One of the most important chapters in this book deals with fear. The author analyses how teaching can be conducted in the face of fear. According to Palmer, the quality of higher education teaching cannot be improved by endless workshops on methodology because effective teaching does not come from technique (Palmer, 2007). He claims that effective teaching is based on the quality, identity, and integrity of teachers meaning that human dimensions are more important than methodology in pedagogy. The relationship between the teacher and the student is a very important element of the teaching process according to the author, meaning that the human condition must be considered in the process of teaching. Palmer claims in this chapter that this is one of the pedagogical realms that have not been explored and there is a big challenge for the teachers to ensure that they explore the human condition in the process of teaching because there are many rewards to be reaped. Most people do not teach poorly because they do not have the mastery of content either do they underutilize their methodologies. They just let fear get an upper hand and one of the biggest enemies in education is fear because it allows ignorance to gain strength and power, thus compromising knowledge. Teachers need the courage to teach because most of them teach in the face of fear and this fear emanates from three main sources which include the students and the teachers themselves.
One of the worst fears that affect the teaching process is the fear of subjectivity where the teachers try to be objective by maintaining a safe distance. When teachers maintain a distance because they do not want eternal truths to be affected by personal bias, they run away from relational knowing. Objectivism is always driven by fear and the teachers should not be cagey about being subjective because it is the basis of relational knowing. When teachers become more objective because of their fear of subjectivity, they emphasize external facts thus relegating internal wisdom to the sidelines. According to the author, this style of teaching is the most dangerous and has wrecked generations because it creates people who know a lot about the outside world and little about their inner selves. This kind of teaching results in a generation that has technical competence but has little or no understanding of personality and life issues. The products of this kind of teaching, according to the chapter have power over the world but do not have power over themselves (Palmer, 2007). They can transform the world but they cannot transform themselves. According to the chapter, the courage to teach us all about overcoming the objectivist dimension in the teaching process because removing oneself from the real-life situations that are affecting the students does not in any way help them to discover themselves. Courageous teachers are subjective and they do not worry when personal bias creeps into their teaching methodology because this subjectivity may be less important in teaching the technical competencies, but it is very important in equipping the students with life skills. Courageous teachers always find ways of overcoming the fear of objectivity.
The students
The other vital chapter in this book deals with the teacher’s perception of the students. Most teachers claim that the biggest obstacle to teaching is bad students. One of the worst characteristics of a bad student is silence when questions are asked by the teacher in class. According to most teachers, silence is either a sign of indifference and hostility to the teacher or an indication that the students are brain dead. This makes the teachers devise cures that are even more dangerous than the disease. The teachers fail to understand that the silence of the students does not arise from their ignorance, cynicism, or indifference; the silence is mostly driven by fears. These fears are caused by many things and most of them are outside the school context. Family issues, discouragement in life, failed relationships and other personal issues contribute to this fear. The problem is that most teachers imagine that the students are just indifferent to studies and devise cures that end up aggravating the whole situation. They go-ahead to punish the voiceless students instead of finding trying to hear into their silence which may be at times loud. The chapter insists that teachers should shed the negative perceptions they have towards their students especially when the student tries to keep a distance because those perceptions do nothing positive to the fears in the students. The teachers should try to investigate the cause of this aloofness and then take the necessary measures to remedy the situation.
Reason for the Choice of the Chapters
I chose these two chapters because they tackle two of the most serious problems that are facing modern pedagogy. These two problems end up affecting the students, their academic performance, and their future lives. These two chapters deal with the influence of factors outside the school context on the lives of the students which in turn affects their lives in schools. The chapter on fear asserts that the teachers must be pro-active enough and teach the students to conquer themselves first before they can conquer the world. Teachers have excelled in teaching the technical competencies and skills to the students but have failed to nurture personal skills. This has created a generation that is strong externally and weak internally which is very dangerous. This chapter, therefore, emphasizes that the teachers must go back to the drawing board and incorporate elements of subjectivity in their methodology because this is the only approach that can help the students to tackle personal issues.
The second chapter is closely related to the first one because it deals with the perceptions that hinder the learning-teaching process in schools. The chapter insists that the teachers should not devise cures for the problems that the students are facing before they have a comprehensive understanding of the root of the problems because those cures may be more dangerous than the disease.
Importance of the Chapters
These two chapters are important to me and any other teacher because there is a crisis in the education sector brought about by the indifference of the teachers to external issues that have an impact on the teaching-learning process. As a teacher, I may be well versed in the subject content and have the best methodologies but this cannot translate to success because the educational process is not all about content and methodology. Focus on methodology and content creates academic giants and social dwarfs and this means that the social aspects of education should not be relegated to the sidelines. The current situation in the world where we have a very strong and technical generation that has weak interpersonal and social skills is a problem that stems from the education methods used in schools that do not focus on personal development. These chapters have taught me that teachers should be responsible not only for the academic and technical development of the students but also for their personal and social development. The teachers should understand that there are factors outside the school system that impact the teaching and learning process and they should not run away from these issues. The first chapter is especially important because it has vividly illustrated the main fear that teachers face. It has illustrated that the courage to teach us all about overcoming the objectivist dimension in the teaching process because removing oneself from the real-life situations that are affecting the students does not in any way help them to discover themselves. As a teacher, I should not avoid being subjective and I should not worry when personal bias creeps into my teaching methodology, because this subjectivity is very important in equipping the students with life skills.
Reflections
Finally, the two chapters have reflected on both my learning and my teaching. My teachers suffered from the same weaknesses that have been tackled in the two chapters. They never tried to help us understand issues to do with our personality and they also devised harmful cures to problems they perceived and the same trend continues even today as we teach. We rarely seek to understand the students and help them cope with real-life issues that are outside the classroom setting.
References
Palmer, J. (2007). The Courage to Teach. NJ: Prentice Hall
Should We Fear Derivatives: Help or Harm to the Economy
“Should We Fear of Derivatives?” is the article by Rene M. Stulz for The Journal of Economic Perspective of 2004. The main subject of this work is the evaluation of the essence of derivatives, their types, prices, and effects in the sphere of economy and clearing up why so many people still keep using derivatives and cannot leave this affair.
The author divides this article into several logical parts in order to have time and space to explain each point about derivatives and demonstrate how he comes to these conclusions and why his conclusions have to be regarded as the correct ones. The economic essence of derivatives is hard to define. In fact, there is no concrete definition of derivatives in the economy, and this word is usually interpreted as the chemical concept of “a substance that can be made from another substance” (Stulz 173).
In finance, the essence of derivatives is almost the same. Any economic derivative is considered to be an instrument, where its payoffs are derived from some already existed values like asset or rate. Such a clear explanation of derivatives and the presentation of appropriate and interesting examples make this article really captivating from the very beginning and demonstrate how high the level of author’s knowledge is.
The clarification of the main idea is presented at the end of the introductory part. The author underlines that he intends to study derivatives as positive economic substances, represent its benefits, and mention that the risks are possible with derivatives, but still not considerable in comparison to all derivatives’ advantages.
This is why, from the very beginning of the article, it becomes clear that people should not fear derivatives in the economy because they are more helpful for this sphere of life; and in spite of possible risks and challenges, the benefits of financial derivatives are significant and important. It is necessary to become more attentive to the use of derivatives, to follow the development of derivatives, and to study the peculiarities of each derivative’s type in order to use them properly.
Derivatives may be of two types: exotic and plain vanilla. The latter is all those “contracts to buy or sell future delivery, called forwards and futures contracts” (Stulz 174). The former is everything else that may be connected and applied as the derivatives. Exotic derivatives differ from plain vanilla derivatives due to their inability to put together the contracts like forward and option.
The best example of an exotic derivative presented by Rene Stulz is any binary option, where money has to be paid in case a certain condition is met (Stulz 176). The pricing of exotic and plain vanilla derivatives remain to be a considerable topic as well, and the author pays much attention to it. A forward contract that is inherent to plain vanilla derivatives changes its values from time to time. These changes cause problems with a portfolio strategy and lead to some losses.
In order to solve the problems with pricing and get a chance to benefit from the chosen derivatives, it is possible to use the Black-Sholes formula and calculate the necessary number of shares, required time, and possible profits. The sphere of finance is always under certain development, and because of that pricing of derivatives cannot be always stable and usually depends on numerous outside factors.
Another significant part of the article is devoted to the development of derivative markets and the reasons of their growth. One of the first derivative markets have appeared several centuries ago in Holland. They were small markets for options under the influence of world economic changes like industries’ deregulations.
The demand for products was raised and used in order to prevent possible risks in the sphere of economy. The author’s attempt to describe the historical development of derivatives gives the reader a chance to comprehend why people started using derivatives and what could cause the troubles.
Derivative markets are considered to be helpful to the economy for many reasons, and Rene Stulz presents a separate part of this article in order to introduce how beneficial these markets can be. One of the most evident benefits of derivatives is their abilities to provide people and organizations to achieve payoffs, which are impossible to achieve or possible achieve but under very expensive conditions.
Derivatives are also helpful to the economy because they promote the development of underlying markets and promise their effectiveness. These benefits of derivative markets provoke numerous financial/nonfinancial firms and individuals use derivatives even if they know that they cannot hedge risks, which are associated with their capital’s values.
In this article, the risks caused by derivatives are studied as well. The financial system is one of those victims, who may lose certain profit because of the services of derivative markets. First of all, the firms, which decide to use derivatives, are not actually aware about derivatives’ worth.
Secondly, the collapse of Long-Term Capital Management’s attempts and the conditions of crisis cause considerable losses or changes of requirements frequently. But in spite of all those troubles and traps of derivative markets, people still want to address these services just in order to be sure about another opportunity to get necessary values when it becomes necessary.
In the concluding part of his article, Rene Stulz admits that only derivatives may allow firms both financial and nonfinancial and individuals to hedge financial risks. And if derivatives undergo some changes, which may lead to their collapse, the economy as a whole takes a considerable bath.
He also answers the most important question whether derivatives are harmful or helpful, and the answer becomes clear. We should not fear them but only respect due to such a great opportunity to get payoffs, when they are necessary. The vast majority of people use planes in order to get the necessary place within a short period of time.
And though these people are afraid of flying or airplanes’ crashes, they still use these services to save time and try to improve airplane industry. Almost the same happen to the derivative markets: people are aware about the fact that risks and challenges are inherent to this financial sphere, but cannot stop using these services, because they get so many benefits, which may improve their lives.
Losses are present everywhere; each sphere of life and business is under a threat of being spoiled or crashed due to risks and crises. This is why it is not obligatory to stop using this really helpful service but start developing programs, which may improve the derivative markets’ development and make these services more effective in this world.
Works Cited
Stulz, Rene, M. “Should We Fear Derivatives?” The Journal of Economic Perspectives 18.3 (Summer 2004): 173-192.
The mention of the word ghost scares many people. Mention it and people will be at the verge of breaking their bones as they escape from something that they have not even seen. Ghosts can be defined as the spirits of the dead people that are said to appear to human beings (Ibsen 17). Today, many people believe that ghosts exist and they come to cause harm in the living world.
Most of the people who hold this believe do claim that they have had encounters with ghosts and no one can dare convince them that they do not exist. There is no connection between the living and the dead and therefore these spirits cannot manifest themselves to people. The dead live in a different world from which human beings live and the two cannot be associated in any way apart from the fact that the dead were once living.
Ghosts are said to make encounters with human beings in bodily form and that contradicts the fact that once the living die they cease to exist in bodily form. Most of the things that people believe in have been proven in one way or another. Scientists have tried to provide scientific prove of many issues but no one has ever scientifically proved that ghosts exist. This is something that has just been planted in people’s minds by various influencing factors.
People cannot just believe in ghosts out of nothing; something should have driven them towards that (Buse and Andrew 21). Many factors have facilitated this and made the ghost presence in the living world look so real while in the real sense, there is nothing like that. Those who claim to have encountered ghosts cannot provide good evidence to support their argument; they want people to trust their bare words.
Provision of evidence is the only thing that can pass a certain argument to be true. There is no connection between the living and the dead neither is there strong evidence to prove that ghosts do really manifest themselves to the living world in body forms; therefore, people should not believe in their existence.
People commit various fallacies in their arguments that ghosts really exist. A fallacy can be defined as a mistake of reasoning whereby a person makes an argument based on something that is not true (Billings and White 25). One factor that has facilitated this is the ghost stories that have been told from generation to generation especially in childhood.
Whoever has never heard of such stories like those of phantom armies should perhaps be old fashioned. Believe you me that as one listens to all mysterious actions of the ghosts in the stories, he or she is forming the same picture in the mind. Such an image is thus permanently printed in the mind and that will go on reminding him or her of the ghost.
That will result to a series of such encounters with the ghosts but in dreams. By the end of it all, the whole issue will look so real and it will be so difficult to convince such a person that that does not happen in the real world. In real life, this people will definitely associate anything that can relate to such stories or dreams with ghosts (Jones and James).
Sometimes, people make conclusions on things they do not know about. They therefore indulge in the fallacy of appeal to ignorance. Some people just hear of stories about what ghosts have done and they go ahead to believe in them because they do not know anything about them.
They therefore engage in this fallacy, as they do not seek to know what is not known to them. In fact, this fallacy is committed by most people with regard to the existence of ghosts. If they had any idea about what ghosts are, they would perhaps not indulge in this. Ghosts do not exist in the living world but rather in the world of the dead; therefore, they can never harm any human being.
The fallacy of appeal to the bandwagon is associated with peer pressure (Billings and White 108). People indulge in this when they believe in something because other people whom they share some similarities do the same. A person’s action should always be based on facts and therefore people should first find out the truth of a matter before deciding to follow multitude.
However, many people fail to recognize this, as they tend to believe in ghosts because their colleagues, friends, or relatives do the same. Peer pressure is very common especially among the adolescents. That is why many of those who claim to have seen ghosts range in this age. A story about an encounter with a ghost told by any young person cannot be refuted by the others.
This is just a story that is told and there is no prove that it happened in reality but all the peers will believe in it. This teenager could even be talking about a dream or an imagination as a result of watching a similar movie.
Mention the word ghost and the people around will start imagining what it can do. They will create a series of events that will occur next and that is the reason as to why many would not like to hear anything about ghosts.
They will imagine people running in all directions, heads being cut off, blood flowing everywhere and finally death. In short, they will start smelling death and hence they engage in the fallacy of slippery slope. Creating such pictures in mind could bring about a lot of psychological trauma but only if one believes that ghosts do really exist.
There is no need of believing in ghosts if one has never actually seen one in reality. Putting in mind that ghosts are there and they can harm human beings will only make someone scared for nothing. This will always keep a person alert and especially while in darkness. A slight movement of an object will send such a person running and screaming for help.
In the process, one can get badly hurt and thus the story will go that it was the ghosts, which hurt him or her. This way, the fallacy of unsupported generalization will have been committed because the people passing the story around cannot prove that it was actually the ghost that hurt such a person. In this world, evil and bad stories spread faster than the good ones.
Therefore, before it gets dark again, everybody will have known that a certain person was attacked by ghosts in a specific place. This will instill fear on people and they will cease walking in that particular place during late hours and even perhaps in day light. Many people do not walk in the dark for fear of being attacked by ghosts, which they have actually never seen but just heard of (Holzer 29).
People who engage in the fallacy of hasty generalization jump into quick conclusions without first having to prove the reality of the matter. This is common to those people who have seen images of ghosts on the media. Seeing things that seem to resemble such images in reality, they assume that they are ghosts. They do this without taking further measures to confirm their instincts. This way, they commit the above-mentioned fallacy.
Ghost movies have contributed a lot in people’s acceptance that ghosts exists and can appear to human beings with the intention of causing harm to them. These kinds of movies are being watched across the world and they really scare people to the verge of not being able to sleep properly. The movies influence on people works just the same way as the ghost’s stories but their impacts are more powerful. This is fostered by the fact that, there are no images seen in the stories but the movie presents clear images of ghosts.
This way, people have been able to imagine how the ghosts look like. Tell people who claim to have seen a ghost to draw one and they will create an exact image of the ones they have seen in the movies (Summer 29). The same case applies to the internet where people can get all sorts of information. Google a picture of a ghost and there it will appear, staring like a real one and that will definitely instill some sort of fear.
The internet provides different sites where by one can get any information of any nature. It is through it that one of the most widely used social media network in the world was established. People and especially the youth are able to post and thus pass different information to a huge number of people through the use of Facebook. All these are contributing factors to the reasons as to why people believe in ghosts.
Ghost stories, ghost movies are not realities and therefore any person who believes in the existence of ghosts because of the two commits the fallacy of invalid analogy. The same case applies to those who conclude the same as a result of seeing related images through Facebook and the internet in general. The fallacy of invalid analogy is committed when arguments are not based on the reality (Billings and White 109).
Almost every human being fears to die and perhaps that is the reason why ghosts are feared so much. Some deaths have been associated with the actions of the ghosts but no one has ever proven the truth of that matter. Scientists support any of their argument with strong evidence and that leaves everyone contended that whatever they claim is very real and true. For example, the force of gravity is proven by the fact that everything that is throw up will definitely come down.
Therefore, those who claim that ghosts do really exist should provide tangible evidence like that. It should be something that everyone can accept without any kind of refutation. People die under unclear circumstances and the rest are left claiming that those were ghosts at work. There is also a common believe that dead people can come back for their loved ones and hence cause them to die (McCormick 48).
As said earlier, there is no connection between the living and the dead; therefore, this cannot be possible. Whoever makes such claims should go ahead and provide enough evidence to prove it. Those who believe that some deaths have been caused by ghosts and fail to provide strong evidence to support their argument, commit the fallacy of misleading evidence.
The fallacy of appeal to fear is committed when people believe in something out of fear (Billings and White 109). According to many people, ghosts do not appear in all places but they are associated with certain places. In most case, they are said to appear in cemeteries or other places where dead people have been buried.
That is the reason as to why many people would never dare to go near a cemetery. Many people believe that, the ghosts wait for the night to fall before they start roaming about. However, others are of the view that they can do it at any given time of the day. Any unusual thing at any burial place will be deemed to be the works of the ghosts while in real sense it could have been done by another living thing.
It has been claimed that ghosts of dead people have been seen sitting or standing on top of their graves but this is yet to be proven. As a result, people fear to go near such places or walk in the darkness for fear of being attacked by the ghosts and hence they engage in the fallacy of appeal for fear.
Works Cited
Billings Simone, and white Fred. The well-crafted argument. Heinle: Cengage. 2012. Print.
Buse Peter and Andrew Stott. Ghosts: Deconstruction, Psychoanalysis History. London: Macmillan, 1998. Print.
Holzer Hans. Ghosts: true encounters with the world beyond. New York: Black Dog & Leventhal, 1997. Print.
In 2003 a crisis hit Hong Kong. It was no ordinary problem because at this time Hong Kong was no longer under the authority of the British government but now under the authority of the Chinese.
There is therefore pressure for both the national government and the local government in Hong Kong to prove to the world that they can effectively deal with this crisis. Now, they have their hands full because the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome or SARS is a disease that has no effective cure and at the same time it is a medical problem that very little is known about.
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to take a closer look at how an organisation handled a crisis of a global proportion while at the same time hampered by the problem of a hostile press and the perils associated with a transition government. This is because Hong Kong was known all over the world as a product of British rule. At the same time many are aware of the history of the Chinese government and the Chinese Communist Party. The mindset that prevails in this discussion is the mindset of a Westerner eager to know how the Chine government is able to maintain or even upgrade the reputation of Hong Kong as a world-class business hub.
Methodology
The cornerstone of the study is the article written by Jennifer Eagleton wherein she described not only the SARS outbreak in Hong Kong in 2003 but also the way the media dealt with the crisis and how it behaved antagonistically against the government. She built her argument using information taken primarily from the South China Morning Post. The proponent of this study will take a closer look at the strengths and weaknesses of her argument using textual evidence as how she came about with her assertions.
Eagleton’s claims will be analysed using information taken from outside sources to see if there is indeed factual basis to what she said. In this regard the proponent of this study analyse data taken from three scientific journals. The first one is from an article written by Ron Fouchier et al., revealing pertinent information concerning SARS.
The second is from Ignatius Yu et al., who said that there is proof of airborne transmission of the SARS virus and this is a crucial piece of information regarding this medical problem. Finally, the third source of information comes from Steven Gordon and David Longworth who explained how difficult it is to control the spread of the said virus.
Findings and Evaluation
The strength of the argument is seen in the simple fact that SARS did not become a killer virus as the SCMP tried to hype it. It can be considered as an epidemic because of the number of people that were killed. It can be described as a deadly virus because of the way it can infect and then render a person weak and then eventually will die from the effect of the disease; however, it did not spread like the epidemic of ancient times that killed millions of people.
This was supported by researchers who said that there were 299 deaths in a population of 6.7 million people (Yu et al., 2004). This is of course an alarming figure. But this is only acceptable if it is viewed with the idea of compartmentalizing Hong Kong and China.
In reality Hong Kong and China are one and therefore there are a billion people but only a relatively small number of deaths. In addition as of May 2003 there were only 435 deaths linked to the SARS virus (Fouchier, 2003). In other words the author was correct when he pointed out the way it was deliberately blown out of proportion.
The author was also able to explain why the media find it easy to blow it out of proportion. On the other hand it must also be clarified that there is a possibility that the overall impact was inadvertent. Granted that the SCMP was prone to sensationalism but it did not intend to hurt Hong Kong. It was just the chain-reaction of events that forced people to see Hong Kong during that three-month long crisis in a negative light. Once the fuse was lit there was no turning back and when it exploded no one was able to repair the damage.
The strength of the argument can also be seen in how the author was able to pinpoint the relevant circumstances that fired up the intense backlash against Hong Kong. First of all the SARS outbreak occurred during the time when Hong Kong was yet to prove that it can function in the same level of efficiency and brilliance when it was yet under the British government. Now that Hong Kong was back under the umbrella of the Chinese government there was intense pressure with the local leadership in Hong Kong to prove that they were up to the task.
This is the reason why they have to downplay the effect of the SARS and the reports that says the government was unable to effectively deal with the situation. There was so much at stake not to mention that their reputation and the success of the famous port city hung in the balance. This is why local officials wanted to resolve the problem as quickly and as efficiently as possible.
They tried everything that they could but it is almost impossible to give ones best under a pressure-packed situation. This is not only related to the deaths and potential for the virus to spread to large portions of the population but also by embarrassment of the connotation that the term SARS came to mean to Hong Kong residents, the Chinese government, the Chinese people and all those who are knowledgeable about what was going on in the region.
This has something to do with how the World Health Organization came to label the virus. It was not meant to embarrass the Hong Kong administrators or even the Chinese government but interestingly the WHO chose to name the virus as SARS. It is a name that is hard to miss because Hong Kong, after it was turned over to China was labelled as a special administrative region or SAR.
As a result the government tried to erect the facade of calm and effective management and administration of their jurisdiction but this strategy backfired when hundreds of people became sick. There were many who bitterly complained that if they were not led to believe that everything was under control then they would not have gone to the hospital.
This is because SARS was thought to be an airborne contagion. The decision to contain the damage was viewed as a means to cover up their incompetence and so many were livid when they felt that they were kept in the dark regarding the SARS outbreak.
The pressure is not only borne of the fact that the Hong Kong government tried its best to show the world that it is capable of steering Hong Kong into the New Millennium under new management but also by the fact that no one knew exactly what they were dealing with. In other words Hong Kong officials cannot talk about something that they are ignorant about. But this ignorance was equated to incompetence when it was supposed to be understood from a different angle.
All concerned should have understood SARS as mutated virus and therefore it could not be understood and could not be defeated using conventional means. If it is true that SARS is a deadlier version of the common colds then that is another level of problem that has to be dealt with because there is no cure for common colds. Nevertheless, the government should have handled it with the transparency demanded by the people.
The weakness of the argument is that the author was unable to establish if things can be done differently. It does not matter if what the author was saying is true or not, the most important thing is to demonstrate that the Hong Kong media could have done a better job but refused to do so.
A through reading of the article will give the impression that the Hong Kong media reacted in the only way they know how and that is to report newsworthy topics and let it go through the process to solicit the greatest impact. This means that they were not doing merely to appear sensational but they were forced to do it in order for the government and concerned individuals to listen to what they have to say.
Their paranoia is justified if one will consider what scientists were claiming regarding SARS. One report says that SARS is a health worker’s worst nightmare (Gordon and Longworth, 2003).
This is because SARS has “non-specific signs and symptoms, no early diagnostic test, no specific treatment, and no vaccine forthcoming in the foreseeable future because the rate of mutation makes the SARS coronavirus a moving target” (Gordon & Longworth, 2003, p.889). If this is the case then the press, especially SCMP has a valid reason why they acted that way.
Practical Implications
This study is important because it shows how a government handled pressure coming from its own citizens and the media. The study revealed that the Hong Kong government tried to downplay the impact of SARS because it tried to demonstrate to the world that everything is under control.
This is a good case study when it comes to understanding the extent of how an organisation or in this case a government will do to improve its image especially if a particular issue has the potential to negatively affect its reputation in the long run.
At the same time this study is helpful in understanding how new media and the press are sometimes constrained to use hyperbolae and hype not for the sake of creating controversies but to force an immovable object to move. In this case there is ample evidence to show that the Chinese government in conjunction with the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region tried to downplay the effect of a deadly virus.
Conclusion
The SCMP may have erred in trying to create hype when it comes to the reporting of the SARS outbreak in Hong Kong. It was not entirely its fault because the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region and the Chinese government tried to downplay the impact of the SARS virus.
In the end Hong Kong officials were justified with their decision to do everything not to cause panic and not to affect businesses operating within Hong Kong but at the same time the press had no recourse but to use everything that they have to force the government into action.
This study shows that the government must try to be transparent especially when it comes to cases dealing with a deadly virus as difficult to control as SARS.
References
Eagleton, Jennifer. (2004). SARS: It’s as Bad as we Feared but Dared not Say: Naming,
Managing and Dramatizing the SARS crisis in Hong Kong. English Today 77 Cambridge University Press 20(1): 34-45.
Fouchier, R. (2003). Aetiology: Koch’s Postulates Fulfilled for SARS virus. Nature 240: 423-440.
Gordon, S. & D. Longworth. (2003). SARS: Here to Stay? Cleveland Clinic Journal of Medicine. 70(10): 889-895.
Yu, I. (2004) Evidence of Airborne Transmission of the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Virus. The New England Journal of Medicine. 350: 1731-1739.
Becoming rich is a function of the ability of an individual to create wealth based on the inevitable role of apt decision-making in accounting and finance. Wealth creation embraces the capacity to develop entrepreneurial culture (Reynolds 2010, p.61: Scott 2003, p.21: Zoltan & Audretsch 2010, p.110). Even though fear of encountering losses or even the overall fall of an established entrepreneurial venture is a catalyst of deterioration of an entrepreneurial culture, entrepreneurs take well-calculated financial risks. Greene and 50 Cent summarise the philosophy of fear and entrepreneurial success by asserting, “Your fears are a kind of prison that confines you within a limited range of actions” (2009, p.x). This assertion implies that the less one fears the repercussion of taking a well-thought decision, the more powerful one becomes in channeling all efforts towards making an idea a success (Gaglio & Katz 2001, p.100). From this perspective, this dissertation paper seeks to evaluate the significance of the claim that ‘fighting fear when making accounting and finance decisions is the only secret for becoming rich from the paradigms of the development of entrepreneurial culture. The evaluation is done by proposing research to determine the relationship between fear and success in entrepreneurial ventures as one of the means of wealth generation.
Problem Statement
The aim of the proposed research is to determine how fear of risks may affect the decisions taken in accounting and finance and in turn the development of an entrepreneurial culture in people. This research is conducted based on the argument that the wealth of nations is created through investment in manufacturing and offering services and other activities driven by profit-making motives (Sutherland 2008, p.205). My experience that prompted the decision to conduct this research is that, in an accounting context, the wealth of an organization increases in case the present value of money increases in some future time. This means that a multiplying factor of the present amount of money is necessary if a nation or an individual is to get rich. In fact, this is the point raised by Greene in his 48 Laws of Power when he says, “Make other people come to you, use bait if necessary” (2000, p.5). While attempting to increase the present amount of money held by individuals through the multiplying effect, people engage in entrepreneurial and other investments including stock exchanges and investment in bonds among other forms of investments. All these forms of investment involve financial risks. The worst scenario of risks is where an investor loses all his or her invested money. Therefore, in the effort to become rich, all investors make their investment decisions with some fear. The problem is that allowing fear to dominate the investment-making decision amounts to a decision not to invest at all. Accounting and finance in organizations is the most crucial function in an organization that is affected by fear. It is therefore important to carry out the study.
Objectives of Research
The objectives of research define the particular aims of a study (Haynes, 2006, p.882). In an attempt to lay a theoretical paradigm of predicting the relationship between fear and richness, the proposed research focuses on two main objectives: to
Endeavor to show that wealth is created through earning but not saving
Determine the relationship between fear, saving, and engagement in earning activities such as venturing into entrepreneurship.
To evaluate the effects of fear when making accounting and finance decisions in entrepreneurship.
Hypotheses
Every credible research needs to have a statement of the hypothesis. Hypothesis refers to “the statement created by researchers when they consider the outcome of a research” (Shuttleworth 2008, Para. 1). Based on this definition, in the current research dissertation paper, it is hypothesized that fear is directly correlated with non-engagement in entrepreneurial ventures and or long-term investments, which have high degrees of uncertainty. There exists a relationship between fear and poor financial decisions in entrepreneurship.
Research Question
In the effort to prove or disapprove the hypothesis in the attempt to determine the relationship between fear and becoming rich, this research paper grapples with two main questions:
Should people make a decision to re-invest having lost in a prior entrepreneurial venture?
To what extent should people take risks in an entrepreneurial venture that they perceive would make them rich?
Is fear a factor while making accounting and finance decisions in entrepreneurship?
Literature Review
Entrepreneurship is one of the mechanisms that are deployed by many young people in the 21st century to create wealth. Most of these people are highly qualified academically and hence employable based on their capacity to make decisions to venture in entrepreneurial activities (Chapman & Hyland 2004, p.55: Wang ＆Wongm 2004, p.164). Apparently, according to Ciavarella et al, global organizations such as Microsoft, Google, Dell, and others all originate from entrepreneurial inventions (2004, p.471). This revelation suggests that the creators of these organizations had to overcome fears associated with the likelihood of failure of their decisions to implement their ideas coupled with the fear of financial insecurity attributed to engagement in activities that are income-insecure. Surprisingly, the inventors of Dell, Microsoft, and Google did not know that their unarticulated inventions would turn out big global corporations (Carter et al. 2003, p.22).
In entrepreneurship, fear is an enormous impediment to success in strategic missions of ensuring that organizations created through engagement in risky investments act as wealth generators (Hult, Snow & Kandemir 2003, p.403: Ozgen 2003, p.7) because any stimuli that create fears pose higher likelihoods of attracting the attention of an entrepreneur compared to a situation that would help in making the entrepreneur rich. In the same line of argument, Greene and 50 Cent assert, “in the evolution of fear, a decisive moment occurred in the ninetieth century when people in the advertising and journalism sector discovered that, if they framed their stories and appeals with fear, they could capture people’s attention” (2009, p.4). This is what happens when the word entrepreneurship is mentioned. People develop the fear that venturing in entrepreneurship is a decision to accept the loss (Vokalo 2000, p.815: Yamada 2004, p.289). Therefore, hardly do non-entrepreneurial people look at it from the dimensions that entrepreneurship provides an opportunity for one to get rich quickly with fear of loss notwithstanding. It is this narrow perception of entrepreneurship that makes people prefer formal employment to self-employment. Indeed, Brown and Eisenhardt (2001) define corporate entrepreneurship as “activities that can lead firms to innovate, take the risk, and seize the opportunity in its markets” (p.344). The authors further argue that innovation entangles taking risky decisions to create new products and services since, at the innovation level, the innovator is not sure whether the products and or services will have a market appeal. They state that accounting and finance as an important pillar of entrepreneurship may be affected by the fear of decision-making. This situation creates fear that the innovator needs to overcome in order to progress with his or her idea to completion (Shane 2000, p.449: Rogers 2005, p.43). Arguably, the motive of engagement in corporate entrepreneurship is to “increase competitiveness through efforts aimed at the rejuvenation, renewal, and redefinition of organizations, their markets, or industries” (Covin & Miles 2009, p. 50). This requires a sound accounting and finance department that is devoid of fear having a goal-oriented organizational culture where risk-taking is a rule. It is also crucial to note that, in the effort to increase competitiveness coupled with seeking greater markets for a business establishment, products and services expenses are encountered without the assurance that they would be recovered. The corporation that attempts to market and invest in other mechanisms of enhancing its competitiveness has the merit of generating more money should the marketing efforts yield success in the placement of the organization’s products and or services (Sharman 2003, p.4: Palmrose, Richardson & Scholz 2004, p.63: Fields et al. 2001, p.271). This implies that the corporations that fear to commit their money and other resources to create more wealth through marketing, accounting and finance have no chances of generating more wealth at all. This argument provides substantive grounds for making Greene and 50 Cent’s argument that fear is the only impediment to gaining the power to be significant (p.112). Most of the studies reviewed indicated that fear in entrepreneurship especially in matters of finance is a factor in the success or failure of a company (Davidsson 2006, p.42: Cox & Taylor 2006, p.122: Etzkowitz & Zhou 2008, p.628). This case hinders entrepreneurial culture from flourishing. Hence, fear has the impact of making calls for retreating and retrenching (De Bettignies & Brander 2007, p.824).
The success of entrepreneurship as one of the ways of becoming rich at an individual level cannot operate in an environment denominated by the fear of failure. In fact, entrepreneurship acts as one of the key drivers of market-oriented nations (Gnyawali & Fogel 2000, p.53: Grundsten 2004, p.16: Haber & Reichel 2007, p.120). To this end, Blaug asserts, “Whereas neoclassical economists have dismissed entrepreneurial activity due to the dominance of general equilibrium analysis, economists outside the mainstream demonstrate how crucial entrepreneurs are to sustaining a dynamic market under appropriate institutional conditions” (2002, p.218). Bird (2001) agrees with this argument by adding that entrepreneurial ventures only emerge due to careful thoughts coupled with actions (p.64). When fear acts to impair the freedom of thought, actions, which are guided by thoughts, suffer flaws. Indeed, some of the things that people fear such as losses cannot be avoided in some situations. Consequently, people “have to find way to overcome fear, or suffer real consequences” (Greene and 50 Cent 2009, p.111).
For success in any endeavor for wealth generation, people seeking to do so need to have a number of characteristics. Gaglio and Katz (2001) exemplify this trait by conducting a study on the significance of confidence and discipline in the success of an entrepreneurial venture (p.97). From the context of discipline, entrepreneurs remain focused on the noble goal of making their ventures succeed in all ways possible. They also endeavor to “eliminate hindrances or distractions to their goals” (Marlow & Patton 2005, p.727).This task can only be done by courageous and fearless people. Indeed, Jyothi reckons that successful entrepreneurs are disciplined enough to take steps every day towards the achievement of their objectives” (2009, p.41). To do this, a bold and fearless decision-making process is required. “Ideas are constantly being generated about workflows and efficiency, people’s skills and potential new businesses” (Marlow & Patton 2005, p.727). All these assertions present opportunities for generating money for both individuals and organizations.
Businesses are risky to manage. Most of the successful ones have to overcome the fear of making decisions. Arguably, therefore, entrepreneurship is a culture shared by people who take decisive actions that would make them rich. Savaya, Spiro, and Elran-Barak (2008) confirm and evidence this argument by claiming, “clusters of entrepreneurs occur at certain times and places because the social and economic environment at those times and in those places encourages entrepreneurship” (p.490). This point implies that entrepreneurs are self-starters. Therefore, they do not mind whether somebody else had invested earlier in the effort to establish a way of benchmarking. Their main objective is to “set the parameters to make sure that projects follow the path” (Savaya, Spiro & Elran-Barak, 2008, p.490). Entrepreneurs do not ask questions on whether their new business ventures would succeed. Rather, they are normally confident that their knowledge would make the new business succeed. Therefore, never at any time do entrepreneurs develop the fear of failure. Apparently, this is perhaps why entrepreneurs have emerged also as the richest people in the world with their otherwise minute business establishments turning out to have a global feel. In this context, fear is the only impediment to becoming rich. However, this inference lacks a backup of quantitative research evidence. The proposed research endeavors to seal this gap.
Research Methodology
The proposed research is both quantitative and qualitative in nature. Therefore, both numerical and qualitative data will be collected, which will help to determine the relationship and or correlation between fear and success of entrepreneurial ventures upon its analysis. The nature and the type of data used in the proposed research make it descriptive. Fear and growth are the two main variables deployed by the proposed study. Unfortunately, fear cannot be measured quantitatively. However, in the proposed research, it will be expressed in terms of the number of people who engage in entrepreneurship within a given geographical area from, which the data is been collected. Success is measured by the rate of growth of entrepreneurial ventures every year within the last period of five years by evaluating the success of the accounting and finance departments in these organizations. This information is generated from the studied venture assets and cash flow records.
Research Design
The proposed research is designed to be primary research. Surveys coupled with the administration of questionnaires will be utilized as the main methods of data collection. The analysis of the growth of the entrepreneurial venture will be represented in the form of percentage with respect to a base year. This base year is the first year in the last period of five years. The research will study 200 small and medium entrepreneurial ventures. To make the research representative across all industries, a simple sampling technique is used to identify SMEs operating both in the service and production sectors. Simple sampling is selected since it consumes lesser financial resources in comparison with some of the other sampling techniques. Where qualitative data is required, the research proposes the codification of the data. This case is reflected in the questionnaires, which are accompanied by multiple choices. Once data is collected, regression analysis will be conducted to determine correlation and relationships.
Conclusion
In the 21st century, the most successful organizations are the ones, which are fuelled by innovation and creativity as the main mechanisms of enhancing their competitiveness (Yamada 2004, p.289). Additionally, at an individual level, likelihoods exist that people who are likely to make billions of dollars within their lifespan are the ones who venture into entrepreneurship besides being innovative and creative. The main fear when starting or running an entrepreneurial venture is the making of accounting and finance decisions that will lead to the imminent collapse of the company. However, this research is important in the sense that it will help to lay theoretical paradigms of how fear may impact the growth and development of a culture of entrepreneurship as a substantive vessel for becoming rich. Nevertheless, in realizing this significance, the research has some limitations. One of the most conspicuous limitations is the inability to measure fear quantitatively. Fear is also a behavioral characteristic as opposed to technical characteristics that can be taught formally to people seeking to explore entrepreneurship. This limitation is delimitated by designing the proposed research to have both qualitative and quantitative research deliverables.
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The art of cinema is comparatively new to the mankind, its history dating back to the twentieth century. Despite cinema’s obvious youth, the pace at which it is developing is truly amazing. With its specific ability to speak to the audience directly, it has the most efficient influence on the people, in contrast to literature and the rest of the arts.
However, the issues suggested by filmmakers can be contradicting and suggesting the ideas which are hard to chew from the start. Such is the series called Torchwood, with the ideas which they speak about very inspiring, yet suggesting quite hard food fro thoughts. In one of its episodes, Children of Earth, the filmmakers exercise the ideas of egoism and altruism as an integral part of human’s character, adding the issue of deontology to the range of the qualities of a man, as the only possible compromise between the two contesting notions.
The Aspect of Altruism: Putting Your Shirt on It
Whenever one talks about altruism, it is presumed that the notion is taken as the most positive pattern for all people to follow and adhere to. With the interpretation which the movie suggests, altruism obtains another shade of meaning, which features people’s responsiveness for what is happening, altruism being the highest grade of admitting one’s fault or duty.
In the traditions of the Marvel comic strips, the movie features the hero who is willing to become a martyr in order to save the Earth from the danger of being consumed by an alien race.
Rather childish and naïve, the story touches the deepest of the audience’s soul, rendering the heartstrings long forgotten by the adult public, and making people feel that there is still something virtuous about the human nature. Understanding that the qualities of a man’s character which are the three pillars of the world and justice are still there in the secret shelter of their hearts, people start perceiving the film as one more reminder of the best of a man.
They are given the picture of the savior who is about to come to the rescue without fearing to perish in the fight, with his long odds which do not leave him the chance to stay alive in the struggle. Next to the image of a hero, three is the world of people shown in the most despiteful way, the remainders of the past peaceful life scattered across the ruins:
“We are shown a bleak, ugly world where there is no hope and savior. Therefore we carve one.” (Ireland 20)
An Egoist’s Point of View: Mine, Mine, Mine!
However, the most touching scenes of he episode also unlock the ideas which lead to the understanding of the nature of egoism. The episode shows the heroes as the only saviors of the world, which adds certain drama and pathos to the movie, yet creates the grounds on which the egoistic features of the lead characters are forming. In the attempt to sacrifice everything what they own, including their own lives, the lead characters cannot but be posed as the martyrs who take the death penalty passed by the fate as the people without a sin. They become heroes in the very sense of the word, half gods, to the amazed public. The Earth dwellers start worshipping them as the rescuers, which has a certain negative effect on the moral qualities of the characters. Indeed, the temptation is too hard to resist, since the image of the martyr has always been considered as one of the most attractive by a number of adults, not to mention the impressionable and sensitive teenagers.
Thus, forming the grounds for the egoistic feelings to flourish, the movie proves to have a certain negative effect on the audience.
This immortality does tend to feed Jack’s superiority complex. He often remains austere and arrogant, separating himself from the crowd and from the joviality that permeates the offices at torchwood headquarters. (Ireland 84)
However, instead of claiming that people who are possessed by egoism as the craving for a better environment and a better life are vicious and do not deserve being called decent and righteous, it is better to fathom the essence of egoism. Ad every philosophic notion, it is supposed to be a double-sided sword, with a sudden positive effect to prove through the thick of the negative features of the phenomenon.
It is quite clear that egoism is a part of a man, and thus it is rather unreasonable to deny one’s own piece of soul. It would be wiser to consider what this piece grants the person with.
However hard it is to admit, it is evident that accepting gratitude without a wink of one’s eye is considered the most vivid manifestation of egoism in the modern world. Thus, a humble acceptance of the thankful words and even the refusal to accept the latter is supposed to be the most natural behavior.
Whereas humble behavior of the kind is supposed to be the model to follow, what the characters of Children of Earth show is claimed to be a double-dyed egoism. Taking no consideration of the specific features of a human’s nature, righteous people make the same mistake of demanding too much of mere mortals.
Deontology: the Golden Mean, or the Road Paved with Good Intentions
Taking into consideration the fact that the idea of deontology means first of all the golden mean between the notions of egoism and altruism, it is quite understood that the moralizing element of the movie is still present, despite all prohibitions and numerous critical reviews. Like any movie based on a Marvel-like comic strips, it could not escape the omnipresent morality, which can be seen quite clearly form the ways the story unwinds.
Since the very notion of deontology represents a sufficient food for thoughts itself, it is necessary to remind that it is partially resulting from the embracement which gratitude sends to people (Seglow 3). Though such reaction is rather weird from the logical point of view, it is a part of a man’s psychological features, and the numerous explanations for this phenomenon cannot give the full picture of what is happening in a man’ soul as he or she accepts the tokens of gratitude addressed:
Deontology, consequentialism, contractarianism and virtue ethics all have trouble with gratitude. The reason why gratitude is an “embarrassment“ to ethical theory stems from the way these traditional approaches neglect the centrality of contribution (Seglow 3)
With such approach, it is no wonder that people take gratitude with a mixed feeling of pleasure and embarrassment, as if they have been praised for a worthless thing or as if they have been accused of something shameful. Such is a man’s nature that he or she both desires and fears to be praised. Sacrifice is considered as a normal and logical path of behavior in the modern society, though, taking a good consideration on the history of a man’s development it becomes clear that sacrifice has been established as virtue not so long ago.
The history shows that it is more apt to a man to behave according to the law of jungle, than to act in favor of trained for the dangers of life in a less advanced way. Thus, it is reasonable to suggest that the movie gives a good example of what such people’s traits as egoism and altruism can lead to, once they have been too exaggerated. Indeed, the filmmakers have suggested a good lesson for the audience to learn.
Works Cited
Ireland, Andrew. Illuminating Torchwood: Essays on Narrative, Character and Sexuality in the BBC Series. Jefferson, BC: McFarland & Company, 2010. Print.
Seglow, Jonathan. The Ethics of Altruism. New York, NY: Taylor & Francis, 2004. Print.
However talented a person can be, it is important for a mere mortal to embrace the whole epoch. Even though the period under the discussion might have lasted for several years, one cannot shed the light on every single event that triggered the preset state of affairs. The question is whether a man observes the epoch that has passed from the point of view of a single man who has witnessed this epoch. And it is even more doubtful because of the fact that the man spoken about is a character of a film.
A well-known, scandalous and talented film director Robert Polanski has managed to create a string of pearls that can be considered as cinematographic perfection, with his unusual approach and the means that he makes the audience face the reality the way it is.
Among them, there is the film called The Pianist, a winner of the Palme d’Or on the Cannes Festival and the movie that has raised a great stir among the audience, them regarding the film either as the masterpiece of all times which is worth all the works of Polanski taken altogether, while the others rejected the movie just as heatedly as the former admired it.
The reasons for such welcome were, probably, that the film director had looked too deep either in the history of the World War II, or into a man’s soul. Since the topics that touched upon the mistreatment of the Jews and anti-Semitism have always been an uneasy subject to discuss, it can be said that Polanski has cut the society to the quick. The atmosphere of hatred and suffering that the war was shot through made the film even more expressive, shocking and true.
Whatever the opponents say, it must be noticed that Polanski has managed to show the tragedy of the Jewish people during the World War II in full with help of the little tragedies that occurred during the sorrow that gripped the whole world. Because of the controversy of the subject, the author is trying to convey his ideas with help of the certain people, not aiming at gripping the whole lot of events that occurred during the World War II.
Since Polanski had chosen the subject of the fate of the Jews during the war, he meant to shift the plot from the common scenes to something more concrete and certain. Thus, the director decided to explore the clash of pure talent and cruel principles that governed on the battlefield, along with the Germans mistreating the Jews, trying to wipe them from the face of the Earth.
Polanski is trying to show that in spite of the cruelty that was reigning in the times of the World War, there was still some room in people’s hearts for sympathy and understanding. Understanding all the blasphemy of what he was going to depict in his film, Polanski makes the German, the Nazi who was supposed to have no heart and no mercy for the people who think unlike him, the one to save the Jewish – just think about this fact, which makes the whole situation twice as miraculous! – pianist.
It is a well-known fact that the Jews were taken as the prior enemies of the Nazi. They were killed in the cruelest way, and those that were left alive were herded into ghettoes where they lived what could not be called a life. With numerous prohibitions, fines and penalties that were imposed on those who dared to break the rules, it was worse than death.
Wladyslaw Szpilman: It’s an official decree, no Jews allowed in the parks. Dorota: What, are you joking? Wladyslaw Szpilman: No, I’m not. I would suggest we sit down on a bench, but that’s also an official decree, no Jews allowed on benches. Dorota: This is absurd. Wladyslaw Szpilman: So, we should just stand here and talk, I don’t think we’re not allowed to do that.
(The Pianist)
Such was the ideology of the Nazi and the rules which it dictated that the misery of being a Jew during the World War II was more than simply unbearable – it was an ordeal that made people submissive and filled with fear. Their hopes broken, they could not find any way out.
The only ray of hope is that there is still some mercy in the hearts of the people who have been trained to kill for all these years. As the lead character of the film, Wladyslaw Szpilman, encounters the German soldier who intents to kill him and is suddenly captured by the talent of the Polish pianist.
Some critics might say that the story sounds like a fairy-tale for adults, since it is well-known that Nazi were not subjected to a lot of sentiments about the culture and the talents of the oppressed nations. Yet Polanski is exercising the ideas of humanism as the ones that can appear within any kind of a person, either a Nazi or a Communist, or a Democrat.
The three pillars that the humanity is based on are the principles of mercy and sympathy, which are integral parts of every single man, despite his or her political or religious beliefs. The idea that the Nazi could have the feeling for the beauty was sudden and striking to the society; being under the impression of the terror that took place during the World War, people could not accept such understanding of the Germans of 1940ies.
Captain Wilm Hosenfeld: What is your name? So I can listen for you. Wladyslaw Szpilman: My name is Szpilman. Captain Wilm Hosenfeld: Spielmann? That is a good name, for a pianist.
(The Pianist)
The unbelievable dialogue opens the hearts of the public to the new understanding of what the people that were fighting in the war were like, and what it was like to be an aggressor and a victim.
The reasons for the soldiers to stay cold to the pleas of mercy of the oppressed people could be different, yet the violence that was underlying each step of the German soldiers is undeniable. However many explanations of why they did the things that terrified the people around, the fact that the Germans were not the people to beg forgiveness from was evident.
In contrast to his more cool-blooded – or, should I better say, blood-thirsty? – compatriots, Hosenfeld subdues to the charming music that the genius plays and understands that killing such a man would be equal to killing the very art. Thus, the German officer decides to make a very dangerous step, saving the man whose talent he admires.
This could seem impossible in the circumstances of the terror and the violence that was reigning around, but if one takes a closer look at the scene, it becomes quite possible. Polanski simply wanted to show that however far a man goes, he will always stay a man, with the peculiarities and weird features of his, and with the passions that cannot be wiped out by the war and even death.
Wladyslaw Szpilman: I don’t know how to thank you. Captain Wilm Hosenfeld: Thank God, not me. He wants us to survive. Well, that’s what we have to believe.
(The Pianist)
Hosenfeld is intentionally trying to be rude to hide the sentimental feelings of his, so out-of-place when the war is going on. Still it can be noticed that the art of the pianist has awoken his soul, and he is getting used to the new feeling. The music has a magic effect on him, opening his heart to the humane feelings.
The most touching and brilliantly shot, The Pianist is on of those films that remind of the life values that must not be forgotten. Being humane when the world demands that a man should forget about mercy is what makes a human. Polanski has managed to show it artfully, and people must not forget about the lesson that they have been taught.
Works Cited
The Pianist. Dir. Robert Polanski. Perf. Adrien Brody, Thomas Kretschmann, Frank Finlay, Maureen Lipman, Emilia Fox, Michal Zebrowski. Babelsberg, 2001. Film.
For this paper I decided to choose the film by Terry Gilliam called “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas”. I picked this movie because I have never watched it before and because I have heard a lot about it from my friends. The fame of Johnny Depp these days makes all movies with him highly popular. Besides, never fading curiosity towards movies and TV shows that describe themes related to drug abuse and dependency makes “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas” one of the most watched films.
Right in the beginning of the film the narrator enumerates all the drugs that are going to be highlighted in the movie plot. They are grass, mescaline, acid, cocaine, diethyl ether and alcohol. It is also very noticeable that Johnny Depp’s character is never seen without a cigarette in his mouth. The drugs presented in “Fear and loathing in Las Vegas” are of various types, cigarettes and alcohol are legal, grass is legal only in some countries, and the rest of the drugs are illegal everywhere in the world.
The drugs shown in the film are psychoactive or psychotropic. They are chemicals that influence central nervous system and cause changes in behavior, cognition and perception. In the movie both main characters, Duke and Gonzo, often hallucinate and say ridiculous things that make no sense, their perception of the world around turns into a psychedelic fairytale with no logic or common sense.
The narrator of the movie mentions, that “there is nothing in the world more helpless and irresponsible than a man in the depths of an ether binge” (Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas). In the end of the movie the main characters simply end their trip to Vegas, and continue moving their own separate ways. The main idea of the film is showing what kind of mayhem starts in a human head when the brain gets under the influence of psychotropic drugs.
However, the use of drugs influences not only the two characters, who are abusing them; the impact from drugs spreads to other people. The hitchhiker Duke and Gonzo pick up on the way to Vegas runs away after hearing about their plans for the trip. Being under the influence of drugs Duke fires his photographer Lacerda.
Lucy from the plane is secretly fed LSD by Gonzo. The characters do not pay the huge hotel bills and they turn the nice looking suites into complete ruin. All of the drugs Duke and Gonzo take in the film are still a problem these days. People affected by psychotropic substances commit crimes of all kinds, destroy their own health and mentality, besides, black markets and illegal drug trafficking are big political, economical and social issues in most countries of the world.
My personal impression from “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas” is negative. After I have finished watching it I felt like I have spent one hundred and eighteen minutes of my life in a drunken head of a drug addict watching his hallucinations and observing his destructive lifestyle.
I think movies of this kind can be dangerous for the younger generations as drug abuse is shown as entertaining occupation filled with fun that can easily be obtained as a lifestyle without bringing any bad consequences. This movie has encouraged me to keep away from watching films involving scenes of drug abuse.
Works Cited
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. (1998). No awards. Cast: Johnny Depp, Benicio Del Toro, Tobey Maguire, Ellen Barkin, Christina Ricci, Cameron Diaz.