The Root Causes of Deforestation :: Environment Evironmental Essays

The Root Causes of Deforestation In the second chapter of his book, Tropical Deforestation: Small Farmers and Land Clearing in the Ecuadorian Amazon, Thomas K. Rudel hypothesizes that the cause of rainforest destruction goes beyond the traditional immiserization model. The immiserization model holds that there are two groups of people separately causing deforestation: powerful businesses such as the plantation owners and extractive enterprises; and landless peasants. Instead, he contends that these groups of people, along with the local and international governments, banks and markets all cause deforestation by their mutual interactions. His idea is supported by the pattern of deforestation. Instead of rising steadily as the population grows, it goes in spurts. Peasants seize the opportunity to develop new land when it is opened up by penetration roads built by the government or large extractive corporations. Owning land along a road is the best way to ensure that they profit from their labor. That way peasants have direct links to transportation for their products and don't have to deal with middlemen who take a large share of the profits. He cites resources indicating that deforestation rates increased when international banks loaned money to countries for frontier development projects. Similar results were achieved by development of extractive industries. Rudel refers to both the government and these industries as lead institutions because of their role in opening transportation routes that are used by peasant farmers who settle along them, clearing the land. Many nations also sponsor colonization programs, wealthy patrons hire peasant laborers, or groups of peasants band together to mutually profit from the land that they help clear together. These examples of growth coalitions are similarly responsible, in conjunction with the agencies that clear the transportation routes, for the destruction of the tropical forests. This leads him to the conclusion that the most important link in thi s system of destroying tropical forests is the creation of new transportation routes penetrating the forested land. At the end of the chapter, Rudel addresses the issue of indigenous communities' involvement in the deforestation. He states that "the argument [for the growth coalition -- lead institution hypothesis] assumes that rural inhabitants have a strong market orientation despite the presence of indigenous peoples throughout the tropics who have only partial commitments to participation in market economies. If the case studies demonstrate a close association between growth coalitions and deforestation among indigenous peoples as well as peasants, the explanatory potential of the argument increases" (Rudel 40).

Poverty and Crime Essay

Relationship between poverty and crime. Name Course University Tutor Date Introduction There is no single definition of poverty. One definition holds that poverty is the society’s standard of living in a particular time and people are said to be poor when they cannot even afford their basic necessities or if their income is insufficient. Crime is the violation of the rule of law as it is stipulated in the constitution. Its increase calls for measures and sanctions that ensure that social order prevails. There is a correlation between poverty and crime though many who claim that there are some states where poverty is very high have refuted this argument. They argue that the crime in these areas is very is low. This research paper, will discuss intensively about poverty and crime. It will analyze the relationship between poverty and the crime rates, its root causes and means of its eradication. Who are the poor? Poverty is defined differently by various agencies in America. Generally it could be said to be the deprivation of the basic needs such as food, cloth and shelter. Depending on the standards of living opportunities, employment and respect that fellow citizens enjoy their lives but this does not meet that the set living standard is below poverty line. Poverty can be categorized in to three classes namely absolute poverty, social exclusion and relative poverty. These classes have different resources that would promote harmony between the body and the soul. Relative category denotes lack of resources needed for one to participate fully in issues that affect their life. The third class of poverty is what is referred to as an area that lacks Begin Match to source 5 in source list: (8-18-03) http://www. ic. gov. au/conferences/cypc/proceedings. pdfa combination ofEnd Match various necessities Begin Match to source 5 in source list: (8-18-03) http://www. aic. gov. au/conferences/cypc/proceedings. pdfsuch as unemployment, poorEnd Match infrastructure, Begin Match to source 5 in source list: (8-18-03) http://www. aic. gov. au/conferences/cypc/proceedings. pdflowEnd Match income and substandard skills. According to the United Nation’s world summit of social development, poverty is a condition in which one is deprived of the basic needs such as food, clean water sanitation, heath and education. According the 2006 statistics on poverty, the poverty rate in the united state declined from 12. 6%, as it was the case in 2005. When this was translated in to figures it meant that 36. 5 citizens lived in penny, as it was the cases in 2005. Currently about 12% of the population in the United States lives below the poverty threshold. Poverty in America sometimes is not something stable as it fluctuates with time for some people earns more than the set poverty line but in other times, they earn below it. As per the 2001 statistics, minors were the most affected of all groups in the industrialized nations America being the worst because 14. % of the minors lived below the poverty line. This also largely affected the Americans. (Haveman RH. 1987) According to the United States Research Center, the poverty rate has increased over the recent past from what it has been for over twenty-six years. In the past, it was 11. 3 percent but in 2004 it stood at 12. 7 percent though this gradually declined in the year 2006 to 12. 3 percent. In the period between 2000-2006, the poverty level among the minors significantly increased from 16. 2 percent to 17. 8 percent but in following two years it decline to 17. 4 percent. Poverty in America varies across race, family, sex and age but America has registered a decline in poverty rate when compared with the 1990’s figures. This could be attributed to the economic depression. The current rate is still bigger than that of the 1970s. As per the United States Census Bureau, it calculates the rate of poverty by assessing the much one earns and his purchasing power. As it is noted above that poverty varies in America, poverty rate is highest among the juniors who are under 18 years. According to a survey that was done in 1998, the poverty rate amongst children was 18. 9% and this was a decrease from the 1997 figure. The rate of poverty to those who are under six years was 20. 6% in 1998. The rate for those within the bracket of 18-64 was 10. 9%. In 2005 the poverty rate for over those 65 years was 9. 4 percent than that of 2005 which was 10. 1 percent while that of the minors stood at 17. 4% Depending on peoples’ nationality, those who were born in America had a poverty level of 11. 9% or an equivalent of 30. 8 million people in the year 2007 and this was the same as it was in 2006. To the foreigners, the poverty level in 2006 slightly went down to 15. 2% when compared with the 2005 figure and in 207 the figure still went down. Moore D. 2007) Causes of poverty. Poverty has many causes and some of them are overpopulation, unequal distribution of resources high living standards, lack of proper education and skills, lack of employment, economic and distribution of people in a location, natural disasters. Overpopulation can be linked with poverty. In areas that have a lot of people, there is strain in resources as people tend to deplete them because competition there in but this is not a major cause of poverty in US. The real causes of poverty in USA are low wages and lack of reliable and well paying employment. In America over two thirds of all poor households with some children rely on only one or two people who are in jobs. However, many of them are in low paying jobs that cannot help them to meet their needs. Many people do not get jobs because of a number of factors. Some of them do not have the required skills while others are handicaps, personal hazards and general inability to perform. In America people who were sometime in the past employed but due to some reasons such as misconducts were dismissed are poor. They could also have been dismissed due to insubordination, unionism or because of participating in strikes. When people do not get good jobs or are not at all employed, they cannot provide their families with their necessities and hence the high rate of poverty. In America most of the unemployed turn to drug abuse. (Dwarkin R. 2005) Another thing that cause poverty in America is that there is a very high living condition. With little money, it is not possible to get adequate food, shelter and clothing many who claim to be employed are in low paying jobs that pay minimum wages and this is the problem that non employed face. Because USA is a developed nation, the prices of items are very high so anyone earning a dollar a day finds it hard to survive. For example a Mexican can get one dollar in hour and then buy some food for the family. The same case applies in America where food is very expensive; one may earn five dollars in a day only to spend all of this money on food. Generally life standard in America is very high and for this reason many are considered to live below poverty line. This causes most Americans to have physical and mental disabilities and may lead to pathological disorders. This has been a problem to many because once you get addicted to drugs as your life becomes dependent on them. In such a situation, then you prioritize drugs instead of other things that are more important. These drugs cause a mind to fail to function properly and for this reason they cannot secure themselves jobs in America. Mental inability, social problem and disability are some of the challenges that Americans face. Disabled people cannot be able to compete effectively in the search for jobs as physically normal people do. Because they have low incomes, their families give them special attention and this puts strain to their meager resources. These people are also isolated by others something that increases the level of social stigma. Another thing is exclusion in the social processes and this has been another cause of poverty in America. It happens when people do not get a chance of leading a normal life. It occurs to the disabled, the imprisoned and to the people who have language difficulties. The homeless and the ex- prisoners as well as those that are suffering from aids are also affected. These factors have greatly led to the increase in poverty cases. It should be understood that these people though they are not actively participating in social processes, they still require food, shelter and clothing. (Cohen S. 985) Poverty and crime Crime is doing contrary to what is required by the constitution. Many people indulge themselves in criminal activities if they do not meet their basic needs. Most people become criminals because of poverty but it should not be forgotten that others deem it a career. According to the conflict theories, economic strife has been related or associated with crimes. Many people who d o not have any other source of their livelihood, result to crimes such as burglary, assault and robbery. Most of these individuals are socially propelled to behave this way due to their poverty level and social alienation. Increase in per capital income tends to reduce crime rate something that attests to the fact that poverty leads to crime. Crime rate depends on social and cultural factors for example; if many children are born by single mothers then the level of the crime goes up. Most children who are fatherless are more likely to become criminals because they lack proper attention at home as their mother cannot meet their basic needs. They go to the streets to seek solace. Crime rates. There are three things that could be attributed to the rise in crime rates in America. These are for example the rise of outbreaks. This was one major cause of crimes in the 1986 and in 1960s and 70s there were some family policies that were make which resulted to upsurge in juvenile delinquency. The third cause of crime is the saturation of the criminal systems. (Cassdill H. 1962) This has compromised the fight against crime as prisoners are being sentenced for a shorter period than they should and are prematurely released. When this happens, they leave prisons uncorrected. According to a research that was done by the Kirwan Institute increase in poverty was linked to high-level crime rate. This is because when the poverty level goes beyond a certain point it invites crime. In the United States, the high rate of illegitimate births is linked to crime prevalence and this is as a result of many single parented households. When these children do not get the proper care that they deserve, they turn to crimes. According to Milton Eisenhower’s foundation, seventy per cent of all African Americans in America have single mothers. While only eighteen per cent of all the whites have single mother. The increase in single motherhood increases the prospects of people indulging themselves in crimes. Most poor people engage themselves in crimes such as prostitution, selling drugs and even murder while others engage in juvenile crimes. What should be done to control this level of crime rate is to make some reforms in the judicial system to ensure they are more effective. Criminal should be jailed for a term that is equivalent to the crime they committed. The tougher and reasonable judges should be put on the bench to ensure that justice would take its course. Those violent offenders should not be on the loose especially when they are supposed to be serving their term in prison. This is the only way the high rate of crime could be scaled down. The way forward. There are various ways of eradicating poverty in America and one of them is ensuring that property rights that are respected to the letter. Property rights should be seen as the same as human rights. All American citizens have a right to own property wherever they want. If this is properly addressed the gap between the rich and poor would be reduced. The main cause of crime in USA is because the poor living in close proximity with the rich. Also those lacking reliable income are forced to look for alternative means of meeting their basic needs. The presence of both rich and the poor people puts the government in a very tricky place, as it is impossible to collect taxes for it is not easy to determine who should pay and who should not. (Smeeding TM et al, 1990) The United States government can reduce the poverty level by providing the poor with some small amount so that they could start some businesses as it was done in the Western States under a program known as a Welfare State in the 20th Century. Those that should be taken care of are at least the poor and the disabled as they are the most disadvantaged in the society. People are social beings and for this reason they cannot sit back and watch their friends continue suffering so the government should come up with Charity Programs that would allow people to channel assistance of any kind to the poor as the rich might be willing to help them. These organizations should either be voluntary or non-profit making groups. The United States government should embark on subsidized households and medical issues. The government should also analyze the importance of subsidized medical care than the free governmentally supported health care. The poor should be provided with employment by the government as not all poor people lack the relevant job skills. Lack of employment in America is one reason that increases poverty prevalence so if they are given jobs they would be able to meet their basic necessities and this would help in reducing the gap between the rich and the poor. The poor should also be helped in accessing free health care. Most poor people do not even afford to go to hospitals once they get sick and stay at home. This also puts strain on their meager income making them to become even poorer. The government should also offer free family planning programs as many who turn to be criminals are from those households that do not provide them with proper attention. Children from single parented households and especially those that are headed by the mother are more likely to result into becoming criminals. These families should be provided with some family allowances by the government so as they would take care of children properly to avoid them being attracted to become juvenile criminals. The poor who mostly live in ghettos should be provided with better housing facilities for example the government should upgrade these ghettos so that they would enjoy life just like the rich do. This would help in bridging the gap between the rich and the poor Currently the talk on poverty is still on going and has become a campaign tool among the presidential candidates. They are promising Americans what they will do once they become the next US president come the 2008 Election. Obama who is one of these candidates promised the Americans that he would establish Twenty Promise Households and especially in the areas that are affected by high levels of poverty and crime. They would operate just like the Harlem Children’s Home operates. He said he will spend about six US dollars on this program and this will benefit the Harlem, the Town Hall Education and the Town Hall Education. (Kristof N. D. 2008) Both Edward and Obama are challenging Hillary Clinton who up to now has not come up with any poverty reduction proposal. Obama’s speech was mainly on urban and rural areas and most particularly on city initiatives while Edward focused on this poverty issue might have a lot of impact on who will be chosen as the president of the United States of America. Edward said that he would relocate the poor families so that they would be in a place where they would easily access jobs and other facilities. From the research findings, it is safe to conclude that poverty greatly contributes to the rise in crime level that is both are interrelated. This is evident in that poor people inhabit regions that register high crime rate. (Kristof N. D. 2008) When poor people lack their basic needs, they resort to crimes such as drug selling and trafficking, juvenile delinquency and assaults. There are various measures that if they are undertaken, the crime level would definitely go down and some of these are to strengthen the correction and judicial system and to empower the poor people so that the gap between the rich and poor would be closed. This is something that is of prime concern to the 2008 presidential candidates such as Obama who promised to boost the cities initiative especially those that work to help the poor. Indeed, there is a relationship between poverty and crime prevalence in United States of America. Most of the crimes occur in areas that are occupied by the poor people. When people are wallowing in poverty they are prone to indulge themselves in criminal acts. In order to reduce the rate of crime, the government should try to bridge the gap between the rich and the poor. The poor should be economically be strengthened and their living standards be uplifted. Houses in the ghettos should be upgraded to improve the quality of life for the poor. To reduce the level of crimes, the judicial system should be adjusted so as to make it more effective. The laws should be enforced to ensure they are followed to the letter.

Essay about Richard Nixon - 1343 Words

CATE LARSEN//PD7 RICHARD NIXON 11/26 Richard Nixon; the name alone brings to mind terrible words along the lines of scandal and failure. Nixon was the 37th president of the United States. He was also the first and last president to resign from office. However, the scandals leading to Nixon’s resignation definitely overshadowed his humble beginnings and the accomplishments he made as president during the notorious decades of the Cold War. Richard Milhous Nixon was born to Francis and Hannah Nixon on January 9, 1913 on a lemon ranch his father built in Yorba Linda, California. His early life was marked by financial hardship and by the deaths of his brothers. In 1922, after the failure of the ranch, Frank Nixon opened a grocery†¦show more content†¦Nixon’s performance in the â€Å"kitchen debate† further raised his stature back in the United States. Nixon was so popular with the American people that he went on to run for President himself in 1960, but he lost by a narrow margin to John F. Kennedy. After losing another minor election Nixon publically announced his political career was over. The Nixon family moved to New York during what Nixon himself later referred to as his â€Å"wilderness years.† In January 1968, Nixon decided to once again seek the nomination of the Republican Party for president. Portraying himself as a figure of stability in a time of national upheaval, Nixon promised a return to traditional values and â€Å"law and order.† Nixon shocked the world by not only winning his partys nomination but dominating the race and becoming the 37th president of the United States. Nixon’s first term of presidency was full of accomplishments. Once in office, Nixon and his staff faced the problem of how to end the Vietnam War. Nixon made a nationally televised address on November 3, 1969, calling on Americans to renew their confidence in the government and back his policy of seeking a negotiated peace in Vietnam. Earlier that year, Nixon and his Defense Secretary Melvin Laird had unveiled the policy of â€Å"Vietnamization,† which entailed reducing American troop levels in Vietnam and transferring the burden ofShow MoreRelatedRichard Nixon : The Silent1491 Words   |  6 PagesRichard Nixon was a president that dealt with many problems while he was in office, such as Vietnam, China, and civil rights. Nixon was a great politician and appeared to want the best for America. In Nixon s silent majority speech he wanted to end the war in vietnam while sparing the â€Å"democratic† citizens in southern Vietnam, but for him to do this he needed to bargain with the citizens of America and the leaders of the western world in order to accomplish his goals without too many problems, suchRead MorePardon of Richard Nixon1193 Words   |  5 PagesControversial Pardon of Richard Nixon HIST102 American History Since 1877 Instructor: 22 February 2014 Former President Richard Nixon is most well-known for his role in the Watergate crisis in the early 1970’s. The Watergate crisis started in June of 1972, when the Democratic National Committee (DNC) headquarters was broke into by members of Nixon’s re-election committee. The press took this breaking news and began to dig deeper into what the Whitehouse (President Nixon) was hiding. Over theRead MoreThe Legacy Of Richard Nixon1104 Words   |  5 PagesRichard Nixon, though created a large credibility gap within the US, he accomplished a lot for the country. He served five years in the presidential office as a republican (1969-1974), and he was the only president to resign from office in history. Although through his presidency he had accomplished many things, such as creating revenue sharing, ending the draft, and creating anticrime laws, he still had a rough time rebuilding his reputation after many assumptions of corruption in his office. ThoughRead MoreThe Presiden cy Of Richard Nixon1856 Words   |  8 Pagesthe 1970s, under President Richard Nixon, the people felt the first serious inflation since after World War II. Also under Nixon, a scandal of political sabotage caused fear and mistrust towards the government. The crises in the 1970s represented the first time in American history when the public perceived their government had fail them and it did through mistrust in the government, foreign crises, and a strong decline in the economy. Under the presidency of Richard Nixon, a wide-spread of fear withinRead MoreEssay Richard Nixon1491 Words   |  6 PagesRichard Nixon Born in 1913 in Yorba Linda, California, Richard Milhouse Nixon was raised in a Quaker home with his four brothers, mother and father. His family led a docile life by abstaining from all dancing, swearing, drinking and other common Quaker practices (Barron 12). Financially, the family struggled and he could not afford to attend Harvard University even with a full-ride scholarship. Instead, Nixon enrolled at Whittier College, a popular Quaker college close to home (Barron 39). NixonRead MoreRichard Nixon Essay628 Words   |  3 PagesRichard Nixon History will inevitably forgive Richard Nixon. Despite his obvious unlawful mistakes, he made a good president. Until 1968, most Americans saw Richard Nixon as a political has-been, a dour pre-McCarthy hunter of Communists. In 1968, however, Nixon won the Presidency by presenting himself as a healer of divisions. He demonstrated that he had greater ability to reinvent himself than any other modern politician. More than any other figure between the death of Franklin D. RooseveltRead MorePresident Nixon : President Richard Nixon Essay1878 Words   |  8 Pagesbe the downfall of President Richard Nixon. Nixon had a significant amount of experience in government before becoming president, which ultimately influenced how domestic policy, economic policy, and foreign policy was shaped during his tenure. I. 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World War II The Bombing of Dresden

The Bombing of Dresden took place Feb. 13-15, 1945, during World War II (1939-1945). By the beginning of 1945, German fortunes looked bleak. Though checked at the Battle of the Bulge in the west and with the Soviets pressing hard on the Eastern Front, the Third Reich continued to mount a stubborn defense. As the two fronts began to near, the Western Allies began to consider plans for using strategic bombing to assist the Soviet advance. In January 1945, the Royal Air Force began to consider plans for the widespread bombing of cities in eastern Germany. When consulted, the head of Bomber Command, Air Marshal Arthur Bomber Harris, recommended attacks against Leipzig, Dresden, and Chemnitz. Pressed by Prime Minister Winston Churchill, the Chief of the Air Staff, Marshal Sir Charles Portal, agreed that cities should be bombed with the goal of disrupting German communications, transportation, and troop movements, but stipulated that these operations should be secondary to strategic attacks on factories, refineries, and shipyards. As a result of the discussions, Harris was ordered to prepare attacks on Leipzig, Dresden, and Chemnitz as soon as weather conditions allowed. With planning moving forward, further discussion of attacks in eastern Germany occurred at the Yalta Conference in early February. During talks in Yalta, the Deputy Chief of the Soviet General Staff, General Aleksei Antonov, inquired about the possibility of using the bombing to hinder German troop movements through hubs in eastern Germany. Among the list of targets discussed by Portal and Antonov were Berlin and Dresden. In Britain, planning for the Dresden attack moved forward with the operation calling for daylight bombing by the US Eighth Air Force followed by night strikes by Bomber Command. Though much of Dresdens industry was in suburban areas, planners targeted the city center with the goal crippling its infrastructure and causing chaos. Allied Commanders Air Marshal Arthur Bomber Harris, RAF Bomber CommandLieutenant General James Doolittle, US Eighth Air Force Why Dresden The largest remaining unbombed city in the Third Reich, Dresden was Germanys seventh-largest city and a cultural center known as the Florence on the Elbe. Though a center for the arts, it was also one of Germanys largest remaining industrial sites and contained over 100 factories of various sizes. Among these were facilities for producing poison gas, artillery, and aircraft components. In addition, it was a key rail hub with lines running north-south to Berlin, Prague, and Vienna as well as east-west Munich and Breslau (Wroclaw) and Leipzig and Hamburg. Dresden Attacked The initial strikes against Dresden were to have been flown by the Eighth Air Force on February 13. These were called off due to poor weather and it was left to Bomber Command to open the campaign that night. To support the attack, Bomber Command dispatched several diversionary raids designed to confuse the German air defenses. These struck targets in Bonn, Magdeburg, Nuremberg, and Misburg. For Dresden, the attack was to come in two waves with the second three hours after the first. This approach was designed to catch German emergency response teams exposed and increase casualties. This first group of aircraft to depart was a flight of Avro Lancaster bombers from 83 Squadron, No. 5 Group which were to serve as the Pathfinders and were tasked with finding and lighting the target area. They were followed by a group of De Havilland Mosquitoes which dropped 1000 lb. target indicators to mark the aiming points for the raid. The main bomber force, consisting of 254 Lancasters, departed next with a mixed load of 500 tons of high explosives and 375 tons of incendiaries. Dubbed Plate Rock, this force crossed into Germany near Cologne. As the British bombers approached, air raid sirens began sounding in Dresden at 9:51 PM. As the city lacked adequate bomb shelters, many civilians hid in their basements. Arriving over Dresden, Plate Rock began dropping its bombs at 10:14 PM. With the exception of one aircraft, all of the bombs were dropped within two minutes. Though a night fighter group at Klotzsche airfield had scrambled, they were unable to be in position for thirty minutes and the city was essentially undefended as the bombers struck. Landing in a fan-shaped area over a mile long, the bombs ignited a firestorm in the city center. Subsequent Attacks Approaching Dresden three hours later, Pathfinders for the 529-bomber second wave decided to expand the target area and dropped their markers on both sides of the firestorm. Areas hit by the second wave include the Großer Garten park and the citys main train station, Hauptbahnhof. Fire consumed the city through the night. The next day, 316 Boeing B-17 Flying Fortresses from the Eighth Air Force attacked Dresden. While some groups were able to aim visually, others found their targets obscured and were forced to attack using H2X radar. As a result, the bombs were widely dispersed over the city. The next day, American bombers again returned to Dresden. Departing on February 15, the Eighth Air Forces 1st Bombardment Division intended to strike the synthetic oil works near Leipzig. Finding the target clouded over, it proceeded to its secondary target which was Dresden. As Dresden was also covered by clouds, the bombers attacked using H2X scattering their bombs over the southeastern suburbs and two nearby towns. Aftermath of Dresden The attacks on Dresden effectively destroyed over 12,000 buildings in the citys old town and inner eastern suburbs. Among the military targets destroyed were the Wehrmachts headquarters and several military hospitals. In addition, several factories were badly damaged or destroyed. Civilian deaths numbered between 22,700 and 25,000. Responding to the Dresden bombing, the Germans expressed outrage stating that it was a city of culture and that no war industries were present. In addition, they claimed that over 200,000 civilians had been killed. The German propaganda proved effective in influencing attitudes in neutral countries and led some in Parliament to question the policy of area bombing. Unable to confirm or refute the German claims, senior Allied officials distanced themselves from the attack and began to debate the necessity of continuing area bombing. Though the operation caused fewer casualties than the 1943 bombing of Hamburg, the timing was called into question as the Germans were clearly heading towards defeat. In the years after the war, the necessity of the Dresden bombing was officially investigated and widely debated by leaders and historians. An inquiry conducted by US Army Chief of Staff General George C. Marshall found that the raid was justified based on the intelligence available. Regardless, the debate over the attack continues and it is viewed as one of the more controversial actions of World War II. Sources World War II Database: Bombing of Hamburg, Dresden, and Other CitiesHistoryNet: Dresden Survivor

Acceptance of the Homosexual Lifestyle An Evaluation and...

Acceptance of the Homosexual Lifestyle: An Evaluation and Comparison between the United States and Other Locations The idea of homosexual behavior has created a number of responses worldwide. Currently, the United States has many levels of acceptance of homosexuality. There are places on this earth that have the same outlook as the United States, and there are places that are completely opposite. By looking at these different perspectives, the public could obtain some valuable points in the battle of acceptance. My objective is to give these old ideas a new audience, to show the wide range of acceptance throughout the world, and to compare the United States and other nations challenged to acknowledge a different lifestyle. There†¦show more content†¦There are hate crimes committed far too often to homosexuals who have â€Å"come out.† On February 23, 2004, Ronn Mattai was attacked at a nightclub in Ontario, Canada. A broken glass was thrown at his face, and the attacker continued to slash Mattai’s face with the jagged edges. Police said it was the direct result of a anti-gay hate crime (Morisson, 2004). Then there is another side; there is progress. Openness to this different lifestyle has increased as the times go on. In the United States, we can look at the rise in public attention for the homosexual minority. You can’t open a newspaper without seeing an article on civil unions. The U.S. market aims a whole new line of advertising at homosexuals. For example, PlanetOUT.com is, â€Å"the leading provider of media products and online services to gay and lesbian consumers worldwide† (PR Newswire, 2004). They have launched an online television channel dedicated to the homosexual population (PR Newswire, 2004). Personally, this year alone I have witnessed, heard of, and participated in more public displays in favor of acceptance for different lifestyles than I ever have before. Look at television. There are numerous shows which include gay characters or actors, to name a few Will Grace, Queer Eye for the Straight Guy, Real World, and Dismissed. People are beginning to open their eyes, but that is only a beginning, and much more progress is needed. Until the majority of the population canShow MoreRelatedFundamentals of Hrm263904 Words   |  1056 PagesAccount Manager Training and implementation support www.wileyplus.com/accountmanager MAKE IT YOURS! Fundamentals of Human Resource Management Tenth Edition David A. DeCenzo Coastal Carolina University Conway, SC Stephen P. Robbins San Diego State University San Diego, CA Tenth Edition Contributor Susan L. Verhulst Des Moines Area Community College Ankeny, IA John Wiley Sons, Inc. Associate Publisher Executive Editor Senior Editoral Assistant Marketing Manager Marketing AssistantRead MoreHuman Resources Management150900 Words   |  604 Pages3 HR TRANSITIONS HR Management Contributes to Organizational Success More effective management of human resources (HR) increasingly is being seen as positively affecting performance in organizations, both large and small. A joint venture between General Electric and a Japanese company, GE Fanuc is a manufacturer of factory automation and control products. Headquartered in Virginia with 1,500 employees, the HR department primarily performed administrative support activities. But when DonaldRead MoreOne Significant Change That Has Occurred in the World Between 1900 and 2005. 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Dowden Philosophy Department California State University Sacramento Sacramento, CA 95819 USA ii iii Preface Copyright  © 2011-14 by Bradley H. Dowden This book Logical Reasoning by Bradley H. Dowden is licensed under a Creative Commons AttributionNonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License. That is, you are free to share, copy, distribute, store, and transmit all or any part of the work under the following conditions:

The global financial system Free Essays

The global financial system is experiencing banking and financial turmoil commonly referred to as the credit crunch that is said to be due to the pricking of a massive debt bubble, (Peston, 2009). There is no standard definition of the credit crunch; however, a credit crunch is generally described as an economic condition in which investment capital is difficult to obtain (Invetopedia 2009). Credit crunches have been observed to follow recessions and do seriously stifle economic growth through decreased capital liquidity thereby reducing productive sector’s ability to borrow. We will write a custom essay sample on The global financial system or any similar topic only for you Order Now When this situation arises, companies are not able to borrow in order to expand their operations and many may cease production altogether thereby resulting in bankruptcies. When such a situation arises, unemployment increases, homes are lost, banks close down and governments are forced to step in to contain the crisis, in most cases with limited success in the short run. This is not the first time that such a crisis has occurred. Records show that there was a crisis as early as 1622 and between 18th and 20th sixty two banking and financial crashes have been experienced (Henley 2007). Among the chief credit crunches that took place in the 20th century are the Wall Street in the year 1929 and the Japanese financial turmoil in 1990s. Genesis of the crisis The genesis of the debt crisis is partly due to imprudent lending. An observation made by Liu (2008 p9), an individual without a job or reliable income and poor credit history gets a mortgage from a bank. That borrower’s debt is partly sold to another bank that partly sells that debt to another bank that partly sells that debt to another bank perhaps a foreign bank. When the borrower fails to pay, all these banks get affected. In the event that many such borrowers are involved banks will have a liquid crisis and will not be able to lend to needy customers thereby setting in motion a credit crunch. Britain as example AS stated above, massive borrowing and reckless lending is viewed as the major cause of the credit crunch and the situation is made worse when the money is from foreign countries. For Britain, if one aggregates together the consumer, private and public-sector debt, ratio of Britain’s borrowings to her annual economic output is estimated at over 300%, roughly GBP 40000 bn Peston (2009 p1). Households borrowed too much GBP 1200bn on mortgages alone. Gross foreign current liabilities of Britain banks rose from GBP 1100 bn in 1997 to GBP 4400 bn 2008. That is three times the size of Britain’s annual economic output. Most of this cash were the savings from foreign country banks notably China, other Asian countries and the Middle East that were used to buy foreign currency assets in Britain, but the British used this to buy. The savings that were used to buy assets in Britain were made the poorly paid workers in those countries. The tilting of the economic balance could not be sustained for ever. A return to equilibrium to a more balanced global economy had to come to pass at some point and this is currently what is happening with the western economies USA, Britain and others getting the pinch (Peston 2009) Credit crunch in the United States Zhou Xiaochuan, the governor of Chinese Central Bank said, â€Å"Over-consumption and a high reliance on credit is the main cause of the US financial crisis† Peston (2009 p2). Up to 2007, borrowers were financed 100% of the purchase price to buy assets without any serious scrutiny being done on the ability to pay. The New Times of 19 February 20, 2009 reported that the credit crunch in US started way back in late 1990s. At the beginning of 2000, there was a decline in the stock market that made the US to slip into recession. This prompted the Federal Reserve Bank to lower interest rates to stimulate the economic growth. Lower interest rates made mortgage payments cheaper and increased demand for homes that lead to the souring of prices. At the same time banks lowered the refinancing rates which consequently lowered the quality of the mortgage but kept on increasing and finally led to the commencement of the defaults and delinquency in 2006. The financial institutions were not able to balance two things that were simultaneously happening that is the rise in the purchase of assets and the corresponding demand for credit prompting the introduction of securitization (Liu 2008 p4). This susceptibility could not be contained, even with the introduction of securitization, resulting inevitably into the bursting of the bubbles. The outcome was the falling of asset prices that precipitated losses to those who borrowed to buy houses and these include hedge funds, private equity finds, billionaire’s corporate raiders, banks and others. The debts started to increase and the need to sell these assets to offset debts drove the prices down resulting in further losses. With banks not being paid, their resources were progressively depleted thereby halting 100% mortgage financing and other loans. This has the effect of driving prices further down that will lead to the contraction of the US economy as this vicious circle is bound to persist into the future. Business loans for the newly established companies that depend on credit are and will continue to be difficult to access (Tse, et al, 2008). In addition, closing major deals is not proving easy either. The economists predict that the tightening of the credit to drag on the US economy for quite sometime. Size of debt A number of governments are in the process of formulating various policies and measures to be undertaken so as to contain the negative economic and social impact of the credit crunch. To achieve this, and in order to set in a recovery mechanism, an estimate of the size of the debt has to be carried out and this is by no means straight forward. However, a rough calculation of the debt may be estimated by a jargon referred in financial circles, notably by Bank of England, as the customer funding gap (Peston 2009 p3) that is the difference what the US banks have lent and what they have borrowed from households, businesses and institutions that are considered too small to be major players in global financial markets. Conclusion The credit crunch, also known as liquidity crisis or squeeze, is as a result of too much borrowing and lending to undeserving individual and institutions especially in the USA and Britain. This squeeze has constrained the banks ability to lend, scared away investors from buying debts thereby drying up money for borrowing. The liquidity crisis has reduced money available to spend by consumers and the business. The credit squeeze has triggered in serious ramifications for the USA economy, the developed economies and the entire globe in general. Works Cited: Henley, J September 2007. Show us the Money: The Guardian, September 19, 2007. Available at http://guardian. co. uk/money/2007/september/19/business accessed on 19 February 2009. Investopedia 2009: Investoprdia News and Articles available at http://www. investopedia. com/ask/answers/credit-crunch. asp accessed on19 February 2009. Liu, X (2008). CDO and the Credit Crunch: Article presented at Xiamen University. Available at http://ifas. xmu. edu. cn/Article/uploadfiles/200810/200810091551131838 pdf accessed on 19 February 2009. Peston, R (2009). The New Capitalism: BBC News. Available at http://www. bbc. co. uk/blogs/thereporters/robertpeston/16 12_09_news_capitalism. pdf , accessed on 20 February 2009. The New York Times of 19 February 2009. Available at http://topics. nytimes. com/topics/reference/timestopics/subjects/c/credit_crisis/index. html accessed on 19 February 2009. Creditcrunch. co. uk, The UK Forum p 1 Published by Credit Crunch. co. uk. Available at http://www. creditcrunch. co. uk/home/index. php accessed on 21 February 2009. Tse, T. M and Cho, D (2008), Credit Crunch in U. S. Upends Global Markets, The Washington Post of 9 August 2008 available at http://www. washingtonpost. com/wp accessed on 20 February 2009. How to cite The global financial system, Papers

Economic Consequences Of Software Crime Essay Example For Students

Economic Consequences Of Software Crime Essay In 1996 worldwide illegal copying of domestic and international software cost$15.2 billion to the software industry, with a loss of $5.1 billion in theNorth America alone. Some sources put the total up-to-date losses, due tosoftware crime, as high as $4.7 trillion. On the next page is a regionalbreakdown of software piracy losses for 1994. Estimates show that over 40percent of North American software company revenues are generated overseas,yet nearly 85 percent of the software industrys piracy losses occurred outsideof North America.The Software Publishers Association (SPA) indicated thatapproximately 35 percent of the business software in the North America wasobtained illegally. In fact, 30 percent of the piracy occurs in corporatesettings.In a corporate setting or business, every computer must have itsown set of original software and the appropriate number of manuals.It isillegal for a corporation or business to purchase a single set of original s!oftware and then load that softwar e onto more than one computer, or lend, copyor distribute software for any reason without the prior written consent of thesoftware manufacturer.Many software managers are concerned with the legalcompliance, along with asset management and costs to their organizations. Manyfirms involve their legal departments and human resources in regards tosoftware distribution and licensing. Information can qualify to be property in two ways; patent law and copyrightlaws which are creations of federal statutes, which are subject toConstitutional authority.In order for the government to prosecute theunauthorized copying of computerized information as theft, it must first relyon other theories of information-as-property. Trade secret laws are created byprovincial law, and most jurisdictions have laws that criminalize theviolations of a trade-secret holders rights. The definition of a trade secretvaries somewhat from province to province, but commonly have the same elements. For example, the information must be secret, not of public knowledge or ofgeneral knowledge in the trade or business. A court will allow a trade secretto be used by someone who discovered or developed the trade secretindependently if the holder takes adequate precautions to protect the secret. In 1964, the National Copyright Office began to register software as a form ofliterary expression.The office based its decision on White-Smith Music Co. v. Apollo, where the Supreme Court determined that a piano roll used in aplayer piano did not infringe upon copyrighted music because the roll was partof a mechanical device. Since a computer program is textual, like a book, yetalso mechanical, like the piano roll in White-Smith, the Copyright Officegranted copyright protection under the rule of doubt. In 1974, the government created the Natural Commission on New TechnologicalUses (CONTU) to investigate whether the evolving computer technology fieldoutpaced the existing copyright laws and also to determine the extent ofcopyright protection for computer programs. CONTU concluded that whilecopyright protection should extend beyond the literal source code of a computerprogram, evolving case law should determine the extent of protection. Thecommission also felt copyright was the best alternative among existingintellectual property protective mechanisms. CONTU rejected trade secret andpatents as viable protective mechanisms. The CONTU report resulted in the 1980Computer Software Act, and the report acts as informal legislative history toaid the courts in interpreting the Act. In 1980, the Copyright Act was amended to explicitly include computerprograms. It now states that it is illegal to make or to distribute copies ofcopyrighted material without authorization, except for the users right tomake a single backup copy for archival purposes. Any written material(including computer programs) fixed in a tangible form (written somewhere ?i.e. printout) is considered copyrighted without any additional action on thepart of the author. Therefore, it is not necessary that a copy of the softwareprogram be deposited with the National Copyright Office for the program to beprotected as copyrighted. With that in mind a copyright is a property rightonly. In order to prevent anyone from selling your software programs, you mustask a (federal) court to stop that person by an injunction and to give youdamages for the injury they have done to you by selling the program. The Software Rental Amendments Act was approved in 1990. This Act prohibitsthe commercial rental, leasing or lending of software without the expresswritten permission of the copyright holder.Another amendment to theCopyright Act was passed in 1992. This amendment made software piracy afederal offense, and instituted criminal penalties for copyright infringementof software. The penalties can include imprisonment of up to five years, finesup to $250,000 or both for unauthorized reproduction or distribution of 10 ormore copies of software with a total retail value exceeding $2,500 or more. According to federal law duplicating software for profit, making multiplecopies for use by different users within an organization, and giving anunauthorized copy to someone else is prohibited. Under this law if anyone iscaught with the pirated software, an individual or the individuals company canbe tried under both civil and criminal law.A Civil action may beestablished for injunction, actual damages (which includes the infringersprofits) or statutory damages up to $100,000 per infringement. The criminalpenalties for copyright infringement can result in fines up to $250,000 and ajail term up to five years for the first offense and ten years for a secondoffense. When software is counterfeit or copied, the software developer losestheir revenue and the whole software industry feels the effect of piracy. Allsoftware developers spend a lot of time and money in developing software forpublic use. A portion of every dollar spent in purchasing original softwar!e is funneled back into researc h and development of new software. Software piracy can be found in three forms: software counterfeiting, which isthe illegal duplication and sale of copyrighted software in a form that isdesigned to make it appear to be a legitimate program; Hard disk loading,whereby computer dealers load unauthorized copies of software onto the harddisks of personal computers, which acts as an incentive for the end user to buythe hardware from that particular dealer; and downloading of copyrightedsoftware to users connected by modem to electronic bulletin boards and/or theInternet. When software is pirated the consumer pays for that cost by newsoftware and/or upgrade version being more expensive. Federal appellate courts have determined that operating systems, object codeand software contained in ROMs are protected by copyright. Some lower federalcourts have also determined that microcode (the instructions set onmicroprocessor chips) and the look and feel of computer screens is subject tocopyright protection. Which has created major problems for the widespreaddevelopment of multimedia applications with regards to clearing copyright forsmall elements of text, images, video and sound. The United States Government has been an active participant in protecting therights of the software industry. When the Business Software Alliance (BSA)conducts a raid, Federal Marshals or local law enforcement officialsparticipate as well. An organization known as the Software PublishersAssociation (SPA) is the principal trade association of the PC softwareindustry. SPA works closely with the FBI and has also written an enforcementmanual for the FBI to help them investigate pirate bulletin board systems andorganizations (audits). With the help of the FBI, the result of enforcementactions resulted in recoveries from anti-piracy actions totaling $16 millionsince the program started in 1990. The Software Publishers Association (SPA) funds an educational program toinform individuals and corporations about software use and the law. Thisprogram provides all PC users with the tools needed to comply with copyrightlaw and become software legal. The SPA also publishes brochures free of chargeabout the legal use of software for individuals and businesses.Alsoavailable to help corporations understand the copyright law is a 12-minutevideotape, which is composed of the most commonly asked questions and answersto them. The video tape is available in French and Spanish and all togetherover 35,000 copies of the tape had been sold. Paradise Lost Essay PaperSPA has created a program that companies can use to help discover and correctproblems before they result in legal actions, fines and also negativepublicity. The eight point program is as follows:1. Appoint a software manager to implement and monitor all aspects ofcompany software policy. 2. Implement a software codes of ethics for everyone to adhere to. Theethicsshould state that copyrighted software, except for backup and archivalpurposes, is a violation of the law. 3. Establish a procedure for acquiring and registering software. Determineyour companies software needs, evaluate software packages, and also havesupervisors approve the plans. Keep the lines of communication open. 4. Establish and maintain a software log. The log should state the date ofwhen the software was acquired, the registration of it, serial number, networkversion, location of where the software is in use, where the original is,licensing agreement and the location of the original disks. 5. Conduct periodic audits or on an as needed basis comparing the softwarelog and/or other purchase records. 6. Establish a program to educate and train your employees about everyaspect of software and its uses. 7. Maintain a library of software licenses and provide users with copies ofthe agreement. 8. Having done the above seven points, the company can benefit by havingobtained software legally, receive full documentation, technical support whenneeded and also upgrade notices. Patents do not cover specific systems, instead they cover particular techniquesthat can be used to build systems or particular features that systems canoffer. Patent grants the inventor a 17 year monopoly on its use. Once atechnique or feature is patented, it may not be used in a system without thepermission of the patent-holder even if it is implemented in a different way. Since a computer program usually uses several techniques and provides manyfeatures, it can infringe many patents at once. A computer program is builtout of ideal mathematical objects whose behavior is defined, not modeledapproximately, by abstract rules. An example of this is when BorlandInternational, Inc. complained that a federal court decision gave LotusDevelopment Corp. the benefit of patent protection to Lotus 1-2-3 menu commandsand their order, but failed to require Lotus to meet the requirements of patentlaw, including novelty, examination and contribution to the prior art.TheSupreme Court sided with the decision that one entity cannot own the userinterface to programs. This would include such components as file formats,menu structures and programming languages. Software license agreements emerged as the most popular means of protection ofproprietary rights in computer software. They coexist with other forms ofintellectual property rights as patent and copyright. Software licenseagreements serve several functions in transactions involving the transfer ofcomputer technology. One of the most important legal functions is theprotection of the proprietary rights of the licenser in the transferredsoftware. Other functions include controlling the revenue generated bylicensed software and determining the rights and responsibilities of theparties regarding the performance of the licensed technology. Issues relatedto these functions include the applicability of Article 2 of the UniformCommercial Code, including offer and disclaimer of warranties, determining theappropriate types of licenses to utilize, such as single users/CPU licenses,Site/enterprise licenses and network/concurrent licenses. Trade secret, copyright and patent law are static forms of protection in thesense that they may exist independently of any underlying business transactionsand do not necessarily require any transfer of intellectual property from oneparty to another. Whereas, the need for a license agreement usually arises asone of the contractual forms of protection when the underlying businesstransaction involves the transfer of intellectual property, such as computersoftware. Transactions involving the transfer of computer software are subjectto both federal and provincial laws. Generally, provincial law governscontractual and trade secrets aspects of the transaction, while federal lawgoverns aspects related to patent, copyright and antitrust issues. Each province has its own version of a trade secret, the common thread throughthese province-specific laws is that if you show that you are seriously treatedinformation as confidential and that the confidential information helped yourcompetitive position, you can stop others from using it if the information wasimproperly acquired by them, and even collect damages from the wrongdoers. A computer is useless without software. The two types of software typicallyfound on a computer are operating systems software and application software. Operating system software provides an interface that makes it easier to developprograms for the system by reducing the amount of code that must be written. The operating system acts as an interface between the computer hardware,application programs and the end user.Application software consists of oneor more computer programs that fulfill a specific function for the user likeword processing, bookkeeping or financial analysis. Two legal cases recently within the last few years has brought to light thecontroversy regarding the copyright protection of software elements. Until1992, most of the federal courts followed the decision in Whenlan v JaslowDental Laboratory as a precedent for similar cases. Whenlan, a small softwarecompany wrote a accounting program for Jaslow Dental Laboratory company. Jaslow rewrote the software to run on personal computers and proceeded to sellthe product. The software was identical to Whenlans in the data structures,logic, and the program structure, except for the source code. Jaslow arguedthat the duplicated elements were part by the of the idea not the expression. The court in response felt that the data structures, logic, and the programstructure comprised to make a single function of a computer program, thereforecopyright protection should be given to those elements also. In 1992, this protection was weakened by Computer Associates v. Altai, Inc. ,when Altai a software developer was accused of copying various modules of asoftware package developed by Computer Associates which controlled the runningof applications on IBM mainframes. The court rejected Whelans premise that acomputer program embodies one function because programs are made up ofsub-routines that contain their own idea. The court recognized that this wouldnarrow the scope of software copyright protection and found this in accordancewith the Governments intent of computer programs with copyright. This is whycurrently software copyright is not as broad as it once was. All the above mentioned licenses and anti-piracy precautions cost billions ofdollars each year, in both direct and opportunity costs. These costs areshared by anybody that is involved with any aspect of the software industry. As the future of approaches, more and more people are gaining experience withtechnology. That experience doesnt come without a price. That price is thepower to manipulate technology for personal gain which usually results in adetriment ?typically financial?to others. Bibliography:Brandel, William, Licensing stymies users,URL:http://www.viman.com/license/license.html#policy, Viman Software, Inc.,1994. Business Software Alliance, Software Piracy and the Law,URL:http://www.bsa.org/bsa/docs/soft_pl.html, Business Software Alliance,1995. Software Publishers Association, SPA Anti-Piracy Backgrounder,URL:http://www.spa.org/piracy/pi_back.htm, Software Publishers Association,1995. Business Software Alliance, Did You Know?,URL:http://www.bsa.org/cgi-bin-bsa.org/seconds.cgi?, Business SoftwareAlliance, 1997. The Economist, Slipping A DiskURL: http://www.economist.com/issue/27-07-96/wbsfl.gif, The Economist, 1994. Business Software Alliance, Software Piracy,URL: http://www.bsa.org/privacy/privacy.html, Business Software Alliance,1997.