Identifying, Organizing, and Analyzing Your Sources Essay

Each statement below contains a logical fallacy. Identify the fallacy and briefly explain, in one or two sentences, why it is an error in reasoning. 1. Mabel is not qualified to lead the school board because she used to drink liquor in her 20s. †¢ Ad hominem: committed by attacking the person who’s making an argument, rather than the argument itself. One of the most common fallacies, it is a direct attack on a person’s character rather than focusing on his or her arguments. Stating that Mabel used to drink that why she is not qualified it a person attack. 2. A child can be either an athlete or a good student. †¢ Either/Or: An oversimplification that assumingly reduces several alternatives to a mere binary opposition, basically means you only have two choices. You only have two choices of being a athlete or a good student. You can choose to be bad student if you wanted. 3. Any change in health care will lead to socialism; we don’t want to live in a socialist country, so we can’t reform health care. †¢ Slippery Slope (Bad Precedent): assuming that a proposed step will set off an uncontrollable chain of undesirable events. Changing health will lead to socialism is an extreme statement. 4. All teenagers text while they drive; therefore, we should raise the driving age to 21. †¢ Hasty Generalization: drawing conclusions from too little of evidence and often relying on stereotypes. Say all teenager text and drive, well some teenager don’t have a car and/or a cell phone. 5. If we don’t all drive hybrid cars, the world will end in the next decade because of environmental damage. †¢ Slippery Slope (Bad Precedent): assuming that a proposed step will set off an uncontrollable chain of undesirable events. That an extreme statement stating that the world will end because we’ll don’t drive hybrid. 6. Senator Range has been seen entering a strip club; therefore, his economic reforms are not plausible. †¢ Ad hominem: committed by attacking the person who’s making an argument, rather than the argument itself. One of the most common fallacies, it is a direct attack on a person’s character rather than focusing on his or her arguments. In this case strip club makes the senator economic reform wrong it a personal attack, degrading his character which will degrade his reforms as mediocre  or of no value to the public. 7. Everyone else is getting rid of TV, so we should too. †¢ Bandwagon: Just because everyone is doing it doesn’t make it right. We used to think that our planet was flat. 8. Because of the recent shootings in schools and theaters, we can conclude that these are inherently dangerous places that need more regulation. †¢ Begging the Question: an argument is held to be true because of practical truths and common sense. Common sense is sometimes correct, but all too many times all too commonly incorrect. 9. If you want a successful child, you should enroll him or her in as many early learning classes as possible. †¢ Creating false needs: emotional proof appeals to what people value and think they need. Advertisers often create a false sense of need in order to sell a product. 10. Music education is useless because it just teaches kids how to play music. †¢ Begging the question: restating the premise in the conclusion rather than disproving. Choose your answers from these eight fallacies. Note: Some of these will be used more than once. †¢ Begging the question †¢ Either-or †¢ Slippery slope †¢ Ad hominem †¢ Creating false needs †¢ Red herring †¢ Hasty generalization †¢ Bandwagon

Determinants of Capital Structure in Pakistan Essay

Capital structure refers to the combination of asset financing from different available sources. Normally the companies have two choices, either to finance the assets from internal source that is termed as retained earnings or from external source that splits into debt and equity. A firm’s capital structure is than the composition of its liabilities. In reality, capital structure of firms may be highly complex and consist of number of sources. These sources start from the retained earnings and ends in hybrid securities. The source of funding a capital is also diversified into short term and long term financing. Modigliani-Miller theorem The thinking of capital structure was initiated by the Modigliani-Miller theorem, proposed by Franco Modigliani and Merton miller. They made two findings under perfect market conditions. Their first proposition was that the value of a firm is independent of its capital structure and the second proposition stated that the cost of equity for a leverage firm is equal to the cost of equity for an un-leveraged firm with addition of premium for financial risk. They extended their analysis by including the effect of taxes and risky debt. Under a classical tax system, the tax deductibility of interest makes debt financing valuable. It means the increase in proportion of debt in capital decreases the cost of capital. And eventually the optimal structure would have no equity at all. Later on it was revealed that the imperfections of real world must be the cause of capital structure relevance to firm value. The trade-off and pecking order theory try to address some of these imperfections, by relaxing the M&M assumptions. Trade-off theory Trade-off theory adds another variable called financial distress in the previous studies and explains that although there is an advantage of debt financing and that reaps from the tax benefit shield. But a time come when the high debt give birth to bankruptcy cost and when the optimal level of capital structure is exceeded than the marginal benefit from the tax shield become less attractive than the cost of financial distress occurred due to debt financing. Therefore there exist an optimal debt and equity combination and companies should follow this optimal level of debt and capital ratio. This ratio is similar within one industry but may be different for different industries. The missing point of this theory is that it doesn’t explain the difference in the optimal capital structure ratio of the same industry. Pecking order theory Pecking order theory tries to capture the costs of asymmetric information. That means the managers of a company has more and complete information about the company than investors. The theory states that company’s priorities their financing sources and prefer internal source of funding to external. The hierarchy of sources is such that whenever company needs new funds it tries to fulfill its requirement first from retained earnings than from debt and raise equity as last resort. The pecking order theory is famous by Myers & Majluf(1984) when they argues that equity is a less preferred means to raise capital because when managers issue new equity, investors believe that managers think that the firm is overvalued and managers are taking advantage of this over-valuation. As a result, investors will place a lower value to the new equity issuance. The capital structuring plays vital role in the long run financial decisions of the company. In this paper my focus is on debt financing decisions of the company. I have explored why the companies use this source and what are the factors that determine company’s capital structure decision. The capital structure was firstly discussed by Modigliani & Miller in 1958. Modigliani & Miller (1958), the theorem states that, in a perfect market, how a firm is financed is irrelevant to its value. Gay B.  Hatfield (1994), demonstrated that the firms which issues debt are moving toward the industry average from below, the market will react more positively than when the firm is moving away from the industrial average on the basis of this they classified firms leverage ratios as being above or below their industry average before announcing a new debt issue. They test whether this has an effect on market return for share holders and they have founded that the relationship between a firm’s debt level and that of its industry does appear to be of concern to the market. Laurence Booth(2001), finds whether capital structure decisions differ significantly between developing and developed countries or not? He collected data of 10 developing countries by the international finance corporation and use panel data technique for comparative analysis. They found that the variables that are relevant for explaining capital structures in the United States and European countries are also relevant in developing countries. Jorgensen & Tera(2003), stated that there are many, industrial, accounting, managerial and macroeconomic factors that affect the capital structure decisions. They used sample data of capital structure determinants of 700 companies for the Latin American economies for the period 1986-2000. The study concluded that firms are impacted by company fundamental and macroeconomic forces. Deesomsak, Paudya, & Pescetto(2004), explore about capital structure for the Asian pacific countries. The countries discussed in their study are Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand and Australia. The study explores that environmental and operational factors affect the decisions made for capital structure. The study also investigates that financial crisis of 1997 also affect the capital structure organizations. Shah & Hijazi(2004), investigate the performance of non financial firms for the Pakistan perspective. The observed variables for capital structure are debt ratio, size, growth, leverage and profitability. The results show that there is a positive relationship between size and leverage. The growth is negatively correlated to leverage and the study finds consistent relationship between profitability and leverage. Shah & Khan(2007), investigate the relationship between firm fundamental factors and leverage ratios for the period of 1994 to 2002. They used pool regression model to achieve their purpose. The findings show that earning volatility and depreciation variable are not correlated to leverage ratio. The agency theory is lead by growth factor and pecking order theory bear out by profitability variable. The trade off theory is lead by firm’s size. Daskalakisa & Psillaki(2008), investigate the small and medium firms of Greek and French industries for the period of 1998 to 2002. The similar factors of the firms are used in this study because the same capital structure is employed in these two countries. There is a negative relationship among asset structure, profitability and leverage. The study finds that growth of France industry is statistically significant compare to Greek industry market. The study argues that there are firm specific differences among the countries non country factors. Psillak & Daskalakis(2009) studied small and medium size firm’s performance. The capital structure determinants are size, growth, profitability and risk. The results show that small and medium entrepreneurs affect the performance in a same way. The study explore there is a positive relationship between size and leverage and a negative relationship among growth, profitability and risk factors. Dilek Teker(2009), investigate the fundamentals of the capital structure theories, they assumed determinants can be related to find out whether some priori assumed macroeconomic determinants can be related to leverage parameters of interest or not. For this purpose, they conducted an empirical research that covers 42 selected firms traded at the Istanbul Stock Exchange ISE-100 index. Following the developments in the contemporaneous estimation techniques that allow us to use time series and cross section data concurrently, the panel data methodology has been applied to the actual data to compute the leverage ratios for each firm within the time period 2000-2007. From this, they highlight the issue of what properties the leverage ratios have and to satisfy our interest about how can the macroeconomic determinants affect the leverage ratios under various groupings such as tangibility, size, growth opportunities, profitability and non debt tax shields. Our main results return on assets and tangibility of assets have a positive and statistically significant impact on the firm’s leverage ratio, while the ratio of total depreciation to total assets and profit margin on sales seem to have some negative and significant impacts on Firms’ leverage degree. Tugba Bas(2009), worked on determinants of capital structure of small and medium enterprises in emerging markets. They used pooled data for 25 countries obtained from World Bank enterprises survey and applied panel data OLS technique for analysis. They found that tangibility is inversely related with leverage hence opposite for small firms. Profitability follows the pecking order theory and is also negative related. Firm size and GDP growth has positive relation with leverage. Inflation has negative impact on the leverage but interest rates pose positive relationship. Shun-Yu Chen(2011), the purpose of this paper is, to present empirical evidence on the determinants of capital structure and firm value in a newly industrialized country. The firm characteristics are analyzed as determinants of capital structure according to different explanatory theories. The findings of this study suggest that firm size, profitability and asset structure can be considered explanatory variables of capital structure. The firm size, profitability and capital structure affect book value. So the determinants of market value are profitability and firm size. Furthermore the capital structure negatively affects market value in electronic firms, but does not affect market value in non-electronic ones.

Creating Shared Value by Mark R Kramer Article Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Creating Shared Value by Mark R Kramer - Article Example The industries and large business corporations of the present day are highly responsible for various environmental, social and economic problems. In other words, it is stated that there is a siege of the capitalist system. However, there is an inherent requirement for the change in existing paradigm for CSR. Traditionally, the organizations believed that creating the social values would hamper the economic success. The author has demonstrated in this article the concept of ‘Shared Values’ that would help the organization in building both economic and social values without affecting the economic success. The article will be judged based on certain criteria including creativity, adherence to the topic, tendency to influence the readers and reliability (Porter and Kramer 62-77). The article â€Å"Creating Shared Value† mainly focuses on the business establishments for regaining the trusts in the current era of crisis. In the article, the authors have asserted, â€Å"The capitalist system is under siege†; â€Å"learning how to create shared value is our best chance to legitimize business again† (Porter and Kramer 64). However, the article aims at transforming the social problems related to the organization into opportunities for business and thus contributes to solving the social challenges along with increased profitability for the organization at the same time. Moreover, Porter and Kramer have also asserted in the article that, â€Å"Creating Shared Values can give rise to the next major transformation of business thinking†, â€Å"drive the next wave of innovation and productivity growth in the global economy† and â€Å"reshape capitalism and its relationship to society† (Porter and Kramer 64). However, these are t he most tempting propositions made by the authors that have created enormous attention among the business community, educators, and the management practitioners.

Week 3 Discussion-Environmental Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Week 3 Discussion-Environmental - Essay Example These rod - like spores are resistant to heat and a capable of surviving in foods that are poorly processed due to the neuro- toxins present in them. Botulism in humans is caused by the A, B, E and F types based on their antigenic specificity. Food-borne botulism also called food poisoning occurs due to the ingestion of certain foods that contain potent neuro-toxin produced by the growth of the spores. Though the incidence of botulism is reported to be low, yet on a global level it is a cause of great concern due to the high mortality rate when not treated promptly and properly. canned foods, if not properly and adequately processed could easily lead to botulism. Even commercially processed foods such as seafood products, meat products, sausages and canned fruits and vegetables are potent carriers for human botulism. The symptoms related to food borne botulism, occurs within 18 to 36 hours of ingesting contaminated food filled with toxins. It begins with a marked lassitude, difficulty in swallowing and speaking, general weakness and vertigo. This is followed by a severe abdominal cramping and distention with constipation and a weakening of the muscles. Thereafter, the Botulinum toxin spreads through the body causing flaccid paralysis by inhibiting all the motor nerve terminals of the myoneural junction. The paralysis progresses downwards after beginning with the eyes, face and throat and moves towards the extremities. Botulism becomes life threatening when it encompasses the diaphragm and chest muscles because respiration becomes inhibited and asphyxia results causing death. To prevent these early interventions of administering botulinal antitoxin in compliance with supportive intensive care is the only answer. Detection and identification of the actual source of outbreak is imperative in order to render the right treatment. This organism with its spores are abundantly distributed in nature too in soils and sediments, lakes streams

Motivation in Workplace Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Motivation in Workplace - Essay Example The earlier theories of motivation include the work of many pioneers in the field such as Herzberg, Maslow etc and attempted to analyse and evaluate the motivation within work environment. However, the literature on the subject has evolved over the period of time to include many important and new topics also. This essay will look into the motivation concepts and theories as outlined in the work of Maslow, Aldefer, and Herzberg besides discussing the motivation theory of acquired needs. It is also important to understand that this paper will attempt to analyse above mentioned theories with respect to FBI- an American agency involved in criminal justice. Maslow's theory of motivation is one of the earliest attempts to study motivation and it advocated a systematic and staged process of motivation. According to this theory, in order to motivate an employee, it is necessary that first the physical needs of the employee are taken care off. ... FBI agents though might have a good pay and most of their physical needs are fulfilled however their social security and safety stage may not be achieved. One of the most critical flaws in Maslow's theory of motivation is the fact that it advocates that an employee cannot proceed to next stage if her needs at the earliest stage are not fulfilled therefore though given the nature of the job of FBI agents, their social security and safety may not be guaranteed by their employer. In this regards, Maslow's theory of motivation may not be the appropriate theory to achieve employee motivation until it allow the skipping of various stages of motivation. Aldefer's theory of motivation Aldefer's ERG theory is another attempt to look at the motivation in much broader level as compared to the Maslow's theory. ERG theory is also a hierarchical in nature as that of Maslow's however it attempts to reduce the stages of motivation and classify the human needs into three classes or stages. Existence, Relatedness and Growth are three stages of motivation as outlined by Aldefer. The first level of motivation which is of existence suggest that in order to motivate an employee it is important that the employee's physiological needs are fulfilled first and then followed by the security needs. Since FBI is a crime investigation agency and most of its employees are directly involved into crime investigation which involve possible threat to the life therefore again like Maslow's theory, the safety needs of the employee are not being guaranteed by FBI. It is important to note that FBI has in place different benefits for its employees including Health Insurance benefits, life insurance benefits, retirement

John Stuart Mill's On Liberty as applied to an issue of modern times Essay

John Stuart Mill's On Liberty as applied to an issue of modern times - Essay Example He was concerned that this majority would stamp out diversity, repress individuals whom failed to conform to herdlike values, and stifle dissenting views. The mass media presents a complex study because it involves an interplay between a tightly controlled corporate elite and masses of citizens whom too often turn to and rely upon the mass media for facts and information. How the mass media presents events is critical to American citizens attaining the intellectual and physical sovereignty to which Mill referred as constititing the foundations of their liberty and freedom. This essay will argue that, viewed through the principles articulated by Mill, today's oligopolistic mass media undermines and stifles the ideals to which he aspired for American citiens; as a result, notions such as the legitimacy of diversity and the sanctity of variety have been dealt a critical blow. As a preliminary matter, before discussing Mill more particularly, it is necessary to place modern American mass media in context. ... In democratic societies the manner by which the media system is structured, controlled, and subsidized is of central political importance. Control over the means of communication is an integral aspect of political and economic power" (McChesney, 1997: 6). The irony is that, although the mass media is privately controlled, it is structured in a way which more resembles a non-democratic oligopoly or military junta than a democratically-structured disperssion of media outlets. In short, from a structural point of view, American mass media is controlled and delivered by a wealthy corporate elite, economic and political barriers often bar entry to new participants, and American citizens receive their news from this structural mass media creature. In addition to structure, it is important to discuss the more substantive features of American mass media. A superficial analysis might yield the view that American mass media, as a corporate enterprise designed to generate profits for corporate shareholders, reflects like a mirror the diversity and the variety of the American citizenry. If the mass media oligopoly didn't give the American consumers what they wanted, this logic goes, then the consumers would switch allegiance and the corporate profits would dry up. There are two fundamental flaws with this argument from the point of view of a theorist such as Mill. First, how the corporate mass media decides to present programming is often a product of detailed surveys and focus groups (Carper, 1995: D-19.2); in effect, the mass media is appealing to the majority as a primary justification for the selection of suitable subject matter and viewpoints. Rather than making programming decisions independently, based on

How To Be Idle Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words - 1

How To Be Idle - Essay Example However, there is a deeper insight that Hodgkinson is trying to convey to readers of the book. He is simply telling us that doing nothing can be as good as doing something because it has psychological and physical benefits. First of all, idleness can be a form of relaxation to stop us from completely ruining our physical health. It is not uncommon nowadays to see middle-aged managers suffering from diabetes or heart conditions. More often than not, these busy lot of young leaders resort to unhealthy habits like smoking or over-eating as a coping mechanism to stress. They run like headless chickens when deadlines set in and fire orders like missiles to their subordinates. Later, they succumb to various health conditions because they simply failed to stop and smell the flowers. These people would extract productivity from most of their waking hours by doing work-related tasks even on moments where they could be just resting. In fact, even on a very busy workday, there is time to breath e and daydream. Hodgkinson advocates daydreaming or meditation when caught in circumstances that leaves us no choice but to wait like being stuck in a traffic jam (228). Apparently, traffic jams are blessings because these situations are beyond our control despite all the planning we can make. Normally, when a busy person gets caught in a traffic jam, he starts calling on other people to arrange matters due to delay. Busy people would never consider an idle time. On the other hand, the art of idleness teaches us to pray, meditate or daydream which can be more productive and healthy for our psychological well-being. Prayer and meditation calms the body and lowers blood pressure. A power nap is also good especially on long trips because we can recharge our brain. Daydreaming brings forth our creative thinking that can help us solve some conflicts that we are dealing with. Busy people often miss out the benefits that they can derive from such idle tasks that Hodgkinson suggests. Actual ly, the author is not telling people to be lazy and counter-productive. He is teaching us to rewire ourselves and explore the advantages of using idle time to make us more productive. Another issue that this book is trying to emphasize is the struggle between quantity and quality. The set-up of our lives depends on parameters that are quantitative in nature. For example, a person who goes to the gym boasts of the number of hours spent on doing exercises rather than the quality of the routine. Instead of feeling good about being able to exercise, fitness buffs would worry about the calories they eat or the hours they spent at the gym. Hodgkinson cited the nap that Winston Churchill took every afternoon which made him very productive later. Likewise, if we want our bodies to grow muscle or lose weight, we need to sleep well. Sleep helps us regenerate and heal from the normal wear and tear of daily living. What more when we are subjected to daily stressful situations? Well, not far beh ind would be insomnia, depression, and burn-out. The mind and body also breaks down at a certain point. People normally think that more is better when the real maxim of living is quality not quantity. Lives should have more breadth or depth rather than a bunch of jam packed hours that crams tasks or things-to-do. While being organized is a good idea, too much of

Population and Evironment Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Population and Evironment - Essay Example Population growth and environmental deterioration are directly linked together. Increased population has exacerbating impact on the anthropometrical damage to the environment. As the population increase, it puts extra pressure on the natural resources. More forests are cut, more land is used, and more industries are setup that creates industrial pollution. The air, water and soils are heavily polluted. In order to cope with this emerging situation the richer nations shift their industrial setups to the poorer nations and are always bent upon destroying the natural resources base of the poorer regions for their own benefits. This imbalance further destroys the opportunities for the poor of the world. Therefore the immediate solution is to strike a balance between population growth, development and ecological preservation. For instance, in the case of Uganda population in 1948, was just 5 million but by 2002 the population had grown five-fold to 24.4 million. If current rates of growth persist, population will hit 51.9 million in 2025. This situation has been wrongly obtained by the ill-conceived ideology of the Ugandan President who thought that he would develop the country on like Chinese model. Instead Uganda sunk into deeper poverty. Solution lies in the simple, quite

Qualitative critique Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words - 1

Qualitative critique - Essay Example It presents the whole research from the objectives of the research, through the whole process and presents a conclusion of study at the end. The highlights on the purposes of the study outline what the study is all about, and this is critical in the beginning of any research where the reasons for conducting the research should be presented to the readers before the main body to give the guidelines on what to expect. The outlines on the methods used and the results of the data collected give the reader insight on the whole process and all the techniques applied during the research operation. The conclusions in the abstract highlight the whole process operations, findings and recommendations. The abstract gives an overview of the whole research paper; from the introduction through to conclusion (Fong, Finlayson, & Peacock, 2006). The researchers, Michelle Ploughman and the clue are from the Eastern Health, faculty of medicine from the Memorial University. They work in coalition with the people who are disabled of St. John’s Newfoundland from the Glasgow Caledonian University in Scotland. From the institutions they work with, it is clear that they are closely affiliated with the medical field. The institutions that these companies work with are well reputed in matters dealing with medicine and hence they can undertake the studies on patients suffering from multiple sclerosis. Also, the study was supported by personnel in the faculty of medicine, Memorial University. Also, the authors had the support of Center of the Applied Health Research in Canada and the healthcare foundation. This further indicates clearly that the researchers were qualified to undertake the study to warrant the support of the reputable departments from the faculty of medicine. This is an article in Physiotherapy journal, Canada, V ol 64, No 1 from page number 6 to 17 (Michelle, Mark, Michelle, Marshall, & Mark, 2012). The problem in this research has been stated clearly. It is stated

Morgan Spurlocks Supersize me Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Morgan Spurlocks Supersize me - Essay Example Spurlock's movie tried on experimenting about eating only McDonald's food product in 30 days. They tried to see if fast food is really a big factor on the ongoing obesity problem in America. According to Spurlock's documentary movie, it's over 37% of American children and adolescents are having too much fat and 2 out of every three adults are obese. He chose McDonalds Fast food for it is found in almost all over the world and even almost everywhere in America. McDonalds is also one of the big companies who influences well people about fast foods due to their advertisements. With the ongoing epidemia, who are we really to blame for this, those fast foods or us Should we also consider our own self to be responsible for being obese Though fast foods are everywhere and are very convenient especially for busy people, there is still a very big factor to be considered on self discipline when it comes to the food we take in. Even if McDonalds have their products advertised well in televisions, radios, and in adds, we always have a choice to be persuaded by them and buy food from this fast food or not. We are responsible for our own health and that includes much about the food we eat everyday. McDonalds power over their advertisements to the people, especially to the children only needs proper understanding about the consequences upon always eating fast foods. Those parents should educate their children at early age about what they can really get out of those fast foods. Parents may even improvise their way of cooking food for their children so they will not crave for those fast foods anymore. Since children are more vulnerable to be persuaded by advertisements, discipline should start home.Second, this education should not only be at home but should also be extended to schools and offices. They should encourage their canteens to prepare healthy foods for healthy living. But this doesn't say we should totally not eat in fast foods, we only mean to eat their occasionally. We can hold our parties there but never eat their everyday. Fast foods can also regulate the food they serve to their customers. They should think a way to sell foods that are nutritious and are not health hazards. In this way, there will be less blame to them about the epidemia of obesity. Though children are educated by their parents, parents should serve also a good example or model to their kids. If a child sees what their parents do they think it's good and proper. Though advertisements are everywhere, it is still the parents that should greatly influence their children. Not only the parents should influence them but should always be seconded by the schools they are in to study. Spurlock did a good documentary movie. Though everything seems to be perfectly presented in the movie, it is not only the fast food eating routine that should be looked at.Different people have also different routines and work everyday. It is not only walking and eating that they do that can affect their health but there are a lot of other things. Our health is also greatly affected of our emotions, lifestyle, and environment. Fast foods may appear to be one of the causes of obesity but not it has no big factor compared to what we always do everyday. If we are really that lazy who always sleep and do nothing (exercise) then obesity is not impossible for us to happen. Psychological problems can even cause obesity. "When

Ellen and Edward represent Essay Example for Free

Ellen and Edward represent Essay Ellen and Edward represent the dynamic challenge of working with two people who enter therapy together, but present different levels of clinical symptomatology. In this case, Ellen appears to be experiencing the most difficulty functioning in her life. She reports a lack of energy, persistent sadness, and even occasional suicidal ideation. These problems are not new for Ellen as she has likely suffered from clinical depression for several years. Her termination of individual therapy may have triggered or intensified her recent increase in symptoms. Ellen’s diagnosis is Major Depressive Disorder. Her severity ranges from moderate to severe. At this time, Edward does not meet criteria for any Axis I disorders, but further information would be necessary to understand his personality and other areas of functioning more thoroughly. Neither member of this partnership meets criteria for an Axis II diagnosis. There are no medical conditions reported and therefore, no Axis III diagnosis. Axis IV psychosocial problems for Ellen include her previous abuse. As a couple, psychosocial difficulties include communication problems and marital discord. Ellen’s GAF is estimated to be 35 while Edward is functioning more effectively at a GAF of 65. The couple’s level of functioning is more reflective of Ellen’s more severe difficulties (Weeks Hof, 1995). They are failing to communicate, meet basic needs of the household, and sustain meaningful aspects of the relationships. Because Ellen has experienced a mood disturbance for longer than the duration of her marriage, it is possible that even her mate selection of Edward was related to her diagnosis (Weeks Hof, 1995). For this reason, Ellen’s individual diagnosis should be seen in the context of the relationship for the purposes of couple’s therapy. It is an integral part of their relationship and cannot be extracted if the couple wishes to fortify their relationship through marital counseling. Ellen would still be encouraged to seek her own individual therapy and consultation with a psychiatrist to address the severity of her depression. Ellen’s diagnosis was reached through the decision-tree method presented in the DSM-IV (American Psychiatric Association, 2000). This method is a thorough way to match the presenting symptoms to the most appropriate clinical diagnosis. In this case, Ellen’s experience of a mood disorder was clear early in the initial session. The details she described about her past provided enough clinical information to eliminate bipolar disorders and more mild forms of depression. Major depressive disorder encompasses the duration and severity (i. e. occasional suicidal ideation) of her condition. The single criticism of the decision-tree method may be its tendency to over-diagnose. While this client clearly met criteria, there are very few paths out of the decision-tree should a client present mild symptoms that do not yet merit a full diagnosis. There are many different medication options that may supplement Ellen’s participation in psychotherapy. Lexapro and Zoloft, members of the selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) class, may be useful. If Ellen does not respond to these drugs or is at-risk for their adverse side-effects, Wellbutrin is another option. This drug has a complete different action mechanism than the others in the SSRI class. Ellen’s response and compliance with any antidepressant medication should be monitored closely. Her history of abruptly terminating treatment could indicate a potential to also stop taking her medication without warning. Many antidepressants need to be tapered off in gradually decreasing dosages. Abruptly ceasing treatment can cause dangerous side effects. References American Psychiatric Association. (2000). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders: DSM IV- TR. (4th ed. ). Washington, DC: Author. Weeks, G. R. Hof, L. (1995) Integrative Solutions: Treating common problems in couples therapy. New York: Psychology Press.

Discrimination And Empowerment Mental Health Social Work Essay

Discrimination And Empowerment Mental Health Social Work Essay This essay will firstly define what discrimination is and what it means to discriminate. Examples will be used to demonstrate what discrimination may look like. A definition of empowerment will also be used. The essay will then critically explore theory and ideas around power and how power manifests between groups. This part of the essay will touch on the idea of othering. The essay will move on to focus on mental health, race and racism. The essay will use the idea that mental illness is a social construct and look at how mental illness can be open to influences of racism from society (Bailey 2004). The essay will make links to institutional racism in mental health and psychiatry. In a basic sense to discriminate means to: differentiate or to recognise a distinction (Oxford Dictionaries 2012). In this basic sense it is a part of daily life to discriminate. For example, a baby will often discriminate between a stranger and their caregiver. Discrimination becomes a problem when the difference or recognised distinction is used for the basis of unfair treatment or exclusion (Thompson 2012). Anti-discriminatory practice in social work concerns itself with discrimination that has negative outcomes; whether this is negative discrimination or positive discrimination. Both are equally as damaging. Thompson (1998) defines discrimination as a process where individuals are divided into particular social groups with an uneven distribution of power, resources, opportunities and even rights. Discrimination is not always intentional (Thompson 2009) and there are various types of discrimination (EHRC 2012). Discrimination can be direct, indirect, based on perception or on association (EHRC 2012). The Equality Act 2010 is legislation that protects individuals and groups against discrimination. The Equality Act 2010 brought together several pieces of legislation to protect several protected characteristics: age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, race, religion or belief, sex and sexual orientation. Discrimination does not just occur on a personal level, according to Thompson (2012), discrimination occurs on three levels; personal, cultural and structure. This will be explored more later on. Empowerment is a term that often comes in to play when examining discrimination; therefore it is important to have an understanding of both. Empowerment is the capacity of individuals or groups to take control of their circumstance and use their power to help themselves and others to maximise the quality of their lives (Adams 2008: xvi). Empowerment is then not an absence of discrimination and power but an individuals capacity to own or share that power and take control. Therefore empowerment is an anti-oppressive practice not an anti-discriminatory one. They are linked but not the same. Social workers act as mediators between service users and the state. Social workers are in a role that can potentially empower or oppress (Thompson 1997). For this reason Thompson (1997: 11) argues that good practice must be anti-discriminatory practice, no matter how high the standards of practice are in other respects (Thompson 2012). Thompson (1997) reminds the reader many times throughout his book that If youre not part of the solution you are part of the problem. I choose to include this because it reinforces that social workers need to challenge discrimination and take action against it. Discrimination is political, sociological and psychological (Thompson 2012). To accept and tolerate it and to not to challenge it does indeed make social workers part of the problem. Discrimination has links with power which the essay will move on to explain next. As defined by the Oxford Dictionary (2012) power is the ability or capacity to do something; the capacity or ability to act in a particular way to direct or influence the behaviour of others or the course of events; or physical strength or force exerted by someone. From this definition power could be seen as a coercive force or authoritarian. However, some theorists would argue that there is more to power than just coercion and authority. Parsons (1969 cited Rogers 2008) took a different view on power. He saw power as a way of maintaining social order instead of a force for individual gain (Rogers 2008). Parsons (1969 cited Rogers 2008) believed that to be able to enforce coercive action and justify it, there needs to be a collective interest from the social system as a whole (Rogers 2008). Lukes (1974) would disagree with Parsons definition on power. Lukes argues that power is less abstract (Rogers 2008) and that exercising power is the decision to exert control. Lukes (1974:74) illustrates this point as: A exercises power over B when A effects B in a manner contrary to Bs interests. Dominelli (2008) focuses more on the idea of competing power; which group has more power than the other. This splits people to either be in the dominant group or the minority. A dominant group tends to be deemed superior, and with superiority comes privilege (Dominelli 2008). As a result the other group is deemed inferior, the minority and disadvantaged. It is this compound of dominance and oppression that discrimination derives from (Rogers 2008). It is a groups perceived superiorly over another group (Thompson 2012) that justifies coercive action, control and discrimination. When people form oppressive relationships the tendency is to make a strategic decision that excludes a particular group or individuals from accessing power and resources (Dominelli 2002). Othering can be experienced as multiple; multiple oppression. People can be othered simultaneously due to a number of social divisions (Domenelli 2002), for example, being a black woman who experiences mental health issues. Social workers need to recognise power and its links to discrimination. Not to could further oppress (Thompson 2012). It can feel uncomfortable to be in the privileged position; whether this is as a white person or a man and so on. The privileged group need to engage in the fight for equality (Corneau and Stergiopoulos 2012). White people need to engage with the fight against racism and accept responsibility for racism as it is a problem of white society and therefore involves white people (Strawbridge cited Corneau and Stergiopoulos 2012). This explanation can be applied to any other groups that are considered to be the other. Rogers and Pilgrim (2006: 15) suggest that superiority is a social construction: a product of human activity. Dominelli (2002) goes further to say that oppression itself is a social construct as oppressive relations are not pre-determined but they are reproduced between social interactions and routines. Language is often used as a key part of social interaction and is also a very powerful tool. This relates heavily to social work as social workers are responsible for writing reports/care plans/assessments. Depending on how social workers word written pieces of work can indeed paint a very different picture of the service user they are working with. I was once told that words are the bullets of prejudice, this illustrates that labels and language can be powerful, damaging, potentially discriminatory and oppressive. Although labels can be damaging they are a part of social interaction. Labels help us to construct our social world and we use them to find similarities and differences to process the world around us (Moncrieffe and Eyben 2007). Although the process of labelling is fundamental to human behaviour and interaction (Moncrieffe and Eyben 2007:19) social workers need to be aware of when these labels have the potential to be damaging, oppressive and rein forcers of discrimination. Social workers need to reflect and consider what labels they give people and what impacts this may have. Labels can be used to change or sustain power relations which can have an impact on prejudice and on achieving equality (Moncrieffe and Eyben 2007). This essay will use the themes discussed so far to focus in on mental health as an area of practice and critically explore institutionalised racism within mental health practice and psychiatry. To begin I will briefly return to Thompsons (2012) PCS analysis in relation to mental health and race. The P level is our own individual attitudes and feelings (Thompson 2012). Although it is important to examine our own beliefs we do not live in a moral and political vacuum (Coppock and Dunn 2010: 8). For this reason Thompson (2012) also refers to the cultural (C) and structural (S). P is embedded in C and C and P in S which builds up interlocking layers of discrimination; personal, cultural and structural. The C level is where we learn our norms and values. Individuals learn these values and norms through the process of socialisation which occurs through social institutions such as the family, religion and the media (Haralambos and Holborn 2008). These institutions can produce ideas about what is considered normal or right (Coppock and Dunn 2010). From this it is not surprising that there is an attitude in society that people who experience mental health issues are violent and a danger to society; even though there is no relationship between mental health and violence (Rogers and Pilgrim 2006). However, the general media uses terms like psycho (Ward 2012) or crazed gunman (Perrie 2011) in relation to acts of violence creates prejudice. This prejudice can then be used to discriminate. For example, a community may not want a mental home to open near them as the mental people will cause a threat to their community. The S level is the level of institutional oppression and discrimination. Ideas that Thompson (2012: 34) refers to as being sewn in to the fabric of society. Western psychiatry is laden with cultural values and assumptions that are based on western culture (Coppock and Dunn 2010). This suggests that western and white is normality and anything that deviates from this is abnormal (Corneau and Stergiopoulos 2012), or as previously discussed; other. It is the C and S level which the essay will focus on more. Institutional racism explains how institutional structures, systems and the process embedded in society and structures that promote racial inequality (Jones 1997). It is considered to be the collective failure of an organisation to provide an appropriate and professional service to people because of their colour, culture or ethnic origin (MacPherson 1999). Jones (cited Marlow and Loveday 2000: 30) goes further than this definition to also include laws, customs, and practices which systematically reflect and produce racial inequalities. Institutional racism is believed to be a more subtle and covert type of racism (Bhui 2002) and often said to be unintentional (Griffith et al 2007). BME groups are differently represented in psychiatry (Sashidharan 2001). People of African-Caribbean heritage are over represented yet people of Asian heritage underrepresented in mental health settings (Sashidharan 2001). As BME groups deviate from the white norms they appear to receive either too much attention or too little (Sashidharan 2001). This would suggest that the systems which operate within psychiatry are institutionally racist. Both race and mental illness are social constructs (Thompson 1997; Bailey 2004). Thompson (1997) argues that despite the lack in biological evidence for the explanation of racial categories it is still a widely common way of thinking. Bailey (2004) argues that mental illness has always been a social construct therefore open to racism and other forms of discrimination. The declassification of homosexuality in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) illustrates Baileys (2004) point. Race immediately brings up issues around power and the relationship between what is seen as natural and social (Westwood 2002). Historically it was viewed that inequalities around race had a natural explanation (Westwood 2002). Race could be traced back to anthological tradition (Rogers 2006; Craig et al 2012) and colonial discourse with the belief that white identity is superior (Westwood 2002) and that black people are lacking civilisation, savages and a subhuman species (Bailey 2004: 408-409). According to Bailey (2004: 408) the effects of racism on psychiatry can be directly linked to the early stereotypes about black people arising from pseudoscientific racism. It is this pseudoscience racism (science which lacks scientific method or evidence) that underpins racism in mental health services today (Bailey 2004). Racism has many different sides and is a multidimensional form of oppression and discrimination (Corneau and Stergiopoulos 2012; Thompson 2012). Racism is widely known to be the cause of disparities in health and mental health (McKenzie in Bhui 2002; Griffith et al 2007; Craig et al 2012). BME individuals find themselves navigating their way through a system that works from the dominant discourse of the medical model (Corneau and Stergiopoulos 2012). This allows a small amount of room for different and alternative frameworks to challenge racism which is already ingrained in the system. To illustrate this point I will use an example from my practice. I work with a black woman who experiences mental health issues. She has spiritual beliefs and usually openly takes about her beliefs at home. She fears one resident as he is very religious and she feels that he has special powers. I supported her to an appointment with her psychiatrist as she had begun to feel mentally unwell. He did not enquire about any social, cultural or structural factors that may impact on her mental health. I tried to advocate the experiences she had shared with me and reiterated what she was saying. However, he advised her that the tugging she experienced in her stomach was physical and to see a doctor and increased her anti-psychotic medication. Her spiritual experiences were not validated, he individualised the cause of her illness and used a medical intervention. Western psychiatry tends to separate the mind from the body and spirit (Bailey 2004). According to Bailey (2004) many BME service users find this approach unhelpful and irrelevant to their experiences of mental distress. This is because for many BME the mind, body and spirit work in union and the feelings and behaviours behind this is woven into peoples wider existence (Bailey 2004). Kortmann (2010) believes that these types of clinical intervention are often ineffective due to service users non-western origin and tend to quit treatments earlier. For example, some African cultures can believe that seizures are cause by evil spirits (Kortmann 2010) and therefore do not take medication prescribed as they do not believe it to be an illness. Westwood (2002) writes that the negative impact of racism can have a significant impact on an individuals mental health. However in a recent piece of research Ayalon and Gum (2011) concluded that black older adults experienced the highest amount of discriminatory events but there was a weaker association with this and experiences of mental health issues. To account for this it was concluded that BME groups experienced more events of discrimination over their life course and as a result have become more resilient to it (Ayalon and Gum 2011). Some writers argue that to construct institutional racism as the explanation to the disparities in mental health can add to the debate and effectively alienate BME groups even further (Singh and Burns 2006). Singh and Burn (2006) state that, the accusation of racism within psychiatry will give service users the expectation that they will receive a poorer service and this will encourage service users to disengage with services or offer voluntary admission. What Singh and Burn (2006) are speculating is presented by Livingstone (2012) as self-stigma; the stigma that is present on an individual level rather than on a cultural or social. It is the stigma that is internalised that can prevent people from access services (Livingstone 2012) and thus, actively discriminating against ones self. Therefore, Singh and Burns (2006) argue that individuals to stay away from needed services until it is too late and there are few alternatives but to detain them and enforce treatment. Although Singh and Burn (2006) make a logical point they fail to recognise BME service user experiences of Mental Health Services. Bowl (2007) conducted a qualitative research to gain the views and experiences of South Asian service users as most literature is through the lens of academics and professionals. The experiences of this South Asian group would certainly suggest the presence of institutional racism within Mental health Services. The main areas identified were their dissatisfaction in not being understood in the assessment process due to language barriers and cultural incompetence (Bowl 2007). This misunderstanding led to misdiagnosis and refusal of services (Bowl 2007). Racism is often not the only form of oppression that people face. Disadvantage can occur from several areas (Marlow and Loveday 2000). BME groups experiencing mental health issues are already subjected to multiple oppression. There is not enough words in this essay to explore this further but wanted to acknowledge that forms of oppression are not experienced in isolation of each other. For example, links have been made between individuals lower socio-economic status and experience of mental health issues and how black people can face the added stress of earning less and experiencing higher levels of unemployment (Chakraborty and McKenzie 2002). This begins to illustrate the complexity and how oppression is inextricably intertwined. Institutional racism has been highlight in a number of Inquiries in practice. It was firstly highlighted in the Stephen Lawrence Report in 1999; a black young person who was murdered in a racist attack and yet again in the David Bennett Inquiry in 2003; a black man who died in 1998 after being restrained faced down by several nurses for nearly half an hour. Lord Laming (2003) also identified issues around racism in his Inquiry into the death of Victoria Climbie. There is not enough words to go into any of these inquiries in any detail but they have been included to demonstrate institutional racism in practice in the police, mental health service and social work. It may seem that whilst mental health services operate within the medical model that is catered towards the white majority things will not change. Institutions and systems are indeed difficult to change, however social workers can work with service users to empower, advocate, challenge and expose discrimination in services and bring about social change. Empowerment is complex in general but becomes more complex in relation to race and ethnicity (Thompson 2007). Social workers need to firstly be aware of institutional racism before they are able to challenge it (Thompson 2007). For social workers to challenge institutional racism they need to challenge policies that do not address the needs of BME groups. To do this, social workers need to be aware of the complex power relations and deeply ingrained racist patterns in society (Thompson 2007). In my practice in a mental health setting I have contact with medical professionals and often support services users to appointments. I find that I must hold onto my social work values and not get drawn into the medical model way of working but to remain holistic in my approach. To conclude, this essay has demonstrated that discrimination is far more complex than treating someone differently. It has focused on a more subtle, covert and indirect form of discrimination: institutional racism. The essay has examined the links between discrimination, racism and power and introduced the idea that mental illness and race are both social constructs. It is this subtle and covert form of discrimination that can be damaging. It can be hard to recognise as it is woven into the very fabric of society (Thompson 2012). However, the message in this essay is that social workers need to recognise power relations, how they operate, on what level they operate at and to challenge discrimination (anti-discriminatory practice) and work with service user to empower them to overcome these obstacles (anti-oppressive practice). Social workers must swim against the tide and not collude with these attitudes no matter how deeply ingrained and embedded they are in society. For the social workers that fail to do so will ultimately become part of the problem. Word count: 3281

Development of the Petroleum Industry

Development of the Petroleum Industry Historical background Petroleum In the beginning of the XX. century carbohydrates became more and more important in the world because they were pure, easily manageable, cheap, have huge energy capacity and were available in big amounts all over the world. Petroleum can be used as a source of energy as well as a raw material in the manufacturing of plastics and fertilizers, and only very few commodities have become as vital as it, and petroleum has been the object of geopolitical confrontations as a commodity of strategic importance. At that period several geopolitical events were closely related to oil or had consequences on oil prices and supply. The decision in 1912 by the British Admiralty to convert warships from coal to oil propulsion because of speed and range advantages was the first event that led to the geopolitical importance of oil. Great Britain nationalized the Anglo-Persian Oil Company and committed itself to the protection of this resource in Persia since 1934 the country is called Iran because the country had no oil resources at all. In the beginning the United States of America did the 60% of the total exploitation, but by 1990 the undeveloped countries took over it; the Near East gave 26%, Russia 21% and North America only 17% of the whole exploitation. 80% of the known and exploitable oil resources were found in 8 countries in the world: Saudi Arabia, Iraq, United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Iran, Venezuela, Russia and Mexico. The first oil crisis was only a local crisis; it had no significant effect on the world market. It took place in Iran, because Mohammad Mossadeq, the prime minister of Iran, nationalized the oil companies, so English professionals went home and the country went bankrupt in 3 years. Then began the Suez crisis in 1956 when Nasser nationalized the canal. In the 50es annually 210-220 thousands of tons of cargo went through the canal and the 2/3 of it was petroleum that had to be transported to Western Europe. But after the arab-israeli war blow-up, Nasser made the canal totally unusable. As the canal had a great significance, it caused some outstanding problems provisional petroleum shortage evolved in Western Europe, so consumption was decreased, higher taxes were levied on petrol, and petrol coupons were introduced. Simultaneously Syria closed the petroleum lines in the Iranian areas and Saudi Arabia introduced embargo towards Great Britain and France. By 1957 the crisis came to an end, 90% of the petroleum export that was not transported was compensated, and at that time petroleum utilization was not so important (1956 only approximately 20% of Europes energy use) and there were no considerable changes in the prices. World War I demonstrated the increasing importance of the internal combustion engine on modern military operations, such as planes, trucks and tanks. In the 1920s motorization automobile was becoming an important mode of transportation and these years were characterized by exploding civilian demand for oil. At the same time a few primal corporations -that became the oil giants of today started to control the industry quickly. The oligopolistic commercial control on the price and the production of oil was in 1928 by the Achnacarry Agreements first established between the greatest oil multinationals of the time: the Seven Sisters. Seven Sisters of the petroleum industry The term Seven Sisters refers to seven huge oil companies that dominated since Rockefellers first gigantic monopoly the mid 20th century oil production, refining and distribution. Five of them were American and the two other were British. The American companies included Exxon, Mobil, and Socal which later became Chevron, Gulf and Texaco. The British companies were Royal Dutch Shell (it was a joint venture with the Netherlands) and British Petroleum (BP), whose interest in world oil expanded with the discovery of oil fields in Iraq and in Indonesia. Later through acquisitions and mergers the Seven Sisters have become four enormous oil companies; ExxonMobil, Royal Dutch Shell, BP and Chevron-Texaco. These corporations have invested a lot in extraction infrastructures, particularly in the Middle-East and Latin-America. They were effectively in control of the oil supply and demand of the world with a set of strategies, such as fixing production, prices and quotas. However, in several developing countries a nationalization trend started to emerge, slowly leading to the future oil supply control and shocks. In 1938 Mexico vigorously took control of its entire oil industry by expropriations, undermining its accessibility to foreign markets for a while, but generating sympathy in a lot of developing countries as a symbol against foreign exploitation of national resources. World War II. revealed to be a conflict that was strategically dominated by oil because the key weapons were air and armored forces. In 1941 the United States decided to establish an oil embargo on Japan, this was one event that triggered the war in the Pacific. The strategic objectives of Japan were to secure the resources of Southeast Asia, mainly the Indonesian oil fields, and the country has planned fast operations in order to achieve these objectives. The same year, Germanys invasion of the Soviet Union had the securing of the oil fields in the Caucasus region among its primal objectives, but both Germany and Japan failed to establish a secure source of oil, in 1945 that contributed to their overthrow by strategically more mobile allied forces. About 86% of the worlds oil supply was controlled by the allied nations. The increasing geopolitical importance of the Middle-East was underlined by the post World War II. era, as from that region the United States and Europe were importing growing quantities of oil. In1948 in Saudi Arabia a new source of oil was discovered, called Ghawar Field, that accounted for the largest conventional oil field in the world; more oil reserves were discovered in this region, so the supply was shifting rapidly. They were trying many times to integrate countries like Iran, Iraq and Saudi Arabia in alliances with Western powers, but a series of geopolitical events, just like the creation of the OPEC and Islamic nationalisms, would complicate access to oil resources. The OPEC The western Seven Sisters wanted to achieve a powerful economic control of oil production, so many producing countries most of them were from the Middle-East had a common goal: to gather a bigger share of the oil incomes by controlling supply. In 1960 an organization called Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) was founded at the Baghdad Conference. It contained five founding members: Iraq, Iran, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Venezuela, but by the end of 1971, six other nations had joined the group, they were the following countries: Qatar, Indonesia, Libya, United Arab Emirates, Algeria and Nigeria. They also wanted to maintain the oil prices. In 1968 the Arab countries founded the Organization of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries. Throughout the post World War II period exporting countries found increasing demand for their crude oil but there was a 40% decline in the purchasing power of a barrel of oil. The balance of power shifted in March 1971. And this month the Texas Railroad Commission set proration at 100 percent for the first time which meant that Texas producers were no longer limited in the volume of oil that they could produce. It meant more significantly that the power to control crude oil prices shifted from the United States Texas, Oklahoma and Louisiana to the OPEC. There was no more spare capacity in the United States and as a consequence no tool to put an upper limit on prices. A little over two years later OPEC through the unintended consequence of war achieved a glimpse of the extent of its power to influence prices. The OPEC was unable to increase oil prices until the beginning of the 1970s. The major reasons were the importance of production in non-member countries and there OPEC members had some difficulties to agree on a common policy, since economic theory clearly underlines that cartels are bound to fail at fixing prices. Accordingly, developed countries were confident: the price of petroleum would remain relatively stable. In the early 1970s it was predicted by the American Government that by 1980 oil prices might rise to about 5 dollars per barrel. So the petroleum prices were very low and the economic growth was strong but this situation changed quickly. During the period of the Six Day War (1967) OAPEC members announced an embargo towards countries aiding Israel; Iraqi and Saudi oil lines became shut down. Then 900 tons less were exported each day and also the Suez Canal was closed at that time, so the exploitation was raised in the United States, Venezuela, Iran and Indonesia. In the end Iran and Saudi Arabia boycotted the embargo and they could manage to avoid a serious crisis. The only losers of this event were those Arab countries that were closing down the export. The embargo In the early 1970s under President Nixons order, the United States of America began shipping arms to Israel. In 1993 the Yom Kippur War broke out between Israel and Egypt (and several Arabian countries). This war gave the OPEC additional reasons to intervene: they imposed export quotas, reduced production by 25% and nationalized production facilities. The oil crisis started on October 17th 1973 and lasted until June 1974. Not long after the start of the War, when the Arab countries decided to turn to the oil weapon again; the Organization of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries announced the reduction of oil exploitation by 5% each month in those countries supporting Israel in the conflict during the war. In their opinion Israel could stand against the attack of the other two counties because the West gave them help. They wanted to undermine Israels support, mainly the USA, so oil became a geopolitical weapon. The market became controlled by supply by oil producers, causing the first oil shock. The oil embargo affected the United States of America, its western European federates and also Japan. During this half year period the western world was facing with the strategic significance of oil and its shortage for the first time. For example in the States at the top of the crisis on even days only cars ending with even registration number and on odd days cars ending with odd number were allowed for a while to be refueled. This embargo damaged the U.S. economy so greatly that many were unsure if the country would escape such devastation. Among the few countries that were affected, the United States suffered greatly, because after they gave aid to Israel the whole oil export ended toward them. The ability to control crude oil prices was passed from the United States to OPEC, and it was removed during the Arab Oil Embargo. Prices increased 400% in 6 months, and the extreme sensitivity of prices to supply shortages became all too apparent at that time. The world crude oil price was relatively flat from 1974 to 1978, ranging from 12.21 dollars per barrel to 13.55 per barrel, but when adjusted for inflation world oil prices were in a period of moderate decline. The crisis in 1973 had a huge effect on the world market, because this year the oil export from the Near East amounted 1 billion tons, and 40% of the petroleum of the bourgeois world originates from this region England 73%, France 83%, Italy 85% As a result of the shortage of oil petrol and gas oil prices increased, so the forestalling of fuel started. This resulted in bigger shortage and prices became higher and higher. In America the rise of prices almost caused a shock just like the world war. Prices started to fall at the New York Stock Exchange, restrictions were introduced for car usage, and people were encouraged to use less energy. With the start of the embargo, U.S. imports of oil from the Arab countries decreased from 1.2 million barrels a day to a mere 19,000 barrels. Daily consumption dropped by 6.1% from September to February, and by the summer of 1974, by 7 percent as the United States of America suffered its first fuel shortage since World War II. The impact of the embargo was drastic and it had an immediate effect on the whole economy. In the United States of America the retail price of a gallon of gasoline rose from a national average of 38.5 cents in May of 1973 to 55.1 cents in June of 1974. Meanwhile, The New York Stock Exchange shares lost $ 97 billion dollars in value in 6 weeks. Prices were rising since 1971 and by 1973 the price of petroleum reached the 11,68 USD/ton, this means that the prices became 10 times higher than they were originally. It could occur because of the disharmony of the consumer countries and so they could not make movements together against the embargo (for example anti-Americanism in France). Conclusion In times of shortage or oversupply crude oil prices behave much as any other commodity with wide price deflections. The crude oil price cycle may circulate over many years responding to changes in demand as well as OPEC and non-OPEC supply. From 1974 to 1978 under the control of the OPEC, the price of oil still remained high but stable: around $12 per barrel. Many developed countries started to worry about the unreliable supply sources and the exhaustion of oil reserves, but they did not do much one on this regard. The Iranian revolution in 1979 and the ensuing Iran-Iraq War lasting from 1980 to 1988 caused the second oil shock where the price of oil surged over $35 per barrel, this imposed several drastic but somewhat temporary measures to lower oil consumption. This resulted in a relocation of energy-consuming industries, in strategies for consuming less energy, such as energy efficient cars and appliances, in relying more on national energy sources like petroleum, coal, natural gas, hydroelectricity, nuclear energy, in building strategic reserves, and in substituting petroleum for other energy sources when it is possible. About 2 billion barrels are estimated to be held in strategic reserves all around the world, t he bulk of it in the United States, Germany and Japan. In 1980 the Carter Doctrine, which states that the United States would intervene militarily if its oil supply was compromised, is also the outcome of the uncertainties derived from the first and second oil shocks. The military presence of the United States in the Middle-East was extended, as the oil of the Persian Gulf was clearly perceived as of foremost significance to the national security. References http://www.people.hofstra.edu/geotrans/eng/ch5en/appl5en/ch5a1en.html http://www.wtrg.com/prices.htm Anthony Sampson. The Seven Sisters: The Great Oil Companies and the World They Shaped. New York: Viking Press, 1975

Terrorism and Personal Identity :: Argumentative Persuasive Topics

Terrorism and Personal Identity      Ã‚  Ã‚   Consider the personal comment of an ethnically foreign US citizen after September 11, 2001:    I became a United States citizen four years ago because of my long love affair with New York....I am a Bangladeshi woman and my last name is Rahman, a Muslim name...Before last week, I had thought of myself as a lawyer, a feminist, a wife, a sister, a friend, a woman on the street. Now I begin to see myself as a brown woman who bears a vague resemblance to the images of terrorists we see on television....As I become identified as someone outside the New York community, I feel myself losing the power to define myself... --Anika Rahman 1    In this poignant statement by a U.S citizen, ethnically Bangladeshi with Muslim linkage, the complex web of issues involved in immigrant identity is dramatically clear. Embedded in this statement are many of the issues that those of us concerned with categories of identification generally, and ethnic identification in particular, grapple with. Identification is typically a complex rather than simple construction, involving multiple aspects of oneself that may overlap or compete. Identification is a dynamic process, in which the meaning, the function, and even the basic labels can change from one point in time to another. Further, and most relevant now, identification is a socially constructed process in which the context and views of others have a significant role, shaping options and consequences for individual experience.    The events of September 11 have without question altered the context of identification for thousands of U.S. citizens and for those immigrants, legal and illegal, whose citizenship is still in flux. The current estimate of first generation Arab-American immigrants in the U.S. is 2,315,392. Current estimates of the number of Muslims in the U.S. are far less certain, varying from 2 to 6 million. (It should be noted that Arab-Americans and Muslims are far from overlapping sets. Many Arab-Americans are Christian; Muslims in turn come from a variety of ethnic groups in the U.S., including African American, Latino, and, as the highly-publicized case of John Walker Lindh illustrates, from Euro American backgrounds as well.)    Attitudes toward immigrants of any stripe have varied in the U. S. over the years. Prior to the restrictive immigration legislation of 1924, for example, opponents of immigration became increasingly strident, and the idealistic image of the "melting pot" offered by playwright Israel Zangwill in 1908 was challenged on both economic and racial grounds.

Asset Valuation Paper :: Business Accounting

Asset Valuation Accounting for Managerial Decision-Making Introduction To start a new business and remain in business profitably, many critical decisions must be made when the foundation of a new business is formed. These decisions affect the company in the long run and often make or break an organization. Methods of inventory control and capitalization policies are among these critical decisions that will affect any business bottom line. Our team has investigated these policies and will present our recommendation for the method of inventory and capitalization policy for the XYZ Mattress Store in the remainder of this paper. Inventory Policy Selecting the valuation method for reporting and valuing is based on key issues relating to the relevance and reliability of the method of accounting for that item. According to finetuning.com (2005) "how you identify items in inventory and determine which have been sold will depend on the nature of the products, the volume of the products, how they are tracked, and inventory rotation." Key factors to consider under the inventory policy are: location of storage facilities, temperature, security, rotation of stock, cost, training, periodic inventories, and control. caycon.com (2005) wrote: "Valuing a startup is intrinsically different from valuing established companies. Because of the high level of risk and often little or no revenues, traditional quantitative valuation methods like (P/E) per-share earnings comparables or discounting free cash flows are of little use. Startup valuations are largely determined based on qualitative attributes." To select an inventory valuation method, the options are FIFO, LIFO and Weighted Average. The valuation method for (FIFO) First-in, first out: Answers.com (2005) defines this as a "common method for recording the value of inventory. It is appropriate where there are many different batches of similar products." This method describes the first item coming in will be the first item going out of the inventory. Retailinventories.com (2005) wrote "cost flow assumption assumes that the oldest inventory is sold first. The ending balance of inventory is valued at the most recent purchase price. FIFO produces a more relevant balance sheet since the ending balance in inventory reflects its current value." An example of this would be: Ending balance in inventory would be 30 units of the most recent purchases. 30 x 300=9,000 E/B = 9,000.

Essay --

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the concept of Perfusion. Perfusion refers to the flow of blood through arteries and capillaries delivering oxygen and nutrients to cells and removing cellular waste products. Perfusion is a normal physiologic process that requires the heart to generate adequate cardiac output to transport blood through blood vessels for distribution in the tissues throughout the body. The essential function of the cardiovascular system and pulmonary systems is to provide a continuous supply of oxygenated blood to every cell in the body (Pearson, 2010). Background Information The clinical experience used to illustrate the concept of Perfusion as it relates to a 74-year old female client who lives with her son and daughter-in-law. The patient was admitted to the hospital on February 5, 2014, with a history of hypertension and atrial fibrillation (On Coumadin) and presented with an acute left middle cerebral artery territory stroke. The client was treated on the telemetry unit for observation with active atrial fibrillation. The patient’s experience relates to the concept of Perfusion since blood clots may interfere with adequate blood flow. Ischemic stroke is a sudden loss of function resulting from disruption of the blood supply to a part of the brain (Brunner and Suddarth, 2010). The presence of partial blockage of the blood vessel can be due to vasoconstriction, platelet adherence, or fat accumulation and therefore decreases elasticity of vessel wall leading to alteration of blood perfusion with the initiation of the clotting sequence. This may later lead to the development of thrombus which can be loosened and dislodged in some areas of the brain such as mid cerebral carotid artery th... ...tracranial pressure from brain edema. Interventions include administering osmotic diuretics, maintaining partial pressure of carbon dioxide, and positioning to avoid hypoxia. Other treatment measures include elevating the head of the bed to promote venous drainage and to lower ICP. Oxygen should be provided as needed, and the patient should be placed on seizure precautions. The patient should be positioned with the head of the bead at 30 degrees to avoid aspiration. Safety measures must be in place. The patient should remain NPO until a swallow evaluation is performed. Nursing management also includes monitoring body temperature with a goal of maintaining a normal temperature and normal fluid balance, along with stabilizing blood sugars. The nursing process in caring for clients who have suffered a CVA and treated with anticoagulants is as follows:

The Aircraft Collision Issues

On March 27, 1977 at 1706:52 G. M. T. A KLM 747 collided with a Pan Am 747 in dense fog on runway 30 at Los Rodeos Airport in the Spanish Canary Islands. KLM flight 4805 was a 747-206B with serial number PH-BUF. Pan Am flight 1736 was a 747-121 with serial number N736PA. Both aircraft were properly maintained and airworthy according to the regulations of the country of registration. All crew members of both aircraft were properly certified and current for their particular crew member positions on the Boeing 747. The KLM captain had 11,700 hrs. With 1,545 of those hours on the 747. The First officer had a total of 9,200 hours at the time of the accident with only 95 hours on the 747. The flight engineer had 17,031 hours with 543 hours on the 747. The Pan Am captain had 21,043 total with 584 hours on the 747. His co-pilot had 10,800 hours with 2,796 hours on the 747. The flight engineer had 15,210 hours total flight time with 559 hours on the 747. KLM 4805 was a charter flight from Amsterdam, Netherlands to Las Palmas, Canary Islands on behalf of Holland international Travel Group. Pan Am 1736 was also a charter flight to Las Palmas originating in Los Angeles, California the previous afternoon with a stop over and crew change at New York (JFK). The two aircraft involved in the accident were diverted to Los Rodeos because of a terrorist bomb explosion at Las Palmas Airport. There was a threat of another bomb so for security reasons no one could land there. Upon arrival at Los Rodeos several other diverted airliners were already on the ground waiting to go to Las Palmas. The Pan Am parked next to the KLM. The captain of the KLM was constantly on the radio trying to find out when the airport would reopen. He was concerned that he and his flight crew were going to run out of duty time. He decided to get fuel while he was waiting in order to avoid the servicing delay that would be awaiting them at Las Palmas. Las Palmas was reopened while the KLM was in the middle of refueling. The Pan Am was ready to depart but had to wait for the KLM to finish refueling because they couldn't taxi around them. Both aircraft were given instruction to use the active runway 30 as a taxiway because aircraft were parked on the paralleling taxiway. The KLM taxied to the end of the runway and made a 180 degree turn to align itself for takeoff. The Pan Am lagged behind because a blanket of fog surrounded them making it difficult to find their turn off. The Pan Am crew was unsure which taxiway they were to get on. The controller told the Pan Am to exit at the 3rd taxiway. This didn't make sense to them because they would have needed to make a 135 degree turn. The fourth taxiway was only 45 degrees. As the KLM 747 completed its turn and the pre-takeoff checklists were complete the captain started adding power for take off. The first officer noticed this and said, â€Å"Wait a minute, we don't have an ATC clearance. The captain held the brakes and said, â€Å"No†¦ I know that. Go ahead ask. † The KLM requested ATC clearance. The tower read them their departure clearance but did not clear them for takeoff. The KLM captain advanced the throttles again as the first officer read back the clearance. The KLM first officer told ATC they were, â€Å"at takeoff. † The Pan Am heard this and said that they will report when clear the runway. They understood â€Å"at takeoff† to mean at takeoff position. The KLM second officer questioned the captain, â€Å"Did he not clear the runway – that Pan American? The captain said, â€Å"Yes, he did. † Moments later the Pan Am first officer noticed the takeoff lights of the KLM approaching fast. He shouted, â€Å"Get off, Get off! † The captain put in full power and tried to drive the airplane into the grass. The pilots on the KLM noticed the Pan Am slewing across the runway after V1 was called. The captain knew that there wasn't enough room to stop so he over-rotated causing the tail of his aircraft to strike the runway in a shower of sparks. But lift the KLM did – just before reaching the Pan AM. The KLM smashed (with a nose up attitude) into the port side of the Pan Am 747. The KLM continued airborne down the runway another 450 meters past the point of collision where it crashed with full fuel and burned killing all 248 souls on board. The Pan Am was soon engulfed in flames. The impact tore off the top of the Pan Am 747 fuselage from the tail to the back of the cockpit. The Pan Am with its entire top fuselage having been carried away by the KLM, caught fire killing 326 of the 396 souls on board. No one in the tower saw the accident because of the fog. Other aircraft waiting on the taxiway saw a series of explosions and reported them to the tower. Emergency crews were immediately notified. The dense fog delayed the effort of the emergency crews to find the planes. The firemen didn't realize that there were two aircraft involved until they were at the wreckage of the KLM and the fog cleared a little bit to see the Pan AM on fire further down the runway. The main cause of this accident was that the KLM captain took off without clearance. The captain also failed to heed the towers instruction to â€Å"standby for takeoff. Finally, the captain did not abandon the takeoff when it became apparent that the Pan Am was still on the runway. He was obviously in a hurry due to the fact that he and his crew might run out of flight time. They had been flying for a long time and probably had get-homeitis. KLM 4805 was nearing the takeoff minimums perscribed for KLM because of the thick fog which put more pressure on the Captain to takeoff. He didn't want to have to leave the aircraft over night and wait for a change of crew because that would inconvienience everyone and cost money. It is also interesting to note that a procedure error took place. This experienced captain should know the difference between being given takeoff clearance and being given a route of flight clearance. The fact of the matter is that the captain had been spending most of his time for the past ten years as a training captain at Schiphol Airport. â€Å"This tended to reduce his day to day familiarity with route flying and its procedures†(Job 177). This idea then leads to the probability that there was a miscommunication between the tower and the KLM. The tower controller and the Pan Am transmitted over each other information that would have prevented the accident. The tower said, â€Å"OK†¦ standby for takeoff†¦ I will call you. † The Pan Am said, â€Å"We are still taxiing down the runway! † The KLM only heard the controller say, â€Å"OK. † The first officer on the KLM declined to take their clearance while they were taxiing because they were too busy doing their pre-takeoff checklists. They instead received their clearance as they lined up for takeoff. This led the captain to believe that the airway clearance they were given also counted as their clearance to takeoff. The first officer already told him once that they didn't have their clearance. He wasn't about to do it again out of fear because the first officer felt resignation. He thought that this captain gave him his 747 rating only 95 flight hours ago and he was in no place to second guess him. The crew of the KLM had poor situational awareness because they turned a deaf ear to the conversations between ATC and the Pan Am crew. They never heard the tower tell Pan Am to report when they were clear. This is proven by the emphatic response to the flight engineers query as to whether or not the Pan Am was cleared of the runway. The captain and first officer said, â€Å"Yes, he's cleared! † The Pan Am crew contributed to the accident by missing their assigned taxiway. If they had turned at the assigned taxiway they would have been off the runway in time. There are several contributing factors to the Tenerife disaster that could have been avoided. If any one of these mistakes didn't happen, the accident would have never happened. If the Pan Am crew had better charts and diagrams of the Los Rodeos Airport, they would have never missed their turn off. The Pan Am would have been off the runway in plenty of time. If the KLM crew was not in such a hurry, the captain would not have commenced takeoff roll before distinct clearance to takeoff. If KLM had Cockpit Resource Management training, the first officer would not have felt intimidated by the captain. He would have corrected the captain again for trying to takeoff without adequate clearance. The captain would have been trained to accept the input of his fellow crew members. If the Pan Am first officer and the tower had not stepped on eachother over the radio, the KLM would have heard both warnings that would have prevented the accident.

The Step to a Civil Society as Mandatory Education

A civil society is one in which its citizens all get along and are happy with their situations. Just about everyone has a job and knows their place in the society. There are three ways to assure this. They are make education mandatory, upon school graduation give everyone a job even if it is menial and make everyone equal, no social classes. This can only be achieved when a new society is being started. The first step to a civil society is mandatory education. This is important because without education the members of the society would be ignorant. In school these people will be taught the basics – reading, math and how to write along with training for their future jobs. These jobs will be chosen by the age of 15 when every person is considered an adult. The second step is upon graduation putting these people in the jobs chosen for them by the school teachers. Each job will be considered equal. For example a doctor is equal to a trash collector. This way no one will feel inferior to anyone and everyone will understand how important they are to the society. These people will not be paid for their jobs. Instead they will obtain things, like food, depending on how hard they work. The harder they work, the more food they receive. The last step is to make everyone equal. This way no one can object to the way things are run. Also there won't be any slaves or servants and there won't be social classes because everyone will be getting paid the same. With these three steps any new society can become a civil society.It just takes the dedication of its people to get the job done.

Control of Sex in Advertising

The Control of â€Å"Sex in Advertising† in France Jean J. Boddewyn, and Esther Loubradou The growing use and abuse of sex in French advertising prompted strong reactions from consumer and feminist associations, and resulted in extensive and strict public and private controls. Recently, the French self-regulatory system has developed a system involving various stakeholder organizations to analyze social trends related to the acceptability of sexually-oriented ads, develop new voluntary guidelines, solicit complaints and handle them through an independent Jury.The number and proportion of controversial ads has significantly decreased, and French advertising practitioners have been nudged to accept greater professional responsibility in exchange for the freedom of creativity to which they aspire. A few U. S. developments parallel this increasing cooperation between the public and private controllers of the old issue of â€Å"taste and decency in advertising† which is not fading in societal importance. Jean J. Boddewyn is Emeritus Professor of Marketing and International Business, Baruch College (CUNY) (email: Jean.[email  protected] CUNY. edu). He has written extensively since the 1980s on the regulation and self-regulation of advertising around the world. Esther Loubradou holds a Master’s Degree in Communications and a post-graduate degree in Mass Media Law. She is a doctoral candidate in Advertising, Law and Communications at the University of Toulouse, France. Her dissertation deals with Decency and Sexual Content in Mass Media in France (email: [email  protected] fr). 1 Keywords: sex in advertising, advertising control by state and industry in France and the United States.Many Americans probably associate the French with sexual laxness and have seen their sexcharged ads for perfumes and cosmetics. Yet, France applies very detailed and strict controls – both public and private – to the use of sex in advertising and courts have ruled in a few notorious cases. Besides, its advertising self-regulatory body reports annually to a government ministry about the progress of its endeavors after conducting an annual survey of sex-related ads in certain media, and relatively few ads have recently been found in violation of French laws and industry guidelines.What explains this paradoxical situation, what are the special causes and features of the French control of sex in advertising, and – briefly – how does the U. S. system compare with it? Since nothing has been published in English on the French control system bearing on sex in advertising, this short Note has to be mainly descriptive and interpretive as a springboard for more theoretical and policy-related research. Still, in answer to admonitions to involve various disciplines (Richards 2009; Rotfeld and Stafford 2007; Rotfeld and Taylor 2009), this study is multi-disciplinary to the extent that cultural (e. g. the evolution of sexual mores) , political (e. g. , the impact of pressure groups), legal (e. g. , the development of â€Å"co-regulation† combining public and private initiatives) and ethical (e. g. , the â€Å"professionalization† of advertising practitioners) factors are used to interpret the French situation. One of the authors is French and an expert in communication law while the second one is American and has conducted many studies of advertising regulation and self-regulation in multiple countries. This Note’s public-policy implications are less evident because of the significant differences between the French and U.S. legal and self-regulatory systems, which preclude easy cross-border borrowings. Yet, there is a significant evolution in the United States toward greater cooperation 2 between the U. S. government and some self-regulatory bodies, which is briefly outlined in the last section of this Note. This development can benefit from knowing how the French system has moved toward c ombining the compulsory and voluntary approaches to the control of sex in advertising, and how the doubts expressed about the effectiveness of self-regulation (e. g. , Rotfeld 2003) can be partly assuaged.Besides, valid concerns keep being expressed in the United States about the potential impact of â€Å"sexualized violence† against women in ads on the acceptance of such behavior (Capella, Hill, Rapp and Kees 2010) so that the abuse of sex in advertising is likely to remain an important U. S. socio-political issue whose resolution can profit from knowing the French experience. For these purposes, we will start by analyzing the stimuli that prompted French legal and self-regulatory responses, and conclude with a brief comparison of the French and U. S. control systems. Stimulus: the â€Å"Sex in Advertising† Issue Sex in advertising† as a form of â€Å"selling sin† (Davidson 2003) has long generated negative reactions. Thus, the first International Code of Advertising Practice of the International Chamber of Commerce already stated in Article 1 of its 1937 Rules that: â€Å"Advertisements should not contain statements or visual representations which offend against prevailing standards of decency. † This principle has been adopted by many developed and developing countries, and it is expressed in one form or another in their laws and codes of conduct. Much of the decency issue used to be about goods and services thought to be â€Å"unmentionable† (e. g. toilet paper and feminine-hygiene products) and whether an ad’s execution was in â€Å"good taste† and shown at the appropriate time – with the radio and television broadcasting of objectionable commercials being limited to late hours of the day. Nowadays, sexually-oriented ads apply to all sorts of goods and services (e. g. , clothing, perfumes, jewelry, 3 alcohol, video games, cell phones and movies), they are available on the Internet at all hours, and they frequently emanate from advertisers in the luxury-goods sector (e. g. , Dior). Such audacious practices reflect the modern sexualization of mores and values in Western countries (e. . , Giddens 1993; McNair 1996; Reichert 2003) – with several French books having such evocative titles and subtitles as â€Å"The Pornographic Consensus,† â€Å"Sexyvilisation† and â€Å"The Tyranny of Pleasure. † It helps explain the advent around 2000 of sexually-oriented ads that combine pornography, violence and submission, and reflect McNair’s (2002) â€Å"Porno-chic† concept which incorporates into cultural production some practices (such as fellatio) and taboos (such as pedophilia) that transfer the transgressive qualities of pornography into mainstream culture. To categorize the scope of sex in advertising, Loubradou (2004, 2010) developed the concept of â€Å"hypersexuality† (also used by the French self-regulatory system) to encompass: (1) full nudity and/or sexual organs shown in close-ups; (2) the promotion of products and services associated with sexual intercourse (e. g. , condoms, lubricants, escort services and sex toys); (3) â€Å"Sex andShockvertising† that combines sexual information with fear and shock – a strategy particularly used in public-service campaigns about AIDS and against child abuse, (4) showing or evoking sexual intercourse, homosexual relations, fellatio, sadomasochism and violence against women, and (5) sheer pornography as in an Internet ad exhibiting fellatio. Such ads generate four major types of objections (Boddewyn 1989, pp. 9-32; 1991, p. 26): sexism covers distinctions which diminish or demean one gender in comparison with the other – particularly, through the use of sex-role stereotypes; sexual objectification refers to using The expression â€Å"Porno-chic† was first used in 1973 by a New York Times journalist when the porn movie Deep Throat was release d because people thought it was â€Å"chic† (that is, trendy) to watch it. McNair (2002, p. 2) defined â€Å"Porno-chic† as a wide process of cultural sexualization and pornographication of mainstream culture engaged â€Å"in an unprecedented flirtation with the codes and conventions of the pornographic, producing texts which constantly refer to, pastiche, parody and deconstruct the latter. † As he put it: â€Å"Porno-chic is not porn, but the representation of porn in non-pornographic art and culture† (p. 1). 1 4 (mostly) women as decorative or attention-getting objects while sexuality relies on sensual, suggestive and erotic imagery, sound and wording, and is sometimes combined with the depiction of violence against women in ads showing them in harmful, subservient and helpless positions. French reactions to these excesses have been strong. French ResponsesIncensed Pressure Groups Of the dozen French consumer associations legally recognized and financia lly subsidized by the government, most are linked to family organizations and a few to militant labor unions, and they are officially acknowledged as valid partners in discussions and negotiations with public and business bodies for the purpose of ensuring consumer protection broadly defined (Trumbull, 2006).These organizations and, later on, environmental ones have been granted a formal â€Å"political voice† – a formal status which the French advertising industry has only received very recently (see below). Besides, feminist groups enraged by the treatment of women in advertising have been very influential in France although they have not so far received the same official recognition as consumer and environmental organizations because of their fragmented and sometimes aggressive nature.Thus, vocal organizations with such evocative names as The Hunting Pack, Guardbitches and Advertising Wreckers managed in the 1980s to focus the â€Å"sex in advertising† issue around sexist discrimination, the objectification of women and the violence shown against them – the latter following studies revealing the extent of actual brutality against women (beatings, rapes, etc. ). Feminists stressed the disjunction between the extended roles and functions of women in modern society, compared to their narrow depiction in advertising (Rapport IFP 2001, pp. -6), and their campaigns have often been reported and discussed in the media which have spread and amplified these groups’ demands for more regulations. 5 Public controls Two principles compete as far as the French regulation of sex in advertising is concerned – namely, freedom of expression and protecting the dignity of human beings (Rapport IFM 2008, p. 19) – as expressed by the first article of the Freedom of Communication Law (No. 86-107 of 30 September 1986): Audio-visual communication is free.The exercise of this freedom may be limited only to the extent required, on the o ne hand, for the respect of human dignity, the freedom and property of other people, the pluralistic nature of the expression of ideas and opinions and, on the other hand, for the safeguarding of law and order, for national-defense and public-service reasons, for technical reasons inherent to the means of communication as well as for the need to develop a national audio-visual production industry.Besides, Article 3 of the Executive Decree of 27 March 1992 requires that commercials respect truth, decency and human dignity, and avoid discrimination and violence that incite dangerous behaviors. Article 227-24 of the French penal code prohibits the diffusion by any medium of messages of a violent or pornographic nature and likely to seriously harm human dignity when they can be seen by a minor.The government’s Conseil Superieur de l’Audiovisuel (CSA) is charged with controlling advertising messages after their broadcasting in order to enhance the respect of human dignity, protect children and adolescents, and prohibit messages inciting hatred or violence on account of gender (Rapport IFM 2008, p. 19-20). Searching for New Values Particularly evident in these legal texts are the repeated references to â€Å"the dignity of human beings† – a principle already enunciated in the United Nations’ Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948).The highlighting of this concept reflects the search for new post-modern values which would justify representations of liberated women in advertisements without caricaturing or mocking their new freedoms, opportunities and responsibilities. In this respect, French feminist pressure groups provided a new discourse aimed at promoting the positive â€Å"image of 6 women† in advertising although, by excluding men, their initiative generated charges of reverse sexism!However, French public opinion and policy were concurrently shifting toward banning all forms of discrimination based on gender, age, race, role and handicap so that a compromise could be achieved by adopting a new unisex principle that emphasized the respect of human dignity and thereby protected everyone against objectionable treatments in editorial materials, programs and advertising (Rapport IFP 2001), This new principle was incorporated in various French laws after 1986 and in industry guidelines, starting in 2001.Court Decisions The Penal Code has not been used so far because of the high cost of criminal suits, the reluctance of judges to act as â€Å"censors of artistic creation† (Rapport IFM 2008, p. 20) and their fear of being ridiculed as reactionaries, and the difficulty for associations to sue in criminal courts (Teyssier 2004, p. 168). Thus, it was the Civil Code’s basic Article 1382, which obliges whoever injured others to compensate them for the legal damage he/she caused, which was used to condemn Benetton in 1996 for three 1991 billboards showing an elbow, a pubic area and a pair of buttocks stamped â€Å"H.I. V. positive. † A French governmental agency (AFLS) charged with informing the public about AIDS sued Benetton and was paid damages on the ground of this advertiser having undermined the human dignity of those affected by this disease by evoking the way meat is stamped and the tattooing of concentration-camp inmates during World War II, besides marginalizing a group of people by representing them as a marked population.Private Controls The previously mentioned â€Å"Pornochic† transgressions prompted the French advertising selfregulatory body to improve its responses to growing criticisms of the use of sex in advertising. In particular, it triggered its October 2001 â€Å"Recommendation† (Image de la Personne Humaine) fostering the dignity of human beings in the representation of people in advertisements. This 7 voluntary guideline states that ads should not hurt their audiences’ feelings nor shock people by showing demeaning o r alienating nudity, violence against people – especially women – or depicting people as objects.Concerned about the impact of advertising on minors, an April 2005 Recommendation specified that Internet ads should not harm the â€Å"physical and moral integrity of its young public† by promoting illicit, aggressive, dangerous and antisocial behaviors, challenging the authority of parents and educators, representing children and adolescents in degrading manners, presenting them with indecent or violent images and speech that may shock them, and exploiting their inexperience or credulity.In the same vein, a May 2007 Recommendation applying to erotic electronic services is aimed at promoting human dignity, the fair and true information of consumers and the protection of young audiences. The French Advertising Self-regulatory System The Professional Advertising Regulation Authority (Autorite de la Regulation Professionelle de la Publicite, ARPP) was created in June 2 008 as a private association completely independent of the government. However, it reports to a French ministry about its pursuit of violations of taste and decency in advertising because its 2003 Commitment Chart (Charte d’Engagement) requires it to submit an annual report on â€Å"The Image of Human Beings in Advertising† to the Minister in charge of Parity and Professional Equity, and to distribute it to the public at large. 3 Self-regulatory controls are applied both a priori and a posteriori.In the first place, French advertisers, agencies and media members of the ARPP may apply for non-binding copy advice by its legal experts at the pre-publication stage (15,196 projects were scrutinized in 2009). However, pre-clearance is mandatory before the broadcasting of all television commercials, and the ARPP can require modifications and even ban the proposed commercial if it is in breach of The ARPP is the successor of self-regulatory bodies dating of 1935, and it was na med the Advertising Verification Bureau (Bureau de Verification de la Publicite, BVP) from 1953 to 2008. The French government itself commissions independent studies such as the â€Å"Report on the Image of Women in the Media† (Rapport IFM 2008) that was solicited by the State Secretary for Solidarity. 2 8 the law and its Recommendations. A posteriori, the ARPP monitors ads on a random basis in all media except television where the government’s Superior Audiovisual Council (CSA) prevails. ARPP penalties consist of asking â€Å"transgressors† to modify or remove their ads, requesting the media to stop diffusing an offending ad, and the possibility of taking violators to court.Its decisions are widely publicized, and campaigns are regularly conducted to make the ARPP’s principles, recommendations and services better known as well as to incite advertising professionals to act responsibly. The previous BVP self-regulatory body handled complaints from consumer s and competitors but the new ARPP structure is more comprehensive and includes external stakeholders.It comprises: (1) an advisory Advertising Ethics Council (CEP) chaired by an independent academic to â€Å"anticipate† new societal developments; (2) an Advertising Parity Council (CPP) of which half of the members represent consumer and environmental associations, and which â€Å"concerts† with industry representatives about the need for new self-regulatory rules, and (3) an independent Advertising Deontology Jury (JDP) made up of persons who have no links with industry or consumer associations to solicit and â€Å"sanction† complaints from the public in order to complement the ARPP’s monitoring of ads.Impressive Results The 2006 BVP report to the Minister in charge of parity between the sexes dealt only with posters and billboards because they are highly visible to all audiences – young and adult, pleased or offended. Of 4,288 â€Å"visuals,â₠¬  only 8 (or 0. 19%) were considered to be violating its Recommendations. In all cases, the advertisers removed their ads, and the BVP credited the willingness of most outdoor advertisers to consult it before diffusing their ads for the low incidence of violations. Its report for 2007 (ARPP 2008) dealt with the Image of Human Beings in Advertising – with such subtitles as â€Å"Does advertising diffuse sexual stereotypes? † â€Å"Are there too many images connoting sexuality? † and â€Å"Where does Pornochic stand today? † It covered outdoor advertising, newspapers and magazines – except those publications targeted at adult audiences (e. g. , girlie† magazines) – and it compared the sampled ads with its Recommendation on the representation of human beings in advertising, whose images should not offend human dignity, undermine decency, objectify/reify people, present denigrating stereotypes, induce ideas of submission, domination or d ependence and/or present moral or physical violence. Out of 89,076 monitored ads, 96 (or 0. 10%) were found wanting – less than in 2003 (0. 15%) but more than in 2005 (0. 02%) – mainly in terms of offending human dignity (51 cases) and on account of the recrudescence of pornochic ads for luxury goods – particularly for clothing (e. . , Dolce & Gabbana). The results for 2008 were even better, with only 46 infractions and a decrease in pornochic ads (ARPP 2009) although these statistics did not cover the Internet which even very young audiences know how to maneuver in order to find and recirculate sexually-related materials. For the ARPP even 46 violations were too many and suggested greater professional vigilance and education so that its first campaign in 2008 was entitled Sexe because pressure should be maintained for even better results (e. g. , against the objectification of women).Following the implementation of the 2008 Jury system (JDP) that solicits and h andles complaints from the public, its first report for November 2008-December 2009 disclosed 24 valid ones of which 18 were related to the protection of human dignity and, in the majority of these cases, the complaint was upheld. Such public complaining and negative Jury decisions are 10 likely to persist because viral advertising on the Internet and word-of-mouth diffusion have created a huge recirculation of ads with sexual and violent content. 4 For that matter, the French self-regulatory system finds it sometimes problematic to handle new issues.Thus, the BVP report for 2005 acknowledged its hesitation about what to decide regarding a billboard showing two homosexual men kissing (Rainbow Attitude Campaign). On the one hand, such a highly visible public display would shock the public so that maximum prudence should be exercised; on the other, it would be discriminatory to oppose a homosexual kiss when heterosexual ones are frequently shown. This advertisement was not found to be in violation of any public regulation or private rule – an example of how this self-regulatory body relies on both the law and its own Recommendations to control the use of sex in advertising.The new 2008 ARPP system of â€Å"professional regulation† has been publicly recognized in several ways. Thus, a 5 March 2009 law, which transposed into French legislation the recent European Union directive on audiovisual services, did officially authorize the Superior Audiovisual Council (CSA) to delegate the preclearance of television commercials to the ARPP. Besides, the Paris Appeals Court stated on 26 October 2010 that â€Å"recommendations from the ARPP, even though they have no legal character, are professional practices that the judge must take into account if they do not contradict a legal or statutory measure. Moreover, professional regulation is now acknowledged and accepted by the French government which through several â€Å"Commitment Charters† (see above) has implicitly agreed not to regulate or ban certain practices but requires in exchange an effective system of adequate guidelines as well as an accountability evidenced by periodic and transparent monitorings and reports. These agreements amount to a system of â€Å"co-regulation† between public and private 4 Neither French nor U. S. egulators have found effective ways of controlling the diffusion of illegal or inappropriate Internet materials except through the obligation put on Internet Service Providers to remove illegal materials, on advertisers to warn about the sexual content of their messages, and on broadcasters to offer parents program-filtering devices. 11 actors who concert and collaborate in the public interest, and help generate a sense of responsibility among advertising professionals now convinced that their industry cannot claim its freedom of speech if it cannot prove its responsibility (Teyssier 2004, 2011).A Brief Comparison with the U. S. System In the fi rst place, the French have focused on protecting the dignity of all human beings and forbidding all types of discrimination in advertising while, in the United States, the problem has been framed in terms of protecting minors at the relatively modest price of adults losing only part of their free-speech right as far as the broadcasting media are concerned. 5 To be sure, other U. S. edia can still offer indecent and profane materials but they are supposed to reach better targeted audiences excluding minors. Second, compared to the French situation, politically weaker and less affluent U. S. consumer associations have exercised relatively little influence on the government in recent decades, the National Organization for Women has limited its sway to the â€Å"naming and shaming† of sexist advertisers, and even the very influential religious movement did not succeed in its campaigns to â€Å"cleanse American culture† (Lane 2006).Third, in both countries, the government h as been the main actor for the control of taste and decency in advertising, with self-regulation a strong second in France and a seemingly weaker one in the United States – largely because of First-Amendment and antitrust constraints (Rotfeld 2003). Yet, the lack of a French-like self-regulatory organization designed to study social trends, develop and publicize detailed guidelines, advise practitioners, solicit and handle complaints, and penalize wrongdoers has not precluded multiple U. S. nitiatives that add up to a control system Following various Supreme-Court decisions, obscenity and pornography are prohibited in all media while indecency and profanity are forbidden on radio and television except between 10:00 PM and 6:00 AM when children are unlikely to be in the audience. 5 12 that can respond fairly rapidly and effectively to complaints. All U. S. media have a pre-clearance system and most offensive ads are withdrawn by the advertiser or no longer diffused by a medium (Edelstein 2003) although some researchers challenge this positive evaluation (e. . , Rotfeld 1992). Besides, most sexual ads find their niches thanks to behavioral targeting and because the vast majority of sex-related ads match the programs where they are shown. Fourth, on account of various Supreme-Court decisions, U. S. government agencies such as the Federal Communications Commission and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) have had to severely limit their control of indecent and profane materials in programs and advertisements.Thus, the FTC has rejected any â€Å"immoral, unscrupulous or unethical test† because the latter has never been relied upon as an independent basis for proving unfairness. Besides, the â€Å"secondaryeffects rationale† used by some family associations, U. S. legislators and regulators to justify further restrictions on account of their presumed effects on children and society – e. g. , fostering immorality and feeding the prurient app etites of pedophiles and child molesters – has not been accepted by the U. S. Supreme Court (Beales 2003).In contrast, such secondary effects have been used to justify all sorts of French proscriptions such as the ARPP Recommendation that Internet ads should not harm the â€Å"physical and moral integrity of its young public† (see above). Fifth, in both France and the United States, advertising practitioners believe that industry rules devised and applied by them are preferable because they know better what the problems and their realistic solutions are, and self-regulation generates greater moral adhesion than the law because industry guidelines are voluntarily developed and applied (Boddewyn 1992, pp. -8) even though it tends to improve only when the threat of regulation is real (Loubradou 2010). In this regard, there is increasing collaboration between governments and the advertising industry as evidenced by the French Commitment Charters while, in the United States , the Children’s Advertising Review Unit (CARU) of the Council of Better Business Bureaus has received the 3 blessing of the Federal Trade Commission which, under the â€Å"safe harbor† provision of the 1998 Child Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), can approve industry guidelines that help implement this law – a practice which also applies to the Entertainment Software Rating Board which assigns age and content ratings to computer- and video-game ads, and which has been favorably evaluated by the FTC (Bravin 2010, p. B1).Finally, while governments, family and consumer associations in both countries are presently very concerned about personal-data privacy, behavioral targeting and the promotion of fatty, salty and sweet foods to children, â€Å"sex-in-advertising† remains an important issue because of the potential risk that sexualized violence in ads and the media may contribute to the desensitization of people and the socialization of aggressive beha vior toward women (Capella et al. 2010, p. 45; Liptak 2010, p. A16).In this context, our analysis of the French cultural, political, legal and ethical dimensions of this issue can help us understand under what conditions the above concerns can lead to its meaningful and effective public and private control. References ARPP (2008), Bilan 2007: Publicite et Image de la Personne Humaine. Paris : Autorite de Regulation Professionnelle de la Publicite. _____ (2009), Bilan 2008: Publicite et Image de la Personne Humaine. 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