Ghandi, The Man not the Myth Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Ghandi, The Man not the Myth - Essay Example Gandhi’s approach to life is to build, not break. He knew that prosperity in the real sense of the term will not happen unless the people are sound and industrious, and basic conditions are created for them to become this way. With the profound knowledge that he possessed about cultural traditions and the state of the economy, he was in a position to guide the destiny of the people. The country he was associated with had their economy and cultural traditions exploited and devastated with a calculated plan by the colonial rulers. He desired that every segment of the population of the country needs to be self-sufficient and should not look forward for foreign aid. He desired and worked for the Indian people to make them self-sufficient and lead the life maintaining the essential dignity. Truth was the underlying message in his way of life. Non-violence to him meant strength without destruction, with no chance for weakness or fear for challenging injustice. In the dark coalmine o f politics, he was the sparkling gem. He had powerful issues to fight with, like racism, violence, religious fanaticism, and colonialism. Since truth was at the root of all his battles, he had no confusion about his goals, for he knew his destination. To him, how he did, what he did, and the honest means employed were more important than the violent tactics normally adopted by the politicians. "Truth remained at the root of his integrated approach to life, and by non-violence he meant vitality without destruction, with no opportunity for weakness or fear for challenging injustice." Religion enveloped every action in his life In 1944 Albert Einstein said, â€Å"Generations to come, it may be, will scarcely believe that such a one as this ever in flesh and blood walked upon this earth,†. He spoke of Gandhi as an angel, that only occurs once on earth. That was the time when Gandhi was at the peak of spiritual advancement and the Indian Freedom struggle had entered the conclusive phase. Most of the people then and eve n today understand the superficial Gandhi, a tall lean figure with a walking stick and robe. They were enthusiastic about following him, without understanding the basic principles for which he stood for. In turn he mixed freely with the people, irrespective of their class or official status and at the same time he maintained the essential dignity needed in a true leader. He possessed personal assets like purity in personal lifestyles, good dietary practices (he was a strict vegetarian), celibacy, and a life devoid of violence (ahimsa) His dietary practices were often ridiculed and termed as impractical for a hardworking and busy individual. However, Gandhi knew the scientific justification for his pursuits in this area, which he considered as an important aspect for his spiritual advancement. Gandhi’s food discipline is part of this theory. His mother took advice from a Jain priest and the 5 five great vows of Jainism are: nonviolence, truth, non-stealing, celibacy, and non p ossession (Holmes, p.6). Those taking junk and non-vegetarian foods are prone to anger, restlessness and unsteady behavior, get upset over frivolous issues and have jealous dispositions. Gandhi terms his life as an experiment with truth, and he tendered convincing proofs for all his actions. Gandhi does not expect everyone to follow his principles blindly and as the man with the divine orientation he knows that each individual is born with a level of progression. There is a place in which he has to commence the one’s own journey of life from the given set of circumstances. When the individuals are honest about their intentions and have an unselfish approach, all problems, personal, societal, national and international, can be solved. Apparently, this may seem hard to obtain, but this is the only alternative to challenge the issues confronting humankind. Treading the spiritual path is a gradual process and the episodes presented by Gandhi chronologically in the book need to be understood in this context. As one progresses spiritually, many a past beliefs turn myths. Meaning, such an individual has transcended the

Research Paper on the BP Gulf Oil Spill Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 4000 words

On the BP Gulf Oil Spill - Research Paper Example 2.1.4 Financial Implication of the Oil Spill 14 3 Chapter 3 15 3.1 Research Methodology 15 3.1.1 Research Framework 16 3.1.2 Data Collection 16 4 Chapter 4 17 4.1 Discussion and Findings 17 5 Chapter 5 18 5.1 Conclusion 18 5.2 Recommendation 19 5.3 Limitation 19 References 21 Appendices 23 1 Chapter 1 1.1 Introduction An oil spill is the accidental release of liquid petroleum hydrocarbon into the marine areas due to human negligence and is one of the major causes of sea water pollution. Despite the improved technologies to prevent crude oil spills in the marine environment the accidents continue to occur. The recent case of a large oil spill is the 2010 Deepwater Horizon incident in the Gulf of Mexico for which several companies were responsible to varying degrees and BP was the most prominent party to the incident. The worst oil spill U.S. faced before this Gulf Oil Spill was Exxon Valdez in 1989 in Alaska (Ramseur & Ramseur, 2011, p.1). On April 20, 2010, the oil drilling rig at Deepwater Horizon of BP was near completion when the uncontained release of oil and natural gas caused explosion resulting in the largest oil spill in U.S. waters and killing 11 people and injuring 15. Nearly 200 million gallons of oil was released into the sea over approximately 84 days. However the oil leak was discove red four days after the explosion when BP sent a team of experts to cover the source of leakage. This incident has charged BP with the clean-up costs, economic and natural resources’ damage costs, Clean Water Act (CWA) penalties etc probably leading to approximately $41 billion (Ramseur & Ramseur, 2011, p.1). The initial estimate of the oil spill was 1000 barrels per day which was later revised at up to 60,000 barrels per day (Hiles, 2011, pp.13). By the first week of May BP began the drilling of deep water intercept well half a mile from the leaking oil well. The attempt was to intercept the existing wellbore at around 16000 feet below the sea surface. The process was estimated to take 90 days. The oil slick was discovered to be drifting towards the Florida and Alabama coasts. Not to burn the oil was a decision made between polluted air and endangered sea life. Various measures were taken by the US Government and BP to contain the damage. The case gained worldwide attention and criticism of the policies and measures regarding the prevention of oil spills and protection of marine ecosystem. 1.2 Nature of the Issue The demand for energy has constantly grown leading gigantic efforts and big investments by the energy companies to locate new oil supplies. The Deepwater Horizon was a $365m offshore drilling unit where massive amount of oil was spilled due to two subsequent explosions in the summer of 2010. The incident affected the ecological environment of the Mexican Gulf and has directly harmed the Gulf fishing industry. The demand of the Gulf seafood has probably decreased due to changes in consumers’ perception about the spill (Upton, 2011, p.3). Many of the factors which are believed to have contributed to the BP disaster are technological and regulatory failures. Evidence suggests that the spill was an outcome of lack of proper oversight during the transition of rig oil from exploration to production. In the wake of such disastrous and rare eve nt, federal law-makers have unsuccessfully tried to address the causes and enact policies to guide the economic and environmental recovery of the Gulf region. President Obama issued a moratorium on the planned offshore drilling at the time of the incident. The moratorium banned the deepwater drilling activities in the Gulf region allowing only the existing production to continue. Many have criticized the Federal Government for taking such step without analyzing the exact cause of incident. However this step has served neither to address the principal cause of the accident nor aided in economic rehabilitation of the Gulf economy. It has been estimated that the loss of economic activity in US and Gulf of Mexico region is likely to be total lost output of $2769m and 12046 lost jobs (Appendix 1) (Mason, 2010, p.1). In this paper an in-depth research has been done to find out how the domestic and