ETMA06 Punishment Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

ETMA06 Punishment - Essay Example The judiciary hears and decides two main types of cases; these are the criminal cases for violations of the duly instituted penal laws of the land and the civil cases for the settlement of various disputes between and among the members of the population. There is little room for interpretation insofar as the criminal cases are concerned because it is based on concrete penal laws etched in stone. On the other hand, civil cases are a wide open battle field where people fight over disputes involving contracts, torts, and human or property relations among others. Both civil and criminal cases end with a judgment promulgated by the judicial authority hearing the case. On the one hand, criminal cases are decided with the declaration that the accused is either guilty or not guilty of the offence as charged. If the accused is guilty, he is sentenced to community service, imprisonment of even death penalty. The victim is then vindicated. On the other hand, civil cases are decided with the declaration that the claimant is either entitled or not to the damages prayed for. If the claim is granted, the defendant is ordered to compensate the claimant for the loss that he has suffered. The aggrieved party is then compensated. In essence, although they are of different nature and gravity, both civil and criminal cases carry sanctions imposed upon the wrongdoer and compensation unto the party that has suffered losses. This is the basis for the famous statement which says, â€Å"the difference between civil and criminal sanctions is that the former are designed to compensate and the latter are designed to punish’. In this view, this paper shall look into the nature and defining features of both civil and criminal sanctions and then examine their similarities and differences. Sanctions in civil law are penalties imposed by courts or other quasi-judicial bodies which are designed as a deterrence for violations of non-penal laws as well as to provide incentives for

Masters accounting curriculum for international college Research Paper

Masters accounting curriculum for international college - Research Paper Example Accountancy is a method or manner of communicating information to stakeholders such as the shareholders on how a business is performing financially by making use of financial statements. Accountancy is thus an important aspect of any business since it helps in summarizing as well as classifying data in a simplified way. Companies that conduct business internationally are faced by numerous challenges, which include cultural diversity, competition, as well as the challenge of having to do business in a multilingual setting. This requires persons aspiring to engage in multinational or global business to be equipped to deal with the above challenges. Additionally, multinational corporations have more complicated financial statements as compared to national one. Accountants are thus required to have adequate skill to enable them audit international financial statements and make appropriate decisions on behalf of their employees. However, most existing curricula fail to address how the new ly emerging challenges should be dealt with adequately. This results in most graduates lacking knowledge on the aspects characterizing global business. It thus becomes depressing when such graduates have to work with global companies. This research paper focuses on International College, which is considering offering a Masters in Accounting for international students. The paper will give recommendations on how the college should develop a curriculum that addresses the current needs of companies who do business around the globe. Procedure To establish the aspects to include or eliminate from the existing curricula, there is need to understand the conditions that characterize the global business.... It thus becomes depressing when such graduates have to work with global companies. This research paper focuses on International College, which is considering offering a Masters in Accounting for international students. The paper will give recommendations on how the college should develop a curriculum that addresses the current needs of companies who do business around the globe. Procedure To establish the aspects to include or eliminate from the existing curricula, there is need to understand the conditions that characterize the global business. International College should establish a panel to analyze the aspects that should be included in the curriculum to enable graduates deal with global business challenges. The steps that should be followed while establishing a curriculum on global business include identification of the problems facing the global business and establishment of solutions to the problems. To identify the problems facing the global business and are not being address ed by the current accounting program, a survey can be done on recently graduated accounting master’s student. Identifying the challenges that current accountants are facing will enable coming up with a curriculum that addresses these challenges (Lubin Web). Another step should be identification of possible consequences of applying the identified solutions in global business. It is important that the measures set to resolve these challenges be realistic and easy to implement. Another step should be coming up with ways to overcome the problems that may arise while applying new accounting strategies in global business. The last step should be coming up with a detailed design of how to implement the new

Management Styles at Ford and Nissan

Management Styles at Ford and Nissan In this assignment I have highlighted different management styles of Automobile industries by considering their motivational and organizational Theory of management. I have explained some social factors and also the Impact of technology on management and leadership behavior. The first part of the assignment discuss the introduction of both companies .i.e. Ford and Nissan, their management behavior and impact of such behavior on business performance. Than motivational theories how it changes the behavior of company and last impact of technology on the performance, structure and layout of the companies. INTRODUCTION In todays competitive market managers have to perform various roles in the organization. Their handling of different situation depends on their management styles. In the motivational theory the top leadership and the executive management understands the active needs active for employees motivation and give the purpose for being motivated. Organizational theory, for a successful organization, focus on the establishment of coordination that how management and employees by strengthening themselves can achieve the common organizational goals PURPOSE OF ASSIGNMENT Everything is done for some definite motive; here we are making our assignment for a definite purpose. The completion and submission of this assignment is an integral part of Advance Diploma in Business Management from London Essex College. Through assignment students will familiarize with management practices and behavior role that they have to play during their professional careers The students not only acclimatize themselves to the corporate environment but also learn to assume responsibility, co-operation and teamwork the hallmarks of modern management and the most important we have to pass our module as well. APPROACH As for as approach is concerned here we applied the management thoughts and theories of our respective companies. We applied different academic models, academic research, class room notes, our personal experience, industry publication, means both primary and secondary research on automobile industry as s well as review and analysis of it. INTRODUCTION OF FORD AND NISSAN MOTORS FORD MOTOR The Ford Motor Company is an American multinational corporation based in Dearborn, Michigan, a suburb of Detroit. It is the third largest automaker based on worldwide vehicle sale in US after General Motors and Toyota. The automaker was founded by Henry Ford and incorporated on June 16, 1903. In addition to the Ford, Lincoln, and Mercury brands, Ford also owns a small stake in Mazda in Japan and Aston Martin in the UK. Fords former UK subsidiaries Jaguar and Land Rover were sold to Tata Motors of India in March 2008. In 2010 Ford sold Volvo to Geely Automobile. Ford will discontinue the Mercury brand at the end of 2010. Ford introduced methods for large-scale manufacturing of cars and large-scale management of an industrial workforce using elaborately engineered manufacturing sequences typified by moving assembly lines. Henry Fords methods came to be known around the world as Fordism by 1914, he is also father of modern assembly line used in mass production NISSAN Nissan is a Japanese Car Company whose trade mark is Datsun. The head offices are in Japan. Nissan was used to be Japans second-Largest car company. It is an automotive, financial services and engineering industry. It produced automobile, out board motors and forklift trucks. About 176,000 employees are working at Nissan. In 1986, Nissan become the first Japanese automobile company which set the production plant in Europe at Sunderland. It is important to know the companys management philosophy, values, vision, goals, and social environment. The culture depicts the type of leadership .communication and groups dynamics within the organisatiion. Impact of Management Behavior and Organizational Culture of Ford Under the new management of Alan Mulally CEO of Ford motor company enhance overall companys performance . His management can be summed up in these points: Learn whats going on and how things work. Set goals based on good information. Communicate these goals to everyone involved. Create a process for communicating progress and results. Successful leadership hinges on such crucial skills as communication, collaboration and judgment. The CEO Alan Mulally endorsed these skills in an extraordinarily high-pressure environment. He changed Fords culture since he joined Ford and has fostered cooperation among divisions and regions that used to compete with each other for resources. Hes also modeled transparency, meeting regularly with employees and instituting a dashboard system that makes key metrics about sales and market share more visible and precise to the organization. Ford created a culture in which telling the truth, however painful it may be, gets rewarded. Every week Ford review their Business Plan with the higher management just top gather report on how well Ford meeting their targets and organisation goal. Impact on Business In 2010, Ford forecast a 2010 operating profit and posted $2.7 billion in net income for last year Ford recovered the benefits ,after three annual losses the full-year profit was Ford first after 2006. More importantly, Ford gained U.S. market share for the first year since 1995, with new models such as the revamped Taurus. The likes of GM and Chrysler, meanwhile, reorganized with federal aid. Fords profit and cash from operations have been improving with better pricing and cost savings. 6- MANAGEMENT APPROACH OF FORD MOTOR COMPANY Ford Motor Company requires all its employees to be an expert , which encourages specialization. Thus, Ford is a functional organization. Each employee reports to a functional manager. At the same time, they understand the importance of a focus on the final product. As a result, a matrix organization is created where each employee also reports to a chief engineer who represents the interests of the customer. Meetings are conducted every two days to coordinate the relations between chief engineers and functional managers. Fords structure also has other formal mechanisms facilitating communication among functions, such as module development teams, which are cross-functional teams that bring together product and production engineers. Through this structure, Ford strikes a balance between being highly traditional and bureaucratic while at the same time agile and innovative. Ford culture and structure constantly emphasis on learning and continuous improvement .All employees from different levels are expected to analyse the actual and standard performance and if there is any problem there, than understand the cause of all problems. A theoretical framework is made in respect with cause and effect relationship, means what factors causes that problems, how this problem can be solved, when this problem will solved and how long it take to solve that problem. Without such understanding, they believe, improvements are not likely. Their culture emphasizes rethinking of how things are done, and sayings such as never be satisfied and theres gotta be a better way are part of their daily life. For example, if a car comes down the assembly line with a defect, fixing the defect is not the priority. Instead, the emphasis is on understanding the cause of the defect so it is not repeated. In addition to facilitating learning at the individual and team levels, they take steps to make sure that what is learned is shared with the rest of the organization. This is achieved by putting implied knowledge into writing. Traditionally management structure was vertical where chain of command and ultimate decisions made by top management. Ford Company started the mass production with automotive tools in late1920 with standard products, special purpose machine, and standards task and efficient division of labour. The moving assembly line is the symbol of Fordism at Ford Company. Motivation techniques at Ford Motor Company New management of in 2006, turnaround plan that called for closing plants, cutting jobs and dropping some of its models. The said management removed obstacles, put new managers in place and forced feuding parts of the company to work together. Moreover the new management introduced cards printed out for every employee exhorting people to work together and accelerate development of new products Ford Motor Company uses a Positive Reinforcement Technique i.e. the ford employees are rewarded for the favorable behavior they perform according to the wishes of their manager. Impact of Management Behavior and Organizational Culture of NISSAN Nissan Company is very clear about its goals and objectives. The management of company does not believe on traditional but have their own knowledge and expertise and powerful flow of information that runs through divisions of business areas. Their strategy is simple, inspire effective performance and create value for the customers. The management regards individual vision, employee performance, commit action plans and same management practices are entrenched at every level of company. Workforce diversity is also important element, when people from different regions, cultures worked together definitely they share different thoughts but on the other way often healthy conflicts also aroused but the efficient management practice resolved that conflicts, results in operation within Nissan making the process active and direct so diverse workforce brings solutions and leads company towards new direction. Employees of Nissan share their thoughts and relationship with the employees based on mutual respect and trust. A new communication channel helps the employees to express the ideas in more effective manner. This is to somewhat the true culture of any progress company. Management Approach of Nissan Management approach of company is very good, employees are treated like the assets of the company, good friendly environment, and worker participation in decision making is the proof of that company is also practicing the impact of different management theories like Hawthorne studies where workers productivity tends upon human behavior. There is equal employment opportunity, workforce diversity, Global code of conduct within the organization, ANALYSIS OF FORD NISSAN STRUCTURE Companys Structure Company structure arrange people and job so that work can be performed for the success of any company as many writers pointed about the importance of organization structure and its relationship with company strategy, technology, environment and culture. Burns and Stalker (1961) concluded that if an organization is to achieve maximum performance than its structure must fit with or match the rate of change in its environments. Handy (1990-1993) has discussed the importance of culture in relation to organization design and structure. Organizations structure of Nissan Nissan Company has announced to introduce new organizational structure to guide Nissan. Employees and the top management understand the company structure and express their opinions easily. Traditional car company (FORD) has traditional hierarchical organizational structure that means each employees role within the organization and relationship of employees. Traditional company has narrow spans of control most important decision will be made by senior management. In the 20th century, company grows bigger and they have command and control of the organization due to the globalization and technology. Advantages of hierarchical structures All employees authority and responsibility will be defined. Specific managers and hierarchical environment motivate effectively. Employees will be loyal. Disadvantages of Hierarchical structures Company will be bureaucratic and respond slowly to changing customer needs. Horizontal communication will be poor. Usually departments make decisions so business decision will be slowly implemented. Companys culture of both organizations Culture is the sum of the beliefs and values that shape norms of behaviour and dictate the ways things get done. There are several continuums that help define an organizations culture. Is the organization driven by results and achievement, or relationships and people? Does the organization have an internal focus, or an external focus? Is the organization adaptive and flexible, or is it structured and stable?  [1]   Role of organizational culture plays in safety issues. It leads to innovation and strategic thinking. Leadership is also important cultures that every company can know that leadership affect culture. Leaders change or create culture. Cultural leadership apparently has some features in the car production companies where cultural leaders have multiple cultural leaders of the same time. All companies performance shows acceptable trade. These are traditional companies but they are growing business in the world. Organisational theories in management behaviour System theory I have chosen system theory to explain two of these companies. It was developed in 1950s and it was a biological system such as human being. It is most simple level and takes inputs. Basic Elements of a System Inputs Organization or Outputs Transformation system Feedback Boundaries and environment Objectivities and goals Organization as a system Systems theory views an organization as a complex set of dynamically intertwined and interconnected elements, including inputs, processes, outputs, feedback loops, and the environment. Any change in one element causes changes in other elements.  [2]   System theory helps to learn the company. Such as Maslows hierarchy needs. Creating doctrines of participation. Modern including of technology. Personal mastery. Mental models. Building shared vision. Team learning. Systems thinking A modern company as like Nissan should have followings characteristics. System view point Dynamic process Multi-motivated Multi-disciplinary Adaptive Probabilistic Descriptive The systems approach views organization as a system composed of interconnected and thus mutually dependent sub-systems. These sub-systems can have their own sub-sub-systems. A system can be perceived as composed of some components, functions and processes (Albrecht, 1983). Thus, the organization consists of the following three basic elements (Bakke, 1959 ):  [3]   Motivation in practice at two car companies Motivation is the most important factor which increases the performance and productivity of a company. Company implements many motivational activities such as rewards (salary, commission, and bonuses), treating the employees very well, taking an interest in the employees personal life, giving a chance to everyone at the company, building and teaching new skills and making the work interesting. Motivated workforce in Nissan is the greatest asset of the company; actually the performance of company reflects the attitudes, beliefs and passion of employees toward work. Company is motivating the employees but different ways both intrinsically and extrinsically. Promotion and empowerment are few examples, when people are empowered, their belongingness with company increased, result in increased in the productivity. Promotion is based on performance based not on seniority based system but in fact on performance based as well as there is compensation system for excellent performance of employees, this is good practice of corporate gurus of company MOTIVATIONAL THEORIES Research shows how we can motivate employees in a company. Many motivational theories and models could be employed to help to motivate the staff at any companies. Highly motivated people will give good results will in turn help to achieve the organization desire goals. Motivating staff in the car manufacturing industry is most important factor of running a business. Abraham Maslow developed a motivation theory of human needs in 1954. He mentioned that humans have a different variety of needs. Firstly, humans satisfy their basic needs then try to satisfy their other needs. A company should consider the needs of all its employees. Maslow noted five basic needs and ordered them in a hierarchy from higher to lower. Self Actualization Needs Esteem Needs Achievement Challenging Job Belongingness Needs Status Job Title Security Needs Friendship Friends in Group Physiological Needs Stability Pension Plan Sustenance Basic Salary Maslow Need Hierarchy One research study by James R. Lindner at Ohio University shows that factors which influence the motivation of employees at a company. These findings are interesting; work and good pay are influencing factors on employees at work. Further influential reward systems include job enlargement, job enrichment, promotions, internal and external stipends, monetary and non monetary compensation. These should all be considered as they have been shown to motivate employees at work.  [4]  It means that an employees behavior will change as their needs are satisfied. According to the Maslow theory, an organization should design their system to motivate its people; pay will help to satisfy the basic need.  [5]   By applying the Taylor approach of scientific management we can apply the abovementioned theory, effective hiring, training, and compensation incentives, work achievements fulfilled the needs of workers. American Ford company used this technique in assembly line of production for more production and efficient utilization of resources. When worker are provided good working conditions, fresh air, than their basic need is fulfilled, but they cant be motivated until provided by security need and later on when their primary needs are fulfilled than they shift to other needs. In contrast with company .i.e. is also fulfilling the above mentioned theory as for as concern of employees. it is fulfilling their basic need by offering handsome salary packages, based on performance when appraisal is made employee moves to next stage. The X and Y theory was developed by Douglas McGregor in 1960. Theory X suggests that managers want to direct and control their employees. It argues that employees dont like work, so managers or supervisors should punish them for this. On the other hand, according to theory Y, employees are self motivated, like to do their work and wish to achieve the organizations goals.  [6]   These are some ideas to motivate people at two companies. (Nissan and Ford) Motivating through work design Motivating through participation Motivating through targets If these two companies do not motivate its employees, commonly, some problems will occur. Absenteeism Wasting time Gossip Bucking of the system Challenging of policy Bureaucracy. Recruitment and selection report of company is analyzed that how can it maintain and carried out the staff. Some factors are including recruiting the followings factors; The business growth Filling the vacancies by resignation or termination and retirement. Internal promotion Analysis of Social Factors As for as corporate social responsibilities both companies playing an important role in the society of UK. Nissan and Ford will invest  £2 billion of worth investment in production and R D of low carbon and electric car across the England and Wales. The motive of Nissan is environmental friendly and enriching people life. When the company analyses the social factors, we should consider the followings factors. In management behavior, Social factors also influence such as the groups to which the team be longs and social status. In a group or team, several persons interact to influence the decisions. Ford and Nissan companies should consider the social factors. PESTEL analysis will explain the social factors to make the decisions. They are: Sales are relationship driven Customer expectations Relationship management is industry demand. Life time customers Customers want solution to the problems. Global /multinational company. Cultural mind set Developing countries are different levels. Different levels of service. If Ford and Nissan implement the socialization (Group and team) very well, they will get following possible outcomes, such as Job satisfaction Role clarity High work motivation Understanding of culture and perceived control High job involvement Committed to organization Tenure High performance Internationalized values. Actions will be made to encourage ethical and social behavior. Be realistic in setting values and goals regarding employee relationships Encourage input from organization members regarding appropriate values and practices for implementing the culture Opt for a strong culture that encourages and rewards diversity and principled dissent Provide training on adopting and implementing the organizations values  [7]   Impact of Technology on management behavior and work force Many of the impacts of Information Technology are straightforward. But they are not necessarily obvious, nor are they trivial (Jack Nilles, Centre for Future Research)  [8]   IT impacts on Ford and Nissan companies performance and productivity. IT provides organizational and financial benefits for companies. It is changing to business landscape. All companies cultures and business strategies use IT. Business strategy collapsing time and distance, enabling electronic commerce. Organization Culture encouraging the free flow of information. Organization Structures making networking and virtual corporations a reality Management Processes providing support for complex decision making processes. Work dramatically changing the nature of professional and now managerial work. The workplace allowing work from home and on the move, as in telework .  [9]   With the technological development UK car industry is one the leading car industry as Ford, producing a third of its global engine requirement at two UK locations and Nissans Sunderland plant, which is set to be a European hub for battery and electric vehicle production. The combination of investment in British brands and investment in the countrys personnel and plants by foreign companies also brings significant benefits to the full breadth of the UK automotive industry KEY ISSUES The key issue of Nissan is to build the corporate image and foundation in highly competitive environment and is assuming earthquake (EQ) as the most critical catastrophe. While continuous innovation, customers expectations, changing mix, management of diverse workforce are key issues of Ford Company Some of the key issues are as follows. Global production and competition. Consumers spending patterns Emerging Markets Health Care and environmental issues. Foreign Exchange rates Conclusion The management styles can be different in different organization but these management styles should bring great achievement of the organizational goals. By adapting right style of management and leadership in an organization the facilitation of working leadership between various entities of the organization is possible. Thus by comparing the overall management behavior and the structure of the organization for both Ford and Nissan I totally agree that Ford is better than Nissan in all ways. As for as UK car industry is concerned, it is very different as it perceived in 1970`s because majority of British brands are now owned by non British motors group of foreign investors, on the other hand, Aston Martin, more recently owned by Ford. Governmental policies are one the reason of decline in the decline of automobile industry in UK, so government should encourage domestic production and reduce the tariff and taxes.

My Teaching Philosophy Essay -- Education Teaching Essays

My Teaching Philosophy I think my teaching philosophy is best defined as a combination of progressivism and social reconstructionism. David Sadker, author of "Teachers Schools and Society", defines the progressive educator as someone who, "(†¦) facilitates learning by helping students formulate meaningful questions and devise strategies to answer those questions", while social reconstructionism emphasizes cooperation, less conflict, and a better quality of life. These two teaching philosophies in combination seem to both fit my view on how learning should be facilitated and how it should be based. Progressive teachers tend to, like myself, look for inventive, new, and creative ways to see a problem. In putting students into groups they find there are many possible solutions to problems that they would not likely figure out on their own. I also advocate the progressive approach because I think it promotes children to think for themselves, in that if everyone is not researching the same idea or solution they are less likely to depend on someone else to supply the answer, and mo...

Pricing Strategy Essay

To set a pricing strategy, there are number of steps taken into consideration as follows: Step 1: Our pricing objectives are to maximize market share and increase sales volume. This strategy will be used when TrackR is being launched into the market. We charge a reasonable price in order for TrackR to be accessible in the market as quickly as possible and also to encourage the interest and excitement of a product. Because of the low price, we are able to raise the sales volume easily, maximize the market share and reach the economic of scale as soon as possible. In order to boost the sales even more, we will offer promotion followed by the product launch, which will later be discussed in the later section. Eventually, we can penetrate the market and create brand awareness. Step 2: Being a monopoly of TrackR, we have a sole power of controlling price and quantity, but before we set a final price, we must observe the demand. TrackRcan be classified as normal goods for specific groups of people. While the price remains unchanged, people tend to buy more normal goods when their income increases and they less likely to buy normal goods when their income falls. TrackR is price elastic meaning consumers are responsive/ sensitive to a change in price. If we decide to elevate the price of TrackR, the quantity demand will be declined. Step 3: We also need to estimate the costs associated with TrackR. All costs can be broken down into 2 categories; fixed costs and variable costs. Fixed costs include salary, rent, PR and promotion and sales promotion, which come down to 3 million baht per month while the variable costs comprise of unit cost, shipping fee and exchange rate which are 375 baht per unit. Step 4: Analyzing competitors’ costs, prices, and offerings. Our competitors can potentially be online retailers, for example, eBay or Find my iPhone. TrackR eBay Find my iPhone Price ? $25 ~ 800 baht Free Cost No additional cost Shipping fee + duty – Offering Warranty, Service No after sales service Apple products only Step 5: We divide our consumers into 2 segments; B2B and B2C so we will use different strategies to different potential buyers. For B2B buyers, we will sign a contract and sell them over a large volume at a reasonable price range regarding the numbers of unit purchased. By having cost advantages over competitors as you can see on the previous slide, we are able to build up a barrier protecting us from new entrants entering the market. On the other hand, as we aim to achieve our objective of increasing the sales volume, we set an affordable price making it accessible to B2C consumers so we can increase the sales volume and eventually achieve economic of scale. We begin using value based pricing approach for both buyers, which sets prices primarily upon the value perceived/estimated by the consumers rather than the costs of the product. In other words, value based pricing is a valuation of good or service according to how much consumers are willing to pay. We have done a market survey to see at what price consumers would like to spend. It could be somewhat arbitrary but it greatly assistances in an effective marketing of product in understanding impact of good or service has on consumers. We then use break-even analysis, which represents a point at which total cost and total revenue are equal: there is no loss or gain at this point. It purposely uses to determine the minimum output that must be reached in order to make a profit. It is a rough indicator of a marketing activity and also provides a dynamic view of relationships between costs, sales and profits. We also use quantity discount for B2B purchaser, which is an incentive offered to our potential purchasers resulting in a reduced cost per unit of goods when acquired in a greater volume. A quantity discount will be proposed to tempt our buyers to purchase in larger quantities. Step 6: Now, we have come down to a conclusion of TrackR’s final price. Here are the base prices for both B2B and B2C buyers.

Feminist Language Planning Essay

1 Feminism and language There is no doubt that feminism has been and continues to be one of the main social movements of this century. Its impact is felt in many societies around the world and in many spheres of life. The women’s or feminist movement strives, amongst other things, for the elimination of gender discrimination and for the greater recognition of women’s contributions to society as well as aims to change many cultural and social practices which perpetuate patriarchal value systems. Language was and is seen by many feminists as a powerful instrument of patriarchy: for example, the feminist Dale Spender, spoke of the English language as being ‘manmade’ and as being an important contributor to women’s oppression (Spender 1980). It is therefore not surprising that language and discourse practices were and are subjected to feminist scrutiny, often leading to elaborate and detailed descriptions of sexist practices affecting language use. 2. Feminism and linguistic re form Feminists, at least in western societies, also expressed a desire to change the patriarchal and sexist ‘nature’ of language and therefore engaged in various types of linguistic reform or language planning. Although many feminists shared the belief that changing linguistic and discourse practices is an important element in women’s liberation, this did not result in a uniform approach to linguistic reform (see e.g. Pauwels 1998). The social, cultural, political and philosophical diversity which characterizes members of the feminist movement is also reflected in the approaches to and aims for feminist language reform. For example, not all forms of feminism, interpret women’s liberation as a question of achieving mere equality of the sexes. Similarly, not all linguistic reform proposals have as their main aim the achievement of linguistic equality of the sexes. Some reform initiatives primarily aim at exposing the sexist nature of ‘patriarchal’ lan guage by causing linguistic disruptions. The strategies used to achieve linguistic disruption frequently involve experimentation and creativity with all parts of speech. The word ‘herstory’ to refer to history which is not only about men, is an example of linguistic disruption: a morphological boundary has been reconstituted to + on semantic grounds. Creating a women-centred language capable of expressing reality from a female perspective is another prominent objective of some forms of feminist language planning. Proposed changes range from the creation of new women-centred meanings for words like ‘witch’, ‘hag’ and neologisms such as ‘malestream’, ‘femocrat’, graphemic innovations including ‘womyn’ or ‘wimmin’ and ‘LehrerIn’ (German), to developing women-focussed discourses and even creating an entirely new language. An example of the latter is the LÃ ¡adan language created by the science-fiction writer and linguist, Suzette Haden Elgin ‘for the specific purpose of expressing the perceptions of women’ (Elgin 1988:1). Despite this diversity in reform initiatives and objectives for feminist language planning, it is the ‘linguistic equality of the sexes’ approach which has become synonymous with feminist language planning in the eyes of the wider community. This is in part due to the prominence of liberal feminist approaches in the public arena which focus on achieving sex/gender equality. Linguistic discrimination is seen as a form of sex discrimination which can be addressed in ways similar to other forms of sex discrimination (e.g. in employment). In fact the question of gender bias in occupational nomenclature is directly linked to gender discrimination in the employment arena. The prominence of the linguistic equality approach is also due to the media’s attenti on to non-sexist language guidelines, the main instrument of promoting this type of feminist language reform. Advocates of the linguistic equality approach use the strategies of gender-neutralisation (sometimes gender abstraction) and/or gender-specification (feminisation) to attain their goal of creating a language system which allows for a balanced representation of the sexes. Gender-neutralisation involves minimising or eliminating gender-specific expressions and constructions. It entails ‘that any morphosyntactic and lexical features marking human agent nouns and pronouns (or other parts of speech) as masculine or feminine are ‘neutralised’ for gender, especially in generic contexts’ (Pauwels 1998: 109). Examples for English include the elimination of gender-suffixes of -ess, -ette, -(tr)ix in relation to human agent nouns (e.g. hostess, aviatrix, usherette), the creation of compound nouns involving -person (e.g. chairperson, tradesperson), and the avoidance of generic ‘he’. Gender-specification (also known as feminisation) is a strategy used to achieve linguistic equality by making the ‘invisible sex’ (in most cases, women) visible in language through systematic and symmetrical marking of gender. Although English does not use this strategy much (it is found more often in languages with grammatical gender), the use of ‘he or she’, and of phrases such as ‘police women and men’, ‘actors and actresses’ in generic contexts exemplifies the gender-specification strategy. Underlying the linguistic equality approach to reform is a belief that making changes to linguistic forms will contribute significantly to the promotion of non-sexist meanings. 3 Evaluating feminist linguistic reform In the previous section I indicated that there are several approaches to feminist language reform and that the linguistic equality approach is the most prominent and possibly, the most widespread one. In this paper my focus is on the evaluation of the linguistic equality approach. Evaluating the outcome (a result or an effect of an action) is a crucial aspect of any form of language planning. Language planners together with the interest groups, agencies or institutions which encouraged, demanded or sanctioned (allowed) the reforms are usually keen to assess the impact of planning on the linguistic behaviour of the individuals, groups or communities targeted by the reforms. Whereas advocates and/or opponents of linguistic reform are primarily interested in the extent to which the linguistic reform proposals have been adopted or rejected, for language planners the evaluation exercise also provides valuable information on the process of language planning, the factors which facilitate an d/or obstruct change. A further interest for language planners who are also linguistic scholars is the possibility of comparing the process of the spread of so-called ‘planned’ vs ‘unplanned’ linguistic change thus contributing to a better understanding of linguistic change. Here I wish to explore two major aspects of the evaluation of feminist language planning: (1) Evidence of the (successful) adoption of feminist linguistic proposals; (2) Insights into the ways feminist language changes spread throughout the community. The adoption and spread of feminist linguistic reform are examined in relation to a prominent feature of feminist linguistic reform of the ‘linguistic equality’ type: the use of gender-neutral and/or gender-inclusive occupational nouns and titles. Data for this discussion come mainly from English, although reference is also made to Dutch, French and German studies. The discussion of linguistic spread is very preliminary as most data have not yet been subjected to a thorough analysis: i.e. only trends will be noted. 4 Adopting feminist linguistic reform: success or failure? 4.1 Occupational nomenclature In many western societies feminist concerns about gender bias in occupational nouns, professional titles and terms attracted attention primarily through its link with Sex Discrimination Acts and other legislation aimed at eliminating gender-based discrimination in employment. Feminists and women activists in a range of professional bodies highlighted the fact that occupational and professional nomenclature used in employment-related contexts displayed bias in favour of men leading to women’s invisibility in this area of language use. For example, linguistic practices found in many job classifieds assumed applicants to be male. Male-stereotyped language was used to describe applicants (e.g. aggressive, dynamic, virile). The use of ‘masculine’ generic nouns and pronouns (e.g. the applicant – he; storeman, tradesman, cameraman – he) further reinforced the ‘maleness’ of the desired applicant. Research in the 1970s and 1980s (e.g. Bem & Bem 1973, Hamilton 1988, Kidd 1971, Mackay & Fulkerson 1979, Martyna 1978, Pincus & Pincus 1980, Schneider and Hacker 1973, Wilson & Ng 1988) found evidence that masculine generic nouns and pronouns were seldom interpreted in a generic, gender-neutral sense. Instead they were associated with male-specific images in many language users. Two major strategies emerged to eliminate this gender bias in occupational nomenclature: gender-neutralisation and gender-specification (feminisation). Selecting one strategy over another seems partly linked to linguistic typology. Gender-specification as a main strategy is more likely to occur in the case of grammatical gender languages (e.g. German, French, Italian, Spanish) which still have productive gender suffixes (e.g. German). Gender-neutralisation is more likely to be applied to languages with a natural gender system (e.g. English) or languages in which gender suffixes are less or no longer productive (e.g. Danish, Swedish and Dutch). However, the choice of the main strategy is also influenced by extra-linguistic or social arguments. Gender-neutralisation is clearly aimed at ‘taking gender out of the occupational arena’. In other words, the aim is to have a society in which a person’s sex has no relevance or significance for their occupational status. Proponents of the feminisation strategy, on the other hand, argue that it is socially more effective to achieve linguistic equality by showing that there are an increasing number of women in all areas of the paid work force, i.e. women’s participation in the work force needs to be made more visible through the strategy of gender-specification or feminisation. In order to demonstrate successful adoption of feminist linguistic reform in this area of language use, evidence needs to be found that the feminist alternatives are used increasingly in preference to the gender biased forms and that the actual use of the feminist alternatives is in line with their promoted use. In language planning terms , successful feminist linguistic reform entails evidence that the feminist alternatives move from a status of ‘discouraged’ or even ‘disapproved’ use to that of ‘tolerated’, and eventually ‘preferred’ or ‘promoted’ use (Kloss 1968). Findings from Dutch, English, French (see especially Burr in this volume) and German research into the adoption of non-sexist occupational nomenclature confirm that feminist linguistic alternatives are (increasingly) used, although adoption rates vary substantially from language to language and vary according to linguistic context/genre. For the purposes of this paper I will confine the presentation of evidence to that found in relation to the print media (mainly newspapers). English speech communities seem to lead the way in the adoption of feminist linguistic alternatives for occupational terms. Cooper (1984) studied the impact of feminist language planning on the use of masculine generic pronouns and nouns (including occupational nouns) on a corpus of 500000 words taken from American newspapers, current affairs and women’s magazines covering the period 1971 – 1979. He found a dramatic decline in the use of masculine generics, especially of generic ‘man’ and generic ‘he’: their use fell from 12.3% per 5000 words in 1971 to 4.3% in 1979. In New Zealand Meyerhoff (1984) analyzed changes in the use of masculine generics in a corpus of 150000 words taken from five newspapers with a different audience (i.e. a national and a regional daily, a student newspaper, a TV magazine and a women’s magazine as well as a monthly publication of the New Zealand’s journalists’ union). Her study found evidence of a significant reduction in the use of masculine generic nouns and pronouns with the decrease being most pronounced for the student newspaper and the journalists’ union publication. The only publication to support ‘- person’ compounds was the student newspaper. Holmes’ analysis of the occurrence of ‘-person’ vs ‘-man’ and ‘-woman’ compound forms in the Wellington Corpus of Written New Zealand English covering the period 1986 – 1989 found that most such forms occurred very seldom (1 per 1 million words) with the exception ‘spokesperson’ and ‘chairperson’ (Holmes in press). The use of these two forms, however, was considerably lower than that of their masculine generic alternatives: ‘spokesman’ and ‘chairman’. The corpus revealed 6 instances of ‘chairperson(s)’ vs 109 for ‘chairman/men’ and 2 for ‘chairwo man/women’. ‘Spokesperson(s)’ occurred 4 times in the corpus, ‘spokespeople’ once, ‘spokeswoman/women’ twice and ‘spokesman/men’ 36 times. Holmes (in press) did note that the ‘overwhelming majority of the instances of chairman were identifiable as male, a sad reflection of the social reality that it was men who held this position most often, even in 1986’. She found only 4 instances of ‘chairman’ being used to refer to a woman. My own study which comprised a corpus of 200000 words taken from two national Australian newspapers in 1992 and in 1996 similarly found an overall low incidence of -person, -man and -woman compound forms. The number of occurrences of ‘chairman/chairwoman/ chairperson’ revealed the continued predominant use of ‘chairman’, although a breakdown of the numbers according to referents showed that ‘chairman’ was predominantly used to refer to male referents. The few occurrences of ‘chairperson’ and ‘chair’ (see Table 1) do not allow for an interpretation of emerging trends. In the case of ‘chairman’ I would have to agree with Holmes’ comment that its continuing, frequent use reflects the fact that far more men than women continue to occupy this position. It should also be said that newspaper articles are not an ideal source to establish generic uses of this term, as most references to this position specify the incumbent. In the case of ‘spokesman/spokeswoman/spokesperson’ a more substantial change can be noticed: although 38 instances of ‘spokesman’ were recorded, ‘spokesperson’ appeared 32 times. A breakdown in terms of referents showed that 47% of ‘spokesman’ uses referred to a male and that ‘spokesman’ was never used to refer specifically to a female. Most uses of ‘spokesperson’ had no specific referent. There is also some indication that ‘spokesperson’ is being used in connection with male as well as female referents, hence avoiding the trend that the ‘-person’ compound is used as a mere substitution for the ‘-woman’ compound form.

Difference Between Public, Charter and Private Schools

Difference Between Public, Charter and Private Schools Public, private, and charter schools all share the same mission of educating children and young adults. But theyre different in some fundamental ways. For parents, choosing the right kind of school to send their children to can be a daunting task. Public Schools The vast majority of school-aged children in the U.S. receive their education in Amercas public schools. The first public school in the U.S., Boston Latin School, was founded in 1635, and most of the colonies in New England established what was called common schools in the following decades. However, many of these early public  institutions limited enrollment to male children of white families; girls and people of color generally were barred. By the time of the American Revolution, rudimentary public schools  had been established in  most states, although it wasnt until the 1870s that every state in the union had such institutions. Indeed, not until 1918 did all states require children to complete elementary school.  Today, public schools provide education for students from kindergarten through 12th grade, and many districts also offer pre-kindergarten classes as well. Although K-12 education is mandatory for all children in the U.S., the age of attendance varies from state to state.   Modern public schools are funded with revenue from federal, state, and local governments. In general, state governments provide the most funding, up to half of a districts funding with revenue usually coming from income and property taxes. Local governments  also provide a large portion of school funding, usually also based on property tax revenue. The federal government makes up the difference, usually about 10 percent of total funding. Public schools must accept all students that reside within the school district, although enrollment numbers, test scores, and a students special needs (if any) may influence which school a student attends. State and local law dictate class size, testing standards, and curriculum. Charter Schools Charter schools are institutions that are publically funded but privately managed. They receive public money based on enrollment figures. Roughly 6 percent of U.S. kids in grades K-12 are enrolled in a charter school. Like public schools, students do not have to pay tuition in order to attend.  Minnesota became the first state to legalize them in 1991. Charter schools are so named because they are founded based on a set of governing principles, called a charter, written by parents, teachers, administrators, and sponsoring organizations. These sponsoring organizations may be private  companies, nonprofits, educational institutions, or individuals. These charters typically outline the schools educational philosophy and establish baseline criteria for measuring student and teacher success.   Each state handles charter school accreditation differently, but these institutions typically must have their charter approved by a state, county, or municipal authority in order to open. If the school fails to meet these standards, the charter may be revoked and the institution closed. Private Schools Private schools, as the name implies, are not funded with public tax dollars. Instead, they are funded primarily through tuition, as well as private donors and sometimes grant money. About 10 percent of the nations children are enrolled in K-12 private schools. Students who attend must either pay tuition or receive financial aid in order to attend. The cost of attending a private school varies from state to state and may range from about $4,000 per year to $25,000 or more, depending on the institution. The vast majority of private schools in the U.S. have affiliations with religious organizations, with the Catholic Church operating more than 40 percent of such institutions. Nonsectarian schools account for about 20 percent of all private schools, while other religious denominations operate the remainder. Unlike public or charter schools, private schools are not required to admit all applicants, nor are they required to observe some federal requirements such as the Americans with Disabilities Act unless they receive federal dollars. Private schools may also require compulsory religious education, unlike public institutions.

The Early Chesapeake and New England Regions essays

The Early Chesapeake and New England Regions essays While both the New England and Chesapeake regions of America were settled by Englishmen, each developed into two very different regions with their own cultures, laws, and ideas. The three main differences in each region were economy, living conditions, and religious fervor. First, the two regions differed economically. In Maryland and Virginia, settlers began to establish large tobacco plantations during the 1610s and started exporting large tobacco crops after 1617, as they were a more wealth-driven society than New England. In contrast, New Englanders established small farms, on which they raised corn and wheat, sheep, beef cattle, vegetables, and dairy cattle. Moreover, unlike Virginia and Maryland, New England teemed with small shopkeepers. New England also created towns with a sense of togetherness, whereas the Chesapeake region was made up of loosely scattered independent tobacco plantations. Second, living conditions differed in the Chesapeake and New England regions. In the Chesapeake, hot, humid summers, the grueling trip over from England, and the poor water supply all facilitated the spread of diseases. Moreover, landlords overworked beat and even killed their indentured servants. Consequently, the lifespan in the Chesapeake region was somewhere under 40 years. In contrast, New England's weather made it less likely to house disease. Furthermore, the labor requirements of New England were much less than that of the indentured servants of the Chesapeake, thus limiting fatigue. In New England, one would expect to live to the age of 60. Third, the degree of religious fervor differed in New England and the Chesapeake regions. The Pilgrims came to Massachusetts in 1620 to establish an ideal Christian community. Likewise, in 1630 John Winthrop and other Puritans had settled in the Massachusetts Bay are to establish a "City upon a Hill," which Winthrop hoped would be a pious and ethical community. To serve in the ...

Business Ethics

Business Ethics Essay I own a local business that provides Internet access to individuals and businesses, my business is one of four businesses in the local market that provide internet access to both individuals and businesses. Each of the four businesses charges the same price of twelve dollars a month for unlimited dial up services. My businesses breakeven price is seven dollars per customer, so no matter what I must charge it least seven dollars per package in order to cover all my costs. Recently my business and the other three businesses have begun to enter into a price war, to ensure that my business isnt destroyed I will have to develop specific pricing strategies based on certain situations brought upon by my competitors. Demand for my businesses service is often fluctuating because of the constant price changing between my competitors and I. Demand for my service is affected by changes in prices because people are drawn more toward the lowest priced Internet service providers The provider that offers the most bonuses and upgrades along with a strategically low priced internet service, will most likely succeed in bringing in the most customers. Dramatic price drops by my competitors would make it hard for my business to stay afloat because my breakeven price is seven dollars per person, so if they drop their prices to seven dollars or less, then my business would probably have to close because of insufficient profits. My business has three competitors selling the same service as I am, and most any of their business decisions can affect my business in either a positive or negative way. If those businesses are able to drop their prices and offer more extras with their Internet service than my business is able to, it could result in a dramatic loss of business for me and a gain of business for my competitors. The opposite could also occur, my competition could start losing profits and have to raise their prices to maintain operations. In this instance some of their customers might switch to my Internet provider so they wouldnt have to pay higher prices. My customers who were previously thinking about switching to one of my competitors will now decide to stay with my business rather than switching to a provider with fluctuating prices. Having too many of the same kinds of businesses (such as an internet service provider) in the same area, results in a loss of business for everyone because now consumers have so many options of which business to choose form. Where as if my business was in an area where it was the only Internet service provider or it had only one business competing for consumers, I would have a much larger amount of customers. Other than price changing, there are many other methods I could use to attract new customers and retain current customers. One method which some of my competition has used to gain new customers is by offering extras with their service. Extras such as, free personal web pages, free e-mail services, and answering machine services so that dial up users wont have to worry about missing important calls. Another way of attracting new customers would be to use different marketing techniques or perfecting the current marketing techniques that my business uses. I could use different kinds of media to attract specific target markets by using market segmentation. I could use Internet media to my advantage by having a sufficient website promoting my business, Internet marketing would be extremely helpful to my business in particular because anybody who goes to my website would be using some form of Internet which would make them a potential customer to my service. Other ways of attracting new customers would be to target certain groups, for instance my business could market in college campuses that for a certain time period all college students can have their first six months of service at seven dollars rather than the original twelve dollars per month. By doing this I open up the door to potential long-term customers because college students are going to need the Internet for the rest for their lives. By targeting them at a young age my business could try and fulfill their current .

International Business Law Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

International Business Law - Essay Example India has no data protection law and therefore, there is no law regulating the protection of personal data of staff and employees that are kept in the databases of companies. What India has is the Information Technology 2000 (IT Act 2000) which prohibits the disclosure of data by a person who has secured access to it without the consent of the person whose personal data is being disclosed. The foregoing piece of legislation has therefore, a very narrow application and does not really protect information in company databases from persons who have no secured access to it (Spedding & Rose 307). In a contract where two parties come from different countries, two sets of law are naturally involved – that of the host country and that of the country of the outsourcing party. In such instances, the parties to the contract must expressly signify in the contract which law must govern the parties’ contractual relationship. Under the Indian judicial system, the choice of law of the parties called â€Å"the proper law of the contract† is respected and upheld by the Indian courts. Thus, if StoneTechnical enters into an agreement with an Indian counterpart for the outsourcing venture, the parties must agree by themselves which law should govern their contractual obligations and in case of a dispute under which law should the rights of the parties be determined. In addition, foreign judgments are enforceable in India so long as a reciprocal arrangement exists between India and the country of the outsourcing or FDI country as can be gleaned from the provisions of the Indian Civil Procedure Code. In the absence of such an arrangement, enforcement of such judgment can be had through the filing of an action for its enforcement (Sople 2009 p. 96). Aside from the foregoing, particular legal issues for outsourcing that are not potentially advantageous to StoneTechnical are the following: absence of at-will employment; statutory protection in employment to a class of

Domestic Terrorism Final Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Domestic Terrorism Final - Essay Example In addition, ethnic refugees such as Cuban and Puerto Rican, support local movements that support independence or regime change. One of the main attractions for foreign terrorists in the US is the ability to raise money. While this somewhat distorts the technical definition of 'domestic terrorist', it does indicate the level of cooperation, even when the goals are self-serving. According to Ehrenfeld and Lappen (2007), "A major funding source for terrorist and criminals is the trade in illegal drugs". It has been well publicized that "Islamic extremist organizations, primarily Hizballah, and, to a lesser extent, the Sunni extremist" groups have been cooperating with international terrorists in South America, such as FARC, to raise funds through the drug trade (Hudson, 2003, p.14). These drugs are then marketed through US groups, and according to John Sullivan of the Los Angeles Sheriff's Department, "organized crime groups in Los Angeles County are supporting international terrorists" (qtd. in Ehrenfeld and Lappen, 2007). 2.) The Internet has become a powerful tool because of its capability to communicate around the globe instantaneously. As with all other technology, it is not the technology that creates the problem. It is the user. Freedom of speech and the right to privacy hold conflicting roles when we examine private communication that incites violence. The public display of speech or information that incites or advocates violence or illegal activity is already illegal in the US (Finkleman, 2006, p.178). A web site that calls for the destruction of property or lives should be taken down by law enforcement and the perpetrators pursued. However, private communication should be considered as a separate issue. E-mails and private messages that travel across the Internet should be treated no differently than printed material. The US has a long tradition of constitutional guaranteed freedoms that included freedom of speech. Most intelligent people also understand that with this freedom comes a responsibility. We are not free to say anything, anywhere. However, private conversations are given extreme consideration, and electronic correspondence should be considered private conversation. I would object to the government intrusion. Though I have nothing to hide, there is the potential for government officials to use their authority to pursue or oppress their political opponents. There is the fear that the label 'terrorist' could be applied to well intentioned social movements, or people who plan to engage in the time honored protest of civil disobedience. Removing freedom of speech from private conversations is a step down a slippery slope that should not be taken. 3.) By definition, 'domestic terrorism' must involve a criminal act. According to the US criminal code Title 18, Part I, Chapter 113B, 2331 (5A), the activity must "involve acts dangerous to human life that are a violation of the criminal laws of the United States or of any State" (US Code Collection, n.d.). However, there is a significant difference between disturbing the peace by blocking the entrance to an abortion clinic and the burning of a business, such as the vandalism that did over $1 million damage to the U.S. Forestry Science Laboratory in Rhinelander, Wisconsin that was blamed on the Environmental Liberation Front (ELF) (Terrorism 2000/2001, 2004). The difference is

Petroleum Resources and the Economy of Angola Essay

Petroleum Resources and the Economy of Angola - Essay Example In this literature review this issue is studied taking a look at the conflictive positions regarding the "resource curse" that have been taken by different researchers along the years. We have to keep in mind that any kind of resource can't be a curse in itself as it is logical to assume. Everything depends on the use we give to a specific resource. In this line of thought it is obvious that ultimately the effects of petroleum resources on a nation have to be positive. Indeed they should be a blessing rather than a curse as we will see in this literature review. "Even until the mid-(1950s), coal was still the world's foremost fuel, but oil quickly took over. Following the 1973 energy crisis and the 1979 energy crisis, there was significant media coverage of oil supply levels. This brought to light the concern that oil is a limited resource that will eventually run out, at least as an economically viable energy source." (Wikipedia, 2006i). Petroleum is a finite resource, and besides this fact there are some negative environmental side effects that are valid reasons to discourage its use as the Ecology Center argue among other important facts about petroleum. Let's see: "No corner of the world is left untouched by the effects of petroleum ex... Many negative effects are well documented, such as global warming, habitat destruction, and political conflicts over oil supplies. But the petroleum economy extends its often hidden reach into many other aspects of life on our planet. Petroleum, used for transportation, industry, and mechanized agriculture, is the backbone of globalization. Institutions of global trade, such as the World Trade Organization (WTO), work hand in hand with oil companies, while militaries provide the armed backup to protect these interests." (Ecology Center, 2003). The position of Ocean Engineering and Energy Systems (OCEES) favors Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion (OTEC) as an alternative fuel produced by the power of the sea. OCEES points out the negative effects of wars as detrimental environmental consequence of the political conflicts around oil control (OCEES International, n. d.). One relevant aspect to be considered about the finiteness of petroleum resources is the "oil peak" established by the Hubbert Peak Theory regarding the terminal depletion of all petroleum resources. The Wikipedia states the following about the oil peak and its practical consequences. "Given past oil production data and barring extraneous factors such as lack of demand, the model predicts the date of maximum oil production output for an oil field, multiple oil fields, or an entire region. This maximum output point is referred to as the peak. The period after the peak is referred to as depletion. The graph of the rate of oil production for an individual oil field over time follows a bell-shaped curve: first, a slow steady increase of production; then, a sharp increase; then, a plateau (the "peak"); and, finally, a steep decline." (Wikipedia, 2006f). Even though the Hubbert Peak Theory has faced

Read the passage and answer the four questions provided Essay

Read the passage and answer the four questions provided - Essay Example ut as by that law of out nature, which makes food necessary to the life of man, population can never actually increase beyond the lowest nourishment capable of supporting it†(Malthus, 431). Basically, this means that nature has made it so that humans must have food and water to survive, and this is how nature keeps the population in check because without enough nourishment humans will die, which keeps the population down. When the human population is at the appropriate equilibrium, there is enough food and resources to go around, which makes for a happy society. Thomas Malthus makes the assumption that the more food and resources that are available, the quicker the human population and demographics will grow. Without enough food to go around, the population is not likely to increase as the birth rates will decrease and death rates will increase, which creates a more stable population. Malthus believes that the period between the doubling of the population will be much lengthier if food becomes much more difficult to acquire(Malthus, 431). Overall, these assumption do appear to be valid in that it is common sense that without sustenance, any population is less likely to succeed and thrive. To a certain extent, the argument developed by Malthus appears to have some roots in the idea of natural selection. The overall idea with natural selection is that the strong will survive, and the weak will perish. With this type of argument in mind, it is fair to say that public relief for the poor is essentially going against natural selection. By providing food and charity to the poor, this weak population is being kept alive instead of dying off like nature intended it. Therefore, in the view of Thomas Malthus, public relief should be discontinued or halted altogether because keeping poor people alive continues the process of draining nature’s sustenance for the strong. In this way, charity is very harmful to the Earth and the human population as a whole because the

Is police brutality justifiable in the United States Essay

Is police brutality justifiable in the United States - Essay Example The answer to this question is more complex than initially thought. Social media do an excellent persuasive job in misconstruing public opinion based on cases of justified excessive police force and cases where the force is questionable. This delicate issue in our society at the moment is sweeping our nation and dividing Americans by ethnic groups, depending on the victimization of each case that hits the news. A wide range of allegations on police brutality in the United States tend to give rise to broad discussions in public. As usual, there are two opposite points of view on the issue which are represented in the dichotomy â€Å"reasonable force vs. police brutality†. Representatives on both the sides rely greatly on what they get from the media coverage of events and not many of them refer to official surveys which can shed light upon the problem under discussion. Before addressing the above-mentioned research, it is necessary to give a clear definition of what reasonable force means though. As it is stated in legal papers, the police have a right to use a â€Å"reasonable force†. Overall, the law states clearly in what cases one can use a reasonable force. Among such circumstances are self-defense, defense of other people or property, lawful arrest and prevention of a crime. In fact, common citizens are also allowed to use force in these situations; the standards for police officers are higher though. In any case, the use of such force appears to be reasonable under given circumstances (Fitch 234-235). In other words, one, in this case, a police officer, must believe that the force he / she (still usually he) uses is justifiable and not excessive at the same time. To see how a serving police officer assesses a situation in which he might use force, how the police are taught, an interview has been conducted. The interviewee is a serving police officer who he asked not to give his name that is why he will be referred to

Compare and Contrast Research Methods Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Compare and Contrast Research Methods - Essay Example These research methods are applied in almost every field of study but their implementation in the field of business management and marketing is slightly more. For testing and analyzing quality measures, this research method plays a vital role and its significance holds a prestigious supremacy. In research methods, qualitative measures provide essential information which eventually helps in the formation of hypothesis. It has given a new sphere and horizon to the field of business management and development process in refining these techniques more is taking place (Hair, Celsi and Page, 2011). Following are some of the renowned qualitative research method approaches along with the comparison and debate with projective techniques. Their significance in business administration and usage is discussed with a conclusion to get an exact idea about the implementation and implication of these research methods and projective techniques in the mode of studies. Focus Groups To examine the impact of a product or service in the market, a focus group session is the most recognized technique. Focus group is basically a qualitative set of methodology in which people from diverse backgrounds are invited and a discussion session takes place. The discussion session is controlled by a moderator. ... (Blumberg & Schindler, 2008). (Lewis & Saunders, 2009) demonstrate that the implication of this research method is widely done in almost all major modes of studies. This gives a horizon that what actually people think. Focus group participants can vary from research to research. For instance to check out the performance of a car, focus group discussion takes place. The panel members in this discussion would be product manufacturing engineers, consumers, analysts, journalist, market guru’s and future potential customers. Their depiction of thoughts will be the quintessence of this discussion. Moderator will ask certain focused research based questions from the panel members. Members upon their respective turn will present their views. The proposition of this tactic is mostly done in the subject of psychology, sociology, marketing and its sub branches, human resources management etc. Market Surveys To get the concrete picture about the thinking of consumers, market surveys act a s the backbone. It has vast implication and is done in approximately research work. Market surveys provide the various ideas of people about a product, service or any other issue. People from diverse backgrounds provide their review about a certain product or service. They also bluntly demonstrate that what are the shortcomings and plus points of the product. Their representation of non fragmented thoughts makes this research technique powerful. Literate, illiterate- all consumers present their ideas clearly (Eriksson & Kovalainen, 2008). Market surveys are done in all the capacities to check out the positioning of a product or service. For instance to check out the impact of a certain mobile phone among users and customers, cell phone market survey will be done

Is police brutality justifiable in the United States Essay

Is police brutality justifiable in the United States - Essay Example The answer to this question is more complex than initially thought. Social media do an excellent persuasive job in misconstruing public opinion based on cases of justified excessive police force and cases where the force is questionable. This delicate issue in our society at the moment is sweeping our nation and dividing Americans by ethnic groups, depending on the victimization of each case that hits the news. A wide range of allegations on police brutality in the United States tend to give rise to broad discussions in public. As usual, there are two opposite points of view on the issue which are represented in the dichotomy â€Å"reasonable force vs. police brutality†. Representatives on both the sides rely greatly on what they get from the media coverage of events and not many of them refer to official surveys which can shed light upon the problem under discussion. Before addressing the above-mentioned research, it is necessary to give a clear definition of what reasonable force means though. As it is stated in legal papers, the police have a right to use a â€Å"reasonable force†. Overall, the law states clearly in what cases one can use a reasonable force. Among such circumstances are self-defense, defense of other people or property, lawful arrest and prevention of a crime. In fact, common citizens are also allowed to use force in these situations; the standards for police officers are higher though. In any case, the use of such force appears to be reasonable under given circumstances (Fitch 234-235). In other words, one, in this case, a police officer, must believe that the force he / she (still usually he) uses is justifiable and not excessive at the same time. To see how a serving police officer assesses a situation in which he might use force, how the police are taught, an interview has been conducted. The interviewee is a serving police officer who he asked not to give his name that is why he will be referred to

Romeo and Juliet Character Sketch - Juliet Essay Example for Free

Romeo and Juliet Character Sketch Juliet Essay Juliet Capulet is one of the main characters in Romeo and Juliet, a famous play written by Shakespeare. Juliet is a beautiful, young 13 year old girl. Despite her age, she is pressured from the very beginning of the play to get married, preferably to a young nobleman named Paris who is a relative of the Prince of Verona. During the opening scenes of the play, Juliet seems to be an obedient and naà ¯ve child who always obeys her parents wishes. However, throughout the play we see Juliets sense of independence develop when she makes the outrageous decision to marry Romeo behind her parents backs, and fake her own death. She evolves into someone who is capable of making their own decisions; however her actions are also defiant and rebellious. Juliet is a 13 year old teenager, who will be 14 years old on July 31st, also known as Lammas Eve. I imagine that due to her young age and wealthy family that Juliet is a very small, dainty, well-kept and polished teenaged girl. Juliets appearance is not described in detail in the play, however in Romeos soliloquy at the beginning of Act 2, Scene 2, he describes Juliet as bright when he says It is the east, and Juliet is the sun. Referring to her as the sun is a metaphor for her being bright. He gets more in depth and describes her as a fair sun in line 4. Therefore, I imagine she has pale, white skin. Romeo also says in Act 2, scene 2 The brightness of her cheek would shame those stars which proves that she has pink rosy cheeks. Romeos soliloquy in Act 2, scene 2 proves what a beautiful, bright, and fair young girl Juliet is. However, dont be fooled by her dainty appearance; Juliets actions throughout the play would paint a different, more mischievous picture of her in your mind. Juliets actions change quite drastically throughout the play. At the beginning of Romeo and Juliet, Juliet seems to be a very obedient teenager who follows her parents orders and does not stand up for what she really wants. For example, in Act 1, scene 3, Lady Capulet asks Juliet Can you like of Paris love? Juliet is quick to agree with her mother by saying: Ill look to like, if looking liking move. This proves that Juliet is naively obedient, and will do as her parents say even if what they want for  her is not what she wants. Juliet has given no thought to the idea of marriage, especially to Paris since she is only 13 years old and does not know him, yet she follows her parents orders to give him a chance. However, after Juliet meets Romeo at the ball, her obedience and loyalty to her family dwindles away. Juliet begins to disobey her family, and evolves into someone who can make their own decisions, whether they are good or bad. She falls in love with Romeo; a Montague, a member of the Capulets feuding family. She makes plans to marry him the day after she meets him without telling her parents and they spend their wedding night together in her room at the Capulet mansion. This shows that she is rebelling against her parents by marrying someone from the feuding family, and someone who is not Paris. Furthermore, Juliet makes another defiant decision towards the end of the play. When Lady Capulet tells Juliet about her wedding arrangements with Paris in Act 3, scene 5, Juliet adamantly and angrily refuses the proposal by yelling He shall not make me there a joyful bride. Shortly after Juliets argument with her mother and father about the wedding, the nurse suggests that Juliet marry Paris to please her parents. Juliet does not take the nurses advice and responds with Ill to the friar, to know his remedy; if all else fail, myself have power to die. Juliet takes matters into her own hands and is finally standing up for what she wants. She is not letting her parents or even the nurse influence her decisions anymore. All of these actions show Juliets maturity, and growing sense of independence, but also her new defiant, disobedient ways. Juliet is quite a courageous, passionate, and dramatic person. Throughout the play, Juliet deals with emotional situations quite dramatically and is quick to make drastic decisions on impulse. For example, the second Juliet lays eyes on Romeo, and in their next few encounters, she is so very passionate about how she feels about him. In Act 2, scene 2, she expresses how much she loves him, which may seem overly dramatic since she barely knows him. Juliet makes the impulsive decision to marry Romeo, without really thinking it through which shows how quick she is to make drastic decisions. Juliet makes an extremely courageous and very risky decision in Act 4, scene 3. She decides to take the poison Friar Laurence made for her which will knock her unconscious for 42 hours, despite all of her worries about it not working or  possibly killing her. She takes the poison because she is so passionate about being with Romeo that she would do anything, even fake her death in order to be free of her family and able to leave Verona to be with him. Despite Juliets young age, she is truly a brave and passionate girl who does not let anything stop her from getting what she wants. Furthermore, one of the major events of the play takes place in Act 5, scene 3 when Juliet stabs herself with a dagger after waking up to find Romeo lying dead beside her. Juliet makes the drastic decision to end her own life after finding Romeo dead. This shows her fast decision making skills, and also her passion and love for Romeo. She did not kill herself out of weakness from what she had just seen, but because she would not feel right living without the man that she loves so deeply. Killing yourself out of passion for another human being shows extreme courage and bravery which Juliet has plenty of. Although Juliet is portrayed as a naà ¯ve 13 year old girl at the beginning of the play, Shakespeare made it a very prominent part of Romeo and Juliet to show how Juliet evolves into an independent, brave and passionate young woman. She begins to rebel like most teenagers do and defies her parents, but nonetheless she did it to stand up for what she wants and believes in and I think that shows extreme courage, bravery, and independence.

Violence Through The Eyes Of Hannah Arendt Philosophy Essay

Violence Through The Eyes Of Hannah Arendt Philosophy Essay In this essay I will try to the best of my understanding to evaluate and critically analyse subject of violence through the eyes of Hannah Arendt. The title of the book is called On Violence and has been written by Hannah Ardent and published in 1969. In this book Hannah Ardent tries explaining the subject of violence in a historical context and questions the nature of its use. She also re-examines the relationships between politics, war, violence and power and uses other theorists to differentiate her point. My purpose in writing this, is to critically analyse chapter 2 from this book in order to understand how successful the authors argument is and how effective are the example she use to prove her argument. I will then finally identify any examples that disprove of the authors argument and provide my own understanding of political concepts. How successful is the authors argument? The historical background of the essay was depressing and chaotic in all domains: in the international arena it was the clash between West and East, North and South, in internal politics, and even on the level of personal life, this is when she has lost her husband. What makes her essay so outstanding and even classical, in the sense of both timeless and timely, is her vigorous defence of politics against its simplistic and increasingly prevalent equation with violence. Without supporting a radical form of pacifism, Arendts text sought to justify the integrity of politics, construed as concerted action or shared exercise of public power, in the face of a growing fascination with violence and the progressive colonization of public life by violent strategies and ideologies. Hannah Arendt in chapter two tries to define what she sees as the key concepts that must be understood for the construction of any theory of violence.  Ã‚  Concepts such as power, authority, force, legitimacy and explains and defines power, violence, authority, force, strength and clarifies their relationships with one another. The author evaluates these concepts and provides examples to enhance understanding of the subject to illustrate her point. Her approach will be understood by most social scientists, that you cannot describe reality correctly if your linguists are faulty.  Ã‚   She says that it is A rather sad reflection on the present state of political science that our terminology does not distinguish among such key concepts. Arendt identifies and acknowledges the enormous role violence has always played in human affairs.  Ã‚   According to Arendts argument there is a great shortage of real critical analysis on the role and function of violence in human society no one engaged in thought about history and politics can remain unaware of the enormous role violence has played in human affairs, and it is at first glance rather surprising that violence has been singled our so seldom for special consideration She attempts to identify the connections if any between these theories of violence and what she calls the suicidal development of modern weapons that have become central to the arsenals of violence produced by governments in the post war world. As Arendt sets her analysis of violence within the tradition of the enlightenment the means-ends and cause-effect debate pose one of the central paradoxes for her. All the authorities that she quotes have strong opinions on the question of violence and its role and function in society.  Ã‚   Arendt argues that there is a general consensus that Violence is nothing more than the most flagrant manifestation of power.  Ã‚   She quotes Max Webers definition of the state as the Rule of men over men based on legitimate that is allegedly legitimate violence. Arendt does not agree with such a consensus because she says that to accept such a consensus you would have to Equate political power with the organization of violence and this only makes sense if you follow Marxs estimate of the state as an instrument of oppression in the hands of the ruling classes. She believes that no government exclusively based on the means of violence has ever existed or ever existed for more than a very short period.   The crucial reason for this according to Arendt is that in the Power Violence relationship there is a fundamental ascendancy of power over violence.  Ã‚   Governments in order to exist need power but they do not necessarily need violence.   She believes that power needs no justification but its needs legitimacy.  Ã‚  Ã‚   While violence can destroy power it can not create power.   Arendt believes that Power and Violence are opposites and where one rules absolutely the other is absent.  Ã‚   Rule by violence comes into play only when power is being lost.  Ã‚  Ã‚   A short definition that Arendt refers too is that power equals institutionalized force and that violence is a manifestation of power. phenomenologicallyà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ is close to strength, since the implements of violence, like all other tools, are designed and used for the purpose of multiplying natural strength until, in the last stage of their development, they can substitute for it This analyzes the implications for modern governments modern peoples on the significance of civil obedience and consent we have to decide whether and in what sense power can be distinguished from force to ascertain how the fact of using force according to law changes the quality of law itself and presents us with an entirely different picture of human relations How effective are the examples they use to prove their argument? Hannah Arendt argue that it is insufficient to say power and violence are not the same and believes that they are opposites Power and violence are opposites and not the same as where the one rules the upmost and the other is absent. The author uses Alexander Passerin dEntreves opinion in order to prove her point. Passerin visualises violence as the most fragrant manifestation of power. This is what the author of the book The Notion of the state illustrates, we have to decide whether and in what sense power can be distinguished from force to ascertain how the fact of using force according to law changes the quality of law itself and presents us with an entirely different picture of human relations What counter-examples can you identify that disprove the authors argument? (you must properly reference your sources. Atleast two alternative sources must be identified. Foucault truth and power From completing this task what have you learnt about the particular political concept? It is clearly seen that Ardent believes that to exercise power people need to gather together and act in a group. As she says: Power  corresponds to the human ability not just to act but to act in concert. Power is never the property of an individual; it belongs to a group and remains in existence only so long as the group keeps together.   Ardent believes that power does not belong to single man but it springs up whenever people act in concert. Her concept of a power as a property of a group sounds interesting but is not practical. . Violence, she writes, can always destroy power. Out of the barrel of a gun grows the most effective command, resulting in the most instant and perfect obedience. What never can grow out of it [violence] is power. [For example, violence and threat of violence by the emperors Caligula and Nero did not enhance their power. It diminished their power.] Arendt writes that In a head-on clash between violence and power, the outcome is hardly in doubt   as in a military against collective non-violent resistance (power). But, she adds, Nowhere is the self-defeating factor in the victory of violence over power more evident than in the use of terror to maintain domination, about whose weird successes and eventual failures we know perhaps more than any generation before us. Violence, she sums up, can destroy power; it is utterly incapable of creating it. Writing at the end of the 1960s, Arendt was critical of the advocacy of violence by blacks critical of Martin Luther Kings non-violent movement, and she took issue with the advocacy of

Versaces Men Without Ties :: Versace Image Advertising Essays

Versace's Men Without Ties Men Without Ties (p.25, Hannah) reveals a male figure, athletically built, broad shouldered, narrow-waisted, muscular legged, with one Versace necktie in hand and two tied around the waist. The figure is captured in a dynamically dashing pose, choreographed to show off his muscles, built, vitality and gracefulness. Men Without Ties is one of many nude poses in Versace's Men Without Ties, a portfolio album of his works. Here, Versace puts together a collection of sketches, designs and magazine advertisements, inserted into such avante-gard fashion magazines as Vogue, Elle, Bazaar, etc. for his Mens Wear collection. Here, Versace introduces to the general public, to the passionate collectors of Versace clothes and to those fans with an eye for fashion, his idea and concept of the "New Man," Versace's man without ties. This "man without ties refers directly back to Roman sculptor's Diskobolos a marble copy of Greek's original of c.450BCE . (Diskobolos is one of many surviving Roman copies of Greek sculptures, indicating Greek art and sculptures' prominent and long lasting influence on Roman civilization and society). This heroic- sized statue depicts a nude athlete, a discus thrower at the moment when the discus is swung furthest back, at the very decisive moment just seconds before the discus will be soared into the air (p.114, Robertson). Discus Thrower type sculptures, art and architecture is typical of Greek High Classical and Hellenistic art and concerns. High Classical and Hellenistic art desire to portray healthy and vigorous athletes of ideal physical proportion and beauty, to represent the vigorous, healthy and active Greek individuals and citizens. In this way, sculptures, along with other art mediums and architecture, hope to elevate Greek's victory and to celebrate Greek's triumph of a democratic and enlightened city-state over Persia's imperial forces; Greek civilization over Persia's barbarism; reason over animal passion. Both Man Without Ties and Diskobolos , as mentioned, portray a vigorous, athletic figure, dancing theatrically in dramatic actions and gestures. Whereas Diskobolos is rendered in sculptural, life-size, three-dimensional form, Man Without Ties is rendered in a two-dimensional, black-and-white photograph. Nevertheless, both mediums further express Greek High Classical and Hellenistic arts' concern for a more expressionistic figure, one that conveys and appeals directly to the senses through this lustrous glistening of surfaces and emotions. The action-figures are now able to reach out beyond its "contained" space and into the immediate surrounding environment. The figures now seem to impose themselves forcefully upon the spectator, provoking the viewer's response to the dramatic situations.

Hamlet †the Wise Polonius :: GCSE English Literature Coursework

Hamlet – the Wise Polonius      Ã‚   The older gent in Shakespeare’s tragedy Hamlet, namely Polonius, is no type character. Rather he is quite rounded and complex. This essay will explore his character.    In the Introduction to Twentieth Century Interpretations of Hamlet, David Bevington presents Polonius as similar to Hamlet in various ways:    Polonius, his [Hamlet’s] seeming opposite in so many ways, is, like Hamlet, an inveterate punster. To whom else but Polonius should Hamlet direct the taunt of â€Å"Words, words, words†? The aged counselor recalls that in his youth he â€Å"suffered much extremity for love, very near this,† and he has been an actor at the university. Polonius too has advice for the players: â€Å"Seneca cannot be too heavy, nor Plautus too light.† When Hamlet jibes at â€Å"so capital a calf† enacting Julius Caesar, killed in the Capitol, he reinforces the parallel to his own playacting and anticipates the slaying of Polonius behind the arras. (4)    In â€Å"Shakespeare’s Nomenclature† Harry Levin discusses the name â€Å"Polonius’ and other names from the play:    The Latinism Polonius reminds us of the Polish question, moot throughout Hamlet, where the onomastics are polyglot. If Marcellus and Claudius are Latin, Bernardo and Horatio are Italian, and Fortinbras signifies â€Å"strong arm† not in Norwegian but French (fort-en-bras). On the other hand, the son of Polonius has a Greek godfather in Laertes, the father of Odysseus. The Scandinavian names, at least the Germanic Gertrude, stand out because they are in the minority. (79)    What’s in a name like Polonius? Polonius’ entry into the play occurs at the social get-together of the royal court. Claudius has already been crowned; Queen Gertrude is there; Hamlet is present in the black clothes of mourning. When Laertes approaches Claudius to give his farewell before returning to school, the king asks Polonius: â€Å"Have you your father's leave? What says Polonius?† And the father dutifully answers:    He hath, my lord, wrung from me my slow leave   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   By laboursome petition, and at last   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Upon his will I seal'd my hard consent:   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   I do beseech you, give him leave to go. (1.2)    So right at the outset the reader/viewer respects the lord chamberlain as a very fluent spokesman of the language, and respectful of his superior, the king. Later, in Polonius’ house, Laertes is taking leave of his sister, Ophelia, and, in the process, giving her conservative advice regarding her boyfriend, Hamlet. Hamlet – the Wise Polonius :: GCSE English Literature Coursework Hamlet – the Wise Polonius      Ã‚   The older gent in Shakespeare’s tragedy Hamlet, namely Polonius, is no type character. Rather he is quite rounded and complex. This essay will explore his character.    In the Introduction to Twentieth Century Interpretations of Hamlet, David Bevington presents Polonius as similar to Hamlet in various ways:    Polonius, his [Hamlet’s] seeming opposite in so many ways, is, like Hamlet, an inveterate punster. To whom else but Polonius should Hamlet direct the taunt of â€Å"Words, words, words†? The aged counselor recalls that in his youth he â€Å"suffered much extremity for love, very near this,† and he has been an actor at the university. Polonius too has advice for the players: â€Å"Seneca cannot be too heavy, nor Plautus too light.† When Hamlet jibes at â€Å"so capital a calf† enacting Julius Caesar, killed in the Capitol, he reinforces the parallel to his own playacting and anticipates the slaying of Polonius behind the arras. (4)    In â€Å"Shakespeare’s Nomenclature† Harry Levin discusses the name â€Å"Polonius’ and other names from the play:    The Latinism Polonius reminds us of the Polish question, moot throughout Hamlet, where the onomastics are polyglot. If Marcellus and Claudius are Latin, Bernardo and Horatio are Italian, and Fortinbras signifies â€Å"strong arm† not in Norwegian but French (fort-en-bras). On the other hand, the son of Polonius has a Greek godfather in Laertes, the father of Odysseus. The Scandinavian names, at least the Germanic Gertrude, stand out because they are in the minority. (79)    What’s in a name like Polonius? Polonius’ entry into the play occurs at the social get-together of the royal court. Claudius has already been crowned; Queen Gertrude is there; Hamlet is present in the black clothes of mourning. When Laertes approaches Claudius to give his farewell before returning to school, the king asks Polonius: â€Å"Have you your father's leave? What says Polonius?† And the father dutifully answers:    He hath, my lord, wrung from me my slow leave   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   By laboursome petition, and at last   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Upon his will I seal'd my hard consent:   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   I do beseech you, give him leave to go. (1.2)    So right at the outset the reader/viewer respects the lord chamberlain as a very fluent spokesman of the language, and respectful of his superior, the king. Later, in Polonius’ house, Laertes is taking leave of his sister, Ophelia, and, in the process, giving her conservative advice regarding her boyfriend, Hamlet.