Shells international business Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

Shells international business - Research Paper Example Even though there are many energy sources, oil seems to be the most popular energy source in the world even now. It is often said that the economic growth of a country depends on its ability to produce or import oil resources at the cheaper rate. This is because of the fact that the majority of the industrial equipment and automobiles in the world are using oil as the fuel. Global economic growth is linked to oil prices. Any fluctuations in oil prices may create immense economic changes as well as changes in Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth, unemployment and inflation rates in the world. For example, the 1973 -1975 oil price hike has shocked the world economy. The growth rate fell to 2.1% in 1974 and to 1.45 in 1975. The worldwide trade growth rate also dropped heavily from 12% in 1973 to -5.4% in 1974 and -7.3 in 1975. Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) has dropped from 40% in 1973 to half of it in 1974 (Oil prices and the global economy, n. d). According to a study by IMF Research Department (2000), â€Å"there will be a transfer of income from oil consumers to oil producers; there will be a rise in the cost of production of goods and services in the economy†. In short, oil seems to be an essential commodity required for global economic growth. In the oil business, the Royal Dutch/Shell Group of Companies needs no introduction in the global market. They are one of the largest global group of energy and petrochemicals companies with around 92000 employees in more than 70 countries and territories.

Eternal Love Through Death in John Keats Bright Star Essay Example for Free

Eternal Love Through Death in John Keats Bright Star Essay Love, being one of the most debated topics in literature, often serves as a source of inspirations for many of writers and poets, including John Keats. Throughout his life, he wrote countless love poems and letters, addressing his lover – Fanny Brawne. The star, apart from being the symbol of steadfastness and constancy, it is also a metaphor representing Keats himself. Through Keats’ idea of â€Å"Mansion of life†, the poem is consisted of two floors where the first floor displays his passionate love for Brawne while the second floor talks about his inner desire for death. Keats first expresses his ideal, however paradoxical love. There are two essential yet conflicting qualities in this poem – the reality verses the ideal and the immortal verses the mortal. On one hand, he would like to be like a star, steadfast and unchanging. On the other, he dislikes the solitude of the star as it has to watch â€Å"the moving waters† and â€Å"the new soft-fallen mask/Of snow† from afar like a â€Å"sleepless Eremite†. He continues to state that if he â€Å"has to live ever†, he would rather â€Å"pillow’d upon my fair love’s ripening breast†. The ideas to be eternal and to love simultaneously do not go hand in hand. To love, one has to be human and therefore not an immortal, steadfast star. In the last line of the poem, Keats acknowledges that he would like to â€Å"live ever† in love, but he has to be human in order to experience love, which hints that the love between Keats and Brawne will not last and will eventually fade away as time goes by. The other possible alternative to immortalize their love is â€Å"swoon to death†. One of Keats’ letters from 3 May 1818 to Fanny Brawne echoes the idea of â€Å"swooning† and it says â€Å"†¦I love you; all I can bring you is a swooning admiration of your Beauty.†(Poet.org) This can be interpreted that he wants to die while experiencing intense, ecstatic love or according to the letter, overwhelmed by her beauty. While I was reading Bright Star, I could not help but catch the similarity between Keats and Shakespeare’s idea of love. In the opening of Shakespeare’s sonnet 116, â€Å"Let me not to the marriage of true minds Admit impediments. Love is not love Which alters when it alteration finds, Or bends with the remover to remove: O no! it is an ever-fixed mark That looks on tempests and is never shaken; It is the star to every wandering bark, Whose worth’s unknown, although his height be taken.† (Shakespeare) Shakespeare talks about his ideal love and marriage. Keats, being a reader of Shakespeare, is in some way affected or inspired by him. Shakespeare describes love as an â€Å"ever-fixed marks† that â€Å"is never shaken† even in the wildest storms. Keats transformed Shakespeare’s â€Å"ever-fixed† into steadfastness. Keats then moves on to talk about a more sexual and sensuous love. With more explicit descriptions of â€Å"my [his] fair love’s† body parts, those descriptions hint the idea of sex and orgasm. He imagines himself â€Å"pilliow’d upon my fair love’s ripening breast†. The word â€Å"ripening† gives a notion of youth, implicating that the lady is young and energetic. Keats also describes the rising and falling of her chest when she takes her â€Å"tender-taken breath†. If he could, he would â€Å"so live ever†. However, it is impossible to live forever and the only solution would be â€Å"swoon to death†. Keats did not explicitly tell the readers what it means to be â€Å"swoon to death† and leave us a lot of room for imaginations. The word â€Å"swoon† and other erotic images of the lady’s body parts bring us to the subtext of the poem – sex. La petite mort is a French idiom or euphemism for org asm, meaning little death. According to Oxford Dictionaries, â€Å"swoon† means â€Å"to enter a state of ecstasy or rapture†. Whether he intended to talk about sex at the end of the poem is still indefinable as we have no idea of what Keats was thinking when he wrote the poem. Though Keats did not write any overly sexual poetry, there is always a strong erotic indication in many of his works. If the sexual subtext is intended in the poem, I believe that it creates a nice denouement to the poem. Keats’ obsession with death and his love for Fanny are intertwined seamlessly throughout the poem. In one of his letters, he states â€Å"I have two luxuries to brood over in my walks, your loveliness and the hour of my death† (Poet.org). Not only is Keats intimidated by death, to some extent he is also intrigued by it. Even though he is worried about the approaching death, to him the promise of death is comforting and soothing. The only resolution to achieve the paradoxical ideal of being eternal as well as experiencing love is death. Through death, immutability and steadfastness can be achieved. Keats has seen many people died in his lifetime. His father died when he was eight; his mother died from tuberculosis when he was 14; his brother Tom died also from tuberculosis when he was 19. Along with his family’s deaths, he has also seen a lot of patients died as he was also a medical student. Therefore, constantly seeing people die in a way reminds him of the tran sience and the mutability of life. There are some religious references in the second quatrain of the poem. All these references, other than conveying the loneliness and the solitude of the star, also illustrate his longing for the promising death. The poem was written in 1819, the same year when Keats contracted with tuberculosis. The word â€Å"ablution† is heavily loaded with connotations, both religion and about death. From the Oxford Dictionary, â€Å"ablution† refers to the washing or cleansing of the body†. In Christianity, there are different forms of ablution and one of them is the preparation before the burial of a dead person. Here Keats is hinting that his death is near and the priest will cleans his body after his death with â€Å"the moving waters†. Further Keats also mentions the â€Å"soft-fallen mask/Of snow† in the following two lines. Seasons always act as symbols of different stages of human life in literature. Spring refers to birth or new beginning; summer means m aturity; autumn represents old age while winter symbolizes death. In line 7-8, with â€Å"the mountains and moors† covered in snow, such explicit image suggests that death is approaching. Though death is coming, Keats is not browbeaten. Yet, he is fascinated with death as it helps him to accomplish the co-existence of eternity and love. Bright Star is a poem that can be read on many different levels. To me, the poem is not merely a declaration of his ardent love for Fanny Brawne. It is also an expressive lyric poem addressing his awe as well as obsession with death. The main themes of the poem are smoothly woven together and this showcases Keats’ expressiveness and his wit. Works Cited Keats, John. Bright Star. n.d. Oxford Dictionaies. Oxford Dictionaries. http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/. Poet.org. Selected Love Letters to Fanny Brawne by John Keats. 17 October 2013 http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/21012.

Riparian Ecosystem in the Semi-arid Southwest US

Riparian Ecosystem in the Semi-arid Southwest US Yi Rong Ecosystem project Geographic location The absolute location of the riparian ecosystem in the semi-arid Southwest of the US is 38 ° 11†² 21†³ S 109 ° 53 †²07 †³ W while its relative location is Southwest of the Colorado River. Climate The riparian ecosystem in this region registers an annual temperature of approximately 55F with an annual temperature range of 40F to 55F. The region receives a bi-modal precipitation regime with the highest precipitation experienced during the winter as well as during the summer monsoon winds. The annual precipitation can be recorded at between 16cm to 54cm. One of the major factors affecting the temperature and precipitation in this ecosystem is the proximity to the Colorado River which increases precipitation (Trexler 58). The thin cloud cover also influence the temperature as well as precipitation as it dictates the amount of direct sunlight on the moisture on the ground. The elevation of the ground is also another important factor that may influence precipitation and temperature. The higher the elevation, an area will experience higher the temperatures and lower precipitation. However, if the elevation is low then temperatures are expected to be lower while precipitation will be higher (Trexler 63). Extreme weather events in the southwest riparian ecosystem are mainly heat waves, floods and droughts and this can be attributed to the global climate change. This is because the climate of this region can be classified under a cold, semi-arid climatic zone (Doyle and Drew 13). This is characterized by relatively long drought periods as well as irregular precipitation, growing seasons that range from warm to hot and extended periods of winter which is sustained by freezing temperatures. Landforms and the land forming processes The riparian ecosystem here sits on a crustal rock that is surrounded by deformed Rocky Mountains together with Basin and Range Provinces (Raynolds 23). The main structures in this region are flexures, salt tectonic features, monoclines, vertical faults and volcanic. The folds here are broader rather than the characteristic tight folds found in orogenic belts. The wide areas of flat lying sedimentary rocks are divided by sudden bends of strata that form along the monoclonal folds formed nearly more than 600 million years ago. Normal faults dissect the ground in this area where normal faults are formed by tensional forces in which case the foot wall moves upwards relative to the hanging wall. These faults are more prevalent here because of the movement of the crustal blocks occurring in the Precambrian basement and the differential movement can be attributed to the differences in the elevation in this particular riparian ecosystem (Raynolds 39). Precambrian rocks are visible around th e region and they consist of gneiss, schist and younger sedimentary rocks. About 1.7 billion years ago, a north-south continental compression resulted in wrench faults areas, one being the Colorado River Lineament. Water and wind are the two key forces that can be attributed to the erosion of the ecosystem over the years (Adler 32). The main reason why water is the greatest force of the two is that the sun bakes the soil thereby making it so hard that it becomes difficult to absorb water. Therefore, when it rains, rain water flows freely with immense force. The vegetation in the area also doesn’t have deep laid roots to hold the soil together and this only adds to the problem (Lauenroth and Burke 51). As the free flowing water goes down, it creates flash floods that have great power to move rock boulders as big as automobiles. Ice also another erosion factor that cannot be ignored in this area. As faults are created between rocks, water seeps between these cracks and when temperatures are low, it turns to ice thereby expanding the cracks. When these faults get wide enough, pieces of rocks on the edges fall away and hit other rocks along the way thereby causing massive erosion effects. Th e topography of the ecosystem has characteristic different elevation levels. The vegetation in this area is mainly open-woodlands. The plants found here include cottonwoods, alders, cattails, plums as well as tall grass (Ralston 74). The Colorado River also makes an important part of the topography of the ecosystem. Surrounding the ecosystems are canyons and volcanic rocks whose surfaces have been eroded over the years mainly by water. Drainage patterns and stream systems The flow of the stream determines the forces that erode sediment and transport and deposit the same. This is important as it influences the various dimensions of aquatic systems in the ecosystem (Raynolds 53). The variance of stream flow also plays a major role in the occurrence of suitable environment and species abundance. The structural controls offered by the environment in the ecosystem act to dictate the various aspects of the stream’s flow such as its velocity and direction. Drainage patterns of streams in the ecosystem take the form of parallel and dendritic drainage patterns that are the most common in riparian ecosystems. As for the stream capacity, given the geology of the ecosystems and the level of erosion, the stream capacity in the ecosystem is high as the sediments from eroded soil and rocks transported by the stream is also high which translates to high power (Hazel 47). However, stream discharge in the ecosystem is relatively low as the width of the stream is narrow and wouldn’t support high stream discharge while the stream velocity is also low due to the many artificial islands formed by rocks found in the stream. These act to reduce the velocity of the stream greatly. The hard soil surface under the stream makes it difficult for water absorption and therefore when it rains, flash floods form easily while recurrence depends on the rain intervals during the year. Biome The biome in the ecosystem is classified according to the latitude within which the ecosystem is located. As a result of this, the climatic conditions brought about by the ecosystem’s latitude play a major role in determining the biome found in this area. Therefore, the dominant plants found in this particular ecosystem are mainly cottonwoods and open-woodlands. The animal species are the mule deer and the elk (Van Cole 16). Ecosystem characteristics, productivity, and services The productivity of the ecosystem can be seen from the dams and reservoir built in order to reduce the amount of erosion taking place in the ecosystem (Yaffee 61). This has received positive results as erosion has reduced greatly. On productivity, the ecosystem acts as a park ecosystem and local tourists can go and enjoy the different flora and fauna the ecosystem has to offer. Habitat/s The Riparian habitats are defined by different plants that depend on an integral hydrological regime. It is a case whereby the groundwater is sustained and surface flows that are natural occur. Plant and animal communities An assemblage of animal and plant communities is what define Riparian ecosystems and the presence of these communities attribute directly or indirectly to stream induced or interrelated factors. A greater diversity of animals and plants are supported by the Riparian ecosystems than the upland habitats. Food web and food chains In relation to the food web and chains, it is clear that approximately 80 percent of sensitive vertebrate species depend on aquatic habitants in their life cycle. Example of an animal and its niche There are western screech-owls, which have a niche at the moist woodlands that are found along the lakes and streams. Example of a symbiotic relationships A significant symbiotic relationship is between the star-flowered Solomon’s-seal with the moist shady woodlands that are found along the streams. Human-Land relationships Deforestation and animal grazing are some of the human activities that are taking place in the ecosystem. Ecosystem status Currently, the ecosystem is in a threatened/endangered status as the acts of animal grazing and deforestation are rampant within the area. A practical conservation strategy that has been adopted is the Conservation Reserve Program, which has been redesigned with the purpose of providing priority to areas that are stream buffer zones. Works Cited Adler, Robert W. Restoring Colorado River Ecosystems: A Troubled Sense of Immensity. Washington: Island Press, 2007. Web. Bainbridge, David. A Guide for Desert and Dryland Restoration: New Hope for Arid Lands. Washington: Island Press. 2012. Print. Doyle, Mary, and Cynthia A. Drew. Large-scale Ecosystem Restoration: Five Case Studies from the United States. Washington: Island Press, 2008. Web. Folliott, Peter and Leonard F. DeBano. Riparian Areas of the Southwestern United States: Hydrology, Ecology, and Management. Florida: CRC Press. 2003. Print. Hazel, Joseph E. Monitoring Fine-Grained Sediment in the Colorado River Ecosystem, Arizona: Control Network. S.l.: Bibliogov, 2013. Print. Kaiser, James. Grand Canyon: the Complete Guide. Ringgold, Ga.: Destination Press, 2011. Print. Lauenroth, William K, and Ingrid C. Burke. Ecology of the Short grass Steppe: A Long-Term Perspective. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008. Web. Ralston, Barbara E. A Vegetation Database for the Colorado River Ecosystem from Glen Canyon Dam to the Western Boundary of Grand Canyon National Park, Arizona. Flagstaff, Ariz.: Northern Arizona University, 2007. Print. Raynolds, Robert G. Roaming the Rocky Mountains and Environs: Geological Field Trips. Boulder, Colo: Geological Society of America, 2008. Print. Trexler, Joel. Monitoring Ecosystems. Washington: Island Press. 2003. Print. Van, Riper C, and Mark K. Sogge. The Colorado Plateau Iii: Integrating Research and Resources Management for Effective Conservation. Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 2008. Print. Van, Riper C, and Kenneth L. Cole. The Colorado Plateau: Cultural, Biological, and Physical Research. Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 2004. Print. Yaffee, Steven L. Ecosystem Management in the United States: An Assessment of Current Experience. Washington, DC: Island Press, 1996. Print.

Deep Sea Vents: Origin of Life Theory

Deep Sea Vents: Origin of Life Theory Assess one hypothesis of the origin of life:  Life may have emerged from deep sea vents Introduction Fossil evidence confirms that life on Earth existed at least 3.5 billion years ago (Orgel 1998). This rapid appearance of life is considered to be a remarkable event after the late heavy bombardment 100 million years before, which had the potential to destroy any possible habitats suited to living organisms (Abramov Mojzsis 2009). All life today can be phylogenetically linked to a last universal common ancestor (LUCA) whose closest known relatives are present day hyperthermophiles (Abramov Mojzsis 2009, Glansdorff Labedan 2008). This suggests that the earliest form of life on Earth may have originated from a single cell which emerged spontaneously in a high temperature environment. It is assumed that the development of the first living protocell occurred through a stepwise accumulation of necessary components (Mirazo et al. 2014). Experiments have shown that the simple prebiotic molecules required can be made under various conditions independent of a biological system (Orgel 1998, Mirazo et al. 2014) and it is often hypothesised that these reactions could have occurred near hydrothermal vents (Huber Wachtershauser 2006, Dai 2012, Budin et al. 2009). The ways in which these prebiotic molecules assembled into a self-sustaining cell have not yet been elucidated. This has led to some ambiguity regarding which prebiotic materials and chemical processes are required for the initiation of life (Mirazo et al. 2014). Assessing the ways in which life may have originated could provide insight into the possible locations of extraterrestrial life in our solar system (Spiegel Turner 2011). While current research aims to identify a single origin of life, it is important to observe multiple possibilities to ensure continued progress. Defining life – the cell To determine the point at which life first emerged, it is important to identify the features which separate living biological entities from non-living chemical building blocks. This paper will therefore conform to the assumptions that the universal unit of life is the cell (Palmer 2013) and that all living organisms are autonomous and self-replicating (Bich Damiano 2012). With these definitions in mind, it can be seen that all life on Earth shares three major cellular properties: a genetic code for information storage and replication, metabolism for the acquisition of energy and nutrients, as well as selectively permeable membranes that separate them from the surrounding environment (Mirazo et al. 2014). These components are made up of complex organic molecules that are commonly synthesised from within the cell itself. Life today uses nucleic acids for their genetic code, amino acids make up metabolic proteins and lipids form cell membranes (Mirazo et al. 2014). If we assume that th e first living cell from which all life ascended also consisted of these types of molecules, we must consider how they formed independently under early Earth conditions. Starting materials and chemical evolution Similar to how multicellular organisms emerged through increasing complexity and natural selection from the environment, the building blocks for life are thought to have developed through a process of chemical evolution. The Miller-Urey experiment in 1953 showed that amino acids can be formed quite readily from simple materials such as hydrogen, methane and ammonia when subject to an electric charge (Orgel 1998, Mirazo et al. 2014). While is it commonly suggested that the strongly reducing conditions used in the experiment may not have been analogous to the true early Earth conditions, it was the first of its kind to prove that complex organic molecules can be made without the help of a living system (Mirazo et al. 2014). Many experiments since then have shown similar abilities of simple molecules to reach prebiotic complexity under a variety of different conditions (Keller et al. 2014, Longo et al. 2012, Novikov Copley 2013). Research in 2006 showed the possibility of producing ÃŽ ±-hydroxy and ÃŽ ±-amino acids from simple molecules under high pressure and temperature with nickel and iron catalysis (Huber Wachtershauser 2006). These conditions and reactants were likely to be present in concentration and temperature gradients at volcanoes or hydrothermal vents in the early acidic ocean (Huber Wachtershauser 2006). Later simulation experiments have also shown that polynucleotides have the potential to be produced near alkaline deep sea vents and that protocell-like vesicles can form in thermal diffusion columns (Dai 2012, Budin et al. 2009). The typical materials used in these experiments are likely to have been present on Earth before the emergence of life and are listed by Mirazo, Briones and Escosura (2014): The main starting materials in prebiotic chemistry are one-, two-, and three-carbon atom molecules, such as hydrogen cyanide, cyanate, cyanogen, formaldehyde, formamide, formic acid, ammonium formate, ammonium cyanide, urea, acetaldehyde, cyanoacetylene, and cyanoacetaldehyde (p. 289). These molecules can be produced from gaseous mixtures of carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, methane, nitrogen, ammonia and water through UV radiation, shock waves or spark discharge (Mirazo et al. 2014). Given appropriate conditions, the resulting materials can then combine further through redox, photochemical or hydrolytic reactions (Mirazo et al. 2014). The origins of prebiotic monomers are often debated (Orgel 1998, Mirazo et al. 2014). It is proposed that the required quantities of starting materials were not being produced in the vast oceans of the early Earth. It is therefore speculated that they were unable to achieve sufficient concentrations for further synthesis (Mirazo et al. 2014). An alternative source of starting materials to their formation on the early Earth is their possible delivery from space during the late heavy bombardment (Mirazo et al. 2014, Orgel 1998). Meteorite analyses show that they can contain a wide variety of organic materials, including those which are used by living organisms (see table 1). The amount of organic matter deposited during this period is estimated to be two to four orders of magnitude higher than the current mass of the biosphere. It is therefore possible that a significant portion of the staring materials on Earth were of extraterrestrial origin (Mirazo et al. 2014, Orgel 1998). This als o suggests that organic synthesis is a universal process (Longo et al. 2012). Source: Mirazo, Briones and Escosura 2014 p. 289. Genes, metabolism and membranes The origin of more complex prebiotic structures such as membranes, polypeptides and genes are significantly less distinct. The agreement that living organisms require the ability to replicate imposes that the first form of life probably emerged from an RNA world (Vasas et al. 2009). However, the abiotic production of RNA has been shown to be remarkably difficult. While a metabolism first model addresses this issue (Novikov Copley 2013), it is uncertain if the process adheres to the definition of life (Vasas et al. 2009). Huber and Wà ¤chtershà ¤user (2006) theorise that life emerged stepwise from a â€Å"pioneer metabolism† to a fully functioning organism. Whereas Budin et al. (2009) suggest that the spontaneous formation of amphiphilic membranes in rock microchannels of deep sea vents may have provided suitable housings for the initial polymerisation of nucleotides. An all-encompassing view is held by Mirazo, Briones and Escosura (2014), stating that: When these various difficulties are considered, it is unlikely that scientists will ever know which exact synthetic itinerary led to the first forms of life. A nonhistorical point of view might be more fruitful, the target of research turning to be the general physicochemical processes that could trigger the transition from a nonliving chemical system into a protoliving one and, finally, into a living organism (p. 287). Nonetheless, there is a significant absence of evidence suggesting that any collection of chemical processes will lead to a living entity (Spiegel Turner 2012). To reject the discrete steps that may have led to the emergence of a cell could limit our understanding of how life is formed. Why hydrothermal vents? Hydrothermal vents currently support dense and diverse communities of organisms, indicating that their wide-ranging chemical and physical gradients have a remarkable capacity for supporting life (Novikov Copley 2013) (see figure 1). Their internal and nearby structures have the potential to provide microenvironments for concentrating organic materials and catalytic minerals. They can provide both high and low temperatures which can assist in the production of high activation energy and low thermal stability materials, respectively (Novikov Copley 2013). Hyperthermophilic microorganisms have been reported to exist in temperatures between 80 °C and 100 °C and many species are the closest living relatives to the last universal common ancestor (Glansdorff Labedan 2008). It is speculated that the thermotolerance of the early descendants of LUCA was an adaptive deviation from the original protocell (Glansdorff Labedan 2008). Nonetheless, evidence suggests that LUCA was moderate the rmophilic (40 °C to 80 °C) to mesophilic (20 °C to 45 °C), possibly signifying a broad preferred temperature range (Glansdorff Labedan 2008). If life originally emerged from a hydrothermal environment, it can be expected that it would require a potential for adaptability to survive in such varying conditions. Figure 1. Diagram of the chemical and physical interactions that occur in and around hydrothermal vents. A wide variety of temperatures and chemical products exist in the vicinity of a deep sea vent. Source: Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory 2013. Issues and important considerations As previously mentioned, there is currently no experimental evidence of a transition from prebiotic organic material to a fully replicating autonomous system. It is therefore possible that the conditions applied in simulation experiments still do not replicate those of the early Earth. The first life on Earth may have been introduced from elsewhere during the late heavy bombardment (Abramov Mojzsis 2009) and may therefore have been in conditions that are completely unlike those considered in the literature. Additionally, the earliest organisms may have been incomparable to the life that exists today. Alternatively, the models which are applied to define life may be inhibitory to our understanding of its origin. Vlaardingerbroek (2012) suggests that the separation between biological and chemical evolution and a specific origin of life is problematic, advising instead to observe the emergence of life as a gradual and detailed process absent of a single impartial event. Conclusions and future possibilities Although the theory of life emerging from hydrothermal vents is convincing, we should maintain a broad perspective on the possibilities of the origin of life until more information is acquired. Many of the current hypotheses are plausible – the abiotic production of building blocks has been proven in a multitude of different instances. However, evidence that can confirm the possibility of making a cell abiotically from these building blocks is needed to reinforce this idea. If abiogenesis is found to be common and rapid given appropriate conditions, it is likely that it is occurring on many other locations in space (Spiegel Turner 2011). Such possibilities would lead to a plethora of exciting research opportunities into the discovery of extraterrestrial life. References Abramov, O., Mojzsis, S. J. (2009) Microbial habitability of the Hadean Earth during the late heavy bombardment, Nature, 459(7245): 419–422. Bich, L., Damiano, L. (2012) Life, Autonomy and Cognition: An Organizational Approach to the Definition of the Universal Properties of Life, Origins of Life and Evolution of Biospheres, 42(5): 389–397. Budin, I., Bruckner, R. J., Szostak, J. W. (2009) Formation of Protocell-like Vesicles in a Thermal Diffusion Column, Journal of the American Chemical Society, 131(28): 9628–9629. Dai, J. (2012) Novel molecular fossils of bacteria: Insights into hydrothermal origin of life, Journal of Theoretical Biology, 310: 249–256. Glansdorff, N., Xu, Y., Labedan, B. (2008) The Last Universal Common Ancestor: emergence, constitution and genetic legacy of an elusive forerunner, Biology Direct, 3(1): 29. Huber, C., Wachtershauser, G. (2006) ÃŽ ±-Hydroxy and ÃŽ ±-Amino Acids Under Possible Hadean, Volcanic Origin-of-Life Conditions, Science, 314(5799): 630–632. Keller, M. A., Turchyn, A. V., Ralser, M. (2014) Non-enzymatic glycolysis and pentose phosphate pathway-like reactions in a plausible Archean ocean, Molecular Systems Biology, 10(725): 1–12. Lal, A. K. (2008) Origin of Life, Astrophysics and Space Science, 317(3-4): 267–278. Longo, L. M., Lee, J., Blaber, M. (2013) Simplified protein design biased for prebiotic amino acids yields a foldable, halophilic protein, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 110(6): 2135–2139. Novikov, Y., Copley, S. D. (2013) Reactivity landscape of pyruvate under simulated hydrothermal vent conditions, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 110(33): 13283–13288. Orgel, L. E. (1998) The origin of life – a review of facts and speculations, Trends in Biochemical Sciences, 4(98): 491–495. Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory (2013) Vent Fluid Chemistry. Retrieved from http://www.pmel.noaa.gov/eoi/chemistry/fluid.html Palmer, B. S. (2012) A review on the spontaneous formation of the building blocks of life and the generation of a set of hypotheses governing universal abiogenesis, International Journal of Astrobiology, 12(01): 39–44. Ruiz-Mirazo, K., Briones, C., de la Escosura, A. (2014) Prebiotic Systems Chemistry: New Perspectives for the Origins of Life, Chemical Reviews, 114(1): 285–366. Spiegel, D. S., Turner, E. L. (2011) Bayesian analysis of the astrobiological implications of life’s early emergence on Earth, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 109(2): 395–400. Vasas, V., Szathmary, E., Santos, M. (2010) Lack of evolvability in self-sustaining autocatalytic networks constraints metabolism-first scenarios for the origin of life, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 107(4): 1470–1475. Vlaardingerbroek, B. (2012) The Sorites Paradox, ‘Life,’ and Abiogenesis, Evolution: Education and Outreach, 5(3): 399–401. Barco NV Analysis: SWOT, Position and Product Life Cycle Barco NV Analysis: SWOT, Position and Product Life Cycle Barco NV is one of the top three global manufacturer, focused on expensive, high-quality products in a niche market. It focuses on the graphic projector, projector market has the greatest growth and income. Barcos market share of 4%, a video projector, 23% and 55% of the data projector graphics projector. Barcos main competitors, Sony, Electrohome and NEC. In my opinion, scrap the BD700 and star new high-end projector is the smarter choice. His strongest competitor, Sony develops a new product 1270 super data projector and trade show in the Boston. It is a high-performance graphics applications and low price. From the Table A Product Segment Growth, 1988, we can find that Graphics predicted annual growth, 1989-1994 were 40.2% from 1988 4% units. Data only grows 12.3% from 1988 33% units. Its mean graphics market growth is more than Datas market growth. The BD700 is BarcoData700. Datas market is growing slowly. That means new product BD700 is fail product and fail in the market. Thats why I agree scrap the BD700. I will show more analyze in my product life cycle. And BG400 (BarcoGraphics400) is old model. If 1270 go in the market, BG400 will be kick-off from the market, because BG400 is the high price and low benefit product when 1270 come in. To star new high-end projector it is the smarter choice. Barco can develop new-product like as BG800 or upgrading BG700. In the Niche marketing, Barco need to keep pursuing top of the line in the high-end niche market and declining the prices, and Barco can win back the competitive edgy. Mission Statement High quality, high technology, popular, and five stars customers service, are all in ours product. Three levels of product Projector is popular in the world, especially graphics projector. Projector is used in the class by the professors and very important in multimedia instruction. Thats the core customer value. Its customers needs. And in these customers, when they chose the projectors they are care about the brand name, features, quality level, packaging, and design, its customers wants, these are actual product. And most customers are actually care about the band name, features, quality level, packaging, and design, and these are actual product. The features are the points Barcos new high-end projectors positioning, and also it is customer wants. In the Actual product, I will focus on the features, Barcos BG800 projector is new scanning frequency and new tubes than the 1270 the BG800 with at least 90kHz of scanning frequency and new tubes (p 249). Barco is famous brand name in the worldwide. Sony, it is not a profession projector brand. Customers will choose the professional brand-Barco. However, in the augmented product, customers want a good after-sale service and product support. In that part, Sony has good after-sale service and product support. That also is a good point for Barcos customer future cost, and collect customers information for the new-products. Also, it will become the point that customers care about when they chose the company. Barco need to improve that part, because thats customer wants. And its customer future cost, and researcher can collect customer information and wants from the new-products in the test marketing. Barco and Sonys strengths and weaknesses. First, Barcos products have a better scan speed is higher than the Sony. Barco dealer for 20% of the box distributors and 80% of the dealers and the dealer of Sony were 50%, tank dealers, and 50% of the system dealer. And we clearly can see customer needs and wants of three levels of product. Positioning is important part of customer wants. Positioning New high-end products are very important for Barco, its positioning on the high-performance graphics applications and middle high price like as BG800. Because Barcos strong competitor, Sonys 1270 is high-performance graphics applications and low price. Keeping high technology, appropriate price cut, and doing market research are the good way for the new-products. The BG800 in type of consumer product is classified the shopping products. Customer would like to compare these product, features, design, brand name, quality level, and packaging. The BG800 is the one Barco develop and position for the high-end products. Product life cycle In the product life cycle, BD700 are almost developed. But BD700 is the fail product like what I said in the beginning. But Barco already paid for the BD700 development fee and that was the sink cost. And Barco cannot take this money back. In the product life cycle, if BD700 is the right product, it can run like the curve, keeping to spent money for introduction. But the problem is BD700 is the fail product, its wrong product. In the development, its the sink cost. Sony is in the product development area, and they can stop and decline the loss, but Barco. Right now Sonys product 1270 is passed the product development area and they will keep to following the product life cycle curve, introduction, growth, maturity, and Decline. The profits will between the end of introduction and the end of decline. Barco can start to develop BG800 and also follow the curve, because BG800 is the right product right now. Possible Value Propositions From the upper, we can find that BG400 is in the more prices and more benefits area. But when 1270 are come in the market. BG400 will go down to the more prices and less benefits. And the 1270 will go to the less prices and more benefits area. Its very bad for BG400. Because no one want to buy a expensive and less benefits product. Barco will lose that market. From the positioning, BG800 will go in to the more prices and more benefits area. Thats good to fight with 1270 in the market. Customers really need the less prices and more benefits product, but some customers want more of the product, like they want and compare different brand name, features, and after-sale service. So they will choose BG800. The New-Product Development Process In the idea generation, Barco has many ideas. I will talk about three ideas from Barco; finish the BD700, scrap the BD700 and start new high-end projector, and improve BD700. In the idea screening, I suggest Barco scrap the BD700 and start new high-end projector. If that idea is passed, Barco will continue the next part-concept development and testing. BG800 is show up in the concept development and testing of the new-product development process. And then, Barco can do the marketing strategy development and business analysis. In the marketing strategy development, Barco can follow the Niche market to find what they fit. Following the Niche marketing, Barco can position the BG800 to the high-performance graphics applications and middle high price. So their marketing strategy will fit at high-performance and high price or middle high price. In the Business analysis, Barco need to do more market research and collect more information from the customers, price, needs, and wants. The third step will go in to the product development like as the graph of product life cycle, beginning the product development and products introduction, growth, maturity, and decline. The test marketing is beginning on the products growth. That means in the test marketing, it is beginning on the products growth and test the new product whether or not fit in the market growth and market share. And the last part, it will star the commercialization. SWOT Analyzing the Barcos superiority from the case, its show that Barco has two big markets: the United States and Western Europe. From the Table B Geographic Segment Growth, Barco has 50% units in the United States and 36% units in the Western Europe 1988 and the predicted annual growth of each are 9% and 11.5% from 1989 to 1994. And the weakness part is the relationship with dealer. Barco hasnt the system dealer who know-how of integrate and install equipment packages. From the Table D BPSs Pricing Index, BPS has 41% direct cost and 59% gross margin, and this is the high margin. Existing dealers liked to sell BPSs products. But BPSs product is complexity. In 1989, few dealers could survive without the Sony volume; an estimated 80% to 90% of professional audiovisual dealers worldwide Sony products because of reliability and low price among dealers (p. 244). Sony has a lot of dealers and good for his product selling. The opportunity of Barcos products are high technology and famous brand in the worldwide of projectors. Barco can develop high-end product BG800 or upgrading BG700. The threat is Barco need to scrap BD700 production. It means they lose a lot of money and need more time for the new high-end product development. And they will lose a lot of market share from their competitors. If the BG800 are not fit in the market, Barco will lose and never come back. Line stretching and Line filling Barco need to fill in the gap of Sony. Keeping the high quality and dropping the price, its the good way to fill the line of product line decisions. Right now Barco is in the high quality and high prices. And Sony is in the low prices and low quality. Sony keeps the low price and develops high quality product, 1270. If Barco develops BD700, the low price and low quality, will lose the market. If Barco scarp the BD700 and develops the high-end product BG800, it would be keep their high quality. Barco havent low price product, so he has no line filling. Barco have high price and high quality product. Barco will have line filling when he drop the price and keep high quality. Finding the gap of Sony is the good way to win the battle. Summary Surviving in the competitive market is not easy. To scrap BD700 and start a new high-end product, BG800, is the smarter choice. From the analysis, Barco need to find their new product whether or not fit in the market. Finding the customers needs and wants, its very important. Barco need to redefine its target market from collecting customers feedback and competitors strategic. To position new-product, its still important for Barcos line filling. Positioning also use to the Possible Value Propositions, to find where the area is and where is the competitors. Understanding the product life cycle is good for losing money and scraping the fail products. The right product will follow the product life cycle curves. Understanding the SWOT, Barco has two big markets: the United States and Western Europe. the weakness part is the relationship with dealer. The opportunity of Barcos products are high technology and famous brand in the worldwide of projectors. Barco can develop high-end product B G800 or upgrading BG700. The threat is Barco need to scrap BD700 production. In the line stretching and line filling part, Barco need to find his line, high prices and high quality, dropping the prices and keeping high quality are go way to filling the line of product line decisions.

“Naked Villainy”: Richard as a Satanic Hero Essays -- Literary Analy

In many religions and cultures, a demonic entity embodies the spirit of evil, ruler of hell, enemy of God, and tempter of humankind. This arch rebel figure often emerges in literature, and one of the most well-known is Satan, a defiant epitome of evil from John Milton’s epic poem Paradise Lost. There must be good in the presence of evil, thus there must be a hero with whom the villain clashes with, a bold character whom the audience roots for. In Shakespeare’s tragic play Richard III, Richard plays the role of both the hero and the villain by using his heroic traits to underscore his satanic persona. He is a satanic hero because he uses his political eloquence to rebel, his isolation causes him to oppose all moral constraints, and he wears a mask of charisma to hide his selfish lust for power. In other words, Richard, like Satan, is elevated by heroic traits like alluring eloquence but is so deeply self-absorbed and bent on revenge that he precipitates his own dest ined downfall. Richard is skilfully eloquent; however he chooses to convey this heroic trait satanically by using it to emphasize his rebellious nature against love, politics, and religion. Love is built upon reciprocated affection between two individuals, but Richard rebels by using it as a political tool, to the extent that he suggests incest at various points throughout the play. During the wooing scene, he wins the heart of Lady Anne by saying, â€Å"Your beauty was the cause of that effect: / Your beauty, that did haunt me in my sleep †¦Ã¢â‚¬  (1 .2, 126-127), accusing Anne’s beauty as inducement for murder. This quote implies that he plays upon the emotions of others, winning women over and bringing out their vulnerability by â€Å"his insinuating discourse† (Wilhelm, 20)... ...conscience finally surfaces. Richard’s seclusion is a result of his ambition and isolation, and he is so absorbed in his schemes of personal gain that he does not realize how he is lending himself to catastrophe. Richard, like Satan, is heroically amiable and well-spoken, but his greediness and insubordinate lust for power lend him to his predestined downfall. When Richard says, â€Å"I am determined to prove a villain†, he implies a tragic conception that he controls his predestined fate, and the providentialism eventually endorses this meaning. He uses his political eloquence to rebel, he is isolated and therefore his mental and physical energy is unhampered by his moral deformity, and he masks his satanic traits with charisma. Though the ending is tragic for Richard, it is a new beginning for England, and in a way, Richard purges England of its collective guilt.

Students Should Study Twain’s Adventures of Huckleberry Finn Essay

Mark Twain published what scholars still consider one of the greatest American literary works in 1885, and in that same year it suffered its first banning (Zwick). â€Å"Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is essential to the understanding of the American soul,† Victor Doyno states on the jacket of Random House’s comprehensive edition of the novel. If Huckleberry Finn is so indispensable, then its having been opposed from the beginning of its life seems more than a little surprising. At first, the strife was caused by many objecting to the friendship between Huckleberry Finn, the white protagonist, and Jim, an escaped African American slave, in addition to the grammar upon which many critics of the time frowned. As our society experiences changes in priorities, taboos, and social trends, the points of concern shift, and no longer do critics grimace at an interracial friendship; instead, they attack the racism supposedly present (Chadwick). A number of students, parents, and, on less frequent occasions, teachers claim that Huckleberry Finn possesses racist overtones and try to have it removed from school libraries and the curriculum. Despite the controversy, Huckleberry Finn, in which Twain delivers an honest depiction of the 1800’s, maintains its stance as a classic piece of literature beneficial to a student’s education (Chadwick). The shallowest and most prevalent argument involves the repeated, some attackers say excessive, use of the word â€Å"nigger,† which appears over two hundred times (Zwick). Today, the word is unquestionably one of the most offensive expletives in use; the book, however, was not written for this decade, or even this century, and it certainly was not intended to be a written prediction of the future. Huck... ...nd hopefully in another century, his writing will continue to enlighten future students. WORKS CITED â€Å"Blackface: The Minstrel Tradition.† Louisville University. 12 March 2003 http://www.louisville.edu/~afcren01/blackface.html>. Chadwick, Jocelyn. â€Å"Why Huck Finn Belongs in Classrooms.† Harvard Education Research Letter Online. November 2000. 10 February 2003 http://www.edletter.org/past/issues/2000-nd/huckfinn.shtml>. Gregory Leslie. â€Å"Finding Jim Behind the Mask: The Revelation of African American Humanity in Mark Twain’s Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.† Ampersand. 13 July 1998. 12 March 2003 http://itech.fgcu.edu/&/issues/vol1/huckfinn.htm>. Salwen, Peter. â€Å"Is Huck Finn a Racist Book?† Salwen Business Communications. 1996. 10 February 2003 http://salwen.com/mtrace.html>. â€Å"Stereotype.† Def. 2. Webster’s New Collegiate Dictionary. 1997.

Masculinity in the Philippines Essay

In the imperial age, the military shaped society to suit its peculiar needs. Modem armies are complex, costly institutions that must ramify widely to mobilize the vast human and material resources their operations require. Since the armed forces demand the absolute obedience and, at times, the lives of ordinary males, the state often forms, or reforms, society’s culture and ideology to make military service a moral imperative. In the cultural encounter that was empire, colonial armies proved as surprisingly potent agents of social change, introducing a major Western institution, with imbedded values, in a forceful, almost irresistible, manner. As powerful, intrusive institutions, modem armies transformed cultures and shaped gender identities, fostering rhetoric and imagery whose influence has persisted long after colonial rule. Above all, these armies, colonial and national, propagated a culture, nay a cult of masculinity. Recent historical research has explored the ways that rising European states reconstructed gender roles to support military mobilization. To prepare males for military  service, European nations constructed a stereotype of men as courageous and women as affirming, worthy prizes of manly males. In its genius, the modem state-through its powerful propaganda tools of education, literature, and media-appropriated the near-universal folk ritual of male initiation to make military service synonymous with the passage to manhood. Not only did mass conscription produce soldiers, it also shaped gender roles in the whole of society. Modern warfare, as it developed in Europe, was the mother of a new masculinity propagated globally in an age of empire through colonial armies, boys’ schools, and youth movements. As a colony of Spain and America, the Philippines felt these global cultural currents and provides an apt terrain for exploration of this  militarized masculinity. Like the other colonial states of Asia and Africa, both powers controlled their Philippine colony with native troops led by European officers, an implicit denigration of the manliness of elite Filipino males. For the all-male electorate of the American era, Filipino nationahm thus came to mean not only independence but, of equal importance, liberation from colonial emasculation. Over time, a cultural dialectic of the colonial and national produced a synthesis with symbolism and social roles marked by an extreme gender dimorphism. When Filipino leaders finally began building a national army in the 1930s, they borrowed the European standard of military masculinity with all its inbuilt biases. By exempting women from conscription and barring them from officer’s training at the Philippine Military Academy, the Commonwealth exaggerated the society’s male/female polarities. Once set in 1936, these military regulations and their social influence would prove surprisingly persistent and pervasive. It would be nearly thirty years until the armed forces recruited their first women soldiers in 1963; and another thirty years after that before the Philippine Military Academy (PMA) admitted its first female cadets in 1993 (Hilsdon 1995, 48, 51, 89; Duque 1981, vii). If we accept what one historian has called â€Å"the emancipated status of Filipino women in the 19th century,† then the prewar nationalist movement, with its rhetoric of militarism and male empowerment, may have skewed the gender balance within the Philippine  polity. In a Malay society with a legacy of gender equality-bilateral kinship, matrilocal marriage, and gender-neutral pronouns-this aspect of nationalism seems socially retrogressive.’ Understandably, postwar historians have overlooked this glorification of masculinity and military valor in their sympathetic studies of prewar Filipino nationalism. Nonetheless, mass conscription shaped gender roles in the first half of the 20th century and fostered a rhetoric that pervaded Philippine politics in its second half. In deploying Europe’s cult of masculinity to support mass conscription, the Commonwealth introduced a new element into the country’s political culture. Indeed, this engendered social order-propagated through conscription, education, and mass media-fostered imagery that would shape Philippine politics at key transitional moments in the latter decades of the 20th century. For well over half the fifty plus years since independence, the Philippines has been ruled by presidents who won office with claims of martial valor and then governed in a military manner. COMMONWEALTH A N D MASCULINITY The Philippine acceptance of this Euro-American model of masculinity provides strong evidence of the paradigm’s power. The successful imposition of this Westernized masculinity, with its extreme gender dimorphism, upon a Malay society with a long history of more balanced roles, makes the Philippines a revealing instance of this global process. Within twenty years, the span of a single generation, mobilization and its propaganda, convinced a people without a tradition of military service to accept conscription and internalize a new standard 1 of manhood. When tested in battle during World War 1, the generation of Filipino officers formed in this mobilization proved willing to fight and die with exceptional courage. Models of Masculinity During the two decades of this extraordinary social experiment, prewar Philippine institutions used two complementary cultural devices to indoctrinate the young into a new gender identity: a mass propaganda of gender dimorphism and a militarized form of male initiation. Among the many schools that participated in this experiment, t w v t h e University of the  Philippines (UP) and, a decade later, the Philippine Military Academy (PMA)-would play a central role as cultural mediators in constructing this new national standard for manhood. To translate a foreign masculine form into a Filipino cultural idiom, the cadet corps at UP and the PMA appropriated local traditions of male initiation, using them as a powerfully effective indoctrination into modem military service. Scholars of the Philippine military have often noted how the ordeal of the first or â€Å"plebe† year serves to bind the PMA’s graduates into a class or â€Å"batch with an extraordinary solidarity. The half-dozen doctoral dissertations on the Philippine military argue, in the words of a Chicago psychologist who observed the PMA in the mid-1960~~ that cadets form â€Å"lifetime bonds. . . in the crucible of the hazing pro~ess.†~ What is the meaning of this ritual with its extreme violence? Hazing, seemingly a small issue, has embedded within it larger problems of masculinity central to armies everywhere. In fieldwork around the world, anthropologists have discovered the near universality of male i n i t i a t i ~ nAround the globe and across time, many societies view .~ manhood as something that must be earned and thus create rituals to  test and train their adolescent males. Observing these rituals in the remote Highlands of Papua-New Guinea, anthropologist Roger Keesing offers a single, succinct explanation for the prevalence of harsh male initiation: warfare (Keesing 1982,32-34; Herdt 1982,5741). Similarly, at the m a r p s of the modem Philippine state, young men have long been initiated into manhood through ritual testing of their martial valor. In the 20th century, Muslim groups in the south have formed all-male â€Å"minimal alliance groups† to engage in ritualized warfare, while the Ilongot highlanders of northern Luzon require boys to pass â€Å"severe tests of manhood† by taking â€Å"at least one head† in combat (Kiefer 1972; Rosaldo 1980, 13940). From an anthropological perspective, hazing becomes the central rite in a passage from boyhood to manhood, civilian to soldier. Filipino plebe and New Guinea adolescent pass through similar initiations to emerge as warriors hardened for battle and bound together for defense of the ir communities (Gennep 1960, vii, 11). Recent historical research has explored the ways that rising European states reconstructed gender roles to support mobilization of modern armies. By marrying anthropologists’ universals to the historian’s time-bounded specifics, we can see how European nation-states, by making military service an initiation ritual, primed their males for mass slaughter on the modem battlefield. After Britain’s dismal performance in the Crimean War of the 1850s, headmasters at its elite â€Å"public schools† began hardening boys for future command through sports. Indeed, Harrow’s head proclaimed that â€Å"the esprit de corps, which merit success in cricket or football, are the very qualities which win the day in . . . war.† A half-century later in South Africa, British troops faced difficulties subduing Boer farmers, raising questions about the military â€Å"fitness† of ordinary Englishmen. Responding to this perceived crisis, Lord Baden-Powell organized the Boy Scouts in 1908 â€Å"to pass as many boys through our character factory as we possibly can (Mangan 1987, 150-53; 1981,2241; 1986, 33-36; Rosenthal 1986, 1-6). In his study of the cult of war in nineteenth-century Europe, historian George Mosse asks: â€Å"Why did young men in great numbers rush to the colors, eager to face death and acquit themselves in battle?† Simply put, they volunteered because the modern nation-state, through its poets and propagandists, made the passage to manhood synonymous with military service. To become a man in Victoria’s England or Bismarck’s Germany, a young male had to serve. In the first months of World War I, this cult of war achieved a virtual florescence  as young idealists hurled themselves into the slaughter. After 145,000 German soldiers died at Langemarck in 1914, one poet wrote: â€Å"Here I stand, proud and all alone, ecstatic that I have become a man.† Recalling this battle in Mein Kampf, Adolf Hitler said: â€Å"Seventeen year old boys now looked like men.† Similarly, during World War 11, U.S. Army researchers found that American soldiers fought hard to avoid â€Å"being branded a ‘woman,’ a dangerous threat to the contemporary male personality† (Mosse 1990, 15, 72; Stouffer, et al. 1949, 131-32). Not only did mass conscription produce soldiers, it also shaped gender roles in the wider society. To prepare every male for military service, European nations constructed a stereotype of men as  courageous, honorable, and physically formed on â€Å"borrowed Greek standards of male beauty.† By the 1920s, w omen were, through this century-long process, â€Å"transformed into static immutable symbols in order to command the attention of truly masculine men.’I4 Rhetoric of Colonial Masculinity Although the American colonial regime eventually played a central role in the formation of a Filipino officer corps, the US Army was initially hostile to the idea. During its first decade in the islands, the US Army was absorbed in a massive counterinsurgency campaign, and, like colonial armies elsewhere, denigrated the masculinity of its subject society. In little more than two years after their landing in 1898, the U.S. Army learned the same colonial lessons that the British and Dutch had distilled from two centuries of using â€Å"native troops† in India and Indonesia. Asian soldiers were, from an imperial point of view, welladapted to withstand the rigors of service in their own country. But only a European had the character required of an officer. As the editor of England’s Statesman wrote in 1885, educated Indians were â€Å"wanting in the courageous and manly behavior to which we justly attach so high an importance in the culture of our own youth.† Colonials often found dominant lowland groups both â€Å"effeminate† and insubordinate. But certain â€Å"martial racesn-such as the Gurkhas, Ambonese, or Karens-were thought capable of great courage under fire and fierce loyalty to their white officers5 In effect, there was an imperial consensus that certain native troops, when drilled and disciplined by European officers of good character, made ideal colonial forces. From the outset, the American commander in the islands, General Elwell S. Otis, felt, like most Americans of his day, that elite Filipinos were unfit for command. In an essay for a U.S. military journal in 1900, one American officer dismissed the typical officer in General Emilio Aguinaldo’s revolutionary army as â€Å"a half-breed, a small dealer, a hanger-on of the Spaniards.† Thus, when the US Army formed its colonial forces, the Philippine Scouts, the soldiers would all be Filipinos, but their officers  were to be white Americans selected from â€Å"the line of the Regular Army† (Woolard 1975, 13, 225; Franklin 1935). In sum, America’s high colonial rhetoric celebrated the special bond between American officers and their Filipino troops, and, by implication, denigrated elite Filipino character and capacity for command. Writing from retirement at the end of the US rule, one American veteran, Constabulary Captain Harold H. Elarth, offered a succinct version of this rhetoric. â€Å"By fair dealing, unusual sagacity and confirmed courage,† young American officers, â€Å"pacified and controlled tribes that for 300 years had continuously warred with the Spaniards.† This success, he explained, came from â€Å"the psychology of the Malay† which inspired Filipino soldiers to follow their American lieutenants with â€Å"adoration† (Hurley 1938, 298-99; Elarth 1949, 14-15). Nationalist Response In the early years of American rule, Filipino nationalists rejected this emasculating colonial rhetoric and made the training of native officers a central plank in their campaign for independence. By demanding officer training, the all-male nationalist movement challenged colonial assumptions that native men were, by racial character, unsuited for command. In the political rhetoric of the day, military drill would advance the nationalist cause by training officers for a future army and hardening the fiber of the country’s youth. To assert their manhood, nationalist leaders seized upon any pretext for military drill, even service under the colonial flag. Only a few years after the Philippine-American War, certain colonials and nationalists began to cooperate in building a Filipino officer corps. In 1907, the fledgling Constabulary School at Manila graduated its first Filipino officers from a short, three-month training course and then moved to permanent quarters in the mountain city of  Baguio for a more rigorous six-month curriculum. A year later, the U.S. Congress authorized the admission of Filipinos to the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. In 1914, the h s t Filipino cadet, Vicente P. Lim, graduated with an academic rank of seventy-seven among 107 cadets-an event of such  significance that the Philippine Resident Commissioner, Manuel Quezon, made a special trip from Washington, DC.6 When America entered World War I, the Philippine Legislature voted overwhelmingly to raise a Philippine National Guard division and Senate President Quezon crossed the Pacific to lobby personally for Washington’s authorization. Even the War Department’s determined effort to block its mobilization until 11 November 1918, the very last day of war, could not dampen the Filipino enthusiasm for military service. Over 28,000 men volunteered. With bands playing and banners flying, the Philippine National Guard drilled for three months until it was disbanded in February 1919 (Woolard 1975, 170-84, 196). During the 1920s, the American colonial regime, in fundamental change of policy, began training Filipinos for command. After taking office as governor-general in 1921, General Leonard Wood, a career officer, mobilized the resources of the US Army to open officer training programs (Hayden 1955, 734-35). To train a first generation of Filipino officers, the US Army loaned instructors, rifles, and bayonets to the newly-formed military science departments at Manila’s colleges and universities. Along with the weapons, these programs also borrowed an American model of the military male. Though the program spread to many schools, the Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC) at the University of the Philippines (UP) remained, for over a decade, the largest and most influential. UP Cadet Corps Drill began at UP in 1922 when its Regents funded a Department of Military Science and Tactics, retained an active-duty U.S. Army captain as its chairman, and authorized an armory. Five years later, UP President Rafael Palma, a prominent nationalist, praised the Department for establishing â€Å"the nucleus of a future national military organization† (Panis 1925, 14-15; Palma 1924; Peiia 1953, 1-2). As Palma predicted, the ROTC program grew rapidly, adding field artillery in 1929 and machine guns six years later. After passage of the National Defense Act in 1935, the university acquired another 2,000 Springfield rifles and doubled its cadet corps to 3,304 trainee officers by 1938. Beyond drill and marksmanship, the program indoctrinated its cadets into nationalism. â€Å"We need to make . . . our youth . . . so proud of their race and their democracy that they will die fighting for it,† President Quezon told the UP cadets in 1937. â€Å"We have all been trained,† wrote the Corps’ cadet colonel a year later, â€Å"with patriotism ever so carefully engraved in our hearts by our military instructors, we are proud to say, as they would have us say, w e are ready.07 Other Manila universities followed these leads. While the publiclyfunded UP had the largest cadet program, the elite, Jesuit-run Ateneo de Manila was proud home to the country’s top drill corps. The 1923 Manila Carnival featured a drill competition by cadets from San Beda, the National University, and, of course, Ateneo and the UP. Along with basketball and baseball, close-order drill contests would remain a high point of inter-collegiate competition until the war. These parades, featuring what one UP cadet called â€Å"thousands of virile young blood[s]†¦rifles on their shoulders, gallantly marching to the time of their music,† drew large crowds and sparked school ~ p i r i t . ~ By the early 1930s, a decade of reserve-officer training had encouraged an ideal of military masculinity among cadets at Manila’s universities. At the UP, trainee officers articulated an ideology that equated masculine strength with national defense. â€Å"A nation stands or falls, succeeds or fails, just in proportion to the . . . manliness of each succeeding generation,† wrote a cadet in the 1931 yearbook (Viardo 1931, 381). Cadet sergeant Fred Ruiz Castro, a future Supreme Court chief justice, explained that military training helps â€Å"engender the proper citizenshipu-notably â€Å"courtesy to all especially to the old and to the weaker sex.† In the 1935 UP yearbook, Castro and his comrade Macario Peralta, Jr., a future defense secretary, co-authored an essay arguing that drill molded the masculine virtues necessary to build the nation: â€Å"From the Corps, graduate men steeped in patriotism . . . men who know their duties both to country and to God . . . men who are sound thinkers, strong hearted †¦These are the men the country needs to cope with new problems† (Castro and Peralta, Jr. 1935, 345). Reinforcing this gender dimorphism, UP’S all-male cadet companies barred women from drill but recruited them as â€Å"sponsors† to appear in formal, frilly gowns at full-dress parades. Illustrative of this imbalance, in the  late 1920s one of these sponsors gave the Corps a â€Å"colorful oration† titled â€Å"The Woman Behind the Man Behind the Gun† (Castro 1932; 355; Quirino 1930, 427). By 1936, the UP cadets had expanded their Corps of Sponsors to  forty coeds such as Miss Eva Estr ada, the muse of the Second Artillery Battalion and a future senator. On National Heroes Day, the UP cadets staged a mock battle in the city’s main park, the Luneta. â€Å"Planes sweep down from the clouds to drop their deadly bombs,† wrote the college yearbook, â€Å"men shoot, advance, fall . . . beneath the smoke the unseen drama of war with its horrors and victories.† As male cadets littered Luneta’s smoking battlefield, â€Å"the Nurses’ Corps recruited from the ranks of the Sponsors rush to the field to give aid to the wounded and the dying.† Among these all-male cadets, appeal to women, the defining opposite within this dimorphism, was deemed an essential attribute of future military leadership. â€Å"The girls go for him in a big way (very big way),† said the 1937 UP yearbook of cadet Major Ferdinand Marcos, â€Å"so much so that most of the time he has to put up the sign ‘Standing Room Only.’ Claims his heart is impregnable to feminine allure, and insists on calling guys who fall in love inebriated weaklings.† Marcos himself internalized this gendered duality to write, after the war, of sacrificing his manhood to defend a feminized nation he calls Filipinas. â€Å"We cursed ourselves . . . for having given up our arms and with them our manhood. . .,† Marcos wrote of their wartime surrender to Japan on Bataan. â€Å"Filipinas had welcomed us in spite of the disgrace of our defeat in Bataan. But it seemed that although she had smiled at us through her tears, she would not bind up our wound^.†^ Harsh male initiation also became part of officer training at UP. Cadet Sergeant Macario Peralta, Jr., the future defense secretary, noted in the 1932 yearbook that the Corps had faced difficulties in â€Å"breaking in the new cadets,† but made sure that troublesome plebes â€Å"receive sundry other polite attentions† (Peralta 1932, 358). Peralta’s yearbook biography, published two years later when he was cadet colonel, revealed the meaning of this euphemism. â€Å"O ne year after the Colonel sprouted in the University campus, he commenced hazing the plebes and beasts with unrelenting inhumanity. He is  still at it† (Philippinensian1934, 396). Commonwealth Army In 1935, national defense suddenly became the most critical issue facing the Fhpino people. In Washgton, President Franklin Roosevelt approved the creation of the Philippine Commonwealth as an autonomous, transitional government with a ten-year timetable to full inde-  pendence. Under the National Defense Act, President Quezon made mobilization his top priority and committed a quarter of the budget to building a national army that would, by independence in 1945, have 10,000 regular soldiers backed by reserves of 400,000. In April 1936, some 150,000 Filipino men registered for the country’s first draft and, nine months later, 40,000 reported for training. Within three years, over a million schoolboys were marching.I0 From its foundation in 1935, the Commonwealth, through military mobilization, intensified this process of gender reconstruction-encouraging a reinforcing array of national symbols, militarized masculinity, and domestic roles. With only a decade to prepare for independence and the burden of defense, the Commonwealth tried to fashion a masculinity that would sustain mass conscription. As it mobilized in the 1930s, the Philippines imported a Euro-American form of manhood along with the howitzer and the pursuit plane. To build popular support for a citizens’ army, the neophyte Philippine state deployed a gendered propaganda with men strong, women weak; men the defenders, women the defended. Just as the new nation was personified as the feminine â€Å"Filipinas† in currency and propaganda, so young men were conscripted to defend her and her defenseless womankind. The government, in this transition to independence, slullfully manipulated public rituals and symbols to make a polarized gender dimorphism central to a new national self-image. We do not have to read against the grain to tease gender out of the Philippine Army, as if from some recondite cultural text. The key actors+ezon, Army Headquarters, and the cadets themselves-were quite self-conscious in their use of such imagery. The impact of militarization upon gender roles was most evident at the Manila Carnival-a grand, pre-war festival celebrating the fecundity of the land and the glories of its people. Like other pre-Lenten festivals across the Hispanic world, Carnival was a mix of the serious and frivolous, of celebration and reflection. Located at the heart of Manila, the sprawling Carnival enclosure held elaborate displays of provincial products such as rope or coconut. The two-week whirl of spectacle, society, and sport culminated in the crowning of the queen and her court at an elaborate formal ball. With the Philippines on parade, elite actors gained a stage to project images of nation and society before a mass audience. Before conscription, the queen’s coronation had been a lavish, highsociety affair-with eligible bachelors as escorts, whimsical Roman or  Egyptian themes, and matching costumes for court and consorts. Since the city’s elites selected the carnival queen by jury or press ballots, winners were women of wealth, prestige, and intellect. At the 1922 Carnival, for example, Queen Virginia Llamas was escorted by her future husband Carlos P. Rom ulo, later president of the UN General Assembly. The queen’s consort at the 1923 Carnival was Eugenio Lopez, later the county’s most powerful entrepreneur, just as 1931 queen was Maria Kalaw, the future Philippine senator and UN delegate (Nuyda 1980, 1920, 1922,1931). With the launching of the Commonwealth’s army only months away, the 1935 Carnival saw revelry and whimsy giving way to military symbolism and a serious debate about gender roles. To accornmodate its greatly expanded display, the US Army occupied â€Å"an entire section of the Manila Carnival Grounds† for 400 linear feet of military exhibits and a replica of a World War I trench warfare complex (Tribune, 3,9 February 1935). The cadets of Manila’s universities were honored with a large military parade, treated to guided tours of the military exhibit, and featured as the queen’s escorts. In this martial spirit, gender was on the march. At her coronation ceremony, the Constabulary band played a march while Queen Conchita I-walked between â€Å"two files of University of the Philippines cadets with drawn sabers† to a throne where the US Governor General placed a crown of diamonds on her head and the â€Å"admiring throng applauds† (Tribune, 16, 21, 22 February 1935). On their night in this Carnival Auditorium, Far Eastern University students staged a  spectacular revue called â€Å"Daughters of Bathala,† with males forming an outer, protective circle while women in gowns whirled about in a â€Å"grand finale . . . symbolizing the types of modern Filipino women from the suffragettes and debutantes to the thrill-girls of the cabarets and the boulevards† (Tribune, 3 March 1945). Instead of the usual frivolous rhetoric about feminine beauty, the 1935 Carnival launched a national debate on women’s rights. Speaking before the convention of the Federation of Women’s Clubs, Senate President Quezon announced that the Constitutional Convention had just approved compulsory military service. He urged the nation’s women to assume â€Å"the duty to mould the character of . . . youth that we may build up here a citizenry of virile manhood capable of shouldering the burdens of our future independent existence.† And how was such a radical social reconstruction to be accomplished? Men would be called away for â€Å"training in patriotism,† but women,  Quezon said, should stay home to â€Å"bring up upstanding, courageous and patriotic youngsters.† Instead of being lulled by the â€Å"sentimental glow† of his oratory, the Federation’s president, Mrs. Pilar H. Lim, the wife of General Vicente Lim (USMA ’14), co nfronted Quezon, demanding that he redress â€Å"the injustice done . . . through the failure of the constitutional convention to insert a provision . . . granting the women . . . the right to vote.† Quezon assured Mrs. Lim that he has â€Å"always been in favor of granting this right to women.† Indeed, two years later, under his presidency and through Mrs. Lim’s leadership, a plebiscite on women’s suffrage passed by an overwhelming margin.† Over the next three years as mobilization intensified, each carnival accentuated the military symbolism and its supporting gender dimorphism. When President Quezon opened the towering gateway to the 1936 Carnival city, a full battalion of Philippine Army troops formed an honor guard while he â€Å"severed† the ribbons with a specially-made native sword. In its Carnival coverage, the Sunday Tribune Magazine juxtaposed photo-essays of the military review (â€Å"the steel helmets of the U.P. cadets glaring in the afternoon sun†) and the 1936 Fashion Revue (â€Å"models resplendent in shining silver and satin.†) For their night at the Carnival, the UP students  presented a richly engendered historical pageant, written by Dr. Carlos P. Romulo, featuring a cast of one thousand students (â€Å"including seven hundred girls†) and starring a woman student as â€Å"Filipinas,† the feminized symbol of the nation (Tribune, 15 February, 1 March 1936). Theme: After the establishment of the Republic, the nation will meet with difficulties and dangers, but it will overcome them all and thereby become stronger . . . Book of Time Revealed. Spirit of History ascends the stage from stage right and writes â€Å"Commonwealth.† 111. Trumpets. Filipinas enters from stage left followed by people, including agencies, soldiers, dancers . . . IV. Spirit of Prophecy ascends from stage left . . . and . . . writes â€Å"Republic.† V. People cheer, bells ring, salute of guns . . . VIII. Invasion-all to arms. Battle. XI. Mourning dance. Filipina rises from the center of the floor, flag over her. National hymn is sung by all. I. 11. Despite such military inroads, the coronation of Queen Mercedes I featured the usual â€Å"fantasy numbers† such as â€Å"Parisian Lace† and the â€Å"exotic South Sea Wastes.† Her escorts were still society bachelors in white-tie and tails. A year later, the military symbolism was triumphant. At the 1937 Carnival, the queen’s escorts were now uniformed ROTC cadets. The queen now became â€Å"Miss Philippines† and her coronation, as its libretto indicates, was a martial drama of male soldiers rising to her defense as the engendered symbol of the nation. Scene I Triumphal entrance of the Army of Miss Philippines, sovereign of our cultural and economic progress, composed of officers and soldiers who will stage a military exhibition. Scene I1 Entrance of the Drum and Bugle Corps which will go through some military evolutions. Scene 1 1 1 The Drum and Bugle Corps will announce the arrival of Miss Philippines and her Court of Honor . . . Miss Philippines will be preceded by a group of pages carrying the crown and other presents, and another group of pages carrying her train . . . Scene IV The Drum and Bugle Corps announces that all is ready for the coronation of Miss Philippines. Scene V Ceremonies of the coronation of Miss  Philippines, placing of the crown by His Honor, The Mayor of Manila . . . Scene VI Gun salute to Miss Philippines by her Army. Entrance of Foreign Envoys-Royal offering, etc. Scene VII Military evolutions by the Army of Miss Philippines and the Drum and Bugle Corps. Beyond the ballroom, the Carnival’s sporting contests and the ROTC drill competitions proliferated in celebration of a physical, martial masculinity. Before a crowd of 40,000, for example, the Schools Parade featured girls in gowns riding on flower-covered floats while high school boys stepped past in â€Å"uniforms and snappy marching [that] thrilled the watching t h o ~ s a n d s . † ~ ~ By the 1938 Carnival, the military parade had been transformed from a procession of students in their toy-soldier uniforms into an awesome spectacle of military might. With thousands of spectators packed along the boulevards, armed columns of Philippine Army, Philippine Scouts, and college cadets tramped past the Legislative Building as tight formations of bombers and pursuit planes â€Å"roared overhead† (Tribune, 15, 16 February 1938). After its establishment in 1936, the Philippine Army deployed a similar dualism to build support for conscription among a people without a tradition of military service. As the date for draft registration approached, the Commonwealth plastered public spaces with recruiting posters. One depicted a statuesque Filipina, neckline cut low and bare arms outstretched for the embrace, calling on â€Å"Young Men† to â€Å"Heed Your Country’s Call!† Another asked, â€Å"Which Would You Rather Be . . . this or that?†-and then showed a snappy soldier smiling at two admiring women while a civilian male skulks in the rear, hands in pockets-a universal sipifier.I4 Then, at 8:30 A.M. on 15 May 1936, each provincial governor supervised an elaborate ritual to select the first conscripts for basic training. Before the public, the governor, flanked by military guards, placed the registration cards for all twenty-year old men in two large jars. â€Å"Two young ladies, not over eighteen years of age, shall . . . make the drawing,† read the Philippine Army regulations. â€Å"These young ladies shall be blind-folded and shall wear  dresses with short sleeves-not reaching beyond elbow† (Commonwealth, Bulletin No. 17; Meixsel 1993, 301). So strong was the appeal of military training that four of the country’s leading legislators, including presidential aspirant Manuel Roxas, volunteered for the first Reserve Officers’ Service School (ROSS) in mid-1936. In this commencement address to this class in September, President Quezon explained that officers were to serve as the nation’s models for patriotism and new, virile form of citizenry (The Bayonet 1936, 94, 98). The good officer. . . , wherever he is, . . . spreads the doctrine of loyalty, of respect for law and order, of patriotism, of self-discipline and education, and of national preparation to defend our country. . . . Our whole nation will become more firmly solidified, more virile, more unselfishly devoted to promotion of the general welfare, as our officer corps grows in quality and strength, and the results of its efforts permeate to the remotest hamlet of our country. Philippine Military Academy Forming such an officer corps was the most difficult part of this mobilization. As Quezon put it, â€Å"the heart of an army is its officers.† Along with buying rifles and building camps, the creation of this army required, as the president was well aware, the construction of officers as exemplars for a new image of the Filipino as warrior. To form such leaders, the Defense Act provided for the establishment of a Philippine Military Academy at Baguio for the education of career officers. This academy was, in the words of the Commonwealth’s vice-president, â€Å"the foundation stone of the entire military establishment,† providing â€Å"the leadership necessary to knit together a scattered and loosely connected citizen army into one whole, living, pulsating, homogenous machine that can fight with courage† (Scribe 50; Osmefia 7-8, 10). In establishing his new academy, Quezon, through his military advisers Douglas MacArthur and Dwight Eisenhower, chose the US Military Academy at West Point as its model. Transporting the West Point system, with all of its peculiarities, from the bluffs of the Hudson to the mountains of Baguio entailed cultural adaptation. From the perspective of the PMA staff, the new academy would socialize the cadets through its formal  curriculum and a four-year progression from neophyte to command. To succeed, however, these formal processes rested upon rituals and symbols that would make the academy’s abstractions meaningful to teen-aged Filipinos. Drawing upon the country’s culture of masculinity, cadets used rituals of male initiation and group solidarity to reinforce the PMA’s institutional imperatives. Through a fusion of the West Point curriculum, faithfully reproduced by the PMA’s staff, and informal innovations by these Filipino cadets, an American academy became a viable model for a Philippine institution (Love11 1955, 316-21; Wamsley 1972, 399-41 7). To ensure that its cadets would be archetypes of masculine beauty, the academy barred applicants with â€Å"any deformity which is repulsive† or any who suffered from â€Å"extreme ugliness.† Medical examiners had to insure, moreover, that an applicant’s face was free from any â€Å"lack of symmetrical development† or â€Å"unsightly deformities such as large birthmarks, large hairy moles, . . . mutilations due to injuries or surgical operation† (Commonwealth of the Philippines 1937). To mould these exemplary males, the PMA became a total institution that would, like West Point, leave a lasting imprint upon every  graduate (Janowitz 138; Goffman 1961). The PMA’s 1938 yearbook thus described the Tactical Department and its drill instructors as â€Å"a veritable forging shop in which the raw and crude materials are . . . purified of their undesirable qualities.† In their song P.M.A. Forever, cadets celebrated their academy’s capacity to make men (Sword 1938, 46-48, 104). Within the walls of old and glorious P.M.A. They’re molded to the real men that they should beMen who can face the bitter realities of life With courage even in the midst of bloody strife. As centerpiece in the nation’s gender reconstruction, the PMA indoctrinated its Filipino cadets into a Euro-American ideal of military manhood. With its alien curriculum, the PMA, more than any Philippine institution of its era, aspired to a cultural transformation, a remalung of its cadets on a European model of mascuhity. The academy made its imprint through a program of moral formation through body movement, incessant supervision, and formal in doctrination. In its own words, the PMA taught â€Å"soldierly movements to inculcate prompt obedience† in  daily marching; â€Å"knowledge of ballroom ethics† with weekly waltz lessons; and â€Å"self-reliance, poise, initiative, judgment, enthusiasm, and discipline† in gymnastics (Commonwealth 1938,1619). Filipino cadets reshaped imported values through their own culture of masculinity, malung hazing the PMA’s central rite of passage-from civilian to soldier, from plebe to cadet. Entering plebes arrived at the academy from communities with their own rituals of male initiation and expectations for manhood (Rosaldo 1980, 35-37). In many lowland villages of the 1930s, adolescent males passed through an initiation, such as circumcision, and had elaborate codes for masculine friendship epitomized in peer groups called barkada. In the villages of Central Luzon, for example, Tagalog males who joined tenancy unions during this decade were tested in an elaborate midnight ritual that branded each on the upper arm with a poker plucked white-hot from a raging bonfire (Fegan 1995; See also Blanc-Szanton 1990, 350). Growing up in such poor communities, many future members of PMA’s Class of 1940, the first products of this new school, were familiar with these masculine rites of testing and bonding. One classmate, Francisco del Castillo, recalled in his autobiography for the class’s 50th reunion Golden Book, that he often missed class in high school to join â€Å"youth who did nothing but form gangs to fight other gangs for su-premacy in the municipality of Vigan.† In a later interview, he added that his reputation as â€Å"a local champion† in ritualized knife fights, attacking with the right hand and defending with a towel wrapped tightly about the left, made him the â€Å"leader† of the town’s west-side gang. Asked if his gang practiced any sort of initiation, del Castillo replied that â€Å"you let him do a certain errand and see how brave he is† (Mendoza 1986, 178; del Castillo 1995). For PMA cadets, hazing and the broader experience of plebe initiation served as a transformative trauma–coloring the subsequent academy experience for individuals and uniting a new class through shared suffering. During their first months, plebes were subjected to an unbroken regimen of running, recitations, and drill under nameless, powerful upperclassmen. Arriving during summer recess when the main activity was their initiation,  incoming plebes faced the harsh, unwavering attentions of the second-year cadets, or â€Å"yearlings†-still aching from their own humiliations that had ended only weeks before. After the initial â€Å"beast barracks,† the hazing subsided into a constant, low-level harassment that continued for another eight months until the upperclass â€Å"recognized† them as full members of the Corps. Surviving this abuse left cadets with a strong sense of personal pride and class identity. Writing in the Golden Book, Class ’40’s Cesar Montemayor recalled their plebe year as â€Å"a one-year initiation period full of rites, rules and requirements† that instilled â€Å"desirable manly and military qualities† (Batch 36 Golden Book, 110-11). In showing how the Commonwealth constructed a new masculinity at the PMA, we cannot ignore the impact that this mobilization and its prop aganda had upon â€Å"the whole order† of gender roles in an emerging nation (Morgan 1994, 169-70). Despite its isolation in the mountains of Baguio, the PMA’s training of these young males had lasting implications for the whole of Philippine society. The school served, in effect, as a social laboratory, a crucible for casting a new form of Filipino masculinity. Through hazing, study, and drill, the academy pounded young males into a foreign mold of military manhood. By parading before the masses in Manila and acting in Tagalog films, these prewar PMA cadets projected this image of masculinity into an emerging national consciousness. Only a year after the PMA opened, a Manila film crew shot a two-reel documentary, titled The West Point of the Philippines, which, the cadet yearbook reported, was â€Å"now being featured at the Ideal Theatre† and was â€Å"taking Manila by storm.†