Constructive Controversy

Constructive controversy is a process through which two individuals or groups of individuals seek to reach an agreement when their ideas, opinions and information are incompatible to those of the other (Johnson, Johnson and Tjosvold, 2006). The process is based on a strong cooperative goal and involves â€Å"deliberate discourse [of the advantages and disadvantages of proposed actions] aimed at synthesizing novel solutions† (Johnson, Johnson and Tjosvold, 2006, p. 1). Participants cope constructively in conflict situations by using differences in understanding, perspective and knowledge as valued resources to find a solution integrating the best thoughts that emerge during the process (Deutsch, 2006). In an organizational context, skillful participation in constructive controversy can lead to higher-quality decisions and solutions to complex problems. During the role play of the ROC case study in class, some participants reflected that while they felt thrown out of equilibrium initially when asked to assume the opposite position, the process opened their minds to new information and helped them engage in a higher-level cognitive and reasoning process. The value of constructive controversy lies in the thought process it induces when participants adapt to and accommodate the perspective of the other (Johnson, Johnson and Tjosvold, 2006). Individuals are more likely to derive conclusions that are enriched by new ideas and information which otherwise may not have been taken into consideration. Coming together to create a solution in the constructive controversy process also fosters stronger relationships among individuals which is crucial to organizational health. The positive feelings and commitment individuals feel in joint decision-making raises interpersonal attraction and produces greater perceptions of peer task support (Johnson, Johnson and Tjosvold, 2006). Individuals are encouraged to manage conflict constructively when the next problem arises and the result is likely to be a higher-quality solution, thereby reinforcing interpersonal attraction and commitment in the organization for the long term. In the ROC case study, the Finance team and the Sales team will likely need to cooperate in the long term to come up with multiple creative solutions to bring ROC back to the black again because sustained profitability cannot be achieved with cost-cutting measures alone or by simply launching a new product. The bedrock of this long-term cooperative effort to revive ROC is a positive relationship between the two teams. However, the constructive controversy process requires dedicated time and resources, which in some situations, may not be the most efficient way of decision-making. In fast-paced, complex and highly dynamic business environments, organizations have to respond swiftly to changing customer demands in order to compete. While the constructive controversy process can generate higher-quality decisions, the timeliness of these decisions is equally crucial. ROC would have suffered a lost opportunity if a rival company had launched a similar product in the time taken for the two teams in ROC to arrive at a decision through the constructive controversy process. Controversies may also increase tensions in a group if participants do not possess the collaborative and conflict management skills necessary to facilitate a constructive controversy process. According to Johnson, Johnson and Tjosvold (2006), the abilities to disagree with each other’s ideas while acknowledging one another’s personal competence and engage in perspective-taking behaviors are critical to creating a cooperative context for controversy. A group comprising mainly of individuals with a dominating style of conflict management is likely to experience a competitive controversy process, with each side adhering rigidly to its position and rejecting ideas and information of the opponent. Dominating persons often ignore the needs and expectations of the other party and may sometimes want to win at any cost (Rahim, 2000). As a result, interpersonal relationships could be strained and more conflicts may arise. References Deutsch, M. (2006) Cooperation and competition. In Deutsch, M. Coleman, P. T. & Marcus, E. (Eds. ) The handbook of conflict resolution: Theory and practice, 2nd edition (pp. 23-42). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. Johnson, D. W. , Johnson, R. T. & Tjosvold, D. (2006) Constructive Controversy: The value of intellectual opposition. In Deutsch, M. , Coleman, P. T. & Marcus E. (Eds. ) The handbook of conflict resolution: Theory and practice, 2nd edition (pp. 69-91). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. Rahim, M. A. (2000) Mana ging conflict in organizations, 3rd edition. Westport, CT: Greenwood Publishing.

Conflicts of Globalization and Restructuring of Education Essay

The September 11 terrorist attacks have generated a wealth of theoretical reflection as well as regressive political responses by the Bush administration and other governments (Kellner, 2003b). The 9/11 attacks and subsequent Bush administration military response have dramatized once again the centrality of globalization in contemporary experience and the need for adequate conceptualizations and responses to it for critical theory and pedagogy to maintain their relevance in the present age. In this article, I want to argue that critical educators need to comprehend the conflicts of globalization, terrorism, and the prospects and obstacles to democratization in order to develop pedagogies adequate to the challenges of the present age. Accordingly, I begin with some comments on how the September 11 terror attacks call attention to key aspects of globalization, and then provide a critical theory of globalization, after which I suggest some pedagogical initiatives to aid in the democratic reconstruction of education after 9/11.1 September 11 and Globalization The terrorist acts on the United States on September 11 and the subsequent Terror War throughout the world dramatically disclose the downside of globalization, and the ways that global flows of technology, goods, information, ideologies, and people can have destructive as well as productive effects.2 The disclosure of powerful anti-Western terrorist networks shows that globalization divides the world just as it unifies, that it produces enemies as it incorporates participants. The events reveal explosive contradictions and conflicts at the heart of globalization and that the technologies of information, communication, and transportation that facilitate globaliz ation can also be used to undermine and attack it, and generate instruments of destruction as well as production. The experience of September 11 points to the objective ambiguity of globalization, that positive and negative sides are interconnected, that the institutions of the open society unlock the possibilities of destruction and violence, as well as democracy, free trade, and cultural and social exchange. Once again, the interconnection and interdependency of the networked world was dramatically demonstrated as terrorists from the Middle East brought local grievances from their region to attack key symbols of US military power and the very infrastructure of Wall Street. Some see terrorism as an expression of â€Å"the dark side of globalization,† while I would conceive it as part of the objective ambiguity of globalization that simultaneously creates friends and enemies, wealth and poverty, and growing divisions between the â€Å"haves† and â€Å"have nots.† Yet, the downturn in the global economy, intensification of local and global political conflicts, repression of human rights and civil liberties, and general increase in fear and anxiety have certainly undermined the naà ¯ve optimism of globophiles who perceived globalization as a purely positive instrument of progress and well-being. The use of powerful technologies as weapons of destruction also discloses current asymmetries of power and emergent forms of terrorism and war, as the new millennium exploded into dangerous conflicts and military interventions. As technologies of mass destruction become more available and dispersed, perilous instabilities have emerged that have elicited policing measures to stem the flow of movements of people and goods across borders and internally. In particular, the U.S. â€Å"Patriot Act† has led to repressive measures that are replacing the spaces of the open and free information society with new forms of surveillance, policing, and restrictions of civil liberties, thus significantly undermining U.S. democracy (see Kellner, 2003b). Ultimately, however, the abhorrent terror acts by the bin Laden network and the violent military response by the Bush administration may be an anomalous paroxysm whereby a highly regressive premodern Islamic fundamentalism has clashed with an old-fashioned patriarchal and unilateralist Wild West militarism. It could be that such forms of terrorism, militarism, and state repression will be superseded by more rational forms of politics that globalize and criminalize terrorism, and that do not sacrifice the benefits of the open society and economy in the name of security. Yet the events of September 11 may open a new era of Terror War that will lead to the kind of apocalyptic futurist world depicted by cyberpunk fiction (see Kellner 2003b). In any case, the events of September 11 have promoted a fury of reflection, theoretical debates, and political conflicts and upheaval that put the complex dynamics of globalization at the center of contemporary theory and politics. To those skeptical of the centrality of globalization to contemporary experience, it is now clear that we are living in a global world that is highly interconnected and vulnerable to passions and crises that can cross borders and can affect anyone or any region at any time. The events of September 11 and their aftermath also provide a test case to evaluate various theories of globalization in the contemporary era. In addition, they highlight some of the contradictions of globalization and the need to develop a highly complex and dialectical model to capture its conflicts, ambiguities, and contradictory effects. Consequently, I argue that in order to properly theorize globalization one needs to conceptualize several sets of contradictions generated by globalization’s combination of technological revolution and restructuring of capital, which, in turn, generate tensions between capitalism and democracy, and â€Å"haves† and â€Å"have nots.† Within the world economy, globalization involves the proliferation of the logic of capital, but also the spread of democracy in information, finance, investing, and the diffusion of technology (see Friedman, 1999 and Hardt and Negri, 2000). Globalization is thus a contradictory amalgam of capital ism and democracy, in which the logic of capital and the market system enter ever more arenas of global life, even as democracy spreads and more political regions and spaces of everyday life are being contested by democratic demands and forces. But the overall process is contradictory. Sometimes globalizing forces promote democracy and sometimes inhibit it, thus either equating capitalism and democracy, or simply opposing them, are problematical. The processes of globalization are highly turbulent and have generated intense conflicts throughout the world. Benjamin Barber (1996) describes the strife between McWorld and Jihad, contrasting the homogenizing, commercialized, Americanized tendencies of the global economy and culture with anti-modernizing Jihadist movements that affirm traditional cultures and are resistant to aspects of neoliberal globalization. Thomas Friedman (1999) makes a more benign distinction between what he calls the â€Å"Lexus† and the â€Å"Olive Tree.† The former is a symbol of modernization, of affluence and luxury, and of Westernized consumption, contrasted with the Olive Tree that is a symbol of roots, tradition, place, and stable community. Barber (1996), however, is too negative toward McWorld and Jihad, failing to adequately describe the democratic and progressive forces within both. Although Barber recognizes a dialectic of McWorld and Jihad, he opposes both to democracy, failing to perceive how they generate their own democratic forces and tendencies, as well as opposing and undermining democratization. Within Western democracies, for instance, there is not just top-down homogenization and corporate domination, but also globalization-from-below and oppositional social movements that desire alternatives to capitalist globalization. Thus, it is not only traditionalist, non-Western forces of Jihad that oppose McWorld. Likewise, Jihad has its democratizing forces as well as the reactionary Islamic fundamentalists who are now the most demonized elements of the contemporary era, as I discuss below. Jihad, like McWorld, has its contradictions and its potential for democratization, as well as elements of domination and destruction.3 Friedman, by contrast, is too uncritical of globalization, caught up in his own Lexus highconsumption life-style, failing to perceive the depth of the oppressive features of globalization and breadth and extent of resistance and opposition to it. In particular, he fails to articulate the contradictions between capitalism and democracy, and the ways that globalization and its economic logic undermine democracy as well as encouraging it. Likewise, he does not grasp the virulence of the premodern and Jihadist tendencies that he blithely identifies with the Olive tree, and the reasons why globalization and the West are so strongly resisted in many parts of the world. Hence, it is important to present globalization as a strange amalgam of both homogenizing forces of sameness and uniformity, and heterogeneity, difference, and hybridity, as well as a contradictory mixture of democratizing and anti-democratizing tendencies. On one hand, globalization unfolds a process of standardization in which a globalized mass culture circulates the globe creating sameness and homogeneity everywhere. But globalized culture makes possible unique appropriations and developments all over the world, thus proliferating hybrids, difference, and heterogeneity.4 Every local context involves its own appropriation and reworking of global products and signifiers, thus proliferating difference, otherness, diversity, and variety (Luke and Luke, 2000 ). Grasping that globalization embodies these contradictory tendencies at once, that it can be both a force of homogenization and heterogeneity, is crucial to articulating the contradictions of globalization and avoiding one-sided and reductive conceptions. My intention is to present globalization as conflictual, contradictory and open to resistance and democratic intervention and transformation and not just as a monolithic juggernaut of progress or domination as in many other discourses. This goal is advanced by distinguishing between â€Å"globalization from below† and â€Å"globalization from above† of corporate capitalism and the capitalist state, a distinction that should help us to get a better sense of how globalization does or does not promote democratization. â€Å"Globalization from below† refers to the ways in which marginalized individuals and social movements and critical pedagogues resist globalization and/or use its institutions and instruments to further democratization and social justice. Yet, one needs to avoid binary normative articulations, since globalization from below can have highly conservative and destructive effects, as well as positive ones, while globalization from above can help produce global solutions to problems like terrorism or the environment. Moreover, on one hand, as Michael Peters argues (forthcoming), globalization itself is a kind of war and much militarism has been expansive and globalizing in many historical situations. On the other hand, antiwar and peace movements are also increasingly global, hence globalization itself is marked by tensions and contradictions. Thus, while on one level, globalization significantly increases the supremacy of big corporations and big government, it can also give power to groups and individuals that were previously left out of the democratic dialogue and terrain of political struggle. Such potentially positive effects of globalization include increased access to education for individuals excluded from sharing culture and knowledge and the possibility of oppositional individuals and groups to participate in global culture and politics through gaining access to global communication and media networks and to circulate local struggles and oppositional ideas through these media. The role of information technologies in social movements, political struggle, and everyday life forces social movements and critical theorists to reconsider their political strategies and goals and democratic theory to appraise how new technologies do and do not promote democratization (Kellner, 1995b, 1997 and 1999b; Best and Kellner 2001; Kahn and Kellner 2003). In their book Empire, Hardt and Negri (2000) present contradictions within globalization in terms of an imperializing logic of â€Å"Empire† and an assortment of struggles by the multitude, creating a contradictory and tension-full situation. As in my conception, Hardt and Negri present globalization as a complex process that involves a multidimensional mixture of expansions of the global economy and capitalist market system, information technologies and media, expanded judicial and legal modes of governance, and emergent modes of power, sovereignty, and resistance.5 Combining poststructuralism with â€Å"autonomous Marxism,† Hardt and Negri stress political openings and possibilities of struggle within Empire in an optimistic and buoyant text that envisages progressive democratization and self-valorization in the turbulent process of the restructuring of capital. Many theorists, by contrast, have argued that one of the trends of globalization is depoliticization of publics, the decline of the nation-state, and the end of traditional politics (Boggs, 2000). While I would agree that globalization is promoted by extremely powerful economic forces and that it often undermines democratic movements and decision-making, one should also note that there are openings and possibilities for a globalization from below that inflects globalization for positive and progressive ends, and that globalization can thus help promote as well as destabilize democracy.6 Globalization involves both a disorganization and reorganization of capitalism, a turbulent restructuring process, which creates openings for progressive social change and intervention as well as highly destructive transformative effects. On the positive ledger, in a more fluid and open economic and political system, oppositional forces can gain concessions, win victories, and effect progressive changes. During the 1970s, new social movements, new nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), and new forms of struggle and solidarity emerged that have been expanding to the present day (Hardt and Negri, 2000; Burbach, 2001; Best and Kellner, 2001; and Foran, 2003). The anti-corporate globalization of the 1990s emerged as a form of globalization from below, but so too did Al Qaeda and various global terror networks, which intensified their attacks and helped generate an era of Terror War. This made it difficult simply to affirm globalization from below while denigrating globalization from above, as clearly terrorism was an emergent and dangerous form of globalization from below that was a threat to peace, security, and democracy. Moreover, in the face of Bush administration unilateralism and militarism, multilateral approaches to the problems of terrorism called for global responses and alliances to a wide range of global problems (see Kellner 2003b and Barber 2003), thus demanding a progressive and cosmopolitan globalization to deal with contemporary challenges. Moreover, the present conjuncture is marked by a conflict between growing centralization and organization of power and wealth in the hands of the few contrasted with opposing processes exhibiting a fragmentation of power that is more plural, multiple, and open to contestation. As the following analysis will suggest, both tendencies are observable and it is up to individuals and groups to find openings for progressive political intervention, social transformation, and the democratization of education that pursue positive values such as democracy, human rights, literacy, equality, ecological preservation and restoration, and social justice, while figh ting poverty, ignorance, terror, and injustice. Thus, rather than just denouncing globalization, or engaging in celebration and legitimation, a critical theory of globalization reproaches those aspects that are oppressive, while seizing upon opportunities to fight domination and exploitation and to promote democratization, justice, and a forward looking reconstruction of the polity, society, and culture. Against capitalist globalization from above, there has been a significant eruption of forces and subcultures of resistance that have attempted to preserve specific forms of culture and society against globalization and homogenization, and to create alternative forces of society and culture, thus exhibiting resistance and globalization from below. Most dramatically, peasant and guerrilla movements in Latin America, labor unions, students, and environmentalists throughout the world, and a variety of other groups and movements have resisted capitalist globalization and attacks on previous rights and benefits. 7 Several dozen people’s organizations from around the world have protested World Trade Organization (WTO) policies and a backlash against globalization is visible everywhere. Politicians who once championed trade agreements like GATT and NAFTA are now often quiet about these arrangements or example, at the 1996 annual Davos World Economic Forum its founder and managing director published a warning entitled: â€Å"Start Taking the Backlash Against Globalization Seriously.† Reports surfaced that major representatives of the capitalist system expressed fear that capitalism was getting too mean and predatory, that it needs a kinder and gentler state to ensure order and harmony, and that the welfare state may make a come-back (see the article in New York Times, February 7, 1996: A15).8 One should take such reports with the proverbial grain of salt, but they express fissures and openings in the system for critical discourse and intervention. Indeed, by 1999, the theme of the annual Davos conference was making globalization work for poor countries and minimizing the differences between the â€Å"haves† and â€Å"have nots.† The growing divisions between rich and poor were worrying some globalizers, as were the wave of crises in Asian, Latin American, and other â€Å"developing countries†. In James Flanigan’s report in the Los Angeles Times (Febr. 19, 1999), the â€Å"main theme† is to â€Å"spread the wealth. In a world frightened by glaring imbalances and the weakness of economies from Indonesia to Russia, the talk is no longer of a new world economy getting stronger but of ways to ‘keep the engine going.'† In particular, the globalizers were attempting to keep economies growing in the more developed countries and capital flowing to developing nations. U.S. Vice-President Al Gore called on all countries to spur economic growth, and he proposed a new U.S.-led initiative to eliminate the debt burdens of developing countries. South African President Nelson Mandela asked: â€Å"Is globalization only for the powerful? Does it offer nothing to the men, women and children who are ravaged by the violence of poverty?† As the new millennium opened, there was no clear answer to Mandela’s question. In the 2000s, there have been ritual proclamations of the need to make globalization work for the developing nations at all major meetings of global institutions like the WTO or G-8 convenings. For instance, at the September 2003 WTO meeting at Cancun, organizers claimed that its goal was to fashion a new trade agreement that would reduce poverty and boost development in poorer nations. But critics pointed out that in the past years the richer nations of the U.S., Japan, and Europe continued to enforce trade tariffs and provide subsidies for national producers of goods such as agriculture, while forcing poorer nations to open their markets to â€Å"free trade,† thus bankrupting agricultural sectors in these countries that could not compete. Significantly, the September 2003 WTO trade talks in Cancun collapsed as leaders of the developing world concurred with protestors and blocked expansion of a â€Å"free trade zone† that would mainly benefit the US and overdeveloped countries. Likewise, in Miami in November 2003 the â€Å"Free-Trade Summit† collapsed without an agreement as the police violently suppressed protestors.9 Moreover, major economists like Joseph Stiglitz (2002), as well as anti-corporate globalization protestors and critics, argued that the developing countries were not adequately benefiting under current corporate globalization policies and that divisions between the rich and poor nations were growing. Under these conditions, critics of globalization were calling for radically new policies that would help the developing countries, regulate the rich and overdeveloped countries, and provide more power to working people and local groups. The Global Movement Against Capitalist Globalization With the global economic recession and the Terror War erupting in 2001, the situation of many developing countries has worsened. As part of the backlash against globalization in recent years, a wide range of theorists have argued that the proliferation of difference and the shift to more local discourses and practices best define the contemporary scene. In this view, theory and politics should shift from the level of globalization (and its accompanying often totalizing and macro dimensions) in order to focus on the local, the specific, the particular, the heterogeneous, and the micro level of everyday experience. An array of theories associated with poststructuralism, postmodernism, feminism, and multiculturalism focus on difference, otherness, marginality, the personal, the particular, and the concrete in contrast to more general theory and politics that aim at more global or universal conditions. 10 Likewise, a broad spectrum of subcultures of resistance have focused their attention on the local level, organizing struggles around identity issues such as gender, race, sexual preference, or youth subculture (see Kahn and Kellner, 2003). It can be argued that such dichotomies as those between the global and the local express contradictions and tensions between crucial constitutive forces on the present scene. It may be a mistake to focus on one side of the global/local polarity in favor of exclusive concern with the other side (Cvetkovitch and Kellner, 1997). Hence, an important challenge for a critical theory of globalization is to think through the relationships between the global and the local by observing how global forces influence and even structure an increasing number of local situations.

On Merck Corporation and Social Responsibility Essay

On Merck Corporation and Social Responsibility - Essay Example People today can notice that global responsibility is becoming more and more promoted. Everywhere, we see forms of encouragement on sensitivity to issues like environmental and ethical issues. In the past two decades, the business world has also adapted this movement in the form of the corporate social responsibility awareness. As Solomon (2004) says people can no longer accept the unethical idea that "business is business". This belief Solomon adds, was no longer excusable and just a pretext to be "socially irresponsible and personally insensitive". With this concept, businesses are to function in a responsible manner and by that make an effort in putting the business's stakeholders in consideration when company goals are dealt with. One such company is the Merck Corporation. In a time where businesses normally went for profit, Merck Corporation changed its direction to make a difference.It was in the late 1970's when researchers of Merck Corporation first had an indication that Ive nnectin (antiparasitic compound for animals) might have the ability to cure the disease called river blindness. River blindness was a disease that was predominant in third world countries like Africa and in some parts of Latin America and the Middle East. Clearly, the profit of such medicine for river blindness was already questionable. Dr. Vagelos, who was then Merck executive head for the research laboratories, was faced with the decision of approving further research that would cost a lot of money. Nevertheless, further research was done because of its potential to cure and not on its potential to profit. A considerable amount of money was already spent in developing the animal medicine ivermectin and developing another one fit for human consumption was premeditated to cost less than developing a new medicine. And so, Merck Corporation was able to produce a cure and named it Mectizan. When government agencies of the third world countries were unable to purchase the medicine for their people, Merck Corporation headed by Dr. Vagelos, who was then CEO of Merck Company, agreed to give Mectizan to countries that badly needed it for free. Through the years, it has become to be known as the MECTIZAN Donation Program, a fusion of partnerships between private and public agencies to aid developing countries in their fight against river blindness. We see a commendable company that takes risks for the betterment of those who they know badly need it. As one of the top pharmaceuticals company in the world, Merck Corporation is expected to profit from the drugs produced in their laboratories and not to give them away for free. On a HolmesReport (2002) article, Dr. Vargelos was quoted in saying that "many companies do not realize the benefits in better employee morale and favorable press coverage that comes from doing good deeds." It is a boost in the morale for people who work under a business that gives help for many people. Like Merck Company, who have always invested a lot of money in research, this move has no doubt fueled the minds of their researchers who are given freedom to explore possible cures to diseases that are known to have no cure. Especially since, those diseases that have no cures are dominant in poor countries. Every time the company is given an award or praise, the pride and prestige also goes down to the company employees especially the researchers who developed the much needed medicine. For any worker, the drive to succeed and work properly is much more invigorated with the knowledge that you are working in a way to help others. A good image also aids in the problems of human resources because applicants are more than willing to apply for an admirable company in comparison to typical companies. A lot of younger generations today say that they would prefer to work because it is worthwhil e and not just for the compensation. Many applicants mean a wider choice of candidates where the suited employee will be chosen from. Not only does good morale and good image

The Global Expansion Strategy of Australian Hotel Chain Essay

The Global Expansion Strategy of Australian Hotel Chain - Essay Example The rapid developments and technological advancements in the last 3 decades have resulted in globalisation, universalisation and internationalisation of this world. Indeed, the advent of the internet, infrastructural development and transportation have contributed significantly in dissemination of information, open communication and socialization worldwide. Nevertheless, the reduction of trade barriers and constrictions (such as quotas, tariffs, custom duties etc.) have not only resulted in growth of international trade but also raised the standard of living across the globe. The free trade agreements (NAFTA, SAFTA), eradication of quota system (WTO and GATT) and minimisation of duties are some of the major steps that provided new investment and business opportunities to enterprises. For instance, the ease of communication and construction of secure and reliable transportation networks provide firms an opportunity to expand in global markets and enhance their business volume and mone tary profits. It should be highlighted that Australia is considered as a developed nation, with individualistic culture and values, among international community because of its phenomenal economic growth in last few decades. It’s highly developed secondary (industrial and manufacturing) and tertiary (services) sectors have contributed in nation’s economic prosperity and well – being. Nevertheless, the Per Capita Income in Australia is between the range $38,000 – 39000, which shows that Australia is among the rich nations worldwide.

American History Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 3

American History - Assignment Example The question whether America should’ve postponed the election and waited until the war was over has its pros and cons. Had the elections been postponed, it would’ve led the country to what it is today. There will be no change of administration just like what happened with the re-election of former president Lincoln and same strategies would’ve done as well to cease the war. But if we travel back in time, we are the citizens of America in 1864, and we don’t have any idea of the future, postponing the elections won’t really be an excellent decision to make. Since we don’t know when the war will last, a possible change of government, in case change is needed, will not be in the picture. America still deserves to choose whether to stick with the Surname 3 incumbent administration or not and that is by holding the elections. Postponement of it will deprive the country in any era, to its right to elect a leader who they think can lead them to a bet ter land. In 1864 presidential elections in the midst of the civil war, American citizens chose their country’s future.

The Financial Analysis of Dell Inc Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

The Financial Analysis of Dell Inc - Essay Example Because of the aforementioned strengths, the company has made a name in the computer industry and secured a significant portion of the global market share. The company also enjoys strong brand equity. Acquisition of financing is relatively easier as the company’s stock has a higher market value. With its commitment to excellence and bright industry prospects, I believe that the company will be able to sustain these strengths in the further.One of the major weaknesses of Dell is its lack of proprietary technology in its production activities. Some experts refer to Dell as a computer maker and not a computer manufacturer. As Dell purchases, semi-assembled inputs in its production, bargaining power is tilted to suppliers. Dell’s heavy dependency on suppliers also exposes it to risk faced by them. Dell’s high utilization of long-term debt in financing its assets may make its investors reluctant in purchasing its stocks. The company can overcome these weaknesses by in vesting more in research and development. Strategic partnerships should also be strengthened and company should be able to manage its cost more efficiently. I am very much optimistic about the future of Dell, Inc. The rapid technological advancement and growing importance of computing devices assure the business organization with a sure market. It should also be noted that the online business model exclusively employed by Dell will surely be patronized as the level of internet penetration in the world increases sharply.... Strengths and Weaknesses The major strength of Dell, Inc. is its utilization of a business model which enables it to reap various benefits which are not enjoyed by its competitors. The direct business cut a significant amount of cost in the company's supply chain by eliminating the less value adding activities. Inventories were kept low and technological breakthroughs are delivered to the customer within a week opposed to industry's average of two months. The direct business model also enabled the company to market directly to the buyers, thereby offering more customized products. Another is Dell's cost leadership strategy. As the company is able to produce computers with the least possible cost, the company is also able to charge lower prices to customers relative to its competitors. Because of the aforementioned strengths, the company has made a name in the computer industry and secured a significant portion of the global market share. The company also enjoys strong brand equity. Acquisition of financing i s relatively easier as the company's stock has a higher market value. With its commitment for excellence and bright industry prospects, I believe that the company will be able to sustain these strengths in the further. One of the major weaknesses of Dell is its lack of proprietary technology in its production activities. Some experts refer to Dell as a computer maker and not a computer manufacturer. Another is Dell's high dependence on its suppliers. As Dell purchases semi-assembled inputs in its production, bargaining power is tilted to suppliers. Dell's heavy dependency on suppliers also exposes it to risk faced by them. Dell's high utilization of long term dent in financing its assets may make its investors reluctant in purchasing its stocks. The

Supply Chain Management and Logistics Assignment

Supply Chain Management and Logistics - Assignment Example The researcher states that developing an interest in logistics benefits should be the sole interest of Toyota logistics sector, which is portrayed by an absence of professionalism. The criteria for selecting a logistics administration supplier are evolving. Clients have exchanged their center at least conceivable costs for administrations to unwavering quality. Because of the business shift from the expense, determined to quality-determined within a brief period of time, the systems for logistics administration suppliers need to incorporate more adaptability, better value security, higher transparency and expanded professionalism, keeping in mind the end goal to meet the tests. The move methodology created supply fastens to end up more dynamic, reflecting the flimsy additionally very guaranteeing business. Partnerships with outside accomplices, co-operation, and joint stock organizations are currently the way to go through. The new supply chains are a mixture of novel components join ed with old various leveled plans of existing connections and associations. Toyota should adopt Omni-channel systems by focusing to change organization which is the execution of developments relating to heightening delivery. The way to go is Omni-channel configuration, which is propelling impact of having attributes and information open over all channels. The organization incorporates leveraging customer experience chances, process upgrades, and a new arrangement for adoption. One explanation behind changing supply chains are new circulation methodologies, which are controlled by expanding client administration desires, developed business sector scope, immediate channel structures, long-haul channel connections, and developing gainfulness, stabilization, and vindication. Directors should unequivocally characterize the aspects and necessities of any key organization. Exact methods and guidelines must be created with the goal, control, and consistency of yield increment across all the departments.

The Virtues of Ambition by Joseph Epstein Research Paper

The Virtues of Ambition by Joseph Epstein - Research Paper Example He bases this  argument  towards viewing ambition as a  delightful  and supremely crucial aspect of both  society  and humanity. He argues in such a manner as to shun those that view  ambition  from a wrong point. Consequently he also argues out the need for control and  constraint  when it comes to ambitions such that they do not  turn  for the worst. According to Epstein, ambitions make a person what they are in  form  and character, in daily life. It is the  thing  that describes what a person is or will  become  that is different from the common humanity features. That through these ambitions one gets dreams and desires. These dreams and desires may not always be favored by courses of life, but this should not stop people from being ambitious (Mei & Dasgupta, 2007). The unpredictability and uncertainty in the outcomes of the future should not stop one from being  ambitious  in life. This is because through the possible  achievement  of such ambitions a person discovers themselves and gains their desires. He continues to  argue  that being  ambitious  is suitable for a  person  as it enables for the fulfillment of one’s dreams or the dreams of others. One can be  ambitious, to gain glory, love, distinction, wealth, and fight for the welfare of others, among other aspects (Mei & Dasgupta, 2007). ... Moreover, there is a strong link between  ambition  and  individualism  (Mei & Dasgupta, 2007). These are people that work for their own  achievement  disregarding those of others. This trend bears Jesuitical behavior where people think their personal achievements are beneficial to others. This aspect tends to downplay morals of the ambitious, as a result, brings questions to their achievements. These are such questions that  rise  crimes against humanity such as  greed  and corruption. Though this is sometimes true, it harms those that are  true  successful  of  ambition. Epstein argues that the negative view of  ambition  has raised a  trend  of hypocrisy amongst people towards the subject. This is through shunning away from  ambition  and the aspects that come with it such as  success. It is evident in the media the educated saying that they have given up on the idea of  ambition  while they are the products of  benefit  from  ambition  itself.  People do not own up to their dreams of success while others  form  a  state  in which such fruits of success seem to be  normally  available attributes to them.  Other people have developed a natural state of  distrust  of ambition, as a result, view ambition as an uncontrollable part of humanity. Some even go to the extent of blaming ambition for the misdeeds that  happen  in their life. He  further  argues that to shun  ambition  to guard against its adversities is to  restrain  its successes. Through ambition, people  desire  and such de sires  amplify  their hard work and  discipline  towards the  achievement  of such goals.

Response and Opinion Paper Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Response and Opinion Paper - Essay Example Apology, the dialogue reveals the tension that persisted between citizens in society, who discovered the tyrannical government and its regressive tendencies. Religion was employed to pacify the masses to follow particular norms and traditions that defined morality, but Socrates in his defense criticizes its exploitation and misuse of authority. For instance, he mocks the jury when he requests free meals for the rest of his life to be his sentence, but is later sentenced to death. Socrates dislike and disregard for the political system is extended in his third dialogue Crito where he decides to remain after the jury sentences him to death when found guilty. Even though, his second text Apology neglects his accusers, the system almost reigns supreme when he complies with the unjust laws of Athens and waits for his execution. I believe Socrates did not loathe interplay between religion and politics, but despised the manner rulers wielded power and influence over the masses. Finally, his last dialogue, Meno takes a sudden twist when though Socrates appeared to have lost the battle of justice, his dislike for the political system is seen when he decided to self-administer his death. He remained unconvinced by the jury’s verdict and considered his fate not in their hands. The dialogue is full of debate between Immortality and soul and subtly implies the inevitability of the continued existence of the soul. It is apparent battles characterize the history of philosophy, especially between camps debating major issues about human existence. One major debate is the source of knowledge and this argument pits rationalists against empiricists. Even though, rationalists claim the starting point of human knowledge is reasoning, I believe the beginning of human knowledge is sense experience (Carrutheras 123). It is the human senses that provide us with the original data concerning events in the world. Without the raw data obtained through sense experience, then knowledge

Southwest Airlines Case Anaylsis Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 10000 words

Southwest Airlines Case Anaylsis - Essay Example They lived up to their dreams since Southwest Airlines now ranks the fourth largest airliner that is operating under the logo LUV on NYSE in the united states of America. Rolling King and Herb Kelleher completed the necessary paperwork to create Air Southwest Co. the name by which the southwest airlines was known. Following the filing of approval by the two pioneers with the FAA, on 20th February, 1968 their plan to fly between the three Texas cities was approved by the Texas Aeronautical Commission. Southwest continued to expand all through the 1980s and 1990s, and by 1993, it was operating between 34 cities in 15 states. This airline progressively expanded across the southwestern states into the northwest, the Midwest, and the state of California. Besides, it ventured into new destination in Florida and on the east coast. Owing to the low prices it offers it quickly conquered the markets share it explored. In fact; some competitors were forced to withdraw after Southwest Airlines entered their markets, allowing the company to expand faster than expected (David 1999). For instance; when the Southwest Airlines ventured into California market (1990) it quickly scooped 20% of the intrastate market, sending a number of its competitors out of Los Angeles-San Francisco route, thus dominating the route. This happened because they were unable to contest the $59 one-way flight charges, with their $186 one way fare (Scholes 1999). In late 1994, United Airlines started to make a come back to the west coast routes. They tried to launch a low-cost, high-frequency shuttle services to no avail, because even a shuttle could not contest with southwest in a direct battle, as a result United Airline had to relocate its shuttle out of Southwest Airlines' routes and to some extent abandon some routes altogether (David 1999). Nowadays a lot of people travel by plane, the airline industry has hence increased in service provision and even in scope specializing cargo and passenger planes. Southwest Airlines Company ventures in this industry in a unique way providing fairly low priced air transport in over 58 cities across the United States of America. Despite the September 11th terrorist attack, that caused a major blow to the airline industry, the Southwest Airlines Company still persisted when other airline corporations sunk into debts. Based on the information on southwest airliners from News Week and Wall Street Journal, the corporation enjoys steady sales (David 1999). The major attribute for their unwavering success is their low-cost model and the knowledge by the competitors that the low prices of southwest are far from being matched. Therefore; by decreasing the prices even lower, the southwest airline corporation can push a company into bankruptcy (Scholes 1999). An outstanding objective of Southwest Airlines involves dedication to top-quality service delivery coupled with a sense of friendliness, person's dignity, hospitality, and company zeal. Among the services the company provides are, short haul, point to point, high frequency, and low fare air transportation between 58 cities in the United States (David 1999). The organization of Southwest Airline Company adopts an upside-down pyramid where the senior management is at the base and

Biomes and Diversity Essay Example for Free

Biomes and Diversity Essay Extinction is a natural selection process. Should humans strive to preserve a representative sample of all biomes or aquatic zones? Why should humans be concerned with the extinction rate? In my own opinion No but as u read more about it some things need to be preserved. For instance animals help the crops of the foods that we eat. Snakes help to cure different diseases. Humans help the plants and animals to grow. The fact that human beings are a species means that they depend on many other species that exist in the world. If an animal becomes extinct, this can have a knock on effect to other species, and humans would inevitably be affected by the species becoming extinct. Humans also have a built in instinct to survive, as do other species of animals. It is not surprising, therefore, that humans feel the need to try and extend the life span of some species, as they would probably feel that if it came to it, that something would try and prolong the existence of humans. Humans should be concerned with the extinction rate, because the human population is growing and we need all the air, land, and animals to survive. There are humans that don’t quite understand that we have to preserve our land because we will be extinct sooner than later due to our big population.

Criminal Offfences Drug Addiction And Crime Criminology Essay

Criminal Offfences Drug Addiction And Crime Criminology Essay Drugs such as marijuana and cocaine and amphetamines and heroin together with drug-addiction are correlated to crime in a number of ways. Being a criminal offence to use, to be in possession, to produce, or to dispense these drugs, they are categorized as prohibited. The upshots of usage of drugs, including aggression, including robbery to obtain funds to acquire drugs, including aggression against competitor traffickers, affect the society every day and are criminal effects. A number of treatment alternatives are on hand to tackle inmates requirements and conditions in the correctional system. Drug treatment programs in correctional centres most often than not are successful in averting patients going back to unlawful behaviour, but are unsuccessful most often than not if they are not connected to community-centred programs that continue treatment when the patient leaves prison. The most successful drug treatments programs in prison have diminished the re-arrest rate by 25% to 50% ( Belenko 33). The aim of correctional facilities such as prison is twofold; first, it punishes wrongdoers and secondly it rehabilitates criminals and individuals with deviant behaviour. The French philosopher Michel Foucault argued that punishment has changed over a period from instilling discipline in the body to instilling discipline in the soul. The rehabilitation of convicted criminals is an important facet of the contemporary criminal justice system. The criminal justice system nowadays is working to rehabilitate inmates and the prison rehabilitation programs vary in degrees, type, and form from prison to prison. In the past years, rehabilitation was focused straight at reforming the personality of offenders, its aim now is on averting reoffending. Prison program: Drug treatment In a similar fashion, drug Treatment programs in Prison are designed to rehabilitate drug addicts in prison. For instance, the Delaware Model, a continuing examination of wide-ranging treatment methods for prisoners who are addicted to drug abuse illustrates that prison-based treatment programs, work release therapeutic community, community-based aftercare and therapeutic community surroundings included; cuts the chances of re-arrest by 57 percent and cut the odds of relapsing into drugs by 37 percent. One quality essential for successful programs is progressing, wide-ranging aftercare in the society. This decreases the probability that an addict will be detained and found guilty another time (Thomas 16). History of Drug Treatment: à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Using drug relates to violent crime (statistic) Statistics show that drug addicts are more prone than nonusers to perpetrate crimes, which arrested criminals, are found often to be under the influence at the time they carried out the offence and that drugs breed violence. It is the weighing up the nature and degree of the effects of drugs on criminal activities that necessitate that dependable information about the crime, and the lawbreaker is accessible and meanings of terms be consistent. In the face of challenging data, it is not possible to establish quantitatively the influence of drug addiction on the happening of crime. Drugs are linked to most criminal activities through the outcomes they have on the addicts actions and by breeding violence and other prohibited goings-on associated with drug trafficking. Drug-related crimes and the drug-using way of life play a key part in the U.S. crime issue. More than 50% of arrested criminals in the US test positive for illicit drugs (Thomas 17). According to the same institute, use of and addiction on drug is strongly associated to robbery and assets crime more than it is to violent offences. A majority of addicts carries out crimes to obtain money to purchase drugs. According to the National Institute of Justice, at least 25% of men who carry out acts of domestic violence have drug problems and that drug-addicted women are more prone to suffering abuse (Thomas 18). The 2004 survey of Inmates in State and Federal penitentiaries found out that 32% of State convicts and 26% of Federal prisoners admitted to having committed the crimes they are serving time for under the influence of drugs. In State prisons, drug offenders and property offenders recorded the highest admission rates for being under the drugs influence when committing a crime at 44% and 39% respectively. In Federal penitentiaries, drug offenders (32%) and violent crimes convicts (24%) reported the highest occurrence of being under drugs influence when they committed their crimes. Efforts to prevent drug abuse using retribution systems do not succeed since these attempts do no tackle the multifaceted basis of drug abuse, which start in the milieu of family issues and deviant conduct. Many go to prison. Few reform in prison. à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Cause Overcrowding in Prison The vicious cycle of arrest, imprisonment, discharge, and re-arrest is very common. As indicated by various nationwide studies, more than half of the prison population test positive for illegal drugs (Taylor et al. 3-4). The U.S. state and federal prisons and jails hold approximately 1.9 million convicts (Beck and Harrison). This means that the major contribution of the high-prison population in the United States is drug abuse. Most of the inmates are finally released from the prisons to go back to the community. However, about six hundred thousand state and federal convicts are nor returning to prison each year. A majority of those returning are drug addicts; therefore, keeping the cycle rolling. Effectively cutting that cycle and related crime is largely dependent on successfully treating drug-abusing criminals. A number of treatment alternatives are on hand to tackle inmates requirements and conditions in the correctional system. One such alternative program is the Drug Courts program. Drug Courts are judicially administered court dockets that deal with cases of nonviolent drug abusing lawbreakers under the juvenile, family, adult, and tribal justice structures. Drug Courts function under a specific mould in which the courts, prosecutors, defence bar, the police, mental health services, community services, and the treatment services work jointly to assist nonviolent lawbreakers find restoration in healing and turn into productive human beings. The essay analyses how the Drugs Courts program can help reduce the number of ex prisoners who are being sent back to prison each year. It also analysis how the program helps reduce the population in the American prisons. The essay su mmarizes the general workings and usefulness of drug courts all over the country and underlines possible concerns and areas where additional study is required. DRUG COURTS In 1989, Florida officials set up the nations pioneer drug court. This unique court was calculated to entrench drug treatment fully into the prison system and the criminal justice system in general. The courts were established for criminals with a past of drug abuse as a measure for their addiction treatment, while concurrently guaranteeing control, and approval when necessary, from the courts. The movement for a different court to rule on drug offenders come about from the swiftly sprouting truth that the nations resolution to tackle drug abuse by employing law enforcement methods would keep on posing considerable problems for the criminal justice system. In 2004, 53% of prisoners incarcerated in state prison were identified as drug addicts or users, but merely 15% were getting professional help (Mumola and Karberg 7). Drug use and addiction linked criminal activities remain an expensive load to the American society, one that most prison drugs treatment programs have failed to halt. In 2001, the bureau of National Drug Control Policy approximated that in 1998 prohibited use of drug cost the exchequer $31.1 billion in criminal justice costs, $30.1 billion in lost output and $2.9 billion in costs connected to property damage and discrimination (Belenko 2). Ever since 1989, drug courts have increased all over the country. Presently, there are more than 1,500 Drug courts functioning in all states. This drug courts are a reflection of the aspiration to change the stress from trying to battle drug crimes by diminishing drugs supply to tackling the demand for drugs by treating drug craving. Drug courts employ the criminal justice system to tackle addiction by the use of an incorporated set of communal and legal services as an alternative to depending on sanctions through imprisonment or probation. In spite of broad signs of drug court efficiency, more than twenty years after the first Drug court a number of questions linger. Since drug courts are planned and ran at the state level, there are deep-seated disparities that make cross-jurisdictional evaluation hard. While the underlying structure may be similar from one program to the next (a diversion program for particular types of low-level defendants who have shown a connection between thei r drug abuse or addiction and criminal acts), protocols for arbitration, detailed selection standards, ways of control and revocation measures do vary radically. The localism that is the system of drug court design makes efforts to make out best practices very hard. Nonetheless, we can make out explicit elements from diverse drug courts that are significant elements for the success of the program. WORKING OF DRUG COURTS Several elements determine the running of drug courts, albeit with disparity based on setting of the defendant population, legal questions etc. Below are a few elements universal to every drug court. Legal Framework There are commonly two approaches for drug courts i.e. deferred/delayed prosecution and post-adjudication programs. In a delayed prosecution, defendants who that meet some particular eligibility prerequisites are sidetracked to the drug court system before pleading to a charge. Defendants are not obliged to plead guilty, and those who successfully see through the drug court program are not further prosecuted. However, if one does not complete the program, he or she is prosecuted. On the other hand, in the post-adjudication approach, defendants are obliged to plead guilty to their charges but the ruling of their cases is deferred or left pending as they take part in the drug court program. Successful conclusion of the program earns the former user or addict in a waived sentence and occasionally an obliteration of the crime and the charges. However, if one does not successfully meet the standards of the drug court, for example, a routine return of drug abuse or addiction, they will be taken back to the criminal court to face the ruling on the guilty plea. Eligibility Criteria Eligibility standards differ from court to court. However, usually defendants have to be charged with being in possession of drugs or a nonviolent crime and must have positively tested for drugs or have proved drug abuse trouble during arrest (Fluellen and Trone 5). For drug courts that get federal financial support, there is a prerequisite to rule out persons with a present or previous violent crime record. However, this barring, whether by the state or federal rules, has been questioned as to whether it truly serves the interest of public safety as it is claimed to serve. Particularly, the classification of a violent crime at times may refer to merely being in possession of a weapon when one was arrested, even if it was not held, wielded, or put into use. In addition, individuals who are at present facing charges for a drug crime may be disqualified from admission into the drug court program owing to a past crime that is completely unrelated. Programming and Sanctions Programs characteristically run for a period between half and one year. However, some addicts stay longer in the program. Addicts and users must see through the whole program phase to graduate. Successful completion is dependent upon staying free of drugs and arrests for a specific period. Participants have to go to regular status hearings in front of a judge alongside judicial and medical staff who screen the development of every person. Sanctions including more court proceedings, drug tests and short stints in jails are enforced for participants who do not comply at the courts discretion. ADVANTAGES OF DRUG COURTS As noted earlier in this essay, the majority of adults and juveniles who are under arrest for criminal activities test positive for illicit drugs. As such, much of crime is drug or alcohol linked. However, imprisoned drug offenders do not obtain the handling they require, and will probably use drugs yet again and execute another crime once they are out of prison. That is where drug courts need arise. Drug courts present a valuable option that blends justice and drug management. Drug addicts who are taking part in a drug court program undergo rigorous drug abuse management, individual case management, substance testing, administration, and supervision. The participants report to recurrently programmed status hearings in front of a judge who is skilled in the drug court programs. Drug courts offer psychological well being treatment, disturbance and family psychoanalysis, and work skills instruction, which assist in ensuring a long-lasting healing from drug and alcohol dependence. Drug courts programs surpass all other approaches that have been employed with drug-using offenders. Drug abuse and criminal activities are significantly diminished in cases where offenders are put through a drug court program. Since the drug court programs assess offenders for substance abuse frequently, data concerning substance abuse by offenders in a drug court program is accessible on a continual basis. The use of drugs by offenders is reduced considerably or eliminated altogether by drug programs nationally, and this in turns has lowered recidivism amongst graduates. Adult drug court programs considerably decrease crime rates by cutting down re-arrest and conviction rates amongst graduates of drug courts a long time after the programs conclusion. Individuals who have graduated from drug courts are, according to recent appraisals, less expected to be re-arrested than individuals routed through other prison mechanisms. Results from drug court assessments show that involvement in drug courts upshots, in fewer re-arrests and re-convictions, or more extended periods between arrests or relapses. A breakdown of study findings from 76 drug courts established that there is a 10% decline in re-arrest, with pre-adjudication courts occasioning a 13% drop in re-arrest (Aos, Miller and Drake 4) Drug courts are very cost efficient. Several fresh studies have demonstrated that saved costs vary from $3,000 to $12,000 per offender (Belenko, 2005, 45). According to Fluellen and Trone (1), depending on the magnitude of a drug court program, the cost saved in some states goes beyond $7 million annually. Many courts are using the drug court mould to repeal driving under the influence and driving while intoxicated cases. This is being done either by employing selected driving while intoxicated courts or by accommodating offenders into conventional grown-up drug courts. Driving under the influence courts are holding offenders responsible for their actions at the same time as treating the fundamental drug abuse issues and stimulating behavioural transformation. Drug courts have also been very useful to juvenile offenders. Lastly, the drugs courts, in addition to saving cost, frees up the justice system and enables their departments resourcefully apportion criminal justice funds. Personnel and services, hitherto used up by the minor and less severe but prolonged drug cases which are now taken care by the drug court programs, are presently concentrated to other serious cases and to criminals who pose bigger threats to the society security and well being. The caseloads taken up by the drug court programs allow more docket time for the justice systems judges and are therefore, on hand for other criminal and civil matters in various jurisdictions. Previously, these serious criminal and civil cases were relegated to inferior precedence owing to drug related caseload. The programs have also freed jail space, and it is now being used to accommodate serious and dangerous criminals or to guarantee they serve their times. After more than two decades of drug courts operation, various studies show that many drug courts reduce recidivism and save the taxpayers funds. Figures from many studies carried out in more than ninety-five courts expose that former offenders who have graduated from drug courts program are re-arrested less than other prison program groups (Belenko, 44). The decline in re-arrest rates is the main contributor to cost-savings reported for most drug courts (Belenko, 44). CONCLUSION RECOMMENDATIONS Studies up to date have been consistently reporting that that drug courts are accomplishing significant benefits. However, there practices, though mostly unfamiliar, which cause accomplishment or breakdown of a drug court. Of huge interest is the argument that drug courts might be escalating the quantity of individuals under arrest for drug crimes, rather than decrease, in the long term, the quantity of individuals who go through the criminal justice system. Studies have not yet zeroed in on the establishment of whether individuals who are taken through drug courts would have ended up in the criminal justice system and consequently into the conventional prison programs if not for the drug court. The use of drug courts should be used in a large scale to solve the twin problem of drugs and crime and that of overpopulation in our prison system.

Analysing Slavery in Mark Twains Writing

Analysing Slavery in Mark Twains Writing INTRODUCTION According to widely held view on slavery, it is has been acknowledged that it is ‘a virtually universal feature of human history that has preserved up to nowadays.   As absolute proof of old origins of slavery accounts to the fact that there are written documents survived from ancient times as written in e.g., the Code of Hammurabi and The Old Testament showing that slavery was established in the early civilizations. As to present days, the United Nations (hereafter UN) reports reveal a ‘huge   number of women, children and men being exploited and forced into slavery ranging from at least eight hundred- thousand to three million people trafficked annually. Therefore, globalization has brought not only positive cultural exchanges, but also endemic slavery around the world, raising a discussion of tackling and eliminating this painful issue. Concerning the term ‘slavery, it denotes much of negativism and violence e.g., torture, kidnap, murder, inferiority, punishment as well as ‘the wilful destruction of human mind and spirit (Bales, 2005:6). Nevertheless, the historians (Bales:2005;David:2004; Kopytoff:1977) describe that slaves throughout human history have been treated as inferior, uncivilized and bestialized e.g., Mark Twains story ‘The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn portrays the Southerners vision of   a runaway slave who is perceived as superstitious, uneducated and perhaps violent thing: merely a human in their view. This helps to explain the hostile or negative feelings, attitudes and actions towards one ethnic group of people, in this case a white persons disdain and superiority overblack person. The superiority of white or Caucasian race derives from times of slavery as the historian Kevin Bales (2005:7) states slavery can damage peoples mind, namely, (1) slaves; (2) slaveholders and (3) members of society who live this system. As to Bales (ibid), such society accepts dehumanization of a person that allow prospering slavery around the globe. Thus, we can observe that slavery has remerged not only in many different times throughout human history, but also is present in our times. This research paper aims at illustrating a link between past and present displayed in Mark Twains literary works. They reveal that slavery in the South can be perceived as a ghost of the past, which has been equally haunting African Americans and Caucasian race. As a result, the past has widened a gap between those two races in America. William Faulkner has said that ‘only with Twain, Walt Whitman became a true indigenous American culture (quoted in Hutchinson, 1998:80). Mark Twain who was born and raised in the Americas South was the pioneer of displaying the spoken language, the very American language in literature that is characterized as   vivid, but with sardonic humour, neat aphorism. It has to be mentioned that Mark Twain is regarded as a complex personality; since he managed to contradict himself not only in a real life, but also in his writings. The subject of the bachelor thesis is institution of slavery in Mark Twains works.   In other words, the paper investigates aspects and issue of slavery described in Mark Twains writings, including ‘The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884-85) and ‘A True Story, Repeated for Word, as I heard It (1874) which are set in the pre Civil War society of American South-West. The aim of the paper is to gain a comprehensive picture of slavery from Mark Twains works. The objectives of the research paper the task is to select and to review the most common images of slavery presented   in Twains writings by such   characters as   Aunt Rachel, Jim   and Huck Finn to make the use of a study of history i.e. Slavery in America , but   take into account   Mark Twains personal view on slavery to analyse the images of slavery using   the writers stories to test the results   i.e. to   compare those two different images of slavery i.e. literary works and official   history of slavery to draw the relevant conclusions taking into account both his   writings and the   historical context. Hypothesis: Mark Twains literary works imply personal responsibility and awareness on such complex issue as slavery, but problems of slavery cannot be viewed separately from historical context.   Methods of research case study: analysis of such   historical works on slavery   written by Suzzane Miers, Igor Kopytoff, Christine   Hatt,Robert McColley and others analysis of two Mark   Twains   stories Juxtaposition: to contrast and compare those two different images of slavery, namely, historical and literary description of slavery. The author of the paper has chosen the case study as a research method for a number of reasons. First of all, case study research allow us better understanding a complex issue or object and this method of study is especially useful for testing theory by using it in real world situations. Secondly, a case study is an in depth study of a particular situation. It is a method used to narrow down a very broad field of research into one easily researchable topic.   Finally, it provides a structural way of looking at events, collecting data, analyzing information, and reporting the results. As a result, the researcher may get a better understanding of why the event happened as it did, and what is important to look at more closely in the future. The first chapter deals with the history of racism and the concept of racism. The second chapter provides an insight into understanding of slavery and deals with the issue of institution of slavery in the USA. The third one and its subchapters deal with issues of   slavery, namely, they show how   slavery is depicted   in Twains literary work Huckleberry Finn and provide a brief insight into history of slavery in America and explores A True story and Aunts Rachel point of view of slavery. 1 THE HISTORY OF RACISM AND ITS CONCEPT This chapter deals with the history and the concept of racism. Racism is a subject that most people, at least in Western societies, have their own opinion on and it is as old as civilization, it continues to be an important factor in society today. Alana Lentin (2011) claims that racism is a political phenomenon rather than a mere set of ideas. To analyze racism it is necessary to go beyond the texts of racial scientists and to look at how certain political conditions during particular historical contexts led to some of the ideas proposed by racial theorists being integrated into political practices of nation-states. There are three aspects the political nature of racism, its modernity and its grounding in the history of the West that are fundamental to understanding racisms hold over contemporary Western societies. It is very important as well to look at the statements, what a race is. According to Ivan Hannaford (1996), the word race as used in Western languages is first found as late as the period 1200 1500. Only in the seventeenth century did it take on a separate meaning from the Latin word gens or clan and was related to the concept â€Å"ethnic group†. In other words the dispositions and presuppositions of race and ethnicity were introduced some would say â€Å"invented† or â€Å"fabricated† in modern times and in any case, were not given the meaning they have today until after the French and American revolutions. The reason why the notion of race became such a powerful and attractive idea is due to the â€Å"deliberate manipulation† of texts by scientists and historians to show that a racial order has always structured humanity (Hannaford 1996: 4). There was a definite division of the periods over which the idea of race developed. Hannaford divides it into three stages: 1684 1815, 1815 1870 and 1870 1914. The final period is known as the â€Å"Golden Age† of racism, it was a time when it was possible for the British Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli to proclaim that race is all and there was no other truth. (ibid, 1996). As Alana Lentin (2011) states the word â€Å"race† was first used in its modern sense in 1684, when a Frenchman published his essay, where race stood for divisions among humans based on observable physical differences. At this stage race was used a simple descriptor and there was no intention of superiority meant by presenting humanity in this way (2011). Hannaford (1996) states that Western scholars later started to think about that it means to be human that fundamentally changed the way people thought about the origins of human life, the universe and society. It is the bases for the way we think about these things to this day. The most significant changes were in fact that theological explanations about life were replaced by logical description. (Hannaford, 1996: 187). Lentin Alan (2011) considers that many people do not ask nowadays why racism is apparently so important, despite the end of colonialism, slavery and the Holocaust, the answer is that it is natural. Racism has entered into everyday speech and therefore in our consciousness. The idea of racism is so widespread that we easily mistake it for something that is just there, a fact of life. Racism is associated with the fear and even hatred that human beings are commonly expected to have for each other. Fear based on racism is inherent and there is no need to ask why it exists (2011). As Neil Macmaster reminds us that racism is always a dynamic process, a set of beliefs and practices that is imbedded in a particular historical context, a particular social formation, and is thus continuously undergoing change, a plastic chameleon like phenomenon which constantly finds new forms of political, social, cultural or linguistic expression (2001: 2). Lentin (2011) refers to race in descriptive terms, it takes account of racionalization. Racionalization is the process through which the supposed inferiority of black, colonized and non-whites is constructed. Todays global racism divides the rich and the poor worlds and is no longer a simple black and white issue. Racionalization involves endowing the traditions and lifestyles that are attributed to groups of different â€Å"others† with negative signifiers (2011). According to Alan Lentin (2011), the development of a radicalized discourse about a group of people provides justification for their discrimination. It puts into words the very thing about a particular group that is said to disturb us and pose a threat to our way of life. The fact that racionalization and racism are repeated, affecting different groups over time, does not mean that racism is inevitable. Rather, it shows that considerable transformations of our political systems, our social and cultural infrastructur e, and our discourse the very way in which language is used needs to change if racism in Western societies is to be overcome (2011:10). Memmi (2000) investigates racism as social pathology a cultural disease that prevails because it allows one part of society to empower itself at the expense of another. For Memmi, racism emerges from within human situations, rather than simply as the enforcement of an ideology, or the â€Å"natural† belief some people have according their innate superiority. Racism is a charge, like a judicial accusation that is levied against somebody, who is indicated as being in some manner (racially) different. It implies that the other has, in being different, somehow broken certain assumed rules, and is thus not a good person. Thus the person is devalued and disparaged and he suffers from it. The indictment, however, is unfounded and unjust, and the accused is thus the victim of an injustice. As well Memmi (2000) states that in France, reference to â€Å"le raciste† in a   third person nominative mode, as to some unspecified person who behaves in a particular way, upholding cer tain ideas and attitude, would call up a more or less familiar picture, bur in the United States it would not really be as clear. It is a nation in which white racism is wholly generalized and integrated into political and social life. Though it may be invisible in everyday life, it can see by White people through accepting themselves without question as white. Thus racism moves beyond individual prejudice to engage broader questions of collective behaviour and social responsibility. As it can be seen, the topic of racism is very broad. Some people would say that racism is just based on prejudices but some would say that it is something that people are born into, and they are not able to fight against it, nor break out of their social status. People who are in such situations, are born into a situation where they do not have an unfair disadvantage when trying to move out of their social status and thus fall into a category that can make them more susceptible to racial prejudice and ideologies. The next subchapter will have a closer look at types of racism.    1.1 TYPES OF RACISM The current subchapter aims at giving additional conceptions   of   the term ‘racism as well as outlining   basic types of racism proposed by several authorities(Reilly, Kaufman, Bodino:2003)(Fredrickson:2002). The given section suggests that there is obvious correlation between racism and slavery. The website on racism ‘Anti-Defamation League defines racism as ‘the belief that a particular race is superior or inferior to another as well as that a persons social and moral traits are predetermined by his or her inborn biological characteristics. According to Reilly, Kaufman and Bodino (2003:9), race has no basic biological reality, because all we see is just a colour or different texture of hair or shape of eyes, but it does not have any decisive influence over a persons intelligence or other traits. As a result, ‘misconceptions about race have lead to forms of racism that have caused much social, psychological and social harm (Reilly et.al.2003:10). Additionally, Frederickson points out (2002:1) that ‘racism that is the antipathy of one group towards another that ‘can be expressed and acted upon with a single mindedness and brutality. Nevertheless, the same experts describe racism as prejudice or discrimination against other people because of their race, due to their biology or ancestry and physical appearance. This pattern is clearly visible in Twains work ‘The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn when a slave named Jim runs away from his owner, whereas the whole city spreads out the rumours about him having killed Hucks father. Their assumption is based on prejudice that all black people are savages, violent and ca not be trusted. Thus, their attitude towards, slaves can be described as racism, because they judged those people, due to their ancestry and physical appearance. Although the term racism first came into common usage in 1930ies (as stated in the book ‘A Racism: a short history) (Fredercikson, 2002:5), the act of discrimination is still there i.e. while reading   Twains literary works we can perceive how coloured people were treated in the American South. This attitude or and approach of white superiority overwhelm the Southern society at the time when Huck Finn was embarking in his famous adventures on Mississippi river. A great deal of harm has been done to generations and in this particular case to Jim, Aunt Rachel and Huck Finn. The pain and burden of slavery of these characters are depicted in chapter three. As to types of racism, the website on American Research and Geography called ‘Amerigis provides detailed information on types of racism. The types are as follows: Historical, Scientific, New, Spatial, Institutional, Internalized and Individual. The online resource stated above claims that racism looks different today from it did thirty years ago. The author of the current paper finds important to mention that racism back in 19th century was blatant and caused so much pain and injustice to black race. Thus, the graduate proposes the idea that discrimination and injustice has derived from the time when slavery was acceptable even more it was the cornerstone of the Souths vision of sound social order.   The author of BA thesis asserts that such blatant discrimination has never been experienced in human history as it was back in early 19th century; it was the root of all evil caused to black race. The classification of racism is based on several resources such as the Internet resource mentioned above, and three publications on racism The types are as follows: Cultural racism According to Belgrave et al(2010:104)   cultural racism is expressed as assumed superiority of a language or dialect, values, beliefs, worldviews and cultural   heritage e.g., in the novel ‘Huckleberry Finn the slave named Jim is regarded as superstitious person whose beliefs and values are regarded as infantile   even compare to young white   lad like Tom Sawyer. Individual Racism The same scholar (ibid) explains that individual racism has the same meaning and features as of racial prejudice i.e. it assumes the superiority of ones own racial group and justifies its domination and power over other race. For example, when Pap Finn gets all furious about a ‘white shirted free nigger to right to vote, because he holds the view that black   race has no right to   freedom nor participate in elections.   As he states ‘they told me there was a State in this country where theyd let that nigger vote, [ thus he determines ] , ‘Ill never vote agin as long as I live. Institutional Racism The Internet source ‘American research and geographic information system point to „white privilege† that frequently is hidden, because it has become internalized and integrated as part of ones outlook on the world by custom, habit and tradition. For example,   concerning antebellum society in the South of America if a white person helps a runaway slave towards freedom, ‘and in doing so he violets the laws of man, and he believes the laws of God (Hutchinson, 1998:130). The fact of helping slave that according to the Southerner rules is a deadly sin that sends a sinner into flames of hell. This points out that the church played a great role in peoples lives whereas any person who would disobey the given rule would be perceived as danger to their moral social order in the South. As a result, the southern upbringing does not allow Huck Finn to show his sympathy towards Jim, a runaway slave. Slavery functioned as main social moral and religious issue in the South. The preceding sentences and extracts from Twains writings show that social order had a tremendous impact over members of the Southern society at the given time.   Nevertheless, at that time there were no subtle forms or hidden ways of showing ones hate towards other race, unlike today where many people express their hate via the Internet. On the contrary, it was impossible to show sympathy towards a slave e.g., the runway slave Jim who has abused the system and has sinned against the owner Miss Watson, arises the question to Huck whether he deserves his freedom. Additionally The psychologists Bhattacharya, Cross, Bhugra (2010:41) also give the classification racism based on the analysis of human behavior under certain circumstances, namely, being   exposed to people of other ethnicities in our global world. The author of the BA thesis will highlight the types which can be found in the following works ‘The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and ‘A True Story, Repeated for Word, as I heard It dominative when a person acts out;   aversive when a person feels superior , but is unable to act; regressive when a personsdue to his or her view on racism behaves regressively; pre-reflecting when a person has fear of strangers; post reflecting when a person justifies his fear of strangers; The study on racism shows that it involves biased judgments on humans and their action e.g., racist determines what is good, correct, beautiful, sane, normal. Nevertheless, the historians and other experts of this field (Fredercikson, 2002), (Reilly, Kaufman, Bodino: 2003), (Carol: 1987) agree upon the view that   racism and the same slavery is seen as ideology, as practice as social structure. Whereas, Mark Twains writings reflect on slavery as doctrine, practice and social cornerstone of the America South in antebellum society that has brought so much injustice and pain, as well. The next subchapter will explore the ideology of racism. 1.2 IDEOLOGY OF RACISM The chapter gives an insight into the ideology of racism as it is an important matter discussed, portrayed in history books and literature. Ideology is a body of beliefs that drives the goals and expectations of an individual or a group. According to Martin N. Marger (2006) â€Å"As a belief system, or ideology, racism is structured around three basic ideas: Humans are divided naturally into different physical types. Such physical traits as people display are intrinsically related to their culture, personality, and intelligence. The differences among groups are innate, not subject to change, and in the basis of their genetic inheritance, some groups are innately superior to others† (Marger 2006:19). Thus, racism is a belief that people are divided into hereditary groups that are different in their social behaviour. Racist thinking states that differences among groups are innate.   Carol Brunson argues that â€Å"the ideology of racism prescribes the parameters for perceiving social reality thereby defining guidelines for â€Å"desirable† interracial behaviour. Once the members of society are imbued with racist thinking, they will not only perceive their institutions as natural, they will voluntarily carry out institutional mandates as of they are a function of their own individual choice† (Carol Brunson, 1987:17). According to the authors of the books on the ideology of race it can be seen that it is powerful and it persists in different forms of expression. Robert Miles work â€Å"Racism† is an essential reminder that racism is the object of ideological and discursive labouring. Robert Miles argues â€Å"Racism is best conceived primarily as an ideology for at least one other reason. Racism, qua ideology, was created historically and became interdependent with the ideology of nationalism. The argument that racism is a form of ideology is important and worth repeating† (Robert Miles, 2003:10). When it comes to ideological components assumptions of racism, Carol Brunson holds the following viewpoint: â€Å"Racist institutions not only create the structural conditions for racism, but also create a culturally sanctioned ideology that keeps the system operating. Racist ideology is a set of notions that ascribe central importance to real or presumed biological, cultural, and psychological differences among racial groups, attributing the arrangement of both historic and current social systems to these differences† (Carol Brunson, 1987:15). While ideological and cultural arguments are two pillars that support racism, one or other may be in the forefront at any given time. Stephen Gould states two assumptions of biologically based racist ideology: Humans are classifiable into discrete, hierarchically ranked biological groups (with whites at the top). Differences among the races reflect the natural and/or ordained order and therefore are eternally fixed (Gould, 1981:45). Besides this biological argument, there exists also cultural argument, explaining the realities of the lives of people of colour. William Ryan (1976) defined blaming the victim as an ideological stance that locates the origins of social problems. Ryan identified four steps in victim blaming process. Locating social problem and population affected by it, comparison of values and behaviour of people affected by the social problem, locating the source off the problem in how the affected people are different from the successful ones, initiation of treatment that would change the affected people (Ryan, 1976).Victim blaming therefore provides a framework for explaining the problems of people of colour. It is also a framework for strategies to ameliorate the position of people of colour in our society.   Many people learn about the ideology of racism and families, schools and media contribute to this education. They learn and behave according to the dictates of racist ideology. Carol Brun son argues that very early, children of all backgrounds learn stereotypes about other groups regardless of whether they have contact with actual people (Carol Brunson, 1987:18). These stereotypes later shape peoples reality and they start judging and interpreting ideas and behaviours by their learnt stereotypes. Each persons own judgement is not harmful but over time the prejudices may become poisonous and damaging.   As it can be seen, there appear new arguments of racism and its ideology, justifying institutional, cultural and individual racism. While these new faces and arguments of racism try to cover the problem, racism and racist ideology are alive and existent in America. Racism affects us as individuals and the choices that we make in responding to it. Anti-racism education should require an immediate focus on each individual. The goal of the anti-racism education should be generation of development of individual consciousness, enabling people to become active initiators of the change in perception of racism. All people should be responsible for transformation of racism ideology. However, the situation is difficult because, while groups keep racism alive, the responsibility is not equally positioned. Yet, racism has always gone hand in hand with slavery, and it is a precedent to slavery. Racism is evil. It is not a social problem that will gradually disappear through education and legislation. These alleviate the symptoms, but no more than that. The only cure is in understanding that evil is real. In the words of Jeffrey Burton Russell, The essence of evil is abuse of a sentient being, a being that can feel pain. It is the pain that matters. Evil is grasped by the mind immediately and immediately felt by the emotions; it is sensed as hurt deliberately inflicted. The existence of evil requires no further proof: I am; therefore I suffer evil. The definition implies two things: One, that every human being suffers evil. Two, every human being inflicts evil. Thus, the essence of the human condition is in how we live with evil. Of necessity, then, evil has two faces one is individual, the other is collective. That we as individuals will and do commit evil is unavoidable. Our efforts not to do evil, however, need the support of a collective, i.e. a society that not only recognizes evil but condemns it. In contemporary America, In her Gifford lectures, Hannah Arendt said: As citizens, we must prevent wrong-doing because the world in which we all live, wrong-doer, wrong-sufferer, and spectator, is at stake; the City has been wronged.We could almost define a crime as that transgression of the law that demands punishment regardless of the one who has been wronged.the law of the land permits no option because it is the community as a whole that has been violated. America is struggling to reach a consensus that racism violates the community as a whole. It cannot do so as long as blacks are still excluded from a sense of community. Blacks have no doubts or questions about their humanity and thus are made to suffer evil, an evil that is still not obvious to the white majority. Racism is an act of evil but white people do not hear the moaning of the wounded or the death rattles of the dying. The evil of slavery, the evil of the Holocaust are written large. So much so that many are in danger of thinking that these cataclysms are the only ways in which racist evil expresses itself. That is why it is both ironic and maddening that so many blacks equate anti-Semitism only with the Holocaust and thereby conclude that because they would never condone the extermination of Jews they are not and could not be anti-Semitic. Non-blacks are equally culpable when they equate racism solely with acts of violence. Because our perception of evil is limited to the dramatic, we have lost the capacity to recognize it. Evil has become so prosaic in appearance, manner and style that it is now woven into the fabric of the normal like smog, acid rain and K-mart. Hannah Arendt maintained that the horror of evil in the Third Reich was that it had lost the quality by which most people recognize it the quality of temptation. The racist evil of contemporary America is as charismatic as an empty can of cat food. In her Gifford lectures, Hannah Arendt attempted again to describe the figure of Adolf Eichmann and what had so horrified her about him: I was struck by a manifest shallowness in the doer that made it impossible to trace the incontestable evil of his deeds to any deeper level of roots or motives. The deeds were monstrous, but the doerwas quite ordinary, commonplace, and neither demonic nor monstrous. There was no sign in him of firm ideological convictions or of specific evil motives, and the only noble characteristic one could detect in his past behavior as well as his behavior during the trialwas something entirely negative: it was not stupidity but thoughtlessness.It was this absence of thinking which is so ordinary an experience in our everyday life, where we have hardly the time, let alone the inclination to stop and think that awakened my interest. Is evildoing (the sins of omission, as well as the sins of commission) possible in default of not just base motivesbut of any motives whatever, of any particular prompting of interest or volition? Is wickedness, however we may define itnot a necessary condition for evil- doing? What Arendt saw in Eichmann is true of American society. This is not a country of wicked white people imbued with a virulent racism based on some principle or other. What exists is far more distressing. Racism has become a psychological habit, a habit many wish to dislodge, but it is so ingrained that they do not know where to begin. It is imperative, however, that they look, for as Goethe wrote in Wilhem Meister, every sin avenges itself on earth. Where they must look is in themselves. Whites cannot feel the pain of blacks, Jews and women until they feel the pain they inflict on themselves by passively accepting a definition of Order that crowns whites as racially superior beings. I do not know why whites do not feel the evil they inflict on themselves because I see the evil of racism taking its revenge on a drug-addicted white society which did not care forty years ago when drugs appeared in black slums. If America had been able to feel then that black life is human, if America had been able to feel that racism is a silent evil inflicting pain as murderous to the human spirit as any weapon is to the body, it would have been alarmed and moved to alleviate the conditions that made drugs appear to be a viable alternative. If America had been able to conceive that black life is human life, thousands of white and black lives would not have been destroyed, literally and psychologically, since drugs entered white American society. I do not understand why white America cannot understand this simple principle: Everything white people do to black people, they will eventually do to each other.   The ultimate evil of racism is not in its effects, but in the inability of white people to recognize themselves in black people. This evil will continue until white people take responsibility for that which they wish was not within them, namely, evil. Ultimately, we must accept that evil is, that it is not something out there but something in here. It cannot be expunged because our humanity lies as much in our capacity to evil as