World War II Essays (3859 words) - Military Strategy, Modern History

World War II In the early morning hours of September 1, 1939, the German armies marched into Poland. On September 3 the British and French surprised Hitler by declaring war on Germany, but they had no plans for rendering active assistance to the Poles. The Battle of Britain In the summer of 1940, Hitler dominated Europe from the North Cape to the Pyrenees. His one remaining active enemy?Britain, under a new prime minister, Winston Churchill?vowed to continue fighting. Whether it could was questionable. The British army had left most of its weapons on the beaches at Dunkirk. Stalin was in no mood to challenge Hitler. The U.S., shocked by the fall of France, began the first peacetime conscription in its history and greatly increased its military budget, but public opinion, although sympathetic to Britain, was against getting into the war. The Germans hoped to subdue the British by starving them out. In June 1940 they undertook the Battle of the Atlantic, using submarine warfare to cut the British overseas lifelines. The Germans now had submarine bases in Norway and France. At the outset the Germans had only 28 submarines, but more were being built?enough to keep Britain in danger until the spring of 1943 and to carry on the battle for months thereafter. Invasion was the expeditious way to finish off Britain, but that meant crossing the English Channel; Hitler would not risk it unless the British air force could be neutralized first. As a result, the Battle of Britain was fought in the air, not on the beaches. In August 1940 the Germans launched daylight raids against ports and airfields and in September against inland cities. The objective was to draw out the British fighters and destroy them. The Germans failed to reckon with a new device, radar, which greatly increased the British fighters' effectiveness. Because their own losses were too high, the Germans had to switch to night bombing at the end of September. Between then and May 1941 they made 71 major raids on London and 56 on other cities, but the damage they wrought was too indiscriminate to be militarily decisive. On September 17, 1940, Hitler postponed the invasion indefinitely, thereby conceding defeat in the Battle of Britain. U.S. Aid to Britain The U.S. abandoned strict neutrality in the European war and approached a confrontation with Japan in Asia and the Pacific Ocean. U.S. and British conferences, begun in January 1941, determined a basic strategy for the event of a U.S. entry into the war, namely, that both would center their effort on Germany, leaving Japan, if need be, to be dealt with later. In March 1941 the U.S. Congress passed the Lend-Lease Act and appropriated an initial $7 billion to lend or lease weapons and other aid to any countries the president might designate. By this means the U.S. hoped to ensure victory over the Axis without involving its own troops. By late summer of 1941, however, the U.S. was in a state of undeclared war with Germany. In July, U.S. Marines were stationed in Iceland, which had been occupied by the British in May 1940, and thereafter the U.S. Navy took over the task of escorting convoys in the waters west of Iceland. In September President Franklin D. Roosevelt authorized ships on convoy duty to attack Axis war vessels. The German Invasion of the USSR The war's most massive encounter began on the morning of June 22, 1941, when slightly more than 3 million German troops invaded the USSR. Although German preparations had been visible for months and had been talked about openly among the diplomats in Moscow, the Soviet forces were taken by surprise. Stalin, his confidence in the country's military capability shaken by the Finnish war, had refused to allow any counteractivity for fear of provoking the Germans. Moreover, the Soviet military leadership had concluded that blitzkrieg, as it had been practiced in Poland and France, would not be possible on the scale of a Soviet-German war; both sides would therefore confine themselves for the first several weeks at least to sparring along the frontier. The Soviet army had 2.9 million troops on the western border and outnumbered the Germans by two to one in tanks and by two

Professional Communication Definition and Issues

Professional Communication Definition and Issues The term professional communication refers to the various forms of speaking, listening, writing, and responding carried out both in and beyond the workplace, whether in person or electronically. From meetings and presentations to memos and emails to marketing materials and annual reports, in business communication, its essential to take a professional, formal, civil tone to make the best impression on your audience, whether its members be your colleagues, supervisors, or customers. Author Anne Eisenberg illustrates it this way:  What is good professional communication? It is writing or speaking that is accurate, complete, and understandable to its audience- that tells the truth about the data directly and clearly. Doing this takes research, analysis of the audience, and the mastering of the three interrelated elements of organization, language, and design and illustration. (Writing Well for the Technical Professions. Harper Row, 1989) Even if youre comfortable with your coworkers, you should still take the extra time to make your emails among them professional, correct, and clear. Becoming too lazy or informal in them (with grammar, punctuation, and spelling, for example) can reflect poorly on you if a message would happen to be forwarded to higher levels of the company or to human resources. Always keep them cordial, and reread for potential misunderstandings before you hit send. Social Media Reflects on Your Brand With a bevy of social media avenues representing your (and your companys) public face, its critical that the communications presented there represent you well.   Author  Matt Krumrie elaborates:  For professionals, their brand shows through on their LinkedIn photo and profile. It shows through with your e-mail signature. It shows on Twitter by what you tweet and through your profile description. Any form of professional communication, whether it’s intended to or not, reflects your personal brand. If you attend a networking event, how you present yourself is how people perceive you and your brand. (Can a Personal Brand Coach Help My Career?  Star Tribune  [Minneapolis], May 19, 2014) Remember that whats sent in an email or posted on the Internet is very tough to completely delete, and if its been saved by someone (such as in a forward or retweet), its possible it wont ever completely go away. Have others review what you plan to post, not only for typos and factual errors but for potential cultural  insensitivity. Even be careful of what you post on your personal sites and pages, as they can come back to haunt you professionally, especially if you deal with the public or customers in your job- or someday will want a job that does.   Intercultural Communication One issue in todays global, interconnected economy is the potential for miscommunication when dealing with people of other cultures if employees are not sensitive to the norms of people that they have to interact with- and a company doesnt have to be dealing with people across the globe for this to apply. Even people from across the United States have different ways of communicating. Someone from the South or Midwest might find the bluntness of a New Yorker off-putting, for example. Intercultural communication is communication between and among individuals and groups across national and ethnic boundaries, notes authors  Jennifer Waldeck, Patricia Kearney, and Tim Plax. It can also come up in rural vs. urban or generational divides. They continue: Intercultural communication can become especially problematic for business communicators when they begin to believe that the way people in their dominant culture communicate is the only or best way, or when they fail to learn and appreciate the cultural norms of people they do business with. (Business and Professional Communication in a Digital Age. Wadsworth, 2013) Fortunately, companies have a wealth of resources available to them under the umbrella of sensitivity training. Working with a diverse set of colleagues can help everyone understand others perspectives. Tap into your colleagues to learn their points of view and prevent gaffes in your communications before they happen.

The Atomic Bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki

The Atomic Bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki Attempting to bring an earlier end to World War II, U.S. President Harry Truman made the fateful decision to drop a massive atomic bomb on the Japanese city of Hiroshima. On August 6, 1945, this atomic bomb, known as Little Boy, flattened the city, killing at least 70,000 people that day and tens of thousands more from radiation poisoning. While Japan  was still trying to comprehend this devastation, the United States dropped another atomic bomb. This bomb, nicknamed Fat Man, was dropped on the Japanese city of Nagasaki, killing an estimated 40,000 people immediately and another 20,000 to 40,000 in the months following the explosion. On August 15, 1945, Japanese Emperor Hirohito announced an unconditional surrender, ending World War II. The Enola Gay Heads to Hiroshima At 2:45 a.m. on Monday, August 6, 1945, a B-29 bomber  took off from Tinian, a North Pacific island in the Marianas, 1,500 miles south of Japan. The 12-man crew  was on board to make sure this secret mission went smoothly. Colonel Paul Tibbets, the pilot, nicknamed the B-29 the Enola Gay after his mother. Just before take-off, the planes nickname was painted on its side. The Enola Gay was a B-29 Superfortress  (aircraft 44-86292), part of the 509th Composite Group. In order to carry such a heavy load as an atomic bomb, the Enola Gay was modified: new propellers, stronger engines, and faster opening bomb bay doors. (Only 15 B-29s underwent this modification.) Even though it had been modified, the plane still had to use the full runway to gain the necessary speed, thus it did not lift off until very near the waters edge.1 The Enola Gay was escorted by two other bombers that carried cameras and a variety of measuring devices. Three other planes had left earlier in order to ascertain the weather conditions over the possible targets. The Atomic Bomb Known as Little Boy Is on Board On a hook in the ceiling of the plane, hung the ten-foot atomic bomb, Little Boy. Navy Captain William S. Parsons (Deak), chief of the Ordnance Division in the Manhattan Project, was the Enola Gays weaponeer. Since Parsons had been instrumental in the development of the bomb, he was now responsible for arming the bomb while in-flight. Approximately 15 minutes into the flight (3:00 a.m.), Parsons began to arm the atomic bomb; it took him 15 minutes. Parsons thought while arming Little Boy: I knew the Japs were in for it, but I felt no particular emotion about it.2 Little Boy was created using uranium-235, a radioactive isotope of uranium. This uranium-235 atomic bomb, a product of $2 billion of research, had never been tested. Nor had any atomic bomb yet been dropped from a plane. Some scientists and politicians pushed for not warning Japan of the bombing in order to save face in case the bomb malfunctioned. Clear Weather Over Hiroshima There had been four cities chosen as possible targets: Hiroshima, Kokura, Nagasaki, and Niigata (Kyoto was the first choice until it was removed from the list by Secretary of War Henry L. Stimson). The cities were chosen because they had been relatively untouched during the war. The Target Committee wanted the first bomb to be sufficiently spectacular for the importance of the weapon to be internationally recognized when publicity on it was released.3 On August 6, 1945, the first choice target, Hiroshima, was having clear weather. At 8:15 a.m. (local time), the Enola Gays door sprang open and dropped Little Boy. The bomb exploded 1,900 feet above the city and only missed the target, the Aioi Bridge, by approximately 800 feet. The Explosion at Hiroshima Staff Sergeant George Caron, the tail gunner, described what he saw: The mushroom cloud itself was a spectacular sight, a bubbling mass of purple-gray smoke and you could see it had a red core in it and everything was burning inside. . . . It looked like lava or molasses covering a whole city. . . .4 The cloud is estimated to have reached a height of 40,000 feet. Captain Robert Lewis, the co-pilot, stated, Where we had seen a clear city two minutes before, we could no longer see the city. We could see smoke and fires creeping up the sides of the mountains.5 Two-thirds of Hiroshima was destroyed. Within three miles of the explosion, 60,000 of the 90,000 buildings were demolished. Clay roof tiles had melted together. Shadows had imprinted on buildings and other hard surfaces. Metal and stone had melted. Unlike other bombing raids, the goal for this raid had not been a military installation but rather an entire city. The atomic bomb that exploded over Hiroshima killed civilian women and children in addition to soldiers. Hiroshimas population has been estimated at 350,000; approximately 70,000 died immediately from the explosion and another 70,000 died from radiation within five years. A survivor described the damage to people: The appearance of people was . . . well, they all had skin blackened by burns. . . . They had no hair because their hair was burned, and at a glance you couldnt tell whether you were looking at them from in front or in back. . . . They held their arms bent [forward] like this . . . and their skin - not only on their hands, but on their faces and bodies too - hung down. . . . If there had been only one or two such people . . . perhaps I would not have had such a strong impression. But wherever I walked I met these people. . . . Many of them died along the road - I can still picture them in my mind like walking ghosts. 6 The Atomic Bombing of Nagasaki While the people of Japan tried to comprehend the devastation in Hiroshima, the United States was preparing a second bombing mission. The second run was not delayed in order to give Japan  time to surrender but was waiting only for a sufficient amount of plutonium-239 for the atomic bomb. On August 9, 1945, only three days after the bombing of Hiroshima, another B-29, Bocks Car, left Tinian at 3:49 a.m. The first choice target for this bombing run had been Kokura. Since the haze over Kokura prevented the sighting of the bombing target, Bocks Car continued on to its second target. At 11:02 a.m., the atomic bomb, Fat Man, was dropped over Nagasaki. The atomic bomb exploded 1,650 feet above the city. Fujie Urata Matsumoto, a survivor, shares one scene: The pumpkin field in front of the house was blown clean. Nothing was left of the whole thick crop, except that in place of the pumpkins there was a womans head. I looked at the face to see if I knew her. It was a woman of about forty. She must have been from another part of town I had never seen her around here. A gold tooth gleamed in the wide-open mouth. A handful of singed hair hung down from the left temple over her cheek, dangling in her mouth. Her eyelids were drawn up, showing black holes where the eyes had been burned out. . . . She had probably looked square into the flash and gotten her eyeballs burned. Approximately 40 percent of Nagasaki was destroyed. Luckily for many civilians  living in Nagasaki,  though this atomic bomb was considered much stronger than the one exploded over Hiroshima, the terrain of Nagasaki prevented the bomb from doing as much damage. The decimation, however, was still great. With a population of 270,000, approximately 40,000 people died immediately and another 30,000 by the end of the year. I saw the atom bomb. I was four then. I remember the cicadas chirping. The atom bomb was the last thing that happened in the war and no more bad things have happened since then, but I dont have my Mummy any more. So even if it isnt bad any more, Im not happy.- Kayano Nagai, survivor 8 Sources Notes 1. Dan Kurzman,  Day of the Bomb: Countdown to Hiroshima  (New York: McGraw-Hill Book Company, 1986) 410.2. William S. Parsons as quoted in Ronald Takaki, Hiroshima:  Why America Dropped the Atomic Bomb  (New York: Little, Brown and Company, 1995) 43.3. Kurzman,  Day of the Bomb  394.4. George Caron as quoted in Takaki,  Hiroshima  44.5. Robert Lewis as quoted in Takaki,  Hiroshima  43.6. A survivor quoted in Robert Jay Lifton,  Death in Life: Survivors of Hiroshima  (New York: Random House, 1967) 27.7. Fujie Urata Matsumoto as quoted in Takashi  Nagai, We of Nagasaki: The Story of Survivors in an Atomic Wasteland  (New York: Duell, Sloan and Pearce, 1964) 42.8. Kayano Nagai as quoted in  Nagai, We of Nagasaki  6. Bibliography Hersey, John.  Hiroshima. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1985. Kurzman, Dan.  Day of the Bomb: Countdown to Hiroshima. New York: McGraw-Hill Book Company, 1986. Liebow, Averill A.  Encounter With Disaster: A Medical Diary of Hiroshima, 1945. New York: W. W. Norton Company, 1970. Lifton, Robert Jay.  Death in Life: Survivors of Hiroshima. New York: Random House, 1967. Nagai, Takashi.  We of Nagasaki: The Story of Survivors in an Atomic Wasteland. New York: Duell, Sloan and Pearce, 1964. Takaki, Ronald.  Hiroshima: Why America Dropped the Atomic Bomb. New York: Little, Brown and Company, 1995.

Differentiating Brands Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Differentiating Brands - Essay Example However, they are the ones trying to keep up with the large brand nowadays, and it is through different strategies that they aim to realize their lost glory. Some individuals may say that Google is at a place where losing its market to some of its competition is next to impossible (Scott, 2008). This paper will examine three of Google’s main competitors, and find out if any of the strategies being implemented can work to topple the giant. Google, with regards to its competition, may have a difficult time trying to maintain the top position in terms of market share. Microsoft, Yahoo, and Facebook, as the three top contenders for the number one spot, are bringing in new ideas, innovations, and attitude to the IT world. They are trying to be the best at what they do, and to be the best, one has to beat the best. This is what they aim at achieving. They are now offering various products and services to their brand users across the globe, and their reward is the growing number of c onsumers they can boast of in the past year. The competition from all corners may make Google sweat a little as they work hard to maintain the strong grip on the ever-expanding market (Duthel, 2008). Google’s main competitors Microsoft In the IT world, Microsoft can be likened to no other. At this point in time, it is fair to assume that Google’s main competition comes from this dominant force that has ruled the technological world since time immemorial. Google reigns as champion when it comes down search engines. Microsoft’s differentiation strategy when it comes to search engines has led to the creation of image searches, mapping, and the rising Bing. This leads to a discovery that the success of one company leads to the determination and rise of another. This means that, Google is paving the way for more innovation and more competition from the other forces present in the business market (Hill & Jones, 2012). Yahoo A series of changes is being made to this we b phenomenon. This search engine, over the years, has helped millions across the world to access some of the many things that need addressing. Presently, users can now perform searches while getting educated on how to get the relevant and much needed results. A lot of other innovations are coming up, for example; Flickr integration and embedded video are some of the different products Yahoo is hoping will gain them their foothold in the market (Hill & Jones, 2012). Facebook Google and Facebook have been known to complement each other when it comes to the business and IT side (Hill & Jones, 2012). In truth, Facebook has helped Google attract a large share of consumers over the past two years, and due to this, both companies are growing at a particularly rapid pace. During the launch of a feature that could assist individuals find places and each other, Facebook is likely to create a huge challenge to Google. People can do this while on the social network so everything may be done whi le people are still connecting. This is a major product launch, which may see Facebook’s consumer base increase. How Google integrates differentiation into its marketing communication vehicles In terms of Google’s communication vehicles, there are different channels which are being utilized. Being a giant in the IT world, Google has millions of pages that have some of the products and services they offer. During the day, a lot of people in various organizations and institutions use the internet to carry out their

Sound and Music in Films Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Sound and Music in Films - Research Paper Example Filmmaking has transcended a challenging and colorful artistic journey. The fast pace of technological advancement profoundly influenced the growth of filmmaking from its crude origins of silent and black and white films to the intricately three dimensional movies of contemporary times. Kay, Ghent, Chumney & Lutkins presented the history of sound in films and traced its origins before the 1920s when Thomas Edison was quoted to say in 1925 that â€Å""My plan was to synchronize the camera and the phonograph so as to record sounds when the pictures were made, and reproduce the two in harmony. . . We had the first of the so-called "talking pictures" in our laboratory thirty years ago" (Kay, et.al., n.d., par. Edison’s persistent intent to invent the kinetoscope, granted patent in 1897, paved the way for the introduction of sound in films. In this regard, this essay aims to proffer relevant issues and perspectives of sound and music in movies and films. The discourse would initia lly present significant events from the origins of sounds and music, together with the people who were instrumental in making the discoveries. Likewise, the role of sound and music in films would also be discussed before presenting the characteristics of these elements in contemporary filmmaking.

Design and Simulation of Automatic Load Tap Changer

Design and Simulation of Automatic Load Tap Changer   Introduction CE 3.1 This is the third project I did as a graduate Electrical Engineering while pursuing my Bachelor of Engineering in the field of Electrical Engineering from Balochistan University of Engineering and Technology, Balochistan, Pakistan. I wanted to conduct a project that would enable the transformer to attain different voltage levels using a load tap changing transformer and thus wanted to learn about different electrical/electronic components that would be needed and thus learn about its design and how to implement it. I was able to improve my written and oral presentation skills as well as my interpersonal skills by the successful completion of this project. Background CE 3.2 For my third project as an undergraduate in electrical engineering, I wanted to start working on a project during my second year. I wanted to learn about the different and commonly used electrical/electronic components, the working mechanism and the implementation in complex projects. This served as a motivation to conduct a project on Load Tap changers. I had studied during my bachelors that Transformer Load changers are an integral part to any power grid whether in big projects or small. I knew that there were the Mechanical Load tap changer and the Electronic Load Tap Changer. I wanted to design an automatic Electronic type Load tap changer to the problems with reliability and maintenance of the Mechanical type.Also, I learned that by using Thyristors to take the on-load current while the main contacts change over from one tap to the next, the design would have no moving parts and thus have a longer service life. And it is due to this reason that I selected the Design of Automatic Load Tap Changer for my project. CE 3.3 The objective of this project is to design and build a prototype of a fully electronic on load tap changer for power transformers by using Triacs as switching devices and microcontroller as the triggering circuit. CE 3.4 CE 3.5 I successfully completed this project by engaging in the following activities: I divided my project into Power circuitry and Control circuitry. I designed the power circuitry to basically consist of a tapping transformer connected to the load through the switching devices. I designed the Control circuitry to sense the voltage signal fed from the step down transformer and compare it to a pre-set reference value. I used a Triac which is a three terminal semiconductor for controlling the current in both directions. I used a Power Circuit, Microcontroller Unit, Analog To Digital Converter, Zero Crossing Detector, Multiplexer, LCD, Buzzer as the parts of the circuit I completed the project within the time frame specified by the university. I conducted detailed literature review on all the components used here. Personal Engineering Activity CE 3.6 I approached a professor with an idea of conducting a project with transformers. Along with my team mate, I had a lot of brainstorming sessions and review meetings with my project supervisor to select a suitable topic. I suggested that I work on a project that was concerned with designing and fabricating a system based on Automatic Electronic Load Tap Changer of a Transformer and the supervisor agreed to this and asked us to begin working on this by first conducting a literature review on all the components we would require and the working of this project and to start working on this project. CE 3.7 I first started with the design of the Power circuitry which consists of our main Tapping Transformer. The tapping is provided at 231V, 225V, 220V, 214V, 209V and 0V. Furthermore, I decided to incorporate BTA16 Triacs. I also decided to build a snubber circuit using 100ÃŽÂ © resistor and a 104pF capacitor. I decided to use the Triac instead of the SCR because a triac operates in the same way as the SCR however it operates in both forward and reverse directions. Also, I had to ensure the TRIAC will turn off correctly at the end of each half-cycle of the AC power. And due to this reason I used the snubber circuit to assist in the turning off and on. I used a MOC 3021 to assist with this. Circuitry Diagram The following are the components I used for this project: I used the AT80S8252 Microcontroller or the 89C52 which is a high performance CMOS 8bit microcomputer of sorts. ADC 0804 Analog to Digital Controller which feeds the input to the microcontroller. I used a step down transformer to provide samples to the ADC of the load.-   Zero Crossing Detector to provide the required pulses for the AND logic along with the multiplexer. A Multiplexer or Mux is a device that selects one of several analog or digital input signals and forwards the selected input into a single line.In my project, the Interlocking mechanism is achieved by using Multiplexer. Thus, at any instant of time, no two triacs would be in their ON STATE. This is particularly important and advantageous in case the logic of microcontroller fails. I used a Liquid Crystal Display (LCD) to display the output voltage that would be across the load side. I used an Optocoupler MOC 3021 to transfer signals between different elements of a circuit. CE 3.8 The following is the manner of the working of this project using a block diagram: The block diagram shows the basic strategy, as to how the Load Tap Changer will work automatically. I used TRIACs as the switching devices. I made sure that the The transformer has five tappings at the voltage level. Each of these tappings is connected to the one of the main terminals of the TIRAC. The second main terminals of all the five TRIACS have been shorted. So at any given time when any of the TRIAC has been switched on there is only one conducting path to the load. I used a step down transformer to step down the voltage level to instrumentation levels so that it can be used in the control circuitry. As the voltage increases or decreases depending on the nature of the load the voltage at the primary of the step down transformer varies, resulting in an equivalent variation at the secondary side. I then had to make sure that this sampled AC voltage is rectified to an almost smooth DC value. This DC voltage is then fed to the analog to digital converter, which gives a digital output that can be understood by the microcontroller. The ADC output is fed to the microcontroller which had been already programmed to compare this incoming value to a set of predefined values and send a high signal on one of its port bits. The output of the microcontroller is fed to a multiplexer. It is incorporated to ensure that at any given time, even if the logic fails there is only 1 conduction path to the load. I.e. only one TRIAC is switched on at any instance in time. I also used the zero crossing detector in order to detect the instance when the AC voltage crosses the zero amplitude mark. The output of this zero crossing detector is in the form a pulse generated every half cycle. I then fed the output of the zero crossing detector and the multiplexer to the AND logic as shown in the diagram. Each time the zero crossing detector gives an output, a pulse is generated at the output of the AND logic This output of the AND logic is basically our trigger signal for the switching devices i.e. the TRIACs however in order to isolate the control and high voltage circuitry and to implement DC triggering on the TRIACs operating at AC voltages the Optocouplers have been incorporated. So basically the Optocouplers are only there to provide isolation. CE 3.9 The following are simulation results I obtained: When input is 220v, the Triac on Tap 3 is on. When the input is 225v, the Triac on Tap 2 is on. Summary CE 3.10   Ã‚   I successfully completed the project titled Design and Simulation of Automatic Load Tap Changer along with my team mate. I learned how to build a circuit board and how all the different electrical components talk to each other in this project. I learned how important the Load Tap Changer is for any power grid and how useful it is over the Mechanical type Load type changer. By successfully completing this project, I was able to improve my written, oral and interpersonal skills.

A Journal of Woe Essay

The pain was excruciating as I struggled to fight for my life under the pillow that my beloved husband had forced upon me. I remember how much it hurts as I tried to gasp for air beneath Othello’s powerful arms. I can recall those murderous eyes driven mad by jealousy and hate. For an instant, I failed to recognize the man I have fought to love. I cannot recognize that man I secretly married despite my father’s objections. For a moment, I failed to see the man who promised to love me for the rest of our lives. It all started that fateful night when Othello fired Michael Cassio from his lieutenant position. He accused me of sleeping with Cassio. The jealousy was probably most triggered when he felt that I was being too concerned with Cassio’s situation. He must have thought that my acts in favor of Cassio’s defense were signs of affection for him. He accused me of giving Cassio the handkerchief which was a gift from him. There is no way I would have given such a valuable gift to someone else! My love and affection is undividedly offered for Othello. It does not seek other men aside from him. My fidelity to my marriage and to my husband is pure and untainted. How could he even dare think of me with such immorality! However, it was too late to defend myself further, for the fire in his eyes was already consumed with too much evil to pay any heed to my cries. Yet, before death consumed what was left of my body, the image of the man I love came before my eyes. I forgive him. He is a victim and not a murderer. I know in his heart that he loves me still, and once this madness brought about by his jealousy ends, he would repent and ask for forgiveness. Or, he might end his life as well to follow me, so he can make it up to me personally—and I will be waiting on the other side.