Permian Mass Extinction essays

Permian Mass Extinction essays A mass extinction about 250 million years ago, which destroyed almost of the species on Earth, happened very quickly and it is demonstrated in the fossil record by the collapse of one-celled organisms called protests. Something suddenly killed off more than 90 %of all species on earth, and that led to the age of the dinosaurs. Evidence indicates the massive die-off was linked with an abrupt drop in productivity, the rate at which inorganic carbon is turned into organic carbon through processes such as photosynthesis. Terrestrial faunal diversification occurred in the Permian and 90-95% of marine species became extinct. Among terrestrial fauna affected included insects, amphibians, reptiles and mammal-like reptiles. The terrestrial flora was predominately composed of gymnosperms, including conifers. Life in the sea consisted of common groups of brachiopods, bony fish, sharks and fuslinid. Corals and trilobites were also present, but were exceedingly rare. During the Permian period all the worlds land masses joined together into a single super continent named Pangaea. The collision between Laurasia and Siberia-Kazakhstania and China finalized and assembled into Pangaea by the end of Permian. This was the first time since the late Protrusion super continent of Rodina that such a landmass had formed. Pangea was shaped sort of like a giant pacman with the mouth on the east. There was a corresponding large single ocean, called Pathalassa. The body of water enclosed by the pacman mouth constituted a smaller area, the Tethys, which covered much of what is now southern and central Europe. Throughout the Permian, Europe was covered by a very salty inland sea, the Zechstein Sea, which advanced and receded at least twice. This was home to an impoverished fauna, mainly brachiopods and bivalves, which were able to cope with the hyper saline conditions. ...

Events Leading to the Scramble for Africa

Events Leading to the Scramble for Africa The Scramble for Africa (1880–1900) was a period of rapid colonization of the African continent by European powers. But it wouldnt have happened except for the particular economic, social, and military evolution Europe was going through. Europeans in Africa up to the 1880s By the beginning of the 1880s, only a small part of Africa was under European rule, and that area was largely restricted to the coast and a short distance inland along major rivers such as the Niger and the Congo. Britain had Freetown in Sierra Leone, forts along the coast of The Gambia, a presence at Lagos, the Gold Coast protectorate, and a fairly major set of colonies in Southern Africa (Cape Colony, Natal, and the Transvaal which it had annexed in 1877).Southern Africa also had the independent Boer Oranje-Vrystaat (Orange Free State).France had settlements at Dakar and St Louis in Senegal and had penetrated a fair distance up the river Senegal, the Assinie, and Grand Bassam regions of Cote dIvoire, a protectorate over the coastal region of Dahomey (now Benin), and had begun colonization of Algeria as early as 1830.Portugal had long-established bases in Angola (first arriving in 1482, and subsequently retaking the port of Luanda from the Dutch in 1648) and Mozambique (first arriving in 1498 and creating trading posts by 1505).Spain had small enclaves in northwest Africa at Ceuta and Melilla (frica Septentrional Espaà ±ola or Spanish North Africa).The Ottoman Turks controlled Egypt, Libya, and Tunisia (the strength of Ottoman rule varied greatly). Causes of the Scramble for Africa There were several factors that created the impetus for the Scramble for Africa, and most of these were to do with events in Europe rather than in Africa. End of the Slave Trade:  Britain had had some success in halting the slave trade around the shores of Africa, but inland the story was different. Muslim traders from north of the Sahara and on the East Coast still traded inland, and many local chiefs were reluctant to give up the use of slaves. Reports of slaving trips and markets were brought back to Europe by various explorers such as David Livingstone, and abolitionists in Britain and Europe were calling for more to be done.Exploration:  During the 19th century, barely a year went by without a European expedition into Africa. The boom in exploration was triggered to a great extent by the creation of the African Association by wealthy Englishmen in 1788, who wanted someone to find the fabled city of Timbuktu and chart the course of the Niger River. As the 19th century wore on, the goal of the European explorer changed, and rather than traveling out of pure curiosity they began to record details of markets, goods, and resources for the wealthy philanthropists who financed their trips. Henry Morton Stanley:  This naturalized American (born in Wales) was the explorer most closely connected to the start of the Scramble for Africa. Stanley had crossed the continent and located the missing Livingstone, but he is more infamously known for his explorations on behalf of King Leopold II of Belgium. Leopold hired Stanley to obtain treaties with local chieftains along the course of the River Congo with an eye on creating his own colony. Belgium was not in a financial position to fund a colony at that time. Stanleys work triggered a rush of European explorers such as the German journalist Carl Peters to do the same for various European countries.Capitalism:  The end of European trading in slaves left a need for commerce between Europe and Africa. Capitalists may have seen the light over slavery, but they still wanted to exploit the continent. New legitimate trade would be encouraged. Explorers located vast reserves of raw materials, plotted the course of trade routes, nav igated rivers, and identified population centers that could serve as markets for manufactured goods from Europe. It was a time of plantations and cash crops, when the regions workforce was put to work to producing rubber, coffee, sugar, palm oil, timber, etc for Europe. And the benefits were more enticing if a colony could be set up, which gave the European nation a monopoly. Steam Engines and Iron Hulled Boats:  In 1840, the  first British ocean-going iron warship called Nemesis  arrived at Macao, south China. It changed the face of international relations between Europe and the rest of the world. The  Nemesis  had a shallow draft (five feet), a hull of iron, and two powerful steam engines. It could navigate the non-tidal sections of rivers, allowing inland access, and it was heavily armed. Livingstone used a steamer to travel up the Zambezi River in 1858 and had the parts transported overland to Lake Nyassa. Steamers also allowed Henry Morton Stanley and Pierre Savorgnan de Brazza to explore the Congo.Quinine and Medical Advances:  Africa, especially the western regions, was known as the White Mans Grave because of the danger of two diseases: malaria and yellow fever. During the 18th century, only one in 10 Europeans sent out to the continent by the Royal African Company survived. Six of the 10 died in their first year. In 1817, French scien tists Pierre-Joseph Pelletier and Joseph Bienaimà © Caventou extracted quinine from the bark of the South American cinchona tree. It proved to be the solution to malaria; Europeans could now survive the  ravages of the disease  in Africa. Unfortunately,  yellow fever  continued to be a problem, and even today there is no specific treatment for the disease. Politics:  After the creation of a unified Germany (1871) and Italy (a longer process, but its capital relocated to Rome in 1871) there was no room left in Europe for expansion. Britain, France, and Germany were in an intricate political dance, trying to maintain their dominance, and an overseas empire would secure it. France, which had lost two provinces to Germany in 1870, looked to Africa to gain more territory. Britain looked toward Egypt and the control of the Suez Canal as well as pursuing territory in gold-rich southern Africa. Germany, under the expert management of  Chancellor Bismarck, had come late to the idea of overseas colonies but was now fully convinced of their worth. All that was needed was some mechanism to be put in place to stop overt conflict over the coming land grab.Military Innovation: At the beginning of the 19th century, Europe was only marginally ahead of Africa in terms of available weapons, as traders had long supplied them to local chiefs and many h ad stockpiles of guns and gunpowder. But two innovations gave Europe a massive advantage. In the late 1860s, percussion caps were being incorporated into cartridges. What previously came as a separate bullet, powder, and wadding was now a single entity, easily transported and relatively weatherproof. The second innovation was the breech-loading rifle. Older model muskets, held by most Africans, were front loaders, which were slow to use (maximum of three rounds per minute) and had to be loaded while standing. Breech-loading guns, in comparison, could be fired between two to four times faster and could be loaded even in a prone position. Europeans, with an eye to colonization and conquest, restricted the sale of the new weaponry to Africa maintaining military superiority. The Mad Rush Into Africa in the Early 1880s Within just 20 years, the political face of Africa had changed, with only Liberia (a colony run by ex-African-American slaves) and Ethiopia remaining free of European control. The start of the 1880s saw a rapid increase in European nations claiming territory in Africa: In 1880, the region to the north of the river Congo became a French protectorate following a treaty between the King of the Bateke, Makoko, and the explorer Pierre Savorgnan de Brazza.In 1881, Tunisia became a French protectorate and the Transvaal regained its independence.In 1882, Britain occupied Egypt (France pulled out of joint occupation), and Italy began colonization of Eritrea.In 1884, British and French Somaliland were created.In 1884,  German South West Africa, Cameroon, German East Africa, and Togo were created and Rà ­o de Oro claimed by Spain. Europeans Set the Rules for Dividing up the Continent The  Berlin Conference of 1884–1885  (and the resultant  General Act of the Conference at Berlin) laid down ground rules for the further partitioning of Africa. Navigation on the Niger and Congo rivers was to be free to all, and to declare a protectorate over a region the European colonizer must show effective occupancy and develop a sphere of influence. The floodgates of European colonization had opened. Sources and Further Reading Bryceson, Deborah Fahy. The Scramble in Africa: Reorienting Rural Livelihoods. World Development 30.5 (2002): 725–39.Chamberlain, Muriel Evelyn. The Scramble for Africa, 3rd ed. London: Routledge, 2010.Michalopoulos, Stelios, and Elias Papaioannou. The Long-Run Effects of the Scramble for Africa. American Economic Review 106.7 (2016): 1802–48.Pakenham, Thomas. The Scramble For Africa. Little, Brown: 2015.

The US Supreme Court Docketed Case No 06-1006 Essay

The US Supreme Court Docketed Case No 06-1006 - Essay Example The case number under the consideration in the Texas Court (Harris County) was PD-0436-05. It is necessary to trace the progress and the real causes of the case, to understand the reason of it being submitted to the Supreme Court and to analyze if there were any mistakes performed legally by the preceding courts. The case started in 2002, when the grand jury of Harris County returned an indictment, and charging the defendant with the felony, which had been committed under the paragraphs 31.03(a) and 31.09 of the Texas Penalty Code. In 2003, August, the defendant (already being an appellant, as it will go further) appeared in trial for the plea of being non-guilty, and having presented eight witnesses. The State was able to establish, that through the period of 1997-2000, the appellant was working as a bookkeeper in a private residential community for mentally disordered children, called Hope Village. Among the duties which the appellant had at work was the responsibility for the fina nces together with the payroll. During the notified period, and using the opportunities which the appellant had due to her obligations, she had substantially raised her own salary without superior notification and permission, the numerous additional paychecks were found besides those which she was regularly receiving; she was also able to reimburse the expenditures which had never been made. The deductions for the health insurance and federal taxes were also improper. The total sum of damage for the Hope Village was about $50,000. The appellant was resisting to admitting her guilt, but failed to explain the bigger portion of evidence against her. The jury found the appellant guilty and assessed her punishment in nine years imprisonment and $2,500 fine. The appellant was sure that the Fourteenth Amendment had been violated through sustaining, which was conducted by the district criminal court in relation to the State's objection of the innocence presumption. The Court of Appeals was in agreement with the appellant in terms of presumption of innocence used, but it found this error to be harmless beyond a reasonable doubt. It is stated, that 'any harm from the trial's error with regard to the presumption of innocence would have been lessened, if not altogether erased, both by the jury charge and by the presumption that the jury followed the instructions in the jury charge. Taking into account both the evidence presented and the fact that the jury had already been charged as to the presumption of innocence, we can say beyond a reasonable doubt that the error committed by the trial court did not contribute to the appellant's conviction.' The appellant, on the other hand viewed the errors of the court of appeals in the following ways: 1. The error which the district court committed should not have been considered as harmless error, but was better related to the so-called 'structural defect'; 2. The fact that the error was admitted to be harmless beyond reasonable limits was also erroneous for the fact that it had caused the jury not to suppose the appellant to be innocent anymore; 3. The court of appeals also failed to use the so-called 'totality of circumstances'. The discussion of the utilized notions and the similar cases of use Totality of circums

Concepts Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Concepts - Research Paper Example Non- verbal communication is beneficial in international business settings. It makes communication brief and effective. Finally, it exemplifies the level of professionalism thereby increasing the level of confidence. On the downside it cannot be used as a public instrument for communication, prevents detailed conversation and not as of much influence as verbal communication. Persuasive communication is more personal, more detailed and effective in sharing information (Fontane et al., 2013). Conversely, it is time consuming, involves emotion which is inappropriate for business and requires a high level of negotiation skills. Collaboration improves the receipt of feedback in an organization and ensures participatory decision making. In opposition, collaborative communication delays the decision making in the organization and is ineffective where a huge number of employees are involved. Non- verbal communication is used in international communication and in business talks with potential clients to increase business opportunities by showing confidence and professionalism (Guffey, 2012). Persuasion communication is used in convincing customers and potential clients to undertake a certain business deal. In summary, collaboration is used in day to day operation of the business in decision making. Fontaine, M., Parise, S., & Miller, D. (2013, June 13). Collaborative environments: A dynamic tool for transforming business processes. Retrieved from

Lyndon Johnsons Vietnam War Strategy

Lyndon Johnsons Vietnam War Strategy LYNDON JOHNSON’S PEACE INITIATIVES DURING THE VIETNAM WAR â€Å"What did the Johnson administration hope to achieve from diplomatic efforts to resolve the Vietnam War between 1965 and 1968 and with what success?† Introduction: Lyndon Johnson had become highly besieged in the pursuit of his Vietnam policy. Most historical arguments centre round his inept handling of the situation, in which he escalated the bombing offensives and then tempered them down making a mess of the peace moves, which were never done with any serious intent. The core of the historical criticism of the president is that he allowed himself to be blindly guided by inappropriate advice from Robert McNamara, and caused avoidable loss to American lives. Obsessed with the idea of keeping the armed forces subordinate to the presidency, the Johnson administration gave instructions that were out of sync with the happenings on the battlefield. This paper takes a look at these developments, while listing in some detail the peace moves he tried to make, and how they came a cropper. It finally looks at the reasons for their failures, and tries to point out who could be held responsible for the fracas. Limitations of this paper Since this paper is about a highly narrowed down topic, a background to the war and its developments is not made; this paper is limited to discussing its defined purview, and hence these details and the persons involved in the war are taken as given. Need for negotiations In order to understand with what objectives the president initiated negotiations, it is necessary to understand the situation that forced him to make these moves. With a series of ill-conceived actions, the president had crossed the Rubicon over Vietnam. Well into the middle of his term, it was a thorn in the flesh from which there seemed no reprieve for the beleaguered president, even as enormous pressure mounted at home to end the war. As aptly summed up, â€Å"Vietnam was a stalemate producing irreconcilable domestic divisions and a nightmare†¦from which Johnson could not awake.† (Dallek, 1998, p. 443) From the sunny days of his presidential campaigning of 1964, when less than a third of the population saw Vietnam as the most pressing problem the nation faced to a near doubling of this figure by the winter of 1965-66, the decline in support for the president’s policies on Vietnam was rapid. (Dallek, 2004, p. 251) His gauche at handling the press was also another factor for this situation, with the result that Vietnam soon became, in the perception of the American public, â€Å"President Johnson’s war†. (Liebovich, 1998, p. 45) Egged on by his Defense Secretary, Robert McNamara, Johnson had given the war efforts no respite; he was firmly convinced that all it needed were a few more bombings and a few successful fights to end the war. He could not have been more off the target; while the president’s men assessed that the Vietcong and the North Vietnamese regular armies could be subdued, the latter resorted to guerrilla tactics, from scattered and well-spread positions. The result was calamitous –by 1967, nearly half a million Americans had been sent to Vietnam, of whom the total casualties were in the region of 100,000, among whom no less than a seventh had lost their lives. (Liebovich, 1998, p. 44) Although the Government of South Vietnam, (GVN), whose fragile nature had for so long worried the US, had coalesced, with the Cao Ky coup by the beginning of 1966, the Johnson administration was in a bind about the policy it had to pursue, because astronomical sums were going down the drain. An April 1966 intra-governmental policy review had not seen any major reason for hope. The views of the presidential staff differed sharply from those of the men on the battlefield. Air strikes, on which the administration had pinned its highest hopes to achieve a breakthrough in the war, had come to a virtual naught, and were becoming a colossal waste of resources. One of the prime air strike programmes, ROLLING THUNDER, in the assessment the Institute of Defense Analysis made in the summer of 1966 had â€Å"had no measurable direct effect†. This was after the air strikes on the highly strategic and vulnerable areas of Petroleum, Oil and Lubricants, (POL) of the Democratic Republic of Nor th Vietnam (DRV). (Gelb Betts, 1979, pp. 146-148) At this point, the lack of effectiveness of the bombing strategy was also severely compounded by the exorbitant cost of carrying out these operations, which according to the CIA, cost almost ten times as much as the gains they brought. Having dropped as much as 643,000 tons of bombs on North Vietnam, the cost of this on the US exchequer was $ 9.60 for every dollar’s worth of damage they inflicted on the DRV with only half the fighter bombers having the capability of surviving the year-long stint as pilots. (Wiest, 2003, p. 27) This terrible cost of escalation was also reflecting on the economy, taking it on an inflationary spiral, and threatening to neutralise its post-war gains. (Isserman Kazin, 2000, p. 224) Gold prices were becoming very volatile, and all these contributed to completely undermine his ‘Great Society’ programme, on which he had come to power, (Reiter Stam, 2002, p. 121) and whose central theme was economic growth accompanied by poverty reduction. (Brown-Collier, 1998) In addition, another extremely important factor was threatening to bring the president on his knees –sustained antiwar movement, that had been inspired by the success of the Civil Rights movement. On the field, the highhandedness of the American forces had only succeeded in making the South support the North, and the infiltration of men and other supplies from the North. Through the Ho Chi Minh Trail, an estimated 90,000 men infiltrated to the South between 1965 and 1967. The Americanisation of South Vietnam was a total disaster. (Best, Hanhimà ¤ki, Maiolo Schulze, 2004, pp. 296) It was in the wake of these major drawbacks associated with continued bombing that the president was forced to mellow his position. By December 1966, the administration was convinced that since there was no way by which they could win the war, at least by election time, the only road that lay ahead was negotiation, (Dallek , 1998, p. 444) since this was the only way by which he could reverse these conditions. However, as the next section illustrates, he was no better at these negotiations, either. Johnson’s objectives, the negotiations and reasons for their failure These debacles were to reflect heavily on the president personally; by December 1966, the realisation had clearly and irrevocably dawned on the administration that unless the Americans ended the war at the earliest, it would reflect badly on the nation’s elections of 1968. At this stage, there was no alternative to negotiation, if the president was to have the slightest chance of re-election. From the high perch at which the president was seated, the only non-negotiable point at the discussions now became a separate state within South Vietnam (SVN), and a non- communist government for the president. (Dallek, 1998, p. 443) The first concrete steps towards negotiation were taken furtively, in 1966. At this point, the US was still very imperious, even though it was the one that initiated the negotiation. It made a blanket, unconditional demand –that the DRV stop infiltration into the south for bombing to stop. The first of these steps, known as bombing pauses, was hardly f ruitful. Taking off from here, the Johnson administration made a clearer move towards negotiation at the Manila Conference in the Declaration of Peace in 1966. The aim of the administration, which was to negotiate from a position of strength, offered the condition that the US would withdraw from South Vietnam within six months of Hanoi withdrawing the last of its troops from there. However, the DRV too was equally determined to bargain from a position of strength. The result was that the Johnson administration was seen to be keen on making peace, but within the administration, the same problem of the mismatch in thinking between the executive and the armed forces remained, (Gelb Betts, 1979, p. 151) because the president, in whose mind the famous spat between Harry Truman and Gen. Douglas McArthur during the Korean War had been weighing heavily, decided that the best way to avoid a repeat of such a situation now was to keep the military under the firm control of the presidency. Unf ortunately, he was ham-handed in doing this, ending up in only isolating the military and creating a terrible disharmony between the two. (Jacobsen, 1996, p. 216) Accordingly, after the raids of December 13 and 14, the president ordered a Christmas ceasefire, and extended it up to January 1 as a goodwill gesture. The main objective for Johnson at this stage was securing the territorial integrity of the north and south of Vietnam, or all Vietnam, should its people choose reunification. His objective was also clearly aimed at silencing his critics at home, of whom there was no dearth. He sought to make these moves towards negotiations to silence the doves in the Congress, who kept insisting on negotiations, and the American public, who were becoming war-weary. (Dallek, 1998, pp. 443-448) The quick progress Eugene McCarthy made at the Hampshire primaries jolted the president about his sagging popularity. Drawing from McCarthy’s success, Robert Kennedy, too decided to challenge t he president. (Isserman Kazin, 2000, p. 224) Internally, the most urgent need for him was to use the Vietnam War as a means to finish off his political rivals at home, chief among whom was Robert Kennedy. â€Å"For all his hope and brave talk about progress in the fighting, he still feared that the war would destroy him politically and open the way to a successful Kennedy bid for the presidency.† (Dallek, 1998, p. 448) There was also another factor –a change in US attitudes towards China, following the perception of Chinese expansion being the cornerstone of a Vietnam policy getting significantly reduced around the middle of 1966. (Parker, 1989, p. 142) Johnson hoped that he could hold his people together while using the armed forces and air strikes to force the Hanoi government to buckle just in time to give him a great fillip for the 1968 elections. Internationally, too, he was keen to be seen as a man who was interested in peace, accepting British and Russian offers to mediate, albeit reluctantly. He followed these up with another ceasefire for February 6-13. (Dallek, 1998, p. 446) Peace moves Operation Marigold was the name given to the Johnson administration’s attempt to make peace with Hanoi through indirect means, by which intermediaries in the form of emissaries of neutral countries were sent to develop channels of communication. It first started when the Polish member of the International Control Commission, Janusz Lewandowski apprised the Italian ambassador in Saigon, Giovanni d’ Orlandi and then the US ambassador to South Vietnam, Henry Cabot Lodge Jr., about Ho Chi Minh’s mind. The North Vietnamese leader was surprisingly amiable to US propositions. He suggested that if the Americans suspended bombing, he was more than willing to talk with them; an even greater surprise was that he was not going to insist that a socialist regime be established in the South, would not meddle in the affairs of the southern government, and that he was willing to consider a â€Å"reasonable calendar† for American withdrawal. Yet, in typical hubris, the John son administration threw away an easy way out of the conflict that had presented itself on a platter. The reason? Washington’s perceived untrustworthiness of the neutrality of communist Poland. Such a baffling, completely unfounded assumption destroyed a great chance for peace. A glaring example of the complete lack of coordination between the presidential and military staff, the basic reason for which bombing had not stopped earlier, showed itself up in December 1966. While the US ambassador in Poland, John Gronouski, was making preparations for a highly sensitive meeting with Polish officials, out of the blue, the US dropped bombs on sensitive targets in Hanoi heavily on December 2 and 3. This completely set the clock back on whatever little progress the Poles were making towards negotiating with the DRV, which centred round the issue of bombing. To this, the unrepentant administration offered the flimsiest of reasons for which the air strikes could not go ahead as planned on November 10 – bad weather! Further, even the planned attacks on December 13 and 14 went ahead as scheduled, giving the Marigold initiative a quick burial. Analysts are of the opinion that even after the bombings of December 2 and 3, there was hope for some salvage, but that the Johnson administration, which had in the first place created the truce move, killed it with its own hands. The simple reason for this was the total lack of sincerity on the part of the Johnson administration about going ahead with the bombing pauses. After briefly halting its bombings in mid-December, the US once again insisted that Hanoi reciprocate unequivocally. It read wrongly the situation on the ground in Hanoi in mid-late January 1967. With the DRV Foreign Minister, Ngoyen Duy Trinh’s tough words on January 28, demanding that the US stop its bombings immediately, the official obituary to the Marigold initiative came to be written. (Gelb Betts, 1979, pp. 152, 153) The fate of another such mission, Operation Sunflower, was no different; having been declared on February 6, 1967, the first reaction it drew was a strong letter from Ho Chi Minh, who warned the president that â€Å"the people of Viet Nam are determined not to surrender under the threats of bombing†. (Brigham, 1998, p. 143) This phase offered a six-day bombing pause in February 1967. Even while the Americans were again strict on the condition of reciprocity from North Vietnam, that of stopping infiltration, the administration gathered evidence that the North Vietnamese were taking advantage and were supplying arms to the South, forcing Washington to drop the plan. Another initiative was the San Antonio formula of September-December 1967. This, too, did not offer anything new or different; it reiterated American willingness to stop bombing and talk, if the North met its obligation of supplying arms to the South. North Vietnam, predictably, dismissed the offer. There were other initiatives for negotiation, too, between October 1966 and February 1968. Starting with moves initiated on the occasion of the funeral of Indian Prime Minister, Lal Bahadur Shastri, other steps, clearly half-hearted, were taken. These, in addition to neutral moves by eminent persons and the Glassboro summit, were given high sounding codenames such as Packers, Aspen, Ohio and Pennsylvania. (Gelb Betts, 1979, p. 163) Another prominent attempt of a peace mission was that of the Italian cleric, Giorgio La Pira in 1965. To his desperate pleas to end the war, all that the Johnson administration made was this indifferent reaction: State Department Executive Secretary Benjamin Read commented to presidential advisor, Walt Rostow thus: â€Å"[La Piras] telegram is another in a voluminous series of peace messages. In view of La Piras well-known position on Vietnam and other issues, it is recommended no reply be made.† (Miller, 1999, p. 143) The net result of these peace overtures was a near zero. All these gave rise to the Tet offensive. (Gelb Betts, 1979, p. 165) This was the event that signalled what a morass the US had got into. On the night of January 31, 1968, some troops owing their allegiance to the North Vietnamese leader attacked the American embassy of Saigon. Although the Americans put it down in no time, the event opened the floodgates to the seemingly never-ending nature of the war, showing up the complete lack of understanding of the war of the American soldiers, who went on the rampage, committing acts of unheard of savagery. (Isserman Kazin, 2000, p. 223) Thus, while peace was being sought, the actions of the administration took the two sides anywhere but there. Conclusion While fixing the blame for the failures of the negotiations processes, students of history need to see the situation in the backdrop of the Cold War era. In retrospect, in the age of extremely fierce rivalry between the two superpowers played out through their allies, perhaps some of the blame can be mitigated from Johnson when he refused to trust the Polish, a staunch communist country. To be fair, he was only reciprocating an attitude of great mutual distrust of the Cold War protagonists. (Vandiver, 1997, p. 156) However, it needs to be said that on this particular, extremely important occasion, he was allowing the history of their relationship to cloud his judgement, when there appeared no motive on the part of the Polish other than to bring about a ceasefire during Operation Marigold. The bottom line of the historic criticisms against Johnson relates to his oscillation between escalation and negotiation, the total disconnect between the executive and the armed forces, and the catastrophic consequences these produced. Offensives continued even as Operation Marigold was on; later, two months into the Tet offensive, there were no concrete results, by when the president had made up his mind not to run for the 1968 elections. This decision made no great difference: the purpose for which the bombing operations took place, forcing North Vietnam to end its support for Vietcong, was not served. The bombings of ROLLING THUNDER were in no way deterring a regrouping of the North Vietnamese guerrilla fighters, who still possessed all the strength to defeat the South Vietnamese Army. (Jacobsen, 1996, p. 216) Taking an overall view of the escalation and the failure of the peace negotiations, it is difficult to point an accusatory finger at anyone other than the president. The decision to escalate the offensive was entirely his and McNamara’s. In dealing with the situation, the president had thoroughly misread the situation, and had kept insisting to the American public that the war was all but won. At no stage of the war did the president behave in a manner befitting his office. In what was to be the ultimate show of lack of conviction in the peace moves, the man he appointed to oversee the peace negotiation, Averell Harriman, was never invited to the Tuesday Lunches briefings, where updates about the situation used to be made! Moreover, the Johnson administration regarded bombings as its biggest bargaining chip, a basis upon which all its negotiations were to proceed. A lack of coordination and understanding between these two vital organs was one of the prime reasons for the failu re of whichever peace missions the president undertook. (Gelb Betts, 1979, p. 151) Neither his offensives, nor the peace moves he made later when left with no other choice was done in the right spirit. As a result, the president’s handling of the Vietnam War was to dwarf the stature of one of America’s tallest presidents. References Best, A., Hanhimà ¤ki, J. M., Maiolo, J. A., Schulze, K. E., (2004), International History of the Twentieth Century, Routledge, London. Brigham, R. K., (1998), Guerrilla Diplomacy: The NLFs Foreign Relations and the Viet Nam War, Cornell University Press, Ithaca, NY. Brown-Collier, E. K., (1998), Johnsons Great Society: Its Legacy in the 1990s. Review of Social Economy, Vol. 56, No.3, p. 259+. Retrieved May 13, 2006, from Questia database. Dallek, R., (1998), Flawed Giant: Lyndon Johnson and His Times, 1961-1973, Oxford University Press, New York. Dallek, R., (2004), Lyndon B. Johnson: Portrait of a President, Oxford University Press, New York. Gelb, L. H., Betts, R. K., (1979), The Irony of Vietnam: The System Worked, Brookings Institution, Washington, DC. Isserman, M., Kazin, M., (2000), America Divided The Civil War of the 1960s, Oxford University Press, New York. Jacobsen, M., (1996), 13 President Johnson and the Decision To Curtail Rolling Thunder. In The Tet Offensive, Gilbert, M. J. Head, W. (Eds.) (pp. 215-227), Praeger, Westport, CT. Liebovich, L. W., (1998), The Press and the Modern Presidency: Myths and Mindsets from Kennedy to Clinton, Praeger Publishers, Westport, CT. Miller, J. E., (1999), 5 Ambivalent about America: Giorgio la Pira and the Catholic Left in Italy from NATO Ratification to the Vietnam War. In The United States and the European Alliance Since 1945 /, Burk, K. Stokes, M. (Eds.) (pp. 127-144), Berg, New York. Parker, F. C., (1989), Vietnam: Strategy for a Stalemate (1st ed.), Paragon Press, New York. Reiter, D., Stam, A. C., (2002), Democracies at War, Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ. Vandiver, F. E., (1997), Shadows of Vietnam: Lyndon Johnsons Wars (1st ed.), Texas AM University Press, College Station, TX. Wiest, A., (2003), The Vietnam War, 1956-1975, Routledge, New York.

Indegenous People Native Tile

Native title is a concept in the Australian law. It is a type of continuous ownership of land by local indigenous Australian. However native title can be combined with non-indigenous proprietary rights. Common law and aboriginal law develop this concept In case of any discrepancy between Australian law and customary aboriginal law, the non-indigenous rights will generally prevail. Native title is a land title and it was recognized in Australia during 1992 by the High Court in the Mabo decision. The native title linked with groups of people whom traditional connections between the lands, waters among the aboriginal people.The native title rights recognized under Australian law. The native titleholders protected to get compensation if governments acquire their land or waters for future developments. The native title is different from land rights. Native title is available to Aboriginal groups with traditional ties to land. Hence people who have always lived in the same area can claim n ative title. The native title is recognized by Commonwealth legislation. On 1st September 1995, the Bardi and jawi people of Dumpier Peninsula and islands of Buccaneer Archipelago filed an application for a native title determination.After registration and public notification more than 155 persons were joined as parties to the application. At last the claim was made on behalf of the Bardi and Jawi people. The applicants i. e. Bardi-Jawi people sought a native title determination in regard to land, waters, water courses, reefs, seas and seabed in the Northern Dampier and Kind Sound Regions of Western Kimberley-Lombadina and One Arm Point, Western Australia. The claim of native title rights and interest which includes rights to the possession, occupation, use and enjoyment of the areas.Besides it protection of cultural knowledge also claimed. The main opponent Western Australian Fishing Industry Council and Telstra were opposed the application. Federal Court Judge Robert French had gi ven a judgment in favor of a native tile application by the Bardi and Jawi people. Their claim is at about 1,037-sq. km area of land at the northern end of Dampier Peninsula. This land surrounded by areas of sea to a three nautical mile boundary comprising Aboriginal reserves and unallocated crown land with many of the 900-strong community living on or near the area.The judge also ruled that the Bardi and Jawi people had exclusive rights to the whole of the mainland they had claimed, as well as right to hunt turtle and dugong in waters in the area and to take pearl shell for cultural purposes, which includes the following rights based on the Sec. 225 Native Title Act indicates the rights and interests. The rights include use and enjoyment rights and these are not limited to the following rights § 1. The right to live on the land 2. The rights to access move about on and use the land and waters 3. The right to hunt and gather on the land and waters4. The right to engage in spiritua l and cultural activities on the land and waters 5. The right to access, use and take any of the resources of the land (including ochre) for food, shelter, medicine, fishing and trapping fish, weapons for hunting, cultural, religious, spiritual, ceremonial, artistic and communal purposes 6. Right to refuse, regulate and control the use and enjoyment by others of the land its resources, 7. The right to have access to and use the water of land for personal, domestic, social, cultural, religious, spiritual, ceremonial and communal purposes.In relation to the offshore waters, the rights were limited to non-exclusive rights of access and use of the areas resources. These rights are exercisable in accordance with the traditional laws and customs of the native titleholders and the laws of the State and Commonwealth. However these are subject to the certain other rights and interest such as 1. Use and Benefit of Aborigines 2. Fishing and aquaculture licenses 3. The interest of Telstra Corpo ration Limited 4. Public right to fish and navigate in tidal waters 5.International right of innocent passage The exclusive native title rights cannot be granted in relation to any flowing or underground waters and the taking of resources cannot be done for commercial purposes. Not only the bardi – jawi people or any other persons can be used. LEGAL The Native Title Act, 1993 §, which was in force from 1st January 1994. In order to provide native title rights, the Act was established. The Australia’s legal and parliamentary systems required providing such native rights to the persons in order to enable economic activity.It was forced by the decision of High court in the case of Mabo Vs. State Queens µ land. The determination of native title in a particular area, land or water depends upon the group of persons and their interests. The offshore place means the water within the limits of the State only. BLUE REEF With regard to the Brue Reef, the evidence established its importance in the mythology or cosmology of the applicants, it did not establish that the law devolved rights in relations to land or waters as a result.This leaves the claimant group unable to protect an important spiritual site. Here the judge has placed undue weight on activity-based use-rights of members of the group and thereby discounting the importance of indigenous forms connection to land. Instead more importance to be given the indigenous rights. In the case of Sampi Vs State of Western Australia. The part of Brue Reef, which lies within 12 nautical mile limit. There was no basis disclosed on the evidence of native title rights in Brue Reef and hence the Bardi/Jawi claim was dismissed.The rights and interest claimed that includes access and use and enjoyment of the reef, and it cannot be as an exclusive right. The Blue Reef also comes under non-exclusive right.  § NON-EXCLUSIVE RIGHTS Non-exclusive rights also proposed to be recognized over the inter tidal zones and associated reefs and areas of water. With regard to the Blue Reef area though it may be evidently noticed the use as traditional and occasional visit and it may be religious significance, the exclusive right to use the persons only cannot be issued. However they can go as usual beside all other like people will go.Mere visiting to the places does not confer any privilege to get the exclusive right only particular people should go which attraction of non-violence of international treaties. It was linked with the claim, which was made by the Bardi-Jawi people previously. The rejection of claim will not be amounted to the exploitation of the Bardi-Jawi people. Hence the claim of Bardi-Jawi people with regard to the Blue Reef cannot be entertained which was linked with more than 12 nautical miles of the water. The non-exclusive possession native title rights exist to the Bardi Jawi people.With this they have the right to access, hunt dugong and turtle, and take resources for food, relig ious, spiritual, cultural, ceremonial and communal purposes. It includes used pearl shell for ceremonial purposes in accordance with the traditional laws and customs. EXCUSIVE RIGHTS The rights over land include the right to live on the land, right to access, move about and use the land, the right to hunt and gather, the right to engage in spiritual and cultural activities, the right to use resources including food and ochre and the right to refuse, regulate and control the use of the land by the others.The rights over areas of water include the right to use and enjoy the reefs and associated water, the right to hunt and gather, including for dugong and turtle and the right to use the resources for food, trapping fish, religious, cultural and ceremonial purposes. Their basic claim was registered in the case lies only with three nautical mile limit back to the commencement point. The claim of Bardi Jawi people first lodged in 1995. Before the claim went to trial and later amended the area from 12 nautical miles offshore to three nautical miles.Hence the claim again cannot be entertained, which was already decided with the three nautical miles of the water. ADVISE TO THE COUNSEL Based on the above, it is identified the following suggestions for which counsel may not entertain the Bardi-Jawi arguments. 1. The claim of Bardi-Jawi people for extension of 12 nautical lines cannot be entertained since they have claimed earlier for three nautical miles only. Once the decision was made cannot be reopened in the same issue. If it is accepted again they will raise for another. 2.With regard to the Blue Reef, which extends beyond sixteen nautical miles from the coast cannot be entertained. Traditional custom is not exclusive right for which every other person can also go. Though it is evidenced by several years that Bardi-Jawi people are using and going for religious significance, exclusive right rights cannot be permitted. 3. The native title right cannot be recognized o n the sea beyond 12 nautical miles, which attract the violation international treaties. The distinction between the existence of native title under traditional law and custom and its recognition by the common law was made in Fejo Vs.Northern Territory, 1998.  µ 4. Those rights and interests will be continued in spite of non- recognition by the common law may be taken into account in the definition of the connection with land and waters, which indigenous people may have by virtue of their traditional laws and customs. 5. The Bardi-Jawi also granted previously non-exclusive rights, which they have been protected sufficient and they can go for the Blue Reef as usual, but it is not exclusive right. 6. The State government power is on nautical miles only up to 3.Hence Bardi-Jawi claim beyond 12 nautical miles cannot be entertained under any stage. Australian Fishing Industry Council and Commonwealth Government will exercise the rights. The commonwealth government has concurrent jurisdi ction with the State in the claim jurisdiction with the three nautical mile limit to the 12 nautical mile limit. The commonwealth has sole jurisdiction beyond the 12 nautical mile limit around Brue Reef. The claimants made a petition for claiming a native title of the land, which is surrounded by an area of sea to a three nautical mile boundary only.Hence more than the claim not permitted for extension beyond three nautical miles still they go for appeals again and again.  § 7. The State government can grant up to three nautical miles since it recognized the role of owners i. e. Bardi-Jawi who have right to exclusive possession of the land, fishing rights up to three nautical mile limit and the right to hunt turtle and dugong and the right to take resources from Brue Reef. CONCLUSION While taking the decision in connection with bardi-jawi, the following must be noticed by the decision makers.In the Australia, the native tile to land has been established by taking the sources of tr aditional laws and customs of indigenous peoples. The principles of international law linked with the decisions taken in connection with native tile to land. The native law has been developed and justified in the Australia based on different colonial histories and styles of the community were acknowledged. * REFERENCES Appendices, http://www. nntt. gov. au/publications/AR_20052006/appendices. asp? PrintContent=True Australian Constitution Act, http://www. austlii. edu.au/au/legis/cth/consol_act/coaca430/ Claimants celebrate native title decision, 2005, http://www. theage. com. au/news/national/claimants-celebrate-native-title-decision/2005/06/10/1118347602071. html Commonwealth Consolidated Acts, http://www. austlii. edu. au/au/legis/cth/consol_act/nta1993147/s4. html Focus: Native Title – September 2005, http://www. aar. com. au/pubs/nat/fontsep05. htm Frequently Asked questions, http://www. nativetitle. wa. gov. au/about_FAQs. aspx International Law, http://www. ohchr. org/ english/law/index. htm Native Title Act, 1993, http://www. austlii. edu.au/au/legis/cth/consol_act/nta1993147/ Office of Native Title, State Government agency, Western Australia, http://www. nativetitle. wa. gov. au/ Racial Discrimination Act, 1975, http://www. austlii. edu. au/au/legis/cth/consol_act/rda1975202/ Sampi v State of Western Australia (No 3) [2005] FCA 1716, http://www. atns. net. au/agreement. asp? EntityID=3203 http://www. ministers. wa. gov. au/ripper/docs/speeches/bardiprogress. pdf http://www. aph. gov. au/Senate/committee/ntlf_ctte/completed_inquiries/2002-04/nat_nattitle_trib/report/report. pdf http://ntru. aiatsis. gov. au/ntpapers/ip04v3. pdf

The Puritan Origins Of American Schooling - 977 Words

The Puritan Origins of American Schooling: Reaction Paper The readings from the first class surfaced many controversial and prevalent themes. The readings called into question the role education plays in creating a Godly society, a cure for societal ills, enhancing fear, as well as the importance of religious ties. In this paper, I will react to the following themes through a lens of how these beliefs still hold true today. As I read the readings for our first class I felt a sense of frustration and hope. I was frustrated because it remained so incredibly obvious that many of the systems that were created centuries are still alive and well today. However, at the same time I felt hopeful since, many of the puritan values rested on their morals and changes were implemented based upon this. I spend my life fighting against educational inequity, and I am often overwhelmed by the task. 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