Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ’s Childhood Pal Chapter 31

Tuesday We all slept that night in the upper room of Joseph's house. In the morning Joshua went downstairs. He was gone for a bit, then came back up the stairs. â€Å"They won't let me leave,† he said. â€Å"They?† â€Å"The apostles. My own apostles won't let me leave.† He went back to the stairway. â€Å"You're interfering with the will of God!† he shouted down. He turned back to me. â€Å"Did you tell them not to let me leave?† â€Å"Me? Yep.† â€Å"You can't do that.† â€Å"I sent Nathaniel to Simon's to fetch Maggie. He returned alone. Maggie wouldn't talk to him, but Martha did. Temple soldiers had been there, Josh.† â€Å"So?† â€Å"What do you mean, so? They were there to arrest you.† â€Å"Let them.† â€Å"Joshua, you don't have to sacrifice yourself to prove this point. I've been thinking about it all night. You can negotiate.† â€Å"With the Lord?† â€Å"Abraham did it. Remember? Over the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. He starts out getting the Lord to agree to spare the cities if he can find fifty righteous men, but by the end, he talks God down to ten. You can try something like that.† â€Å"That's not completely the point, Biff.† Here he came over to me, but I found I couldn't look him in the eye, so I went to one of the large arched windows that looked down on the street. â€Å"I'm afraid of this – of what's going to happen. I can think of a dozen things I'd rather do this week than be sacrificed, but I know that it has to happen. When I told the priests that I would tear the Temple down in three days, I meant that all the corruption, all the pretense, all the ritual of the Temple that keeps men from knowing God would be destroyed. And on the third day, when I come back, everything will be new, and the kingdom of God will be everywhere. I'm coming back, Biff.† â€Å"Yeah, I know, you said that.† â€Å"Well, believe in me.† â€Å"You're not good at resurrections, Josh. Remember the old woman in Japhia? The soldier in Sepphoris, what did he last? Three minutes?† â€Å"But look at Maggie's brother Simon. He's been back from the dead for months now.† â€Å"Yeah, and he smells funny.† â€Å"He does not.† â€Å"No, really, when you get close to him he smells spoiled.† â€Å"How would you know? You won't get close to him because he used to be a leper.† â€Å"Thaddeus mentioned it the other day. He said, ‘Biff, I believe this Simon Lazarus fellow has spoiled.'† â€Å"Really? Then let's go ask Thaddeus.† â€Å"He might not remember.† Joshua went down the steps to a low-ceilinged room with a mosaic floor and small windows cut high in the walls. Joshua's mother and brother James had joined the apostles. They all sat there against the walls, their faces turned to Joshua like flowers to the sun, waiting for him to say something that would give them hope. â€Å"I'm going to wash your feet,† he said. To Joseph of Arimathea, he said, â€Å"I need a basin of water and a sponge.† The tall aristocrat bowed and went off to find a servant. â€Å"What a pleasant surprise,† Mary said. James the brother rolled his eyes and sighed heavily. â€Å"I'm going out,† I said. I looked at Peter, as if to say, Don't let him out of your sight. He understood perfectly and nodded. â€Å"Come back for the seder,† Joshua said. â€Å"I have some things I have to teach you in the little time I have left.† There was no one home at Simon's house. I knocked on the door for a long time, then finally let myself in. There was no evidence of a morning meal, but the mikveh had been used, so I guessed that they had each bathed and then gone to the Temple. I walked the streets of Jerusalem, trying to think of some solution, but everything I had learned seemed useless. As evening fell I made my way back to Joseph's house, taking the long route so I didn't have to pass the palace of the high priest. Joshua was waiting inside, sitting on the steps to the upper room, when I came in. Peter and Andrew sat on either side of him, obviously there to ensure that he didn't accidentally skip down to the high priest and turn himself in for blasphemy. â€Å"Where have you been?† Joshua said. â€Å"I need to wash your feet.† â€Å"Do you have any idea how hard it is to find a ham in Jerusalem during Passover week?† I said. â€Å"I thought it would be nice, you know, some ham on matzo with a little bitter herb.† â€Å"He washed us all,† Peter said. â€Å"Of course we had to hold Bart down, but even he's clean.† â€Å"And as I washed them, they will go out and wash others, by showing them forgiveness.† â€Å"Oh, I get it,† I said. â€Å"It's a parable. Cute. Let's go eat.† We all lay around the big table, with Joshua at the head. Joshua's mother had prepared a traditional Passover supper, with the exception of the lamb. To begin the seder, Nathaniel, who was the youngest, had to ask a question. â€Å"Why is this night different from every other night of the year?† â€Å"Bart's feet are clean?† said Thomas. â€Å"Joseph of Arimathea is picking up the tab?† said Philip. Nathaniel laughed and shook his head. â€Å"No. It's because other nights we eat bread and matzo, but tonight we only eat matzo. Jeez.† He grinned, probably feeling smart for the first time in his life. â€Å"And why do we only eat the matzo on this night?† asked Nathaniel. â€Å"Skip ahead, Nate,† I said. â€Å"We're all Jews here. Summarize. Unleavened bread because there was no time for it to rise with Pharaoh's soldiers on our tail, bitter herbs for the bitterness of slavery, God delivered us into the Promised Land, it was swell, let's eat.† â€Å"Amen,† said everyone. â€Å"That was pathetic,† said Peter. â€Å"Yeah, was it?† I said angrily. â€Å"Well, we sit here with the Son of God, waiting for someone to come and take him away and kill him, and none of us is going to do a damn thing about it, including God, so forgive me if I'm not peeing all over myself about having been delivered out of the hands of the Egyptians about a million years ago.† â€Å"You're forgiven,† said Joshua. Then he stood up. â€Å"What I am, is in you all. The Divine Spark, the Holy Ghost, it unites you all. It is the God that is in you all. Do you understand that?† â€Å"Of course God is part of you,† James the brother said, â€Å"he's your father.† â€Å"No, in all of you. Watch, take this bread.† He took a matzo and broke it into pieces. He gave a piece to everyone in the room and took a piece himself. Then he ate it. â€Å"Now, the bread is part of me, the bread is me. Now all of you eat it.† Everybody looked at him. â€Å"EAT IT!† He screamed. So we ate it. â€Å"Now it is part of you, I am part of you. You all share the same part of God. Let's try again. Hand me that wine.† And so it went like that, for a couple of hours, and I think that by the time the wine was gone, the apostles actually grasped what Joshua was saying to them. Then the begging started, as each of us pleaded for Joshua to give up the notion that he had to die to save the rest of us. â€Å"Before this is finished,† he said, â€Å"you will all have to deny me.† â€Å"No we won't,† said Peter. â€Å"You will deny me three times, Peter. I not only expect this, I command it. If they take you when they take me, then there is no one to take the good news to the people. Now, Judas, my friend, come here.† Judas went to Joshua, who whispered in his ear, then sent him back to his place at the table. â€Å"One of you will betray me this very night,† said Joshua. â€Å"Won't you, Judas?† â€Å"What?† Judas looked around at us, but when he saw no one coming to his defense, he bolted down the steps. Peter started after him, but Joshua caught the fisherman by the hair and yanked him back off of his feet. â€Å"Let him go.† â€Å"But the high priest's palace isn't a furlong away,† said Joseph of Arimathea. â€Å"If he goes there directly.† Joshua held his hand up for silence. â€Å"Biff, go directly to Simon's house and wait. Alone you can sneak by the palace without being seen. Tell Maggie and the others to wait for us. The rest of us will go through the city and through the Ben Hinnon valley so we don't have to pass the priest's palace. We'll meet you in Bethany.† I looked at Peter and Andrew. â€Å"You won't let him turn himself in?† â€Å"Of course not.† I was off into the night, wondering even as I ran whether Joshua had changed his mind and was going to escape from Bethany into the Judean desert. I should have known right then that I'd been had. You think you can trust a guy, then he turns around and lies to you. Simon answered the door and let me in. He held his finger to his lips, signalling me to be quiet. â€Å"Maggie and Martha are in the back. They're angry with you. All of you. Now they'll be angry with me for letting you in.† â€Å"Sorry,† I said. He shrugged. â€Å"What can they do? It's my house.† I went directly through the front room into a second room that opened off to bedchambers, the mikveh, and the courtyard where food was prepared. I heard voices coming from one of the bedchambers. When I walked in, Maggie looked up from braiding Martha's hair. â€Å"So, you've come to tell me that it's done,† she said. Tears welled up in her eyes and I felt as if I would break down with her if she started sobbing now. â€Å"No,† I said. â€Å"He and the others are on their way here. Through Ben Hinnon, so it will be a few hours. But I have a plan.† I pulled the ying-yang amulet that Joy had given me out of my tunic and waved it before them. â€Å"Your plan is to bribe Joshua with ugly jewelry?† asked Martha. I pointed to the tiny stoppers on either side of the amulet. â€Å"No, my plan is to poison him.† I explained how the poison worked to Mary and Martha and then we waited, counting the time in our imaginations, watching in our mind's eyes as the apostles made their way through Jerusalem, out the Essene gate, into the steep valley of Ben Hinnon, where thousands of tombs had been carved into the rock, and where once a river had run, but now was only sage and cypress and thistles clinging to the crevices in the limestone. After several hours we went outside to wait in the street, then when the moon started down and the night made way into early morning, we saw a single figure coming from the west, not the south as we had expected. As he got closer I could tell from heavy shoulders and the moon shining on his bald pate that it was John. â€Å"They took him,† he said. â€Å"At Gethsemane. Annas and Caiphais came themselves, with Temple guards, and they took him.† Maggie ran into my arms and buried her face in my chest. I reached out and pulled Martha close as well. â€Å"What was he doing at Gethsemane?† I said. â€Å"You were supposed to be coming here through Ben Hinnon.† â€Å"He only told you that.† â€Å"That bastard lied to me. So they arrested everyone?† â€Å"No, the others are hiding not far from here. Peter tried to fight the guards, but Joshua stopped him. Joshua negotiated with the priests to let us go. Joseph came too, he helped talk them into letting the rest of us go.† â€Å"Joseph? Joseph betrayed him?† â€Å"I don't know,† said John. â€Å"Judas was the one that led them to Gethsemane. He pointed Joshua out to the guards. Joseph came later, when they were about to arrest the rest of us.† â€Å"Where did they take him?† â€Å"To the palace of the high priest. That's all I know, Biff. I promise.† He sat down hard in the middle of the street and began to weep. Martha went to him and cradled his head to her breast. Maggie looked up at me. â€Å"He knew you would fight. That's why he sent you here.† â€Å"The plan doesn't change,† I said. â€Å"We just have to get him back so we can poison him.† John looked up from Martha's embrace. â€Å"Did you change sides when I wasn't here?† Wednesday At first light Maggie and I were pounding on Joseph's door. A servant let us in. When Joseph came out from his bedchamber I had to hold Maggie back to keep her from attacking him. â€Å"You betrayed him!† â€Å"I did not,† said Joseph. â€Å"John said you were with the priests,† I said. â€Å"I was. I followed them up to keep them from killing Joshua for trying to escape, or in self-defense, right there at Gethsemane.† â€Å"What do you mean, ‘in self-defense'?† â€Å"They want him dead, Maggie,† Joseph said. â€Å"They want him dead, but they don't have the authority to execute him, don't you understand that? If I hadn't been there they could have murdered him and said that he'd attacked them first. The Romans are the only ones who have the authority to have someone killed.† â€Å"Herod had John the Baptist killed,† I said. â€Å"There were no Romans involved in that.† â€Å"Jakan and his thugs stone people all of the time,† Maggie said. â€Å"Without Roman approval.† â€Å"Think, you two. This is Passover week. The city is crawling with Romans watching for rebellious Jews. The entire Sixth Legion is here, plus all of Pilate's personal guard from Caesarea. Normally there'd only be a handful. The high priests, the Sanhedrin, the Pharisee council, even Herod will think twice before they do anything outside the letter of Roman law. Don't panic. There hasn't even been a trial in the Sanhedrin yet.† â€Å"When will there be a trial?† â€Å"This afternoon, probably. They have to bring everyone in. The prosecution is gathering witnesses against Joshua.† â€Å"What about witnesses for him?† I asked. â€Å"That's not how it works,† said Joseph. â€Å"I'll speak for him, and so will my friend Nicodemus, but other than that Joshua will have to defend himself.† â€Å"Swell,† Maggie said. â€Å"Who is prosecuting him?† â€Å"I thought you'd know,† Joseph said, cringing slightly. â€Å"The one who started the Sanhedrin plots against Joshua the other two times, Jakan bar Iban.† Maggie whirled around and glared at me. â€Å"You should have killed him.† â€Å"Me? You had seventeen years to push the guy down the steps or something.† â€Å"There's still time,† she said. â€Å"That won't help Joshua now,† said Joseph. â€Å"Just hope that the Romans won't hear his case.† â€Å"You sound as if he's already convicted,† I said. â€Å"I'll do my best.† Joseph didn't sound very confident. â€Å"Get us in to see him.† â€Å"And let them arrest the two of you? I don't think so. You stay here. You can have the upper rooms to yourselves. I'll come back or send word as soon as anything happens.† Joseph hugged Maggie and kissed her on the top of the head, then left the room to get dressed. â€Å"Do you trust him?† Maggie said. â€Å"He warned Joshua before when they wanted to kill him.† â€Å"I don't trust him.† Maggie and I waited all day in the upper room, jumping to our feet every time we heard footsteps going by in the street, until we were exhausted and shaking from worry. I asked one of Joseph's servant girls to go down to the palace of the high priest to see what was going on. She returned a short time later to report that the trial was still going on. Maggie and I made a nest of the cushions under the wide arched window in the front, so we could hear the slightest noise coming from the street, but as night started to fall, the footsteps became fewer and farther between, the distant singing from the Temple faded, and we settled into each other's arms, a single lump of low, agonizing grief. Sometime after dark we made love together for the first time since the night before Joshua and I left for the Orient. All those years had passed, and yet it seemed familiar. That first time, so long ago, making love was a desperate way to share the grief we felt because we were each about to lose someone we loved. This time we were losing the same person. This time, we slept afterward. Joseph of Arimathea didn't come home. Thursday It was Simon and Andrew who stormed up the steps to wake us Thursday morning. I threw my tunic over Maggie and jumped to my feet in just a loincloth. As soon as I saw Simon I felt the heat rise in my face. â€Å"You treacherous bastard!† I was too angry to hit him. I just stood there screaming at him. â€Å"You coward!† â€Å"It wasn't him,† screamed Andrew in my ear. â€Å"It wasn't me,† said Simon. â€Å"I tried to fight the guards when they came to get Joshua. Peter and I both did.† â€Å"Judas was your friend. You and your Zealot bullshit!† â€Å"He was your friend too.† Andrew pushed me away. â€Å"Enough! It wasn't Simon. I saw him face two guards with spears. Leave him be. We don't have time for your tantrum, Biff. Joshua is being flogged at the high priest's palace.† â€Å"Where's Joseph?† Maggie said. She'd dressed while I had been railing at Simon. â€Å"He's gone on to the praetorium that Pilate set up at the Antonia Palace by the Temple.† â€Å"What the hell's he doing there if Joshua is being beaten at the palace in this end of the city?† â€Å"That's where they'll take Joshua next. He was convicted of blasphemy, Biff. They want a death sentence. Pontius Pilate is the ruling authority in Judea. Joseph knows him, he's going to ask for Joshua's release.† â€Å"What do we do? What do we do?† I was starting to get hysterical. Since I could remember, my friendship with Joshua had been my anchor, my reason for being, my life; now it, he, was running toward destruction like a storm-driven ship to a reef, and I couldn't think of a thing to do but panic. â€Å"What do we do? What do we do?† I panted, the breath refusing to fill my lungs. Maggie grabbed me by the shoulders and shook me. â€Å"You have a plan, remember.† She tugged on the amulet around my neck. â€Å"Right, right,† I said, taking a deep breath. â€Å"Right. The plan.† I grabbed my tunic and slipped it over my head. Maggie helped me wrap the sash. â€Å"I'm sorry, Simon,† I said. He forgave me with the wave of a hand. â€Å"What do we do?† â€Å"If they're taking Joshua to the praetorium, that's where we go. If Pilate releases him then we'll need to get him out of there. There's no telling what Josh will do to get them to kill him.† We were waiting along with a huge crowd outside the Antonia Palace when the Temple guards brought Joshua to the front gates. The high priest, Caiaphas, wearing his blue robes and with a jewel-encrusted chest piece, led the procession. His father, Annas, who had been the high priest previously, followed right behind. A column of guards surrounded Joshua in the middle of the procession. We could just see him amid the guards, and I could tell that someone had put a fresh tunic on him, but there were stripes of blood soaking through the back. He looked as if he was in a trance. There was a great deal of posturing and shouting between the Temple guards, and from somewhere in the procession Jakan came forward and started arguing with the soldiers as well. It was obvious that the Romans were not going to let the Temple guards enter the praetorium, so the transfer of the prisoner was going to take place there at the gate or not at all. I was measuring whether I could sneak through the crowd, snap Jakan's neck, and sneak back out without jeopardizing our plan when I felt a hand on my shoulder. I looked around to see Joseph of Arimathea. â€Å"At least it wasn't a Roman scourge they lashed him with. He took thirty-nine lashes, but it was just leather, not the lead-tipped whip that the Romans use. That would have killed him.† â€Å"Where were you? What took so long?† â€Å"The prosecution took forever. Jakan went on half the night, taking testimony from witnesses who had obviously never even heard of Joshua, let alone seen any crime.† â€Å"What about the defense?† asked Maggie. â€Å"Well, I put forth a defense of good deeds, but it was so overwhelmed by the accusations that it was lost in the noise. Joshua didn't say a word in his own defense. They asked him if he was the Son of God and he said yes. That confirmed the blasphemy charge. It's all they needed, really.† â€Å"What happens now? Did you talk to Pilate?† â€Å"I did.† â€Å"And?†

Self-image is a big problem for many women

Self-image is a big problem for many women, including myself. Many nights are spent at the gym, working out for hours, trying to sculpt the body into what society considers â€Å"attractive†. After running for thirty minutes and 500 crunches, you stand in front of the mirror in the women's locker room in disapproval. Then you say to yourself, â€Å"I'll be back tomorrow. † Sound familiar? That's because it is! Many women face problems about their bodies because of Britain's unrealistic stereotype of what is desirable. Forms of media such as childhood toys, magazine advertisements, and television have made a negative impact on girls and women (in particular) of all ages. Some of the anxieties that come with the entertainment industry's perception of â€Å"what is attractive† have the tendency to lead to serious problems such as low self-esteem and eating disorders. From a young age girls have faced the pressure of achieving physical perfection even from the toys they play with; the unrealistic body-perfect measurements of the popular childhood toy Barbie. Little girls love from Britain to Brazil love Barbie. Barbie is one of the best-selling toys in the world and could explain why Barbie has been accused of setting a negative stereotype for children in society. The big dilemma seems to be Barbie's current figure-long legs, skinny waist, narrow hips, and ample bosom. Not only does Barbie depict what society considers attractive but She has everything little girls dream of, a perfect house, figure and boyfriend, Sending a subconscious message to society; If you get the body you can get The guy, the Malibu beach house, with a pink convertible in the garage. As girls grow older they put their Barbie dolls to rest and, along comes a new and more extreme age of what they are exposed to new forms of media. Such as the teen magazines featuring articles about boys, beauty, and fashion. But They are sandwiched between glamorized advertisements for beauty Products, messages once again being sent of the body perfect and ‘lifestyle perfect' Previous childhood messages of the infamous Barbie doll once again being thrusted into the faces of adolescent girls. But this time Britney Spears is the new Barbie and she's real. Running around in her skimpy crop tops and perfect pop star boyfriend; she has it all, doesn't she? Young woman (under 25) are increasingly tuned in to a celebrity culture where the models' and actresses' bodies are considerably thinner than they've ever been in the past, and is seductive and appealing for young girls to resist. Since these actresses, pop stars are role models for girls nation-wide, they influence the way girls think, behave, and try to look, Scary thought†¦ Britney may well be the new Barbie†¦. Has the consequent pursuit of thinness become a new religion? And is the media responsible for low self-esteem and eating disorders? That may well be a contributing factor but inevitably it will always be down to the individual themselves. 2003 a year where there is no definite body shape or lifestyle, we should just aspire and embrace being ourselves, not want what the likes of Victoria and David Beckham have, or want Britney's ‘perfect body'. The only person that you will have to live with all your life is you, not Posh! It is important for women, including myself, to realize society's standards of what is desirable are unrealistic as well as unhealthy. So, the next time I go to the gym and stare into the full-length mirror in the women's locker room, I will accept myself for who I am. I may not be as thin as a magazine model or as attractive as a television actress, but be happy with your self as the inner beauty always shines through.

Slavery Developed in All of the English Colonies of North America. Was This Institution the Same in All the Colonies Did This Form of Labour Have the Same Level of Importance in Each of the Areas? Why or Why Not?

Large-scale African slavery was introduced into the English colonies of North America around the middle of the seventeenth century. Although slavery developed in all of the British colonies, it did not have the same level of importance in each of the areas of settlement. Slavery mainly spread over those areas where there were large plantations of high-value cash crops, such as tobacco, indigo, sugar, rice and coffee. Consequently, in the Chesapeake and the Southern colonies, this form of labour rapidly became the basis of their economies. In New England and the Northern colonies, however, slavery was going to remain peripheral. The settlers? need for cheap labour to work on their plantations was one of the main reasons why the British colonies began to import enslaved Africans. In the Chesapeake area, successful tobacco cultivation required abundant land (since the crop quickly drained soil of nutrients). Consequently, plantations gradually spread out along the region’s rivers and planters quickly found themselves being land rich but labour poor. At first, indentured servants were used as the needed labour. These servants were mainly young English men who, in exchange for their transportation costs, had to provide four to seven years of free labour in the plantations. Once the period of indenture was over, those servants who managed to survive service were given freedom dues. However, in the 1660s, when the supply of indentured servants began to dry up (partly because the English economy improved and people started having better opportunities there) tobacco cultivators turned to a new source of labour: African slaves. Planters first imported already enslaved Africans from Caribbean sugar islands (the â€Å"Atlantic creolesâ€Å") but then, they began to purchase slaves directly from Africa. Although this new labour force was usually more expensive than indentured servants, it proved to be highly profitable because slaves, as well as their offspring, meant a lifetime of service. As a result of the introduction of slavery, society became more stratified: the Chesapeake colonies developed a three-tiered society with planters at the top, few poor farmers in the middle and slaves at the bottom. Because Africans were included among the first colonists to come to South Carolina, they composed one third of its early population. As African slaves had a variety of skills well suited to the semitropical environment of this colony, they contributed significantly to South Carolina’s prosperity: for instance, the cultivation of Carolina’s cash crops, rice and indigo, was only developed on a large scale with the help of skills and techniques of the African slaves. The similarity of South Carolina’s environment to West Africa’s and the large proportion of Africans in the population ensured that many aspects of West African culture survived in this colony: for example, enslaved parents continue to give their children African names, a dialect combining English words with African terms developed, etc. In contrast to the other areas, New England and the northern colonies were not committed to slavery as their chief source of labour. Lacking large-scale agricultural enterprises, these colonies did not demand many slaves. Although slavery was not as profitable to the north as it was to the south, northern colonists did own slaves. In these colonies, since European household servants were hard to find, the slaves owned by the northern settlers were mainly used as domestic servants for the urban elite. Because fewer slaves were introduced into the north, social differences were not as sharp as in the south. The gap between the rich and the poor in New England colonies was narrower than in the Chesapeake colonies. The different level of importance slavery had on the British colonies in North America accentuated the already existing differences between these settlements. To the distinction between cash crops plantations in the Chesapeake area and diversity of economy in the New England colonies was now added this quite dissimilar role of slavery. This distinction between large-scale slavery in the south and near absence of slavery in the north was going to last until to the middle of the nineteenth century. It was not until the American civil war that this situation finally came to an end.

GIS Acquisition Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2750 words

GIS Acquisition - Essay Example The main objective of implementing GIS in an organization is to construct a business case for the proposal of GIS acquisition. Network dictionary defined a geographical information system as â€Å"a computer system capable of capturing, storing, analyzing, and displaying geographically referenced information, that is, data identified according to location. Practitioners also define a GIS as including the procedures, operating personnel, and spatial data that go into the system†. For acquiring GIS, cost, risks, benefits, and impacts associated with the GIS are calculated, in order to continue with the current data and information products. If fundamental different approaches are included in the preliminary design models, for instance, centralized systems versus distributed systems, analyzing cost benefit analysis are essential. The activities that are involved in cost benefit analysis are: Estimating all the cost Identification of all benefits Evaluation of economic value for i rrefutable profit Evaluating impact on the staff and organization Evaluating Risk Examining results The implementation cost for the GIS includes acquisition and maintenance for software, hardware, maintenance, data capture, and training. The highly qualified staff is required for management of systems, programming, support, operation of applications, and preparation for the site with all related expenses along with an acquisition cost. Discounted on the present value, recurrent cost needs to be analyzed for five years over an insignificant system life. As identified in the preliminary stages, the cost associated with software, hardware, maintenance and training cost needs to be obtained from more than two vendors. If it is achievable, than the validation of these cost will be achieved by discussions by existing agencies. Moreover, the data capture cost will be significant and vary from 10 to 1000 times from the software and hardware cost. The benefits related to efficiency are assoc iated with time and cost via robust data processing and eliminating the duplication processes. On the other hand, effectiveness benefits are linked with improvements in the decision-making processes via new data in a timely manner. Moreover, the intangible benefits consist of an advanced image of the public for the organization. The ambiguous data reduce the confusion enables superior communication between users via enhanced staff professionalism and morale, superior co-operation between the users by data sharing, capability to handle unexpected events. In addition, unanticipated applications and enhanced data analysis will provide new knowledge. The definition of economic value is available at ‘www.investorwords.com’ that states as â€Å"The value of an asset deriving from its ability to generate income† (, what is economic value? Definition and Meaning). Economic value enthusiastically can be allocated to efficiency benefits. The usefulness, value and benefits are not easy to calculate. There may be key impacts of the proposed GIS on the staff and organization, and may have a considerable comportment on the cost benefit analysis. From the user requirement analysis, the impacts for the data processing, decision making and data collection can be accessed. The management and organizational structure linked with the new technology, new procedures, new roles and new necessities for co-operation and consultation will contribute to make an impact on the organization. These issues may contribution towards the successful GIS as compared to technical issues. Discussions and consultations of impacts with the staff in the early states facilitate to eliminate disputes during the deployment. Moreover, eyeing on authority, responsibility and undertaking related to propagation of information products and data maintenance, there are legal and political connotation for the organizations. The inclusion of risk assessment defining that the project will not b e able to

Criminal law Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words - 1

Criminal law - Essay Example When there are different parties to a crime, principle offenders are deemed to have contributed to committing the offence. In this case Andrew decides to kill his wife Sue in order to be with Beth. He acts by hiring a hit man, John to do the work for him on some payment. In doing this, he acts as the counsellor. This is by encouraging, and inciting John to commit the crime and offering him money as payment for it. This makes him a party to the crime as a counsellor. A person who counsels or procures another person to commit a crime is a principle offender if the offence is actually committed. He is therefore liable for the same penalties as John as if he had committed the offence himself. It is immaterial whether the offence actually committed was the same as that counselled. Provided that the facts surrounding the offence committed are a probable or direct consequence of that counsel. For example in the case of Twelve v R , where a son procured a witchdoctor to kill is mother whom he believed was a witch and was responsible for killing his children. He believed that the witchdoctor would superficially k ill his mother however; the witchdoctor killed her by shooting her on the back in her hut at night. The son was held to have been likely convicted of murder for having procured the witchdoctor to kill his mother. The means used was immaterial, guiding another person to commit a crime, makes one a party to the offence. For example in the case of DPP of Northern Ireland v Maxwell , A drove his car to a pub knowing that he was guiding another vehicle containing members of a terrorist movement. A realised that some kind of attack was to be made but did not know the form it would take. Members of the terrorist group threw a piped bomb into a pub but fortunately, it did not explode. A was held guilty for being an accessory to a crime and of doing an act with intent of causing the explosion and being in possession of explosives. The court found that those were offences within the range of possibilities, which he contemplated, would be committed. Andrew is therefore criminally liable for at tempted murder of Tim and his penalty is the same as that of John. Even if the person killed was not the person he intended, he still is a party to the transferred murder of Tim. Similarly, since Andrew had procured John to kill Sue, who ended up attacking Tim instead, it still stands that Andrew advised him to commit a crime of that nature. It does not matter that it is Sue he wanted killed. As long as John acted on the procurement, Andrew also provided John with the gun to be used to commit the crime. Helping giving assistance to the perpetrator or offering the weapon in the doing of a crime, whether before or during the commission of the offence makes one an aider or abettor to the offence. Andrew had the intention to kill Sue and thus it does not matter that John killed the wrong person. There was still the intention to commit a crime. Andrew is then a principle offender by virtue of this and thus he is jointly liable for attempted murder of Tim since there is a common intention by the offenders to commit the murder. This is illustrated in R v Bainbridge3 where the appellant supplied thieves with cutting equipment for breaking into a bank. It was held that the equipment was to be used for some kind of breaking even if he did not know what particular bank. Likewise, since Andrew knew the purpose the gun was going to

Personal Statement Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 37

Personal Statement - Essay Example hieve the needed personal and professional in the absence of education, especially Higher Education that is known for setting the paradigm for organizations to be run. Personally, I have chosen marketing as a course and this is the area I want to penetrate with my academic studies at UCAS. My reason for choosing marketing is influenced by a number of factors, major among which is the need for me to take total advantage of booming oil and gas riches that is currently in place in Qatar. For me to take advantage of the oil and gas riches do not mean enriching myself through marketing but equipping my knowledge, skill and competence with the ever growing media and advertising popularity in Qatar. Because of the oil and gas riches, a lot of companies continue to spring up by the day. Because the companies are many, there is so much competition among them that they can hardly survive in the absence of media publicity and advertisement. This is where my professional knowledge in marketing will become useful. My ambitions as a marketer in Qatar are well laid out. In the first place, I am hoping to start from the relatively lower rank where I shall work for a number of up and coming multinational companies. As my experience grows, I would move on to higher grounds by taking state-oriented positions, especially towards the World Cup 2022. The World Cup is certainly a very big event that the government attaches so much importance to. The World Cup 2022 will bring Qatar closer to the whole world and thus the need to glorify the image of the country through a successful hosting. This is where the need for the tournament and country in general to be well marketed comes in. I therefore a person who can be described as very hungry for success since my ambition run very high into the long term. I currently have so many experiences, interests and background that make me very suitable for my ambition to go as far as marketing the World Cup 2022 in Qatar. For example I am a very

No title Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

No title - Assignment Example Additionally, the negotiation of the best care for the patient might be extremely difficult in my community. A nurse working at home or community setting should have a master’s or doctoral degrees. Similarly, postmaster’s certificate in nursing from an accredited program is acceptable for a nurse to function in a community or home setting. In many states, the nurse must have a certification from the American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC). The nurses should have completed clinical work, as well as courses in pharmacology, health assessment, health promotion, disease diagnosis, and prevention (American Nurses Credentialing Center, 2014). The nurses should have approximately two years’ post-qualifying experience. The nurses should possess expert knowledge, as well as clinical judgment in order to be certified to work in the community and home setting. Additionally, the nurses should have demonstrated unmatched dedication to the patient care. In effect, competence is a key element that informs certification of the nurses (2014). The nursing experience has prepared me adequately to function as a home health nurse or community health nurse. Notably, I have honed the skills of providing nursing care to patients through employing problem-solving approaches in accordance with guidelines and standards of holistic care delivery. Additionally, I have developed the capability to implement and facilitate patient, as well as a patient educational program that captures the needs of the communities. In essence, I am ready to work in the community and home setting as a