Financial health of HKM Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Financial health of HKM - Essay Example We see that HKM is doing a profitable business and the profits can sustain growth and expansion. The balance sheet allows a comparison of the assets the company owns and the liabilities. HKM has total assets amounting to 14278. Comparing this with the liabilities it reveals that HKM is not overburdened in any way by debts. Some ratios can help here. Liquidity is defined as a business' ability to meet its financial obligations2. It shows whether it is able to pay its short term bills (liquidity) and also projects whether its going to be able to service its long term debts when they become due (solvency). Two of the applicable ratios to calculate for HKM are: Going by the above analysis, HKM is doing rather well for a two-year old company. The company has recorded an impressive net profit, it is very liquid and the asset turnover ratio confirms that the company is very efficiently utilizing its assets. For more on ratio analysis see Lynch foulks (2001). The next tool of determining the condition of a business is the break-even analysis. According to some authors it is the volume of unit sales that must be made to at least recover the cost of sales3. For HKM Break-even is calculated as below Break-even analysis helps the management of a business to know the volume of sales that is needed to start making a profit4. ... Current ratio. It is a measure of a company's stability and efficiency. It is calculated as Current assets/current liabilities. = 3278: 1 372 = 8.81: 1 This is saying that HKM is able to pay its short-term obligations 8 times over and that's good news. Net working capital ratio. Net working capital is Current assets - current liabilities Net working capital ratio = Net working capital Total assets = 2966 = 0.21 14278 Return on assets. This ratio tells you the asset intensity of a company and is calculated as; Net income/Total assets = 17966:1 14278 = 1.258:1 1. Activity analysis ratio: Assets turnover ratio. Determines the total sales for every asset. The ratio tells you how efficiently a company utilizes its assets. = Sales Total assets = 87824:1 14278 = 6.15:1 Going by the above analysis, HKM is doing rather well for a two-year old company. The company has recorded an impressive net profit, it is very liquid and the asset turnover ratio confirms that the company is very efficiently utilizing its assets. For more on ratio analysis see Lynch foulks (2001). Chapter 2. Break-Even Analysis The next tool of determining the condition of a business is the break-even analysis. According to some authors it is the volume of unit sales that must be made to at least recover the cost of sales3. For HKM Break-even is calculated as below Contribution per item = 87824-56676-3954.6 500 = 54.39 Break-even point = 9227.4 169.66 54.39 Margin of safety = 500-170 * 100 500 = 66% 2.1 Benefits of the break-even analysis. Break-even analysis helps the management of a business to know the volume of sales that is needed to start making a

Illegal Mexican Americans Essay Example for Free

Illegal Mexican Americans Essay Over the past 10 years, traversing the U.S.–Mexico border illegally has become increasingly dangerous for would-be immigrants. Illegal immigrants face kidnapping, murder, and rape at the hands of violent drug cartels and ever more ruthless human smugglers. Crossing treacherous desert areas exposes the travelers to heat exhaustion and dehydration. Hundreds of people die every year trying to cross the border into the U.S. However, illegal immigration is dangerous not only to the illegal immigrants themselves—it is costly to societies and nations as a whole. In order to fight illegal immigration and reduce the toll on human lives, the United States must take a comprehensive approach of increasing border security and improving legal immigration procedures and public diplomacy, as well as fostering reforms and greater efforts to crack down on human smuggling in Latin America. The Heritage Foundation lays out a plan for such an approach. In August 2010, 72 would-be illegal immigrants from Mexico were lined up and executed, their bodies discovered on a remote ranch a mere 90 miles from the U.S. border. The drug gang responsible for the kidnapping and murders, Los Zetas, captured its victims as they traveled through Tamaulipas, presumably on their way to cross the border illegally into the United States. When the 72 people refused to work for the gang, they were executed. Violence against illegal border-crossers has become a regular occurrence around land and sea borders over the past decade. Criminal acts committed against illegal immigrants include kidnapping, robbery, extortion, sexual violence, and death at the hands of cartels, smugglers, and even corrupt Mexican government officials. Hundreds of individuals perish trying to cross the U.S. southwest border each year—due to heat exhaustion, drowning, and falling into the hands of the wrong people. In Mexico, violence against illegal immigrants in transit has exploded since President Felipe Calderon began his battle against the country’s transnational criminal organizations in 2006. Despite some success in thwarting these organizations, the slow pace of justice and law enforcement reform, as well as rampant corruption, has allowed organized crime to continue to thrive in Mexico. Likewise, as Mexico attempts to clamp down on narcotics operations, these increasingly multifaceted crimina l organizations turn to other sources of income, such as human smuggling and sex trafficking. The dangers of illicit movement are not confined to Mexico. Thousands of illegal immigrants attempt to reach the United States annually by sea from the Caribbean islands of Cuba, Haiti, and the Dominican Republic. They all put themselves at risk of abandonment, exposure, capsizing, and drowning. For many illegal immigrants, their journey to the United States does not begin at America’s southern border. Mexico serves as a starting point as well as a path of transit for people all across Latin America seeking illegal entry into the United States. Last year, Mexico’s National Immigration Institute (INM) apprehended and repatriated a total of 62,141 illegal immigrants within Mexico’s border. Of the 400,235 individuals that the INM estimates enter Mexico every year illegally, approximately 150,000—or thirty seven percent—intend to cross over into the United States. These individuals travel from their home countries throughout the region to Mexico’s 750-mile shared border with Guatemala and Belize. While the terrain is mountainous and jungle-covered, there are few checkpoints along the crossing, making it to be a hospitable environment to many would-be illegal immigrants. Yet, at Mexico’s southern border begins a dangerous journey of some 2,000 miles to the United States. Over the past several years, programs to support judicial and law enforcement reform have received greater levels of support from the U.S. government. Under the shelter of the Merida Initiative, the Central America Regional Security Initiative (CARSI), and the Caribbean Basin Security Initiative (CBSI), U.S. agencies support a wide variety of programs geared toward institutional reform. A portion of the total $1.3 billion appropriated for the Merida Initiative in Mexico since its creation is intended to provide technical assistance to law enforcement and training to improve vetting processes. Further, at least $207 million of the aid appropriated under Merida is specifically to be used to improve judicial efficiency and effectiveness, coordinate efforts to improve prosecutorial ability, and improve court and prison management. In order to combat the problem of illegal immigration and reduce the toll on human lives, the United States must take a comprehensive approach of increasing border security and improving legal immigration procedures and public diplomacy, as well as fostering reforms and greater efforts to combat human smuggling in Latin America.

Documentary photography

Documentary photography Intro Documentary photography is extended form — that is, a work composed of a sizeable number of images. Some relation to text is a given, even if its only minimal, as in the identification of subject, date, and location; the text may in fact be extensive. There is no external time limit implicit in this form; some documentary projects have stretched over decades. For this reason, the documentary photographer is likely to have the opportunity to refine the project, not only through the analysis of the work-in-progress at various stages but even by the reshooting of unsatisfactory segments of the work. The elaborate nature of such projects lends itself to subjects that are seen as enduring; for much the same reason, the final forms they assume tend to be durable: the book and the exhibition have to date functioned as the primary embodiments of documentary projects, though certain audio-visual formats are serving this purpose with increasing frequency. The expose, the compassion and outrage, of documentary fuelled by the dedication to reform has shaded over into combinations of exoticism, tourism, voyeurism, psychologism, and metaphysics, trophy hunting – and careerism. It is easy to understand why what has ceased to be news becomes testimonial to the bearer of the news. Documentary testifies, finally, to the bravery or (dare we name it?) the manipulativeness and savvy of the photographer, who entered a situation of physical danger, social restrictedness, human decay, or combinations of these and saved us the trouble. Or who, like the astronauts, entertained us by showing us the places we never hope to go. War photography, slum photography, â€Å"subculture† or cult photography, photography of the foreign poor, photography of â€Å"deviance.† As I see it, the intentions of a documentary photographer are to record some aspects of reality, by producing a depiction of what the photographer saw and which portends to represent that reality in as objective a manner as possible. I believe we have already discussed in all sorts of forums the fact that photography per se, is tantamount to manipulation. That the impact of the lens selected, the film chosen, and all the other technical variables leave ample room to question the so called faithful representation of reality. So let us not mull over this one endlessly, as I think it thins the debate rather enhances it. The journalist is not some copier machine that simply reproduces mindlessly what is placed on the platen in front of her. He weaves and puts together the information in order to insure that it accurately portrays the information presented in a decision making process that supports the story being presented. As I have come to understand it, it has mainly to do with past traditions and customs. It apparently flies in the face of reason, that if one would alter an image, it no longer could call itself a document. What is wrong in that analysis is that any and all alterations have been treated equal (they are all bad). We know for a fact that not all alterations have the same justifications behind them, that some alterations can even contribute to enhance the veracity of an image rather than the opposite. Furthermore, many of the fears related to the conceptual changes for photography have to do mainly with a loss of certainty of what the photograph actually is delivering, in so far as a document, with little debate about the veracity of the content of a given image. We are of course dealing here with the same sort of ethical debates around editing a story, be that with text or film, even sound tracks, something everyone has been discussing for a long time. For photography it is no different. Why should it be? Since the 1980s photojournalism has been at a crossroads. Digital technologies do impinge on the routines, rituals, traditions, and behaviors of photojournalists. Digital technologies do require a variety of skill-sets that could not have been imagined a half-century ago. The photojournalist of the future will understand the ethical responsibilities that come with electronic digital manipulation. The rise of documentary photography does not spring from fashion. Rather its rapid growth represents strong organic forces at work, strong creative impulses seeking an outlet suitable to the serious and tense spirit of our age. The proof that documentary photography is not a fad or a vogue lies in the history of other movements in photography. Against this pattern of sterility, of ideas which could not reproduce themselves, we have the new function (and evolving from it the new esthetic) of documentary photography, an application of photography direct and realistic, dedicated to the profound and sober chronicling of the external world. To Lewis Hine, who thirty-five years ago was making photographs of child labor in sweat shops and textile mills, the vague tenents of pictorialism or the even less useful purposes of the photogram or rayograph must be incomprehensible. To the hard-working photographers of the Farm Security Administration, the somewhat remote and abstruse manner of the spiritual heirs of the Photo-Secession may seem too refined. To such a photographer as Berenice Abbott, setting down the tangible visage of New York in precise detain and lineament, the sentimental fantasies of a Fassbinder must be well nigh incredible. We have all had a surfeit of pretty pictures, of romantic views of hilltop, seaside, rolling fields, skyscrapers seen askew, picturesque bits of life torn out of their sordid context. It is life that is exciting and important; and life whole and unretouched. By virtue of this new spirit of realism, photography looks now at the external world with new eyes, the eyes of scientific, uncompromising honesty. The camera eye cannot lie, is lightly said. On the contrary, the camera eye usually does nothing but lie. But the external world is those facts of decay and change, of social retrogression and injusticeas well as the wide miles of America and its vast mountain ranges. The external world, we may add, is the world of human beings; and, whether we see their faces or the works of their hands and the consequences, tragic or otherwise, of their social institutions, we look at the world with a new orientation, more concerned with what is outside than with the inner ebb and flow of consciousness. The fact is a thousand times more important than the photographer; his personality can be intruded only by the worst taste of exhibitionism; this at last is reality. Yet, also, by the imagination and intelligence he possesses and uses, the photographer controls the new esthetic, finds the significant truth and gives it significant form. Body A new generation of photographers has directed the documentary approach toward more personal end. Their aim has not been to reform life, but to know it. Their work betrays a sympathy — almost an affection — for the imperfections and frailties of society. They like the real world, in spite of its terrors, as the source of all wonder and fascination and value — no less precious for being irrational . . . . What they hold in common is the belief that the commonplace is really worth looking at, and the courage to look at it with a minimum of theorizing. Contemporary documentary practice by photographers such as Fazal Sheikh, Simon Norfolk, Luc Delahaye, Paul Graham, Martin Parr and Pedro Meyer examine the social world with a measured sense of contemplation, challenging the traditional conventions of documentary photography in revealing a vision and voice about the real world. As I see it, the intentions of a documentary photographer are to record some aspects of reality, by producing a depiction of what the photographer saw and which portends to represent that reality in as objective a manner as possible. If we can agree to that description, I can already see our critics pounding on their desks accompanied by some degree of glee on their faces, as they suggest that this is precisely the reason why there is no room for the computer to be used in recreating documentary images. That the impact of the lens selected, the film chosen, and all the other technical variables leave ample room to question the so called â€Å"faithful representation† of reality. So why are so many people up in arms about the idea that a photograph edited in the computer is not really a true documentary representation? As I have come to understand it, it has mainly to do with past traditions and customs. It has been widely commented that much of the important photojournalism of the last several years has been done by amateurs — London Underground bombing, Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse, coffins of American soldiers coming from Iraq, young woman being flogged in Afghanistan, etc. And now, of course, there are the many images from Iran by amateurs which become even more critical as professionals are banned from the country. Instead of a single iconic photograph we will often be looking at imagery made by people who, as amateurs, are not schooled in the history of photography–they will be making imagery for information, not to replicate or create new icons. As such, their imagery will probably often be both more original and more awkward, but it may also make it more difficult to find the telling metaphors. In this sense, the imagery will be more modest and probably more credible. The need for professional photo essayists with deep understandings of specific cultures, both insiders and foreigners, is more crucial than ever. Somehow they must be paid for their work, and equally important is to find places for them to publish. Like writers and editors, photojournalists are held to a standard of ethics. Each publication has a set of rules, sometimes written, sometimes unwritten, that governs what that publication considers to be a truthful and faithful representation of images to the public. These rules cover a wide range of topics such as how a photographer should act while taking pictures, what he or she can and cant photograph, and whether and how an image can be altered in the darkroom or on the computer. This ethical framework evolved over time, influenced by such things as technological capability and community values; and it is continually developing today. News images shape our culture in ways both profound and deep. These photos have woven themselves into the collective memory of a generation. There are some who would even say that the mounting weight of photographic evidence was the primary cause for public opinion to shift against the war in Vietnam, and hence effected an end to the war itself. As such, to borrow a phrase from pop culture, â€Å"With great power comes great responsibility.†1 Responsible photojournalism means adherence to a standard of ethics. Photographic and video images can reveal great truths, expose wrongdoing and neglect, inspire hope and understanding and connect people around the globe through the language of visual understanding. Photographs can also cause great harm if they are callously intrusive or are manipulated. Ethics is an inherently subjective field. In his seminal textbook, Photojournalism, the Professionals Approach, author and photojournalism professor Kenneth Kobrà © writes, â€Å"Photojournalism has no Bible, no rabbinical college, no Pope to define correct choices.†8 There is no sole arbiter of what is or isnt ethical, and even if there were, the line isnt always black and white. Most texts regarding ethics in photojournalism focus on the issue of what might be termed â€Å"photographic truth† whether a particular image accurately represents the subject or whether it misleads the viewer. The National Press Photographers Association Code of Ethics states that the â€Å"primary goal† of the photojournalist is the â€Å"faithful and comprehensive depiction of the subject at hand.† Additionally, photojournalistic ethics might encompass the choices an individual photographer makes while shooting. For example, should a war photographer put down his cameras in order to help an injured soldier? If someone asks that his or her photo not be taken, is it ethical to photograph that person anyway? If ethics in photojournalism is about being â€Å"faithful and comprehensive,† is intentionally underexposing or poorly focusing unethical? Some of these questions sit on the line between journalistic ethics and professionalism. Utilitarianism as a philosophy attempts to weigh positives and negatives of a situation, and maximize the good for the greatest number of people. For example, if gruesome photos of a car crash offend the victims families, but shock the community into driving safely, then by Utilitarianism the taking and publication of those photos is deemed to be ethical. Photographer-centric ethics have to do with photographers choices at the time news photos are captured up until the photos are handed off to an editor. Whether or not to pose a subject, the question regarding what to do with a wounded soldier in combat, and how a photographer treats an image in the darkroom (or in the computer) are all matters of photographer-centric ethics. The method used to reproduce photographs on the printing press was not perfected until the 1880s, and it was not widely adopted for several more years. The New York Times, for example, did not publish photos until 1896. Though The New York Times printed its first photographs in a Sunday Magazine in 1896, the newspaper was not without visual imagery before then. Advertisements in The Times throughout the 1880s feature drawings and etchings, and those tools were occasionally used for news purposes. Though photography was known to many people and gaining popularity as an art form at the time, newspapers lacked the technology (and therefore the ability) to include photographic images as part of their reportage. This, however, did not stop some newspapers from hiring photographers and making use of their images. Some period newspapers employed both graphic artists and news photographers. This process was used at many different newspapers from the late 1800s to the early 1900s. The hand-drawn images were popular with readers, and publishers were loathe to switch over to the newer photographic technology. That technology, the halftone process, employed a fine screen that converted an image to a series of dots. When, at last, newspapers and magazines were able to regularly feature photographic images, the photos themselves were almost as much of a story as the news itself. Newspapers throughout the early 20th century are rife with â€Å"worlds first photo of † images. Around the turn of the century, smaller and less complex photo equipment started to become available. Celluloid film, first used for photographic purposes in 1888, was rapidly replacing glass as the substrate for photographic chemicals. This, along with Kodaks famous â€Å"Box Brownie† camera allowed more people to start taking photographs of their own. Among the public, the spread of amateur photography sparked by George Eastmans Kodak and other small cameras and the invention of faster lenses, shutters, and film led to a taste for candid, often close-up images with a sense of immediacy and spontaneity: the posed group portrait was obsolete in leading media by circa 1900. In the 1930s, technology started to work in the photojournalists favor. The Leica camera, invented in 1914 and marketed in 1925, gained popularity first with photographic luminaries such Robert Capa and Henri Cartier-Bresson, and then slowly with the rest of the industry. Thwarted by military censors from reporting the â€Å"what, where, and how† of World War I, journalists engaged the â€Å"who† the human interest stories that were already a staple of early 20th century media. These were cheaper and easier to file than hard news and analysis. they were also encouraged by the new light weight cameras and faster lenses introduced in the mid-1920s. These easily handled cameras performed in low light and could be used surreptitiously. If they did not give birth to the paparazzi as well as â€Å"street photographers those nimble observers of lifes odd encounters and human comedies they helped make spontaneous, sharp-eyed photojournalism a key language of modern vision. They changed the approach of photo reporters: no longer official observers beholden to those in power, photojournalists could be the eyes of the public prying, amused, or watchdog eyes. The split in U.S. society over the war in Vietnam and the controversy about it worldwide were reflected in media coverage, which in turn helped sharpen opposition to the war from around 1968. Photojournalism itself changed. The issues were too complex for neat photographic embodiments, and the war itself had few triumphs. While posing photos and staging news events had been taboo for some time, there was little precedent to inform photographers as to how and whether to render aid to their subjects during active combat. On one hand, helping a wounded soldier might have saved his life. On the other hand, â€Å"helping out† made photographers complicit with their subjects, and removed some of the distance necessary for journalistic objectivity. As photographic technology continued to evolve into the 1980s and 1990s, so too did photojournalistic ethics. The early 1990s saw the dawn of purely digital news photography. In the 1980s, magazines and newspapers started to experiment with incorporating digitized images into their layouts. Though some photojournalists were carrying laptops to remote places, setting up makeshift darkrooms, and scanning and transmitting film photos, the digital switchover did not start in earnest until 1992. With digital technology came digital photo manipulation. While the tenets of ethical news photography still held, there were notable breaches. Throughout photographys history, an unsuspecting public has been fooled by manipulated images. What is of concern to modern media watchers is the justifications used to alter images through computer technology not the fact that such alterations can be published without detection. The difference between todays â€Å"citizen photojournalism† and the aforementioned examples is the ubiquity of the imaging devices in modern society. In 2004, consumers bought 257 million camera-equipped mobile phones. By comparison, during the same time only 68 million digital cameras were sold.69 Millions upon millions of people are walking around with cameras in their pockets, waiting to become accidental photojournalists. Unfortunately, the vast majority of people in the general public are not aware of the nuances of photojournalistic ethics. Worse yet, there are people who actively try to dupe or trick the mainstream media into using ethically questionable (or flat-out fake) images. Not only can faked photos be misleading, they can have dramatic real-world consequences. During the 2004 election, it was briefly but widely reported that Senator John Kerry and activist Jane Fonda spoke at the same anti-Vietnam war rally. The accompanying photograph depicts Fonda and Kerry s tanding together at a podium. Nowhere was the power of citizen photojournalism more clearly demonstrated than in the summer of 2005 during the London subway bombings. On July 7, 2005, three bombs exploded on London subway cars, and a fourth detonated on a bus. Fifty-two people died, and some 700 were injured.74 Within minutes of the blasts, citizens began chronicling the aftermath using both standalone cameras and cameras embedded in mobile devices. While working photojournalists and other members of the press responded as quickly as they could, their still images were not as intimate or immediate as those taken by the affected passengers. Some of those passengers who took pictures with their mobile devices later uploaded them to photo-sharing websites like flickr.com. The next day, in a journalistic first, both The New York Times and the Washington Post ran front-page camera phone images that were taken by citizens, not by photojournalists.75 In describing the emerging citizen journalism trend, Dennis Dunleavy o f The Digital Journalist writes, â€Å"The future is here, now. The future came with the Abu Ghraib prison scandal, the devastation of the tsunami in the Pacific late last year, and now without question, London. The digital camera phone is the future and we have much to learn from this emerging technology.†76 Conclusion The great challenge here is to deconstruct previous templates so that they not be relied upon to continue the generic typecasting of journalism famine, flood, bombing, crime wave, accident, power figures, etc. A conversational media will begin with the humanity of the person (the subject), not their social ranking. Rather than being looked at by the journalist, it will be generally better to think of the subject as potentially becoming involved in the conversation. Since photography itself is only about 150 years old, this was not always the case. It would be impossible, of course, for â€Å"photojournalistic ethics† to predate photojournalism itself. While the concept of â€Å"ethics† has been around since the dawn of recorded history, photography has not. As of this writing, photography is still less than two hundred years old. It is fairly obvious that no ethical system could exist for any sort of photojournalism before photography was invented. This might appear to suggest an acceptable date from which to begin studying ethics in American photojournalism why not start at the beginning of photography? Even after Nicà ©phore Nià ©pce fixed the first permanent photographic images in 1826, it took several decades (and several inventors) before mankind had the technology to marry photography with text on the printed page. Photojournalism is a large and diverse field with very little consensus regarding ethics, even within small sub-genres (community newspaper photojournalism, for example). While most working press photographers should be aware of the consequences of ethical breaches, there is no â€Å"Photojournalists Hippocratic Oath,† no common Ten Commandments of ethics in photojournalism, nor are there standard â€Å"punishments† for ethical violations. Each publication and news organization sets its own ethical standards, which may simply come down to what it will tolerate, or what will sell more papers, in terms of pushing the ethical envelope. Sometimes these rules are written down in concrete codes of ethics, and sometimes they are simply the empirical sum of what is acceptable to the staff or a particular editor at a particular publication. Images in our pages that purport to depict reality must be genuine in every way. No people or objects may be added, rearranged, reversed, distorted or removed from a scene (except for the recognized practice of cropping to omit extraneous outer portions). Adjustments of color or gray scale should be limited to those minimally necessary for clear and accurate reproduction, analogous to the burning and dodging that formerly took place in darkroom processing of images. Pictures of news situations must not be posed. In the cases of collages, montages, portraits, fashion or home design illustrations, fanciful contrived situations and demonstrations of how a device is used, our intervention should be unmistakable to the reader, and unmistakably free of intent to deceive. Captions and credits should further acknowledge our intervention if the slightest doubt is possible. The design director, a masthead editor or the news desk should be consulted on doubtful cases or proposals for exceptions . After tracing the history of ethics in photojournalism and examining the state of those ethics today, one cannot help but wonder where photojournalistic ethics are going. Since nobody can confidently predict the future, the only option is to examine current trends and extrapolate. Certain issues are on the cutting edge of the present photojournalistic ethics discussion, and those issues are likely to play significant roles in shaping tomorrows photojournalism. Of course, without a crystal ball there is no way to be sure. From the invention of flash powder that made it possible for Jacob Riis to document the hideous conditions in New York tenements, to the Adobe Photoshop software that Brian Walski used to doctor his image, technology has certainly played a part in the evolution of todays ethical system. One might even say that technology has been the predominant influence in the evolution of todays ethical system (at the very least, but for the technology of photography itself, there would be no photojournalism). Likewise, technology will almost certainly be the driving influence regarding ethics in the future. Multiple factors will drastically change the ethical landscape. These include the further assimilation of digital photography work-flows into the newsroom, the improvement of consumer photo technology, and the omnipresence of photo technology including cameras in portable devices such as cell phones and PDAs. The shift away from printed material and towards electronic media for image consumption will also leave its own mark on photojournalistic ethics. Digital photography is the predominant means of image capture for American newspaper and magazine photojournalism today. Not only has it been that way for several years, the rate at which it has taken over is astounding. This bitwise blitzkrieg of sorts has brought with it new and difficult ethical challenges. In the â€Å"old days† before digital photography, images had a definite physicality. Photographs were fixed on pieces of film acetate coated in a chemical emulsion and developed in chemical baths. A photograph was something that could be held in ones hand. While not impossible, it was far more difficult to pull off a convincing photo fake. Twenty years ago, Brian Walski could never have doctored his image in the field. What might have taken minutes on his laptop would have taken hours, or even days, in a darkroom. Though the news cycle has sped up considerably since then, even two decades ago most newspapers and magazines couldnt afford that sort of delay before publication.65 Using Adobe Photoshop, the software with which Walski effected his fake, is more convenient, more effective, and easier than altering photos in a wet darkroom. Newer cameras and more powerful editing software both impact photojournalistic ethics, however sometimes that impact can be surprising. Since so much of the substance of journalistic ethics is about the process rather than the result, technology that enables new (or old) processes will automatically impact the ethical landscape. One recent example is the release of the Nikon D2x camera. The D2x is a professional caliber SLR with a unique feature it allows the photographer to create multiple-exposure images in the camera itself.66 Before digital imaging, most SLR cameras came with a switch that allowed the photographer to cock the shutter without advancing the film. This allowed the photographer to expose the same frame of film multiple times. One frequent use for this feature was to couple it with a motor drive, and take a sequence of photos that showed motion throughout a single frame. With the advent of the digital SLR, photographers lost the ability to use this technique in-camer a. For a similar effect, photographers could take a series of images and overlay them with digital editing software. Most publications, however, insisted upon labeling these images as â€Å"photo-illustrations† because of the ex post facto manipulation. The Nikon D2x restored the photojournalists license to create multiple exposure images. In addition to professional equipment, consumer and â€Å"prosumer† camera technology is also improving, and cameras included in mobile devices are starting to become more popular. Many of these mobile devices are networked (cell phones, for example), and are capable of transmitting images in near real time. During major news events, some photo editors are inundated with images from â€Å"citizen photojournalists.†67 Citizen journalism, of course, is nothing new. This widespread citizen media production and consumption raises an important question. With more and more people carrying cameras in their pockets, will the future have a place for the â€Å"professional† photojournalist? At first the question seems compelling for two reasons access and tools. In terms of access, it is impossible for a small cadre of trained photojournalists to be everywhere and to photograph everything that is newsworthy. There were no working photojournalists aboard the London bus and trains that were bombed, but there were people with camera phones. With each successive generation of camera phone improving in resolution and quality, the gap between the professionals tools and the citizens tools is closing, just as the ubiquity of those tools is increasing. â€Å"Professionalism,† however, connotes more than being in the right place at the right time with the right camera. In the photojournalism industry, professionalism means technical skill, news gathering experience, and of course ethics. Photojournalist Nancy L. Ford writes: A photojournalists job is to go out and experience life for others, to capture an event on film, and hopefully capture the emotion that was experienced, so the readers can see and feel what it was like to be there. The photojournalist must capture the truth, too. This means the photographer must only photograph what has happened, when it happened and not recreate a situation because they didnt get there on time. They must not move things around on the scene of an event to make the pictures look better. They must not alter their photographs on the computer or in the darkroom, like take an ugly telephone pole out of a picture. The photojournalist must also tell the truth, just like the reporter.77 [The] unsupervised approach may be even more of a problem with photography, because the meaning of an image can be manipulated through use in a false context, or no context at all. In the looting that followed the fall of Saddam Husseins regime there were photographs of US soldiers with arms full of money taken off the looters they had arrested, and which they were returning to an appropriate location. The same photographs could represent responsible people attempting to restore law and order, or ruthless invaders plundering the country that was their victim, your choice, depending on who you are and where you are. With technology enabling even the most unskilled amateur to take good quality photographs such misrepresentations are likely to occur more frequently. Not only will there be a greater number of images of any given event, but once theyre on the Internet they will be readily available to anyone with an agenda. Furthermore, amateur photographers dont have the same training as professional photojournalists, nor have they acquired the same experience and instincts.78 This professionalism, experience, and instinct is what ensures the existence of the photojournalist well into the future. Reportage has occured since the dawn of printed news, yet seldom is the place of the professional print journalist questioned. This is in spite of the fact that ordinary citizens sometimes have greater or more immediate access, and that many people carry pencils and paper (the tools of the print journalists trade). In the world of written journalism, professional journalists (who are bound by their own ethics) cull quotations from non-journalists. Absent blogs, nobody asks citizens to write whole news articles about what they witness. In other words, though recently The New York Times ran a camera phone image that was taken by a â€Å"citizen photojournalist† on its front page, it is doubtful that they

It Doesnt Matter Summary :: Nicholas Carr Article Summary

Electricity, the telephone, the steam engine, the telegraph, the railroad andÂ…..IT? In his HBR article, "IT Doesn't Matter," Nicholas Carr has stirred up quite a bit of controversy around IT's role as strategic business differentiator. He examines the evolution of IT and argues that it follows a pattern very similar to that of earlier technologies like railroads and electricity. At the beginning of their evolution, these technologies provided opportunities for competitive advantage. However, as they become more and more available Ââ€" as they become ubiquitous Ââ€" they transform into "commodity inputs," and lose their strategic differentiation capabilities. From a strategic viewpoint, they essentially become "invisible." Carr distinguishes between proprietary technologies and what he calls infrastructural technologies. Proprietary technologies can provide a strategic advantage as long as they remain restricted through "physical limitations, intellectual property rights, high costs or a lack of standards," but once those restrictions are lifted, the strategic advantage is lost. In contrast, infrastructural technologies provide far greater value when shared. Although an infrastructural technology might appear proprietary in the early stages of buildout, eventually the characteristics and economics of infrastructural technology necessitate that they will be broadly shared and will become a part of the broader business infrastructure. To illustrate his point, Carr uses the example of a proprietary railroad. It is possible that a company might gain a competitive advantage by building lines only to their suppliers, but eventually this benefit would be trivial compared to the broader good realized by bu ilding a railway network. The same is true for IT - no company today would gain a cost-effective competitive advantage by narrowing its focus and implementing an Internet only between their suppliers to the exclusion of the rest of the world. To further shore up his "IT as commodity" theory, Carr cites the fact that major technology vendors, such as Microsoft and IBM, are positioning themselves as "IT utilities," companies that control the provision of business applications over "the grid." Couple this IT-as-utility trend with the rapidly decreasing cost of processing power, data storage and transmission, and even the most "cutting-edge IT capabilities quickly become available to all." Although IT may seem too diverse to be compared to commodities such as electricity and the railroads, Carr points out three specific characteristics that guarantee rapid commoditization: IT is a transport mechanism; IT is highly replicable; and IT is subject to rapid price deflation.

Becoming Gendered Essay

Davies argues that the sex role socialization theory does not adequately explain how we understand and become man and woman (p282). She concedes that the social structure with which man is entrenched; influence the conception of gender but the individual is as much a part of that process as the social environment. Davies says that man is an agent in his/her gendered identity, we choose to be masculine or feminine in the context of our social realities and that it is not tied to biology. In the movie Sabrina (1995), after being sent to Paris and transformed into a sophisticated woman of the world, David became enamored with her. David responded to her charms when she became feminine and did not notice her when she was boyish and ugly. Sabrina was masculine because she did not have a female figure to emulate, but within the same environment she was able to recognize the attraction she felt for the opposite sex and although it was depicted as a coming of age realization, socialization does not fully demonstrate the shift in gender roles (Rakow, 1986; 12). Davies was correct when she said that the individual is an active and engaged participant in becoming gendered (p284), Sabrina may have become feminine in her ways, but she was independent, headstrong and speaks her mind, all of which are masculine traits which she had imbibed while she was growing up. Davies (p289) suggested that we become gendered because it is what society expects, Sabrina has to be feminine because she was female and the world responds to that reality based on their conception of what is feminine and masculine. References Pollack, S. (Director). (1995, December 15). Sabrina, Constellation Entertainment. Davies, B. (2001). Becoming male or female. In S. Jackson & S. Scott (Eds.), Gender (pp. 280-290). London: Routledge . Rakow, L. (1986) â€Å"Rethinking Gender Research in Communication,† Journal of Communication, Volume 36, No. 4, pp.11-26.

Current issues in global business effects of population trends and the over aging of many western countries

Current issues in global business effects of population trends and the over aging of many western countries Abstract The global population trend is notably aging. A study of the population trend together with its possible impacts indicates a looming crisis that could have global negative effects on both economic and social factors. In this paper, research is done from secondary sources of information to give a detailed overview of the population trend with specification to some countries in both the west and east. The study reveals that policies should be formulated, either globally or at national levels to subvert the looming crisis due to the aging population.Advertising We will write a custom critical writing sample on Current issues in global business: effects of population trends and the over aging of many western countries specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More Introduction The demographic structures of a society or a nation define all aspects of life, whether social, economic or political. Institutions and individual persons make decisions that that affects these aspects. The discussion in this writing seeks to discuss effects of population trend and the over-aging of many western countries. With information from current resources like magazines and journals published in March 2011 and current books, the paper will discuss economic impacts of the population trend and the over-aging of the western countries on the global economic environment. The paper will also discuss the political and social impacts of demography. Population Trend Mathematicians examine a trend in terms of a pattern that is adopted by a particular subject. These patterns occasionally have significant implications on a variety of real life issues. Statistical measures like census or sample surveys reveal quantities and their implications on the environment. A case study of a population census revealed in March, 2011 by North Field News had interesting revelations. The data indicated that population growth primarily happens in metropolitan and not in rural areas. In fact, the average growth rate is twenty percent in the cities while the individual county with the highest growth rate recorded only seven percent. This is due to significant migration to the cities (Lindberg 1). According to a catholic journal published on seventeenth March, 2011, the life expectancy in the United States of America has vastly increased with a significant decrease in the death rate. In addition, life expectancy increased to about eighty years in the year 2009. It was further reported that the number of older people are generally on the increase in developing countries. A seven percent average increase is estimated for centenarians in the United States-centenarians are people who are at least one hundred years old (Catholic 1). Recently, Germany reported a crisis due to ageing of the workforce and decreasing population over all. They estimated that the workforce will reduce by about five million in the next decade. Germany is just an example, though a closely similar trend is predicted in many of the western countries (Larry and Kollewe 1).Advertising Looking for critical writing on business economics? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More Similarly, it has been noted in the United States that the aging problem if developing. An increased life expectancy together with significantly increasing percentage of the elderly in the American population is notable. It can be statistically concluded that the population trend is changing in the United States and other western countries. A sample of the United States and European countries like the Germany, Britain and Spain can be used as an inference to the general population trends in the America and European countries. The increased health and medical facilities in these developed countries can be used to explain this change in population trend that has realized increasing population of the elderly (Elliott and Kollewe 1). A further worry is raised by the fact that a majority of the work force in some of these countries are the elderly who will soon be faced out of the labor system due to their age. Another cause of this trend is the change in social views that led to reduced birth rates in these countries in the past years (Greenberg 1). An almost similar trend in demography is exhibited in other continents. A case study of the demographic trend in Asian countries indicates a similarity to the trend observed in the western countries. The recent earthquake in Japan sent an indicator of the country’s population trend as reported statistics indicated that a majority of the victims of the calamity were the elderly. Either list of the survivors or the missing people in the Japanese earthquake were significantly dominated by the elderly age group. In the 31st march, 2011 article titled â€Å"Asia braces for its date with demographic destiny†, Wheatley Alan pointed out that the most important s tep for Japan in its restructuring agenda should be â€Å"solving the issue ageing society with a low birth rate† (Wheatley 1). According to Alan, Japan is the leading among the ageing nations with a record of thirty per cent of its population being more than sixty years of age as at the year 2010. With its trend, the percentage composition of the Japanese population by the elderly, of more than sixty years of age, is projected to hit thirty seven percent by the year twenty thirty. Close to the Japanese demographic trend is that of South Korea which is projected to have thirty two percent of the population as the elderly (Wheatley 1). China is also reported to exhibit increasing trend in the ageing population. It is estimated that by the year 2015, Chinese elderly population shall have grown from its 12 percent in the year 2010 up to 16 percent (Tsuruoka 1). The changing population trend has been caused by a number of factors such as improved health standards that resulted in higher life expectancy among others. In china for example, the trend is majorly attributed to the one child policy that was established in the earlier years of 1980s. The policy which was harshly enforced by the government ensured reduced birth rate. At the same time, life expectancy increased from previous forty two years and thirty nine years for women and men respectively in the middle of twentieth century to seventy one years and sixty eight years respectively at the close of the twentieth century (Columbia 1).Advertising We will write a custom critical writing sample on Current issues in global business: effects of population trends and the over aging of many western countries specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More Effects of the Population Trend in the Western Countries The population trend and the aging factor evidenced in the above mentioned countries all aspects of life and social economic planning. As Bloch Brian reported, these demographic trends have implied effects in business sector of economies. One of the effects of this demographic change is on investment and pension schemes. The social nature of the demographic structure is expected to play an important role in the economic effects of the demographic changes. â€Å"Baby boomers†, reaching retirement age are the key players and the major asset owners in the global economy and they will move their assets in their old age. The worst problem is the spending younger generation who are seen as not keen on savings. The effect of the situation will be a flooded market for assets with no buyers leading to their loss of value. This claim of negative economic effect of demographic changes is however refuted by views that the relationship between the population trend and the economies is not significantly correlated. It is further argued that the demographic factors could have been factored in the current stock prices besides the global investments acro ss borders into the western economies (Bloch 1). The change in population trend also has a significant effect in the labor market. The facing out of the ageing generation who are also the main suppliers of labor force in some countries is expected to result in scarcity in human resource in these countries. The German government through its labor minister confers that the issue of expected labor shortage is real and measures are being considered to import labor force in the future years. This leads to the social impacts of immigration that will witness social interactions of a variety of races and nationalities that will be imported into these western economies (Larry and Kollewe 1). The trend and structure of the western population also have effects in the country’s politics. A survey conducted in Britain indicated that the age factor significantly affected political views. It was noted that a larger percentage of the older people are aligned to conservative views while the y outh are significantly not interested in politics and a majority of them don’t vote. The older generation which is increasing in population is also the most financially stable and their alignment to a political party would influence politics in terms of campaign funding during elections. The political effects of the demographic structure are actually significant globally (McLean and McMillan 6).Advertising Looking for critical writing on business economics? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More One of the effects of the Asian aging population is the high cost of sustaining the social welfare of the elderly. This is specifically so as the elderly needs expenditure on them while their contribution to the economy is either minimal or zero. Another significant effect of the aging population is the reduced labor force into the economy. With a large percentage of the population aging, the active number in terms of human resource supply is on the decrease. This phenomenon has been identified as a threat that can â€Å"impede economic development by reducing the size of productive ages† (Hermalin 6). Conclusion The population trend in America and the European countries has been changing over time with the population of the elderly increasing while that of the younger people is on the decrease. The trend is caused by reduced birth rates and increased health facilities that have increased the life expectancy in the countries. The demographic change however has effects in econ omic, social and political aspects which will be more significant in future if the population trend and the ageing of the western countries continue in the same direction. Similarly, the trend is realized in the Asian countries. The population of the elderly is increasing while that of the youth is on the decline. There also therefore exists a consistently predictable crisis in the future economic and social status in Asia. Necessary measures and policies should therefore be taken to ensure that the threat that the demographic trend is posing is countered before it explodes into a global crisis. Bloch, Brian. Demographic Trends and the Implications for Investment. Demographic Trends, 2011. Web. investopedia.com/articles/pf/06/demographictrends.asp?partner=sfgate Catholic. U.S. life expectancy rises, while death rate falls. Catholic, 2011. Web. catholic.org/health/story.php?id=40741 Columbia. Issues and trend in china’s demographic history. Columbia, 2009. Web. http://afe.eas ia.columbia.edu/special/china_1950_population.htm Elliott, Larry Kollewe, Julian. Germany faces up to problem of ageing workforce. Gurdian, 2011. Web. guardian.co.uk/world/2011/mar/17/new-europe-germany-retirement-pensions-exports Greenberg, Moe. Considerations for investigation of the elderly victim. Policeone, 2011. Web. policeone.com/investigations/articles/3439670-Considerations-for-investigations-concerning-the-elderly-victim/ Hermalin, Albert. The well-being of the elderly in Asia: a four-country comparative study. New York,NY: University of Michigan Press, 2002. Print. Lindberg, Joseph. Census 2010: Rice county cities boom at expense of townships. North Field, 2011. Web. northfieldnews.com/content/census-2010-rice-county-cities-boom-expense-townships McLean, Iain and McMillan, Alistair. The concise Oxford dictionary of politics. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2009. Print. Tsuruoka, Doug. Aging population helps lift china biologic products. Investor, 2011. Web.: in vestors.com/NewsAndAnalysis/Article/567584/201103301751/Plasma-Firms-Prospects-Lifted-By-Aging-China-Population.htm Wheatley, Alan. Asia braces for its date with demographic destiny. Gulf News, 2011. Web. http://gulfnews.com/business/features/asia-braces-for-its-date-with-demographic-destiny-1.785272

Characteristics and Examples of Stabilizing Selection

Characteristics and Examples of Stabilizing Selection Stabilizing selection in evolution is a type of natural selection that favors the average individuals in a population. It is one of five types of selection processes used in evolution: The others are directional selection (which decreases the genetic variation), diversifying or disruptive selection (which shifts genetic variation to adjust to environmental changes), sexual selection (which defines and adapts to notions of attractive features of the individuals), and artificial selection (which is the deliberate selection by humans, such as that of the processes of animal and plant domestication). Classic examples of traits that resulted from stabilizing selection include human birth weight, number of offspring, camouflage coat color, and cactus spine density. Stabilizing Selection Stabilizing selection is one of three main types of natural selection in evolution. The others are directional and diversifying selection.  Stabilizing selection is the most common of those processes.  The result of stabilizing is the over-representation in a specific trait. For example, the coats of a species of mice in a forest will all be the best color to act as camouflage in their environment.  Other examples include human birth weight, the number of eggs a bird lays, and the density of cactus spines. Stabilizing selection is the most common of these processes, and its responsible for many of the characteristics of plants, humans and other animals. Meaning and Causes of Stabilizing Selection The stabilizing process is one that results statistically in an over-represented norm. In other words, this happens when the selection process- in which certain members of a species survive to reproduce while others do not- winnows out all the behavioral or physical choices down to a single set. In technical terms, stabilizing selection discards the extreme phenotypes and instead favors the majority of the population that is well adapted to their local environment. Stabilizing selection is often shown on a graph as a modified bell curve where the central portion is narrower and taller than the normal bell shape. Polygenic traits tend to result in a distribution that resembles a bell-shaped curve, with few at the extremes and most in the middle. David Remahl/Wikimedia Commons Diversity in a population is decreased due to stabilizing selection- genotypes which are not selected are reduced and can disappear. However, this does not mean that all individuals are exactly the same. Often, mutation rates in DNA within a stabilized population are actually a bit higher statistically than those in other types of populations. This and other kinds of microevolution keep the stabilized population from becoming too homogeneous and allow the population the ability to adapt to future environmental changes. Stabilizing selection works mostly on traits that are polygenic. This means that more than one gene controls the phenotype and so there is a wide range of possible outcomes. Over time, some of the genes that control the characteristic can be turned off or masked by other genes, depending on where the favorable adaptations are coded. Since stabilizing selection favors the middle of the road, a blend of the genes is often what is seen. Examples of Stabilizing Selection There are several classic examples in animals and humans of the results of stabilizing selection process: Human birth weight, especially in underdeveloped countries and in the past of the developed world, is a polygenetic selection which is controlled by environmental factors. Infants with low birth weight will be weak and experience health problems, while large babies will have problems passing through the birth canal. Babies with average birth weight are more likely to survive than a baby that is too small or too large. The intensity of that selection has decreased as medicine has improved- in other words, the definition of average has changed. More babies survive even if they might have been too small in the past (a situation resolved by a few weeks in an incubator) or too large (resolved by Caesarian section).Coat coloration in several animals is tied to their ability to hide from predator attacks. Small animals with coats that match their environments more closely are more likely to survive than those with darker or lighter coats: stabilizing selection results in an average colorati on thats not too dark or too light. Cactus spine density: Cacti have two sets of predators: peccaries which like to eat cactus fruits with fewer spines and parasitic insects which like cacti that have very dense spines to keep their own predators away. Successful, long-lived cacti have an average number of spines to help ward off both.The number of offspring: Many animals produce multiple offspring at once (known as r-selected species). Stabilizing selection results in an average number of offspring, which is an average between too many (when there is a danger of malnourishment) and too few (when the chance of no survivors is highest). Sources Cattelan, Silvia, Andrea Di Nisio, and Andrea Pilastro. Stabilizing Selection on Sperm Number Revealed by Artificial Selection and Experimental Evolution. Evolution 72.3 (2018): 698-706. Print.Hansen, Thomas F. Stabilizing Selection and the Comparative Analysis of Adaptation. Evolution 51.5 (1997): 1341-51. Print.Sanjak, Jaleal S., et al. Evidence of Directional and Stabilizing Selection in Contemporary Humans. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 115.1 (2018): 151-56. Print.

Islam Questions Essays - Sunni Islam, Ijtihad, Sharia, Faqh

Islam Questions Essays - Sunni Islam, Ijtihad, Sharia, Faqh Islam Questions 1.Islam is a religion with many sects in which all followers share the central theme of the belief in one God who sent His revelation, called the Quran, through the Prophet Muhammad and conduct their lives based on the rules given in the Quran and the Sunna of the Prophet and is set apart from other monotheistic religions by its followers belief in the finality of Muhammads prophetic mission. 2.The thing that surprised me the most while reading the book was the number of sects that fall under Islam and the major separation of the sects (primarily Sunni and Shi3i) and the sects that fall under them as well, yet they are all still united by the central theme and Shahada. 3.Elias characterizes Islamic law as follows: while being an important and visible part of the Islamic society, it is but one facet of the religion, and is just that, a very religiously based law. He seems to place faith and the core religious expectations over the devotion to traditions of law, but still places Islamic Law over Western Law in that it is a more mediating system. Notes on Islam Islamic Law: Sharia Sources Sharia the collected prescriptions dictated by God for the running of the universe Quran provides rules on diverse issues; cannot account for all situations; not a problem until the Islamic community spread/multiple generations after Muhammad Fiqh a system of law that provides a method by which rules can be developed to deal with new situations; four principles called Principles of Jurisprudence (Usul al-fiqh) The Quran Sunna Reasoning by analogy (qiyas) Consensus of the community (ijma) Principles of Jurisprudence Primary source of law is the Quran Rules are not open to debate, must be accepted at face value (i.e forbiddance of pork) Not in Quran, look to Sunna the example of the Prophet Muhammad Living Sunna preserved in traditions of a virtuous Islamic community Recorded Sunna preserved in hadiths, anecdotes concerning Muhammads actions Open to interpretation; often contradict one another In regards to Living Tradition/Sunna, not everyone agrees which traditions agree with what Muhammad would have done and which are innovations Balancing the Quran and Sunna and deriving laws from these sources that can then be applied to new situations involves reasoning by analogy and consensus of the community Ijtihad system of independent legal reasoning to come up with new laws Mujtahid someone qualified to engage in ijtihad Sunni Muslim jurists belong to four schools: Maliki North Africa; living Sunna of community > human reason Hanbali Saudi Arabia; literal interpretation of written texts > reasoning by analogy Shafi3i Arabs of Middle East and Indonesia; use ijtihad more frequently Hanafi South and Central Asia and Turkey; use ijtihad more frequently; most influential legal tradition in the Islamic world Shafi3i and Hanafi account for majority of Sunni Muslims Faqih scholar who engages in the theoretical study and interpretation of Islamic law Mufti appointed by the ruler for the purpose of answering questions concerning the law; many times a high-respected faqih Fatwa a legal opinion or decree, theoretically binding on the person who posed the question to the mufti, practically ignored if a displeasing answer Qadi someone who presides over a court and has the power of the state and its police to enforce his opinions; government officials appointed by rulers Sharia attempts to regulate all aspects of human life Divides activities into ritual/devotional acts and myriad details of relationships between humans Scholars have created a scale judging every human activity, ritual obligations on one end, forbidden behaviors at the other, with key points between the two occupied by recommended and discouraged actions Dietary matters vary by region Certain scholars said jurists should never rely completely on legal precedent, look at each case singularly, circumstances of each individual are unique Has prevented Shari3a from developing as a codified legal system Focus on the individual = mediatory not inquisitorial like Western law Western Law = accused by corporate entity, Islamic law = two individuals Goal = arriving at a settlement (Islamic,) not reaching a verdict (Western) If codified, people who are unfamiliar with the law have fewer safeguards than if they were subject to a rigid legal code

Defining Law Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Defining Law - Essay Example Undoubtedly, to be of use, most rules or systems of rules require a method of enforcement, whether the method be remedial in nature, such as a civil judgment, or a penal sanction imposed in a criminal matter. John Austin, a proponent of the social fact thesis of legal positivism, contends that the primary distinguishing feature of a legal system is whether its rules can be enforced (1995). Austin argues that a rule of law in society is legally valid if and only if that rule is commanded by the society's sovereign and is backed up with the threat of sanction, or enforcement (1995). As such, it is Austin's position that the essential element of a law is whether someone has the ability to sanction its noncompliance. Austin's position seems tenable. Indeed, without enforcement, laws have no effect. To ensure compliance, and in the absence of any moral obligation to obey a law, an absence which we must presume, a law must impose a consequence for a violation. Even the rules that govern the application of law, such as rules of procedure, require some sort of sanction for a breach. A prominent philosopher of law, H.L.A. Hart, has suggested that Austin's position on enforcement is clear when applied to those laws that restrict our behavior, but is inapplicable to the set of rules that grant us the power to create rights and obligations, such as contracts and wills (1994). Even those rules, however, are "enforced" through sanction, to wit, the threat of litigation and the possibility of voiding, for example, a created document should it contain a flaw. And the essence of such litigation, indeed the very root of its existence, is that law is subject to interpretation. Ronald Dworkin, a pillar of modern legal philosophy, believes that adjudication is and should be interpretive (1982). According to Dworkin, judges should look to the "political structure of their community" when deciding hard cases by, first, ensuring that their interpretation is in accordance with the community's existing legal practices, and, second, that the interpretation is presented in the best moral light (1982). As such, Dworkin posits that a law is specifically characterized by its language, the facts to which the law must be applied, and the best moral application of that law given the social practices of a particular community. The idea that law is a set of rules subject to interpretation was also recognized by the legal realist movement. Inspired by John Chipman Gray and Oliver Wendall Holmes, and reaching its analytical peak in the 1920s and 1930s, legal realism contradicted legal formalism by asserting that judicial decision making is guided far more frequently by the political and moral insights of the judge rather than by legal rules (Himma, 2006). Legal formalism embraced the concept that a judge's decision, or holding, would always logically follow from the legal rule being applied to a particular set of facts, leaving little or no room for interpretation (Himma, 2006). The realist model asserts the opposite extreme, claiming that (1) any matters worth litigating are thereby divisive enough to require interpretation of the applicable rules, (2) judges make new law in exercising discretion when deciding legal disputes, and (3) when deciding

Advance coorperate finance Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Advance coorperate finance - Essay Example Crown’s (Australia) FCFF grows continuously for the five years after which it takes a slight downward trend. This means at the fifth year of its operation it reaches maximum profitability level of the company beyond which level the expenses of the company increases resulting in decease in the FCFF of the company. The company projection has been made on the basis of both DCF and DDM approach where the former is 81.24 and the later is 50.27 which means that the market has been pessimistic for the duration of which the discounted cash flow and the dividend discount model has been computed. Contrarily the intrinsic value of the company being $4.46 as against the market price of the company at $9.06 indicates that the company shares are overvalued. Thus it will turn out to be beneficial for the sellers of the shares, while investors thinking of buying the shares of Crown should wait till the market price of the company dips a little. The P/E ratio of Crown is 20.46 while that of CN TY is 20.85; through this we can say that CNTY is in a better position than Crown. However, the higher P/E ratio is also an indication of the risk of the company being high as the market value of the company has fallen in comparison to the earning per share of the company. This effect can be brought about through the buyback of shares. (Cassia, Plati & Vismara 1-10). Mergers and Acquisitions Acquisition is a process which a firm enters into to gain control of the target company that is being acquired. It is one of the growth strategies of the company through which the company plans to expand its business. Crown Limited has acquired the Aspinall’s Club which is a high-end casino in London. This has enabled Crown to successfully operate in London while catering to the VIP business class leveraging the marketing and the sales capabilities of Crown in the international market. But as per the expectations of Crowns acquisition the returns for the company has not turned out to be a remarkable one. The other acquisition of the company is the Holiday Inn hotel which was entered into by the company on 11th May, 2011 to possess the assets in Perth that amounted to approximately $79 million. For the settlement of the equity derivatives the company acquired both Echo Entertainment Group and Tabcorp Holdings Limited. Most of the acquisition of the company did not show incredible results resulting in the increase in the capital expenditure of the company (Crown Limited, 2011). Segment Report The segmentation of the Crown Australia was done on the basis of geographically from Melbourne and Burswood. The major portion of the company’s sales is generated from Melbourne which is 71% while that of Burswood is 29%. The acquisition of the casino led to the VIP program. But due to heavy impact of stiff competition both Crown Burswood and Melbourne were affected by the reduction in the VIP program. Across the two properties of Crown in Australia, the main floor gaming revenue shot to 56% while its PM was 39% over the year in 2011. However, the non-gaming segmentation policy of Crown adopted by the company boosted its revenue in the non-gaming section by 22% while the PM was 16% benefitting the full year operation of the company. On the other hand, the strategy adopted by the company to source new customers from China helped them earn better VIP program revenue of $31 million from Crown Melbourne. Contrarily the major operational revenue of the company came from main floor gaming segment where Crown Melbourne gave $930,657 million while Crown Burswood added $413,770 million. Hedging Policy The company hedges the derivative instruments but does not use the process for trading purposes. The process of hedging is carried on fair value and the cash

Ipod Analysis Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Ipod Analysis - Research Paper Example The other target group for the ipod is the students who may wish to download books and access certain information online. This consists of the famous 4Ps which include: Price, Place involving distribution to consumption point, Product which should be designed to suit customer needs and finally Promotion which enables the producer to increase their sales. This section shall analyze the various elements of the marketing mix in relation to the ipod as below: The ipod has very unique key features which make it likable among the users. One of these features is the fact that it has a large storage capacity which enables the user to store as much documents as he or she wishes. A critical benefit of the ipod is that you can access whatever you want without necessarily having to carry the computer. . The product is presented in the market as one with the best satisfaction qualities. It has the best use interface with a touch screen that enables the user to perform their functions with much ease. Promotion is aimed at either making the product known to the consumer or may be aimed at increasing sales where the market is already ventured into. In this case during the introduction of the ipod the marketer undertook an extensive advertising by using print media, posters in public places and even television commercials. The marketer presented the advert displaying people using the ipod to enable the potential consumers to be able to visualize how the gadget works (Kotler, et al., 2009). In the adverts the ipod was positioned as a cool product for the present generation by dwelling on the main features and benefits of the gadget. Direct selling was also incorporated in places where the potential buyers could not access either posters, print media or even the Television commercials. Pricing Strategy The main pricing strategy for the ipod is the cost based pricing where the price is set with a certain profit margin bearing the costs in mind. This price is aimed at achieving more revenue. This is because ipod consumers will associate the high price to quality since as earlier explained most ipod consumers are middle and high class people. At the introduction stage, prices were set high in order to cover most costs .The aim of the ipod manufacturer was to venture quickly into the market and conquer all consumers and therefore increase sales before counterfeits came to the market. The result was acquisition of the top cream buyers who were less concerned with the price charged. At growth stage a significant amount of the market had been covered and counterfeit ipods had started developing .Since marketers of the new ipods were setting low prices for their products, the price had to be adjusted in order to match those of the competitors to avoid being thrown out of the market .Price was thus set in comparison with that of other manufacturers (Ranchhod & Clin, 2007). Place Distribution strategy A product is useless when it can not reach the target market. Therefore a marketer should make efforts to ensure that the product reaches the consumer in the desired form and at the right place. The ipod manufacturer took the initiative to make sure that the prod

Value of Concept of Innovation Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Value of Concept of Innovation - Essay Example Value innovation aims at seeking new and completely different value curves. High growth companies employ an approach that offers unknown value and compete by summoning the existing conditions. For this reasons they achieve sustained high growth in both revenues and profits. On the other hand, the less successful companies take a conventional approach, that is, they strategically work towards beating their competitors. In making their competitors irrelevant, the high growth companies employ a strategic logic referred to as value innovation (Kim, 2014). Discovery of hidden demand and creation of new demands are problems that value innovations redefine. The business model canvas aids an organization in carrying out structured, solid and strategic conversations surrounding new and existing businesses. Global companies employ the canvas in the management of strategy or in creating new growth engines (Verstraete, 2011). For businesses that are starting up, the model is used in search of an appropriate business model. The business canvas model aims at helping an organization move beyond product based thinking and towards thinking based on a business model. In a bid to explain the value of the business model in discussion, Nespresso a daughter company of Nestle shall be of reference. The company utilizes the tool in their regular planning and cycles of development. It is a company affiliated with the food and beverages industry. The business canvas model is used in the creation of a blueprint of their strategy. The model provides clarity in the foundation and direction for the impending conversation. Still on strategizing, the tool is utilized for strategic planning per business unit because it provides the organization with general information on the progress of the business units. The business canvas model works as a common language across the units of the business and provides the

S Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

S - Essay Example However, others deem otherwise. The super accumulation of profits by MNEs made them so powerful, to push shifts in the development strategies of governments and international institutions, specifically, international financial institutions (IFIs). Whichever way shows direct inter-relationship between these international organisations and the international business. It is this relationship that concerns this paper. Believing that the main reasons for the two succeeding world wars were due to national economic disparities and trade conflict, and that unrestricted fair trade would bring about equal opportunity for the economic development of nation-states thereby eliminating the reasons for war (Hull, 1948, p. 81), developed nations concurred to John Maynard Keynes’ neo-liberal model of development: a liberal international economic system coupled with government intervention (Stewart, 1987, p. 465). The necessity of an international body to regulate international trade and international business was acknowledged – without a high degree of economic cooperation among powerful nations economic conflict will certainly recur that most likely will heighten into a fiercer military war. (Polard, 1985, p. 8) Within these premises, the United Nations Monetary and Financial Conference, more known as the Bretton Woods Conference, held on July1-22, 1944 and attended by 730 delegates from 44 allied nations (Halm, 1945, p. 5; ‘Bretton Woods Conference’ 2007, p. 7057), agreed to establish the IMF and the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) known today as the World Bank (WB) to preclude similar depression experienced in 1930: â€Å"massive unemployment, escalating tariffs, and collapsing commodity prices† (Stewart, 1987, p. 465). Specifically, the IMF was a mutual agreement of the member countries to ensure the stability of currencies by circumventing protective exchange practices and to provide pre-conditioned

Analysis and commentary on a political song Essay

Analysis and commentary on a political song - Essay Example This song challenges the view that Presidents Reagan era improved the American economy; therefore, improving the standard of living for all Americans. Chapman’s song exposes us to the plight of the lower class in the society. It is evident that political leaders promise an economy that will enable citizens’ access good housing, well paying jobs. However, in the song it is evident that people in the lower class struggle to make ends meet. Living the good life remains a dream for a good number of citizens in the lower class. The protagonist in the song takes up two jobs to be able to provide for her family. Joblessness is an issue addressed in the song. The protagonists’ husband is jobless and his desperation drives him to become an alcoholic. Chapman utilises symbolism and metaphors to pass the message in the song. The fast car is a major symbol in the song. The fast car symbolises the protagonist means of escaping in search for a better life. The car symbolises power a means of leaving town in search of a new life. It is the power to escape unpleasant circumstances. The word fast is metaphorically utilised to emphasise on the protagonist excitement in leaving the small community. Her boyfriend is a symbol of hope for a good life. She believes that if they both get jobs they would be able to live a good life. Chapman utilises repetition in the chorus for example a repeat of the phrase â€Å"be someone† emphasises on the protagonist optimism and determination to make something out of her life (Chapman â€Å"Fast Car.†). Chapman’s song has a sad tone, for example, when she talks about her family. We understand her troubles and her reasons for wanting to escape the life she is leaving. Her father is an alcoholic; her mother abandons them due to the hardship that comes with poverty. The protagonist sacrifices her education to take care of her father. Chapman utilises temporal relationships to

Value of Concept of Innovation Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Value of Concept of Innovation - Essay Example Value innovation aims at seeking new and completely different value curves. High growth companies employ an approach that offers unknown value and compete by summoning the existing conditions. For this reasons they achieve sustained high growth in both revenues and profits. On the other hand, the less successful companies take a conventional approach, that is, they strategically work towards beating their competitors. In making their competitors irrelevant, the high growth companies employ a strategic logic referred to as value innovation (Kim, 2014). Discovery of hidden demand and creation of new demands are problems that value innovations redefine. The business model canvas aids an organization in carrying out structured, solid and strategic conversations surrounding new and existing businesses. Global companies employ the canvas in the management of strategy or in creating new growth engines (Verstraete, 2011). For businesses that are starting up, the model is used in search of an appropriate business model. The business canvas model aims at helping an organization move beyond product based thinking and towards thinking based on a business model. In a bid to explain the value of the business model in discussion, Nespresso a daughter company of Nestle shall be of reference. The company utilizes the tool in their regular planning and cycles of development. It is a company affiliated with the food and beverages industry. The business canvas model is used in the creation of a blueprint of their strategy. The model provides clarity in the foundation and direction for the impending conversation. Still on strategizing, the tool is utilized for strategic planning per business unit because it provides the organization with general information on the progress of the business units. The business canvas model works as a common language across the units of the business and provides the

Analysis and commentary on a political song Essay

Analysis and commentary on a political song - Essay Example This song challenges the view that Presidents Reagan era improved the American economy; therefore, improving the standard of living for all Americans. Chapman’s song exposes us to the plight of the lower class in the society. It is evident that political leaders promise an economy that will enable citizens’ access good housing, well paying jobs. However, in the song it is evident that people in the lower class struggle to make ends meet. Living the good life remains a dream for a good number of citizens in the lower class. The protagonist in the song takes up two jobs to be able to provide for her family. Joblessness is an issue addressed in the song. The protagonists’ husband is jobless and his desperation drives him to become an alcoholic. Chapman utilises symbolism and metaphors to pass the message in the song. The fast car is a major symbol in the song. The fast car symbolises the protagonist means of escaping in search for a better life. The car symbolises power a means of leaving town in search of a new life. It is the power to escape unpleasant circumstances. The word fast is metaphorically utilised to emphasise on the protagonist excitement in leaving the small community. Her boyfriend is a symbol of hope for a good life. She believes that if they both get jobs they would be able to live a good life. Chapman utilises repetition in the chorus for example a repeat of the phrase â€Å"be someone† emphasises on the protagonist optimism and determination to make something out of her life (Chapman â€Å"Fast Car.†). Chapman’s song has a sad tone, for example, when she talks about her family. We understand her troubles and her reasons for wanting to escape the life she is leaving. Her father is an alcoholic; her mother abandons them due to the hardship that comes with poverty. The protagonist sacrifices her education to take care of her father. Chapman utilises temporal relationships to

The Christian Virtues in Medical Practice Essay Example for Free

The Christian Virtues in Medical Practice Essay The Christian Virtues in Medical Practice is a soul touching and brain boosting book prepared by Edmund D. Pellegrino and David C. Thomasma in 1996. It speaks of how being a Christian makes a difference in being a physician. The philosophies of the authors made a colorful explanation in the book on how virtue ethics counts a lot. Faith, hope and charity were given emphasis since it is the three Christian virtues that medical practitioners should acquire in their profession. Many things in the book relate medicine and ethics which made it interesting especially if you are a believer of the Christian faith. The book is designed with faith so that physicians will dwell not only on medical but with spiritual healing as well. It has weakness in a sense that doctors who do not profess a Christian faith will surely goes against this book. In addition to this, there are some medical explanations that cannot be simply linked to one’s belief in faith and virtues. Nevertheless majority of the book talks about ethical principles pertaining to morality, spirituality and virtue focused medical practices in health care. â€Å"Faith points the way, hope sustains us on that way and charity is the ordering principle which deliberation, raising morality to the level of love (Pellegrino and Thomasma, 1996). The aforementioned virtues will give more meaning to medicine because it is an additional healing factor to the contemporary ethics of medicine. The authors also talks about how Christian physicians may not acquire these virtues but it is a must for them to have it included in their profession. There were also viewpoints in the book telling how faith, hope and charity in medical practices should be taught even to physicians who are non-believers of Christian faith. Cases of euthanasia, abortion and incompetent surgery were cited as an example to defend the importance of attributing morality and virtue ethics in patient treatment. Violent means violates the virtue of charity which for the book is really against the Christian way of medical practice. There are hypocrisies that can be found in the book since clashing of principle based and virtue based ethics were present. It serves as a guide on how physicians should act according to the Christian teaching and at the same time never sacrifices their profession as medical practitioners. For the book itself, moral judgment is an art. Moral life is designed to make the right decisions during medical circumstances. The physician in charge should incorporate discernment and right motivation in everything he or she does. The book is not for the most part concerned with the substance of ethical decisions but with the manner of arriving at them. It is focused merely on virtue ethics and has a Christian moral philosophy that looks upon St. Thomas Aquinas and St. Augustine. This ethical virtue can never be neglected and there have been considerable discussions of both moral theology and philosophy. Fundamentals of the book lie in the Christian understanding of the physician’s dignity. It is overwhelming to notice how the authors cite the words of Pope John Paul II as examples to fully explain their points of view. Physicians who are great followers of Christianity and incorporate medication with a heart will surely enjoy the book and share it to their non-Christian colleagues. But for those who values professionalism than faith, this book is not the right one to read. References: Pellegrino, E. D. and Thomasma, D. C. (1996). The Christian Virtues in Medical Practice. USA: Georgetown University Press.

Rational Choice Theory

Rational Choice Theory Critically explore the proposition that individuals freely and rationally choose to commit crime. This essay will critically discuss the proposition that individuals freely and rationally choose to commit crime. Alternative criminological theories such as the Positivist tradition and more recent sociological perspectives of crime will be examined. This paper will conclude the proposition of the rational criminal is one of many constructions used within criminology to understand criminal behavior. The idea that individuals freely and rationally choose to commit crime stems from the Classical School. Eighteenth century philosophers such as Jermemy Bentham, and Cesare Beccaria are associated with the classical tradition. During the Enlightenment varied theories such as the social contract and utilitarianism provided the initial context for the theorization of criminal activity in society. It is argued (Garland 2001 p.11) the classical school characterizes the offender as a rational free-willed actor who engages in crime in a calculated, utilitarian way and is therefore responsive to deterrent.’ Classical philosophers were engaged by the criminal justice system and punishment in order to investigate wider socio-economic aspects of the Enlightenment era. It must be suggested that criminal actions by the individual was not the main agenda of Classical theorists. But the school did provide a platform to enable discussion as to what motivates an offender to commit crime. To understand the reasons why the individual was seen in a rational calculating manner it is important to discuss the ideas of the social contract and utilitarianism. The classic tradition is founded upon social contract theories by Hobbes, Locke, and Rousseau. John Locke wrote about the unwritten social contract between state institutions (such as the monarchy) and its citizens. Locke placed an emphasis on all individuals being equal, while those in sovereign power define a clear systematic framework for protecting citizen’s fundamental rights. The belief in human free will and self interest according to Locke and Rousseau, meant the existence of society would be untenable if all individuals were motivated by selfish interests governing the way they lived. It is assumed that all humans are rational, capable of self interest and are liable to commit crimes as an expression of their free will. Thomas Hobbes in Leviathan suggested the ‘right of all sovereigns is derived fr om the consent of every one of those who are to be governed.’ (Wikipedia 2006) Thus individuals are viewed rationally as citizens who have sacrificed part their freedom in making the social contract with the state. This sacrifice allows them to ‘live in a peaceful society’ and not in an anarchic state of nature without laws and rules to govern conduct. Those who break their contract by not abiding specific community rules, cause harm which must be punished accordingly in proportion to their criminal conduct. Violating the social contract leads to sanctions, in order to carry out state punishment on those individuals who have chosen to commit a crime. Beccaria was one of the most prominent social writers advocating a classical approach to crime in society. The text Dei Delitti e Delle Pene (Crimes and Punishments 1764) discussed the idea of a justice system able to determine the appropriate levels of punishment for violations. Beccaria is influential as he supported the reform of the criminal justice system and viewed crime in terms of the harm made to society rather than to the individual victim of a crime. Beccaria applied the social contract model to crime and criminal justice. Thus Beccaria believed all humans were rational beings. Consenting to the social contract meant giving up a partial amount of individual liberty to the sovereign power. In turn this agreement allowed authorities to impose proportionate punishment to those breaking the established rules of the state. For example the social contract idea was applied to legal regulation of crime and those who commit it; that laws are the ‘conditions under which indepe ndent and isolated men united to form society and tangible motives had to be introduced to prevent the despotic spirit.’ These take the form of punishments established against those who break the law. (Jones 2001, Chap 5) It follows that such violators of the law are therefore engaged in an irrational act. Crime is viewed as an irrational act as the deviant activity is perceived to be against the best interests of the public. Beccaria also followed a rationalized proportionate view of how the state should respond to such criminal individuals. For example he argued the true measure of the seriousness of a crime is the harm to society and not the intention of the offender. Thus the punishment given by the state must be determined in public to ensure deterring others contemplating such acts. Beccaria argued for deterrence measures to prohibit future criminal intentions and activity. Such reasoning held that the threat and certainty of detection is an effective form of deterrent. Once detected the punishment of the crime should be swift to ensure maximum impact and effect. Beccaria’s system relies on its clarity and simplicity. It is a proportional system in which punishment and sentencing aims to prevent re-offending and control crime. Secondly such a system and laws represent the ‘moral consensus of society’ acknowledging the seriousness of the crime. (Hamlin 2006) Jeremy Bentham was a key figure of classical theory and was influenced by Beccaria’s work. Bentham approached the proposition that individuals choose to freely commit crime within a utilitarian framework. This was applied to the penal system and crime. Bentham created the ‘felicitation principle’, that whatever activity is committed should endeavor to give the maximum happiness to the largest number of people in society. Bentham formulated the moral calculus also known as the pleasure-pain principle. For example Bentham supposed that man is a rational calculating animal, who can judge probable gains against the pain likely to be imposed. Thus ‘if the pain outweighs the gains he will be deterred and this produces maximum social utility.’(Wikipedia 2006) Bentham used the utilitarian idea to advocate the need for a rational justice system which was ‘graduated’, based on the principle of proportionality to ensure fairness. Bentham’s ph ilosophical ideas laid the foundation for new forms of penal systems, such as incarceration as a sanction, to fit the type of crime committed. (Garland 2002 pp.20) Thus classical theory argued that deterrence could be maximized through the proportional criminal justice system. Such an approach called for the reform of excessive state punishment which was humane in penal sanctions. Through examining the impact of an individual’s capacity to freely commit crime, the classical writers helped to lay the initial foundations of how criminal behavior could be studied and theorized in later modern criminology. The classical theories which believe in the rational sentience of human beings have been heavily criticized for being too simplistic, and assumptive. For example Gilbert Geis (1955) suggested Bentham’s classical theory was a ‘total failure to consider criminals as human beings as live complicated variegated personalities.’ The critics of the classical school further point out the crucial weakness in Bentham’s utilitarian pleasure – pain principle. The moral calculus of cost benefit analysis is flawed in two ways. First it relies of the hypothesis that for deterrence to be successful the offender will act rationally. Successive criminological schools such as the positivists have challenged this rational assumption of humans. Classical theories can be criticized on the basis of failing to take into account individual circumstances and the unsophisticated manner it perceives human beings to act. Crime can often be a ‘spontaneous reaction to a situ ation’ (Wikipedia 2006) which can be unplanned and without rational intention to commit it. Secondly the principle uses this same line of assumption in deciding a graduated scale of punishment according to the seriousness of the offence. In relying on a just desserts model of punishment it assumes ‘the more serious the harm likely to be caused the more the criminal has to gain.’ (Wikipedia 2006) Therefore Bentham has been criticized for painting man as an unrealistic calculating individual. It suggests that subsequent criminal activity can only be the result of free choice by those who choose to commit the crime. It does not take into account the varied differences within the human condition or wider sociological factors which attribute other alternative factors for the causes of crime. Criticism of the classical school highlights the lack of scientific evidence to back the moral, economic and social assumptions within the theories of Beccaria and Bentham. For example Garland (2002 pp.20) discusses the methodological criticisms of the classicist school for its ‘unscientific reliance upon speculative reasoning rather than observed facts.’ The rejection of speculative thinking of the human condition challenged the basic proposition that individuals freely and rationally choose to commit crime in society. It is argued by Garland while such criticisms emphasize the lack of scientific knowledge; both Beccaria and Bentham were not criminologists but philosophers writing in the eighteenth century. Criminology as a distinct form of study can trace its roots back to certain ideas published by prominent social contract writers. Primarily Bentham and others where not occupied in scientific debate but philosophical social and economic study. Social contract writers emphasized ‘the importance of reason and experience, denigrating theological forms of reasoning.’ (Garland 2002 pp.20) It is in this sense unfair to criticize Enlightenment writers’ contention of the rational free will from a criminological standpoint. Such classical theories were not created specifically to consider the study of crime on its own. But they attempt to engage in a modern dialogue objectively dealing with current social issues of the era avoiding, ‘irrational superstitious beliefs and prejudices’ in discussions. This can be seen in Beccaria’s work which was not criminological but an extensive body of ‘work related to the political economy’. Garland (2001 pp. 20) argues that despite the classicists’ lack of a scientific methodology, their interests helped to develop ways of investigating how and why crime is caused in society. For example Garland argues that topics such as ‘psychology of offending, natur e of criminal motivation, and state control to regulate individual conduct’ are central issues explored by classical writers to examine the notion of rational free will in a wider academic context. They were in Garland’s view ‘attempting to understand the roots of human conduct rather than develop a particular knowledge of offenders and offending.’ (Garland 2002 pp. 23) In response to the classical traditions’ scientific weakness, the ‘Neo-Classical’ school of thought emerged maintaining the belief that humans were rational beings with individual free will and the capacity for responsibility. Such individuals can be controlled by the fear of punishment. The Neo –Classical perspectives looked to external explanatory factors in examining crime. For example it located the concept of the individual’s free will and choice to commit crime within a broader landscape of the influence of social environmental factors. Such outside f actors could be used to asses the seriousness of the crime and the corresponding punishment to be given by the state. The proposition that crime is committed by free will and rational choice was attacked by the positivist school. Positivists looked to overcome the lack of sophistication of classical theory by using a ‘scientific’ style to examine aspects of the criminal and criminality. The main text which aimed to uncover the ‘science of the criminal’ (Garland 2002 pp.23) was by Cesare Lombroso LÚomo Delinquente in 1876. Lombroso is widely seen as the father of modern criminology, concentrating on the subject of crime by offenders. Lombroso believed in the primacy of scientific empirical study to answer why people commit crimes. This school of thought contested the classical proposition that crime was a product of free will and rational though processes of humans. Concepts of biological determinism suggested there were external forces outside the control of the individual in determining the capacity for criminal behavior. For example studies by Lombroso, Ferri and Garof alo investigated the concept of the ‘born criminal’ from distinctive physical traits and examining social factors influencing the causes behind crime. The work of Lombroso was influenced by the cultural impact of Darwin’s Theory of Evolution and the existing anthropological studies which initially were used to help understand human motivations behind crime. Garland (2002 pp.24) suggests that positivists clearly rejected the classicists idea of rational free will due the belief in ‘the conception of the criminal as a naturally occurring entity, a fact of nature rather than social or legal product.’ Such an approach led to the natural scientific study of the criminal type, to ‘trace its characteristics, its stigmata, its abnormalities and eventually identify the causes which make one person a criminal and another individual a normal citizen.’ The focus on the existence of criminal types which are predetermined rather than chosen by the free will of individuals, suggested the positivist school also refuted the classical view on criminal justice and punishment. The positivists’ emphasized the need for treatment instead of penal measures as a mechanism for crime control by the state. The rejection of the free will of rational actors is important as positivist theory aims to distinguish between those who commit crime from those who do not. The notion of free will is in this sense attacked as a ‘metaphysical abstraction’ (Garland 2002 pp.24) while the deterrence theory was deemed a failure in sentencing practice. Within this background a second strand of positivist study developed known as the Governmental Project. It involved a series of government sponsored empirical enquiries. Such studies sought to chart crime patterns and monitor police and prison practice in eighteenth century Britain. Such studies le d to classical views to fall from favor. For example proportional sentencing in response to differing levels of harm was seen as a ‘failure to differentiate between different types of offender.’ Thus the positivist approach it can be suggested was a flexible rehabilitative approach to preventing and treating criminality, as criminals themselves are not responsible for actions as they are already pre determined. The importance of positivist views was to establish the connection between scientific methods analyzing all aspects of criminality, with the individual and the wider social context. From this premise a wide and far reaching academic discipline of criminology has become established within the last century examining issues such as why crime is committed by offenders. While many of the findings of the Lambroso project have since been discredited its impact and ideas on rehabilitative treatment as a form of social control on crime have had an important effect on policy formers working within the criminal justice system. Modern positivist criminologists still share the view that human behavior is not just a by product of choices, but is determined by biological, psychological or social forces. It can be suggested that this belief has helped to widen the discourse on ways of explaining why individuals commit crime under the influence of ‘deterministic’ factors. The proposition that crime is committed by individual rational beings has also been challenged by the rise of the wide-ranging category of sociological criminological theories. For example according to Rock (2002 pp.51) sociological approaches explaining crime is vastly different to the classicist and positivist approach to understanding why crime is committed by the individual. Instead of focusing on the individual as the basis for empirical study, sociological theories draws from an array of potential causal factors. Thus the sociological method will aim to study the significance of social institutions, group behavior and interaction between communities and the individual. Sociological methods include Durkheimian and Mertonian anomie theories, the Chicago School, and Labeling theory, all which cast unique social factors locating the individual in a group setting as to understand criminal behavior. Rock (2002 pp.51) argues this approach highlights the fact ‘crime is centrally bound up with the states attempts to impose it’s will through law; the meaning of those attempts to the law-breaker, law-enforcer and victim.’ This only serves to demonstrate a diverse approach to examining crime from all aspects of those involved in the criminal justice system. Early classicist thought viewed in light of sociological theories shows there are many theoretical starting points to discuss the fundamental question whether the individual freely chooses to commit crime as a rational being. Other disciplines such as criminal psychology, has aided the study of crime through medical analysis. For example Hollin (2002 p.145) states that the distinctive branch of criminological psychology is ‘concerned with the use of psychology to help explain criminal behavior.’ It is focused ‘on the individual’ as to what motivates criminal activity within the individual and society at large. Criminological psychology explores the proposition of the individual committing crime. For example behavioral theory stresses the importance of the in individual comprehending the consequences of the act for the individual concerned.’(Hollin 2002 p.151) This serves to show how other modern theories look at the role of the individual and responsibility in relation to criminal activity within society. In conclusion this paper would argue the proposition that individuals freely and rationally choose to commit crime is a valid contribution to the discussion concerning criminal behavior. The classical tradition raised important philosophical, social and moral issues related to crime and its impact within society. But the assumption in rational belief is too simplistic to explain the differences in individual criminal actions. It does not account for those who are not capable of making rational decisions such as the mentally impaired or acts which irrationally occur unexpectedly. For this reason this essay would argue that this proposition is only one of many theoretical ways to understand why crime is committed by individuals in society. Bibliography Coleman C and Norris C, (2000), Introducing Criminology, Cullompton: Willan Publishing Garland D, (2002), Of Crimes and Criminals: The Development of Criminology in Britain, In Maguire M, Morgan R, Reiner R, (eds) (2002) The Oxford Handbook of Criminology, (pp. 7- 44) 3rd Edition , Oxford: Oxford University Press Geiss G, (1955) Pioneers In Criminology-Bentham 46 J Crim L, Criminology and Police Sci 159 Hamlin J, (2006) http://www.d.umn.edu/~jhamlin1/classical.html Hollin C R, (2002), Criminological Psychology, In Maguire M, Morgan R, Reiner R, (eds) (2002) The Oxford Handbook of Criminology, (pp.144-168) 3rd Edition , Oxford: Oxford University Press Jones S, (2001) Criminology, 2nd ed, Butterworths Maguire M, Morgan R, Reiner R, (eds) (2002) The Oxford Handbook of Criminology, 3rd Edition , Oxford: Oxford University Press Muncie J, Mclaughlin J (2001) The Problem of Crime, 2nd edition, Open University Sage Publishing Rock P, (2002), Sociological Theories of Crime, In Maguire M, Morgan R, Reiner R, (eds) (2002) The Oxford Handbook of Criminology, (pp.51-75) 3rd Edition , Oxford: Oxford University Press Vold G Bernard T, (2005) Theoretical Criminology, 5th edition, New York: Oxford University Press Walklate S, (2001), Gender Crime and Justice, Cullompton: Willan Press Wikipedia, (2006), Classical School, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/classical_school