Foundation’s Edge CHAPTER EIGHT FARMWOMAN

FARMWOMAN Thd Speakers sat about the table, frozen in their mental shielding. It was as though all – with one accord – had hidden their minds to avoid irrevocable insult to the First Speaker after his statement concerning Trevize. Surreptitiously they glanced toward Delarmi and even that gave away much. Of them all, she was best known for her irreverence – Even Gendibal paid more lip service to convention. Delarmi was aware of the glances and she knew that she had no choice but to face up to this impossible situation. In fact, she did not want to duck the issue. In all the history of the Second Foundation, no First Speaker had ever been impeached for misanalysis (and behind the term, which she had invented as cover-up, was the unacknowledged incompetence). Such impeachment now became possible. She would not hang back. â€Å"First Speaker!† she said softly, her thin, colorless lips more nearly invisible than usual in the general whiteness of her face. â€Å"You yourself say you have no basis for your opinion, that the psychohistorical mathematics show nothing Do you ask us to base a crucial decision on a mystical feeling?† The First Speaker looked up, his forehead corrugated. He was aware of the universal shielding at the Table. He knew what it meant. He said coldly, â€Å"I do not hide the lack of evidence. I present you with nothing falsely. What I offer is the strongly intuitive feeling of a First Speaker, one with decades of experience who has spent nearly a lifetime in the close analysis of the Seldon Plan.† He looked about him with a proud rigidity he rarely displayed, and one by one the mental shields softened and dropped. Delarmi's (when he turned to stare at her) was the last. She said, with a disarming frankness that filled her mind as though nothing else had ever been there, â€Å"I accept your statement, of course, First Speaker. Nevertheless, I think you might perhaps want to reconsider. As you think about it now, having already expressed shame at having to fall back on intuition, would you wish your remarks to be stricken from the record if, in your judgment they should be†¦Ã¢â‚¬  And Gendibal's voice cut in. â€Å"What are these remarks that should. be stricken from the record?† Every pair of eyes turned in unison. Had their shields not been up during the crucial moments before, they would have been aware of his approach long before he was at the door. â€Å"All shields up a moment ago? All unaware of my entrance?† said Gendibal sardonically. â€Å"What a commonplace meeting of the Table we have here. Was no one on their guard for my coming? Or did you all fully expect that I would not arrive?† This outburst was a flagrant violation of all standards. For Gendibal to arrive late was bad enough. For him to then enter unannounced was worse. For him to speak before the First Speaker had acknowledged his attendance was worst of all. The First Speaker turned to him. All else was superceded. The question of discipline came first. â€Å"Speaker Gendibal,† he said, â€Å"you are late. You arrive unannounced. You speak. Is there any reason why you should not be suspended from your seat for thirty days?† â€Å"Of course. The move for suspension should not be considered until first we consider who it was that made it certain I would be late – and why.† Gendibal's words were cool and measured, but his mind clothed his thoughts with anger and he did not care who sensed it. Certainly Delarmi sensed it. She said forcefully, â€Å"This man is mad.† â€Å"Mad? This woman is mad to say so. Or aware of guilt. – First Speaker, I address myself to you and move a point of personal privilege,† said Gendibal. â€Å"Personal privilege of what nature, Speaker?† â€Å"First Speaker, I accuse someone here of attempted murder.† The room exploded as every Speaker rose to his or her feet in a simultaneous babble of words, expression, and mentality. The First Speaker raised his arms. He cried, â€Å"The Speaker must have his chance to express his point of personal privilege.† He found himself forced to intensify his authority, mentally, in a manner most inappropriate to the place – yet there was no choice. The babble quieted. Gendibal waited unmoved until the silence was both audibly and mentally profound. He said, â€Å"On my way here, moving along a Hamish road at a distance and approaching at a speed that would have easily assured my arrival in good time for the meeting, I was stopped by several farmers and narrowly escaped being beaten, perhaps being killed. As it was, I was delayed and have but just arrived. May I point out, to begin with, that I know of no instance since the Great Sack that a Second Foundationer has been spoken to disrespectfully – let alone manhandled – by one of these Hamish people.† â€Å"Nor do I,† said the First Speaker. Delarmi cried out, â€Å"Second Foundationers do not habitually walk alone in Hamish territory! You invite this by doing so?† â€Å"It is true,† said Gendibal, â€Å"that I habitually walk alone in Hamish territory. I have walked there hundreds of times in every direction. Yet I have never been accosted before. Others do not walk with the freedom that I do, but no one exiles himself from the world or imprisons himself in the University and no one has ever been accosted. I recall occasions when Delarmi†¦Ã¢â‚¬  and then, as though remembering the honorific too late, he deliberately converted it into a deadly insult. â€Å"I mean to say, I recall when Speakeress Delarmi was in Hamish territory, at one time or another, and yet she was not accosted.† â€Å"Perhaps,† said Delarmi, with eyes widened into a glare, â€Å"because I did not speak to them first and because I maintained my distance. Because I behaved as though I deserved respect, I was accorded it.† â€Å"Strange,† said Gendibal, â€Å"and I was about to say that it was because you presented a more formidable appearance than I did. After all, few dare approach you even here. – But tell me, why should it be that of all times for interference, the Hamish would choose this day to face me, when I am to attend an important meeting of the Table?† â€Å"If it were not because of your behavior, then it must ‘have been chance,† said Delarmi. â€Å"I have not heard that even all of Seldon's mathematics has removed the role of chance from the Galaxy – certainly not in the case of individual events. Or are you, too, speaking from intuitional inspiration?† (There was a soft mental sigh from one or two Speakers at this sideways thrust at the First Speaker.) â€Å"It was not my behavior. It was not chance. It was deliberate interference,† said Gendibal. â€Å"How can we know that?† asked the First Speaker gently. He could not help but soften toward Gendibal as a result of Delarmi's last remark. â€Å"My mind is open to you, First Speaker. I give you – and all the Table – my memory of events.† The transfer took but a few moments. The First Speaker said, â€Å"Shocking! You behaved very well, Speaker, under circumstances of considerable pressure. I agree that the Hamish behavior is anomalous and warrants investigation. In the meantime, please join our meeting†¦Ã¢â‚¬  â€Å"A moments† cut in Delarmi. â€Å"How certain are we that the Speaker's account is accurate?† Gendibal's nostrils flared at the insult, but he retained his level composure. â€Å"My mind is open:† â€Å"I have known open minds that were not open.† â€Å"I have no doubt of that, Speaker,† said Gendibal, â€Å"since you, like the rest of us, must keep your own mind under inspection at all times. My mind, when open, however, is open.† The First Speaker said, â€Å"Let us have no further†¦Ã¢â‚¬  â€Å"A point of personal privilege, First Speaker, with apologies for the interruption,† said Delarmi. â€Å"Personal privilege of what nature, Speaker?† â€Å"Speaker Gendibal has accused one of us of attempted murder, presumably by instigating the farmer to attack him. As long as the accusation is not withdrawn, I must be viewed as a possible murderer, as would every person in this room – including you, First Speaker.† The First Speaker said, â€Å"Would you withdraw the accusation, Speaker Gendibal?† Gendibal took his seat and put his hands down upon its arms, gripping them tightly, as though taking ownership of it, and said, â€Å"I will do so, as soon as someone explains why a Hamish farmer, rallying several others, should deliberately set out to delay me on my way to this meeting.† â€Å"A thousand reasons, perhaps,† said the First Speaker. â€Å"I repeat that this event will be investigated. Will you, for now, Speaker Gendibal, and in the interest of continuing the present discussion, withdraw your accusation?† â€Å"I cannot, First Speaker. I spent long minutes trying, as delicately as I might, to search his mind for ways to alter his behavior without damage and failed. His mind lacked the give it should have had. His emotions were fixed, as though by an outside mind.† Delarmi said with a sudden little smile, â€Å"And you think one of us was the outside mind? Might it not have been your mysterious organization that is competing with us, that is more powerful than we are?† â€Å"It might,† said GendibaI. â€Å"In that case, we – who are not members of this organization that only you know of – are not guilty and you should withdraw your accusation. Or can it be that you are accusing someone here of being under the control of this strange organization? Perhaps one of us here is not quite what he or she seems?† â€Å"Perhaps,† said Gendibal stolidly, quite aware that Delarmi was feeding him rope with a noose at the end of it. â€Å"It might seem,† said Delarmi, reaching the noose and preparing to tighten it, â€Å"that your dream of a secret, unknown, hidden, mysterious organization is a nightmare of paranoia. It would ft in with your paranoid fantasy that Hamish farmers are being influenced, that Speakers are under hidden control. I am willing, however, to follow this peculiar thought line of yours for a while longer. Which of us here, Speaker, do you think is under control? Might it be me?† Gendibal said, â€Å"I would not think so, Speaker. If you were attempting to rid yourself of me in so indirect a manner, you would not so openly advertise your dislike for me.† â€Å"A double-double-cross, perhaps?† said Delarmi. She was virtually purring. â€Å"That would be a common conclusion in a paranoid fantasy.† â€Å"So it might be. You are more experienced in such matters than I. â€Å"† Speaker Lestim Gianni interrupted hotly. â€Å"See here, Speaker Gendibal, if you are exonerating Speaker Delarmi, you are directing your accusations the more tightly at the rest of us. What grounds would any of us have to delay your presence at this meeting, let alone wish you dead?† Gendibal answered quickly, as though he had been waiting for the question. â€Å"When I entered, the point under discussion was the striking of remarks from the record, remarks made by the First Speaker. I was the only Speaker not in a position to hear those remarks. Let me know what they were and I rather think I will tell you the motive for delaying me.† The First Speaker said, â€Å"I had stated – and it was something to which Speaker Delarmi and others took serious exception – that I had decided, on the basis of intuition and of a most inappropriate use of psychohistorical mathematics, that the entire future of the Plan may rest on the exile of First Foundationer Golan Trevize:† Gendibal said, â€Å"What other Speakers may think is up to them. For my part, I agree with this hypothesis. Trevize is the key. I find his sudden ejection by the First Foundation too curious to be innocent.† Delarmi said, â€Å"Would you care to say, Speaker Gendibal, that Trevize is in the grip of this mystery organization – or that the people who exiled him are? Is perhaps everyone and everything in their control except you and the First Speaker – and me, whom you have declared to be uncontrolled?† Gendibal said, â€Å"These ravings require no answer. Instead let me ask if there is any Speaker here who would like to express agreement on this matter with the First Speaker and myself? You have read, I presume, the mathematical treatment that I have, with the First Speaker's approval, circulated among you.† There was silence. â€Å"I repeat my request,† said Gendibal. â€Å"Anyone?† There was silence. Gendibal said, â€Å"First Speaker, you now have the motive for delaying me.† The First Speaker said, â€Å"State it explicitly.† â€Å"You have expressed the need to deal with Trevize, with this First Foundationer. It represents an important initiative in policy and if the Speakers had read my treatment, they would have known in a general way what was in the wind. If, nevertheless, they had unanimously disagreed with you – unanimously – then, by traditional self-limitation, you would have been unable to go forward. If even one Speaker backed you, then you would be able to implement this new policy. I was the one Speaker who would back yon, as anyone who had read my treatment would know, and it was necessary that I must, at all costs, be kept from the Table. That trick proved nearly successful, but I am now here and I back the First Speaker. I agree with him and he can, in accordance with tradition, disregard the disagreement of the ten other Speakers.† Delarmi struck the table with her fist. â€Å"The implication is that someone knew in advance what the First Speaker would advise, knew in advance that Speaker Gendibal would support it and that all the rest would not – that someone knew what he could not have known. There is the further implication that this initiative is not to the liking of Speaker Gendibal's paranoia-inspired organization and that they are fighting to prevent it and that, therefore, one or more of us is under the control of that organization:† â€Å"The implication is there,† agreed Gendibal. â€Å"Your analysis is masterly.† â€Å"Whom do you accuse?† cried out Delarmi. â€Å"No one. I call upon the First Speaker to take up the matter. It is clear that there is someone in our organization who is working against us. I suggest that everyone working for the Second Foundation should undergo a thorough mental analysis. Everyone, including the Speakers themselves. Even including myself – and the First Speaker.† The meeting of the Table broke up in greater confusion and greater excitement than any on record. And when the First Speaker finally spoke the phrase of adjournment, Gendibal – without speaking to anyone – made his way back to his room. He knew well that he had not one friend among the Speakers, that even whatever support the First Speaker could give him would be half-hearted at best. He could not tell whether he feared for himself or for the entire Second Foundation. The taste of doom was sour in his mouth. Gendibal did not sleep well. His waking thoughts and his sleeping dreams were alike engaged in quarreling with Delora Delarmi. In one passage of one dream, there was even a confusion between her and the Hamish farmer, Rufirant, so that Gendibal found himself facing an out-of-proportion Delarmi advancing upon him with enormous fists and a sweet smile that revealed needlelike teeth. He finally woke, later than usual, with no sensation of having rested and with the buzzer on his night table in muted action. He turned over to bring his hand down upon the contact. â€Å"Yes? What is it?† â€Å"Speaker!† The voice was that of the floor proctor, rather less than suitably respectful. â€Å"A visitor wishes to speak to you:† â€Å"A visitor?† Gendibal punched his appointment schedule and the screen showed nothing before noon. He pushed the time button; it was 8:31 a.m. He said peevishly, â€Å"Who in space and time is it?† â€Å"Will not give a name, Speaker.† Then, with clear disapproval, â€Å"One of these Hamishers, Speaker. Arrived at your invitation.† The last sentence was said with even clearer disapproval. â€Å"Let him wait in the reception room till I come down. It will take time.† Gendibal did not hurry. Throughout the morning ablutions, he remained lost in thought. That someone was using the Hamish to hamper his movements made sense – but he would like to know who that someone was. And what was this new intrusion of the Hamish into his very quarters? A complicated trap of some sort? How in the name of Seldon would a Hamish farmer get into the University? What reason could he advance? What reason could he really have? For one fleeting moment, Gendibal wondered if he ought to arm himself. He decided against it almost at once, since he felt contemptuously certain of being able to control any single farmer on the University grounds without any danger to himself – and without any unacceptable marking of a Hamish mind. Gendibal decided he had been too strongly affected by the incident with Karoll Rufirant the day before. – Was it the very farmer, by the way? no longer under the influence, perhaps – of whatever or whoever it washe might well have come to Gendibal to apologize for what he had done and with apprehension of punishment. – But how would Rufirant know where to go? Whom to approach? Gendibal swung down the corridor resolutely and entered the waiting room. He stopped in astonishment, then fumed to the proctor, who was pretending to be busy in his glass-walled cubicle. â€Å"Proctor, you did not say the visitor was a woman.† The proctor said quietly, â€Å"Speaker, I said a Hamisher. You did not ask further.† â€Å"Minimal information, Proctor? I must remember that as one of your characteristics.† (And he must check to see if the proctor was a Delarmi appointee. And he must remember, from now on, to note the functionaries who surrounded him, â€Å"Lowlies† whom it was too easy to ignore from the height of his still-new Speakership.) â€Å"Are any of the conference rooms available?† The proctor said, â€Å"Number 4 is the only one available, Speaker. It will be free for three hours.† He glanced briefly at the Hamishwoman, then at Gendibal, with blank innocence. â€Å"We will use Number 4, Proctor, and I would advise you to mind your thoughts.† Gendibal struck, not gently, and the proctor's shield closed far too slowly. Gendibal knew well it was beneath his dignity to manhandle a lesser mind, but a person who was incapable of shielding an unpleasant conjecture against a superior ought to learn not to indulge in one. The proctor would have a mild headache for a few hours. It was well deserved. Her name did not spring immediately to mind and Gendibal was in no mood to delve deeper. She could scarcely expect him to remember, in any case. He said peevishly, â€Å"You are†¦Ã¢â‚¬  â€Å"I be Novi, Master Scowler,† she said in what was almost a gasp. â€Å"My previous be Sura, but I be called Novi plain.† â€Å"Yes. Novi. We met yesterday; I remember now. I have not forgotten that you came to my defense.† He could not bring himself to use the Hamish accent on the very University grounds. â€Å"Now how did you get here?† â€Å"Master, you said I might write letter. You said, it should say, ‘Speaker's House, Apartment 27' I self-bring it and I show the writing – my own writing, Master.† She said it with a kind of bashful pride. â€Å"They ask, ‘For whom be this writing?' I heared your calling when you said it to that oafish bane-top, Rufirant. I say it be for Stor Gendibal, Master Scowler.† â€Å"And they let you pass, Novi? Didn't they ask to see the letter?† â€Å"I be very frightened. I think maybe they feel gentle-sorry. I said, ‘Scowler Gendibal promise to show me Place of Scowlers,' and they smile. One of them at gate-door say to other, ‘And that not all he be show her.' And they show me where to go, and say not to go elseplace at all or I be thrown out moment-wise.† Gendibal reddened faintly. By Seldon, if he felt the need for Hamish amusement, it would not be in so open a fashion and his choice would have been made more selectively. He looked at the Trantorian woman with an inward shake of his head. She seemed quite young, younger perhaps than hard work had made her appear. She could not be more than twenty-five, at which age Hamishwomen were usually already married. She wore her dark hair in the braids that signified her to be unmarried – virginal, in fact – and he was not surprised. Her performance yesterday showed her to have enormous talent as a shrew and he doubted that a Hamishman could easily be found who would dare be yoked to her tongue and her ready fist. Nor was her appearance much of an attraction. Though she had gone to pains to make herself look presentable, her face was angular and plain, her hands red and knobby. What he could see of her figure seemed built for endurance rather than for grace. Her lower lip began to tremble under his scrutiny. He could sense her embarrassment and fright quite plainly and felt pity. She had, indeed, been of use to him yesterday and that was what counted. He said, in an attempt to be genial and soothing, â€Å"So you have come to see the – uh – Place of Scholars?† She opened her dark eyes wide (they were rather fine) and said, â€Å"Master, be not ired with me, but I come to be scowler own-self.† â€Å"You want to be a scholar?† Gendibal was thunderstruck. â€Å"My good woman†¦Ã¢â‚¬  He paused. How on Trantor could one explain to a completely unsophisticated farmwoman the level of intelligence, training, and mental stamina required to be what Trantorians called a â€Å"scowler†? But Sura Novi drove on fiercely. â€Å"I be a writer and a reader. I have read whole books to end and from beginning, too. And I have wish to be scowler. I do not wish to be farmer's wife. I be no person for farm. I will not wed farmer or have farmer children.† She lifted her head and said proudly, â€Å"I be asked. Many times. I always say, ‘Nay! Politely, but ‘Nay. â€Å"‘ Gendibal could see plainly enough that she was lying. She had not been asked, but he kept his face straight. He said, â€Å"What will you do with your life if you do not marry?† Novi brought her hand down on the table, palm flat. â€Å"I will be scowler. I not be farmwoman.† â€Å"What if I cannot make you a scholar?† â€Å"Then I be nothing and I wait to die. I be nothing in life if I be not a scowler.† For a moment there was the impulse to search her mind and find out the extent of her motivation. But it would be wrong to do so. A Speaker did not amuse one's self by rummaging through the helpless minds of others. There was a code to the science and technique of mental control – mentalics – as to other professions. Or there should be. (He was suddenly regretful he had struck out at the proctor.) He said, â€Å"Why not be a farmwoman, Novi?† With a little manipulation, he could make her content with that and manipulate some Hamish lout into being happy to marry her – and she to marry him. It would do no harm. It would be a kindness. – But it was against the law and thus unthinkable. She said, â€Å"I not be. A farmer is a clod. He works with earthlumps, and he becomes earth-lump. If I be farmwoman, I be earthlump, too. I will be timeless to read and write, and I will forget. My head,† she put her hand to her temple, â€Å"will grow sour and stale. No! A scowler be different. Thoughtful!† (She meant by the word, Gendibal noted, â€Å"intelligent† rather than â€Å"considerate.†) â€Å"A scowler,† she said, â€Å"live with books and with – with – I forget what they be name – said.† She made a gesture as though she were making some sort of vague manipulations that would have meant nothing to Gendibal – if he did not have her mind radiations to guide him. â€Å"Microfilms,† he said. â€Å"How do you know about microfilms?† â€Å"In books, I read of many things,† she said proudly. Gendibal could no longer fight off the desire to know more. This was an unusual Hamisher; he had never heard of one like this. The Hamish were never recruited, but if Novi were younger, say ten years old What a waste? He would not disturb her; he would not disturb her in the least, but of what use was it to be a Speaker if one could not observe unusual minds and learn from them? He said, â€Å"Novi, I want you to sit there for a moment. Be very quiet. Do not say anything. Do not think of saying anything. just think of falling asleep: Do you understand?† Her fright returned at once, â€Å"Why must ‘ do this, Master?† â€Å"Because I wish to think how you might become a scholar.† After all, no matter what she had read, there was no possible way in which she could know what being a â€Å"scholar† truly meant. It was therefore necessary to find out what she thought a scholar was. Very carefully and with infinite delicacy he probed her mind; sensing without actually touching-like placing one's hand on a polished metal surface without leaving fingerprints. To her a scholar was someone who always read books. She had not the slightest idea of why one read books. For herself to be a scholar – the picture in her mind was that of doing the labor she knew – fetching, carrying, cooking, cleaning, following orders – but on the University grounds where books were available and where she would have time to read them and, very vaguely, â€Å"to become learned.† What it amounted to was that she wanted to be a servant – his servant. Gendibal frowned. A Hamishwoman servant – and one who was plain, graceless, uneducated, barely literate. Unthinkable. He would simply have to divert her. There would have to be some way of adjusting her desires to make her content to be a farmwoman, some way that would leave no mark, some way about which even Delarmi could not complain. – Or had she been sent by Delarmi? Was all this a complicated plan to lure him into tampering with a Hamish mind, so that he might be caught and impeached? Ridiculous. He was in danger of growing paranoid. Somewhere in the simple tendrils of her uncomplicated mind, a trickle of mental current needed to be diverted. It would only take a tiny push. It was against the letter of the law, but it would do no harm and no one would ever notice. He paused. Back. Back. Back. Space! He had almost missed it! Was he the victim of an illusion? No! Now that his attention was drawn. to it, he could make it out clearly. There was the tiniest tendril disarrayed – an abnormal disarray. Yet it was so delicate, so ramification-free. Gendibal emerged from . her mind. He said gently, â€Å"Novi.† Her eyes focused. She said, â€Å"Yes, Master?† Gendibal said, â€Å"You may work with me. I will make you a scholar†¦Ã¢â‚¬  Joyfully, eyes blazing, she said, â€Å"Master†¦Ã¢â‚¬  He detected it at once. She was going to throw herself at his feet. He put his hands on her shoulders and held her tightly. â€Å"Don't move, Novi. Stay where you are. – Stay!† He might have been talking to a half-trained animal. When he could see the order had penetrated, he let her go. He was conscious of the hard muscles along her upper arms. He said, â€Å"If you are to be a scholar, you must behave like one. That means you will have to be always quiet, always soft-spoken, always doing what I tell you to do. And you must try to learn to talk as I do. You will also have to meet other scholars. Will you be afraid?† â€Å"I be not afeared – afraid, Master, if you be with me:† â€Å"I wilt be with you. But now, first – I must find you a room, arrange to have you assigned a lavatory, a place in the dining room, and clothes, too. You will have to wear clothes more suitable to a scholar, Novi.† â€Å"These be all I†¦Ã¢â‚¬  she began miserably. † â€Å"We will supply others.† Clearly he would have to get a woman to arrange for a new supply of clothing for Novi. He would also need someone to teach the Hamisher the rudiments of personal hygiene. After ail, though the clothes she wore were probably her best and though she had obviously spruced herself up, she still had a distinct odor that was faintly unpleasant. And he would have to make sure that the relationship between them was understood. It was always an open secret that the men (and women, too) of the Second Foundation made occasional forays among the Hamish for their pleasure. If there was no interference with Hamish minds in the process, no one dreamed of making a fuss about it. Gendibal himself had never indulged in this, and he liked to think it was because he felt no need for sex that might be coarser and more highly spiced than was available at the University. The women of the Second Foundation might be pallid in comparison to the Hamish, but they were clean and their skins were smooth. But even if the matter were misunderstood and there were sniggers at a Speaker who net only turned to the Hamish but brought one into his quarters, he would have to endure the embarrassment. As it stood, this farmwoman, Sura Novi, was his key to victory in the inevitable forthcoming duel with Speaker Delarmi and the rest of the Table. Gendibal did not see Novi again till after dinnertime, at which time she was brought to him by the woman to whom he had endlessly explained the situation – at least, the nonsexual character of the situation. She had understood – or, at least, did not dare show any indication of failure to understand, which was perhaps just as good. Novi stood before him now, bashful, proud, embarrassed, triumphant – all at once, in an incongruous mixture. He said, â€Å"You look very nice, Novi.† The clothes they had given her fit surprisingly well and there was no question that she did not look at all ludicrous. Had they pinched in her waist? Lifted her breasts? Or had that just been not particularly noticeable in her farmwoman clothing? Her buttocks were prominent, but not displeasingly so. Her face, of course, remained plain, but when the tan of outdoor life faded and she learned how to care for her complexion, it would not look downright ugly. By the Old Empire, that woman did think Novi was to be his mistress. She had tried to make her beautiful for him. And then he thought: Well, why not? Novi would have to face the Speaker's Table – and the more attractive she seemed, the more easily he would be able to get his point across. It was with this thought that the message from the First Speaker reached him. It had the kind of appropriateness that was common in a mentalic society. It was called, more or less informally, the â€Å"Coincidence Effect.† If you think vaguely of someone when someone is thinking vaguely of you, there is a mutual, escalating stimulation which in a matter of seconds makes the two thoughts sharp, decisive, and, to all appearances, simultaneous. It can be startling even to those who understand it intellectually, particularly if the preliminary vague thoughts were so dim – on one side or the other (or both) – as to have gone consciously unnoticed. â€Å"I can't be with you this evening, Novi,† said Gendibal. â€Å"I have scholar work to do. I will take you to your room. There will be some books there and you can practice your reading. I will show you how to use the signal if you need help with anything – and I will see you tomorrow.† Gendibal said politely, â€Å"First Speaker?† Shandess merely nodded. He looked dour and fully his age. He looked as though he were a man who did not drink, but who could use a stiff one. He said finally, â€Å"I ‘called' you†¦Ã¢â‚¬  â€Å"No messenger. I presumed from the direct ‘call' that it was important.† â€Å"It is. Your quarry – the First Foundationer – Trevize†¦Ã¢â‚¬  â€Å"Yes?† â€Å"He is not coming to Trantor.† Gendibal did not look surprised. â€Å"Why should he? The information we received was that he was leaving with a professor of ancient history who was seeking Earth.† â€Å"Yes, the legendary Primal Planet. And that is why he should be coming to Trantor. After all, does the professor know where Earth is? Do you? Do I? Can we be sure it exists at all, or ever existed? Surely they would have to come to this Library to obtain the necessary information – if it were to be obtained anywhere. I have until this hour felt that the situation was not at crisis level – that the First Foundationer would come here and that we would, through him, learn what we need to know.† â€Å"Which would certainly be the reason he is not allowed to come here.† â€Å"But where is he going, then?† â€Å"We have not yet found out, I see.† The First Speaker said pettishly, â€Å"You seem calm about it.† Gendibal said, â€Å"I wonder if it is not better so. You want him to come to Trantor to keep him safe and use him as a source of information. Will he not, however, prove a source of more important information, involving others still more important than himself, if he goes where he wants to go and does what he wants to do – provided we do not lose sight of him?† â€Å"Not enough!† said the First Speaker. â€Å"you have persuaded me of the existence of this new enemy of ours and now I cannot rest.† â€Å"Worse, I have persuaded myself that we must secure Trevize or we have lost everything. I cannot rid myself of the feeling that he – and nothing else – is the key.† Gendibal said intensely, â€Å"Whatever happens, we will not lose, First Speaker. That would only have been possible, if these Anti-Mules, to use your phrase again, had continued to burrow beneath us unnoticed. But we know they are there now. We no longer work blind. At the next meeting of the Table, if we can work together, we shall begin the counterattack.† The First Speaker said, â€Å"It was not the matter of Trevize that had me send out the call to you. The subject came up first only because it seemed to me a personal defeat. I had misanalyzed that aspect of the situation. I was wrong to place personal pique above general policy and I apologize. There is something else.† â€Å"More serious, First Speaker?† â€Å"More serious, Speaker Gendibal.† The First Speaker sighed and drummed his fingers on the desk while Gendibal stood patiently before it and waited. The First Speaker finally said, in a mild way, as though that would ease the blow, â€Å"At an emergency meeting of the Table, initiated by Speaker Delarmi†¦Ã¢â‚¬  â€Å"Without your consent, First Speaker?† â€Å"For what she wanted, she needed the consent of only three other Speakers, not including myself. At the emergency meeting that was then called, you were impeached, Speaker Gendibal. You have been accused as being unworthy of the post of Speaker and you must be tried. This is the first time in over three centuries that a bill of impeachment has been carried out against a Speaker†¦Ã¢â‚¬  Gendibal said, fighting to keep down any sign of anger, â€Å"Surely you did not vote for my impeachment yourself.† â€Å"I did not, but I was alone. The rest of the Table was unanimous and the vote was ten to one for impeachment. The requirement for impeachment, as you know, is eight votes including the First Speaker – or ten without him.† â€Å"But T was not present.† â€Å"You would not have been able to vote.† â€Å"I might have spoken in my defense.† â€Å"Not at that stage. The precedents are few, but clear. Your defense will be at the trial, which will come as soon as possible, naturally.† Gendibal bowed his head in thought. Then he said, â€Å"This does not concern me overmuch, First Speaker. Your initial instinct, I think, was right. The matter of Trevize takes precedence. May I suggest you delay the trial on that ground?† The First Speaker held up his hand. â€Å"I don't blame you for not understanding the situation, Speaker. Impeachment is so rare an event that I myself have been forced to look up the legal procedures involved. Nothing takes precedence. We are forced to move directly to the trial, postponing everything else.† Gendibal placed his fists on the desk and leaned toward the First Speaker. â€Å"You are not serious?† â€Å"It is the law.† â€Å"The law can't be allowed to stand in the way of a clear and present danger.† â€Å"To the Table, Speaker Gendibal, you are the clear and present danger. – No, listen to me! The law that is involved is based on the conviction that nothing can be more important than the possibility of corruption or the misuse of power on the part of a Speaker.† â€Å"But I am guilty of neither, First Speaker, and you knew it. This is a matter of a personal vendetta on the part of Speaker Delarmi. If there is misuse of power, it is on her part. My crime is that I have never labored to make myself popular – I admit that much – and I have paid too little attention to fools who are old enough to be senile but young enough to have power.† â€Å"Like myself, Speaker?† Gendibal sighed. â€Å"You see, I've done it again. I don't refer to you, First Speaker. – Very well, then, let us have an instant trial, then. Let us have it tomorrow. Better yet, tonight. Let us get it over with and then pass on to the matter of Trevize. We dare not wait.† The First Speaker said, â€Å"Speaker Gendibal. I don't think you understand the situation. We have had impeachments before – not many, just two. Neither of those resulted in a conviction. You, however, will be convicted! You will then no longer be a member of the Table and you will no longer have a say in public policy. You will not, in fact, even have a vote at the annual meeting of the Assembly.† â€Å"And you will not act to prevent that? â€Å"I cannot. I will be voted down unanimously. I will then lie forced to resign, which I think is what the Speakers would like to see. â€Å"And Delarmi will become First Speaker?† â€Å"That is certainly a strong possibility.† â€Å"But that must not be allowed to happen!† â€Å"Exactly! Which is why I will have to vote for your conviction.† Gendibal drew a deep breath. â€Å"I still demand an instant trial.† â€Å"You must have time to prepare your defense.† â€Å"What defense? They will listen to no defense. Instant trial!† â€Å"The Table must have time to prepare their case.† â€Å"They have no case and will want none. They have me convicted in their minds and will require nothing more. In fact, they would rather convict me tomorrow than the day after – and tonight rather than tomorrow. Put it to them.† The First Speaker rose to his feet. They faced each other across the desk. The First Speaker said, â€Å"Why are you in such a hurry?† â€Å"The matter of Trevize will not wait.† â€Å"Once you are convicted and I am rendered feeble in the face of a Table united against me, what will have been accomplished?† Gendibal said in an intense whisper, â€Å"Have no fears! Despite everything, I will not be convicted.†

Ethical Framework

What does it mean to be ethical? What does it mean to be ethical? Ethics is derived from the Greek word ethos. Ethics to me can be defined as always doing the right thing all the time. Everyone has their own moral principles that decide his/her behavior. Everyone is completely different in how they were raised and taught in what was right and wrong. As stated by Santa Clara University, â€Å"ethics refers to standards of behavior that tell us how human beings ought to act in the many situations in which they find themselves-as friends, parents, children, citizens, businesspeople, teachers, professionals, and so on† (Santa Clara University, 2010).A lot of people will get ethics confused with it being the same as their feelings. In fact, it is totally opposite. It is that way because when people generally get angry with something or someone and then they will typically follow that up with doing something bad. There are certain ethics people should follow in their everyday lives. Whether you know it or not but if you drive every day and you choose to drive the speed limit, not to commit murder or even not to rob a bank you are following the rules and regulations that were implemented by our government.I know from a personal level about doing the right thing and being ethical when one of my friends was working a bakery. My friend left that job and took the recipe and started making her own cookies and went out on the street and sold them cookies to the bakery’s current customers and future customers. Not to mention this was the bakery’s best cookie that was voted on by its customers. Pretty soon the owner realized his sales were going down and quickly realized that it was his former employee selling his product without the benefit.He eventually filed a lawsuit against my friend. Now what my friend did was not only fair and right but was also considered unethical. My friend had pay a fee back to her former boss and had to give up the recipe and not do that again. In my everyday life I choose to be ethical in everything I do. I choose to do the right things when it comes to doing something that I know I shouldn’t be doing. One thing that comes to mind of me not being ethical was when I was not of the legal age to drink alcohol. I know that I would drink every now and then when I was in high school.I thought it was the cool thing to do and hang out with my friends while I did it. Then when I came to Brevard it got worse being around a lot of my friends that would peer pressure me. Growing up I had two great parents that taught me to always do the right thing. While doing it I knew it would be ethical to not pick a beer up and drink it seeing how the law stated that you had to be at least twenty one years of age to consume it. My parents have always told me, â€Å"Would you still do what you’re doing if I was sitting right behind you? But also on the other hand I do not consider it being unethical if I were to do something that didn’t really have that much harm, like for example lying to a friend. According to Cornell University, â€Å"Many acts that would be widely condemned as unethical are not prohibited by law† (Legal Information Institute, 1992). When deciding on what would be considered ethical and non-ethical, you would have to use your judgment of how you were raised to determine the certain actions. I know for a fact that when and if I have kids I will definitely raise them the way my grandparents and my parents have raised me.If I can do that then I will know for a fact that I will be proud of my kids and they will be properly raised. REFERENCES Legal Information Institute. (1992). Retrieved September 9, 2012, from Cornell University Law School: http://www. law. cornell. edu/wex/ethics Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. (2005, December 20). Retrieved September 9, 2012, from Personal Identity and Ethics: http://plato. stanford. edu/entries/identity-ethics/ Santa C lara University. (2010). A Framework for Thinking Critically. Retrieved September 8, 2012, from http://www. scu. edu/ethics/practicing/decision/framework. html

Biosensors or enzyme electrodes

Biosensors or enzyme electrodes INTRODUCTION OF BIOSENSORS:- Biosensors or enzyme electrodes invariably refer to such devices that sence and analyze biological informations. A biosensor is a device that detects, records, and transmits information regarding a physiological change or the presence of various chemical or biological materials in the environment. More technically, a biosensor is a probe that integrates a biological component, such as a whole bacterium or a biological product (e.g., an enzyme or antibody) with an electronic component to yield a measurable signal. Biosensors, which come in a large variety of sizes and shapes, are used to monitor changes in environmental conditions. They can detect and measure concentrations of specific bacteria or hazardous chemicals; they can measure acidity levels (pH). In short, biosensors can use bacteria and detect them, too. PRINCIPALS OF BIOSENSORS:- A biosensor essentially comprise of the following two major parts 1- Biological component- For sensing the presence as well as concentration of analyte. In the presence of a certain molecule the biological system changes the environment. The measuring device sensitive to this change sends a signal. This signal can be converted into the measurement parameter. Often the biological system is an actual cell. The key thing to remember is that it is an actual organism that detects the concentration change of the molecule in the media. This organism could be the same one as the one in the media or it could be different. In either case it must be kept separate from the media. This can be done with a membrane that is permeable to the molecule that is being measured but impermeable to the cells and most other macromolecules in the reactor media. 2- Physical component:- Transducer:- A device that converts energy from one form into another e.g., telephone companies use transducers to convert sound energy into electrical energy to be carried long- distance through telephone lines and then another transducer a t the receiving end to convert the electrical energy back into sound A biosensor is a sensing device that consists of a biological component coupled to a transducer that converts biochemical activity into, most commonly, electrical energy. Types of Biosensors:- There are different types of biosensors, which have different applications. These are listed below. Calorimetric biosensor Potentiometric biosensor Amperometric biosensors Optical biosensor Acoustic wave biosensors Calorimetric biosensor:- When the physical change is heat, released or absorbed by the reaction it is calorimetric biosensor. It measures the change in temperature in the solution containing analyte Separate thermistors measure the temperature of the solution before entry into the small packed bed column containing immobilized enzyme and also at the time of leaving the column. Calorimetric biosensors are most widely applicable and can be used to measure turbid and strongly coloured s olutions. Maintenance of constant sample temperature is the disadvantage of this type. At the transducer surface, an electrical potential is produced due to changed distribution of electrons and this type of biosensors are called potentiometric biosensors. They use ion sensitive electrodes, commonly pH meter glass electrodes for cations, glass pH electrodes coated with a gas-selective membrane for CO2, NH3 or H2S or solid-state electrodes. These electrodes convert the biological reaction into electric signal. Potentiometric Biosensors

Global capitalism is the primary cause of world hunger. Discuss Essay

Global capitalism is the primary cause of world hunger. Discuss - Essay Example Communism is the only alternative that had been in place before capitalism was, communism basically refers to an economic system where the state had total control over the means of production and also the distribution of goods, the state determined how much of each good would be produced and for whom. Basically an economic system aims to answer 3 questions i.e. what to produce, whom to produce and how to produce, in communist states these questions were tackled by the state where the government formed certain bodies for each industry and these bodies would conduct a thorough research to determine the answers to the three economic questions, this kind of an economic system ensured that every one would get an equal share of the goods produced and there would be parity in the levels of income for the whole population. The thing that was lacking in this form of a system was that it did not cater to growth, people who were willing to work harder than the others did not get a reward for th e work they would do and hence there was no place for individualism in this economic system, this was indeed a major draw back of communism because people did not want to cater for the whole society they wanted personal benefit which was almost impossible to gain from this economic system. The assumption of communism that people are usually good and want others to benefit was not an appropriate one because people are generally selfish and want to flourish as individuals rather than every one having the same rights and income. Another draw back of this system was that it was costly to determine the prices of goods in the market because there were committees formed to determine the prices and this was not an effective method because these committees did not work for free and hence there was an extra cost that had to be paid in this system, therefore the prices of the goods were pushed up to cater to the expenses attached with the committees set up in this type of an economic

Freedom of expression should be guaranteed. Discuss Essay - 1

Freedom of expression should be guaranteed. Discuss - Essay Example OECD and African Development Bank (2012) point that freedom of expression includes the right for one to freely hold opinions without there being any interference as well as the innate right for individuals to be able to seek impart and receive ideas and information via the use of various media irrespective of the possible frontiers. Guaranteeing freedom of expression basically means that individuals are assured of this inalienable right without failure; in this regard freedom of expression should be guaranteed as it is essentially an inseparable element of democracy and the modern day free press. Freedom of expression generally aids society in exercising control over various state authorities as well as in maintenance of a system whereby the society is essentially self controlled as is dictated by the demands of democracy. Self controlled societies are responsible for making their own decisions and it is only possible for these societies to be able to do this if they are well informed and has in place and system that encourages open exchange of opinions via the various mass media. This essay will critically underscore some of the various reasons as to why freedom of expression in mass media should be guaranteed in relation to its importance in mass media. Guaranteed freedom of expression is an important contributor to the democratic belief that the government should necessarily be restrained by a system of various balances and checks. These checks and balances are designed to restrain it from corruption, tyranny and ineptitude (Human Rights Watch 2011). By utilizing the freedom of expression that is available to it, the press can be able to promote democracy by facilitating a free flow of information and providing important information to the public, which can in turn help the public in making crucial decisions affecting the state as it has the right to protest

Mans Search for Meaning Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Mans Search for Meaning - Essay Example However, the 20th century revealed another image of human, less generalized and, in his drives, a more individual one. Viktor E. Frankl, mostly basing his ideas on his psychoanalytic experience in concentration camps during World War II, had developed quite opposite to Freud’s one, and more current point of view on a subject. According to Frankl, one of the key drives for human existence is finding a meaning of life. Considering human as an animal of higher order, Freud naturally generalizes drives of human life to instincts, which are common for all people, and also are inherent for all human beings. Thus, the reasons for individual to behave in particular way also originate from the â€Å"inside† of a human, because those reasons are rather inherent or based on individual’s past. Freud is known to be the â€Å"father† of psychoanalysis, and in his studying of neuroses he also believed, that the common origin for all mind disorders is a past psychological trauma. Therefore, neuroses are caused by those human desires which once in the past were repressed by individual himself (even if he was forced to repress his desires as the result of psychological trauma). This idea naturally comes from Freud’s structural model of human’s psyche, which consists of three parts. â€Å"Id† is a driving force for all human actions and behavior, and is in common for all hu man beings. â€Å"Ego† is human’s individuality, which is reasonable, and therefore establishes connections between â€Å"id† and â€Å"superego†. â€Å"Superego† is a human inner censor, who gauges actions. â€Å"Superego† is based upon issues of authorities. Yet Freud rests most of the responsibility for human behavior on that â€Å"id†, which always stays in common for all individuals while â€Å"ego† and â€Å"superego† depend on conditions very much. In his book, Man’s Search for Meaning Frankl brings next Freud’s utterance.

Economic theory of statistical discrimination Coursework

Economic theory of statistical discrimination - Coursework Example On the other hand in unconscious bias theory, the employers may have a preconceived stereotype towards a certain group which may affect his/her decision making in situations such as giving promotions or pay rises. Such people have preconceived stereotypes when making decisions which object how they would make an unbiased decision. Such people may be trying to do otherwise but they will be affected by the unconscious bias while making decisions. As Wax, (2011) notes, unconscious bias plays a major role in social disparity by race and gender (p. 877). These theories justify the need for anti-discriminatory laws and policies. It is important to help in the ruling of legal suits that have been filed against companies for discriminatory claims. The Employment Non-Discriminatory Act of 2007 is an important act in safeguarding the rights of employees against discrimination. I don’t feel there is any law or policy that should be done away with. Since managers are educated and they know how to handle the employees it is important to put in place strict measures to address cases of

Business Research Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Business Research - Essay Example The research will use a qualitative method to gather data and focus groups will be mainly used for this particular case. This proposal is expected to be complete within a time frame of about two weeks. Topshop is the most influential brand in the British Fashion community and it has distinguished itself through offering popular range of clothing, accessories and makeup and a portfolio of successful product-led marketing initiatives such as Topshop Unique and Kate Moss Design Collaboration (Joyn, 2011). The success of Topshop is not an end in itself since it is still poised for growth. As such, this research proposal has been design to establish the strategies that can be implemented by this shop in its bid to expand to overseas markets. It is important that research has to be carried out so as to be in a position to successfully establish business in a global environment. The paper is divided into various categories which are meant to highlight the stages involved in carrying out this particular research. Organizations operating in a global market ought to take a holistic approach in order for them to operate effectively. The global environment is characterized by various market forces such as competition as well as consumer choice among other factors (Everard & Burrow, 1996). Though Topshop has successfully managed to establish itself as a force to reckon with in the UK fashion industry, this might not be the case in overseas markets since they are not synonymous with the UK market. As such, this study is justified since it seeks to investigate the market forces that can affect the viability of businesses in different markets. The research is also valuable given that it helps the responsible authorities at the above mentioned shop to make informed decisions about the strategies that can be implemented in order for it to penetrate new overseas market. The research is also going to create a body of knowledge that can be used for academic purposes in as far

Business law class Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Business law class - Essay Example On the other hand, if the patient’s condition was not critical, the doctor could have considered the postponement of the surgery for a while. So before declaring the doctor as a culprit we need to know the exact condition of the patient before the surgery. On the other hand the ECR manufacturer certainly deserves punishment. There is no doubt about the crime committed by the ECR manufacturer. It is the manufacturer’s responsibility that to ensure the quality of their product before introducing it to the market. If the users of a product suffer injuries or damages due to a product, they have every right to sue against the product manufacturer. In my opinion, the nursing staff, and the anaesthesiologist have nothing to do with this problem. Nursing staffs normally work as per the instructions of the doctor. If the doctor asks them to do something they should obey it. For example if the doctor asks the nurses to inject certain medicine to a patient, they should do it. Same way, if the doctor asks them to use an instrument they should use it and the doctor is the responsible person if any problem occurs. Anaesthesiologist is also not responsible for the above problem. The duty of the Anaesthesiologist is related to the anaesthesia given to the patient. If the patient develops any problems due to overdose or under dose of anaesthesia, Anaesthesiologist needs to take responsibility for that. But in this case, no such incidents were reported and the anaesthesiologist cannot be sued by the patient. On the other hand the patient can consider suing against the hospital authorities or management also. Hospital management is responsible for the damages caused to a patient by the defective equipments. It is the duty of the hospital management to purchase better quality products and to keep all of them in proper shape. In

Review and critical analysis of any four articles Essay - 1

Review and critical analysis of any four articles - Essay Example Election process from the nomination, the conventions and elections has been discussed in this book. The Article of Americas Evolving Electorate by Nate Cohn This article talks of the demographic system in an electorate. This article analyses on the population target of a given candidate. The article starts by analyzing the Clinton and Bush election season. This election time the candidates targeted a given population in their campaigns trail. According to the article George W Bush targeted the Populist population, who were compassionate conservatives. Whereas Bill Clinton targeted college women, the graduates and the less religious voters. This according to the article was insufficient for Bill Clinton to conquer George Bush in the 2 election seasons. Over time the demographic targets of the Republican Party has changed, it is on an estimate of eight years basing on the article. This change has then lead to the majority win of votes by the democrats, hence the Obama Administration. The change in voter’s numbers was as a result of the shift of the new diverse young voters who joined the democrats. An Estimated increase from 23% to 25% of votes in favor of the democrats. The article also establishes the Current Presidents camp had a larger share of Non American voters this were: The African American, Hispanians and The Asian voters.The republicans were also into gaining of voters from the democrats strong holds. They shifted inwards south of the believed Democrats strong holds. But their efforts were not fruitful as the couldn’t counter the democrats gain of voters. The Author Nate Cohn goes on explaining of the Democrats gains of voters who were the white Americans from the South.The democrats targeted a given voter population of which included the young white and those that occupied the well educated sub-urbans.These shifts of demographic interests were not for a short period as it was thought to be. The shifts was a reflection of shifts of votes which was for the advantage of the democrats. They were establishing a base of votes which they could use to gain on the republican votes. The Article also focused on the turnout of voters, this was specifically the Republican Party. The focus was during the congressional and local elections. Basing on the article there was a notable reduction in the turnout of the republican voters. A critical analysis if the democratic analysis is inevitable is given in the article and how the Republican Party can adjust in a mind of compensation of the generational and demographic changes. There is an Emerging Democratic Majority, the effect of a majority democratic camp and it is predestined to be for some decades to come. The democratic majority is as a result of the gaining of Denver, Washington and Raleigh which are well educated suburbs. On analyzing of the article, for the republicans to counter the demographical gain by the democrats is by: instituting durable and ideological coalitions b efore a new social moderate generation is built. The article has been criticized on the share of white voters by the democrats; this is because the article has not pointed out the states of the survey. It has also been criticized of partisan comments. Though with the critics the article has proved to be very insightful and indeed helpful in the geographical analysis of voters in a voting season. Are we in An Electrol Realignment? By Sean Trende An electoral realignment refers to

Iran-Iraq War Essay Example for Free

Iran-Iraq War Essay The Iran-Iraq War is considered as one of the longest and most violent battles in history. This eight-year long armed conflict was actually the result of many events. The rivalry between Iran and Iraq can be traced from the seventh century. It was a rivalry grounded on the antagonism between Persians and Arabs, just as it was based on the conflict between Sunni Muslims and Shi’a Muslims. These ethnic and religious divisions were further intensified by territorial disputes, which would continue until the 20th Century. In addition, politics played a role in initiating the war itself. The rivalry existed many years ago, but the war was aggravated by the changes in governance in both countries. The Iran-Iraq War was a violent combat between the aforementioned nations from September 1980 until August 1988. The conflict was only stopped with the intervention of the United Nations. The battle proved to be a long and tedious one, as the tension between the countries extended for years. There were also countless casualties as a result of the disastrous occurrence. When the war ended, neither nation could truly be declared the victor. Both Iran and Iraq did not succeed in gaining new territories or political advantages. It is important to note that Iraq was the nation responsible for starting the war. However, the aggression of Saddam Hussein was not the main cause of the war’s occurrence. In fact, there is no single cause to be blamed for the war. The origins of the Iran-Iraq War are deeply rooted in ethnic, religious and territorial conflicts which date back from the seventh century; it was exacerbated in the modern era due to ambitions of dominance. This term paper aims to discuss the reasons behind the Iran-Iraq War on two accounts: the dispute over the Shatt al-Arab river and the political tension caused by the Islamic Revolution and the rise of Ba’ath regime. The Iran-Iraq War occurred because of various reasons. The conflict between the two nations involved was characterized by other conflicts. The tension that had long persisted between Iran and Iraq were caused by differences in religious beliefs and political positions, as well as disagreements on the borders (Iran Chamber Society [ICS], 2009). The problem between the countries was fueled by the problems between the following opposing parties: Sunnis and Shia Muslims, Arabs and Persians, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini and Saddam Hussein (Ehteshami Hinnebusch, 1997). Moreover, both Iran and Iraq sought to gain supremacy in the region (Brown, 2008). The Iranian-Iraq War which started in September 1980 was a testament to the extended conflict regarding the boundaries of their territories and their share in the Shatt al-Arab river (Hunseler, 1984). The war was also a result of the struggle of both parties to become the most dominant and influential in the region. However, it is important to point out that there is a significant difference between the 1980 war and the conflicts prior to it. The early conflicts between Iran and Iraq were settled with the interference of European countries which only meddled to safeguard their respective interests. As for the 1980 war, both sides fought to preserve their own interests. No external power intervened with that war. Two main reasons why the conflict became prolonged are the mutual disputes over territory (especially the Shatt al-Arab) and the involvement of both sides in the domestic problems of the other (Hunseler, 1984). The Beginning of the Persian-Arab Conflict The origins of the conflict between Iran and Iraq started many centuries before both nations were established. It is important for one to be familiar with the history of the conflict why the 1980 war began in the first place. According to Hunseler (1984), the Iran-Iraq tension had its roots in the seventh century with the Arab-Persian conflict. It was this centuries old rift which ignited the battle over the Shatt al-Arab. Persia stood out from the others because despite being under the control of the Arabs, it retained its national identity (Hunseler, 1984). In AD 636, the Sassanids of Persia lost to the armies of Arab General Sa’d bin Abi Waqqas at the Battle of Qadisiya. Meanwhile, the Persian Empire became dissolved in AD 642 due to the Battle of Nihawand. While they held on to their state’s culture and territorial honor, the Persian population embraced Islam in the aftermath of the collapse of the Persian Empire. The Arabs and the people they conquered viewed Islam and Arabism as a union. However, despite being under the influence of Islam, the culture of Persia cannot be restrained (Hunseler, 1984). An important thing to consider in understanding the history of Persia and its political and social existence is what Hunseler (1984) called the â€Å"juxtaposition of Persia and Islam† (p. 8). The principle was said to have been derived from the notion of the state based on Zoroastrianism. According to the Zoroastrian notion of a state, it must have the following: â€Å"a secularly-legitimized kingship, the survival of the Persian language and the proud awareness of a distinct Persian history† (Hunseler, 1984, p. 8). After two centuries, the Sunni-Arab Abbasid caliphate had become interested in the Persian literature (Hunseler, 1984). In time, the Persian families which belonged to the caliphate of the Abbasids began to assume control by grabbing power repeatedly. From AD 954 until 1055, the Buyid dynasty possessed enough authority to manipulate politics in the western portion of Persia and Iraq. In addition, they also had the power to strictly limit the function of the caliphs of Abbasid to religion only. This was the reason why the legacy left by the Buyids in Iraq was considered as the conflict between Persianism and Arabism (Hunseler, 1984). In the 17th century, the Safavids in Persia declared Shi’ism as the state religion (Hunseler, 1984). The Safavids exerted influence on Persia for 15 long years; they stayed in the state from 1623 to 1638 (Hiro, 1991). The declaration was seen as Persia’s attempt to establish its boundaries and separate itself from Arab nations while keeping the matters under the influence of Islam. Shi’ism became a crucial part of Islamic history, as it was the first to present a rift in the unified world of Islam. This was because Shi’ism founded itself in a separate state. The kings of the Safavids considered themselves as mainly secular leaders; they assigned the religious functions to the theologians. In turn, the Shi’a ministers did not want to give up their posts which were assigned to them under the Safavid rule. Most especially during the time of the Qajar leaders, the clergy were given money and land. The awarding of such gifts allowed them to be financially independent from the king; it also gave them the opportunity to exert political influence. Meanwhile, no such similar progress had occurred in the Sunni Arab states (Hunseler, 1984). The Sunni-Shi’a Problem The existing Persian-Arab conflict had taken a complicated turn with the addition of yet another conflict: the Sunni-Shi’a problem (Hunseler, 1984). The problem was not exactly about tension between the differing branches of Islam. Instead, there was antagonism due to the amount of influence that a particular religion has on the development of political power in the state. The conflict continues at present day, as there are still areas wherein the Arab communities consist of both Sunni and Shi’a factions (Hunseler, 1984). Those who head the Shi’a clergy in Arab countries such as Iraq and Bahrain found difficulty in assuming certain social positions (Hunseler, 1984). In Persia, the Shi’a clergy had no problems exerting influence in society because Shi’ism was revered with national significance. In addition, Shi’a leaders faced with two issues regarding loyalty. First, they encouraged the spread of Shi’ism in states whose population were not exclusively Shi’a. Therefore, they became involved in the centuries-old conflict between the Shi’a and Sunni. Second, they were victims of the suspicions of Arab rulers who thought they were submitting to the influence of non-Arabs (Persians). They were often seen by their Arab counterparts as promoting non-Arab causes. This situation caused the Arab Shi’as to be constantly detached from their political leaders. The separation was also caused by doubt on secular leadership, as well as Shi’a millennialism (Hunseler, 1984). The Persian-Arab conflict and the attempts of both sides to become more dominant and influential than the other in the Middle East became evident in areas where the Sunni and Shi’a groups, and the Arabs and Persians, fought against each other (Hunseler, 1984). Even though the Persians and Arabs in the Arabian peninsula had the Persian-Arab Gulf to set them apart in terms of geography, the conflict eventually made itself apparent on the boundaries on land. This was the primary reason why the conflict persisted for many years; both sides incessantly tried to acquire the territories of the other and the quest for a mutual border dragged on (Hunseler, 1984). The Origin of the Conflict over the Shatt al-Arab The conflict between Iran and Iraq over the Shatt al-Arab river originated in the 17th century and began as the rift between the Ottoman Empire and Persia (Hunseler, 1984). The sultan of Turkey, Murad IV, captured Baghdad in 1638 and the initial resolution regarding the boundaries with Persia was drafted a year later. The Kurds and the Armenians occupied the north while the Arabs dominated the south. The boundary fell on areas wherein the tribes did not consider either the Persians or Turks as their masters. As a result, the border settlement was drafted with consideration to the tribes and the names of the places. The agreement also took in consideration the intention of both parties to unite the tribes of Istanbul or Esfahan. The Kurdish-Armenian boundary caused many conflicts after it was established, but order was always restored in reference to the 1639 resolution. Unfortunately, the 1639 agreement proved lacking in setting the boundaries in the Shatt al-Arab region. On one hand, Persians believed the river itself was a natural border. On the other hand, the Turks upheld the claim that the river belonged to the Ottoman Empire. According to the Turkish point of view, the Arab tribes which occupy both sides of the river are considered a single entity from Arabistan. Arabistan is part of the Ottoman Empire. Hence, the Shatt al-Arab was to be considered as under the possession of the Ottoman Empire (Hunseler, 1984). In the 19th Century, boundary problems continued. In 1823, a boundary problem surrounding the Muhammarah surfaced and Persians settled in the city (Hunseler, 1984). Both Russia and Great Britain extended their assistance on the matter. On May 15, 1843, a boundary committee was formed and gathered in Erzerum, a city in Turkey. The committee consisted of representatives from Turkey, Persia, Russia and Britain. A treaty was created on May 31, 1847, and contained three major guidelines. First, Muhammarah and its harbor, as well as Khidhr Island, were awarded to Persia. Meanwhile, Turkey was granted admission to Zuhab and Sulaymaniyah. Second, the committee was designated â€Å"in situ† to delineate the specific course of the boundary (Hunseler, 1984, p. 11). Lastly, the Ottoman Empire was given the entire Shatt al-Arab extending to the marker on the east, except for the territories mentioned above (Hunseler, 1984). The treaty of 1847 was rather ambiguous, and its inherent vagueness proved to be its biggest flaw (Hunseler, 1984). The treaty did not address the question of which nation had the responsibility over the eastern shore. While the Shatt al-Arab was placed under Turkish jurisdiction, the specifications of the border were not indicated. Turkey wanted to resolve the issue over the treaty’s vague statements regarding Arabistan/ Khuzistan. As a result, Russia and Great Britain included an â€Å"explanatory note† to assert that the problem raised by Turkey was not compromised by the treaty’s lack of clarity (Hunseler, 1984, p. 11). Turkey declined to approve the treaty until Persia acknowledged the note as part of the treaty (Hunseler, 1984). Mirza Muhammad Ali Khan acknowledged the note and signed the treaty as a delegate of the Persia. After the Persian administration discovered the inclusion of the added note, it nullified the treaty and failed to approve it. They argued that the Persian representative had no power to sign the document (Hunseler, 1984). To address the issue, the boundary committee inspected the Turkish-Persian border from 1850 until 1852 (Hunseler, 1984). Unfortunately, the commission was not able to do its job properly because of the opposing claims of Turkish and Persian commissioners. Persia maintained that they were given the entire expanse found east of the Shatt al-Arab, while Turkey opposed the claim. The committee was unable to provide a definite proposition to solve the problem. While the committee continued its efforts in the northern area of the Shatt al-Arab, the determination of the boundaries of the river’s region was postponed indefinitely (Hunseler, 1984). Persia was relentless in its efforts to claim territories and continued to bring up its border issues in the succeeding years. Persia sought Russia and Britain to mediate on the border problem (Hunseler, 1984). Persia wanted to share control of the Shatt al-Arab with Turkey; the state also wanted to discuss the rights with regards to the harbor. Unfortunately, Britain and Russia were not in agreeable terms since the mid-19th Century. Hence, both nations were not prepared to mediate in behalf of the Shatt al-Arab tension. On August 31, 1907, the Anglo-Russian convention had an agreement. This agreement divided Persia into three separate zones. In the northern part of Persia, Russia maintained a sphere of influence. In the southern area, Britain had its own sphere. Meanwhile, the middle area was considered as neutral ground. It was not until after this division was established that the Anglo-Russian concern for the Turkish-Persian border was revived (Hunseler, 1984). Russia became once again involved with Persian-Turkish affairs because it was specifically interested with the province of Azerbaijan in Persia (Hunseler, 1984). The interest was the result of strategic and economic factors in relation to Turkey. On the contrary, Britain was different from Russia because its interests were not limited to Persia alone. Britain was also focused on the Turkish territory of the Shatt al-Arab because it played a crucial part in British interests in the Gulf area. In July 1911, an Anglo-Turkish mediation in attempt to come up with a resolution that would define the territorial claims and rights in the Arab-Persian Gulf region began. On July 29, 1913, the resolution was signed by Turkey and Britain. The agreement included the decisions regarding the status of Arab sheikdoms. The resolution also included the agreements about the Shatt al-Arab and its significance to the increasing British authority in Arabistan and Iraq. The resolution proved to be beneficial for Turkey, but only because Britain acted on it for its own advantage. Meanwhile, Russia was outraged by the Anglo-Turkish agreement and initially renounced it. Britain caught Russia by surprise by awarding the Shatt al-Arab in its entirety to Turkey. Russia had its own interests to protect in Shatt al-Arab and the Gulf area, and the agreement served as a hindrance to the Russian cause. However, Britain gave Russia the guarantee that it would offer assistance in the latter’s interest in the northern section of the Turkish-Persian border. After Britain gave its guarantee, Russia acknowledged the Anglo-Turkish agreement (Hunseler, 1984). On December 21, 1911, Persian Foreign Minister and Turkish representatives from Tehran gathered in Istanbul to create a boundary commission to resolve the Turkish-Persian border problem (Hunseler, 1984). The commission began to meet in March 1912; by August, the commission had convened a total of 18 times. In the beginning, the efforts of the commission seemed futile due to Persia’s disapproval of a specific â€Å"note explicative† of April 26, 1847 (Hunseler, 1984, p. 13). However, Russia exerted influence and Tehran was forced to agree on the note on August 15, 1912. The early progress of the Turkish-Persian commission was accompanied by statements already found in the Four-Power Protocol of Constantinople dated on November 17, 1913. With regards to the area of the Shatt al-Arab, the definition of the border was determined in conformity with the Second Treaty of Erzerum of 1847. According to the treaty, the Shatt al-Arab is considered as a Turkish territory excluding the limitations concerning Abadan and Muhammarah. By November 1913, two-thirds of the border assignment was completed. The task of settling the complete boundary was given to a Four-Power Delimitation Commission. This commission had to define the border based on what was 1869’s â€Å"carte identique† (Hunseler, 1984, p. 13). The commission started working in 1914. Unfortunately, the First World War broke out. The emergence of the war hindered Persia and Turkey from acknowledging the border (Hunseler, 1984). The Aftermath of World War I: The Iranian-Iraq Disagreement on the Shatt al-Arab The conflict and rivalry between Iran and Iraq officially started after the First World War (Hunseler, 1984). The outcome of the war significantly altered the issue over the borders concerning the Shatt al-Arab. Hunseler (1984) explained: â€Å"The British mandate of Iraq, which had come about in Mesopotamia, entered into the Turkish boundary claims against Iran, although it also impinged upon British navigational privileges on the Shatt al-Arab† (p. 14). The aftermath of the Great War also allowed Iran to experience a dramatic political transformation. In 1921, Muhammad Reza Khan came into power. Under his reign, Iran became resistant to the established agreements regarding the Shatt al-Arab (Hunseler, 1984). It was also in 1921 when Khaz’al, the Sheik of Muhammarah, lost. Khaz’al was a known supporter of the British cause. With his defeat, Iran was granted the opportunity to fervently defend its own interests on the Shatt al-Arab conflict. Due to the new found empowerment of Iran, Britain was suddenly placed in a position wherein it should implement its rules without putting its Iranian interests in jeopardy (Hunseler, 1984). Meanwhile, Iraq asserted its control over the Shatt al-Arab (Hunseler, 1984). Due to the claim, Iran declined to recognize the state of Iraq. In 1929, Iran did give diplomatic recognition to Iraq, but only because it sought to gain the attention of Britain. Iran hoped that by acknowledging Iraq as a state, Britain would be sympathetic towards the Iranian cause. Britain was still interested in Iran because of economic reasons; the former is involved with the latter through the Anglo-Persian Oil Company. Moreover, Britain was still interested with the Shatt al-Arab issue. This was because it could provide the British complete access to the refineries located in Abadan. On August 11, 1929, the Iranian and Iraqi governments had interchanged several notes. This exchange gave way to the establishment of a temporary arrangement to manage the relations between the two states involved. The arrangement included settlements on trade and navigation. However, the negotiations failed because Iraq and Britain refused to recognize the jurisdiction of Iran on the half of the river (Hunseler, 1984). When Britain decided to remove its authority on Iraq and break away from their alliance in 1930, it imposed the right of the British navy to pass through the Shatt al-Arab anytime, regardless if it was wartime or peacetime (Hunseler, 1984). However, Iran had no intention in being involved in a peaceful settlement. The Iranian government also declined to accept the legitimacy of the border. On March 25, 1924, Iran announced its non-acceptance of determination of the boundary as stated in the Constantinople Protocol. The Iranian government also refused to recognize similar settlements created on September 20 and December 2 in 1931. The situation worsened when Iran sent four gunboats to pass through Shatt al-Arab and proceed until Muhammarah. Due to this incident, problems regarding the pilot and the flags of the ships were added to the already intense conflict (Hunseler, 1984). The boundary issue as well as the flag and pilot inquiries which remained unanswered increased the tension surrounding the conflict (Hunseler, 1984). On November 29, 1934, the Iranian government was forced to seek assistance from the League of Nations in an effort to address the problem. Unfortunately, the League of Nations and the representatives it sent failed to bring any positive change in the current situation. The only thing which provided temporary resolution to the problem was the Middle East pact of 1935, which Iran had introduced with the help of Turkey. The pact presented an opportunity wherein all points of disagreement could be settled. On July 4, 1937, a treaty on the Iranian-Iraqi border was agreed upon in Tehran. The treaty upheld the conditions indicated in the 1913/14 Protocols of Constantinople. According to the treaty, the Iran-Iraq border would remain along the east bank of the Shatt al-Arab. There were specific considerations made for Abadan and Muhammarah. Iran was also awarded an anchorage zone in Abadan which was four miles long. In addition, the treaty rendered the river as open territory, as it allowed access to naval ships of Iran and Iraq and traders of all countries. A transit fee was imposed, but this would be utilized for purposes of maintenance as well as the development of the shipping lanes in the river. In another decision, both sides agreed to accept the protocol within two years after the agreement had been reached (Hunseler, 1984). The adoption of the covenant was not implemented (Hunseler, 1984). On December 8, 1938, the commission in charge of the Iranian-Iraqi boundary started working on the confluence of the Shatt al-Arab and the Khayeen. The efforts of the commission were stalled by opposing translations of the treaty and the definite determination of the border. The Iranian government submitted suggestions regarding the balance of power between Iran and Iraq with regards to supervising and safeguarding the Shatt al-Arab shipping lanes. Meanwhile, the Iraqi administration saw this move as a threat to the sovereignty of the Iraqis on the river (Hunseler, 1984). In the 1950s, Iran and Iraq had another opportunity to resolve their issues regarding the Shatt al-Arab border (Hunseler, 1984). In 1955, both countries, along with Britain, Pakistan and Turkey agreed upon the Baghdad Pact (Karsh, 2002). This pact was initiated by the West and was established to strengthen defense and security in the region. In October 1957, King Faisal of Iraq paid a state visit to Iran (Hunseler, 1984). In this encounter, both nations reached an agreement regarding the Shatt al-Arab problem. Iran and Iraq agreed on two points. First, there will be a commission to be based in Baghdad which is assigned to work out the details of the joint supervision of the Shatt al-Arab. Second, a Swedish adjudicator will be in charge of delineating the border; this arbitrator is to be situated in Tehran and must work with the joint commission. Once again, an agreement between Iran and Iraq was hindered by yet another occurrence. On July 14, 1958, a revolution broke out in Baghdad (Hunseler, 1984). The change in Iraqi governance eventually disrupted the recently resumed development of Iranian-Iraqi ties (Hunseler, 1984). Also, the political change once again awakened the border conflict on the Shatt al-Arab and the land borders. Four short months after General Abd al-Karim took control, the revolutionary administration of Iraq declared that they would extend their claim on the river to 12 miles. On November 28, 1959, Iranian Shah Reza Pahlevi revived their request to have the border line of the river drawn along the middle. He justified his demand on grounds of Iraq’s clear violation of the 1937 treaty. He also argued that because they were already in the 20th Century, a river which served as a boundary such as Shatt al’Arab cannot be attached to the absolute sovereignty of either nation. General Qasim addressed the demand of the shah with another demand. Iraq sought to regain the anchorage zone awarded to Iran in the 1937 treaty. Despite their counter demand, Qasim still wanted to resolve the dispute through peaceful means. Iraq was willing to withdraw their claim of the anchorage zone if Iran would acknowledge the Iraq’s demands on the river and the treaty of 1937. The peaceful settlement was not reached. On December 10, 1959, Abbas Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Aram declined Iraq’s offer. Nine days later, General Qasim reasserted Iraq’s legal right to the anchorage zone without insisting on its return. He also appealed for Iran to value the early treaties. General Qasim suggested that they could address the problem with the help of the United Nations. However, Iran provoked Iraq again when the local newspaper Ettelaat stated that â€Å"the existence of Iraq was in any event a historical misunderstanding and the whole of Iraq a Persian province† (as cited in Hunseler, 1984, p. 17). An armed struggle between Iran and Iraq was quelled before the further tension could develop. On March 5, 1959, Iran became involved with the United States in a defense settlement (Hunseler, 1984). Soon after, Iran felt coerced by Russia. Iran had reasons to be concerned. It was threatened by Soviet influence and the possible circulation of further revolutionary ideals. Meanwhile, Iraq was also concerned with the threat of the United Arab Republic, a state established in 1958 as a result of the merger between Syria and Egypt. Abd al-Karim Qasim was frightened that Syria might provide assistance to Iraqi Nasserites if and when a war with Iran occurs. Hence, there was no real war between both parties at that time. The tension manifested itself through a media war between Iran and Iraq (Hunseler, 1984). In 1967, Britain declared its wishes to pull out from the Gulf area. Prime Minister Harold Wilson expressed the desire of the British administration to remove its military troops located ‘east of Suez’ (as cited in Hunseler, 1984, p. 17). With this announcement, Iran wanted to replace British forces with their own troops on the moment of the latter’s departure (Hunseler, 1984). The 1967 blockage of the Suez Canal was a welcome development, as it prevented Soviet activity in the Gulf region. In terms of security concerns, Iran wanted to unify and lead the Arab countries in the region. The supposed partnership had the goal of preventing the spread of Soviet control and power of revolutionary nations and factions, such as South Yemen and Iraq. The Arab countries in the Gulf were cautious in dealing with Iran. While they were hesitant to collaborate with Iran which was associated with Israel, they did not want to create a rift among the states (Hunseler, 1984). Iran continued to strongly pursue its ambition of becoming an unshakeable force in the Gulf region (Hunseler, 1984). In 1969, it condemned the 1937 treaty. The shah knew that if Iran wanted to govern and manipulate the shipping lanes in the Gulf, it must have exclusive control of the river. This move would also liberate the Iranian ports on Abadan and Khorramshahr from Iraqi jurisdiction. On one instance, an Iranian vessel sailed despite the absence of an Iraqi pilot. It departed from the Khorramshahr port with the assistance of Iranian patrol vessels and successfully arrived at the Persian-Arab Gulf. Iraq was aware of the violation, but it did not wage a war against Iran due to the weakness of the military (Hunseler, 1984). After 1972, the shah became more determined to cripple Iraq. After the completion of the Iraqi-Soviet friendship treaty, the Shah approached American President Richard Nixon to ask for assistance in the Kurdish cause in Iraq (Hunseler, 1984). This action was done with the objective of weakening the Iraqi army through an attack on its internal disputes. In August 1972, another uprising emerged in Kurdistan. The Iraqi administration and Kurdish chief Mullah Mustafa Barzani met in March 1970 and agreed on the autonomy of Kurdistan beginning in 1974. However, the agreement was threatened by the support of Iran and the United States for Barzani. Because of this, the Kurdish insurgents continued to hold on to their weapons and proceed with the civil war. Meanwhile, the Iraqi forces benefited from the Iraqi-Soviet friendship treaty, for it allowed for a steady supply of ammunition from Russia. The weapons were instrumental in guaranteeing the military success of Iraq. Nevertheless, the malfunctioning of the army’s weapons and the failure of the Soviet Union to provide more ammunition endangered the progress Iraq had in its fight against the Kurds. In the early part of March 1975, the Iraqi government was prompted to consider Iran’s proposition that it would refrain from supporting the Kurds if the former would approve the latter’s suggestion to resolve the border issue by placing the border line along the thalweg (Hunseler, 1984). On June 13, 1975, Iran and Iraq agreed on yet another treaty in Baghdad (Hunseler, 1984). The treaty consisted of four crucial agreements. First, the boundaries will be definitely marked based on the Constantinople Protocol of 1913 and the 1914 proposal created by the committee regarding the establishment of the boundary. Second, the river boundaries would be situated in the middle, or the thalweg. According to Willet (2004), the thalweg was the â€Å"central deepest part of the river† (p. 7). Third, there are two things to be rebuilt: the mutual trust between both nations as well as the security of the land boundaries they shared. Also, the invasion on both sides will be stopped. Lastly, the problem will be settled upon with the acknowledgement of the aforementioned points. When Iraq signed the treaty, the country accepted the thalweg agreement for the first time. After five years, it became evident that the said recognition was merely the result of coercion from Iran’s side. The acceptance of Iraq was also caused by the failure of the Soviet Union to provide weapons. Nonetheless, the compromise made regarding the Shatt al-Arab paved the way for the Kurdish civil war to stop. Meanwhile, the relevance of the river in terms of Iranian strategy was relatively reduced. This was because Iran transferred its navy from Khorramshahr to the Bandar Abbas port in August 1978 (Hunseler, 1984). The Iran-Iraq War from a Political Perspective The dispute over the borders and boundaries of the river of Shatt al-Arab was instrumental in the emergence of the war between Iran and Iraq in 1980. While the territorial conflicts played a crucial role in causing the war, the political conditions in both countries must also be considered as initiators. The transition in the governments helped influence the leaders on how to deal with the Shatt al-Arab issue. In Iran, there was a dramatic shift in leadership as the Shah was removed from power through a revolution led by a radical Muslim. In Iraq, several coups have altered governance while the rise of the Ba’ath Socialist Party to power resulted in the domination of Saddam Hussein. Both countries longed to dominate the other and emerge as the most powerful in the region (Jacoby, 2008). The Iranian-Iraqi situation under the Rule of the Shah In the 1970s, the tension between Iran and Iraq was heightened (Karsh, 2002). This was because of the Shah of Iran, Mohammed Reza Pahlavi, became aggressive and tried to present Iran as the dominant force in the Persian Gulf. The Shah had been governing the Iran for decades. However, he was temporarily overthrown from power. In 1953, the head of the Iranian Parliament started a coup to remove the Shah (Willett, 2004). The coup succeeded and Pahlavi vacated the Iranian leadership for a brief time. However, the United States

The advantages of farming over hunting and gathering Essay Example for Free

The advantages of farming over hunting and gathering Essay Even thought farming is harder than hunting and gathering, there are many advantages in farming. Farmers can produce more food then hunters and gatherers can gather. Farming lets people have a steady food supply all year long. Farmers usually have surplus, so they can have bigger families then the hunters and gatherers. Farmers dont have to travel like the hunters and gatherers; they have a settled life, they dont have to travel, and they take up less space. Farmers can live almost anyplace where the soil is fertilized. Farmers dont have to farm all day; they can work as something else (such as a craftsperson). Farmers can produce a lot of food. They have a surplus so they can have a steady balance of food. Hunters and gatherers cant have a surplus so they dont always have a steady food supply all year. Farmers can have many children because they have a surplus of food. Even if hunters and gatherers wanted to have many children they wouldnt be able to because they wouldnt be able to feed them. Because farmers produce their food they dont have to move. Farmers dont have to move so they take up less space. Hunters and gatherers who hunt for their food have to move when food gets scarce. Hunters and gatherers have to hunt for food so they have to work all day. The farmers can spend some their time farming and use the rest of their time to become a toolmaker, a builder, a fisher, a craftsperson, a priest, leader, etc. These four ways prove that between farming and hunting gathering farming has an advantage.

Website Quality Evaluation Based on Sitemap

Website Quality Evaluation Based on Sitemap M.Chandran A.V.Ramani Abstract Website quality evaluation can be made based on creating site map for the WebPages for a single website which works properly. A website is taken for the analysis where we check every link under that website are checker and split it according to status code. By analyzing every status code from all those webpage links, we are ignoring every other link except the page contains status code 200. Then we are developing the sitemap for those links which is working perfectly. Keyword: Sitemap, Website, Search Engine Optimization, SMGA. 1. Introduction Website are something entirely new in the world of software quality, within minutes of going live .[]The World Wide Web has made the spread of information and ideas easy and accessible to millions. It’s the place where everyone has an opportunity to be heard—that is, if you can be found amidst the multitude of other Web sites out there. Every WebPages has their own characteristics and this characteristic has drawbacks and benefits.[1] There are many dimensions of quality, and each measure will pertain to a particular website in varying degrees. Here are some of them: time, a credible site should be updated frequently. The information about latest update also should be included on the homepage. However, if the information has not been updated currently, the visitor could easily know that perhaps the site manager does really bother to update the site. Second is structural, all of the parts of the website hold together and all links inside and outside the website should work well. Broken links on the webpage also are another factor that always downgrades the quality of website. Each page usually has references or links or connections to other pages. These may be internal or external web site. A user expects each link to be valid, meaning that it leads successfully to the intended page or other resource. In a 2003 experiment, discovered that about one link out of every 200 disappeared each week from the Internet [1]. The third factor is content;number of the links, or link popularity is one of the off page factors that search engines are looking to determine the value of the webpage. Most of search engine will need a website to have at least two links pointing to their site before they will place it to their index, and the idea of this link popularity is that to increase the link popularity of a website, this website must have large amount of high quality content. Number of links to website improves access growth and helps to generate traffic [2]. PR(A) = (1-d) + d(PR(t1)/C(t1) + + R(tn)/C(tn)) PR = page rank t1 – tn = are pages linking to page A C = is the number of outbound links that a page as D = is a damping factor, usually set to 0.85. Search engine such Google make a citation analysis to rank hits, then a website which has a any links to it will have a higher ranking compare than a website with a few links. This indicator can be used to measure the quality of web site. Fourth is response time and latency, a website server should respond to a browser request within certain parameters, it is found that extraneous content exists on the majority of popular pages, and that blocking this content buys a 25-30% reduction in objects downloaded and bytes, with a 33% decrease in page latency. Popular sites averaged 52 objects per page, 8.1 of which were ads, served from 5.7 servers [3], and object overhead now dominates the latency of most web pages [4]. Following the The first step would be to be sure your sitemap is up to date to begin with and has all the URLs you want. The main thing is none of them should 404 and then beyond that, yes, they should return 200s. Unless youre dealing with a gigantic site which might be hard to maintain, in theory there shouldnt be errors in sitemaps if you have the correct URLs in there. Getting sitemaps right on a large site made a huge difference to the crawl rate and a huge indexation to follow [3]. With growth of web-site content its getting harder and harder to manage relations between individual WebPages and keep track of hyperlinks within a site. Unfortunately there are no perfect web-site integrity tools or services that can enforce proper relationship between pages, keep track of moving content, webpage renames etc, and update corresponding URLs automatically. Modern content management systems and blog software may aggravate the problem even more by Replicating the same dead web links across numerous web-pages which they generate dynamically, so people can be getting 404 errors much more frequently.[4] Sitemap Sitemaps, as the name implies, are just a map of your site i.e. on one single page you show the structure of your site, its sections, the links between them, etc. Sitemaps make navigating your site easier and having an updated sitemap on your site is good both for your users and for search engines.[3]. Important sitemap errors that could affect our rankings The first step would be to be sure your sitemap is up to date to begin with and has all the URLs you want (and not any you dont want). The main thing is none of them should 404 and then beyond that, yes, they should return 200s. Unless youre dealing with a gigantic site which might be hard to maintain, in theory there shouldnt be errors in sitemaps if you have the correct URLs in there. Getting sitemaps right on a large site made a huge difference to the crawl rate and a huge indexation to follow. 2. Problem Definition . Every webpage design has their own characteristics and this characteristic has drawbacks and benefits. There is a mechanism for measuring the effects of the webpage component toward the performance and quality of website. This mechanism will measure size, component, and time needed by the client for downloading a website. The main factor that will influences this download time are page size (bytes), number and types of component, number of server from the accessed web. Research conducted by IBM can be used as a standard for performance measurement of quality [7]. Standard international download time for this performance can be used as a reference to categorize the tested webpage. After we have done with data, and then continued by testing of data. Table1. Standard of the website performance Four Reasons to keep Site Map A site map is literally a map of your Web site. It is a tool that allows visitors to easily get around your site. Having a well constructed site map is not only important to create a positive experience for your potential customers, but is an important aspect of search engine optimization. Below are 4 functions of a site map. Navigation A site map provides an organized list of links to all the pages on your Web site. If visitors get lost while browsing your site, they can always refer to your site map to see where they are and get where they would like to go. Site maps allow your visitors to navigate your Web site with ease. Theme When visitors access your site map, they will learn a lot about your Web site within a very short period of time. A well constructed site map will allow visitors to easily and efficiently grasp your site. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Since a site map is a single page that contains links to every page on your Web site, it is a very effective way to help search engine spiders crawl through your site with ease.Since search engines rely on links to find the main pages of your site, a site map is a great way to get every page on your site indexed by the search engines. The more pages you have indexed by the search engines, the more potential you will have to reach a greater number of prospective clients. The World Wide Web has made the spread of information and ideas easy and accessible to millions. It’s the place where everyone has an opportunity to be heard—that is, if you can be found amidst the multitude of other Web sites out there. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the process of making your Web site accessible to people using search engines to find services you provide. Search engines (such as Google, Yahoo, and Bing) operate by providing users with a list of relevant search results based on keywords users enter. This allows people who don’t know your Web site address to find your site through keyword searches [1]. Some basic features of Web sites that search engine spiders look for are:Keyword usage, Keyword placement, Compelling content, HTML title tags, meta-descriptions and Keyword tags, External and internal links, Site updates, Site map, Web design, Functionality. Effective keyword usage is not simply based on repeating a keyword or phrase over and over on your Web site. Organization A site map enables you to easilyassess the structureof your site to see where your site is strong and where it is weak. Whenever you need to add new content or new sections to your Web site, you will be able to take the existing hierarchy into consideration by glancing at your site map.[1] Sitemap files have a limit of 50,000 URLs and 10 megabytes per sitemap. Sitemaps can be compressed usinggzip, reducing bandwidth consumption. Multiple sitemap files are supported, with aSitemap indexfile serving as an entry point.Sitemap indexfiles may not list more than 50,000 Sitemaps and must be no larger than 10MiB(10,485,760 bytes) and can be compressed. You can have more than oneSitemap indexfile [2] 3. Methodologies This research stages will start with problem identification followed by research procedure and sample of data explanation. Nature of invalid hyperlinks With growth of web-site content its getting harder and harder to manage relations between individual WebPages and keep track of hyperlinks within a site. Unfortunately there are no perfect web-site integrity tools or services that can enforce proper relationship between pages, keep track of moving content, webpage renames etc, and update corresponding URLs automatically. With time this causes some hyperlinks becomeobsolete,stale,dangling, and simply deadbecause they dont lead to valid pages anymore, and web-users are going to get404response codes or other unsuccessful HTTPresponses each time when they try to access the web-pages. Modern content management systems and blog software may aggravate the problem even more by replicating the same dead weblinks across numerous web-pages which they generate dynamically, so people can be getting 404 errors much more frequently. Important of onlinelink checker Due to lack of adequate problem detection tools (aka URL validators, web spiders, HTML crawlers, websites health analyzers etc) its really very hard to identify what exact local and outbound hyperlinks became dead, and its even harder to fix those because in order to do so you need to know precise location of the broken linking tag in the HTML code: without that you will need to scan through thousands source lines to find exact HREF (or other linking sub-tag) that causes the problem. Sample Data In order to get data for this research, we examined Ramakrishna mission portals were not randomly selected, but a careful process was undertaken. Rather than selecting any generic [5] At the beginning of the process we are giving the website link. As we can see that the status of that website, whether it presents or not. By the analysis of this functionality we can able to get the status code of the website link. As shown in the figure, the domain name, ip address and server name with status code would be displayed. If the website status code is 200 then the website link that we gave is completely ok. If the website link we gave is broken or deleted than it will display the 404 status code error. Constructing Tree Structure by Applying Site Mapping Generation Algorithm (SMGA) MAPGEN(Di) { GenRoot(m1,.mn); // Getting root node for menus For i0 to n For j0 to f s[j]=GetChild(mi,j); // For getting child node End For If s[i]==NULL AddNode(mi,NULL); //No child node for root Else AddNode(s[i], mi); // adding child to root node End If End For For all m, sDomain } 4. Result and Discussion In Table-2, we are giving a website link (http://www.srkv.org) to test whether that link present or not. After receiving that the status of that link as 200, we are examining whether that link has site map or not. If we got to know that the website does not have the site map, we are moving to the next step of process. Table-2: From Table-3, we are exploring how many links totally that website contains. With the help of that data we are processing every single link that we got to receive the status code of that link. By categorizing that we are splitting them into number of collection sorted by status code. We are developing the site map for the link which has the status code 200. We are ignoring the rest of the links from that website. Table3. Dynamic website(www.srkv.org) List of errors with status code . Table-4 shows the common status code that occurs often with description and comment. When the received links which has the status 200, we could confirm that the link of that website link is working fine. When the received code is 404, the requested page or the URL is not available or unknown location to the server. When the received status code is 522, the requested web server is currently down or unavailable due to traffic. ­Ã‚ ­Ã‚ ­ Table-4: Figure-1 represents in form of chart which the data that collected from the Table-2. From the chart we can understand that the status code of the website link data has drawn where the 404 status code occurs often than others. Figure-1 First step for creating site map we need a site to analyse the WebPages under that site. For that we are taking a link (www.srkv.org) for creating site map. After reading every page under that link, we can get a table of content which has a series of links with the status code. We found that the total link contains under that website is 193. By categorizing those pages according to the status code of the every link. The total link that contains 200 Status code is 84. The total link that contains the 404 status code is 104. The total link that contains 410 Status code is 4. The total link that contains Status code 522 is 1. By ignoring all the links that contains status code except 200. We can only create site map for the link which contains the 200 status code. Development of the sitemap Generator The sitemap which shown in the Figure-2 had generated with the help of above algorithm. The algorithm defines the process to show the result by means of root node and child node. If the link is Title it adds to the root node else it add that sub title link as child node. Figure -2 5. Conclusion We taking a required link of the website to check all the links under that which has the status code 200 and ignoring the remaining error links. The page which works completely has been taken for creating sitemap based on SMGA algorithms.  ­ Search Engine optimization Looks for sitemap in every website for the ranking system in every query search. We are developing the sitemap for the website which already do not have the sitemap within. When the SEO found the sitemap in a website then it would increase the ranking. 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