Afghan Women Revealed

In the year 2001 2002 the United States of America engaged in a political campaign for the war in Afghanistan. In her essay â€Å"To unveil the threat of terror†, Dana Cloud accuses the United States government to construct a hypocritical justification for the war in Afghanistan. The United States used the picture of veiled woman and children and presented them to the united citizens as oppressed and needing help. Dana Cloud argues that the real motif of the war was to obtain economical and geopolitical control of the territory of Afghanistan. In this essay we will analyze one of the photographs that played a big important role in the Afghanistan war campaign of the United States. Our goal here will not be to discuss the real reason of the war but to determine if the pictures really represented Afghan women and children as oppressed and needing help. We will then try to determine if the united states where in fact able to help this women. Based on our conclusion we will propose a more parsimonious property of these images: a property that all photographs possess and that Morris calls an express train to error. The afghan woman is a photograph of a young afghan girl taken by National Geographic photographs in a refugee camp in Afghanistan. The girl in the photograph is wearing a red torn burka and her piercing eyes are gazing at the viewer. Some say that she looks angry, others that she looks desperate and needs help. The truth is that we will never really know what she felt at that moment. But what we can be sure of in that picture is that if the United States had not gone to war in afghan we would not have been able to gaze at her photograph for the simple reason that in afghan culture, women are not allowed to show their faces. In an American perspective, the United States had helped this young afghan girl to be free and express her identity. Ironically although the picture promotes individuality and freedom, the picture also oppresses individuality and freedom as well. It possesses a dimension of individuated aggregate. They were no name in the photograph just â€Å"the afghan woman†. By naming the photograph the Afghan woman and publishing it in the United States Press, the photograph served as a representation of all the afghan women and thus ignored the specific individual represented in the photograph. An American citizen ignorant of afghan culture and proud of his own culture and belief will automatically perceive the girl in the photograph as freed and experience what Dana Could referred to as paternalism: a need to protect her. Thus we find that Dana could argument that the United States spread an image of savior during the 2001-2002 war campaign. Did they really save this girl, or the other afghan woman? The eyes of the Afghan girl had captivated the world so much that the National Geographic photograph that had taken her photograph was sent to search for her. Mc Curry says that he went first with his search team to the original place where the photograph was taken: the refugee camp of Nasir Bagh. A man who heard about the search told them he knew the girl in the picture. He claimed she was his childhood friend and that she had returned to Afghanistan near Tora Bora.. Mc curry was informed by the team that He told them that she was a childhood friend and that she went back to Afghanistan and in she had returned to Afghanistan years ago, he said, and now lived in the mountains near Tora Bora. When McCurry got to the place and saw her walk I the room he told himself: this is her. Thus â€Å"the girl with the piercing green eyes† or â€Å"the afghan girl† was identified. Her name was Sharbat Gula, and she was Pashtun, one of the most violent tribe of Afghanistan. Mc Curry took a new photograph of her and her eyes were still burning with ferocity. Her eyes were still sea green, big haunted and haunting green eyes. In them you could read the tragedy of a land drained by war not the relief and freedom that the United States should have brought with them. If the United States had helped this girl and the other women by going in war with the Taliban, this girl her eyes would have looked happier, less angry, or simply different. We would have noticed a change, but the only change we notice is the change of a girl into a woman. This change is not relevant to the United States going to war with afghan but to nature. When observing the afghan girl one should not make biased assumption. Although being unbiased is thorough, it is not impossible. While looking at the photo of the afghan girl a viewer should see all facets of the photograph or image being observed. While the photograph of the afghan woman portrays the oppression that afghan women experience, it also expresses the tragedy and struggled experienced by women in war. As Ell Morris described in his†¦. Photographs and images are an express train to error and believing is seeing. When one observes the photographs of the afghan women, one sees what he wants to see: a women that need help from the united states,a women that is angry, a women that is ravaged by a war ,a woman that is ashamed to show her face,a woman that is revolted. hey are so many interpretation that can be drawn from the afghan woman,but none of them can really grasp the reality that the photographs bring. it is just as ell morris said. While photograph reveals important some things, they hide or misrepresent others. Thus the photograph of the afghan woman has one very parsimonious property. a property that all photographs share: to represent a blurry reality. However although the photograph is not a real represe ntation of afghan woman, it remains true that they are oppressed and ravaged by the tragedy that is war.

Philip Roth- writer of Defender of the Faith Essay

Philip Milton Roth was born on March 19, 1933 in Newark, New Jersey to a lower class middle-class Jewish Family novels and made it the scenes there. There are certain stories that he wrote which talks about his family members and his own life as well. His father was an insurance of Austro-Hungarian stock. When he wrote Patrimony in 1991, he wrote this for his dad who is still in his early eighties but in that particular story he portrayed his father as an eighty-six year old who suffered from a brain tumor. He loves his family so much. And that particular novel won the National critics Circle award in 1992.(Bloom, 2003) Experience is the best teacher and those experiences should be put into words to produce one magnificent work that will mirror the past. An excerpt from one of his book says â€Å"Between first discovering the Newark Bears and the Brooklyn Dodgers at seven or eight and first looking into Conrad’s Lord Jim at age eighteen, I had done some growing up. I am only saying that my discovery of literature, and fiction particularly, and the ‘love affair’ – to some degree hopeless, but still earnest – that has ensued, derives in part from this childhood infatuation with baseball. Or, more accurately perhaps, baseball – with its lore and legends, its cultural power, its seasonal associations, its native authenticity, its simple rules and transparent strategies, its longueurs and thrills, its spaciousness, its suspensefulness, its heroics, its nuances, its lingo, its ‘characters’, its peculiarly hypnotic tedium, its mythic transformation of the immediate – was the literature of my boyhood.† (Roth in ‘My Baseball Years’, from Reading Myself and Others, 1975) Here we can say that the place he grew up and the experiences made him what he really is and clearly shows the readers what kind of childhood he has. He attended Rutgers university from 1950-51 then transferred to Bucknell university where he graduated Phi Beta Kappa and magna cum laude with a major in English in 1954. Then he studied at the University of Chicago where he receives his M.A. in English then in 1955 he joined the army but sooner discharged because of a back injury. He then continues his study at Chicago and worked there from 1955 to 1957 as an English teacher. He then dropped out from the Ph.D. program in 1959 and started to write film reviews for the New Republic. Also in that year Goodbye Columbus won the National Book Award and was made into film here it was based on a family of a middle-class Jewish which clearly shows the author’s technique that is experience based and observations about the Jewish way of living Roth is fascinated by the idea of Jews behaving badly, but for him the physical deviance is sexual. He undermines the icon of the mensch, the Jewish good-boy (buzzle.com). Portnoy’s complaint is also his work which became the number one best seller in 1969 and made a turning point in his career. Here Portnoy’s approach to hedonistic Western culture is ironic. This work of Roth for most readers finds it offensive because of the sex scenes and the presentation of Jewish Mother was criticized. (Bloom, 2003) Jewishness is Roth’s major territory in examining American culture. Roth has more ironic and characterized as â€Å"less loving† views on Jews’ life. The readers can identify the writer with the obsession on fictional characters. In his works he increasingly wrestled problems of identity. Sometimes, he views his own life as part of his fiction. In his work The Plot against America (2004) an alternate history in which the famous pilot Charles Lindberg is the 33rd president of the Fascist U.S Philip Roth is one of the characters suffering from his Jewish Background. When he experienced separation from his wife whom he got married in 1990 distinguished actress Claire Bloom, their relationship wayback 1970 was ended in 1996 and made his wife publish a book for him entitled Leaving a Doll’s House. We can see here that even his wife is using experience as a good source of thoughts and ideas in writing a book to clearly express one’s emotion and point of views.(Bloom 2003) In his work Defender of the Faith (1959) the social and critical context shows us the passion of Philip Roth for his works. Here Roth shows us two stories at the same time, first is the story of Marx’s recovery from war experiences and the other is his conflict with Grossbart. The author explores the struggle one man goes through in order to discover which value outweigh others. Marx is in a dilemma which should be first, a good sergeant, a good Jew or a good human being. As the story progresses, Roth allows us glimpses into Marx’s recovery: the parade ground at dusk evokes childhood memories that reach deep into his heart to touch him; later, he begins to send for law school catalogs and to write old girlfriends. (ftp.ccccd.edu) From here we can see points of the author about the conflict between Marx and Grossbart. Although they are both Jews, Grossbart is trying to get a special consideration and privilege. What is difficult for Marx is that Grossbart raises questions that the army at that time never considers. Like why is it that Jews don’t go worship on their Sabbath. Then Marx just realizes that Grossbart is not really a serious Jew. He just wants to manipulate the system which on the later part made Marx fight for his own sake. We can see that this work of Roth is full of complex irony. Sgt. Marx is the defender of faith which in fact should suggest a staunch religious champion, but as far as Marxs role in the story he does it so against his will and against his intention but what made him motivated is to have an equal and fair treatment to all his men and not to be partial to Jews.where unwillingly he became defender of faith to Grossbart. At the end of the story, however, when Marx has Grossbart’s orders changed to the Pacific, the irony is that he becomes most truly a defender of his faith when he seems to be turning against it. â€Å"You call this watching out for me what you did?† asks Grossbart. â€Å"No,† answers Marx. â€Å"For all of us.† The cause of the whole Jewish faith is set back when Jews like Grossbart get special favors for themselves, for other people will mistakenly attribute Grossbart’s objectionable qualities to the Jewish people as a whole. (It’s called â€Å"stereotyping.†) Thus Marx is unwillingly a â€Å"defender of the faith† when he helps his fellow Jew, yet he becomes truly a defender of the faith when he turns against him (ftp.ccccd.edu). Roth justifies his social context about Jews in this story and made many people realize what the term â€Å"Defender of the faith† really means. Works Cited Bloom, Harold â€Å"Blooms Modern Critical Views† Chelsea House Publishers, Defenders of the faith Notes: â€Å"Defender of the Faith†by Philip Roth Roth, Philip â€Å"My Baseball Years† from â€Å"Reading Myself and Others Book†, New York Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1975

Chilean Copper Mine Collapse Essay

On August 5, 2010 at San Jose mine in northern Chile a cave collapsed trapping 33 miners more than 2000-feet underground (Weik, n. d. ). This should have been just another day, a normal 12-hour shift at work, but it instead it turned into a 69 day nightmare. Minors did not know it would be the last time for nearly two months they would see the light of day. Miners, much like fire fighters and policemen, know there is a risk in the work they do. Their families also know that there is a risk and accept that someday they may get a call with bad news. Knowing this and seeing it happen are two different things. Communicating with the Families and Employees The families are from different backgrounds and different nationalities this should be taken into consideration when communicating with them. Minera San Esteban Primera would want to have several people involved in communication plan that involved constant communication with families as well as their employees. Some of the people involved with communications should be the same nationality and speak the same language to get the message across as well as make the families feel somewhat at ease. This will help the families feel as though someone understands them and their culture because they are from the same backgrounds. Communication should be organized and planned. The families from other places, not local, should be put up in a hotel with a meeting place provided where the families can come for regular updates. This will relieve some stress from the families having to wait by the phone for updates, and for the company getting calls unexpectedly or at the wrong time. This place could serve a dual function as a place where families can go and seek empathy with other families, Minera San Esteban Primera should communicate in-person with the families as much as possible. They should provide updates via phone calls with set times to call. Electronic communication would be for faster if the families have access to this type of information. Other considerations are the employees who may have family members who are trapped. It is common in a work environment like this to have several members of one family working for the same company. Other employees may be minors who called in sick that day or were assigned to different projects. Minera San Esteban Primera will need to consider how they talk to employees to be sure sensitive information is not out before it should be. Some employees who have to work around the clock to make sure everything is taken care of. The families and employees need to know that their employer will do everything they can to help the miners as fast as they can. They should hold small to the point staff meetings to provide updates to the employees (Aniisu, n. d. ). They could even have a room where employees can come and watch for updates as they become available. The country came together suggesting ideas on how to get to the miners. It was important to ascertain if the miners were alive, to see if rescue was possible. Chilean government reached out to NASA for the assistance in communicating with the miners and could get lines of communication going. Once the Chilean authorities could confirm that they were all alive, the vital information had to get to the families and to the employees (Condon, 2010). Once communication lines were set up, family members were allowed to talk briefly to their trapped miners (Tabor, n. d. ). Even though it was only one minute, it was essential for the family to see that the minors were fine and no one was lied to. This also helped the miners’ mental state and encouraged them to stay strong until rescued. The employees were able to see live feed of the miners that helped them to feel as though Minera San Esteban Primera, NASA, and the Chilean government were, in fact, doing everything they could do to save the miners. As further mining operations were bound to happen employees would feel confident that their company would do what was necessary to ensure their wellbeing in the event of another collapse. References Aniisu, . (n. d. ). Internal Communications Pointers from the Chile Miners Rescue Mission. Retrieved from http://intraskope. wordpress. com/2010/10/15/internal-communications-pointers-from-the-chile-miners-rescue-mission/ Condon, K. (2010). Communication With Chilean Miners. Retrieved from http://ezinearticles. com/? Communication-With-Chilean-Miners&id=5391484 Tabor, J. M. (n. d. ). Jonathan Franklin’s â€Å"33 Men,† on the Chilean mine collapse. Retrieved from http://articles. washingtonpost. com/2011-03-18/entertainment/35259801_1_claudio-yanez-laurence-golborne-miners Weik, J. (n. d. ). Over 30 workers trapped

The film Solaris Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

The film Solaris - Essay Example The film unsettles the audience in very many ways. The first instant where it does this is the part where Kelvin gets to the station and discovers that Gibarian has committed suicide (Solaris, 2002). This is unsettling because death or the visualization of a body is very uncomfortable. Moreover, it is unsettling as it signs to show that the film would have many such scary scenes and thus they become uncomfortable due to uncertainty. The next unsettling is seen not long after this as Kelvin goes around the station and sees many bodies. This is bound to make the audience even more uncomfortable to the site. The techniques used to achieve this unsettling is through the use of visual effects. In such a site where there are many bodies, dim light is used with several flashes of maximum light to show the large amount of bodies in the station. The lights dim again and this is used to instill some form of rush on the viewer because a dim light in an area with many bodies is bound to scare the ordinary human. Another element included in order to enhance such an uneasy scene is by zooming. As the movie progresses, parts where there are bodies present are zoomed in and this is quite uncomfortable for the site of a body is not appealing. This zooming is also used to frighten young children watching the movie for children fear death. Sound is the vastly used technique in the achievement of unsettling the audience. There are parts of the film that are calm, and even some soft music is played in the background. However, other sections of the film there exists suspense and the audience is anxious to understand what will happen next. During such times, the type of music played is quite high toned and fast. Combination of the two makes the section even scarier. At the scene Kelvin and Gordon found the stashed away body of Snow, they are surprised and shocked. Prior to finding the body, the sound produced is quite calm as a signaling of