Book Reflection Assignment Essay

The Memory Keeper’s Daughter by Kim Edwards is a very fascinating and insightful book that everyone who is interested in special education should definitely read. After reading the book, I could not help myself but be compelled by the story’s main insight about the beauty of life despite the challenges brought about by the pain of the past and the challenges of the present. In this book, two of the most compelling aspects that I would never forget are (1) the realization of Caroline of the struggles she is about to face for having a mentally handicapped child and (2) the hope and courage she has gathered all her life to be able to appreciate the beauty and mystery of her entire being. In the first insight, it is best exemplified by the most obvious and vividly compelling scenarios in the first few chapters of the book. One clear situation is when Caroline refuses the money Dr. David Henry wanted to give her to start a new life again and move away from the depressing and helpless state in Kentucky. It is well-explained in this scene that not only will the book open up a narrative form of the beauty of remembering the past, it also immediately gives a hint of how life should always be a story of redemption and courage. Interestingly, this opening insight reminds me of the most important lesson everyone living with special children should always remember: everything shall pass when you are being patient. Just like the freezing cold that surround the town of Kentucky and just like the undeniably unbearable pain of a mother who just realized the long arduous struggle of having a handicapped child, there is nothing in suffering that does not fully pass away in time. This is something that is well-linked throughout Kim Edwards Book and something we are immediately introduced right after we first realize how the hard future of Caroline’s twins shall be. In understanding the essence of special education, nothing is more important than realizing and putting in practice the virtue of being patient. That is why the main situation in the book that made me appreciate the second insight even more is the time when Caroline finally heard of David’s death and told her children the truth. In this scene, I am immediately reminded of the basic requisite needed in having enough patience to answer the needs of special children: the pure truth. Everybody deserves the truth. Just because the special children we are dealing with don’t always respond as fast as normal people do, does not mean they are less worthy of our trust. Just as the final realization of Caroline to tell her children everything about their past, we should never deprive anyone who is worthy of the truth the story they deserve to know. Thus, the resolution being highlighted in the final scenarios of this book simply shows the very important lesson in understanding the patience, courage and determination it takes to succeed in addressing the needs of special children: honesty. Impact The three things in the book that I can clearly identify as having a strong impact to me as I work with individuals with disabilities and their parents in the future are quite similar to the insight I just mentioned above: (1) the value of courage, (2)the virtue of patience and (3)the importance of trust. The value of courage is best described in the part of the book when Phoebe and Paul were already eighteen-years old and Caroline was about to tell David the truth but then failed to do so because of an event David was hosting. In one of the most subtle scenes in this part of the story, the courage of getting through life’s struggles while being patient clearly comes to mind. Something special education most importantly requires in cases where special children and their parents are made to do things they would otherwise just refuse to doing. The virtue of patience could not have been made clearer in the entire lay-out of the book. I could not express enough the important virtue of patience in handling patients with special needs. It’s no different when handling with parents. The difficulty of making parents understand the strength and commitment it takes to raise special children could not be a more ideal example for this. The importance of trust in dealing with special children and their guardians is also best linked in the entire story of the book. When Caroline handles the difficulty of having a kid who has a down syndrome, I was struck with awe on how much strength she was able to gather in simply making ends meet by simply being honest to herself. In dealing with special education, success on the part of the teacher is impossible without first getting the trust of the parents and their special children. In this aspect, I will not only agree with a critic who said that â€Å"The Memory Keeper’s Daughter is appealing to readers who want a literary page turner and something to discuss in their reading groups† (Rich, 2006, p. 1), but also declare that, overall, it is very successful at that. This simply goes to say that it is a highly commendable recommended book for a type of audience who wants to understand more the industry of handling special children and the challenges their loved ones are facing each day. This book is also very important to those who want to understand life in someone else’s unique view. If such is the goal and purpose of the novel, I would definitely say the author is more than successful in achieving it. Reference Rich, M. (2006). â€Å"A Stirring Family Drama Is a Hit (in Paperback)† . The New York Times. http://www. nytimes. com/2006/07/13/books/13memo. html? _r=1. Retrieved on 2009-07-05

How Technology Can Assist or Hinder Information Management Practices in Organisations

1 INTRODUCTIONTechnology has come a long way in the past 10 to 15 years and we now have access to information at virtually any time, or place we wish. Organisations today rely heavily on technology and without it, would likely struggle to survive. Technology has enabled us to better service the needs of consumers in the ever-changing market.2 ADVANTAGESThe obvious advantage with technology today is that it allows instant access to information and is a great time saving mechanism. USB devices and cloud software make it easier than ever before to access your files anywhere in the world.There is also almost no waiting time whatsoever when you need to find access to a document or the like. It has replaced the need to manually file documents which is a major advantage not only because it saves labour, the document is now much easier to find – you only need to type the file name into the computer and it can bring what you are looking for up.Going digital has also had a large impact on our environment, in a good way. Since the need to file documents manually has significantly reduced, we have in turn saved billions of tonnes in paper as well as reducing greenhouse gasses from producing paper related equipment in factories. Technology has also allowed us to take advantage of more storage than ever before as the need for physical filing equipment has gone. For example, a server can store an earth-shattering amount more information than a filing cabinet or cupboard.3 HINDRANCESData integrity can be a major downfall when using information systems in the workplace as it relies on the user to put the data in correctly in the first place. Until we advance so far in technology that human input is no longer  needed to collect data, then this will remain as a hindrance that we can’t avoid. Whilst technology is very advanced in society today, it also still has the ability to malfunction and crash, it is by no means flawless. Downtime is infrequent but it still me ans that we need to be keeping information backed up onto multiple resources and sometimes there is a need for a hard copy to be kept which can be time consuming to maintain.4 CONCLUSIONWhilst technology is by no means flawless, it has greatly enhanced our way of life and how we keep record of information and events. If technology was just as advanced 100 years ago, we might have seen a very different recollection of historic events.In terms of technology impacting our workplace information systems, it has definitely had an effect for the better. It has allowed us to record mass amounts of information, saved us numerous hours of time and made it extremely easy to access data whenever, wherever – which I feel outweighs the hindrances by far.We can’t control human error but through frequent and improved training for employees, we can reduce it so that the information system being utilised becomes more reliable.

S5W5DQs Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

S5W5DQs - Essay Example As a result, it is likely that the truth will be either unrevealed or distorted as indicated by Roth (2011), in the recount of the Yugoslav and Rwandan tribunals. However, with the promise of fairness and legal immunity, most of the institutions like the truth justice and reconciliation commission that was first employed in South Africa have been able to unearth the truth because of the number of people that come forward to testify. In such cases, such institutions have helped to promote reconciliation because it is clear that it is only through allowing people to freely narrate their experiences that healing between communities has been effective in post war regions (Norwich University, 2007). Another major challenge, which faces domestic legal institutions, is that at times they lack the peoples trust and confidence hence not a good alternative for carrying out legal processes. This may be because they lack the powers to prosecute people against the wish of those who might be yearning for justice to prevail. In some instances, institutions like the ICC have only prosecuted individuals bearing the greatest responsibility that might leave most of the perpetrators still roaming in the streets. The various tribunals, truth commissions and amnesty laws have been effective in the healing of communities in post war nations even though sometimes there have been difficulties because of the way the victims on one hand and the perpetrators on the other have responded to such institutions. First, some of the institutions like the truth and reconciliation commissions have been seen as helpless in bringing the guilty to book. The main work of that commission in to find out the historical injustices that may in turn open up new wounds that may result in counteraccusations. The two warring sides may therefore start to view each other suspiciously. Tepperman (2002) further indicates this by stating the way such

Gender Bias in Education Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Gender Bias in Education - Essay Example This essay approves that in today’s world of visual communication a company uses the media as a tool in selling its products. Advertising agencies, as media options is often found to use the female image to sell off its clients products and to achieve rapid turnovers. The picture of women portrayed in the advertisement commercials have become of a stereotyped nature. It depicts each and every woman to be bold and extrovert in relation to the models portrayed with bold attires and appealing make up. Different commercials use women rather to fulfill the selling motives of the company’s products and services. It takes no concern while tarnishing the image of womanhood for which the need for censorship has risen as regards to advertisements. Further, women have started to occupy senior positions in the media houses. However, the unfortunate part of the game is that the qualitative approach at looking over the female work force has still not undergone any change. The gender bias is evident in the journalism profession as regards to the gender view of the sources gathering the information. This report makes a conclusion that women resorting to menial and low paid jobs are often the subjects of sexual exploitation. Even, the society as a whole views the women creed as items of sexual fervor. Thus commercials explicitly using the above female image do call for limited censorship. These practices must be curbed at the very outset so as to reduce the gender bias emanating from such and in bettering up the social environment.

Research Methods Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words - 7

Research Methods - Essay Example n was asked why his party chose to increase the tuition fees, he replied that it would mainly do two things; firstly, it would ensure that UK’s English universities are well funded and; secondly it would mean that the UK government would not go on raising tuition for higher education students so fast (Vasagar2012). The increasing of tuition fees in the UK has led to a lot of controversy, which has caused many individuals lash out at the Conservative regime and a majority of perspective students traumatized at the thought of having to pay off  £27,000 worth of education fees, prior to adding up the fee of their maintenance loans, as well (Bachana 2013). In the wake of all this, university students in the UK are turning to employment to be able to pay this high school fees rate, as well as settle the loans they use while in school. This essay conducted surveys, observation, journals and books, with regards to how the new English fee system has affected student employment. The main survey method that was used was conducting interviews through questionnaires. In this regard, 250 were distributed to undergraduate students in order to come up with the findings. In addition, using this type of sources will help to conduct an understandable research strategy and accurate timetable of activities. A research question should be clear, concise, centered, complex and arguable. It should be a question that everybody in the team was genuinely interested in (Munn, 2004). These aspects were particularly important because they helped us center on our research by providing a way through the research, as well as writing process. My group’s specificity of a well-developed research topic helped us avoid the â€Å"all-about† types of papers and endeavor towards supporting a particularly arguable thesis, â€Å"the new  £9000 per year English fee tuition has affected student term time employment habits.† Due to the recent debate in UK universities with regards to raising the annual

English - School Lunches Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

English - School Lunches - Research Paper Example As the school bell rings for lunch, children rush to the canteen to fill their hungry stomachs. Most schools have a menu from which children can select for their lunch. The lunch time for the kids is a time not only to energize themselves but also to sit with their friends and have a good time. However though, there are certain concerns which are going unnoticed by the school authorities. Concerns A lot of teachers have noticed a tired set of students attending the classes which are conducted after lunch. The reason for tiresome students has been the food they consume. Most schools though are not able to provide healthy food to the students. This has been a problem for most of the schools. In most schools, the menu for lunch reads a list of junk foods which is wrong. Looking at the menu, children have no other option but to consume them. The school authorities should take responsibilities and stop selling junk foods. One of the main reasons why junk food should be stopped is it affec ts the health of the children a lot. It is the major reason for child obesity. To be unfit and obese at a young age is a concern. Survey has shown that 32% of the youngsters are obese. One can accept the fact that such food is sold outside to earn money but it is unacceptable when such food is sold in schools. Due of the lack of fresh foods and healthy foods, students buy cheap junk foods. Pizzas, pastas, chips, cookies and burgers form the main menu in school lunches. Consumption of these means a lot of sugar is consumed by the children. School lunches have a high level of sugar content in them. Healthier food would mean that the obesity rate is reduced. Another reason why cafeterias should not serve junk food is that it keeps the energy levels of the children low. High energized food shall help the children to maintain good focus and participate in sports as well. Lunch is the most important since it falls in the middle of the day. Consuming junk food will extracts all the energy and reduces the physical activity. One cannot perform to their potential if they do not have enough energy. In one of the schools, children complained of less stamina while practicing soccer. When the coach investigated in their diet, he found out that most of them had a packet of chips and soda before practice. He advised them not to consume fried and fatty foods before exercising since it consumes most of the energy from the body. Studies have shown that the most commonly food consumed by children is cookies, candy, cakes and ice cream. This is also the reason for children losing energy during their noon classes. He stressed on the importance of consuming healthy and natural food which give energy to our bodies. Despite schools imparting knowledge to the children on how to remain healthy, sometimes they miss out on providing healthy food to them. The authorities should notice this and make sure that children are provided good food. Quality Most of the science classes teach the chi ldren that good food is the secret of a healthy life. However though, the same is not followed in schools. Authorities take a lot of effort to make sure that children get tasty food, but they miss out on the quality. In an era where health has been given primary importance, schools have neglected that. Parents have complained that their children are suffering from illness frequently and their immune systems have gone down. An inspection conducted by the officials brought a

Small business use of electronic commerce Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Small business use of electronic commerce - Essay Example In an environment in which time is precious the advantage to the consumer is undeniable. Not only that, but the concept can reduce costs too. For instance, Pea Pod that stores the goods which a customer wants can sort and pack these goods considerably more efficiently than the store and can be located out of town in an industrial park or other area where cheap rents are available. Moreover, staffing requirements are lower, the incidence of in-store theft is reduced, and the hours of operation can be extended. For small business companies like KOA MART, the opportunities of Internet-based commerce seem considerable, but few companies have yet succeeded in exploiting them profitably. Such success is dependent on acquiring an in-depth understanding of the characteristics of the Internet and matching these with the characteristics of existing products or services. In contrast to Pea Pod, KOA MART proposes better catalogues and more vivid visual representation of its products. It is easy to find a product and its price. Pea Pod has poor design and simpler structure; it is difficult to navigate and use this site. The majority of sites linked to "small business +electronic commerce" are devoted to potential online resources and analysis of the market opportunities. Some of the sites propose technical assistance for small business while others highlight the main trends and e-news about developments within the industry. This information can also be used by small business organizations that want to sell as well as buy (Demery, 2007). Small business companies may see that competitor's price reduction appeals only to a certain type of customer (those, for example, who have easy access to the competitor's products; in other words, the discount is not sufficient to attract customers who do not have this access). In this case, proposal would be to restrict their own price reduction so that it applies only to those customers who have easy access to the competitor products. By doing this, they can minimize the impact of competitor's actions on overall margins (Demery, 2007). Thus companies may identify that if one of competitors reduces the price of a product, volume of sales will go down; if companies reduce price at the same time, volume of sales will remain static (assuming that companies also match competitor's price promotion or other marketing tactics). One of the key characteristics of the goods and services that are capable of being traded successfully on the Internet, therefore, is that they are recognized and understood by the consumer (Howlett, 2007). This means either that they must have a strong brand (so that the consumer knows what to expect) or that the goods must be of such a nature that the consumer knows what they will receive. There are many thousands of sites on the Internet, which makes it considerably more competitive than local shopping mall or high street. Getting people to enter a site is as difficult as, if not more difficult than, getting people to purchase goods from a retailer (Howlett, 2007). The Internet did not level the playing field between large and small businesses because large companies receive great opportunities to reduce prices and tattract global target audiences. While one of the major advantages offered by the Internet is that - as a manufacturer, for example - a small company no longer has to do battle with retailers and competitors to obtain the

Organisational Behaviour Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words - 4

Organisational Behaviour - Essay Example It is expected that not any kind of people, but only a few with certain work personalities can become effective in particular kinds of jobs. This fact about employee types is attributed to five major personality types or characteristics found to be predominant among workers, namely: extroversion/introversion; emotional stability/instability; agreeableness/hostility; conscientiousness/heedlessness; and open-mindedness/closed-mindedness (Barrick and Mount, 1991). Depending on the line of work, there may be observed imbalances between the levels of each personality type, and this accounts for the predominating personality type among individuals in a particular work setting, which in turn dictates their success or failure in particular work settings or careers. ... ality types in each individual could affect the relative success or failure in each kind of job or work, thus it is important that aside from knowing the personal strengths and weaknesses of each individual, it is also relevant that the company’s goals be clear and concise enough to be understood (Bruck and Allen, 2003). With this in mind, the workplace must be able to create an environment that cultivates the individual’s skills in various levels and areas while at the same time relying on each person’s predominating work personality type. Different personality types go well with certain kinds of work. Person-job (PJ) fitting and person-organisation (PO) fitting has been used to assess what kind of work would make particular types of people excel, as well as predicting those that may prove to be difficult for them (Ryan and Kristof-Brown, 2003). People rating high in extroversion levels are reported to be suitable to careers with greater public exposure such as sales, those which rate high in emotional stability are more suited to law-enforcement work lie in security or police work, conscientiousness is linked with meticulous and detailed work such as engineering and architecture, agreeableness goes well with public service work such as foundations or public health work, and openness is one trait that is lauded in the academics or in research work (Mullins, 2005; Touze, 2005). When the PJ or the PO rating is good, this implies that the person is able to reconcile personal beliefs, attitudes and work goals with the organisation’s own objectives, which increases the person’s chances of staying in the organisation and achieving personal satisfaction. However, when the PJ or PO rating is bad or low, chances are that the individual’s personal preferences simply

Comparative Method in Political Science Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Comparative Method in Political Science - Essay Example Cultural trends and ideologies differences have also been cited as determining factors behind the association between GDP and democratic processes. The differences between democratic processes and authoritarian systems may relate to the inherent factors of organization, heritage and nature. According to some theoretical perspectives, the level of political participation is regulated by n interplay between external and internal processes, which in turn affects the nature of politics as they occur in different places. Discourses of the public sphere have emerged to affect the manner in which politics differ from one place to another or from one country to another. Some of the propositions that have been put forward to explain the relationship between GDP and politics are consistent with the modernization theory. Generally, the level of growth of GDP is considered to be a significant indicator of the relationship that happens between one country and another. Political processes are necessarily linked to economic systems and the cultural life of a people. In democratic processes, the system of governance is usually based on the tastes and preferences of the people. The citizenry determine the manner in which they want to be governed. Usually, the nature of politics will ultimately determine the level of economic development of any given country. The political environment is one of the major factors that determine the kind of economic activities in the country. It might be argued that political processes are naturally related to some of the issues that affect development processes. Politics forms the superstructure on which the systems of development are necessarily determined. In line with this kind of thinking, it might be argued that democratic processes are more likely to supply appropriate synergies for development that autocratic regimes. Indeed, studies have indicated that countries that allow sufficient

Barbara Ehrenreich’s Nickel Essay Example for Free

Barbara Ehrenreich’s Nickel Essay The Nobel Prize winner Milton Friedman was praised by The Economist (2006) as â€Å"the most influential economist of the second half of the 20th century†¦possibly of all of it. In 1970, he published an essay on the social responsibility of business in the New York Times Magazine. In his article, he explains in complex detail about the notion of â€Å"social responsibility† of businessmen within a corporate environment and their goal to increase profits. Indeed, at first glance, this quote seems to capture the mentality of many of the actors in the financial sector in our era. Banks and financial institutions are accused of acting unethically and only in their self-interest to increase profits along with brokers and investment bankers who are accused of primarily aiming high incentives and bonuses by selling unconscionably high-default assets. Scholars argued that corporate governance failings and lack of ethical behaviour were significant causes of the financial crisis of autumn 2008 (Skypala, 2008). This essay discusses the question whether the above statement made by famous economist Milton Friedman is still relevant in the context of business today and to what extent it is relating to the financial sector and in particular to the financial crisis of autumn 2008. In order to address this problem, it is important to discuss the fundamental view behind Friedman’s idea since it needs to be fully understood and interpreted. He stated that the social responsibility of business was to maximize profits and to create value for stockholders within the bounds of the law. Furthermore, he thought that using corporate resources for purely altruistic purposes would be socialism. Moreover, corporations had no social responsibility other than to spend its resources to increase the profits of its investors since only investors as individuals could decide to engage in social contributions. Thus, he believed that the corporate executives, who were appointed by investors to make profits on investments, could not engage in social contributions using the corporate money. As a result, they could only do so as a private individual on their own behalf. Friedman devoted â€Å"social responsibility† to violating the interest of the manager’s employers. In other words, if managers invest in â€Å"social responsible† projects, they will harm the business since these investments will result in inefficiency and lost production leading to a reduction in shareholder’s wealth. His idea and the logic behind it have proven unconvincing to many scholars (Mulligan, 1986; Feldman, 2007; Wilcke, 2004). Indeed, several arguments can be shown which offset his idea. Firstly, his theory does not allow for the possibility that profits and social responsibility can ever exist together. It is necessary to consider the constraint noted by Jensen (2002) who indicated that it is â€Å"logically impossible to maximize in more than one dimension at the same time unless the dimensions are monotone transformations of one another†. This constraint implies that profits and social performance cannot be maximized simultaneously. That is why there is a trade-off between profits and social performance. Still, it does not mean that profit maximization and social performance cannot be congruent. In reality, there are many examples which show that both can coexist. Several reasons are to be mentioned here. Nowadays, banks and financial institutions are more aware of their role towards the society since they realize that they are an integral part of it. Furthermore, they notice that they can contribute positively to the environment and society with a positive effect on their reputation, creating a higher firm value. Furthermore, since numerous scandals of firms violating morality and ethics in the late 1990s and early 2000s (e. g. WorldCom and Enron) the significance of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is increasing tremendously and included in the business culture of most of the financial institutions today. The concept of CSR means that â€Å"corporations have ethical and moral responsibilities in addition to their responsibilities to earn a fair return for investors and comply with the law† (Munstermann, 2007). So, almost every large corporation is increasingly investing to improve its performance on sustainability assets. Banks and financial institutions know that society is always enlightened when it sees that a firm is engaged in charity and donating projects. While it is true that engagement in â€Å"social responsible† projects, for example donating for orphans of the developing countries means explicitly higher expenses and hence, reducing the profit, it has a long term profit as well. Engagement in donating projects has a positive effect on the reputation of firms, thus, affecting positively the consumer behavior of customers who will buy more products of firm, thus creating profit. Friedman also never considers the very real possibility that companies engaging in â€Å"social responsible† projects gain the support from the community and polity that might, otherwise, eventually turn against them. Nowadays, almost all companies working in the financial sector are in some kind of way socially engaged. Looking at websites of famous big banks like Deutsche Bank, JP Morgan, Goldman Sachs or Morgan Stanley, one can find headings of Corporate Social Responsibility throughout the pages. Deutsche Bank has its own report on CSR for each year which reports engagement in AIDS projects in South Africa and support of education for children in India. JP Morgan reported an annual donation amount of $110 million for organization in 33 different countries and Goldman Sachs is actively involved in environmental projects. This shows that almost 4 decades after the famous essay of Friedman, companies do not follow his sole idea anymore but are or are forced to act socially responsible. On the other hand, a business should try to make profit since it is inherent in its nature and by definition (except for non-profit organization). According to the Business Dictionary, a business is an â€Å"economic system in which goods and services are exchanged for one another or money. Every business requires some form of investment and a sufficient number of customers to whom its output can be sold at profit on a consistent basis. † If a company does not make profit on a consistent and long-term basis, it will face financial distress and bankruptcy. Then, employees and workers will become unemployed which will affect the society negatively. For example, all the employees of banks going bankrupt in the financial crisis like Freddy Mac and Fanny Mae and Lehman Brothers were facing hardship. Hence, it is true that businesses are to a certain extent socially responsible to make profit in order to ensure job security and to create more jobs. This helps the society and improves the economy of the society. But Friedman does not consider the fact that if companies’ sole interest would be profit making, they can harm people and the surrounding environment. What if firms poison the water by disposing chemicals in rivers and sea disposing toxic that leads to illnesses and death of animals and human beings? Friedman also fails to argue whether profit-generating actions like selling nuclear bombs to terror organizations, or knowingly manufacturing and selling defective, health-threatening products count as social responsibility as long as the company makes profit. Evidently, in the financial sector there are not activities such as producing bombs or life-threatening drugs. Even though this sector cannot produce life-threatening products, it can create a value chain of unethical and careless activities that can damage the whole world as well. One example is the Asian financial crisis in 1997 where moral hazards were mentioned as a major cause. Moral hazards are â€Å"negligent and fraudulent insureds† (Baker, 2000). It also refers to situation that tempted otherwise good people. The problem with moral hazards in the Asian financial crisis was that Asian banks thought that they would receive implicit guarantees that they would be bailed out if they encountered financial distress. Hence, these banks and companies were much more speculative in their investments and kept investing increasingly. If the investments fail, they will not have to bear the cost since it will be picked up by the government. They were playing with people’s money and did not act in the social interest of their customers. Instead, they were only focussing on making as much profit as possible. The result is known to everybody: In 1997 the nations of East Asia experienced the worst economic crisis they have never seen before. Obviously, the latest and most discussed topic on morality in the two recent years has been the culpability of shareholders and banks along with board directors for failings that led to the financial crisis of 2008. On the one hand, the crisis can be blamed on mortgage brokers, investment bankers and banks’ executives. Skewed incentives and greed contributed too much of the crisis. For example, mortgage brokers generate sub-prime mortgages but were paid regardless of the outcome. That is why they were selling unscrupulously assets with high default risk to clueless customers in order to receive high commissions. Not to mention â€Å"Wall Street Executives† who were focusing solely on how to increase their bonuses and remuneration packages. Also, Banks who took on these mortgages were accused of shoddy risk management and unethical behaviour, since they knew from the beginning that these subprime mortgages would eventually be securitized and removed from the bank’s balance sheet. Again, the originating banks got paid up front for processing the mortgages without having to retain part of the risk. Another factor is the misleading ratings of financial instruments credit agencies that were by far from independent. Arrangers of the secured assets were allowed to manipulate the creation of secured assets by mixing good assets with high risk assets to the point of getting a triple A-rating. If they did not get this rating, the assets were withdrawn, reconfigured and resubmitted. Since agencies are owned by banks, they were subjected to give best ratings to these dangerous assets and mortgage brokers knowing the risky idea behind those assets sold them to unsuspecting investors. According to Friedman, every party involved in the actions mentioned above showed â€Å"social responsibility† since they did not care about their social responsibility to the world but only about maximizing their profits. Evidently, the aftermath of the American financial crisis has shown that the social responsibility of business is definitely not only to increase their profits. If banks, brokers and lenders, accountants, the government and important financial organization did not incorrectly assessed or even ignored the magnitude of the risks mentioned above, if managers and investment bankers were not greedy and showed herd investment behavior, it can be argued that the crisis could have been prevented. But the various parties acted immorally and socially irresponsible not caring about the social consequences of their actions. Consequently, the Asian crisis of 1997 and the global financial crisis of 2008 are two memorable examples that offset Friedman’s idea. In conclusion, this paper has shown that Friedman’s request of being socially responsible by focusing solely on increasing profits is nowadays theoretically not accepted by banks and financial institutions. In contrast, in the 21st century social responsible corresponds to the alignment of business operations with social and ethical values. It is seen as the key to beat the competitor and to ensure sustainable growth. But the latest financial crisis has shown that even though CSR is part of the business culture of the large corporations, the key players in the large corporations do not practice social responsibility in a proper manner. It seems that CSR and corporate governance are a compilation of words and rules that adds only little value to the everyday businesses. Money has made everybody blind. Everybody wanted to have a piece of the big cake leading them to lower their inhibition threshold. The â€Å"social responsibility† of businesses should not be increasing profit but focusing on what it really means in practice to encourage stewardship. As a matter of fact, banks and financial institutions first need to show social and ethical manner in order to prevent another disaster like the financial crisis of 2008. All in all, businesses need to focus on environmental and social issues in the arena of corporate responsibility since the society expects and demands responsibility of organizations. In fact, the law expects it as well. Banks and financial institutions are challenged after the aftermath of the financial crisis they have to find a way how to act in the best interest of stakeholders, society, the government and the environment, still being able to make sustainable profit. It is now a request from the society. ? References Baker, T. (2000). Insuring Morality. Business Dictionary. Definition of business. Homepage: http://www. businessdictionary. com/definition/business. html [1. 2. 2010]. Feldman, G. (2007). Putting Uncle Milton Friedman To Bed: Reexamining Milton Friedmans Essay on the Social Responsibility of Business. Labor Studies Journal (32), 125-141. Jensen, M. C. (2002). Value maximization, stakeholder theory, and the corporate objective function. Business Ethics Quarterly, 2002 (12), 404-437. Milton Friedman, a giant among economist. The Economist. Verfugbar unter: http://www. economist. com/business/displaystory. cfm? story_id=8313925 [28. 1. 2010]. Mulligan, T. (1986). A Critique of Milton Friedmans Essay The Social Responsibility of Business Is to Increase Its Profits. Journal of Business Ethics (5), 265-269. Munstermann, T. (2007). Corporate Social Responsibility: Gabler. Skypala, P. (2008, 17. November). Time to reward good corporate governance. Financial Times, S. 6. [28. 1. 2010]. Wilcke, R. W. (2004). An Appropriate Ethical Model for Business and a Critique of Milton Friedmans Thesis. The Independent Review (2), 187-209. The Nobel Prize winner Milton Friedman was praised by The Economist (2006) as â€Å"the most influential economist of the second half of the 20th century†¦possibly of all of it. In 1970, he published an essay on the social responsibility of business in the New York Times Magazine. In his article, he explains in complex detail about the notion of â€Å"social responsibility† of businessmen within a corporate environment and their goal to increase profits. Indeed, at first glance, this quote seems to capture the mentality of many of the actors in the financial sector in our era. Banks and financial institutions are accused of acting unethically and only in their self-interest to increase profits along with brokers and investment bankers who are accused of primarily aiming high incentives and bonuses by selling unconscionably high-default assets. Scholars argued that corporate governance failings and lack of ethical behaviour were significant causes of the financial crisis of autumn 2008 (Skypala, 2008). This essay discusses the question whether the above statement made by famous economist Milton Friedman is still relevant in the context of business today and to what extent it is relating to the financial sector and in particular to the financial crisis of autumn 2008. In order to address this problem, it is important to discuss the fundamental view behind Friedman’s idea since it needs to be fully understood and interpreted. He stated that the social responsibility of business was to maximize profits and to create value for stockholders within the bounds of the law. Furthermore, he thought that using corporate resources for purely altruistic purposes would be socialism. Moreover, corporations had no social responsibility other than to spend its resources to increase the profits of its investors since only investors as individuals could decide to engage in social contributions. Thus, he believed that the corporate executives, who were appointed by investors to make profits on investments, could not engage in social contributions using the corporate money. As a result, they could only do so as a private individual on their own behalf. Friedman devoted â€Å"social responsibility† to violating the interest of the manager’s employers. In other words, if managers invest in â€Å"social responsible† projects, they will harm the business since these investments will result in inefficiency and lost production leading to a reduction in shareholder’s wealth. His idea and the logic behind it have proven unconvincing to many scholars (Mulligan, 1986; Feldman, 2007; Wilcke, 2004). Indeed, several arguments can be shown which offset his idea. Firstly, his theory does not allow for the possibility that profits and social responsibility can ever exist together. It is necessary to consider the constraint noted by Jensen (2002) who indicated that it is â€Å"logically impossible to maximize in more than one dimension at the same time unless the dimensions are monotone transformations of one another†. This constraint implies that profits and social performance cannot be maximized simultaneously. That is why there is a trade-off between profits and social performance. Still, it does not mean that profit maximization and social performance cannot be congruent. In reality, there are many examples which show that both can coexist. Several reasons are to be mentioned here. Nowadays, banks and financial institutions are more aware of their role towards the society since they realize that they are an integral part of it. Furthermore, they notice that they can contribute positively to the environment and society with a positive effect on their reputation, creating a higher firm value. Furthermore, since numerous scandals of firms violating morality and ethics in the late 1990s and early 2000s (e. g. WorldCom and Enron) the significance of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is increasing tremendously and included in the business culture of most of the financial institutions today. The concept of CSR means that â€Å"corporations have ethical and moral responsibilities in addition to their responsibilities to earn a fair return for investors and comply with the law† (Munstermann, 2007). So, almost every large corporation is increasingly investing to improve its performance on sustainability assets. Banks and financial institutions know that society is always enlightened when it sees that a firm is engaged in charity and donating projects. While it is true that engagement in â€Å"social responsible† projects, for example donating for orphans of the developing countries means explicitly higher expenses and hence, reducing the profit, it has a long term profit as well. Engagement in donating projects has a positive effect on the reputation of firms, thus, affecting positively the consumer behavior of customers who will buy more products of firm, thus creating profit. Friedman also never considers the very real possibility that companies engaging in â€Å"social responsible† projects gain the support from the community and polity that might, otherwise, eventually turn against them. Nowadays, almost all companies working in the financial sector are in some kind of way socially engaged. Looking at websites of famous big banks like Deutsche Bank, JP Morgan, Goldman Sachs or Morgan Stanley, one can find headings of Corporate Social Responsibility throughout the pages. Deutsche Bank has its own report on CSR for each year which reports engagement in AIDS projects in South Africa and support of education for children in India. JP Morgan reported an annual donation amount of $110 million for organization in 33 different countries and Goldman Sachs is actively involved in environmental projects. This shows that almost 4 decades after the famous essay of Friedman, companies do not follow his sole idea anymore but are or are forced to act socially responsible. On the other hand, a business should try to make profit since it is inherent in its nature and by definition (except for non-profit organization). According to the Business Dictionary, a business is an â€Å"economic system in which goods and services are exchanged for one another or money. Every business requires some form of investment and a sufficient number of customers to whom its output can be sold at profit on a consistent basis. † If a company does not make profit on a consistent and long-term basis, it will face financial distress and bankruptcy. Then, employees and workers will become unemployed which will affect the society negatively. For example, all the employees of banks going bankrupt in the financial crisis like Freddy Mac and Fanny Mae and Lehman Brothers were facing hardship. Hence, it is true that businesses are to a certain extent socially responsible to make profit in order to ensure job security and to create more jobs. This helps the society and improves the economy of the society. But Friedman does not consider the fact that if companies’ sole interest would be profit making, they can harm people and the surrounding environment. What if firms poison the water by disposing chemicals in rivers and sea disposing toxic that leads to illnesses and death of animals and human beings? Friedman also fails to argue whether profit-generating actions like selling nuclear bombs to terror organizations, or knowingly manufacturing and selling defective, health-threatening products count as social responsibility as long as the company makes profit. Evidently, in the financial sector there are not activities such as producing bombs or life-threatening drugs. Even though this sector cannot produce life-threatening products, it can create a value chain of unethical and careless activities that can damage the whole world as well. One example is the Asian financial crisis in 1997 where moral hazards were mentioned as a major cause. Moral hazards are â€Å"negligent and fraudulent insureds† (Baker, 2000). It also refers to situation that tempted otherwise good people. The problem with moral hazards in the Asian financial crisis was that Asian banks thought that they would receive implicit guarantees that they would be bailed out if they encountered financial distress. Hence, these banks and companies were much more speculative in their investments and kept investing increasingly. If the investments fail, they will not have to bear the cost since it will be picked up by the government. They were playing with people’s money and did not act in the social interest of their customers. Instead, they were only focussing on making as much profit as possible. The result is known to everybody: In 1997 the nations of East Asia experienced the worst economic crisis they have never seen before. Obviously, the latest and most discussed topic on morality in the two recent years has been the culpability of shareholders and banks along with board directors for failings that led to the financial crisis of 2008. On the one hand, the crisis can be blamed on mortgage brokers, investment bankers and banks’ executives. Skewed incentives and greed contributed too much of the crisis. For example, mortgage brokers generate sub-prime mortgages but were paid regardless of the outcome. That is why they were selling unscrupulously assets with high default risk to clueless customers in order to receive high commissions. Not to mention â€Å"Wall Street Executives† who were focusing solely on how to increase their bonuses and remuneration packages. Also, Banks who took on these mortgages were accused of shoddy risk management and unethical behaviour, since they knew from the beginning that these subprime mortgages would eventually be securitized and removed from the bank’s balance sheet. Again, the originating banks got paid up front for processing the mortgages without having to retain part of the risk. Another factor is the misleading ratings of financial instruments credit agencies that were by far from independent. Arrangers of the secured assets were allowed to manipulate the creation of secured assets by mixing good assets with high risk assets to the point of getting a triple A-rating. If they did not get this rating, the assets were withdrawn, reconfigured and resubmitted. Since agencies are owned by banks, they were subjected to give best ratings to these dangerous assets and mortgage brokers knowing the risky idea behind those assets sold them to unsuspecting investors. According to Friedman, every party involved in the actions mentioned above showed â€Å"social responsibility† since they did not care about their social responsibility to the world but only about maximizing their profits. Evidently, the aftermath of the American financial crisis has shown that the social responsibility of business is definitely not only to increase their profits. If banks, brokers and lenders, accountants, the government and important financial organization did not incorrectly assessed or even ignored the magnitude of the risks mentioned above, if managers and investment bankers were not greedy and showed herd investment behavior, it can be argued that the crisis could have been prevented. But the various parties acted immorally and socially irresponsible not caring about the social consequences of their actions. Consequently, the Asian crisis of 1997 and the global financial crisis of 2008 are two memorable examples that offset Friedman’s idea. In conclusion, this paper has shown that Friedman’s request of being socially responsible by focusing solely on increasing profits is nowadays theoretically not accepted by banks and financial institutions. In contrast, in the 21st century social responsible corresponds to the alignment of business operations with social and ethical values. It is seen as the key to beat the competitor and to ensure sustainable growth. But the latest financial crisis has shown that even though CSR is part of the business culture of the large corporations, the key players in the large corporations do not practice social responsibility in a proper manner. It seems that CSR and corporate governance are a compilation of words and rules that adds only little value to the everyday businesses. Money has made everybody blind. Everybody wanted to have a piece of the big cake leading them to lower their inhibition threshold. The â€Å"social responsibility† of businesses should not be increasing profit but focusing on what it really means in practice to encourage stewardship. As a matter of fact, banks and financial institutions first need to show social and ethical manner in order to prevent another disaster like the financial crisis of 2008. All in all, businesses need to focus on environmental and social issues in the arena of corporate responsibility since the society expects and demands responsibility of organizations. In fact, the law expects it as well. Banks and financial institutions are challenged after the aftermath of the financial crisis they have to find a way how to act in the best interest of stakeholders, society, the government and the environment, still being able to make sustainable profit. It is now a request from the society. ? References Baker, T. (2000). Insuring Morality.Business Dictionary. Definition of business. Homepage: http://www. businessdictionary. com/definition/business. html [1. 2. 2010]. Feldman, G. (2007). Putting Uncle Milton Friedman To Bed: Reexamining Milton Friedmans Essay on the Social Responsibility of Business. Labor Studies Journal (32), 125-141. Jensen, M. C. (2002). Value maximization, stakeholder theory, and the corporate objective function. Business Ethics Quarterly, 2002 (12), 404-437. Milton Friedman, a giant among economist. The Economist. Verfugbar unter: http://www. economist. com/business/displaystory. cfm? story_id=8313925 [28. 1. 2010]. Mulligan, T. (1986). A Critique of Milton Friedmans Essay The Social Responsibility of Business Is to Increase Its Profits. Journal of Business Ethics (5), 265-269. Munstermann, T. (2007). Corporate Social Responsibility: Gabler. Skypala, P. (2008, 17. November). Time to reward good corporate governance. Financial Times, S. 6. [28. 1. 2010]. Wilcke, R. W. (2004). An Appropriate Ethical Model for Business and a Critique of Milton Friedmans Thesis. The Independent Review (2), 187-209.

Female Sexual Objectification In Advertisement Media Essay

Female Sexual Objectification In Advertisement Media Essay After the initial explosion of female sex appeal in advertisement and being a raging success, in the 1930s it stepped up and became much more visual and daring. The first advertisement with a nude was a color ad for Cannon towels in 1933, revealing the backside of a womans body (Lont, 1995: 115). Slowly and efficiently womens bodies were being used very objectively and advertisements were becoming much freer and much raunchier. A slight change of events happened during World War II (1939-1945) where women were portrayed as efficient workers and glamorous accessories while theyre husbands were at war. Oakley stated with the notable exception of the war years, womens role as housewife has been continuously affirmed as the proper use for female energy. Her dependence on men is an accepted fact (Oakley, 1974: 56). When the men would return, women would fall back into the role of a mother and a homemaker. Notably the advertisement changed to display how women should be acting and behaving while theyre husbands were at war, magazines particularly showed images of women carrying out such things as looking after their children and being the perfect mother. Moving into the 1950s after World War II had ended. The female housewife image slowly faded away from the advertisement scene. Studies have shown that women in magazine adverts prior to the 1970s were rarely shown to be in paid work, and when they were it would usually be a stereotypical role (the smiling secretary or hairdresser). The number of housewife images began to decline slowly after the 1950s, but the image was still common in the 1960s and 1970s (Gunter, 1995: 34). Linking in with my previous paragraph mentioning females from 1900 to 1920 were being shown as fragile and weak, it is evident that this was still present 50 years later. It shows that women were still being portrayed in a sexist and belittling manner. In modern methods female sex appeal in advertisement has become much more graphic due to technology and the advertisement industry expansion through the digital revolution. A common technique in modern advertisement is to ensure the males attention is not distracted and the objective of the advertisement stays intact. Advertising that depicts womens bodies without faces, heads, and feet implies that all that is really important about a woman lies between her neck and her knees. The lack of a head symbolizes a woman without a brain. A faceless woman has no individuality. A woman without feet is immobile and therefore submissive (Cortese, 2004: 38). So without a face it brings up the question of what is the advertisement showing, and what portrayal of the female is trying to be connected with the target audience at hand? Illustrated in appendix figure i, I found this to be a great example of how the male focus is purely on the female torso. The advertisement displays the words wash me on the females body to create a mental image in the males mind of cleaning the women. This also encourages the male to view the advertisement and connect no personality to the female, and purely as a sexual object. My attention was drawn to an advertisement for an American Burger King advertisement illustrated in appendix figure ii. Americas advertisement industry is enormous and I wanted to include this in my body of research to show the range of how female sexual objectification is used. My reason for focusing on this advertisement in particular was that it was advertising sex in a very abrupt and indirect manner. The woman is wearing lipstick and has a wide open mouth with red lip stick. Lipstick ads often use lipstick as a phallic symbol to represent oral or anal sex (Cortese, 2004: 33). The advertisement reads It will blow your mind away which is implying that eating the new burger will have similar effects to sexual pleasure. The advertisement gained negative responses and Mark Crispin Miller, a professor of media studies at New York University said the ad was very desperate. Miller said This is objectionable because its outrageously exaggerating the pleasure of Burger King. Its not that good, even as food, and therefore nowhere near as gratifying as an orgasm. Theres no doubt they intended a double entrendre. (Miller, 2009) Putting the desperate attempt aside this shows that female sex appeal has spread across a wide spectrum of advertisement and shows how it has adapted to modern culture. resulted in a world ordered by sexual imbalance, pleasure in looking has been split between active/ male and passive/ femalewomen are simultaneously looked at and displayed, with their appearance coded for strong visual and erotic impact so that they can be said to connote to-be-looked-at-ness (Mulvey 1975 cited in Gauntlett, 2008: 41). men look at women. Women watch themselves being looked at. This determines not only most relations between men and women but also the relation of women to themselves. The surveyor of woman in herself is male: the surveyed female. Thus she turns herself into an object and most particularly an object of vision: a sight (1972: 47). It is argued that women are perceived by men in two very simple watered down stereotypes, they are women into Madonna (pure, gentle, artless, white) and whore (passionate, temptress, red) (1985: 108). In modern advertisement the women commonly advertised as feminine and soft, but have been cleverly manipulated to hold sex appeal and still appear very appealing to the opposite sex. A typical modern display of female sexual objectification is to show a reflection of a males fantasy or a so called dream girl. The exemplary female prototype in advertising, regardless of product or service, displays youth (no lines or wrinkles), good looks, sexual seductiveness and perfection (Baudrillard, 1990 cited in Cortese, 2004: 53). This could be from a simple stereotypical dumb blonde to a busting brunette, as long as the characteristics is focused on the sexual objective and personality does not interfere, the advertisement speaks for itself. On May 1, 2007 CFA law firm released a series of billboard advertisements stating lifes short. Get a divorce. This is clearly illustrated in appendix figure iii. Although this falls into both the category of female and male sexual objectification, I found it a relevant and interesting advertisement which shows a very modern up-to-date method on how sex sells. There was a lot of reaction and business raised by almost 400% due to the advertisements, Corri Fetman, the woman behind the ads said If you think somebodys going to look at a billboard and go out and get a divorce as a result, youre insulting the intelligence of people. If thats the case, our next billboard is going to read, Gimme Your Money. (Corri Fetman 2007) Corrys outspoken behaviour and the publics mixed reactions caused discussions for the general public and the advertisement industry. In summary female sexual objectification in advertisement is used for males to stare and fantasise. It is purely a physical selling point, be it the stick thin blonde or the half-naked women selling a bar of soap, it is all for the purpose of sex selling a product. The ad spends no time discussing her qualifications for sexual desire her mere existence is enough (Sex Appeal in Advertising 1996). I think this quote summarises that a womens sex appeal is the selling point and the only importance for the nature of the advertisement.

Illness Among the Chickens :: Creative Writing Essays

Illness Among the Chickens The outbreak began in early June, following the first major rush of tourism for the summer. The streets were crowded with tourists--many American, but some Japanese, Koreans, and Europeans as well. As the townspeople focused on selling their wares to the tourists, none noticed the lethargy of their poultry. As I moved passed my neighbor's poultry shed, headed toward the street to sell my copied music cds (for I am rather well off, having moved to this neighborhood to care for my ailing parents), I noticed that the chickens were lethargic, and had not seemed to have eaten. My neighbor cursed them to me when I saw him, claiming that what few eggs they laid were soft and broke when he picked them up. I moved when he kicked one, and set up my shop for the day. The next day, as I passed the chicken shack, I noticed one chicken lying next to the shack--its face was swollen, and the combs of the cocks had taken on a blueish coloration. The chicken also seemed to be sneezing, but I can never tell. I did not see my neighbor that morning, and I moved on. When I returned home, however, I saw him standing in his yard, staring down. He was flushed, and sweating, but in the heat, I took it for granted. One thing however, stopped me cold--all around him, his chickens were dead. It seemed to have come suddenly--some were dead in the water trough, as if they had been struck down while drinking. After putting on my gardening mask (I have terrible hayfever), I helped pile the corpses into a wheelbarrow and carry them off out of the town to bury them. My neighbor spit and cleared his throat a lot, and complained of a headache and said his arthritis was acting up. I gave him some aspirin, and went home for the night. Several days passed as normal, and I did not think too much of the chickens. After all, this was the busy season, and I had to make sure that I made enough to last my sister a year, when I left her [to watch] my parents [after] I returned home. However, when my neighbor's daughter crawled to my door and passed out, I knew that [the illnesses of my neighbor and his chickens] were somehow related. Illness Among the Chickens :: Creative Writing Essays Illness Among the Chickens The outbreak began in early June, following the first major rush of tourism for the summer. The streets were crowded with tourists--many American, but some Japanese, Koreans, and Europeans as well. As the townspeople focused on selling their wares to the tourists, none noticed the lethargy of their poultry. As I moved passed my neighbor's poultry shed, headed toward the street to sell my copied music cds (for I am rather well off, having moved to this neighborhood to care for my ailing parents), I noticed that the chickens were lethargic, and had not seemed to have eaten. My neighbor cursed them to me when I saw him, claiming that what few eggs they laid were soft and broke when he picked them up. I moved when he kicked one, and set up my shop for the day. The next day, as I passed the chicken shack, I noticed one chicken lying next to the shack--its face was swollen, and the combs of the cocks had taken on a blueish coloration. The chicken also seemed to be sneezing, but I can never tell. I did not see my neighbor that morning, and I moved on. When I returned home, however, I saw him standing in his yard, staring down. He was flushed, and sweating, but in the heat, I took it for granted. One thing however, stopped me cold--all around him, his chickens were dead. It seemed to have come suddenly--some were dead in the water trough, as if they had been struck down while drinking. After putting on my gardening mask (I have terrible hayfever), I helped pile the corpses into a wheelbarrow and carry them off out of the town to bury them. My neighbor spit and cleared his throat a lot, and complained of a headache and said his arthritis was acting up. I gave him some aspirin, and went home for the night. Several days passed as normal, and I did not think too much of the chickens. After all, this was the busy season, and I had to make sure that I made enough to last my sister a year, when I left her [to watch] my parents [after] I returned home. However, when my neighbor's daughter crawled to my door and passed out, I knew that [the illnesses of my neighbor and his chickens] were somehow related.

IQ and Success :: Sociology Racism Prejudice Essays

IQ and Success   Ã‚  Ã‚   Using data from a long-term survey, The Bell Curve purports to show that IQ is a far better predictor of adult success than childhood socioeconomic status. But the authors used an extremely limited number of social factors as the basis for their calculations. By taking into consideration a greater number of social factors (to make the study resemble a more complete picture of real life), sociologists have been able to show that social factors, not IQ, are a much better predictor of future success. In The Bell Curve, authors Herrnstein and Murray claim that a child's IQ is a far better predictor of future success than a child's initial socioeconomic status (or SES). For example, a white child raised in the bottom 5 percent of SES is eight times more likely to become poor than a child from the top 5 percent. But a white child whose IQ is in the bottom 5 percent is fifteen times more likely to become poor than a child whose IQ is in the top 5 percent. (1) Is this true? (Well, no -- but more on this below.) It does seems obvious that intelligence is important to succeed in life, but it also seems obvious that social factors play a large, if not larger, role. For example, the crushing economic disparity between North and South Korea has nothing to do with IQ differences, and everything to do with different social and economic policies. Even on a personal level, intelligence is only one of countless factors that contribute to success. Others include: Access to education Training opportunities Personality type Physical attractiveness Athletic ability Inheritance Nepotism Prejudice Social and business connections Knowing someone who is successful Lobbying Congress Business cycle trends Fads Inventions Discoveries Wars Speculation Gambling Miserliness Insider trading Unfair market practices And, last but not least, dumb luck -- being at the right place at the right time And these are just the adult factors -- there's a whole host of childhood factors as well, which follow below. How the rules of the game are constructed determines which of these factors becomes most important for winning and losing, and therefore which individuals have the most "merit." For example, we might think that those who play professional baseball have the most merit -- that is, they are the best players in the game.

The Neandertals :: essays research papers

The Neandertals Staring into the gloom, I imagine the cave's ancient inhabitants, wrapped in bear skins, huddled near a fire. The haunches of a reindeer roast in the fire. A mother nurses her infant. Children playfully throw pieces of bone into the flames. An old woman tends the wounds of a hunter with an herbal ointment. The strong smells of smoke, unwashed bodies, and rotting carcasses thicken the air.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Until recently, nobody would have assumed that the above passage (Rick Gore, pp.6) was about how the Neandertals lived. However, recent studies have shown that Neandertals are smarter than we first thought.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The geography of the Neandertals domain was quite odd. 230,000 years ago Europe was filled with caves, marshes, and grasslands. It was a very harsh and cold wilderness. The Neandertals were in existence right in the middle of the Ice Age, and although occasional warm periods would create subtropical conditions as far north as England for thousands of years, the glaciers would always return and the Neandertals would always be forced south again. The Neandertals could be found as far north as England and as far south as Spain, from Gibralter to Uzbekistan.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Neandertal bones have been found in the Neander Valley and Dusseldorf Germany, in Altamura, Italy and Vindija, Croatia. These are major sites for the European caves the Neandertals lived in. Although the Neandertals went to the southern tip of Italy, they never crossed the Mediterranean Sea to Africa. They migrated from central Europe to central Asia to the Middle East and always came back. Their main mode of moving around was on their feet, and they usually travelled in bands of no more than 30 people.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The Neandertals had broad noses, and scientists think this was to warm the cold air. They also had thick browridges, receding chins, high foreheads, and their skulls sloped back over their brains. They learned to hunt in groups in order to kill the bigger game. The Neandertals lived with modern humans for 10,000 years, but they didn't change, and eventually it is believed the modern humans conquered them with their more advanced technology.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Although not much is known about the Neandertal's culture, anthropologists have some ideas of how they lived their life.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  It is believed by many that the Neandertals practiced cannibalism for a death ritual. There is evidence of this on the skulls and big bones of Neandertals. There are cut marks and some bones have been broken open and are without marrow. Why would they do this? Maybe they liked the way their neighbors tasted, or maybe it was a ritual for a religion of theirs.

Our Teacher, Our Hero Essay

â€Å"You’ve better changed being naughty & playful†¦or else you’ll hurt not just me Carl!†¦ â€Å"Now, start cleaning our room†¦Ã¢â‚¬Å"You do you work properly then you may go now, okay? That’s a very normal incident in a Freshmen’s atmosphere. We can’t deny the reality that 1st year level is under adjustment period to the new world they have just taken in†¦Thank you so much for all the very patient & kind teachers†¦They perform their being 2nd parent to us†¦I love my Teachers as they love us,They take their livesto their duties & roles†¦ They are very noble†¦ One of our favourite Teacher that inspires us is Miss Kendall†¦Her life story is so sad. Her father left her when her mother got sick. She is still single at the age of 32. She must work hard for her sick mother. She also helped her brothers & sister in their schooling. She told us that she has many dreams for her family & for her career as a teacher that’s why she is not yet ready to get married to her boyfriend. She told us that she’s not yet ready to balance teaching & having family of her own. â€Å"Uuuuuyyy, uuuuyyyyyy†¦Ma’am ha†¦We saw your bf this morning Ma’am Kendall†¦Uuuyyyy†¦You’re a good match Ma’am†¦Your pretty &hi’s handsome†¦he-he-he†¦Ã¢â‚¬  â€Å"Sssshhh, sssshhh†¦stop teasing me girls†¦We’re still under knowing each other†¦he-he-he† â€Å"But Ma’am really you’re a good match†¦please don’t forget to invite us Ma’am on your wedding, okay?†¦He-he-he! Pretty sure, we will all be there Ma’am†¦Ã¢â‚¬  â€Å"Sssshhhaaa, sssshhhaaa†¦That’s enough now. Let’s have your practice for your LitMus Pieces now†¦Please call the other candicates Chris†¦Ã¢â‚¬  â€Å"Okay Ma’am, I’ll call them outside†¦Ã¢â‚¬ Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Susan, Alfred†¦pls. get inside now†¦we’re getting ready for our practice now†¦Ã¢â‚¬  â€Å"Now, let’s start with Alfred for his vocal so lo†¦Ready now Alfred†¦Ã¢â‚¬  (Alfred singing his contest song†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦..) (Ma’am Kendall applause Alfred for his performance†¦) â€Å"Alfred you’re getting better now†¦but you still need to practice more, Okay†¦Ã¢â‚¬  â€Å"Thank you so much Ma’am for your great support†¦I promise to do it better†¦Ã¢â‚¬  â€Å"It’s my great pleasure supporting you in times like this†¦be the best you can,okay?†¦Next, let’s have Susan for her Filipino Declamation†¦Ã¢â‚¬  â€Å"Basilio? Crispin? Mgaanakko? Nasaanna kayo?†¦Nandito n siNanay†¦.Mgaanakko? Nasaan kayo?†¦Basilio? Crispin?†¦Basiliooooooooooo†¦Crispiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiinnnn†¦Ã¢â‚¬  â€Å"Bravo, bravo, Susan†¦You’re getting better everyday†¦It’s another great performance†¦I know, you can be everybody’s beat†¦ha-ha-ha!† â€Å"Thank you so much Ma’am†¦I’m getting better every day because of your great help Ma’am Kendall†¦I’m good because you’re also good Ma’am†¦ â€Å"I agree with you Susan†¦You, Ma’am Kendall & all teachers are our happiness & inspiration in school†¦ â€Å"Thank you also Susan for your kind words†¦It adds joy to my heart as you say it†¦You’re all the reason why I am here†¦he-he-he†¦Chris it’s your turn now†¦Ready?† â€Å"Yes Ma’am†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ballooooooot, Ballooooooooot†¦For sale†¦for sale Nutritious Ballooooot†¦For sale delicious Ballooooot†¦Ã¢â‚¬  â€Å"Hey, girl! Come here!I’ll your ballot! (Drunk man)†¦How much is ten pieces?† †¦ †Thirteen each Sir†¦130 all in all Sir†¦Ã¢â‚¬ Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.†What?!?†¦your over-pricing young girl†¦That’s so expensive†¦here’s what is good to your Ballot†¦Uuummm†¦Uuummm†¦Ã¢â‚¬  Oh no!!! No!!!Pls stop it!huhuhu†¦pls stop it Sir†¦pls†¦What have you than to my Ballot†¦huhuhu†¦what have you done? You have no pity, drunkard†¦huhuhu†¦You’ll be paying for this†¦huhuhu†¦Ã¢â‚¬  â€Å"Wooowww!!! Amazing performance Chris†¦you did a great job! Your really getting better in your piece Chris†¦Congratulations! I am so happy that you really are practicing so well†¦Ã¢â‚¬  â€Å"Thank you so much Ma’am†¦we are so happy doing this for all of us Ma’am†¦We will try to win in our contest.† In a surprise, Rommel rushed hurriedly inside our classroom and telling something bad news to Ma’am and his catching his breath†¦Rommel is Ma’am Kendall’s nephew†¦ â€Å"Tita Ram†¦please, pls†¦be in a hurry†¦Lola was brought to the hospital†¦she was again attacked of her Asthma†¦she seemed not to look good this time Tita†¦Ã¢â‚¬  â€Å"What?†¦My goodness†¦oh my, oh my Good Lord, pls help my mother†¦ Please†¦Lord God please help her again this time†¦Okay†¦let’s go†¦Excuse me class†¦I should attend my mother in the hospital†¦Take good care of yourself†¦Be home early Okay?†¦Don’t go anywhere†¦Go home early okay?†¦Ã¢â‚¬  â€Å"Okay, Ma’am†¦don’t worry about us Ma’am†¦please take care also Ma’am†¦Please be calm & relax Ma’am†¦we will help pray to God, that your mother will get better Ma’am†¦Ã¢â‚¬  We were speechless while following Ma’am Kendall on her way to the hospital†¦we just stared to each other without any sound from ourselves†¦I just realized we are all shocked†¦after a while, I asked my classmates to follow me in my prayers for Ma’am Kendall’s mother†¦We prayed not just for that moment but every moment we pray to God, we include our teachers in our prayers†¦Let us all pray for our Heroes, our Teachers†¦

Economic Development Land Tenure Systems

  Land tenure can be defined as the traditional or legal rights which individuals and groups have to land and the behavior characteristics which directly result from these rights. The above definition denotes social relationships manifested in the property rights which individuals and groups have to the land. Land tenure is a crucial factor in the operation of rural land markets, influencing the pace and direction of agricultural development. Since land tenure systems govern access to the means of production in agriculture, they have also been an intensely political subject in rural societies.The first indication of tenure considerations is found among certain preliterate or primitive societies. Among these groups the appropriation of land has not assumed importance in and of itself and the land is viewed as free in total. But in some societies which have progressed no further than a hunting and fishing economy, exclusive claims sometimes are made on certain parcels of land.Since c olonial times, the dominant belief has been that individual tenure is more progressive, modern, efficient, and better for economic growth than indigenous communal tenure. The arguments in favor of labeling claimed that customary tenure is insecure for the small farmer and provides no incentive for land improvements, that it prevents land from being used as collateral for credit and that it prevents the transfer of land from inefficient users to efficient ones. They expected that indigenous customary tenure would wither, but it has proved surprisingly resilient and adaptable, and has coexisted with modern tenure. The most effective form of policy intervention would be governmental guidance, so that customary tenure systems evolve and operate more effectively.Some studies argue that tenure insecurity is correlated negatively with the quality of resource management. Over usage and degradation of natural resources, such as deforestation and soil erosion, are often characterized because of incomplete, inconsistent property rights, as the costs are borne by society as a whole, whereas benefits accrue to individuals. The relationship between customary tenure and land degradation indicates that customary tenure is partly responsible for land degradation. However the behavior that leads to land degradation by smallholder farmers under customary tenure cannot be linked to their lack of tenure security under customary tenure. Rather it is linked to other reasons such as lack of knowledge of conservation practices, use of traditional agricultural production practices that are not sustainable, and lack of inputs such as labor. In this regard, small farmers need extension methods that focus on relevant technologies that promote sustainable agricultural production. (Lynn Smith, 1953)The concept of land reform is itself a controversial and semantically intriguing topic. Its narrowest and traditional meaning confines it to land distribution. A broader view includes in it other related changes in agricultural institutions, such as credit, taxation, rents, cooperatives, etc. It can also be interperated that these reforms are practically synonymous with all agricultural improvement measures — better seeds, price policies, irrigation, research, mechanization, etc.The Land Tenure reforms to be found in any country appear to a great extent to be the function of government. They are closely related to the social and economic well-being of the people. The latter fact sets the stage for the discussion in this chapter. Its concern is the major forms or systems of land tenure and the distinct patterns of social and economic relationships characteristic of each. By way of illustration they point out, among other examples, that individualism and individual initiative are usually more developed in a community of individual farm-owners on small holdings than in a community where one or a few men own all the land and the workers are serfs, laborers, or non-managi ng tenants of one kind or another.The extent to which the ownership and control of the land is concentrated in a few hands or widely distributed among those who live from farming is probably the most important single determinant of the welfare of the people on the land. Throughout the world wherever there is a widespread distribution of land ownership and control.The implication of intense pressure of farm population on agricultural land inevitably results in a farm-tenure situation that is unsatisfactory from the point of view of working farm people. This is so because pressure of population on land drives down the marginal productivity of labor and the real return to labor as a factor of production. If farm land-tenure reforms are not accompanied by policies to reduce excessive pressure of farm population on agricultural land, such reforms are likely to be of little or no avail. Fortunately, the two recent programs to assist depressed rural areas to some degree reflect an awarenes s of this principle.The term that is basic to land tenure theory and which helps to explain the usefulness of the interdisciplinary approach is distribution. According to economic theory, laying aside all qualifying statements for the sake of simplicity, the impersonal market distributes economic rewards according to merit. However, is too narrow a concept to explain fully the distribution principle even in a † free † market. (Alvin L. Bertrand, Floyd L. Corty 1962)The reform or liberal position on the land question thus far had been to make the public-land system function in a democratic way by assuring the small man the right to acquire a piece of the national domain. Limitations were put in the Preemption, the Graduation, the Homestead Acts and their variations to make certain that only the small man could take advantage of them until the issue of the patent, but beyond that they had no effect. All such measures were therefore used by large interests acting through fa ke buyers to acquire lands they could not legally acquire otherwise.Timber land in Wisconsin, Minnesota, California, and Washington, grazing lands in Colorado, Wyoming, Arizona, and Idaho, wheat lands in Kansas, Nebraska, North and South Dakota passed into the hands of great lumber companies, cattle companies, and bonanza farm groups under laws that were designed to prevent large-scale accumulation. The unwillingness of Congress to experiment with restrictions on alienation made inevitable the concentration of ownership which grieved western agrarians. (Alvin L. Bertrand, Floyd L. Corty, 1962)Evans, Greeley, George, and other radicals had failed to carry the mass of land reformers with them on the question of alienability. Americans found it easy to be radical or to favor reform when to do so did not impose any self limitation, but few were attracted to any idea that might restrict their right to accumulate property or to sell and gain the unearned increment.The reforms which were b eing adopted at this late time were both ineffective and to some extent unwise. Since the desirable size for land-use units was increasing as population moved into the arid and semi-arid regions, the 320 acre limitation on the amount of government land persons could acquire compelled either evasion and abuse of the laws to acquire adequately sized units or the establishment of small grain farms in areas unsuited to cultivation. This pattern of evasion and abuse of the land laws and the establishment of small grain farms in areas better planned by nature for grazing carried well into the twentieth century. Not until 1934 were comprehensive and far-reaching reforms initiated to produce a desirable and constructive plan of land use.The preponderant, almost the universal view of Americans until near the end of the nineteenth century was that the government should get out of the land business as rapidly as possible by selling or giving to settlers, donating for worthy purposes and ceding the lands to the states which should in turn pass them swiftly into private hands. No matter how badly owners abused their holdings through reckless cultivation, destructive and wasteful cutting of the timber, prodigal and careless mining for coal and drilling for oil, few questioned their right to subject their property to any form of use or abuse.An extensive part of the fertile coastal plain and piedmont of the South and of the hill-farming area of the northeast could be cultivated in such a way as to reduce the land to barren, gullied, and eroded tracts no longer able to produce crops, to support families, and to carry their share of community costs, but few denied the right of the owners to do as they wished with their property or, more fundamentally, questioned the system of land distribution that seemed to invite such practices.The shore line of the Atlantic, of bays and inlets, of inland lakes all near congested urban areas could be monopolized by a wealthy few, and still t here were few complaints. Rich landlords, speculators, and corporations could buy unlimited amounts of land from the United States, or purchase from other owners who had acquired tracts from the state or federal government and keep their holdings from development for years, thereby blighting whole areas, delaying the introduction of schools and roads and doing immeasurable harm to neighboring residents.ReferencesAlvin L. Bertrand, Floyd L. Corty (1962) Rural Land Tenure in the United States: A Socio-Economic Approach to Problems, Programs, and Trends. Southwest Land Tenure Research Committee   Louisiana State University Press. Place of Publication: Baton RougeAlvin L. Bertrand, † The Social System as a Conceptual and Analytical Device in the Study ofLand Tenure,† Land Tenure Workshop Report, Chap. VII.Lynn Smith, The Sociology of Rural Life (3d ed.; New York: Harper & Bros., 1953), 274.Rawls John ( 1971) The Theory of Justice. Belknap Press.Rawls J (2001) Justice as Fa irness: A Restatement. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.Roth Michael 2002) Integrating Land Issues and Land Policy with Poverty Reduction andRoland R. Renne, Land Economics ( New York: Harper & Bros., 1947), 429.William H. Nicholls, † Southern Traditions and Regional Economic Progress,† SouthernEconomic Journal, Vol. 26 ( January, 1960), 187-98; id., Southern Traditions and Regional Economic Progress ( Chapel Hill, N. C.: University of North Carolina Press, 1960).

Parties and party systems: A framework for analysis Essay

Political parties Introduction   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Political parties are present in nations all over the world and politicians use parties as a way to outline their efforts in order to be elected. Political parties can be seen as social movements, with politicians trying to persuade people to consider their party. However, they have created legitimacy in a nation with widespread approval of institutional or government power. Although political parties have varying ranks of participation in their corresponding governments, many nations are used to permit members of several political parties to be represented in  the ratio with a prevalent electoral vote. Moreover, other nations comprise of only one political  party and still other nations are controlled by a small number of political parties. Consequently, political system of America has extensively been described as a â€Å"two political  parties’ nation. This has endured persistent, although the political parties which were in charge have been modified and there are a number of outlooks as to why this is so (De Leon, 2004).   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The two major parties in the United State have failed to meet the expectations of their followers. Their supporters are looking forward for a day when other political parties will have a say in the United State, a day when they will vote for a president from another party other than the Democrat or Republican. Is not that they are no other political parties in the United State, but there are small parties that cannot fit in the current political system (Mann, 2013). Two-party system was introduced in the United State by Alexander Hamilton’s with an aim of introducing a new political era. The system was effective because there was healthy competition between the Republicans and the Democrats for many years. However, this system has been misused by the current political leaders.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   According to Popkin (2012), in the past, Republican were known for their interest on matters of private enterprise and government while the Democrats were well known for their fighting spirit when it comes to the issues of the common man and labor rights. Currently there has been a dramatic change in these responsibilities because politicians of both parties have become selfish, self-centered and corrupt. Republicans leader’s supports lobbying groups which they well know that they have huge number of followers; a good example is the gay marriage group which was in support by the republicans in 2012 presidential elections. The common people are left to suffer and that is a good reason why voters are looking for another presidential candidate from a different party other than republicans or democrats.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   United State needs another party which will be moderate. Citizens need a party that will consider the rights of all citizens regardless of their race, gender or financial status. A party that will not support lobbying groups and its leaders will not be self-centered or corrupt. The moderate party will be run with transparency and thus they will be free to tell the truth to its followers. This party will force the democrats and the republicans to change their leadership system, and thus the Democrats and the Republican will try to copy the moderate party policies. All that is the dream of the voters who are tired of the two-party system in the United State and maybe it will come to reality one day (Ornstein, 2013).   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The republicans and the democrats have a strong influence in the government because they believe if they are in the government, they have the rules. This slogan makes it hard for other parties to rise inthe United States (Mair, 2005). The two parties are rich and thus they have all the money to support their presidential candidates. This enhances the popularity of the candidate and thus they end up winning the elections. The solution to this dominance of the two political parties is that all the presidential candidates should be publically funded so that they can be given equal amount of money for their campaigns. Voters now will be free to elect leaders not because of their political parties or financial status but because of their ideology.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The topic of the two political parties in the United State and the demand for a change from the voters is interesting to everybody in the whole world. People all over the world find this topic of political system in the United State interesting because of its uniqueness. Many democratic countries have multi-party system where various political parties are involved in the government compared to the United State where there are only two horses. A lot of people tend to study this topic in order to know how the government is run by the two parties, how elections are conducted with only two candidates and why the other parties fail to rise in this system. Demand by voters for another moderate party is the most interesting issue in this topic, but will the current dominance of the republicans and democrats allow this change? And who will introduce this moderate party? This is the most interesting topic in the Americans politics (McAuliffe, 2007) .   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The current evolution of politics in the United States must include numerous political parties to vie for the presidency position and other positions. The idea of considering only two parties does not fulfill the rights of political development in any governing nation and inclusion of third parties should mostly be deliberated. Though the American political structure has reliably been in this two party system, third parties occasionally stimulate elections and the candidates for those third party still sometime obtain elected posts in various states. The two party system is an influential system of politics because the two parties recognizes their mutual interests and they can keep for third party from gaining popularity and impact (Holt, 1992). New parties bring new ideas and philosophies in the world of politics. Collaboration of the two main parties to keep any other competitor party from gaining ground extremely brings a difficult chal lenge to any incoming third party.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Since the representation of the Green Party in the 1984 election, where it acted as the third party, deduction can be made that third parties have lacked interest in politics. Inclusion of third parties comprises much significance to many citizens and the same time offer great threat to the dominating parties. Third parties embrace people who feel strongly about a certain issue because that party focuses exclusively on it and this party can be closely tied to a particular region, which can raise their appeal. A third political party suggests numerous government practices and policies which lead to progress in a state generally. Third parties accomplish an impression on the political landscape and they have been having more achievement in elections than before (Conor and Lem, 2006).   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   If there is an inclusion of a third party in the current politics of the United States, major and prominent parties (Republican and Democrat) can address positively on divisible problems due to pressure and stiff competition. Moreover, third party like the Green Party can challenge one of the dominant party on various issues such as social justice while the other third party can position problems to the other major party. In simple terms, candidates of third party speak more honestly and freely than their major party opponents, addressing issues and facts that the foremost parties would often prefer to disregard. The reason behind this is because third parties usually consider themselves as having little chance of winning thus displaying their infidelity to the citizens (Hirano, 2007).   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Snyder and Hirano (2007) have stated various factors which have potentially contributed to the existence of a two party system in the United States. One of the factors that influence mostly is the state of the economy in America. The state of the economy in America discourages the third party due to its necessities since third parties are just developing parties. Therefore, they do not have adequate funds to manage the status of the economy. High cost of political campaigns contributes greatly to lack of third political in the politics of the United States. The cost of managing and maintaining campaigns in all states of America is extremely high and this is a disadvantage to third parties because of inadequate funds. In addition, the rise of candidate-centered politics and political power at the national level has resulted to the two party system. However, electoral legislation which has influenced America is the Australian ballot whereby it involves restrictions as to who can appear on it. These limits create high obstacles which can only be controlled by any political with high amount of money.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   In conclusion, these views and opinions can be considered as theory which needs to be validated in the political system of America. All factors leading to the deterioration of third parties can be tied to diversity. A great compact of resistance happens between political parties due to pressure on competition of generating voters thus strengthening the democracy of a nation. Existence of political parties ensures that there is no political perspective ignored and may be the reason the two party systems is well accepted in America. Generally, the dominance of third party in the political system of America will highly influence and modify its development. The foundation of all factors that are hindering the existence of a third party is based on the current political system in America and this gives an impression that with most factors considered, it is possible for things to change. References De Leon, C. (2004). â€Å"Radicals in Our Midst: the American Critique of Capitalism in Hirano, S. and James M. Snyder, Jr. (2007). â€Å"The Decline of Third-Party Voting in the United States† The Journal of Politics, 69:1.Holt, M. F. (1992). Political parties and American political development: From the age of Jackson to the age of Lincoln. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press. Lem, S. B., and Conor M. D. (2006). â€Å"Picking Their Spots: Minor PartyCandidates in Gubernatorial Elections† Political Research Quarterly, 59:3. Saved April 6, 2012. Available: JSTOR Mann, T. E., & Ornstein, N. J. (2013). It’s even worse than it looks: How the American constitutional system collided with the new politics of extremism. New York: Basic Books. McAuliffe, T., & Kettmann, S. (2007). What a party!: My life among Democrats : presidents, candidates, donors, activists, alligators, and other wild animals. New York: Thomas Dunne Books. Popkin, S. L. (2012). The candidate: What it takes to win, and hold, the White House. New York: Oxford University Press. Sartori, G., & Mair, P. (2005). Parties and party systems: A framework for analysis. Colchester: ECPR. The Chicago Two-Party System, 1833-1867.† Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of  the American Sociological Association San Francisco, California. Source document