Kuwait-Iraq War (The Gulf War) Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Kuwait-Iraq War (The Gulf War) - Essay Example After the cease fire of Iraq-Iran war in 1988, Kuwait’s oil pricing policy was pushing Iraq into a bankrupt state. Iraq threatened Kuwait to change its oil prices and stop directional drilling in Iraq’s Rumaila Oil Field. The first phase of the conflict of Gulf War was diplomatic negotiation to convince Iraq to leave Kuwait. It started from August 1990 and ended in the Second phase that was air war between Allied Forces and Iraq started in January 1991. The third phase of the conflict was ground war which ended, in the end of February 1991, in cease fire and with drawl of Iraqi forces from Kuwait. The parties in this conflict were the Governments of Iraq, Kuwait, United States of America, Saudi Arabia, Israel, and the United Nations. A lot of other countries provided their troops to support US attack on Iraq. Geneva Convention: Geneva Convention was named after the establishment of Red Cross in Geneva. It was formulated to reduce the damages of war by protecting civilians, war prisoners and wounded fighters. US forces reportedly violated Fourth Geneva Convention of protecting civilians by making attacks on residential areas of Iraq. On the last day of ground fighting, the last of the Iraqi troops were massacred, by US forces, by dropping fragmented bombs over them that could be avoided. The Third Geneva Convention was also violated by United States and Saudi Arabia by not registering their war prisoners. Iraqi government clearly did not bother to follow Geneva Convention through out the war. Iraqi troops were reportedly harassed, tortured and killed several civilians in Kuwait. Iraq also fired several SCUD missiles aimed into the non-military areas in Saudi Arabia and Israel, provided that Israel was not even a party to the conflict. Iraq also did not attempt to register war prisoners with the International Committee of Red Cross and several war prisoners were humiliated by showing

An Inconveniente truth Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

An Inconveniente truth - Essay Example Ice melting has a huge impact on nature and the humanity. If we pay attention on the fact that Gore presents, we will see that the giant ice shelves retreat every year, for example from Mount Kilimanjaro, Columbia glaciers and so on. The amount of CO2 is extremely rising nowadays, despite during 650000 years it did not raise above 300 ppm. So, Gore states, the overall trend of warming is clear and intensified. 2005 year, for example, has brought the record point of temperature of the 14 years for more than 200 countries all over the world. Gore proves that the ocean temperature rises, which causes the stronger storms and hurricanes, which America and Japan felt on their own skin. The ecosystem of river is also suffering. The effects of human`s activity are of a planetary importance. As our planet is like a big engine, flora and fauna are suffering from the climate changing, for example, polar bears and pine trees. It was noticed that the giant ice missives become sicker (for 40% of 4 0 years). It has caused not only environmental problems, but also an appearance of new illnesses (more than 30 new diseases, including SARS) distributed of intensified insects, rising to the top of mountains. The other related problem is the flooding, which can happen if the big body of ice land melts. It would become a great disaster for coastal territories, for example, the large part of Florida, Shanghai, Calcutta, Manhattan and so on will be covered with water. The technical revolution has posed the humanity on the edge of disaster; it is time pay for the mistakes. As we can notice, Gore widely discovers the truth of the problem, showing it is not imaginative. However, he is optimistic – his opinion is that humanity has both ability and will to secure its future, to pay attention on what is used (thing, cars and so on) and how it can be

Comparison of UK and German Pension Systems

Comparison of UK and German Pension Systems This essay discusses two main questions: i) What are the main factors causing many people not to save towards their retirement, comparing men and women age 18 and over; and ii) Look at the differences between the pension system here in the UK and Germany, and what Germany is doing to make people save more than people save than in the UK. It is clear, across many European countries, that many individuals do not save as much as they could, and, in particular, are not saving adequate amounts towards their retirement. This applies equally for men and women and across many European countries. This problem is, however, particularly marked in the UK, with many individuals either simply not having any pension provisions or not contributing enough in to their pension scheme. In addition, many individuals in the UK simply do not save any proportion of their earnings, and spend as much, if not more, than they earn. This is not the case in Germany: practically every household saves substantial amounts, right up until old age, with only households in the very lowest proportions of the income distribution curve not saving (Borsch-Supan and Essig, 2003). 40% of households in Germany regularly save a fixed amount, with a further 45% saving, but not fixed amounts and not regularly; 25% of Germans save with a fixed savings target in mind, planning their savings towards these aims, with the majority of Germans preferring to cut household consumption, rather than touch their savings, if ends do not meet; indeed, 80% of Germans seldom go negative in their current accounts (Borsch-Supan and Essig, 2003). This is quite different to the pattern in the UK, where personal debt is currently the highest it has been for many decades, and many individuals do not plan for saving with distinct aims in mind, nor save towards any sort of pension scheme, leaving themselves open to problems when they come to retirement age. As shown by the OECD (2002), since 1985, the UK has consistently had a far lower household savings rate than Germany, with Germany averaging around 13.5% of disposable household income being saved, year on year since 1985, and the UK averaging around 5.5%, year on year since 1985 (OECD, 2002). In Germany, as in the UK, there are three main types of pension: state, company and private, with the adoption of private pensions being increasingly encouraged, due to the ageing population in both regions. There are many reasons cited for why people do not save enough towards their retirement, for example, the feeling that ‘I am too young to start saving for my pension’, ‘I don’t earn enough to be able to save for a pension’ or ‘I will get a state pension, so don’t need to worry’. All of these reasons are invalid, if they are studied further, as it is increasingly becoming the responsibility of the individual to provide for their retirement, and so saving for a pension should be a necessary expense; the sooner the individual starts to save, obviously, the more they will have in their pension fund when it comes to retirement age, and the more they will be able to take as a pension when they come to retire. It is thus beneficial fo r individuals to invest in their future, by saving regularly towards their retirement, but this notion does not seem to be as ingrained in the minds of individuals in the UK as it is in Germany. Until recently, 19.5% of incomes from German individuals was generally put towards private pensions, with private pension companies in the UK taking nowhere near this amount; 10-15% is a more normal average amount taken by UK company pension schemes (OECD, 2007). In addition, Germany has one of the highest levels of public spending on pensions in the OECD countries (11.5% of GDP, compared to 4.5% of GDP in the UK (Disney and Johnson, 2001)), although recently Germany has increased the retirement age above the traditional 65 years for men, to 67; a similar rise in the age of retirement from public pension plans has recently occurred in the UK (OECD, 2007). Contribution to private pension plans has the widest coverage in Germany of any OECD country, although the amounts contributed to private pension plans in Germany are low, when compared to the amounts German individuals put in to company pension schemes (OECD, 2007). In addition, fewer German individuals are switching from company p ension schemes to private pension schemes in Germany than in other OECD countries. Indeed, only 39.9% of individuals have switched from company to private pension schemes in Germany, with 53.4% of individuals switching to â€Å"personal account† pensions in the UK (OECD, 2007). Despite the seemingly high switch over from company pension schemes to private or â€Å"personal account† pensions in the UK, the UK government estimates that around 7 million individuals are not saving enough for their retirement, under any scheme, and that an additional 10 million individuals do not save for their retirement via their company pension scheme, which includes an employer contribution of a minimum of 3%. What are the reasons for these differences, and what are the main factors causing many people not to save towards their retirement? What is Germany doing, for example, that encourages more people to save than in the UK? The UK, traditionally, has higher levels of personal debt than Germany, with individuals from both regions having very different attitudes towards spending and saving, and where they choose to invest their savings. In addition, individuals who do save in the UK tend to ‘dip into’ their savings to buy luxury items, whereas German savers tend to leave their savings alone, and to buy luxury items, only when they can afford to do so, when they have saved, specifically, for that item. Given the ageing population, and the fact that not enough people are saving for their retirement, the UK is currently trying to increase saving towards pensions, particularly, with various tax incentives, through private pension taxation schemes and ISAs, for example, and the new ly introduced pension credit schemes. In conclusion, therefore, there seems to be a very negligent attitude towards saving, in general, in the UK, with saving for retirement being particularly neglected; Germany, on the other hand, with its tradition of low personal debt, and high household savings, has a high coverage of individuals saving towards their retirement, mostly through company, or, increasingly, private pension schemes. References Borsch-Supan, A. and Essig, L. (2003). Household saving in Germany: results of the first SAVE study. National Bureau of Economic Research, Working Paper 9902. Available from http://www.nber.org/papers/w9902 [Accessed 28th October 2008]. Disney, D. and Johnson, M. (2001). Pension systems and retirement incomes across OECD countries. Edward Elgar. OECD (2002). Household savings rates by country from 1985 through 2004 forecast. OECD Economic Outlook. OECD (2007). Pensions at a glance – public policies across OECD countries 2007 Edition. Available from http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/15/42/38728511.pdf [Accessed on 28th October 2008].

The Core Rules Relating to Nursing Practice Essay -- Ethics, Health, Nu

ETHICAL ISSUE Ethics is a philosophic study that examines values, choices, and actions to determine right and wrong. Ethical principles include but not limited to; Justice, beneficence, nonmaleficence, veracity. The case study which I am going to discussed in my paper is about an LPN, who was working from 7:00 P.M to 7:00 A.M. And was assigned to five patients, including a patient for whom an obstetrical consultation was needed. The other four patients were essentially stable. At about 4;30 A.M., the LPN became ill and vomited in the bathroom. She immediately went to the nurses’ station notified the other four nurses who were working with her that she was leaving. The charge nurse instructed her to notify the supervisor before leaving, but the LPN did not communicate with the nursing supervisor before existing the facility. The facility notified the LPN that it was terminating its contract with her and reported the LPN to the state board of nursing for abandonment. The board of nursing imposed a $ 1000 penalty for abandoning her patients and suspended her nursing license pending a psychosocial examination. According to The Texas Board of Nursing (BON or Board),† in keeping with its mission to protect the public health, safety, and welfare, holds nurses accountable for providing a safe environment for clients and others over whom the nurse is responsible [Rule 217.11(1)(B)]. Though the Nursing Practice Act (NPA) and Board Rules do not define the term abandonment, the Board has investigated and disciplined nurses in the past for issues surrounding the concept of abandonment as it relates to the nurses’ duty to patient. The Board's position applies to licensed nurses (LVNs and RNs... ... to prevent harm. Nonmaleficence is defined as: The duty not to inflict harm intentionally. Based on my viewpoint, the LPN did not intentionally inflict harm on the patient’s. According to her statement, she became ill and decided to leave the facility and the reason she didn’t communicate with her supervisor was because she was afraid that the supervisor would send her to the emergency center, which she didn’t want to be billed for such a visit. Veracity is defined as truth-telling and based on my point of view, the LPN was not telling the truth, when she testified that she intended to see her family physician early that same morning. It was 4:30 am when she left the facility and there is no way she could have seen her family physician that morning unless she went to the emergency room which she refused to go making her guilty for abandoning her patients.

Reflection Paper of a Walk to Remember Essay

Summary: â€Å"A Walk to Remember† is a heart touching story which is being narrated by a 57 year-old Landon Carter, who describes how he fell in love with the Baptist’s daughter, Jamie. It’s starting from two young people who first are strangers and then find themselves unexpectedly fall in love with each other. In 1958, Beaufort, North Carolina, seventeen-year-olds Landon Carter who is a popular and rich kid in the community planned to study at University of Carolinas after he graduated. His first girlfriend is Angela, but unfortunately they are not last. Therefore, Landon and Jamie live in two completely different worlds. Jamie Sullivan is a quiet and kind and bookish girl whom he has known many years but rarely ever spoken with. This changes when Landon needs a date for the homecoming dance. All the girls he knows already have dates and finally he has no other possibility than asking Jamie. Surprisingly, she agrees, although her father doesn’t like Landon at all. The party day is coming and they have fun together lots. After the dance, Jamie asks Landon to play one of the main roles in a Christmas play that her father has written. Landon doesn’t want to but he agrees nevertheless. When the rehearsals start, Landon and Jamie spend a lot of time together, and the more Landon knows about Jamie, the more he understands and even likes her. He even walks Jamie home every night. On the evening when the play is performed, he seen Jamie as a very beautiful lady and he realized he falls in love with her. After Landon confessed, they start dating and having a very sweet couple life. They’re in a relationship together until Jamie tells him she has leukemia, and that she had stopped responding to treatments. This causes a struggle in their relationship. Jamie condition getting worse day by day and London feel really sad that he can’t help her anything. In the end they get married because Landon wants to fulfill her wish. Forty year later, Landon still loves her and never removed the ring. He said â€Å"I now believe, by the way, that miracles can happen†. Characters Analysis: Jamie Sullivan is the seventeen-year-old daughter of Hegbert Sullivan. She is a very religious girl, carrying her Bible around with her everywhere. She is happy and cheerful and sees the best in everyone and in every situation, always ready to help those in distress. I really like her character the most because of her kind and innocent attitudes and very loyal to love. Landon Carter is the 57 year-old man who through flashback narrates the story of his seventeenth year, the year that changed his life. I really like him after finishing the whole reading because it show that he is very loyal to his wife by never removing the wedding ring and still in love with her. However, after I take looks at the acknowledgement part of the novel shows that he re-married with other women and has 2 sons. I really dislike the fact that he re-married showing that he is not loyal to Jamie at all. Recommendation: I would recommend this story for those who enjoy novels that touch your heart and make you think about real life. It’s a story of how strong teen love can truly be and the love conquers all. Even it’s a bit complicated and boring at first, if you keep on reading you will find it addicted, because the best part of the story is in the last chapter. Conclusion: This novel is a very heart touching story and I like it. I love how the author draws the reader in with emotions, descriptions, love, and death. Therefore, I think it’s a great book that show the real love between man and woman and it’s even touching of how it show that the main characters struggle together through their love obstacles and how the power of love can change a person.

A Narrative Inquiry on the Life History of Betty Siegel

Known for her outstanding achievement in educational policy, Dr. Betty Lentz Siegel was the longest serving female president at Kennesaw State University. In 1981, she assumed the position at Kennesaw State University, which then was a four-year college institution with 4,000 students and 15 baccalaureate degree programs. Under her tutelage, Kennesaw State University achieved its university status with more than 18,000 student enrollees and 55 undergraduate and graduate degree programs (online Golden Key International Honour Society International).It was her vision and leadership that brought the educational institution to its current university status focusing on teamwork through the creation of strong administrative teams and group interaction. With her guidance, the institution implemented several initiatives and high profile activities that created opportunities and recognition of the institution in the local and state communities. In the book Searching for Academic Excellence: T wenty Colleges and Universities on the Move and their Leaders, Dr.Siegel was in a limelight in her accomplishment for Kennesaw State University (online Golden Key International Honour Society International). In her 25 years of service in the institution, Kennesaw State University received numerous recognition and awards for its outstanding achievements (online Golden Key International Honour Society International). Its awards are as follows: †¢ 1987, chosen as one of the top three college colleges and universities in its nationwide competition focusing on â€Å"The President and the Public† by the Council of Advancement and Support of Education (CASE)†¢ 1989 – 1991, Kennesaw State also caught public attention as the US News and World Report acknowledges Kennesaw State’s exemplary programs in minority recruitment and retention, leadership programs for faculty, staff, administrators and students, and international initiatives. US News and World Report di stinguishes Kennesaw State as the country’s â€Å"up and comers† and â€Å"rising stars† in the South’s regional institutions. †¢ 2003, KSU received recognition to become one of twelve founding institution included in the program entitled Foundation of Excellence in the First College Year of the American Association of State Colleges and Universities.In addition, this recognition also gave KSU the needed funding to pursue the projects of the RTM Institute for Leadership, Ethics Characters, which Dr. Siegel is the Endowed Chair. †¢ 2006, US News and World Report ranked KSU as number one among the 25 educational institution known for their learning community programs. In addition, the magazine highlights the school’s first year freshman experience program. Academic Background Behind the outstanding accomplishment of KSU is Dr. Siegel’s utmost leadership, dedication, and commitment to education. Dr. Siegel’s academic areas of e xpertise include child psychology and administration.Her outstanding academic achievement also marks her commitment for continuous learning. She received her Ph. D from Florida State University, A Masters in Education from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, a B. A. n English and History from Wake Forest University and an Associate of Arts from Cumberland College. She also has received her two-year post-doctoral study in Clinical Child Psychology at Indiana University. She holds honorary doctorates from Cumberland College in Kentucky, Miami University in Ohio, Eastern Kentucky University, Lynchburg College, Morehead State University, and Southern Connecticut State University.Professional accomplishments Dr. Siegel had been an accomplished educational administrator even before coming to Kennesaw State. She started as a faculty member for several universities such as Indiana University and Lenoir-Rhyne College. And in 1967, she taught at the University of Florida. In 1971 , she became the first woman Dean of Academic Affairs for Continuing Education at the University of Florida. She moved to Western Carolina University in the School of Education and Psychology in 1976 and was also the first woman to hold the position of academic dean for the University.In 1981, she came to Kennesaw State where she has started several programs and later became the first female president. Dr. Siegel was also co-founded and co-directed a non-profit organization chartered in North Carolina since 1982. She worked with an esteemed colleague Dr. William Purkey in establishing International Alliance for Invitational Education. The organization currently has more than 12,000 members of different professionals from over twelve countries, who seek to apply the concepts of invitational education to their personal and professional lives (online International Alliance of Invitational Education).In 1999, the Center for Invitational Leadership was created to advance the model of inv itational education by offering opportunities for professional to participate in leadership development programs. Its mission is to â€Å"to enhance lifelong learning, to promote positive change in organizations, to cultivate the personal and professional growth and satisfaction of educators and allied professionals, and to enrich the lives of human beings, personally and professionally. † (online Radford University’s Center for Invitation Leadership). Moreover, with the high-regards to the accomplishments of Dr.Siegel, she has delivered keynote addresses at hundreds of national, regional, and state conferences throughout United States, Puerto Rico and ten other foreign countries and has lectured for over 120 colleges and universities around the world. She is an internationally- and nationally-known lecturer and motivational speaker on leadership, educational issues, and the concerns of women. She has also served as a consultant to a wide range of businesses such as ed ucational institutions, businesses, non-profit organizations, health-care services, government and socio-civic groups (online Golden Key International Honour Society International).Public Service Dr. Siegel has also worked in community improvement programs of the government. In 1997, Governor Zell Miller appointed Dr. Siegel to represent the State of Georgia on the Southern Growth Policies Board’s 1998 Commission on the Future of the South. Prior to that, she also represented Governor Miller at the Presidents’ Summit of America’s Future held at Philadelphia in 1997. Currently, she has been appointed as to serve as member of Governor Perdue’s Commission for a New Georgia.Her work in the commission was largely publicized as she was the driving force behind the establishment of the Cobb Education Consortium. The Cobb Education Consortium was created to form a collaborative organization among the public educational institution â€Å"to combine the resources, energies, and talents of the member institutions to address areas of common concern in moving public education in Cobb Country from its current level of excellence to the exemplary level which will be needed to prepare students to become responsible leaders, capable workers, and well-rounded human beings.† (online Cobb Education Consortium) In addition, she also served as a chair of subcommittee on post-secondary options for the Georgia P-16 initiative. The initiative aims to a comprehensive and collaborative statewide effort aimed at raising expectations and ensuring student success from pre-school through post-secondary education. The initiative is different than other educational reform efforts because it impacts the entire educational spectrum—not just the parts. (online University System of Georgia)Lastly, she initiated the Northwest Crescent Alliance between the three private colleges and three public institutions. The alliance was formed to develop programs of c ollaboration in economic development, enhancement of the arts, the preservation of Southern/Appalachian culture and history, and the development and promotion of community leadership. (online Northwest Crescent Leadership Alliance) Publications Dr. Siegel has recently co-published with Dr. Purkey entitled Becoming an Invitational Leader. The book offers a fresh and innovative model based on a single theoretical framework.It deviates from the traditional control and dominance model of leadership to one that focuses on connectedness, cooperation and communication. This model has been adopted in the International Alliance for Invitational Education and had been applied in numerous fields including administration, business, nursing, dentistry, counseling, and other professions. Purpose of the Study Successful and well-established teacher on leadership, Dr. Siegel’s life history has been a model for many aspiring leaders. She not only teaches about leadership, but she has embodied what she has taught.Her success has led to many researchers to examine what leadership truly is. Indeed, many have published life-stories and lessons on management’s leadership, but many have looked into it in lens following the theoretical framework of industrial management. The purpose of the study is to examine the perceptions of people surrounding the leadership during the tenure of Dr. Siegel at Kennesaw State University. We will looked at what people think within and outside Kennesaw State University’s phenomenal growth in relation to Dr. Siegel’s leadership.By examining the perceptions of Dr. Siegel in her tenure at Kennesaw State University, trends may emerge regarding leadership attitudes and/or leadership style. In undertaking this study using narrative inquiry, we hope to answer the following questions: 1. What are events and influences that formed Dr. Siegel’s mental model and invitational leadership theory? 2. What are the factors attracted and the perceptions students and alumni with Dr. Siegel’s leadership? 3. What is the value and contribution of Dr. Siegel to the understanding of leadership? Review of Related LiteratureIn the book Telling Women’s Lives: Narrative Inquiries in the history of Women’s Education, Weiler and Middleton (1999) explored the broader questions of gender and power through education. They have in discussing the stories of women as teachers come across on topics of education bureaucracies, material condition of women teachers, and the ways concepts of gender and sexuality have shaped experiences of men and women in the educational state. Indeed, women had not been fairly represented in the leadership of educational institution. Dr. Siegel has been an exception and as our purpose is to understand the success of Dr.Siegel’s, we looked at it in a different lens of leadership framework. We undertake this study using narrative inquiry to understand further the leadership model of Dr. Siegel. General Presupposition on Narrative Inquiry Stories have always been a way to pass on tradition and history of a nation. People love to tell and listen to stories. It is way we communicate and more importantly a way we understand people and events. Hardy (1986) has described narrative as a basic mode of thought, and Brunner (1986) described it as a way of organizing knowledge.Cultures are created and traditions are transferred from generation to generation through narratives. It is through narratives that individuals and society expresses their world views and provide models of identity and agency to their members (Brunner 1996). Narrative inquiry differs from more traditional uses of narrative education, that is, from didactic and strategic uses of narrative. Conle et al. (2000) argues that narrative inquiry retains these qualities in two areas: (1) for research, and (2) for professional development. Narrative in ResearchPolkinghorne (1988) defined narrative as the process that humans use to make sense of their experiences. It is through the application of language and personal reflection that people are able to continually construct and reconstruct significant events in their life and gain a deeper insight of their experiences. Atkinson (1998) argues that people arrange their experiences in a manner that make sense of the events and places the seemingly chaotic world in a coherent order. Thus, narratives are the process by which people make meaning of their own experiences. Denzin (1989) describes narratives as simply stories.Polkinghorne (1988) suggests that these stories convey the organizational scheme used to make meaning out of experiences. Very similar to any story, narratives are thematically organized around a central plot. It in the theme, organization, and the play of language of story that meaning and knowledge is drawn out. That is, we learn and gain insights in the temporal relational nature of the author’s reconstruc tion of events (Polkinghorne 1995). Narratives convey an understanding of environmental and interpersonal context, temporal sequence, and affective domain of the story.Polkinghorne (1995) offered the simple example of the sentence: â€Å"The king died; the price cried. † Taken in isolation, each adequately describes an event. Understood as a narrative story, with a temporal relationship and context, these two sentences describe a son’s response to the loss of his father. They convey emotion and evoke empathy. Conle (2000) describes the two purposes of narratives: (1) to convey meaning to others from unrelated events into a thematic story (Polkinghorne 1995), and (2) to convey norms and values to newcomers on a cultural or community level (Mattingly 1991).Narratives, therefore, are both the process of constructing and reconstructing events into organized schemes and the resulting that conveys the scheme (Polkinghorne 1988). Further, Polkinghorne (1988) explains that nar ratives can be used to either describe or explain an event. Descriptive narrative inquiry reports and interprets existing narratives. Descriptive narrative research describes what underlies the values and assumptions of people within a community by examining several narratives for similarities and themes.Explanatory narratives seek to explain why something happened or to explain an event. It, thus, looks narrative accounts for connections between events and actions that led to a particular occurrence. To put it more succinctly, it looks for casual connection between antecedents and events. Narrative research uses linguistic data in attempt to understand empirical reality from the perspective of the teller. It uses the resulting story to understand the organizational scheme the teller used to make sense of his or her world.In narrative research, then, it is not only the content of the story that helps in understanding the experience, but the way the story is constructed that reveals more about the experience. It therefore looks at the study of ways humans experience the world (Connelly and Clandinin 1990). Thus, narrative research begins with the narrator’s story, but moves the research toward interpretation. Denzin (1989) suggests that interpretation allows researchers to look for and connects patterns of meaning and experience in the respondent’s narratives.Bloom (1998) furthers this discussion by asserting that by connecting patterns and meaning and experiences of respondents, the researcher are able to draw from a wide array of theories to set forth his/her interpretation. Furthermore, Atkinson (1998) advises researchers to examine the respondent’s narratives for ordering of events. Context is revealed by understanding the emotions and values conveyed in the narrative. However, Feldman et al. (1990) cautions researchers on the need to scrutinize the respondent’s use of metaphors, irony, and other rhetorical devices as it may resu lt to misinterpretation.It is therefore, important to understand and gain insight into the mental state of the respondent in order to fully interpret the story. More importantly, the end result should be a synthesis of several stories into one thematic narrative. Interest in the use of narrative research has strong precedents in other fields such as in Psychology, Anthropology, and Educational Research. They use narrative as a medium of data representation and as a guide in the development of methodologies, if they did not want to lose the temporal quality and contextual detail of what they were studying (Fenstermacher 1994).They view narratives as a metaphor for human conduct (Sarbin 1986). Narrative, thus, did not stay confined to data representation, but became an entire mode of inquiry where data analysis and final documents did not have to relinquish their narrative quality. Dewey’s work on time, experience, and sociality had been central for narrative inquiry, which con sists of experiential stories that combine the social and the personal (Dewey 1904).It is these experiential stories without abandoning the particular, the contextual, and the complex events that the inquiry attempts to give voice to tacitly held personal knowledge of the respondents (Polanyi 1966; Schwab 1970). This personal knowledge has practical function or serves as an instrument in order for the researcher to evaluate and explain previously determined outcomes on the subject’s deliberations, intuitive decisions, daily action and moral wisdom. Narrative inquiry, therefore works best in getting such ‘practical knowledge’.In fact, MacIntyre (1981) promotes narratives for the study of practices, of lives and of traditions. The methodology allows the researcher to recover the moral qualities of all aspects of the subject’s contemporary lives, qualities that he sees as practically and theoretically lost. Micheal Connelly’s concept of personal, pract ical knowledge (Connelly and Diennes 1982) combined Polanyi’s sense of the personal with Schwab’s notion of the practical and MacIntyre’s moral intent.Connelly later saw the construction of narrative accounts of experiences as the perfect medium for the study of personal practical knowledge (Connelly and Clandinin 1982). Benefits Narrative Inquiry Conle (1997) notes that the most important contribution that narrative inquiry is a language that implicitly forces the issues of open-ended meanings and of the ‘constitutedness’ of identities, both ethnic and narrator’s identities. Narratives are about temporal events and tell us where and when something happens, in which contexts, who said what to whom, with which feelings and in what mood, and under which moral constraints.Such contextualization on the surface seems to convey facts, but it also potentially subjuntivizes these ‘facts’. If generalization do not accompany the specifics, narrative contextualization limits the factual to the ‘once only’ and to the reliability of observation made by a specific observer at one particular time. If the temporal quality of narrative inquiry is heeded, the tentativeness of conclusions and the open-endedness of stories will prevail. These are much-needed qualities in pluralist societies.It is the open-endedness that allows readers the ability to further interpret and understand the contextual framework of such actions (Conle 2000). Nonetheless, Berstein (1992) cautions that it is equally crucial for a narrative inquiry not to contribute to the rampant relativism, especially more moral relativism and should not deviate against reason. Such relativism can reduce the instrumental rationality of the research and can hinder the ability to draw insights especially in intercultural settings.

Virtual Organization

Virtual Organization Free Online Research Papers The changing dynamic of customer needs and business environment impose new ideas and concepts. One of these is the virtual organization (VO). This type of organization can be established and dissolved quickly to respond to rapidly changing market opportunities. It is hard and sometimes impossible for a single organization to react to market demand and opportunities. Organizations develop a network of corporations that are familiar with each other and then define some rules of co-operation for a specific project, which would help all the involved benefit from the collaboration. The main emphasis of the VO is to complement and share resources in order to improve competitiveness as a whole and enable competition on a larger scale (Ulrich, 2001, p. 50). The enabling factor that allows this form of organization is technology, namely the major advances of the Information and communication technology (ICT). The approach of this briefing paper would be one of a consultant guiding an organization through the process of virtualness. Prior to diving into the key issues that an organization faces and if these key matters are being addressed or not, let us first identify the mechanisms o f a VO. The literature on VO offers a wide spectrum of life cycle models. Sieber (1998) recognized five stages in the development of a VO â€Å"creation of a complementary resource base, co-operation of partners by a common business understanding, integration of the resource base by a transaction governance system, formulation of a common network strategy, and socialization by trust between the partners involved† (Sieber, 1998). Creating a complementary resource base will allow the organization to identify organizations with competencies outside of its own, for partnership potential, if there is a market need. These are different organizations that have different strategies, resources and objectives. They do not necessarily have to be corporation but could also be a group, or an individual. The co-operation of partners by a common business understanding has the underpinning agreement to form a VO from an open-ended network of different organizations, only if there is a market opportunity. The ground rules of participation in the VO are drawn out and agreed upon by all members. Formulation of a common network strategy, in this phase, the members of the network of business partners implicitly agree on the common strategy to use as a VO, the procedures that have to be in place, the way the exchange of knowledge would be carried out especially if patent issues are involved, the use of information and most i mportantly the quality of work. And socialization by trust between the partners involved, in the creation of the network phase, corporations most likely would address these issues of trust and socialization. Prior to initiating the contact with a group, a company or an individual for an operation in which different organizations jointly develop, produce, and market services, they would have known each other from prior collaborations or based on the expectation that together they have the competencies and resources to create added value for a specific customer or group of customers (Saabeel et al., 2002 p. 9). The participants would also bring with them an understanding of the networking phase. Again ICT is a fundamental factor in the coordination of activities in the various partners and each one of them should be able to bridge the difference of time and space for efficient communication. Some key matters organizations face related to virtualness are identified by Ulrich (2001, p. 46): selection of suitable partners and transaction costs resulting from trust development, organizational fit, multiple leaders. Each one of these points should be addressed by the organization as well. T he selection of suitable partners could take a long time but the development and acknowledgement of the company’s core competencies will allow entrance into various networks and build relationships within the network to identify potential partners. Transaction cost for the first time around cannot be avoided because of the relationship building involved and the manpower required setting up everything the face to face required, meetings, correspondences and infrastructure coordination, but from then on, it should be negligible unless it is new partnership. Once potential partners are identified, the technological and sociological factors should be analysed for a good organizational fit. Since the partnership could be between two or more organizations, multiple leaderships could be problematic and organizational boundaries need to be set carefully to efficiently manage the joint project and avoid cross-organizational problems that could translate into more complicated trust t ribulations. (Plant, Murrell, p. 2) identified key aspects of virtualness and organizational culture in relation to innovation. In their analysis, it came clear that an organizational mission statement, vision, and strategy has to incorporate an innovative organizational culture in order to be competitive and survive the ever changing market dynamics, customer requirements and market opportunities. At this age of information technology development, organizations are networked and they maintain their key competencies but are in a relentless quest of new partnerships and co-operation with other companies to reposition themselves, to be effective in the market place, and most importantly be innovative in research and development bringing new products to market. Each one does what they do best and complemented with the work of one or more organizations, they can share cost, resources, and knowledge to create and market new products or respond to a market opportunity. VO supports innovation pursu its and a prerogative to the successful execution of this endeavor is the existence of corporate culture of innovation between the organizations involved or the clear spelling out of this objective in the strategy and objectives of the VO. Innovative pursuits will not be the only outlet for VO; there is a plethora of venues to explore. As long as the strategy of the different organizations embroil a new stratagem for the VO, the goals and objective would be identified and with collaborative interchange of resources, ideas and effective work, communication and efficient use of ICT, success can be achieved by the VO. The effective use of knowledge, whether internal or external to the organization, requires a network. In the era of information technology, networked electronic communities thrive all over the Internet. Competitiveness of an organization whether virtual or not requires an interaction of knowledged-workers, systems and extra-corporate entities. This way, relationships could be formed with other organizations to share information to be more effective and to help position the organizations in short term relationships like virtualness, long-term market share and success. Organizations need to be continually repositioned to be effective in the market place. Skills enhancement is a fundamental activity for organizations that want to gain market share and be successful in the marketplace. The use of knowledge and market information is achieved partly from being a component of a larger network of organizational connectivity centered on the use and manipulation of both internal and exter nal knowledge (Plant, Murrell, p. 4). Tremendous benefits could be realized from successful execution of a virtual operation. Minimizing cost and increasing revenues are some of the main reasons why many corporations are operating, virtualness permits this by partnering with shared resources, cost, and improve competitiveness as a whole, along with the ability to compete at a larger scale than a single company alone could. Virtualness also allows the organization to be flexible and able to rapidly respond to market demands with the co-operation of one or more organizations. Virtualness provides an organization with the optimum value chain and the flexibility to be part of groups to deliver first class products to the marketplace, at the least cost possible, neither of which would have been possible for a single company to undertake. More importantly, being part of a network of large integrated companies helps an organization keep its finger on the pulse of the market place and demand, to leverage opportunities and sat isfy individual customer needs nationally and internationally. VO is such a new field that emerged from the information revolution, it is difficult to find quantifiable data to illustrate its benefits to a corporation. Nonetheless, let’s look at the Dell Computer Corporation (Dell) as an example. Founded in 1984 by Michael Dell, now employs approximately 30,000 employees worldwide and has annual revenue of $12 billion. Dell uses a variety of suppliers and customers order using the Internet from a list of available options. Based on the match of the different components that are specified by the customer, the order is routed dynamically to one of the suppliers that are carefully chosen by Dell and all the interfaces are done through Dell system. This makes Dell a VO because Dell does not carry any inventory but rather uses the suppliers who incur the cost of inventory but are in partnership with Dell, which guarantees a constant flow of orders for the suppliers. The div ersity of suppliers in partnership with Dell enables the organization to be abreast of technological development and innovation, which can in turn better satisfy customer requirements. Dell also aggressively searches for new partners and suppliers within the dynamic networked community (Saabeel et al., 2002 p. 9). VO is a promising organizational form of the 21st century; I would like to make few recommendations for organizations planning to go virtual. Firstly, be flexible, flexibility is essential to innovation although VO supports only certain types of innovations. Going virtual assumes some cultural changes from the departments or individuals that are going to be involved in the VO. The communications that accompany these structural changes are critical to the success of the VO as they provide opportunities for members to understand roles and responsibilities as the organization changes (Grabowski, Roberts, 1998, p. 17). Once roles and responsibilities are known and organizational changes are carefully articulate, the issue of trust will be faced and the best way of dealing with it would be a creating of an effective shared culture. Each organization comes in with its own culture and since culture is tacit, the VO needs to foster a shared culture, group meetings with lateral organizat ion forms would contribute to building this trust and culture. Some factors that would make the VO a failure are: lack of a share vision, not clearly identifying network members selected to participate, and having mission and goals incompatible with individual’s aspirations (Skyrme, 1999, p.6). Reference: Grabowski, M., Roberts, K.H. (1997). â€Å"Risk Mitigation in Virtual Organizations† Journal Of Computer-Mediated Communications Online. Internet. 27 October 2002. Available: ascusc.org/jcmc/vol3/issue4/grabowski.html Plant, R., Murrell, S. â€Å"The Agile Organizations: Technology Innovation† Online. Internet. 27 October 2002. Available: miami.edu/~rplant Saabeel, W., Verduijn, T.M., Hagdorn, L., Kumar, K. â€Å"A model of virtual organisation: a structure and process perspective.† Vol. 4 No. 1 Page: 1-17 (current article). Electronic Journal of Organizational Virtualness. Online. Internet. 27 October 2002. Available: virtual-organization.net Skyrme, D. â€Å"Virtual Teaming and Virtual Organizations: 25 Principles of Proven Practice† Online. Internet. 27 October 2002. Available: skyrme.com/updates/u11.htm Su, Q., Chen, J., Lee, S. â€Å"Quality management systems design for virtual organizations.† Vol. 3 No. 5 Page: 65 79 (current article). Electronic Journal of Organizational Virtualness. Online. Internet. 27 October 2002. Available: virtual-organization.net Ulrich, F. â€Å"The Concept of Virtual Web Organisations and its Implications on Changing Market Conditions.† Vol. 3 No. 4 Page: 43-64 (current article). Electronic Journal of Organizational Virtualness. Online. Internet. 27 October 2002. Available: virtual-organization.net Research Papers on Virtual OrganizationOpen Architechture a white paperThe Project Managment Office SystemIncorporating Risk and Uncertainty Factor in CapitalAnalysis of Ebay Expanding into AsiaMarketing of Lifeboy Soap A Unilever ProductBionic Assembly System: A New Concept of SelfDefinition of Export QuotasThe Relationship Between Delinquency and Drug UsePETSTEL analysis of IndiaResearch Process Part One

The electorate of the people essays

The electorate of the people essays The electorate of the people, Tocqueville and Mill The election of officials is a sticky situation. In a democracy the people rule and elect the officials that they want. But what happens when they start choosing unqualified persons and the quality of the ruling becomes poor? Or what happens when the majority rules over the minority, disallowing the minority to have any say in government? Alexis de Tocqueville and John Stuart Mill both have suggestions to assuage the problem. In this paper I will approach Tocquevilles comparison of the US houses in congress, in favor of the senates two part election; And Mills large district election. In conclusion I will support Mill because his proportionate representation and weighted voting solve the problems of better qualified officials and electors, and supporting every person even minorities. In the time of Jacksonian Democracy, in which Tocqueville did his research, the mass electorate had taken hold and everyman could rise through the ranks of elected positions in government. With some complaint Tocqueville states, In Europe many people either believe without saying or say with out believing that one of the great advantages of universal suffrage is to summon men worthy of public confidence to the direction of affairs. Further, believing that the people who dont really know how to rule have an instinct that tells them who would be the best ruler and always have a sincere desire to the good of the state. However, though this was the thought in Europe and America at the time, Tocqueville felt bound to disagree with this assessment. "When I arrived in the United States I discovered with astonishment that good qualities were common among the governed but rare among the rulers. In our day it is a constant fact that the most outstanding Americans are seldom summoned to public office, and it must be recognized that this tendency has increased ...

All About Russias Exclave of Kaliningrad

All About Russia's Exclave of Kaliningrad Russias smallest oblast (region) of Kaliningrad is an exclave located 200 miles away from the border of Russia proper. Kaliningrad was a spoil of World War II, allocated from Germany to the Soviet Union at the Potsdam Conference that divided Europe between the allied powers in 1945. The oblast is a wedge-shaped piece of land along the Baltic Sea between Poland and Lithuania, approximately one-half the size of Belgium, 5,830 mi2 (15,100 km2). The oblasts primary and port city is also known as Kaliningrad. Founding Known as Konigsberg prior to Soviet occupation, the city was founded in 1255 near the mouth of the Pregolya River. The philosopher Immanuel Kant was born in Konigsberg in 1724. The capital of German East Prussia, Konigsberg was the home to a grand Prussian Royal Castle, destroyed along with much of the city in World War II. Konigsberg was renamed Kaliningrad in 1946 after Mikhail Kalinin, formal leader of the Soviet Union from 1919 until 1946. At the time, Germans living in the oblast were forced out, to be replaced with Soviet citizens. While there were early proposals to change the name of Kaliningrad back to Konigsberg, none were successful. Key History The ice-free port of Kaliningrad on the Baltic Sea was home to the Soviet Baltic fleet; during the Cold War 200,000 to 500,000 soldiers were stationed in the region. Today only 25,000 soldiers occupy Kaliningrad, an indicator of the reduction of the perceived threat from NATO countries. The USSR attempted to build a 22-story House of Soviets, the ugliest building on Russian soil, in Kaliningrad but the structure had been built on the property of the castle. Unfortunately, the castle contained many underground tunnels and the building began to slowly collapse though it still stands, unoccupied. After the fall of the USSR, neighboring Lithuania and former Soviet republics gained their independence, cutting Kaliningrad off from Russia. Kaliningrad was supposed to develop in the post-Soviet era into a Hong Kong of the Baltic but corruption keeps most investment away. South Korean-based Kia Motors has a factory in Kaliningrad. Railroads connect Kaliningrad to Russia through Lithuania and Belarus but importing food from Russia is not cost-effective. However, Kaliningrad is surrounded by European Union member-states, so trade on the wider market is indeed possible. Approximately 400,000 people live in metropolitan Kaliningrad and a total of nearly one million are in the oblast, which is approximately one-fifth forested.

Sacred Time Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Sacred Time - Essay Example tice, and the art and clearly marked sacred spaces.†1 Many times people have relied on their dreams in order to make predictions or help them in their daily lives by providing them guidance. Dreams can be very helpful to people who are looking for answers in their lives, and dreams were used in several different religions to make sense of the world around the people who were dreaming. My most sacred space in my own personal life is in my room in the house. I always make sure to close the door whenever I come in, so that I don’t let in â€Å"bad airs,† also called malos aires in Spanish. Of course, I’m sure that sounds a little bit superstitious, but I am always careful about things which I see as sacred in my personal life. I regard and take care of stones which have power, and I don’t see anything New-Agey about that at all†¦it is just my way of belief. I believe in the power of stones. Their energies can subsequently help or hurt someone. The truth is, all of life and the entire earth is sacred. We must learn how to use these spaces every

Short Response to event Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Short Response to event - Assignment Example For business communication seeking partners and collaboration in order to achieve some goal is priority. Audience was allowed to communicate in a dialog to members of software companies only before presentation speeches. I talked to some of them, asking questions, gathering information and trying to make contacts, but real interest and good questions logically appear after you’ve heard a presentation speech and understood the subject. But it was jury only allowed to ask speaker questions, so to another part of the audience the main part of the event was a monolog and we were listeners. I suppose that means audience wasn’t considered like a business partner on this event, so jury and App software companies were only interested in each other, and it makes sense according to the kind of event. But I think audience should be allowed to ask questions, because in business you need to think wider. A company can not win the prize pool, but there are potential partners in the au dience, maybe. As a rule audience in such kind of events is professional orientated and someone could be interested in your project, or your company may hear an interesting question and find a partner itself. So I think taking audience into account is important, so I will in my future career. The entire event was pretty much verbal: speakers from App software companies proclaimed speeches 10 minutes long and then answered jury’s questions, audience were listening and we all were wearing tag sticks on our chest with information we had put there etc. I was involved in nonverbal communication nodding as a response on verbal communication, shaking hands with members of software companies I talked before presentation, I was slapping hands etc. About the same did the rest of the audience and jury. Speakers used gestures, voice intonations and posed themselves differently to look confident and professional etc. But mostly I was interested in short videos that were shown as a part of

Interview Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words - 8

Interview - Essay Example In this way, spirit of each epoch of the 20th century’s American history with its dynamics of a melting pot can be easily senses through musical legacy. Due to impact of social and cultural factors of modern days, our generation has come to give its affiliations mainly to contemporary popular music possessing easy-to-remember tunes, unpretentious lyrics and strong appealing dance rhythm and . Dynamic dance songs accompany us every day in many public places, even if we don’t listen to them willfully: shopping malls, cafà ©s or earphones of our fellow passengers in the underground. Development and popularization of such type of music has been gaining momentum for at least a decade. Pop music in this narrow sense has been a reflection of emotional state of the society and an imprint of its popular culture. On the other hand, each epoch of music history has its underground stage offering an alternative view on contemporary cultural values. However, it has been claimed by researchers, that modern society has become more prone to narcissism with all the more songs containing â€Å"me†, not â€Å"we† and all the more people living and feeling alone. In addition, modern songs contain more antisocial words than songs used to in 1980’s and even 1990’s. Personally, I have always valued various genres and trends in music, considering that they all pose some value for our culture – either supporting modern canons or denying them and adding a pitch of freshness and novelty. However, similar to the lion’s share of our generation, I prefer modern music, that is being â€Å"forged† in the present-day cultural and social environment – including both popular and underground music. However, my friend and interviewee called Tao Yi has a different type of affiliations, being a passionate fan of â€Å"old school† rock music that used to rock the world between mid-1970’s and late

Look into descripton Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Look into descripton - Essay Example Being a member of the minority, the non-Muslim group, had motivated me to use my skills and knowledge to help others cope with similar personal, environmental and social challenges. Now, as an adult I want to be of service for people who have difficulty expressing themselves when the opposition's voice is too loud, I want to devote my time helping those who can't help themselves. During university, I became a tutor and teacher's assistant for the opportunity to help students cope with the changes that entering university usually causes. My dedication to my job and in helping others was not unrecognized by my peers and superiors; as such I received several appreciation awards. In the future, I still see myself devoting more and more of my time educating people on how to help themselves. A Ph.D. from the JFK University will surely help me achieve this personal goal. As a Ph.D. student, I will be given the opportunity to explore and research human behavior extensively. This opportunity can help me hone my skills in dealing with people, specifically those underprivileged. The environment of my childhood and adolescence had instilled in me a strong passion for achievement. As a non-Muslim in Iran, I pushed myself to do better.

Motivation In The Workplace Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

Motivation In The Workplace - Essay Example For managers to set effective motivation strategies, they need to understand that they cannot make the employees do anything. What they can do is to create the right settings that will motivate the workers. Motivated workforces are more productive since motivation infuses positive energy into the organizational tasks. Motivation is applicable to the open-system perspectives, the organizational learning perspectives; the high-performance work practices perspectives, and the stakeholder perspectives. The high-performance work practices perspective Workplace motivation is a very complex issue to many managers since the system of motivation is not constant, but it alters. The workforces’ motivation can be looked in two perspectives, which includes the internal and external motivators (Stein 2007). All the motivators are the practices, which can lead to high performances in a corporate. Some of the motivators entail the positive reinforcement, right ways to discipline the workers, fair treatment, workers’ needs satisfaction, setting of goals, restructuring jobs, and setting the best reward systems (Stein 2007). Fair treatment The leaders of organizations should ensure that all individuals are treated fairly and equally. Fair treatment will motivate employees to partake actively in the work place tasks, and this augments their performance (Podmoroff 2005). Fair treatment augments cooperation, which increases the outputs too. If the managers treat the workers fairly, it will increase their loyalty to the organization. Workers loyalty is very vital in any firm since it makes the workers committed to their tasks. For example, an organization is fair when an employer asks for a special consideration and he, or she is denied because another employee was denied some times back. In addition, fairness in a firm can be shown when an employee who always comes to work on time daily, is not treated the same as the one who comes to work when late every day (Podmoroff 2005). Setting organizational goals In all companies, the leaders should sett goal so that the performance of the workforce is escalated. The goals are v ital since the workers will know what they need to produce and this can make them to devise new ways of production. Goals are effective in raising performance especially if they are difficult but easy to attain. Too difficult goals can demoralize the employees and this can make the performances suffer. In order to ensure that the workers are motivated by the goals and to increase their commitment, the managers should ensure that the workforces accept the goals. Goal setting is a useful way of motivating employees because the workers will work towards the set goals in a motivated way. For goal setting to be effective in motivating the workforce, the leaders should ensure that they regularly give feedbacks regarding the achievements. This is vital since the workers will be convinced that the goals they set are practicable. Additionally, the goals should be very specific and not vague or too general. For those workers who have realized their set goals, they should be recognized by rewa rding them to further motivate them. The realization of goals implies that the workers’ performances have increased (Salvendy 2012, p.413). Positive reinforcement Positive reinforcement is the way a firm strengthens the desirable behaviours by rewarding them. If the corporate leaders praise the workforce for behaving in certain ways, there are high chances the workers will continue behaving in the same ways so that they can get more praises. Positive reinforcement is vital in increasing the firm’s performance. If behaving in certain ways can make the organization realize its goals faster, the leaders of

Caring- Nel Noddings Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Caring- Nel Noddings - Essay Example These positive and negative things will have an impact on the child will become the intended person or not. Therefore, people want to â€Å"form beliefs and abilities required to continue going on with close relations and the desire to do so (Noddings, 2005, p. 21-22).† using Noddings’ four components including modeling, dialogue, practice, and confirmation in order to facilitate caring. The meaning of caring that emerges from the ethics include proficient standards, individual value, comprehending humankind continuance, understanding the meaning of norms, decisions, moral decisions, integrity, worth, people and colleagues in treatment. The extent of care is also pronounced in some good characters than others. In the case of decency or fairness, for example, that affection may not be readily apparent. With care, more than without any good values, its appreciation with passion is evident. When people care about each other, attending to each other’s needs, as a mot her looks after a new baby, physicist cares for a patient or an instructor cares for a struggling apprentice, the link between love and ethics is supposed. Care is an attribute that is interchangeable with love. The lack of care, more than anything else brings out man to be insensitive. To care is to how humanity, to show love. Not to love is to create a boundary between oneself and one’s own heart, on the same not, being humane to both those next to you and far away from you not only improve your relationship, it can also prolong your life, this is according to research conducted by a group of researchers at the university of Purdue. The absence of care is destruction of personality. Care may seem to be weighty, but on the contrary is the force that gives life its balance, its booming nature and its validity. Caring is taking excellent care of all things that matter to us. It involve being a compassionate witness, and listening keenly to another and not jumping to conclusion s. One shows that one cares with appropriate acts and kind words. When we do a job, we do it with our best effort. We are not insensitive to things that matter. We care deeply about the ethics we trust in. Caring can be said to be a sign of love. Should we care for others, then we are able to notice how they feel and attend to their needs. When we care about ourselves, we have nothing to offer others. Caring can as well be a gift from the heart. Caring for ideas and objects is different from caring for people and other living things. One cannot establish a bond with physics or a food processor. The cared- for cannot feel anything for us there is no significance in the second party. People instead describe a responsiveness for ideas and objects. We must consider the deepest sense of care as human beings. We care what will happen to us. We wonder whether there exists life just after death,or whether there is God who cares about us, whether those we love, love us back, whether we belon g somewhere. We wonder what we will be in future, who we are right now, how much control we have over our fate. For an adolescent, these are among the most pressing issues: who am I? How do others see me? Who love me? How do others perceive me? though schools spend most of time doing mathematics and physics than in trying to answer these questions take an example of yourself most likely you are wondering what will I be tomorrow .

Motivation In The Workplace Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

Motivation In The Workplace - Essay Example For managers to set effective motivation strategies, they need to understand that they cannot make the employees do anything. What they can do is to create the right settings that will motivate the workers. Motivated workforces are more productive since motivation infuses positive energy into the organizational tasks. Motivation is applicable to the open-system perspectives, the organizational learning perspectives; the high-performance work practices perspectives, and the stakeholder perspectives. The high-performance work practices perspective Workplace motivation is a very complex issue to many managers since the system of motivation is not constant, but it alters. The workforces’ motivation can be looked in two perspectives, which includes the internal and external motivators (Stein 2007). All the motivators are the practices, which can lead to high performances in a corporate. Some of the motivators entail the positive reinforcement, right ways to discipline the workers, fair treatment, workers’ needs satisfaction, setting of goals, restructuring jobs, and setting the best reward systems (Stein 2007). Fair treatment The leaders of organizations should ensure that all individuals are treated fairly and equally. Fair treatment will motivate employees to partake actively in the work place tasks, and this augments their performance (Podmoroff 2005). Fair treatment augments cooperation, which increases the outputs too. If the managers treat the workers fairly, it will increase their loyalty to the organization. Workers loyalty is very vital in any firm since it makes the workers committed to their tasks. For example, an organization is fair when an employer asks for a special consideration and he, or she is denied because another employee was denied some times back. In addition, fairness in a firm can be shown when an employee who always comes to work on time daily, is not treated the same as the one who comes to work when late every day (Podmoroff 2005). Setting organizational goals In all companies, the leaders should sett goal so that the performance of the workforce is escalated. The goals are v ital since the workers will know what they need to produce and this can make them to devise new ways of production. Goals are effective in raising performance especially if they are difficult but easy to attain. Too difficult goals can demoralize the employees and this can make the performances suffer. In order to ensure that the workers are motivated by the goals and to increase their commitment, the managers should ensure that the workforces accept the goals. Goal setting is a useful way of motivating employees because the workers will work towards the set goals in a motivated way. For goal setting to be effective in motivating the workforce, the leaders should ensure that they regularly give feedbacks regarding the achievements. This is vital since the workers will be convinced that the goals they set are practicable. Additionally, the goals should be very specific and not vague or too general. For those workers who have realized their set goals, they should be recognized by rewa rding them to further motivate them. The realization of goals implies that the workers’ performances have increased (Salvendy 2012, p.413). Positive reinforcement Positive reinforcement is the way a firm strengthens the desirable behaviours by rewarding them. If the corporate leaders praise the workforce for behaving in certain ways, there are high chances the workers will continue behaving in the same ways so that they can get more praises. Positive reinforcement is vital in increasing the firm’s performance. If behaving in certain ways can make the organization realize its goals faster, the leaders of

Ethiopia Essay Example for Free

Ethiopia Essay Ethiopia is one of the oldest nations of this world, dating back to almost 3000 years BC. The recent history of Ethiopia proves that it is a land which is cursed with natural and human miseries. Its geographic position also underlies the miserable state of affairs that this country has been through in the recent past. Taking inspiration from the air of human freedom which blew over the world in the twentieth century, Ethiopia has witnessed a change from the Marxist form of authoritarian governance to a free, emocratic form. The penetration of western concepts of education, science and technology, which was very fast in other third world countries like India and South Korea, is very slow over here. Ethiopia is highly underdeveloped and one of the poorest country on this world because of its geographic position, natural circumstances and human mistakes. Ethiopia is the land where the oldest human ancestors, dating back to almost 5 million years, used to exist. Today, it is a land-locked nation surrounded by countries like Sudan n the west, Kenya in the south, Somalia in the east and Eritrea in the north. With a total land area of about 43. 5 thousand square miles, it has a population of about 75 million people, in 2005. Islam is the major religion followed by 45 to 50 percent of the population which has almost 9 ethnic groups and speaks more than 75 different languages. The literacy rate was 43% in 2003 and the GDP stood at $ 60. 34 billion. The per capita income was a meager $ 80 in 2005. Only 11% of the total land is arable, and Platinum, Potash, Copper, natural gas and some traces of gold are its natural resources. Its exports touched $ 612 million in 2005 against a huge import bill of $ 2. 72 billion in 2005. The major industries of Ethiopia are cement, textiles, beverages, chemicals, and metal processing. In telecommunications, Ethiopia has 435 thousand main line users, followed by about 97 thousand cell phone users and 75 thousand internet users in 2003. The total rail network was of 681 kms in 2004, and the total distance covered by the highways was bout 33 thousand kms. in 2002 ( Ethiopia ) The progress of any nation is dependent on its agriculture, industrial output, infrastructure development and education. A strong economy is the biggest sign of a healthy nation. The current status of Ethiopia, as revealed by the figures in the above paragraph, is really poor. This necessitates investigation of the recent past history of the nation, to judge upon the parameters which contributed to the current state of affairs. The recent history of Ethiopia reveals the political transition from a military uthoritarian rule to a democratic republic nation. It tells about the devastating famines and the wars with Eritrea and the prolonged border dispute with it, and the military confrontation with Somalia. In addition, Ethiopia witnessed frequent rebellions from within the country, demonstrating the high level of dissatisfaction of the people with the military ruler and his policies. The famine, the wars and the rebellions have resulted in loss of lives for millions of Ethiopians. This is the darkest spot on the recent history of Ethiopia. The major events in the recent history are briefly described in the following paragraphs. Famines : Ethiopia witnessed two devastating famines in 1984 and 2002. BBC cites the words of Prime Minister Zenavi, â€Å" If the famine of 1984 was a nightmare, then this will be too ghastly to contemplate†. The 1984 famine killed nearly one million people. Another famine, much worse than that of 1984, struck the nation in 2002. Zenavi revealed to the BBC that nearly 15 million people faced starvation, and the international Red cross estimated that $ 11 million were needed to aid the suffering people of Ethiopia in 2002. This BBC report also cites Georgia Shaver, the World Food Program Director in Ethiopia, saying that about 14 million people needed food across the six countries in South Africa, the same number needs food in just one country, Ethiopia. Prime Minister Zenavi admits that they do not have any system to store the rain water. In the same report, BBC also cites Andrew Pendleton, Advisor to Christian aid to Ethiopia, s saying that Ethiopia’s continuing foreign debt, which is almost 10% of the state’s revenues, is the biggest hurdle in its efforts to cope with the famines. ( Massive famine stalks Ethiopia) Ethiopia and Eritrea have been fighting for the past many decades. Eritrea gained its independence from Ethiopia in 1993, after a long guerrilla warfare. At this juncture, the border lines were never identified, marked or mapped. The dispute about the border resulted in frequent clashes, which heightened in 1998, resulting into a full fledged war or almost two years, till a peace treaty was signed between the two nations in 2000. This long, armed confrontation has claimed hundreds of thousands of lives on wither side, and ruptured the economies of both the nations. Almost 40 thousand soldiers have been killed in this war and armed troops to the number of 300 thousand remain engaged in guarding the 800 km border. All the civilians residing in the affected areas have fled, and both the armies are guarding empty villages. ( Pike John ) On the other hand, the warring factions of the Islamic fundamentalists have drawn attention from both Ethiopia and Eritrea. While Eritrea supports one faction with arms and troops, with an intention to prompt them to attack Ethiopia from its south east border, Ethiopia supports the other faction in all ways possible, to counter the move. (Pike John ) Such never ending warlike situations have taken a very heavy toll on the development of Ethiopia. The political status of Ethiopia has also undergone a sea-change in the recent past. In 1974, the Emperor was overthrown by a military coup, and Col. Mengistu Haile Mariam became country’s ruler in 1977. The policies of the military rule were widely unpopular and many rebellion groups became active in the country. These forces formed a coalition known as Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) which took control over the capital city of Addis Ababa on 28 May 1991. A transitional charter was approved in 1991, and since then Ethiopia is a democratic republic country. (History, politics, administration) The events of the recent history of Ethiopia prove that the country is hit with chronic problems, and options before the government are very few. The complexity of the situation created by these problems is so complex that a permanent solution seems impossible. The government is faced with political, military, geographic, and economic problems, the magnitude of which is mind blowing. The situation is not only tough, but seems to be so grim that only downward trend can be perceived with little or no hopes or improvement for a better future. The multiple characteristics of the problems, has almost ruptured the nation. It is beyond the scope of the government to handle the situation single handed. Ethiopia has been lucky to get the required aid from foreign countries, and international agencies. As a matter of fact, Ethiopia has been able to counter the problems , largely due to these foreign aid, which very often is generous also. Many agencies are functional in Ethiopia to help the local government and the local population. The military rule during the 1970s and 80s tried to revamp the economy by declaring radical measures. These measures vested total control of the economy in the hands of the state. Nationalization of all major industrial, financial and commercial companies took place in 1975. Villagization† was one more, most unpopular directive from the military ruler, under which people were compelled to move away from highland to lowland areas. The policy had to be abandoned in 1986. The democratic rulers were more sensible in their approach. Ever since it came into existence in 1991, it has been facing many serious challenges. Its first success is in offering political stability and forming strategies which appeal to the foreign help agencies. While no tangible results are seen at the ground level so far, the democratic government has demonstrated its resolve to fight with the chronic problems, and pursue the helping hands to get help. Today, many agencies are working in close co-ordination with the government to help implement the various strategies. The economy is still very ragile, and weak, the condition of people is still miserable, but the efforts put in by the government and the foreign agencies in the recent years, is likely to bring better results in the future. For example the schools and colleges established in the last ten years will present educated adults to the society after another 10 or 20 years. Strong development is not seen in any area not because the government or the people lack the will, but because of the enormity and complexity of the situation and the lack of resources to ackle them. The areas that need to be addressed on topmost priority are : 1. Food : Ethiopia needs to feed the millions of hungry people 2. Increase agricultural output: maybe by improvement in ways of farming. 3. Health care : Increase health care facilities to reach the remote areas also. 4. Water and irrigation : Water is a scarce commodity here, and technological advances have to be brought in to preserve water and utilize it appropriately. This is a very crucial sector which will help in fighting the devastating famines. 5. Reduction of poverty: In 2003, about 44% of the estimated 67 million people of Ethiopia lived below the poverty line, according to a World Bank report. ( Ethiopia) 6.  Strengthen the economy: By devising and effective implementation of schemes to increase the GDP and the Per Capita Income and decrease the huge gap between export and import bills. These are the areas where the state has been lacking, to a great extent. It has only made a beginning by devising plans and schemes in conjunction with foreign agencies. The role of the state in the development of Ethiopia is very limited, because the state treasury is always burdened with other issues, and has little or nothing to spare for the development projects. The UNDP example, cited below proves this point. One of the many sectors in which UNDP works in Ethiopia is poverty reduction. Agricultural development is a priority area in this program. It targets at : 1. Promotion of access and utilization of technological improvements in farming and up gradation of facilities for result oriented research. 2. Use of ICT for agricultural information management by establishing connectivity between federal and regional states. 3. Implement use of small scale irrigation. 4. Provide service to rural communities by effective implementation of small scale finance institutions. The following results were achieved : 1. Nearly 10,000 farmers and 4,000 farmers were trained on how to use the technologies in farming. On a national scale nearly 3. million farmers benefited and the agricultural yields were almost doubled in areas where the rainfall was adequate. 2. A study on national computerized agricultural system was conducted and its pilot phase is started in 2001. This is likely to benefit the sector by giving timely information. ( Agricultural development program ) Ethiopia faces many impediments which tend to strangle its development. In an interview, Michael Glantz, a political scientist working with the National Center for Atmospheric Research, says that if he had the liberty to add one more word to the title page of â€Å"Time’ magazine issue on Africa in 1984, he would say, â€Å" coup, corruption , onflict and climate’, are the main obstacles to development in Africa. Glantz Michael ) The same holds true for Ethiopia also. She is land locked in the horns of the African continent with two chronic enemies as her neighbors. Only 45% of the total land is arable and a meager 3% is irrigated. She does not have a port of her own, and the rainfall is totally unpredictable. There is no access to the vast seas or oceans. She is connected to the Red Sea through a neighboring country. The geographic position and the climate of Ethiopia is surely one of he biggest obstacles to the development of Ethiopia. Geography) Military aggressions have hit Ethiopia very hard. Ethiopia has to face it on two fronts, Eritrea in north and Somalia in south. Prolonged warfare with these nations, for many decades, has made a severe dent in the economy of the nation. Perhaps, this dent is permanent and irreparable. The country is already under immense debt pressure and there seems to be no end to the disputes with Eritrea. A report of International Monetary Fund suggests that if Ethiopia needs to maintain a growth level of 7% . Given the current state of affairs, this report raises serious doubts whether this is an achievable target or not. ( Andrews David, Erasmus Lodewyk Powell Robert ) Human mistakes, especially by the political leadership account for the third obstacle to the development of Ethiopia. The denial to accept the peace treaty with Eritrea, after signing it, is one example which proves this point. ( Ethiopia and Eritrea) All the attention, energy and finances have been focused on fights, coups and confrontations. The leadership as not advocated the uselessness of war, and concentrating on socio-economic issues instead. Conclusively it can be said that Ethiopia is cursed country in true sense, facing problems of famines, military confrontations geographic conditions and natural forces, which are colossal. This has already crippled the nations economy, and there seems to be no end to the misery of this nation. Elevation of Ethiopia from one of the poorest country to a middle level economy seems an uphill task. Will she be able to perform this task? Only time can tell. References http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0107505.html http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/2440093.stm http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/war/eritrea.htm http://www.et.undp.org/ethiopia/intro.htm#History http://www.et.undp.org/poverty/poverty.htm http://www.africa.upenn.edu/Articles_Gen/Obstacles_Development.html http://www.globalpolicy.org/security/issues/ethindex.htm

Rape Law Reform in England and Wales

Rape Law Reform in England and Wales 1. Introduction The beginning of the 21st Century has seen a major overhaul of the sexual offences legislation in England and Wales. Prior to this reform the law on sexual offences was based on legislation implemented in 1956[2], with some parts dating as far back as the 19th Century. It goes without saying that this legislation was grossly dated and unsuitable for the 21st Century. A number of important amendments had been made since the 1956 legislation, including the inclusion of marital rape and male rape in 1994[3]. However, these piecemeal changes resulted in very confusing laws, to the extent that many different Acts had to be accessed in order to decipher where the law stood on any given matter. The Home Office acknowledged that this had led to a ‘patchwork quilt of provisions (Home Office, 2000, pg. iii). The previous law was also plagued by anomalies, inappropriate language[4] and discrimination, some of which may have been construed as violating human rights legislation. Starting with a pledge by the newly elected 1997 Labour government to help victims of sexual offences obtain justice, a detailed and lengthy review process was initiated in 1999 (the Sexual Offences Review). This was followed by a Sexual Offences Bill and then, finally, the arrival of the Sexual Offences Act 2003, which came into force in May 2004. This article outlines the criticisms feminists have previously made about rape law in England and Wales and describes and evaluates as far as possible the new legislation as it relates to rape. 2. The attrition problem The criticisms feminist academics and activists have highlighted in terms of rape law in England and Wales are similar to those described in other countries with adversarial legal systems. These include: the difficulties in proving non-consent; cross-examination; rape myths; the use of sexual history evidence in court; and the 1976 ruling in Morgan[5] that an ‘mistaken but ‘honest belief in consent should lead to an acquittal even if this belief in consent is not a ‘reasonable one. The incredibly high attrition rate for rape cases has been a major concern underpinning many of these criticisms and acted as a strong push factor towards the strengthening of the law on sexual offences. Quite simply, most rape victims who report the offence to the police will never even see their case reach court, never mind see the perpetrator convicted for rape. Many studies have documented the high attrition rate and how it has increased over time. While more and more men are being reported to the police for rape, the proportion that are convicted for rape has been steadily falling since records began (Smith, 1989; Chambers and Miller, 1983; Lees and Gregory, 1993; Harris and Grace, 1999; HMCPSI and HMIC, 2002; Lea, Lanvers and Shaw, 2003). These studies show that the ratio of rape convictions to reported rapes has steadily fallen from one in three in 1977 to one in 20 in 2002 (Kelly, 2004). Comparative analysis has found that the high rape attrition rate is not confined to England and Wales but is echoed to different extents across Europe (Kelly and Regan, 2001). Bearing in mind that most rapes are not even reported to the police[6], this of only one in twenty is particularly concerning and has been the basis of much campaigning by activist groups. Moreover, Kelly (2002) warns that attrition may actually be even higher than research has fo und because such studies do not take into account rapes that are reported to but not recorded by the police, or any convictions that are overturned on appeal. New research has found that around one in ten convicted rapists later have their convictions overturned or sentence reduced on appeal (Cook, 2004). 3. The reform process The Sex Offences Review began in 1999 and aimed to achieve ‘protection, fairness and justice within the Home Offices overall aim of creating a ‘safe, just and tolerant society (Home Office, 2000b)[7]. The reviews terms of reference were: ‘To review the sex offences in the common and statute law of England and Wales, and make recommendations that will:  · provide coherent and clear sex offences which protect individuals, especially children and the more vulnerable, from abuse and exploitation;  · enable abusers to be appropriately punished; and  · be fair and non-discriminatory in accordance with the ECHR and Human Rights Act. This third point is likely to have been an important factor in why the Government felt the pressing need for legislative reform; in October 2000 the Human Rights Act 1998 came into force and thereby incorporated the rights guaranteed by the European Convention of Human Rights (ECHR) into the domestic law of England and Wales. Although the Human Rights Act 1998 did not actually give citizens any ‘new rights it gave judges the power to make a statement of incompatibility if a piece of legislation failed to respect an individuals human rights. Moreover, the European Court of Human Rights has in the past held states accountable for violations of human rights where they failed to enact appropriate rape legislation[8]. An internal steering group and external reference group were set up as part of the review; the latter including established feminist academics[9], representatives from feminist organizations working with victims of rape[10] and feminists campaigning for rape law reform[11]. Intentionally or unintentionally, the review was therefore guided by a strong feminist influence. Two lengthy documents were then produced, consisting of literature reviews, reports from consultation seminars and recommendations (Home Office 2000a, 2000b) and from this review, the white paper ‘Protecting the Public was published (Home Office, 2002) setting out the Governments proposals. In the foreword by Home Secretary David Blunkett, he described the existing law on sexual offences using words such as ‘archaic, ‘incoherent and ‘discriminatory. The Sexual Offences Bill was introduced in January 2003 into the House of Lords, where some amendments were made. The Bill was passed to the House of Commons in June 2003 where it was reviewed by a Home Affairs Committee. In July 2003 this review was published, along with oral and written evidence submitted as part of an inquiry into specific sections of the Bill (House of Commons Home Affairs Committee, 2003). The Sexual Offences Bill was given Royal Assent on the 20th November 2003 and became the Sexual Offences Act 2003 with effect from May 2004. This replaced the Sexual Offences Act 1956 and its various amendments. It is widely acknowledged that the new Act represents the largest overhaul of sexual offences in over a century (Editorial, Criminal Law Review, 2003). 4. The Sexual Offences Act 2004 In order to secure a conviction for rape it is necessary to prove beyond reasonable doubt not only that the defendant committed an act that meets the legal definition of rape but also that the defendant knew that the victim was not consenting. These are known as the actus reus (the guilty act) and the mens rea (the guilty mind, or criminal intent). These two aspects of rape are now described in turn in terms of the reforms that have taken place. 4.1 The actus reus (guilty act) The actus reus of rape within the Sexual Offences Act 1956 was simply defined as unlawful sexual intercourse with a woman, which was amended in 1976[12] to unlawful sexual intercourse with a woman without her consent. The 1990s saw two major changes relating to the actus reus of rape. In 1991, after over 100 years of feminist campaigning rape within marriage became illegal within the common law system and this was placed into statute in the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994 when the word ‘unlawful was removed from the definition. It had previously been judged in common law that married women had no capability or authority to ‘not consent: ‘The sexual communication between them is by virtue of the irrevocable privilege conferred once for all on the husband at the time of the marriage †¦ (R v Clarence, 1888). ‘But the husband cannot be guilty of rape committed by himself upon his lawful wife, for their matrimonial consent and contract the wife hath given up herself in this kind unto her husband, which she cannot retract. (Sir Matthew Hale, 1736 History of the Pleas of the Crown) The criminalisation of marital rape was controversial within legal circles. This is because when it was criminalized in 1991 it was seen as being criminalized by judge-made law rather than the elected government. The case in question was R v R[13] where it was alleged a husband had attempted to have sexual intercourse with his estranged wife without her consent and physically assaulted her by squeezing her neck with both hands. In this case the issue was not whether he had attempted to force his wife to have sexual intercourse without her consent, but rather whether this fell under the legal definition of ‘unlawful sexual intercourse. Relying upon Hales now infamous statement (cited above) the defence argued that because the acts were against his wife this could not be classed as unlawful. In considering this defence, Mr Justice Owen argued that Hales statement could not longer be seen as valid because it was ‘a statement made in general terms at a time when marriage was indissolvable. However, this dismissal of Hale appeared to relate more to the fact that there was physical force used in the attempted rape than the lack of consent per se: ‘I am asked to accept that there is a presumption or an implied consent by the wife to sexual intercourse with her husband; with that, I do not find it difficult to agree. However, I find it hard to believe †¦ that it was ever the common law that a husband was in effect entitled to beat his wife into submission to sexual intercourse †¦ If it was, it is a very sad commentary on the law and a very sad commentary on the judges in whose breasts the law is said to reside. However, I will nevertheless accept that there is such an implicit consent as to sexual intercourse which requires my consideration as to whether this accused may be convicted for rape. Mr Justice Owen ruled that the act could be classed as attempted rape and sentenced the defendant to three years imprisonment. The defendant appealed, arguing that Mr Justice Owen had been wrong to rule that rape within marriage was against the law when the marriage had not been revoked. The appeal was dismissed unanimously at the Court of Appeal[14], where Lord Lane dismissed Sir Matthew Hales statement as being a ‘statement of the common law at that epoch, where ‘the common law rule no longer remotely represents what is the true position of a wife in present-day society. The Court of Appeal concluded: ‘We take the view that the time has now arrived when the law should declare a rapist a rapist subject to the criminal law, irrespective of his relationship with his victim. This judgement was later upheld on appeal to the House of Lords[15] and at the European Court of Human Rights[16]. The second of the two previously mentioned changes was also made within the 1994 Act when it was acknowledged that a man could be a victim of rape and the actus reus of rape was amended to cover vaginal or anal intercourse against a woman or another man without their consent. Although other parts of the Sexual Offences Act 1956 were revised between 1995 and 2003, the actus reus of rape retained its definition as in the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994 until the new definition in the Sexual Offences Act 2003. The Sexual Offences Act 2003 defines the actus reus of rape as penile penetration of the vagina, anus or mouth of another person without their consent. Therefore, in terms of its actus reus, rape has slowly changed over nearly half a century from unlawful sexual intercourse with a woman to penile penetration of the vagina, anus or mouth of another person without their consent. The widening of the actus reus to include penile penetration of the mouth is based on arguments made in the Sexual Offences Review that other forms of penetration (for example: penile penetration of the mouth, or vaginal or anal penetration with an object or another part of the body) should be treated just as seriously as penile penetration of the vagina or anus. It was decided that rape should be extended to include penile penetration of the mouth, on the basis that ‘†¦ forced oral sex is as horrible, as demeaning and as traumatising as other forms of penile penetration (Home Office, 2000a, pg. 15)[ 17]. This means that it remains a gender-specific offence with regard to the perpetrator (i.e. the act requires a penis) but a gender-neutral offence with regard to the victim. A new offence of assault by penetration was introduced to cover penetration by objects other than a penis, as with rape carrying the maximum sentence of life imprisonment[18]. The second part of the actus reus relates to a lack of consent. There are generally three lines of defence used in rape cases; that intercourse never took place, that it took place but not by the accused or that it took place but that the victim consented to it or that the accused believed that the victim consented to it (Baird, 1999). Baird (1999) highlights that there are very few rape cases that are ‘whodunnits, and the defence that sexual intercourse never took place is also rare. These defences are likely to have become even less common since developments in DNA testing (Lees, 1996). The issue of consent is therefore what many rape defence arguments focus on, and one of the aims of the review of sexual offences was to ‘clarify the law on consent'[19]. The root of the ‘consent problem lies with the requirement of the prosecution to prove the absence of consent (rather than requiring the defence to prove that they had taken steps to ascertain consent), and in many ways this problem is unique to rape cases. If, for example, a person reported that their car had been stolen it would not be necessary to prove that it had been taken without their consent. Similarly, if an individual were physically assaulted, for example punched in the face, they would rarely be asked if they agreed to be punched in the face. A further problem in rape cases is that the only direct witness is likely to be the rape victim, which means that cases often come down to one persons word against the other. If the defendant says that the victim consented and the victim says she did not consent then it is difficult to validate either persons statement of the act[20]. Because of the nature of sexual offending it is unlikely there would be a third party availab le to directly corroborate either statement. The Sexual Offences (Amendment) Act 1976 was the first to use the term ‘consent in statute – previously it had been force that was named as the relevant factor. However, consent had been an issue within common law since 1845 in Camplin in which the woman was drugged with alcohol and it was ruled that, although no force had been used, it was clear that the act was against the womans will and that she could not have consented to it. Since then, there have been other cases where consent is automatically deemed to be absent[21], which Temkin (2000) refers to as the ‘category approach. The case of Olugboja[22] in 1981 however, appears to have changed the standards needed to show non-consent. In this case it was ruled that consent was a state of mind and that the jury should be directed to make up their own minds as to whether consent was present based on the victims state of mind at the time of the rape. This appears to overturn the legal standards that had been develop ed using the ‘category approach. However, this is unclear and Temkin (2000) described the situation as having a ‘threefold uncertainty. The first element of uncertainty was because there was no statutory definition of consent. Secondly, the Olugboja decision individualised cases regarding consent hence moved away from the idea of a legal standard of non-consent. Finally, there was uncertainty regarding whether or not Olugboja had replaced the previous common law ‘category approach. The Sexual Offences Act 2003 addressed these uncertainties by defining consent as ‘a person consents if he agrees by choice, and has the freedom and capacity to make that choice (section 74) and by returning to the category approach by listing the categories in statute. However, the 2003 Act differentiates between six categories where consent is presumed to be absent, unless there is sufficient evidence to the contrary to raise an issue that the defendant reasonably believed that the victim consented, and two categories where consent is conclusively presumed to be absent. This means that the issue of consent still, to some extent, relies upon the mental state of the defendant, even in cases such as where the victim was asleep, experiencing violence from the defendant, or unlawfully detained[23], although the burden of proof is reversed in these situations with the defendant required to demonstrate the steps he took to ascertain consent. 4.2 The mens rea (guilty mind) This second part of the offence of rape – the mens rea – is based on the premise that an individual should not be punished for an act that they did not know they were committing at the time of the act. Although the actus reus and the mens rea are components of all crimes, the mens rea only becomes relevant when the conduct in question contains some level of ambiguity. The need to prove both the actus reus and the mens rea is applicable to other crimes besides rape. The most regularly used example is the crime of trespass; it is against the law to trespass onto anothers property, but a person cannot be convicted if they did not know they were trespassing (i.e. if private property was not clearly marked). Whether or not a person intended to commit a crime is probably more central in rape cases than for other criminal offences when it comes to proving the ‘guilty mind. Previously, if a man committed the actus reus of rape – the guilty act, but he honestly believed that the woman was consenting regardless of how unreasonable that belief was, he can not be convicted of rape because the mens rea[24] – the guilty mind – was not present. This was known formally as the ‘mistaken belief clause and informally as the ‘rapists charter (Temkin, 1987) because it meant that a woman could be actively non-consenting, even shouting ‘no and struggling to free herself, and a man could still be acquitted of rape. It is a defence that is very difficult, if not impossible, to disprove because the defence relies upon what was going on the defendants mind. The ‘mistaken belief clause was first introduced in Morgan[25] in 1976 when a husband colluded in the raping of his wife by three of his friends. He allegedly told his friends that his wife would struggle and say ‘no, as though she did not want to have intercourse with them, but that this ‘turned her on because she was ‘kinky. The accused men claimed that they honestly believed she was enjoying it and consenting and that they did not intend to rape her – in other words they never had a guilty mind. Although in the Morgan case the men were convicted, and the husband convicted of aiding and abetting, this case set a new precedent. The House of Lords ruled that if a man honestly believed that a woman consented, regardless of how unreasonable this belief was, he could not be found guilty of rape. Feminist activist groups campaigned for many years that the mistaken belief defence should be based on some test of reasonableness or that the mistaken belief clause should be abolished altogether. These are issues that have been widely debated throughout the common-law world. In Australia this issue divided rape law reform campaigners into two groups; the ‘subjectivists who argued that the Morgan ruling should be upheld – i.e. if a man honestly believes that a woman consents to sexual intercourse regardless of how unreasonable that belief is he should not be found guilty of rape, and the ‘objectivists, who argue that the belief should be reasonable (Gans, 1997). In Victoria, Australia, the argument against the amendment or abolishment of the ‘mistaken belief defence was based upon data from an empirical study commissioned by the Law Reform Commission of Victoria. This research found that in an examination of 51 rape trials the ‘mistaken belief defence was used in 23 per cent of cases. Furthermore, it was found that acquittals were actually less likely in these cases (Law Reform Commission of Victoria, 1991a, 1991b). They concluded that although the adoption of objectivism would have some effect on the outcomes in rape trials, this impact would be very slight (Law Reform Commission of Victoria, 1991b). This opinion did not meet with universal agreement, and Gans (1997) argues that the methodology, and hence the findings, of this part of the research was fundamentally flawed, invalid and misleading. He criticises the research for not taking into account pre-trial decisions on attrition, and argues they should have included all reported rape cases when publicising the conviction rate rather than just those cases that got to court. Gans also argues the Victorian research ignored the role of the ‘honest belief within juror decision making and had vague coding categories around consent and honest belief. He suggests that, by re-c oding the data, at least 74 per cent rather than 23 per cent of the trials actually had at least some element of the ‘mistaken belief defence and warns that while successful law reform should be based upon empirical research, caution should also be exercised. In England and Wales no empirical research has ever addressed this subject, and it is therefore impossible to know the scale of the problem here[26]. In the Sexual Offences Review there was much debate about the mistaken belief defence, but no clear agreement was reached as to what should be recommended. Around a third of the respondents to the rape and sexual assault section of the Review argued that Morgan should be changed so that a belief must be both honest and reasonable (Home Office, 2000a). Alongside these responses, a postcard campaign to Jack Straw (then the Home Secretary) was organised by the feminist activist group Campaign to End Rape, which called for a total dismissal of the Morgan ruling. The debate within the review was not whether Morgan should be changed per se (the Home Office rape seminar and the Reviews External Reference group agreed that it should be changed), but rather how it should be changed, and what, if anything should replace it. After much debate, the Sexual Offences Act 2003 defined the mens rea of rape as if ‘A does not reasonably believe that B consents (section 1c). Whether or not the belief is classed as reasonable is determined after regarding all the circumstances, including any steps A may have taken to ascertain whether B consents. It is too early to consider what impact this may have had, and the lack of any baseline s makes evaluation difficult unless this were to be conducted retrospectively or using interviews with lawyers. 5. Conclusions The reformed rape law, as of May 2004 can thereby be summarised as if ‘A intentionally penetrates the vagina, anus or mouth of ‘B with his penis, and if ‘B does not consent to the penetration and ‘A does not reasonably believe that ‘B consents (paraphrased from section 1 of the Sexual Offences Act 2003). Although there were piecemeal reforms made between 1956 and 2003, none of these had any impact on the continued decrease in the conviction rate. It is too soon to know how the 2003 Act will be interpreted and what, if any, impact it will have. Although consent has now been defined in statute, this does not solve many of the issues relating to consent. It remains a problem that the law equates passivity or non-resistance with consent (Henning, 1997), especially when there is no evidence of physical violence or if the victim had consented in the past (Harris and Weiss, 1995). The re-wording of the mens rea so that the belief in consent must be reasonable is a significant step forwards, however it is too early to know how ‘reasonable will be interpreted in case law (i.e. reasonable to who? under what circumstances?). There was some scepticism relating to what impact the Sexual Offences Act 2003 would have even during the consultation stages. In 2001, for example, Rumney warned that the review might lead to ‘another false dawn (pg. 890) because of its sole focus on the black letter law. In other words, it is unlikely that men will ‘decide not to rape simply because the laws have been slightly strengthened. Similarly, the high attrition rate is not solely related to how rape is defined in law, so the impact here may also be marginal. Goldberg-Ambrose (1992) suggests that law reform should focus on the trial process, particularly on how rules of evidence and the ways in which rape cases are constructed relate to social perceptions of gender, coercion and sexuality. This suggests that it may be necessary to look further than the ‘black letter law towards the trial process in an attempt to explain why the problems around the prosecution of rape persist. Although campaigning for rape law reform is important it may not be enough. This has been acknowledged by feminists for some time; for example, in 1984 Jeffreys and Radford argued that reforms can only ever be effectively implemented alongside a transformation of mens attitudes. In its most simple terms, it is likely that laws are easier to change than prejudiced attitudes (Gaines, 1997). Although there remain many issues relating to the prosecution of rape defendants, few feminists in England and Wales will deny that the reformed rape law represents a huge step forwards. The same can be said for the other sexual offence laws that were reformed and with regard to the new offences that the legislation created. Decades of previously dismissed feminist campaigning have now come to fruition and the new legislation tempts ‘told you so type comments in some places. The major achievements of the legislation can be held as being: the retention of rape as a gendered offence in terms of its perpetration; the need for an ‘honest belief in consent to also be ‘reasonable; and a complete revision of what it means to truly consent. However, it is highly unlikely that a new law alone will see an end to the problems women who are raped face within the criminal justice system and it is important that monitoring of the new Act begins and is made publicly available as s oon as possible. References Baird, V. (1999) Changes to section 2 of Sexual Offences Act 1976, Medicine, Science and the Law, 39 (3), 198-208. Chambers, G. and Miller, A. (1983) Investigating Rape, Edinburgh: HMSO Cook, K. (2004) Rape Appeal Study: Summary Findings, available at www.truthaboutrape.co.uk Gans, J. (1997) Rape Trial Studies: Handle with Care, The Australian and New Zealand Journal of Criminology, 30, 26-35. Hale, M. (1736, published in 1971) The History of the Pleas of the Crown, London: Professional Books. Harris, J. and Grace, S. (1999) A question of evidence? Investigating and prosecuting rape in the 1990s, London: Home Office. Harris, L.R. and Weiss, D.J. (1995) Judgements of Consent in Simulated Rape Cases, Journal of Social Behaviour and Personality, 10 (1), 79-90. Henning, T. (1997) Consent in sexual assault cases: the continuing construction, Violence Against Women, 3, 4-10. HMCPSI and HMIC (2002) A Report on the Joint Inspection into the Investigation and Prosecution of Cases involving Allegations of Rape, London: HMCPSI and HMIC. Home Office Review of Sex Offences (2000a) Setting the Boundaries: Reforming the law on sex offences (Volume 1), London: Home Office Communication Directorate. Home Office Review of Sex Offences (2000b) Setting the Boundaries: Reforming the law on sex offences (Volume 2), London: Home Office Communication Directorate. Jeffreys, S., and Radford, J. (1984) Contributory negligence or being a woman? The car rapist case, in P. Scraton and P. Gordon (eds) Causes for Concern, London: Penguin books. Kelly, L. (2002) A research review on the reporting, investigation and prosecution of rape cases, London: HM Crown Prosecution Service Inspectorate and HM Inspectorate of Constabulary. Kelly, L. (2004) Legal Reform, Sexual Autonomy and the Justice Gap: Sexual Offences Law in the 21st Century, paper presented at the European Rape Congress, Brussels, 1st – 2nd April 2004. Kelly, L. and Regan, L. (2001) Rape: The Forgotten Issue? A European research and networking project, University of North London: Child and Woman Abuse Studies Unit. Law Reform Commission of Victoria (1991a) Rape: Reform of Law and Procedure: Appendixes to Interim Report No 42, Melbourne: LRCV. Law Reform Commission of Victoria (1991b) Rape: Reform of Law and Procedure, Report No 43, Melbourne: LRCV. Lea, S.J., Lanvers, U. and Shaw, S. (2003) Attrition in rape cases; developing a profile and identifying relevant factors, British Journal of Criminology, 43, 583-599. Lees, S. (1996) Carnal Knowledge – Rape on Trial (1st edition), London: Hamish Hamilton. Lees, S. and Gregory, J. (1993) Rape and Sexual Assault: A Study of Attrition, London: Islington Council. Rumney, P.N.S. (2001) The Review of Sex Offences and Rape Law Reform: Another False Dawn? Modern Law Review, 64 (6), 890-910. Smith, L.J.F. (1989) Concerns About Rape, Home Office Research Study No. 106, London: HMSO. Temkin, J. (1987) Rape and the Legal Process, London: Routledge and Kegan Paul. Temkin, J. (2000) Literature Review: Rape and Sexual Assault, in Setting the Boundaries, London: Home Office www.bristol.ac.uk/sps [1] Nicole Westmarland is a Research Associate in the area of gender and violence at the University of Bristol, UK and a PhD candidate at the University of York, UK. Her activism work includes Tyneside Rape Crisis Centre and the Truth About Rape Campaign. [2] Sexual Offences Act 1956 [3] Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994 [4] For example the use of the term ‘defective for individuals with learning disabilities. [5] Morgan v DPP [1976] AC 182 [6] Research on non-reporting in England and Wales vary depending on who is conducting the research and when the research was conducted. Recent governmental research found that two in ten women who have been raped reported the incident to the police (Myhill and Allen, 2002). However, dated non-governmental research suggested this may be even lower at one in ten women (Painter, 1991). [7] This is part of an overall Labour strategy to put support victims of crime and bring more criminals to justice. (c.f. ‘Justice for All; ‘Speaking up for Justice; the Criminal Justice Act 2003, and plans for a new Victims and Witnesses Bill in the future) [8] In X and Y v The Netherlands in 1985 the Netherlands was held to have violated the rights of a mentally handicapped 16 year old girl because of a loophole in the law which meant that she was not able to make a rape complaint. In M.C. v Bulgaria in 2003 Bulgaria was held to have violated the rights of a girl because she could not prove non-consent because the legal definition of non-consent required force to be used and she was not physically restrained during the rapes. [9] Including Professor Jennifer Temkin and Professor Liz Kelly [10] Rape Crisis Federation [11] Campaign to End Rape [12] Sexual Offences Amendment Act 1976 [13] R v R [1991] 1 All England Law Reports, 747 [14] R v R [1991] 2 All English Law Reports 257 [15] R v R [1991] 4 All England Law Reports 481 [16] CR and SW v UK [17] Previously, pe