Monday, September 30, 2019

The Community Service Trust Act

With the passing of the National and Community Service Trust Act of 1993, there is increased focus on integrating student community service, volunteerism and service learning into the curriculum. Service learning can be a key to unlock our nation's potential. Promising that national service will â€Å"strengthen the cords that bind us together as a people,† President Clinton signed legislation creating AmeriCorps. The new program, scheduled for late 1994, will in its first year rovide 20,000 young people with 7,425 in annual wages plus health benefits and child care benefits if needed and $4,725 in educational benefits in exchange for a full year of grassroots community service work. In a Mac Arthur Foundation publication on youth service, Judy Karasik reported that America is â€Å"experiencing an explosion of youth idealism, activism, and commitment to engaged citizenship† . In record numbers, Americans are reaching out. It is no longer a matter of noblesse oblige, in which the rich reach down to help the poor. Today's volunteers are people of every socioeconomic level helping each other. There are still wealthy philanthropists who serve those less privileged, but the women who would have served in previous generations are now working for pay at demanding jobs. They are often too exhausted to add community service to their other responsibilities From Miami to Seattle, the United States of the 1990s is ripe for answers to the seemingly insurmountable social problems plaguing large cities and small towns. While we have almost become indifferent to the familiar litany of socital ills–crime, drugs,teen pregnancy, homelessness, juvenile delinquency–the response to many of our community problems has been a new student activism burgeoning on our college campuses. Programs range from student organizations assisting the US Marines with their annual Toys for Tots program to full-time internships in social service agencies A week after Hurricane Andrew struck southern Dade County, Florida, Broward Community College students had â€Å"adopted†Florida City and mobilized to help survivors rebuild their community. Teams of students, along with faculty and staff, traveled to Florida City on weekends to assist in the cleanup. Back in Broward County, some of these same students mentor at-risk youngsters, tutor high school students with specific learning disabilities, act as student ambassadors to the community, and serve as peer educators providing vital HIV/AIDS prevention information to their classmates Interior design students in Texas redesigned the Alzheimer care unit of a local hospital while classmates renovated a homeless shelter. In Colorado, architectural students redesigned a town hall. At Miami-Dade Community College, Florida, students received academic credit for producing a play performed by students, faculty and residents of a homeless center. â€Å"I learned more from them than I have all my life† said David, a student, referring to the homeless people he worked with in the play. Student community service and service learning are powerful learning experiences for students, providing a way to effect change and address our nation's pressing social problems. Students who volunteer receive more than just the satisfaction of helping those in need: they learn responsibility, build character, solve problems, and gain a better understanding of their Community colleges have a unique opportunity to be on the cutting edge of this new paradigm. Speaking at a Florida Council of Student Affairs meeting, Chris Gilmore, director of the Florida Governor's Commission on National and Community Service,urged deans and vice presidents to remember that one-third of the community college mission is service. Citing a study in which 100 percent of the students reported that their service experience was more important than their academic studies, Gilmore noted, â€Å"There is no better way to learn leadership than by leading, and no better way to learn the value of service than by serving†. The term â€Å"community service† often conjures up visions of forced restitution, of convicted criminals sentenced to pay off their debts to society for infractions ranging from speeding tickets to felonies. For our students, the accepted definition of community service is unpaid work that everyone can do to improve the quality of life of those being served, of those serving, and ultimately of the community as a whole. The primary goal lies in attacking civic apathy while participating in activities that serve community needs. Out-of-classroom learning programs have gained in popularity since emerging in the mid 1960s when President Kennedy urged the nation to † ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country. He called upon the nation's young to serve society in the military, community service, the international Peace Corps, or domestic VISTA programs for two-years of national service. Since that time many colleges and universities have been actively integrating student volunteerism, internships, and community service into their programs. Thousands of college students are currently working in literacy programs, day care centers, soup kitchens, and facilities for the elderly. Very often the difference between someone failing and making it is just one person who cares about them. Student volunteers can change the course of history by touching the lives of many while gaining valuable life experience. What sets service learning apart from other types of non-traditional education programs, according to Neil Merrell, director of the Center for Public Policy and Service at Mesa Community College, is that â€Å"service learning is the blending of academic study and community service. † At Mesa, says Merrell, â€Å"our goal is to encourage students to become lifelong, active participants in the community. † Service can be integrated into a class in several ways, an extra credit option; as a substitute for a requirement, such as a paper,exam, or project; or an integral part of the course, if the class is on a related topic, like social problems. Service learning is the integration of community service into an organized setting where the servers also reflect on the meaning of their service. By combining service with a reflective educational framework, the benefits far exceed those of service or learning separately. Reflection can take place in groups or individually, in a written or oral format, by using journals or essays. In service learning the volunteer work is related to the course. The process of reflection is an essential part of integrating the service experience into course work. Through structured reflection activities, individuals develop an appreciation for the connection between their community service activities and the underlying issues of the social problem being addressed. Trish Joyce, a Broward Community College English professor, offered a service option to students in her Introduction to the Short Story course. After some reluctance, David Manko, a computer science major, volunteered to read stories to children at the campus child care center. Joyce points to the following excerpts of David's reflective journal as â€Å"a shining example of what â€Å"I told him no, that it only looked that way because the ants are so small. The children were all wondering about the crystals the ants were so interested in so I decided to show them, using a grain of sand. I told the kids that to an ant this looks like a giant rock and they are strong enough to carry them. They understood and wanted to look at the pictures in the book again†¦ If I were to write a children's story those are some of the characteristics I would include†¦ Each experience I have with the children, I feel I have shown them a little of the enormous and very diverse world of literature. † . A student's college career is a time of training, not only for a career, but for life. Service learning programs are designed to make social service an integral part of students' lives during and after college. The training gained through service could provide new career opportunities, or simply an experience to benefit everyone involved. Research by Arthur Levine of Harvard University shows an estimated 64 percent of college and university students participate in public service activities in addition to their course work. Mark Cooper, a Broward Community College alumnus, heads the student-initiated Volunteer Action Center at Florida International University (FIU). Cooper, who began the FIU program two years ago while a student, believes that â€Å"service learning works because it is based on one simple principle: you don't learn the basics by memorizing the basics, but by doing projects in which you utilize the basics. Surely if education is supposed to prepare the next generation, we should be teaching active citizenship rather than rote memorization. The real value, though, lies in enhanced learning. Research by Judith Boss on her University of Rhode Island ethics classes showed that a service learning component improves learning . Solving community problems is a bonus. The nation is looking toward its colleges to stem the torrent of violence and civic apathy by instilling such core values as honesty and respect for life. The Wingspread Group, a blue ribbon panel on higher education, developed a 42-point college checklist to improve educational offerings. The panel urged administrators to ensure that â€Å"next year's entering students will graduate as individuals of character, more sensitive to the needs of community, more competent to contribute to society, and more civil in habits of thought, speech and action. â€Å"Service learning experiences build new relationships between students and instructors, between the community and the college or university, and between the people being served, and the students, benefiting all involved. Properly prepared students augment service delivery for overburdened community agencies, allowing closer contact with clientele, and providing extra staff support. The college gains an improved public relations image. More than any other educational institution, the community college's very mission is enmeshed with a commitment to improve the communities that surround its campuses. The existence of both mandatory and voluntary community service programs is nothing new for many private liberal arts institutions and public universities. Even high schools in many states are adding service hours to their graduation requirements. However, while service learning is a nice enhancement to these educational offerings, service is integral to the very essence of the community college mission. Karen Bojar, an English Professor at the Community College of Philadelphia, includes service learning activities in her literature classes. She states â€Å"Community college students have deep roots in the community; thus, community service sets the stage for lifelong commitment. She views formal volunteering through a structured experience as a career skill and teaches her students how to incorporate their volunteer work into their resumes. In the most successful service learning programs, colleges and universities work together in a partnership with community-based organizations and civic leaders in identifying needs, planning and establishing the service projects. Community awareness is essential to the success of any service learning program. For years, colleges and universities have sought creative methods of providing on-the-job training to augment classroom learning. The value of such a goal is demonstrated by student participation in extracurricular and student life activities, where self esteem is strengthened and the roles of commitment and responsibility are reinforced through employment. Potential employers have always valued on-the-job experience, often more so than academic credentials. Employers are placing a high value on community service experience as well. An increasing number of corporations are establishing corporate foundations and community giving programs. Many encourage employee volunteerism through matching programs, match employee monetary gifts, and lend their executives to assist non-profit organizations. It is always desirable for students to become more focused as they explore career choices. Student employment provides non-threatening opportunities to experience job options without a full-time commitment. Working for the common good, however, adds a sense of urgency as the needs for increased levels of civic responsibility become more and more critical. Since 1954 there has been a 15 percent increase in the number of college graduates entering the field of social work. We may soon be able to witness a marked increase as more college students have a chance to learn through service to others. . In addition to the value of the experience itself, most of the student participants at Broward Community College receive service scholarships to reduce their need to borrow to pay for college. Although many of the participants reluctantly admit they signed up initially for the money, they stayed involved even when the scholarships were exhausted. Wen asked, they said they feel they got more out of the experience than the recipient of their services. The following steps will enable administrators to create a successful service learning program: Begin with a small core of interested faculty, preferably individuals who are activists themselves and already participate in community service endeavors. Form an advisory committee with membership including representatives from faculty, staff, students, corporations, and local community agencies. This committee can provide useful feedback, encourage faculty to buy into service learning for their classes, and win needed support from students and the community. Include students and faculty in the planning. Students must be involved in every aspect of developing the service learning program, from planning through implementation, though the institution should serve as administrative support to coordinate the program. Establish an office to provide service support and coordinate the program with faculty, develop agency contacts, place students, monitor service hours, and maintain co-curricular transcript data. Find a lightning rod with clout and provide incentives to reward faculty involvement. Elizabeth Ann Gilver, director of the Haverford College, Pennsylvania, Career and Community Service Program, recommends reassuring teachers that their students' course work will not suffer and using concessions to defuse opposition from the faculty In an effort to document the community involvement of students, student development transcripts are becoming popular as addenda to academic transcripts. They provide students with a documented record of their out-of-classroom experiences. These records of co-curricular activities can be presented to potential employers to indicate additional job skills acquired while performing community work. As public service gains popularity and jobs become more scarce, volunteering for community service will be viewed as yet another way for job applicants to enhance their resumes. Maintaining records of service also provide an excellent method to recognize student involvement. Several institutions use graduation and other ceremonies to present awards or plaques to students based on number of hours of service performed. A brightly colored cord or tassel on students' mortarboards can also be used to honor service achievements. At some institutions, a single instructor or group of faculty members have developed ways to creatively integrate service experiences into specific courses with no institutional support. Many four-year institutions have programs that are initiated and run by students, either through student clubs and organizations or by individual students. However, because of the abbreviated programs and short tenure of typical community college students, community colleges wishing to sustain a viable service learning program must make the commitment of a full-time faculty or staff member to coordinate their program. There are numerous departments that can assume overall responsibility for a service learning program–Student affairs, academic affairs, cooperative education, student employment, financial aid, student activities, student life, placement, or career services offices can all play a role. There is no one answer that will satisfy the individual needs of all institutions, each with very different organizational structures. The common denominator in successful service learning programs is enthusiastic program personnel coupled with a strong institutional commitment, as long term sustain ability is largely dependent on a commitment from top administration. When searching for funding, don't leave any stone unturned. Grants are available to cover startup costs from such sources as the Corporation on National and Community Service, the U. S. Department of Education Fund for the Improvement of Post-Secondary Education (FIPSE), state agencies, etc. Some institutions have earmarked student activity fees to cover program operating costs. Others have successfully negotiated institutional budgetary support. Work closely with your counterparts in resource development, financial aid, and grants, to seek out operating funds. If your institution provides staff and program development support or mini-grants to pilot new programs, apply for start-up funds. Appeal to local private and public foundations, corporations and individual donors. Seek out program funds or scholarships for the students. Donors are often more willing to provide tuition assistance for students who also give something back to their community. By focusing on the needs of others, students gain a sense of compassion and social awareness that develops when people help each other. A national survey conducted by Allan Luks revealed that people who do regular volunteer work report that good feelings keep them generally healthier and happier In his book, The Healing Power of Doing Good, he suggests that working through an organization makes volunteers more likely to continue regular volunteer activities. By providing college students with an organized means to experience service learning, colleges can foster a lifelong commitment to altruism. There are those who see the world's ills as insurmountable and make no effort to address them. There are others who believe that each of us can make a difference through individual acts of civic responsibility. Toward that end, every community college in the nation should provide its students with a variety of volunteer, community service, public service and service learning experiences to prepare them for a role of active citizenship and participation in improving the quality of life in their communities. Think what a legacy we could leave our children and their children if we could imbue each of the nearly 9 million students that annually pass through our doors each year with such a notion. The ripple effect would certainly go a long way toward making our world a better place.

Sunday, September 29, 2019

Are Education Systems Modern as Well as Practical Essay

A willing and able person who cannot find a job is given the title of unemployed. /When person who is willing to do work and also has the ability to do so cannot find a job, they are given the title of unemployed. Willingness to work can come about for a number of reasons such as the desire to escape from poverty or attain a higher standard of living. The problem comes in with the ability of that individual to earn a stipend. With the annual population growth being 1.8% during the last four years, nearly a million workers are being added to the workforce every year. However despite such vast potential at hand, the employment rates are creating an unfavorable environment. Nearly 60% of the population is in the ‘economically productive’ age group and with the alarming fact that the rate of youth unemployment in Pakistan is 8%, higher than the overall unemployment rate of 6% this year. Almost half of the Pakistani workforce is unemployed according to the figures released by the Pakistan Economy Watch. The low growth in labour productivity has not matched the rising labour force and due to the low literacy rate coupled with ongoing economic depression, poverty is constantly growing. Since the scientific revolution and the times of the Age of Enlightenment, our knowledge and the way we are educated has progressed through the advancing scientific methods. In our modern times, colleges give us the option of studying, for example, applied science or theoretical science. Our primary education sector /According to data from the International Labour Organization, the /Our primary and secondary education are to an extent meeting modern standards of education but the problem lies with the Tertiary sector. Unemployment and poverty have affected not only our country but the world. The foundation of the eurozone crisis lies with the 11.8% unemployment rate, up from .1% in only a month. Close to 19million in the 17-nation zone have been affected. The risk of poverty is constantly growing, and has become a global issue. Thoughtfully executed management of (social norms and expectations ) our agricultural sector can prevent the takeover of foreign companies along with the loss of jobs due to mechanization. The modern education as it is seen today consists of learning through the mediums of technology, that being the computer,projectors and the internet. The way I see it, the cramming of facts and dates and rote learning does not benefit our society, instead a practical aspect of learning needs to be taught by the government and private institutions. According to various records, with 50% of our population being women, the number of girl enrolling in middle school is alarming. Science has always fascinated children, but with time the motivation dies down. Reading a textbook surely giving us the knowledge but in the end we learn, give exams and forget. A practical demonstration on the other hand would enable the child to grab the idea better, en-rooting the knowledge permanently in their minds. The government has to not only focus on successfully executing growth-oriented policies but manage our agricultural sector.

Saturday, September 28, 2019

Canadian Standards Association (CSA) Article Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Canadian Standards Association (CSA) - Article Example almost everything that a business or industry handles and a consumer benefits from; â€Å"from toasters to transformers, sewer pipes to sewing machines and light to lumber† (Griffin, 15). The CSA mark of standard can be found on â€Å"more than a billion products around the world† (Griffin, 15). The international counterpart of the organization â€Å"tests and certifies products to national, regional and international standards† (Griffin, 15). This in turn helps to ensure â€Å"public safety and health†, better the â€Å"quality of life†, and conserve environmental health (Griffin, 15). The role of the organization has been defined as to â€Å"foster operational excellence† (Griffin, 15). CSA provides standards for many aspects of a renovation project. As detailed in the CSA website, CSA.CA.com, CSA has set standards for building construction, the Z320-11, Building Commissioning Standard and Check Sheets 2011. There is also a detailed set of guidelines, CSAZ8000, published specifically in the context of renovation of health care facilities, for essential electrical systems, heating, ventilation, air-conditioning, handling of waste materials, infection control, plumbing installations, and medical gas-pipeline systems. A renovator can follow these standards to ensure quality and safety. They help the renovator to know â€Å"if the technical functions associated with their major systems were safe and fully operational,† as suggested in the CSA website, CSA.CA.com. These standards approach the buildings and their entire operational systems from a holistic perspective, says the CSA website, CSA.CA.com. The website also explains that the â€Å"major building system s† that come under these guidelines are: It is also observed in the CSA website, CSA.CA.com, that â€Å"the intent of this Standard is to provide a comprehensive, integrated, consistent, and managed process to ensure and document the performance of a complete building and its major systems in meeting the basis of

Friday, September 27, 2019

Fantastic Mr. Fox by Ronal Dahl Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Fantastic Mr. Fox by Ronal Dahl - Essay Example These early instances of animals in literature history stood generally imbued with strong allegorical and religious significance. â€Å"Fantastic Mr. Fox† serves as criterions of moral didacticism by use of animals as instances for humans to avoid or follow (Dahl 70). Before we even encounter Mr. Fox, Roald introduces us to three loathsome farmers who go by names of Bunce, Bean and Boggis. Farmer Boggis keeps poultry and is a prime sample of obesity since he eats 3 whole chickens together with dumplings for each meal of the day daily. Farmer Bunce, conversely, has thousands of geese and ducks. He stands a pot - bellied dwarf and his diet consisting of doughnuts bloated with goose liver cream. He seems to continue with this regime although he has a persistent stomach ache and an ill temper because of it. Finally, there is Farmer Bean, a turkey’s keeper and an apple orchard owner. He does not eat turkeys: he simply brews cider from the apples to drink the brew by the gall on. Bean is extremely thin but extraordinary brilliant. These 3 farmers are so contemptible that their local children sing a rhyme about their spitefulness when they come across them. It remains actually quite shocking that they manage to liaise with each other, considering their unpleasantness (Dahl 3). They must liaise, however, if they stand having at any chance at all, to outwit Mr. Fox. The Mr. Fox has a family of a wife and 4 little foxes to nourish, and each evening he asks his wife if she would like a duck, a goose, a turkey or a chicken. He then steals from the appropriate farm and takes back the chosen birdie. He is a cunning creature who approaches farms with the wind propelling towards him, so he can pick up the farmer’s scent lying to wait with a gun and quickly change his direction. The three farmers are furious and eventually agree they should hide proximal Mr. Fox hole to attack him once he emerges. The story continues their frustrated attempts to kill Mr. Fox alongside his family, who always succeed to dig further and escape the farmers. The foxes get horrified when tractors get brought to dig them out. However, Mr. Fox finds a plan to dig several tunnels along to each farm and steal enough foodstuff and cider for a celebration. Help gets solicited from other animals, of that get summoned to a great banquet (Dahl 13). Foxes stay often depicted as antiheroes in children's literature, â€Å"Chicken Liken† being a prime illustration. In 'Fantastic Mr. Fox, conversely, readers find themselves rooting for the foxes family in the aspect of the drastic actions taken by the 3 loathsome farmers. The story continues at a fast pace over chapters of about six pages each, and it is unlikely any child can have the chance to become bored. Quentin Blake delightful illustrations add hugely to bring the tale alive. The animals stay seen as life - size compared to the chickens, ducks, turkeys and geese. Mr. Fox wears a classy jacket and neck tie wh ereas Badger wears a waistcoat. Eyes and snouts are exaggerated, and all animals more have beaming, wholehearted smiles. The farmers, in contrast, are grumpy, glum souls. The illustration of 2 tractors with their headlights grinning makes them appear like two monsters with arrays of fangs, ready to gulp a creature that would get on their way (Sax 55). The tale remains intended for read - aloud tale for children aged 3

Thursday, September 26, 2019

Mosques in America Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 4250 words

Mosques in America - Research Paper Example However with the emergence of Christianity and Islam, the technological development, particularly in the area of transportation and distribution of ideas, people started moving around the world more intensively, settling in other countries and bringing their religion with them. As a result, the societies which used to be homogeneous in terms of ethnicity and religion now included foreign elements. At the present moment this phenomenon can be easily observed world wide. It may be necessary to narrow the analysis down to a particular religion and country to perform a detailed examination of the issue. Thus, this paper will show mosques in the United States of America feature a considerable number of peculiarities which can be explained by the relationship between this country and the Arab world. To begin with, it may be particularly important to pay attention to those who visit mosques, namely the believers. According to a recent study, it is suggested that the number of Muslims in the United States may be underestimated. Indeed, it has been pointed out that only a million and a half people who live in America are to be seen as followers of Islam; however, it was found that Eid Prayer which is one of the major holidays in the Islamic world was attended by over two and a half million people in 2011 (Bagby, 2011, p. 4). It is quite obvious that this number may not be used as a rough estimation, but it surely casts a shadow on the previous estimates. There is no doubt that during census people might not have stated their religion or did not take part in it at all. However, one should put emphasis on the fact that the presence of Muslims in the United States is surely being underestimated. This holds important implications when it comes to the number of mosques as well as their value since there more there are Muslims, the more

Wednesday, September 25, 2019

International marketing - Wedgwood Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

International marketing - Wedgwood - Essay Example The Russian economy grew at 6% and 8.1% in 2008 and 2007 respectively, and witnessed an average GDP growth rate of 7% over the last decade. By 2008, the country had a forex reserve of $600 billion. The country is also looking at entering the WTO or the World trade organisation. GDP stood at $1.757 trillion in the year 2008. (Russia, April 2009) Goldman Sachs has predicted that Russia along with Brazil, India and China would become larger in terms of size than the present US and European economic powers over the next forty years. According to the report the Russian economy would surpass the economies of Italy, France, UK and Germany by the years 2018, 2024, 2027 and 2028 respectively. It is also being claimed that by 2050 Russia will be the only country amongst the BRIC nations which would have per capita income equivalent or to big European economies. By 2050 Russia would also have the highest per capita income among the BRIC countries. (Dreaming With BRICs: The Path to 2050, 2003) ( Hult T., 2009). The country has also got a growing middle class which constituted 45% of the total population in 2003 (Senaeur B., and Goetz L., March 2003). Recent reports have also pointed out the positives and strengths of the retail sector in Russia. In a recent report Russia has been ranked 3rd in terms of the attractiveness of retail market and retail development opportunities within a group of 30 countries (A.T. Kearney Global Retail Development Index, 2008). Moreover about 39% of the population in the country is between the 15 to 39 age group. Carrefour and IKEA are just some of the global marquee name operating in Russia. Growing middle class with increasing disposable income and high rate of economic growth makes Russia an attractive retail destination for global majors and local companies as well. (A.T. Kearney Global Retail Development Index, 2008). Factors Affecting Entry Mode Decisions Internal factors: UK based Wedgwood is famous for its high end china tableware and other home d'cor stuff. It is looking at expanding into markets like Russia. Characteristics of desired mode:Low need of financial expenditure at the initial stage then increased chances of higher ROI at a later stage. Specific factors in context of Transaction: Russia is socio economically quite different from Western economies, owing to its communist past. So it won't be easy for Wedgwood to select the Licensee partner. External Factors: FDI policy in Russia has improved as the leaders across political dispensations have started welcoming FDI into the country (Minniti M. et. al, ). This is evident from the fact that total FDI over the period 2002 to 2006 increased 20 times over. It stood at $52 billion in the year 2007 (Souza L.V.D., April 2008). Recommended mode Academic literature provides various theories in context of choosing the mode of entry into a foreign market. Sequential iterative model of Young et al. (1989) the four factors which affect the entry mode by Hollensen (2007: 298) when

Tuesday, September 24, 2019

AWKERMAN v TRI-COUNTY ORTHOPEDIC GROUP, P.C., Essay

AWKERMAN v TRI-COUNTY ORTHOPEDIC GROUP, P.C., - Essay Example However, during one of the Plaintiff’s stay in one of the homes, he dropped a toy on his toe thus sustaining another bone fracture. This time, suspicions of child abuse were completely abandoned as doctors ultimately alluded to the initial diagnosis. The Plaintiff was then returned to his mother. The Plaintiff together with his mother sued for damages because of the charges of child abuse. The doctors were in the first count were charged with malpractice for failing to properly diagnose the Plaintiff’s disease and breaching the duty of care he was owed. In count II, the doctors were charged with breaching an express and/or implied duty to conform to Shawns care to the applicable standard of practice. In count III, both requested damages for wrongful child abuse reports and for proposing Shawns removal from his maternal parent’s custody. In the second count, the defendant was granted summary judgment of the complaint. In the same count, the Orthopedic Group of doctors were also granted summary judgment and Count III. The same order also granted partial summary judgment to the Count I but only a portion of it; specifically the part claiming damages due to the filed child abuse

Monday, September 23, 2019

Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 383

Assignment Example Most of the victims of drowning usually experience â€Å"near drowning.† This is seen as temporal survival after a victim aspirates fluids into the lungs. Thus, drowning should be critically taken care of as it poses fatal effects to the brain, plus other vital systems. Respiratory therapists are thus expected to first evacuate the patient if still in the water, keeping in mind the state of the breathing and looking out for associated injuries. They should also arrange for fast transport where indicated and avoid resuscitating if demised is obvious (Golden, Tipton and Scott, 216). Secondly, they should do a primary survey where the airway, breathing, circulation, and deformities (ABCD’s) are checked. Evacuation from waters, cardio pulmonary resuscitation stabilizing of the cervical-spine and its alignment ensured suctioning of water, secretions and foreign bodies, stabilizing and reducing movements of the body especially the head. All management of hypothermia has proven significance in assisting submersion victims. Thirdly, ensure that all near- drown victims are taken to a hospital as delayed pulmonary complication or mortality may occur. Concurrent injuries, scuba-diving associated problems also other disorders amenable to field treatment should be also considered. Elevate the backboard head 30 degrees if there is loss of consciousness, tilt it to the left side to facilitate drainage of secretions and water. Ensuring close monitoring of the comorbidities, emesis, convulsions, respiratory distress, respiratory/cardiac arrest and behavior changes have proven to improve prognosis (Golden, Tipton and Scott, 216). One distinctive response is the mammalian diving reflex, where the physiological response of the body to submersion in cold water includes shutting down the body parts selectively so that energy could be conserved for survival. It is believed that the facial contact

Sunday, September 22, 2019

All Firms Should Produce at MR=MC Essay Example for Free

All Firms Should Produce at MR=MC Essay In economics, the point of profit maximizing and loss minimizing is called MR=MC. This point is where marginal revenue equals marginal cost, meaning that cost does not exceed revenue and revenue does not exceed cost. This is a profit-maximizing zone, meaning that total cost is not the lowest, but is farthest away from the total returns. The optimal point of production for the firm is at the point MR=MC. Marginal revenue is defined as the change in total revenue as a result of producing an additional unit, while marginal cost is the increase or decrease of a firms total cost of production as a result of the change in production by one additional unit. When these two are equal, the firm is not losing money, and is making the most profit possible. In the area of the graph where less quantity is being sold, the firm still obtains a profit but it is not maximized, and in the area of the graph where more quantity is being sold, profit is less and money can be lost from the firm. To the left of MR=MC, cost is low to the firm and revenue is high. As the graph progresses toward the point of MR=MC, each unit provides less and less profit. As the first unit is produced, the profit is high for that unit, but the profit for each extra unit produced declines toward the point of profit maximization. This may sound absurd, and may make the reader wonder why the firm does not produce at the first unit. However, as each unit is produced, the firm gets to keep the profit from every unit produced previously. This would add up to far more profit than if the firm produced when cost is lowest and revenue is greatest. The point where marginal revenue equals marginal cost is the point where all of the profits from the previous units are combined. At this point, total cost is not at its lowest, and total revenue is not the greatest, but are farthest away from each other, which is represented in the graphs attached. It is true that in the less quantity level of the graph revenue exceeds cost, however, the profit at MR=MC is far more than any of the units produced. To the right of MR=MC, total costs exceed total revenue. The firm would spend more money on workers, resources, and the production of goods, and not get a  great profit back. Once the quantity of goods produced passes the point where MR=MC, the firm not only does not make a great profit, but after a while, it loses the money that the company has already, and soon the company would go into debt. The point of profit maximization and loss minimization is the ideal point of production because if the firm was to produce more, all previous profit would be lost and the firm could possibly close down. As shown in the graphs attached, the profit depletes until the point where money is being taken from the firm just to produce more. When the firm cuts down its production and gets to the point of MR=MC again, the profit will once again be maximized. To conclude, the point of loss minimization and profit maximization is where marginal revenue equals marginal costs. This way, all profit from previous units sold is combined for a large profit and all costs do not exceed the total revenue. The firm should always produce at the point where MR=MC. If they move to the left or right of this point, total profit would drop. As the change in total revenue changes, so does the cost of production. The optimal point of production is when both of these are equal to each other. The graphs attached show how profit is still being made on other points of the curve, but MR=MC is the greatest. If a firm wants to increase revenue and profit, the best bet is to produce where marginal return is equal to marginal cost.

Saturday, September 21, 2019

Pleasantville Essay Example for Free

Pleasantville Essay The movie â€Å"Pleasantville† (Produced and directed by Gary Ross in 1988) is more than just your ordinary film. Pleasantville sends a message within a message. Not only is it a great film, (made popular by New Line Cinema) it contains numerous biblical references. Some of the biblical references in this film may be easier to see and understand than others. But when asked to analyze this film and critique the biblical references you will understand just how many there are. To me the most obvious relation to the bible is in a scene where the main character David (Tobey Maguire) is the first to see a fire that breaks out in a tree in his front yard. Ironically enough, the tree is on fire, but is not consumed by the flames, it’s burning but not disintegrating. David then ran to the fire and distinguished it while commanding the fire fighters on what to do. How does that relate to the bible? In Exodus 3: 1-15 is the story of the burning bush. The burning bush was also on fire and not consumed by the flames, this was when God appointed Moses to lead the Israelites out of Egypt. Much like how David was then appointed a leader of Pleasantville. The only real difference is that the biblical story says that the burning bush talks to David. (The burning bush being God). Another obvious biblical relation in the film goes along with the story of Adam and Eve. The biblical version of the Adam and Eve (Genesis 2 and 3). story says that God created man (Adam) and placed him in the Garden of Eden to work and watch over it. God allows Adam to eat from all trees except from the â€Å"tree of knowledge of good and evil†. God tells Adam â€Å" for on the day you eat from it, you will surely die†. Later on in Genesis 2, Adam needs a help mate to look over the garden, but none of the animals in the garden are to Adam’s satisfaction, so God then makes a woman (Eve) out of Adam’s rib while he is asleep. On a side note, Adam and Eve are both naked and neither one of them are ashamed of themselves. Finally the serpent is introduced in Genesis 3, the serpent is said to be â€Å" slier then every beast on the fieldâ€Å". The serpent eventually persuades Eve to eat from the â€Å"Tree of Knowledge†. After she eats from it, she has Adam eat from it. Shortly after, they finally notice they are naked and become self conscious and cover up. God then asks about what they have done and Eve blames Adam, while Adam blames the Serpent. God curses them, and makes Eve suffer through labor and banishes both of them from the Garden of Eden. The relation in the movies comes from a scene in the end involving David and another girl from his school. Color starts to fill Pleasantville, and the girl he is sitting with in the lawn gets up and grabs a fruit of off the tree, and then she hands the fruit to David to eat, much like Eve did with Adam. As soon as they ate the fruit, it started to rain in Pleasantville for the first time ever, symbolizing God’s anger, and color now completely filled Pleasantville. The discovery in books also reminds me of the â€Å"Tree of Knowledge of good and evil†, the books being good, and the reading of them being evil because it made people curious to as what else was out in the real world. Therefore there is an effect in both cases, the biblical one, and also the movie. Pleasantville, (before David and Jennifer) is a â€Å"dream world† if you will, everyone is always happy and there are never any conflicts with anyone. Once the two of them arrive however, everything changes. In Pleasantville everything is black and white, but after Jennifer has sex with someone in Pleasantville, the first sighting of color comes out. To me, this symbolizes sin. The more people sin in the movie, the more color there is. So this biblical reference doesn’t necessarily correspond with any specific part of the bible, just sin in general. The people that sinned were turned into color, and at first if you were colored, you were frowned upon. But as more and more people â€Å"sinned† it became the â€Å" new norm†. So at first sinners were looked at in a negative way, but as more and more people sinned it became okay, and there was a neutral outlook on them. If I had to match a few characters in the movie to people in the bible I would say that Betty Parker (housewife) is most life Eve. I say this because at first she is so innocent and has no idea what sinning (or having sex) is. Then when she finally did sin she didn’t even understand or realize what she was doing was wrong. Jennifer ( Mary-Sue) to me, is most closely related with Satan. I say this because she was the one that first had sex (sinned), and she also spreads the knowledge of evil (sex). For example, in the movie Jennifer teaches her mother how to please herself, and she was also the first one to bring sex to Pleasantville. I would also say that David reminds me most of a Prophet because he is sent to Pleasantville and all in all he â€Å"delivers a message† to say the least. Another biblical allusion in the film that most people do not catch, would be the scene where David, and the soda shop owner paint a mural on the wall. They are expressing themselves, but, after doing research and seeing a picture of the mural that they made, I noticed something. On the left side of the mural there is a picture of a snake wrapped around an apple that is half eaten. This reminds me of the Garden of Eden and the serpent persuading Adam and Eve to eat the apple. At first glance you may not notice this, but after looking at the picture you can. The snake comes off us a very sneaky creature, much like the Serpent and how he tricked Even into eating from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. I don’t think that the film maker (Gary Ross) necessarily had an agenda when making this film, I think he just put in all these biblical allusions in the film to make people think. If I were to watch this film without trying to draw a connection with the bible, I wouldn’t have noticed any reference to it at all.

Friday, September 20, 2019

The Legality of the Police Stop and Search Powers

The Legality of the Police Stop and Search Powers ‘Experience should teach us to be most on our guard to protect liberty when the Governments purposes are beneficent. Men born to freedom are naturally alert to repel invasion of their liberty by evil-minded rulers. The greatest dangers to liberty lurk in insidious encroachment by men of zeal, well-meaning but without understanding.’ Justice Louis D. Brandeis, dissenting in Olmstead v. United States, 277 US 479 (1928) Introduction The Home Office reports there were 50,000 racially or religiously motivated hate crimes in the UK in 2005 alone and an estimated total of 260,000 reported and unreported incidences of such hate crime. In the recent debates over the Racial and Religious Hatred Act (RRHA) 2006attention was drawn to the fact that one of the primary purposes of the legislation was varyingly described as ‘†¦exhorting the communities to respect each other’s different backgrounds.’ And ‘a pragmatic response to increasing interethnic tensions, ensuring that diverse groups can cohabit peacefully’. What these dialogues highlight is the seriousness with which the legislature, reflecting at least a majority of society, views the deleterious effects of racism on social cohesion. Undoubtedly many of the concerns about the fabric of our society are caused by concerns over recent geo-political events across the globe. In particular the publicity of the terrorist bodies that have carried outa number of attacks since the turn of the century in New York, Washington, Bali, Casablanca, Jakarta, Istanbul, Madrid and London have made certain races and religions, in particular Muslims, synonymous with violence and extremist activities. These fuel already pre-existent religious tendencies. However, in many ways the governments approach tithe issue of terrorism and its inherent links to an increase in interethnic tensions have been flawed. A quick review of the anti-terror legislation passed since the Labour government came to power illustrates the point: The Terrorism Act 2000, Anti-terrorism, Crime and Security Act 2001, Prevention of Terrorism Act 2005, The Terrorism Act 2006 and Terrorism (Northern Ireland) Act2006. This doesn’t even include all the Statutory Instruments such as The Schedule 7 to the Terrorism Act 2000 (Information) Order 2002, The Terrorism Act 2000 (Business in the Regulated Sector and Supervisory Authorities) Order 2003 and The Terrorism Act 2000 (Continuance of Patria) Order 2004. There has not been a year since the turn of the century when terrorism hasn’t been on the legislative agenda and the upshot has been an exponential growth in police powers stemming from this flurry of legislative activity. There was an extension of police powers by Part V of the Terrorism Act 2000, Part 10 of taint-terrorism, Crime and Security Act (ACSA) 2001, ss.5 and 8 of the Prevention of Terrorism Act 2005 and Part II of the Terrorism Act 2006. Thus what the foregoing highlights is that on the one hand the government is attempting to prevent racist attacks and incitement of such feelings through the RRHA 2006 but also widening the discretionary powers of the police. It is exactly these kinds of ‘beneficent’ aims that Justice Brandeis was talking about that can end up causing infringements on liberty. In the recent case of A v. Secretary of State for the Home Department the courts were faced with a Human Rights challenge to the provisions under the ACSA 2001 held them in breach. It was described by Lady Justice Arden as ‘decision that will be used as a point of reference by courts all over the world for decades to come, even when the age of terrorism has passed. It is a powerful statement by the highest court in the land of what it means to live in a society where the executive is subject tithe rule of 1aw’. These decisions which have thwarted the aims of the government to a certain extent have an undertone that liberty is at stake. In this work we attempt to look at all of the foregoing issues in respect of the stop and search powers of the police. It is said that the ‘exercise of the police power to stop and search members of the public is one that has long excited public controversy’. There are numerous facets about the power which excite this controversy however far and away the most controversial issue has been its disproportionate use on ethnic minorities. This work is going to do thorough analysis of the police stop and search powers looking at number of issues. Many commentators take the now infamous MacPherson Inquiry into the death of Stephen Lawrence , which argued that the stop and search figures highlighted a ‘clear core conclusion of racist stereotyping’. This was placed against the overall conclusion that ‘institutional racism†¦exists both in the Metropolitan Police Service and in other Police Services and other institutions countrywide’. In particular it highlighted that they believed there had been a systemic ‘failure of an organisation to provide an appropriate and professional service to people because of their colour, culture, or ethnic origin’. This work wants to look at the stop and search research that is currently available to see whether this problem still exists or has changed. We also carried out an empirical study ourselves which we wish to incorporate into this analysis. One item of particular interest will be to note whether the rise of what various studies have called‘Islamophobia’ , which is largely exacerbated by the recent terror attacks and underpins the need for the RRH 2006, has manifested itself in the police. The aim in assessing the empirical data is to come to conclusion on the Human Rights issues which are now Omni-present in modern society and whether the approaches of the police can be squared with traditional criminological theory. Substantive Law on Stop and Search The placing of a general stop and search on a statutory footing was only achieved by s.1 of the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984(PACE). However, the power has been in existence in some manner since the nineteenth century in order to empower the police to ‘harass marginal sections of the population’. PACE gave the power to the police to stop and search anybody that they reasonably suspected of carrying prohibited articles for example a weapon or stolen goods. Similar statutory power had also existed before then but had been limited to drugs under s.23 of the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971. Again this section takes the format that where an officer ‘has reasonable grounds to suspect that any person is in possession of a controlled drug’ then they have a power to stop and search that person. The Criminal Justice and Public Order Act (CJPOA) 1994 also provided that an officer of superintendent rank or higher may authorise stop and searches where that officer reasonably believes there may be incidents of serious violence likely to occur in the police authority area. Indecent years the model in the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act1994 has been extended into the Terrorism related statutory measures. In particular The Terrorism Act (TA) 2000 s.44 extended stop and search powers so that, where authorised by an assistant chief constable or higher, then police officers could search people for anything that could be used in connection with terrorism, importantly can be exercised ‘whether or not the constable has grounds for suspecting the presence of articles of that kind’. It is worth noting that the s.60power under the CJPOA, above, also allows for the constable to stop where there is no reasonable suspicion. However whilst the CJPOA and TA are obviously of importance to fight specific types of crime such as terrorism, football hooliganism and gang fights the powers under PACE are considered to be the more widely used and more general of the powers in that it can apply to ‘stolen or prohibited articles’ with the latter having a very general definition in s.1 (7). This naturally means that the level of discretionary power devolved on the individual constable is directly related to the judicially regulated phase ‘reasonable suspicion’. It is clear that the courts are willing to police this test – for example a ‘reasonable ‘suspicion will not include a vague assertion by another police officers per DPP v. French nor will an order from a superior officer count as per O’Hara v. Chief Constable of The Royal Ulster Constabulary. In that case Lord Stein cited numerous authorities that uphold a position that he described as being justified because of ‘the longstanding constitutional theory of the independence and accountability of the individual constable’. Lord Stein went onto outline the general proposition which applies to reasonable suspicion: there need not be outright evidence amounting to a case, therefore a tip-off from the public may be sufficient, and hearsay information may be perfectly valid but a mere command or vague beliefs will not suffice. Thus the above clearly illustrates that there needs to be a subjective reason in the policeman’s mind for the suspicion however there needs also to be an objective part which causes the subjective suspicion. Whilst O’Hara highlighted that an informed tip-off could suffice as objective grounds it is clear that ‘†¦a person’s race, age, appearance or the fact that the person is known to have previous conviction cannot be used alone or in combination with each other as a reason’. In fact Code A of the Code of Practice for the exercise of the statutory stop and search powers specifically warns police officers of using such criteria as race or ethnicity because of the prohibitions in the Race Relations (Amendment) Act 2000. However, clearly the courts support the reasonable suspicion test as having a low threshold for satisfaction and as long as there hasn’t been clear discrimination and the constable himself has other reasons then there is deference. This was more concisely laid out in Casoria v. Chief Constable of Surrey where Woolf, LJ highlighted the tri-partite nature of reasonable suspicion: The subjective part requiring there to be an actual suspicion on the part of the constable, whether it was reasonable which will be a matter of law for the judge and finally as long as it was reasonable was the discretion used in accordance with the famous principles laid down in Associated Provincial Picture Houses Ltd v.Wednesbury Corporation. It is hard to see how the Wednesbury principle of ‘unreasonableness’ fits with a judicially determined principle of reasonable suspicions: How could a constable have a reasonable suspicion and then use his discretion stop in a manner ‘so unreasonable that no reasonable authority [insert: Constable] could ever have comet it’. In any case there have been numerous cases on these issues but this appears to remain the core of the exercise of reasonable suspicion. It also seems as though the courts have been lenient towards the police in defining what was reasonable and what constitutes suspicion: ‘suspicion in its ordinary meaning is a state of conjecture or surmise where proof is lacking: ‘I suspect but I cannot prove’.’ The statutory powers are widely drawn and as the foregoing highlights the judiciary are reluctant to impinge on the discretion of ordinary constables. However discretion per se is not a bad thing, in fact it is necessary if a modern state is going to function. However, it is the empirically measured use of that discretion which is of the utmost concern to all scholars of the law. However, criminological study has long had a fascination, predominantly because of classical positivist legal thinking and pre-occupation with the rule of law, with ‘the lack of control over behaviour that is subject only to the internal constraints of the individual and that is not subject either to formal rules and sanctions or to direct supervision’. What Working called ‘Strong’ discretion. The substantive provisions highlight this precise quality at the lowest level of the police hierarchy: the constable has discretion and it is the most visible to ordinary members of the public. It is this reason that many commentators have chosen to focus on the use of this discretion: ‘It is quintessentially a ‘low visibility’ decision†¦, immune to effective accountability mechanisms, for, if officers do not record stops, then they are unlikely to come to light’. Furthermore, as Waddington et al. make the point that the decision of a police officer not to stop provides opportunities for abuses of discretion which are virtually undetectable. Thus from a very basic point such discretion is difficult to square with ‘the standards of the legal-analytical view of the decision process’ that should be applied by social actors who exercise legitimate power over members of the public. However, we wish to look at how this power is being exercised by studies however we cannot look at this from every angle; Discretion can be analysed from numerous angles such as how it isn’t applied in a uniform manner, for example discretion in sentencing , or how it disproportionately effects certain sections of society such as women or ethnic minorities. It is the latter use of discretion that we are interested in this work because clearly stop and searches in order to meet their purpose will be applied randomly and on the vague ‘reasonable suspicion’ criteria so uniform application is not an issue. We will now look at the empirical evidence on all aspects of the stop and search debate. Empirical Evidence on Stop and Search There is a wealth of empirical evidence on this issue due to it having ‘been at the forefront of research into policing , in Britain and elsewhere’ and we will attempt to look at much of the statistics as possible in order to get a holistic picture of how the stop and search discretion is being used by constables. The major source of empirical information on this issue has been from the Home Office both in its Annual Report entitled ‘Statistics on Race and the Criminal Justice System’ and the six reports produced by the Policing and Reducing Crime Unit that did a variety of studies into different issues concerning Stop and Search. We will look at these studies initially in order to get a general overview of the situation. The Home Office Statistics for 2005 show, one is tempted to say ‘as usual’, that there is discrimination in the outcomes of stop and search statistics. Under PACE powers it was reported that Black people were 6times more likely to be searched than White people and Asians were nearly twice as likely. In fact no ethnic group was less likely to be stopped than White people. Under the CJPO 1994 it was noted that there had been a 5% increase in the number of Black people being stopped and 22% increase for Asian people whilst in the same period the number of White people being stopped decreased by 3%. Under the Terrorism Act however the proportions changed with the number of White people increasing and the number of Black and Asians decreasing (7% and 5%respectively). However, as we noted above PACE is by far the most commonly used with the recorded number of stops being 839, 977 as opposed to a combined 73, 363 under the other two powers. Thus PACE gives a much more widespread and statistically accurate sample. What arises is that particularly black people seem to have been targeted more than white people. These statistics are worked out by looking at ‘the extent to which police powers are exercised on a group out of proportion to the number of that group in the general population’.What is even more striking about these statistics is that they remain relatively unchanged over the last few years thus despite increased attention on this issue there has been little substantive impact. Unfortunately these statistics do not highlight a new problem as long-ago as the Scar man Report in 1981 there was a view that racism existed ‘in the behaviour of a few officers on the street. It may be only too easy for some officers†¦to lapse into an unthinking assumption that all young people are potential criminals’. Furthermore there have been reports that stop and search powers have always been used in this way for example a power to stop people under the Vagrancy Act 1824 and the Metropolitan Police act 1839 are reported to have been disproportionately used against black people The findings of the Lord Scar man report were confirmed later by other studies such as that carried out by Norris et al. which discovered that ‘not only that young blacks were stopped very much more frequently than other racial groups, but that these stops were made on a more speculative basis’. Then in the Macpherson Report into the death of Stephen Lawrence the same concerns were voiced but they made the point that it was Institutional Racism rather than Individual Racism causing the disparity and they pointed to the causes: ‘†¦can arise because of lack of understanding, ignorance or mistaken beliefs. It can arise from well intentioned but patronising words orations. It can arise from unfamiliarity with the behaviour or cultural traditions of people or families from minority ethnic communities. It can arise from racist stereotyping of black people as potential criminals or troublemakers. Often this arises out of uncritical self-understanding born out of an inflexible police ethos of the â€Å"traditional way of doing things. Furthermore such attitudes can thrive in a tightly knit community, so that there can be a collective failure to detect and to outlaw this breed of racism’ This sort of ‘unconscious racism’ has been noted by a number of studies and in particular at stop and search powers where many argue that ‘officers rely predominantly upon their own instincts, which could cause elements of race and class bias’. Fitzgerald Sabot also did an empirical study on this issue which similarly found that ‘†¦based on their presence in the population overall ethnic minorities are more than four times as likely to be searched than whites’. It was pointed out in that study that the problem was difficult to judge just on the sorts of statistics because; it doesn’t take into account the difference in the level of usage by different forces thus for example the Metropolitan Police account for approximately 46% of all stops recorded. This meant that whilst the national average may be four times as likely, as stated above, the actual ratio in individual forces were with the exception of one lower than that. Furthermore it fails to distinguish between ‘stops as such and the searches which follow from these steps’. In their study Fitzgerald Sabot exhort the view that there must be a clear picture of what is going on in stop and searches. In attempting to do this they divide the issue into operational and administrative factors which influence PACE searches. The conclusion is that on the whole stop and searches are not random but tend to be lead by intelligence from crime reports relayed over radio or in the context of specific targeted operations. This leads toe skewing of patrolling constables so certain locations and individuals on the ‘Prominent Nominal’ list were more likely to attract attention and thus they concluded that ‘the numbers of stop/searches may vary quite markedly from one police beat to another for entirely legitimate reasons’. However, they noted that official statistics were also skewed or distorted by Administrative factors such as non-recording of stops and a lack of clarity over the powers which the police actually have. In particular the failure to report stops was argued to probably be very great based on the researchers experience particularly because there was little to no incentive to report a stop which resulted in nothing being found and which contained no incidents. The results were also skewed because there was widespread disagreement about what constituted a voluntary stop. Interestingly, haven studied this area the researchers noted that the correlation between stops and ‘intelligence’ from crime reports was in effect passing on an already inherent bias in the ethnicity of reported criminals. However, as with other studies they discovered that there was a great deal of stereotyping that occurred towards non-white groups. Overall the picture presented was one where it was incredibly difficult to see whether or not discrimination occurred and they concluded that whilst race may be a factor it may not be anymore of a factor than somesocio-economic factors. In particular because of the administrative and organisational factors there was a conclusion that racial disparity was often reflected in the factors which informed the use of discretion and when less informed or acting on their own initiative the racial disparity would be less. Fitzgerald Sabot are not the only ones to challenge the orthodoxy on racial discrimination in stop and searches. In particular some researchers have pointed to the fact that often that reference to statistics and traditional studies tend not to taken into account the various ethnic proportions of the population who are on the street often as opposed to a resident population. The findings of initial research into the area found that ‘†¦the population available to be stopped and searched tended to include a greater proportion of ethnic minority groups’ Whilst the empirical evidence has been to a degree challenged what seems to be undeniable is the deleterious effect that the perception of stop and search is having. In research done by the home office they conclude that ‘the way in which stops and searches are currently handled causes more distrust, antagonism, and resentment than any of the positive effects they can have’. This was exacerbated by apperceived inexplicability for the reason of many stops thus there were complaints that in a large group or in a car only certain people would be searched and there was little understanding of how the police discriminated. Furthermore there was a feeling that the length of time and the embarrassment felt by those innocently stopped was contributing to severely negative attitudes. One man had described being stopped whilst in his taxi with customers causing a complaint to be made by the customers and he perceived that his reputation at work was ‘in tatters’. Finally, there was concern over the attitude of policemen which was felt to be confrontational and unsympathetic. There were also considerable views expressed that minorities felt targeted and that there was an inability to communicate with them leaving a feeling of dissatisfaction. These results were in no way unusual for example the British Crime Survey has found that there is a direct link between being stopped and searched and approval ratings of police, especially in ethnic minorities. These studies are backed up by others which highlight that inadequate training of police officers ‘failed to instil adequate social and interaction skills’. This is backed up by a study into the attitude of police officers towards stop and search training when a group of police officers from the same constabulary were asked whether they had received any training related to stop and search in the previous twelve months the results were that 46% said yes, 40% said no and 14% said they didn’t know. Some commentators have argued that on the empirical evidence available there is a clear conclusion that whilst there may be a racial bias in the stops and searches this may not necessarily be due to racial prejudice, whether personal or institutional, but rather the higher proportion of ethnic minority stops may be explainable as an efficient use of the stop and search procedure this is explained in more detail by Borough : ‘The efficiency argument for injecting racial bias into stops does not imply that ethnicity per se is the cause of a higher likelihood of offending. Rather, the probability of offending may be objectively related to a number of non- ethnic factors (family background; education level; economic circumstances; housing conditions) which, given the particular circumstances of society, are relatively more concentrated among ethnic minorities.’ It is argued that because there is no outward way of determining these ‘on-ethnic factors’ that race is used as a proxy for policemen. The example given is that an equal split between old ladies and young men stopped and searched would undoubtedly display a bias against old ladies because they far less-likely to be law-breakers. Thus disproportionate concentration on young men is not necessarily a bathing. However, this argument whilst clearly persuasive in it’s thinking has been discredited in particular because the ‘racial bias to police stops was in excess of that required by inter-ethnic differences in rates of offending’. The only conclusion that can be drawn from the study is that there has to be racial prejudice existent because of the level of excess. In fact Borough concludes that ‘a third to a half of racial bias to stops in 1997 /98 across 10 Police Areas of England, represented prejudice†¦most of this prejudice was directed towards Asians and not towards Blacks’. Thus he goes onto argue that even if we are able to overcome the rather ethically dubious ‘efficiency argument’ there is still a problem with prejudice. The latter point that Borough makes is of particular interest that taking into account intentional and justified bias there is more prejudice against Asians. The vast majority of Asians are Muslim and thus it is of interest to see whether there is a potential growth of‘Islamophobia’ in the police forces. It is worth just spending a brief period of time to understand the rise of ‘Islam phobia’ in the U.K. The immigration of Southeast Asians following World War II into the U.K.was fairly significant and created a sizeable and politically active Asian, and predominantly Muslim, population within the U.K. In the1980’s a number of events such as Muslim protests against Salman Rushdie’s ‘Satanic Verses’ involving mass book-burning and the fatwa declared by Ayatollah Khomeini which advocated the murder of Salmon Rushdie brought severely negative press coverage. Since the 1980’s and through the 1990’s there was a great deal of media attention on anything which might portray Muslims as ‘ant western’ or linked to Islamic fundamentalism was seized upon. ‘Islam phobia’ was coined by the Runnymede Trust in a review on the level discrimination and was defined as ‘unfounded hostility towards Islam’ and ‘unfair discrimination against Muslim individuals and communities, and to the exclusion of Muslims from mainstream political and social affairs’. We have already mentioned in the Introduction how recent legislative action has been prompted by anti-Muslim sentiments has been instituted. In the more recent past there has been studies that highlight generally that ‘receptivity towards anti-Muslim another xenophobic ideas and sentiments has, and may well continue to, become tolerated’. Particularly worrying is the growth of right-wing groups within society such as the British National Party , the National Front, ‘†¦the White Wolves, the Ku Klux Klan, the Third Way, White Pride, the League of St George and various fluidly defined football hooligan groups’. There is little research on the issue of whether Islam phobia exists in the police but it seems likely that to some extent there will exist such prejudices that are apparently relatively rife within society. Again this needn’t be direct prejudice but perhaps a stereotypical view which isn’t premised on justifiable grounds. Whatever the case there is increasing worry over the growth of Islamic fundamentalism in society and the extent to which police behaviour in stop and searches, in particular, has ‘created ‘angry’ young people vulnerable to extremism’. This was recently thrown into the spotlight with the seemingly unjustifiable actions of the police in the collapsed prosecution of O’Neil Crooks who was arrested for drug-dealing whilst on a family trip to the theatre. The actions were criticised by the National Black Police Association as alienating members of ethnic communities.Furthermore the Islamic Human Rights Commission has claimed: ‘It has been clear for a very long time that there is an institutionalIslamophobia in the implementation of stop and search. We need to get rid of a culture that exists – unfortunately it exists in our society as a whole, but it is much more damaging when mixed with the powers the police have’ Anecdotal evidence suggests that similar misperceptions exist over Muslims as do over ethnic minorities, for example research has pointed out that police view certain crimes as predominantly carried out by certain ethnic groups and there have been publicly expressed views by policemen to the effect that ‘the bottom line is that the terrorist threat is from the Muslim world.’. However, the police are using ethnic characteristics such as dress and appearance as proxies for Muslim which belies the fact that there are many white and other ethnic groups who are Muslims. It has been reported that ‘Although figures on conversions to Islam in Western countries are difficult to nail down, it’s safe to say that Muslim converts in the U.S. and Europe number in the hundreds of thousands’. This means that even if we were to accept the somewhat dubious claim that all types of terrorism were predominantly coming from the ‘Muslim world’ that the police might well disproportionately impact on people who present traditional ethnic characteristics, probably mostly Asian. This is worrying from a criminological perspective but also because the police will be less effective. It is clear that new converts are at risk of becoming radicalised when first attracted to the religion; this was seen in the cases of Richard Reid the shoe-bomber, Germaine Lindsay who was involved in the 7th July bombings in London and most recently Don Stewart-Whyte’s involvement in the attempted bombing of the trans-Atlantic flights from London to New York. In the next section we will assess the empirical evidence that we go from doing my own empirical investigation into these issues. However, at this point it is worth just summarising the empirical outcomes that have been expressed above. We have seen how institutional racism, twosome extent, is existent within the police. The figures even with alias built-in still portray a distinctly prejudicial picture however potentially not as discriminatory on black people as other studies have suggested. What are of more interest are the findings that Asians were disproportionately prejudiced and it is of no small consequence that there is a great deal of confusion and prejudice which sees people exhibiting Asian ethnic characteristics as consequently Muslim. It is important to realise that there is a ‘fundamental difference between person’s race and his religion. You cannot change your race. Your religion, however, is your choice.’ Thus again Islam phobia in the police could have potentially disastrous consequences on both ethnic communities and encourage radicalism whilst also missing the new converts to Islam. Empirical Outcomes from Study of Stop and Search I carried out a study on members of the public between the ages of 18 –29 in order to discover whether or not there was an actual, or at the very least a perceived, differential impact of police stop and search powers on various ethnic groups. There were real limitations to this study but we can make some informed conclusions from the results. I gave questionnaires to thirty people with various ethnic backgrounds(ten White, ten Asian, five Chinese and five Black) and the aim of the questionnaire was to discover their pre-disposition towards police, their experiences and whether this had been changed by recent political or personal events. Pre-disposition The first substantive question asked by the questionnaire took the form of a straightforward scenario where individuals were asked to rate the factors which they thought had influenced the police in it:

Thursday, September 19, 2019

Gulf War Essay -- history

Gulf War I. Introduction - Why did a coalition of over 30 nations find it was necessary to go to war to help Kuwait after it was invaded by Iraq? How did the coalition defeat the Iraqis? And although the coalition won there were many consequences to face when the war ended. II. Reasons for war a. Saddam Hussein b. Iraq’s’ Economic Crisis c. Oil d. Disputes over Boundary III. Forming of the Coalition a. Nations joining the Coalition b. Coalition Strategy c. Iraqi Strategy IV. Military Operations V. Consequences a. UN-Iraqi Sanctions b. Casualties c. Gulf War Syndrome d. Reconstruction of Kuwait VI. Conclusion – When the coalition of over 30 nations was formed by President Bush to help Kuwait after it was invaded by Iraq, they had their own strategy to win. With all the different parts of the strategy put together they won the war, but with consequences to face (some good, others bad). The Persian Gulf War Why did a coalition of over 30 nations find it was necessary to go to war to help Kuwait after it was invaded by Iraq? How did the Coalition defeat the Iraqis’? Although the Coalition won there were many consequences to face. The causes of the war started with Saddam Hussein, then the Iraqi’s economic condition, and the dispute over boundaries, and finally oil. When the Iraqi’s invaded Kuwait a coalition was formed against them, which consisted of the use of many types of military strategies. When the coalition won there were casualties, the Gulf War Syndrome, and still some things to deal with in Kuwait. Since the invasion of Kuwait caught the world by surprise the question in everybody’s mind was – What were the reasons for the invasion? The first reason was Saddam Hussein. Saddam had two distinct characteristics: one, the determination to be remembered in history, two, and a certain vision of the future. Saddam wanted to have a unified Arab world with Baghdad as its center. Hussein also felt that after that after the fall of the Ottoman Empire there was an uneven distribution of wealth from oil reserves to the allied nations. Iraq’s only hope of survival was clearly oil revenues from its neighbor, Kuwait. Iraq’s economy was also hurt with the consequences of the 8-year Iran-Iraq War. When Iraq’s leaders claimed victory there were three-quarters of a million casualties (one third Iraqis), and heavy d... ...ded Kuwait a Coalition was formed against them, started by President George Bush. Many countries joined the Coalition to help out. The war started with air strikes and ended with ground troops. When Iraq was driven out of Kuwait they destroyed the country. After the war American Gulf War Vets were faced with the new Gulf War Syndrome and some casualties. The UN also had some problems to take care of with Iraq. Kuwait needed some rebuilding but remained an independent nation. Works Cited Bin,Alberto,Richard Hill,and Archer Jones. Desert storm - A Forgotten War.Westport: Praeger Publishers,1998. Johnson,James, and George Weigal. Just War and the Gulf War. Washington: Ethics and Public Policy Center,1991. Leyden,Andrew. Gulf War Debriefing Book.Internet. http://www.leyden.com/gulfwar. Milano,Fred. Gulf War Syndrome: The 'Agent Orange' of the Nineties.Internet.Spring-Summer 2000.http://www.findarticles.com. Schwartz,Richard. Encyclopedia of The Persian Gulf War. 1998 "Study:Gulf Vets' kids have more birth defects" The Leaf Chronicle.VOL.191. 6 October 2001, local ed.: A5 Thompson,Mark."The Gulf War Poisons Seep Out" Time Magazine. 30 September 1996, pp57

Wednesday, September 18, 2019

The New England Lobstering Profession: Components and Optimal conditions for a Successful Harvest :: Essays Papers

The New England Lobstering Profession: Components and Optimal conditions for a Successful Harvest Imagine the aroma of ocean air, fog horns sounding, sea birds singing and coast winds blowing while you float across the waves of the Atlantic Ocean in Maine. Lobstering thrives in the Gulf of Maine due in large part to favorable lobster habitat. Rocky coasts and cobbley bottoms allow young lobsters to hide from their predators such as small coastal fish, crabs and even other lobsters. Interestingly, the gulf of Maine has seen a huge increase in lobster populations in the 1990s. This population pressure is causing young lobsters to move from secure cobble to the Gulf’s abundant sandy bottoms. Consequently, lobstermen are following. The Maine lobster, a crustacean from the family Homarus americanus, is found on the east coast of the Atlantic from Newfoundland to North Carolina. It is shy, nocturnal and armed to the teeth. Lobsters are found throughout the Gulf of Maine, both out at sea and near the coast. They are one of the highest value commercial species fished for in the Gulf of Maine states and provinces. Once considered a trash fish, suitable only for indentured servants and prisoners, lobsters have become a popular delicacy on many a seaside diner’s plate. Maine lobster is easily distinguishable from the â€Å"spiny† lobster commonly called rock lobster caught along the southern Atlantic Coast and the coast of California by its large heavy claws. The spiny lobster has tiny claws and is usually marketed as uncooked frozen tails. Because of its sweet, delicious flavor and tender texture, many believe that Maine lobster is the world’s most prized catch. Lobsters take about five to seven years to reach marketable size. The females produce eggs each summer when water temperatures reach 56 degrees Fahrenheit or higher. As many as 10,000 eggs are fertilized as they are extruded onto the females stomach. Here, they lay in a tight bundle until they hatch nine to ten months later. As larvae, lobsters travel great distances. The tiny larvae feed and swim vertically for thirty to fifty days in the water, carried by currents. After this stage, larvae settle down to become bottom dwelling lobsters. As they mature, they use their claws to crack open the shells of snails and mollusks and will eat either algae or remains of dead animals as well.

Tuesday, September 17, 2019

Genre Analysis: Musical The Wizard of Oz Essay

The Wizard of Oz is one of the biggest American Musicals in film. It has become known world wide, it is apart of our American popular culture, and is best known of all films. It was based on the novel, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz written by L. Frank Baum in the 1900s. It was produced by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayar in the year of 1939. This film just hit the end of the â€Å"Golden Age of the Musical† that started in the early 1930s. MGM benefited greatly from the hit of the rebirth of musicals. It’s known for the use of technicolor which is a system of making color motion pictures by means of superimposing the three primary colors to produce a final colored print (Websters Dictionary), fantasy storytelling, interesting and creative characters, and the musicality imbedded into it. There was also a complex use of special effects for film in that specific time era which helped the film receive special notice. MGM’s film had many awards but one of the most famous one was the award of Best Original Song for â€Å"Over the Rainbow.† It was sung by Judy Garland as Dorothy just five minutes into the movie after she was trying to get her Aunt and Uncle to come to a realization of what happened to her poor little dog Toto. In the beginning of the film â€Å"Over the Rainbow† is played by MGM orchestra over the starting credits. There is a big taste of fantasy in this particular film which kind of in a way departs away from the musical genre. There is many scenes of flying monkeys, and the wicked witch of the West and Glinda, the good witch of the South, and the munchkins, and talking lions, and a tin man, and a talking scarecrow. There are many musical scenes that I am fond of in The Wizard of Oz like the scarecrow’s song â€Å"If I only had a Brain†, the tin man’s song â€Å"If I only had a Heart† and the lion’s song â€Å"If I only had the Nerve†. The Wizard of Oz was the famous directors, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayar’s, most popular musical in his time. Starring Judy Garland as Dorothy Gale was one of the best professional choices MGM had in his career. She was the stand out in the whole film. Also starring Frank Morgan as the wizard, Ray Bolger as the scarecrow, Jack Haley as the Tin Man, Bert Lahr as the cowardly lion, Billie Burke as Glinda the good witch of the south, and Margaret Hamilton as the wicked witch of the west. â€Å"Somewhere over the Rainbow† became Judy Garland’s signature song. She has been in 32 of MGM’s films and she won a Golden Globe Award, Grammy Awards and the Special Tony Award. She was then nominated the Academy Award for Best Actress for her role in â€Å"A Star is Born†. Everyone of the lead rolls in The Wizard of Oz has been in many of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayar’s other films.

Monday, September 16, 2019

Developing Promotional Strategies for Horticultural Products Essay

INTRODUCTION. The horticulture sub-sector of agriculture in Kenya has grown in the last decade to become a major foreign exchange earner, employer and contributor to food needs in the country. Currently the horticulture industry is the fastest growing agricultural subsector in the country and is ranked third in terms of foreign exchange earnings from exports after tourism and tea. Fruits, vegetable and cut flower production are the main aspects of horticultural production in Kenya. In this write up, the horticultural products I will focus on are coriander, courgettes, cabbage, kales, spinach, indigenous vegetables like ‘terere’ and ‘managu’, ginger, garlic, tomatoes and onions. These products will be directly sourced from my farm in Kitengela. IDENTIFICATION OF THE INNATE ANS ACQUIRED NEEDS According to Boyd (2010) humans become motivated when a need is aroused that they have a desire to satisfy. These needs can be physiological also known as innate e.g need for food, water, sex and cloths or they could be acquired needs which are learnt in response to an individual’s culture or surroundings e.g need for affection, self esteem or prestige. The above mentioned horticultural products are food products that satisfy needs in the first level of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs i.e the physiological needs. Moreover, through the right packaging and promotion of these products, the acquired needs will be satisfied. THE PROMOTIONAL STRATEGIES BASED ON THESE NEEDS Organizations use promotion to communicate with customers about products they offer because promotion is one half of the communication process with customers. It works co-operatively with market research in an iterative feedback loop so that the constantly changing requirements of users are met by promotional activities that target or even anticipate these expressed needs. Promotion involves making sure that customers are aware of the products that the organization makes available to them. The objective of my promotional strategy is to provide information about my products, increase demand for these products and to differentiate the product. I will design different advertising messages to be placed in certain magazines like healthy eating magazines as well as Saturday Nation newspaper magazine and television advertisment. Moreover, through the social media i.e twitter and face book I will advertise my products. These adverts will focus on the benefits that clients will get on consump tion of my products. The advert will be designed in such a way that it brings out the different innate and acquired needs that will be met. People have to eat and eat good food that is well presented, I will therefore, do word of mouth advertising and attend networking forums for horticultural products e.g the annual horticultural exhibitions says Wu (2012). As I display my products, I will ensure they are well packaged in clean, labeled packages so that as my purchase my products they are satisfied with the packaging thus meeting both their innate and acquired needs. According to Stern and Adel (1988), word-of-mouth is one of the most credible forms of advertising because people who don’t stand to gain personally by promoting something put their reputations on the line every time they make a recommendation. In the utilization of word of mouth advertising, I will incorporate brand advocates in this word of mouth ad. I will use personal selling as well. This will be one to one communication with a potential buyer. In this case the potential buyers I will focus on for personal selling are the restaurants, schools, hospitals and hotels. I will therefore, employ the use of sales men and use experiential marketing in this case. I will hire a tele-marketing researcher who will make follow up calls to clients who purchase my products to get their feedback on areas that I need to improve on as the researcher identifies their unspoken needs as well as their spoken needs. REFERENCES Boyd, J.C (2010). Consumer Psychology. England:Open University Press. Stern .L. W. & Adel I. E.(1988) Marketing Channels. Englewood Cliffs, N. J.: Prentice Hall Inc. Wu, J. M ( 2012) Consumer Perception of quality for horticultural products and related agricultural practices. Ontario:Guelph.

Sunday, September 15, 2019

Deception Point Page 44

â€Å"Let's go!† Norah shouted, pulling the tethered group along as she headed toward the perimeter of the illuminated circle. â€Å"I don't know what NASA's up to here, but I sure as hell don't appreciate being used as a pawn for their-â€Å" Norah Mangor's neck snapped back as if she'd been rammed in the forehead by some invisible force. She let out a guttural gasp of pain, wavered, and collapsed backward onto the ice. Almost instantly, Corky let out a cry and spun around as if his shoulder had been propelled backward. He fell to the ice, writhing in pain. Rachel immediately forgot all about the printout in her hand, Ming, the meteorite, and the bizarre tunnel beneath the ice. She had just felt a small projectile graze her ear, barely missing her temple. Instinctively, she dropped to her knees, yanking Tolland down with her. â€Å"What's going on!† Tolland screamed. A hailstorm was all Rachel could imagine-balls of ice blowing down off the glacier-and yet from the force with which Corky and Norah had just been hit, Rachel knew the hailstones would have to be moving at hundreds of miles an hour. Eerily, the sudden barrage of marble-sized objects seemed now to focus on Rachel and Tolland, pelting all around them, sending up plumes of exploding ice. Rachel rolled onto her stomach, dug her crampon's toe spikes into the ice, and launched toward the only cover available. The sled. Tolland arrived a moment later, scrambling and hunkering down beside her. Tolland looked out at Norah and Corky unprotected on the ice. â€Å"Pull them in with the tether!† he yelled, grabbing the rope and trying to pull. But the tether was wrapped around the sled. Rachel stuffed the printout in the Velcro pocket of her Mark IX suit, and scrambled on all fours toward the sled, trying to untangle the rope from the sled runners. Tolland was right behind her. The hailstones suddenly rained down in a barrage against the sled, as if Mother Nature had abandoned Corky and Norah and was taking direct aim at Rachel and Tolland. One of the projectiles slammed into the top of the sled tarp, partially embedding itself, and then bounced over, landing on the sleeve of Rachel's coat. When Rachel saw it, she froze. In an instant, the bewilderment she had been feeling turned to terror. These â€Å"hailstones† were man-made. The ball of ice on her sleeve was a flawlessly shaped spheroid the size of a large cherry. The surface was polished and smooth, marred only by a linear seam around the circumference, like an old-fashioned lead musket ball, machined in a press. The globular pellets were, without a doubt, man-made. Ice bullets†¦ As someone with military clearance, Rachel was well acquainted with the new experimental â€Å"IM† weaponry-Improvised Munitions-snow rifles that compacted snow into ice pellets, desert rifles that melted sand into glass projectiles, water-based firearms that shot pulses of liquid water with such force that they could break bones. Improvised Munitions weaponry had an enormous advantage over conventional weapons because IM weapons used available resources and literally manufactured munitions on the spot, providing soldiers unlimited rounds without their having to carry heavy conventional bullets. The ice balls being fired at them now, Rachel knew, were being compressed â€Å"on demand† from snow fed into the butt of the rifle. As was often the case in the intelligence world, the more one knew, the more frightening a scenario became. This moment was no exception. Rachel would have preferred blissful ignorance, but her knowledge of IM weaponry instantly led her to a sole chilling conclusion: They were being attacked by some kind of U.S. Special Ops force, the only forces in the country currently cleared to use these experimental IM weapons in the field. The presence of a military covert operations unit brought with it a second, even more terrifying realization: The probability of surviving this attack was close to zero. The morbid thought was terminated as one of the ice pellets found an opening and came screaming through the wall of gear on the sled, colliding with her stomach. Even in her padded Mark IX suit, Rachel felt like an invisible prizefighter had just gut-punched her. Stars began to dance around the periphery of her vision, and she teetered backward, grabbing gear on the sled for balance. Michael Tolland dropped Norah's tether and lunged to support Rachel, but he arrived too late. Rachel fell backward, pulling a pile of equipment with her. She and Tolland tumbled to the ice in a pile of electronic apparatus. â€Å"They're†¦ bullets†¦,† she gasped, the air momentarily crushed from her lungs. â€Å"Run!† 50 The Washington MetroRail subway now leaving Federal Triangle station could not speed away from the White House fast enough for Gabrielle Ashe. She sat rigid in a deserted corner of the train as darkened shapes tore past outside in a blur. Marjorie Tench's big red envelope lay in Gabrielle's lap, pressing down like a ten-ton weight. I've got to talk to Sexton! she thought, the train accelerating now in the direction of Sexton's office building. Immediately! Now, in the dim, shifting light of the train, Gabrielle felt like she was enduring some kind of hallucinogenic drug trip. Muted lights whipped by overhead like slow-motion discotheque strobes. The ponderous tunnel rose on all sides like a deepening canyon. Tell me this is not happening. She gazed down at the envelope on her lap. Unclasping the flap, she reached inside and pulled out one of the photos. The internal lights of the train flickered for a moment, the harsh glare illuminating a shocking image-Sedgewick Sexton lying naked in his office, his gratified face turned perfectly toward the camera while Gabrielle's dark form lay nude beside him. She shivered, rammed the photo back inside, and fumbled to reclasp the envelope. It's over. As soon as the train exited the tunnel and climbed onto the aboveground tracks near L'Enfant Plaza, Gabrielle dug out her cellphone and called the senator's private cellular number. His voice mail answered. Puzzled, she phoned the senator's office. The secretary answered. â€Å"It's Gabrielle. Is he in?† The secretary sounded peeved. â€Å"Where have you been? He was looking for you.† â€Å"I had a meeting that ran long. I need to talk to him right away.† â€Å"You'll have to wait till morning. He's at Westbrooke.† Westbrooke Place Luxury Apartments was the building where Sexton kept his D.C. residence. â€Å"He's not picking up his private line,† Gabrielle said. â€Å"He blocked off tonight as a P.E.,† the secretary reminded. â€Å"He left early.† Gabrielle scowled. Personal Event. In all the excitement, she'd forgotten Sexton had scheduled himself a night alone at home. He was very particular about not being disturbed during his P.E. blocks. Bang on my door only if the building is on fire, he would say. Other than that, it can wait until morning. Gabrielle decided Sexton's building was definitely on fire. â€Å"I need you to reach him for me.† â€Å"Impossible.† â€Å"This is serious, I really-â€Å" â€Å"No, I mean literally impossible. He left his pager on my desk on his way out and told me he was not to be disturbed all night. He was adamant.† She paused. â€Å"More so than usual.† Shit. â€Å"Okay, thanks.† Gabrielle hung up. â€Å"L'Enfant Plaza,† a recording announced in the subway car. â€Å"Connection all stations.† Closing her eyes, Gabrielle tried to clear her mind, but devastating images rushed in†¦ the lurid photos of herself and the senator†¦ the pile of documents alleging Sexton was taking bribes. Gabrielle could still hear Tench's raspy demands. Do the right thing. Sign the affidavit. Admit the affair. As the train screeched into the station, Gabrielle forced herself to imagine what the senator would do if the photos hit the presses. The first thing to pop in her mind both shocked and shamed her.