Response paper questions on Sacks, Oliver. An Anthropologist on Mars Essay

Response paper questions on Sacks, Oliver. An Anthropologist on Mars - Essay Example Sacks is able to experience the distress in his patients by working with them. Additionally, he suffers from prosopagnosia and is in a better position to understand what being deficient of a sense means. The stories examine discernments about oneself as well as those about the world. This response paper examines Sack’s method of investigation, the reasons Sack takes a unique investigative approach and how he discovers the individuals discussed in the essays. The paper will also analyze how disease affects the way individuals understand themselves and how reading these essay has enable me understand concepts such as normality and handicap. To come up with these stories, Dr. Sacks associates closely with the subjects in the stories. His insights are stimulating and provide an insight on neurological conditions and the manner in which the brain functions. He investigates the altered self-opening the mind of the reader to experiences and perceptions witnessed by people with disorders such as autism, blindness, amnesia, and Tourette’s syndrome among others. He views the ailments not as disorders but deviation from norm. However, he still manages to explore the distress and challenges faced by persons with these disorders. Instead of analyzing the various conditions and organizing them into chapters, he organizes the conditions into narrative essays. This is a different but interesting way to learn neurobiology. Sack follows his patients from their loss of sense though their distress to their liberation. He empathizes with the patients after their loss of sense and reveals to the reader the struggle that they go thr ough to cope with the deviations that result from the losses (Sacks 12-15). Sack makes use of literature references to support his arguments. His investigative style is captivating and the reader is able to experience the terror that comes with the neurological disorders. When he

Critically evaluate the external role and influence of relevant Essay

Critically evaluate the external role and influence of relevant International Governmental Organisations in processes of state a - Essay Example Of course, the will and commitment of the people of these states was the main force behind this transformation, the important role of international organisations cannot be ignored in nation-building and state-building in the region. Since their independence, the Baltic States have joined the United Nations, the Council of Europe, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe and a number of other international institutions. However, their membership in NATO and the European Union (EU) has been instrumental in the nation-building process of the Baltics. In this study, we will analyse the influence and role of mainly EU and NATO in the state-building and nation building process in the Baltic countries. Historical context Located in the geographical centre of Europe, the Baltic States had been for centuries an arena of confrontation between East and West, as well as between North and East† (Van Ham, 1995, p.10) . From the end of the 18th century, after these countries we re merged into the Russian empire, all the three lands were subjected to cultural and political suppression. The Tsarist Russia left no stone unturned to culturally and politically assimilate the Baltics into mainstream Russia. These states regained independence after the World War I, but only to lose it again to Soviet Union in 1940. Soviet leader Joseph Stalin reoccupied the Baltic countries in 1940 under the pretext of Molotov-Ribbentrop pact which provided room for Soviet influence in the region. After invading the three countries, he ruthlessly suppressed the nationalist feelings in the region and, following the path of the Tsarist Russian, he arbitrarily tried to assimilate the Baltics into mainstream Russia. However, as soon as Stalin died, the people of Baltics had set an example of rebellion for the rest of the USSR to follow. When the rest of Soviet Union was in peace in 1988, the people of these three countries were resisting the Soviet rule. Thousands of youths formed a human chain stretching the entire length of the three republics on August 24, 1989, on the 50th anniversary of Soviet rule. They were not far away from their independence. They eventually regained sovereignty in 1991 with the fall of Soviet Union. Three fragile new states However, it was not the end of their struggle. They were three fragile states with looming threats from their once superpower neighbour Russia. Without any state structure and a closed economy inherited from Soviet Union, the leadership and people of these states were in a state of paranoia, fearing for losing their sovereignty again. They had to go through the process of nation- and state-building in order to sustain their independence. Lack of strategic depth, open borders and their proximity to Russia and â€Å"limited economic resources to devote to developing viable military forces, especially since they have inherited little from the Soviet Army and were subject to a Western arms embargo until 1993† (V an Ham, 1995, p.4), put them in a vulnerable position as far as their security and viability was concerned. Domestic and global dynamics and policy options After independence, the decision makers in the Baltic States had to choose between a wide