Guatemala Essays (Examples)

Since the nation gained independence from Spain it has been ruled by a chain of military dictatorships ("Guatemalan Culture and History"). Guatemala has also run into some territorial disputes with neighboring nations like Belize and in fact land disputes with Belize continue today.
More recent political strife included a civil war that lasted 36 years and which took the lives of over 200,000 people ("Country profile: Guatemala"). In the wake of that war, Guatemala has been unable to successfully overcome its social and economic inequities. Corruption endemic in the government impedes the development of effective economic and social programs. Fortunately, freedom of the press is "enshrined in Guatemala's constitution and newspapers freely criticize the government," ("Country profile: Guatemala"). Therefore, in spite of the high literacy rates throughout the country, Guatemalans remain relatively well-informed about the issues affecting their lives and the lives of their compatriots. The main public university, University…

Antigua Guatemala Coffee
Antigua Guatemala International (AGI) will be a manufacturer and exporter of Guatemalan coffee to Japan and the global. AGI will use a new system in the food and beverage industry to offer Antigua Guatemala coffee in a time-efficient and convenient way. AGI will provide vendors, retailers, and cafes with the ability to buy freshly brewed Antigua Guatemala coffee. It will be a high quality option to the institutional coffee and fast foods markets. It will give its patrons the finest cold and hot beverages, specializing in Antigua Guatemala coffee and other custom made drinks. Additionally, it will offer fresh-baked pastries, soft drinks and other confections. Seasonally, AGI will add frozen Antigua Guatemala coffee. It will compete with companies such as Wallenford Coffee Company and Blue Mountain Coffee, which have already established a presence in Japan. The business will focus on two major target markets:

Coffee shops and…

igoberta Menchu: An Indian Woman in Guatemala by igoberta Menchu. Specifically, it will contain an interpretive essay regarding the book. igoberta Menchu's book is the story of a young girl coming of age in her homeland, and the story of her people, the Indians of Guatemala. It is not a tender story; it is filled with violence and oppression. igoberta's story is one of a determined people who will fight for what they believe in, but is their way of life worth fighting and dying for?
igoberta Menchu is a Quiche Indian woman from Guatemala who tells her own life story in this remarkable book. A Paris anthropologist recorded her in a series of interviews, and transcribed them to become this tale of growing up in a vastly different country from our own. Menchu was born in 1959, and by the time she was eight, she was working with her…

Inspired by national liberation ideology such as that which led to the Cuban evolution, the evolutions in Guatemala, Nicaragua, and El Salvador share some key features in common. All three of these Central American revolutions were anti-imperialist calls for social justice. They all presented serious challenges to the United States, which enjoyed a hegemonic power throughout the region. American foreign policy depended upon the very regimes the people of Guatemala, Nicaragua, and El Salvador endeavored to overcome.
Nicaragua kick-started the revolutionary fervor among its neighbors when in 1979 the Sandinista National Liberation Front toppled the Somoza family's imperialist dictatorship. The Sandinista revolution was "an extraordinary event that reverberated throughout Latin America and the United States," (Keen and Haynes 438). While this caused "gloom and disarray" among American politicians, the Sandinistas "heartened Latin American revolutionaries, their supporters, and all the democratic forces of the region," (Keen and Haynes 438).The Nicaraguan revolution…

It also talks about multicultural politics and demands throughout Central America. The article discusses the "cultural project" of the indigenous people that is helping their voices be heard.
This reading relates to the others because it discusses many issues the other readings take on, such as politics and the indigenous people. This one seems to carry another cynical theme in politics, like the one before. Essentially, it is critical of the Guatemalan government and their handling (or non-handling) of the indigenous people and their rights. They feel they are "conspicuously absent" in government policy, while the government takes on other types of reform, such as economic and other social reforms.

This article is especially troubling because it discusses something at the very heart of these cultures -- the brutality and genocidal tendencies of the people that rule Guatemala, and how their policies affect the country. There are so many brutal…

" In addition, Manz reports that, "It took more than a decade after the worst of the violence, but eventually the Catholic Church, the United Nations, and the president of the United States rendered a verdict about the horrors suffered by villagers in Santa Mar'a Tzeja and the rest of Guatemala." In fact, the verdict charged Guatemalan authorities with outright genocide, and the author emphasizes that, "No other country in the hemisphere has been charged with genocide."
To their credit, the people of Guatemala have managed to overcome this violent legacy and stand poised to become part of the international community in substantive ways, due in large part to the findings of this report. As Manz points out, "This judgment was of great moral importance to the people of Santa Mar'a Tzeja and so many others like them who had suffered grievously at the hands of the military. No longer…

Rogoberta
Rigoberta Menchu addresses the role of women in Quiche society and devotes several chapters of her narrative to gender issues. I, Rigoberta Menchu is not about women in Guatemala society, but any discussion of race, class, and politics must naturally include gender as a matter of course. More important than gender to Rigoberta Menchu is the abuse of power. In her narrative, Rigoberta Menchu focuses on the ways wealthy business owners and ladinos in Guatemala abuse their power and privilege by exploiting and dehumanizing the indigenous population. Moreover, Rigoberta Menchu depicts the indigenous Mayan culture as being inherently gender egalitarian. For example, women drink at parties just like the men do. "That is something incredible in these towns," the author notes, "because it's not only the men who want to let themselves go and forget about their problems for a while…It's not unusual to see our women drinking," (206).…

Tuskegee Experiment
Beginning in 1932, and continuing for the next forty years, the U.S. government conducted tests "to determine the natural course of untreated syphilis in black males." (Brandt, 1978, p.1) The test used some 400 men already infected with syphilis as well as 200 without as a control and studied the effects of the disease on the subjects. However, even in the 1950's, when antibiotics became widely available, this treatment, as was all treatments, was denied to the subjects. The experiment was re-approved by the Center for Disease Control in 1969 but in 1972 it became widely known to the public; which demanded the experiment be ended. In the early 1970's only 74 of the test subjects had survived while "perhaps more than 100 had died directly from advanced syphilitic lesions." (Brandt, 1978, p.1) But this experiment was not the first to perform such a study, in fact the…

Kinzer and Overthrow
Objectiveness of Kinzer

Kinzer is a journalist and reported on several instances where America has been considered the instigator of regime changes in foreign countries. As a reporter he writes about events that he has witnessed or researched over the past century. There has been at least fourteen instances where heads of state and nations were influenced by American covert activity.

Argument: Understanding the Kinzer Perspective

The perspective is convincing as an argument about how American Diplomats, Statesmen, and even corporate powers use their influence politically and economically to forge alliances or dispose uncooperative leaders. A classic example is the entrance of American forces into Afghanistan to remove Saddam Hussein from power. The catalog of conquests span from 1893 to 2003 including Hawaii 1893(pp.21), Cuba 1898 (pp. 39, 48), Puerto Rico 1898 (pp. 48), Philippines 1902 (pp. 48), Nicaragua 1910 (pp. 56), Honduras 1911 (pp. 75), Iran…

The second motive behind the internationalist actions was a desire for control. This is especially seen in Kennedy's reaction to Guatemala. By the mid-1960's, Guatemala had finally begun creating an independent government. hat's more, the people even wanted to have an open election. However, Kennedy caught wind of a threat by the former dictator Arevalo, who planned to re-enter the country and run in the election. Instead of trusting the people to elect the right leader, Kennedy reacted in fear and used American military and intelligence to rig the election in favor of a civilian leader (Rabe 56) and a military independent of that government.

The third motive, and one that is rarely considered, behind the assaults on Latin America was imperialism. Prior to the cold war, America kept its own boundaries safe and nothing else. It only went to war when absolutely necessary and did not concern itself with…

This leads to many false stereotypes and assumptions about cultures which most of us have never experienced.
2) When the structure of colonialism set in on Latin America, the Catholic Church established Counter-Reformation initiatives ordered by Spain's Holy Inquisition. The Counter-Reformation discouraged cultural endeavors in Latin America if they were not directly affiliated to specific Church celebrations. This resulted in much illiteracy and general ignorance of advances being made in the world during the 17th and 18th centuries, specifically the Enlightenment. Additionally, the Catholic Church, in this role, was less involved in being true missionaries, but rather functioned as a cultural censor that enforced regulatory social practices. Peninsular bureaucrats seemed to have no interest or care for the vast lands of Latin America, and developed an increasing disdain for the growing mixed Spanish and indigenous population (Mestizo). They were suspicious of indigenous and mestizo people, and also of Spanish people…

istory from 1865 to te present day. To focus te researc, select six subtopics (specific events or developments related to te topic, separated in time); tree from before 1930 and tree from after.
Immigrants

Tere are more tan 50 million immigrants (legal and illegal) and teir U.S.-born cildren (under 18) in te United States as of August 2012. As of te last decade, most immigrants come from te following countries: Honduras (85%), India (74%), Guatemala (73%), Peru (54%), El Salvador (49%), Ecuador (48%), and Cina (43%). Approximately, 28% of tese immigrants are in te country illegally. Rougly alf of Mexican and Central American and one-tird of Sout American immigrants are ere illegally.

Te Center for Immigration Studies (Rigt Side news) finds tat immigration as dramatically increased te population of low-income individuals in te United States, altoug many immigrants, te longer tey live in te country, make significant progress. However, immigrants…

Domestic Homicide in South Carolina
The law, in its majestic equality, forbids the rich as well as the poor to sleep under bridges, to beg in the streets, and to steal bread," wrote French intellectual and social critic Anatole France in The Red Lily in 1894 and in doing so he summarized the often great distance that exists between laws and people's concepts of justice and truth. Justice is a slippery concept and the truth even more so - and this is perhaps nowhere more evident than in the practices of the "truth commissions" established in a number of countries newly accustoming themselves to democracy. The Orwellian sound of "truth commission" is not inappropriate, for the connection between the actions of these commissions - in places like Argentina, Chile, El Salvador, Guatemala and South Africa - and the truth of experience or any sense of absolute justice was both tenuous…

Civil ars
It is estimated that between 1900 and 1967, there were 526 civil wars called throughout the world (Civil pp). Today, there are literally dozens of wars going on around the globe, and dozens more that have ended during recent years, such as the civil wars in Guatemala and Tajikistan.

According to Christopher Cramer, most literature concerning civil wars has highlighted the role of political instability in the relationship between growth and inequality (Cramer pp). Although there are interlinkages between distribution, conflict and growth, these interlinkages are complex and cannot be read off or predicted from any convincing repeated empirical relationship between variables that are often loaded with too much and unclear meaning (Cramer pp). Cramer takes the title to his article, "Civil ar is Not a Stupid Thing: Exploring Growth, Distribution and Conflict Linkages" from a short story by Sicilian writer, Leonardo Sciascia, about a Sicilian dragooned into…

Government

Since gang-related crimes fall within the jurisdiction of state, this research will give an insight on the need to find solutions that increasingly include all levels of government. Congress needs to pass legislation that will change immigration enforcement laws and make more aliens deportable. In addition, the federal government should take a more active participation in helping local and state jurisdictions develop anti-gang responses. The local, state and federal governments must take a stand, and combine forces to combat the immigration problem that continue to plague this country into the next generation.

Importance of the Study

The die has been cast, there is no turning the clock back now and the Mara Salvatrucha and 18th Street Gang have established themselves in the United States and far beyond. The origins of the current situation with MS-13 and the 18th Street Gang date back to the late 1980s and early 1990s…

Hence, the model of preparation applies to Guevara's situation and choices perfectly because all of the prior knowledge and experience he had through his medical visits across Latin America motivated him to be absolutely prepared for a long battle, hence he not only stayed in the area where he could learn the most, he associated with people who had been pursuing the same goal longer then him and knew more about the things that he wanted to be aware of .
Domain knowledge that Guevara gained by staying in Guatemala and preparing was also of significant importance to sharpen the technical skills he needed to possess to succeed. Two of the most important aspects that Guevara aimed to gain through the domain knowledge were:

To familiarize himself with the rules with which a revolution or change within different societies operates in differing environments and the practical wisdom to compete in…

Ancient
A Brief History of the Mayan Civilization

The Maya are a group of people of southern Mexico and northern Central America with some three thousand years of loaded history. The Maya were a division of the Mesoamerican Pre-Columbian civilizations. Dissimilar to popular belief, the Maya people never vanished completely, there are millions that still live in the area, and a lot of them still speak one of the many Maya languages (A Brief History of the Mayan Civilization, 2011). The Maya are perhaps the most well-known of the traditional civilizations of Mesoamerica. Mayan history began in the Yucatan around 2600 B.C., Mayan history grew to fame around A.D. 250 in contemporary southern Mexico, Guatemala, western Honduras, El Salvador, and northern Belize (Mayan History, n.d.).

Building on the innate inventions and thoughts of previous civilizations such as the Olmec, the Maya advanced astronomy, calendrical systems and hieroglyphic writing. The Maya…

nytimes.com/2006/05/02/books/02bett.html [26 Apr 2013]]
The main criticism levied against Kinzer's work is the question: where was the American public during these escapades? After all, if America is a democracy, do they not have responsibility for their leaders' actions? Sadly, they cheered their leaders on, or ignored what was being done in the name of their nation. "Only briefly does Kinzer touch upon the U.S. citizens who questioned government tactics in foreign land… Unfortunately, leaders - describing their motivation as benevolence and a desire to liberate the oppressed - have learned how to win popular support for even the most outrageous regime change, and U.S. citizens repeatedly fall for the bait."[footnoteRef:12] [12: Susan Froetschel, "Overthrow: America's Century of Regime Change from Hawaii to Iraq," [Review], Yale Global Online, 2006. http://yaleglobal.yale.edu/about/overthrow.jsp [26 Apr 2013]]

ibliography

etts, Richard K. "A century of intervention, regarded with a cold eye." The New York Times.

2…

The Mayas sense of beauty was very different from other peoples in Mesoamerica (Hooker pp). They prized a long, backward sloping forehead, which was attained by bounding the skulls of infants with boards (Hooker pp). Moreover, crossed-eyes were also important, and this was achieved by dangling objects in front of the infants' eyes in order to permanently cross the eyes, a practice that is still used today (Hooker pp).

The Maya number system was a base 20 system (Mayan pp). Most likely the reason for base 20 came from ancient people who counted on both their fingers and their toes (Mayan pp). And although it was a base 20 system, called a vigesimal system, the number five also played a major role, probably again relating to five fingers and toes (Mayan pp). They used a system of bar and dot as a sort of "shorthand" for counting written from bottom…

lowland Maya decimation is much more than at any time before, and there are currently several studies that concentrate on the period from roughly A.D. 750 to A.D.1050. Previously, researchers have had a tendency to sum up clarifications of the decimation from individual locales and areas to the marshes in totality. Later methodologies push the extraordinary differences of changes that took place over the swamps amid the Terminal Classic and Early Post classic periods. Along these lines, there is presently a general agreement on the view that Maya culture and civilization in general did not fall, albeit numerous zones did experience significant change
Present scenarios are the result of the long haul elements of human-environment interplay. The fact of the matter is that, we have a long-term viewpoint, keeping in mind the end goal to best comprehend continual changes in ambient environs we observe in present times

. Analysis of…

5% unemployment figure, 7.6% inflation ratio, and $4.5 trillion in debt, Guatemala is forced to rely on external factors to survive.
National exports are coffee, sugar, bananas, fruits and vegetables, cardamom, meat, apparel, petroleum, electricity and the 9/11 events in the United States have severely impacted tourist trade.

Venezuela

Venezuela is a federal republic with over 24 million citizens, 67% of which live in poverty and 14% are unemployed.

The GDP is made up primarily of services with petroleum, bauxite and aluminum, steel, chemicals, and agricultural products composing the primary exports. Tourism is impacted negatively by the events of terrorism and the typical 587,000 visitors each year has dwindled considerably.

The Argument

ECLAC's annual calendar reflects multiple meetings, lectures, educational workshops, conferences, seminars, and training sessions. Nowhere is there found a work initiative, a concerted on-site initiative or focused fund raiser, or any effort of measurable practicality.

According to the…

Authenticity in Multicultural Narratives of experience and language -- the problem of Rigoberta Menchu's I, Rigoberta Menchu
On the surface, there is no 'problem,' one might say, given the astounding achievement of native Guatemalan opposition leader and community activist Rigoberta Menchu. Rigoberta Menchu won the Nobel Prize, even after she was forced to go into hiding in her beloved Guatemala, and then flee her native land to Mexico, far from the land and community she loved. She remains a forceful and vigorous voice for the rights of disenfranchised Guatemalans to this day. Her resulting book, called in English, I, Rigoberta Menchu, tells of her experiences as a native Guatemalan woman, and then as the Representation of the Guatemalan Opposition (RUOG). But because of its translated quality and the subject's own perception of herself as a community spokeswoman as well as a lone sufferer of oppression -- indeed, what it means…

Mexico faces an array of drug-related problems ranging from production and transshipment of illicit drugs to corruption, violence, and increased internal drug abuse. Powerful and well-organized Mexican organizations control drug production and trafficking in and through Mexico, as well as the laundering of drug proceeds. These organizations also have made a concerted effort to corrupt and intimidate Mexican law enforcement and public officials. In addition, the geographic proximity of Mexico to the United States and the voluminous cross-border traffic between the countries provide ample opportunities for drug smugglers to deliver their illicit products to U.S. markets. The purpose of this study was to develop informed and timely answers to the following research questions: (a) How serious is the trade in illicit drugs between Mexico and the United States today and what have been recent trends? (b) How does drug trafficking fund terrorist organizations in general and trade between Mexico and…

Exxon Mobile's Global Expansion
Exxon Mobile is a multinational company in the oil and natural resources industry that has a presence in many different parts of the civilized world. Surprisingly, Exxon Mobile does not have any locations or subsidiaries in Central America. Because of this fact, it is natural that the conglomerate should expand its presence in response to the "globalization of markets" (Weston, 2002, p. 69) in this part of the world. As such, there are numerous factors that make Guatemala ideal for its to broaden its global environment in.

The characteristics that best suit Guatemala as a suitable place for Mobile Exxon to expand its global operations in predominantly relate to its location. Although it is in central America, it borders the North American country of Mexico in which Exxon has operated out of for over 100 years. Additionally, central America in general is located between North and…

Mexico's Trade Strategy

Mexico has pursued a three-dimensional trade strategy perhaps more diligently than even the United States according to Schott (Studer & Wise, 2007). Mexico has been an active participant in multilateral talks since its GATT accession in 1986 and was the host country for the special Summit of the Americas in Monterrey and for the hemispheric trade talks in Puebla. Mexico is perhaps most famous as the instigator of NAFTA as well as many other FTAs with countries around the world including key industrial markets such as the European Union (EU, The European Free Trade Association (EFTA), and Japan. In addition, Mexico entered in FTAs with olivia, Chile, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, The G3 (Colombia, Mexico, and Venezuela), Honduras, Israel and Nicaragua during the period January 1995 to June 2001 (Schott in Studer & Wise, 2007). It is important to emphasize that Mexico has many more FTAs…

y contrast, this was not found to be true for the Colombian couples. Instead, their level of relationship satisfaction was predicted by having a similar level of expressiveness between spouses, irrespective of whether the level was high, medium, or low (Ingoldsby, 1980). Likewise, Colombian women and men were determined to be are equally likely to say what they feel and to express themselves at the same level as North American males. In the United States, female spouses are typically significantly more expressive as a group than are their male counterparts (Ingoldsby, 1980).

In a significant recent paper, ailey (2006) focuses on biotechnological discoveries in birth control methods that offered women greater power to choose the timing of childbearing. This power may have translated into higher investments in education and increased labor force participation of women. In an excellent paper, among other things, Goldin (1995) focused on technological International Research Journal…

Whether this is in fact the case will be explored in the next section.
The Case for Mayan Culture

Researchers that do not agree with Haug and others argue that the Mayan culture has continued throughout history and has been passed down to individuals that are still alive today within areas of Central America. There is some agreement regarding this between various researchers that have studied Mayan culture, rituals, and architecture. Certainly, the pyramids that the Mayans built are still around today and can be seen as monuments to the Mayan people and the lives that they lived. While it is impossible to know everything about a people that died out hundreds of years ago, much has been determined about the Mayan culture and lifestyle through a study of artifacts that are still in existence.

What many people do not realize, however, is that what is left of the Mayan…

MS-13 -- the focus of a nationwide crackdown by FBI and federal immigration agents -- has become known in recent years for home invasion robberies, drug dealing and machete attacks on its enemies. however, after the sweeping chaos across America, the FBI has heightened concerns that MS-13 could be far more dangerous than thought.
Mara Salvatrucha, or MS-13, continues to expand its influence in the United States. FBI investigations reveal that it is present in almost every state and continues to grow its membership, now targeting younger recruits more than ever before.

To counteract this growth, the FBI formed the MS-13 National Gang Task Force in December 2004. Based at FBI Headquarters, this intelligence-driven task force combines the expertise, resources, and jurisdiction of federal agencies that investigate this violent international street gang. It focuses on maximizing the flow of information and intelligence, coordinating investigations nationally and internationally, and helping state…

Olmec Civilization
Long before the Maya, Aztec or Toltec flourished in Central America, there lived the Olmecs, a civilization that has come to continue to intrigue and amaze the world. They were the most prevalent group in Mesoamerica and a highly developed and well organized society with a complex calendar and hieroglyphic writing system. The Olmecs were the mother civilization in Mesoamerica.

The Olmec lived around the areas of La Venta in Tabasco, San Lorenza Tenochtitlan, and Laguna de los Cerros in Veracruz during the pre-classic period. They built their cities around a central raised mound. These mounds, used for religious ceremonies, were replaced with pyramid-shaped structures around 900 B.C. The Olmecs used basalt, found in the Tuxtla Mountains, to construct plazas and religious pyramid structures. Houses were made of wooden walls with clay and palm roof tops, and a hierarchical society separated the elite from the common groups in…

Cold War and Film
Generally speaking, the Cold War has been depicted as an era of spy games and paranoia in popular films from the 1960s to the present day, but the reality of the era was much more complex. The Cold War was a period of military and political tension from 1947 to 1991, or from the end of WW2 to the collapse of the Soviet Union, in which the "politics of war" masked the business and social agendas of multinationals and ideologues. The era was marked by myriad issues: East-West mistrust, proxy wars, espionage, the threat of nuclear war, domestic and foreign propaganda, the rise of the military-industrial complex and multinational corporations, assassinations, detente, de-colonization, new nationalism, neo-colonialism, the vying for control of resources, alliances (NATO, Warsaw Pact), and an inculcation of the "deep state." [footnoteRef:1] It can be divided into five basic periods: 1947-53, 1953-62, 1962-79, 1979-85,…

Nonetheless, the example is similar. An entire nation of people is in an uprising against a powerful dictator, led by one man, defeats their enemies to get to victory. There are echoes here of the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s in the United States led by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

It is only when testimonial literature comes onto the scene that we understand how important both of these former points are. Testimonial narrative makes real the pain of poverty.

Gustavo Gutierrez's preferential option for the poor definitely becomes a misnomer when testimonial literature is introduced into the picture. The problem with preferential option for the poor is that it is a term specifically designed for the vocabulary of academics which seek to side with the poverty-stricken Other which they, the academics, most likely have little to no contact with on a daily basis.

However, they wish to have…

Even his most explicitly political works, like El Senor Presidente, make use of magical realism rather than address specific contemporary issues directly: "The society of the novel is corrupted; evil spreads downwards from the ruler. Justice is a mockery, and army officers spend their time plotting or in brothels. El Senor Presidente utilized surrealistic techniques; it reflected Asturias's idea that Indians' nonrational perception of reality is an expression of the subconscious forces, the collective dream of mankind" (Gascoigne 2008). Asturias saw the worldview of Indians as more humane, fruitful, and inspiring and another of his works, Hombres de Maiz, "depicted a rebellion by a remote tribe of Indians against desecration of their mountains and their annihilation by the army" (Gascoigne 2008).

The work was openly Marxist and primitivist, celebrating the natives' protection of their indigenous corn harvesting from wealthy industrialists from those seeking to profit from the life-giving soil without…

One of the best points is brought forth by Higgins, who writes that an estimated force of 1500 men were sent to take on no less than 25,000 Cubans (Higgins 1987). "In the end, of approximately 1300 men who actually landed on the beaches from the Brigade, almost 1200 were captured and about 100 killed in combat (Higgins 149). The Brigade, if they failed, were expected to escape into the protected areas that connected to the Bay of Pigs; when in fact those areas, the conditions of the terrain, the poor training and preparation of the Brigade, made such escape impossible (Higgins 149).

Years later, declassified papers and tapes from the hite House would lend insight into the fiasco, but not clarity. One thing that was evidenced from the hite House tapes is that the Bay of Pigs continued to be a source of humiliation and annoyance to President Kennedy…

Atahuallpa was the ruler when the conquistadors arrived. The Spanish were under the leadership of Francisco Pizarro. There were a total of 168 Europeans in this group, and they challenged an empire of 6 million people. The Indians were puzzled by the importance Europeans placed on gold, but avarice was only one of the compulsions pressing the Spanish onward. The Inca empire was still relatively new in the early sixteenth century, and at the time of the arrival of the Europeans, it was undergoing a severe internal crisis, a civil war between two rival heirs for the chieftainship. This dissension facilitated the Spanish conquest. Pizarro negotiated with two factions at once and played them against one another. He captured Atahuallpa and ransomed him. The Spanish collected Atahuallpa's treasure, but they then refused to free him as promised. Instead, they tried him, charged him with usurpation, idolatry, polygamy, and other crimes,…

Their pricing is relatively high due to high product differentiation.

SWOT analysis

Strengths

The Body Ship has almost 2, 500 stores in 61 countries. Started in the late 1970s to appeal to a market that has been increasingly enamored with natural ingredients and products, this market has only grown whilst trends for holistic and organic items have, if not stayed constant, certainly increased. In this way, the Body Shop not only managed to carve a niche for itself when inclination for natural products was just beginning but it has gained a reputation and foothold in this field, that a rare few have been able to beat.

The Body Shop is a mature market and a long-established company having a niche in the field. It has high entry barriers making for tough competition and little opportunity for new entrants. Their key strength is, therefore, their name, experience, and image. They also…

I watched some TV on my Sony, yet another Japanese made (or designed at least) product. I then considered doing some homework -- quickly reconsidered, and jumped into bed under my new amsutta bedspread, which says on the label it is made in USA. onder of wonders.
Unfortunately, after conducting this experiment (and looking up many of the products I used for the day out of sheer curiosity), I found that I normally know next to nothing about the origins, manufacturers, or even the people that make the products that I use every day.

hat I did notice is that there is a definite trend toward the NIDL, especially in the products that demand high technology coupled with rather unskilled fabrication steps. I also noted that much of this work is being done throughout Asia, but more and more in formerly "unknown" countries (as far as large scale manufacturing goes)…

" Hence, images of children are often used to "reproach the rest of the adult world for its misdemeanours"; and in presenting that picture, children connote "both the future and a moral voice of the 'good self'..."
Burman generalizes that the "universalization of Northern childhood thus mirrors the Northern colonial domination of the South." And interfaced with that dynamic, she continues, is the "Christian symbolism associated with colour ("white-child-angel, black child-devil")... [and] the fact that where "black and white children are portrayed together [in commercials or public service announcements for aid-related agencies] the white figure adopts a protective...and sometimes enveloping...stance towards the black, which...extends beyond the human to the portrayal of animals." And in contemporary aid and development literature, childhood "has been fractured so that only children of the North develop, while children of the South are primarily portrayed as those whose childhoods have been stolen." Children of the North's…

Anzaldua
Like our genes, our native tongues are both unique and passed down from generation to generation. Native tongues are integral and inescapable parts of our personal and collective identity, like skin color or gender. Therefore, language can be a stigma, an indicator or race, ethnicity, and culture. In the book Borderlands: La Frontera, Gloria Anzaldua explores expressions of Chicano culture in America through an analysis of the language she calls Chicano Spanish. Chicano Spanish is a by-product of ways Tex-Mex peoples created a unique cultural heritage in the Southwestern United States. The author speaks about Chicano culture, race, and identity all as functions of language. In her essay "How to Tame a Wild Tongue," Gloria Anzaldua shows how language indicates personality, culture, and background more than any other aspect of self-expression. Therefore, we should be proud of our native tongue just as we should be proud of our culture,…

Regional Geography
hy could Africa be considered on of the richest continents on Earth? Discuss some of sub-Saharan Africa's Assets. Then address why, despite these facts, the majority of African states remain poor. Be sure to include several factors relation to this region's unique physical geography, complex human geography, history.

The spectrum of environments which exist in Africa spans entire moisture and temperature gradients, from perhaps the most arid to among the well-watered places on earth, from the coolness of the Cape to the furnace that is the Sahara. This environmental diversity is mirrored in the proliferation of its fauna and flora, for Africa has seemingly every conceivable combination of climatological, geological, and pedological factors; the plant and animal communities have evolved over time to reflect this heterogeneity. Moreover, it is an ancient continent that has provided a cradle for a wide range of taxonomic groups, from among the very…

Regional Identity and Its Literal Purpose
Regionalism is a common sense of identity. It is an expression of an identity that shapes activities in a particular geographical region. In early 1980's regions resurgence of regional self-consciousness was part of the general democratization process. Members of different regions, minorities and majorities, reclaimed what they considered as history leading to regional development. The process of increasing social and political awareness has led to rise of cultural and political dimensions of regionalism (Roth 59). A group of identity is politicized when it affects human judgments on political issues, or affects human decisions on how we act politically like voting for someone. This can define regionalism as the politicization of regional identity. This implies that regional populations have certain common interests that they can advance as a group. They advance these interests to preserve cultural identity, which is threatened by cultural standardization and to…

It should be no surprise that the United States often takes the "convenient" and "short-term" solution to many problems; this is part of the American character. However, at times inzer seems to be on a pulpit, leading the reader by the nose at whom to laud and at whom to hiss. Since this is not written as a historical book, there is also an expectation that the reader will already have a semblance of the "basic facts" from at least Panama and Guatemala forward.
This is perhaps the largest weakness of the book. There are 14 different regime changes that are critically analyzed, yet some clearly fit his argument more than others. In fact, Grenada and Panama seem like different foreign policy goals than Afghanistan and Iraq. On the other hand, one of the strengths of the book is the manner in which inzer outlines the "propagandistic" manner in which…

History Of Egyptian and Mayan Writing
Egyptian writing

The Egyptian language is one of the first languages to be put into written form. Some scholars have claimed that the earliest form of writing is the Sumerian language, but this contention has been put into doubt by more recent findings. Egyptian writing first appears on stone and pottery and dates back to 3,000 .C. (Mysteries of Egypt) The earliest alphabetical writing was found in the Abydos-Luxor -Thebes region of Egypt dating to 1800 .C.

Egyptologists have found limestone inscriptions that they say are the earliest known examples of alphabetic writing... carved in the cliffs of soft stone, the writing - in a Semitic script with Egyptian influences - has been dated to somewhere between 1900 and 1800 .C., two or three centuries earlier than previously recognized uses of a nascent alphabet.

Smith, Tony)

Recently, Egyptian writing dating to 3,300 .C. has…

Cracking Maya Code
Cracking the Maya Code

In the early 200's A.D. The area around Southern Mexico and Guatemala was the home to a civilization that rivaled any on Earth. They built enormous stone buildings, carved with images and writing, and thrived for centuries. However, in the 9th century they inexplicably abandoned their cities and their civilization was lost to time. hile much of their culture disappeared, they still maintained some semblance of traditional Mayan culture up to the time of the arrival of the Spanish in the 16th century. But the arrival of the Spanish brought with them the Catholic Church who sought to convert the natives of the Americas to Christianity by any means necessary. One such zealot, Diego de Landa, viewed the Mayan Hieroglyphics as tools of the devil and an impediment to his conversion of the Mayan people. The Mayan insistence on worshipping their traditional gods…

Because the home country is not required to reimburse foreign depositors for losses, there is no corresponding financial penalty for lax supervision; there is, though, a benefit to the country with lenient regulatory policies because of increased revenues generated and the employment opportunities these services provide (Edwards 1999). Furthermore, banks seeking to conduct multinational business are attracted to countries where incorporation laws and the regulatory framework offer less regulatory oversight (Edwards 1999). The quid pro quo nature of offshore financial services is clearly indicated by Edwards's observation that, "Multinational banks provide the offshore financial centre with increased tax revenue and employment for its citizens. Because the benefits outweigh the costs, offshore financial centres have a powerful incentive to maintain lenient regulatory policies. As a result, multinational banks incorporated in an offshore financial center successfully avoid supervision by an effective home country regulator" (1999, p. 1267). Given the scope of the…

, 2005). Second, since they found that objective and perceived knowledge are not always concordant, they suggest that further studies in this vein measure objective and perceived knowledge, rather than only objective knowledge (ock et al., 2005). Third, they surmise that "an illusion of knowing can act as a barrier to low-risk behavior" (ock et al., 2005, p. 670), and further, that a high perceived knowledge, if inaccurate, can prevent one from learning accurate information, as it causes one to be less receptive and to forego learning opportunities (ock et al., 2005). Finally, ock et al.'s (2005) results identify a group who is at a higher risk than others, and serves as a guide for possible sexual education focus in the future.
Eisenberg et al.'s (2004) study, which focuses on the accuracy of parents' beliefs about sex, can be used in concordance with ock et al.'s (2005) study to address…

The most important social policy response to this article is to ensure that the adoptions are carried out with the best interests of the children in mind. In Ethiopia, Guatemala and other places, there has been accusations that adoptive children have been "harvested" from their birth parents, so this must be guaranteed not to have happened. Another important social policy response is to provide resources to white parents with adopted black children so that they can better understand how to help their children deal with the black experience in America. If such adoptions are going to increase, the best way to address the social problems that can arise from white parents being unable to prepare their adopted children for the discrimination they may face is to educate the parents on how to help their children make their way in the world, given that additional complication.

If I was a public…

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4. Social and Political Life

There is a general paucity of information about the actual societal and political structure of the Olmec. While there is not much evidence to build a comprehensive picture of the daily and social life of these people, there is enough available data from certain archeological sites to provide some reasonable speculations.

One of the assumptions that is derived from the excavation of sites at San Lorenzo and then at La Venta is that the society was very centralized. This in turn has led to the view that the society was highly structured, with a hierarchical basis of order and class stratification. This also implies the existence of a ruling elite and a system of power and control, which was possibly based on religious beliefs. This view of the structure of the society is summarized as follows: "Olmec society was & #8230;highly centralized, with a…

273).
And Vela-Gude's article offers several of the main points of this paper's research; the services must be ready, and the counselors must be thoroughly informed and knowledgeable about the cultural implications as well as the academic realities facing those Latino students (2009).

Racism Against Latinos

This paper alludes to the high number of Latinos in California and Texas, but according to the Southern Poverty Law Center's research, the South is home to one of the "fastest growing populations of Latinos in the country" (Bauer, et al., 2009, p. 4). But though the typical Latino immigrant comes to the South to escape "crushing poverty in their home countries" they often encounter "…widespread hostility, discrimination and exploitation" (Bauer, 2009, p. 4).

hat kinds of discrimination do Latinos come up against in the South? Mary Bauer and her chief researcher, Sarah Reynolds, claim that Latinos are "…routinely cheated out of their earnings…

For a country such as Uganda to possess sufficient health care is tremendously important to the people of the republic of Uganda. Even triumphant medical treatment for malaria can involve pain through injections of drugs and in the entire period of recuperating after the administration of the drugs. Furthermore, nervousness may crop up, threat and unavoidably a lot of money. The final thing a parent of a sick child suffering from malaria in a hospital needs to believe about is how he or she is actually going to pay out for all the costs encountered or the billing. In an ideal world, as a substitute of distressing about money, a patient or a mother or a father of a kid who is suffering from malaria should be focused on getting well or consoling the sick child respectively. Nonetheless, the entire subject of health cover can be puzzling (Trisha, 2007, p.…

This institution has not been anti-gays traditionally. The country has been trying to frame LGBT laws in the context of human rights as presented in the constitution. The leaders and politicians are also aware of the homophobia persisting in the country and understand that they are not as much because of the laws as they are due to macho mentality of the society. Gays and lesbians are allowed to speak at gatherings and participate in gay march and rallies but they are expected to keep everything low-key. (Stewart, p.16)
US on the other hand is more tolerant even if the state doesn't recognize allow marital status to gay couples on federal level. However some states do offer marriage licenses to gay couples however these are not recognized on national basis and can easily be rejected by other states thus denying a couple benefits that come with being legally married in…

In fact, when it comes to terrorism, strangers are, generally, the ambit of their activities.
There have been some activities, however, that have targeted innocent civilians and the motives and actions, in these cases, have ominously paralleled terrorist stratagems and motivations. A case in kind occurred in December, 2004, when an intercity bus in Honduras, Central America was intercepted and sprayed with machine gunfire and 28 passengers, mainly women and children, were killed first by the gunfire then by the assailants climbing abroad the bus and methodically executing the passengers17. The objective was a protest against the Honduran government who had recently reinstated the death penalty.

Another similarity is in their pattern of operation where, like al-Quida, they operate in a form of loose, unstructured cells that form a global dispersed network. Similarly, too, their individual ceils are devoted to similar activities and some are quite sophisticated. These include activities…

"Child psychiatry has unwittingly contributed to reifying children's mental health," the author explains, and this situation is creating "mental distress" (Timimi, 2009, p. 5). An example of the changes in society due to "aggressive free market global economic systems" is a 14-year-old girl in London who has been behaving in a bizarre way, the author explains. She is from the Indian culture and her parents have arrived in England from the Indian subcontinent. The girl laughs at times that don't seem appropriate and she has not been interacting with her peers; she seems preoccupied so "an urgent psychiatric assessment is arranged" (Timimi, p. 6).
The psychiatrist who studies her concludes that she is suffering from a psychotic illness and he recommends she be sent to a psychiatric unit for treatment including "antipsychotic medications." However, her parents believe that their daughter is not sick at all but "suffering the manifestations of…

Known as the Median kingdom, centered in what is today northern Iran, this powerful alliance of Mesopotamian kingdoms and nations emerged in the late 8th century B.C.E. with its mighty army joining that of Babylon to destroy the Assyrian Empire. In 546 B.C.E., Cyrus the Great, after conquering Lydia and subduing its king Croesus, quickly acquired domination over many of the Greek polis or city-states on the western coast of Anatolia, a region which King Croesus of Lydia had previously subdued.
In 539 B.C.E. Cyrus the Great invaded the Babylonian Empire and annexed all of Chaldea, taking its king Nabonidus captive and then naming himself as the king of Babylon, Akkad and Sumer. Soon after, Cyrus the Great gained control of the vast Arabian Peninsula and attempted to invade the Egyptian Kingdom. Not surprisingly, all of this expansion of the Persian Empire was not taken very lightly by Cyrus' numerous…

It is possible then to figure out what the national Power Distance Index is by evaluating the tolerance or lack of it for civil assembly and protest.
Second Question: At your job does your supervisor consider everyone's feedback and promote open brainstorming or is there the expectation that there is only one best way to do a job and the supervisor knows it, so don't question him?

This second question will also say much about how Low or High Power Distance Index influences the working relationships within the companies in the region. The greater the level of egalitarian and collaborative approaches to sharing responsibility for solutions with subordinates the lower the Power Distance. Conversely if there is a definite attitude of the manager or supervisor being the only one capable of defining an acceptable solution, the company and the culture it is within is most likely High Power Distance. This…

S. domestic carriers are at period in the industry's history when these factors are already beleaguered by downturns in the global economy, increasing competition from international carriers, and the aforementioned high costs of energy.
Chapter 2: The Impact of Open Skies Agreements on Domestic and International Carriers

Under an open skies agreement, both signatories to the agreement enjoy open access to international airline routes between the two countries as well as eliminating virtually all domestic restrictions on international carriers (Lick, 1998). In an effort to develop more closely integrated pricing and route schedules, signatories to these agreements typically also seek to gain immunity from national antitrust laws (Commercial aviation: Legacy airlines must further reduce costs to restore profitability, 2004). The U.S. Department of Transportation reviews these types of airline alliances from an antitrust perspective and refuses to approval an alliance without a reciprocal open skies agreement with the foreign airline's…

S.-Mexico boarder. Not only this, but the strengthening of the drug trade, as well as the potential for human trafficking and the smuggling of terrorists poses a potential catastrophe for the United States. While the U.S.-Mexico boarder has always been an area of contention among policy makers, the MS-13 gang makes the argument less about social policy and the future of immigration, but about criminal activity and the safety of citizens. If the gang is able to successfully organize, a network of criminals stretching between some of the world's most dangerous regions and the United States will have been established, allowing for the potential crumbling of the United States from within. At this point, the criminals would not even need to cross the boarder to communicate, as they could engage in communication through electronic means or word-of-mouth without even risking an attempt to cross the boarder. A second terrorist attack…

However, a number of large, border-zone areas did manage to maintain independence from the empire despite facing many military conflicts with such adversaries as the empire of the Tarascans in the west.
Economically, the Aztecs did openly encourage growth which resulted in "a complex interlocking market system," 4 based on trade with other Mesoamerican cultures which some scholars believe stretched as far south as Tierra del Fuego, to the north into present-day Texas and even across the Atlantic Ocean into the western fringes of Continental Europe. In military terms, the Aztecs were fully aware of their limitations, due to the existence of numerous enemy states, such as the Tarascans and the Tlaxcallans, and in order to prevent incursions into their conquered territories, the Aztecs "built fortresses and placed garrisons. . .in selected locations," 5 much like their far earlier European counterparts, the ancient Romans. One other important aspect of the…

S. It is at a stage where it would be considered a cash cow. Yum is feeling out international expansion opportunities for Taco Bell, but there is little possibility that Taco Bell will supplant KFC and Pizza Hut as the key driver of economic growth. Those two firms have stronger product offerings for international markets. The role that Taco Bell plays, providing cash that can fuel global expansion of other brands, is the ideal role for the company within the context of Yum Brands.
There are a couple of companies that could make a good fit for Yum. They are Starbucks and Dunkin Donuts. These firms operate in complementary segments to Yum's existing portfolio and have core product offerings that can be taken overseas, thus the industry is attractive. The stock price for the former is particularly depressed in light of their recent struggles although the latter is perhaps a…

B.I. estimates the gang membership at 10,000 in 42 states and an additional 50,000 members in El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Mexico in 2004, the F.B.I. created the MS-13 National Gang Force (Buckley 2007)
Initiates members by beating them (Buckley 2007)

Long Island, local gangs affiliated with M-13 come together to unite in large meetings, called "universals" (Buckley 2007)

Remedies:

In 2004, the F.B.I. created the MS-13 National Gang Force (Buckley 2007)

The activities of this gang are an international problem and require an international law-enforcement solution and greater cooperation between federal, state, and local authorities

More youth-oriented anti-gang intervention is required that begins in middle school, to target expanding at-risk population

Most members of gang not illegal, second and third generation: Border control not 'the solution' (Buckley 2007)

orks Cited

Buckley, Cara. (2007, August 19). A fearsome gang and its wannabees. The New York Times.

Retrieved April 15, 2009…

His early thesis is that the U.S. was engaged in interventions long before the Cold ar "broke out" - and those interventions (including those borne of Manifest Destiny) were based not so much on greed or empire building but on the ideology that all nations should be allowed to enjoy individual liberty, economics based on an open and free market, and social progress. And after II, the interventions by both superpowers "were not [necessarily based on] exploitation or subjection, but control and improvement" (estad, p. 5).
There are flaws in the book, albeit estad has written a book that is far more expansive and inclusive than the other two, so he should be given respect - more than just the benefit of the doubt. In fact, estad's book contains ten maps, ten good photographs and five poster reproductions of propaganda materials used during the Cold ar. One of the few…