Energy Sources Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Energy Sources - Essay Example Surprisingly enough, the number of supporters of this source of energy was still high among the American participants of the McRumours forum that discussed the pros/cons of the nuclear energy use a few days after the Fukushima disaster.Apart from financial benefits, it is often said that nuclear power is environmentally friendly. For example, Steven Kerekesfrom the U.S. Nuclear Energy Institute believes that nuclear power generation plays a prominent role in the reduction of carbon emissions around the world. However, the arguments in favor of the nuclear energy use seem lame if one considers the arguments against it.The financial benefits are evidently outweighed by health risks associated with dealing with nuclear power waste and meltdown. While a generation of power seems relatively clean if compared to fossil fuels, the by-products need to be stored for hundreds of years in secluded facilities, some of which are situated â€Å"deep inside the mountains†. Given the fact tha t high-level radioactive waste has to be kept for hundreds of thousands of years till it is recognized safe to be released into the environment, opponents of nuclear waste rightfully contend that in reality there does not exist a place in the world which is truly safe. Indeed, as Jim Riccio, Nuclear Energy Campaign Director for Greenpeace, says â€Å"nothing you put the waste in will last longer than the waste itself, so burying it basically acquiesces to the fact that it will eventually leak†¦.just like every other radioactive dump site.†... participants of the McRumours forum that discussed the pros/cons of the nuclear energy use a few days after the Fukushima disaster (â€Å"McRumors Forum†, 2011, [online]).Apart from financial benefits, it is often said that nuclear power is environmentally friendly. For example, Steven Kerekesfrom the U.S. Nuclear Energy Institute believes that nuclear power generation plays a prominent role in reduction of carbon emissions around the world. It does not affect the climate, therefore it is quite clean and safe, Kerekes said in his interview to Earth Techling back in 2010 (DeFreitas, 2010, [online]). However, the arguments in favor of the nuclear energy use seem lame if one considers the arguments against it.The financial benefits are evidently outweighed by health risks associated with dealing with nuclear power waste and meltdown. While generation of power seems relatively clean if compared to fossil fuels, the byproducts need to be stored for hundreds of years in secluded fac ilities, some of which are situated â€Å"deep inside the mountains† (â€Å"Nuclear Power: Risks and Rewards†, 2012, [online]). Given the fact that high-level radioactive waste has to be kept for hundreds of thousands of years till it is recognized safe to be released into the environment, opponents of nuclear waste rightfully contend that in reality there does not exist a place in the world which is truly safe. Indeed, as Jim Riccio, Nuclear Energy Campaign Director for Greenpeace, says â€Å"nothing you put the waste in will last longer than the waste itself, so burying it basically acquiesces to the fact that it will eventually leak†¦.just like every other radioactive dump site.† (DeFreitas, 2010, [online]). Apart from this, the aftermaths of nuclear accidents that occasionally happen throughout

BUS599 - Integrative Project, Mod 1 SLP Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

BUS599 - Integrative Project, Mod 1 SLP - Essay Example None of the products aims at dominating the tablet market according to the confidence level the VP has in the company’s product. The only problem with the tablet company is a proper strategy on segmentation of the market focusing on profitability and life cycle of the products. Product X5 As X5 is marketed to be a tablet that is meant for customers who are conscious of price, it denotes the company’s median product line. The product line is in performance and price terms. X5 tablets are priced 285 dollars with a rated performance of 1.02 beginning in 2012. Taking default development investment and research, the values maintain their level of steadiness. Product X5 2012 2013 2014 2015 Price $285 $285 $285 $285 performance 1.02 1.02 1.02 1.02 The table above shows how Joe performed. In its early product cycle, the performance of X5 is favorable against competition. Its sales steadily grow through 2012, although as the phase of maturity develops during the year 2013, sales fluctuate drastically, (Marketing Teacher, 2000). If there are no price cut benefits to fuel further demand, X5 will rapidly change into the advanced phases of its life cycle. X5 2012 2013 2014 2015 Sales 1,647,592 2,145,622 1,853,177 963,776 Revenue 469,563,809 611,502,211 528,155,442 274,676,048 Variable cost 469,563,809 321,843,269 277,976,548 144,566,341 Total cost 330,058,847 404,763,269 360,896,548 227,486,341 Profit 139,504,962 206,738,942 167,258,894 47,189,707 Product X6 The X6 makes Tablet development company the highest in the technology line focused on customers that look for a tablet that performs well and that ready to pay an amount for it. X6 tablets are priced 430 dollars with a rated performance of 1.02 beginning in 2012. In the absence of enough R and D to maintain its edge of competitive technology, the performance rating deteriorates every subsequent year. Product X6 2012 2013 2014 2015 Price $430 $430 $430 $430 performance 1.02 1.02 1.02 1.02 The X6 benefit fro m strong sales inflowing 2012, the central of the introduction phase. The growth, nevertheless, tables into 2013, after which it fluctuates sharply via 2014. With X6 performance falling off to 1, the competitive advantage quickly degrades. It does not clearly receive the R and D investment which is required to give service to its targeted consumer. The table below shows the original promise of introduction phase of X6 that do not survive its transformation against competition. X6 2012 2013 2014 2015 Sales 1,288,999 2,134,931 2,364,061 1,118,142 Revenue 554,269,513 918,020,206 480,801,048 Variable cost 354,474,689 587,105,945 650,116,782 307,489,042 Total cost 400,134,689 632,765,945 695,776,782 353,149,042 Profit 154,134,825 285,254,260 320,769,459 127,652,006 X7 product The X7 stands for Tablets Development Company’s product contribution for the summative market. It does not either focus on price point or performance advantage. This tablet is of a mature product market where consumers look for a value established on a steadiness between price and required performance. Being in the category that is emerging, X7 starts 2012 at 190 dollars with a performance level of 0.97. The combination shows the product immaturity relative to the strategy that it fits in. The investment of R&D in X7 product increases the rate of performance throughout the considered time horizon, although never to a level needed to match its competition. Product X7 2012 2013 2014 20

Friedman’s Discussion of Globalization and Flattening Essay Example for Free

Friedman’s Discussion of Globalization and Flattening Essay Globalization is regarded by its critics as a force which is extending the gap between the world’s rich and poor. In some ways, this has been true, especially throughout the first decade of the post-Cold War Era. The opening of gateways to the East created a relationship between the corporate partners throughout the globe that concentrated the spoils of free-trade into the hands of the wealthy. But in Thomas Friedman’s 2005 meditation on the topic, The World is Flat, there is evidence that in fact, the intended products of globalization such as a greater distribution of knowledge resources and a leveling of the technological playing field are beginning to surface. This latter product of free trade, the ‘leveling’ effect is that which informs Friedman’s title theme. The world has become flat by its increasing smallness. The economic, political, cultural and tele-communicative interconnectivity of nations is gradually eroding many of the geographic obstacles to popular progress. The strands of globalization, the New York Times journalist observes, have contributed to a broadening of access to independent entrepreneurialship and opportunity. Though many of the subjects of the author’s analysis are large American multi-national corporations, there is an evident transition in which knowledge-based internet startup enterprises from across the globe are undermining the more monopolistic proclivities of the American market. In nations such as India and China, American exploitation of lower operational, environmental and labor-oriented costs in the technological sector has caused a proliferation of such resources to the general public. This, in turn, is becoming a hotbed of alternative market action which will ultimately dismantle the superiority of the American economy. According to Friedman’s analysis, a core detriment to the U. S. economy, but a boon to independent operations overseas, has been a disregard for American private conceptions of property rights. From counterfeiting of American name brand consumer goods to pirate telecommunication infrastructural apparatuses, the bureaucratic vulnerabilities to effective globalization are numerous. Both partners in a free-trade circumstance stand to lose economic opportunity in the presence of such market subversions. Thomas Friedman’s text is eye-opening insofar as so many of the matters which he discusses may be directly implicated in the experiences of our everyday lives. In fact, this is the ‘flattening’ principle of which the author speaks, dictating that the public experience rather than simply large institutional abstractions are shaping the context in which we live our lives. Such is to suggest that the technological, educational, informational and recreational freedoms which have traditionally be reserved for those on the upper echelon of both their domestic setting and international geography are increasingly becoming democratic. However, in contrast to Friedman’s general tenor of optimism, his sarcasm only hints at the current consequences of globalization for so many individuals. This discussion is a reflection on Friedman’s text as informed by my own conception of globalization which brings future opportunity at the expense of current human dignity, personal satisfaction and even American prosperity. Therefore, the discussion will be oriented toward elucidating globalization’s internally contradictory nature. Just as it enriches one demographic in a developing nation, it facilitates the targeted abuse of another. Just as it endows us with a heretofore unseen capacity for self-sufficiency, it likewise robs us of the capacity to control the level of satisfaction which we achieve when relating to the commercial world. In the flattening of the global horizon that Friedman lauds as the eventual path to a shared standard of living and prosperity, there is the need for a greater analytical emphasis on the negative forces that are driving individuals to increasingly attempt to find their own pathways to social and commercial interaction. Friedman’s discussion, as we will see, is focused on demonstrating the permeation of benefits to the collective world community in free trade. This is quite supportable from a macrolevel standpoint. Indeed, nations engaged in free trade would do well to support one another in a mutuality of benefit. Certainly, as was illustrated by the economic phenomena of the 1990s’, the expansion of a single large market through a boom of technological progress will have the effect of disseminating to the rest of the free world. This was certainly proved to be true by the dynamic of that decade, when â€Å"there was a massive investment in technology, especially in the bubble era, when hundreds of millions of dollars were invested in putting broadband connectivity around the world. † (Friedman, 6) The result is what is seen as surfacing today. More than the United States, it is the world community which is producing the knowledge workforce of the future. And though Friedman is forthcoming in making that foreboding case, it is important that we expound upon this subject further in this discussion by acknowledging that globalization and the ‘flattening’ effect are not of a uniform pattern. Even as the proliferation which the author discusses is taking place, it has done so with a multitude of consequences that can neither said to have been desire nor can be said to have stimulated greater equality. Friedman, whom by his text we may suggest is a supporter of the ultimate purpose of globalization, makes the technological attribution that â€Å"it was actually the coincidence of the dot-com boom and the Telecommunications Act of 1996 that launched the fiber-optic bubble. † (67) Friedman observes that the collective telecom industry invested roughly 1 trillion dollars in half a decade on ‘wiring the world. ’ (67) The deregulation in the 1996 American domestic legislation, which allowed so many larger companies to enforce hostile consolidation measures in a vast array of theretofore legally unapproachable markets, would coincide with the unfettered capital investment in global internet penetration that has ultimately elevated private sector rights over public rights while simultaneously helping to bring other nations to an eventually greater infrastructural promotion of internet access than would be found in the United States. In some manner, this is borne out by a pattern with incredibly broad-based implications for American consumer and job markets. Today, we have seen and experienced the wholesale transfer of our Customer Service industry to fledgling globalizing economies such as that in India. Here, major computer retailers, cable company operators, wireless communication device providers, bank/credit cards merchants and virtually every other monopolistic corporate industry in America is forced to maintain its competitive advantages by commissioning outsourced Customer Service agents located in India. It is their charge to replicate the experience of an American calling a support technician with an intimate relationship with the product in question. This is accomplished with, as Friedman reveals, intensive training in the adoption of linguistic, dialectic and etiquette-related behaviors designed to facilitate comfort for the American caller. â€Å"The Indian call center operators adopt Western names of their own choosing. The idea, of course, is to make their American or European customers feel more comfortable. † (22) Amongst the many indicators that cultural flattening would play a part in this transition of labor, the concept of taking on an Americanized name in the interests of facilitating the core consumer target is not only remarkable but intensely objectionable from the outside perspective, particularly when this outside perspective is informed by the sense of autonomy and individuality typically affiliated with western philosophy. However, for the subjects described in Friedman’s book, an aspect of the western philosophy perhaps more indicative of its cultural interest is the economic opportunity afforded to the hundreds of thousands of young Indian post-graduates competing for the chance to answer phone calls from Americans concerned with all manner of technical support or target marketing. This relatively low-level and typically micro-managed field in America has become amongst the most competitive entry-level positions in India. And in one sense that Friedman captures in the theoretical framing of his text, this is an opportunity for personal economic mobility which for the young student in India might have been seen as extraordinary and rarified just a decade ago. This may hardly be said to be true today, where â€Å"245,000 Indians are answering phones† 24 hours a day and charged with responsibility of representing themselves as being located somewhere in the United States. (24) From a personal perspective, this has produced an incredible dearth of quality service in the United States, where the usability of our products has become increasingly distant from the quality of the Customer Support which we have received. One of the qualities of our technology which Friedman believes has helped to diminish the relevance of geographical distance to serviceability has been the institution of automated Customer Service. For those of us who have been transferred and given insufficient options for contending with specific categories of problem, this has hardly been an added convenience. And the infallibly polite computerized operator is equally as unflappable or emotionally unresponsive as is the outsourced Customer Service representative. In a particularly telling passage where Friedman observes a woman in an Indian call center as caller after caller hangs up the phone in rage, we can see that there is something about this experience that can be excruciating and even unfair. It may be noted that Friedman does a very effective job at distinguishing between the economic, the sociological and the technological factors which have rendered our current level of global flatness. He acknowledges that there were world events which would make the type of collaboration now essential between the United States and India a natural matter of happenstance. Friedman describes the so-called Y2K crisis in which it was feared that a lack of programming foresight would result in the incorrect resetting of the world’s computer-based internal clocking mechanisms, creating the likelihood of widespread technical failure throughout the world. Thus, â€Å"with Y2K bearing down on us, America and India started dating, and that relationship became a huge flattener, because it demonstrated to so many different businesses that the combination of the PC, the Internet, and fiber-optic cables had created the possibility of a whole new for of collaboration horizontal value creation: outsourcing. † (108) So we must yield to the fact that, truly, globalization can hardly be avoided. The scope of consumer need does truly require a greater scope of consumer service, and the Indian economy does have the correct workforce makeup to address this need. But when combined with the expansion of private rights, courtesy of such legislation as the 1996 Act, this has created a frustrating sense for the consumer that ‘flattening’ requires a considerable decline from the experiences to which Americans have grown accustomed. Perhaps the overarching presence in Friedman’s text is the intimation that these factors which are impacting our lives and the affecting the shift of world order are of an inevitable nature. The ten factors which are identified as the flattening mechanisms of the changing globe are largely technological and economic forces with broad social and cultural implications. However, these latter qualities are merely the secondary consequence of a circumstance committed to by former. Such is to say that the proliferation of western culture, though certainly not accidental, is merely incidental. Referring once again to the problematic case of outsourcing Customer Support services, we can see that the imposition of American culture is only due to the need to cater to the American consumer. In reality, though Indian culture is threatened by subversion, it is American culture which is being co-opted for reasons having little to do with cultural expression. As a result, the American identity has been trivialized and largely represented as being tantamount to the conveyance of commercial interest. One of the core revelations offered by this text, at least when placed in the context of the general American’s everyday experience, is that the flattening which has occurred must necessarily come at the expense of the American’s staunch sense of individuality and belief in personal entitlement. Works Cited: Friedman, T. (2005). The World is Flat: A Brief History of the 21st Century. Farrar, Straus and Giroux.

Effect of Positive Emotions Induced by Music

Effect of Positive Emotions Induced by Music Do positive emotions induced by music broaden thought-action repertoires? Music has the potential to communicate emotions, and this presence can be considered to be part of our everyday experience. Music psychologist believes that it has the capability to invoke specific emotions when listeners tune in to a specific type of music. For example, a faster toned and pitch music will indicate a lighter and happier mood, whereas a slow tone and pitch will indicate a sad emotion. On the scale of mood, Fredrickson’s broaden-and-build theory suggests that positive emotions builds up our thought-action repertoire, explains that we should harness positive emotions into our daily lives in effort to enhance our coping skills. The fusion of music with the broaden-and-build theory is an attempt to prove that positive emotions do indeed broaden our momentary thought-action repertoire as proven in Fredrickson’s theory, but on a different scale. Such fusion can be proven to be worth of research as music exists in our everyday lives and if we incorporate and fo ster positive emotions into individual’s daily lives, most, if not everyone, would have increased thought-action repertoire, which would then lead to better coping skills in situations. The broaden-and-build theory suggests the function of a subset of positive emotions such as joy, love and contentment. Fredrickson (2004) proposed that positive emotions produce optimal functioning over time, which includes psychological well-being, as well as physical well-being. These positive emotions, where individuals experience joy, which in turn creates the urge to play, or interactions with a stranger which will in turn create a supportive relationship, will broaden an individual’s thought-action repertoire. This broaden mindset is in contrast with negative emotions, where it prompts immediate and narrow action tendencies such as fight or flight. Fredrickson also proposed that with broadening of an individual’s thought-action repertoire, it would in turn create and build into the individual’s personal resources, and these personal resources are thought to be long term which can help individuals cope with situations in future. For the support of her theori es, Fredrickson reviewed some of other researchers who worked on the effects of positive affect and cognition and pointed out that Kahn and Isen (1993) found that individuals experiencing positive affect report having increased preference for variety and accept a broader array of behavioural options. Subsequently, Ashby, Isen, and Turken (1999) found that positive affect produces effects linked to increases in brain dopamine levels, particularly in the prefrontal cortex and anterior cingulate, which are thought to underlie better cognitive performance. However, Isen’s work did not target specific positive emotions or thought-action repertoires per se, but it provides the strongest evidence that positive affect broadens cognition. As Fredrickson builds up on her theory which eventually became the broaden-and-build theory, Fredrickson and Joiner (2002) propose that positive emotions will elicit an upward spiral in the direction of enhanced emotional well-being. They assessed their prediction by testing whether positive affect and broad-minded coping reciprocally and prospectively predict one another. They made a conclusion that positive affect from a particular time will lead to enhancement of broad-minded coping at a later stipulated timing, and vice versa. It was also mentioned that positive affect at one particular time is able to predict the positive affect at a later time when changes in the broad-minded coping were controlled, and vice versa. Hence, it can be said that from this particular review, it has been found that positive affect and broad-minded coping are correlated and they mutually build on one another. However, later studies done by researchers such as Nickerson (2007) suggested that Fredrickso n and Joiner (2002)’s analysis tested within-occasion, across persons hypotheses, which are incoherent with Fredrickson’s broaden-and-build theory of emotions that is within person, across occasions. Nickerson changed their hypotheses so that the edited hypotheses would align with the broaden-and-build theory, in which Fredrickson subsequently tested the momentary broaden hypothesis, in which the efficacy was proven. Fredrickson (2005) made use of a Twenty Statement Test as a measure of thought-action repertoire when her participants were randomly assigned and exposed to videos which will induce a specific emotion. For example, participant A would be exposed to a video of some penguins, which would supposedly elicit the amusement emotion. The participant would then be required to fill in the Twenty Statement Test in which a higher number of statements filled in would indicate a larger thought-action repertoire, and this finding was consistent with their hypotheses. On another scale, Fredrickson conducted a qualitative analysis using the same data collected, and classified the responses collected from the participants into some categories. They found similar findings, for example, participants who viewed the amusement video are reported to have more frequent urges to play, have positive feelings or thoughts, and fewer urges to sleep or rest. Thus, the data presented by Fredrickson support 2 central aspects of the broaden hypothesis positive emotion broadens thought-action repertoires, as well as broadening effects emerge for 2 distinct types of positive emotion, namely amusement and contentment. Music can be thought to be a powerful tool in inducing specific mood states (Marin and Bhattacharya, 2010), and these moods refer to the states which feature a lower intensity than emotions, and this state tend to last much longer than emotions; these emotions denote the affective response that generally encompass some subcomponents – action tendency, as well as regulation. Although it is believed that there could be some correspondence between music induced emotion and mood, the two distinctions can be said as: music induced emotions are short lived, whereas music induced mood generally last longer. Various psychophysiological and psychological experiments such as emotion perception to emotion experiences have been proven by Thomas Baumgartner, Michaela Esslen, Lutz Ja ¨ncke (2006), where it was elucidated by their psychometric results that emotions can be evoked by pictures and classical music. There are a large number of empirical studies that reveal systematic relationsh ips between musical structures and emotional responses (Gabrielsson Lindstro ¨m, 2010). Lundqvist, Carlsson, Hilmersson and Juslin (2009) concluded in their study that self-composed music is effective in inducing specific emotions. For example, they explained that for a happy emotion to be induced, the happy music needs to feature fast tempo, high sound level, and major mode, while the sad music featuring slow tempo, low sound level, and minor mode. This was also proven in their research, as well as previous works, which gives the conclusion that music is able to produce specific emotions without contamination. Hence, it is of interest to study the interaction between how music is capable of inducing the emotions as required, and how the induced emotion can help in enhancing an individual’s coping skills, as well as building up their personal resources. The nature of the study is discovering whether positive emotions induced by music will broaden thought-action repertoire in a sample of Singaporean participants. The rationale of the hypothesis is to find out if the differences of cultures may pose a significant contributor to the difference in thought-action repertoire. Secondly, inspection can be done to see if cross-cultural differences may produce different results as compared to what Fredrickson originally done in her study, and lastly, findings may have possible implications of music to enhance psychological and physical well-being. Thus, the first hypothesis is that positive emotions will broaden momentary thought-action repertoire. Secondly, the emotion experienced in amusement will broaden momentary thought-action repertoire to a greater extent when compared to contentment. The third hypothesis is that negative emotions will narrow thought-action repertoire, and the last hypothesis is that object-focused negative emotions (e .g. anger) will narrow momentary thought-action repertoire to a greater extent when compared to object-less negative emotions (e.g. anxiety). This study is considered to be an advance over previous works; in the original broaden-and-build theory, Fredrickson made use of videos to induce emotions, and for modifications, the new experiment will use audio materials, which consists of self-composed audio clips; the rationale here is to identify if the usage of video and music clips will yield the same kind of findings. Additionally, two additional steps will be administered; before starting the experiment (measuring skin conductance level), and at the end of the experiment (performing relaxation techniques on participants). The first step ensures that each participant is at neutral emotional state (baseline) before we induce a particular emotion with the music clip. The second step ensures the momentary emotional well-being of participants as they do not leave the experiment with induce d emotions, but with neutral emotions (baseline). Method Participants 100 university students enrolled in an introductory psychology course received course credit for their participation. Only students who spoke English as their first language were eligible to participate. Some ethical issues to be considered are the initial screening before participation. It is required that the participants are mentally healthy, and it is essential to exclude those with history of mental and physical illnesses because of the emotional manipulation involved in the experiment; the confidentiality of the information provided by the participants will be ensured. Another ethical issue is that of informed consent: Participants will be informed of experimental procedure, the materials that will be used, and the rights to withdraw before the start of experiment; they also have the option of counselling services and exit interview at point of withdrawal. Questions from participants will be answered at all times of experiment. Finally, participants can be sure that their answe rs remain anonymous as the forms and tests that they filled in during the experiment do not require them to fill in their names, as well as undergoing a debrief of the original intent of the research. Design The nature of this research is considered to be a quasi-experiment, where the independent variable (IV) is emotions, which are induced by the respective music clips (Amusement, contentment, anger, anxiety, neutral), and the dependent variable (DV) is the thought-action repertoire, in which will be measured via two methods: quantitative and qualitative. Materials Participants will be selected at random to be exposed to audio clips which are intended to induce emotions. The audio clips that are exposed to the participants are: Amusement, contentment, anger, anxiety, as well as neutral. Skin conductance level (SCL). To ensure that the participants will not contaminate the data being collected, the SCL will be used to ensure that the participants will start off the experiment in a neutral state. This is done by attaching a node onto the participants’ hands, followed by measuring the skin resistance, which will be varied with the state of the sweat glands on the skin of their hands. Emotion Report Form. Ekman, Friesen, and Ancoli (1980) made use of the emotion report form to identify and test if the emotions induced by the experimenter are successfully manipulated by music clips. This is done by participants giving a rating of emotions felt on a Likert scale. Participants who rated the greatest amount felt of the emotions above on a 9-point Likert scale (0 = none, 8 = a great deal). Twenty Statements Test. Kuhn and McPartland (1954) constructed the Twenty Statements Test to measure the thought-action repertoire of individuals after they are exposed to audio clips. They are required to fill in 20 blank lines which began with â€Å"I would like to†¦Ã¢â‚¬  to their greatest extent possible after listening to the audio clip. A higher score is thought to indicate a larger thought-action repertoire. Procedure Before the participants begin the official experiment, they would be required to be put under the SCL test, which is to ensure that they start off the experiment on a neutral state. Participants would then be randomly exposed to one particular audio clip which elicits a single emotion, i.e. a faster tone and pitch audio clip would indicate the participants listening to a happy music. The next step would require the participants to describe the strongest emotion that they felt in a few words, and subsequently asked to complete the Twenty Statements Test. Before the participants finish the experiment, they would be required to complete the Emotion Report Form so that there is consistency in their emotions felt and the emotions written down onto the Twenty Statements Test. Lastly, participants would be given a mandatory relaxation session so that they can fall back to their baseline (neutral state). Results Statistical analysis can be done on various scales, which includes quantitative level, as well as qualitative level. For the quantitative level, analysis can be done for the self-reported emotions from the Emotion Report Form, where a 1-way ANOVA and Tukey pairwise comparisons to test if music clips altered emotional experiences as intended. Positive emotion music groups/Negative emotion music groups will be compared with neutral emotion music group to produce a less ambiguous result. Secondly, a 1-way ANOVA and Tukey pairwise comparisons can be conducted for the number of responses from Twenty Statements Test, and for the group differences in repertoire size, a 5 x 2 ANOVA, where the 5 groups are the audio clips exposed, and the two groups are the culture, which in this case is the Singaporean Culture compared with Foreign culture. On the qualitative level, analysis can be done via coding, where participants who responded in a certain manner will be classified into a category, and f or each participant, proportion scores for each activity was determined by dividing the tally for that activity by the total number of statements the participant generated. Discussion The expected results are that all hypotheses proposed are significant, that is to say that positive emotion will broaden momentary thought-action repertoire, and the amusement emotion will broaden momentary thought action repertoire to a greater degree when compared to contentment. Some of the limitations include the possibility of the individual’s desire to be socially desirable may cause contamination of the data as participants may not write their intended behaviours or thoughts as per the emotions they experience in the music clips. For instance, an individual may not write that he or she will hit someone even though he or she wants to. Future researchers can look into exploring the usage of recording the participants’ response instead of doing the Twenty Statements Test, as there is a possibility of identifying the emotions of the participants through the way they speak.

Othello: Racism Essay examples -- Othello essays

Othello: Racism  Ã‚        Ã‚   Just how serious is the problem of racial prejudice in William Shakespeare’s tragedy Othello? Is it pervasive or incidental? This essay intends to answer questions on this subject. Blanche Coles in Shakespeare’s Four Giants maintains that the racial discrimination in the play may be overstated by critics: In the first scene, Roderigo has referred to Othello as â€Å"thick lips.† No other character in the play attributes any such negroid features to Othello, and it should be remembered that Roderigo has a half-insane prejudice against and hatred for Othello. Brabantio refers to his â€Å"sooty bosom,† but may he not have meant his hairy chest? Some rather fair men have black hair on their chests. The word â€Å"sooty† seems to apply more aptly to this interpretation than it does to a mere black body. All other characters refer to Othello respectfully as â€Å"the Moor† or â€Å"the valiant Moor.† (80) In the opening scene, while Iago is expressing his dislike, or rather hatred, for the general Othello for his having chosen Michael Cassio for the lieutenancy, he contrives a plan to partially avenge himself (â€Å"I follow him to serve my turn upon him†), with Roderigo’s assistance, by alerting Desdemona’s father, Brabantio, to the fact of his daughter’s elopement with Othello. Roderigo shares Iago’s prejudiced attitude toward Othello: â€Å"What a full fortune does the thicklips owe / If he can carry't thus!† The word thicklips is a disparaging reference to a facial characteristic of many members of the dark-skinned race. When, by loud shouting, Brabantio is awakened, Iago commences with a series of racial epithets: Zounds, sir, you're robb'd; for shame, put on   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   your gown;   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Your heart is burst, you have lo... ...e.   EMILIA. Thou dost belie her, and thou art a devil! (5.2)    Following Iago’s murder of Emilia, he is captured; Lodovico addresses Othello, who is so dejected at having been deceived by his ancient:   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   O thou Othello, thou wert once so good,   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Fall'n in the practise of a damned slave,   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   What shall be said to thee? (5.2)    Needless to say, damned slave has racial overtones. Shortly thereafter, the hero, in remorse for the tragic mistake he has made, stabs himself and dies on the bed next to his wife, his sorrow being as deep as his love.    WORKS CITED Shakespeare, William. Othello. In The Electric Shakespeare. Princeton University. 1996. http://www.eiu.edu/~multilit/studyabroad/othello/othello_all.html No line nos. Coles, Blanche. Shakespeare’s Four Giants. Rindge, New Hampshire: Richard Smith Publisher, 1957.   

Carnivore :: Research Papers

Carnivore No one can speak for all Americans in deciding the trade-offs between equal protection of the laws, privacy, and fearless exercise of democratic freedoms. - Rob Geis Envision a future where every action you make is recorded and reviewed by unknown means — A world where a government spies on its own citizens more frequently than other nations — A government that reads everyone’s email, in order to try to thwart unpreventable actions. Does this sound like a science fiction story? Well it is not; this is a reality according to civil libertarians. Ever since the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation's (FBI) program, named Carnivore, was introduced to the world in 1999, civil libertarians have been up in arms claiming that Carnivore violates civil human rights. This claim and others about Carnivore are shortsighted, because there are misconceptions about Carnivore itself. Carnivore is not a vicious wolf, eating its prey (email) at will; it is a harmless puppy, which can barely open its eyes; I will go into some detail on what Carnivore is, why it causes commotion, and why it is inadequate to do any good. It is the role of any gover nment to protect its interests and its citizens. Carnivore does not live up to its expectations, but if used effectively can capture some criminals. History of biting Carnivore is a third generation on-line protection program. In â€Å"How Carnivore Works† by Jeff Tyson, he states, "While information about the first version has never been disclosed, many believe that it was actually a readily available commercial program called Etherpeek" (Tyson, 2). The second generation, Omnivore, was deployed in 1997. Information about Omnivore has not been public until recently. The third generation, DragonWare Suite, was introduced in 1999 which contains three parts, â€Å"[1] Carnivore - A Windows NT/2000-based system that captures the information. [2] Packeteer - No official information released, but presumably an application for reassembling packet into cohesive messages or Web pages. [3] Coolminer - No official information released, but presumably an application for extrapolating and analyzing data found in the messages† (Tyson, 2). In short, Carnivore is a program within the DragonWare suite that captures email packets from Internet Service Providers (ISP's) in order to prevent criminal actions that are conducted through email. According to Tyson, â€Å"The FBI plans to use Carnivore for specific reasons. Particularly, the agency will request a court order to use Carnivore when a person is suspected of: Terrorism, child pornography/exploitation, espionage, information warfare, or fraud† (Tyson, 5).

Moldova’s Relations with European Union

In 1538, the principality became a tributary to the Ottoman Empire, but it retained internal and partial external autonomy. In 1600, inhabitants of the Romanian provinces saw for the first time their dream of reunification as reality. Michael the Brave leaded simultaneously the Romanian principalities of Wallachia, Moldova and Transilvania for one year. In 1812, despite numerous protests by Moldavan nobles on behalf of their autonomous status, the Ottoman Empire ceded to the Russian Empire the eastern half of the territory of the Principality of Moldavia along with Hotin and Budgeac.The next 106 years, Romanians from Basarabia were under continues Russification and Romanian language was gradually removed from official and religious use. Basarabia proclaimed independence from Russia on February 6, 1918, and on April 9, 1918 united with the Kingdom of Romania. In August 1939, the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact and its secret additional protocol were signed, by which Nazi Germany recognized Ba sarabia as being within the Soviet sphere of influence, which led the latter to actively revive its claim to the region.On June 28, 1940, the Soviet Union, with the acknowledgement of the Nazi Germany, issued an ultimatum to Romania requesting the cession of Basarabia and northern Bucovina, with which Romania complied the following day. The Moldovan Soviet Socialist Republic was established and Moldova became a tiny part of the â€Å"Evil Empire†. During the Soviet period, deportations of locals to the northern Urals, to Siberia, and northern Kazakhstan occurred regularly. Other forms of Soviet persecution of the population included 32,433 political arrests, followed by Gulag (in 8,360 cases) or execution and collectivization.In 1944-53, there were several anti-Soviet resistance groups in Moldova; however the NKVD and later MGB managed to eventually arrest, execute or deport their members. Official Soviet policy asserted that the language spoken by Moldovans was distinct from the Romanian language (â€Å"Moldovenism†). To distinguish the two, during the Soviet period, Moldovan was written in the Cyrillic alphabet, in contrast with Romanian, which was written in the Latin alphabet.On August 27, 1989, the Popular Front of Moldova organized a mass demonstration in Chisinau, that became known as the Grand National Assembly, which pressured the authorities of the Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic to adopt a language law on August 31, 1989 that proclaimed the Moldovan language written in the Latin script to be the state language. Its identity with the Romanian language was also established. 2. From RSSM to Republic of Moldova The third richest colony of Soviet Union, Moldova, obtained its independence in 1991 and in just 20 years managed to become the poorest country in Europe.After the breakup of Soviet Union in 1991, Moldova found itself in a new reality. In 1990, 5 Moldovan districts with less than 1 million inhabitants, located on the left side o f river Nistru, declared their independence. Tensions between the Moldovan government and the breakaway Transnistria Republic escalated into a military conflict that started in March 1992 and was concluded by a ceasefire in July 1992. Transnistria's sovereignty is not recognized by any member of the United Nations and it has no official diplomatic relations with any of those states.Nevertheless, Russia is great supporter of Transnistria and other self-declared independent territories of the former Soviet Union countries (Abhazia, South Osetia). Transnistria accounts for 40% of Moldovan GDP, the main part of the Moldovan industry is located on the left side of the Nistru, and therefore it is a strategic region for Moldova. Transnistria is still under the control of Russian 14th Army, which constitutes a serious violation of International Public Law and of the 1999 Istanbul Agreements.On July 8, 2004, the European Court of Human Rights stated in a ruling that the Russian army â€Å"s tationed in Moldovan territory [is] in breach of the undertakings to withdraw them completely given by Russia at the OSCE summits in 1999 and 2001. † Even with domestic conflicts and tensions, Moldova had to establish its state institutions and undertake a complex process of social and economic reforms. Moldova established its diplomatic relations with other countries and organizations, including European Union (EU). Despite the relative short period of cooperation between Moldova and EU, these relations were marked by striking â€Å"ups and downs†. . Moldova’s relations with EU For the purpose of this paper, I would like to distinguish between following stages of Moldova- EU relations: 1. 1991-1998 – â€Å"wait and see† period 2. 1998-2008 – â€Å"two steps forward and one back†, 3. 2009-2010 – â€Å"twitter revolution†- turning point in Moldova – EU relations 4. November, 28th 2010 in Moldova will be held the Par liamentary elections which are crucial for Moldova’s European future. 3. 1. 1991-1998 – â€Å"wait and see† period The first framework for EU-Moldova relations was provided by TACIS (Technical Assistance for Commonwealth of Independent States).TACIS was established in 1991 and provided grant-financed technical assistance to 12 former USSR countries, except Baltic countries, to help in their transition to democratic, market-oriented economies. TACIS was not a bilateral agreement between Moldova and EU, it was drawn by EU as a common tool for 12 former USSR colonies aimed at enhancing the transition process. In 1994 Moldova and EU signed first bilateral Agreement, the so-called Partnership and Cooperation Agreement (PCA), which entered into force in 1998. While this ramework agreement was passing through a cumbersome ratification procedure by the EU member states, Moldovan President P. Lucinschi expressed, by successive official letters addressed to the President of European Commission and to all EU heads of states and governments, the aspiration of Moldova to become an associate member of the EU. Though no formal answer followed, through different channels it was suggested that before passing to the associate stage a full implementation of the EU-Moldova PCA was necessary. 3. 2. 1998-2008 – â€Å"two steps forward and one back†During this period Moldova-EU relations gained more consistency, but the relations were marked by changing of the power in Chisinau. The communist Party won the Parliamentary elections in 2001 with 50, 07 % and in 2005 with 45, 98 %. From 2001 to 2008 the Communist Government promoted the so-called ‘facade Europeanization’. Moldova had double standard messages for Brussels and Moscow, the promotion of European values and democracy were done just to gain more voters. No wonder all the actions which aimed to bring Moldova closer to EU were undertaken at the end of the first Communist mandate ( 2005).In March, 2003 – EU and USA introduced a visa ban against self-declared Transnistria leaders. After the Eastern enlargement of EU in 2004, EU launched the European Neighborhood Policy (ENP). The objective of the ENP is to share the benefits of the EU enlargement with neighboring countries. ENP was intended to offer a privileged relationship to EU’s neighbors, which will build on mutual commitment the common values principally within the fields of the rule of law, the respect for human rights, the principles of market economy and sustainable development.ENP was intended to be an incentive for Europe’s neighbors to pursue reforms and to import the EU’s values and practice as the candidates states do. In February, 2005, in the framework of ENP, Moldova and EU signed the Action Plan, which initially was intended to be for 3 years, but eventually it was extended by one year more. Among the objectives of the Action Plan, I would like to mention: the stren gthen of the institutions guaranteeing democracy, rule of law and respect for human rights, promoting economic reform, improving living conditions, etc.The Action Plan supported efforts to achieve a lasting resolution of the Transnistria problem. In October 2005, the EU has been invited to join the mediation process as observers in the so-called 5+2 format. Moldova, Transnistria, OSCE, Russia and Ukraine are mediators, while USA and EU are observers. In my opinion this format is not functional and needs to be changed. There is a big question mark whether all of the mediators are engaged in a fair process of mediation and can ensure a resolution of Transnistria conflict and in the same time the territorial integrity of Moldova.The format 5+2 is not balanced, because Russia and Ukraine (officially and/or non-officially) support Transnistria, OSCE is mainly controlled by Russia, EU and US having the status of observers, cannot intervene in the mediation process and at the end of the da y, Moldova does not have the necessary levers to sustain its points during the mediation. This question was recently raised by Kalman Mizsei, the European Union Special Representative for Moldova at the OSCE Summit in Vienna on 16-18 October, 2010.Helping Moldova to ensure full control over its borders and customs territory, the EU has deployed since December 2005 an EU Border Assistance Mission (EUBAM) on the Moldova – Ukraine state border (including the Transnistria sector). Other priorities of EU-Moldova relations include reforming the judiciary system, ensuring respect for freedom of expression and media, cooperating on issues such as migration, fight against trafficking, organized crime, corruption and money laundering, thereby contributing to the long-term objective of sustainable development.Even if the Action Plan provided certain actions that should be fulfilled by Moldovan Government, it did not have a particular and lasting approach from Moldovan side. Governmentâ €™s actions often achieve good results at project level, but have less impact at sector and national policy level partly due to a lack of continuity and coherent long-term sector planning. In spite of all the advantages and benefits of ENP, the 2006 spring (when Russia established embargo for the Moldovan wines) pointed out that ENP cannot be compared with political and economic pressure of Russia in Moldova.In the ENP framework, EU offers immediate and limited benefits and cannot cancel the effects of Russian economic blockade. This is one of reason why EU decided to double financial assistance in Moldova for the period 2007-2010, thus Moldova became the second beneficiary per capita of the EU assistance, after the Palestinian Authority. EU has provided about 210 million euro of assistance to Moldova through European Neighborhood and Partnership Instrument. The ENP and Action Plan brought new dynamics in the relations etween Moldova and EU; extended their cooperation opportunit ies; specified and detailed co-operation process between parties; updated the areas of dialogue [†¦] However, this is not say that everything went smooth in the implementation process of EU-Moldova Action Plan. While performing quite well on the economic dimensions of the document, Moldovan authorities proved an obvious lack of administrative capacities and unwillingness to promote fully-fledged reforms in crucial areas, such as respect of human rights, freedom of the media, the rule of law, fight against corruption and business environment. . 3. 2009-2010 – â€Å"twitter revolution†- turning point in Moldova – EU relations The next period of Moldova-EU relations is directly linked to the events of April 2009 and the so-called â€Å"twitter revolution†. On April 5th, 2010 in Moldova were held the Parliamentary elections. For the 3rd time in a row the Communist Party won the elections with 49, 48 %. The opposition parties and civil society organizatio n accused the Communist Party that they rigged the elections.On 6th and 7th of April, 2009, around 30000 people went into streets to protest against the results of the elections, the number quickly increased due in large part to new technologies and social networks like Facebook, Twitter, Odnoklasniki, etc. A large group of protesters stormed the Parliament and the Presidential Palace vandalizing both buildings and leaving the Parliament in flame.The Government reaction to the storms was severe, thousands of students were arrested and there were credible reports about mistreatment and torture of detainees, three fatalities were reported in connections with demonstrations and detentions. However, the Communist Party lacked one vote to elect the President and in July 2009 new Parliamentary elections were held. A new government formed by a fragile alliance of liberals and centrist was established after the elections. There was no coincidence in naming the coalition the Alliance for Eur opean Integration.These events brought Moldova back on the EU agenda; the new government started a diplomatic offensive to charm EU capitals and created high expectation in Moldova, especially for the educated, young electorate which tends to see the EU as an opportunity to bypass isolation and poverty. The events in Moldova coincided with the launching of EU Eastern Partnership – an institutionalized forum for discussing visa agreements, free trade deals and strategic partnership agreements with the EU's Eastern neighbors, while avoiding the controversial topic of accession to EU.Among the main provisions of the Eastern Partnership: new association agreements including deep and comprehensive free trade agreements, for those willing and ready to take on the far-reaching commitments with the EU that these entail; a conclusion of â€Å"mobility and security pacts†, allowing for easier legitimate travel to the EU while at the same time stepping up efforts to combat corrup tion, organized crime and illegal migration. These pacts would also cover the upgrading asylum systems to EU standards and the establishment of integrated border management structures, etc.The ultimate long term goal would be full visa liberalization, on a case by case basis, provided that conditions for well-managed and secure mobility are in place; the Commission will study possibilities for labor mobility with aim of further opening of the EU labor market; enhanced energy security in the partner countries themselves and with the European Union, including through support to investment in infrastructure, better regulation, energy efficiency and more efficient early warning systems to prevent disruption of supply; enhanced cooperation on environment and climate issues, etc.The new Government quickly engaged the country on the pro-European way. The Government gathered support for a new and very ambitious project, called â€Å"Rethink Moldova†. The EU, USA, IMF, WB and various EU member states took part in this action and in total $ 2,6 billion are scheduled to help Moldova for 2011-2013. In 2010, the financial assistance from the international organization increased 4 times. The table below describes the EU member’s states position versus Moldova: Table 1: EU Member states position versus Moldova Category| Member states| Description|Unconditional and active supporter | Romania | Romania traditionally supported a membership perspective, even when Bucharest had cold relations with former Moldovan Communist Government. Bilateral agreement were signed for agriculture, environment, education, in which Romania will offer assistance to fulfill EU criteria | Supporters | Poland, Sweden, Hungary, Baltic States, Bulgaria | Countries that offer support for Moldova’s EU ambitions, although fully aware that this is not a short-term option | Reluctant supporters | Czech Republic, UK | Open for discussing for EU embership if some other MSs would put the i ssue on the table. Both reluctant on visa. | Good willing skeptics| Germany | High level contact between Chisinau and Berlin brought encouragements, but Germany expects substantial reforms before any discussion on membership | Indifferent skeptics | France, Spain, Italy, Netherland | No clear position on Moldova. It seems not to be on their agenda. Italy is positive on visas. Netherland seems to focus on human rights and minorities treatment | Indifferent but visa skeptics | Belgium, Denmark, Luxembourg | No position on membership, opposing visa liberalization |The unconditional supporter of Moldova â€Å"Europeanization† is Romania. On November 13th, 2009, Moldova signed the Agreement on Small-Scale border traffic with Romania, which went into effect on February, 25th, 2010. The Agreement permits people who have been residents in the border area of either country for at least a year, to travel in the neighboring state’s border zone without a visa, for 3 months. Anothe r achievement of the pro-European Government from Chisinau is the beginning of negotiations for the Association Agreement and Deep and Comprehensive Trade Agreement with EU.There were four rounds of negotiations in 2010. Currently, Moldova and EU negotiations focus on four working groups addressing issues that relate to foreign policy, security, justice and economic cooperation. Regarding the â€Å"economic cooperation† were closed already 18 of the 22 chapters which have been negotiated. After the last negotiations held in October 2010, Gunnar Wiegand, the head of EU delegation, Director for Eastern Europe, Caucasus and Central Asia, mentioned that:†This year [2010] has been enormous progress in EU-Moldova relations†.The European official said that after the conclusion of the fourth round of negotiations, the EU will provide some key recommendations for Moldova, concerning the creation of free trade area. After Russia imposed the second embargo on Moldovan wine i n 2010, which had catastrophically consequences for Moldovan wine industry (which constitutes 25 % of Moldovan GDP), EU doubled the quota for Moldovan wine. In March, 2010 Moldova joined European Energy Community, which will contribute to the diversification of the energy sources in Moldova.In just one year, Moldova became a champion in negotiations with EU. Since November 2009 to November 2010 there have been 5 EU Commissioner Visits in Moldova (from 1991 to 2008 just 4 visits). During September – October 2010 Moldova hosted 16 high EU missions. 3. 4. November, 28th 2010 in Moldova will be held the Parliamentary elections. These elections are crucial for Moldova’s future. Moldovans have to choose between continuing the course toward European economic integration or live with the past and the shadow of Soviet Union. 4. Current issues of Moldova – EU relations Watch out, Moldova joins EU through the back door†. During the summer of 2010, many Europeans news papers as Der Spiegel, The Daily Telegraph, Daily Express, Il Giornale, Le Figaro expressed their concerns about Romania giving â€Å"too many† citizenships to Moldova’s inhabitants. I would like to address this issue from Moldovan perspective. In 1940, when USSR by force occupied Moldova, they changed the nationality of the Moldova’s inhabitants from Romanian to â€Å"Moldovan† and none of them were asked if they wanted to become Soviet Moldovans.The political decision of Moscow to create a new identity – â€Å"Moldovan†, a new language with Cyrillic alphabet – †Moldovan† was a continuation of the process of Russification that was started in 1812. But what Soviet Union did not take into account is that, they could not erase a memory of a nation. After the 1991 independence, a lot of Moldovans refused the â€Å"Moldovan† identity (written in their ID) as their nationality and sued the Moldovan Government for admitti ng of the false information in the documents.All in all, the Romanian citizenship offered by Romania comes as a rehabilitation of historical injustice made to Romanians from Moldova. The process is named re-gain of the citizenship, which means that once, because of the historical circumstances the citizenship was lost but without their will. More than 70 % of the Moldova’s inhabitants could be eligible for Romanian citizenship. There is no statistical data, but unofficially around 300 000 Moldovans have double citizenship: Romanian and Moldovan and there are around other 1 million applications for Romanian citizenship.The procedure of re-gaining the Romanian citizenship is tough and time consuming (more than 4 years), there is a list of around 20 documents that the applicant has to provide, including certificate of birth of grand-parents, certificate of marriage, criminal records from Moldova and Romania, etc. The applicant has to prove that his grand-parents were born Romani ans and he is their descendent.Moreover, Soviet Union Rusificated the Moldovan’s name by adding the Russian endings like† –va† and â€Å"- vici† to the Romanian names and in order to be eligible for Romanian citizenship, the applicant should embrace a bureaucratic and costly process of correcting his name and his parents’ name. A lot of concerns were raised to the number of Romanian citizenships offered to Moldovans, but as we can see in the following table, Romania offers much less citizenships than other EU member states: Table 2: Citizenships offered by selected countries of the EU in 2008:Another key issue in Moldova – EU negotiations is liberalization of visa regime with EU. I would like to point out that Moldova almost fulfilled the technical requirements for liberalization of visa regime without being asked to (Ukraine did it in 3 years). There were a lot of fears concerning the liberalization of EU-Moldova visa regime, most of t hem related to illegal immigration. But, a logic exercise of the Moldova reality would show that these fears are not realistic. Moldova has around 4 million inhabitants (including Transnistria).According to migration studies, the potential migrants are between 20 to 49 years old. In 2009, in Moldova there were 1,677,616 inhabitants between 20 to 49 years old. Therefore, if there was free visa regime between Moldova and EU 1,677,616 of Moldovans would become potential immigrants. Taking into account that around 30 % of Moldovans (~1 mln) already left the country for EU, US, Russia, etc. , the fears of illegal immigration disappear. Moldovans are already in EU, a big majority of them working for 2, 5 and even 8 years without getting a chance to visit their families.An interesting fact is that just 14 % of Moldovan immigrants plan to settle abroad. The free visa regime between Moldova and EU will improve and legalize the situation of Moldovans who work in EU and also would decrease the illegal immigration (some Moldovans pay 4000 Euro to get to EU). 5. Which way further? An actual question is which way further will Moldova go? Will it stick to its past or it will try to build a European future? It is certainly a question which answer we will found after November elections.One issue is obvious, the changing of the power in Chisinau brought Moldova back on EU agenda and the international circumstances are very favorable for solving the Transnistria conflict. On 4-5 June, Russia and Germany signed the Meseberg Memorandum. The document proposes creating an EU-Russia Political and Security Policy Committee, to be chaired by the EU’s High Representative for Foreign Policy Catherine Ashton and Russia’s Foreign Affairs Minister Sergei Lavrov, for high-level consultations and decisions.The committee’s mandate would include â€Å"setting ground rules for joint civilian and military crisis management operations by the EU and NATO,† as well as â⠂¬Å"working out recommendations on various conflicts and crisis situations, to the resolution of which the European Union and Russia may contribute within appropriate multilateral forums. † On these definitions, the EU-Russia Committee would be vested with greater powers than those of the NATO-Russia Council. It would also institute an EU-Russia policy coordination mechanism, such as the EU does not have with the United States or with NATO.The German government has identified the conflict in Moldova’s Transnistria region as the issue most likely to demonstrate that the EU can work one-on-one with Russia on European security. In Berlin’s view, Russia should ultimately withdraw its troops from Moldova’s territory and allow Moldova to reunify with Transnistria. In return for cooperating to settle this conflict, Russia could receive a major role in European security affairs, with access to EU decision-making processes via the proposed committee. The German ini tiative can generate a positive dynamic in the negotiations on Transnistria.It can also help raise this conflict high on the EU-Russia agenda. After the French-Russian-German summit in Deauville on 18-21 October, 2010, the Russian President, Dmitri Medvedev, for the first time in last 20 years, talked about including Romania in Transnistria negotiation process. Some analysts would argue that this propose is related to the invitation of Romania to participate in South Stream project, instead of Nabucco project. On October 21, 2010, the EU Parliament adopted a Resolution concerning EU-Moldova relations.The resolution stresses the substantial progress in EU-Moldova relations over the last year and calls on the Commission to swiftly adopt a visa liberalization plan for Moldovan citizens. Parliament also approved the recent initiative launched by German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Russian President Dimitri Medvedev to create an EU-Russia Security Committee to discuss regional issues suc h as a settlement of the Transnistria conflict. In addition to German support, Moldova also received positive signals from Central East European countries and Baltic countries, as Hungary, Poland, Czech Republic, Estonia, etc.In September 2010, Moldovan Prime-Minister had a bilateral meeting in Budapest with Hungarian Prime Minister, Viktor Orban. The next month, the Hungarian Prime-Minister visited Moldova and reiterated the Hungarian support for Moldova’s cause. At the beginning of November, the Polish economist Leszek Balcerowicz, famous for his â€Å"Shock Therapy† (a method for rapidly transitioning from a communist economy, based on state ownership and central planning, to a capitalist market economy), visited Moldova at the invitation of Moldovan Prime-Minister and expressed his will to share with Moldova Poland’s experience concerning economic transformations.In conclusion, one issue is evident, the so-called Moldova twitter revolution had changed the Eu ropean agenda concerning Moldova. Not so long ago, Moldova was seen as a lost country, â€Å"black hole of Europe†, â€Å"the poorest European country†, â€Å"a grey zone under Russian influence† and no one expected the quick change that would bring Moldova in the headlines. The change came from inside the country, from young Moldovans and students, from the so called â€Å"twitter generation†, who does not accept a totalitarian regime and wish for a better country to live in.