Switzerland Essays - Cantons Of Switzerland, Central Europe

Switzerland Switzerland is located in central Europe. Switzerland is also known as ?Confoederatio Helvetica?, therefore the abbreviation of CH. ?Confiederatio? stands for ?confereration?, ?Helvetica? derives for the Latin word ?Helvetier?, the name of the people who lived in the area which later became Switzerland. The capital of Switzerland is Bern, which was founded in 1191. Switzerland's independence and neutrality have long been honored by the major European powers and Switzerland did not participate in either World War I or II. Switzerland consists of 23 Cantons, or states, each with their individual legislative, executive and judicial authority. Each canton consists of a number of Bezirke, or districts, and within each district are a number of Gemeinden or municipalities. There are 2929 municipalities in Switzerland. A municipality with more than 10,000 citizens is considered a Stadt, or town, smaller municipalities are called Dorf, or village. However, some smaller villages have the status of a town for historical reasons. About two thirds of the area of Switzerland is covered with forests, lakes and mountains. Switzerland, in area, is sightly less than twice the size of New Jersey. Completely landlocked, Switzerland is bordered by France to it's east, Germany to it's north, Austria to it's west and finally Italy to the south. Since Switzerland has no mineral resources, it must import, process and resell them as products. Services are the most important part of the economy, which includes banking, assurances and tourism. Farming is also an important part of the economy. But the production of the Swiss farmers does not fulfill the needs of all the people, so Switzerland must rely on imported goods from other countries. The Swiss economy is divided into three sectors: agriculture, industry and services. Less the 10% of the population is employed in agriculture. This sector is strongly supported by the government. About 40% of the population are employed in industry. This sector includes machine and metal industry, watch industry and textile industry. All of them export much of the products to foreign countries and suffer a lot because of the expensive Swiss Franc. Finally, the service sector employees more than 50% of the population. Included in this sector are banking, assurances and tourism. Banking is one of the most important businesses in Switzerland. The population of Switzerland is about 7,275,467. Even though Switzerland is a small county, it's people speak no less than four different languages. Of the total population 65% speak German, 18% speak French, 12% speak Italian, 1% Romansch, and 4% other. The German speaking Swill don't speak the same German as the Germans or the Austrians do, but it is known as a Swiss-German. To make things even worse, each canton has its own dialect, but there is no written Swiss-German at all. Fortunately, the Germans, Austrians and the Swiss-Germans use the same written German language which in turn is close to the so called ?high German? language. Switzerland's government is a federal republic. The executive branch consists of the president, who is both the chief of state and the head of the government, and the vice president. Both the president and vice president are elected by the Federal Assembly from among the members of the Federal Council for one-year terms that run concurrently. The legislative branch consists of 200 representatives, know as the Federal Assembly, and members are elected by popular vote on a basis of proportional representation to serve four-years terms. The judicial branch is the Federal Supreme Court and the judges are elected for six-year terms by the Federal Assembly European History

Lamb to the Slaughter by Roald Dahl Essay Example

Lamb to the Slaughter by Roald Dahl Essay Example Lamb to the Slaughter by Roald Dahl Paper Lamb to the Slaughter by Roald Dahl Paper Essay Topic: Literature The question I have selected for my essay is number one and I will be discussing the presentation of gender and power explored in the short story, Lamb to the Slaughter by Roald Dahl. Also in my essay I will be explaining the roles played by the two main characters in the story Mary and Patrick Maloney. Mary Maloney is the main character in the story Lamb to the Slaughter. She is represented as a stereotypical housewife who adores her husband, Patrick Maloney, and is willing to go to any length to please him. At the start of the text Mary seems to be a eak woman and the weaker person in her marriage. She lets her husband push her around and she doesnt even realise hes doing it, because she only ever wants to make happy. Patrick Maloney is the husband of Mary Maloney and the dominant one in their relationship. In the text he is represented as a stereotypical ungrateful, grumpy husband. Also in the text the Maloneys would be classified as an upper class family but even though this is so, Patrick Maloney still works full time as a Senior Policeman. Another thing we notice about Mr. Maloney is he fact he seems quite bored of the fact he is waited on hand and foot by his wife. Power plays a major part in the story Lamb to the Slaughter. And in this story the power seems to reverse from one character to the other, as it starts of with all the power in the hands of Patrick Maloney. Him being the Senior Police officer at work tells us that he must hold quite a lot of power of his work mates below him. But obviously the person he holds the most power over in the text is his wife, Mary Maloney; his hard working housewife who we find out is 6 months pregnant. She is constantly fussing over Patrick wether it is cooking his dinner or getting his slippers. Another thing we notice is that Mr. Maloney is always the person who makes the decisions in their relationship. Wether it has very little or very much importance. For example what they were both going to have for dinner, it was always whatever Mr. Maloney felt like. However all of this power is reversed in the text when Mary comes back from getting the leg of lamb for her and her husbands dinner. She spots Patrick standing in the corner of the oom and he says, For gods sake! Dont make supper for me, Im going out. And that seems to set her off so she walks over and shows physical power as she hits her husband hard over the head with the leg of lamb, and the second he is dead a whole new power is left with her, it is the power Mr. Maloney had once held over her. Mary also seems to have power over the policeman, detectives and doctors who came to investigate the death of Mr. Maloney. They seem very sympathetic towards her and believe every word Mrs. Maloney says about the death of her usband. After studying this short story it would be fair to say that Mr/Mrs Maloney do not have stereotypical or specific gender and power roles as they seem change their characters during the text. Mr. Maloney is explained by Mary at the start of the story as a loving husband and turned out to be ungrateful and unloving. And Mrs. Maloney starts off being a shy, warm, quite woman and ends up slaughtering her husband with a leg of lamb. To conclude my essay however, at different times in the text both characters hold more power then the other.