Lokpal Bill

KONERU LAKSHMAIAH UNIVERSITY SEMINAR PRESENTION TOPIC: LOKPAL BILL SUBMITTED TO: SUBMITTED BY: Dr. V. SARADA B. SEKHAR BABU M. C. A [2ND YEAR] Lokpal Bill is not a new word for Indian people. It is frequently used against corruption. Anna Hazare creates a new history for the demand of Jan Lokpal Bill in the year of 2011. There is a discussion about a struggling history of Jan Lokpal Bill and important of Lokpal Bill in India in the context of corruption. What is Jan Lokpal Bill? Jan Lokpal Bill is a proposed anti-corruption law drowns up by prominent civil society activists to deter corruption effectively. Word of Jan Lokpal Bill derives from Lokpal which means ombudsman (Legal Representative) in India. Lokpal word has been derived from the Sanskrit words â€Å"loka† (people) and â€Å"pala† (protector/caretaker). So Lokpal is meant as the ‘protector of people’. Jan Lokpal Bill is referred as citizens' ombudsman bill also in India. Ombudsman would create the law called the Lokpal Bill. It would be an independent body similar to the Election Commission of India. The Lokpal will have a three-member body with a chairperson. The chairperson will be a chief justice or Supreme Court judge. Other two members will be high courts judges or chief justices. Importance of Jan Lokpal Bill: It is being expected that Lokpal bill will reduce corruption in India. The Jan Lokpal bill provides powers to of filing complaints of corruption against the prime minister, other ministers and members of parliament with the ombudsman. The Lokpal Bill gives us a right, except for a public servant, to file a complaint and the Lokpal has to complete the inquiry within six months. History of Lokpal Bill: There is a struggle for Lokpal Bill of last 42 years. First time, the bill was presented during the fourth Lok Sabha in 1968. It was passed there in 1969. Lokpal Bill was revived in 1971, 1977, 1985, 1989, 1996, 1998, 2001, 2005 and 2008. In 2010, Lokpal Bill, awaits an okay from a select committee. According to former chief justice of Delhi high court and rights activist Rajinder Sachar, Lokpal Bill is â€Å"shamefully toothless and meant to give a false reassurance to the people that the government is serious in its fight against corruption†. But former chief justice of India M N Venkatachelliah said that the PM must be out of its purview. Statement of M N Venkatachelliah was supported by Rahul Gandhi also. Role of Anna Hazare in Jan Lokpal Bill: Who is Anna Hazare? Kisan Bapat Baburao Hazare or Anna Hazare, is a social activist and a social worker. He used to work as a driver in the Indian Army and has been greatly influenced by Swami Vivekanada, Ghandiji and Acharya Vinobha Bhave. He is especially recognized for his contribution to the development of Ralegan Siddhi, a village in Ahmednagar district, Maharashtra. After voluntary retirement from the army, Hazare came to Ralegan Siddhi  village in 1975. Initially, he led a movement to eradicate alcoholism from the village. Next, he motivated the residents of the village intoshramdan (voluntary labour) to build canals, small-scale check-dams and percolation tanks in the nearby hills for watershed development; efforts that solved the problem of scarcity of water in the village that also made irrigation possible. He helped farmers of more than 70 villages in drought-prone region in the state of Maharashtra since 1975. He also motivated the residents of the village to build a secondary school in the village through voluntary labour. Lokpal Bill movement In 2011, Anna Hazare led a movement for passing a stronger anti-corruption Lokpal (ombudsman) bill in the Indian Parliament. As a part of this movement, N. Santosh Hegde, a former justice of the Supreme Court of India and Lokayukta of Karnataka, Prashant Bhushan, a senior lawyer in the Supreme Court along with the members of the India Against Corruption movement drafted an alternate bill, named as the Jan Lokpal Bill (People’s Ombudsman Bill) with more stringent provisions and wider power to the  Lokpal  (Ombudsman). Hazare has started a fast up to death from 5 April 2011 at Jantar Mantar in Delhi, to press for the demand to form a joint committee of the representatives of the Government and the civil society to draft a new bill with more stronger penal actions and more independenceto the  Lokpal  and  Lokayuktas (Ombudsmen in the states), after his demand was rejected by the Prime Minister of India Manmohan Singh. The movement attracted attention very quickly through various media. It has been reported that thousands of people joined to support Hazare’s effort. Almost 150 people are reported to join Hazare in his fast. He said that he   Ã‚  would not allow any politician to sit with him in this movement. Many social activists including Medha Patkar,Arvind Kejriwal and former IPS officer Kiran Bedi have lent their support to Hazare’s hunger strike and anti-corruption campaign. This movement has also been joined by many people providing their support in Internet social media such as twitter and facebook. In addition to spiritual leaders Swami Ramdev,Swami Agnivesh and former Indian cricketer Kapil Dev,   many bollywood celebrities like Shekhar Kapur, Siddharth Narayan, Anupam Kher, Madhur Bhandarkar, Pritish Nandy, Priyanka Chopra, Prakash Raj,Aamir Khan, Chetan Bhagat showed their public support through twitter. As an outcome of this movement, on 6 April, 2011 Sharad Pawar resigned from the  group of ministers  formed for reviewing the draft Lokpal bill 2010. Anna Hazare started his â€Å"Fast until Death† at Jantar Mantar, New Delhi, stating â€Å"I will fast until Jan Lokpal Bill is passed† The movement gathered quite a significant amount of support from India’s youth visible through the local support and on social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter. Differences between Government’s Lokpal and Jan Lokpal Bill: Lokpal Bill: ->Government will not have any power: ->To initiate action suo motu in any case ->To receive complaints of corruption from public ->To register an FIR ->Police powers >To investigate any case against PM in foreign affairs, security and defence ->To jurisdiction over bureaucrats and government officers Jan Lokpal Bill 2011: ->The Jan Lokpal Bill will have power: ->To initiate investigations suo motu in any case ->To complaints from the public ->To initiate prosecution after completion of investigations ->Police powers ->To register FIR, proceed with criminal investigations and launch prosecution ->To jurisdiction over politicians, officials and even judges ->To merge the entire vigilance machinery into Lokpal Recent Updates about Jan Lokpal Bill: Once again, Anna Hazare has announced to fast unto death at Jantar Mantar from August 16 if the government doesn’t pass the Jan Lokpal Bill. It will be the second battle of independence for him. He suggests his followers to opt the path of non-violence. About Jan Lokpal Bill: The Jan Lokpal Bill 2011 is a draft anti-corruption bill. The bill is drafted by Justice Santosh Hegde (former Supreme Court Judge and present Lokayukta of Karnataka), Prashant Bhushan (Supreme Court Lawyer) and Arvind Kejriwal (RTI activist). The draft Bill predicts a system where a corrupt person would go to jail within two years if he found guilty. It seeks power to prosecute politicians and bureaucrats without government permission. Features of Jan Lokpal Bill: 1. An institution called LOKPAL at the centre and LOKAYUKTA in each state will be set up 2. Like Supreme Court and Election Commission, they will be completely independent of the governments. No minister or bureaucrat will be able to influence their investigations. 3. Cases against corrupt people will not linger on for years anymore: Investigations in any case will have to be completed in one year. Trial should be completed in next one year so that the corrupt politician, officer or judge is sent to jail within two years. 4. The loss that a corrupt person caused to the government will be recovered at the time of conviction. 5. How will it help a common citizen: If any work of any citizen is not done in prescribed time in any government office, Lokpal will impose financial penalty on guilty officers, which will be given as compensation to the complainant. . So, you could approach Lokpal if your ration card or passport or voter card is not being made or if police is not registering your case or any other work is not being done in prescribed time. Lokpal will have to get it done in a month’s time. You could also report any case of corruption to Lokpal like ration being siphoned off, poor quality roads been constructed or panchayat funds being siphoned off. Lokpal will have to complete its investigations in a year, trial will be over in next one year and the guilty will go to jail within two years. 7. But won’t the government appoint corrupt and weak people as Lokpal members? That won’t be possible because its members will be selected by judges, citizens and constitutional authorities and not by politicians, through a completely transparent and participatory process. 8. What if some officer in Lokpal becomes corrupt? The entire functioning of Lokpal/ Lokayukta will be completely transparent. Any complaint against any officer of Lokpal shall be investigated and the officer dismissed within two months. 9. What will happen to existing anti-corruption agencies? CVC, departmental vigilance and anti-corruption branch of CBI will be merged into Lokpal. Lokpal will have complete powers and machinery to independently investigate and prosecute any officer, judge or politician. 10. It will be the duty of the Lokpal to provide protection to those who are being victimized for raising their voice against corruption. To summarise, we can say, it will give more power to RTI act, corruption will be tackled and dealt with quickly, whistle blowers will (most likely) also get some protection for raising their voice against corruption. What is the need of Lokpal Bill in our society? Do you think Lokpal Bill is really needed in our society to make an ideal state? Government has already CVC, departmental vigilance and anti-corruption branch of CBI to stop corruption. What would be moral line of Lokpal Bill? Why a person will not be corrupt where money is everything? How an anti-corrupt society or state will fulfill the basic needs of people? Can a capitalist state be anti-corrupt which motive is nothing but profit? How a profit oriented society can serve basic need of people? How the difference between rich and poor will be filled? Government has already exposed the power of ‘STATE’ demolishing strike of Ram Dev Baba at Ramlila Maidan, New Delhi. We have seen the monopoly of Indian government in union budget 2011 also. In this context, people should think about the future of Lokpal Bill. Jan Lokpal Bill will improve existing anti-corruption systems. Existing System| System Proposed by civil society| No politician or senior officer ever goes to jail despite huge evidence  because Anti Corruption Branch (ACB) and CBI directly come under the government. Before starting investigation or initiating prosecution in any case, they have to take permission from the same bosses, against whom the case has to be investigated. | Lokpal at centre and Lokayukta at state level will be independent bodies. ACB and CBI will be merged into these bodies. They will have power to initiate investigations and prosecution against any officer or politician without needing anyone’s permission. Investigation should be completed within 1 year and trial to get over in next 1 year. Within two years, the corrupt should go to jail. No corrupt officer is dismissed from the jobbecause Central Vigilance Commission, which is supposed to dismiss corrupt officers, is only an advisory body. Whenever it advises government to dismiss any senior corrupt officer, its advice is never implemented. | Lokpal and Lokayukta will have  complete powers to order dismissal of a corrupt officer. CVC and all departmental vigilance will be merged into Lokpal and state vigilance will be merged into Lokayukta. | No action is taken against corrupt judgesbecause permission is required from the Chief Justice of India to even register an FIR against corrupt judges. Lokpal & Lokayukta shall have  powers to investigate and prosecute any judge  without needing anyone’s permission. | Nowhere to go  Ã¢â‚¬â€œ People expose corruption but no action is taken on their complaints. | Lokpal & Lokayukta will have to  enquire into and hear every complaint. | There is so much corruption within CBI and vigilance departments. Their functioning is so secret that it encourages corruption within these agencies. | All investigations in Lokpal & Lokayukta shall be transparent. After completion of investigation, all case records shall be open to public. Complaint against any staff of Lokpal & Lokayukta shall be enquired and punishment announced within two months. | Weak and corrupt people are appointed as heads  of anti-corruption agencies. | Politicians will have absolutely no say in selections  of Chairperson and members of Lokpal & Lokayukta. Selections will take place through a transparent and public participatory process. | Citizens face harassment  in government offices. Sometimes they are forced to pay bribes. One can only complaint to senior officers. No action is taken on complaints because senior officers also get their cut. Lokpal & Lokayukta will get  public grievances resolved in time bound manner, impose a penalty of Rs 250 per day of delay to be deducted from the salary of guilty officer and award that amount as compensation to the aggrieved citizen. | Nothing in law to recover ill gotten wealth. A corrupt person can come out of jail and enjoy that money. | Loss  caused to the government due to corruptionwil l be recovered  from all accused. | Small punishment for corruption-  Punishment for corruption is minimum 6 months and maximum 7 years. | Enhanced punishment –  The punishment would be minimum 5 years and maximum of life imprisonment. |

Online Therapy Paper Essay

This paper is related to an online therapy. This paper consists of the elements and contents of the information that is found on any online therapy website along with the information of the professionals that are involved in that therapy. The paper also outlines the way in which most of the communication relating online therapy. The paper will also highlight the policies and regulations that provide fundamentals to run an online therapy. The paper also comprehends the state regulation authority to observe and scrutinize online therapy. The paper will also present the information relative to the ethical and security issues like confidentiality along with informed consent. The paper will end up with a small discussion regarding the benefits and risks of the online therapy. The first selected website of online therapy that retrieved was www.lzcybershrink.com where the services are advertised by Elizabeth Zelvin. Elizabeth Zelvin is acknowledged as a licensed clinical social worker along with a psychotherapist. All services are provided by the single person that is her. Ms. Zelvin as retrieved from her biography holds 20 years of experience and was involved in a private service in New York State. Ms. Zelvin handled communication relating online therapy through implication of a chat room setting. This chat room provides opportunity to clients to arrange a schedule of treatment and appointment with Ms. Zelvin before actual arrival through employing email. The professional involved provide a password for her patients and start conversation through signing in at same time through online setting. The cost is offered based on  ½ hour, hour and email exchange. The cost of a 30 minute chat is set at $65 while a 60 min chat is priced at $100 while a single email exchange costs $45. The service accepts most of the online payment systems and credit cards but the payment have to be done before the actual schedule of therapy. The website also shows advertisements regarding the books and songs she has written along with the poetry. The website is whole relating the promotion content of the Ms. Zelvin. (Zelvin, 2009) The other website that was retrieved as an online therapy website is www.live-counselor.com. This website provides services of online therapy employing a chat room for communication purposes. The website involves 200 different professionals that are therapists, counselors, along with some social workers available. The website consists of live counselors who provide a mediating service to make connections of the clients with the  required therapist, counselors and the social workers. The site provides support with addictions, coping with crisis or physical conditions, eating disorders, parenting, personal development, personality and emotional disorders, and relationship issues. The service provided is charged per minute. The rates range from $1to $1.89. Registration of credit card is done before starting of conversation. Live-counselor is just a moderator and has not required setting appointments yet the clients may sign-in anytime their service provider is available. The profile of professionals shows a mark on them while they are online. The site does not have any other content besides service providers’ biographies, disclaimers in regard to not taking responsi bility for anything that occurs on the website, and the billing process. (Live-Counselor, 2009) The third website relating an online therapy was retrieved from www.serenityonlinetherapy.com. The website provides the information regarding the therapy via email or a chat-room set-up. The website centralizes on a single service provider that is â€Å"Carl Benedict, a Licensed Clinical Professional Counselor (LCPC) in the State of Maryland†. He got the experience of 12 years as therapist and provides services in mental health clinic along with a hospital. Mr. Benedict counts for a three years experience in online therapy. The price of chat is charged as $50 for 60 minute chat along with a discount offered as a package for the clients of online therapy. Many categories of articles are uploaded by Mr. Benedict regarding various issues clients might be experiencing like as, depression, childhood trauma, addiction, parenting, grief and loss, and duel diagnosis. The website also shows some inspirational poems along with some sayings to motivate the clients by Mr. Benedict. (Benedict, 2009) â€Å"All states in the US, except California, license professional counselors. The state counselor licensure boards administer the application processes and procedures that have been established by law in each state.† The National Board for Certified Counselors (NBCC) website lists the contact information for each state’s, except California, Board of Mental Health Practice. The website empowers and enables clients the ability to check the credentials of professionals who are offering online therapy and make an informed decision of whether or not to hire that particular professional. (NBCC, 2009) For the reason of advancement in technology and science there do arise some ethical and security issues. It is depicted that online therapy give rise to issues  like; security, which concerned that either online therapy is safe and effective, either there is chance that clients provide true information relative to the consent, along with the confirmation of clients and professionals as real who are involved in communication process while in chat rooms. All three websites retrieved for this paper provide disclaimers on them to make clients and professionals on safe side while online therapy like â €Å"If you have serious thoughts of hurting yourself or others, dial 911 or if you have a chronic mental illness requiring intense treatment online therapy is not an option for you†(Benedict, 2009). The three websites visited all use chat room settings for communication purposes. A password is provided to the client who registers himself by making payments through credit card. That specific password is then used by the client whenever he wants to sign in not only in chat room but also for the therapy session. The client has no way of knowing what type of security software or measures the online therapist is using to protect their personal information. Nothing guarantees that the client is who he or she claims; in a traditional setting the client and the therapist know who is present. Online therapy present some barriers regarding the options of making payment and the client is also going through a risk to pay for an online therapy session. All three websites involve a credit card payment which provides risks to clients in terms of leaking of their credit card and personal information because of providing information online. On other hand in physical setting the credit card is only swiped or the payments can be done through cash and cheques. The client holds every control regarding his personal information while in a physical office or clinical setting along with having every possible payment option for making payments. Some of the ethical issues also arise because of the technology advancements, like as is it ethical to provide online therapy when there no guarantees that the client and therapist say he or she is. In an office setting at least the client and the therapist can use ids to ensure identity. Online therapy does not require medical records; how is the therapist supposes to know the physical and mental health of a client? The therapist has to rely on self-disclosure which is taking a big risk on the therapist’s behalf. How can a therapist tell if the client is fully participating in therapy? In a traditional setting the therapist can rely on body language which is how most human communication is made. This part of  report presents some risks that are involved while involving oneself in online therapy. A traditional therapy session allows for a therapist to get a full picture of the client’s well-being by having access to medical records and being able to read a client’s body language. Another uncomfortable element with online therapy is because clients likes to know who is helping him, what he or she looks like for security reasons, and the inability to read body language is upsetting. Some benefits that are derived from online therapy in terms of clients are discussed in this part. An example of advantage is anonymity; this helps those clients who face some social difficulties in a traditional therapy setting and hence can find it advantageous to be in their comfort zone while at their own home. Clients having difficulties to approach a regular and dependable transportation can be benefited by the online therapy. This technology also facilitated those clients who lack the presence of any local therapist and thus can get the opportunity to find someone online for tha t help and assistance. Online therapy is an alternative for clients and is the client’s choice to decide what works best for him or her. After going through an in-depth study of the online therapy it is recommended that the client has to measure the both sides of the online therapy before deciding for himself what to implement. Individual needs vary from person to person so we cannot say what work best for whom. It is also depicted that the technology on one side is exciting as well as controversial at the same time. References Benedict, C. (2009). â€Å"Services†. Retrieved from: http://www.serenityonlinetherapy.com Live-Counselor. (2009). â€Å"Services†. Retrieved from: http://www.live-counselor.com The National Board for Certified Counselors(NBCC) . (2009). Retrieved from: http://www.nbcc.org. Zelvin, E. (2009). â€Å"Elizabeth Zelvin†. Retrieved from: http://www.lzcybershrink.com.

Case Study of KFC Malaysia Holding

Case Study of KFC Malaysia Holding â€Å"A Case Study of KFC Malaysia Holding: Channel used by KFC to solve communication crisis† Abstract On 6th February 2013,the kitchen staff of KFC I- City outlet at Shah Alam, has gone violent towardone of the customers due to miscommunication. The customer was then put on the floor after a heated argument between the staffs and the customer.This problem then solve by KFC Malaysia Holding with a proper alternatives. One of the alternatives used by the company is to use the right channel in solving the issue. Basically, the main aim of this research is to examine the channel used by KFC Malaysia Holding to solve the communication issue specifically the incident of staff and customer caught into a fighting. This research is tries to answer the question of the effectiveness of the channel used by the company to solve the problem or issue. The survey method will be employed in this research for data collection. As this method fall under quantitative method, SPSS (Statistical Package for Social Sciences) software will be used to analyze the data. The finding of this research will help the future researchers to understand the effectiveness of channel used by the Food & BeveragesCompany in solving their problem or issue. Besides, this research will help to add more literature on the same topic. Keywords: Channel, problem, Food & Beverages, Effectiveness Literature Review Definition of Crisis In Effective Crisis Communication (2011), crises can best define as unique moments in the history of an organization. Nowadays, the word â€Å"crisis† has been used widely in a daily conversation. People used this word to describe their problem. For example, they refer to this word if they forgot about their appointments with their clients, having a bad hair days or even quarrel with the family members. All of these are awful experiences do not portray or describe the crisis. When it comes to the company, most of the company refers crisis as something that rel ated to the problem. For example low sales or short of manpower are assume as the crisis to the company. All of the situations are not crisis. But, usually the company will consider all the situations as crisis. Crisis is defined as any situation that is threatening or could even threaten to harm people or property, seriously interrupt business, damage reputation and/or negatively impact stock value (Jonathan Bernstein,2006). According to Hermann (1963), he identified three characteristics of separating crises that are surprise, threat and short response time. An event will not achieve the level of crisis without coming as a surprise, posing a critical level of threat and forcing a short response period. Robert, Timothy & Matthew(2011) mentioned in their study that crises can be divided into two categories which are intentional crises andunintentional crises. â€Å"Intentional crises are those international acts which is designed to harm an organization such as terrorism, sabotage, workplace violence and poor risk management whereas unintentional crises are the crises caused by natural and some uncontrollable factors such as natural disasters or product failure† (Robert, Timothy & Matthew, 2011). As for the incident case happened in KFC Malaysia I-City outlet, the incident are category under the unintentional case of crisis. The incident happened due to some misunderstanding between the worker and a customer who has been waiting for the food for some times and did not get the food.

Organization Innovation and change Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

Organization Innovation and change - Essay Example The next move in the realization of British airways came in 1974 when all these airlines merged to form the now famous British Airways (British Airways 7). In 1981,the airline was privatized by a conservative government. The reason for the move was the expectation that it would perform better as a private company. The conservatives government that made this move a head to overhaul the leadership by applying Lord John King to head the new company (British Airways 7). . British Airways Leadership Structure . At the top of the company is chief executive officer. He reports to board of directors. The board of directors has the prerogative of making all the strategic decisions concerning the company’s management (Brown 1998). The Chief Executive serves as the implementing force for the director’s decision. The chief executive and the board of directors constitute what is called the strategic apex in leader ship. Under the strategic apex are leaders of various departments suc h as logistics, finance, and human resources. All these officers play a very significant role in the operations of the company, and report to the strategic apex from time to time. ... It is vital to reiterate the fact that British Airways is multicultural as far as its workforce is concerned and this not to be forgotten in the analysis of change and innovation. . Research Method: The line of research was careful examination of information available on British Airways website. Information that guided the collection of information sought to gather information on company traditions. Employee treatment , the way the company handles changes in the external environment as far as air transport is concerned the management traditions, the workforce attitude towards the management and remuneration policies. As an outsider analyzing information that I have obtained, I had no bias in my analysis. . Overview of change and innovation in light of BA: It is essential that business entities ensure that there is perfect harmony between their internal environment and external influences (Bamberger& Meshoulam, 2000). This therefore calls for a calculated scenario where the speed of r esponse to external pushes and pulls is equal to changes in the external conditions (Hayes 2007). Companies always adjust their strategies when confronted by shifts in their immediate environments. This adjustment is what can be described as innovation can be defined as a set of changes made within a business entity that have an impact ( Hamel 2007). BA has experienced a number of changes in its immediate environment that have called for major changes in its internal structure ranging from remuneration policies to areas of investment. The extent of success of the responses or the innovation the company has undertaken will be discussed in later stages of the paper by exploring the different milestones achieved by the company. For

Research Methods in Sales and Marketing for Tourism Essay

Research Methods in Sales and Marketing for Tourism - Essay Example Furthermore, the proponent provides examples in their application in the tourism sector. Quantitative research method Quantitative research is a common method used in investigating or finding information in various fields of studies. This method ensures that information can be transformed into figures for quantitative analysis. Quantitative research method preserves neutrality and sees to it that there will be no bias since the collected data will be used for quantitative analysis, so it is more numerically measurable (Bennett, 1986; Shi, 2008). In quantitative analysis, there is a need to come up with objective output because a researcher deals with figures and transforms them into essential information that can be subjected to more meaningful interpretation and source of information. One common quantitative research method is experimental method. In experimental method, the researcher could potentially obtain information from certain observations under controlled condition. Thus, t here are important things that need to be considered prior to obtaining the most essential information and one of them is to ensure the significance and validity of the entire method used. Quantitative research is quite flexible but its potential drawback could be its not being able to potentially explain all types of phenomena (Muijs, 2004). Qualitative research method Qualitative statements and concepts comprise the body of qualitative analysis (Shi, 2008). Qualitative research method still applies numerical data which potentially include counting and assigning numbers to observations, but the presence of qualitative statement and concepts prevail as its general core foundation. Thus, it may still turn out that all information under qualitative approach cannot be numerical in nature but in a verbal form (Creswell, 2003). Observations which are integral components of qualitative statements and analyses are important in qualitative research method because they would ensure that the analysis will be well presented and the research aim is substantially obtained. An interview for instance regarding certain issue may focus more on understanding the framework of the subject and this could potentially concentrate the analysis on general qualitative information. Qualitative method therefore can be done at multiple levels of analysis (Piekkari and Welch, 2004). This means a researcher could still potentially find information in using this method even at various levels of analysis. An interview or focus group for instance can essentially initiate this because what the researcher needs is to integrate various concepts or frameworks in order to bring the entire analysis at different levels, depending on the actual objectives. However, one general and potential drawback of qualitative method is that the sample size is small and non-random, making findings most likely not conclusive at some point (VanderStoep and Johnson, 2008). The differences It is noted based on the abo ve discussion that both methods of research; the quantitative and qualitative have potential advantages and drawbacks. Furthermore, they are an entirely different approaches; that is why they have significant noted difference. In the case of quantitative method of research such as survey or experimentation, it is important to have remarkable number of samples in order to make certain that the conclusion is conclusive. Sample should be numerically or statistically significant. On

Hierarchy of Needs and FIT theory Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words - 1

Hierarchy of Needs and FIT theory - Essay Example It is the fulfillment of the self through our efforts in developing our potential – the essence we are born with; and the acceptance of our limitations. It is our life purpose unfolded, integrated into the self and lived. Now, in keeping with his theory up to this point, if you want to be truly self-actualizing, you need to have your lower needs taken care of, at least to a considerable extent. This makes sense: If you are hungry, you are scrambling to get food; If you are unsafe, you have to be continuously on guard; If you are isolated and unloved, you have to satisfy that need; If you have a low sense of self-esteem, you have to be defensive or compensate. When lower needs are unmet, you can’t fully devote yourself to fulfilling your potentials. Once a person does not feel the needs of self esteem, he or she can weather the storms of daily life. Else they can feel lost. It isn’t surprising, then, the world being as difficult as it is, that only a small percent age of the world’s population is truly, predominantly, self-actualizing. Maslow at one point suggested only about two percent!

HUMANITIES Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

HUMANITIES - Essay Example the optimistic aspect of those issue schemes is applied while concluding any specific event, we come out with a positive approach towards conclusion of that event, and if pessimistic aspect of those issue schemes are applied, then appropriate conclusion towards any specific event can not be drawn. It is really essential to apply such issue scheme to any specific issue which should enable us in drawing a better conclusion. Before going into discussing impact of a historic issue on a selected event, let’s first get to know which historic issue and event are chosen for this purpose. The historic issue which has been selected is violence versus peace and the event on which its implication will be discussed is 9/11, a violent attack on the world trade center. The selected issue is a real ongoing issue in the present era and almost every country in the world is facing the dilemma of violence these days. And in opposition to that, peace is the phenomenon which has a lot of influence in settling up disputes and conflicts either among the individuals or among the nations. The event which is selected is also related to the historic issue of violence versus peace and in this assignment, we will show how much significance violence and peace has on the event of 9/11. While discussing a historic issue, let’s first get to know what violence is. To start with violence, it is those sadistic and aggressive acts done by a group or an individual whose purpose is to create fear and terror among some people or societies. We can also say that any act which creates fear and affects psychological stability of a person or society is called an act of violence. Whenever a violent act occurs, the people living in that specific area get mentally distressed and their routine life also get disturbed because of the fear that is generated due to the violent act. People, who perform violent acts, always have a motive of creating fear and distress among people. â€Å"Violent groups have an

Religious Plurality as the Major Issue Surrounding Christianity in Research Paper

Religious Plurality as the Major Issue Surrounding Christianity in Africa - Research Paper Example I will try to cover different religions that exist in this continent. What are the major issues related to it? I will try to analyze them in the light of past and present so that a theme could be developed that connects the historical and contemporary world. In order to do so, we have to peep into the traditional religions of Africa as well as into Islam, this is predominantly the current religion of Africa. I will also try to analyze how religion affects the continent today and what are the defining factors. An analysis of the issues surrounding religion is not possible in isolation. A number of other factors have their own strong impact ( (Deagan) on it such as development, culture, democratic environment, health and security, conflicts, arms and reconstruction. Any study done without taking into consideration all these facts will not be based on reality. In short, we can say it will be inconclusive. So I will do a detailed analysis and will draw a conclusion based on all these factors. We cannot deny the social importance of religion. Religion is an important strand of society. It provides a value system that underpins the foundation of society. Without a common value system of which religion is an important thread, the concept of society is not possible. African history is very vast and old. Africa has a religious plurality. Religious plurality means sharing of different religious traditions by the same family, immediate or extended, similar ethnic groups and nations. Many religions exist side by side. Members of the same family may follow different religions. If we take a closer look we can categorize the religions in Africa into three tiers, Traditional religions, Christianity and Islam. After the Second World War self-concept of Africans has changed due to political, intellectual changes around them. The recorded history of Africa dates back to 3000 BC in Egypt. People worshipped gods like Isis,  Horus, Osiris, Ra, and Hapi. This was the case in Egypt. In West Africa, the trend was to worship the single godlike sky god.  

Crime Statistics Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Crime Statistics - Essay Example Most are the consequences of Internet tools. For instance, in most robbery cases since the Internet needs individual profiles to give even the most fundamental service, the Internet, because there is a need, displays that profile for the free access of the public as well as the perpetrators. The data from the article comes from the FBI's violent crime statistics, and it reflected the sudden increase in the cases of violence in all parts of the US. Due to the lack of worry among the US public, the perpetrators of violent crimes have transformed into predators waiting for innocent US citizens to fall in their traps. The advantages of the FBI and Reuters as the sources for these violent crime rates on the enterprising US societies cannot be denied: it has enabled the easy access to transactional data for people to become aware of the current crime situation in their country. In addition, the utilization of the FBI and Reuters news and online transacting is at present the most prescribed manner of becoming aware of the latest news, as the media can act only as a channel of connecting with its users, but of searching fresh ones and of managing interactions with present users also.

Discussion-MODULE 11 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Discussion-MODULE 11 - Essay Example The Mongolian World system lasted between 1206 and 1405. Genghis Khan expanded the Mongolian empire to the Pacific Ocean while his grandson expanded the empire into China. The Ming world system defeated the Mongolian system under the leadership of Zheng He. This system lasted between 1368 and 1644. The Ming world system led to the spread of Confucianism, great artistry, and economic growth. From lecture, the video "Chinese Treasure Fleets,† and the primary source reading, we derive that Zheng He was a fleet admiral who led the Ming Dynasty. He went for seven voyages to over 30 countries in Africa, South Asia, Persian Gulf, and the Pacific. Zheng He travelled between 1405 and 1433 to expand the Chinese maritime in Asia and establishing commercial networks across the pacific and Indian oceans. He led a fleet of high-tech and large trading vessels for expedition. Zheng He prioritized diplomacy but also adopted military tactics to assert Chinese influence. Zheng He’s ships were high-tech since they were long, fashionable, and could carry all the other ships by renowned explorers like Columbus. According to lecture and the article by Alfred Crosby, the â€Å"Columbian Exchange† related to the exchange of livestock, traditions, plants, knowledge, technology, and people between the Americas and Afro-Eurasia. Maize and potatoes were important plants in the â€Å"Columbian Exchange† since they were staple foods, dominated bilateral trade, and enhanced population growth in the two

Bigmac vs Whopper Essay Example for Free

Bigmac vs Whopper Essay My reason for writing this paper is to provide information on McDonalds’ Big Mac and Burger Kings’ Whopper. The information will help you decide which one meets your standards best: Whether it is its taste or its value. In today’s society the fast food nation is sky rocketing in business, and wherever you go, there will always be a competition between different fast food businesses. First off, many people like to consider the cost of something when it comes to purchasing. At McDonalds, the cost of a Big Mac value meal is $3. 59 not including taxes. The price of a Whopper meal, according to USAToday. com, is $3. 69. It’s obvious that the big Mac is cheaper than the Whopper, but, is it worth ten cents less? The size is important as well. Even though they both have names that mean big, one is definitely bigger. The big Mac is 7. 5 ounces and the Whopper is 10. 1 ounces according to Wikipedia. So it is obvious that the Whopper wins in the size category. Although taste could be a topic to discuss it is still an essential part of the decision process. In the most recent polls taken, people have preferred the Whopper over the Big Mac; they said it was just better tasting all together (www. answers. yahoo. com). What is the point of worrying about if something is good or big enough to eat if you have no where to get your big Mac or Whopper? That’s why it’s important to find something you like and have an abundance of them. In the United States, there are 12,804 McDonalds’, according to Nation Master online. For Burger King there are 11,100 restaurants across the United States. (coopamerica. org). So it’s clear that McDonalds’ has more restaurants across the nation than Burger King, so if you are in the mood for some fast food there will be more McDonalds than Burger Kings near you. If you are looking for different ways to order your sandwich there are 221,184 possible ways to have it your way for the whopper and only 124 different ways to order a Big Mac so if it’s variety you want then the Whopper is the way to go. If you want to go on the healthier aspect of things and your only choices are a Big Mac or Whopper, you should look into calories, total fat, saturated fat, trans fat, cholesterol, and sodium. For the normal Big Mac there are 540 calories, 29 grams of total fat, 10 grams of saturated fat, 1. 5 grams of trans fat, and 75 mgs of cholesterol according to mcdonalds. com. In a Whopper sandwich with mayo there are 670 calories,39 grams of total fat, 11 grams of saturated fat, 1. 5 grams off trans fat, and 95 mg of cholesterol. (www. bk.com). When you look at these numbers, it is obvious that the Big Mac is healthier compared to the Whopper. Two other things that might affect your choice would be the quality of the burger, and the quality of the restaurant. If the burger is really messy and impossible to eat then it isn’t in your best interest to eat it, or if the restaurant looks really dirty and unhealthy then you won’t want to eat a burger from that restaurant. In recent polls, US Today surveyed 100 people and asked if they thought Burger King or McDonalds was cleaner; about 78 out of 100 people said Burger King held a better appearance. In conclusion, if you are looking for a healthier, cheaper and more accessible sandwich, the Big Mac from McDonalds would be your best choice. If you want a better tasting, larger and better quality sandwich, the Whopper from Burger King would be your best choice. No matter what, the fast food nation is getting larger, so it won’t be long until you cant go anywhere with out seeing one of the two. My favorite out of the two is the Whopper because it has better quality, and I think the Whopper tastes better as well.

White Noise Essay Example for Free

White Noise Essay There are certain land marks that if a person where to go to the same image is with them forever. Think about the empire state building, people tend to think about the helicopter view drifting around the building. They could have worked there or just visited it in real life yet the image is kept with them. In the novel White Noise by Don DeLillo it mentions the most photographed barn in the world which murray states that â€Å"it is impossible to see the barn for what it really is. It is impossible to escape it aura. Which can mean that because it has been so photographed it becomes impossible to have a memory about it that someone one hundred percent created, yet only mentally captured the printed image into one’s mind. Also, when such a large amount of people have seen an object, it is impossible to make a unique opinion on it. It would fall into a generic overview of the barn. Then there is the aura of the tourist, which in Murrays opinion â€Å"are taking pictures of taking pictures†(pg12). There is a good chance that they have seen the barn before yet are still taking images of it so they can have their own â€Å"claim† of it which puts them away of the reality of the barn and is in a way a form of voyeurism. Imagine the effile tower or the empire state building, two images that define the city’s which they call home. It is hard to think about Paris or New York City without them located in the city. Most people have never even seen these marvels of modern architecture but the image is seared like a hot iron into ones brain. There is a condition called Paris syndrome (^1) where people who visit the city become psychotic because the city did not meet the image of advertising or perceived ideals. When people come to see the barn Muarry states, they don’t see it. They see the pictures and the t. v adds that have been implanted in their minds. This makes sense from all the advertising in the novel and in real life. When something has the label of being captured by film more than anything in the united states it is impossible for at least one of those images to not be stuck bouncing around in one’s head as they think about the barn. Its â€Å"aura† is that it is captured in a certain way and impossible to overthrow. When people go on vacation they always take pictures. It is claimed that I helps keep the memories of the trip; to capture the moment. Yet, how often do people remember actives on a trip that were not photographed. Murray tries to state that photographs standardize the memory and make it so it is uniform. Which is un-relevant why someone wants to do that? It is unimportant to standardize memories when the unique sensations that people experience are what make the memory great. The photos of the barn only apply to one of the five senses. Being there add’s all of them the smell of the air around it, the sound of the creaking of the wood, the feel of the barn door being opened and if that person is it to it they can even lick the barn to find out the taste. That is what makes the moment of a memory. When something is captures so many times it is impossible to form a unique idea about it or to have a memory. It is thought of the same way for every person. Muary was trying to state that exact idea. What is special about the memory is what makes it a memory.

The Legitimacy Theory And CSR Disclosure Accounting Essay

The Legitimacy Theory And CSR Disclosure Accounting Essay The issue of corporate social responsibility has got a lot of attention in the business and political world since the early 1990s and the major reason behind this was corporate scandals. Organizations had started to realize that the basis on which they were achieving economic growth was unsustainable and hence there was a need to develop a process which would intend at balancing economic growth with environmental sustainability and societal expectations. In fact the origin of corporate social responsibility can be found in the 1950s and 60s whereby successful companies were trying to link corporate social responsibility to the power that business holds in society. The theoretical progresses were subdivided in ethical and accountability and the stakeholder approach to strategic management. CSR can be distinguished from the three terms which are included in its designation phrase and these words are; Corporate, social and responsibility. Hence CSR can be explained as being the responsibilities that a company undertakes for the society within which it carry out its operations. To be specific, CSR require a business to identify its stakeholders and include their needs and values in the tactical day to day decision making process of the company. Consequently the society within which a business function and which identify the number of stakeholder to which the organization owe a responsibility can be broad depending on the type industry within which it operate. The different stakeholders to which a company is accountable can be illustrated using the figure below: http://www.industryplayer.com/images/corporate_social_responsibility.jpg Figure 1: stakeholder of a business According to figure 1, a business must respond to two aspects which evolve during their operating process and these are: The quality of management which is represented by the inner cycle and it is both in terms of people and processes. The nature of and the extent to which their processes impact on the society in various areas. The stakeholders who are outside take more interest in the activities undertaken by the company, i.e. most of them look at what has the company actually done. Their objective is to fid out if the company has done good or bad in terms of its product and services, the treatment it gives it its labour force and in terms of the impact of its activities on the environment and local communities. There seems to be an infinite number of definitions of CSR, ranging from the simplistic to the complex, and a range of associated terms and ideas including `corporate sustainability, corporate citizenship, corporate social investment, the triple bottom line, socially responsible investment, business sustainability and corporate governance. It has been suggested that `some researchers distort the definition of corporate social responsibility or performance so much that the concept becomes morally unintelligent, conceptually meaningless, and utterly unrecognizable'(Orlitzky 2005); or CSR may be regarded as `the universal remedy which can solve several social evil such as the global poverty gap, social exclusion and environmental degradation (Van Marrewijk 2003). Some definitions of CSR which are commonly accepted are: The notion of companies looking beyond profits to their role in society is generally termed corporate social responsibility (CSR)..It refers to a company linking itself with ethical values, transparency, employee relations, compliance with legal requirements and overall respect for the communities in which they operate. It goes beyond the occasional community service action, however, as CSR is a corporate philosophy that drives strategic decision-making, partner selection, hiring practices and, ultimately, brand development.  [1]   South China Morning Post, 2002 The social responsibility of business encompasses the economic, legal, ethical, and discretionary expectations that society has of organizations at a given point in time.  [2]   Archie B. Carroll, 1979 CSR is about businesses and other organizations going beyond the legal obligations to manage the impact they have on the environment and society. In particular, this could include how organizations interact with their employees, suppliers, customers and the communities in which they operate, as well as the extent they attempt to protect the environment.  [3]   The Institute of Directors, UK, 2002 Why is CSR relevant today? CSR has become famous in the language and strategy of business and by the growth of dedicated CSR organizations globally. Governments and international governmental organizations are increasingly encouraging CSR. CSR is rapidly becoming a major part of all business management courses and a key global issue because of three trends which are easily identifiable: 1. Changing expectations of the society Following recent corporate scandals which have lead to the decrease in the trust that the public has on regulatory bodies and companies to control corporate excess, customers and the general public tend to expect more from the company with which they trade. 2. Rising affluence This is true not only in developed countries but also in developing countries. Rich customers have enough money to select the product they want to buy and as the society need work and inward investment will not impose severe rules which will penalize companies which invest their money elsewhere. In other words if a company is investing its money in CSR activities and for this reasons its product become more costly, the affluent consumers will not punish the organization and they will buy its product. 3. Globalization Nowadays the least mistake made by companies is instantly make known to the public via the media. On top of that, increasing internet communication between people having the same opinion and the consumers, authorize them to spread their message and giving them the opportunity to take collective action that is they can boycott a product. In other words if a company is taking actions which is against the environment and the society, the public may takes action against the business. According to these three trends, more importance is given to brand which lead to the success of companies and thus there is a shift in the relationship between companies and customers whereby the latter are better informed and feel more powerful to put their belief into action. From the standpoint of businesses, the parameters within which they operate are more and more affected by bottom-up, working class campaigns, NGOs and consumer activists leading to a change in the relationship between consumers and the company. CSR is becoming more and more important in our fast developing world as brands are built on perceptions and concepts which appear to have higher values. Theoretical Frameworks and CSR Disclosure The Legitimacy Theory While there is no generally accepted theory for explaining CSR disclosure practices, recent research in the CSR literature has primarily relied on legitimacy theory (Deegan 2002, p. 285). Indeed, it is probable that legitimacy theory is the most widely used theory to explain environmental and social disclosures (Campbell, Craven and Shrives, 2003, p. 559) while, according to Gray, Kouhy and Lavers (1995), legitimacy theory has an advantage over other theories in that it provides disclosing strategies that organisations may adopt to legitimate their existence that may be empirically tested. The Legitimacy theory, according to Ness Mirza (1991), argues that the voluntary disclosure of social responsibility information can be perceived as a strategy to reduce political costs. Social theory reporting has been explained from a Legitimacy Theory perspective LT has been considered as widely accepted theory to shed light on social reporting practices of a firm. It states that firms will take actions to ensure that their operations are obvious to be legitimate from the point of view of the society within which the organization is assumed to operate. That is, they will attempt to establish resemblance between social values associated with or indirect by their activities and the norms of acceptable behavior in the larger social system of which they are part. Legitimacy Theory specifies a social contract between the organisation and society. Legitimacy is defined by Lindblom (1992) as: a condition or status which exists when an entitys value system is congruent with the value system of the larger social system of which the social system of which the entity is a part. When a disparity, actual or potential, exists between the two value systems, there is a threat to the entitys legitimacy. Hence, Legitimacy Theory implies that managers will not undertake any actions that will be considered as illegitimate in society. By engaging in social reporting, they tend to enhance the relevance of the financial statement as well as that of earnings by making people to believe in the reliability of what is being reported in the financial statements and by providing additional information on issues other than earnings and financial information. This may however redirect the interest of users away from the earnings figure. Institutional theorists (e.g Fogarty, 1992) observe that organizations need to respond to social expectations. Public expectations have undergone significant changes in the last decades such that profit maximization is not the sole measure of performance expected from the economic entity. There are a lot of implicit and explicit expectations from society vis-a-vis the operations of the organization. According to Heard Bolce (1981), with sensitive societal expectations, it is anticipated that successful businesses will react to attend to human, environmental and other social consequences of their activities. In spite of being unregulated, social and green reporting has increased in annual reports of organizations. Empirical tests of the Legitimacy Theory by Hogner (1982) revealed that the extent of social disclosures in the annual reports varied in response to societys expectations of corporate behavior. Deegan Rankin (1996) found that prosecuted firms for environmental charges increased their green reporting while Gray, Kouhy Lavers (1995) found that firms use corporate social reporting to fill the legitimacy gap. It is assumed that the economic entity will have the legitimate right to continue to operate in society to the extent that it fulfils the societal expectations. Otherwise, there will be a breach in the social contract between the entity and the society, and sanctions, such as fines, legal actions, and a fall in the demand of its product, will be taken. Society may revoke the organizations licence to operate or contract to continue its operations, for instance. Under Legitimacy Theory, not only the rights of investors are considered, but a much bigger picture of the public at large is considered. Furthermore, it is also expected that the organisation for its survival will have to adapt to the changing expectations of society. Downling Pfeffer (1975) refer to communication strategies, that the entity can use in order to legitimate or maintain the legitimacy of its activities. Reference is made to the public disclosure of information, in annual reports, for instance, to let the public know and educate them about the actions and performance of the firm and hence the manipulation of societys expectations, is made. In the same vein, they argue that one of the functions of annual reports would be to legitimate the existence of the organisation. Therefore, Legitimacy Theory proposes a relationship between corporate disclosures and societal expectations, as evidenced by a lot of research (Deegan Ratkin (1996); Gray,Kouhy Lavers). Stakeholder Theory Stakeholder theory (Gray, Kouhy Lavers 1995b, p. 53) state that the corporations continued existence requires the support of the stakeholders and their consent are required and hence the activities of the business are adjusted according to that approval. The more powerful the stakeholders, the more the company must adapt. Social disclosure is thus seen as part of the dialogue between the company and its stakeholders. Within the Stakeholders point of view, the success of a business depends on its capacity to balance the differing demands of its various stakeholders. The definition of stakeholder has altered considerably over the past four decades. At one end of the range the shareholder was believe the sole or principal stakeholder. This definition was based on arguments proposed by the Noble prize winner, Mr. Milton Friedmans view. According to him, the sole moral responsibility of a business is to maximize profits. Freeman (1983), however, expands the definition of stakeholder to include a broader selection of constituents including opposing groups such as interest groups and regulators. He defines stakeholders as any group or individual who can affect or is affected by the achievement of the organisations objectives. Stakeholder Theory states that managers ought to serve the interests of all those who have a stake in the firm. Stakeholders include shareholders, employees, suppliers, customers and the communities in which the firm operates a collection which Freeman terms the Big Five. Therefore, all groups in an area in which the firm operates and all individuals in such area are stakeholders. Given that CSR reporting is attempted to underline how the company relates to society in the course of its different social activities, the stakeholder theory can be seen as a guideline which will direct firms to have proper way of disclosing CSR as they will know what type of actions stakeholders are expecting from them. Corporate Governance Corporate governance can be defined as a set of rules and regulations according to which the behavior of a company is affected. Another aspect of it is that it is also concerned with the relationships which exists among different stakeholders of the company and with the goals which the company has in view. Shareholders, board of directors, employees, customers, creditors, suppliers, and the community at large are the main stakeholders of a business. Gabrielle ODonovan defines corporate governance as an internal system encompassing policies, processes and people, which serves the needs of shareholders and other stakeholders, by directing and controlling management activities with good business know-how, objectivity, accountability and integrity. Sound corporate governance is reliant on external marketplace commitment and legislation, plus a healthy board culture which safeguards policies and processes. An essential part of corporate governance is to create a system that try to decrease or eradicate the principal agent problem which will ensure accountability of certain individuals in the business. Corporate governance has several areas of discussion such as the effect of a system of corporate governance in economic efficiency whereby more emphasis has to be put on shareholders welfare. Principles of corporate Governance Honesty, trust and integrity, openness, performance orientation, responsibility and accountability, mutual respect, and commitment to the organization forms an essential part of corporate governance. The most important part in corporate governance is to see whether the management has been able to develop a model which is in line with the standards of the corporate participants. In addition to this they must evaluate this model from time to time to ensure that it is effective. Hence the management should do their wok honestly and ethically, particularly concerning conflicts of interest and disclosure in financial reports. Commonly accepted principles of corporate governance include: Rights and equitable treatment of shareholders: company should respect the rights of shareholders and help shareholders to implement those rights. They can help shareholders exercise their rights by effectively communicating information that is understandable and accessible and encouraging shareholders to participate in general meetings. Interests of other stakeholders: Organizations should be aware of the legal and other obligations that all legitimate stakeholders have. Role and responsibilities of the board: The board needs a variety of skills and understanding to be able to deal with various business issues and have the aptitude to review and challenge management performance. It needs to be of adequate size and have an apt level of commitment to fulfill its responsibilities and duties. There are issues about the appropriate mix of executive and non-executive directors. Integrity and ethical behavior: Ethical and responsible decision making is not only important for public relations, but it is also a crucial part in risk management and avoiding lawsuits. businesses should develop a code of conduct for their directors and executives that promotes ethical and responsible decision making. It is important to understand, though, that reliance by a company on the integrity and ethics of individuals is bound to eventual failure. Because of this, many organizations establish Compliance and Ethics Programs to minimize the risk that the firm steps outside of ethical and legal boundaries. Disclosure and transparency: Organizations should simplify and make publicly known the roles and responsibilities of board and management to provide shareholders with a level of accountability. They should also implement measures to independently validate and safeguard the integrity of the companys financial reporting. Disclosure of material matters concerning the organization should be timely and balanced to ensure that all investors have access to clear, factual information. Nevertheless corporate governance, despite some weak attempts from various quarters, remains a vague and often misunderstood expression. For quite some time it was confined only to corporate management. It is something much broader, for it must include a fair, efficient and transparent administration and strive to meet certain well defined, written objectives. Corporate governance must go well beyond law. The quantity, quality and frequency of financial and managerial disclosure, the degree and extent to which the board of Director (BOD) exercise their trustee responsibilities (largely an ethical commitment), and the commitment to run a transparent organization- these should be constantly evolving due to interplay of many factors and the roles played by the more progressive/responsible elements within the corporate sector. CG and CSR Disclosure Following recent accounting and ethical scandals in firms such as Enron, WorldCom and Parmalat, corporate governance is being regarded as an important issue in the business world due to the fact that rules and regulations have become stricter with regard to societal expectations. In this respect the concept of corporate governance has start to cover some part of CSR. Previous researches has tended to study CG and CSR issues separately and not as combined manifestation in the fast developing business world where CG issues may also have impact on CSR disclosure and firms performance. Examples of studies that have directly or indirectly link CSR and CG are those that talk about the influence of CG reforms on business ethics most often in a particular region( mainly Rossouw 2005; Kimber and Lipton,2005; Ryan 2005); the role of socially responsible investors and shareholder activism (Aguilera et al., 2006; McLaren, 2004; Monks et al., 2004; Guay et al., 2004; Sjà ¶strà ¶m, 2008) and of employee relations (Deakin and Whittaker, 2007; Jones et al., 2007); and, perhaps most remotely, those that critically examine the stakeholder approach, frequently referring to an agency perspective (Hill and Jones, 1992; Jensen, 2001; Sternberg, 1997; cf. Kolk and Pinkse, 2006). There is several corporate governance practice which helps to find out whether corporate social responsibility should be disclosed or not, for example the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) comes across several indicators such as independence and expertise of directors which help to identify economic, environmental and social risks and opportunities and find out whether the financial and non financial goal have been achieved and hence based on this firms will decide whether CSR should be disclosed or not. Corporate governance and corporate social responsibility is therefore expected to be more integrated in the field of business disclosure practices. Nowadays companies are required to disclose other types of information, like what the business has done for the welfare of the society, and not only financial information. For this reason the number of firms which publish voluntary reports has increased. According to the triple bottom line, a business reports strategy and operational performance within three primary dimensions and these are financial, stakeholder and environmental performance. Thus these reports shows that there is proper planning in the business as the latter selects the most important issues to be included in the triple bottom line plan and report. This report is usually included in the annual report which shows that the corporate governance structure does indeed have an impact on CSR disclosure. According to Tricker (1984), CSR disclosure can be viewed as a strategy which leads to towards closing a perceived legitimacy gap between management and shareholders, especially foreign shareholders. Non executive directors are seem as a mechanism which not only acts in the best interest of the owner but also in the interest of other stakeholders and they advise about the presentation of the the companies activities. Zahra and Stanton(1988) said that members in the corporate governance team are more likely to concers about honour and obligations and they would make disclosures which would improve their social prestige and honour. Board Size and CSR Disclosure One important element of corporate governance mechanism is the board of directors as they see whether the business is properly managed by their agents. Previous studies have proposed that bigger board size can increase communication and coordination problem and decrease the ability of the board to control management and on the other hand small board can decrease agency conflicts between managers and shareholders (Lipton and Lorsh, 1992; Eisenberg et al., 1998; Raheja, 2003). Jensen (1993) found that large board size result in less effective coordination, communication and decision making is more likely to be controlled by the CEO. Thus it can be forecasted that ineffective coordination in communication and decision making will result in low quality financial disclosure due to the fact that managers have not been able to perform their roles efficiently. Independent Non Executive Directors and CSR disclosure Previous empirical governance literature that board independence will foster board effectiveness. The difference between socially responsible firms and non socially responsible firms board structures was studied by Webb (2004) and she found that socially responsible firms had more independent directors than non socially responsible firms. Independent directors has the objective to safeguard shareholders interest and they also play an important role in enhancing the corporate image. They are seen as an important tool to keep an eye on management behavior (Rosenstein and Wyatt, 1990) and hence this results in more voluntary disclosure. Forker (1992) found out that the higher number of independent directors supervise the quality of financial disclosure. CEO Duality and CSR disclosure When a person hold the position of CEO and boar chairman, CEO duality occurs (Rechner and Dalton, 1989). This combination reflects leadership and corporate governance issues. However vesting these two powers in only one person gives that latter a strong base which can erode the boards ability to exercise effective control (Tsui and Gul, 2000). Therefore, companies with the CEO duality offer greater power to a person, which enable him to make decisions that do not maximize the shareholders wealth and will help improved monitoring quality and reduce benefits from withholding information that may consequently result in enhancing quality of reporting. Audit Committee and CSR disclosure Prior researches have proven that audit committee plays an effective role in enhancing the corporate governance standards. Wright (1996) found that audit committee composition is strongly related to financial reporting. McMullen and Raghunandan (1996) provide support for the association between the presence of an audit and more reliable financial reporting. The existence of an audit committee was significantly and positively related to the extent of voluntary disclosure (Ho and Wong, 2001; Bliss and Balachandran, 2003). Audit committee roles is providing a mean for review of the companys processes for producing financial data and its internal control, thus its existence is in producing high quality financial reporting. According to Mauritian Code of Corporate Governance (First Edition,Revise April 2004), the board should establish an audit committee with majority of independent directors. The existence of audit committee with a higher proportion of independent directors should reduce the agency cost and improve the internal control that will lead to greater quality of disclosures (Forker, 1992). Managerial ownership The agency theory predicts that the principal-agent problem between managers and shareholders arises when managers hold little equity in the corporation. This will lead to managers to engage in an opportunistic behavior (Jensen and Meckling, 1976). Past studies had showed that an increase in management ownership will reduce the agency problems and improved managers incentive to provide more disclosure. Mohd Nasir and Abdullah (2004) investigated the influence of ownership structure in explaining the level of voluntary disclosures among the financially distressed firms and found that management shareholding levels have a significant and positive association with the level of voluntary disclosures. Coffey and Wang (1998) found that managerial control (percentage of stock owned by insiders) is positively related to charitable giving. The above findings were in contrast to Guan Yeik (2006) and Eng and Mak (2003). In his study, he examined the relationship between managerial ownership and corporate social responsibility and he found that managerial ownership was significantly negatively related to corporate social disclosure. In his study, he found that managerial ownership level of 45 percent above will influence the corporate to have lower social disclosure. Eng and Mak (2003) found that lower managerial ownership is associated with increased voluntary disclosures. Foreign ownership Ramasamy and Ting (2004) examined a comparative analysis of corporate social responsibility awareness by using levels of corporate social disclosure as a measurement of corporate social responsibility (CSR) awareness. In their study, they used employee perception towards CSR awareness. The respondents were questioned on their management of CSR within the company, such as awareness of corporate social responsibility, attitudes to CSR in the company, the types of CSR activity and the respondent involvement in CSR. The results show a low level of awareness in both countries, although companies tend to exhibit a relatively higher level of awareness. Chambers et al. (2003) investigated CSR reporting in seven countries through analysis of websites of the top 50 companies in Asia. This study investigated the penetration of CSR reporting within countries; the extent of CSR reporting within companies and the waves of CSR engaged in. The findings in Chambers et al. (2003) showed that, there are fewer CSR companies in the seven selected Asian countries compared with UK and Japan companies. The mean for the seven countries studied, show a score of 41 percent which is under half the score for the UK (98 percent) and Japan companies (96 percent). Thus by involvement of foreign shareholders in Mauritian Listed companies will enhance the extent of corporate social disclosure in Mauritius. Haniffa and Cooke (2005) found a significant relationship between corporate social disclosure and foreign shareholders indicated that companies use corporate social disclosure as a proactive legitimating strategy to obtain continued inflows of capital and to please ethical investors. Foreign shareholdings in Mauritian listed companies have considerably increased.

The Changing Face of Education Essay example -- Teaching Education Phi

The Changing Face of Education America has shifted from an agricultural society to an industrial society, and is in the process of transcending into the computer age. Though the progression of technology has made life simpler for the average person in many respects, this convenience does have drawbacks. To illustrate, in the current informational age, much less manual labor is needed. Citizens having a quality education are essential in the workplace. In light of this, schools must make adjustments that help to prepare students with the type of knowledge and skills that will be required of them in today’s job market. Capable and caring teachers are crucial in accomplishing this task. In times past, children were thought of as â€Å"little adults† and were treated as though they should be able to think and act on an adult level, impaired only by the physical limitations of being smaller and weaker. Rousseau was useful in establishing that children are not merely â€Å"smaller adults,† but are special citizens in need of special consideration. I agree with Rousseau in that children’s minds are not mature enough to allow them to think on an adult level, nor have they had the opportunity to experience and learn things that seem very basic to adults. As a future teacher, I identify well with the pragmatic philosophy, which applies democratic methods and encourages problem solving. Rewards of an intrinsic nature have drawn me to the teaching profession. These include imparting knowledge, seeing the students make connections, and making a difference in the lives of many. I am aware of a certain degree of unpredictability in the teaching profession, and I find this aspect appealing. Each day will be unique, with its own set ... ...er enhanced. I plan to get to know my students; to encourage them while using their names, showing them that I recognize and value their individuality. I believe that educational reform is necessary to the effective schools movement. Also, the implementation of technology in the classroom is essential if students and teachers are to keep up with the advances of the world. Not only will exposure to such advances better enable students to function in an increasingly technical society, but also the equipment available may provide for an enhanced, more diverse curriculum. My role as an educator during these reform initiatives is simply to stay current and be informed. I plan to do this by continuing to take classes upon graduation, pursuing a master’s degree. Through various means of professional development, I, as a teacher, will remain a lifelong learner.

An Introduction To Fiber Optics Technology Essay example -- Technology

An Introduction to Fiber Optics Technology Throughout time, speed and efficiency in the telecommunications industry has progressed at a rapid pace due to fiber optic technology. In 1979, AT&T revolutionized the telecommunications industry by producing a medium for data transmission which used light, called fiber optic cable. This medium created a bandwidth of 44.736 Mbps and could multiplex 672 trunk circuits onto one fiber (Cole, 2000). However, this invention was only the beginning of a great addition to telecommunications, one that would change the industry forever. Even though AT&T introduced fiber optic technology in 1979, they weren't the first company to think of such a creative idea. The concept of exchanging data by the use of light was thought of by Alexander Graham Bell in the late 1800's. Bell always thought of possibilities that pulses of light could transmit voice signals, but Bell never had a dependable light source to test the idea (Cheo, 1990). In 1880, Bell patented a phone using optical transmission called the Photophone. Bell's invention failed because it used air as the medium to transmit light, rather than the glass fibers that are used today. Copper wire was simply more reliable than Bell's invention at the time, leading to the failure of his Photophone (Hecht, 1999). Expanding on Bell's idea, English scientist John Logie Bard and United States scientist Clarence W. Hansell patented the idea of using hollow glass pipes to transmit television images in the 1920's. However, the tubes patented were very poor quality and experienced signal loss very easily. Bard and Hansell also ran into the same problem Bell did, not having a constant, intense light source (Hecht, 1999). Solving Bard and Hansell's p... ...singly being used in every aspect of communications. When AT&T started using fiber optics in 1979, telephony was revolutionized. Today, the fiber optics industry is growing faster and faster. Over 90 % of long distance calls are now transmitted via fiber optics (Concise, 1994). Hopefully, someday there will be no limit to speed in the telecommunications industry because of fiber optics. Works Cited Cheo, P. (1990). Fiber Optics and Optoelectronics: Second Edition. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall. Cole, M. (2000). Introduction to Telecommunications: Voice, Data, and the Internet. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall. Concise Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia. (1994). Fiber Optic Systems:OVERVIEW. Available WWW.http:// www2.hawaii.edu/~rubio/fiberoptics/overview.htm Fotec. (1996). Lennie Lightwave's Guide To Fiber Optic Jargon. [Online Web Site].

Education Essay -- essays research papers

Education There are many definitions of education, many people have different options of education and how it should be taught. I however will explore three definitions. William James’ definition who was a philosopher and psychologist will be explained. I will use an online dictionary. Lastly, Webster’s Universal English Dictionary definition for education will be explored. William James states that, â€Å"Education, in short, cannot be better described than by calling it the organization of acquired habits of conduct and tendencies to behavior.† When you are educated, it seems that your conduct and tenancies toward behavior would be different from that of an uneducated person. An educated person would associate the knowledge they have retained in a different manner than an uneducated one. I a...

Lyme’s Disease

Early signs and symptoms are similar as the flu such as fever, headache, stiffness, fatigue, and Joint pain. If it's not treated, the severity worsens, â€Å"infection can spread to joints, the heart, and the nervous system (2). Medically, it is possible to treat diseases, depending on severity, in order for the patient to get well but the only flaw is finances. Companies want to make money out of every advantage that they can. According to one of my colleagues that there Is a medication that can treat cancer but it costs hundreds of thousands of dollars. Capitalism is gruesome because it is beginning to outweigh a person's health instead of balancing or allowing the person's health become more important than money.Doctors and nurses should teach the patient that diseases will be treated but not rued because diseases can pause its process but can restart the process and further It's destruction. They need to teach the patient and the patient's family on preventive ways to prevent fr om getting the disease, â€Å"Steps to prevent Lame disease include using insect repellent, removing ticks promptly, applying pesticides, and reducing tick habitat (2)†. In this generation, social media is a huge influencer that spreads word around the world. The greatest example is the ALLS ice bucket challenge.

Maslow’s Theory of Motivation – Hierarchy of Needs

In 1943, Dr. Abraham Maslow s obligate A Theory of Human motif appe ard in Psychological Review, which were further spread out upon in his book Toward a psychology of Being In this article, Abraham H. Maslow attempted to form a demand-based framework of human motif and based upon his clinical experiences with people, rather than as did the prior psychology theories of his day from authors much(prenominal) as Freud and B. F. Skinner, which were largely theoretical or based upon animal behavior.From this theory of motivation, innovational leaders and executive managers find message of motivation for the purposes of employee and workforce management. Abraham Maslows book deprivation and Personality (1954), formally introduced the Hierarchy of Needs. The institution of Maslows motivation theory is that human beings are motivated by un quenched penurys, and that current lower factors need to be well-provided before higher needs green goddess be satisfied.According to M aslow, there are general types of needs (physiological, survival, arctic, love, and esteem) that must be satisfied before a soul can act unselfishly. He called these needs deficiency needs. As long as we are motivated to satisfy these cravings, we are moving towards growth, toward self-actualization. Satisfying needs is healthy, age preventing gratification makes us sick or act evilly. As a result, for decorous workplace motivation, it is important that leadership understands the progressive needs active for individual employee motivation.In this manner, Maslows model indicates that fundamental, lower-order needs like safety and physiological requirements have to be satisfied in order to pursue higher-level motivators along the lines of self-fulfillment. As depicted in the next hierarchical diagram, sometimes called Maslows Needs Pyramid or Maslows Needs Triangle, after a need is satisfied it stops acting as a motivator and the next need one rank higher starts to motivate.

Night World : Secret Vampire Chapter 14

YOU send off,I indispensability jam, ash tree verbalise. I imagine hesa little soft on vermin, tho I dont require to sympathisehim in trouble. I certainly dont want to see him brain dead.Poppy matte up the way she had inhabit nighttime when herbody was starving for air. She was frozen, too sootheto glimmeringe.I mean, do youwant him dead? alter asked, as ifit were the most reasonable research in the world.Poppy shook her headland.Well, past, change give tongue to.Poppy got a breath at last. What atomic number 18 you formulation? therefore, with appear staying for him to arrange, she said, Youre saying that theyre spillage to kill him if they allow step forward active me. scarce they dont lay downto find out reasonable aboutwhat me. Unless you tell them. alter descryd at his fingernails thoughtfully.. He do a face to come on that this was as painful for himas it was for her.Lets go ein truthplace the facts, he said. You be, in fact,a former humani ty.Oh, yeah, I was a vermin, any indemnify.He gave her a droll look. taket take that so seriously. Its what you ar now that counts. upright crowddid, in fact, vary you without elucidation it with anybody.Right? And he did, in fact, break cover and tellyou about the night World before you werechanged. Right?How do you spang? Maybe he retri exactlyive changed mewithout give tongue to me a thing.He shook a finger. Ah, unless pile wouldnt dothat. Hes got these radical permissive ideas abouthumans having free provide.If you know each about it, wherefore ask me? Poppysaid tensely. And if youve got a point-The point is that hes committed at least ii capital offenses. Three, I bet. He flashed the wild, handsome winding a face once more. He must put star across been in go to sleep withyou to apply d whizz the rest.Something swel lead in Poppy care a bird trapped inher rib cage in and trying to get out. She blurted, I dont see how you pot can make laws about non dropping in love Its insane. unless dont you see why? Youre the perfect example. Because of love, James told you and then hechanged you. If hed had the sense to squish hisfeelings for you in the generator, the whole thingwould take a crap been nipped in the bud. exclusively what if you cantsquash it? You cant force plenty to checkout feeling.Of course non, ash tree said, and Poppy stoppeddead. She sta chromatic at him.His lips curving and he beck peerlessd to her. Ill tellyou a secret. The Elders know they cant unfeignedly legis belatedly how you feel. What they can do is terrorize youso that you dont dare show your feelings-ideally, so you cant scour admit them to yourself.Poppy settled back. Shed seldom matte so at a loss.Talking to ash make her head whirl, do her feel as if she were too young and stupid to. be certain(predicate) of anything.She made a forlorn and helpless gesture. only whenwhat do I do now? I cant change thepast. zero(prenominal) nevertheless you can act in the be. He jumpedto his feet in a lovely, graceful motion and beganpacing. Now. We have to gauge fast. Presumably e realone here thinks youre dead.Yes, but-So the answer is simple. You have to get out of jthe area and prevail out. Go someplace where youwont be recognized, where nobody will tuition ifyoure new or illegal. Witches. Thats it Ive got some cross-cousins in Las Ve fellate that will put you up. Themain thing is to leave now.Poppys head wasnt just whirling, it was reeling.She matte dizzy and physically sick, as if shed juststepped off Space Mountain at Disneyland. What? Idont up to now understand what youre talking about,she said feebly.Ill explain on the way. Come on, hurry Do youhave some dress you want to take?poppy planted her feet solidly on the floor. Sheshook her head to try and dear it. Look, I dontknow what youre saying, but I cant go anywhereright now. I have to wait for James. just dont you see? modify stopped his whirlwindpacing and locomote on her. His eyes were green andhypnotically brilliant. Thats just what you cant do. James cant redden know where youre going., what?Dont you see?Ash said again. He sp show hishands and spoke almost pityingly. Yourethe single thing pose James in danger. As long as youre here, anybody can look at you and put the piecestogether. Youre circumstantial evidence that hescommitted a crime.Poppy understood that. that I can just wait and James can go remote with me. He would wantthat.But it wouldnt work, Ash said softly. It doesntmatter where you go whe neer youre together,youre a danger to him. iodine look at you and anydecent vampire can sense the truth.Poppys knees felt weak.Ash spoke soberly. Im not saying that youll bemuch fail-safer yourself if you leave. You bring your owndanger with you, because of what you are. But aslong as youre absent from James, nobody can touch you with him. Its the only way to keep him safe. Do you see?Yes. Yes, I see that now. The ground seemed tohave disappeared beneath Poppy. She wasfalling,not into music, but into an icy dark void. There wasnothing to hold on to.But, of course, its a lot to expect, to ask you togive him up. You may not want to make that kindof sacrif folderol-Poppys chin came up. She was blind and assoil and giddy, but she spoke to Ash with utter contempt,spitting out the words. After everything he sacrificedfor me? What do you think I am?Ash bowed his head. Youre a fearless one, littledreamer. I cant believe you were ever human. Then he looked up and spoke briskly. So do youwant to deport?I dont have much, Poppy said, slowly, becausemoving and speaking hurt her. She walked towardthe sleeping room as if the floor was covered with broken glass. scarce anything. But I have to write a notefor James.No, no, Ash said. Thats the last thing you wantto do. Well, after all, he added as she swiveledslowly to look at him, James macrocosm so noble andlovestruck and everything-if you let him knowwhere youre going, h ell come right after you. Andthen where will you be?Poppy shook her head. I okay. Still shakingher head, she stumbled into the bedroom.She wasnt going to argue with him anymore, but she wasnt going to take his advice, either. She shut the bedroom penetration and well-tried as hard as she could toshield her mind. She visualized a stone wall close to her thoughts.Stuffing her lying-in pants and T-shirt and whitedress into the duffle bag took cardinal seconds. Thenshe found a book under the nightstand and a felt-tippen in the drawer. She tore the flyleaf out of thebook and scribbled rapidly.Dear James,Im so sorry, but if I stay to explain this to you, I know youll try to stop me. Ash has made me understand the truth-that as long as I stick near Imputting your life in danger. And I just cant do that.If something happened to you because of me, I woulddie. I really would.Im going away now. Ash is taking me somewhere faraway away where you wont findme. Where they wontcare what I am. Ill be safe there. Youll be safe here.And even if were not together, well never really beapart.I love you. Ill love you forever. But I have to dothis.Please tell Phil goodbye.Your soulmate, Poppy.She was dripping tears onto the news report as she crisscrossed it.She put the flyleaf on the pillow and went outto Ash.Oh, there, there, he said. Dont cry. Youredoing the right thing. He put an arm virtually hershoulders. Poppy was too miserable to shrug it off.She looked at him. whiz thing. Wont I be putting youin danger if I go with you? I mean, somebodymight think youwere the one who made me an ille gal vampire.He looked at her with wide, earnest eyes. They happened to be blue-violet at the moment.Im willing to take that risk, he said. I have alot of respect for you.James took the stairs dickens at a time, sending probing thoughts forrad of him and then refusing to believe what his own senses told him.She had to be there. She hadto be.He pounded on the entrance at the very(prenom inal) time as hewas thrusting the key into the lock. At the same timeas he was shouting mentally.Poppy Poppy, answer me PoppyAnd then, even with the door flung open and hisown thoughts ricocheting off the emptiness in the apartment, he stilldidnt want to believe. He ran some, looking in every room, his heart thudding louder and louder in his chest. Her duffel bag was gone. Her clothes were gone. She was gone.He ended up leaning against the glass of the livingroom window. He could see the passageway below, andthere was no sign of Poppy.No sign of Ash, either.It was Jamess fault. Hed been next his m early(a)s trail all afternoon, from decorating job to decorating job, trying to gubbins up with her. Only to find,once he did catch up, that Ash was already in Elcamino, and had, in fact, been sent over to Jamessapartment hours ago. With a key.putting him alone with Poppy.James had called the apartment immediately. Noanswer. Hed broken all speed limits getting backhere. But he was too late.Ash, you snake, he thought. If you hurt her, if youput one finger on her He found himself locomote over the apartment again,looking for clues as to what had happened. Then, in the bedroom, he noticed something pale against the light embrown of the pillowcase.A note. He snatched it up and read it. And gotcolder and colder with every line. By the time he r all(prenominal)ed the end, he was made of ice and ready tokill.There were little round splashes where the felt-tippen had run. Tears. He was going to break one of Ashs bones for each one.He folded the note carefully and put it in his exclusive. Then he took a few things from his closetand made a call on his cellular surround as he was walking down the stairs of the apartment building.Mom, its me, he said at the blast of an answering machine. Im going to be gone for a few days.Somethings come up. If you see Ash, leave me amessage. I want to talk with him.He didnt say please. He knew his voice was clippedand sharp. And he did nt care. He hoped his tone would scud her.Just at the moment he felt ready to take on his fetch and father and all the vampire Elders in theNight World. One stake for all of them.He wasnt a child anymore. In the last calendar week hedbeen done the crucible. Hed faced death andfound love. He was an adult.And filled with a quiet fury that would destroyeverything in its path. Everything necessary to getto Poppy.He made some other band calls as he guided the Integraswiftly and expertly through the streets of El Camino.He called the Black Iris and made indisputable that Ashhadnt moody up there. He called several other blackflower dubs, even though he didnt expect to find anything. Poppy had said Ash was going to take her far away.But where?Damn you, Ash, he thought. Where? Phil was staring at the TV without really seeing it.How could he be interested in talk shows or infomercialswhen all he couldthinkabout was his sister?His sister who was maybe observation the same showsand maybe out biting people?He heard the car screech to a stop outside and wason his feet before he knew it. uncanny how he wasabsolutely certain of who it was. He must have cometo recognize the Integras engine.He opened the door as James reached the porch.Whats up?Come on. James was already heading for the car.There wasa deadly energy in his movements, abarely controlled power, that Phil had never seen before. White-hot fury, leashed but straining.Whats wrong?James turned at the drivers side door. PoppysmissingPhil threw a wild glance around. There was nobodyon the street, but the door to the house was open.And James was shouting as if he didnt care whoheard.Then the words sank in. What do you mean,shes- Phil broke off and jerked the door to thehouse shut. Then he went to the Integra. James already had the rider door open.What do you mean, shes missing? Phil said assoon as he was in the car.James gunned the engine. My cousin Ash has taken her someplace.Whos Ash?Hes dead, James said, and so mehow Phillip knew he didnt mean Ash was one of the walkingdead. He meant Ash was going to bedead, completelydead, at some point very soon.Well, wheres he taken her?I dont know, James said through his teeth. Ihave no idea.Phil stared a moment, then said, Okay. Okay.He didnt understand what was going on, but hecould see one thing. James was too angry and toointent on revenge to think logically. He might seem rational, but it was stupid to drive around at fifty five miles an hour through a residential zone with no idea of where to go.It was strange that Phil felt comparatively calmit seemed as if hed spent the last week being wacko while James contend the cool part. But having someone else be hysteric always made Phil golevelheaded.Okay, look, he said. Lets take this one step ata time. slack up down, okay? We might be going in exactly the wrong direction. At that, James eased up on the gas pedal slightly.Okay, now tell me about Ash. Whys he taking Poppy somewhere? Did he kidnap he r?No. He talked her into it. He convinced her thatit was dangerous for me if she stuck around here. Itwas the one thing guaranteed to make her go withhim. One hand on the wheel, James fished in his pocket and handed a folded piece of paper to Phil.It was a page torn out of a book. Phillip read thenote and swallowed. He glanced at James, who wasstaring straight ahead at the road.Phil shifted, abashed at having intruded on private territory, embarrassed at the sting in his eyes. Your soulmate, Poppy?Well. Well.She loves you a lot, he said finally, awkwardly.And Im glad she said goodbye to me. He folded the note carefully and tucked it under the jot brake handle. James picked it up and put it in hispocket again.Ash used her feelings to get her away. Nobodycan push buttons and pull strings like he can.But why would he want to?First because he likes girls. Hes a realDon Juan.James glanced at Phil caustically. And now hes gother alone. And second because he likes to play withthings. Like a cat with a mouse. Hell fool around with her for a while, and then when he gets tired ofher, hell hand her over.Phillip went still. Who to?The Elders. Somebody in trip somewherewholl realize shes a renegade vampire.And then what?And then they kill her.Phil grabbed the dashboard. Wait a minute.Youre heavy me that a cousin of yours is going tohand Poppy over to be killed?Its the law. any good vampire would do thesame. My own mother would do it, without a second thought. His voice was bitter.And hes a vampire. Ash, Phil said stupidly.James gave him a look. Allmy cousins are vampires, he said with a short laugh. Then his face changed, and he took his foot off the gas.Whats the-hey, that was a stop sign Philyelped.James slammed on the brakes and swung into aU-turn in the middle of the street. He ran over somebodys lawn.What is it? Phil said tightly, still braced againstthe dashboard.James was looking almost dreamy. Ive just realized where theyve gone. Where hed take her. Hetold her someplace safe, where people wouldnt carewhat she was. But vampires wouldcare.So theyre with humans?No. Ash hates humans. Hed want to take hersomeplace in the Night World, someplace where hesa bragging(a) man. And the nearest city thats controlled bythe Night World is Las Vegas.Phil felt his jaw drop. Las Vegas? Controlled by theNight World? He had the abrupt impulse to laugh. Sure, of course it would be. And I always thoughtit was the Mafia, he said.It is, James said seriously, swerving onto a motorway on-ramp. Just a different mafia.But, look, wait. Las Vegas is a cosmic city.Its not, actually. But it doesnt matter anyway. Iknow where they are. Because all my cousins arentvampires. Some of them are witches.Phils forehead puckered. Oh, yeah? And how didyou arrange that?I didnt. My great-grandparents did, about fourhundred years ago. They did a blood-tie ceremonywith a witchfamily. The witches arent my realcous ins theyre not related. Theyre cross-cousins.Adopted family. It pro bably wont even occur tothem that Poppy might not be legal. And thatswhere Ash would go.Theyre cross-kin, Ash told Poppy. They weredriving in the Rasmussens gold Mercedes, which Ashinsisted his aunt Maddy would want him to take.They wont be suspicious of you. And witches dontknow the signs of being a new vampire the way vampires do.Poppy just stared at the far horizon. It was evening now, and a lowering red sun was setting behind them. All around them was a weird alien landscape not as brown as Poppy would have pass judgment a desertto be. More gray-green, with clumps of green-gray. The Joshua trees were strangely beautiful, but alsothe encompassing(prenominal) thing to a plant made up of tentacles as shed ever seen.Most everything growing had spikes.It was curiously fitting as a place to go into exile. Poppy felt as if she were leaving behind not only herold life, but everything shed ever foundfamiliarabout the earth.Ill take care of you, Ash said caressingly.Poppy didnt even bli nk.Phillip introductory byword Nevada as a line of lights in thedarkness ahead. As they got closer to the state line,the lights resolved into signs with blinking, swarming, trice atomic number 10 messages. Whiskey Petes, they an nounced. Buffalo Bills. The Prima Donna.Some zany with a reputation for being a Don Juanwas taking Poppy in thisdirection?Go faster, he told James as they left the lightsbehind and entered a dark and featureless desert.Come on. This car can do ninety.hither we are. Las Vegas, Ash said as if makingPoppy a present of the whole city. But Poppy didntsee a city, only a light in the clouds ahead like the ascent moon. Then, as the freeway curved, she sawthat it wasnt the moon, it was the reflection of city lights. Las Vegas was a glittering pool in a straight basinbetween the mountains.Something stirred in Poppy despite herself. Shedalways wanted to see the world. Faraway places. Ex otic lands. And this would have been perfect-if onlyJames had been with her.U p close, though, the city wasnt quite the gem itlooked from a distance. Ash got off the freeway, and Poppy was thrown into a world of annotate and lightand movement-and of tawdry cheapness.The Strip, Ash announced. You know, whereall the casinos are. Theres no place like it.I bet, Poppy said, staring. On one side of her wasa lofty black pyramid hotel with a huge sphinxin front. Lasers were flashing out of the sphinxseyes. On the other side was a sleazy motor inn with a sign saying Rooms $18.So this is the Night World, she said, with a twingeof cynical amusement that made her feel very adult.Nah, this is for the tourists, Ash said. But itsgood business and you can do some fairly seriouspartying. Ill show you the real Night World, though.First, I want to check in with my cousins.Poppy considered telling him that she didnt reallycare to have himshow her the Night World.Something about Ashs manner was beginning to bother her. He was acting more as if they were out on adate than as if he were escorting her into exile.But hes the only person I know here, she realizedwith a dismayed sinking in her stomach. And its notas if I have any money or anythingnot even eighteen dollars for that crummy motel.There was something worse. Shed been hungry for some time now, and now she was starting to feel breathless. But she wasnt the dazed, unthinking animal shed been last night. She didnt want to attacksome human on the street.This is the place, Ash said. It was a side street,dark and not crowded like the Strip. He pulled intoan alley. Okay, just let me see if theyre in.On either side of them were proud buildings withcinder-block walls. Above, tiers of power lines obscuredthe sky. Ash knocked at a door set in the cinder blocka door with no knob on the outside. There was no signon the door, either, just some crudely spray-paintedgraffiti. It was a picture of a black dahlia.Poppy stared at a Dumpster and tried to controlher breathing. In, out. Slow and deep. Its okay,theres air . It may not feel like it, but theres air.The door opened and Ash beckoned to her.This is Poppy, Ash said, putting an arm aroundher as Poppy stumbled inside. The place looked likea shopa shop with herbs and candles and crystals.And lots of other weird things that Poppy didnt recognize. Witchy-looking supplies.And these are my cousins. Thats Blaise, andthats Thea. Blaise was a striking girl with masses ofdark tomentum and lots of curves. Thea was slimmer and blond. They both kept going out of focus as Poppys vision blurred.Hi,she said, the longest salutation she couldmanage.Ash, whats wrong with you? Shes sick. What have you been doing to her? Thea was looking atPoppy with sympathetic brown eyes.Huh? Nothing, Ash said, looking surprised, as ifnoticing Poppys state for the first time. Poppyguessed he wasnt the type to worry about other peo ples discomfort. Shes hungry, I guess. Well haveto run out and feed-Oh, no, you dont. Not around here. Besides,shes not going to make it, Thea sa id. Come on,Poppy, Ill be a donor this once.She took Poppy by the arm and led her through abead curtain into another room. Poppy let herself betowed. She couldnt think anymore-and her wholeupper jaw was aching. Even the word feedsharpenedher teeth.I selectI have to But she didnt know how. She had. a vision of her own face in the mirror, euphonous eyes and savage canines. She didnt wantto be an animal again ,and jump on Thea andripher throat. And she couldntask how-that would give her away as a new vampire for sure. She stood, trembling, unable to move.