A Thousand Splendid Suns Essay Example for Free

A Thousand Splendid Suns Essay â€Å"Come. There is a way to be good again,† said Rahim Khan to Amir. In the novel the Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini, Amir, the main character, expresses his thoughts and actions due to his baneful choices. The tribulations he faced were all repercussions of the sin committed by his disdainful youth. His sins ravaged the early stages of his life and gave him a troublesome memory full of guilt. As the novel progressed, Amir attempted to disengage the memory of his sin and forget about it. Amir soon faced the long over due road to redemption. Khaled Hosseini’s novel the Kite Runner is about redemption, and that the lifelong pursuit of happiness will never be fulfilled without it. At a young age Amir and Hassan were best friends, even though Amir was roughly expressing it. Amir and Hassan enjoyed many activities together as Khaled expressed in his novel: â€Å"I spent most of the first twelve years of my life playing with Hassan. Sometimes, my entire childhood seems like one long lazy summer day with Hassan, chasing each other between tangles of trees in my father’s yard, playing hide-and-seek, cops and robbers, cowboys and Indians, insect torture†¦ We saw our first Western together, Rio Bravo with John Wayne, at the Cinema Park†¦,† stated Amir. Amir stated all these â€Å"friend-like† activities, yet witnessed the sexual abuse administered by Assef and his goons on Hassan without a peep from his mouth. At this point Amir’s lust for obtaining the kite, so he could finally enjoy love from his father had over come his friendship. That temporary love given to Amir by his father was enough for Amir to attempt to get rid of Hassan permanently, which worked. Amir’s sin committed in his early years set the stage for the rest of his life, for he would seek redemption for his acts. Many years passed, Amir was on his own now in America, with his wife Soraya that could not bare children. Amir received a call from Rahim Kahn who was dying and wanted a last visit from Amir. Amir had jumped at the chance to visit an old friend/father figure and flew to see Rahim. Little did Amir know he was about to face all of the tribulations he had seemed to forget of his past ten fold. Rahim Khan reveals â€Å"Hassan, Amirs childhood friend, the presumed son of the family servant was in reality, Amirs half-brother, his fathers illegitimate son with Alis wife. † He also reveals that the prolonged redemption is just around the Taliban by saving Amir’s half-nephew Sohrab (Hassan’s son) from Kabul. Amir was in a state of confusion, he expressed his plead to Rahim: â€Å"I can’t go to Kabul,† I had said to Rahim Khan. â€Å"I have a wife in America, a home, a career, and a family. † But how could I pack up and go and go back home when my actions may have caused Hassan a chance at those very same things (talking to himself)? I wished Rahim Khan hadn’t called me. I wished he had let me live on in my oblivion. But he had called me. And what Rahim Khan revealed to me changed things. Made me see how my entire life†¦had been a cycle of lies, betrayal, and deceit. ‘There is a way to be good again’ he’d said. Thus started Amir’s road to redemption. Amir searched through Kabul for Sohrab and an orphanage leader had stated that Sohrab had been sold to a Taliban leader. The Taliban Leader who showboated John Lennon glasses and conducted the stoning ceremony at halftime of the soccer game was the man that Amir had to speak with. As Amir conversed with the Taliban lead he learned of his cruel ways of massacring the Hazaras. Then the Taliban leader revealed, â€Å"What did you think? That you’d put on a fake beard and I wouldn’t recognize you? I never forget a face. Not ever. † The Taliban revealed himself as Assef, Amir’s childhood enemy. Assef created an ordeal stating that if Amir were to overcome him in a blood brawl, then Sohrab would be Amir’s boy to take. Assef completely demolished Amir by breaking several ribs with his brass knuckles. Amir was barely able to stand, but he withheld the beating for he knew that destiny had brought him to this moment. The moment came when Sohrab had pierced Assef’s eye and he and Amir escaped. Amir had finally accomplished his self-turmoil and had almost completed his redemption by saving his half-brother’s son, and almost dying for him. Amir knew that he had to adopt Sohrab when they got back to a safe haven. This caused some trouble with the embassy for they required legal documents of the orphaned child. Sohrab believed that there was no possible way for him to come to America and he did not want to return to an orphanage, so he attempted suicide. Amir had gone through a father’s worst nightmare when he thought his soon to be adopted son would die. Sohrab survived though, leaving a reckless, unrighteous Muslim, self- centered Amir behind. Amir’s pursuit of happiness was fulfilled as he and his son were flying kites in America. He had redeemed himself as he said to Sohrab, â€Å"Do you want me to run that kite for you? †Ã¢â‚¬ ¦A nod from Sohrab†¦ â€Å"For you, a thousand times over,† and a smile cracked open on Sohrab’s face.

Cults Essay -- essays research papers fc

  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The word cult is defined as an alternative religion. Most cults are started because someone doesn’t like the way the world is, and feels that his/her church isn’t doing anything to make it better, so they leave and create what they believe to be the perfect religion. Then this person strives to make others believe as they do so they will join (Miller, 1991, p. 15). There are somewhere around 3,000 to 5,000 of these cults throughout the United States, but only 75 to 100 are documented (Miller, 1991, p. 15-16). Satanism is the oldest form of such cults. A few other commonly known cults are Reverend Jim Jones and the People Temple, Heavens Gate, and Charles Manson and the Family. In the early 20th century, Allistar Crowly, AKA â€Å"The Black Pope†, started modern Satanism. It is said that Anton Lavey brought Satanism to the United States. Anton believed that he was the reincarnation of the â€Å"Black Pope†. He set his church up in San Francisco in 1966. Within one year Anton’s cult grew to more than 200,000 members (Miller, 1991, p. 28-29). Anton then went to Hollywood to help make movies about Satanism. He succeeded in doing so and was involved with the making of many movies including Rosmary’s Baby (Miller, 1991, p. 29). During this time Lavey and his assistant Michael Aquins wrote The Satanic Bible, which instantly became a best seller. The Satanic Bible told of the main concepts of Satanism. Basically, it is the reverse of Christianity. The main idea projected is â€Å"Do what thou will† (Miller, 1991, p. 31). One of the peculiar rituals of Satanist is the sacrifice of a newborn child. They believe that the newborn has a special power, and if they sacrifice the baby immediately after birth, that its power will go into the coven (Miller 1991, p. 33).   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Reverend Jim Jones was the leader of The Peoples Temple. Jim thought of himself as the reincarnation of Jesus and Lenin. His vision of world domination was nuclear war, and the only cities that would survive are Ukiah, California and Belo Horizonte, Brazil. Because of this belief, he moved his cult to Ukiah and awaited the war (Cults R Us, 2000, September 27, p. 1). After awhile he grew tired of waiting for what he claimed would be â€Å"WW 3†, so he relocated his church to San Francisco. There he practiced a ritual know as â€Å"White Nights†. In this ritual members prepare... ...ly where to go first. Manson’s first victim was Terry Melcher. Several members of â€Å"The Family† went to his house and killed him. When they were finished they wrote â€Å"POLITICAL PIGGY† on a wall to make it look like the Black Panthers had committed the murder. The next victim was Cielo Drive. Once again several members of â€Å"The Family† went to her house and killed her. They killed five other people. One of the members wanted to cut a baby from the stomach of a pregnant woman they had killed and take it to Charles. She also thought about cutting out the baby’s heart and eating it (Cults R Us, 2000, p. 1). Manson’s antics were put to an end one day while â€Å"The Family† was out in the desert riding dun buggies where marshals arrested Charles and other members of the Cult (Cults R Us, 2000, p. 1). Statistics have shown that most Satanist lack self-confidence. They enter the religion because of the false sense of power and security it offers. Although   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Bibliography 1.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Cults R Us (2000, September 27) [online] Available: www.mayhem.net/crime/cults1/html 2. Miller, M (1990). Coping With Cults. Rosen Publishing Group, INC. New York.

Sub Prime Crisis

imeContent Page Sub prime crisis http://banking. about. com/od/mortgages/a/mortgagecrisis. htm http://www. lewrockwell. com/rozeff/rozeff203. html http://www. slideshare. net/satanic/subprime-crisis-presentation-785636 http://en. wikipedia. org/wiki/Causes_of_the_2007%E2%80%932012_global_financial_crisis http://www. investopedia. com/articles/economics/09/lehman-brothers-collapse. asp http://ezinearticles. com/? Merrill-Lynch-and-the-Subprime-Mortgage-Market&id=1600761 http://www. youtube. com/watch? v=kb6g3S4scy4 http://moneymorning. com/2008/09/22/credit-default-swaps-2/ ttp://money. cnn. com/2008/09/16/news/companies/aig_questions/index. htm http://en. wikipedia. org/wiki/Credit_rating_agencies_and_the_subprime_crisis Discuss the cause of the Sub-Prime crisis and the parties responsible for causing such a crisis. There were different complex factors that may have contributed to the Sub-prime crisis during 2008-2009. They were easily associated with the investment banks and governm ent sponsored enterprise, such as Fannie Mae, on how to have dealt with their liquidity issues and Subprime mortgage loans that got them back-fired.One of the largest contributors to the expansion of the high-risk-loans was Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. When majority of the banks first started off with low credit interest and easy conditions loans, property was seen as an appreciating asset. Banks offered adjustable-rate-mortgage (ARMs) and Subprime loans to all kind of people with good or bad credits scores as they wanted higher revenue when they resell the bundled subprime mortgages called the Collateralized debt obligations (CDOs) and Mortgages-backed securities (MBS) to the other Investors around the world.The subprime crisis had shaken Northern Rock bank so badly that they had a hard time seeking help to keep the business going. The British banks Lloyds TSB group Plc had bought over HBOS Plc whom is the largest mortgage loans lenders. Bradford & Bingley took control over by UK Go vernment while their branches were taken over by Spain’s Santander. Germany struggled to save Hypo Real Estate while Nomura Holdings Inc was being bought over by Lehman’s franchise in many countries such as Europe, Asia Pac, Japan and Australia.The Crisis caused shockwaves and sent panic to the other neighbouring countries causing shares to drop sharply over a short period of time. Commercial Banks, investment banks, investors and people suffered great losses resulting in certain foreclosure or even bankruptcy. Large amount of loan was also taken from hedge funds to assist banks that are falling apart. When banks fell from its former glory, tons of people lost their jobs and banks became more cautions when dealing with any loans to business, properties or even to other banks.Traditionally, banks would go deep into analysing every single loan applicant, from their credit scores, to their employment details, net disposable income and even to check their ability to pay of f their mortgage loans before financing the applicant with sufficient funds to purchase their desirable property. Thorough checks had to be done before granting them with the loans as some of the applicants that came forward may have high probabilities of defaulting their loan or would leave for other competitions for loan which would eventually cause a property downturn in the market.These methods were often the safest choice but banks were restricted to their growth. The traditional methods were soon discarded by the newer generations. Hence, the newer generation were willing to take higher risk loans for higher revenues. Assuming that prices for property continue to appreciate, they would be enjoying higher profits thus willingly offered larger amount of loans at low interest rates to the borrowers. Before subprime mortgage was implemented, prime mortgages were sold to banks investors which they would bundle them up as CDOs and sell it to outside investors after securitising it.S ecuritization became a demand as it provides the opportunity for rating agencies to rate, or in another words to repackage or beautify those poor credit score investment assets from the collateral pool into AAA grade credit score investment assets. Investors whom are not well versed with these bundled subprime mortgages called the CDO were exposed to high risk investment unknowingly as they assumed that what they were handling was a group of people who have good credit scores.As banks at wallstreets began to greed, mortgage underwriting standards de-proved during this period where the banks failed in these 3 sectors; Failure to examine if the borrowers is able to repay the amount, implemented automated loan approval (which allows users to get through even without proper documentations) and fabricating information or fraud by both banks and applicants. This simply showed how devious and irresponsible the banks were when they try to gain huge profits through the loopholes of the poor standard mortgage underwritings over a short period of time.Studies showed that the difference between normal prime mortgage interests declined greatly comparing to subprime mortgages as Subprime mortgages offer better returns than the normal prime mortgages. The rise of the property increase greatly until the subprime mortgages began to default; after repaying of the first two years, Federal interest rate rose and adjusted. Subprime loaners soon encounter difficulties in refinancing their houses due to ARMs, which eventually led to foreclosure after a few warning letters.As the bank investors included Subprime mortgages, which are defaulted, in the CDOs they are dealing to the outside investors. The outside investors soon suffer losses as the CDOs became worthless over a short period of time and U. S property’s prices dipped as more foreclosure occurred. Economy was affected as few of these U. S. banks such as e. g. Peter Lehman which was refused by the Federal government to be bail out; Bear Stearns, an investment bank, which was acquired by J. P. Morgan Chase lost US$1. billion; Washington Mutual was closed by the US Government their assets was bought over by J. P Morgan Chase. With reference to President Obama speech on his take on banks â€Å"Too big to fail†, â€Å"The American people who are already struggling in their own right were forced to rescue financial firms facing crisis largely of their own creation†. The actual meaning of such is that the tax payers have become the safety net of the financial institutions which went into crisis and the tax payers are paying off their debt on behalf of them.President Obama also states that banks should not use tax payer’s money to trade for profit or abuse the funds coming from the tax payers as subsidy for investment. It is unfair to those tax payers as it will cause conflict of interest between the bank’s and the customers. President Obama also said that the Americans have to cut down on their luxuries to help in this crisis. The parties that are responsible for the crisis are, Bear Stearns, Lehman Brothers Investment Bank, Merrill Lynch & Co and AIG. Bear Stearns used to be a conservative firm and see conservation as a defensive move.Eventually, they are discovered of risking the hedge funds for higher turn-over which they miscalculated investing huge amount (without setting aside a sum for event risk) in CDOs and insuring Credit default swaps (CDS) bonds in a short period of time and the cash back was too slow for them to have a turnover in time of crisis which brought them to their failure. To put it in a simpler way, they purchase CDOs that are deemed to be rated â€Å"AAA† by rating firms, sells them to investing banks (usually in bundles and at the cheaper rates) and then again sells them to investors.This allows the bank to free itself from the principles and interests they are getting for the borrowers gaining lump sum from the investor s, called Mortgage backed securities. The CDS bonds works with 3 parties which are the CDS buyer, the bond issuer and the CDS seller. Assuming that if bond defaults when the CDS issuer is unable to pay back the principle and the interests at the maturity date, the CDS buyer may pay a certain amount of interest to the CDS seller (for instances, Bear Stearns) to purchase a CDS as an insurance for the invested amount.Therefore, if the bond issuer is unable to pay up, the CDS buyer that made his purchase of CDS with the CDS seller will be compensated by the CDS Seller. This strategy is known as the absolute return strategy, if everything flows smoothly and economic continues to boom, which was not the case. Problem began to arise when the subprime mortgages didn’t work out and property value dipped tremendously. When the property price dipped, Bear Stearns managers realised that they do not have sufficient funds to protect the losses.It’s a domino effect when public was en lightened of Bear Stearns crisis. They started selling the bonds at lower price to fund their losses and more bonds are sold when they realise that the losses increase exponentially causing the price of the subprime bonds to drop tremendously and eventually led to the down fall of Bear Stearns. Soon after the downfall of Bear Stearns, Lehman Brothers filed the largest amount of debt throughout the history, debt of $619 Billion dollars. As the U.S government refuses to bail them out, Lehman Brother, one of the few largest banks in U. S. faces their downfall and sent 25,000 Americans jobless. This tremor caused by Bear Stearns directly result in the decreasing value of CDOs prices day by day. CDS bond causes banks to fail as more and more defaults are happening. Subsequently, it led to the bank liquidity issues and went into a credit crunch while being unable to sell their CDOs to sufficiently assist the losses they face.Lehman’s stocks plunged as investors pull out on them and their liquidity pool depletes. Lehman then tries to sell their firm to prevent further losses but potential partners turned them down as such, led to their bankruptcy. Right after the downfall of Bear Stearns and Lehman Brothers Investment Bank, Merrill Lynch & Co followed up, facing the crisis as they are into generating commissions, subprime loans, CDOs and such which are similar with what Bear Stearns and Lehman brother dealt with.On top with what they are dealing with, they took an extra path by providing loans to investors for the purchase of their bundle of CDOs right after they have been securitized. Some of the CDOs are even brought over from nonbank institutions and sent for a much risky asset backed securitization (ABS), before providing more loans to the investors for the purchase of the bond. This was also the reason why Merrill Lynch was able to survive as they are the most aggressive when dealing with subprime market.Merrill was the investment banks that make the high est amount of loans to any nonbanks as long as they sell the mortgages to Merrill eventually. Before Merrill falls, they actually tried to get Bear Stearns to pay them back the $850 million from the hedge funds which Bear loans hoping to make a turn over. However, the hedge funds collapsed and started the economic crisis. It was when Lehman brothers was still struggling, the government refuses to bail them out but instead requested The Bank of America to buy over Merrill Lynch as they see them both a potential assistance to the subprime crisis.Merging Merrill Lynch and Bank of American, it made them the ninth largest corporation in the world and presently called the Bank of American Merrill Lynch. American International Group Inc (AIG) was the largest insurance company that grew aggressively in U. S. The problems arise when AIG started to lose money in the investment they dealt with like CDOs, CDS, Pool of subprime mortgages and pool of Alt-A mortgages. Without a doubt they were ear ning a huge amount of premium incomes from their invested products, they came crashing when the prices of the properties falls.Increasing rate of foreclosure and amount of the loan pools it had insured cannot be leveraged and realized that their company do not have enough money for pay-outs. The Securities and Exchange Commission also found out that AIG had got low integrity as they shifted from the main balance sheet to the off balance sheet to cover up the problem. There weren’t transparency as the company tries to move or shift the amount that was supposed to be shown on the main balance sheet to the written off balance sheet, abusing the loopholes of the off balance sheet to beautify the main ones.They suffered the largest amount of losses when the rating firm’s such as Standard & Poor’s, Moody’s Investors Service and Fitch Ratings Inc lower the company’s rating. AIG was already on the edge of bankruptcy when all the counterparties started to d emand for their cash which they do not have. AIG was greedy and irresponsible and failed to assure that there was enough fund to pay-out all the insured parties. The U. S Government cannot let AIG fall as they are one of the largest insurance company, if they were to declare bankrupt, U.S will fall into a financial crisis and the insurance regulator will have to take over the firm and compensate the insured and it would create a tighter credit market for consumers and businesses trying to get loans. Thus, the U. S government cannot allow the economy to go down any further, they will have to use the tax payer’s money as a safety net to bail AIG out. Credit rating agencies such as Standard & Poor’s (S&P) have been reprimanded as they are also one of the crucial groups of people that contributed to the subprime crisis.They handled complex securities such as the MBS and CDO which are from the loaners with bad credit scores and rated them highly so it could be sold to the i nvestors. The underrated MBS and CDOs that the investors purchase caused them to suffer great losses. It comes hand in hand, as without the rating agencies doing, the bank would not be able to resell the CDOs and MBS. It was ridiculous as a subprime loaner with a bad credit score can be securitized and rated as AAA ratings. It was also said that part of the revenue that the banks got from selling the CDOs and MBS are shared to the agencies.Competitions happened between different rating agencies as all of the wants to enjoy the high influx of revenue which eventually caused the rating standard to drop tremendously due to the conflict of interests. A source from (from where) also states that due to the low standardization in the ratings from the agencies, the AAA CDOs and MBS that went through securitizations doubled the amount as it used to be. As rating the CDOs and MBS is the rating agencies job, they are not held responsible for the compensations to the investors as ratings, was only a piece of advice from them to make references to.TO sum it up, investment banks was unable to rectify the illusion of how property value would climb continuously thus causing a domino effect that ultimately caused their downfall. When there is rise, there will always be a fall. As the bank did not foresee such circumstances affecting the prices of property, hence continued with the high-risk-loans to everyone and anyone that applies for a grant to purchase a property. It all falls into place when rating agencies started lowering their rating standard to compete with their competitions due to favouritism of their own interests.

Terri Schiavo Should NOT Have Been Kept Alive Essay

Terri Schiavo Should NOT Have Been Kept Alive Does a written document such as a living will decide when someone should die or should the verbal wishes of the incapacitated person be followed if known? Such as the controversy over when life begins, we now face the ultimate question of when does life end. In 1990, Terri Schiavo, a young Florida woman suffered a heart attack caused by bulimia leaving her brain without oxygen for six minutes. According to medical opinions, she has limited involuntary physical movement. She has remained in a persistent vegetative state ever since. Terri did not have a living will or medical directive in place at the time of her heart attack. Michael Schiavo, Terri’s husband, has repeatedly sought the†¦show more content†¦Their wish is to seek rehabilitation therapy for their daughter in hopes she can regain a normal life. The Schindler’s maintain Michael Schiavo is abusive and neglectful of his wife’s medical condition. Furthermore, they claim he wishes her death so he can inherit her remaining estate. It is their wish to be granted guardianship over her medical care and financial estate (Martinez Kampert, 2003). Additionally, the Schindlers impassioned pleas to save their daughters life to the residents of Florida resulted in more than 100,000 communications to Governor Jeb Bush requesting he sign legislation making it illegal to remove Terri’s feeding tube. As a result the governor intervened and signed â€Å"Terri’s Law† allowing her feeding tube to be reinserted. As recently as October 2004, Governor Bush stated â€Å"I personally dont want to be a party to removing a feeding tube that causes us to take an innocent life† (Bell, 2004). However emphatically the Governor supports this law, the Florida Supreme Court denied his request to reconsider it’s ruling in favor of removing Terri’s feeding tube. The date for removal has not been set. The Value of Life Most of us in the course of a lifetime will be confronted in our own families with difficult choices on matters of life and death. There are many opinions on when life begins and now it also seems as to when life ends. Does life end when a person takes their last breath, is it