Heart of Darkness Essay Example for Free

Heart of Darkness Essay Kurtz is the man who Marlow searches for through the Congo. Marlows search develops into an obsession and when the search has ended, he only finds a shadow of a man that was once Kurtz. Kurtz was a man who had achieved great things in his life, inspiring each person he had come across and was expected to accomplish more. He came into the Congo with great plans for civilizing the natives, however he became greedy, which ended up being the subject of his own demise. I had immense plans I was on the threshold of great things. Kurtzs main characteristics were his ability to talk passionately to people and inspire them with his words. He had a charisma that made people feel that he was some kind of a genius. Kurtz was a very talented human being, gifted in many areas. He could not be pinned down to a specific talent. He was seen as a great musician to his cousin that Marlow visits, a brilliant politician and leader of men to the journalist and a genius and humanitarian to his intended. Marlow views him as a universal genius. Kurtz is a round character, who is explored deeply and at times, almost to deep. He is neither the protagonist nor the antagonist, but he is a complex main character within the novel. In places where Kurtz is described, there is imagery of darkness and foreboding evil. Kurtz was an exaggeration of the white people who had come to Africa for money. Kurtzs greed for ivory became extreme and even made him violent and aggressive. He was the idea of the self-made man that was the American dream. It was thought that any man could travel and be wealthy materially and spiritually. He was living that dream for a while, before it swallowed him whole. His ego inflated and he believed himself to be a superior being such as God. He let himself be worshipped among the natives and encircled himself with darkness and evil. Hence, his ideals had changed from his journey through Africa. And he soon became one of the natives. Releasing himself from civilization and restraint. When Marlow finally reached Kurtz, Kurtz had become hollow. Kurtz had reached insanity. He was no longer the great man he had once been. He was hollow at the core. Through conversing with the natives and immersing himself with them, Kurtz lost his restraint, which he had learned through civilization. By taking part in native ceremonial gatherings, he had lost his soul and he had succumbed to darkness. How many powers of darkness claimed him for their own. The reason for his behaviour was his greed for ivory. He gave up his soul only for the sole purpose of money and success. However, his actions are justified as Marlow expresses that leaving a man in a jungle with nothing but himself and the desire to make money, will make him go mad. Without restraint from his own culture, Kurtzs basic instincts were released. Kurtzs appearance had dramatically altered as well. He was extremely thin and had a baldhead; he had also lost the ability to walk. From being a God to the natives, he soon comes to despise them. He sees them as rebels, which is why he has stuck heads on sticks outside his hut. Exterminate the brutes In the end, Kurtz dies just after he has come to realize that he has become the heart of darkness. He is an embodiment of evil and he highlights this by saying, The horror! The horror! Kurtz was an imperialist who was a symbol of colonization, and a symbol of the jungle.

The Power of Place :: Essays Papers

The Power of Place â€Å"The main thing is to root politics in place. The affinity for home permits a broad reach in the process of coalition building. It allows strange bedfellows to find one another. It allows worldviews to surface and change. It allows politics to remain an exercise in hope. And it allows the unthinkable to happen sometimes.† Allen Thein Durning, This Place on Earth , P.249 The concept of place, home and community is a transnational and trans-community concept. Human places have just recently been given political boundaries. Previously, human boundaries were determined the same way that animal, plant, and ecosystem boundaries were defined. They were defined by ecology and they were defined by geography of region and hemisphere. Tony Hiss Author of The Experience of Place brings to our attention that as humans â€Å"We react, consciously or unconsciously, to the places where we live and work, in ways we scarcely notice or that are only now becoming known to us†¦In short, the places where we spend our time affect the people we are and can become.† Place defines characteristics in both human and extended moral communities. Place is not necessarily specific to gender, race, generation or specie. This understanding and recognition of place is fundamental when thinking about institutionalizing ecological and social responsibility. Because of human and nonhuman connections to specific places including knowledge, experience and community, using a sense of place and permanence as a green transnational multilateral initiative could be a successful step towards green democracy and ecological citizenship. Robyn Eckersley offers the suggestion of a constitutionally entrenched principle that would enhance ecological and social responsibility: the precautionary principle. I suggest connecting localized, place-specific boundaries with the principle. This addition is meant to aid in fostering ecological citizenship, expanding the moral community, and creating a responsible society. This addition would also be meant to unite a transnational issue that all nations could agree upon. This would create a binding multilateral principle that would be thoroughly accepting of specific ecological needs and characteristics of specific places. In short, the big picture of an international perspective needs the resolution of the peculiarities of place that can't be emphasized in a global viewpoint. The second major international environmental conference was held in Rio de Janeiro, in 1992. It was at Rio that the precautionary principle first became known to the public. Called principle 15, the precautionary principle provided that: â€Å"Where there are threats of serious or irreversible damage, lack of full scientific certainty shall not be used as a reason for postponing cost-effective measures to prevent environmental degradation† (p.

Interoperability Paper Essay

Health information systems having the power to work together within and across organizational boundaries in order to advance the effective delivery of health care of individuals and communities is called Interoperability. Interoperability enhances the significance for information technology to make the networks and integrations work. It also affects care delivery, continuity of care, and the ability to share information with patients for patient engagement. The term is most widely used in product enhancement and marketing. In human services different providers employ interoperability to communicate with other systems and services for better results. (Margaret Rouse, 2006) ACF Interoperability Initiative The Administration for Children & Families or the ACF is known as an important Department of Health & Human Services America. ACF supports the economic and social well-being of children, families, communities, and individuals through offering many state of the art programs. ACF’s human services provide a vast range of groups consisting of individuals and families earning low income, Native Americans, refugees, and many others. (ACF, 2013) ACF has a mission to fulfill, and is also struggling to do so. They want to be able to provide grants to non-profit groups, state and local governments, faith and community-based organizations, Native American communities, and American Indian tribes. ACF also provides technical assistance, supervision, and administration to fund beneficiaries that, in turn, are responsible for direct delivery of services. (ACF, 2013) There are many barriers and issues in providing the grants to the end recipients for which the initiative is taken to implement the interoperability. â€Å"Interoperability† is acknowledged as a national effort of technological and programmatic coordination to mitigate and even diminish those barriers. Today, the emergence of â€Å"interoperable technology† provides the opportunity  to unite systems cross wide traditional boundaries in exciting and rewarding ways. This integration through interoperability corresponds to the need for expansion of new service models and techniques to make best use of constructive outcomes for children, families and communities (ACF, 2013). Models of Interoperability There are different ways and methods to implement interoperability. Almost every organization creates its own interoperability models and methods. The three models of interoperability are information interoperability, business interoperability, and technical interoperability. Information interoperability allows the separate systems to understand the format, meaning and also the quality of the information being exchange, and it includes knowledge management, business intelligence, information management, and trusted identity. Business interoperability is an interface that enables business interoperability between organizational systems. It includes delivery network, e-Democracy, e-Business, enterprise resource management, and relationship and case management. Lastly technical interoperability means the ability of two or more information and communication technology applications, to accept data from each other and perform a given task in an appropriate and satisfactory manner without the need for extra operator intervention and this includes IT infrastructure ( Togaf, 2013) Advantages and Disadvantages There are many benefits of interoperability. Interoperability is significant in linking health and human services. It improves the client’s experience by caring for the whole person with enhanced and advanced care coordination, enhanced timely contact to getting critical information for decision making, prevent illness, reduce exacerbating conditions, decrease hospital reentries and help build individuals self-sufficiency. Interoperability helps in providing the ACF timely and accurate information to provide a more compatible enrollment process. The system will also enhance the access of information. The system helps access a wide range of data from every human service organization to link the clients to. The transparency through interoperability across programs will also enhance the ability of systems to reduce fraud, waste and abuse. I don’t think there are any disadvantages. Back-up It is very important for you to protect the data because it is the heart of the organization. And to protect your organization’s data, you need to implement a data backup and recovery plan. Backing up files can protect against accidental loss of user data, database corruption, hardware failures, and even natural disasters (Microsoft, 2013).The way the files are backed up vary according to the data that is required to be back up and also the convenience regarding the recovery process. Normal/full backups: In this method every file that is selected is backed up, apart from the setting of the attributes of archive. If there is modification required in a file, this attribute is set, which shows the requirement for file back up. Listed below is the backup plan concerning the interoperability. * Copy backups: Every file selected for back up is backed up fully, without the consideration of the setting of the archive attribute. Contrasting a normal backup, the modification does not occur to the archive attribute on files. It gives rise to opportunity to create other backups in future. * Differential backups: Invented in order save the changes to files since the last backup of the system. Only files with the archive attribute are backed up. The files with the archive attribute aren’t modified. This lets you perform other kinds of backups on the files at a later date. * Incremental backups: This is designed to generate backups of files that have changed since the most recent normal or incremental backup. The existence of the archive attribute indicates that the file has been modified. Only files with this attribute are backed up. The archive attribute is cleared when a file is backed up. If the file is modified later this attribute is set. When the attribute is set it indicates that the file needs to be backed up. * Daily backups: Designed to create backup files on the date the file was created. The file will also be backed up if the file has been changed on the same day as the backup. Daily backups do not change the archive attributes of files (Microsoft, 2013). The ACF is hoping to accomplish full backups on a weekly basis and complement this with daily, differential, or incremental backups. The organization also wants to generate an extended backup set for quarterly and monthly backups. This can include files that aren’t being backed up on a regular basis. References ACF, (2013), â€Å"ACF Interoperability Initiative†. Retrieved from: http://www.acf.hhs.gov/initiatives-priorities/interoperability Margaret Rouse, (2006), â€Å"Interoperability†. Retrieved from: http://searchsoa.techtarget.com/definition/interoperability Microsoft, (2013), â€Å"Data Back Up and Recovery†. Retrieved from: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb727010.aspx Togaf, (2013), â€Å"Interoperability Requirements†. Retrieved from: http://pubs.opengroup.org/architecture/togaf9-doc/arch/chap29.html

The Federal Government Should Regulate Fracking Essay

An individual’s environment plays a pivotal role in their overall health. The environment can affect a range of physical and mental processes, and is considered a defining factor of well-being. As a result, specific geographic areas are instrumental in shaping an individual’s health profile. This is clearly seen in the disparity between those living in areas exposed to toxic substances, versus individuals living in clean environments. Individuals in unpolluted environments experience the advantage of a body system free from the barrage of chemical assault. Unfortunately, people who live near toxic wastes or byproducts of industry, have a body that is in constant defense of attack. This natural defense mechanism can prove†¦show more content†¦The actual technique involves â€Å"pumping a slurry of water, sand and chemicals underground to fracture shale formations and release hydrocarbons† (Fracking, 2013, p. 276). Modern procedures use a high degree of ma nipulation in order to extract the natural gas. The natural gas from fracking is dispersed in rock, and can only be retrieved by using specialized removal techniques (Palliser, 2012). These specialized techniques have many unintended consequences. For instance, the current method of fracking may cause the issue of flowback. Flowback occurs when the internal pressure of the rock formation causes the injected watery, chemical mixture to return to the surface with other naturally occurring substances (Palliser, 2012). This flowback is often injected back underground or can be processed by wastewater treatment plants, where it is later discharged as surface water (Palliser, 2012). Indisputably, the disposal and generation of flowback is one of the main concerns regarding hydraulic fracking. The wastewater developed from fracking procedures is often inappropriately handled and is sometimes sprayed onto rural roads and forests (Finkel Hays, 2013). As a result, the surface water may come in contact with living organisms and can cause a plethora of issues. For fracking opponents, their driving force is the ill effects of fracking on the environment and overall health. Similarly, the possibility of drinking or coming in contact with chemically laden byproductsShow MoreRelatedEssay on Natural Gas Fracking Risks1519 Words   |  7 Pagesis produced when trapped gas is released above ground. Hydraulic fracturing or fracking is a process that extracts natural gas from the ground. As harmless as the billion dollar producing oil companies would want us to believe, environmental groups, scientists, and average citizens have raised concerns about the negative impact of hydraulic fracking on the environment and surrounding communities. 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But it may end because burning these wonderful fuels puts the planet farther down a path we don t want to head down†. Fracking, or hydraulic fracturing, is a petroleum mining method to reach remote gas under water that is located in the crust of the earth. Fracking uses a blend of water, sand, and chemicals. HydraulicRead MoreHydraulic Fracturing And Its Effects On The Environment1737 Words   |  7 Pagesharmful to the environment as other forms of oil and natural gas extraction. Hydraulic Fracturing is becoming a widely used natural method of Petroleum and Natural Gas extraction. Hydraulic Fracturing can also be referred to as Hydro Fracking, or just Fracking. Fracking has become very controversial because of the threats it poses on the environment. In short, Hydrofracking is done by injecting water and sand into a Shale formation nearly seven thousand feet underground. 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