Gaddafi Essay Example for Free

Gaddafi Essay The person that I chose to represent Machiavellis ideas is Muammar Gaddafi. He is the longest serving head of state in the world next to Queen Elizabeth II. He is known for his controversial political strategy and his very unusual personality. Gaddafi is easily spotted in animal skins and colorful clothing. His name regularly pops up on lists of the worst dressed world leaders. Ronald Regan named him the Mad Dog of the Middle East. Muammar Gaddafis reputation ranges from a popular revolutionary to an international reject. Gaddafi graduated from the University of Libya then continued to pursue a British military education. While in Great Britain he began to devise a plan to overthrow the Libyan monarchy. In 1969, Libyan King Idris was overthrown by a small group of Gaddafis Junior military leaders. A year later, being inspired by Egyptian President Gamal Nasser, he decided to close US and British military bases and expel all Italians and Jews. While trying to enforce Islamic socialism, he banned alcoholic beverages and gambling and failed at trying to unite Libya with other countries. By the mid-1980s, he was widely regarded in the West as the principal financier of international terrorism. He was also accused by the United States of being responsible for direct control of the 1986 Berlin discotheque that killed three people and wounded more than 200, of whom a substantial number were U. S. servicemen. Gaddafis adopted daughter was killed in a bombing of Libya that was retaliation for the U. S. After that two Libyans were accused of placing a bomb on Pan Am Flight 103, which exploded and killed 270 people, Gaddafi refused to give up the suspects to America or Britain. Gaddafi finally admitted responsibility for the attack in 2003 and paid more than $2. 7 billion to the families of the victims, initiating the end of Libyas international isolation. Now in Machiavellis The Qualities ofa Prince the very first paragraph talks about how everything dealing with the government is viewed through a military lens. Machiavelli doesnt believe that the prince is a man who is skilled in many disciplines, but he believes that the prince should own a responsibility to make sure that whatever he governs is stable. Gaddafi took responsibility for Libya by creating his own form of government called Jamahiriya, in which the nation is governed by the masses or local councils and he defended his government by saying, There is no state with a democracy except Libya n the whole planet. Machiavelli also raises the question whether it is better to be loved than to be feared. In the twelfth paragraph he states l say that every prince must desire to be considered merciful and not cruel; nevertheless, he must take care not to misuse this mercy. It is said that Gaddafis examples and thoughts inspire the struggling troubled masses and haunts the ones doin g the trouble. This is why he is loved by people of the world, but feared by the ruling cliques who know that his words and actions expose them for what they are.

Essay from Things They Carried- Spin Assignment :: essays research papers

Spin Assignment Wrestling; a sport for only the top athletes, contenders if you will. We struggle through the hardest of physical, mental and emotional beatings. I could give every detail of every match I have ever wrestled in, from match score, to the people around me, to what I could have done to make it better. You remember everything about the sport. I remember doing the same thing for four years straight before every match. When I was younger my father taught me prayers to recite every night. Before every match I go directly behind the mat, by myself, and say my prayers.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  I remember knowing what needed to be done to make weight. Making weight is the first struggle of the sport. It’s a challenge to yourself before you can even compete, and not an easy task at that. Rubber suits, water pills, boiler rooms, jump ropes, sweats, all triggers to the memories of those long hours sweating off that last pound just to make weight for the match the next day. At the end of the night, I can recall having to wring out shirts just to take some sweat off of it so that it wouldn’t soak my sports bag. You remember how good ordinary things taste extraordinary after you weigh-in before the match and are allowed to eat again. Every average piece of food you eat tastes like a slice of heaven.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  There is a time before the match starts that they introduce the line-ups for the respected teams. One team is in weight order on one side of the mat and the other team is on the other side of the mat. They will announce the specific weight and call out each wrestler from the team to meet in the center of the mat and shake hands. This isn’t just a chance to meet; this is a chance to size him up. This doesn’t seem like much, but just by the way this happens you can tell what kind of opponent you are up against. The way he runs out or casually walks out, lets you know how excited or nervous or confident he is, the way he shakes your hand, with a tight grip a casual slap or barely even touches lets you know how he thinks his chances are in the match, and of course the most important aspect of this is the eye contact made.

Efe Matrix

External Audit The external audit is an effective way for Ford to locate areas that their company can improve. These areas are called opportunities and threats. In order to create an external audit, Ford will need to look at several key external forces that play an important role in the company’s future. Ford will need to look for forces that include: Economic Forces, Social, Cultural, and Demographic Forces, Political, Governmental, and Legal Forces, Technological Forces, and Competitive Forces.Once these forces have been located, they will be placed into a category of opportunity, which will help the Ford, or it will be placed in the Threats category, which can hurt Ford. Opportunities Companies should always capitalize on opportunities because they are the forces that will help the company obtain more revenue, or increase their industry market share. Opportunities are the positive external forces that Ford will need to develop strategies in order to continue the companyâ₠¬â„¢s success. Below are the opportunities Ford needs to capitalize. Refusing Bailout MoneyWhen the economy took a down turn many companies started having cash flow problems. Several automakers like General Motors and Chrystal, took bailout money in 2008 from the United States government in order to keep their company from financial ruin. These companies took 24. 9 billion dollars in bailout money. Ford was the only American automaker that did not take money from the government in order to combat the worst sales downturn in recent years. Industry Shifts towards Hybrids and Small Vehicles With gas prices sky rocketing, consumers are looking for more fuel efficient vehicles and cars the run on electric instead of fuel.Ford has heard consumer concerns and has been improving their cars fuel efficiency. Ford now has several hybrid cars, like the Fusion, and SUVs. Along with smaller more fuel efficient cars like the Focus with 28 MPG in the city and 20 MPG on the highway. Toyota’s 4. 4 Billion Dollar Loss One of Ford biggest competitors Toyota seemed unstoppable until the company began having major issues with one of their most popular cars the Prius. The problems with the Prius and the economic downturn caused Toyota to reported their first every net loss of 4. 4 billion dollars in 2009.Toyota also warned that might fall deeper into debt in 2010. Ford and BP Join Forces to Produce Hydrogen In 2004, BP and Ford joined forces to try and bring the United States closer to having a hydrogen economy. In order to accomplish this task Ford will be building 30 hydrogen-powered Focus Fuel-Cell Vehicles. The vehicles will be split between three cities, and BP will be building hydrogen fueling centers to help evaluate the cars each time they refuel. Ford and BP continue working to improve this technology. There is talk of having hydrogen cars available to consumers in three years. 010 Fusion Sets Records for the 5th Month Ford’s Fusion car has been their top sell ing vehicle since its introduction in 2006. The Fusion continues to improve with options of the hybrid model. The vehicle has received awards like the Most Reliable Family Car –from independent reliability and owner satisfaction survey data, Most Dependable Midsize Car – J. D. Power and Associates, Motor Trend’s 2010 Car of the Year – a highly coveted industry accolade, and the 2010 North American Car of the Year – awarded by a jury of top automotive journalists.Sales of the Fusion continue to be on the rise. Sales have risen to 219,219 for an 11. 9 percent share of the industry, giving Ford an increase in sales of 54 percent in 2010, while Toyota Camry has a 27 percent decline in sales and Honda Accord sales dropped 20 percent. Threats Threats are the negative external forces which could hurt the company. Companies will always need to minimize threats as they are the forces that will hinder a company’s goals and could hurt the companyâ€⠄¢s bottom line. Below are the threats that Ford will need to minimize. Economic CrisisIn 2008 the economy starting having issues because of rising oil prices and unemployment, increased unemployment, a decline in dollar value, global inflation, a horrible housing market, and terrible mortgage crisis. Many companies started to have cash flow problem. Many companies like Ford had to close several manufacturing plants, laying off thousands of individuals, which hinders the improvement of the economy. Consumer Confidence is Low Recent car accidents have led to low consumer confidence in the auto industry. These accidents have caused the lowest consumer confidence in 40 years.The entire auto industry needs to be concerned with consumer confidence since this will hurt their profits. Rising Gas Prices With gas prices are on the rise, people are looking for ways to save their money. Since 2000 gas prices have gone from 1. 51 to 3. 85 with no end in sight. Consumers are every concerned that all their money is going to fuel up their vehicles. The United States government has stepped in to require the auto industry to improve their vehicles miles per gallon. Foreign Automakers Market Shares are high In the past most foreign cars have my luxury vehicles created by Mercedes, BMW, and Lexus.Recently Toyota, Nissan, and Honda have been able to take a larger share of the industry by creating practical and affordable vehicles. Toyota has the held the second spot in the auto industry for 2008 and 2009. Honda held the fourth spot from 2008 through 2010. Both companies are tough competition for U. S. automakers. Ford has been in tough competition with Toyota for the second share of the industry. Competitor with Luxury Hybrid Hybrids have become very popular in the last couple of years since the price of oil has skyrocketed.Recently companies that specialized in more luxurious car models have been coming out with a luxury hybrid. U. S. News has ranked the best luxury hybrids with Mercedes, BMW, and Porsche taking all the top spots. EFE Matrix The external factor evaluation matrix helps companies, like Ford, to understand and evaluate their external opportunities and threats from nine different categories. The categories include: economic, social, cultural, demographic, environmental, political, governmental, legal, technological, and competitive information.If a firm has taken advantage of all opportunities and minimized all threats, then the company current strategy would be working as they had hoped. However this is not always the case. The EFE Matrix is a great way for companies to evaluate how their strategy is working for external opportunities and threats and to make improvements when necessary. To create an EFE Matrix a company must find the key factors, opportunities and threats, that will show what the company has encountered. First the company will need to find the key opportunities and then the threats.Next, companies will need to decide how to w eigh each of the key factors. All of the key factor weights must add up to 1. Then the key factors will need to have a rating of 1 to 4. Rating indicates how well strategies are working. A rating of 1 indicates a poor performance, while a rating of 4 indicates a superior performance. After figuring out the weight and rating, companies need to multiply the weight by the rating to find the weighted score. Once that step is complete, add all the weighted scores together and find the total weighted score also known as â€Å"the magic number†.The highest magic number possible is 4 with the lowest being a 1. Ford Motor Company’s EFE Matrix is shown below. EFE Matrix for Ford Motor Company OpportunitiesWeightRatingWeighted Score Refusing bailout money5%30. 15 Industry shifts toward hybrids and small vehicles2%10. 02 Toyota 4. 4 billion dollar loss20%40. 8 Ford and BP joint forces to produce hydrogen power4%20. 08 2010 Fusion set records for 5th Month1%10. 01 Threats Economic Crisis30%41. 2 Consumer confidence is low5%30. 15 Rising Gas Prices30%41. 2 Foreign automakers market shares are high2%10. 02Competitor with first luxury hybrid 1%10. 01 (1) Poor, (2) Average, (3) Above Average, (4) Superior Total Weighted Score100%3. 64 Ford’s EFE Matrix total weighted score is a 3. 64. Meaning the Ford’s strategy is helping them take the majority of opportunities presented to them, while doing a great job of dealing with threats. One of the opportunities taken by Ford was Toyota losing billions of dollars during their Prius difficulty. Ford also did a smart thing by not taking any bailout money from the government. Most customers appreciated this move, meaning Ford was able to capitalize on this opportunity.However to improve their magic number Ford will need to readdress their strategy related to industry shifts and continue to have their vehicles set records. When looking at Fords threats, Ford has had a good strategy for dealing with the economic crisis by cutting costs, which meant closing several manufacturing plants. This was not a popular decision but it needed to be done for Ford to survive the economic downturn. One of the ways to show that Ford dealt with the economic crisis well is their refusal to take bailout money. Ford faced another challenge head on with rising gas prices.When gas prices started to rise Ford started creating more fuel efficient cars like the Ford Focus and Fiesta, and began working on improving the gas mileage in their truck line. Ford also began putting smart technology in their vehicles. However, several threats still need to be addressed by Ford. Ford needs to be concerned with foreign automakers like Kia and Hyundai taking more and more of the market shares. Ford also needs to combine fuel efficiency with luxury to compete with their competition. Overall EFE Matrix shows Ford’s Strategy is working and only needs to consider a few changes.

Baroque Music Characteristics - 537 Words

Baroque Period (1600-1750) Baroque Music Characteristics 2 Rhythm †¢Most baroque music has an easily recognizable strong, steady pulse, and continuity of rhythm. †¢Patterns of rhythmic sequences permeate much of Baroque music. †¢Rapid changes in harmony often makes the pieces feel more rhythmic. †¢Dance rhythms were frequently used in multi-movement form pieces. †¢Dotted rhythms were widely used. Harmony †¢Figured Bass—a system of numbers placed under the music—was developed to indicate clearly the harmonies that should be played with each note indicated in the bass line. The figured bass was typically realized—performed—by the harpsichord. †¢The use of the basso continuo, also known as thoroughbass, is a bass line running†¦show more content†¦This developed the concept of tonality. Texture †¢Monophonic, texture evolved to homophonic texture in opera and solo arias, influencing both sacred and secular music. Many instrumental compositions were also homophonic. †¢The soprano and bass lines are usually more important than the inner voices. †¢Imitation between the voices is common. †¢Counterpoint—a very complex and rule-bound type of polyphony in which the resulting harmony provides the tonal organization for the music—is used extensively. †¢In the late Baroque, polyphony, as a result of counterpoint, was used in all sorts of compositions, especially the fugue. †¢There was an increased emphasis on contrasting textures; for example, large groups of instruments play one section and a small group plays another, or groups of instruments take turns playing the main theme(s). Timbre †¢Most of the instruments commonly used today were in use during the Baroque era. †¢The violin family was refined and perfected. †¢The beginning of musical phrases are usually highlighted by a change of timbre. †¢There wasnt a fixed, standard orchestral group. Ensembles were usually composed of strings, a few woodwinds, percussion, and the harpsichord providing the basso continuo. †¢The Baroque pipe organ, which has a very soft, mellow tone, was used extensively. †¢Use of brass instruments and percussion to denote pageantry, solemnity, ceremony, and splendor was a common trend.Show MoreRelatedThe And Powerful During The Baroque Period843 Words   |  4 Pagesrich and powerful during the Baroque period. It is called age of absolutism because of the high power of the aristocracy. They use luxury entertainments to show their power. On the other hand, the religious institutions, which is divided into Catholic and Protestant, also compete their power with their baroque style in churches. And the middle-class also distribute the development of Baroque style as well. And because its ability of influence the development of baroque style, a style that representRead MoreThe Baroque Era Essay examples571 Words   |  3 PagesThe Baroque Era The Baroque era was a unique period in music that began during the 1600s and ended around 1750. The word baroque is define by Merriams Collegiate Dictionary as, of, relating to, or having the characteristics of a style of artistic expression prevalent esp. in the 17th century that is marked generally by use of complex forms, bold ornamentation, and the juxtaposition of contrasting elements often conveying a sense of drama, movement, and tension. The word baroque hasRead MoreThe Baroque Era of Music Essay515 Words   |  3 PagesThe Baroque period of music lasted from approximately 1600 – 1750 AD. It falls into the Common Practice period and was the most predominant style of writing after the Renaissance period and before the Classical period (the Classical period uses many elements from the Baroque period). The word Baroque means highly decorated and essentially gives us an insight into what the music of the time was like. Many pieces in the Baroque style have three or fou r different parts which work together to produceRead MoreEssay on The Baroque Era904 Words   |  4 PagesThe Baroque Era â€Æ' Baroque music a style of western art music and was composed from approximately 1600s to 1750s. This era took place after the Renaissance era and before the Classical era. The word â€Å"baroque† is derived from the Portuguese barroco, or â€Å"oddly shaped pearl† (â€Å"About†). The term has been used a lot throughout the nineteenth century to describe the period. Some known music familiarities from the era are Pachelbel’s Canon and Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons. This era not only connectedRead MoreSpiritual Food of the Baroque Period680 Words   |  3 PagesThe baroque period brought forth the most ornamented art of all time. The musical field grew parallel to the fields of painting and sculpture, all three categories experienced a dramatic increase in interest. Consequentially, the sudden flow of finances allowed the musicians to examine, modify, and renew their standards’ and methods. Baroque music quickly developed into a very individu al style. During the nearly one hundred and fifty years that the Baroque period lasted the basic style did not changeRead MorePart III Study Guide Essay1711 Words   |  7 Pagesï » ¿Baroque Dates: 1600 -1750 1.   What does â€Å"musical style† mean? Genre is the type of music. Style is how you sing it. 2. What was going historically during this era?   What was life like? The Baroque was a period of absolute monarchs. The monarchs had total control over every aspect of their realms: the economy, the books, the style of art, and even life and death. Louis XIV became the model and he set the stage for many things going on during this period. In many parts of Europe, a strict socialRead MoreThe Musical Style Of The Baroque Period1468 Words   |  6 Pages The time period of 1600-1760 is known as the Baroque. The term â€Å"Baroque† is derived from the Portuguese â€Å"barroco† which is used to describe an irregularly shaped pearl. The word was synonymous with absurd, irregular, and extravagant before being applied to this time period of music (Anderson 7). I decided to research this time period because after listening to music from a wide range of time periods, I found the music of the Baroque period to be most appealing. Therefore, I thought it worthyRead MoreJohann Pachelbel s Influence On The Baroque Era1454 Words   |  6 Pagesmusical figures from the Baroque era. A German born composer, teacher and organist, Pachelbel is said to be a primary contributor to German organ music. His music was highly successful during his lifetime and has continued to stay a relevant fixture in today’s world. In this paper, I will show that Johann Pachelbel was pivotal in the development of Baroque music tradition by analy zing his iconic ‘Canon in D Major’. In order to understand the impact of Johann Pachelbel’s music, one must also understandRead MoreThe Musical Influence of Johann Sebastian Bach948 Words   |  4 PagesJohann Sebastian Bach   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Among the influential composers of baroque music, there have been few who have contributed so much in talent, creativity, and style as Johann Sebastian Bach. Bach was a German organist and composer of the baroque era. Bach was born on March 21, 1685 in Eisenach, Thuringia and died July 28,1750. Bach revealed his feelings and his insights in his pieces. Bach’s mastery of all the major forms of baroque music (except opera) resulted not only from his genius talent, but alsoRead MoreThe Baroque Spirit Essay1081 Words   |  5 Pages The Baroque eras name Baroque, meaning exaggerated, abnormal, or even bizarre, cultivated some of the most revolutionary music and ideas in the timeline of composition itself. Its image, ranging from destitution and lavishness as shown through the periods art and political and economic being, has set this era apart in time through evolution and exploration. The culture and politics surrounding this era and the techniques and metho ds created are keys to understanding the baroque era and