How do we safeguard human rights - Free Essay Example

Sample details Pages: 17 Words: 5028 Downloads: 1 Date added: 2017/06/26 Category Law Essay Type Analytical essay Level High school Tags: Human Rights Essay Did you like this example? à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‹Å"Safeguarding Human Rights lies less in new laws, than in new interpretationsà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢. Discuss with reference to the United States and the United Kingdom Introduction Both sides of the proposition posed in the title question are fraught with difficulty. Human history, particularly as it unfolded in the twentieth century, confirmed that national and supranational treaties and legislation, no matter how compellingly drafted or extensively ratified, was a thin safeguard against human rights abuses. Don’t waste time! Our writers will create an original "How do we safeguard human rights?" essay for you Create order Versailles, the Yalta Conference, the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights and the International Convention against Torture represent a sampling of this truth. The mere enactment of a human rights provision does not carry an implicit assurance of compliance or respect for its terms. Similarly, the legal traditions advanced by case law and other jurisprudence are an inadequate moral compass era to era in the human experience. Human rights are a dynamic and highly contextual aspect of our global existence. Written laws can quickly assume the status of tombstone data, immutable, inert and ineffective in the face of rapidly changing societal attitudes and diversity. The precise definition of what constitutes a fundamental right of any kind is never static. The body of law in any society is susceptible to manipulation by subsequent generations. In the course of this paper, an argument shall be advanced that seeks to synthesise both aspects of the title, with a primary weight g iven top the promulgation of better and more powerfully written laws as the ultimate tool to encourage cogent and authoritative interpretations to best counter the dynamics of human rights issues. The analysis commences with a series of working definitions. Depending upon the tenor of a particular time, human rights protections may be expressed in terms as expansive as an ocean, or as thin as a puddle. An effective definition of human rights is crucial given its status as the touchstone modern societal concept in both the United States and the UK. The relevant definitions are especially examined from the perspective of two constructs à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â‚¬Å" rights versus obligations, and claims versus rights versus entitlement. The definitional foundation analyses specific examples available in both the American and the UK human rights experience. The common roots of the constitutional protection of human rights in each country and the divergence in approaches between both nations are considered; the American Constitution and the UK incorporation by reference of European Community human rights standards are considered in this respect. It is contended that the United States and the UK have recently returned to a common root in the consideration of the limits to be placed upon human rights availability in times of national emergency, a contention examined with particular reference to the events and the repercussions of the 9/11 and 7/7 terrorist attacks. An examination of modern constitutional protection in both the UK and the United States leads inexorably to a restatement of the central question à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â‚¬Å"is the best human rights protection an enlargement of the existing positive law or the promotion of existing human rights jurisprudence? In this specific context, the question may be further re-stated in terms of an à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‹Å"acid testà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢ à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â‚¬Å"how has the protection of human rights withstood the exigencies of the c urrent à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‹Å"war on terrorà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢? This conflict and all of its attendant human rights pressures will be considered as both a latter day moral panic and as the ultimate human rights intersection between individual liberties and societal protection. The paper concludes with an observation advanced in support of the proposed synthesis. Human Rights à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â‚¬Å" a societal touchstone As noted in the Introduction, human rights are increasingly identified in the public consciousness as representing the essence of both modern UK and American society. à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‹Å"Rightsà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢ in all of their forms are asserted, advanced and in theory, protected with a vigour that is evident in every aspect of society. It is a simple but worthy observation that both American and UK societies now stress human rights laws because a functioning society must have them. Humans through history have proven themselves incapable of effective rule without laws. Alan D ershowitz has noted that à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‹Å"à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦man strives for something to worshipà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦today that à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‹Å"somethingà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢ is human rightsà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢[1] The natural law theories of Enlightment thinkers such as John Locke have remained a constant in modern day human rights considerations, where any type of intolerance is generally regarded as a limitation upon natural and desirable human growth and the acquisition of knowledge.[2] Michael Ignatieff has characterised human rights as a language that connects the disparate nature of global humanity. Progress on human rights issues is defined in this context as à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‹Å"à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦an increase in our ability to see more and more differences among people as morally irrelevantà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢[3]; the spread of human rights must be encouraged as it represents definitive proof of moral progress. The concept of human rights is one of the few philosophical or legal con structions that may be defined by what they are not without doing violence to logic or scholarship. In one sense, a theory of human rights is a theory of human wrongs; à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‹Å"à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦it begins with the worst of the injustices: the Crusades, the Inquisition, slavery, the Stalinist starvation and purges, the Holocaust, the Cambodia slaughter, and other abuses that reasonable people now recognise as wrongs.à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢[4] In a similar legislative context, Thomas Hobbes described covenants without swords as à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‹Å"only wordsà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢;[5] rights could only exist through a combination of statements of intention and a commitment to action and their enforcement. Similarly, a right is expressed in contradistinction to an obligation. Both the American Constitution and the UK law (both before and after the Human Rights Act / ECHR interpretations) emphasise rights, and their inherent sense of entitlement to the holder of the right. John Gentry speaks of à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‹Å"the revolution of rising expectationsà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢ fostered by human rights as a true societal touchstone issue; the revolution, evidenced by the sweeping nature of both American and ECHR judicial interpretations, is suggested as the cause of a serious deterioration in the concept of personal responsibility.[6] It is argued that within the broad tent of human rights, certain specific rights have primacy. In both the United States and the UK systems, civil and political rights have traditionally been afforded greater respect than economic, social or cultural rights. Civil and political rights are ones that advance and protect individualism and self expression; freedoms of assembly, religion, and property all developed organically from these roots. It is a more recent historical development that presents economic, social and cultural rights on an equal footing as that of the primary group; a distinction to be observed between the ECHR and the American Constit ution is in the emphasis in the European documents on this second group. While a number of commentators have expressed the view that the desired universality of human rights does not require à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‹Å"cultural homogenisationà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢,[7] the right to work, to earn a living wage, the protection of cultural expression and the promotion of health care are à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‹Å"softerà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢ human rights elements; the ECHR jurisprudence on these issues is more fully rounded than its American counterpart, because as is contended in this paper, the written law has led the jurisprudence à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â‚¬Å"new laws have led to new interpretations.[8] It has been suggested that human rights laws are the means by which a state, a dry and impersonal legal entity, is transformed into a vibrant and dynamic nation.[9] In this respect the foundation human rights document in United States law, the American Constitution, has been the vehicle through which true nationhood has been attained. The Constitution as written represents a powerful codification into positive law the principles of natural law articulated by Locke and Rousseau that were dear to constitutional authors such as Thomas Jefferson.[10] The largely unwritten character of the UK constitutional system achieves a similar result through implication; the Human Rights Act, through the mechanisms discussed below, achieves a similar effect by different means. Both UK and American modern constitutional approaches to human rights presume their universality. The language of the American Constitution establishes broad definitions of citizenship and protection against an overbearing state. As an example, the language of the Fourteenth Amendment provides thatà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢ The relationship between à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‹Å"citizensà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢, à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‹Å"personsà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢ and their respective constitutional protections has been a rich source of American litigation. A powerful example of the interplay between the clear language of the American constitution, historical circumstances, societal attitudes and national emergency is found in the differing manners in which the United States reacted to the two most immediate and stunning incursions made by an enemy upon its home soil. In 1941, in the wake of the Japanese strike against Pearl Harbour in Hawaii, the United States government through its Congress authorised the detention of all persons of Japanese ancestry resident in the United States, including those persons who were American citizens. The plain language of the Fourteenth Amendment was circumscribed by the perceived threat presented by persons of Japanese ancestry. In a constitutional challenge to their internment[11], the United States Supreme Court ruled that the government action was permitted; Congress à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‹Å"à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦had reposed confidence in its military leadership (in recommending the detention of these persons)à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢ à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â‚¬Å" war powers, said the Court, must be judged within the context of war.[12] Sixty years later, the 9/11 attacks perpetrated by the Al Qaeda terrorist movement were determined to be the work of persons who originated from a primarily Saudi Arabian based Muslim sect. The United States made no movement to detain or otherwise restrict the citizenship rights of its Saudi or broader Arab Muslim minority; the United States restrictions on the travel freedoms of some members of this general class of persons was a markedly lesser response to the 9/11 emergency than that which followed Pearl Harbour; even these latter actions have attracte d widespread adverse commentary[13]. It may appear that a 1941 styled response to the events of 9/11 would not accord with modern American or perceived global standards of human rights; it may be said that modern American attitudes to the notion of confining persons on the basis of ancestry or religion evolved from what in retrospect was the disagreeable treatment of American Japanese in World War Two. However, whether the United States through its treatment of à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‹Å"war on terrorà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢ suspects has effected an improvement on its 1941 Japanese policy is open to significant question, as is illustrated below. The European human rights conventions (ECHR) that are now a part of UK law by virtue of the Human Rights Act are a useful contrast to the American approach. The language of Article 5[14] (right to liberty) is stated as an emphatic guarantee of liberty and security that is subject to limited exceptions in its application. The Article is as sweeping in it s language as that of its American counterpart. Article 6 is a recapitulation of legal rights to due process and fair trials that largely mirrors the case law developed in the American constitutional interpretations and the UK jurisprudence prior to the enactment of the Human Rights Act. In both systems, the written law does not enumerate every conceivable human rights issue that requires protection, but there is a clear attempt in both the American and the UK provisions to establish and foster a legal foundation for human rights. In an overarching fashion, individual rights are the accepted trump against the powers of the state. The definition of what constitutes a right within each constitutional framework is the subject of continual reassessment and reassertion. In both jurisdictions, the development of human rights is based upon an experiential approach, akin to trial and error processes that are re-evaluated case by case. In this sense, in theory, there is a present synthesis o f law and interpretation such as that contended for in this paper à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â‚¬Å" the practical realities are different. The manner in which each system has created exceptions to these broad human rights protections may define the scope of both American and UK human rights better than the primary and positive enactments themselves. The ECHR establishes the means by which an individual state may declare its derogation from the primary human rights established and confirmed by the ECHR. Article 14[15] is far more specific than the old fashioned language of the American Constitution Fifth Amendment, but the net effect is that each regime permits significant leeway to a government that perceives itself as imperilled to impose limitation so basic human freedoms. The à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‹Å"war on terrorà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢ analysis set out below is an amplification of this point. A literal reading of each set of constitutional enactments reveals that the similarities in the extent and the protection of human rights are striking. One would expect a similarity in judicial results through the interpretation of these laws. As the jurisprudence that has flowed from the war on terror reveals, human rights is a highly mobile and elusive concept. A further important similarity exists in the written structure of UK and American human rights protections in the context of national emergency. In both systems, the power to relax or abrogate human rights provisions is stated as a clear exception to the law, as opposed to a balancing of competing interests. The stated level of emergency provided for to permit government exceptions to the standard of human rights in each system is very high. The ECHR derogation power noted in Article Fourteen above is conveyed in a tone that would suggest its power would be rarely invoked. The American Constitution is no less circumspect. The case law arising in both the UK and the United States in the wake of terrorist activity since 2001 has created a different legal landscape that what might reasonably be anticipated from a strict reading of the black letter constitutional law. The terrorism cases and the redefinition of human rights Korematsu established a principle of American constitutional interpretation that the right of citizenship was not absolute in war time. Further, the United States Supreme Court paid particular homage to the notion of judicial deference to the decisions of the executive and legislative branches in times of national emergency. The most striking similarity in the UK and the American case law to flow from the modern war on terror is the manner in which the respective national courts have applied this very principle. In the United States, Hamdi v Rumsfeld [16]is an instructive example. Hamdi, an American citizen, was detained by the United States as an à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‹Å"enemy combatantà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢ when he was determined to have significant links to the Taliban insurgency in Afghani stan. Hamdi brought an application for habeus corpus for a judicial review of his detention; Hamdi reed primarily upon the rights afforded American citizens under the Constitution for due process.[17] In language that echoed that of the Supreme Court in Korematsu, it was held that the war making powers of the executive branch presumed expertise and experience was lodged there. The Court held that the branches of government most accountable to the people should be the ones to undertake its ultimate protection; à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‹Å"à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦a healthy deferenceà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢ must be shown by courts to legislative and executive judgements in military affairs.[18] The Court expressed its concern that to examine the basis of the government assertion that Hamdi was properly designated an à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‹Å"enemy combatantà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢ would represent an undesirable judicial à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‹Å"creepà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢ into a military sphere.[19] The language employed by the Court is in c ontrast to the Arar case as discussed below[20]. The language employed in the UK terrorism cases is powerful evidence that whatever divergences may be apparent in the course of the human rights histories of the USA and the UK, the respective judicial attitudes as to how human rights may properly be limited in times of national emergency reflect a return to the legal roots shared by these nations. In a line of cases commencing with Secretary of State for the Home Department v Rehman[21] (where the consideration and delivery of the reasons for judgement straddled the events of 9 / 11), the deportation of a Pakistani citizen whose parents resided Britain was upheld as the proper exercise of executive power and the advancement of the public good: à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‹Å"(The Secretary of State)à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ is entitled to have regard to the precautionary and preventative principles rather than to wait until directly harmful activities have taken place, the individual in the meantime rema ining in this country. In doing so he is not merely finding facts but forming an executive judgement or assessment.[22] Lord Hoffman noted in a postscript written after 9/11 that the events in America à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‹Å"à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦are a reminder that in matters of national security, the cost of failure can be high. This seems to me to underline the need for the judicial arm of government to respect the decisions of ministers of the Crown on the question of whether support for terrorist activities in a foreign country constitutes a threat to national securityà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ If the people are to accept the consequences of such decisions, they must be made by persons whom the people have elected and whom they can remove.[23] The subsequent decisions of the House of Lords, particularly in A Ors v. Secretary of State for the Home Department [24]reinforce this position. Lord Bingham employed the expression à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‹Å"great weightà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢ in his view of the manner in w hich government decisions should be considered in assessing the terrorist threat. The court did emphasize that while national security represented the one area of national life where a court would be most leery to tread, where persons are deprived f their liberty without trial such action à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‹Å"à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦plainly invites judicial scrutiny of considerable intensity.à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢[25] The spirit of these decisions was maintained in the more recent case law that considered deportations that occurred as fall out from the à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‹Å"war on terrorà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢, particularly as outlined in Khadir[26] and Tabnak[27]. In Khadir, Lord Mance buttressed the court view that a terrorist related deportation was supported in the ECHR jurisprudence[28] as authority for the proposition that à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‹Å"à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦litigation concerning immigration control does not concern the determination of a civil right within the meaning of article 6(1), despite acknowledging th e major repercussions on an applicants private and family life or on his prospects of employment that such litigation may haveà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢[29] In both the American and the UK examples, the courts have employed a strict constructional division of powers analysis to establish the breadth of the permitted exceptions to otherwise available human rights protections in times of national emergency. The Arar case as outlined below is a useful illustration of where both the written law and the interpretations did not evidently prevent a breach of a fundamental human right in the name of the war against terror. Moral panic and terrorism à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â‚¬Å" the Arar case Sociologist Stanley Cohen coined the expression à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‹Å"moral panicà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢ as a result of his studies concerning the à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‹Å"Mods versus Rockersà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢ social controversy in the UK in the 1960s[30]. By definition, a moral panic is a psychological disturbance to a community that is triggered by a perceived threat to the social fabric, precipitating calls for government action and a public outcry against its perpetrators. Moral panics in the shape of phenomena such as youth crime and obscenity have swept Western cultures; each has an element of being over stated and sensationalised by the media out of all proportion to actual threat posed. Terrorism and the threats posed to the safety and security of Western society generally and the United States and the UK in particular are far beyond a mere moral threat. However, the moral threat analysis may be a useful consideration in understanding that even a profound threat to national security is not without the imposition of definable human rights standards; the United States handling of the Arar incident and its conduct of the Iraq war in terms of the use of extraordinary rendition brings this question into stark focus. In 2002, Maher Arar, a Syrian born Canadian citizen, was prevented from c ontinuing on a passenger flight to Montreal that had stopped over in New York. American authorities, acting in conjunction with operatives involved in a Canadian security investigation concerning Arar and his possible connections to Al Qaeda and terrorism, detained Arar. Over his protests, Arar was taken from the United States and ultimately turned over to Syrian military and security personnel. Arar was detained in Syria for over 10 months, during which time he was variously questioned, tortured, and deprived of access to either legal counsel or Canadian consular officials. The information secured from Arar through the Syrian interrogation proceedings was ultimately provided to the United States as a part of its anti-terrorism activities, coupled with the military intelligence gathering process in relation to the Iraq war. In 2005, President George Bush declared that à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‹Å"à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦torture is never acceptable, nor do we hand over people to countries that do tor ture[31]à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢. The International Convention on Torture, to which both the UK and the United States are signatories, sets out a clear prohibition against the use of torture in any form in conjunction with military operations or prisoner detention[32]. The American Congress had passed legislation in 1998 that confirmed à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‹Å"à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦the policy of the United States not to expel, extradite, or otherwise effect the involuntary return of any person to a country in which there are substantial grounds for believing the person would be in danger of being subjected to torture, regardless of whether the person is physically present in the United States.à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢[33] In a similar context, the concept of extraordinary rendition is regarded as an unlawful circumvention of the torture prohibitions. This practice involves the deliberate transfer of a person to a jurisdiction that does not hold a similar regard for human rights as the sending jurisdiction in its treatment of prisoners. The Iraq war has led to significant concerns in both the United States and the UK concerning the practice[34], regarded by many observers as a breach of human rights and an indirect form of permitting otherwise illegal torture.[35] The Canadian government convened a public inquiry into the circumstances of the Arar case; the primary domestic focus was the understandable public concern that arose in Canada concerning the complicity of its official agencies in the American action. The inquiry revealed that the United States was not prepared to recognise the fundamental rights of citizenship Arar otherwise possessed, preferring what was described as thin and tenuous connections between Arar and persons involved in terrorist activities. It is in this particular connection that the apparent wholesale breach of Ararà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s human rights in New York in 2002 and perpetuated in Syria over the next year can be better understood in part with referen ce to the moral panic analogy. Arar represents a circumstance where the American government seemed intent on pursuing a systematic violation of human rights based upon information it knew was no more than suspicion. The judicial reasoning in the American and UK authorities concerning the due deference to be extended to the executive branch in times of war cannot salvage actions that bear the hallmarks of Arar.[36] Further, the war on terror represents a confluence in UK and American governmental attitudes to surveillance practices that have been widely criticised as human rights violations perpetrated against its own respective nationals.[37] In the United States, the government operated a clandestine wiretap operation without warrant or other judicial sanction, in the name of the war on terror generally, and in the struggle against the Al Qaeda organisation in particular.[38] The use of executive warrants to permit wiretaps prior to the events of 2001 had provoked fierce deba te in the UK. The purported overseers of UK practice, the Investigatory Powers Tribunal, adopted a policy whereby à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‹Å"à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦their policy is to neither confirm nor deny whether surveillance had actually taken place.à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢[39] The conduct of the war on terrorism with the unsavoury aspects of rendition and the use of the Guantanamo Bay facility to house detainees was one pursued as a joint enterprise by the UK and the United States. It appears that the linkage to Europe achieved through the EU and the ECHR may only know be a factor to restore divergence in attitudes towards human rights in the conduct of the war on terrorism. One commentator noted that à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‹Å"à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦British foreign policy after 11 September was meant to change America to turn the Bush administration into European social democrats, or at least Christian democrats by persuading Bush to accept that only cooperation and efforts to alleviate poverty could reduce the threa t of Muslim fanaticism. That policy is dead. Britain failed because it overestimated its power and underestimated the self-confidence and bravado of the American right.à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢[40] If a single conclusion can be drawn from the UK and American attitudes to human rights observance during the war on terror, it is that each national government has preferred hard edged operational expediency to the persona rights wherever the two concepts have clashed. Conclusion In a profound sense, recent history illustrates that notwithstanding the combined effect of written laws and focused judicial interpretations, human rights will always risk running a poor second to the will of a government executive in war time. The foregoing analysis is an example of how law and interpretations can be synthesised into a mechanism to identify as best as one can the permissible boundaries between executive action and an enduring respect for fundamental rights by the executive branch. Judicial in terpretation alone is not enough à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â‚¬Å" the written law will at least identify what protections there should be in a society à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â‚¬Å" as the Thomas More of fiction expressed it à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â‚¬Å" à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‹Å"à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦And when the last law was down, and the Devil turned round on youà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â‚¬ where would you hide, Roper, the laws all being flat?à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢[41] Strong written law will ultimately produce compelling yet balanced human rights protections. Bibliography ECHR Cases Maaouia v. France (2000) 33 EHRR 42 UK Cases Tabnak, R. v [2007] EWCA Crim 380 Secretary of State for the Home Department v Khadir (R on the Application of) [2003] EWCA Civ 475 A Ors v. Secretary of State for the Home Department [2004] UKHL 56; see also the Court of Appeal ruling [2002] EWCA Civ 1502, [2004] QB 335 Secretary of State for the Home Department v Rehman [2001] UKHL 47 United States Cases Arar v. Ashcroft, 414 F.Supp.2d 250, 2 74 n10 (2006) Hamdi v. Rumsfeld, 542 U.S. 507 (2004) Korematsu v. United States, 323 U.S. 214 (1944) Rasul v. Bush, 542 U.S. 466 (2004) Statutes European Convention of Human Rights, 1953 UK Human Rights Act, 1998 United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights, 1948 United Nations Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, 1985 United States Constitution, 1787 Secondary Sources American Bar Association (2006) National Security Law Report https://www.americanbar.org/groups/public_services/law_national_security/  (Accessed May 8, 2007) Arar Commission / Report of the Events relating to Maher Arar à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â‚¬Å" Analysis and Recommendations (2006) https://www.ararcommission.ca/eng/26.htm (Accessed May 8, 2007) Baker, Nancy V. (2003) à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‹Å"National Security versus Civil Libertiesà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢ Presidential Studies Quarterly 33, no. 3: 547+ BBC Newsà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢ (2006) M I-5 enabled UK pairà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s renditionà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢ March 28, 2006 https://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/4851478.stm (Accessed May 8, 2007) Bork, Robert H. (2003) à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‹Å"Civil Liberties after 9/11à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢ Commentary July/August, 29+ Cohen, Nick (2002) à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‹Å"Time to Bite Back? Other Countries Got Something in Return for Backing Bush; the UK Just Carries on as Americas Poodleà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢ New Statesman January 28, 9+ Cohen, Stanley Folk Devils and Moral Panics: Thirtieth Anniversary Edition Routledge, 2002 Dershowitz, Alan (2004) Rights from Wrongs: A Secular Theory of the Origins of Rights New York: Basic Books Donnelly, Jack à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“Human Rights are universalà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢ Opposing Viewpoints Series Farmington Hills, NJ: Greenhaven Press, pp. 19-24 Donohue, Laura K. (2006) à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‹Å"Anglo-American Privacy and Surveillanceà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢ Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology 96, no. 3: 1059+ Gentry, John A. à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“Defining Human Rights too broadly can destroy a nationà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢ Opposing Viewpoints Series Farmington Hills, NJ: Greenhaven Press, 48-58 Gibbs, Blair (2003) à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‹Å"Human rights are not necessarily universalà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢ Opposing Viewpoints Series Farmington Hills, NJ: Greenhaven Press, pp. 25 -31 Hobbes, Thomas (1651) Leviathan https://oregonstate.edu/instruct/phl302/texts/hobbes/leviathan-contents.html (Accessed May 9, 2007) Ignatieff, Michael (2001) Human Rights as Politics and Idolatry Princeton: Princeton University Press Mayer, Jane (2005) à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‹Å"Outsourcing Tortureà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢ The New Yorker https://www.newyorker.com/archive/2005/02/14/050214fa_fact6 (Accessed May 8, 2007) 1 Footnotes [1] Dershowitz, Alan (2004) Rights from Wrongs: A Secular Theory of the Origins of Rights New York: Basic Books, 59, 64 [2] Gibbs, Blair (2003) à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‹Å"Human rights are not necessarily universalà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢ Opposing Viewpoints Series Farmington Hills, NJ: Greenhaven Press, 28 [3] Ignatieff, Michael (2001) Human Rights as Politics and Idolatry Princeton: Princeton University Press, 4, 5 [4] Dershowitz, 81 [5] Hobbes, Thomas (1651) Leviathan 8 [6] Gentry, John A. à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“Defining Human Rights too broadly can destroy a nationà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢ Opposing Viewpoints Series Farmington Hills, NJ: Greenhaven Press, 51, 52 [7] Donnelly, Jack à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“Human Rights are universalà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢ Opposing Viewpoints Series Farmington Hills, NJ: Greenhaven Press, 24 [8] See the variety of cases determine annually by the European Court of Human Rights, coupled with the UK considerations of national statute compatibility with the ECHR [9] Gentry , John A., 50 [10] Ignatieff, 69 [11] Korematsu v. United States, 323 U.S. 214 (1944) [12] Ibid, 221 [13] See as examples Baker, Nancy V. (2003) à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‹Å"National Security versus Civil Libertiesà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢ Presidential Studies Quarterly 33, no. 3: 547+; Bork, Robert H. (2003) à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‹Å"Civil Liberties after 9/11à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢ Commentary July/August, 29+ [14] European Convention of Human Rights, 1953, Articles 5 and 6 [15] The key expression with in the Article stated asà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢ à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ may take measures derogating from its obligations under this Convention to the extent strictly required by the exigencies of the situationà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢ [16] Hamdi v. Rumsfeld, 542 U.S. 507 (2004) [17] Ibid, 5th Amendment [18] Ibid [19] Ibid; see also Rasul v. Bush, 542 U.S. 466 (2004) [20] Arar v. Ashcroft, 414 F.Supp.2d 250, 274 n.10 (EDNY 2006); see also the Canadian Commission report, infra [21] Secretar y of State for the Home Department v Rehman [2001] UKHL 47 [22] Ibid, para 23 [23] Ibid, para 62 [24] [2004] UKHL 56; see also the Court of Appeal judgement at [2002] EWCA Civ 1502, [2004] QB335, where the Court emphasised the à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‹Å"inevitable trust and professionalism of the Security Serviceà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢ [25] [2004] UKHL 56 [26] [2003] EWCA Civ 475 [27] [2007] EWCA Crim 380 [28] Maaouia v. France (2000) 33 EHRR 42 [29] Khadir, para 86 [30] Cohen, Stanley Folk Devils and Moral Panics: Thirtieth Anniversary Edition Routledge, 2002 [31] Mayer, Jane (2005) à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‹Å"Outsourcing Tortureà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢ The New Yorker , 1 [32]United Nations Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, 1985 [33] Mayer, 2 [34] American Bar Association (2006) National Security Law Report, pp. 1-8 [35] BBC Newsà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢ (2006) MI-5 enabled UK pairà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s renditionà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢ March 28, 2006 [36] See also the US litigation, Arar v. Ashcroft, 414 F.Supp.2d 250, 274 n.10 (EDNY 2006) [37] Donohue, Laura K. (2006) à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‹Å"Anglo-American Privacy and Surveillanceà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢ Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology 96, no. 3: 1059+ [38] Ibid, 1059, 1068, 1072 [39] Ibid, 1079 [40] Cohen, Nick (2002) à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‹Å"Time to Bite Back? Other Countries Got Something in Return for Backing Bush; the UK Just Carries on as Americas Poodleà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢ New Statesman January 28, 9+ [41] Bolt, Peter à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‹Å"A Man for all Seasonsà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢, Act 1, scene 7

Racism A Long Way From The End Of Colonialism Essay

Racism Transition from Domination to Hegemony Historically, United States battle against racism has come a long way from the days of colonialism, slavery, racial hierarchies, racial demarcated reserves, strict policies and segregation. And yet, discrimination and inequality continue to persist in our society. Howard Winant, an American sociologist and race theorist, stated that, â€Å"the meaning of racism has changed over time. The attitudes, practices and institutions of epochs of colonialism, segregation†¦ may not have been entirely eliminated, but neither do they operate today in the same ways they did half a century ago (Winant 128).† The meaning and how racism operates may have changed over time but its negative connotations and implications in society continue to limit the individual’s understanding, explore and accept the complexity of each individual. Presently, racism appears less blatant and may appear â€Å"more acceptable,† but its existence and effect is undeniable. 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Market mix paper free essay sample

General Motors is the organization in which I’m familiar with I was with this organization for eight years. However I work for Chrysler at this moment so I’m a little familiar with the automotive industry as a whole. How does market mix affects the development of General Motors marketing strategy and tactics? General Motors has a global marketing strategy and tactics vision which is to design, to build, and to sell the world’s finest vehicles. When designing their vehicle General Motors are focusing on their best products while lifting their global resources to form the most undeniable vehicles and technologies. When General Motors build their new sleet of vehicles they optimize their global market to be cost-effective as well as developing finest segmented vehicles. As General Motors plan marketing strategy and tactic for pricing to maximizing revenues with a focused product strategy, supplying globally vibrant vehicles to the marketplace that offer our customer’s higher residual value, with lower incentives and appropriate pricing. As general motors describe how their product is implemented first the demand for the goods has to be customer based therefore consumers will gladly purchased what is being produced. When implementing place the need is minor other than researching their current location globally to determine which location can produce the product most efficiently while increasing the effectiveness of the product to show significant impact on company profitability. Developing and managing automobiles to compete effectively and achieve goals the organization must be able to adjust its product mix. General Motors understand competition and customer attitudes and preferences. Marginal Analysis is another technique that general motors incorporate when analyzing what happens to the costs and revenues as production increases by one unit. This will determine at which point profit will be maximized, marginal analyzing will distinguish between fixed costs average fixed costs, variable costs average variable cost, total cost while focused on increasing productivity, price is being paid close attention to as well; price is major in this world of automotive. Price is implemented from the value exchanged for the product. The progression of pricing mechanisms starts at fixed versus variable. Most often dealer can change quickly in response to the shift in demand a shift in demand will reveal shifts in total revenue. In some cases pricing can be difficult to predict due to the environment and or the cost structures, pricing can also be difficult due to the competitors pricing. That’s when implementing the fourth element which is promotion. Promotion is a communications strategy, which integrates the promotion synthesis. Advertising is a popular way to communication about an organization or its products that is transmitted to a target audience through a medium: sales promotion: materials that act as a direct inducement, offering adding value, or incentive for the product, to resellers, sales people or consumers: trade promotions = 47% of promotional budget, consumer promotions = 28% Steps of the promotional program. General motors have steps in which they implement promotional programs step one consist of Identifying target audience and characteristics, and perception of product. Step two Define communications objectives such as content, structure, format source and select media and source. When implementing promotion you should take in to consideration Political stand point, personal portion, and evaluation and dealers choice. As General Motors continue to research the way they implement the four P’s they incorporate a worksheets that will help them gain better understand and tailor their marketing mix to ensure their customers’ needs and wants. The worksheet is setup to compare each element such as describing their products characteristics on one side of the worksheet and on the other side of worksheet will be describe their competitors’ products characteristics. The price worksheet is set up with the pricing strategies of their product advantages and disadvantages on one side of worksheet, on the other side of the worksheet their competitors advantages and disadvantage of pricing strategies. The place worksheet is set up as how General Motors product is distributed on one side and on the other side their competitor way of   distributing their product. The set up for promotion would consist of General Motors way of promoting on the right column (advertising, television, radio, electronic or work of mouth) and their competitor way of promoting on left column. According to â€Å"businesscasestudies â€Å" three more P’s have been added to the list of market mix P’s the new three P’s are people, processes and physical which are put in to place for extended marketing mix. These seven Ps make up the strategies of marketing and become the main point of the marketing plan. The key goal of a marketing leader is to develop and sustain a marketing mix that matches the requests of the consumers in the targeted market. Marketing segmentation contains separating the entire market into segments. A corporation selects the segments to become the targeted market. The final aim of market segmentation is to intensification sales, which will help market share and profits by enhanced understanding and replying to the desires of the different targeted customers. General Motor’s success is a direct result of knowing how to market a product and having the correct individuals representing the product. The marketing mix is the key elements in the success of the organization. The elements of marketing include marketing strategies, market objectives, situational analysis and the targeted market. The Best marketing strategies start with an executive summary that provides a brief summary of the current matters affecting an organization. This strategy is vital in identifying key structures of a marketing strategy. After the executive summary the organization finds out its present situation in the market using a situational analysis. A situational analysis is an exceptional way to open the marketing plan as covers four mechanisms in a market analysis, the product analysis, the competitor analysis and the SWOT analysis. General Motors market analysis is fundamentals in determining the internal and external factors that influence the organizations certainties and uncertainties. For instance when theirs an economic movement and when theirs an economic slumps that will affect the organization. The product analysis is essential when inspecting a organizations present conditions of goods or services within a marketplace environment. It is vital that General Motors to know when a vehicle’s time is up and needs to be renewing or replacing. General Motors always keep an eye on their competitors, when doing so they will examine the marketing ideas and strategies of key competitors and evaluate how effective their operations currently are doing in areas where competitors may be seen to be a bit stronger than they are currently doing. The Promotional agencies and marketing specialists get paid a large amount of money to generate ads that are remarkable when getting individual to see the ads as well as getting people to conversation about them is huge challenges. The collective misconception is the amount of funds it take to market marketing campaigns that’s why marketers originated the solution of letting the customers spread the word which is better known as Viral Marketing. Good marketing can change an organization instantly between advertising and word of mouth it will give General Motors them influential way to engage their targeted audience. According to â€Å"General Motors.Com† Currently General Motors is the world’s leading automotive company with operations in more than 120 countries worldwide. In 2011 they sold 9.0 million vehicles. Their organization is diversified through products and geographic markets. They meet the indigenous sales and service requests of their retail and fleet businesses with a global linkage of independent dealers. Recently General Motors has experienced the manufacturings highest volume growth period. Throughout the globe, they are the leader in market share and vehicle sales, led by a diverse assortment of brands sharing core stages of efficiencies and connection by GM’s global range. Throughout the United States General Motors product the Cadillac which is their top vehicles then they have their GMC a very popular truck brand and the Chevrolet which is more of their smaller economy cars other than the corvettes which is one of the fastest vehicles on the road. Outside the United States General Motors manufactures and markets Holden, Opel and Vauxhall as well as the Cadillac, Buick, GMC and the Chevrolet. http://www.gm.com/company/investors/corporate-strategy.html http://www.extension.purdue.edu/extmedia http://www.businesscasestudies.com

This Tree Essays - Plant Morphology, Ornamental Trees, Plant Roots

This Tree This Tree A tree starts life as a tiny seed. Given the right conditions, the seed will start to take root. The tree seedling absorbs water and splits the seed coat. First a tiny root grows and bends downward into the soil under the influence of gravity. Finally, the stem and leaves emerge from the seed coat and push their way through the soil toward the sunlight. The seedling then begins to manufacture its own food. Eventually, it grows into a larger tree called a sapling. Despite their variations in appearance, all trees have essentially the same basic structure. They have a central column, the trunk. The trunk is the main stem of the tree. It has two main functions: first, support the branches, twigs, and leaves; secondly, transport food and water throughout the tree. The outer bark on the trunk protects the inside of the tree from injury and from drying out. The branches of the tree bear an outside covering layer of leaves. The branches give the appearance of a root system above ground. Anchoring the tree in the ground is a network of roots, which spreads and grows thicker in proportion to the growth of the tree above the ground. Roots are usually found at the lowest end of the tree and spread in a vast and intricate network, like underground branches. These roots usually extend as far underground as the twigs spread in the crown of the tree. In addition to anchoring the tree in the ground, roots absorb water and nutrients from the soil. The tree us es these to manufacture food and grow. Trees are seen as representatives of the world itself and with their inter-relationship with nature, by early man, it is not surprising that the coexisting tree is concerned with the mutual dependency of all things on Earth. I see the branches grow up strong and outwards from one single trunk, which to me represents unity. These branches are like a network of welcoming arms extended toward the sky inviting all to come rest and seek shelter. The roots of the tree represent the need to embrace life and draw life from the earth to survive. The sap of the tree flows through the tree like blood through veins and therefore to place things in the tree would enable a healing process to take place for an animal, a human, or a season. I see peace and tranquility in trees. I see cats and birds sitting side-by-side in harmony, no squabbling and certainly no death. Each is content and the overall system is in balance. Trees, like all other living things, eventually grow old and die. For some trees, death may come as suddenly as a lightning strike. High winds might uproot a tree, or an ice storm may coat it and bend it to the breaking point. For most trees, though, death is preceded by a period of natural decline. Anthropology

Conflict Management Essays

Conflict Management Essays Conflict Management Essay Conflict Management Essay Course: project economics and evaluation Course code: C11PV Coursework title: Project Appraisal Student Number: H00152083 Lecturer: Dr. Esinath Ndiweni 1. Introduction The work is centred on the importance of project appraisal therefore emphasising on the financial and non-financial techniques of appraisal. The object and, therefore, the importance of a project appraisal is making an analysis to see whether the project is viable. It is vital to know whether a project is technically feasible and whether it is going to be an economic liability or not. A project appraisal is an important part of any project and should be taken seriously because a lot rests on it. The effects of a project appraisal are long reaching and have very definite long term effects because of the capital investment that is always required in any project. Once a decision has been made to go ahead with a project, it is irreversible. Even if, through some catastrophic event, the project has to come to an unpredicted halt, the investment has been made so all could be lost. These high expenditures can be critical, not just for that particular project but for the health and survival of the entire business. As such, this paper combines the importance of both methods in order to help in assessment of project performance. 2. Literature review Recent literature has been emphasising on the need to consider the use of both financial and non-financial methods when dealing with project decisions. It is fundamental for a project to consider these techniques in order to measure a success of a project. This part of the paper is focused on critically analysing and evaluating these techniques and justifying why both are important. Some of these methods are very simple (e. g. payback period) while others are particularly sophisticated and complex (e. . Net Present Value, Real Options Reasoning). Simpler methods do not take into account the time value of the money and do not include the risk dimension. All these methods are well documented and explained in the literature. However, there is little empirical evidence on the factors that explain the use of the different techniques by firms. Thus, this p aper is focused on the use of capital investment appraisal methods (CIAM) in practice. Particularly, it analyses whether there are specific contingencies that explain why firms use and do not use specific capital investment appraisal methods. . Financial method of appraisal The decision making in projects are not difficult when we only use financial knowledge. Financial techniques use NPV, IRR, Payback Period techniques in appraising a project as well as making investment decisions. Through this technique, a firm can also analyse a project’s tendency to risk by using sensitivity analysis and risk analysis. Project managers often concentrate on establishing the financial visibility of their projects through reasonable economics. Traditionally, the Net Present Value, the Internal Rate of Return and Payback Period techniques have formed a major component of the financial techniques of investment. They are often based on the time value of money methods to forecast the expected monetary returns of a given project. The reliability of these techniques however depends on the accuracy of the given cash flows and the time frame as planned by the organisation. A major drawback to the financial method of appraisal is the fact that it cannot be practically assumed with a high degree of certainty. The value of all the factors is affected by numerous risks and unforeseen events which are often difficult to tell. Based on an article by S. Mohammed under project certainty (2001) he argued that the financial factors like the net present value, internal rate of return and payback period do not allow for non-financial aspects to be considered in assessing investment option. Non-financial methods such as political, legal and social factors are believed to be essential but rather, firms count them outside the normal appraisal process. These non-financial factors require careful knowledge in order to be managed. In major cases, the neglect of these aspects may result in failure of the project despite having favourable financial components. a. Types of financial techniques of appraisal There different types of techniques in the financial aspects of appraisal. The first to be considered is the Net present Value (NPV). This method enables the firm to determine how much value a project can add. It determines the acceptability of the project. Before taking any step to in a project, the NPV must be considered. If the NPV is positive, then the project can be accepted, whereas if it is negative, the project should be rejected. It determines the stance of the firm in the project and enables organisations to know the end product of the project in terms of cash. The limitation however is the fact that NPV does not accurately forecast future costs and benefits. Another technique is discounted cash flow method which provides approach for evaluating proposed investment project because they recognise the importance of the concepts of time value of money and the cost of capital, and stress the need for forecasting. It can be applied for valuing business as a whole and also for valuing individual business components of a company or firm. Also it can be used by both equity shareholders because on the basis of DCF valuation they can compare two companies and take decision whether to invest or not, and also debt holders can use DCF method to take decision regarding the company. The problem with DCF is that since it is a valuation tool it is dependent heavily on the inputs used for valuation purpose, so if inputs are changed slightly there can be large change in the value of a company. Payback period is another important technique which refers to the period of time a project can cover for the investment made by the company. For example if the initial project cost is ? 50000 and the annual cash flow is ? 10000, it implies that the payback period would be 5 years. It is also beneficial for those companies who are recently established and want to know the time frame in which they would recover their original investment, therefore those companies which do not want to take risk and want quick return on their investments can select those projects which have low payback period and ignore those projects which require long gestation projects. A major disadvantage of payback period is that it does not show a true picture when it comes to evaluating cash flows of a project. b. Advantages and disadvantages of different financial methods of appraisal The payback period is based on the idea of how much time is needed for the project to generate cash flows sufficient to recover the initial amount invested. It can be also used as a criterion for acceptance or rejection of projects in the case that the payback period is above or below a certain number of years previously defined. The main advantages of this method are: ease of understanding; simplicity of implementation; provides an idea of the degree of liquidity and risk of the project; and in times of huge instability, the use of this method is a way to increase the security of investments. Despite these advantages, the payback method has two important drawbacks. First, it ignores the cash flows occurring after the payback time, which can lead to the rejection of profitable projects that require a longer recovery period. Second, the payback period, in its original version, does not consider the time value of money in calculating the cash flows. This is inconsistent with the basic principles of financial mathematics. One way of overcoming this problem is to calculate the payback period by discounting (at the appropriate discounting rate) the expected future cash flows, as proposed by Longmore (1989). The accounting average rate of return (ARR) is computed as the ratio between the project’s estimated average profit and the average accounting value of the investment (Brealey and Myers, 1998). This ratio is compared with the firm’s accounting rate of return or other benchmark external to the firm (e. . the industry average value). The main advantages of this method are its simplicity of understanding and usage, given that the figures used in calculations are those provided by accounting reports. However, this method presents some important weaknesses. First, it does not take into account the time value of money. Second, being based on accounting earnings and not on the project’s cash flows, it is conceptual ly incorrect. Finally, there is the need to set a target rate of return as a prerequisite to apply ARR as an appraisal method (Akalu, 2001). c. Benefits and importance of financial techniques of Appraisal The object and, therefore, the importance of a project appraisal is making an analysis to see whether the project is viable. It is vital to know whether a project is technically feasible and whether it is going to be an economic liability or not. A project appraisal is an important part of any project and should be taken seriously because a lot rests on it. The effects of a project appraisal are long reaching and have very definite long term effects because of the capital investment that is always required in any project. Financial techniques are essential methods in determining the acceptability of the project. Financial method of appraisal is often regarded as the aspect of project appraisal, however, in order for a project to be successful non-financial aspects must also be considered. A major significance of financial method of approval is that it partially justifies spending money on a project. This means that it enquires whether a project gives good value for the budget of the project. It also gives confidence through its several tools that money is being put to good use. Financial techniques are also important decision making tools in which they involve comprehensive analysis of a wide range of data and judgement. This is to enable projects managers to ensure that the selected project is sustainable and it also guarantees sensible ways of managing risk. Furthermore, financial method helps to confirm that projects will be managed properly, by ensuring the calculations are accurate, that there are contingency plans to handle risks and setting milestones against which progress can be judged. 4. NON-FINANCIAL METHODS OF APPRAISAL Project appraisal is not all about financial methods. There are non-financial aspects of appraisal that play an important role in helping firms make decisions on projects. As a matter of fact, non-financial factors are considered as the backbones of a project that will either make or break a project. A very important factor that requires consideration is meeting the requirements of current and future legislation. In most cases it is regarded more important than any method of appraisal because it is uncertain. Every country belongs to a system of government that it is accountable to, in an event where every calculations and evaluations have been completed to determine the acceptability of a certain project, and then along the line the government in power brought a rather abrupt end to the given project. The logic in this implies financial techniques of appraisal are very significant to a project, however, they must go hand-in-hand with the non-financial factors and it is paramount for any management to consider meeting the requirements of the legislation first. Other important factors of non-financial methods are matching the standards of the industry, improving staff morale and improving relationships with clients. In most cases, it is fundamental to balance non-financial and financial techniques. The firm may need to decide how important each factor is to the project. An appraisal choice in this way can take into consideration how well the project fits with the techniques. d. Analysis of non-financial factors of appraisal There are different factors to be considered in the appraisal of projects. In most cases some of these factors are neglected in the event of appraisal and it does not reduce the profitability of the project, and on the other hand it renders the project non-profitable. First of all, the political factors must be considered. This is an obvious factor which its omission could result into the end of the project in the sense that the project manager or the firm must meet the requirements of the legislation. For example some governments could ban the use of some web-based advertisements due to political reasons definitely, and the project could sometime require the use of the web-based sites to create awareness of the project to the general public. Due to the actions of the government, the project consequently faces a setback. The advantage of this factor however is that, it does not occur often and it has a low probability of failing a project if it does not occur. A good example of this factor is when 2011, the Egyptian president decided to ban the access of YouTube, a video site that is known worldwide for its ease of video coverage. If the company decides to advertise the project through this means and along the way the decision is taken, the company will definitely face a setback. Another factor to be considered is the environmental factor. Green activities have recently gained popularity to the extent that companies not investing in equipment that preserve the environment are seen as non-responsive by the general public who are the customers. It is also important for a project to be aware of the resources in the area where the project would be launched. For example, in Nigeria, projects that are based on construction are usually suitable for the soils of the northern part because they are arable and fine. If a company decides to launch a project in the southern part there is possibility of failing to get the perfect soil due to large number of oil fields. Also the process of land acquisition is complex. It requires the company to follow a long process in order to acquire a large piece of land. Furthermore for short term projects it would be of immense advantage if the country is blessed with favourable weather conditions and a vast number of skilled labours. Furthermore in addition to the analysis of non-financial methods of appraisal, it is paramount to bring the usefulness of risk into the picture. It enhances decision making on marginal projects. A project whose single-value NPV is small may still be accepted following risk analysis on the grounds that its overall chances for yielding a satisfactory return are greater than is the probability of making an unacceptable loss. Likewise, a marginally positive project could be rejected on the basis of being excessively risky, or one with a lower NPV may be preferred to another with a higher NPV because of a better risk/return profile. However an area for caution is Risk analysis amplifies the predictive ability of sound models of reality. The accuracy of its predictions therefore can only be as good as the predictive capacity of the model employed. Lastly the company or the firm must consider the availability of manpower. In order to ensure the success of a project there must be a high concentration of skilled workers to handle the activities of the project. The higher the number of skilled workers will create a better chance for the project to be launched and completed in a good way. There must be individuals who will handle the financial methods as well and to ensure the project will be favourable or not. e. Limitations of non-financial methods The appraisal of projects in most cases requires the incorporation of the effects of both financial and non-financial methods of appraisal and ensures that these methods are appropriately represented. The main drawback to the non-financial methods of appraisal is that they cannot be used alone to determine the acceptability of a project. Also due to its intangible nature it brings limitation when using probability analysis. This is due to the fact that non-financial factors on projects are often difficult to quantify. As a result of this, current models often ignore this method because of the lack of knowledge of the qualitative and strategic benefit costs. Non-financial have an intangible nature, are difficult to estimate, and cause a subjective analysis to project evaluators. Therefore, the investment decision should rely not only on the traditional evaluation criteria, but also on non-financial factors, through the use of tools and methods that incorporate and quantify non-financial aspects in project evaluation. f. Comparison between financial and non-financial techniques of project appraisal The prominent issue about the financial and non-financial methods of appraisal is the fact both concepts are essential to the success of a project. The neglecting of one aspect of either of the concepts may result in the failure of the project because they work hand-in-hand. In other comments it was understood that the non-financial factors are not instrumental in the appraisal of a project due to their qualitative nature. On other hand, financial methods like the payback period do not give a true picture of what exactly is required in the investment. However in my view the financial techniques are better in showing the benefits of a project. 5. Conclusion The paper is centred on the importance of the techniques of project appraisal. Due to the mutual nature of both the financial and non-financial methods of appraisal, I believe they are both crucial factors to be considered in the appraisal of a project. The two methods complement each other. These methods are not only crucial for project use only but also for students and researchers as well, and hopefully upcoming innovation from researchers could bring adjustments to the financial methods to be simpler. . REFERENCES Akalu, M. (2001). â€Å"Re-examining project appraisal and control: developing a focus on wealth creation. † International Journal of Project Management 19: 375-383. Hermes, N. , P. Smid and L. Yao (2006). â€Å"Capital Budgeting Practices: A Comparative Study of the Netherlands and China†, Working Paper, University of Groningen, p. 36. Hawkins, C. J. , and D. W. Pearce (1971), â€Å"Capital Investment Appraisal† (MacMillan Press). Jones, C. , Software Assessments, Benchmarks, and Best Practices, Information Technology Series, Addison Wesley, 2000 Verbeeten, F. (1993). Do organizations adopt sophisticated capital budgeting practices to deal with uncertainty in the investment decision? A research note. Management Accounting Research 17: 106-120. nibusinessinfo. co. uk/content/strategic-issues-investment-appraisal (accessed on March 24, 2013) accountantnextdoor. com/investment-appraisal-8-non-financial-factors-that-every-accountants-and-managers-should-consider/ (accessed on 22nd march, 2013) letslearnfinance. com/advantages-and-disadvantages-of-payback-period. html (accessed on March 23rd, 2013)

How to Write a Good Resume

How to Write a Good Resume There is no need to wonder why learning how to write a good resume is important. This skill can determine whether a prospective employer finds you interesting enough to bring in for an interview. By knowing how to write a good resume, you’ll be putting yourself at the top of a large pile of applicants. There are a large number of people out there today looking for jobs. If you don’t put that extra effort into creating a truly memorable resume, someone else will and they’ll be the one invited for an interview instead of you. A resume is simply a one or two page document that sells you as a possible candidate for a job position. Think of writing an advertisement to sell something. You’d write all the points and details of your product in hopes to get someone interested enough to come and look at it. A resume is the same type of idea only you are selling yourself. Don’t make the mistake of simply documenting your experiences, job history and education on a boring piece of paper. If you truly want to get that elusive desired position then take the time to learn how to write a good resume. Resumes literally have only seconds to grab a prospective employer’s interest. Let’s face it, resumes aren’t the most exciting material to read and there could be hundreds that the employer has to wade through to determine which ones to call back for an interview. They’ll pick up a resume, scan it briefly and if nothing catches their eye, it goes into the reject pile. The person who knows how to write a good resume is the one who is going to catch the reader’s attention. This is where you have to make sure there is something visually appealing about yours to make them take those extra moments and actually read yours. It should be very clean and easy to read. Each section should be described, using strong power words, in as small of a space as possible. A few lines or less should be enough for each section. Make sure the whole document is balanced visually. If you truly want to know how to write a good resume, then make sure you have absolutely no gr ammatical or spelling errors. On such a sparse sheet any error will jump off the page and be noticed right away. Use the correct format and make sure all the pertinent information is included such as your personal contact information, listings of previous jobs and education history. Many people who don’t know how to write a good resume will just slap something together leaving out many of the primary important points that prospective employers are looking for. Someone who knows how to write a good resume will begin with researching the job position that is being applied for. Find out what qualifications are needed and what the employer is looking for by reading the job requirements carefully. Then write down everything that you have done and accomplished. Don’t limit yourself to work experiences only. You may find that some of the qualifications needed come from your personal life. Once you have done this, now arrange your thoughts in such a way that you are selling yourself to the prospective employer. Remember to stay with the simple clean look. Many people shy away from â€Å"boasting† but if you want to write a good resume, this is exactly what you have to get over. You need to get past the idea that you’re being a braggart and realize that this is what the employer is looking for. They need to know what you can do and what you are capable of. Try to think of yourself as a product, an entity separate from yourself. Write to sell yourself as a product. Use strong power words to grab the reader’s attention. Write in a confident, assured manner and let the employer know that you are the person for the job and that you’re capable of handling anything that may come your way.

The topic can be proposed by the writer Term Paper

The topic can be proposed by the writer - Term Paper Example However, in the contemporary market conditions, business affairs are highly complex in nature. There are many situations in the economy where few corporate firms in the industry possess extraordinary powers to manipulate the price and quantity supplied. These are situations when the resource apportion in the economy are not proficiently executed. The wastage of productive resources in the economy leads to social welfare dampening. Thus, for ensuring proper economic development in a nation, the economy must be guided by the Mixed Economic Principles. In such situations, the power and the antitrust practices of the private business organizations are controlled by the public authorities. This project would focus on the antitrust behavior of the famous multinational company of Microsoft in U.S. (Ross, â€Å"The Economic Theory of Agency: The Principal's Problem†). Monopoly Market In the theory of economics, a monopoly market structure is characterized with no competition in the ma rket. In this type of a market structure, there is only one seller in the market. On the other hand, the number of buyers in the industry is infinite. The single seller has the power to manipulate the market price of the product or service sold by him. The type of product or service sold by a monopoly seller in the market may be homogeneous or heterogeneous in nature. A monopoly seller is a profit maximizing agent in the industry. Figure 1: AR and MR Curve of a Monopoly Producer AR, MR Price or Average Revenue Curve (P or AR) Marginal Revenue Curve (MR) Quantity (Source: Authors Creation) The above diagram shows that the price or average revenue curve of a monopolist in the market is negatively sloped. The marginal revenue curve is also downward sloping for a monopolist. In the long run, a monopolist may enjoy normal (break-even) profit, supernormal profit or loss. A monopolist in the market discriminates among its consumers on the basis of the product prices charged to the customer s (Gravelle and Rees 145). Figure2: Price Discrimination (Source: Stole, â€Å"Price Discrimination and Imperfect Competition†) As shown in the above diagram, a monopolist may discriminate among its consumers on the basis of prices. In the above diagram, for the s=2 demand curve, the monopolist charges price p2 and it charges price p1 for the demand curve s=1. It may seem that a monopoly structure is a hypothetical market but by adopting special business strategies, a firm might become a natural monopolist in the industry. Figure 3: Natural Monopolist (Source: Tragakes 184) A single seller may grasp an entire share of market demand by taking the First Mover Advantage in business. By increasing the base of customers, the company may enjoy economies of scale in production. Scale economies in the long run would help the firm to minimize the average cost of production. In such a situation, it would be impossible for another firm to enter in the industry and sell products at such low average costs. Thus, a natural monopolist in the market enjoys scale in economies of production and prevents other firms from entering the industry. Figure 4: Welfare Loss in Monopoly (Source: Mankiw and Taylor 253) As stated in the above diagram, the efficient quantity of output is much more than the monopoly output threshold. On

Qualifications of Meaning in Advertising Images Case Study

Qualifications of Meaning in Advertising Images - Case Study Example An investigation of the interactive process instigated by cultural activity can also be seen as a "reflection on the intellectual position of certain cultures." (The English Association, 1999, p.182) Western design and visual communication is regarded as having originated from concepts of global power held by mass media and communication industries. (The English Association, 1999, p.182) By referring to Michael Halliday's concept of representing patterns of experience, visually speaking, it is suggested that what images portray is deeply related to the medium of visuality itself, and therefore a culture that is "dominated by visual signs" will communicate a different reality to one in which language is the predominate medium. (The English Association, 1999, p.182) There is a relationship between the visual and verbal texts and "the visual component of a text is an independently organized and structured message-connected to the verbal text, but in no way dependent on it and similar the other way around." (The English Association, 1999, p.182) Vivienne Westwood's image is an advertisement which focuses on selling a perfume called 'Boudoir'. (www.viviennewestwood.com) The image used in this advertisement portrays a female who is draped by purple covers and her body structure suggests her sleeping on a sunset sky. (www.viviennewestwood.com) The predominate colors are soft purple, yellow and blue. According to Michael D. Harris: "Images and symbols can convey meaning centrifugally by using concrete, physical information to evoke understandings within the viewer". (Harris, 2003, p.253) Through the images conveyed in Westwood's advertisement, it can be argued that the u se of covers and soft colors symbolize calm, sensually stimulating atmosphere, in which the reader is able to understand its connection with her perfume called 'Boudoir', or bedroom in English. Similarly, the advertisement provides the audience with a visual stimulus that is linked to sexuality, which is in turn an emotional stimulus. (Web/Online) As Westwood's image is analyzed, it is easy to understand that the sexuality concept is largely emphasized with the woman figure floating on air, naked and wrapped in bed sheets. The sexual feelings sent out to the audience through a semi-naked female stresses the "nature" style of the product. (Web/Online) The colors yellow, blue and purple contrast the relatively smaller bottle of perfume situated on the far right corner of the advertisement. The basic principle of advertising "requires that an advertisement should SURNAME, 3 first draw attention and interest then desire and action". (Web/Online) Thus, the visual language being employed by Westwood's advertisement is one of a sexual nature. The significance of the image or what its connotation implies is one of a private and sensual feeling that can be attained through the use of the perfume. Moreover, the language used in the advertisement, which is seen in bold white upper-case font, is the title of the perfume, 'Boudoir'. The title itself works through its own means as well as within the picture. For example, 'Boudoir' is part of the French language for

I Want to Become a Doctor Essay Example for Free

I Want to Become a Doctor Essay I want to become a doctor. Being one is not only my dream but also my parents. I dont wish to be the wealthiest and most highly graduated doctor the worlds ever seen but I want to be one who will serve her people and country in a true manner. Infact I dont want to be a doctor for only patients but for the needy too. Although I know it isnt everyones cup of tea to be faithful, humane and achieve great degrees at the same time but it is worth a try. I always want to feel the pride of being loyal to my patients and my duty. Well its not always the same story from the beginning infact it was totally different. When I was a little girl, I didnt actually wanted to be a doctor and never was worried about it. All I used to think was being a singer. Ofcourse that was a dream for me which I wished to come true. It included of me always singing silly songs and even recording and playing them back. But soon circumstances changed, I grew up and came to know my real destiny. Although I showed interest in studies from the beginning but singing was something which I used to do everytime, whether I be studying or playing. Many may call it as craziness but this was me as a kid. But as I mentioned earlier, I grew up to know where I belong and concentrated on it. For now, for real I have a different dream and that is I want to become a doctor.

Brave New World - A Wake-Up Call for Humanity Essay -- Brave New World

Brave New World - A Wake-Up Call for Humanity (this essay has problems with the format) Since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution in England, human society has had to struggle to adapt to new technology. There is a shift from traditional society to a modern one. Within the last ten years we have seen tremendous advances in science and technology, and we are becoming more and more socially dependent on it. In the Brave New World, Huxley states that we are moving in the direction of Utopia much more rapidly than anyone had ever anticipated. Its goal is achieving happiness by giving up science, art, religion and other things we cherish in our world. It is an inhumane society controlled by technology where human beings are produced on assembly line. His prophetic elements of human beings being conditioned, the concerns for the environment, importance of genetic engineering and reproduction, and our physical and mental development has now been one of the major factors that the governments, businesses and educational institutions are exploiting today. We are subconscio usly moving to this bureaucracy of conformity, and Brave New World is a wake up call from our obsessions of standardization socially, economically and politically. The story took place in A.F (After Ford) 632, this is 632years after Ford has released the first T-ford. Huxley used ?After Ford?to show its great advancement in making automobiles as a company over the years. In 1932, Huxley introduced Brave New World to show his great concern of the Western civilization. He saw that in the 1900s there was a dramatic economic change in different countries, where the wholesalers are being eliminated, and manufacturers selling directly to the consumers. For example, at that time Ford makes cars and even sells them. They control who and where they sell. Technology and transportation was increasing tremendously, which caused more and bigger factories, mass-productions (eg. automobiles), and more manufactured goods. There were more volumes of trade and production due to more machinery. As markets are growing, activities, structures, as well as attitudes towards companies are changing. Robert Heibroner suggests that ?the rise of such giant enterprises has changed the face of capitalism as they attempt to alter the market setting through a system of public and private planning (p.43).? Like the vi... ...re before (in terms of wealth, happiness, etc)? Are we too reliant on technology and science? Where is our individuality? Where is the tradeoff? How can we change to stop ourselves from moving toward the so-called ?Utopia?society? It seems that we too, are living in an incubator, trapped and conditioned, and we must do something to stop this from happening. Bibliography Huxley, Aldous. Brave New World. New York: HarperPerennial, 1946. http://www.primenet.com/~matthew/huxley/sub/Barron_BNW.html http://www.demigod.org/~zak/documents/high-school/brave-new-world/html http://www.ddc.net/ygg/etext/brave.htm Sexty,Robert. "Overview of the Business System" ,in Canadian Business and Society, Prentice-Hall, Scarborough, Ontario, 2005, pp5-22 Chandler, Alfred D.Jr. "The Roe of Business in the United States: A Historical Survey," in Business and Society, Barry Castro ed., Oxford University Press, pp.61-88 Steiner, G.A. and Steiner,J.F., "Critics of Business", in Business,Government and Society: A Managerial Perspective, 8th ed., McGraw-Hill, 2005.pp,69-90 Shaw, William H.., "The Nature of Capitalism",in Business Ethics, 3rd ed., Wadworth, 2006, pp.124-152

Comparing and Contrasting PCs and mainframes Essay

Before the existence of personal computer or PC, there is minicomputer or microcomputer, the term â€Å"computer† simply referred to mainframes. Mainframes and personal computers have changed drastically over the years but their core functions and systems have stayed the same. The mainframe is used to connect multiple users for large organizations, while personal computers are generally used for a single user. The more drastic changes for mainframes and personal computers have been the increase of speed, memory, and the reduction of size. Mainframes use to be the size of buildings, now they are the size of a normal Intel blade server system. Last time when you need to access the mainframe you need to use a terminal for data entry or retrieve certain data. Then, the idea came to off load some of the processing from the mainframe and place it on a personal computer. Compare A mainframe is not much difference from a personal computer. There are many similarities between mainframes and personal computers which stands to reason since one evolved from the other. Both mainframes and personal computers have one or more central processor units, a huge number of memory, one or more busses, and one or more I/O systems. Another similarity between the two is that they are both IBM-based systems and similar hardware is used to build them. They can also perform some complex calculations, applications and handle multiple programs. Another area is that both require operating system to work and also to handle and optimize all the I/O systems or modules. Differences Although they are much similarity between the mainframes and computer as mention above, the similarity stop there as they are many differences too. Mainframes cost much more in terms of thousands of dollar than a normal personal computer or server. The mainframe nowadays takes up less space and less power consumption compare to a server farm task to do the same job. As mention (Shurkin, 1996), Transaction processing jobs run constantly in real-time and must be available more than 99. 99% of the time. The reboots and lock-ups common with PCs are simply not acceptable. Thousands of individual users can log in simultaneously from a variety of sources such as computer terminals, ATM, or Internet web sites, and complete a single transaction. Time-sharing jobs can be started when needed from a computer terminal by authorized users who then use the mainframe as their own big PC. Finally, batch jobs are started automatically by the system at regular times according to a strict predetermined schedule. Batch jobs are used to do the periodic processing required on the data being received from transaction and time-sharing jobs. Closing the accounting books at month-end or copying disk files to tape for backup are examples of batch type processing. The OS or Operating System in a mainframe such as from IBM z/OS which is the successor to the IBM OS/390 can run Multiple Virtual Systems (MVS). The new IBM z/OS support WebSphere ® Application Server on z/OS, and also the new zFS (System z File System) Direct I/O capability in z/OS. This help to enhance performance improvements to the system, and also provide an easier Parallel Sysplex functionality (IBM, September 2011). In an article by (Barnett G, 2010) stated that the mainframe is best suited for enterprise cloud computing as it is easily able to handle hundreds of complex applications or programs, and most important able to run hundreds of environment in a single physical footprint and easily deliver the 24Ãâ€"7 availability that our customers demand. Conclusion (Doerbecker & Patterson, 2002), stated that the role of the mainframe has gradually changed from that of a data processor to that of a server, with the processing being done on the user’s PC. It has also been modified to interface to the Internet through the addition of TCP/IP protocols, Unix, and Java programming, to enable businesses to connect to their customers over that network. Once the only form of business computer available, the mainframe has survived the PC revolution and maintained an important function in commercial computing.

A Comparative Study of Norman Holland and David Bleich Essay

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