Thursday, April 16, 2020
Miranda Rights free essay sample
The relationship between the Escobedo and Miranda laws is as follows: The Escobedo law came into effect because he was denied an attorney, thus his confession to his crime of murder was thrown out. In the Miranda case, his confession was also inadmissible because he was not aware of his rights to self- incrimination. The impact of both decisions made the law seem to protect the innocent and the guilty, that is why you are innocent until proven guilty. No one was allowed to talk to police without a lawyer present due to the possibility of police hanging the words around, or the suspect not understating their rights to remain silent. Two years after the Miranda ruling, Congress passed Title 18 Statue 3501, which appeared to override Miranda and return to the voluntariness standard. This new statue affected the Miranda ruling because as long as the criminals confession was deemed voluntary under the due process voluntariness test, the confession is admissible even if it was obtained before the person was read his or her Miranda arnings. We will write a custom essay sample on Miranda Rights or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page These laws do both to protect individual rights and at the same time, provide loop holes for criminals. Everyone taken into custody needs to know their Constitutional rights to protect themselves from self incrimination. However, criminals can use this as a means to get away with a crime. For example the U. S. v. Dickerson case. Mr. Dickerson confessed to robbing a bank, but then later stated he was not read his rights, making the confession inadmissible in a court of law.
Friday, March 13, 2020
How to Use Hyphens Correctly in Business Grammar
How to Use Hyphens Correctly in Business Grammar Louise Julig wrote a wonderful post about hyphens in her Thoughts Happen blog. Business writing requires correct hyphenation. Itââ¬â¢s both clarifying and funny. She wore a purple wrist band to remind her of her pledge not to complain. The problem? The bracelet omitted a needed hyphen, prompting Louiseââ¬â¢s grammar complaint: Argh! I just canââ¬â¢t stand it anymore! Iââ¬â¢ve been doing this purple-bracelet ââ¬Å"stop complainingâ⬠exercise for almost three weeks now (and am on my record 5th day of not complaining) but I canââ¬â¢t hold it in any longer because every time I look at the half inch of rubber encircling my wrist I want to gouge a little hyphen between ââ¬Å"Complaintâ⬠and ââ¬Å"Free.â⬠Itââ¬â¢s ââ¬Å"A Complaint-Free World,â⬠people, not ââ¬Å"A Complaint Free Worldâ⬠! Oh the irony of complaining about the ââ¬Å"complaint freeâ⬠bracelet. But really! Hyphens are very complicated. I agree with Grammar Girlââ¬â¢s recommendation to check a dictionary and style guide when possible. When itââ¬â¢s not, fall back on this baseline rule: Hyphenate compound modifiers when they come before a noun, and donââ¬â¢t hyphenate them when they come after a noun. Louise illustrated this rule nicely: Why is this? Hereââ¬â¢s my best explanation: hyphens group modifiers together for clarity. Say you have a red brick house. Is it a red house? Yes. Is it a brick house? Yes. Therefore, no hyphen is needed. However, what if you have a ââ¬Å"gluten free recipe.â⬠Is it a gluten recipe? No. Is it a free recipe? No. Therefore, a hyphen is needed to group the modifiers together so you know the recipe has no gluten. Itââ¬â¢s a gluten-free recipe. Why then do you not hyphenate after the noun, e.g. ââ¬Å"the recipe is gluten freeâ⬠? The temptation is to throw in extra hyphens just in case, e.g. ââ¬Å"the recipe is gluten-free.â⬠But itââ¬â¢s just as bad to over-hyphenate as to under-hyphenate, and it really isnââ¬â¢t necessary. Hereââ¬â¢s why: when the modifier comes after the noun, itââ¬â¢s only modifying the one word immediately after it. So we ask ourselves, ââ¬Å"What kind of ââ¬Ëfreeââ¬â¢ is it?â⬠and the answer is ââ¬Å"gluten.â⬠Itââ¬â¢s gluten free. Louise, thanks so much for breaking your complaint-free pledge to clarify this! I say you should gouge that little hyphen into your bracelet, and wear it proudly!
Tuesday, February 25, 2020
Clinical Supervision Reflection and Action Plan Essay
Clinical Supervision Reflection and Action Plan - Essay Example Other fields have also embraced the concept of clinical supervision with a variation of the same though under a different name altogether. This paper is going to focus on the various aspects of clinical supervision. It will begin with a brief background of the concept. A definition of the concept will be provided for purposes of understanding what clinical supervision is all about. It will then look at what happens in clinical supervision including the various stages involved. It will then provide a reflection of the good things that I encountered during clinical supervision before also looking at the bad things in clinical supervision. The paper will then look at some of the key issues in clinical supervision outlining their importance and how to improve on them in the future. This will then be followed by a discussion of some of the challenges that I faced and the mechanisms that I put in place to overcome them. The paper will conclude explaining why clinical supervision is important in nursing and the difference that it makes in the entire profession. Clinical supervision There has been a longstanding assumption in the medical field that nurses and midwives for that matter ââ¬Å"learn on the Jobâ⬠but in true sense there have been very few mechanisms that are put in place to ensure this aspect happens (Bryant, 2010, p. 36 ). Clinical supervision is an aspect that was introduced way back in the early 1990ââ¬â¢s to describe a systematic structure for professional development for nurses and midwives. This concept was seen as a means of bringing together the aspect of reflection, development, individual responsibility and accountability within a framework that offers support and promotes safe practices (Gordon, 2000, p. 27). The overall intention of introducing this concept is to be able to promote safe practice and help in identifying the wilful bad practices that are exemplified nurses at the workplace and how these can be avoided in future operations (Bryant, 2010, p. 37 ). The NMC viewed the practices by nurses as individual responsibility an d therefore in 1993 they put forward a code that stated ââ¬Å"As a professional you are personally accountable for actions and omissions in your practice and must always be able to justify your decisions.â⬠This showed the aspect of individual responsibility and accountability (NMC, 2008). The council later on realized the importance of clinical supervision as being essential to accountable nursing practice and therefore endorsed its adoption in every branch of nursing. However the implementation of this aspect was essentially left to the practitioners in the individualized or local situations (Jeremy & Suresh, 2007, p. 412). The council still supports the aspect of clinical supervision but believes that it is better developed at local levels in line with the local needs of the population (Bryant, 2010, p. 39 ). Clinical supervision is therefore described as ââ¬Å"regular protected time for facilitated, in-depth reflection on clinical practice aimed to enable the supervisee t o achieve, sustain and creatively develop a high quality of practice through the means of focused support and development.â⬠(NCNM, 2008, p. 2) Brunero & Stein-Parbury (2008, p. 87) define clinical supervision as ââ¬Å" a process of professional support and learning in which nurses are assisted in developing their practice through regular discussion time with experienced and knowledgeable colleagues.â⬠It is evident from this that the principle of discussion is used in clinical supervision. Discussion or reflection is used to assist the nurseââ¬â¢s figure out what happened in a given situation and what
Sunday, February 9, 2020
An Analysis of Cross-Cultural Communication and Negotiation in the Assignment
An Analysis of Cross-Cultural Communication and Negotiation in the International Management Arena - Assignment Example This move is particularly important because Ashby (2008) advises that ââ¬Å"these unpalatable truths contribute to the increasing problemsâ⬠facing companies. This is so because even though misconceptions are generally accepted to be falsehood, they at times impact on the lives of natives such that they begin to adapt their ways of life towards them (Osei, 2009). In the first place, it is believed that Nigeria is a country blighted with the problem of political and civil tension, instability and unrest. This is considered as a misconception not necessarily because Nigeria never records any instances of political unrest but that the degree of occurrence might be more than suggested. In a typical example of political tension, ââ¬Å"On 19 October 2010, a militant group threatened to attack political campaign gatherings attended by Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathanâ⬠(Australian Department of Affairs, 2011). Such political tensions are believed to impact negatively on busi nesses wishing to start new ventures in the country because investors cannot be fully assured of the defense of the constitution of the country, which protects the investor and other foreigners. This not withstanding, it is important for Fosters to be aware that for the past fifteen (15) years, Nigeria has upheld it national constitution without a coup dââ¬â¢etat that overdraws the constitution (Dawodu, 2007).
Thursday, January 30, 2020
Case Study Analysis on an Organisation Essay Example for Free
Case Study Analysis on an Organisation Essay Organisational change is something that occurs throughout an organisationââ¬â¢s life cycle and effects the entire organisation rather than one part of it. Employing a new person is one example. Change is increasing due to a number of forces including globalisation led by rapidly advancing technologies, cultural diversity, environmental resources and the economy; therefore the ability to recognise the need for change as well as implement change strategies effectively, in a proactive response to internal and external pressures is essential to organisational performance. Internal changes can include organisational structure, process and HR requirements and external changes involve government legislation, competitor movements and customer demand (Wood et al, 2010). Change does not need to be a painful process, as it may seem when observing the amount of failed change management initiatives with reports as low as 10% of researched success rates (Oakland Tanner, 2007), when successful change management strategies are utilised and planned, including effective communication strategies, operational alignment, readiness to change and implementation, which all lower and overcome resistance (Wood et al, 2010). There is a great amount of literature on the negative aspects and difficult management with employees resisting change, however Wood et al (2010) challenge this notion by questioning the change management process as people do not resist change itself but aspects of the change that affects them personally such as fear of the unknown, status, remuneration and comfort. Resistance to these changes is a healthy reaction and can be managed effectively in the beginning by ensuring communication and using one of the change initiatives described here. Background Information Truelocal is based in Sydney, with small sales branches in Brisbane and Melbourne. It employs over 150 staff, an increase of approximately 50% over the past two years. It was founded in 2005 by NDM as part of an expanding operation of online websites to provide across the board consumer services, including news and magazine websites; online sport and weather information; and shopping comparison search engine, web-based recruitment, and travel search engine solutions [http://www. ewsdigitalmedia. com. au, accessed 25/08/2010]. As the world shifted into what is often referred to as the ââ¬Ëdigital info ageââ¬â¢, consumer demand for online media as a way to source information significantly increased and demand for printed media decreased putting pressure on newspaper companies to expand to producing news and information online in digital format. This included News Corporation which decreased its newspaper operations and increased its digital expansion. As an employee at Truelocal for over six years, I have acquired this information presented here through interviews with management, company information and my own observations internally within the organisationââ¬â¢s sales department working in the roles of sales executive, account manager and senior retention account manager. The Need for Change ââ¬â Management Structure Truelocal needed to align its culture, values and structure with the parent company in order to meet strategic growth goals not long after it was founded. Wood et al (2010) describe the work of an author, Noel Tichey on managing strategic change. Experts use three fundamental sets of change in their approach; technical design, political allocation and culture/ideological mix problems. It is one of these problems that become a pressing issue at any one time of which then initiates the change. In Truelocalââ¬â¢s case there were a number of changes evolving and at this time it was culture problems. NDM has been growing in size since its establishment in 2006 with a number of acquired website operations, each operating as a separate business unit with the support of HR, Finance, IT, Commercial Operations and other support services provided by the parent company (NDM). A decision was made to align the organisation in terms of operations, culture and strategy so it could concentrate on innovation and performance to achieve its goal of becoming the number one provider of online information in Australia. As a result NDM redesigned its organisational structure as Truelocal and most of the other business units merged together in one location. Not long after this relocation, Truelocal began flattening out the company structure lead by a new management team and CEO. It has since been under constant change to achieve itââ¬â¢s goal to continue growth (both in number of staff and performance) and excel as a high performing and innovative company with an agenda of being the second largest online directory service in Australia after itââ¬â¢s competitor Sensis (Yellow pages online). Wood et al (2010) explain the performance gap is a desire to move from one less desired state to another. This can be seen by the increased performance after the change occurred and culture change was implemented. What changed Fundamental changes that occurred were a shift from the existing vertical, bureaucratic structure to a horizontal structure and change in specialist functioning of divisions creating a professional, corporate environmental culture that was customer focused. The existing culture was a casual attitude towards dress requirements, starting and finishing times, breaks, informal communication expression and channels and many staff were employed as friends of existing staff rather than based on competency and job skills. Some managers had their partners working for them and a few were family members. There didnââ¬â¢t appear to be any dress code and people came and left work at varying times. Additionally management employed more skilled staff, retrained existing staff and created processes of which procedures were then put in place. One of the ways these objectives were achieved was by the reduction of management layers resulting in more direct reporting. Wood et al (2010) explain as organisational size increases, the more interconnections and less direct communication between people takes place (Wood et al, 2010). Change Process When management at Truelocal uplifted existing management and reporting structures, staffs were initially left without direction, reporting channels, processes and goals were not clearly communicated causing a lot of uncertainty. Consequently many staff resigned as they felt upset and confused about what was happening. Truelocal however, retained some of the more experienced staff with new career development propositions and new managers were encouraging and open about future improvements that were to take place within the organisation. One of the ways Truelocal could have managed this change is by using the Freeze/Unfreeze concept; Wood et al (2010) explains Kurt Lewin, a famous organisational Psychologistââ¬â¢s three-force phase, which is needed for any organisation to be motivated to bring about the change of which are; 1) Unfreezing focuses on preparing people for change. This is a critical part of the change phase prior to implementation by analysing and influencing resistance and need to change. A common tool that is used at this stage is called Force Field Analysis, this measures these forces. ) Changing of people; tasks; structure; technology. Ideally the organisation will be completely unfrozen, ready for change and its goals made clear. It is recommended that staff are not perceived to have a sense of high or low security at this stage in order to avoid resistance. 3) Refreezing is the evaluation and reinforcement of the changes that took place. The new managers were recruited by Truelocal for their exp erience in organisational transformation within the type of professional, high performing, corporate environment the organisation desired and who worked at their competitor company. These managers were expected to manage the entire change process themselves. Change agents are people or groups who take responsibility for the change of behaviours and existing patterns in a supportive manner (Wood et al, 2010). The perceived risks however, are the responsibility of the organisationââ¬â¢s leader who decides on the direction of the change (Oakland Tanner, 2007). Planned changes that took place were; Structure ââ¬â change in organisational design by reporting systems, operational processes and size of teams, while roles were redefined by definition, job title and remuneration. Tasks ââ¬â Most jobs were redesigned including more responsibility for staff in management roles and multi functional tasks for other staff. One of these job designs is called job enrichment, which is the increase and deepening of motivating factors built into a job (Wood et al, 2010). Some of these enrichments used by new management were increased responsibility and accountability, less control and more freedom in the job and more recognition. People ââ¬â improvement of recruitment and selection process by advertising formal job vacancies on the organizationââ¬â¢s intranet and incentives for staff to nominate candidates who were then formally interviewed by a number of managers. Additionally training sessions for new staff, coaching and certification courses were made available. Carless (2005) describes her research on the compatibility of job-person-organisation-environment fit. She believes a person must assess their attributes and personality with the job and organisational characteristics, which is likely to improve job satisfaction and adjustment to the environment. Culture ââ¬â organisational values and beliefs were communicated from the parent company of which staff was rewarded when their behaviour displayed these values. Recognition was given in addition at meetings and performance appraisals. This is the observable culture, however as Wood et al (2010) explain, shared meanings and stories are other powerful aspects of culture and this can be observed at Truelocal by the high turnover of staff by both stories and norms that communicate the need to work hard to perform in the job or leave. Cultural symbols include trophies for ââ¬Ëemployee of the monthââ¬â¢ awarded to the highest performer. These symbols serve to transmit cultural meaning (Wood et al, 2010). In the sales department a large subculture can be observed. Wood et al (2010) explain strong subcultures are often found in high performance task forces where people share similar values and backgrounds. This subculture included men between the ages of 22-30 yrs that have no formal education, drink alcohol excessively, and are passionate about technology, highly materialistic and view women as sex objects, which can often be observed by their language and behaviour. Moreover this culture is likely to be influenced by the national culture of which the organisation is embedded (Wood et al, 2010). In fact this subculture existed in the old culture before the restructure of which the company held ââ¬Ëdiversity trainingââ¬â¢ focused on discrimination and fairness within the workplace resulting in terminations. According to The Economist (2008), in the economic downturn companies need ââ¬ËGeneration Yââ¬â¢ as hungry 25-35 year olds without commitment, for marketing and product innovation with emerging technologies, able to put in the time and energy to help them deal with recession hazards, especially in sales. Strategy ââ¬â operations and planning were clarified at monthly and quarterly meetings including product changes. These were addressed by department managers regularly and CEO meetings irregularly, to engage staff. Wood et al (2010) explain leadership has changed from the traditional trait and behaviour approaches to transformational, charismatic, visionary focus and is separate from management. The leadership team at Truelocal formally includes the CEO and parent company (NDM) leaders. Their leadership function can be observed by their language and behaviours they use a transformational and visionary change approach. Objectives ââ¬â specific performance targets were set allowing staff to earn a higher commission by overachieving set targets, recognition and prizes to increase motivation consistently. Purpose ââ¬â both the CEO and the parent company made organisational goals clearly communicated vision and clarified progress regularly. Recognition was given for the contribution of each department and each business unit to the overall success of the organisation. These changes were managed by senior staff using a combination of change strategy approaches as explained by Wood et al (2010) that include a forced approach of top down command, one way communication, coercive reward and punishment approach, rationalisation approach and shared decision making, empowered approach. Of these approaches no single approach was concluded best by researchers on organisational change and it is advised that more commonly a combination will occur, however guidelines are offered to change agents and managers (Wood et al, 2010); consider use of expert consultants communicate the need for change feedback from employees avoid changing for the sake of change study organisational change and structures From this perspective Truelocal management took the right approach by varying the way they managed the change. Change Results The facilitation of clearer and faster communication channels enabled staff to work more efficiently and get things done faster, along wit h improved technology. Further benefits of this structure were people collaborating in teams, using initiative and increased spontaneous communication while rules, procedures and close supervision were reduced as described in (Tushman, Anderson Oââ¬â¢Reilly, 1997). Wood et al (2010) describe the matrix structure is common in large organisations wanting to improve customer responsiveness. Truelocalââ¬â¢s reporting structure utilised this organisational design as part of the change, for example the finance manager reports to the CEO of Truelocal and to the Commercial Director of NDM, however Wood et al (2010) note each organisationââ¬â¢s structure is unique and there is no single observed design. This change is described by Wood et al (2010) as radical. Radical changes are fundamental reorientations and transformational, often initiated by the arrival of a new CEO. Culture Performance Change Since the change occurred, Truelocalââ¬â¢s sales department recorded a growth rate of 15% per full time employee (FTE). Some strategies used were; Performance appraisal review (PAR) ââ¬â staff are asked to grade themselves on their performance and their use of company values of which are discussed by their managers. For example one of the values is ââ¬ËImpactââ¬â¢ and an employee is asked how much impact they contributed to the organisation since the last performance review and they are required to give examples of this behaviour. These PARs are held quarterly and annually. Reward and remuneration ââ¬â staff are given targets according to their job level and experience with incentives to over achieve. These targets are called Key Performance Indicators (KPIs). The personââ¬â¢s job is broken into task components of which each component consists of a target behaviour that is rewarded. Remuneration is based on the overall percentage of KP I achievement. Recognition ââ¬â employee of the month award was created by encouraging staff to use an online submission for their preferred co-worker who had gone over and above their job requirement displaying one of the company values. In addition the company awards the sales department with the person with the highest dollar value in sales and yearly a larger reward of which one year was a new car. Similarly a newsletter recognises new sales people who achieve early in their job. All of these reinforcements are called extrinsic which are rewards given to someone by another personââ¬â¢s valued outcome and because they are environmentally impactful are valued in influencing behaviour through the law of effect (Wood et al, 2010). Cultural change can take years according to Wood et al (2010); however effective cultural change strategies can be used to shorten the timeframe. One of which is explained by Oakland Tanner (2007), it is important to align the culture to support the desired change in behaviour. For example Truelocal needed a professional, customer focused culture which required staff to develop professional skills and behaviour. The result was all departments undertook a full training programme designed to increase awareness in communication, with a focus on questioning and empathy. Conclusion Truelocal is a young company and part of the larger and still relatively new parent organisation, NDM, operating under the global News Corporation. The industry it operates in, digital media is one of the fastest growing and changing environments globally. It changed from a structure and culture of casual, unprofessional work practices managed within a more bureaucratic structure that was under performing to a transformational, high performing, innovative and professional culture that is customer focused. Truelocal achieved its goal of growth, productivity and change in culture, however many staff were lost in the process and not much planning appeared to be in place. It is unclear as to the lack of planning, communication or use of external consultant in the case of radical change that occurred. One assumption might be due to budgetary restrictions as the company has been running at a loss since it started, reporting a loss this year of over one hundred million. Apart from the successful change management strategies that were used by the change agents, in particular the motivational strategies used by nominated change managers, numerous other approaches were identified that may benefit the organisation for managing future changes more effectively. Reference List Carless, S. A. (2005). Person-job fit versus person-organisation fit as predictors of organisational attraction and job acceptance intentions: a longitudinal study. Journal of Occupational and Organisational Psychology. 78 (3), 411-429. Generation Y goes to work (2008, December 30). The Economist (US). Retrieved from http://www. economist. com/business/displaystory. cfm? story_id=12863573 Oakland, J. S. , Tanner, S. (2007). Successful change management. Total Quality Management, 18 (1-2), 1-19. Tushman, M. L. , Anderson, P. C. Oââ¬â¢Reilly, C. (1997). Technology cycles, innovation streams and ambidextrous organisations: organisaiton renewal through innovation streams and strategic change. Managing strategic innovation and change. Oxford University Press, NY. 2-23. Wood, J, Zeffane, R. , Fromholtz M. , Wiesner R. , Creed A. , Schermerhorn J. , Hunt J. , Osborn R. , (2010). Organisational Behaviour, Core concepts applications. 2nd Ed. John Wiley Sons, Australia, Ltd. Milton Qld.
Wednesday, January 22, 2020
Effects Of Rape On Women Essay -- essays research papers
à à à à à Websterââ¬â¢s Dictionary describes rape as the crime of forcing another person to submit to sex acts, especially sexual intercourse. Rape is a crime in which most women cannot defend themselves. The fear of rape plagues every woman at some point or another in her life. The traumatic effects of rape vary from mild to severe, from psychological to physical. This paper will evaluate rape, as well as the effects it has on women, the theory behind male dominance and patriarchy, and differences in demographics. à à à à à ââ¬Å"Rape is a crime that combines sex and violence, that makes sex the weapon in an act of violence.â⬠(Kimmel 257) Because of this, rape is often traumatic for the victim of a rape. Many victims undergo what is known as rape trauma syndrome, ââ¬Å"â⬠¦rape trauma syndrome, consisting of an acute stage, where the primary response is fear, followed by a reorganization stage, characterized by phobias, insomnia, sexual dysfunctions, and major changes in life-style.â⬠(Chandler et al pp. 248) These are some of the psychological side effects that women must endure after the rape. There are also other factors, relating to the individual that effect rape trauma they include, ââ¬Å"age, prior sexual experience, ethnicity, and response of significant others to the victim. Factors relating to the sexual assault, such as degree of violence and the relationship between the victim and the assailant also affect trauma.â⬠(Chandler et al pp 249) Overall, is i s safe to say that there are many psychological effects of rape that allows women to fear the attack of a rape. In many rape situations, the victim is raped by an aquaintance, therefore the victim is less likely to report the rape. ââ¬Å"About 15 percent of college women report having been sexually assaulted; more than half of these assaults were by a person that the women was dating.â⬠(Kimmel 233) If more than half of the sexual assaults and rapes are commited by a person that a women is dating or at least knows, then the people that are the rapists are the everyday Joeââ¬â¢s walking down the street, not the psychotic rapist that women are on the look out for. ââ¬Å"Moreover, 20 to 50 percent of women have sustained sexual coercion at least once while dating.â⬠(Burke et al 272) This statistic shows that when women are in a relationship they are much less likely to report a rape. ââ¬Å"Women tend to... ...ies that in rapes where white men are the offender, they usually know the victim, however, in cases where black men are the rapist, they tend to be strangers. Abortion is a very controversial issue in our society. However, people tend to feel differently about abortions for rape victims. The contriversy over the abortion issue is that if a woman is responsible enough to go through the actions to become pregnant, she should be able to have the child. Churches believe that abortion is murder. However, if a woman is raped, she did not give her consent to have sexual intercourse with the offender. According to Schuman and Scott, although there are many people that have mixed feelings about abortion, in other words they believe that it is okay at some times, but at other times they feel that it is wrong, the most extreme pro-life people still believe that abortion is wrong ââ¬Å"when pregnancy results from rape or incest.â⬠(Schuman and Scott 786) In these situations, however, pro-choice believe that women have as much right to choose what happens to their body. According to Kimmel, in some states abortion is only legal in ââ¬Å"cases of rape or of a threat to the motherââ¬â¢s healthâ⬠(Kimmel 255).
Tuesday, January 14, 2020
A History of Arabian Music
Henry G. Farmer illuminating book ââ¬Å"A History of Arabian Musicâ⬠seeks to provide readers with insight of the historical influences that shaped Arabian music and the culture that nourished and gave rise to variances and interpretations dealing with the theory of music and the practices that further consolidated and supported these theories. The book was published originally in 1929 and covers musical work over several centuries. The book starts with the factors that helped to shaped Arabian music culture. These include political and social factors which were instrumental in shaping Arabian music theory.The book starts with a look at the ââ¬Å"Days of Idolatryâ⬠in the 6th century (Farmer, 1929). According to Farmer, this was a time which was referred to by Muslims as ââ¬Å"Days of ignoranceâ⬠based of the fact that at that time much of the knowledge relating to Arabian civilization and the attending economical, political and cultural practices, was lost. Farmer argues that there were many musical instruments in this Islamic time, whose development were linked to Southern Arabians and these instruments include Miââ¬â¢Zaf (Barbiton) and the Kus (A Large Kettledrum) (Farmer, 1929).Factors Migration of people from the southern region to Al Hijaz resulted in a melting pot of the Arts and musicians and poets flourished and shared their talents with others. Farmer also stated that the Musicians and poets in Ukaz competed fiercely for ascendency in their respective arts and this may have helped to shaped the music of the times. Farmers reports that singing girls were famous during that time and musicians gained further recognition from singing at the courts (Farmer, 1929).The author states that during the time of Idolatry, music was found in all areas of society; and pervaded, religious, public and private lives. Arabians were known to sing while at work and play and they often express joy by enagaging in music. Dispite the many musicians and s ingers of that time, only a few names have been preserved for modern society. Farmer states that with the advent of Islam during the time of Mohammed the Prophet and subsequent to his death, legists have been debating if music was lawful although there is no reference in the Quran as to any opposition.Farmer argue that the opposition to music may have developed by those theologians who decryed the attention being paid to music and popular musicians of the time (Farmer, 1929). Arabian music would also be influence by the Khalif, Mu'awiya who during his reign in the 7th century eventually gave recognition and a present to a musician in his court and this was in direct contrast to what were popular expressions of disapproval of musicians at the time.Yazid II (720-24) a ruler, was also said to have been instrumental in bringing back music to the courts and public life because he enjoyed the arts Farmer illuminatingly states that eventually during what he termed the ââ¬Å"Orthodox Khali fateâ⬠there arose serious competition between the musicians of two major Arabian cities; Mecca and Al Medina and he argues that it was Mecca that gave the Arabians the musician Ibn Misjah who was stated to be the first schooled person in Arabian music.Farmer stated that Arabian music was influenced by both Greek and Persian musicians and composers and the Greek influence gained ascendancy with the work of Greek theorists such as Ptolemy, Aristoxenos and Euklid prominently taking center stage to shape Arabian music. Farmer also looks at two Khalifs who were avid supporters of music and these were Al-Amir (1101-1131) and Al-Musta'H (1094-1101). Farmer argues that the later Khalifs helped to support and shape musical development and enjoyment.In Farmersââ¬â¢ eyes the development and growth in appreciation of music in the Arabian culture was not without opposition and controversy. In his eyes, and based on his research, it was the Khalifs, especially those from the 8th to the 1 2th centuries that brought back music to public and private lives and encouraged a growing appreciation of this art form. He viewed the work of the great philosopher, Al-Ghazali, as being enormously influential pertaining to musical development and cites the Principal of the Two Nizamiyya colleges in Baghdad and Nisapur as being one who came out in defense of the music.Farmer has been able to shed light on a period in Arabian history that shows how music development evolved and developed and the forces that acted to restrain the emergence of musical theory. His book shows the triumph of those who overcame adversity and opposition to music in public and private citing religious teachings and the book ends with a look at the work and lives of those who actively sought to make music a part of daily lived of Arabians.Farmers work shows that the development of the music did not happen overnight, but was a result of centuries of struggle and erudite contemplations. No single individual ca n lay claim to the developing theories of music for the Arabian people and the development was due to a multitude of music lovers who defended the art and practices and eventually left a rich heritage. References Farmer, H. G. (1929). A History of Arabian Music. Luzac.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)