Global conflicts and contexts Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Global conflicts and contexts - Essay Example This paper discusses the foreign relationships that UK can possibly have with Somalia to lessen this problem of high sea piracy. A very disturbing picture is painted by Lennox (2008: 1) about the Somalia piracy where he says, â€Å"There were 115 reported pirate attacks  off the coast of Somalia in 2008. Of those attacks, 46 resulted in the seizure of a commercial vessel by Somali pirates. The average ransom for the release of hijacked vessels increased from $1 million US dollars in July of 2008, to $1.5 million by December. At the time of writing 12 vessels are being held along with approximately 400 crewmembers in pirate towns along Somalia’s unlawful coasts†. Therefore, we can see that this problem has taken a magnitude of epic proportions and is threatening to completely block off the trade route via the Gulf of Aden. This the place which sees almost 20000 ships passing each year, has also the maximum number of attacks recorded, forcing the vessels to take a longer but safer alternative route. As Biegon (2009) tells us, â€Å"The increased threat of maritime piracy has heightened the ship ping industrys financial concerns in the context of the global economic recession. Over 6.8 billion tons of goods are moved by sea annually in a global trade cycle worth $7.4 trillion, with up to 90% of international trade traveling by ship at some point. The wave of pirate attacks off the eastern coast of Africa has already had a major impact on global shipping patterns. Following the hijacking of the Sirius Star, for example, AP Moller-Maersk, Europes largest shipping company,  diverted  its fleet of 50 oil tankers away from the Suez Canal towards the longer and more expensive route around the Cape of Good Hope.† This article looks at the piracy that is spelling doom for the trading vessels and Somalia alike, and tries to define the term maritime piracy and reexamine from a

Were the Anti-Federalists Correct Was the 1787 Constitution a Betrayal Essay

Were the Anti-Federalists Correct Was the 1787 Constitution a Betrayal of the American Revolution - Essay Example The push and the predicted effects of the constitution however created opposing forces to the ratification of the U.S. constitution. The federalists strongly supported the constitution and its formation of the central government because the formerly relied confederation articles were ineffective, and a strong national government would be able to control uncooperative states and excess powers of foreign policies that affected the U.S., and protect the right of its people who had delegated their powers back to the government. The anti-federalists had raised several objections over the approval of the constitution by the states and their population with respect to the envisioned ramifications, arguing that it would burden Americans in their future. Earlier on, the anti-federalist warned that State power would be threatened by a strong national government, where the centre of gravity would shift to the national government (â€Å"Antifederalists† gps.edu). Although power sharing be tween the national and States’ government was supported by both, the risk of giving too much power as supremacy to the national government at the expense of the States would be high. Considering the challenges facing the new republic, federal opposition â€Å"insisted that the freedom won by the Revolution would be best preserved not by expanding the power of the national government but by tightly circumscribing its power† (Mooney 51).... The anti-federalists objections pushed federalists to include a bill of rights to guarantee civil liberties to the people. The aim of the opposition on the bill of rights was to limit the powers of the central government to prevent intrusion into the state powers. To both of the parties’ achievements, the bill was later adopted and the few states which were reluctant to ratify the constitution became convinced. First of all, the 10th amendment of the constitution only clarified the existing enumeration powers of the federal government, but refused to adjust its powers to make a change. As a result, the States felt obliged to support the constitution, due to the assurance of the tenth amendment, which confirmed that powers not delegated to the central government would reside with the respective States (Mooney 58). In other words, it was a meander to achieve support of the states by limiting the federal government the right to interfere with individuals and not the state. Nothin g was new because individuals were already protected by the bill of rights in the respective States constitutions; the only change was its further inclusion in the national constitution, yet the federal powers over war, taxes, commerce, and implied powers were not restricted by the amendment (Dry 5). Today everyone realizes and sympathizes with the anti- federalist opposition for their fear of constitution to leave out the bill of rights that turned out to be very essential. Even with the 1st enactment of the bill of rights, suppressive scenarios like the approval of the Alien and Sedition Acts that threatened foreigners’ liberty, and seriously limited freedom of speech and especially of the press affirmed anti-federalist argument. The inclusion of the bill of

From a Sole Proprietorship to a Corporation Essay

From a Sole Proprietorship to a Corporation - Essay Example A corporation is a distinct legal entity with a name and it also enjoys many legal powers like a natural person (Cillers, 24). Thus, it can be observed that when the company is formed, it automatically acquires the capacity and authority to have its own rights and duties (Gibson, 198). One major distinction between a corporation and a proprietorship is that corporations can acquire and exchange property and they can enter into contracts. In this case, the new company to be formed will be called Global Courier Services Inc. This company will be incorporated from a small business that has been specifically concerned with providing delivery services of small parcels to clients located in different parts of the local city. However, as a result of booming business, it has been underscored to expand the business into a large company called Global Courier Services Inc. This new company will be comprised of different shareholders and it will compete with other large companies that are involv ed in this particular business. Global Courier Services Inc will specialize in transporting parcels, light goods as well as mail among different clients. The corporation will cover the whole state and it will be headquartered in New York. However, the company will have offices in major towns and cities around the state. The company will operate a fleet of cars and bikes that will be used to deliver various goods to different clients across the whole state. The company will be publicly listed and it will be run by a board of directors that will be selected by the shareholders. It is also intended that the company will be comprised of various shareholders though it will initially hold a 55 % ownership of the organization. The company will offer 24 hour services to the clients and it will also be comprised of a complaints office that will deal with various customer queries and other related issues that may affect them in carrying out business. When this company has been fully incorpora ted, it is expected to employ more than 3Â  000 workers across the geographical area it would cover in its operations. Local people with the knowledge of geographical areas in their respective cities and towns would be given preference in terms of employment. The company would also be comprised of a board of directors since it would be publicly owned and listed on the stock exchange in New York. All the major decisions in the company will be approved by the board of directors as well as the number of shares that can be made available to the willing shareholders. The board will also be responsible for hiring and firing executives when consultations have been made among different stakeholders involved in this particular business. The other important aspect about the operations of the company is that all appointments would be based on merit. Only suitably qualified people would lend executive positions. Since the initial aim of the new company is to incorporate it as a public company, the finding for the start-up organization will mainly come from different sources. Part of the capital will be carried over from the small company that used to over transport services which is now being incorporated into a large company. The other source of start-up capital will come from private investors who may be interested in this particular business. Stockbrokers will be approached in order to convince them to provide funding for this promising

Disadvantages of Social Networking at the Workplace Research Paper

Disadvantages of Social Networking at the Workplace - Research Paper Example In places of work, this can cause many problems in relation to wasted resources, lack of concentration, lost productivity, unhealthy employee relationships as well as tarnishing of the image of a company. Disadvantages of Social Networking at the Workplace The first major disadvantage of social networking in the workplace is that it leads to reduced Employee Productivity. Considerable research has revealed that due to the demands of social media and the excitement accrued by social networking, most employees will spend more time on the social media sites rather than do productive work. Most of the time, employees entangled with social networking will not often concentrate on their work. They will concentrate more on the social networking. This is because they need to make new friends, share some experiences or reply to some messages. In the long run, the quality of work delivered by such employees becomes very poor thereby reducing the productivity of the entire company. This can cau se the company to undergo enormous losses. In addition to spending less time in productive work, such the presence of social networking may cause the employees to loose concentration in their work. In some cases, the employees have internet connection in their offices. This causes some of them to get in to the social networking sites while they work. ... For instance, an employee might decline out of office responsibilities where he cannot access the internet. The other disadvantage of social networking in places of work involves generation of unhealthy employee relations. In most cases, the employees will interact more in the social media than they do in the open. In this case, some employees within a company might hurt others in the same company. For example if a particular employee feels that another employee has taken up his or her position in the company, he or she may want to sent hurtful messages to the other employee through social networking sites. In some instances, such hurtful and abusive messages may be addressing the affected employee indirectly. In other occasions, a junior employee may send bad messages though the social networking sites concerning his boss. This can hurt the boss in a great way. Unhealthy employee relations may also accrue from issues related to promotion and prestigious positions in a company. For e xample, one employee might feel that his fellow employee receives favors from the management including undeserved promotion. The other employee can pass messages to all other employees of the company through the social networking sites concerning the issue. In most cases, the messages passed through these social networking sites are often rumors and therefore can tarnish the names of people. It might be impossible for such a person to tarnish the name of his fellow employee by word of mouth. Most people will view the social networking sites as good avenues to pass rumors concerning people that they hate or dislike. This means that rather than social networking strengthening employee relationships in the workplace, it actually destroys these

You decide ( should be relevant financial accounting class ) Research Paper

You decide ( should be relevant financial accounting class ) - Research Paper Example Financial statements are, therefore, the financial results that are presented in the form of reports to represent the financial condition of the organization (AccountingTools 1). Financial statements are useful in various ways. These statements are very useful in the course of determining the ability of a business as far as raising cash and cash equivalents, is concerned. It also concerns the various uses and the sources of such cash. The statements are also very useful in determining whether a business can pay back its debts (Philip 2). The information of this nature can be of much importance to the creditors to find out whether the business can pay back the money they would like to lend to it. The statements also assist the organization to be able to track financial trends and use the trends to spot any profitability issues. From the financial statements, financial ratios can also be derived to help in showing the indications about the condition of the business. Financial statements are also critical in investigating certain transactions that are carried out in the business. This paper is, therefore, aimed at investigating the types of financial statements that are commonly used, their purposes and components. There are various types of financial statements that exist. However, the commonly used financial statements are three and include a balance sheet, income statement and statement of cash flow. Financial statements need to be formatted in accordance with the major accounting frameworks when the statements are intended to be supplied to the external users such as lenders and investors. This will make it easy for the external persons to be able to understand the statements without any personalized guidance. The frameworks give a leeway on how the financial statements can be structured. To this effect, statements issued by different firms in the same industry have some particular differences in appearance. Such guidelines are not

Planning an IT Infrastructure Audit for Compliance Term Paper - 1

Planning an IT Infrastructure Audit for Compliance - Term Paper Example With such an evaluation, the company will be able to streamline the inter-company communication effectiveness and departmental communications (Newsom & Haynes, J. 2014. P66). Planning, the IT audit, entails gathering information to formulate an audit plan and to gain insight of the available internal control structure of the IT. The Planning and IT infrastructure audit is a valuable practice to local and global organizations. The audit planning process directly affects the quality of the outcome. A proper plan ensures that resources are focused on the right areas and that potential problems are identified early. A successful audit first outlines what’s supposed to be achieved as well as what procedures will be followed and the required resources to carry out the procedures. The information to be collected is regulatory statutes, inherent risk assessment, recent financial information, and past audit results. Besides the auditors will require to avail information such as control procedures, equate total risks, control risk assessment, and control environment to gain an understanding of the present internal control structure. With all this prior audit information, auditors will be in a position to formulate a useful audit plan. The audit plan must details the time and cost required to execute IT infrast ructure audit. It also needs to show the different areas and activities to be engaged during IT auditing process. The scope of planning and IT infrastructure audit: Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) is a Canadian IT organization that manages and controls the IT infrastructure of two government organizations. It also provides auditing and IT security services to various digital organizations in Canada. CBSA performs frequent IT infrastructure audit to appraise how effective and efficient the organization execute it operations and activities. Goals and objectives of

Women on Death Row Essay Example for Free

Women on Death Row Essay History of Death Row Capital punishment is punishment by death for a crime, also known as the death penalty (Encyclopedia, Britannica, online). A sentence of death may be carried out by one of five lawful means: electrocution, hanging, lethal injection, gas chamber, and firing squad. Capital punishment is viewed very differently by many people. Some think it violates our Eight Amendment of the United States Constitution, cruel and unusual punishment, while others think it is justice to those who have had their voices taken away. The first established death penalty laws date as far back as the 18th Century B.  C. in the Code of King Hammaurabi of Babylon, which codified the death penalty for twenty-five different crimes. The death penalty was also part of the 14th Century B. C. ’s Draconian Code of Athens, which made death the only punishment for all crimes; and in the 5th Century B. C. ’s Roman law of the Twelve Tablets. Death sentences were carried out by such as crucifixion, drowning, beating to death, burning alive, and impalement. In the 10th Century A. D. , hanging became the usual method for executions for any crime, except in times of the war. This trend would not last very long, in the 16th Century, under the reign of Henry VIII, as many as seventy-two thousand people were estimated to have been executed. Boiling, burning at the stake, hanging, beheading, and drawing and quartering were some of the common methods of executions. The number of capital crimes rose in Britain throughout the next two centuries, and by the 1700’s, two hundred twenty-two crimes were punishable by death in Britain; including stealing, cutting down trees, counterfeiting tax stamps, stealing from a house or shop, and robbing a rabbit warren. Because of the severity of the death penalty, many of the jurors would not convict the defendants if it was not a serious offense. This helped lead to the reform of Britain’s death penalty, and it helped influence America’s use of the death penalty also. The first attempted reform in the United States of the death penalty occurred when Thomas Jefferson introduced a bill to revise Virginia’s death penalty laws. It proposed that capital punishment be used only for the crimes of murder and treason, and the bill was defeated by only one vote. Although some states abolished the death penalty in the mid-19th Century, it was actually the first half of the 20th Century that marked the beginning of the â€Å"Progressive Period† of reform for the Unites States. Women’s First Executions There are very little details of many of the earlier hangings because of the lack of media in those times. Newspapers only began to be routine in the mid 1800’s and even then they were usually only published on a weekly basis. But as a result, the earliest recorded female hanging in the colonies was that of Jane Chapman in James City, Virginia, in 1632 (http:www. apitalpunishmentuk. org/amfemhang. html). Jane Champion’s crime was lost in history, and no one seems to know the offense she committed. The second woman known to be executed in the United States that was recorded was that of Margaret Hatch on June 24th 1633, for murder, also in Virginia. Hanging was the normal method of execution for both males and females until the electric chair was introduced in 1888 in New York (http://www. capitalpunishmentuk. org/chair. html). It was also stated that the female prisoners usually liked to look their best before their executions and if they could afford it, they would buy or make themselves a new outfit for the event. If they were too poor to make or buy an outfit, it was not out of the ordinary for their friends, the townsfolk, or even the sheriff to provide them with new clothes to wear for the execution. Women Currently on Death Row It is very rare for a woman to be given the sentence of death in the United States. There are approximately fifty thousand women in prison in the United States, and only 0. % of them are on death row. Very few women enter the capital murder system, and fewer still are ever actually executed, according to the (Death Penalty Info Center): †¢ Women account for only one in ten murder arrest. †¢ Women account for one in fifty death sentences imposed at a trial level. †¢ Women account for only one in seventy-one persons presently on death row. †¢ Women account for only one in ninety-two persons actually executed in the modern era since 1976. As of January 1st, 2011, there were 60 women on death row (â€Å"Death Penalty for Female Offenders†). This constitutes for 1. 5% of the death row population of around 3,251 people on death row in the United States. Both the death sentencing rate and the death row population remain very minute for females in comparison to that of males. The execution of female offenders is quite uncommon with only 571 documented cases as of December 31, 2011, and beginning with the first execution in 1632, that of Jane Champion. These executions constitute 2. 9% of the total confirmed executions in the United States since 1608. As of December 31, 2011, there were only twelve females that had been executed since 1976 in the United States. Women on Death Row in Tennessee Tennessee Prison for Women in Tennessee is located in Davidson County in Nashville, and was opened in 1966. It is a maximum security facility with an operating capacity for seven hundred eighty-nine female felons in the state of Tennessee, and it is also accredited by the American Correctional Association. The TPFW houses inmates on all levels, including pre-release participants, work release inmates, and those women who are sentenced to the death penalty. The TPFW also offers academic courses that help the inmates get their GED and also Adult Basic Education, along with Special Education programs. Vocational classes such as computer literacy and application, construction, greenhouse management, culinary arts, and cosmetology skills are also offered to the female inmates. This is offered to help the inmates when and if they are released back into society to help them better survive outside the walls of prison. Inmates also have full right of entry to a range of treatment and psychological programs that include substance abuse, sex offender treatment and aftercare, anger management, pre-release and career management success programs. The prison also offers a drug and alcohol treatment program called the Correctional Recovery Academy. They also have a training program called PPAWS, Prison Puppies Achieving Worthy Service, which is designed to help in the rehabilitating of the female inmates, while also teaching them a marketable job skill. TPFW has also received national acknowledgment for their weekend child visitation program. In the state of Tennessee, there have only been two women sentenced to death row since record taking began, Gaile K. Owens, and Christa G. Pike. Gaile Kirksey Owens, inmate# 109737, was born September 22nd, 1952, in Memphis, Tennessee (http:tn. ov/correction/media/womendeathrow. html). Later, Gaile married Ronald Owens, who was an associate director of nursing. Mr. Owens was 37 years old when Gaile Owens in a murder-for-hire scheme, paid $17,000 to Sidney Porterfield to murder her philandering husband on February 17, 1985. Owens was sentenced to death on January 14th, 1986, for accessory before fact-murder. Owens served twenty-six years on death row and after twenty-six years of appeals, her defense attorney asked the court to either commute her sentence or issue a recommendation to the governor to do so. Owens fate rested in the hands of Governor Phil Bredesen. Within two months of Owens execution, on July 14, 2010, Governor Bredesen commuted her death sentence to life and she could be eligible for parole in 2012. Governor Bredesen said he decided to commute her sentence to life in prison because she had a plea deal with the prosecutors but then was put on trial when her co-defendant refused to accept the bargain. This was the second time that Governor Bredesen commuted the death sentence to a convicted murderer. Christa Gail Pike inmate#261368, born March 10th, 1976, in West Virginia, became the youngest woman ever condemned to die in the U. S. , and the youngest woman on death row (The Straits Times, April 22, 2001). In 1994, Pike left her home in Durham, North Carolina, headed to Knoxville, Tennessee to work for the formal Job Corps Program. Pike was a high-school drop out and her mother had encouraged her to go join the Job Corps to at least get her some training. While there, Pike fell in love with a guy named Tadaryl Shipp, one year her junior. Together, Pike, and Shipp dabbled in devil worship together, along with their other friend, Shadolla Peterson. Pike became jealous of a fellow Job Corps worker, Colleen Slemmer, thinking that she was in love with Shipp and was trying to steal her boyfriend. Even though Slemmer kept trying to reassure Pike that she had no interest in her boyfriend, Pike did not believe her. Colleen Slemmer told her mother that she would wake up in the middle of the night and Christa Pike would be standing over her, she was very scared of Pike. Pike set out on a vengeance, she didn’t believe that Slemmer wasn’t in love with Shipp. Christa Pike, along with Tadaryl Shipp and Shadolla Peterson, lured Slemmer to Tyson Park, offering her marijuana as a peace offering. All four of them signed out of the dorm on the night of January 12, 1995, and that is when the horror began. Pike and her boyfriend, Shipp, tortured Colleen Slemmer for 30 to forty-five minutes with a box cutter and a small meat cleaver, and they even carved a swastika symbol on her chest while she was still alive. They got bored with cutting her, so pike picked up a chunk of asphalt and smashed Slemmers head again and again. Finally, after about an hour of torture, she was dead. Pike picked up a piece of Slemmers skull, placed it in her jacket pocket, and the three returned back to the dorm. The three was arrested within thirty-six hours of committing the crime. It took only two and one-half hours to convict Christa Pike guilty on both counts of murder and conspiracy. Pike was sentenced to death by electrocution for the murder charge and was given twenty-five years for the conspiracy charge. Pike was also charged with attempted 1st degree murder on August 12, 2004, when she strangled inmate Patricia Jones with a shoe string, nearly choking her to death. In her final round of state court appeals, Pike’s defense team tried to persuade the appellate court to create a new class of killers who should be exempt from the death penalty-18-year-olds with a history of mental illness. In April 2011, a state appeals court rejected her effort to escape death row. The state Supreme Court will next review Pike’s latest appeal efforts. If Pike fails to win a reprieve from the high court, she then will be allowed to a federal appeal. But until the, Christa Pike will remain in her 810 cell at the end of the maximum security wing in Nashville, Tennessee, at the Tennessee Prison for Women. After doing research on Christa Pike, I contacted the Tennessee Women for Prison and sent my request to get an interview with her, but as of today, I have not received any response. In reading up on Pike, I have found that she does not do many interviews, and she does not write many people back that have written to her. In the interviews I have watched about her, I personally believe that she does not have any remorse for the crimes she committed and therefore, she deserves to sit in her 810 cell and think about how lucky she is to be alive.