Essay about William Blake’s Poetry - 1541 Words

William Blake’s Poetry William Blake was one of those 19th century figures who could have and should have been beatniks, along with Rimbaud, Verlaine, Manet, Cezanne and Whitman. He began his career as an engraver and artist, and was an apprentice to the highly original Romantic painter Henry Fuseli. In his own time he was valued as an artist, and created a set of watercolor illustrations for the Book of Job that were so wildly but subtly colored they would have looked perfectly at home in next months issue of Wired. He lived in a filthy London studio where he succumbed to constant visions of angels and prophets who instructed him in his work. He once painted while recieving a vision of Voltaire, and when asked later whether†¦show more content†¦His philosophy of Christianity was considered blasphemous, but he was never charged with such a crime. However, he did express his critical opinions of the Church in both essay and poetic form. To understand what is being said in such poems as THE GARDEN OF LOVE and The Little Vagabond one must consider the poets religious, or shall I say spiritual, position. William Blake considered himself to be a monistic Gnostic. That is, he believed what saved a persons soul was not faith but knowledge. Faith, he felt, was a term that was abused by those who thought spending every Sunday in a church would grant them eternal salvation regardless of what actions they exhibited outside the walls of the church. Church ceremonies were also dry, emotionless and meaningless, according to Blake. Church was evil, as Blake would have put it. Knowledge was cherished by Blake. He argued that through knowledge one can truly understand Christ, and when this understanding is reached one can then begin to become Christ. Christ was the pinnacle of what a human should strive to be. God and Christ were placed on the same level, and God was not a clockmaker or some supreme being placed outside of human capacity; rather, Blake argued that God is something that resides in all of humanity. Blake coined this Divine Humanity, the potential for all humanity to come full circle and be humanly divine; this is possible because God and Jesus are both living inside of us fromShow MoreRelatedWilliam Blakes Poetry1285 Words   |  6 PagesWilliam Blake was a powerful poet in the Romantic era. During this era, there was a cultural shift that caused many changes such as natural word influences, breakaway from rules, individualism, and social changes. These changes caused people to break away from traditional norms and focus on imagination and c ulture change. Poets during this era were the center of the movement. They concentrated their work on Imagination to create new ideas, emotions of the individual, and the influence of nature (â€Å"William†)Read More The Complexity of William Blakes Poetry Essay1049 Words   |  5 PagesThe Complexity of William Blakes Poetry Northrop Frye, in his critical essay, Poetry and Design, states; In a world as specialized as ours, concentration on one gift and a rigorous subordination of all others is practically a moral principle (Frye 137). William Blakes refusal to follow this moral principle by putting his poetry before his art, or vice versa, makes his work extraordinary as well as complex and ambiguous. Although critics attempt to juggle Blakes equally impressive talentsRead MoreSociological Criticism of William Blake’s Poetry Essay1506 Words   |  7 Pagesinequality. William Blake, a Romantic poet, frequently wrote on the topic of class oppression and his opposition to the exploitation of the proletariat by the capitalists. Blake’s ideology and preference towards an equalitarian society quite closely mirror the theories of Karl Marx. Analyzing Blake’s poetry from a Marxist perspective paints a clearer picture of the motives behind Blake’s anger towards social inequality. Poe ms such as â€Å"The Chimney Sweeper† and â€Å"London† from his poetry collectionsRead MoreOrganized Religion Versus Sprituality in William Blakes Poetry990 Words   |  4 PagesWilliam Blake was a poet and artist who was born in London, England in 1757. He lived 69 years, and although his work went largely unnoticed during his lifetime, he is now considered a prominent English Romantic poet. Blake’s religious views, and his philosophy that â€Å"man is god†, ran against the religious thoughts at the time, and some might equate Blake’s views to those of the hippie movement of the 20th century. In â€Å"The Garden of Love†, the conflict between organized religion and individual thoughtRead MoreEssay about William Blake ´s Pity based on Shakespeare ´s Macbeth816 Words   |  4 Pages William Blakes colour print painting filled with watercolors and ink is known as Pity, it is one of a large group of paintings known as Large Colour Prints. In Pity, a woman lying on the ground appears to be deceased, while two figures riding horses fly above her with a young baby in hand. This painting was completed in 1795, but the painting relates more to the characteristics of renaissance style drawing. Sense the woman figure lying down does not appear in Macbeth’s simile on Pity, the womanRead MoreIndustrialized Society in Romantic Poetry: William Blakes The Chimney Sweeper1253 Words   |  6 Pagessimultaneously. This movement as defined by one of its creators William Wordsworth was, in the preface of their collaborated work Lyrical Ballads with Samuel Coleridge, â€Å"the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings: it takes its origin from emotion recollected in tranquillity.(Wordsworth 1) Although the definition matched with the psychological and literary situation of the era, a couple romantic authors existed outside of the definition. William Blake was different and defined as pre-romantic author byRead MoreThe Innocence of Lamb in Songs of Innocence by William Blake615 Words   |  3 PagesSongs of Innocence by William Blake collocates the naà ¯ve lives of children and loss of innocence of adults, with moral Christian values and how religion has the capacity to promote cruelty and prejudice. Blake was born in 1757, up to and after the French Revolution he wrote many works criticizing enlightened rationalism and instead focused on intellectual ideas that avoided institutionalization and propelled ethical and moral order. Blake’s collection of poem exposes and explores the values and limitationsRead MoreWilliam Blake s Songs Of Innocence And Experience1268 Words   |  6 PagesWilliam Blake’s Songs of Innocence and Experience, printed in 1794, â€Å"represents the world as it is envisioned by what he calls ‘two contrary states of the human soul’† (Greenblatt, 1452). This collection of poetry is accompanied by pictures, which create a mutually reliant relationship that allows for complete understanding of Blake’s works. â€Å"To read a Blake poem without the pictures is to miss something important: that relationship is an aspect of the poem’s argument† (1452). Overall, Blake’s worksRead More Children in Blake’s Poetry Essay1167 Words   |  5 PagesChildren in Blake’s Poetry The use of children is a prominent theme in a number of William Blake’s poems. It is apparent in reading such poems as, â€Å"The Lamb,† â€Å"The Little Black Boy,† and â€Å"The Chimney Sweeper,† that Blake sees the world through the eyes of a child and embraces the innocence of the young. Blake’s poem â€Å"The Lamb,† from Songs of Innocence really illustrates the innocence and purity of a young child. The persona in the poem is of a young child. The child questionsRead More Coexistence of Contrary States in Blake’s The Tyger Essay1883 Words   |  8 PagesCoexistence of Contrary States in Blake’s The Tyger Since the two hundred years that William Blake has composed his seminal poem The Tyger, critics and readers alike have attempted to interpret its burning question - Did he who made the Lamb make thee? Perhaps best embodying the spirit of Blake’s Songs of Experience, the tiger is the poetic counterpart to the Lamb of Innocence from Blake’s previous work, Songs of Innocence. Manifest in The Tyger is the key to understanding its identity

Interracial Dating And How Accepted It Is Nowadays

Interracial Dating and How Accepted it is Nowadays Introduction: Interracial dating in the United States compared to previous history is more popular than ever before. It is more present because minorities are getting higher education, people are becoming more tolerant, there is more exposure to other cultures, there are no bans on interracial dating now, and young people are more self-expressive and believe more in individualism (Firmin Firebaugh, 2008). Though interracial dating is more accepted by people currently, there is still pressure from the ingroup, parents, and family members to date within one’s race. Some people still prefer intraracial dating rather than interracial dating. There are certain pros and cons to interracial dating according to research studies. In addition, the percentage of one race dating another varies and the gender statistics differs as well. Who is more open to interracial dating is different among the races. Lastly, there are certain characteristics that may determine how receptive a person is to the idea of interracial dating and his or her attitude of the topic. Discussion: Statistics that rates of interracial relationships, such as dating and marriages, have increased in the past decades There is an abundance of evidence that displays interracial dating is on the rise. â€Å"Krikor (2001) reports that interracial marriages are increasing, from 51,000 African American-Caucasian marriages in 1960 to 330,000 in 1998. Gurung Duong (1999) andShow MoreRelatedWe Were Just Too Different1808 Words   |  8 Pagesme and the culture and tradition that make up a huge part of who I am.† This was just a little piece of what my aunt told me as we sat in â€Å"Baja Fresh†, after she picked me up from school and told me about how she had broken off her engagement earlier that morning. I was shocked. After dating my aunt for almost 2 and half years and then having been engaged to her for 4 months, Greg was like an uncle to the rest of my cousins and I. We sat with him for Shabbat dinner every Friday night, went to â€Å"ChuckeeRead MoreColorism And The Common Struggle Of Black Girls1921 Words   |  8 Pagesgirls with a deeper skin pigment per example, makeup brands neglect the commercialization of darker shades of foundation, hair products for women of color are also hard to find in stores. The media plays a big part on influencing ideas of beauty nowadays in the African American community where magazine covers are likely to Photoshop one’s skin tone in order for the person to look neater and another strike is black men praising white women like Kim Kar dashian, Kylie Jenner and so forth on twitterRead MoreThe Philippine Architecture: Spanish Colonial Period18287 Words   |  74 PagesSpanish Colonial Period Chapter Review Arch 117 Abegail Imee R. Enriquez 2012-68836 Spanish Colonial Period How does Spanish Colonial architecture reflect Filipino identity? Discuss the various building types and their relationship to pre-colonial architecture in your arguments. Spanish colonial architecture reflects Filipino identity mostly through the Religious Architecture. As what the world knows, Philippines is the only Catholic country in Southeast Asia; thus, most of our structures allRead MoreStephen P. Robbins Timothy A. Judge (2011) Organizational Behaviour 15th Edition New Jersey: Prentice Hall393164 Words   |  1573 PagesCreating a Positive Work Environment 22 †¢ Improving Ethical Behavior 22 Coming Attractions: Developing an OB Model 23 An Overview 23 †¢ Inputs 24 †¢ Processes 25 †¢ Outcomes 25 Summary and Implications for Managers 30 S A L Self-Assessment Library How Much Do I Know About Organizational Behavior? 4 Myth or Science? â€Å"Most Acts of Workplace Bullying Are Men Attacking Women† 12 An Ethical Choice Can You Learn from Failure? 24 glOBalization! Does National Culture Affect Organizational Practices? 30 Point/Counterpoint

Genetic Testing at Burlington Free Essays

Genetic Testing at Burlington Northern People wake up everyday, get ready for day, and start off to work. At work we never think about dying or getting hurt. So we do not worry enough , and we believe that our workplace is safe. We will write a custom essay sample on Genetic Testing at Burlington or any similar topic only for you Order Now But unfortunately there were some fatalities, while people at work, this fatalities and accidents are still going on. Companies must care about their workers’ safety and keep their environment without any danger. For this reason companies should care about ethical values. In October 2000, Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railroad’s medical department requested a blood test from Gary Avary, in purpose of a DNA test without his permission. Accidentaly he realized that, but Burlington Northern said him that if would not accept this request, he would fired. They tried to cheat their workers and make some irrelevant test about their Carpel tunnel surgery which is against ADA. At the end of this case BSNF settled the suit by agreeing to halt genetic testing and to pay 36 employees $2. 2 million. Because except this fake for workers, it as some mistakes against workers in work environment. First of all Kantian ethics respet to person, and we never ever should not forget that our workers are human beings like us. You should always snow respect their existence, health and safety. Secondly, BSNF lied about their health conditions. They said reason is deletion of 17th chromosome, but there is not any truth like this, so BSNF playing gamble on one person’s life. For utilitarian theory, if you get profit, it does not matter what is going on outside. But after his illegal situations , BSNF charged great amount money to pay their workers, first of all it is a huge loss. Moreover they put question marks on their workers’ mind. The more question marks on heads , the less utility. As i said first, we always want to beliee that we are in safe in our workplace, otherwise we cannot provide any benefit to our company. As a result BSNF gave totally wrong decisions, and they paid it hard. There is no any ethical dilemma for them. They must keep their environment safe not only for their workers, but also for their benefit. How to cite Genetic Testing at Burlington, Papers

Genesis And Theogony Plagiarism Essay Example For Students

Genesis And Theogony Plagiarism? Essay Genesis and TheogonyPlagiarism? The Book of Genesis is a compilation, and like every compilation it has a wide variety of contributors who, in turn, have their individual influence upon the final work. It is no surprise, then, that there exist certain parallels between the Theogony, the cosmogony of the early Greeks, and the Book of Genesis, the first part of the Pentateuch section of the Bible. In fact, arguments may be made that the extent of this borrowing, as it were, is not limited to Genesis; the Theogony has its own roots in Greek mythology, predating the Book of Genesis by a thousand years. A superficial examination of this evidence would erroneously lead one to believe that Genesis is somewhat a collection of older mythology re-written specifically for the Semites. In fact, what develops is that the writers have addressed each myth as a separate issue, and what the writers say is that their God surpasses every other. Each myth or text that has a counterpart in Genesis only serves to further an important idea among the Hebrews: there is but one God, and He is omnipotent, omniscient, and other-worldly; He is not of this world, but outside it, apart from it. The idea of a monotheistic religion is first evinced in recorded history with Judaism, and it is vital to see that instead of being an example of plagiarism, the Book of Genesis is a meticulously composed document that will set apart the Hebrew God from the others before, and after. If we trace back to the first appearance of Genesis in written form, in its earliest translation, we arrive at 444 B.C.; In order to fully comprehend the origin of the story we must venture further back in time. We can begin with the father of the Hebrew people, Abraham. We can deduce when he lived, and find that he lived around 1900 B.C. in ancient Mesopotamia. If we examine his world and its culture, we may find the reasons behind certain references in Genesis, and the mythologies of Theogony they resemble. Abraham lived during a time of great prosperity and a remarkably advanced culture. Homes were comfortable, even luxurious. We can also deduce that it was a relatively stable and peaceful society; its art is characterized by the absence of any warlike activity, paintings or sculptures. Outside the cities the early nomadic tribes of Israel were, taking with them the early traditions, and in varying latitudes modified them according to the current external influences. The message remained constant, but the context would subtly change. There were tribes of Israel in Egypt during the Egyptian Middle Kingdom period, which certainly exposed these people to Egyptian culture as well as Babylonian culture as a result of trade between the two kingdoms. Having placed Abraham and certain early Semites in this time, we now understand the culture they knew and the impact it had on the creation of Genesis. The book of Genesis is about the beginnings of creation and life on earth. It begins with nothingness and in the first seven days following God creates the heavens and the earth, light and darkness, the seas, plant life, then came the sun and the moon, the fowls and the creatures who roam the lands, followed by humankind to finish it all off. Comparing the creation aspects of Genesis to Theogony, we see that the earth was again created out of nothingness known as Chaos. Chaos, instead of creating everything on earth, created several other godly beings to create the earth as it is today. Therefore, it can be deduced that the stories of Genesis we derived from the stories of the gods and goddesses of Theogony. Another similarity the stories possess is in the identity and condemnation of women as evil. In Theogony women were created to be an evil placed upon the earth to cause suffering for men because Iapetos, a mischievous god, stole fire from Zeus and presented it to man. Panofsky's Views On Van Eyck Essay In retaliation, Zeus had his lame smith mold the shape of a modest maiden (572). The figure was then clothed by Athena and was placed upon the earth as a tempting snare from which men cannot .

Pedal to the Medal free essay sample

Jumping rope will always be dear to my heart. The last time I remember winning a contest was in second grade when I outlasted my classmates. Though the medal was paper, it was winning that made me proud. I savored that moment as my P.E. teacher carefully placed the medal over my head. I definitely was on the road to success. As years passed, however, I became one of many students competing to make it to the top and my success rate began to falter. Sure, I won a few poem parties and races, but those accomplishments were small compared with my peers. Not only did they compete and win against classmates, they also challenged champions from other schools. My friends boasted about every area imaginable: sports, music, spelling bees, writing contests you name it, they could do it. Sometimes I wondered if I was of the same species as those around me. We will write a custom essay sample on Pedal to the Medal or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page Often I would quietly watch the activity going on, trying to be cheerful for the others because I knew it meant the world to them, but I couldnt help but feel envious. While everybody had at least one area they excelled in, I felt so average: the child who got good grades, did well in sports, participated in music class, but never was the best at anything. I was just another person, my face hidden among thousands, with nothing to amplify my existence or my purpose. Throughout junior high, there was lots of competitions where I had the chance to shine, including the talent show. All three years, I was cut from the show, each rejection more devastating than the last. It made me feel I had no abilities, nothing to prove my worth. Whats worse is that during lunch and recess my friends would practice in secret and I would spend my time alone, walking around the playground kicking a ball. When the day of the show arrived, I would gloomily slump in the stands, wishing that I could dance as beautifully as that girl or act as well as that boy. Eventually, I started to get used to the fact that I was just average. Often I would dream of being the star of a show, the champion of a contest, but realized that these were just thoughts and pitifully short of reality. In ninth grade, my science teacher required each student to work on a project to enter in the science fair. Undoubt-edly I wouldnt win a prize, but I resolved to give it my best. I labored night and day, researching and adding more to perfect my project. The night of the judging, I sat silently, dreaming of awards and acclamations. The phone rang I had an interview for my project. I was ecstatic! Never before was I given such a privilege. I went on to win first in my category and advanced to the county fair. After setting up my project at the fair, I knew I had done well just to get that far. Pleased with my accomplishments, I realized I had finally done something that made me proud. I was beginning to find a place. No longer was I running along the sidelines, trying to find a gap to fit in, but a part of the circle, flowing with the joy and rhythm of life. The days events settled comfortably in my mind as I snuggled under my covers that night. I was no longer an average person who couldnt do anything right. It was my turn to share my accomplishments with my peers. It was my turn to shine. I no longer was just the girl in the background. Two days later, I was called into an interview for the Country Science Fair and went on to win a medal. Its brilliance and beauty shone into my face. Sure, it was an object, but it represented me, the person who was actually something. This medal has opened countless doors. Even the smallest of people can find their places if they set their hearts to it. It could take weeks, months or even years, but in the end, they wont just be jump-rope champions, theyll be true champions.

A common proverb is Actions speak louder than wo Essays - Philosophy

A common proverb is Actions speak louder than wo Essays - Philosophy A common proverb is Actions speak louder than words. This phrase means that words are meaningless without actions. Actions give purpose to your words because people say and make promises but have no intentions on keeping them. Acting according to your word will allow people to be more inspired and will most likely draw people to you. For instance, a candidate who honors his word will more likely be chosen over a candidate who doesn't. Lastly, without actions, there are no results. So therefore, actions give meanings to your words, people are most likely to be inspired by someone who honors their word, and without actions there are no results. In today's world, everyone has the freedom to say anything that he or she wishes to say. However, this does not mean that everything we say is truthful and should be taken literally. When someone declares something magnificent that they wish to achieve, how many of them actually take steps towards this goal. To truly discover who someone is, one must understand their body language and how they act. Often times, what people say and their actions can be entirely different, in this instance, it is more reliable to trust the latter. Furthermore, words are easier to forget, while actions are harder to forget because they have a more lasting physical effect on people and the world around them. Actions, compared to words, are concrete and have an everlasting impression. Words are meaningless without tangible evidence that proves what a person says. By this, a person may express claims, or go as far as threaten another person, to place inspiration or fear in them, but their statements are less meaningful unless they go through with what was said. Examples of this can be found in the politics, local communities, and everyday life. The new and current President of the United States, Donald Trump, told the public one of his plans for the country would include immigration bans. After the election was over, Trump pulled back from those. However, President Trump recently took action and the immigration ban temporarily prevents people and refugees from predominantly Muslims countries from entering the United States. His actions showed the world that he would keep his word and this helps people understand how actions must be followed through in order to get the meaning of what o ne says. Actions, while powerful, still are matched and to some overwritten by words. Words have the power to build nations or tear them apart. Additionally, words can be spread by means of mass communication while actions would only be seen by those present at the time that the action was done. However, while words are able to be communicated, if no action ever took place, then words would not matter and people will always be able to tell others of the events they witnessed. Words also have a unique way of inspiring people. Furthermore, words have the power to warn an audience of what may become our future if we don't take action. While all of these points are valid, the world is not built purely on words. After all, when words exist conflict arises that only action has the power to end. In conclusion, while an argument can be made that words are stronger than actions, without actions the world would not be able to make the necessary steps that are needed to have the world be where it is today. All things considered, actions give meaning to your words, create results, and ultimately have the power to influence people more than words. It's important to follow through with actions so that the things you do are coherent with the things you say. Otherwise, your words are futile and ineffective. Actions also create results and essentially influence people more than words. If you had to choose between showing your love or saying I love you, which one would make more of an impact?

ECO 202 MOD 3 CA Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words - 1

ECO 202 MOD 3 CA - Essay Example Q3..For the past 3 years a major department store chain has averaged approximately $10 billion in long-term debt. Their debt is in the form of bonds that have been sold to investment funds and the public (If you are not sure what a corporate bond is look it up on the internet). For the sake of argument, let us assume that either now or one-year from now they will add an additional $5 billion to finance store expansion. This is a given, management has already made this expansion decision and it does not need to be commented on. The objective of management is to issue bonds at the lowest interest rate. Given this objective, should they issue the bonds now or wait for one year if they feel the Federal Reserve will follow:   1. The Federal Reserve policy makers use monetary policy to influence demand and supply of money. Changes in demand and supply of money cause interest rates to fluctuate as illustrated in the below diagrams: The  Federal Reserve  can set the  discount rate, as well as achieve the desired  federal funds rate  by  open market operations. These rates have significant effect on other market interest rates, but there is no perfect relationship. In the United States open market operations are a relatively small part of the total volume in the bond market(monetary policy,Wikipedia,2011) Federal Reserve uses expansionary monetary policy to boost up economics activity in the economy and remove recessionary gap. An increase in the nominal money supply or a decrease in the demand for money results in excess supply of money. This change attempts to reduce money holdings by buying bonds and results in a fall if interest rates .Decrease in interest rate results in an increase in interest-sensitive expenditure and hence there is an increase in equilibrium real National Income. Opposite of expansionary policy is the Contractionary policy which is aimed to remove inflationary gap. A decrease in money supply or a n

Human resource Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Human resource - Essay Example This report highlights the perils of using the appraisal as a control device. Managers, in today’s organisations, require the need to ensure employees are focused on meeting corporate goals and attaining goals related to their individual job roles. Policy is generally the tool of choice to ensure compliance, created to act as a guideline for improving or managing employee behaviour. Managerial controls are best managed through in-house policy creation and should never include the performance appraisal as a means to guarantee compliance. In progressive organisations, the performance appraisal is created as a tool to monitor employee job function, unique contribution, and assess the overall learning capabilities of employees. Abraham Maslow, a famous 20th century psychologist, created the Hierarchy of Needs which describes employee motivations in order to help them become a more well-rounded employee. This model describes basic human needs to include security, belonging and self-esteem as needs that must be fulfilled in order to become high-performing business contributors. â€Å"The satisfaction of the need for esteem produces feelings of self-confidence, prestige, power and control. Individuals feel useful when they feel they have some sort of effect on their environment† (Gambrel & Cianci, 2003, p.144). Self-esteem development is paramount for today’s human resource managers, as it is the determinant of how employees view themselves and their role within the organisation. It is because of these needs that the performance appraisal has been developed, helping employees to uncover their many talents and give them a tool for feedback as a means to improve self-esteem. Employees, at the most basic needs level, need reinforcement to give them guidance about their performance, their peer or manager relationships, and to help them understand which weaknesses require change or improvement. The appraisal acts as a feedback mechanism that provides

British Tort Law Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

British Tort Law - Case Study Example For any one party to be held responsible for violation of the tort law, the claimant must establish that there is a duty of care and that there has been a breach of that duty to cause damage or loss to the claimant that needs to be compensated by an award of damages. There is a breach of the duty-of-care principle if the defendant is proven to have failed to do what a reasonable person will do in the situation presented. Francesca was a chambermaid of good standing at Hulton hotel until a regular hotel guest stormed into the manager's office one day to accuse her of theft. The hotel regular Manon complained that he asked Francesca to redeem a ring worth 20,000-pound sterling from a downtown jeweler where it was taken for repairs. He never saw the chambermaid and the ring again. Obviously, Francesca kept the ring for herself and avoided Manon while continuing her duties at the hotel. In March, the hotel management dismissed Francesca for cause and brought a court case against her. She was convicted in August on several counts of theft after subsequent investigations revealed that she had stolen from other hotel guests before, although mostly involving items of smaller value. The hotel guest Manon, insisting that the hotel management shares responsibility for Francesca's misdeed, is intent on suing the hotel, saying the establishment should answer to the law as well. Question: Is the Hulton hotel management accountable for the loss of Manon's ring to the thieving Francesca Answer: Yes, the hotel management shares the blame for Francesca's acts under the British tort law. However, this judgment depends on the circumstances surrounding the theft. The Occupier's Liability Act in UK expressly provides that any person like a shop owner who admits people into his premises owes a minimum duty of care to protect these people's safety (MRL, 2003). This statutory tort applies to health and safety regulations across the workplace (Honore, 1995). In the case simulation at bar, the Hulton hotel management admitted the man Manon into its premises as hotel guest. The hotel here is a workplace where health and safety regulations are to be strictly observed. It follows that the hotel management is duty-bound to care for its guest's safety from "trespassers" against his goods. Therefore, Manon's loss of his ring can be traced to the hotel's breach of its duty of care by failing to detect the presence of a potential theft among its employees as a safety precaution. For this reason, it is reasonable to ask the hotel to recompense the loss. The management, however, may argue that Manon had it coming because he entrusted his ring to Francesca as an individual presumably enjoying his confidence, and not as an adjunct of the hotel who entered the arrangement with the full knowledge of management. It should be noted that Manon's act of personally requesting Francesca to redeem his ring from the jeweler's shop in his behalf involved an element of trust. If that were so, common sense dictates that the theft was a result of Manon's

Igniting Flammable Liquids with Cigarettes

Igniting Flammable Liquids with Cigarettes Cigarettes seem like a probable ignition source for flammable liquids. Cigarettes have been blamed for the cause of many fires, far more than they should. But Cigarettes are more than tobacco wrapped in paper. They are in fact carefully engineered to burn in a certain way Cigarettes vary considerably from brand to brand in their burning characteristics. Modern cigarettes contain an engineered chemistry of additives to control the burning rates and moisture content of the tobacco and paper and anyone who has been a smoker knows the fact that manufactured Cigarettes go on burning when not being puffed. This spares smokers the trouble of lighting up again unlike with rolled up cigarettes and Cigars where the smoker has to keep smoking for the combustion of the tobacco to remain lit. This is good for the cigarette companies and pays off in higher sales from cigarettes. So yes this does mean that a cigarette rolling off onto a mattress or into the crack of a sofa can smoulder undetected f or 30 to 40 minutes before bursting into flames. Smouldering is a form of flameless combustion which can occur in materials capable of charring. Smouldering can occur at very low oxygen concentrations then proceeds at a very slow rate before flaming occurs. This makes people understand the real hazard of manufactured cigarettes. But that is found out through the visual fact of witnessing a cigarette stay lit and burn. So people will believe most of what they see as fact, but when many people sit down in their local theatre to watch the latest Hollywood movie they usual see the spectacular visual effects of a character throwing a lit cigarette on to a puddle of fuel and watching a large fire ball appear before their eyes which causes an amazing explosion. Igniting puddles of petrol for example with cigarettes in movies is a common device. The character takes a few puffs and tosses the glowing cigarette in the puddle. Immediately the petrol ignites. But Experiments with flammable gases and vapours have shown that many of the most commonly-encountered substances, including methane and petrol vapour, were not ignited by a lighted cigarette[1] So Petrol vapour cannot normally be ignited by glowing cigarettes, a fact which has been verified by many experiments. Cigarettes are rather uncommon as the source of ignition for a successful structure fire. If they are set to ignite liquid flammables, they will almost certainly fail[2] This paper looks to answer why a lighted cigarette when tested against the ignition of common flammable vapours such as petrol fail but other more volatile liquids tested are capable of ignition. Previous work carried out on cigarette ignition, related research in this field of combustion and ignition of flammable gases and liquids will be studied and researched to give the author a better understanding of the fallacy that a lit cigarette can be a danger that can readily ignite flammable liquids or gases. But not to underestimate the potential danger of such an ignition source in circumstances where many factors can come together to form self sustained combustion. Flammable substances and liquids are used for a wide variety of purposes and are commonly found in the home. Petrol is the most common, but there are other flammable and combustible liquids and gases used Table shows other flammable liquids commonly found around the home Lighter fluid Oil Propane Butane Aerosol Cans Diesel fuel Wood preservatives Kerosene White spirits Flammable materials found in the gaseous form will burn whenever mixed with the proper amount of air and properly ignited. A flammable liquid in its liquid state will not burn. It will only ignite when the vapours from the liquid evaporate in air. All flammable liquids give off vapours that can ignite and burn when an ignition source is introduced. Flammable liquids require an initial energy input to produce an air/vapour mixture within the limits of flammability (niamh mc daid) Ignition is the transition from a nonreactive to a reactive state in which external actions lead to thermo chemical runaway followed by rapid transition to self sustained combustion The usual conditions for ignition are given by a 3t rule of thumb. The three Ts stand for: Temperature. Must be high enough to cause significant chemical reactions and/or pyrolysis Time. Must be long enough to allow the heat input to be absorbed by the reactants so that a runaway thermo chemical process can occur Turbulence. Must be high enough so that there is good mixing between fuel and oxidizer and heat can be transferred from the reacted media to the unreacted media (cite the book) Ignition will occur when the process of a rapid exothermic reaction is started, which then gains momentum and causes the fuel to undergo change. When a flammable liquid is poured or spilled on a surface it is the vapours that are actually ignited. Vapours from liquids are what directly support the flame. To understand how volatile certain flammable liquids are it is useful to be familiar with the terms used to describe their chemical properties. Vapour density This is a property of a vapour that predicts its behaviour when released in air. when calculating the vapour density of a liquid fuel the molecular weight of gas of the vapour by that of air in normal conditions. (approx 29) (niamh mc daid) Flash point The flash point is the lowest temperature at which a liquid fuel will produce a flammable vapour. A liquid fuel must be able to generate a vapour in sufficient quantity to reach that lower limit in air before it can burn. This flash point is measured in two different ways, first being a closed cup measurement and the latter being an open cup. Flammable ranges Petrol has a narrow flammable range. Thus petrol vapour mixed with air has a lower flammability limit of just over 1% and an upper limit of 6% by volume petrol vapour in air, at normally encountered temperatures. (hollyhead) Flammable range refers to the percentage of a flammable liquid in its gaseous state to air to create an explosive mixture. Mixtures of flammable vapours with air will combust only when they are within particular ranges of vapour/air concentration. Outside of these limits the fuel-air mixture is either too lean or too rich to ignite (niamh mc daid) This varies with different flammable liquids. Gasoline has a flammability range of 1.4 to 7.6 percent. This means it will ignite when there is 1.4 parts of gasoline mixed with 100 parts air Ignition temperatures This is the temperature at which a particular flammable liquid gives off vapours and evaporates in air and therefore can ignite. Gasoline will ignite when a heat source or electrical spark of at least 853 degrees comes in contact with it. Natural gas (methane) needs an ignition temperature of around 1000 degrees Auto-ignition temperature (AIT) This is the temperature at which a fuel will ignite on its own without any additional source of ignition. (Niamh mcdaid) Fires will occur because there is high temperature introduced to an area in which there is a fuel-air mixture within its flammability range. There are so atmospheric factors that affect the Auto-ignition temperature e.g. Oxygen levels in the area of the mixture. But so long as the heat energy can be transferred from the source to the fuel ignition fire may result Flammability In Hollyheads paper he mentions the flammability of certain liquids e.g., kerosene, white spirit and diesel oil, which are flammable liquids with flash point temperatures above normal ambient. So therefore, an ignition source has to ignite not only the flammable mixture of fuel vapour but to generate this mixture in the first place by heating the bulk liquid. (hollyhead) Cigarette Components Modern manufactured cigarette comprise of different components. The components combined can affect the performance of the cigarette including the emissions of toxicants. In British manufactured cigarettes the tobacco used is Virginia. There are two other main types used in commercial cigarettes which are Burley and Oriental.   Each has different characteristics.  These tobacco types will also vary depending on their variety, in what environment they are cultivated and how that cultivation is carried out. The paper around the tobacco of commercial cigarettes in modified in different brands. It can be more porous in some brands so that the amount of air passing through the paper affects the yield of a puff. The more air that can pass through the paper the more the smoke constituents passing through the cigarette are weakened which then result in lower yields of various smoke products. Just as Baker describes when a cigarette burns, thousands of products are formed. They are distrib uted between the gas phase and aerosol particles which make up smoke. (baker) Modern commercial cigarettes are made with a filter. The filter is different on most brands. The way the filter is designed can affect the amount of filtration. Different cigarette brands can regulate the taste and smoking experience. Introducing vents in the paper surrounding the filter end can allow for dilution of smoke in lighter branding cigarettes. The bigger the length results in longer fibres and also the materials used for the fibres all play a part in making a certain cigarette different from other brands in the market. Figure shows the different components of a manufactured cigarette, how smoke moves through the tobacco and filter and how air moves through the paper (bat) Cigarette Combustion Many of the components identified in tobacco have also been identified in its smoke because they transfer in part from tobacco to its smoke during the smoking process. Many other identified tobacco components are not found in smoke because they decompose during the smoking process. (cite tobacco book) There has been work carried out to measure the burning temperature of a cigarette particularly those by Dr Richard R Baker have provided fundamental knowledge about the combustion/pyrolysis processes during smouldering and puffing of a cigarette. Dr Richard R. Baker has established the distributions of combustion temperature, gas velocity and key smoke constituents inside a burning cigarette. These experiments have become the foundation for the study of cigarette combustion. Dr Barkers paper studied the process of thermo physical concurrencies inside and around a burning cigarette (barker) Figure 2 shows combustion of a cigarette when being smoked (bat) The formation of smoke from a burning cigarette depends on a series of mechanisms, including generation of products by pyrolysis and combustion, aerosol formation, and physical mass transfer and filtration processes. Each mechanism, and their interactions, has a profound effect on the levels of chemical constituents in tobacco smoke. An enormous amount of research has been done on these subjects over the last 50 years. (barker) Figure 2 describes the two types of burning that take place when the cigarette is puffed. There is also a natural smoulder occurring between the puffs by the smoker. There are two main regions at the tip on the coal, namely the combustion zone A and the pyrolysis and distillation zone B. Combustible vapours are produced in zone B prior to ignition in zone A. During puffing, air is drawn into the cigarette through the paper and at the paper bum line. When a smoker draws on a lit cigarette, the temperature of the cigarette coal rises rapidly from its resting smo uldering temperature of around 600  °C.   Peak puff  temperatures at the periphery of the coal can exceed 900  °C  during a 35 mL, 2-sec puff. The high temperature inside the coal causes an increase in the viscosity of the air flowing through and a concomitant increase in the resistance to the draw of air through the coal.   This effect forces air to be drawn primarily into the periphery of the coal around the paper burn line, which causes more complete combustion in this peripheral region.   The depletion of oxygen due to combustion results in the formation of a region immediately behind the coal where the temperatures remain high enough for thermal decomposition of tobacco (the pyrolysis/distillation zone).   Large amounts of volatile and semi-volatile smoke constituents are produced in this region. A small amount of air is drawn in along the tobacco rod through permeable cigarette paper and smoke temperature decreases rapidly to produce a supersaturated aerosol. The smoke thus formed during a puff is subjected to filtration by the remaining tobacco rod and cigarette filter, as well as dilution by any filter ventilation holes. Some proportion of the light gases (such as CO) will diffuse out of the highly permeable cigarette paper. The smoke that leaves the mouth end of the cigarette is called mainstream smoke.   Between puffs, hot smoke escapes from the top of the cigarette and forms the sidestream smoke. In the authors research for this paper the general opinion that cigarettes are the cause of fires is truthful, as there is no question that many fires are started by cigarettes and the careless smoker is usually the reason for the high number of fires originating from smoking cigarettes. Despite advances in the fire retardant foams in furnishings and mattresses, smoking in bed remains a threat to the safety of people. But it is a common occurrence to hear theories about how smoking caused a fire when the alleged ignition would not have been successful under certain circumstances. No one combustion parameter alone can be used to explain why gasoline (petrol) vapour and methane are not ignited by cigarettes whereas hydrogen and carbon disulphide are. In fact, the parameters themselves are inter-related and taken as a whole can express the propensity of a substance to react with oxygen to form combustion products. This is directly related to the ease with which chemical bonds are broken to lead to the formation of the more stable products of carbon dioxide and water, which result from the combustion of most of these fuels. hollyhead Recent tests by the ATF Fire research Laboratory involved contact of burning tobacco cigarettes of different brands with petrol vapour from a pool at room temperature. A total of 137 attempts were made using both smouldering and actively drawn puffs with no ignitions observed. De haan Tests have shown the oxygen levels in cigarettes in the vicinity of combustion to be very low and carbon dioxide levels to be very high, both factors reducing the chances of vapour ignition The conditions in the combustion zone of a cigarette, which is deficient in oxygen and rich in hydrogen and carbon dioxide, together with the rapid and efficient tobacco-oxy- preparation of the oxygen reaction conspire to allow only the most reactive of substances to be ignited, and result in flame propagation to the vapour air mixtures outside the cigarette coal. Repeated attempts to cause explosions by inserting a lit cigarette into an explosive fuel vapour-air mixture have resulted in failure over many experiments. Hollyhead The residence time of airborne vapours in the cigarette being puffed is so short that there is not enough time for any but the most reactive species to ignite. The fuel elements in a commercially manufactured cigarette is such that quenching distance of all but most reactive gases is not exceeded, suppressing any sustained ignition. Experimental evidence and consideration of the cigarette combustion process, alongside ignition parameters of substances, show that mixtures in air of petrol and methane are not ignited by a lighted cigarette. It is very likely, therefore, that many fires have been wrongly attributed to a lighted cigarette; such a cause fire can often be the refuge of the uninitiated No Smoking regimes at chemical plants, oil gas installations and indeed petrol filling stations is, therefore, not in vain. Although a cigarette may not be an immediate problem, the lighted match or cigarette lighter flame used to light it, certainly could Occasionally contaminates or faults from the manufacture of the cigarettes, may it be in the tobacco filling or paper can cause some brief tiny flames. Given the right conditions and such an atmosphere where there is a fault and a perfect fuel-air mixture. Such flames would be a suitable ignition source. So even though many tests have proved that it is virtually impossible for a lit cigarette or cigar to ignite most flammable vapours, this could ensure the ignition of a fire, explosion or both. In study for this paper the author came across a message board where a guy was irate at the fact he seen another person smoke a cigarette on the fore court of a filling station. To his dismay when confronting the person in question about the stupidity of his action he promptly got the reply that cigarettes dont lit petrol, I seen it on myth busters. Goes to show that what some people see on Television is believed as fact, just like in the Movies. Some things will never change[1] 1. www.wikilaw3k.org/forum. Cars-Transportation-Safety/Smoking-at-the-gas-pump. [cited 2010 4/11]; Available from: http://www.wikilaw3k.org/forum/Cars-Transportation-Safety/Smoking-at-the-gas-pump-345109.htm.

Monetary Policy Essay -- Expansionary and Contractionary Policy

Introduction Monetary policy is among the many tools used by a national government to manipulate its financial system. Monetary policy refers to the method used by the financial authority of any country to control the supply and availability of money (Woelfel, 1994). It is often targeted at interest rates to achieve lay down objectives directed towards economic growth and stability (Woelfel, 1994). Monetary policy rests on the link between interest rates in an economy, that is, the relationship between interest rates and the total money supply. It employs a variety of methods to control outcomes like inflation, economic growth, currency exchange rates and unemployment. Monetary policy can either be expansionary policy in which case there is a rapid increase in the total money in circulation in the economy, or contractionary policy in which case there is a slow increase or decrease in the total amount of money in circulation in the economy (Woelfel, 1994). The description of monetary policy takes the following approach; accommodative if the intention of the set interest rates is to stimulate economic growth, neutral if the intention is neither to fight inflation nor to stimulate economic growth and tight if the intention is to decrease inflation (Woelfel, 1994). These can be achieved through various tools including raising reserve requirements, increasing interest rates by fiat, and decreasing the monetary base, depending on the intended results (Woelfel, 1994). Monetary policy is always intended to either increase or decrease the amount of money in circulation in the economy. Reducing interest rates encourages borrowing thus increases the amount of money in circulation. It is however challenging when the interest rates are... ...ood of increased tax on their savings (Goodfriend, 2000). It is therefore fundamental for central banks to promise the public that it will maintain some elements of quantitative easing even as the economy recovers in order to gain public trust. Besides adjustments on tax and expenditure instruments takes a longer period thus may only be effective in neutralizing the zero bound in the long run but not short term effect as required in this case. The signaling Channel This channel unlike the others capitalizes on shaping the publics expectations through visible signal about central bank’s future policy intentions. This channel is more of a visible sign for central governments commitment to maintain zero policy rates for longer duration. This channel requires central banks to show a remarkable willingness to break from the previous conventional monetary policies.

Smoking Speech

Hi, the topic that I have chosen for my speech is â€Å"that smoking causes death† well that’s a pretty boring topic right . I’m going to be talking about the main effects, how many people die each year things like that. So do you want to die before reaching the age of 30? 1. Smoking has a massive effect on health; smoking causes around 5000 deaths in New Zealand each year. 1. 3 billion people smoke around the world. Smoking causes 1 in 4 cancer deaths in New Zealand including cancers in the lung, mouth and throat which is where the smokes goes.When you breathe smoke, the smoke goes into your lungs and stars putting black tar into your lungs. This means it is harder to breath and your heart has to pump harder to get the oxygen around your body. That is bad for your heart. 2. Smoking is so dangerous why don't people stop? Stopping is more difficult than starting. Nicotine is addictive this means that the nicotine in the cigarettes makes you want more and more and you can't stop you keep wanting cigarettes. So you keep on buying more smokes and waste a lot of money.Even people who don't smoke may be killed by other people's smoking. Around 350 New Zealanders are killed each year because of second hand smoking. 3. Everyday in Britain about 450 children start smoking, 1 in 4 who turn into regular smokers by the age of 15. Would you want your child to become addicted to smoking? Cigarettes smoke contains over 4,800 chemicals and 69 are known to cause cancer. Why is smoking so harmful? 1. Nicotine: is a highly addictive drug, which stimulates the nervous system. 2.Tar: is a Sticky substance contains many toxic chemicals and causes cancer. The number of smoke related deaths is also equivalent to a jumbo jet crashing everyday of the year! That is about 330 people each day, 120 thousand people every year. In 1994 over 1154 million cigarettes were smoked by 11 to 15 year olds. 30% of all cancer deaths are because of smoking. In conclusion I think tha t smoking does cause death and I hope you agreed with me. So be wise and don’t chose to walk the smokers path, thank you for listening and hoped you enjoyed my speech.

Agriculture and Desertification Essay

The world’s drylands, contrary to popular misconceptions of being barren unproductive land, contain some of the most valuable and vital ecosystems on the planet. These dryland environments have surprising diversity and resiliency, supporting over two billion people, approximately thirty-five percent of the global population (UNEP, 2003). In fact, approximately seventy percent of Africans depend directly on drylands for their daily livelihood (UNEP, 2003). However, these precious and crucial areas are at a crossroad, endangered and threatened by the devastating process of desertification. There are over one hundred definitions for the term ? desertification’, however the most widely used and current definition is as follows: desertification refers to the land degradation in arid, semi-arid and dry sub-humid regions due to human activities and climate variations, often leading to the permanent loss of soil productivity and the thinning out of the vegetative cover (UNCCD, 2003). It is important to note that desertification is not the expansion and contraction of deserts or hyper-arid territories, which grow and decrease both naturally and cyclically. French ecologist Louis Lavauden first used the term desertification in 1927 and French botanist Andre Aubreville, when witnessing the land degradation occurring in North and West Africa in 1949 popularized this term (Dregne, 242). The causes of desertification include overgrazing, overcultivation, deforestation and poor irrigation practices. Climatic variations, such as changes in wind speed, precipitation and temperature can influence or increase desertification rates, but they are not catalysts to the process- it is the exploitative actions of humans that trigger desertification (Glantz, 146). The most exploited area historically has been Africa. In the Sahel (transition zone between the Sahara and the Savanna) of West Africa during the period of 1968 to 1973, desertification was a main cause of the deaths of over 100,000 people and 12 million cattle, as well as the disruption of social organizations from villages to the national level (USGS, 1997). As a result of the catastrophic devastation in the Sahel, the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) was held in Nairobi, Kenya in 1977, where an agreement was reached to eradicate desertification by the year 2000. Obviously this goal was not achieved. Countries and organizations, notably in the industrialized world, have been unwilling to provide significant and sufficient financial and economic aid to countries most impacted by this issue (Mainguet, 2003). Consequently, desertification is out of control, threatening the sustainability of the world’s environment, disrupting social structures and well-being, and impairing economic growth. This crisis reaches beyond the local, directly affected communities, impacting and jeopardizing world stability. Environmentally, desertification reduces the world’s freshwater reserves due to water over consumption and irrigation mismanagement, decreases genetic diversity through soil erosion and plant destruction, and also accelerates the carbon exchange process by damaging carbon ? sinks’. Socially, desertification causes population displacement as people search for better living conditions, often leading to conflicts and wars. Another social consequence is a dramatic reduction in the world’s food supply due to the depletion of vital dryland vegetation and a decline in crop yields. Desertification is also linked to a number of health issues such as malnutrition, as clean water and sufficient food resources are extremely scarce. Economically, income potential is lost because land is unproductive, and monetary funds are devoted towards combating desertification, compromising economic growth and development. Crisis management becomes more important than achieving economic goals. Furthermore, increasing levels of poverty have resulted due to dire economic conditions. The international body must devote more time, resources and energy to find effective and long-term solutions that will benefit not only directly-affected areas, but the world at large. The devastating environmental, social and economic ramifications of desertification must be addressed immediately, cooperatively and without hesitation, before the window of opportunity is lost. Desertification has created and encouraged a number of major environmental problems, and has endangered the sustainability of a diverse and clean global environment. Through the use of poor irrigation practices and exploitative human actions for profit, water has been over consumed and desertification has occurred near areas surrounding fresh water supplies, reducing or depleting these reserves. In the desertification process, the shorelines and the aquatic land and soil becomes eroded, salinized and degraded. Thus, feeder rivers decline in quantity and supply, river flow rates decrease and ultimately freshwater reserves are polluted and/or reduced. The reduction of river flow rates and the lowering of groundwater levels leads to the â€Å"silting up of estuaries, the encroachment of salt water into water tables, and the pollution of water by suspended particles and salination† (FAO, 2003). These problems are particularly evident in the Aral Sea in Asia, which at one point was the fourth largest lake in the world (Aral Sea Homepage, 2002). During the Soviet era in the 1960’s and 1970’s, the communist central planners had little regard for water conservation, and over consumed this resource. In order to meet the demand for agricultural irrigation the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) â€Å"diverted water from rivers that flowed into the Aral Sea† (Pacific Island Travel: Desertification, 1999). These exploitative actions dropped water levels by one-third because feeder rivers could no longer replenish the large lake, as illustrated in Appendix 1 (Pacific Island Travel: Desertification, 1999). Not only has the shorelines of the Aral Sea declined, but Lake Chad in Africa has followed a similar fate. Desertification in the Lake Chad region has dropped water levels far below the average dry season amount of â€Å"10,000 square kilometers to only 839 square kilometers† (Earth Crash Earth Spirit, 2001). The reduction of water levels in Lake Chad and the Aral Sea decreases their ability to moderate the local climate, resulting in more extreme variations in temperature and precipitation. Therefore, local ecosystems are disrupted and even destroyed, as the climate becomes more continental in nature, and vital water supplies are scarce or depleted. Desertification reduces the biodiversity and genetic diversity of dryland ecosystems, impairing the sustainability of plants, animals and even humans in these regions. As a consequence of desertification, the soil of arid, semi-arid and dry sub-humid areas becomes eroded, resulting in unproductive and literally useless land. This disrupts the habitats and food sources for many organisms, making sustainable life in these areas very difficult (FAO, 2003). Furthermore, because of freshwater and food scarcity, the life expectancy and actual existence for many species is threatened. This grave consequence was evident in the western African country of Mauritania, where the desertification process, from 1970 to 1980, â€Å"killed approximately 15,000 people and over 500,000 various plants and animals were eradicated† (CIESIN, 2003). Unfortunately, as the severity of desertification escalates in countries like Mauritania, it becomes extremely difficult to maintain biologically diverse ecosystems needed to support the lives of plants, animals and humans. Through the ecological destruction and imbalance caused by desertification, the carbon exchange process is accelerated. Dryland vegetation and soil are crucial storage devices for carbon, and contain â€Å"practically half the total quantity of carbon† (FAO, 2003). Once these elements thin out or become unproductive due to desertification, carbon is released into the atmosphere. It is estimated that for every hectare of dryland vegetation or soil that is depleted or unusable, 30 tonnes of carbon is no longer stored and is released into the atmosphere (FAO, 2003). This elevation of atmospheric carbon contributes to the greenhouse effect and global warming. Desertification also has major social consequences, disrupting the social fabric and standard of living for many traditional and Native peoples. On a global level, it threatens the stability and health of a growing population. In the desertification process land is degraded, making it extremely difficult to maintain a successful career and livelihood. Consequently, individuals are forced to relocate to areas with more livable conditions and stronger economic opportunities. This population displacement is evident in the migration of Mexicans to the United States: â€Å"Some 70 percent of all land in Mexico is vulnerable to desertification, one reason why some 900,000 Mexicans leave home each year in search of a better life as migrant workers in the United States† (Environment News Service, 2003). However, in the developing countries of Africa and Asia, impoverished individuals have no option but to become refugees, abandoning their previous livelihoods and simply struggling for survival. United Nations Secretary Kofi Annan stated that in sub-Saharan Africa, â€Å"the number of environmental refugees [refugees due to environmental issues like desertification] is expected to rise to 25 million in the next 20 years. † (Environment News Service, 2003). These refugee movements and population displacement have often caused political and social unrest, and even wars. As a result of desertification, countries fight for control of the scarce natural resources, since previous deposits are depleted or unusable (UNCCD, 2003). The strong, positive correlation between desertification and armed conflict is illustrated in Appendix 2. The population displacement, refugee movements and relationship to wars make desertification devastating to the social security of individuals in affected regions. Desertification has caused a crisis in the world’s food supply, creating concern over the sustainability of an increasing population. Dryland areas are home to some of the most important crops and â€Å"genetic strains of cultivated plants which form the basis of the food and health of the world’s population† (FAO, 2003). Some of these products include cereal crops, oil seeds, grain legumes and root crops. In drylands affected by desertification, land that was once agriculturally viable can no longer be used, as it is essentially a wasteland. Even if agriculture is feasible, the nutrient poor soil makes it extremely difficult to grow a large quantity of a certain crop. This has crippled the food supply, at a time when its sustainability is already in question. According to the United Nations: â€Å"a nutritionally adequate diet for the world’s growing population implies tripling food production over the next 50 years under favourable conditions. If desertification is not stopped and reversed, food yields in many affected areas will decline† (UNCCD, 2003). Thus, desertification creates uncertainty as to the adequacy of the world’s food production, endangering the supportability of a growing population. There is a strong, positive correlation between desertification and serious health concerns and diseases. The increasing rate of desertified areas has created a crisis in the world’s food and water supplies. As a result, food and water are extremely scarce, and â€Å"malnutrition, starvation and ultimately famine will result from desertification† (UNCCD, 2003). This has prompted concern and anxiety within the World Health Organization stating, â€Å"we [the WHO] is becoming increasingly worried with the consequences of desertification, such as malnutrition and famine† (WHO Denmark, 2003). Desertification is also indirectly linked to many severe epidemics, notably in Africa. The drying of water sources due to desertification forces people to use heavily polluted water, leading to disastrous health problems. According to the World Health Organization, â€Å"desertification and droughts can increase water-related diseases such as cholera, typhoid, hepatitis A and diarrhoeal diseases† (WHO Denmark, 2003). Recent research and studies have also suggested that malaria incidences have escalated significantly in desertified areas. The strong, positive correlation between malaria and desertification is depicted in Appendix 3. Furthermore, soil erosion and land degradation has resulted in the creation of dust storms and poor air quality. This has had a very negative toll on human health and â€Å"results in mental stress, eye infections, respiratory illnesses and allergies† (UNCCD, 2003). Therefore, desertification is strongly associated with dust storms, poor air quality, malnutrition, famine, and epidemics, all of which are enormously hazardous to human health. In an attempt to combat and rehabilitate desertified land, precious economic funds are required and exhausted. Consequently, resources are drained, resulting in the weakening of local economies and the compromising of national development goals. As the desertification process continues, attention and money is spent on crisis management, not on growth and development. Due to the depletion of natural resources, desertification contributes to decreased income levels and productivity losses. This is specifically true in agricultural regions and severely stunts economic growth. The worldwide cost of desertification, expressed as income foregone amounts to approximately $11 billion for irrigated land, $8 billion for rainfed cropland, and $23 billion for rangeland, for a total cost of $42 billion (CIESIN, 2003). This value may not seem astronomical for developed countries like Canada, Britain and the United States, but for nations in the developing world, these figures are devastating. According to an unpublished World Bank study, â€Å"the depletion of natural resources causing income loss in one Sahelian country was equivalent to 20% of its Gross Domestic Product† (UNCCD, 2003). Desertification has thus crippled present earnings as well as income potential in the future, hurting not only individuals but also entire economies. In an effort to improve future conditions, developing countries devote significant amounts of their limited monetary resources to combating and rehabilitating land affected by desertification, severely impeding their economic growth. Land rehabilitation costs are those incurred for stopping further degradation and to restore the land to something approaching its original condition. Unfortunately, this requires a significant amount of investment that could have been used for economic development, as opposed to just repairing land. On a per hectare basis, it is estimated that â€Å"a cost of $2,000 is needed to improve irrigated land, $400 for rainfed cropland, and $40 for rangeland† (CIESIN, 2003). To people living in the developing world, these costs consume much, if not all of their incomes, obviously crippling their careers and livelihoods. Although there is the potential to repair and rehabilitate almost all land affected by desertification only â€Å"52 per cent (1,860 million hectares) can pay back the cost of rehabilitation† (CIESIN, 2003). Thus, many farmers and individuals reclaim land, but because of huge overriding costs, they actually lose money as productivity remains stagnant. Therefore, limited monetary funds are spent towards crisis management, sacrificing national development and economic growth. Desertification is directly linked to the mass poverty occurring in the developing world. Individuals consistently endure an impoverished lifestyle because income potential is foregone, and resources are devoted towards rehabilitation, therefore scarce economic funds are depleted. United Nations Secretary Kofi Anna states: â€Å"Because the poor often farm degraded land, desertification is both a cause and consequence to poverty? Fighting desertification must be an integral part of our wider efforts to eradicate poverty† (Environment News Service, 2003). If the desertification process continues to grow exponentially, mass poverty will also increase both in size and in severity. Thus, in order to address poverty, desertification must be contained and controlled. Currently, desertification affects over 250 million people and a third of the earth’s land surface (4 billion hectares) (UNCCD, 2003). In addition, the livelihoods of over one billion people in over 100 countries are indirectly threatened (UNCCD, 2003), as shown in the map in Appendix 4. It is estimated that in the next 50 years, another billion people will fall victim to the wrath of desertification and its related environmental, social, and economic ramifications (CIESIN, 2003). The depletion and contamination of fresh water sources, the reduction in biodiversity, and the acceleration of the carbon cycle make desertification devastating to the sustainability of the environment. Socially, desertification forces people to migrate which may eventually lead to wars or conflicts, creates a major catastrophe for the world’s food supply, and is scientifically correlated to major health concerns, even epidemics such as malaria. The economic status of developing countries impacted by the desertification process is jeopardized as high levels of income are foregone, and resources are devoted towards rehabilitation, not towards growth and development. Furthermore, poverty in African and Asian nations has grown exponentially due to this process, creating humanitarian and economic crises. The world’s future is at stake, and it is imperative that the global community acts now. Desertification is a preventable process, but requires a coordinated approach involving effort from the local, national and global communities. Local and national governments must implement methods of soil and water conservation, and utilize traditional agricultural systems that support positive environmental strategies. The industrialized world must supply the economic and technological aid necessary for these conservation techniques (UNCCD, 2003). Global Positioning System (GPS) satellite technology is a modern technique that can be effectively used in combating desertification. GPS satellites can actually pinpoint and locate areas vulnerable or prone to desertification, acting as excellent early warning signs. This allows governments to implement various techniques and policies to prevent damage done by desertification. As former United States President Franklin D. Roosevelt stated in a letter to governors on February 26, 1937, â€Å"a nation that destroys its soil, destroys itself† (Dingle, 2003). The battle to combat desertification is a war that can be lost, but must be won. Now is the time to win the fight before this glimmer of hope disappears. Appendix 1: Time-Series Photos of the Aral Sea Source: Aral Sea Homepage, 2002 These pictures were taken using LANDSAT TM satellite technology. The reddish shade represents the vegetation around the Aral Sea. The northern part of the image is the shoreline of the sea. Notice how in 1979 the shoreline is quite large, while in 1989 it is non-existent, illustrating the decreasing water levels. What is also striking is the white shade on the satellite photo from 1989. This represents an artificial saltpan, caused by desertification and desiccation. Appendix 2: World Map of Armed Conflicts and Desertification Source: CIESIN, 2003 Most of the armed conflicts occurring from 1989-97 are in highly desertified areas. Thus, there is a strong positive correlation between desertification and armed conflict. Appendix 3: Map of Desertification Vulnerability and Malaria Risk in Africa For both maps, red represents the highest severity, followed by orange, yellow, green and lastly white. In desertified areas, much of the population is at risk of malaria, thus there is a strong, positive correlation between desertification and malaria. Appendix 4: World Map of Desertification Vulnerability Source: CIESIN, 2003 Works Cited Aral Sea Homepage. â€Å"Aral Sea Region: Kyzylorda Oblast, Kazakhstan. † 2002. . CIESIN: Center for Earth Science Information Network. â€Å"Global Desertification Dimensions and Costs. † 29 July 2003. . DEWA: Divisions of Warning and Assessment, United Nations. â€Å"Desertification and Drought Identification. † 2002. . Dingle, Carol, et al. â€Å"Franklin D. Roosevelt Quotations. † 2003. . Dregne, H. E. , et al. Desertification of Arid Lands. New York: Harwood Academic Publishers, 1983.

How Jay Z Overcame Failure and Achieved Success

How Jay Z Overcame Failure and Achieved Success When we think about people who have clawed their way up to the greatest heights of success and fame from the very lowest places, we should probably put Jay Z on that list. Born Shawn Carter, in 1969, in the projects of Brooklyn, the man we now know as Jay Z was raised by a single mother with his three older siblings after being abandoned by their father. His neighborhood wasn’t the best. Crime was rampant. Jay Z himself dropped out of high school, despite showing a great deal of potential, to sell crack to make money. He even shot his brother in the shoulder once during an argument. Luckily, Jay Z was able to turn some of this depravity into art. An incredibly talented lyricist, he would compete and win freestyle competitions, making a reputation for himself. He’d even read the dictionary cover to cover on multiple occasions, scouring for better rhymes. He was able to start telling his story through his music.After being shot at on a few occasions, and tiring of the dru g life, Jay Z partnered with a fellow rapper on a single called â€Å"The Originators,† which earned him a feature on MTV. He kept working with DJs to try and get more tracks recorded, but had little to no success securing a record deal. Every major label in the country turned him down. It became clear that he would never make a living as a hip-hop performer.Rather than let that news get him down, and turn him back to his old life and all the crime, Jay Z tried it from another angle. He became a producer himself and started his own label- aspirationally titled Roc-A-Fella- with two friends. It was a rocky road. Almost all of their artists left the label before making an album. By 1997, only Jay Z had managed to release one. But they persisted. They worked with Notorious B.I.G., and when he died, Jay Z was asked to collaborate on the posthumous album Life After Death, allowing Roc-A-Fella to get a little press.The following year, in 1998, Jay Z released Vol. 2 and the song â⠂¬Å"Hard Knock Life† and, well, the rest is history. Roc-A-Fella shot up and became quite successful, and was later sold to Def Jam Records for millions of dollars. As for Jay Z, he became the President and CEO and took the whole merged label by storm. He is now worth roughly $520 million, and was ranked the 6th most powerful celebrity of 2014 by Forbes. He has sold over 75 million records, won 19 Grammies, owns a record company, designs clothes, owns or part-owns real estate, hotels, businesses, even an NBA team, among other claims to fame.In his book Decoded, he says this about his song â€Å"This Can’t Be Life† and about failure:â€Å"It was a verse about fear of failure, which is something that everyone goes through, but no one, particularly where I’m from, wants to really talk about. But it’s a song that a lot of people connect to: The thought that â€Å"this can’t be life† is one that all of us have felt at some point or another , when bad decisions and bad luck and bad situations feel like too much to bear, those times when we think that this, this, can’t be my story. But facing up that kind of feeling can be a powerful motivation to change. It was for me.†So the next time you start to feel down on yourself, thinking of all the ways in which the deck was stacked against you: bad parents, bad poverty, bad everything, just remember a man named Shawn Carter turned everything around for himself and became a household name. He even got to marry Beyoncà ©. How’s that for failure being a productive force for success?

To what extent is the concept of global governance gendered Essay

To what extent is the concept of global governance gendered - Essay Example For instance, in a government, the politicians of the country usually influence the decisions that are made on a day to day basis while the normal citizen is influenced by the decisions that are made by the political leaders whether directly or indirectly. Needless to say, these kinds of decisions usually impact on both men and women. It follows without say that most of the times; the decisions are made by men since they hold most of the powerful positions almost in all of the countries the world over. In the past few decades, the advent of technological advancement has to the growth of a new kind of economy-a global economy. The internet has reduced the entire globe to nothing but a global village. The global economy has also given rise to a new system of governance which is referred to as global governance. There is a need to have a means of controlling the integrated nations. Different bodies have been setup to achieve this and the different bodies that have been setup have also c ome up with different policies. Quite unfortunately, the balance of women to men in the global government is anything but balanced. This is an important concern since women are the majority in the population and it seems not right to let the minority make decisions that affect the majority without involving the majority at some stage. This is the main reason why there has been a growing concern for gendered governance. Global governance There are many transformations in leadership and generally in society most of which can be traced to the activities and campaigns of human rights movements. Gender equality is one of the most important of the reforms that is sweeping across most modern societies today. As Rawls (2003) state, â€Å"A gendered analysis of global governance can enhance our understanding of the key concepts and frameworks as well as institutions and strategies of transformation? (p17). There are two important spheres that need to be studied to understand the concept of gendered governance since they directly influence the issue of gender and governance in the world. The first is the United Nation and how it approaches the issue of human rights and secondly is the trade policies and institutions. The concept of global governance is at best very fragmented and is therefore hardly traceable not only to agencies but even to individuals. In fact, Rosenau (2003) defines global governance as â€Å"governance without government. â€Å" however, global governance can be looked at in terms of the institutions that processes, rules and the different frameworks that help in the establishment of internationally recognized policies (Hassanali, 2000). The international policies that are often crafted are in most of the cases results of negations from a variety of parties including representatives from different countries. The stakeholders of global governance are usually drawn from different governments across the world. Apart from political leaders, there are usually members from transnational companies, global financial and trade organizations under the WTO, IMF and World Bank as well as various chapters of the UN and other relevant regional associations like the EU .Some experts believe that global civil societies which include internationally recognized NGOs that have the function of lobbying in conjunction with international gender groups like the International Trade and Gender Network (ITGN) are part and parcel of the

Law 1183 for Washington Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Law 1183 for Washington - Essay Example â€Å"The main issue however concerns the taxation and distribution of liquor in Washington† (Smith, 2010). There are proponents who argue that privatizing the liquor sales and distribution and availing the liquor on groceries would greatly increase the availability of the liquor sales, which will be another important part of the income to the city authority or the state government. The opponents of this initiative on the other hand advocate for state control in obtaining revenue as well as streamlining the drinking patterns within the community. Initiative 1183 is a measure that is aimed at directing the liquor board to close down all the state owned liquor stores, terminate the contracts offered by the state to private stores selling liquor, and allow the state to issue private licenses that would allow the liquor to be sold, imported and distributed by private parties in groceries and other easy access points (Mercier, 2010). This initiative is aimed at repealing the unifor m pricing as decided by the state liquor board, and other requirements that are required in sales and distribution of hard liquor. In fact, stores that previously had contracts from the state controlled liquor distribution under this initiative might be converted to retail licenses. About 1,428 retail outlets in initiative 1183 would be licensed compared to3, 357 in initiative 1100 (Mercier, 2010). A study carried out by the Office of Financial Management (OFM) has been the impetus to the proponents of this initiative. There are estimations that upon implementing this initiative, the State General Fund revenue would increase from $216 to $253 million, while the local revenues are expected to improve from $186 to $227 million (Mercier, 2010). This report has been used to consolidate proponents to vote for the initiative. In addition the initiative would retain the tax structure and license issuance would be about 17% of all liquor sales and an annual fee of $166 (Corte, 2010). One as pect in states protectionist monopoly is to reduce the overuse of hard liquor among its citizens. This makes the state to control not only the sales but also the consumption of the liquor. There are however, certain contradictions: â€Å"does state monopoly control the patterns and trends in alcohol intake? State protectionism on alcohol consumption might not directly affect the alcohol consumption patterns in the state† (Smith, 2010). For example, California has an average consumption of 2.34 gallons of alcohol per an average person, while Washington has an average of 2.35 gallons of alcohol consumed per an average person, as per the National Institute of Health figures 2007 (Smith (2010). California has a full privatized hard liquor licenses and sales and distribution of other alcoholic drinks. This makes alcohol readily available at groceries and other near points, where consumers may access the alcohol with ease (Smith, 2010). Proponents have a view that there is no diffe rence between alcohol consumed in the two states, meaning that the protectionism in alcohol distribution would not be effective in controlling consumption. â€Å"Washington would be the fifth state in protectionism from the second position after initiative 1183† (Smith, 2010).This argument has been used to challenge the assertion that the use of alcohol would be a menace to good governance (Timberlake,

Adopting Strategy and Operations Management Essay - 30

Adopting Strategy and Operations Management - Essay Example The author of the paper states that for the company’s operational perspective, they would be losing millions from the sales due to this market stagnation, but they must also augment it and continue and salvage what profit that could be had. Their target customers should be well informed of which stores are still operational so that somehow profits could still be derived while even offering discounts to entice the market. Business is always a gamble; it is something indefinite, uncertain, and ever-changing. It is important to be readily flexible in shifting and adapting operations should a profitable venture present itself. In an article by Sam Grobart for Bloomberg, he cites that mobile ads are garnering much profit for the companies that engage in it. In this age of social media and smartphones, the bridge of communication to the consumers can be easily bridged, which is why many companies should be shifting their attention into this. Google, which garners the most profit out of this, has also adopted its operations in a way wherein Android devices could also benefit. With the introduction of mobile-payment schemes, they have enabled their advertisers to have more of a monopolized attention to the consumers through their smartphones

Ethics in Public Administration Essay Example for Free

Ethics in Public Administration Essay The national bicentennial in 1976 marked two important birthdays for public administration. It was the ninetieth anniversary of the appearance of the first fully developed essay on what was considered a new or at least a separately identified field public administration. In that essay, the young political scientist Woodrow Wilson (1941) wrote the now famous words, administration lies outside the proper sphere of politics. Administrative questions are not political questions; although politics sets the tasks for administration, it should not be suffered to manipulate its offices. And it was exactly fifty years since the publication of Leonard White (1926) text, Introduction to the Study of Public Administration, the first in the field. Whites book was, for his time, an advanced and sophisticated attempt to marry the science of government and the science of administration. Whereas Wilson had argued that public administration is a field of business and should be separate from politics, White forty years later countered that public administration can be effective only if it constitutes an integration of the theory of government and the theory of administration. As fields or professions go, public administration is young. Its early impetus was very much connected with civil service reform, the city manager movement, the good government movement, and the professionalization of the administrative apparatus of government. It was in this era that principles of administration were developed and the first academic programs in the field were established at American universities. This was a heady era, during which the United States civil service was developed, an innovation adopted in many American states and municipalities. Formal systems of budgeting and purchasing were adopted, and other aspects of the science of management were applied to government affairs. Many of the early leaders in this reform movement also played out important political roles, most notably Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson. Public administration was new, a response to a rapidly changing government. The second era in public administration could be said to have begun with the Depression and the New Deal, followed by World War II. This era was characterized by the remarkably rapid growth of the government, particularly at the national level, the development of major American social programs, and ultimately the development of a huge defense program. At this time it became apparent that a large and centralized government can accomplish heroic tasks. Patterns were being developed and attitudes framed for the conduct of American government and the practices of public administration for the coming twenty years. This era also produced most of the major American scholars in public administration who were to dominate the scene from the 1940s into the 1970s. The period that followed was characterized by rapid growth in the public service and by extensive suburbanization and urbanization. But it was also a period of great questioning of the purposes and premises of public administration. A broad variety of social programs and services were developed, a cold war machine was maintained, and the public service continued both to grow and to professionalize. It seemed as if such expansion could go on endlessly. But by the mid-1960s several crises were developing simultaneously. In many ways, these crises seemed in part to result from the excesses of an earlier time. In other ways, they seemed to be an expression of old and unanswered problems built into our society and our system of government. The urban crisis resulted from relentless suburbanization governmentally supported. The racial crisis is closely connected, resulting in part from the serious ghettoization of American minorities in the central sections of our great cities. As the central cities have deteriorated, so have their public services. We continue to have unacceptable levels of unemployment, especially among minorities. And our welfare system is badly overloaded. The rapid depletion of our fuel resources results in an energy crisis, which comes hard on the heels of the environmental crisis. And, of course, there is health care, transportation, and on and on. All of these crises have affected public administration. Three particular events or activities occurred between the mid-1960s and 1970s that indelibly marked the society and the government and, hence, public administration: the war in Vietnam, the urban riots and continued racial strife, and Watergate. These crises and events resulted in new government programs and changed ways of thinking about and practicing public administration. Frederick C. Mosher and John C. Honey studied the characteristics and composition of the public service in the mid-1960s. 3 Their basic finding was that most public servants feel little or no identity with the field of public administration. Few have ever had a course and fewer still hold a degree in the subject. Public administration at the time seemed to have a rather narrow definition of its purposes, centering primarily on budgeting, personnel, and organization and management problems. Most public servants, it was found, identify with some or another professional field, such as education, community planning, law, public health, or engineering. Even many of those who would be expected to identify with public administration are more particularly interested in some subset of the field, such as finance, personnel, policy analysis, and the like. There was very little policy emphasis in public administration very little discussion of defense policy, environmental policy, economic policy, urban policy. There was, at the time, much talk of public administration as everyones second profession. Education for public administration in the mid-1960s hardly sparkled. The early furor of the reformers had died. The American Society for Public Administration was beginning to struggle. By the late 1970s, public administration had changed, both in its practice and its teaching. There are many indicators: the Intergovernmental Personnel Act; Title IX of the Higher Education Act; the Federal Executive Institute and the Federal Executive Seminars; the remarkable growth and vigor of education for public service; the Presidents Management Intern Program; the Harry S. Truman Foundation; the size and quality of ASPA; the development of the Consortium on Education for the Public Service; several HUD grants to public administration-related activities; a much heavier policy emphasis; a renewed concern for ethics and morality in government service; and the continued professionalization of the public service coupled with refinement of management methods at all levels of government. To affix the label new to anything is risky business. The risk is doubled when newness is attributed to ideas, thoughts, concepts, paradigms, theories. Those who claim new thinking tend to regard previous thought as old or jejune or both. In response, the authors of previous thought are defensive and inclined to suggest that aside from having packaged earlier thinking in a new vocabulary there is little that is really new in so-called new thinking. Accept, therefore, this caveat: Parts of new public administration would be recognized by Plato, Hobbes, Machiavelli, Hamilton, and Jefferson as well as by many modern behavioral theorists. The newness is in the way the fabric is woven, not necessarily in the threads that are used. And the newness is in arguments as to the proper use of the fabric however threadbare. The threads of the public administration fabric are well known. Herbert Kaufman describes them simply as the pursuit of these basic values: representativeness, politically neutral competence, and executive leadership (Kaufman, 1969). In different times, one or the other of these values receives the greatest emphasis. Representativeness was preeminent in the Jacksonian era. The eventual reaction was the reform movement emphasizing neutral competence and executive leadership. Now we are witnessing a revolt against these values accompanied by a search for new modes of representativeness. Others have argued that changes in public administration resemble a zero-sum game between administrative efficiency and political responsiveness. Any increase in efficiency results a priori in a decrease in responsiveness. We are simply entering a period during which political responsiveness is to be purchased at a cost in administrative efficiency. Clearly, the most interesting developments in modern public administration are not empirical but are philosophical, normative, and speculative. In public administration, the phrase social equity has emerged as a shorthand way of referring to the concerns and opinions of those who are challenging contemporary theory and practice. As yet, the phrase social equity, however, has little substance or precision. The problem of equity is as old as government. Dwight Waldo (1972) points out that much governmental action in the United States has not been simply discriminatory but massively and harshly so. Much governmental action has also, however, been directed toward achieving equality; paradoxically, action to assure assimilation and uniformity also has sometimes been insensitive and coercive. â€Å"Equality, he concludes, is central to the understanding of much recent and contemporary public administration. It has been seriously suggested that social equity be a standard by which public administrators, both in the bureau and the academy, assess and evaluate their behavior and decisions. Social equity, then, would be a criterion for effectiveness in public administration in the same way that efficiency, economy, productivity, and other criteria are used. Whenever an ethic or standard for behavior is described, it is essential to provide an accompanying caveat. In the present case, the social equity point of view will need to be buffered by recognition first that there is a high ethical content in most significant public decisions; public problems do not succumb simply to factual analysis. This being the case, if the public servant is to be an interpreter of events and an influencer, if not a maker of decisions, what, then, should be included in the standards of ethical behavior that guide the public servant? Surely the standards of ethics and morality that are applicable and sufficient to a citizen in private or in social relationships are not adequate for the public decisions of an administrator. And it is now increasingly clear that the decision problems faced by these administrators are seldom black or white in relation to their ethical content and consequences. There often is really no one best way, but rather a decision should be made that maximizes such results as are attainable given the resources available and minimizes negative side effects. And finally, one must accept the proposition that politics and administrative organizations are themselves the best protectors of administrative morality provided that they are open, public, and participatory. Within this context, then, we pursue the development of a social equity ethic for public administration. Modern public administration cannot assume these conditions away. Certainly pluralistic governments (practicing majority rule, coupled with powerful minorities with special forms of access) systematically discriminate in favor of established, stable bureaucracies and their specialized clientele and against those minorities who lack political and economic resources. Thus widespread and deep inequity are perpetuated. The long-range continuation of widespread and deep inequities poses a threat to the continued existence of this or any political system. Continued deprivation amid plenty breeds hopelessness and her companions, anger and militancy. A public administration that fails to work for changes that try to address this deprivation will likely eventually be used to oppress the deprived. What new public administration is striving for, then, is equity. Blacks Law Dictionary (1957) defines equity in its broadest and most general signification: [Equity] denotes the spirit and the habit of fairness and justness and right dealing which would regulate the intercourse of men with men, the rule of doing to all others, as we desire them to do to us; or, as it is expressed by Justinian, to live honestly, to harm nobody, to render every man his due. It is therefore, the synonym of natural right or justice. But in this sense its obligation is ethical rather than jural, and its discussion belongs to the sphere of morals. It is grounded in the precepts of the conscience not in any sanction of positive law. Equity, then, is an issue that we will find to be a question of ethics. We will also find it to be a question of law. The foremost theorist presently supporting a concept of equity in government is John Rawls (1971). In his book A Theory of Justice, he sets out a splendid framework for a fundamental equity ethic. When speaking of our government institutions, Rawls states: For us the primary subject of justice is the basic structure of society, or more exactly, the way in which the major social institutions distribute fundamental rights and duties and determine the division of advantages from social cooperation. By major institutions I understand the political constitution and the principal economic and social arrangements. Justice, then, is the basic principle and is dominant over other principles in Rawlss form of ethics. Rawls begins his theory with a definition of the individual or citizen and states: Each person possesses an inviolability founded on justice that even the welfare of society as a whole cannot override. For this reason justice denies that the loss of freedom for some is made right by the greater good shared by others. It does not allow that the sacrifices imposed on a few are outweighed by the larger sum of advantages enjoyed by many. Therefore, in a just society the liberties of equal citizenship are taken as settled; the rights secured by justice are not subject to political bargaining or to the calculus of social interest. In developing his theory, Rawls suggests an intellectual device or technique by which the principles of equity can be set forth. The first and most important intellectual technique is the notion of original position. The original position constitutes an agreement upon the most basic principles of justice upon which all of the basic structures of society (social, economic, and political) will be predicated. The principles of justice that emerge are both final and binding on all: Since the original agreement is final and made in perpetuity, there is no second chance. To make this theory operative, Rawls then proposes two principles of justice: The first principle is to have an equal right to the most extensive total system of equal basic liberties compatible with a similar system of liberty for all. The second principle is that social and economic inequalities are to be arranged so that they are both: (a) to the greatest benefit to the least advantaged, consistent with the just savings principle, and (b) attached to offices and positions open to all under conditions of fair equality and opportunity. 11 These two principles, then, are to be a right of the same significance or order as the present rights as we understand them in government. Hart further states: According to Rawls, acceptance of the two principles of justice means that the collective efforts of society would be concentrated in behalf of its less advantaged members. This does not mean that all inequalities would disappear and all good will be equally distributed to achieve parity throughout the society. There would still be disparities in income and status. But there is an irreducible minimum of primary goods (such as self-respect, rights and liberties, power and opportunities, income and wealth) that are due every man, and the minimum must be met. 12 Rawls states that this is a strongly egalitarian conception in the sense that unless there is a distribution that makes both persons better off (limiting ourselves to the two-person case for simplicity), an equal distribution is to be preferred. 13 It is obvious that Rawls theory of justice is vastly different from other contemporary patterns of moral reasoning. Rawls does not argue it because it is good or right but rather because there is an increasing importance to the interdependence of persons that makes notions of advantages and disadvantages less and less acceptable. It is a pervasive sense of noblesse oblige or a sense of eternity among people. Rawls states that in justice as fairness men agree to share one anothers fate. In designing institutions they undertake to avail themselves of the accidents of nature and social circumstances only when doing so is for the common benefit. Because not all persons are genetically equal, the more advantaged have a moral duty to serve all others including the disadvantaged, not for altruistic reasons but because of the significance of human interdependence. As Hart (1974) says, One serves because justice requires it and the result is the continuous enhancement of self-respect. Just actions, then, not only create the optimal condition for human life, they also are a major element in the rationalization of self. Although all of this theory and definition is interesting, we live in a world of large and very complex organizations where the application of such concepts is difficult. This is also a world in which organizations tend to elevate their own needs over individual needs and goals. The problem is one of making complex organizations responsible to the needs of the individual. This requires rising above the rules and routines of organization to some concern for the self-respect and dignity of the individual citizen. Rawlss theory is designed to instruct those who administer organizations that the rights of individuals would be everywhere protected. Hart summarizes this approach to social equity with the following: (1) The theory of justice would provide social equity with an ethical content. Acceptance of the theory of justice would provide the equitable public administrator with clear, well-developed ethical guidelines which would give social equity the force that it now lacks. (2) The theory of justice could provide the necessary ethical consensus -that the equitable public administrator has both the duty and the obligation to deploy his efforts on behalf of the less advantaged. (3) The theory of justice would impose constraints upon all complex public organizations since no organization would be allowed to infringe upon the basic liberties of individuals. (4) The theory of justice would provide a means to resolve ethical impasses (the original position). (5) The theory of justice would provide a professional code for public administration that would require a commitment to social equity (Hart, 1974).