Marriage Contract

Marriage contracts have become fashionable in this twenty first century. This is where the husband and wife agree to be married only for a period of time. This can be done formally or informally. Usually this is characterized by writing of wills. The contract springs from the arbitrary will of the people involved. In this case the husband and wife. This usually shows who will own the property after the contract expires. The contract is usually formal when there is a common will between the parties. This is where there is alienation of a thing, and in this case one of the parties has a negative moment. There is also appropriation of the thing where the other party has a positive moment. Marriage is usually understood as a social institution. It generally constitutes of social, religious, communicative, and contractual dimensions. There are usually conflicting needs and natural inclinations when marriage is viewed as a contract. Philosophy of Marriage The philosophy of marriage acknowledges that this institution provides security for the people there in. This philosophy stipulates that the parties involved have to take full responsibility to children until they are old enough to be independent. This means that the fruits of procreation will always exist in a marriage. This is where individuals will provide protection and support to each other. In the marriage philosophy, there exists mutual respect between the parties. Each partner brings in love, and care to the relationship. In this case there is no overriding partner or superiority is not exercised in this case. There is equality between the parties. [1] Philosophy of Love This shows that people get married to the people they love and those that they are attracted to. The philosophy of love acknowledges that love normally diminishes with time when the parties get married. There are different types of love .This includes the Eros that is characterized by excitement and intimacy. This commonly exists between people of the different sex. Love is important to any marriage set up. There is also the agape and philia love. Religion There are various forms of religion in the world today. The marriage union may bring together people of diverse religions. Among the religions available[2] includes Christianity, Muslim, Hinduism, Buddhists etc. Due to high mobility rates individuals in marriage may be from different religions. This factor has influenced formation of marriage contracts. This is where either of the parties doesn’t want to change his or her religion or stay with someone of a different religion forever. They then agree to stay together just for a period. In case children are born in such set up then they may be allowed to choose for themselves once they are mature enough. When the children are still young it becomes hard to decide which religion they belong. Parties can cope by allowing children be of father’s religion till they are old enough to choose. Rearing of Children Most marriages are normally blessed with children. Some partners may agree not to have children at all. In contract marriages, partners provide care, support and protection to children when the contract still exists. When the contract expires, the parties agree who will take custody of children. Some partners may share the kids between themselves. Most of them let the mother take custody of the children and the father supports financially. In this case the father may be allowed to visit. This is how the parties cope. Communication Communication is an important aspect in any marriage set up. In marriage contracts, communication is normally very good when the parties are still married. In marriage the parties should be open to each other. They share joys, even fears. When the contract expires communication dwindles. Parties become reserved. Individuals cope by looking for new friends at work or in the neighborhood. Money When parties are married, they may have joint accounts. Each of them has to contribute some amount of money to wellbeing of the family. They are accountable to each other on how they spend their money. When the contract expires each individual chooses what to do with their finances and is not accountable to the other party. Parties may cope by taking up extra job to meet their needs. Intimacy When the individuals are married, intimacy is inevitable. The individuals will automatically have sex within the marriage institution. When the marriage contract expires, the parties will no longer enjoy the conjugal rights. Neither of the parties will demand from the other. Some individuals may still be intimate even after the marriage contract expiring. Other parties cope by having other sexual partners. Personal and Spouse Independence They are very little personal independence when parties are still married. When the contract expires the man and woman expect to be independent. The individuals are no longer accountable to each other. Each person minds his or her own business. Some parties who want their personal independence after the contract may relocate to other places. Social Activities When in marriage individuals enjoy social activities like partying, swimming or jogging together. The parties are free with one another. Such social activities bring joy to the marriage. Coping with such an issue can be tricky because the individuals could have gotten used to each other. Some may continue having social activities after the contract expires. Some cope by getting new friends to socialize with. Occupational Issues When parties are still married occupational issues are affected in relation to family responsibilities. For instance a wife may remain at home and take care of kids while the husband goes to work. When the marriage contract expires the wife may cope by getting a job and employing a house help. This is because the husband may never give her much support as before. Household Responsibilities In marriage set up, the husband and wife normally share the household responsibilities. This includes laundry work, cleaning, cooking and things like baby sitting. When the marriage contract expires, parties may cope by employing house helps or end up doing all the work by themselves which may be quite strenuous. This may need resigning from work. Conclusion Marriage in itself encompasses so many issues. There are religion issues, money, intimacy, communication among others. It is always better when the parties stick together throughout their lifetime for better and for worse. While marriage contracts are thriving in this century, they are not the best. This is because children are adversely affected. The individuals find it hard to cope .This is in relation to intimacy issues, rearing children and shouldering other responsibilities. It is needless to say that two are better than one, because when one falls down, the other can pick him or her up. Reference Danley, J. R. (1979): Contracts, conquerors, and conquests, IN: Southwestern journal of philosophy. – 10:no. 1:171-177 [1] Danley, J. R. (1979): Contracts, conquerors, and conquests, IN: Southwestern journal of philosophy. – 10:no. 1:171-177 [2] Danley, J. R. (1979): Contracts, conquerors, and conquests, IN: Southwestern journal of philosophy. – 10:no. 1:171-177 Â   Â  

Practical Demonkeeping Chapter 12-13

12 JENNIFER When Jennifer arrived home from work, the phone was ringing. She ran to the phone, then stopped with her hand on the receiver, checked her watch, and decided to let the answering machine get it. It was too early to be Travis. The machine clicked and began its message, Jennifer cringed as she heard Robert's voice on the answer tape. â€Å"You've reached the studios of Photography in the Pines. Please leave your name and number at the tone.† The machine beeped and Robert's voice continued, â€Å"Honey, pick up if you're there. I'm so sorry. I need to come home. I don't have any clean underwear. Are you there? Pick up, Jenny. I'm so lonely. Call me, okay? I'm still at The Breeze's. When you get in-â€Å" The machine cut him off. Jennifer ran the tape back and listened to the other messages. There were nine others, all from Robert. All whining, drunken, pleading for forgiveness, promising changes that would never happen. Jenny reset the machine. On the message pad next to the phone she wrote, â€Å"Change message on machine.† There was a list of notes to herself: clean beer out of refrigerator; pack up darkroom; separate records, tapes, books. All were designed to wash reminders of Robert out of her life. Right now, though, she needed to wash the residue of eight hours of restaurant work off her body. Robert used to grab her and kiss her as she came in the door. â€Å"The smell of grease drives me mad,† he'd say. Jenny went to the bathroom to run her bath. She opened various bottles and poured them into the water: Essential Algae, revitalizes the skin, all natural. â€Å"It's from France,† the clerk had said with import, as if the French had mastered the secret of bathwater along with the elements of rudeness; a dash of Amino Extract, all vegetable protein in an absorbable form. â€Å"Makes stretch marks as smooth as if you'd spackled them,† the clerk had said. He'd been a drywall man moonlighting at the cosmetic counter and was not yet versed in the nomenclature of beauty. Two capfuls of Herbal Honesty, a fragrant mix of organically grown herbs harvested by the loving hands of spiritually enlightened descendants of the Mayans. And last, a squeeze of Female E, vitamin E oil and dong quai root extract, to bring out the Goddess in every woman. Rachel had given her the Female E at the last meeting of the Pagan Vegetarians for Peace when Jenny had consulted the group about divorcing Robert. â€Å"You're just a little yanged out,† Rachel had said. â€Å"Try some of this.† When Jenny finished adding all the ingredients, the water was the soft, translucent green of cheese mold. It would have come as a great surprise to Jennifer that two hundred miles north, in the laboratories of the Stanford Primordial Slime Research Building, some graduate students were combining the very same ingredients (albeit under scientific names) in a climate-controlled vat, in an attempt to replicate the original conditions in which life had first evolved on Earth. It would have further surprised her that if she had turned on a sunlamp in the bathroom (the last element needed), her bath water would have stood up and said â€Å"Howdy,† immediately qualifying her for the Nobel prize and millions in grant money. While Jennifer's chance at scientific immortality bubbled away in the tub, she counted her tips, forty-seven dollars and thirty-two cents' worth of change and dollar bills, into a gallon jar, then marked the total into a logbook on her dresser. It wasn't much, but it was enough. Her tips and wages provided enough to make the house payment, pay utilities, buy food, and keep her Toyota and Robert's truck in marginal running order. She made enough to keep alive Robert's illusion that he was making it as a professional photographer. What little he made on the occasional wedding or senior portrait went into film and equipment, or, for the most part, wine. Robert seemed to think that the key to his creativity was a corkscrew. Keeping Robert's photography business buoyant was Jennifer's rationalization for putting her own life on hold and wasting her time working as a waitress. It seemed that she had always been on hold, waiting for her life to start. In school they told her if she worked hard and got good grades, she would get into a good college. Hold, please. Then there had been Robert. Work hard, be patient, the photography will take off, and we'll have a life. She'd hitched herself to that dream and put her life on hold once again. And she had kept pumping energy into the dream long after it had died in Robert. It happened one morning after Robert had been up drinking all night. She had found him in front of the television with empty wine bottles lined up in front of him like tombstones. â€Å"Don't you have a wedding to shoot today?† â€Å"I'm not going to do it. I don't feel up to it.† She had gone over the edge, screaming at him, kicking wine bottles around the room, and finally, storming out. Right then she resolved to start her life. She was almost thirty and she'd be damned if she'd spend the rest of her life as the grieving widow of someone else's dream. She asked him to leave that afternoon, then called a lawyer. Now that her life had finally started, she had no idea what she was going to do. Slipping into the tub, she realized she was, in fact, nothing more than a waitress and a wife. Once again she fought the urge to call Robert and ask him to come home. Not because she loved him – the love had worn so thin it was hard to perceive – but because he was her purpose, her direction, and most important, her excuse for being mediocre. Sitting in the safety of her bathroom, she found she was afraid. This morning, Pine Cove had seemed like a sweatbox, closing in on her and cutting off her breath. Now Pine Cove and the world seemed a very large and hostile place. It would be easy to slip under the warm water and never come up, escape. It wasn't a serious consideration, just a momentary fantasy. She was stronger than that. Things weren't hopeless, just difficult. Concentrate on the positive, she told herself. There was this guy Travis. He seemed nice. He was very good-looking, too. Everything is fine. This is not an end, it's a beginning. Her paltry attempt at positive thinking suddenly dissolved into a whole agenda of first-date fears, which somehow seemed more comfortable than the limitless possibilities of positive thinking because she had been through them before. She took a bar of deodorant soap from the soap dish, lost her grip, and dropped it into the water. The splash covered the faint death gasp the water let out as the soap's toxic chemicals hit it. PART THREE SUNDAY NIGHT Millions of spiritual creatures walk the Earth. Unseen, both when we wake and when we sleep. – John Milton 13 NIGHTFALL Overall, the village of Pine Cove was in a cranky mood. No one had slept well Saturday night. Through most of Sunday the weekend tourists were finding ugly chips in Pine Cove's veneer of small-town charm. Shopkeepers had been abrupt and sarcastic when asked the usual inane questions about whales and sea otters. Waiters and waitresses lost their tolerance for complaints about the unpalatable English food they served and either snapped at their customers outright, or intentionally gave them bad service. Motel desk clerks indulged themselves by arbitrarily changing check-out times, refusing reservations, and turning on the NO VACANCY signs every time someone pulled up to the office, proclaiming that they had just filled their last room. Rosa Cruz, who was a chambermaid at the Rooms-R-Us Motel, slipped â€Å"sanitized for your protection† bands across all the toilets without even lifting the lids. That afternoon, when a guest protested and she was called on the carpet by the manager, who stood over the toilet in room 103, pointing to a floating turd as if it were a smoking murder weapon, Rosa said, â€Å"Well, I sanitized that, too.† It might have been declared Tourist Abuse Day in Pine Cove for all the injustices that were inflicted on unsuspecting travelers. As far as the locals were concerned, the world would be a better place if every tourist decided to hang bug-eyed and blue-tongued by his camera strap from a motel shower rod. As the day wore into evening and the tourists vacated the streets, the residents of Pine Cove turned to each other to vent their irritability. At the Slug, Mavis Sand, who was stocking her bar for the evening, and who was a keen observer of social behavior, had watched the tension grow in her customers and herself all afternoon. She must have told the story of Slick McCall's eight-ball match with the dark stranger thirty times. Mavis usually enjoyed the telling and retelling of the events that occurred in The Head of the Slug (even to the point of keeping a microcassette recorder under the bar to save some of her better versions). She allowed the tales to grow into myths and legends as she replaced truths forgotten with details fabricated. Often a tale that started out as a one-beer anecdote would become, in the retelling, a three-beer epic (for Mavis let no glass go dry when she was telling a story). Storytelling, for Mavis, was just good business. But today people had been impatient. They wanted Mavis to draw a beer and get to the point. They questioned her credibility, denied the facts, and all but called her a liar. The story was too fantastic to be taken at face value. Mavis lost her patience with those who asked about the incident, and they did ask. News travels fast in a small town. â€Å"If you don't want to know what happened, don't ask,† Mavis snapped. What did they expect? Slick McCall was an institution, a hero, in his own greasy way. The story of his defeat should be an epic, not an obituary. Even that good-looking fellow who owned the general store had rushed her through the story. What was his name, Asbestos Wine? No, Augustus Brine. That was it. Now, there was a man she could spend some time under. But he, too, had been impatient, and had rushed out of the bar without even buying a drink. It had pissed her off. Mavis watched her own mood changes like the needle on a barometer. Given her current crankiness, the social climate in the Slug tonight would be stormy; she predicted fights. The liquor she stocked into the well that evening was diluted to half strength with distilled water. If people were going to get drunk and break up her place, it was going to cost them. In her heart of hearts, she hoped she would get an opportunity to whack someone with her baseball bat. AUGUSTUS As darkness fell on Pine Cove that evening, Augustus Brine was filled with an uncharacteristic feeling of dread. In the past he had always seen sunset as a promise, a beginning. As a young man sunset had been a call to romance and excitement, more recently it signaled a time of rest and contemplation. Tonight it was not sunset, the promise, but sundown, the threat. With nightfall the full weight of his responsibility fell across his back like a leaden yoke, and try as he might, Brine could not shrug it off. Gian Hen Gian had convinced him that he must find the one that commanded the demon. Brine had driven to the Head of the Slug, and after enduring a barrage of lewd advances from Mavis Sand, he was able to pry out of her the direction the dark stranger had gone when he left the bar. Virgil Long, the mechanic, gave him a description of the car and tried to convince him that his truck needed a tune-up. Brine had then returned home to discuss a course of action with the king of the Djinn, who was engrossed in his fourth Marx Brothers movie. â€Å"But how did you know he was coming here?† Brine asked. â€Å"It was a feeling.† â€Å"Then why can't you get a feeling of where he is now?† â€Å"You must find him, Augustus Brine.† â€Å"And do what?† â€Å"Get the Seal of Solomon and send Catch back to hell.† â€Å"Or get eaten.† â€Å"Yes, there is that possibility.† â€Å"Why don't you do it? He can't hurt you.† â€Å"If the dark one has the Seal of Solomon, then I too could become his slave. This would not be good. You must do it.† The biggest problem for Brine was that Pine Cove was small enough that he could actually search the entire town. In Los Angles or San Francisco he might have been able to give up before starting, open a bottle of wine, and let the mass of humanity bear the responsibility while he sank into a peaceful fog of nonaction. Brine had come to Pine Cove to avoid conflict, to pursue a life of simple pleasures, to meditate and find peace and oneness with all things. Now, forced to act, he realized how deluded he had become. Life was action, and there was no peace this side of the grave. He had read about the kendo swordsman, who affected the Zen of controlled spontaneity, never anticipating a move so that he might never have to correct his strategy to an unanticipated attack, but always ready to act. Brine had removed himself from the flow of action, built his life into a fortress of comfort and safety without realizing that his fortress was also a prison. â€Å"Think long and hard on your fate, Augustus Brine,† the Djinn said around a mouthful of potato chips. â€Å"Your neighbors pay for this time with their lives.† Brine pushed himself out of the chair and stormed into his study. He riffled through the drawers of the desk until he found a street map of Pine Cove. He spread the map out on the desk and began to divide the village into blocks with a red marker. Gian Hen Gian came into the study while he worked. â€Å"What will you do?† â€Å"Find the demon,† Brine said through gritted teeth. â€Å"And when you find him?† â€Å"I don't know.† â€Å"You are a good man, Augustus Brine.† â€Å"You are a pain in the ass, Gian Hen Gian.† Brine gathered up the map and headed out of the room. â€Å"If it be so, then so be it,† the Djinn shouted after him. â€Å"But I am a grand pain in the ass.† Augustus Brine did not answer. He was already making his way to his truck. He drove off feeling quite alone and afraid. ROBERT Augustus Brine was not alone in his feeling of dread at the onset of evening. Robert returned at sunset to The Breeze's trailer to find three threatening messages on the answering machine: two from the landlord, and one ominous threat from the drug dealer in the BMW. Robert played the tape back three times in hope of finding a message from Jennifer, but it was not there. He had failed miserably in his attempt to crash and burn at the Slug, running out of money long before passing out. The job offer from Rachel wasn't enough either. Thinking it over, nothing would really be enough. He was a loser, plain and simple. No one was going to rescue him this time, and he wasn't up to pulling himself up by his own bootstraps. He had to see Jenny. She would understand. But he couldn't go looking like this, a three-day growth of beard, clothes he had slept in, reeking of sweat and beer. He stripped off his clothes and walked into the bathroom. He took some shaving cream and a razor from the medicine cabinet and stepped into the shower. Maybe if he showed up looking like he had some self-respect, she would take him back. She had to be missing him, right? And he wasn't sure he could spend another night alone, thinking about it, going though the nightmare. He turned on the shower and the breath jumped from his body. The water was ice cold. The Breeze hadn't paid the gas bill. Robert steeled himself to endure the cold shower. He had to look good if he was going to rebuild his life. Then the lights went out. RIVERA Rivera was sitting in a coffee shop near the police station sipping from a cup of decaf, smoking a cigarette, waiting. In his fifteen years on the force he estimated that ten of them had been spent in waiting. For once, though, he had the warrants, the budget, the manpower, and probable cause, but he had no suspect. It had to go down tomorrow, one way or another. If The Breeze showed up, then Rivera was in line for a promotion. If, however, he had gotten wind of the sting, then Rivera would take down the drunk in the trailer and hope that he knew something. It was a dismal prospect. Rivera envisioned his task force swooping in with sirens blaring, lights flashing, only to chalk up a bust for unsafe vehicle, perhaps unlawful copying of a videotape, or tearing the tag off a mattress. Rivera shivered at the thought and ground out his cigarette in the ashtray. He wondered if they would let him smoke when he was working behind the counter at Seven-Eleven. THE BREEZE When the jaws of the demon had clamped down on him, The Breeze felt a moment of pain, then a light-headedness and a floating feeling he had come to associate with certain kinds of hallucinogenic mushrooms. Then he looked down to see the monster stuffing his body into its gaping mouth. It looked funny, and the ethereal Breeze giggled to himself. No, this was more like the feeling of nitrous oxide than mushrooms, he thought. He watched the monster shrink and disappear, then the door to the old Chevy opened and closed. The car sped off and The Breeze felt himself bouncing on the air currents in its wake. Death was fine with The Breeze. Sort of the ultimate acid trip, only cheaper and with no side effects. Suddenly he found himself in a long tunnel. At the end he saw a bright light. He had seen a movie about this once; you were supposed to go toward the light. Time had lost meaning for The Breeze. He floated down the tunnel, for a whole day, but to him it seemed only minutes. He was just riding the buzz. Everything was copacetic. As he approached the light, he could make out the figures of people waiting for him. That's right: your family and friends welcome you to the next life. The Breeze prepared himself for a truly bitchin' party on the astral plane. Coming out of the tunnel, The Breeze was enveloped by an intense white light. It was warm and comforting. The people's faces came into view and as The Breeze floated up to them, he realized that he owed every one of them money. PREDATORS While night fell on some like a curtain of foreboding, others were meeting the advent of darkness with excited anticipation. Creatures of the night were rising from their resting places and venturing forth to feed on their unsuspecting victims. They were feeding machines, armed with tooth and claw, instinctively driven to seek out their prey, gifted with stealth and night vision, perfectly adapted to the hunt. When they stalked the streets of Pine Cove, no one's garbage cans were safe. When they awakened that evening, they found a curious machine in their den. The supernatural sentience they had experienced the night before had passed, and they retained no memory of having stolen the tape player. They might have been frightened by the noise, but the battery had long since run down. They would push the machine out of the den when they returned, but now there was a scent on the wind that drove them to the hunt with urgent hunger. Two blocks away, Mrs. Eddleman had discarded a particularly gamey tuna-fish salad, and their acute olfactory systems had picked up the scent even while they slept. The raccoons bounded into the night like wolves on the fold. JENNIFER For Jenny, evening came as a mix of blessing and curses. The call from Travis had come at five, as promised, and she found herself elated at being wanted but also thrown into a quandary about what to wear, how to behave, and where to go. Travis had left it up to her. She was a local and knew the best places to go, he had said, and he was right. He had even asked her to drive. As soon as she had hung up, she ran to the garage for the shop vac to clean out her car. While she cleaned, she ran possibilities through her mind. Should she pick the most expensive restaurant? No, that might scare him away. There was a romantic Italian place south of town, but what if he got the wrong idea? Pizza was too informal for a dinner date. Burgers were out of the question. She was a vegetarian. English food? No – why punish the guy? She found herself resenting Travis for making her decide. Finally she opted for the Italian place. When the car was clean, she returned to the house to pick out what she would wear. She dressed and undressed seven times in the next half hour and finally decided on a sleeveless black dress and heels. She posed before the full-length mirror. The black dress definitely was the best. And if she splashed marinara sauce on it, the stain wouldn't show. She looked good. The heels showed off her calves nicely, but you could also see the light-red hair on her legs. She hadn't thought about it until now. She rummaged through her drawers, found some black panty hose and slipped them on. That problem taken care of, she resumed her posing, affecting the bored, pouty look she had seen on fashion models in magazines. She was thin and fairly tall, and her legs were tight and muscular from waiting tables. Pretty nice for a thirty-year-old broad, she thought. Then she raised her arms and stretched languidly. Two curly tufts of armpit hair stared at her from the mirror. It was natural, unpretentious, she thought. She had stopped shaving about the same time she had stopped eating meat. It was all part of getting in touch with herself, of getting connected to the Earth. It was a way to show that she did not conform to the female ideal created by Hollywood and Madison Avenue, that she was a natural woman. Did the Goddess shave her armpits? She did not. But the Goddess was not going out on her first date in over ten years. Jenny suddenly realized how unaware she had become of her appearance in the last few years. Not that she had let herself go, but the changes she had made away from makeup and complicated hairstyles had been so slow she had hardly noticed. And Robert hadn't seemed to notice, or at least he had not objected. But that was the past. Robert was in the past, or he would be soon. She went to the bathroom in search of a razor. BILLY WINSTON Billy Winston had no such dilemma about shaving. He did his legs and underarms as a matter of course every time he showered. The idea of conforming to a diet soft-drink ideal of the perfect woman didn't bother him in the least. On the contrary, Billy felt compromised by the fact that he had to maintain his appearance as a six-foot-three-inch tall man with a protruding Adam's apple in order to keep his job as night auditor at the Rooms-R-Us Motel. In his heart, Billy was a buxom blond vixen named Roxanne. But Roxanne had to stay in the closet until Billy finished doing the motel's books, until midnight, when the rest of the staff left the motel and Billy was alone on the desk. Only then could Roxanne dance through the night on her silicon chip slippers, stroking the libidos of lonely men and breaking hearts. When the iron tongue of midnight told twelve, the sex fairy would find her on-line lovers. Until then, she was Billy Winston, and Billy Winston was getting ready to go to work. He slipped the red silk panties and garter belt over his long, thin legs, then slowly worked the black, seamed stockings up, teasing himself in the full-length mirror at the end of the bed. He smiled coyly at himself as he clipped the garters into place. Then he put on his jeans and flannel shirt and laced up his tennis shoes. Over his shirt pocket he pinned his name badge: Billy Winston, Night Auditor. It was a sad irony, Billy thought, that the thing he loved most, being Roxanne, depended on the thing he liked least, his job. Each evening he awoke feeling a mix of excitement and dread. Oh, well, a joint would get him through the first three hours of his shift, and Roxanne would get him through the last five. He dreamed of the day when he could afford his own computer and become Roxanne anytime he wanted. He would quit his job and make his living like The Breeze: fast and loose. Just a few more months behind the desk and he would have the money he needed. CATCH Catch was a demon of the twenty-seventh order. In the hierarchy of hell this put him far below the archdemons like Mammon, master of avarice, but far above the blue-collar demons like Arrrgg, who was responsible for leeching the styrofoam taste into take-out coffee. Catch had been created as a servant and a destroyer and endowed with a simplemindedness that suited those roles. His distinction in hell was that he had spent more time on Earth than any other demon, where, in the company of men, he had learned to be devious and ambitious. His ambition took the form of looking for a master who would allow him to indulge himself in destruction and terror. Of all the masters that Catch had served since Solomon, Travis had been the worst. Travis had an irritating streak of righteousness that grated on Catch's nerves. In the past, Catch had been called up by devious men who limited the demon's destruction only to keep his presence secret from other men. Most of the time this was accomplished by the death of all witnesses. Catch always made sure that there were witnesses. With Travis, Catch's need for destruction was controlled and allowed to build inside him until Travis was forced to unleash him. Always it was someone Travis had chosen. Always it was in private. And it was never enough for Catch's appetite. Serving under Travis, his mind always seemed foggy and the fire inside him confined to a smolder. Only when Travis directed him toward a victim did he feel crispness in his thoughts and a blazing in his nature. The times were too few. The demon longed again for a master with enemies, but his thoughts were never clear enough to devise a plan to find one. Travis's will was overpowering. But today the demon had felt a release. It had started when Travis met the woman in the cafe. When they went to the old man's house, he felt a power surge through him unlike anything he had felt in years. Again, when Travis called the girl, the power had increased. He began to remember what he was: a creature who had brought kings and popes to power and in turn had usurped others. Satan himself, sitting on his throne in the great city of Pandemonium, had spoken to a multitude of hellish hosts, â€Å"In our exile, we must be beholden unto Jehovah for two things: one, that we exist, and two, that Catch has no ambition.† The fallen angels laughed with Catch at the joke, for that was a time before Catch had walked among men. Men had been a bad influence on Catch. He would have a new master; one who could be corrupted by his power. He had seen her that afternoon in the saloon and sensed her hunger for control over others. Together they would rule the world. The key was near; he felt it. If Travis found it, Catch would be sent back to hell. He had to find it first and get it into the hands of the witch. After all, it was better to rule on Earth than to serve in hell.

The Four Gospels and their Traditional Authors Essay

The Four Gospels and their Traditional Authors - Essay Example The character to whom the Gospel we call Mark is attributed by tradition appears in the book of Acts ("Mark" in Smith 2009). He was evidently a Jew of Jerusalem named John who took the Roman name Marcus (conventionally Mark in English) when he moved to Rome. His mother Mary was on intimate terms with the Apostle Peter, and we first hear of Mark when Peter goes to her house after escaping form prison (Acts 12:12). Tradition further identifies this figure with the Marcus mentioned by Paul (Col 4:10; Philm 1:24) as his companion in prison in Rome and with the Marcus Peter calls his son (perhaps in the sense of a spiritual son) in 1 Peter (5:13). The tradition that associated Mark with the authorship of the Gospel is post Biblical. In the middle of the second century Papias the Bishop of Hierapolis in Asia Minor collected saying of Jesus from his presbyters based on their memories of what had been taught at the earliest foundation of the church and published them in a book called Interpr etations of the Sayings of the Lord (Koester 1990, 32-35). This has been lost but quotations from it are preserved in the Church History of Eusebius. Part of the tradition (Eusebius 3.39.15) Papias wrote down described Mark acting as Peter's secretary and writing down (in Greek) everything that Peter said (in Aramaic) about Jesus, thus producing the Gospel of Mark (Koester 1990, 274-75). In the Gospels of Mark (3:18) and Luke (6;15) Jesus calls as an apostle a tax collector named Levi. In the parallel passage in Matthew (10:3) he is called Matthew. Tradition, once again attested by Papias, soon made this the same figure, called Levi before his conversion and Matthew afterward, and identified him with the Apostle Matthew and with the Gospel author ( "Mathew" in Catholic Encyclopedia 1917). According to Papias (Eusebius, Church History 3.39.16) he first wrote his Gospel in Hebrew and it was only later translated into (Koester 1990, 315-19). Irenaeus the Bishop of Lyons in the late second century, in his Against Heresies (14.1) gives the earliest attestation of Luke as the author of that Gospel and the Book of Acts. He calls attention to the fact that the author of Acts, although he never gives his name, on three occasions identifies himself as a companion of Paul by referring to himself and Paul in the first person plural (16:10-17, 20:5-15, 21:1-18). Irenaeus further identifies this author with the Luke named as one of his companions of Paul in the Pauline Epistles. Paul mentions Luke in Philemon (1:24) and in Colossians (4:14) refers to him as a physician (Koester 1990, 334-36) . One of the most important characters in the Gospel of John is the unnamed 'disciple whom Jesus loved.' At the end of the Gospel, the narrative framework of the text is nearly broken when Jesus tells Peter about him: "If it is my will that he remain until I come, what is that to you (21:22). The narrator immediately denies that Jesus means that the beloved disciple will live until he returns, but rather says: "This is the disciple who is bearing witness to these things, and who has written these things; and we know that his testimony is true" (21:24), claiming the authority of this disciple for the authorship of the Gospel. Papias, again, is the earliest

STrategies for Special Populations in CTE Assignment

STrategies for Special Populations in CTE - Assignment Example This part further highlights a few legislations concerning learners from the special population. It highlights four students James, John, Marie and Sarah who have pertinent problems and are special population learners. If left unattended to, learners from this category are at high risk of not graduating or becoming useful members of the workforce. Teaching special population learners using conventional means without understanding their condition works. Special strategies must be used in order for them to learn and or become useful members of the workforce. Yes. I have had a misconception that students who are inattentive in class often dozing off as not serious in their learning outcomes. This view obviously is incorrect as students with this type of problems often tend to belong to the special population. This part focuses on teaching strategies. It begins by highlighting elements that foster success in students. These elements include helping students monitor their progress, setting up clear discipline rules, recognizing student’s achievement, etc. This module next introduces the concept of instructional "Backpack". Instructional backpack includes setting up instruction plans, motivational teaching and how to get students in learning group. Next, types of instructions used by CTE are outlined. These include direct instructions, small group instructions and differentiated instructions. Direct instruction incorporates the whole class and often will use the lecture technique. Small group instruction involves flexible grouping and cooperative learning. Differentiated learning is a one on one form of relaying instruction to the student. This module further moves to what turns off students. These include poor visuals from the instructor, unclear structure of the lesson, disruptive habits such as constantly looking at your watch etc. What turns on students is also highlighted. Instructor enthusiasm, clearly written

Marketing Communication Master Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 5000 words

Marketing Communication Master - Assignment Example A stable housing market and a stable growth in the industry and economy, usher in a stable requirement for the electrical, both brown and white goods in the market. The over all requirements in the market have been tending towards a growth that is both uniform and stable. Secondly, in UK audio visual products sell the maximum among all European countries. Research indicates that the hi-fi mini and micro systems have replaced the midi stacking systems in the audio visual industry (Geoffrey A Moore, Aug 1996). In addition to this, it also indicates that the future course of work is in the direction of micro systems and people will prefer these. In the audio-visual sector price has been the major consideration for most of the buyer decisions. However, the manufacturers tend to add value by providing additional features. Based on all these market situations, it is congenial to get into micro hi-fi systems and would be compatible with the existing product line of Microsoft's mp3 players. This should add value to the hi-fi systems already in place; will be a micro player and will be compatible with other Microsoft products already in the market. Marketing communication is based on the planning efforts taken in line with Paul Smith's(2003) SOSTAC structure (P R Smith & Jonathan Taylor, June 2004). Many corporations and businesses around the world make use of the SOSTAC structure to plan their marketing approach. In line with this paper, the plan and the approach for the launch will be based on SOSTAC. The SOS of the SOSTAC is conceptual or a visualization while the TAC is the action plan and implementation that would help to reach the SOS. Situational Analysis, Objectives, Strategies, Tactics, Action and then control make up the SOSTAC model of business planning. In line with this model, this paper will also address the situation in which the launch of the product is going to take place, including competitor information, their products and the markets that they are dominating in. Based on the competition information and on the information pertaining to the various requirements in the market, the objectives for the exercise are set. The strategies and tactics to reach these objectives and targets are then worked out, indicating the action plan for the same. This would help in achieving the targets that were originally set. Appropriate design of control is essential in order to ensure that the company meets its targets without fail. In general the steps of the SOSTAC model mean the following: S Situation Where are we now O Objectives Where do we want to go S Strategy How do we get there - Broad view T Tactics What tools do we use to implement the strategy A Action Detailed Action Plan for each tool / tactic C Control How do we track our progress and know when we have reached the goals (Business Services Agency, 2006). Situational Analysis Audio visual industry in UK has gone through major upheavals. However, the market in UK is more oriented towards listening to lots of audio for most part of the day. While Digital Audio Broadcasting is a major attraction for people who tune their radio in, the other is the tendency towards listening to audio replays. 90% of the UK population listens to 23 hours of music. This takes the form of either the radio or the pre-recorded music on CDs or mp3 memory recordings. Microsoft is

Immigration in America Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Immigration in America - Essay Example America, in other words, is an admirable place to live and it is a mistake for those who currently wish to take extreme measures to restrict immigration to assume that all immigrants come to this country simply for the money. A common misconception among those who are the most vehemently opposed to lax immigration laws is that people from other countries-especially Latin American countries-put their lives and freedom on the line to make the difficult and dangerous journey so that they can take good jobs away from native-born Americans. The facts, of course, are that most immigrants take jobs that most native-born Americans would just as soon avoid: maids, gardeners, slaughterhouse employees, fast food cooks, etc (Waters & Eschbach, 1995). It hardly seems logical to assume that most foreign residents are not already aware that these are the kind of jobs they will more than likely wind up taking. If that knowledge is firmly in their hands and they still consider the journey to America worth the risk, then surely it is valid to raise the question that there must be something besides the promise of a big paycheck in a glamorous job that brings them here. If the debate over illegal immigration that has heated up to a near-boiling point in recent years is based upon the idea that quality, high-paying jobs are being taken from American citizens and given to illegal aliens, then those who are framing the debate should review the reality of the situation. Beneath that debate is the kernel of an idea that Americans would be less outraged if these immigrants arrived via legal means and took the proper steps toward becoming legal citizens, but would that really make any difference. Immigrants who come here both through legal channels and illegal channels cannot be so easily distinguished. There is literally no Anglo-Saxon who could look at a Latino or Asian and individuate between who is the legal and who is the illegal alien. Discrimination against immigrants isn't based on the knowledge of who has a green card and who doesn't, but rather purely on physical features. It is this fact that prompts an overwhelming agreement among US citizens to a statement like: "why should they [immigrants] pull themselves up by the bootstraps, become productive members of our society, and assimilate into the American culture when government policies make it easy for them not to do so"(Mcgrath, 2005). Assimilation for most of those in favor of tightening immigration laws means just one thing: speaking English, paying taxes and staying off welfare. The fear that immigrants will destroy the American economy by becoming a drain upon the social services is misguided. America lags f ar behind most of the world in offering social services such as universal health care coverage and paid education; logic does not apply when making the suggestion that most immigrants come to America to take average of the welfare state. Since the Reagan era, in fact, social service revenue for native-born residents has consistently been on a downward slope. Immigrants looking for a free ride in should set their eyes on Scandinavia, not America. (Greenwood, Mcdowell, Waldman & Zahniser, 1999, p. 64). The money argument simply does not hold up; what immigrants have historically come to America for are the intangible

Literature. Black American Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Literature. Black American - Essay Example In "I, Too" he makes it clear that the black man will sell or surrender his birthright to no one, for "I, too, sing America. . . .I, too, am America." The poem thus asserts the right of the black man to be heard, as it does the right of the black man to be given the respect due to a race that has known "ancient, dusky rivers", for, the soul of the black man is no shallow sieve but "has grown deep like the rivers." "Ballad of the Landlord" reminds the reader of Wole Soyinka's "Telephone Conversation", but Hughes' 'ballad' is somewhat darker in tone and manner than Soyinka's poem. In a rhythm that echoes black American speech rhythm as well as ballad meter, he sings: Although we do not hear the landlord's voice, we gather that the landlord reminds the tenant that he owes him ten bucks; and the tenant forcefully refuses to pay the amount "till you fix this house up new." We are given to understand that the landlord then threatens the tenant with eviction orders, telling him that he would turn off the heating and throw his furniture in the street. When the tenant then shakes his fist in the landlord's face, all hell breaks loose, and we are treated to the landlord's shrieks: Cle Police! Police! Come and get this man! He's trying to ruin the government And overturn the land! Clearly, things have got out of hand and we hear the "Copper's whistle", the "patrol bell" and the terse report, "Arrest. /Precinct Station./ Iron cell." The next day's newspapers complete the picture: "MAN THREATENS LANDLORD/ TENANT HELD NO BAIL/ JUDGE GIVES 90 DAYS IN COUNTY JAIL." The 'ballad' ends with absolutely no need to underscore the injustice of what was surely a routine affair not that long ago. This kind of discrimination was equally routinely doled out to others on the fringes of society, like gays and lesbians, and Hughes highlights their plight in "Cafe: 3 A.M." The poem is short enough to quote in full: Detectives from the vice squad with weary sadistic eyes spotting fairies. Degenerates, some folks say. But God, Nature, or somebody made them that way. Police lady or Lesbian over there Where The vice squad may appear weary, all right, but their defining streak is the combination of sadism and voyeurism in their makeup, which makes them prick their ears at the

Tube Feeding Question and Obituary Research Paper

Tube Feeding Question and Obituary - Research Paper Example The research paper "Tube Feeding Question and Obituary" talks about the educated response to the tube-feeding question. The patient’s condition is terminal and she has not shown any sign of relieving symptoms. Even though feeding tube is able to prolong the patient’s life, you should not put the patient on the artificial feeding because of the involved risks of using feeding tube and benefits of allowing the patient to die a natural death. Moral and clinical factors inform this position. Ethically and as the authority over the patient who is already confused and disoriented, you need to minimize pain to the patient, to yourself, and to the children. The death of the patient is evident and the associated pain will be felt, regardless of the time at which the patient dies. Life of the patient should not be the primary factor in the decision. Deciding not to use the feeding tube only amounts to allowing the natural death process and not contributing to the patient’s death. A legal consideration also allows for the withholding of feeding tube and this also justifies the proposed decision. Even though failure to use feeding tube may induce pain to the patient, owing to the fact that she is able to respond to her environment, the level of pain can be managed. Using the tube may prolong the patient’s life but it has many disadvantages, some of which could end the patient’s life and render the tube effort useless. The patient will likely suffer from chest congestion and fluid buildup in her throat.

Managing Human Resources-Phase 2 DB2 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Managing Human Resources-Phase 2 DB2 - Essay Example ncluding NL&C, offer matching contributions up to a certain percentage of an employee’s pay, capped at a certain amount of contribution per employee per month. (AllFinancialMatters, 2006) 2. The 401k contribution is a â€Å"defined contribution plan,† which means that the amount put in is set by the employee, and the amount received upon retirement depends upon the performance of his/her investments during the intervening period. 3. The 401k is exempt from current income taxes, state and federal. This means that the amount contributed can be deducted from the employees’ current net income when calculating for tax purposes (Block, 2007). The primary reasons why companies want to implement 401k plans are twofold: (1) to encourage employees to provide for their retirement, particularly given the likelihood that social security payments will not cover their overall costs when they retire, and (2) to help make the employee more loyal, and more likely to stay and perform for, the company which grants and administers the 401k. Unfortunately, most companies do a poor job of explaining the 401k, and as a result have low participation rates. My plan is to appeal particularly to the younger employees (which are most of those joining NL&C), who can benefit most from a long-term savings plan. Since young people think less about their retirement, I want to point out the other advantages: c. By deducting their 401k plans from their weekly wages, they are less likely to spend the money, because it never enters their bank account. This â€Å"forced† savings effect is less painful than trying to put aside money. b. I will also make an assumption that they borrow against their 401k to buy a house, and assume a 5% increase in house value per year, leveraged at 80%, which will double their equity in less than 10 years. c. Finally, I will demonstrate that everyone in the room can be a millionaire on a ‘middle class’ salary, and give them the opportunity to dream about

Major Role Analysis Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Major Role Analysis - Essay Example Right at that point, fate unfolds itself drastically in a manner that calls for Robbins to characterize the act of managing to control oneself from the verge of losing sanity. At this stage, there emerges requirement to convey the theme of injustice as Robbins acts to satisfy the expectation toward mixed feelings of contempt, helplessness, fits of rage, and frustration. Apparently, â€Å"The Shawshank Redemption† film exhibits two dimensions of reality between which is caught a poignant moment of transition for Dufresne and Robbins faces the challenge to express how it is like to be held responsible for a grave crime committed by someone else. The actor comes across the demand of realizing a character that must eventually decide on life’s worth, whether for Dufresne to defend his innocence or let nature take its course and dissolve all hopes on prison walls. To Robbins, Dufresne’s acknowledgment of the turning point in life must be excruciating just to imagine th e fact that the man who has humbly lived a life of success and prominence is now in Shawshank State Penitentiary where incarcerated individuals are bound to perceive every form of dread to psychological and emotional states of well-being. Robbins must have subjected himself to thorough contemplation of the major role to be able to align Dufresne’s words with actions that reflect extreme despair and total lack of self-esteem behind the anguished calm of the face. His portrayal of wretchedness in the case of a modest banker turned prisoner in service of an undeserved sentence appears complex because the film’s thematic approach is supposed to lead the viewers to an empathic sentiment, believing in the blamelessness of the convicted. In the process, Robbins moderates his acting to demonstrate the protagonist’s capacity to relate with fellow inmates, trusting especially Ellis Boyd â€Å"Red† Redding as portrayed by Morgan Freeman. To this extent, Dufresneâ₠¬â„¢s consequences may be anticipated to engage the audience into the gradual resolution of the conflict when the man is seen acquiring the potential to adapt to his rather harsh environment. Since â€Å"The Shawshank Redemption† falls within the crime and gangster genre, the audience may reasonably expect of a progress in which the principal character is directed to develop sharp malevolent traits and the following events could have shown physically violent encounters where the subject in the mode of revenge schemes to triumph by physical means. Nevertheless, Robbins is demanded of a function that embodies maintenance of principles and he needs to convince the audience of a consistent illustration of Dufresne who occurs to be meek and defenseless to officers and inmates alike, from the point of entry to the prison until after nearly two decades. For this aim to concretize, instead of visible execution of thoughts, the implicit heart of the matter must be sensed and this serv es as a challenge for Robbins to maximize the use of facial gestures through the look in his eyes and movement of head or lips with less external effort to deliver a fragile type of character whose weakness can be predicted with ease. Upon completion of watching the film, viewers are normally inclined to assess judgment on the story and how the primary figures have altogether made it run

Critics Andrea Stuart and Mary O Connor Essay Example for Free

Critics Andrea Stuart and Mary O Connor Essay Many would argue that men hold the power in The Colour Purple. Explore the opinions of critics Andrea Stuart and Mary O Connor and explain your own view of what Alice Walker has to say about the power in The Colour Purple. In the novel The Colour Purple power is represented differently throughout. One way in which this power is shown is through men in the novel. At the beginning men dominate and are depicted as a higher authority figure to women, it seems the men rule the womens lives. However we can also argue that women are equally strong whilst others evolve into more powerful figures. Power through sisterhood is demonstrated through the fact that Shug gives Celie companionship, something Celie may not have felt since she was separated from her sister Nettie. Through Celie and Shugs relationship Celie has gained strength in herself and has been shown to stick up for herself. We see this when Shug announces she is taking Celie and Mary Agnes with her as Celie stands up to Albert. This shows us Celie is learning to become independent. This represents one aspect of female power in the novel and it also shows that by having friends to support them these women are able to leave their lowdown dogs behind and with the belief in themselves they can build their own future. Female solidarity is shown where we see Celies protection for her mother and sister Nettie. Although she has no real proof on whether Nettie is alive and well, she never stops believing she will one day be reunited with her sister. From this we can see that if men had the will power and strength the women do in the novel, they would be able to make their hard and miserable life easier and more bearable. Celie after everything she has been through and all the misery she has been put through by various characters mainly males, she still has hope and can see a brighter future for herself and to be reunited with her sister and become a family. The love shared between Shug and Celie was getting closer and more passionate. Shugs feelings for Celie to us seemed true even though she had male sexual partners Celie still seemed more important to Shug than any other of her male partners. Andrea Stuart expresses that Celie doesnt mind that her lover Shug comes home with a husband. She only cares that Shug is back with her, the existence of a husband is irrelevant to what is important, the relationship between the two women. Albert did not have a clue to what was going on between the two of them. He could understand they had become good friends in the time they had spent together and therefore wanted to sleep in the same bed but not once did he suspect them to have a sexual relationship. He put too much trust into Celie and Shug letting them be together alone for such a long time that Shug turned Celie into a more confident character, someone that has her own voice and can speak up for herself. Celie shows her strength again in the novel when she sacrifices herself to a traumatizing experience in order to protect and prevent her sister being raped. Alphonso abused Celie and she didnt want the same to happen to Nettie, I ast him to take me instead of Nettie. Thinking Alphonso may not want her instead of Nettie she trys to seduce him, I tell him I can fix myself up for him. I duck into my room and come out wearing horsehair, feathers, and a pair of our new mammy high heel shoes. He beat me for dressing trampy but he do it to me anyway. Celie here shows her willingness to protect her little sister from the pain and suffering she had previously encountered, in order to save Nettie being sexually abused she puts herself through it again. Walker highlights the lack of power experienced by many poor black females living in the southern states through the character of Celie. She comes from a black background which therefore disadvantages her because in the time the novel was set being a black female was quite low down, they were still being treated like slaves due to her being black but also female as in those times the male role dominated. Celie was therefore used to accepting some racism from the whites. This is shown when she goes into town and bumps into her baby and her step mother in a store where the clerk was rude and showed no good manners to them. He speaks in an imperative tone, girl you want that cloth or not? We got other customers sides you. Celie also wrote about black on black racial insults. One example is when Alberts sisters came round to visit and they described Alberts first wife as too black. Lighter skin was seen as more beautiful then darker skin. Squeak after being raped by her uncle Bubber Hodges, asked Harpo do you really love me, or just my colour Squeak thought it was because of her light coloured skin due to the fact she is mixed race that Harpo was attracted to her and not because he truly loved her. Here power was shown through skin colour and Walker highlights how deeply racism is embedded for example when the critics say she is writing against black people showing their racism. Andrea Stuart and Mary OConner both think Celie is only a victim of men in the physical world. Stuart states that men are relegated to the periphery of female consciousness Celie being a black women she was not only a slave to slavery but she was also a slave to the male authority, when slavery was abolished Celie saw the opportunity to free herself from the traditions that men come first.

History of the European Identity

History of the European Identity Introduction: Although the concept of collective identity is a post-colonial phenomenon, a few nations would describe themselves under a collective identity before the modern times of the 19th Century. In fact, Europe is historically unique in terms that it has been the people living in the continent of Europe who have persistently described themselves as Europeans since the 17th Century (Pagden, 2002). Indeed, European Union emerged as the most important attempt for creating a supranational entity in the Continent and the best example of a Pan-European common identity as even the words Europe and the European Union are being used as synonyms by millions of people every day. Nevertheless, an uncertainty of a common identity has always been the case for Europeans throughout history and the physical as well as social borders of Europe has never been distinctly known for centuries which are full of wars, tensions, competition and blood. Today, the same problem continues to exist and many believe that it is the major factor blocking the efforts for achieving a fully integrated Europe, as the definition and frontiers of a common European identity is still unknown. Indeed, one of the most important issues of the European integration from a socio-political perspective is the vague concept of a common European identity including prospects of European Union Citizenship. Although a common European identity had been long around for centuries, these are fairly new issues in relevance to the half a century long history of todays European Union. However, I believe how the common European identity is defined is very important for the future steps of the integration process, as nowadays the EU is undergoing transformation towards a political union with an aim to become a global actor in the international political arena. What shall be the elements of a common European identity, how shall it be formulized if it is to become a suc cessful construct which would define Europe correctly to end the efforts that lasted for such a long time? I believe a triumphant common European identity must include the concrete and symbolic realities and it must be rooted to the diversity of cultures which had been created by the long history of Europe (DAppollonia, 2002). Otherwise, if it remains as a form of thin identity suggested by Habermas (2006), the problems and uncertainties of European identity as well as the poorly functioning European Union citizenship is most likely to exist in the Unions foreseeable future. In fact, a common European identity can only be successfully constructed by taking into account all the ambiguities, contradictions and developments in form of a unity in diversity principle which can be applied to the reality of Europe rather than building a shallow and artificial construct as it seems to be today. Theoretically, a united Europe in political terms is made possible if a united Europe in cultural terms is established through formulating a collective common identity which may only be conceived as a coll ection of multiple and complex values created by complicated dynamics of Europes long history. Nevertheless, a united Europe in cultural terms shall not mean a homogenous and strictly ordered European society; rather the European identity shall celebrate Europes long tradition of diversity. Another important question is how should European Union citizenship be defined and what should be the frontiers of cultural implications of such a political formulation. Considering the wide cultural diversity and long history that the individual members of the European Union had share in the European continent, a collective identity may prove to be far too complex to construct, so one may argue that a common European identity is still an illusion. Although Europeans have a successfully formed a common economic and increasingly political union, they are still far away from the desired level of cultural unity and a common identity which seems to be an alarming factor for the next stages of the European integration. Nonetheless, European Union citizenship is an area open to developments and it might be used as a critically important tool by the European Union leaders to accumulate a common European identity, only if it is formulized correctly. The critical point on the debate of Europe an Union citizenship is that the dominant Classical Model of Citizenship is based on the structures of nation-state and that is why this model cannot be applied to the European Union, as it is a whole different level of organization. On the other hand, Post-National citizenship is a modern approach to the issue of European identity and it is suitable to Europe in order to reach its goals of unification and deepening through building a stronger common identity in the 21st Century. This paper is organized in several sections. European identity from a historical perspective is analyzed in the first part; the current status of European identity and the issue of national identities in contrast to the common European identity is discussed in the following part; a new European identity and suggestions for a new formulation is given in the third part; a brief history of European Union efforts and progress on building a common identity is examined in the fourth part; and finally the aspects of European Union Citizenship is discussed in the fifth part of this paper. After all, this paper argues that a common identity in form of a collective European identity is clearly necessary for the Union at this stage of integration, and it is a crucial element for the future of the European integration project especially as our world is getting smaller as well as more fragmented simultaneously due to the complex dynamics of international relations every day at the age of globalization. European Citizenship is very much connected to the issue of European identity and it is the key to achieving such a strong common European identity when it is formulized as a Post-National phenomenon. The Europeans must derive their power from the diversity of their cultures by building a thick identity for Europe rather than a thin identity which consists of merely political rights; yet the Europeans shall not overlook the uniqueness of the Continent and the similarities they share in comparison to the rest of the world emphasized by the Unity in Diversity principle. Today, it is time for the Europeans to unite under one roof in socio-political terms, complete the long standing task of defining the boundaries of the European civilization by establishing a common and collective European identity in order to carry on the progress of the European integration project in a globalized world. Nonetheless, the question of possibilities of the Europeans to achieve such a high level of cultural as well as political unity remains a question and it is subject to a whole different level of research. However, often seen as a regional product of globalization itself, I believe the European integration project cannot progress any further without achieving a common European identity which is more critical than ever today in order to overcome the challenges of globalization in the 21st Century. Identity has always been a problematic concept because it is uncertain, fluid and highly flexible. Identity is the way to define ones self and to differentiate from the others. If taken literally, identity means equal, identical. Identity is not static but dynamic, and it can be defined in different ways in different circumstances. Identity is construct, which cannot be constructed immediately but only in time. It is not a fixed, constant and pre-given entity; while identity formation is heavily dependent on how one is perceived by the others. Identification implies belonging or membership, in turn which implies the exclusion of non-members (Bretherton Vogler,1999: 236).In other words, the sole purpose of identity is to separate self from the others in a sense. Moreover, identities are multiple in nature, or even kaleidoscopic. A person may have a single identity, but it will be made up of many levels of loyalty and identification (Von Benda-Beckmann Verkuyten, 1995: 18). Meanwhile , identities change, because they are based on perceptions, which themselves change over time and environment; as it is possible to identify ones self with more than one thing at a time such as class and gender, or religion and age. Therefore there are various elements of ones identity and these various elements in an identity may well be contradictory (Von Benda-Beckmann Verkuyten, 1995: 12). On the other hand, a collective identity means the attitudes, which all members of that group have in common in their thoughts and behavior; which differentiates them from the other (Munch, 2001: 137). Collective identities can provide existential meaning for people, thus they are primary means of unity in a society which give additional stability especially during periods of upheaval. Collective identities can generate a degree of continuity between individuals and their social environment, and can confer social recognition and approval (Von Benda-Beckmann Verkuyten, 1995: 24). Therefore, collective identities are defined mainly by culture from a historical point of view rather than biological genes, ethnicity, nationalism or simple political rights. Finally, It they are used to construct community and feelings of cohesion and holism, a concept to give the impression that all individuals are equal in the imagined community (Strath, 2002: 387). From the perspective of political scie nce; there are two types of political identities: a civic identity and a cultural identity. The cultural definition of political identity entails a sense of belonging of an individual towards a particular group which can mostly defined by its uniform cultural or ethnic values. On the other hand, the civic definition of political identity involves with the identification of an individual mostly in form of citizenry with a political structure, which includes political institutions, rights, duties and rules (Bruter, 2004: 26). Therefore, a cultural European identity implies a reference to Europe as a continent, a civilization and a cultural entity whereas a civic European identity implies a reference to the political and institutional aspects of European Union identity largely in the form of EU citizenship. Europe has always been more of a mental construct than a geographical or social entity (Lowenthal, 2000: 314). Europe has no natural frontiers both in geographic and sociological terms. Therefore it had never been easy to acquire a singular definition of European identity because the borders of Europe had always been dynamic, and no one knew where Europe started and Europe ended (Pagden, 2002). A European identity is an abstraction and a fiction without essential proportions (Strath, 2002: 387). The concept of a European identity is an idea expressing artificial notions of unity rather than an identity of equality. In this sense, the concept of European identity is inscribed in a long history of political reflection on the concept of Europe. From the perspective of history, Europe has been united as a singular entity in various settings for a number of times in its past such as the Roman Empire, the Holy Roman Empire, the Napoleonic Empire, and arguably the Nazi Third Reich. Identity was only conceptualized as a macro-level collective phenomenon by the intellectual elites of Europe; on the other hand, for the rural masses of Europe, identity was a local term associated with the micro-level, rarely the nation and never an incident as large as the continent of Europe (Pagden, 2002). In different period of history, a common European identity had been defined on different basis. In the Middle Ages, Christianity was the main defining characteristic of European identity, whereas in modern times, the emergence of the nation state, periods of nationalism and afterwards democracy and secularism has been the common characteristic of the Europeans. Meanwhile, Christianity lost its dominance yet it arguably remained as one of the important components of European identity. Today, the European Union similar to the continent of Europe can be characterized by overlapping and unclear boundaries. From a geographical perspective, the EU has fuzzy boundaries due to the ongoing enlargement processes since the 1970s (Risse, 2003: 490). Although the geographical borders of Europe are not objectively defined particularly in the east, a state without a geographical relevance to the European continent cannot become a part of the European Union, even if it shares the EUs collective values and norms. Moreover what adds to the uncertainty of Europes borders is that boundaries of the EU may change according to different policy fields such as the Schengen includes the non EU member Norway but at the same time it does not include the EU member state the United Kingdom. Therefore, first of all the lack of solid geographical boundaries weakens efforts of the EU to be seen as a singular entity by its own people (Castano, 2004). On the contrary, diversity shall be the main c haracteristic of European identity from a cultural point of view. Religious and cultural heritages including Roman law, political democracy, parliamentary institutions, Renaissance humanism, rationalism, romanticism characterize the common identity of the Europeans (Smith, 1992). On the other hand, there are undeniable socioeconomic, cultural, national and ethnic differences among the member states of the European Union. Nevertheless, this reality is reflected in the motto of the Union which is unity in diversity from a positive point of view. A collective political culture is an important feature of the common European identity. The Greeks gave Europe the science and philosophy and the Romans gave it the idea of single continent and unity which created Europes strong cultural and political origins. The diverse and multiple cultures of the ancient Europe shared a single identity as they were brought together under a common system of Roman law. The people of Europe also shared a common language, Latin, and after Europe slowly converted to Christianity they acquired a common religion. Christianity has been a crucial part of the European identity and it played a key role to create its internal cohesion and to designate its relationship with the rest of the world. Further references are made to Europes identity besides its heritage of classical Graeco-Roman civilization and Christianity; such as the ideas of the Enlightenment, Science, Reason, Progress, Industrialization, Democracy and Individualization as the core elements of this claimed European legacy (Wintle, 1996: 13-16). Hellenism, Romanticism, welfare society and cross-fertilization of diversity can be added to this list (Garcias, 1993: 7-9), while one may argue that Europes core values include its commitments to an undivided continent, to individual freedom, and to the universalism of humanity (Havel, 1996). However, this unity never reached to the point of sharing a common European culture. A single body of citizenry or a common cultural identity could not be reached even in the peak of Europes history of unity. When the differences within Europe are emphasized, they are often in the form of unity in diversity; religious differences such as Catholic, Protestant and Orthodox Christianity, and linguistic differences including Romance, Germanic and Slavic languages are obvious; yet they are seen as correlated, Catholic–Romance, Protestant–Germanic, Orthodox–Slavic, and essentially are underlying the major ethnic cleavages and conflicts in the history of Europe. Anthony Smith is among the scholars who are skeptical of the possibility of a common European identity because they could not find a common culture across the European continent, and even more critically they claim that Europe lacks of a shared set of myths, experience and symbols; these elements which they find crucial to create post-national identity (Smith, 1992: 72-73). Furthermore, Europe lacks of a shared historical and cultural content as which is the largest source of division among Europeans. Other obstacles to a common European identity include linguistic diversity and its tripartite religious division. In fact, a major difference among EU countries is the persistence of linguistic diversity, even though in practical level English has become the dominant language in Europe. Language does not only have an instrumental but also an emotional dimension and peoples sense of nationality is often tied up with their mother tongue (Guibernau, 2001: 192). On the other side of the debate, scholars such as Michael Wintle are more optimistic on the possibility of creating a European identity. Indeed, the existence of the EU identity in the form of converging education standards, educational exchanges, and the organization of a European civil society is already established in most parts of Europe. Wintle argues that a European identity was previously already created during the high Middle Age (Wintle, 1996: 19-22), and it can be easily established today considering the forces of globalization. For now, the major success of the EU in fostering its identity has been limited with the increasing free movement of people across European borders, which has accelerated since the 1985 and formalized in 1990 Schengen accords parallelly correlated with the rising impact of globalization. Increased interaction among peoples of Europe would also encourage cultural exchanges and this could foster a stronger sense of a shared community. Education and hi gh culture shall play a key role in European Unions cultural policy, because these two factors have an important effect on the creation of the EU identity. Education is obviously one of the crucial dimensions in any attempt to develop the future identity of the EU or at least more understanding and convergence among Europeans; high culture unites Europeans against the low culture which separates them. After all, the development of the EU identity will be the outcome of a long process in which bottom-up as well as top-down initiatives are likely to be employed (Guibernau, 2001: 183-184). The idea of Europe as well as the identity of Europeans are constructed over time with processes of contention and bargaining. Gerard Delanty argues that a European Culture is not an entity with cohesion and fixed boundaries, but a floppy concept, with no clear borders and with internal opposition and contradictions, discursively shaped in contentious social bargaining processes (Delanty, 1995; 1999). In other words, the images of Europe do not exist as a natural phenomenon but are discursively shaped by internal as well as external forces (Strath, 2002). A basic step in the process of creating a collective identity is to defining itself in relation to the other. Central to ones identifications are images of others. Likewise any identity, European identity necessarily contains a demarcation from the non-European. This is natural to all distinctions, and they are both inclusive and exclusive. The boundaries of Europe can only be drawn and the identity of Europe can only be realized in the mirror of others. Indeed, Europe does not exist without non-Europe and that non-Europe does not exist without Europe. Many centuries ago, the Europeans defined people living in the north as uncivilized and people living in the south as oriental (Pagden, 2002). Furthermore, the Greeks labeled the non-Greek speaking people as barbarians, even if that word would surely have a different meaning by that time. In nearer times, although the Russians shared many features with a European society including the same religion, it could not reach the formal limits of a Romanized civilization thus perceived as a barbaric empire or the orient, depending on the time. Moreover, European belief of its superiority relied on the common features of European societies such as science and liberal arts. Thus the rest of the world could only be portrayed as actors in relation to Europe, in other words always remained as the other. According to Delanty, Europe has been always invented and reinvented on the basis of division and strategy for the construction of difference from the other starting from Christian identity against Islam in the Middle-Ages, after that in the colonial politics to the New World, and to the ethnic minorities in the contemporary European Union (Delanty, 1995). Therefore, historical experience suggests that the new European identity may be constructed on the other which may be the United States, the East, Islam or the European past itself. Samuel Huntington has argued that religion provides the best common means of historically distinguishing between Europeans and the other, especially in terms of the confrontation between the Judeo-Christian tradition and Islam (Huntington, 1996). However, at the same time, the separation between Eastern Orthodox Christianity and Western variations of Christianity has, for a long time, been crucial in establishing a division between Western and Eastern E urope; partially reinforced in the Cold War, divisions between Catholicism and Protestantism and separation between North and South (Guibernau, 2001). Today, the European Union is frequently argued to be a fortress for the other and the EU is often referred to as a Christian Club, because historically all states on the continent of Europe had Christian societies. The Ottoman Empire was the greatest enemy of European states as well as Christianity in the Middle Ages; which made Islam the primary charactersitic of the other for Europeans from the perspective of history. Today, the accession dialogues of Turkey into the European Union raise wide public opposition in Europe while the European Union officials make constant efforts to prove their allegiance to non-religious, non-ethnic but solely liberal and non discriminatory Copenhagen Criteria independent from historical aspects of the other which has actually been extensively used to define the European identity. Finally, Europe is unique because it has possessed an identity as a cultural space which gave birth to political unions throughout its history. However, it has never succeed ed to constitute a single nation-state or a unified ethnic group. Although the European Union with its single currency and supranational political and legal institutions changed these historical facts to an extent, it is only possible with the means of a common European identity which will carry Europe to the next stage of integration which it always aimed but failed to achieve during its long history. Nevertheless, history has already proved that it will surely be hard to overcome uncertainties of a common European identity at the level of the masses. Over the past millennium, the advancements of European civilization gave rise to the elites living on the continent of Europe who feel increasingly attached to Europe as a whole and shared dreams of a united continent. However, Europe as a realm sharing a common history as well as a common destiny has been largely abandoned by fixed prejudices on often nationalistic and ethnic grounds. National interests and biases at local, national, and global levels have prevented the masses of European people from viewing themselves collectively (Lowenthal, 2000: 315). However, today, forces of globalization, advancements in communications technologies and media transmission of everyday popular culture now promotes the sense of being European among larger segments of society other than the European elites. Although a truly trans-European society is still in its infancy, many of its essential elements are already in place this time largely due to the forces of globalization. Most European states a re increasingly democratic in reality; their economies are for the most part market driven; their popular culture grows more homogeneous as communication technologies expand under the forces of globalization in the 21st Century (Waterman, 1999: 23). Therefore, Europe is at the stage of defining its identity today; however which criteria are being deployed to define Europe, Europeans, Europeanness and their respective boundaries is critically important. A common European identity must be constructed by defining and understanding the historical roots of outstanding features of the European society in relation to the notion of citizenship, which will be discussed in depth in the following parts; developed in the past over the land of Europe. For sure, Europe is being redefined as a result of a complex set of processes, but an important question is what sort of Europe is emerging from them? There is certainly a structured symmetry in the perception of the European Union as the coincidence of a homogenized socio-political space, a unified regulatory space of an EU super-state, a singular European civil society surpassing existing national and regional differences in culture and identity (Hudson, 2000). In some respects there has been progress towards such an ideal of European civil society. For example, the Council of Europe and the European Convention on Human Rights have had an important role in defining acceptable standards across Europe. The issue of European identity and the criteria used to denote Europeans is clearly a critical one for the political and social integrity for the European Union. Europe will exist as an unquestionable political community only when European identity permeates peoples lives and daily existence (Demos 1998). Identity is a key issue which is continuously changing and thats the reason why it is so hard to define especially in a world of f ast changes in the 21st Centurys globalization. The member states of todays enlarged EU have become multi-ethnic and multi-cultural societies with various structural phenomenon ranging from the immigrant community of France to Post-Communist yet ethnic communities of the Central and Eastern European states. As the EU expanded eastwards in the last two rounds of enlargements, the issue of defining a European identity became even more critical for sake of integrity and stability of the Union. One conception of a singular European identity would see it constructed through a process similar to that involved in the creation of national identities in the 19th and the 20th Centuries. Ironically, while the aim was to create those national identities in the past, the challenge that Europeans face today would be to transcend them for the creation of Europeannes. However, the current trends at local European level are quite different from the interests of Europeanists at the supranational level. There are pressures from nation states and their citizens to resist any further transfer of national sovereignty as well as erosion of national identity (Hudson, 2000). In fact, the success of extreme right wing political parties in important European countries such as Austria and France may be seen as a sign of the reappearance of dangerous nationalist and racist ambitions which the peoples of Europe have most probably experienced more than any other continent in the world history. Eric Hobsbawm has proclaimed that nationalism is dead (Hobsbawm, 1990). On the contrary, Llobera argues that national identities are certainly not eternal, but the time of their demise has not yet arrived (Llobera, 2003). In fact, national identities are still dominant in Europe. Recent surveys show that, people in Europe prefer maintaining their national identity and sovereignty, but increasing number of people have accepted European identity in addition to their national identities. Therefore, European nationalism is another important component of a common European identity and it has been a major ideological tool for unifying nation states as well as the Europeans as a whole throughout Europes history. To start with, the European Union, with its both intergovernmental and supranational characteristics represents a far different type of state-organization than a classical nation state. The main distinguishing characteristics of the EU from the nation-state are the absence of a shar ed language, a uniform media, common education system and a central state structure (Shore, 2000: 64). Furthermore, the powers of the EU rely on the sharing of sovereignty of its member states. European unification is a progressive method of limiting individual nation states to practice any kind of harmful nationalism and this is makes up an important part of the European identity. At this point, nationalist Euroskeptics may argue that building a common Europe and an identity for it means destroying nations. However, a general feeling of Europeanness and loyalty to Europe in a cultural sense, does not need to conflict with national identities (Andreani, 1999). A successful construct of European identity must include the concrete and symbolic realities created within time. The European states have not always been nationalist through Europes long history. The definition of nationalism counts on the idea of nation and territory; while the definition of a European nationalism depends on the historical and ideological evolution of the European nation states and aspirations for a post-national Europe. In fact, the aspirations that underlie in the roots of the foundation of the European Union are parallel to European cosmopolitanism in the 18th and the 19th centuries. From the Enlightenment to the beginning of the ECSC after the Second World War; European nationalism found two separate meanings: one as an antinational Pan-European idea of a new united Europe that limits the sovereignty of the nation states, and the other as a pro-national ideology to create or legitimate new nation states (DAppollonia, 2002). Historically, cosmopolitanism reflected intentions for a European unity, and gave rise to anti-national European nationalism. European nationalism was characterized by the will to protect the European interests and its supremacy from non-Europeans as well as protecting Europe from itself by creating a federation. It can be argued that economic development, commercial prosperity, intellectual-supremacy and military power were the factors making Europe homogeneous and created a united European identity beyond national borders to an extent. Some intellectuals as well as economists believe that the nation state is an outdated political and economic entity, and nationalism is merely an expression of old prejudiced and narrow-minded ideas. European nationalism defined itself similar to the nation state through common identity and culture, territory, historical memory building, and economic and political objectives to defend self-interests. The defensive conception of European nationalism o n the other hand had always been a driving factor, yet the pro-nationalist ideologies had been the major cause underlying the wars of modern times. As Europe was divided into aggressive nation states, the idea of Europe had increasingly converged. Although the wars were dividing factors themselves, their interpretations by the Europeanists became powerful unifying factors for Europe. The irony of European nationalism is that it depends on the memory of events that divided rather than united the continent (DAppollonia, 2002). Although it used the same definitions of nation and Europe with the anti-national European nationalism from time to time, it remained limited to the strict logic of the national framework. Transnational solidarities were necessity to establish European unity under either a supranational or an intergovernmental structure. For some intellectuals, European nationalism was the only way to protect the autonomy of nations and the liberty of the individuals. Conceptualizing of the European Union citizenship and creation of the Committee of the Regions in the EU were seen as efforts of the Pro-national European nationalists. These forms of European nationalism rejected the form of narrow nationalism while it showed ambitions to reinforce the intermediary actions between state and individual, between the individual, the market the centralizati

The Values And Ethics Of The Profession Social Work Essay

The Values And Ethics Of The Profession Social Work Essay Social workers are put into difficult situations on a regular basis. The Health and care professions council (HCPC) set guidelines to aid the challenges social workers face. To remain registered, a social worker needs to abide by the HCPC code of ethics to ensure delivery of the best possible service for users. Working within the guidelines set can be challenging as it may cause conflict with the service users values or potentially the social workers own values. For the purpose of this essay, ethics will be defined as professional obligations and rules of conduct (Meacham, 2007). Social work values will be defined as a range of beliefs about what is regarded as worthy or valuable in a social work context (BASW, 2012 p17). This essay focuses on two areas of the personalisation agenda that can cause challenges for social workers; accommodation and personal budgets. The target service user group for the purposes of this essay is people with disabilities. Using the definition stated in t he Equality Act, (2010) A person is considered disabled if they have a physical or mental impairment that has a substantial and long-term negative effect on their ability to do normal daily activities. Legislation and requirements to support adults with disabilities is increasing for the over eleven million people with a limiting long term illness, impairment or disability in Great Britain (office for disability issues, 2012). However, disabled people report mixed feelings and reactions to the legislations and rules put in place regarding their care and allowances (Dalley, 1991). The social philosophical approaches to social work will be used to deal with the challenges and conflicts social workers face. This essay touches upon Kants deontology; Benthams and Mills utilitarianism and Biesteks 7 principles approach. Immanuel Kant (1785) developed the theory of deontology. This means that social workers need to be promoting good actions and the correct motive, however the consequence is not important and the idea of an acceptable motive is subject to judgement (Adapted by Hartsell, 2006; Banks, 2001; Reiman, 2009; Meacham, 2008). Subsequently, Kant introduced the idea of a categorical imperative (CI). A CI maintains a persons motives for their actions and they therefore should be acceptable as a universal law. Â  Thus people should act on motives that can be used by everyone in a moral society and lead to respect for people (Darwell, 2002 cited in Reiman, 2009). From this it is seen that people should be treated as an end, for example a choice or desire, rather than a means (object) to our own ends. He believed that everyone should be treated with respect regardless of their characteristics or behaviour (Banks, 2001). Kant talks about respect for the individual person and promoting self determination. Biestek (1961) produced 7 principles that over time have become highly influential to social workers looking at values and ethics within their practice. 5 main principles have been used: Individualisation; Recognition that each service user has unique qualities, good and bad. Purposeful expression of feeling; Recognition that service users need to express their feelings (especially negative ones) freely. Acceptance; The social worker should be able to work with a service user without passing judgement and accepting Individuals for who they are, including their strengths and their weaknesses. Non judgemental attitude; Social workers should be able to not pass judgement or assign guilt to the service user. It is about judging the service users behaviour User self determination; the social worker should be able to guide the service user, depending on their on their capacity, to have freedom in making their own decisions and choices (Adapted by Banks, 2001). Utilitarianism focuses on a consequentialist approach as it focuses on the consequences of the action, rather than the actions themselves. (Scheffler, 1994 cited in Reiman, 2009). Decisions should be made on the results and consequences it could have on society rather than on a personal and individual basis, and to promote maximum good within society. The right action produces the greatest balance of good over evil the principle of utility. (Banks, 2001). Utilitarianism is based on a theory developed by Bentham and Mills who looked into two branches of utilitarianism; hedonistic and ideal utilitarianism. Bentham explored hedonistic utilitarianism, where good was matched with happiness. Mills explored the idea of ideal utilitarianism. This focused on good being about virtues, truth and knowledge, not just happiness. (Banks, 2001). The theory promotes the greatest good for the greatest number of people. When making a decision it is imperative that the consequence is considered. Theref ore as a social worker, it would be beneficial to look at the consequences of the forthcoming action and evaluate what would be most beneficial and least harmful to the service user. In the late 1980s, the Government recognised that an improvement in access to community services was required. The Government were committed to providing more support for people with long term needs by assisting and supporting individuals to manage their conditions and providing services they require in the community rather than in long-stay hospitals.(Oliver, 1996) Morris (1993) conducted a study that looked into disabled individuals who needed day to day services. He found that disabled individuals were starting to feel a sense of hopelessness and helplessness when trying to access statutory services. Historically, social workers assessed and told service users what services they needed. Through the personalisation agenda, and the introduction of direct payments, service users told the social worker their needs. For the first time, the social worker had to accept the service users self-assessment and then use the assessment to see if the highlighted issues were eligible under Fair Access to Care (2003) legislation. Direct payments were introduced in 1997 and social workers had to translate service user needs into a monetary value to enable them to purchase their own service. The aim was to give individuals control over their care and their lives. Direct payments evolved into personalised budgets and have further evolved into a more individualised budget / service plan. The need for change and equality of service provision has been recognised as more views are being voiced by people with disabilities. In line with Beisteks theory, service users are using purposeful expression of feeling and self-determination to enable the social workers to know their wants and needs. This has resulted in changes which could reduce the potential for conflict in the future. A further challenge is budgetary control. Service users often want services that are financially unavailable to them. Although ethics state that service users should be encouraged to have self- determination, be treated as a whole and the social worker should promote and provide information regarding their care (BASW, 2012), the service users choice cannot always be guaranteed. Utilitarianism would suggest that this is because if service users always received the services they wanted, the social worker would not be promoting the greatest good for the greatest number, instead would be taking a more Kantian approach of promoting moral good. These two philosophical approaches cause conflict within themselves. The Mental Capacity Act (2005) says a person lacks capacity in relation to a matter if at the material time he is unable to make a decision for himself in relation to the matter because of an impairment of, or a disturbance in the functioning of, the mind or brain. (s2). This leads to challenges and conflicts for social workers. If the service user had capacity, there could be conflict over the way they spend their budget which could lead to the social worker treating that individual without respect. Following the BASW code of ethics (2012), it states that social workers should respect the right to self-determination. Kant would support this view as, by the social worker supporting the individual to meet their own self-defined needs, the social worker is promoting good actions that will in turn produce good outcomes for the individual. The social worker needs to recognise that the individual has human rights and freedom to voice their views. Burton (1996) showed that there was a fail ure to recognise the unequal power relations between the social worker in control of provision of services and the service user who relies on the services. This therefore would undermine Beisteks principles of self-determination as, although the service user is voicing their opinion, the social worker is not listening and this could be seen as jeopardising the principles of personalisation and the code of ethics that are imperative. The implementation of The Mental Capacity Act needs to be reviewed to ensure workers are following legislation and ethics. It should not be assumed someone lacks capacity because they have a disability. On the other hand, if the service user didnt have capacity, it could cause conflict between the social worker and the paid carer and/or unpaid carers. If the service user lacks capacity, how would the social worker or the carers be able to assess what was best for the individual? A social worker would have to uphold and promote human dignity and well-being as well as empowering the individual. (BASW, 2012). These ethics and values are supported by Beisteks theory. Workers need to treat the service user with respect, be non -judgemental and accept the situation the service user may be in. The social worker therefore would only be able to act upon their assessment which should include the carers views on what is best for the service user. Utilitarianism, an alternative argument, would argue whats the greatest good for the greatest number? What would benefit the service user more? The social workers views or the carers views? The outcomes need to ensure that the maximum people are happy . The social worker could reach the maximum happiness and reduce conflict by using empowerment. The social worker would respect the needs and preferences of the service user, via the carers and family members as well as recognising their own prejudices to ensure the correct services are offered. The Community Care Act (1990) promotes care in the community and people staying within their own home, allowing the individual to use their personal budget and have carers to promote independence. There is evidence to suggest for example, individuals who have fractured a limb, fare better when they recuperate in their own homes. (Pignolo, Keenan and Hebela, 2011). Accommodation is a major concern for many service users (Davis and Wainwright, 1996). One aspect that could cause conflict is the practice of placing young people in young disability units, properties that are specifically designed for people with learning disabilities. Although this could be seen as a solution for people to interact and have support, there is a potential conflict as the individual cannot choose where they want to live and may live a distance from family/friends. If placed in a purpose built establishment, the individuals are classed as being housed by the local authority and therefore do not get to choose alternative locations (Oliver, 1996). The dilemma for the social worker is the need to take the individuals views into account whilst balancing their needs and wants, particularly if the service user lacks the capacity to make the decision. It is unlawful for anyone to sign a tenancy agreement on behalf of an individual who lacks capacity. A capacity assessment needs to be undertaken to ensure the service user understands how to maintain that tenancy. In order to proceed, an application needs to be made to The Court of Protection. This could lead to conflict as the social worker and housing department need to uphold the law, however many families feel they have the right to sign a tenancy for their disabled family member and find it difficult to accept that this is not the case. According to BASW (2012), the social worker needs to develop professional relationships with the service user and the family, uphold the reputation and values of the profession as well as recognising diversity and treating the individual as a whole. Utilitarianism would recommend looking at what benefits the whole family, rather than just the service user. Challenges arise when the service user lacks capacity. Using the utilitarian approach, it could be said that the service user shouldnt be given a tenancy as it doesnt promote the greatest good for the greatest number. This view is in conflict with BASW codes of ethics. It could be seen as unethical practice and lead to further conflict. Beistek would support the view of BASW in using the specific value base that service users should be allowed to freely express their feelings, both positive and negative, and the social worker should listen and make a decision in an accepting and non-judgemental way. However, Kant would say that although the consequence of not getting a choice in where the service user lives is a negative outcome, the intention of placing them in a home, with other people to socialise is a good moral judgement that is solely benefitting the individual. Another potential conflict could be older disabled individuals being forced into care. The Sutherland Report (1999) claimed that older disabled people were being forced into institutional care too early due to the lack of alternative care at home. Sixsmith and Sixsmith (2008) provided evidence that by 2008 there had been a shift in care provision and that the Personalisation Agenda meant that people were remaining in their home for longer and receiving appropriate services. However there is a further potential for conflict when accommodating people, with disabilities, to stay in their homes. Individuals may want to grow old at home but is this possible for people with significantly reduced mobility? Many homes are inaccessible to wheelchair users and those with significant mobility impairments (Burns, 2004). There is a Government scheme whereby disabled people can apply for a disabled facility grant to have their homes adapted, and certain individuals have to re-pay the Government, t herefore the Government is not financing expensive care packages. The role of the social worker would be to negotiate, support and empower the service user to have their needs met in the most appropriate, desired way. According to Kants theory, having a loan is the moral good as people will be able to remain at home for longer, promoting happiness and community care. This would be supported by the values of BASW which states social workers need to treat the service user as a whole and respect their right to self-determination. In contrast to Kants theory, Utilitarianism would consider weighing up the consequences of removing the service user from their house and into an adapted and safe environment. I.e. a care home could be seen as an easier option for disabled people to receive care. This view could cause conflict because the social worker is going against the wishes and desires of the service user. Utilitarianism looks at the best outcome for society rather than on an individual level. Therefore, by moving individuals out of the house into the care home may provide maximum happiness for society, although it disregards the individuals views and opinions. This is a criticism of the model as many service users could potentially not have their needs met in a manner that is acceptable to them due to the focus being on the benefit to society. This could be particularly true e.g. for people with English as a second language or who follow a religious faith. However, Beistek would agree with Kant in promoting self-determination. A key theme running throughout this essay is respect for the individual person as a self determining being. Both Kant and Beistek promote this and therefore appear to be the social philosophical models best tailored towards social work values and ethics. There are clear conflicts between traditional social work and the personalisation agenda for people with disabilities. These conflicts have been reduced with the introduction of HCPC ethics. If the social worker consistently uses these theories whilst working with conflict and challenging service users then the BASW ethics will be maintained and the service users will receive the best appropriate service available within Fair access to care criteria.