Imaginary Life-Themes

Malouf's novel is one of deep philosophical themes. The first major theme in an imaginary life is humans' relationship with the natural world. This theme is a central aspect of the novel as it shows the reader how Ovid and the Child's relationship with nature changes their outlooks on life. The closer Ovid becomes with nature the closer he is to achieving inner peace. The same inner peace achieved at the end of the novel when Ovid surrenders himself and becomes one with the world. This is seen through the fact that Ovid becomes immeasurably happy at being the past, present and the future â€Å"It is summer. It is spring. I am immeasurably, unbearably happy. I am three years old. I am sixty. I am six.† This theme is also seen in how inseparable the child is from the natural world and in fact also â€Å"is the natural world†. This is shown in the section of the novel when Ovid is teaching the child how to speak his language. During this time the child also attempts to teach Ovid his language. Ovid finds this as difficult as the child finds learning Ovid's language. Ovid believes that by him â€Å"knowing that it is the sky, that the stars have names and a history† prevents him â€Å"being the sky†. This is due to the fact that Ovid's relationship with the natural world is not yet strong like the child's is. We are shown how crucial the child's relationship with the natural world is through the fact that the child becomes vulnerable and fragile when taken into the settlement in Tomis â€Å"Whatever his secret was I have taken it from him. He is as vulnerable now as anyone of us†¦. He shows himself human at last†. Despite having no dialogue throughout the novel, the function of language is still a central theme of the novel. The relationship between language and perception is highlighted through Ovid's personal descriptions as he believes one cannot view concepts in the same way with different language knowledge. He uses the example of colours to show this on page 25: â€Å"Scarlet. Magic word on the tongue to flash again on the eye. Scarlet†. This describes Ovid's amazement at the feeling evoked from the words. This is also portrayed through Ovid's different perspectives that he describes between the connotations allocated with the abilities of the different languages that he learns. His silent language with the child shows how language can enable one to relate more closely to others and learn from them. Another theme in this novel that helps to describe who the child is is the ‘destiny of the individual.' Throughout the novel Malouf emphasizes that one always has an idea of their destiny. This is illustrated by Ovid's realization that his destiny is lost with the child. Several times Ovid's dreams do in fact unravel themselves in the real world. An example is how he dreams of catching the boy and then later persuades Ryzak the chief to capture him. Another instance where this theory takes effect is in Ovid's dream of going travelling past all â€Å"boundaries† of this world. He later achieves this feet when he is taken across the river Ister by the child. On page 151 Ovid describes the river Ister as his destiny awaiting: â€Å"It remained, shifting its tides, freezing each season, cracking up, flowing again, whispering to me: I am the border beyond which you must go if you are to find your true life, your true death at last.†

Is Creativity Essential in Learning?

After the review of three elt designer approaches-the silent way, suggestopedia and total physical response, we have devised our own philosophy of teaching. We believe that creativity is essential to learning and if the students are making an effort on their part and discovering things for themselves; the factor of self-reliance is evolved and since the students are active and autonomous in exploration so the learning would be more effective. We believe that for language learners, the language would present itself as a problem or a riddle to be solved. Learners are required to engage with the language and try to discover and explore it. We believe that peer cooperation is an important factor in learning. This enhances the level of confidence and patience among the students and students learn a lot from each other but one drawback to this is that they also learn each others mistakes. Furthermore, students are asked to review and overview what they have learned in the class. It is by this activity of self correction through self-awareness that the students learn to deconstruct and then reconstruct. We believe that the use of sound-color chart is really effective in language learning. This chart contains all the sounds of the target language in different colors. Students learn syllables, words and then sentences of the target language through these charts. We believe that the psychological barriers that students bring with them be desuggested. These can be desuggested both by direct and indirect way. Once the student succeeds to clear his doubts and fear, his performance in learning will become quite easy and effective. We believe that activating the learner’s imagination will aid learning. For example, the learner’s can perform or take up a role or character in the target language that could place them inside the language they are learning. We also believe that when the students are exposed to the information as part of an environment, they grasp it more conveniently with less effort. The use of charts and posters related to the target language are one example of this. Moreover, the teacher’s authoritative role is of prime importance. The main role of the teacher is to deconstruct the self-perceived barriers and to encourage and support the students so that they have enough confidence in themselves. This would improve and enhance their learning ability. Error toleration encourages the students to learn from their mistakes and improve upon. Language is more effective when it is fun and here the main focus is on the spoken language. The use of commands in language learning makes it interesting. A complete lesson can be designed on the verbs by employing this technique. For example: Slice some bread. Spread the butter to all corners of bread. Put piece of meat on one slice of bread. We believe that the use of â€Å"The Arts† incorporate fun in the class and the students can enjoy their learning. The Arts enables suggestions to reach the subconscious of students. This method maintains a modest enthusiasm among the students. We believe that students should be encouraged to understand the target language before speaking. This method will provide the quick response from students. This will activate the learner’s imagination and help in learning. Motor activities involved plays an important role upon the cognitive learning of students . We believe that humor in the class make students stress-free and learning is more effective when students are in a relaxed state of mind.

Cooperate power Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Cooperate power - Essay Example For instance, the recent trade agreement between United States, Panama, Colombia and South Korea allows the member state’s corporations to treat each other equally. Though World Trade organization and other trade agreements do not fully offer free trade, corporations have furthered their interests through the lowered trade barriers between trading nations. Trade agreements lower trade barriers such as customs duty, excise duty, quotas and import bans which open markets to the corporations. Arguably, this results to increased production as these corporations will focus on what they produce best (Hoekman et al, 2002). Needless to say, lowered trade barriers allow corporations to increase their trading activities, which results to increased incomes. In addition, World Trade Organization and trade agreements reduce the costs of production which may trigger increased profits for the corporations thus furthering their interests. Debatably, the removal of trade barriers increases the level of cheap imports used in production resulting to abridged costs of production. World Trade Organization and other trade agreements offer business protection and incentives. In this regard, corporations use the business incentives, and protection such as defending of logical property rights offered by World Trade organization and other trade agreements (Hoekman et al, 2002). This assists the corporations in attaining and furthering their interests. The recent trade agreement between United States, Panama, Colombia and South Korea protect intellectual property rights and environmental standards allowing the corporations in the different states to further their interests. World Trade Organization and other trading agreements offer enterprises an apparent view of their future opportunities (Hoekman et al, 2002). This is because trade agreements assure member states that the trade barriers will not be raised

Batting lineup against any one particular team Research Paper

Batting lineup against any one particular team - Research Paper Example This research will begin with the statement that statistics are useful in almost any area of life. Consider the workplace, home, social organization, or sports arena. Statistical analysis enables us to consider where we have been, where we are going, and how effective we have been at both stages. It is a process that allows us to consider and realize trends, either positive or negative, and lead us to conclusions about what to do next. Owing to this reality, it is therefore important to consider the myriad of uses that statistics brings to everyday life. To accomplish this, this paper will examine a hypothetical problem and propose a research question that can be solved through statistical analysis. Consider the sport of baseball. Each team has a manager who bases many of his decisions on various pieces of statistics that are given to him. A team’s batting lineup, for example, often is a critical piece to the number of runs a team scores, and their ability to win games. It can be said, therefore, that a team’s batting lineup depends upon statistical analysis and affects their ability to score runs, hit off certain pitchers, and avoid putting hitters in situations where they are likely to fail. The problem in baseball, like many of life’s situations, is that basing a decision on wrong assumptions can be disastrous. The batting lineup in baseball is a critical component. All aspects of the hitter and the opposing team’s pitcher must be considered when making out the lineup.... Research Question The research question for this problem would be: What batting lineup will prove the most effective against any one particular team? Data Collection To answer this question, there is a plethora of data the collected in order to assist in the statistical analysis that will lead to the formation of an effective batting order. To begin, the manager would need to collect various components of a player’s batting average. This includes, but is certainly not limited to, the following items: 1) A hitters overall batting average, 2) A hitters average with runners in scoring position, 3) A hitters average against right handed pitchers, 4) A hitters average against left handed pitchers, and 5) A hitters average against the specific opposing pitcher assigned to any one particular game (Albright, 1993, p. 1178). The data to be collected can be gathered by taking a look at a player’s combined batting averages over the course of a season. In today’s day and age , this is usually simplified with the use of technology. It is important to collect the data from one season only, as a hitters performance tends to fluctuate season by season, so their performance in previous years may not reflect on this current ability, or inability, to hit well against a particular pitcher this year (Talsma, 1999, p. 738). When thinking about much how much data is needed to solve this problem, more is definitely better. The more data that can be covered, in as many relevant areas as possible, the more benefit the statistical analysis can be to provide a manager with the accurate picture they need to assess player performance as the season progresses. Data Analysis It is not enough to simply collect a bunch of data related to hitting in baseball. The data must then be analyzed

Which is bigger Feel the Fear or The Giant Essay

Which is bigger Feel the Fear or The Giant - Essay Example Findings also indicate that the maximum and minimum heights for the Giant coaster are 36.434 metres and -96.434 metres. The difference between maximum and minimum heights is 132.868 metres. The analysis indicates that the dimensions of the rectangular enclosure that will give maximum possible area are 51 metres by 51 metres. The maximum possible area of the enclosure will be 2601 square metres. The analysis also indicates that the dimensions of the snack box that would give the maximum volume are 6.67 cm x 13.33 cm x 26.67 cm. The maximum volume of the snack box will be 2370.37 cubic cm. A mathematical model is a description of a system using mathematical concepts and languages. It is a mathematical representation of the relationship between two or more variables relevant to a given situation or problem. Mathematical modelling is the process of developing a mathematical model. It provides a method for solving problems mathematically. It is used to describe a real - world event, to investigate important questions about the observed world, to explain real-world event, to test ideas and to make predictions about the real world (Berry & Houston, 1995). In this report, mathematical modelling will be used to investigate the difference between maximum and minimum heights for the Feel the Fear coaster and the Giant coaster using differentiation, and maxima and minima concepts. The differentiation, and maxima and minima concepts will be also used to find the length and width of a rectangular enclosure for a given fixed fencing of 100 metres so that the enclosed area is maximized. The differentiation, and maxima and minima concepts will be used to determine the dimensions of a snack box from a 40cm by 40cm cardboard that would give maximum possible volume In this report, I used differentiation, and maxima and minima concepts to find the answers. The maximum and minimum heights for the Feel the Fear coaster

The Effects of Economic Aid to Third World Nations Term Paper

The Effects of Economic Aid to Third World Nations - Term Paper Example This question has been repeatedly being asked and emphasized on by various scholars over a long period of period. In 1972, Papanek was the first one to develop a constructive relationship between growth and aid. In 1985, Singh also seconded Papanek that a cohesive relation exists between the economic growth and aid in Third World nations. In 1993, Synder also propagated the ideas of Papanek and Singh but taking into consideration the size of the country. In 1997, Dollar and Burnside acknowledged this positive relation on the premise that it works nicely if the country is meticulous in making policies and it also implements policies according to donor countries, policymakers in beneficiary’s countries and also considers multilateral support firms. In 1999, El-Kaissay and Fayissa profound into this thought and reap the same positive correlation. (Duc) Aids come in several forms; for instance food assistance, military aid, humanitarian emergency support, etc. The growth aid has a lways been recognized as important for helping poor nations of the world to bring them out of impoverishment. The affluent nations of the world decided to give aid of 0.7% of their Gross National Income to poor nations in 1970 as an official global development support each year. But this target has never been achieved. Regardless of the fact that countries have given billions of dollars in cash to poor countries each year they have never met the standard set by them. Some scholars believe that aid has a pessimistic affect on the development of developing countries. In 2000, Knack argued that excessive aid destroys the quality of government, exploits it, and augments the corruption in that region and thus growth is affected negatively. In 2003, Roodman, Levine, and Easterly examined a huge sample size to test the premise of Dollar and Burnside, and the result they found didn’t quite support the positive relation proposed by Dollar and Burnside. (Schoolland) Every rose has a th orn. And thus aid does not come for free. It bears an expensive price to the developing nations. Mostly, the top most condition for aid is that the recipient country must buy over expensive services and goods from the donor nations. Also, the amount of aid is planned and set by affluent countries that following their protectionist policies restrict poor nations to access the market. Most assistance does not really go to the poor nations who are in most need of it. Furthermore, huge projects or enormous striking strategies are deemed to failure to assist the susceptible as mostly, money is used the wrong way. On the contrary, it has also been observed that developing countries with strong economic policies and high-quality governmental institutions have augmented their growth with aid rather than without it. The Gross Domestic Product of countries receiving aid has increased by 2.7% per capita in contrast to countries not receiving aid, with 0.5% per capita. But, some countries who o nly received some aid have achieved a 2.2& per capita of growth. It all basically depends how the aid is utilized; a sound management and high-support by rich countries leads to 3.7% per capital Gross Domestic Product according to World Bank. (Bovard, 1996) Let’s look at the impact foreign aid has on some countries. The current experience of South Asian countries is exemplary. With foreign aid, Bangladesh has

Airport Growth Data Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Airport Growth Data - Research Paper Example When compared with international or regional trends, one finds that these have been starkly drawn up with passenger traffic and the volume of flights coming in and going out of an airport. This is the reason why much success is indeed linked up with how airports grow over a period of time and showcase the real basis of national and international traffic (Teck & Wai, 2002). The growth has been consistent because airliners have come up; fleets expanded and overall productivity is being seen across the ranks. This is the reason why many airports are now bringing in more luxuries and facilities for their passengers on a constant basis. Planning essentially plays a very quintessential role at suggesting how successful initiatives are being drawn up within the ranks of the airports in the time and age of today (Pitt & Brown, 2001). This is the reason why many airports are doing their best to accommodate as many passengers and flights as

Character biography Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Character biography - Assignment Example She thinks that she is like the sunflower, which is always sunny and optimistic. During Mary’s first day at school, she missed her mother so much that she decided to ditch, but her teacher found her along the way and took her back to the school. She cried when she was not allowed to go home, and Mary seldom cried. To pique her interest, the teacher gave her a painting book, which she loved dearest. Mary had her friends at school. There were three of them who were close. Jack, Mary, and Karlo were inseparable. Jack and Karlo would always fetch her from home and they would go to the movies together. Mary and Jack had a knack for romantic comedies, and Karlo would tag along and critique everything. One day, their friend Karlo did not go to school. During recess, they were called by the principal to tell them that their friend had been through an accident. He needed new organs, and there were no donors yet. After three days, the two wept together when they found out that their fri end had not survived. This was the second time that Mary had been broken. She was so sad that she did not eat most of the time. They would always visit Karlo’s grave and talk to him when they were sad. She was already in high school when her father was promoted as the editor-in-chief. They moved to a bigger house, one with a bigger garden.

Hofstedes framework Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Hofstedes framework - Essay Example Ineffective management of productivity, on the other hand, deters productivity.The theory thus provides for effective ways of managing cultural diversity thus influencing the formation of an effective cross-cultural communication that will enhance the interaction in organizations. Culture is an important social feature that influences individual values; this implies that cultural conflicts are likely to result in the conflict of values a feature that will definitely affect the productivity at the workplace. In developing effective cross-cultural communication, Hofstede vouchers for an understanding of the cultural differences. A manager must understand the differences thereby understanding the differences in the values. This way, it becomes easier to appreciate and acknowledge cultural differences thus influencing the development of effective and considerate communication channels in the organization. Human resource managers must always strive to develop cohesive workforces that func tion seamlessly. Creating such a workforce requires the acknowledgment of the cultural differences since they influence the difference in the individual values. This way, the managers can readily discourage the manifestation of the negative personality features that may arise from the cultural differences. With such an in-depth understanding of the cultural differences, Hofstede asserts that it becomes possible for managers to barn particular behaviors while encouraging positive interpersonal skills that enhance productivity.

Housing & Development Board Analysis Essay Example for Free

Housing Development Board Analysis Essay This is the highest rate of increase this year compared to the 0. 1-per cent drop in the first quarter and the 0. 4-per cent increase in the second quarter. It was also higher than the flash estimate of 0. 5 per cent released earlier this month. Meanwhile, resale prices of Housing Development Board (HDB) flats in Singapore hit a record high. HDBs Resale Price Index (RPI) rose from 194 in the second quarter of this year to 197. 9 in the third quarter. This represents an increase of two per cent over the previous quarter, the same as that of the flash estimate released on October 1. – Evidence for an increase demand for resale flats  But with a bumper crop of 27,000 Build-to-Order flats being rolled out this year, analysts said the resale market may be showing signs of moderating. Growth for the first three-quarters of this year is 3. 9 per cent. This is lower than the annual RPI growth of 14. 1 per cent in 2010, and 10. 7 per cent last year. Donald Han, special advisor at HSR Property Consultants, said: Buyers who are able to wait for the product to be completed in 24 to 36 months are getting better value proposition in terms of cheaper prices, and perhaps better amenities compared to one whos buying a resale flat. The volume of resale transactions also fell for the first time in 12 months. Resale transactions also fell by about six per cent from 7,011 cases in second quarter to 6,560 cases in the third. – Number of buyers dropped The last fall in resale transactions was in the third quarter of last year when transactions fell from 6,581 in the second quarter, to 5,903 in the third. Analysts said that this might not be because buyers are staying away, but because there is a short supply of resale flats in the market. – Reason for the decrease in the demand (Isnt this is for supply? The number of sellers in market. ) They added that this has pushed the median cash-over-valuation (COV) up by S$4,000 to S$5,000 compared to the last quarter. According to real estate firm Propnex, COVs hovered between S$25,000 and $28,000 in the first two quarters, before rising to $30,000 in Q3. This means a 20 per cent increase quarter-on-quarter. Chris Koh, director of Chris International, said: Regardless of whether there are BTO flats, if private property prices are too high, many are unable to afford private property. So they turn to a resale market to buy a flat instead. So you still see a strong demand from those not eligible to buy brand new flats, those who cant afford private property and have to buy a resale flat. Reason for the increase in the demand. (Price of related good) Theres one more group, I call them the downgraders. They have cashed out their private property, thats why they dont mind paying a premium for some of these resale flats. In the rental market, subletting transactions rose by about four per cent. The number of cases increased from 6,891 in the second quarter to 7,142 cases in the third quarter. The total number of HDB flats approved for subletting also rose to 42,920 units in the third quarter, compared to 41,814 units in the second. Mr Han said: In the last five years, prices have not gone south. In fact, prices have grown by 92 to 93 per cent since five years ago So, a lot of the able sellers are keeping it for hopefully higher capital returns for the next 12 months. (supply) If you look into a rental proposition, HDB rental flats if you look at average four-room or five-room, youre looking at roughly about S$2,000 to S$2,500 per month. It provides a very good fertile ground support for tenants out in the market looking for cheap accommodation. The yield coming from HDB apartments is fairly attractive as well, compared to other classes of residential property. Were looking at yields of 4. 5 to five per cent, compared to private properties which would be about 2. 5 to about 3. 5 per cent. Mr Koh added: Im not sure if theres a co-relation, but I wont deny that if prices of resale flats are too high, some would not be able to afford it. So the next best option will be to rent and wait for prices to come down. - Reason for decrease in demand when price rise. (Taste and preference? ) The HDB said it introduced a new e-service on Monday to enable the public to search for the market rentals of entire HDB flats rented out by owners. It is hoped that this will allow better transparency in the subletting market, and help potential tenants and flat owners make informed decisions.

Analysis of Role-based Access Control (RBAC)

Analysis of Role-based Access Control (RBAC) ABSTRACT Access control systems within an enterprise system are used to control the actions, functions, applications, and operations of legitimate users within an organization and to protect the integrity of the information stored within the system. Role-based access control (RBAC) is a relatively new access control system that maps to organizational-specific structures in a way that reduces administrative costs and improves security. Although role-based security models have existed for 20 years, their application has until recently been limited. We try to give a comparison between RBAC and traditional access control models and try to evaluate the different industries where these models can be utilized. We try to evaluate the NIST RBAC model as a standard for implementing RBAC and show the implementation by developing an application which uses RBAC for authentication and authorization for the computer system to be accessed. This also involves a discussion for different variations of the Role Based Access Control models according to NIST. INTRODUCTION Access control is generally concerned with determining what users and groups of users can perform which operations on certain resources [10][1][11]. The fundamental problem is that each system and application for which access control is enforced has a proprietary method for creating and managing users, groups, and a system specific meaning of operations and objects. For many organizations, the number of systems can be in the hundreds or even thousands, the number of users can range from hundreds to the hundreds of thousands, and the number of resources that must be protected can easily exceed a million. Organizations large IT infrastructure is a mix of hugely complex and incompatible operating systems, applications and databases spread all over the world. The organizations these days have a huge number of employees which keep increasing or decreasing all the time according to the organizations need. It also has a working interaction with contractors, business partners, and customers, all of whom require access to various parts of the infrastructure. Most of the companies rely on manual or semi-automated administration of users, controlling their access to privileges for various resources on a particular system. This will inevitably become very complex and completely unmanageable if the organization is huge and the number of users of the system is in thousands or more. Often, different systems will have their own set of access requirements with different sets of administrators who will have overlapping skill-sets, leading to poor use of resources. This creates an enormous administrat ive overhead e.g. If there is a single administrator who needs to update even 25% of thousands of users everyday, it will almost be impossible for the system admin to do so. Furthermore, if multiple administrators are acquired for this job it could cause conflicts so the system becomes almost impossible to handle and maintain. Also, it would cost much more than if you were to have a single administrator. As the complexity of the organizations IT infrastructure increases, the demand for access control administration across the enterprise outgrows the capacity of manual administration across the distributed systems. Increased administrative complexity can also result in increased errors that, in turn, can lead to increased security risks. It is best suited to use the access control models to restrict unauthorized access and avoid any security risks. Access Control Models have long been used in enterprise systems and ERPs so that the system is made secure and reliable, restricting access to sensitive and confidential information resources from unauthorised users [10]. Different access control models are suited for different business applications and industries depending upon the scale and complexity of the system being developed. This report will try to analyze the different types of access control models as discussed above, that may be suitable for a variety of businesses and industry applications, giving their features, benefits and classification. This document will be covering many issues related to access control and various access control models. The critical analysis of each of the traditional access control model will be provided as well as the comparisons with each other identifying their advantages and drawbacks. The industry specific implementation of each of the model will also be discussed i.e. which model is suited for which kind of industry and what models should be selected depending on the scale of the system. Then the more recent access control model which is being widely utilized nowadays will be discussed in more detail and its different versions will be evaluated. Also role-based access control will be discussed in different environments i.e. in a centralized application environment and also in a distributed application environment. In the end, there will be an implementation of the appropriate access control model for a particular industry application called BOS (Back Office System) that is a travel agency. This application will support the day to day business operations of the organization. The model used for this application will be Role-Based access control as the structure and requirements of the business will be supported using this RBAC. It does not require the ACLs of DAC and it does not need the high security of MAC because the access privileges can be interchangeable between the users of the system. BACKGROUND Access Control Models have long been used in enterprise systems and ERPs so that the system is made secure and reliable, restricting access to sensitive and confidential information resources from unauthorised users. The basic need of access control is to protect the system and its contents from intentional and unintentional damage, theft and unauthorised disclosure. The access control models that have been used in the recent decades are traditional access control models which are Access Control Lists (ACLs), Discretionary Access Control (DAC) and Mandatory Access Control. Role Based Access Control (RBAC) is a more recent access control model which provides an alternative for the traditional access control models. The most appropriate way to restrict access of resources from unauthorized users of the system is to use one of the traditional access control models as a means of implementing secure and reliable access for that system. There are many access control models present in this age of time which cater to different needs and provide different type of security depending on the nature, scale and type of the application as well as the industry for which the application is being implemented for. Traditional access control models base access control on the discretion of the owner or administrator of the data. Under all traditional models, an end-users identity determines which access permissions are needed. This section gives a brief introduction to the predominant traditional access control models as well as some of the more recent models that have been utilized more recently. We discuss these models in more detail in the later sections: Access control lists (ACLs). Discretionary Access Control (DAC). Mandatory Access Control (MAC). Role-Based Access Control (RBAC). Access Control Lists ACLs is one of the most common access control model being used for securing operating systems, applications, computer resources and networks. When ACLs is selected as a model for implementing access control, each resource that needs to be secured has a list of users associated with them who are authorized to access the resource and even modify and make changes in it if they are allowed to. ACLs as a model provides ease of access for the security administrator to see which users have access to which resource within the application or system. Also, modifying access to a piece of information is relatively simple; a security administrator can simply modify a user from the ACL list that is a user can be created, edited or even deleted easily. There is a corresponding ACL present for every data or application, but it is not necessary to have a corresponding list that gives the network administrator information on all of the pieces of information to which a particular user has access. The only way for the security administrator to find out about any potential security violations on a particular data has to be checked by accessing each of the data individually. If the security administrator wants to revoke all the access privileges for a certain user, the administrator has to examine each list and then have to remove the user from each of the lists one by one. Responsibilities for a user in an organisation may change, in this kind of scenario this model becomes more complicated and hard to manage. Instead of removing the user from every ACL, the network administrator has to determine which permission needs to be removed, modified or added somewhere according to the new position of the user in the organisation. In some situations the user can be grouped together in the list making it easier to change the ACL by just modifying the group information rather than each of the users individually. In some other cases elaborate rules can be applied to ACLs to restrict access to particular resource. Discretionary Access Control Using Access Control Lists Discretionary Access Control The user who owns the data is the one who control access to that data in the discretionary access control model. ACL is a model which is derived from DAC. DAC is a means of restricting access to objects based on the identity of subjects and/or groups to which they belong. The controls are discretionary in the sense that a user or process given discretionary access to information is capable of passing that information along to another subject [1]. Discretionary Access Control is used to stop the user from accessing the protected objects on the system. The user may also be restricted to a subset of the possible access types available for those protected objects. Access types are the operations which are performed on an object by a user, the operations include read, write and execute. Usually an object belongs to a user or a user is the owner of that object, this means that only the owner of the object has the authority to distribute and revoke access to that object. The owner of the object may give and retain access to the objects they control based on the rules of the DAC. The identity of users and objects is the fundamental basis for controlling access in a system within this model i.e. DAC specifies which users have access to which part of the information. Mandatory Access Control Mandatory Access Control is different from other access control models in a way that the security it provides is based on hierarchy and assigns each subject and object a specific security level (e.g., classified, secret, top secret etc.). The rules that govern the access to a particular for this model are: No read up. No write down or (own level write only). Read down access gives users the ability to access any piece of information that is at or below their own security level. If a user has a secret security level, they are able to access secret and classified material but not top secret material. Write up access states that a subjects clearance must be dominated by the security level of the data or information generated. For example, someone with a secret clearance can only write things that are secret or top secret. With these two access control principles, information can only flow across security levels or up security levels [1]. Mandatory Access Control Role Based Access Control In traditional access control models the approach for granting access to resources within a particular system or an application is to specify permission for each of the user within an organization. If the user is allowed to have access to multiple resources or information within a system, the user must be assigned permissions for each of the resource. This approach is tricky and not the most reliable way of implementing access control. When users join, leave or change responsibilities within an organization, each of the users who changes status within the organization that users access privileges information must be updated for each of the permissions. Achieving the above requires a lot of resources, time and also is prone to errors as an organization can have hundreds of thousands of employees and updating each of the users information one by one is not an efficient way. RBAC get rids of this problem because it takes advantage of the users role as the key to access rather than the u sers identification. The basis for role-based model is the user-role and permission-role relationships. Each user in a role-based environment may be assigned to multiple roles, and each role may have multiple users as well. The roles that are assigned to a user depend on their job and responsibilities, and each role is assigned permissions according to roles access privileges in the organization. Permissions determine the data and applications that may be accessed by which are also assigned to a role and that role is assigned to a user or multiple users. Users role can be in many forms e.g. jobs like (bank teller, bank manager), geographic locations (London, Newcastle) or individuals (shift supervisor, managers). The advantage of using this model is that users keep changing with in the organization whereas on the other hand roles or job responsibilities for a particular role remain the same. Therefore rather than implementing the security on the users manually, roles are created which are assigned to use rs and any addition in a job specification is changed in the role description which in turn changes the all the user with that role. RBAC is a technology that offers an alternative to traditional discretionary access control (DAC) and mandatory access control (MAC) policies. RBAC allows companies to specify and enforce security policies that map naturally to the organizations structure. That is, the natural method for assigning access to information in a company is based on the individuals need for the information, which is a function of his job, or role, within the organization. RBAC allows a security administrator to use the natural structure of the organization to implement and enforce security policy. This model decreases the cost of network administration while improving the enforcement of network security policies. RBAC is designed to centrally manage privileges by providing layers of abstractions that are mapped one-to-many to real users and real operations and real resources. Managing permissions in terms of the abstractions reduces complexity and provides visualization and a context for implementing complex access control policies. Abstractions can be centrally managed resulting in real permissions on real systems. Role-Based Access Control Discretionary Access Control (DAC) In a computer system, access controls restrict subjects (users and/or processes) to performing only those operations on objects (e.g., files) for which they are authorized. For each such operation, the access controls either allow or disallow that operation to be performed [3]. DAC model works on the basis that only the owner of a resource has the capability to authorize other users to have access to the same resource. This means that the users who do not have access to a particular resource and wants access to it, only the owner of that resource has the right to give access to them. In Discretionary Access Controls (DACs), each object has an owner who exercises primary control over the object. ACL is one of the mechanisms which can be used to implement DAC and is one of the most widely used implementation for DAC. The access of information in DAC is based on the users identity and the rules that specify the users ability to have access to a certain protected resource or information. On the other hand ACLs are lists that specify users access privileges for the protected objects. DAC consists of set of rules which specify a users ability to access restricted resource or information. When a user wants access to a particular resource or information, the server searches the rule which specifies the users ability to have access to the particular resource which it wants access to. If the rule is found and there is a match for the user to have access than the user is allowed access to the resource, if there no match then the access for the resource to the user is denied . For example, there may be a rule which states that users from a certain group is not allowed to have access to a certain piece of information. Discretionary access control (DAC model) works on the discretion of the identity of the user. In DAC access to any object (files, directories, devices, information etc.) is only allowed if the owner of that object is willing to give access. Therefore, the basis of this model is creator-controlled sharing of information and identity of the owner plays an important role in the working of this method. The owners of objects can specify at their own discretion in what ways they want to share their objects to other users i.e. which other users can have what level of access to the objects they own. This can be implemented in a fairly simple way by using access control matrix which contains the names of users on the rows and the names of objects on the columns giving information of which users has access to which corresponding object. Regardless of how the matrix is represented in memory, whether by rows or by columns, the names of the users and objects must be used in the representation [1] . ACCESS CONTROL MATRIX The access control matrix is a combination of rows and columns with cells representing the permissions. In the matrix, the rows represent user/subjects and columns represent resources / objects. Regardless of how the matrix is represented in memory, whether by rows or by columns, the names of the users and objects must be used in the representation. For example, in a row-based representation an entry might read the equivalent of KIM can access KIMSFILE and DONSFILE. In a column-based representation, one might find the equivalent of DONSFILE can be accessed by DON, JOE and KIM [1]. The entries in the matrix describe what type of access each user has to each object. This representation of rows and columns is dependent on the model or mechanism being selected for Discretionary Access Control. The table below exhibits a good example of an Access Control Matrix. ACCESS CONTROL MATRIX Users / Objects KIMSFILE DONSFILE PAYROL1 PAYROL2 DOESFILE Kim rw r rw r Joe r Don rw r Jones r Doe rw Mgr Jim cp cp c c c Jan rw rw The access control matrix such as the example above is a graphical view of a set of users and their access rights on particular set of protected objects. The access types mentioned in the table above are: r denotes read access. w denotes write access. c denotes control permission access. cp control passing ability. CHARACTERISTICS OF DAC MECHANISMS The complete implementation of DAC is based on the information which is stored in the form of an access control matrix. DACs are oldest and most widely used class of access controls, the access controls for both Windows and UNIX are DAC. The Unix DAC, for example, has the well known three primitive permissions read, write, and execute. When the initial implementation of DAC started, the five basic mechanisms that were used initially to represent information were: Capabilities Profiles Access Control Lists (ACLs) Protection Bits Passwords The first two mechanisms that are capabilities and profiles represent the access control matrix information by row, connecting the accessible objects to the user. Whereas ACLs and protection bits represent the access control information by columns, connecting a list of users to an object. In the above five mechanism we will be mostly concentrating on the ACL model which is the most widely used model out of all of the mechanism present for DAC and also in this section a brief description of the other mechanisms will be provided [1]. Capabilities In a capability-based mechanism for DAC, access to objects which have restriction on them being accessed such as files is granted if the user who wants access to it has the capability for that object. The capability is a protected identifier that both identifies the object and specifies the access rights to be allowed to the accessor who possesses the capability [1]. The basic properties of capabilities are: The capability of one user can be passed onto another user. The user who possesses capability may not alter or fabricate capabilities without the interference of TCB (Trusted Computing Base). If a capability mechanism is used to implement DAC than the implementation should possess the facility to transfer capability from one user to other users. This ability of transferring capability from one user to another cannot be controlled and therefore capabilities has to be stored, determining all the users access for particular objects almost becomes impossible. Because of this reason implementing DAC using the capability mechanism becomes very difficult including the feature of revocation. A pure capability system includes the ability for users to pass the capability to other users. Because this ability is not controlled and capabilities can be stored, determining all the users who have access for a particular object generally is not possible. This makes a complete DAC implementation, including revocation, very difficult. (Revocation may not be an issue, however, since a user who has access to an object can make a copy of the information in another object. Revoking the users access on the original object does not revoke access to the information contained in the users copy. After revocation, however, changes can be made to the original object without the knowledge of revoked users.)[1]. Profiles This is another mechanism which can be used to implement DAC and have been used in some forms for several systems. When using Profiles [1] to implement DAC, a list of protected objects is used to associate each user to the particular object. The object names are inconsistent and they dont agree on being grouped together, also their size and number are difficult to reduce. If a user has access to a large number of protected objects, the profile can also become very large and it is very complex to manage such a profile. In profile mechanism all protected object names should be unique to but in reality multiple objects can have multiple names, because of this reason full pathnames should be used to identify the objects uniquely. One major drawback of this method is that when creating, modifying or deleting access to protected objects requires multiple operations because multiple users might have access to the same object therefore those users profile must be updated. Revoking access to an object in time for a user is very difficult unless the users profile is automatically checked each time that object is accessed. Also if some object is deleted, it will require some method to check whether that object exists in each of the users profile or not, which is also an extra overhead. In general, with these two mechanisms i.e. Capabilities and Profiles it is very difficult to check whether which users have access to a particular protected object. This is a very important problem that needs to be addressed in secure system and there exists more feasible and more efficient mechanisms, the above two mentioned mechanisms are not the recommended implementations for DAC. ACCESS CONTROL LISTS (ACLs) Another approach to implement the DAC model for access control using the access matrix is by means of the access control lists (ACLs). When using ACLs, each object is related with an ACL, these ACL entries indicate the authorities a subject possesses which can be executed on that object. In the ACL mechanism the access control matrix is represented by columns. By looking at an objects ACL it is easy to determine which modes of access subjects are currently authorized for that object. In other words, ACLs provide for convenient access review with respect to an object. It is also easy to revoke all accesses to an object by replacing the existing ACL with an empty one. On the other hand determining all the accesses that a subject has is difficult in an ACL-based system. It is necessary to examine the ACL of every object in the system to do access review with respect to a subject. Similarly if all accesses of a subject need to be revoked all ACLs must be visited one by one. (In practice revocation of all accesses of a subject is often done by deleting the user account corresponding to that subject. This is acceptable if a user is leaving an organization. However, if a user is reassigned within the organization it would be more convenient to retain the account and change its privileges to reflect the changed assignment of the user.) Several popular operating systems, such as UNIX and VMS, implement an abbreviated form of ACLs in which a small number, often only one or two, group names can occur in the ACL. Individual subject names are not allowed. With t his approach the ACL has a small fixed size so it can be stored using a few bits associated with the file. At the other extreme there are a number of access control packages that allow complicated rules in ACLs to limit when an how the access can be invoked. These rules can be applied to individual users or to all users who match a pattern defined in terms of user names or other user attributes. Access control is required to achieve secrecy integrity, or availability objectives. ACLs have been a popular approach for implementing the access matrix model in computer operating systems. Some systems approximate ACLs by limiting the granularity of the ACL entries to one or two user groups. Other systems allow considerable sophistication. ACLs have disadvantages for access review and revocation on a per-subject basis, but on a per-object basis they are very good. More flexible representation such as authorization tables provide for superior management of access rights, but are usually available only in database management systems. In a distributed system a combination of capabilities for coarse-grained control of access to servers, with ACLs or authorization tables for finer-grained controls within servers, is an attractive combination [10]. ACL MECHANISM WORKING ACLs allow any particular user to be allowed or disallowed access to a particular protected object. They implement the access control matrix by representing the columns as lists of users attached to the protected objects. The lists do not have to be excessively long if groups and wild cards (see below) are used. The use of groups raises the possibility of conflicts between group and individual user. As an example, the ACL entries PAYROL rw and Jones.PAYROL r appear to conflict, but can be resolved in the design of the DAC mechanism. The Apollo system has a multiple, hierarchical group mechanism. The ACL entry has the form user-id.group.organization .node. As in Multics, if the ACL specifies access rights for the user by user-id then group access rights are ignored. This allows a particular user to be excluded or restricted in access rights [13]. In the Apollo, if a user is not on the ACL by user-id, but is a member of a group, those rights are used and organization and node membershi ps are not examined. Multiple group mechanisms add more complexity and may facilitate administrative control of a system, but do not affect the utility of a DAC mechanism. Access to ACLs should be protected just as other objects are protected. The creation of groups m

Studies Pertaining to the Clinical Aspects of Malaria :: Health, Diseases

STUDIES PERTAINING TO THE CLINICAL ASPECTS OF MALARIA Malaria is a complex condition exhibiting different manifestations in different parts of the world depending on a few variables (Bin Mohanna et al. 2007). It was found that anemia and splenomegaly are significantly associated with malaria among asymptomatic schoolchildren in Hajr valley, Hadramout (Bin Mohanna et al. 2007). Agina and Abd-Allah (1999) conducted a case control study for the association of nitric oxide levels to the severity and outcomes of cerebral malaria in Yemeni in-patients. The main clinical presentations in cerebral malaria patients were fever (76.4%), pallor (72.0%), hypoglycemia (67.4%), splenomegaly (60.5%), deep coma (39.5%), jaundice (18.6%), pulmonary oedema (13.9%), subconjunctival hemorrhage (13.9%), severe anemia (53.5%), and hemoglobinuria (6.9%) while in non-cerebral malaria patients the clinical presentations were fever (83.8%), pallor (67.7%), splenomegaly (66.0%), jaundice (9.7%), severe anemia (51.6%) and hypoglycemia (3.2%) . The serum level of ni tric oxide was found to be higher in patients with cerebral malaria than those without. In cerebral malaria, nitric oxide levels were highly elevated in patients with deeper coma and longer duration of coma as well as those who died of cerebral malaria indicating its association with indices of disease severity and outcome in patients with cerebral malaria (Agina and Abd-Allah, 1999). Sheiban et al. (1998) studied severe acute renal failure secondary to falciparum malaria among children receiving antimalarial therapy and other supportive therapy as well as peritoneal dialysis referred to the renal unit at Al-Thawra Hospital in Sana’a. In this study, it was concluded that significant differences were found between children who died (43.8%) compared to those who survived regarding age, plasma creatinine, plasma bilirubin, systolic and diastolic blood pressure, hemoglobin concentration, urine output, and time from diagnosis to referral. However, gender, alanine aminotransferase level, degree of fever, plasma sodium or potassium levels were not found to be statistically different between these two groups (Sheiban et al. 1998). The author found that previous immunity, as indicated by presence of splenomegaly, was associated with better prognosis both in terms of lower mortality and less hemodynamic disturbance which was evident in the older children owing to pre vious exposure to malarial infection, and therefore development of immunity (Sheiban et al. 1998). It is important to note that malaria was reported to be the cause of 5.9% of chronic renal failure in patients undergoing regular hemodialysis in Hadramout governorate (Badheeb 1998). Recently, Al Rohani et al. (2011) reported that malaria is the most common infectious disease causing acute renal failure (ARF) in Yemeni patients.

Poverty and Crime in America Essay -- poverty essay

Crime in this country is an everyday thing. Some people believe that crime is unnecessary. That people do it out of ignorance and that it really can be prevented. Honestly, since we live in a country where there is poverty, people living in the streets, or with people barely getting by, there will always be crime. Whether the crime is robbing food, money, or even hurting the people you love, your family. You will soon read about how being a criminal starts or even stops, where it begins, with whom it begins with and why crime seems to be the only way out sometimes for the poor. The exact amount of poverty that exits in the United States are difficult to ascertain, since the manner in which poverty is measured determines the amount of poverty reported. The U.S. Bureau of the Census reported that there were about 33,100,00 persons classified as officially below the poverty level in 1985. Small children that live in low-income households, are vulnerable to a wide variety of problems, including poor nutrition, inadequate housing, substandard medical attention, lack of proper nutrition, and physical or emotional abuse. Adolescents from these backgrounds become part of cycle of low-income or unemployment. Black and Hispanic teenagers have particularly acute problems obtaining employment. The President's Commission on Law Enforcement and the Administration of Justice recognized the role of poverty in producing delinquency and noted that the most serious forms of juvenile delinquencies are more prevalent between youths at the lowest socioeconomic levels. The fact that poverty is self-perpetuating is a documented fact. Criminal and delinquent activity may also be an accepted part of the total picture for deprived kids. It's h... ...lewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, Inc. Laub, J, & Sampson, R. (2003). Shared beginnings, divergent lives: delinquent boys to age 70. The President and Fellows of Harvard College. Marcus, R. (2007). Agression and violence in adolescence. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press. Peterson, R, Krivo, L, & Hagan, J. (2006). The many colors of crime. NY: New York University Press. Raphael, J. (2000). Saving bernice. Ann Arbor, MI: Edwards Brothers, Inc. Shover, N, & Hochstetler, A. (2006). Choosing white-collar crime. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press. Smith, M. (2001). Sex without consent. NY: New York University Press. Thompson, W, & Bynum, J. (1991). Juvenile delinquency. Needham Heights, MA: Allyn and Bacon A Division of Simon & Schuster, Inc. Wilson, H. (2007). Guns, gun control, and elections. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.

African American Culture Essay

African American culture in the United States includes the various cultural traditions of African ethnic groups. It is both part of and distinct from American culture. The U. S. Census Bureau defines African Americans as â€Å"people having origins in any of the Black race groups of Africa. â€Å"[1] African American culture is indigenous to the descendants in the U. S. of survivors of the Middle Passage. It is rooted in Africa and is an amalgam of chiefly sub-Saharan African and Sahelean cultures. Although slavery greatly restricted the ability of Africans in America to practice their cultural traditions, many practices, values and beliefs survived and over time have incorporated elements of European American culture. There are even certain facets of African American culture that were brought into being or made more prominent as a result of slavery; an example of this is how drumming became used as a means of communication and establishing a community identity during that time. The result is a dynamic, creative culture that has had and continues to have a profound impact on mainstream American culture and on world culture as well. After Emancipation, these uniquely African American traditions continued to grow. They developed into distinctive traditions in music, art, literature, religion, food, holidays, amongst others. While for some time sociologists, such as Gunnar Myrdal and Patrick Moynihan, believed that African Americans had lost most cultural ties with Africa, anthropological field research by Melville Hersovits and others demonstrated that there is a continuum of African traditions among Africans in the New World from the West Indies to the United States. The greatest influence of African cultural practices on European cultures is found below the Mason-Dixon in the southeastern United States, especially in the Carolinas among the Gullah people and in Louisiana. African American culture often developed separately from mainstream American culture because of African Americans’ desire to practice their own traditions, as well as the persistence of racial segregation in America. Consequently African American culture has become a significant part of American culture and yet, at the same time, remains a distinct culture apart from it. History From the earliest days of slavery, slave owners sought to exercise control over their slaves by attempting to strip them of their African culture. The physical isolation and societal marginalization of African slaves and, later, of their free progeny, however, actually facilitated the retention of significant elements of traditional culture among Africans in the New World generally, and in the U. S. in particular. Slave owners deliberately tried to repress political organization in order to deal with the many slave rebellions that took place in the southern United States, Brazil, Haiti, and the Dutch Guyanas. African cultures,slavery,slave rebellions,and the civil rights movements(circa 1800s-160s)have shaped African American religious, familial, political and economic behaviors. The imprint of Africa is evident in myriad ways, in politics, economics, language, music, hairstyles, fashion, dance, religion and worldview, and food preparation methods. In the United States, the very legislation that was designed to strip slaves of culture and deny them education served in many ways to strengthen it. In turn, African American culture has had a pervasive, transformative impact on myriad elements of mainstream American culture, among them language, music, dance, religion, cuisine, and agriculture. This process of mutual creative exchange is called creolization. Over time, the culture of African slaves and their descendants has been ubiquitous in its impact on not only the dominant American culture, but on world culture as well. Oral tradition Slaveholders limited or prohibited education of enslaved African Americans because they believed it might lead to revolts or escape plans. Hence, African-based oral traditions became the primary means of preserving history, morals, and other cultural information among the people. This was consistent with the griot practices of oral history in many African and other cultures that did not rely on the written word. Many of these cultural elements have been passed from generation to generation through storytelling. The folktales provided African Americans the opportunity to inspire and educate one another. Examples of African American folktales include trickster tales of Br’er Rabbit and heroic tales such as that of John Henry. The Uncle Remus stories by Joel Chandler Harris helped to bring African American folk tales into mainstream adoption. Harris did not appreciate the complexity of the stories nor their potential for a lasting impact on society. Characteristics of the African American oral tradition present themselves in a number of forms. African American preachers tend to perform rather than simply speak. The emotion of the subject is carried through the speaker’s tone, volume, and movement, which tend to mirror the rising action, climax, and descending action of the sermon. Often song, dance, verse and structured pauses are placed throughout the sermon. Techniques such as call-and-response are used to bring the audience into the presentation. In direct contrast to recent tradition in other American and Western cultures, it is an acceptable and common audience reaction to interrupt and affirm the speaker. Spoken word is another example of how the African American oral tradition influences modern American popular culture. Spoken word artists employ the same techniques as African American preachers including movement, rhythm, and audience participation. Rap music from the 1980’s and beyond has been seen as an extension of oral culture. Harlem Renaissance [pic] Zora Neale Hurston was a prominent literary figure during the Harlem Renaissance. Main article: Harlem Renaissance The first major public recognition of African American culture occurred during the Harlem Renaissance. In the 1920s and 1930s, African American music, literature, and art gained wide notice. Authors such as Zora Neale Hurston and Nella Larsen and poets such as Langston Hughes, Claude McKay, and Countee Cullen wrote works describing the African American experience. Jazz, swing, blues and other musical forms entered American popular music. African American artists such as William H. Johnson and Palmer Hayden created unique works of art featuring African Americans. The Harlem Renaissance was also a time of increased political involvement for African Americans. Among the notable African American political movements founded in the early 20th century are the United Negro Improvement Association and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. The Nation of Islam, a notable Islamic religious movement, also began in the early 1930s. African American cultural movement The Black Power movement of the 1960s and 1970s followed in the wake of the non-violent American Civil Rights Movement. The movement promoted racial pride and ethnic cohesion in contrast to the focus on integration of the Civil Rights Movement, and adopted a more militant posture in the face of racism. It also inspired a new renaissance in African American literary and artistic expression generally referred to as the African American or â€Å"Black Arts Movement. † The works of popular recording artists such as Nina Simone (Young, Gifted and Black) and The Impressions (Keep On Pushin’), as well as the poetry, fine arts and literature of the time, shaped and reflected the growing racial and political consciousness. Among the most prominent writers of the African American Arts Movement were poet Nikki Giovanni; poet and publisher Don L. Lee, who later became known as Haki Madhubuti; poet and playwright Leroi Jones, later known as Amiri Baraka; and Sonia Sanchez. Other influential writers were Ed Bullins, Dudley Randall, Mari Evans, June Jordan, Larry Neal and Ahmos Zu-Bolton. Another major aspect of the African American Arts Movement was the infusion of the African aesthetic, a return to a collective cultural sensibility and ethnic pride that was much in evidence during the Harlem Renaissance and in the celebration of Negritude among the artistic and literary circles in the U. S. , Caribbean and the African continent nearly four decades earlier: the idea that â€Å"black is beautiful. † During this time, there was a resurgence of interest in, and an embrace of, elements of African culture within African American culture that had been suppressed or devalued to conform to Eurocentric America. Natural hairstyles, such as the afro, and African clothing, such as the dashiki, gained popularity. More importantly, the African American aesthetic encouraged personal pride and political awareness among African Americans. Music [pic] Men playing the djembe, a traditional West African drum adopted into African American and American culture. The bags and the clothing of the man on the right are printed with traditional kente cloth patterns. African American music is rooted in the typically polyrhythmic music of the ethnic groups of Africa, specifically those in the Western, Sahelean, and Sub-Saharan regions. African oral traditions, nurtured in slavery, encouraged the use of music to pass on history, teach lessons, ease suffering, and relay messages. The African pedigree of African American music is evident in some common elements: call and response, syncopation, percussion, improvisation, swung notes, blue notes, the use of falsetto, melisma, and complex multi-part harmony. During slavery, Africans in America blended traditional European hymns with African elements to create spirituals. Many African Americans sing Lift Ev’ry Voice and Sing in addition to the American national anthem, The Star-Spangled Banner, or in lieu of it. Written by James Weldon Johnson and John Rosamond Johnson in 1900 to be performed for the birthday of Abraham Lincoln, the song was, and continues to be, a popular way for African Americans to recall past struggles and express ethnic solidarity, faith and hope for the future. The song was adopted as the â€Å"Negro National Anthem† by the NAACP in 1919. African American children are taught the song at school, church or by their families. Lift Ev’ry Voice and Sing traditionally is sung immediately following, or instead of, The Star-Spangled Banner at events hosted by African American churches, schools, and other organizations. In the 1800s, as the result of the blackface minstrel show, African American music entered mainstream American society. By the early twentieth century, several musical forms with origins in the African American community had transformed American popular music. Aided by the technological innovations of radio and phonograph records, ragtime, jazz, blues, and swing also became popular overseas, and the 1920s became known as the Jazz Age. The early 20th century also saw the creation of the first African American Broadway shows, films such as King Vidor’s Hallelujah!, and operas such as George Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess. Rock and roll, doo wop, soul, and R&B developed in the mid 20th century. These genres became very popular in white audiences and were influences for other genres such as surf. The dozens, an urban African American tradition of using rhyming slang to put down your enemies (or friends) developed through the smart-ass street jive of the early Seventies into a new form of music. In the South Bronx, the half speaking, half singing rhythmic street talk of ‘rapping’ grew into the hugely successful cultural force known as Hip Hop. Hip Hop would become a multicultural movement. However, it is still important to many African Americans. The African American Cultural Movement of the 1960s and 1970s also fueled the growth of funk and later hip-hop forms such as rap, hip house, new jack swing and go go. African American music has experienced far more widespread acceptance in American popular music in the 21st century than ever before. In addition to continuing to develop newer musical forms, modern artists have also started a rebirth of older genres in the form of genres such as neo soul and modern funk-inspired groups. Dance [pic] The Cakewalk was the first African American dance to gain widespread popularity in the United States. [pic] African American dance, like other aspects of African American culture, finds its earliest roots in the dances of the hundreds of African ethnic groups that made up African slaves in the Americas as well as influences from European sources in the United States. Dance in the African tradition, and thus in the tradition of slaves, was a part of both every day life and special occasions. Many of these traditions such as get down, ring shouts, and other elements of African body language survive as elements of modern dance. In the 1800s, African American dance began to appear in minstrel shows. These shows often presented African Americans as caricatures for ridicule to large audiences. The first African American dance to become popular with White dancers was the cakewalk in 1891. Later dances to follow in this tradition include the Charleston, the Lindy Hop, and the Jitterbug. During the Harlem Renaissance, all African American Broadway shows such as Shuffle Along helped to establish and legitimize African American dancers. African American dance forms such as tap, a combination of African and European influences, gained widespread popularity thanks to dancers such as Bill Robinson and were used by leading White choreographers who often hired African American dancers. Contemporary African American dance is descended from these earlier forms and also draws influence from African and Caribbean dance forms. Groups such as the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater have continued to contribute to the growth of this form. Modern popular dance in America is also greatly influenced by African American dance. American popular dance has also drawn many influences from African American dance most notably in the hip hop genre. Art [pic] Sand Dunes at Sunset, Atlantic City by Henry Ossawa Tanner 1859-1937 From its early origins in slave communities, through the end of the twentieth century, African-American art has made a vital contribution to the art of the United States. During the period between the 1600s and the early 1800s, art took the form of small drums, quilts, wrought-iron figures and ceramic vessels in the southern United States. These artifacts have similarities with comparable crafts in West and Central Africa. In contrast, African American artisans like the New England–based engraver Scipio Moorhead and the Baltimore portrait painter Joshua Johnson created art that was conceived in a thoroughly western European fashion. During the 1800s, Harriet Powers made quilts in rural Georgia, United States that are now considered among the finest examples of nineteenth-century Southern quilting. Later in the 20th century, the women of Gee’s Bend developed a distinctive, bold, and sophisticated quilting style based on traditional African American quilts with a geometric simplicity that developed separately but was like that of Amish quilts and modern art. After the American Civil War, museums and galleries began more frequently to display the work of African American artists. Cultural expression in mainstream venues was still limited by the dominant European aesthetic and by racial prejudice. To increase the visibility of their work, many African American artists traveled to Europe where they had greater freedom. It was not until the Harlem Renaissance that more whites began to pay attention to African American art in America. [pic] Kara Walker, Cut, Cut paper and adhesive on wall, Brent Sikkema NYC. During the 1920s, artists such as Raymond Barthe, Aaron Douglas, Augusta Savage, and photographer James Van Der Zee became well known for their work. During the Great Depression, new opportunities arose for these and other African American artists under the WPA. In later years, other programs and institutions, such as the New York City-based Harmon Foundation, helped to foster African American artistic talent. Augusta Savage, Elizabeth Catlett, Lois Mailou Jones, Romare Bearden, Jacob Lawrence and others exhibited in museums and juried art shows, and built reputations and followings for themselves. In the 1950s and 1960s, there were very few widely accepted African American artists. Despite this, The Highwaymen, a loose association of 27 African American artists from Ft. Pierce, Florida, created idyllic, quickly realized images of the Florida landscape and peddled some 50,000 of them from the trunks of their cars. They sold their art directly to the public rather than through galleries and art agents, thus receiving the name â€Å"The Highwaymen†. Rediscovered in the mid-1990s, today they are recognized as an important part of American folk history. Their artwork is widely collected by enthusiasts and original pieces can easily fetch thousands of dollars in auctions and sales. The Black Arts Movement of the 1960s and 1970s was another period of resurgent interest in African American art. During this period, several African-American artists gained national prominence, among them Lou Stovall, Ed Love, Charles White, and Jeff Donaldson. Donaldson and a group of African-American artists formed the Afrocentric collective AFRICOBRA, which remains in existence today. The sculptor Martin Puryear, whose work has been acclaimed for years, is being honored with a 30-year retrospective of his work at the Museum of Modern Art in New York starting November 2007. Notable contemporary African American artists include David Hammons, Eugene J. Martin, Charles Tolliver, and Kara Walker. Literature [pic] Langston Hughes, a notable African American poet of the Harlem Renaissance. African American literature has its roots in the oral traditions of African slaves in America. The slaves used stories and fables in much the same way as they used music. These stories influenced the earliest African American writers and poets in the 18thcentury such as Phillis Wheatley and Olaudah Equiano. These authors reached early high points by telling slave narratives. During the early 20th century Harlem Renaissance, numerous authors and poets, such as Langston Hughes, W. E. B. Dubois, and Booker T. Washington, grappled with how to respond to discrimination in America. Authors during the Civil Rights era, such as Richard Wright, James Baldwin and Gwendolyn Brooks wrote about issues of racial segregation, oppression and other aspects of African American life. This tradition continues today with authors who have been accepted as an integral part of American literature, with works such as Roots: The Saga of an American Family by Alex Haley, The Color Purple by Alice Walker, and Beloved by Nobel Prize-winning Toni Morrison, and series by Octavia Butler and Walter Mosley that have achieved both best-selling and/or award-winning status. Museums The African American Museum Movement emerged during the 1950s and 1960s to preserve the heritage of the African American experience and to ensure its proper interpretation in American history. Museums devoted to African American history are found in many African American neighborhoods. Institutions such as the African American Museum and Library at Oakland and The African American Museum in Cleveland were created by African Americans to teach and investigate cultural history that, until recent decades was primarily preserved trough oral traditions. Language Generations of hardships imposed on the African American community created distinctive language patterns. Slave owners often intentionally mixed people who spoke different African languages to discourage communication in any language other than English. This, combined with prohibitions against education, led to the development of pidgins, simplified mixtures of two or more languages that speakers of different languages could use to communicate. Examples of pidgins that became fully developed languages include Creole, common to Haiti,and Gullah, common to the Sea Islands off the coast of South Carolina and Georgia. African American Vernacular English is a type variety (dialect, ethnolect and sociolect) of the American English language closely associated with the speech of but not exclusive to African Americans. While AAVE is academically considered a legitimate dialect because of its logical structure, some of both Caucasians and African Americans consider it slang or the result of a poor command of Standard American English. Inner city African American children who are isolated by speaking only AAVE have more difficulty with standardized testing and, after school, moving to the mainstream world for work. It is common for many speakers of AAVE to code switch between AAVE and Standard American English depending on the setting. Fashion and aesthetics [pic]. A man weaving kente cloth in Ghana. Attire The cultural explosion of the 1960s saw the incorporation of surviving cultural dress with elements from modern fashion and West African traditional clothing to create a uniquely African American traditional style. Kente cloth is the best known African textile. These festive woven patterns, which exist in numerous varieties, were originally made by the Ashanti and Ewe peoples of Ghana and Togo. Kente fabric also appears in a number of Western style fashions ranging from casual t-shirts to formal bow ties and cummerbunds. Kente strips are often sewn into liturgical and academic robes or worn as stoles. Since the Black Arts Movement, traditional African clothing has been popular amongst African Americans for both formal and informal occasions. Another common aspect of fashion in African American culture involves the appropriate dress for worship in the Black church. It is expected in most churches that an individual should present their best appearance for worship. African American women in particular are known for wearing vibrant dresses and suits. An interpretation of a passage from the Christian Bible, â€Å"†¦every woman who prays or prophesies with her head uncovered dishonors her head†¦ â€Å", has led to the tradition of wearing elaborate Sunday hats, sometimes known as â€Å"crowns. † Hair Hair styling in African American culture is greatly varied. African American hair is typically composed of tightly coiled curls. The predominant styles for women involve the straightening of the hair through the application of heat or chemical processes. These treatments form the base for the most commonly socially acceptable hairstyles in the United States. Alternatively, the predominant and most socially acceptable practice for men is to leave one’s hair natural. Often, as men age and begin to lose their hair, the hair is either closely cropped, or the head is shaved completely free of hair. However, since the 1960s, natural hairstyles, such as the afro, braids, and dreadlocks, have been growing in popularity. Although the association with radical political movements and their vast difference from mainstream Western hairstyles, the styles have not yet attained widespread social acceptance. Maintaining facial hair is more prevalent among African American men than in other male populations in the U. S. In fact, the soul patch is so named because African American men, particularly jazz musicians, popularized the style. The preference for facial hair among African American men is due partly to personal taste, but because they are more prone than other ethnic groups to develop a condition known as pseudofolliculitis barbae, commonly referred to as razor bumps, many prefer not to shave. Body image The European aesthetic and attendant mainstream concepts of beauty are often at odds with the African body form. Because of this, African American women often find themselves under pressure to conform to European standards of beauty. Still, there are individuals and groups who are working towards raising the standing of the African aesthetic among African Americans and internationally as well. This includes efforts toward promoting as models those with clearly defined African features; the mainstreaming of natural hairstyles; and, in women, fuller, more voluptuous body types. Religion While African Americans practice a number of religions, Protestant Christianity is by far the most popular. Additionally, 14% of Muslims in the United States and Canada are African American. Christianity [pic] A river baptism in New Bern, North Carolina near the turn of the 20th century. The religious institutions of African American Christians commonly are referred tocollectively as the black church. During slavery, many slaves were stripped of their African belief systems and typically denied free religious practice. Slaves managed, however, to hang on to some practices by integrating them into Christian worship in secret meetings. These practices, including dance, shouts, African rhythms, and enthusiastic singing, remain a large part of worship in the African American church. African American churches taught that all people were equal in God’s eyes and viewed the doctrine of obedience to one’s master taught in white churches as hypocritical. Instead the African American church focused on the message of equality and hopes for a better future. Before and after emancipation, racial segregation in America prompted the development of organized African American denominations. The first of these was the AME Church founded by Richard Allen in 1787. An African American church is not necessarily a separate denomination. Several predominantly African American churches exist as members of predominantly white denominations. African American churches have served to provide African American people with leadership positions and opportunities to organize that were denied in mainstream American society. Because of this, African American pastors became the bridge between the African American and European American communities and thus played a crucial role in the American Civil Rights Movement. Like many Christians, African American Christians sometimes participate in or attend a Christmas play. Black Nativity by Langston Hughes is a re-telling of the classic Nativity story with gospel music. Productions can be found a African American theaters and churches all over the country. Islam [pic] A member of the Nation of Islam selling merchandise on a city street corner. Despite the popular assumption that the Nation represents all or most African American Muslims, less than 2% are members. Generations before the advent of the Atlantic slave trade, Islam was a thriving religion in West Africa due to its peaceful introduction via the lucrative trans-Saharan trade between prominent tribes in the southern Sahara and the Berbers to the North. In his attesting to this fact the West African scholar Cheikh Anta Diop explained: â€Å"The primary reason for the success of Islam in Black Africa†¦ consequently stems from the fact that it was propagated peacefully at first by solitary Arabo-Berber travelers to certain Black kings and notables, who then spread it about them to those under their jurisdiction† Many first-generation slaves were often able to retain their Muslim identity, their descendants were not. Slaves were either forcibly converted to Christianity as was the case in the Catholic lands or were besieged with gross inconviences to their religious practice such as in the case of the Protestant American mainland. In the decades after slavery and particularly during the depression era, Islam reemerged in the form of highly visible and sometimes controversial heterodox movements in the African American community. The first of these of note was the Moorish Science Temple of America, founded by Noble Drew Ali. Ali had a profound influence on Wallace Fard, who later founded the Black nationalist Nation of Islam in 1930. Elijah Muhammad became head of the organization in 1934. Much like Malcolm X, who left the Nation of Islam in 1964, many African American Muslims now follow traditional Islam. A survey by the Council on American-Islamic Relations shows that 30% of Sunni Mosque attendees are African Americans. African American orthodox Muslims are often the victims of stereotypes, most notably the assumption that an African American Muslim is a member of the Nation of Islam. They are often viewed by the uneducated African-American community in general as less authentic than Muslims from the Middle East or South Asia while credibility is less of an issue with immigrant Muslims and Muslim world in general. Other religions. Aside from Christianity and Islam, there are also African Americans who follow Judaism, Buddhism, and a number of other religions. The Black Hebrew Israelites are a collection of African American Jewish religious organizations. Among their varied teachings, they often include that African Americans are descended from the Biblical Hebrews (sometimes with the paradoxical claim that the Jewish people are not). There is a small but growing number of African Americans who participate in African traditional religions, such as Vodou and Santeria or Ifa and diasporic traditions like Rastafarianism. Many of them are immigrants or descendants of immigrants from the Caribbean and South America, where these are practiced. Because of religious practices, such as animal sacrifice, which are no longer common among American religions and are often legally prohibited, these groups may be viewed negatively and are sometimes the victims of harassment. Life events For most African Americans, the observance of life events follows the pattern of mainstream American culture. There are some traditions which are unique to African Americans. Some African Americans have created new rites of passage that are linked to African traditions. Pre-teen and teenage boys and girls take classes to prepare them for adulthood. They are typically taught spirituality, responsibility, and leadership. Most of these programs are modeled after traditional African ceremonies, with the focus largely on embracing African ideologies rather than specific rituals. To this day, some African American couples choose to â€Å"jump the broom† as a part of their wedding ceremony. Although the practice, which can be traced back to Ghana, fell out of favor in the African American community after the end of slavery, it has experienced a slight resurgence in recent years as some couples seek to reaffirm their African heritage. Funeral traditions tend to vary based on a number of factors, including religion and location, but there are a number of commonalities. Probably the most important part of death and dying in the African American culture is the gathering of family and friends. Either in the last days before death or shortly after death, typically any friends and family members that can be reached are notified. This gathering helps to provide spiritual and emotional support, as well as assistance in making decisions and accomplishing everyday tasks. The spirituality of death is very important in African American culture. A member of the clergy or members of the religious community, or both, are typically present with the family through the entire process. Death is often viewed as transitory rather than final. Many services are called homegoings, instead of funerals, based on the belief that the person is going home to the afterlife. The entire end of life process is generally treated as a celebration of life rather than a mourning of loss. This is most notably demonstrated in the New Orleans Jazz Funeral tradition where upbeat music, dancing, and food encourage those gathered to be happy and celebrate the homegoing of a beloved friend. Cuisine [pic] A traditional soul food dinner consisting of fried chicken, candied yams, collard greens, cornbread, and macaroni and cheese. The cultivation and use of many agricultural products in the United States, such as yams, peanuts, rice, okra, sorghum, grits, watermelon, indigo dyes, and cotton, can be traced to African influences. African American foods reflect creative responses to racial and economic oppression and poverty. Under slavery, African Americans were not allowed to eat better cuts of meat, and after emancipation many often were too poor to afford them. Soul food, a hearty cuisine commonly associated with African Americans in the South (but also common to African Americans nationwide), makes cre.

American involvement In N. Africa during world war II (Revised)

The second world II was a world wide conflict which started in 1939 and ended in 1945. The war was fought in different places in the world. One was fought in Asia at around 1937, the other in Europe in 1939 with the invasion of Poland by Germany. Another one was also fought in African continent. It led the world nations to split into two that is. Allies (Britain and America) and the axis (Germany and Italy) The Second World War started when Hitler invaded Poland on September first in 1939.About million Australians fought in the Second World War in campaigns against Germany and Italy in Europe, North Africa, Mediterranean and against Japan in South East Asia as well as in other parts of the Pacific. The main focus in this paper will be to discuss on the US military involvement in North Africa during the Second World War. In 1942, November, United Kingdom military forces in conjunction with US military forces staged war against the French North Africa. It was the result of the long con tentious argument between American planners of war and those of Britain.The turbulence of this argument was calmed by the American president’s Franklin D Roosevelt intervention. American dream about the Second World War in 1942 was to attack and defeat Germany before proceeding to Asia to see the harm the Japanese were causing to Pacific territories. In the same year, the Soviet Army was far much pressed by the Germany-panzers division who were leveling attacks on Russia. Some American planners thought it was not necessary to attack North Western Europe.They planned that come 1943, the American army would be well prepared, trained and equipped to meet the Germany’s aggressive troops. The American planners believed that its army’s knowledge and resources could help them to accomplish their mission of bringing Germany troops down. The British military leaders under the field marshal Alan Brooke (Dennis P. 2002; 78) adopted a different approach. They never thought it wise to start launching their attacks in 1942. The main reason why they were opposed to this idea was because taking such a move would force United Kingdom to bear much of the military burden.At this time, they could not have afforded to have a division in the army because they were experiencing a fierce fight against Germany which had already inflicted a lot of harm to their army. Most of their military had met stiff resistance of the Wehrmatch in France during the disastrous 1940 campaign. At this time their forces under field marshal Erwin Rommel, they had done practically nothing to end or reduce the German military process in North Africa and in Libya. After the war, Brooke found the strategy of the Marshal very incompatible and that he did not appreciate what the operations in France would mean.He could not figure out how the Germans could reinforce their attacks about three to four times faster than theirs and he could not understand how they could suffer from the shortage of sea transport if the Mediterranean was not opened. The British opposed this idea though America promised to provide the invading forces. They wanted the Americans to clear the axis force in the Mediterranean shores of North America and open up that great inland sea for the allied convoys to move in.This culminated into a deadlock that made Brooke to consider switching the America army’s emphasis from European theatre of operations to the pacific, but Roosevelt the then president of America could not accept such an idea that was central to their war strategy. This emphasy from Britain never worked to the Americans instead it led Roosevelt to do something that Winston Churchill would never dream of doing. In fact he intervened and overruled his advisers who used to advise him on war matters. This was in the summer of 1942.He ordered his generals to direct their forces to the French North Africa to support the British proposal for landing along the coast of North Africa. He did this so that he could divide the attention Germans were giving to European war. He wanted to divide the concentration of German because he thought that if he did not do that, then he would come to face German some where in Europe. He knew that his move would be embraced by Britain though it was only done due to political necessity and national interests. At this time the British soldiers had no choice but to gang with USA in attacking Morocco and Algeria.From this time the attention that German had on war in Europe, half of it shifted to the battle in the Mediterranean. The plan was well strategized. About 65,000 men under lieutenant General Durlght D. Eisenhower were to be transported by the allies to invade Casablanca, Roan and Algers. These were the possessions of the French North Africa. Everything went according the plan and they had a lot of quick success that was attributed to the fact that the Axis attention was focused elsewhere. This time the Germans were trying to sub jugate Stalingrad and the Caucasus.In Egypt at the same period, the Rummel’s African Korps renewed their offensive attacks on the British area of interests. The British forces under Lieutenant General Bernard Montgomery organized his army to liaise the move of the Rummel’s the Montgomery’s force entered into a fierce battle with the axis forces. The axis powers had no hope of winning this war and by early November Rummel’s armies yielded back to Libya. The move they took was against the wishes of Hitler who had ordered them to keep soldering on. Hitler never at any time contemplated of defeat. He would rather die that witness such humiliations (Ambrose S.2001; 58) At the onset of November 1942, the allied forces had started to build up their ships at Gibraltar. The German spies were aware but they down played the idea as simply as another large supply convoy for reinforcing Malta. The Germany’s companion had a different view; Italy was not so sure of this though Germany never thought about this seriously but had been ignoring Italy’s decision. In November eighth 1942 the foreign German foreign minister Ulrich Joachim who was also known as Von Ribbentrop was so sure about the American troops who had landed in Algerian as well as in Moroccan ports.These allied forces leveled attacks that had positive results as it was expected, the allied forces thought that the dissident French military officers who had supported them would turn against them however, this did not happen but to their surprise the Vichy French government just as it happened in Dakar and in Syria in the following year, they fought against the Allied forces though they did not manage to keep off the invading Germans in France and in Tunisia in the same year, that is 1942. The Vichy French military men couldn’t have resisted the German who were very adamant and determined to crash the French’s down.The Vichy’s weapons were not up to the standard when compared with those of the Germans. They used tanks while he German possessed combat aircrafts though they were not enough. The Germans never trusted the French Vichy government and that was why they could never let them to modify their war technology. They thought that French’s would rise up against them if let to acquire modern weapons. Due to lack of proper weapons the Vichy French’s were unable to keep sustained resistance against the Allied forces who comprised of British soldiers and America soldiers(Atkinson R 2003;152)In the initial stage of the war, America thought the French North Africa would not attack the Americans though this is not what happened. Though they tried to resist they could not resist the American’s advancements. They had no effective troops that would manage to keep Americans at bay. Though the American’s landings defeated the Frenchs, not all of them were successful. In fact a landing at Fedela costed the transpor t Leonard wood its 21 landing crafts and many lives perished. Also in another landing, the transport Thomas Jefferson 16 crafts was destroyed completely beyond revival.The most affected landing was of the transport canal which lost 18 out of its 25 crafts and in the second wave; five of them were ruined leaving only two boats that could carry troops and other supplies. There was serious landing opposition at Mehdia by the French forces. The landing was not safe and was very dangerous. By November 10th, the Americans under major general Lucian Truscott were able to capture the airfield from the hands of French military men. This was as a result of a very heavy naval gun fire between French’s and Americans but later after the negotiations between French leader and the allies in Algeria, fighting stopped.On 8th November 1992, the infantry division had already actualized its dreams in almost all areas apart from St. Cloud where they met a very strong French force. During this tim e the combat was spearheaded by Roosevelt who was by then who was brigadier general. However, the landings begun to be interfered with by the rising surfs on 8th of November, the landing activities were to be suspended. In the following day the Vichy government tried to counter attack but they met a lot of resistance from Allied force who had support from air bases and naval baseOran was secured from the hands by the American though the French looked like they would never go but an armistice was signed when the confronting parties came together. The most operation assignment that the allied forces faced was at the port of Algiers. The French had enough ground force plus 52 fighter aircrafts. They also had 39 bombers. The port was heavily guarded so there was no way the British’s and Americans could have an easy access to the port. The American troops of the 168th regimental combat landed on the West while the 39th combat team went to the East of the port and they raided the p ort.They used two British destroyers which carried the royal navy personnel and the American troops. Before they could succeed, one of the destroyers was destroyed and it had to go back immediately while the other one succeeded and crossed the barriers. These forces that succeeded captured the power station and petroleum tank firm and the Frenchs responded to this attack immediately. After some time when the 168th combat group failed to turn up, the American commander was forced to surrender his troops. The North Africa mission was called â€Å"operation torch† and the city that was their target was Casablanca and was under the command of Eisenhower.These nations (Sam M. 2006; 102) were fighting for the control of the Suez Canal that linked Africa with the Middle East. Suez Canal was the inlet of oil from the Middle East and other raw materials from Asia. Due to the mechanization of their armies, oil was a very crucial commodity and because Britain which had already a mechani zed army it totally relied on oil from the Middle East. Britain used Suez Canal as a link to her overseas dominions. This was all made possible by the Mediterranean Sea hence, the struggle. This struggle started at around 1935 when Ethiopia was invaded by Italy which by then had made Somali land its colony.The move frightened Egypt which was not yet a British colony. They started getting worried of its imperialistic aspirations thus in order to protect its interest and country, it allowed Britain to station its army in its territory so as to keep off any advances from Italy. Thereafter, Britain and France took upon themselves the responsibility of maintaining naval control over the Mediterranean with the main British’s base at Alexandria, Egypt. The British and American troops met little resistance at Algiers, Oran and Casablanca on 8th of November 1942. The war took place in the North African desert.By the time the war took place the Italian dictator Mussolini had a better e quipped army than that of the Britain and America. He had about a million soldiers who were based in Libya while Britain had only 3600 soldiers who were based in Egypt. They were supposed to protect the Suez Canal and the oil fields in Arabia. At this time the Italians were a threat to Britain. They had already started showing interest in the red sea and Suez Canal supply routes. The North Africa campaign in the beginning was hampered by lack of enough supplies on both sides but later they got equipped.Tough battles took place which either rendered one group to advance against each other along the supply routes. Many of these fights took place in the Far East region out of the Mediterranean where they enjoyed free transport (Breuer W. 1985; 26) In April 1941, the allied forces were under the leadership of General Bernard Montgomery. While the British troops worked to keep Germans forces at bay to the West, the US forces were supposed to confront the Frenchs in North Africa underâ₠¬  Operation Touch† The main reason for this reason for this operation was to take over Morocco which was already a French colony, to take Algeria and Tunisia.They wanted to offer support to their colleague in the Libyan Desert. They also wanted to make Mediterranean shipping route free to their ships and for other major operations in North Africa. They hoped that they would force the axis of out of the region. They also wanted the axis to reduce their concentration on the Russian forces or in other words, they wanted the Axis forces to divide their war attention between North Africa and Russia. The attack took Germans by surprise because they did not expect it to happen. Later, the French stopped being hostile to the allied forces and allowed them to nave access to Tunisia.Rommel led his armies to various defensive operations. One of the most key operations was of the Kasserine pass where American defenses were crashed by Germans modern tanks. This operation saw 1000 allied troops dead and hundred of them were held prisoners by Germans. They also lost most of their fighting equipments. Though the axis powers thought they were winners, to the allied forces was an awakening call. They went back to their drawing board, assessed their weaknesses and came up with the way forward (Funk A. L. 1974; 86)Americans never gave up; they sent Rommel back to conquer the Kasserine pass so that they could get the Merith line. This time, the axis forces gained advanced and suppressed the resistance that until they let 275000 prisoners free. The axis forces in Africa surrendered on may 2nd 1943 after about 350,000 soldiers were captured by the allied forces and 70,000 were casualties. After they quit from the war, the stage was left open for Italian campaign. The axis surrendered because of ruthlessness of ‘the operation retribution’ which was designed to evacuate German and Italian forces from Tunisia.About 897 were held captives, 653 escaped and were assum ed to have might drowned. In conclusion, we have seen how the North African war costed many lives. Many people perished and others were injured. Though the war was took place in Africa, it was not as fierce that one in Europe. These wars were fought by these nations to protect their national interests. No country wanted their competitors to have an access or even go near its spheres of influence. Another reason for the fight was to gain supremacy.The Allied Forces were determined to silence Germany and its colleagues which were proving to be a big threat in Europe. Their plan worked as it was expected that is, they engaged Germany to another front so as to divide its concentration on war in Europe. So, it was not war for the sake of war but war for different reasons. In this war America in conjunction with Britain were the main aggressors. They left North African countries highly damaged. A lot of people perished while others were injured. The harm this American led war did was more than what one could have expected.Reference: Dennis P. The oxford Companion to Australian Military History. Melbourne. Oxford University press. 2002; 78 Breuer W. Operation Torch: The Allied Gamble to Invade North. St. Martins Press. 1985; 26 Funk A. L. The Politics of Torch, University press. 1974; 86 Sam M. At all costs: How crippled and two American Merchant mariners Turned the Tide of world WarII. Random House. 2006; 102 Ambrose S. The good Fight: How World War II Was Won. Atheneum. New York. 2001; 58 Atkinson R. An army at Dawn The war in North Africa 1942-1943. Newyork: Henry Holt. 2003; 152