The Treaty of Versailles Essay Example for Free

The Treaty of Versailles Essay a. What restrictions were placed on Germany’s armed forces by the treaty of Versailles? (4 marks) -Conscription banned -Not allowed an air force or submarines -Only allowed 6 battleships -Only allowed 100,000 men in the army b. Explain why Clemenceau wanted to treat Germany so harshly (6 marks) -During the First World War, two thirds of men in the French army had been killed or injured. Not only this but their industry, land and population were all in decline while Germany’s was increasing. They felt they had to stop this and make Germany pay for the suffering they had caused France. -France felt threatened by Germany and wanted to do something that would cripple and weaken Germany to stop them attacking France. The French saw the Treaty of Versailles as an opportunity to do this and wanted to ensure it was harsh enough to stop Germany. -Clemenceau particularly wanted to treat Germany harshly because of the pressure he was under from the French people. They were feeling the full after effects of World War 1 and wanted to make Germany feel the same way. c. How far were the terms of the Treaty justified? Explain your answer. (10 marks) The Treaty of Versailles is justified because Germany treated other countries, especially Russia, very harshly during the war and they had to feel how the other countries felt and suffer the consequences the war brought. -Not only was the Treaty justified, but it could have been made a lot worse. Many countries were angry about the war and some felt that the Treaty simply didn’t punish and cripple Germany in a way that would stop them from starting another war. They wanted an even harsher treaty. -However, the Treaty of Versailles cannot be justified, as the huge  £6.6 billion worth of reparations that was forced upon German left their economy in shambles. This led to the Ruhr Crisis in 1923, hyperinflation and food shortage in Germany. It showed that the victors had very little sympathy towards Germany and simply wanted them to suffer. Not only did the Treaty leave Germany in a terrible economic situation, but the fact that they were left out of all discussions about the terms of the Treaty and that they weren’t invited to join the League of Nations, simply angered Germany and made them want revenge. -The Treaty of Versailles not only made Germany suffer, but made them accept full blame and responsibility for the war. This is not fair as Germany only played a part in starting the war. Many other countries cause a lot of damage and Germany alone cannot be held entirely responsible. In conclusion, the Treaty of Versailles cannot be justified as it simply made the situation worse, angering Germany and leaving them wanting revenge. Yes, Germany had to be punished but not to such the extent as crippling their economy and leaving them almost powerless.

association of kenyan women writers :: essays research papers

The Association of Media Women in Kenya, AMWIK, is a national media association whose overall concern is to promote and represent interests of women in the media and women in general, particularly in as far as the media portrays them and in their efforts to participate equally in national development. The association was started in 1983 with the prime desire to promote the interests and advancement of women in the media. The organization is apolitical and is run on a voluntary basis by members who also work in various media houses in the country. The membership of sixty, is drawn from women professionals in the print, electronic, advertising and public relations. MISSION To use the media to promote the status of women in general, and to address the concerns of media women in particular, through various projects. OBJECTIVES To organise and unite media women professionals in fellowship and link them with other similar organizations elsewhere. To advance their interests in the profession and promote their understanding of the media profession. To promote the exchange of technical knowledge and professional expertise through the association. To promote training and job opportunities through scholarships, on-the-job guidance, lectures at girls schools and other institutions. To promote understanding of issues through the media as they affect women. OTHER PROGRAMMES Gender Training for Journalists: This has been going on since 1997 and aims at making coverage of women more gender sensitive. Response and interest generated by this training has shown the great need to continue with it. Journalists proposed both training of other journalists and editors so both men and women can get fair coverage. CIDA’s Gender Equity Support project and British Council sponsored this project. Training on Business Writing: This was necessitated by the realisation that women journalists are not involved in the coverage of business/economic issues. The objectives therefore were, to interest women journalists in the issues and encourage them to venture into this area. Women journalists proposed the need to continue the programme in order to equip them further. Nairobi Stock Exchange, NSE and British Council sponsored it. Media Monitoring: The project aims at monitoring how the media covers women in an effort to use the data for advocacy and change. The association has carried out a monitoring exercise in the coverage of violence against women. It intends to make it a regular exercise. It is supported by UN fund for women, UNIFEM.

Our Nation’s Hidden Problems †Hate Crimes Essay

It happens every day, people are made fun of, people are bullied and the bully-ers, and some people are just flat out victims of straight hate crimes that lead to death. â€Å"A Hate Crime is a criminal offense committed against persons, property or society that is motivated , in whole or in part, by an offenders bias against an individual’s or a group’s race, religion, ethnic/national origin, gender, age, disability or sexual orientation.† -IACP Definition. With the definition of a hate crime explained, hate crimes are offenses against society. The perpetrators have their eyes on not only a primary victim, yet everyone in the victims group – everyone perceived as different. The perpetrators impact not only the victims, group but society as a whole, breaking the bond that holds its people together. Victims are seen as different from what the â€Å"norm† of society needs in its everyday life. Actions from the perpetrator doesn’t happen very randomly, yet happens all around the world. What is an extremely interesting topic is hate crimes on the college campuses. I was somewhat surprised to see just how many incidents actually happen. According to Justice Department data, 12 percent of hate crimes take place on college or school campuses but the numbers don’t show how much occurs on university campuses. Officials also say that many of the racial or sexual incidents are commonly not reported. The most common hate crimes committed on a college campuses are racial bias, religious bias, and sexual orientation bias. Now with a racial bias hate crime has many examples of people hating each other for being black, or brown, or even white. However with college kids, its not as simple as saying something like â€Å"You’re a Nigger,† or â€Å"You’re Cracker.† They have to put things to the extreme. Simple things are never good enough. At the University of Missouri-Columbia, there were cotton balls scattered outside the black cultural center. This might seem like a harmless joke to some people, yet to others it is one of the most hateful and devastating thing someone could do. As early as 1560’s slavery was brought into America from Spain. Blacks were treated as animals, were forced to do things that White people didn’t want to do because they thought that they were to good for it. One task that is commonly known that blacks did as they were slaves was â€Å"cotton pickers.† The thirteenth amendment, abolishing slavery, was passed by the Senate in April 1864, and by the House of Representatives in January 1865, however feelings that the white people had for blacks still did not go away. Another example of a racial hate crime was done by a white fraternity sparked an uproar at the University of California San Diego when it sponsored a ghetto-themed â€Å"Compton Cookout† to mock Black History Month. There is a very fine line between hate crimes and stereotyping someone/many people. Almost every member of a stereotyped group is seen as an equal opportunity of everyone else in the group. A stereotype usually cannot be modified by contradictory evidence, meaning that no argument or evidence is compelling enough to change a hate mongers mind. Also, the the perpetrator is emotionally invested in believing the worst about the members of stigmatized group. Finally, the person who accepts the validity of a nasty stereotype isn’t simply trying to make sense of his world. More likely, he is looking for a convenient excuse to express hostility, to attack and victimize the people he despises. Stereotyping is more â€Å"accepted in society† because every sing le person has stereotyped before. Religious based hate crimes are second most common in all of the hate crimes all over the world. More often than not Religious discrimination are usually acts of vandalism although personal attacks do occur. Of the religiously based hate crimes, attacks against Jews rose from 64% in 2006 to 68% in 2007. Anti-Muslim hate crimes, meanwhile, decreased from 12% in 2006 to 9% in 2007. This surprises me because hate crimes against Jews went up, yet I feel like the hate towards the Muslims has gone up and their hate crime attacks has gone down. After the terrorist attacks the United States suffered from on the Twin Towers in New York City 2001, the FBI found that while attacks against Muslims had previously been the least common hate crime against a religious group–just 28 in 2000–the number of incidents surged to 481 in 2001, an increase of 1,600%. Even the hate crimes against peoples religions occurred college campuses. For examples, there was a swastika scrawled on a bathroom wall near a Jewish studies center at the University of Miami. Miami-Dade County, the eleventh largest Jewish community in the country, consists of 121,300 persons living in 54,000 Jewish households. Of these 121,300 persons, 113,000 are Jewish. Which is obviously a huge population of Jewish members, the perpetrators knew that it would be completely offensive. It is again just another college student who lacks in self-discipline. The question that I have been wondering is â€Å"Why possesses you to do such a thing like this?† Why do people think its alright to put all of their hatred out into the open and hurt other people. What people do is not hurt people emotionally, but they also sometimes hurt them physically. It might not be a physical act by the person committing the crime, it could be done by the victim of the hate crime, meaning self-infliction. Another example that hits closer to home here in Massachusetts. A young man names James Samar was a college student who attended a small Massachusetts college was indicted on three counts of using threats of force to interfere with the rights of three other students. He used anti-Semitic slurs and threatened to actually kill one of the three other students. What James did was sent photographs of holocaust victims and said â€Å"A reminder of what happened to your relatives because they too mad a mockery of Christianity.† To go as far as this someone must thing that there is something wrong with Samar. People should not have this much hatred towards people or a certain group that they belong to. There is no right or wrong when it comes into what you believe. People need to take a step back, they don’t need to agree with other people, it just has to be understood that opinions are opinions and everyone can have theirs. The third more common hate crime committed on a college campus is sexual orientation. Meaning the preferences on whether you like boys or girls, homosexual or heterosexual. Two main cases that stand out on a college campus, are two young men Matthew Shepard who was a student at the University of Wyoming and Tyler Clementi a student at Rutgers University. Matthew Shepard was a 21 year old man who was attacked by two other men because he was gay. Aaron McKinney and Russell Henderson were the two men who attacked Shepard with a pistol-whip, and tortured him, tying him to a fence and leaving him to die. Eighteen hours later a cyclist Aaron Kreifels, discovered Shepard and thought he was a scarecrow because he was alive but in coma. This however wasn’t the first time Shepard was attacked for being gay. In 1995 during a high school trip, he was beaten, robbed, and raped, causing him to withdraw from school and experience depression and panic attacks. However, Henderson and McKinney were not charged with a hate crime, because no Wyoming criminal statute provided for such a charge. The nature of Shepard’s murder led to requests for new legislation addressing hate crime, urged particularly by those who believed that Shepard was targeted on the basis of his sexual orientation. As for Tyler Clementi, he was an 18 year old man who was a student at Rutgers University in New Jersey. What happened here to cause him to commit suicide was his roommate, Dharum Ravi, video tapes him with another man doing sexual acts. Clementi was video taped without his knowledge, and Ravi was charged with invasion or privacy and bias intimidation. It was at this point where Clementi had talked about his problems to his RA and also made his complaints public putting them up online on Yahoo! and a message board website called â€Å"Just Us Boys.† No one listened to him, and thats when he took matters into his own hands and committed suicide by jumping off the George Washington Bridge. All of these cases that have been discussed in the paper are considered to be in some way or form of a hate crime. Hate crimes can be committed by everyone and anyone. It happens every day, people are made fun of, people are bullied and the bully-ers, and some people are just flat out victims of straight hate crimes that lead to death. The most common hate crimes committed on a college campuses are racial bias, religious bias, and sexual orientation bias. Websites used: Ashcroft, John. 2001. â€Å"Hate Crimes on Campus: The Problems and Efforts to Confront it.†. Retrieved February 2012 (https://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/bja/187249.pdf) Associated Press. 2009. â€Å"Attorney General urges new hate crimes law.† Retrieved February 2012 (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/31392054/ns/us_news-crime_and_courts/#.Tz0Q75iLFSU) Barker, Tim. 2010 â€Å"Racial campus hate crimes surge across America† Retrieved February 2012 (http://www.cisternyard.com/article/racial-campus-hate-crimes-surge-across-america) Brandou, Collen. 2010 â€Å"Hate Crimes Increase on College Campuses† Retrieved February 2012. (http://www.findingdulcinea.com/news/education/2010/april/Hate-Crimes-Increase-on-College-Campuses.html) FBI. 2009. UCR. â€Å"Hate Crime Statistics.† Retrieved February 2012. http://www2.fbi.gov/ucr/hc2009/index.html Gipson, Ashley, 2008. â€Å"Religious hate crimes down overall, up against Jews.† Retrieved February 2012. (http://www.usatoday.com/news/religion/2008-10-28-hate-crimes_N.htm) Jones, Lawrence, 2008. â€Å"FBI: Religious Hate Crimes Down in 2007.† Retrieved February 2012. (http://www.christianpost.com/news/fbi-religious-hate-crimes-down-in-2007-35238/) Levin, Brian. 2010. â€Å"Stone Cold Jew-Baiting.† Retrieved February 2012. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/brian-levin-jd/stone-cold-jew-baiting_b_659335.html Martindale, Gayla. 2009 â€Å"Hate Crimes on Campus† Retrieved February 2012 (http://www.stateuniversity.com/blog/permalink/College-Hate-Crimes.html) Putnam, Robert and David Campbell. 2010. â€Å"American Grace. How Religion divides and unites us.† New York, New York, United States: Simon & Schuster. Serrano, Richard. 2002. â€Å"Hate Crimes Against Muslims Soar, Report says.† Retrieved February 2012. Hate Crimes Against Muslims Soar, Report Says – Los Angeles Times Statemaster. 2010. â€Å"Religion Hate Crime Statistics.† Retrieved February 2012. http://www.statemaster.com/graph/cri_hat_cri_rel_rel-crime-hate-crimes-religion-related) Wax, Heather. 2010. â€Å"Breakdown of Hate Crimes, Based on Religion.† Retrieved February 2012. http://www.scienceandreligiontoday.com/2010/11/23/breakdown-of-hate-crimes-based-on-religion/ (

The Return: Shadow Souls Chapter 39

Elena waded into the crowd feeling like a soldier. She didn't know why. Maybe because she had thought of a quest and had managed to complete it and stay alive and bring back loot. Maybe because she bore honorable wounds. Maybe because above her there was an enemy who was still out for her blood. Come to think of it, she thought, I'd better get all these noncombatants out of here. We can keep them in a safe house – well, a few dozen safe houses and – What was she thinking? Safe house was a phrase from a book. She wasn't responsible for these people – idiots, mostly, who had stood, slavering, and watched her being whipped. But – despite that, maybe she should get them out of here. â€Å"Bloddeuwedd!† she cried dramatically and pointed to a wheeling silhouette above. â€Å"Bloddeuwedd is free! She gave me these!† – pointing to the three lacerations on her back. â€Å"She'll go after you, too!† At first most of the angry exclamation seemed to be about the fact that Elena now had a marked back. Elena was in no mood to argue. There was only one person here she wanted to talk to now. Keeping Bonnie and Meredith close behind her, she called. Damon! Damon it's me! Where are you? There was so much telepathic traffic that she doubted he would hear her. But finally, she caught a faint, Elena?†¦Yes†¦ Elena, hold on to me. Think of holding me physically, and I'll take us to a different frequency. Hold on to a voice? But Elena imagined holding on to Damon tightly, tightly, while she physically held Bonnie's and Meredith's hands. Now can you hear me? This time the voice was much clearer, much louder. Yes. But I can't see you. But I see you. I'm coming to – WATCH OUT! Too late, Elena's senses warned her of a huge shadow plummeting from above. She couldn't move quickly enough to get out of the way of a snapping, alligator-sized beak. But Damon could. Leaping from somewhere, he gathered her and Bonnie and Meredith all in one great armful and leaped again, hitting grass and rolling. Oh, God! Damon! â€Å"Is anybody hurt?† he asked aloud. â€Å"I'm fine,† Meredith said quietly, calmly. â€Å"But I suspect I owe you my life. Thank you.† â€Å"Bonnie?† Elena asked. I'm okay. I mean, â€Å"I'm okay. But Elena, your back – â€Å" For the first time, Damon was able to turn Elena and see the wounds on her back. â€Å"I†¦did that? But†¦I thought†¦Ã¢â‚¬  â€Å"Bloddeuwedd did that,† Elena said sharply, looking upward for a circling shape in the deep red sky. â€Å"She just barely touched me. She has talons like knives, like steel. We have to go, now!† Damon put both hands on her shoulders. â€Å"And come back when things have calmed down, you mean.† â€Å"And never come back! Oh, God, here she comes!† Something out of the corner of her eye became baseball-sized in an instant, volleyball-sized in a second, human-sized in a moment. And then they were all scattering, leaping, rolling, trying to get away, except Damon, who seized Elena and shouted, â€Å"This is my slave! If you have any argument with her, you first argue with me!† â€Å"And I am Bloddeuwedd, created by the gods, condemned to be a murderer every night. I'll kill you first, then eat her, the thief!† Bloddeuwedd called back in her raucous new voice. â€Å"Two bites is all it will take.† Damon, I need to tell you something! â€Å"I'll fight you, but my slave is out of it!† â€Å"First bite; here I come!† Damon, we have to go! A scream of primal pain and fury. Damon was standing slightly crouched with a huge piece of glass held in his hand like a sword and great black drops of blood were dripping from where he had – oh, God! Elena thought – he'd put out one of Bloddeuwedd's eyes! â€Å"YOU WILL ALL DIE! ALL!† Bloddeuwedd made a charge at a random vampire directly below her and Elena screamed as the vampire screamed. The black beak had caught him by one leg and was lifting him. But Damon was running forward, jumping, slashing. With a scream of fury, Bloddeuwedd took to the sky again. Now everyone understood the danger. Two other vampires rushed to take their comrade from Damon, and Elena was glad that her friends were not responsible for another life. She had too much on her hands already. Damon, I'm leaving now. You can come with me or not. I've got the key. Elena sent the words on the frequency that they were more or less alone on, and she sent it without dramatics. She had no room for drama left. She'd been stripped of everything except the need to get to Stefan. This time, she knew Damon heard her. At first, she thought Damon was dying. That Bloddeuwedd had somehow come back and pierced him through his entire body, as with a spear made of light. Then she realized that the feeling was rapture, and two tiny child hands reached out of the light and clung to hers, allowing her to pull a thin, ragged, but laughing child away free. No chains, she thought dizzily. He's not even wearing slave bracelets. â€Å"My brother!† he told her. â€Å"My little brother's going to live!† â€Å"Well, that's a fine thing,† Elena said shakily. â€Å"He's going to live!† A tiny frown line appeared. â€Å"If you hurry! And take good care of him! And – â€Å" Elena put two fingers over his lips, very gently. â€Å"You don't need to worry about anything like that. You just be happy.† The little boy laughed. â€Å"I will! I am!† â€Å"Elena!† Elena came out of – well, she supposed it was a daze, although it had been more real than many other things she'd experienced recently. â€Å"Elena!† Damon was trying desperately to restrain himself. â€Å"Show me the key!† Slowly, majestically, Elena lifted her hand. Damon's shoulders tensed, for – something – went down. â€Å"It's a ring,† he said dully. The slow and majestic bit hadn't worked on him at all. â€Å"That's what I thought at first. It's a key. I'm not asking you, or seeing if you agree with me; I'm telling you. It's a key. The light from its eyes points to Stefan.† â€Å"What light?† â€Å"I'll show you later. Bonnie! Meredith! We're leaving.† â€Å"YOU'RE NOT IF I SAY YOU'RE NOT!† â€Å"Watch out!† screamed Bonnie. The owl was diving again. And again, at the last second, Damon gathered the three girls and leaped. The owl's beak struck not grass nor shards of glass but the marble steps. They cracked. There was a scream of pain and another, as Damon, nimble as a dancer, slashed at the giant bird's one good eye. He got in a cut right above it. Blood began to fill the eye. Elena couldn't stand any more. Ever since starting out on this journey with Damon and Matt, she had been a vial filling with anger. Drop by drop, with each new outrage, that anger had filled and filled the vial. Now her rage was about to fill it to overflowing. But then†¦what would happen? She didn't want to know. She was afraid she wouldn't survive it. What she did know was that she couldn't watch any more pain and blood and anguish right now. Damon genuinely enjoyed fighting. Good. Let him. She was going to Stefan if she had to walk the whole way. Meredith and Bonnie were silent. They knew Elena in this mood. She wasn't fooling around. And neither of them wanted to be left behind. It was exactly at that moment that the carriage came rumbling up to the base of the marble stairs. Sage, who obviously knew something about human nature, demonic nature, vampiric nature, and various kinds of bestial nature, jumped out of the carriage with two swords drawn. He also whistled. In a moment a shadow – a small one – came streaking to him out of the sky. Last, slowly, stretching each leg like a tiger, came Saber, who immediately pulled back his lips to show an amazing number of teeth. Elena leaped toward the carriage, her eyes meeting Sage's. Help me, she thought desperately. And his eyes said just as plainly, Have no fear. Blindly, she reached behind her with both hands. One small, fine-boned, lightly trembling hand was thrust into hers. One slim, cool hand, hard as a boy's but with long tapering fingers grabbed her other one. There was no one here to trust. No one to say good-bye to, or leave messages of good-bye with. Elena scrambled into the carriage. She got into the backseat, the farthest from the front, to accommodate incoming humans and animals. And in they did come, like an avalanche. She had dragged Bonnie with her, and Meredith had followed, so that when Saber leaped into his accustomed place he landed on three soft laps. Sage hadn't wasted a moment. With Talon clamped on his left wrist, he left just enough room for Damon's final spring – and a spring it was. Cracked and broken, oozing black fluid, Bloddeuwedd's beak hit the end of the marble stairs where Damon had been standing. â€Å"Directions!† shouted Sage, but only after the horses were heading at a gallop – somewhere, anywhere, away. â€Å"Oh, please don't let her hurt the horses,† Bonnie gasped. â€Å"Oh, please don't let her split this roof like cardboard,† said Meredith, somehow able to be wry even when her life was in danger. â€Å"Directions, s'il vous plaà ®t!† roared Sage. â€Å"The prison, of course,† panted Elena. She felt that it had been a long time since she had been able to get enough air. â€Å"The prison?† Damon seemed distracted. â€Å"Yes! The prison!† But then, he added, pulling up something like a pillowcase filled with billiard balls, â€Å"Sage, what are these?† â€Å"Loot. Booty. Spoils! Plunder!† As the horses swung in a new direction, Sage's voice seemed to get more and more cheerful. â€Å"And look around your feet!† â€Å"More pillowcases†¦?† â€Å"I wasn't prepared for a big haul tonight. But things worked out well anyway!† By now, Elena was feeling one of the pillowcases for herself. The case was, indeed, full of clear, sparkling hoshi no tama. Star balls. Memories. Worth†¦ Worthless? â€Å"Priceless†¦although of course we don't know what's on them.† Sage's voice changed subtly. Elena remembered the warning about â€Å"forbidden spheres.† What, in the name of the yellow sun, could they possibly forbid down here? Bonnie was the first to pick up a disk and put it to her temple. She did it so quickly, with such flashing, birdlike movements, that Elena couldn't stop her. â€Å"What is it?† Elena gasped, trying to pull the star ball away. â€Å"It's†¦poetry. Poetry I can't understand,† said Bonnie crossly. Meredith had also picked up a sparkling orb. Elena reached for her but once again she was too late. Meredith sat as if in a trance for a moment, then grimaced and put the sphere down. â€Å"What?† demanded Elena. Meredith shook her head. She wore a delicate expression of distaste. â€Å"What?† Elena almost yelled. Then as Meredith put the star ball by her feet, Elena lunged at it. She clapped it to her own temple and immediately was dressed in black leather from head to toe. There were two broad, square men in front of her, without a lot of muscle tone. And she could see all of their musculature because they were stark naked except for rags such as beggars wore. But they weren't beggars – they looked well-fed and oily and it was clearly an act when one of them groveled, â€Å"We have trespassed. We beg your forgiveness, O master!† Elena was reaching to take the sphere off her temple (they stuck gently, if you put a little pressure there) and saying, â€Å"Why don't they use the space for something else?† Something else was immediately all around her. A girl, in poor clothing, but not sacking. She looked terrified. Elena wondered if she were being controlled. And Elena was the girl. Pleasedon'tletitgetmepleasedon'tletitgetme – Let what get you? Elena asked, but it was like watching a movie or book character while they were going into a lonely house in a howling storm and the music had turned eerie. The Elena who was walking in fear could not hear the Elena who was asking practical questions. I don't think I want to see how this one comes out, she decided. She put the star ball back at Meredith's feet. â€Å"Do we have three sacks?† â€Å"Yes, ma'am, yes, ma'am; three sacks full.† Oh. That didn't work out very well. Elena was opening her mouth again, when Damon added quietly: â€Å"And one sack empty.† â€Å"Really? We do? Then let's all try to divide these. Anything – forbidden – goes in one sack. Weird stuff like Bonnie's poetry reading goes into another. Any news of Stefan – or of us – goes in the third. And nice things, like summer days, go in the fourth,† Elena said. â€Å"I think you are being optimistic, me,† Sage said. â€Å"To expect to find an orb with Stefan on it so quickly – â€Å" â€Å"Everybody, hush!† Bonnie said frantically. â€Å"This is Shinichi and Damon talking him into it.† Sage stiffened, as if taking a lightning bolt from the stormy sky, then he smiled. â€Å"Speak of the devil,† he murmured. Elena smiled at him and squeezed his hand before taking another ball. â€Å"This one seems to be some kind of legal stuff. I don't understand it. A slave must be taking it because I can see all of them.† Elena felt her facial muscles tighten with hatred at the sight – even in a sort of dream – of Shinichi, the kitsune who had done so much harm. His hair was black, except for an irregular fringe around the edges, which made it look as if it had been dipped in red-hot lava. And then, of course, Misao. Shinichi's sister – allegedly. This star ball must have been made by a slave, because she could see both of the twins and a lawyerly-looking man. Misao, Elena thought. Delicate, deferential, demure†¦demonic. Her hair was the same as Shinichi's, but it was held up and back in a ponytail. You could see the demonic part if she raised her eyes. They were effervescent, golden, laughing eyes, just like her brother's; eyes that had never had a regret – except perhaps for not exacting enough revenge. They took no responsibility. They found anguish funny. And then something odd happened. All three of the figures in the room suddenly turned around and looked straight at her. Straight at whoever had made the sphere, Elena corrected herself, but it still was disconcerting. It was even more disconcerting when they continued to advance. Who am I? Elena thought, feeling half-frantic with anxiety. Then she tried something she had never done before, or seen or heard of being done. She carefully extended her Power into the Self around the orb. She was Werty, a sort of lawyer's secretary. She/he took notes when important deals were done. And Werty definitely didn't like the way things were going right now. The two clients and his boss closing in on him like this, in a way they never had before. Elena pulled herself out of the clerk and put the ball down to one side. She shivered, feeling as if she'd been plunged into ice-cold water. And then the roof crashed in. Bloddeuwedd. Even with her crippled beak, the huge owl tore off quite a bit of the roof of the carriage. Everyone was screaming and no one was giving much good advice. Saber and Damon had both damaged her: Saber by raising right off the three soft laps he was sitting on and lunging straight up for Bloddeuwedd's feet. He had torn and shaken one before letting go to fall back into the carriage, where he almost slid off the back. Elena, Bonnie, and Meredith grabbed at whatever portions of canine anatomy they could reach, and hauled the huge animal into the backseat again. â€Å"Scoot over! Give him his own seat,† wailed Bonnie, looking at the shreds of her pearl-colored dress where Saber had taken off and ripped right through the gauzy material. He'd left red welts in his path. â€Å"Well,† Meredith said, â€Å"next time we'll request steel petticoats. But I really hope there isn't going to be a next time, anyway!† Elena prayed fervently that she was right. Bloddeuwedd was skimming in from a lower angle now, undoubtedly hoping to snap off a few heads. â€Å"Everybody grab wood. And spheres! Throw the spheres at her as she comes close to us.† Elena was hoping that the sight of star globes – Bloddeuwedd's obsession – might slow her down. At the same time Sage shouted, â€Å"Don't waste the star balls! Throw anything else! Besides, we're almost there. Hard left, then straightaway!† The words gave Elena new hope. I have the key, she thought. The ring is the key. All I have to do now is get Stefan – and get all of us to the door with the keyhole. All in one building. I'm practically home. The next sweep came in even lower. Bloddeuwedd, blind in one eye, with blood filling the other one, and her olfactory senses blocked by her own dried blood, was trying to ram the carriage and knock it over. If she manages it, we'll be dead, Elena thought. And any who're still writhing like worms on the ground, she can pick off. â€Å"DUCK!† She screamed the word both vocally and telepathically. And then something like an airplane flew so close to her that she felt tufts of hair being pulled out, caught in its claws. Elena heard a cry of pain from the front seat but didn't raise her head to see what it was. And that was good, for while the carriage suddenly slammed to a halt, the next instant a whirling, screaming, bird of death came searing out on the same course. Now Elena needed all of her attention, all her faculties, to avoid this monster that was buzzing them even lower. â€Å"The carriage, she is finished! Get out! Run!† Sage's voice came rumbling to her. â€Å"The horses,† screamed Elena. â€Å"Finished! Get out, damn you!† Elena had never heard Sage swear before. She dropped the subject. Elena never knew how she and Meredith did get out, tumbling over each other, trying to help and only getting in each other's way. Bonnie was already out, by virtue of the coach having hit a pole and sending her flying. Fortunately, it had sent her into a square of ugly but springy red clover, and she wasn't seriously injured. â€Å"Ahhh, my bracelet – no, there it is,† she cried, grabbing something glittering out of the clover. She cast a cautious look upward into the crimson night. â€Å"Now what do we do?† â€Å"We run!† came Damon's voice. He came around the wreckage of the corner where they had fallen in a heap. There was blood on his mouth, on the previously immaculate white at his throat. It reminded Elena of those people who drank cow's blood as well as milk for nutrition. But Damon only drank from humans. He would never stoop to equine blood†¦ The horses will still be here and so will Bloddeuwedd, a harsh voice explained in her head. She would play with them; there would be pain. This way was quick. It was†¦a whim. Elena reached for his hands, gasping. â€Å"Damon! I'm sorry!† â€Å"GET OUT OF HERE,† Sage was roaring. â€Å"We have to get to Stefan,† Elena said, and grabbed Bonnie with her other hand. â€Å"Help guide me, please. I can't see the ring very well.† Meredith, she trusted, would get to the Shi no Shi building on her own resources. And then there was a nightmare of running and flinching and false alarms by a shaken Bonnie. Twice the horror from above came skimming straight toward them only to crash just in front of them, or a little to the side, breaking wood and tile road alike, throwing up clouds of dust. Elena didn't know about all owls, but Bloddeuwedd swooped down at an angle on her prey, then opened her wings and dropped at the last moment. Part of the worst thing about the giant owl was her silence. There was no rustling to warn them of where she might be. Something in her own feathers muffled the sound, so that they never knew when she was going to drop next. In the end they had to crawl through all sorts of rubbish, going as fast as they could, holding wood, glass, anything sharp over their heads, as Bloddeuwedd made another pass. And all the time Elena was trying to use her Power. It was not a Power she had used before, but she could feel its name shaping her lips. What she could not feel, could not force, was a connection between the words and the Power. I'm useless as a heroine, she thought. I'm pathetic. They should have given these Powers to someone who already knew how to control such things. Or, no, they should have given them to someone and then given the someone a course on how to use them. Or – no – â€Å"Elena!† Rubbish was flying in front of her, but then she was cutting left and somehow getting around it. And then she was on the ground and looking up at Damon, who had protected her with his body. â€Å"Thank you,† she whispered. â€Å"Come on!† â€Å"I'm sorry,† she whispered and held out her right hand, with the ring on it, for him to take. And then she doubled up, heaving with sobs. She could hear the flapping of Bloddeuwedd right above her.

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Marketing Profile of Gateway essays Gateway, Inc., founded in 1985, started with two people working out of an Iowa farmhouse. Gateway, Inc. has grown rapidly since it went public 8 years after the company started. Today, Gateway is a 7.5 billion Fortune 250 company that has 19,000 people on its payroll and prides itself on building lifelong relationships with its customers. Gateway has risen to power based almost solely on its innovative marketing technique and by sticking to their original philosophy to keep it personal, make it simple. Gateway, Inc. tries very hard to portray themselves as a small hometown business. One of the many ways it does this is by using the spotted cow motif. Across the United States, the black spots on the white background will almost instantly be recognized as a Gateway product. Gateway also started the trend of creating personalized systems. Each system is personalized for each client, from the consumer to the large business customer. Uniquely, Gateway sells PCs without the merchandise, which in turn gives the consumer more options. Gateway advertises actively on all forms of media. Their television promotional campaigns seem largely focused towards the middle class family. Depicting each member of the family using the computer separately. They offer complete computer packages, with software and internet included for a reasonable price. Recently they have introduced the idea of being able to trade in your computer after a two-year period for the latest version. Global marketing is important to Gateway, they have active markets all over the globe and have opened manufacturing facilities in Ireland, Singapore, and Malaysia. In the US Gateway has focused on targeting Hispanics, the fastest growing group here. To attract this target audience, Gateway is running advertisements in Spanish, adding bilingual sales and technical staff, and offering computers equipped with Spanish software and keyboards. One of the main reasons Ga...

Descriptive Essays

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