Wednesday, July 31, 2019

Psychoanalytic Analysis Essay

Richard, 44 years old, was referred by his doctor who felt that he had a major drinking problem. Initially, Richard resisted seeing himself as a problem drinker and preferred the idea that he was depressed. Richard exhibits impulsive binge behavior, engages in frantic efforts to avoid feelings of loneliness, shows a pattern of unstable and intense interpersonal relationships, displays inappropriate anger, and manifests extreme mood swings. Nevertheless, it appears that Richard has no significant medical problems or medical history. Richards’s mother died when he was 10 and his father sent him to a private boarding school, feeling that he could not manage to bring up his son by himself. Richard felt that he was abandoned by both of his parents ? by his mother who died and left him and by his father, just when he had most needed his love, companionship and support. He has had three marriages, each of which ended when his wife left. Typically, each woman grew tired of his continual drinking binges and all that went with his alcoholism: getting fired from job after job, not being a father to his children, being abusive both verbally and physically to her and being extremely dependent on her. Consequently, Richard thinks that he did not have what it takes to keep a wife and eventually grew increasingly bitter towards women since they all left him when he needed them the most. In the aspect of his work, he feels a great deal of anger towards his former boss who fired him. He complains that when he was broke his boss took his job away from him and didn’t offer him support. Thus, in his eyes, important men always let him down including male friends who broke contact because of his drinking. Diagnosis (based on the criteria of manifestations), Psychodynamic Analysis, Use of Free Associations, Theoretical Treatment and Conclusion Based on the manifestations presented on the overview of Richard’s case, we can classify him to belong in the group of Psychiatric Disorders known as Personality Disorders. Personality Disorders are â€Å"pervasive chronic psychological disorders† characterized by an individual’s unique psychological traits and inability to form or maintain interpersonal relationships that revolve around the sphere of family, friends, and work environments ((MentalHelp. net, 2001). Richard’s salient manifestations are further classified into the Borderline type of Personality Disorder. Dombeck (2001), in his article â€Å"Borderline Personality Disorder Symptoms† enlisted the following symptoms, which are usually seen in persons with this state: †¢ â€Å"Frantic efforts to avoid real or imagined abandonment. A pattern of unstable and intense interpersonal relationships characterized by alternating between extremes of idealization and devaluation †¢ Identity disturbance: markedly and persistently unstable self-image or sense of self †¢ Impulsivity in at least two areas that are potentially self-damaging (e. g. , spending, sex, substance abuse, reckless driving, binge eating) †¢ Recurrent suicidal behavior, gestures, or threats, or self-mutilating behavior †¢ Affective instability due to a marked reactivity of mood (e. g. , intense episodic dysphoria, irritability, or anxiety usually lasting a few hours and only rarely more than a few days) A chronic feelings of emptiness †¢ Inappropriate, intense anger or difficulty controlling anger (e. g. , frequent displays of temper, constant anger, recurrent physical fights) transient, stress-related paranoid ideation or severe dissociative symptoms† (Criteria summarized from: American Psychiatric Association. (1994). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders, fourth edition. Washington, DC: American Psychiatric Association. ). Hence, as we can see in the aforementioned clinical manifestations, Richard can truly belong in this type of disorder.  A question may be generated in our minds as to the factors that can trigger the occurrence and aggravation of this disorder in an individual. In line with this, we can device the Psychodynamic approach, which will lead us to trace and analyze the advent of this condition to a person. According to Ballas (2006), one of the root causes or risk factors of Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) is abandonment issues in childhood. As we can observe, we can directly relate this factor to Richard’s case since he perceived her mother’s death and his father’s decision to send him to the boarding school as abandonment. This issue has affected him in these ways: when his mother died, there was somewhat a feeling of loss as any individual could have when a loved one passes away. However, this feeling was aggravated by the decision of his father. Instead of comforting him, sending him away was the remedy because his father in turn had doubts if he can bring up his son properly. The decision of father was not helpful to the grieving Richard who absolutely by that time needed the support system to help him make it through. Further, this may have caused a significant anxiety, which can prompt the Richard’s disorder. Hence, this disorder as anxiety-related. As defined by Gale (1998), anxiety is an unconscious strategy in which an individual would want to avoid a negative stimulus in view of the fact that it causes a somewhat threat on his or her ego integrity. This must have played a role in Richard’s condition. In this way, defense mechanisms are the way to unleash their feeling within. Defense mechanism is defined and expounded as a psychological mechanism to lessen tension and to protect the ego from potential threat. Defense mechanisms can help an individual cope with anxiety or it can also be harmful. The defense mechanisms that we will be dealing with are still based on the definitions on the same article. As we can evaluate Richard’s symptoms, we can clearly discern the defense mechanisms that he used. Denial was one of them. It was characterized by his resistance to the fact that the doctor said that he has a major drinking problem. Denial was his attempt to eliminate the threatening information that he was confronted. Projection was also used in the aspect of his unsuccessful marriages. It was characterized by blaming his wives who left him to cover up the feeling of inadequacy as a husband to them. In other words, he projected his mistakes to other people. He also used displacement as a defense mechanism, as revealed by his an abusive husband and father. On the other hand, he exhibited five of the criteria for the disorder: impulsive binge behavior, frantic efforts to avoid feelings of loneliness, inappropriate anger, pattern of unstable and intense interpersonal relationships and extreme mood swings. The use of free association is helpful in this case as it can help to connect the details of the Richard’s thoughts and experiences. According to Chiriac (translation by Cristea, 2008), in her article â€Å"About the Free Associations Method†, free associations are useful in a way that â€Å"thoughts are autonomously activated by chance verbal associations, influence conscious psychic life in a frequently dramatic manner and the task of psychoanalysis is to bring such complexes to the surface of conscious mind and eventually integrate them into the patient’s life†. Thus, Richard’s thought may have been unveiled and interpreted by the doctor with the use of this method. Levin (2001) shared some important details in the treatment of BPD in her article in MentalHealth. et. She said that the treatment of choice for BPD, as with most personality disorders, is Psychotherapy. Further, it must be noted that making contract with the individuals with suicidal attempts is essential and must be taken as an initial action. Medications may be prescribed. However, there are still controversies on this matter. She also emphasized that the therapists or the clinicians must be firm in handling this individuals because BPD patients are difficult to deal with. As she recommended, the most successful and effective comprehensive approach to date has been Marsha Linehan’s Dialectical Behavior Therapy. This psychotherapy seeks to teach the client how to learn to better take control of their lives, their emotions, and themselves through self-knowledge, emotion regulation, and cognitive restructuring and is often conducted within a group setting. In addition, hospitalization will also be of great help since it provides a highly-structured environment necessary for the individual’s independence. As with this disorder, medications are not specifically prescribed. Nevertheless, some medications such as antidepressant and anti-anxiety agents may be necessary to alleviate associated symptoms. Hence, Levin (2001) also emphasized the importance of self-help and support groups for patient’s suffering from this disorder. Therefore, a sufficient understanding of the case has been achieved by those aforementioned points that have been discussed. We have traced how Richard has gotten his condition through a careful analysis of the objective manifestations, which have been presented in the overview of this study. We can associate how the events in Richard’s childhood contributed to the intrapsychic conflicts and anxiety that had developed in him in the course of time. We have utilized some defense mechanism that he used in order to protect his ego from anxiety-provoking stimuli. In this way, we knew how his past had greatly affected his interpersonal relationships, which include that of his previous wives and even on his children. Moreover, the symptoms that he manifested were useful in order for us to identify the disorder that he is into and so we knew that he has five of the necessary criteria to classify him in the Borderline type of Personality Disorders. On the hand, the use of free association method is valuable to recognize the underlying details behind Richard’s disorder. Finally, we learned how psychotherapy is necessary to treat his psychiatric condition, how support-system plays a vital role in achieving proper treatment goal and how hospitalization is necessary to facilitate structured environment for Richard. Thus, we learned how the living environment can truly impact a person’s psychological aspect, or should we say his integrity as a holistic being, throughout his lifetime.

Cowen Case Study Essay

1 Introduction SG Cowen, located in the United States, is an industrial company established in July 1988. Orientated in the financial sector, SG Cowen constituted a hiring approach containing diverse steps with methods, approaches and decision criteria. To asses the job applicants and to make a decision about the most eligible candidates, we have created a standardized construct to quantify the criteria. 2 The recruiting process The recruiting procedure starts with an on-campus recruiting program by arranging team captains to these core business schools. Thereby students get the opportunity to know SG Cowen. To ensure that thoroughly, they assign one member who is the first contact person for interested students. SG Cowen certrainly tries to attract other students from noncore schools by accepting their resumes. Another resource to recruit new candidates is pre-existing, experienced analysts who get promoted without attending the university. Afterwards there is a process that supports the decision making approach of SG Cowen by going through the following steps: Informational interviews, On Campus round, and Super Saturday. 2.1 Informational interviews Chip Rae, the director of recruiting at SG Cowen is convinced that an ambitious student, compared to others, will emphasize his interest in the company to determine the attitude of a student. That’s the reason why SG  Cowen invites students to visit the workplace, to experience the entrepreneurial culture and to get a basic overview of the company and its atmosphere. This process is not evaluative but it’s a chance to create an initial perception about a potential candidate. Conversely, students get the opportunity to show themselves, to leave a positive impression and to be prepared for the feasible first round. Therefore this step is important to find out how serious or not a candidate is. 3 On-campus round The second step is the on-campus round which enables SG Cowen to learn a candidate’s requried set of skills and determine its surplus value to the company. For the final validation, various candidates participate in the on campus round. Rae estimates that experienced senior associates who have a profound knowledge of the necessary requirements needed for the jobs, should be integrated in the final interviews. They are able to appraise the candidate’s skills and requirements in an appropriate way. In addition Ray believes that success doesn’t come from defined methodologies, rather it’s more important to love the job and the challenge, so SG Cowen promotes longer working horurs and less outside distractions. 2.3 Super Saturday After a shortlist is created from the on-campus round, 30 candidates receive callbacks for the final interviews. Each of them gets five half an hour interviews with senior employees of SG Cowen with a list of goals needed. Gregg Schoenberg, team captain at Johnson School of Business at Cornell believes that selecting criteria about the right candidate should be the candidate’s personality, less what he has done. So it makes sense to look at candidate’s former job performance. The candidate’s attitude towards the company is important for the interviewer as well as for the company regarding the banking sectory, which discloses great turnovers. Kim  Fennebresque (CEO of SG Cowen) says that an employee should like the job he or she does. Concentraiting on technology and emerging markets, the potential associates of SG Cowen should have advanced knowledge in finance area and the ability to execute that. The job also demands high teamwork abilities, multiplicity, responsibility and flexibility. Therefore interpersonal skills are unalterable. Before this recruitment process begins, the company should determine the potential business schools to plan the presentation area on campus and also the positions that must be occupied. At long last, the company should know the time schedule and the amount of interviewers needed. SG Cowen has three different kinds of talent pools to find candidates that fit best in their company. The following chapter reviews and evaluates their recruitment process and describes the different types and sources of candidates they have. Candidates have the possibility either to complete three years at the firm as analysts or take part in the companies’ summer internships to be offered a vacancy. Candidates, who are promoted as analysts have for the most part no education from business schools. This source of internal recruiting offers the possibility to use internal job postings or just communicate the vacancy, instead of paying for on-campus presentations, recruiting events or advertising – therefore it is cheaper to promote people who are already familiar with the company and have already shown that they properly fit in it. The alternative is external recruiting, which focuses on the hiring of candidates from business schools. SG Cowen has multiple different core schools to which they have direct contact and offers them the possibility to communicate and provide possible hires with all the information they need, through company presentations or participating in the on-campus recruiting programs. The possibility to additionally take part in informational reviews is a good way for students to show their enthusiasm and how serious they are to get the job. At every school that SG Cowen recruits at on-campus, a team captain is assigned to provide students with a constant and familiar point of contact. The fact that these team captains are banking professionals and not human resource professionals makes them able to provide students with the information they are really looking for, but on the other hand they may be mainly looking for skills instead of personality and personal background of applicants. SG Cowen also accepts applications of candidates from non-core schools, but these candidates have a disadvantage in showing their interest and gathering information about the job. Schoenberg, who was not attending a core school described this as unfair, but describes them as great hires because they need to show more initiative, be more focused and invest more effort. All in all, the se internal and external resources provide SG Cowen with a good and wide pool of possible candidates, however there is the risk to have students with less variety when only focusing on core school applicants. After rà ©sumà ©s are collected and interviews are conducted the senior and interviewing associates have to reduce the amount of possible candidates, who can take further part in the process. This reduction could already lead to the loss of some very good applicants. Then the following on-campus round tests the cultural fit and is intended to preselect candidates for Super Saturday. On Super Saturday each applicant has multiple interviews with different bankers of the firm. These managing directors then decide for themselves whether the candidate is a good fit for the company, but this way of evaluating can result in big disagreements and disadvantages. One director may see the great attitude of an applicant as more important than his technical skills, while another would take the opposite opinion. The worst scenario for applicants would be the different personal opinions of the directors leading to a false estimation and result in disqualification of the candidate. Afterwards, there are group decisions. The biggest problem  of these decisions is that interviewers already have their impression of the applicant and it is often difficult to convince them of the contrary. Often the majority of directors vote similar, so there might be no way to discuss the outcome, if one thinks he has a candidate who is a perfect fit for the company. To summarize, it can be said that the hiring process of SG Cowen makes sure that new employees fit well and that they only want to get the best talents for their company. The evaluation of the candidate’s abilities in form of notes is a great way of remembering each candidate and to make sure everybody can participate in the following group discussions to represent his opinion about the applicant. Besides the disadvantages of non-core to core business schools this ensures that the recruiting process is fair because every applicant who participates on Super Saturday has equal chances to be offered the vacancy. The possibility to offer vacancies to people who completed an internship and analysts is also a very good alternative to hiring people from external resources because they know the company very well and have already proven to be a good cultural fit, they have learned a lot about SG Cowen and are acquainted with the current employees. In contrary SG Cowen has to contact previous employers to get to know external candidates and check if the provided information is accurate. We think the super Saturday is a bit hard for candidates as well as interviewers. The fact that there are multiple interviews distributed throughout the whole day seems very exhausting and we think it is hard to make the right decisions at the end of such a hard day of work. Also there is no guarantee that the applicant accepts the job offer. They might have other possible job offers, which they would rather like to accept and this would result in a high risk for SG Cowen regarding that they only have a fixed number of vacancies and try to fill all of them. SG Cowen declined candidates for low technical skills, so it is very important for candidates to have this skill. Therefore the knowledge of Finance & Accounting, Prioritizing, Creativitiy and Modeling are mandatory for our applicants. Our Group takes the same opinion as the company, because the training process after the recruiting would be long and expensive. Furthermore we support the decision that candidates with low skills can be eliminated earlier. In the present time work ethic is an important factor for employees, especially for a boutique Investment Bank like SG Cowen, where teamworking is invitable. This expects also a certain level of flexibility and work motivation. The statement of Fennebresque – â€Å"The type of person who does well here doesn’t want to be told what to do. He or she is far less regimented. This is not the Navy. We want the  self-starter† – shows that SG Cowen appreciates leadership. A candidate can show his/her leadership skills from previous work. Interpersonal skills are relevant in businesses, where there is a high level of contact to client and associates. Good verbal communition is especially necessary for the candidates, which should be taken with serious impact/presence. Like the most companies of the world SG Cowen wants to hire the candidates for the longterm. The best Investment banking talents are highly coveted and hard-fought in the job market. So there is a high probability that the employee could be courted from other banks. Thus it seems it is useful to estimate the commitment to the firm. The Bankers have to make a lot of decision through their professional life. The characteristics of judgment and maturity are an important criteria. In our Opinion is the utilization of this factor is appropriate. Nevertheless we have an improvement suggestion for the evaluation form. It is possible that all of the interviewer priotize the factors different. Therefore we recommend a strandarized model with fixed priotization for each skill. To Change from a subjective evaluation to a standardized and objective evaluation, we set the emphasis for the factors. The emphasis is based on our analysis of the recruiting process, the statement of Chip Rae and the evaluation form. The technical skills in the business of investment banking are a critical requirement. SG Cowen has a competitive advantage with their core competency from research. This is the reason that technical skills should get the highest   weight (35%). SG Cowen is a small boutique company, so the candidate needs to show good teamwork and also should have a high motivation to enter the company. From this reason we have given the factor work ethic 20%. Leadership is a very important criterion. As we can see in the last years, the market is changes fast and steadly. Therefore SG Cowen needs employees who can learn very fast and are self-starters. This could be picked up on the statements of Schoendberg and Fennebresque. Interpersonal skills  complement andsupport the factor Leadership. Because somebody, who can learn very fast and has also awfully good communication skills, could be assumed responsible. So we gave each of the criteria 15 %. At the end are the judgment/maturity criteria. The Banker has a lot of situations, where they have to decide. So it is also important to have a particular skill of judgment, but it is our opinion the least important criteria in this evaluation form. We gave these criteria a weight of 5 %. Further details to the criteria can be found in the Appendix. Evaluation of the four candidates Through the interviewing-process, four candidates were categorized as â€Å"maybes†, so their pros and their cons were pretty much balanced. Just two of these four candidates can be selected, because SG Cowen has only has two additional jobs left to offer. To make a reasonable decision we decided to rate them using the linear model. In this model we used the weights mentioned above according to different parameters to develop a scorecard for each of the remaining candidates.

Tuesday, July 30, 2019

Influence of South Africa Essay

It is reported that South Africa has become the third largest iron ore supplier for China through the competition with India, which will have a great influence on China’s mining machinery industry. According to Business Day Live’s report, the iron ore export to China from South Africa was 40.6 million tonnes in 2012, while Indian exports plunged nearly 55% to 33 million tonnes. It is evidently that South Africa managed to increase of its share of iron ore sales to China in the unstable economical situation. The large amount of iron ore’s import into China will inevitably have a great influence on the mining machinery industry no matter in China or in South Africa. DSMAC president Lu Hongbo, commended : â€Å"The increasing contact between China and South Africa is a great power for the two countries’ mining industry development. It is a win-win situation no matter for China or for South Africa.† Analysis of South Africa’s Exporting Iron ore to China On the one hand, it promotes Chinese mining industry’s prosperity. In 2012, due to the world economy slagging, the mining industry encounters the â€Å"cold winter† universally, no exception of China mining industry. However, the increasing importing of iron ore from South Africa is a stimulate in China mining machinery market. Because the preliminary step for iron ore’s utilization is crushing process, in which the crusher plays an important role. On the other hand, it is also a push for Chinese mining machinery’s export into South Africa. For example, DSMAC, a leading China feeding, crushing and screening equipment manufacturer and supplier has opened up Africa market and determined to extend in that area. Until now, DSMAC has the general contracting ability of 1000 to 30000 tpd sand and aggregate production line, including the project design, equipment configuration and installation experience. Early in 2010, DSMAC successfully undertook a large project of 10000 tpd artificial sand making line, which just needed three months and brought profit for customer within half an year. Besides South Africa, Australia remains far and away the biggest exporter of iron ore to China. Analysts believe 2013 will see Australia and South Africa further increase their share of the global iron ore market. It is obvious that this situation will propel the mining industry’s advancement.

Monday, July 29, 2019

A Practical Guide to Teaching, Training and Learning Assignment

A Practical Guide to Teaching, Training and Learning - Assignment Example Short-term memory is also one of the reasons. Some of them were unable to remember previous days lessons or unable to grasp features of learned lessons quickly. Due to the above-mentioned reasons teachers should be responsible towards the students. They should employ different teaching methods so that students could easily grasp the subject. Student oriented and student concentric activities should be encouraged. Assessing student's abilities and disabilities is the major factor and teachers should strive to identify these issues. By identifying their strengths and weaknesses one can easily work on these issues. Self-confidence plays an important role in everyone's lives. It is the deciding factor that decides a winner and a loser. Like in any other department catering department also needs to work on the above-mentioned reasons so that most of the students were benefited. The classes were conducted as per the schedule. Eight students a day attend the classes on different days of a week. Each batch of the students has to attend classes 4 days a week. Classes had been classified into theory and practical. During these 4 days 3 hours of practical lessons and 1 hour of theory lessons would be conducted. More number of hours was allotted to practical lessons because students could gain hands on experience with the tools and the methods that would be employed during the course process. Theory lessons were also as important as practical lessons. In theory classes discussions would be held, future plans could be discussed and many other things could be employed. Students attending these classes may suffer from learning disabilities. The onus is on lecturers or on the teaching staff. They should shoulder the responsibility of improving student's abilities and make them believe in themselves.In catering care should be taken about following the health standards. The students should be taught about the basic heath, safety and hygiene rules. The teaching staffs have to ensure that every student follows the safety standards prescribed by the health department. Negligence regarding health and standards should be treated severely. If violated counselling of students should be conducted. All the safety measures should be up to date and checks has to be done on safety equipment. Since kitchen is not a safe place first aid and emergency telephone numbers should be kept in an easily accessible place.In theory classes teachers should employ different methods of teaching so that students can grasp easily. There should a constant interaction between stude nt and teacher. This kind of interaction eases the tension in the classroom and student feels at home and shows signs of interest in the subject.The Q & A session tests the ability of a student. Through Q & A teacher comes to know whether a student has understood the lessons or still facing any problems with the subject. Teaching staff should encourage the students to involve in discussions. This kind of discussions could help in clarifying their doubts and improve the assessment skills. This formative assessment is very much important before doing any assessment on summation. Methods like quiz and solving puzzle would be helpful in making the students to understand the concepts very easy. Programmes like

Sunday, July 28, 2019

Little T.K. and Michele Confidential Informants Assignment

Little T.K. and Michele Confidential Informants - Assignment Example Michele on the other hand is a professional dealer as well, however she looks like a sophisticated white woman and she suits the part because no one would suspect her while she tries to siphon information. Both these selected informants have past experience in being street smart and are fully aware of the danger associated with the drug world. Also, they have had bad experiences and know how to get out of tough and sticky situations. They seem to be flexible with respect to their past and form no attachment with the people they work with. These are excellent qualities to possess as a confidential informant. They would not be suspected with ease by those that are a part of the operation and are a better option than Raul and Shasha because those two have a history of being violent in the past. They might just leash out onto the investigation and give the game away and thus Little T.K and Michele seem to be more responsible and calm with respect to handling such a tough drug operation. Both of them seem the kind that would help the police rather than make their lives more difficult with respect to gaining access to information. Since they have worked in the Hood, they are fully aware of the kind of people that they will be dealing with as well as how to lead those concerned with the operation to trust them with ease. They have dealt with drugs and have also dealt with removing themselves out of situations of trouble without having to pay for consequences. They will thus be an asset to the authorities by acting as confidential informants. The department should have a strict policy concerning these informants – they need to carefully choose people who have information regarding the investigation at hand or at least have had something to do with a similar crime in their past. They should not be people who fear their lives because of the operation that they are getting themselves into and should be strong and smart about it. The department should first sign a c ontract with them regarding the confidentiality and they should not hire someone who might give the entire game away. Also, the informants must not turn up with information that cannot be verified because the operations that need to be carried out are on a very high level dealing with high crimes and potential criminals, so it must be carried out smoothly, without anyone understanding the set up. The department needs to thus sign a contract swearing in their secrecy and also turning them in to the authorities in case they spill confidential information regarding the investigation into the wrong hands or engage in some illegal activities during the course of the operation under the name of the federal police. If the informant is paid then the police should be sure to get a receipt for the transaction for obvious reasons. The work of the informant as well as all of his details should be properly documented with the police. All the paper work should be kept in a proper place for any cr oss checking. A background check needs to be done to understand the past history of the informant and all the crimes he has ever committed, the felons that he has been charged for, as well as his nature in order to understand his behavior during the course of the operation. A written approval regarding the informant’s selection must be taken from a supervisor as he must be prodded for all the information he will provide; negotiations regarding payment as well as any other incentives such as lowering a previous charge on him for

Saturday, July 27, 2019

Unemployment in Macroeconomic Theory Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Unemployment in Macroeconomic Theory - Essay Example The farmer will not get the job of the mismatch skills. Another cause of structural unemployment is the geographical immobility. This is a situation where an individual is not able to move to another place for a job opportunity. He or she mays decided to remain jobless due to the fact that he or she cannot move to another geographical area even if a job is guaranteed. Some of the reasons behind are family’s issues or health issues. One can leave a job opportunity and remain close to the family. Change in technology can also cause structural unemployment. This is because some people are resistant to change. When new technology is introduced, they find it difficult to adapt to its use. Some are forced to quit their jobs due to the technology illiteracy. However, structural unemployment issue can solved if people accept to go for retraining if they want to be considered in re-employment. People searching for jobs should also accept to change their geographical locations if the jo b opportunity demands them to. Furthermore those who are working in technology driven companies should be able to adjust to the changes in technology. Another type of unemployment is the frictional unemployment. This type of unemployment occurs when one leaves the current and become unemployed when he or she is still looking for another job. Some can leave their jobs just to have time to relax themselves (Wessels, 93). The main cause of this type of unemployment is the movement of people between jobs, locations or careers. One of the cause of this unemployment is when someone is fresh from college and do not understand the labor markets. The graduate will be expecting to get a better paying job. During this time... The intention of this study is to provide comprehensive theoretic analysis of the issue of unemployment and also determines the ways of addressing this problem, in order to achieve high levels of economic development. There are many effects that are caused by unemployment, which can either be direct or indirect. Unemployment is situations where people who get job they are searching. These people do have any income. They have to look for other options that will help them get jobs. Unemployment can either be voluntary or involuntary. Voluntary unemployment is where one renders himself or herself jobless knowingly. This is caused by many factors both economical and in the markets. Another type of unemployment is the structural unemployment. This is a type of unemployment where capital labor situations make people to be unemployed. These capital labor situations reduced labor demand. Structural unemployment always occurs when the new job vacancies mismatch with the skills that are available. Frictional unemployment occurs when one leaves the current and become unemployed when he or she is still looking for another job. Some can leave their jobs just to have time to relax themselves Cyclic unemployment is the most volatile type. It is caused by lack of goods and services demand. It is sometimes referred to as demand deficient unemployment because it is related to the economic capacity. It always occurs when GDP growth rate moves in moves in different direction with the rate of employment.

Friday, July 26, 2019

SPITCEROW MODEL Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

SPITCEROW MODEL - Assignment Example These needs were unmet by the Russian government starting from their presidents and hence the reason the conflicts started and intensified resulting in killings of even those Russian presidents. The conflict and violence was just an aggressive way of expressing these unmet drives and needs. The conflict enlarged because of inhabitation by the Al- Qaeda recruits who were based in the three camps established for their training in Chechnya. Those who graduated from these camps after two months of intensive training were given missions to conduct and one of the missions was to kill and bring about confusion in Chechnya as a way to divert attention from these three training camps. They increased the conflict by kidnapping prominent people including members of international organizations, created a financial crisis in the country which brought about disorder, they conducted strikes which eventually led to an uprising that was unified against Russia and they also created an Islamic state there. KA-K, Havva. â€Å"Reducing Violence: Applying the Human Needs Theory to the Conflict in Chechnya.† The Journal of Turkish Weekly. Retrieved from:

Thursday, July 25, 2019

The nation-state concept. You can focus on the 'Kurdish' or 'Roma Research Paper

The nation-state concept. You can focus on the 'Kurdish' or 'Roma Rights' - Research Paper Example A particular attention in this paper will be paid to providing the reader with a careful examination of Nation-State issue. The main objectives of this paper include the following: (1) careful examination of problems faced by Kurdish community, (2) careful examination of the concept of Nation-State and its application for finding solution to the Kurdish problem. The main objective of this paper is to give answer to the question whether or not the idea of Nation-State can be applied to Kurdish problem. Introduction Kurds The last ten years were marked by the struggle of the Kurdish people for self determination. However the struggle did attracted the attention of the world community. In fact, for a long time the fight of the Kurds of Iran against the Islamic fundamentalist regime remained to be the issue which was either under reported or under researched. However, one thing remains to be evident - Iranian Kurdistan remains to be the guarantee of Kurdish resistance and their ability t o achieve their statehood in a peaceful way. Failure to bring peace to Kurdish community was accompanied by death of some important Kurdish politicians. The list includes Dr Sharafkandi, Fattah Abdoli, Homayoun Ardalan and Nouri Dehkordi. The first attempt to solve the issue begun with the creation of Kurdistan state. During its brief existence the Republic a lot of reforms. These reforms were aimed at promoting ideas of for secularism, modern education and woman’s emancipation. However, Kurgistan did not exist for a long time. The Republic stopped its existence after the evacuation of British and Soviet troops. This measure led the central government suppress the Republic and execute Qazi Mohammad. After execution of Qazi Mohammad the republic continued to experience a further suppression and continued oppression of the Kurdish identity. Kurdish opposition continued to be deteriorated. Today the Kurdish question remains to be enlisted as the unsolved question. Kurdish region continues to suffer from multiple oppressions. As a result of these problems Kurdish culture remains to be only partially recognized. Even now Kurds continue to look for possible chance to create their own state. Creation of a nation-state as a possible solution to Kurdish problem seems to be the only reasonable way to solve the problem. The Nation – State Concept The concept of a Nation-State is used to signify a region, a state or a country that has its own borders and territory. A remarkable feature of such state that is called Nation-State is that it unites together people who share the same ethnic and cultural background. A particular feature of the notion of the Nation-State is that people who inhabit the territory might share the same language and religion. In addition, this group of people has a deep sense of cultural and national values. The notion of nation-state is very complicated notion. This is largely reasoned by the growing immigration rate who has already se ttled on the territory of the region. When the number of immigrants is high the Nation-State cannot exist. This is so because of the following reasons: (1) diverse cultures; (2) different language; (3) different ethnicity. Current research clearly shows that only nations with a low level of immigratio

The Libor Scandal Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

The Libor Scandal - Assignment Example Its use affects the pricing of loans, mortgages and other financial products thus directly affecting the people’s lives. This paper will therefore attempt to examine the process and the purpose as well, of how commercial banks set and determine the LIBOR rates. It will further explore the role of LIBOR in the commercial sector, and finally consider the impact of this rate on businesses and consumers. It is paramount to understand the meaning of the word LIBOR. In definition, LIBOR refers to the London Interbank Offered Rate. It is also referred to as ICE LIBOR. It can also be understood as a rate used by contributor banks in the event that one bank wants to borrow funds or inter-bank deposits, from another fellow member bank. Contributor banks refer to banks, which are involved in the setting and fixing of LIBORS. They include the Deutsche bank, Bank of America, Royal Bank of Canada, and the Royal Bank of Scotland. The LIBOR is thus a benchmark rate that some commercial banks in the world use to determine the rate at which they will lend short-term deposits to each other. It can be equated to the federal funds rate (Gumbo, 2011:23). The LIBOR, whose administration is under the ICE Benchmark Administration, is usually based on the five major currencies of the world. These are the United States dollar, the Euro, the sterling pound, the Japanese Yen, and the Swiss Franc. In order to understand well the process and why banks set their LIBOR rates, it is crucial that we briefly look at the circumstances that led to the formation of this rate. The history of LIBOR is traced back to the year 1984 although its first application in the financial and money markets was not until the year 1986 (Twomey, 2011:52). In the 1984, there was an increased growth in business using financial market instruments. More and more banks were increasingly using

Wednesday, July 24, 2019

Assignment Rough Draft Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Assignment Rough Draft - Essay Example As this concept is quite important and complex at the same time due to the fact that it acts as a basis of any type of relationships, it gives birth to number of issues, the key of which are gender inequality and the fight against it. The concept of gender is best explained from the point of view of symbolic interaction theory, which states that every person plays a particular role in the society (Turner, 2012). In accordance with Turner (2012), a person is a social actor who performs an assigned role, which includes patterns of behavior and feelings. Even in the twenty-first century, the issue of gender discrimination still takes place. In order to fight the problem, there exists a range of federal laws, among which are Civil Right Act, the Equal Opportunity Act, Family and Medical Leave Act, Pregnancy Discrimination Law and others (â€Å"Gender Discrimination,† 2013). At the same time, these and other laws and programs appear to be not very effective for women. However, the Affordable Care Act is believed to change the situation for the better: due to the act, about 13 million women will gain coverage by 2016 (National Womens Law Center, 2013). These days, triple jeopardy of African American Women with disabilities occurs in the United States. Because of the existing stereotypes, this group of women experiences the following difficulties. First of all, they are expected to have traditionally female occupations. Secondly, African American women have difficulties which result from group-specific factors, such as likelihood of being a single parent. Finally, the disabled have decreased work opportunities because of lack of compliance on behalf of the employee (Smith & Alston, 2008). A human service professional should be culturally competent to meet the requirements of the sphere as well as to be able to work in it. For every person, it is natural to have

Tuesday, July 23, 2019

A look at why Gorbachev's reforms failed in the former Soviet Union Term Paper

A look at why Gorbachev's reforms failed in the former Soviet Union while Deng Xiaoping's reforms succeeded in China - Term Paper Example His policy of Glasnost or openness was also an integral part of his restructuring as well. The essence of these reforming exercises was largely the movement towards economic liberalization and plausible democratic transparency – to the extent as it augured well with the need for necessary change (Kessler, 1988, 651). Indeed, what Deng could foresee in 1978, Gorbachev and erstwhile Soviet political stalwarts took yet another eight years to conceive! China’s journey to realizing need for globalization began with Deng’s very first visit to United States for meeting President Carter. When USSR started with restructuring economy and polity, China was already way ahead in this process. Does it mean that Deng was better entrenched in the corridors of power in China than Gorbachev in Soviet Union? There can be quite few reasons behind this apparent ‘back bencher’ attitude of the Soviet Union. Despite other international political designs, China was not so globally involved with the cold war mutual vilifications and indirect fighting with the United States (US). The Soviet Union had to waste a lot of her resources and energy in the cold war with US. In view of Soviet involvement in Afghanistan and tremendous pressure upon it during cold war and dà ©tente, USSR’s weal ec onomy could not really bear the burden of a so-called socialist polity and economy – largely closed to the outside world. However, in order to critically analyze and compare both Perestroika and Deng’s reforms it is required to know the major aspects of both these perspectives. First, main aspects of Perestroika may be pointed out: The Gorbachev leadership, however, regarded its reforms in the USSR as a development of socialism, a â€Å"modernization,† as it were, of socialism to bring it up to date in the modern epoch. The policy of perestroika has †¦. The proposals of the reform movement

Monday, July 22, 2019

Glass Ceiling Essay Example for Free

Glass Ceiling Essay Glass ceiling is a term that describes the artificial plateau, beyond which women and other minorities are denied the opportunity to advance to upper levels of executive management in corporate America. It has become a routine practice to deny thousands of qualified women the top level jobs, merited by their performance. Glass ceiling is an explanation, which describes the factors involved in the activities of upper levels of executive management in corporate America. (Cordtz, 2003) The women group and the other minorities are stopped to succeed in their respective fields. Although the minorities as well as women are much qualified, and deserve the upper level positions in the management. The observations on this research topic describes that it is a routine practice of the management that they deny thousands of qualified women to come up and prove their talents. The qualified women’s are desirable to work and show their capabilities to the world. But they are not allowed to do so. The minority groups and women also deserve their respective positions on their merit but they are denied to prove their capabilities. The glass ceiling is also known as the brick wall because the women and the minority groups complain about the ineffective behavior of the higher level of management. These workingwomen Order#31415899 Pg. 2 and the minority groups are really fed up of this discrimination. They want a proper platform where the decisions should be made on the basis of equality. â€Å"Department of Labor studies have found that women hold only a small percentage of senior management positions in Fortune 500 companies. The glass ceiling barriers toward women are nothing but an insidious form of sex discrimination, in violation of law. † The studies based on the topic of Glass Ceiling describes that women are deprived of their rights and are not allowed to reach higher level of management. There is a barrier, which stops this effective group of workers to rise. Women are really competitive and they have many in born talents to prove and explore. This group can prove themselves in any field but they are not allowed to make themselves competitive, instead they are degraded and discouraged. (Cordtz, 2003) Glass ceiling is considered as the level beyond which qualified women and minority groups are not allowed to rise in a particular woprkplace. The glass ceiling consists of those factors, which form this barrier for the competitive women. Glass ceiling comprises of day-to day practices, dealings, attitudes, behavior and internal systems that adds to the career disadvantage of women. These factors are considered to be Order#31415899 Pg. 3 hindrances in the path of success and progress of the group of women. There are many other reasons which are included in the artificial barrier, which are â€Å"Overall, women work fewer hours than men; have less job experience and work fewer years; and avoid work in risky or unpleasant jobs which tend to be more highly compensated. Also, marriage and children tend to depress earnings for women when compared to men or single females† The factors, which are included in the glass ceiling, are that these women workers are not allowed to work for many hours because they also have the responsibility of their home. Moreover women are not so experienced and advanced as compared to men. If the situation will be considered by the society’s point of view than it will be noted that structure and the capabilities of the women are limited and their implication can be made in certain specific circumstances. A woman acts as a mother and a wife . In order to fulfill the requirements of a mother and a wife she gets confused and is not able to concentrate on the work efficiently. Women have a wide share of responsibility and they cannot devote themselves entirely to one task. (Zachariasiewicz, 2001) Order#31415899 Pg. 4 Studies show that glass ceiling act as a barrier for the progress and success of the women also includes the factor that the women do not know the art to control corporate activities . In fact they are not able to understand the complexed activities of the corporate . As it can be said that â€Å". Corporate life is a game, which is not always fair: for men or women. Being able to take risks without making waves, being a team player who can operate independently when necessary and participating in after-hours activities may not set well with some women, but for the present, the reality of the situation needs to be acknowledged if it is ever to change†. (Zachariasiewicz, 2001) My own experiences have taught me that corporate life is not an easy task to deal with . The activities of corporate involves many factors and these factors are divided into groups and subgroups . It is not always fair for both men and women. There are certain standards, which have to be fulfilled in order to run a smooth corporate life . If these standards would not be fulfilled than it might prove dangerous for the future of the company. There should be an ability to take risks without uttering a single word of complaint. Then the corporate life also includes the factor that the workers and the higher level of management should be independent enough to deal with ups and Order#31415899 downs of the businesses. Sometimes the corporate life also demands to devote more time and energy. But this is not possible for women workers. A corporation is like a pyramid, the chairman of the board and president are at the top levels of corporate pyramid. After going one stage lower it will be found that Executive Vice Presidents, Senior Vice Presidents, Vice Presidents, Mangers, Directors, Supervisors are present in the lower levels of corporation pyramid. And there is an imaginary line present in the corporate pyramid and this imaginary line is considered to be glass ceiling. (Zachariasiewicz, 200 -Works Cited- Cordtz, Dan (2003). The glass ceiling. FW, Vol. 163 Issue 17, p64 Zachariasiewicz, Robert (2001). Breaking the glass ceiling. Credit World, Vol. 81 Issue 5, p21 Glass Ceiling-Wikipedia-Free Encyclopedia. Break the Glass Ceiling Foundation/Equal Opportunities for women. WWW. breaktheglassfoundation. com Woman in Buisness/The conundrum of the glass ceiling/Economist. com WWW. economist. com/displaystory. Women at Work-The Glass Ceiling: iVillage www. ivillage. co. uk/workcareer/workrights/discrim/articls. html The Glass Ceiling-www. diversitydtg. com/articles/glass. html The Glass Ceiling by Re’ne Redwood- Human Civil Rights www. inmotionmagazine. com/glass. html

Sunday, July 21, 2019

Relationship Of Religion And Afghanistan Politics Essay

Relationship Of Religion And Afghanistan Politics Essay Historically, religion has a strong influence in every aspect of life, especially politics, in Afghanistan. The relationship between these two entities has been established for long time. The religion of Islam has been always integrated into the political and educational system of the country. Afghanistans constitution is derived from Islamic Sharia laws, which has combined religious and secular systems. The amalgamation of religion and politics in Afghanistan has caused decades of instability and in order to stabilize the country the politics and education system should be separated from the religion. We believe that Islam is the superior religion, and we appreciate the Islamic laws. However, religious leaders who are in the politics are misusing Islamic decrees. Therefore, it is not only defaming Islam, but also creating misunderstanding between nations, slowing down the economy and becoming a reason for conflicts in the county. To stabilize the country, apply human rights, and bring overall peace in Afghanistan, there should be compatibility between religion and politics. This can be possible through a secular system to fragment the religious elite powers from the state or in Islamic point of view Ijtihad (General acceptance of new concepts and privileges in to Islamic Sharia law) in the religion. For the first time in the history of Afghanistan, King Amanullah Khan brought magnificent reforms in the political and education systems of the country during 1928 after his state visit from Europe. King Amanuallah Khan struggled to apply European norms in Afghanistan. He realized that a secular system is the best solution to overcome dilemmas in the country. Europe could not stop their internal political problems for many decades due to religion influences between the sects of Christianity. After years of quarrels Europeans realized that beside religion, which directs spiritual life, government should control secular life. Europeans achieved their goals and created a strong union by their novel idea of separation of religion from state. The king chose the same strategy, but the strong bonds of religious parties and their extremist movements failed him. The religious leaders with public furor turned down the system and ousted the king from the throne(Riza). The newborn secular system was devastated by religious bodies, which changed governments systems. The secular schools, including girls schools, closed. Women divorce rights ended. They abolished the secular courts and replaced them by Sharia law courts, which are still applicable. Overall, Afghanistan relinquished a huge opportunity and faced challenges that led the country to the current instability in every aspect of life, especially politics, education, and social integrity (Riza). The state system was already mixing with strong Sharia law, so that the country faced a dark age of obstacles, three decades of war and Soviet invasion. After the collapse of communist regime, Mujahedeen took over the power and civil war started in the country. It was not long that the fundamentalist Taliban captured Afghanistan. These extremists not only were deprived from global modernity, but also neglect of the real Islamic knowledge. They were claiming on applying pure Islamic Sharia law. In actuality, they applied a system that was anti-Islamic and anti-human means. After the collapse of the Taliban regime, the world supported Afghans and changed the government system of the country. Afghanistans new constitution ratified, an amalgamate government formed. Yet religious parties are strongly involved in the system. They interfere in every component of the government. Indeed, they are a strong barrier against application of democracy in the country and people are still suffering. On the other hand, the legal system is a mixture of devout and customs that mostly religious leaders are practicing customary ideas inside the Islamic laws. It contradicts both Sharia law and human rights. Because of the less and primitive cultural and madrasas knowledge most religious leaders cannot distinguish between Sharia laws and old practiced customs. For example, in the rural regions they are applying a customary concept called Baad. In Baad case when, there is a conflict between two families or relatives, if anyone is killed from any side, to resolve this dispute, the murderers side usually gives his daughter or a girl to the victims family. It is opposite to any Islamic and state laws in the world. This custom is completely against human rights, even not acceptable in the Islamic law, yet it is practiced in many parts of the country. If there were a secular state legal system established in the country, the state would resolve the issue and people would not suffer. Likewise, religion influences has strongly affected globalization and the national interest of Afghanistan. The world market is so diverse now, globalization interconnects the world, and countries have close business relationship in most cases without consideration of differences in ethnicity, language, and religion. Nevertheless, in a country like Afghanistan the devout leaders and their wrong interpretation of Islam have severely damaged the national interest of the country. As an example, a few months ago the Ministry of Work and Social interaction presented a draft of new law for two days of national holiday in a week to the parliament. The ministry clearly pointed the reasons behind its appeal. They calculated the saving of total cost of government employees during the one day off. In broader prospect, Afghanistans official days has a serious problem with global market. Many businesses are suffering from global transactions, because of the clashes between the holidays in Afghani stan and the rest of world. We have one and half-day holiday during a week, half day off on Thursdays and one day off on Friday. Conversely, most countries especially the Europe and market-oriented countries such as US and China are off on Saturday and Sunday. There is a delay of any business activity at least for two days, which can create huge financial damages for businesses in the country. Besides the strong reasons of the Ministry, the parliament of Afghanistan rejected this draft of law. Because, the parliament is consists of many religious leaders they strongly refused to ratify this law. Their only reason behind was that it is an infidel movement and Afghanistan is an Islamic country. Parliament declared that never want to copy the Christian and Jewish customs and refused the draft. They have forgotten that the Saudi Arabia, which is believe to be the center of Islam, has accepted the two days of holiday because of its compatibility with global market and other political issues. I strongly believe that Afghanistan will never triumph over its economic and political struggles, unless the religious leaders are removed from politics and the separation of the state from the religion. Similarly, ignorant religious leaders deprive women of education. We accept that there are certain rights for women in Islam. However, we cannot compare the current modern area with 1,400 years ago. Moreover, a secular system to stabilize the society and apply the human rights should be compatible with the religion and modernity. Sociologist Steve Bruce argues that: Modernity undermines religion, except when it finds some major social role to play other than mediating the natural and supernatural worlds.(Bruce) In the broader view if religion steps outside of its traditional roles and takes on tasks or identities that are useful on a broader social scale, then it is possible for religion to maintain itself into modernity(Barker). In Islam, it is possible through Ijtihad, which Muslims scholars come to gather and introduce new contemporary concepts and privileges into Islamic Sharia law. The concept of Steve Bruce is acceptable in Islam via Ijtihad. They can include further womens rights inside Islamic laws including education, divorce, and gender equality. Unfortunately, considering Afghanistans situation and its religious and political leaders, it is impossible to apply Ijtihad. Therefore, the only proper way to bring prosperity to the people and the country is to set the religious leaders aside from politics. Let them to practice their religion and the government to do its job, like Turkey, another Islamic country. At the same time, education in Afghanistan like other Muslim countries has a long history. Islam had a major role on Afghan education for centuries. Today, education consists of three different categories: traditional or indigenous (pre-Islamic), modern, and Islamic education. Within the last category, there are four types of Islamic schools in Afghanistan: mosque schools; traditional madrasa, first level; second level; and the modern madrasa or in other words Islamic studies in university level. In addition, Arabic schools have appeared from the eighties and onwards. Moreover, Islam has been a dominant religion in most parts of the country for more than 1200 years and Islamic education has reached many parts of the population including rural people living in remote areas. The Koranic education not only teaches Koran but also writing, reading and counting to rural villagers, -i.e. boys and men. Islam also includes Sharia law, which infers that legal regulations and documents used among illiterate people. During the early twentieth century, the leaders tried to modernize the country, and were influenced by the developments in Turkey. The first constitution was approved on 1923 and more opportunities were given to education, and girls were also allowed to go to school. During the supremacy of King Zahir Shah (1933-1973) the government adopted new constitution and there was a significant growth in modern sector. An Islamist movement was crushed in 1975 and its leaders fled to Pakistan (Karlsson and Mansory). Throughout the 20th century there have been excessive waves of both liberal reform and traditionalist movements in Afghanistan. In the meantime, struggles over control of the education system have become a major competition between democratic and Islamist parties. The democratic and Islamist parties of the Mujahedeen have all tried to shape the political and ideological landscape of Afghanistan by carrying out reforms and religious decrees through education institutions. Afghanistan suffered immensely from the struggles for secular and religious control of educational institutions. Control of the education system has been a mobilizing force for the Mujahedeen movement, the socialists, and the overthrow of the Soviet-made government and the rise of the Taliban. There have been Links between the radical madrassas and the formation of the Taliban and involvement of such institutions of education in breeding Islamic extremism and have been a considerable factor on the security of the Afghan state (Afghanitan and Education). The struggles between secular and religious control of educational has almost totally collapsed the social sector. The literacy rate, for men 45 per cent and for women 11 per cent, among the lowest in the world. (Carlson and Mansory) Gender discrimination has been strengthened in the last decades. Over gender issues there have been many insurrections and battles in Afghanistan. Often, when womens participation in education has been enhanced, it has provoked counteractions. It is an empirical fact that education is a component of human security and one of the most important cornerstones of a society. Every society in the world has known the importance of secular education system and replicates each others experiences in peace-building and conflict prevention. A great example could be Turkey, which is one of the most developed Islamic countries in the world. Afghan government can imitate the Turkey experience and build a prosperous state. Education is a key component in creating communities and grantees their stability. However, the institutional aspects of education can also function as a root cause and source of conflict. This dual nature of education implies both the positive, or peace building and the negative, or conflict enhancing potential. Decades of instability in Afghanistan shows the linkage between institutional education and conflict, which has inadvertently helped to create the conditions for further conflict instead of building a foundation for reconciliation and sustainable peace. Education has a very essential but too often ignored role in relation to conflict prevention, reconciliation, resolution, and reconstruction. In fact, education had been known as a basis for investment in human capital, economic growth and mitigation of conflict. This rationale implies that education should be considered as a non-traditional instrument for building security. Brad Hayes and Jeffrey Sands authors of Non-traditional Military Responses to End Wars: Considerations for Policymakers, state: One, final and perhaps surprising, security area is education. Opening schools and getting children (particularly teenagers) off the streets reduces one source of potential instability, and frees their parents to go to work. School attendance also gives children hope for the future and provides them an alternative to joining factional militias.(Chesterman) By providing a civic curriculum and enhancing opportunities for students, education can act as a unifying factor in nation-building and stability. Education is also known as an essential component of peace-building. The global peace building means to empower the society to manage conflicts without violence and achieve sustainable human security. In brief, I would like to conclude that integration of political and educational system with religion has always been a chaos for countries like Afghanistan. Decades of instability and violence in Afghanistan are a good example to cite here. Afghanistan has faced many challenges with religious leaders who have used the religion as a tool to gain power and use the country for their own favors. Afghanistan political situation will never improve until the Afghan citizens identify the place of religion and politics. Since religion is a fate and politics is a game played to gain power. Afghan people should not trust anyone who uses the religion and play with peoples sentiments and gain power. In order to change the political situation in Afghanistan and lead the country to prosperity it is very important to disintegrate the political system from religion and establish a liberal and secular platform for educational system. As a Muslim I am pretty sure that Islam never contradicts modern ed ucation and democracy. Work Cited Page: Riza, Ali. The strategic use of Islam in Afghan politics. New York. Routledge, 2010: p1. Bruce, Steve. Religion in the Modern World. Oxford University Press. 1996: p 3. Barker, Philip W. and William J. Muck. Holy War for the 21st Century: Globalization, U.S. Foreign Policy, and the Development of Islamic Identity. University of Colorado. 2003: p 3. Afghanistan, Education, and the Formation of the Taliban. Fletcher School, Tufts University Leigh Nolan. January 2006: p1. Karlsson, Pia Amir Mansory. Islamic and Modern Education in Afghanistan Conflictual or Complementary? Institute of International Education Stockholm University, July 2008: p2-3. Chesterman, Simon. Walking Softly in Afghanistan: the Future of UN State- Building, Survival, Autumn 2002: vol. 33, p3.

Facebook User Consent for Experiments

Facebook User Consent for Experiments Facebook Research is for the Betterment of Human Kind and as a Business they should be Free to Undertake Large Scale Online Experiments without the need to Contact their Users. Facebook and many other network platforms have used large scale online experiments, often without the consent and awareness of their users. These experiments are usually to better understand their users, in attempts to better their business and provide reasons for human actions and responses relevant to them and that industry. However, the question remains should businesses like Facebook be allowed to conduct such experimental research without receiving consent from their users? To answer this first we must understand what this research is and what are the implications of it to the users. The ‘experiment evidence of massive-scale emotion contagion through social network’ (Kramer et al. 2014, p. 8788) article explores how the emotional state of one can be transferred to another through emotional contagion. This notion is taken a step further by transferring this positive or negative emotion via networks, such as Facebook. This method faces many criticisms; one being that the experiment itself does not take into consideration the experience where a person’s positive or negative emotion is the result of an incident or an interaction rather than the exposure to another’s emotion. This criticism is more from a technical point of view. From an ethical stand point (Reid 2017) the issue is that mass research was conducted on people without their consent regarding a matter which would otherwise be considered private (their emotional response) by many. This issue will be further explored from an ethical (Reid 2017) and legal perspective, an in relevant contexts.  Ã‚     Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚      In 2014 Facebook was in the medias eye for experimenting on its 1.3 billion users. Facebook researchers altered the newsfeed of about 700,000 of its users without informing them (Wholsen 2014). When this became public there was an outrage by many users while some other people (mainly businesses) argued that there is nothing wrong with what Facebook did or the way they went about doing it. The argument for research was supported by claims that Facebook conducts many forms of research in a variety of fields to enhance the â€Å"Facebook experience† (Wholsen 2014) for users and better the advertising and promotions Facebook offers to its business clients. Additionally, if they had asked for consent from each user it would be a lengthy, time consuming and difficult process as there are 1.3 billion users. After commencement of the emotion contagion research experiment Facebooks reported revenue and profits increased, the research being one of the contributing factors (Wholsen 2014). It is therefore evident that this research is for the betterment of businesses. However, can that be said about the betterment of mankind? The sensitivity to context ‘privacy in public’ notion focuses on users perceived online environment. Many users may believe that the research Facebook conduct was a breach of their private discussions and postings whereas others may think that it was a public act. The mix of these perceptions only aid in the difficultly of knowing what can be collected and distributed. There are three ethical concepts derived from what the basic human rights to privacy are. These are; confidentiality, anonymity, and informed consent (Eynon et al. 2009, p.188). For there to be full disclosure, consent and to be considered as an ethical means of obtaining data users, would need to know what they are consenting to and to what extent they are able to give this consent (Eynon et al. 2009, p.189) Based on this it is apparent that Facebook did not implement the informed consent aspect of this concept during their research. Additionally, Facebook didn’t submit a proposal to Institutional Review Board for pre-approval of the study. From a legal perspective Facebook asks for consent from users in their Data Usage Policy agreement during sing up. This agreement addresses that user’s information can be used for testing and research purposes (Kramer et al. 2014, p. 8789). However, this is a very weak form of consent and does not address the forms of research which can take place. This is a very broad statement and can include a lot or very little depending on interpretation. This agreement is compulsory to abide with no opt out options, if users are to use the social media program. This issue raises puts all Facebooks practices into question by its users and media including what this means for Facebook advertisements in terms of how honest they must be with what they are advertising based on the data collected. Although the Code of Practice acts as a guide to prevent many misleading advertisements including the requirement that advertisers are not to be deceptive or misleading in their advertisements and have evidence to support their advertised claims, there are still loop holes (Reid 2017). Facebook is available in more than 130 countries and not all of these countries have a Code of Practice and some have varying rules and guideline in theirs. Those countries not covered by the Code of Practice put their users at risk from misleading and deceptive advertisement, from Facebook and other businesses. There is a lack of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) by Facebook. CRS addresses many factors including quality of environment, employment practice, diversity, benefits and relationship for employees and consumer protection (Reid 2017). The policy is flexible enough to be applicable across all industries and in a range of situations. In this case, specifically addressing the negligence of the consumer protection factor. There are many benefits to complying with CSR for businesses and their customers including increase in profits in the long run, improved public image and the evasion of government interface. However, the downfall of not complying are reduction in profits and creates bad image for the businesses reducing benefits to owners/stakeholders. This is evident for many companies who have adapted this method of research and avoided transparency by not contacting their consumers. Mass scale research provides great data but brings the high risk that the data collect can be tracked back to the participant/user because the data itself is so complete (Eynon et al. 2009, p.191) Through there are billions of Facebook users the contagion research conduct is so complete that the through the likes (clicks) and their user references can allow for back tracking. Even if the information collect is anonymous there is still room for some access back to users (Eynon et al. 2009, p.192), particularly for infamous hackers. Using this situation in any other context, for example Dungons and Dragons. This online game allows it’s users to have conversations with other users during the game. This conversation can be tracked back by linking their text snippet to context of the conversation even when encrypted (Eynon et al. 2009, p.192) and like so the virtual game has had issues with piracy where they conduct research on users without consent, later exposed through a hacking incident. This is just one of the many examples where mass scale research has gone wrong because the company had failed to contact their users. Exposing users to something that causes physiological status changes is experimentation is the kind of thing that requires user consent. Informed consent is the most essential part of research ethics. It creates a trusting bond between a participant and a researcher which allows for accurate and true data to be collected without the objection from the participant or in this case the users. As a bare minimum, all businesses should disclose on their website to their users that their formation or data is being tracked anonymously. Lack of doing so a breach of a person’s privacy, at least from an ethical perspective. Therefore, this in no way will better mankind only create trust issues due to lack of transparency. In ability to trust a business is bad for the business itself and its customers, long term. If customers no longer trust a business they will slowly separate themselves from them looking for alternatives. Additionally, it creates a bad reputation for the business, as it did for Facebook who is still in the medias eye for it in a negative light despite their public apology. This negative back lash is one that will associate with the business in the long term and gradually it will (and has) caused many issue to conduct other forms of research, including Facebook having to review their privacy policy as a result of the uprise negative response from their unconsented research. To conclude, there are many benefits for undertaking large scale online experiments without user/participant consent in the sort run however long term it does not benefit anyone let alone better mankind. References Eynon, R, Schroeder, R & Fry, J 2009, ‘new techniques in online research: challenges for research ethics’, Twenty- First Century Society, vol.4, no.2, pp.187-199 Kramer, A, Guillory, J & Handcock, J 2014, ‘Experiment evidence of massive-scale emotion contagion through social network’, PNAS, vol. 111, no. 24, pp. 8788-8790. Reid, D 2017, ‘Lecture 1’, ADV20001, Advertising Issues: Regulation, Ethics & Cultural Considerations, Learning material on Blackboard, Swinburne University of Technology, May 29, viewed 9 July 2017. Reid, D 2017, ‘Lecture 2’, ADV20001, Advertising Issues: Regulation, Ethics & Cultural Considerations, Learning material on Blackboard, Swinburne University of Technology, June 5, viewed 9 July 2017. Reid, D 2017, ‘Lecture 17’, ADV20001, Advertising Issues: Regulation, Ethics & Cultural Considerations, Learning material on Blackboard, Swinburne University of Technology, July 10, viewed 9 July 2017. Wholsen, M 2014, ‘Facebook won’t stop experimenting on you, it’s just too lucrative’, Wired, 10 March, viewed 10 July 2017, .

Saturday, July 20, 2019

Graduation Speech -- Graduation Speech, Commencement Address

South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu wrote, "You are a very special person - become what you are." These words encourage us, the graduating class of 2012, to recognize the goodness and potential in each and every one of us and to go out and excel in the world. We are a diverse group of different aspirations and backgrounds, bound for different corners of the earth to carve out our won individual niches. Before we leave behind Lee Falls High School and each other, we must ask ourselves how we have become who we are. Most of us have grown up in this town. We have known each other for many years, gone through the school system and interacted with the community. We have been labeled by the press as inhabitants of "Cranktown" and "Methville," but the community has rallied to fight the problem. This same community is the true spirit of where we come from and who we are. It is the same community that sees generations of change and is always willing to stretch its hands out to help those in need and to honor those deserving. We live in a unique community, though we may not realize it, a...

Friday, July 19, 2019

Dennis v. United States, 341 U.S. 494 (1951) :: essays research papers

Facts: The petitioners, the leaders of the Communist Political Association (CPA), reorganized the Association into the Communist Party through changing its policies of peaceful cooperation with the United States and its economic and political structure to into the Marxist-Leninist doctrine of the Communist Party. The Communist Party set itself apart from other political parties by disregarding the normal process of change set forth by the constitution. From the literature, statements, and activities of the petitioners, the Communist Party leaders, it is clear that their goal was to achieve a successful overthrow of the government of the United States through the use of force and violence. Procedural History: Petitioners, leaders of the Communist Party, were convicted of violation of sec. 2 and 3 of the Smith Act due to the fact that the pretrial motion to stop the indictment on the grounds that the statute was unconstitutional was denied. The Court of Appeals upheld the conviction, and the defendants once again appeal the verdict. A writ of limited certiorari was granted by the Supreme Court. Issues: 1.)Are sec. 2 and 3 of the Smith Act violates the First Amendment and other provisions of the Bill of Rights? 2.)Are the rights to advocate the overthrow of the government protected by the First and Fifth Amendments? Holdings: The convictions are affirmed because the court ruled that the Smith Act was constitutional and that the governments’ right to self-preservation at times overrules the rights granted by the Bill of Rights. Analysis of Majority Opinion: Shenck vs. United States 249 U.S. 47 (1919) created the precedent allowing for the right of freedom of speech to be violated when there is a â€Å"clear and present danger† to the government. The petitioners clearly intended to overthrow the government because they advocated this action. This is important because it passes one of the major tests of justice in America, intent. It is understandable for the government to put forth its best efforts to protect itself from rebellion making the Smith Act entirely reasonable. Analysis of Concurring Opinion- Frankfurter: The individual is not the only one who as the right to self-preservation, the government shares this right as well as it is shown through the Smith Act. Whereas the individual has a right to self-preservation, the government as well shares this right, and it is manifested in the Smith Act. Also, the Constitution does not entirely guarantee the freedom of speech which was set forth in the early years of the Constitution to prove this.

Thursday, July 18, 2019

Structural Engineering Mishaps and Disasters :: essays research papers

Structural Engineering Mishaps and Disasters Hindenburg: An Unnecessary Disaster   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  In the 1930s airships, better known today as â€Å"blimps†, were the main source of air travel. During this time, the airships were used for various different reasons such as: bombing enemy targets, patrolling coastal areas, escorting naval ships during the night or through unsafe bodies of water, or used to make luxury flights across the Atlantic. The Hindenburg was believed to be the biggest and most sophisticated aircraft ever built.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The Hindenburg was built with metal framework and balloon like covering. It was as long as three football fields and weighed more than 240 tons. This airship looked ravishing, however, it possessed a significant flaw that eventually caused it to ruin. The outer skin of the Hindenburg was filled with hydrogen, which is extremely flammable. Passengers preparing to board the aircraft had to remove all lighters, matches, and/or any other objects that would cause it to catch fire.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Traveling all the way from Europe, the Hindenburg was expected to arrive in the United States and land in New Jersey on May 6, 1937. Max Pruss was commander, there were thirteen passengers, and twenty-two crew members on board . Hundreds of people waited for the Hindenburg, including: relatives of the passengers, news reporters, photographers, New Jersey citizens, and ninety-two ground crew members.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The flight’s landing was slightly delayed due to thunderstorms and aggressive winds. Finally, the weather calmed and the Hindenburg airship began to land in Jersey. One of the spectators noticed a pale pink glow in the lower center of the ship. Everyone began to become intense because they had a feeling that the glow was not suppose to be there. A few seconds later that section of the airship exploded! All the onlookers, of course, backed away rapidly, but were still close as the entire Hindenburg airship, and mostly all of its passengers caught fire.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Some parts of the Hindenburg did, in fact, remain together, but they are only preserved today for research. One of the passengers aboard the flight, a fourteen year old, climbed through a window trying to escape the fires of the airship. To his advance, one of the water tanks burst and the flames on his clothes and his body were extinguished.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The U.S Bureau of Air Commerce gave the following statement as an explanation of the explosion. â€Å"A small amount of explosive mixture (hydrogen) in the upper part of the ship could have been ignited by†¦{an} electric phenomenon like a ball of lightning.

Ethical Healthcare Issues Essay

Ethical dilemmas in health care are often the most difficult to navigate. Quite often the life of a person depends on the decision made when a challenge arises. This is certainly the case regarding patients in a permanent vegetative state. These cases have provoked very strong, opposing opinions throughout the medical community. Generating a definitive answer to how a facility handles these situations is extremely important to ensure appropriate ethical policy is followed throughout the care or termination of medical services for a person in a permanent vegetative state. Four ethical principles assist in guiding the ethical conversation: autonomy, nonmaleficence, beneficence, and justice. Autonomy Preserving a patient’s autonomy is a standard ethical policy for health care providers. Examples of how doctors and facilities protect a patient’s right to independence include Advance Directives, the Patient Self-Determination Act, and HIPAA. â€Å"The problem is that vegetative patients are not competent to refuse continued treatment, and there is concern about how best to protect them from treatment that they would probably refuse if they could† (Jennett, 2002, p. 356). A patient who has the unforeseen misfortune of entering into the permanent vegetative state may not have the chance to express their stance through an Advance Directive on how he or she wish to proceed medically, therefore stripping him or her of the right to autonomy. Some patients may have expressed their wishes informally to their family members and loved ones, such as the desire to donate organs when the time comes. If the decision were made to end medical care in a more direct and rapid way, organs would have a better chance of becoming used to help others, which would restore some of the patient’s autonomy (Wade, 2001). Most people would rather donate their organs for the benefit of others, rather than remain in an unconscious state, when given the choice. Unfortunately, these patients are not given a chance to voice that opinion. Nonmaleficence Nonmeleficence is the ethical principle to do no harm. It could be argued that a person in a permanent vegetative state feels nothing, and that poses the question regarding whether or not one can do harm to someone who does not feel anything emotionally or physically (Wade, 2001). In addition, continued treatment actually may be doing harm to the patient. â€Å"There have been many declarations that survival in a permanent vegetative state is not a benefit to the patient, some regarding it as a fate worse than death† (Jennett, 2002, p. 356). There are opposing viewpoints that believe patients in a vegetative state actually may be aware of their surroundings. According to Hope (2011) a study confirmed, â€Å"patients thought to be in a permanently ‘vegetative’ state may still be able to think and communicate† (para. 1). Although this may sound hopeful for loved ones, for some patients being aware of surroundings but not able to move or communicate is doing more harm to them. Would it be more nonmaleficent to end their suffering if they have poor quality of life? Beneficence The philosophical question beneficence raises is will an unknowing patient benefit from an act of good (Wade, 2001)? The patient is not aware of any kind or unkind act done to him or her in an unconscious state. Ongoing treatment could bring about a recovery, but a patient may not view this as beneficent. The state that their body and mind would be in and the quality of life they would have is questionable for whether or not keeping the patient alive was actually doing him or her any good. Beneficence can also relate to the survivors of the patient. In many cases, it is the willingness of the family to keep the patient alive in the hopes of a miracle even if it is against what the doctor’s recommend (Brody, 1988). Is it beneficent to the patient’s family to remain in a state of ongoing grief when there is no improvement in sight? Justice Justice is the most applied ethical principle for arguing for or against termination of treatment for patients in a permanent vegetative state. One argument that can be raised is whether or not it is fair to continue to allocate resources for a person in this state when it limits the care and resources other patients could be receiving (Wade, 2001). If a person is in a permanent unconscious state and doctors have determined that he or she will not regain consciousness or live a normal life, should the care and services he or she are using be given to a patient who has a greater chance of recovery. In addition, consider the cost to society for paying for the ongoing resources and care these patients will need (Brody, 1988). Is it fair to impose that cost on others? Instead, the funds could be used to save the lives of others. However, if the policy became to end patient’s care once they have reached a permanent vegetative state it could be said that attitudes may change toward other severely disabled people and the ongoing care they receive (Wade, 2001). Provider’s compassion may begin to be diminished over time through seeing the termination of care on these permanent vegetative patients, and it may desensitize them in a way that would make it difficult for them to provide any ongoing care to disabled people. Terminating an individual’s life whether it is physician-assisted or merely stopping food sources will always pose huge ethical concerns, even if the patient is in a permanent vegetative state and cannot express emotion or feel pain. Forming an opinion on the issue is not easy, and there are many parties who have interest in the outcome such as the patient, their family, the staff providing care, the facility providing care, and society. By applying the four ethical principles of autonomy, nonmaleficence, beneficence, and justice healthcare administrators can begin to form an ethical opinion to shape the way their facility approaches the many challenges permanent vegetative patients cause. References Brody, B. A. (1988). Ethical questions raised by the persistent vegitative patient. The Hastings Center Report, 18(1), 33-37. Hope, J. (2001, November 10). Vegitative patients ‘can still think and respond’. Daily Mail, 0(0), 28. Jennett, B. (2002). The vegitative state. Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery and Psychiatry, 73(4), 355-357. Wade, D. T. (2001). Ethical issue in diagnosis and management of patients in the permanent vegetative state. BMJ: British Medical Journal, 322(7282), 352-354.