Dual and Cooperative Federalism Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Dual and Cooperative Federalism - Essay Example The founders of federalism hoped to create a government system that is similar to a unitary system. However, the states were included in the system since they already had established government systems that were functional. Thus, the founders of the federalism granted the national government powers and reserve the remaining powers to the local or state governments. Moreover, these expressed powers given to the national government provide an avenue for expansion of the implied powers. Federalism further involves complex relationships among a number of states. For instance, in the United States of America, the constitution of United States of America requires the states to honor all the public acts and the decisions being made by the judiciary of other states. Moreover, federalism involves a number of limitations on the state authority, especially involving the relationships between the state governments. The local governments are not recognized in the federal constitution thus they are used by the states to perform or rather conduct normal activities of the government. Thus, federalism still remains the best governance system in United States of America. This is one of the US achievements as it transferred or rather created an effective constitution structure of the political institution. Hence, federalism and the entire separation of power in the national and state governments relieve other law enacting bodies off the burden of law implementation.

Poetry and Strong Human Spirit Essay Example for Free

Poetry and Strong Human Spirit Essay Success is the journey not the destination. â€Å"A strong human spirit essential for an imaginative journey. † Imaginative journeys take us from the reality now to unreal existences that can exist in our minds. A strong human spirit is essential for an imaginative journey to flow through our mind. The success is the journey that is being taken not the destination. This can be expressed through the poems â€Å"Frost at Midnight and Kubla Khan,† by Sammuel Taylor Coleridge and â€Å"Still I Rise† by Maya Angelou that see the journey as the success not the outcome and that their strong human spirit allowed them to go on the journey. In the poem â€Å"Still I Rise† by Maya Angelou the poet expresses her journey through being discriminated in America because of her race. Her journey is much more successful then the destination because as she went on the journey and experienced heartfelt times, along the way she taught the discriminators she can still get back up even if they hurt her many times. The poet uses repetition to do this. â€Å"Still I’ll Rise. She also uses similes to convey her connection with nature along this journey as she uses the concept of natural resources and by using oil, gold and diamond to show contradictions that people think she is wealthy but really they are the spoilt ones. â€Å"Cause I walk like I’ve got oil wells pumping in our living room. † She uses rhetorical questions to intensify the poem and to touch the responders. This portrays how she is successful in trying to express what she believes in to others while on the journey. In the poem â€Å"still I’ll rise† the poet has a strong human spirit that is essential for her journey. For her to write this poem as a form of protest it needed a strong human spirit. Her whole poem is based on freedom which is expressed every time she gets hurt and then rises again. Her use of metaphors empathise how strong her spirit is when she gets discriminated but still has hope to keep going. â€Å"Just like hopes springing high† and â€Å"you may shoot me with your words. † Her use of rhetorical questions and repetition allow people to think about it and understand it properly through her words and her strong spirit. â€Å"Does my sassiness upset you?  Why are you beset with gloom? † Her strong human spirit allowed her to achieve the freedom that she wanted. In the poem â€Å"Kubla Khan† by Samuel Taylor Coleridge the poet takes us through his mind on an imaginative journey. His journey had no destination at all but the success was there all along through his connection and love with nature. The poet uses a lot of alliteration to describe this place and assonance to describe how beautiful this image of nature is and how the success of the journey is created through the beauty of nature. Measureless to man† and â€Å"twice five miles of fertile ground. † The use of a simile describes the place as being old but still in good condition ‘Forests as ancient as hills’ and the river as being scary and holy. He does this through the use of an oxymoron as he puts two of these words together and they contradict â€Å"A savage place? As holy and enchanted†. This is the success of the journey as it is still alive but really old. He describes a women’s music with alliteration â€Å"A Damsel with a dulcimer† â€Å"Loud and Long† â€Å"Deep Delight. By including this he has achieved success all through the journey as he celebrates. In the poem â€Å"Kubla khan† by Samuel Taylor Coleridge a strong human spirit was essential for this imaginative journey. His use of assonance and alliteration to describe how beautiful the image of nature is and how the strong human spirit can take us on an imaginative journey. â€Å"Sunless Sea. † By the poet using his imagination he has made this place that feels like paradise with his strong spirit. He needed a strong human spirit to imagine a place that feels like paradise. All through the journey he describes his strong connections with the natural environment and because of his strong human spirit he was able to imagine the nature and environment using metaphors as extraordinary with the river springing up viciously to become a fountain. â€Å"As if this earth in fast thick pants were breathing. † The poem â€Å"Frost at midnight† by Samuel Taylor Coleridge his imaginative journey is the success not the destination. As the poet goes on this journey into his past and then he goes into another dream as well this expresses that imaginative journey is a success because his not reaching no destination. The poet begins with a metaphor which connects with nature and God, â€Å"The frost performs its secret ministry,† so the success of the journey has already started with the nature and God. This concept relates to the journey of the poet back into his childhood as he in the quiet cottage and looks at the film in the blue flame which fluttered on the grate is contrasted with him in the past looking at the bars at school to watch a fluttering stranger. This is the success of the start of his imaginative journey and that there is no destination. He then while sitting at school goes into another dream about his birth place and the church tower where the bell would ring so sweetly expresses the success of his journey when he was younger in the country side he was more connected to nature where in the city the only connection was the â€Å"lovely star and sky†. The poem â€Å"Frost at midnight† by Samuel Taylor Coleridge expresses a strong human spirit that is essential for an imaginative journey. The use of the simile â€Å"inaudible as dreams† which describes the quietness which gives him the strong human spirit to the imaginative journey. He also uses assonance to describe how the solitude or quietness his inmates have left him is disturbing him. â€Å"Have left me to solitude to suit abtruser musings†. The looking at the blue flame gave him the strong human spirit to begin his imaginative journey. The relationship between father and son is also giving the poet the strong human spirit because he doesn’t want his son to grow up like him in the city but to be raised in the country so his is more connected to nature.

The Orthodox Approach To Development Politics Essay

The Orthodox Approach To Development Politics Essay Poverty does not have one clear definition. It is a complicated, multi-faceted concept. For this essay the term poverty will be used to mean a lack of access to basic resources including food, clean water, sanitation, education and capital. The term absolute poverty signifies a population that is living below $1 (U.S) a day; therefore over 1.2 billion people on Earth are living in absolute poverty. Relative poverty is poverty within a country. Although New Zealand has a high human development, there are still people within the country who are relatively poor, compared with richer people in the country. These relatively poor people are not living in absolute poverty but can be considered poor and are therefore living in relative poverty. The orthodox approach to development sees poverty as a situation suffered by people who do not have the money to buy food and satisfy other basic material needs. The alternative view of development sees poverty as a situation suffered by people who are not able to meet their material and non-material needs through their own effort. This alternative places much more emphasis on community and non-material needs, like self-reliance and a sense of community. There are many causes and effects of poverty. The most obvious effect of poverty is hunger, however hunger can also be a cause of poverty. This is because hunger deprives those living in absolute poverty of the skill and strength to carry out productive work. The latest estimates suggest that about eight hundred and forty million people were undernourished between 1998 and 2000. Millions of people, including over six million children under the age of five, die each year as a result of hunger. One in seven children born in countries where hunger, and therefore poverty, is most common will die before reaching the age of five. Hunger affects mental and physical growth, causing undernourished smaller and slighter body frames, which in turn earn less in jobs involving physical labour, contributing to the overall poverty of a country and community. Voicelessness/powerlessness is a cause and effect of poverty because people living in absolute poverty often have no political power and are subjected to exploitation by the state. They lack protection, and report widespread corruption within state education and health care systems. Poor people in many countries speak of being kept waiting endlessly while the rich of the country go to the head of the queue. Situations like these create more problems for those already in absolute poverty, and continue to divide the rich from the poor without providing any help. The problem with a lack of voice and power as a cause of poverty is that it enforces a lack of voice and power as an effect of poverty, creating a continuous cycle that deliberately separates the poor of a country from the rich. The last major cause and effect of poverty that is covered in this essay is vulnerability. Natural disasters, economic crises, and conflict leave the poor very vulnerable, with nobody to help and a lack of resources to use to help themselves. This idea is best expressed through the story of a poor villager from Benin, in the World Development Report 2000/2001: Attacking Poverty. Three years ago was a very bad year. The flood washed away all our crops, and there was a lot of hunger around here, to the point that many people actually died of hunger. They must have been at least a dozen, mostly children and old people. Nobody could help them. Their relatives in the village had no food either; nobody had enough food for his own children, let alone the food for the children of his brother or cousin. And few had a richer relative somewhere else who could help. This is a perfect example of the vulnerability that is both a cause and effect of poverty. The relatively poor can become absolutel y poor through disasters, both economic and natural, and conflict, which causes more vulnerability that affects their ability to escape poverty. Poverty and conflict are often closely linked. In many developing countries there are huge contrasts in access to power and control of resources, leading to a sense of voicelessness/powerlessness within the poor of the country. This unfair distribution of wealth, power and often land creates conflict, as those with the advantage battle the disadvantaged in order to maintain their advantages. In El Salvador, during the 1980s, Oxfam worked to alleviate poverty and suffering intensified by years of armed conflict. The roots of this conflict lay in the unequal distribution of power, wealth and resources. Poverty causes, and is effected by, many different other global issues. A set of international development goals were created by the United Nations, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), the International Monetary Fund (IMF), and the World Bank, to address inequities in income, education, access to health care and the inequalities between men and women. In 2000 these goals were updated and the United Nations Millennium Declaration committed all countries to doing everything possible to eradicate poverty, promote human dignity and equality, and achieve peace, environmental sustainability, and democracy. At this time approximately 1.2 billion people were living on less than $1 (U.S) a day, with an additional 1.6 billion living on less that $2 (U.S) a day. The goal to reduce poverty was seen as an essential part of the way forward. It is crucial to understand why this is seen as a fundamental step and to do this one should look into some of the arguments aga inst helping the poor that philosophers and political theorists pose. The basic lifeboat ethics argument against helping the poor, argued by Garrett Hardin, states that the world is like a lifeboat. In a lifeboat there is a limit to how many people can be carried, and there is no fair way to choose from among those who need to come aboard. Therefore the only fair alternative is to let everyone who needs to come aboard drown. What Hardin is getting at is that we, the developed world, can not save every person, and therefore how can we fairly choose those that we do save and those that we do not. He argues that it would be much fairer to let everyone in absolute poverty die. Other arguments against helping the poor include Friedrich von Hayeks Game of Catalaxy. Hayeks theory stems from a liberal laissez-faire view of the global economy. He believed that the global market should characterized by a spontaneous order that happens when individuals pursue their own ends within a framework set by law and tradition. Hayek goes on to argue that his Game of Catalaxy is a game of skill and all players within the global market are different and therefore not all can win. The winners, he believed, won because they took certain chances and therefore deserved to win, while the losers deserved to lose. Therefore, according to Hayek, countries that have problems with absolute poverty have played the Game of Catalaxy and lost, and deserve to lose. Theoretically these countries will continue to play the game and if they take certain chances they may eventually win. This theory may work but meanwhile the problem of absolute poverty is affecting the rest of the world and therefore we cannot ignore it, or let the Game of Catalaxy sort it out. As Ambassador Jams head Marker, the Permanent Representative of Pakistan to the United Nations, says, We are all now in the same lifeboat. The continued health of the North [developed, rich countries] depends on the survival and sustainable development of the South [less developed, poorer countries]. Beyond this argument is a belief that food is a basic human right. If hunger is a cause and effect of poverty and food is a basic human right, then theoretically every country should be doing everything within their power to reduce poverty and create a well-nourished world. This argument is reflected in the Millennium Development Goals. The United Nations believes that food is a basic human right. On December 10, 1948, the General Assembly of the United Nations adopted and proclaimed the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. This declaration is the only human rights declaration with universal in its name, and most countries have agreed on it. It can therefore be argued as a legitimate international agreement on the rights of all human beings. Article 25 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights states that Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services. Therefore, since the declaration is argued to be a legitimate international agreement on the rights of humans, it can be argued that food, along with other basic necessities, are basic human rights. The orthodox approach to development is the view held by many international regimes like the World Bank and United Nations Development Program (UNDP). The basic concepts behind it are the ideas that the free-market system can create unlimited economic growth, that the Western liberal model and knowledge are superior to anything else, and the belief that the process of free-markets would benefit everyone. Theoretically economies would slowly take-off because of the free-market and from there on the wealth would work its way down to the people actually living in absolute poverty. To do this there would be a production of surplus, with individuals selling their lab our for money, as opposed to producing to meet their family and community needs. This orthodox method is known as the top-down liberal method and relies on external expert knowledge, technology, an expansion of privatization, and large capital investments. As already stated, the orthodox approach is based almost entirely on a monetary and material concept of poverty. In 2000: A Better World For All, the World Bank, United Nations (UN), International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) state that it is possible to cut poverty rates in half by 2015 if countries follow policies that both reduce social and gender inequalities and, most importantly, create income-earning opportunities for the poor. This is the key for, and a perfect example of, the orthodox approach to development. The UNDP Human Development Report 2003 states that there are six basic policies that should be implemented in order to help the countries reduce poverty. Firstly countries should invest early and ambitiously in basic education and health while fostering gender equality. These are preconditions to sustained economic growth. Second, countries should increase the productivity of small farmers in unfavorable environments [environments where hunger and famine are a problem]. Thirdly countries should improve basic infrastructu resto reduce the costs of doing business and overcome geographic barriers. The last three policies involve developing an industrial development policy, working on promoting democracy, and ensuring environmental sustainability. The World Bank concurs with these ideas, as does the World Trade Organization who state that poor people within a country generally gain from trade liberalization. The orthodox approach to development, portrayed by international regimes including the World Trade Organization, World Bank and United Nations involves liberalizing trade and creating empowerment in order to create faster economic growth, which in turn helps to alleviate poverty. This approach is both valid and sound, and has been proven to work in some countries, although not as quickly as the international regimes would like. As this approach is the dominant view, it is seen as more likely to work. However a number of development theorists have discovered problems within this dominant view. The idea that the free market can end hunger, if governments just get out of the way, is seen by some theorists as a myth. These theorists believe that the free-market-is-good/ government-is-bad view is far too simplistic and can never help address poverty and hunger. The top-down approach is seen as unlikely to work in most situations due to corrupt governments who will not let the wealth trickle down to those actually living in poverty. The theory of comparative advantage holds that nations should produce and export those goods and services in which they hold a comparative advantage and import those items that other nations could produce at a lower cost. The problem with this theory, which is also promoted by the World Bank, UN and IMF as a method for alleviating and reducing poverty, is that it falls apart when applied to the real world. Many countries living in absolute poverty can produce large amounts of coffee at a low cost to themselves, however since there are many producing, the price of coffee on the global market is forced downwards and these countries are producing more coffee for less money. These are just two examples of the kind of problems that make the orthodox method for development less viable. The alternative approach to development is argued by many NGOs like World Vision and the World Development Movement. The core concepts of this approach are the ideas that humans should learn to be self-reliant, that nature, cultural diversity and community-controlled commons (water, air, land, and forest) should be valued, and that democratic participation will help to reduce poverty. This approach relies on participation at the community level, working with local knowledge and technology to create a bottom-up approach to community development. It is a grassroots approach, focusing on helping individuals and communities become self-reliant. This approach is often argued by dependency theorists who believe that the structure of the global political economy essentially enslaves the less developed countries by making them dependent on the capitalist, liberal nations. The alternative approach to development is therefore seen by dependency theorists as one of the only ways to develop less developed countries. Much of the anti-globalist campaign is directed at organizations like the World Bank and IMF because their policies encourage less developed countries to become dependent on foreign aid and investment which continues the poverty and hunger within the less developed countries. Although the alternative approach to development also seems sound and viable, it lacks monetary value and places too much emphasis on the power of communities to change governments. Neither approach is perfect in its methods for the alleviation and reduction of poverty. I believe it is a combination of the orthodox and alternative approaches that really has the ability to help reduce poverty in todays world. The orthodox approach focuses too narrowly on money and capital, while the alternative approach believe too heavily in the power of communities to affect change at a national level. I therefore believe that international regimes, like the World Bank and United Nations, should attempt to affect changes at the state level, working to create democratic governments. Non-Governmental Organizations should continue to work at the grass roots level, affecting changes for the individuals and communities while helping them to become self-reliant. This approach is not without problems and cannot be called easy, but I believe it deals with both the individuals and the state at the levels needed and could help to halve the number of people living in poverty by 2015. Ther e are no perfect answers for development. Poverty is a complex issue. The key is that we do not ignore those living in poverty but help, in whatever way we believe is best. We are obliged to try our hardest to make circumstances better for them. http://www.vuwcu.orconhosting.net.nz/warp/poverty.htm

Anorexia :: essays research papers fc

Anorexia nervosa is an illness that can control the mind. Anorexia nervosa is an illness that usually occurs in teenage girls, but it can also occur in teenage boys as well as adult women and men. People with the disease anorexia are obsessed with being thin. They lose weight excessively and are terrified of gaining weight. They believe they are fat even though in reality they are not fat at all; in fact they are very thin. Anorexia is not just a problem with food or weight. It is an attempt to use food and weight to deal with emotional problems they have with in them.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Most people confuse anorexia nervosa with bulimia. People with anorexia starve themselves, avoid high calorie foods, and exercise constantly. People with bulimia eat huge amounts of food, but they throw up soon after eating, or take laxatives or diuretics to keep from gaining weight. People with bulimia do not usually lose as much weight as people with anorexia. Not to say that bulimia is not as harmful to a person as anorexia is, but anorexia is a disease that attacks the body and mind more than bulimia.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The reason that some people get anorexia is unknown. People with anorexia may believe that they would be happier and more successful if they were thin. They want everything in their lives to be perfect including being thin because that is what society portrays the successful to be. People who suffer from this disorder are usually good students. They usually are all involved in many school and community activities. They blame themselves if they do not get perfect grades, or if other things in life are not perfect.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Girls that suffer from anorexia usually stop having menstrual periods. People with anorexia also have dry skin and thinning hair on their heads. They may have a growth of fine hair all over their body. They may feel cold all the time, and they may get sick quit often. People with anorexia are often in a bad mood. They have a hard time concentrating and are always thinking about food. It is not true that anorexics are never hungry, actually they are always hungry. Feeling hunger gives them a feeling of control over their lives and their bodies. It makes them feel like they are good at something; they are good at losing weight. People with severe anorexia may be at risk of death from starvation.

ESPN: Portrayal of Sports on Television Essay -- Television Media TV

ESPN: Portrayal of Sports on Television Sports have played a big in role throughout the history of television. Without the television, sport fans would not be able to tune into NFL games on Sunday and Monday nights. They wouldn’t be able to sit at home and watch every basketball game played during March Madness. The television has given everybody around the world a chance to watch some of the biggest and best sporting events that have ever taken place. However, for a long amount of time there was no television show that was dedicated towards just sports. One would be able to find everything they wanted to know about sport statistics in magazines and newspapers but the public could not sit down on their couch and visually recap all of the major events that took place the last evening. ESPN changed how sports were portrayed on television forever. ESPN debuted to 1.4 million homes at 7 p.m. Sept. 7, 1979 and it was from this point that television and sports history was about to be made (Faye). ESPN gave all sports fans a chance to view sports all week long 24/7. Before the only thing that people could view was what the local news clips of games but ESPN dedicated every week to sports. ESPN was an instant hit for that very reason and kept growing throughout the years. Today ESPN has two networks ESPN and ESPN 2. Both of these are dedicate to sports attract many viewers. EPSN reaches 76.2 million homes while ESPN 2 reaches 65 million homes. ESPN is by far the biggest sporting network ever created on television (Faye). The show only started off with 70 employees and has now grown to 2100 employees (Faye). The show has an estimated worth 15.4 billion dollars and is continually growing each year (Shea). The show delivers 4,... ...und. With the atmosphere of sports being such a huge role in peoples lives ESPN gives the sport fans a chance to get sporting news 24 hours a day and 7 days a week. For many this is the best thing that has happened since the television first premiered. Without the invention of the television ESPN as the public knows it would never be how it is today. Without ESPN a name such as Dick Vitale would not be what it is today and we would be stuck watching the 3 minute clips of sporting events on the local news. This show, ESPN, has emerged into the sporting king of television. Works Cited Faye, John. "ESPN changed history of Sports." The Cincinnati Enquire. 5 September 1999. www.enquirer.com/editions/1999/09/05/spt_espn_changed_history.html Shea, Jim. "The King: How ESPN Changes Everything." Columbia Journalism Review. Jan/Feb 2000. www.cjr.org/year/00/1/king.asp

“Fifth Business” by Robertson Davis Essay

Paul Dempster was born on December 28, 1908 to Amasa and Mary Dempster. He was suspected to be premature by about 80 days, but that was an estimate made by Dr. McCausland. Paul was described as â€Å"Red, of course, as all babies are red. But he was wrinkled like a tiny old man, and his head and back and much of his face was covered with weedy long black hair†(page 13), and â€Å"his cry was like the mew of a kitten†(page13). Dunny’s mother was pleased with the progress he was making, â€Å"I think little Paul is going to pull through. He’ll be slow, the doctor says, but he’ll be alright†(page 17), but Dr. McCausland was very wrong. Though Paul could neither read or write when he got older, he was very interested in the tricks that Dunny would show him â€Å"taking the coin from me and preforming the pass perfectly†(page 33). Paul’s home life was not one of the best. His mother was, what the town referred to as, simple and his father blamed her condition on his birth. He was also tormented by the other children in the town because of an incident in the gravel pit involving his mother and a tramp. This took a mental tole on him and shortly after the death of his father Paul ran away and joined the circus. Though his experience in the circus made him into Magnus Eisengrim, â€Å"The Great Magician†, he was still unable to free himself from his past. Paul also had much hostility towards Percy, the boy who was also a contributing factor in his premature birth. Paul was blamed by his father for the mental state of his mother but Paul found out as a child from Dunny that it was not his fault, but the fault of himself and his friend Percy. This hostility resulted in the mysterious murder of Percy and though it was never said that Magnus actually committed this act of violence it was pretty clear to the reader that the coincidence was to staggering to be anyone else. Though Paul does not play the role of that main character in The Fifth Business he does play an important role in the life of the character in which the novel revolves around. His is life alone gives meaning to the whole novel and defines Dunny. His birth and his legend are far from what would be expected of a Parsons son, but he lived his life the way he wanted and made the most of a talent with magic and congering.

Supercontinent

This paper will probe the theory that the continents of the Earth were originally a single supercontinent. It will describe the reasoning behind the theory, review the evidence that supposedly supports it, and present the reasoning for its rejection. It will also present an alternative view. It will explain the use of fossil records to link pieces of history, and why they may be one of the more significant methods used. The paper proposes that the theory of the supercontinent and the study of fossil records lack a confident conclusion to the geological history of the Earth and its present state, meriting the consideration of an alternative view. In 1912, a German meteorologist submitted the idea of the continental drift. His name was Alfred Wegener, and although he was not the first to explore this theory, his pursuit of the idea held more determination than any other did. 1 Wegener believed that the continents originally were attached in a single supercontinent he called Pangaea (â€Å"all land† or â€Å"all earth†). He also believed that the continent, surrounded by one global ocean, then broke apart and drifted to separate places on Earth. He reasoned that the process repeated itself over a period of time. A complete cycle from beginning to end could take approximately 300-600 million years. To support his theory, Wegener provided evidence, such as how the shapes of the continents appear to fit together like the pieces of a puzzle. He is also noted how mountain ranges continued between continents, and appear to link them together. Wegener also submitted evidence that fossils and rock matter found on different continents were very similar to each other. Most interestingly, were the instances in which plant and animal fossils were found on the coastlines of South America and Africa (If looking at a world map, it can be said that Africa‘s west coast and South America‘s east coast seem to fit together). To Wegner, this was the most compelling evidence that the two continents once were one. 2 Although all of Wegner’s evidence seemed to coincide, his theory lacked a crucial point: a valid explanation of what pushed the continents apart. Wegener reasoned that the continents plowed through the ocean floor. His peers immediately rejected this idea. Studies conducted years later aided in the development of the concept of plate tectonics, as well as the subsequent confirmation of continental-drift theory. As previously mentioned, fossil records were among the evidence used to support the continental-drift theory. They provide some evidence of when and how life began, what types of organisms existed and how long they lived. Fossils also tell what the climate was and how it changed, as well as provide clues to the Earth’s tectonic evolvement. With the study of fossil records, it is conceivable that when the continents separated and rejoined, that animals once known to one specific region, now traveled in and about the other continents. 3 The shifting of the continents caused climatic changes that influenced this migration; however, climatic change was not the sole reason. Animal migration is indicative of the fact that animals were adapting to their surroundings (the availability of food, water, etc. in a specific area). Fossils have had great historical influence. Much of what we know about history has come from the study of fossils. The idea of plate tectonics was significantly aided by the notion that fossils now found widely spaced across the globe had to exist on the same original landmass that subsequently split apart. The African fossil record is arguably the most significant source of evolutionary history. Its fragmented components may be scattered throughout the continent, but considerably an integral part of piecing together history. Even with its supporting evidence, there are notable flaws in the idea of the continental drift. The theory states that all continents were once part of a single supercontinent, but does not explain how the supercontinent itself formed. The Creationist view offers an answer. By account of the Bible, the creation of the supercontinent and the subsequent shifting of the continents are explained in Genesis: In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth†¦God said, â€Å"Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters. Thus, God made the firmament, and divided the waters that were under the firmament from the waters that were above the firmament; and it was so. And God called the firmament Heaven†¦Then God said, â€Å"Let the waters under the heavens be gathered together into one place, and let the dry land appear†; and it was so†¦. This is the history of the heavens and the earth when they were created†¦4 Genesis also tells us that God caused it to rain on the earth for forty days and nights. This event is recorded as the Great Flood. Arguably, the division of the firmament, in addition to the effects of the flood, caused the shifting of the continents. The Bible also states that during the flood God destroyed both man and cattle from the earth. Those on the ark were the only survivors. Therefore, it is reasonable to believe that those human and animal remains would later be discovered fossilized deep within the earth. The continental-drift theory reasons that all continents formed from a single supercontinent. The use of fossil records has been used to support this theory. Initially rejected, other studies reportedly confirm the theory. However, upon closer inspection the theory raises more questions than answers. One is the question of the supercontinent itself. The theory tells us that subcontinents formed by the breaking apart of one supercontinent, but does not elaborate on how the supercontinent formed. Creationist suggests a different view. The idea of biblical creation tells us that God created the earth and then caused it to break and shift apart. Endnotes 1. John Reader, Africa: A biography of the Continent (New York: Vintage Books, 1999), 21. 2. NASA. â€Å"Evidence supporting Continental Drift†, 2003. http://kids. earth. nasa. gov/archive/pangaea/evidence. html. 3. Reader, 39. 4. The Holy Bible: New King James Version (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, Inc. , 1984), Genesis 1:1, 6-9, 2:4. Bibliography Answers. com. â€Å"Plate tectonics: definition and much more from answers. comâ€Å", 2008. ttp://answers. com/topic/plate-tectonic (accessed 8/4/2008). John Reader, Africa: A biography of the Continent (New York: Vintage Books, 1999). NASA. â€Å"Evidence supporting Continental Drift† Sharron Sample, 2003. http://kids. earth. nasa. gov/archive/pangaea/evidence. html. The Holy Bible: New King James Version (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, Inc. , 1984). Wikipedia. â€Å"Superc ontinent cycle† 2008. http://en. wikipedia. org/wiki/supercontinent_cycle Wisegeek. â€Å"What is the supercontinent cycle? † http://www. wisegeek. com/what-is-the-supercontinent-cycle. htm (accessed 8/4/2008)