A better South Africa for the new South Africa Essay

A better South Africa for the new South Africa The Apartheid struggle is not an anecdote about a few black people that lived under a suppressive government; it is a story about millions of black people who suffered tremendously under the oppressive classification system of the National Party. It is a story about bloodshed, suffering and tears. It is a story that serves as a painful reminder of the extent that a group of people would go to ensure that the purity of their race was conserved. The Apartheid struggle is a story defined by race. Growing up in Soweto was not easy. My earliest childhood memory of white people was witnessing how they shot at black people with rubber bullets; I remember seeing the agony on a woman’s face after she†¦show more content†¦Too much of our energy has been spent on the past; we need to understand that nothing we do today can change what happened. We need to work together to find new ways to ensure that the dreams and hopes that Nelson Mandela set out for South Africa in 1994, does not stay nothing but hopeless dreams. In his famous inauguration speech, Nelson Mandela stated that the â€Å"time for healing the wounds have come†. Twenty years ago, the world watched as South Africa had its first Democratic Elections and ever since then, South Africa has never been the same. South Africa is in a better place than it was twenty years ago. But is this really the South Africa that Nelson Mandela, Steve Biko and all the other unsung heroes fought for? It is time to heal the wounds of the past and I feel that the only way possible to do so is if we work on ways to ensure that South Africa would never backslide back to Apartheid again. Our politics do not have to be politics of choice between Black, White, Rich or Poor. I believe that together we can build a new form of politics, based on a shared identity. Our South African Identity. This identity does not exclude our individual identities but it unites us as a unit to work towards a better future for generations to come. All South Africans have a story to tell. We should acknowledge the evils of Apartheid and do what is possible toShow MoreRelatedEssay on The Future of South Africa672 Words   |  3 PagesThe Future of South Africa Some things in South Africa are becoming better as we move into the future, while others are becoming worse. The government in South Africa is better. All the provisions of the new constitution were in place as of the year 1999. In June of 1999, President Nelson Mandela’s term ended, and Thabo Mbeki was elected as president. There was a peaceful change in government, and Mbeki is doing many things to help the country. Some of these include eliminating hatred betweenRead MoreThe Effects of Globalization1678 Words   |  7 Pageswhich is commonly referred to as a global village (Egnatz, 2011). South Africa is integrated highly into the world economy. South Africa is the strongest African economy and has attained positions like being a member of G8 .All these are as a result of globalization. Globalization has had an impact on the economy, the government and social nature resulting to some effects. The paper will look at how globalization has affected South Africa under several categories. It will also give an explanation onRead MoreSouth Africas Aids Crisis and Solution990 Words   |  4 PagesThe West and The World South Africa’s AIDS Crisis and Solution When visiting South Africa, I was intrigued at the beauty of the country, but was also curious as to how the country was dealing with one of Africa’s largest problems, AIDS/HIV. With the AIDS epidemic having started over 25 years ago, the disease continues to affect the population of Africa, especially South Africa, the nation with 5.6 million people living with HIV, the most in the world. Much of South Africa’s history of struggleRead MoreThe Roots of Apartheid: South Africa’s Colonial Experience Essay1673 Words   |  7 PagesIn recent years, there have been efforts to understand the institution of apartheid in South Africa. From the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, to general study into the history of South Africa, much scholarship has been devoted to the study of the effects of apartheid and the atrocities committed in the post-World War II period. However, one topic remains largely un-researched—the origins of the vast apartheid structure instit uted by the Herenigde (Reunited) National Party (HNP) in the late 1940’sRead MoreThe Future of South Africa1708 Words   |  7 PagesThe future of South Africa Predicting the future development of South Africa has become increasingly difficult due to radical changes that have occurred in the last few decades. These changes have left South Africa in a state of social and economical unrest. The largest of these changes was the abolishment of Apartheid. This allowed for black vote, and thus in 1994 a black government. This lead to black empowerment, which was subjugated for hundreds of years. This however created a new series of healthRead MoreEssay on South African Development Plan912 Words   |  4 PagesSouth Africa is a country in the continent of Africa, located to the south tip as its name suggests. Colonized by the Dutch in 1994, South Africa is seperated into nine provinces and is bordered to the north by the countries: Namibia, Botswana, and Zimbabwe, to the east: Swaziland and Mozambique, while coined in the south east is the country Lesotho, completely surrounded by the territory of South Africa. South Africa is one of the most di verse places in the world, and has eleven nationally recognizedRead MoreApartheid in South Africa Essays1245 Words   |  5 Pages The word apartheid comes in two forms, one being the system of racial segregation in South Africa, and the other form is the form that only those who were affected by apartheid can relate to, the deeper, truer, more horrifying, saddening and realistic form. The apartheid era truly began when white South Africans went to the polls to vote. Although the United Party and National Party were extremely close, the National party won. Since they won, they gained more seats and slowly began to eliminateRead MoreThe Apartheid Of South Africa1750 Words   |  7 Pagesfirst black President of South Africa. Referred to as the living embodiment of black liberation, Mandela specifically fought against the government system of South Africa known as apartheid (Lacayo, Washington, Monroe, Simpson). Apartheid is an Afrikaan word meaning apartness and was a system of racial segregation for the South African people from 1948 until F.W. de Klerk became president in 1991. Although Nelson Mandela was both literally and metaphorically imprisoned by South Africa’s racist ideologiesRead MoreHiv / Aids : Hiv And Aids1484 Words   |  6 PagesThroughout the history of South Africa, problems regarding the overall well-being of the country have arisen. One current issue South Africa is currently facing is HIV/AIDS. The disease has been plaguing South Africa as well as other countries throughout the continent. The initialism HIV stands for human immunodeficiency virus. This disease attacks and destroys the infection-fighting CD4 cells of the immune system. Loss of these cells makes it difficult for the body to fight infections. Without treatmentRead MoreAnalysis Of Larry Grubbs s Workshop Of A Continent : American Representations Of Whiteness And Modernity1081 Words   |  5 Pagesin 1960s South Africa† is aptly named given the material he discusses. Grubbs argues that when American observers discussed South Africa s modernity, the signs and symptoms of a modern country they looked for were actually symptoms of whiteness. He argued that whiteness and modernity were conflated by western observers, who he believed defined modernity as being similar to the United States.1 These observers were unable to explicitly state that whiteness was why they supported South Africa due to

Essay on Rap Music - 2073 Words

nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;Imagine an inner city kid having grown u in an environment where real life street violence is a way of life. His body, having survived personal experiences of violence, endured barely life sustained conditions, and many sleepless nights caused by the constant yet unpredictable call of death. His mind doubtful over where his next meal will come from, lost in search of some higher guidance, struggling through a world, not of innocent childish fantasies, but trapped in a forced reality. His only outlet is the loud blaring music coddling his already pent-up rage, an escape from these harsh realities, seducing him to a life of violence. In him is created a â€Å"me against the world† mentality that is manifested in†¦show more content†¦Sadly to say, the innocence of children across America will be lost because of the negative influences of sex and murder that is brought from gangsta rap.nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp; nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;Violence has spread rapidly and has affected many innocent civilians in various urban cities and towns across America. According to a 1992 poll by Newsweek out of 1,000 people surveyed, 50.4% backs and 29,9% whites fell victims of violent crimes. (Graham) More and more people are becoming victims of such crimes that can easily affect a mass amount of people, fortunately, there is a less amount of innocent civilians of homicide and 52 white males out of 100,000 were victims of homicide (Graham). Soon, kids will kill each other and society in the future will be completely washed out. nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;Most rap songs that contain violence reflects incidents that occur in today’s society such as the Rodney King incident. â€Å"Rap music brings together a tangle of some of the most complex social, cultural, and political issues in contemporary American society.† Rap and hip-hop artists write songs that promote the killing of enemies as well as targeting institutions such as the church, government, and justice system (Ro 145) Most artists relive their own painful experiences over and over again though their music, delaying their own society’s process of recovery . for example, in 1989Show MoreRelatedEssay on Rap Music2280 Words   |  10 PagesRap is a popular type of music in todays society, but it didnt just come to be. In the 1970s rap emerged from other types of music to become what it is today. Rap is influenced and inspired by other types of music. Its influences are closely related to each other. Rap music has derived from various types of music. In a world in which people are constantly confronted with violent acts such as rape, assault, murder, school shootings and other violences, society is eager and anxious to find andRead MoreViolence in Rap Music572 Words   |  2 PagesRap Music: Does it make people violent Rap music is one of the elements of Hip-Hop music. It is the form of rhyming lyrics spoken rhythmically over musical instruments with a musical backdrop of sampling, scratching and mixing. Rap music became popular in early 80’s. In 1989 a group Niggaz Wit Attitudes came from Los Angeles and changed the rap music. This changed rap was the start of Gangsta Rap, in which they talked about violence, crime and killing. With the popularity of Gangsta rap, everyoneRead MoreRap Music And The World1954 Words   |  8 PagesRap Music conquered the world. It no longer matters what part of the world you live in. Rap music can be heard playing from car’s passing in the streets and the hottest night club scene all across the globe. There is no doubt that Rap music has made a name for itself. With hard baselines and incredible word play put together in what is considered a standard sixteen bar versus has brought fame to artists of all styles. A virtual cash cow in the industry from music sells â€Å"it now generates over $10Read MoreThe Symptoms Of Taking Rap Music1823 Words   |  8 PagesAm Lit P.3 April 9, 2015 The Symptoms of Taking Rap Music Music is one of the greatest ways of expressing one’s personal feelings and experiences through the use of story-telling. One of the most popular genres of music is rap or also known as hip hop. Hip hop music has a profound effect, both positive and negative on many of today’s youth which transforms and evolves American culture and society. What started it all was the origin of â€Å"gangsta rap†, which was popularized by gangster rappers suchRead MorePros And Cons Of Rap Music1276 Words   |  6 Pages Music and Media satisfies the human world in many ways, it can vary from listening to music as it is or catching up on a tv episode that was missed. Although these two surround us in everyday lives, as mentioned previously, it comes with its downsides as well which corresponds to many topics to have in mind. The fact that music is widely popular and is used every day, one needs to take in mind as well the messages that are being expressed throughout the song. Relating to oneRead MoreRap Music As An Art Form1295 Words   |  6 PagesI. Introduction â€Å"Rather than treat rap music as an art form whose primary purpose is to entertain, prosecutors have become adept at convincing judges and juries alike that the lyrics are either autobiographical confessions of illegal behavior or evidence of a defendant’s knowledge, motive, or identity with respect to the alleged crime† (Nielson and Kubrin 1). Recently, prosecutors have been using rap lyrics as evidence in a criminal case. Rap, a form of hip-hop, originated in the 1970’s in NewRead MoreHip Hop And Rap Music1584 Words   |  7 PagesHip hop music is one of the most popular genres in present time that rose to prominence in the 1980’s. The hip hop genre was born in the African American community and has since then changed into what it is today. What most individuals don’t know is that originally rap music did not contain such explicit themes as it does now; such as misogyny, drugs, crime, and violence among others. Many people may wonder what le d to the introduction of such themes into rap music and why they remained popular.Read MoreHip Hop And Rap Music Essay1941 Words   |  8 Pagesthe classroom.(USE THAT SOURCE HERE) HHBE has many positive and influential outcomes for children living in inner cities. Hip hop music has categories and one of them is rap. By bringing hip hop and rap music into schools it serves as an educational tool for educators as it 1 â€Å"acted as an outlet so such people could express themselves angrily†¦they often used gangsta rap to tell the stories of their lives, which sometimes included strong violence, hypersexuality, and drug abuse†(Canton). We have toRead MoreRap Music And The Music Industry2018 Words   |  9 Pages Rap music led to more black professionals in the music industry. Rap can be traced back to its African roots. Before rap stories were told rhythmically over drums and instruments. This era was known as the golden age of rap. Rap did and has changed the face of music for the better. Old school flows were relatively basic and used only few syllables per bar. Simple rhythmic patterns, and basic rhyming techniques and rhyme schemes. There are different variations of flow, such as the syncopatedRead More Rap Music Is Not Music Essay1786 Words   |  8 PagesRap Music Is Not Music Describing the (disenchanting) chanting of â€Å"Rap Music† as singing or as music is indeed (in either case) a capital misnomer. Real Music is the careful arrangement of organized sounds in the form of notes that then result in a smooth blend of rhythm, tone, and pitch that when united, is quite pleasing to the ear. Rap is not music. The unpleasant-sounding horror is chaotic dissonance and certainly not elegant consonance. Rap is veritable noise pollution that is tastelessly

Leadership In The Military Free Essays

string(268) " realize that to his death Marshall remained an entirely selfless man, a man who returned to service even from a well-deserved and long-sought retirement because a president requested him to do so, a man who never, ever exploited his reputation for any personal gain\." There is surely no more talent nor more hope for the future than right here in this room. I envy you and I wish I could trade places with you, but at the same time, looking at all of you I am supremely confident that here among you sit the future great captains of our military and that we can all be very confident about tomorrow. And I am convinced that if he were alive today, Gen. We will write a custom essay sample on Leadership In The Military or any similar topic only for you Order Now Marshall would be right here, for there is nothing that that great soldier loved more than to talk about service and to talk about leadership. As he himself once said on a similar occasion, looking across a room full of future leaders, â€Å"You’re young,† he said, â€Å"and you’re vigorous, and your service will be the foundation for peace and prosperity throughout the world. † Certainly as I look at you the same is true this morning. Truly you here in this room are our future. And it is most fitting for us to come together right here in these very halls where George Marshall once walked to honor him and to reflect on his great contributions and to share some thoughts on leadership. If you were to think back over this century, you would realize very quickly that our Army has produced some truly remarkable military leaders. I am confident that if I were to ask all of you to take pen to paper and to write down the names of the great Army leaders of this century, you would be at it for a very long time, and when you were done, the lists that you produced would be very long. Just to name the most famous, there was, of course, Black Jack Pershing, Omar Bradley, George Patton, Dwight Eisenhower, Douglas MacArthur, Lightning Joe Collins and most recently two of my former bosses, Norman Schwarzkopf and Colin Powell. Each of these officers was remarkably gifted. But if you study them closely, you realize that each was very different, that the fame they acquired had very different roots. Omar Bradley — simple, unadorned, humble, but of them all he was the soldier’s soldier — loved by his subordinates and considered by Eisenhower to be the boldest and most dogged of his Army group commanders. Or there was Eisenhower himself, a leader of incalculable depth, intricacy and complexity. Some say his outward appearance and reputation were those of an officer who compromised easily, and who others thought was only thinly grounded in the knowledge of war fighting, but one with a keen sense for what it took to maintain cohesion within our W[orld] W[ar] II coalition. But if you were to look closer, you would discover that these were the traits Eisenhower wanted others to believe, for he was surrounded by huge egos, both among the talented commanders in his theater and among the nations that comprised our alliance. Quite contrary to these assertions, he held deep convictions, and he never ceded or compromised any point that he felt important. Our campaign to seize Europe from the Nazis was the very campaign he visualized at the start of the war back in 1942, a plan for which at first there was only lukewarm support among American leaders and nearly total opposition from our British allies. Yet when it was done, it was Eisenhower’s approach we executed, and it was militarily brilliant. And any study of our great generals must include that incredible warrior, George Patton, a tenacious and hard-bitten fighter who felt the pulse and flow of the battlefield in his veins, who had an innate knack for inspiring soldiers to fight beyond all limits of their endurance, but also a soldier with a renowned appetite for fame and approval. And we could talk about so many others, for our Army has produced such a rich abundance of talented leaders. But there is one giant who stands above them all. That officer was, of course, George Catlett Marshall. More than any soldier of this century, I’m convinced Marshall epitomized the qualities that we want in our leaders. He had MacArthur’s brilliance and courtliness. He had Patton’s tenacity and drive. He had Bradley’s personal magnetism, the  ability to inspire confidence and deep affection from any who came into his presence. But more than that, Marshall had the organizational skills that in a few short years converted an Army of only several hundred thousand, with only a handful of modern weapons and no modern battlefield experience, into an Army of over 8 million — the best equipped, the best fighting army in the world, an army that defeated the two most powerful empires of its time. More than that, he had a rare intuition, a nearly flawless inner sense for other men’s strengths that allowed him to see the spark of leadership in others, and when he saw that spark, to place such men into key assignments and then to fully support their efforts. He did that time and again, hundreds of times, with remarkable accuracy. And as we learned after the war, he was as well perhaps the greatest statesman and visionary of his age. All of us should remember that the occupations of Germany and Japan were commanded by military officers, but we should also remember that the architect of these occupations was Marshall. But even beyond this, in 1948, with a few words uttered in a speech at Harvard, Marshall put in motion the plan that would rebuild Western Europe, that would recover its people from enormous poverty, that would reweave the entire tapestry of nations from the conflict-addicted patterns of the past to what we see today: a Western Europe poised on the edge of becoming a cohesive union of nations. What an accomplishment! It is staggering to think of what this one officer accomplished in his career of service to his nation. But most humbling is to realize that to his death Marshall remained an entirely selfless man, a man who returned to service even from a well-deserved and long-sought retirement because a president requested him to do so, a man who never, ever exploited his reputation for any personal gain. You read "Leadership In The Military" in category "Leadership" If we were to ask a sculptor to produce a bust of a great leader and  described to that sculptor all of the traits and qualities that that bust should reflect, I have absolutely no doubt that that bust would look exactly like Gen. George C. Marshall. And so for those of us like you and I, who make soldiering our way of life, it is always instructive to take the time to reflect on Gen. Marshall’s career, for by so doing we are reminded of much that we should try to emulate. But you are here for a different reason. You are here because I think you worry about these next steps for you, which will lead to a gold bar of a second lieutenant. I doubt very much that you are searching for answers about how to mobilize for war, how to free an enslaved Europe or how to rebuild a destroyed nation, although some day your country may ask just that from you. If you are like I was when I waited to pin on my lieutenant’s bars, your thoughts are more about the challenges of a platoon leader than those of a general. The other week while a guest on Larry King’s show, Larry asked me when I first thought of becoming a general and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs. The answer was very simple. I told him that when I was a private my ambition was to become a good one so someday I could become a good corporal. And when 36 years ago, in 1959, the year that Gen. Marshall died, I was commissioned a second lieutenant and shipped off to Fairbanks, Alaska, and became a platoon leader in the mortar battery of the 1st Battle Group of the 9th Infantry, my thoughts were certainly not on becoming a general or colonel or major or even a captain! My thoughts were on becoming a good platoon leader, about being up to the challenge of leading my soldiers, about not making a fool of myself in front of Sgt.1st Class Grice, the platoon sergeant of that first platoon of mine. And I was right to concentrate on the job at hand, for the job of a lieutenant is a tough one — in many ways, perhaps, the toughest one — but it is without a doubt also the most important, and if you take to it, also the most rewarding. I was very fortunate, because I had Sergeant Grice to guide me and to teach me. And teach and guide me he did, without ever making me feel inadequate and without ever permitting me to be ill-prepared, because he was the best! And if there is one thing I wish for each and every one of you, it is a Sergeant Grice to teach you about soldiers, about leaders, and the responsibilities and joys of soldiering together. Not everyone is as blessed as I was; not everyone finds his Sergeant Grice, and many don’t not because he isn’t there, but because unknowingly and foolishly they push him away. Don’t do that. Look for your Sergeant Grice; NCOs have so very much to teach us. Well, what did I learn from Sergeant Grice? Certainly more than I have time to tell you here, and also because many helpful hints have probably by now faded from my memory. But what I learned then and what has been reinforced in the 36 years since is that good leadership, whether in the world of a lieutenant or in the world of a general, is based essentially on three pillars. These three pillars he taught me are character, love and care for soldiers, and professional competence. Oh, Sergeant Grice didn’t exactly use these terms, but what he believed and what he taught me fit very neatly into these three pillars. He used to say that if the platoon ever sensed that I wasn’t up front with them, if they ever believed I did something so I would look good at their expense, I would very quickly lose them. How right he was. Often he would say, â€Å"Look down. Worry about what your soldiers think. Don’t worry about looking up, about what the captain thinks of you. † He never said it, that’s not the kind of relationship that he and I had, but I knew that if I ever said something to the platoon or to him that wasn’t the absolute truth, he would never trust me again and I would be finished as a platoon leader. I would be finished as a leader. Someone once said that men of genius are admired, men of wealth are envied men of power are feared but only men of character are trusted. Without trust you cannot lead. I have never seen a good unit where the leaders weren’t trusted. It’s just that simple. And it isn’t enough that you say the right things. What counts in a platoon is not so much what you say, but what they see you do. Gen. Powell, speaking here a few years ago, put it this way: â€Å"If you want them to work hard and endure hardship,† he observed, â€Å"you must work even harder and endure even greater hardship.† â€Å"They must see you sacrifice for them,† he said. They must see you do the hard things, they must see you giving credit to the platoon for something good you did, and they must see you take the blame for something they hadn’t gotten just right. But Sergeant Grice also understood that hand in hand with character, with this inner strength that soldiers will want to see, they will also want to know and see that you really care for them, that you will sacrifice for them, that you simply enjoy being with them. Words won’t get you through there, either. If you don’t feel it in your heart, if you don’t love your soldiers in your heart, they will know it. How often Sergeant Grice would prod me to spend the extra time to get to know the members of the platoon better, to know who needed extra training and coaching so he could fire expert on the rifle range the next time around; to talk to Pvt. Taylor, who just received a â€Å"Dear John† letter; to visit Cpl. Vencler and his wife, who had a sick child. Every day you will have soldiers who will need your care, your concern and your help. They expect and, I tell  you, they have the right to expect, 150 percent of your time and best effort. And how well I remember those evenings in the field when Sergeant Grice and I would stand in the cold, with a cup of coffee in our hands trying to warm our frozen fingers, watching the platoon go through the chow line. Grice taught me that simple but long-standing tradition that officers go to the very end of the chow line, that the officer is the last one to eat, that the officer will take his or her first bite only after the last soldier has had a chance to eat. This tradition, as you so well know, is founded in the understanding that leaders place the welfare of their people above their own, that the officer is responsible for the welfare of the troops; that if mismanagement results in a shortage of food to feed the entire unit, that the officer will go without; that if the food gets cold while the unit is being served, that the officer will get the chilliest portion. It is a tradition that surprises many officers from other nations, but it goes to the core of the kind of leadership we provide our soldiers. But caring for our soldiers does not stop at the chow line. Nor, for that matter, does it stop with the soldiers themselves, for you know that our units are families, and a soldier must have the trust that you will take care of his family, particularly when he’s away from home. But caring for soldiers actually starts with making them the best possible soldiers they can be. Their satisfaction with themselves, their confidence in themselves and in the end, their lives will depend upon how well you do that part. And that perhaps is your greatest challenge as a lieutenant. It is hard work, and make no mistake about it, there are no shortcuts. But what a joy it is to watch or to talk to young men and women in uniform, who know that they are the best because a Sergeant Grice and his or her lieutenant cared to teach them and to work with them and to make them reach for the highest standards. Which brings me to the third pillar I spoke of, and that is your professional competence. As we look back on Marshall and on Patton and on MacArthur and all of the others, we realize that the skills and qualities and knowledge that made them great generals took decades of training, of experience and of evolution. For all of the differences between these leaders there is one thing that they had in common. Their careers were marked by a progression of difficult assignments and intense study. Always they were a snapshot of a masterpiece still in progress, still in motion. From the beginning of their careers to the end, each of them was continually applying new brushstrokes to their knowledge and to their skills. And Grice understood that very well, although he had different words for it. He knew that if our platoon was going to be good at occupying a position and firing our mortars, at hastily leaving our position should enemy artillery have found our location, at the countless things that would make us a finely honed war-fighting machine, then he had to show me, he had to teach me and to practice with me, so that when I walked that gun line the soldiers would know that I knew more than they; that if I asked them how to cut a mortar fuse, there was no doubt that I would know the answer, just as I would know if there was too much play in the sight mount on that mortar. And I had to feel confident that knew before they would feel confident with me. In every good leader I have met in my years of service there always was the evidence of these three qualities: character, love for soldiers and professional competence. And because they possessed these qualities, they managed to inspire their soldiers to have confidence in them. And you know, the truly great ones like George C. Marshall did not only inspire soldiers to have confidence in their leaders, but they also inspired their soldiers to have confidence in themselves. With that, let me close. As I told you in the beginning, I am deeply envious of each of you. Since the days when I first put on my uniform, I fell in love with soldiering and with soldiers, and it has been for me, by any measure, a great passion. If I could start all over today, I would not hesitate for a single second. I would go out and I would find old Sergeant Grice and we would be ready tomorrow morning! Good luck to you all. I envy you. How to cite Leadership In The Military, Essays Leadership in the Military Free Essays string(260) " that to his death Marshall remained an entirely selfless man, a man who returned to service even from a well-deserved and long-sought retirement because a president requested him to do so, a man who never, ever exploited his reputation for any personal gain\." There is surely no more talent nor more hope for the future than right here in this room. I envy you and I wish I could trade places with you, but at the same time, looking at all of you I am supremely confident that here among you sit the future great captains of our military and that we can all be very confident about tomorrow. And I am convinced that if he were alive today, Gen. We will write a custom essay sample on Leadership in the Military or any similar topic only for you Order Now Marshall would be right here, for there is nothing that that great soldier loved more than to talk about service and to talk about leadership. As he himself once said on a similar occasion, looking across a room full of future leaders, â€Å"You’re young,† he said, â€Å"and you’re vigorous, and your service will be the foundation for peace and prosperity throughout the world.† Certainly as I look at you the same is true this morning. Truly you here in this room are our future. And it is most fitting for us to come together right here in these very halls where George Marshall once walked to honor him and to reflect on his great contributions and to share some thoughts on leadership. If you were to think back over this century, you would realize very quickly that our Army has produced some truly remarkable military leaders. I am confident that if I were to ask all of you to take pen to paper and to write down the names of the great Army leaders of this century, you would be at it for a very long time, and when you were done, the lists that you produced would be very long. Just to name the most famous, there was, of course, Black Jack Pershing, Omar Bradley, George Patton, Dwight Eisenhower, Douglas MacArthur, Lightning Joe Collins and most recently two of my former bosses, Norman Schwarzkopf and Colin Powell. Each of these officers was remarkably gifted. But if you study them closely, you realize that each was very different, that the fame they acquired had  very different roots. Omar Bradley — simple, unadorned, humble, but of them all he was the soldier’s soldier — loved by his subordinates and considered by Eisenhower to be the boldest and most dogged of his Army group commanders. Or there was Eisenhower himself, a leader of incalculable depth, intricacy and complexity. Some say his outward appearance and reputation were those of an officer who compromised easily, and who others thought was only thinly grounded in the knowledge of war fighting, but one with a keen sense for what it took to maintain cohesion within our W[orld] W[ar] II coalition. But if you were to look closer, you would discover that these were the traits Eisenhower wanted others to believe, for he was surrounded by huge egos, both among the talented commanders in his theater and among the nations that comprised our alliance. Quite contrary to these assertions, he held deep convictions, and he never ceded or compromised any point that he felt important. Our campaign to seize Europe from the Nazis was the very campaign he visualized at the start of the war back in 1942, a plan for which at first there was only lukewarm support among American leaders and nearly total opposition from our British allies. Yet when it was done, it was Eisenhower’s approach we executed, and it was militarily brilliant. And any study of our great generals must include that incredible warrior, George Patton, a tenacious and hard-bitten fighter who felt the pulse and flow of the battlefield in his veins, who had an innate knack for inspiring soldiers to fight beyond all limits of their endurance, but also a soldier with a renowned appetite for fame and approval. And we could talk about so many others, for our Army has produced such a rich abundance of talented leaders. But there is one giant who stands above them all. That officer was, of course, George Catlett Marshall. More than any soldier of this century, I’m convinced Marshall epitomized the qualities that we want in our leaders. He had MacArthur’s brilliance and courtliness. He had Patton’s tenacity and drive. He had Bradley’s personal magnetism, the  ability to inspire confidence and deep affection from any who came into his presence. But more than that, Marshall had the organizational skills that in a few short years converted an Army of only several hundred thousand, with only a handful of modern weapons and no modern battlefield experience, into an Army of over 8 million — the best equipped, the best fighting army in the world, an army that defeated the two most powerful empires of its time. More than that, he had a rare intuition, a nearly flawless inner sense for other men’s strengths that allowed him to see the spark of leadership in others, and when he saw that spark, to place such men into key assignments and then to fully support their efforts. He did that time and again, hundreds of times, with remarkable accuracy. And as we learned after the war, he was as well perhaps the greatest statesman and visionary of his age. All of us should remember that the occupations of Germany and Japan were commanded by military officers, but we should also remember that the architect of these occupations was Marshall. But even beyond this, in 1948, with a few words uttered in a speech at Harvard, Marshall put in motion the plan that would rebuild Western Europe, that would recover its people from enormous poverty, that would reweave the entire tapestry of nations from the conflict-addicted patterns of the past to what we see today: a Western Europe poised on the edge of becoming a cohesive union of nations. What an accomplishment! It is staggering to think of what this one officer accomplished in his career of service to his nation. But most humbling is to realize that to his death Marshall remained an entirely selfless man, a man who returned to service even from a well-deserved and long-sought retirement because a president requested him to do so, a man who never, ever exploited his reputation for any personal gain. You read "Leadership in the Military" in category "Leadership" If we were to ask a sculptor to produce a bust of a great leader and described to that sculptor all of the traits and qualities that that bust should reflect, I have absolutely no doubt that that bust would look exactly like Gen. George C. Marshall. And so for those of us like you and I, who make soldiering our way of life, it is always instructive to take the time to reflect on Gen. Marshall’s career, for by so doing we are reminded of much that we should try to emulate. But you are here for a different reason. You are here because I think you worry about these next steps for you, which will lead to a gold bar of a second lieutenant. I doubt very much that you are searching for answers about how to mobilize for war, how to free an enslaved Europe or how to rebuild a destroyed nation, although some day your country may ask just that from you. If you are like I was when I waited to pin on my lieutenant’s bars, your thoughts are more about the challenges of a platoon leader than those of a general. The other week while a guest on Larry King’s show, Larry asked me when I first thought of becoming a general and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs. The answer was very simple. I told him that when I was a private my ambition was to become a good one so someday I could become a good corporal. And when 36 years ago, in 1959, the year that Gen. Marshall died, I was commissioned a second lieutenant and shipped off to Fairbanks, Alaska, and became a platoon leader in the mortar battery of the 1st Battle Group of the 9th Infantry, my thoughts were certainly not on becoming a general or colonel or major or even a captain! My thoughts were on becoming a good platoon leader, about being up to the challenge of leading my soldiers, about not making a fool of myself in front of Sgt. 1st Class Grice, the platoon sergeant of that first platoon of mine. And I was right to concentrate on the job at hand, for the job of a lieutenant is a tough one — in many ways, perhaps, the toughest one — but it is without a doubt also the most important, and if you take to it, also the most rewarding. I was very fortunate, because I had Sergeant Grice to guide me and to teach me. And teach and guide me he did, without ever making me feel inadequate and without ever permitting me to be ill-prepared, because he was the best! And if there is one thing I wish for each and every one of you, it is a Sergeant Grice to teach you about soldiers, about leaders, and the responsibilities and joys of soldiering together. Not everyone is as blessed as I was; not everyone finds his Sergeant Grice, and many don’t not because he isn’t there, but because unknowingly and foolishly they push him away. Don’t do that. Look for your Sergeant Grice; NCOs have so very much to teach us. Well, what did I learn from Sergeant Grice? Certainly more than I have time to tell you here, and also because many helpful hints have probably by now faded from my memory. But what I learned then and what has been reinforced in the 36 years since is that good leadership, whether in the world of a lieutenant or in the world of a general, is based essentially on three pillars. These three pillars he taught me are character, love and care for soldiers, and professional competence. Oh, Sergeant Grice didn’t exactly use these terms, but what he believed and what he taught me fit very neatly into these three pillars. He used to say that if the platoon ever sensed that I wasn’t up front with them, if they ever believed I did something so I would look good at their expense, I would very quickly lose them. How right he was. Often he would say, â€Å"Look down. Worry about what your soldiers think. Don’t worry about looking up, about what the captain thinks of you.† He never said it, that’s not the kind of relationship that he and I had, but I knew that if I ever said something to the platoon or to him that wasn’t the absolute truth, he would never trust me again and I would be finished as a platoon leader. I would be finished as a leader. Someone once said that men of genius are admired, men of wealth are envied men of power are feared but only men of character are trusted. Without trust you cannot lead. I have never seen a good unit where the leaders weren’t trusted. It’s just that simple. And it isn’t enough that you say the right things. What counts in a platoon is not so much what you say, but what they see you do. Gen. Powell, speaking here a few years ago, put it this way: â€Å"If you want them to work hard and endure hardship,† he observed, â€Å"you must work even harder and endure even greater hardship.† â€Å"They must see you sacrifice for them,† he said. They must see you do the hard things, they must see you giving credit to the platoon for something good you did, and they must see you take the blame for something they hadn’t gotten just right. But Sergeant Grice also understood that hand in hand with character, with this inner strength that soldiers will want to see, they will also want to know and see that you really care for them, that you will sacrifice for them, that you simply enjoy being with them. Words won’t get you through there, either. If you don’t feel it in your heart, if you don’t love your soldiers in your heart, they will know it. How often Sergeant Grice would prod me to spend the extra time to get to know the members of the platoon better, to know who needed extra training and coaching so he could fire expert on the rifle range the next time around; to talk to Pvt. Taylor, who just received a â€Å"Dear John† letter; to visit Cpl. Vencler and his wife, who had a sick child. Every day you will have soldiers who will need your care, your concern and your help. They expect and, I tell you, they have the right to expect, 150 percent of your time and best effort. And how well I remember those evenings in the field when Sergeant Grice and I would stand in the cold, with a cup of coffee in our hands trying to warm our frozen fingers, watching the platoon go through the chow line. Grice taught me that simple but long-standing tradition that officers go to the very end of the chow line, that the officer is the last one to eat, that the officer will take his or her first bite only after the last soldier has had a chance to eat. This tradition, as you so well know, is founded in the understanding that leaders place the welfare of their people above their own, that the officer is responsible for the welfare of the troops; that if mismanagement results in a shortage of food to feed the entire unit, that the officer will go without; that if the food gets cold while the unit is being served, that the officer will get the chilliest portion. It is a tradition that surprises many officers from other nations, but it goes to the core of the kind of leadership we provide our soldiers. But caring for our soldiers does not stop at the chow line. Nor, for that matter, does it stop with the soldiers themselves, for you know that our units are families, and a soldier must have the trust that you will take care of his family, particularly when he’s away from home. But caring for soldiers actually starts with making them the best possible soldiers they can be. Their satisfaction with themselves, their confidence in themselves and in the end, their lives will depend upon how well you do that part. And that perhaps is your greatest challenge as a lieutenant. It is hard work, and make no mistake about it, there are no shortcuts. But what a joy it is to watch or to talk to young men and women in uniform, who know that they are the best because a Sergeant Grice and his or her lieutenant cared to teach them and to work with them and to make them reach for the highest standards. Which brings me to the third pillar I spoke of, and that is your professional competence. As we look back on Marshall and on Patton and on MacArthur and all of the others, we realize that the skills and qualities and knowledge that made them great generals took decades of training, of experience and of evolution. For all of the differences between these leaders there is one thing that they had in common. Their careers were marked by a progression of difficult assignments and intense study. Always they were a snapshot of a masterpiece still in progress, still in motion. From the beginning of their careers to the end, each of them was continually applying new brushstrokes to their knowledge and to their skills. And Grice understood that very well, although he had different words for it. He knew that if our platoon was going to be good at occupying a position and firing our mortars, at hastily leaving our position should enemy artillery have found our location, at the countless things that would make us a finely honed war-fighting machine, then he had to show me, he had to teach me and to practice with me, so that when I walked that gun line the soldiers would know that I knew more than they; that if I asked them how to cut a mortar fuse, there was no doubt that I would know the answer, just as I would know if there was too much play in the sight mount on that mortar. And I had to feel confident that knew before they would feel confident with me. In every good leader I have met in my years of service there always was the evidence of these three qualities: character, love for soldiers and professional competence. And because they possessed these qualities, they managed to inspire their soldiers to have confidence in them. And you know, the truly great ones like George C. Marshall did not only inspire soldiers to have confidence in their leaders, but they also inspired their soldiers to have confidence in themselves. With that, let me close. As I told you in the beginning, I am deeply envious of each of you. Since the days when I first put on my uniform, I fell in love with soldiering and with soldiers, and it has been for me, by any measure, a great passion. If I could start all over today, I would not hesitate for a single second. I would go out and I would find old Sergeant Grice and we would be ready tomorrow morning! Good luck to you all. I envy you. How to cite Leadership in the Military, Essays

Investigation of Hydrochloric Acid with Indigestion Tablet free essay sample

In this coursework I will be talking about the experiments, which I have done over two weeks. This gave different results by using different concentrations of hydrochloric acids (HCl) and indigestion relief tablet. I will also mention the time which was taken in the experiment, to see how fast the hydrochloric acid took with indigestion tablet with different concentrations. Indigestion tablets are alkali and they are used for to neutralise the excess acid in the stomach. Indigestion Tablet Idigestion is caused by excess acid in the stomach. The tablets neutralise some of this Acid and this is known as ‘Neutralization’ since it neutralizes the acid. In this experiment the amount of acid neutralised by one tablet is found. In my investigation gas jar will be used to collect and measure the amount of carbon dioxide gas released during the investigation. [pic] [pic]Clamp Stand Clamp stand is really useful and it gets attached to the burette or any flask and it allows it to stay in its position. We will write a custom essay sample on Investigation of Hydrochloric Acid with Indigestion Tablet or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page Otherwise, there’s a possibility of dispensing more amount of liquid than its normal measurements. In my investigation conical flask will be attached to the clamp stand so that it can be connected to the delivery tube which will in turn be connected to the gas jar through the water in the trough. Delivery tube delivers the gas in to collecting vessels or container, but in this case it is going to go in a burette. Delivery tube also allows the gases to go through it; this will make the result to be accurate. Trough Trough is used for filling up the water, and it holds in the water, as well as the burette where gases put themselves off. The delivery tube gets clamped into the water and connected to the gas jar. It usually looks like a normal flat based bowl. Bung Bung is a big chunk of rubber, which act as seal in a conical flask. This allows the gas to be delivered through the delivery tube, and the delivery tube is connected with the bung since it has a hole. It is really useful in the experiment therefore no gas can be released outside. Timer Timer is there to get the results of the different solutions of hydrochloric acids. It makes the result really convenient as well as precise. Conical Flask This is scientific equipment which is usually seen in the lab. In the experiment it was used for to hold the hydrochloric acid and the indigestion tablet. It gets sealed at the top by a bung. Hypothesis: In this experiment I will test the hypothesis that; how quickly an indigestion tablet reacts does not depend on the concentrations of hydrochloric acid. Method for the experiment There will be using various equipments to test the hypothesis. Firstly, I will measure 50cm3 of hydrochloric acid with lowest concentration into a conical flask. Then I will fill up the trough or the container up to the ? of it. Thereafter, I will fill the gas jar with water then, I will put my hand on top of the open end, and invert over the water in the trough. The rate of the chemical reaction can be raised by increasing the temperature. This rate can also be increased by increasing the concentration of a reactant in solution; in my experiment I have used the Hydrochloric Acid (HCl) with higher concentration and our body temperature. This caused by the reactant particles to move quickly, and have more energy in order to collide often, and more of the collision result took in a reaction. 2. Surface Area The rate of a chemical reaction can also be increased by increasing the surface area of a solid reactant. But in my experiment I have dropped the whole tablet, instead of crushing the tablet. This has affected my experiment a lot because there could’ve been more collision, but since I have put the whole tablet inside that caused a small volume of space inside. This didn’t allow the reactant particles to perform collision theory. It also made the rate at its average point. 3. Concentration My experiment’s dissolved reactant increased then they became crowded which again caused the particles to perform collision theory. This means that the hydrochloric acid (HCl) with higher concentration means that there is more particles with energyNo No please state this in a better way The result of the line graph shows that the higher the concentrations, the quicker it will react. The hydrochloric acid with higher concentration means there is more reactant particles which will have more energy and be crowded. There is a greater of colliding, which will also allow the rate of reaction to increase. As the rate of the hydrochloric increases , the rate of chemical reaction becomes quicker.