Lay-Off due to Economic Difficulties Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Lay-Off due to Economic Difficulties - Essay Example In this regard, as a human resource professional tasked to evaluate and propose recommendations for the situation, the following discourse would initially present a description of the facts, the relevant law, application of the law, and suggestions of handling the issue. Recommendations would be proposed in the form of a memo addressed to the supervisor. Description of Facts 1. Advance Notice of 60 calendar days Company ABC employs 100 employees and is therefore covered by the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act (WARN) in cases where lay-offs are being reflected on at least 33% of their work force. Supposedly, ABC must provide a 60-day notice to the employees being laid-off. But since ABC plans to lay-off only 25% and that the reason for laying off is economic difficulties, the 60-day required notice is thereby not required. In one of the frequently asked questions posted in the US Department of Labor, the exception to giving a 60-day notice is hereby addressed: â€Å" if an employer believes their situation is the result an economic crisis, it may apply the unforeseen business circumstance exception; however, there could be a burden on the employer to prove why it could not plan 90 days in advance† (U.S. Department of Labor, 2010). During the termination meeting, the only time period indicated was that the benefits of the employees would be terminated at the end of the month. Therefore, there was no stipulated number of days from the time the employees were informed up to the time their services would be terminated. This does not violate any labor law because as the Department of Labor disclosed, â€Å"the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) has no requirements for notice to an employee prior to termination or lay-off. In certain cases, employers must give the workers advanced notice of mass layoffs or plant closure. The Warn Act provides specific information on advance notice, employer responsibility and workers rights during mass layoffs or plant closure† (U.S. Department of Labor, N.D.). 2. Severance Pay Company ABC will offer a severance package that depends on gender and members of the union. As indicated: â€Å"because men generally are the heads of households and support dependents, ABC is going to offer them more severance pay than women.   Some employees are union members and their CBA provides less severance than the Company plans to offer, so management is going to be nice and give them the higher severance amount† (Case Facts, N.D., par. 1). According to Employee Issues (2011), under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) and state equivalents, â€Å"severance pay is generally considered to be a matter of agreement between employers and workers or employers and unions† (Employee Issues.com, 2011). 3. Age of Employees being Laid-Off By suggesting the inverse seniority policy, ABC could face violations of wrongful termination due to Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA). The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission revealed that â€Å"the law forbids discrimination when it comes to any aspect of employment, including hiring, firing, pay, job assignments, promotions, layoff, training, fringe benefits, and any other term or condition of employment† (U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, N.D. ). Application of the Law Since ABC is planning to lay-off a lesser percentage of employees than the prescribed 33% threshold, it is not covered by the 60-calendar days notice for the employees due to be laid-off. However, their

Watsons Theory of Human Caring Essay Example for Free

Watsons Theory of Human Caring Essay A caring moment can be defined in many different ways by many different people. To me a caring moment between a patient and a nurse is when a nurse gives the patient their undivided attention. The nurse should take the time to listen to the patient and provide appropriate feedback reassuring the patient that they are being heard and the information as well as them are important. If the patient will allow the nurse to touch them this can be a very comforting gesture even if it is just a brief touch to the hand. Also repeat what the patient stated letting them know that you understood (Watson, 2009). Jean Watson, a nurse, who through personal experiences, beliefs, values and, higher education states that the focus of nursing is human caring, According to Lukose (2011) Caring and the healing task is more heart-centered than conventional nursing practice and extends to examine self and others. The major concepts of Watsons theory of human caring in the caring-healing process has expanded over the years, but based off her theory that it is According to Lukose (2011) connected with the high energy of the universe. Watsons states that the nurse creates a healing environment through forgiveness, compassion and love. Also that by using carative factors and a transpersonal relationship the nurse will be able to treat the whole patient (mind, body, and soul). For a couple of years I was the diabetic nurse at a county jail. I had a diabetic patient that was new to the jail and I was seeing the patient for the first time. I always tried to make my patients feel comfortable by having them sit in a chair and I did the same so we would be on the same level. This particular patient was very angry and did not want to speak about his disease process. Every time I would ask him a question trying to obtain some sort of history he would give answers like I dont care or none of it matters anymore. I continued to see him on a weekly basis trying to find a way to help him start caring again. I would get a little information from him, but I did start to discover that he had been going through some very hard times. The things that had happened to him led him to start drinking alcohol and using drugs which was how he ended up in jail. I continually would try to get him to take his diabetic medications. He also had hypertension and hyperlipidemia and would not take the medications for those either. This went on for two months with him telling me to just leave him alone he is not worth the trouble. I would order laboratory studies he would refuse, I would order medications and he would also refuse those. I usually tried to have face to face visits with the diabetic patients at least twice a week and had one day where I had quite a few patients to see. This patient was on my schedule but not until later in the day. It seemed like everyone was having a bad day almost every patient that I saw was angry and taking it out on me and I was feeling very frustrated. By the time I got to this patient I was fed up, only to hear him tell me how I was wasting my time he was not going to change his mind. So I just looked at him and said I do not even know why I continue to do this, nobody cares anyway as I said this I had tears in my eyes and told the patient he could just go ahead and leave, and he did. I, of course, continued to work as the diabetic nurse but my heart was not in it at all. The next week came and I had another face to face with this patient. When he came into the examination room he was different, I had his medication record and a record of his vital signs and blood glucose checks but had not looked at them. He started to talk before I had a chance, he told me that when he left from the previous visit that he went back to his room and prayed the entire night. He said that God told him that he needed to start following his treatment plan. I than looked at his records and saw that he had been taking all of his medications and that blood pressure and blood glucose numbers were decreasing. I could not believe it, I just looked at him dumbfounded. The patient told me he felt great and that I needed to keep continue what I was doing because I really did make a difference and had changed his life. I must have looked so silly because I was crying and smiling at the same time. He said that he just could not believe that someone cared that much about what happened to him. I continued to see that patient for several more months, and he would tell me how he had started to repair all of the relationships in his life through understanding, forgiveness and god. I learned that I should continue to care for the whole patient with love and accept them for who they are (Caruso, Cisar, Pipe, 2008). Continuing to show this patient how much I cared through my perseverance made a difference in both of our lives. I created a healing and caring environment in an environment that could be harsh with a lack of positive human to human connection. I should not let my frustration be so apparent or voiced the that I did not even know why I became a nurse, it was not professional. I often wonder if that patient had not seen the effect he had on me that he may have never realized that I truly did care. In a different environment I would have been able to enhance this caring moment by being able to give more of my time to the patient and provide even more education. The nursing metaparadigm applied to this patient and I was unaware of it at the time. As I am learning about nursing theories I can see it. I had individualized the nursing care for this person. I identified the mental and physical problems this patient was facing and tried to implement the appropriate measures. I used my critical thinking skills to establish the patients plan of care. I also got to know the patient and the patients lifestyle and used this in the plan of care (Sitzman, 2002). I had also utilized carative factors without any knowledge of them at the time. According to Vanenhouten, Kubusch, and Peterson (2012) Cultivation of sensitivity to ones self and others, through my own spiritual practices I was putting the patients needs before my own. According to Vanenhouten, Kubusch, and Peterson (2012) Development of a helping, trusting, human caring relationship, I continued to try to help the patient by gaining his trust and proving that I cared. According to Vanenhouten, Kubusch, and Peterson (2012) Promotion and acceptance of the expression of positive and negative feelings, I supported the patient and understood the barriers he was facing, and was able to make a connection with the patient that turned both of our negative feelings into a very positive experience for the both of us. According to Vanenhouten, Kubusch, and Peterson (2012) Promotion of a transpersonal teaching and learning, I took into account the patients current situation and developed his plan of care as well as all of the education I provided around his level of understanding and the barriers he faced being in jail. I reflect on this situation a lot and have told the story many times when I have come across a nurse that is feeling like giving up. A nurse really can make a difference in someones life when they are caring for a patient with their heart. Whether or not it is physical or mental a nurse can save someones life with a caring nurse-patient relationship. Caring and healing, I believe that one cannot exist without the other. Lukose, A. (2011, Jan). Developing a practice model for Watsons theory of caring. Nursing Science Quarterly, 24(1), 27-30. Caruso, E., Cisar, N., Pipe, T. (2008, April/June). Creating a healing environment: An innovative educational approach for adopting Jean Watsons theory of human caring. Nursing Administration Quarterly, 32(2). Vanenhouten, C., Kubusch, S., Peterson, M. (2012, Nov/Dec). Watsons theory of transpersonal caring Factors impacting nurses professional caring. Holistic Nursing Practice, 26(6), 326-334. Morris, D. L. (2006). Encyclopedia of nursing research (2nd ed.). Retrieved from http://search.proquest.comezproxy.apollolibrary.com.docreview/189451612?acciuntid=458. Morris, D. L. (2006). Encyclopedia of nursing research (2nd ed.). Retrieved from http://search.proquest.comezproxy.apollolibrary.com.docreview/189451612?acciuntid=458.

Theories Of Punishment Understanding Deviance

Theories Of Punishment Understanding Deviance The classical school represented by the works of Jeremy Bentham and Cesare Beccaria assumes that the rational decision is always the decision that will maximise gain and minimise pain for each individual: the felicitation principle that lies behind the penal policy of deterrence. Hence, if the actor is rational, the state can influence any given decision by ensuring that the system of investigating criminal activity will swiftly detect the person responsible and the system of law enforcement through courts will dispense sufficient pain to each offender so that there will be both specific deterrence (i.e. that a particular offender will never choose to break the law again), and general deterrence (other potential criminals, observing the punishment of the one offender, will be deterred from following in his or her footsteps.  [1]  ) The Neoclassical School continues to adopt the traditional view that the punishment imposed by the state for the crime should reflect deterrence. However, they depart from the original theory by increasing the severity of sentences and limiting judicial discretion. This emphasises the social value of punishment rather than seeing punishment as an offenders just deserts in a system of retributive justice. It uses the offender as a symbol through which to send a message to society, rather than as a human being who should be judged on his or her own merits. It abandons the idea of proportionality between severity of punishment with the gravity of offence committed by the offender. This view has certain moral implications and high costs in maintaining a prison system for an increased number of prisoners. (Something which a third world country like ours could not certainly afford). Research has consistently shown that certainty of arrest rather than severity of punishment is the major det errent. According to Clarke crime is a purposive behaviour designed to meet the offenders common place needs for such things as money, status, sex, excitement, and that meeting these needs involves the making of (sometimes quite rudimentary) decisions and choices, constrained as they are by limits of time and ability and the availability of relevant information. i.e. offenders make decisions that appear rational to themselves, and they can be persuaded not to engage in crime. Through Rational Choice Theory, Cornish and Clarke  [2]  describe crime as an event that occurs when an offender decides to take risk by breaking the law after considering his or her own need for money, personal values or learning experiences and how well a target is protected, how affluent the neighbourhood is or how efficient the local police are. Before committing a crime, the reasoning criminal weighs the chances of getting caught, the severity of the expected penalty, the values to be gained by committing the act, and his or her immediate need for that value. The intention is to increase the perceived risks of apprehension, or reduce the anticipated rewards for a crime, or remove the excuses to compliance with the law. The intention would be to design out crime, i.e. to make the disincentives to the commission of crime consistently outweigh the potential benefits. This would involve concerted efforts by the manufacturers of standard equipment less prone to theft, to design b etter security systems so that stolen goods cannot be used without a PIN or can be otherwise tracked. It also involves the adoption of surveillance technology to tag goods in stores electronically, install camera systems to monitor behaviour, improve street lighting, have more police officers on patrol, assist householders to improve their home security, etc. A co-ordinated strategy would potentially prevent more crime and so be more cost effective than imprisoning the few offenders that are currently apprehended. This theory is predicated on the assumption that humans have set of hierarchically ordered preferences, or utilities. By reducing the opportunities for the commission of crimes and target hardening, i.e. making it more difficult to break into houses or to steal from shops, and encouraging more authority figures to assume responsibility, potential offenders will be deterred. There is, however, some criticism that better protecting one area will simply displace crime into a less protected area but the evidence is yet equivocal on whether such displacement does occur. The main problem, still remains in re-ordering the political priorities away from a penal-orientation and in favour of a prevention strategy. At present many states have invested heavily in the former and see no immediate need to change their policies. To further understand the concept of deviance, the differential association theory is probably the best known Interactionist theory of deviance. This theory focuses on how people learn to be criminals, but does not concern itself with why they become criminals. Sutherland was following the tradition of Gabriel Tarde who argued that criminals were ordinary people who learned criminal behaviour through imitation of those with whom they interacted. Sutherland refined this proposition by requiring that the interaction occur in intimate groups, where the level of communication is more personal. They learn how to commit the crime; they learn motives, drives, rationalisations, and attitudes. George Herbert Mead had developed the idea of the self as a social construct, i.e. a persons self-image is continuously being constructed and reconstructed in interaction with other people. People define their lives by reference to their experiences, and then generalize those definitions to provide a framework of reference for deciding on future action. From a researchers perspective, a subject might view the world very differently if employed rather than unemployed, if in a supportive family or abused by parents. Hence, individual might respond differently to the same situation depending on how their experience predisposes them to define their current surroundings. A wallet might be found on the street. One individual might see an opportunity for altruism, returning missing property to its owner. The other might see an opportunity for self-enrichment. Differential association predicts that an individual will choose the criminal path when the balance of definitions for law-breaking exceeds those for law-abiding. This tendency will be reinforced if social association provides role models of significance to the actor. This does not deny that there may be practical motives for crime. If a person is hungry but has no money, there is a temptation to steal. However, needs and values are equivocal. To a greater or lesser extent, both non-criminal and criminal are motivated by the need for money and social status. Frustration and boredom may be felt by all. Edward Sutherland and his students, Donald Cressey in particular, became the tenacious champions of the arguments that deviance is a way of life passed from generation to generation. First advanced in 1924, his theory of differential association attempted to make systematic the thesis that crime and deviation are culturally transmitted in social groups. It holds that criminal behaviour is learned in interaction with other people, especially in personal intimate settings, in a process of communication. Learning is held to embrace techniques of committing the crime and the direction of drives, motives, attitudes, and definitions of law. It was argued that a person will become criminal if he or she is exposed to an excess of definitions favourable to the violation of law over definitions unfavourable to violation of law, the process itself being described as differential association. Such differential association will be affected by variations in frequency, duration, priority, and inten sity. Sutherland supposed the learning of criminal behaviour to involve all the social and psychological mechanisms at work in other learning. Finally he claimed that although criminal behaviour is an expression of general needs and values, it is not explained by those general needs and values because non-criminal behaviour is also an expression of those same needs and values.  [3]   Finally the social disorganization theory(Chicago school) will clear the whole concept of deviance and delinquencies. Anthropology, the science of man has been mainly concerned with the study of primitive peoples. But civilized man is quite as interesting an object of investigation, and at the same time his life is more open to observation and study. Urban life and culture are more varied, subtle and complicated, but the fundamental motives are in both instances the same. Most sociology departments are inattentive to the physical and social contexts in which they exist. But the Chicago sociology was to become the sociology of Chicago itself, a detailed anthropological mapping of the social territories that made the city.  [4]  Urban life resembled a phantasmagoria, a welter of shifting scenes and identities; where everything is in a state of agitation everything seems to be undergoing a change. Society is, apparently, not much more than a congeries and constellation of social at oms. They maintained that knowledge resided neither in properties of the world alone nor in properties of the observer alone. Facts, it was held, not self-evident. They are selected and interpreted by the mind that surveys them. People with different perspectives and different problems will not see exactly the same phenomena. Thus the meaning of food will not be identical for the chef, the waiter, and the guest at meal. It will shift in response to the peculiar dealings which one has with the object. But that shift is not wholly dependent on the whim of the contemplating intelligence. The imagination is not free to create anything which it may choose to devise. It is constrained by the capacity of the world to answer back and impose itself upon thought.  [5]  Hence it came about that pragmatism placed effective knowledge in a transaction between the observer and the environment which he observed: the knowledge was no longer defined as a state or as a condition but as a process, an action. It proceeded from experiences in the world. Experience was to become elevated to a pre-eminent position: it was a guarantee of valid knowledge. Formal speculation was regarded as a pallid and misleading substitute for personal acquaintance with phenomena. It is the personal experience of those best qualified in our circle of knowledge to have experience, to tell us what is. Now what does thinking about the experience of those persons come to, compared to directly and personally feeling it as they feel it? The philosophers are dealing in shades, while those who live and feel know truth.  [6]  The real world was the experience of actual man and women and not abbreviated and shorthand descriptions of it that we call knowledge. The business of research is to understand the social world, and the social world is itself manufactured by the practical experience of those who live in it. Practical experiences themselves are responses to situations and problems, and they change as those problems change. Sociology is not devoted to the study of states but of process, of things and people in change. It must be so organized that it can observe and report processes over time. It must also be so organized that it can reach those processes practically and not by surmise and logic alone. The most effective research strategy is one that requires sociologists to participate personally in the world which they would analyse. Without such participation, knowledge is not experience but an uncertain commentary on experience. City life and urbanization were analysed by a collection of master forms which had been borrowed from biology. They were represented as the workings of an ecological order. Ecology is an emphasis on the patterns and organized changes which are produced by different species living together in the same physical territory. Whatever else men are, they are also animals, and as such they exhibit the effects of physical aggregation and of their habitat.  [7]  People are quite capable of detaching themselves from their own territories; they display rational behaviour; they can organise themselves into institutions which impose a distinct order; their works are modified by an elaborate technology; their activities are shaped by conscious planning; and they are governed by a symbolism which interprets and changes what they do. The city is not merely an artefact, but an organism. Its growth is, fundamentally and as a whole, natural, i.e. uncontrolled and un-designed. The forms it tends to a ssume are those which represent and correspond to the functions it is called upon to perform. The emergence of Chicago itself was explained by what came to be known as the zonal hypothesis, the contention that cities evolve in a series of concentric zones of activity and life. At the very centre is the business district which is typified by a small residential population and high property values. About it is a zone of transition whose population is fluid and poor, whose housing is deteriorating and whose stability is threatened by the encroaching business district. About that zone, in turn, are areas of working-class housing, middle-class housing, and, on the fringes, suburbia. Each zone is itself composed of diverse natural areas which abut on one another. They are natural because they are not entirely intended, because they manifest a rough correspondence to the territorial division of species in nature. It was found that there was massive concentration of pathological behaviour in the zone in transition. Partly because of its great visibility, such behaviour appeared to be confined to a limited territorial belt. Within that belt there was a piling-up of all those phenomena that are conventionally identified as social problems: mental disorder, prostitution, suicide, alcoholism, infant mortality, juvenile delinquency, crime, disease and poverty. The incidence of pathology could be plotted with data collected from court records, census reports, and special surveys. Deviance may have been present elsewhere but it was hugely conspicuous in the transitional zone. The Zone in transition was taken to be unruly. It housed people who were unaccustomed to one another, to city life, and to America. Lacking substantial resources and deserting much that had been familiar, they were required to establish a way of life in a difficult and shifting environment. One of the prime problems which they faced was the sheer array of different worlds around them. When the inner composition and external relations of those worlds appeared unstable, the whole invited the descri ption of social disorganisation. Disorganization was a face of moral dissensus: the degree to which the members of a society lose their common understandings, i.e. the degree to which consensus is undermined, is the measure of a societys state of disorganization.  [8]  Disorganization also characterized the fragmented, the fluid, and the anonymous elements of urban life: contacts are extended, heterogeneous groups mingle, neighbourhoods disappear, and people, deprived of local and family ties, are forced to live under loose, transient and impersonal relations.  [9]   Integral to the conception of disorganization was the companion idea of weak social control. Those who stressed internal disorder could cite numerous obstructions to social control. Moral habits could not be properly implanted. People were neither effectively curbed, nor could they curb one another. They did not know each other well, formed few commitments to the area or to its population, were confused by moral diversity, and were loath to intervene in the affairs of their fellows. Morality could not be taken for granted. It became relativistic and circumstantial, readily adapted for selfish purposes, permitted the evolution of extenuating accounts. More particularly, its influence could not extend very far. Those entitled to exercise moral claims were confined to the family and immediate neighbours, all other becoming moral strangers.  [10]  Their lives had been punctuated by cultural discontinuities which became especially taxing for the second generation. Morally displaced, e conomically and politically peripheral, they might innovate new modes of social organization. Most typically they created a social order which corresponded to neither the old world nor the new but was a shifting amalgam of both.  [11]  They also improvised new styles of behaviour and morality which could well embrace delinquency as a possible solution to the dilemmas of exclusion and impotence.  [12]  Crime and delinquency were, thus, explained principally by the effects of the isolation of certain natural areas. They became a kind of surrogate social order, an alternative pattern, which replaced the workings of conventional institutions.  [13]  Their forms were themselves explained as a functional response to deprivation, to the social and moral structures imported by immigrants, and to the experience of growing up in the inner city. Deprived of political control and economic resources, first and second generation immigrants produced their own shadow politics and shadow economy. Children raised in the crowded zone in transition led an intensely public life, playing with others on the street, forming into small groups which eventually crystallized into gangs. Such exposure placed the child under constant surveillance from others. From an early age he was awarded a communal identity and reputation. In an insecure social environment, the preservation of reputation acquired strategic importance. What is significant is the persistence of tradition in the zone in transition. Ideas of conduct are passed on from generation to generation of boys living the public lives of the street; traditions of delinquency are preserved and transmitted through the medium of social contact with the unsupervised play group and the more highly organized delinquent and criminal gangs.  [14]   Theories of punishment Each society has its own way of social control for which it frames certain laws and also mentions the sanctions with them. These sanctions are nothing but the punishments. In primitive society punishment was left to the individuals wronged or their families, and was vindictive or retributive: in quantity and quality it would bear no special relation to the character or gravity of the offence. Ordinarily there would arise the idea of proportionate punishment, of which the characteristic type is an eye for an eye. The second stage was punishment by individuals under the control of the state, or community; in the third stage, with the growth of law, the state took over the primitive function and provided itself with the machinery of justice for the maintenance of public order. Henceforward crimes are against the state, and the exaction of punishment by the wronged individual is illegal (compared to the earlier lynch law). Even at this stage the vindictive or retributive character of punishment remains, but gradually, and especially after the humanist government under thinkers like Beccaria and Jeremy Bentham, new theories began to emerge. Two chief trains of thought have combined in the condemnation of primitive theory and practice. On the one hand the retributive principle itself has been very largely superseded by the protective and the reformative; on the other punishment s involving bodily pain have become objectional to the general sense of society. Consequently corporal and even capital punishment occupy a far less prominent position, and tend everywhere to disappear. It began to be recognized also that stereotyped punishments, such as belonging to penal codes, fail to take due account of the particular condition of an offence and the character and circumstances of the offender. A fixed fine, for example, operates very unequally on rich and poor. With new criminological developments, particularly in the field of penology, it has been generally accepted that punishment must be in proportion to the gravity of the offence. It has been further suggested that reformation of criminal rather than his expulsion from society is more purposeful for his rehabilitation. With this aim in view, the modern penologists have focused their attention on individualization of offender through treatment methods. Today, old barbarous methods of punishment such as mutilation, branding, hanging, burning, stoning, flogging, amputation, starving the criminal to death or subjecting him to pillory or poetic punishment, etc. are completely abandoned  [15]  . Pillory was a method of corporal punishment under which the offender was subjected to public ridicule by exposing him to punishment in public places. Different poetic punishments were provided for different crimes. For example, cutting off hands for theft, taking off tongue for the offence of perjury, emasculation for rape, shaving off the head of a woman in case she committed a sex-crime or whipping her in public street and similar other modes were common forms of poetic punishment during the middle ages. Modern penologists have substituted new forms of penal sanctions for the old methods of sentencing. The present modes of punishment commonly include imposition of monetary fines, segregation of the offender temporarily or permanently through imprisonment or externment or compensation by way of damages from the wrong-doer in case of civil injury. The credit for introducing these penological changes goes to eminent criminologists, like Beccaria, Garofalo, Ferri, Tarde, Bentham, and o thers who formulated sound principles of punishment and made all out efforts to ensure rehabilitation of offenders so as to make them useful member of society once again. Garofalo strongly recommended transportation or banishment of certain types of offenders who had to be segregated from society. Modern penal systems, however, limit the punishment of transportation within the homeland so that potentiality of prisoners is utilized within the country itself. Of late, open jails, parole or probation are being intensively used for long-termers so that they can earn their livelihood while in the institution.  [16]   Though opinions have differed, as regards punishment of offenders varying from age-old traditionalism to recent modernism, broadly speaking four types of views can be distinctly found to prevail. Modern penologists prefer to call them theories of punishment, which are, The Deterrent theory; The Retributive theory; The Reformative theory; and The Preventive theory. Off late however, there has been the re-emergence of the Retributive theory in a diluted form and this is called as the Expiatory theory which was mainly in vogue in Ancient India and erstwhile Europe. Deterrent theory Earlier modes of punishment were, deterrent in nature. This kind of punishment presupposes infliction of severe penalties on offenders with a view to deterring them from committing crime. The founder of this theory, Jeremy Bentham, based his theory of determine on the principle of hedonism which said that a man would be deterred from committing a crime if the punishment applied was swift, certain and severe. This theory considers punishment as an evil, but is necessary to maintain order in the society. The deterrent theory also seeks to create some kind of fear in the mind of others by providing adequate penalty and exemplary punishment to offenders which keeps them away from criminality. Thus the rigor of penal discipline acts as a sufficient warning to offenders as also others. Therefore, deterrence is undoubtedly one of the effective policies which almost every penal system accepts despite the fact that it invariably fails in its practical application. Deterrence, as a measure of punishment particularly fails in case hardened criminals because the severity of punishment hardly has any effect on them. It also fails to deter ordinary criminals because many crimes are committed on the spur of the moment without any prior intention or design. The futility of deterrent punishment is evinced from the fact that quite a large number of hardened criminals return to prison soon after their release. They prefer to remain in prison rather than leading a free life in society. Thus the object underlying deterrent punishment is unquestionably defeated. This view finds support from the fact that when capital punishment was being publicly awarded by hanging the person to death in public places, many persons committed crimes of pick-pocketing, theft, assault or even murder in those men-packed gatherings despite the ghastly scene. Suffice it to say that the doctrine concerning deterrent punishment has been closely associated with the primitive theories of crime and criminal responsibility. In earlier times, crime was attributed to the influence of evil spirit or free-will of the offender. So the society preferred severe and deterrent punishment for the offender for his act of voluntary perversity which was believed to be a challenge to God or religion.  [17]   The punishment ought to be a terror to evil-doers and an awful warning to all others who might be tempted to imitate them. This contention finds support in Benthams observation, who said:- General prevention ought to be the chief end of punishment. An unpunished crime leaves the path of crime open, not only to the same delinquent but also to all those who may have some motives and opportunities for entering upon ità ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ we perceive that punishment inflicted on the individual becomes source of security for allà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Punishment is not to be regarded as an act of wrath or vengeance against a guilty individual who has given way to mischievous inclinations, but as an indispensable sacrifice to the society. Bentham, however, believed that offenders must be provided an opportunity for reformation by the process of rehabilitation. From this point of view, his theory may be considered forward looking as it was more concerned with the consequences of punishment rather than the wrong done, which being a post, cannot be altered.  [18]   Retributive Theory Retribution is the practice of getting even with a wrongdoer-the suffering of the wrongdoer is seen as good in itself, even if it has no other benefits. One reason for societies to include this judicial element is to diminish the perceived need for street justice, blood revenge and vigilantism. Retribution sets an important standard on punishment the transgressor must get what he deserves, but no more. Therefore, a thief put to death is not retribution; a murderer put to death is. In old times when a man injured another, it was considered to be the right of the injured person to take revenge on the person causing injury. Since the formulation of the Hammurabis Code, an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth has been accepted by the general public that is the criminal deserves to suffer. Later this stance changed, Adam Smith, who is credited as the father of Welfare Economics, wrote extensively about punishment. In his view, an important reason for punishment is not only deterrence, b ut also satisfying the resentment of the victim. Moreover, in the case of the death penalty, the retribution goes to the dead victim, not his family. One great difficulty of this approach is that of judging exactly what it is that the transgressor deserves. For instance, it may be retribution to put a thief to death if he steals a familys only means of livelihood; conversely, mitigating circumstances may lead to the conclusion that the execution of a murderer is not retribution. The adherents of retributive theory, that punishment satisfies the feeling of revenge, are few in number. As has been observed by Lee, An act which is described as a crime today was looked upon as a private wrong previously. The wronged party and not the State or that which stood for the State brought suit. Professor Gillin  [19]  quotes many illustrations of the working of private vengeance. Citing an instance of punishment for adultery in ancient Germany he observers: Its punishment is instant and at the pleasure of the husband. He cuts off the hair of the offender, strips her and in the presence of her relations expels her from the house and pursues her with strips though the whole village. Salmond as regards the theory observes: Conception of retributive justice still retains a prominent place in popular thought. It flourishes also in the writings of the theologians and of those imbued with theological modes of thought and even among the philosophers it does not lack advocates. Kant, for example, expresses the opinion that punishment cannot rightly be inflicted for the sake or any benefit to be derived from it either by the criminal himself or by the society and that the sole and sufficient reasons and justification of it lies in the fact that evil has been done to him who suffers it. The death sentence has been used as an effective weapon of retributive justice for centuries. The justification advanced is that it is lawful to forfeit the life of a person who takes away anothers life. A person who kills another must be eliminated from the society and, therefore, fully merits his execution.  [20]  On the same lines, in the case of the Chopra children murder case where the Honble Supreme Court while upholding the death sentence observed as follows: The survival of an orderly society demands the extinction of the life of persons like Ranga and Billa who are a menace to social order and security. They are professional murderers and deserve no sympathy even in terms of the evolving standards of decency of a maturing soc

job apllication letter :: essays research papers

– Support Analyst: Retail Credit Support Dear Recruitment Manager: I have currently completed my final year of study doing a Bachelor of. I’m applying for the graduate Support Analyst position within the Retail Credit Support Department. Being an Information Systems graduate I believe my skills would be ideal for the position and organisation. Through my studies I have completed several projects as a team leader that involved working in large groups. The least was to develop a database system and interactive system for the Community Legal Centre as part of a full year project. My responsibilities included coding, documentation, testing and general project management. Along with this I have participated in ‘Open Day 2002-03’. While studying, I further developed my business and information technology experience by participating in various roles, namely my current employment within the N gaining experience as a customer service representative for personal and business customers, my voluntary 4 month term as a technical consultant and web developer at, and five years spent managing the family business. In each of the employment environments I gained a great amount of professional business acumen including working as part of teams in a diverse atmosphere and knowledge of the latest technologies in IT &T. Lastly, my particular strengths lie in being a fast learner, pro-active, sociable and organised. I am not afraid of hard work and motivated to face new and different challenges. By gaining entry into the, I will strive to not only integrate these strengths but also broaden my skills and knowledge base. As my current employment is within a large financial institution I believe my skills and knowledge in the field would complement the role and allow me to further my skills.

Events Management Case Study Big Day Out Essay

Conflicts of Interest and communications between founding partners Ken West and Vivian Lees can lead to internal organisational issues for example misguided and confused management, which could potentially hinder the whole event. (2) Host Community and Event Location: Big day out at the moment have a negative relationship Claremont council with the current councillor and mayor both believing that the music festival bringing more negatives to the region then positives. This also generates bad media for the event displaying it, as â€Å"detrimental† to the community and that it should relocate from the showgrounds. As the showgrounds is the only location in Perth that can safely house 40,000 people and is also close to public transport. Relocating to a more isolated and smaller venue would disinterest punters with greater cost of going to the venue and also a lower cap on ticket sales, which will lead to less revenue and inspire greater scalping margins. (3) New Management: With Lees leaving the event, Big Day Out management have to manage their first event working with new co managers C3 Presents. This is an issue because they will bring new techniques used over in America in the management of Lollapalooza which whilst being possibly effective, if the existing Big day out management isn’t dynamic, confusion and conflict could occur jeopardising the whole success of the event. (4) Maintaining Quality of event: Big Day Out organisers are under a lot of pressure to maintain the quality of the line up while dealing with higher and higher asking prices from headline performers, this makes it harder to obtain a higher number of â€Å"big name† acts as the event use to draw as the asking price of performers has risen greatly. Also because in previous years the Event has scored good quality bug name acts such as Nirvana, for a decent price, the pressure is on for the event to deliver equal too or greater than standards year after year. (5) Financing and Ticket Sales: Financing and Ticket Sales are somewhat complimentary in this case because even though BDO managers paid a lot to get headliner Kanye West it was not enough to spark the required ticket sales, not to mention cutting the line up for the Western and South Australia shows and abandoning New Zealand. Without high Ticket sales there is less profit and therefore lower finances to support the next years bill resulting in less headliners and less ticket sales. If C3 Presents had not bought into BDO this could have been the start of a relentless cycle for BDO, which could have resulted in its demise. (6) Competition: Apart from higher asking prices from performers, bidding against other events such as future and soundwave for headliners makes the asking price even higher. This can then determine who headlines which event, which can turn into a competition for punters. With the main demographic of music festivals being young low-income earners, generally they have to decide which one summer festival they would like to attend. This decision is generally made from how many big acts are on the line up. (7) Fan Loyalty: After completely scrapping the New Zealand leg of the even and cutting some headline acts fro the South and Western Australian legs of the event, Big Day Out managers have to work really hard to keep a loyal fan base and try make the regrettable cuts have as less impact as possible on the events fan bas and ticket sales. Will punters trust Big Day Out if it returns to New Zealand and will Western and Southern Australians pay the same price as the east coast for less of an event? (8) Bad Media: Big Day Out has recently come under fire from Claremont Councilman Peter Browne stated to the media â€Å"The benefits of such concerts are hopelessly outweighed by the intolerable noise, the late finish, the high level of criminal activity and general social misbehaviour in and outside of the grounds. This inspires a bad relationship with Big Day Out and the media because such a quote can trigger the media to produce stories that correlate the big day out with public disruption, un happy residence, criminal behaviour and delinquent youths. Which are all damaging to Big Day Outs’ public image. 3. What alternatives would you offer when recommending solving three of your major issues that you found in question 2? Be detailed in your answer. (10 marks each = 30 marks in total) (1) New Management- The Intro duction of C3 Presents to the management team of Big Day Out could be one of the best or worst things to happen to event. To ensure that it is a good thing a smooth integration must occur. Existing management must be willing to be dynamic and open to change whilst still employing standards and techniques that have shaped Big Day Out into what it is renowned as. Because C3 has shown to be very successful with Lollapalooza in the states they should be given quite a bit of control but given direction not to totally re shape the festivals image jeopardising its reputation and loyal fan base. C3 can bring a lot of good management traits to the table with the main two being effective HR and also industry contacts. With lollapalooza being such a large and successful even the managers at C3 Presents have been able to develop exception management and HR skills which would help BDO excel. The Managers at C3 would also have excellent contacts allowing possibilities for international growth and exposure, not to mention contacts with talent agents, managers and performers which leads to my next recommendation. (2) Competition – With Managers from C3 Presents at the helm of BDO the event can now excel in getting big name headliners at better prices and also reduce the risks of being out bid by other festivals such as Soundwave and Future Music. This is because of C3’s buying power and contacts. C3 can use past contacts from Lollapalooza to invite headline shows from their American festival to also tour as part of BDO. Almost every main headliner that has played BDO in the past has played at Lollapalooza and contract deals could be made where some headliners get paid to play both festivals, also knowing C3’s reputation acts could be inclined to take lower offers to play the event due to exposure and the chance to be asked to play at Lollapalooza after BDO. 3) Host Community – Although most venues are welcoming to the event, Claremont Council forced the event to relocate last year to Victoria Park. This venue is smaller and more isolated then the previous location of Claremont Showgrounds. To reclaim the Showgrounds as the venue for Big Day Out relationship with the mayor, council and local residents need to bee improved. Making the event more sustainable is a start as then there would be less environment al impacts on the venue itself. Improved Crowd controlling would also play in favour as most complaints come from how patrons of the event act outside the venue before and after. More external security and police presence should be employed after the event to make sure that public nuisance is reduced to a minimum and that the neighbouring community is kept safe. If the BDO managers can prove that they have a fortified and planned event that minimising impact on the host community they may have a chance of re hosting the event at the Claremont showgrounds, which would result in higher ticket sales due to the size and capacity of the venue. 4. Identify at least five main differences between marketing a product and marketing an event such as BDO (5 marks). Discuss and analyse five only in detail. (5 marks) (1) Lifetime of Marketing – The marketing of an event is only relative in its marketed regions until the event has ended and is marketed months before tickets go on sale sometimes even up to a year before the event is held. Marketing lifetime for a product is different because only some products are marketed before they are actually on sale and lifetime depends purely on the type of the product where the lifetime of a market campaign of events is generally similar. 2) Use of Media – Events are mainly marketed through newspaper magazines, social media and Internet, billboards and flyers with less frequent television advertisements. Products on the other hand generally have a lot more TV and catalogue advertisements placed. (3)Type of Marketing- Event marketing is normally very forward and will show part of an event or samples performers and activities where product marketing is generally more creative in use of characters, settings and narratives to help personify the inanimate objects. 4) Marketing Events – Events marketing especially in the case of music festivals employ the use of pre-events, for example stereosonic music festivals has a number of launch parties in venues with copious amounts of ticket and merchandise giveaways, this generates a lot of hype about the event and can increase ticket sales. Product marketers on the other hand generally don’t hold a lot of â€Å"Launch Party† type events to create hype and increase sales; although promotions are employed they are more of a rarity in product marketing. 5) Repetition of campaign – Events will use the same advertisement for the life of the campaign where several different advertisements can be produced to market one product 5. When it comes to planning for an event such as BDO, list at least ten aspects that event organisers need to take into account? Be as specific as you can. (10 marks) 1. Human Resources and Management. 2. Location of event 3. Marketing of Event 4. Auditing and Bidding for the Event 5. Event Insurance and Liability 6. Crisis Control and Crowd management 7. Sustainability 8. Host Community 9. Stakeholders 10. Financing and Sponsorship . From question 5, choose two aspects and go into detail with specifics relative to BDO. Topics can be chosen from the first 4 weeks of lecture topics and readings. (10 marks each = 20 marks in total) Sustainability of Big Day Out: In today’s day and age sustainability is one of the most important aspects in large scale event planning. Sustainability reduces the environment al impact of an event, which as a hole reduces the carbon footprint, reduces rubbish and waste litter, leaves less impact on the venue flora and fauna and also helps generate positive media and perception about the Event. Below I have listed ideas in detail, which would help make Big Day Out a more sustainable Event; Mobile App – This would include an E ticket QR code, event timetable and also an interactive music trivia app about the festivals band (to encourage use). This is app would reduce the use of printed tickets and timetables. Public Transport Tickets – Include public transport in the cost of ticket (as used for Suncorp Stadium events) reduce the amount of people who drive and cab to the event. Cup system- Make a system where either for every 6 cups you pick up off the ground and return you get a free refill or introduce a system where if you hold onto your cup you pay a cheaper rate for refills. Recyclable products – Make sure all disposable goods available from vendors, besides merchandise, are recyclable and have majority of bins at the festival recycle bins. Human Resource Management- Human resource management at a large-scale event has to be employed exceptionally for the event to run as smoothly and risk free as possible. The importance of HR’s contribution to the successfulness of events is shown through precedent such as case studies of the Sydney Olympics, which was deemed to be the most successful Olympics ever. For BDO managers and HR staff would be employed professionally, hopefully using staff from previous years. General vendors bar and cleaning staff would all be qualified volunteers working intermittent shifts allowing them to enjoy the festival after there shifts as there pay. A free festival ticket for a few hours work should be enough incentive to keep the workers motivated. Those who work till end of event would have monetary incentive, also enthusiastic employed managers should be able to keep their workers motivated. Crowd Controllers would be professionally hired, preferably those with experience, although they ask a higher wage one experienced festival crowd controller would be more beneficial then three rookies thrown into the mist of the Big Day Out. Police and professional Medical team will also be employed as per state law requirements.

Development and Social Change Essay

â€Å"Although globalization made earlier appearances, the trend has unfolded with unprecedented speeds, and to unprecedented extents since the 1960s. † (SCHOLTE. 2000) This essay will explain how the forces of globalisation have shaped and will continue to shape, the financial, demographic, and political societies we see around us today. It will identify the extent to which sustained Globalization has â€Å"†¦ the crevice between poverty, comparative poverty, and luxury. † Such positive and negative attributes affect society on a number of different levels, â€Å"†¦ the individual, the household, the firm, the town, the region, the sector, the nation. † (Kaplinsky) This essay will provide and in-depth analysis and examples of how such global processes have worked to erode the fortunes of so many (Sierra Leone); whilst also being the catalyst for success in other areas (Mexico). (HELD. 2007) ‘The Race to the Bottom,’ is a term describing the intra-national contest for the most favourable environment for business trading, manufacture and investment. Following its successful application to join the World Trading Organisation (WTO) in November 2001, China has experienced a vast influx of foreign investment. This has – as expected – empowered the Chinese economy to the detriment of its former South-east Asian exporting partners. Hong Kong and Taiwan had nurtured the Chinese economy for a decade previously, and now find that their economies are being â€Å"†¦ hollowed out, as China sucks away jobs. † (CHAN. 2009) How did this happen? In the early 1990s China introduced its first minimum wage system with the intention of protecting its workforce. Due to the great versatility of China, the government came up with a formula (based upon local living costs; inflation etc. ) with which each city or region would publish and enforce its own minimum wage. The benchmark for all minimum wages set is between 40% and 60% of the average wage in that locality. Since 1993, according to a study by the Bureau of International Labour Affairs, almost all of the provincial governments have failed to maintain these standards – [see table 2]. Their desire to attract investment has forced the minimum wage : average wage percentage further down. Shenzhen, a model Chinese exports city, paid, on average, 10% less that the absolute minimum wage required by the government and international labour standards. Conversely, the city of Chongqing, which is not export-led or globally integrated, consistently achieves almost 10% more than its minimum required standards (49. 86% in 2000). Chan concludes a â€Å"worrying trend. † She suggests that; â€Å"†¦ as a region or province becomes more prosperous, it violates the national guidelines and seeks to maintain its attractiveness to foreign capital by keeping its minimum wage level low†¦ the benefits of globalisation with this competitive logic have not, and will not, trickle down to those who make the products. † (CHAN. 2009) The Human Development Report 2006-2008 uses Corrado Gini’s coefficient to highlight an increase in overall inequality from 0. 31 to 0. 45 during the initial years of reform. [Coefficient measures between 0 and 1 where 0 is complete equality]. (FACTSHEET. 2008) However, the benefits of neo-liberal economic reform in China seem to have had a positive effect on ‘Poverty. ’ Between 1990 and 2005 the influx of industry and trade bought a per capita growth averaging 8. 7%. Using the World Bank poverty line, (measured at Purchasing Power Parity (PPP)) household surveys suggest that post 1981, 54% (500,000,000 people) of the population of China scrambled over the poverty line. (CHAN. 2009) In this sense, we must conclude that global economic integration in China has seen a significant reduction in poverty, but an increase in income inequality has come from overwhelming national development due to increasingly capitalist structures stemming from trade liberalization. What advocates of globalization emit is that two thirds of Chinese industry relies on coal, and just 7% of their energy sources are renewable. A report from the Financial Times found that air pollution in China caused by heavy industry and chemical production has led to the annual premature deaths of 400,000 (air quality); 300,000 (indoor air quality); and a further 60,000 due to poor water quality. (BBC. 2007) There is 1 country in the world where economic growth rate has consistently outpaced that of the Asian Tigers: Botswana (9% average annual growth). Botswana had a GDP per capita of just US$ 77 at independence from Britain (1966). It now stands at US$ 7,554 (GLOBAL PROPERTY. 2010). Kraay notes that; â€Å"A sustainable future in Africa rests on its ability to develop and maximise natural resources. Diamonds play a major role in these efforts. † Diamond extraction and production requires a large investment of initial capital. In the case of Botswana, DeBeers and the Government of Botswana invested 50:50 US$40 million in the Damtshaa mine. FDI in diamonds around Botswana accounts for 33% of GDP growth. Global trading and distribution of diamonds and other minerals accounted for 55% of total government revenues in the late 1990s. (MBENDI. 2009) â€Å"Botswana’s history of sound management, good governance [Botswana has an accountable parliament and holds regular democratic elections] and an emerging focus on enhancing regional competitiveness should serve it well as it continues efforts to diversify. † (WORLD BANK. 2009) So, to what extent can we propose Botswana as a model of how ‘Sustained Globalization’ can ‘Eliminate World Poverty? ’ Firstly it is important to note the income elasticity of diamonds and other such minerals. They are a luxury product and due to the current economic downturn, as real wages decrease, demand is likely to proportionally decrease also. Growth estimates for 2009-2010 predict a contraction of 10. 2%. It seems that over reliance on the global export market has forged vulnerabilities in an otherwise stable nation. However the non-mining private sector of Botswana has proved to have deep foundations, recording a 9. 4% market increase this year. Either way, prudent fiscal and taxation policy, and low level of public debt (3% of GDP) resulting from huge capital influx over the years, mean that national reserves are likely to hold out for the recession period. (MBENDI. 2009) Secondly, it is important to note (as was the case in China), that increase in GDP is not directly proportional to poverty decrease. The most deprived quintile share just 1% of GDP, whilst the second quintile accounts for 5. 9% (Gini coefficient 0. 6). This means that 47% of the population still live below the poverty line. Perhaps the capital gains still need more time to filter down through infrastructure development and reform? In 1966 there were just 3 miles of roads; now there are 4,000 miles, a public transportation system and a nation-wide telephone grid. (WORKMAN. 2006) Perhaps the figures are being distorted by the unstoppable force of HIV/AIDs and malaria that has hit Botswana so hard recently? It is impossible to say. What we can say, however, is that in order to reap the benefits of global trade in the long-term, Botswana must recognise the fragilities of basing their economy on an exhaustible and export-orientated resource. In 1991 the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) under Froday Sankoh, launched assaults against the Government of Sierra Leone. Their goal was to combat ‘crime and corruption. ’ The ensuing 11-year conflict was funded throughout by revenues generated by the diamond trade (an estimated initial worth of US$ 125 million). A median estimate suggests the murder of 75,000 (USA Today and The Times). A less conservative opinion from the Agence France Presse believe the figure was nearer to 200,000. (WORLD BANK. 2009) Either way, the drain on capital, natural resources, labour demographic and widespread looting was funded by the global financial market and African integration with it. Capital obtained from ‘conflict diamonds’ was notably from consumerism in the global North. Following the end of the war in 2000, the country was exposed to anarchy and complete economic collapse. Drugs and arms trafficking in cocaine and ex-soviet weaponry was rife, and corrupt feudal political structures further intensified income inequality – Gini coefficient over 0. 6. In 2004 its trade deficit totalled $US 350 million. (FACTSHEET. 2005) In the same year the UN named Sierra Leone the poorest country in the world (based on PPP/capita); and â€Å"†¦ the worlds ‘least livable’ country, based on its poverty and the poor Quality of Life its citizens must endure. † (WORKMAN. 2006) Whose fault is it? Is it the greediness of the conflicting armies? Is it the presence of such a store of wealth in a poverty-stricken country with few other natural resources? Is it the emergence of a global market that has created cosmic demand for such commodities? Time will tell. What we can see is that again, (as was the case in China and Botswana) global financial demand caused a sharp increase in GDP of the country. In 1965 GPD in Sierra Leone was US$ 246; in 2000 it was US$1,330,429 – see Table. 3. We can also say that this does not in any way correlate to an increase in living standards or reduction in poverty. It represents a huge crack in the neo-liberal ideology and Shah’s suggestion that; â€Å"Sustained economic growth is the way to human progress. Economic globalisation in the form of freer circulation of capital would be beneficial to everyone. † (SHAH. 2009) This essay suggests that however trade and political systems are constructed, without complete socialism, conflict can, has, and will continue to peak at the emergence of valuable natural resources. We can also conclude that whilst globalization could â€Å"offer the best prospects for eliminating world poverty,† African history stands in the way of such an ideology. (Table 6) It is not, however, all doom and gloom for the globalization and poverty argument. Mexico in many ways lost the ‘Race to the bottom’ to China, but neo-liberal reform has played a vital role in the successful integration of the Mexican economy into the global manufacture and export market. Prior to the 1980s (and economic downturn), Mexican economics was characterised by protectionist policies, high tariffs and quotas, and restrictions to FDI. By 1981 choking fiscal profligacy and vulnerability to external conditions (notably the 1973 oil shock) caused an imbalance of payments and massive capital flight. This caused huge inflation and the worst recession since the 1930s, forcing devaluation of the Peso on numerous occasions and further recession. (SOMMER. 2008) The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) eliminated the almost all import and export taxes and infused a gradual fade-out of the majority of tariffs between Mexico, the US and Canada. Following initial success, (Table. 4) the government then furthered economic liberalization by implementing 11 free trade agreements with the EU, Japan, and countries in South and Central America. Table. 4 shows how Mexican commodities exported to the United States increases from US$39. 9 billion in 1993; to US$ 210. 8 billion in 2007 (437% increase). Over the same period GDP grew 46%. (SOMMER. 2008) The success of the Mexican model is based largely on efficiency and proximity. Maquiladoras are large manufacturing and export plants, the majority of which are located just south of the US border. There are around one million workers employed in any of the 3,000 clothing, furniture and electronic equipment factories. Their proximity to the US gains them a significant advantage in terms of lower indirect costs (90% of production is transported ‘North’ straightaway) than those of Asian Tigers and the Pacific Ring countries. (BORRAZ. 2007) In contrast to Sierra Leone and Botswana, GDP increase seems to have direct correlation with improvements in real wages; a negative correlation with income inequality; and an overall reduction in poverty. Evidence of its success is shown by a net decrease in Gini coefficient between 1992 and 2002 (Table 5). (FACTSHEET. 2005) Borraz shows that income is less concentrated and has a lower Gini coefficient in states that are more closely linked to the global economy. He suggests that states with stronger links to the world economy might offer proportionately higher wages to the unskilled workforce – in this case (young) women. Unskilled women in Mexico earn between 7% and 16% more than their counterparts in non-globalized or exporting states. Overall, in 2002, 7 out of 9 states in Mexico have seen a decrease in income inequality. (BORRAZ. 2007) Why then, has Mexico succeeded in reducing poverty, whilst Sierra Leone has not? According to Borraz there are two main reasons for Mexican success; 1. Commitment to universal education in the 1940s realized a significant increase in skilled labour and higher overall productivity – sustained GDP growth of 3-4% from 1940. Governmental organizations like PROGRESA have hugely enhanced school attendance rates and decreased child labour. In November 1999 PROGRESA strategies accounted for 82% of the 25% of boys who left work to choose basic or higher education. Thus it was inward looking development strategies prior to neo-liberal reform meant the basic infrastructures for rapid growth were already there. 2. Luck. On the verge of complete inward economic collapse, the discovery of the Cantarell oil fields in 1976 sustained an otherwise weakened and fluctuating Mexican economy. (BORRAZ. 2007) However, it is true that NAFTA and other trade liberalization schemes in the Americas have reduced income inequalities and increased real wages in Mexico – but at what cost? ; The violation of human rights of a million of underpaid (US$ 3. 40/day); overworked (up to 60 hours/week); underage (girls often start at 12 or 13) workers with minimum knowledge of their rights. â€Å"In 1987 a worker had to work 8 hours and 47 minutes to buy the basic food basket for a family of four. Today it takes 34 hours. † (CORPWATCH. 2009) The pollution of New River in Mexicali Valley [which runs into the Rio Grande] is now dumped with 130 million gallons of industrial waste each day. â€Å"According to the Texas Department of Health, since NAFTA went into effect the Hepatitis A rate for Cameron County shot up from 17. 8 per 100,000 residents to 87. 4 per 100,000 an increase of almost 400%. † (CORPWATCH. 2009) The Zapatistas have also suffered hugely from opening the agricultural market to mass produced US market-garden exports. Their anti-globalization ideology highlights that their inability to compete with mechanically harvested, artificially fertilized and genetically modified imports from the US. NAFTA also eliminated crop subsidies for Mexico while US farmers still receive them. The agrarian based society has directly suffered from a decrease in real wages and an increase in comparative poverty due to open trade. Further, â€Å"China [Page 2 & Table 1] has weakened the allure of Maquiladoras in recent years and some report that more than 500 plants have been closed since the beginning of the decade. † (SOMMER. 2009) Currently, the future of the Mexican economy is unknown. Sharp decreases in PEMEX oil production and the current financial crisis in the U. S. is revealing more weaknesses in the Mexican export strategy. (RANDEWICH. 2008) Conclusion Does â€Å"Sustained globalisation offers the best prospects for eliminating world poverty. † ? Firstly there is no confirmed method of effectively measuring either ‘Globalization’ or ‘Poverty. ’ One can not accurately judge the benefits/detrimental effects of globalization without a baseline measure for poverty. QOL indicators, the Gini coefficient, and GDP are subject to variations and outside influences that cannot be measured or corrected (E. g. measuring GDP in Kerala; or measuring the Gini coefficient of China). The Neo-liberal argument – that increased density of economic integration between countries will increase overall efficiency due to the specialization of resource use – is likely to be correct. The majority of trade liberalization cases show an overall increase in GDP. This cannot be taken further to suggest that it directly benefits those living in poverty. Further, in the case of Mexico and China, evidence suggests trade liberalization pits global forces against each other and with no weight divisions and no handicaps, smaller regions, towns, industries and households cannot be expected to win. â€Å"The eradication of global inequality requires much more than simply repeating the tired rhetoric of anti-imperialism, anti-capitalism or, even worse, marking globalization work for the poor. † (HELD. 2007) Claire Short’s White Paper (Title) fails to recognise this, suggesting 5 common elements to successful poverty reduction based around a neo-liberal framework: 1. Openness to trade and eagerness to attract FDI. 2. Political stability and competent governments committed to economic growth. 3. Savings and investment of at least 25% of national income. 4. Economic stability: controlled inflation and government budgeting; avoiding production collapse. 5. Market allocation of resources: minimal necessary government intervention. (DFID. 2006) Such claims can be considered naive. The DFID paper reads like a propaganda policy designed to gain electoral support. This essay suggests that there are only three conclusions that can be drawn. 1. That trade liberalization generally incurs an increase in international trade and GDP. 2. â€Å"Every international institution throughout history has been hierarchical and composed of dominant and subordinate states; there has never been, and in the future is never likely to be, an egalitarian and democratic international system. † (HELD. 2007) 3. â€Å"Globalization is in fast forward, and the world’s ability to understand and react to it is in slow motion. † (TURNER. 2003) Table 1 (WORLD BANK. 2009) (CHAN. 2009) Table 3. Estimated GDP Sierra Leone (WORLD BANK. 2009) TABLE. 4 (SOMMER. 2009) Table. 5 (CHAN. 2007) Table 6. (DFID. 2006) ABOUT. 2009. The History of Transportation [online] [Accessed 28th December 2009] Available from: http://inventors. about. com/library/inventors/bl_history_of_transportation. htm. ADELZADEH, A. 2008. Simulation Models of 5 African Economies. Designing Africa’s Poverty Strategies: Creating the Capacity for Policy Simulation. [online] [Accessed 3rd January 2010] Available from: http://models. wider. unu. edu/africa_web/input_login. php? class=bw_quickies&instance=quickies&country=bw

Lost Letters of Perganum

The Lost Letters of Perineum, describes a collection of fictional letters being exchanged between two fictional characters known as Antipasti and Luke. Antipasti is a benefactor from Rome, and Luke is a physician and author of the Gospel of Luke and the Book of Acts. Luke is also the main person who Antipasti goes to throughout the novel for knowledge and answers to his many questions. The story is very well written and gives the reader an idea of what the first century Church was like.The letters also illustrate a vivid picture of Chrism's life and the effects his addict lifestyle had on the ancient culture. Antipasti, a self-established benefactor, resides from the cities of Tree and Caesar in Rome and is a worshipper of Jupiter and Culprits. Culprits, a nobleman from the city of Ephesus, went away when he suddenly lost his firstborn child. Due to his absence, Antipasti became quickly acquainted with Luke, whom was very wise and passionate about his beliefs in Jesus Christ.After An tipasti and Luke began writing to each other for a while, their conversations started to lean more towards the topic of spiritual matters and specifically towards Lake's decision to follow Jesus Christ and his works on Chrism's life. After much historical and spiritual discussion, the two moved to the topic of the gladiatorial events, in which people were slaughtered in front of hundreds of other people for entertainment. Antipasti was beginning to question the events and the morality of it all.As the two grew deeper into their spiritual conversation and Luke shared more of his views of Christ, Antipasti grew very curious. He began reading a narrative by Luke about Jesus Christ, and told Luke his thoughts and opinions about his work. Antipasti' curiosity soon led him to join a fellowship of Christians in his town led by a an named Notations. He met with the group regularly and saw what a huge effect Christ had on their modern culture. Antipasti grew to know more about Christ and bel ieved he was indeed the Son of God.His passion for him grew, and he knew that he should begin worshipping Christ and not Jupiter. As Antipasti' faith grew stronger he soon found himself protesting against the gladiatorial events. He discovered that his Christian brother, Demerits, was to be murdered and decided that he could not allow such an act to happen. Antipasti sacrificed himself for Demerits and was killed in his place by being earned alive. The reader knows that Antipasti sacrificed himself for what he believed in, all for the glory of God.I found it quite interesting that Antipasti had grown so passionate and loyal to the Christian religion in such a short time period. He made himself aware and educated and joined the other Christians in faith even though he knew they were highly unaccepted in their culture. He opened himself up to a new way of life and left behind his old beliefs that he stood by for years. Was amazing how Antipasti could grow so loyal to a religion he jus t learned of, than o one he had been worshipping most of his life.He grew so loving and faithful toward his new Christian beliefs that he was willing to die for another man and for a God he had just started to follow. Issues discussed in today's modern culture consists of many people believing that Christians are harassed for their beliefs and persecuted for their worships. However, whatever conflict they encounter today has no comparison to the effects of being Christian in the first century. Today there are many Christians but few who actually have a strong passion for the Gospel.There are thousands of people today who are proud to call themselves Christians, but would there still be as much if the consequences were still being beaten or murdered in front of a crowd? Does the passion of Christ lit inside of Antipasti still exist in any Christian today? Although the story was fictional, the portrayal of the first century was accurate. There were many people like Antipasti who were killed for standing up for their beliefs; perhaps the message here is for all modern day Christians to reevaluate the way they're following Christ, and to use Antipasti' passion and loyalty as an example to live by.