Financial Risk Management at Toyota Essay

Toyota Motor Corporation (Toyota) is Japan’s largest and the world’s fourth-largest automobile manufacturer. The company offers well-known car models like Camry, Corona, Corolla and Lexus. Though a late entrant, compared to General Motors and Ford, Toyota has become one of the strongest players in the automobile industry. Toyota has continued to set new benchmarks for providing value to customers more effectively than competitors. Toyota is exposed to market risk due to changes in currency rates, interest rates and certain commodity and equity prices. In order to manage these risks, Toyota uses various derivative financial instruments. These instruments are in general executed only with creditworthy financial institutions. The case outlines the various financial risks Toyota faces and how the company manages them. Introduction Toyota Motor Corporation (Toyota), Japan’s largest and the world’s fourth-largest automobile manufacturer offered well-known car models like Camry, Corona, Corolla, and Lexus. Though a late entrant, compared to General Motors and Ford, Toyota had become one of the strongest players in the automobile industry. In an industry, generally considered to be mature in terms of technology, Toyota had continued to set new benchmarks for providing value to customers more effectively than competitors. Toyota had also redefined the rules of the game in various areas – product development, manufacturing, vendor management and human resources management. A recent Business Week issue had Toyota on the cover with the caption â€Å"Can anything stop Toyota?† Background Note Sakichi Toyoda, born in 1868, founded Toyota. He showed little interest in the family’s carpentry business. Instead, Toyoda concentrated on improving the handloom machinery used in textile factories. These efforts led to the Toyoda Automatic Loom. In 1926, Sakichi founded Toyoda Automatic Loom Works (TALW) to make looms. He entrusted his son Kiichiro with the task of using the profits from the textile machinery business to develop a motor car. In 1933, Kiichiro opened an auto department within the loom works and began copying US engine designs. After Sakichi died in 1930, Kiichiro faced stiff competition from Ford and General Motors, who had set up their manufacturing units in Japan. Family members including brother Risaburo showed little interest in Kiichiro’s plans. In spite of these difficulties, the articles of association of the company were amended in 1933 to permit automobile manufacturing†¦ Credit Risk Toyota used various financial instruments, in the normal course of business. These instruments were in general executed only with creditworthy financial institutions. Virtually all foreign currency contracts were denominated in U.S. dollars, euros and other currencies of major industrialized countries†¦ Market Risk Toyota was exposed to market risk due to changes in currency rates, interest rates and certain commodity and equity prices. In order to manage these risks, Toyota used various derivative financial instruments†¦ Derivative financial instruments: Accounting & Valuation Toyota employed derivative financial instruments, including foreign exchange forward contracts, foreign currency options, interest rate swaps, currency swap agreements and interest rate options to manage its exposure to fluctuations in interest rates and foreign exchange rates†¦

Defining Security

Defining Security â€Å"Security† comes from a broader subject referred to International Relations which is the study of all political cooperation that occurs between states that have their own government, international organizations with or without government influence, and some wealthy separate individuals. â€Å"Security Studies concerns itself with a sub-set of those political interactions marked by their particular importance in terms of maintaining the security of actor† (Hough 2008: 2).Depending on the emergency of security of an actor will depend how a government or country will act on the security measure. For example, concerns relating to health and rights of the people will be at top on the global political agenda compare to other events such as natural disasters or mass killings are rarely seen as security concerns. It might be of importance to the people that these events are happening to, but not to the people not being affected. There are four main paradi gms of International Relations that affect issues in security.Those paradigms are Realism, Pluralism, Marxism, and Social Constructivism. Realism is the idea that states should be self-centered, competitive, and should look after themselves and not trust any other states. The state should do anything within its reach to expand its power in wherever possible being in military or economic sectors in order to secure themselves and be at the top. Realists tend to favor governments that separate the high and low politics and best serve the national interest.Low politics such as health issues, welfare, and other issues of that sort should be dealt at a domestic level and is separate from high politics, such as war. The idea globalization in the 60’s and 70’s took International Relations to a different perspective because not only did they have to deal with military power issues but now they had economic power issues to worry about. That’s where Neo-Realism developed. Neo-realism still maintained the self-centered approach on the states but also included the idea to expand their powers beyond the sector of military and focus on to the state’s economy.In addition to Realism, another paradigm that affected issues in security was Pluralism. Pluralism was developed from a group of scholars that believed that Neo-realism had developed far enough from Realism. Pluralists believed that the pursuit of military power and economic power by a state, which was the idea derived from the thinking of Realism was too simple. â€Å"Pluralists, as the term implies, consider that a plurality of actors, rather than just states, exert influence on the world stage† (Hough 2008: 4).Pluralism, which was built from the idea of liberalism, stated that the interests of individuals would be better served in an environment where their own governments would stop controlling their lives. Unlike realism, pluralists thought of â€Å"low politic† concerns as priorities for International Relations. The paradigm of Marxism focused more on economic concerns rather than military or any other power. Marxism viewed globalization to an idea of the past; there was nothing new in the idea of globalization.Globalization was just a different way to demonstrate that the states with large economies would exploit the smaller ones. sort of like the bigger kid bullying the smaller kid. In a Marxist perspective, wars were fought for economic purposes which indicated that military power was used for economic gain instead for security. Social constructivism came into play in the 1990’s after there were many unsatisfied in the other paradigms. Social constructivism â€Å"favors a more sociological approach and advocates a greater appreciation of the cultural dimension of policy making† (Hough 2008: 6).It argued that â€Å"world stage actors† did not follow any type of rational script rather, â€Å"foreign policy reflects parochial ide ological or moral guidelines rather than objective gains† (Hough 2008:6). In the wide and narrow conceptions of security, the varied range of threats to humans have changed the whole perspective of international security, which previously had been based just on military based issues. Ullman described that a threat to security was solely based on two factors: the first, any threat that lowered the quality of a states’ people and second, any threat that narrowed the policy choices of any actor of the state.After the Cold War, some traditionalist suggested for security studies to go ‘back to basics’ instead of widening their security measures to â€Å"low politics† issues, they should stick to â€Å"high politics† issues such military threat. â€Å"The widening of security did not undermine the realist logic of conventional security studies. The focus was still on the state system and seeing relationships between states governed by power. Wideni ng was simply extending the range of factors that affect state power beyond the confines of military and trade affairs† (Hough 2008: 8).As for the realist, the ideology stayed the same. The main focus was still in the state’s issues and its people, but as for the widening it, it was just the extension of some issues that affected state’s power, beyond military issues. The deepening of security was driven by pluralists and social constructivists which believed that the concept of â€Å"human security† should be based on the individual’s need that makes up the different groups that exist and not the ‘actors’ issues.With that being said, the Copenhagen School philosophy cannot be resolved by the thought of the pluralists and the social constructivists which shifts the idea of security from the states to the people. â€Å"While accepting the idea that non-military issues can be securitized and that the referent object of this can be someth ing other than a state, maintains the logic that only the state can be the securitizing actor† (Hough 2008: 9).The state would be the only one to determine if the issue that is being securitized is an existential threat and if needs to be acted upon. The securitization of issues must be determined by the state’s government and be prioritized by if it’s a ‘low or high politics’ issue. As mentioned in the book, South Africa was one of the first countries that shifted away from military priority to a health priority. â€Å"The proportion of South Africa’s (GDP) Gross Domestic Product spent on military defense is 1. 5 per cent and the overall proportion on health is 3. percent† (UNDP 2002). Today, military threats in some countries are still their priority but global leaders are still able to balance their military and health expense. In conclusion, â€Å"Security† comes from a broader subject referred to International Relations. The paradigms that affect issues in security are realism, pluralism, Marxism, and social constructivism, having realist being the one which has dominated the study of security focuses on military security and to serve the state’s best interest.Although the Marxist idea was to focus more on economic issues instead of military or any other issues, the pluralist and the social constructivist perspective changed the spectrum of international security from what was once solely based on military issues had broaden to other ‘low politics’ issues such as concerns relating to health and rights of the people, so basically shifting the idea of security from the states to the people.In the end, the securitization of issues must be determined by the state’s government and must be prioritized by if it’s a ‘low or high politics’ issue. Workcited Hough, Peter. 2008. Understanding Global Security (2nd Edition). New York: Routledge. â€Å"United Nations De velopment Programme† http://www. undp. org/

Blessing

Blessing is a poem by Imtiaz Dharker and is set in a village in Pakistan. This is a descriptive poem, which uses imagery to illustrate sights and sounds, and creates an atmosphere of frantic joy. The poem also consists of some inconsistent usage of end-rhyme, followed by some usage of metaphors, personification, simile, assonance and alliteration. The poet uses free verse in this poem to emphasize what the poem is about and to make the reader think about the situation and to think about the words used. It has no fixed metrical pattern. The poem begins with a simile ‘The skin cracks like a pod’ this line immediately give the reader an impression of drought and a shortage of water. The usage of the word ‘skin’ could be a literal reference to a person’s skin that had become chapped by constant exposure to the sun or it could be a more figurative reference to the dry, dusty ground that cracks and splits during heat waves and droughts. The word ‘pod’ can refer to a seed pod that opens in the hot weather to release it seeds. The poet uses words that remind the reader that what we are dealing with is a hot country where thirst is common and where after all, ‘there never is enough water. ’ By the words of the first two-lined stanza we are in no doubt to the fact that the villagers here are desperate for water and how much of an amazing and special thing it is for them. The poet involves the reader by asking us to ‘imagine the drip of it’, which is telling us how small the quantity is and to imagine the tiny splash as the water droplet hits the bottom of the cup. It seems as though the person describing the dripping water hasn’t had a drink in a very long time and is fantasizing about that special and delicious drop of water. The fact that the tiny droplet of water creates an ‘echo’ in the mug suggests that the tin mug is almost empty and is like a drop of water hitting a parched tongue. It also makes you think, what kind of person would own a tin mug? Would it be a rich person or a poor person? The reference of a tin mug may imply that the person who owns a tin mug must be poor and not very fortunate. The last line of the second stanza has a religious reference. It personifies the echoing splash of the water as the ‘voice of a kindly god. ’ God is seen as the provider of water and every drop received is a kind of gesture and therefore it is something miraculous and deeply special. The third stanza is the longest one of the poem. It tells us a story of a burst water pipe and how suddenly this ordinary small pipe is transformed into a powerful overflow of water. Water has so much importance and value to these people that throughout the poem it is referred to as if it was a precious metal like gold or silver. The municipal pipe bursts’ tells us the burst of this public (municipal) pipe is an amazing and incidental occasion. It is described by the metaphor ‘the sudden rush of fortune’, like somebody winning the jackpot and the money is rushing out of the machine. As the precious water splashes onto the ground the word ‘rush’ could mean that people are ‘rushing’ around trying to save as m uch water as they possibly can, as it is precious. This same idea is echoed in another metaphor ‘silver crashes to the ground. ’ When caught in the right light water can look like silver or a high polished mirror. The poet may have used the word ‘silver’ to emphasise how precious it is. Line ten flows to line eleven, and the water is described as a ‘flow’ that gives rise to a sudden burst of noise from the villagers, ‘a roar of tongues’. The word ‘roar’ could refer to a group of people since we only have one tongue each and therefore the plural ‘tongues’ suggest a group. The tongues could be roaring with thirst or maybe they are shouting and their combined voices becomes a ‘roar. ’ In this same stanza, the use of the word ‘congregation’ may have two important meanings to the context of the poem. Firstly it may refer to a congregation or group of people, but it also may refer to a group of people in church or being given a religious instruction. We see that the poet uses religious language, the affect being to make the process of saving the spilling water a kind of religious ritual. The poet has already described the water as a gift from a kindly god, so it is only right that collecting it should have some resemblance to a religious ritual. Pakistan is a place where many of them are very religious and have many ways of worship. The men, woman and children are all eager for their share of the spilled water and come with any container that they are first able to see. The stanza concludes with the phrase ‘frantic hands’, which once again emphasizes the desperation that leads the villagers to take even handfuls of water. The poet uses enjambment to link the third stanza to the fourth and final one. This focuses on the children of the village, where the children are described as naked and delighted of the chance to bathe in the water. ‘Screaming in the liquid sun’ is a metaphor that aligns the water to the sun to emphasise the pleasure and warmth of the experience. It shows that all is not doom and gloom since the small children are playing in the water. Alliteration is also used in the phrases ‘polished to perfection’ and ‘the blessing sings’, they combine alliteration and assonance, which creates vivid imagery to portray the excitement of the occasion. The word blessing continues the religious theme which has been running through the poem. The final line flows from the previous one ‘sings/over their small bones. ’ It is a gentle ending, focusing on the children of the village who are in great need of this water.

Personal financial mgmt Term Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Personal financial mgmt - Term Paper Example †¢ The bank uses a single: maximum 25% of income for mortgage payments, property taxes and insurance test, rather than the double: maximum 28% of income for MPPI and maximum 33% of income for MPPI plus other monthly debt service Being a new employee of a large US corporation, you should create monthly personal balance sheets and projected budgets when selecting and enrolling in these plans. You will need appropriate financial goals based on age, marital status, current income and savings status. Do estimate your tax liabilities and select investments for a 401(k) retirement account is also important (â€Å"Investment Guide† 2013). Consider evaluating the health insurance options available to you. They include; Of the three different Bank of America health insurance plans available to you, it is more effective to use the consumer-directed plan (â€Å"Investment Guide† 2013). It is because, if anybody sheltered in your plan meets the family annual deductible, or two or more family members combine to reach it, they will pay the coinsurance rate. In case anyone sheltered under your plan meets the out-of-pocket maximum, or two or more people combine to meet it, 100% of the costs for all your family members on the plan are covered. The Comprehensive Traditional Plan is another option, but in it, coinsurance begins only for that person in your family who meets the individual annual deductible. Besides, suppose two people on the plan have costs, which combine to meet the family deductible, coinsurance begins for everyone on the plan. The consumer-directed plan still has the biggest benefit for you. Finally, you will need to monitor the progress of your chosen plan options. After making the investment choices, you must to evaluate frequently the performance of the plan investments to see if the finances allocated are still suitable for the portfolio. It will also help you know if there is a need to rebalance the accounts to match your desired asset

Wellness through Leisure for Hong Kong Research Paper

Wellness through Leisure for Hong Kong - Research Paper Example Leisure, just like any other aspect of society, is a rudimentary right. It is the same the rights that are based on gender, colour, descent, religion, and economic status among others. Civilizations are complicated and interconnected, and cannot be detached from other existential objectives. In order to touch a physical, social, spiritual, and mental happiness and security, every person must be able to elaborate their personal goals and objectives, fulfil needs and interrelate optimistically within the society (1). Hence, leisure is regarded as means for enhancing the quality of living (Mannell 3). As a matter of fact, leisure has always been identified to have a crucial role in the quality of life and living satisfaction among older individuals (3). The quality of life for a certain civilization or community is oftentimes identified by looking at the various markers that include income category, health behaviours, the quality of the environment, and the degree at which crime, negati ve family outcomes, and the breakdown of social reinforcement (Mannell 2). So, this paper shall elaborate on the relationship of wellness and leisure for Hong Kong. The Census and Statistics Department (1) revealed Hong Kong’s population to be at 7.07 million by the middle of 2010. This number represents the 6.86 million Usual Residents and 0.21 Mobile Residents. From 2006 – 2010, the region obtained a population growth percentage of 0.8%. For the longest time, Hong Kong is widely known to be one of the most densely populated places in the world. In a report produced by the Census and Statistics Department (1), the land population density of Hong Kong as of mid-2010 was estimated to be at 6, 540 persons in every one square kilometre. Kwun Tung was the most densely populated area in the region with 54, 530 persons per square kilometre. These numbers unveils the social and environmental conditions in Hong Kong, which could be an important factor for wellness in Hong Kong . Hong Kong offers different kinds of leisure for all ages, ranging from indoor facilities such as museums, indoor sports amenities, aerobics, and other sports and recreational programs, to outdoor recreational facilities like amusement parks i.e. Disneyland, Victoria Park and Ocean Park, trails and campgrounds (LCSD, â€Å"Indoor Leisure and Cultural Activities for Families†). In the field of arts, the Hong Kong Arts Festival is a leading arts event that offers a five-week long cultural festival featuring Hong Kong’s rich and diverse culture. Hong Kong is also a favourite venue for some of the world’s biggest sports league such as the WTA and the FIVB (â€Å"Indoor Leisure and Cultural Activities for Families†). Hong Kong likewise features the Hong Kong Film Festival that was established to absorb, support, and feature the different works of art of artists from all over the world (â€Å"Indoor Leisure and Cultural Activities for Families†). Hong K ong’s leisure activities are greatly influenced by the colonizing powers that occupied the region for so many years. The British occupation of Hong Kong gave birth to the globalization of its cultural ascriptions, which contradicts to the formerly old-fashioned cultural traditions of the People’s Republic of China. As a global city, Hong Kong represents a melting pot of races ranging from Chinese to Japanese, from Filipinos to Indonesians, and so many others. Hong Kong’s global politics, economics, and sociology have greatly impacted the leisure activities available in the region. For instance, the Hong Kong

The nature and extent of environmental health concerns surrounding the Essay

The nature and extent of environmental health concerns surrounding the use of sludge and biosolids from wastewater treatment in agriculture - Essay Example (Perlman 2009; U.S. Department of Labour 2007; Willis 2001) This can be done by purifying the wastewater in order to remove and destroy harmful materials such as chemical compounds, microorganisms, debris, and other solid materials. (U.S. Department of Labour 2007) To provide the readers with a better understanding concerning the research topic, the process of conventional wastewater treatment will first be tackled in details. Upon discussing the importance of primary, secondary, and tertiary treatment process in purifying the wastewater, the researcher will discuss the environmental and health concerns of using sludge or sewage biosolids that comes from the wastewater treatment plant for food agricultural activities. To avoid the increase of developing life threatening diseases such as cholera and cancer among others, the researcher will thoroughly discuss the importance of making the use of sludge and biosolids found wastewater illegal for agricultural purposes. Upon weighing the advantages and disadvantages of using biosolids as fertilizer in agricultural activities, the research findings of Goodman and Goodman (2006) revealed that the negative impact of using biosolids as fertilizer is approximately three times more than the positive impact of recycling biosolids. Despite the environmental and health threats of using sewage products, a lot companies that manufacture fertilizers are using sludge or sewage biosolids as one of the major components of fertilizers used in food agriculture. (Lewis, Booth and Hill 2004; Richards, et al. 2004) Concerning the harmful health effects of using biosolids as fertilizer in agriculture, the purpose of this research study is to educate the people around the world and to persuade the farmers to avoid using fertilizers that uses sludge or biosolids coming from the wastewater treatment for agricultural purposes. Concerning the use of

What are the consequences of WTO accession for Russia Dissertation

What are the consequences of WTO accession for Russia - Dissertation Example In 2006, Russia had crossed an important barrier in its route to accessing the membership of World Trade Organization (WTO), with the signing of the bilateral agreement with US, though the process for a full membership would take longer to be completely realised. Russia's gradual progress in the negotiations for acquiring the WTO membership, is a positive signal for the international community, as it reflects Russia’s willingness to have an open trade relations within the global commerce. In the negotiation rounds, Russia had agreed to decrease its import tariff on the industrial and agricultural products by 3 % points, in slow progression. It had also agreed to free the domestic service sector, with a certain amount of restriction. There is a general belief that WTO accession will bring about a positive influence on the economic development of Russia by improving economic efficiency, increasing market competition, and by increasing the flow of foreign direct investment (FDI) to Russia. However, on the other hand with the opening up of the Russian markets there are some fears on the survival of the domestic firms under increasing competition from the foreign corporations. The chief objective of this paper is to understand and analyse implications that Russia may have to contend with WTO accession. Based on a secondary and qualitative form of research that involves literature review and analysis of Russia’s economy, all implications of WTO accession will be discussed to support the conclusion that WTO membership may be beneficial for Russia in the end. 1 Introduction â€Å"Russia risks taking a back seat to new post-crisis rules of world trade if it doesn’t join the WTO.†1 1.1 Background history In 1993, Russia officially applied to the General Agreement on Trade and Tariff (GATT) for accession, and in 1995, the World Trade Organization (WTO), the organization that succeeded GATT, took up its application. However, during the initial years a complete lack of political will and a general initiative by the Russian government, which was new and yet to create any structural framework to regulate the socio-economic and political environment, soon made the Russian impetus to join the WTO, lose its steam.2 After the 1998 economic crisis, as the Russian rouble deval ued, with a subsequent failure to repay the nation’s debt, the government became more involved in trying to revive the economy, with very little focus on the subject of WTO accession and the necessary negotiations. Fresh impetus to the issue was derived when the Vladimir Putin after being elected as the President of Russia in 2000, declared WTO accession as one of his prime goals, during his tenure at office. Under his interest and will, fresh rounds of negotiations and discussions were initiated. The Russian President’s declaration created a political commitment of sorts that allowed Russia to take initiative and search for meaningful resolutions, on various contentious issues related to its WTO accession. In May 2001, Russia created a ‘Review of the Russian Trade Policies,’ a report that was seen as the Protocol for the Russian accession to WTO. By early 2002, the WTO’s Working Party on Russia’s accession reviewed the first draft of the rep ort. 3 At this time, this signified that Russia had almost entered the last phase of the accession process, where it was negotiating the terms and conditions pertaining to its entry into the WTO, and contemplating the implementation of the necessary legislative reforms. However, soon there were

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

Case analysis - Coursework Example This indicated the desire to serve customer in the best quality service (Mennen 2006). As of 2001, the company had started to realize some profits when its sales exceeded 3.12bn. In 2002, the company made a modest profit of 64 million dollars. In 2003, the company made profits of 814million dollars. This thus indicates that eventually the harvest did come. In 2003, the business vision of the company changed to a place where people could buy anything (Stockport 2004). According to Bezos, e-commerce was the way of the future. This was an accurate estimation as the internet has dominated everyday life. It is a cheaper and efficient means of communicating as well as a trading hub. According to the numbers, the concept of being all things to all people is quite an impressive and profitable business vision. This is because it allows the company to diversify, thus having some forma of safety nets. Some products may not make profits, thus are kept afloat by those that are popular. The concept also means that the company is flexible and a one-stop-shop. According to the vision of the founder, the driving factors of the business are technology, technology, technology (Stockport 2004). This means that the company will focus on technology as its real estate. The company has a lot of potential terms of its capabilities of achieving. At the moment, Amazon.com has only but a while to become the dominant player in the online market. The company has ensured that this will be a reality through some of the features that it has put in place. These features will see to it that the payments are secure, a simple method of ordering as well as a fast delivery system. With this, this company is in the right path to being the Wal-Mart of the

David Cole Interviews Dr. Franciszek Piper Movie Review

David Cole Interviews Dr. Franciszek Piper - Movie Review Example The film is effective in showing the inconsistencies among Holocaust evidences. The presentation of the Soviet’s and Polish’s version of the Holocaust story is done in a logical manner. The new information David Cole gathers from the tour guide and Dr. Piper are, then, placed side by side with past evidences. As a viewer, it was easy for me to follow what David Cole is trying to tell without getting lost in the different sets of evidence presented. David Cole uses evidence from books and photographs that seem to contradict what Dr. Piper and the tour guide say about the camp. In addition, the film allows audiences to interpret the Holocaust story in their own. David Cole does not force the audience to believe in his theory, but he allows the evidence to speak for itself. He offers a new interpretation of Holocaust evidence and, thus, provides a new twist to the Holocaust story. After viewing the film, I realized that there is a lot more to investigate in the Holocaust story. It is important to get the facts straight since history itself is at

Endocrine Gland and Adrenaline Essay Example for Free

Endocrine Gland and Adrenaline Essay Adrenaline is a hormone that is produced in the adrenal medulla, which is in the inner adrenal gland. This gland sits atop the kidney. When put under stress this gland is stimulated by the nervous system and releases adrenaline into the blood stream. The release of adrenaline is a three step process. First, the hypothalamus produces hormones that stimulate the pituitary gland. Next, the pituitary gland then produces corticotropin hormones which are hormones that stimulate the adrenal glands that eventually produce adrenaline. In 1895, George Oliver and Edward Schafer discovered that that when the secretions of adrenal glands were extracted and injected into an experimental animal, they could raise blood pressure. The purification of this principle became a matter of interest, and in 1897, John Abel and Albert Crawford thought that they had succeeded when they purified a crystalline principle they named epinephrine. Adrenaline is used for many different purposes. It is used to control hemorrhages in surgery and to treat asthma and other allergies. According to the MSDS, excessive digestion of adrenaline is fatal. It can also be very irritant to eyes and can be absorbed through skin. Adrenaline can also be used to prevent cardiac arrest. Adrenaline can also be found in some nasal sprays to open up nasal passages. This has a short term effect. Adrenaline is helpful to survive in dangerous situations. If you were pinned down by a boulder, adrenaline would kick in and would help you to move the boulder off of you. This process is natural and you can find your way out of unhappy states. When you are put into a dangerous situation like that, your heart rate is elevated and your blood pressure is elevated. Adrenaline redirects blood to large muscle groups so that you are given more strength and stamina to get out of the dangerous situation.

Limit Of Human Rights In Africa

Limit Of Human Rights In Africa Culture, Gender, and Religion at the Limit of Human Rights in Africa.   The essay will focus on how culture, gender and religion limits human rights in Africa and how the three come into conflict which leads to discursively construct each other via cultural. It will also cover the potential and limitations of the womens rights as human rights in which, attension will be paid to Islamic law-sharia and some of it cases in Nigeria. The essay will also relate international human rights documents like the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, African Charter on human and peoples rights, protocol to the African Charter on Human and peoples Rights of women in Africa, and Cairo Declaration on Human Rights in Islam(sharia law) and conclusion. Legal Pluralism in Human Rights Law: The plurality of norms and values that exist in different African cultues and societies is also reflected within the human rights system itself. The human rights system embodies both individual and communal rights. The tension relationship between the principle of a groups right to self determination and cultural identity, asembodied in the African Charter on Human and Peoples Rights and Article 16.1 of the Womens convention, which puts an obligation on the states parties to eliminate discrimination against women in all matters relationg to marriage and family relation. In the African context is whether the protection of group rights such as culture and religious identity of ethnic group, constitutes a justifiable reason for differential treatment of women and men in African. There has always been great arguement when interpreting the convention in relationa to African States parties, it should be born in mind that African and Western cultures apply different values and norm(Grannes 1994:28) This is because the implementation of Womens convention has proved to be particularly problematic in the area of personal and family law, where it comes into conflict with religious and customary laws and practices. Human Rights in African Over decades now, Africa have been ranked by international Human Rights organizationas like Human Right Watch, Ammesty International and International Crimenial Court as a continent where human rights violations are at it apex especially islamic countries, the violation of womens basic human rights are mostly done in the name of culture and religion.  [1]  After the Universal Declaration of Human Rights by the United Nations General Assembly in 1948 in which pursuit of equal rights for women through international law has been fair from reach. The principle says that everyone is free and equal in diginity and eveveryone is entitled to rights without distinction of any kind, such as race, colour, sex was started in Articles 1 and 2 of the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights  [2]  , African Charter by the Organization of African Unity (now African Unity) in 1986, Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) and the Cairo Declaration o n Human Rights in Islam by the Organization of the Islamic Conference in 1993. Anthropology as an academic discipline has embraced a predominantly ethical relativist stance toward the idea of human rights as a legitimate universal concern for all cultures. In the past years the rising prominence of womens rights as human rights has challenged this point of view. Within the context of the global womens human rights movement, feminist anthropologists are in the forefront of this challenge, striving to uphold anthropologys important focus on cultural context, while at the same time paying deep concern for harmful pracetics against women, with female genital mutilation in African no exception, which may be argued to be morally objectionable outside of any given culture. Human Rights is a very difficult phrase to define. Ones idea of humanity varies in every culture especially in African societies; discrepancies are often found even within a singular culture. Gender,Culture, Religion and social Causes a Barrie to Human Rights in Africa: Violence continues to affect lives of millions of women in African in all socio- legal, economic and educational classes. This is cuting across cultural and religious barriers, which impeding women from taking full participation in societies. One of the greatest barriers to womens economic advancement is violence they face on daily routine. Not only does such violence impede womens ability to live full and productive lives, it also hampers their contributions to family, society and economic development. Violance aganist women is one of the most visible consequences of economic, social, political, legal and cultural inequalities that exist between men and women in Africa, as a result the continent is laging behind the rest of the world  [3]  . Given the subordinate status of women in Africa, women are most exposed to ill treatments, physiological abuse, and physical violence, such gender violence is considered normal and enjoys social sanction. African continent is rich in cultural relativity(culture of discrimination) and norms, as a result it has showed a vital barrier to the implementation of the universal human rights act. A universal agreement among certain human rights provisions is not likely to occur, specifically when dealing with islamic countries in African where transition to more equal rights is most problematic, where elements of Sharia law governing the behaviour of women remain active. In extreme examples in Northern Nigeria, these ancient laws still declaims that adultery is a crime when only carried out by women, and makes it impossible for a man to be convicted of rape. In certain circumstances, conforming to human rights would signify a fundamental change in societies that the elite is not willing to undertake, fearing a potential change in the balance of power while the cultural norms remains unchanged. Violence against women in Africa comes in several forms discrimination, rape and Female Genital Mutilation (FGM), which the World Health Orgnazation (WHO) defines as comprises all procedures that involve partial or total removal of the external female genitalia, or other injury to the female genital organs for non-medical reasons. The practice is mostly carried out by traditional circumcisers, who often play other central roles in communities, such as attending childbirths. Increasingly, however, FGM is being performed by health care providers and constitutes an extreme form of discrimination against women. It is nearly always carried out on minors and is a violation of the rights of children. The practice also violates a persons rights to health, security and physical integrity, the right to be free from torture and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment, and the right to life when the procedure results in death. Despirte global efforts by World Health Organization (WHO), United Nations Childrens Fund (UNICEF) and United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) to combat the wild spred of FGM, it still remains donominant in Africa as a cultureal partices, which lives about 92 million girls age 10 years and above are estimated to have undergone FGM and three million girls are at risk annually  [4]  . The reasons behind female genital mutilation in Africa include a mix of cultural, religious and social factors within families and communities.In most African countries where FGM is a social convention, the social pressure to conform to what others do and have been doing is a strong motivation to perpetuate the practice. Traditions in African believes that FGM is often considered a necessary part of raising up process for girl(s), and a way to prepare them for adulthood and marriage life, it often motivated by beliefs about what is considered proper sexual behaviour, linking procedures to premarital virginity and marital fidelity and is also associated with cultural ideals of femininity and modesty, which include the notion that girls are clean and beautiful after removal of body parts that are considered male or unclean. The Africa Traditional Reglions (ATRs) is the only religion that fully support to the practice, practitioners often believe the practice has religious support, othe r religious leaders take active positions with regard to FGM: some still promote it, some consider it unimportant to religion, and others are still kicking against the idea. Potential and Limitations of Womens Rights as Human Rights Social and economic indicators for African countries consistently show that women bear the greatest brunt of hardship because of disciminatory lwas against them, efforts to modernise this discriminatory laws have been frustrated by deep-rooted cultural barriers that runs in opposite direction with developments . Women in Africa contribute in numerous ways to the national development of every country. They are responsible for nearly all household duties , starting from food productions and processing exercises. Often, women tend to be viewed not as individuals, but as part of the male-headed household with some unique needs of their own related to their preceived roles, if given the rigts they can be at the front line of major global issues. Women organizations in Africa and around world such as Formum for African Women Educationalist (FAWE) and the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM) have been actively involve in using different approaches in seeing the the rights of women as stated in various international human rights docuents be met,their efforts are far from reach in Africa. Sharai Law: The word sharia means the path to a watering hole. It denotes an Islamic way of life that is more than a system of criminal justice. Sharia is a religious code for living, in the same way that the Bible offers a moral system for Christians. It is adopted by most Muslims to a greater or lesser degree as a matter of personal conscience, but it can also be formally instituted as law by certain states and enforced by the courts. Many Islamic countries have adopted elements of sharia law, governing areas such as inheritance, banking and contract law. Sharai Law in Nigeria -Case One: Safiya Hussaini, age 35, was sentenced to death by stoning in October 2002 for allegedly having a child with a married neighbour. She had the child after her divorce, but maintained the father was her former husband and that they were married when the child was conceived. The court convicted her, but Hussaini won an appeal, this time alleging that she had sex out of wedlock before sharia law took effect. Sharai Law in Nigeria Case Two: In 2001, a teenage single mother was given 100 lashes for adultery, even though she argued she was raped by three men. The court said Bariya Ibrahim Magazu could not prove that the men forced her to have sex. Sexual discrimenation is transparent in this case, The Sharai law failed to bring the three men to book for raping, insisted all the blame was put on the woman alone. Sharai Law in Nigeria -Case Three: In 2002, Adama Unusua, who was 19 and pregnant, was recently sentenced to 100 lashes in public for having sex with her fiance.  [5]   International Human Rights Documents and Sharia Law in Africa: The African continent ratified international and regional human rights protection instruments, human rights violations such as discrimination against women persists widely both in law and practice.The international commettee remains particularly concerned by the currently violations of human rights in Africa especially the ones currently going on in North Africa andWest Africa(Ivory Coast). The persistence of discriminatory laws; lack of perfect harmonisation between statutory and customary laws and the application of Sharia laws constantly increase violence against women, including widowhood rites; and obstacles to access top employment opportunities leades tonor right in decision-making that even affects them.The Shariagoes in oppsite direction with all international and regional human rights documents, expect in the Cariro Declaration on Human Rights in Islam by the Organization of the Islam Conferencce in may 1993, which made provision in Article 2  [6]   Conclusion: Increase in the violation of huma rights in Africa is at it apex point, both the international and regional commeteer need to pay much attension to this issues, especially the violation of fundamental rights which are clearly speelts in all human rights documents with execption to Articule 2(c) p 4 of the Cairo Declaration of Human Rights.Womens rights must be respected by eliminating all form of discrimination against them, so that they can see themselves as partners in development in African.

We Must Ban MTBE Gasoline Use in Cold Climate Areas :: Argumentative Persuasive Argument Essays

We Must Ban MTBE Gasoline Use in Cold Climate Areas Several years ago doctors told us that because butter contained a lot of cholesterol it would be healthier to use margarine instead. Yet just recently it was discovered and told us by doctors that although butter has more cholesterol, overall it is healthier than margarine (Kamen 1). Margarine had some unseen negative effect on the human body, and human health. A similar yet distinct situation is happening today in the gasoline industry. In order to reduce the pollution that vehicles emit oxygenates are added to gasoline. Oxygenates reduce the amount of toxins released. The most common used oxygenate is methyl tertiary butyl ether (MTBE). MTBE like margarine has had some unexpected and previously unseen harmful effects on the human health when used in cold climate areas. It has caused respiratory problems, nausea, headaches, and tissue inflammation and irritation (Cong 2). In an effort to protect all aspects of human health I propose that the use of MTBE as a gasoline oxygenate be banned in cold climate areas of the United States of America. When the United States was founded, Congress, the legislative branch of government was established to pass laws and legislation for the betterment of the people. Due to an increase in the number of vehicles, pollution from their emissions has become an increasingly large problem. Vehicle exhaust emissions contain volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and nitrogen oxides (NOx) that when combined with sunlight create ozone. Ground level ozone is harmful to plants and to the human respiratory system. It causes chest pain, headaches, nasal congestion, sore throats, and reduced breathing capacity. Cars also emit carbon monoxide (CO) which is toxic to the human body (ADEQ 1). In order to better ensure and maintain clean air Congress passed the Clean Air Act of 1990. As part of this Act the cities in the United States where the set limit of carbon monoxide (CO) had been exceeded were required to sell oxygenated gasoline at the gas pumps to help reduce the CO level (Cong 2). In all there are over thirty areas in eighteen states that use oxygenated gasoline (EPA other 1). There are several different oxygenates, but in the U.S. 84% of the oxygenated gasoline uses MTBE as the oxygenate (EPA other1). MTBE must make up 15% of the gasoline mixture in order to meet federal standards (EPA 19).

Capital Punishment Essay: Death Penalty is Good for the Economy

The Death Penalty is Good for the Economy    Crimes are committed everyday. Many people are caught, while many are not. In the United States of America, when a person kills another person s/he is considered a murderer. The instant that murder takes place all rights should automatically be revoked. Murderers should not be allowed to walk the streets. Once a person has killed there is a good change that it could happen again. Convicted murderers should be given the death penalty and have it carried out at once. The death penalty is a controversial sentence. Not everyone feels the same way, but I believe that, in America, the death penalty for murderers is beneficial to the economy and it's a punishment that fits the crime. Anti-death penalty supporters argue the death penalty is unconstitutional -- "Capital punishment is a barbaric remnant of an uncivilized society. It is immoral in principle, and unfair and discriminatory in practice. It assures the execution of some innocent people. As a remedy for crime, it has no purpose and no effect (American Civil Liberties Union National Office 2-16-95)." In 1972, the Supreme Court in Furman v. Georgia ruled that the death penalty for murder was unconstitutional. They also argue that the death penalty costs too much to carry out (Academic American Encyclopedia "Capital Punishment"). Yet, in 1976, the Supreme Court in Gregg V. Georgia declared the death penalty for murder is constitutional (AAE "Capital Punishment"). The death penalty is also fair and serves it justice -- surveyed police chiefs and sheriffs choose the death penalty as a primary method to combat violent crime (Montgomery 2-25-95). It cost less in the long run as well. How does the economy benefit from... ...ts, and the punishment fits the crime. Thus the death penalty is beneficial in that it saves money and lets us feel secure. Work Cited Academic American Encyclopedia. "Capital Punishment." Danbury: Grolier Electronic Publishing, 1995. Academic American Encyclopedia. "Prison." Danbury: Grolier Electronic Publishing, 1995. American Civil Liberties Union National Office. "New York Civil Liberties Union says No to death penalty." February 16, 1995. Bureau of Justice Statistics. "Capital Punishment 1992." December 1992. Bureau of Justice Statistics. "Prisoners in 1992." May 1993. Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice Branch. "Safeguards guaranteeing protection of the rights of those facing the death penalty." May 25, 1984. Montgomery, Lori. "Death penalty ineffective, police say." Austin American-Statesman, February 25, 1995: A20.

Growth of Internet Business :: essays research papers

Introduction The history of the Internet traces its roots to the United States government. The original use of the information system was to maintain communication during the cold war, with the Soviet Union in 1969, by the Department of Defense, incase of a nuclear attack or a major catastrophe. The National Science foundation created the Internet based on the ARPAnet. The first mass connection was between the University of California Santa Barbara, Stanford Research Institute, the University of Utah and the University of California Los Angeles.Ray Tomlinson develops E-mail in 1972.The ARPAnet became obsolete in 1982, but the basis for the program is still used at the present time. The Web began in 1989;it wasn’t released to the world till the early 90’s that’s when it became the World Wide Web. In 1993 Marc Andressen created software for the Internet to publish text, images and sound. Andressen also introduced the first graphical Web browser, called Mosaic, sti ll in use today. The United States runs most of the access to the Internet with 62% of all the routers, next closest is the United Kingdom with 5.2%. That is just an example of what America controls much on the Internet. 70% of the writing on the Internet is in English, next is Japanese. Statistics say 1 in 3 people use the Internet for E- Mail, 1 in 6 use it because they want to find out how it works, 1 in 8 want business information and 1 in 2 go to the Internet for education, hobbies, job listings, and entertainment. In 1993 less than 1% of users paid for use of the Internet. By 1995, it rose to over 200% due to the profits companies made from the providing this service. This became a common change that businesses have made since the beginning of the information highway. It was then clear that the Internet wasn’t going anywhere anytime soon. This stared a trend, which is still being felt today and into the near future. Because of the demand for the Internet around the Worl d, and the amount of capital a business could make that provides this service, is astounding, a good example of this is Cisco, a once Silicon Valley based business, which is now a Internet technology provider, reaped in $10 billion in 1986 without an IPO (initial public offering), and this is 14 years before the Internet became what it is today.

Paraphrased Article Essay

â€Å"The Internet is becoming the town square for the global village of tomorrow. † Bill Gates, Founder of the giant Microsoft Corporations Ltd. Internet has arguably become one of the most indispensible parts of the lives of millions of people around the globe. There are not many laws which regulate the usage of internet for collecting information about the political processes, persona or policies. A common man can readily get involved in the political process by accessing the internet, reading various articles or news on National Politics and give his/her view on the same. The low cost model of the internet is an effective tool to involve millions of global citizens and make them active members in the political systems. The article ‘The Citizen Participation Gap: Can the Internet Help? ’ points out that the Internet is a medium which cuts across barriers and various sections of the society. It leverages from the varied social, political, and educational backgrounds of the users and thus adds multiple dimensions to the process of political participation. It is important to note that the usage of internet and age of the user are inversely proportional. As people grow old their internet usage goes down. For example,, most of the Internet users fall in the age group of 18-29 years. These users are active members of various social networking sites and many of them are online to investigate their political participation opportunities. Thus theoretically it could be claimed that it is the widespread reach and use of the Internet which has made it possible for young people ,to become the largest captive audiences to be involved in the process of political participation. One of the recent examples of this could be seen in the Indian politics wherein the ex foreign minister Mr. Shashi Tharoor garnered massive support from his followers on the social networking site twitter while he was forced to resign after being caught in a controversy with the Indian Premier League. Various online campaigns supporting Shashi Tharoor came up and people expressed their views in the entire process. â€Å"We are here to say, we support you Shashi Tharoor. Don’t let them pull you down for you will take our hopes and dreams for a better and brighter India with you. You bring to India everything we had ever hoped would change, and we stand by you,† said a viewer on the Support Shashi Tharoor website. In the past decade the internet usage among people has gone up. More and more people use the Internet,, and it is being regarded as one of the most powerful mediums giving direct access to a citizen in the political process. Muir believes that the Internet participation of people is the cause of powerful influence. People comment on national or international news, spread their views and comments in the form of blogs and to some extent are instrumental in deciding the course of political development of a news. Social networking sites like twitter helps people to be directly in touch with their favorite political leaders and give them their views and opinions. This proposal not only increased the participation of citizens but also improved the quality of the projects. Exploring the past and present trends in the use of internet, Coglianese concludes that the Internet will remain a powerful source of information and participation in the future. In conclusion it could be said that in spite of many view points against the use of the internet, the positive influence of Internet on the participation of citizens cannot be denied. The internet provides a common man a platform and gives them a chance to express their opinion and viewpoints, create their profiles, have a group of online supporters and influence changes in the political scenario. The amount of opportunities that the internet provides and individual to make friends and increase their social networks is massive. No doubt, there are a number of impediments to the efficient application of an Internet based government; nevertheless, these obstructions can be dealt with in the years to come.. By Uma Subramanian

Globalization and Perception on War

Globalization and International Organizations Assignment Submitted By A. S. M. Iqbal Bahar Rana. ID # 103-0007-085 MPPG Programme, North South University Date: 14. 11. 2011 Do you think the advent of information revolution has changed the way war is perceived by the West? If so, what are the implications of such changes for poorly-governed countries of the world? Introduction: The German philosopher Hegel held that revolutions are the locomotive of history. According to his theory, every social, political, and economic system builds up tensions and contradictions over time. Eventually these explode in revolution. One cannot create a revolution in the way that an architect designs a building. Nor is it possible to control revolutions like a conductor leads an orchestra. Revolutions are much too big and complex for that. Those who live in revolutionary times can only make a thousand small decisions and hope that they move history forward in the desired direction. Around the world today we see the growing sophistication and rapid international diffusion of powerful new information technologies, the mergers of huge communication empires, strategic alliances across borders, and the doubling of power and the halving of the price of computing every 18 months (Moore's Law). The Information Revolution, ethno-political conflicts, globalization — each of these three mega-trends is individually important for all nations' future; together, they are redefining the global context within which governments and citizens must make daily decisions in the years to come. Thus, their intersection should constitute a central concern of scholars, policy makers, and citizens. In an era of globalization, national security has a different meaning. Nation-states no longer have a monopoly on the means of coercion. Even if nuclear weapons had a deterrent value during the Cold War, today they have none as the causes of insecurity, more often than not, are economic collapse and internecine conflict, and not external aggression. The information age has revolutionized the instrument of soft power and the opportunities to apply them. The ability of a nation to project the appeal of its ideas, ideology, culture, economic model, and social and political institutions and to take advantage of its international business and telecommunications networks will leverage soft power. In simple terms, the information revolution is increasing inter-connectedness and escalating the pace of change in nearly every dimension of life. This, in turn, shapes the evolution of armed conflict. Whether in economics, politics, or war-fighting, those who are able to grasp the magnitude of this will be the best prepared to deal with it. The use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) in warfare scenarios has been of central interest to governments, intelligence agencies, computer scientists and security experts for the past two decades (Arquilla and Ronfeldt 1997; Campen and Dearth 1998; Singer 2009). . ICTs gave rise to the latest revolution in military affairs (RMA) by providing new tools and processes of waging war – like network-centric warfare (NCW), and integrated command, control, communications, computers, intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (C4ISR). This RMA concerns in the premise of military forces, as they have to deal with â€Å"the 5th dimension of warfare, information, in addition to land, sea, air and space†. Classical Perception of War: Clausewitz is under significant challenge. It is clearly alive and well in the military colleges of Western states but outside these corridors other philosophies are in the ascendancy. A debate continues to rage over the extent to which Clausewitzean thinking is still relevant to today’s wars. From today’s vantage point, several developments have eroded the appeal and power of the political philosophy of war. First, the concept of the battlefield, so central to the way in which Clausewitz understood warfare, has dissolved. The 9/11 attacks, for instance, demonstrated that today’s battlegrounds might be Western (or other) cities while the US-led ‘War on Terror’ – now rebranded as the ‘long war’ – conceives of the battlefield as literally spanning the entire globe. In the future, however, battles are unlikely to be confined to planet Earth as the US in particular will be forced to militarize space in an effort to protect the satellites upon which its communication and information systems depend (Hirst 2002). Second, as the speeches of both Osama bin Laden and US President George W. Bush make clear, the leadership cadres on both sides of the ‘War on Terror’ have often rejected political narratives of warfare. Instead, they have adopted eschatological philosophies in their respective rallying cries for a global jihad and a just war against evildoers where ideology played a significant role in waging war. A third problem for advocates of the political philosophy and one which Clausewitz obviously never encountered is war involving information technology. Information technology brings the Finally, when confronted by ‘revolutionary’ wars which cry out for counterrevolutionary responses, Clausewitz’s injunction to destroy the military forces of the adversary is problematic not just because such ‘military forces’ are often indistinguishable from the local populace but also because one can never be sure they have been eliminated ‘unless one is ready to destroy a large portion of the population’ (Rapoport 1968: 53; see also Chapter 26, this volume). As we have seen, it is fair to say, however, that the political philosophy has been the most prominent in the traditionally Anglo-American-dominated field of security studies (on the ethnocentric tendencies of security studies see Booth 1979, Barkawi and Laffey 2006). All that can be said in general terms is that whatever approach to understanding warfare one chooses to adopt will have consequences, leading the analysis in certain directions and forsaking others. Within International Relations and security studies warfare has commonly been defined in ways that highlight its cultural, legal and political dimensions. Information Revolution and information Warfare: ICTs are used in several combat activities, from cyber attacks to the deployment of robotic weapons and the management of communications among the fighting units. Such a wide spectrum of uses makes it difficult to identify the peculiarities of this phenomenon. Help in respect to this will come from considering in more detail the different uses of ICTs in warfare. An attack on the information system called smurf attack is an implementation of distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks. A DDoS is a cyber attack whose aim is to disrupt the functionality of a computer, a network or a website. This form of attack was deployed in 2007 against institutional Estonian websites, and more recently similar attacks have been launched to block the Internet communication in Burma during the 2010 elections. The use of robotic weapons in the battlefield is another way to use ICTs in warfare. It is a growing phenomenon, coming to widespread public notice with US army, which deployed 150 robotic weapons in Iraq’s war in 2004, culminating in 12,000 robots by 2008. Nowadays, several armies around the world are developing and using tele-operated robotic weapons, they have been deployed in Iraq and Afghanistan, and more sophisticated machines are being used at the borders between Israel and Palestine in the so-called ‘automatic kill zone’. These robots are trusted to detect the presence of potential enemies and to mediate the action of the human soldiers and hence to fire on potential enemy’s targets when these are within the range patrolled by the robots. Several armies also invested their resources to deploy unmanned vehicles, like the MQ-1 predators, which have then been used to hit ground targets, and to develop unmanned combat air vehicles, which are designed to deliver weapons and can potentially act autonomously, like the EADS Barracuda, and the Northrop Grumman X-47B. One of the latest kinds of robotic weapon – SGR-A1 – has been deployed by South Korea to patrol the border with North Korea. This robot has low-light camera and pattern recognition software to distinguish humans from animals or other objects. It also has a color camera, which can locate a target up to 500 meters, and if necessary, can fire its built-in machine gun. Up until now, robotic weapons were tele-operated by militaries sitting miles away from the combat zone. Human were kept in the loop and were the ones who decided whether to shoot the target and to maneuver the robot on the battlefield. The case of SGR-A1 constitutes quite a novelty, as it has an automatic mode, in which it can open fire on the given target without waiting for the human soldier to validate the operation. Finally, the management of communication among the units of an army has been revolutionized radically by the use of ICTs. Communication is a very important aspect of warfare. It concerns the analysis of the enemy’s resources and strategy and the definition of an army’s own tactics on the battlefield. NCW and C4ISR represent a major revolution in this respect. An example of such revolution is the use of iPhone and Android devices. Today, the US army is testing the use of these devices to access intelligence data, display videos made by drones flying over the battlefields, constantly update maps and information on tactics and strategy, and, generally speaking, gather all the necessary information to overwhelm the enemy. Changing Nature of Conflict: States have been resilient in the face of technological change, and despite the increasingly rapid diffusion of information, states still shape the political space within which information flows (Keohane and Nye 1998; Herrera 2004). Yet state power has been diminished too. States have lost much of their control over monetary and fiscal policies, which are often dictated by global markets (Castells 1996, pp. 245, 254). The rapid movement of currency in and out of countries by currency speculators can extract a devastating cost on countries that do not have large currency reserves. States no longer monopolize scientific research. The Internet allows a global scientific community to exchange information on topics that can be easily exploited by terrorist organizations (Castells 1996, p. 125). The Internet has made it impossible for states, dictatorships as well as democracies, to monopolize the truth (Castells 1996, pp. 384, 486-487). Nor can they monopolize strategic information (Keohane and Nye 1998) – the information that confers great advantage only if competitors do not possess it – because states no longer control encryption technologies. Most critically, IT has made the most technologically advanced and powerful societies by traditional indices the most vulnerable to attack. A distinguishing hallmark of the information age is the â€Å"network,† which exploits the accessibility and availability of information, and computational and communicative speed, to organize and disseminate knowledge cheaply and efficiently (Harknett 2003). The strength of the network lies in its degree of connectivity. Connectivity can increase prosperity and military effectiveness, but it also creates vulnerabilities. Information-intensive military organizations are more vulnerable to information warfare because they are more information-dependent, while an adversary need not be information-dependent to disrupt the information lifeline of high-tech forces. Information-dependent societies are also more vulnerable to the infiltration of computer networks, databases, and the media, and to physical as well as cyber attacks on the very linkages upon which modern societies rely to function: communication, financial transaction, transportation, and energy resource networks. The same forces that have weakened states have empowered non-states. The information revolution has diffused and redistributed power to traditionally weaker actors. Terrorists have access to encryption technologies which increase their anonymity and make it difficult for states to disrupt and dismantle their operations. (Zanini and Edwards 2001, pp. 37-8) Global markets and the Internet make it possible to hire criminals, read about the design and dissemination of weapons of mass destruction, and coordinate international money laundering to finance nefarious activities (Kugler and Frost, eds. 001; Castells 2000, pp. 172, 180-182). Terrorists can now communicate with wider audiences and with each other over greater distances, recruit new members, and diffuse and control their operations more widely and from afar. Non-state actors also have increasing access to offensive information warfare capabilities because of their relative cheapness, accessibility and commercial origins (US GAO 1 996; Office of the Under Secretary for Defense for Acquisition and Technology 1996). Globalization, and the information technologies that undergird it, suggest that a small, well-organized group may be able to create the same havoc that was once the purview of states and large organizations with substantial amounts of resources. The availability off-the-shelf commercial technologies benefits smaller states and non-state actors, to be sure, but only the wealthiest and most powerful states will be able to leverage information technology to launch a â€Å"revolution in military affairs. The ability to gather, sort, process, transfer, and disseminate information over a wide geographic area to produce dominant battle space awareness will be a capability reserved for the most powerful (Keohane and Nye 1998). In this respect, information technology continues trends already underway in the evolution of combat that have enhanced the military effectiveness of states. IT makes conventional combat more accurate, thereby improving the efficiency of high explosive attacks. On the other hand, IT also continues trends in warfare that circumvent traditional military forces and which work in favor of weaker states and non-states. Like strategic bombing and counter-value nuclear targeting, efforts to destroy or punish an adversary by bypassing destruction of his armed forces and directly attacking his society, predate the information technology age. Techniques of information warfare provide attackers with a broader array of tools and an ability to target more precisely and by non-lethal means the lifelines upon which advanced societies rely: power grids, phone systems, transportation networks, and airplane guidance systems. Information is not only a means to boost the effectiveness of lethal technologies, but opens up the possibility of non-lethal attacks that can incapacitate, defeat, deter or coerce an adversary, attacks that can be launched by individuals and private groups in addition to professional militaries. Warfare is no longer an activity exclusively the province of the state. Information is something that states, organized for success in the industrial age, do not have a comparative advantage in exploiting. John Arquilla and David Ronfeldt argue that the information revolution is strengthening the network form of organization over hierarchical forms, that non-state actors can organize into networks more easily than traditional hierarchical state actors, and that the master of the network will gain major advantages over hierarchies because hierarchies have a difficult time fighting networks. (Arquilla and Ronfeldt 2001, pp. 1, 15. ) States are run by large hierarchical organizations with clearly delineated structures and functions. By contrast, a more efficient organizational structure for the knowledge economy is the network of operatives, or â€Å"knowledge workers† not bound by geographic location. This is precisely the type of organizational structure being adopted by terrorist groups as they adapt to the information age. There is evidence that adaptation is quicker in flat hierarchies or matrix organizations than it is in the steep pyramidal hierarchies that run the modern nation-state; that flatter networks have a much shorter learning curve than do hierarchically networked organizations (Areieli 2003). The higher the hierarchy, the faster it operates if it is doing something it has already foreseen and thus for which it is prepared. If, on the other hand, a scenario requires the development of new processes that were not foreseen, the flatter organization is better at learning. Matrix organizations are more creative and innovative. According to Castells, the performance of a network depends on two fundamental attributes: â€Å"its connectedness that is its structural ability to facilitate noise-free communication between its components; its onsistency, that is the extent to which there is sharing of interests between the network’s goals and the goals of its components† (Castells 1996, p. 171). On both criteria, large state bureaucracies suffer serious disadvantages. Informal war: Informal war is armed conflict where at least one of the antagonists is a non-state entity such as an insurgent army or ethnic militia. It is the descendent of what became known as low intens ity conflict in the 1980s. Like today, future informal war will be based on some combination of ethnicity, race, regionalism, economics, personality, and ideology. Often ambitious and unscrupulous leaders will use ethnicity, race, and religion to mobilize support for what is essentially a quest for personal power. The objectives in informal war may be autonomy, separation, outright control of the state, a change of policy, control of resources, or, â€Å"justice† as defined by those who use force. Informal war will grow from the culture of violence which has spread around the world in past decades, flowing from endemic conflict, crime, the drug trade, the proliferation of weapons, and the trivialization of violence through popular culture. In many parts of the world, violence has become routine. Whole generations now see it as normal. In this setting, informal war will remain common, in part because of the declining effectiveness of states. Traditionally, governments could preserve internal order by rewarding regions or groups of society which supported the government, punishing those which did not, and, with wise leadership, preempting conflict and violence through economic development. In a globalized economy, the ability of governments to control and manipulate the economy is diminished, thus taking away one of their prime tools for quelling dissent and rewarding support. In regions where the state was inherently weak, many nations have large areas of territory beyond the control of the government. And, as political, economic, and military factors constrain traditional cross border invasion, proxy aggression has become a more attractive strategic option. Regimes unwilling to suffer the sanctions and opprobrium that results from invading one’s neighbors find that supporting the enemies of one’s neighbors is often overlooked. This is not likely to change in coming decades. Finally, the combination of globalization and the Cold War have fueled the growth of an international arms market at the same time that the international drug traffic and the coalescence of international criminal networks have provided sources of income for insurgents, terrorists, and militias. With enough money, anyone can equip a powerful military force. With a willingness to use crime, nearly anyone can generate enough money. Informal war is not only more common than in the past, but also more strategically significant. This is true, in part, because of the rarity of formal war but also because of interconnectedness. What Martin Libicki calls â€Å"the globalization of perception†Ã¢â‚¬â€the ability of people to know what is happening everywhere—means that obscure conflicts can become headline news. There are no backwaters any more. As suffering is broadcast around the world, calls mount for intervention of one sort or the other. Groups engaged in informal war use personal and technological interconnectedness to publicize their cause, building bridges with a web of organizations and institutions. The Zapatista movement in southern Mexico is a model for this process. The Zapatistas, in conjunction with a plethora of left-leaning Latin Americanists and human rights organizations, used of the Internet to build international support with web pages housed on servers at places like the University of California, Swarthmore, and the University of Texas. This electronic coalition-building was so sophisticated that a group of researchers from the RAND Corporation labeled it â€Å"social netwar. Undoubtedly, more organizations will follow this path, blending the expertise of traditional political movements with the cutting-edge advertising and marketing techniques that the information revolution has spawned. A defining feature of the information revolution is that perception matters as much as tangible things. This will certainly hold for informal warfare. Future strategists will find that crafting an â€Å"image assessment† or â€Å"perception map† of a conflict will be a central part of their planning. In failed states, informal war may be symmetric as militias, brigand bands, and warlord armies fight each other. At other times, it may be asymmetric as state militaries, perhaps with outside assistance, fight against insurgents, militias, brigands, or warlord armies. Future insurgents would need to perform the same functions of defense, support, and the pursuit of victory, but will find new ways to do so. In terms of defense, dispersion is likely to be strategic as well as tactical. There will be few sanctuaries for insurgent headquarters in an era of global linkages, pervasive sensor webs, nd standoff weapons, so astute insurgents will spread their command and control apparatus around the world. Information technology will make this feasible. Right wing anti-government theorists in the United States have already developed a concept they call â€Å"leaderless resistance† in which disassociated terrorists work toward a common goal and become aware of each other’s action s through media publicity. The information revolution will provide the opportunity for â€Å"virtual leadership† of insurgencies which do not choose the anarchical path of â€Å"leaderless resistance. The top leadership might never be in the same physical location. The organization itself is likely to be highly decentralized with specialized nodes for key functions like combat operations, terrorism, fund raising, intelligence, and political warfare. In many cases, insurgent networks will themselves be part of a broader global network unified by opposition to the existing political and economic order. Informal war in the coming decades will not represent a total break with its current variants. It will still entail hands on combat, with noncombatants as pawns and victims. Insurgents, militias, and other organizations which use it will seek ways to raise the costs of conflict for state forces. Gray Area War: As the Cold War ended defense analysts like Max G. Manwaring noted the rising danger from â€Å"gray area phenomena† that combined elements of traditional war-fighting with those of organized crime. Gray area war is likely to increase in strategic significance in the early decades of the 21st century. To an extent, this is a return to historical normalcy after the abnormality of the Cold War. Today, gray area threats are increasing in strategic significance. Information technology, with its tendency to disperse information, shift advantages to flexible, networked organizations, and facilitate the creation of alliances or coalitions, has made gray area enemies more dangerous than in the past. For small or weak countries, the challenge is particularly dire. Not only are their security forces and intelligence communities less proficient, but the potential impact of gray area threats is amplified by the need to attract outside capital. In this era of globalization and interconnectedness, prosperity and stability within a state are contingent on capital inflows. Except in nations that possess one of the very rare high-payoff natural resources like petroleum, capital inflows require stability and security. In places like Colombia, South Africa, Central Asia, and the Caucuses, foreign investment is diminished by criminal activity and the insecurity it spawns. This makes gray area threats a serious security challenge. Gray area war involves an enemy or a network of enemies that seeks primarily profit, but which has political overtones and a substantially greater capability for strategic planning and the conduct of armed conflict than traditional criminal groups. Like future insurgents, future networked gray area enemies may have nodes that are purely political, some political elements that use informal war, and other components that are purely criminal. This greatly complicates the task of security forces that must deal with them. Because gray area enemies fall in between the realm of national security and law enforcement, the security forces that confront them must also be a â€Å"gray† blend of the military and the police. Like the military, security forces must have substantial fire power (both traditional and informational), and the ability to approach problems. But these security forces also must have characteristics of law enforcement, working within legal procedures and respecting legal rights. Even though the objective will be monetary rather than purely political, violence will be goal-oriented. Astrategic gray area war will consist primarily of turf battles between armed gangs or militias. It may be related to refugee movements, ethnic conflict, ecological degradation, or struggles for political power (as in Jamaica in the 1990s, where political parties used street gangs to augment their influence). When astrategic gray area war is linked to struggles for political power, the armed forces (such as they are) will be serving as mercenaries only partially controlled by their paymasters, rather than armed units under the actual command of political authorities. Strategic Information warfare: Formal, informal, and gray area war are all logical extensions of existing types. Technology, though, could force or allow more radical change in the conduct of armed conflict. For instance, information may become an actual weapon rather than simply a tool that supports traditional kinetic weapons. Future war may see attacks via computer viruses, worms, logic bombs, and trojan horses rather than bullets, bombs, and missiles. This is simply the latest version of an idea with recent antecedents in military history. Today strategic information warfare remains simply a concept or theory. The technology to wage it does not exist. Even if it did, strategists cannot be certain strategic information warfare would have the intended psychological effect. Would the destruction of a state’s infrastructure truly cause psychological collapse? Would the failure of banking, commercial, and transportation systems crush the will of a people or steel it? But until infrastructure warfare is proven ineffective, states and non-state actors which have the capacity to attempt it probably will, doing so because it appears potentially effective and less risky than other forms of armed conflict. Future infrastructure war could take two forms. In one version, strategic information attacks would be used to prepare for or support conventional military operations to weaken an enemy’s ability to mobilize or deploy force. The second possible form would be â€Å"stand alone† strategic information warfare. This might take the form of a sustained campaign designed for decisive victory or, more likely, as a series of raids designed to punish or coerce an enemy But should cyber-attacks, whether as part of strategic information warfare or as terrorism, become common, the traditional advantage large and rich states hold in armed conflict might erode. Cyber-attacks require much less expensive equipment than traditional ones. The necessary skills exist in the civilian information technology world. One of the things that made nation-states the most effective organizations for waging industrial age war was the expense of troops, equipment and supplies. Conventional industrial-age war was expensive and wasteful. Only organizations that could mobilize large amounts of money flesh, and material could succeed at it. But if it becomes possible to wage war using a handful of computers with internet connections, a vast array of organizations may choose to join the fray. Non-state organizations could be as effective as states. Private entities might be able to match state armed forces. While substantial movement is underway on the defense of national information infrastructure, offensive information warfare is more controversial. Following the 1999 air campaign against Serbia, there were reports that the United States had used offensive information warfare and thus â€Å"triggered a super-weapon that catapulted the country into a military era that could forever alter the ways of war and the march of history. According to this story, the U. S. military targeted Serbia’s command and control network and telephone system. The Future Battlefield: The information revolution is transforming warfare. No longer will massive dug-in Armies, armadas and Air Forces fight bloody attritional battles. Instead, small highly mobile forces, armed with real time information from satellites and terrestrially deployed battlefield sensors, will strike with lighteni ng speed at unexpected locations. On the battlefield of the future, enemy forces will be, located, tracked and targetted almost instantaneously through the use of: * Sensors and their fusion with a view to presenting an integrated highly reliable intelligence picture in real time. * Surveillance devices that unceasingly seek and shadow the enemy. * Data-links and computer-generated battle picture, task tables and â€Å"maps that change scale and overlay differing types of information in response to voice requests. † * Automated fire control, with first round kill probabilities approaching near certainty. Simulation, visualization and virtually in planning, and testing concepts and weapon effectiveness. This would balance out the need for large forces to overwhelm the opponent physically. Control function will be decentralized and shared at all levels of command. Combat will be in tandem to intelligence gathering. Non-lethal, soft-kill electronic weapons will assume as much importance as highly lethal, hard-kil l weapons. Intelligent command posts and paperless headquarters will be the form. A Commander will be of a different breed-priding more in his lap-top than his baton. He will be his own staff officer. Changing Perception of War and its implications on poorly governed country: The idea that weak states can compromise security — most obviously by providing havens for terrorists but also by incubating organized crime, spurring waves of migrants, and undermining global efforts to control environmental threats and disease — is no longer much contested. –Washington Post, June 9. 2004 A majority of states in the contemporary security environment can be classified as weak. These states exhibit a limited ability to control their own territories because, in part, they do not have a monopoly on the use of force within their borders. They also struggle to provide security or deliver major services to large segments of their populations. These vulnerabilities generate security predicaments that propel weak regimes—both democratic and authoritarian—to act in opportunistic ways. Because they lack conventional capabilities, out of necessity, weak states will have to be opportunistic in their use of the limited instruments they have available for security and survival. The threat of information warfare should be understood within a broad vision of global power that is based on an up-dated version of Mao Zedong’s theory of the ‘Three Worlds’. Just as Mao believed that the world was divided into three tiers of states, with the superpowers at the top, the developed states in the middle and the developing states at the bottom, in the information age is also supposed to be three types of state. At the top of the pile is the ‘information hegemony state’, asserting its control by dominating the telecommunications infrastructure, software development, and by reaping profits from the use of information and the Internet. After this comes the ‘information sovereign state’, exemplified by those European states that have accumulated sufficient know-how to exert independent control over their information resources and derive profits from them, and to protect themselves from information hegemony. At the bottom of the pile are the ‘information colonial and semi-colonial states’, which have no choice but to accept the information that is forced on them by other states. They are thus left vulnerable to exploitation because they lack the means to protect themselves from hegemonic power. In recent years, the nature of conflict has changed. Through asymmetric warfare radical groups and weak state actors are using unexpected means to deal stunning blows to more powerful opponents in the West. From terrorism to information warfare, the Wests air power, sea power and land power are open to attack from clever, but much weaker, enemies. The significance of asymmetric warfare, in both civilian and military realms become such an important subject for study to provide answers to key questions, such as how weaker opponents apply asymmetric techniques against the Western world, and shows how the West military superiority can be seriously undermined by asymmetric threats. Conclusion: It is said that nothing is permanent except change. This is particularly true in the information age. It is important to understand the nature of the new world information order in order to be effective in foreign policy initiatives and to conduct the international relations. The information revolution throws up various contradictory phenomena. It includes the strengthening of the forces of anarchy and control. The revolution empowers individuals and elites. It breaks down hierarchies and creates new power structures. It offers more choices and too many choices, greater insight and more fog. It reduces the risk to soldiers in warfare and vastly increases the cost of conflict. It can lead to supremacy of the possessors of information technologies while it leads to vulnerabilities to the same possessors from weaker nations. It cedes some state authority to markets, to transnational entities and to non-state actors and as a result produces political forces calling for the strengthening of the state. However, a mere look at some of the manifestations of the arrival of information technology in international relations, clearly brings out how the nature and exercise of power have been permanently altered. Benjamin Barber describes a world that is both coming together and falling apart in his book Jihad Against McWorld. He describes a world where the nation state is losing its influence and where the world is returning to tribalism, regionalism, and the ethnocentric warfare that characterized much of the earlier human history. This problem is most apparent in the developing world where we continue to see the spread of disease, continuing humanitarian crisis, political and economic instability, and ethnic, tribal, civil, and drug related war. There are several themes that are consistent across these global futures. The first is conflict. The negative effects of globalization will continue to promote regionalism, tribalism, and conflict in the developing world. Secondly, nations with uncontrollable population growth, a scarcity of natural resources, and poor government systems will fail to benefit from globalization regardless of its effects on the rest of the world. Thirdly, technology will continue to be exploited to benefit developed nations and illicit criminal/terrorist networks, and will have little affect on the developing world. In all scenarios the power of the state will weaken and the power of the non-state networked actor will continue to expand with the help of the tools of globalization. References: Paul D. Williams. (2008). War. In: Paul D. Williams Security Studies: An Introduction. New York: Routledge. p151-p171. Akshay Joshi. (2010). The Information Revolution and National Power:Political Aspects-II. Available: www. idsa. org. Last accessed 13rd November 2011. Alvin and Heidi Toffler, War and Anti-War: Survival at the Dawn of the 21st Century, Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1993. Robert O. Keohane and Joseph S. Nye, Jr. , â€Å"Power and Interdependence in the Information Age,† Foreign Affairs, Vol. 77, No. 5, September/October 1998. Steven Metz. (2010). ARMED CONFLICT IN THE 21st CENTURY:. Strategic Studies Institute. 01 (1), 65-119. Arquilla, J. (1998). Can information warfare ever be just? Ethics and Information Technology, 1(3), 203-212. Floridi, L. (2009). The information Society and Its Philosophy. The Information Society, 25(3), 153-158. Steven, Doglous, 2002. Information Warfare: a Philosophical Perspective. 1. London: University of Hertfordshire. Robert O. Keohane and Joseph S. Nye, Jr.. (1998). Power and Interdependence in the Information Age. Foreign Affairs. v. 77 (5), 1-10 David J. Rothkopf, â€Å"Cyberpolitik: The Changing Nature of Power in the Information Age†, Journal of International Affairs, Spring 1998, p. 27. Akshay Joshi, â€Å"The Information Revolution and National Power: Political Aspects-I†, Strategic Analysis, August 1999. Jessica Mathews, â€Å"Powershift†, Foreign Affairs, January/February 1997, pp. 50-55. Carl von Clausewitz, On War, edited and translated by Michael Howard and Peter Paret (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1976). The seminal discussion of the political philosophy of war. Emily O. Goldman and Leo J. Blanken, 2011, THE ECONOMIC FOUNDATIONS OF MILITARY POWER, California, University of California-Davis

Nvq Unit 303 Supporting Children Through Transitions

Unit 303 Supporting children through transitions Transitions occur when a child moves from one care situation to another. Children of all ages experience transitions. 0-3 years Children attend a setting for the first time – a nursery, pre-school, creche, and childminder’s home. Move within a setting – from the baby room to the toddler room, or change childminders. To help and support the children through the transition you could: †¢Ensure all registration information has been received before the child attends, so that practitioners are prepared to meet the child’s needs. Have a key worker allocated to the child †¢Combine visits with parents, shorter stays before longer ones. †¢Tell children and adults that a new child is coming and encourages them to make the child welcome. †¢Give the child a warm welcome. †¢Encourage children and parents to say goodbye to one another. †¢Show the child around and explain the routine, where to hang up coats etc. †¢Remain supportive. †¢Provide ways to involve families in the child’s experience, to assist the transition from the setting to home. 3-7 yearsTransitions are periods of change which generally involve a loss of familiar people in a child’s life. Different children respond differently to transitions, children attending pre-school or juniors, a child moving within a setting. Children have new living arrangement or maybe even a stay in hospital. To help and prepare for change you could: †¢Communicate with the children about the transition. Talking about what will happen as well as listening to the child’s concerns. †¢Arrange a visit to a new setting prior to the transition with parental supervision. Ensure all documentation about the child is organised in advance. †¢Communicate with the children continuously to see and monitor their progress. 7-12 years Children and babies are naturally motivated to lean until the age of seven or eight. At this age school work may become taxing and the eagerness to discover may fade. To promote development of self- motivation in children you could: †¢Encourage children to be optimistic †¢Encourage children to value persistent effort and to expect success when they try †¢Teach children the value of overcoming failure Encourage children to celebrate and enjoy achievement †¢Give children opportunities to master their world †¢Make learning relevant to the individual child’s interest †¢Teach children in ways that appeal to their styles and learning. 12-16 years Some children experience multiple transitions. This may be due to frequent family breakdowns or perhaps the nature of the parents work. You should allow relationships to form gradually with friends and peers with such children, taking care not to overwhelm them.Social services recognise the problems of multiple transitions. As a child develops they still need support and encour agement with change. Children either changing school or class my still need guidance. Sometimes children enjoy solving their own problems and should be allowed to do this. The move to secondary school can be a quite big change for children. Children often have common anxieties about transitions, such as will I make friends, will I like my teacher, and will I get much homework, what happens at lunch time. Parents and carers should be aware of the child’s new surroundings †¢Get involved in the move by talking and communicating both with the child and teachers. †¢Encourage time to chat with the child to keep a good understanding of what is going on and how the child feels about the change. †¢Allow for emotional change as the child develops. †¢Support the child as they make physical and emotional changes. †¢Support and give good guidance to the rules and disciplines of both the home life and school.