A Study of How Donations to Non-Profit Organizations Contribute to the Thesis

A Study of How Donations to Non-Profit Organizations Contribute to the Financing of Terrorism - Thesis Example Such people have scant regard for human life and property and are prepared to go to any extent including using themselves in order to achieve their purpose. ‘Terrorism’, is often attributed to modern outfits that have adopted a covert approach to attacking governments and the general public in the quest for an idealistic cause, which has often resulted them in being banned and pursued after. Over the past 2 decades, the world has witnessed the rise of religious fundamentalism, which showcased its brutality with the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center in New York. Terrorist organizations have sprung up all over the world, especially in the Islamic world. Governments all over the world have been grappling with terrorist attacks and have undertaken several initiatives across several fronts in order to contain and eliminate the menace of terrorism. One of the identified problems found to aid terrorists in their sustenance has been the issue of terror financing. Several pr ominent methods including Non-profit organizations, narcotics and stock markets have been identified as sources that have been exploited by terrorists to secure money for their activities. Among the known forms of funding, the issue of funding terrorism though charities has caused quite a storm, which generates an interest in identifying the ways in which terrorists have managed to exploit non-profit organizations for their purpose. The current paper is an attempt at highlighting the issue and explores the concept of such funding through charities from several perspectives. The world is gripped against the threat of terror and the recent years have seen a vast increase in the rise of terrorist organizations over many parts of the world. While some are based on religious faith, others have been formed as a result of armed struggle, territorial conflicts or otherwise. We live in an ear fueled by the

Technical and Vocational Education Essay Example for Free

Technical and Vocational Education Essay Technical and Vocational Education through open learning trends, developments and issues from a local perspective Technical and Vocational subject areas in many countries seem to be locked to a particular frame work The framework that postulates that TVET is a subject area taught to persons who are academically challenged. It is the notion of many parents and by extension the society that TVET means a plain supplier of skilled labour to the workforce and is unable to be on the same plateau as those persons pursuing medicine or law. With growing concerns about TVET and the need to share the vision, that it is through TVET that most great inventions are arrived at. A new way of teaching and learning has been adopted and introduced in New Zealand ,it is called open learning. The changing world of work TVET policymakers believe that the infusion of open learning and TVET is indeed the way to move forward. Open learning is said to be embracing a new era in our world, one that is moving from the industrial to the knowledge age. Knowledge is said to be changing and there is an immense need for re-skilling and retooling of persons. According to the article avoidance of embracing this new type of learning could mean that one might be left on the way side of technology. Trends in distance vocational and technical education and training New Zealand has seen a shift in the work patterns in that there is a decrease in many of the traditional trade –related areas, while there is an increase in the service sectors and the social sciences. The vocational market is characterized by the need of various skilled persons that will require current competencies; therefore individuals are encouraged to keep abreast with current trends. One of the ways in which New Zealand tries to confront these issue is by introducing the open learning. It has been over emphasized in the article that the world of work is rapidly changing , hence there is the need to upgrade and be reskilled.. Increased participation Open learning in New Zealand has played a vital role in making TVET more accessible. It requires low cost structure for high volume courses. Even though the government of New Zealand has cut back on expenditure in TVET, there are companies who are injecting capital in the program to make it a possibility. Address the skills gap Like many counties New Zealand has generic skills gap, and this is evident at all levels of the work place. The generic gap includes literacy, numeracy, communication and interpersonal skills. It is believed that these generic skills are prerequisites to any sector of the workforce. Surveys were done showing that graduates are more often hired for their learning skills than their specific knowledge. Another key issue is that while many persons are employed in small companies there is little scope for training. There are other problems such as when an institution starts a programs which it deems as a necessity and the program fails due to low student enrollment for that specific course. An example of such a course was developed jointly with a Canadian provider. The course had to be discontinued after three years due to lack of student enrollment. Qualification In regards to qualifications it was stated that TVET(through open learning) is now offering a wide variety of courses, but this is with some amount of drawback as some of these new courses have very little â€Å"shelf life†. Staff patterns have to be changed in that facilitators have to be more flexible and be willing to move with the technological era, also the facilitator have to be more focused on the needs of the learner. The facilitator of TVET areas have to be credible even in their own work as open learning faces seamless challenges. The facilitators should have significant and ongoing staff development. Some of the issues outlined in the document included shortening of life knowledge, technology, Quality assurance, Co-operation and competition and the roles and impact of government policies. Conclusion Open learning is an avenue that is presenting both teacher and learner a new flexible way of sending and receiving information. Although the union between open learning and TVET has challenges it is embracing the use of technology to present traditional vocational areas in a way that is now accepted by the government and other shareholders. One support for the open learning is the postal system which is very efficient. Open learning also boast its ability to provide quality output which was once limited to studying on traditional campuses. One of the greatest set back to the system is the role of the government in the whole process. Students have been facing undue pressure since the government has been a lot of cutbacks. Open learning is proving that it is the way to enter into the technological sphere. It is flexible, it reinforces , it fosters independent learning, while providing immediate transfer of skills.

Nursing Research Methods: Article Critique Essay

Nursing Research Methods: Article Critique Essay Title: Factors related to academic success among nursing students: A descriptive correlational research study Samina Iqbal Kanji The article under critique is a quantitative research study titled as â€Å"Factors related to academic success among nursing students: A descriptive correlational research study†; published in the year 2013. I will be critiquing this article according to the provided guideline. Title of the study under concern is unambiguous, thus capturing the population and phenomenon of interest. Additionally, the abstract is structured and is providing information under separate headings. The problem: The described problem is of great importance to nursing, because increased nursing shortage is posing a threat to the health industry in terms of competency and quality of care by the nursing staff. The researcher has critically analyzed the significance in terms of the relation between the academic success and its effects on the replacement of existing nursing staff The purpose of the research has been explained and the study will fulfill its purpose by providing an insight to the nursing education system to bring changes in curricula for improved results. As prior knowledge about the variables has already been discussed with other students therefore to precede the level of inquiry a quantitative approach is used as the purpose is to know about the correlations. There was no operational definition mentioned explicitly about the research variables; however their correlation with academic success has been given in other contexts. There was no explicit problem statement present in the introduction; however, linkages were made following the broad to narrow approach. Thus, provide an insight in to the nursing practice. The researcher has acknowledged the limitations of the study in terms of sample bias, low generalizability and different results at times due to the spiritual component. There were no explicit assumptions described; however one can infer from the introduction that giving an answer to the factors affecting academic success can in long run help in combat the effects of nursing shortage. Review of the literature: The review provided in the study was comprehensive, logical and critically analyzed, hence gave sequential information ranging from the admission of the nursing students, factors important for their academic success, associations between different factors and academic success and finally the itch of the study i-e correlation of factors with academic success of nursing students. The relationship of the literature review to the research purpose is unambiguously evident by using a funnel approach. In addition, most of the references were taken from the year 1982-2012. Those with old references were explicitly supported by their presence in the latest literature. The review consists of almost all of the theoretical work, though if empirical support could have made this review stronger. Besides, almost all of the researches were from primary sources and were paraphrased adequately. The information provided in the review clearly gives a way for conducting a new research; moreover, research er has also acknowledged this gap at the end of the literature review i-e there is a gap of researches done for the improvement of academic success of nursing students. Protection of human rights: The proposed study has been designed to lessen the effects of issues occurring as a result of nursing shortage i-e decreased quality of care, decreased number of competent nurses, and increased rates of nursing student’s turnover. Besides, the results of this study will not only affect the whole health care system, but it will affect the professional growth and academic success of individual nursing student. The evidence of voluntary informed consent has been mentioned explicitly that was sent to participants via electronic medium. There was no evidence present explicitly for coercion. As the sampling was done conveniently, therefore, participants were not invited during periods of high stress; rather they were asked to fill the research questioners in their own time. There was no way to identify about the identities of study participants as their data was incorporated anonymously on survey monkey software and also provided with numerical codes.. There is an explicit evidence of study review by Institutional Review Board (IRB). Theoretical/conceptual Framework: The researcher has not acknowledged the use of any theoretical / conceptual framework. According to Burns and Grove (2010), descriptive studies do not require any theoretical framework as the purpose is still to explore and describe phenomenon. The researcher may have conceptualized by looking the effects of different variable on the academic success. According to Burns and Grove (2010), at times elementary concepts about the variables make the conceptual frameworks and are present at the start of the study but are not acknowledge by the researcher and are referred as implicit frameworks. The research problem flows from the background knowledge. Concepts such as nursing shortage, student attrition, and academic success are briefly described. Hypothesis: The researcher has not stated hypothesis explicitly. However, there absence is justified in Polit and Beck (2012) that the purpose of descriptive correlational design is to describe the nature and relation between different variables and hypothesis generation; rather than concluding about casualty. However, on the other hand, Coughlan, Cronin and Ryan (2007) suggest that correlational designs approaches the relationship either via hypothesis testing of answering research question. But, researcher has not explicitly mentioned about his study research question also which could be a negative critique. Academic success in this study serves as the dependent variable, however emotional intelligence; psychological empowerment; resilience; and spiritual wellbeing plays the part of independent variables respectively. As it as a non-experimental design, therefore predictions can’t be made about the intervention or control group. Sampling: The researcher wants to generalize the study findings to all the nursing students, and has described it well. The target population is appropriate according to the research problem and resource limitation, as it would have been very difficult to cater all nursing students keeping in mind the cost constraints, human, and material resources. The researcher has clearly defined the selection process that is convenient sampling and snowballing via professors of the universities. The sampling method used fits very well with the level of inquiry and research design. This point was supported by Polit and Beck (2012) that in descriptive correlational studies; the purpose is to explore the initial relationships between variables without knowing about the conclusions therefore, self-selection or convenient sampling methods are use. Moreover, as the researcher is unaware about the existence of relationship in nursing students therefore choosing this sampling strategy would be cost effective. The re are no potential sampling biases explicitly described in the study. However, according to Rebecca (2010) one of the limitation of convenient sampling is selection bias itself, therefore potential biases could have been existed. The researcher has used power analysis to calculate sample size. However, according to Rebecca (2010), the acceptable standard for calculating power analysis is alpha 0.05, moderate effect size, and power of 0.80. The researcher has used very small power therefore; sample is not sufficiently large to generalize it to the whole population. The generalizations can be made cautiously to the nursing students. There were no control groups present, however, exclusion criteria is used to ensure a representative sample. There is no evidence of minimizing sampling error; yet if large sample size was used then it could have been minimized. Research Design: The design used for this study is a non-experimental design named as â€Å"descriptive correlational study†. This design comes under the category of level II studies and according to Rebecca (2010), correlational studies are used when the researcher wants to answer about the relationship between the variables whose nature has been described either by prior researches or literature synthesis. After going through the article and other literatures, researcher has selected an appropriate study design. One could say that researchers have already been done on students in addressing the relationship of this variable as the researcher acknowledged its absence in nursing students therefore it was a wise decision because stressors could be different for students with different programs. There is no discussion about the effects of extraneous variables and their control, however he has discussed the application of regression to analyses unique predictors however he was not successful with the regression models. The information provided in this study can permit the study replication in other nursing universities. Moreover, as this was a religious university, therefore replicating the research in non-religious universities could give better understanding about the relationship between spiritual wellbeing and academic success. Data Collection: The data collection instruments used by the researcher were Mayer–Salovey–Caruso Emotional Intelligence Test (MSCEIT), Spreitzer Psychological Empowerment Scale, Wagnild and Young Resilience Scale, the Spiritual Well-Being Scale (SWBS), and the background information of the participants. There were selection reason described, they are explained sufficiently. The research instrument by their characteristics showed congruency with the research question.. The researcher has described the use of different types of validity (face, content, discriminant, incremental, convergent) for each of the instruments where possible. Moreover, to ensure the reliability, the researcher has run reliability coefficients. According to Polit and Beck (2012), ensuring the validity and reliability of an instrument is important for the quality and results accuracy of the study results. The results of these tests of validity and reliability are enough for their usage as they are analyzed for both showing stronger correlations separately. Since the reliabilities of the instruments were stronger ranging from 0.85 to 0.91 respectively and they were valid; therefore they were suitable to for use with the study sample keeping in mind the four factors to be analyzed via them. Quantitative Analysis: The researcher has used descriptive statistics (means, standard deviations, and percentages) and Pearson’s correlation using the PASW statistics 18 to analyze the data. According to Coughlan, Cronin and Ryan (2007), descriptive studies results are analyzed via descriptive statistics. Moreover, according to Polit and Beck (2012), correlation between two variables is described through correlation procedures mainly through correlation coefficient. Therefore, the analysis methods fit with both the level of inquiry a research design. The level of measurement in this study for all variables is quantitative ratio in nature. According to Polit and Beck (2012), Pearson’s correlation coefficient are used when the variable under study either belong to interval or ratio level of measurement. The link between the data analysis and findings has been made clear unambiguously by the researcher. Moreover, the researcher has used Pearson correlation(r) and p value to show the degree of r elationship and statistical analysis for each variable, and described them very clearly altogether to show the relationship logically. At times researcher has gone beyond the data to interpret the result, for example in measuring emotional intelligence; the researcher has analyzed the differences between graduate and undergraduate students by the type of stressors. The statistical result is very well presented in the text but numerical presentation could have been better in the form of showing all results and statistics altogether. The provided results by correlation coefficient and p value are giving enough evidence about the correctness of the results. There were no graphical displays shown by the researcher, however according to Polit and Beck (2012), correlation relationships can be shown through scatter plots. Conclusions and recommendations: The results of the data analysis were unambiguously explained in terms of the research purpose for undergraduate and graduate students separately. Through this the reader can make decisions about the correlation between different factors affecting academic success easily. The generalization of these findings can be questionable due to small sample size and convenient nature of the design, thus posing a threat to external validity. The results of the findings can indirectly affect our patients as such factors could lead to student’s retention thereby welcoming more qualified nurses to provide competent care to the patients. There are no risk identified by the study findings; however, such results could provide an insight to the nursing educators in renewing the curriculum to bring positive long-term results. In the discussion section; the researcher has given recommendation in the light of literature and study findings for improving teaching strategies. Moreover, future researc hes for academic planning has also been proposed, however no such discussion has been made about nursing practice. Though the study needs cautious generalizations in terms of small sample size, still can give insight for replication, experimental studies for future policy making References: American Psychological Association. (2010). Publication manual of the American psychological association (6th ed.). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association Burns, N., Grove, S. K. (2010). Understanding nursing research: Building an evidence-based practice. Elsevier Health Sciences. Coughlan, M., Cronin, P., Ryan, F. (2007). Step-by-step guide to critiquing research. Part 1: quantitative research. British Journal of Nursing, 16(11), 658-663 Keele, R. (2010). Nursing Research and Evidence-Based Practice. Jones Bartlett Publishers. Polit, D.F. Beck, C.T. (2012). Nursing research: Generating and assessing evidence for nursing practice (9th ed.). Philadelphia: Lippincott Williams Wilkins

What would Jesus Do? Canteberry Tales Essay :: essays research papers

What Would Jesus Do?   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Between 1951 and 1991, forty-one Catholic priests in Chicago alone were charged with sexual misconduct (Philip Jenkins). This number has only increased over the past ten years, with the recent valiancy among Catholic women and children to come forth about sexual indecencies committed against them. But while the charges against the priests may be relatively new, the corruption within the clergy is certainly not. Priests’ abuse of their position can be traced back to the origin of the church itself through both stories and historical documents. In The Canterbury Tales, Geoffrey Chaucer exposes immorality in the church (both sexually and otherwise) through his introduction of various fictional characters. Together, these characters demonstrate the ways in which the church has fallen away from its original purpose and design—to make disciples of God through church members’ imitation of Jesus’ character.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  In efforts to inspire Christians to act righteously, as well as instill a sense of religious pride among young people, Christians have cleverly coined the phrase, â€Å"What Would Jesus Do† or simply, â€Å"WWJD.† Although the expression may be overused and somewhat childish, in the meaning behind the phrase lies the entire mission statement of Christian dome. The apostle Peter describes it by saying, â€Å"To this you were called, because Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example, that you should follow in his steps,† (1 Peter 2:21). The message is simple; try to live as Christ lived. Of all people, most would expect the leaders of the church to strive the hardest for this level of Godliness. Quite ironically, however, Chaucer points out that the clergy possesses qualities opposite to those of Jesus—namely impurity, selfishness, and greed.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The dictionary defines the word ‘pure’ as being free of dirt, defilement, or pollution, and most Christians would agree that when the term is used in the bible, it means just that: being free of the dirt, scum, corruption, and sin in the world. According to Paul, the grace of God and the teachings of Jesus â€Å"teach us to say ‘No’ to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives,† (Titus 2:12). In The Canterbury Tales, Chaucer shows that the clergy is doing anything but seeking after purity. The Friar is the best example of this defilement of Christianity with his fulfillment of worldly pleasures in the areas of women and alcohol. Because of the attachment humans have to sex and their sexual partners, the Catholic Church is structured so that the leaders of the church remain celibate their entire lives.

The Humble Beginnings of Internet Discovery

The year is 1957 and the USSR has just launched the first artificial earth satellite. In response America launches the Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA) within the Department of Defense (DOD) to create America†s lead in science and technology. The Internet had its humble beginnings here, The Internet has become one of the key symbols of today†s pop culture: everything has a â€Å"dot com† address; people do not say â€Å"call me,† but instead its â€Å"I†ll E-mail you;† and the new word on the stock market is â€Å"E-business. The Internet has not always been such a key figure in American life; in fact it was The theory for the Internet first started being published in 1961 with Leonard Kleinrock†s document on packet-switching theory, â€Å"Information Flow in Large Communication Net. † This document presented the theory behind the first problem of the Internet, and how to solve it1. The problem was this: when a large document is sent then pieces of it become lost in transfer and the entire document has to be resent, but then different pieces are missing from the new copy of the document. This is a major problem and the obvious solution is to â€Å"chop† the information up into smaller pieces and then transmit the smaller ieces2. Then another problem was realized, how does the computer know where to put these small bits of information? The solution to that was what has come to be known as packet-switching (PS). In PS, the entire document is sent in a bunch of tiny â€Å"packets,† these packets contain the information of the document â€Å"wrapped† in its placement on the page. The receiving computer then sends a message back to the transmitting computer telling it which packets were corrupted or missing and the transmitting computer then re-sends the lost The next problem that the Internet faced was first discovered at the ARPA†s networking project, ARPAnet. Since it was militarily connected, the leaders of ARPAnet wanted a way that information could be moved between two computers without requiring a direct connection in case the direct link between two computers failed (was destroyed). The way that the ARPAnet project dealt with this was by having the network bounce the information around without it taking a direct path to the receiving computer4. The result of this was that almost no two packets will travel the same path and there will always be a The final problem that ARPAnet came across was the fact that most omputers did not run exactly the same hardware or software as another. Their solution to this was to build smaller computers (called Interface Message Processors or IMPs) that were in direct contact with the main computer and also in connection with the other IMPs on the network. All of the IMPs were built to the same specifications so that one could easily communicate with the other5. In 1968 all three of these developments were put into action when ARPA sent out proposals and requests for contractors. Bolt, Beranek, and Newman, Inc. (BBN) were awarded the contract to build the IMPs, University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) was awarded the Network Measurement Center contract, and the Network Working Group (NWG) was formed to develop host protocols for the soon to be developed ARPAnet. Nodes are set up as soon as BBN builds the IMP for that location. The first node was at UCLA and installed on August 30, 1969. It was the Network Measurement center and ran on the SDS SIGMA7 operating system. The second node was setup on October 1, 1969, at Stanford Research Institute. It was the Network Information Center (NIC) and ran on the SDS940/Genie operating system. Node three was installed November 1, 1969, at University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB). It served as the mathematical engine for the network and ran on the IBM 360/75 operating system. The fourth, and final, node of the ARPAnet was put at University of Utah in December. This computer ran the graphics for the ARPAnet, and ran on the DEC PDP-10 operating system6. The connecting of these different operating systems and computers showed that the idea behind the IMPs really worked. On October 29 the first packets were sent by Charley Kline at UCLA as he tried logging into SRI. The system crashed as the letter â€Å"G† of â€Å"LOGIN† was being The ARPAnet was a far cry from the Internet of today: there was no e-mail, no web pages, and no AOL. This began to change in the 1970†³s. The first step was the cross-country link between UCLA and BBN. As a result of this, fifteen nodes (twenty-three hosts) were connected to the ARPAnet. BBN also developed a cheaper IMP, and a new IMP that supports up to sixty-four hosts, instead of the old four hosts. Then Ray Tomlinson developed an E-mail program for the ARPAnet, and in the following year, Larry Roberts wrote an E-mail management program that allows people to selectively read, file, forward, and respond to messages. Quickly after that development the first computer-computer chat occurs and is demonstrated at the International Convention on Computer Communications. Then the first international links to ARPAnet are installed in the United Kingdom and Norway. In 1974, Vint Cerf and Bob Kahn publish â€Å"A Protocol for Packet Network Interconnection† that outlined, in detail, a design of a Transmission Control Program (TCP)7. During the same year, BBN opened Telnet, the first public packet data service (a commercial version of ARPAnet). Vint Cerf also draws the ideas for gateway architecture on the back of an envelope in a hotel lobby. Three years later his ideas are employed as BBN provides the gateways for the first true Internet (one that uses Internet protocol, which was then a part of TCP). Shortly after that, in 1978, TCP is split up into TCP/IP (Transmission Control In 1979 there was a new development in the ARPAnet with the addition of the Packet Radio Network (PRNET). To conduct experiments of the PRNET computers were literally loaded up in vans and driven around until they could not communicate. Also, on April 12, Kevin MacKenzie sends out a message suggesting the use of emotions (such as â€Å":)† for happy) and is heckled by most f the people he sends an E-mail to. None of these folks had any idea that it would become the huge phenomenon it is today. Later on, in 1982, the Internet begins to become a reality when Norway leaves ARPAnet and connects using a TCP/IP connection over the SATNET (Satellite Network), and ARPA finally designated TCP/IP as the protocol suite for ARPAnet and the term â€Å"Internet† is born. Now the entire world is open for communication by the connecting of the specific countries networks to those of the SATNET. Then, in 1985, Symbolics. com becomes the first registered domain name, and NetNorth is connected to provide Canada with coast-to-coast onnectivity one hundred years to the day after the last spike for the November 2, 1988, the day the net stood still. Robert Morris Jr. , son of NSA chief scientist Robert Morris Sr. , sent out what will forever be known as the â€Å"Morris Worm. † The Morris Worm clogged up about ten percent of the Internet–a small amount, but enough to crash the Internet and land Mr. Morris (Jr. ) a hefty fine and prison time. Earlier in that year, Internet Relay Chat was developed; something that has become one of the key factors in Internet usage In the ten years since the Morris Worm the Internet has gone mainstream. After the ARPAnet ceased, the Internet had an explosion in usage and has become the giant that Americans know today. It has transformed from its humble beginnings, when it crashed on the first attempted remote LOGIN, into an economy driving, pop culture staple. Few people have heard of men such as Leonard Kleinrock, but none can say he has not contributed to America today. So, when you think about the Cold War, think about Sputnik and the Internet it Hafner, Katie; Lyon, Matthew. Where Wizards Stay up Late: The Origins of the Kristula, David. â€Å"The History of the Internet. â€Å"

How Is Dramatic Meaning Created in the Opening Scene of Forrest gump Essay

Academy Awards, 1995 Golden Globe Awards, 1995 MTVMovie Awards, 1995 People? s Choice Awards, 2005 American Film Institute Awards andvarious other ones. It was an adaption of a novel of the same name, by Winston Groom. Robert Zemeckis was the director of the movie, and he made great decisions about thecamera techniques to be used in each scene. In 1996, a restaurant with the name? Bubba Gump? was open in honour of the movie, and surprisingly there is one in thePeak Galleria in Hong Kong! The opening scene of the movie is filmed very beautifully, especially with thefeather floating in the air, because it creates the mood of the whole piece. Also, themusic and sounds chosen to accompany the opening scene, contributes to the tone of the entire movie. From right the beginning of the film, the feather is already floating around in theair. This white feather is a symbolic object that counts as a sign. The whiteness of itseems to show the purity and innocence Forrest has, and his enthusiastic personality,where he is determined to do whatever it takes to fulfill his own, and his friends andfamilies? dreams. It also seem to symbolize the famous quote that his mom always said,? Life is like a box of chocolates. You never know what you? e gonna get.? With thefeather floating to random places, e. g. on top of cars, on people? s shoulders, on thefloor? It shows how random life can be, and how no one ever knows what lies in theirpath of life, what obstacles they will have to overcome, and what their destiny is. A very interesting effect the feather is shot from in the opening scene is that it isa extreme long shot of different parts of the town, allowing the audience to adapt thesetting of the film into their minds, whilst the feather is shot from multiple angles,sometimes close up, and sometimes using medium shots. With the words and the townbackground, the feather interestingly, is still the focal point of the whole shot, andunintentionally, your eyes follow wherever it is going even when the background ischanged drastically. When the feather is shot in the sky, it is from a low angle, which shows theimportance of it as a sign, so it feels as if the feather is superior to the audience, whoare inferior in this point of the film. There are also several shots of the feather floatingabove the forest with lots of greenery; the colours really contrast, with the white on thegreen, which also helps draw the audience? attention to the tiny white feather in theforeground. The two minutes with the feather as the focal point of the shots are shotfrom different distances and various techniques. Sometimes, the feather is close up, andcomparing it with the size of the buildings in the background, it almost seems bigger. During the whole process of introducing the feather and the symbolism behind it, thecamera technique used is track, because the camera just follows wherever the feathergoes. When the feather lands on a man? s shoulder and on the car, a medium shot isused, and its shot from a high angle. Normally, it is when a low angle is used that the audience feels inferior, but in this situation, the feather still seems somewhat superior,and looking down at it, feels like the audience is looking at the whole theory of life usinga different point of view. With various examples of the feather landing on differentplaces, it shows how many unexpected things could happen in life, and no one knowswhat their destiny will be. After floating for a long time in the wind, the feather finally ends up on theground next to Forrest Gump’s shoe and stops moving. A close up of the shoe along withthe feather is taken, which emphasizes once again, the importance of the feather, andthe shoe as well. So far, the camera technique used is still tracking. The shoe is also asign because it shows how Forrest has managed to overcome many obstaclesthroughout life, to be in the position he is now. The shoe is significant, because as achild, Forrest had a problem with his spine, so he couldn? t walk properly. He starts running and breaks his leg braces, and through all thepain and suffering, manages to start running, and learns that his legs are functional. Soespecially since his shoes are dirty in the shot, it portrays that he has worked very hardand overcame many obstacles wearing those shoes. Also, Forrest states that his motheralways says ? Shoes can tell a lot about a person. Where they go. Where they havebeen.? The close up continues on when Forrest picks up the feather with his hand, andduring that instance, a tilt is used where the audience looks at Forrest from his feet upto his head. This is a great way to introduce the character. Whilst Forrest examining thefeather, the audience sees just the top half of his body, which means that a mediumshot was used. It is effective to use a medium shot for this part of the film, because theaudience should really focus on the facial expression on Forrest? s face to see what hefeels about the feather. The medium shot continues to be in use when Forrest placesthe feather in his suitcase. A track is used to show Forrest using a medium shot once again afterwards, toshow him staring into the difference, this quickly cuts into a long shot of him still lookinginto the distance. A sense of mystery is created because the audience members want tofind out what is so interesting that he keeps on staring at. Then, a bus comes along andblocks the view of Forrest, and the connection between the audience and Forrest isbroken. The camera remains still until the woman who comes off the bus sits on thebench next to Forrest. A zoom is used here, which is quite effective, because essentially,the audience really wants to know what will happen between Forrest and this woman. Most likely, they will begin chatting, which is why there is a zoom used to basically seewhat will happen. After a bit of chatting between the two, the camera quickly zoomsinto a close up of Forrest? s face. This is a very important and beneficial shot, because itgradually slips into the next scene here. Where Forrest starts squinting his eyes? Overall, a variety of camera movements, angles and distances are used in theopening scene of the well ? known film Forrest Gump. The main sign is the feather,which is in nearly the whole of the opening scene. The significance of it is shown withthe comparison to Forrest? s mothers? theory of life.