Causes and Effects of Poverty

Causes and Effects of Poverty In the U. S. , there have been statistics that show that 15 to 25% of the population is living in poverty. Poverty is known as not being able to provide bare minimum requirements to survive, such as food and shelter. There are many causes that associate with poverty, that could include unemployment rates or people believe that some people are just lazy. The effects of poverty can be substantial. It effects people’s health, environment, and causes deprivations. The unemployment rate is still high today, which means there are people who still live in poverty.Some people are not just lazy; it just seems that it is difficult to find employment right now. Many people that are in poverty are because they did not continue their education after high school and many jobs are requiring degrees. Another reason some people are in poverty, is because they made mistakes in their past and when they try to make their life right they have difficulty finding employ ment. There are many reasons for poverty, but most of the causes are the unemployment rate. An effect of poverty is malnutrition.Malnutrition during infancy and childhood years can cause many great complications with development. Many children that suffer from malnutrition could have poor immune systems, developmental problems with their nervous system, or even brain damage. Compared to children that are not poor, children in poverty are two to three times more likely to have some sort of mental or physical disability from malnutrition. Children who grow up in poverty are also usually unlikely to finish their education. Many children in poverty are about 75 percent less likely to graduate high school than a child that is not poor.Even if a child that grows up in poverty does graduate high school, they are less likely to continue their education with college. As a matter of fact, less than four percent of children in the lowest quartile of family’s income do not graduate colle ge. In today’s world education is important. Many jobs today will not hire people without an education or even without a college degree. All in all, poverty is a big issue. It has been for a long time, just maybe one day the government will help fix the issue. It is not fair for all the children that live in poverty to suffer because their parents work so hard just to make ends meet.Education is the key to success these days, and we should all make sure our children are aware of that at a young age. Works Cited Chitranshi, Mansi. â€Å"Cause and Effects of Poverty. † Articles Wave (2009). Hill, Lewis E. â€Å"The Institutional Economics of Poverty: An Inquiry into the Causes and Effects of Poverty. † Journal of Economic Issues (1998): 279-285. Hunt, Matthew O. The Individual, Society, or Both? A Comparison of Black, Latino, and White Beliefs about the Causes of Poverty. September 1996. Lamson, John. â€Å"Exploring the Ecology of Poverty. † Human Ecology (2009): 4-9.

Notes For Religion Exam

Theory essay and pop culture essay. Underline and circle key terms Islam, Post cool, psychoanalytical theory Chinese, Islam, indigenous, Hinduism, Janis, Buddhism 6 study questions Chinese Religion Question 3 -? How would you characterize Confucianism treatment of women? – Women had a critical, albeit indirect and informal role to play in government. Stores told illustrate the influence that a woman could exercise through intelligence and wisdom.Their role is important but lesser than the man. Bed ritual Islam Religion Question 3 – What is the Curran? How is it understood in the Muslim tradition? – The Curran was revealed to the prophet Muhammad over a period of 23 years. The angel Gabriel appeared to him and gave him the verses that became the Curran. It is the word of god and is not translated, but always read in Arabic. Indigenous Religion Question 3 -? Many indigenous religions have understood religious power in gendered terms.How are these gender divisions r eflected n the traditions you have read about in this chapter? – Women are generally higher than men in indigenous religions. In Melanesia, men are very suspicious of women and perform odd rituals in order to have menstrual equality. Hinduism Religion Question 3 – What role do sacred texts play in Hinduism? They play a significant role in the religion. The Veda is the most authoritative text. Many of the ideas in this book helped establish Hinduism. The Veda is not kept in homes and its ideas are handed down from enervation to generation.Janis Religion Question 3 -? What are the main reasons believed to be responsible for the Asseverate and Digamma splitting? Occurred after the death of Mayfair Discrepancy over ascetic practice, women, and nature of the Jinn Separation – culture reform Buddhism Religion Question 3 – What role if any do deities play in Buddhism? Do not play a major role Many deities in the religion that represent certain ideals, but Buddha preached to let go of the idea of a God in order to achieve NirvanaCritical Race Theory – Racialism (Belief in racial superiority), racism (Power relations that grow from segregation), Hegemony (white dominance of America), intra-racial racism (racism within black community, and Internalized racism.

American Education And William A Henry Education Essay

American Education And William A Henry Education Essay In America today we believe that everyone should be educated and seek some form of higher education. We also believe that everyone should be entitled to the same educational opportunities and given every chance to become a productive member of society. Because of these beliefs it has made us the strong democratic country that we are today. In William A. Henry III’s essay â€Å"In Defense of Elitism† he believes that everyone should not be given the same educational opportunities; because he believes that not everyone is competent enough to make it in college. Henry thinks that a college education should only be offered to an elite few. He believes that if America would follow his method then the educational standards would rise and make college more prestigious. Henry believes that too many students in college today are only there to make more money in the future and he believes that this is the wrong reason to seek a college education. Because of this it is creating a tremendous downfall in our education system. Henry is not alone on this belief. Benjamin R. Barber shares this same belief in his essay â€Å"America Skips School.† Barber also agrees with Henry in the belief that there should be a very distinguished line separating vocational and academic education. Even though they share some of the same beliefs, they begin to clash when it comes to their ideas of improving America’s education system. Barber believes that we have failed to educate our youth. We have created a money hungry generation and by not allowing them to go to college will taking away the only opportunity they have to become well educated and a productive member of society. Barbers ideas and beliefs outweigh those of Henry, because he realizes the need and importance to have well educated citizens in order to preserve and strengthen the strong democracy that America has worked so hard to achieve. William A. Henry criticizes America’s views on education. He thinks that having this egalitarian outlook is degrading our educational values and taking away from the hard work and accomplishment of getting a college degree these days. Henry backs up his point by stating that there are too many students enrolled in college and eventually the standards and requirements for college will drop. Henry believes that it’s normal for your average young adult to receive a college degree and the prestige of possessing one is no longer there. Ultimately, he thinks we have allowed too many people who are unqualified to receive a college degree. Henry would like to see elitism brought back to America’s education system. Therefore he proposes that we reduce the number of high school students who go on to college by giving every senior a standardized test and shutdown down schools depending on the students performance. Henry thinks that every student is ultimately responsible for their own future and eventually they have to step up and take responsibility for their own actions. By separating the ones that care about their education from the ones that don’t will restore our education..

Case Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 2

Case - Essay Example The action the farmer took to detain him while calling and waiting for the sheriff does not qualify the case to be classified under false imprisonment. The farmer detained the plaintiff in order to go and call the sheriff who was to act as a judge in this particular situation hence no false imprisonment. The law applied in this scenario is the tort law of false imprisonment. This law protects personal interests when it comes to freedom against restraint of movement. According to this tort, the plaintiff must be confined consciously and within boundaries. For it to however qualify as a false imprisonment, force must have been used and improper assertion of legal authority (Statsky 51). This case is similar to that of Herbst because in both cases, the detention of the plaintiffs was done as an effort to enable the defendant call the authority to solve the case prior to the detention of the plaintiffs. Before the detention, the plaintiffs in both cases were informed of the reason for the detention and what action was to be taken. In both cases also, the plaintiffs had invaded private property without announcing themselves first and without any permission hence according to the law, they were trespassing and therefore deserved to be detained by the owners of the properties pending further legal action by law enforcers (Statsky 52). The case is however different from that of Dupler. This is because Dupler had been given prior warning of the decision she was going to make after being relieved of the duties at the firm. She had been given a dichotomous answer and the refusal to resign led her to be sacked (Statsky 50). It is also different in that her detainers were her former boss and workmates and not strangers and she had not trespassed any property like the situation with the above mentioned two cases. Unlike the other two scenarios before, Dupler had been

Large TNCs are merely instrumental Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Large TNCs are merely instrumental - Essay Example The redefining of the means of production as well as the production of luxury goods, the overall orientation of the society has changed a lot. Traditionally economics measures the society’s well being through GDP however, it also ignores the personal and social well beings of the individuals. The alternative views however do suggest that economies rather than serving the consumers are actually serving the large corporations. Corporations are not just the entities which fulfill the needs of the consumers but rather the wants of the consumers are created by the corporations so that they can profit from them. By limiting the brands available to the public, corporations however limit the choices available to the consumers hence forcing them to consume their products. This paper will basically argue and debate two opposing views of whether consumers are in control while making their choices or their choices can be reshaped through advertising and other channels which can ultimately create a culture which force consumers to spend. Markets and Consumers Traditional economics focuses on the consumers as a rational individual capable of making decisions based upon rationality. This view therefore also outlines that the choices of the consumers are independent and cannot be influenced. As such corporations as well as advertising can only help the consumers to make better choices. This view therefore outlines that the demands and choices of the consumers are internally generated and the markets can only support the consumers and firms to interact with each other to fulfill these internally generated needs and wants of the consumers. In a market based economy, consumer is considered as a king and based upon the notion of consumer sovereignty the decisions on production are made. As such this view therefore outlines that the demands and supply for the goods and services is primarily driven by the consumer choices with little role or influence from the external actors such as firms and advertising. The role of the firms therefore is just limited to providing what a well informed and rational consumer wants. JK Galbraith in his phenomenal book, The Affluent Society however maintained that it is not always the case that the consumer choices or demands are internally generated. Galbraith therefore believes that these demands and wants have been created through the advertising and what he called machinery for consumer demand creation. Galbraith therefore went on to such suggest that such extravagant spending by the consumers whose choices are largely driven by the advertising put burden on the public spending and investment. (Galbraith, 1998)Â   How corporations affects our choices Galbraith’s analysis suggested that the consumer choices may not be necessarily internally generated as the Post War US economy progressed in a manner which gave enormous power to the corporations. He also argued that the mechanics of consumer demand and supply ar e not just driven by the consumers but by the long term planning by the large corporations also. According to him, large as well as small firms do not just work as instruments to provide what well informed consumers want but rather through advertising they can create the demands.( Galbraith, 1971)Â   This view is radically different from the conventional wisdom in economics because it exposes the vulnerabilities of the assumption of perfect markets. Market based economics works on the basis of the

Understanding the Leadership Basics Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 20

Understanding the Leadership Basics - Case Study Example This is a case study which focuses on integrity as one of the basic ingredients that should be understood as far as becoming a leader and practising responsible leadership is concerned. One of the essential characteristics that define a leader with integrity is the clear self-knowledge. A leader of integrity usually has a clear and definite self-knowledge in terms of strengths, weaknesses, abilities, self-insight, and even capabilities. A good leader who demonstrates integrity should be able to balance these traits of self-knowledge. Warren mentions leaders know their assets and faults and they deal with these in a direct manner since none of them lies to themselves and in particular about themselves (34). This implies that leaders who properly know who they are and what they are consisted of have no problems reinventing themselves. Some world’s most prolific and famous leaders have shown that they possess this characteristic, an example being the current United States President Barak Obama who has become a people’s hero through self-knowledge and self-reinvention. Another characteristic that essentially defines a leader of integrity is maturity. Integrity in leadership is not complete without the element of maturity since leading is not necessarily ordered issuance or showing the way. Maturity in leadership comes through experience and it is through it that a leader shows the ability to be dedicated and being observant while working and learning from others. According to Warren, leaders who are capable of locating the element of maturity and its qualities in themselves possess the gear necessary in self-encouragement (35). President Obama is a mature, ambitious and powerful political leader who through the slogan â€Å"Yes we can† demonstrates that great that great things are achieved through focusing on possibilities and not dwelling on limitations.   Therefore, any leader is considered to be full of integrity if maturity can be located in their modes of operation, criteria of decision making and means of conflict resolution.  

Carbon Cap and Trade Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Carbon Cap and Trade - Research Paper Example Watch CO2Â  Now.org, the annual trend of CO2 emission has been on the rise since 1959 when the amount of CO2 emitted to the atmosphere was 315.97 ppm. In 2014, the amount had spiraled to 398.55 ppm. As such many countries have joined in the race to reduce the rate of carbon emission into the atmosphere by enacting environmental policies aimed at cutting down the volume of CO2 released into the atmosphere through human activities and oblige to the Kyoto Protocol. Having gone through an introduction to the state of global CO2 emission, it is prudent to look at policies countries are implementing to reduce the rate of CO2 emission into the atmosphere. This paper focuses on Carbon Cap and Trade as a means of reducing the emissions of CO2 through human activities. Cap and trade refers to an environmental policy mechanism that achieves its mission by imposing mandatory cap on carbon emissions. According to this mechanism, a regulatory body, for example, the federal government, device and puts a cap on the acceptable volumes of emission of a pollutant (CO2) for specified polluters such as manufacturing companies. The overall amount of permissible emissions under the cap is apportioned into single permits. Emission permits are permits that give polluters the right to emit certain ton of CO2 into the atmosphere. Each permit gives the authority to emit a given volume of the pollutant. These permits are then distributed to polluters covered by the program. The cap specifies the maximum amount of tons of carbon that a polluter is allowed to emit. The cap limits the number of permits that can be issued to polluters, thus making the permits financially valuable items that can be bought and sold in an open market. Consequently, companies that are capab le of lowering their emissions at cheaply can sell their surplus permits to companies with high cost of reducing emissions. This approach offers companies the freedom to choose how to meet their emission targets. However, market

Discuss the photograph below with specifics to the assignment given

Discuss the photograph below with specifics to the given - Assignment Example Iconic images such as "Girl with Flag" taken by Ethan Miller for the Las Vegas Sun become iconic because of their ability to blend a sense of reality with a sense of the artistic to fully convey the feelings of the time. In this image, a little blond-haired girl in jeans and a grey T-shirt with what appears to be an American flag printed on it, sits on the shoulders of her father, causing her to rise clearly above the crowd around them, as she solemnly looks up at the unfurled American flag she holds in one hand and has her other hand uplifted and outstretched. The photo was taken on the night after the 9/11 attacks in 2001 when the Las Vegas community held a massive candlelight vigil for those who died that day (Shine, 2011). The darkened sky above the little girl appears to be filled with sparks of light while the area below her is filled with the faces of sad-eyed adults of multiple different races, all grieving together. Through the artistic use of the camera as well as the experience of the human eye, Miller was able to capture a scene that epitomized the sentiments of the country at that time. The photo spoke to the culture in a number of ways at that time. The crowd is very diverse in both age and race, illustrating the concept that this is a united country, especially in times of trouble. As a nation, we value our ability to unite as this crowd has done within a single emotional response to a terrible event. The fact that they are all of adult size with the exception of the little girl really highlights her youth and the concept that we believe in upholding our children as the future of the nation. The effect of the sparks of light occurring above the little girl in the image combined with the fact that she is looking up gives the impression that these sparks may be the lost souls making their departure, but they are actually just pinpoints of light that are out of focus. This technique is called bokeh and is achieved by opening the aperture a

SUCCESSFUL STRATEGIC PLANNING Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

SUCCESSFUL STRATEGIC PLANNING - Research Paper Example With all this talk about a successful strategic plan as a mast to sail through the tempest, several seed organizations are quizzed with what exactly is a successful strategic plan. How should one implement it and how can an organization gauge its effectiveness? This article has been an attempt to shed light on some of the nuances of a successful strategic plan. In the current economic turmoil many organizations have claimed that survival in their respective industry was mainly due to a strong, long-term and usable strategic plan. Organizations that failed to follow their strategic plan or did not have a workable plan in the first place, are facing extinction. With all this talk about a successful strategic plan as a mast to sail through the tempest, several seed organizations are quizzed with what exactly is a successful strategic plan. How should one implement it and how can an organization gauge its effectiveness? A strategic plan is the roadmap of an organization. It tells an organization who it is, what does it aspire to be, how to get there and how to continue to grow. A strategic plan at its core clearly defines how an organization will achieve its vision. This is in striking contrast to a long-range plan which primarily focuses on determining an organization’s vision (McKay, 2001). Before writing a strategic plan, an organization must determine why it needs a strategic plan. Is the plan required for governance, for a new program development or as an instructional guide to provide a common vision and focus, with agreed-upon goals and strategies? Having clearly defined the need for a strategic plan, the organization then moves to developing a strategic plan. Conduct an environmental scan: This process is usually termed as the SWOT analysis. SWOT stands for Strength, Weakness, Opportunity and Threat. A SWOT analysis is crucial to gauge how an organization relates to the external

Is Cloud Computing Beneficial to Organizations Research Paper

Is Cloud Computing Beneficial to Organizations - Research Paper Example Vast potentials for improving monetary revenues, performances and environmental concerns in these organizations were identified. Businesses, libraries and universities can substantially grow by using strategies to overcome cloud computing challenges identified in this study. 1. Introduction 1.1 History and Development of â€Å"Cloud† Development of â€Å"cloud† can be considered as an inevitable trend which began in 1950s as hardware time-sharing (Earnst and Young, 2012) and â€Å"Utility computing† and â€Å"Grid computing† in late 1980s (Global Technology Industry, 2011). Thus aggregating assets had been beneficial over on-premise computing since the beginning of IT industry. â€Å"Utility computing† allowed consumers to pay for computer software based on the amount they utilized as opposed to the traditional method of purchasing the entire software. â€Å"Grid computing† aggregated the processing power of several idle computers, decreased the time taken for operations of large software and provided multiple accesses to the data bases stored in remote computer labs, libraries and other offices in the universities (Educause, 2006). Moreover, Utility computing and Grid computing decreased the cost of purchasing license for software, increased convenience in monitoring the information systems in universities, aggregated the processors and decreased the time consumption on detailed-software such the 3D graphic designing. But these concepts were restricted to small scale operations in these organizations. Development of cloud enabled large scales businesses reaping benefits from resource aggregation and virtualization. It contains similar characteristics to Utility computing, Grid computing, High Speed Computers and clusters. But cloud computing essentially defers from Utility and Grid computing, due to many attributes. Example: services, deployment, associated issues and scope for development. These are described in detai l in the proceeding chapters. Furthermore, public used remotely hosted servers for connecting to the internet and obtaining web services such as Gmail, chat, e-banking and social-networking in large scale for a considerable time period in the history. But resource virtualization was not recognized as a possible venture involving vast economic benefits until the development of cloud in recent history. Cloud computing involves large scale aggregating and vitalizing of IT assets. It delivers a number of economic and operational benefits to all the consumer segments (Gong, Liu, Zhang, Chen and Gong, 2010). It has a growing potential to decrease the firms’ production costs, create virtual business firms and market business process as a service in modern economies (Earnst and Young, 2012). As opposed to Grid computing which mainly involved academic and government institutions cloud computing service providers involve commercial IT giants such as Google, Microsoft, Apple, Amazon, IB M and Oracle (Gong et. al, 2010). And also private, cooperate and contract software developers and venders also market in clouds. Consumers of cloud computing services vary from small to large scale business firms, universities federal to individuals. Thus cloud computing provides benefits to many layers in the internet based market. Critical drawbacks had been identified related to operations of contemporary cloud computing. Building of cloud involves technologies and human creativity. Latter component also innovate methods for software piracy, hacking, frauds

The order of the legal system helps Essay Example for Free

The order of the legal system helps Essay Legal stability helps ensure that citizens and businesses can manage their affairs efficiently (Lindquist Cross, 2010). The order of the legal system helps to guarantee that all cases will be heard equally. Legislatures create laws that protect citizens and business, and when these laws are broken, the court system is used to reprimand the offenders. The court system is organized into two court structures, the federal system and state system (Kubasek, Brennan, Browne 2009). There is a specific order to the organization to the court system and court proceedings, and this order promotes the stability of the legal system. Every player in the court system knows what to expect regarding their trial, and this predictability is important to ensure that the legal system is fair to all participants. Businesses and citizens alike benefit from a stable legal system because the laws are known and disputes are handled reasonably. The enactment of the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act in 1999 is one example where an action of the legal system caused instability in business and society. The act repealed the Banking Act of 1933, or the Glass-Steagall Act, that prohibited banks from selling securities (Barth, Brumbaugh Jr., Wilcox, 2000). It also repealed the Bank Holding Act of 1956 that kept banking separate from insurance business. These acts were repealed because academics showed that banks being involved in the sale of securities and insurance did not cause the Great Depression of 1929 (Barth et al., 2000). The fact that banks were allowed minimal sales of insurance and securities with little problem also helped this act to pass. This deregulation of banking contributed to the financial crisis of 2008. The repeal of the Glass-Steagall Act allowed investment and commercial banking to merge, which led to higher capital ratios and lower risk (Bordo, 2008). As a result, normal lending practices were relaxed, and when the subprime mortgage market collapsed in 2007, many banks felt the repercussions. Defaulted mortgages effected the economy and caused a significant recession that affected citizens and businesses alike (Bordo, 2008). Major changes in banking regulations through the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act is just one example where alleged failure in the legal system lead to instability in business and society. This instability shows the importance of having predictability in the legal system. The Glass-Steagall Act had been in place for over six  decades when it was finally repelled in 1999 (Barth et al., 2000). While research showed that repelling this act would help create a more universal banking system, the deregulation of the banking system caused more corruption instead (Bordo, 2008). Banks were allowed to undertake even more activities than before. These extra activities and the vagueness of the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act helped to contribute to the instability of the financial sector. When the legal system helps to contribute to instability, more citizens become wary of both the legal system and the financial sector. In order to avoid this problem in the future, the legal system should be more predictable by keeping regulations that protect the people in place.

The Accounts Department Essay Example for Free

The Accounts Department Essay 5.0 CPL was formerly part of the Ashstead Plc but was the subject of a management buyout (MBO) from its previous owners six year ago by five directors-Greg Pearce, Jane Yip, Ruth Jones, Ahmed Khan and Susan Marther. Ashstead and in the everything from brick of the butter and it 2005 when the initial decision was made to move the business model away from being a conglomerate. It was decision that lead to MBO to Chic Paints Limited. 5.1 In early April 2013, Jane Yip, who was that finance director of Chic Paint Limited left the company and was replace by Dave Whistler. 5.3 The purpose of the accounts department is to complete all activities relating to the production of the accounts including sales and purchase ledger and payroll. Due to some of the identified weakness there is management accounting activity or cash flow forecasting. An organization chart is included in appendix 1 5.4 The accounts department-key internal stakeholders 5.4.1 The accounts department consists of finance director who has responsibility for the general strategy of the company as a whole; he is in charge of all accounting, finance, and IT issues and personnel. Many of these day to day responsibilities are delegate to the Chief Account. He also produces the manual report, including its statutory accounts, deal with all the banking and finance issues, fulfills the role of the company secretary to handles all legal issues. 5.4.2 Chief accountant is responsible for day to day running of CPLs Accounts Department. Involves in supervising the work of the accounts clerks who run the transaction accounting system on the general ledger, She has number of staff reporting to her including the costing technician, payroll clerk, accounts payable, accounts receivable clerk ,credit controller, general ledger clerk and accounting system technician. She personally management accounts, bottom up annual production and co-odination, authorizes payment of in voices, make NIC and PAYE, managing day to day cash flow and ensuring the working cycle is kept to level set out by the finance directors. 5.4.3 Accounts Payable Clerk is responsible for entering all suppliers’ invoices and credit notes into the accounts payable or issuing debit notes where necessary, for reconciling supplier’s statements to the accounts payable ledger and for controlling  creditor payments 5.4.4 Credit Controller is responsible for all data input into the ledger, which involves raising sales invoices and credit notes, producing monthly statements and reconciling debtor payments. As the ledger is only updated monthly, she has to use spreadsheets for credit controls purposes, and also for carrying out the company’s credit control procedures, This involves making online credit checks on all new credit customers and recommending a credit limit to the finance directors and Sales Manager 5.4.5 The accounts department is required to inter-relate with other departments in CPL such as production department so they are can be aware of inventory and staff hour worked for the production of payroll. They also need to interact with sales department so invoices can be produced and payments are required to the purchasing department to order goods and make. 5.4.6 The accounts department uses micro excel spreadsheet to record transactions which it then manually moves to the ledger at the month end which run on the software written for CPL and enable trial balance and financial statement to be produced, inventory control is done by excel and sage 50 used for payroll.

Challenges in human resource management faced by foreign businesses

Challenges in human resource management faced by foreign businesses According to the figures established by the World Bank in 1996 there has been unmatchable rate of economic growth in East Asian countries including china, Indonesia and Vietnam. The annual growth rate of the above mentioned countries was 7.8%, 6% and 8% respectively. The major reason for East Asian expansion was the foreign direct investment which by 1994 accounted for 54% of total foreign direct investment in developing countries by western companies. China had been on top by inviting 75% of total foreign direct investment made in 1994 in major East Asian countries. (World Bank, 1996) It has been the second largest country to invite maximum foreign direct investment. (UNCTAD, 1995) Foreign direct investment not just came with huge amount of investments of western world into big Chinese companies but many mergers, acquisitions, subsidiaries and joint ventures came with it. When we see many advantages of foreign direct investment, which will likely to remain the reason for growth in East Asian countries in future, there are certain disadvantages which cant be overlooked. The major concern was and going to be the management of human resource. Matching business practices to those of conventional Chinese companies and gradually leading them in the direction of modern business practices and keeping the productivity as high as possible is one of the toughest challenges western managers face and sometime might not be able to deal with it. Training and development of expatriates and saving early repatriate is just another challenge companies face when they are conducting businesses overseas. One of the biggest challenge for human resource managers is to understand the culture and to set up business practices and policies in accordance with it because without having known the norms, traditions and values one just cant make decisions which can be fruitful and give good return on investments made. Chinese culture is intense so to speak. Least adaptive to the changes in modern world economy which requires quick addressing to rapidly changing needs and demands of the customers, implication of new skills, information sharing, etc. In late 1950s Iron Rice policy has been the foundation of Chinese personnel management which indicates the guaranteed job security, income and benefits for lifetime. (Warner, 1996; Korzec, 1992) Later in 2001 Iron Rice policy had to be broken when china joined world trade organisation due to issues raised by some economists. The biggest drawback of this policy if it had been in practice even now would be poor response to changing competition and low productivity because 50 years old cant be as efficient and competitive as 25 years old. In 1978, Chinese government introduced The Open Door policy which was to modernize Chinese industry and to introduce western technology and management skill and this was achieved by international equity joint ventures. (Warner, 1996) One of the problems mentioned in above paragraphs is sharing of information which was noted even in extreme situations where there it was necessary to overcome the hindrances or to stop the business from demise. (Child, 1994) Behaviour which limits the quality of work and productivity can be reinforced by cultural values. Guanxi refers to personal relations or exchange of favours based on friendships. (Chen, 1995) Its like you give me something and I give you something back. Keeping a healthy and friendly relation with employees helped the expatriate managers do well at times but it is sometimes not convenient to establish relationships and run the system based on universal values. (Sergeant, Frenkal: 1998) On the other hand Guanxi counters performance based values and systems as in most of western organisations. HRM practices are more or less cultural sensitive. Lockett indicated four main features of Chinese culture to understand the business and management practices in Chinese firms. 1) Respect for age and hierarchy which results in centralised decision making system, 2) Face and harmony which is considered significant aspects of social life in china, 3) Group orientation refers to being a part of certain group, team or faction, Chinese people like to be represented on the basis of group they are part of, 4) Personal relationships (Guanxi) as explained above is return of favours based on friendships. The above mentioned features of Chinese culture help us understand the long followed norms seen even now in some companies. The question arises whether to follow standard universalistic values or to focus on localization of human resource practices in order to keep business going. In a survey conducted by Bjorkman and Lu found out that the degree of standard globalisation was higher than localisation of human resource management. According to the findings standardisation was higher in companies with strong western partners. Due to the tension between MNC standardisation and localisation of HRM companies choose either of two. The distinction between MNC standards and human resource localization companies seems to be shifting away from implementing Chinese or western management practices and rather focusing on what kind of techniques and practices are required in a certain company. Sometimes companies hire groups of Chinese employees under the supervision of expatriate managers. This helps companies to successfully establish businesses in China but later find it difficult to change the work culture and practices due to strong interpersonal relations (Guanxi). In and out group is another aspect which give managers a hard time to establish good relations and to externally hired Chinese employees. Foreign subsidiaries face double pressure to not only conforming to local environment and norms in which they operate but also to parent company expectations to maintain the internal consistency. (Westney, 1993) In order to keep the business going successfully companies should mix its global standards with the local policies and make a hybrid system in which some of the norms of Chinese culture can be accepted and some can be adapted. Developing an effective work force is a major challenge in China. Achieving cheap labour is easy but to achieve good labour relation is a bit hard thing. This challenge comes with four main concerns as noted by Weldon and Vanhonacker. 1) Selecting local people who have potential to succeed, 2) Providing the learning and training experience they need for development, 3) Retaining the best employees, and 4) Managing day to day work relationships. It is difficult for expatriate managers to hire proactive people who can take an initiative in company related matters as happen in western companies. In a related study managers reported that Chinese employees keep avoiding the issue until it becomes difficult to ignore. When solutions are addressed they are mostly are based on precedents while in western companies managers appreciate employees who take an initiative to raise the issues and address them proactively. The solutions are mostly new ones based on the issue of the time and not on p recedents. Continuous improvement and creativity is valued and rewarded in western companies. People and companies when coming to china from west face an immense change in culture and life style of Chinese people. In Chinese education system students are taught what to think and not how to think which keep those stick to the same life style and thinking throughout their lives and the impact of which can be seen in the companies they work. Respect, precedents are highly valued in Chinese culture. Western managers come from a total different culture where they are brought up in an education system where liberty of thinking and thinking beyond the point it valued and when above two come together it is turbulent for western mangers to deal with Chinese employees. To deal with these issues Chinese government has formed Human resource centres to help the western staff get the better understanding of the culture and establish better relationships with the employees to keep the ship flowing smoothly. In order to be competitive in the market a company need employees who are talented and take up the pressure and render tasks as they come in the way. Even with this realisation there is a shortage of talented people in china which is predicted to become a major barrier in current and future growth. (Ma Trigo, 2008) The shortage of talented people is because of the fact that china has invited huge sums of foreign direct investments. According to the estimates its shows that 50,000 foreign companies enter china market every year striving to find, recruit and retain talented people they need to run businesses. (Taylor, 2008; Zeng, Soosay Hyland, 2008) This brings the need for human resource talent management. China lacks world-class talent required by multinational corporations. The greater concern is the managerial skills. According to the study conducted china will need 75000 people in managerial positions and currently has only 5000 people on the labour market. (Farrell Grant, 2005) Multinational corporations find themselves competing with restructured Chinese companies which have raised the need for effective human resource talent management strategies which makes it a major concern for western multinational corporations. (Cheung, 2008; Ma Trigo, 2008; Taylor, 2007) Talent management has become widely acknowledged concern of companies worldwide but most of the times the national differences are not taken into account. (Colling Mellahi, 2009) Shweyer defines talent management as sourcing, screening, selection, retention and renewel of the workforce with analysis and planning. It also includes talent gap analysis, talent reviews and succession planning evaluation. (Mccauley Wakefield, 2006) It is very necessary to understand the local system before starting the operations. Transferring of human resource management policies and practices from the headquarters to the subsidiaries is bit complicated. Companies need to counterbalance globally standardised human resource practices while responding to local demands. (Bjorkman, 2008) the hybrid set of policies often helps more than just trying to implement Chinese or western policies in the company, the hybrid system which has more Chinese practices and gradually shifting it toward the western system o f policies. The question is if western policies and practices are to be implemented than to what degree and to what extent they should be implemented and integrated in the system. (Bjorkman Levrik, 2008) In order to transfer the human resource management practices from home country to china, institutional factors as well as cultural factors tend to influence the adaption and responsiveness of the human resource practices. (Gamble, 2003) Collings and Mellahi explain that talent management is widely used term but in actual it is fragmented into various aspects of strategic human resource management. There are three different perspectives explained by Lewis and Heckman in this regard. The first perspective focuses on gathering of basic human resource management practices. Researchers in this field have a broader view of talent management. The traditional human resource management practices can be distinguished from strategic human resource management by being more future-oriented by keeping in line with the overall strategy of the firm. (Blackman, Kennedy, 2008) The second perspective says that talented employees are valuable goods for the company which need to be sought after irrespective of some organisational needs. Researchers in this field categorise employees in top, middle and low performers. An argument was established that companies with more top level performers are stronger (Walker Larroco, 2002) but this idea was questioned as it is not always desire able to fill all the positions with top level employees. (Collings Mellahi, 2009) The third perspective focuses on job flow of employees within the organization. This has more to deal with internal labour market than external labour market. The fourth perspective which was recently established by Collings and Mellahi is the emphasis on the positions which put an impact on the competition, the positions which have direct relation to the competency of the organization. According to this perspective firms should focus on the pivotal positions rather than just filling talented employees. Its basically about the identification of key positions which have direct impact on competition. To remain competitive it is essential to retain the talented employees. This could be achieved by continuous motivation and building a relation between employee and employer. This is one way to keep their commitment high with the organisation and stay with it for long term which in turn helps the company grow and remain competitive over the time. To understand the human resource management in china expatriates should get an understanding about the political and economic structure of china. The businesses in china are classified as state-owned, collectives, subsidiaries or joint ventures. Joint ventures have become common in recent years. More and more employees want to work with companies came into existence as a result of joint ventures and subsidiaries for better remunerations and benefits for skills they provide. Due to chinas higher education standards which lack many points which have become topics of concern these days it is hard for expatriate managers to deal with the issues and devise solutions to problems according to local environment. In most cases the Chinese partner of joint ventures is state-owned company from the same industry. It is thus easy for the companies to higher staff as this is the most radially available source in the beginning and many companies try to tap this source. There is a disadvantage to this approach as well. Labour which is being transferred from the Chinese partner company may inherit the qualities of the old organization which might be an opposing force to the kind of environment joint venture wants to establish. Joint ventures in China are allowed to hire people from outside the organisation with or without the help of local labour department. The abundance of labour might make one think that employer is spoiled by choice which is only true if hiring non-skilled or semi-skilled employees. When it comes to hire skilled or talented labour its bit hard for the companies to deal with as explained earlier that talented employees are considered as commodities for a company. Finding right employees not easy let alone getting skilled labour transferred from the old employers because it is more difficult to do so. One reason to hire fresh graduates from universities is that they dont bring bad management practices with them. It is easier to mould them according to organisational culture and make them work, think and perform in the organisation according to companies standards. If the labour department dont support a company for the transfer of the skilled labour, they will also refuse to reveal the recruits file which has all the information regarding their past experiences, salary, ranks along with their educational and political histories. Failure to get the file it restricts employees to take up a new job. Getting employees transferred from other cities might require as many as twenty approvals. (Tsang, 2010) With the foreign direct investment flooding into china there is a scarce of talented employees and it is inarguably becomes unacceptable for the recruits work units to release them to new employers. Tsang quotes and example about how difficult it is to get an employee transferred from on company to another company. Guangdong Float Glass Company once placed vacancies in the newspaper. At the end thirty new employees were offered jobs but ten couldnt take up the job as their work units didnt allow them. Another case was when China Hewlett-Packard could heir only six engineers because rest of them were not allowed by their work units to take up a new job. In order to get a recruit transferred a company can seek help from the local labour bureau. Even if the local labour bureau is willing to help the transfer of an employee completely depends on political clout of the recruits work unit. If the work unit is state-owned large corporation the local labour bureau is no likely to help. If the work unit is a small enterprise then the local labour bureau will help to get an employee transferred but in that case the new company will have to compensate the old employer for all the education, training and development of the recruit. In china firing is even more difficult than hiring an employee. If the fired employee comes from Chinese partner of the joint venture then they will have to go back to the same company which will be hard for it to allocate them a job again but there are certain regulations for joint ventures to fire a person. An employee can be dismissed if they become redundant as a change in production and technical conditions or who fails to live up to the expectations even after relevant training and development and not suitable for transfer to other works. According to the regulations the company can take action which can be dismissal if the recruit has violated the ventures regulation which may have led it to severe consequences. The venture cannot dismiss an employee for its own purposes and thus needs to inform the in charge department and the local labour bureau. The labour union should be given an advance notice and time to protest about the discharge. These are some kind of barriers to dis missal a joint venture or foreign subsidiary faces. Many companies are flooding in china for cheap labour and low cost productivity but in actual end paying more than the labour wages in other developing countries. The Chinese regulation says that wages in a joint venture must be 120% to 150% higher than sate owned enterprise in the same line of business and locality. The reason behind this regulation explains that more skilled employees are required in joint ventures. Many investors later realise that they had been over charged by Chinese side. (Tsang, 2010) Trade union is another aspect of Chinese businesses. Many trade unions have been established in many joint ventures. They are at times very helpful in accomplishing the tasks as they have the responsibility of carrying out necessary education, training and development of the workers. Another duty which trade unions perform and should be welcomed by foreign investors is to arrange technical and professional courses and recreational and cultural activities. The presence of trade unions is often helpful for Chinese as well as foreign joint ventures. Many foreign joint ventures found trade unions presence very helpful, in accomplishing the tasks, and less confronting. To conclude my essay I would say that when conducting a business in china there are often many problems a firm faces. The cause to those problems can either be institutional or cultural. The institutional problems include issues related to political and economic structures of the country. These issues are mostly the result of government policies and the aftermath of Cultural Revolution. On the other hand culture changes at a slower pace than economic changes. It takes longer to change peoples perception and their attitudes developed over centuries. If the human resource problem arises because of any economic issue it can be addressed and overcome but as far as cultural issues are concerned like explained above will take time to fix. Human resource management does face a lot of challenges when working in china but the causes to most problems are not under their control but the parent company has all the freedom to choose who they want to assign the key positions in the joint ventures or subsidiaries. Possessing world-class managerial skills and qualification is one thing but adapting to change when send abroad and liking for the new culture is very important. The expatriate managers should be accommodating toward culture as well as concerns of Chinese which is very different from their own. Being cultural sensitive helps them save themselves from early repatriates and deal with the bureaucracy and know the hardships of working in developing country. As for the education as per the western companies standards, China according to my understanding has figured out the issue and importance of being competitive. They have sensed that there are loopholes in their higher education standards which lag them behind. We see hundreds of thousands of Chinese students flooding to western countries each year for higher education so that they can fulfil the educational demand of the multinational corporations entering in china every year. Guanxi which has been discussed several times above in this essay still is very important to obtain scarce resource and benefits which cant otherwise be obtained. It also helps to tackle bureaucratic issues. In order to make their expatriate managers stay in china for long companies should conduct an extensive training and development program before sending them abroad and avoid extended overseas stay that dont often leave a good impact on productivity.

Titus :: essays research papers

Titus" by William Shakespeare, Titus was a decent and honorable man. Titus loved and cherished his daughter Lavinia. He was a traditionalist, and stuck by his morals. Titus was brave. He showed he was loyal to those he cared for. He honored his family. Titus was a respected soldier and leader. Titus was a decent man because he loved and cherished his daughter Lavinia. Being Lavinia was his only daughter of twenty-six children; he spoke highly of her. In act 1, Titus addresses the public by saying "Kind Rome, that hast thus loving reserved, The cordial of mine age to glad my heart. Lavinia live, outlive thy father's days, and fame's eternal date, for virtues praise" (138). He is describing the link between Lavinia and his heart, and telling her to outlive, and go beyond him. In act 3 Titus shows he would do anything for Lavinia after her hands were chopped off. He says "Give me a sword, I'll chop off my hands too" (194). Being willing to sacrifice his own hands for his daughter shows his deep love for her. Lavinia means so much to Titus, that in act 3 he explains "But that which gives my soul the greatest spurn, Is dear Lavinia, dearer than my soul" (195), meaning his dear Lavinia's misery is giving his soul the greatest amount of hurt. Af ter comparing Ovid's description of the forest to where Titus and his sons hunted, he cries out "O' had we never, never hunted there! Patterned by that the poet here describes, By nature made for murders and for rapes" (214). Titus cares so much for his daughter that he is blaming himself for hunting in a place that is set for a murder or rape to occur. Being a traditionalist is another quality that made Titus an honorable man. In act 1 Titus shows his respect for religious tradition by telling Tamora, "Alive and dead, and for their brethren slain, Religiously they ask a sacrifice. To this your son is marked, and die he must, T'appease their groaning shadows that are gone" (135). He is obeying religion and will kill Tamora's oldest son (Alarbus), for those who have sinned in his family. When Alarbus is being buried in act 1, Titus makes a speech that states "In peace and honour rest you here, my sons; Rome's readiest champions, repose you here in rest, Secure from worldly chances and mishaps.

Kudler Fine Foods Case Study :: Kudler Fine Foods Case Study Analysis

Kudler Fine Foods is an organization that wants to evolve and mature as a company and implement practices that illustrate their growth as a company. One particular practice that Kudler Foods wants to implement is reaching out and contracting to local farmers to gain access to organic foods for sell within all three branches of Kudler Foods (UOP,2008). By implementing such a new system changes will have to be made primarily within the company’s operations management. This paper will discuss the needed changes and alterations that need to occur in order to maintain their efficiency as a company. In addition to the operations management changes, supply chain, quality control tools and performance standards will also be accessed in regards to how they are impacted by the introduction of the sale of organic foods. Operations management is the process an organization uses to obtain the materials or ideas for the product that it provides, the process of transforming them into a prod uct, and the process of providing the final product to a user (Gomez-Meija & Balkin, 2002). Under operations management there are 3 stages that consists of the process that a company typically accesses or follows through with. They include: acquiring inputs, controlling the conversion process, and delivering the output (Gomez-Meija & Balkin, 2002). In the eyes of Kudler Foods, acquiring inputs would be receiving organic foods from local farmers and growers. Acquiring product for Kudler Foods is typically done by purchasing from distribution centers and warehouses. Each of the managers will individually place an order with suppliers using a standard purchase order form based on their department’s needs or wants (UOP, 2008). In terms of price, there is not a standard price for items. Department Managers are just instructed to find the best possible price leaving disparities in costs between each store. With the implementation of organic foods, Kudler Foods should consider setti ng universal accepted prices amongst the stores and local farmers. The managers should still order their products based on their stores supply and demand. A universal or joint ordering system can result in waste or unused products. Organic foods is a special circumstance item because typically especially products such as produce, they have a short shelf-life. Which becomes especially important when purchasing organic foods, which is widely known to be more expensive than non-organic foods (2002) So, it would be best to keep the separate ordering system in place.

Animal Experimentation and Research Essay -- Ethics Morals Essays Pape

Animal Experimentation and Research In the basement of the psychology department here, a poster hangs on the wall; on it is a picture of two white lab rats and a caption that reads, ?They?ve saved more lives than 911.? This poster hangs on the wall of the room where I performed brain surgery on a rat. Many people would be morally opposed to this and any other form of animal research and experimentation and feel that it should be banned. This heated debate has been going on for centuries with each side possessing strong arguments. A central argument to this debate is whether or not animals are moral patients, with feelings anId the ability to suffer, and if we as humans are entitled to use them as means. Many people feel that we have made great medical advancements that would not have been possible without the use of animals. Alternatively, some feel that despite the medical advancements made, the use of animals remains an unethical practice. I feel that animal experimentation has the capacity to be very benefici al to medical research. However, scientists should try to prevent as much suffering as possible. Likewise, it would be a good idea to prohibit unnecessary testing and experimentation, especially with the recent development of many alternatives. Despite mounting controversy, many people still find animal experimentation to be a moral and correct practice. A widely accepted thought of some philosophers is that animals are not morally equal to us; therefore, we do not have to treat them as such (Fox, 3). Furthermore, according to Michael Allen Fox, author of The Case for Animal Experimentation, ?animals fail to meet the conditions specified for full membership in the moral community and likewise fail to... ...on, this issue will be able to be solved and a general understanding and agreement can arise. Works Cited ï ¿ ½ Birke, Lynda and Michael, Mike. ?Ethics and Animal Rights Extend Beyond UK Law.? Forum for Applied Research and Public Policy Spring: 35-38 ï ¿ ½ Fox, Michael Allen. The Case for Animal Experimentation. Berkley: University of California Press, 1986. ï ¿ ½ Langley, Gill, ed.. Animal Experimentation The Consensus Changes. New York: Chapman and Hall, 1989. ï ¿ ½ Mench, Joy. ?Animal Research Arouses Passion, Sparks.? Forum for Applied Research and Public Policy Spring 1996: 5-15. ï ¿ ½ Rachels, James. The Elements of Moral Philosophy. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2003. ï ¿ ½ ?Rights from Wrongs.? The Environmental Magazine. March/April. 2008: 26-33. ï ¿ ½ Singer, Peter. Practical Ethics. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1999.

Philosophy: Ecological Restoration Essay

How can we envision an ecological restoration of both physical environment and philosophical/spiritual thought models? Overpopulation, overexploitation, and human consumption are all contributing to the downfall of our now extremely misused planet. All organisms are now being exposed to drastic environmental changes, ones that our ancestors have never experienced. The stability of the Earth has been decreasing severely in the past few centuries because of mankind’s impact on overusing and consuming resources. Fundamental for Earth’s ability to function, natural resources across the globe are being destroyed and many contribute to the atmospheric change. A major issue is the lack of awareness of the current problems along with the absence of drive towards maintenance and restoration of the planet. Many humans view Earth as just a place to live, a place where selfishness takes hold, and careless consumption and waste thrives. We must ask ourselves, as a whole, at what point in time did our values of the Earth change? And how did we ever allow ourselves to become selfish, independent, and careless human beings? Unlike previous ecological and earth spiritualties that promoted and influenced all people to care for the Earth, we now take advantage of our planet for our own needs. Instead of love and protection, greed and exploitation now motivate us. At one point in time, ecological ideologies were a threshold for many beliefs because of the interconnectedness with all beings and the idea that everything is living and necessary for the planet’s survival. Maintaining a healthy balance with the mind, body, spirit, and environment has allowed generations of humans to thrive in our world. But, somewhere along the evolutional journey of mankind, we have slowly lost these concepts and values. In order to â€Å"succeed† we have to make the most money in order to be superior, instead of being happy with what you have. The mentality, especially in Western culture, is that we live to work, not work to live. The drive to be happy lies within work and money, but how many people, especially in the United States can say they are happy with their lives? It is because we lost the connection with the Earth, if we are connected with nature, peace will fulfill our lives. Reverting to previous mentalities and philosophies is instrumental in our restoration of the Earth. Building a better place to live, both physically and mentally, starts with analyzing past spiritualties and converting to some of their widespread ideas. Loving, respecting, and caring for the world is a concept seen in the practices of Gaia, Shamanism, Dark Green, Buddhist, and Hindu religions. Exemplifying the human connectedness with the environment, while seeing nature as a living being is a tradition that must be restored. The religions and ideologies illustrate peace, awareness, and balance within every relationship, including self. Adapting to these spiritualties will be beneficial across the globe, it will aid in our survival as well as the planets. Even though these models may seem far off, difficult, and unattainable, we must strive to change because it is vital for our existence. Presently, a common attitude that has been expressed is that nature is severely flawed, and that there is not much we can do to restore Earth. But, it is mankind’s duty to attempt the change and fix the environment as well as our philosophies behind it. New fields of study have been created like conservation biology and restoration ecology, which practice saving and fixing ecosystems across our biosphere. Movements in scientific fields as well as other environmental programs now strive to restore the Earth back to a plentiful state, with natural resources in tact to enable future generations to live. We must also think deeper about the current state of the Earth, considering all answers to how we got this way. Our future depends on whether or not humans can become mindful of our planet, to see clearly what is wrong and cause no further harm. Through this, we need to restore previous ideologies to help our new route of success. Living simply, awareness, respect, compassion, and love are key components to functioning in what our new world should become. Tracing the earliest environmental concepts back to the era of Greeks, Romans, and early pagan practices, the earth spiritualty Gaia played a vital role in their customs. Gaia is centered on the understanding that humans are not physical beings having a spiritual experience, but we are spiritual beings having a physical experience. It is a broad and open-minded spiritualty, and focuses on humanity’s connection with the Earth. Certain beliefs are that the planet is an ancient, living, and self-regulating system and we must do our part by not affecting such an essential being in our lives. Similarly, Mother Earth, humans, and all beings must have a deep, strong, and balanced relationship. It is illustrated that Gaia itself, is a symbol of peaceful balance between life and time. Ensuring that humans have a duty to protect, care, and respect the Earth because it is what gave us life inexorably. Envisioning Gaia as a concept used for ecological restoration of the environment and restoration of philosophical and spiritual views is an easy notion, which should be set into place. Since the philosophies of Gaia believe that humans have the ability to maintain Earth’s homeostasis, we should be inspired to embrace what our role should be in the planet. Due to most individuals’ self interest and greed, our actions are continually contributing to the change in the climate. But, in today’s society, if Gaia was a wide spread concept, individuals would have the ability to decide what sort of relationship they would have with the Earth. Taking such initiative to save and respect the planet will attract millions of followers. Gaia spirituality is an ideal change worth striving towards, since we recognize that Earth is a network of interacting components that shape each other, we need to reduce the impacts affecting these elements. Beings and the planet need to co-evo lve, and life needs to stabilize the planet in order to survive. Many other spiritual practices similar to Gaia involve exercises where followers strive to reach a certain state of consciousness that allows them to view the world in a different light. A well-known practice is Shamanism, which exemplifies reaching such a level of consciousness and allowing the practitioner to have access to other worlds. Shamans are guides to humans in our world, leading us through concepts from the spirit world. Since shamans contact both malicious and benevolent spirits, they view the world in a certain way that most humans are unable to. As shamans begin their ritual to other worlds, they enter a trance where they are placed in positions as messengers and healers from the spirits. Within healing, shamans treat the body through fixing the soul and restoring humans back to a healthy balance. Shamans build strong relationships with all animals and living beings in order to help them fully understand nature and its ways. Many of Shamanistic beliefs are that humans are directly affected with the treatment of the environment, and shamans can teach us about our wrongful actions. They guide us through the spirits to give us answers about our life mishaps and questions. Shamans consume the responsibility to care for all beings in order to better suite our world. Followers of Shamanism practice the importance of what you take from the world, you must give back and give thanks. Traditionally, shaman practices highlight how much they are ecologists of tribal societies. The rituals, trances, and journeys guarantee the relationship between humans and other beings are balanced (Barnhill 200) and remain so. Approaching a similar system to Shamanism will be a worthwhile effort because of the environmental aspects. They stress the avoidance of overhunting and overexploitation of resources by setting restrictions through their daily lives. Managing resources is tradition we do not do currently, but one we must become accustomed to, along with respect and compassion to restore a balance in the world. Being the world’s third largest religion and one of the oldest, Hinduism has always been a massive threshold for people’s beliefs. More importantly in Hinduism is the fundamental ecological spirituality that attracts so many followers. Both the thought models and motives for the environment are what drive the religion. Promoting peace and a natural demeanor towards all living things is a major theme, but in the foundation there are truly many concepts that are vital. The beauty seen in Hinduism is that the Earth is interconnected, that everything is a complete entity. Hindu’s terminology for the Earth is a superior factor and if applied it could be beneficial for restoration of the world. Advaita/Monism (Lal 190) implies that everyone and everything is one, there is no division in life, and Brahman (Lal 191) means the principle of the cosmos, that everything has a meaning and structure. Similar to Brahman is Atman (Lal 190), which applies to humans and is the spiritual essence of man. For Hinduism, all beings go through life cycles known as reincarnation or Samsara (Lal 192), and through each life beings strive towards developing into more complex forms. It is ruled through karma, which regulates the cause and effect of how you live and if you will move on to a better form of life. The life energy, Kundalini (Lal 190), represents the awakening of the mind to understand all matters in living. Ultimately, Hindu’s goal for the human’s spirituality is to move from self-centeredness and unenlightened to a self-less and enlightened person. Balance of mind, body, and spirit rules Hinduism, and to reach that many followers live simply in all ways, which benefits their bodies as well as their surroundings. Hinduism emphasizes sacred geography; their belief is that Earth nurtures humans so we have to give back by protecting and respecting the land. Since Hinduism is most apparent in India, they have adapted the term Bharat-ma, or Mother India, which is a holy site and used for ecological progress. The land in India is sacred, even if it is polluted and destroyed; they still have a deep love for all of the land, which is an important aspect, that most other countries lack. Furthermore, Ahimsa (Lal 190) is the extremity of non-violence and a complete consciousness that all living beings have the right to live and thrive. Adapting to Hinduism would make a beautiful change to the Earth. Land and water would be treated respectfully, eventually cleansing the atmosphere along with slowing climate change. Although their concepts of Earth are ideal and something we should model our lives after, it may be questioned if it is something even attainable and if we can reverse the effects already done to the Earth and ourselves. The green spirituality of Hinduism can make drastic changes to the current state of the Earth, and would help purify humans to a more balanced and healthy self. Mindfulness, nonviolence, and self-awareness (Kozak 5) have an influential role on the rising popularity of Buddhism. The primary philosophy of Buddhism is that it is spiritual not religious, it is a way of life, striving to improve the human mind, body, and spirit. As global perspectives change and people attune to having some sort of awareness, masses of humans are becoming more attracted to becoming Buddhist and living such lifestyles. Due to the fact that Buddhism is not an organized religion, but an ideology of leading a moral life, awareness of thoughts and actions, and to develop understanding and wisdom in the search for Enlightenment (Kozak 24) is what fascinates many people. Living is suffering for true Buddhists and once an individual reaches enlightenment, they can be free from the suffering of the world. Similar to Hinduism, Buddhism also believes in reincarnation, in their version the soul is always migrating into other worlds and death is nothing to fear because it determines what world you go into in the next life. The practice of Buddhism requires three things from man; self-mastery, self-analysis, and the cultivation of empathy (Kozak 262). Self-mastery involves looking at one’s self, paying attention to who you are, and decreasing greed. Self-analysis contains minimizing resources including needs and wants, and practices restraint in all aspects of life. The cultivation of empathy implies that one must have understanding towards all beings and if done, they will become gentle, patient, and calm, which will contribute to their enlightenment goal. Empathy among humans, animals, plants, and all organisms entails dissolving fear and to question what is right and wrong. Buddhism teaches worship and respect for the environment, emphasizing the fluidity of nature and life. Buddhism is a tradition that offers help to our world that is experiencing rapid and destructive change (Lancaster 3). If Buddhism was taught and practiced across the globe, people would understand the importance of nature and how it plays a vital role in our lives. Nature and all of its resources are being depleted at an astounding rate, and the practice of the Buddha would influence the globe to respect and restore our environment. If practiced, corporations and governments would no longer strive to make the most money and have the most influence, because quality not quantity matters in our environment and globally we would understand that concept. Recently, a radically growing religion across the globe is the Dark Green Religion, which holds their beliefs in nature, spirituality and our futures. This â€Å"religion† is actually a religion-resembling set of ideologies and practices that focuses on the holiness of nature and relationships with everything on the planet. Primarily, their belief is that nature is sacred with an intrinsic value, meaning that it should be demanded respect and care. Similar to most earth spiritualties, the relationship with human, and non-humans is highlighted, along with the consciousness of the connections of all life on the planet. Dark Green religions are common in all environmentalist movements, especially the surfing culture and all nature-based spiritualties. A common theme is the acceptance of perspectival thinking- where there is no truth, no objectivity, and no absolute value. Accepting perspectival thinking would give all humans the power to understand the affects we are having on our planet. We would always be searching for the deeper meaning of things and questioning what is the right way to live. This theory can be seen predated before Christianity, and it used to focus on seeing and interpreting nature in a respectful and beautiful way. The attitude is that humans, other organisms, and Earth are one unity with a greater power in control. Before long, Christianity covered up these beliefs and hid the real meaning of life. But as culture changes once again, we can see how these set of beliefs are making their way to the forefront of the environmental movement. Promoting that nature has the ability to have rights and the expectation that people have to uphold these rights would ensure respect to ripple throughout the world. By following these rights, nature would be allowed to restore itself, and ecosystems could be balanced once again. The balance of nature would continually benefit humans through ecosystem services of the land. Restoring old philosophical and spiritual thought models may seem impossible, but since new philosophies have arisen in past years that mirror older values and beliefs, they are attracting numerous amounts of followers. A growing philosophy that is not only a belief system but also a set of actions, also known as praxis, is Eco-philosophy also known as Deep Ecology. This praxis presents the idea that humans are not the center of all things, but simply a part of all things. Two major focuses of Deep Ecology are self-realization and ecocentrism (Scarce 31). The realization of self emphasizes the consciousness of an individual’s perception must be extended beyond their own aspects of life and must include the environment in their life. Ecocentrism is the basis that everything involved with nature possesses intrinsic worth and value. Deep Ecology’s ideas are based off of old philosophies beliefs, common themes in Deep Ecology reflect Buddhism, Hinduism, Dark Green religions , and Gaia. Harmony with nature, nature having intrinsic worth, living simply with small material needs, minimal consumption, and awareness that supplies on earth are limited all oppose modern day Western beliefs, but come from a religious and community based background (Scarce 37). Those who follow Deep Ecology are also known as radical environmentalists, they have a strong bond between themselves and the environment that spurs their actions; they are always tied back to the Earth. The realization that humans are mere aspects, on the same level as plants, animals, and bugs, is something that could change our world. A change in an individual requires a change in the culture so other citizens can follow suit. A massive shift of lifestyle is needed to make the difference, living simply and practically through gardening, awareness of choices, and being selfless are what is vital for success in humanity. Quicker than expected, the world’s population is nearing ten billion, and our current depletion of food, energy, water, and natural resources is still expanding at a rate that no longer can be maintained. Overcoming these issues will be an extremely difficult task because governments, corporations, and everything between have ignorance about their own greed. Ignorance, greed, and hatred are toxic for the world, and they highlight how our state of the Earth became so detrimental. Awareness to the reality of the situation is questionable; mankind needs to have courage to alter our ways. Social change will always occur, but government and corporate leaders have to have the bravery of leading the world cleanly and with complete mindfulness. When talking about environmental restoration and preservation, the Dalai Lama once said, â€Å"Ultimately, the decision must come from the human heart. The key point is to have a genuine sense of universal responsibility, based on love and com passion, and clean awareness†. Nature is at the very heart of our being and spirituality, it is our duty to prevent further destruction. If we continue to live as we have been without thinking of the future, we will continue to destroy natural resources, emit greenhouse gases, and climate change will then be inevitable. Climate change means a drastic shift in sea water levels because of ice caps melting, and millions of people will be forced out of their homes because coastal cities will be destroyed. Oceans will warm; natural disasters will take place such as droughts, floods, and heat waves, they will destroy our agriculture and homes and will hinder mankind’s ability to thrive. Control and safety from danger and destructiveness is what humanity strives to create in our culture. Even though control may be helpful for humans to flourish, we are wasting precious opportunities to become closer to nature and all that it has to offer. Studying and introducing ourselves back into the environment will be beneficial for the entire planet. Humans have altered the balance of the planet; to restore prior thought models involves the practice of no longer picturing ourselves as the center of the universe but seeing all inhabitants of the universe and the necessary role they play in our lives. It is natural for one person to believe that they cannot make a difference in the world, but belief, hope, determination, and courage will alter the planet. The process of restoring the physical world will be a step-by-step process, not one person can save the entire Earth, but they can give their full energy to help certain causes. Restoration of the environment and spiritual thought models intertwine. If it takes a person to have a bad experience to spur them towards changing their lifestyle and beliefs, then that is what must happen. Being submissive, listening to authorities and government leaders causes our world to be full of non-believers; humans do not trust their feelings and intuition (Scarce 34). Cultures across the world have fallen into the notion that they must be told what is right or wrong, especially through science and technology because they create certifiable â€Å"truth†. Banishing this manifestation will allow people to once again search for knowledge and answers. That is the beauty behind philosophy, everyone searches for knowledge and truth but there may never be real and certain truths. Accepting this idea will allow mankind to realize that nature is too complex to ever be completely and fully understood, so we should respect all that it is. To change our current ecological status both physically and spiritually, many steps must be taken. Most importantly, personal and community based engagement must be taken in the environment. Compassion, interdependence, and inter-being with the world will provide a philosophic platform (Storhoff and Whalen-Bridge 113) that will radiate across the globe and improve our spiritual beings. Western hemisphere ideologies must be radically different. Currently, our ethics and cultural perceptions that influence our actions of modes of thinking (Lancaster 9) are affecting our ways of living. The perception that people who are good, moral, ethical, and worthy are supposed to give help to the poor and oppressed, instead of aiding all classes as well as the environment. In other words, in our communities, we now aid to the â€Å"needy and unworthy† but in reality, we should be more focused on the global community. Nature is not separate from us, so it is what we should be aiding. Nature is the fundamental existential context of our lives, and we have a responsibility to aid and participate in it as a community (Barnhill 188), just as we would to the needy. Cultural transmission is the key to restoring our ecology; we need to form a new society within the shell of our current one. Instead of being centered on industry and technology, we need to focus on the physical and spiritual self-being of the world. Ideally, a world formed around Buddhist and Hindu traditions would benefit all beings, but during the cultivation of societies, humanity lost those ideals. Primarily, the first step to restoration would be individual change; each person would need to alter their lifestyles and values based off of certain ecological and earth spiritualties. If this were to happen, the transformation of individuals would affect their families, then to communities, to culture, and eventually global change. It may not be an immediate, imminent change, but slowly the acceptance, respect, and love for nature would spread to everyone in the world. Having a total integrated life style with the environment would allow awareness of self-interdependence with the globe, and how our actions affect all beings. Deep ecological awareness is an ideology that in a resolute ecocentric view, we would be able to reorganize our societies around the laws of nature (Lal 193). Ecological consciousness comes from the heart, not the head (Scarce 31), we need to become compassionate to everyone and everything. Adapting to earth religions would allow our values of the earth to change, because it compromises all life and the entire environment to be one entity that we all belong to in a single community. If we cannot adapt to a single religion or spirituality, we may only need to adapt to single expressions and practices of these ideologies, which will support the change of our ethical norms and values in the postmodern era. Works Cited Barnhill, David Landis. Deep Ecology and World Religions: New Essays on Sacred Grounds. Albany: State University of New York Press, 2001. Kozak, Arnold. The Everything Buddhism Book. 2nd ed. Avon, Mass.: Adams Media, 2011. Lal, Vinay. Hinduism and ecology: the intersection of earth, sky, and water. Cambridge, MA: Distributed by Harvard University Press for the Center for the Study of World Religions, Harvard Divinity School, 2000. Lancaster, Lewis. Buddhism and Ecology: The Interconnection of Dharma and Deeds. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Center for the Study of World Religions :, 1997. Lovelock, James. Healing Gaia: practical medicine for the planet. New York: Harmony Books, 1991. Scarce, Rik. Eco-Warriors: Understanding the Radical Environmental Movement. Chicago: Noble Press, 1990. Storhoff, Gary, and John Whalen-Bridge. American Buddhism as a way of life. Albany: State University of New York Press, 2010. Print.

The Development of GAAP in the United States

Setting GAAP These organizations influence the development of GAAP in the United States. United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) The SEC was created as a result of the Great Depression. At that time there was no structure setting accounting standards. The SEC encouraged the establishment of private standard-setting bodies through the AICPA and later the FASB, believing that the private sector had the proper knowledge, resources, and talents. The SEC works closely with various private organizations setting GAAP, but does not set GAAP itself. American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA)In 1939, urged by the SEC, the AICPA appointed the Committee on Accounting Procedure (CAP). During the years 1939 to 1959 CAP issued 51 Accounting Research Bulletins that dealt with a variety of timely accounting problems. However, this problem-by-problem approach failed to develop the much needed structured body of accounting principles. Thus, in 1959, the AICPA created the Accounting Principles Board (APB), whose mission it was to develop an overall conceptual framework. It issued 31 opinions and was dissolved in 1973 for lack of productivity and failure to act promptly.After the creation of the FASB, the AICPA established the Accounting Standards Executive Committee (AcSEC). It publishes: Audit and Accounting Guidelines, which summarizes the accounting practices of specific industries (e. g. casinos, colleges, airlines, etc. ) and provides specific guidance on matters not addressed by FASB or GASB. Statements of Position, which provides guidance on financial reporting topics until the FASB or GASB sets standards on the issue. Practice Bulletins, which indicate the AcSEC's views on narrow financial reporting issues not considered by the FASB or the GASB. Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB)Realizing the need to reform the APB, leaders in the accounting profession appointed a Study Group on the Establishment of Accounting Principles (commonly kn own as the Wheat Committee for its chair Francis Wheat). This group determined that the APB must be dissolved and a new standard-setting structure be created. This structure is composed of three organizations: the Financial Accounting Foundation (FAF, it selects members of the FASB, funds and oversees their activities), the Financial Accounting Standards Advisory Council (FASAC), and the major operating organization in this structure the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB).FASB has 4 major types of publications: Statements of Financial Accounting Standards – the most authoritative GAAP setting publications. More than 150 have been issued to date. Statements of Financial Accounting Concepts – first issued in 1978. They are part of the FASB's conceptual framework project and set forth fundamental objectives and concepts that the FASB use in developing future standards. However, they are not a part of GAAP. There have been 7 concepts published to date. Interpretat ions – modify or extend existing standards. There have been around 50 interpretations published to date.Technical Bulletins – guidelines on applying standards, interpretations, and opinions. Usually solves some very specific accounting issue that will not have a significant, lasting effect. In 1984 the FASB created the Emerging Issues Task Force (EITF) which deals with new and unusual financial transactions that have the potential to become common (e. g. accounting for Internet based companies). It acts more like a problem filter for the FASB – the EITF deals with short-term, quickly resolvable issues, leaving long-term, more pervasive problems for the FASB. Governmental Accounting Standards Board (GASB)

Life, works, and political ideas of Dr. Jose Rizal Essay

Was Dr. Jose P. Rizal really the stubborn reformist who advocates peaceful and incremental social change as he is portrayed to be by popular culture and the dominant academic thought? Was he really the renaissance man the greatest ilustrado of the late19th century who was so obsessed with the values of education and enlightenment that he condemned any violence, even those that would have led to the freedom of the very people he sacrificed his life fighting for? Or was he something else, a character darker than what his brown skin suggests? Was he, in fact, a true revolutionary a Simoun, an Elias, aKa besang Tales? The purpose of this paper is to critically examine the historical and biographical studies conducted on the life, works, and political ideas of Dr. Jose Rizal. In particular, the paper aims to compare and contrast the two positions in the controversial reformist-revolutionary debate over the political thought of the writer-philosopher-ophthalmologist Filipino hero. The main thesis that this paper hopes to develop is that the debate is in itself flawed and that a new and more nuanced understanding of Rizal is necessary if we wish to see the hero through more academic lenses. Specifically, I argue here that the contemporary image of Rizal perhaps, even Rizal himself whether in academic literature or popular media is nothing more than a social construct and one that is socially and culturally connived, conspired, and manipulated. Rizal was, for example, used as a social construct by both the propagandist movement and the Katipunan, though in different respective ways, and deconstructing him is perhaps necessary for a more sobered understanding. Before we proceed, however, an important pre-examination is inevitable: Why is this critical analysis important and relevant within the social context of its writing? There can be many reasons and one that is particularly important to me is that any study of Dr.Jose Rizal is exhilarating and surprising. The man’s biography and the study of his mind can perhaps never be resolved, but the adventure towards their resolution gives us formerly unnoticed but equally rich insights as to what this man this First Filipino contributed or at least hoped to contribute to the germination of our nation and our nationalism. Nonetheless, the study is of course also relevant in a more societal sense. First, in the academic world, the story of Rizal as a  hero and thinker is a continuous stream of dialectical discourse that is forever in danger of changing its course. It is quite puzzling to realize that, despite a century of discussions, the discourse-debate remains fragile and the balance of academic power remains a balance. Certainly, the reformist arguments have established their ground in the nationalist geniuses of Teodoro Agoncillo and Renato Constantino and that their rhetoric prowess can seem daunting and intimidating, but the scale and depth of the dominance of the reformist position remains questionable. To what extent they have seeped into the Filipino consciousness, we can perhaps never resolutely determine but we do know that challenges to their gargantuan analyses continue to sprout. Thus, whatever contribution is a source of vitality for the discourse, even those that quite ironically challenge this very discourse. The latter is what this paper hopes to achieve. Second, 150 years after his birth in 1861, Rizal the man remains a mystery. In another project in celebration of Rizal’s birthday anniversary last June 19, 2011, I attempted to compile articles devoted to Rizal within the month of June and reached a number of more than 80 works. The literature is thus replete with mentions of and insights about Rizal and Rizal himself was an obsessive writer, giving historians and biographers no problem about first-hand documentation. However, the curse of studying a dead man is inevitable: We will never know Rizal fully well. Thus, in an attempt to critically analyze the studies on Rizal, I also wish to contribute a few insights here on the hero, who he was, and what his thoughts really were. Finally, whatever contribution to the discourse on Rizal is also a contribution to the Filipino national project. A century since Rizal’s death at Bagumabayan and the eruption of the Philippine Revolution, the Filipino nation remains incomplete and, much like the unfinished roads of Metro Manila, the way towards its completion is intermittently hampered by moral, political, and even academic-intellectual corruption. Rizal, through his imagination and dream of a Filipino people, is more or less the foundation of this national project yet this foundation is still misunderstood in fact, its understandings are still misunderstood! A more sober examination of his political thought is therefore crucial if we wish to move on towards the building of this nation. On the one hand, fo r more than a century, it has been a dominating belief in both Filipino literature and active progressive  circles that Dr. Jose Rizal, the Philippines most prominent political thinker and writer, was in writing and in action a genuine reformist. The depiction of Rizal as such is so systematized that it would seem a grave mistake to liken the hero to other more revolutionary figures such as the subversive political organizer Andres Bonifacio and the politico-military leader Gen. Emilio Aguinaldo. For one, we are taught in our schools and universities that Rizal was a part and product of the propagandist movement and not of the revolutionary movement. In fact, as if only to make the historical moment of the 1880s-1890s more theoretically digestible, we clearly delineate between the two movements in terms of aims, means, nature, and even chronology. Rizal was an intellectual novelist, a social critic, a believer in the power of the pen over the sword. He did not lead the revolutionary Kataas-taasang Kagalang-galang Katipunan ng mga Anak ng Bayan or the KKK. He repudiated the Philippine Revolution at the time, symbolized most dramatically by his refusal to endorse and join Bonifacio’s Katipunan when he was invited by Dr. Pio Valenzuela in Dapitan in 1896. Thus, it has been so ingrained in the Filipino psyche that Dr. Jose Rizal was, in truth, nothing more than areformist and nothing like a revolutionary. On the other hand, however, historiography and literary evidence would not as categorically declare Rizal as a reformist as suggested. Many academicians and Rizalist (Constantino, 1970) scholars point to different historical, biographical, and literary references to prove the point that Rizal did approve of the essence of armed struggle. For example, it can be argued that Rizal, being himself of the liberal democratic tradition, knew well of the merits of the 18th century French Revolution. The educated ilustrado was himself a fanatic of history and as such he knew that when there is no more choice and chance for peaceful change, the people must rise to the cause of their freedom and take arms against oppression and the perpetrators of the oppressive system. It is also no secret that Rizal had at the very least sympathies for revoluti onary thought, portrayed most definitively by the characters he used in his two well-celebrated novels Noli Me Tangere and El Filibusterismo. From the plots of these fictional narratives, it is clear that Rizal believed in the validity of the reasons for revolting against the Spanish colonial and clerico-fascist  systems of his time. Illustratively, we see Elias and Kabesang Tales from Noli and Fili ,respectively, as genuinely oppressed personalities who were more or less, at least according to the internal narratives of the novels, justified in their cause of forwarding armed offensives against the exploitative machinations of the colonial regime. Further and in a more political sense, it makes one wonder how and why Rizal was used as an inspiration for the Katipunan if he really showed no sign of endorsing a, if not the, armed revolution against Spain. The question of why is relatively clearer: Dr. Jose Rizal was an inspiration for many indios natives of the archipelago at the time. It was quite convenient for the Katipunan to have used his name to capture the huge mass following Rizal has generated over the years. This could not have been done as effectively, however, if Rizal was sincerely, whether in writing or practice, against armed struggle. Thus, the rhetorical question is: How could the Katipunan secret society that mobilized the Philippine Revolution and thereafter established the first indigenous revolutionary government in the country  have used Rizal if he really were nothing more than a staunch reformist? The main representatives from the reformist camp come from, as said above, the nationalist historians led by Agoncillo and Constantino of the latter 20th century, the same historians who also advocate for the prominence of Andres Bonifacio over Rizal as the true revolutionary leader the noble plebeian (Agoncillo, 1956) who organized the nationalist-separatist movement of the Katipunan in the 1890s. Although Agoncillo in The Revolt of the Masses (1956) also postulates well that Dr. Jose Rizal was like the other ilustrados of his time merely a self-interested reformist whose gravest mistake was that he condemned the Philippine Revolution, the more compelling critique of Rizal’s political thought comes from Constantino’s Dissent and Counter-Consciousness (1970), in particular its ninth chapter entitled Veneration without Understanding. Constantino begins his critique of Rizal right away in his first two paragraphs, contrasting him with other principal heroes of other nations. The argument is difficult to challenge: According to Constantino, the main intriguing fact about Rizal as a hero is that, when seen in a matrix inclusive of other national heroes such as Washington of the United  States, Bolivar of Latin America, and Ho Chi Minh of Vietnam, Rizal did not lead the nationalist revolution of the Philippines our Revolution (Constantino, 1970). Constantino then mov es on to directly address the question of reformism and revolutionism and Rizal’s claimed rejection of the Philippine Revolution, writing: In no uncertain terms [Rizal] placed himself against Bonifacio andthose Filipinos who were fighting for the country’s liberty, pointing to Rizal’s December 15, 1896 manifesto as evidence (Constantino, 1970). After that, Constantino poses an important truth that, as he argues, has been ignored in mainstream academic thought the disjunctive contradiction between Rizal and the Revolution. According to the historian, this contradiction has led to the great dilemma that the Filipino people must face in order to make full sense of their national history; that the Filipino people must disown either the Revolution or their national hero, Dr. Jose Rizal, and not neither. He presents the choice starkly: Because the national hero condemned the Revolution that brought us our freedom from the colonial grip of imperial Spain, either the Revolution was wrong or Rizal was wrong. Constantino writes: The Philippine Revolution has always been overshadowed by the omnipresent figure and the towering reputation of Rizal. Because Rizal took no part in that Revolution and in fact repudiated it, the general regard of our Revolution is not as high as it otherwise would be. On the other hand, because we refuse to analyze the significance of his repudiation, our understanding of Rizal and of his role in our national development remains superficial. This is a disservice to the event, to the man, and to ourselves. (Constantino, Constantino solidifies his argument further by pointing to the Americans rational of endorsing and sponsoring Dr. Jose Rizal as the hero of the Filipino people. He cites Governor W. Cameron Forbes (1928, p. 55, as cited in Constantino, 1970) who exposes that the Americans favored Rizal’s symbolic status for the Filipinos precisely because he urged reform from within by publicity, by public education, and appeal to the public conscience. Thus, we see how even the Americans at the time knew and understood Rizal to be are formist, a non-separatist, and one who advocated nothing more radical than assimilation into Spain and peaceful social change for the improvement of the Filipino colonial condition. Finally, Constantino points out that such a reformist position was only to be expected of a man like Rizal whose status  and place in history assured him of a less radical, non-revolutionary, and more op timistic ideological position. Echoing loudly Agoncillo s analysis (Agoncillo, 1956) of the ilustrado position during the Philippine Revolution, to Constantino Dr. Jose Rizal was nothing more than the greatest of the propagandist-reformists the greatest, but still not ahead enough of his time to have agreed with and joined the Revolution. Nevertheless, the historian saves Rizal’s face by alluding to the power of structure over agency, claiming that Rizal should not be blamed nor disowned and that heroes should be seen not as movers but products of history. Constantino concludes with a grim but sensible depiction of Rizal: Today, we need new heroes who can help us solve our pressing problems. We cannot rely on Rizal alone The true hero is one with the masses; he does not exist above them The inarticulate are now making history while the articulate may be headed for historical anonymity, if not ignominy. When the goals of the people are finally achieved, Rizal, the first Filipino, will be negated by the true Filipino by whom he will be remembered as a great catalyzer in the metamorphosis of the decolonized indio. (Constantino, 1970; italics mine)Of course, Renato Constantino’s work and thesis did not remain unchallenged. An example of an audacious critique of Constantino’s critique comes from Floro Quibuyen who defended Rizal’s revolutionary aspirations through his 1996 dissertation entitled Imagining the Nation: Rizal, American Hegemony and Philippine Nationalism, the second chapter of which was devoted entirely to Dr. Jose Rizal. Quibuyen in his work aims to reveal by historiographic evidence and content analysis that Rizal’s bourgeois reformism, opposition to the Philippine Revolution, and assimilationism are all but historical myths perpetrated to tarnish the image of Rizal as the Revolution’s inspiration. His main thesis therefore is quite the opposite of Constantino’s: To Quibuyen (1996), Rizal was not are formist obsessed with peaceful change but a genuine revolutionary, even a supporter of armed struggle as a means for true social change. To prove his point, Quibuyen uses three historical documents written by Rizal, namely, his correspondences with his close friend Ferdinand Blumentritt, his letters to Marcelo Del Pilar, and his last poem now known by many as Mi Ultimo Adios. First, Quibuyen debunks the supposedly stubborn belief of Rizal in the prospects of peaceful change by referring to his January 26, 1887 letter  to Blumentritt. In his letter, Rizal says, A peaceful struggle shall always be a dream, for Spain will never learn the lesson of her SouthAmerican colonies. It is clear therefore that Rizal understood well that peaceful change, though ultimately the ideal means, cannot be the means with which the freedom of the Filipino people will be obtained. Second, by referring to Rizal’s letter to Del Pilar, Quibuyen (1996) proves that Rizal’s reforms were only tactics within the larger and more encompassing strategy of a revolution. In a letter to Del Pilar dated April 4, 1890, we see a sudden shift in the aspirations of Rizal, particularly those that concern his advocacy of Filipino representation in the Spanish Cortes. Quibuyen’s excerpt of the letter reads: I could not accept a seat [in the Cortes although my ancestors on my m other’s side were Congressmen Jose Florentino and Lorenzo Alberto. I am no longer interestedin those things. (Quibuyen, 1996)Finally, Quibuyen points to Rizal’s last untitled poem as the biggest proof of both Rizal’s revolutionary characteristic and the conspiracies associated with his portrayal as nothing more than a reformist. In particular, Quibuyen strongly criticizes the poem’s translation by Austin Coates, pointing most saliently at the lines that originally read, En campos se batalla, lunchando con delirio Otros te dan sus vidas sin dudas, sin pesar. These lines were translated by Coates as: Others are giving you their lives on fields of battle Fighting joyfully, without hesitation or thought for the consequence compare this translation with Nick Joaquin’s literally closer translation: On the field of battle, fighting with delirium, Others give you their lives without doubts, without gloom. The political implications of these two different translations are important and very much relevant to our aim: Whereas Coates portrays Rizal as thinking the revolutionary armed struggle was not careful and thoughtful of its consequences, Joaquin depicts Rizal a sin fact ameliorating and romanticizing violent revolution and sacrifices of human life for the country without doubts, without gloom. At the end of the chapter, Quibuyen (1996), in a final attempt to prove that Rizal was indeed a revolutionary not just in writing but in practice as well, conjures the Passion of Jesus Christ as Rizal’s inspiration of his own revolution. According to Quibuyen, to Rizal, fighting an armed struggle and self-martyrdom are both valid forms of revolutionary struggle, pointing to Jesus revolutionary moment when he  gave up his life for, supposedly, our redemption. As such, therefore, Rizal was revolutionary in his own, Jesus-like way. Which of the two scholars then makes more sense? As said above, I argue here that neither is correct and that, in fact, there is something terribly wrong with the entire discourse itself. I argue this for three reasons: that Constantino’s reformist position is flawed, that Quibuyen’s revolutionary position is as well just as flawed, and that reform andrevolution are, in the end, not mutually exclusive. First, it must be conceded that, despite Constantino’s genius in narrating the nationalist history of the Philippines, some flaws in his line of argumentation against Rizal’s revolutionary character must necessarily be pointed out. The first point to be made is tha t Constantino intentionally used American sponsorship of Dr. Jose Rizal’s heroism as a tool to prove that Rizal was genuinely an assimilationist and against anti-colonial revolution whereas he should not have. For one, this is not in any way fair. Sponsorship by the US colonial regime does not necessarily put Rizal on the side of reformism against revolution even as the Americans say so. What needs to be studied is not what the Americans thought of Rizal but what Rizal really believed in, explicable through the various documents and letters he wrote. In fact, it makes one wonder: If Constantino were really pushing for a nationalist understanding of Rizal as a political thinker, then why should the American shave a say in this process of understanding? A second point to be made is that Constantino focused too much on what Rizal did and neglected what Rizal wrote. What is important to Constantino is that Rizal never approved nor joined the Philippine Revolution; he was outside it, writing his life away. How are we then to judge a man’s thought if we really did not consider his theory and looked only at his praxis? It is also quite salient in Constantino’s work that there is no reference to Rizal’s writings o ther than his December1896 letter to Blumentritt. Again, the question of fairness can be raised: Was it fair to have judged Rizal’s political thought based only on a document that was written 15 days before his death? Do we judge a man’s lifelong journey with political theorizing according only to his last few words? Finally, it is clear that with Constantino’s non-negotiable class analysis of history, he really did not give Rizal a chance from the very beginning. Because Rizal was a bourgeois ilustrado of the 1880s-1890s, he was quite expectedly a traitor to the  revolution and, even if he were the greatest of the propagandists, he was a propagandist nonetheless and by extension merely a reformist. While the structural analysis is to be admired, where then is the power of agency? Clearly, not within Rizal’s grasp in Constantino’s world. Second, examining Quibuyen’s work, we see that the revolutionary position on Rizal’s political thought is just as flawed. To illustrate, whereas Co nstantino was too focused with what Rizal actually did or did not do, Quibuyen on the other hand was toofocused on what Rizal wrote. Content analysis is never enough to judge a man’s thought and role in history. For example, while Rizal indeed wrote that peaceful struggle is but a dream, he was in practice an advocate of peaceful means as he was chiefly a writer, a novelist. In fact, even if we were to employ content analysis strictly, this statement can be contrasted with what Rizal did with his revolutionary characters in Noli and Fili: They al lfailed. Kabesang Tales failed, Elias was killed, and Simoun died realizing his mistakes in conjuring a revolution that was largely borne out of self-interest. Another point is that Quibuyen’s strongest point is based only on Rizal’s last poem. If we were to base Rizal’s political thought on Mi Ultimo Adios, we would be no different from Andres Bonifacio who was hallucinated with a revolutionary Rizal approving of the Revolution he was leading .Again, I ask the question of whether it is fair or not to judge a man only by his last few words. Further, is it not also possible that Rizal merely sympathized with and did not necessarily approve of armed struggle as a valid form of fighting for freedom? Finally, and I hope there is in fact no more need of belaboring this point, I seriously think th at the comparison made by Quibuyen between Jose Rizal and Jesus of the Christians is nothing more than an exaggerated extension of Rizal’s martyrdom. In the ultimate end, the third and final point that must be made is that reform and revolution are not necessarily mutually exclusive. In a book entitled Requiem for Reformism: The Ideas of Rizal on Reform and Revolution, Bonifacio Gillego (1990) makes a crucial point that Rizal in fact favored both reform and revolution. The only difference afforded by Rizal between reformism and revolutionism is that he favored the former before the latter but nonetheless saw the latter as a necessary resolution if the former were to fail. This makes more sense, judging by the merits of the two positions  represented by Constantino and Quibuyen. As such, therefore, while Rizal strongly believed and hoped for a peaceful struggle a dream he also knew that, when push comes to shove and the Spanish regimeremains as stubborn and oppressive despite his more negotiating and reformist approach, a revolution will be necessary. The Philippine Revolution (called the Tagalog War by the Spanish),[citation needed] (Filipino: Himagsikang Pilipino) was an armed military conflict between the people of the Philippines and the Spanish colonial authorities. The Philippine Revolution began in August 1896, upon the discovery of the anti-colonial secret organization Katipunan by the Spanish authorities. The Katipunan, led by Andrà ©s Bonifacio, was a liberationist movement and shadow government spread throughout much of the islands whose goal was independence from Spain through armed revolt. In a mass gathering in Caloocan, the Katipunan leaders organized themselves into a revolutionary government, named the newly established government â€Å"Haring Bayang Katagalugan†, and openly declared a nationwide armed revolution.[2] Bonifacio called for a simultaneous coordinated attack on the capital city of Manila. This attack failed, but the surrounding provinces also rose up in revolt. In particular, rebels in Cavite led by Mariano Alvarez and Emilio Aguinaldo, from two different factions of Katipunan in the province, won early victories. A power struggle among the revolutionaries led to Bonifacio’s death in 1897, with command shifting to Aguinaldo who led his own revolutionary government. That year, a truce with the Spanish was reached called the Pact of Biak-na-Bato and Aguinaldo went to self-exile in Hong Kong. Hostilities, though reduced, never actually ceased.[3] On April 21, 1898, the United States began a naval blockade of Cuba, the first military action of the Spanish–American War. On May 1, the U.S. Navy’s Asiatic Squadron under Commodore George Dewey decisively defeated the Spanish navy in the Battle of Manila Bay, effectively seizing control of Manila. On May 19, Aguinaldo, unofficially allied with the United States, returned to the Philippines and resumed host ilities against the Spaniards. By June, the rebels had gained control over nearly all of the Philippines with the exception of Manila. On June 12, Aguinaldo issued the Philippine Declaration of Independence and the First Philippine Republic was established. Neither Spain nor the United  States recognized Philippine independence. Spanish rule in the islands officially ended with the Treaty of Paris of 1898 which ended the Spanish–American War. In it Spain ceded the Philippines and other territories to the United States.[3] There was an uneasy peace around Manila with the American forces controlling the city and the weaker Philippines forces surrounding them. On February 4, 1899, in the Battle of Manila fighting broke out between the Filipino and American forces, beginning the Philippine–American War. Aguinaldo immediately ordered, â€Å"[t]hat peace and friendly relations with the Americans be broken and that the latter be treated as enemies†.[4] In June 1899, the nascent First Philippine Republic formally declared war against the United States.[5][6] The Philippines would not become an interna tionally recognized, independent state until 1946.