Wednesday, October 30, 2019

Corporate Reporting and Balance Sheet Financing Essay

Corporate Reporting and Balance Sheet Financing - Essay Example However there is truth in saying that no one has all relevant information and facts about Enron's failure and hence it cannot be said the OBSF is the lone factor responsible for the Enron debacle. Financial analysts are of the opinion that OBSF may be viewed as a scalpel in a surgeon's hands, which can be put to an effective use if handled properly. This paper presents a discussion on the ways of achieving OBSF. While the paper analyses the effect of the international standards for leasing and financial instruments as avenues of OBSF, it also reflects some views on the regulatory provisions on impairment of the non-current assets of listed companies and the inadequacies of the financial ratios in bringing out the correct financial strength of the companies adopting techniques of OBSF.According to Shiva and Lynda (2003) Off-balance sheet financing (OBSF) is a mode of organizing a financing transaction in such a way that it is not recognized easily as the entity's own liability. There are many distinct advantages of using OBSF under different circumstances. They are: Arranging for cheaper outside borrowings which are secured by debt contracts that are not backed by collateral securities The debt-to capitalization ratio can be maintained at such level as may be desired by the firm Helps in maintaining the credit ratings in the market and thereby enhance the future borrowing capacity and Providing finance for those projects which could not be approved due to non-availability of own funds. Although it can be argued that allowing the companies use OBSF method will materially alter the true and fair view of the financial status of the firm as represented by its balance sheet, still the companies may take a chance to use OBSF to look for raising additional funds for rather a risky capital project which is not otherwise available as its own funds. The individual company may attempt a safe play between BSF and OBSF in such a way that it presents useful information for valuing the firm's stock prices and derive the advantage. 2.1 Effective Ways of Using Off Balance Sheet Financing: While the items like loan, debt and equity appear in the financial statements of a company, the off balance sheet items do not find a place in the balance sheet. Creation of off balance sheet entities, joint ventures, research and development partnerships and operating leases are some of the ways in which the off balance sheet financing method can be employed by a firm. Creation of off balance sheet entities is one of the usual ways of using the OBSF for the advantage of the firm. These separate legal entities were permissible under Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) and tax laws. According to Rick Wayman 2002 'off-balance-sheet' refers to separate legal entities comprising of separate or subsidiary companies where the parent company holds the majority of the shares. It also covers the contingent liabilities of the firm represented by the letters of credit or loans to separate legal entities which are guaranteed by the parent company. While these items are allowed to be excluded from the financial statements of the parent company, GAAP requires them to be shown by way of foot notes attached to the balance sheet and other financial statements. This way the parent company could fianc the new venture without diluting the existing shareholders equity or adding to the external borrowings

Monday, October 28, 2019

How White People Became White Essay Example for Free

How White People Became White Essay The story of how white people became white in the United States goes as far back as the 15th and 16th century. People born white in this country were born with great privilege. It was an honor to be classified as a white man, or woman because white people had the pleasure of enjoying the many benefits that other cultures could not. If a person was classified as anything other than white, they were called minorities. Being a minority meant that one had no rights. People of all cultures set out to prove that that they belonged to the white heritage, and that’s how the story of How White people Became White began. â€Å"Whiteness does not stand alone. It draws part of its meaning from what it means to be nonwhite†. (Phillip C. Wanderer, 2009). â€Å"The roots of racial classification emerge from the naturalistic science of the 18th and 19th centuries†. (Phillip C. Wanderer, 2009, p. 30) â€Å"During this time, scientific studies extended the classifications of humankind developed by zoologists and physical anthropologists by systematically measuring and describing differences in hair texture, skin color, average height, and cranial capacity in various races†. (Phillip C. Wanderer, 2009, p.30). Racial classification was a way of being able to separate the whites from the nonwhites. For European immigrants, racial identity was not always clear. â€Å"The process of becoming white and becoming â€Å"American† involved a whole range of evidence, laws, court cases, formal racial ideology, social conventions, and popular culture in the form of slang, songs, films, cartoons, ethnic jokes, and popular theater suggested that the native born and older immigrants often placed the new immigrants not only above African, and Asian Americans, but also below white people†. (Roediger, 2009, p. 36). Because of this immigrant workers wound up in between races. The literal in between’s of new immigrants suggests what popular speech affirms: The state of whiteness was approached gradually and controversially. (Roediger, 2009) Some of the changes set in motion during the war on fascism, lead to a more inclusive version of whiteness. Anti-Semitism and anti-European racism lost respectability. Instead of dirty and dangerous races who would destroy U. S. democracy, immigrants became ethnic groups whose children had successfully assimilated into the mainstream, and had risen to the middle class (Brodkin, 2009). Although changing views on who was white made it easier for Euro ethnics to become middle class, it was also the case that economic prosperity played a very powerful role in the whitening process. (Brodkin, 2009) In 1980, the U. S. Bureau of the census created two new ethnic categories of Whites: â€Å"Hispanic, and â€Å"non-Hispanic†. The Hispanic category an ethnic rather than racial label compromised Mexicans, Puerto Ricans, Cubans, Panamanians, and other ethnic groups of Latin America descent. (Foley, 2009, p.55). Creating a separate ethnic category within the racial category of White seemed to solve the problem of how to count Hispanics without racializing them as nonwhites. (Foley, 2009, p. 55). Mexican Americans began insisting on their status as Whites in order to overcome the worst features of Jim Crow’s segregation, restrictive housing covenants, employment discrimination, and the social stigma of being â€Å"Mexican†, a label that in the eyes of Anglos designated race rather than one’s citizenship status. (Foley, 2009, p. 56). Mexican Americans supported strict segregation of Whites, and Blacks in the school and public facilities. (Foley, 2009) The basis for their claim for social equality was that they were also white. (Foley, 2009). A group of Mexican Americans founded their own organization in 1929 called the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC). LULAC members sought to set the racial record straight. Mexican Americans did not want to be associated with blacks because being associated with Blacks or other colored race was considered an insult. (Foley, 2009, p. 56). Mexican Americans first challenged school segregation in 1930 the same year they achieved segregated status in the census. Mexican American plaintiffs of Del Rio, Texas sought to prove that the actions taken by school officials were designed to accomplish the complete segregation of the school children of Mexican, and Spanish decent from the school children of all other white races in the same grade. This clever wording recognized that Mexicans were not white in the sense that Anglos were, but that they belonged to a parallel universe of whiteness. (Foley, 2009)Mexican Americans then learned that the courts ended officially sanctioned segregations of Mexicans only when they insisted on their status as Whites. (Foley, 2009) Growing numbers of middle class Mexican Americans made Faustian bargains that offered them inclusion within whiteness provided they subsumed their ethnic identities under their newly acquired White racial identity and its core value of White supremacy. (Foley, 2009) In the war on who was white, and who wasn’t, it’s safe to say that most people of white heritage were born into their whiteness. Those who were not born into it had to fight for their whiteness, and their rights as American Citizens. Not every culture became white or was recognized as white in the same ways. Some had to fight harder than others†¦ Works Cited Brodkin, K. (2009). How Jews Became White Folks. In P. S. Rothenberg, White Privilege. Worth Publishers. Foley, N. (2009). Becoming Hispanic: Mexican Americans and Whiteness. In P. S. Rothenberg, White Privilege. Worth Publishers. Phillip C. Wanderer, J. N. (2009). The Roots of Racial Classification. Worth Publishers. Roediger, J. E. (2009). White Privilege Third Edition. In P. S. Rothenberg, White Privilege. New York: Worth Publishers. Rothenberg, P. S. (2009). White Privilege. New York: Worth Publishers.

Saturday, October 26, 2019

The Immigrants in Breath, Eyes, Memory :: Their Eyes Were Watching God Essays

Immigrants   Breath, Eyes, Memory  Ã‚      Having to move to another country is not an east task because you are leaving behind everyone that you know since you are a little kid. Sophie was experiencing this because now she must drop everything and jump in a plane to reunited with her mother which she only have heard her voice. Haiti and Tante Atie was all Sophie knew, the freedom that she had to run around or just play with kids from across the street while the hot sun is kicking in. Tante Atie for Sophie was the mother that she always wanted; a mother that would wait for her outside when she returned from school or a mother that would tell her stories when she couldn't fall asleep. This will soon change when one-day plane tickets arrive and everything that was familiar to her was no longer there. Sophie was now in a new country with a mother that was also new to her. She now most learn English and at the same time maintain a fluent Creole. But the most difficult thing is to get use to New York and her new surroundings because you no longer can be running around in the street and your parents are working day and night. There is no more freedom until you become an American (meaning more independent an liberal) in from of your mother eyes. I can relate to this novel a lot because I came to this country when I was eleven years old and I had to leave my grand parents, my father and my friends behind for a new life with my mother. It was a big change because I no longer could go outside and play baseball with my friends instead I most stay in and play Nintendo. I couldn't speak with some people in my school because I did not speak English nor did I understand the language. I had to work hard to understand and speak English, I used to always go to McDonalds and order the food, this was a way for me to practice or volunteer to go to the deans office to drop or to pick up something. At the beginning was hard but my friends were supportive but there were times when people try to put me down because of my heavy accent, at that point I wanted to loss my accent but I learn that my accent is part of who I am.

Thursday, October 24, 2019

Problem Solving at Sun-2-Shade Using Maslow’s Motivational Theory Essay

In using Maslow’s motivational theory, I would observe where the employees at Sun-2-Shade were in comparison to the chart Maslow illustrates. According to â€Å"Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs† chart, â€Å"When one need is satisfied, another; higher need emerges and motivated us to satisfy it, (Nickels, McHugh, McHugh, 2013).† In taking notice that the employees come late to work, I feel they have satisfied the basic physiological needs. They no longer feel the need to focus on the basic survival needs such as food, water, and shelter. Therefore there is no need to start here because they are satisfied with their finances and being employed with Sun-2-Shade. So, I would go to the next level and examine safety needs, are they feeling secure at work, and based on the case study because they are coming in late they feel secure enough that they have no fear of being reprimanded for being late which also doesn’t affect their physiological or safety needs. So, based on that I assume that there is no need for motivation here, unless I decided to start writing them up to stir them to come on time. My desired goal is to make them feel like they are part of the team. I make a decision not to use this tactic now, because that’s minor, it is something I can fix quickly. I conclude that based in Maslow theory that the safety need is being satisfactorily met. Their complaint is not with the company, but the job is boring. I can assume that they are reasonably secure with benefits and feel they have a safe work environment at Sun-2-Shade. I would go on to the next level to analyze if their social needs are being appeased. Upon an carefully assessing the fact the they are complaining about their job as being boring, and taking into consideration that they resent that I am making the decisions to move this company ahead, I discern my employees are here at this level and have become disconcerted. I will organize here, because I sense they don’t feel valued or accepted or having a sense of belonging. Perhaps I can be more willing to include them on why we have developed what is the best way to do the job. I can assign or get volunteers more involved by allowing them to make sheets outlining standard operating procedures making it well-defined. They may be more apt to  accept and hopefully at the same time I can work to develop involvement that inspires them to take more interest and initiative helping them to be more committed and feel a personal link to the company. I believe this will be beneficial for both the company and employees. In using Herzberg’s theory because he suggests that the Hygiene (Maintenance) factors are in comparison to Maslow’s theory, he concludes that these may cause dissatisfaction on the job, but are not necessarily motivators, because in his research what motivates workers is a sense of accomplishments, and being recognized, having an opportunity to develop while learning, and having more responsibility given to them. In using Herzberg’s theory I would have to approach my employees from a similar but perhaps different angle. He categorizes things just a little different. He believes that motivation comes from within a person not from those unavoidably outside factors (Nickels et al, 2013). In using McGregor’s Theory X the perception here is that people do not like to work and therefore will avoid it and must be policed in order to bring about the targeted outcomes. This is an unhealthy blend having to become a manager who retorts to the environment at Sun-2-Shade, things will only get worse and some may get fired or even quit. For me, this theory is not one I would consider if I am trying to get my employees to feel like they are part of the team. McGregor’s Theory Y, in operating this theory, I believe it can inspire people by allowing them to be creative, and willing to be more flexible if I make available to them the tools they need to carry out the solutions to bring a proper balance into the workforce at Sun-2-Shade, because it makes them feel as if they are in charge by giving them this responsibility. But in the end, I’m still held responsible making sure we are making the required and necessary changes so that the company is profitable in our end obligations; even at striving to make employees feel like they are part of the Sun-2-Shade team.

Wednesday, October 23, 2019

A Comparative Study of Norman Holland and David Bleich Essay

Reader Response criticism is a general term that refers to different approaches of modern criticism and literary theory that focuses on the responses of readers and their reactions to the literary text. It also, in M.H Abrams’ words, â€Å"does not designate any one critical theory, but a focus on the process of reading a literary text that is shared by many of the critical modes†(268). Reader Response criticism is described as a group of approaches to understanding literature that explicitly emphasize the reader’s role in creating the meaning an experience of a literary work. It refers to a group of critics who study, not a literary work, but readers or audiences responding to that literary work. It has no single starting point. They seriously challenge the dominancy of the text-oriented theories such as New Criticism and Formalism. Reader Response theory holds that the reader is a necessary third part in the author-text-reader relationship that constitutes the literary work. The relationship between readers and text is highly evaluated. The text does not exist without a reader; they are complementary to each other. A text sitting on a shelf does nothing. It does not come alive until the reader conceives it. Reader Response criticism encompasses various approaches or types. Of theses types is the ‘Subjectivist’ Reader Response criticism, which embraces critics such as David Bleich, Norman Holland, who are my focus in this paper, and Robert Crossman. Those critics view the reader’s response not as one guided by text but as one motivated by a deep-seated, personal psychological needs. They also are called ‘Individualists’. As they think that the reader’s response is guided by his psychological needs, therefore some of them, like Norman Holland, have a psychoanalytic view of that response. In the psychoanalytic view the reader responses to the literary work in a highly personal way. The real meaning of the text is the meaning created by the individual’s psyche. Lawrence Shaffer defines Psychoanalytic Criticism as â€Å"an approach to literary criticism, influenced by Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung, which views a literary work as an expression of the unconscious- of the individual psyche of its author or of the collective unconscious of a society or of the whole human race† (44). Reader Response critics have applied the psychoanalytical view to their analysis of the experience of reading a work. Namely; they focus on the psyche of the reader. Prominent among those who applied the psychoanalytical view is the American critic Norman Holland. Born in Manhattan in1927, Holland is an American literary critic and theorist who has focused on human responses to literature, film, and other arts. He is known for his work in Psychoanalytic criticism and Reader Response criticism. Holland began his Psychoanalytic writings with Psychoanalysis and Shakespeare (1966). In which he made a survey of what psychoanalytic writers has said about Shakespeare. He urged psychoanalytic critics to study real people, the audience and readers of literature, rather than imaginary characters. His contribution to Reader Response criticism was great. He has written about† the way self (reader) interacts with world (text) in four books: The Dynamics of Literary Response (1968), Poems in Persons (1973), 5 Readers Reading (1979), and Laughing: A Psychology of Humor (1982)† (Berg 266). According to Holland there are three explanation-models in Reader Response Theory. First, ‘text-active’ model, in which â€Å"the text defines the response†. The second model he calls â€Å"reader-active†, in which readers create meanings, and undergo the reading experience by exploring the text and all its items. â€Å"Word forms, word meanings, syntax, grammar, on up to complex individual ideas about character, plot, genre, themes, or values†(Holland). Thus the reader explores and interprets the text. Most who pioneered this view like Holland are Americans such as David Bleich, Stanley Fish, and Louise Rosenblatt. The third model is a compromise, and Holland calls it ‘bi-active’, in which the text causes part of the response and the reader the rest. Holland thinks that a ‘reader-active’ model is right. He believes that it explains likeness and difference in reading. â€Å"Similarities come from similar hypotheses formed by gender, class, education, race, age, or ‘interpretive community'† (Holland). While the difference come from differing hypotheses that result from individual beliefs, opinions and values, i.e. one’s ‘identity’. Holland considers a ‘test-active’ model is wrong, and therefore a ‘bi-active’ model is also wrong as it is half wrong and consequently all wrong. Holland suggests that â€Å"when we interpret a text, we unconsciously † react to our identity themes. To defend ourselves against our † fears and wishes, we transform the work in order to relieve psychic pressures† (Shaffer 48). Literature allows us to recreate our identities and to know ourselves as Holland deduced after the ‘Delphi seminar’, in which he worked at the State University of New York at Buffalo with other critics such as Robert Rogers, David Willbern and others. The ‘ Delphi seminar’ was designed to get students know themselves. The reader’s re-creation of his identity could happen when he transact with the text in four ways: â€Å"defense, expectation, fantasy, and transformation, which Holland reduces to the acronym ‘DEFT’ † (Newton, Interpreting Text 144). Defenses are ways of copying with inner and outer reality, particularly conflicts between different psychic agencies and reality. Holland thinks that we defend in many ways; we repress our fears and our painful thoughts or feelings, we deny sensory evidence or we isolate one emotion or idea from another. Expectations are our fears and wishes.Fantacies is what the individual puts out from himself into the outside world. In the ‘Delphi seminar’ Holland and the rest of critics â€Å"help[ed] students discover how they each bring a personal style (identity) to reading, writing, learning, and teaching† (Newton, Twentieth-Century 208). The seminar discussed the texts and also their associations, but focused on the associations. Students mastered the subject matter, and also saw how people re-create or develop a personal ‘identity’. Each student had great insight to himself, and his characteristic ways with text and people. Holland thinks that † just as the existence of a child constitutes the existence of a mother and the existence of a mother constitutes the existence of a child, so, in identity theory, all selves and objects constitute one another† (Newton, Twentieth-Century 208). So, I think the existence of a text constitutes the existence of a reader and vice versa, and the understanding of the text constitutes an understanding of self as well. In The Dynamics of Literary Response (1968), Holland was interested in the fact that texts embody fantasies. Later on, his thinking about texts reversed and he inferred that it is the reader who makes fantasies which [s]he transforms or projects onto the literary text. â€Å"People internalize differently because they internalize †¦ according to a core identity theme† (Berg 267). In Poems in Persons (1973), Holland explains that readers create the text, and he also questions the objectivity of the text. In this book Holland suggests that a poem â€Å"is nothing but specks of carbon black on dried wood pulp†, and suggests that these specks have nothing to do with people, yet â€Å"people who do thing to these specks† (Berg 267). When we â€Å"introject literary work we create in ourselves a psychological transformation†, where we feel as if it were within the text or the work yet it is not. This takes us to Holland’s ‘transactional’ model in which the reader initiates and creates the response. Holland saw that reading is a ‘transactional’ process in which the reader and the text mesh together. And it is a â€Å"personal transaction of the reader with the text in which there is no fundamental division between the text’s role and the reader’s role† (Newton, Interpreting Text 142), so the roles of the text dovetails with that of the reader. Holland has hired a group of students for an experiment. They read short stories and discussed them with him in interviews in which he asked questions and elicited associations. Their responses showed a more variety than he could explain. â€Å"Different readers might interpret a poem or a story differently at the level of meaning, morals, or aesthetic value. The text itself, however, was a fixed entity that elicited fairly fixed responses† (Holland). He regards the text as an objective entity and has no role in the process of interpretation. But in his next book 5 Readers Reading (1979) he gives more evidence of the subjective creation of the reader. He tried his model on actual readers. Five readers read ‘A Rose for Emily’ by Faulkner, and in the process of reading they create very different stories, â€Å"stories which inevitably reflect the identity themes of their creators† (Berg 267). When he listened to their understandings of a given character or event or phrase, he found them invariably different. Their emotional responses were diverse. So, the idea that there is a fixed or appropriate response was an illusion. Holland deduces that fantasies, structures, and forms do not exist in a literary work as he previously conceived, but they exist in the individual reader’s re-creation of the text. Holland thinks that â€Å"each person reads differently, and this difference stems from personality† (Newton, Twentieth-Century 204). Holland found that he could understand the reader’s differing responses by reading their identities. And he could explain their different reactions to the poem or short story by looking to their identity themes, as their patters of defences, expectations, fantasies, and transformations will help. The transformational model of his Dynamics was correct, but it was the reader who does the transformation and not the text. The text was only a raw material. So Holland arrives at the deduction that people who have fantasies after his previous assumption that text embody fantasies. Holland’s thinking about texts reversed after David Bleich’s proddi ng who insisted that texts do not have fantasies, people do. To understand a literary work, Holland claims that you should perceive it through the lens of some human perception, either your own experience, or someone else, or even a critic’s analysis of the work. These perceptions vary from individual to individual, from community to community, and from culture to culture. He thinks that one cannot perceive the raw, naked text, as he can only perceive it through some one else’s process of perception. Thus Holland claims that â€Å"if readers’ free responses to texts are collected they [will] have virtually nothing in common† (Newton, Interpreting Text 143). According to Holland the relation between the ‘subjective’ and ‘objective’ is undifferentiated and can not be separated. For there is a ‘transactional’ process of interpretation where the roles of the reader and the text are intertwined, and the line dividing them blurs and dissolves. He thinks that readers should accept interpretation as a ‘transaction’ between the reader’s unique ‘identity’ and the text. Holland, however, does not want to take the side of the objective or that of the subjective, yet he is looking for a vanishing point between them, and wants to make both text and reader meet at an intersection of interpretation. David Bleich (1936-) is a Jewish critic, a son of a rabbi, a professor of Talmud, and a Subjectivist Reader Response critic. In Subjective Reader Response, the text is subordinated to the individual reader. The subject becomes the individual reader as he reacts to the text and reveals himself in the act of reading. For example, when a reader is addressed with a story of a father who ignores his child, then the intensity of that reader’s reaction may lay it his/her conflicted relation with his own father. Subjective criticism has been attacked as being too relativistic. Defenders of this approach point out that literature must work on a personal, emotional level to move us powerfully. David Bleich takes an approach differs from Holland’s. H is primary concern in his book Readings and Feelings is pedagogy rather than psychology. He thinks that â€Å"reading is a wholly subjective process†(Rabinowitz 86), and that the different or competing interpretation can be negotiated and settled. He examines the ways in which meanings or interpretations are constructed in a class room community, â€Å"with particular emphasis on the ways in which a group can negotiate among competing interpretations†(86). In Readings and Feelings, Bleich presents† a detailed account of his teaching techniques during a typical semester†(Berg 269). That’s why he is concerned with pedagogy and not psychology. He introduces himself to his class and discusses the way he wants his students to look at literature. The first preliminary sessions were designed to help students be acquainted with their subjective feelings, and how to depict them. Even the â€Å"idiosyncratic personal responses† of the students are accepted and discussed sympathetically. With the students Bleich plunges into different literary genres including poetry, short story, and novel. Yet before discussing these genres, â€Å"Bleich wants his students to be as personal as possible when they discuss poetry. He wants their affective responses, their free associations, any anecdotal material that occurs to them† (Berg 269). Bleich focuses on questions such as what is â€Å"the most important word, the most important passage, or the most important aspect of a story† (269). Thus, he believes that his students move from the personal to the interpersonal and then to the social. The cause of these movements is not â€Å"the change in genre†¦; but the tenor of the questions Bleich asks†(269) is what guides the movement. Shaffer says that â€Å"In Subjective Criticism (1978), Bleich assumes that ‘each person’s most urgent motivations are to understand himself’ and that all ‘objective’ interpretations are derived ultimately from subjective responses† (Shaffer 48). Like Norman Holland, Bleich focuses on the subconscious responses of the readers to the text, including his â€Å"emotional responses, our infantile, adolescent, or simply ‘gut’ responses† (Berg 268). According to Bleich the interpretation of texts or the personal responses to texts are in a way or another motivated. Namely; we are motivated by certain things to make a certain interpretation or response to a literary work in particular or a work of art in general. Our interpretations are a motivated activities, and â€Å"any act of interpretation, or meaning-conferring activity is motivated, and†¦it is important for us to understand the motives behind our interpretations†(270). Bleich suggests that only way to figure out and determine these motivations behind our interpretations of texts is to â€Å"took our subjective responses to texts †¦where each reader’s response receives the same respect†(270). A sheer desire to self-understanding and self-knowledge is what motivates us as readers. We interpret in order to gain â€Å"some kind of knowledge which will resolve some difficulty†, or we do it to â€Å"explain something that was puzzling us†(270). Bleich goes further and says that â€Å"if a certain set or school of interpretation prevails; it is not because it is closer to an objective truth about art†(Newton, Twentieth-Century 234). If a community of students agreed upon certain interpretation to a given text, then â€Å"the standard truth†¦can only devolve upon the community of students†(234). So, when students come up with a consensus reading of a certain text, and agree unanimously upon its interpretation, then their subjective feeling and values are the same. Thus the literary text â€Å"must come under the control of subjectivity; either an individual’s subjectivity or the collective subjectivity of a group†(233). The group comes up with a consensus after discussing their personal responses with each other and negotiates ideas and individual responses. This idea of negotiation that Bleich introduces helps the group weighs and discusses each one’s own responses â€Å"in order to come to a group decision†(Berg 271). Then Bleich says that† critics and their audiences assume interpretive knowledge to be†¦as objective as formulaic knowledge†(Newton 232). The assumption of the objectivity of a text is almost â€Å"a game played by critics (232). Critics know the fallacy of the objectivity of a text, and believe in critical pluralism, namely; allowing multiple interpretations of the same work. Bleich does not ignore or deny the objectivity of the text or a work of literature. But text is an object that is different from other objects as it is a ‘symbolic’ object. A text is not just a group o words written in ink on a sheet of paper. It, unlike other objects, has no function in its material existence. For example, an apple is an object that its existence does not depend on whether someone eats it or sees it, however, a text’s or a book’s existence â€Å"does depend on whether someone writes it and reads it† (Newton 233). The work of literature is a response to the author’s life experience, and the interpretation of the reader the response to his reading experience. The reader’s subjective interpretation creates an understanding to the text. Through this transaction between the reader and the text, I think we can come across with an understanding of literature and of people as well. This artistic transaction helps to blur and dissolve the dividing line between the subjective and objective. It is idle as Bleich found â€Å"to imagine that we can avoid the entanglements of subjective reactions and motives†(Newton, Twentieth-Century 235). As our motive in our subjective interpretations is our desire to self-knowledge and self-understanding, then the study of ourselves and the study of the literary work are ultimately a single enterprise. Though Holland and Bleich are Individualist Reader Response critics, they have different views in particular issues. Norman Holland thinks that in order to understand a student’s or a reader’s interpretation of a text he should examine his psyche and uncover his ‘identity theme’. Bleich takes a different position. He is concerned with pedagogy rather that psychology, therefore he examines the ways in which meanings are constructed, and how a group of readers could negotiate interpretations. Holland suggests that the reader’s role is intermingling with that of the text. The reader re-creates the text influenced by his/her subjective responses and introjects his/her fantasies on the literary work. Through this transaction with the text we re-create our identities, and our identity themes provide individual differences in interpretations, and the result is a wide array of interpretations that allow us to explore many responses. Bleich denies Holland’s ‘identity theme’. He thinks that interpretations are not an outcome of our differing identity themes, but they are a result of our motives, feelings, and preoccupations. Holland’s Delphi seminar helped students or readers know their selves and discover that each one of them can bring a personal style (identity) to reading. So, the issue of self-discovery or self-knowledge is agreed upon by Holland and Bleich as well, however their ways of achieving it differ. Holland does not side with either the subjective or the objective split, yet he is looking for a vanishing point between them. In his Dynamics he used to consider the text as an objective reality, or a raw material. Yet the role of the reader combines that of the text in a transactional process of reading and interpretation. Thus there is no fundamental division between the roles of both the reader and the text, they dovetail with each other. For Bleich, the text is a ‘symbolic object’ that has no function in its material existence. The existence of text depends on whether someone writes it or reads it. So, the existence of the text and the existence of the reader is interdependent. Holland holds the same view when he says that the existence of a mother constitutes the existence of a child and vice versa, also the existence of selves constitutes the existence of objects. Thereby, the dividing line between the objective and subjective blurs and dissolves. This constitutes that we cannot ignore the entanglements of subjective reactions and motives to the objective text or to be accurate, the text which is a ‘symbolic’ object. Both critics agree on the idea of the transactional process of reading, whether by Holland’s identity themes which help reader interpret the text and understand himself, or by Bleich’s desire to self-knowledge that motivates reader to interpret the text and understand it. Both apply a transaction that leads to an understanding and interpretation of a text along with the reader’s own self. This aim of gaining knowledge and this study of ourselves and of art are ultimately a single enterprise. I think that Holland does not agree that there could be a consensus interpretation which is agreed upon by a group of readers. He thinks that each reader has his own personality or identity theme, and thereby interpretations will be multiple and diverse. While Bleich’s idea of ‘negotiation’ among readers can lead to a unanimous decision about the meaning of the literary work. The negotiation among readers enable them to express their personal feelings freely and depict their responses without the fear of being rejected. For instance, in David Bleich’s class, there is a democracy. Each reader’s response receives the same respect, and there is no underestimation of their idiosyncrasies. This helped them develop from the personal to the interpersonal and then to the social. While in Holland’s view, there can be no unanimous interpretation of a given work of art. For each reader is influenced by his/her identity theme. Also, â€Å"Holland’s subjects report their responses in terms of ‘the clichà ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½s of the various subcultures and cultural discourses work to constitute the consciousness of American college students’†¦. [Holland concludes that not] the individuality of his students but†¦the way their ‘individuality’ is in fact a’ product’ of their cultural situation†(Rabinowitz 86). In conclusion, â€Å"Holland and Bleich did not [in a way or another] negotiate a consensus; rather, by some irritated leap, Holland becomes convinced of what Bleich had to tell him†(Berg 271). Works Cited Abrams, M.H. â€Å"Reader-Response Criticism.† Glossary of Literary Terms. 6th Ed. New York: Harcourt Brace College Publishers, 1993. Berg, Temma F. â€Å"Psychologies of Reading.† Tracing Literary Theory. Ed. Joseph Natoli. Urbana and Chicago: Illinois UP, 1987. 248-274. Holland, Norman N. â€Å"Reader-Response already is Cognitive Criticism.† Bridging the Gap. 8 Apr. 1995. Stanford University. 26 Dec. 2007 . —, â€Å"The Story of a Psychoanalytic Critic.† An Intellectual. 26 Dec. 2007 . Laga, Barry. â€Å"Reading with an Eye on Reading: An Introduction to Reader-Response.† Reader Response. 1999. 23 Dec. 2007 . Newton, K. M. â€Å"Reader Response Criticism.† Interpreting the Text: A Critical Introduction to the Theory and Practice of Literary Interpretation. Great Britain: Billing and Sons, 1990. 141-153. —, ed. â€Å"Norman Holland: Reading and Identity: A Psychoanalytic Revolution.† Twentieth-Century Literary Theory. London: Macmillan, 1989. 204-209. —, â€Å"David Bleich: The Subjective Character of The Critical Interpretation.† Twentieth-Century Literary Theory. London: Macmillan, 1989. 231-235. Rabinowitz, Peter J. â€Å"Whirl without End: Audience-Oriented Criticism.† Contemporary Literary Theory. Ed. G. Douglas Atkins and Laura Morrow. USA: Macmillan UP, 1989. 81-85. Shaffer, Lawrence. â€Å"Psychoanalytic Criticism.† Literary Criticism. 1sted. New Delhi: IVY Publishing House, 2001. 44-48.

Tuesday, October 22, 2019

The Unification of Germany, Italy, and the United States essays

The Unification of Germany, Italy, and the United States essays The national unification of Italy, Germany, and the United States had many similarities and differences. When Germany and Italy experienced unification, the United States was already unified but going through a process of conserving the union of its states. While both the United States and Germany contained one main influential leader during their time of unification, Italy experienced two main leaders that were an essential part of its unification. Cavour was an important leader because he unified northern Italy. Another leader was Garibaldi who is responsible for uniting the southern and northern parts of Italy. For Germany, after the failure of the German revolutionaries of 1848, the German Confederation was a loose union of thirty-nine states. In 1862, Bismarck was declared minister-president of Prussia. Bismarck had a strong personality and a great desire for power. In his conquest to unify Germany, Bismarck fought against Austria as the Prussian ambassador to the German Confederation from 1857-1859. His goal was to build up Prussia's strength and consolidate Prussia''s great power status. To do that, he decided to ally with the forces of German nationalism to defeat and expel Austria from German affairs. To bring the provinces into a more centralized Danish State against the will of the German Confederation, Prussia joined Austria in a war against Denmark and succeeded in 1864. Bismarck felt that Prussia had to completely control the northern part of the German Confederation, which meant Austria was excluded from German affairs. After victory over Denmark, Bismarck placed Prussia in a position to force out Austria. In 1867, Bismarck formed an alliance with four south German states, but they didn't go further because of their different religious and political traditions. Bismarck found that a patriotic war with France would create the participation of the south German States in a unified Germany. When the war with France be...

Monday, October 21, 2019

Expectations

Expectations are crucial in determining the success of government policy on unemployment and inflation. Whatever people expect to happen, their actions will tend to make it happen. At the time that economic agents-households, firms, the government make choices, they are generally uncertain about the future. Assumptions about how these agents form expectations for the future shape the properties of any dynamic economic model. Great debates have gone on among economists and psychologists in recent years over the ways that economic agents actually formulate their expectations about their future and the ways that macroeconomists should assume they do this in their theoretical models. To make economic decisions in an uncertain environment agents must forecast such variables as future rates of inflation, tax rates, government subsidy schemes and regulations. A business firm contemplating an investment needs to know the future path of income that will result from the investment. However future earnings can be estimated only with considerable uncertainty. If there is a boom in the future, then the future earnings may be high and vice versa. But the actual exact future state of the economy is virtually unknowable. This is why households and firms have to formulate some expectations about the future in order to make choices. Indeed, they must often cope with complex assessments of the relative likelihood of many different possible events- the educated guesses that households have to make about the future value of income for example. >From a macroeconomic perspective expectation may well determine beliefs such as that an expansion of money supply will merely lead to inflation (the monetarist position), then it will. Firms and workers will adjust their prices and wages upwards. Firms will make no plans to expand output and will make no plans to expand output and will not take on any more labour. If, however, people believe that an expansion o...

Sunday, October 20, 2019

10 causas de cancelación de la visa de turista o paseo

10 causas de cancelacià ³n de la visa de turista o paseo Las causas por las que una visa de turista para ingresar a Estados Unidos puede ser cancelada o revocada son muy variadas, si bien hay 10 que, por su frecuencia, conviene conocer para evitarlas. Destacar que pueden proceder a la cancelacià ³n de una visa de turista, conocida tambià ©n en algunos paà ­ses como de paseo o de placer, las Embajadas, los consulados y tambià ©n las autoridades migratorias como, por ejemplo, los oficiales en los pasos fronterizos o de aeropuerto. No es obligatorio avisar a la persona a la que se le revoca la visa. En este artà ­culo se informa sobre 10 causas muy comunes de cancelacià ³n de la visa y quà © se puede hacer cuando esto sucede. 10 Causas De Cancelacià ³n De La Visa Americana De Turista 1. Quiz la causa ms frecuente de cancelacià ³n de la visa es por permanecer en Estados Unidos ms tiempo del permitido, asà ­ sà ³lo sean 24 horas. Es muy importante  no confundir la fecha de expiracià ³n de la visa  con el dà ­a mximo autorizado para permanecer en Estados Unidos.. El tiempo que se puede permanecer en Estados Unidos est fijado en el documento que se conoce como I-94, o registro de ingreso y de salida. Aunque es muy comà ºn que la autorizacià ³n se extienda por 180 dà ­as, es decir, seis meses, tambià ©n es posible que, en realidad, el oficial migratorio que autorizà ³ el ingreso establezca un tiempo inferior. Es fundamental respetar este plazo, porque si no se hace no sà ³lo se pierde la visa sino que la persona se queda en situacià ³n de indocumentada dentro de los Estados Unidos. Para evitarlo, si se desea permanecer ms tiempo en Estados Unidos debe procederse a pedir una extensià ³n de la visa o un cambio de categorà ­a de visado. En casos muy concretos y excepcionales es posible solicitar con à ©xito que se apruebe restaurar el estatus, lo que se conoce como Nunc Pro Tunc, cuando no se pide a tiempo una extensià ³n o cambio de visa. Tampoco se debe jugar a intentar obtener un nuevo plazo de tiempo para permanecer en Estados Unidos saliendo a Mà ©xico, Canad o Bahamas y volviendo a entrar, ya que el sistema no funciona asà ­. 2. Cuando  la visa ha sido arrancada  del pasaporte donde originalmente se estampà ³, queda automticamente sin vigencia. En otras palabras, no es vlida. 3. La visa tambià ©n se cancela cuando se sabe o se sospecha que se utiliza para un  fin distinto  al suyo propio. Por ejemplo, cuando una persona con visado de turista pasa una larga temporada en Estados Unidos y decide estudiar en una escuela, high school,  universidad o academia de inglà ©s a tiempo completo. Esto no es correcto, ya que la visa  apropiada es la F-1,  la F-3 para el caso de mexicanos o canadienses en zona fronteriza,  si asà ­ lo prefieren, o la J-1. Otro ejemplo es cuando una persona extranjera ingresa al paà ­s con una visa de paseo pero con la intencià ³n de contraer matrimonio. Si el oficial de inmigracià ³n se da cuenta o en la aduana descubren en su equipaje cosas como el vestido de boda se le negar la entrada y se le cancelar el visado. Casarse con visa de turista  est permitido pero puede tener consecuencias muy negativas, por lo que hay que ser muy prudente con lo que se hace y cumplir la ley. 4. La visa tambià ©n es cancelada cuando se sospecha  que puede haber intencià ³n de emigrar. Esto puede suceder cuando una persona con visa de turista entra frecuentemente al paà ­s, por ejemplo a visitar a un familiar. Otro ejemplo puede darse cuando extiende continuamente la estancia. Esos comportamientos son perfectamente vlidos, pero no pueden dar lugar a sospecha de que la intencià ³n es emigrar y quedarse en Estados Unidos. Incluso otras situaciones ms sutiles pueden dar lugar a problemas como, por ejemplo, no tener un trabajo estable en el paà ­s de origen. 5. Cuando se ha causado que el seguro pà ºblico de Estados Unidos conocido como Medicaid gastos mà ©dicos porque la persona extranjera con visa de turista ha tenido una emergencia sanitaria y no ha pagado la factura ni tampoco su seguro mà ©dico. Es relativamente frecuente descubrir estos casos ms pronto o ms tarde  en el caso de paps que se han desplazado a Estados Unidos para que nazca su hijo y posteriormente se regresan a su paà ­s de origen sin pagar el gasto hospitalario. Esta situacià ³n se detecta cuando se pide el pasaporte americano para el hijo por primera vez o su renovacià ³n. En ese momento, si asà ­ lo desean, las autoridades consulares pueden pedir prueba de que los padres han pagado el hospital en Estados Unidos. La misma prueba la pueden pedir las autoridades de inspeccià ³n en el control migratorio al llegar a Estados Unidos. 6. Cuando a un extranjero se le concede una visa de inmigrante (permiso de residencia, tambià ©n conocido como tarjeta de residencia o green card), se le cancela la visa no inmigrante que pudiera tener. En este caso no hay ningà ºn problema porque cuenta con la green card. 7. Cuando una persona ha sido pedida por un familiar en Estados Unidos. Mientras espera es posible que si tiene una visa de turista vigente, à ©sta sea cancelada, aunque no sucede siempre. Tambià ©n podrà ­a suceder que si viaja, una vez que llegue a las aduanas se encuentre que no se le permite ingresar al paà ­s. Esto no tiene que ser asà ­ siempre, ni mucho menos. Pero es posible. La razà ³n es que segà ºn sean las circunstancias particulares de cada caso puede dar la impresià ³n de que la idea es viajar a Estados Unidos para quedarse a vivir con el familiar que ha hecho la peticià ³n, sin esperar el tiempo de demora, que segà ºn los casos puede ser muy largo, particularmente en el caso de papeles pedidos para hermanos. 8. La visa de turista se cancela automticamente si su titular  ha trabajado en Estados Unidos con ese estatus.  Ã‚  Incluso es suficiente tener la intencià ³n de trabajar en Estados Unidos o se sospecha que à ©sa es la intencià ³n del viaje Hay que insistir que legalmente sà ³lo pueden trabajar los ciudadanos, los residentes y las personas titulares de visas que permitan trabajar o que tengan un permiso de trabajo. En ningà ºn caso los extranjeros con una visa de turista pueden aceptar desempeà ±ar una labor remunerada. 9. Cuando la visa tiene un error burocrtico, como puede ser el mal deletreo de un nombre o apellido o una equivocacià ³n en la fecha de nacimiento. En este caso en concreto la cancelacià ³n no tiene efectos negativos para el titular de la visa que obtendr otra con los datos correctos. En estos casos el consulado suele llamar para corregir el error. 10. Cuando el oficial de la CBP que est en la aduana americana cree que una persona a la que previamente le concedieron la visa era  inelegible  o  inadmisible  para ingresar a los Estados Unidos o  se convirtià ³ en inelegible o inadmisible tras haberle sido aprobado el visado puede proceder a su cancelacià ³n. Esta regla tambià ©n aplica en la frontera o aeropuerto a los ciudadanos de paà ­ses en el Programa de Exencià ³n de Visas  que no necesitan una para viajar por negocios o turismo, pero en este caso en vez de cancelar una visa que no existe, se procede a enviarlo de regreso al paà ­s del que procede. Es muy conveniente saber que à ©stas son  22 causas por las que una persona es inadmisible  para USA. El consumo de drogas, que se encuentra entre ellas, es la razà ³n ms comà ºn por las que se cancela la visa a celebridades extranjeras. Adems, estas  20 causas que convierten a una persona en inelegible  por las que el consulado o el oficial de migracià ³n pueden decir no  aprobar o renovar  la visa o para  permitir el ingreso  al paà ­s. Quà © Hacer Cuando La Visa De Turista Ha Sido Cancelada O Revocada Si se quiere tener una nueva visa hay que proceder a aplicar por una de nuevo. Pero en la mayorà ­a de los casos el que se solicite no quiere decir que se vaya a obtener. Por ejemplo, en el caso de haber permanecido en Estados Unidos ms tiempo del permitido puede darse al mismo tiempo que se aplique el castigo de los tres y de los diez aà ±os. En el caso de que se haya utilizado la visa para fines no autorizados, como por ejemplo estudiar, o para trabajar, no hay castigo pero es muy difà ­cil que en esas circunstancias se obtenga una nueva visa. Cuando ya ha pasado tiempo desde que se produjo la cancelacià ³n y las circunstancias de la persona han cambiado en ocasiones el oficial consular puede sugerir que se solicite un perdà ³n, tambià ©n conocido como waiver o permiso. Evita Que Te Cancelen La Visa Con Conocimiento Toma este quiz sobre visas de turista que hemos elaborado para que compruebes si tienes los conocimientos bsicos para obtenerla y conservarla. Lo importante es evitar la cancelacià ³n, ya que a partir de ahà ­ puede ser muy complicado volverla a obtener. Este es un artà ­culo informativo. No es asesorà ­a legal.

Saturday, October 19, 2019

Ganoderma lucidum Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Ganoderma lucidum - Research Paper Example In ancient times due to its rarity and limited supply, Ganoderma, was usually almost exclusively reserved for royalty, emperors and kings (Ganoderma-online, 2012).Thanks to modern and strain specific cultivation techniques, Reishi is more affordable to produce and its accessible more to the average consumer. There are many potential health benefits and medicinal uses for long term users of Ganoderma Lucidum Modern research supports the myriad of naturally occurring medicinal and health enhancing compounds present in the Ganoderma mushroom family. Reishi consumed as a long-term health supplement is widely used for its ability to prevent many common health maladies that might affect the individual in the future (Staments, 1993). This fungi is well known for its immune system enhancing properties, its ability to ward of infections and regulate blood pressure, increase liver glucose metabolism as well as and normalizing blood glucose levels (Ganodermalucidumfacts, 2013).There are many ways to use Ganoderma such as in extract form, tea or a pill, but drinking Reishi mushroom in coffee form has become a very popular way to consume due the naturally bitter taste of its medicinal compounds similar in taste to plain coffee (Superganoderma, 2013). Ganoderma Lucidum contains compounds that encourage intra-cellular detoxification by accelerating and energizing cellular processes to help get rid of accumulated toxins within the cell membrane and the nucleus. By enhancing the user’s immune system and helping eliminate the body from accumulated toxins preventing the body from healing and operating normally, Reishi enhances the ability of the immune system to fight of the cancer cells. The polysaccharides and Germanium compounds present in the fungal body are largely responsible for the anti-tumor and anti-cancer properties present on Ganoderma Lucidum. Ganoderma is

Addiction is a brain disease Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Addiction is a brain disease - Research Paper Example Addiction has been considered a major society’s problem and it is because of this that some experts believe it as a brain disease at some point. This paper tries to explain that addiction is indeed a disease of the brain. Addiction defined Addiction is a specific behavioral problem that is usually manifested with lack of control of using and seeking something just like drugs, sex and gambling (Gamonet & Piazza, 2010; Goodman, 2008). It is also known as a syndrome in which there is a considerable focus on the impaired control over a behavior (West & Hardy, 2006). Addiction therefore is something that takes control over someone’s life. Someone who is addicted to something else is after of uncontrolled longing for self gratification. Although addiction may differ from what a habit is, the entire point is that its manifestation can always be observed from a behavioral point of view. However, addiction can also be explained from the biological context and this primarily invo lves the study of the brain and its other related fields. Brain disease defined From a biomedical model, disease is defined based on the context of four assumptions in which one of them states that it is a deviation from normal biological functioning (Mishler, 1981). From this assumption, a brain disease therefore is implied as the brain’s inability to function well based on what a normal one can potentially do. This is a generic point of view, but the entire argument in the above assumption is that a deviation from the norm especially when there is involved biological functioning is ground to be considered as a disease. Evidences about addiction is brain disease In order to consider addiction as a brain disease, it is important to trace the very nature of a normal brain and its potential functions in the human body. The normal human brain is said to have the capacity to take control over the entire body. However, aside from the biological stand point, the brain does not only control the whole activities of the body, but primarily thoughts and behavior (Feldman, 2003). This implies that a normal brain has the capacity to create normal thoughts and behavior. Since addiction is a behavioral problem, the brain therefore has specific problem by itself considering that it should have the capacity to create normal thoughts and behaviors in the first place. Furthermore, based on the assumption about normal biological functioning of the body, a normal brain therefore has to function well as expected resulting to create normal thoughts or behaviors. Doctor Alan Lesbner, director of the National Institute of Drug Abuse personally believes that addiction is a brain disease (Walsh, 1997). This is based on the idea that drug addiction is just a result of one’s brain inability to take control of a certain behavior. Doctor Lesbner argued that not all of those who abused drugs resulted to addiction because the brain has a certain capacity to control human behavi or. In fact, not all of those who tried prohibited drugs are addicted. Furthermore, not all of those who start gambling and having sex are addicted to such of these activities. However, the abuse of drugs for instance leads to some changes in the brain and to some extent they are harmful for its normal functioning (Heyman, 2009). Some recent findings showing addiction is a brain disease supported the idea of Doctor Lesbner. Recent findings suggest that addiction is associated with dysfunction of brain tissues resulting to the disruption of regions in the brain which are capable of controlling the normal process of motivation, reward and inhibitory control (Ries et al., 2009; Heyman & Brownsberger, 2001; Flores, 1997). The advent of technological breakthroughs makes this

Friday, October 18, 2019

Environmental Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 7

Environmental - Essay Example This means that France alone has a stronger economy almost compared to all the 22 countries put together. Germany (3,401.0) has a higher GDP than all the 22 countries combined. This is followed by Japan (5,964.0) and the biggest difference comes from USA (15,680.0) (CIA). This is to say that the USA has the strongest economy and has reliable economic power to exploit and control the oil in the Middle East. The 2012 GDP of Israel (240.9) lies way below that of the combined states in the Middle East. However, when compared to Gaza and Westbank combined (6.641) creates a very big difference. Israel lays a stronger economic position than the Westbank and Gaza by a minimum thirty six times. That translates to Israel having a lot of control in the region especially compared to its neighbour. The geo-political relations in the region have largely contributed to who owns much stake in the Middle East oil (Central Intelligence Agency). For instance, the USA, a world power and its allies (UK, France, Japan and Germany) therefore have a large stake in the control of oil in the Middle East. According to TÃ ©treault (2012), oil ownership and relations to the stronger powers have given some Middle East countries more power than others. TÃ ©treault, Mary Ann. "The Political Economy of Middle Eastern Oil." 2012. University of California Library. 30 January 2014

Female Gangs Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Female Gangs - Essay Example In the technical sense, most of these females have not been considered as gang members, but as a relative or as girlfriends (SDCOE, n.d). In effect, they have often been viewed in a subservient role – people who would hold weapons or drugs or as sex toys. Today, most of these roles are still seen among female gang members, however, many female members have now taken on male roles as a means of integrating their lives into gangs (SDCOE, n.d). Many of them emulate male members in terms of clothing, criminal activities, tattoos, graffiti vandalism, weapons use, as well as the application of violence. Their reasons for joining gangs are as varied as their male counterparts and their activities in these gangs are also related to a variety of reasons. This paper shall now consider female gangs, their reasons for joining gangs, their usual activities in these gangs, the crimes they commit, their initiation process and related qualities. This paper is being carried out in order to est ablish a clear and comprehensive understanding of the female gangs and their involvement in these gang-related activities. Female gang members, as was mentioned above, have traditionally been considered by law enforcement authorities as nothing more than â€Å"accessories† to male gang members (Curry and Decker, 1998). As a result of these perceptions, law enforcers have been reluctant to qualify female activities in the gang as gang-related activities. The fact that there is a biased perception on these activities not being naturally feminine also affects the perception of these female activities. In the recent context however, attention has been brought forth to the commission of violent crimes by young women (Archer and Grascia, 2005). Females have not been considered capable of carrying out so-called male crimes because of gender

Thursday, October 17, 2019

Is a global state possible or even desirable Make full use of the Essay

Is a global state possible or even desirable Make full use of the theoretical and empirical literature in your answer. (with reference to theories of realism, communism, liberalism and marxism) - Essay Example The rise in international organization which has emerged after the second quarter of the 20th century is one of the greatest and central features of global associations2. While some recommend that the world is witnessing the making of an international community, ruled by procedures, norms and processes involved in decision making. Others observe the global state as being formless and even as ethically suspect3 International organizations are imperative to explore since the most crucial problems in global politics currently-terrorism, poverty, disease, economic instability, climate shift, regional fight, proliferation of weapons, and numerous other issues-cannot be resolved without integration on multilateral level. Global politics is segmented by interdependence of security which implies that no one government, not even the most influential one, can handle these issues all by itself. The modern world scenario needs both non-governmental and governmental catalysts to integrate action through global organization to cater these problems. Interdependence of security needs global state, and international organizations become a vital element of global state. This research paper will address the factors related with the emergence of global state, its possibility or desirability with the help of a brief discussion through theoretical and empirical literature4. After the termination of the World War I, the political culture of Britain was segmented by optimism regarding the probability of developing international democratic harmony and peace with the help of international integration and gradual political in Britain. However this optimism faced a sudden termination by the 1930s5. This was the decade in which the trial of the Ramsay Macdonald’s state and League of Nations were both drastically exposed as unsuccessful, and the

You choose a subject Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

You choose a subject - Essay Example She however got tired of him too because he repressed her independence and treated her more like a trophy than a person. Although she submits to him, deep down she resents her life and feels being married to him was just like being a servant. After 20 years of marriage, he dies and she marries Tea Cake, a poor but fun loving and adventurers’ man in whom she finds all the love she had been looking for. They move to the everglades where they work as laborers, this relationship is however brutally ended when during the Hurricane Tea Cake is bitten by a rabid dog (â€Å"From their Eyes†¦Ã¢â‚¬  7). Two weeks later she is forced to kill him to defend herself from his psychotic delusional self. After being acquitted for his murder, she finally goes home and the book begins and ends as she retells her story, an act that finally puts her at peace with herself and her late husband. The book touches on several themes that are or relevance to the lives of women of color and the black community in general in the backdrop of recently ended slavery. One of the dominant themes is, Love vs. independence, since the quest for both is the content of most of Janie’s life; she leaves home to search for love but evidently fails to find it in her first husband. She leaves him believing she has found true love in Stark and although in the start it looked like the perfect romance she soon realizes his ambition is far greater than his love for her. It is only with Tea Cake that she finally gets both love and independence since he treats her tenderly and respects her individuality unlike the former husband who repressed her. The theme of gender roles is also explored in the book through the events that shape Janie’s life. He grandmother holds that men are providers and women should be taken care of by them and so married Janie off to an older man. Stark, on the other hand, assumes that being the man in a relationship gives him rights over the woman whom he treasures more

Wednesday, October 16, 2019

Is a global state possible or even desirable Make full use of the Essay

Is a global state possible or even desirable Make full use of the theoretical and empirical literature in your answer. (with reference to theories of realism, communism, liberalism and marxism) - Essay Example The rise in international organization which has emerged after the second quarter of the 20th century is one of the greatest and central features of global associations2. While some recommend that the world is witnessing the making of an international community, ruled by procedures, norms and processes involved in decision making. Others observe the global state as being formless and even as ethically suspect3 International organizations are imperative to explore since the most crucial problems in global politics currently-terrorism, poverty, disease, economic instability, climate shift, regional fight, proliferation of weapons, and numerous other issues-cannot be resolved without integration on multilateral level. Global politics is segmented by interdependence of security which implies that no one government, not even the most influential one, can handle these issues all by itself. The modern world scenario needs both non-governmental and governmental catalysts to integrate action through global organization to cater these problems. Interdependence of security needs global state, and international organizations become a vital element of global state. This research paper will address the factors related with the emergence of global state, its possibility or desirability with the help of a brief discussion through theoretical and empirical literature4. After the termination of the World War I, the political culture of Britain was segmented by optimism regarding the probability of developing international democratic harmony and peace with the help of international integration and gradual political in Britain. However this optimism faced a sudden termination by the 1930s5. This was the decade in which the trial of the Ramsay Macdonald’s state and League of Nations were both drastically exposed as unsuccessful, and the

Tuesday, October 15, 2019

Hitler and the Munich Beer Hall Putsch (1923) Term Paper

Hitler and the Munich Beer Hall Putsch (1923) - Term Paper Example After the failed attempt of Munich Beer Hall Putsch, Hitler was sentenced to fie years in prison while being convicted of treason. During the following one year, he dictated his autobiography. Called â€Å" Mein Kampf†, based on his political career. While he did not spend more than one year in prison, the event made him a national hero, as he pursued the fresh attempts to rebuild the Nazi party within the given legal framework. After the heavy loss in World War I and very unfavorable terms of Versailles treaty, the nation had been facing many economic hurdles. The years following this witnessed national instability with veterans and rebellious youths swelling the membership of both the right and left wing parties with the aim of overthrowing the government through armed struggle. The successful â€Å"March to Rome† by Mussolini that gave power to fascists in Rome during October 1922 provided inspiration for the youths who had joined Hitler’s Nazi party to carry out such an attempt in Germany. As Nazis prepared for the coup attempt, the membership of this party had exceeded almost 50,000. Accordingly, Hitler planned to start a â€Å"March on Berlin† movement for taking over the national government. During this time, many responsible authorities of Bavarian state government were agitating against the federal policies on the issue of resistance to Franco-Belgian occupation troops. This resulted in their preparation for a coup against the Berlin rule. Accordingly, they discussed the strategy for such action on the evening of 8 November 1923, while meeting at a hall in the eastern part of Munich. In the meanwhile all nationalist and radical forces had formed a coalition called â€Å"Kampfbund† to give it a shape of a combat league. However, as Hitler was not invited to the Bavarian meeting of November 8, the rivalry of Hitler and Bavarian President Kahr resulted in the deposition of Bavarian government. Accordingly, the

Monday, October 14, 2019

From personal experience Essay Example for Free

From personal experience Essay Life is a long journey. We are all bestowed with good and not-so-good moments in our life. As we grow older, we tend to face the hardships of the world. These days, lots of cobwebs have settled around and it feels as if we have totally forgotten the simple pleasures of life. During our stay in MFV Jose Law Office, or Opis as what we call it, we experienced a lot of things some were stressful, but most of the time, it was blissful. We experienced journeying into the unknown parts of the Philippines, from Kalookan, to Fairview, to Malabon, Tondo, and other places we thought we’d never go to. We experienced doing things that was very alien to us like using a Stenographic Typewriter, reading SCRA and SCRI, talking with other lawyers (in English), interviewing clients, and many others. Also the Flexible time, for someone like me, it was really germane. I wonder where I could find another office that has a flexible time and still pays me for a whole day. I also experienced being scolded by a court sheriff for taking pictures inside the court room. It was a very embarrassing experience, albeit a good and funny one. In fact, this is one of the reason I would never forget being in the Opis. Being with great and funny supervisors really made our stay in the Opis very worthwhile; in fact I don’t mind the transportation fee, because when I’m in the Opis, it feels like I’m also at home. And the best thing for me in being in the Opis, is the food. Hunger is not an option when in the office, whenever sir Ferds, or the other lawyers drop by, there’s always a pasalubong. And the best of the best things: we can take-out the rest, whether it’s yellow cab, angels’ pizza, Greenwich, or any food. During our college days, we often face many difficulties, many problems, but unto one side of the stories, there are those people, the people who help shape us into someone better. The reason why we are able to surpass this obstacles. I would like to take this opportunity to say Thank you to our wonderful supervisors, you really deserve to be called ‘supers’.

Sunday, October 13, 2019

Cathedral Essay -- essays papers

Cathedral â€Å"I wasn’t enthusiastic about his visit. He was no one I knew. And his being blind bothered me† (99) the narrator tells us in Raymond Carver’s Cathedral. An old friend of the narrator’s wife, Robert, is coming to visit them at their home. The narrator is not at all pleased with this situation and lets us know it from the beginning. Throughout the story, the narrator begins to see the blind man in a different light and his mind-set begins to change to admiration. The narrator seems to be somewhat jealous at first of the relationship between his wife and their visitor. He says, â€Å"She told him everything, or it seemed to me† (100). His wife had worked for the blind man for one summer ten years ago, yet she continued to communicate with him via tapes. The narrator must have felt some sort of envy towards the man who knew more about his wife’s life than he, her husband did. Not ever having â€Å"met or personally known anyone who was blind† (102) left the narrator at a loss as to how this man was going to behave or what they could do or talk about. He had read and heard things about the blind but Robert turned out to be none of these. The narrator thought â€Å"dark glasses were a must for the blind† (102) but Robert wore none. He had also heard blind men could not smoke because they could not see the smoke they exhaled â€Å"but this blind man smoked his cigarette down to the nubbin and then lit another one† (103). Slowly, the narrator becomes interested by how the blind man carries himself and his abilities despite his handicap. During the meal the three were having, the narrator remarks, â€Å"I watched with admiration as he used his knife and fork on the meat† (103). After dinner, when they sit down to talk and hav... ...and had nothing in common except for the wife. A lot changes though and they come to share a lot more. When we begin the story, the narrator is shown as ignorant towards blind people. He does not know what to expect or how to react to this strange man who does not act much like the narrator’s one-sided ideas of how a blind man should be. Robert is unique and the narrator soon starts to realize this. He begins admiring the capabilities that are more or less like his own. When they finish the picture of the cathedral, the narrator keeps his eyes closed. The blind man had given him a piece of himself and what it meant to be blind. In the end, they both give each other a special gift. The narrator gives the blind man a mental picture he can take with him about the way a cathedral looks to him. The blind man gives the narrator the gift of understanding and enlightenment.

Saturday, October 12, 2019

The Man Nobody Knows Essay -- essays research papers

The Man Nobody Knows   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The author of this book Bruce Barton was a partner in a successful advertising firm during the 1920’s. This was a time when the industry of advertising was under going some major changes. These changes had a lot to do with a number of factors the first of which being the post war prosperity this meant people had more money than they ever had before. Another one of these factors had to do with the high number of teens who were now attending high school, this proved to be important because it created a whole other market which hadn’t existed before. One more factor was the advances made in transportation and communication, these advances allowed goods, people, and information to travel long distances relatively quickly intern allowing companies to grow large enough to spread their services nationally. Still another important factor was the invention of financing, this allowed people to pay for durable objects (large objects that would last a couple of years) with affordable installments or payments. But the biggest changes were the actual advertising practices themselves, many of which were pioneered by Barton and his associates, and didn’t become norms in advertising until after the release of Bartons book â€Å"The Man Nobody Knows† in 1924. This book served not only as a manual on how to advertise more affectively but also as an example of good advertising itself.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Barton begins his book by ex...

Friday, October 11, 2019

Effective Leadership Essay

Effective leadership is a leader with exceptional oratorical skills who can persuade people to follow him or her to reaching their goal by asserting encouragement or fear. Throughout history we have had a number of leaders, effective and ineffective. Of the effective leaders all had a goal he or she were striving to obtain. They also shared similar characteristics such as oratorical skills, and most importantly the effective leaders were aware that people are moved by pathos, emotional appeal. So therefore by asserting either encouragement or fear they were able to persuade others. All these characteristics must come together to be an effective leader. Strong speaking skills are one of the characteristics that an effective leader must have. Strong speaking skills are characterized by a controlled and firm voice. A breathy or wavering voice can be taken as a sign of weakness, and an effective leader is not one who is believed to be weak. Strong speaking skills also mean that the speaker uses purposeful and direct body movements. Distracting and unnecessary movements take away from the effectiveness because they distract the audience from giving their full attention whoever is speaking and receiving the message they are trying to relay. Most importantly for the effectiveness of a leader they must command attention with their oratorical skills. There are a numerous amount of effective leaders in history, and one thing in common was that they all had strong oratorical skills. Take Martin Luther King of example; he was a man of confidence and empowerment. He was active during the Civil Rights period when African American’s needed someone to lead them to justice and serve as a beacon of light. It was said that when he spoke to crowds nothing except the sound of his voice could be heard for miles. He commanded attention with his voice and his words of encouragement gave African Americans hope throughout the nation. His oratorical skills were one of the reasons why he became a martyr and an effective leader. Another example of an effective leader is Adolph Hitler. He spoke to thousands of people. And despite the immorality of his actions, when he spoke to people, he possessed a firm voice with even firmer body movements. In Hitler’s leadership style the strength he showed was intended to instill fear in the people; the strength he showed also made him an effective leader. `Not only does an effective leader possess strong speaking skills but they must also have the ability to be in touch with the emotional appeal of human beings. Martin Luther King instilled encouragement in the African American in their quest to overcome racial injustice. Adolf Hitler instilled fear into the German people, so therefore they felt as though there was no other option but than to obey him. Although Hitler’s ethics and actions may have been morally wrong, his means to going about having people obey him was an example of effective leadership. Both Martin Luther King and Hitler are effective leaders in the sense that they both had strong oratorical skills and that they moved people to follow them by asserting encouragement or fear.

Thursday, October 10, 2019

Women as Commodity

WOMEN AS COMMODITY Women As Commodity Since ancient times, There people who are being sold just like a mere things sold in a market to be slaves, pimp, and it's quiet alarming that even naive child is a victim of this kind of discursive life. Women have been also analyzed to be part of those bundles of things paraded, bidded for, sold, and traded off despite the fact that women are making huge contributions for the development of their countries in different aspects today, still women are being tricked as commodity.In Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing, not only focused on the love story of Claudio and Hero; the volatile relationship of Beatrice and Benedik but it also goes much deeper in exploring the tensions between the sexes in a society where female chastity is equated with virtue, and that virtues serve as the measurement of a woman's worth. In women in the story interprets Shakespeare's viewpoint about women state before. â€Å"That women were treated as commodities on the early modern marriage exchange has, of course, been well established.Numerous social historians of the early modern period have documented the value attached to daughters as a means by which to advance family name and social position. Although marriage formations differed widely according to social ranking, as B. J. Sokol and Mary Sokol note in Shakespeare, Law, and Marriage, â€Å"the convention among the gentry and aristocracy was for marriages to be arranged by families with a view to securing advantages or alliances, conforming to a patriarchal model. †Numerous early modern conduct manuals and sermons, in fact, warn that a woman’s worth was linked to her chastity, a worth which could be lost or diminished due to real or, in the case of Shakespeare’ Hero, perceived sexual indiscretion. Commercial Surrogacy and the redefinition of Motherhood The childbearing days are no longer a required element in the reproductive period for some. Commercial surrogacy has ope ned the doors for many who can’t bear children of their own. Surrogate motherhood has increased notoriety as means for obtaining children.A commercial surrogate mother is paid to produce a child for someone else and then has to give up all parental rights and love for the child, she then, has to allow others to raise the child as if their own. This behavior has raised many concerns about the suitable scope of the market in commercial surrogacy. Some totally object to commercial surrogacy because the children and women’s reproductive ability are treated as a commodity like children as buyer durables and women as baby factories. Since the 1970s, there has been rapid and wide ranging development in the field of new reproductive technologies (NRT).With donor insemination (DI) and in vitro fertilization (IVF), previously infertile couples have been given new hope and the chance to have children. A more recent addition to these new methods of reproduction has been the combin ation of DI and IVF with surrogate mother arrangements. This technique has subtly changed the realm of reproduction, for with the addition of a third party (the surrogate) to the reproductive environment, the nature of motherhood, fatherhood, and the allocation of parental rights and duties has come into question.Before the advent of NRTs, there were essentially two forms of motherhood recognized in Western society, the biological and the social mother. Except for adoption, fostering, or step parenting, the biological mother was assumed to also be the social mother. This is not surprising, as motherhood has never been ambiguous; one might not know who one’s father was, but one’s mother’s identity was rarely in question.However, before women were granted legal personhood (1929 in Canada), a child’s legal guardian or parent was the father (based on property rights arguments); historically, illegitimate children were not considered to have a legal parent, ei ther mother or father. Surrogate Mothers Assisted reproduction has contributed to the fragmentation of motherhood. Historically, the social and biological aspects of motherhood resided in one person. Maternity is now divisible into genetic, gestational, and social otherhood, and these roles can be spread among a number of women. This division is most apparent in the case of surrogate mothers, where at least three (and possibly as many as five) women can attempt to claim parental rights over a child. â€Å"If Mrs. A is infertile and Mrs. B agrees to provide ova to be fertilized in vitro with semen from Mr. A, and embryos are transferred to Mrs. C, who agrees to carry the baby to term and hand it over to Mrs. A and her husband after birth, the situation becomes extremely complex and the basic tenets of family law uncertain. This situation creates the potential for enormous conflict over who should be considered the ‘mother’ and has the concomitant parental rights and res ponsibilities for the child. For example, in the Baby M case, there was a conflict between two conceptions of ‘motherhood’, the legal (commissioning mother) and the biological (surrogate mother). Surrogacy breaks down and devolves the role of mother, separating the social and nurturing part of motherhood from the genetic contribution and the birthing process. Commercialization and ExploitationWhile surrogacy in general raises a host of social and ethical problems, I believe that commercial surrogacy in particular can crystallize the difficulties that many people have with surrogacy, and help us get to the core of how surrogacy affects our understanding of motherhood. Commercialization, and its use of market rhetoric, treats surrogacy as a service arrangement between a number of individuals, leading to the creation of a product and the transfer of rights to that product. In the law in the U. S. , this is represented in the form of contracts signed by the commissioning co uple and the surrogate mother.In exchange for between $10,000 and $15,000, the surrogate mother (and usually her partner) agree to abstain from intercourse for a number of months, submit to regular and extensive medical exams, and agree to transfer parental rights to the couple once the child is born. Women As Commodity Moral Issues A Korean movie, Surrogate Mothers, told of a young poor girl chosen by the members of the nobility to be the bank for the sperm of the noble son who could not impregnate his barren wife. Her mother was also a surrogate mother before.After delivering the baby, she developed that material attachment to the child. However, she was not allowed to experience cuddling that baby as she had to be banished right away from the palace to keep the deal a secret from the public. She was paid with each and an acre of land for her service. She commits suicide for she can't accept her situation. In India,many women are being burned by their mothers-in-law and husbands f or not being able to pay the dowry completely. The dowry is the amount of money paid to the groom's parents for allowing him to marry the girl.The costs of marrying off daughters have become so expensive in India today reaching as high as 500,000 rupees. Thus amniocentesis or sex determination of t he child in the womb is being sought by couples to know if it is female or male. Many female fetuses have been killed because of this method as couples whom prefer sons. One Indian said: â€Å"It is better to spend 500 rupees (for amniocentesis) now than to spend 500,000 rupees later for a daughter's marriage dowry. † Japenese women feminists have decried thir countrymen who leave their wives walking ten feet behind him, thereby also treating them like commodities.Here in the Philippines, we have a history of various types of commodizing women too. Some landlords require their tenants to make their daughters or wives work in their mansions to render domestic services, maybe sometim es sexual services too, in cases when the tenant fathers are sunk in debt to them and cannot pay back. Wilhelmina Orozco learned on a research how some prostitutes in Olongapo suffer double exploitation when they cannot refuse their manager's demanding sexual favors for them, lest they lose their chances of working in his nightclub.Even some orphanages engage in commodizing women. Their administrators trick the parents of rich pregnant women, ashamed of the stigma attached to unwed mothers, or those poor women into donating their babies to them which they then sell off to rich donors abroad. The term donation instead of payment for the baby becomes a smokescreen to cover up the commerce. Conclusion The concept of surrogate motherhood is becoming very accepted way of infertile couples to have a child of their own. Although it is an act of love, it also involves financial aid.Surrogate mothers are obviously paid for bearing a child inside their wombs. A couple who wants to hire a serv ice of a surrogate mother must also consider the kind of personality of the surrogate mother. We all know that the genes have larger effect on the baby’s personality someday. Women are now expected to function merely as reproductive vehicles, birth mothers with no identity apart from being a suitcase to carry the child, how far can they be pushed into invisibility? How far can we ignore their moral status? It is not the intention of this report to suggest that surrogacy is wrong or unethical.There are serious problems involved, and these are partly moral, legal and partly ethical. Any attempt to legalize surrogacy, commercial or otherwise, must take into account the above implications. A failure to consider the ethical implications of surrogate motherhood, commercial or otherwise, are to show a lack of concern for another being (a surrogate mother). HUMAN TRAFFICKING Human Trafficking Human trafficking is one of the fastest growing criminal activities in the world, a phenomen on that has been said to be driven by the same forces that drive the globalization of markets.The breadth of the problem is immense and the statistics that outline the prevalence of trafficking in the world today give significant cause for concern. The scope of this global problem is exponentially increasing, and this has been recognized to be in part due to the worldwide increase in poverty that has been caused by the global financial crisis. Slowly and painfully a picture is emerging of a global crime that shames us all. Billions of dollars are being made at the expense of millions of victims of human trafficking. Boys and girls who should be at school are coerced into becoming soldiers, doing hard labor or sold for sex.Women and girls are being trafficked for exploitation: forced into domestic labor, prostitution or marriage. Men, trapped by debt, slave away in mines, plantations, or sweatshops. How can such a trade in human beings occur in the 21st century? Because it is a low r isk reward crime. In many countries, the necessary laws are not in place, or they are not properly enforced —too often traffickers are let off with a slap on the wrist, and victims are treated as criminals. Unscrupulous traffickers exploit the poverty, hope and innocence of the vulnerable.Victims become dehumanized and enslaved—forced to produce cheap goods or provide services over and over again. They live in fear, many become victims of violence. Their blood, sweat and tears are on the hands of consumers in the developed world. What Is Human Trafficking? Human Trafficking is defined in the Trafficking Protocol as â€Å"the recruitment, transport, transfer, harbouring or receipt of a person by such means as threat or use of force or other forms of coercion, of abduction, of fraud or deception for the purpose of exploitation. † The definition on trafficking consists of three core elements: ) The  action  of trafficking which means the recruitment, transporta tion, transfer, harboring or receipt of persons 2) The  means  of trafficking which includes threat of or use of force, deception, coercion, abuse of power or position of vulnerability 3) The  purpose  of trafficking which is always exploitation. In the words of the Trafficking Protocol, article 3 â€Å"exploitation shall include, at a minimum, the exploitation of the prostitution of others or other forms of sexual exploitation, forced labor or services, slavery or practices similar to slavery, servitude or the removal of organs.To ascertain whether a particular circumstance constitutes trafficking in persons, consider the definition of trafficking in the Trafficking in Persons Protocol and the constituent elements of the offense, as defined by relevant domestic legislation. How Is Human Trafficking Different From Migrant Smuggling? †¢ Consent – migrant smuggling, while often undertaken in dangerous or degrading conditions, involves consent. Trafficking victims, on the other hand, have either never consented or if they initially consented, that consent has been rendered meaningless by the coercive, deceptive or abusive action of the traffickers. Exploitation – migrant smuggling ends with the migrants' arrival at their destination, whereas trafficking involves the ongoing exploitation of the victim. †¢ Transnationality – smuggling is always transnational, whereas trafficking may not be. Trafficking can occur regardless of whether victims are taken to another state or moved within a state's borders. †¢ Source of profits – in smuggling cases profits are derived from the transportation of facilitation of the illegal entry or stay of a person into another county, while in trafficking cases profits are derived from exploitation.The distinctions between smuggling and trafficking are often very subtle and sometimes they overlap. Identifying whether a case is one of human trafficking or migrant smuggling and related c rimes can be very difficult for a number of reasons: Some trafficked persons might start their journey by agreeing to be smuggled into a country illegally, but find themselves deceived, coerced or forced into an exploitative situation later in the process (by e. g. being forced to work for extraordinary low wages to pay for the transportation). Traffickers may present an ‘opportunity' that sounds more like smuggling to potential victims.They could be asked to pay a fee in common with other people who are smuggled. However, the intention of the trafficker from the outset is the exploitation of the victim. The ‘fee' was part of the fraud and deception and a way to make a bit more money. Smuggling may be the planned intention at the outset but a ‘too good to miss' opportunity to traffic people presents itself to the smugglers/traffickers at some point in the process. Criminals may both smuggle and traffic people, employing the same routes and methods of transporting t hem.The relationship between these two crimes is often oversimplified and misunderstood; both are allowed to prosper and opportunities to combat both are missed. It is important to understand that the work of migrant smugglers often results in benefit for human traffickers. Smuggled migrants may be victimized by traffickers and have no guarantee that those who smuggle them are not in fact traffickers. In short, smuggled migrants are particularly vulnerable to being trafficked – combating trafficking in persons requires that migrant smuggling be addressed as a priority.What Is The Role Of Transnational Organized Crime Groups In Human Trafficking? Trafficking is almost always a form of organized crime and should be dealt with using criminal powers to investigate and prosecute offenders for trafficking and any other criminal activities in which they engage. Trafficked persons should also be seen as victims of crime. Support and protection of victims is a humanitarian objective a nd an important means of ensuring that victims are willing and able to assist in criminal cases. As with other forms of organized crime, trafficking has globalized.Groups formerly active in specific routes or regions have expanded the geographical scope of their activities to explore new markets. Some have merged or formed cooperative relationships, expanding their geographical reach and range of criminal activities. Trafficking victims have become another commodity in a larger realm of criminal commerce involving other commodities, such as narcotic drugs and firearms or weapons and money laundering that generates illicit revenues or seeks to reduce risks for traffickers.The relatively low risks of trafficking and substantial potential profits have, in some cases, induced criminals to become involved as an alternative to other, riskier criminal pursuits. With the adoption of the Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children, supplemen ting the UN Convention against Transnational Organized Crime in November 2000, countries have begun to develop the necessary criminal offences and enforcement powers to investigate, prosecute and punish traffickers and to confiscate their profits, but expertise and resources will be needed to make the new measures fully effective.Risks are further reduced by the extent to which victims are intimidated by traffickers, both in destination countries, where they fear deportation or prosecution for offences such as prostitution or illegal immigration, and in their countries of origin, where they are often vulnerable to retaliation or re-victimization if they cooperate with criminal justice authorities. The support and protection of victims is a critical element in the fight against trafficking to increase their willingness to cooperate with authorities and as a necessary means of rehabilitation. Is There A Legal Instrument To Tackle Human Trafficking?The Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, especially Women and Children, was adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in 2000 and entered into force on 25 December 2003. The Trafficking Protocol, which supplements the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime, is the only international legal instrument addressing human trafficking as a crime and falls under the jurisdiction of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC). 1) The purposes of the Trafficking Protocol are: 2) To prevent and combat trafficking in persons 3) To protect and assist victims of trafficking, and ) To promote cooperation among States Parties in order to meet these objectives. The Trafficking Protocol advances international law by providing, for the first time, a working definition of trafficking in persons and requires ratifying States to criminalize such practices. What Are The Major Challenges Faced In The Battle Against Human Trafficking? A number of points can be made: †¢ It is important that every effort is undertaken to establish the gravity of the problem and tackle the issue from the source to destination. What numbers are available show the problem has not abated and is not likely to.One of the challenges relates to the gathering of accurate information in order that a true picture of the phenomenon can be gauged. In this respect, some progress has been made but more needs to be done. †¢ From UNODC's work across the criminal justice sector, we are fully aware that human trafficking is often only one activity of extensive and highly sophisticated international crime networks. †¢ We need to ensure that, despite the many conflicting priorities faced by member states that the issue of countering human trafficking is clearly given a high priority and focus by the international community. We need to consider the type of action that can be taken to raise awareness of the problem and take steps to prevent trafficking at source (reference to UNODC public service announcements). †¢ A major challenge is to ensure that action is taken to ratify and effectively implement the Convention Against Transnational Organized Crime and the Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children. †¢ Improving international cooperation and coordination, particularly in relation to developing information exchange and operational cooperation between law enforcement agencies needs to be strengthened. There is a need to take a more holistic and partnership approach to tackling the problem. In this respect, UNODC fully recognizes the importance of mobilizing the support of NGOs, IGOs, governments and the community at large. Moral Issues 1. A human trafficking victim was rescued after of the tedious and mazy years of being slaved after his mother sold him for money. He was interviewed by the UNODC Country officer of Columbia. â€Å"When you’re a kid, it’s easy to be deceived.Each Su nday when I walked down from the town, where my mum had a business, they would urge me to go with them, telling me that I would have a really good time, that it was better to go with them than to keep on working. On my 12th birthday, they came back for me. My mum was away at work, so I took the chance and escaped with them †¦ Five months later I regretted being there, but there was no chance of leaving. Besides, they told my mum that I was dead, that they had already killed me †¦ just like happened to my cousin who went with the [military], and when she tried to escape, they caught her, sent her to the war council, and executed her.I had been on the 40th front for two months when I got wounded. It was very hard. I was †¦ in the middle of a combat situation, and I had to assemble a bomb to throw at the army, but I grabbed it with the wrong hand. The soldiers were burning me [shooting too close] and I changed the bomb from one hand to another, and it exploded and blew m y leg off †¦ In that moment I felt blood coming out of me, very fast, and I screamed when I saw it. I was legless. I screamed again, and then a guy †¦ grabbed me, but I fainted †¦ We surrendered on 20 July.We were very afraid because they warned us that the only thing we couldn’t do was to let ourselves get caught alive, or surrender to the military, because the first thing they would do to women was raping and torturing us, penetrate us with a wooden stick and then kill us †¦ Now my dream is that they help me to get back my leg, so I can walk again. After that I’d like to go to high school and then to the nursery school †¦ I’d like that. † Ximena, trafficking victim 2. Luana and Marcela are trafficking victims rescued by Brazilian NGO from a discursive life , they experienced being trapped by criminals and forced to prostitutions..Luana: â€Å"A friend of mine told me that a Spanish group was hiring Brazilian girls to work as dan cers on the island of Lanzarote. My friend Marcela and I thought it was a good opportunity to earn money. We didn? t want to continue working as maids. For a short while we only danced. But later they told us there had been too many expenses. And we would have to make some extra money. † Marcela: â€Å"We were trapped by criminals and forced into prostitution in order to pay debts for the trip. We had up to 15 clients per night. The use of condoms was the client? s decision, not ours.The criminals kept our passports and had an armed man in front of the ‘disco’ to make sure we never escaped. But a woman helped us. We went to the police and told everything. † Luana and Marcela, trafficking victims, interviewed by the Brazilian NGO Projeto Trama Maria Feranda is a victim of human trafficking in Colombia. â€Å"At that moment, my nightmare began. I was terrified when they showed me what I was expected to do—I felt I just couldn’t do it. I’ ve been through many things, but never something like that, so I told them that I wasn’tgoing to and that I was going back home.I was shocked when they told me that wasn’t possible—they said they had invested a lot of money in me, and I hadto work to pay them back, because I now belonged to the network. I thought about escaping, but I was afraid of being physically hurt or killed. I worked hard for six months, but they have no mercy on you †¦ they’re just demeaning. During this time, I was sold many times, and this happened every 10 days—sometimes I just didn’t know where I was. You’re like a commodity to them. † Maria Fernanda, Trafficking victim, interviewed by theUNODC Country Office in Colombia Conclusions Trafficking admits women, children and men basic freedom. Trafficking robs communities of potential productive members of society, and exposes victims to violence, injury, disease and death. Trafficking is a detriment to public health, both economically and in the potential for widespread health issues. The work of cutting off demand for human trafficking is complex and requires a range of partners working together around a shared rejection of products and services obtained by force, fraud, or coercion.While technology and social media is being leveraged in innovative ways to provide consumers with information and a way to connect with companies, for example, there remains a need to explore new methods of raising awareness about the nature and proximity of human trafficking. With greater understanding of the crime, and a clear tool or means to make a difference, consumers and businesses alike will be more likely to take steps to diminish the demand for forced labor. PROSTITUTIONS Prostitutions What is Prostitution? Prostitution  is commonly defined as the custom of having sexual relations in exchange for economic gain.Although the sex is traditionally traded for money, it can also be bartered for jewelry, clothing, vehicles, housing, food—anything that has  market value. It is typically seen as an aberrant way to make a living and is illegal in many countries. The word  prostitution  can also refer to any act that is considered demeaning or shameful. The term prostitute is customarily used to refer to a female person who engages in sex in exchange for money as a profession. Depending on the culture, the attitude toward the job, and the socio-economic region in which the business of  prostitution  is conducted, other terminology is often used.These monikers often include streetwalker, sex worker, hooker, escort, sex trade worker and commercial sex worker. Male prostitutes are generally considered less prevalent in the occupation. They are typically referred to as escorts or gigolos if their clientele is female. If they specialize in providing their services to men, rent boy or hustler are terms frequently used to describe them? Similar to most occupations , a prostitute may have an employer or work as an independent contractor. Men who market and sell  prostitution  services are usually referred to as pimps.Women with the same job description are commonly called madams. Both normally take a percentage of the prostitute’s income as payment for their promotional services. Prostitutes who work independently have the advantage of keeping all of their earnings. The presumed advantage of having representatives such as pimps and madams involved in the process are safety. These agents are generally expected to screen prospective clients to ensure the safety and security of their staff. Pimps, however, are frequently portrayed to be less than forthcoming with the agreed upon pay for prostitutes who work for them.In a significant number of cases, pimps have been known to physically and psychologically abuse their employees. Madams are less known for abuse, but are often accused of mishandling the funds of call girls in their employ. Depending upon the country and the culture,  prostitution  may be considered a legal or illegal profession. In areas where it is lawful, there are commonly rules imposed by governments to ensure local prostitutes practice safe sex in their business activities to prevent the spread of sexually transmitted diseases (STDs).The workers are also generally required to have regular physical exams to ensure they are healthy and pose no threat to their customers’ well-being. In regions where  prostitution  is deemed a crime, the punishment ranges from simple fines or short stints in jail to death. Some jurisdictions recognize the business transaction of prostitution  as legal, but make it difficult to lawfully practice by imposing restrictions on how and where it can be conducted. These controls commonly include the prohibition of pimping, running a brothel and publicly offering  prostitution  services. pic] [pic] â€Å"What does the Bible say about prostitution? Will God forgive a prostitute? † Prostitution is often referred to as the â€Å"oldest profession. † Indeed, it has always been a common way for women to make money, even in Bible times. The Bible tells us that prostitution is immoral. Proverbs 23:27-28says, â€Å"For a prostitute is a deep pit and a wayward wife is a narrow well. Like a bandit she lies in wait, and multiplies the unfaithful among men. † God forbids involvement with prostitutes because He knows such involvement is detrimental to both men and women. For the lips of an immoral woman drip honey, And her mouth is smoother than oil; But in the end she is bitter as wormwood, Sharp as a two-edged sword. Her feet go down to death, Her steps lay hold of hell† (Proverbs 5:3-5 NKJV). Prostitution not only destroys marriages, families, and lives, but it destroys the spirit and soul in a way that leads to physical and spiritual death. God's desire is that we stay pure and use our bodies as tools for His use and glory (Romans 6:13). First Corinthians 6:13says, â€Å"The body is not for sexual immorality but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body. Although prostitution is sinful, prostitutes are not beyond God's scope of forgiveness. The Bible records His use of a prostitute named Rahab to further the fulfillment of His plan. As a result of her obedience, she and her family were rewarded and blessed (Joshua 2:1;6:17-25). In the New Testament, a woman who had been known for being a sexual sinner—before Jesus forgave and cleansed her from sin—found an opportunity to serve Jesus while He was visiting in the home of a Pharisee. The woman, recognizing Christ for who He is, brought a bottle of expensive perfume to Him.In regret and repentance, the woman wept and poured perfume on His feet, wiping it with her hair. When the Pharisees criticized Jesus for accepting this act of love from the â€Å"immoral† woman, He admonished them and accepted the woman's worship. Because of her faith, Christ had forgiven all her sins, and she was received into His kingdom (Luke 7:36-50). When speaking to those who refused to believe the truth about Himself, Jesus Christ said, â€Å"I tell you the truth, the tax collectors and the prostitutes are entering the kingdom of God ahead of you.For John came to you to show you the way of righteousness, and you did not believe him, but the tax collectors and the prostitutes did. And even after you saw this, you did not repent and believe him† (Matthew 21:31-32). Just like anyone else, prostitutes have the opportunity to receive salvation and eternal life from God, to be cleansed of all their unrighteousness and be given a brand new life! All they must do is turn away from their sinful lifestyle and turn to the living God, whose grace and mercy are boundless. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! † (2 Corinthians 5:17). Moral Issues There was a lot of hue and cry about the statement of US Ambassador Harry Thomas at a recent judicial conference on human trafficking that 40 percent of foreign male tourists visit the Philippine for commercial sex. At first the ambassador refused to change his statement when asked by Philippine officials to apologize for it, but on Oct. 7 he relented and said he should not have used the â€Å"40 percent’’ statistic without the ability to back it up.But his statement has once again focused attention on the problem of sex trafficking and the sex trade in the Philippines. The fact is that the problem exists although right now we may not have accurate, verifiable statistics. Conclusion Prostitution is always going to be a pressing issue, and politicians will always have different opinions about it. Politicians are the ones who decide how their country stands in different questions, and that might cause misunderstandings. The laws and official opinions of a country do not always agree with the popu lation’s point of view.An example of that is Germany. The facts and the survey do not agree, and the facts are based on politicians, while the survey is based on regular people from Germany. That gave me an answer to my question. The question was: Why do Germany and Sweden have such different views on prostitution? And the answer simply is: Germany is not more liberal than Sweden concerning prostitution. They are more liberal concerning strict laws, and that is because of their history that they do not want to experience again. That also affected the politicians and their way of handleing their inhabitants.What is right and what is wrong is something you have to decide with your own moral and opinion. How society should hand’s prostitution is one of the issues I've been highly inconsistent on, flip-flopping between having strong opinions either way, to more ambivalent positions in the middle. A super-short summary of my process (chronologically) over the last two decad es: 1. It should be illegal because it is wrong to exploit people 2. It should be legal because the prohibition actually hurt the prostitutes 3.It should be illegal to consume, but not provide, since that would give the prostitute more power and enable persecution of the exploiters 4. It should be legal because regulation is more effective in minimizing harm, and at least consumption may be ethically defensible 5. It should be illegal because even though regulation helps some, it also increases the black market and causes more suffering as a whole, and is an expression of a structural oppression of women and homosexual men in our society. SLAVERY OF WHITE PEOPLE SLAVERY OF WHITE PEOPLEIn the history of mankind, slavery has been very common. Slavery can trace its history back in the ancient times. In the ancient times, slaves were sold to the highest bidder and they were employed without any compensation. Punishments were so savage for those slaves who went against their master's dem ands. Over the centuries, slavery has been very prominent. There was a time in history were Black Africans and Black Americans became domestic slaves at home. However, they were able to achieve their freedom against slavery. Nowadays, slavery is still commonly practiced in some countries.It is not completely abolished but it is less identifiable. It exists in many cultures. So, what is slavery? What is Slavery? Slavery is a condition in which people are forced to work and treated like the lowest form of creature. There are different types of slavery. You have the chattel slavery. This is the most traditional type of slavery in which people are treated like property. Slaves are sold and bought like goods. However, in this modern age, this type of slavery is the least common. Another type of slavery is forced labor.This type of slavery is very common in the past and even up to these days. An individual is left with no choice but to work against his will. This type of slavery used puni shments and violence against any slaves. Slavery of white People David Brion Davis writing in the New York Review of Books, Oct. 11, 1990, p. 37 states: â€Å"As late as the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, continuing shipments of white slaves, some of them Christians, flowed from the booming slave markets on the northern Black Sea coast into Italy, Spain, Egypt and the Mediterranean islands†¦From Barbados to Virginia, colonists.. , showed few scruples about reducing their less fortunate countrymen to a status little different from that of chattel slaves†¦ The prevalence and suffering of white slaves, serfs and indentured servants in the early modern period suggests that there was nothing inevitable about limiting plantation slavery to people of African origin. † L. Ruchames in â€Å"The Sources of Racial Thought in Colonial America,† states that â€Å"the slave trade worked in both directions, with white merchandise as well as black. † (Journal of Negro History, no. 52, pp. 251-273).In 1659 the English parliament debated the practice of selling British Whites into slavery in the New World. In the debate the Whites were referred to not as â€Å"indentured servants† but as â€Å"slaves† whose â€Å"enslavement† threatened the liberties of all Englishmen. (Thomas Burton, Parliamentary Diary: 1656-59, vol. 4, pp. 253-274). Foster R. Dulles in Labor in America quotes an early document describing White children in colonial servitude as â€Å"crying and mourning for redemption from their slavery. † Dr. Hilary McD. Beckles of the University of Hull, England, writes regarding White slave labor, â€Å"†¦ ndenture contracts were alienable†¦ the ownership of which could easily be transferred, like that of any other commodity†¦ as with slaves, ownership changed without their participation in the dialogue concerning transfer. † Beckles refers to â€Å"indentured servitude† as â€Å" White proto-slavery† (The Americas, vol. 41, no. 2, p. 21). In the Calendar of State Papers, Colonial Series; America and West Indies of 1701, we read of a protest over the â€Å"encouragement to the spiriting away of Englishmen without their consent and selling them for slaves, which hath been a practice very frequent and known by the name of kidnapping. (Emphasis added). In the British West Indies, plantation slavery was instituted as early as 1627. In Barbados by the 1640s there were an estimated 25,000 slaves, of whom 21,700 were White. (â€Å"Some Observations on the Island of Barbados,† Calendar of State Papers, Colonial Series, p. 528). It is worth noting that while White slaves were worked to death in Barbados, there were Carib-bean Indians brought from Guiana to help propagate native foodstuffs who were well-treated and re-ceived as free persons by the wealthy planters.Of the fact that the wealth of Barbados was founded on the backs of White slave labor there can be no doubt. White slave laborers from Britain and Ireland were the mainstay of the sugar colony. Until the mid-1640s there were few Blacks in Barbados. George Downing wrote to John Winthrop, the co-lonial governor of Massachusetts in 1645, that planters who wanted to make a fortune in the British West Indies must procure White slave labor â€Å"out of England† if they wanted to succeed. (Elizabeth Donnan, Documents Illustrative of the History of the Slave Trade to America, pp. 25-126). â€Å"†¦ white indentured servants were employed and treated, incidentally, exactly like slaves†¦ â€Å"(Morley Ayearst, The British West Indies, p. 19). â€Å"The many gradations of unfreedom among Whites made it difficult to draw fast lines between any idealized free White worker and a pitied or scorned servile Black worker†¦ in labor-short seventeenth and eighteenth-century America the work of slaves and that of White servants were virtually inter-changeable in most ar eas. † (David R. Roediger, The Wages of Whiteness: Race and the Making of the American Working Class, p. 5). In the Massachusetts Court of Assistants, whose records date to 1633, we find a 1638 description of a White man, one Gyles Player, as having been â€Å"delivered up for a slave. † The Englishman William Eddis, after observing White slaves in America in the 1770s wrote, â€Å"Gener-ally speaking, they groan beneath a worse than Egyptian bondage† (Letters from America, London, 1792). Governor Sharpe of the Maryland colony compared the property interest of the planters in their White slaves, with the estate of an English farmer consisting of a â€Å"Multitude of Cattle. The Quock Walker case in Massachusetts in 1 783 which ruled that slavery was contrary to the state Constitution, was applied equally to Blacks and Whites in Massachusetts. Patrick F. Moran in his Historical Sketch of the Persecutions Suffered by the Catholics of Ireland, re-fers to the transp ortation of the Irish to the colonies as the â€Å"slave-trade† (pp. 343-346). The disciplinary and revenue laws of early Virginia (circa 1631-1645) did not discriminate Negroes in bondage from Whites in bondage. (William Hening [editor], Statutes at Large of Virginia, vol. I, pp. 74, 198, 200, 243, 306. For records of wills in which â€Å"Lands, goods & chattels, cattle, moneys, ne-groes, English servants, horses, sheep and household stuff† were all sold together see the Lancaster County Records in Virginia Colonial Abstracts, Beverly Fleet, editor). Lay historian Col. A. B. Ellis, writing in the British newspaper Argosy (May 6, 1893): â€Å"Few, but read-ers of old colonial State papers and records, are aware that between the years 1649-1690 a lively trade was carried on between England and the plantations, as the colonies were then called, in politi-cal prisoners†¦ here they were sold by auction to the colonists for various terms of years, sometimes for life a s slaves. † Sir George Sandys’ 1618 plan for Virginia referred to bound Whites assigned to the treasurer’s of-fice to â€Å"belong to said office for ever. † The service of Whites bound to Berkeley’s Hundred was deemed â€Å"perpetual. † (Lewis Cecil Gray, History of Agriculture in the Southern United States to 1860, vol. I, pp. 316, 318). Certainly the enslaved Whites themselves recognized their condition with painful clarity.As one White man, named Abram, who was accused of trying to agitate a rebellion stated to his fellows, â€Å"Wherefore should wee stay here and be slaves? † In a statement smuggled out of the New World and published in London, Whites in bondage did not call themselves â€Å"indentured servants. † In their writing they referred to themselves as â€Å"England’s slaves† and England’s â€Å"merchandise. † (Marcellus Rivers and Oxenbridge Foyle, England’s Slavery, 1659).Eyewit nesses like Pere Labat who visited the West Indian slave plantations of the 17th century which were built and manned by White slaves labeled them â€Å"White slaves† and nothing less (Memoirs of Pere Labat, 1693-1705, p. 125). Even Blacks referred to the White forced laborers in the colonies as â€Å"white slaves. † (Colonial Office, Public Records Office, London, 1667, no. 170) Sot-Weed Factor, or, a Voyage to Maryland, a pamphlet circulated in 1708, articulates the plight of tens of thousands of pathetic young White girls kidnapped from England and enslaved in colonial America, lamenting that:In better Times e’er to this Land I was unhappily Trepan’d; Not then a slave†¦ But things are changed†¦ Kidnap’d and Fool’d†¦ † The height of academic and media fraud is revealed in the monopolistic trademark status the official controllers of education and mass communications have successfully established between the defini-tion of the word â€Å"slave† and the negro, while labeling descriptions of the historic experience of Whites in slavery a fallacy. Yet the very word â€Å"slave,† which the establishment’s consensus school of history pretends cannot legitimately be applied to Whites, is derived from the word Slav.According to the Ox-ford English Dictionary, the word slave is another name for the White people of eastern Europe, the Slavs. (Compact Edition of the Oxford English Dictionary, p. 2,858). In other words, slave has always been a term for and a definition of a servile condition of White people. Yet we are told by the professorcrats that it is not correct to refer to Whites as slaves but only as servants, even though the very root of the word is derived from the historical fact of White slav-ery. ConclusionSlavery is not something to be proud of but it is a fact that happened to every country, kingdom and empire that has been on this earth. Each of us needs to search our hear ts and find the answer to stop racial hatred. One place to begin; realize that the black race was not the only race in the last 400 years that was in bondage. PORNOGRAPHY Pornography What is Pornography? Pornography is the ‘explicit representation of sexual activity in print or on film to stimulate erotic rather than aesthetic or emotional feelings.    The following advice and help refers only to heterosexual pornography – that is men looking at women and, more rarely, women looking at men. Pornography is often distinguished from  erotica, which consists of the portrayal of sexuality with high-art aspirations, focusing also on feelings and emotions, while pornography involves the depiction of acts in a sensational manner, with the entire focus on the physical act, so as to arouse quick intense reactions.A distinction is also made between  hardcore  and  softcore pornography. Softcore pornography can generally be described as focusing on nude modeling and sugge stive, but not explicit, simulations of sexual intercourse, whereas hardcore pornography explicitly showcases penetrative intercourse. Pornography has often been subject to  censorship  and legal restraints to publication on grounds of  obscenity. Such grounds and even the definition of pornography have differed in various historical, cultural, and national contexts.With the emergence of social attitudes more tolerant of sexuality and more specific legal definitions of obscenity, an industry for the  production  and consumption  of pornography arose in the latter half of the 20th century. The introduction of  home video  and the  Internet  saw booms in a worldwide porn industry that generates billions of dollars annually. History Depictions of a sexual nature are older than civilization as depictions such as the  venus figurines  and  rock art  have existed since  prehistoric  times. However the concept of pornography as understood today did not exist until the  Victorian era.For example the French  Impressionism  painting by  Edouard Manet  titled Olympia  was a nude picture of a French courtesan, literally a â€Å"prostitute picture†. It was controversial at the time. Nineteenth-century legislation eventually outlawed the publication, retail, and trafficking of certain writings and images regarded as pornographic and would order the destruction of shop and warehouse stock meant for sale; however, the private possession of and viewing of (some forms of) pornography was not made an offence until recent times.When large-scale excavations of  Pompeii  were undertaken in the 1860s, much of the  erotic art  of theRomans  came to light, shocking the Victorians who saw themselves as the intellectual heirs of the  Roman Empire. They did not know what to do with the frank depictions of  sexuality  and endeavored to hide them away from everyone but upper-class scholars. The moveable objects were locked away in the  Secret Museum  in  Naples  and what could not be removed was covered and cordoned off as to not corrupt the sensibilities of women, children, and the working classes.Fanny Hill  (1748) is considered â€Å"the first original English  prose  pornography, and the first pornography to use the form of the novel. † It is an  eroticnovel  by  John Cleland  first published in  England  as  Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure. It is one of the most prosecuted and banned books in history. The authors were charged with â€Å"corrupting the King's subjects. † The world's first law criminalizing pornography was the British  Obscene Publications Act 1857  enacted at the urging of the  Society for the Suppression of Vice.The Act, which applied to the  United Kingdom and Ireland, made the sale of obscene material a statutory offence, giving the courts power to seize and destroy offending material. The Act did not apply to  Scotland, where the  common law  continued to apply; however, the Act did not define â€Å"obscene†, leaving this for the courts to determine. Prior to this Act, the publication of obscene material was treated as a  law misdemeanor   and effectively prosecuting authors and publishers was difficult even in cases where the material was clearly intended as pornography.The Victorian attitude that pornography was for a select few can be seen in the wording of the  Hicklin test  stemming from a court case in 1868 where it asks, â€Å"whether the tendency of the matter charged as obscenity is to deprave and corrupt those whose minds are open to such immoral influences. † Despite the fact of their suppression, depictions of erotic imagery were common throughout history. Pornographic film  production commenced almost immediately after the invention of the motion picture in 1895. Two of the earliest pioneers were  Eugene Pirou  and  Albert Kirchner.Kirchner directed the earl iest surviving pornographic film for Pirou under the trade name â€Å"Lear†. The 1896 film,  Le Coucher de la Mariee  showed Louise Willy performing a  striptease. Pirou's film inspired a genre of risque French films showing women disrobing and other filmmakers realised profits could be made from such films. Sexually explicit films were soon characterised as obscene and rendered illegal. Those that were made were produced underground by amateurs starting in the 1920s, primarily in France and the United States. Processing the film by commercial means was risky as was their distribution.Distribution was strictly private. Denmark  was the first country to legalize pornography in 1969, which led to an explosion of commercially produced pornography. It continued to be banned in other countries, and had to be smuggled in, where it was sold â€Å"under the counter† or (sometimes) shown in â€Å"members only† cinema clubs. A Biblical View of Pornography God crea ted men and women to be together – exclusively and happily. God created sex as a good gift in the security of a loving, committed marriage relationship. He ‘saw all that he had made, and it was very good. Sadly in the fallen world, pornography sends clear messages, generally to men, that faithful sexual attention to one woman is not necessary. There are many other women to look at: why only be satisfied with one? We can go to an art gallery and see a beautiful woman in a picture and admire her beauty. But that is not the message of pornography. Pornography seeks to stimulate sexual attraction to the image of a woman – any woman, saying, ‘This beautiful woman, whom you know nothing about, is there for you to satisfy your sexual desires – whatever they might be – at any time. Pornography uses the strong visual senses of men to promote lust, but promises the unreal, promoting false expectations of relationships and ignoring the realities of daily living for most men and women – the shopping, washing, ironing, and crying children. By ignoring the woman’s character and instead focusing on her body, pornography ‘exploits and dehumanises sex so that human beings are treated as things, and women, in particular as sex objects’ .Of course, pornography is packaged cleverly as glamorous, but in the cold light of day the Bible warns strongly about looking at other women (Proverbs 6:25, Matthew 5:28, Colossians 3:5) and being faithful in marriage (Hebrews 13:4). There are those who would see the Bible’s strong warnings on sexual purity as God being a killjoy. We need to remember that it was God who created the universe: He knows how it works and that what we see and think about is important. The warnings are given for a reason: the destructiveness of pornography on children and on human relationships.CARE regularly receives telephone calls and emails from people who themselves have a problem with porn ography or are seeing it in their family. Some would say ‘pornography is harmless fun’. How would they respond to a woman crying on the phone convinced that her husband’s use of pornography had led to the breakdown of their marriage? Or to another woman who said that she felt mentally abused by her husband who used pornography and wanted her to act in the same way as the women in the magazines, DVDs and videos? Pornography can seem far from harmless fun for the men (Christian and non-Christian) who feel trapped in a cycle of addiction.If anyone is a killjoy it is not the God of the Bible, but the publishers of pornography. The Issue of Pornography With more than 300,000 websites pertaining to pornography and new sites uploaded daily, any parent can see that we have a growing problem. The Internet is the cheapest, fastest way to get pornography out into an open market that is why it is considered the electronic playground. Before the Internet pornography was found in magazines behind the store counters, on movie channels, and was found in movies. Take a look at your favorite television show and see how many times a sexual situation comes up.The â€Å"sexual revolution† as some call it has taken off with the Internet. For example, try typing in www. whitehouse. com and see what pops up definitely not the White House. Students working on a history paper in school recently went to this site and found pornography instead of history. What a surprise for the students. This happens to more people than we think. If you accidentally click on a porn site several other pornographic sites also show up. In some cases these pornographic sites contain computer viruses which will attack your hard drive.At times, legislation drafted under the guise of protecting children, includes adults which infringes on freedom of speech. In addition to infringing on a legal adult's rights, it also impedes the on the economic gains related to the industry. Thus, co mmercialism and the economy are impacted as well. With the onset of new pornographic websites, most sites are beginning to charge their consumers. Not only does this lead to economic gain within the industry, but it also assists in minimizing the access of children to questionable material.Conclusion Virtually every man will struggle with pornography. Regardless of how hard we may want otherwise we are visual creatures by nature and with easy accessibility to porn it’s a battle that will keep men in the trenches their entire lives. And if we hope to end this cycle of addiction and sexual impurity not only must we heal ourselves it is up to us to raise the next generation of men to view sex, women, and pornography differently that what society says today. And my own son is a foremost constant reminder of that obligation.