Dead Man Walking Essay Example for Free

Dead Man Walking Essay When a criminal is constantly nagged and abused, condemned and ostracized by society, he turns into a viler and bitter individual. The inner core of every human being is essentially divine, even that of the worst villain. It just needs to be revealed to him to help him align himself with his true personality. This process is inner revelation. . It is only the blazing fire of Divine Knowledge that can illumine him from within. This instrumentality of Divine Knowledge can make him a worthy individual and citizen. This being the truth, one finds it difficult to agree with Gregory Baum that religion is often ambiguous in its effect on society. He further asserts that religion can be used to justify unjust social circumstances. Such possibility occurs when the tenets of religion are misunderstood and implemented wrongly. Misapplications will produce unfavorable results. Moreover, the interpretations of moral and ethical values need to be molded as per the demands of the time, and the prevailing social conditions. Poverty is the one big reason due to which an individual takes to the path of crime. The rich have a role to play here. â€Å"†¦the message to the rich is that they must be intelligent enough from time to time to help the poor, because this is the way by which they will become richer still. †(4) Sister Helen Prejean, author Dead Man Walking takes the right stand on social issues, presently capital punishment, and thus serves the true cause of Catholic Church. What is it to undergo the death penalty†¦. The best part of the death is the surprise element of it. But in case of legal death penalty, the suffering begins from day one the arrest of the individual, and when the realization dawns on him that he is liable for death penalty. He hopes against hopes that he will survive somehow. The suffering gradually increases, till that stunning moment when he is finally sentenced to death. Then he â€Å"would wait and weep and wear out. †(8) The condemned one begins to die at every moment thereafter. Patrick Sonnier, who had killed two teenagers, was one such individual. Now there are five parties concerned in the final scene of the drama of execution. The condemned prisoner, his family, the State, the Prison Administration and the men whose job is to execute the prisoner to snuff out his life! In 1982, Sister Helen Prejean became the spiritual advisor to Patrick Sonnier, months before his death in the electric chair of Louisianas Angola State Prison. The ‘battle’ between the spiritual principles and the ‘State Killing’ of a man with the God-given soul commenced. Christianity stands for love and pardon. The Catholic nun condemns capital punishment on moral grounds. An imperfect society doesn’t own the right to award death penalty. Many serious crimes are committed in a state of momentary anger. Has death penalty put an end to murders and rapes? The remedy to arrest the trend of heinous crimes lays elsewhere. Helen Prejean’s book is topical and it has international importance. Another startling and well-substantiated revelation in the book is poor African-Americans in the â€Å"Death Belt’ are most likely to be executed. If their crimes are against whites, the chances of death penalty are even more. Sociologists-where are you? What do you think of this serious anomaly? â€Å"Thou hast made me endless, such is thy pleasure. †(1) You have no right to extinguish the life which you have not kindled. This book saw the light of the day under strange circumstances. Prejean writes, â€Å"When Chava Colon from the Prison Coalition asks me one January day in 1982 to become a pen pal to a death-row inmate, I say, Sure. The invitation seems to fit with my work in St. Thomas, a New Orleans housing project of poor black residents. Not death row exactly, but close. Death is rampant here-from guns, disease, and addiction. Medical care scarcely exists. †(Prejean, 1994, p. 3) The third and the fourth sentences of the book in chapter 1, give firm indications about the fertile ground for the crimes. Prejean is a Catholic Nun. She is asked to be associated with an about-to-be-hanged criminal. How Divine Forces will tackle the Satan? Her first mental reaction was, â€Å"I wonder what I can say to this man. What will he have to say to me? †(Prejean 1994, p. 4)Now the question is how the Catholic Church and social reformation and rehabilitation of the poor and the downtrodden are compatible. The practical problem is, â€Å"The mandate to practice social justice is unsettling because taking on the struggles of the poor invariably means challenging the wealthy and those who serve their interests. † Comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable-thats what Dorothy Day, a Catholic social activist said is the heart of the Christian gospel. 1 (Prejean 1994, p. 5) Rabindranath Tagore writes, â€Å"thou keepest company with the companionless among the poorest, the lowliest, and the lost. † (2) â€Å"These are poor societies which have too little, but where is the rich society that says, â€Å"Halt! We have enough! †(5) But when religion develops an agenda to tackle the social problems, several practical situations come to the fore. Social issues are interlinked to politics and economics. Nuns are not social workers in the pure sense, they are religious preachers. They are there to tell you about your personal relationship with God, kindness to others, inner peace and the promised heaven, at the end of this life. Politics is not a respected ‘profession’ in any country of the world. Religious preachers are ill-equipped to deal with the segments of administration like, bureaucracy, police, politics and judiciary. The continuous interaction is difficult, for every church-going individual may have one problem or the other Sister Marie Augusta Neal, S. N. D. deN, set her thinking straight and changed her perception, as for remaining on the side of poor. She quoted the religious authority for her stand. She was s sociologist. She argued how fighting for the glaring inequalities in the world and the religious preaching needs to work together. Apolitical does not mean that you have to side with oppression. For every argument of Prejean, she had well-founded counter arguments, based on religious revelations of Lord Jesus. The Gospels record that Jesus preached good news to the poor, she said, and an essential part of that good news was that they were to be poor no longer. â€Å"Which meant they were not to meekly accept their poverty and suffering as Gods will, but, instead, struggle to obtain the necessities of life which were rightfully theirs. †(Prejean, 1994 p. 6. â€Å"Give me the strength never to disown the poor or bend my knees before insolent might. (3) Conclusion: Reading more religious texts is not the solution to the vexed problems of the day, including crimes, â€Å"More education can help us only if it produces more wisdom. †(6). Religious tenets are the revelations of the Perfect Masters (Divine Personalities or Realized Souls), so there is no question of ambiguities in them. Ambiguities are in our understanding. Gregory Baum is one such individual. Mind-level thinking fails to understand the revelations of the souls which have transcended the mind-barrier. In that level it is perfection all around. Initially, Prejean had problems of understanding the religious tenets. As would be seen from the passages analyzed above, she was able to cross that confusing barrier of the mind, and then her religion began to inspire her to secure social and spiritual justice and she realized that fight for social justice is the divine ordained duty! It is the highest spiritual demand! Adhering to religious principles doesn’t mean that you need to suffer in poverty, â€Å"where he pattern of living and working are not only profoundly unsatisfactory but also in a process of accelerating decay. †(7) This decay leads to serious crimes. References: Dead Man Walking: An Eyewitness Account Of The Death Penalty In The United States: by Helen Prejean (Author) Paperback: 288 pages Publisher: Vintage; 1st Vintage Books edition (May 31, 1994) ISBN-10: 0679751319 ISBN-13: 978-0679751311 Tagore, Rabindranath . Book: Gitanjali; Macmillan Co. Ltd, London-1962. 1) P. 1, (2) P. 8, (3) P. 28, (8) p. 84 Schumancher, E. F: Book: Small is Beautiful: Publisher: Radha Krishna, Daryaganj, New Delhi (India) (4) P. 19, (5) P. 21 (6) p. 73 (7) p. 159

Social Networking: The Death of Privacy? Essay -- Social Media, Facebo

  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Social networks have become an increasingly popular way for people to communicate over the last decade. Whether it is through a wall post, a picture, a video, or a link, users are able to share stories and details about their lives through social networks such as Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, and YouTube. Mark Zuckerberg, a Harvard student who hacked the university’s network to obtain photos and information about other students on campus, created Facebook in 2004. Today, Facebook has more than one billion weekly active users. According to information found on Facebook’s website, â€Å"[M]illions of people use Facebook every day to keep up with friends, upload an unlimited number of photos, share links and videos, and learn more about the people they meet.†Ã‚  Ã‚  However, if the man behind all of this was a hacker himself, what might this say about the security of the website itself?  Ã‚  Just how safe is this site and others?   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The truth of the matter is social networking sites are only as safe as a user makes them.  Unfortunately, many of the free privacy settings available for users on the internet are not the default. To protect themselves, users must be sure to censor what they post online and activate the appropriate privacy settings to secure their information. Individuals who share their personal information online must realize that anything they post has the potential to be viewed by millions of people online, not just their friends. As authors Dianne Timm and Carolyn Duven suggest,â€Å"[W]hen an individual shares information on a social networking site, he or she is sharing that information with the rest of the world even if the intent was to share with only a select group of people† (Timm and Duven 90). The reality o... ...Premier. Web. 25 Apr. 2015. Marsico Jr., Edward M. "Social Networking Websites: Are Myspace And Facebook The Fingerprints Of The Twenty-First Century?"  Widener Law Journal  19.3 (2010): 967-976.  Academic Search Premier. Web. 28 Mar. 2015. Miller, Robert, Kristine Parsons, and David Lifer. "Students And Social Networking Sites: The Posting Paradox."  Behaviour & Information Technology  29.4 (2010): 377-382.  Academic Search Premier. Web. 19 Apr. 2015. Teclehaimanot, Berhane, and Torey Hickman. "Student-Teacher Interaction On Facebook: What Students Find Appropriate."  Techtrends: Linking Research & Practice To Improve Learning 55.3 (2011): 19-30.Academic Search Premier. Web. 25 Apr. 2015 Timm, Dianne M., and Carolyn J. Duven. "Privacy And Social Networking Sites."  New Directions For Student Services  124 (2008): 89-101.  Academic Search Premier. Web. 29 Feb. 2015.

Human Resource Management and Siemens Essay

1. How does Siemens seek to provide good career opportunities for employees? The entire article is about Siemens and how they manage its employees. The Culture of the company is high performance which is to encourage people to achieve high results. When you are in a company whose culture is to do the best, you definitely have a chance to improve your career. The Environment of Siemens Is rare whose workforce consists of professional people who believe in teamwork and hard work does not prevent having fun together and party. Dr. Klaus Kleinfield said he â€Å"was able to build large circle of advisors and friends within the company† (qtd in success stories). Most of us would love to work in this kind of company. Siemens also provide you the chance to enter global high technology company because it operates jointly in many countries. There is also flexibility and diversification in the company. More than 500,000 employees work in industries of healthcare, transportation, telecommunication, power generation and electronics (success stories). Their organiz ation structure is not flat; they have broad range of positions like human resource specialists, administrators, researchers, etc (creating†¦). There is good chance of making a career in company like Siemens. They also have some programs inside the company itself that renders employees the opportunities. Siemens have Human Resource Development Program which function is to identify and meet the needs of their workforce. The strategy helps worker to excel at work which is beneficial for the company and its employees. The most important part of program is that Siemens is â€Å"encouraging employees to improve their career and other aspects of life† (qtd in creating).Besides human resource development program, they also have Talent Management Philosophy. It makes sure that each employee is given support to achieve the maximum potential (creating). 2. Describe one of the systems that Siemens has created which provides development opportunities for employees at work. Talent Management- managing People Talent Management is not the only system in Siemens which provide opportunities, they also have Human Resource Development Program and many others which not appear in the study. I am going to describe Talent Management. The system makes sure that each employee is given a support to achieve their maximum potential and works together to achieve the organization’s objective. There are no reasons to prevent the progress of your career, if you work in a company like Siemens. The strategy is for all the employees, not just the high position workers. According to Siemens Everyone has talent and can make the best use (creating). Human Resource is also taken into consideration for Talent Management System. Matching the talent with appropriate task gives them the competitive advantage. You can see how important the strategy is for the company. Talent management provides job enrichment and enlargement. In the first one workers are inspire for additional charge to make the work appealing and in enlargement, extension is given to responsibility range with knowledge and skills. The system is very helpful for managers in a way that it enables them to engage and motivate the employees to accomplish the organization’s goals. Before jumping to Talent Management directly, it is important to take into account Performance Management. According to Siemens, Talent management depends on Performance Management. Siemens has also created a standard process of conducting the performance and development of their workforce (creating).Performance Management is what happens between company’s plans and individual target of the employees. The process creates communication and trust by setting goals, monitoring performance and discussion between managers and subordinates. Honesty is very critical in the entire system. 2. How important is the appraisal system in helping to create shared understandings about the objectives of the organization and personal objectives of individual employees? The appraisal system is extremely important for any company in helping to create shared understandings about organizations objectives. Appraisal is giving reward to an individual or a team for their performance. The reward could be any form like words, promotion, bonus, etc. There are several different appraisal techniques like: self-review, immediate supervisor, peer group, team, and overall assignment, upward and 360 degree (kork). You can’t classify any single techniques the best. It depends on the situation, identifying which type of appraisal system will work better than the other. After all, providing appraisal is more important than the kind of system we choose. From my point of view appraisal is very important in any organization, does not matter if the company is small or large. As a university student will be happy if the professor gives me a reward like â€Å"good job†, it will keep me motivated to do my best the next time. We could say the same thing about the employees working at Siemens. Before appraisal system, knowledge sharing is necessary. Knowledge sharing is â€Å"capturing, organizing, reusing and transferring experience based knowledge that reside within the organization making it available to others†(qtd in kork†¦). Giving appraisal is critical for better communication and management in the organization. For a company like Siemens appraisal system is very essential because their system is all about targets and performance of the employees. Through appraisal employees know their results of the performance. It is very important in fast changing world â€Å"effective appraisal systems act as a primary vehicle for the measurement change† (qtd in kork†¦). 3. How effective do you think the Siemens approach to people management will be in creating great results? Right now Siemens is doing a great job for managing people. Siemens culture is high performance which will keep their employees motivated. Than they have Human Resource development program and Talent Management Philosophy which I mentioned earlier. They says that â€Å"excellent people need to be managed in a excellent way†(qtd in creating†¦). The key point for their management is that they take benefits from employees and also provide them back in different ways. Many companies do not take into consideration the other advantages provided by the company. Giving salary is not all that matters. When Siemens assign a task to the employees they pass the responsibility with trust which leads to engagement, commitment and high performance. By doing what Siemens is doing at the present, they will be success effectively managing the people. If they keep doing the same thing with little changes require with the time, they will have no problem managing workforce.5. How you would apply what you have learned from the case study. Siemens case study is very important for me, in fact I will keep this for future. There are some very important details of management and Human Resources. I will make sure that my subordinates get something more than salary from the company. Every single thing in the article is very essential for manager. I would like to go in a company who offer similar benefits like Siemens and whose culture is high performance. Companies like Siemens offer you the opportunity to make growth in your career. I will like to have programs like Human Resource Development and Talent management in my company which could provide some exceptional talents I could not have figure out. This kind of articles just open up your mind and make you think about what was unknown before. Communication and integration is very essential wherever we work. It will take forward your company or family. Siemens operates in different countries; all this is done because they communicate well from long distance.

The Prohibition Of Marijuana Should Be Banned - 1693 Words

The consumption of alcohol was prohibited in the United States during the years 1920 through 1933. Prohibition was mandated under the 18th amendment of the Constitution, enabling legislation to enforce the ban and state which types of alcoholic beverages were permissible. The amendment was later repealed by the 21st amendment in 1933, which once again legalized the consumption and distribution of alcohol. There were many reasons as to why the prohibition of alcohol failed, ranging from high instances of corruption to increased amount of organized crime. These common instances took away personal liberties of many people which caused major problems in the country and these particular problems can be seen arising again with the topic of the prohibition of Marijuana. Marijuana or Cannabis is a plant that is cultivated in large quantities and is either consumed, smoked, or inhaled to create a certain kind of altered mental and physical effect, which is referred to as a high. Though Mariju ana may be considered a dangerous substance to most, it should be legalized because the economic, social, and political standpoints outweigh the negatives and is not as harmful to the United States as perceived. Throughout history, Marijuana was legal but frowned upon up until the late 1920’s where bills and laws against it were first started getting drafted. Since the establishment of the Jamestown colony in 1607, Marijuana has played a big part in the economy since the enactment of the firstShow MoreRelatedThe Great Gatsby By F. Scott Fitzgerald818 Words   |  4 PagesThirteen â€Å"Dry† Years: The Amendment that Banned Alcohol for Thirteen Years On January 17, 1920, the 18th Amendment was enforced throughout the United States: Prohibition. The18th Amendment banned the selling, manufacturing, and production of alcohol. Just a short thirteen years later the 21st Amendment was passed, repealing the18th Amendment. 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