Civil War Essays (4872 words) - Forms Of Government,

Civil War In this meeting of the Southern Historical Association great emphasis has been placed upon a re-examination of numerous phases of our history relating to the Civil War. While several papers have dealt with certain forces which helped bring about the Civil War, none has attempted a general synthesis of causes. This synthesis has been the task assumed by the retiring president of the Association. Before attempting to say what were the causes of the American Civil War, first let me say what were not the causes of this war. Perhaps the most beautiful, the most poetic, the most eloquent statement of what the Civil War was not fought for is Lincoln's Gettysburg Address. That address will live as long as Americans retain their love of free government and personal liberty; and yet in reassessing the causes of the Civil War, the address whose essence was that the war was being fought so that government of the people, by the people and for the people shall not perish from the earth is irrelevant. Indeed, this masterpiece of eloquence has little if any value as a statement of the basic principles underlying the war. The Civil War was not a struggle on the part of the South to destroy free government and personal liberty nor on the part of the North to preserve them. Looked at from the present perspective of the world-wide attempt of the totalitarians to erase free governments and nations living under such governments from the face of the earth, the timeworn stereotype that the South was attempting the destruction of free government and the North was fighting to preserve it seems very unrealistic and downright silly. In the light of the present-day death struggle between freedom and the most brutal form of despotism, the Civil War, as far as the issue of free government was involved, was a sham battle. Indeed, both northern and southern people in 1861 were alike profoundly attached to the principles of free government. A systematic study of both northern and southern opinion as expressed in their newspapers, speeches, diaries, and private letters, gives irrefutable evidence in support of this ass ertion. Their ideology was democratic and identical. However, theoretical adherence to the democratic principles, as veil we know all too well in these days of plutocratic influences in our political life, is not sufficient evidence that democratic government exists. I believe that I shall not be challenged in the assertion that the economic structure of a section or a nation is the foundation upon which its political structure must rest. For this reason, therefore, it will be necessary to know what the economic foundations of these sections were. Was the economic structure of the North such as to support a political democracy in fact as well as in form? And was the economic structure of the South such as to permit the existence of free government? Time does not permit an extended treatment of this subject; it will be possible only to point out certain conclusions based upon recent research. By utilizing the county tax books and the unpublished census reports a group of us conductin g a cooperative undertaking have been able to obtain a reasonably accurate and specific picture of wealth structure of the antebellum South, and to some extent that of the other sections. We have paid particular attention to the distribution of capital wealth and the ownership of the means of production. As has been generally known the Northwest was agricultural and its population predominantly small farmers, though a considerable minority were large farmers comparable with the southern planters. It seems that in 1860 about 80 percent of the farmers in the Old Northwest were landowners. A fairly large fraction of the remaining farm population in that area were either squatters upon public lands or were the members of landowning families. Only a small per cent were renters. In those areas farther west the ownership of land was not as widespread because the farmers had not yet made good their titles to the lands that they had engrossed. Taken as a whole the people of the Northwest wer e economically self-sufficient. They could not be subjected to economic coercion and, hence, they were politically

Torture Issue in Todays Society Essay

Torture Issue in Todays Society Essay Torture Issue Nowadays Essay Example Torture Issue Nowadays Essay Example The research paper covers the topic of the torture issue. To be more specific, it studies the question whether torture is acceptable in the modern world. In order to understand the problem, the essence of the torture issue is described. Two opposite points of view on the question are represented. The arguments for and against torture usage are covered. The opinion of the investigator and the arguments, which support the position of the researcher, are discussed. The conclusion concerning the unacceptability of torture in the contemporary society is made. Is Torture Ever Acceptable? The modern society is a democratic one: it defends human rights and struggles for peace and equality for people. Nevertheless, humanity still has a number of unsolved issues, which contradict the norms of the democratic society. Persons can often face such occurrences as wars, terrorist attacks, murders, cruelty among adults and even among young generation. One more issue, which takes place in today’s democratic society, is torture. This is the question that provokes debates all over the world. The main topic, which is discussed in relation to this problem, is whether torture is acceptable and can be justified. People have two opposite points of view on this problem as well as on all contradictory issues of the current time. Some individuals confirm that torture can be justified, especially when it refers to the violent criminals such as terrorists, murderers, maniacs, and rapists. Others express opposite position and tell that nobody deserves being tortured, no matter who a p erson is. Thus, it is evident that torture issue is controversial and disputable, and it does not have a single solution yet. People have tried to define the torture during different periods of time. As a result, there are different definitions of this phenomenon based on various beliefs, time and country of origin, social norms, and other criteria. Nevertheless, in spite of the differences, which influenced definitions of researchers, the main idea remains common: torture is â€Å"the torment and suffering of the body in order to elicit the truth† (Peters, 1996, p. 1). However, analyzed concept can not be only of physical nature but also of psychological one. Both types of torture are used to make a victim do or say what is needed for his/her abuser. Torture is a widespread phenomenon nowadays. It can occur in everyday life in any family or community, or it can take place on the governmental level. In both cases, this action is cruel and destructive. The research paper is about to have a closer look at the issue discussed in order to understand how and why it is used in the contemporary democratic society. As it has been mentioned above, torture can be of physical and psychological nature. It is evident that physical torture is different from the physical abuse such as beating or other kind of hurt. As a rule, physical torture is aimed at provoking physical pain of a victim. The second type of torture is psychological one. While carrying out this type of torture, an abuser makes everything possible to make a victim suffer emotionally. An abuser can threaten a victim with hurting him/her, force to look at pain of his/her close people, make him/her feel psychological stress by threatening with kidnapping relatives or friends of a victim. Torture has been used by people since ancient times, and it still takes place in the modern world. Any person can face torture in everyday life: for example, at home or at school, university, or work. It is a frequent occurrence when children or teenagers threaten each other or beat those, who are weaker to get what they want. Domestic violence can be also regarded as a kind of torture. Nonetheless, torture is also used on the governmental levels. It is applied by police officers to obtain information from violent criminals or terrorists. Some researchers, such as Henry Shue (1978), confirm that sometimes torture serves not as a way to know the truth, but even more – to defend a country: â€Å". . . a number of governments are heavily dependent upon torture for their very survival† (p. 124). Viewpoints on the Issue: For and Against It is evident that torture is an inevitable part of life nowadays. However, it is cruel as for the society that aims to be democratic, and it is condemned by numerous politicians and governments of the world. Nevertheless, it still exists. This incongruity determines debates around the torture issue. As it has been stated previously, people are divided into two groups on the basis of their beliefs: one group of individuals justifies torture, while another one condemns it and says it should not be applied to anyone. According to the data from Debate.org (n.d.) survey, the above-indicated two groups of opponents are almost equal: 51% of people justify torture, and 49% condemn it respectively. In this regard, it is needed to consider the main arguments for and against torture issue to understand its essence better. First of all, it is necessary to mention that people, who think that torture is acceptable, do not agree it should be always applied. In most cases, they believe that it ought to be acceptable only in relation to such violent criminals as terrorists. One of the arguments, which are used to defense torture, is that it can be used if it â€Å"both meets some test of reasonableness in prospect (minimum torture necessary, no alternative, high probability of success, and so on) and succeeds† (Davis, 2005, p. 173). Thus, it is obvious that groundless and ill-conceived torture will not be justified. The second argument, which defenses torture, is referred to terrorists, who threaten a great number of people. In relation to this case, the researchers confirm that modern state of society force governments â€Å"to inflict pain on one guilty person than place at risk hundreds or thousands of innocent people – potential victims of a terrorist atrocity† (Bellamy, 2006, p. 12 4). Moreover, it is confirmed that torture can be not only acceptable but even justified. Therefore, there is a belief that it can be â€Å"morally justified in just those cases where the moral right of the innocent to live preempts the moral right of the ‘guilty’ to be exempt from ‘retaliation’† (Davis, 2005, p. 171). Another point of view is that torture is unacceptable in the contemporary society The following arguments are represented in order to prove this belief. Torture is considered as unacceptable because it contradicts moral and legislative norms (Chazelle, 2009). Torturing people means doing harm to their health and sometimes even life. However, Universal Declaration of Human Rights (n.d.) and domestic laws of majority of countries claim that â€Å"everyone has the right to life.† Moreover, there is an article which says that â€Å"No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment† (Universal Declaration of Human Rights, n.d.). It is evident that torture contradicts laws, and that it why persons condemn such actions. One more thing, which is used to argue that torture should not be used today, is that the information got under torture is not always true. For instance, some people, for example, terrorists, who are convinced that their actions are right, and they conduct a terrorist attack for some important goals, will not say any information. The â€Å"goal† for which they do their evil is more important than their lives, and they do not care about themselves. Hence, it is probable that they will suffer pain and even die but will not tell the truth. However, there is another type of individuals who cannot suffer physical or psychological pain that is why they will tell wrong information or tell anything in order to stop torture. Thus, it turns out that torture is not effective, and there is no reason to use such cruel methods. Having analyzed different points of view on the torture issue, and having found arguments for and against torture in the works of the researchers and journalists, it became interesting what reasons ordinary people provide while discussing the issue. with respect to the issue, I carried out a survey, which included 5 questions. The respondents were the Internet users. The results of the survey are based on the answers of 37 people, who took part in the process. The majority of respondents believe that torture is acceptable and even justified. As for the arguments for the torture usage, people name getting important information from terrorists and criminals, making criminals feel and understand what their victims feel when suffering, evaluating torture as effective way of getting information, and so forth. Moreover, people, who support torture, are sure that punishment, which violent criminals and terrorists get, is not fair in relation to pain, which their victims and families of vict ims suffer. Opponents, who regard torture as an unacceptable occurrence, stress that it is immoral, illegal, ineffective, and non-democratic. Moreover, they say that torture causes torture, and using this method for any purposes contradicts the norms of democratic society and is destructive. While studying information concerning the issue, it has been found out that people often encourage others to think what they would do if their relatives were kidnapped by terrorists. In this way, the last question of the survey is aimed to understand how people are going to behave in such situation. As it turned out, the majority of people hesitated to answer the question, and could not give a clear reply. Torture Is not Acceptable Having analyzed information concerning the torture issue, its essence, and different points of view on it, I would like to express my opinion. Regardless the fact that the majority of people support the idea that torture is acceptable and justified, I cannot agree with this position. I believe that torture is unacceptable in the modern society. I would like to represent the arguments to support my perspective. First and foremost, I believe that it is illegal. As it has been mentioned above, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights includes the statement that no one can be tortured. Thus, if someone is tortured, it is illegal. It appears that if police officers or representatives of government allow things like torture to occur, even in case with violent criminals or terrorists, it means that they break the law. Thus, they give bad example to ordinary people to follow. As government is an example for the nation, it can lead to negative consequences. For instance, people may start thinking that if government can torture citizens, so they can too, and cruel behavior can spread in everyday life of individuals. On the other hand, torture may be used with good intentions – to know where terrorists hid the bomb or to save innocent persons. However, if government decides to fight criminals with cruel measures, the representatives of authority will be remembered as tyrants, and there is no guarantee that cruel methods will always work. The second argument against torture is that it destroys democratic society. Nowadays, the majority of countries of the world consider themselves being democratic states. In other words, they protect human rights; they want to make the world peaceful, and change life of people for better. Nevertheless, the goals of democratic society disagree with their actions. For example, journalists often speak about America’s attitude to the torture issue. What is more, it is a well-known fact that the USA is a democratic country. On the contrary, it is confirmed that Americans used such torture techniques as hypothermia, water boarding, prolonged isolation, stress positions, and sensory deprivation to â€Å"enemy combatants† who were imprisoned in Guantanamo Bay (Lindley, 2013). Thus, it is evident that even democratic countries use tortures. Nonetheless, each time using such cruel methods, they make society less democratic. Torturing people, no matter who they are, governments or police officers contradict democratic laws, and return to society of ancient times, when individuals did not know other kinds of treating criminals except threatening, beating, or killing them. However, ancient people understood that such measures were not as good as they thought, and they took steps to make society better, and created democracies. Modern humans live in such society, and I believe that it is necessary to correspond to the democratic norms otherwise people will degenerate, and return to the society of ancient times with its cruelty. As it has been discussed earlier, torture can be of two types – physical and psychological. No matter what kind of torture is used, both of them have negative consequences. Hereby, I believe that physical tortures as well as psychological ones â€Å"leave deep psychological wounds† (Lindley, 2013). Period of torture, which was experienced by a victim, will forever remain in his/her mind. At best, torture will be only a negative experience and unpleasant memory for the whole life of a victim. It can also lead to numerous psychological disorders such as stress, insomnia, constant fear of pain and people. At worst, torture can provoke negative traits of character in individuals, e.g. spite and desire to revenge. Even if a person, who was tortured, will not revenge, his/her relatives or friends may want to hurt those who had made their close person suffer. It is obvious that revenge for physical and psychological pain will be cruel, and, certainly, it will be regarded as il legal actions. Thus, the whole family or families can be imprisoned. If torture is applied to people, who are not citizens of this or another country, it can even lead to the international conflict or even war. One more argument against torture is that the information, which is got from victims, is not always true. As it has been noted above, people, who are tortured, can be nominally divided into two groups – those, who will never tell the truth under any pain, and those, who will tell anything in order to avoid sufferings. To the first group terrorists can be determined, whose beliefs are grounded on religion. As a rule, religion is the strongest belief, which can rule people. Therefore, terrorists are often desperate, and they have nothing to lose. It makes such persons strong and invulnerable to any threats: they are not afraid to die; they do not value lives of their families (if they have them at all); there is nothing sacred for them except their aim. With regard to the issue, they are ready to suffer any pain and even die in order to perform their â€Å"mission.† The second type of people is those who cannot suffer pain, and they will tell false information or say anyt hing to stop tortures. Such behavior will not lead to positive results. For example, if a criminal, who hid a bomb in a public place, gave false information during the torture and police evacuated people from the place, which was named by a criminal, a number of innocent people, who were in the real place of explosion, will be injured or die. Thus, no matter to which people torture is applied, it is an ineffective way of getting information. The last but not least argument against torture is that it is not always used to real criminals. It is evident that the workers of police, courts, and governments are people, and all humans are predisposed to make mistakes. In a situation when an innocent person is wrongly accused in terrorism, one is considered being a violent criminal. Of course, the innocent person will refuse every accusation and will not tell anything concerning a crime because he/she really has no relation to it. However, as police is sure that this is a real criminal, and he/she lies or tells nothing, police officers will search for more â€Å"effective† methods of getting information. In this case, if such person is tortured as a violent criminal, harmful consequences can occur: an individual will definitely suffer pain, and negative psychological effects of torture will remain for the whole life. This situation can have two solutions. At best, law enforcement agencies will understand that a person is innocent, free him/her and apologize. Nonetheless, hardly their apologies will recover a state of a tortured. At worst, a charged unfairly will not be able to suffer pain and will admit a crime he/she did not commit, and will spend years in prison. Besides, no one knows what kind of person will return after years of punishment for a crime, which he/she did not commit. Regardless the fact that modern society is democratic, the torture issue still remains controversial and disputable. People discuss this problem for years, and express two opposite points of view. Some individuals believe that torture can be acceptable and even justified nowadays. The others confirm that torture cannot be applied to anybody, no matter who a person is – an innocent citizen or a terrorist. The advocates of torture tell that this method of getting information is acceptable because it is effective. Additionally, it gives criminals a possibility to feel what their victims have felt, and it is fairer than any punishment criminals get for their crimes. People, who are against torture, believe that it is immoral, inhuman, illegal, and ineffective. In my opinion, torture is unacceptable in the contemporary world because of several reasons: First of all, it destroys democratic society. Secondly, torture usage on the governmental level serves a bad example for ordinary persons, and it can lead to the rise of cruelty levels in everyday life. Moreover, torture always leads to psychological disorders, which make people more aggressive than they were before. Torturing people can result into such negative consequences as desire to revenge, international conflicts and wars. At last, torture is not an effective way of getting information, and sometimes it can be falsely applied to innocent people. Although the torture issue is still debatable and unsolved, I believe that people should pay more attention to this problem in order to address it. Besides, they should do it in the way which will not do harm to both human rights and democratic society.

Thames Water Case Study Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words - 1

Thames Water Case Study - Essay Example As regards the second, Thames’ decision to let employees go and its failure to keep wages stable in real terms, means that it does not regard its employees as stakeholders. Thames is failing to uphold both its corporate social responsibility and to define employees as stakeholders is not a sustainable situation. Certainly, the company is reporting profits at the moment, probably due to the fact that there is no substitute threat to their product but, in the long-run, the company will loose out and its profits will decline. It is extremely important that Thames redefine its employees as primary stakeholders and, directly connected to this, adopt a corporate social responsibility framework. Through a review of the theory on employees as stakeholders and the relation of corporate social responsibility to the stated, this research shall illustrate that there is an immediate connection between corporate social responsibility and the acceptance and treatment of employees as stakeholders, on the one hand, and between these two and corporate success on the other. Corporate social responsibility refers to the level of an organizations involvement in the improvement of the quality of life of its community, and its acceptance of the fact that it has an important role in improving quality of life (Margolis and Walsh, 2003). Even though there is no precise definition for quality of community life,’ since it is dependent on many factors, such as socio-political climate, the state of the economy, the type of industry attempting to identify the problems, and location of the business, among others, the fact is that it refers to the degree to which an organisation gives back to the community and regards itself as part of the community (Carroll, 1999; Margolis and Walsh, 2003). Corporate social responsibility is founded upon an organisation’s understanding of the social issues which

Can a machine have a conscience Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Can a machine have a conscience - Research Paper Example Computers have failed to exhibit creativity, free will or emotions. Most machines operate by their components. Therefore, machines have zero consciousness. Despite the argument that computers, for example, have the ability of performing computation roles and are sufficient in possessing conscious mind, computers have no conscience. It is quite evident that computations have the ability of capturing other systems causal organizations. However, computers have no mental properties within them. In most cases, machines operate under instructions (Hall, 45). Running the right computations kinds does not instantiate mental properties in the computers. There is more to mental properties and consciousness than simply operating a computer. There are various consciousness aspects, which are deemed necessary for anything to be artificially conscious. Such aspects are not available in machines. However, with technological progress in the future, the possibility of machine conscience is still open. This will, however, require aspects such as awareness, learning and anticipation. In this case, anticipation would mean that the computers have the predicting ability something, which makes the whole, process

Shareholder Theory and Kants Duty of Beneficence Essay

Shareholder Theory and Kants Duty of Beneficence - Essay Example While Friedman argues that an organization must have only one purpose; to utilize all of its resources to increase profits and nothing else, Bowie bases this claim on Kant’s argument, that an attitude of pure self-interest contradicts our call to be helped by others. Bowie argues that ‘society’ has assisted organizations, in the form of infrastructure e.g. roads, sanitation facilities, police security, ï ¬ re protection, etc., and therefore corporations owe a duty of ‘beneï ¬ cence’ back to society (Mansell, 2012). A way forward has been suggested in the article to harmonize the divergent views of various theories and to reduce the difficulties that may been to face the duties of corporations. The bodies should establish formal policies or codes of conduct that include the ethics of the non-shareholders in the society. This has been demonstrated in the principles of the UN Global Compact. Kant in overall recommends that acts of benevolence should be made a matter of right rather than obligation. Instead of rejecting the shareholder theory, it can be extended to involve the well-being of non-shareholders (Mansell,

Communal Riot In India Media Communications Essay

Communal Riot In India Media Communications Essay Communalism is a pervasive phenomenon in the public life of India and communal riots are the ugliest expression (Gopal Krishna, Communal Violence in India1985). Communal riots have become an integral part of communalism in India. An event can be classified as a communal riot on two grounds. Firstly, if there is violence. Secondly, if two or more communally identified groups confront each other or the members of the other group, at some point during the violence (Varshney, 2002). The reason behind such communal riots can be superficial and trivial; though deep within there are political reasons behind such events (Varshney, 2002). India is not new to communal riots; the first recorded riots were in the year 1714, 1715, 1716 and 1750 in Ahmedabad (Rajeshwari, 2004). Bipin Chandra in his book â€Å"Communalism in Modern India† writes that the maximum communal riots in India took place during 1923-26. Communal riots in India are not spontaneous and are rarely due to any religious animosity. They usually arise due to conflicting political interests, which are often linked to economic interests (Rajeshwari, 2004). During the 1960s till the late 1980s, the local political and economic factors played a significant role in instigating the riots in major parts of India (Engineer, 2002). However, since then the emergence of Hindtuva politics, it has been the major cause of communal riots (Engineer, 2002). The role of news media in reportage of communal riots in India is a major area of concern. Everything is reported in the media, so are communal riots. The role of the news media has grown in recent years, perhaps because of the centrality of the news media in communal violence and conflicts (Wolfsfeld, 2007). Even the most casual of observers wont deny the increasing significance of news media under such crisis situations. The influence of the news media in peace processes is more subtle, in part because what is not reported in the media is in some ways more important than what is reported. This paper would look at the way Indian media covered and reported the two most horrific incidents of communal violence in India the 1984 Sikh riots in New Delhi and the 2002 Gujarat (Godhra) riots. On both occasions the media drew criticisms. The paper would discuss if the media has been objective in covering both riots and also as to what should be medias role in coverage of such future communal riots in India, if any. 2.The Changing Face of News Media The global media sphere is changing with each passing second. New communications technologies such as camera enabled mobile phones and laptop computers are giving journalists an opportunity to gather and disseminate information with normal ease. This digitization of the news industry has led to compression of time and space and thus enabled us to see news and images of conflicts as and when they happen. The images broadcasted in our living rooms are not only informing the global audience of the horrific happenings but might also instigate further violence in an existing violent situation. As a result, the medias reporting of a conflict situation has become as central to the unfolding of the conflict itself. With the evolution in technology the tyranny of distance might have reduced but various hidden realities and factors still affect the reporting of conflicts. This is proved by a study done by Virgil Hawkings, who explains that the conflict in Africa which has been in the post-Cold war world responsible for nearly 90% of the worlds war deaths suffered a complete media blackout. Similarly, the coverage of the massive war in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), which resulted in over one million deaths in the year 2000, was almost insignificant (Hawkins, 2008). Since the media has a powerful ability to reach large number of people. It ignites the opinion building process and impacts the political decisions and audience reactions in the society. This eventually shapes the course of prevalent crises and conflicts (Ballantine, 2003). 3.The Media, Religion and Politics With the planes hitting the Twin Towers on 11 September, 2001 the relationship between media and religion changed forever. Karim (2003) suggested that religion would become an important topic for the media and the way media covers events would be influenced by the religious undertones. It is arguable if the world and its religions have changed or not, but the media coverage of the same surely has. Within India, religion has a large impact on the personal lives of millions of people. The country practices almost every other religion known to the world and this is one of the most important facets of the country, so is politics. The politicians play on the religious issues every now and then, and media is used as the platform. The politicians communicate with the common mass through the mass media. The way in which we know and find about our politicians is through the media. It is the media that serves as the main channel of communication between the politicians and the public. Religion is one of the subjects in India which the politicians intelligently use to their advantage. Academic literature has covered the representation of conflict in religion as well as media and religion but not much has been researched on media, religion and conflict situations in context with each other, especially within an environment like India. It would be difficult to understand the relationship between religion, its construction, presentation and conflict situations covered in the media, without some reference to the broader political context within which it takes place, because in a nation like India, religion is certainly driven by political motives. In order to understand the role media plays and should play during communal clashes in India, let us analyze the two worst communal riots India has ever seen the 1984 Sikh riots and the 2002 Gujarat riots. 4.The 1984 Sikh Riots in New Delhi 4.1 The Events On 31st of October 1984, the Indian Prime Minister, Indira Gandhi was assassinated by two of her Sikh bodyguards. What followed was a complete mayhem and it led to a lethal anti-Sikh riots in India. Sikh homes were systematically singled out in the capital and brutally destroyed (Tatla, 2006). The Sikhs were hounded, tyres were put around their neck, and petrol doused on their faces and bodies set ablaze to brutal death (Mohanka, 2005). More than 3,000 Sikhs were killed in New Delhi itself. Two hundred Gurudwaras, the place where Sikhs worship, were burnt down and many Sikh owned shops were looted. 1 The situation worsened when the newly elected Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, the son of Indira Gandhi was quoted, â€Å"When a big tree falls, the ground beneath is sure to rumble†. This gave a sense as if Rajiv Gandhi was giving a boost to the killers who were assassinating hundreds of Sikhs in the streets of New Delhi (Mohanka, 2005). Mrs. Gandhis assassinators were avenging Operation Bluestar. In the June of 1984, Mrs. Gandhi, wanted to flush out few terrorists, led by Jamail Singh Bhindranwale, who were hiding in the precincts of the Golden Temple, the holiest shrine for Sikhs in India. On the 3rd of June, 1984 a 36 hour curfew was imposed in the Sikh dominated state of Punjab. All methods of communication and travel were suspended. Electricity supplies were interrupted, a total black out was created and Punjab was cut off from India and rest of the world (Brar, 1992). On the night of 5th of June, the Indian Army under the command of Major Gen. Kuldeep Singh Brar stormed into the Golden Temple. By the morning of the 7th of June the Indian Army had full control of the temple. The militant leaders were killed in the two day battle but along with it a large number of pilgrims, civilians and children were also killed (Ahmed, 1996). The Sikh community were agitated. Their holiest shrine was turned into a bloody battlefield and innocent lives were lost. Saran Singh, a retired bureaucrat and a famous member of the Sikh community in India quotes â€Å"It was sacrilege to send troops inside, open fire and in the process kill innocent devotees gathered to observe the martyrdom (Mohanka, 2005). From June to September 1984 most members of the Sikh community nursed a festering wound only to blurt out in Indira Gandhis assassination. 4.2 The Indian Medias Coverage of Operation Bluestar and the Sikh Riots Media by its nature plays an extremely important role for any socio-political situation irrespective of the boundary it holds (Mohanka, 2005). The medias role in the riots of 1984 is an interesting case. Scholars believe that media can play a role in focussing on a cause much before it takes an ugly turn. In the case of Punjab in 1984, the local media was not supportive of the Sikh causes. Moreover, since of beginning of the problems in Punjab, the government had a strict control on the media and imposed a heavy censorship. Since independence until the invasion of cable television in India, the electronic media has served as the mouthpiece of the government (Das, 2009). Similar was the role of the electronic media in Punjab during the riots. The Government had such tight control over the media that the foreign correspondents trying to capture the horrific events were not even allowed in the local land. The Indian Government acted as a strict visible gatekeeper and made it impossible to approve journalist visas for foreign correspondents. The events of the 1984 riots thus suffered not only from biased media coverage but also selective coverage which projected one sided selected perspective (Das, 2009). The media blackout during the Operation Bluestar is a prime example of the same. The day before the actual invasion by the Indian Army, the Government ordered all press out of the state and restricted press coverage in Punjab. The press was allowed only a week later on special organised guided tours. The aftermath was later described by the press, as involving a small gang of criminals disliked by the majority of Sikhs and Indians. The press described the militants as petty political agitators, rather than leaders of a movement for a greater Punjab autonomy, as believed by a majority of Sikhs. Similarly, during the reportage of the 1984 riots there were discrepancy between the press release of data and images and the actual severity of the violent situation that prevailed in the streets of New Delhi (Das, 2009). This usage of selective information in the Indian media only contributed to the ambiguous image of Sikhs throughout the nation and failed to bring out their plight in the light. During the Sikh Movement the Government of India had passed the National Secu rity Act (1980), the Punjab Disturbed Areas Ordinance (1983), The Armed Forces Special Powers Act (1983) and the Terrorists Affected Areas (Special Courts Act of 1984). These acts provided the police and army with sweeping powers. They could charge and curtail to the right to life under specific situations. The approach of the media during the crisis had been partisan to take into account all types of multidimensional problem, historical, political, socio-economic and ideological. The media only focussed on special restricted information and ignored a careful examination of all the issues and processes that had led to the mayhem, the riots. During 1984, Indian leaders were free to make up non-existent stories and broadcast through Government controlled radio and television channels. Since there was a major restriction on the foreign press, all foreign news correspondents were left with no choice but to take the twister news of the local government controlled media. The United States of America, The House of Representatives had a view point on the same. It said: â€Å"As a result the outside world receives a biased one side view of what goes on in Punjab because the Indian Government has control over most of the domestic media. This contributes to the stereotype that all Sikhs are extremist radicals who are terrorising the predominantly Hindu nation and that is just not the fact. If the Indian Government has nothing to hide it should remove the news blackout and permit outsiders into Punjab. The free flow of information is essential to the prevention of rights and liberties in a democratic society and India claims to be the worlds largest democracy. So, they should act as the worlds largest democracy. This is the foundation for a democratic nation and is not too much to ask of India to respect the rights of all its people and not just the Hindu majority. It is not right for any government to deny 16 million of its own people the basic political and civil rights. India has a moral obligation to protect the Sikh community† The national newspapers reporting on the Sikhs made no distinction between a regional political party, a handful of militants, and the entire Sikh community. Even the senior editors and columnists of the national newspapers considered all Sikhs accountable for the assassination of Indira Gandhi and provided no sympathy to the community during the riots. Through the critical years of political crisis in Punjab before the horrific riots, the national dailies had not help resolve the issue. The Times of India, one of the leading national dailies and The Hindustan Times did more to incite hostility between Hindus and Sikhs than perhaps any other national English language newspaper (Das, 2009). The media was a part of the misinformation carried out in the public. The best example of the same would be when a national newspaper carried out an article reporting that huge quantities of heroin and drugs had been recovered within the Golden Temple complex and the same had been used by the militants to illegally fund their operations. Since, the foreign press was banned in Punjab; they picked up the story based on the 14th June Press Trust of India (PTI) news report from the government sources. This news was carried out in the major international newspapers. One week into the incident, the government retracted the official report on the grounds that the drugs had been recovered from the India-Pakistan border and not the Golden Temple complex. This retraction by the government was not picked up by most international news agencies and the damage done by the initial report falsely remained amongst the mass. 3 Many scholars believed that the Indian media forgot to prioritize issues and failed to act upon them. Senior Indian journalist, Manoj Mitta along with H. S. Phoolka in the book â€Å"When a Tree Shook Delhi† writes that the media focussed on the assassination of Indira Gandhi and did not care enough about the Sikh murders during the riots. Mitta says: â€Å"The media by and large went by the official line on the carnage. It focused on the happenings at Teen Murti Bhawan, where Indira Gandhis body lay in state and where from people around the world had come to pay respect. So photographers were flocking to that place and the killings that were simultaneously going on in the capital did not get recorded at all. Its bizarre but true.† Not all were pleased by the Indian medias coverage of the riots. 5.The 2002 Gujarat Riots 5.1The Events On the 27th of February 2002, the Ahmedabad bound Sabarmati Express train reached a small town in Gujarat named Godhra (Yeolekar, 2002). Instead of the usual stoppage for 5 minutes the train stopped for 25 minutes and then moved out of the platform. Before the train could run at its normal speed, the alarm chain was pulled to stop the train at Signal Falia, a Muslim inhabited locality. No one clearly knows what really happened but after few minutes the compartment S-6 was on flames. 58 passengers including 26 women and 12 children were burnt to death (Yeolekar, 2002). Among the passengers were the Kar Sevaks travelling from Ayodhya. There have been different theories believing that Muslims were behind this barbaric act. If this wasnt barbaric enough, what followed in the days to come shook the entire secular nation of India. During the next three days, from the 28th of February to 2nd of March, 2002 Muslims were butchered, massacred and burnt alive. Out of the 24 districts in Gujarat, 16 were entangled by organized mob attacks in which over 2,000 Muslims were killed, 200 mosques and religious and cultural monuments were sent to rumbles (Sawant et al, 2002). The Muslim community of Gujarat suffered an enormous economic blow with an overall loss of Rs 35 billion. 5.2 The Indian Medias Coverage of the Riots 5.2.1 The Television Coverage For the first time in the history of communal clashes in India, ‘violence was carried live on television (Ninan 2002) as the television cameras brought across the horrific images to viewers home in Gujarat and elsewhere. There was no live coverage of the attacks against the Sikhs back in 1984 or the Babri Masjid fiasco in 1992. Those were the era of print media and television was limited to Doordarshan, a state owned channel. It was only in 1996 when, Rupert Murdoch ventured into India with the STAR network and STAR News happened Indias first 24 hour news channel 4. This addition to the television spectrum of India added a new visual dimension to politics, violence and public sphere in India. In 2005, the television newscape had turned dense with a large number of players entering the market; several 24 hour news channels were launched. This led to intense competitive brand of journalism, which was evident during the Gujarat riots. There were a large consortium of journalists and television crews from various channels on the streets in Gujarat, each trying to outdo each other. When the Gujarat violence happened, the private television in India had been broadcasting for about 8 years and was easily accessible by 40 million amongst the 81.6 million Indians who owned television sets (5 notes). This option offered by the private television gave the Indian viewers unprecedented access to independent broadcasting. When the first pictures of Gujarat riots were telecast on Indian screens on 27 February, the three major news networks in India Star News, Aaj Tak and Zee News did not follow the guidelines formulated by the Press Council of India, a quasi-judicial watchdog organization (Mehta, 2006). The guidelines mentioned not to reveal the identity of victims or attackers in the news reports but all the news networks carried blaring headlines about the killing of the Kar Sevaks 6. The guidelines were against the mentioning of victims or attackers as Hindus or Muslims because they feared it could inflame passions and lead to revenge attacks. The television news networks with its striking visual images made this guideline redundant. While covering the riots in Gujarat, the television journalists openly identified the victims and the attackers. Varadarajan argues for the naming of communities. He states that not naming the communities increases a sense of suspicion and anxiety amongst the ordinary citizens not only in the riot affected area but throughout the nation. Then people tend to assume that the victims are their own while attackers are the other (Varadarajan, 1999). Famous Indian journalists, Rajdeep Sardesai and Barkha Dutt of STAR News justified their stand of naming the communities. Barkha Dutt stated, â€Å"Naming the community under siege in Gujarat was moot of the story. In fact it was the story, revealing as it did a prejudice administrative and political system that was happy to just stand by and watch.†(Mehta, 2006). The bold and independent media coverage by the television media during the riots invited flak from the political actors in powers who were shown in bad light. Criticizing the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)and the Hindutva approach in the riots got STAR News and English newspapers like The Times of India and Indian Express bad press (Sonwalkar, 2006?). The BJPwas in power in the state of Gujarat and at the centre in New Delhi. After the initial violence, when the news coverage of the attacks against the Muslims in Gujarat started to reflect badly on the state and central government, the leaders came down heavily on the journalists and media personnel. The Prime Minister, Atal Bihari Vajpayee addressed the nation a day after the attacks, regretting the ‘disgraceful violence. He later on added that the news media were presenting an ‘exaggerated account of the situation in Gujarat (The Times of India 2002a check book). The BJP and the state government under Narendra Modi singled out STAR News and banned cable operators from showing the channel in the state. The viewers in Ahmedabad, one of the worst affected regions in the riots, were left with blank television screens, unaware from the reality happening on the streets (Mehta, 2006). Cable operators received calls from local officials in Ahmedabad and other cities to completely black out STAR News, Zee News, CNN and Aaj Tak (The Times of India 2002a). Dossiers and ‘hitlists on journalists were reportedly prepared while the channels which dared to reveal the truth and were critical of the Chief Minister and his plan of actions were not invited to the press conferences and hence were denied the basic right to information by the state itself (Sardesai 2004). The main complaint of the BJP and its allies were that the news media did not cover and criticize those who were responsible for the Godhra train tragedy in which 58 Kar Sevaks were victims. This however remains untrue as the every news channels and major newspaper had covered the Godhra train tragedy exclusively, but the follow ups did not remain as ‘the story of the day because the Union Budget followed on 28 February. The budget coverage was pushed aside when the mass killings and large scale retaliation against Muslims started in various parts of the state (Sonwalkar, 2006?). Another criticism was that, the national media ‘inflamed communal passions by providing graphic television coverage of the dreadful events. The journalists and the news professional came out against the criticism and said that the level of violence would have been much worse if only the news media brought out the real picture by the graphic images. The BJP and its allies also christened the media as ‘Marxist-Mullah combine and the ‘Secular Taliban for criticising the attacks against the Muslims. Members of the Editors Guild of India visited the affected regions in Gujarat and were told by a group of Hindutva supporters that the Hindu community has been defamed with the coverage only being from the Muslim perspective: ‘They only listen to Muslims and ignore the Hindus (Patel et al, 2002). Sardesai explains the predicament faced by journalists in covering the riots: â€Å"(If ) any reporter, whether print of television, sees large-scale violence being committed, is the journalist to ignore the hard reality and merely present the facts as seen through the government binoculars? If the Chief Minister says that the situation is returning to normal even while reports are streaming in of continuing violence in several parts of the state, are not the lies to be exposed? And if the government insists that the army is out on the street when the fact is that the army has been kept on stand-by and is waiting for transport trucks, whose version is to be broadcast?† (Sardesai, 2002a) 5.2.21 The National Press Coverage If the graphic coverage by the television channels hit the headlines and created criticisms, the nature of the press coverage also came under the hammer. The coverage by the print media makes an interesting study. There were two different approaches followed by the local and the national media. The local section of the press, including the Gujarati dailies Sandesh and Gujarat Samachar, covered the events from a pro-Hindutva stand and justified the killings of hundreds of Muslims. While the national media, including The Times of India and the Indian Express, were overtly critical of the channelized attacks against the Muslims (Sonwalkar, 2006?). The team of Editors Guild of India met several journalists, correspondents, editors, Chief Minister Narendra Modi and others to conclude that the English-language national press played an exemplary role in coverage of the riots. BJPs allegations of media playing an aggravating role in coverage of the riots have been dismissed by many scholars. Patel argues that the allegation was ‘specious, self-serving and must be dismissed† (Patel et al. 2002). The Editors Guild of Indias team observed that: â€Å"Our finding is that the prompt and extensive portrayal by the national media of the untold horrors visited on innocent people in the wake of the Godhra carnage was a saving grace. The exposure of the supine is not complicit attitude of the State and manifest outpourings of communal hatred, stirred the conscience of the nation, compelled remedial action, howsoever defensively and belatedlyHowever, the role of the sections of the Gujarat media, specially the Gujarat Samachar and more notably Sandesh, was provocative, irresponsible and blatantly violative of all accepted norms of media ethics. This cannot be lightly passed over.† (Patel et al, 2002) 5.2.1 The Regional Press Coverage Gujarat Samachar is the largest selling daily in Gujarat with a circulation of nearly 810,000 followed by Sandesh with 705,000 (Sonwalkar, 2006?). These two newspapers have a large readership and dominate the print market in Gujarat. A study by PUCL in 2002 found that there were several instances of distorted and false reporting in these two newspapers and also the circulation of Sandesh rose by 150,000 due to its pro-Hindutva stand. The coverage analysis found that when Muslims were at fault, their names were clearly mentioned and the perpetrators identified. However, when the Muslims were the victims of murders, loots, arsons, and other heinous crimes the attackers were unnamed. The study concluded: â€Å"No sources were quoted for headlines, even when they were simply lifted from speeches by Vishwa Hindu Parishad (one of the Hindutva polical parties in the state). Headlines were also misleading, and often followed up by reports that did not substantiate, and even negated the headlines completelyThe anti-minority stand was obvious in the slant in news reporting.† (PUCL, 2002). Sandesh was extremely provocative in its reporting. PUCL states Sandeshs usage of headlines was to ‘provoke, communalize and terrorise people (PUCL 2002). On the 28th of Februrary, Sandesh carried a headline saying, â€Å"70 Hindus Burnt Alive in Godhra†. Another report on the front page read, â€Å"Avenge Blood with Blood†, which was a quote from a statement made by one of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad leaders, but the newspaper used the words as a headline without mentioning the leader (Sonwalkar, 2006?). On the 6th of March, the headline read, â€Å"Hindus Beware: Haj Pilgrims return with a Deadly Conspiracy†, when the fact remains that hundreds of Haj pilgrims were terrified by the happenings in the state and had retuned under police protection. PUCL emphasized in its study that most news in Sandesh post-Godhra violence began with the sentence, â€Å"In continuing spiral of communal rioting that broke out as a reaction to the ‘demonic/barbaric, etc Godhra incident.† The comminatory adjectives used in describing the Godhra incident were strikingly absent when covering the post Godhra Muslim annihilation (PUCL 2002). One of the reports mentioned that the breasts of two Hindu women had been chopped off by Muslim mobs during the crisis. This report turned out be false and the editor countered by saying that the information had been provided by the police. The papers editor told that it was against the policy of the newspaper to carry out corrections and clarifications for previously published articles (Patel et al, 2002). The Press Council of India later censured the newspaper for the fault (Prerna 2003). Gujarat Samachar also heightened the tension through its pro-Hindutva stand in coverage of the events. Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi openly praised Sandesh for its work, which was publishing false and rumoured reports with a pronounced pro-Hindutva and an anti-Muslim stance. In a letter to the newspapers editor, Modi writes: â€Å"The newspapers of the state played a decisive role as a link between the people and the government. You have served humanity in a big way. It is the state governments primary duty to restore peace and security.It is noteworthy that the newspapers of Gujarat gave their full support to the state government in undertaking this difficult task.I am grateful to you.† (Varadarajan, 2002: 286) The one regional newspaper that stood out amidst the Hindutva ideology was the Gujarat Today, notably started by few liberal Muslims in the state. The report suggested Gujarat Today regularly carried out positive news items highlighting interdependence of the communities involved (PUCL 2002). The two English-language national newspapers in India, The Times of India and the Indian Express were critical of the state government in their articles. However, these two newspapers also publish editions from Gujarat and a clear divide was evident between the two English-language dailies and the two regional editions (Sonwalkar, 2006?). While the English-language version was sharp in its criticisms of Chief Minister Narendra Modi and his policies, the two Gujarati dailies propagated the need of Hindutva. Desai, an Ahmedabad-based correspondent of the Indian Express writes: â€Å"Today, all the people who once used to look at me with respect question me and abuse me. They do this because I represented a publication whose medium is English and because I reported human misery in its right perspective.A friend said: ‘All of you from the English language media have tarnished the image of Gujarat. Today, the ‘common man in Gujarat hates the English language media. Even a section of the English language media hates the English language media.† (Desai 2004: 228) (Need to conclude) 6.The Role of the Media During Communal Riots: An Analysis The result of multiple and complex interests of regions, states and/or various types of groups within them leads to economic, social and political crisesconflicts. Such crises conflicts are difficult to handle and requires negotiations between the parties involved and in this amorphous age of media the governments are finding extremely difficult to handle such situations (Terzis, 2008?). Despite the increased importance of communication, very few governments can speak about successful communication during conflicts and crises because they fail to take into consideration the perception of the conflict or the crises in the minds of the common mass, the scientific analysis of the causable factors, the agendas of the parties involved and the changing nature of the conflict itself (Ballantine, 2003). The role of mass media in covering and resolving conflicts, especially those involving religious differences that leads to frequent communal riots in India, is extre

Understanding Product Knowledge When Purchasing a Computer :: Essays Papers

Understanding Product Knowledge When Purchasing a Computer Buying a computer seems like a daunting task to many. There are many factors to consider when making a purchase. Brand name, functionality, speed and customer support are just some of the factors that one must consider when researching the options. In order to wisely purchase a computer, one must attain a considerable amount of product knowledge, to get the most value for their dollar. Consumers have different levels of product knowledge, which they can use to interpret information and make product choices. (Peter 64) When researching computers, product knowledge could range in consumers minds from abstract to less abstract thoughts about the options. Within this scope of abstract to less abstract options could be 4 sub-categories of product knowledge. These include product class, product form, brand name and the model or features. The most abstract and first of the four categories is product class. This is the most basic of the four categories. Simply for this demonstration, the product class being discussed is a desktop computer or generally the product type. Now this class differs slightly from some other similar computing product classes such as laptop computers, mainframes and personal digital assistants (PDA’s). The second of the four sub-categories is product form. The basic product form differentiation that one must make is what do you need a computer for and if you need a home-based PC or business-based PC. This would be considered identifying the product class, a home-based system versus a business based-one. The fact is that the average home user who needs a general-purpose PC to go on the Internet and run productivity applications differs little from the average worker in an office. â€Å"Indeed, the actual features in a vendor's business line does not differ much from what's in the home, except at the extreme end of the spectrum, such as a non-upgradeable closed-box corporate PC versus a loaded gamer's system with all the entertainment trappings that a business user would find superfluous.† (MSN) If the computer is strictly for business or word processing purposes and will rarely be relied upon for gaming and multi-media applications than sound and graphics component s are less important because there's little need to keep up with the newest games that require the best graphics and sound components.

Dance theory Essay

At the beginning of this dance class, I honestly thought it was going to be easy to get by for someone who really knows nothing about dance or anything related to it. Currently, knowing the techniques involved in different types of dance like the Dunham technique I would not say the same thing. It does get better with time because practice gradually makes perfect and every time you do a particular dance move, you get the chance to realize what you do wrong and keep it in mind for the next time you do that same move. Conditioning and training the body for dance is also one thing I have come to realize is essential to start off well especially when doing a variety of dance movements. This is because dance is like going up in different stages where the first one serves as a foundation for what is coming next. Even though I am still in the process of learning, I have quickly realized that dance is complex and there are many components like breathing, body alignment, and control involved to make every dance step better. So far, some of the dances I have learned include traditional dances like Kpalogo, which is a West-African dance originated from the fishermen of Ghana, Rocking Horse which is just as the name implies. It is an African warrior dance in which your hands are raised about chest level to sort of indicate your shield and one leg is raised as high as possible while the other leg stays grounded before you swing forward and alternate hands. This dance in particular requires â€Å"groundedness†. It is fierce and you need to have correct body alignment and ensure you are controlling your breath because using an appropriate breathing technique is a necessity if you do not want to wear yourself out before completing the dance routine. Proper breathing also helps when working on slow movements like body rolls, flat back, pelvic rolls amongst many others. I think controlling my breath has helped me a lot when dancing since the beginning of this class. I 2 have learned when to take longer and slower breaths in order to assist my body control when doing certain things. Hence, I know breathing correctly when dancing, has a difference over a period of time because correct breathing enables you to strengthen your body internally. It also seems like breathing and your type of movement work hand in hand together to get the best results possible. Personally, I think emphasizing the importance of body alignment is very necessary. Proper body alignment enables you to have a sense of understanding what your body is doing. A poor body alignment defeats the whole purpose of doing a certain movement. For example, when doing plie and releve where you lengthen your spine and work on your posture and balance, you defeat the purpose if your feet are not well placed and your buttocks are not tucked under and as a result, the benefits of this rhythmic exercise will not be maximized. Also, body alignment relates with balance and when the body alignment is correct, balancing your body weight becomes easier. I know this because initially, I thought it was all about just trying to move your body by doing what the rest of the class does because you cannot go wrong when following the majority. I later found out that I was absolutely wrong because when you become aware of your own body internally and you focus on getting your body alignment right, it definitely reflects on the outside. This means that if you just dance without understanding the dance process involved in whatever move you are trying to do, your body movement would be as disorganized as your thought process. Also when doing fall and recovery, I loved it the most because I thought it was so easy. I did not see the point of it, but then I realized I was defeating the whole purpose because of my poor body alignment. Fall and recovery involves stretching and reaching with your hands when you bend over to flat-back and initially I just placed my hand where I felt comfortable without reaching and actually stretching my muscles. My head alignment was also 3 wrong and therefore, my spinal actions were not as good as they could have been. At this point, I was probably doing more damage that good to myself by not aligning my body correctly. Also correct body alignment removes the possibility of suffering any sort of injury or irrelevant body pain caused by the strain that could possibly occur in tedious exercises. Every dance move is like a piece of the puzzle that all come together to create a better dancer as progression occurs. This makes body control also very key in dance. You need proper control in order to make sure that you are conditioning and training your body when dancing. Body control involves focusing on the action that is taking place and being in charge of it. A good example of where control is absolutely needed is when doing Up and Over otherwise known as Pelvic Rolls. Pelvic Rolls are a combination of flat-back, fall and recovery, and the pelvic placement exercise. In Pelvic Rolls, the abdominal plays a major role and the spine has to be in proper alignment like in the flat-back position. It takes good control to start from going into a flat-back holding it there, then holding your body in plie, tucking you butt in, pointing your knees to the ground after and then circling your arms up to raise your body before you go into releve and then slowly bring your heels down to maintain flat feet. It takes a lot of energy and most importantly body control. Your mind has to focus on every single move you make in order to make sure you are connecting with your body both internally and externally. With proper body control, you strengthen your body and prevent injury from occurring.

The Size and Function of the Federal Government

The Size and Function of the Federal Government In the 2010 midterm elections, the federal government’s size and function have been the common topic of debate among politicians in their election campaigns.Advertising We will write a custom essay sample on The Size and Function of the Federal Government specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More Liberals see the federal government as essential to America’s growth and well being. It should be large enough to protect its people from foreign threats, regulate businesses to avoid unfair competition and help the less fortunate citizens. Conservatives on the other hand argue that the federal government has already grown too big that it has become costly, consuming most of the US budget. They believe that the institution should limit their involvement and leave tasks to private entities and non-profit organizations. This paper aims to evaluate the arguments of liberals and conservatives in determining if the US needs a bigger federal g overnment. According to liberals, the federal government is vital in the growth of the United States because they provide infrastructures, education and healthcare mostly to support the poor and the society as a whole. Such investments could not have been adequately undertaken by private institutions because their scope is usually limited to that within their interests. Government support is primarily required in building roads and facilitating educational and healthcare systems and structures (McKenna and Feingold 238). The federal government serves as a coordinator in harmonizing systems such as railroad, water and highway structures. The government standardized the railroad systems when different sizes of tracks were used. They also created economies of scale when they organized communities to use a single public water system. Among others, the government was also involved in managing synchronized systems for highways and international trade and currency valuation (McKenna and Fe ingold 238). Lastly, the federal government imposes regulations which often make economies work better. The federal government was able to make product and service information more open, reduce corruption, monopolistic pricing and anticompetitive policies through regulations. They were also able to temper financial regulations (McKenna and Feingold 238). The controversial key benefit of the Post World War II government is it makes the economy more stable by creating jobs and supporting incomes. In this scenario, unemployment insurances, Social Security and government employments are stabilizing factors (McKenna and Feingold 239). On the other hand, conservatives give emphasis on the protection of freedom which should be guarded by both public and private institutions against the concentration of power. Freedom is destroyed because other institutions are weakened by the presence of the federal government for power is concentrated on the latter. The federal government dominates and di minishes the role of other institutions (McKenna and Feingold 242).Advertising Looking for essay on government? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More In downsizing the federal government, governors and state legislatures can take control of education, healthcare, transportation and other services, giving citizens more independence from the federal government. At the state and federal level, business leaders can unite around common goals to lessen corporate taxes, duplicative regulations and lawsuits. The growth of the federal government must be restrain because of its unsound levels of spending and debt. This may result in the financial collapse of the government and private sector’s economic structures (McKenna and Feingold 245). Studies show that economic growth occurs when government spending is on the 20 percent or below GDP range but over the years as government spending increased, exceeding the 20 percent GDP, the US economy had slowed down and declined (McKenna and Feingold 246). Congress should take responsibility in the country’s problems such as the nation’s debt, out of control spending and loose monetary policies which are creating economic insecurity. Unrestrained government spending and debt may result to the neglecting of national priorities such as defence, devaluation of the US dollar, destruction of private-sector economy and the loss of wealth and quality of life for all Americans (McKenna and Feingold 247). The government is an essential institution for the development and protection of freedom but it should not try to manage America because they are only there to make the rules and enforce them. The federal government has been trying to manage and control many aspects of America’s economy and social services which always results to disaster. It has put America on an unstable financial course with its uncontrollable spending and huge debt. Both liberal and conservative parties have clearly stated and defended their opinions on the case of the enlargement of the US federal government. Analyzing and evaluating both sides, I conclude that the United States of America should broaden the scope and functions of the federal government because, although they are not perfect, they outline systems of rules and regulations which are clear in helping the growth of the country especially through infrastructures, education, healthcare and economic reforms. Conservatives may argue that such tasks can also be done by governors and other private entities. The concern here is that these groups may not provide consistent support in executing such tasks for they will always weigh and base their decisions on their own interests. In the 2010 midterm election the incumbents have been defeated because of the bad economy. Republicans were re-re-elected and democratic incumbents lost in record numbers. During midterm elections voters tend to punish the pre sident’s party because of their dissatisfaction of economic performance (O’Connor, Sabato and Yanus 361).Advertising We will write a custom essay sample on The Size and Function of the Federal Government specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More McKenna, George and Feingold, Stanley. Taking Sides: Clashing Views on Political Issues. 17th ed. New York: McGraw Hill. 2011. Print. O’Connor, Karen, Sabato, Larry J., and Yanus, Alexandra B. Essentials of American Government: Roots and Reform. United States: Pearson Education, Inc., 2011. Print.

Case Study for a Disabled Student essays

Case Study for a Disabled Student essays In the case of Marilyn, she is a disabled student that is going from middle school to high school. Due to the fact that she is the only disabled student in the school, she is going through a disengagement period where there has not been a change to engage in actives or the other students. Sometimes when growing up in school and being disabled, it is hard to be out going when kids treat Mariyln as if she was special when it came to the opposite sex. During the very beginning of the new transition, Marilyn also went through the period of Disorientation since it was a new environment and she did not have the same social setting as she did in middle school where other students were used to her having disability and she was used them. It is hard to feel intimated by a new environment while being disabled and meeting new people who feel intimated by a new setting as well. At this point, everyone is feeling disorientated and trying to place in the high school. After awhile, Marilyn and other students were becoming out going with one another because they were more accepting of the new school setting, which is a neutral zone since they have accepted their new life. Despite these odds and what most people said, Marilyn went to high school where she made new beginning and made a complete transition by dating, and being less isolated, which made everyone able to relate to one another. For Marilyn, it is apparent that she made the complete transition from middle school to high school, which made her more out going despite her disability. ...

Manufacturing Overhead Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Manufacturing Overhead - Assignment Example They are used to apply overhead cost throughout the production period. The main reasons why a company would develop predetermined overhead rates would be that; the manager would like to know the accounting system’s valuation of completed jobs before the end of the accounting period. Predetermined overhead rates simplify the organizations record keeping by just simple circulations. Even though an increase in overhead rates leads to lower profits, the introduction of automated QA system replaces the QC inspectors which represent the direct labor. Overhead increases and the direct labor decreases. This leads to an increase in the predetermined overhead rate mainly if it is based on direct labor. Activity Based Costing (ABC) is a powerful decision making tool which is generally used for understanding products, customer costs and profitability based production process. ABC was started in the year 1980s due to the increasing relevance of the traditional cost accounting method. This methodology of ABC if deployed in Borealis Company it will enable the manager to identify the organizations activity with resources to all products and services according to their actual consumption. It assigns more indirect costs to direct costs compared to the convectional costing methods. Borealis organization will have the benefit of more accurate decision making techniques. The manager will be able to decisively estimate the cost elements of all the organization’s products and services and eliminating those products and services that are less profitable and lower the price of those products that are overpriced. Good production strategies can easily evaluated in calculations. The use of t he QC system in the organization can easily be analyzed and the manager will have a strong base on deciding if QC system was the right idea in the production process compared to the 10 QC inspectors. The company will not

Harrod-domar Model for Development Research Paper

Harrod-domar Model for Development - Research Paper Example This study declares that growth is a narrower concept than development. The latter implies there is an increase in the quantity or value of the goods and services as a result of the productivity of the resources available in the economy while the former implies an increase in living standards, improvement in self-esteem needs and freedom from oppression as well as a greater choice available for the people. As growth is felt and seen in the rise in GDP of a country, development happens in the living conditions of its people through the improved access to the economic needs like education, health and recreation. Economic growth is very important but not an adequate condition for an economy to have a progressive development. The increase in the real Gross Domestic Product brought about by the growth in the economy should result to a progressive change or development which can be seen in the structural changes like an increase in numbers of infrastructures in the economy. These additiona l infrastructures may be in form of factory buildings or facilities imply additional investments. Additional investments may also mean more economic opportunities available for the people residing near where the investment was made.According to the discussion economists proposed theories to explain the importance of economic growth to development and vice versa and tried to emphasize particular patterns that each economy must pursue to attain development. II. Research Problem This paper is about one of the commonly used economic theories in relating growth and development in an economy, the Harrod-Domar Growth Theory. Specifically, this paper will present the development of Harrod-Domar Theory and the economists behind its development. Several factors that linked economic growth to economic development will also be tackled in this paper to establish the applicability of the theory. Possible effects associated with the theory will also be examined to find out if it has its significan ce or implication to the development of an economy. III. Research Objective This paper seeks to establish a deeper understanding of the Harrod-Domar Growth Theory by answering the research problem. This is important in order to explain how economies may or may not develop and how may the growth barriers be identified and overcome in the future. After relating the theory’s significance to the economic condition, it aims to form suggestions which are believed to be appropriate in the formulation of different development policies. IV. Literature Review The theory of economic growth asks what factors determine the full- employment growth rate of output overtime. It is important to study growth theory because it both helps explain growth rates and development and why per capita income level differs among countries. This part will present a brief review of the factors significant or related to economic growth.