An Author at Heart free essay sample

We cant wait any longer. We need to pack up shop and get out of here. Not without the girl. We dont know how much Mr. Silverstein told her about us. If we let her go, she could go to the police. There would be no way for us to escape. I froze at the sound of their voices. So close now that I could hear each word clearly without mistake. I glanced around the corner and down the hallway and saw the two men approaching. They didnt know I was there, but I knew that if I didnt do something quick, that wouldnt last long. I pressed my back against the wall and looked frantically for a place to hide. My gaze settled on a closed door on the other side of the hallway. A janitors closet. I only hoped Id be able to make it in time! R! Dinner! Like a dream, the last fragments of the scene shattered as reality settled in. We will write a custom essay sample on An Author at Heart or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page The door of the once desired janitors closet formed back into the plain computer screen as the concrete walls of the warehouse dissolved, revealing the gray-pink walls of my bedroom. I again could feel the smooth plastic keys of the keyboard beneath my fingertips. The stillness of the quiet warehouse was replaced by Jan and Deans Dead Mans Curve as their melodic voices floated out the stereos speakers. The distinct sound of clinking dishware drifted up the hall from the kitchen when my dads voice came again. R! Coming! I viciously stabbed at the save button with my cursor before closing the program, waiting until it was dome before unplugging the thumb-drive. Id have more time to work on the story after dinner, but that didnt settle my annoyance of the disruption of my writing process. This hadnt been the first time I had debated skipping dinner in order to continue writing a chapter. To me, the excitement of finishing another book outweighed my hunger for food causing me to ignore the heavenly smells wafting from the kitchen. I was more interested in finding what would happen next then what was on the dinner menu. It had been this way since the third grade when I first settled down at my desk to write a story. With each word and each sentence I completed, my love for writing grew and grew. Sentences soon became paragraphs and paragraphs into chapters until my small hobby became an unleashed obsession as I wrote more and more trying to complete a book I was proud of. I would carry a notebook with me to school everyday using every bit of free time I had to add to my book. By the eleventh grade I had finished a total of two stories in all and had begun several others, but no matter how much I wrote, I was never completely satisfied with the ending product. My writing skill lacked something and my goal of finding this missing aspect persuaded me to write more and more and led to countless afternoons in front of the computer only to be interrupted by my fathers familiar call. R! Dinner! No matter how many times Ive been called away, I always know Ill come back to write and again be transported into a different world, where I become my characters: living their adventures, knowing very well that reality is only a sentence away.

Causes for Terrorism in India Essays

Causes for Terrorism in India Essays Causes for Terrorism in India Essay Causes for Terrorism in India Essay Causes For Terrorism in India The causes for the various insurgent/terrorist movements include: Political causes: This is seen essentially in Assam and Tripura. The political factors that led to insurgency-cum-terrorism included the failure of the government to control large-scale illegal immigration of Muslims from Bangladesh, to fulfil the demand of economic benefits for the sons and daughters of the soil, etc. Economic causes: Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Orissa and Bihar are prime examples. The economic factors include the absence of land reforms, rural unemployment, exploitation of landless labourers by land owners, etc. These economic grievances and perceptions of gross social injustice have given rise to ideological terrorist groups such as the various Marxist/Maoist groups operating under different names. Ethnic causes: Mainly seen in Nagaland, Mizoram and Manipur due to feelings of ethnic separateness. Religious causes: Punjab before 1995 and in JK since 1989. In Punjab, some Sikh elements belonging to different organisations took to terrorism to demand the creation of an independent state called Khalistan for the Sikhs. In JK, Muslims belonging to different organisations took to terrorism for conflicting objectives. Some, such as the Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front, want independence for the state, including all the territory presently part of India, Pakistan and China. Others, such as the Hizbul Mujahideen , want Indias J;K state to be merged with Pakistan. While those who want independence project their struggle as a separatist one, those wanting a merger with Pakistan project it as a religious struggle. There have also been sporadic acts of religious terrorism in other parts of India. These are either due to feelings of anger amongst sections of the Muslim youth over the governments perceived failure to safeguard their lives and interests or due to Pakistans attempts to cause religious polarisation. The maximum number of terrorist incidents and deaths of innocent civilians have occurred due to religious terrorism. While the intensity of the violence caused by terrorism of a non-religious nature can be rated as low or medium, that of religious terrorism has been high or very high. It has involved the indiscriminate use of sophisticated Improvised Explosive Devices, suicide bombers, the killing of civilians belonging to the majority community with hand-held weapons and resorting to methods such as hijacking, hostage-taking, blowing up of aircraft through IEDs, etc. Certain distinctions between the modus operandi and concepts/beliefs of religious and non-religious terrorist groups need to be underlined, namely: Non-religious terrorist groups in India do not believe in suicide terrorism, but the LTTE does. Of the religious terrorist groups, the Sikhs did not believe in suicide terrorism. The indigenous terrorist groups in J;K do not believe in suicide terrorism either; it is a unique characteristic of Pakistans pan-Islamic jihadi groups operating in JK and other parts of India. They too did not believe in suicide terrorism before 1998; in fact, there was no suicide terrorism in JK before 1999. They started resorting to it only after they joined Osama bin Ladens International Islamic Front in 1998. Since then, there have been 46 incidents of suicide terrorism, of which 44 were carried out by bin Ladens Pakistani supporters belonging to these organisations. Non-religious terrorist groups in India have not resorted to hijacking and blowing up of aircraft. Of the religious terrorists, the Sikh groups were responsible for five hijackings, the indigenous JKLF for one and the Pakistani jihadi group, the Harkat-ul-Mujahideen (which is a member of the IIF), for one. The Babbar Khalsa, a Sikh terrorist group, blew up Air Indias Kanishka aircraft off the Irish coast on June 23, 1985, killing nearly 200 passengers and made an unsuccessful attempt the same day to blow up another Air India plane at Tokyo. The IED there exploded prematurely on the ground. The Kashmiri and the Pakistani jihadi groups have not tried to blow up any passenger plane while on flight. However, the JKLF had blown up an Indian Airlines aircraft, which it had hijacked to Lahore in 1971, after asking the passengers and crew to disembark. All terrorist groups religious as well as non-religious have resorted to kidnapping hostages for ransom and for achieving other demands. The non-religious terrorist groups have targeted only Indians, whereas the religious terrorist groups target Indians as well as foreigners. The Khalistan Commando Force, a Sikh terrorist group, kidnapped a Romanian diplomat in New Delhi in 1991. The JKLF kidnapped some Israeli tourists in J;K in 1992. HUM, under the name Al Faran, kidnapped five Western tourists in 1995 and is believed to have killed four of them. An American managed to escape. Sheikh Omar, presently on trial for the kidnap and murder of American journalist Daniel Pearl in Karachi in January last year, had earlier kidnapped some Western tourists near Delhi. They were subsequently freed by the police. Non-religious terrorist groups in India have not carried out any act of terrorism outside Indian territory. Of the religious terrorist groups, a Sikh organisation blew up an Air India plane off the Irish coast and unsuccessfully tried to blow up another plane at Tokyo the same day, plotted to kill then prime minister Rajiv Gandhi during his visit to the US in June 1985 (the plot was foiled by the Federal Bureau of Investigation), attacked the Indian ambassador in Bucharest, Romania, in October 1991, and carried out a number of attacks on pro-government members of the Sikh diaspora abroad. The JKLF kidnapped and killed an Indian diplomat in Birmingham, England 1984. In the 1970s, the Anand Marg had indulged in acts of terrorism in foreign countries. None of the non-religious terrorist groups advocate the acquisition and use of Weapons of Mass Destruction. Of the religious groups, the Sikh and the indigenous Kashmiri terrorist groups did/do not advocate the acquisition and use of WMD. However, the Pakistani pan-Islamic groups, which are members of the IIF and which operate in J;K, support bin Ladens advocacy of the right and religious obligation of Muslims to acquire and use WMD to protect their religion, if necessary. The Sikh terrorist groups did not cite their holy book as justification for their acts of terrorism, but the indigenous Kashmiri groups as well as the Pakistani jihadi groups operating in India cite the holy Koran as justification for their jihad against the government of India and the Hindus. The Sikh and the indigenous Kashmiri groups projected/project their objective as confined to their respective state, but the Pakistani pan-Islamic terrorist groups project their aim as extending to the whole of South Asia namely the ‘liberation of Muslims in India and the ultimate formation of an Islamic Caliphate consisting of the ‘Muslim homelands of India and Sri Lanka, Pakistan and Bangladesh. The Sikh terrorist groups demanded an independent nation on the ground that Sikhs constituted a separate community and could not progress as fast as they wanted to in a Hindu-dominated country. They did not deride Hinduism and other non-Sikh religions. Nor did they call for the eradication of Hindu influences from their religion. The indigenous Kashmiri organisations, too, follow a similar policy. But the Pakistani pan-Islamic jihadi organisations ridicule and condemn Hinduism and other religions and call for the eradication of what hey describe as the corrupting influence of Hinduism on Islam as practised in South Asia. The Sikh and indigenous Kashmiri terrorist organisations believed/believe in Western-style parliamentary democracy. The Pakistani jihadi organisations project Western-style parliamentary democracy as anti-Islam since it believes sovereignty vests in people and not in God. Religious as well as non-religious terrorist groups have external links with like-minded terrori st groups in other countries. Examples: The link between the Marxist groups of India with Maoist groups of Nepal, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh; the link between the indigenous Kashmiri organisations with the religious, fundamentalist and jihadi organisations of Pakistan; the link between organisations such as the Students Islamic Movement of India with jihadi elements in Pakistan and Saudi Arabia; and the link between the Pakistani pan-Islamic jihadi organisations operating in India with bin Ladens Al Qaeda and the Taliban .

The Speluncean Explorer's case Term Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

The Speluncean Explorer's case - Term Paper Example In essence, what this case showed is an apparent conflict between law and justice, when there is an exigency, and whether the law as written, still applies due to the highly unusual circumstances obtaining in this case, or to allow some exceptions to the rule of law, which might undermine the structure of an orderly society. Discussion Five members of the explorer society went inside a limestone cavern but soon found out they were involuntarily imprisoned due to a landslide which blocked the only known opening of the cave, and hence, blocked their exit for escape as well. It took some time for the rescue party to finally gain access to the trapped explorers which entailed great effort and expense. When they were finally rescued, after repeated landslides which killed ten rescuers, on the thirty-second day of their imprisonment, sordid details of their enforced stay inside the cave came to light. It soon was revealed the four survivors engaged in cannibalism by eating one explorer, wh ich was Roger Whetmore, in order to survive their confinement, as they had brought along only scant food. About the facts of this case – the facts in this case caused considerable debate among all legal scholars, academicians, the judges, the jury and the general public because it was the highly unusual nature of cannibalism which rendered past legal precedents to be entirely useless in the determination of the correct judgment and sentence to be carried out against the four survivors. A careful and deeper review of the case facts showed an apparent conflict between the demands of justice and what the letter of the law requires to be considered as a just punishment or retribution. Some of the characteristics of these case facts which made everyone feel uncomfortable about in carrying out the death sentence as the legally-mandated conclusion are enumerated below: a. Prior opinion and permission was requested – Whetmore had first asked the rescue party to produce a physi cian whom the survivors could ask for an opinion on how long they can expect to live without food (from the twentieth day onwards for another ten days until the rescue) and he also asked for some permission whether casting lots to decide who should be eaten among them in order for the rest of the survivors to live long enough till the rescuers can reach them. He also requested to talk to a judge, government official, priest or minister who can sanction what he and the others with him were planning to do but his request for an answer was not granted. b. It was Whetmore's original idea – it was Whetmore himself who had first proposed a solution to their predicament by bringing up the idea with his fellow survivors and he had even suggested the use of a pair of dice he happened to have with him. In other words, there was even a tacit or tentative agreement among them to choose this odious and frightful expediency in order to survive, through a casting of lots using the pair of d ice. What made these case facts unusual is that Whetmore withdrew or deferred the implementation of his own suggestion of cannibalism. c. Abdication by the jury – incredibly, due to highly unusual circumstances, even the jury found it