Criminal Law - newspaper articles Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Criminal Law - newspaper articles - Assignment Example The overall purpose is to reach a conclusion on the accuracy of press reports that touch on legal matters while pointing out various reasons for inaccuracies that occur. Under the UK rules, fraud by false representation refers to a situation where a person makes a false representation either by intent or being dishonest in the process for personal gains. A representation is defined as being false if the person making it knows that it is true and misleading. In other case, fraud may be by a person failing to disclose information by intent through dishonest means for personal gains. The other part is fraud by abuse of position in which the person involved misuses his position for his personal gain. In the article, James Stevenson has pleaded guilty of an account of fraud in the IT firm where he worked by adding nectar points to his card which he later used to purchase things and access services. The judge also refers to him as having used his office to represent himself falsely. In the case that is presented in the article, James Stevens is guilty of one account of fraud namely fraud by abuse of position. Stevens used his position where he had access to all the activities that involve the use of cards, which was run by a third party, to benefit from services that were being offered by use of the card. This is evidenced by the amount of items that he purchased using the card despite his denial of the figures that have been presented in court. The reporting was not accurately done because in the article, an impression is created that Stevens was sent to jail because of having just added the amount of nectar points to his card. This scenario points out the inaccuracies in the reporting of legal affairs. PC Jamie Hillman who stole over  £70,000 from banks in loans to fund an extra marital affair walked out of court freely as the judge declared him of being emotionally fragile. The Bristol court

Marijuana Should Be Legalized Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words - 1

Marijuana Should Be Legalized - Essay Example However, in a practical sense, marijuana should be legalized in the nation because citizens have the right to use marijuana for fun and medicinal purposes, without being bothered by legal hassles and wrong views about marijuana. As per the American Constitution, every citizen has the right to pursue happiness (Gerber 126). The Constitution of America allows the citizens to do things that add to their happiness (Gerber 126). It is a fact that there are many people who believe that using marijuana no way adds to human happiness. Such people consider marijuana to be an addictive substance that may make people sick and turn them into addicts. However, there are also many people who believe that using marijuana will make them happy. They think that the freedom to use marijuana will really add to their sense of happiness and well being. Many people may not agree with such views. Still, people who want to use marijuana do have the right to do so. Eventually, it is for the people to decide as to what they want to put in their bodies. Denying them the right to use marijuana by making marijuana illegal will certainly deprive them of their happiness. Besides, this is also against the spirit of the American Constitutio n. If people can be given the right to use alcohol or tobacco, there is no reason why they cannot be given the right to use marijuana. Hence, marijuana should be legalized so that the people who want to use marijuana may do so with ease. This will add to their pursuit of happiness and will respect their basic rights. This will allow people to use marijuana without being harassed or bothered by the police. The other thing is that the illegal status of marijuana is based on a number of lies and disinformation.

Witness essay Essay Example for Free

Witness essay Essay HENRY LAWSON:- Many composers have been successful in using distinctly visual elements to create a particular image to reveal their own vision of the world. Henry Lawson is able to portray his image that life in the bush is not romantic. One can see this message portrayed through the short stories ‘the drovers wife’ and ‘in a dry season’. However Douglas Stewart portrays his perception of the destructive nature of mankind visually through his poems ‘wombat’ and ‘nesting time’ Firstly in Lawson’s â€Å"The drovers wife† we see how he personally views his perspective as being part of a group of people. He represents this through various language techniques and direct quotes to show the perception of belonging he has developed. Through the use of rhetorical questions â€Å"who are these shadows† through this quote he shows us that in the beginning he has no sense of belonging with that particular group of people. We see the use of peaceful imagery â€Å"moonlight plain† to show us that the shadows he may belong to are not necessarily dark and evil. In this poem we see how there’s a sense of mystery as to whether he belongs or not through the quote â€Å"The bearded faceless men† hence showing he does not belong. But later on in the poem he also quotes they â€Å"stood shoulder to shoulder† showing that he may belong and or be part of their circle. Hence, we can see his point of view. Furthermore we can see how a point of view is shown in Lawson’s story in a dry season. We see this through various language techniques and quotes. The quote â€Å"our lady watched† shows us that even though he never grew up in a certain group he still had something far stronger than a group of peers monitoring his every step and guarding him through he’s schooling days this shows the strong sense of belonging he developed with the school. The Quote â€Å"like a foreign tourist† shows us that peter never had a sense of belonging with that particular group even though he had been part of them for years but he still failed to integrate himself with them. The quote for â€Å"eight years† shows us that peter never felt as though he belonged to the school although he abided by the rules and dressed in the correct uniform, Hence, showing us both his point of view. Finally in the poem â€Å"Wombat† we can see how different people view belonging through many different emotive quotes. We see how the wombat goes down a long road from not belonging to belonging, we see this through the quote â€Å"from f lag burner to patriot† this shows us that he felt through he never belonged but  with time came his sense of identity which played a major role in helping him belong. We also see his journey from not belonging to belonging because he burnt the Australian flag but later on in his life had it put up as an ironic symbol in his room hence, we see how it views the word belonging. This is evident that a person can go from belonging to not belonging and that belonging is viewed differently by different people. This can be linked back to the poem ancestors as in the poem peter feels as though he does not belong at all just when he burn down the Australian flag but later on goes to discover his identity and realizes the flag is a part of him while Lawson knows that he does not belong to his ancestor at the moment but may belong to them in the final destination reached in the peaceful nature in comparison it can also be linked back to wombat as in the poem we can see how he has no sense of belonging just as first but later on found out and established his own notion of belonging. Hence, we can see both notions of belonging. In conclusion many composers have been successful in using distinctly visual elements to create a particular image to reveal their own vision of the world. Henry Lawson is able to portray his image that life in the bush is not romantic. One can see this message portrayed through the short stories â€Å"The drovers wife† and â€Å"In a dry season†. However Douglas Stewart portrays his perception of the destructive nature of mankind visually through his poems ‘wombat’ and ‘nesting time†.

Several differences between private and public schools

Several differences between private and public schools Introduction Extant literature proposes that there are several differences between private and public schools in term of governance, facilities and even the curriculum. These studies do however record both the similarities and differences of these institutions as well as the controversial aspects of these institutions structures. Like other countries of the world, Kuwait has also various factors that affect the running of public and private schools. In this context, it is true that many several students feel and experience the difference that exists between private and public schools. The general consensus however is that private schools are better as compared to the public schools as postulated by Hannaway (1991) when he argued thatprivate schools perform better due to greater school level autonomy and their responsiveness to the needs of students and parents. Public schools have always paid for higher education programs out of general public taxation. This has prompted several students to pay little or no tuition fees at all and has also enabled number of admissions in the public schools as compared to the little or rather fewer admission in the more expensive private institutions. Most students have been able to gain access to public institutions for higher education through selective exams programs; this is mainly in an effort to have of quality education and better performance in these schools which usually enjoy adequate government funding. Due to the difference in students abilities and competition in public schools, students with low ability have a choice of increasing their education level or being uneducated depending on their financial capabilities. This simply means that a student with a low ability can equally be enrolled in a private school but after paying full tuition money which is always very expensive. On the other hand, a student with low ability and lacks enough finances remains uneducated. But studies have shown that there is an increasing demand for public schools due to high demand of higher quality education coupled with high level of students competition for the government funded learning opportunities. Overview of the Kuwaiti Education system The Kuwaiti education system in the early 20th century comprised of very basic education that was delivered through very few Koranic schools with funding from the various wealthy Kuwaiti citizens. The Koranic schools main taught the students how to read write and solve. The initial step towards the modern education system began in 1921.Thse schools mainly concentrated on the teaching of commerce and mathematics. It was later on that that writing skills were introduced. In 1967, it became necessary to compulsory to enroll students or rather school going children to primary schools (Kjeilen,2009). The Kuwaiti government dedicated a very large sum of money in funding of its educational system. The government also has made efforts to device programs that aid in improving the entry of the Kuwaiti women from education institutions to their professional work life.A considerable percentage of the Kuwaiti education is made up of private schools with about 40% being in the kindergartens and secondary category. The private schools are mainly financed by foreigners while the tuition fees and other subsidies are derived from government support. In a nutshell, the Kuwaiti education system ranks very high and attendance is open to both sexes. The Kuwaiti education is also compulsory and free for all the Kuwaiti citizens. Social changes in Kuwait have rapidly sped up since the oil boom that started in 1950s. Right before the super affluence which was caused by oil, Kuwait as a country was one of the poorest states both technologically and economically; the people from Kuwait majorly lived and survived on activities such as trading, herding, pearling and fishing. The decades following the development in Kuwait after 1950s attracted many immigrants especially those from poorer states that include Arabs from the Middle East who wanted to be part of Kuwait by Citizenship. As time accelerated to a different Kuwaiti era, more and more developments were established as the native Kuwaitis led much comfortable lives in urbanization, thus leaving most of the labor work to the foreigners who were more of laborers. Early education foundation was based on only a few Quranic schools that provided majorly religious teachings and basic literacy in Arabic tutelage at the beginning of the 20th century. In the Middle East, Kuwait was one of the nations that flagged the most sophisticated, generous, and comprehensive educational infrastructures that enabled a much extensive education boosting in the country. Al Mubarakiyya school was founded in the year 1912 as one of the most profound and modern educational institutions in Kuwait through funding by merchants to supply clerks who at least had the basic knowledge in fields of commerce, letter writing and arithmetic. This was later followed by introduction of other subjects in the curriculum like geography, history and art. English courses were first stated in the year 1921 by Al Ahmadia School and shortly followed by the first girls school which was founded and established to offer instructions in home economics, Islamic studies and Arabic. In the 1930s, the modern period of establishment of educational facilities was initiated and on going; this was after the pearling based devastation of the Kuwaitis economy. In the year 1935, public education was established after the education system was partly adopted for control by the Kuwaiti state. This chapter initiated the starting of new schools, sending of Kuwaiti students abroad for higher learning and also founding of an education mission by Palestine teachers. Among the schools which were founded, three of those schools merged a total of 600 boys, while the other primary schools were established for girls and were able to accommodate a total of 140 girls. A year later in 1936, a department of education was instituted in order to monitor the running of the public schools, oversee foreign teachers from Iraq, Egypt, Syria, Palestine, and Lebanon who were the pioneers of the secondary education program in Kuwait. By the year 1945, a total of 17 schools in the country were est ablished. In the academic year of 1954-1955, the first technical school and the first kindergarten were established. This clearly shows the rapid acceleration of education facilities in Kuwait since the year 1950s. In the technical college, the first year saw accommodation of 80 students who were enrolled and an increase in number courses which were gradually introduced as demand for more fields of study heightened. The educational developments continued pacing up as a new institution for the blind was inaugurated in the year 1956 with a total of 36 pupils in enrollment records. This was not enough since by the year 1973, there were approximately 1,644 students who were identified to be in need of special facilities for education. Some of these students include the blind, the deaf, and other handicapped ones. All these special students were enrolled in 11 institutions which were specially designed for them in acquiring education as other normal students. Adult education for women officially ca me underway in the year 1963; this was a result of the existing similar programs for women though dormant(Meleis et al ,1979). This system saw continuous enrollment of approximately 45,000 students of which 18,000 were girls. The education department of Kuwait was then officially inaugurated as the Education Ministry in the year 1962. This establishment gave the education ministry full mandate to oversee and manage all directions in education maintenance and development over the decades. Kuwaits state education has since progressed since the Kuwaiti nationals got involved in their education process twenty years back from the beginning of the millennium. This progress made has been quite remarkable especially in terms of expatriate to national ratio of teachers who were employed. In the year 1982, there were 24,367 teachers in total; 6,478 teachers were Kuwaiti nationals. The academic year of 1997-1998 saw total of 27,359 teachers employed in public schools and an estimate of 10,000 teachers in private schools. Of the 27,359 teachers in public school, 17,357 teachers were Kuwaiti. The ratio of Kuwaiti teachers to expatriate ones changed from approximately 1.7:1 from 1:3.76. The state of Kuwaiti managed to promote their education process by extensively increasing the number of Kuwaiti teachers between the early eighties to the late nineties. The doubling of the Kuwaiti teachers between the eighties and the nineties has relieved the reliance of foreign professional teac hers in Kuwaiti schools. This was a great change but not good enough since most of the Kuwaiti professional teachers were particularly in practice at the lower levels, mostly the primary schools. The entry of male teachers in the profession also saw many of them teaching in primary schools. Kuwaits transformation into a modern nation with remarkable education institutions has been so, thanks to the governments early decision to distribute the oil revenues to citizens through investment of education, social welfare, housing and healthcare. The Kuwaiti education system is tailored to cater for the nations needs. In their endeavor to ensure that most of its citizens are educated, the Kuwaiti government has ensured that the education is provided free of charge. This has been the case since 1966.In order to ensure that the share of national budget that is targeted towards the provision of free education yield good outcome in terms of raising the Kuwaiti Literacy level, the government has made education to be compulsory for student aged 6-14. The Kuwaiti government has in its vision and commitments the need to provide its citizens with a stable and highly educated human resource base. This is in an effort to meet the social challenges attributed to development challenges as outlined in their Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).This is through the guarantee of an education slot to each and every citizen who wishes to pursue their education to whatever level that they desire. It is quite evident from the number of schools alone, the governments commitment towards ensuring that the Kuwaiti population is properly educated. The general Kuwaiti education system is made up of elementary, intermediate and secondary schooling systems. As of 1995, there were about 861 state and private institutions (schools) that fell into these categories. Once an individual goes past these three basic levels of education, they proceed to institutions of higher learning such as the Kuwait School and other educational centers where they learn various courses in various fields of study Cost of private schooling in Kuwait The private education in Kuwait makes a very crucial element of the Kuwaiti education system. There is a very strong government presence in the private schools in Kuwait. The private schools do enroll about one third of children at the elementary level.The cost of private schooling in Kuwait was a preserve for the high income families only before Kuwaiti was invaded by Saddam.This situation has however changed and students from moderate and modest families also do enroll in the private schools. This move is mainly fueled by the perceived decline in the quality of education in the public school system. Their main attraction is however pegged on the quality education that they desire for their children. There is however situations that necessitate the parents to return their children to the public schooling system due to the increase in the school fees paid in the private schools in Kuwait. Some of these parents resort to this move despite the availability of loans to fund for their ch ildrens education (Kuwaiti Times, 2007) Different students get enrolled in different schools majorly due to their level of performances and their family income, this has always been the question asked mostly and a major source of debate whether students in private schools are better than their counterparts in public schools. Several parents and guardians have developed the mentality that paying extra money for their kids education makes all the difference as far as quality and success in their childrens education is concerned. With this kind of belief in existence, more wealthy parents or guardians prefer paying so as to secure well the future of their children in the private learning institutions. On the other hand, some parents, guardians, students and even college professors believe that education is generally the same whether it is from a public institution or a private one. This depends on the attitude and mental preparedness of the student towards their education and future. When comparing the public schools to the private ones, it is quite obvious that the quality of education in private schools is much lower than those in public schools. This is mainly reflected in the strategies used when competing for students. In public schools, there has always been a setting of qualification which must be achieved by a student before being accepted for admission; this kind of admission setting is designed to enable public schools act as monopolies whereby zero tuition fees for students with high abilities is initiated. When it comes to private schools, the mode of competing for students is not through the ability of a student but the financial capability. This means low ability students can be admitted so long as they can pay for the private fee; this has enabled many students to accede higher education, thus boosts total income in the economy. Competition between private and public schools is determined by numerous variables including exams taken as well as general prices in the institutions. An active role played by schools in setting the exams and the tuition fees determines the level of quality of education provided. While public schools have always maximized public surplus. That is, the total sum of students earnings less the all the costs spent in providing education, the private schools have always aimed at maximizing profits; which is, all income generated by the students who have been admitted in the institution less all the expenses incurred in providing education for the students in the schools. This clearly shows that private schools use price as admission policy so as to ascertain their sustainability in providing better education, this is because money from students is basically the only funding they use in running their institutions. As far as price is concerned, there are variations in pricing in different p rivate schools depending on various factors of which educational quality is the most paramount. Thus the better the quality level of a private school, the higher the tuition fees paid by the parents (Tabora, 2008). Students who attend public schools under public monopoly are basically the same students who are admitted in these institutions under competition. These students have always obtained similar quality in school in both cases. The existence of private schools for higher has raised total welfare since students who have not been admitted in the public monopoly have been given a chance of joining the private schools and get educated. When observing the market partitions in which both public and private schools compete for students, there is a very unique equilibrium that exists in which the private schools are lower in quality than the public schools. Importance of schooling The concept of schooling was invented in order to empower the human capital. Previous research on human capital has however been targeted on the quality and quantity of returns that a person obtains as a result of schooling. As advanced by Mincer in his outstanding and standard formulation, the amount of investment invested in a particular cause can be translated into various observable differences that various from one individual to the next (Mincer, 1976). Therefore, in case the investment in an individuals education is considered to decline on a linear scale, an all the amount of investment are considered to be forgone income, a very simple and direct correlation can be derived between the earnings and the years that an individual spends while schooling. The application of the commonly available data portrays that there is a characteristic that is eminent in all the schools allover the world. Is very important that the world provide their citizens with the best level of education. The importance of the human capital cannot be overemphasized. This is because of the various gains that result of the gainful and observable changes that come with having a population with a high literacy rate. Every country in the world must have its own dependable and experienced workforce in order for it to succeed in its endeavors of being both sovereign and prosperous. This requires the individual countries to device their own efficient and customized education system and curricula that would fully take care of its industrial and intellectual deficiencies. The investment in human capital therefore very crucial for the success of every nation. In certain cases however, it becomes crucial for certain sectors of a nations economy to require specialist support from expatriates. This is due to the fact that certain courses or rather education needs are never relevant or rather are never heavily invested on in certain specialist areas of the economy. Thus the need for expatriate support in certain areas such as engineering and other very technical areas of the economy. It is therefore necessary for every government to be heavily involved in the education of its citizens. This is very applicable in almost every country. There is however a generalizability that is used as an indicator of the role and importance of return variation of schooling investment in different nations across the globe (Psacharopoulos, 1994). The exact role of government in education is however still subject to debate and is subject to various different views. It is worthwhile to note that a high returns on the schooling level does not necessarily imply that it is the role of government intervention that has subsequent resulted to the better academic yield. However, in order to conclusively justify the level of government intervention, it is important to take into account various parameters that affect the educational yields or rather outcome. For quite a long time, the role of education to a given society has been researched upon by various scholars. The role of the government has been featured as one of the major determinants of the success in terms of schooling in the lives of the citizens. Kuwait for example has her government put in place various mechanisms to ensure that the citizens and foreigners who attend its education system do get certain critical notions and ideas imparted upon them. Kuwait being a Muslim state, has most of its schooling requirements tailored to meet the strict requirements of the Muslim religion. In fact in earlier years, the rules that govern schooling were very strict. The education of the girl child for example was forbidden for a long time. But later on, partly due to the effects of westernization, the education of the girl child became accepted as one of the steps toward a democratically balanced Kuwaiti society. The role of government intervention can however be justified using certain mechanisms such as market failure. Importance of resources availability to the quality of education Several researchers have focused their attention to the important role that is played by the availability of resources to the success in the schooling process in various countries. It is however very important that the amount of resources that are devoted to the process of acquiring proper education can not be directly tied to the outcome of the various schooling processes. In Kuwait for example, the private schools that are in essence run and managed by foreigners are better equipped as compared to the public schools. The analysis that focuses on the role of resources in the outcome of schooling process is however subject to a lot of discussions and debate. This is because of the multivariate nature of the schooling process. Despite the controversies that surround the analysis, there is however a considerable amount of evidence that supports that fact that a positive correlation exists. This is based on the minority of scholarly work that exposes a substantial and positive correlati on (Schneider, 2002). Other studies however, are focused on the simple relationship between the resources and the outcome of the schooling process. In these studies, a simple correlation is devised in order to relate the causal factors and the outcomes of the schooling process. The relationships that have been derived do not however have a systematic review but the causal factors do have a certain level of support in the review process. A proxy relationship can however be conclusively be justified as appropriate. The existence of this stronger relationship that exists between the resources and other causal factors may be applicable. Factors such as the amount of wealth in a students family background may to a large extent be an influence and a major contributor to the level of students performance as a result of a dedication and provision of more resources into the schooling of the student. The growth setting however, has no direct proxy relationship. In certain instances, poor proxies have however been a ssigned to the process of getting a correlation between the amount of resources and the outcome of schooling (Hanushek Kimko , 2000). International schooling policies have been supported hugely and are now gaining increased income. Numerous debates have been carried out and the arguments have supported interventions by the government based on spillovers which are as a result of the growth process in education. This is why the general endogenous growth model has clearly shown that education level in an economy influences the growth of a country. That is, if the education level of an economy is low, the growth of that particular nation will definitely drag unlike if the education level is was higher. The structure of the endogenous development model brings in a spillover that people will not take into consideration their own decision making process. Empirical work carried out has underscored the merits of schooling quantity in these particular places. The relationship between individual earnings and schooling have shown the most consistent and strongest support in education performance; when an individual uses own mo ney to finance schooling, the seriousness becomes extreme to the extent that exam performance of that individual turns out to be quite pleasing. While basing reliance on evidence that is limited, there has been quite promising support that exists on the importance of education and schooling in relation to effects of growth as well as the distribution of earnings (Gregorio, 1999) The economic effects as a result of differences in educational quality of secondary and elementary schools are not well comprehended as the effects of quantity, especially in relation to the aggregate performance the nations economy. This poor understanding of the implications of quality in education makes it difficult to reflect measurement. It is very difficult to precisely define the quality of education since the term quality reflects the extent of an institutions knowledge base as well as the analytical skills employed as the focal points of learning institutions. To properly build the base of this discussion, this study will rely on data sourced from standardized exams of achievements in academics and students ability in education. Re lying on this information from standardized tests to reflect quality measures is controversial in a way that there are gaps available in evidence and also the emanated conclusions follow (as stated below). All in all, these measures prove to be th e most effective indicators available of quality and have a relationship with the results that we positively satisfy us. Numerous research studies have been carried out and documented in the field of labor markets which directly focus on personal differences when it comes to cognitive ability and effects in earnings (as well as modify the estimates of returns in terms of quality). 4. The latest direct research study of cognitive achievement have recorded substantial returns in the labor market has measured individual variations when it comes to cognitive achievement. For example, ONeill (1990), Murnane, Willett, and Levy (1995), Bishop (1989, 1991), Neal and Johnson (1996), Currie and Thomas (2000), Grogger and Eide (1993), and Murnane et al. (2000) each conclude that the earnings advantages are quite substantial when standardized test are highly achieved. These conclusions have been extracted from various approaches. Bishop (1989) is much concerned about the errors that result in the most testing environments and emphasize on extreme care when dealing with that problem since it has very dramatic consequences on the estimated importance of the test variations. On the other hand, Grogger and Eide (1993), ONeill (1990), Neal and Johnson (1996), and Bishop (1991) have greatly put their reliance on the latest labor market information as well as representative sampling which suggests that earnings advantage to measured variations in skill is much greater than those of the earlier times and earlier research studies (even when reliability of the test is not corrected. In Kuwait, just like in other quickly-developing education systems, one main domain of interest is ensuring that the quality of education that is offered by both private and public providers is up to standards needed. This paper elaborates by way of a thorough review the history of development of Kuwaiti education system since its initiation. It considers several quality systems that are currently employed in other countries in the Gulf States so as to identify the effects of the education systems both private and public on the attitudes of the students towards schooling. Two main results emerge from the present analysis. The first suggests that there are no significant effects from class attendance. The second indicates that smaller classes do not translate into gains in achievement. Other results include the lack of significant peer effects and evidence of variability in teaching effects, which is, however; also not significant. These findings need to be interpreted carefully. For instance, the result of no attendance effects may not necessarily indicate that attendance does not matter per se: on the contrary, it can instead be the case that attendance does matter but that the students in our data choose optimally how many classes to attend, so that marginal variation around that attendance level does not translate into any gains in terms of achievement. The outlook of the 21st century Kuwaiti education The Gulf States have undergone a number of serious challenges both on their economic and political existence. These numerous challenges have been brought about by the prosperity and accelerated growth as well as the heightened levels in social services. There tends to be some sort of deception in some certain levels when one looks at the external wealth and modernity of some of these Gulf States. For example, it is true that Kuwait as a country is in possession of 9.5% of the proven oil reserves in the world (out of a combination of 64.9% of all Gulf States) and many of the Kuwaitis are very rich people thanks to their oil rich nation. While this is so, the oil revenues in Kuwait are very modest when comparisons are made to the gross domestic product of the developed countries of the world. The fluctuating prices of oil have greatly influenced the reliability of development as well as long term planning; this is so especially when the price per every barrel remains low on the world m arket like it was in the eighties and the nineties. According to reliable sources, studies have shown that the low oil prices in 1980s was the cause of deficit budget operation by the Gulf States; which was barely the size of Switzerlands GDP if they were combined i.e. (U.A.E, Kuwait, Oman, Iran, Bahrain, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Qatar). The Gulf States wealth illusion is as a result of control of the oil reserves by only a hand full of people who easily access the world markets through exports in ships; this clearly explains the long gap between the rich and the poor; which is bad for the economy. These Gulf States have had to deal with the grapples that affect their budgetary uncertainties in the oil markets. Some of these problems are public sector dominance, visible and hidden unemployment, poor revenues for the huge populations, dominance of foreign workers among, and also poor participation in the decision making process with the exception of Kuwait which has an elected body that represents it. The core feature of this analysis, however, is how the quality of schooling influences the national and economic growth. It is obvious that schools (no matter their geographical locations) have numerous variations as far as knowledge and general quality is concerned. These differences are always very difficult to deal with since the implications for comprehending the core issues are emphasized in this study.

Elderly Abuse Essay -- essays research papers fc

Before doing research on this topic, I would have said that the United States treats the elderly with passion and love, but I now know that I was wrong. The elderly people have been treated just as badly, if not worse then, in Japan. How could this be? The elderly are so innocent, loving, and have nothing but care for most people. How could anyone harm such a loving soul? These questions are more than likely going through many minds as I am writing this paper. In the United States most of the abuse has came from nursing homes, but in Japan more than likely the abuse is coming from the offspring of the elderly. Even though both governments’ officials are trying to pass new laws to protect the elderly, the abuse continues. There are groups that are forming up to help support the elderly in the United States. The people of Japan are not doing as much as they should because the abuse happens behind closed doors and the family member will more than likely just deny it. Crimes that are committed against the elderly can be divided into two different categories. â€Å"The first crime includes conventional crimes such as robbery, theft, fraud, rape, and homicide. The second type of crime is more about the neglect and abuse† (James). These crimes happen more often with older people than they do with younger people because the elderly a lot of times have some type of disease that will prevent them from doing a lot of things and they are sometimes motionless. Therefore they cannot do anything about the robberies or the abuse. It would take a person with a very cold heart to be able to inflict so much pain on an innocent person. Why can’t the world just show love and happiness to its older generation? The difference between the United States and Japan is that the children of the elderly are abusing them in Japan and in the United States nursing homes are abusing our elderly. â€Å"Of nursing home staff in 1989 40% admitted to committing at least one psychologically abusive act toward a resident and 10% admitted to physically abusing a resident in the preceding year† (Fischer). These people working in nursing homes are supposed to be taking care of our loved ones, but instead of taking care of our family members they are hurting them. According to Christie Fischer, a student studying elderly abuse at the University of South Dakota, the United States... ...busing you or even stealing from you? More than likely you wouldn’t want to be treated this way, so the people of Japan and the United States need to stand up for our elderly because they are the ones that brought us to this lovely place and whenever we all get old we will not want to be treated like we are treating them now. Works Cited Ajima, Shinya. "Efforts Under Way to Stem Abuse of Elderly." INTERVENTION FACES OBSTACLES. 06 January 2005. 25 January 2005 Fischer, Christie. "ELDERLY ABUSE IN NURSING HOMES." 26 January 2005. Green, Shane. â€Å"Hidden Abuse of Elderly Emerging Problem for Japan.† 26 January 2005. 21 June 2003. James, Marianne Pinkerton. "The Elderly as Victims of Crime, Abuse, and Neglect." 1 February 2005. â€Å"Roundup: Japan seeks efforts to stem abuse of elderly (part one).† Xinhua News Agency. 10 January 2005. Infotrac Online Database. Volpe Library, Tennessee Tech University, Cookeville, Tn. 2 February 2005. â€Å"Roundup: Japan Seeks Efforts to Stem Abuse of Elderly (part two).† Xinhua News Agency. 10 January 2005. Infotrac Online Database. Volpe Library, Tennessee Tech University, Cookeville, Tn. 2 February 2005.

Classicism and Romanticism :: Literature Literary

Classicism and Romanticism    Toward the end of the eiteenth-century, Romanticism emerged as a response to Classicism. Even though this change was gradual, it transformed everything from art and philosophy to education and science. While the Classicsts thought of the world as having a rigid and stern structure, the romanticists thought of the world as a place to express their ideas and believes. The Romaniticists and Classicsts differed in their views of the relationship between an individual and society, their views of nature and the relationship between reason and imagination.      Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Classicists and Romanticists differed in their views of nature. Classicism was based on the idea that nature and human nature could be understood by reason and thought. Classicist believed that â€Å"nature was, a self-contained machine, like a watch, whose laws of operation could be rationally understood.†(text,199)   On the other hand, Romanticists viewed nature as mysterious and ever changing. As William Cullen Bryant states that nature â€Å";speaks a various language.† (text, 123)   Romantic writes believed that nature is an ever changing living organism, whose laws we will never fully understand.      Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Classicist and Romanticists also differed on their approches towards reason and imagination. Classicism attached much more importance to reason than imagination because imagination could not be explained by their laws. To them, â€Å";the imagination, though essential to literature, had to be restrained by reason and common sense.†; (text, 119) The Romanticists, however, emphasized that reason was not the only path to truth. â€Å";Instead, Romantic writers emphasized intuition, that inner perception of truth which is independent of reason.†; (text, 122) To the Romantic writers, imagination was ultimately superior to reason.      Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Yet another area of difference between Classicits and Romanticsts whether they placed greater importance on tradition or whether they chose to innovate. Classicists thought that it was literature’s function to show the everyday values of humanity and the laws of human existence. Classicism and Romanticism :: Literature Literary Classicism and Romanticism    Toward the end of the eiteenth-century, Romanticism emerged as a response to Classicism. Even though this change was gradual, it transformed everything from art and philosophy to education and science. While the Classicsts thought of the world as having a rigid and stern structure, the romanticists thought of the world as a place to express their ideas and believes. The Romaniticists and Classicsts differed in their views of the relationship between an individual and society, their views of nature and the relationship between reason and imagination.      Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Classicists and Romanticists differed in their views of nature. Classicism was based on the idea that nature and human nature could be understood by reason and thought. Classicist believed that â€Å"nature was, a self-contained machine, like a watch, whose laws of operation could be rationally understood.†(text,199)   On the other hand, Romanticists viewed nature as mysterious and ever changing. As William Cullen Bryant states that nature â€Å";speaks a various language.† (text, 123)   Romantic writes believed that nature is an ever changing living organism, whose laws we will never fully understand.      Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Classicist and Romanticists also differed on their approches towards reason and imagination. Classicism attached much more importance to reason than imagination because imagination could not be explained by their laws. To them, â€Å";the imagination, though essential to literature, had to be restrained by reason and common sense.†; (text, 119) The Romanticists, however, emphasized that reason was not the only path to truth. â€Å";Instead, Romantic writers emphasized intuition, that inner perception of truth which is independent of reason.†; (text, 122) To the Romantic writers, imagination was ultimately superior to reason.      Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Yet another area of difference between Classicits and Romanticsts whether they placed greater importance on tradition or whether they chose to innovate. Classicists thought that it was literature’s function to show the everyday values of humanity and the laws of human existence.

Review of the Book: Evangelical Theology Essay

Held in high esteem by many critics as one of the most original Christian thinkers of the modern era, Karl Barth was a Swiss theologian who primarily emphasized on the sovereignty of God. In this regard, his perspectives can be considered as external. This secularism in the study of gods and religion was very inventive in terms of genuineness. Barth’s famous book Evangelical Theology: An Introduction is based on continuity and unity, and looks into the constructs of faith, existence and reason. This essay is going to deal with few of the core ideas Barth introduced in his book. The concepts will be critically analyzed with regards to citations from the original text. According to Barth, the term ‘Theology’ is concerned with a very special domain of science that attempts to understand god. Evangelical Theory of Theology: An Introduction gives a basic idea of Barth’s outlooks on theology. Theology as described by the author is the Word of god. ‘Theo’ popularly alludes to gift of god and ‘logy’ relates to language, logic or Word. According to the author, the word of god is the ultimate soul of theology and it stands and fails with it. â€Å"Theology itself is a word, a human response; yet what makes it theology is not its own word but the word which it hears and which it responds to† [Evangelical Theory of Theology: An Introduction, page 15]. To rephrase it, theology asserts not itself but the word of god and places it above everything. When it comes to the word of god, we need not bear in mind one faulty premise, i. e. , there is only one god. The study of religion has proved it time and again that each person has its own god or gods as ‘the object of his highest desire and trust, or as the basis of his deepest loyalty and commitment. ’ (Barth et al. 3) So Barth discusses theology and divine matters from the perspective of religion and philosophy. His secular approaches in interpreting theology become apparent when he states, â€Å"There is no philosophy that is not to some extent also theology. Not only does this fact apply to philosophers who desire to affirm – or who, at least, are ready to admit – that divinity, in a positive sense, is the essence of truth and power of some kind of highest principle;† (Barth et al. 3) The author alludes into the history of Israel to affirm the concept of community as connected with the history of Jesus Christ. The gospel of god can be interpreted from a humanistic perspective when Christ is realized as a true god and true man. He elucidates the idea of man’s oneness with god by stating, â€Å"The community is confronted and created by the Word of God† (Barth 38) – â€Å"†¦ the God who descends to community with man, gracious in his freedom, and of man who is exalted to community with him, thankful in his freedom†. (Barth 22) The analytical mind of the author makes him ask question about truth in terms of existence of god. The presuppositions of modern theology are questioned and doubted repeatedly as Barth raises some pertinent issues related to the truthfulness of god’s existence, man’s connection with god, the validity of the ‘chosen’ status of Israel, myths surrounding Christ’s death and so on. The acceptance of the Word of god as truth by community is another contentious issue according to the author. It is one thing accepting something as final, and it is another thing understanding what is accepted with a sincere and rational mindset. So it is important for the community to clarify the conceptualizations regarding the Word of god. (Barth 39) Though Barth had been associated with a church as a pastor in his early career, he was not as dogmatic as his peers. He believed that God’s decree was not to prefer Christians over Jews (or any other non Christian) but to be with the people and bear their sufferings. This is why he professed Jesus Christ as the â€Å"medium of divine election†. He believed that theology is a language for the spirit but it does not preach self ascertainment. ‘Service’ is also an important facet of Evangelical Theology. It does not glorify oneself but the person whom it serves. Theology can be interpreted as the servitude towards divinity. From a more practical point of view it may reflect man’s involvement in the service of the society as well as in the service of god. Modesty, as claimed in the book, is considering theology as a selfless service. The realization of our own inner power and capacity to reach our goals is exemplified through the theological concept of remaining faithful to divine knowledge and wisdom. He states, â€Å"Theology will be faithful to its object only and precisely when it allows itself to be tempted by it. † (Barth 160) The believer must leave his salvation to god’s judgment even if he harbors any doubt or solitude. Many other important aspects of theology such as Faith, Prayer and Love have been discussed thoroughly. It not only portrays Theology as a natural science but it also tries to loosen up the orthodox bindings on itself. Karl Barth in his book had tried to uplift theology from its confines in the church to a subject that requires immense academic research and idiosyncratic perspectives. Work Cited Barth, Karl, and Grover Foley. Evangelical Theology: An Introduction. Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing, 1979.