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The vertical city

The vertical tower also known as the khalifa tower is the highest tower in the world, it is located in the United Arab Emirates, the city was named after President khalifa. The structure and architecture of the vertical city is one the most amazing thing about it, the vertical tower is located near the Persian Gulf, it is a 100 story tower and is connected through a vertical bullet train, the vertical city is estimated to be over 160 floors where each floor to floor height is about 5 Meters this makes the overall height of the building over 2400 Meters (Rashid).

One of the main attractions of people to this place is the fact that the vertical city is one of the tallest buildings in the world; this makes people to travel from different countries only to visit Dubai their main purpose being to see the vertical city (Foo and Belinda, 143). Another main attraction of the place is the design of the vertical city the tower has been designed in the most unique design such that none has ever been seen before like it, it has the most sophisticated shape seen ever, the tower is made of silver and gray glass, this material reflects light in an amazing manner making the tower look like a huge diamond which shines bright.

The vertical city is not only a tower  but has its own social values, this is the case because it is a city of its own too, people live around that area and it has all the things which make it possible to be called a city, for example shopping centers, hospitals, institutions of higher learning, hotels, library (Rashid,pg67). This makes it a social area where people meet with each other on a daily basis exchange ideas and they get to socialize, this is also made possible by the presence of many entertainment venues and activities that take place around the vertical city.

The vertical tower in that place has been able o use space well and successfully, this is the case because when one compares the facilities in that area and the amount of space the tower used, one will see that the facilities are more than the actual space used for building the tower. A good example of how space has been used well is the parking area in the basement section, there are two basements where the cars can park, and this space is big enough to accommodate three thousand cars. In addition to, the space has also been utilized well considering the fact that there is one of the biggest shopping mall in the vertical city, the Dubai mall has too many shops and some places of entertainment for example the aquarium, this aquarium is known to be the biggest aquarium in the whole of Middle East.

The area in around the vertical city also has a skating are, this area is used in the major skating events in the country for example the national skating competitions. It is also used in the religious activities. Inside the vertical tower there is also the biggest theatre in the whole of Middle East, which is well equipped with machines and tools of good quality and design. (Pawlikowski) I shall now look at the main facilities in the vertical city and how they affect the area and the people who live around that area.

The building is also designed in a manner that there is a reception area in above the Dubai mall, this reception area was built with the sole purpose of ensuring that the residents of that area are comfortable with everything, it is also said that the reception area is a place offers a lot of services for both the residents of the area and the guests too. In the reception area there is a Jacuzzi, a spa and a pool in that area this are places of relaxation where one can come and enjoy these facilities offered there. Many people come from different parts of the world to enjoy these facilities.

In the vertical tower there is also the residential area, which is located above the reception area. In that building there are two types of residential area, one of them is the studios and the other is the apartments and houses where people reside, this places are build in a unique and luxurious manner such that people who live there live comfortably and with all the resources required. Above the residential area is the area where there are offices and institutes from where people go about their daily jobs, this shows that the area is a very busy area because there are also the offices and institutes where people are employed, this also shows that the vertical city had an upper hand in the creation of job opportunities for the people in that area (Emmar properties PJSC,pg45).

Above the offices and the institutes, there is a library in that area it is

well designed and equipped with an electronic system of book service such that some of the books on the library are stored in the computers and almost everything concerning the library is handled electronically. Above the offices and the institutes there is a platform. From this platform one is exposed to hoe the sky looks since when one is at the platform one is able to have a clear view of the sky (Monclús and Guàrdia, pg 122). One is also able to enjoy the view of the whole of Dubai since this is the biggest building in Dubai. One is also able to enjoy the view of the biggest fountain in Middle East which is the fountain found in the vertical tower. The most important thing about the platform is that it has an educational value in it; this is the case as one is able to appreciate the development of Dubai and also the history of Dubai.

The vertical city is one of the most important buildings in Dubai, it is valuable mostly for tourism, both foreign and domestic tourism, many people come to Dubai to see the vertical city and the tower and appreciate the architecture of the place and the design in which it is built, and they also come for entertainment purposes. The domestic tourist who would like to experience vertical city also pay to co end experience it. The vertical city has also improved the economy of Dubai by creating job opportunities for people in that country. The vertical city also remains a place of diverseness in activities carried out in the city; it has everything that one needs to live a comfortable life.

Works cited

Monclús, F. J. and Guàrdia, B. M. Culture, Urbanism and Planning. Aldershot, England: Ashgate, 2006. Internet resource.

Foo, A .F. and Belinda K. P. Yuen. Sustainable Cities in the 21st Century. Singapore: Faculty of Architecture, Building & Real Estate, National University of Singapore, 1999. Print.

Pawlikowski, William F. BakerJames J. "The dubai mall structure." National council of structural engineers (2013): 42.

Rashid, Sheikh Mohammed bin. Burj Khalifa. friday december 2013 <http://www.burjkhalifa.ae/en/>.

PJSC, Emaar Properties. The dubai mall. Friday December 2013<http://www.emaar.com/Emaar.Upload/EMR-SINGAPORE-EN-US/CMS/Q3_2013_Corporate_Presentation_FINAL-November_20,2013.pdf>.

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Maryam Alsaqran

Jeff Klepper

English 113 B

November 26

Evey

V for vendetta is a comic or a graphic book written by Alan Moore and David Lloyd did the art. This book is about a mysterious masked man who fights against the government of the United Kingdom and his name is V. This occurs between the 1980s and the 1990s. He meets a girl called Evey, who lived a rough life when she was a kid and that really affects her life. She becomes his protégé and only friend (Moore). V and Evey met coincidentally in the street at night when she was cornered by a group of wearied men who wanted to hurt her but V came to her rescue.

This story is very interesting and we see that V is able to help Evey to forget her past life, especially her childhood. This novel was then released as an action thriller film in 2006 and it was written by the Wachowski brothers (Andrew Wachowski and Lana Wachowski) and directed by James McTeigue. The story in the comic book is similar to the story in the film. However, there were some differences between the novel and the movie especially in Evey’s character and how she behaved. This leads to some events in varying and this makes the novel much better because it is more informative and detailed than the film (Mojo).

At the beginning of the story, Evey was walking on the street and suddenly she collided with a man, who was one of the fingermen. They were the “right-wingers” of the government who were secret police who were in charge of keeping peace in the society but instead they were very corrupt. They start harassing Evey but V appears and helps her by fighting off the fingermen. Here, we see the differences between the Evey’s character in the novel and the film. For example, in the novel she was just sixteen years old but in the film she is a young adult in her twenties.

Another difference is that at the beginning of the novel, she was walking on the street and then she asked a man to sleep with her because she needed some money. Unfortunately, the man she asked was a fingerman and him and his group push her against the wall to kill her. At this same time, she is pleading them to let her go and not to kill her. Suddenly, V comes to her rescue and fights them using tear gas and then carries off the distressed teenager (Journal). However, at the beginning of the film, Evey was walking on the street and she collided with one of the fingermen and he started asking her why she was still out after curfew. She said it was because her uncle was sick and she was looking for medicine.

They then decided to kill her because they were just bad people. One of them holds her arms and the other fingerman puts a sword on her neck and then she started screaming, “Help, help.” Finally, V comes to her aid and beats up the fingermen. The two stories are very different and in the film, she is seen as clever and knowledgeable and she does not have a good reason for being out. However, in the novel, she is portrayed as being naïve and irresponsible and this leads her to meet V. In the film, she was also aware of the political environment around her and so she knew it was not acceptable to walk on the street at that time (ThatWasNotInTheBook). 

Another important difference is her family and her childhood in the novel and the film. Starting with her outfit when she was telling V about her family and childhood. At that time, she was wearing a sleeveless yellow dress with a blue boot and she was sitting on a green chair with her arms on a table She was crying in front of a big mirror that was surrounded by lamps. She showed V a picture of herself standing with her parents in the eighties during the war between Poland and Russia. This was the time when her country was under the threat of being bombed. 

There was no food and the pollution was huge because of the sewers, which were flooded and they had negative effects on the people. Bacteria and viruses, which were concentrated in the air, caused many deaths. Her father decided to leave the country but her mother refused and therefore, they moved to a protection committee. Unfortunately, her mother was a victim of this pollution and she died. Evey didn’t get to see her mother’s body because her father prevented her to see her.

On her twelfth birthday, her father was arrested because he joined a socialist group of the Ring-Wingers. Therefore, she was left alone and she lived in a dirty and cold hostel and worked in a factory in order to be able to survive. Compared to the film, she was wearing a dark red short sleeve dress. The story was different because she told V that she had a younger brother that was killed by a virus and after this, her parents became politicians against the government. Then the war started in her country and her mother suggested leaving the country but her father refused because he wanted to fight the government and help his country. The fingermen came for them and killed her mother in front of her and then her father was arrested in the same period. She was then left alone and she lived in a child reclamation camp.

It is clearer how she talked about her childhood in the novel in a more detailed way than in the movie. The real reason for her being outside after the curfew in the film was not obvious. Her facial expressions and her body language in the film show that she lied to the man in the street in order to escape from him. However, in the novel, she had a good reason for being outside since she was looking for money through having sex with anyone. This is because she had a rough life and she needed money to survive. Therefore, she decided to act as the older girls who lived with her in the hostel who make money via sacrificing their bodies for sex.

I can also say that her age in the novel guided her to behave in a badly but in the film she understood that she should not stroll around in the street at night. The reason was not obvious and therefore, the comic book makes more sense than the film because it is more convincing that a young girl was trying to survive by making money fast.

Evey in the novel wanted to pay back V in some way because he helped her and protected her from the fingermen. V, on the other hand, told her to go to a German man named John Faust and to dress up as a doll. She went to John and he tried to sleep with her but her main aim there was to distract him so as to give time for V to come who then comes and kills the man because he is a sexual predator. She was very angry with V because she didn’t know that she would be involved in a crime of killing a person.

Therefore, she runs away from him but she comes back to him again and he promises her that he will never kill again. He then blinds her and takes her to a street between two buildings and leaves her alone. Therefore, she goes to Gordo because she had no other place to go. She spends more than a month with him, and they sleep together. One night, however, something strange and scary happens and he tells her to hide in the bathroom. She hides and after a while she comes out and finds him dead. She takes the gun from him and she goes out with it.

When she is outside, a stranger blinds her and arrests her for the murder of a senior officer, Peter Creedy. In the book, V For Vendetta page 161, in the second panel, Evey says, “Once there, I was systemically brainwashed by means of drugs and torture both physical and psychological.” (Moore 161). That shows that she suffered in the jail because of refusing to do what they wanted her to do. They wanted her to sign a paper that proved that she collaborated with V to kill the senior officer, Peter Creedy. In the end, they release her. It is at this point that she discovers that it was all done by V himself. She is so angry with V because he hurt her and she cannot believe that he did this to him. On page 171 of the book, in the first frame, V told her, “ You were in a cell Evey. They offered you a choice between the death of your principles and the death of your body.” (Moore 171). Evey was being helped by V to overcome her painful past by being tortured (Miller).

However, in the film, Evey was sent to the same man in the story but she behaved differently. She didn’t help V because she knew that the German man would be killed by V. Therefore she warned the German man that someone wants to kill him but he didn’t believe her. Instead, he tried to have sex with her but V came and killed him. Evey then escapes from V and goes to Gordo who welcomes her. They spent few days together but they didn’t have sex like in the novel. One day, the government arrested Gordo and Evey was arrested also a few minutes later. She was jailed, investigated and tortured by the government because they wanted to find out about some information on V but she didn’t help them. After a long time of being jailed, they released her and then she discovered that everything in the prison was not real. It was all done by V. Based on the book Rhetoric for Radicals the author said, “Change the experience and you change a person’s orientation to the world.”(Del Gandio 6). That is what V was trying to do Evey by making her a different person.

He did all of that because he wanted to help her overcome the fear she struggled with. There was no other easy way to make her live without fear and this was the best way. Her reaction to this was anger and she told him, “Leave me alone, I hate you” (Moore). He started reminding her about her past while she was crying and then he took her to the roof of the Shadow Gallery to help her to relax.

In the novel, her childhood was a reason that makes her meet V and it was also a reason that made her to be used by V to take his revenge. This is seen by what Jessy said in the YouTube video named ‘Books vs. Movies Review: V for Vendetta - Part 1’ about Evey’s character in the novel, “She was treated as a victim because of her journey” (Jessy). Which also makes more sense with her attachment to V and how he helped her to be a strong lady by using her past against her and helped her to get rid of it by facing the fear in it. Moreover, her character in the novel was more persuasive and it was more natural especially when she was used in a murder crime without her knowledge. This was because she was too young and she wasn’t aware about what was happening around her.   According to the book, Rhetoric for Radicals, the author, Del Gandio says, “True revolutions occur when people begin to see and understand themselves, each other and their world in radically different ways” (Del Gandio 3). I totally agree with Gandio’s phrase because that is exactly what happened with Evey in the novel and the film as well but I believe that it has matched with her situation in the novel mainly because of her age. Evey in the novel, was young and immature and she was in trouble in her life because she met V. He placed her in the situations I have mentioned above in order to help her overcome her life’s difficulties by facing them head on and living in them and thinking about how to eliminate them and that was the revolution and she understood.

However, in the film she was older than the novel and it was not convenient enough for me and maybe for other people to accept that a woman like her couldn’t understand and find herself. She had a troubled life since she was young and she should have learned from them when she was young.

Her character was clear and stronger in the book than her character in the film V For Vendetta because it was mentioned in the novel in a more detailed way. I found that her childhood is the first throat of the chain of her rough life because everything happened to her in the novel and the film as well was linked with her childhood. Her childhood period was shown in a more convincing way in the novel than the film. For example, as I have mentioned above, she lived in a hostel and she didn’t have enough money. Therefore, she went out and asked a Fingerman to sleep with her for money. This led to the events occurring according to this issue mentioned above and V was the man who changed her life to be a better life.

Citation Page 

Del Gandio, Jason. Rhetoric for Radicals: A Handbook for 21st Century Activists. Gabriola Island: New Society Publishers, 2008. Print.

Lloyd, David, Moore, Alan. V for Vendetta.Brodway, New York. Warner Bros: Entertainment Company, 1989. Print.

"Books vs. Movies Review: V for Vendetta - Part 1,2,3." YouTube. YouTube, 05 Nov. 2010. Web. 02 Dec. 2013

“Book + Movie Review - V for Vendetta.” youtube. Youtube, Jan 23, 2013.web. 30 Nov.2013.

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P2P Sharing Files

            Recently, the phenomenon of sharing files online, such as music, has increased among people worldwide. This process helps people to find the file they want faster, easier, and cheaper. This is better than going to the store to purchase a CD. However, has one ever thought about the consequences of this behavior? Is it a legal or illegal behavior? Does it have any negative effects instead of positive effects? If it affects negatively, what would the range of harm be on the affected side? Who is the affected side? Although sharing files, especially music, online for free is a simple and easy process. However, it is considered a crime by the law because it affects the economy negatively and it is one reason for the financial losses in different industries such as the music industry.

            Most people share music and download them online for free. Therefore, they are harming the owner and the artist of the music piece they are downloading for free. When a singer releases a new song in the music market; a lot of money is spent to make the music and publish it. Then this singer will be waiting for the profit of his work through the sales of his or her albums. But what happens is that the percentage of sold copies is small because the majority of people are downloading the new music online for free. According to the article, ‘Illegal Downloading, Ethical Concern, and Illegal Behavior’, the author Kirsten Robertson states, “Further, the RIAA’s message of comparing downloading to stealing a CD is also intended to communicate that downloading is illegal and it is equivalent to stealing a CD”(Robertson 218). Logically, sharing and downloading music without paying money is the same as stealing a CD because it has the same consequences, which is a financial loss to the artist. Therefore, downloading is stealing but in a sophisticated way. So it is an illegal act since stealing is a crime that causes the loss of money.

            Sharing files have affected the sale of music in the music industry which has contributed to the drop of sales. Some of the websites which enable this free sharing are the main reason for this collapse in the sale of music. The process of sharing and downloading music for free is too easy in some websites such as, Napster and according to the author Alejandro Zentner’s article, ‘Measuring the Effect of File Sharing Music Purchases’, a lawsuit was filed against Napster in San Francisco in the United States because of engaging in, enabling and facilitating others in copying, downloading, uploading, transmitting and distributing the plaintiff’s copyrighted musical compositions and sound recordings. These are protected by either federal or state laws without express permission of the owner’s rights (Zentner 64). That lawsuit was the result of the collapse in the music sales that occurred due to websites that allowed people to share files without paying for them. To be more specific, those websites reduced the number of buying of physical CDs by thirty percent, which is not a small number. This is because more people are downloading than buying. Moreover, Zentner estimated that the sales in 2002 would have been higher if there was no free downloading on those websites (Zentner 63). If we find the people using some of these websites in order to download and share music instead of buying them, we will fine them since they are more than those who buy the physical CD and it is not fair.

In the United States, the lawsuits are filing up against people who get used to share music using the peer-to-peer sharing service in online websites and this is being done by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). People share music and gain money illegally and then they end up hurting the artist and the music industry. This is the same as what happened in the ‘Free Culture’ book by Jesse Jordan, who was a freshman at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in New York. A lawsuit was filed against him when he used the service of sharing music online. He was ordered to pay about $15,000,000 by the RIAA because he was branded as a pirate, the adverb of piracy, which means “using the creative property of others without their permission” (Lawrence Lessig, 53). So this behavior is considered as stealing because it hurts the economy and the financial case of the owner of the stolen property. It not only hurts the owner, but it also affects the financial case of the pirate as well. Because of the existence of the RIAA, the rights of people and businesses are protected through pirates being ordered to pay a huge amount of money and this would affect their financial budget and could drive them to bankruptcy.

Moving on to the copyright issue, the peer-to- peer file sharing could affect the copyright negatively and it would hurt the economy and the sales of products. According to the Copyright Criminals movie, ‘Shock G, a digital underground’, said that, “ It is easier to snap a picture with a camera than paint a picture.” Comparing this phrase to music, it would be easier to take someone else’s work than to create a new piece of music or a new song. This process is provided in an easy and fast way in the websites of peer-to-peer sharing files where pirates can find and take a song or a piece of music then improve it. After that, publish it in an easy, fast and economical way. However, the economic status of the creator is being affected negatively and hurts twice. The first time is when the original work is being pirated by people sharing files illegally and the second time is when they publish it and then benefit from the profits of the new music which is not their original work. In other words, the owner is not only losing the copyrights but also losing money.

The peer-to-peer file sharing is the main reason for the economy collapsing especially in the music field. The ways it hurts are different, either by downloading them instead of buying them physically or by sharing music illegally on online websites or also by invading the copyright issue. Those cases are the main reasons why the economy is failing. Downloading should stop and end.

Works cited

 Copyright criminals. Dir. Benjamin Farnzen, and Kembrew, McLeod. 2009. Film.

Lessig, Lawrence. Free Culture: How Big Media Uses Technology and the Law to Lock Down Culture and Control Creativity.New York: Penguin, 2004. Free Culture. Web. 27 Sept. 2010.

Robertson, Kirsten, Lisa McNeill, James Green, and Claire Roberts. "Illegal Downloading, Ethical Concern, and Illegal

Behavior." Journal of Business Ethics, 108.2 (2012): 215-227.

Zentner, Alejandro. "Measuring the Effect of File Sharing on Music Purchases." The Journal of Law and Economics, 49.1 (2006): 63-90.