Analysis of UK and Pakistan Education System Essay

UK is one of the renowned trading power and financial hub of the world, stands at third position in European Union following Germany and France. The agriculture sector of the region is particularly strong and mechanized. Its efficiency can be ensured through the production of 60 percent food needs with only 2 percent of workforce. The region has significant energy resource but due to increasing demands it is importing energy from 2005. The insurance and financial institutes in addition to bank are generating the largest portion of GDP of the region. The recent financial crises particularly influenced the economy of the region during 2008 because of the financial sector of the region (www. cia. gov). Literacy rate of the region is 99 percent while 5. 5 percent of GDP is fixed for the development of education sector. According to such percentage of GDP it stands at 44th position as compare to other countries (www. cia. gov). There were 89 universities and 131 higher education institutes operating till August 2011 (www. universitiesuk. ac. uk). The expansion in higher education system of the region is relatively slow as compared to the other countries competing with the region according to the report of Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD, 2007). There are several countries coming up with significantly higher number of college and universities although the growth of education sector in recent years in UK is also remarkable. The increase in the educational institutes positively influence the graduation rate in UK as it was 37 percent during the year 2000 and reached upto 39 percent in 2005. On the other hand the position of the region was dropped from 3rd to 10th position as compare to around 20 countries while considering the educational performance (www. guardian. co. uk). The recent financial crises negatively influenced all the sectors therefore the government was planning to reduce the educational expenses by 25 percent during the upcoming four years. It was mentioned the chancellor that the reduction in the budget for educational sector depends on the treatment with the other sectors which are influencing the budget of the region. No guarantee of not cutting the educational budget was given by the chancellor. It was further mentioned by the government official that the possible saving through reduction in welfare budget may positively facilitate in reducing percentage of cut in educational budget (BBC, 2010). UK is also famous as an esteem education provided all around the world and students of different continents are presently completing their education in UK. Recently the government particularly focus the immigration process of students for making amendments. The seniors of UK education sector that the shift of government towards Tier 4 student immigration program may adversely effect the higher education institutes and the whole economy. The government particularly deployed for deciding about the student visa system of UK according to the new rules and policies. In addition the numbers of immigration given to the skilled workers also threatened the education sector because the student which will not take higher education may reduce the scope of universities and it will be quite difficult for the region to compete with the other countries as far as the educational sector is concerned (www. orkpermit. com). Pakistan is facing severe law and order situation in addition to political disputes which negatively influencing the trend of foreign investment. The recent energy crises are also one of the factors which badly effecting the overall development of economy. The unemployment rate according to the government is 6 percent but the real rate is very high because of the slow economic development. During the recent years the growth of the country significantly reduced while the inflation rate is particularly increasing. On the other hand food prices have also remarkable increased. The UN Human Development Report estimated the poverty during 2011 around 50 percent population. The inflation rate was recorded at 7. 7 percent during 2007 which was crossed 13 percent during the year 2011. The currency value of Pakistan has decreased by 40 percent since 2007 due to such circumstances (www. cia. gov). The education facilities in Pakistan are although developing but still require significant attention to compete with the global market. The literacy rate of the country is very low and estimated as around 50 percent in which 63 percent are males while remaining are females. The government declared 2. 7 percent of annual GDP for the education sector so that further schools can be developed and established according to the need of population. Keeping in view the expenses declared for education sector as compared to the remaining world the country is at 142nd position which is considerably low rank (www. cia. gov). Ministry for education is performing critical role for the development education sector in Pakistan. The key aim is to promote education according to the policies and plans defined by the management of the firm. Under this ministry education policy for 1998-2010 was prepared for significantly focusing the overall development educational sector within Pakistan. In this policy the education of the nation and Islamic knowledge was particularly focused for reasonable development. Literacy, non-formal, elementary, secondary and teacher education were also included. The government particularly focused vocational and technical education in addition to higher education for the students so that the need of the market can be fulfilled. The government also particularly focused the private sector which is consistently and rapidly developing within Pakistan for providing upto the mark quality education to the nation (http://www. moe. gov. pk). The higher education sector of Pakistan is facing problems due to significant reduction in the budget during the last two years (2010 and 2011). Presently the government is spending around 1. 8 percent of its GDP on education and in the world there are only six countries found which are following Pakistan. The upcoming problems for the education sector of Pakistan are further critical as the government has planned to devolve the higher education system to the provinces till 2014. It will be a huge loss to the upcoming generation as the standard of education will be decreased in addition to huge wastage of money invested for the development of the sector. The policies of the government are negatively effecting the development of education sector although there is crucial requirement of central authority which ensures the development of education sector (newsweekpakistan. com).

Surah Fatiha

Surah Fatiha is the first surah of the quran. This surah is also called†The Mother of the Quran†. Surah Fatiha is considered as a summarized surah of the Quran. We recite Surah Fatiha 17times a day in our 5 time prayers.† When the Prophet Muhammad ? said to a companion that he would teach him the greatest chapter in the Quran, he recited Surah Al Fatihah† The Prophet Muhammad ? said that â€Å"Whoever does not recite Surah Al Fatihah in his prayer, his prayer is invalid†. This Surah is a condition for the effectiveness of the prayer. It is the Makki Surah of the Holy Quran, which means that it was revealed on the Prophet Muhammad(PBUH) while He was in Makkah. It was initially the 5th chapter to be disclosed but after Furqan e Hameed was assembled together, it was put at the beginning.Surah Al-Fatiha itself means â€Å"The Opening† as this chapter comes right at the start of the Holy Book. Moreover, it also serves as the starting of Salah. It also has the honor of being the very first Surah that is made known completely. Although it consists of 7 Ayats only, but it still explains the Veneration of the Almighty in a very comprehensive fashion and also is a great means of supplication of asking Allah for keeping one on the right path.Virtues of Surah FatihaThere are many virtues associated with this Surah. Hazrat Abu Saeed al-Khudri narrates: â€Å"While on a journey we halted at a place. A girl came to us and said: â€Å"The chief of this tribe has been stung by a scorpion and our men are not present, is there anybody amongst you who can recite something upon him to treat him?† Then, one of our men went along with her although we did not think that he knew any such treatment. However, our friend went to the chief and recited something upon him and the chief was cured. Thereupon, the chief gave him thirty sheep and gave us all milk to drink. When he returned, we asked our friend: â€Å"Did you know anything to recite upon him to cure him?† He said: â€Å"No, I only recited Umm al-Kitab (i.e. Surah al-Fatiha) upon him.† We said that do not do anything until we reach Madinah and ask the Prophet regarding this (practice and rewardwhether the sheep were lawful or not for us). Upon reaching Madinah, we narrated this to the Prophet (PBUH), whereupon he remarked: â€Å"How did he come to know that Al-Fatiha can be used as a cure? (PBUH) Distribute your reward amongst yourselves and a lot a share for me as well†.† (Sahih Bukhari)Theme of Surah FatihaThe essence of the Quran is Surah Fatiha. Surah fatiha is paired surah. It can be recited alone but you cannot start reciting other surah before Surah Fatiha, we must have to recite Surah Fatiha and then the other Surah of the Quran. Prophet Muhammad(PBUH) said† The greatest i can recite is Surah Fatiha. This surah has a mind boogling tafseer and its impact on human life is great. This is the only surah on which Allah Himself commented, there is no other surah than this on which Alllah commented. Surah Fatiha starts with the praise of Allah and ends with a dua that Allah guide us the path on which your mercy is bestowed not the opposite of this. Brief Tafseer of Surah Fatiha1)In the Name of Allah The first ayah of Surah Fatiha is: In the name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Most Merciful. (Al-Fatiha:This phrase is known as the bismillah. It is good to recite it before doing any action.Surah Fatiha is the surah which makes every muslim wheather he is Aalim(Scholar), or Jahil, man or woman to accept that they dont to how to live life.If you accept that you know nothing than Surah Fatiha is the guidance surah, which shows how to live a perfect life, which path to follow and who to obey.All Praise is due to Allah The second ayah is: All praise be to Allah, the Lord of all the worlds. (Al-Fatiha: 2)The Meaning of Hamd and the Difference between Hamd and Shukr Hamd means praise and also thankfulness. The scholars differed as to the relation between the words hamd and shukr. Some said that they both have the same meaning. So, the meaning of hamd, in their view, is the same as shukr (thankfulness, gratitude). Hamd is something which must be done with love and reverence, but shukr does not need this. Shukr is done in response to a favour which is done to a person but hamd is done simply because the one being praised and thanked is worthy of that. â€Å"Whatever is created in between land and sky is created for a mean but non-muslim dont understand and deny the existence of Allah. If we ponder in the universe we see the huge and perfectly creation of everything so we came to conclusion that who created perfect design of a universe must be a perfect creator and surely these people are the best who know their God. The word Rab which means master of the master in terms of having full knowledge of each and everything.The Beneficent, The Most Merciful The third ayah is: The Beneficent, The Most Merciful. (Al-Fatih: 3)We see that these two words are already mentioned above and now they are mentioned again. The previous ayah mentioned that Allah is the Rab of the mankind. So again in this ayah it says the Ar-rehman and Raheem which means Allah being the Rab of the Mankind is all part of mercy for us, Allah is one who loves humans 70times more than a mother's love.Master of the Day of Reward The fourth ayah is: The Only Owner of the Day of Recompense. (Al-Fatiha: 4)Malik which means king, the dominion of a person. In this ayah we clearly see that Allah is the lord of the mankind. At the day of judgement when all mankind will be gathered and each person will be either rewarded or punished on their deeds. We see that Allah is the one who will have absolute power on the day of judgment and no other creation will hold such power to resist the enforcement of punishments that He decrees or to prevent anyone from receiving the rewards that He decides to confer.You (Alone) We Worship The fifth ayah is: You (alone) we worship and You (alone) we ask for help. (Al-Fatiha: 5)This is the middle of the surah and the shift of the surah. At this point there is a great shift in the surah. In previous 3 ayah we already praised Allah. Allah says this ayah is now between Me and my worshipper, I will give my worshipper whatever he/she asks for. â€Å"We worship† means we obey. Worship is obedience and self-abasement. It means to humble yourself before Allah (SWT) and to submit to His Will. Outwardly it is self-abasement, but in reality, it is glory and beautification. The ayah affirms the Lordship of Allah and affirms that worship is due to Him. â€Å"Iyyaaka nasta'een† means we seek help, support and success. Usually, in most sentences the verb comes first and then the object; but in this ayah the object of the verb is mentioned first and then the verb. So why is this? It is in order to attach importance to it, to Allah (SWT). It also refers the status of the slave and his worship which is lower so it will come after mentioning the Lord, Allah (SWT).Guide us on the Straight Path The sixth ayah is: Guide us on the Straight Path. (Al-Fatiha: 6)In previous ayah as Allah mentioned that whatever my worshipper will ask I will give him. So whats better than to ask Allah to guide us the straigth path, guide us the path which will benefit us in this world and in the hereafter. For example in normal life when we visit some new often we often need someone to guide us to the destination so we ask someone and he illustrates us the directions. But in this ayah we ask Allah to hold our hands and guide us the path like hold our hands and take us the right place we are looking for. The word seerat means road or a path. But whats the difference between seerat and tareeq or sabeel? Seerat is a road on which we go and get our goals, it is the shortest road with great space for everyone to join. The word Mustaqeem also means straight path, which emphasis the straightness of the path. It means to remain firm and stand without tilting. We should avoid to fall and follow the wrong path.The Path of Those†¦ The seventh and final ayah is: The path of those you have blessed, not of those with anger on them, nor of those who are astray. (Al-Fatiha: 7)As it is mentioned in the previous ayah that guide us the straight path, so there must be a choice of a path which we want Allah to guide us, which path is that? It is the path on which Allah has granted his blessed but not his anger. Whosoever obeys Allah, and the Messenger, they are with those whom Allah has favored, the Prophets, the sincere, the martyrs and the righteous, and these are the best company. (Al-Nisa': 69)So, the favored and blessed people are the Prophets, the righteous, the martyrs and the pious. And who are the people with anger on them and those who are astray? This is explained by the Prophet. ‘Adi ibn Hatim (RA) asked him about those with anger on them and he replied that it refers to the Jews. He then asked him about those who are astray and he replied that it refers to the Christians. This is reported by al-Tirmidhi and is authentic

Failure of the Arab League

In the wake of any great conflict, states will try and assemble a system that is based on unity and prevention of further conflict, there are several aspects usually addressed, including the economy and the international relations. In the wake of World War 2 the UN assembled to form the new world order (Pinfari, 1. ) In the Middle East, 6 founding members (Egypt, Transjordan, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Lebanon and Iraq) formed the Arab League, an organization founded upon a common sense of Arabism with a goal of Arab unity (Pinfari, 2.) In the wake of the Cold War, Africa found itself at a political disadvantage because of the fragmented politics of the continent, they were at a geographical advantage and wanted to make use of that, so they formed the African Union to address inner-conflicts and the mayhem caused by the remains of colonialism after the Cold War (Dersso, 13-14. ) On the other side of things the European Union formed in the late 1990’s with a different mission in mind when compared to the two aforeabmentioned organizations.The Arab League and the African Union’s missions were more ambitious than those of other political organizations such as the EU and the UN, due to many reasons why this paper will focus on discussing their economy, their judiciary and the effect of pan-Arpabism and a pan-African perspective. When nations group under one banner as is the case in the examples mentioned, the issue of their individual political sovereignty is brought into the foreground as countries value their autonomy.The European Union is more of a â€Å"union† in the judiciary sense than the Arab League: while the Arab League clearly states in its charter that the League has no right to intervene in the internal affairs of a member country unless their overall safety is compromised, this then makes way for dictators like Qaddafi to rule for years in what certain scholars would view as a tyrannical manner.The judiciary of each country is separate from the Arab League which isn’t the case with the EU, whereby the Court of Justice of the European Union has the right to supersede any national court of law (Wallace, 484), by so doing maintaining peace in a more efficient way. How does this make the Arab League’s mission more ambitious, is that they are seeking peace and unity based on a sense of Arabism rather than an effective judicial system (Reiser, 1), and it is ambitious to assume that this will prevail.When discussing the Organization of African Unity (OAU), their mission can also be seen as more ambitious than that of the EU, the OAU’s mission was to establish widespread security and unity between African members of this union through the ideal of â€Å"African Solutions for African problems,† but like the Arab League, their mission contains certain clauses that are emphasized in discourse, yet not much is done to re-enforce them (Dersso, 13), and often the governments of individual states will do as they please, as is the case with the Rwanda genocide in 1994,with no higher judicial force to intervene, and that is where they fail (Tavares, 23.)Africa however should not be grouped with the Arab League, even though they are comparable, because after the Cold War, Africa had been depleted because of their division into pro-USA forces and pro-Soviet forces during the Cold War, as they underwent a number of proxy wars for the USA and the Soviet Union. After having served their purpose Africa was then disregarded and faced with â€Å"indifference† from forces that had had an increasing interest in it before (Dersso, 15.)When discussing the economy there are also rather ambitious initiatives on the AL and the OAU’s parts, in their missions they strive for unity, but one of the main constituents of said unity, is economic unity, whereby member states implement policies that will be beneficial to one another’s economies as is the case with the EU, they have a unified currency and an open market, whereby, goods, services and people are not taxed when traded between members.The EU is the only Regional Insisution with a separate monetary system which makes , â€Å"the EU has become greater than merely an arena of inter-state co-operation and has taken on many state-like powers† (Bradbury 18). This however does not work with the Arab League, because of the lack of a policy which dictates the existence of such a market but also because of the division in wealth in the Middle East, oil-rich states such as Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Qatar control the capital and give money to the poorer members such as Egypt, in exchange for one thing that Egypt has in abundance: labor and cheap labor at that (Korany, 279.)Also how can the Arab League hope to achieve such unity when travelling between member states still requires visas and there are still taxes on products traded between member states? Again, the mission is ambitious with no real actions taken to implement. As for the OAU, the member states are still very much in conflict as is evident by Africa’s human rights violations and constant violence. After all , Africa is simply too large and divided to ever fit under one banner.After all, overcoming colonialism is not simple; North Africa is an attest to that, with French being a prominent language, even though it was the tongue of their colonizers. In the Arab League’s charter there is a clause which dictates that states in aggression shall be forced into deliberations by the League itself and shall receive a majority vote on what they are expected to do, â€Å"the league’s decision shall then be effective and obligatory.†This however, did not seem like a viable clause as there have been many conflicts between states in the Arab League and interventions were long and tedious and ultimately rendered useless, when there are clauses and no way to implement them, then it is ambitious to place them in the charter in the first place. The importance of pan-Arabism and pan-Africanism is also note-worthy.Pan-Arabism started in the Middle East with leaders like Egypt’s Gamal Abdel Nasser and his nationalistic sentiment; it is a concept which dictates that Arab nations should unite because of a shared Arab identity (Reiser, 1983. ) Ever since pan-Arabism was introduced, Arabs have been asking themselves what it stands for and what is it based on (Reiser, 1983), it was the leaders ambition, one that was evidently misplaced as the citizens of member states don’t see each other as Arab, rather, Egyptian, Syrian, Lebanese etc.One also begins to ponder the role of colonialism here; different nations have colonized the members of the Arab League, for example: Egypt was colonized Britain and France, Libya by Italy, North Africa by France and Jordan by Britain, there are remnants of these â€Å"cultures† in these countries, and hence there is a difference in psyche and a difference in identity.Pan-Arabism and pan-Africanism are both supposedly built on an â€Å"identitarian† principle yet Hall argues that identity get created through discourse, it’s not a stable entity but a process that is incomplete and is reproduced through process (Hall 16). This same problem exists in Africa and pan-Africanism has the same logical holes in it, African states were and still are very much divided (as I have mentioned previously), so how can they all exist under one African umbrella? Hence, the Arab League fails (Pinfari, 1. ) The OAU fails. ï » ¿Failure of the Arab League In the wake of any great conflict, states will try and assemble a system that is based on unity and prevention of further conflict, there are several aspects usually addressed, including the economy and the international relations. In the wake of World War 2 the UN assembled to form the new world order (Pinfari, 1. ) In the Middle East, 6 founding members (Egypt, Transjordan, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Lebanon and Iraq) formed the Arab League, an organization founded upon a common sense of Arabism with a goal of Arab unity (Pinfari, 2.)In the wake of the Cold War, Africa found itself at a political disadvantage because of the fragmented politics of the continent, they were at a geographical advantage and wanted to make use of that, so they formed the African Union to address inner-conflicts and the mayhem caused by the remains of colonialism after the Cold War (Dersso, 13-14. ) On the other side of things the European Union formed in the late 1990’s with a different mission in mind when compared to the two aforeabmentioned organizations.The Arab League and the African Union’s missions were more ambitious than those of other political organizations such as the EU and the UN, due to many reasons why this paper will focus on discussing their economy, their judiciary and the effect of pan-Arpabism and a pan-African perspective. When nations group under one banner as is the case in the examples mentioned, the issue of their individual political sovereignty is brought into the foreground as countries value their autonomy.The European Union is more of a â€Å"union† in the judiciary sense than the Arab League: while the Arab League clearly states in its charter that the League has no right to intervene in the internal affairs of a member country unless their overall safety is compromised, this then makes way for dictators like Qaddafi to rule for years in what certain scholars would view as a tyrannical manner.The judiciary of each country is separate f rom the Arab League which isn’t the case with the EU, whereby the Court of Justice of the European Union has the right to supersede any national court of law (Wallace, 484), by so doing maintaining peace in a more efficient way. How does this make the Arab League’s mission more ambitious, is that they are seeking peace and unity based on a sense of Arabism rather than an effective judicial system (Reiser, 1), and it is ambitious to assume that this will prevail.When discussing the Organization of African Unity (OAU), their mission can also be seen as more ambitious than that of the EU, the OAU’s mission was to establish widespread security and unity between African members of this union through the ideal of â€Å"African Solutions for African problems,† but like the Arab League, their mission contains certain clauses that are emphasized in discourse, yet not much is done to re-enforce them (Dersso, 13), and often the governments of individual states will do as they please, as is the case with the Rwanda genocide in 1994,with no higher judicial force to intervene, and that is where they fail (Tavares, 23.)Africa however should not be grouped with the Arab League, even though they are comparable, because after the Cold War, Africa had been depleted because of their division into pro-USA forces and pro-Soviet forces during the Cold War, as they underwent a number of proxy wars for the USA and the Soviet Union. After having served their purpose Africa was then disregarded and faced with â€Å"indifference† from forces that had had an increasing interest in it before (Dersso, 15.)When discussing the economy there are also rather ambitious initiatives on the AL and the OAU’s parts, in their missions they strive for unity, but one of the main constituents of said unity, is economic unity, whereby member states implement policies that will be beneficial to one another’s economies as is the case with the EU, they have a unified currency and an open market, whereby, goods, services and people are not taxed when traded between members.The EU is the only Regional Insisution with a separate monetary system which makes , â€Å"the EU has become greater than merely an arena of inter-state co-operation and has taken on many state-like powers† (Bradbury 18). This however does not work with the Arab League, because of the lack of a policy which dictates the existence of such a market but also because of the division in wealth in the Middle East, oil-rich states such as Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Qatar control the capital and give money to the poorer members such as Egypt, in exchange for one thing that Egypt has in abundance: labor and cheap labor at that (Korany, 279.)Also how can the Arab League hope to achieve such unity when travelling between member states still requires visas and there are still taxes on products traded between member states? Again, the mission is ambitious with no real actions t aken to implement. As for the OAU, the member states are still very much in conflict as is evident by Africa’s human rights violations and constant violence. After all , Africa is simply too large and divided to ever fit under one banner.After all, overcoming colonialism is not simple; North Africa is an attest to that, with French being a prominent language, even though it was the tongue of their colonizers. In the Arab League’s charter there is a clause which dictates that states in aggression shall be forced into deliberations by the League itself and shall receive a majority vote on what they are expected to do, â€Å"the league’s decision shall then be effective and obligatory.†This however, did not seem like a viable clause as there have been many conflicts between states in the Arab League and interventions were long and tedious and ultimately rendered useless, when there are clauses and no way to implement them, then it is ambitious to place them in the charter in the first place. The importance of pan-Arabism and pan-Africanism is also note-worthy.Pan-Arabism started in the Middle East with leaders like Egypt’s Gamal Abdel Nasser and his nationalistic sentiment; it is a concept which dictates that Arab nations should unite because of a shared Arab identity (Reiser, 1983. ) Ever since pan-Arabism was introduced, Arabs have been asking themselves what it stands for and what is it based on (Reiser, 1983), it was the leaders ambition, one that was evidently misplaced as the citizens of member states don’t see each other as Arab, rather, Egyptian, Syrian, Lebanese etc.One also begins to ponder the role of colonialism here; different nations have colonized the members of the Arab League, for example: Egypt was colonized Britain and France, Libya by Italy, North Africa by France and Jordan by Britain, there are remnants of these â€Å"cultures† in these countries, and hence there is a difference in psyche and a difference in identity.Pan-Arabism and pan-Africanism are both supposedly built on an â€Å"identitarian† principle yet Hall argues that identity get created through discourse, it’s not a stable entity but a process that is incomplete and is reproduced through process (Hall 16). This same problem exists in Africa and pan-Africanism has the same logical holes in it, African states were and still are very much divided (as I have mentioned previously), so how can they all exist under one African umbrella? Hence, the Arab League fails (Pinfari, 1. ) The OAU fails.

Review paper Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Review paper - Essay Example However, poverty has driven these people towards survival of the fittest. Mothers become increasingly detached with infants who are perceived to be weak to survive the extremely poor conditions and a presumed to be a burden on the family. This aspect has been discussed in the paper. The researcher analyzed the reproductive backgrounds of seventy two women of the small town and tried to discover linkages between the economic and maternal disparity with material and emotional scarcity. The purpose behind this study is to find out the effect of materialism and economic disparity on the social and cultural norms of motherhood, attachment, parting and eventual loss by death. The researcher wants to prove that these sentiments are a production of the environment or the society a person belongs to rather than an innate psychological feeling of attachment that comes natural to a mother. His curiosity for this study developed because if two incidents in his life one of a girl from a rural area who murdered her infant son and one year old daughter. When he asked her for the reason behind her action she replied, ‘They wouldn’t stop asking for milk and that little ones had no feelings.’ And the second incident which formed the basis of his studies was in a town where there were was shortage of food, no access to clean drinking water, lack of sanitation and infectious diseases. The writer was involved with helping a woman give birth to her second child. However, her first child was not cared for, thrown in the dumps, living in very worse conditions, taken by compassion the writer took the child to the care center and with a lot of effort nurtured him back to health. The women there however paid no heed to weak children as mentioned above and shunned the writer for making an effort on the girls first born. The second born however was fair and healthy and was the center of attention. The culture there conformed to the natural term of

Welfare Feminism in Britain Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Welfare Feminism in Britain - Essay Example It is difficult for us to perceive woman's role as a 'job' because of the surroundings in which it takes place, particularly the family. The institution of the family in modern, post-war society has been subjected to much sociological and psychological examination. During the past seven years it has also been a focus of controversy on the political Left, amongst feminists, socialists, and radicals of all kinds. It has come under attack; it has been defended. Often this debate, originally political, has taken on a highly moralistic flavour, and while it is true that political passions are, ultimately, moral passions, morals about the family has all too often prevented a constructive analysis of this institution as it exists in our contemporary society. Yet it is not hard to understand why the subject should arouse passion; the same reason makes it hard to perceive woman's role within it. (Wilson, 1977, p. 8) A woman has always been subjected to physical care that is mediated by means of on-going emotional and physical relationships of the most intense kind; whether sexual or parental, a woman in particular are reared almost from birth, certainly from early childhood, to conceive of happiness and emotional fulfilment in terms of their future relationship with husband and children. To many it therefore seems alien or even blasphemous to discuss these relationships as jobs undertaken for the capitalist State. Nonetheless, such is the peculiar nature of the family. It plays what is in many ways a repressive role on behalf of the State, not only psychologically but also at the level of economic functioning, and yet at the same time offers the individual a unique opportunity for intimacy, comfort, and emotional support. According to Juliet Mitchell (1971) the individualistic competitiveness of the wider modern society is truly a 'prison of love' for woman. And the Welfare State has always been closely connected with the development of the family and has acted to reinforce and support it in significant ways. (Basch, 1974, p. 79) This it has done by offering various forms of service, both in money and in kind, and also by means of forms of social control and ideology. Thus the Welfare State is not just a set of services, it is also a set of ideas about women's role in society, in family, and not least important socially. In Victorian society women were, for the first time, valuable because they did not work. It was her status as a non-worker that gave woman as wife and mother a very special ideological role. The single woman was society's reject, for celibacy was not highly valued (so that the attempts within the Church of England to start religious orders for women could be seen as radical) while the fallen woman's lot was to be completely outcast (Basch, 1974, p. 81). Yet work had to be found for the army of surplus middle-class spinsters and to them fell the task of teaching their impoverished married sisters how to be better wives and mothers. So grew up a paradoxical situation that still marks social work today; whereby middle-class women with no direct experience of marriage and motherhood themselves took on the social task of teaching marriage and motherhood to working-class women who were widely believed to be ignorant and lacking when it came to their domestic tasks. (Wilson, 1977, p.

Discussion Questions Week 5 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 2

Discussion Questions Week 5 - Essay Example They select fruit juice. Passing the grocery shelves to explore options, the consumer sees fruit juice on the Sunshine label and picks up the bottle only to realize in the post-purchase situation that the product did not fulfill their needs. The ethical problem in this situation is one of being misled and the company should reconsider new positioning tactics which are low cost and easy to incorporate. Instead of focusing on the product’s attributes, a new positioning tactic should be decided which focuses less on the product and more on quality. Rather than calling Sunshine a fruit juice, it could be marketed as a quality fruit juice substitute to undo any negative public relations damage done by the consumer and government groups. In this situation it was probably not an intentional deception, however the company does maintain the responsibility to be as truthful as possible to avoid losing customers and reputation. Technology impacts marketing in a variety of ways, including how quickly the marketing message can be received by the consumer as well as how many consumers can be reached. For example, in a form of mass advertising, e-mail and mobile handset devices can target willing buyers who have already shown an interest in the product by signing up for auto promotional alerts. Those consumers who might have visited the company’s website can receive exclusive coupons, as another positioning strategy, to build loyalty in a way that the bricks-and-mortar sales environment could not. Technology also impacts methods and activities of distribution, as new software programs designed to enhance internal warehousing functions can minimize labor costs associated in the supply chain or any other number of cost reductions. More efficient external partners can minimize the risks and costs of marketing. This is an important improvement when marketing budget is on the line. From a business to business view, technology such as the VoIP, or voice

Tourette's Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Tourette's - Essay Example They tried medication, diets and nutrition for four years without change. They also tried neuro-feedback, which had no lasting improvement. Later, Linda was advised by an ally in the TS community to go for a family education program by TSA. They attended the program and got educated on how to treat TS, which was CBIT. CBIT is a behavioral therapy that educates people to be aware of their behaviors and assist them to change very carefully and in a systematic way (CosplayerProductions 4). Lucas has an immediate improvement since within two days the first tic was gone. At the age of 15, Lucas was free from tics. The curing of Lucas from TS is a clear depiction that some of the TS illnesses can be treated. The first surgeon who discovered to suffer from Tourette was Dr. Carl Bennett. Bennett’s appearance was unexceptionable because he was of middle size, fiftyish, with a mustache having a hint of grey and a brownish beard. Bennett would either jump, jerk, lunge or reach for the ground. Sack got struck by both his bizarre tics and dignity and calmness. Another time, Sack was met by Bennett at the airport, he greeted him in strange greeting, half-tic and half-lunge (Sacks 1). He grabbed his case and led him on his car in a rapid skipping walk, odd, skipping each fifth step and unexpected ground reaching as if picking something. In any case, the stream of interests and attention were interrupted, Bennett’s iterations and tics suddenly reasserted by touching his glasses and mustache. Bennett used to smooth his mustache constantly and checked for symmetry. He also used to keep on balancing his glasses side to side, up and down, in and out or diagonally. There were also occasional lunging and reaching of his right arm, repositioning of the steering wheel or his knees (Sacks 5). He could also sound â€Å"Hi, Patty,† Patty being her former girlfriend enshrined as a tic. Bennett referred Tourette’s as a disease of inhibition, the unusual thoughts experienced

Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words - 16

Essay Example Every year organizations adopt various strategies, launch different products and services, run recruitment process and pursue various other activities. All these activities are basically either or indirectly directed to one goal which is making profit. These activities are very usual in business environment. However, the interesting fact is that there are several unusual activities which are pursued by the organizations in order to make profit. In simple language profit is nothing but the excess of revenue after deducting the total expenses from it. Profit of an organization depends on various internal and external environmental factors. If current world business environment is concerned, organizations from all over the world have seen how difficult it could be to make profit in adverse situations like financial meltdown. The global financial turmoil that started from mid 2008 and still continuing has been proved to be the most difficult period for most of the organizations in the world especially in the developed countries. Many of the global companies which are operating for several years have struggled to make profit and most of them have failed to make profit in this period. The main reason behind this is the sudden fall in demand of almost all the goods and services as the financial condition of the people around the world was badly affected. As a consequence of lowering of overall demand organizations’ revenue has fallen drastically and hence they struggled to make profit. In order to overcome this situation and get the organization back to profit making track managements have performed several activities. They came up with new pricing strategies; they reduced the workforce of the organization, they even sold one or two of their units. What is important to notice is that organizations were involved in several activities which they usually do not perform and

Good Qualities Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Good Qualities - Essay Example The article has also been published in PubMed ID 17686985. It was later published on 8th august 2007. Thus, making it a suitable and genuine source since it has been reviewed by the publication PubMed journals to ascertain credibility. Lastly, before it was published, the article was received in the PNAS for review on the 30th of April 2007 and approved on the first of May 2007. It stands out as a reliable and standard source in the area of study after the online publishing and printing. The author’s thesis statement states that the economic point is vital in the early years of children and shapes their adulthood outcomes. The publication was published online on May 2007, despite the fact the paper was published in the year 2007, it tackles current issues affecting the health sector currently. At the same time, the article seeks to provide solutions to the issues being studied. For instance, after the comprehensive study aiming at understanding the human inequalities in health the article, seeks to instigate the process of policy formulation which is aimed at reducing these inequalities. The policy formulation process, is driven by the findings made on the origin of the differences. The policy should focus mostly on prevention of the differences and ensuring that there are minimal inequalities developed among people as they develop (Heckman, 1). The issues are still a thorn in the health sector, hence it is still relevant in the health care industry to date. People in different socioeconomic classes are developing different diseases today. At the same time, people in this different socioeconomic cla sses, have different behaviors while seeking medical care (Heckman, 1). Thus formulating policies to curb the differences will be beneficial to the health sector. Some of the issues noted among diverse people include compliance with medications, people from a higher socioeconomic class, tend to pay more attention to medical advice as oppose to

Euthanasia Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words - 1

Euthanasia - Essay Example Euthanasia can be the choice of the an individual and may be unassisted or assisted, by physicians, family, or friends. However, it should be clear that all variations of euthanasia have been deemed illegal in most locations. Suicide has always been a controversial issue. The moral beliefs of certain popular ideologies deem suicide a great sin, which can lead to the mindset that if you suffer greatly then you probably deserve to and when you die, that is when you were meant to. However, that thinking is not shared by everyone and to impose that mentality and force people to suffer until natural death occurs can be quite unfair. Euthanasia brings up many questions of ethics, morality, personal beliefs, and rights to individual autonomy. Death and Dignity: A Case of Individualized Decision Making, by Timothy E, Quill, is a fantastic example of situation where euthanasia has becomes a real consideration. The case study, told from the doctor’s point of view, is a very moving story involving a physician’s relationship with a particular patient, Diane, who is suffering from leukemia and has optioned to not undergo treatment; she is planning to die with dignity and has decided to take her own life (Quill 692). Doctor Quill’s justification throughout the whole process was supportive of, though not necessarily in agreement with, her decisions. He had worked in a hospice in the past, and he knew the kind of death that awaited her should the treatment not work. He also knew that the treatments available to her had a long list of unpleasant consequences that would diminish the quality of her life considerably. He had the practical experiences to sympathize with her position. He acknowledged that she passed all of the psychiatric competency tests to verify her mental state. She was informed of all of her options concerning treatments, interventions, statistical realities, and had made an informed decision of her own free will. Dr. Quill’s thinkin g throughout seemed to parallel with a utilitarian position. He considered Diane’s options; he weighed the stress upon her family, the quality of her life, however shortened, against all of the alternatives. He justified his logic by believing that the greatest good and least amount of harm would be achieved by supporting and endorsing her choices. He even went so far as to direct her to a reliable source to learn how to end her life successfully. Although, certain kinds of euthanasia are potentially unethical, and each individual should, probably, be best considered on an individual basis. In cases, like Diane’s, when she is making the informed choice concerning her own being then would it not be unethical to impose an alternative upon her or discredit her right to make her own choices. Dr. Quill described Diane as a string and forthright lady and he has no reason to deem her decision incompetent in any way (Quill 293). Besides it is unethical to question someone†™s competence simply because their choice differ from what you consider the â€Å"correct† choice. However, if the same person chose the course of action that agreed with you own then you would never question their competence; of course, they are competent, they agree with you. I think that Dr. Quill made a wholly ethical decision based on his perceived perspective of attempting to promote the greater good and least harm in a completely un-ideal

The Man at the Well Essay Example for Free

The Man at the Well Essay Some say it’s not what we do but what we don’t do that can truly define who we are. In the tenth chapter, â€Å"The Man at the Well†, from Tim O’Brien’s memoir, If I die in a Combat Zone, O’Brien manages to portray one of the most powerful messages throughout his entire journey. It’s about American ignorance, the inability to help those in need, the true meaning of humanity and whether we, as a population, are capable to break down barriers and walls that we, ourselves, have constructed. â€Å"A blustery and stupid soldier, blond hair and big belly, picked up a carton of milk and from fifteen feet away hurled it, for no reason, aiming at the old man and striking him flush in the face. The carton burst. Milk sprayed into the old man’s cataracts. He hunched foreword, rocking precariously and searching for his balance. He dropped his bucket. His hands went to his eyes then dropped loosely to his thighs. His blind gaze was fixed straight ahead, at the stupid soldier’s feet† (Page 100). O’Brien’s language it’s purposefully proposed and constructed to paint one of the most vivid images in the whole memoir. He creates a scene which the reader’s innovative mind engulfs and produces it into one of the most captivating and heart wrenching pictures easily shown like a movie in our own heads. His undeniable choice of descriptive words can’t help but have the effect of a film-like image flowing through the reader’s imagination. O’Brien uses this carefully disguised writing technique to ultimately grasp the hearts of his followers and use their sacrificing vulnerability to engrave a philosophical idea in their minds such as humanity’s opinion of right and wrong. â€Å"The Man at the Well† produces a foundation of shame and disbelief to think that a human being, an American soldier who is looked up to by children, Vietnamese and American, can fabricate such a hurtful scene. The audacity to even act out the horror and hate is appalling to any reader it makes he or she question the motives of several American soldiers and whether or not their morals are politically correct. It is a fine line between what is right and wrong there is little gray in a situation such as this. It’s clear the anecdote was an act of hatred. There was no question to whether the ignorance of the â€Å"stupid soldier† was right it was far past right. However why then, did no one do or say anything? Instead an audience watched as a man, a blind and elderly man, who voluntarily was helping them, suffered from one man’s intolerable actions. People are afraid and that fear creates a boundary. It changes people’s beliefs and ideas one thought always to be right and those ideas could change in an instance with the doubt fear carries. People come to a crossroads in their lives; where what they once thought their morals were, what they once thought they would stand up for is no longer because fear created a wall a wall that is unbearable to take down. It is a wall built in front of different people however sharing a common sense of right and wrong. These people cannot see past their own selfish fear to solve a crisis outside of themselves. If just a few attempted to demolish this imaginary roadblock the outcome could be greatly beneficial, however, it’s impossible to achieve unless people step outside of themselves and into a world they desire. The chapter argues one’s sense of humanity and the pressure that people feel and sometimes are burdened by. However, O’Brien places himself, as an author, in a position which he attempts to break down the wall. He asks you, â€Å"What is and what is not right? What are you going to do? Stand there and watch? Or are you going to do something about it?† I found the section powerful, moving and inspirational, and even more so if those who did answer his underlying questions, answered with an optimistic, â€Å"yes we can do this† point of view.

Long-Term Effects and Societal Impacts of Alcohol Consumption Essay Example for Free

Long-Term Effects and Societal Impacts of Alcohol Consumption Essay Studies have shown that both long-term and short-term alcohol consumption affect every organ in the body in one way or another (College Drinking Changing the Culture, 2012). Some of the most commonly affected organs are the brain, heart, liver, pancreas, stomach, kidneys, and lungs (College Drinking Changing the Culture, 2012). Alcohol consumption has also been shown to affect one’s mental health as well as cause damage to the developing fetus (Fergusson, 2009). â€Å"Short-term† alcohol abuse refers alcohol consumption over days, weeks, or a few months; while â€Å"long-term† alcohol abuse is referring to high consumption of alcohol over several months to several years. Alcohol abuse also goes beyond the human body; it touches every part of society, particularly families and the economy, and likely has affected every human being in way or another. Organs Affected by Long-Term Alcohol Consumption Brain The short-term effects of alcohol consumption are more obvious because they are the effects that are seen when someone is intoxicated: slurred speech, lack of balance, poor memory, and blurred vision. The long-term effects of alcohol consumption on the brain are a little more subtle. One of the most common findings amongst long-term alcohol consumers is thiamine deficiency (thiamine is also known as vitamin B1), which is an essential nutrient for all tissues in the body (â€Å"Alcohol Alert†, 2004). The approximately 80 percent of alcoholics that have a thiamine deficiency are at a great risk of developing Wernike-Korsakoff Syndrome, a disease that consists of two syndromes, Wernike’s encephalopathy and Korsakoff’s psychosis (â€Å"Alcohol Alert†, 2004). Wernike’s encephalopathy causes mental confusion, paralysis of the nerves that move the eyes, and difficulty with muscle coordination, which 80-90 percent of the time develops into Korsakoff’s psychosis, a chronic syndrome characterized by memory and learning problems (â€Å"Alcohol Alert†, 2004). Heart While studies have shown in recent years that the antioxidants found in red wine can actually decrease one’s risk of developing heart disease, The American Heart Association states, â€Å"Drinking too much alcohol can raise the levels of some fats in the blood (triglycerides). It can also lead to high blood pressure, heart failure and an increased calorie intake†¦Excessive drinking and binge drinking can lead to stroke. Other serious problems include fetal alcohol syndrome, cardiomyopathy, cardiac arrhythmia and sudden cardiac death† (American Heart Association, 2012). Alcohol can also affect the heart indirectly. Long-term alcohol consumption can lead to conditions such as obesity and/or diabetes, which put one at a greater risk of developing coronary artery disease (American Heart Association, 2012). Liver The liver is the organ in your body that filters out toxins, such as alcohol, from the blood. Drinking more alcohol than the liver can process can actually damage liver cells, and over a long period of time can cause alcohol related liver diseases such as fatty liver disease (build up of extra fat in liver cells), alcoholic hepatitis (swelling and damage of the liver), and alcoholic cirrhosis (scarring of the liver where soft healthy tissue is replaced with hard scar tissue) (American Liver Foundation, 2011). The damaged liver cells caused from long-term alcohol abuse can lead to inflammation, increasing the risk of liver cancer (â€Å"Alcohol Use and Cancer†, 2012). Liver disease can be fatal, and complications from liver disease may include build up of fluid in the abdomen, bleeding from veins in the esophagus or stomach, an enlarged spleen, high blood pressure in the liver, brain disorders or coma (from hepatic encephalopathy), and/or kidney failure (American Liver Foundation, 2011). Pancreas Long-term alcohol consumption can lead to chronic pancreatitis, which is inflammation of the pancreas. Pancreatitis can result from blockages in the pancreatic duct, although in alcoholics it is more commonly caused by damage to the pancreatic tissue due to the by-products of alcohol metabolism (Apte, 1997). Alcohol abuse is the most common cause for patients with chronic pancreatitis, and can usually be treated with diet modifications (avoiding alcohol and low fat diets) and medications for pain relief, without requiring surgical intervention (Freedman, 2012). Some studies even claim that long-term alcohol consumption can increase the risk of developing pancreatic cancer, although the studies on these claims have shown only a minor increased risk and have been mostly inconclusive (Ye, 2002). Gastrointestinal Tract The gastrointestinal (GI) tract is the first stop that our foods and beverages have in the body. Alcohol usually moves from the stomach to the small intestine rather quickly, however sometimes alcohol is left behind and can actually irritate the inner lining of the stomach (College Drinking Changing the Culture, 2012). Unabsorbed alcohol left in the stomach can also increase digestive juices (hydrochloric acid), halt the digestive process and rob the body of necessary nutrients, and react with medications (such as aspirin) causing gastritis, ulcers, or severe bleeding (College Drinking Changing the Culture, 2012). Alcohol has even been linked to cancers in the GI tract. Cancers of the mouth, throat, larynx (voice box), and esophagus are believed to especially increase the risk of cancers of smokers because of the possibility that alcohol acts as a solvent for the harmful chemicals found in cigarettes, allowing these harmful chemicals to penetrate the inner linings of the digestive tract (â€Å"Alcohol Use and Cancer†, 2012). Bacteria in the colon and rectum can convert alcohol into large amounts of acetaldehyde, a chemical that has been shown to cause cancer in some lab studies (â€Å"Alcohol Use and Cancer†, 2012). Kidneys Long-term alcohol consumption has also been shown to compromise kidney function, particularly in patients with established liver disease (Epstein, 1997). Some studies have even shown that alcohol abuse can altering the form and structure of the kidneys, noting that many alcoholics have increased kidney size and/or swelling compared to non-alcoholics (Epstein, 1997). In Dr. Murray Epstein’s research on kidney function and alcohol abuse he has stated, â€Å"Chronic alcoholic patients may experience low blood concentrations of key electrolytes as well as potentially severe alterations in the body’s acid-base balance. In addition, alcohol can disrupt the hormonal control mechanisms that govern kidney function† (Epstein, 1997). Lungs One of the systems that is not as widely linked to alcohol consumption is the respiratory system, however recent studies have helped establish this link. For example, recent studies have shown that alcoholics are actually more prone to lung infections (such as pneumonia) (Joshi, 2007). More specifically, long-term alcohol consumption can decrease the levels of glutathione (an important antioxidant) in the lungs by as much as 80-90 percent (Joshi, 2007), which in turn leaves the lungs more susceptible to infection. Some pulmonologists have even found that prolonged and heavy exposure to alcohol can complicate asthma management, as well as worsen lung function and increase mortality in patients with COPD (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease) (Sisson, 2007). The reason why the effects of long-term alcohol consumption on the lungs is not as widely studied is because most often the lung impairment goes undetected until acutely insulted by trauma or sepsis (system wide infection) (Joshi, 2007). Breasts Recent studies are now showing that even a few alcoholic drinks can increase the risk of breast cancer in women, particularly of hormone-receptor-positive breast cancer (â€Å"Drinking Alcohol†, 2012). Alcohol can increase levels of estrogen and other hormones associated with hormone-receptor-positive breast cancer (â€Å"Drinking Alcohol†, 2012). According to breastcancer.org, â€Å"Compared to women who dont drink at all, women who have three alcoholic drinks per week have a 15% higher risk of breast cancer. Experts estimate that the risk of breast cancer goes up another 10% for each additional drink women regularly have each day† (â€Å"Drinking Alcohol†, 2012). The Effect of Alcohol Abuse on Society Families Alcoholism affects each member of the family, and can even affect unborn children. The most commonly affected family members are the spouses and children of alcoholics (Berger, Silverstein, and Wekesser, 2003). Studies have shown that some of the most common symptoms found amongst spouses of alcoholics are feelings of hatred, self-pity, avoidance of social contacts, suffering from exhaustion, and/or becoming physically or mentally ill (Berger, Silverstein, and Wekesser, 2003). Children of alcoholics commonly express symptoms such as low self-esteem, loneliness, guilt, feelings of helplessness, fears of abandonment, poor performance in school, and/or chronic depression (Berger, Silverstein, and Wekesser, 2003). Unborn children can be affected by alcohol abuse when a woman drinks a significant amount of alcohol during the pregnancy. Fetal alcohol syndrome is the most common disorder related to alcohol use during pregnancy. A baby that has been diagnosed with fetal alcohol syndrome may have the following symptoms: poor developmental growth in the womb and after birth, decreased muscle tone and poor coordination, delayed development, heart defects such as ventricular septal defect (VSD) or atrial septal defect (ASD), and/or problems with facial features (â€Å"Fetal alcohol syndrome†, 2012). The Economy In 2011 the U.S. Centers for disease Control (the CDC) reported that alcohol abuse costs the United States approximately $223.5 billion a year, with the government paying more than 60% of the health care costs of alcohol abusers (Fox, 2011). This enormous cost includes, but is not limited to, factors such as lost productivity due to alcohol-related illnesses, medical/health consequences of alcohol abuse, lost productivity of criminals/victims from crimes involving alcohol, and motor vehicle accidents (fatal and non-fatal) in which alcohol was involved (â€Å"Economic Costs of Alcohol Abuse in the United States†, 2000). Source Article: McCambridge J, McAlaney J, Rowe R (2011) Adult Consequences of Late Adolescent Alcohol Consumption: A Systematic Review of Cohort Studies. PLoS Med 8(2): e1000413. doi:10.1371/journal.pmed.1000413 References: Alcohol Alert. National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism. National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, Oct 2004. Web. 8 Oct 2012. http://pubs.niaaa.nih.gov/publications/aa63/aa63.htm. Alcohol Use and Cancer. American Cancer Society. American Cancer Society, 27 Jan 2012. Web. 8 Oct 2012.http://www.cancer.org/Cancer/CancerCauses/DietandPhysicalActivity/alcohol-use-and-cancer. American Heart Association. Alcohol and Heart Disease.www.heart.org. American Heart Association, 04 Apr 2012. Web. 8 Oct 2012. http://www.heart.org/HEARTORG/Conditions/More/MyHeartandStrokeNews/Alcohol-and-Heart-Disease_UCM_305173_Article.jsp. American Liver Foundation, . Alcohol-Related Liver Disease. American Liver Foundation. American Liver Foundation, 04 Oct 2011. Web. 8 Oct 2012. http://www.liverfoundation.org/abouttheliver/info/alcohol/. Apte, M, M Med, J Wilson, and M Korsten. Alcohol-Related Pancreatic Damage. Alcohol Health Research World. 21.1 (1997): 13-20. Web. 8 Oct. 2012. http://pubs.niaaa.nih.gov/publications/arh21-1/13.pdf. Berger, G, H Silverstein, and C Wekesser. Alcoholism and Its Effect on the Family . AllPsych Journal. AllPsych Journal, 14 2003. Web. 23 Oct 2012. http://allpsych.com/journal/alcoholism.html. College Drinking Changing the Culture. Alcohol and You: An Interactive Body. National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, 13 Aug 2012. Web. 8 Oct 2012. http://www.collegedrinkingprevention.gov Drinking Alcohol. Breastcancer.org. Breastcancer.org, 17 Sep 2012. Web. 8 Oct 2012. http://www.breastcancer.org/risk/factors/alcohol. Epstein, Murray. Alcohol’s Impact on Kidney Function.Alcohol Health Research World. 1.21 (1997): 84-93. Web. 8 Oct. 2012. http://pubs.niaaa.nih.gov/publications/arh21-1/84.pdf. Fergusson, DM, JM Boden, and LJ Horwood. Tests of causal links between alcohol abuse or dependence and major depression. PubMed. March (2009): n. page. Web. 8 Oct. 2012. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19255375. Fetal alcohol syndrome. PubMed Health. U.S. National Library of Medicine, 08 Aug 2012. Web. 8 Oct 2012. Fox, Maggie. CDC: Alcohol Abuse Costs U.S. $224 Billion a Year. National Journal. National Journal, 17 2011. Web. 23 Oct 2012. http://www.nationaljournal.com/healthcare/cdc-alcohol-abuse-costs-u-s-224-billion-a-year-20111017. Freedman, Steven, and J. Thomas LaMont, eds. Patient information: Chronic pancreatitis (Beyond the Basics). Up To Date. Wolters Kluwer Health, 11 Jul 2012. Web. 8 Oct 2012. http://www.uptodate.com/contents/chronic-pancreatitis-beyond-the-basics?source=see_link. Joshi, Pratibha, and David Guidot. The alcoholic lung: epidemiology, pathophysiology, and potential therapies. American Journal of Physiology Lung Cellular and Molecular Physiology. 292.4 (2007): L813-L823. Web. 8 Oct. 2012. http://ajplung.physiology.org/content/292/4/L813.full.pdf html. Sisson, JH. PubMed. PubMed. 41.5 (2007): 293-307. Web. 30 Oct. 2012. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17764883. United States. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Economic Costs of Alcohol Abuse in the United States. 2000. Web. http://pubs.niaaa.nih.gov/publications/economic-2000/alcoholcost.PDF. Ye, W, J Lagergren, E Weiderpass, O Nyrà ©n, H-O Adami, and A Ekbom. Alcohol abuse and the risk of pancreatic cancer. GUT An Internati onal Journal of

Law of Partnership Fiduciary Duty Analysis

Law of Partnership Fiduciary Duty Analysis Analyse within the Law of Partnership Fiduciary Duty Definition Partnership is a longstanding legal concept which has become regulated by statute. Recently, the introduction of Limited Liability Partnerships has added a new species of partnership to the legal lexicon and demands a dramatic reworking of the way in which partnerships are viewed. The classic definition of partnership is provided by s.1 of the Partnership Act 1890: â€Å"Partnership is the relation which subsists between persons carrying on a business in common with a view to profit.† The relationship between partners must be contrasted with the relationship between employer and employee. The latter may also be said to be â€Å"carrying on a business etc.† but one is subordinate to the authority of the other. Partners possess a number of co-existent rights: To be involved in decisions affecting the business; To share in the profits and losses; To examine the accounts; To be entitled to the good faith of the other partner(s); To veto the introduction of a new partner. Traditionally, a definition of partnership would involve a contrast with a company drawing the distinction that, unlike a company, a partnership could not benefit from the protection of limited liability. However, as will be seen below, such a distinction is no longer universally valid following the Limited Liability Partnerships Act 2000. Fiduciary Duty Partnership is a particular type of contract (albeit governed by the partnership legislation). There is therefore considerable involvement of the common law and equitable principles. The major consequence of entering into a partnership is that the partners owe a fiduciary duty to one another. Since the law of fiduciaries and constructive trusts is a creature of equity and the categories of equity are never closed it is impossible to provide a comprehensive and definitive list of such duties but a number of clear principles have emerged. The partners owe one another a duty of good faith. For example, in Floydd v Cheney[1], an architect engaged an assistant with a view to partnership. The assistant removed certain documents and photographed others in the absence of the architect who then sued for the return of the documents and negatives and sought an injunction restraining the use of confidential information. There was a dispute as to whether this was a partnership or a master/servant relationship. However, Megarry J held that even if this was a partnership, there existed a duty of good faith which prevented the assistant from acting as he did. A partnership relationship is one of ’utmost trust’ (uberrimae fidei). Therefore each partner must deal honestly and openly with his fellows and disclose all relevant information to them. A failure to disclose is a breach of this duty; there is no need to establish fraud. This is also partly embodied in statute. Section 28 of the Partnership Act 1980 provides: â€Å"Partners are bound to render true accounts and full information of all things affecting the partnership to any partner or his legal representatives.† A trustee must not profit from his trust and this applies to partners as fiduciaries. This a partner must not make unauthorised personal profit. This principle is also embodied in s.29 of the Act which requires a partner to account to the firm for any benefit derived by him without the consent of the other partners from any transaction concerning the partnership or involving the use of partnership property. Thus the rule in Keech v Sandford[2] (which provided that where a trustee of a trust which holds a lease obtained a renewal of the lease for his own benefit, he held the lease as a constructive trustee for the beneficiaries) applies to partners where they obtain such a benefit as a result of their position as a partner. A partner must not put himself in a position of conflict of interest and duty toward his partners. This is codified by s.30 of the Act which provides that where a partner has carried on a business of the same nature and in competition with the partnership, he must account to the other partners for the profits of that business. Because, as has been seen, partnership is a species of contract, the written terms of the partnership deed (if any) and indeed those imposed by the Act can be varied by express or implied agreement. Limited Liability Partnerships For many years pressure had been growing in the commercial world and particularly among those providing professional services for the introduction of a form of partnership that would provide a limitation of liability akin to that enjoyed by directors of a limited company. This was driven in particular by an increase in litigation and the consequent threat to firms and therefore to their partners personally. This led to the passage of the Limited Liability Partnerships Act 2000 and the creation of Limited Liability Partnerships. LLPs are therefore entirely a creature of statute and a new form of legal entity. They continue to enjoy the organisational flexibility of partnerships. In matters relating to taxation (partners are Schedule D as before) they are similar to traditional partnerships but in many other respects it is appropriate to think of them in terms of the company model. Indeed the only way in which an LLP can be created is by submitting an incorporation document to Companie s House. While there is no need to submit a partnership deed (contrast the filing of Articles of Association in respect of companies), partners in LLPs are well advised to subscribe to a deed which will regulate the operation of the partnership and protect their interests in the event of a dispute. An LLP is therefore a corporate body with a separate identity from the partners. In general, partners in an LLP will have full entitlement to limited liability. (There is an exception in circumstances in which an LLP continues to trade after being reduced to only one â€Å"designated member† such that, after a prescribed interval, the remaining partner will become jointly and severally liable with the LLP.) Similarly, in the event of insolvency, partners are not in most circumstances personally liable to any extent over and above the aggregate of their capital share in the LLP and any contribution they have agreed to make. An LLP is analogous to a limited company in that it has no existence until the formalities of incorporation are complete. However, many of the restrictions upon the freedom of action of company directors particularly interaction with the corporate body do not apply. Nonetheless, unlike partnerships, Companies House imposes a number of formal requirements such as the filing of an annual return and audited accounts. Both partnerships and LLPs involve a venture for profit. There is no restriction upon the type of venture to be undertaken (although LLPs are not suitable for use by charities). In a traditional partnership, the central feature is the relationship between the members whereas with an LLP it is the act of association that creates the entity. This can be seen from the fact that in a partnership every member is an agent of the partnership and an agent of the other partners whereas in an LLP every partner is an agent of the LLP itself but not of the other partners. This has led commentators[3] to conclude: â€Å"Overall, LLPs are a curious mix of the law of partnership and the law of companies.† Those authors (at p.165) speculate as to the operation of duties within the new form of partnership: â€Å"Partners will owe a duty to the LLP as a body corporate in common law but it seems unclear whether they owe a duty of good faith to each other.† LLPs and Fiduciary Duty The fiduciary duties of a partner to an LLP are helpfully explored by Whittaker and Machell[4]. They observe that â€Å"the core obligation of a fiduciary is that of single-minded loyalty to his principal†. This core obligation is represented by several separate duties or restrictions including but not limited to the following: To act at all times in good faith; Not to misapply the money or property of the LLP; Not to put himself in a position of conflict of interest with the LLP; To disclose all relevant information (including any material breach by him of his fiduciary duties to the LLP; Not to compete with the LLP; Not to misuse his position in the LLP for his own advantage. The authors suggest (at p.137): â€Å"that the fiduciary obligations set out above will exist unless they are expressly (and properly) excluded by the LLP agreement or it is clear from a consideration of all the circumstances that particular duties are inapplicable.† The Act contains a number of â€Å"default rules† which specify such duties and, regulate, for example, the circumstances in which a member may be expelled from an LLP but it should be noted that these rules are not a comprehensive statement of a member’s fiduciary duties which will continue in their totality to be regulated by equitable principles where any partnership deed does not make express provision. Partnerships in Other Jurisdictions Partnership is recognised as a legal relationship throughout Europe and, provided that it has been formed in accordance with the laws of a member state and has its registered office (in the case of LLPs) or principal place of business (in respect of traditional partnerships) within the EC, a partnership will be treated for the purposes of European law in the same way as a natural person who is a national of a member state. In most European jurisdictions there are three basic types of commercial partnership: the undisclosed or â€Å"secret† partnership; the general partnership and the limited partnership. In France, partners in a secret partnership can authorise each other to disclose their partnership relationship to third parties thus rendering it a socià ¯Ã†â€™Ã‚ ©tà ¯Ã†â€™Ã‚ © en participation ostensible with the result that they become jointly and severally liable for the firm’s obligations. By contrast, in Austria, where the partnership will consist of a principa l and a single dormant partner, the latter will not be liable even if he manages the business. The formalities for creation of general partnerships vary according to jurisdiction. In countries such as Belgium, Bulgaria and Greece, it is necessary to have a written agreement for registration purposes whereas in other countries an oral agreement will suffice. In France and Belgium, there are two types of limited partnership (socià ¯Ã†â€™Ã‚ ©tà ¯Ã†â€™Ã‚ © en commandite simple and socià ¯Ã†â€™Ã‚ ©tà ¯Ã†â€™Ã‚ © en commandite par actions). The latter is more analogous to a limited company. In the former, the limited partners may not participate in the management of the partnership on pain of losing their limited status. This contrasts sharply with the operation of English LLPs discussed above which is more akin to that in Austria which allows limited partners to participate in internal management. Proposals for Reform Finally, it should be noted that the Limited Liability Partnerships Act 2000 created an additional category of partnership rather than reforming the existing rules. In the Preface to the First Edition of Partnership Law, Geoffrey Morse observed: â€Å"It is to the everlasting credit of the Victorian judges that they created a business form which has proved to be both strong and flexible enough to adapt itself to EEC-wide firms of accountants when it was designed for small parochial businesses in Victorian England.† Nonetheless, as has been seen by the need to develop LLPs, modern circumstances demand continual evolution. In November 2003, the Law Commission and the Scottish Law Commission published a report on such reform accompanied by a detailed draft Partnership Bill. Central to their proposals is a redefinition of partnership which moves away from the relationship between persons carrying on business together to â€Å"an association formed when two or more persons start to carry on business together under a partnership agreement [emphasis supplied]†. This gives primacy to the existence of an agreement. A written agreement has never been an essential prerequisite of a partnership (even under the 2000 Act) and the Commissions shied away from imposing a statutory model agreement but it is nonetheless proposed to abolish partnerships at will providing that there should at the very least be express agreement. Bibliography Adams, T. et al, Business Law and Practice 2004-2005 Banks, R., Lindley Banks on Partnership, (18th Ed., 2002) Morse G. et al, Palmer’s Limited Liability Partnership Law (2002) Morse, G., Partnership Law, (5th Ed., 2001) Whittaker, J. Machell, J., The Law of Limited Liability Partnerships, (2nd Ed., 2004) Encyclopaedia of Forms Precedents, Partnership, Volume 30(1) 1 Footnotes [1] [1970] Ch 602 [2] (1726) Sel Cas t King 61 [3] For example, Adams, T. et al, Business Law and Practice 2004-2005, p. 166 [4] The Law of Limited Liability Partnerships, (2nd Ed., 2004) p.134 et seq

Essay --

By giving restrictions on how to create knowledge from the arts and natural sciences we limit the knowledge available that is attainable. Ethical judgment is when we determine whether an action is morally permissive or acceptable. This can vary across time periods and certain cultures. Therefore, we limit our acquisition of knowledge by closing ourselves off to knowledge that some societies might be more accepting of. This pertains to natural sciences and the arts due to the fact that there will be different perceptions with what is morally acceptable towards what should be produced or not. This leads to the knowledge issue: to what extent do ethical considerations limit natural science experimentation and research and the way the arts are created? In the arts, there is rarely a universal agreement with what should be considered ethical or not. However, in natural sciences, there are more universal agreements that limit the methods that carry out the production of knowledge. Considering that the arts can limit our acquisition of knowledge when it is censored due to the possible negative outcomes it has, is it possible for a piece of art to be immoral? Artwork itself cannot be considered moral or immoral. It is a person’s sense perception of what is presented before him/her that impacts their reaction and makes them decide whether the artwork is immoral or not. The spectator will see the art differently than the artist. Maybe the piece was not vulgar to the artist because he/she views it differently and creates a representation of what they were picturing. Either way, everyone has different interpretations and impose their judgments on the artwork, which leads to them limiting the knowledge they could be accumulating. For example... ...ictly seen when we limit the way we produce it. Our way of leading us to the answer of an experiment, or fabricating an artwork, has many restrictions that we need to think through before putting it out there. We also are hurt from acquiring a better understanding of a work by letting ourselves be influenced by others’ moral judgments. We keep ourselves from advancing and discovering valuable information because the stigma around it states that it is unethical. Art could be more valuable or enlightening if everyone kept an open mind and attempted to understand what it represented. Certain scientific experiments could have already solved life-threatening diseases if no one focused on the means of how it was obtained. All these ethical judgments have been limiting us on how to generate more knowledge that would benefit our future or help us better understand our past.

Anne Bradstreet :: essays research papers

Anne Bradstreet: American Poet   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Anne Bradstreet is seen as a true poetic writer for the seventeenth century. She exhibits a strong Puritan voice and is one of the first notable poets to write English verse in the American colonies. Bradstreet’s work symbolizes both her Puritan and feminine ideals and appeals to a wide audience of readers. American Puritan culture was basically unstable, with various inchoate formations of social, political, and religious powers competing publicly. Her thoughts are usually on the reality surrounding her or images from the Bible. Bradstreet’s writing is that of her personal and Puritan life. Anne Bradstreet’s individualism lies in her choice of material rather than in her style.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Anne Bradstreet was born in 1612 to Thomas and Dorothy Dudley in Northampton, England. Her father and a young man named Simon Bradstreet were chosen by the Earl of Lincoln as stewards to manage the Earl’s affairs. Anne, unlike many women of her time, was well educated and it is presumed that she had access to the Earl’s vast library during this time. The Earl’s residence was known for its romantic background and this proved true in 1628 when Anne and Simon married. She was only sixteen to his twenty-five years but they were known to have a happy marriage as evidenced in â€Å"To my Dear and Loving Husband† where Bradstreet laments, â€Å"If ever two were one, than surely we† (125). In 1630, the Dudley’s and the Bradstreet’s, along with other Puritans, sailed aboard the Arabella to settle the Massachusetts Bay Colony. These families journeyed to America as many Puritan settlers had before them, in the hopes of religi ous freedoms unattainable in England. In the colonies, Anne’s husband was frequently absent. Bradstreet still found time to write her poetry while raising her 8 children and carrying on the strenuous duties of colonial life.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Though Bradstreet accepted the tenets of Puritanism, anti-Puritan texts are found in her poetry in terms of religious doubts as in â€Å"Meditations† to her children where she speculates if the Scriptures are true or contrived. Anne Bradstreet also deviates from traditional Puritan writings of the time by composing poetry for pleasure and self expression as opposed to writings of preaching and teaching as was the standard. Bradstreet is not truly unorthodox in that she did not dissent from accepted beliefs and doctrine, but lived in an intensely religious, male dominated society which put many limitations on women and their roles.

Free Essays - Animal Farm :: Animal Farm

An English writer by the name of George Orwell published a book in 1943, called Animal Farm.   In the eyes of Mr. Orwell, the sole purpose of the book was to expose the Soviet myth of Russia’s acclaimed socialist utopia in a way that almost anyone can comprehend. The simplicity of language in the book and the usage of animals to convey the message made it a prime candidate for a cartoon version and thus one was created. This essay will look at the differences between the book Animal Farm and it’s cartoon adaptation. The three criteria which will be used as a basis of comparison are:   characterization, exposition and theme. The book Animal Farm, is an allegory of the Russian Revolution of 1917 and the events that followed shortly after. In order for the reader to be able to get a firm grasp on the conditions in Russia before, during and after the revolution, George Orwell took great care in ensuring that the all the characters in the book could easily be identified with their Russian revolution counterpart. While reading the book, one should easily be able tell the parallel personality for each character because of George Orwell’s very accurate descriptions of the characters. As a result, a great deal of characterization is visible in most parts of the book, as he is constantly building upon the characters. The movie Animal Farm on the other hand is quite different.   In the movie, very little time (relative to the book) is spent on developing the characters. In some instances during the movie we discover that there are some characters in the book that are not mentioned in the movie (e.g. Molly and Mrs. Jones). Also, in Animal Farm the movie, there is little dialogue among the animals, unlike the book. In the book, it is this dialogue that really helps us understand the type of regime in Russia at the time. If someone were to watch the movie but never read the book, it would probably be a lot harder to see the relationship to the Russian revolution. In the book, some of the instances that occur in Animal Farms exposition play important roles later on in the book. At the start of the book you are introduced to a flurry of thoughts and ideas that are very instrumental throughout the remainder of the book. The exposition begins with Old Major, telling the animals of a dream he has in which all animals are free from the oppressive human regime and equal amongst each other.

Direct Democracy

In the United States, direct democracy takes its most evident form in ballot initiatives. According to the president of the Initiative and Referendum Institute, M. Dane Waters, a version of this practice was said to have existed as early as the 1600s in New England. The practice then was for proposed ordinances to be placed on the agenda to be discussed by the whole town and later approved by voting on them during their town meetings.However, Dane Waters continued, ballot initiative as it is known today started during the 1900s – specifically in 1978 when Proposition 13 reduced the property taxes in California from 2. 5 percent to 1 percent. That California initiative resulted to limitations in the property taxes of 43 states and a reduced rate in the income taxes in 15 states (Cato Policy Report). A Washington Post columnist, David S.Broder described ballot initiatives as a tool designed to enable the people to directly write laws and in the process, check the influence being wielded by interest groups in the legislative process. Unfortunately, Broder explained, the initiative process is flawed since the opinion of those who are in disagreement is not being heard. Because of this defect, he maintained, statutes approved through ballot initiatives are not being subjected to checks and balances, effectively robbing the minority of their right to be heard.Broder argued that this contradicts the intent of the founding fathers (Cato Policy Report). The chairman of the Cato Institute, William A. Niskanen, disagreed. He stressed that the initiative process is actually a system of checks and balances since it regulates the power of legislatures. In other words, it does not weaken the American system of government. Dane Waters supported the view of Niskanen. He maintained that ballot initiatives were not meant to introduce adverse changes in the American system of government but to enrich it.In fact, he said, even the founding fathers had recognized its wisdom. To prove his point, he quoted James Madison, one of the founding fathers, who said that As the people are the only legitimate fountain of power, and it is from them that the Constitutional Charter under which the several branches of government hold their power is derived, it seems strictly consonant to the republican theory to recur to the same original authority whenever it may be necessary to enlarge, diminish, or new-model the powers of government (Cato Policy Report).Ellen Ann Andersen, in â€Å"OUT OF THE CLOSESTS & into the Courts, demonstrated how a ballot initiative works. In her search for a suitable illustration, she decided to look at the effects of the initiative process on the civil rights of lesbians, gays and bisexuals (lgb’s). Her decision was baaed on the fact that until 1993, the focus of approximately 60 percent of all ballot initiatives in the country was the civil rights of lgb’s.She therefore concentrated on the most famous of these initiatives à ¢â‚¬â€œ Amendment 2 which was approved by the voters in Colorado in 1992 (Andersen). Amendment 2 was sparked by a proposed ordinance on human rights which was heard by the Human Rights Commission of Colorado Springs in 1991. The proposal sought to prohibit discrimination of any kind based on â€Å"race and color, their religion and creed, their national origin and ethnicity, their age, marital status, their sexual orientation, or their disabled condition.† It immediately encountered stiff opposition mostly from big fundamentalist Christian groups which included the biggest Christian radio ministry in the country – the Focus on the Family. Due to the relentless assault that they made against the proposed ordinance, it was finally defeated in the city council by a vote of 8-1 (Andersen). Things did not end there, however. The defeat of the proposed human rights ordinance started a statewide campaign against gay rights which culminated to the framing of Amendment 2.A grou p named Colorado for Family Values (CFV) was organized at the behest of three individuals, namely: Tony Marco, an anti-gay activist; David Noebel, head of anticommunist Summit Ministries, and Kevin Tebedo, who was the son of Maryanne Tebedo, a senator of the state of Colorado. CFV was able to establish links with national conservative organizations. It obtained the assistance of the â€Å"National Legal Foundation† in drafting Amendment 2 and used the handbook which was written by a lawyer who represented the â€Å"Concerned Women for America† as a guide for its efforts to promote the amendment.The proponents of Amendment 2 appealed to the moral values of the people and capitalized on their lack of adequate knowledge about homosexuality as they painted gays and lesbians as a hazard to society. It distributed a bulletin which alleged that Lately, America has been hearing a lot about the subject of childhood sexual abuse. This terrible epidemic has scarred countless youn g lives and destroyed thousands of families. But what militant homosexuals don’t want you to know is the large role they play in this epidemic.In fact, pedophilia (the sexual molestation of children) is actually an accepted part of the homosexual community (Andersen)! CFV also declared to the people of Colorado that homosexuals represented a great danger to the overall health of the community because they are the most relentless carriers of â€Å"sexually transmitted diseases; they are the most fertile breeders of diseases; and that by the middle of the 1990s, hospital bed would be difficult to come by due to the large number of homosexuals who are infected with AIDS (Andersen).Black propaganda such as these, coupled with the findings of a poll which was commissioned by the Denver Post which showed that 46 percent of respondents considered homosexuality to be morally wrong, 40 percent tolerated homosexuals, and 14 percent declared their neutrality, enabled the anti-gay secto rs of Colorado to deal a crushing blow to the gay militants. The CFV campaign also argued that lgb’s should not be granted protected status or â€Å"special rights† because they were not â€Å"legitimate† minorities having failed to satisfy the criteria set forth by Supreme Court decisions, namely:1. A group wanting true minority rights must show that it’s discriminated against to the point that its members cannot earn average income, get an adequate education, or enjoy a fulfilling cultural life. 2. The group must be clearly identifiable by unchangeable physical characteristics like skin color, gender, handicap, etc. (not behavior). 3. The group must clearly show that it is politically powerless (Andersen). In spite of the sting that black propaganda caused, it was the â€Å"no special rights† campaign slogan that dealt the greatest damage to the gay militants.Lawyer Jean Dubofsky said that The â€Å"no special rights† slogan was very cleve r, particularly given a time when at least white males don’t like affirmative action. The Amendment 2 people spent a lot of time talking about (how) you don’t want gays and lesbians getting in front of you in line for jobs or scholarships or college. Of course, that wasn’t what Amendment 2 was all about overall, but that’s the way it was sold†¦. People I talked with voted for it because they felt gay and lesbians should not get affirmative action (Andersen).In other words, Amendment 2 was ultimately approved by the voters of Colorado, thanks mainly to the underhanded campaign tactics employed by its proponents. Thus ended the political struggle waged by the gay activists. They were decidedly beaten in the political battle. However, it turned out that they were far from accepting defeat. Defeated in the political arena, they then turned to the legal battle. Amendment 2 proponents had only nine days to savor the taste of victory before the lgb’s petitioned the federal district court.A complaint was filed in the name of the following: Richard Evans (he was a former employee at the Mayor’s office of Denver who was open with his being gay); five other lgb’s; and a heterosexual male who was infected with AIDS. The cities of Boulder, Denver, and Aspen were also included as complainants because they had ordinances which protected the rights of lgb’s which Amendment 2 would effectively nullify (Andersen). The second aspect of the initiative process (the legal battle) turned out to be a different matter altogether.Prepared even before the election day as a â€Å"fallback† strategy, the complaint included several allegations. First, it argued that Amendment 2 violated the equal protection clause of the constitution. Then it claimed that the amendment denied lgb’s of their freedom of expression as well as association. Finally, it alleged that Amendment 2 was in violation of due process and the â₠¬Å"right to petition government for a redress of grievances† (Andersen). The difference between the political and the legal aspects of the initiative became immediately evident.Whereas the voters were the center of decision-making in the political exercise, the legal battle transferred the power to decide to the judges. A total of thirteen judges heard the arguments whether Amendment 2 should be considered constitutional. One was a district court judge; three were justices of the Supreme Court of Colorado; and nine justices came from the United States Supreme Court (Andersen). The two sides presented the same arguments that they used during the campaign.The proponents of the amendment argued that they were simply against granting homosexuals special rights and that they were interested in safeguarding the well-being of children and the family, and allow the state to allocate its resources to assisting the legitimate minorities. The gay advocates, on the other hand, argued that in fact â€Å"special rights† as employed by the proponents of the Amendment was merely a red herring to mislead people and that the Amendment would effectively deprive them of their rights and constitutionally-guaranteed protection.They further claimed that Amendment 2 was only motivated by the hostility of its proponents towards lgb’s and that homosexuality was in fact not only a â€Å"life-style choice† but is comparable to race and sexual orientation (Andersen). What happened, however, was while their arguments won for the proponents the battle for the ballot, the same arguments caused them to lose their case in court. Ironically, a dissenting judge claimed that the act of the majority justices from the Supreme Court in striking down the Amendment had been an act â€Å"not of judicial judgment, but of political will† (Andersen). Direct Democracy The assumption underlying the discussion on the initiative process is that the employment of paid petitioners is a harmful development reducing the quality of our democracy and privileging money over true commitment to causes that are put on ballot. However, this assumption is a questionable one, and counterevidence is abundant.Therefore, this essay will have the following structure: first of all, it will show little harms in employing paid signature-gatherers that are offset by possible benefits of such design of the initiative process, and, secondly, the essay will criticize the workability of the solutions offered in the concluding section of the chapter. The perceived danger in allowing paid petitioners is that only causes that enjoy considerable financial support can make their way to the ballot. Another threat, as opponents of this policy argue, is associated with the fact that it is devastating to the spirit of volunteerism and civic involvement.There is a view that ‘[p] aying petitioners degraded the signature gatherer because it came to be seen as a sales job rather than as the precious province of the public-spirited citizen’ (Ellis, 2002, p. 48). Thus, the need for mobilizing and engaging citizens becomes virtually irrelevant to policy-making process. However, there is little persuasive evidence that paid petitioners signify the death of grassroots and the advent of the ‘greenback democracy. ’ Issues that arouse strong public sentiment can recruit a sufficient number of volunteers to push their case through.There are several reasons why volunteer signatures drive will survive in the future. First of all, using volunteers in the qualification phase can help save money for the electoral contest. Secondly, volunteer petitioners often gather signatures with higher validity rates, thus the number of signatures needed decreases whenever volunteers are used. Thirdly, volunteer-based signature gathering campaigns constitute a way to mobilize and inform citizens. Fourthly, volunteer signatures drive is a powerful public relations tool, since such initiatives usually enjoy positive publicity (Ellis, 2002).Volunteer campaigns have potential to succeed only if a campaign issue can easily generate strong feelings among the public. Yet issues arousing strong public sentiment are few and far between; more often, it is an interest of a smaller group of people that is at stake, but it is undemocratic to disregard the plea of such groups of citizens only because their case does not excite hearts and minds of their fellow citizens. In the modern democracy, there are few deeply appalling wrongs that need immediate remedy and can attract crowds of concerned citizen, like the case of African Americans in the 1960s.In the modern democracy, incremental changes need to be made to accommodate different interests and to make their coexistence more efficient and pleasurable for all. Numerous notable initiatives, serving community interests best, made their way to the ballot thanks to paid petitioners. Furthermore, the ban on paid petitioners will affect different states in different ways. It will create a dangerous disparity in the quality of the initiative process in states with smaller and bigger populations.For example, it will create considerable complications for signature gathering in such states as California, where the number of signatures that are necessary for an initiative to be put on ballot can be several times higher than in other states. It is especially relevant given the everyday life constraints on citizenship and civic participation. Consumerist ideology makes long working hours an imperative and leaves people with less time to participate in politics and community affairs. People volunteer in their leisure time, and leisure is a competitive sector.It is hard to expect a large number of citizens to sacrifice their spare time for gathering signatures in favor of their cause, however strongl y they feel about it. Indeed, ‘[t]he main hurdle that most initiative proponents face is finding enough people willing and able to dedicate a large number of hours to gathering signatures’ (Ellis, 2002, p. 53). Moreover, there are legitimate concerns that the ban on paid petitioners will privilege people with abundant amount of spare time over those possessing more financial resources. In fact, paid petitioners democratize the initiative process by making it more inclusive.Many citizens do not hold strong opinions on some issues, but it by no means indicates that these issues should be excluded from the democratic debate. There are issues that are hard to frame in the way that solicits a passionate positive or negative attitude. In addition, privileging people with spare time over those with money borders on classism. For example, unemployed citizens with a lot of spare time can recruit a large number of volunteer to campaign for a welfare reform, while middle-class bus inessmen do not have such time to petition for a tax reduction.In a democracy, all groups ought to have equal access to the mechanisms of democratic participation and should be allowed to make the best use of resources available to them to ensure such participation. Therefore, as Ellis (2002, p. 54) notes, ‘the rise of paid petitioners and professional signature-gathering firms promotes democracy by increasing the involvement of a wider diversity of groups. ’ The ban on paid petitioners will not significantly decrease the role of big interests and money in the initiative process.A fact that is often overlooked by the opponents of paid petitioners concerns the evidence that recruitment, training, and coordination of volunteers mean considerable costs to an initiative sponsor, although volunteers work for free (Ellis, 2002). Moreover, the ban on paid petitioners will give an unfair advantage to organizations with better access to human resources. It ‘would advantage firms that employed large numbers of people and would make it impossible for all but the most popular causes to exercise the right of direct democracy’ (Ellis, 2002, p. 48).The opponents of paid petitioners also overlook the fact that signature gathering firms have a more professional approach to the initiative process. One of the possible advantages, as Ellis (2002) acknowledges, is that such firms have more experience in planning signature gathering campaigns and can offer a clear timeline for the process. However, there is another important advantage in employing signature gathering firms. Professionals working there can inform citizens more efficiently by presenting information about the issue at stake in a more accessible and understandable way.Thus, the indirect benefit of using paid petitioners is greater awareness of the citizenry on a wider array of issues. The proposal to ban paid petitioners also underestimates people’s ability to choose whether to sign a p etition. It is argued that signatories to petitions do not express their real opinion but agree to sign them ‘for a variety of reasons, among which are desire to be rid of the solicitor or to help him earn a day’s wages’ (Register, 1913; in Ellis, 2002). However, citizens are often more aware and concerned than this notion assumes.Many of them refuse to sign petitions that contradict their convictions. If ignorance was the case, volunteer signature drives would be as futile as professional signature gathering firms. Having proven that the harms involved in the process of employing paid petitioners in the initiative process are often exaggerated, there is a need to critique the proposed solutions to the perceived crisis. Providing more information about signature gathering will have little effect, as citizens are already overwhelmed with information on public issues.Few would dedicate their time to studying booklets on how certain initiatives made their way to the ballot. There are cognitive constraints on the amount of information citizens can consume. Furthermore, few would have enough spare time to devote it to reading booklets with information on how many volunteers and how many paid petitioners were employed to gather support for a certain initiative. The proposal to leave petitions with county registration officers can be dismissed on similar grounds: citizens do not have enough spare time to dedicate to public affairs.Valuing signatures collected by volunteers over those collected by paid petitioners is simply non-enforceable. Abandoning signature gathering altogether is also not a viable alternative, since the process of petitioning presents at least some checks on the power of large interests. Paid petitioners ensure that issues of at least some interest to at least some groups of citizens make their way to the ballot. In fact, it does not quite matter how issues are placed on ballot; what matters most is the citizens’ abilit y to express their opinion about different initiatives in a popular vote.