dream was black. I didn't know exactly what the voice was talking about and had no time to care. I put the stuffed dog in Kyra's open hand. She held it up to her face and kissed the dusty fur, her eyes still closed. ‘Maybe Stricken can make Mommy better, Mike. Stricken a magic dog.' ‘Just keep your eyes closed. Don't open them until I say.' She put her face against my neck. I carried her across the yard and to my car that way. I put her on the passenger side of the front seat. She lay down with her arms over her head and the dirty stuffed dog clutched in one pudgy hand. I told her to stay just like that, lying down on the seat. She made no outward sign that she heard me, but I knew that she did. We had to hurry because the old-timers were coming. The old-timers wanted this business over, wanted this river to run into the sea. And there was only one place we could go, only one place where we might be safe, and that was Sara Laughs. But there was something I had to do first. I kept a blanket in the trunk, old but clean. I took it out, walked across the yard, and shook it down over Mattie Devore. The hump it made as it settled around her was pitifully slight. I looked around and saw John staring at me. His eyes were glassy with shock, but I thought maybe he was coming back. The belt was still clamped in his teeth; he looked like a junkie preparing to shoot up. ‘Iss ant eee,' he said This can't be. I knew exactly how he felt. ‘There'll be help here in just a few minutes. Hang in there. I have to go.' ‘Go air?' I didn't answer. There wasn't time. I stopped and took George Kennedy's pulse. Slow but strong. Beside him, Footman was deep in unconsciousness, but muttering thickly. Nowhere near dead. It takes a lot to kill a daddy. The jerky wind blew the smoke from the overturned car in my direction, and now I could smell cooking flesh as well as barbecued steak. My stomach clenched again. I ran to the Chevy, dropped behind the wheel, and backed out of the driveway. I took one more look at the blanket-covered body, at the three knocked-over men, at the trailer with the line of black bulletholes wavering down its side and its door standing open. John was up on his good elbow, the end of the belt still clamped in his teeth, looking at me with uncomprehending eyes. Lightning flashed so brilliantly I tried to shield my eyes from it, although by the time my hand was up, the flash had gone and the day was as dark as late dusk. ‘Stay down, Ki,' I said. ‘Just like you are.' ‘I can't hear you,' she said in a voice so hoarse and choked with tears that I could barely make out the words. ‘Ki's takin a nap wif Stricken.' ‘Okay,' I said. ‘Good.' I drove past the burning Ford and down to the foot of the hill, where I stopped at the rusty bullet-pocked stop-sign. I looked right and saw the pickup truck parked on the shoulder. BAMM CONSTRUCTION on the side. Three men crowded together in the cab, watching me. The one by the passenger window was Buddy Jellison; I could tell him by his hat. Very slowly and deliberately, I raised my right hand and gave them the finger. None of them responded and their stony faces didn't change, but the pickup began to roll slowly toward me. I turned lift onto 68, heading for Sara Laughs under a black sky. Two miles from where Lane Forty-two branches off the highway and winds west to the lake, there stood an old abandoned barn upon which one could still make out faded letters reading DONCASTER DAIRY. As we approached it, the whole eastern side of the sky lit up in a purple-white blister. I cried out, and the Chevy's horn honked by itself, I'm almost positive. A thorn of lightning grew from the bottom of that light-blister and struck the barn. For a moment it was still completely there, glowing like something radioactive, and then it spewed itself in all directions. I have never seen anything even remotely like it outside of a movie theater. The thunderclap which followed was like a bombshell. Kyra screamed and slid onto the floor on the passenger side of the car with her hands clapped to her ears. She still clutched the little stuffed dog in one of them. A minute later I topped Sugar Ridge. Lane Forty-two splits left from the highway at the bottom of the ridge's north slope. From the top I could see a wide swath of TR-90 woods and fields and barns and farms, even a darkling gleam from the lake. The sky was as black as coal dust, flashing almost constantly with internal lightnings. The air had a clear ochre glow. Every breath I took tasted like the shavings in a tinderbox. The topography beyond the ridge stood out with a surreal clarity I cannot forget. That sense of mystery swarmed my heart and mind, that sense of the world as thin skin over unknowable bones and gulfs. I glanced into the rearview mirror and saw that the pickup truck had been joined by two other cars, one with a V-plate that means the vehicle is registered to a combat veteran of the armed services. When I slowed down, they slowed down. When I sped up, they sped up. I doubted they would follow us any farther once I turned onto Lane Forty-two, however. ‘Ki? Are you okay?' ‘Sleepun,' she said from the footwell. ‘Okay,' I said, and started down the hill. I could just see the red bicycle reflectors marking my turn onto Forty-two when it began to hail great big chunks of white ice that fell out of the sky, drummed on the roof like heavy fingers, and bounced off the hood. They began to heap in the gutter where my windshield wipers hid. ‘What's happening?' Kyra cried. ‘It's just hail,' I said. ‘It can't hurt us.' This was barely out of my mouth when a hailstone the size of a small lemon struck my side of the windshield and then bounced high into the air again, leaving a white II mark from which a number of short cracks radiated. Were John and George Kennedy lying helpless out in this? I turned my mind in that direction, but could sense nothing. When I made the left onto Lane Forty-two, it was hailing almost too hard to see. The wheelruts were heaped with ice. The white faded out under the trees, though. I headed for that cover, flipping on my headlights as I went. They cut bright cones through the pelting hail. As we went into the trees, that purple-white blister glowed again, and my rearview mirror went too bright to look at. There was a rending, crackling crash. Kyra screamed again. I looked around and saw a huge old spruce toppling slowly across the lane, its ragged stump on fire. It carried the electrical lines with it. Blocked in, I thought. This end, probably the other end, too. We're here. For better or for worse, we're here. The trees grew over Lane Forty-two in a canopy except for where the road passed beside Tidwell's Meadow. The sound of the hail in the woods was an immense splintery rattle. Trees were splintering, of course; it was the most damaging hail ever to fall in that part of the world, and although it spent itself in fifteen minutes, that was long enough to ruin a season's worth of crops. Lightning flashed above us. I looked up and saw a large orange fireball being chased by a smaller one. They ran through the trees to our left, setting fire to some of the high branches. We came briefly into the clear at Tidwell's Meadow, and as we did the hail changed to torrential rain. I could not have continued driving if we hadn't run back into the woods almost immediately, and as it was the canopy provided just enough cover so I could creep along, hunched over the wheel and peering into the silver curtain falling through the fan of my headlights. Thunder boomed constantly, and now the wind began to rise, rushing through the trees like a contentious voice. Ahead of me, a leaf-heavy branch dropped into the road. I ran over it and listened to it thunk and scrape and roll against the Chevy's undercarriage. Please, nothing bigger, I thought . . . or maybe I was praying. Please let me get to the house. Please let us get to the house. By the time I reached the driveway the wind was howling a hurricane. The writhing trees and pelting rain made the entire world seem on the verge of wavering into insubstantial gruel. The driveway's slope had turned into a river, but I nosed the Chevy down it with no hesitation we couldn't stay out here; if a big tree fell on the car, we'd be crushed like bugs in a Dixie cup. I knew better than to use the brakes the car would have heeled sideways and perhaps have been swept right down the slope toward the lake, rolling over and over as it went. Instead I dropped the transmission into low range, toed two notches into the emergency brake, and let the engine pull us down with the rain sheeting against the windshield and turning the log bulk of the house into a phantom. Incredibly, some of the lights were still on, shining like bathysphere portholes in nine feet of water. The generator was working, then . . . at least for the time being. Lightning threw a lance across the lake, green-blue fire illuminating a black well of water with its surface lashed into surging whitecaps. One of the hundred-year-old pines which had stood to the left of the railroad-tie steps now lay with half its length in the water. Somewhere behind us another tree went over with a vast crash. Kyra covered her ears. ‘It's all right, honey,' I said. ‘We're here, we made it.' I turned off the engine and killed the lights. Without them I could see little; almost all the day had gone out of the day. I tried to open my door and at first couldn't. I pushed harder and it not only opened, it was ripped right out of my hand. I got out and in a brilliant stroke of lightning saw Kyra crawling across the seat toward me, her face white with panic, her eyes huge and brimming with terror. My door swung back and hit me in the ass hard enough to hurt. I ignored it, gathered Ki into my arms, and turned with her. Cold rain drenched us both in an instant. Except it really wasn't like rain at all; it was like stepping under a waterfall. ‘My doggy!' Ki shrieked. Shriek or not, I could hardly hear her. I could see her face, though, and her empty hands. ‘Stricken! I drop Stricken!' I looked around and yes, there he was, floating down the macadam of the driveway and past the stoop. A little farther on, the rushing water spilled off the paving and down the slope; if Strickland went with the flow, he'd probably end up in the woods somewhere. Or all the way down to the lake. ‘Stricken!' Ki sobbed. ‘My DOGGY!' Suddenly nothing mattered to either of us but that stupid stuffed toy. I chased down the driveway after it with Ki in my arms, oblivious of the rain and wind and brilliant flashes of lightning. And yet it was going to beat me to the slope the water in which it was caught was running too fast for me to catch up. What snagged it at the edge of the paving was a trio of sunflowers waving wildly in the wind. They looked like God-transported worshippers at a revival meeting: Yes, Jeesus! Thankya Lawd! They also looked familiar. It was of course impossible that they should be the same three sunflowers which had been growing up through the boards of the stoop in my dream (and in the photograph Bill Dean had taken before I came back), and yet it was them; beyond doubt it was them. Three sunflowers like the three weird sisters in Macbeth, three sunflowers with faces like searchlights. I had come back to Sara Laughs; I was in the zone; I had returned to my dream and this time it had possessed me. ‘Stricken!' Ki bending and thrashing in my arms, both of us too slippery for safety. ‘Please, Mike, please!' Thunder exploded overhead like a basket of nitro. We both screamed. I dropped to one knee and snatched up the little stuffed dog. Kyra clutched it, covered it with frantic kisses. I lurched to my feet as another thunderclap sounded, this one seeming to run through the air like some crazy liquid bullwhip. I looked at the sunflowers, and they seemed to look back at me Hello, Irish, it's been a long time, what do you say? Then, resettling Ki in my arms as well as I could, I turned and slogged for the house. It wasn't easy; the water in the driveway was now ankle-deep and full of melting hailstones. A branch flew past us and landed pretty much where I'd knelt to pick up Strickland. There was a crash and a series of thuds as a bigger branch struck the roof and went rolling down it. I ran onto the back stoop, half-expecting the Shape to come rushing out to greet us, raising its baggy not-arms in gruesome good fellowship, but there was no Shape. There was only the storm, and that was enough. Ki was clutching the dog tightly, and I saw with no surprise at all that its wetting, combined with the dirt from all those hours of outside play, had turned Strickland black. It was what I had seen in my dream after all. Too late now. There was nowhere else to go, no other shelter from the storm. I opened the door and brought Kyra Devore inside Sara Laughs. The central portion of Sara the heart of the house had stood for almost a hundred years and had seen its share of storms. The one that fell on the lakes region that July afternoon might have been the worst of them, but I knew as soon as we were inside, both of us gasping like people who have narrowly escaped drowning, that it would almost certainly withstand this one as well. The log walls were so thick it was almost like stepping into some sort of vault. The storm's crash and bash became a noisy drone punctuated by thunderclaps and the occasional loud thud of a branch falling on the roof. Somewhere in the basement, I guess a door had come loose and was clapping back and forth. It sounded like a starter's pistol. The kitchen window had been broken by the topple of a small tree. Its needly tip poked in over the stove, making shadows on the counter and the stove-burners as it swayed. I thought of breaking it off and decided not to. At least it was plugging the hole. I carried Ki into the living room and we looked out at the lake, black water prinked up in surreal points under a black sky. Lightning flashed almost constantly, revealing a ring of woods that danced and swayed in a frenzy all around the lake. As solid as the house was, it was groaning deeply within itself as the wind pummelled it and tried to push it down the hill. There was a soft, steady chiming. Kyra lifted her head from my shoulder and looked around. ‘You have a moose,' she said. ‘Yes, that's Bunter.' ‘Does he bite?' ‘No, honey, he can't bite. He's like a . . . like a doll, I suppose.' ‘Why is his bell ringing?' ‘He's glad we're here. He's glad we made it.' I saw her want to be happy, and then I saw her realizing that Mattie wasn't here to be happy with. I saw the idea that Mattie would never be here to be happy with glimmer in her mind . . . and felt her push it away. Over our heads something huge crashed down on the roof, the lights flickered, and Ki began to weep again. ‘No, honey,' I said, and began to walk with her. ‘No, honey, no, Ki, don't. Don't, honey, don't.' ‘I want my mommy! I want my Mattie!' I walked her the way I think you're supposed to walk babies who have colic. She understood too much for a three-year-old, and her suffering was consequently more terrible than any three-year-old should have to bear. So I held her in my arms and walked her, her shorts damp with urine and rainwater under my hands, her arms fever-hot around my neck, her cheeks slathered with snot and tears, her hair a soaked clump from our brief dash through the downpour, her breath acetone, her toy a strangulated black clump that sent dirty water trickling over her knuckles. I walked her. Back and forth we went through Sara's living room, back and forth through dim light thrown by the overhead and one lamp. Generator light is never quite steady, never quite still it seems to breathe and sigh. Back and forth through the ceaseless low chiming of Bunter's bell, like music from that world we sometimes touch but never really see. Back and forth beneath the sound of the storm. I think I sang to her and I kn ow I touched her with my mind and we went deeper and deeper into that zone together. Above us the clouds ran and the rain pelted, dousing the fires the lightning had started in the woods. The house groaned and the air eddied with gusts coming in through the broken kitchen window, but through it all there was a feeling of rueful safety. A feeling of coming home. At last her tears began to taper off. She lay with her cheek and the weight of her heavy head on my shoulder, and when we passed the lakeside windows I could see her eyes looking out into the silver-dark storm, wide and unblinking. Carrying her was a tall man with thinning hair. I realized I could see the dining-room table right through us. Our reflections are ghosts already, I thought. ‘Ki? Can you eat something?' ‘Not hung'y.' ‘Can you drink a glass of milk?' ‘No, cocoa. I cold.' ‘Yes, of course you are. And I have cocoa.' I tried to put her down and she held on with panicky tightness, scrambling against me with her plump little thighs. I hoisted her back up again, this time settling her against my hip, and she subsided. ‘Who's here?' she asked. She had begun to shiver. ‘Who's here ‘sides us?' ‘I don't know.' ‘There's a boy,' she said. ‘I saw him there.' She pointed Strickland toward the sliding glass door which gave on the deck (all the chairs out there had been overturned and thrown into the corners; one of the set was missing, apparently blown right over the rail). ‘He was black like on that funny show me and Mattie watch. There are other black people, too. A lady in a big hat. A man in blue pants. The rest are hard to see. But they watch. They watch us. Don't you see them?' ‘They can't hurt us.' ‘Are you sure? Are you, are you?' I didn't answer. I found a box of Swiss Miss hiding behind the flour cannister, tore open one of the packets, and dumped it into a cup. Thunder exploded overhead. Ki jumped in my arms and let out a long, miserable wail. I hugged her, kissed her cheek. ‘Don't put me down, Mike, I scared.' ‘I won't put you down. You're my good girl.' ‘I scared of the boy and the blue-pants man and the lady. I think it's the lady who wore Mattie's dress. Are they ghosties?' ‘Yes.' ‘Are they bad, like the men who chased us at the fair? Are they?' ‘I don't really know, Ki, and that's the truth.' ‘But we'll find out.' ‘Huh?' ‘That's what you thought. â€Å"But we'll find out. â€Å"‘ ‘Yes,' I said. ‘I guess that's what I was thinking. Something like that.' I took her down to the master bedroom while the water heated in the kettle, thinking there had to be something left of Jo's I could pop her into, but all of the drawers in Jo's bureau were empty. So was her side of the closet. I stood Ki on the big double bed where I had not so much as taken a nap since coming back, took off her clothes, carried her into the bathroom, and wrapped her in a bathtowel. She hugged it around herself, shaking and blue-lipped. I used another one to dry her hair as best I could. During all of this, she never let go of the stuffed dog, which was now beginning to bleed stuffing from its seams. I opened the medicine cabinet, pawed through it, and found what I was looking for on the top shelf: the Benadryl Jo had kept around for her ragweed allergy. I thought of checking the expiration date on the bottom of the box, then almost laughed out loud. What difference did that make? I stood Ki on the closed toilet seat and let her hold on around my neck while I stripped the childproof backing from four of the little pink-and-white caplets. Then I rinsed out the tooth-glass and filled it with cold water. While I was doing this I saw movement in the bathroom mirror, which reflected the doorway and the master bedroom beyond. I told myself that I was only seeing the shadows of windblown trees. I offered the caplets to Ki. She reached for them, then hesitated. ‘Go on,' I said. ‘It's medicine.' ‘What kind?' she asked. Her small hand was still poised over the little cluster of caplets. ‘Sadness medicine,' I said. ‘Can you swallow pills, Ki?' ‘Sure. I taught myself when I was two.' She hesitated a moment longer looking at me and looking into me, I think, ascertaining that I was telling her something I really believed. What she saw or felt must have satisfied her, because she took the caplets and put them in her mouth, one after another. She swallowed them with little birdie-sips from the glass, then said: ‘I still feel sad, Mike.' ‘It takes awhile for them to work.' I rummaged in my shirt drawer and found an old Harley-Davidson tee that had shrunk. It was still miles too big for her, but when I tied a knot in one side it made a kind of sarong that kept slipping off one of her shoulders. It was almost cute. I carry a comb in my back pocket. I took it out and combed her hair back from her forehead and her temples. She was starting to look put together again, but there was still something missing. Something that was connected in my mind with Royce Merrill. That was crazy, though . . . wasn't it? ‘Mike? What cane? What cane are you thinking about it?' Then it came to me. ‘A candy cane,' I said. ‘The kind with stripes.' From my pocket I took the two white ribbons. Their red edges looked almost raw in the uncertain light. ‘Like these.' I tied her hair back in two little ponytails. Now she had her ribbons; she had her black dog; the sunflowers had relocated a few feet north, but they were there. Everything was more or less the way it was supposed to be. Thunder blasted, somewhere close a tree fell, and the lights went out. After five seconds of dark-gray shadows, they came on again. I carried Ki back to the kitchen, and when we passed the cellar door, something laughed behind it. I heard it; Ki did, too. I could see it in her eyes. ‘Take care of me,' she said. ‘Take care of me cause I'm just a little guy. You promised.' ‘I will.' ‘I love you, Mike.' ‘I love you, too, Ki.' The kettle was huffing. I filled the cup to the halfway mark with hot water, then topped it up with milk, cooling it off and making it richer. I took Kyra over to the couch. As we passed the dining-room table I glanced at the IBM typewriter and at the manuscript with the cross-word-puzzle book lying on top of it. Those things looked vaguely foolish and somehow sad, like gadgets that never worked very well and now do not work at all. Lightning lit up the entire sky, scouring the room with purple light. In that glare the laboring trees looked like screaming fingers, and as the light raced across the sliding glass door to the deck I saw a woman standing behind us, by the woodstove. She was indeed wearing a straw hat, with a brim the size of a cartwheel. ‘What do you mean, the river is almost in the sea?' Ki asked. I sat down and handed her the cup. ‘Drink that up.' ‘Why did the men hurt my mommy? Didn't they want her to have a good time?' ‘I guess not,' I said. I began to cry. I held her on my lap, wiping away the tears with the backs of my hands. ‘You should have taken some sad-pills, too,' Ki said. She held out her cocoa. Her hair ribbons, which I had tied in big sloppy bows, bobbed. ‘Here. Drink some.' I drank some. From the north end of the house came another grinding, crackling crash. The low rumble of the generator stuttered and the house went gray again. Shadows raced across Ki's small face. ‘Hold on,' I told her. ‘Try not to be scared. Maybe the lights will come back.' A moment later they did, although now I could hear a hoarse, uneven note in the gennie's roar and the flicker of the lights was much more noticeable. ‘Tell me a story,' she said. ‘Tell me about Cinderbell.' ‘Cinderella.' ‘Yeah, her.' ‘All right, but storyguys get paid.' I pursed my lips and made sipping sounds. She held the cup out. The cocoa was sweet and good. The sensation of being watched was heavy and not sweet at all, but let them watch. Let them watch while they could. ‘There was this pretty girl named Cinderella ‘ ‘Once upon a time! That's how it starts! That's how they all start!' ‘That's right, I forgot. Once upon a time there was this pretty girl named Cinderella, who had two mean stepsisters. Their names were . . . do you remember?' ‘Tammy Faye and Vanna.' ‘Yeah, the Queens of Hairspray. And they made Cinderella do all the really unpleasant chores, like sweeping out the fireplace and cleaning up the dogpoop in the back yard. Now it just so happened that the noted rock band Oasis was going to play a gig at the palace, and although all the girls had been invited . . . ‘ I got as far as the part about the fairy godmother catching the mice and turning them into a Mercedes limousine before the Benadryl took effect. It really was a medicine for sadness; when I looked down, Ki was fast asleep in the crook of my arm with her cocoa cup listing radically to port. I plucked it from her fingers and put it on the coffee-table, then brushed her drying hair off her forehead. ‘Ki?' Nothing. She'd gone to the land of Noddy-Blinky. It probably helped that her afternoon nap had ended almost before it got started. I picked her up and carried her down to the north bedroom, her feet bouncing limply in the air and the hem of the Harley shirt flipping around her knees. I put her on the bed and pulled the duvet up to her chin. Thunder boomed like artillery fire, but she didn't even stir. Exhaustion, grief, Benadryl . . . they had taken her deep, taken her beyond ghosts and sorrow, and that was good. I bent over and kissed her cheek, which had finally begun to cool. ‘I'll take care of you,' I said. ‘I promised, and I will.' As if hearing me, Ki turned on her side, put the hand holding Strickland under her jaw, and made a soft sighing sound. Her lashes were dark soot against her cheeks, in startling contrast to her light hair. Looking at her I felt myself swept by love, shaken by it the way one is shaken by a sickness. Take care of me, I'm just a little guy. ‘I will, Ki-bird,' I said. I went into the bathroom and began filling the tub, as I had once filled it in my sleep. She would sleep through it all if I could get enough warm water before the generator quit entirely. I wished I had a bath-toy to give her in case she did wake up, something like Wilhelm the Spouting Whale, but she'd have her dog, and she probably wouldn't wake up, anyway. No freezing baptism under a handpump for Kyra. I was not cruel, and I was not crazy. I had only disposable razors in the medicine cabinet, no good for the other job ahead of me. Not efficient enough. But one of the kitchen steak knives would do. If I filled the washbasin with water that was really hot, I wouldn't even feel it. A letter T on each arm, the top bar drawn across the wrists For a moment I came out of the zone. A voice my own speaking as some combination of Jo and Mattie screamed: What are you thinking about? Oh Mike, what in God's name are you thinking about? Then the thunder boomed, the lights flickered, and the rain began to pour down again, driven by the wind. I went back into that place where everything was clear, my course indisputable. Let it all end the sorrow, the hurt, the fear. I didn't want to think anymore about how Mattie had danced with her toes on the Frisbee as if it were a spotlight. I didn't want to be there when Kyra woke up, didn't want to see the misery fill her eyes. I didn't want to get through the night ahead, the day that was coming beyond it, or the day that was coming after that. They were all cars on the same old mystery train. Life was a sickness. I was going to give her a nice warm bath and cure her of it. I raised my arms. In the medicine cabinet mirror a murky figure a Shape raised its own in a kind of jocular greeting. It was me. It had been me all along, and that was all right. That was just fine. I dropped to one knee and checked the water. It was coming in nice and warm. Good. Even if the generator quit now, it would be fine. The tub was an old one, a deep one. As I walked down to the kitchen to get the knife, I thought about climbing in with her after I had finished cutting my wrists in the hotter water of the basin. No, I decided. It might be misinterpreted by the people who would come here later on, people with nasty minds and nastier assumptions. The ones who'd come when the storm was over and the trees across the road cleared away. No, after her bath I would dry her and put her back in bed with Strickland in her hand. I'd sit across the room from her, in the rocking chair by the bedroom windows. I would spread some towels in my lap to keep as much of the blood off my pants as I could, and eventually I would go to sleep, too. Bunter's bell was still ringing. Much louder now. It was getting on my nerves, and if it kept on that way it might even wake the baby. I decided to pull it down and silence it for good. I crossed the room, and as I did a strong gust of air blew past me. It wasn't a draft from the broken kitchen window; this was that warm subway-air again. It blew the Tough Stuff crossword book onto the floor, but the paperweight on the manuscript kept the loose pages from following. As I looked in that direction, Bunter's bell fell silent. A voice sighed across the dim room. Words I couldn't make out. And what did they matter? What did one more manifestation one more blast of hot air from the Great Beyond matter? Thunder rolled and the sigh came again. This time, as the generator died and the lights went out, plunging the room into gray shadow, I got one word in the clear: Nineteen. I turned on my heels, making a nearly complete circle. I finished up looking across the shadowy room at the manuscript of My Childhood Friend. Suddenly the light broke. Understanding arrived. Not the crossword book. Not the phone book, either. My book. My manuscript. I crossed to it, vaguely aware that the water had stopped running into the tub in the north-wing bathroom. When the generator died, the pump had quit. That was all right, it would be plenty deep enough already. And warm. I would give Kyra her bath, but first there was something I had to do. I had to go down nineteen, and after that I just might have to go down ninety-two. And I could. I had completed just over a hundred and twenty pages of manuscript, so I could. I grabbed the battery-powered lantern from the top of the cabinet where I still kept several hundred actual vinyl records, clicked it on, and set it on the table. It cast a white circle of radiance on the manuscript in the gloom of that afternoon it was as bright as a spotlight. On page nineteen of My Childhood Friend, Tiffi Taylor the call-girl who had re-invented herself as Regina Whiting was sitting in her studio with Andy Drake, reliving the day that John Sanborn (the alias under which John Shackleford had been getting by) saved her three-year-old daughter, Karen. This is the passage I read as the thunder boomed and the rain slashed against the sliding door giving on the deck: FRIEND, by Noonan/Pg. 19 over that way, I was sure of it,' she said, ‘but when I couldn't see her anywhere, I went to look in the hot tub.' She lit a cigarette. ‘What I saw made me feel like screaming, Andy Karen was underwater. All that was out was her hand . . . the nails were turning purple. After that . . . I guess I dived in, but I don't remember; I was zoned out. Everything from then on is like a dream where stuff runs together in your mind. The yard-guy Sanborn shoved me aside and dived. His foot hit me in the throat and I couldn't swallow for a week. He yanked up on Karen's arm. I thought he'd pull it off her damn shoulder, but he got her. He got her.' In the gloom, Drake saw she was weeping. ‘God. Oh God, I thought she was dead. I was sure she was.' I knew at once, but laid my steno pad along the left margin of the manuscript so I could see it better. Reading down, as you'd read a vertical crossword-puzzle answer, the first letter of each line spelled the message which had been there almost since I began the book: owls undEr stud O Then, allowing for the indent next-to-last line from the bottom: owls undEr studIO Bill Dean, my caretaker, is sitting behind the wheel of his truck. He has accomplished his two purposes in coming here welcoming me back to the TR and warning me off Mattie Devore. Now he's ready to go. He smiles at me, displaying those big false teeth, those Roebuckers. ‘If you get a chance, you ought to look for the owls,' he tells me. I ask him what Jo would have wanted with a couple of plastic owls and he replies that they keep the crows from shitting up the woodwork. I accept that, I have other things to think about, but still . . . ‘It was like she'd come down to do that errand special,' he says. It never crosses my mind not then, at least that in Indian folklore, owls have another purpose: they are said to keep evil spirits away. If Jo knew that plastic owls would scare the crows off, she would have known that. It was just the sort of information she picked up and tucked away. My inquisitive wife. My brilliant scatterbrain. Thunder rolled. Lightning ate at the clouds like spills of bright acid. I stood by the dining-room table with the manuscript in my unsteady hands. ‘Christ, Jo,' I whispered. ‘What did you find out?' And why didn't you tell me? But I thought I knew the answer to that. She hadn't told me because I was somehow like Max Devore; his great-grandfather and my own had shit in the same pit. It didn't make any sense, but there it was. And she hadn't told her own brother, either. I took a weird kind of comfort from that. I began to leaf through the manuscript, my skin crawling. Andy Drake rarely frowned in Michael Noonan's My Childhood Friend. He scowled instead, because there's an owl in every scowl. Before coming to Florida, John Shackleford had been living in Studio City, California. Drake's first meeting with Regina Whiting occurred in her studio. Ray Garraty's last-known address was the Studio Apartments in Key Largo. Regina Whiting's best friend was Steffie Underwood. Steffi's husband was Towle Underwood there was a good one, two for the price of one. Owls under studio. It was everywhere, on every page, just like the K-names in the telephone book. A kind of monument, this one built I was sure of it not by Sara Tidwell but by Johanna Arlen Noonan. My wife passing messages behind the guard's back, praying with all her considerable heart that I would see and understand. On page ninety-two Shackleford was talking to Drake in the prison visitors' room sitting with his wrists between his knees, looking down at the chain running between his ankles, refusing to make eye-contact with Drake. FRIEND, by Noonan/Pg. 92 only thing I got to say. Anything else, fuck, what good would it do? Life's a game, and I lost. You want me to tell you that I yanked some little kid out of the water, pulled her up, got her motor going again? I did, but not because I'm a hero or a saint . . . ‘ There was more but no need to read it. The message, owls under studio, ran down the margin just as it had on page nineteen. As it probably did on any number of other pages as well. I remembered how deliriously happy I had been to discover that the block had been dissolved and I could write again. It had been dissolved all right, but not because I'd finally beaten it or found a way around it. Jo had dissolved it. Jo had beaten it, and my continued career as a writer of second-rate thrillers had been the least of her concerns when she did it. As I stood there in the flicker-flash of lightning, feeling my unseen guests swirl around me in the unsteady air, I remembered Mrs. Moran, my first-grade teacher. When your efforts to replicate the smooth curves of the Palmer Method alphabet on the blackboard began to flag and waver, she would put her large competent hand over yours and help you. So had Jo helped me. I riffled through the manuscript and saw the key words everywhere, sometimes placed so you could actually read them stacked on different lines, one above the other. How hard she had tried to tell me this . . . and I had no intention of doing anything else until I found out why. I dropped the manuscript back on the table, but before I could re-anchor it, a furious gust of freezing air blew past me, lifting the pages and scattering them everywhere in a cyclone. If that force could have ripped them to shreds, I'm sure that it would have. No! it cried as I grabbed the lantern's handle. No, finish the job! Wind blew around my face in chill gusts it was as if someone I couldn't quite see was standing right in front of me and breathing in my face, retreating as I moved forward, huffing and puffing like the big bad wolf outside the houses of the three little pigs. I hung the lantern over my arm, held my hands out in front of me, and clapped them together sharply. The cold puffs in my face ceased. There was now only the random swirling air coming in through the partially plugged kitchen window. ‘She's sleeping,' I said to what I knew was still there, silently watching. ‘There's time.' I went out the back door and the wind took me at once, making me stagger sideways, almost knocking me over. And in the wavering trees I saw green faces, the faces of the dead. Devore's was there, and Royce's, and Son Tidwell's. Most of all I saw Sara's. Everywhere Sara. No! Go back! You don't need no truck with no owls, sugar! Go back! Finish the job! Do what you came for! ‘I don't know what I came for,' I said. ‘And until I find out, I'm not doing anything.' The wind screamed as if in offense, and a huge branch split off the pine standing to the right of the house. It fell on top of my Chevrolet in a spray of water, denting the roof before rolling off on my side. Clapping my hands out here would be every bit as useful as King Canute commanding the tide to turn. This was her world, not mine . . . and only the edge of it, at that. Every step closer to The Street and the lake would bring me closer to that world's heart, where time was thin and spirits ruled. Oh dear God, what had happened to cause this? The path to Jo's studio had turned into a creek. I got a dozen steps down it before a rock turned under my foot and I fell heavily on my side. Lightning zigged across the sky, there was the crack of another breaking branch, and then something was falling toward me. I put my hands up to shield my face and rolled to the right, off the path. The branch splashed to the ground just behind me, and I tumbled halfway down a slope that was slick with soaked needles. At last I was able to pull myself to my feet. The branch on the path was even bigger than the one which had landed on the roof of the car. If it had struck me, it likely would have bashed in my skull. Go back! A hissing, spiteful wind through the trees. Finish it! The slobbering, guttural voice of the lake slamming into the rocks and the bank below The Street. Mind your business! That was the very house itself, groaning on its foundations. Mind your business and let me mind mine! But Kyra was my business. Kyra was my daughter. I picked up the lantern. The housing was cracked but the bulb glowed bright and steady that was one for the home team. Bent over against the howling wind, hand raised to ward off more falling branches, I slipped and stumbled my way down the hill to my dead wife's studio.

C113 Unit 9 Essays

C113 Unit 9 Essays C113 Unit 9 Essay C113 Unit 9 Essay CSI 13 Academic Strategies for the Business Professional Unit 9 Career Action Plan Assignment Name: Two-digit Section #: Instructions: Download this document to your computer before filling it out. All of the gray boxes below should be appropriately filled in and the document saved again before submitting to the Unit 9 dropbox. Develop your own Career Action Plan based on information you have gained in this course. Consider information from course readings, assignments, career research, he informational interview and the LASSI assessment. Career Action Plan: Take some time to think seriously about where you would like to be in your career future and how you will get there. Once you have generated some ideas, complete the short-term and long-term information and respond to all items listed below: Short-Term Career Goal (approximately 2 years or less): Your short-term career goal should be a goal that you can realistically accomplish in approximately 2 years or less. Focus on a goal that will help you to reach the long- erm career goal that you will be focusing on in the second part of your career action plan. l. What is this career goal and why is it important to you (minimum five complete sentences)? II. What skills and/or experiences do you have now that make you a good fit for this short-term goal (minimum five complete sentences)? Ill. What skills and/or experiences will you need to gain in order to ensure that you will achieve this goal, and how will you gain these skills/experiences (minimum five complete sentences)? IV. What are some of the obstacles or challenges you might encounter as you work towards achieving this goal? How will you respond to or strive to overcome these obstacles/challenges? What resources might be helpful (minimum five complete V. What are some of the steps or ACTIONS you will need to complete in order to get your desired outcome (minimum three steps/actions)? Make sure to include a projected completion date for each step/action. Step/Action Item + Completion Date #1 : Step/Action Item + Completion Date #2: Step/Action Item + Completion Date #3: Long-Term Career Goal (approximately 3-5 years): Your long-term career goal will be a goal that you can realistically accomplish in approximately 3-5 years. Focus on a goal that is clearly tied to the short-term career goal that you focused on in the first part of your career action plan. l. What is this career goal, and why is it important to you (minimum five complete II. What skills do you have now that make you a good fit for this long-term goal (minimum five complete sentences)?

Laboratory Report - Recovery of Grip Strength Following Cold Water Immersion The WritePass Journal

Laboratory Report - Recovery of Grip Strength Following Cold Water Immersion Abstract Laboratory Report Recovery of Grip Strength Following Cold Water Immersion AbstractIntroduction Methods ResultsDiscussionConclusionsRelated Abstract The research here has looked at the impact that cold water immersion has on the physical performance of athletes and the way in which this immersion can impact on fatigue. The results showed that cold water immersion has a direct impact on the level of fatigue with those that have used cold water immersion will show less fatigue and will perceive themselves to be using less energy in achieving the same grip. Introduction The purpose of this practical experiment is to look in more detail at the use of cold immersion as a means of dealing with a variety of problems such as pain and trauma. The aim of this research is to look at how cold immersion can be used as part of the treatment of athletes (Bell, et al 1987). Issues associated with cold immersion have many potential applications both in terms of dealing with injuries, rehabilitation as well as encouraging recovery from exertion in a relatively quick manner. The background literature will be drawn upon in relation to this issue, in order to focus on the precise information that is expected to be gleaned from the chosen laboratory report. However, it is important to note, at this early stage, that the main aim of the experiment undertaken here is to focus is on looking at the recovery of grip strength when an individual has their hands immersed in cold water. The subjects involved were not those with injuries and therefore the primary focus is on the impact that cold water immersion has on the grip of an individual where there is no injury present; the principle, however, could potentially have a broader application in the context of recovery following exertion, or where there is an injury present (Halvorson, 1990). Sports related injuries have increased, in recent years, as more people are participating in recreational sports as well as an increase in opportunities to enjoy sports on a more competitive basis. With this in mind, the possible treatment of injuries or indeed the prevention of injuries is of increasing concern, not only to those who participate in sporting activities, but also to the National Health Service itself which is allocating an increasing amount of resources to treating those with sporting injuries which could have potentially been prevented or at least treated more immediately, without the requirement for medical intervention. The treatment of cold water immersion is therefore seen as particularly relevant to this discussion, as it is a self-help treatment which could be undertaken by any individual, without the need for medical intervention. Furthermore, where there are particular signs of success in using this treatment, it may be possible for injury to either be prevented, or the impact of these injuries diminished, to such an extent that savings are made within the Health Service. The experiment here looked at whether or not there is an effect on muscle fatigue, as well as considering the subjective impression that the individuals had over their fatigue, with the individuals undertaking handgrip contractions with cold immersion happening in between effective exercises (Johnson et al 1990). Not only is the actual physical level of the grip looked at as part of the experiment, but also the perceptions of the individuals, as this is also thought to be an important aspect of treating sports’ injuries. By looking at the perceptions that an individual has about their own strength and ability to maintain a strong handgrip, as well as measuring the physical level of strength they are displaying, any discrepancies can be identified. This, again, presents a potential argument that individuals who have been treated in a certain way will perceive themselves to be in a better place, or more able to undertake sporting activity, even when it may not necessarily be reflected in their physical status. In order to gain the relevant information from the experiment being undertaken here, it is first necessary to look at previous literature in the area of cold water immersion, with reference to both recovery time and recovery from injury. Much of the previous research which has focussed on sports rehabilitation has considered the success of various different sports rehabilitation programmes in relation to one particular area of injury, such as tendonitis related injuries. Moreover, when focusing on the ability of an individual to recover from such a sports injury, the literature typically takes a broader view than simply looking at one technique such as cold water immersion. For example, in the paper undertaken by Levy et al., in 2009, the focus is placed on five areas that would be relevant to recovery from a sports injury, namely confidence, coping, social support, motivation and pain, indicating that an individuals ability to recover from a sports injury or to fend off fatigue woul d depend as much on surrounding factors and emotional issues, as it does on physical treatment (Levy, et al 2009). In this context and applying this to the current research, it would be expected that looking at the perceived level of exertion being displayed by the subjects would offer information as to whether or not the general emotional strength of the individual has a bearing on the level of fatigue experienced and the reaction to cold water treatment (Halvorson, 1990). Distinctions have been found in previous literature in this area in relation to the way in which professional athletes or those with a particular affiliation with a sport will undergo a recovery period, in comparison to individuals who simply participate in sports activities, from a recreational perspective. This would suggest that those primarily involved in rehabilitation from a recreational point of view will be focused more on the reduction of pain, rather than from the standpoint of enhancing performance. Bearing this in mind, it could be argued that the reaction to cold water immersion may well vary, depending on the underlying goals of those involved. For example, a professional athlete may be more motivated to ensure consistently strong athletic performances and will therefore be less likely to experience fatigue, whereas those who are more recreational in their attitude may be less likely to push themselves in terms of the level of exertion that they display. Methods All specific procedures were followed according to the Coventry University laboratory manual. The experiment involved 20 maximal handgrip contractions with a rest period of 20 seconds between each exercise, followed by 2 minutes of the hand being submerged in water which was either 5 ° or 20 ° temperature; then a further 20 maximal hand grips were used. A 20 minute rest period was then had while another group would undertake their exercise, before completing the exercise all over again. Throughout this process, the force being generated with each contraction was recorded, in order to gain an understanding as to whether the immersion treatment would improve the situation, or not. All of this is done without physical intervention from the tester at any point. By undertaking twenty separate periods of exertion and taking the average of each individual participant, it will be possible to gain an understanding of general trends associated with cold water immersion and the impact that this type of treatment can have on the regular activities undertaken by the individuals. Using both water immersion at 5 ° and 20 ° will also enable a meaningful comparison between cold water immersion and warm water immersion. Indeed, it could potentially be argued that any form of treatment may have an impact on the perceptions of the individual patient. In this case, averages were taken in order to allow for a meaningful analysis to be completed; however, it may be necessary to look at any instances of individuals who show unusual results, so as not to have the effect of skewing the overall results. It is also noted that a different set of individuals needed to studied, in the context of the impact of immersion in both cold and warm water and again this may have an impact on the results. Although both sets of individuals were subjected to the same test conditions and were asked to perform the test, both prior to and after exertion, so that the differential could be compared i n a meaningful manner, this may be particularly relevant when it comes to the rate of perceived exertion, as perceptions are clearly more of an individual factor that will vary from person to person. RPE (Rating of Perceived Exertion) was also recorded to identify any difference between actual and perceived levels of fatigue). RPE was obtained for each individual, both before and after immersion in cold or warm water, depending on the individual being questioned. This was done as an overall figure, rather than after every individual immersion, as there were concerns that if the individual was asked several times about their perceived level of exertion, they would begin to answer without careful thought and simply respond based on their previous response, rather than as a meaningful assessment of the level of exertion displayed.    Results The results of the experiments are discussed here with graphical and quantitative representation included in the appendix. A total of 16 individuals (in 2 groups of 8) were used as part of the experiment involving both warm and cold water, with the level of exertion recorded throughout. When looking at the average level of exertion across all 20 grips and eight individuals (in total 160 results), the average before being immersed in warm water was not significantly higher than the average after being immersed in warm water, with a difference of just 0 .12; interestingly, the perceived level of exertion actually increased by a not particularly substantial 0.6. When looking at the level of force being displayed by the eight individuals who immersed their hands in warm water, prior to the immersion, it could be seen that there was a relatively wide variance even among the subjects themselves, with one person showing an average force of 23.5 and another showing an average force of 50.05. However, when looking, in more detail, at the individual 20 different tests taken by these individuals, there was a relatively high level of consistency across each of the 20 grip tests. For example, the subject who showed the low average of 23.5 displayed the highest force of 27 and the lowest of 20, showing that the average of 23.5 was in fact a fair reflection of their own grip, albeit substantially less powerful than the other subjects in the experiment. In contrast, the position in relation to those who had immersed their hands in cold water showed an increase in the level of the average force which increased by 1.7. There was also a trend in the perceived level of exertion, indicating that those individuals who had been immersed in cold water and who had a higher level of force after the immersion did not actually perceive themselves to be working any harder a statement which is supported by the earlier research undertaken by Tomlin and Wenger in 2001.   This suggests that the immersion in cold water showed more consistent results when it came to the perception of exertion being used, with the subjects on average showing no fatigue. Despite this, only one of the subjects stated that they found no difference in the level of exertion between before and after immersion, with all other subjects showing either a slight increase or a decrease. On average, however, when looking at all of the subjects, there was no difference in the over all level of perceived exertion. As was the case with those subjected to warm water immersion, all subjects showed generally a higher level of force, with one of the individuals showing an average force of 48.1, prior to immersion, and another showing 24.55, prior to immersion. This indicates that there were substantial variations amongst the subjects and, as such, taking averages was perceived as being the most appropriate method when looking at the overall impact of immersion, without having to take account of individual strengths and weaknesses. Discussion The results produced during this laboratory experiment indicate that the use of cold water immersion can decrease the level of perceived effort, to such an extent that greater strength can then be displayed by individuals when completing a handgrip (Halvorson, 1990). This is despite the fact that the individuals undertaking the experiment did not perceive themselves to be using greater exertion, after their hands had been immersed in cold water. It also became readily apparent that immersion in cold water had an impact on the level of fatigue experienced and the ability of the subjects to recover from exertion. Despite the fact that the respondents said that they, on average, experienced no difference in the level of perceived exertion, there was a clear indication that they were able to display more force after immersion in cold water than they were beforehand which supports the findings of Sanders in 1996. Similar results were not shown in the case of warm water immersion and very little change was experienced in the actual level of exertion, and the perceived level of exertion actually increased. Applying this to the background literature and understanding, it could be seen that the main result ascertained from this laboratory experiment is that cold water immersion decreases the â€Å"normal† levels of fatigue and allows for quicker recovery, post exercise (Johnson et al 1979). These results suggest that there is merit in the argument that the use of cold water immersion can improve athletic performance, as individuals are able to show greater strength and force, without increasing their level of perceived exertion. With this in mind, it is suggested that cold water immersion be explored, in greater detail, as a means of improving athletic performance. It is also suggested from these results that cold water immersion could have broader applications for the treatment of injury or pain, although the experiment here is focussed on the level of strength and impact on fatigue. Applying these findings, alongside the background understanding, allows this report to suggest that cold water immersion could be used as a means of treating sports injuries, or those suffering from muscle fatigue following sporting activity. As cold water immersion would ultimately allow an individual to recover from exertion at a quicker rate, it would then be possible to argue that the same physical benefits could be obtained during the use of the cold water immersion when dealing with the recovery from injury or, indeed, the prevention of injury, by reducing the level of fatigue experienced. Conclusions The laboratory experiment undertaken during this research looked specifically at the impact that water immersion has on an individuals ability to grip forcefully, by looking at a set of individuals who immersed their hands in warm and in cold water. Through comparing the level of force that they were able to display, it was possible to ascertain whether or not any trends are emerging in terms of the level of fatigue experienced and how cold water immersion would have an impact on this. It was found that those who had immersed their hands in cold water experienced less fatigue in their grip and, importantly, their own perception of exertion being exercised, thus indicating that it is not only the actual level of grip that increases, but also the fact that they perceived that their level of exertion had not changed during the test. It was concluded, therefore, that the use of cold water immersion can not only offer solutions for those experiencing fatigue, but also for those looking to increase the sustainability of athletic performance, over a longer period of time. The results of this experiment also need to be considered in the context of the literature presented previously, which suggests that the level of recovery and reaction to fatigue may depend on the motivations of the individuals involved, with professional athletes being more likely to react positively to such activities. References (other research looking at this issue is detailed below): Bell, A.T., Horton, P.G., 1987. The uses and abuse of hydrotherapy in athletics: a review. Athletic Training 22 (2), 115–119. Byerly, P. N., Worrell, T., Gahimer, J., Domholdt, E. (1994). Rehabilitation compliance in anathletic training environment. Journal of Athletic Training, 29, 352-355. Halvorson, G.A., 1990. Therapeutic heat and cold for athletic injuries. Physician and Sportsmedicine 18 (5), 87–92 Johnson, D.J., Moore, S., Moore, J., Olive, R.A., 1979. Effect of cold submersion on intramuscular temperature of the gastrocnemius muscle. Physical Therapy 59, 1238–1242 Levy, A., Polman, R, Nicholls, A and Marchant, D (2009) Sports Injury Rehabilitation Adherence: Perspectives of Recreational Athletes. ISSP 7: 212:229 Sanders, J. (1996). Effect of contrast-temperature immersion on recovery from short-duration intense exercise, Unpublished thesis, Bachelor of applied Science, University of Canberra Tomlin, D.L., Wenger, H.A., 2001. The relationship between aerobic ï ¬ tness and recovery from high intensity intermittent exercise. Sports Medicine 31 (1), 1–11

College Application Essays

College Application Essays College Application Essays Application essay is an important step in the educational process, as it is aimed at submission of document for different academic programs and internships. Most students get lost while they need to choose a format and style of writing, but simultaneously they want to impress the committee members by their talents, not only in education sphere, but also in writing and expressing thoughts. So the top question of this article is how to write a college application essay?: Often students do not know what they should start with. However, to tell the truth, there is a mistake. Indeed, they start writing their application essay and often they do it without additional preparation and critical review of the goal of entering the university. Secrets Of A Successful Application Essay Do not break your brains, as we have already discovered all the secrets of a successful application essay and can share them with you. Writing is not a first thing to do. You should analyze the program you want to study and make many conclusions upon it before writing, such as: Improvement of your career chances after this program; Your professional ambitions and connection of them with the program; Your contribution to the program; Ideal conditions of the program, etc. Do not be in hurry with your application essay. Every thought and word, which will be in it, should help you to discover your potential and higher position among other application essays. Try to write for someone. Imagine that you are an employee and your employer wants to give his position to two applicants, you and your college. You will be earning 1000000 $ per year on this position, of course, you want him to persuade to promote just you. What methods and techniques will you use for your application essay? That is true that a human wants to be the first and this image can help you a lot in finding proper words and thoughts for the writing your unique and amazing essay. Now we hope you have notion about how to write a college application essay. The Main Stages In The Writing Application Essay Are: Think over all the positive changes in your life, education and career chances with the needed program; Try to read other application essays and analyze what techniques are used in them; Read instruction on the writing; Write your first draft. Imagine someone for whom you are writing; Give the draft for checking to the person, who is interested in your entering the program (family members, friends). If there is nobody to help you, try to read out your application essay for checking language sound; Look through the main rules of formatting, and give a grammatical form to your application essay and check for the structure and proper order of parts of your essay. Submit your application essay. Our Professional Writing Application Essay Assistance For the best application essay - contact our professional writing service! Our experience may guarantee an excellent result! Do not be afraid, entrust our writing professional company and receive an application essay without fail! Related posts: Communism Paper Philosophy Term 15 Page Term Paper Topics for a Research Paper Research Paper Proposal Persuasive Research Paper

Disaster Simulation Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Disaster Simulation - Essay Example Emergency guides advice that one should have enough resources to take care of him for at least 72 hours after the beginning of a disaster. In addition, one should prepare for his travel in case he receives an evacuation order. This involves ensuring that the gas tank is full and all items needed are in the car. It is also important to ensure that all family members are well prepared for the disaster. For instance, one should ensure that all the important documents of family members such as passports and birth certificates could be easily retrieved when the family leaves the house. Keeping the documents in fireproof box can be helpful. In addition, one should ensure that he communicates well with all family members about the escape routes and other disaster preparation strategies. Communicating to them about the warning signs of the expected disaster is vital. Other modes of communication such as radios and television also help one to prepare effectively for the disasters (Gow & Paton , 2008). Nurses have an important role to play if a disaster occurs in a work place. They should be aware of the specific disaster response plans in their hospitals. During a disaster, patients’ safety especially those in critical conditions should be the top priority in hospital. One of the nurses’ roles during a disaster in their place of work includes ambulating patients to a safer location. They should also ensure that the patients’ beds are placed in windowless areas. The situation prevents patients from being injured by broken windows during a disaster. If it is difficult to move the beds to areas that do not have windows nurses should ensure that the window blinds and drapes are closed. It is also important to protect them from debris by giving them more pillows and blankets. Additionally, nurses should ensure that all hallways are open so that patients’ needs are

Problem Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

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Applying to an American University of a South Korean Descent Essay

Applying to an American University of a South Korean Descent - Essay Example My life has not been ordinary, to say the least. As soon as I came of age, I had to serve in the Korean army for 2 years, and for most men my age, that was a time of pride and elation. I, however, felt nothing of the sort. Now, let me clarify, I love my country and there is little I would not do to protect it from external influences, but at that age, when I looked around and saw illiteracy and poverty, I felt that the country's true enemies were not Russia or China, I felt it was illiteracy and lack of education that we should have been fighting against. Needless to say, those 2 years, albeit having taught me a lot, in my eyes were 2 years wasted. I come from a religious family, and ever since I was in middle school I volunteered at the local church and helped in organizing mass and proceedings, and so was directly in touch with priests and hence, felt very, very spiritual from a very young age. In addition, naturally, in church, I met all sorts of different people and I noticed something, most of the people that attended regularly were the ones shabbily dressed, the ones that were from lower class homes, and I felt that they were approaching God as a last hope, as a sort of escape from their miserable realities and once more, I was struck by my country's misfortunes. During this time, I grew more and more pensive and made a decision to travel and see anything other than misery and depression. So I traveled with my family to North Korea, Asia, and America. And the more I traveled, the more confused I became.

The Story of the Last Hippie Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

The Story of the Last Hippie - Essay Example The paper will cover elements of Greg's condition and how it has influenced his lifestyle and how it may affect his future. It will cover the neurology and psychology of Greg's memory loss and how it comes to be that Oliver Sacks classes him as such an important case. The Story of the Last Hippie â€Å"The Last Hippie† refers to a man known by the name Greg F., who participated in many of the things associated with the 1960s, including the use of drugs to achieve higher consciousness and political activism. In this way, Greg can be said to have been a typical 1960s teenager, experimenting with counter culture and many things that had been unavailable or undesirable to previous generations. Oliver Sacks suggests that Greg enjoyed the music of the 1960s, attending concerts by the Grateful Dead and other such typical musical bands at the time. It was during this phase that Greg became interested in religion, and decided to attend a Hare Krishna temple and eventually became a member of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness. It was here that some of Greg's neurological symptoms became evident, although the members of the temple interpreted these as signs that Greg was a particularly holy member of the congregation, dedicated to meditation and Krishna. Greg was defined by those at the temple for his lack of 'worldly concern' and his freedom from desire, both physically and materially. These are two important things to the Hare Krishna community and many of those who are involved in the work of the temple strive for many years to achieve this state. In the case of Greg, he began to develop these traits almost immediately after joining. He also became known for his 'transcendent smile', something which was reminiscent of the very holiest people within the Hare Krishna community. After being a member of the temple for some time, Greg became revered and admired. Greg even began to go blind, and his eventual total blindness was seen by the community as further evidence of his holiness and his full and true participation in the community and its ways. Whilst the Hare Krishna community was in full admiration of this Buddha-like character, there were those who were wary and even concerned for Greg's health. His parents had been watching h is progress within the International Society for Krishna Consciousness and noticed the differences in their son. Whilst they were pleased that their son had stopped using drugs to achieve higher states of consciousness, and pleased that he seemed to have found his place in the world, they were concerned that his state was evidence of something more sinister. They were also concerned that all communication from the New Orleans temple had stopped, and they were no longer in continuous contact with their son. His eventual blindness was the straw that broke the camel's back, and they decided to contact the health authorities and Oliver Sacks to see if there was anything lurking behind the 'transcendent smile' that their son had adopted permanently. They were right in their concern, as it turned out that Greg had a massive brain tumour which had resulted in all the symptoms that the Hare Krishna community mistook for holiness. Greg's Disorder & Future After this intervention from Greg's parents, it is

Humn Recourse Mngement in Indi Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 4250 words

Humn Recourse Mngement in Indi - Essay Example It occupies strtegic loction in South si for interntionl trde. With n re of 3.3 million squre km, Indi is the second lrgest country in si nd the seventh lrgest in the world. former British colony, Indi hs emerged s the lrgest democrcy in the world since independence in 1947. Indi is the birthplce of three of the world's min religions: Hinduism (bout 7000 yers BC), Buddhism (487 BC) nd Sikhism (1699 D). Indin society comprises six min religious groups: Hindus (83.2 per cent), Muslims (11 per cent), Sikhs (2 per cent), Christins (2 per cent), Jins nd Buddhists (less thn 1 per cent). There re over three thousnd cstes. Indi hs 179 lnguges nd 544 dilects. The Constitution recognises sixteen lnguges, Hindi nd English being the two officil lnguges. Indi hs one of the lrgest English-speking popultions in the si-Pcific region. The litercy rte for those over 15 yers of ge is 51 per cent, but litercy is unevenly distributed (Budhwr, 2000). These fcts show the diverse nture of the Indin workforce. Though rich in culture nd nturl resources, Indi currently fces number of problems: politicl nd religious instbility; ever-incresing levels of popultion; unemployment nd poverty; corruption in government offices; cstism; low per cpit income; instbility of output in griculture nd relted sectors; slow privtistion of the bloted public sector; lck of dequte intellectul property protection; excessive bureucrcy; nd n incresing gp between rich nd poor. The level of corruption in politics is rpidly rising. fter independence, the government set up 'Plnning Commission' in 1950 to formulte ntionl plns. Since then (till erly 1990s) 'mixed economy' pproch (emphsising both privte nd public enterprise) hs been dopted. Economic plnning is minly crried out through the five-yer plns nd industril policies. Presently, the ninth five yer-pln nd the industril policy begun in 1991 re in progress (see Dtt nd Sundhrm, 1999). The next section further highlights the present dynmic business environment nd the chllenges it hs creted for the HR function in Indi. Economic crisis nd liberlistion of Indin economy Despite the formlities of plnning, the Indin economy reched its ndir in 1991. It witnessed double digit rte of infltion, decelerted industril production, fiscl indiscipline, very high rtio of borrowing to the GNP (both internl nd externl) nd dismlly low level of foreign exchnge reserves. Foreign reserves hd become so low tht they were brely sufficient to meet the cost of three weeks' imports (Budhwr, 2001). The Indin government ws forced to pledge gold to the Bnk of Englnd to meet the country's foreign exchnge requirements. The World Bnk nd the IMF greed to bil out Indi on the condition tht it chnged to 'free mrket economy' from regulted regime. To meet the chllenges, the government nnounced series of economic policies beginning with the devlution of the rupee, followed by new industril policy nd fiscl nd trde policies. number of reforms were undertken in the public sector, in trde nd exchnge policy, in the bnking sector, nd foreign investment ws liberlised. Liberlistion of policies hs resulted in huge increse in competition for Indin firms with foreign firms. In ddition, Indin firms re now under gret pressure to chnge from indigenous, costly nd probbly less effective technology to high, more effective nd costly technology (Venkt Rtnm,