When is a car a commodity, and when is it a work of art Essay

When is a car a commodity, and when is it a work of art - Essay Example ogical developments, for example, one of the most significant inventions that revolutionized man’s means of transportation is the manufacture of automobiles. Automobile manufacturers have used the latest developments in technology to ensure that passengers are protected and kept ultimately in safe condition while travelling. In addition, technology is heading for the discovery of cost efficient and safe automobiles utilizing alternative fuels to run them. In this regard, the essay aims to determine and differentiate when a car is a commodity, and when is it a work of art. The term "commodity" is qualified as an industrial product sold by a large corporation to a mass public; and of course, a work of art is defined by the Free Dictionary (2010) as â€Å"the conscious production or arrangement of sounds, colors, forms, movements, or other elements in a manner that affects the sense of beauty, specifically the production of the beautiful in a graphic or plastic medium† (pa r. 2). The article written by John Urry entitled The ‘System’ of Automobility clearly classified cars as commodities with automobility comprising six components, to wit: (1) manufactured object; (2) individual consumption; (3) contains complex structures of â€Å"technical and social interlinkages with other industries, car parts and accessories† (Urry, 26); (4) a global form of mobility; (5) a form of cultural expression; (6) â€Å"the single most important cause of environmental resource-use† (Urry, 26). All elements point to the car as being an industrial product being mass produced globally. In fact, Urry cited that there had been â€Å"one billion cars manufactured during the last century† (Urry, 25), making it the most significant commodity that drastically changed man’s way of life. As a commodity, cars are driven by consumers to serve basic purpose of transportation. Families use vans to commute each day just to routinely go to their jobs, without actually caring about the car they

Supply and Demand Simulation Essay Example for Free

Supply and Demand Simulation Essay Supply and demand is considered a basic economic concept, as well as a vital part of a free market economy. In whereas supply is the amount of something, such as a product or service, demand is the amount of the product or service that buyers want to purchase. The relationship between supply and demand has a good deal of influence on the price of goods and services. In the scenario, a number of factors, including price increases or decreases, cause change in supply and demand. For example, a decrease in the rental price of two roomed apartments caused an increase in the demand of houses by a significant margin. A rise in the population of Atlantis led to a greater demand for housing which in turn contributed to the rise in rental prices as demand-outstripped supply. As a consequence, the suppliers were eager to supply more units at improved rental prices. When the population decreased, the demand for housing fell and the available units were leased out at low prices. Naturally, the suppliers were not very keen to supply all their units to the market at depressed prices. Available substitutes affect the demand and supply of a commodity. A number of people in Atlantis owned homes in the suburbs and did not need to rent houses in the town. The demand for houses dropped and this forced the suppliers to cut back on supply or reduce rents in bid to attract more clients. Consumer tastes and preferences affect the supply and demand of goods and services in the market When consumer trends shifted from two roomed apartments to detached houses, the shift in demand for apartments fell while the demand for detached houses rose. As a result, suppliers increased the supply of detached houses. Under free market conditions, a negative shift in demand results in lower quantities demanded and as such, suppliers are inclined to reduce supply. A positive shift in demand leads to a rise in quantities demanded and a positive shift in supply as supplier’s position themselves to take advantage of higher prices. As a supplier, the lower the price, the less I will supply to the market in a bid to push up prices when demand increases. With a rise  in demand, supplying more units to the market would make more profits by charging higher rents. The simulation focused on the following key points: The equilibrium price and quantity, Shifts in demand, Shifts in supply, and Changes in price. The concepts of demand and supply, as demonstrated in the simulation, instruct one how to respond to changes due to shifts in market fundamentals. Whenever there is a change in demand due to any of the factors affecting it, an entrepreneur should be quick to respond appropriately to maintain one’s share of the market. This may involve lowering of the price and a reduction in the number of units supplied. In the event that demand rises, the supplier should increase supply to realize higher profits from increased sales at higher prices. When government authorities impose price restrictions, a supplier should only supply that number of units that correspond to the restricted price as determined by the intersection of the demand and supply curves. In regards to my results of the simulation, my vacancy rate was constant 12 % that generated total revenues of $ 1.8 million. Battling the rise and demand, I opted for those rents that equaled the equilibrium price as determined by the intersection of the demand and supply curves. With the imposition of a price ceiling, I chose the quantity supplied that equaled that quantity determined by the intersection of the supply and demand curves at the predetermined price. The underlying criteria I adopted for deciding on a particular price was the concept of equilibrium; I decided that the market forces of demand and supply are the best determinants of what is optimal for both producers and consumers.

The Prevention Of Diarrhea Health And Social Care Essay

The Prevention Of Diarrhea Health And Social Care Essay Diarrhea is one of the most perennial health problem  causing both morbidity and mortality worldwide in children especially among developing nations. The vast majority of deaths worldwide from diarrhea (2-3 million deaths per year) are from young children in developing countries. The United States have 220,000 children younger than 5 years old that are hospitalized each year with diarrhea comprising approximately 9% of all hospitalization in this age group. Diarrhea incidence in children younger than3 years of age has been estimated to be 1.3 to 2.3 episodes per child per year. The incidence rate in children attending day care centers are higher. More than US$ 2 billion are spent yearly as direct cost of hospitalization and outpatient care [1]. Despite advances in treatment and diagnostics, recurrence of cases and epidemics surface from time to time from different parts of the world. The problem seem to be not just of diagnostics and treatment but more so with the basic preventive aspect of diarrhea among children. The promotive and preventive role of handwashing in diarrheal cases can not be overemphasized. Its cost effectiveness, relative ease of application and implementation are evidence- based and makes a lot of economic and healthful sense considering the cost related to hospitalization and out patient care of diarrheal cases. II. Objectives: Establish causal relation between handwashing and occur- rence of diarrhea among children. Highlight the key role of handwashing for health promotion and prevention of diarrhea among children Provide recommendations relating to the legal, ethical and health policy implication of handwashing for the prevention of diarrhea among   children. III. Methodology Literature search was done from scholarly published materials to meet the objectives of this seminar discussion. The subject of the research is limited to children aged 0-12 years old. IV. Discussion    Evidences of clinical benefit of handwashing/hand hygiene dates back from Semmelweis (1818-1865). While working in the General Hospital of Vienna, he demonstrated that puerperal fever was a contagious disesase caused by infectious organism which was spread from patient to patient via the hands of health care workers (HCW) [9]. A hundred years later another key observation by Rammelkamp and his co-worker who demonstrated that direct contact was the main mode of transmission of Staphylococcus aureus among neonates in the nursery [3]. The same controlled study done by Rammelkamp and co- workers demonstrated that handwashing between patient contacts reduced levels of S. aureus acquisition to the low levels resulting from airborne transmission. The EPIC Systematic Review in 2001 showed that liquid (even non-medicated) soap and water will effectively decontaminate hands but 70% alcohol or an alcohol based antiseptic hand rub provides the most effective decontamination for a wide variety of organisms (S. aureus, Pseudomonas aeroginosa, Klebsiella, Clostridium difficile and rotavirus). A review of published literature from 1879 through 1986 consisting of 423 articles and spanning 107 years demonstrated that except for specificity, all the elements of causality, including temporality, strength, plausibility, consistency of association and dose response were present. As concluded, the emphasis on handwashing as a primary infection control measure has not been misplaced and should continue [6]. Studies specifically linking handwashing to prevent diarrhea in children was conducted in different countries in various care settings. A study comparing 2 day care centers with handwashing program (HWC) and 2 control centers (CC) showed that incidence of diarrhea in HWC began to fall (after the program was begun) and after the second month of the study was consistently lower than the CC. The incidence of diarrhea in HWC was approximately half that of the CC for the entire 35-week study period [1]. In a randomized controlled trial in a high risk community in Pakistan where diarrhea is a leading cause of child death, an improvement in handwashing in the household reduced the incidence of diarrhea among children at high risk of death from the same cause. Children living in households that received handwashing promotion and plain soap had a 53% lower incidence of diarrhea compared to children in the control population. Infants in households that received handwashing promotion and plain soap had 39% fewer days with diarrhea vs infants living in control neighborhoods. Severely malnourished children younger than 5 years in the intervention group had 42% fewer days with diarrhea vs severely malnourished children in control group. Similar reductions in diarrhea were observed among children living in households receiving antibacterial soap[5]. A systematic review with random effects meta-analysis by Curtis and Cairncross showed data sources which are studies linking handwashing with diarrheal diseases. Of which were seven intervention studies, six case control, two cross sectional and two cohort studies. Results showed that washing hands with soap can reduce the risk of diarrheal disease by 42-47% and interventions to promote handwashing might save a million lives[2]. A clinical advisory from the CDC[7] and Mayo Clinic[8] stated that handwashing is the easiest, simplest to do and most effective way to stay healthy and to prevent spread of infection and illness in all settings. For the specific purpose of this discussion, among children in various care settings, in home, day care, school and neighborhoods. Clean hands can stop germs from spreading from one child to another and even entire communities. The potential ways of dealing with this situation includes education, development, implementation and enforcement of regulations and use of infection control and for this particular case, handwashing. V. Summary, Conclusions, Recommendations The preponderance of evidence from studies spanning hundreds of years effectively establish the practice of handwashing as evidence-based not only for prevention of diarrhea among children but even as primary infection control in the transmission of nosocomial infections. Handwashing, being the simplest, most health promotive and effective primary infection control for the prevention of diarrhea among children can not be overemphasized in the light of economic cost, sick days and lives lost attributable to diarrhea. It is therefore recommended that advocacy for handwashing in terms of educating involved individuals, caregivers, families and children themselves should be given top priority. This should come in a form of tri-media campaign in schools, workplaces, communities, homes, etc. Handwashing programs should be implemented and even enforcement of strict regulations or legislations might as well be in place if needed be.

Starstruck :: essays research papers fc

The novel â€Å"Starstruck† is written by Kathy Hopkins, and is 216 pages in length. The publisher is Harper Collins Publishing and the date of publication was not listed in the novel. Cathy Hopkins started writing novels in 1987, and she wrote a number of 16 books that year. In the year 2000 she started to write teen novels.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  My novel â€Å"Starstruck† is about a girl named Lia, dealing with her hectic everyday life. In this book Lia get’s asked out by Squidge (one of her friends) and she says yes. Finally they are boyfriend and girlfriend. Cat and Becca (other friends) are very happy for their friends and everything is going great. Then everything changes because the town finds out that the will be a host city for a movie being made about teenage life. Savannah, the teenage star of the movie adopts Squidge as her personal runner. Will he be able to keep Savannah happy without breaking his promise to Lia?   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Lia is a tall slender young woman whom all the boy’s are crazy for. She has long blonde hair, blue eyes, and has the perfect complexion. Lia is honest because â€Å" she had never told a lie in her life, say’s Becca†. She is also very determined because she never gives up and fights for what she believes in. â€Å" I just do think that it is fair that we should have to go to school while the movie is being shoot Mr. Jenks, it is a very exciting event probably the most exciting this city has seen for years.†   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Savannah is on of the minor characters of this story. She is a beautiful teenage girl who is a super star. There is not much more about Savannah except that she is snobby and thinks that she can get whatever she wants whenever she wants. â€Å"†¦..go get me a drink Squidge, I’m thirsty, and do it now before I fire you!†.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Squidge is another one of the minor characters of my novel. He is an aspiring film director who is very confident. He can be shy at times when situations become overwhelming. â€Å" now if everybody does not co-operate this movie won’t be made so Squidge STOP moving the camera and get back to work!†.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  At the beginning of the story the setting is at Lia’s house, but as the story progresses the setting changes. For the rest of the story the setting is at the main high school in Cornwall.

The Burma Road Riot

Question 1a Write a detailed account of the Burma Road Riot in Nassau, Bahamas. At the beginning of the Second World War the American government made arrangements to build training bases in of the Caribbean Islands. Being a part of the Caribbean, The Bahamian government and the American government scheduled to build two operational bases in New Providence, one in Satellite Field and the other in Oaks Field, they also called it the Main Field. This would then employ over two thousand men.The news began to spread to the outer islands and many out islanders saw it as a good opportunity to be employed for big wages. During the last ten years the economy had declined due to the ending of prohibition in 1933. These Bahamians came to New Providence because they knew that the Americans would pay high wages because some worked on the American base in Exuma before. Unfortunately, the Bahamian workers were paid half the wages the Americans were paid for the same job.After failing to get the emp loyer to remedy their unfair wage, on Sunday 31st May, 1942, the local workers gathered in front of the Pleasantville Construction company with the aim of getting their employer to improve their wages offered to the two site; the wages were lower than the employees expected, also their wages were lower than the American wages who did the same job. Bahamian wages were only four shillings for eight hours. This situation was so unfair it made the Bahamian workers frustrated and bitter against their white employers.As a result a charged working relationship between the Bahamian workers developed. Since there was no resolution in the meeting on the following day Monday, 1st June, 1942 laborers marched to Bay Street protesting that they be paid the full amount of wages by the Pleasantville Contractors. The Bahamian protestors didn’t know that it was the â€Å"Bay Street Boys† that told the Americans to pay the Bahamian employees less that it supposed to be. Because the Pleas antville Contractors didn’t reply to the laborers request it made the workers more infuriated. Moreover, the meeting that was agreed n with the workers and the Colonial Labor Officer never materialized. This infuriated the workers even more. The disgruntled workers were accompanied by a crowd of people. They marched from Parliament via Nassau Street with cubs and sticks. On their way they met a Coca-Cola truck filled with empty bottles which they pelted the windows of the buildings. They used those bottles as missiles. While the rioting was at its height a carbon of police with fixed bayonets and steel helmets came down from the barracks and remained standing in that formation for a period of time in front of the Post Office.While the sound of glass breaking and the crowd shouting, that could be heard up and down the street, the policemen moved along Bay Street and were successful in dispersing most of the rioters, which they reassembled in other places. The police could not cope with this situation so a detachment of British forces were called in. Before the end of the day members of the Volunteer Defense Force were situated to the Barracks. When order was restored in the city, throughout the afternoon isolated cases of violence were dealt with and some people were arrested. Many of the shops were extensively looted.Several business shops were stripped of their stock. There were many of the people that were seen with armfuls of stolen goods leaving the city. As soon as the streets were completely clear the suspects were ordered to show the stocks of the parcels that they were carrying on them. Some of the loot was recovered and people were arrested. The damages of the property and merchandise ran into thousands of pounds. They attacked the cars that were moving and parked which were damaged very badly, Also the owners were at the wheel at some point and time. Liquor stores were looted as well and the drunkenness resulting added fuel to the fire.In conc lusion, this rioting and looting lead to two deaths and twenty-five injuries, they also smashed the Red Cross. The rioting lasted for two long days. After all the Duke of Windsor said that the Bahamian wages will be dealt with. Half more of the workers came back. On the 4th June 1942, things were just about normal for everyone and wages were increased by one shilling for the local workers. This riot signaled that Black Bahamians were no longer going to be submissive to the oligarchy. Moreover, black Bahamians became united and silently fought for better living conditions and equal rights and justice. The Burma Road Riot I’se a Man Political Awakening and the 1942 Riot in the Bahamas Abstract When Americans began building their World War II bases in Nassau, the Bahamians they hired expected the high wage rates that usually accompanied foreign contracts. Unfortunately, the Bahamian government had negotiated much lower rates than were expected. Green, with his cry ‚I’se a man,? captured the indignation that many of his co-workers felt. After attempts to address the wage issue by collective bargaining failed, two thousand labourers gathered at the building site chanting ‚we want more money.?Their cries fell on deaf ears and police officers were called in to disperse the group. But, the police only succeeded in agitating the protestors. Eventually, armed with sticks and clubs, the leaderless crowd marched to where they would be heard. They marched to Bay Street, the stage for some of the most significant events in the Bahamas’ history and a social space that has continual ly been at the centre of cultural, economic and political life in the country. Two days of rioting ensued. Although the riot was triggered by a labor dispute, it has been described as the first sign of a popular movement in the Bahamas.And, some have described the riot as a tremor along the fault line that divided the rich white Bahamians who owned businesses on Bay Street and the poor blacks who worked as laborers and lived in the poorer neighborhoods ‚over-the-hill.? This paper is an effort to retell the story of the riot, focusing on its significance as the first sign of political awakening in the country’s black community. This paper was published in the Journal of Caribbean History, 41 (1 & 2) 2008. Paper presented at the 30th Annual Conference of the Society for Caribbean Studies, The National Archives, Kew, UK, July 2006.We would like to thank Nicola Virgill and John Rolle for comments on previous versions of this paper. The standard disclaimer applies. * I. Intr oduction At the beginning of the Second World War, the British and American governments made arrangements to build training bases on several of the British West Indian islands. Two of these operational bases were scheduled to be built on New Providence Island, the economic hub of the Bahamas; one in Oaks Field known as Main Field and one in the western end of the island known as Satellite Field.The Project, as it was called, would employ over two thousand Bahamians. When the news about this employment opportunity was publicized, many men from the outlying Bahamian islands flocked to New Providence joining the already large labor pool that looked forward to the high wages that such foreign projects historically brought. The wages offered were not only lower than was expected but there was an inequity of pay between Americans and Bahamian laborers employed at the same jobs.The men were dissatisfied but neither management nor government made any real steps to reconcile the wage dispute . What started as low grumbling among the men at work, exploded into two days of rioting that left six men dead, several people injured and Bay Street, the island’s principal commercial district, and parts of Grant’s Town, where many of the laborers resided, in shambles. Dame Doris Johnson, noted Bahamian politician, has argued that the 1942 riot was a watershed event in the Bahamas’ political and racial history. That the June 1 and 2 disturbances were mblematic of a growing political consciousness within the Bahamas’ majority black community and was the explosive start of what would ultimately be a relatively quiet revolution to usher in black rule and independence in the former British colony. As Johnson recorded, as a consequence of the riot ‚the first awakenings of a new political awareness began to be felt in the hearts of black people < time, and the remarkable foresight, courage, and initiative of a few dedicated members of that majority were all that were required to crystallize this awareness into a mighty political force.?Sir Randol Fawkes, labor leader and parliamentarian, has concurred. As they rightly point out, the riot was the first major collective labor action in the Bahamas with political overtones. Political scientist, Colin Hughes, however, has questioned its significance. While accepting it as a precursor, he views it more as a symbol that was profitably mythologized and rallied around once the popular movement actually found its feet. According to Hughes, the riot was ‚a momentary outburst of raw energy? that ‚provided martyrs and a heroic moment? o Bahamian blacks ‚once a political movement had finally started.? Agreeing with Hughes, Gail Saunders sees it as a ‚short-lived spontaneous outburst? after which ‚the black masses slept on.? 3 Both deny any direct link to the dramatic socio-political developments in the 1960s, pointing out that nothing much happened in response to the riot and that no real push for political power or majority rule could be said to exist in the Bahamas for more than a decade after the riot. They also point out that nothing like this ever happened again in the Bahamas making this event an anomaly.The riot, however, was more than an isolated act of venting. And, although a powerful symbol of black agency that has been referenced again and again in the political struggles of Bahamian blacks, the riot was more than a symbol. The riot had real (if not immediate) effects. Following Johnson, it is our contention that the riot is rightfully considered the first shot in the battle for political change in the Bahamas. The riot also kindled the development of a pro-black consciousness in the country, a necessary precursor to black rule and independence.At the time of the riot, political and economic life in the colony was controlled by a small group of white merchants who were headquartered on Bay Street. As Johnson describes, ‚the usually docile and cheerful Bahamian workers? marched towards Bay Street, the space of white wealth, ‚in an angry and belligerent mood.? The 1942 riot demonstrated to both Bahamian blacks and the oligarchs who were known collectively as the ‚Bay Street Boys,? that Bay Street was vulnerable. Indeed, the riot showed quite clearly that the hold the merchant princes had on the Bahamas was far from complete and unassailable.The majority black population in the Bahamas could literally dismantle the edifices of minority white rule, if sufficiently provoked. The fissure that was created in 1942 would widen over the next few decades and within a quarter of a century it became a gapping whole that the majority black Progressive Liberal Party walked through to victory. This paper is an effort to retell the story of the riot, focusing on its significance as the first sign of political awakening in the country’s black community. II. Don’t Lick Nobody: Two Days of Mass Action On June 1, 942, just weeks after the Project had began, laborers from both Main Field and Satellite Field marched to Bay Street after their continual and by then quite loud demands for higher wages were met with patronizing replies and admonishments to return to work. As Leonard Storr Green, who was convicted as one of the leaders of the group explains, ‚one of the white bosses wanted to check up on the labourers so that they should go back to work. The crowd said they would not go back until they had some main proof about the wages and they did not go back.?The crowd marched to Bay Street carrying clubs and sticks and assembled in Rawson Square, across from the Parliament and outside the Colonial Secretary’s office, hoping ‚to put their plea for higher wages to someone in authority.? Several members of the colonial government and the local assembly attempted to placate them, promising that if they dispersed and returned to work, their requests would be con sidered. They were almost persuaded to put down their weapons and to go back to work but eye witnesses and members of the crowd of labors cite two things as triggering the riotous acts that took place.Some attributed the change in crowd’s attitude to the presence of police superintendent Captain Edward Sears. Sears had been present at a peaceful but loud demonstration at the Main Field about wages a day earlier and had drawn his revolver in order to disband the crowd. As Green reports, Captain Sears’ presence on Bay Street ‚made them angry because it looked as if he would do something.? Others blamed Attorney General Eric Hallinan’s insensitive remarks. Hallinan was among those who had attempted to mollify the crowd.As Hallinan would later testify, he informed them that the American contractors ‚had intended to bring in labourers from America? but had changed their minds since the Bahamians ‚had done so well.? He then warned the workers ‚ not to spoil that record.? The crowd perceived his remarks as a threat. If they did not return to work quietly, they would be replaced by workers from America. As Hallinan later recognized, ‚those remarks of mine were, I think misunderstood by the crowd and there was signs that they resented those remarks.?Whatever the catalyst, a portion of the crowd that had marched to Rawson Square singing patriotic anthems turned their attention away from diplomacy and bargaining and began to take their frustrations out on Bay Street. They moved down the street smashing car windows and breaking storefronts. Although the beginning crowd numbered in the thousands, it is hard to tell the number of people that actually took part in the violent outburst that followed their peaceful march to Bay Street. It is also difficult to determine which of the various groups of people who participated in the protest did which acts.It appears that the people that broke windows were not the same people that would later loot the stores. But the record here is not entirely clear. As the workers marched to Bay Street from Oakes Field that Monday morning, their numbers were augmented by people who lived in the black communities that they walked through on their way to Bay Street. It is therefore quite possible that a portion of the crowd left peaceably after having made their case, a portion lashed out at the shops and automobiles that were parked on Bay Street, and that an altogether different portion of the crowd looted the shops.After allowing the rioters and looters almost free reign on Bay Street for most of the morning, a force comprised of police officers and the Cameron’s Highlanders, a group of Scottish soldiers who were stationed in Nassau to protect the Duke of Windsor, who was Governor of the Bahamas, were brought in to sweep the street clean of protestors. This worked and by midday they managed to push most of the crowd ‚over the hill,? to the poorer neighborhoods outside the city center. There was a standoff in the Grant’s Town area at to the corner of Cotton Tree and Blue Hill Road between a small crowd of rioters and about 40 police offices and soldiers.The crowd was throwing rocks at the combined forced. One rock hit a Cameron Highlander and knocked him unconscious. During this standoff, one civilian was shot and killed, another was shot and eventually died in the hospital and five men were wounded and recovered. It is possible that the crowd that rioted in Grant’s Town were not from that neighborhood. Indeed, several Grant’s Town residents insisted that the rioters were not from their settlement. As Alfred McKenzie, a black merchant, who owns a store in Grant’s Town recounts, ‚I didn’t recognize any one especially.I think there were just a few leaders and the majority of the crowds were looking for what they could get after the places was broken into. Young men and women made up this crowd.? What ever the composition or origin, the police had a hard time subduing the crowd in Grant’s Town. Having failed to control the crowd, the police read the Riot Act at about one o’clock in the afternoon, ten minutes after the incident at Cotton Tree, set curfew and left Grant’s Town. With the police went the authority of law and the force of the curfew. After the forces ithdrew, the crowd, many who by now were intoxicated, laid siege to the Grant’s Town police station, set fire to a filling station, fire truck and ambulance, looted the post office and library and broke into many of the small neighborhood businesses. Rioting and looting took place in this community all through the night. The police would later argue that their withdrawal saved lives. The crowd was in such an agitated mood, their commanding officer testified, that it would have taken extreme measures to contain them. The police therefore felt it was better not to be in a situation where they wou ld be forced to fire on the crowd.Although some citizens testified before the Commission that ‚if the forces had returned to Grant’s Town they could have easily pacified the it without trouble,? others reported that ‚by this time the mob here was so drunk that they could only have been pacified at a very considerable loss of life.? The Commission observed that, in fact, only one person was injured in Grant’s Town after the forces had been withdrawn and that was a rioter who was shot< by a coloured man in defence of his shop. A few shops, mainly liquor shops, were broken into; but the amount of damage done, although considerable, was not great.?In Grant’s town the rioting was not only more violent but also seemed to have been much more 16 random than on Bay Street. Whereas on Bay Street, there was a definite pattern to the stores that were destroyed and looted, there seemed to be none in Grant’ Town. On Bay Street there are numerous episodes of shop proprietors and other citizens being able to reason with the crowds; in Grant’s Town, there was no listening to reason. It was the opinion of most observers that the amount of alcohol consumed played a great part in the violence and destruction that took place that evening.Riots are often intoxicating because of the lure of recklessness and the sudden freedom to act on the basest of desires. When that allure is coupled with the intoxication of alcohol the dangers are magnified. In Grant’s Town a number of bars had been broken into. In Captain Sears’ report of what took place once the crowd was pushed over the hill, he states that the ‚Red Lion Bar had been broken into and all the liquor taken from there.? 18 17 Lance Corporal Gooding reported that when he went over the hill from Bay Street that ‚Bethel’s Bar on the corner of Martin Street and Blue Hill road was being broken into.?Complaining of the riot, one resident of Grant’s To wn testified, ‚I think there are too many liquor stores in Grant’s Town.? After the rioting in Grant’s Town, concerned citizens One of the two later fatalities was the result of a Grant’s town resident protecting his property from a looter who refused to listen to reason. In his testimony, Clifford Holbert a stone mason who was protecting a shop that he owned with his father relays the incident that took at about 10 a. m. on June 2, ‚I was sitting on the counter and the leader who is called Johnson held his hand up and made a sign to the man.Johnson had a carpenter’s hammer in his hand. He made a sign to the men and said, ‘come on, boys lets go in. ’ I said to them, ‘why don’t you behave yourselves, aren’t we all coloured? ’ They still came in. The others besides the leader had sticks, bottles and stones and some of them had empty sacs as if to put my property in. I was sitting on the counter with a shot gun on my knees. They flocked around me and as they flocked around me the gun went off. The leader was taken up to the hospital and was dead.? submitted a petition asking for re-zoning, because as it stood there were 30 liquor stores in the southern district.Throughout the night, bands went through the settlement looting and generally causing havoc. On the morning, June 2 , a handful of businesses and residences were singled out for attack. Mr. George Cole’s Eastern Pharmacy located on Shirley Street was one of them. Cole was a white merchant whose Grant’s Town store had been destroyed the previous afternoon. nd A gang from Grant’s Town marched to Shirley Street to loot the store. The Highlanders responded to the phone calls reporting the happenings at the pharmacy and were able to disperse the crowd without incident.The looting of Cole’s pharmacy and the liquor store next door to it were the last actions of the riot. Reassured by the Duke of Windsor, the Governor of the Bahamas that the wage question would be dealt with, more the half the workers returned to work on June 4 and by the end of the week, life returned to normal. 21 III. Political First Steps: On The Meaning of the Riot th Most historians who have studied the riot have argued that it was not a significant precursor to the political movements that would take place in the Bahamas over the next few decades.The riot, they contend, was just a momentary outburst and its effects, they suggest, are difficult to trace. Doris Johnson, it’s supposed, was mistaken when she described the rioters as being consciously engaged in a struggle for their rights and suggested that the riot caused ‚stirrings in the hearts of the poor and the not-so-poor Bahamians? that ultimately led to political and social change in the Bahamas. One witness to the riot, Etienne Dupuch, the editor of a local newspaper and a person long thought to be ‚in touch? ith the social attitudes of t he Bahamian people argued that the riot was ‚the natural outcome of the narrow economic, political and social policies pursued by a small but dominant political group in this colony during the last quarter century.? Similarly, Hughes has described the riot as ‚a momentary outburst of raw energy.? 23 22 And, Saunders, agreeing with both Dupuch and Hughes, has called the riot a ‚short lived spontaneous outburst by a group of disgruntled labourers < *that+ occurred against a background of narrow socio-economic and political policies.?If the riot, however, was the opening skirmish in the battle for majority rule in the Bahamas can we fairly describe it as a momentary or short-lived outburst? Likewise, is it fair to blame the riot on a group of disgruntled workers when many of the rioters were not affiliated with the project? And, finally, is it accurate to describe the system of exploitation and oppression that hemmed in much of the black majority and privileged the Ba y Street oligarchs as simply narrow socio-economic and political policies? As noted above, Saunders claims that the sentiments which fueled the riot were ‚short-lived.? ‚Black anger,? he contends, ‚erupted spontaneously? and ‚then quickly died.? Similarly, Hughes has called the riot a ‚momentary outburst.? To be sure, the riot was just a two-day affair; hostilities began the morning of June 1st, 1942 and by the afternoon of Tuesday, June 2 , 1942 the rioting and looting was over. Even if one includes the small demonstration at Oakes Field on the preceding Sunday, the 1942 riot was still (in one sense at least) a brief disturbance. Still, it would be a mistake to describe the riot as just a momentary eruption. The riot was an important first step in the popular movement that would envelope the Bahamas in decades to come.The racial and political consciousness which fueled the quiet revolution in the Bahamas was ripened during this disturbance. And, as we argued elsewhere, processes of identity convergence and identity construction were certainly at work during the riot. continues to be a powerful symbol of black agency and has been referenced again and again in the political struggles of Bahamian blacks, relived in songs, sermons and speeches. Admittedly, it’s difficult to pinpoint the beginning of any movement. Did the Civil Rights movement in the United States begin with the landmark Brown versus the Topeka Board of Education decision in 1954?Or, did it begin a year later with the Dr. Martin Luther King led Montgomery Alabama bus boycott? Or, did it begin twenty five years earlier during the 1919 red summer riots? These were among the first race riots in U. S. where blacks offered a unified response. Similarly, did the South African Civil Rights movement begin in 1976 with the Soweto riots or did it begin with the Sharpeville Massacre in 1960? Each of these is arguably a valid start date for these movements. If we can never be certain about when a movement starts, however, we can perhaps be confident about when a movement is clearly underway.Although the political awareness and willingness to take on the Bay Street oligarchs that Bahamian blacks evidenced during the riot would be increasingly evident in subsequent years, they were rarely exhibited before the riot. The 1937 riot in Matthew Town, Inagua and the 1935 labor disturbance at Roland T. Symonette’s Prince George Hotel are two possible exceptions. But, even with these there are more differences than similarities. Although the 1937 riot involved violent attacks on members of the white merchant class by members of the black working class, it ‚resulted from a personal vendetta,? nvolved less than a handful of blacks and ‚failed to develop into a political or labour riot.? The 1935 disturbance did involve between three and four hundred men but it resulted from their being unhappy that they could not find employment and there was no destruction of property or loss of life. With the possible exception of the semiannual Junkanoo festivals, when whites gave blacks permission to roam free on Bay Street and veiled complaints were sometimes expressed, there was no time prior to the 1942 riot when blacks ventured into the white oligarch controlled city center to openly voice their dissatisfaction with the local uling elite. Additionally, processes of identity convergence and construction were obviously at work during the riot. Identity convergence is the process by which an individual uses participation in group activity as a way of pursuing goals and behaving in ways that are consistent with his individual sense of self. Identity construction is the process through which personal identities are aligned with the collective identity of a movement to which he belongs. The riot was an opportunity for blacks to express their dissatisfaction with the merchant prince dominated socio-economic system and to demand change.F or many of the rioters, Green’s bold declaration ‚I’se a man!? explained and justified their actions. They had no choice but to stand up. The protest and riot was their opportunity to stand up. The riot also had a transformative effect on the black population in the Bahamas. It is worth repeating that before the riot, black Bahamian resistance to the white merchants’ political and economic hegemony was muted at best. The riot was a very public metamorphosing of the black laboring class in the Bahamas from docile and compliant to active and defiant.This change would be celebrated in popular song and political speeches. There are several folk songs that reference the riot including ‚Don’t Burn Down Burma Road? and ‚Going Down Burma Road.? The Project was divided between two sites, Main Field and Satellite Field, and the workers called the road between the two sites, which was used primarily to transport workers and equipment back and forth , Burma Road after the Burma Road in Southeast Asia that connected British Burma to China. The popular ‚Going Down Burma Road? with its haunting refrain ‚don’t lick nobody? s so closely connected with the riot that some participants insists that it was sang by the rioting crowd even though the evidence show they were composed much later on. As Hughes described, the riot ‚provided martyrs and a heroic moment? for Bahamian blacks. Just four year after the riot, for instance, H. H. Brown, a Methodist minister, asked his congregation to take responsibility for their government. To punctuate his point, he harkens back to the riot. That a people have the kind of government that it deserves goes without saying. A criticism of the local government is therefore a criticism of the entire population.Until people waken to their own responsibilities, they will not have a responsible government. But nothing can possibly justify the attempt of any government to keep the pe ople asleep. Who has learned the lesson of the (1942) riot? Similarly, Randol Fawkes begins a speech 13 years after the riot with these words: ‚Remember the first of June, 1942.? And, in the 1990s when Sir Lynden Pindling, often referred to as the ‚father of the nation,? was summing up the road to self-determination in the Bahamas, he began his history with the Burma Road Riot. When the great heroes of our struggle < stood on Burma Road,? he intoned, ‚they did not stand alone. When they stood in the General Strike < against the property vote < for the woman’s vote < with the trade unionists < *and+ for majority rule, they did not stand alone.? The effect of the riot on the ruling elite was also not short-lived. Although only moderate reforms were passed in response to the riot, the ruling elite did not forget that these docile polite Bahamians could be turned otherwise if provoked. As Sherouse explains, ‚the threat of mob violence surely impacted those in power.To forestall more radical change, white leaders made minor political adjustments.? It might appear that very little came out of the riot legislatively Colin Hughes, Race and Politics in the Bahamas, 212-213. Rev H. H. Brown, sermon at Governor’s Harbour, Eleuthera, January 14, 1946 quoted in Phil Cash, Shirley Gordon and Gail Saunders, eds. , Sources of Bahamian History (London: MacMillan Caribbean, 1991) 291. Rosalie Fawkes, ed. , Labour Unite or Perish! The Writings that Launched A Movement by Sir Randol Fawkes, ((Florida: Dodds Printing, 2004), 2. Patricia Beardsley Roker, ed.The Vision of Sir Lyndon Pindling: In His Own Words, (Nassau Bahamas: The Estate of Lyndon Pindling, 2002), 163. Scott Sherouse, ‚Authority and Stratification in the Bahamas: The Quest for Legitimacy? (Ph. D. diss. , Florida International University, 2004), 56. but the minor reforms that did result sent a great signal. A chink in the armor of Bay Street had appeared. They were now maki ng concessions when before such demands would have been rejected out of hand. The riot impressed upon the Bay Street Boys the understanding that they could not hold the space of Bay Street as their own domain, to be leased out one or two days a year.Although the riot certainly grew out of a wage dispute, several of the people who rioted and looted on Bay Street in the morning and Grant’s Town that afternoon and evening were not directly affiliated with the Project. Moreover, the Project laborers who were involved in the riot were lashing out at more than unfair wages. As the workers marched from Main Field to Bay Street, women, children and men not affiliated with the Project, joined in and participated fully in the events that transpired.As Oswald Moseley an agent for the Sun Life Insurance Company of Canada who witnessed the events reported, ‚there were lots of women in the crowd and they were inciting the men on and the women to my mind started the looting, which the men joined.? And, ‚I saw a woman getting into a window and walking about inside the store making a selection of his stuff.? Cartwright similarly insisted that ‚most of the looting was done by the youngsters and women. I saw a girl come with a stick and she smashed a window which had not been broken, then she ran away, then she came back and took what she wanted out of this window she had broken.? McKenzie ikewise testified that ‚young men and women made up [the] crowd? that he saw rioting on June 2 Ironically, because the riot was so heavy on the minds of the ruling elite, they banned the semiannual celebration of Junkanoo in which people from over the hill claimed Bay Street in a loud and boisterous parade. The crowd also seemed to be broadly representative of the black working class population in the Bahamas. The Bahamas is an archipelago with dozens of inhabited islands besides the chief island, New Providence, which hosts the Bahamas’ capital city, Nass au. It is noteworthy that the crowds, although drawn mainly from the ‚over-the-hill? rea, contained individuals who were originally from these ‚Out Islands.? Although a resident of Grant’s Town, Bertram Cambridge insisted that the rioters were ‚all strangers? to him and ‚that they were people from the out islands who were quite unfamiliar to [him] and must have come over to get work at the project.? It is also noteworthy that the crowd contained both skilled and unskilled workers. An effort to establish a broadly representative union just a few years before the riot had failed to launch because skilled workers would not participate. The riot was, thus, the first time that a ross-section of blacks from all over the Bahamas stood together in a common cause. And, again, that common cause was not just higher wages, though that was their immediate concern. They were more broadly concerned, however, with economic justice; they were receiving unequal pay for equal work. American workers were getting paid as much as 4 times more than Bahamian workers for doing the some jobs. As Dupuch correctly observed, the difference in wages paid to Bahamian and American employees at the Project provided scope for considerable agitation which was greatly accentuated< The average erson doesn’t usually grumble about his wages if they are reasonably fair, but no one appreciates being given a lower human valuation when he is doing the same work along side a person of a different nationality or race. When it was announced that their would be a construction development on New Providence that would employ over two thousand laborers, men from the Out Islands which were poor and agrarian flocked to the capital. Tariffs, hurricanes, droughts and blight made once profitable crops barely able to sustain the average farmer.Oscar Johnson, a produce agent turned tailor, told the Select Committee that ‚in 1928, however, a tariff was put on which prevente d us from importing our tomatoes to the United States. It was then necessary to get a new market and I then represented Canadian firms sending the tomatoes to Canada. We had a number of hurricanes intermittently about 1932 and in between them we had droughts.? Witnesses of the riot affirm the fact that many of the rioters were not from over the hill, but were from the Out Islands. Moreover, some list the overpopulation caused by Out Islanders seeking a better life in Nassau as one of the reasons for the riot.Thaddeus Johnson, a proprietor of a place where labor congregated, supports Dupuch supposition. When ‚the Americans took over the project,? he testified, < there was considerable dissatisfaction over the wages. The workmen figured it this way. They figured that this was an American job. They expected much bigger wages than the Nassau standard. No one seemed able to explain to the workmen why they could not receive the American wage. The American wage on the other side of F lorida is very high, but I think that the workmen had in their minds at least two or three dollars a day.This was an issue of fairness. Based on how they had been mistreated in the past by the white merchant class in the colony, the workers understandably assumed that the Bay Street merchants were responsible for this inequality. During the riot, Bahamian blacks were lashing out at their unfair wages and all the other injustices. There was also a matter of subsistence. Wages in general had not increased on par with the cost of living and it was difficult to survive on the wages they were being offered at the Project. This was particularly the case because this was temporary employment.It was easier to stomach making smaller wages if they were steady wages. As Bruce Johnson, an insurance agent with clients all over Nassau, reports, ‚the workmen were finding it harder and harder to get along owing to the increased cost of living.? When Leonard Storr Green realized that he would only receive 4 shillings a day determined that he would need a better paying job because ‚we can’tlive on four shillings a day now according to the prices in the stores.? Moreover, the riot (and the desire for equal and sufficient wages) seems to have been related to their desires for full citizenship.Bahamians are very expressive people and have a wealth of folk Evidence of Richard John Anderson Farrington, The Russell Commission, 271. The crowd was unaware that the wages were fixed by London and Washington and assumed that it was the colonial powers that were keeping them from getting what was due them. In Samuel Cartwright’s barbershop on Friday May 29th, Americans from the project were discussing the project generally and the price of labour. ‚They said that the company wanted to pay higher wages to the working people here but the government and the bay street merchants had been hindering this payment of higher wages.?Evidence of songs from which the wo rkers could have chosen as they marched to Bay Street. They could have kept cadence with the goatskin drum or many other traditional percussion instruments. Instead of choosing ethnic instruments or songs, however, the workers chose patriotic songs, songs of the British Empire, as their songs of protest. One observer, Oscar Johnson, a tailor on Bay Street, remembers that ‚it was a large crowd of people marching down George Street singing ‘We’ll never let the old Flag Fall’ and that intermingled with the patriotic songs some were saying, ‘we want more wages’.?These two, patriotic songs and a cry for more wages were intermingled because the laborers did not see these two sentiments as being inconsistent with one another. With their songs they appealed to their rights as Englishmen. Perhaps here we can learn from Benedict Anderson’s work on nations and ‚nation-ness?. Anderson explains that nations are ‚imagined communities? beca use they picture ties that connect the citizenry together over long distances and through time. Of the things that connect people together few are stronger than national symbols such as national anthems. No matter how banal the words and mediocre the tunes,? Anderson explains, ‚there is in this singing an experience of simultaneity. At precisely such moments, people wholly unknown to each other utter the same verses to the same melody. The image: unisonance< the echoed physical realization of the imagined community.? The same holds true for other national symbols such as the flag or the coat of arms; they also serve as realizations of imagined community. Interestingly, there were two incidents where imperial symbols were attacked.One was the burning of the picture of the royal family by Alfred Stubbs, one of the rioters. The second was the burning of the English flag. Napoleon McPhee offered a poignant explanation for his behavior. ‚I willing to fight under the flag,? he explained, ‚I willing even to die under the flag, but I ain’t gwine starve under the flag.? While appealing to their rights as subjects of the crown they were also distancing themselves from the crown; showing their alienation from the imperial structure which had not ensured the justice that they sought. They were British subjects but they were dissatisfied British subjects.Just like the smashing and looting of Bay Street was an attack against the economic status quo, the desecrating of nationally symbolic objects was a political attack. An attack that was not meant to reject British citizenship but to claim the protection and the rights of a British colonial. Again, it is meaningful that when they did not get any satisfaction from their employers, they marched to the center of government in the country, the Parliament Building and the Colonial Office. Beyond concerns for economic justice and political empowerment, the rioters were concerned with the lack of racial eq uality in the colony.Although the Russell Commission concluded that the riot had nothing to do with the question of race, the Duke of Windsor who had called for the Commission was certain that ‚their was strong racial feelings on both sides? and that ‚Bahamas wage rates was only an excuse to make a vigorous and noisy protest against the white population.? As Saunders states, ‚racial tension was an underlying cause of the riot.? On Bay Street, the rioters did not target black owned stores. Harry S. Black’s Candy Kitchen, one of the few black owned stores on Bay Street, was not looted. And, as Craton and Saunders report, the damage was not indiscriminate; such shops as those owned by the Speaker of the Assembly and the wife of one of the white Project supervisors were almost gutted, but the shoe store owned by Percy Christie, the white would-be labor organizer, was left untouched.? Additionally, the rioters were openly hostile to the whites that they encounter ed. Speaking of the crowd, John Damianos, a grocery merchant on Bay Street said, ‚My impression was that when they saw a white face they were particularly infuriated and I think it had reached a point which was largely motivated by some racial feelings.I have never seen anything like this before.? Roland Cumberhatch also overhead the mob proclaim, ‚no white man is passing here today.? It is a gross understatement to describe the set of socio-economic and political norms that existed in the Bahamas during the first half of the twentieth century as merely a collection of narrow policies. The policies were narrow to be sure and certainly favored the merchant princes. But, they amounted to a very real and complete (if relatively mild) system of apartheid. In 1942, blacks in the Bahamas were clearly second class citizens in the colony.And, most blacks depended on the whites oligarchs for the livelihoods. As Dr. Claudius Walker complained before the Russell Commission in 1942, in the Bahamas ‚t he coloured man makes all the concessions. I challenge any man in this colony to say that I am wrong in that. The coloured man is discriminated against in the churches, in the theatres, in the private schools.? If there is harmony between the black and white populations, Dr Walker went on to say, ‚it is harmony at the expense of the coloured population.? Saunders confirms Dr. Walker’s claim. ‚In fact, until the late 1950s,? he states, ‚blacks were barred from all hotels, were not allowed in some restaurants, movie houses and were only allowed to enter some churches by the rear door. Certain schools did not accept black children and many business firms were closed to them as places of employment.? Racial discrimination was the norm. Racial animosity was quite commonplace. Racial prejudice was the order of the day. An almost indelible line divided the black and white communities in New Providence. Most of the blacks were very poor and lived outside the city center in the ‚over-the-hill? ommunities like Bain Town and Grant’s Town. These communities, located to the south of Bay Street and separated from the city center by a small hill, were settled by liberated Africans and ex-slaves in the nineteenth century. As was the case since emancipation one hundred years earlier, blacks worked but never lived in the white areas from Bay Street to Montague. Segregation not so pronounced The Bay Street oligarchs also controlled the country politically and economically. Klaw has described them as ‚a dozen or so Nassau merchants, lawyers, and real -estate brokers who are < *named after+ the street here they have their shops and offices < *and are+ in firm control of the Bahamas government, running it with a free hand.? Similarly, Themistocleous has called them the merchant princes of Nassau with one hundred-plus years of ‚hegemony < over non-white groups.? The Report of the 1942 Commission of Enquiry in to the riot has likewise described them as ‚elected representatives, who are collectively known as ‘Bay Street,’ (in which street or its immediate neighbourhood all the twenty-nine members of the House of Assembly except two have their places of business).?Not surprisingly, whites were generally unaware of how dissatisfied Bahamian blacks were with this system that privileged whites and constrained blacks. Surprise was their most common reaction to the riot. For instance, Morton Turtle testified, ‚I was amazed to find that the crowd felt hostile towards me. < I have always felt in sympathy with the labourers and given them a good wages.? Similarly, Etienne Dupuch stated, ‚The riot came as a complete surprise to me.I never thought that our people could be agitated to the point of rioting because they have always enjoyed the enviable reputation of being patient docile and law-abiding.? J. P. Sands spoke for many when he said, ‚I thought that everyb ody in the island was quite happy until about 8 o’clock on June 1st.? The riot, then, occurred against a backdrop of extreme racial oppression and is correctly understood as an expression of black dissatisfaction with the prevailing social, economic and political order. The white oligarchs never quite understood the depths of black discontent with the existing system.Although able to pacify the majority black population for a time, passing labor union legislation, extending the secret ballot to the Out Islands, and the series of concessions that were made in the years after the riot did not placate the black masses once and for all. Nothing short of majority rule, the white oligarchs would find out in subsequent years, could satisfy the black population. IV. Conclusion Although the 1942 riot has been described as a key event in the political development of the Bahamas, scholars have consistently downplayed its significance.Hughes, for instance, has described the riot as †ša momentary outburst of raw energy? that ‚provided martyrs and a heroic moment? to Bahamian blacks ‚once a political movement had finally started.? Similarly, Saunders has suggested that ‚black anger < erupted spontaneously and then quickly died.? The reason that they discount the significance of the riot, we believe, is because they focus too intently of its immediate socio-economic and political consequences. Since little on the surface changed in the aftermath of the riot, they concluded that the riot did not change much in the Bahamas.In a sense, they are correct. The Bay Street oligarchs barely loosened their grip on social, political and economic life in the country after the disturbance. And, it took two and a half decades for the majority black Progressive Liberal Party to snatch political control from the Bay Street merchant princes. This preoccupation with immediate effects, however, obscures the true importance of the riot. In our view, it cannot be re duced to a ‚short lived spontaneous outburst by a group of disgruntled labourers < *that+ occurred against a background of narrow socio-economic and political policies.?First, we see it as the opening skirmish in the battle for majority rule in the Bahamas. The political awareness and willingness to take on the Bay Street oligarchs that Bahamian blacks evidenced during the riot was rarely exhibited before the riot. After the riot, evidence of their political awakening was quite obvious. Second, the anger vented by the rioters was reflective of the dissatisfaction felt by the entire black working class not just the workers on the Project.As Sir Randol Fawkes correctly surmised, ‚when that mob marched on that early June morning, they took upon their shoulders the common burdens of all Bahamians.? And, finally, their fight was not against an inadequate welfare system but against a system that oppressed the black majority in the Bahamas and privileged the Bay Street oligarc hs. The riot set in motion a political snowball that would result in a movement whose final triumph would be majority rule and the dismantling of the system of apartheid that inhibited Bahamian blacks socially, politically and economically.

Analysis of “Mississippi burning” Essay

Mississippi Burning is a film directed by Alan Parker that was released in 1988. It depicts the case of Mississippi Burning, which took place in 1964, where three civil rights workers went missing. The FBI was notified only to find the sheriffs office linked to the Ku Klux Klan and accountable for the disappearances of the three boys. This film follows an investigation carried out by FBI agents into the disappearances of three civil rights workers, who campaigned for the rights of â€Å"blacks†. As the case unfolds, vital evidence, such as the workers abandoned car are found and turmoils are faced by the main characters, Agents Anderson and Ward. The case proceeds when more FBI agents are called in and the sheriffs offices involvement is discovered. As a last resort, Ward does things Andersons way and as a result, information is received from the Deputys wife, which leads to the bodies being recovered and the men involved, charged with violating civil rights. The film is set in the fictional town of Jessup County in Mississippi. Segregation is prominent in this town where many of the whites; live in the town, whilst the blacks; are shown living on the outskirts in rundown houses. The setting is also presented in a manner where the town is shown to be in the middle of nowhere in order to depict the belief that their crimes would go unknown due to its isolation to the higher authorities. Mississippi Burning is a fictionalised depiction of the events in Mississippi in 1964. The movie portrays a period in history during the 1960s, where segregation and racial discrimination dominated. It was a period when civil rights movements were held to fight for the rights of â€Å"blacks† such as the Freedom Summer Movements and The Watts Riots of 1965. There was also the strong presence of racial groups such as the KKK and the corrupted authorities, who possessed great influence in those times. Many people also voiced their concerns such as Malcolm X and Martin Luther King in the struggle for their civil rights. The film â€Å"Mississippi Burning† gives an accurate account of the 1960s; however a few discrepancies can be identified through analysis of that historical period. In the movie, many scenes present the reminder of segregation and racial discrimination as seen in the 1960s. These include the first scene, where a contrast is shown between the two water fountains, at the restaurant, where coloureds were separated from the whites and the strong presence of the distinctive racial groups. Some of the discrepancies identified were that there was no representations of retaliation from â€Å"blacks†, an expression that the FBI were the heroes and a stereotypical view given to all locals, which was not the case. The film, â€Å"Mississippi Burning† contains a vast array of characters, but two main characters are Ward and Anderson, who are the FBI agents in control of this investigation. Agent Ward, acted by William Dafoe, is the more conservative type of person. He was described by Anderson as the type that crossed the t’s, implying that Ward only knew one approach. Ward’s role in the movie was also primarily dominating as he made all the decisions such as interviewing witnesses and gathering evidence; however, it was apparent that with this approach, the case wouldn’t be solved. William Dafoe portrayed Ward convincingly through his attire, where he was formally dressed at all times and the use of glasses to depict a compliant attitude. The way he spoke also brought about a convincing attitude where formal language was always used. However in contrast, Agent Anderson, acted by Gene Hackman, is the type of person that does things his way. Anderson’s method was demonstrated during the film when Anderson passively scrutinised the deputy’s wife to obtain facts required for the conviction. He also orchestrated other events, for instance, the scene when the KKK members turned on each other due to  Anderson causing an internal quarrel. It is obvious that if it wasn’t for Anderson, the case wouldn’t have been solved. Gene Hackman portrayed Anderson very convincingly as his attire was always casual and his use of language depicted his aggressiveness. His stature was also related to the attitude Anderson portrayed as well as the aggressive voice that accompanied it. â€Å"Mississippi Burning† was released by Orion Productions in 1988. At this time, segregation had been minimised in most communities and equality between races and gender were on the rise. Society had become modern where living standards and the economy had increased. The â€Å"Klan† had also gone into hiding and laws had been created in order to protect the rights of each individual no matter what race they were. There were still the groups/individuals that were prejudice in different aspects of life. But, the majority had started to treat each other as equal whilst others were treated like heroes for their efforts such as Martin Luther King Jr who received a Nobel Peace Prize that year. Much progress had been made since the 1960s in regards to racism, that many people saw this movie has a way to bring about awareness. Some organisation had praised it as it gave an insight into how â€Å"blacks† were treated, but still held their heads high. People also saw the film as a way to see the true extent of what life was like for a coloured during the 1960s and to understand their pain through startling images of the â€Å"Klan’s† acts. Criticism was also expressed towards the film as many critics claimed that the â€Å"blacks† had been portrayed as helpless scared people who didn’t help the civil rights struggle, but instead, needed whites to come to their aid. Critics also fault the film, for not representing the â€Å"blacks† who played vital roles and also for the stereotyping of all Mississippians as racists. Throughout the film, the angle of a low angle shot has been extensively used to convey certain moods and emotions. This technique consists of positioning  the camera below the figure, in order to obtain a particular effect. The low angle shot was used in the film to show power and vulnerability such as in the scene when the burning cross was shown where it illustrated the powerful symbol of the cross and the supremacy it had. The shot of the extreme close up was also used where a close up was given of an object. This technique was primarily used to display qualities of a person and the expressions manifested on their faces. An occurrence in the film was just before Frank shot the civil rights workers, where a close up of his face was portrayed. This was done in order to depict his expressionless face and the way he had no remorse for his actions. A lot of emphasis was also put into the lighting used in order to create a specific atmosphere. During the film, backlight was used create an eerie atmosphere as well as suspense due to the lack of light. This occurred in the scene when Lester was attacked in order to create a sense of anticipation as well as the kidnapping of he mayor. Lastly, the technique of sound was also used where diegetic and non-diegitic sounds were used. These types of sounds included voices, where as non-diegetic sounds covered mood music. This technique was expressed during many scenes in order to set the tone such as when the characters were speaking and the mood music of gospel singing being used. This gospel singing was used to create the sad and sombre atmosphere and to also engage the viewer’s emotions. Overall, this movie was a clear depiction of the events in the 1960s and is a successful text in keeping this history alive through the passing to future generations.