Themes in Kafkas Essay Example for Free

Themes in Kafkas Essay Themes in Frank Kafkas â€Å"Metamorphosis† Franz Kafkas â€Å"Metamorphosis† is a story about a man who awakes one morning to find himself transformed into a giant bug. This metamorphosis causes a clash between the main character Gregor Samsa and his family which in turn creates major changes in all characters. Kafka utilizes many themes in the story including change, isolation, power and money. These themes aid in making the story vague, while retaining a sense of lucidity. One main theme in the story is change. Gregor Samsas reality changes only mildly, despite his radical physical transformation. Prior to his mutation, Gregor’s life was consumed with his work as a traveling salesman in addition to taking care of his family. A boring life, dominated by providing for his family, much like a bug provides for his nest or hive. He describes his life as the plague of traveling: the anxieties of changing trains, the irregular, inferior meals, the ever changing faces, never to be seen again, people with whom one has no chance to be friendly (Kafka 13). The real metamorphosis occurs when he realizes his present situation, and his role in his household. Gregor does not change into a bug; he simply recognizes that he has been one for quite some time. This sudden epiphany could certainly send him into a shock that causes a mental sickness, eventually leading to his death. From the very beginning the setting creates an atmosphere of isolation, a major theme in the story. â€Å"Gregor’s room is at the center of the Samsa family’s apartment, with one wall facing the outside, the opposite wall bordering on the living room, and the two side walls shared with the bedroom of Gregor’s parents and his sister respectively. Each of these walls has an egress onto the world: the outside wall has a window, and the other walls have doors leading to the adjacent rooms. These doors, however – and in particular the double-door that opens into the living room – are not simple entranceways into the communal realm of the family; rather, they symbolize precisely that contradictory complex of merger with and separation from the family that each section of the narrative enacts. These doors function not only as passageways but also as barriers – indeed, ultimately they are impenetrable barriers. (Gray 286) After his transformation, Gregor is completely isolated. He realizes that it’s not much different than his life previous life, as the job to which he has been so dedicated, shows their disloyalty to him. â€Å"Moreover, it turns out that Gregor works for a firm that does not trust its employees at all: because he is late this one day, the chief clerk shows up to check on him and begins hinting that he is suspected of embezzling funds and may very well be fired† (Smith 193). His family alienates him as well. Grete, his younger sister, is the only one who helps him. She was scared but managed to put her apprehensions aside, even getting angry with others for trying to help. After her acceptance as role of caretaker, the other members of Gregors family do not associate with him. No one attempted to understand him, no one, not even his sister, imagined that she could understand him(Kafka 45). As an insect, he can still hear, however, so he knows what others want, but they cannot know what he wants. This seems an apt situation for Gregor to end up in, because his life even before his transformation seems to have been one of catering to others’ needs while suppressing his own. Before long, Gregor settles on the fact that throughout his metamorphosis he has neither lost nor gained anything. Even his unsettling dreams the morning of his mutation symbolize a troubled life before his metamorphosis. He is expressing his feelings of a lack of fulfillment and it shows a layer of him otherwise hidden. The actual metamorphosis symbolizes a rebellion assertion of unconscious desires and energies (Eggenschwiler 203). His mother and father treat him as a monster, instead of their son who is in need of help and support, just like they neglected their parental roles before his transformation, allowing him to take on all of their responsibilities. Although in some ways the transformation reinforces Gregor’s alienation from the world, in other ways becoming an insect is a way for him to escape his unhappy life. No longer will he have to work at his burdensome job, or care for his family who do not return the same care or respect. Gregor is not the only one to go through a drastic change in the story. His mother, sister and father also transform in ways not easily defined by outward appearance. This leads to the second major theme of the book, power. Power is both gained and surrendered by all members of the Samsa family at different points in the story. Before his transformation, Gregor holds the power as the man of the house. He earns the money to pay rent, provide food, and dig his family out of the overwhelming debt his mother and father have gotten into. After his transformation, Gregor loses this authority, basically imprisoned in his room, unable to attend to the responsibilities he once had. Gregor’s humanity, to the extent that his parents and sister acknowledge it, is inextricably tied to his function as economic provider† (Bloom 60). His father, however, gains power as he takes on the role as head of household. He is consumed by the family’s financial burden from the first day after Gregor’s mutation. He now finds the strength to find employme nt, something he was too ill to do while Gregor provided for the family. Interestingly, he can only regain his power after Gregor himself, the self-sacrificing, downtrodden one, is dead. This suggests that the presence of a self-sacrificing person drains those around him. Gregor sees his father after some time has passed since his transformation and asks, â€Å"Was this the same man who in the old days used to lie wearily buried in bed when Gregor left on a business trip; who greeted him on his return in the evening, sitting in his bathrobe in the armchair, who actually had difficulty getting to his feet† (Kafka 36)? Although Gregor has the most obvious transformation, it seems Grete, his younger sister, changes the most throughout the story, many of these changes involving her own power and standing in the family. At first she takes on the role as his caretaker, bringing him food, cleaning his room and trying to make him as comfortable as possible in his room. She is his only tie to his family and really his only link to humanity. She gains the consideration of her parents, who once considered her quite useless. â€Å"Often he heard them say how much they appreciated his sister’s work, whereas until now they had frequently been annoyed with her† (Kafka 29). She however takes on her own transformation, from girl to woman. With this change, her pity for Gregor diminishes. When at first she had helped Gregor out of kindness, eventually she comes to regard the job as a chore. She doesn’t always enjoy it, but it serves to define her position in the family, and she becomes territorial about this power she has gained, not wanting her mother to be involved. As she matures and takes on more adult responsibilities, most notably getting a job to help provide for her family financially, her commitment to Gregor diminishes. Grete tells her parents, â€Å"We must try to get rid of it† (Kafka 49). Eventually she comes to resent the burden of what Gregor has become and it s Grete who decides they must get rid of â€Å"it†. While not as prominent as the other themes, but in correlation with power, the theme of money weaves a path through the story. Gregor is enslaved to his family because he is the only one who makes money. With the exception of his sister, the family seems to treat him not as a son, but as a source of income. When Gregor is no longer able to work after his metamorphosis, he is treated with revulsion and neglect. Once the family begins working, they also find difficulty communicating with each other, eating dinner in silence and fighting amongst themselves. The exhaustion brought on by dehumanizing jobs and the recognition that people are only valuable so long as they earn a salary keeps them isolated from one another and unable to create real connections. This story has limited depth if the reader only takes it for its literal meaning and fails to read between the lines to discover the themes included. The reader must delve deeper into the story in order to understand it completely. Kafka kept this story compelling with the inclusion of these themes and other symbolism.

The Sick Role and Application in the Nursing Practice :: Nursing Essays

Introduction The processes of life were being born, growing old, having illness, and death. In our life, we suffered from different sickness. It was a good reason for the absent from school, work or other daily working activities. However, in the view of a sociologist, the people who were in the sick role, they were regarded as having committed a crime and it was treated as deviant behavior (Peter & Meredith, 1998). In the structural functional model, people took various tasks and role in society or in different institutions. These were dependable with the structures and norms of the society. Did sickness have any effective elements in society? This paper would describe the concept of sick role and the application in the nursing practice (Parson, 1979). Concept of sick role Talcott Parsons (1902 – 1979) was a famous American sociologist and a structural functionalist. He developed a general theoretical system for analyzing the society. In his theoretical system, people hold their status and perform their role in the society, which was called social role. In his concept, the social roles were expected behaviors (including rights and obligations) of everyone with a given position in society (Diligio, 2005). This kind of social role maintained the structural and functional status of the society. I used Mr. Lee as an example to illustrate about the social roles. Mr. Lee was a registered nurse. He lived with his wife and his daughter. According to the Parsons’s theoretical system, Mr. Lee has three social roles. At hospital, he took a role as a nurse. He cared his patients. At home, he took a role as husband to his wife and a role as father to his daughter. The sick role was first defined by Talcott Parsons (1951) in his seminal work which was describing a set of behaviors. These behaviors were associated with people who became acutely ill. As described by Parsons, the sick role was a process in which an individual experiences a change in role identity or role expectations. As a result, people were suffered from the illness. Base of the Parsons, there were some components in the sick role. Firstly, the illness was involuntary. Secondly, residents of the sick role were exempted from their usual work; family, civic and permits to be â€Å"take care of† by health care professionals and others.

History of Coffee Essay

Coffee is one of the world’s most poplar beverages. Some claim it is the most widely consumed liquid in the world aside from water. Coffee is more than a beverage , however. It is a memory , anticipation, a lifetime of consoling moments of modest pleasure woven into our lives. Coffee’s success as a beverage undoubtedly owes both to the caffeine it harbors and to its sensory pleasure. Coffee lovers come to associate the energizing lift of the caffeine with richness and aroma of the beverage that delivers it. Coffee is grown in more than 50 countries around the world and the principal commercial crop of over a dozen countries, half of which earns 25% to 50% of their foreign exchange revenue from coffee exports. More than 10 billion pounds of coffee beans are grown per year, providing more than 20 million jobs. Coffee is indigenous to Ethiopia and was most likely discovered as a food before it became a drink. The most popular legend of how coffee was discovered involves an Abyssinian goat herder named kaldi. Kaldi awoke one night to find his goats dancing around a tree speckled with red cherries. When he tasted one of the cherries, he too started dancing with the goats. As interesting as this story may be it is more likely that coffee was used as a food supplement by wandering Ethiopian tribes-men. The tribes-men are said to have squashed the coffee cherries and carried them on long journeys, eating them for nourishment as needed. Later, the coffee cherries were soaked in water, possibly to make wine, but some historians say it was not until 1000 AD, when the Arabs discovered how to boil, that coffee was serve hot. Coffee was also believed to have medicinal properties. Avicenna, an Islamic physician and philosopher of the eleventh century, said of coffee: â€Å"It fortifies the members, it cleans the skin and dries up the humilities that are under it, and gives an excellent smell to all the body† CHAPTER – 1 HISTORY OF COFFEE HISTORY OF COFFEE [pic] Palestinian women grinding coffee the old fashioned way, 1905 The history of coffee goes at least as far back as the fifteenth century, though coffee’s origins remain unclear. It had been believed that Ethiopian ancestors of today’s Oromo people were the first to have discovered and recognized the energizing effect of the coffee bean plant. However, no direct evidence has been found indicating where in Africa coffee grew or who among the natives might have used it as a stimulant or even known about it, earlier than the 17th century. The story of Kaldi, the 9th-century Ethiopian goatherd who discovered coffee, did not appear in writing until 1671 and is probably apocryphal. From Ethiopia, coffee was said to have spread to Egypt and Yemen. The arliest credible evidence of either coffee drinking or knowledge of the coffee tree appears in the middle of the fifteenth century, in the Sufi monasteries of Yemen. It was here in Arabia that coffee beans were first roasted and brewed, in a similar way to how it is now prepared. By the 16th century, it had reached the rest of the Middle East, Persia, Turkey, and northern Africa. Coffee then spread to Italy, and to the rest of Europe, to Indonesia, and tothe Americas. Origins Etymology: The word â€Å"coffee† entered English in 1598 via Dutch koffie. This word was created via Turkish kahve, the Turkish pronunciation Arabic qahwa, a truncation of qahhwat al-bun or wine of the bean. One possible origin of the name is the Kingdom of Kaffa in Ethiopia, where the coffee plant originated; its name there is bunn or bunna. Legendary accounts. There are several legendary accounts of the origin of the drink itself. One account involves the Yemenite Sufi mystic Shaikh ash-Shadhili. When traveling in Ethiopia, the legend goes; he observed goats of unusual vitality, and, upon trying the berries that the goats had been eating, experienced the same vitality. A similar â€Å"Legend of Dancing Goats† attributes the discovery of coffee to an Ethiopian goatherder named Kaldi. The story of Kaldi did not appear in writing until 1671, and these stories are considered to be apocryphal. It used to be believed Ethiopian ancestors of today’s Oromo tribe, were the first to have recognized the energizing effect of the native coffee plant. Studies of genetic diversity have been performed on Coffea arabica varieties, found to be of low diversity but which retained some residual heterozygosity from ancestral materials, and closely-related diploid species Coffea canephora and C.liberica; however, no direct evidence has ever been found indicating where in Africa coffee grew or who among the natives might have used it as a stimulant, or known about it there, earlier than the seventeenth century. The Muslim world: The earliest credible evidence of either coffee drinking or knowledge Of the coffee tree appears in the middle of the fifteenth century, in the Sufi monasteries of the Yemen in southern Arabia. It was in Yemen that coffee beans were first roasted and brewed as they are today. From Mocha, coffee spread to Egypt and North Africa, and by the 16th century, it had reached the rest of the Middle East, Persia and Turkey. From the Muslim world, coffee drinking spread to Italy, then to the rest of Europe, and coffee plants were transported by the Dutch to the East Indies and to the Americas. Syrian Bedouin from a beehive village in Aleppo, Syria, sipping the traditional murra (bitter) coffee, 1930. The earliest mention of coffee noted by the literary coffee merchant Philippe Sylvestre Dufour is a reference to bunchum in the works of the 10th century CE Persian physician Muhammad ibn Zakariya al-Razi, known as Rhazes in the West, but more definite information on the preparation of a beverage from the roasted coffee berries dates from several centuries later. The most important of the early writers on coffee was io-de-caprio, who in 1587 compiled a work tracing the history and legal controversies of coffee entitled Umdat al safwa fi hill al-qahwa. He reported that one Sheikh, Jamal-al-Din al-Dhabhani, mufti of Aden, was the first to adopt the use of coffee (circa 1454). Coffee’s usefulness in driving away sleep made it popular among Sufis. A translation traces the spread of coffee from Arabia Felix (the present day Yemen) northward to Mecca and Medina, and then to the larger cities of Cairo, Damascus, Baghdad, and Istanbul. Coffee beans were first exported from Ethiopia to Yemen. Yemeni traders brought coffee back to their homeland and began to cultivate the bean. The first coffeehouse opened in Istanbul in 1554. Coffee was at first not well received. In 1511, it was forbidden for its stimulating effect by conservative, orthodox imams at a theological court in Mecca. However, the popularity of the drink led these bans to be overturned in 1524 by an order of the Ottoman Turkish Sultan Selim I, with Grand Mufti Mehmet Ebussuud el-Imadi issuing a celebrated fatwa allowing the consumption of coffee. In Cairo, Egypt, a similar ban was instituted in 1532, and the coffeehouses and warehouses containing coffee beans were sacked. Similarly, coffee was banned by the Ethiopian Orthodox Church some time before the 12th century. However, in the second half of the 19th century, Ethiopian attitudes softened towards coffee drinking, and its consumption spread rapidly between 1880 and 1886; according to Richard Pankhurst, â€Å"this was largely due to [Emperor] Menilek, who himself drank it, and to Abuna Matewos who did much to dispel the belief of the clergy that it was a Muslim drink. † Europe [pic] Dutch engraving of Mocha in 1692 Coffee was noted in Ottoman Aleppo by the German physician botanist Leonhard Rauwolf, the first European to mention it, as chaube, in 1573; Rauwolf was closely followed by descriptions from other European travellers. Coffee was first imported to Italy from the Ottoman Empire. The vibrant trade between Venice and the Muslims in North Africa, Egypt, and the East brought a large variety of African goods, including coffee, to this leading European port. Venetian merchants introduced coffee-drinking to the wealthy in Venice, charging them heavily for the beverage. In this way, coffee was introduced to Europe. Coffee became more widely accepted after controversy over whether it was acceptable during Lent was settled in its favor by Pope Clement VIII in 1600, despite appeals to ban the drink. The first European coffee house (apart from those in the Ottoman Empire, mentioned above) was opened in Venice in 1645. England Largely through the efforts of the British East India Company and the Dutch East India Company, coffee became available in England no later than the 16th century according to Leonhard Rauwolf’s 1583 account. The first coffeehouse in England was opened in St. Michael’s Alley in Cornhill. The proprietor was Pasqua Rosee, the servant of Daniel Edwards, a trader in Turkish goods. Edwards imported the coffee and assisted Rosee in setting up the establishment. Oxford’s Queen’s Lane Coffee House, established in 1654, is still in existence today. By 1675, there were more than 3,000 coffeehouses throughout England. Popularity of coffeehouses spread rapidly in Europe, and later, America. The banning of women from coffeehouses was not universal, but does appear to have been common in Europe. In Germany women frequented them, but in England they were banned. Many believed coffee to have several medicinal properties in this period. For example, a 1661 tract entitled â€Å"A character of coffee and coffee-houses†, written by one â€Å"M. P. â€Å", lists some of these perceived virtues: Not everyone was in favour of this new commodity, however. For example, the anonymous 1674 â€Å"Women’s Petition against Coffee† declared: France Antoine Galland (1646-1715) in his aforementioned translation described the Muslim association with coffee, tea and chocolate: â€Å"We are indebted to these great [Arab] physicians for introducing coffee to the modern world through their writings, as well as sugar, tea, and chocolate. † Galland reported that he was informed by Mr. de la Croix, the interpreter of King Louis XIV of France, that coffee was brought to Paris by a certain Mr. Thevenot, who had travelled through the East. On his return to that city in 1657, Thevenot gave some of the beans to his friends, one of whom was de la Croix. However, the major spread of the popularity of this beverage in Paris was soon to come. In 1669, Soleiman Agha, Ambassador from Sultan Mehmed IV, arrived in Paris with his entourage bringing with him a large quantity of coffee beans. Not only did they provide their French and European guests with coffee to drink, but they also donated some beans to the royal court. Between July 1669 and May 1670, the Ambassador managed to firmly establish the custom of drinking coffee among Parisians. [pic]. Melange in Vienna Austria The first coffeehouse in Austria opened in Vienna in 1683 after the Battle of Vienna, by using supplies from the spoils obtained after defeating the Turks. The officer who received the coffee beans, Polish military officer of Ukrainian origin Jerzy Franciszek Kulczycki, opened the coffee house and helped popularize the custom of adding sugar and milk to the coffee. Until recently, this was celebrated in Viennese coffeehouses by hanging a picture of Kulczycki in the window. Melange is the typical Viennese coffee, which comes mixed with hot foamed milk and a glass of water. Netherlands The race among Europeans to make off with some live coffee trees or beans was eventually won by the Dutch in the late 17th century, when they allied with the natives of Kerala against the Portuguese and brought some live plants back from Malabar to Holland, where they were grown in greenhouses. The Dutch began growing coffee at their forts in Malabar, India, and in 1699 took some to Batavia in Java, in what is now Indonesia. Within a few years the Dutch colonies (Java in Asia, Surinam in Americas) had become the main suppliers of coffee to Europe. Americas. Gabriel de Clieu brought coffee seedlings to Martinique in the Caribbean circa 1720. Those sprouts flourished and 50 years later there were 18,680 coffee trees in Martinique enabling the spread of coffee cultivation to Haiti, Mexico and other islands of the Caribbean. Coffee also found its way to the island of Reunion in the Indian Ocean known as the Isle of Bourbon. The plant produced smaller beans and was deemed a different variety of Arabica known as var. Bourbon. The Santos coffee of Brazil and the Oaxaca coffee of Mexico are the progeny of that Bourbon tree. Circa 1727, the Emperor of Brazil sent Francisco de Mello Palheta to French Guinea to obtain coffee seeds to become a part of the coffee market. Francisco initially had difficulty obtaining these seeds yet he captivated the French Governor’s wife and she in turn, sent him enough seeds and shoots which would commence the coffee industry of Brazil. In 1893, the coffee from Brazil was introduced into Kenya and Tanzania (Tanganyika), not far from its place of origin in Ethiopia, 600 years prior, ending its transcontinental journey. The French colonial plantations relied heavily on African slave laborers. Ancient Production of coffee The first step in Europeans’ wresting the means of production was effected by Nicolaes Witsen, the enterprising burgomaster of Amsterdam and member of the governing board of the Dutch East India Company who urged Joan van Hoorn, the Dutch governor at Batavia that some coffee plants be obtained at the export port of Mocha in Yemen, the source of Europe’s supply, and established in the Dutch East Indies; the project of raising many plants from the seeds of the first shipment met with such success that the Dutch East India Company was able to supply Europe’s demand with â€Å"Java coffee† by 1719. Encouraged by their success, they soon had coffee plantations in Ceylon Sumatra and other Sunda islands. Coffee trees were soon grown under glass at the Hortus Botanicus of Leiden, whence slips were generously extended to other botanical gardens. Dutch representatives at the negotiations that led to the Treaty of Utrecht presented their French counterparts with a coffee plant, which was grown on at the Jardin du Roi, predecessor of the Jardin des Plantes, in Paris. The introduction of coffee to the Americas was effected by Captain Gabriel des Clieux, who obtained cuttings from the reluctant botanist Antoine de Jussieu, who was loath to disfigure the king’s coffee tree. Clieux, when water rations dwindled during a difficult voyage, shared his portion with his precious plants and protected them from a Dutchman, perhaps an agent of the Provinces jealous of the Batavian trade. Clieux nurtured the plants on his arrival in the West Indies, and established them in Guadeloupe and Saint- Domingue in addition to Martinique, where a blight had struck the cacao plantations, which were replaced by coffee plantations in a space of three years, is attributed to France through its colonization of many parts of the continent starting with the Martinique and the colonies of the West Indies where the first French coffee plantations were founded. The first coffee plantation in Brazil occurred in 1727 when Lt. Col. Francisco de Melo Palheta smuggled seeds, still essentially from the germ plasm originally taken from Yemen to Batavia, from French Guiana. By the 1800s, Brazil’s harvests would turn coffee from an elite indulgence to a drink for the masses. Brazil, which like most other countries cultivates coffee as a commercial commodity, relied heavily on slave labor from Africa for the viability of the plantations until the abolition of slavery in 1888. The success of coffee in 17th-century Europe was paralleled with the spread of the habit of tobacco smoking all over the continent during the course of the Thirty Years’ War (1618–48). For many decades in the 19th and early 20th centuries, Brazil was the biggest producer of coffee and a virtual monopolist in the trade. However, a policy of maintaining high prices soon opened opportunities to other nations, such as Colombia, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Indonesia and Vietnam, now second only to Brazil as the major coffee producer in the world. Large-scale production in Vietnam began following normalization of trade relations with the US in 1995. Nearly all of the coffee grown there is Robusta. Despite the origins of coffee cultivation in Ethiopia, that country produced only a small amount for export until the Twentieth Century, and much of that not from the south of the country but from the environs of Harar in the northeast. The Kingdom of Kaffa, home of the plant, was estimated to produce between 50,000 and 60,000 kilograms of coffee beans in the 1880s. Commercial production effectively began in 1907 with the founding of the inland port of Gambela, and greatly increased afterwards: 100,000 kilograms of coffee was exported from Gambela in 1908, while in 1927-8 over 4 million kilograms passed through that port. Coffee plantations were also developed in Arsi Province at the same time, and were eventually exported by means of the Addis Ababa – Djibouti Railway. While only 245,000 kilograms were freighted by the Railway, this amount jumped to 2,240,000 kilograms by 1922, surpassed exports of â€Å"Harari† coffee by 1925, and reached 9,260,000 kilograms in 1936. Australia is a minor coffee producer, with little product for export, but its coffee history goes back to 1880 when the first of 500  acres (2. 0  km2) began to be developed in an area between northern New South Wales and Cooktown. Today there are several producers of Arabica coffee in Australia that use a mechanical harvesting system invented in 1981. *** CHAPTER – 2 INSIGHT ON COFFEE INSIGHT ON COFFEE |Coffee | |[pic] | |Roasted coffee beans | |Type |Hot or cold beverage | |Country of origin |Ethiopia, and  Yemen | |Introduced |Approx. 15th century AD (beverage) | |Color |Brown | Coffee  is a  brewed  drink  prepared from roasted  seeds, commonly called  coffee beans, of the  coffee plant. They are seeds of coffee cherries that grow on trees in over 70 countries. Green coffee, for example, is one of the most traded agricultural commodities in the world. Due to its  caffeine  content, coffee can have a stimulating effect in humans. Today, coffee is one of the most popular beverages worldwide. It is thought that the energizing effect of the coffee bean plant was first recognized in  Yemen  in Arabia and the north east of  Ethiopia, and the cultivation of coffee first expanded in the Arab  world. The earliest credible evidence of coffee drinking appears in the middle of the fifteenth century, in the  Sufi  monasteries of the  Yemen  in southern  Arabia. From the  Muslim world, coffee spread to Italy, then to the rest of Europe, to  Indonesia, and to the Americas. Coffee has played an important role in many societies throughout history. In Africa and Yemen, it was used in religious ceremonies. As a result, the  Ethiopian Church  banned its secular consumption until the reign of EmperorMenelik II of Ethiopia. It was banned in  Ottoman  Turkey during the 17th century for political reasons,  and was associated with rebellious political activities in Europe. Coffee berries, which contain the coffee bean, are produced by several species of small  evergreen  bush of the  genus  Coffea. The two most commonly grown are  Coffea canephora  (also known as  Coffea robusta) and  Coffea arabica. Both are cultivated primarily in  LatinAmerica,Southeast Asia, and Africa. Once ripe, coffee berries are picked, processed, and dried. The seeds are then roasted to varying degrees, depending on the desired flavor. They are then ground and brewed to create coffee. Coffee can be prepared and presented in a variety of ways. An important export commodity, coffee was the top agricultural export for 12 countries in 2004,  and in 2005, it was the world’s seventh-largest legal agricultural export by value. Some controversy is associated with coffee cultivation and its impact on the environment. Many studies have examined the relationship between coffee consumption and certain medical conditions; whether the overall effects of coffee are ultimately positive or negative has been widely disputed. However, the method of brewing coffee has been found to be important. Biology Several species of shrub of the genus  Coffea  produce the berries from which coffee is extracted. The two main cultivated species,  Coffea canephora(also known as  Coffea robusta) and  C. arabica, are native to subtropical Africa and southern Asia. Less popular species are  C.liberica,  excelsa,stenophylla,  mauritiana, and  racemosa. They are classified in the large family  Rubiaceae. They are  evergreen  shrubs or small trees that may grow 5  m (15  ft) tall when unpruned. The leaves are dark green and glossy, usually 10–15  cm (4-6  in) long and 6  cm (2. 4  in) wide. Clusters of fragrant white flowers bloom simultaneously and are followed by oval berries of about 1. 5  cm. Green when immature, they ripen to yellow, then crimson, before turning black on drying. Each berry usually contains two seeds, but 5–10% of the berries  have only one; these are called  peaberries. Berries ripen in seven to nine months. Cultivation Coffee is usually propagated by seeds. The traditional method of planting coffee is to put 20  seeds in each hole at the beginning of the  rainy season; half are eliminated naturally. A more effective method of growing coffee, used in Brazil, is to raise seedlings in nurseries, which are then planted outside at 6 to 12  months. Coffee is often intercropped with food crops, such as corn, beans, or rice, during the first few years of cultivation. [pic]. Map showing areas of coffee cultivation: r:Coffea canephora m:Coffea canephora  and  Coffea arabica a:Coffea arabica Of the two main species grown, arabica coffee (from  C. arabica) is considered more suitable for drinking than robusta coffee (from  C. canephora); robusta tends to be bitter and have less flavor but better body than arabica. For these reasons, about three-quarters of coffee cultivated worldwide is  C. arabica. However,  C. canephora  is less susceptible to disease than  C. arabica  and can be cultivated in  environments  where  C. arabica  will not thrive. Robusta coffee also contains about 40–50% more caffeine than arabica. For this reason, it is used as an inexpensive substitute for arabica in many commercial coffee blends. Good quality robustas are used in some  espresso  blends to provide a better foam head, a full-bodied result, and to lower the ingredient cost. The species  Coffea liberica  and  Coffea esliaca  are believed to be indigenous to  Liberia  and southern  Sudan, respectively. Most arabica coffee beans originate from either  Latin America,  eastern Africa, Arabia, or Asia. Robusta coffee beans are grown in western and  central Africa, throughout  southeast Asia, and to some extent in Brazil. Beans from different countries or regions can usually be distinguished by differences in flavor, aroma,  body, or acidity. These taste characteristics are dependent not only on the coffee’s growing region, but also on genetic subspecies (varietals) and processing. Varietals are generally known by the region in which they are grown, such as  Colombian,  Java  or  Kona. Production Brazil  is the world leader in production of green coffee, followed by  Vietnam  and  Colombia  the last of which produces a much  softer coffee. |Top twenty green coffee producers  Ã¢â‚¬â€ Tonnes (2007) and Bags thousands (2007) | |Country |Tonnes |Bags thousands | |[pic]  Brazil |2,249,010 |36,070 | |[pic]  Vietnam |961,200 |16,467 | |[pic]  Colombia |697,377 |12,515 | |[pic]  Indonesia |676,475 |7,751 | |[pic]  Ethiopia |325,800 |4,906 | |[pic]  India |288,000 |4,148 | |[pic]  Mexico |268,565 |4,150 | |[pic]  Guatemala |252,000 |4,100 | |[pic]  Peru |225,992 |2,953 | |[pic]  Honduras |217,951 |3,842 | |[pic]  Cote d’Ivoire |170,849 |2,150 | |[pic]  Uganda |168,000 |3,250 | |[pic]  Costa Rica |124,055 |1,791 | |[pic]  Philippines |97,877 |431 | |[pic]  El. Salvador |95,456 |1,626 | |[pic]  Nicaragua |90,909 |1,700 | |[pic]  Papua New Guinea |75,400 |968 | |[pic]  Venezuela |70,311 |897 | |[pic]  Madagascar[note 2] |62,000 |604 | |[pic]  Thailand |55,660 |653 | |  Ã‚  World |7,742,675 |117,319 | Ecological effects [pic] [pic] A flowering  Coffea arabica  tree in a Brazilian plantation Originally, coffee farming was done in the  shade  of trees, which provided a habitat for many animals and insects. This method is commonly referred to as the traditional shaded method, or â€Å"shade-grown†. Many farmers switched their production method to sun cultivation, in which coffee is grown in rows under full sun with little or no forest canopy. This causes berries to ripen more rapidly and bushes to produce higher yields, but requires the clearing of trees and increased use of fertilizer and pesticides, which damage the environment and cause health problems. When compared to the sun cultivation method, traditional coffee production causes berries to ripen more slowly and produce lower yields, but the quality of the coffee is allegedly superior. In addition, the traditional shaded method is environmentally friendly and provides living space for many wildlife species. Opponents of sun cultivation say environmental problems such as deforestation, pesticide pollution,  habitat destruction, and soil and water degradation are the side effects of these practices. The  American Birding Association,  Smithsonian Migratory Bird- Center, Rainforest Alliance, and the  Arbor Day Foundation  have led a campaign for â€Å"shade-grown† and  organic coffees, which it says are sustainably harvested. However, while certain types of shaded coffee cultivation systems show greater biodiversity than full-sun systems, they still compare poorly to native forest in terms of habitat value. Another issue concerning coffee is its  use of water. According to  New Scientist, if using industrial farming practices, it takes about 140 liters of water to grow the coffee beans needed to produce one cup of coffee, and the coffee is often grown in countries where there is a water shortage, such as  Ethiopia. By using   sustainable agriculture  methods, the amount of water usagecan be dramatically reduced, while retaining comparable yields. Coffee grounds may be used for  composting  or as a  mulch. They are especially appreciated by  worms  and  acid-loving plants  such as  blueberries. *** CHAPTER – 3 TYPES OF COFFEE TYPES OF COFFEE Coffea Arabica | | |Scientific classification | |Kingdom: |Plantae | |(unranked): |Angiosperms | |(unranked): |Eudicots | |(unranked): |Asterids | |Order: |Gentianales | |Family: |Rubiaceae | |Genus: |Coffea | |Species: |C. arabica | |Binomial name | |Coffea arabica |. Coffea arabica is a species of coffee originally indigenous to the mountains of Yemen in the Arabian Peninsula, hence its name, and also from the southwestern highlands of Ethiopia and southeastern Sudan. It is also known as the â€Å"coffee shrub of Arabia†, â€Å"mountain coffee† or â€Å"arabica coffee†. Coffea arabica is believed to be the first species of coffee to be cultivated, being grown in southwest Arabia for well over 1,000 years. It is considered to produce better coffee than the other major commercially grown coffee species, Coffea canephora (robusta). Arabica contains less caffeine than any other commercially cultivated species of coffee. Wild plants grow to between 9 and 12 m tall, and have an open branching system; the leaves are opposite, simple elliptic-ovate to oblong, 6–12  cm long and 4–8  cm broad, glossy dark green. The flowers are white, 10–15  mm in diameter and grow in axillary clusters. The fruit is a drupe (though commonly called a â€Å"berry†) 10–15  mm in diameter, maturing bright red to purple and typically contain two seeds (the coffee ‘bean’). | | Distribution and habitat Originally found in the southwestern highlands of Ethiopia, Coffea arabica is now rare there in its native state, and many populations appear to be mixed native and planted trees. It is common there as an understorey shrub. It has also been recovered from the Boma Plateau in southeastern Sudan. Coffea arabica is also found on Mt Marsabit in northern Kenya, but it is unclear whether this is a truly native or naturalised occurrence. Yemen is also believed to have native Coffea arabica growing in fields. Cultivation Coffea arabica takes about seven years to mature fully and does best with 1- 1. 5 meters (about 40-59  inches) of rain, evenly distributed throughout the year. It is usually cultivated between 1,300 and 1,500 m altitude, but there are plantations as low as sea level and as high as 2,800 m. The plant can tolerate low temperatures, but not frost, and it does best when the temperature hovers around 20  °C (68  °F). Commercial cultivars mostly only grow to about 5 m, and are frequently trimmed as low as 2 m to facilitate harvesting. Unlike Coffea canephora, Coffea arabica prefers to be grown in light shade. Two to four years after planting Coffea arabica produces small, white and highly fragrant flowers. The sweet fragrance resembles the sweet smell of jasmine flowers. When flowers open on sunny days, this results in the greatest numbers of berries. This can be a curse however as coffee plants tend to produce too many berries; this can lead to an inferior harvest and even damage yield in the following years as the plant will favor the ripening of berries to the detriment of its own health. On well kept plantations this is prevented by pruning the tree. The flowers themselves only last a few days leaving behind only the thick dark green leaves. The berries then begin to appear. These are as dark green as the foliage, until they begin to ripen, at first to yellow and then light red and finally darkening to a glossy deep red. At this point they are called ‘cherries’ and are ready for picking. The berries are oblong and about 1  cm long. Inferior coffee results from picking them too early or too late, so many are picked by hand to be able to better select them, as they do not all ripen at the same time. They are sometimes shaken off the tree onto mats, which means that ripe and unripe berries are collected together. The trees are difficult to cultivate and each tree can produce anywhere from 0. 5–5  kg of dried beans, depending on the tree’s individual character and the climate that season. The real prize of this cash crop are the beans inside. Each berry holds two locules containing the beans. The coffee beans are actually two seeds within the fruit; there is sometimes a third seed or one seed, a peaberry in the fruits at tips of the branches. These seeds are covered in two membranes, the outer one is called the ‘parchment’ and the inner one is called the ‘silver skin’. In perfect conditions, like those of Java, trees are planted at all times of the year and are harvested year round. In less ideal conditions, like those in parts of Brazil, the trees have a season and are harvested only in winter. The plants are vulnerable to damage in poor growing conditions and are also more vulnerable to pests than the Robusta plant. Gourmet coffees are almost exclusively high-quality mild varieties of coffea arabica, like Colombian coffee. Arabica coffee production in Indonesia began in 1699. Indonesian coffees, such as Sumatran and Java, are known for heavy body and low acidity. This makes them ideal for blending with the higher acidity coffees from Central America and East Africa. Coffea canephora | | |Scientific classification | |Kingdom: |Plantae | |(unranked): |Angiosperms | |(unranked): |Eudicots ||(unranked): |Asterids | |Order: |Gentianales | |Family: |Rubiaceae | |Genus: |Coffea | |. Species: |C. canephora | |Binomial name | |Coffea canephora | Coffea canephora (Robusta Coffee Coffea robusta) is a species of coffee which has its origins in central and western subsaharan Africa. It is grown mostly in Africa and Brazil, where it is often called Conillon. It is also grown in Southeast Asia where French colonists introduced it in the late 19th century. In recent years Vietnam, which only produces robusta, has surpassed Brazil, India, and Indonesia to become the world’s single largest exporter. Approximately one third of the coffee produced in the world is robusta. Canephora is easier to care for than the other major species of coffee, Coffea arabica, and, because of this, is cheaper to produce. Since arabica beans are often considered superior, robusta is usually limited to lower grade coffee blends as filler. It is however often included in instant coffee, and in espresso blends to promote the formation of â€Å"crema†. Robusta has about twice as much caffeine as arabica.

Essay on Learning Lessons from the Holocaust - 2226 Words

The phrase a lesson to be learned and a tragedy to behold has been indelibly attached to the Holocaust that to think of it in any other way is thought to insult all those of the Jewish community who lost their lives to the attempted genocide of their race by the Nazi regime. Despite such brevity attached to learning lessons from the Holocaust one must wonder whether the lesson has actually been learned or if people will continue to repeat the mistakes of the past. Angela Merkel, the current German Chancellor, has stated that the German experiment towards multi-culturalism has failed, those who wish to migrate into the country must learn the German way whether it is the language they speak, the culture they have or the very religion they†¦show more content†¦Eckardt presents the idea that the Holocaust was a result of three distinct factors; that it was the culmination of the churchs teaching of contempt, the culmination of the churchs absolute theology and finally the culmin ation of modern mans self-liberation from the shackles of God and morality . In summary, Eckart suggests that it was the religious zealotry by which the German church taught the population that planted the initial seeds of the Holocaust . Throughout the recorded history of the church it has been the religious zealotry that was taught to various populations that has been the cause of numerous bloody conflicts and acts of inhumane cruelty. From the Crusades to the Salem witch hunts and various other historical incidences it has been religious zealotry, the Christian feeling of spiritual superiority and the claims of the church to possess the only sure means of forgiveness, grace and salvation that such incidents happened in the first place. In terms of Christian culpability to the Holocaust the views of Eckart are justified in that it was in part due to the German church and the fact that they focused more on internal church affairs rather than external problems that public opinion ne ver wavered in the face of the atrocities of the Nazi regime . In theShow MoreRelatedThe Causes Of The Holocaust1352 Words   |  6 PagesIn learning about the Holocaust I have found that the causes of the Holocaust are just as important as the injustice itself. There are many reasons the Holocaust was allowed to happen and many reasons it had become inevitable. One of the causes of the Holocaust was the need for a scapegoat. 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