Unresolved conflicts in the region as a key obstacle in the Essay

Unresolved conflicts in the region as a key obstacle in the development of (the Armenian-Azerbaijani Nagorno-Karabakh conflict in the context) - Essay Example It is co-chaired by the United States, France and Russia. Negotiations hit a deadlock in 2011 leading to spread of the geographical scope to other regions far way from Nagorno-Karabakh. It has been identified that this conflict is the key barrier to peace, stability and development in the South Caucasus (Notholt, 2008, p68). A review of the reasons as to why both the external actors and the conflicting parties have an interest in maintaining the status quo reveals the reason why the peace negotiation process has currently hit a deadlock. For example, both the government of Armenian and Azerbaijani have not shown any genuine interest in achieving the negotiated outcomes, which are proposed by OSCE (Notholt, 2008, p34). The Nagorno-Karabakh government was officially excluded from participating in this peace process, and the Armenia government is currently representing them. NK officials are currently becoming impatient with isolation from the direct participation and the fact that the negotiation process is currently not underway (Croissant, 1998, p42). A number of factors do not favor the negotiation process in this region. For instance, the geographical context does not support this negotiation progress. This is because the key powerbrokers, which include The United States, Russia and Turkey, seem to be comfortable with the current status quo with respect to their strategic interests (Croissant, 1998, p34). In addition, they still promote arms race and power imbalance through security alliances and arms-trade with the conflicting parties. This is a clear evident that the external actors are not interested in finding a permanent solution to this conflict that will lead to long-lasting peace and development. Additionally, other nations like Iran and Georgia are interested in mediating this negotiation process, but members of OSCE have denied them the chance to participate. The United Nations Security Council has also been denied the

Business Plan Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Business Plan - Essay Example Its business objectives are as follows: 1. To be able to launch and operate Cafe Blends with the aid of a bank loan amounting to $ 250,000 with a payback time of one year. 2. To create a unique menu of in house coffee blends that would propel the brand to popularity, beating the market of the already established coffee shops in the city. 3. To expand with two more stores in neighboring cities at the start of its second year. II. COMPANY OVERVIEW Cafe Blends will operate its first coffee shop along the Business District of Dallas, Texas. It will have fully operational dine in area with 10 indoor tables, four sets of which are accentuated with couches, and four outdoor tables. The store will be furnished in such a way that the atmosphere will be cozy and homely, giving its customer a relaxed feel. The thrust is to service healthy coffee by providing blend options to the market, served by the best service crew in the city. Management plans to capture the target market by segmenting its menus, basing on the country source of the raw materials. Coffee sources will vary. There will be coffee to be imported from Brazil, as well as from Asia. Brazil, being the world’s largest coffee producer (Third World Network 2010), is known for its good coffee ingredients. III. PRODUCTS AND SERVICES The Product Development Team will be tasked to conduct researches to ensure that the raw materials being exported will serve the needs of the company to create a menu that will be both exotic and familiar to the target market. On top of this, there will also be specialty house blends. Coffee products include latte, decaf, cold coffee and frappe. Moreover, apart from coffee, specialty tea and pastries will also be served. The menu will be a dynamic one, with a specialty drink and pastry for the day to be highlighted in the menu board. Initially, there will be coffee and tea (both hot and cold), and pastries that would complement the drinks. Eventually, other snack products such as cold sandwich and pasta will also be offered. The diversity of the products will be the key in obtaining loyal customers. Customers will be able to satisfy their cravings for good food at Cafe Blends Coffee Shop. Management is committed to deliver best healthy food in a convenient location using the excellent customer service. Cafe Blends will also offer reasonably-priced products compared with the other coffee shops in the area. IV. MARKET ANALYSIS AND PLAN The primary target market is the coffee lovers, 18 to 40 years old, who are either at the last years in the university or already embarking on a career. This group needs coffee and complementary food as both for nurturing and as a tool for social activities. The older students may need coffee as an aid for their studying needs, or a place to stay while they prepare for their homework and studies. With their limited time and budget, they will also look a place that offers reasonably prices and with good service. The young profes sionals market will also be a target market, as they need to socialize and find comfortable places to meet up with friends. They may also need a place where they could hang out, check on their laptops or just chill. Cafe Blends aim to cater to their needs by ensuring a good cozy atmosphere conducive for small talk, quiet reading or for relaxation. Moreover, the healthy options are perfect for this group of people who are also conscious of the food they take. They will express

Ottawa Charter0National Tabacco Campaign Essay Example for Free

Ottawa Charter0National Tabacco Campaign Essay The Ottawa Charter is a global health promotion run by the world Health Organisation. It involves five action areas called developing personal skills, creating supportive environments, strengthening community action, reorienting health services and building healthy public policies. To combat lung cancer and other health risks the Australian government launched The National Tobacco 2011 Campaign to raise awareness of smoking through the five action areas to reduce the number of daily smokers by 2018. Developing personal skills supports personal and social development through the use of information and resources, which educate health benefits to enhance life skills. In gaining theses skills individuals can make informed decisions to take control of their lives. In relation to the National tobacco Campaign 2011, this will involve raising awareness on the effects of smoking, encouraging individuals to quit therefore reducing their chances of developing ling cancer. Strategies employed by the campaign to address developing personal skills include media campaigns and quit tips. The current media campaign features television, radio, prints and online advertisements to address the issue of smoking and its relation to lung cancer and other health risks. The recent ‘cough’ TV advertisement shows an average Australian male. He is enjoying time with his mates, at work, spending time with the family however he is constantly coughing. Then the voice over states ‘every cigarette brings cancer closer. ’ This short but powerful statement informs individuals that every cigarette they take is putting them at the risk of developing cancer. Thorough the tactic of showing an average Australian male it allows the public to relate to the situation, empowering them to change their habits or else you could end up leaving your loved ones behind. Another strategy is the use of quit tips. This website fact page illustrates new ways that individual can relax as many people smoke while bored or stressed. Some of these relaxation methods include breathing techniques, exercise or a change of routine such as chewing gum or having a stress ball in the car to utilize while stuck in traffic. These strategies are informative yet realistic ways in which individual can swap a smoking habit for a positive health choice instead. This physically helps individuals to make an informed choice to develop their individual skills. By adapting these new life skills through the promotion of stress relief methods individuals are encouraged to take control and empower their own lives. It educates that smoking doesn’t relieve stress yet it only causes stress with its relation to many health risks. Developing personal skills is an important sector of the Ottawa Charter as without it individuals wouldn’t be educated to see the underlying effects of smoking and its strong link to lung cancer. Creating supportive environments focus’s on the environments in which people work, live and play. The aim is to ensure these environments reflect healthy living through the promotion of positive health choices. In relation to the National Tobacco Campaign 2011, this principle involves encouraging one another to quit smoking. This personal and community support takes into consideration the diverse needs of society in the need to fight against smoking. Strategies include providing fact sheets in a variety of languages and providing an online quit service. Australia is a very multicultural society and the campaign has taken this into consideration by creating print and radio advertisements in over 20 languages. This campaign has a goal to reduce the percentage of daily adult smokers by 2018. By providing health promotions in diverse languages, it opens this goal up to the wider Australian population encouraging equity and support. By breaking the language barrier the non-English speakers/readers will feel more supported and encouraged to quit smoking, therefore reducing their chances of developing lung cancer. This advertisement highlights they ways in which the human body will repair itself once smoking has stopped and its motto is ‘Every cigarette you don’t smoke is doing you good. ’ The statement is encouraging and supports the fact that every cigarette has an impact. Another way the tobacco campaign offers a supportive environment is through the telephone quitline. By phoning 131 848 an individual can confidentially speak to a counselor gain information but importantly advice and acknowledgement of their efforts so far. This local cost call can be made from anywhere around Australia, supporting those living in rural areas. Furthermore this quitline can go on to mail individual a quit coach book. This provides the best ways to quit, ways to cope with withdrawal symptoms and details on courses run by local organizations that offer extra help and counseling. This strategy is effective as it helps individuals realize that hey are not alone and their struggle to quit will offer so many advantages. Through first hand advice and the help of professional encouragement individual’s receive the confidence to keep going. Through this support within the environment individuals are more likely to access/continue to use support services to adapt positive behaviors in their lives. These changing life patterns will stop the smoking habits, reduce the ri sk of lung cancer and enhance overall wellbeing. http://www. boredofstudies. org/wiki/Ottawa_Charter_for_Health_Promotion_(1986) Strengthening community action involves public participation to achieve better health. Through initiatives inspired by the community, healthy living patterns can be established to raise awareness and empower action. In relation to the National Tobacco Campaign this involves the help of professional within the community as well as local governments and the public to make and implement action on smoking. Some strategies to strengthening community action include the help someone quit page, and individual community projects. The ‘help someone quit’ initiative provides information on ways to aid a friend by encouraging them and following through with their progress, even if you’ve never smoked before. It states the importance of not nagging a smoker to quit, as that just makes them want to retaliate. Yet the best approach is to clearly explain the motives to stop smoking and offer support. If non smokers and in particular past smokers where to help individuals within the community to quit smoking the whole populations health and attitude would be strengthened, encouraging positive health behaviors. The Bankstown community has specifically strengthened their action by installing ‘No smoking’ signs and restricting smoking 10m within children’s playgrounds. This strategy requires an extra step as it requires the help of the general public to enforce the rule, saving children from passive smoking. The signs educate the public on the hazard of smoking but the enforcement from the public is what will strengthen its success. Through establishing support groups and encouraging social support, the community is brought together to solve smoking through empowerment. (http://www. bankstown. sw. gov. au/Installation-of-New-No-Smoking-Signs/default. aspx) Reorienting heath services refers to utilizing services aimed at prevention, promotion and finding a cure. It is the responsibility of individuals, community groups, health professionals, institutions and governments to work together to achieve good health. In relation to the National Tobacco campaign it involves the sha red role of all health services to lead a change to prevent smoking and support wellbeing. Strategies include working with various campaign partners and a letter to GPs written by the chief medical officer. The campaigns website offers links to both Australian and International organizations who care for health with a goal of tackling smoking. Examples include the National Asthma council, World Health Organization and the Australian Cancer Society. Some of these health services have drop-in-centers or stores/clinics but they all offer information and resources on smoking or lung cancer. Some organizations are preventative while others are curative services. This is effective as through this extra support individuals can expand their knowledge and find a network that works best with their needs. The Australian government’s chief medical officer, Jim Bishop wrote a letter directed at GPs asking for their support on the National Tobacco Campaign. It mentions that smoking is the largest preventable causing disease. He later went on to ask local doctors to conduct brief interventions with their smoking patients, encouraging them to quit. Through this incentive the action of the local GP will maximize society’s members to quit. The smokers will receive professional help from their trusted GP to aid their own individual responsibility. Once both teams work together, this is when good health can be achieved. Through the help of extra health professionals individual can see the overall effects of smoking and with this extra support confidence will be achieved to fight the risk of developing lung cancer by stopping smoking habits Building Healthy Public Policy relates to policies and legislations made by the government to create health improvements. It goes beyond health care as it designs rules also generating consequences for those who disobey. In relation to the National Tobacco campaign it involves rules on where smoking is prohibited and where cigarettes can be sold as well as punishments for those who neglect these rules. The following law states that from March 2006, all cigarette packets require pictorial health warnings and the quitline number. These images are a form of scare tactics that shoot out health warnings in the bid that smokers will become turned off by imagers of cancerous body parts. The quitline on the box encourages individuals to quit and almost plays as a guilty trip, that each cigarette they inhale is causing them damage.

Sherman Act And The Antitrust Movement Politics Essay

Sherman Act And The Antitrust Movement Politics Essay There are three main sections/provisions under the Sherman Antitrust Act. The first section prohibits specific anticompetitive conduct like the establishment of a monopoly. The second section prohibits deals that have the ending results that are anticompetitive in nature. These can be combinations in forms of trusts that lead to restraint of trade or commerce. The third section extends the provisions of the first section into US territories and Washington DC and it also states that people who are hurt by a business that breaks this act are eligible to sue for damages (threefold). The purpose of the act was to oppose the combination of entities that could potentially harm competition, such as monopolies. The Act is not clear because a trust is an older form of contract whereby one party entrusted another with its property. This did not encompass the owning of stock in another company. The courts also would put their own words into the act that the Congress did not actually write into the Act. There was too much room for interpretation of the act which made it inconsistent and not very efficient. The Sherman Antitrust Act was able to pass with only one dissenting vote even though the Congress was mostly comprised of Republicans. I believe it passed because the Congress realized what the snowball-effect of a monopolistic economy would have on everyone, especially consumers. Congress knew that if trusts continued a huge gap between the poor and the rich would develop. The monopolies could charge any price they wanted to and people would have to pay it. The Congress realized this and knew competition increases the quality of goods which would help the U.S. compete with companies outside the U.S. because the global market was forming during this time. The Congress knew that monopolies would stunt the expansion and growth of American industry and technology, which would hurt the U.S. against other countries. The nations view of antitrust regulation was that it would benefit all consumers because competition allows for better products and increased development. Businesses could not have a very big market share because that diminishes the ability of a new smaller business to enter the market and bring new ideas to the market. The nation and consumers want there to be competition because this lowers prices while quality of goods increases. It is a win-win situation for consumers and the American people. The liability of the creation of a monopoly should be the responsibility of the monopoly. The monopoly is creating the unfair trade and is able to control the price of goods. The consumers are the ones who are hurt in the end because of the monopolies. What was Roosevelts analysis of the trust problem? What role should government play in resolving this problem and why? How should it do this? What should it not do? Roosevelt became president in 1901 and had a plan that was between the Republican Laissez Faire policies and the Socialist policies. Roosevelt was able to gain the respect of the public, even though they didnt want big government, because the trusts were growing in numbers and power. Roosevelt never opposed giant corporations because of their sheer size though. He believed that big corporations were more efficient than smaller ones, but believed that competition among these big corporations in the same field would be dangers and wasteful. Roosevelt felt that these large companies should be allowed to combine and cooperate, but they should not be allowed to use their size or power to oppress smaller producers and consumers. Roosevelt wanted to neutralize the power of the great corporations and he supported measures to extend the control of the federal government over the national economy. Roosevelt supported the creation of the Bureau of Corporations (1903), which investigated busines s practices of corporations and other businesses. Roosevelt argued that only an acting and strong government could bring control to big business and there should be different standards for bad trusts and good trusts. I believe government need to regulate big businesses like Roosevelt. A business should be able to be as big as it wants with acquisitions and mergers but it should not be able to control 100% of the market. If a company controlled the whole market then it would affect every consumer, probably in a negative way. The government needs to protect the consumer and put down rules that do allow a company to get very big but not own 100% of the market and have extreme pricing power. There needs to be at least a little bit of competition to give the consumers a better product, being price and quality, through competition. The government should not take control of big businesses once they acquire a large market stake through success because a company should not be punished for that. If though, the company raises its prices without reason or for no reason lowers its prices into an area of net loss to reduce competition or entry into the field they should be punished. How would you characterize the rule of reason and the dissenting opinion? What do you think has been the impact of this ruling? Chief Justice Edward D. White proposed the rule of reason in the Standard Oil Case of 1911. It was difficult to solve by proof whether the particular contracts, combinations, or trusts involved in each case is or is not a unreasonable or undue restraint of trade. The rule of reason is a circumstance test asking whether the challenged practice promotes or suppresses market competition. The rule of reason states that only combinations and contracts that are unreasonably restraining trade are subject to actions under the antitrust laws and the possession of a monopoly is not inherently illegal. A dissenting opinion is when one or more justices disagree with the majority of the Supreme Court. Usually the justice writes an opinion of why they disagree with the majority decision. The dissenting opinion is used to get the public attention and get the public to also disagree with the majority opinion. In the end, the dissenting judge hopes that the Court will reconsider its decision and over turn it. I would then characterize these two to be amendments to the antitrust laws that were already in the forms of acts. The dissenting opinion lets a judge get there opinion out to the public and helps the public more of decide what is right and what is wrong in a judicial case, even if the case does not get overlooked again. I believe the rule of reason does not add that much to the antitrust laws. I believe it lets there be more interpretation and this would then differ from judge to judge. Along with that I believe judges should be able to go against the majority ruling and show their opinion and support it with facts. The public needs to know both sides and they then can decide on their own. The majority decision is not always correct so by there being dissenting opinions more people hopefully will see the correct side and the court could then overturn the result. How did Wilson view the problem of big business and antitrust? What role did he see for government and why? What did he see as the limits to involvement by the government? Wilson was even more outspoken against the trusts than Roosevelt. Unlike Roosevelt, Wilson did not believe in government regulation of big businesses. Wilson wanted to use the antitrust laws to break up monopolies to restore competition, make businesses more efficient, and create a new type of individualism that had before made America a powerful nation. Wilson said, If monopoly persists, monopoly will always sit at the helm of government. I do not expect monopoly to restrain itself. If there are men in this country big enough to own the government of the U.S., they are going to own it. Wilson also said that monopolies are not inevitable and if they were, then the government would have to take hold of monopolies and regulate them. Monopolies, not being inevitable, then there have to be laws to break them up and prevent them from forming again. Wilson does not believe that these big combinations are inevitable and says he can prove they are not by the process of how they were started. Wilsons believes that it was the old form of competition that enabled these men to create their monopolies, so there has to be new systems established to stop it from happening again. Wilson believed that the government may not be able to control monopolies but can regulate competition. It is a criminal law of the U.S. for a company to go into a community and sell below cost for no other purpose than to squeeze out a competitor. Also, Under Wilsons administration the Federal Trade Commission and the Clayton Antitrust Act were passed in 1914. Both of these new developments greatly strengthened the ability of the government to control corporations. The Clayton Antitrust Act made it illegal for directors of one corporation to be directors of another corporation in the same field which reduced the ability for trusts to be created. What was Debs analysis of the problem of big business? What role did he see for government in regulating big business and why? As a Socialist, what did he suggest should be the workers view of antitrust and regulation? How do you think he, as a Socialist, viewed big business and bigness, per se? Eugene Debs believed that big business took away from the work of the working class. Debs believed that the workers should own and control their own jobs and not be at the mercy of the big businesses. Debs said that big business controlled the work environment and destroyed advances and innovations that would help the workers. Debs wanted people to think the only way to overcome big business and the capitalist class was to overthrow it. Debs had a very strong belief in unions and the power of the workers also. When the owners of the trust finance a party to put themselves out of business; when they turn over their wealth to the people from whom they stole it and go to work for a living, it will be time enough to consider the merits of the Roosevelt Progressive Party explained Debs, that only when big business was destroyed would be the time for a progressive party. Debs did not really want the government to regulate big business; he wanted the unions/workers to regulate the businesse s they were a part of, so the power would be with the unions. He wanted the workers to get past big business and form unions to take control. Being a socialist, Debs would agree with how socialism is an attempt to bring social organization, especially in the form of unions. From this social organization comes a new level of technology and progress which can then be fully taken advantage of. Capitalism and big business concentrates power and wealth within small segments of society that controls the means of production and derives its wealth through a system of exploitation, under the socialist point of view. Socialists do not want big business because power is located narrowly and the workers are more like slaves. What is the role of the Federal Trade Commission? What powers does it have that are new for antitrust law? How does it resolve some of the problems of Sherman Act antitrust activity? What is required to make it work? How did the Clayton Antitrust Act affect the enforcement of the Sherman Act? The Federal Trade Commission is an independent agency of the U.S. established in 1914 by the Federal Trade Commission Act. The mission of the commission is the promotion of consumer protection and the elimination and prevention of harmfully anti-competitive business practices such as monopolies. The Federal Trade Commission had the power to investigate and prevent deceptive trade practices. If there were unfair methods of competition in or affecting commerce and unfair or deceptive acts affecting commerce they were illegal. This commission helps solve some of the ambiguous content that was in the Sherman Antitrust Act. Now the commission has the specific reason to act on anyone who is affecting the consumers or commerce. For the act to work, it is necessary for a company to be doing something inherently anti-competitive. This can also be interpreted so there is again misinterpretation. The company does not have to be a monopoly for this act to affect the company also. The Clayton Act was established in 1914 and it was established to prevent anti-competitive practices in the start up or beginning of anti-competition. There are four principle changes that affect the Sherman Antitrust Act from the Clayton Act. The first, price discrimination between different purchasers, if discrimination substantially lessens competition or tends to create a monopoly, is illegal. The second, sales where the buyer cannot go to different suppliers or where competition is lessened, is illegal. The third, mergers and acquisitions where the affect may substantially lessen competition is illegal. The Clayton Act also allows greater regulation of mergers since it does not require a merger-to-monopoly before a violation. The fourth is that any person cannot be the director of two or more competing corporations. The Clayton Act helped strengthen what was written in the Sherman Antitrust Act with these provisions. Why were there so few convictions under the Sherman Act early on? What changed and why? What types of firms/industries were charged during the 1920s? Why has the prosecution of antitrust violations ebbed and flowed in American history since the beginning of the twentieth century? At first, there were not many convictions under the Sherman Antitrust Act. This is because there was a very loose interpretation of the Act and the Act was not very clear. The Act, only being a few paragraphs, let there be a lot of room for the monopolies and corporations to interpret and present what they defined the rule/Act as. There were few convictions also because of the intense political pressure from the trusts and with the loose wording of the Act. The trusts pointed out that the Sherman Antitrust Act failed to define such key terms as combination, conspiracy, monopoly and trusts. Also, there was narrow judicial interpretation as to what constituted trade or commerce among the states. Five years after its passage, the Supreme Court in effect reduced the Sherman Antitrust Act in the US vs. EC Knight Company in 1895. The Court ruled that the company had not violated the Act despite the fact that it controlled approximately 98% of the whole market place for that sugar industry. The court explained that the companys control of manufacturing did not constitute control of trade. The standard that emerged from this decision applied a two part test to determine if a company was set up to have monopoly power. First, the company must possess monopoly power in its market and second, it must have improperly used acts to gain power or protect their power as a monopoly. In 1920, the US Supreme Court relaxed antitrust regulations so that only unreasonable restraint of trade through acquisitions, mergers, and predatory pricing constituted a violation. Under Herbert Hoover in the 1920s, the government promoted business corporations and this continued with Calvin Coolidge who had a hands-off policy towards businesses. In the 1920s the companies that were charged were not just companies that were massive; it was mostly smaller businesses that were charged. Throughout history the Sherman Antitrust Act kept getting redone with the new acts and commissions that backed up and helped find trust companies. The prosecutions of new companies was able to flow because of these new acts that came about to revise the original Sherman Antitrust Act. When people had been able to find holes in the Sherman Antitrust Acts, these new Acts were there to help patch up those holes and let the process of trust busting continue. Looking at the case against Microsoft, has the efficacy of antitrust law been reduced? In the United States vs. Microsoft case Microsoft was being accused of abusing monopoly power on Intel based computers in its use of the Windows OS and web browser integration. The issue was whether Microsoft was allowed to bundle Internet Explorer browser with its Windows OS. Microsoft stated that the merging of the two was the result of innovation and competition and that the two were the same product. In the final settlement, Microsoft had to prevent from engaging in predatory behavior or other acts that might diminish the ability for another product to enter the market. I do believe the efficacy of the Act has been reduced, I believe it is less trusted now. With this case the government got into the regulation of computer technology which could hinder the progress as a result and many people do not like the idea of a big government. In this case Microsoft was said to just get a slap on the wrist because they were not really punished. I believe they did not do anything wrong, Internet Explorer was part of the Windows OS and people who bought the OS were expecting to have a browser packaged with it. There would be no point for Microsoft to put a third party browser on their Windows OS because they built it. The OS is theirs and they have full rights to whatever goes into the OS and, therefore; they should be allowed to put their own browser integrated into the software. I believe the antitrust law needs to be redefined and the old law is looked down upon because it can be interpreted in various ways. How did the success of antitrust law after 1900 affect the growth of oligopolies in the economy? Growth of oligopolies was greatly diminished because acquisitions and mergers of smaller companies into bigger ones were reduced because of the laws. US Steel in 1901 had 62% of the market share and then in 1920 it only had 40% of the market share. The American Can Company in 1901 had 90% of the market share and by 1912 it was significantly reduced to 50% of the market share. Even though this is just showing one company from an industry it still shows that the laws were effective in breaking the companies down into smaller companies. These laws helped reduce the amount of oligopolies being constructed the same way it broke down monopolies and other oligopolies. The laws have diminished the amount of trusts between companies but there are still companies today that try to get around them. There are many companies who have been convicted of price fixing with their competitors to reach a higher level of market price, which in turn hurts the consumers. For example, Dow Chemical, Dupont, and Bayer, the biggest companies in the chemical industry, were price fixing in the early 21st century and there are still premonitions that they are still doing it today. The Acts have diminished the growth of oligopolies but then again people always will try to get around the law to increase their benefits.

Martin Luther King, Jr. Essay -- African American Black Racism Essays

Martin Luther King, Jr. I HAVE A DREAM! In an era when racial discrimination and public bigotry towards African Americans in the United States was becoming more evident, this simple, but powerful statement by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was a beacon of hope for all African Americans in the country. In his speech, on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, Dr. King expresses his frustration that after a hundred years since the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation, African Americans are still treated like second-class citizens. However, Dr. King also expresses his hope that the status quo will change and African Americans around the country will be â€Å"free at last.† Dr. King uses eloquent statements to appeal to his audience’s emotions and to see the difficulties and hardships that African Americans across the country suffer on a regular basis. Dr. King makes use of sound rhetorical devices to convey his message that â€Å"all men are created equal† and that racism should not, cannot co ntinue if the nation is to prosper.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Upon opening his speech, Dr. King makes reference to past events: the Gettysburg Address and the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation, works both by Abraham Lincoln that ensured that freedom in the United States will endure. â€Å"Five score years ago, a great American†¦ signed the Emancipation Proclamation, [which] came as a great beacon of hope to millions of Negro slaves.† Dr. King does this in order to grasp his audience’s attention and to outline that after a century since the freeing of African American slaves, the Negro race is still treated no differently. He goes on to state that African Americans are â€Å"exiled in their own land. And so we’ve come here today to dramatize a shameful condition.† This powerful message implies that no longer will African Americans sit idly by while their civil liberties and human rights are trampled on by racists and bigots or ignored by the government.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Dr. King uses connotations, words such as slaves, injustice, freedom, and hope, to appeal to his audience’s emotions and to stress the importance that public treatment of African Americans must be changed to accommodate the prosperity of our growing nation. â€Å"[Negro slaves] have been seared in the flames of withering injustice.† â€Å"This is our hope†¦ That [whites and blacks] will be able to stand up for freedom together.† He also makes use of connotat... ... skin but by the content of their character. I have a dream that one day†¦ little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls. I have a dream today.† King also uses parallelism to emphasize that the nation must come together to â€Å"let freedom ring† for every American from every corner of the country.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Martin Luther King Jr.’s â€Å"I Have a Dream† speech is one of the greatest and most influential speeches written in the modern day. His use of connotations, hyperbole, and metaphor appealed to his audience’s sense of logic, morality, and just plain old common sense â€Å"that all men are created equal† and to deny this is to deny the intention of the creator. Further, Dr. King’s use of parallelism allowed him to drive his point across â€Å"that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness† and that the country must be transformed into a nation of tolerance, acceptance, and peace. His use of sound rhetorical devices allowed him to sway his audience to change the â€Å"status quo† and enable all Americans to be truly â€Å"free at last.†

The Color Red in American Beauty Essay -- essays papers

The Color Red in American Beauty "The beauty that addresses itself to the eyes is only the spell of the moment; the eye of the body is not always that of the soul." George Sand hit the nail right on the head when he said this in 1872. Appearance versus reality has been a central theme in many American creative works including the film American Beauty. American Beauty is a film that delves into your typical, middle-class suburban American home and slowly uncovers all of the abnormalities that lie within. The family is portrayed as normal but as the films tag line suggests "look closer" then it is possible to fully understand the implications that takes place in this seemingly happy home. The film is masterfully directed by the famous theater director Sam Mendes and encompasses a great number of cinematic techniques that appear fresh and exciting. Critics have mentioned many of these techniques. However, they failed to notice the clever use of color used throughout the film--especially the color red. Sam Mendes e ffectively uses the color red; as a central motif to accentuate mood and theme, to contrast families, and to reveal characters personalities and feelings. In American culture red is a color of various meanings and images. The color red is the essence of life; it is the color of blood. It can insinuate energy, vitality, passion, anger, power, excitement, and sacrifice. It is a grounding color. Red can stand for warmth, danger, love, sex, death, rage, lust, and beauty. Red is the color used for the women's clothing, the cars, the doors and also it is the color of Lester's blood splattered across the white table at the end of the movie. Red is the central motif of the film. Sam Mendes incorporated many of these meaning of red within the film American Beauty, Not only did Sam Mendes implant a motif of red, he also incorporated a motif of the red rose. Roses in American culture are the ultimate symbol of love, life and death. Flowers are a large part of the American culture. They have come to symbolize compassion, caring and love. The beauty of roses are superceded with danger, for they have thorns that can prick. Roses epitomize bea uty; perhaps that is why they chose the title American Beauty. The title American Beauty is a hodgepodge of symbolism; it encompasses a variety of meanings. For the viewer it can stand for the American beauty rose... ...aroline. Jane and Ricky are important too, they are the more grounded of the characters, they are both presented in neutral colors throughout most of the film. They represent balance and neutrality in the movie. Ricky's parents are not so neutral; they are dressed in pale, washed out colors to show their lack of vitality. Especially Mrs. Fritt's, she plays a minor role in the movie and that is precisely the point Sam Mendes makes. She is seen as a minor role in the family. She is usually wearing a long white nightgown and appears almost as a ghost in the picture, t her family, she barely exists. American Beauty is a fantastic film that encourages viewers to "look closer." Sam Mendes directed a film about American Beauty and foolish things that Americans do to keep up with appearances. He is urging us to find beauty in our lives, and to forget about having the perfect garden and home. He effectively uses the color red; as a central motif to accentuate mood and theme, to contrast families, and to reveal characters personalities and feelings. "Mere colour, unspoiled by meaning, and unallied with definite form, can speak to the soul in a thousand different ways."--Oscar Wilde

Pedagology of the Oppressed Essay

A careful analysis of the teacher-student relationship at any level, inside or outside the school, reveals its fundamentally narrative character. The relationship involves a narrating Subject (the teacher) and patient, listening objects (the students). The contents, whether values or empirical dimensions of reality, tend in the process of being narrated to become lifeless and petrified. Education is suffering from narration sickness. The teacher talks about reality as if it were motionless, static, compartmentalized, and predictable. Or else he expounds on a topic completely alien to the existential experience of the students. His task is to â€Å"fill† the students with the contents of his narration – contents which are detached from reality, disconnected from the totality that engendered them and could give them significance. Words are emptied of their concreteness and become a hollow, alienated, and alienating verbosity. The outstanding characteristic of this narrative education, then, is the sonority of words, not their transforming power. â€Å"Four times four is sixteen; the capital of Parà ¡ is Belà ©m.† The student records, memorizes, and repeats these phrases without perceiving what four times four really means, or realizing the true significance of â€Å"capital† in the affirmation â€Å"the capital of Parà ¡ is Belà ©m,† that is, what Belà ©m means for Parà ¡ and what Parà ¡ means for Brazil. Narration (with the teacher as narrator) leads the students to memorize mechanically the narrated content. Worse yet, it turns them into â€Å"containers,† into â€Å"receptacles† to be â€Å"filled† by the teacher. The more completely he fills the receptacles, the better a teacher he is. The more meekly the receptacles permit themselves to be filled, the better students they are. Education thus becomes an act of depositing, in which the students are the depositories and the teacher is the depositor. Instead of communication, the teacher issues communiquà ©s and makes deposits which the students patiently receive, memorize, and repeat. This is the â€Å"banking† concept of education, in which the scope of action allowed to the students extends only as far as receiving, filing, and storing the deposits. They do, it is true, have the opportunity to become collectors or cataloguers of the things they store. But in the last analysis, it is men themselves who are filed away through the lack of creativity, transformation, and knowledge in this (at best) misguided system. For apart from inquiry, apart from the praxis, men cannot be truly human. Knowledge emerges only through invention and re-invention, through the restless, impatient, continuing, hopeful inquiry men pursue in the world, with the world and with each other. In the banking concept of education, knowledge is a gift bestowed by those who consider themselves knowledgeable upon those whom they consider to know nothing. Projecting an absolute ignorance onto others, a characteristic of the ideology of oppression, negates education and knowledge as processes of inquiry. The teacher presents himself to his students as their necessary opposite; by considering their ignorance absolute, he justifies his own existence. The students, alienated like the slave in the Hegelian dialectic, accept their ignorance as justifying the teacher’s existence – but, unlike the slave, they never discover that they educate the teacher. The raison d’à ªtre of libertarian education, on the other hand, lies in its drive towards reconciliation. Education must begin with the solution of the teacher-student contradiction, by reconciling the poles of the contradiction so that both are simultaneously teachers and students. This solution is not (nor can it be) found in the banking concept. On the contrary, banking education maintains and even stimulates the contradiction through the following attitudes and practices, which mirror oppressive society as a whole: a) the teacher teaches and the students are taught; b) the teacher knows everything and the students know nothing; c) the teacher thinks and the students are thought about; d) the teacher talks and the students listen – meekly; e) the teacher disciplines and the students are disciplined; f) the teacher chooses and enforces his choice, and the students comply; g) the teacher acts and the students have the illusion of acting through the action of the teacher; h) the teacher chooses the program content, and the students (who were not consulted) adapt to it; i) the teacher confuses the authority of knowledge with his own professional authority, which he sets in opposition to the freedom of the students; j) the teacher is the Subject of the learning process, while the pupils are mere objects. It is not surprising that the banking concept of education regards men as adaptable, manageable beings. The more students work at storing the deposits entrusted to them, the less they develop the critical consciousness which would result from their intervention in the world as transformers of that world. The more completely they accept the passive role imposed on them, the more they tend simply to adapt to the world as it is and to the fragmented view of reality deposited in them. The capability of banking education to minimize or annul the ‘students’ creative power and to stimulate their credulity serves the interests of the oppressors, who care neither to have the world revealed nor to see it transformed. The oppressors use their â€Å"humanitarianism† to preserve a profitable situation. Thus they react almost instinctively against any experiment in education which stimulates the critical faculties and is not content with a partial view of reality but always seeks out the ties which link one point to another and one problem to another. Indeed, the interests of the oppressors lie in â€Å"changing the consciousness of the oppressed, not the situation which oppresses them†;[1] for the more the oppressed can be led to adapt to that situation, the more easily they can be dominated. To achieve this end, the oppressors use the banking concept of education in conjunction with a paternalistic social action apparatus, within which the oppressed receive the euphemistic title of â€Å"welfare recipients.† They are treated as individual cases, as marginal men who deviate from the general configuration of a â€Å"good, organized, and just† society. The oppressed are regarded as the pathology of the healthy society, which must therefore adjust these â€Å"incompetent and lazy† folk to its own patterns by changing their mentality. These marginals need to be â€Å"integrated,† â€Å"incorporated† into the healthy society that they have â€Å"forsaken.† The truth is, however, that the oppressed are not â€Å"marginals,† are not men living â€Å"outside† society. They have always been â€Å"inside† – inside the structure which made them â€Å"beings for others.† The solution is not to â€Å"integrate† them into the structure of oppression, but to transform that structure so that they can become â€Å"beings for themselves.† Such transformation, of course, would undermine the oppressors’ purposes; hence their utilization of the banking concept of education to avoid the threat of student conscientizacÄ o. The banking approach to adult education, for example, will never propose to students that they critically consider reality. It will deal instead with such vital questions as whether Roger gave green grass to the goat, and insist upon the importance of learning that, on the contrary, Roger gave green grass to the rabbit. The â€Å"humanism† of the banking approach masks the effort to turn men into automatons – the very negation of their ontological vocation to be more fully human. They may perceive through their relations with reality that reality is really a process, undergoing constant transformation. If men are searchers and their ontological vocation is humanization, sooner or later they may perceive the contradiction in which banking education seeks to maintain them, and then engage themselves in the struggle for their liberation. But the humanist, revolutionary educator cannot wait for this possibility to materialize. From the outset, his efforts must coincide with those of the students to engage in critical thinking and the quest for mutual humanization. His efforts must be imbued with a profound trust in men and their creative power. To achieve this, he must be a partner of the students in his relations with them. The banking concept does not admit to such partnership – and necessarily so. To resolve the teacher-student contradiction, to exchange the role of depositor, prescriber, domesticator, for the role of student among students would be to undermine the power of oppression and serve the cause of liberation. Implicit in the banking concept is the assumption of a dichotomy between man and the world: man is merely in the world, not with the world or with others; man is spectator, not re-creator. In this view, man is not a conscious being (corpo consciente); he is rather the possessor of ÃŽ ± consciousness: an empty â€Å"mind† passively open to the reception of deposits of reality from the world outside. For example, my desk, my books, my coffee cup, all the objects before me – as bits of the world which surrounds me – would be â€Å"inside† me, exactly as I am inside my study right now. This view makes no distinction between being accessible to consciousness and entering consciousness. The distinction, however, is essential: the objects which surround me are simply accessible to my consciousness, not located within it. I am aware of them, but they are not inside me. It follows logically from the banking notion of consciousness that the educator’s role is to regulate the way the world â€Å"enters into† the students. His task is to organize a process which already occurs spontaneously, to â€Å"fill† the students by making deposits of information which he considers to constitute true knowledge.[2] And since men â€Å"receive† the world as passive entities, education should make them more passive still, and adapt them to the world. The educated man is the adapted man, because he is better â€Å"fit† for the world. Translated into practice, this concept is well suited to the purposes of the oppressors, whose tranquillity rests on how well men fit the world the oppressors have created, and how little they question it. The more completely the majority adapt to the purposes which the dominant minority prescribe for them (thereby depriving them of the right to their own purposes), the more easily the minority can continue to prescribe. The theory and practice of banking education serve this end quite efficiently. Verbalistic lessons, reading requirements,[3] the methods for evaluating â€Å"knowledge,† the distance between the teacher and the taught, the criteria for promotion: everything in this ready-to-wear approach serves to obviate thinking. The bank-clerk educator does not realize that there is no true security in his hypertrophied role, that one must seek to live with others in solidarity. One cannot impose oneself, nor even merely co-exist with one’s students. Solidarity requires true communication, and the concept by which such an educator is guided fears and prescribes communication. Yet only through communication can human life hold meaning. The teacher’s thinking I authenticated only by the authenticity of the students’ thinking. The teacher cannot think for his students, nor can he impose his thought on them. Authentic thinking, thinking that is concerned about reality, does not take place in ivory tower isolation, but only in communication. If it is true that thought has meaning only when generated by action upon the world, the subordination of students to teachers becomes impossible. Because banking education begins with a false understanding of men as objects, it cannot promote the development of what Fromm calls â€Å"biophily,† but instead produces its opposite: â€Å"necrophily.† While life is characterized by growth in a structured, functional manner, the necrophilous person loves all that does not grow, all that is mechanical. The necrophilous person is driven by the desire to transform the organic into the inorganic, to approach life mechanically, as if all living persons were things†¦.Memory, rather than experience; having, rather than being, is what counts. The necrophilous person can relate to an object – a flower or a person – only if he possesses it; hence a threat to his possession is a threat to himself; if he loses possession he loses contact with the world†¦He loves control, and in the act of controlling he kills life.[4] Oppression—overwhelming control—is necrophilic; it is nourished by love of death, not life. The banking concept of education, which serves the interests of oppression, is also necrophilic. Based on a mechanistic, static, naturalistic, spatialized view of consciousness, it transforms students into receiving objects. It attempts to control thinking and action, leads men to adjust to the world, and inhibits their creative power. When their efforts to act responsibly are frustrated, when they find themselves unable to use their faculties, men suffer. â€Å"This suffering due to impotence is rooted in the very fact that the human equilibrium has been disturbed.†[5] But the inability to act which causes men’s anguish also causes them to reject their impotence, by attempting †¦to restore [their] capacity to act. But can [they], and how? One way is to submit to and identify with a person or group having power. By this symbolic participation in another person’s life, [men have] the illusion of acting, when in reality [they] only submit to and become a part of those who act.[6] Populist manifestations perhaps best exemplify this type of behaviour by the oppressed, who, by identifying with charismatic leaders, come to feel that they themselves are active and effective. The rebellion they express as they emerge in the historical process is motivated by that desire to act effectively. The dominant elites consider the remedy to be more domination and repression, carried out in the name of freedom, order, and social peace (that is, the peace of the elites). Thus they can condemn—logically, from the point of view—â€Å"the violence of a strike by workers and [can] call upon the state in the same breath to use violence in putting down the strike.†[7] Education as the exercise of domination stimulates the credulity of students, with the ideological intent (often not perceived by educators) of indoctrinating them to adapt to the world of oppression. This accusation is not made in the naà ¯ve hope that the dominant elites will thereby simply abandon the practice. Its objective is to call the attention of true humanists to the fact that they cannot use banking educational methods in the pursuit of liberation for they would only negate that very pursuit. Nor may a revolutionary society inherit these methods from an oppressor society. The revolutionary society which practices banking education is either misguided or mistrusting of men. In either event, it is threatened by the spectre of reaction. Unfortunately, those who espouse the cause of liberation are themselves surrounded and influenced by the climate which generates the banking concept, and often do not perceive its true significance or its dehumanizing power. Paradoxically, then, they utilize this same instrument of alienation in what they consider an effort to liberate. Indeed, some â€Å"revolutionaries† brand as â€Å"innocents,† â€Å"dreamers,† or even â€Å"reactionaries† those who would challenge this educational practice. But one does not liberate men by alienating them. Authentic liberation—the process of humanization—is not another deposit to be made in men. Liberation is a praxis: the action and reflection of men upon their world in order to transform it. Those truly committed to the cause of liberation can accept neither the mechanistic concept of consciousness as an empty vessel to be filled, not the use of banking methods of domination (propaganda, slogans—deposits) in the name of liberation. Those truly committed to liberation must reject the banking concept in its entirety, adopting instead a concept of man as conscious beings, and consciousness as consciousness intent upon the world. They must abandon the educational goal of deposit-making and replace it with the posing of the problems of men in their relations with the world. â€Å"Problem-posing† education, responding to the essence of consciousness—intentionality—rejects communiquà ©s and embodies communication. It epitomizes the special characteristic of consciousness: being conscious of, not only as intent on objects but as turned in upon itself in a Jasperian â€Å"split†Ã¢â‚¬â€consciousness as consciousness of consciousness. Liberating education consists in acts of cognition, not transferrals of information. It is a learning situation in which the cognizable object (far from being the end of the cognitive act) intermediates the cognitive actors—teacher on the one hand and students on the other. Accordingly, the practice of problem-posing education entails at the outset that the teacher-student contradiction be resolved. Dialogical relations—indispensable to the capacity of cognitive actors to cooperate in perceiving the same cognizable object—are otherwise impossible. Indeed, problem-posing education, which breaks with the vertical patterns characteristic of banking education, can fulfil its function as the practice of freedom only if it can overcome the above contradiction. Through dialogue, the teacher-of-the-students and the students-of-the-teacher cease to exist and a new term emerges: teacher-student with student-teachers. The teacher is no longer merely the-one-who-teaches, but one who is himself taught in dialogue with the students, who in turn while being taught also teach. They become jointly responsible for a process in which all grow. In this process, arguments based on â€Å"authority† are no longer valid; in order to function, authority must be on the side of freedom, not against it. Here, no one teaches another, nor is anyone self-taught. Men teach each other, mediated by the world, by the cognizable objects which in banking education are â€Å"owned† by the teacher. The banking concept (with its tendency to dichotomize everything) distinguishes two stages in the action of the educator. During the first, he cognizes a cognizable object while he prepares his lessons in his study or his laboratory; during the second, he expounds to his students about that object. The students are not called upon to know, but to memorize the contents narrated by the teacher. Nor do the students practice any act of cognition, since the object towards which that act should be directed is the property of the teacher rather than a medium evoking the critical reflection of both teacher and students. Hence in the name of the â€Å"preservation of culture and knowledge† we have a system which achieves neither true knowledge nor true culture. The problem-posing method does not dichotomize the activity of the teacher-student: he is not â€Å"cognitive† at one point and â€Å"narrative† at another. He is always â€Å"cognitive,† whether preparing a project or engaging in dialogue with the students. He does not regard cognizable objects as his private property, but as the object of reflection by himself and the students. In this way, the problem-posing educator constantly re-forms his reflections in the reflection of the students. The students—no longer docile listeners—are now critical co-investigators in dialogue with the teacher. The teacher presents the material to the students for their consideration, and re-considers his earlier considerations as the students express their own. The role of the problem-posing educator is to create, together with the students, the conditions under which knowledge at the level of the doxa is superseded by true knowledge, at the level of the logos. Whereas banking education anesthetizes and inhibits creative power, problem-posing education involves a constant unveiling of reality. The former attempts to maintain the submersion of consciousness; the latter strives for the emergence of consciousness and critical intervention in reality. Students, as they are increasingly posed with problems relating to themselves in the world and with the world, will feel increasingly challenged and obliged to respond to that challenge. Because they apprehend the challenge as interrelated to other problems within a total context, not as a theoretical question, the resulting comprehension tends to be increasingly critical and thus constantly less alienated. Their response to the challenge evokes new challenges, followed by new understandings; and gradually the students come to regard themselves as committed. Education as the practice of freedom – as opposed to education as the practice of domination – denies that man is abstract, isolated, independent, and unattached to the world; it also denies that the world exists as a reality apart from men. Authentic reflection considers neither abstract man nor the world without men, but men in their relations with the world. In these relations consciousness and world are simultaneous: consciousness neither precedes the world nor follows it. La conscience et le monde sont dormà ©s d’un meme coup: extà ©rieur par essence à   la conscience, le monde est, par essence relative à   elle.[8] In one of our culture circles in Chile, the group was discussing (based on a codification[9]) the anthropological concept of culture. In the midst of the discussion, a peasant who by banking standards was completely ignorant said: â€Å"Now I see that without man there is no world.† When the educator responded: â€Å"Let’s say, for the sake of argument, that all the men on earth were to die, but that the earth itself remained, together with trees, birds, animals, rivers, seas, the stars†¦wouldn’t all this be a world?† â€Å"Oh no,† the peasant replied emphatically. â€Å"There would be no one to say: â€Å"This is a world’.† The peasant wished to express the idea that there would be lacking the consciousness of the world which necessarily implies the world of consciousness. I cannot exist without a not-I. In turn, the not-I depends on that existence. The world which brings consciousness into existence becomes the world of that consciousness. Hence, the previously cited affirmation of Sartre: â€Å"La conscience et le monde sont dormà ©s d’un mà ª coup.† As men, simultaneously reflecting on themselves and on the world, increase the scope of their perception, they begin to direct their observations towards previously inconspicuous phenomena: That which had existed objectively but had not been perceived in its deeper implications (if indeed it was perceived at all) begins to â€Å"stand out,† assuming the character of a problem and therefore of challenge. Thus, men begin to single out elements from their â€Å"background awarenesses† and to reflect upon them. These elements are now objects of men’s consideration, and, as such, objects of their action and cognition. In problem-posing education, men develop their power to perceive critically the way they exist in the world with which and in which they find themselves; they come to see the world not as a static reality, but as a reality in process, in transformation. Although the dialectical relations of men with the world exist independently of how these relations are perceived (or whether or not they are perceived at all), it is also true that the form of action men adopt is to a large extent a function of how they perceive themselves in the world. Hence, the teacher-student and the student-teachers reflect simultaneously on themselves and the world without dichotomizing this reflection from action, and thus establish an authentic form of thought and action. Once again, the two educational concepts and practices under analysis come into conflict. Banking education (for obvious reasons) attempts, by mythicizing reality, to conceal certain facts which explain the way men exist in the world; problem-posing education sets itself the task of demythologizing. Banking education resists dialogue; problem-posing education regards dialogue as indispensable to the act of cognition which unveils reality. Banking education treats students as objects of assistance; problem-posing education makes them critical thinkers. Banking education inhibits creativity and domesticates (although it cannot completely destroy) the intentionality of consciousness by isolating consciousness from the world, thereby denying men their ontological and historical vocation of becoming more fully human. Problem-posing education bases itself on creativity and stimulates true reflection and action upon reality, thereby responding to the vocation of men as beings who are authentic only when engaged in inquiry and creative transformation. In sum: banking theory and practice, as immobilizing and fixating forces, fail to acknowledge men as historical beings; problem-posing theory and practice take man’s historicity as their starting point. Problem-posing education affirms men as beings in the process of becoming – as unfinished, uncompleted beings in and with a likewise unfinished reality. Indeed, in contrast to other animals who are unfinished, but not historical, men know themselves to be unfinished; they are aware of their incompletion. In this incompletion and this awareness lie the very roots of education as an exclusively human manifestation. The unfinished character of men and the transformational character of reality necessitate that education be an ongoing activity. Education is thus constantly remade in the praxis. In order to be, it must become. Its â€Å"duration† (in the Bergsonian meaning of the word) is found in the interplay of the opposites permanence and change. The banking method emphasizes permanence and becomes reactionary; problem-posing education—which accepts neither a â€Å"well-behaved† present nor a predetermined future—roots itself in the dynamic present and becomes revolutionary. Problem-posing education is revolutionary futurity. Hence it is prophetic (and, as such, hopeful). Hence, it corresponds to the historical nature of man. Hence, it affirms men as beings who transcend themselves, who move forward and look ahead, for whom immobility represents a fatal threat, for whom looking at the past must only be a means of understanding more clearly what and who they are so that they can more wisely build the future. Hence, it identifies with the movement which engages men as beings aware of their incompletion—an historical movement which has its point of departure, its Subjects and its objective. The point of departure of the movement lies in men themselves. But since men do not exist apart from the world, apart from reality, the movement must begin with the men-world relationship. Accordingly, the point of departure must always be with men in the â€Å"here and now,† which constitutes the situation within which they are submerged, from which they emerge, and in which they intervene. Only by starting from this situation—which determines their perception of it—can they begin to move. To do this authentically they must perceive their state not as fated and unalterable, but merely as limiting—and therefore challenging. Whereas the banking method directly or indirectly reinforces men’s fatalistic perception of their situation, the problem-posing method presents this very situation to them as a problem. As the situation becomes the object of their cognition, the naà ¯ve or magical perception which produced their fatalism gives way to perception which is able to perceive itself even as it perceives reality, and can thus be critically objective about that reality. A deepened consciousness of their situation leads men to apprehend that situation as an historical reality susceptible of transformation. Resignation gives way to the drive for transformation and inquiry, over which men feel themselves to be in control. If men, as historical beings necessarily engaged with other men in a movement of inquiry, did not control that movement, it would be (and is) a violation of men’s humanity. Any situation in which some men prevent others from engaging in the process of inquiry is one of violence. The means used are not important; to alienate men from their own decision-making is to change them into objects. This movement of inquiry must be directed towards humanization—man’s historical vocation. The pursuit of full humanity, however, cannot be carried out in isolation or individualism, but only in fellowship and solidarity; therefore it cannot unfold in the antagonistic relations between oppressors and oppressed. No one can be authentically human while he prevents others from being so. Attempting to be more human, individualistically, leads to having more, egotistically: a form of dehumanization. Not that it is not fundamental to have in order to be human. Precisely because it is necessary, some men’s having must not be allowed to constitute an obstacle to others’ having, must not consolidate the power of the former to crush the latter. Problem-posing education, as a humanist and liberating praxis, posits as fundamental that men subjected to domination must fight for their emancipation. To that end, it enables teachers and students to become Subjects of the educational process by overcoming authoritarianism and an alienating intellectualism; it also enables men to overcome their false perception of reality. The world—no longer something to be described with deceptive words—becomes the object of that transforming action by men which results in their humanization. Problem-posing education does not and cannot serve the interests of the oppressor. No oppressive order could permit the oppressed to begin to question: Why? While only a revolutionary society can carry out this education in systematic terms, the revolutionary leaders need to take full power before they can employ the method. In the revolutionary process, the leaders cannot utilize the banking method as an interim measure, justified on grounds of expediency, with the intention of later behaving in a genuinely revolutionary fashion. They must be revolutionary—that is to say, dialogical—from the outset.