Case Study Importance of Accounting Standards Essay

The importance of accounting standards A PricewaterhouseCoopers Case Study Introduction PricewaterhouseCoopers was created in July 1998 by the merger of two firms – Price Waterhouse and Coopers & Lybrand – each with historical roots going back some 150 years and originating in London. PricewaterhouseCoopers, the world’s largest professional services organization, helps its clients build value, manage risk and improve their performance. Drawing on the talents of more than 140,000 people in 152 countries, it provides a full range of business advisory services to leading global, national and local companies and to public institutions. These services include audit, accounting and tax advice; management, information technology and human resource consulting; financial advisory services including mergers & acquisitions, business recovery, project finance and litigation support; business process outsourcing services; and legal services through a global network of affiliated law firms. Five things you didn’t know about PricewaterhouseCoopers 1. To meet their growth targets they need to hire 1,000 people a week across the world. 2. They will be the largest professional services firm in critically important emerging markets: Russia and the Former Soviet Union, India, China, Singapore, Malaysia and Latin America. 3. The high technology practice will yield revenues in excess of $1 billion with over 2,500 technology clients. 4. Work with Financial Services clients will represent more than 20% of PricewaterhouseCoopers’ international revenues. 5. They are already investing $200 million a year in new technology. A global enterprise The new, combined organization is the result of the continuing growth in the international economy. Companies are seeking to re-define themselves to thrive in the market-place where mergers and acquisitions are increasingly important and many companies now operate without geographical boundaries. A large-scale global enterprise such as PricewaterhouseCoopers needs a solid infrastructure to meet its clients’ expectations. One element is a powerful  database developed by PricewaterhouseCoopers that shares ‘best practice’ information with all its offices around the world. PricewaterhouseCoopers is also harnessing all available technology to ensure any of their advisers can work with their clients anywhere in the world, allowing them to be fully effective in serving the clients’ needs immediately. They offer businesses around the world both a wider range of services and a more integrated service than has ever been possible. This service also provides a soluti on to business problems of a scale and complexity that are greater than ever before. An integrated team approach They provide a fully integrated team to tackle a company’s diverse problems. At PricewaterhouseCoopers, there are six service lines or departments which cover different areas of specialization. They are: Assurance & Business Advisory Services Management Consulting Services Tax & Legal Services Financial Advisory Services Global Human Resource Solutions Business Process Outsourcing. PricewaterhouseCoopers may work on one of these areas and find that the client requires help and solutions to issues in other areas. They are able to provide an integrated team of experts to give advice and offer a range of possible solutions. The first and largest of these service lines, the Assurance & Business Advisory Service is now considered in more depth. ABAS – Assurance & Business Advisory Services At PricewaterhouseCoopers the global practice they call ‘ABAS’ provides a broad range of services which fulfill three core business needs: 1. Assurance – They conduct audits and provide assurance to clients on the financial performance and operations of their businesses. 2. Global Risk Management Solutions – They help clients to manage their business risks and thereby improve financial performance. 3. Transaction Services – They offer advice to clients about their significant transactions such as mergers & acquisitions activity. Some of the most exciting organizations from the  world of banking, commerce and government come to them for advice. The client list is dominated by household names, with particular strengths in communications, financial services, retail, energy and manufacturing sectors. Assurance Assurance is the largest part of the UK practice for PricewaterhouseCoopers and generates income from a combination of audit and business advisory assignments. In addition to an audit, many clients require business advisory services. For example, they may provide advice on joint ventures or mergers, helping companies to ‘float’ their company on the Stock Exchange or assess whether the technology or systems in place provide an accurate means of reporting the financial data. Auditing In order that shareholders and other interested parties can make informed judgments as to the financial health of a company, it is a legal requirement that all companies have their financial facts and figures checked. This is known as an audit and must be performed by an independent registered firm of auditors. The auditors use guidance from the Accounting Standards Board to state whether in their opinion the financial information presented by the company is a ‘true and fair’ representation of that company’s financial health. The primary reporting responsibility of the auditors is, however, to the shareholders, not to the company’s directors. It is interesting to note the difference between ‘true and fair’ and 100% accurate. It is not the role of the auditors to check every individual transaction performed by a company and therefore the auditors cannot state that the figures are 100% correct, merely that, in their opinion, they are ‘true and fair’. Legislation and regulation of companies The accounts of a company are designed to show both the performance and its current financial position. All company accounts in this country need to be produced in accordance with: 1. The Companies Act, 1985 for UK, for Pakistan Companies ordinance 1984 and 2. Accounting Standards: Statement of Standard Accounting Practice (SSAPs) Financial Reporting Standards (FRSs). In essence these standards set out: What information should be included in a company’s accounts How this information should be presented. The Companies Act / Ordinance, decrees that companies must produce accounts for publication. The Accounting Standards Committee devised SSAPs. In 1991 the Committee was replaced by the Accounting Standards Board, which develops FRSs. The Board is gradually replacing SSAPs with FRSs, which are issued when the Board identifies a need. These two sets of standards encourage greater clarity so that the reader can fully understand the information represented. Accounting standards FRSs are expected as business becomes more complex. How these different standards are applied varies with the type of business conducted by a company. As for any company the shareholders’ interests must be protected. The following examples of SSAPs and FRSs demonstrate the consideration that must be given in drawing up financial accounts in order that interested individuals, such as financial analysts, can clearly judge a company’s performance and position. Key standards will be considered in this and the following section. SSAP 12 Accounting for depreciation Companies invest in assets (such as machinery) in order to produce goods or services to sell. These are known as fixed assets. In the case of the gas or oil industry, an oil rig is a fixed asset – the company must own an oil rig to supply oil or gas. All companies have some form of fixed assets although the dependence on these assets varies with the type of business. Another example could be machinery for manufacturing a car, or a building in which employees work. In this example, Global Oil has built an oil rig for  £50m. In its balance sheet, cash will be reduced by  £50m and fixed assets will increase by  £50m. In 20 years time (the ‘economic life’), the company knows that the oil rig will need to be replaced. By the 20th year, the value of the oil rig in the company’s balance sheet will be zero. Thus, the value of the oil rig will reduce each year by a set amount ( £2.5m in this example). This is known as depreciation and the annual depreciation figure is shown in the profit and loss account. SSAP 12 states that the economic life of a  fixed asset should be reviewed regularly and should be stated in the notes to the accounts, together with how the rate of depreciation was determined. FRS 11 Impairment of fixed assets and goodwill FRS 11 is a new standard and deals with any loss in value to a fixed asset, for example through damage or downturn in the economy. This is known as impairment. For example, if a pipeline from Global Oil’s oil rig is damaged, the supply of oil or gas is reduced or stopped until repairs are made. Thus the ability of the oil rig to produce oil or gas is less than expected and the fixed asset’s value is reduced. Global Oil must therefore make a general reduction in the value of the asset and charge the loss to the profit and loss account. FRS 11 states that all companies must reassess the value of their fixed assets on a regular basis to establish whether the figure in the balance sheet is a ‘fair value’. FRS 1 Cash flow statements There are three main statements in a company’s annual report and accounts – the profit and loss account, the balance sheet and the cash flow statement. For example, while Global Oil may be highly profitable, without any cash it will be unable to pay its employees or suppliers. Clearly, when Global Oil sells oil to its customers, it needs to ensure it receives prompt payment. Cash is the lifeblood of a business and it is therefore important for a company to issue a cash flow statement. FRS 1 sets out the format and contents of a company’s cash flow statement. Accounting standards continued†¦ FRS 3 Reporting financial performance This is a highly complicated standard. Essentially FRS 3 serves to make sure the information presented in a set of accounts is clear. Companies must issue a report stating the financial performance for review by its shareholders. Consistency and ease of understanding these reports allows the reader to compare the data for similar companies. This would allow a potential investor to compare competing oil or gas companies before deciding which company’s shares to buy. In this example of Global Oil, there are three subsidiaries: International Gas, International Oil and International Petrochemicals. Each of these different companies or subsidiaries must also produce their own set of accounts as should the parent company, Global Oil. FRS 3 states how a company must set out the financial reports and accounts, the type of information that should be provided and where it should be categorized in the company statement of accounts. FRS 3 Exceptional items FRS 3 consists of several other sections including a note on ‘exceptional items’. These are one-off situations and may result in either a profit or loss to the company. These are included in a separate section in the profit and loss account. The reasons for incurring an exceptional item are various. Examples include the general costs involved in splitting up or de-merging a utility company, such as telecommunications or gas, into their separate components. In this case study, Global Oil decided to move its head office to Edinburgh. As this move is not expected to happen regularly in the normal course of business, the cost is regarded as an exceptional cost. Although this cost is included in the profit and loss account, it is clearly marked as exceptional so that shareholders realize that a marginal reduction in profit is not a result of a reduction in revenues. FRS 3 also states that exceptional charges must be shown separately in the profit and loss account and detailed in the notes to financial statements. SSAP 25 Segmental reporting Segmental information gives a breakdown of the different industrial sectors in which a company is involved and allows the reader of the accounts a much better understanding of where the money is made within the different parts of the company. This information may also be provided on a geographical basis if this is relevant. This standard is mostly applicable to the biggest public limited companies or if the company has a banking or insurance division. So for Global Oil, the financial information should detail the amount of business generated in oil refining, gas and petrochemicals. It should also provide information on the different geographic areas in which it operates. SSAP 25 states that the annual report and accounts for a company needs to provide a geographical and industrial breakdown of the following information: Turnover Operating profit and loss Net assets. SSAP 9 Stocks and long-term contracts Stock is an asset on the balance sheet and is essentially the product that a company will sell. In the case of Global Oil, its stock is oil and gas. SSAP 9 deals with how to value this stock on the balance sheet. Typically the value on the balance sheet would be the cost to produce and refine the oil into a marketable state. However, if the price of oil drops to a value below these production costs, then Global Oil cannot sell the oil at a profit. In these circumstances, the value of the oil stocks on the balance sheet must be reduced to the sale price minus all transaction costs. This is known as the net realizable value. SSAP 9 states that a company must value its stock at whichever is the lower value – the cost to produce versus the net realizable value. Conclusion The example of Global Oil demonstrates the financial reporting standards that must be considered when preparing a company’s accounts. More standards are expected as the complexities of business transactions grow and accounting practice adapts to keep up with these changes. Such changes already observed in business are the use of derivatives and financial ‘instruments’. At PricewaterhouseCoopers, the ABAS teams are experts in their field of knowledge and exercise their judgment in interpreting how these standards apply to different companies. The implementation of the standards can vary according to the type of industry and even between companies in the same industrial sector. In order to ensure the best possible interpretation, the ABAS teams need to have a good understanding of the client’s business and industry sector.

Lizzie Andrew Borden’s Defense

The Lizzie Borden case has mystified and fascinated those interested in crime forover on hundred years. Very few cases in American history have attracted as much attention as the hatchet murders of Andrew J. Borden and his wife, Abby Borden. The bloodiness of the acts in an otherwise respectable late nineteenth century domestic setting is startling. Along with the gruesome nature of the crimes is the unexpected character of the accused, not a hatchet-wielding maniac, but a church-going, Sunday-school-teaching, respectable, spinster- aughter, charged with parricide, the murder of parents, a crime worthy of Classical Greek tragedy. This is a murder case in which the accused is found not guilty for the violent and bloody murders of two people. There were the unusual circumstances considering that it was an era of swift justice, of vast newspaper coverage, evidence that was almost entirely circumstantial, passionately divided public opinion as to the guilt or innocence of the accused, incompetent prosecution, and acquittal. Not much is described of Lizzie Andrew Borden's childhood. On March 1, 1851, Emma Lenora Borden was born to Andrew and Sarah Borden, and on July 19, 1860, Lizzie had arrived. While Lizzie was at the young age of two, Sarah died of uterine congestion. In 1865, Andrew Borden wed Abby Durfee-a short, shy, obese woman who had been a spinster until the age of 36. Abby's family were not as well off as the Bordens. Lizzie suffered from psychomotor epilepsy, a strange seizure of the temporal lobe that has one distinct symptom: a â€Å"black-out† in which the patients carry out their actions in a dream state, aware of every action without knowing what they are doing. Lizzie Borden seemed to have two entirely different personalities: the good daughter (a member of the Congressional Church, and a brilliant (conversationalist), and the bad daughter (deeply resentful of the patriarchy). These two personalities could be explained by the families' contradiction about their social statuses. She also had a habit of stealing from the local merchants. The Borden family of Fall River, Massachusetts, was well known-not only because of Andrew Borden's wealth, but also because of the New England name. Lizzie was the ninth-generation on her father's side to live in Fall River. Andrew held many positions throughout his life, which included president of Union Savings Bank, director of First National Bank, director of Durfee Safe Deposit & Trust Company, director of Globe Yarn Mill Company, director of Troy Cotton & Woolen Manufacturing Company, and director of Merchants Manufacturing Company. They led a modest life in the south part of town near factories and City Hall. Despite this crowded neighborhood and closeness to the police department, none of the neighbors saw anything helpful on the morning of the murders. What makes the Fall River murders so confusing is that the motive, the weapon, and the opportunity for such a crime are all absent. They found no money or jewelry missing, not even small amounts of change were taken in the daytime break-in at the Borden home a year earlier. The home had been locked up as usual, the maid Bridget Sullivan-an Irish immigrant, 26, that had been working at the household since 1889-was washing windows, and daughter Lizzie was inside the house reading a magazine. Even if both were involved for some reason in this shocking crime, what became of the blood so conspicuously missing from the bludgeoned corpses? Furthermore, the prosecution never proved the weapon was an axe. When Officer Mullaly asked if there were hatchets in the house, Lizzie replied with, â€Å"Yes, they are everywhere. † Bridget and Mullaly went down to the basement and found four hatchets: one rusty claw-headed hatchet, two that were dusty, and one that had dried blood and hair on it (later determined as cow's blood and hair. One of these was without a handle and covered in ashes. The break on the handle appeared to be recent so it was submitted as evidence. Yet microscopic examination of this blade revealed no traces of blood. Mrs. Borden was struck with a â€Å"heavy, sharp-edged candlestick,† yet no axe, hatchet, or even candlestick could be found to uphold these theories in court. The contrarieties of the case caused more than 1,900 divorces (according to a New York Times poll at the time) in which husbands and wives, argued over the innocence or guilt, decided that they were mutually incompatible. By nine thirty August 4, 1892, Abby Borden's head was nearly torn off her shoulders by a blunt instrument as she lay face down in the upstairs guestroom. Forensic experts at the time judge that she had seen her attacker when struck. When examined by Dr. Bowen-a friend, physician, and neighbor-he found her head crushed by 19 axe or hatchet wounds in the back of the scalp. Because of the lack of blood, it has been determined that Abby died from the first blow, and with death her heart had stopped pumping blood. The 200-pound victim lay sprawled out on the knees face down to be discovered two hours later. For 30 years Abby and Lizzie lived together under one roof, yet on the day of the murder Lizzie gave no indication that they ever got along. Deputy Marshal John Fleet testified that on the day Abby died he asked Lizzie â€Å"if she had any idea who could have killed her father and mother. † Lizzie responded with, â€Å"She's not my mother, Sir. She is my stepmother. My mother died when I was a child. † â€Å"I did not regard her as my mother, though she came there when I was young. I decline to say whether my relations between her and myself we those of mother and daughter or not. I called her Mrs. Borden and sometimes Mother. † Edmund Pearson's famous description of the scene where Andrew Borden-70, a tall white-haired grim man, known for his business abilities and wealth in Fall River-was found dead: â€Å"This was a small room, nearly square, with but two windows, both on the south side. The floor was covered with the usual garish, flowered carpet, customary in such houses at that time, and the wallpaper was of a similarly disturbing pattern. The furniture was mahogany or black walnut, upholstered with the invariable black horsehair. On the north side of the room, opposite the windows, was a large sofa, and on this lay the dead body of Mr. Borden with his head and face so hacked as to be unrecognizable even to his friend and physician, Dr. Bowen. Borden's head was slightly bent to the right, but his face was almost unrecognizable as human. † One eye had been cut in half and out of its socket, his nose had been severed, and there were eleven distinct cuts within a fairly small area extending from the eye and nose to the ears, four of them crushing the skull. The wounds were so severe that the first eleven must have killed him. When the police finally arrived after the murders, Lizzie acted more like a concerned citizen rather than a daughter in shock. Many suspects had been eliminated, but it was inevitable that Lizzie would become the prime one, especially that after they learned she had tried to purchase ten cents worth of prussic acid poison the week before from Eli Bence, a clerk at Smith's Drug Store. Adelaide Churchill, the neighbor who stayed with Lizzie until the doctor arrived, testified in court that she did not see any blood on Lizzie's dress when she left at noon. According to Mrs. Churchill, â€Å"I stood in front of her, rubbing both her hands and fanning her, and I did not see any blood on her face, nor any disarrangements of her hair. Such a spotless appearance seems impossible if Lizzie had committed the crime, for she had at best 20 minutes after her father fell asleep to strike him eleven times about the head, hide the murder weapon, and clean all evidence off her clothes and body. At 3:00 p. m. the bodies of Andrew and Abby were carried into the dining room, where Dr. Dolan performed the autopsies. Emma Lenora Borden returned just before seven from visiting friends in Fairhaven after hearing of the occurrence by telegraph. The police continued to investigate for weeks to come, but nothing of significance was found. The morning after the funeral, Miss Russell-a neighbor-witnessed Lizzie burning a dress in the kitchen stove, she claimed that it was stained with paint and was of no use. It was because of this testimony that Judge Blaisdell of the Second District Court charged Lizzie with three counts of murder (oddly, for the murder of her father, the murder of her stepmother, and the murder of the both of them) and if found guilty, faced death by hanging. The trial was set for June 5, 1893. This was the Victorian era, when women were â€Å"certainly not capable of killing anyone. † You must remember that Lizzie was of a wealthy family of high status. After only an hour, the 12 jury members declared Lizzie to be not guilty. It is said that it only took 15 minutes to decide, but out of respect for the prosecution, they waited another 45 to inform the court of their choice. Lizzie was legally free, but in the public's opinion, she was still guilty. After the acquittal, Lizzie legally changed her name to Lizabeth, moved out of the house on 92 Second Street. Emma and Lizzie inherited $200,000. 00 each from their father's death; their first purchase was a lovely home on The Hill at 7 French Street, the most fashionable place in Fall River, in which Lizzie named Maplecroft. Lizzie enjoyed the theatre, and met a stage/silent film actress by the name of Nance O'Neil. It was a party thrown for Nance and her acting members that caused Emma to move from Maplecroft in 1905, she simply could not abide by Lizzie's new rowdy friends. After Emma moved to Newmarket in New Hampshire, Lizzie and her had little or no communication and the two sisters never saw each other again. Lizzie died on June 1, 1927, at the age of 67. Emma did not attend the funeral, because on the day of Lizzie's death, she had fallen and suffered a broken hip. Emma died on June 21, 1927 at the age of 76. Both were buried in the Borden family plot in Oak Grove Cemetery. Andrew Jackson Borden lies between Sarah and Abby, while Lizzie and Emma are at his feet. Lizzie Andrew Borden is forever linked with one of history's greatest unsolved mysteries. And now thanks to Martha McGinn (president of TILBA, The International Lizzie Borden Association) for $150 per night, members of the public will be able to actually sleep in the house where the murders took place. The Lizzie Borden House Bed and Breakfast Museum was to open on, appropriately, August 4. The breakfast includes food eaten the morning of the murders, such as bananas, johnnycakes, sugar cookies, and coffee with the management dressed as and playing the part of the Bordens.

Process Improvement Application Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Process Improvement Application - Research Paper Example The researcher states that Quality Improvement is an outline of a sequence that one needs to follow to arrive at a certain point that would define goal achievement. One can also understand QI to mean ways through which an organization can ensure client satisfaction through an offering of meritorious services. In many circumstances, healthcare facilities are so far the known organization that uses QI story more than any other organization. This does not imply that QI improvement limits its application to health practitioners. In fact, some assembly industries like motor vehicle assembly also use QI in their management system. Some of the benefits that accrue to an organization that employs a Quality Improvement management system are customer loyalty, improvement in market share, reduced service call, higher prices, and greater productivity. Any organization that uses Quality Improvement story has varied reasons for doing so. The reasons for using QI story include helping the team to o rganize, gather and analyze data in a logical fashion; monitors the teams progress; facilitates understanding by non- team members and lastly, it standardizes presentation to management. In the case of a health practitioner, he/she needs to organize the work in search a way that it clearly defines who is going to be responsible for what task. It also indicates the time one would execute the task and the duration that one would take to accomplish such kind of task. The QI story makes sure that it states how one would gather the necessary data and method for analysis of the collected data. Secondly, QI story helps one to monitor the team’s progress. The team enters whatever they have done in a format that one can identify easily or observe with ease. The management is able to evaluate and monitor the progress that the team is making from the format of presentation that QI story delivers.

Communicating effectively in obstetric emergencies Essay

Communicating effectively in obstetric emergencies - Essay Example The incompetent midwifery and lack of awareness can also contribute to the inadequate maternal facilities to the mother and the baby (Aljunid & Zwi, pp. 426-36, 1996). In many countries, specifically the Middle East and South Asian countries like India, Nepal, and Srilanka have low mortality rate that contributes to women preferring to give deliver in private or home by unofficial nurses or midwifery. The lack of awareness and proper maternal education can even result in serious healthcare problems to the mother and the child (Walsh, pp. 1-5, 2001). The intensive prenatal care facilitation in obstetric emergencies is highly regulated factor and there should be specific paramedical facilities available to manage such interventions such as forced or unwanted abortions complications, prolonged labor deliver, blood transfusion, and cesarean section. According to the estimates, 585,000 women die due to lack of effective communication by the skilled attendants and midwifery in pregnancy an d labor complications (WHO, pp. 20-42, 1996). The functional referral system of transporting midwifery services across the rural areas for stabilizing the obstetric emergencies and early diagnosis of complication in labor or pregnancies can resolve the mortality issues (O'Driscoll, pp. 39-41, 1994). The training of traditional birth attendants (TBAs) and midwives can effectively contribute to the immense action in the state of emergency as professional health armors to the delivering woman (Foord, pp. 10-29, 1995). Role of Midwife in Obstetric Emergencies as an Effective Communicator A person who has specific training and skills to work with the paramedical staff in obstetric emergencies during pregnancy and labor is termed as midwife. They have responsibility to provide utmost care to the newborn infants and detection of complications in case of emergent labor, eradicate the barrier in communication between the patient and the medical staff, and educate the mother for any preventiv e measures in case of any complications (ICM, pp. 56-79, 2005). The midwifery is a significant key player in reducing the risk of maternal death and immediate postpartum period. The appropriate facilitation of midwifery education and training, referral system, and positive support system to maternity care have regulated the expertise areas of midwifery profession in effective and immediate actions during the labor and pregnancy emergencies (Hogan et al., pp. 1609-23, 2010). The striking death toll for maternal death is due to in effective life saving techniques particularly in hemorrhage, obstructed labor, unsafe caesarian section, and abortions. The skilled midwives can provide utmost diligent care in the absence of a medical practitioner particularly in rural areas or private births. It could also accommodate to sufficient medical environmental care to the mother and the baby before and after the labor (Ronsmans & Graham, pp. 1189-1200, 2006). The literature revealed that lack of

Black Liberation Army Term Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

Black Liberation Army - Term Paper Example The history of the Black Liberation Army dates back to the 1960s, when the Black Panthers Party (BPP), which was another wing of the African American elites, especially from high-class colleges, had proven to be too soft in advocating for the liberation of the blacks (Klehr, 1991). Thus, after the BPP was infiltrated by the FBI and the police, so much so that it was being divided and weakened, the radical members of the BPP then established the BLA as an underground arm of the BPP. The brutality of the police in handling the members of the BPP when they were arrested, which included beating them senselessly and even killing them, motivated the other members of the BPP to move their liberation a notch higher and invoke violence as a means of achieving their objective (Lazerow, 2006). In addition, the justice system especially in the New York State where the militant group was more active adapted the culture of harsh penalties for the arrested and charged members of the BPP. It is thes e harsh justice penalties that were handed to the members of the party in courts such as long-term prison sentences that gave the remaining members of the BPP a reason to establish an underground armed struggle. Thus, the underground arm of the BPP, which was established in the late 1960s and then consolidated into an attacking group in 1970, now became known as the Black Liberation Army (Macdonald, 1980). The actual formation process of the Black Liberation Army is not entirely known, considering the fact that it followed a series of underground events, only to come to the public limelight after it had perpetrated a series of crimes, which included murders, bombings, robberies and kidnappings (Umoja, 1999). Nevertheless, the fallout between the leadership of the BPP was the major motivation for the establishment of this underground, volatile but acutely

Racial Harassment Article Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Racial Harassment - Article Example   According to the Giuffre and Williams study (1994), one of the four contexts in which the respondents identified actions as being examples of sexual harassment reinforces the idea of dominance as it refers to the exploitation of a powerful position for personal gain. In a situation in which the majority race controls many of the lucrative and influential social positions, racial harassment might be seen as being used to reinforce that dominant position. It highlights the fact that the harasser is in a position to get away with actions that are unfair because of his membership of the majority and powerful race. The psychological effect of this on the victim is great. Researchers have been examining the connection between post-traumatic stress disorder and the effects of racial harassment on the victim. Racial harassment has been considered by some of these psychologists as an injury that behaves like a disorder (Carter, 2003). When reinforcing words by a member of the powerful maj ority are used in a situation in which the subordinate position of the victim is already evident, the harassment has the violating effect of legitimizing the victim’s subordination and making him or she feel that the unjust relationship between the races is the correct one. In this way, racial harassment certainly exposes its usefulness in keeping the subordinate group in mental and physical subjection to the oppression of the dominant race. Another of the four contexts in the Giuffre and Williams study (1994) depicted racial harassment in which a member of a minority racial group harassed a member of the majority group. This offers a new perspective on the topic, because it seems to demonstrate a situation in which racial harassment occurs not as an attempt by the dominant race to keep the subordinate one submissive, but rather as a (possible) reaction by a member of the subordinate race to the oppressive nature of the race relations in his or her environment. This can be seen in the case of a minority man’s harassing a white woman.

Analysis of Black History Month Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 2

Analysis of Black History Month - Essay Example Celebrating African American history does a lot more than simply show us the contributions African Americans have made to society; it also promotes the idea of equality and understanding for all races which make up our society. Appreciation for black history does not have to be concerned with events and situations which developed concerning African Americans since they can also focus on individuals. People such as Willie Brown become good examples of how influential African Americans have been in recent history as Willie Brown served for more than three decades in the California State Assembly and remained the speaker of the body for fourteen years. He continued his political career to become the only African American Mayor to govern San Francisco as a Democratic Party member (Wikipedia, 2008). Going further back in time, we have figures such as Malcolm X who started off as a petty thief and ended up being one of the greatest leaders in American history. We can certainly compare his life to other leaders who went through trials and confrontations before coming to terms with their thoughts and their understanding of the world. However, Malcolm X often met opposition from those who respected and admired him once he changed his viewpoints about violence and the use of force. Malcolm was one of the major black leaders to advocate equality and understanding towards peoples of all religions whether they be Muslim or Christian (Wikipedia, 2008). Even further in history, we have Frederick Douglass who is perhaps the greatest African American leader produced by the country. He was a lot more than a mere politician since he was an author, a reformer, an abolitionist and a magnificent orator.  

Organizing and Paying for American Education Essay

Organizing and Paying for American Education - Essay Example Private institutions are run by non-governmental organizations and often churches. Public education is one of the main expenditures of the state whose funding comes from local taxes. The American educational structure is as follows: First there is pre-higher education that consists of pre-primary classes involving kindergarten, nurseries, preschool programs, and child/day care centers. Then, there is primary education which is the elementary school from grades 1 to 7. After that the middle education comes which offers education from grades 4-6, or 5-7, or 6-8. Then, there are high schools providing education from grades 7 or 8 to 12. After this, higher education starts which is also referred to as postsecondary education, offered in universities. Organization An American school has a principal who is in charge of the school; an assistant principal who shares duties of the principal; curriculum coordinators; department heads, teachers as team leaders; student teachers; probationary te achers; tenured teachers; and support staff consisting of classified employees such as librarians, custodians and secretaries. As far as organization of school districts is concerned, there is a local board of education which is granted legal authority to run schools and is elected for a term of four years.

History of Lichtenstein Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

History of Lichtenstein - Research Paper Example The second fact is that the largest city within the country is known as Schaan located in the north of the capital city. It covers an area of 10.3 square miles and it is located in an area covered by mountains and forest. Its population is estimated to be 5, 806. The third fact is that the country covers an estimated area of about sixty two square miles, and is the sixth smallest independent country in the world. The total population of the country,   according to the census of 2010 is 36,010. The fourth fact is that the ethnic group of the constituting the country is majorly Alemannic Germans, but there are also other small ethnic groups like the Turks and Italians. The fifth fact is that the administrative division of the country is divided into eleven communes who are composed of single villages or towns. The sixth fact about the country is that energy production in the country is 145 million kWh whereas its electricity consumption is 1.36 billion kWh. The last fact about the co untry is that its national day is celebrated on August 15 as a commemoration of its independence from Germany (Claitor's Law Books and Publishing Division., 2014). The country Lichtenstein has a had an extensive past as their sovereignty has been changed a number of times. The country’s history is traced back to the year 1866. Different scholars have discovered forms of human existence in the country during the Neolithic age. Forms of colonization started in the areas as early as 800BC by the group known as the Rhaetians. Later during the 15BC, the country was colonized by the Romans and set up the castle known as Schaan castle to protect their territory in the region from the tribe was known as the Germanic people (Newsnet. "History of Liechtenstein.", 1996).  

Public smoking bans Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Public smoking bans - Essay Example There are a number of reasons for banning smoking in public places. First, such smoking endangers non – smokers, by exposing them to side stream or second hand smoke. Such smoke has been seen to cause dangerous ailments to the person who inhales it. Second, an undesirable example is set for the suggestible children, when smoking is permitted in public. Third, such prohibition enables smokers to discontinue smoking, thereby enabling them to lead a much healthier life (Khilawala). Fourth, banning smoking had legal and moral basis, which has proved to be successful in preventing young adults from falling prey to this deadly habit. Fifth, the proscription of smoking in public places has made it much more attractive to visit a discotheque or bar. Finally, the forbidding of such smoking has significantly reduced the number of individuals with cardiac complaints (Khilawala). There is consensus amongst the scientific community that smoking is extremely hazardous. It has now been confirmed that tobacco smoke results in cancer, cardiac ailments and strokes. However, it is essential to recognize that smoking harms the non – smoker, who happens to be in the vicinity of an individual who is smoking, to a much greater extent. Such passive smokers are at a considerably greater risk of contracting deadly disease (PROS vs. CONS). Furthermore, the non – smoker is forcibly exposed to smoke; and therein lies the iniquity and inequity of this untenable situation. Therefore, there is every justification to call for and impose a total ban on smoking in public. This is essential, if passive smoking is to be prevented. A recent report was categorical in declaring that approximately 440,000 denizens of the US die every year, due to the ill effects of smoking. Male smokers reduce their longevity, on an average, by 13.2 years; whereas, their female counterparts achieve a reduction of 14.5 years. The data on smoking reveals

The impact of globalization Essay Example for Free

The impact of globalization Essay This paper has discussed the impact of globalization on the changing patterns of work in industrialized countries. We have discussed the concept of globalization as it has made promise for companies to work on a real-time basis, whereby products and services are conveyed to the right place at the right time. We further discussed Competitiveness trends and interconnectedness in past and present to have better understanding of employment patterns and their impact on industrial relations policy. Introduction Globalization refers to a world in which civilizations, cultures, polities and economies have, in several logics, come closer simultaneously. It is usually measured to refer to a sequence of social processes and consequently is not typified by the institutional accouterments (Amin, A. 1994). Moreover, globalization is considered as being in the dominance, changing economic, cultural and social surroundings so far regardless of its elemental effects, globalization as a phenomenon remains mainly tolerant (Massey, D. 1994). According to Giddens (1990:64), the concept can be defined as the intensification of worldwide social relations which link distant localities in such a way that local happenings are shaped by events occurring many miles away and vice versa. Thus, the job of a coal miner in Britain might depend on events in South Africa or Poland as much as on local management or national government decisions. Although the notion does not just refer to global interconnectedness. Globalization is best understood as expressing fundamental aspects of time-space distanciation. Globalization concerns the intersection of presence and absence, the interlacing of social events and social relations at a distance with local contextualities (Giddens 1991:21). Amin, A. and Palan, R. (2000:240), too, refers to the fact that globalization describes our changing experience of time and space, or time-space compression. According to Jessop, phenomena firmly within an ontologically broader context of capitalist socio-economic and sociopolitical restructuring in order to ascertain exactly how they intervene in power struggles over this restructuring. This would be in order to clarify whether or not these interventions are contingent or can be attributed to objective necessities. In this context, it makes no sense to postulate the market and the state axiomatically against one another since the two really presuppose one another (Jessop 1997:50-52). Hence and indeed following Jessop, (Magnus Ryner; 2002: 101) suggest that we pose the question of globalization with reference to the manner in which: (a) socio-economic orders become materially reproduced (or not) through the configuration of a regime of accumulation and mode of regulation; (b) Potential and tendential social conflicts are managed (or not)-that is, how they are mediated, regulated and neutralized-through socially embedded authority structures; (c) This order is (or is not) normalized and stabilized through the articulation of the terms of legitimacy which engenders the social order with a stable consensual mass base; (d) Questions (a), (b) and (c) interrelate to form (or not) a Gramscian historic bloc or sets of interacting historic blocs. Changing Patterns The elating trade barriers, liberalization of capital markets, as well as speedy technical development, particularly in the fields of information technology, transport and telecommunications, have infinitely improved and hasten the faction of people, information, possessions and resources. In the same way, they have also expanded the variety of issues which spread out the boundaries of nation-States necessitating international median setting and directive and, consequently, conference and formal discussions on a global or district scale. numerous of the tribulations distressing the world today such as poverty, ecological pollution, financial crises, organized crime and terror campaign – are ever more transnational in nature, and cannot be pact with simply at the national level, nor by State to State negotiations (Cerny, P. G. 1990). Immense economic as well as social interdependence seems to influence national decision making processes in two essential ways. It calls for a transfer of decisions to the worldwide level and, due to an increase in the stipulate for participation it as well needs numerous decisions to be relocated to confined levels of government (Dodd, N. 1994). Thereby, globalization requires multifaceted decision-making processes, which occurs at diverse levels, explicitly sub-national, national and global, pavement the way to an emergent multi-layered structure of power. The truth that collaboration and directive are requisite on numerous levels as a outcome of the intricacies and international nature of present world issues has led a numeral of scholars to envisage the end of national state power. Several disagree that the State might only fiddle with globalization, but not have a dynamic role in it. Several believe that the State will turn out to be archaic (Peck, J. 1998). Regardless of the numerous concerns regarding the loss of independence, the State remnants the key actor in the domestic as well as global arenas. The accepted postulation that the appearance of global civil society, as well as escalating levels of cross-border trade, investment and cash flows turns the State into a survival is wrong. In the worldwide arena, closer collaboration and rigorous action amongst States symbolize an exercise of state dominion. Such strenuous action does not essentially wane States; rather, it can reinforce them by generating a more unwavering international surroundings and by giving them better extent to develop their exchanges in a diversity of fields. Besides, globalization devoid of effective and vigorous multilateralism is bounce to lead to crisis as markets are neither innately stable nor evenhanded. The numerous challenges that we face up to today be afar the reach of any state to convene on its own. At the state level we should govern better, and at the international level we should learn to manage better mutually (Robertson, R. 1995).

Global Warming And Its Many Ramifications Essay Example for Free

Global Warming And Its Many Ramifications Essay The U. S. Environmental Protection Agency (U. S. EPA) supports all ordinances involving environmental protection and the abatement of natural resources degradation. These laws aim to restrict people from abusing the environment and destroying the natural habitats of numerous species. The CATO Institute in Washington believes that the government is not doing enough in terms of environmental protection. The institute emphasizes that government intervention needs to exert more effort in pursuing environmental preservation. The government is essential in pursuing this goal since this endeavor requires a huge amount of monetary and human resources and may not be achieved by a small number of people only (439-440). With the population continually increasing, natural resources are quickly dwindling, and with the loss of natural habitat, the flora and fauna also perish. Currently, the government pursues strategies that aim to protect the plants and animals affected by heightened human development. Better laws and ordinances need to be passed for the government to effectively preserve the ecosystem. If not, the world risks the possibility of humans satisfying only their own needs and satisfaction, without thinking of the long-term effects of development (U. S. EPA) Crucial Environmental Issues The emergence of numerous environmental issues, including the extinction of several plants and animals as well as changes in weather patterns, caused the government to implement restrictions on the activities of man affecting the environment. However, despite the efforts on the part of the government, environmental problems still occur. According to the U. S. EPA, fragmented tactics are not expected to be effective in protecting the environment as only the obvious problems are being undertaken, while the complex and less obvious environmental issues still remain. The U. S. EPA believes that it is important for the government to change the fundamentals of environmental policies. More restrictions need to be incorporated whenever development is envisioned. This is because with the current rate of development, plants and animals are in danger of not continuing to live in their natural habitats. Population explosion depletes the natural resources, which include plants and animals, which humans consume for their survival. In addition, human settlements also destroy the natural habitats of numerous species. Howard M. Singletary, Director of Plant Industry of the North Carolina Department of Agriculture, believes that biological diversity is essential in environmental protection (Evaluate the Social). Conserving biological diversity involves the protection of the entire ecosystem. Humans may see themselves as important or more important than the plants and animals that get destroyed as a result of increased population, but it should be noted that the environmental issues that man is facing at the present time are due to the absence of preventive planning. The short-term economic and monetary gains have frequently been treated as more important than the ecosystem. Yet, the destruction of plants and animals as well as their habitat contribute much in global warming and extreme weather situations. (Evaluate the Social). Humanity needs to see the impact of overdevelopment. People also need to realize that they need to invest and sacrifice certain conveniences and luxuries in order to achieve long-term environmental goals. The scientific community and several advocacy groups are supporting government efforts to preserve the environment. The global movement is for the greater good and is based on the fact the earth and everything in it is not owned by a single individual, group or corporation. The scale of the human economy is now such that the wilderness areas that sustain much of the world’s remaining biological diversity are shrinking fast. The rates of wildlife habitat takeover and of species extinctions are the fastest they have ever been in recorded history, and they are accelerating. Tropical forests, the world’s richest species habitats, have already been 55 percent destroyed, and the current rate exceeds 168,000 square kilometers per year. (Evaluate the Social). Stabilizing populations Stabilizing population is more important in industrial countries than in developing countries, since the former overconsume and hence overpollute and are thereby responsible for the greatest increase in the impact of human activities on the already overtaxed environment. The richest 20 percent of the world consume over 70 percent of the world’s commercial energy. Thirteen countries have already reached a fertility rate required in order to achieve zero population growth, so it is not utopian to expect others to follow. The population growth-rate of developing countries of course must also be reduced dramatically. Their population is now 77 percent of the world’s total, and they are responsible for 90 percent of the world’s annual population growth. (Evaluate the Social). The poor must be helped and will justifiably demand to reach at least minimally acceptable living standards by obtaining access to the remaining natural resource base. When industrial nations switch from input growth to qualitative development, more resources and environmental functions will be available for the poor in the South. Scientists observe that as the planet warms up, a great deal of ice and snow near the poles will probably start to melt. That will expose dark tundra and dark seas. That will warm things up – like painting a white roof black. The darker the terrain gets, the warmer those parts of the world will get. More snow will melt there, making the terrain even hotter. All these explanations fill more than thirty pages of rather small print in the Philosophical Magazines, and every one of the calculations had to be solved by hand. To make a greenhouse forecast, experts now build what amounts to a working scales model of the Earth inside a supercomputer. They start with a blank globe, divided into a grid like the grid of latitude and longitude. Typically each box in the grid covers several hundred miles on a side. These boxes are stacked from the surface of the planet high into the atmosphere – a dozen layers of giant boxes of air. Public concern over environmental policy was minimal until the end of the nineteenth century. As the United States expanded westward, the horizon seemed to present an unlimited supply of land, water, mineral deposits and timber. Farming techniques reflected little concern for minimizing soil depletion. Forests were cleared without concern for reforestation or the devastation of soil erosion. Minerals were mined and metals smelted without concern for their effects on fresh-water supplies; when contamination did result, it seemed a minor problem, because alternative sources of water seemed endless. (Royan, 2001). Despite a history of conservation policies, fundamental concerns over environmental protection were still absent from the policy agenda as late as the 1950s. The publication of Silent Spring in 1962 drew attention to the dangers of pesticides such as DDT, in the food chain. The sense of social responsibility that emerged in the 1960s also moved environmental policy from the background to the forefront of the policy agenda. Energy made it to the headlines once again in the year 2000; a shocking power crisis hit the state of California (Royan, 2001). Companies had realized once more that the horrors brought about by serious energy problems over the past three decades had not gone away. The California electricity crisis could potentially fan out towards other states; not only impact would it impact the profitability of a company, but could certainly put many out of business. As the new century fast approaches, the world has slowly realized the synergy between energy conservation and global economic competitiveness. Energy conservation entails the elimination of wastes through the improvement of industrial facilities and processes. Energy conservation also implies environment preservation through pollution prevention, and mitigating the trends toward global warming. Global competitiveness goes hand in hand with energy conservation, and many industrial firms from all over the world have realized that. Worldwide energy consumption in recent years has continued to escalate not only in developed countries but also in developing countries, primarily as a result of rapid industrialization and improvement in the standard of living. In a recent survey conducted by the Association of Energy Engineers, about 22 percent among those surveyed claimed to have reduced accumulated costs by $5 million or more by implementing energy conservation strategies (Cornforth, 1992). The potential for additional savings is still great. Thirty-six percent among those surveyed indicated that further savings that amount to over 10 percent are possible. Thus, investment in protocols that promote energy conservation has proven to be effective in saving costs by reducing waste materials resulting from industrial processes. As the next century approaches, the economic world has gradually come to realize that energy conservation offers the most profitable competitive advantage. Marked improvements in the efficiency of industrial processes or facilities to save fuel consumption reduce wastage. HiTAC has been a significant energy conservation development in recent years, and is now applied to industrial furnaces in many factories worldwide. A positive consequence of saving energy is minimizing greenhouse gas emissions that cause global warming. Because of the increased efficiency in combustion using HiTAC, nitrogen oxide and carbon dioxide-byproducts of incomplete burning, are reduced. Therefore, HiTAC saves on operational costs by making fuel consumption more efficient; and consequently, efficient fuel consumption minimizes waste products, among which are greenhouse gases that trigger global warming. (Hotel Sarofim, 1967). Major Changes Taking Place in the US Population and Projected Problems Due to the Climate Changes The US is said to have the highest population of the developed nations, and one of the highest population growth rates at one percent, equivalent to 2. 5 million new Americans every year (Haub). Three national population trends that have been identified in a recent US census are changes in geographic distribution, changes in ethnic composition, and the effect of immigration on population (Haub). With regard to the changing geographic distribution of the population, the population is said to be shifting from the Northeast and Midwest to the South and West, both because of internal migration and immigration from other countries (Haub). With regard to ethic composition, while ethnic minorities are said to comprise 25 percent of the population currently, that percentage will increase to 50 percent in 50 years, with Asians rising in numbers from 7. 1 to 40 million by 2050, and Hispanics rising in numbers to 90 million in 2050, constituting 22 percent of the population (Haub). Immigration, on the other hand, presently accounts for a third of the population increase yearly, and is expected to be a major contributor to population growth in the future (Haub). It naturally follows that the South and West will have to deal with the attendant problems of the shifting geographic distribution in its favor, while the change in ethnic composition can be predicted to contribute its own set of problems. Problems Causing the Decline in the Quality of Life in Cities, Possible Solutions It is said that more than a billion urban dwellers, out of a total of three billion, are located in slum areas, with half living in Asia (Whelan). This is indicative of the mammoth problems of governments with regard to the provision for food (Sustainable Development Networking Program), opportunities for employment, environmental degradation, sanitation, and general quality of living in cities. Another problem causing the decline in quality of life is said to be urban sprawl, whose effects range from over-congestion to pollution (Goodwin). In the US, the states that are the destination of internal and external migration and immigration in the ongoing shift in geographic distribution of the population that will have to deal with these issues. Proposed solutions include the revision of federal laws to limit immigration, the creation of boundaries that will redirect urban growth to places where urban services can be provided, and tighter control on allowable density and housing (Goodwin). There are many environmentalists like Senator Hillary who had been bold about her support on the Supreme Court’s Global Warming Decision. She states that the scientific consensus is that global warming poses a serious threat to human activities (Statement of Senator Hillary Clinton on the Supreme Court†¦2007, par 1). She challenges President Bush to address this pressing global environmental threat as soon as possible. Issues on the Ozone In the discussions on the ozone hole, it is but apt to provide a brief explanation on what exactly is the ozone and how it is formed. The ozone, according to the Centre for Atmospheric Science, â€Å"forms a layer in the stratosphere, thinnest in the tropics (around the equator) and denser towards the poles†. More specifically, â€Å"[O]zone is a toxic, strong reactive compound consisting of three oxygen atoms† (Francois). As explained by the Centre for Atmospheric Science, the ozone is formed â€Å"when ultraviolet [radiation coming from the sun], strikes the stratosphere, dissociating (or splitting) oxygen molecules to atomic oxygen†¦[that] quickly combines with further oxygen molecules to form ozone† More commonly, the ozone is known as the layer that protects human beings and other living things from the harmful rays of the sun, more specifically, the ultraviolet rays-shielding us from being stricken by skin cancer. This common conception of the ozone layer, which provides a good notion of what ozone is, is just one side of the coin. Scientists refer to this more commonly know ozone as the stratospheric ozone (Centre for Atmospheric Science). On the other side of the coin is the tropospheric or the ground level ozone, which is considered as a major health hazard, is a â€Å"major constituent of photochemical smog† (Centre for Atmospheric Science). It is referred to as a pollutant because of its being lethal if inhaled (Newman). Ozone Facts According to the National Resources Defense Council (NRDC), the story of the ozone hole has its roots from the chlorofluorocarbons or CFC’s, â€Å"a family of most commonly used industrial compounds†. CFC’s was invented by Thomas Midgley in 1928 which later on was called as a â€Å"miracle compound† due to its proven useful for man’s convenience (NRDC). Since then, it was effectively â€Å"used in refrigeration systems, air conditioners, aerosols, solvents and in the production of some types of packaging† (Francois). However, decades after the â€Å"miracle compound† was invented and used in many industries and households as effective refrigerants, it was found out that it had caused a serious damage to the environment, more particularly to the ozone layer. It took American scientists Mario Molina and Sherwood Rowland to prove that the â€Å"miracle compound† turned out to be damaging to the environment as they hypothesized in 1974 that CFC’s â€Å"possibly played an active role in the depletion of the ozone layer† (NRDC). This announcement had sparked heated debates not just among scientists but also among policymakers, environmentalists and industry players on the â€Å"whys and wherefores of ozone depletion† (NRDC). It was explained by Newman that CFC’s became harmful to the ozone because of its chlorine make-up and â€Å"it turn[ed] out that CFC’s are an excellent way of introducing chlorine into the ozone layer†. This happens as the ultraviolet radiation coming from the sun strikes CFC’s that go up into the altitude of the ozone layer, this UV radiation breaks down CFC’s and frees chlorine (Newman). After chlorine has been freed, this â€Å"has the potential to destroy large amount of ozone† (Newman). Francois also provides connection of the thinning of the ozone layer to the introduction of large amount of chlorine in the atmosphere through the use of CFC’s. The Centre for Atmospheric Science stated that â€Å"Evidence that human activities affect the ozone layer has been building up over the last 20 years, ever since scientists first suggested that the release of CFC’s into the atmosphere could reduce the amount of ozone over our heads†. But prior to the hole being discovered, the negative effects of the CFC’s were never taken seriously by the majority of the people as they were not convinced on the connection between CFC’s and the depletion of the ozone layer (NRDC). In 1985, a major discovery had brought great alarm to the whole world as it was discovered by Joseph Farman and his colleagues that there was a hole in the ozone layer (Newman [b]). In fact, the severity of the discovered ozone depletion made the English scientist in the Halley Bay station in Antarctica, who discovered the hole, to think that the equipment he used to measure the extent of the hole was broken (NRDC). He sent the equipment back to England to have the equipment repaired but when he tried to measure the depletion again, his initial finding that the ozone layer had been depleted was confirmed (Francois). Another theoretical attempt, which later on was proven to be correct, was the â€Å"recipe of the ozone loss† as summarized by the Centre for Atmospheric Science as follows: †¢ â€Å"The polar winter leads to the formation of the polar vortex which isolates the air within it. †¢ â€Å"Cold temperatures form inside the vortex; cold enough for the formation of Polar Stratospheric Clouds (PSCs). As the vortex air is isolated, the cold temperatures and the PSCs persist. †¢ â€Å"Once the PSCs form, heterogeneous reactions take place and convert the inactive chlorine and bromine reservoirs to more active forms of chlorine and bromine. †¢ â€Å"No ozone loss occurs until sunlight returns to the air inside the polar vortex and allows the production of active chlorine and initiates the catalytic ozone destruction cycles. Ozone loss is rapid. The ozone hole currently covers a geographic region a little bigger than Antarctica and extends nearly 10km in altitude in the lower stratosphere. â€Å" Basically, the preceding enumeration of the â€Å"recipe of the ozone loss† is similar to the Heterogeneous Chemistry Theory that proposed chemical reactions occurring within the ozone layer. This also explains why the hole is over Antarctica and not over the other continents. The atmospheric conditions prevailing in Antarctica, which is its having ultra cold temperature, suits the chemical reactions that take place resulting to ozone depletion. Consequences of Depleted Ozone The most common knowledge as to the adverse effects of the depletion of the ozone layer is that it increases the penetration of the ultraviolet radiation resulting to more skin cancer. As Francois puts it, â€Å"[W]hen this protective layer is reduced, it has dramatic consequences on life† such as slower photosynthesis among plants as increased radiation results to less metabolism; destruction of micro-organisms which play a vital role in the food chain; and, the increase in cases of skin cancer. Basically, the depletion of the ozone layer can result to an enormous change in the ecological balance. It is a universal fact, based on the studies and researches that have been made, that a little tip in the ecological balance could result to a mammoth change in our environment that could adversely affect the way people live. The slight increase in temperature can cause destructive floods to countries surrounded by oceans. In the case of the increase in the ozone hole, it can results to unfavorable changes in our environment starting from the destruction of micro-organisms and the instability that it causes to the metabolism of plants responsible to changes in photosynthesis. These changes may not be visible in the present time, which makes many people complacent and insensitive as to their roles in the protection of the ozone layer, but catastrophic results can be felt in the near future.

The Serial Killer Jeffrey Dahmer General Studies Essay

The Serial Killer Jeffrey Dahmer General Studies Essay Jeffrey Lionel Dahmer also known as Milwaukee monster was a notorious American serial killer and sexual offender in the 1980s and early 1990s. Across states his surname is actually synonymous with monster and with good reason. His victims were usually raped, tortured, dismembered. Jeffrey was a troubled child psychologically and his social skills had a lot to be desired. All the way through his upbringing he was ignored and had queer fantasies of cadavers. In his adulthood this psychosocial status quo didnt change and was in fact aggravated. This paper uses two criminological theories to scrutinize the life, personality, crimes and criminal behavior of Dahmer hereinafter referred to as Jeffrey. Through the social control theory and psychological theory, the paper will analyze the life of Jeffrey with respect to his criminal life. It will go on to try and find out if Jeffreys personality imbalances and socialization determined the course of his life. The validity of the two theories w ith respect to Jeffrey Dahmer lies in their outlook on the of impact socialization and psychological state of mind on criminology. It ends at a note of asking was Jeffreys socialization the problem or was it his psychological imbalances or was it a little of both worlds. Biography Dahmer was born Jeffrey Lionel Dahmer on May 21st, 1960 in West Allis, Wisconsin. He was born to Joyce and Lionel Dahmer after a difficult pregnancy; with frequent morning sickness and muscle spasms that had Joyce on prescription drugs. His being a normal fundamental American family, his childhood was just like that of any other American child. He had two parents who dearly and loved their only son at the time. Joyce actually had a scrap book where she recorded the events of her sons life; his first accident, his first step, his first tooth and even his first scolding. During Dahmers very tender age, his father an analytical chemist used to work long hours in his laboratory while his mother was a teletype machine instructor (Miller, Vandome, McBrewster, 2009). Due to their professional lives, Jeffrey did not have a strong bond with his family. From all accounts Dahmer was a happy child in a loving family who enjoyed typical toddler activities. Living with Lionels parents caused a lot of tension in the Dahmers marriage and they eventually moved to a place of their own in East Milwaukee. At the age of four, Jeffrey underwent a hernia operation which marked the beginning of his personality changes. He became less communicative and more isolated as the years dragged by. In 1966, the Dahmers moved to Bath, Ohio where his Lionel was supposed to further his chemistry studies. The house they lived in was surrounded by open forest and Jeffreys isolation grew as he could lose himself in his make believe world. During the move Joyce was pregnant and the marital problems recurred. In December of that year, Jeffreys little brother David was born just as the former was entering first grade (Miller, Vandome, McBrewster, 2009). The following year, the family moved again to Barberton, Ohio. The marital tensions increased when David suffer ed from colic. According to press history, at the age of eight, Jeffrey called a probation officer with claims of sexual molestation from a neighbor. This was ignored, adding to his list of rejection. Jeffreys school years were marked with his collection of dead animals and conducting experiments on them due his lack of socialization. Jeffrey was exposed to the world of chemistry at a very tender age and he explored it with his animals. He moved on to Revere high school where his loneliness continued for no matter how hard he tried he always was an outsider. Though he worked on the school newspaper, his shyness denied him the opportunity of making many friends. As in social control theory, he continually engaged in antisocial behavior. His grades were average and it is during this period that he developed a drinking problem. Most of his neighbors however remembered him as a shy boy whose loneliness took a toll on him psychologically. When Jeffrey was almost eighteen, Lionel and Joyce went their separate ways and divorced. Joyce went with David and Jeffrey was left with his father (Dahmer, 1994). The divorce was in itself a bitter parting and communication lines were cut entirely that Jeffrey didnt even have his mothers forwarding address. He graduated from high school and went on ahead to join Ohio State University. To camouflage his loneliness, most of his time here was spent drinking and skipping majority of his c lasses. His classmates were noted to avoid him and the director of national honor society blacked out a picture of Jeffreys that was eventually used for psychiatric evaluation during his trial. He consequently dropped out after two semesters. During this period, specifically in 1978 he started his criminal life by killing Steven Hicks (Davis, 1991). Lionel did not take his dropping from college well and he offered Jeffrey an ultimatum: to join the army or get a job. In 1979, Jeffrey enlisted in the army for six years and was sent to Germany. His loneliness induced drinking however persisted and he was discharged only after two years in 1981. Afraid of facing his father and with a ticket to wherever he wanted to go in the country, Jeffrey headed to Miami Beach, Florida. In Florida he spent his time at a hospital but he didnt last as he was once again kicked out due to his alcoholism. He went back home and his alcoholism saw to it that he was arrested in 1981 for a drunk and disorderly charge. In 1982, he moved in with his paternal grandmother in West Allis. During this time, his behavior grew increasingly strange as told by his grandmother. She found a stolen mannequin in his closet and a 357 magnum. It is also during this time that he was arrested again in 1982 and in 1986 for indecent exposure. Tired of his late nights, foul basement smells and general weird behavior his grandmother asked him to move out in the summer of 1988 (Miller, Vandome, McBrewster, 2009). Jeffrey moved to the west side of Milwaukee near his place of work, Ambrosia Chocolate Factory. Just a day after moving into his new apartment, Jeffrey was arrested for drugging and a sexually fondling a thirteen year old boy. He was sentenced to five years probation and was required to register as a sex offender. Shortly thereafter he began a string of murders that ended with his arrest in 1991 (Davis, 1991). After a two week trial, the courts found Jeffrey guilty of fifteen counts of first degree murder and convicted him for fifteen life terms a basic life sentence. Jeffrey served his time at the Columbia Correctional Institution in Portage Wisconsin. There were two attacks on his life the first in July 1994 where he was attacked with a razor blade and survived with shallow wounds. During the second attack in November 1994, Jeffrey and a fellow inmate were attacked with a bar from a weight machine and he succumbed to the head trauma (Davis, 1991). Personality Profile To discern what makes a serial killer like Dahmer function, it is necessary to look into their past particularly their childhood and puberty (Holmes Holmes, 1998). As revealed by his biography, Dahmer was a normal child who enjoyed the normal childhood activities. The social control theory and the psychological theory will thus be used to explain the metamorphosis in his character. The shift in his personality started when he was four and had to undergo a hernia operation. During this tough period of the surgery his mother was preoccupied with her own troubles and his father was busy building his career in chemistry. Jeffrey was left with no one to tell him what was going on with his life, why he was sick and why he had to go to the hospital for an operation. After the surgery, his personality began to change from being a jovial social child to a loner who was always withdrawn and uncommunicative. He rarely disobeyed his parents and as a result Lionel took this personality changes a s a sign of obedience. His happy facial expressions transformed from a happy childhood smiles to a motionless, blank stare he wore until the end of his time (Miller, Vandome, McBrewster, 2009). Throughout his childhood his parents were always involved in squabbles and young Jeffrey took all this to heart. Eventually they ended up splitting up and with a bitter divorce Jeffrey lost contact with his mother and younger brother David. Dahmers history of desertion left him with feelings of loss and rejection. This rejection situation fueled the already withdrawn personality of Jeffrey. After they moved to Bath his insecurities were heightened and his shy nature ensured that he had few friends. When most people his age were playing video games and listening to last music, Jeffrey turned to his make believe world in the forest around their home. His favorite past time was collecting road kill, stripping the animal carcasses and saving the bones. This love of carcasses and bones had actually begun when he was four. His father took this as the love of chemistry and he took him to his lab where Jeffrey was clearly fascinated by the bones. Lionel went on ahead to get Jeffrey his first chemistry set when he was in elementary school. With the set he used acid to scrape the meat off dead animals noted his step mother Shari (Dahmer, 1994). As a teenager, Jeffrey had fantasies about killing and mutilating men. Unlike most serial killers Jeffreys fantasies revolved around passive sex leading to his necrophilia. This could be one of the reasons why he killed his victims. So any other idle time he had from collecting road kill, he spent it deep inside the world of his fantasies. In the neighborhood, Jeffrey was suspected of killing animals just to add on to his collection. Even in puberty his non confrontational attitude towards his parents was not taken as a sign of isolation (Miller, Vandome, McBrewster, 2009). During his high school years, Jeffrey continued to be a loner. Unknown to anyone Jeffrey was slowly mentally disintegrating due to his loneliness and in 1978 he acted out his fantasies after high school. His first victim was Steven Hicks. As later told by Jeffrey, he killed Steven because the latter wanted to leave (Davis, 1991). It is however important to note that Jeffrey was a well spoken man who gave no indications of his criminal tendencies. During one of the near escapes of one of his victims Konerak, Jeffrey was seen by the police as intelligent, soft spoken and very calm. He was so smooth talking that the police believed his story that the young boy was his lover; he was just so drunk over the incoherent Konerak. He even went ahead to apologize to the police promising of avoiding a recurrence of his lover behavior. This could be a reason why it took so long before he was discovered. It has thus been noted that Jeffrey Dahmer was a very complex man suffering from mixed personalities (Stone, 2006) Criminal Behavior Criminal behavior comprises of a large number and diversity of acts. These ranges from actions that violate the law, violate morality, violate norms of religion or violate customs and tradition (Helfgott, 2008). In the context of this paper Dahmers criminal behavior include the actions that he did that were influenced by his psychological state of mind and his socialization. Dahmers psychological fantasies included a chain of crimes against his victims corpses. For most of his victims the scene was the same and it more often than not began with consensual sex. He would often meet his victims in gay bars and go with them to his apartment often after enticing them with free booze or money. Once the consensual sex was over, he would drug them, sometimes kill them and then kill them usually by strangulation or by stabbing (Miller, Vandome, McBrewster, 2009). He would then masturbate over the cadaver or have sex with the dead body. His next step was usually dismembering where he cut up the corpse into parts using his power saw. With the use of acid he removed the meat from the skulls and kept them as achievement trophies of his collection . In addition to the skulls, he usually stored other body parts like the heart in his refrigerator or in vaults and he ate these parts on occasion. Their genitalia were also kept as memoirs while the muscles were kept for f uture use (Davis, 1991). Suffice to say Jeffrey also performed lobotomies on some of his victims. To some he went on ahead to drill a hole in their skulls and pour some acid. This made the victim stay alive but in a zombie like state for days. From the things found in his house on his arrest, it was found that Jeffrey used chloroform to drug his victims. The male genitalia were preserved in formaldehyde. Simply put, Jeffrey was a serial killer who killed his victims brutally, had sex with their corpses, dismembered them and later ate some of the parts (Davis, 1991). Crimes/ Murders Jeffrey Dahmer admitted to a series of gruesome murders of seventeen men during his thirteen years killing spree, spanning from 1978 to 1991 when he was arrested. Most of his victims were young and belonged to minority groups like people of color. Due to the number of victims and the complexities in each of the individual cases, this paper will give a general overview of the crimes. It is worth noting that in all his crimes, Jeffrey acted out his psychological imbalances which were influenced by his rejection by society. Jeffrey committed his first murder in the summer of 1978. His father and stepmother had gone away and he had the house to himself. Jeffrey picked up a 19 year old hitchhiker, Steven Hicks and invited him to his house. The two drank beer and had sex. However when Hicks was ready to leave, Jeffrey hit Hicks with a barbell and killed him. Jeffrey, acting out his sense of rejection later said that he killed Hicks because Hicks wanted to leave and Jeffey didnt want him to . He then cut up the body into parts which he put into garbage bags and buried around his fathers property. Years later he dug up the bag, crushed the bones covering his tracks (Davis, 1991). He went through a period of nine years without killing anyone but was arrested for sexual offences like indecent exposure. Because of the embarrassment he was causing Lionel sent him to his grandmother. In 1987 while on probation for his molestation charges, Jeffrey met Steven Tourmi at a gay club called 219. They went to the Ambassador hotel, got intoxicated and passed out. Dahmer claimed that when he woke Tourmi was dead and he wouldnt remember the events of the previous night. He subsequently put the corpse in a suitcase, took it to his grandmothers basement where he had sex with the corpse, masturbated on it and dismembered it. He then put the parts in garbage parts and threw them away (Davis, 1991). After Tourmi, Jeffrey struck twice in 1988 and once in 1989. In 1990 his grandmother asked him to move out. Once again rejected he had the domain of acting out his psychological fantasies. With his own place and no one to be bothered by his queerness and foul smells, the speed of his killing increased. As a result the murders of Eddie Smith, Ricky Beeks, Earnest Miller and David Thomas marked the christening of the infamous apartment in 1990 (Davis, 1991). Two more murders in 1991preceded the murder of Konerak Sinthasomphone. His story was probably one of the most covered in the press as he had gotten a chance of escaping. When the police arrived, Jeffrey was also there and he smooth talked the police into believing that Konerak was his lover. The police ignored the two women and went with Jeffrey to his apartment where he showed them pictures and clothes of Konerak. By virtue of this and not believing the incoherent Konerak the police left the boy with Jeffrey who later killed and d ismembered the boy (Davis, 1991). By summer of 1991, Jeffreys killings escalated with his sense of loneliness. He went to killing an average of one person per week. July nineteenth marked the last of victims who were to die by Jeffreys hand. His last murder victim was twenty five year old Joseph Bradehoft. Three days later, specifically on the twenty second of July, Jeffrey lured Tracy Edwards into his home; a man who turned out to be the end of Jeffreys killing spree. As later narrated by Edwards, Jeffrey tried to cuff Edwards but was unable to do so. Jeffrey proceeded to yield a butcher knife and force Edwards into the bedroom telling him how he will savor the latters heart (Davis, 1991). In the bedroom, Edwards saw pictures of assaulted men and took in the foul sense in the room. He thus punched Jeffrey and ran on to the streets where he flagged a police car and led them back to Jeffreys place. Once again, he tried playing his smooth talker card but Edwards remembered the butcher knife. The contents of the house led to the arrest of Jeffrey Dahmer (Davis, 1991). Policy Implications of the Jeffrey Dahmer Case Jeffrey Dahmers story is one of the stories that will be remembered millions of years for sparking debates on reviews of American policies. The core implications are on social and psychological principles. The social control theory and the psychological theory with respect to Dahmers life offers policy consequences that include education that helps kids in development of socialization skills through involvement, parenting programs aimed at proper creation of social bonds and diversion programs for delinquents to alter their psychosocial states. The significance of Jeffreys case awoke the debate on social implications due to the removal of the death penalty. The fact that Jeffrey was killed while serving his sentence raised questions on the ability of the American society to manage crime without capital punishment (Holmes Holmes, 1998). The case also highlighted a lot of policy reforms needed in the police sector. Many critics felt that Konerak could have been easily the killers last victim if the police had taken the time to carry more investigative work. In addition, by virtue of how Jeffrey disposed of his body it has been noted that in solving a serial killers cold case geographical profiling could be a step in the right direction. The policy implications of his case also spawned on lust killing and sexual disorders research. From the case, substantial progress has been made in the development of methods aimed at identifying sexual disorders at an early age. The causal link between lust killing and personality imbalances has also been further explored. The study of Jeffreys case has thus illuminated links between disorders like substance abuse and killing. This has served in the development of policies aimed at treating these disorders instead of dealing with their consequences (Silva, Ferrari, Leong, 1997). The opinions on how the criminal incidents of Jeffrey could have been prevented are many and varied. But one common factor is the Konerak story. In the minds of many people who have come across the young boys story is a picture of the boy running for his life. And many more people believe that his life could have been saved were the police more careful. The role of parents in the socialization process can thus be ignored only at the peril of the society. Conclusion The idea behind social control theory and psychological theory is that everyone has the capability to commit a crime and this could be very well influenced by their psychological state of mind. Jeffrey Dahmer was an intensely troubled child who grew up in an environment rejecting him fuelling his loneliness. As an adult his instability only escalated. This has revealed that parental upbringing is of core importance in a childs development of social skills. As seen with Jeffrey Dahmer he did not receive that socialization bond be it with his parent or other people in his life. All the way through his childhood, Jeffrey Dahmer was ignored and developed a way of perceiving himself as an outsider, rejected by society. This loneliness and sense of rejection grew until it aggravated his compulsion to commit the monstrous crimes of murder, necrophilia, and cannibalism. As seen from his biography he didnt have close relationships that could have deterred him from committing the crime as the social control theory suggests. In his loneliness Jeffrey filled that void with dismembering animals, a behavior later seen in his crimes. It can thus be concluded that creation and nurturing of social bonds are very essential in childhood socialization and in the development of stable psychological state of mind.

Hospital Care :: essays research papers

Critical Care Hospital - Case Study _ Incident for Discussion: Critical Care Hospital Critical Care Hospital has planned to purchase a CATSCAN within the next six months. Though not mentioned in the text, the cost of the equipment will be at least several hundred thousand dollars, and could even exceed one million dollars. Additionally, major renovations are required to the radiology department where the equipment will be housed. Unfortunately, the construction project cannot be started until the machine is in place, which will be five months from now. The Project Manager ("PM") feels that she may be able to expedite the construction schedule by utilizing a resource allocation version of the Critical Path Method ("CPM"). Getting the machine up and running is of great interest to the hospital, as revenues generated by the CATSCAN are projected to be in the range of $25,000 per monthAccording to the text, the project is slated to have a duration of twelve months. The waiting time for the CATSCAN is five months. This leaves the PM eight months to accomplish her goal. Given that the equipment is arriving simultaneously with the onset of the construction project, I would suggest a combination of a heuristic approach using an "As Late As Possible" ("ALAP") prioritization with a fast-track approach to the actual constructionThe reason for the ALAP approach is the five-month delay prior to the equipment being delivered. Holding off on allocating resources during this slow period should, in theory, allow the PM to reserve monetary resources for the Crash period. I would imagine that part-time allocation of administrative support, to solicit construction bids, generate reports and management approval requests along with full-time PM participation would be sufficient. The PM during this time will be working with hospital management to generate a detailed project plan and Scope of Work. Several critical elements come into play in this situation. For example, two relocations of the existing radiology department, or at least the area that will house the CATSCAN will be required during the construction period. The first will be for the purpose of clearing the required space for the new CATSCAN area, including construction corridors, to a temporary location. Then, after the equipment is installed and renovations complete on this area, the rest of the department will need to be renovated as well. This aspect of the project will require extensive coordination with other departments within the hospital. This includes administrative staff, medical personnel, suppliers (pick-ups and deliveries), janitorial staff, and primarily the radiology staff itself. During the first five months of the project I would suspect that this coordination and planning alone would consume 50% of the PM's time.

Value Added Tax :: Economy, Government

Value Added Tax or VAT as it is called is the most common alternative strategy implemented by many countries to deal with inefficiencies within the tax system. VAT provides an opportunity to modernize the indirect tax system, to make it more efficient, appropriate and simpler. Value added tax (VAT), is a final consumption tax levied on value added or mark up on a good or service, at each and every stage of the production and distribution chain. Value Added is the value that a business adds to its raw materials or purchases before selling the good/service. It is the mark up on that cost price. Vat is a modern tax. It was first introduced in France in 1948. Currently it is implemented in over 100 countries around the world including the Caribbean. In 1948, France implemented it at the manufacturing level only. In 1967, Brazil implemented it at all levels and by the 1970/80s, VAT was implemented in 63 countries. According to information gathered from the VAT implementation office, in the Caribbean, VAT is currently in operation in: Haiti(1982), Dominican Republic(1983), Trinidad and Tobago(1990), Jamaica(1991), Barbados(1997), Belize(2006), Dominica(2006), Guyana(2007), Antigua and Barbuda(2007) and St. Vincent(2007). VAT is currently being introduced/considered in St. Lucia and St. Kitts. It is being re-introduced in Grenada. Discussions on a VAT system, in St. Lucia, started as far back as 2003, from the recommendations of the Tax Reform and Administration Commission of the ECCU, as a strategy to manage the various indirect taxes. This was followed in the 2007 budget address by the late Sir John Compton where he indicated the intention to introduce a Value Added Tax system in St. Lucia. According to information gathered from the VAT Implementation Project office: VAT will not be an additional Tax. VAT is a replacement tax for some of the indirect taxes, currently being collected by the Inland Revenue Department and the Customs and Excise Department. Thus, VAT will not change the direct taxation system. It will, however, replace or reduce a number of indirect taxes. Since VAT and Consumption Tax cannot operate together, VAT will replace Consumption Tax. In order to charge VAT, a business must meet a Threshold. The threshold will be the minimum annual sales amount ($) for a business. These businesses must register with the VAT Office. Under VAT, registered businesses are called taxpayers. With VAT, business entities are categorized into two groups; registered businesses and unregistered businesses. Registered businesses includes individuals, partnership, companies or other entities who supply goods and services in the courses of business- they pay VAT on purchases charge VAT on sales and can claim input tax credit.

Aborted Aspirations in Pat Barkers Regeneration Essay -- Pat Barker R

Aborted Aspirations in Pat Barker's Regeneration Pat Barker's riveting World War I novel Regeneration brilliantly exemplifies the effectiveness of fiction united with historical facts. While men aspired to gain glory from war and become heroes, Regeneration poignantly points out that not all of war was glorious. Rather, young soldiers found their aspirations prematurely aborted due to their bitter war experiences. The horrible mental and physical sicknesses, which plagued a number of soldiers, caused many men to withdraw from the battlefield. Feelings of guilt and shame haunted many soldiers as they found themselves removed from the heat of war. Men, however, were not the only individuals to experience such feelings during a time of historical upheaval. Women, too, found themselves at war at the dawn of a feminine revolution. One of the most contentious topics of the time was the practice of abortion, which comes to attention in chapter 17 on pages 202 and 203 of Barker's novel. Through Baker's ground-breaking novel, we learn how m en and women alike discovered that in life, not all aspirations are realized; in fact, in times of conflict, women and men both face desperate situations, which have no definite solutions. Illustrated in Barker's novel by a young woman named Betty, and many broken soldiers, society's harsh judgments worsen the difficult circumstances already at hand. As men engaged in war overseas, women gained many opportunities in their every day life. New employment opportunities became attainable to women. In women's health, many new medical practices were conventionalized as well. One of the most pivotal medical advancements of the time was the commercialization of birth control ("Marie Stopes"). However, n... ...omen did or did not abort their unborn child varied, it can be inferred that social disgrace would result from whatever choice was made. The decisions we make today, can create life-long repercussions. Regeneration poignantly points out that not all is fair in war, or life. Works Cited "Abortion: In Law, History & Religion." Childbirth By Choice Trust. May 1995. 26 April 2004. <http://www.cbctrust.com/abortion.html> Barker, Pat. Regeneration. New York: Plume, 2003. Horden, Anthony. Legal Abortion: The English Experience. New York: Pergamon Press, 1971. "Marie Stopes." Spartacus. 7 December 2001. 26 April 2004. <http://www.spartacus .schoolnet.co.uk/Wstopes.htm> Raffel, Brian, Monica Borgone, Michael D'Ambrosio and Rebecca Heydon. "Abortion Around the World." 1999. 30 April 2004. <http://apdude0.tripod.com/abortionaroundtheworld/index.html>

Contemporary Culture Seen Thru Post-War British Films

The British cinema of the Second World War has typically been exemplified in terms of its depiction of ‘the people's war’. The films which have attracted most crucial consideration are those which offered a picture of the British people at war, united regardless of class differences, and where the chronicles of individuals, heroic though they may be, were inspired into the greater story of the whole nation pulling together at a time of national crisis. Curran and Porter (1983) have identified, for the first time in British feature films, a genuine, true-to-life image of ordinary men and women.Roger Manvell (1947)considered that films such as Millions Like Us, San Demetrio, London, Nine Men, The Way Ahead, Waterloo Road and The Way to the Stars ‘showed pe ople in whom we could trust and whose experience was as genuine as our own’. The reason for this pristine realism, according to Aldgate and Richards (2002) is usually clarified through the impact of the docu mentary movement, the progressive left-wing sector of the British film industry, on the mainstream feature film producers. The British film industry endeavoured to open out overseas. J.Arthur Rank, of the Rank Organization, extended his world-wide distribution. The Associated British Picture Corporation or ABPC joined Warner Brothers to institute distribution in the United States. Perry (1988) noted that Alexander Korda acquired London Films and British Lion, the former from MGM. Korda's London Films had in 1933 created The Private Lives of Henry VIII. He established circulation of his films in the United States through Twentieth Century Fox. Green (1983) illustrates that unlike the aspirations of the highly financed studios, Ealing Studios focused its labours on a series of modest comic films.Teams of writer/directors made a series of remarkable films. The Boulting brothers, John and Roy, interchanged as director and producer of a series of films, including Brighton Rock (1947), Th e Magic Box (1951), Lucky Jim (1957), and I'm All Right, Jack (1959). The team of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, operating under the label of the Archers and supported by J. Arthur Rank, made two specials, The Red Shoes (1948) and Tales of Hoffman (1951). The first popularised ballet while the second popularised opera.Powell and Pressburger's Stairway to Heaven (also called A Matter of Life and Death, 1945) was the make-believe tale of a pilot who is mistakenly called to heaven so soon. One of the folklores that cropped up from war-weary Britain was a faith in the unity and equality of the community. The myth persisted for a brief time after the war, stimulated by expectations for the Labour government's experiment, when recuperating English society felt the likelihood of progressing the unity experienced in the â€Å"people's war† to decipher the nation's massive social problems.The myth, in which all elements of society, even those not normally associating with one another, pull together, played out in a number of films, such as the Ealing films of Hue and Cry, Whiskey Galore, Passport to Pimlico, and The Blue Lamp. Michael Balcon of Ealing Studios produced these films as â€Å"fantastic escape. † The fantasy created was of a sense of community prompted by the world war. The distraction was in fancy and departure from actuality. Hue and Cry was the first of what have become known as the Ealing comedies and it started the fantasy foundation of community.The setting in south London, an area devastated by the German blitz, was scheduled for enormous restoration in the years 1945-1953. In Hue and Cry, writer T. E. B. Clarke fixed on a London community of youths living and playing around a bombsite, who come together to overpower a gang of criminals. The young hero, Joe Kirby, spends time reading escapist pulp detective comics. Through a series of imaginary and strange encounters, Joe ascertains a criminal syndicate of black market operators using comic books as a code. Joe, with the help of the community of boys, suppresses the criminals, led by the evil Nightingale.Manvell (1947) said that at the end of the war, British film was trapped in a struggle between its realist, documentary tradition and a pull toward the fantastic and expressionism. The anthology film Dead of Night (1945), co-directed by Alberto Cavalcanti, Robert Hamer, Charles Crichton and Basil Dearden, caught some of this resistance. The film modifies from the factual to the Gothic. It makes use of expressionist techniques, such as a powerful mirror scene. Landy (1991) described that realism was a primary trait of British cinema during the war.Realism was acknowledged with black and white, straight-forward narrative and characters. It was profoundly influenced by Britain's documentary tradition. However, many post-war films were answers to realism. Of course, realism comes in many forms. Some films used realism seemingly to expand the story line, as in Michael Anderson's The Dam-Busters (1954), the Boulting brothers' Seven Days to Noon (1950) or Michael Powell's The Small Back Room (1949). The Boulting film involved a reconstruction of the evacuation of London when the city is endangered by a scientist with an atomic device.Powell's film integrated a long episode of the dismantling of a bomb. Ealing comedies, such as Hue and Cry and Passport to Pimlico, used realism as a framework for stories that were essentially non-realistic. In other films, such as Carol Reed's The Third Man or Odd Man Out, realism is used to heighten the drama and suspense. Other films used a documentary-style reconstruction, such as Charles Frend's Scott of the Antarctic (1948). The documentary-style opening of The Blue Lamp was an intentional device, although the story propagated the fantasy of community.The documentary opening and closing of Whiskey Galore were essentially significant to the film's satire. Realism, as a predominant style, resurfaced in the late Fifties, leading to â€Å"new cinema† or social realism. Dickinson and Street (1985) said that expressionism, rather than realism, dominated many of the British productions. Most of the literary were highly yet successfully stylized, including Lean's adaptations from Dickens, Olivier's Shakespearean films, and Dickinson's The Queen of Spades. Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger's The Red Shoes and Tales of Hoffman are examples of the stylization.The films represent the nexus of several strands of film and literary tradition, including German expressionism of the 1920's, romanticism, Gothic, the combination of the arts, and the reaction of realism. The Red Shoes was a story by Hans Christian Anderson, derived from a story by E. T. A. Hoffman (1776-1822), a German romanticist, and influenced by life of Russian ballet director Diaghilev and dancer Nijinsky. It is the story of a ballerina torn between the control of two men — her director, Lermontov, and her husban d, Julian, a conductor.Her husband wrote the score for a ballet just for her — â€Å"The Red Shoes. † Lermontov directed her in it. Although Vicki is tough at the start, able to return â€Å"the gaze† of Lermontov, she soon loses her capability to endure either man. The men, primarily Lermontov, are puppet masters, using manipulation to restrain the female to the male's domination. Geraghty (1985) stresses that the battle of the masters is carried out on several levels. At the core of the struggle are the highly stylized ballet scenes, using images of Julian conducting, Lermontov directing and Vicki soaring on stage and in the air.The shoe maker in the ballet is, likewise, a puppeteer. The expressionistic ballet, a combination of music, art, dance and film, is surrounded by the narrative, in which the dancer shifts loyalties between herself, Lermontov and Julian. Lermontov manipulates both dancer and conductor. Vicki finally escapes by injuring herself and endin g forever her ability to dance. Lermontov continues the final performance of the ballet without a dancer in the lead role. Green (1983) said that The Tales of Hoffman was based on an opera of the German expressionist Jacques Offenbach.It comprises film with little dialog. It recollects the universal visual language of the silent film. The various characters of the opera, which challenge and defy Hoffman, a nobleman/poet, include an array of manipulators — an eye glass maker, a master of souls, and a demonic doctor. The filmed opera originally had four episodes, though one episode, hence another manipulator, was cut from the film. The film represents creator as monster and tormentor as well as tormented victim. This theme, said to cast Hoffman as a metaphor for Powell, recalls Lermontov and his tries to gets in touch with Vicki.Both films utilise expressionist techniques such as the metaphors of the gaze and the mirror to symbolize and accentuate the struggle, which Werner Fas sbinder has called sadism in the creative act and creation in destruction. Williams (1991) describes Both Powell and Pressburger films aim to create what Richard Wagner hoped to do with opera — the total art by combining the visual with the aural. The Red Shoes mediates ballet cinematically. It interprets ballet into film rather than record ballet on film. The Tales of Hoffman interprets opera into film rather than record opera on film.Adding to their stature, the creative collaboration of Powell and Pressburger combined the art tradition of European film and the technical advances of American film. Their films experimented with the new Technicolor technology. Low (1985) reports that the anti-realism traits of German expressionism, Gothic and fantasy even appeared in the Ealing comedies. At least twice in Hue and Cry — when the hero and his friend climbed the stairs to the writer's apartment, and in the final fight with the criminal master-mind in the bombed building à ¢â‚¬â€ the camera angles and shadows evoked images of German expressionist films such as The Cabinet of Dr.Caligari. The expressionistic device of the mirror appears in a number of films, such as Dead of Night, and The Blue Lamp. Likewise, the technique of â€Å"the gaze† appears in several films, including The Blue Lamp. Williams (1991) described the behaviour of the writer and the Victorian clutter of his apartment, and the passage of the children through the London sewers, both in Hue and Cry, evoked images of Gothic horror. Likewise, the Hammer horror films were a reaction to realism. Fantasy appeared in a variety of films, especially the Ealing comedies, including the fanciful idea of a sovereign Pimlico or Hue and Cry's children against crime.These communities were rooted in fantasy not reality. They were no more than a daydream. British cinema after the Second World War can be distinguished by a number of features. The films were generally comedies, melodramas, litera ry or horror films. Among the features coming out through these films were 1) attempts to preserve the nostalgic values, such as community of wartime Britain, and 2) the denunciation of the realism and documentary style of the World War II films, particularly through expressionism and stylization. Britain today is a richly mixed society and culture.Its residents typify a wide variety of national, cultural, racial and religious backgrounds and mixtures. That diversity is an outcome of a history, which has incorporated invasion, expansion, empire and Commonwealth, and Britain’s role as a retreat for people of all races. Murphy (2000) describes the British governments have taken measures to undertake problems of discrimination and disadvantage through pioneering such things as race relations legislation which makes racial discrimination an objectionable, and illegal practice, and through strategy to remedy disadvantage.Britain’s ethnic diversity, with its range of and uni que mix of cultural identities and heritages, describes and puts in worth to contemporary Britain. For instance, the Muslim society in Britain make a crucial and lively input to every facet of life from sports and the arts to business and even politics. This paper shall look into at least three film features created after the Second World War. First is Notting Hill which stars Julia Roberts and Hugh Grant. The film was a certified box-office hit not only in the United Kingdom but the world over.Next is Four Weddings and a Funeral written by the same writer of Notting Hill. The last movie is Chariots of Fire. Britain’s contemporary cultural diversity is being studied through these film features. Notting Hill Notting Hill has a reputation as an affluent and fashionable area popular for its attractive terraces of large Victorian townhouses and high-class shopping and restaurants. Residents are symbolised as young and affluent and many people who conform to such stereotypes are o ften referred to as â€Å"The Notting Hill Set†, â€Å"The Notting Hillbillies†, and â€Å"Trustafarians†.The area came to international attention with the release of the successful Hollywood movie of the same name. Notting Hill (1999) stars Julia Roberts and Hugh Grant use the characteristic features of the area as a backdrop to the action, including the Portobello Road antiques market and enclosed square gardens. Notting Hill is a 1999 romantic comedy film set in the Notting Hill district of London,. The screenplay was written by Richard Curtis who also wrote the movie Four Weddings and a Funeral. In Western culture, we are fixated by the notion of celebrity.This may be easily viewed with the enormous number of paparazzis everywhere that descend on public figures when they make appearances, or the popularity of gossip magazines and TV shows. Celebrities are treated like royalty – fascinating and untouchable, they become objects of unreasonable adoration . Perhaps one of the most common fantasies entertained by an average man or woman is what would happen if someone famous fell in love with them. And therein lies the premise of Notting Hill. Hugh Grant plays William Thacker, the owner of a small bookstore in London's Notting Hill.Grant’s character is just an average Joe – when he's not working, he spends time with his friends and his wacky Welsh flat-mate, Spike played by Rhys Ifans, but has no romantic life to speak of. One day, however, the foundation of his way of life changes when Anna Scott, played by Julia Roberts, a famous actress, walks through the door to his little shop. In London to publicize her new film, she's taking a break from the press and Notting Hill seems like a good place to lose them. Later, William literally runs into her in the street, spilling orange juice all over her. Annoyed and humiliated, he requests her to his place to clean up.Much to his surprise, she accepts his offer, and, after chang ing outfits, she gives him a lingering kiss on the lips. William is immediately smitten and so, apparently, is Anna. Thus begins a turbulent relationship that asks whether a star can live happily ever after with somebody who has never had his face in the papers. Although Notting Hill is a pleasant enough motion picture, it isn't much more than that. It's a domesticated movie that takes few chances. Even the casting of Hugh Grant and Julia Roberts is an example of playing it safe, since both are proven box office draws.The comedy, while sporadically funny, occasionally feels forced and unnatural, as if screenwriter Richard Curtis was forced to ratchet up the level of humour at the cost of characters' integrity. Spike is a case in point. As portrayed by Rhys Ifans he's the constant butt of jokes but he achieves little purpose beyond that. He's a pure misrepresentation of a lewd lazy bone, and, whenever he comes on screen, he actually becomes a disturbance. Another problem with the fil m is that the romance is half-hearted. While there's a feeling of sociability and even affection between William and Anna, there was no passion felt between the two.They appear more like brother and sister than lovers broken up by an army of publicists and photographers. The plot pursues the ordinary beat of a traditional romantic comedy: boy meets girl, boy likes girl, boy and girl get to know each other, then complications interfere. In this case, those complications come in the form of Anna's off-again/on-again boyfriend and the media. Notting Hill is not without its enjoyable moments. The relationship between two of William's friends, Max and Bella, is touching. There's an exciting conversation between William and Anna about why men are attracted to breasts.And there's an appealing shot of William walking down a street in Notting Hill as the seasons change around him. The movie shows us how Britain has achieved tremendous changes after the war era. It is an attempt to penetrate the western movie market and this proved to be quite a difficult task at first. Four Weddings and a Funeral The simplest and most honest articulation of praise that can be presented to this Mike Newell's movie is that it epitomises two hours of solid movie magic. Four Weddings and a Funeral enjoys the extraordinary power to make an audience laugh and cry without ever apparent scheming or going desperately over-the-top.Another Hugh grant movie who plays Charles is a serial monogamist or someone who moves from girlfriend to girlfriend without ever falling in love. His friends have started down the matrimonial road, but not Charles. Feelings of spending the rest of his life with someone never went through his mind, until one day at a wedding when he encounters Carrie played by Andie MacDowell, an American fashion editor. And, although the two enjoy a brief rendezvous at an inn, Charles' typical British uncommunicativeness comes in, and Carrie is on her way back to America before he rec ognizes he should have said something.Here’s another movie that showcases cultural diversity in Britain were two individuals from different cultural backgrounds may have the possibility of ending up together despite their cultural diversity. Four Weddings and a Funeral is about four weddings and a funeral. While the central story of this delightful motion picture is somewhat common romantic comedy fare, it is structured by a plot packed with little twists and turns, lots of laughs, and a frothy, fascinating atmosphere. Mike Newell, whose recent directing credits include Enchanted April and Into the West, maintains to display a clever hand when it comes to good, escapist fun.Newell's direction is unassuming — he allows his actors and the script to carry the film, which results in an enjoyable mix of cheerful comedy with a dash of misery. Screenwriter Richard Curtis is fast to let the humour starts flowing, and once it starts, it never stops. The scenes most likely to ca use irrepressible laughter happen during the second wedding and centre on Rowan Atkinson as a somewhat confused priest. It's not a shock that Atkinson feels at home with a Curtis script, since the two have teamed up on the British TV show Blackadder.Four Weddings and a Funeral is a modern comedy with a very time-honoured theme. It mixes upright breeding and bad language; laughter and tears; and marriage and friendship into a thoroughly enjoyable whole. This movie showcases how Britain has become one of the world’s best movie producers. It was so popular across the globe which highlighted the greatness of Britain. Chariots of Fire Sporting events today have become vicious, angry affairs where the slogan, more frequently than not, is â€Å"win at all costs. † Demonstrations of good sportsmanship are about as rare as altruism.Everyone is out for themselves, and the displays of athletes like Albert Belle, John McEnroe, and Dennis Rodman can sit in the stomach like a large piece of heavy matter. So it's invigorating to look back at an era when triumph didn't command seclusion, resentment, and disgust of one's rivals. Chariots of Fire, the Oscar-winning 1981 film, delights us to the 1924 Olympics, and, in the process, highlights such laudable qualities as loyalty, determination, and fraternity. That's not to say that winning isn't important to the competitors in Hugh Hudson's film.On the other hand, for British track stars Harold Abrahams (Ben Cross) and Eric Lidell (Ian Charleson), it's a principal anxiety, but neither is so fixated by their ambition that they lose sight of the larger picture. Eric is a devout Christian who runs because he considers it venerates God. Harold is a Jew who struggles as a way of establishing his worth. Both are driven by an internal fire, and have nothing but reverence for their competitors. Chariots of Fire tells the story of the British triumphs at the 1924 Olympics, where the UK representatives took a number of medals over the heavily-favoured Americans.With Abrahams and Lidell leading the way, the British track team had one of their best-ever showings. This film outlines the two principal athletes' paths to the Paris games, where their on-field victories form a astoundingly low-key climax. Chariots of Fire doesn't depend on worn-out sports film cliches; it's more fascinated in enthusiasm and character improvement. Yes, it's essential to know that Abrahams and Lidell win, but the real essence of the story is enclosed in what leads up to the races.Like in Sylvester Stallone's first Rocky, it's probable to claim victory before the competition begins — Lidell because he has holds fast to his beliefs and Abrahams because gives all he has to give. At the time when Chariots of Fire was first released, many of the major cast members, including Ben Cross, Ian Charleson, Nigel Havers, and Alice Krige, were relative unheard of. All give strong presentations, and each was remunerated with future part s in other productions. Some identifiable faces fill supporting roles, including Sir John Gielgud as the Master of Trinity College and Ian Holm as Abraham's mentor, Sam Mussabini.There's barely a trace of exaggerated scenes in Chariots of Fire, which makes the film-watching experience all the more effective — director Hugh Hudson shows respect for the veracity of his material and the cleverness of his audience. The deficiency of maudlin moments supplies the storyline with an authentic quality that supports its factual background. Not only do we care about the characters, but we admit that they really existed. In fact, the entire production declares that same sense of atmosphere. Most sports movies counts on melancholy and adrenaline — Chariots of Fire stands up on strong writing, direction, and acting.Approval of this picture doesn't require a love of sports, simply an understanding of human nature. Conclusion Immigrant, ethnic minority, asylum-seeker – slivers of intimation divide the meanings of each term in contemporary Britain. Ethnic minority, black and Asian, cultural diversity – clouds of confusion have distinguished contemporary arts in Britain over the past 30 years. Cook (1981) declares that notably, every liberal political measure undertaken so far to correct injustices – the Stephen Lawrence Inquiry into institutional racism being only the most recent – has proven ineffectual.Racism is not an intellectual failure that can be corrected by a greater dose of education. It is a moral value, however much one may abhor such a morality. It is an imaginative construct and so the engineers of the imagination – artists – find themselves in the frontline, their weapons being the pen or the hand or the body or the voice. Gilette (2003) discloses Post-war British film was both a response to the world war and a reaction to the film styles of the war and post-war periods. As a response to the war, post-war f ilms adopted a style of pseudo-realism to construct a post-war fantasy world.This fantasy, sometimes captured as a daydream, attempted to preserve the spirit of the war years, including the values of community and egalitarianism. This daydream or fantasy world also served as an escape from the memory of the war and the disappointment over the failure of a new society in post-war Britain. As a reaction to the war, post-war films revolted against the realism of the war-period films. They utilized and integrated strands of romanticism, expressionism, and the Gothic. References: Aldgate, A. and Richards, J. 2nd Edition. 1994. Britain Can Take it: British Cinema in the Second World War.Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press Barr, Charles; Ed. 1986. All Our Yesterdays: 90 Years of British Cinema. London: British Film Institute Aldgate, A. and Richards, J. 2002. Best of British: Cinema and Society from 1930 to the Present. London: I. B. Tauris Barr, C. Ealing Studios (London: Cameron & Tayl or, 1977). Cook, D. A History of Narrative Film (New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 1981). Curran, J. and Porter, V. ; Eds. 1983. British Cinema History. London: Weidenfeld and Nicholson Dickinson, M. and Street, S. 1985. Cinema and the State: The Film industry and the British Government, 1927-84.London: BFI Friedman, Lester; Ed. 1992. British Cinema and Thatcherism. London: UCL Press Geraghty, Christine. 2000. British Cinema in the Fifties: Gender Genre and the New Look. London Routledge Gillett, P. 2003. The British Working Class in Postwar Film. Manchester: Manchester University Press Green, I. â€Å"Ealing in the Comedy Frame,† in British Cinema History, eds. , James Curran and Vincent Porter (London: Weidenfeld and Nicholson, 1983). Landy, M. 1991. British Genres: Cinema and Society, 1930-1960. Princeton University Press Low, R. 1985. Film Making in 1930s Britain.London: George, Allen and Unwin Rotha, Paul. 1973. Documentary diary; an informal history of the British docum entary film, 1928-1939, New York: Hill and Wang Swann, Paul. 2003. The British Documentary Film Movement, 1926-1946. Cambridge University Press Manvell, R. ‘The British Feature Film from 1925 to 1945’, in Twenty Years of British Film 1925–1945, eds M. Balcon, E. Lindgren, F. Hardy and R. Manvell (London, The Falcon Press, 1947), p. 85. Murphy, Robert. 2000. British Cinema and the Second World War. London: Continuum Murphy, R; Ed. 1996. Sixties British Cinema. London: BFIOrwell, G. â€Å"England, Your England† (1941), in A Collection of Essays (New York: Doubleday, 1954). Perry, G. 1988. The Great British Picture Show. Little Brown, 1988. Porter, V. â€Å"The Context of Creativity: Ealing Studios and Hammer,† in British Cinema History, eds. , James Curran and Vincent Porter (London: Weidenfeld and Nicholson, 1983). Powell, Pressburger and Others (British Film Institute, 1978). Shaw, T. 2001. British Cinema and the Cold War. London: I. B. Tauris Willi ams, T. various lectures, The Survey of Film History, fall semester, 1991, Southern Illinois University, Carbondale.