Border Security and the Threat of Terrorism Essay

Border Security and the Threat of Terrorism - Essay Example Views that by effectively securing its borders, amerce will have effectively assuaged the threat of terrorism by a half is rife. This view is predicated on the knowledge that money laundering, illicit drug trade, illegal immigrants and trade in other contraband products crucially depend on border security lapses and are key to terrorist activities. Background of the Study Events that surrounded and defined September 11th, 2001 totally reshaped American foreign policies, and security measures. By and by, the US government has become cognizant of the fact that strengthening its intelligence against terrorist threats would not in itself suffice. To America, for an attack of a high magnitude such as the September 11th, 2001 to occur, there must have been security lapse in border security. The veracity of this observation is clearly seen in the fact that every one of the 19 September 11th terrorist hijackers had received temporary American tourist visas and had outmaneuvered the screening department. The gravity of the matter is also seen in the fact that the Canadian border which measures 4,855 km long, the Mexican border which measures 3,111 km long and the presence of other unsecured ports leave the US vulnerable. It is against this backdrop that, America created Homeland Security in 2002 while passing and ratifying other measures that would render the airports, seaports and land borders more secure. Methodology The data that has been used in the investigation is both qualitative and quantitative. The need to use quantitative data is underscored by the fact that terrorism and border security are phenomena that can be analyzed in numeric and non-quantified manner. The reality that underpins terrorism can be expressed in quantities and may include: the number of victims and the funds that have been used in launching terrorist onslaughts and counterterrorism activities. On the other hand, the non-quantifiable aspects of border security and the national threat of ter rorism may include; the ideological difference that bifurcates and sows discord between America and proponents if Islamist ideology and the value of human life which is too sacrosanct to allow quantification. On the other hand, this paper has factored the use of both primary and secondary data. Primary data involves information that has been compiled by authorities and responsible agencies, concerning terrorism. Conversely, secondary data, referring to data that has undergone analyses and interpretation have been used, in order to widen the scope of ideas and facts that define and characterize American border security and the threat of national security to terrorism. Literature Review Steinmetz1 observes that there are other experts and authorities such as Michael Chertoff (Homeland Security secretary) who see the issue of border security and the manner in which it can avert the threat of national security as a matter that must not go unabated. Chertoff, for instance, maintains that even with the measures that the US, through Homeland Security has put in place; there will always be attempts at evading the American border security by terrorists.

Custom Made Cranial Implants Dissertation Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

Custom Made Cranial Implants - Dissertation Example Other disadvantages of using autografting include donor site morbidity, tissue harvesting difficulties, and high chances of contagion to both the recipient and donor site. Moreover, such drawbacks include additional surgeries to ensure reabsorption of the graft and the availability of highly skilled surgeons to undertake the extensive procedure. Cranial injuries can be because of traumas, fractures, infections or degenerative diseases (Hallermann et al 10). Often, the bone layer remains expansively damaged to an extent that the tissues cannot regenerate and reintegrate to reinstate the patient’s appearance. This has thus prompted the use of cranial implants. Cranial implants are able to specifically adapt to the region of implantation, reduce the surgical time and reinstate the appearance of the patient. Scientists have developed preoperative techniques to enable the surgeons to plan effectively for the surgery and to prepare models for the cranial implants. Visualization techniques have remained greatly embraced to ensure that these preoperative measures are attained (Kozakiewicz et al 32). Computer-assisted design and computer-assisted manufacturing systems are the recent computational techniques that have made the visualization more effective (Kozakiewicz et al 34). Manufacture of the custom-made cranial implants can occur in a number of ways, for example, the use of 3D modeling, radiolucent or electron beam melting technology. They all aim at eliminating the constraints, which have been previously associated with cranial facial surgeries in the past years such as the internal structure, size, shape and mechanical properties of the patient (Schilickewei and Schilickewei et al 15). Cranial implants can be manufactured from a variety of alloplastic materials such as 2 titanium. The material used to make the implant determines its success and longevity of the surgery.

Raspberry Pi Foundation DDoS Attack

Raspberry Pi Foundation DDoS Attack E Crime The perfect ‘E Crime’ – The Raspberry Pi Foundation Assessment: The perfect ‘E Crime’ – The Raspberry Pi Foundation Table of Contents 1 Introduction 1.1 Aim 1.2 Methodology 1.3 Justification 2 What is E-Crime? 2.1 Types of E-Crime? 3 The Raspberry Pi Foundation 4 The Attack 5 DoS attacks 5.1 DDoS attacks 5.2 Botnets 5.3 Protocol Attack 5.4 SYN Flood 6 Tools 6.1 High orbit ion cannon 6.1.1 High Orbit Ion Cannon Capabilities 6.2 Apache Killer 7 Defending DDoS 7.1 DDoS Defence System 7.2 DDoS Defence System Benefits 8 Example of a DoS attack 8.1 DoSing a website 8.1.1 The Result 9 Possible Perpetrators 9.1 Threat Agents 9.2 Who are the perpetrators? 10 Conclusion 11 References Figure 1 DDoS Attack Figure 2 High Orbit Ion Cannon Figure 3 Apache Killer Figure 4 DDoS Defence System Figure 5 Command Prompt Figure 6 Low Orbit Ion Cannon ready Figure 7 Low Orbit Ion Cannon attacking Figure 8 Low Orbit Ion Cannon URL Figure 9 Result of a successful DoS on a website 1 Introduction In this report the information will be based around a case study of an e crime against a SME (small-medium enterprise) that has taken place during the past 10 years. The story that has been chosen is the Raspberry Pi Foundation that was hit by DDoS attack on the 7th march 2013. The report will then explain how a cyber-criminal might have conducted this particular crime and try to assess the method and processes they might have used, including the tools, both hardware and software. While discussing tools, the report will show an example of how the tools are used to commit the crimes used from the story. The report will also show how you can defend systems from the attack that was chosen. 1.1 Aim The aim of this report is to demonstrate an understanding of cyber-attacks that are used against small, medium enterprises, and the tools (software and hardware) they use to be able to carry out these attacks. 1.2 Methodology This report was compiled utilising secondary resources, including a variety of books obtained from the library, as well as internet sources such as websites and PDFs. 1.3 Justification E-Crime Wales have documented that a Denial of service attack is one of the most common types of E-crime. (E-Crime Wales, 2012) Denial of service attack was chosen because it’s one of the most common e-Crimes out there, it is also probably one of the easiest attacks to perform, the tools used for this type of are attack are freely available to find and download, easy to use and very powerful. The company chosen was a SME and the attack was done in the last ten years. 2 What is E-Crime? E-Crime is a criminal activity where a computer or computer network is the source, tool, target, or place of a crime. E-Crime is not necessarily just for computing purposes; E-Crime’s can also be crimes such as fraud, theft, blackmail, forgery and embezzlement. E-Crime is quite difficult to become aware of and also punish because of how difficult it is, and also because attackers are able to hack victims thousands of miles away. Due to E-Crime getting a lot bigger and technology is becoming more advanced, new threats are rising very quickly and are also quite difficult for companies and people to react to them. (E-Crime Wales, 2011) 2.1 Types of E-Crime? According to the UK Government, around 87% of small businesses were victims of a security incident in 2013 up 10% and the average cost of a companys worst incident was  £35,000  £65,000 (Gov, 2013) In Wales alone it is estimated that attacks from e-criminals cost the economy around one billion. This includes financial loss, interruption of business, theft of valuable data, identity theft and a lot more caused by unauthorized access to systems. (Prior, N, 2013) Types of E-Crime are as follows: Hardware Theft Identity Theft Phishing Pharming Malware Virus’s Cyber Terrorism 3 The Raspberry Pi Foundation The Raspberry Pi Foundation is charity that was founded in 2006 which is supported by the University of Cambridge Computer Laboratory and Broadcom. The charity is there to promote computer science in schools, and is the developer of the single board computer the Raspberry Pi. In 2011, the Raspberry Pi Foundation developed a single-board computer named the Raspberry Pi. The Foundations goal was to offer two versions, priced at around  £30. The Foundation started accepting orders for the higher priced model on 29 February 2012. (Raspberry,FAQ, 2009) 4 The Attack The main attack was the third attack of out of seven days. The foundation was attacked on the afternoon of the 3rd march, where the site was disrupted for about an hour. The foundation was then again attacked two days later on the 5th march, but nothing happened and the attackers gave up after a few hours, finally on the evening of 7th March 2013, the Raspberry Pi Foundation website was attacked by a nasty Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack. The servers where hit by a SYN flood, a botnet that contained around 1 million nodes. This caused the website to become very slow, especially the forum pages. The website was also down for a few hours. This attack proved to be the worst out of the three attempts. 5 DoS attacks DoS refers to â€Å"Denial of service† attack. A DoS attack is an attack that can make a web resource unavailable to its users by flooding the target URL with more requests than the server can handle. That means that regular traffic on the website will be either slowed down or completely interrupted. (Bull Guard, 2012) 5.1 DDoS attacks DDos refers to â€Å"distributed denial of service† attack. A Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack is a DoS attack that comes from more than one source at the same time. A DDoS attack is generated using thousands can be up to hundreds of thousands of zombie machines. The machines used in such attacks are known as â€Å"botnets† in this attack there were around one million nodes in the botnet. The botnets are normally infected with malicious software, so they can be remotely controlled by the attacker. Attackers usually create the denial-of-service by either consuming server bandwidth or impairing the server itself. Targets are normally web servers, DNS servers, application servers, routers, firewalls and Internet bandwidth. (Verisign, 2012) Figure 1 DDoS Attack 5.2 Botnets Criminals use bots to infect large numbers of computers. These computers form a network, or a botnet. Criminals use botnets to send out spam email messages, spread viruses, attack computers and servers, and commit other kinds of crime and fraud. If a computer becomes part of a botnet, then the computer might slow down and maybe unintentionally be helping criminals. (E-CrimeWales, 2011) 5.3 Protocol Attack The attack used against the raspberry pi foundation was a SYN flood from a botnet. This is called a protocol attack. Protocol attacks include attacks such as SYN floods, fragmented packet attacks ETC. These types of attacks target server resources, firewalls and load balancers, and is measured in Packets per second. 5.4 SYN Flood A SYN flood DDoS attack exploits a weakness in the TCP connection sequence which is known as the three way handshake, SYN requests to start a TCP connection with a host must be answered by a SYN-ACK response from that host, and then confirmed by an ACK (ACKnowledge) response from the requester. In a SYN flood attack, the requester sends multiple SYN requests, but sometimes it doesn’t respond to the host’s SYN-ACK response, or sends the SYN requests from a spoofed IP address. Either way, the host system continues to wait for acknowledgement, binding resources until no new connections can be made, and then resulting in a denial of service attack. (Incapsula, 2012) 6 Tools 6.1 High orbit ion cannon Figure 2 High Orbit Ion Cannon (Breeden, J, 2012) The High Orbit Ion Cannon is a tool used mainly by anonymous but also used by other hacktivists. The High Orbit Ion Cannon is an upgrade of the Low Orbit Ion Cannon, but it seems that the High Orbit Ion Cannon is mainly used to just DoS websites instead of servers, which you can do on the Low Orbit Ion Cannon. The High Orbit Ion Cannon is able to use custom scripts to target more than just a website’s home page. Instead of visiting the site from a fake user, the High Orbit Ion Cannon targets sub-pages. So the attackers try to visit the welcome page, help pages, article pages and anything else a victim site has to offer. This method prevents some firewalls from recognising that the website is being attacked. Even if they do detect what’s happening, they will have trouble shutting down because the software is sending multiple fake users to multiple pages within a domain. (Breeden, J, 2012) The High Orbit Ion Cannon is really not that powerful for single users if they want to attack a big organisation, Anonymous say at least 50 people need to attack a big organisation in order to take the website down. In this instance a single user could of used this type of tool to bring down the Raspberry Pi Foundation website for a few hours, mainly because the Foundation wouldn’t have (or very little) Anti DDoS software to have been able to stop the attack. (Breeden, J, 2012) 6.1.1 High Orbit Ion Cannon Capabilities High-speed multi-threaded HTTP Flooding Simultaneously flood up to multiple websites at once Scripted Boosters to handle DDoS counter measures and increase DoS output. Generating Multiple HTTP Header to create the genuine traffic flow scenario. (Avkash, K, 2012) 6.2 Apache Killer Figure 3 Apache Killer (Expert Hacker Home, 2012) Apache killer is a DDOS/DOS tool written in Perl which sends HTTP get requests with multiple byte ranges, these byte rangesoccupya wide variety of portions in the memory space. Byte Range helps browsers or downloading applications to download required parts of files. This helps reduce bandwidth usage. While the script sends dozens of unsorted components in the request header to cause the apacheserver to malfunction. (Rafayhackingarticles, 2012) If the attack is successful the results can be devastating and can end up in rendering the original operating system unusable only if the requests are sent parallel. (Hoffman, S, 2011). 7 Defending DDoS There are a number of ways to defend against DDoS attacks: Black-holing or sinkholing: This approach blocks all traffic and diverts it to a black hole, where it is discarded. The downside is that all traffic is discarded good and bad, packet-filtering and rate-limiting measures simply shut everything down, denying access to legitimate users. (ComputerWorld Inc, 2004) Routers and firewalls: Routers can be configured to stop simple ping attacks by filtering nonessential protocols and can also stop invalid IP addresses. However, routers are pretty much useless against a more sophisticated spoof attack and application-level attacks using valid IP addresses. Firewalls can shut down a specific flow associated with an attack, but like routers, they cant perform anti-spoofing. (ComputerWorld Inc, 2004) 7.1 DDoS Defence System Figure 4 DDoS Defence System (Coreo Network Security, 2012) The DDoS Defence System (DDS) prevents DDoS attacks from crippling firewalls, intrusion prevention systems (IPS), switches and targeted web and DNS servers. It stops all types of DDoS attacks and maintains full availability without effecting performance. DDS provides maximum protection for critical IT assets while allowing full access to legitimate users and applications. (Coreo Network Security, 2012) DDS detects and blocks all forms of DDoS attacks, including: Application layer Network layer flooding Specially crafted exploits Reflective Outbound attacks 7.2 DDoS Defence System Benefits Detects and mitigates both traditional network-layer DDoS attacks and more advanced application-layer attacks Protects your network, allowing legitimate communications to pass without delay provides automated real-time defence against identified DDoS attack sources 8 Example of a DoS attack The following attack was performed in a virtual environment using DoS and DDoS software. In the example the DoS tool that was used was the Low Orbit Ion Cannon and Windows server 2008. Figure 5 Command Prompt As you can see in figure 5, it shows a simple IPconfig command to show the IP address for the attack. Figure 6 Low Orbit Ion Cannon ready In Figure 6 you can see that the Low Orbit Ion Cannon is ready to set off. As you can see the Server 2008 IP address has been locked on ready for it to be DoS’ed. Just underneath the address you can see the speed of the attack, the faster it is the more requests that are sent to the server, underneath that it then shows the method, port, thread and timeout for the attack. Figure 7 Low Orbit Ion Cannon attacking As from figure 6 you can see all the things are the same and ready to go. After clicking â€Å"IMMA CHARGIN MAH LAZER† you can see the attack is working by looking at the bottom of Figure 7 where it is showing the number of requests being sent. That number was just after around one minute of the server being attacked, so the amount requested would be a lot higher after around five minutes time which would probably be enough time. The purpose of Dos’ing a server is so that it stops any requests to that server, it sends multiple fake requests to the server stopping anything else being connected to it. 8.1 DoSing a website Figure 8 Low Orbit Ion Cannon URL The Low Orbit Ion Cannon can also be used to DoS a website, by simply typing in the website you want to DoS in the URL tab, click lock on and then fire the cannon. The purpose of DoSing a website is by flooding the target URL with more requests than the server can handle causing the website to crash and to be temporarily unavailable. 8.1.1 The Result Figure 9 Result of a successful DoS on a website If a DoS/DDoS attack is successful on a website then this is normally what you’ll see when you try to access the website, the DoS attack has clearly crashed the website and caused it to offline. 9 Possible Perpetrators The Possible perpetrators could be a number of people or organised crime. Even though there is no evidence from the foundation on who was behind the attack or the location it came. 9.1 Threat Agents The possible threat agents that could have been behind this attack are as follows Employees Government agencies Hacktivists groups e.g. Anonymous Organised criminals 9.2 Who are the perpetrators? From conducting the research there is no evidence of who was behind the attack and where that attack had come from. Looking at the possible threat agents it’s very unlikely that the attack could of come from a government agency or a type of hacktivist group such as anonymous, Lulzsec etc, if the attack came from one of them two types of threat agents the attack could have been a lot more sophisticated and could have caused a lot more damage. The Raspberry Pi Foundation quote that the attacker was probably â€Å" an angry confused kid† which is easy to believe considering the attack was attempted multiple times throughout that week, but its possible that the attack may not be linked to the same person, it could also be the same attacker with help from others to make sure the attack was successful or it could have been another attacker. The foundation says that the attack was probably for financial gain but there is no comment of any data being stolen. 10 Conclusion Throughout the report it shows how frightening it is that any sorts of hacker or hacktivist group are willing to attack anyone. It’s scary to think that even charity websites are vulnerable to attacks. Looking at this attack the foundation is lucky that it wasn’t attacked by a bigger threat agent from a hacktivist group which could have caused a lot more damage. The report also shows how easy it is to get your hands on the tools that are commonly used, how easy they are to use and how powerful they actually are. The examples of the attacks show how powerful the tools can be, the Low Orbit Ion Cannon sends a high amount of requests to servers and websites in a short space of time. 11 References Raspberry, FAQ. (2009). About Us. Available: http://www.raspberrypi.org/about. Last accessed 19/03/2014. E-Crime Wales. (2011). What is e-Crime?. Available: http://www.ecrimewales.com/server.php?show=nav.8856. Last accessed 17/03/2014. Breeden, J. (2012). Hackers new firepower adds firepower to DDOS. Available: http://gcn.com/Articles/2012/10/24/Hackers-new-super-weapon-adds-firepower-to-DDOS.aspx?Page=2. Last accessed 18/03/2014. Expert, Hacker Home. (2012). Latest Methods of DDoS attacks. Available: http://experthackershome.blogspot.co.uk/2012/07/ddos-attacks-in-2012-latest-method-of.html. Last accessed 18/03/2013. E-Crime, Wales. (2011). Botnets Explained. Available: http://www.ecrimewales.com/server.php?show=nav.9390. Last accessed 26/03/2014. Coreo Network Security. (2012). How to stop DDoS Attacks. Available: http://www.corero.com/en/products_and_services/dds. Last accessed 27/03/2014. ComputerWorld Inc. (2004). How to defend against DDoS attacks. Available: http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/94014/How_to_defend_against_DDoS_attacks. Last accessed 27/03/2014. Bull Guard. (2012). What are DoS and DDoS attacks?. Available: http://www.bullguard.com/bullguard-security-center/internet-security/internet-threats/what-are-dos-and-ddos-attacks.aspx. Last accessed 20/03/2014. Verisign. (2012). What is a DDoS attacks?. Available: http://www.verisigninc.com/en_US/products-and-services/network-intelligence-availability/ddos/ddos-attack/index.xhtml. Last accessed 20/03/2014. Incapsula. (2012). DDoS Attack Types. Available: http://www.incapsula.com/ddos/ddos-attacks. Last accessed 20/03/2014. rafayhackingarticles. (2012). Apache Killer. Available: http://www.rafayhackingarticles.net/2011/08/zero-day-dos-vulnerability-in-apache.html. Last accessed 23/03/2014. Hoffman, S. (2011). Apache Killer Tool Exploits DoS Flaw. Available: http://www.crn.com/news/security/231600200/apache-killer-tool-exploits-dos-flaw.htm. Last accessed 23/03/2014. 1

john kerry :: essays research papers

Kerry's rivals wax optimistic Massachusetts senator goes for third weekend win Howard Dean braves the cold weather to speak to supporters outside of a caucus site in Bangor, Maine. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Story Tools -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- CNN ELECTION EXPRESS On the campaign trail: The latest Express Line dispatch VIDEO Kerry wins caucuses in Washington state and Michigan. PLAY VIDEO -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Kerry sharpens his attack on the Bush administration. PLAY VIDEO -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- GOP may target Kerry by labeling him a "Massachusetts liberal." PLAY VIDEO RELATED Gallery: Analyzing the results Gallery: On the campaign trail Gallery: The candidates, up closer -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- †¢ Kerry labels Bush 'extreme' †¢ Dean loses endorsement †¢ Edwards focuses on the South †¢ Analyzing Michigan, Washington †¢ Poll: Kerry has national appeal DEMOCRATIC CONTESTS †¢ Sunday, February 8: Maine caucuses †¢ Tuesday, February 10: Tennessee and Virginia primaries †¢Tuesday, February 17: Wisconsin primary When is your primary? For more key dates in the 2004 election season, see our special America Votes 2004 Election Calendar SPECIAL REPORT †¢ Complete February 3 results †¢ Upcoming Races: Washington, Michigan, Maine †¢ Delegate Scorecard †¢ Primary Explainer †¢ Special Report YOUR E-MAIL ALERTS America Votes 2004s Presidential Race Democratic candidates Presidential primaries or Create your own Manage alerts | What is this? BANGOR, Maine (CNN) -- Democrats across Maine braved frigid winds Sunday to have their say in presidential caucuses in which 24 delegates to the party's nominating convention are up for grabs. Front-runner Sen. John Kerry of neighboring Massachusetts entered the Maine contest with the momentum from two dominant first-place showings in Saturday's caucuses in Washington and Michigan. Kerry also has the endorsements of Maine's Democratic governor, John Baldacci, and former U.S. Sen. George Mitchell. A win in Maine would be his 10th victory in 12 primaries and caucuses. Former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean, struggling to revive his once-promising campaign, was the only candidate barnstorming the state Sunday, making stops in six cities, hoping his fellow New Englanders don't give him the cold shoulder. "Maine folks are just like Vermont people -- they're very independent. And that's a great place to start the turnaround," Dean said after greeting supporters in Bangor who braved sub-zero wind chill to cheer their candidate. Results from the caucuses were expected from party officials about 9 p.m. Dean finished second in both caucuses Saturday. He got 30 percent of the delegate support in Washington, his best showing in any of the nominating contests held so far. But he was nearly 20 points behind Kerry, and 35 points behind him in Michigan.

Racism as defined by mass media Essay

Oscar H. Gandy Jr. defines racism as, â€Å"the process of exercising power or seeking to exercise power with regard to people defined by identifying them as a member of a particular race.†1 Racism and race stem from the identity one puts onto certain groups of individuals based on their colour. The identity that one forms is acquired from a number of places including parents, religion, school, government and, on today’s youth, mainly mass media such as television and music. In this essay one will focus on the influence that mass media has on our identity position of race. It is obvious that all forms of print and electronic media, from news media to books, films, television, radio, and all other forms of media collectively represent our image of ourselves. 2 The focus for the purpose of this essay will be on news media, television and music, being the most influential forms of media, while focusing on the youth of today, being the easiest to influence. News media has great power in influencing how people identify themselves by how they are represented on the. The stereotypes that television has shown, are viewed by many young individuals of colour, and are portraying how their race is viewed upon among society. Music has the greatest influence on young African-Americans, which view their idols as those shown in music videos. Mass media in a collective form, although may represent individuals of colour, influence the viewers of colour, how they should distinguish themselves.3 Mass media reflects what we think we are and influences what we think we should be. Beginning with the news from a nation wide news station to a local newspaper or news program. News media has the ability to stereotype and categorize people of colour, by using words such as minority. Never are minorities not called minorities even when they take up one third of Canada’s population. Along with categorizing people of colour with the use of minority, they include words like crime, poverty and others that stereotype people of colour.4 This is viewed by young non-whites, which make them believe that this how things are and how they should be. The media now have the capability to alter our perceptions of ourselves, and change the way we live our lives. Young African-Americans, who view the news and see how their race is being represented, may possibly alter their perceptions of their lives and view themselves as criminals, when the news relates their race to criminal acts. The rarity of recognition a person of colour receives in the scholastic proceedings, is viewed among the youth of today. Of course there must be someone, somewhere of colour, â€Å"writing or saying something that should be listened to, or producing art that should be seen, heard, approached with intellectual seriousness.†5 This failure to recognize individuals of colour will influence youth not to pursue intellectual readings and to learn educational subjects, which are not represented by their race. In â€Å"Postmodern Blackness† by Bell Hooks, its states, â€Å"This discourse created the idea of the ‘primitive’ and promoted the notion of an ‘authentic’ experience, seeing as ‘natural’ those expressions of black life, which conformed to a pre-existing pattern or stereotype.†6 In the news when we see a person of colour committing a crime of some sort, we look at it as being a normal act and this how things are in our society. Whites and non-whites alike look upon the news and make assumptions about how they should act, what their values should be, and how they live their daily lives. The youth of today will be the first generation to come of age in a North America where racial minorities are the numeric majority. The future of diversity will depend upon a child’s perception on the position of racial identities. The youth of all races will have to expand their conception of race and race relations in ways their parents never knew. Is it important for children to see people of their own race on television? Children of colour are most likely to think so. Caucasian and African-American children can say they see characters of their race on television while Latino and Asian children are much less likely to see their race represented.7 It is the way they are represented which will affect the influence television will have on children. While some television stations do show diversification in their programming such as OMNI, they are not providing a realistic viewpoint. When a Caucasian character on television is poor, lazy and unintelligent, the show is considered to be comical, such as ‘The Simpson’s’ or ‘Married with Children’, and not taken as realistic. Whereas, when they are successful, rich and intellectual, the show is considered to be dramatic and viewed as being realistic. African-American characters are rarely presented as being poor, lazy and unintelligent, but always rich and successful, such as ‘The Cosby Show’ and ‘Fresh Prince of Bel-Air’, and are always meant to be comical, but never taken seriously or realistically. Shows like these influence African-American children that their race is not taken seriously and are viewed as being humorous. This would affect a young African-American’s thinking is a sense that he is suppose to be a comedian. Many television shows give minority actors, minority roles. Taxi drives in most sitcoms are always non-white, grocery store workers and gas station attendants are always non-white, in shows such as ‘Seinfeld’. Although these sitcoms are not suppose to be taken realistic, young individuals of all races are more likely to associate positive characteristics with Caucasian characters and negative characteristics with minority characters. Sitcoms and other television shows have the ability to alter these perceptions, but continue to stereotype minorities. Still focusing upon the children of today, because they have great faith in the media’s power and it’s potential to influence them. Media can teach children that people of their race are important.8 If television had shows, which evenly distributed the role of characters to all races featuring equality and diversification, they can accomplish sending a message of the importance of all races. Children look to the media for role models and imitate their favourite character. From the way they dress, talk, style their hair to following the messages sent by their characters. From the haircuts of the women on ‘Friends’ to the baggy fashions of the hip-hop scene, the influence of media on today’s children can be seen everywhere. Beyond superficial messages about style and appearance, children are getting more formative messages from the media. The characters they admire and the news stories they watch send both subtle and explicit signals about their values, their families and their race.9 This shows the importance of the messages being sent out by mass media and the importance of different characters and the characteristics they portray. Many African-American children will look to African-American characters for idols and will portray them. In â€Å"The New Cultural Politics of Difference,† Cornel West states, The widespread modern European denial of the intelligence, ability, beauty, and character of people of colour puts a tremendous burden on critics and artists of colour to ‘prove’ themselves in light of norms and models set by White elites whose own heritage devalued and dehumanized them. In short, in the court of criticism and art – or any matters regarding the life of the mind – people of colour are guilty (i.e., not expected to meet standards of intellectual achievement) until ‘proven’ innocent (i.e., acceptable to ‘us’).10 The image that people of colour are guilty until proven innocent illustrates to young individuals of all colours that because of this, people of colour are not as intellectual as Caucasians. In â€Å"Postmodern Blackness,† Bell Hooks states, It is no accident that â€Å"rap† has usurped the primary position of rhythm and blues music among young black folks as the most desired sound or that it began as a form of â€Å"testimony† for the underclass. It has enabled underclass black youth to develop a critical voice as a group of young black men told me, a â€Å"common literacy.† Rap projects a critical voice, explaining, demanding, urging.11 To all young African-Americans, this message is saying that their only voice, their only outlet, is through entertainment in the way of music. They are not enough African-American writers to allow them to consider an outlet that is scholarly. They feel they have to portray the image that is being sent to them through rappers and musicians alike to dress, talk, walk and act the way these rappers ‘say they do,’ in drinking, smoking and heading for drugs. Young African-American men that watch rap videos, sports, movies and may see many men of their race in this forms of media, but the image they represent is that if you cannot make it as a rapper, actor or athlete, you’ll never become wealthy and successful. Rarely are there images on news media about wealthy African-American businessmen unless it’s criminal; rarely are business shows on television shown where black businessmen are the portrayal of the show. They may be a rarity, but should not be and ought to be discussed in business matters. Looking at music for influences, from Stanford, Kathleen O’Toole puts in best, Music alters and intensifies their moods, furnishes much of their slang, dominates their conversations and provides the ambiance at their social gatherings. Music styles define the crowds and cliques they run in. Music personalities provide models for how they act and dress.12 This states that music alters our perception of ourselves and what we should be and how we should act. Our identity is affected and changed according to music videos. Rap videos show African-American singers as doing drinking, smoking, having naked women around them and treating them inappropriately and this is how African-American youth thinks they should act, instead musicians need to send an suitable message out to the youth of today. Also, other races will feel that this is how African-Americans act and will treat them accordingly. Many African-American rappers have lyrics, which are against authority and this influences others alike to perceive the same thoughts. Everyone of every race has an identity they’d like to call their own. But this identity is usually not their own and influenced by many sources, especially mass media. From music to television to news media, the influence these have on the children of today is immense. Music, television and news media, collectively with other mass medium, have the ability to alter one’s perceptions of oneself and the characteristics of others. Race has always been a touchy subject because of its sensitivity and although I am a person of colour, I may have made some stereotypical comments of both whites and non-whites, but I did so only with the intent of making my point. Mass media reflects what we think we are and influences what we think we should be.    Bibliography Colorado State University Cooperative Extension. â€Å"I’m Looking for Me: Children’s Perception of Race and Class in the Media.† Family Matters Newsletter. October 2002. (20 Nov. 2003). Gandy, Jr., Oscar H. â€Å"On Race and the Political Economy of Communication.† Art & Survival: An Internet Review. Issue 2, Volume 1. (23 Nov. 2003). Hall, Stuart. â€Å"Cultural Identity and Diaspora.† Colonial Discourse and Post-Colonial Theory. Patrick William & Laura Chrisman, eds., Pp. 392-403, (c) Columbia University, 1994. Hooks, Bell. â€Å"Postmodern Blackness.† Yearning: Race, Gender, and Cultural Politics, Pp. 23-31, (c) Between the Lines, 1990. Lauder, Matthew. â€Å"News Media Perpetuation of Racism in a Democratic Society.† Cancon: Articles. (21 Nov. 2003). O’Toole, Kathleen. â€Å"Rock & Roll: Does it Influence Teens’ Behavior?† Stanford Report [Online]. 1997. (20 Nov. 2003). Third Way Cafà ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½. â€Å"Children and Race in the Media.† Racism: The Public Face. Beyond the News. (21 Nov. 2003). West, Cornel. â€Å"The New Cultural Politics of Difference.† The Cultural Reader. 2nded. Simon during, ed., Pp. 256-267, (c) Routledge, 1999. 1 Gandy, Jr., Oscar H. â€Å"On Race and the Political Economy of Communication.† Art & Survival: An Internet Review. Issue 2, Volume 1. (23 Nov. 2003). 2 Third Way Cafà ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½. â€Å"Children and Race in the Media.† Racism: The Public Face. Beyond the News. (21 Nov. 2003). 3 Colorado State University Cooperative Extension. â€Å"I’m Looking for Me: Children’s Perception of Race and Class in the Media.† Family Matters Newsletter. October 2002. (20 Nov. 2003). 4 Lauder, Matthew. â€Å"News Media Perpetuation of Racism in a Democratic Society.† Cancon: Articles. (21 Nov. 2003). 5 Hooks, Bell. â€Å"Postmodern Blackness.† Yearning: Race, Gender, and Cultural Politics, Pp. 24, (c) Between the Lines, 1990. 6 Ibid. 26. 7 Colorado State University Cooperative Extension. â€Å"I’m Looking for Me: Children’s Perception of Race and Class in the Media.† Family Matters Newsletter. October 2002. (20 Nov. 2003). 8 Third Way Cafà ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½. 9 Ibid 10 West, Cornel. â€Å"The New Cultural Politics of Difference.† The Cultural Reader. 2nded. Simon during, ed., Pp. 256-267, (c) Routledge, 1999. 11 Hooks, Bell. 27. 12 O’Toole, Kathleen. â€Å"Rock & Roll: Does it Influence Teens’ Behavior?† Stanford Report [Online]. 1997. (20 Nov. 2003).

Problem Solving and Resourcefulness

RESOURCEFULNESS By: Edgardo Eleccion ( GCCNHS) For many times in our lives, we are often tested in our values and skill of being resourcefulness. Oftentimes, this is more considered as a skill than a value. A person with a gift of resourcefulness is far more advance than those who have none. Definitely, most of the successful individuals in the field of business, education, arts, medicine, politics, communication, religion and others possess the inherent or acquired skill of resourcefulness. However, what is really this skill of resourcefulness? Iannarino ( 2010) defines resourcefulness in his blog as the ability to find a way to achieve your goal or to make one. This is especially true when the goal is difficult to achieve and when little or no direction is given. Resourcefulness is the ability to think creatively, to generate ideas, and to identify alternatives. Resourcefulness is also imagination, the ability to visualize how something could be achieved when there is nothing there but the vision. According to Cindy Quarter eHow contributor, being a resourceful is the ability to approach a problem in different ways. It requires the ability to be creative and pursue a solution from one or more than direction. It is not built in ability but it is learned overtime from the variety of experiences. To be able to develop this into our children, they should be exposed to a situation that requires them to be resourceful and that will provide them the opportunity to succeed. Kids will self-confident and acquire problem solving skills as a result of engaging in activities that result resourcefulness. Games that requires resourcefulness help children to gain creativity and persistence in a fun in an entertaining way. Teachers in the secondary should help high school students develop their resourcefulness in them. They should expose these young minds into a worthwhile and engaging classroom activities everyday and make positive feedbacks after such activities in their everyday lessons for a day to day improvement to surface their individuals resourcefulness. This will prepare these youth into the next stages of their life ahead on how to deal problems along the way in different way around with less pressure. The role of teachers in the classroom is vital in nurturing the students’ skill necessary in building a kind of life intended for them in their future. This will not be seriously taken by the students at their younger years, but when the world dictates competition and pressure, there surfaces the skill they have learned in the classroom situation. Resourcefulness can not be learned in one day as Rome was not built in one day too. It needs constant learning, constant training and constant sacrifices. It needs several exposures into several competition, tasks and challenges along the way. The constant exposure that lead to experiencing a situation that emerge creativity will help a certain individuals to grow and become a better person ready to face the next layers of life’s challenge. In the world of work specially in business and education , resourcefulness is the crucial skill one must possess. A teacher with this skill has great advantage in terms of making his strategies in teaching and his materials a worthwhile and more fantastic to his learners. Moreover, it helps him prepare his teaching aids with less money involved. In the field of business, a manager having this skill can enter into competitive world and able to go beyond the expectation the corporation is aiming for. In real life situation, resourcefulness helps an individual in solving his own problem in different way in which others never ever think of. You may be in business, education, arts, communication, politics, and religion, resourcefulness is necessary in building up the new you. Edgardo Eleccion is a secondary teacher of Gingoog City Comprehensive National High School ( GCCNHS) Gingoog City, Philippines. He is a Values Education Teacher.