Auditors’ Contribution to Subprime Mortgage Crisis

What role did the accounting profession play In the recent supreme mortgage crisis? What could they have done differently? An Independent auditor has a duty is to: Identify, measure. And communicate financial information about an entity for decision making purposes. They are also responsible for generating the financial statements/reports for an organization. (Marshall, Unmans, Vile, 2008) The supreme mortgage crisis is the result of contract laws allowing lenders the characterization of supreme mortgage loans.Other causes of the supreme mortgage crisis were poor decisions made in terms of operating investments and finance. Risks were managed poorly, and fraud occurred in some instances. Due to the construct of supreme loans and its impact on borrowers, I. E. , lenders offering small down payments with cost deferral features, high loan to value ratios, and escalating payments, borrowers underestimated the true cost of the loan and were deceived by the completes In loan transactions I n which lenders Intentionally complicated the lingo In the transactions.Channel Leonard 2012) Borrowers took advantage of the fact that lenders would make an extensive effort to pay their mortgage bills, however, when they couldn't due to medical bills, company downsizes, etc†¦ This led to accountants having to maneuver through transactions in an effort to determine fair value measurements; ultimately making inaccurate estimations based on an illiquid market. This led to oversights in fair value accounting and lost accruals. For an independent auditor, it is most important to provide users with the most accurate financial information.When they cannot, it seems as fraudulent practices have occurred, whether intentional or inadvertent. Consequently, due to investigations by the Securities and Exchange Commission on unethical practices discovered at some firms, along with Issues and concerns of other firms, the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FAST) along with the Public Comm ittee of Accounting Oversight Board (PEPCO), offered guidance for auditing processes Involving fair values measurements.Issues continued to persist, which led to the PEPCO performing financial audits on the financial statements devised by auditors at varying firms due to delinquencies in the auditing process for fair value measurements, financial estimates, adequacy of disclosures, and the ability of the auditor to continue the audit. According to the Chief Accountant for the Securities and Exchange Commission, auditors were warned of the financial risk areas but many were not providing accurate information or following the committees' guidance.Auditors didn't comply with the SEC's current standards and rules which led to improper auditing, fraudulent, and Inadequate financial reporting. (Kroger 2011) In conclusion, there were some auditing firms that operated using dishonest practices. Having said this, I do not believe all accountants were at fault nor can be blamed for the suprem e mortgage crisis due to the lack of exactness when making fair value measurements, along with accountants' inability to predict the future. They have received all documentation of the entity transactions.In order to prevent the blame in its entirety being placed on accountants, it would have been wise of the accountants to regularly check for revisions in the guidance offered by the SEC as updates of how to manage potential issues occurred. The SEC was aware of many issues and published documents to guide auditors for handling potential problems with fair value estimations. (Kroger 2011) Implementation of those suggestions would have helped curb issues when auditing fair value measurements of entities. Kroger, J. (2011, April 6).

Critical Thinking: The Yellow Wallpaper Essay

I. Ask questions A. Is John her husband? 1. Is John really a physician? 2. Did John really faint? B. Is Jennie really John’s sister? C. Is Mary really a nanny? D. Does she really have a baby? F. Is mansion really â€Å"vacation† home? 1. Did her room really used to be a nursery? 2. Is she in an insane asylum? G. The wallpaper 1. Does the wallpaper really grow? 2. Is there really a â€Å"creeping† figure behind the pattern? H. Is she crazy? II. Define terms and concepts A. Phosphates – â€Å"A salt of phosphoric acid† The Marriam-Webster Dictionary B. Delirim Tremens – â€Å"Violent delirium with tremors† The Marriam-Webster Dictionary Tollie 2 C. Florid Arabesque 1. Florid – â€Å"Very flowery in style, tinged with red† The Merriam-Webster Dictionary. 2. Arabesque – â€Å"A complex and elaborate decorative design of intertwined lines suggesting flowers, foliage, animals, geometric patterns, ect., used in drawing, painting, low relief, metalwork, etc.† American English Dictionary. D. â€Å"Yellow smell† Charlotte Perkins Gillman, â€Å"The Yellow Wallpaper 1. â€Å"It is not bad—at first, and very gentle, but quite the sublest, most enduring odor I ever met† Charlotte Perkins Gillman, â€Å"The Yellow Wallpaper. 2. â€Å"hanging over me† The Yellow Wallpaper. 3. â€Å"now I am used to it† The Yellow Wallpaper. III. Accept uncertainties A. Not knowing if what she say is real or not. B. Not knowing if the woman in the wall paper is her.

Business Ethics Article Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 3

Business Ethics - Article Example In effect, the accountants were complicitors in the scheme. The was recently taken over by the Indian government who also placed criminal charges against its several executives. The moral issue involved here is simply that they were wrong to lie about their assets and the accountants were wrong to knowingly report the soup up numbers. 2. Are there any arguments that could justify such fraud. Was there a greater good the Satyam Computer Services was seeking? One could argue that they had to do what they did to attract investment so that the company could experience further growth and attract new clients. In this possibility, as the new clients were brought on, the phoney invoices would be removed until they were all gone. If this argument were allowed then other companies could do the same until there was nothing but a paper empire built in the business world. Another argument would be that the activity represented more the creativity of executives of Satyam Computer then it did their greed. They could have stopped the activity, say, after one or two years and no one would have been the wiser. 3. Virtuous responsibility requires one to make the best best decisions possible that are based on temperance and justice. Another view is that it is based on everyone should get what they deserved.

Practicum Project Plan Term Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Practicum Project Plan - Term Paper Example The goal of this practicum project is to enhance learning. The goal statement, project objectives, evidence-based review of the literature, methodology, resources, formative evaluation, summative evaluation, and timeline of the project are outlined in this paper. There are two correlated goals that I will strive to accomplish in this practicum project. First, I will be able to demonstrate skills and competency in managing a diverse population of staff and patients at the end of the practicum experience. Secondly, I will be able to work within a complex system to develop leadership abilities appropriate for the management role of nursing coordinators or night supervisors. According to a Nurse Bedside Shift Report by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (n.d), "Patient and family engagement creates an environment where patients, families, clinicians, and hospital staff all work together as partners to improve the quality and safety of hospital care" (p.3). In this regard, implementation of best practices that promote patient and family engagement is vindicated. Purposeful rounding, bedside reporting, and multidisciplinary rounding comprise of actions posited by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (n.d) to support patient and family engagement. In a study aimed at scrutinizing the effects of communication cited by Dingley, Daugherty, Derieg, and Persing (n.d), open communication and teamwork were found to contribute significantly to the achievement of affirmative results. This shows that utilizing open communication and working in multidisciplinary teams in implementing best practices, in conformity with the project methods, is als o defensible. Conducting an evaluation will also be important in the practicum project. As explicated by Black (2010), evaluation helps distinguish practices that achieve their anticipated objectives from those that have failed. Evaluation will therefore help identify best practices that have

Operating Systems Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Operating Systems - Essay Example Although operating systems like Linux or FreeBSD show better performance having 64 MB of RAM, Windows XP is able to run on the same hardware. Laskin (n.d.) writes that 128Mb was simply not enough to allow Windows XP to operate efficiently. He observed an average increase in speed of 25% between 128Mb and 256Mb. The next step up in his investigation was 512Mb. Here the increase was less dramatic but still quite noticeable, about a 5% increase in speed depending on the test. Whilst extra memory can affect the overall speed, Lackey (n.d.) writes, it can also make for smoother operation depending on the task in hand. Basic word processing and Internet access usually require no more then 128-256Mb of RAM. More demanding tasks can soon show the inadequacy of low amounts of RAM. Graphics and Sound are the two memory consumers. Complex documents containing graphics or embedded charts and especially more sophisticated PowerPoint presentations are much easier to handle with between 256and 512Mb. Databases start to benefit too at this level. In fact, the more RAM the better when it comes to these as they can keep their temporary tables in memory speeding up performance immensely. The real memory consuming tasks include 3D work, both CAD (Computer Aided Design) and more generalized computer graphics, real time video editing and real world modeling such as water flow calculations. Here the sky is the limit with 1Gb or more not being at all unreasonable. Most people who Lackey (n.d.) knows work with 3D graphics professionally tend to run at their systems maximum, usually 4Gb. Addressing of Memory in Windows XP As Nichol (2006) writes, a program instruction in a modern operating system on an Intel 386 or later CPU can address up to 4GB of memory, using its full 32 bits. This is normally far more than the RAM of the machine. So the hardware provides for programs to operate in terms of as much as they wish of this full 4GB space as Virtual Memory, those parts of the program and data which are currently active being loaded into Physical Random Access Memory (RAM). The processor itself then translates ('maps') the virtual addresses from an instruction into the correct physical equivalents, doing this on the fly as the instruction is executed. The processor manages the mapping in terms of pages of 4 Kilobytes each - a size that has implications for managing virtual memory by the system. Page File By Nichol (2006), only those parts of the program and data that are currently in active use need to be held in physical RAM. Other parts are then held in a page file (in Windows NT versions including Windows 2000 and XP: pagefile.sys). When a program tries to access some address that is not currently in physical RAM, it generates an interrupt, called a Page Fault. This asks the system to retrieve the 4 KB page containing the address from the page file (or in the case of code possibly from the original program file). This - a valid page fault - normally happens quite invisibly. Sometimes, through

Relationship between Stock Market Prices and Macroeconomic Variables Essay

Relationship between Stock Market Prices and Macroeconomic Variables - Essay Example This is an indication that the indexes will rely majorly on the stock prices of the major companies in the capital market. Therefore most financial experts like relying on this index as it is closer to representing the real market. According to Madura (2008, pg 347), the index is calculated by considering the stock price of five hundred biggest companies in the market. It explains that the companies are selected based on their market capitalization. To understand this dynamic relation the relation between the stock price and the variables in the macro economy, a clear and incisive analysis of the effects of these variables on the financial markets is required. This paper examines some of the relationships between the stock prices and market indices and the variables of the macroeconomic environment within economies of countries like the United States and England. Â  The GDP of a nation covers all the products and services produced in a single financial year. In Berezina (2012) opinion, it covers the entire products, from the smallest item to the largest possible item and services purchased by the consumers in this economy. It notes that investors pay keen attention to indicators of sustainable growth in the GDP of an economy to make decisions on investment. When the report shows that there is growth in GDP, many investors will be attracted to the economy. This translates to higher stock prices as investors rush to acquire stakes in companies within these economies. In the absence of growth, the investor confidence is low and the stock prices are likely to slump. This is usually reflected in the performance of the index of the market. Analysts believe that the performance of a market over a financial year will reflect the overall performance in GDP. For instance, Madura (2008) explains that economic factors that affect the stock prices includ e indicators like GDP (Madura 2008, pg 270).

The Environment and Our Difficult Relationship with Fuel Essay

The Environment and Our Difficult Relationship with Fuel - Essay Example It expresses the rationality of Man and the objectivity of his choices. In terms of food, the choices we make can significantly impact our health, whether we choose to eat a low or high calorie diet, whether we prefer to eat hygienic home-cooked food over the junk food we eat in restaurants or whether we prefer to eat fresh food as opposed to frozen food. It is high time that we challenge our unconditional trust for the health claims on the products of food manufacturing companies including genetically modified food and our ignorance of what constitutes healthy food, the perception of which has lately been tarnished. A similar perspective is shared by Micheal Pollen as elucidated in his article â€Å"Unhappy Meals.† The tone of Pollen’s article is full of sarcasm at the evolved concept of healthy food, much to my liking, the author states â€Å"A health claim on a food product is a good indication that it’s not really food, and food is what you want to eat,† (Pollen, 1). ... 40). The very introduction of such health claims on manufactured food was nothing more than a profit maximizing technique employed to increase sales. This has led to a change in the consumption patterns and is â€Å"destroying the traditional food cultures,† (Pollen, p. 65). The fact that after the introduction of the 1977 Dietary Goals in the United States of America, majority of the food manufactured was low fat (since that was recommended by the nutritionists ), one would have expected an overall decrease in the level of obesity of the population in general, but is that what happened? Unfortunately not! This simple fact speaks volumes about the low – fat claims made by the food manufacturing companies. The flaw was also in the proposed nutritional plan. The food manufactured was low on fat but high on carbohydrates which resulted in the increased obesity (Pollen, p. 43). This shows us that the nutritional value of food and the nutritious diets proposed are mere exper iments, the results of which are not guaranteed. This does not mean that I am a proponent of consuming high levels of cholesterol; rather I feel a controlled diet is the healthiest way to leading a healthy life, as opposed to consuming products that claim to be healthy. The dichotomy of the researches surrounding the utility of Omega-3 fats is a live example of the supportive and contradictory empirical evidence to support such health claims (Pollen, p. 38). Similar researches are questioning the validity of the food pyramid we have been studying for years. In his book Gary Taubes seeks to clarify many of the prevalent notions people have about methods of

The Formation Of The US Constitution or The Shaded US Constitution Research Paper

The Formation Of The US Constitution or The Shaded US Constitution - Research Paper Example This essay discusses that another aspect of the argument of the federalists was to ensure that citizens were given equal rights and good protection. This was to ensure that the ordinary citizen could have a universal and inalienable right to information and access to challenging public institutions. This was the only way to ensure that citizens could play a role in safeguarding the running of the state. The US Constitution was borne out of the Article of Confederacy. This involved a series of ideal standards on how to run the newly-independent country which sought to protect the civil liberties and rights of citizens and avoid discrimination and other forms of challenges that were experienced under British Rule. Therefore, the architects of the constitution sought to promote the Bill of Rights which was to maintain the fundamental rights of citizens in the United States. In addition to that, the federalists maintained a set of arguments that promoted the institution of a two-tiered g overnment system that will ensure that the states maintained their sovereignty and also ceded part of it to the federal authority. This was also to be achieved through the institution of the Separation of Power.The Federalists argued for the two-tiered system as a means of protecting human rights through the institution of more checks and balances to ensure that the rights of citizens were protected. This is to avoid the mistakes of Britain and also eliminate anarchy by promoting transparency and inclusion by ordinary citizens of the country.

Computer Science-Information System Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Computer Science-Information System - Essay Example in the case of industrial espionage or actions on the competitors' side) or inadvertent. Anyway, uncontrolled distribution of private information (especially about customers, e.g. card numbers, addresses, orders, business transactions, etc.) will result in withdrawal of customers and business partners, numerous lawsuits, and reducing revenues and profits. Therefore, often companies try to protect own information systems at the expense of employees privacy. This is a part of computer crime prevention measures with usage of specialized encrypting and authentication hardware and software, anti-malware programs such as Internet filters, firewalls, antiviruses, intrusion detection systems, etc. In some cases company's prevention measures contain monitoring for employee's communications from office workstations including e-mail control. Here, it is necessary to note that federal laws permit employers to monitor e-mail sent and received by employees. However, most companies maintain own privacy policies, trying to balance between privacy rights and security of business information. Sometimes corporate privacy policies allow employees and customers to access data about them and let them decide how that data can be used. This helps to avoid possible misunderstandings between company, employees, and customers. 2. 2. It is obvious that working conditions in IT Company must be designed to prevent computer crimes and simultaneously to avoid negative ethical consequences of prevention procedures. In fact, there is need to balance between some restrictions of Company's information flows and some rights to privacy, and also some rights to know; see Freeman & Graham Peace (2005), and also Tynan (2005). There are two main strategies to achieve such balance which often combined in practice. First strategy is "the way of prohibitions", namely not to distribute business information and information about technical processes, innovations, features of source codes, information from Company's internal databases, not to delete or corrupt information without clear instructions, etc. These restrictions can be easy formulated, described and then realized by technical means. Also, there are certain possibilities to reveal and investigate almost all cases of violation such Company's rules. These violations can be classified as computer crimes and often related to industrial espionage and information "wars" between competing companies. It is necessary to note that employee must have access to certain parts of Company's data to perform work tasks; therefore, information cannot be concealed at all. Alternative strategy is "the way of responsibility and obligations" or using corporate ethic rules. These rules determine generally accepted and discouraged activities within IT Company and between organizations. Employees define acceptable practices more strictly than just refraining from committing computer crimes; they also consider the effects of their activities on other people and organizations. Therefore, it is necessary to promote ethically responsible use of information systems on the base of developed codes of ethics, e.g. AITP code of ethics. This code of ethics is a set of obligations to management, fellows, society, employer, and country. For each area of obligation, standards of conduct describe the specific duties and

Philosophy of Economic Thought Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Philosophy of Economic Thought - Essay Example In spite of the fact that many of them had already dabbled into the interpretation of Keynes’s point of view, two of those whose analysis are worthy of being examined are Paul Davidson and Axel Leijonhufvud. The critics of Keynes believe that the main contributions made by Keynesians and post-Keynes theorists to economical theory are all negative, particularly as they seems to attack the conventional way of interpreting situations. For many of this critics, the saddest dimension that there is to it is that Keynes theorists, besides dumping the traditional ways of perceiving situations, is that they do not offer an alternative through which the ‘anguish’ experienced by people in their daily life can be reduced. Paul Davidson does not agree at all with all what this critics opine. He believes that such positions are assumed by classical economists who find it almost impossible to align themselves with the change that is offered by Keynes (Davidson1994). The approach adopted by Davidson shows how Keynes’s General Theory is relevant to people in the globalised world in which we now live. (This actually is to annul the assumption by some individuals that Keynes’s General Theory is no longer relevant in this time and age). ... Leijonhufvud believes that the stand of Keynesian economists was overhyped. Unlike the paradise that some had conceived from it, the truth is that Keynes’s General Theory has many loopholes which were yet to be revealed. As with many other theories, whose foundations were not solidly founded, a wave of strong desire for change will sweep it into nonexistence. Leijonhufvud was one of the first few economists to present the new viewpoint which opines that typical Keynesian theory needed a major re-education or a new drive to ensure that they know what they should really stand for. Leijonhufvud, for example, posits that the theory of markets fundamental IS-LM was lethally defective and should be substituted. To back up his point, he cites Keynesian’s reliance on inflexible wages. Patinkin (1948) proves that there are always some supposed levels of prices and wages which are low enough to engender a full employment level of cumulative demand. This is clearly in antagonism t o the Keynesian position that insists unintended unemployment can be link to the prevention of wage or price rate from dropping to a hypothetical or supposed level. It is quite ironic that Keynes who lived a huge part of his life as an open market analyst is the one who has developed theories whose major application is in closed economies (Keynes 1936). One of the points that Keynes may have wanted to prove is that even if one is inattentive to international trade and its impediments, a closed economy did not hold any regular market apparatus that assured a full-employment symmetry (Keynes 1936 p. 120). Davidson (1994) also has this to say: Any deliberate policy that aims to make a nation’s industries more

Thematic Art Review (Formalist) Essay Example for Free

Thematic Art Review (Formalist) Essay Visual arts which make use of unusual media and technique, such as collage or origami, tend to   both benefit from and be challenged by the medium and technique involved. A viewer is apt to react first to the medium and technique and perhaps, because of this, thematic or expressive ideas may be perceived as secondary to the impact of a given work. However, by contemplating given works, such as the   Origami NOW! collection of works at PEM, from a   more deeply considered point of view, the thematic and expressive elements of the work begins to overshadow the once-dominant aspects of medium and technique.    Finally,the alert viewer will realize that, in fact, a harmony of technique nd expression, media and idea has been reached in the most capably articulated works, while in less-capable works, a lack of balance restricts the viewer to a predominantly technical appreciation.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   For example, a piece from the Origami NOW! exhibition such as Eric Joisels Pangolin   is very effective at eliciting a response of admiration and even surprise of wonder at the technique involved in sculpting (or more properly: folding) paper into the shape of a convincingly realistic animal form which suggests an armadillo. On the other hand, although the animal offers a meaningful gesture, as though it is eating or drinking, the overall impact of the piece fails to gain any truly expressive or meaningful energy. It is simply a technically admirable piece.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   By contrast, Joel Coopers Gemini, is a deeply expressive piece which evokes stone relief carvings in origami. The faces are, themselves, primitive and expressive, but the thematic impact of the piece is much deeper than the surface level facial expression of the pieces central figures. The piece derives important impact from its sub-text of transference: ancient stone to ephemeral paper, which makes a statement about human civilization and history and the ephemerality of human monuments, and arty itself, while simultaneously elevating the ephemerality of the medium and technique (origami) to a sympathetic relationship to ancient art and antiquity.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Yet another piece, Spike Sphere, by   Thomas Hull, straddles the line between expressiveness and technical precision without ever falling precisely on one side or another. In effect, Hulls piece is the most harmonious of those examples of origami on exhibition at PEM. The overt impact of Hulls piece is that of geometrical expressionism, using a complex geometrical shape to express theme. In my opinion, Hulls Spike Sphere is meant to represent no less than the entire human cosmos in a single figure of origami. I said human because the piece reflects a particularly human concept of wholeness as in other geometrical abstractions: globes, the atom, stars, galaxies and even some scientific models of the multi-verse.     Hulls figure is spherical and colored like a budding flower, but spiked suggesting pain, danger, emotional response. This precise configuration of human emotion and abstract form, coupled with organic coloring and an holistic gesture elevates Hulls piece to the highest levels. This work is a masterpiece which reveals the origami, as a medium, embodies much more than the stunned admiration for technique and cleverness associated with folding paper creatively and expressively.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The impact of placing such a diverse collection of works that all make use of a similar medium and technique shoulder to shoulder in an exhibition   like the Origami NOW! exhibition is to invite the viewer to explore the full range of capacities that a medium and technique have to offer. From simple constructs which showcase technique over thematic expression to thematic all driven pieces which test the boundaries of the associated techniques and medium, the   Origami NOW! exhibition is superbly put together and dynamically stimulating for those viewers patient and perceptive enough to gauge the full impact of these   richly imaginative works.

Applying Political Theories to US Politics

Applying Political Theories to US Politics Collin Laguzza Dr. Jividen Tocqueville argued that Puritanism was almost as much a political theory as a religious doctrine. Puritan’s were influenced by Christianity and deeply applied that to their life style. Their main beliefs were based on the justice and perseverance of God. Since the Puritans believed in God’s grace and salvation, they were also led to self-government. The main element of their life style was based on the approach of the covenant where all relationships within the Puritans were established under the terms of a covenant. A political theory values justice and power and the Puritans justice and power were based on God. This is why Tocqueville claims that Puritan politics and their religious beliefs intertwine. Tocqueville and Locke suggest that there is an important distinction between liberty and license. Liberty is having freedom within the laws of nature but also recognizes consequences. License is the freedom to do as you please. This is where the distinction between liberty and license is argued. This is because one doesn’t have the right to kill oneself or another. Therefore, one must preserve themselves and mankind. However, the contradiction mostly lies in where the boundaries lie of having the right to enforce natural law against those who violate their rights, and the punishments of their violators. Locke expresses that the State of Nature is not a State of License. Overall, law provides freedom to do as what one wants. However, one’s freedom lies within the boundaries of that law. Tocqueville argues that America was able to combine the spirit of two things thought to be in perpetual tension. These two things are religion and liberty. Tocqueville expresses that religion is responsible for human capability while liberty perceives religion and most importantly the security of laws. These work together because liberty pertains to the freedom of one and their choice of beliefs. This results in every individual to have their own distinctive beliefs without violating law and secures their equality. Locke’s definition of political power is: The right to make laws for protection and regulation of property. In my understanding, Locke feels as if laws only work because they are accepted by people and have a positive effect on the public. In the State of nature, an individual claims his private property that was something that was originally held common when that individual uses his or her own labor to come into possession of something. Locke states that one can only accommodate as many things that are in reasonable use. Land has become scarce because nature offers necessities and the more mankind can make use of it, less land will be available. Locke believes that war is caused when one human’s action makes a menace attempt towards another human. In the State of Nature, there are certain inconveniences. The State of Nature grants the right to punish any violator. To solve inconveniences within the State of Nature, Locke answers by anticipating a right of revolution. This grants the people the right to change or over throw government if the government fails to protect natural rights of the people. The majority of the people decide whether the government is protecting the rights of the people. Rights are unalienable when they cannot be taken away. All humans possess unalienable rights at birth. These rights cannot be given to another being, or surrendered with the exception of the holder of those rights. According the John Adams, tyrants sought to discourage the people from learning. They did by ordering the people to do simply do as they say because the tyrants oppressed the people. In my opinion, general enlightenment is crucial to free government because each individual should have knowledge of their government and what laws they are to abide by. According to Hamilton, morality is sown into human nature. He expresses that their maker, gives them reason to acquire the natural rights that are built into their nature. Hamilton explains his difference of the State of Nature with Thomas Hobbes’ State of Nature is that humans are born with rights, whereas Hobbes argues that humans are given rights until they are born within a formed government. Hobbes states that morality bonds with politics and that our moral actions are only performed for our survival knowing that a government can punish us for violating such laws. James Otis claims that sovereignty is ultimately derived from the people. His statement of â€Å" the government is founded on the necessity of our natures,† means that our government was formed to allow humans to freely think, feel, or act naturally and independently. This also means that the government is to protect natural rights in order to maintain equality amongst the people. According to the Declaration of Independence, the statement â€Å" all men are created equal,† means that human being are all born and will remain equal in the eyes of law. Governments are instituted among men to secure natural rights and whenever government does not secure the peoples natural rights, the people have the right to alter government and develop a new government. Essay A. 625 words Traditional American politics suggest that man is endowed at birth with inalienable rights. The origin of inalienable rights influenced America’s founding fathers who sought to protect people from conflict by providing law and order. These rights are incapable of being taking away or given up. The government of the United States was founded on the principle of that all human beings are naturally and equally endowed with inalienable rights. Inalienable rights have impacted several aspects of America’s government which originated from several enlightenment thinkers. John Locke, an English Philosopher, argued that rights are given to man that cannot be taken or given away. These rights are known as natural rights. The formulations of these rights are life, liberty, and property. In his book Two Treatise of Government, Locke intertwines the idea of natural law, equality, and the state of nature. Natural law holds humans subject to morality. Morality is essentially human’s duty to abide to natural laws. Mankind’s right is basically moral fact leading to the sole purpose of government. That is to safeguard the rights of mankind. Locke highlights the state of nature, claiming that men are free, equal, and at liberty to do what they want. However, mankind’s action’s must be done within the boundaries of the law of nature. This supports that natural equality of inalienable rights serve as the moral and theoretical basis of government by consent of the governed. Since humanity acquires natural and unalienable rights at birth, humankind must enter a society that accepts those rights, and protects them. Before government is formed, man lives in a state of nature. In this state of nature, man is guided by God’s intentions of the laws of nature. Locke’s Second Treatise of Government highlights the importance of equality in which forms from the state of nature. Man is free and equal according to the state of nature. Locke feels that man will be assured that he is free and equal when he enters a society making equality the driving force of Locke’s political argument. Equality is key to the establishment of government as long as government holds responsibility of maintaining a safe and stable society that protects natural rights. Man is born free but gives up some freedom in order to establish government to maintain social order. Thomas Jefferson stated that unalienable rights are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Locke highly influenced Jefferson as Jefferson used Locke’ s concepts of how rulers only rule through the consent of the governed. This mirrors Locke’s political documents. Locke’s works however, had some inconveniences. If the government violates the people’s rights of life, liberty and property, then then people have the right to alter or abolish their government and create a new one that suits their needs. For example, a government may grow tyrannical and no longer represents the people taking away their freedom and rights. In solution, Locke claims that the people have the right to dissent against government. Natural equality and inalienable rights also serve as the basis of limited government. Limited government is based on consent where the people’s rights may not be violated. Locke thought that this proper role of government would allow humanity to blossom because of their God given ability of reason. Overall, government solely exists for the people’s well being. If a government fails to protect rights, then the people have the right to over throw and replace. Governments are only factors that contribute to humanities morality. Because of humankind’s morality, human beings are naturally and equality endowed with inalienable rights that have influenced America’s way of government. John Locke and Thomas Jefferson were two men who sought to create leadership that worked with the people, not an individual who had total control of the people. Essay B. 279 Puritanism is felt across American because the Puritans were the first settlers who spread their ideas and values throughout the land. Alex de Tocqueville considered the Puritans as America’s founders. This is because of their influence on America’s character. John Adams also supports that the Puritans had great contribution to the development of America. The Puritans settled in American and where English protestants who became unhappy with the church of England. They felt as if to much power rested with priests, bishops, and cardinals who were the highest officials in the church. The Puritans stressed Bible readings and wanted religious community members to be directly involved with church. According to Tocqueville and Adams, the Puritan value affected American society in a positive way. They developed the concept of limited government as they believed that no single person or group of people should be trusted to run the government. They had a highly emphasized education which led to American school systems and we have also adopted their ethics of honesty, and work. I agree with Tocqueville and Adams who state that the Puritans were the stepping stoles of American democracy. The fact that the Puritans believed that government should be limited and not ran by a single individual reflects in several enlightenment thinkers whose works h ave highly influenced our government. For example, Thomas Jefferson wrote the Deceleration of Independence using John Locke’s philosophy. Without the Puritans, American Democracy could be altered in several ways. The Puritans are important in the development of American democracy because they have instilled many features upon our government. Culturally they have influenced self-reliance and a strong emphasis on education.

Decision-Making Process of Chinas Economic Sanctions

Decision-Making Process of Chinas Economic Sanctions It is undoubtedly that the rest of the world are increasingly concerned of Chinas economic power and how will China intend to use the power to advance geopolitical ends. China has enjoyed rapid economic growth since the introduction of market reforms in 1978. The unprecedented economic growth has made China becoming the second biggest economy in the world in the year 2010. Not only did Chinas economic power improves, the significant economic growth has also provided China with greater opportunity and strength to increase political influence abroad through economic means, so called economic statecraft. Today economic statecraft has become an ever more evident feature of Chinas behavior in the international system, as the level of interdependence between China and the global economic grows. To define economic statecraft more clearly, this study will rely on Baldwins (1985) definition. Baldwin defines economic statecraft as the use of economic levers by states attempting to influence other international actors through offering economic incentives or imposing negative sanctions[1]. In other words, economic statecraft is divided into positive incentives and negative sanctions, and these will take in the forms of trade and capital. For example, positive incentives in the form of trade are favorable tariff discrimination and trade subsidies, while capital incentives in the form of capital are foreign aid and investment guarantees. Examples of negative sanctions in the form of trade are embargo, boycott, and unfavorable tariff discrimination, while sanctions in the form of capital are aid suspension, freezing assets and financial control. Chinese leaders generally prefer carrots over sticks, as economic incentives provide mutual benefits to both economies and thus resulting in a win-win outcome. Examples are Chinas foreign aid activities in developing countries and Chinas free trade agreement with other countries, which both cases not only enable China to strengthen its relationship with other countries but also allow both countries to benefit economically. While the use of economic sanctions by China has been rather rare, which is not a surprising phenomenon. This is because China has a long-standing stance on the opposition of economic sanction[2]. It opposes sanctions as a way of resolving issues and condemns sanctions as an immoral punishment of vulnerable and the innocent populations. Chinas opposition is demonstrated through top Chinese leaders publicly criticized other countries for imposing economic sanctions to punish wrongdoers. One example is that a Chinese foreign ministry official, Jiang Yu responded to t he Frenchs call for massive sanctions against Iran to cease its nuclear program in 2009, China always believes that sanctions a pressure should not be an option and will not be conducive to the current diplomatic efforts over the Iran nuclear issues.[3] Another example is that the Chinese foreign minister, Wang Yi opposes sanctions on North Korea and expressed his view to the Japanese counterpart that unilateral sanctions were not the only answer to managing the situation on the Korean Peninsula and it would not resolve the nuclear issue of North Korea[4]. These two examples reflect Chinas belief of inefficacy of sanctions. Besides public critics of sanctions, China had also employed its Security Council veto to oppose against sanctions on countries including Myanmar in 2007, Zimbabwe in 2008, Syria in 2011 and 2012. Not only did Beijing thinks sanction is ineffective, but it also think sanction can inflict injury to the target countrys economy and the living of its people[5]. Beijing has repeatedly insisted that peaceful means should be employed as the priority option to resolve conflict, while sanction should only be used as a last resort[6]. Indeed Chinas opposition stance on sanctions is consistent with its commitment to peaceful development and its pursuit as a responsible power. Chinas peaceful development has been the central theme of Chinese foreign policy since 2004. Beijing sees peaceful development as crucial to preserve a peaceful environment for sustaining its economic development and stability. In other words, China advocates a world with peace and harmony, in which all countries are benef iting from the shared prosperity. China also has been working towards to build its image as a responsible power to mitigate Chinas threat theory through proactively involve in international affairs. Despite Beijings long standing negative perception of economic sanctions, there is a trend of China increasingly make use of economic coercion in the international arena, which marks a new and significant phenomenon that contradicts with Chinas rhetoric and its long-standing stance. This is evidenced in the four cases that will be further explored in the later chapters. The first case is Chinas proposed economic sanctions on USs companies that engages in arms sell to Taiwan in 2010. The second case is Chinas imports ban of crude soy oil from Argentina as a retaliation in response to Sino-Argentina tension in 2010. The third case is where China imposed an export ban of rare-earth on Japan in face of the Sino-Japanese tension in the disputed maritime island in 2010. The last case is Chinas restriction on Philippiness imported bananas following the Scarborough Shoal incident in 2012.These cases indicate the increasing propensity of China to exercise economic coercions. The question pres ents here is that provided Chinas negative perception of economic sanction, why China still imposes economic sanction on other countries as a tool of economic statecraft? What are the decision process driving China to exercise economic sanctions? What are the characteristics of Chinese economic sanctions? It is also worth noting that majority of the existing literature on Chinese economic statecraft focuses on the effects and efficacy of Chinese economic statecraft rather than on its motives and application. Because examples of Chinese economic coercion are relatively limited and understudied, an in-depth analysis of Chinas economic sanction is vital to understand the decision making process and what triggers China to resort to coercion especially in recent years. This study also further seek to explain how Chinas exercise of economic sanction fits into Chinas grand policy? This paper builds on Chinas economic statecraft literature specifically Chinese economic sanction in the field of International Political economy (IPE) by drawing key definition and concepts from influential works. 1. Economic Sanctions and its effectiveness As discussed in Chapter 1, economic sanctions are stemming from economic statecraft. Daniel Drezner (2003) defines economic coercion as the threat or act by a sender government to disrupt economic exchange with the target state, unless the target acquiesces to articulated demand.[7] Many scholars have used sender to refer to the state that imposes the sanction, while target means the sanctioned countries. However it is noted that many studies today have used the term economic coercion and economic statecraft interchangeably despite that they are different[8]. To align with the current studies, this paper will treat these two terms as equivalent. There two major weaknesses with this definition. First, Drezners definition of sanction is too restrictive. It only views the behavioral change as the only desired outcome of sanctions by the sender, which in this case is the acquiescence to the senders demand. However, sanctions can also have outcomes such as signal and deterrence. Second, t he definition limits itself to only one desired outcome by the sender. In fact, senders are able to achieve more than one outcome on the target by imposing sanctions. Lindsay and Giumelli demonstrate that economic sanctions can achieve outcomes other than behavioral change and hold multiple goals. Lindsay claims that sanction can take up to five different actions including compliance, subversion, deterrence, international symbolism, or domestic symbolism[9]. Giumelli also defines three dimension that sanction can take, which are coercion, constraint and signal[10]. For the purpose of this paper, I will utilize Giumellis three means of economic sanction to evaluate my dependent variables in Chapter 3. Most existing literature on economic sanctions focus on measuring the successful rate of economic sanctions. While the majority of literature in the 1970s and 1980s saw the low successful rate of economic sanction, many scholars concluded economic sanction to be ineffective. The study conducted by Hufbauer, Schott and Elloitt is one of the first to challenge the negative perception and finds that 34 percent of cases in economic sanctions were successful in the twentieth century[11]. However, the findings has later been contested by other scholars. Scholar like Robert Pape re-conducted the study using the same dataset, yet he finds less than 5 percent of sanctions had succeeded and concludes their study inflated the success rate[12]. On the other hand, Drezner holds an opposite view than Paper where he asserts that success rate is potentially undervalued as a result of selection biases[13]. He argues that there were many cases where economic coercion ended at the threat phase rather than the impositions phase. These cases show greater chances of succeeding than when they are imposed due to change of pre-emptive behavior. Since Hufbauer et al. select those cases that are less likely to succeed when sanctions are imposed, Drezner argues that they downplays the role of hidden hand of economic coercion and hence the success rate is far higher. These researches share the common weakness in which they have solely depended on the behavioral change criterion to gauge the successfulness of economic sanction. This problem is exactly the same as the definition earlier. Without taking into account other effects of economic sanction, the effectiveness of sanction cannot be measured. This raises a question if really economic sanctions are proved to be so unsuccessful in practice, why policymakers still depended on it for its state governance? Not to mention that today there is still no consensus reached as to the degree of success of economic sanctions. This is because of a lack of a shared model for the study of successful sanctions. However, in general scholars agree on that a successful economic sanctions is to keep the target costs of deadlock and potential vulnerabilities large while having the cost of imposing small. For instance, Hufbauer et al. in its 3rd book edition advise that policymakers require to evaluate both the vul nerability of the target country to prospective sanctions and the viability of maintaining the sanctions regime[14]. Drezner in his book the sanctions paradox illustrates the importance to enlarge the gap in the costs of sanctions impositions, meaning to maximize the targets costs of noncompliance and minimize the senders costs of imposition[15]. Beside this, he also argues that the low expectation of future conflict between the sender and target will make sanctions more likely to succeed. His argument has proven to explain why allies are more likely to take larger concession than the case with adversaries. It is worthy to note that the tools of economic sanctions are increasingly effective today than a decade ago, with improving abilities to enlarge the costs of targets while limit the senders costs. Smart or targeted sanction is one of them, where it was first introduced in 1990s. Smart sanctions are different to comprehensive sanctions in that they impose sanctions by targeting an individual or limited sectors compared to targeting the whole country[16]. By doing so, smart sanctions are able to effectively increase the costs in that group while reduce the humanitarian effects on the target countrys population and disruptive economic impacts to other sectors. Asymmetric interdependence is another major tool that has been increasingly used by policymakers. Hirschman demonstrates that asymmetry interdependence serves as a source of power to the stronger and larger states as they have the coercive leverage over the weaker and smaller states, with the smaller states are depended on the economy of the larger state[17]. Building on the concepts of Hirschman, Robert Keohane argues that asymmetric interference can also apply to weaker states provided that they have the asymmetric advantage in certain groups of the stronger states[18]. This thinking has challenged the original idea of asymmetry and provide explanation of why would weaker states impose sanctions on stronger states. Undoubtedly, the recent evolution of sanction tools stemming from the classical ones has increased the proliferation of the use economic sanctions. 2. Chinese economic sanctions Few scholars have commented on Chinas economic sanctions, and little remains to be found in the literature on this topic. This is simply because, strictly speaking, China does not formally impose economic sanctions unilaterally on other countries. Instead, China pursues other economic maneuvers that essentially have the same effect. To remain politically correct and technically accurate though, scholars use the term economic coercion to describe Chinas behaviour. Despite sharing the same objectives, economic sanctions mainly used by rich western countries and economic coercion have its own defining characteristics. Specifically, Chinas use of economic coercion is informal and indirect[19]. The Chinese government would never declare the true reason for the economic restrictions. Instead, other unrelated reasons are cited, leaving the target country to connect the dots themselves. Some scholars are starting to believe that Chinas longstanding practice of shunning economic sanctions will soon come to an end. Beijing has become increasingly reliant on economic coercion to solicit policy change or as a means to send a message[20]. As the number and degree of tensions escalate, economic coercion may not be adequate. Chinas growing economic clout is another alarming development for some. With greater power, some scholars fear that China would be more inclined to use what is readily available at their disposal. On the opposite side of the argument, scholars believe that China would continue its limited use of economic policies as a tool. The argument goes like this: Economic coercion or sanctions are detrimental to Chinas core national interests[21]. In particular, Beijing places great emphasis on peaceful development and creating a good international image. Imposing sanctions or coercion on other countries can seriously undermine that objective. Moreover, the stringent rules of the WTO greatly restricts the range of options that is available to Beijing. Pursuing an aggressive economic coercion strategy puts undue risks of violating WTO rules and damaging the countrys economic health.   1. Hypotheses After the analysis of literature review of economic sanctions, the following hypotheses are made to address the research question why China imposes economic sanctions? What trigger the use of economic sanctions? What are the distinctive characteristics of Chineses economic coercion? H1: China exercises economic sanction on non-allied countries when they harm Chinas national interest provided that the gain derived from sanction outweigh the cost. This hypothesis is built on the foundation of Drezners Sanction Paradox theory, which argues that sanctioning states are more likely to sanction adversaries than allies despite a lower success rate. The adversaries would take a larger concessions if target incurs significant more costs than senders costs. Since China views economic sanction as a last resort of resolving conflict, China will only imposes coercion when its core interest is infringed. In this case, the independent variable is damage or no damage to Chinas national security, while the dependent variable is the use of sanction. H2: China uses economic sanction where there is a sectorial asymmetric economic advantage over the target country Asymmetric economic advantage allows China to have a higher chance of success in achieving its political goals in target countries with limited costs. This hypothesis also considers the importance of smart sanction for Chinas decision to impose sanction. In specific, asymmetric economic advantage in a certain sectors offers coercive leverage and source of power to contest against equally strong or stronger countries. China takes advantage of the sectorial asymmetric advantage not only can generate the most optimal benefit-cost outcome but also minimize negative impacts on the whole economy and humanitarian impacts on the population. Independent variable is economic sanctions with sectorial asymmetric economic advantage, and dependent variable is the use of economic coercion. H3: China uses implicit economic sanctions as its prioritized option and uses explicit economic sanction as a last resort Implicit economic sanction indicates sanctions in a non-declared and closed-door settings. The implicit feature of economic sanctions allows China to gain flexibility and minimize diplomatic fallout. It also allows China to reveal a relatively more consistent image of a responsible power that advocates peaceful development and peaceful resolution. China will only adopt explicit economic sanctions if implicit sanctions cannot work. The independent variable in this hypothesis is implicit economic sanction, and dependent variable is the use of economic sanction. 3. Case Studies In order to examine the validity of these three hypotheses that together contribute to reasons why China uses economic sanctions. This study explores four case studies where China imposed economic sanctions against four different countries, which are the 2010 Sino-Taiwan arms war, the 2010 Sino-Argentina crude soy oil, the 2010 Sino-Japan rare earth war, and the 2012 Sino-Philippine banana war. In order to reduce the selection and personal biases, this study compares four case studies and identifies the similarities and differences between these studies. On top of that, quantitative measures is also adopted. In detail, the monetary costs of both the sender and target countries, the time period of the target countrys response to Chinas sanctions, as well as the impact of the sanction on the countrys economy are measured. Given that these four cases are all trade sanctions, trade statistics are collected from United Nations Commodity Trade Statistics (UN Comrade). These statistical results will also be contrasted case-by-case and is subsequently review together with the qualitative results. Even though the quantitative measures are not used to measure the effectiveness of Chinese coercion levers, they provide insights on the rationale why China employs these levers. The result can also confirm Chinas implementation of implicit economic coercions, as some may argue that Chinas moves are not economic sanction where they are independent of those incidents. Timeline/schedule for the thesis January: Amend and Complete literature Review and methodology chapters Research and examine the current literature on the four case studies February: Analysis of the qualitative analysis of four case studies and make comparison between the four Conduct quantitative analysis of the case studies and make comparison March: Interpretation of the results from both qualitative and quantitative analysis and make conclusion April Final submission [1] Baldwin David, Economic Statecraft (New Jersey: Princeton UP, 1985), 40-42. [2] James Reilly, Chinas Unilateral Sanctions, The Washington Quarterly 35, no. 4 (2012): 121-133. [3] Willem V. Kemenade, China vs. the Western Campaign for Iran Sanction, The Washington Quarterly 33, no. 3 (2010): 99-114. [4] Huileng Tan, China tells Japan sanctions against North Korea wont resolve nuclear issue, CNBN, September 14, 2016, http://www.cnbc.com/2016/09/14/china-tells-japan-sanctions-against-north-korea-wont-resolve-nuclear-issue.html (accessed December 8, 2016) [5] Mu Ren, Chinas Non-intervention Policy in UNSC Sanctions in the 21st Century: The Cases of Libya, North Korea, and Zimbabwe, Ritsumeikan International Affairs 12, (2014):101-134 [6] Ibid. [7] Daniel W Drezner, The Hidden Hand of Economic Coercion, International Organization 57, no. 3 (2003): 643-659. [8] Baldwin David, Economic Statecraft (New Jersey: Princeton UP, 1985) [9] James M Lindsay, Trade Sanctions As Policy Instruments: A Re-Examination, International Studies Quarterly 30, no. 2 (1986): 153-173 [10] Francesco Giumelli, Coercing, Constraining and Signalling: Explaining UN and EU Sanctions After the Cold War (Colchester: ECPR Press, 2011), 3 [11] Gary C. Hufbauer and Jeffrey J. Schott and Kimberly A. Elliott, Economic Sanctions Reconsidered: Supplemental Case Histories, (Washington, D.C.: Institute for International Economics, 1990) [12] Robert A Pape, Why Economic Sanctions Still Do Not Work, International Security 23, no.1 (1998): 66. [13] Daniel W Drezner, The Hidden Hand of Economic Coercion, International Organization 57, no. 3 (2003): 643-659. [14] Gary C. Hufbauer and Jeffrey J. Schott and Kimberly A. Elliott, Economic Sanctions Reconsidered: Supplemental Case Histories, (Washington, D.C.: Institute for International Economics, 2009), 690 [15] Daniel W Drezner, The Sanctions Paradox: Economic Statecraft and International Relations, (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999), 13 [16] Daniel W Drezner, Sanctions Sometimes Smart: Targeted Sanctions in Theory and Practice, International Studies Review 2011, no. 13 (2011): 96-108 [17] Albert Hirschman, National Power and the Structure of Foreign Trade,(Berkeley: University of California Press, 1980). [18] Robert Keohane, and Joseph Nye, Power and Interdependence, 238-240. [19] James Reilly, Chinas Unilateral Sanctions, The Washington Quarterly 35, no. 4 (2012): 121-133. [20] Bonnie Glaser, Chinas Coercive Economic Diplomacy: A New and Worrying Trend,CSIS, August 6, 2012, https://www.csis.org/analysis/chinas-coercive-economic-diplomacy-new-and-worrying-trend, (Accessed on 11 December 2016) [21] Jianwei, Liu. Is china an emerging sanctioning state? Cooperation for a Peaceful and Sustainable World Part 2, 2013, 225-240.   

freud - is civilisation problematic :: essays research papers

DOES FREUD’S PSYCHOANALYTIC INTERPRETATION OF THE PSYCHE TURN CIVILIZED EXISTENCE INTO SOMETHING PROBLEMATIC? The question I have chosen is   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã¢â‚¬Å"Does Freud’s psychoanalytic interpretation of the psyche turn civilized existence into something problematic?†   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  This question is essentially asking whether what Freud believes about the human psyche (or mind) contradict a belief in an harmonious society, and therefore is civilised existence essentially nothing but a dilemma.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  I will attempt to answer this question by drawing on what Freud postulated about the psychical. This will then be used to explain why the ‘human psyche’ is on a constant quest for ‘the whole’, or satisfaction, and how this only leads only to constant discontent and an unconscious drive for self-destruction, known as the ‘death instinct.’   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Firstly, Freud proposed many theories about the psyche, the basis of which being the segmenting of the psychical into three sections: the conscious, the unconscious and the preconscious. The conscious is the section of the mind containing thoughts that we are aware of. Conscious experiences can be thought about rationally as well as verbalised. The unconscious is the section of the mind that is not directly accessible to awareness, and has been described as a ‘dump box’ for thoughts and emotions relating to hurt, conflict and anxiety. Freud argues that these thoughts and emotions have not disappeared but that they are constantly, unconsciously, influencing what we do and the decisions we make. And finally, the preconscious is where ordinary memory is stored. Thoughts and feelings stored here are neither conscious nor unconscious, however, they are capable of becoming conscious at any time . This division is the foundation of psychoanalysis, and understanding its complexities is necessary when one is to comprehend mental pathological processes. In Freud’s analysis of civilisation, he postulated that civilisation has two characteristics, which are inter-dependent upon one another. As stated by Freud in The Future of an Illusion, civilisation ‘includes on the one hand all the knowledge and capacity that men have acquired in order to control the forces of nature and extract its wealth for the satisfaction of human needs, and, on the other hand, all the regulations necessary in order to adjust the relations of men to one another and especially the distribution of the available wealth.’ In other words, civilisation is characterised by the knowledge man has gained and used to manipulate the forces of nature with the purpose of satisfying man’s needs, as well as the regulations which alter man’s interactions with each another and the allocation of wealth.

In Search of King Arthur :: Internet Literature Essays

In Search of King Arthur Ever since I was a little girl, I was fascinated by stories of courageous knights and virtuous ladies, who populate the covers and pages of books and screens of the movie theaters. Their splendid attire, glamour of the courts and impeccable manners attracted and conquered the imagination of the little girl. Robin Hood was one of my favorite characters, however there was one hero, who troubled my imagination most of all. I have heard and read numerous stories of a magnificent, just and most generous king of all, King Arthur. Legends and myths surrounding the adventures of this character preoccupied my thoughts and pulled me into reading marathons. Today, several years later, I am continuing to indulge my interests. Luckily there is so much material available on the Internet on the subject of King Arthur's and his knights' adventures that I don't have any trouble locating the material interesting to me. Moreover, I have found the following Internet sites most useful in studying the top ic of King Arthur's adventures: Britannia.com (http://www.britannia.com/history/h12.html), The History and Historicisation of Arthur (http://www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~tomgreen/arthur.htm) and Legends (http://legends.dm.net/kingarthur/index.html.). Britannia.com is a very well-structured website. The home page of this Internet site is organized in a manner that allows a viewer to locate necessary information speedily and with ease. However, besides being well structured, the site contains all the essential information related to King Arthur and other main characters of the legend such as Merlin, Guinevere. Information on Geoffrey of Monmounth, the author of the History of the Kings of Britain, is also available. A viewer only needs to click on Arthur, the King (http://www.britannia.com/history/arthur/kaking.html) in order to find numerous hypotheses of King Arthur's birth and origin as well as general theories of his existence: "Arthur, it seems, is claimed as the king of nearly every Celtic Kingdom know" (Arthur, the King, p.1). Here King Arthur is claimed to be a Breton king, a Dumnonian king, a Cumbrian king, an Elmet king, a Scottish king, a Powysian king, among others. Many historians such as Geoffrey Ashe, Graham Philips and Martin Keatman identify Arthur with various noble houses that occupied territories of Great Britain and Scotland. Furthermore, Britannia.com contains links to such material as Timeline of Arthurian History (http://www.britannia.com/history/timearth.html). These pages contain a detailed timeline, starting from 63 A.D., with Joseph of Arimathea's coming to Glastonbury, bringing with him the Holy Grail, and ending in 1090 A.

Abraham Lincoln: Gettysburg Address Essay

Abraham Lincoln, the 16th President of the United States of America, summed up the ideals that would go on to shape one of the most powerful nations of the world. Although President Lincoln’s speech was about ten lines, in which he delivered in two minutes, he moved not just the people who had gathered for the honoring of the soldiers who bravely gave their lives in Gettysburg while fighting for freedom, but also people across the globe. In ten lines the President spoke not only about American independence, but about freedom in general. Lincoln addressed the people, by saying it was their job as a whole to continue the soldiers job to make sure this nation remains a democracy with the set beliefs on liberty and equality. He stressed the fact that liberty and equality were the core components for this rising nation; they needed to consider the lives lost in the attempt to unite the nation from what divide it and pay tribute to the brave soldiers. Lincoln emphasized on the fact that the Gettysburg Address may be forgotten in time, but not the soldiers who willingly laid down their lives for a better tomorrow. He urged the gathering to take up the cause and complete the task at hand, to make sure democracy would remain in a government â€Å"of the people, by the people, and for the people†. The speech by Abraham Lincoln, in a way defined the Civil War by centering it on the nations belief system and democracy instead of separating the north from the south. See more: Social process essay He broadcasted the struggle as one meant to witness the rebirth of freedom and people’s power over the state. The Battle of Gettysburg was a turning point in the civil war, making the battlefield a burial ground for hundreds of soldiers. Its significance lies in the fact that Lincoln’s war effort challenged the outcome that otherwise seemed in favor of the south. The importance of the Gettysburg Address sent the individuality of the nation’s commitment to democracy like punch or blow to the opposition. Lincoln had effectively made the people aware of their rights and declared the government accountable to the people. He redefined democracy as by the citizens’ will and not some property of the state legislatures. The Gettysburg Address now finds its place on the south wall of the Lincoln Memorial. It is an inseparable part of numerous works in popular culture, designed for present-day audiences. Democracies around the world have now adopted the definition of democracyfrom the very words of Abraham Lincoln. Lincoln may have passed on, but his words still live in the hearts of many, inspiring and preaching to them the values of democracy as they strive towards better futures for their nations in attempt to base them on the values stated of liberty and equality.

Nutritional adventurism Essay

This article is about the effect of the show ‘MasterChef’ on the nutritional adventurism and culinary knowledge of children. The show is a reality game show about cooking, hosted by two chefs. The article explains how the show had appealed to young audiences. ‘MasterChef’, claims the article, has caused an increase in television ratings for the channel from which it is shown. The show has also given children extra culinary knowledge. Now, children are more interested and more critical about what they eat. They also judge their own food and the food prepared by their parents or other people. The show sparked numerous cooking lessons and workshops. Numerous recipes featured on the show have also been downloaded over the internet. Personal Opinion: I always believe that teaching children how to cook will help them in the future. Culinary skills learned early will definitely result to future households where food is a primary concern. MasterChef, and its effects on young audiences illustrates the possibility of making young audiences interested not only in the cooking show but more importantly in the food that they eat. Summary 2: This article is about the Community Gardens program which has three goals; to bring the community and the government together to address nutritional problems, to promote horticultural knowledge and initiate an exchange of indigenous horticultural knowledge, and to create an indigenous garden industry which will give communities livelihood and address their health needs. According to the article, collaboration in the community in horticulture gives the community a sense of food security because gardens are just as important as water systems. The article also illustrates how the program has succeeded in bringing together communities and encouraging innovative ways of horticulture. The fringe benefit of all these is the availability of healthy produce for the communities in which the program was implemented. Personal Opinion: I have confidence in the health benefits of organic and fresh food. The essence of community gardening comes to me not only as a means of providing the opportunity for communities to eat healthy but also the opportunity for communities to value the fruits of community effort. The Community Gardens Program is one such program that fosters fellowship and concern among community members while making healthy food available at the same time. Summary 3: Wangkatjungka is the main focus of this article where the establishment of home vegetable patches was apparently spurred by childrens’ school projects. Many vegetable patches mushroomed all over town because of this and each household began to eat what they produced. This was a very welcome change for the people of Wangkatjungka, second to the community ban on alcohol. According to the article, the establishment of household vegetable patches has made organic and healthier food available for the children and the adults. The article claims that this trend in backyard gardening has contributed so much to the community in that it has vowed to support and continue the project until each household in the community has their own vegetable patch. Personal Opinion: Having your own vegetable patch is such a good idea for me that I might even be starting my own. This article has given me enough new insights to consider the benefits of backyard grown produce and look into the possibility of having my own vegetable garden. I like fresh vegetables, and I like freshly picked organic fruits and vegetables even better. Summary 4: The relationship of diabetes and the eating habits of people is tackled in this article. In it a study by a certain Himsworth is mentioned that showed why third world countries had lesser incidence of diabetes and obesity compared to Western countries. The article attributes this to the kind of food that people eat in these countries; third world countries have more unprocessed carbohydrates and adequate animal protein in their diets than in Western countries. The article also outlines the value of healthy and basic or simpler eating in the control of diabetes and other metabolic disorders. It states that people who eat more plant or fruit based food are less likely to suffer metabolic disorders like diabetes and obesity. Personal Opinion: There are so many metabolic disorders that cause a myriad of health problems nowadays and it is comforting to know that the best weapon against these diseases is simply, basic and healthy eating. I am a believer in the idiom that ‘prevention is better than a cure’ as well as in the motto that ‘it would be better to spend money on healthy food than on medicine. † The insights offered in this article have encouraged me to eat healthier and begin my pursuit of a longer, healthier life. Summary 5: To sum up this entire article, one can simply say that it taunts at the way the judges in the show MasterChef make their judgments and throw snide comments at their contestants. The article purports that the decision of the MasterChef judges are influenced by the aesthetic or visual quality of the food presented and not by palatability of the food. The article implies that the show does not give justice to the way ordinary people cook, rather it insults the cooking skills of ordinary people by showing that cooking on television is not the same as real cooking, and that in the MasterChef kitchen, one doesn’t have to cook delicious food if one can be chefy with the presentation. Personal Opinion: I have seen the show, MasterChef myself and this article seems to have reason to claim that the judges in the show do not necessarily judge according to how ordinary people cook but have begun to become influenced by how one would expect food prepared by a professional chef. I believe that it is the show’s spontaneity and ‘reality’ that gives it its appeal and if the judges fail to remain in these ideals the show will ultimately fail.

Evaluation on Companies’ Social Accounting

Evaluation on companies’ social accounting Executive summary This report explains the concept of â€Å"social accounting† and analyzes the execution of social accounting in the two companies Corning incorporated and AM-PM Glass Company. The analysis is based on the â€Å"good† principles of social accounting and the accordance to the global standards.And the analysis shows that Corning’s sustainability has a better understanding and consideration about the requirement of social accounting and it makes its own evaluation system based on ISO 14001, and build up a series of standards, but the standards of EMS can not match with GRI on the completeness and concreteness. AM-PM begins well in the practicing of social accounting. But it is not that easy to do well in all aspects of the social accounting, so it has only considered four â€Å"good† principles.While AM-PM takes both AA1000 and GRI as the evaluation standards to assess its performance, and got clear and systematic report results and good reference to its development in the future. Contents Evaluation on companies’ social accounting1 1. Introduction3 2. Definition and explanation of the concept of Social Accounting3 2. 1 Definition and development of concept3 2. 2 Reasons for producing social accounting4 2. Principles of â€Å"Good† and global standards5 3. Critical evaluation on quality of social accounting of two glass companies5 3. 1 Corning Incorporated6 3. 2 AM-PM Glass & Mirror Company8 4. Conclusion10 Reference12 1. Introduction Social accounting is a voluntary process that organizations use to account for their environmental and social impacts. There are both pros and cons telling why organizations decide to engage with this concept of social accounting.The purpose of the report is to evaluate the two glass companies Corning and AM-PM’s social accounting according to the â€Å"good† principles and global standards of social accounting. 2. Definition and explanation of the concept of Social Accounting 2. 1 Definition and development of concept Social accounting refers to the process dealing with organizational assessment and communication of its impacts and activities on relevant issues related to ethics, society and the environment with their appropriate stakeholders (Yanovsky, 2006).It aims to address companies’ social and environmental impacts. Social accounting is also known as social and environmental accounting, corporate social responsibility reporting, or sustainability accounting, and different individual companies usually give different titles, like in Corning, it is called corporate social responsibility report, and in AM-PM Glass & Mirror, it is called sustainability report. The concept of social accounting has got more than 40 years’ development.Abt Associates is among the earliest social accounting practitioners, its social concerns included contribution to knowledge, environment and so on, but there is no specific definition for social accounting. In 1980s, the short book â€Å"Social Audit- A Management Tool for Co-operative Working† is the basis of the early private sector companies’ social responsibility reporting (Spreckley, 1981), and â€Å"Social responsibility reporting† is the early relative formal concept.And in this book, an internal organizational social accounting and audit model are designed to measure individual companies’ social and environmental performance. And with the development of economy and society, the concept of social accounting also gets to a broad and deep domain, which includes the evaluation about every aspect of companies’ social and environmental impacts (Rohinson, 2001; Schwartz and Carroll, 2003). 2. 2 Reasons for producing social accountingThe reasons that individual companies develop social accounting and related reports are as follows. On the negative aspect, employees’ internal pressur es in their urge of wanting to report the environmental and social impacts of the company (Crane and Matten, 2007) can make companies practice the social accounting; and external forces by government agencies, non-governmental organizations, consumers or investors as they seek the company to disclose its impacts of social accounting can also lead to the social accounting.On the positive aspect, social accounting can help individual companies identify and utilize opportunities for cost effectiveness, introduction of profitable eco-friendly products and services, energy saving and environmental protection (Defourny and Thorbecke, 1984). Also, both current and future concerns of stakeholders forewarn companies about any possible area of conflict. Yanovsky (2006) further claimed that companies become aware of the probable risk factors that are capable of affecting their business operations, which afford the chance for companies to prepare the coping mechanism. . 3 Principles of â€Å"G ood† and global standards â€Å"Good† accounts must accord a series of principles. In general, good principles of social accounting have to be inclusive, involving dialogue with stakeholders; to be complete, highlighting the key areas of the individual company’s activities; to be embedded within the organization; to be comparable, undergo external verification, and give room for continuous improvements.These principles should take both companies own management practices and the performance measurements comparison with other companies into consideration (Montgomery and Porter, 1991). Such principles have to be incorporated within the organizational structure, be verified by external auditors and be reviewed on regular basis in order in relation to the targets of its performance and cost effective business opportunities. There are some global standards that are available for companies’ social and environmental reports.For example, Social Accountability Inter national produced SA8000, and it provides workplace issues standards; AccountAblility developed the AA1000S Assurance Standard; The SAN framework, which is suitable for third-sector organisations; ISO1400, which are series of international standards that deal with issues related to environmental management (Porter, et. al. 2009) and Global Reporting Initiative (GRI), which is one of the most practiced standards across the globe and is in its third generation format (G3). 3.Critical evaluation on quality of social accounting of two glass companies This report provides a critical evaluation of two case studies of how the organizations have made use of social accounting concept. The Corning Glass and AM-PM Glass & Mirror Company will be used as examples of companies which have fully put into consideration the social accounting concept. It is a reflection of organizational values and evidence-based actions they undertake towards showing concern to their stakeholders in dealing with thes e issues.The evaluation about the two companies is mainly focus on analyzing the adoption of the â€Å"good† principles and their accordance to the global standards. 3. 1 Corning Incorporated Corning is a multinational company which has about 160 years’ history. Corning is among the best social responsibilities practitioners. The history practicing social responsibilities began before World War One. The chairman James Houghton laid out Corning’s seven Corporate Values: Quality, Integrity, Performance, Leadership, Independence, Innovation, and the Individual.Corning’s strategies are based on the attributes of collaboration, risk-taking, and long-term thinking and so on. According to Corning’s strategy and value system, the best form of corporate social responsibility is equal to â€Å"simple good business† or â€Å"enlightened self-interest† and the good business is constructed by a series of good behaviors including constant interacti on with customers, local communities and government. The social accounting in Corning is named sustainability report. 3. 1. 1 The adoption of â€Å"good† principlesFirst, Corning emphasizes the care and feeding of its major stakeholders, especially the care and feeding for its customers and employees, according to Houghton’s speech in 2004’s company strategy conference. Corning clearly obeys its seven values and takes a set of stakeholders into consideration. It puts attention to labor, women and minorities. Since 1970s, Corning began made efforts to employee women and minorities (Graham, 2010). Second, Corning has complete consideration on social accounting, and highlights impacts of the company’s producing activities to the society and environment.Corning put attention to working conditions, products safety and efficacy, and the environment. According to Corning’s sustainability report, the central elements of the companies’ operation exce llence are protection safety, health and environment (Graham, 2010). Specifically, in order to protect the air, Corning produces ceramic substrates for catalytic converters and tries to eliminating hazardous chemical materials. Third, Corning has a continuously improvement in practicing the social responsibility. Since 1970 to now, Corning consistently shows its care to its stakeholders and the environment.The recent sustainability report is also planed for a long period, and forms a completed environmental protection system, which is including mission, vision, strategy and specific action plans. In process of the energy management, Corning track and measure its greenhouse gas emission, and conducts its related inventory, also, corning launched a global energy management program to guarantee the energy productivity and environmental negative influence. Fourth, Corning has got verification from external organization.Corning reports its previous greenhouse gas emission and got the Reg istry from California Climate Action and the Registry can give a consistent supervision on the continuous execution of the environmental protection and energy management. Fifth, Corning emphasize find the potential improvement, especially those related to performance targets, cost-saving and profitable business opportunities. Corning commits to maintain a long period view of energy and the advanced view require its facilities to utilize energy in a cost-effective and environmentally responsible way.Sixth, corning has embedded professionals related to the social accounting in the process key to success. Corning’s approach embeds an environmental, health and safety professional in the designing group. This embedibility enhance the safety and facilitate the health management system in Corning. 3. 1. 2 Accordance to the global standards In the year of 2004, Corning developed and deployed an Environmental Management System, short for EMS, whose format and substance follows ISO 140 01(Corning Environmental Health & Saftey Brochure, 2007).ISO 14001 is a very series of recognized global standards, and it affords clear and specific requirement for the corporate environmental control group in Corning. Corning facilities have gained many benefits through instituting and adopting the management systems, and due to the rigorous execution, the bad influence to the environment has been reduced. Corning has a pyramid system about EMS, the ISO 14001 stands in the center of the pyramid. And the pyramid shows clear the social accounting procedures. 3. 2 AM-PM Glass & Mirror CompanyAM-PM Glass & Mirror is a residential and commercial glass company that provides exceptional craftsmanship, unsurpassed satisfaction to their customers and gives prompt service through their sustainable innovation and social accounting concept. The company recently outlined its values and objectives in the annual sustainability report, which encompass support to community trade of glass products and its internal judgments on environmental and social performance in relation to achieving its objectives (AM-PM, 2012). 3. 2. 1 The adoption of â€Å"good† principlesAM-PM Glass & Mirror Company follows the three principles of completeness, materiality and responsiveness. First, AM-PM’s sustainability report relates to complete contents of the social responsibilities. It has put attention to both inside and outside of the organization, for example the employee relationships, the sexual and racial ratio, the consideration of the disabled people inside of the organization; and the communication with communities, the campaigns to protect environment outside of the organization. Second, AM-PM’s emphasize the materiality of the action.It stresses that social responsibilities should not only be written in the sustainability report, it must be based on specific actions first, the real practice result and data of the protection, but not only the plans in the report. T hird, responsiveness is the main part that is stressed in the report, it means that AM-PM not only like to be the pioneer in the practice of environmental protection, but also would like follow other companies’ environmental steps. Forth, the values reported in the sustainability report have been externally verified by auditors and a panel of stakeholders.The customers, employees and the communities all give positive comments on the values and actions of AM-PM. 3. 1. 2 Accordance to the global standards AM-PM Glass & Mirror values follow the AA1000 standards of assurance. And its three principles are from these standards. Also, the company values are compliant with the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) Level A guidelines. And the third generation version of GRI gives a series of very clear standards for AM-PM to evaluate its performance comprehensively, which is with respect to specific assessment according laws, codes, norms, and voluntary initiatives.Specifically speaking, the compilation of AM-PM Glass & Mirror Company report was based on covering all the company activities that is vital as far as environmental and social impacts are concerned (AM-PM, 2012). Its social accounting also responds to issues that arise out of its previous reports. The wholesomeness of this report is also realized in that it covers all the areas that the company operates on as required by global reporting initiative which covers the company management approaches, overall company profile, and the categories for measuring performance. . Conclusion In summary, it can be deduced that social accounting is a voluntary process that organizations use to account for their environmental and social impacts. Both pros and cons exist why organizations decide to engage with this concept of social accounting. The analysis of Corning Glass Company and AM-PM Glass & Mirror gives a specific evaluation about their execution of social responsibilities. The result shows that the two organizati ons both have embraced the concept of social accounting.Corning incorporated is a big multinational which has long history of practicing social responsibility, and it has enough experiences to evaluate what kinds of actions would do well to both the company and the environment, and afford benefits to all the shareholders. So in the adoption of â€Å"good† principles, Corning’s sustainability report shows that it has a better understanding and consideration about the requirement of social accounting. In the accordance to the global standards, Corning makes its own evaluation system based on ISO 14001, and build up a series of standards.Corning has not used GRI as its standards to evaluate performance. To some extent, the standards of EMS can not match with GRI on the completeness and concreteness. AM-PM is also a glass company that has short history. It enters the glass industry in a new age that stresses environmental protection and the full communication with sharehol ders. So, it begins well in the practicing of social accounting. But to a new company, it is not that easy to do well in all aspects of the social accounting, so it has only considered four â€Å"good† principles.While AM-PM did well in the accordance to the global standards, it takes both AA1000 and GRI as the evaluation standards to assess its performance, and got clear and systematic report results and good reference to its development in the future. Reference 1. Spreckley, F. (1981). Social Audit: A Management Tool for Co-operative Working. Wales: Beechwood College. 2. Rohinson, S. et al. (2001). â€Å"Updating and Estimating a Social Accounting Matrix Using Cross Entropy Methods†. Economic Systems Research. Vol. 13, No1:47-64. 3. Schwartz, M. S. , Carroll, A. B. (2003). Corporate Social Responsibility: A Three-Domain Approach†. Business Ethics Quarterly. Vol. 13, No. 4:503-530 4. Defourny, J. , and Thorbecke, E. (1984). â€Å"Structural Path Analysis and Mu ltiplier Decomposition within a Social Accounting Matrix Framework†. The Economic Journey. Vol. 94, No 373:111-136 5. Graham, M. B. W (2010). â€Å"Corporate Responsibility at Corning. Incorporated†. History of Corporate Responsibility Project. No. 7 6. Crane, A. , and Matten, D. (2009). Business Ethics. New York: Oxford University Press, p. 9-286. 7. Montgomery, C. A. , and Porter, M. A. 1991). Strategy: Seeking and Securing Competitive Advantage. New York: Harvard Business Press. 8. Porter, M. E. , Kramer, M. R. , and Zadek, S. (2009). Corporate Social Responsibility (HBR Article Collection). New York: Harvard Business Press. 9. Yanovsky, M. (2006). Accounting Systems. London: Transaction Publishers. 10. Corning Environmental Health & Saftey Brochure, 2007. Available at http://www. socialfunds. com/csr/reports/Corning_Incorporated_2007_EHS. pdf [Accessed 10th JUNE 2012]. 11. AM-PM. , 2012. Available at http://www. ampmglass. com/ [Accessed 10th March 2012].

First Generations

In her book First Generations, Carol Berkin basically aims to show the readers the power of women which can be traced through our history. Differentiating itself from traditional historical texts, studies, and researches, the book does not omit the valid experiences of women during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. It wants to show that women of all races -European, Indian, and African- were critical components of 17th- and 18th-century American history.As such, the author tried to examine the various cultures, ideologies, belief and political systems that were present during those early times in relation to the roles and norms that enveloped women. With this goal at hand, she tried to find evidences and narrative accounts of the lives of ordinary women. She tried to figure out how these ordinary lives were governed, affected, and altered by the varying social expectations about women.Through all of this, Berkin tries to emphasize that women were active partakers in the makin g of history and the alteration of social norms, values, and systems even at a time when they were denied of equal rights. The book’s efficacy in providing deeper knowledge of American Culture To identify the efficacy of a classified historical narrative and exploration, the bases that will be used are the conciseness of the narrative, and its accuracy.Basically, the book presented a complete and concise narrative since it presented a multicultural setting as it tackles the experiences of women from various cultural and racial backgrounds. It involves the analyses of women of European, Indian, and African originalities. However, the book does not stop at carefully delineating women through their race and culture. Instead, Berkin moves a step higher in careful analysis and examination as she explores not only the popular and prominent women from the various cultural originalities.She presents a book which explores the lives of women through the varied roles that they perform- as wives, as daughters, as mothers, and as social participants- in relation to their occupation and social class. A particular example is Berkin’s citation of Margaret Hardenbroeck, a trader. Berkin was able to track down the life of Hardenbroeck, and illustrate how her colonial life as a businesswoman was altered by English colonization of Netherlands. In the book, Hardenbroeck’s economic problems, legal rights, and socially-related issues were examined in relation to what her husband have experienced.By doing so, Berkin was able to demonstrate the differences among the social expectations and pressures between a man and a woman. Another identity that Berkin also examined in the book was Eliza Lucas Pinckney. Unlike Hardenbroeck, Pickney was not very exposed to matters of businesses, colonization, and governmental restrictions at first. Instead, she was constantly struggling to fulfill her domestic responsibilities that were traditionally assigned to women. By these, it means that Pinckney was more concerned and burdened with her roles as a wife, a mother, and a daughter.However, economic circumstances prompted her to adopt expertise in entrepreneurship as she later became the proprietor of her father’s and late husband’s plantations. Berkjin narrates that overtime, Pinckney then developed â€Å"a consciousness of self and a confidence in reason† which she garnered from her education. Through these two, Berkin made a valid conclusion when she pointed out that social class altered the supposed to be gender-specific roles of colonial American society.In the case of accuracy, it can be observed that Berkin lacked primary materials. As such, she tried to overcome the scarcity of primary sources through thorough research and cross-checking with secondary sources. She even acknowledges the said issue when she stated that though â€Å"studies of New England marriage patterns based on diaries and letters and studies of Chesapeake m arriage patterns drawn from demographic data are equally valid,† such cannot be used for a carefully derived cross-culture comparison.However, it seems that her lapse in conclusive data should not be regarded as an important component in her descriptive analysis of the daily lives of women from various geographic regions. It appears that the careful analysis of women of varied social class, racial background, and geographic location during those times is accurate enough to guarantee that the narrative is a well-researched work fit for collections on women studies.As such, the book gave its readers a deeper knowledge of American culture since it was able to touch on a rarely tackled historical subject and component- women. Moreover, the historical exploration that it presented was rather seemingly complete narrative of women history as Berkin explored marriage, motherhood, social interaction, labor, and beliefs. To add to that, the exploration was done in a compare and contrast manner between the social experiences and pressures faced by men and women.Thus, it was clear why women garnered different roles and patterns of empowerment and development from men. Overall, the book demonstrated that women were important factors in history creation and societal alteration. REFERENCES Berkin, Carol (1997). First Generations: Women in Colonial America. First Generations by Carol Berkin. Retrieved January 31, 2008 from www. powells. com/cgi-bin/biblio? inkey=62-9780809016068-0 First Generations by Carol Berkin. Retrieved January 31, 2008 from http://search. barnesandnoble. com/booksearch/isbnInquiry. asp? z=y&endeca=1&isbn=0809016060&itm=2#TABS