Aristotle and His Numerous Essay

Aristotle As an important figure head in the field of philosophy, Aristotle and his numerous influences will be detailed. Identification and evaluation of key concepts and analyses that comprised his theories will be discussed along with identification and description of his contributions to the field of philosophy will also be offered. Lastly, further discussion will focus on how the culture and the time period influenced his ideology. Metaphysics Metaphysics is a branch philosophy concerned with explaining the fundamental nature of being. It is considered to be one of the greatest philosophical works. It kind of piggy backs off of Plato’s theory of forms. Plato believed that the nature of things is eternal and doesn’t change, but we know from just living in this world that things are always changing daily. Aristotle wanted to reconcile these contradictory statements of the views of the world. Aristotle used the influence of both Heraclitus and Parmenides. One believed that things appear to be permanent but they are really gradually changing all the time. Parmenides, argued certain conclusions could be reached by using reason alone and making no use of senses. After studying at the Academy, Aristotle would turn against his teaching and felt that there was a connection between the abstraction of existence and the science of nature. Aristotle described substance as material reality and formal and discusses the connection between actuality and potentiality. According to Aristotle, the being of any individual thing is primarily defined by what it is, i. e. by its substance. It is both Substratum (matter) and essence (form) and can combine them both (form and matter). He also believed that wisdom is knowledge and principle cause of things. He explained that there are four causes of things: the purpose for which a thing has being (the final cause), the source of â€Å"motion† or change in a thing (the efficient cause), the matter and subject of a thing (the material cause), and the substance or essence of a thing (the formal cause). He also believed that change will occur in something in order for its potential to become a reality. In order to have a cause and affect relationship between two different things, it will include the potentiality of a cause to produce and effect and an effect to be produced by a cause. According to Aristotle, there has to be actual potentiality in order for an event to happen and if its potentiality can become actuality. Epistemology Aristotle was the first to formalize a foundationalism epistemology. Foundationalism is the idea that knowledge claims are ultimately justified by first principles. I intend to define and describe these first principles as well as explain how it is we come to know the first principles. A first principle is an infallible truth, Kath auto, in itself. These first principles are not conclusions of prior arguments, but the absence of the need of an argument, in and of itself. First principles are also called the archai, nous, understanding and the axioms. When Aristotle speaks of Archai and axioms his meaning is, that which is ‘the beginning’. It is for this reason that geometry passed down the language of the axioms. Of first principles there are two main types: 1. Axioms or common principles are the general or universal truths 2. Posits or proper principles are the thesis’ or truths to a certain science. Also, among the posits are suppositions, that something is or is not, and definitions of what something is. The only way to know the first principles is through nous. Nous uses induction through perception to grasp the first principles. Nous is the capacity of rational thought and understanding. It is through a perceptual process that the first principles can be known. The process followed in coming to know the first principles is through, use of perception, a potentiality that Aristotle believes all animals possess in varying degrees. 1. Sensation is the first step, and the grounds for memory. 2. Memory is a potentiality that many animals possess. 3. Experience comes from the foundation of memory; some animals have the potential to experience. 4. Human beings alone have the potential to make a rational account of their perceptions. The axioms and first principles can only be induced from that which persists in the world we experience; the world as we know it. In many ways Aristotle’s epistemology has survived the tests of time. It seems correct; Aristotle’s foundational views are accurate. As a linear theories of justification Aristotle leaves us with a justified belief, with which we can have a great certainty in relation to its validity. Full filling the common test of epistemology as a justified, true, belief. There is little or no truth attributed to an infinite regress of justification. Just as there is little or no ground for circular theories of justification. Either proposes a void in justification, by justifying with a prior axiom or by always continuing to a deeper axiom in need of justification. The believe that the first principles do exist and that they can be grasped through the human faculty, known as nous, is shared implicitly by much of the world today and is the legacy of Aristotle. Axiology Aristotle was best known for his theory on values, â€Å"Golden Mean,† which is about moderation, balance, and harmony for his axiological system. The basic realism, he believed in essence, which is the attributes for an object to be what it is. The main focus for Aristotle is the question of a person’s character or personality. Aristotle theory is the middle ground between extremes, to determine a lowest and highest good. Aristotle ethics are based on the concept of doing good than just being good. A person may be kind, merciful, charitable, etc. , but until he proves this by helping others, his goodness means nothing to the world, in which case means nothing to himself. Aristotle believes that moral virtues are the best character traits; a vice is what it is called when there are two extreme character traits. An example would be fear; we would develop the virtuous character of courage. If we were to use an example to show extreme trait by curbing fear, too much would be rash, which is called a vice. If, one on the other extreme, we develop a vice therefore to be cowardly. In life it is difficult to live the virtuous life because often difficult to find the mean or the middle between the two extremes. Another example would be shamelessness (deficiency), modesty, (mean), and bashfulness, (excess). At the top of Aristotle list for virtue is self-respect is the best virtue to have, according to him but that is, depending on them for its existence, and itself in turn tending to strengthen their force. Aristotle says moral weakness occurs when someone does something wrong and knows it is wrong but follows his desire against reason anyways. According to Aristotle, human functions contribute to happiness. Happiness is an exclusively human good; it exists in rational activity of soul conforming to virtue. This rational activity is viewed as the supreme end of action, and so as man’s perfect and self-sufficient end. So the virtue of courage would be in between those two extremes. Summary Aristotle is considered by some as the quintessential philosopher of all times. His writings and teachings have influenced many people such as writers, artist, politicians and scientists. One of the greatest commanders of the world was a student of Aristotle. This student was born Alexander the Great. Alexander study under the guidance of Aristotle until the age of sixteen learning medicine, philosophy, morals, religion, logic, and art. He was a major influence on the field of science. Alexander remained humble and grateful for the teachings of Aristotle, as a result he helped fund his studies of life forms, which led to the foundation of the science of biology. Biology is the study of life and living organisms. The study of biology has help man understand the many facets of nature. Aristotle empirical views focused on biology and its diversity of life. Biology has grown significantly and dramatically since the days of Aristotle, but his influences are still evident even by today’s standards. Zoology, human biology, and botany are subcategories of biology. There have been advances in the subcategory of human biology, which have led to the creation of cures for diseases once deemed incurable or preventable. Scientists are currently producing a medication touted as a new treatment of the HIV disease. Raynor (2012), â€Å"the FDA on August 28, 2012 has approved a once a day pill manufactured by Gilead Sciences’ called Stribild. The drug combines Truvada which itself contains two HIV drugs in addition to elvitegravir which is a new HIV drug. This new drug attacks the virus in a different way. The fourth ingredient is also new and enhances elvitegravir. This new medication can help control the virus that causes AIDS and is aimed to be utilized on patients that have not previously been treated for the infection† (para. 1). This advance in human biology could not have been possible without the Aristotle’s foresight to preserve human life. His quest for knowledge has been a motivation tool for mankind to function and exist. Aristotle has also influenced the philosophies of metaphysics, epistemology, and axiology. According to â€Å"Aristotle† (2008), â€Å"Aristotle (384–322 B. C. E. ) numbers among the greatest philosophers of all time. Judged solely in terms of his philosophical influence, only Plato is his peer: Aristotle’s works shaped centuries of philosophy from Late Antiquity through the Renaissance, and even today continue to be studied with keen, non-antiquarian interest. A prodigious researcher and writer, Aristotle left a great body of work, perhaps numbering as many as two-hundred treatises, from which approximately thirty-one survive. His extant writings span a wide range of disciplines, from logic, metaphysics and philosophy of mind, through ethics, political theory, aesthetics and rhetoric, and into such primarily non-philosophical fields as empirical biology, where he excelled at detailed plant and animal observation and taxonomy. In all these areas, Aristotle’s theories have provided illumination, met with resistance, sparked debate, and generally stimulated the sustained interest of an abiding readership† (para. 1). References Aristotle. (2008). Retrieved from http://plato. stanford. edu/entries/aristotle/ Aristotle, , & Ciulla, J. (2004). Aristotle (384–322 BCE). In G. Goethals, G. Sorenson, & J. Burns (Eds. ), Encyclopedia of leadership. (pp. 44-48). Thousand Oaks: SAGE Publications, Inc. doi: 10. 4135/9781412952392. n15 English, F. (2006). Aristotle. In F. English (Ed. ), Encyclopedia of educational leadership and administration. (pp. 49-50). Thousand Oaks: SAGE Publications, Inc. doi: 10. 4135/9781412939584. n27 Howell, B. (2008). Aristotle (384–322 b. c. ). In L. Kaid, & C. Holtz-Bacha (Eds. ), Encyclopedia of political communication. (pp. 43-46). Thousand Oaks: SAGE Publications, Inc. doi: 10. 4135/9781412953993. n34 Raynor, C. (2012). New HIV treatment combines 4 medications into a once a day pill. Retrieved from http://www. examiner. com/article/new-hiv-treatment-combines-4- medications-into-a-once-a-day-pill Sachs, J. (2001, April 11). Aristotle: Ethics. Retrieved August 28, 2012, from http://www. iep. utm. edu/aris-eth/ http://www. angelfire. com/md2/timewarp/firstphilosophy. html.

Didion’s on Morality Essay

What is it that forms and drives our â€Å"moral behaviors†? Are we born with a basic sense of morality or do we develop a set of moral â€Å"social codes† to keep society from falling into chaos and anarchy? In her essay â€Å"On Morality,† Joan Didion dissects what lies beneath the surface of humanity’s morality. By recounting several stories and historical events, she shows that morality at its basic â€Å"most primitive level† is nothing more than â€Å"our loyalties to the ones we love,† everything else is subjective. Didion’s first story points out our loyalty to family. She is in Death Valley writing an article about â€Å"morality,† â€Å"a word [she] distrust more every day. † She relates a story about a young man who was drunk, had a car accident, and died while driving to Death Valley. â€Å"His girl was found alive but bleeding internally, deep in shock,† Didion states. She talked to the nurse who had driven his girl 185 miles to the nearest doctor. The nurse’s husband had stayed with the body until the coroner could get there. The nurse said, â€Å"You just can’t leave a body on the highway, it’s immoral. † According to Didion this â€Å"was one instance in which [she] did not distrust the word, because [the nurse] meant something quite specific. † She argues we don’t desert a body for even a few minutes lest it be desecrated. Didion claims this is more than â€Å"only a sentimental consideration. † She claims that we promise each other to try and retrieve our casualties and not abandon our dead; it is more than a sentimental consideration. She stresses this point by saying that â€Å"if, in the simplest terms, our upbringing is good enough – we stay with the body, or have bad dreams. † Her point is that morality at its most â€Å"primary† level is a sense of â€Å"loyalty† to one another that we learned from our loved ones. She is saying that we stick with our loved ones no matter what, in sickness, in health, in bad times and good times; we don’t abandon our dead because we don’t want someone to abandon us. She is professing that morality is to do what we think is right; whatever is necessary to meet our â€Å"primary loyalties† to care for our loved ones, even if it means sacrificing ourselves. Didion emphatically states she is talking about a â€Å"wagon-train morality,† and â€Å"For better or for worse, we are what we learned as children. † She talks about her childhood and hearing â€Å"graphic litanies about the Donner-Reed party and the Jayhawkers. She maintains they â€Å"failed in their loyalties to each other,† and â€Å"deserted one another. † She says they â€Å"breached their primary loyalties,† or they would not have been in those situations. If we go against our â€Å"primary loyalties† we have failed, we regret it, and thus â€Å"have bad dreams. † Didion insist that â€Å"we have no way of knowing†¦what is ‘right’ and what is ‘wrong,’ what is ‘good and what is ‘evil’. † She sees politics, and public policy falsely assigned â€Å"aspects of morality. † She warns us not to delude ourselves into thinking that because we want or need something â€Å"that it is a moral imperative that we have it, then is when we join the fashionable madmen. † She is saying this will be our demise, and she may well be correct. Hitler’s idea that he had â€Å"a moral imperative† to â€Å"purify the Aryan race† serves as a poignant reminder of such a delusion. In 1939 Hitler’s Nazi army invaded Poland and started World War II. World War II came to an end in large part due to the United States dropping two atomic bombs. If the war had continued and escalated to the point of Hitler’s Nazis and the United States dropping more atomic bombs we could have destroyed most, if not all, of humanity, the ultimate act of â€Å"fashionable madmen. † We may believe our behaviors are just and righteous, but Didion’s essay makes us closely examine our motives and morals. She contends that madmen, murders, war criminals and religious icons throughout history have said â€Å"I followed my own conscience. † â€Å"I did what I thought was right. † â€Å"Maybe we have all said it and maybe we have been wrong. † She shows us that our â€Å"moral codes† are often subjective and fallacious, that we rationalize and justify our actions to suit our ulterior motives, and our only true morality is â€Å"our loyalty to those we love. † It is this â€Å"loyalty to those we love† that forms our families, then our cities, our states, our countries and ultimately our global community. Without these â€Å"moral codes,† social order would break down into chaos and anarchy.

Mukherjee vs Rodriguez

Mukherjee vs. Rodriguez As of today, The United States accepts more legal immigrants as permanent residents than any other country in the world. The number of immigrants totaled 37. 5 million as of 2006. All of this has to do with Richard Rodriguez and Bharati Mukherjee’s stories based on immigration in the United States. Entitled â€Å"Los Otros, Mis Hermanos† and †Two Ways to Belong in America†. Where as Rodriguez’s story is about a young Mexican immigrant finding it hard to live in a society where he struggles to understand it’s main language. He believes as a child that he doesn’t belong in a country where it’s main language is not of his. He only feels at peace when he is with his family speaking his own language. As well as where Mukherjee’s story is of two sisters named Mira and Bharati, both immigrants and very successful in their careers. Explaining how Mira all of a sudden has rage towards the country she has lived in for thirty years, due to the lack of effort shown by the U. S. Congress to enact a legislation that would not allow any government benefits towards resident aliens. As for Bharati, she has mixed feelings on the subject at hand. Rodriguez and Mukherjee’s stories share a common theme and purpose, but are diverse in their conflict and focus. Los Otros, Mis Hermanos† and â€Å"Two Ways to Belong in America† share a common theme in where they both are legal immigrants living in America. Rodriguez’s story is based on his childhood where he is living as a Mexican immigrant. Since Spanish is the only language he is able to interpret, he reference â€Å"The language of thei r Mexican past sounded in counterpoint to the English of public society† (Rodriguez pg. 309). For â€Å"Two Ways to Belong in America† the two sisters are living in the United States while Bharati is an American citizen, Mira is not. However both have Indian roots within them. For both of them their cultural backgrounds are very strong within them. As of course, them being an immigrant in a new country that they are not familiar with, they both have very strong bounds with their cultural heritage. Where as for example in Mukherjee’s story she shows how traditional her family is with their Indian marriages by saying how they are properly done in her home country. Mukherjee states †We would endure out two years in America, secure our degrees, then return to India to marry the grooms of our father’s choosing† (Mukherjee pg. 316). However, they both did not follow those guidelines by marrying grooms of their own choosing. In Rodriguez’s story he shows how speaking Spanish made him feel at home, by whenever he spoke to his family members or friends in Spanish he felt as if he was recognized as someone special. While there are similar qualities between the two stories there are contrarieties too. One being their formalities of education, reading where Mukherjee’s story was coming, from the sisters were well educated and successful in their careers. They both received degrees in their prestige subjects. As for Rodriguez’s story when he was younger it seemed as if it was very difficult for his upbringing into education. For example, his parents learning of the English language, as he states â€Å"In public, my father and mother spoke a hesitant, accented, not always grammatical English† (Rodriguez pg. 309). It seemed as if the schooling where he was coming from was not as much of a impact as compared to mukherjee’s learning’s. In â€Å"Los Otros, Mis Hermanos† as a young boy Rodriguez was very secluded from the rest of civilization by reason of his inability of learning the English language. In â€Å"Two Ways to Belong in America† the sisters were very much in content with the rest of the world. They would travel all throughout the world willing to try anything new. Where as Rodriguez, he was concealed from his very own neighborhood, he didn’t know the names of his neighbors, as he states, â€Å"But no one in the family knew the names of the old couple who lived next door; until I was seven years old, I did not know the names of the kids who lived across the street† (Rodriguez pg. 309). The stories by Rodriguez and Mukherjee’s stories had a similar case and dedication, however were disparate in their upbringings and socialization. Being in a country where your not accustomed to is difficult enough, living their must be an even bigger challenge. In Rodriguez’s case he couldn’t speak Spanish outside of his home so he felt at lost. In Mukherjee’s situation even after living for 30 years in this country they were still at subject to be dismissed from it. This shows you being the outsider in a world isn’t as easy to sustain, even when they had thought they had finally made it.

Advantages of music Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Advantages of music - Essay Example Music lovers are destined to cherish thorough entertainment,good health and a wholesome personality.Music happens to be one of the most potent art forms because sounds tend to have a more powerful impact on the human consciousness as compared to other sensory stimuli. Human feelings are often classified as emotions, moods and sensations. Music can influence all the aspects of the human psychosomatic framework. Music generates pleasant sensations by stimulating the human auditory system. Music also helps in creating positive emotions by the salubrious influence it often has on the sense organs. The impact of music on the human mind does sometimes get elevated to the level of intense passion when the listeners' emotions soar to higher intensity under the magic of musical compositions. Listening to music can also help one in getting into the right mood. Thus, music has a direct correlation with the human feelings and emotions, as the structure of many musical compositions is often somew hat akin to the structure of human feelings. Music has the immense power and ability to alter a person's attitude and mental state by the dint of its beats and melodies. There is no denying the fact that the history of music is as old as the history of humanity. Music does happen to be an integral constituent of most of the worthy civilizations. Manifold are the advantages of music as this art form has discrete personal, social and intellectual implications. Music is not merely a source of solace, but also a popular mode of self-expression. It will be interesting to touch upon some of the advantages of music. Entertainment First, music is the most vital source of entertainment and recreation (Berkman, 4). In today's time pressed work scenario, people often are subjected to intense stress and duress in their day-to-day life. To distress oneself, the modern man has to often take recourse to the available forms and modes of recreation. No doubt, in all the ages and times, music happened to be the most viable and accessible form and source of entertainment and recreation (Berkman, 7). Music can accompany and support the human moods and consciousness in all its shades and aspects. After a hectic day at the office, music can help a person to de-stress and unwind oneself and to get rid of the accrued stress and fatigue. A student sweating on bulky assignments and coursework can choose to play some good song in the background to create a creative and salubrious environment. It is not a surprise that one inevitably comes across music, being played at most of the social and public places like parks, eating join ts and malls. In fact the modern man is so hooked to music that it has come out with innovative gadgets like iPods and Walkman, which enable one to carry one's music with oneself all the time. No Hollywood blockbuster is considered complete without being accompanied by an original sound track. Thus, music is the most portable source of entertainment and recreation that has seamlessly integrated itself with all the aspects of contemporary civilization. Health Music also has many medicinal and healing qualities that can significantly reduce stress and improve health (Campbell, 9). That is why many people prefer to tag good music with their fitness and exercise programs. Loud and upbeat music has been found to have a salubrious impact on the patients of chronic depression. Contrary to this, slow and melodious music is used as a sedative by many therapists. Harp music has been found to be particularly helpful to the people having some heart trouble (Campbell, 27). Many studies conducted at Harvard have established beyond doubt that the rhythms of a healthy heart are often very much like the rhythms of classical music (Campbell, 36). Therefore, harp music can stimulate a patient's heart to beat more normally. Many other studies conducted in the last two decades have

An investigation into perceptions of employee benefits in UK Literature review

An investigation into perceptions of employee benefits in UK - Literature review Example Employee benefits can be short term, long term and termination benefits. Short term benefits generally include monetary and non-monetary benefits for a short period. Long term benefits include pensions and other retirement plans. A possible narrowest definition will include employer-provided benefits for accident, death, retirement, sickness or unemployment (Weathingtin and Tetrik, 2009). However, in order to better understand the employee benefits, it is important to cover all forms of employee benefits and compensation schemes used across the globe. The most frequently used employee benefit forms are as follows: 2. Payments for retirement plans and private insurance: These include costs of starting such plans and contributions in forms of payments or insurance premiums through alternative arrangements for funding (The British Psychological society, 2014). The government has set policies for providing benefits under various plans in case of personal loss. The personal loss covers the following aspects: 4. Extra payments to employees through cash. Other than bonuses and wages, cash payments are also provided to employees on the basis of performance. This category of benefits includes the following factors: Employee benefits and compensation packages have become a very common as well as necessary phenomenon for employees and workers in the 21st century. As a result of globalizations and increasing opportunities in work and career, workers and employees have started realizing their worth and have started demanding more from their employers (Dulebohn, et al., 2009). As a result companies have not integrated benefits and compensation system into their core management. As the economic environment is becoming more service oriented and work forces are becoming white collars, these employee benefits are naturally expected. The necessity of employee benefits is more for employers than for employees. In the current

ISMG Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words - 2

ISMG - Essay Example ody but it has its own way of ensuring development of the organization and this way is by putting in place good management policies to control the crisis. There are several forms of organizational crisis but with the case of ABS Canada, the kind of organizational crisis being experienced could be said to be organizational conflict because it involves a lot of agitations among the rank and file of the organization. A critical study of the case at hand at ABS Canada would be related to the Mind Frame Consulting (2000) explanation of why organizational conflicts arise as they note that organizational conflicts often result because â€Å"divisions and departments often have different objectives. If their members cannot find common values and goals, they will not cooperate.† Lack of cooperation would also worsen any form of organizational conflict. Identifying the causes and giving out appropriate solutions may however become the best remedy at hand. To this effect, a lot is tasked on Mr. Roberge to look into the causes of the conflict and appropriately devise workable solutions that will be welcomed by all stakeholders in the organization. There are three major parties that could be linked to the cause of the present organizational conflict and for that matter organizational crisis at ABS Canada. These parties are the recruiters of the project manager, out of whom Mr. Roberge may be singled out, the project manager himself and finally, the departmental leaders who team members who should have worked with the project manager. Clearly before the coming of the project manager, there was perfect peace and harmony in the organization. By organizational standards, the organization accepted to run the affairs and future of the company in a more collaborative means that involved all departments and sectors of the organization. This was evident in the meeting that agreed on the long term strategic plan for the company. Indeed, to have started implementing the strategic plan,

Harvard justice course MICHAEL SINDEL FREEDOM AND KANT Essay

Harvard justice course MICHAEL SINDEL FREEDOM AND KANT - Essay Example Therefore, this poses another critical question: what would you do if harming or killing the other party will elude the highest happiness? For instance, a person driving along a tunnel and realizes a farmer fall on the road just in front of his vehicle. If you move ahead, you will probably kill the farmer but if you divert, you will probably collide with a forthcoming school bus and the least number of deaths that you can cause is five. The big question is what do you and are we convinced that utilitarianism gives the right answer. It is alleged that when telling the truth, we have to strive and reduce pain and unhappiness in whatever we do as unhappiness and pains have numerous sources. Furthermore, there are instances when truth makes somebody unhappy. Thereby, if one has to lie to make the other party happy. He therefore comes up with three cases in this argument. First, is it right to tell a friend who is fond of singing while taking a shower. He posits that your friend all along has thought his voice is the best but he sings poorly. Thus, should you tell your friend the truth and ruin his confidence? Secondly, he asserts that you have just learned that a man who has been missing for a very long time is dead. What is the right step for you to do? Should you tell the family member of the sad news even if it will make them despair? Later he question if it is okay to wrong for one to lie, is there any moral duty that is attached in telling the truth however much the consequences might be? More so, do the duties confirm that we are misled by the principles of utility? Freedom in life also includes purposes for one to live which state that we should minimize happiness. The activities are not limited in terms of national rules and regulations or in private life. Therefore is it always true to be happy in the actions that we engage in? For instance, is it right to volunteer all your evenings to make the poor happy. That is, if you spare one of you evenings, the po or will become happy but their happiness will increase more if you dedicate all your evenings. Is this the right thing to do? Freedom is also governed by features of utilitarianism and its evaluation. He states that the principle of utilitarianism classifies a right action if it produces huge amount of happiness and it at the same time reduces unhappiness. For instance he questions the credibility of either building a new hospital or a new sports stadium. He concludes that the viability of building a stadium depends on the level of happiness that it creates on the fans and the level of pain it will cause on the sick. Thus, according to Bentham, the option that will yield huge balance of pleasure will be opted. Thus, happiness is like pleasure with the absence leading to happiness. Furthermore, Bentham utilitarianism counts all the pains and pleasure and all types of pain and pleasure is treated equally. Lastly, this Bentham states that one person should sacrifice for the sake of the others. Thus, we can evaluate utilitarianism by use of the aspects of happiness and pleasure. The libertarians argue that for one to be free he must be sponsored by the government in all ways. Thus, the libertarians blame the government as it is the source of threat to human rights. They think that law is the main inhibitor to the people’

Crisis Prevention & intervention in healthcare (management of Essay - 4

Crisis Prevention & intervention in healthcare (management of assaultive behavior)6 - Essay Example Patients in crisis can be a threat to others and to self. Restraining entails restricting the arms, legs and tying the waist to reduce or contain mobility. Patients can be confined in hospital willingly or unwillingly. Restrain prevents a patient from moving their head, body, arms or legs freely. Items used to facilitate medical examination such as bandage are not considered restrain. Measures to restrain patients with assaultive behavior are carefully selected because restriction or seclusion could lead to negative outcomes if excessively implemented. Therefore, recommended measures should be least restrictive and steered towards specific result. Restraining techniques are recommended only when necessary. Restraining can be granted if the patient or family request. Advice for restrain by the healthcare professional should be accompanied by the length of time the assaultive person should be restrained. Observations should be made when the patient is restrained and recorded at regular intervals. Reviews can be made to assist the patient overcome their condition. Restraining is not used as a convenient way of containing the patient when healthcare professionals want to discipline the assaultive patient. Additionally, healthcare professionals should be aware of the body alignment when implementing least restriction to avoid body injuries. The patient should be able to change movement and exercise. Body circulation is important to enable the body to continue functioning as Ballard and Rockett (2009, p. 34) mention. Psychological restrain may precede chemical restrain and physical measures to restrain. Psychological restrain is given in the form of a program or a therapy. Activities are designed to meet the diverse situation of the assaultive behavior by withholding certain privileges. The privileges withdrawn do not include the basic needs. The patient given retrain will have access to shelter, clothing and food. Patients

Generally Accepted Accounting Principles Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Generally Accepted Accounting Principles - Essay Example The preparation of financial statements and accounts in accordance with the GAAP helps the capital markets to operate efficiently (Everingham,  Kleynhans and  Posthumus, 2007). Fidelity Investments Company is a well known mutual fund that offers portfolio of investments to their clients. The portfolio solutions are provided by the Fidelity Investments Company by selecting stocks of companies listed in the New York Stock Exchange as well as in other stock exchanges in the worldwide markets. For this, the company invests billions of dollars in various stocks listed in the well known stock exchanges. The investments in these companies by Fidelity Investment Company are done after analysis of the risk and return on investments by their analysts. Thus the Fidelity Investment Analysts undertake analysis of the financial statements of the companies listed in various stock exchanges including New York for formation of the investment portfolio. As the accounting standards in different countries are different and are influenced by a several factors like the capital market environment, financial reporting requirements, form of business ownerships, corporate culture, etc; it is important for the Fidelity Investment Analysts that the accounting and financial information presented in the consolidated statements of the chosen companies adhere to the accounting standards as mentioned in GAAP. The preparation of financial statements of companies according to GAAP and audited by independent and certified public accountants guarantees true and fair financial information of the companies that are comparable across all jurisdictions. This is important for the Fidelity Investment Analysts as they would able to compare the projected financials of the company in the international context and calculate the risk and return of the portfolio of investments in an accurate manner (Gibson, 2010). This would enhance the abilities of Fidelity Investment Company in maximizing the

Six Sigma Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Six Sigma - Research Paper Example Brief History As a measurement standard, on the one hand, Six Sigma dated back to the 1800s when the German mathematician named Carl Frederick Gauss introduced the notion of normal curve (Islam 17). As a standard in variation, on the other hand, Six Sigma originated in the 1920s when Walter Shewhart, a Bell Telephone Laboratories statistician, proved that the three sigma from the average level are the reference point by which the process in question requires correction (Islam 17). On the other hand of the scale, the history of the praxis of â€Å"Six Sigma† in companies is fairly modern. Its coinage was made only in the 1980s by the Motorola engineer named Bill Smith. According to Islam, Smith is the individual credited in coining such term (17). Smith’s Six Sigma is one of the results from the Motorola’s decision to secure its global leadership. In the same decade, perhaps prior to Smith’s coinage, the executive leaders of the Motorola Company established a four-point plan as a response to Sundry’s â€Å"[o]ur quality stinks† (Barney and McCarty 2). Here, Sundry refers to the feedback expressed by the company’s costumers concerning product quality. ... In the third point plan, one observes that the phrase â€Å"quality improvements† -- probably the early definition of â€Å"Six Sigma† -- is a concept that comes from the principle or theory prominent in TQM. That is to say, Six Sigma in its early inception is not far from similar to TQM in a fundamental manner; the modification only occurs in the TQM’s adaptation or application to the Motorola culture. Definition and Methodology Pande, Neuman, and Cavanagh define the notion of Six Sigma in several ways; they state that Six Sigma is a way, a goal, an approach, and a system (77). First, Six Sigma is essentially a way or method of measuring certain process or processes. This implies that Six Sigma is a technique in which a particular activity or phenomenon (e.g., manufacturing products) is quantitatively measured. Second, Six Sigma is a goal, or has an end, of near perfection, which is quantifiable by 3.4 Defects per Million Opportunities or DPMO (Pande, Neuman, an d Cavanagh 77). As an end, the application of Six Sigma to a specific process or activity largely aims for a 3.4 DPMO; that is to say, for every one million of company products being manufactured, the number of their defects should be within the 3.4 range. Third, Six Sigma is an approach in which the culture of the organization is greatly altered. This definition of Six Sigma is historically grounded; it reminds us of Motorola’s 1980s third point plan -- the function of quality improvements to the company’s culture. Unlike the practice of traditional management, Six Sigma as an approach changes significantly the roles of the members (i.e., top and bottom) of the organization. The functions of leaders and their subordinates are fundamentally modified. Fourth, Six Sigma is

Business Ethics and Corporate Social Responsibility Essay

Business Ethics and Corporate Social Responsibility - Essay Example According to the research findings, business ethics is based on moral behavior and aims at conducting business activities in a just and fair manner. Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) refers to the duty or obligation of a company towards the people, societies, communities, and environment that may be affected by the activities of the business. For example, reducing the environmental impacts of the operations of a business is one common aim of the business, especially in cases of companies whose operations affect the environment in a hazardous way like the automobile companies. In short, both terms are based on the social concepts of morality and responsibility. Business ethics involve the application of moral and ethical values in a business and CSR is extended form of business ethics in which these values are expressed and embedded in the organization through programmes and policies involving the stakeholder groups. CSR involves conducting ethical activities and business ethics involves conducting activities ethically. So, the underlying essence of the two remains similar. Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is a term related to the social responsibilities that a company has towards the community in which it operates. In contrast, business ethics is based on the factor of conscience. Business ethics is related to morality and differentiating between right and wrong and conducting the business operations by focusing on the rights and avoiding the wrongs. Using ethics in business implies that the company is obliged to set business policies, rules and conduct its activities in a just and right manner so that the activities of the company le ad to the good of every entity which is, directly and indirectly, related to the business. These entities include all the internal and external stakeholder groups of the company and the society as a whole. Business ethics, in the modern business environment, has emerged as a preliminary necessity that should be taken up by every company, irrespective of the industry or its level of operation in order to conduct its business in a legally and socially compliant manner. Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), on the other hand, is the additional responsibilities that a business should take up in order to create sustainability and a positive brand image for itself.

How To Make Your Car Shine Essay Example for Free

How To Make Your Car Shine Essay Detailing a car is like art. You start off with a filthy car. Put some hard work and sweat into it. You, the artist, can turn it into a masterpiece! When I was a young boy, I would help my Dad detail his car every weekend. When I was fifteen, I got my driver’s permit and started detailing cars. I made a simple flyer with colored wording and flashy pictures of exotic sports cars and posted it in my neighborhood. At sixteen with my driver’s license and a car, my business took off. I have quite a bit of experience detailing cars and would like to share with you how to do it step by step. To detail a car properly, you must first start by doing a thorough cleaning of the interior, exterior, and finally by clay barring and waxing it. The first thing to do is to make sure you have a shaded area to work in, so your car won’t water spot while drying it. Having a garage is ideal. Remember to keep hydrated if it’s hot. Open all the doors and trunk. Remove any floor mats and give the carpet and upholstery a good vacuuming. While vacuuming use a skinny nozzle on the tube of the vacuum, so you can get in the hard to reach places, for instance in between the seat and center console and the under the seats and in between the seat crevasses. A lot of times when you vacuum sand is the most difficult to get out because it’s so small. There is also a lot of pebbles and dirt that get stuck in between the crevasses. It just requires diligence and patience with the vacuum to get this pesky filth out. Next wash the floor mats. If theyre rubber, use a brush and soap. Move the front seats full fore and aft to get to all the accumulated dirt and loose change. If the carpets are clean, except for a minor stain or two, use a foaming cleaner to get the stains out. Saturate the stain with cleaner, working it in with a damp sponge. Let it sit awhile and then blot it out with paper towels or a dry cotton cloth. When you remove the stains from the carpet a lot of times the cloth will turn brown or whatever the color of the stain is. That is a good indication to know if the stain is coming out. Repeat if necessary, and then go over the area with a damp sponge before final blotting. Dont over saturate the carpet and risk getting mildew. Next move onto the seats of the car. If the seats are made of cloth, just do a thorough vacuuming. If there are stains you wish to remove, I recommend using a foam carpet and upholstery cleaner. Some good brands for that product are Armor All and Meguiars. If the car seats are leather, use a leather cleaner/ conditioner. I recommend using Ice Total Interior Care. It is great for all interior surfaces including leather, vinyl, and even carpet stains. It cleans and conditions and doesn’t leave a slippery residue or smell. Apply the cleaner to a microfiber cloth or cotton cloth. But microfiber is the best. Then do circular motions on the seats. Leather seats tend to accumulate elbow grease, which makes lighter colored seats brown and gives it that greasy feeling. So it is good to be thorough and use generous amounts of leather cleaner/ conditioner. The color will be the same when it comes off on to the cloth. You may need to do a lot of rubbing and circular motions, to remove the grease/ dirt. Also it is good to fold over the cloth and use the clean side because you don’t want to rub off the dirt on the dirty side back on to the seat. Make sure you cover all the seats surfaces thoroughly to achieve maximum cleanliness. Frequently add more interior cleaner to the cloth and check the color of the cloth, as it will turn to a brown or black color depending on how dirty the seat is. It is good to fold the cloth to the other side so that you don’t wipe dirt back on to the seats from the dirty side. In worst case scenarios you may have to use more than one cloth. Also wipe down the dashboard real good because those tend to get dusty. In some instances some leather seats are really old and can be dry and cracked. I recommend using a leather conditioner and apply generously. Next move on to the windows. Use two clean microfiber cloths. I recommend using a product called Invisible Glass, because it is clean and easy to use and leaves hardly any residue. Spray the glass cleaner onto the cloth and wipe the windows thoroughly. Then use the second cloth to wipe off the excess film residue. Windows are tricky because you can’t always see film residue. You have to go back and check them and wipe again. My recommendation is work in good lighting. The last step in detailing the interior is to get q-tips. Dip them in water and get in between the air vents and all the small corners and crevasses because there will probably be dust in there. You will be surprised how black the q-tips turn if your air vents haven’t been cleaned in awhile. The next step is to clean the exterior of the car. To do this you will need a bucket, car wash soap (don’t use dishwasher soap as it will strip the car of wax), a sponge, brush and a lug nut brush. Start off by spraying down the rims. Sometimes rims have a lot of break dust that gives it a black color. This is especially common on European sports cars like BMWs, which are notorious for this. If your rims are really dirty and have a lot of brake dust, that’s hard to remove. I recommend using a tire and rim cleaner, which is a foam or spray that you put on the rims that helps to loosen the dirt. Use the sponge to clean the rims. Make sure you get the corners double-check them because rims with complex designs make it easy to miss a spot. Use the brush for the tires and lug nut brush to get in between the lug nuts. When removing brake dust using a sponge from the kitchen is the best because it’s small and easy to get into the small crevasses. Brake dust gets baked into the rims from the sun and heat. Which makes it annoyingly hard to get out. I like to use a sponge where half of it is rough, and the other half is smooth. Lightly use the rough side of the sponge and make light small circular motions on the stubborn brake dust to remove it, and that usually doest the trick. Then spray down the car and wash the car with the carwash soap and sponge. Make sure to frequently spray down the car, as you don’t want the water to dry on the car and cause water spots. Then move the car inside and dry with a good-quality chamois or a soft thick-nap terry cloth towel. Open all the doors and the trunk and use the cloth to wipe off the water inside the spaces and corners. Then you can spray tire shine on to the tires to make it look jet-black. Finally its time to clay bar and wax. This is the most tiring part of the process, but is also the most rewarding, because it makes the biggest difference in your car’s finish. Clay barring removes all the contaminants from your paint that are stuck onto the clear coat. These contaminants make your paint feel rough. These contaminants include deposits from acid rain, bird poop, dust, and tree sap. Clay barring makes the paint as smooth as glass and makes it shiny. The kit you need for doing this is called Meguiars Clay Barring Kit. First start by spraying the quick detail bottle evenly onto the paint surface. Use the bar of clay with back and forth motions until the bar starts to move freely across the paint. Frequently check the clay, as it will get dirty from picking up all the contaminants. Fold the clay over to a clean side and pinch off the real dirty pieces. When the car feels smooth, use a microfiber cloth to buff the paint. It should feel smooth as glass. Lastly use wax to protect your paint and give it the ultimate finish. I highly recommend using Turtle Wax Ice Liquid Polish because it goes on clear and doesn’t leave white dust. Use an applicator pad to apply the wax evenly on parts of the car. I like to wax half the car at a time. Then let it dry for a few minutes and then wipe it off with a microfiber cloth. Detailing a car is not an easy job and that is why many people pay someone to do it for them. The reason I detail cars is, because people pay well for car detailing services. If you follow the steps above, you will probably put in two to three hours or more and your car should be smooth and sparkling. When I return it to a customer and see the smile on their face and receive great compliments I receive great satisfaction knowing that the job was well done. Plus I am greatly rewarded with hard cash! I hope these instructions help you to achieve great car detailing!

World War II and Civil Rights Movement Impact on Democracy

World War II and Civil Rights Movement Impact on Democracy According to president Franklin D. Roosevelt the future world shout be a world that people have essential human freedoms also known as the four freedoms; freedom of speech, freedom of worship, freedom from want, and freedom from fear. The reason of the United States took part in the World War II was to fight for human’s freedoms to liberate humanity in Europe and Asia, and to spread the American democracy to the entire world. â€Å"A revolution which goes on steadily, quietly adjusting itself to changing conditions without the concentration camp or the quick –lime in the ditch† (Franklin D. Roosevelt 1941). However the war enhanced the commitment of many white Americans to maintain the existing racial order in the United States. The war also gave birth to the civil right movement. While we were fighting for the freedom of other nations there were still inequality exist in the United States. The World War II didn’t directly push forward the democracy in the United States; on the contrary it created many inequalities on non-white races during the World War II and post war that directly lead to the civil right movement. The civil right movement is a â€Å"war† that African-Americans against inequality in education, social rights, and human rights it given people the idea that the existing racial order in the united states was wrong, so the civil rights movement directly push forward the American democracy to a step forward. During the World War II many non-white American joined the army that fight for the United States. More than one million African Americans served in the armed forces. But those armed forces they served were segregated units and they only participated in noncombat tasks. After the war when these black veterans returned home they encountered that benefits such as GI bill were refuged to give them. The segregation of education was the most serious inequality that education benefit of black veterans could only be used at segregated school. These segregated schools were inferior schools with a bi-racial system. Moreover salary, training of teacher, and school facility and equipment were all not the same to the non-segregated schools. As a consequence the out come of education from these segregated school would be a huge different from the non-segregated school. There were also Asian Americans that served the World War II for the United States such as Chinese Americans and Japanese Americans. However Japanese Americans that served the war were in a special case. The attack of Pearl Harbor produced hatred of Japan also the fear of Japanese invasion from the west coast pushed president Franklin D. Roosevelt to issue an Executive order. In February 1942 authorities removed more than a hundred and ten thousand Japanese Americans into internment camps. A large majority of these people were American born Japanese that they didn’t even speak Japanese. These people didn’t committed any crime the only thing they did wrong was being an American. Some of male Japanese Americans were convinced to serve the military to show their loyalty to the United States. However according to president Franklin D. Roosevelt the four freedoms that all Americans shared, freedom of speech, freedom of worship, freedom from want, and freedom from fear were n ot applied to Japanese Americans. The image that the United States actively promoted was a country that people of all races, religion, and originally from different countries will share freedom and equality all exceptions to Japanese Americans. The war was to fight for freedom but whose freedom, freedom people in Europe. However there were still inequalities in the United States why should these black solders fight for someone else’s freedom but not their freedom. â€Å"I would rather die for democracy here than in Germany† (Charles Wesley 1944). The war that fights for freedom and democracy should started at home, the United States where inequalities exists all the way in non-white Americans’ life. Otherwise how should the United States bring freedom and democracy to people in Europe at the same time the home were largely full of racial inequality. The civil right movement reached its climax when Rosa Parks refused to give her sit to a white man on a bus in Montgomery. The bus boycott launched the movement for racial justice which lead to the Supreme Court ruled the segregation in public transportation was unconstitutional. Earlier in the time the Supreme Court had already outlawed the racial segregation in public school however the decision of Supreme Court didn’t represent the thoughts of white-Americans lived in the South. In the South more than one hundred congressional men signed the document of against school desegregation, â€Å"The Southern Manifesto†. They stated that the 14th Amendment didn’t mention education nor did any other amendment. So the Supreme Court decision of school desegregation of different races was based on no legal base. The idea was not the thought of one congressmen but the whole that indicated all the whites lived in the south were against the school desegregation. This brought the civil movement to a deeper level that African Americans were not just fight for their freedom against the constitutional system in the United States but also the racial biases and racial order that existed on entire white-Americans race. Martin Luther King JR. was arrested with other marchers during marches against  racism  and  racial segregation  in  Birmingham. While in prison he wrote a letter to express his feelings toward the unjust events. Injustice should not be tolerated that the white power structure left the black community with no other choice. The demand of equal rights on non-white races should not be depended on anybody else but themselves. They must realize that equal rights should not be given by whites or the Congress, but they should actively pursue by themselves. Also it was crucial to let the white-Americans to realize that it was wrong to have the idea of racial order. No one was born to be slave or second class citizens. If equal rights such as equal education could bring to African Americans that they could be educated people as white-Americans. The only way that African American can achieve equal right among white Americans is that all African Americans must be unionize, directly fa ce the injustice, and â€Å"fight† against injustices. He and his fellow demonstrators were using nonviolent direct action in order to cause tension that would force the wider community to face the issue head on. King responded that without nonviolent forceful direct actions, true civil rights could never be achieved. This letter explains events in Birmingham in 1963 as well as in the rest of America and it demonstrates the approach King took through out the whole civil-rights movement of 1950s and 1960s. The World War II inspired the African Americans struggle for equality in the United States while the united states were still fight in the war to give people freedom in other country. The racial inequality posed a challenge to the United States that it conflict with the â€Å"American heritage of freedom†. In another word even thought the World War II didn’t have a positive effect on equal rights among races in United States but it sparked the civil right movement that African Americans battle the â€Å"war† of equal rights on there own demand. Again the World War II didn’t directly push the democracy in the United States to a step further but it leads to the civil right movement, which had a huge leap of the democracy to forward.

Impact of Private Military Companies on Security

Impact of Private Military Companies on Security What impact do Private Military Companies have on International Security? 1. Introduction 1.1. Scenes from Fallujah Towards the end of March 2004, the world bore witness to by now familiar scenes of blood-letting from Iraq. Pictures captured on this occasion by an Associate Press journalist (Mascolo, 2006) showed Iraqis celebrating the killing of two foreigners. Emaciated and hardly recognisable, their bodies hung over the bridge they had just a moment ago attempted to cross. Some 30 miles west of Baghdad, the notoriously restless town of Fallujah formed the backdrop to the ambush where, it emerged from later reports, two of those killed as well as the surviving men were all American nationals who had been tasked with escorting the transportation of foodstuff. When they fell into the trap, all four had been sitting in their car. Following gunfire they incurred the wrath of insurgents keen to seek revenge on whom they saw as unwelcome occupiers by torching their vehicle (Scahill, 2006). Two of them managed to escape in time but the other two, it seems, could not retreat, either because they were al ready heavily injured or were already dead. Even to this day the precise circumstances of what really had happened remain unclear, and it will probably remain so. What is clear, however, is that none of them – either the dead or the survivors – were bona fide soldiers operating in uniform. Belonging neither to the United States Army nor to any other army of the â€Å"coalition of the willing† stationed in Iraq, all four were, to all legal intents and purposes, â€Å"civilians†, who had, at least as it appeared initially, the gross misfortune of being at the wrong place at the wrong time. But on closer inspection one could discern that all four of them were employees of Blackwater, a private security company headquartered in Moyock, North Carolina (www.blackwaterusa.com). Founded only eleven years earlier to the incident, Blackwater symbolizes the growth of a new and booming sector of the military economy, which entrusts private companies with tasks that had previously been preserved for the state. Referring to the process of deregulation, which had made this possible, the founder of Blackwater, Erik Prince, explaine d by way of comparison that, â€Å"we are trying to do for national security what Fed Ex did for the postal service. Fed Ex†, he went on to say in an interview with the Weekly Standard, â€Å"did many of the same services the postal service did, better, cheaper, smarter, and faster by innovating [which] the private sector can do much more effectively† (quoted in Hemingway, 2006). What his company was doing, he claimed, was nothing dissimilar and, in fact, in the national interest too, since his employees would save the American ratepayers a substantial amount of tax. 1.2. The challenge of Private Military Companies For those who lived through the twentieth-century, where it was a given that state-instituted regular standing armies which recruited from its own people were entrusted with the nation’s security, this arrangement would strike an inconceivable note. Not even in the heyday of unbridled Victorian laissez-faire liberalism did the state feel the need to call upon publically-traded companies to look after its own geopolitical interests. Yet the self-confidence, expressed by Prince, in the capability of his private firm to provide a better service than the state cannot be pushed aside as mere marketing rhetoric. In 2003, for example, Blackwater, DynCorp and other private military companies (hereafter PMCs) turned over a more than impressive collective profit of 100 million dollars (Mlinarcik, 2006). If the prognosis of forecasters is any guide, this sum is set to double by 2010, making the military market a lucrative one and pointing to further deregulation. Limited to Iraq alone, w here the incident in Fallujah took place, there were at the last count some 60 private security firms operating in the country, with a total number of 20,000 personnel, or â€Å"contractors†, on their books. So ubiquitous have PMCs become that their size now even dwarf that of the British army, the second largest state-sanctioned contingent in the area. More importantly, PMCs have not limited their remit to support or mere logistics, situated far away from the field of combat, but ominously they now increasingly provide armed escorts, security in and around buildings and, if need be, take on roles which would normally be associated with soldiers in a regular army on fields of combat. Such a reliance on contractors moreover is set to escalate as states realise that outsourcing military responsibilities to these private firms, who typically hire experienced veterans of conflict, can be more effective as well as economical. Not least because of these attractions the United States government has taken out over 600 contracts in Iraq alone (Singer, 2003, 17). Such acts of outsourcing, it should be remembered, are not in themselves particularly unusual. Many states have had little qualms about taking on new spheres of responsibility while relinquishing others. Examples such as the postal service, transport and energy are recent industries that spring immediately to mind, and in which there have been notable, if at times controversial, successes. But the sanctioned use of force – the maintenance of security – has been an area that the state has traditionally monopolised. No modern political ideology, either left or right, has questioned the centrality of the state as unrivalled arbiters of peace, and herein lies the reason why the emergence of PMCs strikes the alarming cord it does. 1.3. State, security and PMCs Traditionally, it has only been the state which could, according to the classic definition provided by Max Weber, legitimise the use of power. Through its organs – in the shape of the police and army – the state enjoyed the exclusive right to control, suppress, exert and maintain security within and without (Elias 1997). Only if the state can show off it supreme and legitimate control within its territorial borders, Weber went as far as to say, could the state be worthy of its name (Weber, 120). External interference in the monopoly of the use of force, such as civil wars and organised criminal activity, would cast doubt on the viability of the state as enforcers of security. Crucially, Weber presupposed that â€Å"the exercise of violence can be ascribed to other groups and individuals only to the extent that the state itself permits it† (Weber, 131), a statement which further underscores the tight relationship between the state and its own security. By taking o ver this monopoly on security, then, the concern is that PMCs are mounting a challenge to the centrality of the state as sole and supreme arbiters of power. The very modus operandi, in other words,of the state appears to be threatened. For all of Weber’s brilliance as a thinker, such a classic definition could only have emerged during nineteenth century Europe, for it was the nation-state which reigned supreme at the time; but ever since then advances in modern technology and the movement of both people and information have conspired to limit how much authority states are allowed to wield. Responding to situations when individual states cannot act separately to solve security issues that are international or transnational, Krasner has pointed to moves by the United Nations to intervene in cases of humanitarianism, which incidentally not only emboldens the power of collective states to exercise force in the sphere of international relations, but also serves to limit the powers of states which fall foul of certain international laws. As President Roosevelt put it as far back as 1904: ‘Chronic wrongdoing or an impotence which results in a general loosening of the ties of civilized society, may †¦ ult imately requite intervention by some civilized nations’ (Krasner 1999, 181). While alarming, PMCs should therefore not be considered as complete replacements of the state. Compared to standing armies, which PMCs could not realistically or wholly replace, PMCs would only be entrusted on occasions where there is a demand for its services. They would be delegated select tasks which the state apparatus feels would be better performed when outsourced. Importantly, these firms merely temporarily receive a limited mandate to use violence which would otherwise revert back to the state once contract ends. Such an arrangement, however, can be a potential danger to security, and this is where the fault lines of debate lie. As the last sentences imply, private firms come to the business of war not to serve the national interest but the financial interest. Despite the example of certain companies working only for the US Army, and thus for the national interest, there is nothing that would stop them from serving other states if they thought they could maximize their own pr ofit. To that extent, it is almost exclusively the market that drives them. Such a difference worries some observers because, if PMCs were to choose to work for a rival country, for instance China, they would take knowledge and expertise that had previously resided with the United States for example. Since it is the market that guides them, it is far from out of the question that this will not happen. If not now then it could occur in the future. The question for some is not if – but when. More ominously, by contrast to standing armies, which receive regular supplies of weapons and training by the state, PMCs have as a rule their own cache of weapons that the state would not provide. Such a state of affairs have lead to legitimate concerns that they might fall into the wrong hands when companies are made bankrupt or when the PMCs themselves, having firmly established themselves as multi-national corporations with a global reach and ample resources, should chose to eat the hand that fed them. From a more operational point of view, the security dangers would be manifest on the ground. Employees of PMCs are not strictly-speaking soldiers who are organised hierarchically but are civilians who are only accountable for their actions through the contracts they have made with their clients. Communication problems between two culturally different entities on the field of combat could, it is feared, end up compromising security. Such worrying tendencies, described memorably by K ofi Annan as the â€Å"privatization of security†, if true, go to the heart of what the state is all about: its control over security (Holmqvist, 2005, 8). 2. Literature review 2.1. Popular representations of PMCs Private military companies today are keen to highlight the supportive and positive impact they have on international security. That they should do so is no surprise as corporations want to impress potential clients. To state that they help undermine security would be tantamount to business suicide. Such a reason explains why they are often vigorous in their denial of any criticism that they are in any way â€Å"mercenaries†. Even though firms such as the London-based Armor Group, have names to suggest otherwise, they do stress nonetheless they are in the business of delivering aid rather than unleashing threats to international security. Like most PMCs, the Armor Group is a listed company, headquartered in London, and trade shares in the city’s Stock Exchange as a bona fide business venture. More concretely, as one correspondent reported, it distributed between 2003 and 2007 a staggering â€Å"31,100 vehicles, 451,000 weapons and 410 million rounds of ammunition to the new Iraqi security forces, and items as varied as computers, baby incubators, school desks and mattresses for every Iraqi government ministry† (The Washington Post, 2007). As a publicly traded company, fully licensed by the Iraqi Interior Ministry, Armor Group even took casualties, partly because it decided to refrain from using particularly powerful weaponry for fear of collateral damage. Why? â€Å"[It] did not want to be perceived as a mercenary force† (The Washington Post, 2007). Such pains to present themselves as supporters of states in their bid to maintain security are often dismissed by commentators, fascinated in the phenomenon of PMCs, in favour of a narrative that spins secret plots and conspiracy theories that do little to contribute to the understanding of these companies as new and influential agents of international peace and security. In a recently published book, Blackwater: The Rise of the Worlds Most Powerful Mercenary Army, journalist Jeremy Scahill, for example, entirely commits his analysis to doing just this. Pointing to PMCs as mere mercenaries, he goes as far as to state they would be the tool of choice for an adventurous American President’s covert power schemes. Drawing from otherwise correct premises about the end of the Cold War and the increased need for military know-how, Scahill however slowly strays from this promising start by underestimating the historical developments and the complicated changes which have occurred in t he field of military services contracting. Ultimately, he ends up even ignoring the basic normative definition of â€Å"mercenary person† provided by Article 47 of the 1997 First Additional Protocol (FAP) to the Geneva Conventions. He also washes over numerous lawsuits initiated against Blackwater and other PMCs with reference to alleged safety violations leading to the death of several contractors in Iraq and Afghanistan. Enlisting the agenda-ridden and highly selective accounts of unnamed US soldiers who were â€Å"envious†, he pours scorn on the attitude of overpaid â€Å"private soldiers [who] whiz by in better vehicles, with better armor, better weapons, wearing the corporate logo instead of the American flag†(The Nation, 28 May 2007). In a similar vein, Publishers Weekly chose to portray private military contractors as â€Å"heir[s] to a long and honourable tradition of contract soldier[s],† providing â€Å"relatively low-cost alternatives in high- budget environments† (Publishers Weekly Editorial Reviews, 10 April 2007). Such portrayals of PMCs suggest contractors for these companies have an easy job. But this is far from the case. First, PMCs employees normally work in small teams which can neither count on close air support nor rely on artillery or mortar fire if backup were needed. The US government does not provide their ammunition, weapons systems or daily meals. Whatever they have or need to have (from their subsistence to the accomplishment of their mission) is privately shipped from the parent-country. Should anything happen, as it did in Fallujah, these personnel are on their own, and the odds during either a conventional fire fight or an ambush are far less in their favour. Second, one is not born a military contractor. Most of them have extensive military experience and/or law enforcement backgrounds, with years of training in special tactics and difficult environments. They worked hard to become the very marketable, final commodity that they represent today. It is not a â€Å"betrayal,â €  on their part, to honour their contract with the Armed Forces and then seek a more lucrative source of income. In addition, once these professionals have left their position (be it within the Armed Forces, a police department or other Federal or local government agency) all previous entitlements as far as life insurance (today in excess of $400,000), health benefits, family members coverage and combat zone tax exemption cease to exist. Although a one year-tour in the Middle East with Blackwater would earn a person with an experienced background between $80,000 and $110,000, this would not necessarily be an overriding incentive to go. Third, PMCs are a competitive work environment: good pay calls for knowledgeable, reliable individuals. The levels of professionalism are in general high, while open calls for concerted monitoring and a better regulatory system have further contributed to an effective screening of those applying for a position with all major military services prov iders (Burns, 2007). 2.2. Scholarly opinions of PMCs Such an excursion must undermine the promiscuous notion that PMCs are die-hards whose sole intention is to con their way into subverting international security. More serious students of international security by contrast have been more cautious and keen to acknowledge the complexity that is involved in assessing the nature of PMCs. From a strictly realist point of view, which assumes the principle of states as rational unitary actors, with their own security at their forefront of their hierarchy of needs, the delegation of power to contractors smacks of surrendering sovereignty per se, and in this sense political scientists of this school of thought would conclude that PMCs have a negative impact on international security. Most obviously this standpoint manifests itself in examples where weak states, â€Å"convulsed by internal violence†, have failed to â€Å"deliver positive political goods to their population† (Rotberg, 2003, 1), which is the reason why they may have to resort to the services of PMCs. Conventionally-speaking this would mean PMCs would compromise security. Yet the privatisation of defence and security, it has been argued, can actually play a positive role in countries which lack structures and technical expertise to achieve stability (Arnold, 1990, 170). By contrast to weak states’ traditional reliance on unpredictable warlords, it is pointed out, foreign military firms can, in fact, provide affordable and effective services to states on a low budget. Without the risk of further disrupting political and social equilibrium, PMCs would act as level-headed participants in conflict swayed less by emotional arguments than by the exclusive need to restore stability. Such an optimistic appraisal of PMCs is adopted by the foremost specialist on them, Peter Singer, who believes that weak states would benefit from their relationship with military companies. Responding to criticism that PMCs would be a drain on the host state’s resources, Singer claims that PMCs in this day and age do not need to secure a diamond mine or an oil fiel d to underwrite their operations – as mercenaries of old had perhaps done. In most instances, a more lucrative market is provided anyway by international emergencies where coalitions of states, large NGOs or international institutions would be willing to pay handsome rewards for their services (Singer, 2002, 190). Such a sentiment is echoed by Jonas Hagmann and Moncef Kartas who remark that â€Å"the shift from government to governance, the trend away from state-centric provision for public services such as security and towards network- and private sector-centric provision, allows international organisations to play a role in the regulation of security governance (Hagmann Kartas, 2007, 285-6). In this framework the calculated risk stemming from entrusting law enforcement activities to private contractors can have a positive outcome. International security is thus upheld. On the opposite front, scholars such as William Reno (2002) have argued that the increasing resort to military contractors would bring about two different but equally negative consequences. First, private firms run the risk of being seen as enforcers of a new order represented by a resurgence of neo-colonialism. That the attackers in Fallujah, described at the beginning of this investigation, did not discriminate between contractors and regular soldiers is perhaps a case in point. Second, the presence and operation of private security firms, which are given the monopoly to exercise violence, would only add to the corruption of local ruling elites. Such a danger would of course apply more to lowly developed countries than highly developed ones, but, it is pointed out, regimes would be keen to utilise foreign professionals in the furtherance of their own agendas, where PMCs would contribute to the worsening of domestic political stability and territorial integrity (Reno, 2002, 70). Such a gloomy assessment is also advanced by Paul Verkuil who warns that â€Å"reliance on the private military industry and the privatisation of public functions has left governments less able to govern effectively. When decisions that should have been taken by government officials are delegated (wholly or in part) to private contractors without appropriate oversight, the public interest is jeopardised† (Verkuil, 2007, 23). More and more government, Verkuil further observes, seem to favour recourse to outsiders, cashing in their own sovereignty as pawns in order to secure a solution to their more personal welfare. Similarly, Thomas Jà ¤ger and Gerhard Kà ¼mmel support the pessimistic view that sees the weakening of the state, especially in lowly developed countries. â€Å"The price for providing security for a beleaguered and cash-strapped government is exorbitant†, they announce, as those services cost â€Å"the contractual sum but also considerable parts of the st ate’s sovereignty† (Jà ¤ger and Kà ¼mmel, 2007, 120). Such pessimism has also been reflected in the work of Ronen Palan who bewails the commercialization of sovereignty. Pointing his finger at the expanding phenomenon of the offshore economy, which provides tax havens and financial facilities to large corporations and affluent individuals, Palan believes that a whole array of illegitimate activities are being staged today in those countries willing to give up on their security (Palan, 2003, 59). 2.3. Future development of PMCs More ominously, scholars such as Thomson see dangerous portents for the future. Even though it would be possible to see the state delegating power, he accepts, in practice â€Å"increasing numbers of African rulers are opting today for alternatives to bureaucratic, territorially bounded institutional arrangements† (Thomson, 1995, 217-218), and are finding in private contractors a critical tool in the furtherance of such design. In support of this thesis, William Reno highlights the â€Å"fragmented sovereignty of Liberian and Sierra Leonean ‘warlord’ political units, and the associated enclave cities of Freetown and Monrovia.† To support their authority these new units have hired foreign contractors—foreign firms and mercenaries—to perform services formerly allotted to state bureaucracies. Closely recalling Rotberg’s definition, Reno points out how these new political units assume the ambiguous status of â€Å"non-state organizations,à ¢â‚¬  profoundly divergent from the traditional norms of the bureaucratic state (Reno 1997, 493). Evidently, these non-states cannot produce societal advancement. They undermine economic development, lead to overlapping jurisdictions, promote conflicts among elites, and intentionally destroy bureaucracies† (Reno, 1997, 494), so as to allow the rulers to profit from the pervasive absence of government. Historically, mercenary groups have thrived in similar environments, but political ambiguity and ethnic-based conflicts are making the line between right and wrong almost impossible to draw between mercenaries and private contractors. More sophisticated, visible and publicly traded companies could, it is feared, one day be found working within these non-states, providing services that are legitimate per se, to far less legal entities. So far, no major private military or security contractor has lent its services to rogue states or actors not recognized by the international commu nity – but it remains a distinct possibility. From all this the implication is clear: does the emergence of PMCs present a real challenge to state security, even to the existence of the state itself? And what impact, if any, have PMCs had on international security? Do they help to undermine or bolster it? Such questions will be posed and answered in the course of this investigation. To do so it will be necessary to assess the extent to which PMCs present a challenge. First, the study will consider the theoretical arguments about sovereignty and security, placing discussion within the context of how the monopoly of violence came to be attached to the state. By doing so it should be possible to lay the foundations on which one can consider the extent of the threat posed by PMCs. Secondly, the study analyses the nature of PMCs themselves as a post-Cold War phenomenon. Taking care to differentiate between different types of organisations as well as discussing similarities ad divergences with armies, the investigation focuses on wher e PMCs should be situated, and considers the problem of where privatization begins and ends. Thirdly, the study looks more specifically at examples of PMCs in action from different parts of the world. All too often, theoretical discussion can be misleading. Dealing empirically with specific cases in the world’s hot spots in which PMCs have been deployed, it would be possible to ascertain the real effects of PMCs on the ground as well as on security in general. By incorporating all three elements – the theoretical/historical, analytical and empirical – it should be possible to reach in conclusion a more accurate understanding of PMCs and their real impact on international security. 3. History and theory of state sovereignty 3.1. State and security in historico-theoretical perspective Before discussion can turn to the extent to which PMCs pose a threat to international security, it would be useful to consider the actor they are supposedly challenging: the state. More specifically, one should reflect on the foundations on which the state monopolises power, question how it developed to do so, and discuss the recent changes to the relationship between the state and security. From a historical point of view, it would of course be possible to trace the existence of the state back as far as the ancient Greeks. Even so, it would be more common and appropriate to pinpoint the direct antecedents of the modern state to the Renaissance when Italy emerged having highly-organised city states. Most important characteristics of these fledging cities were their ability to possess standing armies, organise complicated bureaucracies and institute a rule of law to which the population would adhere. (Heller, 1934, 8). Such a process saw its completion during the eighteenth and nineteenth century, when control, helped by improvements in communications, extended over vast regions, at times spanning the globe. What was the key to this development was the amount of power the state could control. But for a long time power had been divided among different agents who would not necessarily obey the wishes of those in power. Even when Charlemagne, for instance, managed to conquer Europe during the medieval period, he could still not claim he was the most powerful man on the continent, since his Empire was ultimately subjected to recognition from Rome which could, in the figure of the Pope, refuse spiritual recognition. Power could also be left in the hands of the nobility, who for a long time kept peasants in perpetual servitude without the state being able to have a say in the kind of relationship that was forged between master and servant. Many city states, too, which boasted rich cultural and commercial pasts, could also resist the advances of larger states within their territory. Examples such as Florence, Venice, Hamburg and Bremen spring to mind as resistors of this trend, and it is hardly a coincidence that these proud cities for a long time evaded the dictates of administrative centres of Rome and Berlin, delaying the emergence of Italy and Germany respectively as modern nation states. What was crucially important in the eventual emergence of the state was the ability to control the income of the people it subjugated – or more simply: taxes. At the outset taxes were levied as a temporary measure to fight wars but they were eventually made permanent following the One Hundred Year War, which raged between 1337 and 1453. Such a protracted war made it evident that a constant supply of finance to survive and triumph. Such a need in turn meant the creation of a more sophisticated bureaucracy that could effectively collect tax and use it for war. During the early modern period, the contributions of trade and commerce added further to a bulging budget, and the process of urbanisation which made this possible meant that central administrative organs as well as ruling monarchs would reside in towns and cities as a result. More important for the purposes of this investigation was the treaty of Westphalia in 1648 which established the principle of sovereignty. From this time onwards the state gradually established itself as the exclusive form of rule. Most memorably under King Louis XIV, the â€Å"Sun King†, self-appointed monarchs consolidate the supremacy of the state over the Church, towns, people and economy to the extent that it could hardly be challenged. Even if the veracity of Louis’ famous quip – â€Å"L’etat, c’est moi!†- has been questioned, the statement succinctly conveys not only the self-righteousness of the King, but also the importance that was attached to the state itself. For without it the King could hardly cling onto power. Such moves naturally affected the nature of armies too. No longer would hired mercenaries do the job in prosecuting war – they had to be replaced by professional standing armies who would not, unlike mercenaries be fore them, switch sides depending on the way the wind was blowing. Much of the reason why PMCs are striking is because they seem to represent a throwback to a time when foreign nationals could join armies of other countries without this ever causing a stir or leading to doubt about their allegiance. Such a problem never really arose when absolute monarchs held sway. The crucial point was that soldiers should express their allegiance to the king or queen – to the individual head of the state – and that would be sufficient. But with the development of the nation-state, in which it was no longer necessarily to have monarchs for politics to function – circumstances changed so that citizens had to pledge allegiance to the state masquerading as the fatherland, to an abstract concept of the state no less. Such disinterest in the kind of ruler the state embraces has been the hallmark to why the state has successfully remained the central force that it is still today. Concretely it was the philosopher Thomas Hobbes who first realised the full extent of the powers of the state as well as the willingness of people to be subjugated to it. In his classic book Leviathan, written in 1651, he described the natural condition in which there is neither state nor law. Only natural law – or ius naturalis – is present where everybody is free to do what they want. Such a state of affairs leads to all pursuing their own narrow interests, so that it quickly descends into a â€Å"war against all† in which everybody would need to live in constant fear of attacks on their own property, family and life. It is to avoid this situation that people come together to give up some of their freedom in return for guarantees of stability under a contract with Leviathan. Strikingly the Leviathan that Hobbes envisaged had almost unlimited power. Even though Hobbes conceded that citizens had the right of protest, he believed the state had the absolute right to control without which the existence of the state would be compromised. 3.2. Delegation of state competencies Much of the reason why Hobbes invested in Leviathan such radicalism can be explained by the circumstances in which he found himself at the time he came to write his treatise. For it represented a time of the English Civil War, which raged between 1642 and 1649, during which time conflict took place between the King, Charles I and the Parliamentarians who challenged the right of the King to absolute power. Even though the Parliamentarians eventually triumphed, this did little to change the nature of the state, and the basic idea that under contract the state is given exclusive control over the use of violence, and thus the maintenance of security, is something that still lives on. For if the security of the people over whom the state rules is to be at

The Impossible World of M. C. Escher :: Mathematics Science Papers

The Impossible World of M. C. Escher Something about the human mind seeks the impossible. Humans want what they don’t have, and even more what they can’t get. The line between difficult and impossible is often a gray line, which humans test often. However, some constructions fall in a category that is clearly beyond the bounds of physics and geometry. Thus these are some of the most intriguing to the human imagination. This paper will explore that curiosity by looking into the life of Maurits Cornelis Escher, his impossible perspectives and impossible geometries, and then into the mathematics behind creating these objects. The works of Escher demonstrate this fascination. He creates worlds that are alien to our own that, despite their impossibility, contain a certain life to them. Each part of the portrait demands close attention. M. C. Escher was a Dutch graphic artist. He lived from 1902 until 1972. He produced prints in Italy in the 1920’s, but had earned very little. After leaving Italy in 1935 (due to increasing Fascism), he started work in Switzerland. After viewing Moorish art in Spain, he began his symmetry works. Although his work went mostly unappreciated for many years, he started gaining popularity started in about 1951. Several years later, He was producing millions of prints and sending them to many countries across the world. By number of prints, he was more popular than any other artist during their life times. However, especially later in life, he still was unhappy with all he had done with his life and his art—he was trying to live up to the example of his father, but he didn’t see himself as succeeding (Vermeleun, from Escher 139-145). While his works of symmetry are ingenious, this paper investigates mostly those that depict the impossible. M. C. Escher created two types of impossible artwork— impossible geometries and impossible perspectives. Impossible geometries are all possible at any given point, and also have only one meaning at any given point, but are impossible on a higher level. Roger Penrose (the British mathematician) described the second type—impossible perspectives—as being â€Å"rather than locally unambiguous, but globally impossible, they are everywhere locally ambiguous, yet globally impossible† (Quoted from Coxeter, 154).

Free from Humans :: English Literature Essays

Free from Humans I did not witness the construction of the nest which had the size of a man’s fist. It would be a great experience since my university course in animal architecture was a source of marvel at how different birds collect different materials to weave, in different fashions, out different forms of nests. I noticed it when one day, as I walked along the straight corridor towards my apartment, something softly fluttering sped across my view. He or she was a little bird rushing into the open air away from this corridor ten-storey above the ground. I turned to where he or she should have come from. Hanging from a thin branch of a tall potted plant scattered with some leaves was this egg-shaped nest with a hole. Tiny twigs and some feathers were used to weave this simple but adequate home. Probably, he or she had plucked some of his or her feathers. That could be painful, I thought. I wondered why this bird had chosen this unattractive thin plant which belonged to a withdrawn neighbor t hree doors away from my apartment. More importantly, staying on a plant that was incapable of concealing it and staying at a height easily reachable by humans was unwise at all. â€Å"Did the footsteps from my hard executive shoes frighten it?† From then on, everyday, I walked past the plant with the slightest sound. At night, as I came back home and passed the plant, I would, taking care not to startle the faint animal, steal a glance at the hole where his or her beak rested. My respect for animals is as natural as animals are beautiful. I can’t comprehend how any human with all its gift in reasoning could inflict pain upon or even kill other animals when it knows well that it doesn’t like pain. An ex-colleague, Diane, which was then a fresh Biology graduate, ate the same rice and meat everyday like a one-dimensionally programmed machine without being equipped with sophisticated taste buds to receive tastes and feel textures, not to say being installed with the brain to unify them all as an experience. Its indifference towards good or bad food mirrors its attitude towards animal rights. â€Å"Why should I care? When a cat or dog passes by, I just kick it. They should be sent to laboratories for testing,† Diane’s one-dimensionally programmed brain sent the data to the lifeless tongue which then rattled to output the sound wave.

Spirit of Poet :: essays research papers

Spirit of Poet One requires ingenuity to write beyond his or her typical interest or knowledge base, and a strong sense of self-understanding and confidence to express any type of specialized or emotional sentiment. Poets are fearless warriors, composing into translation for others what is otherwise only understood in their own hearts. Robert Frost, Langston Hughes, and John Milton go deeper into their art over the course of their lifetimes, reflecting a spirit of inquiry into their work. In â€Å"The Road Not Taken,† â€Å"Mother to Son,† and â€Å"When I Consider How My Light Is Spent,† respectively by these three authors, themes such as light, and life is a journey, help the reader not only understand the message of the poets, but dawn in respect for the intent poetry. Light is mentioned in all three poems in ways that reflect the frame of mind of each poem’s respective speaker. Frost’s speaker is traveling through a â€Å"yellow wood,† one â€Å"morning,† when â€Å"two roads† diverge and a choice is made to continue traveling on the one that â€Å"wanted wear.† The alliteration of the â€Å"w† vibration in â€Å"yellow wood† and â€Å"wanted wear† draw attention as a diversion from the quick pace of the loose iambic rhythm. Combining literary devices like rhythm and alliteration add to the effect of the poem, and to its other elements, such as metaphor and visual imagery. Set in a forest illuminated with â€Å"yellow† landscape and the brightness of â€Å"morning† sun, the traveler’s attitude adds another level of light to the lightness of the day. Frost creates a cheerful autumn atmosphere, naturally leading his character through a process of decision-making with the casual consideration of two goods, avoiding the typically associated fear and stress, as perceived in Hughes’ â€Å"Mother to Son.† â€Å"Well, son, I’ll tell you,† Hughes introduces his speaker with language that creates a strong and confident persona, speaking whole-heartedly to her son. â€Å"Life for me ain’t been no crystal stair,† she goes on to say, she is described as independent of external light, since she is â€Å"sometimes goin’ in the dark where there ain’t been no light.† This offers an allusion that she is guided by her own inner light. Hughes’ freely styled visual imagery describes a difficult and desolate atmosphere, especially when compared to Frost’s bright, rhymed and rhythmic poem. Hughes instead glorifies his speaker by allowing her to express how she has lived in brightness despite drab circumstances.

First meeting Issues

In the first meeting of the Land Committee held on 22nd December, 2004 it was decided to hold public hearings with recognized political parties, civil society organizations and peoples? unions working on land issues of the poor to understand the various issues on land reforms. The Committee held public hearings in Hydrated, Wrangle, Vigilant and Atrophic. The visits to the districts and public meetings were followed by field visits to districts and villages to get a firsthand knowledge of the land issues affecting the poor.In an overwhelming response, political parties and civil society organizations attended all the public hearings and cutting across party lines, have demanded that land issues affecting the poor required immediate attention by the Government. Commissioning of Studies In order to understand the land issues in greater detail and also the relevance and use of the existing Revenue Acts, the committee has commissioned studies on various aspects of land issues by speciali sts and experts.Studies have been conducted on Board Standing Orders and Revenue Acts, Tribal land issues, issues of Tenancy, the phenomenon of absentee landlord's and that of plain paper transactions (Sad bambina transactions), functioning of the legal system and state of the endowment lands (Terms of References of the studies and consultants/consulting organizations conducting the study enclosed).Recommendations immediately operational in nature While commissioning the studies the Land Committee was very clear that recommendations evolving from the studies would not be theoretical in nature and focus shall be on operational issues. The Committee has tried its best to cover the important and pressing land issues. The recommendations of the committee while not exhaustive nevertheless cover substantial ground. Page 3 of 101 Land still the single most emotive issue in rural areas It has been the Committee?s experience that the issue of land continues to be the single most emotive issu e in the rural areas.