Policy Choices Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

Policy Choices - Essay Example Coming to an individual, what are the factors that influence actions of self interest Basically, individuals are goal oriented, and as such, they depend on their skills and resource to achieve their goals. Also, in order to achieve his goals, an individual may look for information, evaluate alternatives, and choose the ideal option. In the absence of these, there is manipulation due to lack of information and ignorance. There are also other factors involved in the process of decision making. "The rational ideal not only overstates the purity of information, it also exaggerates the rationality of the people using information. That humans do not make decisions in purely rational fashion is a point that needs no belaboring." [1] This is what Charles Lindblom has called "the preceptoral system," whereby "a system of social control is exercised by a highly unilateral governmental persuasion addressed not to an elite or to a bureaucracy alone but to an entire population" [2] "While the individual in the rational ideal is autonomous, free to deliberate and choose on the basis of accurate information, in the preceptoral system the individual is a puppet whose mind has been invaded by others and who acts as though he or she chooses voluntarily but is in fact directed from without." [3] The practice of restriction or suppression of information is not only confined to totalitarian regimes, it is also practiced in the highly scientific corridors of medical research, mega business houses, the media, law agencies, political parties, and at the highest levels of the proponents of free society. [4] Nonetheless, public-interest is the result of experience and proper understanding of what the problem is and how the solution could be achieved with minimum confusion and confrontation. It involves public debate and perception, and allows for discussion and information based solutions, instead of leaving it to the discretion of a single individual. "The rational ideal, in sum, offers a vision of society where conflict is temporary and unnecessary, where force is replaced by discussion, and where individual actions are 1Policy Paradox, p314. 2Policy Paradox, Chapter 13, page 316. 3Policy Paradox, p308. 4Why Public Ideas Matter Chapter 2, page 31 brought into harmony through the persuasive power of logic and evidence. Government by persuasion brings out the highest human quality - the capacity to deliberate." [5] However, the decision making process often tend to be long and tedious on issues related to public interest. That is why sometimes it is felt that that there is the need for some element of totalitarianism in government. That is to say, it is not always necessary for government to be of the totalitarian type in order to use persuasion. "Let us for the moment, however, not make totalitarian government a necessary condition for indoctrination and so not limit indoctrination to totalitarian regimes by definition. Instead, let us regard it as a relationship in which dominant elites control people's beliefs and

The History of English Legal System Essay Example for Free

The History of English Legal System Essay I would like, therefore to discuss about the History of The Juries System, the roles and the composition of Juries System on how it was brought to the ENGLISH LEGAL SYSTEM. Firstly the modern jury derives out of the ancient custom of many ancient Germanic tribes whereby a group of men of good character was used to investigate crimes and/or judge the accused. The same custom evolved into the Vehmic Court system in medieval Germany. In Anglo-Saxon England, juries investigated crimes. After the Norman Conquest in 1066, some parts of the country preserved juries as the means of investigating crimes. The use of ordinary members of the community to consider crimes was unusual in ancient cultures, but was nonetheless also found in ancient Greece. The modern jury trial evolved out of this custom in the mid 12th century during the reign of Henry II. Juries, usually 6 or 12 men, were an ancient institution in some parts of England. (Henry II 286) Members consisted of representatives of the basic units of local government—hundreds (an administrative sub-division of the shire, embracing several vills) and villages. Called juries of presentment, these men testified under oath to crimes committed in their neighborhood and indicted. The Assize of Clarendon in 1166 caused these juries to be adopted systematically throughout the country. The jury in this period was self-informing, meaning it heard very little evidence or testimony in court. Instead, jurors were recruited from the locality of the dispute and were expected to know the facts before coming to court. The source of juror knowledge could include first-hand knowledge, investigation, and less reliable sources such as rumor and hearsay. Between 1166 and 1179 new procedures including a division of functions between the sheriff, the jury of local men, and the royal justices ushered in the era of the English Common Law. Sheriffs prepared cases for trial and found jurors with relevant knowledge and testimony. Jurors found a verdict by witnessing as to fact, even assessing and apply information from their own and community memory — little was written at this time and what was: deeds, writs, were subject to fraud. Royal justices supervised trials, answered questions as to law and announced the courts decision which was subject to appeal. Sheriffs executed the decision. These procedures enabled Henry II to delegate authority without endowing his subordinates with too much power. (Henry II 293) In 1215 the Roman Catholic Church removed its sanction from all forms of ordeal — procedures by which suspects were tested as to guilt (e. g. , the ordeal of hot metal was applied to a suspected thief by pouring molten metal into his hand, if the wound healed rapidly and well, it was believed God found the suspect innocent, if not then guilty). With the ordeals banned, establishing guilt would have been problematic, had England not had forty years of judicial experience. Justices were accustomed to asking jurors of presentment about points of fact in assessing indictments; it was a short step to ask jurors if the accused was guilty as charged. (Henry II 358) An early reference to a jury type group in England is in a decree issued by Aethelred at Wantage (997), which enacted that in every Hundred the twelve leading thegns together with the reeve shall go out and swear on the relics which are given into their hands, that they will not accuse any innocent man nor shield a guilty one. The resulting Wantage Code formally recognized legal customs that were part of the Danelaw . The testimonial concept can also be traced to Normandy before 1066, when a jury of nobles was established to decide land disputes. In this manner, the Duke, being the largest land owner, could not act as a judge in his own case. [ One of the earliest antecedents of modern jury systems are juries in Ancient Greece, including the city-state of Athens, where records of jury courts date back to 500 BCE. These voted by secret ballot and were eventually granted the power to annul â€Å"Unconstitutional Law†, thus introducing judicial review. In modern systems, law is self-contained and distinct from other coercive forces, and perceived as separate from the political life of the community, but all these barriers are absent in the context of classical Athens. In practice and in conception the law and its administration are in some important respects indistinguishable from the life of the community in general. In 1730, the British Parliament passed the Bill for Better Regulation of Juries. The Act stipulated that the list of all those liable for jury service was to be posted in each parish and that jury panels would be selected by lot, also known as sortition, from these lists. Its aim was to prevent middle-class citizens from evading their responsibilities by financially putting into question the neutrality of the under-sheriff, the official entrusted with impaneling juries. Prior to the Act, the main means of ensuring impartiality was by allowing legal challenges to the sheriff’s choices. The new provisions did not specifically aim at establishing impartiality, but had the effect of reinforcing the authority of the jury by guaranteeing impartiality at the point of selection. The example of early 18th century England legal reform shows how civic lotteries can be used to organize the duties and responsibilities of the citizen body in relation to the state. It established the impartiality and neutrality of juries as well as reiterating the dual nature of the citizen-state relationship 1 CRIMINAL TRIALS -juries hears 1% of criminal cases -tried by 12 jurors and a judge in Crown Court -Juries are Sole Arbiters of Fact (Bushell’s’ case, which will explained below) -Juries decides whether the defendant should be found guilty or not guilty CIVIL TRIALS -Juries in civil case has declined less than 1% -tried by 8 jury in (County Court) and 12 Jury in (High Court) juries were restricted to 4 areas; defamation, malicious prosecution, fraud and false imprisonment -Juries decide the defendant liability and the amount of damages to be awarded A Basic Summarisation of the Different Trial and their role held by the Jury Nevertheless, the independence of the jury has given recognition from the case of Bushell’s Case (1670), this case established that the jury were the, â€Å"sole judges of fact, with the right to give a verdict according to their conscience, and could not be penalized for taking a view of the facts opposed to that of the judge†. This case was a benefit to the legal system, as previously judges would try to intimidate or even bully juries into convicting a defendant, particularly where the crime had political implications. Therefore the importance of the jury system is that it could acquit a defendant, even when the law demanded a guilty verdict and it showed defendants that the trial by jury was not only a protection against injustice but also a loophole whereby real criminals could escape from â€Å"2. Besides that this rule remains today with a more modern examples stating that judges must respect the independence of the jury as in R v McKenna(1960) this case† the judge had threatened the jury, who had been deliberating for about two and quarter hours, that if they did not return a verdict of guilty within another ten minutes they would be locked up all night†, hence Justice Cassels stated it is a cardinal principle of our criminal law that in considering their verdict, concerning as it does, the liberty of the subject, a jury shall deliberate in complete freedom, uninfluenced by any promised, unintimidated by any threat, because they still stand between the Crown and the subject, and they are still one of the main defences of personal liberty†3. The Jury System is considered as a need because it is a significance part of the English legal system, although only a minority of the cases is tried by the jury in these days. In a sense it plays an important role in ensuring that the criminal justice system works for the assistance of the public rather than for the benefit of disproportionate leaders. It promotes not only a fair criminal justice system but also a healthy society, where political leaders cannot misuse criminal justice system to silence their opponents, hence according to LORD DEVLIN which he has wrote on 1956 â€Å"trial by Jury is more than an Instrument of Justice and more than a wheel of the Constitution; it is the lamp that shows that freedom lives†4. Moreover, as many scholars and practitioners have commented over the centuries, the common law jury that develops in Britain was branched in other parts of the world as a UNIQUE INSTITUTION. Therefore Juries are, it brings all together a small group of lay people whom are assembled on a temporary basis for the purpose of deciding whether an accused person is guilty of CRIMINAL act or which of two sides should prevail in a CIVIL dispute. Hence, the jurors are untutored in the formal discipline of law and its logic, besides that they hear and see confusing and challenging evidence and they were provided with instructions, most of the time only in a oral form, about easily understood legal concepts and sent into a room alone to decide a verdict without further help from the professional persons who developed the evidence. 5 Therefore the Juries service is a public duty that citizens should readily undertake, in practice, it is made compulsory, and failure to act/perform one’s civic responsibility is subject to the sanction of a ? ,1000 fine. Now, we may examine the eligibility and the selection process of the Juries, since it has also certain requirements need to be fulfilled. The basic requirements for a Jury Service are that a person must be aged between â€Å"18-70† and must have been a resident in the United Kingdom for atleast 5years. Therefore jurors are selected at random from the electoral register, which is the responsibility of a Central jury Summoning Bureau (CJSB) and the name are generated by the computer, for those who are not registered to vote and the homeless will not be selected. After the selection process, more than 12 people will be called by the Summoning Officers to be â€Å"officially† selected as the ‘panel’ of the case, but according to some certain circumstances those people are excused or disqualified for the certain reasons†¦. On the part of the excusals, those whom prior to the Criminal Justice Act 2003, such would be â€Å"The Juries Act 1974† stated those whom are eligible for excusals are those being part of a profession such as legal professionals, Member of Parliament and Doctors, but as result of Para 3 of Schedule 33 to the Criminal Act 2003,has removed the members of the judiciary and lawyers from the classes of those ineligible to eligible to serve as a Juries which can be seen in the case of R v Abdroikof (2007) and R v Williamson (2007), besides that, the AULD REVIEW recommended that everyone should be eligible except for those who are mentally disordered, those who have criminal conviction for more than 5 years. Evaluating whether the Jury System is an Outmoded Method of Determining Judgments and whether It should be removed or reformed To answer the following question that rose above, we should weight up the â€Å"arguments for and against† the Jury System in the English Legal S ystem. Firstly, there are several arguments for the Jury system in England that I would like to raise†¦. According to (Spooner,1852) â€Å"The central plank of trials within a jury based system is this: No free man shall be captured, and or imprisoned, or disseised of his freehold, and or of his liberties, or of his free customs, or be outlawed, or exiled, or in any way destroyed, nor will we proceed against him by force or proceed against him by arms, but by the lawful judgement of his peers, and or by the law of the land . 6 For an illustration, the Jury System reflects a democratisation of justice compared to a purely judicial system, it is merely necessary to consider the Socratic judgments of antiquity, or the very wide latitude given to Japanese judges today. The freedom of action and interpretation that is held by one individual in these cases has two primary problems. Firstly, justice is hugely dependent on the competence and impartiality of one person, with a single point of failure for corruption to be introduced. Secondly, judges have been of high social status throughout history, and thus can be criticised as having a possible lack of intuition and empathy with poorer defendants. This illustration is a practical example for the need of the Jury system. In addition, the jury is likely to have a greater experience of contemporary cultural trends and pressures then a judge who has spent 30-40 years in intense study of the law, and a correspondingly greater understanding and empathy with the actions of the parties involved in the case. A jury also often has far less of a stake in political issues†¦. Moreover the United Kingdom does have a somewhat unhappy history relating to judge-only proceedings, through the actions of the Northern Ireland Diplock courts. The Diplock courts were set up in 1972, with the brief of effectively intervening against terrorism. This very assumption could be seen to reflect the view that a purely judge based system was more likely to convict in these cases, and thus reflects the importance of jury trial in other cases. The Diplock courts, as might have been expected, then proceeded to be involved in several extremely contentious convictions, notably that of Christy Walsh. In this case, several sections of the trial were criticised for unfairness during the trial itself, with the defence faced by a judge apparently uninterested in this (British Irish Rights Watch, 2006)7. Therefore the Jury system could be fresh defence of injustice. According to Peter Jefferson, â€Å"We all know that permanent judges acquire an esprit de corps; that, being known, they are liable to be tempted by bribery; that they are misled by favor, by relationship, by a spirit of party, by a devotion to the executive or legislative; that it is better to leave a cause to the decision of cross and pile than to that of a judge biased to one side; and that the opinion of twelve honest jurymen gives still a better hope of right than cross and pile does. †8, this can be easily illustrated by the role of Lord Chancellor is the head of the judiciary and has a major role in the selection of judges, however he is also a member of the cabinet and the position is a political appointment decided on by the Prime Minister and the position has been strongly criticised as being involved in too many different functions of the State, besides that It has also been suggested that the Lord Chancellors selections of judges and also his special adviser could be biased because Lord Chancellor selected his special adviser from a small group he already knew, comprised mostly of white males.

Colonialism and Post Colonial Ethnic Conflict in East African Countries

From the end of the nineteenth century until the attainment of independence in the early 1960s, the countries of East Africa were under the colonial administration of European empires. After decades of foreign rule which saw unparalleled transformations within society, the post-colonial states that emerged have been blighted by ethnic conflict. It has been argued that the beliefs of British, Belgian and German administrators led them to completely reorganise the societies they governed based on a fictitious ‘tribal’ model, and in the process they invented ethnicity. There is a great deal of debate on this matter, though, and its continued relevance to contemporary politics only makes it more vigorous. Before we go on to analyse to what extent it may have been invented under colonial rule, we need to first of all establish just what exactly is meant by the term ‘ethnicity’. It is a complicated as well as a contentious question, interpreted in a variety of different ways that can depend on political beliefs, social status, place of birth and personal history. Clearly, if we are to talk about ‘ethnicity’ without descending into an exhausting debate on linguistics and semantics, it is necessary to take for granted a certain degree of generalisation. We can say that all human beings, broadly, do belong objectively to some form of ‘ethnicity’; that is, a social group whose members they are linked with through a shared culture, religion, territory, language, or genealogy. What varies greatly is the awareness of this connection, and the importance an individual places upon it. The term ‘tribe’ would further complicate the debate, and serve no other purpose than to draw discussion away from the process of invention; the main focus of... ...nd every aspect of life from marriage to choice of profession was influenced by the ethnic group you belonged to. Transience, multiplicity, and change were the key words, though. One can say that what the colonial governments actually invented, and what has often left such a painfully devastating legacy, was not ethnicity itself, but the codification of ethnic groups in national laws, the exclusivity of groupings, and the bringing to the fore of a person’s ‘tribe’ at the expense of all other means of identification. You no longer merely took comfort from being part of a Tutsi community, you were a Tutsi from the day you were born until the day you died, and the course of your life would be decided for you based on this label. Rather than inventing it, colonialism destroyed ethnicity’s one defining characteristic in the East African context: its ability to transform.

The Lust Lizard of Melancholy Cove Chapter 16~18

Sixteen Mavis The phone behind the bar rang and Mavis yanked it out of its cradle. â€Å"Mount Olympus, Goddess of Sex speaking,† she said, and there was a mechanical ratcheting noise as she cocked a hip while she listened. â€Å"No, I haven't seen him – like I would even tell you if he was here. Hell, woman, I have a sacred trust here – I can't rat out every husband who comes in for a snort after work. How would I know? Honey, you want to keep this kind of thing from happening? Two words: long, nasty blowjobs. Yeah, well, if you were doing them instead of counting words, then maybe you wouldn't lose your husband. Oh, all right, hold on.† Mavis held her receiver to breast and shouted, â€Å"Hey! Anyone seen Les from the hardware store?† A few heads shook and a fusillade of â€Å"nopes† fired through the bar. â€Å"Nope, he's not here. Yeah, if I see him, I'll be sure and tell him that there was a screeching harpy looking for him. Oh yeah, well, I've been done doggie-style by the Better Business Bureau and they liked it, so say hi for me.† Mavis slammed down the phone. She felt like the Tin Man left out in the rain. Her metal parts felt rusty and she was sure that her plastic parts were going to mush. Ten o'clock on a Saturday, live entertainment on the stage, and she still hadn't sold enough liquor to cover the cost of her Blues singer. Oh, the bar was full, but people were nursing their drinks, making them last, making goo-goo eyes at each other and slipping out, couple by couple, without dropping a sawbuck. What in the hell had come over this town? The Blues singer was supposed to drive them to drink, but the entire pop-ulation seemed to be absolutely giddy with love. They were talking instead of drinking. Wimps. Mavis spit into the bar sink in disgust and there was a pinging sound from a tiny spring that had dislodged somewhere inside of her. Wusses. Mavis threw back a shot of Bushmills and glared at the couples sitting at the bar, then glared at Catfish, who was finishing up a set on the stage, his National steel guitar whining as he sang about losing his soul at the crossroads. Catfish told the story of the great Robert Johnson, the haunting Bluesman who had met the devil at the crossroads and bargained his soul for super-natural ability, but was pursued throughout his life by a hellhound that had caught his scent at the gates of hell and finally took him home when a jealous husband slipped poison into Johnson's liquor. â€Å"Truth be,† Catfish said into the microphone, â€Å"I done stood at midnight at every crossroad in the Delta lookin' to sell my soul, but wasn't nobody buyin'. Now that there is the Blues. But I gots me my own brand of hellhound, surely I do.† â€Å"That's sweet, fish boy,† Mavis shouted from behind the bar. â€Å"Come over here, I gotta talk to you.† â€Å"‘Scuse me, folks, they's a call from hell right now,† Catfish said to the crowd with a grin. But no one was listening. He put his guitar in the stand and ambled over to Mavis. â€Å"You're not loud enough,† Mavis said. â€Å"Turn up your hearing aid, woman. I ain't got no pickup in that National. They's only so high you can go into a mike or she feed back.† â€Å"People are talking, not drinking. Play louder. And no love songs.† â€Å"I gots me a Fender Stratocaster and a Marshall amp in the car, but I don't like playin ‘lectric.† â€Å"Go get them. Plug in. Play loud. I don't need you if you don't sell liquor.† â€Å"This gonna be my last night anyway.† â€Å"Get the guitar,† Mavis said. Molly Molly slammed the truck into the Dumpster behind the Head of the Slug Saloon. Glass from the headlights tinkled to the tarmac and the fan raked across the radiator with a grating shriek. It had been a few years since Molly had done any driving, and Les had left out a few parts from the do-it-yourself brake kit he'd installed. Molly turned off the engine and set the parking brake, then wiped the steering wheel and shift knob with the sleeve of her sweatshirt to remove any fingerprints. She climbed out of the truck and tossed the keys into the mashed Dumpster. There was no music coming from the back door of the Slug, only the smell of stale beer and the low murmur of conversation. She scampered out of the alley and started the four-block walk home. A low fog drifted over Cypress Street and Molly was grateful for the cover. There were only a few lights on in the park's trailers, and she hurried past them to where her own windows flickered with the lonely blue of the unwatched television. She looked past her house to the space where Steve lay healing and noticed a figure out-lined in the fog. As she drew closer, she could see that it was not one person, but two, standing not twenty feet from the dragon trailer. Her heart sank. She expected the beams of police flashlights to swing through the fog any second, but the figures were just standing there. She crept around the edge of her trailer, pressed so close that she could feel the cold coming off the aluminum skin through her sweatshirt. A woman's voice cut the fog, â€Å"Lord, we have heeded your call and come unto you. Forgive us our casual attire, as our dry cleaner did close for the weekend and we are left sorely without outfits with matching accessories.† It was the school prayer ladies, Katie and Marge, although Molly wouldn't be able to tell which was which. They were wearing identical pink jogging suits with matching Nikes. As she watched, the two women moved closer to Steve, and Molly could see a rippling across the dragon trailer. â€Å"As our Lord Jesus did give His life for our sins, so we come unto Thee, O Lord, to giveth of ourselves.† The end of the dragon trailer lost its angles to curves, and Molly could see Steve's broad head extending, changing, the door going from a vertical rectangle to a wide horizontal maw. The women seemed unaffected by the change and continued to move slowly forward, silhouetted now by Steve's jaws, which were opening like a toothed cavern. Molly ran around her trailer and up the steps, reached in and grabbed her broadsword which was leaned against the wall just inside the door, and dashed back around the trailer and toward the Sea Beast. Marge and Katie were almost inside of Steve's open mouth. Molly could see his enormous tongue snaking out the side of his mouth, reaching behind the church ladies to drag them in. â€Å"No!† Molly leapt from a full run, slamming between Marge and Katie like a fullback leaping through blockers to the goal line, and smacked Steve on the nose with the flat of her sword. She landed in his mouth and rolled clear to the ground just as his jaws snapped shut behind her. She came up on one knee, holding the sword pointed at Steve's nose. â€Å"No!† she said. â€Å"Bad dragon.† Steve turned his head quizzically, as if wondering what she was so upset about. â€Å"Change back,† Molly said, raising the sword as if to whack his nose again. Steve's head and neck pulled back into the shape of a double-wide trailer. Molly looked back at the church ladies, who seemed very concerned with having been knocked into the mud in their pink jogging suits, but oblivious to the fact that they had almost been eaten. â€Å"Are you two okay?† â€Å"We felt the call,† one of them said, either Marge or Katie, while the other one nodded in agreement. â€Å"We had to come to give ourselves unto the Lord.† Their eyes were glazed over and they stared right past her to the trailer as they spoke. â€Å"You guys have to go home now. Aren't your husbands worried about you or something?† â€Å"We heard the call.† Molly helped them to their feet and pointed them away from Steve, who made a faint whining noise as she pushed the church ladies away toward the street. Molly stopped them at the edge of the street and spoke to them from behind. â€Å"Go home. Don't come back here. Okay?† â€Å"We wanted to bring the children to feel the spirit too, but it was so late, and we have church tomorrow.† Molly smacked the speaker across the butt with the flat of her sword, a good two-handed stroke that sent her stumbling into the street. â€Å"Go home!† Molly was winding up to smack the other one when she turned and held up her hand as if refusing a refill on coffee. â€Å"No thank you.† â€Å"Then you're going and you're not coming back, right?† The woman didn't seem sure. Molly turned her grip on the sword so the edge was poised to strike. â€Å"Right?† â€Å"Yes,† the woman said. Her friend nodded in agreement as she rubbed her bottom. â€Å"Now go,† Molly said. As the women walked away, she called after them, â€Å"And stop dressing alike. That's fucking weird.† She watched them until they disappeared into the fog, then went back to where Steve was waiting in trailer form. â€Å"Well?† She threw out her hip, frowned, and tapped her foot as if waiting for his explanation. His windows narrowed, ashamed. â€Å"They'll be back, you know. Then what?† He whimpered, the sound coming from deep inside, where the kitchen would be if he were really a trailer. â€Å"If you're still hungry, you have to let me know. I can help. We can find you something. Although there is only one hardware store in town. You're going to have to diversify your diet.† Suddenly an electric guitar screamed out of the fog, wailing like a tortured ghost of Chicago Blues. The dragon trailer became the dragon again, his white skin went black, then flashed brilliant streaks of red anger. The bandages Molly had spent all day applying shredded with the abrupt shape change. His gill trees hung with tatters of fiberglass fabric as if toilet-papered by mischievous boys. The Sea Beast threw back his head and roared, rattling the windows through the trailer park. Molly fell in the mud as she backed up, then rolled and came up on her feet with the broadsword poised to thrust into the Sea Beast's throat. â€Å"Steve, I think you need to take a timeout, young man.† Theo Such a short period of time to have so many new experiences. In just the last few days, he had coordinated his first major missing person search, including talking to worried parents and the milk carton company, whose people wanted to know if Theo could get a picture of Mikey Plotznik where he wasn't making a contorted, goofy face at the camera. (If they found a better picture, Mikey would end up with great exposure on the two percent or nonfat cartons, but if they had to go with what they had, he was going on the side of the buttermilk and would only be seen by old folks and people making ranch dressing.) Theo had also had to deal with his first major fire, the hallucination of giant animal tracks, and opening a real live murder investigation, all without the benefit of his lifelong chemical crutch. Not that he couldn't nurse at his favorite pipe, he'd just lost the desire to do so. Now he had to decide how to go about investigating Bess Leander's murder. Should he pull someone in for interrogation? Pull them in where? His cabin? He didn't have an office. Somehow he couldn't imagine holding an effective interrogation with the suspect in a beanbag chair under a hot lava lamp. â€Å"Talk, scumbag! Don't make me turn the black light on that Jimi Hendrix poster and light some incense. You don't want that.† And amid all the other activity, he felt a nagging compulsion to go back to the Fly Rod Trailer Court and talk to Molly Michon. Crazy thoughts. Finally he decided to drop by Joseph Leander's house, hoping he might catch the salesman off guard. As he pulled into the driveway, he noticed that weeds had grown up around the garden gnomes and there was a patina of dust on the Dutch hex sign over the front door. The garage door was open and Joseph's minivan was parked inside. Theo paused at the front door before knocking and made sure that his ponytail was tucked into his collar and his collar was straight. For some reason, he felt as if he should be wearing a gun. He had one, a Smith & Wesson .357 revolver, but it was on the top shelf of his closet, next to his bong collection. He rang the bell, then waited. A minute passed before Joseph Leander opened the door. He was wearing paint-spattered corduroys and an old cardigan sweater that looked like it had been pulled out of the trash a dozen times. Obviously not the sort of attire that Bess Leander would have allowed in her home. â€Å"Constable Crowe.† Leander was not smiling. â€Å"What can I do for you?† â€Å"If you have a minute, I'd like to talk to you. May I come in?† â€Å"I suppose,† Leander said. He stepped away from the door and Theo ducked in. â€Å"I just made some coffee. Would you like some?† â€Å"No thanks. I'm on duty.† Cops are supposed to say that, Theo thought. â€Å"It's coffee.† â€Å"Oh, right, sure. Milk and sugar please.† The living room had bare pine plank floors and rag rugs. An antique pew bench took the place of a sofa, two Shaker chairs and a galvanized milk can with a padded cushion on the top provided the other seating. Three antique butter churns stood in the corners of the room. But for a new thirty-six-inch Sony by the fireplace, it could have been the living room of a seventeenth-century family (a family with very high cholesterol from all that butter). Joseph Leander returned to the living room and handed Theo a hand-thrown stoneware mug. The coffee was the color of butterscotch and tasted of cinnamon. â€Å"Thanks,† Theo said. â€Å"New TV?† He nodded to the Sony. Leander sat across from Theo on the milk can. â€Å"Yes, I got it for the girls. PBS and so forth. Bess never approved of television.† â€Å"And so you killed her!† Leander sprayed a mouthful of coffee on the rug. â€Å"What?† Theo took a sip of his coffee while Leander stared at him, wide-eyed. Maybe he'd been a bit too abrupt. Fall back, regroup. â€Å"So did you get cable? Reception is horrible in Pine Cove without cable. It's the hills, I think.† Leander blinked furiously and did a triple-take on Theo. â€Å"What are you talking about?† â€Å"I saw the coroner's report on your wife, Joseph. She didn't die from hanging.† â€Å"You're insane. You were there.† Leander stood and took the mug out of Theo's hands. â€Å"I won't listen to this. You can go now, Constable.† Leander stepped back and waited. Theo stood. He wasn't very good at confrontation, he was a peace officer. This was too hard. He pushed himself. â€Å"Was it the affair with Betsy? Did Bess catch you?† Veins were beginning to show on Leander's bald pate. â€Å"I just started seeing Betsy. I loved my wife and I resent you doing this to her memory. You're not supposed to do this. You're not even a real cop. Now get out of my house.† â€Å"Your wife was a good woman. A little weird, but good.† Leander set the coffee mugs down on a butter churn, went to the front door, and pulled it open. â€Å"Go.† He waved Theo toward the door. â€Å"I'm going, Joseph. But I'll be back.† Theo stepped outside. Leander's face had gone completely red. â€Å"No, you won't.† â€Å"Oh, I think I will,† Theo said, feeling very much like a second grader in a playground argument. â€Å"Don't fuck with me, Crowe,† Leander spat. â€Å"You have no idea what you're doing.† He slammed the door in Theo's face. â€Å"Do too,† Theo said. Seventeen Molly Molly had always wondered about American women's fascination with bad boys. There seemed to be some sort of logic-defying attraction to the guy who rode a motorcycle and had a tattoo, a gun in the glove compart-ment, or a snifter of cocaine on the coffee table. In her acting days, she'd even been involved with a couple of them herself, but this was the first one who actually, well, ate people. Women always felt that they could reform a guy. How else could you explain the numerous proposals of marriage received by captured serial killers? That one was a bit too much even for Molly, and she took comfort in the fact that no matter how crazy she had gotten, she'd never been tempted to marry a guy who made a habit of strangling his dates. American mothers programmed their daughters to believe that they could make everything better. Why else was she leading a hundred-foot monster down a creek bed in broad daylight? Fortunately, the creek bed was lined in most places by a heavy growth of willow trees, and as Steve moved over the rocks, his great body changed color and texture to match his surroundings until he looked like nothing more than a trick of the light, like heat rising off blacktop. Molly made him stay under cover as they approached the Cypress Street bridge, then waited until there was no traffic and signaled him to go. Steve slithered under the bridge like a snake down its hole, his back knocking off great hunks of concrete, and he passed through. In less than an hour they were out of town, into the ranchland that ran along the coast to the north, and Molly led Steve up through the trees to the edge of a pasture. â€Å"There you go, big guy,† Molly said, pointing to a herd of Holsteins that were grazing a hundred yards away. â€Å"Breakfast.† Steve crouched at the edge of the forest like a cat ready to pounce. His tail twitched, splintering a cypress sapling in the process. Molly sat down beside him and cleaned mud from her sneakers with a stick as the cows slowly made their way toward them. â€Å"This is it?† she asked. â€Å"You just sit here and they come over to be eaten? A girl could lose respect for you as a hunter watching this, you know that?† Theo Theo found himself trying to figure out why, exactly, he was driving to Molly Michon's place, when his cell phone rang. Before he answered, he reminded himself not to sound stoned, when it occurred to him that he actually wasn't stoned, and that was even more frightening. â€Å"Crowe here,† he said. â€Å"Crowe, this is Nailsworth, down at County. Are you nuts?† Theo stalled while he tried to remember who Nailsworth was. â€Å"Is this a survey?† â€Å"What did you do with that data I gave you?† Nailsworth said. Theo suddenly remembered that Nailsworth was the Spider's real name. A second call was beeping on Theo's line. â€Å"Nothing. I mean, I conducted an interview. Can you hold? I've got another call.† â€Å"No, I can't hold. I know you've got another call. You didn't hear anything from me, do you hear? I gave you nothing, understand?† â€Å"‘Kay,† Theo said. The Spider hung up and Theo connected to the other call. â€Å"Crowe, are you fucking nuts!† â€Å"Is this a survey?† Theo said, pretty sure that it wasn't a survey, but also pretty sure that Sheriff Burton wouldn't be happy with a truthful answer to the question, which was: â€Å"Yes, I probably am nuts.† â€Å"I thought I told you to stay away from Leander. That case is closed and filed.† Theo thought for a second. It hadn't been five minutes since he'd left Joseph Leander's house. How could Burton know already? No one got through to the sheriff that quickly. â€Å"Some suspicious evidence popped up,† Theo said, trying to figure out how he was going to cover for the Spider if Burton pressed. â€Å"I just stopped by to see if there was anything to it.† â€Å"You fucking pothead. If I tell you to let something lie, you let it lie, do you understand me? I'm not talking about your job now, Crowe, I'm talking about life as you know it. I hear another word out of North County and you are going to be getting your dance card punched by every AIDs-ridden convict in Soledad. Leave Leander alone.† â€Å"But†¦Ã¢â‚¬  â€Å"Say ‘Yes, sir,' you bag of shit.† â€Å"Yes, sir, you bag of shit,† Theo said. â€Å"You are finished, Crowe, you – â€Å" â€Å"Sorry, Sheriff. Battery's going.† Theo disconnected and headed back to his cabin, shaking as he drove. Molly In Flesh Eaters of the Outland, Kendra was forced to watch while a new breed of mutants sprayed hapless villagers with a flesh-dissolving enzyme, then lapped up puddles of human protein with disgusting dubbed sucking sounds that the foley artists had obtained at Sea World, recording baby walruses being fed handfuls of shellfish. The special effects guys simulated the carnage with large quantities of rubber cement, paraffin body parts that conveniently melted under the Mexican desert sun, and transmission fluid instead of the usual Karo syrup fake blood. (The sugary stage blood tended to attract blowflies and the director didn't want to get notice from the ASPCA for abuse.) Overall, the effect was so real that Molly insisted that all of Kendra's reaction shots be done after the cleanup to avoid her gagging and going green on camera. Between the carrion scene and some salmonella tacos served up by the Nogales-based caterer, as well as repeated propositions by an Arab coproducer with ha litosis that made her eyes water, Molly was sick for three days. But none of it, even the fetid falafel breath, produced the nausea she was experiencing upon watching Steve yack up four fully masticated, partially digested Holsteins. Molly added the contents of her own stomach (three Pop Tarts and a Diet Coke) to the four pulverized piles of beefy goo that Steve had expelled onto the pasture. â€Å"Lactose intolerant?† She wiped her mouth on her sleeve and glared at the Sea Beast. â€Å"You have no problem gulping down a paperboy and the closet perv from the hardware store, but you can't eat dairy cows?† Steve rolled onto his back and tried to look apologetic – streaks of purple played across his flanks, purple being his embarrassment color. Viscous tears the size of softballs welled up in the corner of his giant cat's eyes. â€Å"So I suppose you're still hungry?† Steve rolled back onto his feet and the earth rumbled beneath him. â€Å"Maybe we can find you a horse or something,† Molly said. â€Å"Stay close to the tree line.† Using her broadsword as a walking stick, she led him over the hill. As they moved, his colors changed to match the surroundings, making it appear that Molly was being followed by a mirage. Theo For some reason, the words of Karl Marx kept running through Theo's mind as he dug the machete out of the tool shed behind his cabin. â€Å"Religion is the opiate of the masses.† It follows, then, that â€Å"opium is the religion of the addict,† Theo thought. Which is why he was feeling the gut-wrenching remorse of the excommunicated as he took the machete to the first of the thick, fibrous stems in his marijuana patch. The bushy green weeds fell like martyred saints with each swing of the machete, and his hands picked up a film of sticky resin as he threw each plant onto a pile in the corner of the yard. In five minutes his shirt was soaked with sweat and the pot patch looked like a miniature version of a clear-cut forest. Devastation. Stumps. He emptied a can of kerosene over the waste-high pile of cannabis, then pulled out his lighter and se the flame to a piece of paper. â€Å"Throw off the chains of your oppressors,† Marx had said. These plants, the habit that went with them, were Theo's chains: the boot that Sheriff John Burton had kept pressed to his neck these last eight years, the threat that kept him from acting freely, from doing the right thing, He threw the burning paper, and the flames of revolution whooshed over the pile. There was no elation, no rush of freedom as he backed away from the pyre. Instead of the triumph of revolution, he felt a sense of sickening loss, loneliness, and guilt: Judas at the base of the Cross. No wonder communism had failed. He went into the cabin, retrieved the box from the shelf in the closet, and was beating his bong collection into shrapnel with a ballpeen hammer when he heard automatic weapons fire coming from the ranch. Ignacio and Miguel Ignacio was lying in the shade just outside the metal shed, smoking a cigarette, while Miguel labored away inside, cooking the chemicals down into methamphetamine crystals. Beakers the size of basketballs boiled over electric burners, the fumes routed through glass tubes to a vent in the wall. Miguel was short and wiry, just thirty years old, but the lines in his face and the grim expression he always wore made him look fifty. Ignacio was only twenty, fat and full of machismo, taken with his own success and toughness, and convinced that he was on his way to being the new godfath-er of the Mexican Mafia. They had crossed the border together six months ago, smuggled in by a coyote to do exactly what they were doing. And what a sweet deal it had turned out to be. Because the lab was protected by the big sheriff, they were never raided, they never had to move on a moment's notice like the other labs in California, or bolt across the border until things cooled off. Only six months, and Miguel had sent home enough money for his wife to buy a ranch in Michoacn, and Ignacio was driving a flashy Dodge four-wheel drive and wearing five-hundred-dollar alligator-skin Tony Lama boots. All of this for only eight hours of work a day, for they were only one of three crews that kept the la b running twenty-four hours a day. And there was no danger of being stopped on the road while transporting drugs, because the big sheriff had a gringo in a little van come every few days to drop off supplies and take the drugs away. â€Å"Put out that cigarette, cabrone!† Miguel shouted. â€Å"Do you want to blow us up?† Ignacio scoffed and flicked his cigarette into the pasture. â€Å"You worry too much, Miguel.† Ignacio was tired of Miguel's whining. He missed his family, he worried about getting caught, he didn't know if the mix was right. When the older man wasn't working, he was brooding, and no amount of money or consoling seemed to satisfy him. Miguel appeared at the doorway and stood over Ignacio. â€Å"Do you feel that?† â€Å"What?† Ignacio reached for the AK-47 that was leaning against the shed. â€Å"What?† Miguel was staring across the pasture, but seemed to be seeing nothing. â€Å"I don't know.† â€Å"It is nothing. You worry too much.† Miguel started walking across the pasture toward the tree line. â€Å"I have to go over there. Watch my stove.† Ignacio stood up and hitched his silver-studded belt up under his belly. â€Å"I don't how to watch the stove. I'm the guard. You stay and watch the stove.† Miguel strode over the hill without looking back. Ignacio sat back down and pulled another cigarette from the pocket of his leather vest. â€Å"Loco,† he mumbled under his breath as he lit up. He smoked for several minutes, dreaming and scheming about a time when he would run the whole oper-ation, but by the time he finished the cigarette he was starting to worry about his partner. He stood to get a better look, but couldn't see anything beyond the top of the hill over which Miguel had disappeared. â€Å"Miguel?† he called. But there was no answer. He glanced inside the shed to see that everything was in order, and as far as he could tell, it was. Then he picked up his assault rifle and started across the pasture. Before he got three steps, he saw a white woman coming over the hill. She had the face and body of a hot senorita, but the wild gray-blonde hair of an old woman, and he wondered for the thousandth time what in the hell was wrong with American women. Were they all crazy? He lowered the assault rifle, but smiled as he did it, hoping to warn the woman off without making her suspicious. â€Å"You stop,† he said in English. â€Å"No trespass.† He heard the cell phone ringing back in the shed and glanced back for a second. The woman kept coming. â€Å"We met your friend,† Molly said. â€Å"Who is we?† Ignacio asked. His answer came over the hill behind the woman, first looking like two burned scrub oak trees, then the giant cat's eyes. â€Å"Holy Mary, Mother of God,† Ignacio said as he wrestled with the bolt on the assault rifle. Theo Eight years of living at the edge of the ranch and never once had Theo so much as taken a walk down the dirt road. He had been under orders not to. But now what? He'd seen the trucks going in and out over the years, occasionally heard men shouting, but somehow he'd managed to ignore it all, and there had never been gunfire. Going onto the ranch to investigate automatic weapons fire seemed an especially stupid way to exercise his newfound freedom, but not investigating, well, that said something about him he wasn't willing to face. Was he, in fact, a coward? The sound of a man screaming in the distance made the decision for him. It wasn't the sound of someone blowing off steam, it was a throat-stripping scream of pure terror. Theo kicked the shards of his bong collection off the front steps and went back to the closet to get his pistol. The Smith & Wesson was wrapped in an oily cloth on the top shelf of his closet next to a box of shells. He unwrapped it, snapped open the cylin-der, and dropped in six cartridges, fighting the shake that was moving from his hands to his entire body. He dumped another six shells into his shirt pocket and headed out to the Volvo. He started the Volvo, then grabbed the radio mike to call for some backup. A lot of good that would do. Response time from the Sheriff's Department could run as long as thirty minutes in Pine Cove, which was one of the reasons there was a town constable in the first place. And what would he say? He was still under orders not to go onto the ranch. He dropped the mike on the seat next to his gun, put the Volvo in gear, and was starting to back out when a Dodge minivan pulled in beside him. Joseph Leander waved and smiled at him from the driver's seat. Theo put the Volvo in park. Leander climbed out of his van and leaned into the passenger window and looked at the .357 lying on the seat. â€Å"I need to talk to you,† he said. â€Å"You weren't much for talking an hour ago.† â€Å"I am now.† â€Å"Later. I'm just going to check something out on the ranch.† â€Å"That's perfect,† Leander said, shoving a small automatic pistol through the window into Theo's face. â€Å"We'll go together.† Eighteen Dr. Val The bust of Hippocrates stared up at Val Riordan from the desk. â€Å"First, do no harm†¦Ã¢â‚¬  â€Å"Yeah, bite me,† said the psychiatrist, throwing her Versace scarf over the Greek's face. Val was having a bad day. The call from Constable Crowe, revealing that her treatment, or lack of it, had not caused Bess Leander's suicide, had thrown Val into a quandary. She'd zombied her way through her morning appointments, answering questions with questions, pretending to take notes, and not catching a word that anyone said to her. Five years ago there had been a flood of stories in the media about the dangers of Prozac and similar antidepressants, but those stories had been set off by sensational lawsuits against the drug companies, and the follow-ups, the fact that not one jury found antidepressants to cause destructive behavior, had been buried in the back pages. One powerful religious group (whose prophet was a hack science fiction writer and whose followers in-cluded masses of deluded movie stars and supermodels) had fielded a media attack against antidepressants, recommending instead that the de-pressed should just cheer up, buck up, and send in some gas money to keep the Mother Ship running. The various professional journals had re ported no studies that proved that antidepressants increased the incidence of suicidal or violent behavior. Val had read the religious propaganda (it had the endorsement of the rich and famous), but she hadn't read the professional journals. Yes, automatically treating her pat ients with antide-pressants had been wrong, but her attempt to atone by taking them all off the drugs was just as wrong. Now she had to deal with the fact that she might be hurting them. Val hit the speed dial button to the pharmacy. Winston Krauss answered, but his voice was muted, as if he had an incredibly bad cold. â€Å"Pine Cobe Drug and Gibt.† â€Å"Winston, you sound horrible.† â€Å"I hab on my mask and snorkle.† â€Å"Oh, Winston.† Val rubbed her eyes, causing her contacts to slide back in her head somewhere. â€Å"Not at the store.† â€Å"I'm in the back room.† His voice became clear on the last word of the sentence. â€Å"There, I took it off. I'm glad you called, I've been wanting to talk to you about killer whales.† â€Å"Pardon?† â€Å"I'm attracted to Orcas. I've been watching a Jacques Cousteau tape about them†¦Ã¢â‚¬  â€Å"Winston, can we cover this in session†¦?† â€Å"I'm worried. I was especially turned on by the male one. Does that make me a homosexual?† Jeez, it didn't worry him that he was a wannabe whale-humper, as long as he wasn't a gay wannabe whale-humper. As a psychiatrist, she'd tried to drop terms like â€Å"full-blown batshit† from her vocabulary, even in thought, yet with Winston, she couldn't keep the term from rising. Lately, Val felt as if she was running the batshit concession on the cave floor. It had to stop. â€Å"Winston, I'm putting everyone back on their SSRIs. Get rid of the placebos. I'm going to put everyone on Paxil to get their levels up as quickly as possible. Make sure to warn the ones who were on Prozac that they absolutely can't miss a day like they used to. I'll move those who need it later.† â€Å"You want me to take everyone off of the placebos? Do you know how much money we are making?† â€Å"Start today. I'm going to call my patients. I want you to give them credit for the unused placebos they still have.† â€Å"I won't do it. I almost have enough saved to spend a month at the Cetacean Research Center on Grand Bahama. You can't take that away from me.† â€Å"Winston, I won't compromise my patients' mental health so you can go on vacation and fuck Flipper.† â€Å"I said I won't do it. You were the one who started this. What about your patients' mental health then?† â€Å"I was wrong. I'm not going to put everyone back on antidepressants either, so you're going to lose some revenue there too. Some of them didn't need the drugs in the first place.† â€Å"No.† Val was shocked at the conviction in Winston's voice. His self-esteem problem no longer seemed an issue. What a crappy time for him to be making progress. â€Å"So you want the town to know about your little problem?† â€Å"You won't do that. You have more to lose than I do, Valerie. If you blow the whistle on me, then I'll tell the whole story to the papers. I'll get immunity and you'll go to jail.† â€Å"You bastard. I'll send my patients down to the Thrifty Mart in San Junipero. Then you won't even have the legitimate sales.† â€Å"No, you won't. Things are going to stay just the way they are, Dr. Val.† Winston hung up. Valerie Riordan stared at the receiver for a second be fore replacing it in its cradle. How? How in the hell had she given control of her life over to someone like Winston Krauss? More important, how was she going to get it back without going to jail? Theo Joseph Leander had the automatic stuck against Theo's ribs. He'd thrown Theo's gun into the backseat. Leander was wearing a tweed jacket and wool dress slacks and a film of sweat was forming on his forehead. The Volvo bounced over a rut in the dirt road and Theo felt the barrel of the automatic dig into his ribs. He was trying to remember what you were supposed to do in such a situation, but all he could remember from the cop shows that he'd watched was never to give up your gun. â€Å"Joseph, could you pull that gun out of my ribs, or put the safety on, or something? This is a pretty bumpy road. I'd hate to lose a lung because I didn't get new shocks.† That sounded sufficiently glib, he thought. Professionally calm. Now if he could just avoid wetting himself. â€Å"You couldn't leave it alone, could you? It would have just passed into history and no one would have noticed, but you had to dig things up.† â€Å"So you did kill her?† â€Å"Let's say I helped her make a decision that she'd been waffling about.† â€Å"She was the mother of your children.† â€Å"Right, and she treated me with about as much respect as a turkey baster.† â€Å"Wow, you lost me there, partner.† â€Å"They use them for artificial insemination, Crowe, you fucking stoner. One squirt and you throw them away.† â€Å"You got tired of being a turkey baster, so you hung your wife?† â€Å"Her herb garden killed her. Foxglove tea. Contains huge amount of digitalis. Stops the heart and it's almost undetectable unless you're looking for it. Ironic, isn't it? I would have never known about any of that crap if she hadn't blathered on about it constantly.† Theo was not at all happy that Leander was telling him this. It meant that he was going to have to make some sort of move to save himself or he was dead. Ram a tree maybe? He checked Leander's seat belt; it was buckled. What kind of criminal kidnaps someone and remembers to buckle his seat belt? Stall for now. â€Å"There were heel marks on the wall.† â€Å"Nice touches, I thought. I don't know, she may have still been alive when I hung her up there.† They were coming out of the forest that surrounded the ranch into an open pasture. Theo could see a metal shed next to a double-wide house trailer a couple of hundred yards ahead. A bright red Dodge truck was parked by the shed. â€Å"Hmmm,† Leander said. â€Å"They got a new trailer for the boys. Pull up to the shed and park.† Theo felt panic rise in his throat like acid and fought it down. Keep them talking and they won't shoot. Hadn't he heard that somewhere? â€Å"So you killed your wife for a big-screen TV and a tumble with Betsy? Divorce never occurred to you?† Leander laughed and Theo felt a chill run through his body. â€Å"You really are dense, aren't you, Crowe? See that shed up there? Well, I hauled twenty-eight million dollars' worth of methamphetamine out of that shed last year. Granted, I only get a piece of that, but it's a nice piece. I move it all. I'm a salesman, a family man, innocuous and unnoticeable. Who'd suspect me? Mr. Milquetoast.† â€Å"Your wife?† â€Å"Bess found out about it. Funny thing is, she was following me because she suspected an affair, but she never found out a thing about Betsy and me. She was going to turn me in. I had no choice.† Theo pulled up next to the shed and turned off the Volvo. â€Å"You have a choice now, Joseph. You don't have to do this.† â€Å"I'm not doing anything but going back to my life until there's enough money in my offshore accounts to take off. Don't get me wrong, Crowe. I didn't enjoy killing Bess. I'm not a killer. Hell, I've never even taken any drugs. This isn't crime, it's just a well-paid delivery route.† â€Å"So you're not going to shoot me?† Theo really, really wanted to believe that. â€Å"Not if you do what I tell you to do. Get out of the car. Leave the keys. Slide over and come out on my side.† Theo did as he was told and Leander kept the pistol trained on him the whole time. Where did Leander learn to do that? He'd hadn't had a television that long. Guy must have taken a mail-order course or something. â€Å"Miguel! Ignacio! Come out here!† Leander gestured with the pistol for Theo to move toward the shack. â€Å"Go inside.† Theo ducked to get through the door and immediately saw rack upon rack of lab glass, glass tubing, and plastic barrels of chemicals. A single metal chair sat in front of half a dozen electric burners that were filling the shed with a brutal heat. â€Å"Sit down,† Leander commanded. As Theo sat, he felt the handcuffs being yanked out of his back pocket. â€Å"Put your hands behind you.† Theo did as he was told and Leander threaded the handcuffs through two metal bars at the back of the chair and snapped them over Theo's wrists. â€Å"I've got to go find these guys,† Leander said. â€Å"Probably taking a siesta. What was Burton thinking when he put a house trailer down here? I'll be back in a second.† â€Å"Then what?† â€Å"Then Ignacio will shoot you, I'm guessing.† Molly This was a first: a guy that actually did what you asked him to do. When she heard a car coming down the ranch road, she asked Steve to make himself look like a trailer and he had done it. Sure, she had to make a little box diagram in the air with her hands, and he missed the first time, trying to make himself look like the tin shed next to him, a miserable failure that resulted in only his head changing and making him look like a dragon wearing an aluminum bag over his head, but after a few seconds he got it. What a guy. Okay, his tail, which had always hung down into the creek bed before, was showing, but maybe no one would notice. â€Å"What a guy,† she said, patting him on his air-conditioning unit. Or at least it was an air-conditioning unit now. No telling what body part it had been before he changed into a trailer. She's patting my unit, Steve thought. A low growl of pleasure rolled out of his front door. Molly ran and hid behind the shed, peeking out to watch the white Volvo pull up and stop. She almost stepped out to say hi to Theo, then saw the other man in the car holding a gun on him. She listened as the bald guy led Theo into the shed and made some threats. She wanted to jump out and say, â€Å"No, Ignacio won't be shooting anyone, Mr. Bald Guy. He's busy being digested right now,† but the guy did have a gun. How the hell did Theo let himself be taken prisoner by someone who looked like an assistant principal? When it was evident that the bald guy was coming out, she ran to the dragon trailer, caught the edge of the air-conditioning unit, and swung herself up onto the roof. The bald guy was going around to the front door. She ran over Steve's back and looked down over the edge. â€Å"Miguel! Ignacio!† the bald guy yelled. â€Å"Get out here!† He seemed uncertain about going into the trailer. â€Å"I saw them go in there,† Molly said. The bald guy stepped back, looking like he was going to go into a fit searching for where the voice had come from. â€Å"You're an assistant principal, aren't you?† Molly said. The bald guy finally spotted her and tried to hide the gun behind his back. â€Å"You're that crazy woman,† he said. â€Å"What are you doing here?† Molly scooched up to the edge of the dragon trailer. â€Å"‘Scuse me? Pardon me? Beg your pardon? I'm the what?† He ignored her question. â€Å"What are you doing here?† â€Å"Excuse me. Excuse me, excuse me,† she almost sang. â€Å"There is an as-yet-unapologized-for aspersion on the floor. You'll have to handle that before we move on.† â€Å"I'm not apologizing for anything. What are you doing here? Where are Ignacio and Miguel?† â€Å"You're not apologizing?† â€Å"No. Get down from there.† He showed her the gun. â€Å"‘Kay,† Molly said, patting Steve on the head/roof. â€Å"Steve, eat this impolite motherfucker.† She'd seen it before, but it was especially exciting to be sitting on Steve's head when he changed shape and his tongue leapt out below her to wrap around the assistant principal. After the initial slurp, the inevitable crunch (which had bothered her before) was sort of satisfying. She couldn't figure out if it was because the assistant principal had pointed a gun at her friend and called her a crazy woman, or if she was just getting used to it. â€Å"That was just swell,† she said. She ran across Steve's back, slid down to the top of the air-conditioning unit, then jumped to the ground. Steve growled and the angles of his trailer form melted into the curves and sinew of his dragon shape. He rolled over on his side and Molly watched as the scales on his belly parted and seven feet of dragon penis emerged as thick and stiff as a telephone pole. Luminescent colors flashed up the length of the organ. â€Å"Wow, that is impressive,† Molly said, taking a few steps backward. Steve sent her a message similar to the one he had sent to the fuel truck. It worked better on Molly. Her knees went wobbly, a warm tingling ran up her thighs, and she could feel the pulse rising in her temples. She looked into Steve's eyes (well, one of them anyway), stepped up to his face and gently touched him on the lips (or what would have been lips, if he'd had them), and let the sweetly acrid smell of his breath (a mix of Old Spice, manly Mexicans, and barfed cow) wash over her. â€Å"You know,† she said, â€Å"I never kissed a guy with assistant principal on his breath.†

Position of Women in India

â€Å"Savitri fought with the God of Death (Yama) and succeeded in getting her husband back to life. Can you find any instance in the scriptures or history where a husband was prepared to do sacrifice for his wife? If the wife is dead, he is ready to have a second marriage. Such unfair things are happening in the world in respect of women. † -: Sathya Sai (Volume 31, Chapter 14 ‘Glory Of Womanhood') When we look at the Hindu mythology we see that women are supposed to be treated as Goddesses. One of the most popular festivals of Hindus is the ‘Navratra’ in which Hindus worship Goddess Durga (the worrier goddess), Goddess Lakshmi (the goddess of wealth and prosperity) and Goddess Saraswati (the goddess of Knowledge and Arts). On the last day of this festival, the daughters of the house are worshiped. But still in India we see that our society has grown so favorable towards the males. Hindu’s, even after referring to the daughters as Devi (goddess), expect a widow to jump on the pyre of the husband, a practice known as Sati. Dowry is still date given (even after being criminalized) to the groom at the time of marriage. The Gender imbalance can be traced down to Manusmriti in 200 B. C. which lays down the duties of a woman. â€Å"In childhood a female must be subject to her father, in youth to her husband, when her lord is dead to her sons; a woman must never be independent. † . The Manusmriti were used as a model for the framing of the Dharmashastra, which later became the local laws. Thus we can see the position of women in India today is because of century old traditions and customs. Even though the Constitution of India promotes gender equality through the notion of Equality and secularism providing a framework to treat all its citizens equal and commands that no discrimination should be made on the bases of one’s gender , gender discrimination still exists due to the presence of various personal laws. In recent years, India has witnessed many reforms for example the abolishment of sati and criminalizing sex determination. The Hindu Succession Act, 1956 The Hindu Succession Act, 1956 (HSA) amends and codifies the law relating to intestate succession among Hindus and aims to lay down a uniform law of uccession whereby attempt has been made to ensure equality of inheritance rights between sons and daughters. It applies to all Hindus including Buddhists, Jains and Sikhs’ . The section 6 of the act is as follows: ‘Devolution of interest of coparcenary property. – When a male Hindu dies after the commencement of this Act, having at the time of his death an interest in a Mitakshara coparcenary property, his interest in the property shall devolve by survivorship upon the surviving members of the coparcenary and not in accordance with this Act. Provided that, if the deceased had left him surviving a female relative specified in class 1 of the Schedule or a male relative specified in that class who claims through such female relative, the interest of the deceased in the Mitakshara coparcenary property shall devolve by testamentary or intestate succession, as the case may be, under this Act and not by survivorship. Explanation 1. For the purposes of this section, the interest of a Hindu Mitakshara coparcener shall be deemed to be the share in the property that would have been allotted to him if a partition of the property had taken place immediately before his death, irrespective of whether he was entitled to claim partition or not. Explanation 2. – Nothing contained in the proviso to this section shall be construed as enabling a person who has separated himself from the coparcenary before the death of the deceased or any of his heirs to claim on intestacy a share in the interest referred to therein. For example, F (th e farther who had an interest in the coparcenary property) has two sons A & B (who are also the members of the coparcenary) and a daughter D. In such a case on the death of A, D will get only 1/3 share from the share of A in the coparcenary property. While the sons A and B will get 1/3 +1/9 each. But this act remained under controversy as the laws of inheritance gave preference only class I heirs in a joint Hindu family. This included only the male members and excluded women. Due to this women of the family could not inherit the family ancestral property. But even before the amendment took place, in states like Maharashtra, and Karnataka, women were given equal rights. Hindu Succession (Amendment) Act, 2005 For a very long time female members of the family were not considered a coparcener. The family property was divided only amongst the male members of the family. But then thanks to the feminist movements in India, the law commission of India submitted its 174th report in the year 2000: â€Å"Property Rights of Women: Proposed Reform under the Hindu Law†. In this report it was suggested that female members of the family should be included under the list of coparcenary thus giving them the right to inherit property. As a result of this report and other feminist movements, the Hindu Succession Act was amended and the Hindu Succession (Amendment) Act, 2005 came into force from 9th September 2005 ‘section 6 (l). Devolution of interest in coparcenary property. 1) On and from the commencement of the Hindu Succession (Amendment) Act, 2005, in a Joint Hindu family governed by the Mitakshara law, the daughter of a coparcener shall,– (a) by birth become a coparcener in her own right the same manner as the son ; (b) have the same rights in the coparcenary property as she would have had if she had been a son; (c) be subject to the same liabilities in respect of the said coparcenary property as that of a son, and any reference to a Hindu Mitakshara coparcener shall be deemed to include a reference to a daughter of a coparcener: Provided that nothing contained in this sub-section shall affect or invalidate any disposition or alienation including any partition or testamentary disposition of property which had taken place before the 20th day of December, 2004. 2) Any property to which a female Hindu becomes entitled by virtue of subsection (1) shall be held by her with the incidents of coparcenary ownership and shall be regarded, notwithstanding anything contained in this Act or any other law for the time being in force in, as property capable of being disposed of by her by testamentary disposition. (3) Where a Hindu dies after the commencement of the Hindu Succession (Amendment) Act, 2005, his interest in the property of a Joint Hindu family governed by the Mitakshara law, shall devolve by testamentary or intestate succession, as the case may be, under this Act and not by survivorship, and the coparcenary property shall be deemed to have been divided as if a partition had taken place and,- a) the daughter is allotted the same share as is allotted to a son (b) the share of the pre-deceased son or a pre-deceased daughter, as they would have got had they been alive at the time of partition, shall be allotted to the surviving child of such pre-deceased son or of such pre-deceased daughter; and (c) the share of the pre-deceased child of a pre-deceased son or of a predeceased daughter, as such child would have got had he or she been alive at the time of the partition, shall be allotted to the child of such pre-deceased child of the pre-deceased so or a pre-deceased daughter, as the case may be. Explanation. — For the purposes of this sub-section, the interest of a Hindu Mitakshara coparcener shall be deemed to be the share in the property that would have been allotted to him if a partition of the property had taken place immediately before his death, irrespective of whether he was entitled to claim partition or not. 4) After the commencement of the Hindu Succession (Amendment) Act, 2005, no court shall recognize any right to proceed against a son, grandson or great-grandson for the recovery of any debt due from his father, grandfather or great-grandfather solely on the ground of the pious obligation under the Hindu law, of such son, grandson or great-grandson to discharge any such debt: Provided that in the case of any debt contracted before the commencement of the Hindu Succession (Amendment) Act, 2005, nothing contained in this sub-section shall affect– (a) the right of any creditor to proceed against the son, grandson or great-grandson, as the case may be; or (b) any alienation made in respect of or in satisfaction of, any such debt, and any such right or alienation shall be enforceable under the rule of pious obligation in the same manner and to the same extent as it would have been enforceable as if the Hindu Succession (Amendment) Act, 2005 had not been enacted. Explanation. For the purposes of clause (a), the expression â€Å"son†, â€Å"grandson† or â€Å"great-grandson† shall be deemed to refer to the son, grandson or great-grandson, as the case may be, who was born or adopted prior to the commencement of the Hindu Succession (Amendment) Act, 2005. 5) Nothing contained in this section shall apply to a partition, which has been effected before the 20th day of December 2004. Explanation- For the purposes of this section â€Å"partition† means any partition made by execution of a deed of partition duly registered under the Registration Act, 1908 or partition affected by a decree of a court’ The main objective of this act was to include women in the category of coparcenaries so that even the female members could inherit property under any circumstances which could lead to a situation of where the family property is being divided amongst its members . The author submits that this amendment gave women the right they deserv ed and which had been denied from the very beginning. This amendment also opposes Section 23 of the original act, suggesting omission of the same as it does not permit any female heir to ask for a partition. In the earlier act only a male heir could chose to have a partition. The amendment on the other hand does not interfere with the special rights of those who are members of Hindu coparcenary except to provide rules and certain other regulations for division of interest of a deceased male. The Author also submits that the anomalies which still persist are because of the retention of the core essence of the Mitakshara joint property system. The system believed that making daughter coparceners would affect the share of other Class I female heirs like the deceased’s widow and mother. This would be because the coparcenary’s share would in fact come from the Class I female heirs. Another problem is the fact that coparcenary remains a primary entitlement of the males in the house. By this system the male heir is put before the female heir as this legal set up provides that the male heirs should inherit an additional independent share over and above what they inherit with the female heirs. In the case of a ‘Hindu female dying without a will; her property divides first to her husband’s heirs, then to husband's father's heirs and finally only to mother's heirs; more or less this property of a Hindu female is well kept and maintained within her husband’s hold. ’ .

Review of Literature essays

Review of Literature essays Has anyone ever wondered about how fast things decay? Well I have started a project to find out. I have decided to take 4 pots and fill them with dirt. I will then bury a raw potato cube at different depths and check on the potato every 2-3 weeks. Photographs will be taken and compared. This topic will most likely help farmers who grow certain raw crops. First, I will talk about my independent variable. It is the depth of the raw potato cube. Depth is defined from the dictionary as the quality of being deep. The size of the raw potato cube will be 2cm by 2cm by 2cm. The depth will be 4 inches, 6 inches, and 7 inches each in separate pots. Next, I will explain the dependent variable, the rate of decay of the raw potato cube. This will be distinguished by the physical characteristics of the raw potato cube. The decomposition of crop residue, after harvesting the crop product of economical importance, and transformation of organic nitrogen (N) into ammonium (NH4) and nitrate (NO3) forms (N mineralization) provide sources of plant available N. The purpose of this study was to estimate the contribution of N from mineralization of crop residues following the harvest of either corn, wheat, or potato in a typical potato production region in the PNW. Third, it shall be explained how the IV affects the DV. The depth may change the decay rate of the raw potato cube. As the depth of the potato cube increases, it is more immersed and surrounded by dirt and receives no light whatsoever. The decomposition of crop residue and transformation of organic nitrogen (N) into ammonium (NH4) and nitrate (NO3) forms (a.k.a. N mineralization) provide sources of plant available including potato. The rate of the decomposition of a raw potato is my topic and science fair idea. To summarize this entire review of literature, the raw potato decay rate will be increased with the depth of the raw potato. ...

Electronic Marketing Basics Essays - Marketing, Economy, Free Essays

Electronic Marketing Basics Essays - Marketing, Economy, Free Essays Electronic Marketing Basics Many people have been burned over and over again by fast buck artists selling a lot of hype and saying how easy it is to make big money in electronic marketing. The fact is electronic marketing can be the fastest way to lose a lot of money quickly. Many business owners have lost thousands of dollars using these supposed (no cost) forms of marketing. People put up a Website, do some advertising, and expect the profits to roll in. In most, case that is not the way it works. They say that marketing on the Internet is free so why is 94% of all online business are currently losing money on the Internet. Yes there are a few organizations that do make some money off the Internet advertisement, but there is ways to make even more money. It is easy to earn a substantial income from home or office computer with an online business if

Moments - Definition of Statistics Terms

Moments - Definition of Statistics Terms Moments in mathematical statistics involve a basic calculation.  These calculations can be used to find a probability distributions mean, variance, and skewness. Suppose that we have a set of data with a total of n discrete points. One important calculation, which is actually several numbers, is called the sth moment. The sth moment of the data set with values x1, x2, x3, ... , xn is given by the formula: (x1s x2s x3s ... xns)/n Using this formula requires us to be careful with our order of operations. We need to do the exponents first, add, then divide this sum by n the total number of data values. A Note on the Term Moment The term moment has been taken from physics. In physics, the moment of a system of point masses is calculated with a formula identical to that above, and this formula is used in finding the center of mass of the points. In statistics, the values are no longer masses, but as we will see, moments in statistics still measure something relative to the center of the values.​ First Moment For the first moment, we set s 1. The formula for the first moment is thus: (x1x2 x3 ... xn)/n This is identical to the formula for the sample mean. The first moment of the values 1, 3, 6, 10 is (1 3 6 10) / 4 20/4 5. Second Moment For the second moment we set s 2. The formula for the second moment is: (x12 x22 x32 ... xn2)/n The second moment of the values 1, 3, 6, 10 is (12 32 62 102) / 4 (1 9 36 100)/4 146/4 36.5. Third Moment For the third moment we set s 3. The formula for the third moment is: (x13 x23 x33 ... xn3)/n The third moment of the values 1, 3, 6, 10 is (13 33 63 103) / 4 (1 27 216 1000)/4 1244/4 311. Higher moments can be calculated in a similar way. Just replace s in the above formula with the number denoting the desired moment. Moments About the Mean A related idea is that of the sth moment about the mean. In this calculation we perform the following steps: First, calculate the mean of the values.Next, subtract this mean from each value.Then raise each of these differences to the sth power.Now add the numbers from step #3 together.Finally, divide this sum by the number of values we started with. The formula for the sth moment about the mean m of the values values x1, x2, x3, ..., xn is given by: ms ((x1 - m)s (x2 - m)s (x3 - m)s ... (xn - m)s)/n First Moment About the Mean The first moment about the mean is always equal to zero, no matter what the data set is that we are working with. This can be seen in the following: m1 ((x1 - m) (x2 - m) (x3 - m) ... (xn - m))/n ((x1 x2 x3 ... xn) - nm)/n m - m 0. Second Moment About the Mean The second moment about the mean is obtained from the above formula by settings 2: m2 ((x1 - m)2 (x2 - m)2 (x3 - m)2 ... (xn - m)2)/n This formula is equivalent to that for the sample variance. For example, consider the set 1, 3, 6, 10. We have already calculated the mean of this set to be 5. Subtract this from each of the data values to obtain differences of: 1 – 5 -43 – 5 -26 – 5 110 – 5 5 We square each of these values and add them together: (-4)2 (-2)2 12 52 16 4 1 25 46. Finally divide this number by the number of data points: 46/4 11.5 Applications of Moments As mentioned above, the first moment is the mean and the second moment about the mean is the sample variance. Karl Pearson introduced the use of the third moment about the mean in calculating skewness and the fourth moment about the mean in the calculation of kurtosis.

How the marriage changed in my culture due to the discovery of oil Essay

How the marriage changed in my culture due to the discovery of oil - Essay Example However, before marrying, he had to find a new residence where he could move with his wife. Looking for a new residence was never an issue 20 years ago when my father got married. My father lived with his parents even after marriage until his family got bigger. The family only moved to a new place more than five years later because my father’s large family could not be accommodated further. Illustration given shows how our culture transformed from a patrilocality residence to neo-locality residence in the Emirates culture. Economic reasons caused the change in the residence in the UAE. Economic soundness in the Emirates culture enabled newly married couples to live independently. Unlike olden days when the UAE culture encouraged traditional businesses such as fishing and livestock farming that were held as family businesses, most of the modern families are currently employed in the oil industry. Traditionally, an extended family could own a particular business collectively but discovery of oil in the region led to foreign labor that saw everyone going for independent job. Family members no longer remained with their families because they would move freely to seek greener pastures without worrying about family business. In a nutshell, oil discovery led to economic growth that eventually provided labor to many young people who no longer cared about their family businesses. Married couples can now move to their chosen areas of residence because funds are available to sustain them. UAE’s oil discovery has seen family status changing from an extended to a nuclear

Dubai Ports World (DP World) Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Dubai Ports World (DP World) - Assignment Example Like most companies, DP World seeks growth and profitability through strategic initiatives, judicious financial management, and conducting routine internal assessments of its strength and weakness and understanding the industry threats and opportunities. In addition, positioning itself where it can take advantage of new market opportunities and grow is one thing. Coming up with new ways to conduct current operations is another. Modernizing its information technology infrastructure, sustaining a commitment to community projects in which it operates, understanding the political, social, economic and technological factors that influence its business and providing a work environment that DP world supports through training and development will position DP World to take advantage of opportunities to grow and expand into new markets. Core Industry Dubai Ports World (DP World) operates in the international marine terminal business (port operations) providing development and logistics services (DP World, 2010). Specifically, the majority of DP World management is in container handling services as part of an overall strategy of managing container, bulk and terminal cargo. In addition to containers, DP World also operates general cargo, bulk cargo, Ro-Ro vessel (such as car handling), and passenger terminals. DP World also operates P&O Maritime Services, DP World Cargo Services and DP World Intermodal. According to the DP World website, P&O Maritime Services is a ``specialist provider of maritime services to industry and government`` (DP World, 2010). DP World Cargo provides stevedoring (loading and unloading) services. These services include containers, bulk, general cargo, project cargoes, car carriers, reefer vessels and passenger vessel stores and baggage handling. DP World Intermodal operates what it refers to as ``outside th e gate`` (DP World Intermodal, n.d.) services to help clients streamline their supply chains, specifically in the railway services industry. This service is more formally called Container Rail Road Services Private Limited, or CRRS for short (DP World Intermodal, n.d.). Its P&O operations are diverse and include government shipping services, cargo services, port services (including skilled crews, shore support staff and vessel maintenance), offshore specialized marine services to the offshore oil and gas industry, defence, chartering (including ship brokering and chartering for mining and bulk minerals) and agency services (including ship agency, chandlery and manning services) (P&O Maritime, n.d.). Chandlery services cover supplies and equipment. Key Substitute Products / Services According to an OAS overview (Rossignol, 2007, p. 7), companies in this strategic assessment include (with number of ports in operation, millions of TEU throughput): 1. HPH - Hutchinson Port Holdings (45, 33.2). 2. PSA – Singapore Port Authority (25, 32.4). 3. APMT - APM Terminals (40, 24.1). 4. P&O Ports (acquired by DP World). 5. DP World (42, 35.2 – when combined with P&O Ports). 6. Evergreen Marine Corp (240, 11.5). 7. Eurogate (10, 11.4). 8. COSC - China Ocean Shipping Company (34, 8.1). 9. SSA Marine (150, 6.7). 10. MSH - Mediterranean Shipping Company (215, 5.7). Global growth is a key vision for DP World and this variable could be used as one of the key strategic measures. Growth can be measured in terms of TEU units. TEU is short for twenty-foot equivalent units as this is the majority of the industry

Marketing Strategy for a New Product Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Marketing Strategy for a New Product - Essay Example The structure P&G adopted changed from a â€Å"Global Matrix† to a hybrid organizational structure. Roald Jean Degenalso termed it as â€Å"Front-Back Hybrid Matrix organization† structure. The structure focusses on two key areas in its operations; namely the customer markets designed on the front end and the end products designed on the back end. Therefore, it can combine both customer focus and responsiveness.P&G has four major divisions with each having a sub-division. These include Europe consisting of Middle East/Africa, Western Europe and Central Europe. North America has the United States/Puerto Rico and Canada. Latin America has Asia/Australia. Lastly, Greater China, with its headquarters at Singapore, has Northeast Asia, Australia and India/ASEAN.The organization functions from an additional matrix across two parallel organizations. Key areas of focus here include finance and accounting, information technology, customer business developments, product supply, ex ternal relations, consumer and market knowledge, research and development, legal and human resources. There are unit managers charged with two responsibilities. These include looking afterWashing clothes and maintaining good hygiene is undertaken by most people. Majority of people in the 21st century are spending much of their time in the laundry. This means that most people are valuing laundry services. With the current advancements in technology, there is a growing demand for sophisticated laundry products by the consumers.

Capacity Planning and Performance Modeling Essay

Capacity Planning and Performance Modeling - Essay Example I have experienced working with work planner 1.40. The software helps to plan a wide range of activities for instance trips, events, vacations, meetings or other daily works. It uses intuitive charts to represent data, and a planner can see the plan at a glance. Moreover, the planner can print a chart report or a list report depending on their need. Therefore, the software is easy to use, does not have limits on the planning numbers, and is time saving and fast. Mimosa is software that is widespread used for scheduling and course planning in a variety of school and university regardless of its size. Platform: Windows 98, Windows 2000, Windows XP. System requirements: 12 MB on disk. Language: English. Performance measurement software helps to test how the system performs under specific workload. It gives feedback, which is essential for managerial decisions. Moreover, measurement also enables users to improve the software process. It assists in monitoring planning and tracking the software project and evaluates the quality of the software thus created. I chose active strategy software and strategy scorecard. This is because of the availability of this software, coupled with the self-explanatory demos available online. This software enables the database to be placed on a network from which it can be accessed by many users. Security is enhanced by the operating system, and controls are enhanced on whom can run the program. In this exercise, I have learnt the crucial role played by modern technology particularly the advance in the software arena, in key management decision making. It is paramount for organizations to invest to conduct capacity planning despite the fact that servers are cheap and available. Moreover, I have learnt the core foundations and requirements of a successful capacity planning system and generally, the importance of capacity planning in an

The role of intelligence in energy security. An analysis of the Essay

The role of intelligence in energy security. An analysis of the ongoing competition over Caspian Oil and Gas reserves between major states - Essay Example Former oil industry executive, and now current American Vice-President Dick Cheney famously remarked, "I cant think of a time when weve had a region emerge as suddenly to become as strategically significant as the Caspian†.1 Accordingly, access to oil has quickly become a hotly contested issue with protagonists from East to West seeking to reap the benefits of the full-scale exploitation of what has quickly become one of the most geopolitically significant regions of the globe. Aiming to explore the strategic development of the Caspian Sea region and the emergence of this territory as a globally-contested hot-spot, this dissertation will seek to address a variety of important questions. These include the following research questions which will guide this analysis: Accordingly, these questions and many more will guide our analysis of the role of intelligence in energy security in the Caspian Sea region. Seeking to provide a thorough and concise overview of the current challenges facing the full exploitation of a region which has quickly become strategically significant in geopolitical affairs, this essay will be organized in the following manner. Beginning with a brief overview of the research design, methodology and data recovery employed, this section will be followed by a concise yet relevant historical analysis of the Caspian region as well as the historical antecedents to the development of the Caspian Sea region. The Caspian Sea region is important to global energy markets as it is a newly discovered source of natural resources including oil and natural gas. Accordingly, this region has the potential to become a major exporter of oil and natural gas into the twenty first century. After more than eight years of exploration and development, in May of 2005 oil from the southernmost sections of the Caspian Sea began pumping through a new pipeline established by a British Petroleum-led

Advanced financial reporting and regulation Essay

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The role of intelligence in energy security. An analysis of the Essay

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