Problems of Inside Trading Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Problems of Inside Trading - Essay Example Also, their firms as well as those people who have invested in them heavily risk suffering financial ruin. Despite this issue, a number of people raise doubts based on their understanding of insider trading. These doubts usually prompt concern regarding the justice that surrounds the persecution of insider trading as well as the harsh moral judgments that people make regarding insider traders. These doubts prevail while trying to identify the moral wrong that prevails in the case of insider trading (Cohen, 2011). This paper will lay emphasis on the moral problems that are affiliated with insider trading and their influence in stock trading. An argument from the harmful side of insider trading maintains that it is wrong because it causes social harm. In this case, causing harm implies leading to failure to realize optimal social good or social welfare. In the case of a securities exchange, the losers and winners are those people who get bad prices and those who get good prices. When other things are held to be equal, the person who has the best information about what is being sold and bought is in a better position to find appropriate bargains that can allow him to get the best price (Shaub, 2011). While competing against corporate insiders who are in possession of superior information, a person increases the risk of losing. Most ordinary traders usually trade alongside insiders, and thus insider trading later undermines the confidence in the securities market, and thereby deterring investments. This incidence later raises the price that a firm is supposed to pay so as to raise capital and also hinders the economic growth of a society and development of a firm (Strudler, 2009). Most societies have moral reasons to protect themselves from being subjected to this form of economic harm, and the laws that prohibit insider trading provide appropriate protection. In this

The New Intelligence Community Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

The New Intelligence Community - Essay Example Critics of the new intelligence community set up maintained that the system is so complex that it became hard to manage; hence doubts on its effectiveness continue to spread. According to an article by Priest and Arkin (2010) in the Washington Post, the intelligence community is enormous, with redundant agencies and tons of reports generated every day that many end up being ignored, resulting to waste of resources and effort. Consequently, the complexity of the intelligence community only causes the ODNI to lack focus on it various agencies. In addition, the President’s Intelligence Advisory Boards stressed that the ODNI must be â€Å"downsized but strengthen by transferring certain functions to other agencies† (Best, 2010, p. 6) because it cannot supervise and assume responsibility to the massive department on its own. The support of the Congress to the development of ODNI is also essential in strengthening the role of the latter, its functions and extent of authority in order to effectively lead the different intelligence agencies under its wing. Nevertheless, the new role of the ODNI is still being developed. With just a few years of operation, the new intelligence system continues to face challenges in cooperating among agencies while sorting out critical reports on terrorism. It is too early to claim that the ODNI is a failure. Given the support of the Congress in defining its role, power and responsibilities, the ODNI can eventually learn how to manage its agencies more successfully. It should also consider reviewing the agencies doing the same work and identify critical reports to efficiently use its resources and

Create an appropriate Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Create an appropriate - Essay Example The term evidence refers to the act of proving that ones thinking or reasoning is not only correct but also sensible. It involves showing. therefore, in the context of one claiming to be knowing something, he or she should be able to provide adequate evidence about it what he or she claims to be knowing or else the claim that he or she has will only be looked upon has an statement with lack of fact in it or an opinion since that will only be considered as telling those involve what we think about (Ruggiero 1998). There are different kinds of evidence which include personal experience, which exist on our minds; the formal observation which involves detached observation whereby the observer does not participate but keeps a distance from the study and participant observation whereby the observer is directly involved and research review which is done one the already undertaken research by reviewers who summarize everything and compare their findings. There is great relationship between e vidence and opinion. An opinion is just but a mere statement from any persons point of view and therefore, in any case, for an opinion to be accepted and looked upon has correct, practical and worth being adopted, an evidence has to be provide to support that statement. Hence, a statement without evidence is an opinion but a statement with evidence is not an opinion. For example , if a father tells his son that he was a top achiever in academics during his time has a student, the child wont be satisfied with his fathers statement unless his father show him is academics reports showing his excellence (Ruggiero 1998). In this case, the father is giving a statement which remains to be an opinion in which the child may either agree with it or not but in the case of the providing evidence, which will be the report of his academic achievements, the child with the will automatically accept and acknowledge the fact and will he will definitely work hard to be like his father. Therefore, evid ence and opinion are closely related in terms of establishing the reality, acceptability and the truth. Opinion is therefore of greater value in terms of laying a platform for the provision of the evidence and finally at justifying that one knows (Ruggiero 1998). With regard to knowing, evidence plays a very critical and important role towards justify the fact a person knows some. One is said to know only after providing evidence which could be through the act of explaining what he or she says that he or she knows, through demonstrating, through replicating an acting and so on and all this are what are equated to the term evidence. For instance, when one claims to be knowing the spelling of the word embarrass he as to support his statement by giving an evidence which is the correct spelling of that very word without failure. Evidence provision is at times problematic due to the fact that opinions are not based on anything substantial and there are also different types of evidence wi n which in the case of presentation the receiver may not be aware of all of them which may cause a dispute. Therefore, in the presentation of the evidence, the presenter is required to be well

Revised proposal Dissertation Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Revised proposal - Dissertation Example Project Title: (Your title should tell the reader the key objective of the research) Proposal Submission Date: Version Number of the Proposal: DA Class ID: (A full and accurate number is a must!) Name of DA: RMT Class ID: (Specify the RMT class that you attended) Name of GDI: Ethical Checklist Completed: (Yes or No)? Name of SSM: The Program: IT or ISM: MSc in IT / MSc in Internet Systems / MSC in Computer Security / MSC in Engineering / MSc in Information Systems and Technology / MSC in ISM [Please erase the non-relevant domains] Domain: Computer Science / Communication and Internet / Software Engineering / Computer Security / Management and Resources / Information Systems Management [Please erase the non-relevant domains] Proposal approved by: (To be filled by the approver) Date of the approval: (To be filled by the approver) Verification of the Proposal's Domain: (To be checked and verified by the approver) Sponsor's Details: (Name, Company. Address) Sponsor's Background: (Who the sponsor is. Contact name(s). Location. Agreement. ) Sponsor's Agreement: (Has the person you have requested agreed to sponsor the project? Please note that quoting the agreement will suffice at this stage. When the proposal is approved and there is an external sponsor, a document signed by the sponsor agreeing to the project must be sent to the Student Support Manager prior to the start of the project. The form is found in the Forms section in the RMT class.). The Project Aims and Objectives: The aim and objective of the paper is multi fold. The first part entails understanding the concept of VOIP, its benefits, its applicability and then in the last part creating a prototype to evaluate its practical implementation, the conditions attached with, the probable resources needed in form of the hardware, the software package and the implementation in different scales such as medium to large scale which depends upon the size of organization. Literature review: Broadband technologies hav e found large usage in recent times with regard to their application in the healthcare organizations. The time taken in responses to the queries, emergencies and other services has largely been reduced with help of broadband and other relevant technologies (Gawande, 2008). A report published late in the 20th century revealed that large number of human lives was lost due to errors as a result of manual operations and lack of technology. Citing this, stress has been laid on bringing about digital trends in the health care field for the purpose of improving the healthcare functions. Wireless technology and VOIP are two of the recommended functions in this regard (Meru, 2006). Faxcom is one similar device that allows the patients staying in touch with the health care center. This would allow for easy and health driven operations that allow for reduction of casualties and other incidents which pose direct threat to the safety of patients in one way or the other (Horowitz, 2012). The earl ier traces of VOIP can be traced to the mid 1990s (Kelly 2011 74) when a sound card set of headphones and internet connection would allow for connection establishment. With time, the overall domain got expanded and the business enterprises gained interest in this field and also the common users and thereby it started expanding and a new set of standard in form of VOIP. The concept of VOIP gained prominence in the early days of 21st century when the technology took a

Does gay marriage threaten the family Essay Example for Free

Does gay marriage threaten the family Essay The question is clear does gay marriages threatens the family? To my belief yes it does with a capital Y. It is for a very simple reason that it nullifies the basic web of the society, the family. By the term alone, for instance if a two male person established among themselves what they so called â€Å"conjugal love or the so called domestic partnership â€Å"who would be called the mommy and the dad. If they have children by adoption or from the other partner would that child not be confused that his or her mom is physically and physiologically like his dad? In this aspect it also waters down the dignity of a man and that of a woman. For all we know yes we are created equal but were given recognition that each one has his and her role to play. And that part cannot be taken away by some whims of only few individuals. In fact, it is everyone’s concern to value his masculinity and for the woman her femininity. Those who can not recognize this fact is in no way no longer care for respect for the right reason. Ralph Wedgewoods justifications are like a mens rea. Justification does not eliminate one’s malicious act. He justifies gay marriages by attacking the evils in marriages. He could have forgotten that he is once a product of a basic family of a union between a man and a woman. Divorce, children born out of wedlock, abandonment, etc. are ills to our society but must not be taken into account that since we have this evil, marriage is doomed. In fact, a holy marriage is a sanctuary, a place where we could raise good citizens of the world. When love is lacking between a complete man and a complete woman, how can we be so sure that love between the same sexes is less chaotic? I do not deny the value of clean friendship here; same sexes could love each other in a platonic and respectful way. Giving into licentiousness already debases the human dignity, and that dignity is for everyone. Perfect union is only enjoyed by legitimate love. Anything outside of it is simply lust. And when lust diminishes convulsion of consciences regains unless that conscience has had hardened its heart not being able to conceive what is right and what is wrong. Maggie Gallagher’s discusses in her book â€Å"What is Marriage for? †. That gay marriage is nothing new. It could be accepted in Massachusetts and may infiltrate the 50 states of America. Marriage is defined as giving a legal ground for sexual desires of adult individual but it has more to offer. Well it is not simply institutionalizing a marriage and begetting children. It is beyond that. Moreover it is not only for the elite. But justice dictates that if a man and a woman can not properly raise a child it is better for him and her to live continence. Many have fallen into the ifs’ and buts’ of marriage, but if we could only look at one direction and try to research what it really mean to be. Finally, everyone could have a conclusion that marriage is never a license but more of a gift of faith and love. Matrimony is defined in the Humane Vitae (Human life) as Married love which is far from being the effect of the result of blind evolution of the natural forces in which husband and wife through mutual gift of themselves perfect themselves as one in cooperating with God for generating new lives. It is a love that is total. How many have come in to marriage without valuing this basic requirement? They are the ones on the event of sorrows of daily life ran away from their commitment. It is them who forget that married love is faithful and exclusive until death. They never thought that it is a real commitment and not just a sharing of domestic problems. â€Å"Marriage and conjugal love are ordained toward procreation and education of children which are the supreme gift of marriage. † (VI, 1968) This always includes responsible parenthood and the observance of the natural law. Marriage between same sex is not only a direct defiance to God’s will who have created the whole universe but a rendering injustice to ones self. A man with a common sense knew that anything unnatural is a hoax. Never would a man find complete ecstasy on any union that is filled with guilt and full of perversion. In Kerry Howley`s debate, she stresses more on the political side of the issue. The author could have forgotten one dimension of marriage. This social institution is not only bounded by a certain state but is treated more of a sacrament. The unions between spouses are not only by civil norms but out bounds the soul. Religion, the church, and God who created you and me have institutionalized marriage to be the seed of His elects. Here we are not negating the rights of lesbians and homosexuals, in fact our society of today are more civil with them and accepted them as creative and respectable individuals. But to carry on an error of licentiousness we are just debasing their human existence. There are always limitations where we can not be what we want but in the eye of a believer of truth he could see beyond even if his eyes are closed. Let consciences be heard and man will bend his knees, for all we know something out there is of greater value, more precious than gold. Our soul and its eternal end.

Females and males had equal but complementary roles in traditional Aboriginal life Essay Example for Free

Females and males had equal but complementary roles in traditional Aboriginal life Essay The purpose of this report is to show that women and men shared many roles in Traditional Australian Aboriginal life. It is acknowledged that men and women were given equal and complementary roles when it came to ceremonies, hunting and gathering, raising and initiating the children, building shelter and throughout the leadership hierarchy. This is proved through evidence collected and presented in the following paragraphs. The roles of both men and women were important and neither was thought to be as more significant than the other. While men had certain roles and women had other roles, they complemented each other which made day to day life easier and more bearable for the group. There were many different types of ceremonies performed by the Australian Aboriginals. Some ceremonies performed were initiation ceremonies, funeral ceremonies, cleansing ceremonies and ceremonies to great other tribes or groups of Australian aboriginals onto their land. During initiation ceremonies, young boys and girls begin the journey to become a man or woman. They are often taken away from the group and left in the bush to be shown and taught by the elders. The elders will pass on the laws relating to their country, spiritual belief and the role and obligations they have within the tribe. [1] This ceremony is performed by both men and women and each role they play complements the other. While men look after the young boys and women look after the young girls, without their roles complementing each other, neither group would be able to co-exist. In funeral ceremonies, both men and women elders would smoke out a house where a person may have died. This is to rid their community of the potential of the deceased’s bad spirits coming back. They also find the last place the deceased person was and smoke it for the same reason. [2] During this ceremony, they would often cut open their own flesh to show their pain and sorrow because one of them had passed. They sung and danced to ensure the deceased’s spirit had left to return to its birth place where it was to be reborn into the world. [3]Without both the men and women complementing each other throughout this ceremony, they would not be able to be performed. Aboriginal people believe that when a person dies, their spirit goes back to the Dreaming Ancestors in the land. This is only possible if certain ceremonies and rituals are performed. They used dances and special songs in times of death or mourning periods. It is also thought that when a person dies they are one with the land again, so often, the aboriginal group will vacate the area that a group member died. It is unsure whether this is out of respect or out of fear that the spirit will return and haunt them. They will return to the place sometime within a year and bury the bones of their dead group member. All other ceremonies that are performed by the Australian Aboriginals were able to be performed by both male and female members of the group. Some also include other groups or tribes. It is known that the Australian Aboriginals were avid hunters. They had a very deep knowledge of their land and believe they were born of it. They also had great knowledge of water sources and seasonal changes which affect the type of food readily available to them. They were knowledgeable about certain foods which were poisonous to them and knew when and how to avoid them should they ever come across these foods. Both males and females made different but complementary contributions when it came to hunting and gathering. The roles of both men and women were complementary in that they worked together to gather food to prepare a meal. Women gathered things such as vegetables, eggs, honey, roots, fruit, and small reptiles such as snakes and goannas. Mostly, the men hunted larger animals such as emus and kangaroos as well as birds. [4] The preparing of such foods was done by both the men and women. It is believed that women were the main carers of young children in traditional Australian Aboriginal society. However, during initiation, the men took over the role of caring for the young boy so they could be taught the laws of the land. When a young boy was roughly six years of age, he would go and join the male adults to learn about hunting and food gathering while the young girls would remain with the women to learn about different things such as child bearing, child rearing and food gathering [5] Because of a combination of nomadic lifestyle and the regions sunny climate, aboriginal people believed there was no need to build shelters or dwellings. The shelter that was used in permanent camps consisted in a frame made from saplings, or straight branches, covered with materials that were available locally such as leafy branches or sheets of bark. In some areas the covering of the shelter was sheets of soft paperbark, which were pulled down from trees. In other areas they used bushes and leafy branches instead because the bark was not available. Australia has such a mild climate, most of the time, they would sleep in the open, and warmth was often provided by a fire or two. They would sometimes be accompanied by a dingo or camp dog, which would also provide warmth to the man or women who it slept beside. During the wetter and colder seasons, they sometimes used closed dome-shaped shelters which were made with a frame of different sized sticks bent over, which joined in the middle to make the dome shape. They were not very big, standing between one and two metres tall. The frame for these was covered with whatever materials that could be found locally such as sheets of bark, layers of soft grass and leaves. [6] Both men and women would collect and assemble the shelters used as well as the campfire. Sometimes they had daytime fires which needed protection from the wind, so they used bushes and branches as a windbreak. Women would gather the leafy branches and bark that is needed to make the roof while the men would gather the saplings and/or the straight branches used to make the frame. Another form of shelter used when available was small or shallow caves that were often hidden behind rocks or bushes. These provided natural shelter for the nomadic Australian Aboriginals. [7] Both men and women had various roles when it comes to leadership in the Aboriginal culture. Both genders would contribute in leading ceremonies, tribal or group meetings and hunting parties. Although it is often shown that men have the main role of being an elder, women also were elders. Elders were leaders of the group who shared knowledge of the laws surrounding the land and how each member of the group intertwines with another. Elders are valuable members of each aboriginal tribe or group as they bring the wealth of knowledge and pass it down generation to generation. While male elders bring knowledge of hunting bigger animals, laws of the land and initiation, female elders bring knowledge of child irth, food gathering and child rearing. The knowledge used by both male and female members of the group helps them to become one with the land. In conclusion, in Traditional Australian Aboriginal life men and women were proven to share roles and complement each other through various ways. Through raising children, hunting and gathering, ceremonies and in leadership they comple ment each others roles so that the tribe or group can exist harmoniously. While men seem to have the main role throughout the Australian Aboriginal culture, it has now been proven that without the complementary role of women, the group would not continue to coexist.

Publishing Controversial Photographs

Publishing Controversial Photographs Ephron argued that since death is part of life, readers should not be sheltered from it. She asked why photos from fatal car accidents show the wrecked vehicles and not the victims. Mangled steel is worthless; a human life is priceless. Why not capture on film the loss of that which is truly precious? (Ephron, www.haverford.edu/) The so-named Boston Photographs were taken in 1975 by photojournalist Stanley Forman.. I made all kinds of pictures because I thought it would be a good rescue shot over the ladder, (Ephron, 433) Forman said in explaining why he took the pictures. In the first frame, there is a fireman with his arm around a woman he is attempting to rescue from a burning apartment building. The woman clings to her child. The fireman is reaching for the rescue ladder an arm s length away. It appears that everything will be all right, that the woman and her child will be saved. This picture, by itself, does not foreshadow the tragedy to come. It is a dramatic photograph, to be certain, but one that would assure the viewer that confidence in the bravery and skills of firefighters is not misplaced. The second photograph shows the fire escape pulling away from the building. Whereas the first photo makes the reader want to cheer, the second one reminds us that something can go wrong. The rescue is not successful until everyone is on the ground and safely away from the burning building. The photo shows, too, that the firefighter did everything he was supposed to do. His training prepared him for a moment such as this. More than anything else, this photo shows that courage and skill are not always enough. No one could have anticipated that the fire escape would pull away from the building. It is a picture that at once captures the good fortune of the woman in being rescued and the horrific moment when her luck turned. The third photograph is the most dramatic because it shows the woman and her child falling through the air. The child, naturally, looks frightened. Her arms and legs are splayed and we see the speed of her descent with her shirt, which the air has pushed up to expose her round, babyish tummy. Her eyes are open and her mouth is distorted by a grimace. The mother s fall is even more dramatic because she propels through the air headfirst. The viewer cannot see her face but can only imagine the horror reflected in her expression. It is impossible to know what the woman was thinking. Did she know that she was moments from death? Did she think about her child? Did she ask for God s help, or curse His failure to protect them? The woman is barefoot and she is wearing shorts. On a summer s day, it would be expected that someone be so attired at home. Yet the woman seems particularly vulnerable when dressed this way. She seems so exposed although, of course, long pants and shoes would not have made any difference to her survival. Who was this woman? We cannot really know anything about her from the picture. We can see that she is young, with the long, gangling limbs of a teenager. She looks like a child and yet she also has a child of her own. The picture causes us to reflect on death made more tragic by the fact that, for this mother and child, they come too soon. The falling flowerpots add to the poignancy of the photos. The apartment building, obviously older, represents urban life as experienced by someone who is young and poor. The flowers represent an attempt to add a little beauty to the surroundings. What sort of person is it who puts a flowerpot on a window ledge high above the city streets? The flowerpots give us a tiny glimpse into the character of the young woman. We feel we know a little more about her and that makes her death more tragic. To plant a flower is to feel hopeful about the future, and when we see the photograph, we know that the woman s hope in the future, unbeknownst to her, was misplaced. We feel a greater sense of loss. But do we know her? Of course not. The shocking photo arouses emotion within us and, whether we realize it or not, causes us to ascribe thoughts and characteristics to the victim that we can never verify, even when reading the accompanying news story. Perhaps the young woman did not care at all about the plants. It is even possible that they were left there by a previous tenant of the apartment and went unnoticed by the young mother. Perhaps she did not notice beauty and felt no hope at all for the future she and her child would share. There is no way the viewer of the photograph can ever know any of this for certain. The newsworthiness of the tragic fire is the photos themselves. Unfortunately, people die in fires in the United States all the time. The accounts of the fires are tragic, but as news stories they are usually only relevant to families and friends of the victims and the people who live in the community where the tragedy took place. Photographer Forman, who won a Pulitzer Prize for the photos, expected to record an event with a far different outcome. He was taking advantage of a relatively new technology, a motor-driven camera that allowed a photographer to take a series of pictures in rapid succession. He expected to capture, in still photographs, the sequence of events leading up to a dramatic rescue. Instead, he captured the moments before death. The third photograph as the last that he took of the rescue attempt. I realized what was going on, he said afterwards. I completely turned around because I didn t want to see her hit. (Ephron, www.haverford.edu/) The pictures are much more powerful than words in telling this story. It is not that words cannot sufficiently describe a scene or convey emotions. Author Stephen King is famous and wealthy because of his ability to construct tales that frighten us. John Grisham has used the power of words to make us feel outrage on the behalf of the underdogs whose stories he tells. Nicholas Sparks writes romances that bring some of his readers to tears. Forman s pictures tell a story for which each individual viewer provides his own words. More than that, however, the pictures evoke an emotional response that is instantaneous, even quicker than words can form. The pictures certainly drew attention to the event in a way that words alone would not. Newspaper editors know this and it can be argued that it was for the purpose of selling newspapers, not the imperative to show readers that death is part of life, which motivated them to print the pictures. Charges of sensationalism, voyeurism, and exploitation constituted many of the angry responses from readers. The reality is, though, that graphic images do capture people s attention. A news story, without photographs, would have dehumanized the tragedy. When we read that a woman fell to her death, our reaction is not nearly as strong as seeing the picture. We may soon forget that a woman died, particularly in reading the story and learning that the child survived. The picture, on the other hand, makes us confront the notion of death head-on. We may experience, even for a fraction of a second, that shiver of fear of falling. We think about what it must have felt like to fall, and what it must have felt like to watch the horror unfold. The fact that the woman and child were African-American also plays a part in judging the impact of the photo versus a story in words. A written story might not mention race; in a photo, it is there to see. To some viewers, race might matter. People assumed, because the young woman was black, that the burning apartment building was in a ghetto, when in fact it was not. African-Americans might identify more strongly with the photo than they would with just a story; white readers might identify less. For some readers, and it is hoped that it means more of them, not less, race is a non-issue and what they see is not the color of the victims skin but the horror expressed in their faces and body language. It is this horror that writer Ephron believes readers should see, but not because horror itself has value even though it does, in a way, in its ability to sell newspapers. As Ephron pointed out, though, these were great photographs. They captured something real and evoke strong emotion in people who look at them. That they disturb readers, she wrote, is exactly as it should be: that s why photojournalism is often more powerful than written journalism. (Ephron, 438) The Boston Photographs are by no means the only pictures to evoke strong emotions and cause controversy among newspaper editors and their readership. This essay will discuss two other pictures that were considered controversial at the time they were published. Seven years before Stanley Forman won the Pulitzer for his photo, war photographer Eddie Adams earned the prize for his now-iconic photo showing the execution of a man by a military officer on the streets of Saigon. As was the case with Forman, Adams never expected that the situation would take such a dramatic and horrific turn. As Adams told the story in a video entitled An Unlikely Weapon: The Eddie Adams Story, he was in the Chinese section of Saigon on the second day of the Tet Offensive. He saw a man in a plaid shirt being led out of a building and into the street. He followed to see what would happen. He was not surprised or shocked when a man in uniform, a military officer, held a gun to the head of the man in the plaid. Adams interpreted the action as a means of intimidation, a threat used as part of an act of interrogation. ? Retrieved from PulitzerPrize.org [http://pulitzerprize.org/photography/vietnam/] In retrospect, it seems like an incredibly bold and even foolhardy move, to stand with a camera so close to someone with a loaded gun. Adams was an experienced war photographer, however, and danger was part of the job. He did not anticipate what happened next. Adams snapped a photograph; he moved his finger on the camera s shutter in the same instant that the officer pulled the trigger of his gun. The shocking photograph that resulted captured the moment in time when the bullet entered the man s head. The photograph is shocking for several reasons. The most obvious is the expression on the face of the man in the plaid shirt. It reflects both pain and terror. The lines around the right side of the mouth suggest the rapid and violent movement of the head as an involuntary response to the impact of the bullet. The man doing the shooting has a matter-of-fact expression. He does not take any pleasure in killing the man, but he does what he feels he must without flinching. He is very certain about what he is doing. Over the left shoulder of the shooter, we see a helmeted soldier wincing at the horrible spectacle before him. There is a military vehicle at the end of the street. There are other people in the street, but there response to the shooting cannot be discerned from the photo. The photograph is shocking because the shooting appeared to take place in broad daylight, in the middle of a city street. The shooter does not appear to be concerned about concealing his identity or his action. The photo is shocking in its close-up look at violence, and it is violence that is made very personal because we see it from a unique perspective. As with Forman s photo, we do not see death in its aftermath but in the moments before it occurs. Both photos are shocking and frightening. Both photos appear to show people who were in the wrong place at the wrong time and suffer fatal consequences as a result. Unlike Forman s photo, though, a news story accompanying Adams photo has the power to change one s perception of the brutal act caught on film. Looking at the picture, one might assume that it showed a military man killing a civilian execution-style. There was more to the story. The man in plaid was a Viet Cong Army officer; he was the prime suspect in the murder of an entire family that day. The family belonged to the aide of Brig. General Nguyen Ngoc Loan, South Vietnamese National Police Chief and the shooter in the photograph. Did it make a difference that the man being shot was on the side of the United States enemy? Perhaps it did to some who looked at the picture and read about it. It may be easier to explain the violence if one can justify it as necessary to bring about justice. The woman in Forman s picture was a random victim of a very unfortunate accident; the man in Adams photo was a suspected criminal, thought to be responsible for the killing of innocent civilians. Some people, reading about the circumstances under which he was shot, may believe that he deserved to die. Some might believe he deserved to die by virtue of the fact that he was a Viet Cong officer. Killing is part of war. We are not at all surprised that there is death on the streets of Saigon, but we are shocked when an image of it is captured so vividly. There was no justice to be served to the woman who plunged to her death in Forman s photo. We are shocked by her death and surprised by it. Forman s final photo is prefaced by one in which it looks as though the woman and her child will be rescued. There is no doubt, in looking at Adams photo, the man in plaid will die. It is the more shocking photo of the two because it makes us look right into the face of death. We can hold out hope for a miracle when we look at Forman s photo, and it is only upon reading the accompanying story that one learns the woman died and her child survived. At least there is some good news in that story. There is no miracle in Adams photo and no good news waiting for the reader of the story behind it. Adams photo, much to his dismay, became an iconic antiwar image. That was never his intent. Forty years later, the image endures. The story behind the photograph matters little. The photo has come to symbolize the horror and brutality of a war to which many Americans were, and still remained, opposed. Even more evocative in its antiwar sentiment is the 1972 photograph by Nick Ut, showing a young Vietnamese girl, naked, screaming, and horribly burned by napalm. ? Retrieved from BBC News [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/4517597.stm] The photo needs no accompanying words to explain it or make it any more powerful. It is a heart-breaking photograph of a child in abject terror. There are other children in the picture but it is the nakedness and total vulnerability of the little girl that shocks and saddens us. There is nothing one can write about the horrors of war that exemplify it more than the perils of this child. As with Forman s photo of the mother and child, we can look at the little girl and hope that somehow she will survive this terrible event. Forman s photo showed the terrible circumstances of two people. Ut s photo, on the other hand, showed the terrible circumstances in which millions of people found themselves as a result of the war. The photo is a painful reminder that there are many victims of war, not just the soldiers who fight. It is difficult to look at the photo and not feel outrage, at the same time wishing there were a way to gather up the children and transport them to safety. We know now t hat the little girl survived; even knowing that, however, does not make the photograph any less shocking. The final photo to be discussed in this essay was taken September 11, 2001, by photographer Richard Drew. Often referred to as The Falling Man, it depicts one of the many people who leaped from the inferno of the Twin Towers, making the horrible choice to die by suicide than in the smoke and flames. ? Retrieved from Esquire Magazine online [http://www.esquire.com/features/ESQ0903-SEP_FALLINGMAN] The photo is shocking because, as one first looks at it, it seems to be some sort of optical trick. The vertical lines of the tower do not look like a building. The man does not look as though he is falling. In Forman s photograph, the woman and child fall from the building with arms and legs distended, desperate to seek purchase on anything that would break their fall. By contrast, the falling man appears to be holding a pose and is elegant in the way he does so. He is falling straight downward, his arms at his sides, one leg bent at the knee in a manner that resembles a casual stance. It is difficult to look at the picture and not be immediately transported back to the horrible events of the day. Much has been written about 9/11 and there were many pictures taken. The falling man was only one of many people who jumped that day, yet it is his picture which touches us the most. Words could not adequately describe the falling man s descent and the emotions the picture evokes. After an initial look at the picture, one realizes exactly what it depicts: a man hurtling towards his death. Junod (2009) wrote that the body fell at an estimated speed of one hundred fifty miles per hour. The fall would have taken approximately ten seconds. One cannot even imagine the crushing agony the jumpers experienced in the final moments of their lives. What must it feel like to know you have only seconds left to live? Looking at Forman s photo, one can hope that there was a good outcome. Looking at Adams photo, we see death. The bullet has entered the man s head but, because the camera can capture a fraction of a second, the man has not yet dropped. Looking at Drew s photo, we wee impending death and a man literally falling toward it with grace. It is incredibly sad, both the circumstances of his death and the calm dignity with which he goes to meet it. Newspapers and television news programs showed photographs of jumpers until there were too many complaints from the public about their indecency. Drew was able to identify, almost with certainty, the Falling Man, yet the family would not provide confirmation, becoming angry when asked to do so. They felt, as did many of the people viewing pictures of jumpers, that showing anyone in the last moments of life robbed those people of their dignity. Photojournalism can be much more powerful than written journalism. In describing the four photos discussed in this essay, writers would bring their biases to the work. The use of the word bias is not pejorative; it simply means that a writer s knowledge and experience contribute to the interpretation of the photograph. The four pictures shown are shocking and evoke strong emotion. The depth and range of emotion, however, depends on the person who is looking at the pictures. Each of us notices different elements; each of us is touched in a different way. When reading a newspaper account of a tragedy, we think about the story as we make our way through the printed words. Reaction to a picture is instantaneous and much more powerful. A picture puts us at the scene in a way that words do not. Ephron illustrated this by including the Boston Photographs in her essay. She discussed the impact of the photos and the controversy they caused. Without seeing the photos, it might be too easy to ask what all the fuss was about. By seeing the photos, one can understand why the inspired strong feelings. Ephron does not argue that newspapers should print photographs of death. She argues that they should print great pictures that tell a story and evoke strong emotional response from readers. Work Cited: BBC News. (2005). Picture power: Vietnam napalm attack. http://news.bbc.co .uk/2/hi/4517597.stm. Ephron, N. (2005). The Boston Photographs, reprinted in Chris Anderson and Lex Runciman, eds., Open Questions; Readings for Critical Thinking and Writing (Boston: Bedford/St. Martin s, 2005). Print via Retrieved from http://www.haverford.edu/writingprogram /development/Ephron.pdf Junod, T. The falling man. Esquire 9/8/09. Retrieved from http://www.esquire.com/features /ESQ0903-SEP_FALLINGMAN PulitzerPrize.org. (2010). Photography: Pulitzer Eddie Adams Vietnam. http://pulitzerprize.org /photography/vietnam/