My relationship with food Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

My relationship with food - Essay Example I could say Italians are real food-lovers and so they raise their own crops, choosing the ones which are most important in their cooking. Early in my life, I have learned to indulge in home-grown foods. The words, â€Å"Home-grown vegetables are the most delicious in the world†, have become a cliche for me because they were my grandmother’s daily verse. As a result, I have grown to consider home-grown vegetables as the very heart of every meal. I do not consider eating as a lively activity when there is no green thing on the table. Without the colorful vegetables that make the poultry attractive, the blood in my home-grown relationship with food is quite drained. I guess I could say that my romance with food is like tomatoes. It is very attractive. With the red color, it expresses its passion for me as much as I do for it. It is as juicy as my early romance with food in my hometown in Italy. For the first seven years in my life, I have smelled and appreciated food even before I knew anything about it. It did not simply sustain me to live and be healthy. Rather, food gave meaning to my life. I could say that just like the tomatoes, my first seven years of romance with food has been the juicy stuff. I remember my grandmother excitedly gathering her homegrown vegetables and gleefully bring them to the kitchen for our consumption. I can see the males preparing the meat to mate with the vegetables to eventually give birth to a delectable victual. Then, the whole family sit together to eat, giving the children the priority to indulge first with the food before the grown-ups pick on our morsels. The whole family was engaged in the preparation and consumption of the food and I think that is what makes my love affair with food quite juicy. It has been a homegrown relationship, strengthened by the people around me and, which was nurtured into a love that is to make my life more colorful and meaningful. When my family moved to California, my homegrown romanc e did not die. Although we did not grow our own vegetables, mother always made sure that we still have the lingering taste of grandmother’s homegrown vegetables. Local fresh foods were always made available for us. My mother always made it a point that we prepare our food and that we all eat together at home because she knew that going out to eat in restaurants, especially fast food restaurants, would spoil our love affair with healthy food. I see this time in my life as a carrot. It still looks attractive and healthy although the chewing gets a little difficult. This period brought us challenges that eventually affected me. My mother really had to work hard to keep our kitchen a place where we could still indulge with food and see each other. With the demands of a busy American lifestyle and the inability to grow our own vegetables, preparing food has been quite a feat. Nevertheless, my mother did not give up rather she kept my romance with food aflame by teaching me how to cook even though we had to get by with vegetables from the fresh market which are locally produced. When organic vegetables became popular, I could say that my relationship with food became more interesting. I did not have to worry about the source of the food that I eat rather I was confident and felt like I was with my grandmother once again. I could perhaps describe this time in my life as the onion in my food romance. Onions are pungent and

V for Vendetta Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

V for Vendetta - Essay Example Through his efforts, V discovers a terrible truth about the country’s past, pushing people into a revolution. The movie’s plot and cast play a significant role in enhancing the purpose of the story (Spencer 13). Various scenes are particularly important in exemplifying the movie’s main points. The movie makes a dramatic turn in the scene where Evey is tortured in order to disclose the identity of V. This scene helped defined Evey’s character and progress the story’s plot. The purpose of this paper is to add a character into the scene of Evey’s torture and mesh the new character into the plot so as to enhance the story. The character I choose to add to the story is that of a professional torturer who is called upon after Evey’s initial masked torturer fails to gain the needed information regarding V’s identity and location. In this particular scene, the professional torturer whose name is Lincoln interacts both with Evey and her torturer. The interactions inherent in this scene are pivotal since they show the viewer, for the initial time in the entire film, what life was like prior to the reclamation, as well as how it impacted people’s lives during the transition to the present government (Spencer 49). In the scene, after Evey is caught and tortured by authorities for details on V, the torturer who is among the authorities who caught her attempts to gain information by first immersing Evey’s head into water before threatening her with execution. Lincoln starts by ripping off Evey’s clothes and threatening to allow her former assailants, from whom V had saved her, to rape her. Lincoln is clearly well versed in torturing people; he even has a set of tools, which he defines as the tools of the art of torture. Lincoln lays the tools on a nearby table, obviously with a view to intimidate Evey into disclosing what she knows about V. The lighting of this scene is as grey and blue as that of t he last scene. This represents the present political air of the time (Spencer 51). While the initial torturer wore a mask to disguise himself, Lincoln does not disguise himself, but rather allows Evey to take a close look at his scarred face. In order to further intimidate Evey into disclosing V’s details, Lincoln narrates to her the tale of his last torture victim, a middle-aged woman, almost the same age as Evey who had knowledge of an impending attack on the nation’s leader. Lincoln tells Evey how he tortured the woman and eventually got the information he needed from her before killing her with his bare hands. Part of the dialogue Lincoln and other characters in the torture scene includes: Lincoln: Why put yourself through the trauma of torture if you already know that I always gain the information I need? Evey: If I am still going to die, what is the purpose of disclosing what I know regarding V? Lincoln: Because that information will dissuade me from showing off my new torture tools (Evey remains silent while Lincoln gazes at her) Lincoln: Okay, let me give you a few minutes to ponder on your decision while I have a glass of water with my peers (Lincoln leaves the room and heads towards the masked torturer who turns out to be V) Lincoln: She refuses to disclose your identity and location. What do you want me to do? V: Give her time to think before going back in. Lincoln: Do you still need me to harm her? V: Yes. Only lightly until it is clear she is willing to die rather than give away my identity. Lincoln: Okay. (After ten minutes, Lincoln returns to the torture room) Lincoln: I presume that you have made a decision. Let us start by you telling me of V’s real name Evey: His name is V and he is more of a man than you will ever be (Lincoln laughs sarcastically) Lincoln: (As he pulls out a sharp

The Purpose Of Punishment In The Justice System Criminology Essay

The Purpose Of Punishment In The Justice System Criminology Essay Case Study 2: The purpose of Punishment within the criminal justice system. What role does punishment serve within the criminal justice system? Consider the part played by reductivism, incapacitation, retribution, deterrence and rehabilitation as by-products of the perceived need for the criminal justice system to punish offenders. How have political policies and other ideologies affected the state emphasis on the need to punish offenders? In the following paragraphs it is going to be explained the role of punishment within the criminal justice system. Furthermore, we are going to get involved with theories and objectives related to punishment such as: reductivism, deterrence, rehabilitation, incapacitation and finally retribution. Beginning our case study we have to argue that there is considerable controversy over the effectiveness of punishment in reducing crime, but whether or not its actual effectiveness, still is the only method being used conforming someone who made a misdeed, back to society and freedom. Punishment can be simply defined as a legally approved method designed to facilitate the task of crime control (Carrabine, 2004), and its main purpose is to rehabilitate the offender, expiate the victim and dissuade others from becoming wrongdoers. In order to successfully create a holistic view on the matter, we have to focus on many punishment perspectives and theories as it is the only way for a critical evaluation. punishment as a social institution is an inherently complex business that needs to be approached from a range of theoretical perspectives as no single interpretation will grasp the diverse meanings generated by punishment (Carrabine, 2004). The reductive theory of punishment justifies that punishment occurs because it helps to prevent and reduce future consequences of crime, acting as a forward-looking theory for the general good. Moreover, claims that if punishment takes place, future crime will be less than if no penalty were inflicted. For punishment to reduce future crimes, the pain and unhappiness caused to the offender must be outweighed by the avoidance of unpleasantness to other people in the future (Cavadino, 2002). Therefore, it is a moral action against criminals (famously advanced by Jeremy Bentham 1748-1832) since it produces the greatest happiness of the greatest number of people. Nevertheless, there are many mechanisms of reduction which will be shown below. Deterrence based on utilitarian theories, is a method of reduction and its main perspective is that if you cause someones fear, then he will be afraid to offend and break the law (tough on crime). Moreover, separates deterrence into general and individual justifying that general is when punishment dissuades others from following the offenders example, in spite of individual deterrence which aims to teach delinquent not to repeat the behaviour. Deterrence lacks to produce strong and validate evident of its effectiveness as no certain penalty prevented someone from committing a given crime. What is more, referring to the individual deterrence, my opinion is that we cannot say whether or not an offender stopped his criminal behaviour, simply because not all crimes are being convicted. Also, according to official crime statistics, I believe, there is not such effectiveness as Michael Howards supported about prison/punishment and toughness on crime. Prison works. It ensures that we are protected from murderers, muggers and rapists- and it makes many who are tempted to commit crime think twice (Michael Howard, Home Secretary 1993). Rehabilitation is another mechanism of crime reduction which is going to be produced and evaluated on the following paragraphs. According to rehabilitation the idea of punishment is to apply treatment to the offender so that he is made capable afterwards to return back to the society as a law-abiding member. Rehabilitation is viewed as a humane alternative comparing to the harshness of retribution and deterrence giving more a programme function to the punishment, without that meaning that an offender would receive a more lenient penalty for his offence. An important feature of rehabilitation is that the offender could stay on probation whether that means outside prison or inside until he is thought to be ready. Critics though assume that if the prison administrator is the responsible one who decides if offender made a progress and he is ready to go, then corruption may occur which will falsify the true situation. Finally, another issue is that an offender guilty for minor crime proba bly could not tolerate lengthy detentions simple because of inability or refusal to adopt a subservient attitude toward prison officers and authority in general. Continuing our study we will refer to retributive theory which is in total antithesis of reductivism and justifies that punishment came as result of criminality. An attractive feature is that retributivism is a natural connection between the retributive approach and the idea that both offenders and victims have rights. Reductivist theory always founds it difficult to encompass the notion of rights, even when it comes to providing entirely innocent people with a right not to be punished. Retributivism has no such problem, since it follows automatically from the retributive principle that it must be wrong to punish non-offenders. Criminals, according to retributivist principle deserve the punishment because in some way, evil for evil somehow make a right. Additionally, according to retributivism, severity of a punishment should be proportionate to the gravity of the offence (tariff). What is more, retributive punishment, argues that applies fairly and equally to all of us as long as we all live in the same equilibrium followed by the same norms and values. The main issue with such a theory is that it would be objective only if we were all genuinely equal sharing the same advantages. Detected offenders typically start from a position of social disadvantage (Cavadino, 2002). From the moment retributive punishment tries to inflict equality restoring the balance, then increases inequality rather than do the opposite. The last theory refers to the act of making the offender not capable of committing a crime and is known as the incapacitation theory. According to that, offenders who have committed repeated crimes or thought to be dangerous are being punished by execution or lengthy incarceration (life imprisonment). Such a punishment though unfortunately makes it difficult to identify that kind of offenders. Thus, it is extremely controversial the principle of incapacitation especially to those who assist that punishment should advocate equal retribution followed by dignity. An important controversial example evaluating incapacitation is the chemical-castration of sex offenders (against children) with hormonal drugs which was first adopted in the U.S of California in 1996 and proved that drugs alone did not make the offender incapable of committing sex crimes. To conclude, I would like to say that I have not come to a conclusion yet on whether or not punishment actually helps and rehabilitates the delinquents. But I am sure that punishment so far is the function which separates those who live legally and those who do not. I also believe that the fear of punishment changes people behaviour a lot, as we all are afraid of punishment is that not true? Ultimately, I would like to finish with Sir Thomas Mores opinion which finds me totally agreed. Society first creates thieves, and then punishes them for stealing. There has always existed a curiously symbolic relationship between the criminal and society. It is not so much that society tolerates crime, rather the structure of modern society inevitably creates situations and circumstances in which crime occurs(Weisser, 1979).

I Am a Victim of Advertising Essay -- Business Media Advertising

I Am a Victim of Advertising You could call me a shop-a-holic, as most of my friends do, but I call myself a lover of fashion. Sitting in my room, I look in my closet at all my belongings and wonder what else I want to buy. Abercrombie, Guess, J Crew, Armani Exchange, Ralph Lauren, Tommy Hilfiger, and Banana Republic are just a few of the name-brand items that clutter my room. And I want more. I've never stopped to question whether I'm getting what I'm paying for, though I've always been a "smart" shopper, a sale shopper. But, as I learn more about my future field, marketing, I realize that I am a victim of advertising. All the things I want and buy are influenced by what magazines, television, and other advertisers tell me I need to want and buy. Everyone wears clothes. They can be a statement, a style, or a definition of who you are. They can also be a simple necessity. For me, clothing has meant different things. As a child, I wore what my mother gave me or the hand-me-downs from my sister. I never questioned how I looked, but I liked to dress up. In middle school, I became more concerned with my appearance, like most girls. I tried to keep up with the fashion, but what defined the fashion? Magazines and television were the big ones for me. I wanted to look beautiful; thus, I wore what the beautiful people showed me I should wear in hopes that I could be just as beautiful, or at least as fashionable. I had a huge desire to be fashionable, because in being fashionable, I believed I could be popular. As I look back upon those middle school days, I am amazed at how concerned young people can be about their image. Children become so concerned at such a young age with being popular and looking beautifu... ...t someone of the opposite sex. Smoking, drinking, socializing, and looking great in expensive clothing are the images of an attractive person. Advertisers use our weaknesses to tell us what is new, what we should be like, what is cool, and what is hot. Because human nature makes us want to be popular and glamorous we follow the lead ads give us. Is it the victim's fault for believing, or the fault of society for allowing advertisers to do so? These are the questions I often ask myself as I enter the field of marketing. It is very easy to use human insecurities as a means of targeting consumption, but is it right? How will we ever know unless we step back and stop reading magazines and watching television? How will we know unless society and advertising break their bond? Until then, I will remain a victim of advertising. And so will almost everyone else.

An Analysis of Jack London’s Revolution Essay

â€Å"The time should be past for the mental attitude: â€Å"Revolution is atrocious. Sir, there is no revolution. † Likewise should the time be past for that other familiar attitude: â€Å"Socialism is slavery. Sir, it will never be. † It is no longer a question of dialectics, theories, and dreams. There is no question about it. The revolution is a fact. It is here now. Seven million revolutionists, organized, working day and night, are preaching the revolution–that passionate gospel, the Brotherhood of Man. Not only is it a cold-blooded economic propaganda, but it is in essence a religious propaganda with a fervour in it of Paul and Christ. The capitalist class has been indicted. It has failed in its management and its management is to be taken away from it. Seven million men of the working-class say that they are going to get the rest of the working-class to join with them and take the management away. The revolution is here, now. Stop it who can. † Final paragraph of Jack London’s ‘Revolution’, (1905). This extract from Jack London`s essay ‘Revolution’ was written during the 1905 Russian Revolution, which would culminate (and subsequently fail) later in the year. The purpose of the essay is to persuade the reader that revolution is not only a necessary and positive occurrence, but also an inevitable one, ‘The revolution is a fact. ‘ The extract develops in conviction throughout, opening with an almost passive recommendation to the reader, ‘The time should be past for the mental attitude,’ and closing on the only imperative sentence used throughout, ‘Stop it who can. ‘ I do not believe that the two quotes within the extract are from any specific person, but that they represent the former opinion of the working class as a whole, ‘Sir, there is no revolution. ‘ This is due to London describing this as a ‘familiar attitude’, and also the use of Sir suggests a person of lower status. Alliteration and sibilance are used to make particular phrases more memorable to the reader, ‘Socialism is slavery†¦ capitalist class. ‘ This may be subtle form of manipulation in itself, as phonetically the repetition of the ‘s’ provides a more pleasant sound than the harsh ‘c’, and communicates to the reader a more positive association for socialism than capitalism. This negative association for the capitalist class is then reinforced through the use of legal jargon, ‘capitalist class had been indicted. ‘ An indictment is a formal written accusation of a criminal offence (this would have been handed up by a grand jury in 1905), which implies that London believes the Russian leader’s failure is so great it amounts to an offence against the state. It is also somewhat symbolic, as in essence ‘Revolution’ is an indictment, with the essay serving as the written accusation and the London and his audience the grand jury. London uses many rhetorical devices throughout the extract, such as ethos, logos and pathos. Ethos relies on the reputation of the author or speaker, and London was one of the most successful writers of his time. I believe he was reasonably well known in 1905 (particularly as The Call of the Wild was published in 1903) and this would have given him the required credibility to successfully convey his opinion based on his name alone. He was also associated with socialism, having run (unsuccessfully) for mayor of Socialist Labour Party in his hometown. Pathos is an emotive tool and the essay title ‘Revolution’ could be considered as such as it is a concept that has strong emotional connotation. Pathos is also employed somewhat through the analogy made between revolution and religion, ‘it is in essence a religious propaganda. ‘ London may have chosen the comparison as religion (if it can be considered movement) is very successful. The comparison is also of note as London himself was an atheist and fond of deriving the Christian religion, which may explain why he chose the post modifier ‘propaganda’ as it has negative connotations. His lack of respect for religion is shown when the religious comparison is developed further, and the revolution becomes, ‘passionate gospel,’ with the ‘Brotherhood of Man’ revolutionaries becoming its followers. Logos is the logical element of rhetoric, and London presents a coherent argument as to why the revolutionaries would succeed. This begins with ‘Seven million revolutionists’ and ends with ‘with a fervor in it of Paul and Christ’. It is built of clauses and sentences that carry equal influence, arranged in a particular order that starts with fact and escalates into blasphemous hyperbole. London uses inductive reasoning as this allows him to use particular facts to form a theory that explains the relationship between them, therefore allowing predictions of future knowledge as claimed at the end. Many specific types of rhetorical features are also present, all of which communicate London`s ideas and persuade the reader to agree with him. Chiasmus is used, ‘It has failed in its management and its management is to be taken from it,’ to encapsulates two important ideas into one sentence, connecting them and highlighting their significance. London also uses a sentential adverb to interrupt the syntax, ‘The revolution is here, now,’ and this ensures the words ‘here’ and ‘now’ are stressed, as lexis either side of an apostrophe is emphasised. Antithesis is used to highlight a contrasting relationship between two ideas, ‘There is no question about it. The revolution is fact. ‘ By juxtaposing the simple declarative sentences in parallel form it appears obvious that something cannot be both a question and a fact, and placing ‘now’ at the end of the sentence provides it with the most emphasis and makes it more memorable. There is also an example of tripling, ‘a question of dialectics, theories, dreams. ‘ This provides contrast, both semantically and structurally, to, ‘revolution is a fact,’ and the hypothetical nature of the former increases the strength of the latter. In conclusion I believe Jack London successfully communicates his beliefs in the extract, and the rhetorical devices used allow him to make the piece confluent and consequently persuasive.

Breakthroughs in Modern Deep Sea Treasure Hunting

Modern deep sea treasure hunting and/or modern marine archaeology have benefited greatly from two technical breakthroughs: (1) side scanning sonar and; (2) remotely operated vehicles (ROVs). These two breakthroughs have made the largest financial impact on the profession than any other modern breakthroughs in the same field. Before side scanning sonar and ROVs were developed for practical use, deep sea treasure hunting professionals and marine archaeologists have to contend with human limitations on the vast three-dimensions of the sea.Two dimensions involve covering the length and width of the water surface or coastline (Smith). The third involves exploring the depths. The first two dimensions challenge the luxury of time. Unlike sunken cities (â€Å"Port Royal†), shipwrecks have occurred in random places over a very wide area. Tracking the exact location of sunken ships could take years through the investigation of historical records (Handwerk), (Australian Broadcasting Corp oration [ABC]), sample dives and other traditional methods. Moreover, since shipwrecks have occurred at random periods in history (Burke), pinpoint accuracy is an issue (â€Å"Outer Continental†).Deep sea explorers need to choose one shipwreck from a choice of many (Barrett). UNESCO estimates that there are more than 3 million shipwrecks in the world (Raja). Exploration costs a lot of money too. Bills fetch as much as â‚ ¬500 Thousand (â€Å"Italy†) or even US $6. 25 Million (Reuters) for one shipwreck alone. Hence, most deep sea explorers try to get financial backing from investors (Dennis) and concentrate their resources on just one shipwreck. With side scanning sonar, deep sea exploration companies can now cover larger areas at shorter periods of time.Odyssey Marine Exploration for instance covered 3,700 square miles and detected 2,100 possible shipwrecks in a period of less than four months (â€Å"Outer Continental†). Compare this with Mel Fisher’s 16-year search of Nuestra Senora de Atocha, a 1622 Spanish galleon wreck off the Florida Straits (Illingworth). Maybe even with Howard Collingwood’s use of archival research and a translator of historical texts as preliminaries to his cesium magnetometer scan of his target coverage (â€Å"Interview†). The third dimension challenges the forces of nature.Divers have to contend with these: (1) great water pressures; (2) strong undersea currents; (3) murky and sometimes polluted waters; (4) hostile sea creatures like sharks, eels, and crabs; (4) razor-sharp corals and other hard, pointed objects under the sea; and (5) moving heavy debris under water (â€Å"Port Royal†). In this dimension, ROVs have already accomplished many great things. The deepest deep sea treasure recovery has been made by ROVs at a depth of 170 meters (Reuters). ZEUS, a ROV, visually inspected 400 possible shipwrecks in a record-time of four months (â€Å"Outer Continental†).Moreover, wi th James Cameron’s filming of the Titanic (â€Å"Florida†), ROVs have been popularized and have become most financially-rewarding, Hollywood-style (â€Å"Master†). ROVs did not only address the forces of nature and provided safety to divers, ROVs also provided a new kind of treasure to deep sea professionals—royalty income from films. Works Cited Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC). â€Å"Australia. † ABC Regional Online – Australia 14 July 2005. . Jordan 2. 7:17. Barrett, Helen. â€Å"Australia. † 24 Hour Museum – UK 17 July 2005. . Jordan 2. 7:17. Burke, Alan. â€Å"Massachusetts. † Gloucester Daily Times – USA 26 July 2005. (article no longer available). Jordan 2. 7:9. Dennis, Jan. â€Å"Dreams of Sunken Treasure Lure Ex-Hostage Back to South America. † Associated Press 26 Sep. 2004. . â€Å"Underwater. † â€Å"Florida. † Jacksonville Business Journal – Flordica, USA 27 Sep. 2 005. . Jordan 2. 7:9. Handwerk, Brian. â€Å"North Carolina.† National Geographic News – USA 12 July 2005. . Jordan 2. 9:10. Illingworth, Montieth M. â€Å"The Treasure Hunters: Before You Invest in a Search for Sunken Treasure, Find Out What You are Diving Into. † Cigar Aficionado Online. 1995. 6 Jan. 2006. . â€Å"Interview with Treasure Hunter. † CNN. com – Transcripts. Video transcript aired on 20 June 2004. CNN. 6 Jan. 2006. â€Å"Italy. † ANSA – Rome, Italy 27 Sep. 2005.. Jordan 2. 9:14. Jordan, Brian, MAC. Marine Cultural and Historic Newsletter 2. 7, Silver Spring, MD: National Marine Protected Area Center, July 2005. —. Marine Cultural and Historic Newsletter 2. 9, Silver Spring, MD: National Marine Protected Area Center, Sep. 2005. â€Å"Master of the Deep. † New Scientist – Interview. . â€Å"Underwater. † â€Å"Outer Continental Shelf and International Waters. † Tampa Bay Business Journa l 26 Sep. 2005. . Jordan 2. 9:12. â€Å"Port Royal – The Sunken City. † Book Review. 6 Jan. 2006. UK: AquaPress . Raja M. â€Å"Shipwreck Salvors See Treasure for the Taking. † Asia Times Online 17 Sep. 2004. . â€Å"Underwater. † Reuters. â€Å"Norway. † MSNBC – USA 20 Sep. 2005. . Jordan 2. 9:15. Smith, Helena. â€Å"Greece. † The Boston Globe 11 Sep. 2005. . Jordan 2. 9:13.