Security and Economic Revival Raise Hopes in the West Bank Essay Example for Free

Security and Economic Revival Raise Hopes in the West Bank Essay The New York Times article â€Å"Security and Economic Revival Raise Hopes in the West Bank† by Ethan Bonner covers the reemergence of the Palestinian-covered West Bank, specifically in the city of Nablus, after a series of bloody uprisings and encounters between extremists and Israeli forces. The Palestinian authority has been longing for control over their territories, and it has experienced its first sense of security and economic stability since the second Palestinian uprising broke out in 2000. It seems that the economy has stabilized so far as the International Monetary Fund (IMF) projected a seven percent growth rate for the year 2009. A few infrastructure projects have also started as rebuilding and revitalization of the West Bank area continued. A movie theater has opened and a seven-story furnishing store has started operation recently which proves that the West Banks economic and security status has been stabilizing. Just two weeks ago, Israeli checkpoints have started to shut down and troops are gradually being pulled out from the area which are a part of the Israels promise to aid the Palestinian authority. However, doubts have been raised against this promise as Israel has not permitted Paltel, the Palestinian cellphone company, to construct network towers (Bronner, 2009). By far, peace and order has been evident within the West Bank. The two camps—Israel and Palestine—have been working together in order to stabilize the economy of the area which is seen as a vital aspect for the areas growth. Security has also been a matter most attended to by both camps since it also helps ensure a steady economic growth. If both the economy and the security will be stabilized in the area, there will be enough reason to believe that the Palestinians will be capable enough to handle the problems within their areas. Since Israeli troops are gradually being pulled out, it goes to show that trust is slowly being reestablished between the Israeli government and the Palestinian authority, which is a good sign for both sides future relations. So far, the Palestinian communities—specifically Nablus, West Bank—has experienced a steady growth and a revitalized sense of security. As known in previous years, the conflict between Israeli forces and extremists has greatly hindered economic and political growth within Palestinian territories, especially in the West Bank area. The traumas of conflict may have not been permanently erased, but there is still hope for the Palestinian communities in the future as the West Bank experiences stability within its local economy. Furthermore, the Palestinian authority has been present in order to address the local concerns of the area, attending mostly to the areas security. It may take years before the economy has completely stabilized and the security has been fully established, but as of now, the area has shown great signs of improvement as compared to previous years. People have felt more secure, buildings are being established and reestablished, and stores are being opened and reopened. Communities are starting to experiencing growth again. References Bronner, E. (2009, July 16). Security and Economic Revival Raise Hopes in the West Bank. The New York Times. Retrieved July 17, 2009, from http://www. nytimes. com/2009/07/17/world/middleeast/17westbank. html? ref=world.

Catherine and Heathcliff in Wuthering Heights :: essays research papers

With the death of Catherine, the reader is inclined to examine the causes. Cathy herself states that Edgar Linton and Heathcliff are the direct causes, and it is quite the possibility. Finally culminating in one rather brief, yet powerful confrontation, the clashing of Edgar and Heathcliff has been an issue between the two families ever since the day that Cathy and Heathcliff went playing in the moors and got caught at the Linton’s house. Calling him a gypsy and servant, Edgar Linton was disgraced by his presence. Then later, for that scoundrel to be the one that Cathy truly loves? It was just too much for Edgar. The hatred grew and grew. When Heathcliff left, Edgar was at ease. He had Cathy, she had forgotten (or so he thought) about Heathcliff, and all was happy and merry at Thrushcross Grange. Then Heathcliff returned. While his motivations for leaving were good and heartfelt, his return was almost cruel for our ‘princess’ Cathy. She was so used to having ever ything that she could want, that she thought she could have them both. But Edgar stepped in. He finally stood up for himself and told Heathcliff never to return to Thrushcross Grange. It’s hard not to choose a side here, but it’s also hard to choose a side. For one, we see this beautiful, happy couple, raised together as children, and soul mates from the very beginning. One is made to be of lower class, and the other is made to be higher class. This difference provides a simple yet strong social barrier. When the two have to split, when Cathy is forced to make a decision (one which, unfortunately for Heathcliff, she has already made) the two split, and I, as a reader, am forced to choose whose side I’m on. In a novel such as this there is no right and wrong, only the lesser of two evils. Here, I have come to believe that the lesser evil is Edgar. I began to feel sorry for him, having lost both his sister and his wife to Heathcliff, whom he despises and sees as under him on the social ladder. Even though he himself has done things that cannot be right in any sort of way, we know that he truly cares for Catherine. He tolerates her moods and her tantrums, and he provides her with things that she wouldn’t have been able to get at

Benefits of video games Essay

Video games today are most commonly viewed as a way for students of high schools and colleges to slack off and procrastinate on homework and studies. What most people are not aware of though, is the social benefits that video gaming has on individuals. Video games can have positive effects on a gamers social life when it comes to teamwork, helping people, multitasking, and communicating efficiently. Educational Benefits for Students A recent study from the Education Development Center and the U.S. Congress-supported Ready To Learn (RTL) Initiative found that a curriculum that involved digital media such as video games could improve early literacy skills when coupled with strong parental and teacher involvement. Interestingly, the study focused on young children, and 4- and 5-year-olds who participated showed increases in letter recognition, sounds association with letters, and understanding basic concepts about stories and print. The key for this study was having high-quality educational titles, along with parents and teachers who were equally invested in the subject matter. That way kids could discuss and examine the concepts that they were exposed to in the games. Also interesting is the value that video games are proven to have even for very young players. A study by the Education Department Center further found that low-income children are â€Å"better prepared for success in kindergarten when their preschool teachers incorporate educational video and games from the Ready to Learn Initiative. † Older children such as teens and tweens can benefit from gameplay as well. Even traditional games teach kids basic everyday skills, according to Ian Bogost, associate professor at the Georgia Institute of Technology and founder of software maker Persuasive Games. â€Å"Look at ‘World of Warcraft’: You’ve got 11-year-olds who are learning to delegate responsibility, promote teamwork and steer groups of people toward a common goal. † Games that are designed to help teach are having an impact on college-age pupils as well. Following a recent 3D virtual simulation of a US/Canadian border crossing, wherein students assumed the role of guards, Loyalist College in Ontario reported that the number of successful test scores increased from 56 percent to 95 percent. Improved Multitasking Other carefully-designed studies have also shown that action video games can improve several aspects of brain activity, including multitasking. According to studies by Daphne Bavelier, a professor of brain and cognitive sciences at the University of Rochester, video gamers show real-world improvements on tests of attention, accuracy, vision and multitasking after playing certain titles. â€Å"If you think about it, the attentional and working memory demands of video games can be much greater than other tasks,† says Michael Stroud, a professor of psychology at Merrimack College. â€Å"Consider Pac-Man as an example. In Pac-Man, you must navigate your character through a spatial layout while monitoring the separate paths of four additional objects (the ghosts), while keeping the overall goal of clearing the small pellets in memory, as well as keeping track of the remaining large pellets. † â€Å"Think about how this may apply to skills such as driving,† he continues. â€Å"When you drive your car, you are faced with a constantly changing environment in the road, not to mention several other distractions that compete for attention that reside in the car. At the same time, you are attempting to navigate through the environment to reach a goal. † Social Benefits Games with broad appeal that are easy to grasp can additionally help many families play together, and better bridge the gap between generations. Consider a title like hip-wiggling simulation Just Dance, which can have young kids dancing alongside their grandparents. There are also many games that have positive social messages that encourage families to be a force for good. In a series of experiments published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, researchers found that participants who had just played a â€Å"pro-social† game in which characters must work together to help each other out as compared to those who had just played a â€Å"neutral† game (e. g. Tetris) were more likely to engage in helpful behaviors. Examples included assisting in a situation involving an abusive boyfriend, picking up a box of pencils or even volunteering to participate in more research. So-called â€Å"serious games,† specifically designed to teach and inform, are also having an impact on the world. Titles like the United Nations’ Food Force teach kids about real-life issues, humanitarianism and the practical challenges facing governments and private organizations today. In the game, children must complete six different missions that reflect the real-life obstacles faced by the World Food Programme in its emergency responses. Other games, like Nourish Interactive’s online Chef Solus and the Food Pyramid Adventure, teach kids about the benefits of healthy eating habits, while still more highlight pressing geopolitical and social issues, e. g. the Global Conflicts series. Upsides can even extend into the physical world. Consider Facebook game Ecotopia. In summer 2011, players of the popular social game met a challenge from its creators and planted 25,000 trees in the game world in 25 days, leading the game’s developer to plant 25,000 trees in real life. Career Benefits Future career choices for today’s tots will no doubt be influenced by technology in a way that is difficult for many parents to imagine too. Skills learned and honed playing home console and video games, as well as mobile gaming apps, will undoubtedly be very valuable to students in the workforce of 2025. As mentioned earlier, the Federation of American Scientists (FAS) has proclaimed that kids need more, not less, video game play. They argue that video games hold the potential to help address one of America’s most pressing problems – preparing students for an increasingly competitive global market. â€Å"The success of complex video games demonstrates that games can teach higher-order thinking skills such as strategic thinking, interpretative analysis, problem solving, plan formulation and execution, and adaptation to rapid change,† the Federation announced in a 2010 report. â€Å"These are the skills U. S. employers increasingly seek in workers and new workforce entrants. † Games are increasingly being used to educate and instruct workers around the globe by governments, trade bodies and the world’s largest corporations as well. From Cisco Systems’ The Cisco Mind Share Game, which facilitates network certification, to the US Department of Justice’s Incident Commander, in which emergency responders practice coordinating disaster relief efforts, the number of practical examples continues to grow. In fact, a recent study by the Entertainment Software Association found that 70 percent of major domestic employers have utilized interactive software and games for training purposes, and nearly eight out of 10 plan on doing so by 2013. Going forward, in addition to polishing your resume and interview skills, who knows? You may even want to brush up on your button-mashing abilities. Encouraging Cooperation and Teamwork Many games today also emphasize the cooperative aspects of game play, in which two or more players need to work together in order to reach a common goal. For instance, games like Lego Star Wars or Kirby’s Epic Yarn are enhanced by having players cooperate to solve in-game puzzles. Massively multiplayer games such as LEGO Universe and Lord of the Rings Online further offer added depth, atmosphere and enjoyment by allowing players to band together and work as a team in order to complete certain quests or defeat especially tricky opponents. Game industry analysts such as DFC Intelligence actually predict that video game revenue will reach nearly $70 billion by 2015, thanks in large part to these online, cooperative, subscription-based games that can be played together. Small wonder top titles like Star Wars: The Old Republic and Titan (the next MMO from Blizzard, the company that created World of Warcraft) continue to resonate so strongly with millions worldwide. Even the way that games are made can encourage teamwork. At Washburn University in Kansas, students study the game development process as a way to build teamwork and collaborative skills. â€Å"It taught me to work in a group,† said Washburn student Adam Bideau of the program in a recent interview with the Washburn Review. â€Å"Video games are not created by just one person and they require you to work well with others. You have to pool everyone’s talents together in order to produce the required product. † Promoting Exercise All parents know that kids need a healthy combination of physical and mental exercise. Happily, today’s motion-controlled games for Microsoft’s Xbox 360 Kinect, Nintendo’s Wii and Wii U, and Sony’s PlayStation Move help kids get both kinds of workouts at the same time. Better yet, people of all ages are finding them a more approachable way to stay physically fit. While many shy away from exercise because they see it as an activity that isn’t enjoyable, organizations like the American Heart Association now cite, and even recommend, video games as a fun and entertaining way to enjoy physical activity. Upsides of active play are considerable too. A study reported in the Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine of 39 Boston middle-school children who played with six different interactive gaming systems found that the games â€Å"compared favorably with walking on a treadmill at three miles per hour, with four out of the six activities resulting in higher energy expenditure. † Organizations supporting individuals of all ages and interests are additionally using active games to help get people up and moving. Nursing homes, cruise ships and even after-school programs all now employ active video games in some form to help stimulate both the mind and body. The good news: People seem to be enjoying active play more than ever. Healthy diversions such as Wii Fit and Zumba Fitness continue to be some of the most popular and best-selling games year in and out.

9 by E.E. Cummings Analysis Essay - 673 Words

â€Å"9† by E.E. Cummings Edward Estlin Cummings was a unique poet with an equally unique writing style. E.E. Cummings was born on October 14th, 1894 in Cambridge, Massachusetts. In 1916, Cummings graduated with a master’s degree from Harvard University. During his studies, he was subject to many great writers such as Gertrude Stein and Ezra Pound. After working for five months as a volunteer ambulance driver in World War I, he was captured by French authorities. He was accused on accounts of espionage. After the war, he settled into a life in which he bounced around from houses in rural Connecticut and Greenwich Village. He also traveled through Europe meeting various poets and artists, including Pablo Picasso. During his life, Cummings won a†¦show more content†¦In the way he conveys this, it’s clear that he feels time is moving very slowly. In the third stanza, â€Å"We do not wind it up, it has no weights, spring wheels inside of its slender self, no indeed dear nothing of the kind † (Cummings Web), Cummings creates vivid imagery. This shows that Cummings is relating how he has no use for a clock and doesn’t care for the principle of keeping time. He would rather live life time free, without having to worry about being on time or being late. The third and final poetic device that shows up in the poem, â€Å"9†, is symbolism. To begin the poem Cummings uses symbolism. The number â€Å"9† refers to the number of times he uses the words, â€Å"tic-toc†, â€Å"toc-tic†, â€Å"tic-tic†, â€Å"toc†, and â€Å"tic†. Also, as seen in the fourth stanza, â€Å"So when kiss spring comes, we’ll kiss each kiss other on kiss the kiss lips because the tic clocks toc don’t make a toc-tic difference to kiss kiss you and to kiss me† (Cummings Web). Cummings uses the word â€Å"kiss† to complicate and clutter the verse. If you remove those words, he simply summarizes all of his thoughts in the last stanza. He says when spring comes; we can kiss because the clocks don’t make a difference to you and me. This symbolizes that Cummings can’t wait for the spring and summer months when the clocks don’t play a role in his life. In conclusion, Cummings uses his poem â€Å"9† to relay his feeling to time. He feels thatShow MoreRelatedEssay about E.E. Cummings: The Birth of Modern Poetry1882 Words   |  8 Pageslove, and life. Like a great poet, E.E. Cummings employed his past experiences in his poetry and life. Known as one of the preeminent poets of the 20th century, E.E. Cummings poetry has received an array of both positive and negative criticism. Nonetheless, Cummings’s poetry has inspired many poets and authors with his liberal views on love, nature, and religion along with his modern writing style. Although many criticized his contemporary style, E.E. 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