Scottish Independence

Contents Introduction ————————————————————————– 3 Chapter I General information —————————————————————- 4 Chapter II Arguments for and against the Scottish independence Arguments for the independence ———————————————– 6 Arguments against the independence —————————————– 7 Conclusion ———————————————————————à ¢â‚¬â€Ã¢â‚¬â€ 10 Bibliography ————————————————————————- 11Introduction The subject I have analyzed in this research paper is the possible independence of Scotland. I chose this topic because the Scottish independence is a problem of great importance not only for the UK and Scotland, but also for the whole Europe. While doing my research I found very strong and opposing opinions about this recent topic. Scottish independence is a relevant and important matter that has been debated for many years but is now at the pinnacle of debate.Both public and politicians and opposing opinions about independence and throughout this work I will evaluate the most current and most emotive arguments for and against independence. First, I will speak about the historical background of this issue and about the parties â€Å"fightingâ⠂¬  for independence. Next, I will represent for and against arguments, which will help to understand this complicated issue. Chapter I General information Scotland was an independent country from 843, with the unification of the Scots and Picts.In medieval times, Scotland fought for freedom from England, which Mel Gibson dramatically depicted in his Academy Award-winning movie â€Å"Braveheart. † Not long after Wallace died in the early 1300s, Robert the Bruce led Scotland to independence, and it remained an autonomous nation until the Act of Union joined Scotland and England in 1707. Since then Scotland has been one of four countries in the United Kingdom. However, the United Kingdom returned some autonomy to Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, and gave them the right to form their own parliaments, in the late 1990s.Thus, in 1999, Scotland received devolved powers for a new parliament in Holyrood. And now, more than 700 years after William Wallace died fighting for Scott ish independence, and more than 300 years after Scotland and England came together in a United Kingdom, a new agreement could lead to an independent Scotland. Since the Scottish National Party (SNP) came to power five years ago (in 2007) there has been a wave of nationalistic fever sweeping the country and independence is on their agenda. Increasingly people see autonomy as a panacea for all the difficulties Scotland faces.Thus, in 2014 Scotland will decide to maintain the UK or to dissolve it, and this decision will shape not only the future of Scotland, but also of the whole UK. The question of various debates is can Scotland take the next step and become a fully functioning independent state again, and will this be good for Scotland and the rest of UK, or at least for one of them. As I have already mentioned, the Scottish independence is supported most prominently by the Scottish National Party, which is currently the largest political party in Scotland.But other parties also hav e pro-independence policies. These are the Scottish Green Party, the Scottish Socialist Party and Solidarity. Seventy-two of the seats in the Scottish Parliament are now held by parties/members who have expressed pro-independence sentiments, over 55% of the total. These are the 69 Scottish National Party members, the two Green members and Margo MacDonald, an independent politician. It is also important to know, that SNP forms a minority government in the Scottish Parliament.On the matter of Scottish independence British Prime Minister David Cameron and his Scottish counterpart, First Minister Alex Salmond, signed a deal in Edinburgh, Scotland, on Monday paving the way for Scots to vote on independence from the United Kingdom. The referendum, expected to be held in 2014, would allow Scots a straight yes-or-no vote on staying in the union. On this case the â€Å"Yes Scotland† campaign was launched in May. This campaign tries to â€Å"build a groundswell of support for an indep endent Scotland†.However, Cameron has vocally opposed Scottish independence. In February, he said † I am 100% clear that I will fight with everything I have to keep our United Kingdom together,† since an intact United Kingdom, consisting of England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, â€Å"is stronger, safer, richer and fairer. † Rather, the SNP claims that a positive vote for independence in a referendum would have â€Å"enormous moral and political force†¦ impossible for a future government (Westminster) to ignore†, and hence Westminster will declare Scotland independent.After this agreement was signed, different surveys were released, and almost all these surveys showed that less than 50% of the Scots polled wanted to break away from the United Kingdom. It’s fair to say that not enough people want independence. The fact that the SNP are in power now cannot be considered an indication that Scotland wants independence. The United Kingd om, and its constituent parts by proxy, are signatories to the United Nations Charter and as such any action to deny the people of Scotland a right to vote would be in contradiction to the obligations to uphold self-determination.Article 1 in both the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) reads: â€Å"All peoples have the right of self-determination. By virtue of that right they freely determine their political status and freely pursue their economic, social and cultural development. â€Å" The United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights (Article 15) further states that everyone has the right to a nationality, and that no one should be arbitrarily deprived of a nationality or denied the right to change nationality.However, there are certain factors that give rise to the possession of the right to self-determination These are: ? a history of independence or self-rule in a n identifiable territory ? a distinct culture ? a will and capability to regain self-governance Chapter II Arguments for and against the Scottish independence 1. Arguments for the independence Now I want to speak about the reasons why many Scots consider they should their independence back. First and foremost, Scotland is its own country.It is a distinct country which has its own culture, people, history, traditions, national dress, land and sea borders, health service, legal establishment, education system, flag and a history of nationhood that. So beyond any reasonable debate, it qualifies under all three criteria (the Scottish Parliament representing the â€Å"capability† section), and any attempt to frustrate the people’s right to self-determination will find itself on the wrong side of both domestic and international law. The next argument is that Scotland considers that UK spends some of the country’s money not appropriately and effectively.They say that w hile the UK’s position as a â€Å"power of the world† has dwindled in the last fifty years – and especially in the last ten years – it unfortunately still spends money like a superpower of the world. This can be seen with it investing in nuclear weapons for the next 35 years at a cost between ? 20bn to ? 35bn. This is a substantial amount of the deficit, that the current UK government is trying to save through cuts to schools/universities, hospitals, police, and other public services.Thus, if Scotland were independent, they would invest their elsewhere. Control over North Sea oil and gas, which is expected to generate ? 56bn in revenue over the next six years, is also a major battleground in the run-up to the independence. Alex Salmond, Scotland's first minister, claims Scotland would take control of 90% of North Sea fields after independence, helping it to become one of the world's richest countries. Furthermore, for the next fifty years, renewable energ y is seen as a key industry worldwide.Scotland has a strategic position for wind, hydro, and tide powered energy. With over 40 years of North Sea oil still available, the profits could be poured into renewable energy – instead of being sent to London. Nowadays a great rise of nationalism can be observed in Scotland. Thus many Scots stick to the point that if Scotland were to become independent, it would emphasize their greatest individuals, businesses, and achievements instead of having them blended with Westminster politicians. 2. Arguments against the independenceFrom all the above mentioned we can conclude that there is obviously a case for Scottish Independence, but before doing this we shall discuss the reason against the Scottish autonomy. Through being a part of Great Britain Scotland has managed to become one of the top financial powers in the world but some are still trying to fix Scotland when in fact it isn’t broken. People think they should have more contro l over their own country and demand more rights. However they do have control over their country as they decide on matters like health, education, transport, housing, environment and local affairs.Isn’t that enough? Scottish devolved parliament has been working independently since 1998 with no major issues so why should this be changed, if it can bring many problems. People complain that Scottish devolved parliament doesn’t have enough power yet they have Scottish MP’s sitting in Westminster deciding on English issues, whereas no English MP’s are sitting in Holyrood. The Scottish parliament has only Scottish MP’s deciding on its affairs but down in Westminster England have Scottish, Welsh, Northern Irish and English MP’s deciding on theirs. How is that fair?If anyone should be complaining it should be the English. Scotland has its own devolved parliament but also has 258 Labour seats down in Westminster deciding on British and English issues . First of all they are lucky to have as much power as they do being even less than a tenth of the population of Britain. So, why should this be changed, if it can result in many problems of different types. Moreover, for unionists, the main argument against Scottish independence is the Barnett formula – a rule that Scotland receives 10 pence of every pound made in the UK, while only having 8. % of the population. Social issues would not be our only problem; Scotland would encounter numerous other issues if we were to become independent. Problems with passports or currency what would be done about them? What would be the solution? Tell a six million population to apply for a new passport and exchange all of their money to Euros. Also problems like defense or immigration and the other issues which affect the whole of the British island which are now dealt with in Westminster. How would separate independent states decide to split these responsibilities?The assumption that indep endence is achievable with the costs and problems involved is something the Scottish taxpayer would have to bear the burden of. Scotland’s strong position in Britain is not the only reason against autonomy. The fact that people simply don’t want independence is another vital argument. This is being ignored by the SNP who are still campaigning for Scottish independence explaining that independence is going to help Scotland â€Å"prosper† but why then after 7 years of SNP campaigning only 37% of Scotland votes for independence in polls.Another barrier is that numerous commentators have raised the objection that since a vote for independence would affect the entire UK, then residents of England, Wales and Northern Ireland should also be entitled to vote. Others have raised the issue of whether Scots not currently resident in Scotland should have the right to vote. More problematic would be Scotland’s status as an independent EU member state in the area of fo reign and particularly defense policy.It currently remains unclear if an independent Scotland would remain part of the British military forces or if it would develop its own military capabilities and consequently an independent defense and security policy. This is probably the biggest concern for the British government which has to fear that the withdrawal of Scottish forces from the UK’s military capabilities would substantially weaken the status of a smaller Union consisting only of England, Wales and Northern Ireland in the EU’s defence and security pillar.To exit from the United Kingdom certainly poses substantial and unforeseen risks for Scotland, most of all in terms of the country’s economic and budgetary development. However, England potentially has most to lose overall from Scottish independence. If Scotland splits from the rest of the UK and turns out to be relatively viable as an independent country it is possible that Wales, and even Northern Ireland , will follow its example. As a smaller country existing outside the Eurozone, England’s influence over the political and economic agenda of the EU would be diminished.It would then only be a matter of time for the Eurosceptics in the Conservative party and the UK Independence Party to get their way and for a public referendum on England’s EU membership to take place. Hence, English Eurosceptics who consider Scottish independence as an opportunity to push their country quicker towards EU exit should think again. Scotland might have the last laugh after all. Conclusion Thus, in this research paper I spoke about the issue of Scottish independence. This is a matter of global importance, and in the first chapter of my work I tried to give general information about the history of his question, about the parties which want their country gain independence, about different surveys held on this issue. In the second chapter I represented the major for and against arguments. This arguments help us understand what are the main reasons some Scots want independence and what are the objections. Thus, we can come to a conclusion, that if the Scottish national party’s irrational campaign for independence does succeed one day Scotland would be looking at a whole different range of problems. The separation of Britain would provoke competition, bad relationships and ambiguity in various questions.And in my opinion even if the idea of this independence does have good points for Scotland, this nationalistic pride will only make both Scotland and the rest of the UK more vulnerable. Bibliography 1. http://www. markedbyteachers. com/as-and-a-level/english/scottish-independence 2. http://edition. cnn. com/2012/10/15/world/europe/uk-scotland-independence/index. html 3. http://wingsland. podgamer. com/weekend-essay-the-right-to-decide/ 4. http://www. bbc. co. uk/news/uk-scotland-13326310 5. http://topics. cnn. com/topics/scotland 6. http://www. bbc. co. uk/news/uk-sc otland-scotland-politics-19942638 7. ttp://edition. cnn. com/2012/10/15/world/europe/uk-scotland-independence/index. html 1. http://interstateinaninstant. wordpress. com/2012/02/04/the-case-for-scottish-independence-regional-trade-energy-and-power/ 8. http://www. charliedavidson. net/scottish-independence/ ——————————————– [ 1 ]. http://www. markedbyteachers. com/as-and-a-level/english/scottish-independence [ 2 ]. http://wingsland. podgamer. com/weekend-essay-the-right-to-decide [ 3 ]. http://www. bbc. co. uk/news/uk-scotland-13326310 [ 4 ]. http://topics. cnn. com/topics/scotland Scottish Independence Should Scotland be Independent? There has been a wave of nationalistic fever sweeping the country ever since the SNP came to power in 2007. Independence is on their agenda and now there is a referendum set for 2014. But why should we go independent? After all, we have been married to England for over 300 years and our country is ‘too poor’ and ‘too wee’ to square up to the economic giants in the global market today and what would happen if the our banks were to self-destruct again? Would we manage to govern our own country independently?Increasingly people are beginning to see autonomy as a panacea for the predicament Scotland faces. However, there are masses out there that are still worried about the myriad of ‘unanswered questions' about independence. Furthermore, misconceptions are conceived through the unionist’s tactics, ‘throw enough mud and hopefully some will stick’, and now that the referendum date has been announced, we ca n observe the wild thrashing Scotland will receive through the masses of propaganda that the London controlled media will propagate. Firstly, it is important to consider if Scotland is prosperous enough to survive on its own.Scotland is a rich country, yet many Scottish people are poor. Scotland has a surplus of energy, yet many Scottish people struggle to heat their homes. Scotland produces an educated workforce thanks to our tradition of free education for all, yet Scots are forced to emigrate to find work. Why is that, if the Union has been so great for us? Poverty, which disfigures much of our country, is a direct product of the Union. If Scotland really is so poor, a derelict society dependent on handouts, then just why is it that Westminster is so desperate to keep a hold of us?Those opposing Scotland’s independence claim that she would be unable to cope in a situation like the HBOS and RBS bailouts. The truth about one of the bailouts is illuminated if we consider the name – HALIFAX Bank of Scotland – it was not solely a  Scottish bank; it was run from Halifax, in Yorkshire, England. All the management and decision-making was carried out in England. So half of the blame deserves to be placed on the avaricious muttonheads at Halifax. After all, it was coping just fine before Halifax came along.Unlike what the media skewed towards, Scotland actually deserves the minority of the blame for the crash at RBS too. As Andrew Hughes Hallett, Professor of Economics at St Andrew’s University put it, speaking on Radio Scotland. â€Å"†¦by international convention, when banks which operate in more than one country get into these sorts of conditions, the bailout is shared in proportion to the area of activities of those banks, and therefore it’s shared between several countries. In the case of the RBS, I’m not sure of the exact numbers, but roughly speaking 90% of its operations are in England and 10% are in Scotlandà ¢â‚¬ ¦ â€Å"1Therefore, in reality, Scotland was only responsible for 10% of the crash at RBS. Which is quite a substantial deviation from what the media proposed. I wonder how they managed to dodge that fact. Oil is a finite resource and eventually it is going to run out. But what is the point in pretending it’s not there now just because there’s a chance that it may only last 30-40 years? According to the oil companies. Which I am sure must be absolutely 100% accurate. Why would an oil company want to underestimate the length of time their reserves will last? It does not at all sound like simple business logic to me.Let’s all face it; if a doctor tells a family that their granny has three years left and she passes in six months — the doctor will be met with a multitude of beetroot faces demanding explanations. In addition, the more people that begin to think that oil is drying up the higher the price will be. And that means mega bucks for the oil comp anies; when they make money – Scotland makes money (that is if it were independent). As it stands, Scotland currently wants to set up an oil fund. It does not sound like a bad idea; that is how the Norwegians powered their way through the recession.They were smart enough to seize the opportunity. However, the UK is against this because it wants the money for bank bailouts and nuclear toys. So what happens when it eventually does run out? Well, as it runs out, a 50% reduction does not exactly translate to a 50% fall in revenue; prices will rocket and despite this possibly not boding well with the consumers, it will still boost the nation’s economy. In addition, it is possible we will stumble upon even more financially viable reserves – which no one seems to account for in the ‘horrifying’ statistics.If not, then we will just simply have to be a bit more economical and is Scotland not the perfect place to go green? We are geographically sound in terms of wave and wind energy. With the oil fund pot, that we will have if we go through with autonomy, we will be able to fully open the door into the renewable industry. This will propel us through any economic crises that may face us later down the line. And the country will be clean. However, if we do not go through with independence now, before our oil runs out, then yes, we probably have very little chance of independence being successful.I bet David Cameron would happily let us devolve after that. Scotland is not uniquely incapable of governing itself. We are not too ‘wee’. We have a larger population than the Irish Republic, Norway, Estonia, Lithuania, Latvia and Slovenia. We have approximately the same population as Denmark or Finland. In area, we are larger than Slovenia, the Irish Republic, Belgium†¦ We are approximately the same size as the Czech Republic or Austria. Plus, the Scottish parliament appears to be plugging away just fine and if all of these coun tries can manage on their own why can’t we?People of Scotland, vote for independence while we can in 2014! After 300 years of a helpless bickering marriage, I think it is time for an amicable divorce. It happens every day. Sometimes it just does not work out and it is time that we all come to grips with that fact. 1 â€Å"http://www. muzzerino. com/2011/08/truth-about-hbos-and-rbs-bail-out. html† http://www. muzzerino. com/2011/08/truth-about-hbos-and-rbs-bail-out. html â€Å"http://www. newsnetscotland. com/index. php/scottish-opinion/4341-a-unionist-lexicon-an-a-z-of-unionist-scare-stories-myths-and-misinformation#poverty†

American History Since 1877 Essay

While it may be the case that a popular and misinformed view of the entry of the United States into World War Two has displaced that of historical accuracy for the majority of casual observers of history, those with a deeper immersion in the historical facts recognize a more complex and perhaps more profound set of reasons and circumstances that led to the US entry into the war. The casual and uninformed observer no doubt believes that Hitler’s conquests in Europe along with the terror-inspiring Nazi-sponsored U-boat warfare in the North Atlantic and beyond, along with the imperial Japanese invasion of China are the reasons for the US entry into the war. These ideas are sound enough, but they tell only a partial story, the exterior of the issues and events. Admittedly, the concrete reason for war was the Japanese surprise attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941, a single event which demonstrated the intention of the Axis powers to rule the earth. However, this surprise attack gave rise to one of the war’s most enduring and over-riding myths: that America’s entry into the war was precipitated primarily on moral grounds. This idea proves to be particularly specious given the historical evidence: although moral obligation might be given as the reason for US entry into the war, one, with study can easily â€Å"rejects the purely moral justification of American entry into the war against Hitler,† (Russett, 1997, p. 44) and it is equally as thorny, although just as tempting,, to frame US conflict with Japan on purely moral grounds. While it is true that the Japanese, â€Å"were often unkind conquerors,† (Russett, 1997, p. 44)they were also â€Å"welcomed in the former European colonies of Southeast Asia, and Japan† (Russett, 1997, p. 44) and they were able to keep some good relations native rebels; so Japanese territorial expansion and influence was in no way one-sided or always regarded as brutal. Whether or not moral justification was desired or necessary for the US to declare war on Japan, it is â€Å"Hitler, not Tojo, who is customarily presented as the personification of evil† and therefore it is Germany, not Japan, which carries most of the weight of â€Å"moral justification† for the US entry into World War Two,† (Russett, 1997, p. 44) although even this position is tenuous weighed against the very real historical ambivalence displayed by the American government during Hitler’s rise to power and Germany’s subsequent campaign of European conquests. When Adolf Hitler rose to power in 1933 he had already divulged most of his far-reaching plans for war in Europe and especially for war in the east, against Russia. Also divulged was his violent antisemiticism and his ambition to attain global German and Nazi hegemony. In his celebrated â€Å"autobiography† Mein Kampf, Hitler made clear to whomever was paying attention (presumably the world) his â€Å"attitudes and plans which were the basis of the Nazi government and of his foreign policy. † (Goldston, 1967, p. 60) The policies and ambitions were â€Å"frankly stated for all the world to read† (Goldston, 1967, p. 60) and it is to the sorrow and pity of millions that Hitler’s blatant pronouncements went unheeded by politicians and generals throughout Europe. In fact, if a moral imperative played any role in the mind-set of the Western, future-Alllied, powers during this time, it was an imperative of peace. And it was precisely this imperative toward preserving peace: for Britain to prevent another Great War in Europe and for America to refuse involvement in another European war, which led to the tragic escalation of what began as a localized conflict into a global catastrophe. This mistake would be repeated at least three more times as the world sped toward World War Two. On at last three occasions: during the Anschluss when Hitler integrated Austria into the German Reich, again during Hitler’s military conquest of the Sudentland and, once more, when Hitler engineered the political conquest of Czechoslovakia at Munich, the post-war Treaty of Versailles had been broken. From the base of 100,000 troops permitted under the Versailles Treaty, Hitler, on 1 October 1934: ordered a trebling of army size, as well as the creation of an air force, which had been illegal under the Versailles terms. On 7 March 1936, troops were sent into the Rhineland, unilaterally abrogating the demilitarization of Germany’s western frontier provided for under the Locarno Pact† (Black, 2003, p. 4). Later, after this initial violation, â€Å"troops were sent into the Rhineland,† which broke the Treaty of Versailles openly. (Black, 2003, p. 4). In each of these cases, military intervention by France, Britain, and Russian was not only lawful, it was indicated by treaty: and, as is obviously the case looking back on history, each of the chances provided an opportunity for the Allied powers to prevent World War Two. During the invasion of the Sudentland, Hitler’s true ambitions lay elsewhere, he desired to invade Czechoslovakia, and in doing so, secure the German flank for an eventual invasion of the Soviet Union. Clearly, Germany was heading in the direction of war. So, any argument that Hitler or Germany’s were hidden or hard to understand is weak, if not plainly foolish. This fact, however, seemed to have little influence of the European policy of appeasement, which allowed not only human rights abuses in the Reich to continues unchallenged, but allowed for blatant military conquest of sovereign nations by Germany. Meanwhile, America’s isolationist vision towards continued, leaving Hitler with a free hand after his shrewdly engineered â€Å"Pact of Steel† had been concluded with his sworn enemy the Soviet Union. The US entered World war One slowly, and after â€Å"the conclusion of hostilities there was a wave of revulsion against war and military activity, † (Aldcroft, 1997, p. 8) which resulted in a public unwillingness to support intervention which might lead to military conflict. Though the pattern of appeasement followed by France and Britain in the wake of Hitler’s string of highly-visible conquests is difficult to understand, the apprehension toward war which had been seeded in the aftermath of World War One, â€Å"pacifism was strong in both Britain and France, in large part in response to the massive casualties in World War One† (Black , 2003, p. 4). as well as serious problems with the ensuing Treaty of Versailles are the best explanation for the malaise of the Allies. Instead of â€Å"responding forcefully against the successive breaches of the Versailles settlement,† (Black , 2003, p. 4). France and Britain decided to take a pretty much passive position in regards to Nazi Germany. Clearly these actions â€Å"encouraged Nazi expansionism† (Black , 2003, p. 4). even though the British and French governments were blind to the dangers of Nazism and believed that they were averting a war through their diplomatic efforts. Meanwhile, everyone concerned hoped Hitler’s conquests would be limited and that he would spend his time â€Å"ruling Germany† and not seeking conflict or expansion throughout Europe. Of course, these hopes turned out to be foolishly placed because â€Å"†Hitler’s aim–as he had set it down in Mein Kampf[†¦ ] was an expansion of Germany† (Jarman 206) and the outbreak of the war made those who had sought to make diplomacy the leading idea for dealing with Hitler had to admit that his diplomacy was merely a smokescreen to his desire to make war on those he believed were his enemies or those who opposed his plans for expansion for Germany. That he had already made all of his ambitions clear in his book was not important to the European leaders who dealt with Hitler initially; they just believed whatever he said to the loss of territories and thousands of peoples lives. (Jarman). Nothing seem to limit or stop the Allied policy of appeasement at Munich, which sacrificed the nation of Czechoslovakia to Hitler and the Nazis without a shot being fired. Hitler was also â€Å"determined to destroy Czechoslovakia, a democratic state that looked to other great powers for support† (Brown, 2004, p. 40); this would be a demonstration of the Reich’s power and intentions to expand its territories in the face of European opposition. Later, just â€Å"six months before the start of the Second World War, Czechoslovakia had ceased to exist,† (Brown, 2004, p. 40). and was incorporated into the Reich. Munich provided the most dramatic, and obvious, representation of Hitler’s ambitions and yet the irony is Germany would have been unable to match the military forces of the Allies during any of the three conquests outlined above. At the time of Munich, the German army could â€Å"muster only 31 divisions or regular troops and 7 reserve divisions;† (Brown, 2004, p. 40) this in contrasted with Allied powers â€Å"the French could hurl over 100 divisions and simply walk to Berlin. † (Brown, 2004, p. 40). In fact, the Czech army itself might have provide for its own protection had it been allowed to fight. Instead, Hitler was allowed to digest his conquests and plot his eventual war with the Soviet Union. No matter how considered the overwhelming historical evidence is that the Allies could have prevented the rise of global Nazism and the eventual outbreak of World War Two by abandoning their policies of appeasement and confronting the Third Reich with overwhelming military force. If moral justification had been lacking, one might interpret the Allied non-response to Hitler’s early acts of conquest and aggression as an act of graciousness — in sparing not only the soldiers but civilian populations from needless bloodshed. After-all, Germany had, her self only recently emerged from a terrible ravishment in the fiery end of World War One and her suffering under the Treaty of Versailles and the extraction of war-debts had brought Germany nearly to collapse. Even the Germans deserved better than a second war so closely following upon the Great War. If this had been the reasoning, in the absence of moral imperative, in the absence of signed treaties, and in the absence of military superiority, then even the Allied appeasement at Munich might have been at least understandable. Although the the Hitler-Stalin pact of August 1939 offered Germany protection from Soviet military retaliation and allowed the proposed invasion of Poland to take place without fear of Soviet reprisal. The Wehrmacht defeated the Polish army in just over 25 days and later when Spring allowed a more forceful and aggressive campaign strategy, the Wehrmacht descended upon the ‘low countries:† Denmark, Belgium, Norway, and the Netherlands. After two and a half months, the French surrendered. And even though the majority of the British expeditionary force to the continent escaped at Dunkirk, the British experienced the loss of their heavy equipment† (Russett, 1997, p. 25). Ultimately, Mussolini decided to launch Italy into the war only a fear days after France’s surrender. Meanwhile, America’s involvement in the war was limited to the implementation of the â€Å"The Lend-Lease Act, which was to pour billions of dollars of supplies into Britain† (Russett, 1997, p. 26) and also, pave the way for military involvement. Not only did US forces occupy Iceland, but â€Å"President Roosevelt had agreed that American ships would escort convoys–including British ships† (Russett, 1997, p. 26) to Iceland. This convoying was not entirely peaceful, it meant that â€Å"if German U-boats approached the American escorts were to â€Å"shoot on sight† (Russett, 1997, p. 26) to insure that the goods got through. These were steps to protect Britain and also steps toward total war. However, the role of â€Å"Lend_lease† itself proclaimed a total lack of moral imperative on the behalf of the American people regarding Hitler’s conquests in Europe. While Hitler was gobbling up Austria, Czechoslovakia, and Poland — and even before his physical conquest, during his rise to power — the same ethical and moral reasons for making war against the Nazi Regime existed as would exist many months later, after the destruction and deaths of millions of Europeans, Africans, Russians, Americans, and Japanese was assured by the conflagration of a World War. If there was a time when a moral imperative should have played a role in the events which ed to America’s involvement in World war Two, Munich makes much ore an apt case than Pearl Harbor. Looking back over the vents which preceded the invasion of Poland, there seems to be no moral impediment for American intervention in Hitler’s rising Nazi state. Meanwhile, in the Pacific war, where America’s ambitions and motivations toward war were much less ambiguously articulated, Japan continued with an â€Å"exhausting and seemingly endless war† (Russett, 1997, p. 45) which started with the Japanese invasion of Manchuria in 1931, and was â€Å"greatly escalated by the clash at the Marco Polo Bridge which expanded into severe open warfare with China in 1937† (Russett, 1997, p. 45); such considerations were deeply incongruous with American ambitions in Southeast Asia. The imperative, however, was not one of moral obligation but one of geopolitical power. The same can be said for the Hobson’s choice ultimately faced by the Japanese. Although the attack on Pearl Harbor appeared to the American public as an act of ruthless aggression; to the Japanese, given the dwindling options for an Imperial future, as we will discuss directly, the act might easily have been viewed as a defensive military act of aggression. The friction between the US and Japan over the â€Å"China Incident† stemmed basically from an opposition of geopolitical ambitions. Japan considered itself and Imperial power, one which was as entitled to territorial expansion and expansion of influence as Britain or the United States and it viewed Southeast Asia and China as residing within its natural spheres of influence. To give up ambitions in China would be admitting that Japan was a second or third-rate world power and the elite of Japan’s military and civilian leaders found such a decision impossible because it gave in entirely to American demands. Faced with such a choice, the Japanese began to orbit around diplomatically and then join into the Nazi-led Axis, since it was obvious that the British? American alliance was likely headed toward a Allied war in Europe anyway. In July of 1941, Japanese assets were frozen in America, and â€Å"the consequent cessation of shipment of oil, scrap iron, and other goods from the United States, Japan’s economy was in most severe straits and her power to wage war directly threatened† (Russett, 1997, p. 46) and her ability to make war was becoming severely threatened by the ongoing embargoes against her. Japanese military planners estimated that â€Å"reserves of oil, painfully accumulated in the late 1930s when the risk of just such a squeeze became evident, would last at most two years† (Russett, 1997, p. 46) by which time it would be far too late to make a stand, militarily, against the United States in China or elsewhere. Somehow, Japan had found its way to a â€Å"no good choices† scenario, with acquiescence to American demands dooming Japan to a less than coequal status with the world’s dominant powers, or war with the United States — sooner than later — before supplies dwindled below practical abilities to make war. Diplomatic efforts proved useless when â€Å"The United States, and the British and Dutch,† (Russett, 1997, p. 47) would end the embargoes only as a response to â€Å"Japanese withdrawal from air and naval bases in Indochina† (Russett, 1997, p. 47); and at this time the Japanese military began to consider war with the U. S. inevitable. Most of the Japanese elite â€Å"were opposed to any settlement which would in effect have meant withdrawal from China† (Russett, 1997, p. 47) which would also mean the increase of Western, particularly American influence, in precisely those ares which Japan’s ruling castes believed were the natural provinces of the Japanese Empire. It is impossible to view the preceding acts perpetrated against the Japanese as anything other than aggressive, if falling short of actual military warfare; it was clear that Japan was being pushed just about as far to the brink of war as any nation could be pushed. It is impossible to extract from the American non-intervention in Europe coupled with its seeking intervention by economic and diplomatic means in Manchuria and Southeast Asia a policy which is driven by moral, rather than global-poltical, imperatives. In fact, positing American neutrality throughout the early days of Hitter’s conquests with American proactive intervention in Japanese Imperial expansion requires one to admit very little in the way of moral imperative. While the Japanese military planned for war, the American government also planned for an escalation of hostilities: â€Å"By autumn 1941, however, opinion was crystallizing in the highest levels of the American decision-making system† (Russett, 1997, p. 50) this process was leading to war. Roosevelt â€Å"informally polled his cabinet on the question of whether the country would support war against Japan† (Russett, 1997, p. 50) and the result was that â€Å"All members responded in the affirmative† (Russett, 1997, p. 50); with public support behind the war, conflict with Japan seemed immanent. By the beginning of December their attack was irrevocably set in motion. The Japanese conviction that war could not be limited to the British and Dutch had to be based wholly on inference. Yet it was a correct analysis and a solid conviction, as shown by the otherwise inexplicable risk they took at Pearl Harbor â€Å"the attack ensured American popular support for the war in the Pacific, just as the moral argument against Hitler in Europe worked to fuel public support for the American entry into World War Two† ; so, in effect, where the brutality and obvious territorial ambitions of Hitler had failed to ignite American sentiment for war, the attack by Japan ignited an inferno that would draw the US into the most notable global conflict of the twentieth-century. (Russett, 1997, p. 51) In conclusion, the US entry into World War Two when studied at more than a popular â€Å"mythic† level, is a story which combines the global-political ambitions of many nations with the propagandistic impulse which is necessary to â€Å"sell† even just wars to the soldiers who must fight them and to the publics which must support them. The US entered World War Two not so much as an agent of moral â€Å"good† or to stop a great evil which was recognized as emerging from the Third Reich. As we have seen, if this had truly been the motivation for a US war against Germany, moral justification had been provided as early as 1933 when Hitler rose to power declaring his ambitions to shirk off the Treaty of Versailles, wipe out Soviet Russia and destroy the Jews. Certainly, by the time of the Munich agreement, Nazi Germany was a recognized threat to both world order and world morality. The facts of history, while deepening and shadowing the more broad strokes of myth, fail to eliminate altogether the essential ideas contained within the myth. While it is true that the US entered World War Two in what could properly be described as a â€Å"tardy† fashion, and failed to seize the opportunity to help to push the European Allies to a timely confrontation with the burgeoning Reich before the loss of millions, the fact remains that US involvement in World War Two was the triumph of good over evil adn did provide a victory for freedom, democracy, and humanism which did not exist in the Nazi state. However, it is important also to realize that one of the key Allies, Soviet Russia, stood as perhaps an even more corrupt regime than the Nazis, slaughtered as many, if not more, Jews, political prisoners, and Russian citizens, combined as the Nazi regime — the truths of history provide the seeds of myth and from those seeds, often, the fruit of what is essential can be tasted. If history shows that the US entry into World War Two was based less in moral grounds than myth would have us belive, it is also true that American morality and strength of character provided an indelible asset in claiming victory against both the Nazis and the Japanese during the Second World War. References Aldcroft, D. (1997). The Versailles Legacy. History Review, (29), 8+. Black, J. (2003). World War Two.New York: Routledge. Brown, M. D. (2004, December). The S. O. E. and the Failure of the Slovak National Uprising: Martin D. Brown Tells the Little-Known Story of How British and American Soldiers Disappeared in Slovakia’s Tatra Mountains during the Remarkable Episode of Slovakia’s National Uprising against Its Nazi-Supporting Government during the Second World War. History Today, 54, 39+. Jarman, T. L. (1956). The Rise and Fall of Nazi Germany (1st ed. ). New York: New York University Press. Russett, B. M. (1997). No Clear and Present Danger: A Skeptical View of the United States Entry into World War II. Boulder, Colo. : Westview Press. Goldston, Robert. (1967). The Life and Death of Nazi Germany. New York, Fawcett Premier. Payne, Robert. (1973). The Life and Death of Adolf Hitler. New York

Business Communication Essay Example for Free (#11)

Business Communication Essay His vision to give young, fashion forward men and women a unique way to express their individuality through style resulted in millions of customers worldwide and propelled his designs to the forefront of the fashion industry. It all started in 1990, with a mere $1,100 in his bank account, Madden started crafting shoe designs from his Queens-based factory and the  Steve Madden  brand was born. With a lot of courage, years of experience in the footwear industry, and unique creative designs,  Steve Madden  formed his own successful enterprise. A year later, Madden introduced a redefined version of platform shoes, resulting in one of the most spectacular success stories in the early 1990’s. Inspired by his favorite rock and roll stars of the 1970s, the thick, chunky heel became  Steve Madden’s  signature and a phenomenon in women’s shoes. Madden’s footwear vision is continuously evolving. Steve once said, â€Å"What inspires me is what I see people wearing on the streets of the world from New York to London and beyond. I get my ideas and inspiration from pounding the pavement all over the world. Today, fashion is dictated by individual style. To me, the fashion of the future is anything that a young guy or girl feels good wearing as long as  it’s put together in the right way. † (www. stevemadden . com) Today, the  Steve Madden  brand represents a lifestyle. It is about embracing fashion while still maintaining that funky independence that first defined the brand 20 years ago. Expanding now into apparel and other accessories such as dresses, handbags, belts, sunwear, cold weather, outerwear and hosiery,  Steve Madden  is always looking toward to the future. As 2013 begins, more exciting opportunities are on the horizon including re-packaging, new store design rollout and expansion in global markets. The days when the future did not seem so bright In April 2002, Mr. Madden found that neither his investors nor federal judges take too kindly to stock manipulation and securities fraud. Steve Madden’s talents as a shoe designer helped him build a 240 million dollar empire in his own name. But by his own admission, that wasn’t enough — he was greedy for more. His greed cost him about eight million dollars and control of the very company that brought him such riches. Madden was sentenced in 2002 to 41 months in prison for his role in a stock swindle scheme coordinated by the now-closed brokerage, Stratton Oakmont. His wrongdoings include conspiring to manipulate the stock prices of more than 20 companies, including his own. And, he did it at the expense not only of the public but his own investors who lost more than 100 million. Besides paying restitution, Madden had to resign as CEO of Steve Madden Ltd and leave the board of directors. He is also barred from holding a position as officer for seven years. However, he did retain a creative position until his prison sentence began that fall and will likely fill that capacity upon release later this spring. Meanwhile, those left to keep the company going in his absence quickly started their damage control efforts. A new board of directors was quickly assembled. Among those elected were Madden’s brother and a corporate accounting guru. Once their former leader began repaying his debt to society, company heads began cleaning Steve Madden Limited’s financial house; making sure stock prices accurately reflected the health of the business. The company fully cooperated with the SEC’s investigation and hired an independent auditing company to keep watch over the process. Those days and even today, the company’s financial practices are an open and well-kept book. Anyone could get the latest financial news from the same site by loging on to for the latest shoe designs. After heading off anymore potential legal woes, management began to focus on keeping the business itself walking tall. If the company’s sales reports were any indication, not having â€Å"Steve† hasn’t really hurt Steve Madden Limited. While the founder has been in a Florida prison, the company’s management built on his vision by expanding into other areas. â€Å"Steve† by Steve Madden moved the company from the trendy 16 to 24 year old demographic into upscale footwear for a more mature crowd. The company licensed Candie’s and Unionbay footwear for men. Rather than try and replace or substitute Madden’s design eye, they took what they had and introduced it to new markets. It worked. According to company reports, nearly all of the brands have increased profit margins and inventory levels. In a press release, management expressed hope that their profits would have increased in 2005 as compared 2004 (which actually happened). 2. Corporate Communication after the Bad Publicity But prison didn’t break Steve Madden—or his company. Like so many of today’s celebrity convicts, from Martha Stewart to Paris Hilton, Madden says he emerged a changed person. He served out his sentence, doing yardwork, teaching business classes to other inmates, reading four books a week (from â€Å"The Devil Wears Prada† to David McCullough’s â€Å"Truman†) and pumping iron obsessively. I used to wear this tank top in prison,† he says. â€Å"And I’d stare at myself and flex. I never did that before. † He even got married, to a Madden employee who came for regular visits. And when he was released in April 2005, Madden says, he was â€Å"stronger physically, mentally, spiritually† than he’d ever been. After the return of Ste ve Madden from prison, he decided not to shy away from the imminent release of its namesake founder from prison. The company was promoting the return of its creative leader in a series of eye-catching posters and print advertisements, and is having some fun with it in the process. While the ads do not say where Madden has been, one suggests, in a wink-wink kind of way, that Mr. Madden has not been on a sabbatical, a secret mission or up the  Amazon  collecting snakes: â€Å"A new meaning for the word spring time. Steve returns. Spring 2005. † The company had launched a rather interesting press campaign celebrating Steve Madden’s upcoming release from prison. One features a girl wearing an ankle bracelet and another features an empty pair of shoes with the words, â€Å"There’s one pair of shoes that’s been impossible to fill. Steve returns Spring 2005. Others allude to Madden getting â€Å"sprung† in Spring 2005. Financial Dynamics, the shoe retailer’s investor relations agency, says the campaign is a positive way of dealing with the prison sentence. It makes light of the company’s troubles, sending a message that the board is over it and customers should feel the same way. It’s also a sure fire way t o get people talking about the brand. When it comes to sales, the only bad publicity is no publicity. Once upon a time, a company, particularly one that sold products to the public, would shun publicity if it possibly could when a senior executive encountered legal woes. The idea that a company – especially one like Steve Madden, which sells shoes mostly to teenage girls and women in their 20’s – would actually run ads calling attention to its leader’s prison past would have flabbergasted experts in fields like brand identity, advertising and public relations. â€Å"I love controversy; I love pushing the envelope, but when you have a younger customer you have a responsibility to take the law and authority seriously,† said James LaForce, partner at LaForce & Stevens in New York, a marketing communications agency specializing in fashion and entertainment clients. That was of course before Martha Stewart, whose public image has, by initial measures, seemingly gained in stature after her release from federal prison. A colorful paper flap decorated with a photograph of her cradling a chicken, declaring â€Å"Welcome home, Martha,† was attached to the cover of April’s Martha Stewart Living magazine, published by  Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia. Companies like Mr. Madden’s and Ms. Stewart’s may also be more likely to embrace their convicted executives, since those executives have plenty of influence in the boardroom. Reticence about an executive’s past also predates a world in which rappers can find the sales of their music increasing in seeming lock step with the severity of their scrapes with the law. â€Å"It’s in now to be out, out of prison, that is,† said Paul Cappelli, chief executive at the Ad Store in New York, an advertising agency that creates campaigns for brands like  JetBlue. â€Å"I could see myself suggesting something like this to a client,† Cappelli said, â€Å"that instead of ignoring the 5,000-pound elephant in the corner, you might as well bring it out into the open and make hay of it. Robert Passikoff, who has been tracking consumer response to the Martha Stewart brand as president of Brand Keys in New York, a brand and customer-loyalty consultant, said that his index of its value had recently risen. The index has climbed to 96, Mr. Passikoff said, compared with a bottom of 62 – â€Å"lower than  Enron,† he said – before she entered prison. (The peak was 122 in May 2002. ) Is the new badge of honor, I served my time? We are not sure it doesn’t ultimately hurt, even if the American public is largely forgiving when people serve their time. The campaign is trying to make him the face of the brand but who wants the face with numbers under it? † Steve Madden is different from Martha Stewart, because unlike her, he was never the brand. He was the label, so a lot of people don’t know who the guy was and didn’t know he went to jail. That has worked to Steve Madden’s advantage so far,, citing the history of the Madden brand index: It was 110 before Madden went to prison and fell only slightly, to 106. However, it is worth mentioning that consumers seem to be more forgiving about men than women. Brian Russak, a senior editor at Footwear News in New York who covers Madden, said: â€Å"It seems like an obvious play to Martha Stewart, but I have to wonder whether that resonates with Madden’s consumers. We often say here the target consumer doesn’t know there is a Steve Madden. † Trey Laird, president and executive creative director at Laird & Partners in New York, an advertising age ncy that creates campaigns for fashion and apparel brands like DKNY and Gap, also drew distinctions between Madden and Stewart. The Madden ads â€Å"are kind of cute and clever, but this is not a Martha Stewart situation, when the whole country is watching because she’s a cultural icon. † â€Å"I don’t feel most consumers know about† Steve Madden’s sentence, he added, â€Å"or if they knew, they forgot about it. † The Madden campaign can be perceived as a parody of Ms. Stewart’s story meant â€Å"to get people talking about the brand,† Laird said, particularly because â€Å"the Madden brand has never been a brand that has taken itself seriously. † For instance, a recent Madden campaign featured caricatures of its customers with comically oversized heads. A statement by Financial Dynamics read: â€Å"Steven Madden Ltd. looks forward to the much anticipated return of the unique talent and creative design expertise of Steve Madden in the spring of 2005. Further, the company believes the current advertising campaign embodies and enhances the Steve Madden brand. † If the rise in Martha Stewart stock is any indication, getting out of prison seems to be â€Å"in. † The publicity generated by Madden’s return could translate into increased exposure and, in turn, increase sales in the future. Plus, having him back at the head of the creative team will bring his company something it hasn’t had in a while†¦ his ability to give the millions of women who buy his shoes what they want. So, If there’s one thing Americans enjoy more than watching the mighty fall, it’s granting them forgiveness. â€Å"You have to go through a process. You made your mistake, you did your time,† Madden says. â€Å"You have to be a little contrite to get redemption. † To judge from the recent performance of his company, Madden’s been forgiven—at least by that segment of the population that favors shoes with animal prints, polka dots and four-inch heels. Sales were $475. 2 million in 2006, up from $375. 8 million the year he was released, while net income more than doubled to $46. 3 million. Madden is quick to admit that he’s made mistakes. But he says he wouldn’t change a thing about his life. â€Å"Everything I’ve done has gotten me to where I am today,† he says. His prison experience has clearly had an impact on his designs. The next offering from the prison groom: wedding shoes, called I Do. â€Å"It’s a huge market,† he says. â€Å"Marriage is sort of back on track. † And so is Steve Madden. . The Crisis 3. 1. Chain of events In summer 2004, Madden’s luck turned when he was indicted for stock fraud and money laundering in both the Eastern and Southern Districts of New York. According to the charges, Madden secretly purchased stock on behalf of the principals of two corrupt penny-stock brokerage firms — Stratton Oakmont Securities of Lake Success, Long Island, and Mon roe Parker, of Purchase, Westchester — helping them manipulate 29 initial public offerings, including that of his own company. That same day, the Securities and Exchange Commission came after him with a civil suit alleging Madden had employed â€Å"devices, schemes, and artifices to defraud. † If convicted in either of the criminal cases, Madden would face up to more than twenty years in prison and several million dollars in fines. If he were to lose the SEC case, which was put on hold until the criminal cases were completed, he could be forced to pay millions more. Even worse, he ran the risk of being barred from serving as an officer or director of any public company, including his own. On the day of his arrest, while Madden was busy pleading not guilty to all charges and pledging his East Hampton country house and the Long Island homes of two friends in order to make bail, shares of Steve Madden Limited fell almost 15 percent to $11. 85 before nasdaq halted trading. Two days later, when the stock (which trades under the ticker SHOO) reopened, it fell to $6. 88. Though the stock has traded up as high as $13. 88 due to a recent rally in the footwear sector, it has yet to regain its pre-indictment momentum. â€Å"The story’s sad. It’s a great story. It’s a real American story. My old friends took me public, they turned out to be crooks, and I’m innocent†, Madden has been quoted to say. While the indictment has severely damaged Steve Madden Limited’s standing on Wall Street – there was a consolidated class-action shareholder lawsuit pending against the company, and it has hired Bear Stearns to explore â€Å"all possible strategic options,† including an outright sale — it hasn’t tarnished Steve Madden’s reputation as a design and marketing genius. â€Å"He has some special knack at figuring out what teen girls want to wear,† says Sanford Bernstein analyst Faye Landes. According to teen-market consultant Irma Zandl, who ranks Madden with Nike and Adidas in the top five brands that girls favor, his shoes are popular because they are fabulously over-the-top. â€Å"Steve Maddens are not for the conservative girl,† she says. â€Å"If he’s going to add leopard skin, he’ll do it ten times more outrageously than anybody else. It’s for people who think less is less. † Every week following his indictment, Madden used to get more than a thousand e-mails from his customers, only a handful of which referred to his legal predicament. In fact, the company not only refused to retrench, instead it was aggressively expanding. At that year’s Grammy Awards, the company made a bid for high-profile customers by giving out fluffy leopard-print slippers to special guests. Three days later, at the Western Shoe Association show in Las Vegas, Madden introduced his newest product line at the time: Steve Madden Mens. 3. 2. The players While Madden was working his way up in the shoe industry, his best friend, Danny Porush, was stuck in a rut. After five years at Boston University, he left without getting a degree and bounced from job to job, working for, and starting up, a variety of small businesses, including an ambulance company called SureRide Ambulette. In 1988, while watching his son in the playground of his Bayside, Queens, apartment complex, he met an unlikely mentor: a dental-school dropout and former door-to-door meat and seafood salesman named Jordan Belfort. A short, brash, young Jewish guy, Belfort boasted he was making $50,000 a month selling penny stocks out of a boiler room in Great Neck. As Porush would later testify, Belfort confided the business was â€Å"half a scam,† but the chance to increase his income tenfold was a siren call Porush couldn’t resist. Two days after they met, he closed down SureRide and joined the firm. Using fanciful scripts, the brokers — Belfort’s childhood friends from Queens, Porush’s golf buddies, money-crazed kids recruited from Long Island college campuses — sold and manipulated tiny, high-risk IPOs, according to testimony, by grossly exaggerating their prospects, boasting that they had inside information, and generally saying whatever was necessary to make a sale. Their underwritings encompassed a vast array of low-rent businesses and all had the same trading pattern — the stocks would soar when they touted them but then come crashing down when the brokers unloaded their stakes. In 1992, Steve Madden made a decision that at the time seemed natural enough: He hired his best friend’s firm to be his banker. While Madden knew that the SEC had already accused Stratton of engaging in price manipulation and employing high-pressure sales tactics, he considered it a legitimate company. â€Å"They cleared through Bear Stearns,† Madden recalls, pointing out that Stratton’s link to the giant firm gave it an aura of respectability. Besides, Stratton was not only willing to raise capital for Steve Madden Limited in the private markets, it wanted to take the tiny, unproven company public. Like his friend Porush, Madden was going to enter the big leagues. On December 13, 1993, only seven months after the first (and, at that time, only) Steve Madden shoe store had opened on Broadway in SoHo, Stratton Oakmont took the company public at $4 a share. The most active stock on the nasdaq on the day of its offering, SHOO closed at $8 a share, a huge gain in the pre-Internet era. Just a few months later, it sunk to $3. With only $5. 3 million in sales, a net loss of $900,000, and a boom-bust trading history, the company simply seemed to be nother one of Stratton’s overhyped IPOs. But it wasn’t. In 1994, Madden surprised his critics. With hardly any advertising, Madden increased sales by almost 40 percent. The next year, sales tripled to $39 million, prompting Madden to hire Rhonda Brown, the former merchandise president of Macy’s East, to become his chief of operations. Soon, Madden had celebrity customers — Carmen Electra, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Nev e Campbell, Alyssa Milano, Mary J. Blige. By 1997, the company was generating $59 million in total sales, operating seventeen stores, and introducing a clothing line designed for â€Å"a customer who doesn’t break the law — but does break the rules. † That spring, in a lengthy profile in  Footwear News,  Madden compared his company to â€Å"an underground rock-and-roll band that gets its first hit single. † Meanwhile, over in lake success, Porush and Belfort were struggling to stave off failure. While they were still raking in tens of millions a year from stock manipulations, regulators were working to put Stratton out of business. In March 1994, they nearly did: As part of a settlement with the SEC, Belfort was barred from the securities industry for life. But Porush managed to garner a lighter sanction, barred for just one year from supervising other brokers. In the wake of the ruling, Belfort continued to control the firm through Porush. Inevitably, though, the relationship between the partners soured. In January 1997, the company eventually filed for bankruptcy. By that time, Gregory Coleman, an agent in the FBI’s securities-fraud squad at 26 Federal Plaza, had been investigating Stratton for several years. In 1995, under instructions from federal prosecutors, Coleman sent out a flurry of subpoenas to some of Stratton’s clients, including Madden, in an effort to create a panic that would culminate in a race to the government’s door. One year later, U. S. Customs officers in Miami arrested a young French private banker who worked for Union Banquaire Privee in Switzerland. The arrest was made as part of an unrelated money-laundering sting operation, but hoping to win a lighter sentence, the banker began to talk. By sheer coincidence, he had two clients who were of particular interest to the government: Jordan Belfort and Danny Porush. On September 2, 1998, just a few minutes after pulling out of the driveway of his Old Brookville mansion to take his 5-year-old daughter to the video store, 36-year-old Jordan Ross Belfort was arrested for conspiracy to commit money laundering and securities fraud. The next day, 41-year-old Daniel Mark Porush was nabbed down in Boca Raton. Faced with maximum sentences of twenty years in prison, both men came to the same conclusion: After only a week in jail, they decided to flip. â€Å"It was like taking down the heads of a major crime family,† says former assistant U. S. ttorney Joel Cohen, the prosecutor in the indictment. â€Å"But in this case, the organized crime was the brokerage business. † Porush and Belfort secretly wore wires to record their friends and dragged down dozens in their wake: lawyers and accountants, bankers and brokers. 3. 3. Effects For the government, Steve Madden was one of the biggest catches in the dragnet. The shoe mogul had been a focus of the investigation for some time; the SEC had cited his company’s IPO as one of those that had been manipulated, and believed that Madden was routinely getting, and flipping, stock in other Stratton deals. Although some of Stratton’s IPOs had grown into profitable businesses, only Madden’s company had become a significant success. But according to Belfort, the celebrity CEO was also a â€Å"rat hole,† a place to hide stock. Porush, his P. S. 1 buddy, didn’t hesitate to give him up either. Madden, as he recently testified at the trial of Stratton’s former auditor, was â€Å"deep into the fraud with us. † According to the Madden indictments, the designer’s personal connection to Stratton began in 1991, when Madden agreed to secretly buy and sell stock in Stratton deals on Porush’s behalf with â€Å"the understanding that he would incur no risk. (Porush, as a principal of the firm, was restricted in his ability to trade stock in these companies. ) The deal was that Madden would earn a â€Å"predetermined profit on each transaction,† then kick back to Porush a significant portion of the proceeds, either in cash or by purchasin g stock from Stratton that was deliberately overpriced. Once Belfort was barred from the securities industry in 1994, Madden allegedly entered a similar agreement with him regarding the Stratton spinoff Monroe Parker. But according to the SEC, Madden wasn’t only ripping off the general investing public, he was ripping off his own shareholders as well. In early 1993, the SEC alleges, Madden agreed that the IPO of his company would â€Å"be a manipulation similar to previous Stratton IPO manipulations . . . such as Master Glazier’s Karate International. † In exchange for his agreement to â€Å"follow Porush and Belfort’s instructions,† they allegedly promised â€Å"that even if SHOO . . . went bankrupt, Madden would make money on the SHOO IPO. † In addition, as Belfort recently testified at the Stratton auditor’s trial, Belfort â€Å"had a secret deal with Steve Madden to maintain control of his company after it went public. Because Belfort and his partners had financed Steve Madden Limited’s early development, they owned a majority stake in the company before it went public. But the National Association of Securities Dealers refused to list SHOO unless Belfort — then under investigation for securities fraud — dramatically reduced his stake. As Belfort testified, he agr eed to sell his shares to a corporation controlled by Madden to placate the NASD, but it was a bogus transaction. â€Å"Under the secret deal which we had written down and legally signed,† says Belfort, he was the true owner. Belfort exerted an extraordinary influence over the company. Stratton’s auditor, who was a friend of Belfort’s, also became Madden’s auditor. In 1994, after Belfort was kicked out of the securities industry, he even joined SHOO as a consultant. In addition, according to Porush’s testimony, key Madden employees were given stock in Stratton IPOs as part of their compensation. (A Madden spokesperson denies such an arrangement existed. ) As Porush explained, â€Å"Part of the package when we recruited people for Steve Madden was . . . because you’re in with us, you’ll make money on every new issue. In 1997, the Belfort-Madden friendship ended abruptly around the time Belfort asked Madden to sell some of the SHOO stock he secretly owned. Madden refused, and the dispute quickly turned into a bitter lawsuit, during which Belfort produced the deal they had signed. Madden admitted the signature was his but insisted he had been â€Å"manipulated† and â€Å"tricked† into signing by someone he had â€Å"trusted as my friend, business associate, underwriter, and confidant. † According to Madden, the demise of the friendship actually preceded the lawsuit, â€Å"when Belfort started showing up stoned for work. â€Å"I have no intention of allowing Jordan Belfort to ruin SML’s bright future by threatening me or by tarnishing the company’s reputation,† Madden vowed at the time. Ultimately, he settled the suit for $4. 3 million in cash, an outcome that favored his adversary. In the fall of 1999, around the time the government went public with the news that Porush and Belfort had been secretly cooperating, the U. S. Attorney’s Office approached Madden’s personal attorney, Joel Winograd, to discuss its case against his client. Soon, rumors that Madden might be indicted began wending their way around Wall Street. . Assessment As many people saw it, the fact that Madden had an account at Stratton doesn’t mean he knew what Porush and Belfort were doing, let alone that he was in any way involved. Madden â€Å"was buying stock and making money, buying stock and losing money. He made more than he lost, but he didn’t know what improprieties they were involved in. † As Madden himself put it in the course of his lawsuit with Jordan Belfort: â€Å"My strengths as a businessman lie in the design and sale of women’s shoes, and I have never been comfortable with complicated or technical legal or business documents . . . I have always relied on the people around me. † When asked why Madden employed Belfort as a consultant at Steve Madden Limited in 1994, after he was barred from the securities industry, his lawyer replies, â€Å"Steve Madden is a loyal friend and a devoted human being. He didn’t turn his back on Jordan Belfort in his time of need. † And what about the $80,000 cash kickback Madden allegedly gave to a Stratton golf buddy in the locker room of the Engineers Country Club in Roslyn, Long Island? â€Å"It’s totally ridiculous,† says Winograd. â€Å"Cash? The government can explain from here to kingdom come. There is no way Steve would have had that amount of cash, and he wouldn’t have had that in a bag walking around a country club. I think these fellows have watched too many spy thrillers. â€Å"Let’s say Steve was fooled,† Mr. Madden’s lawyer summarizes. â€Å"You can be savvy in business, but you may not be savvy in love and friendship. † In any case, â€Å"Steve will overcome,† he vows. â€Å"His company will continue to have record quarters of sales and earnings, and this will have a fairy-tale ending. † Perhaps. But even if Madden was acquitted in both of his criminal trials, he still lost the civil case and, control of his company. For Steve Madden Limited, such an outcome might be manageable. â€Å"Mr. Madden is extremely talented and a tremendous business partner, and he’s wonderful,† says the company’s president, Rhonda Brown. â€Å"But we could continue to grow our business profitably . . . whether he’s on the golf course, or whatever. † For Steve Madden the man, it could be devastating. â€Å"My life,† he says, â€Å"is my company. † 5. Conclusions Throughout the paper, we have researched and debated both sides of the issue and conversely presented both approaches by those involved or ever taking interest in the matter. Some say that the fashion mogul got what he deserved, bashing him for being a fraud under a publicly endearing persona, while others, close friends and devoted customers alike, stood behind him and helped if not the man, the company itself from disaster. Should a great visionary not content himself with being the image upfront and the genius behind the empire he built and instead take charge of other key areas that make a business successful rather than trusting others, trusted friends or proven experts with managing them? That may be true and perhaps this was where Mr. Madden made the biggest mistake of all. While the case was and still is controversial, the company succeeded in overcoming the crisis and continues to be among the most profitable and booming shoe fashion business in the States. Business Communication. (2018, Oct 18).

Impacts of tourism in Thailand Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3750 words

Impacts of tourism in Thailand - Essay Example Most of Southeast Asian countries have been promoting tourism as a major component of their development strategies for a few decades. The efforts are supported by beliefs that tourism generates considerable sources of employment for locals; economic growth; income distribution; foreign exchange earnings; and export receipts. Just like Thai trademark rice export, tourism has become a key contributor to the Thai economy. Importance of tourism for Thai economy can be accessed with the help of data provided by national accounts data and Thailand’s Tourism Satellite Accounts (TSA) (Wattanakuljarus, 2005, p.3). Wattanakuljarus (2005) states that, â€Å"On average during 1998-2005, Thai tourism directly and indirectly accounts for 13 % of GDP (665 billion baht), 10 % of employment (3 million jobs), 13 % of exports (417 billion baht), 12 % investment (117 billion baht) and 3%of government budget (13 billion baht)† (p.3).Such huge incorporation of tourism related activities cert ainly has impact on Thai society in general and some areas in particular. This paper studies the impact of tourism on Thai economy, environment, agriculture, society, culture, and tradition. The information used throughout the paper is generalisable. All of the information used is taken from authentic sources, such as, journals, academic reports, and books. Most of the data is obtained from libraries, either local or digital. Impacts of Tourism in Thailand Thailand has long pursued its goal of tourism related marketing strategy. The strategy is to boost economy, encourage low, medium, and high cost tourism in all the potential regions of the country. From â€Å"Land of Smiles† promotion slogan and other extensive promotional strategies, Thailand has become the more popular and south-after tourist destination from all over the world (Pfotenhauer and Mingsarn, 1994, p.23).Tourist visit Thailand for variety of reasons, the reasons may not be mutually exclusive because they often combine them when planning for the visit. Some of the most common types of tourism in Thailand include: adventure tourism, cultural tourism, disaster tourism, drug tourism, Eco-tourism, family tourism, food tourism, sex tourism, medical tourism, and sports tourism. Adventure Tourism Traditionally, adventure tourists explore Thailand in search of adventure by climbing mountains; trekking for longer time periods; kayaking; and visiting off-beat places far from conventional areas to visit. A comparatively mild form of adventure tourism is â€Å"soft adventure tourism† that caters people who want to combine some rough experiences but lesser than regular adventure tourists. They prefer to combine visits to important cities and beautiful beaches. Bird watching is also a kind of adventure tourism (Berger, 2007, p.11). Cultural Tourism Cultural tourists are keen to investigate and get information about the cultures, importance, and history of the places they visit. They usually focus on famous cathedrals; historical museum; symphony halls; opera houses; and similar attractions (Berger, 2007, p.11). Disaster Tourism Some tourists prefer visiting the places of disaster of a kind or another. They observe places for knowing what happened; how it affected people and environment there; and how people there are coping with the disaster. They â€Å"participate in history† by experiencing such places throu gh visit. For instance, after December 2004’ tsunami, some tourists packed bags for visiting affected places (Berger, 2007, pp.11-12). Drug Tourism The tourists visit places where they can access drugs easily and without any restriction. They visit Thailand because they can’

Government and for-profit organizations Coursework

Government and for-profit organizations - Coursework Example Reporting entity is referred to any business venture that is entrusted with reporting responsibilities. In context of this paper, both kinds of organizations are reporting entities, who have the obligation of preparing financial reports for benefit and interest of various stakeholders.Materiality is one of the GAAP conventions that are followed by all organizations irrespective of their nature of business. Materiality explains that an organization should discuss only significant information in its financial reports that of accounting nature. Lastly, full disclosure explains that every organization should disclose all necessary information so that financial position of the firm is correctly presented and understood. Additionally, these two kinds of organizations share certain similarities in terms of components of financial statements as well such as journal, trial balance and ledger (Carmichael & Graham, 2012; Delaney & Whittington, 2007).Another point of similarity that can be recog nized between government and commercial organizations is debt refunding. Both these organizations are significantly engaged in debt refunding. In other words, they create new debts whose proceeds are employed for paying off previous debt. The sole reason behind both organizations engaged in this activity is to ensure security of their financial gain (GASB, 2013).Dissimilarities between government and non-government organization’s accountingGovernment organizations are significantly different from various for-profit firms in a number of ways.

Human Recourse Management and Personnel Issues Essay - 1

Human Recourse Management and Personnel Issues - Essay Example There are a number of occasions when assessment is done. Such as when a student is admitted into a high school, he is often required to take some test, likewise, during his educational, time to time, his educations is assessed under certain standards. Finally, when he wished to enter the professional life, there too, he is assessed for certain skills that the employer expects to be essentially present in an employee. Out of all these assessments, the pre-employment assessment is considered to be one of the crucial ones. This is so on the account of the fact that this test will enable him to enter into the professional life through the gate he wants. There is one complexity involved with the assessments. The complexity is that what factors should be tested in order to determine that who is the most deserving candidate is. This complexity is enhanced when it comes to the assessment for the recruitment. So far as the assessment for academic entry such as admission in masters is concerne d, it seems quite logical that you primarily test the academic skills and a bit of Intelligent Quotient etc. But, when we talk about employment, the purpose is to find the deserving candidate and what factors make a person a deserving candidate differs from person to person. From organization’s perspective too, it is also essential to filter the right person so as to make their organization run more effectively and efficiently.

Final Case Study Analysis Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Final Case Study Analysis - Assignment Example The case of â€Å"You’ve Got Mail†¦And You’re Fired! The Case of RadioShack† can be regarded as an important case linked with the aspect of human resource (HR) which concerns about firing or terminating huge figure of employees from their respective jobs (Thinkstock, n.d.). With this concern, this paper intends to evaluate as well as to explain the issues or problems that pertained in the aforesaid case relating to RadioShack. Moreover, a set of proposed solutions would also be provided to the management of RadioShack for the purpose of dealing with the identified issues in future. Evaluation and Explanation of the Issue Relating to the Case In the year 2006, the management team of RadioShack took the decision of terminating a certain portion of its employees owing to the reason of its extreme financial turmoil condition. In this regard, it has been apparently observed that a figure of 400 personnel attached with the company received an ultimate message thro ugh e-mail which was "The work force reduction notification is currently in progress. Unfortunately, your position is one that has been eliminated." The unofficial translation: "You're fired." (Forbes.com LLC., 2013). The major issue of the case can be viewed to be the procedure which the management of RadioShack followed to terminate or to lay off its employees. ... Once viewed to be a giant in the electronic market, RadioShack was experiencing tough competitions from its chief business market contenders like Best Buy and CompUSA among others. Majority of the stores of RadioShack that were located in Canada have been viewed to shut down due to heavy net loss faced by the company. It is worth mentioning that changes in the economy can also affected RadioShack vastly resulting in low consumer spending on electronic products. Failure to adopt as well as to execute effectual business strategies in complying with customers’ demand also contributed in financial loss that suffered by the company. It has been viewed that the company was experiencing from turmoil condition and thus failed to compete with its major competitors by a considerable level (RadioShack Corporation, 2006). Thus, it can be affirmed that the aforementioned aspects were the main causes that eventually made the company to lay off or terminate its employees by a considerable le vel. In order to conclude the issue of the case concerning the process of terminating employees, it has been apparently observed that the management of the company adopted as well as executed the method of e-mail for terminating its employees. In this similar concern, 400 personnel belonging to RadioShack have been viewed to receive an e-mail in which the following message had been portrayed. The message was "The work force reduction notification is currently in progress. Unfortunately, your position is one that has been eliminated." The unofficial translation: "You're fired." (Forbes.com LLC., 2013). This particular message via e-mail relating to the procedure of terminating the employees can be regarded as the major issue of the case. The termination procedure which

Manga now changing the way art is enjoyed via phones rather than print Article

Manga now changing the way art is enjoyed via phones rather than print - Article Example Instead, a comic or a manga (in Japanese) would be a good mode of cost effective entertainment for people who can read these comics on their mobiles. In Japan, people of all ages read manga widely.[2]Many contemporary novelists have started their careers as mobile novelists, and once the novels were downloaded and became popular, publishers have approached them for printing the novel in traditional book form. Five of last years top ten best-selling novels started life as mobile phone – or keitai – novels. [1].Manga – comic art – is a major part of the Japanese publishing industry, representing a 481 billion yen (Â £3.4bn) market domestically. And its now migrated to the mobile.[1] Manga stories have up to 1,000 scenes and added sound effects and are easily downloadable. [1] The history and origin of manga has two views: some researchers feel that there is a strong American cultural influence in the Manga comics like the effect of US television, films and cartoons and GIs (especially Disney) while other writers feel that manga upkeeps Japanese cultural and aesthetic traditions. [3][5].Modern Manga is supposed to have originated in 1945 and from 1952 to early 1960s, there was an explosion of artistic creativity in from manga artists such as Osamu Tezuka (Astro Boy) and Machiko Hasegawa (Sazae-san) [5]. Other than the comic form of art, street artists in Tokyo are creating designs specifically for mobile phones. Mao Sakaguchi, web project leader of the Shibuya HP France Gallery, says he grew frustrated by the limited art market in Japan, so had the idea of using mobiles to introduce art to a wider audience. [1].He used his fashion store as an art gallery for street artists and after taking pictures of their work, downloaded them into mobiles. Adobe Flash player has helped in creating of art works specifically designed for mobiles. [1]. There is now a whole genre of mobile phone artists. Akhr, 26, an artist,

Marketing Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 9

Marketing - Essay Example 46). It is the responsibility of the management to identify and nature the core competence that fuels the company’s growth: the Wal-Mart stores identify this with much fulfillment of customer needs and with a broad spectrum of products and services at â€Å"everyday low prices†. The competency here is the product of the cumulative of competencies within the organizational boundaries and within personal skill sets. Wal-Mart has been a leader in inventory control, channel management, customer service and distribution. This has been arrived at through the company’s ability to distribute network and to coordinate a complex management of information and managing supplier relations in an efficient way. In order to fit within the marketing mix, the company has had the best strategies that address their pricing, promotion, advertising and competition for all tangible and non-tangible products. On observing its tangibles, I noticed that Wal-Mart has distributed cars and o ther motor products to several stores. As their selling slogan â€Å"everyday low prices†, the company has maintained low prices for the cars with great observation to the prices from other car selling industries. I saw a car care service point outside one of their stores and realized that, in order to maintain their customers, they have the car care services that they offer in every store. They have had their adverts on televisions, newspapers and magazines. Smart cars are displayed with accompanying information that all customers can access free car care at Wal-Mart stores. Wal-Mart service men include mechanics who undertake the promotion of commodities by offering repairs and spare parts for vehicles. This has rendered its competence in the automotive industry. Therefore, the Wal-Mart stores make more car sales than their core competitors in U.S.A., for example, the Callaway automakers and the Aurica. The sale of computers has been a flourishing activity with Wal-Mart Com pany. I looked at computers sold in the stores and realized that they have relatively lower prices compared to computers from other stores in Ohio. Their marketing strategy has included advertisements from the newspapers and television. The company offers computer gifts to individuals and groups on promotions. I had much interest on the computers and therefore I realized that it was much better to purchase such commodities at Wal-Mart than in companies like the Eagle Trooper which have been Wal-Mart’s competitor in the sale of computers. The provision of free computers with comprehensive warranties has brought in victory for the Wal-Mart computer stores. At the Bharti stores, I saw fridges and other household commodities being sold at a high demand by customers. The range of fridges at best price makes Wal-Mart the best place to buy fridges. Advertisements on television and other social networks show displays of beautiful fridges of different sizes. This gives their customers the desire to walk to their stores and get one for themselves. While other fridge manufactures and suppliers render much competition. The Bharti stores come out the best sellers of such commodities. I saw beautiful synthetic stones in stores and noted that they were part of family jewelry that the Wal-Mart company deals with in their market. Although the jewelry remains in stores for close to two months, the company makes adequate sales for their budget. They sell them at a relatively lower

Law and Ethics in Healthcare Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Law and Ethics in Healthcare - Essay Example Therefore, this paper examines HIV/AIDS and confidentiality, which are healthcare issues arising from the conflict between law and ethic values. Salient ethical and legal concerns associated with HIV/AIDS and Confidentiality Safken & Frewer (2007) indicate that law and ethics postulate that medical information demands confidential treatment; thus, the law focuses on protecting such information. Consequently, care providers have an compulsion of promoting confidentiality in their activities. Indeed, HIV-related information has been subject to additional protections because of their sensitiveness. Care providers can only reveal such information based on court orders or the patient’s own will. Initially, patients are protected by regulations that promote personal privacy; hence, a care provider who releases such information infringes into one’s privacy. Although this is important in protecting patient against social exploitation, the process creates health concerns (McLean & Mason, 2003). This apparent since holding information is sometimes not rational as the practice may invite detrimental effects on other parties. According to McLean (2006), the responsibility of countering the harm from spreading to other parties binds care providers. For instance, care providers have a duty of protecting persons with high threats of infection. Additionally, concerns of promoting public health may demand a disclosure of such information. It is worth noting that disclosing information may be essential for individuals who engage in duties that present risks to their clients. These principles present strong moral and legal concerns to care providers in healthcare. Important primary ethical principles for managing the presented issues Healthcare providers can utilize concepts presented by some primary ethical principles in addressing this case. An ideal scheme that can inform healthcare providers is the standard of beneficence. Beneficence advocates for an idea of do ing good that demands one to analyze the matter critically to institute the best position of addressing the concerns (McLean, 2006). Importantly, the beneficence demands one to adopt the most genuine position while considering the necessity of bettering the condition of the involved parties. Since the HIV/AIDS and confidentiality subject, present a controversial environment, genuine assessment is the only solution to the case. This means that healthcare providers should access the implication of each procedure to identify the best approach to accord to the matter (Leslie & Bernard, 2001). Additionally the ideology of concert could be beneficial in addressing the concerns. This principle binds competent individuals with a responsibility of presenting their professional advice to the society (McLean & Mason, 2003). Professionals may adopt the knowledge of the principle in situations where parties involved fail to present genuine decision due to their state (Leslie & Bernard, 2001).The issues presented by the HIV/AIDS confidentiality do not entirely mean that the patients may not be in position of adopting reasonable decision as per the demands of the principle of consent. However, the rationality of the practice emerges by the fact that, the environment presented by the health issues raised may demand informed advice (Kaur, 2008). Consequently, healthcare provid

The Chosen One Essay Example for Free

The Chosen One Essay Choosing the right university is one of the most important aspects that an incoming college student should consider besides the choice of course to pursue. Many institutions emerged in Cavite because it is one of the most industrialized provinces in the country. Some of well-known universities established here are: De La Salle University in Dasmarià ±as, Cavite State University Main-Campus in Indang (other campuses are located around the whole province), Polytechnic University of the Philippines in Maragondon, Far Eastern University in Silang, Lyceum of the Philippines University in General Trias, and many more. There are lots of eligible institutions to choose from but why did we choose Lyceum of the Philippines University? One of the reasons why we choose LPU is because of its good reputation earned through the years. An institution without good management will never make its way in this industry nor will it survive. The Lyceum of the Philippines University system has five affiliate campuses located at Intramuros, Manila; Batangas City, Batangas; Calamba City, Laguna; City of Makati and General Trias, Cavite. Even though Lyceum of the Philippines University Cavite-Campus just opened its doors to the public at year 2008, the numbers of enrollees boost because of its accessibility for us Caviteà ±os. The institution is located at the center of Cavite, targeting students from different parts of the province from Bacoor to Tagaytay. Lyceum of the Philippines University offers undergraduate and graduate programs in various fields of study, including law, liberal arts, diplomacy, international trade and journalism, as well as engineering, business and accountancy, mass communication, tourism and hotel and restaurant management. Another reason why we chose LPU is because it offers in demand courses that produce competent professionals globally. The university was called as The First and Only Resort Campus in the Philippines due to its modern and elegant design. Aside from its unique structure, it also has complete facilities that would be really helpful for students practical learning. All rooms are air conditioned and its sizes are just enough to accommodate an average number of students. The university has different laboratories for outside class discussions such as Computer Laboratory, Mac Laboratory, Bayleaf Mini Hotel, Moot Court, Drawing Room, Dance Studios, Gymnasium and that which enhance students talents and abilities. The university has two buildings named after Sotero H. Laurel and Jose P. Laurel that was connected by a new building forming the laurel leaf structure, earlier this year. The Academic Resource Center or the University Library was relocated and just opened its doors to students last summer of this semester. The employees in this institution are really approachable and friendly. The security and maintenance personnel are always around the vicinity and it really shows that they are really dedicated to their work. The professors are professionals in their chosen field. They are highly competent to produce another generation of professionals from this university. To sum up this, there are lots of aspects to take in to consideration in choosing the right educational institution. The university that you will choose will be a great influence in enhancing your knowledge and abilities but most importantly, your character the moment you enter college until you face the real world. We chose Lyceum of the Philippines University Cavite Campus as our alma mater because we believe that this educational institution will mold us into what we want to be. Viva Larga Pirata!

Drugs Are Bad Essay Example for Free

Drugs Are Bad Essay It’s a common known fact that drugs are bad, but yet they are still used recreationally, especially among teenagers and young adults. Some of the most popular drugs used today are marijuana, ecstasy, tobacco, and alcohol. Marijuana has many nicknames. Weed, mary-jane, chronic, hash, etc. It is usually smoked, but can also be made with food or as tea. Scientists have learned a great deal about how THC acts in the brain to produce its many effects. When someone smokes marijuana, THC rapidly passes from the lungs into the bloodstream, which carries the chemical to the brain and other organs throughout the body. THC acts upon specific sites in the brain, called cannabinoid receptors, kicking off a series of cellular reactions that ultimately lead to the high that users experience when they smoke marijuana. Some brain areas have many cannabinoid receptors; others have few or none. The highest density of cannabinoid receptors are found in parts of the brain that influence pleasure, memory, thoughts, concentration, sensory and time perception, and coordinated movement. Users experience slower reaction times, extensive hunger, poor memory, and lack of motivation. In personal experiences, weed has had no worth-while positive outcome on people that I know have used it, especially regularly. Known users have been arrested, expelled from school, suffered with their grades, or made poor decisions. People have told me that the feeling of being high actually does not feel good at all, and that it makes them depressed or that they are being pulled downward. Consistent use of marijuana can lead to addiction, lung cancer, anxiety, depression, and dependence. Ecstasy is a drug that has stimulant and psychodelic properties. It is taken orally as a capsule or tablet. It is also known as X and MDMA. Short-term effects of taking the drug include feelings of mental stimulation, emotional warmth, enhanced sensory perception, and increased physical energy. Adverse health effects can include nausea, chills, sweating, teeth clenching, muscle cramping, and blurred vision. It is a rumor that exercising, or doing any other activity that would cause the body to heat up such as sex, would cause the body to overheat while on ecstasy and thus would result in death. Personally, I have seen some crazy things while people were on ecstasy. I have heard that taking a shower feels really good, but coming down from a high of mass endorphins is especially painful. A girl I know was coming down from the high so fast and so hard that she was banging her head on the cement in the parking lot because she was feeling so terrible. She then destroyed her phone by throwing it against the wall. Alcohol, although legal over a certain age, is still considered a drug. When a person drinks alcohol, the alcohol is absorbed by the stomach, enters the bloodstream, and goes to all the tissues. The effects of alcohol are dependent on a variety of factors, including a persons size, weight, age, and sex, as well as the amount of food consumed before drinking. The disinhibiting effect of alcohol is one of the main reasons it is used in so many social situations. Other effects of moderate alcohol intake include dizziness and talkativeness; the immediate effects of a larger amount of alcohol include slurred speech, disturbed sleep, nausea, and vomiting. Alcohol, even at low doses, significantly impairs the judgment and coordination required to drive a car safely. Low to moderate doses of alcohol can also increase the incidence of a variety of aggressive acts, including domestic violence and child abuse. Hangovers are another possible effect after large amounts of alcohol are consumed; a hangover consists of headache, nausea, thirst, dizziness, and fatigue. Some long term effects of alcohol are liver failure, addiction to alcohol or alcoholism, damage to the brain, damage to the fetus of a pregnant woman, and depression. There are ways to prevent severe hangovers. There is a saying that goes, â€Å"Beer before liquor, never sicker. Liquor before beer, you’re in the clear. † A hangover is a result of dehydration because of the effects of alcohol on a person’s system. Tobacco is another legal substance that is considered a drug. Tobacco is typically smoked but can also be chewed and absorbed by way of the gums. When a person smokes a cigarette, the body responds immediately to the chemical nicotine in the smoke. Nicotine causes a short-term increase in blood pressure, heart rate, and the flow of blood from the heart. It also causes the arteries to narrow. Carbon monoxide reduces the amount of oxygen the blood can carry. This, combined with the effects produced by nicotine, creates an imbalance in the demand for oxygen by the cells and the amount of oxygen the blood is able to supply. This imbalance causes a tobacco high, and most of the times, light headedness. It is now well documented that smoking can cause chronic lung disease, heart disease, and stroke, as well as cancer of the lungs, larynx, esophagus, mouth, and bladder. In addition, smoking is known to contribute to cancer of the cervix, pancreas, and kidneys. Researchers have identified more than 40 chemicals in tobacco smoke that cause cancer in humans and animals, some including things like rat poison. Smokeless tobacco and cigars also have deadly consequences, including lung, larynx, esophagus, and oral cancer. The harmful effects of smoking do not end with the smoker. Women who use tobacco during pregnancy are more likely to have adverse birth outcomes, including babies with low birth weight, which is linked with an increased risk of infant death and with a variety of infant health disorders. The health of nonsmokers is affected by environmental tobacco smoke, or second-hand smoke. Each year, exposure to second-hand smoke causes many people to die of cancer. The temporary feeling that these drugs give the user does not outweigh the consequences that come with the choice to use these things. Although alcohol and tobacco are legal over a certain age, it doesn’t mean that they aren’t harmful. They still do a lot of damage to the user’s body. Marijuana and ecstasy are illegal in the United States and yet are still widely and popularly used. The word drug carries a negative connotation for these reasons.