Hospital Corporation of America (HCA)

HCA has a board of directors whose main function is to oversee its general administration. It makes corporate decisions on behalf of the institution, which include funding projects and acquisition of new facilities. An additional function of the board is to employ and fire the company’s directors and officers when need arises.Advertising We will write a custom essay sample on Hospital Corporation of America (HCA) specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More Furthermore, the institution has the position of Chairman and ‘Chief Executive Officer’ (CEO) who coordinates its daily activities within the hospitals and other medical facilities around the world. The vice president in charge of finance manages the institution’s assets. Lastly, the senior vice president oversees the well-being of employees and clients[1]. The headquarters of HCA is in Nashville in the state of Tennessee, US; moreover, it is in the Nashville-Dav idson County. It has initiated community-based programs that help the community in diverse ways. The institution owns hospitals and properly established surgical facilities in twenty states, in the U.S and London in England. It provides sufficient Medicare that meets the community’s healthcare demands. Moreover, it puts together many services with an aim of delivering maximum quality and efficient medication to clients. The institution shares technology with other facilities to ensure excellent Medicare. It is noteworthy that it also offers training for health practitioners through a well-integrated internship curriculum. This mainly targets medical students from colleges[2]. Its excellently structured hierarchy of governance shuns any misapprehension between personnel, especially the administration. It is noteworthy that the board of directors designates duties to the directors and officers of the institution. As a result, the officers seek administrative clarifications from the board through the Chairman and CEO. This ensures they respect the authority of the Chairman and CEO. Moreover, the junior officers and departmental heads receive directions from their respective supervisors and coordinators. Efficiency at work is one of the shared values that connect all individuals involved in HCA. The institution requires all personnel to embrace efficiency in every duty they perform. Furthermore, its employees practice professionalism at work. Thus, they perform every task in accordance with the set rules and regulations. It is evident that teamwork is a quality present in HCA’s employees, whereby they work together to ensure they provide consummate services to clients. In this institution, each employee is accountable for the actions and decisions he undertakes. This ensures they perform their work with care and concentration to avoid mistakes[3].Advertising Looking for essay on business economics? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first p aper with 15% OFF Learn More In achieving its purpose, the institution offers various services in healthcare. In order to attain these, there are practices that must be undertaken. The first one is the management of patient account services, which enables it keep records about its patients. Additionally, the supply chain services ensure the institution acquires all the tools, machinery, personnel and drugs it requires for its daily operation. The other practice is the management of the payroll services through its payroll center. This helps in the payment of hospital bills by patients seeking its services. It is noteworthy that, in HCA, the board of governors remains the highest ranked office. This board conveys administrative decisions to the institution employees through the Chairman and CEO who passes it to his juniors. The Senior Vice Chairman in charge of finance ensures the implementation of these decisions. Moreover, he has a direct link with the CEO, with whom he di scusses various institutional issues. It is evident that the departmental heads convey medical decisions to the personnel in their respective departments. Most importantly, employees act upon these decisions in accordance to the instructions provided. Employees in HCA departments include medical professionals who formulate laws and policies enacted in the corporation. In addition, there are also subordinate staffs such as financial clerks, receptionists, and cleaners who ensure the corporation performs its duties adequately[4]. Execution of these inherent powers takes place through a number of ways that are both formal and informal. It is evident that incase the board has a significant administrative decision to make, it arranges for a formal meeting with the CEO. This gives him a chance to react to these decisions before they reach the employees. The execution of administrative decisions can take place through notifications placed in the institutions weekly bulletins. Such decision s are minor, and thus employees can access them at their own time. It is evident that each employee receives the bulletins on a weekly basis. At HCA, internal memos convey formal departmental decisions, which are mainly medical related. Thus, the employees in these departments come across them on their office notice boards or desks. Additionally, departmental notices placed on announcement boards can convey these decisions. On the contrary, those involved can make decisions informally through office sermons and corridor notifications[5].Advertising We will write a custom essay sample on Hospital Corporation of America (HCA) specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More HCA is legally responsible for the quality of healthcare its hospitals offer patients by ensuring it abide by all laws. This means that it has to adhere to the rules and regulations set up, in managing all its hospitals. It is noteworthy that the governing body provides HCA wit h all approved standards of professional practice and patient care. Thus, any violations result into severe punishment of the institution in accordance to the set laws. Another law governing the institution involves its shares whereby, the corporation prohibits the issuing of more than one hundred and twenty five million shares of common stock at $.01 each. In addition, the board acting on a majority vote may alter the organizations by laws. Most importantly, HCA has adhered to all these policies and laws; thus, it performs its functions efficiently[6]. At HCA, success results from adherence to its mission and values. Thus, success means improving human life through deliverance of excellent and cost effective healthcare. Moreover, success at HCA means advancing the care given to patients by enacting measures that support their care providers. It also determines its success by ensuring patient safety during treatment and other healthcare sessions. Most importantly, success means posi tive response by patients to the healthcare services it offers. On the contrary, HCA defines failure as not adhering to its mission and values. This mainly refers to the provision of poor medical care to patients who seek its services. The other definition of failure at HCA is the delivering of low quality and expensive healthcare in the community. Most importantly, failure at HCA refers to poor or no response by patients to the services the corporation provides[7]. The institution is successful in meeting its goals as it has managed to deliver exceptional and reasonably priced services to clients. Thus, patients have so far been contented with the healthcare services that HCA offers. It is noteworthy that the institution has succeeded because it has established community-based programs that help the society with healthcare issues they are facing. Moreover, caregivers and all other staff enjoy the appropriate working conditions at the institution. Hence, they have committed themselv es to serving the clients efficiently. The institution has also succeeded as it has won various awards such as fortune award and national patient safety foundation. These awards clearly portray the extent to which the institutions excellent work is evident in the provision of healthcare services. Additionally, it is successful because the health facilities it operates have registered large number of clients recently[8]. One of the effects of HCA’s core practices is that it has enabled the average American and English citizens to access medical care. This is through the achievement of its goals. It is a fact that different community based programs it has initiated has helped the community stay fee from illness.Advertising Looking for essay on business economics? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More These programs include the provision of healthcare education and training of needy groups. These groups include pregnant women, the elderly, and individuals with extraordinary illnesses like cancer and HIV aids. Additionally, HCA has provided employment to the individuals coordinating these programs. These include those offering teaching services to the people[9]. The institution adapt to challenges promptly as it has put in place recovery and alternative programs, which help in overcoming such situations. It is evident that the institution is currently advancing its backup programs to ensure they are effective when need arises. Furthermore, HCA overcomes challenges in treatment procedures brought about by newly emerging diseases. This is through regular training of their medical staff on the trends of newly emerging diseases. As a result, they attain the skills to counter these diseases. Moreover, management challenges are subject to consultation with administration experts who adv ises HCA board on what measures to take (HCA). If I were the leader, I would introduce annual employee training programs. Here, they would undergo training on additional services provided by the institution. This will facilitate efficient services to the clients’ even with the absence of concerned employees. As one, can easily stand-in for a colleague. Additionally, I would start a community outreach program in all HCA hospitals in a bid to reduce the number of outpatients flocking the hospitals. In these programs, the community will undergo training on health issues. Furthermore, those who are unwell will receive treatment from mobile doctors. Thus, only severe cases receive additional treatment at the health facilities. The other step I would take as the leader of HCA is to collaborate with other hospitals on services that HCA facilities do not offer. This will reduce the moving of patients from one hospital to another. Another step I will take, as the leader of the institu tion is to ensure the unions address my employees’ needs. Works Cited Hospital Corporation of America (HCA). Hospital Corporation of America. 2011. Web. Rodengen, Jeffrey. The legend of HCA: Hospital Corporation of America. Florida, FL: Write Stuff Enterprises, 2003. Print. Footnotes Hospital Corporation of America (HCA). Hospital Corporation of America .2011. Web. Hospital Corporation of America (HCA). Hospital Corporation of America .2011. Web. Hospital Corporation of America (HCA). Hospital Corporation of America .2011. Web. Rodengen, Jeffrey. The legend of HCA: Hospital Corporation of America. (Florida, FL: Write Stuff Enterprises, 2003), 13. Rodengen, Jeffrey. The legend of HCA: Hospital Corporation of America. (Florida, FL: Write Stuff Enterprises, 2003), 20. Hospital Corporation of America (HCA). Hospital Corporation of America .2011. Web. Rodengen, Jeffrey. The legend of HCA: Hospital Corporation of America. (Florida, FL: Write Stuff Enterprises, 2003), 29 Hospital C orporation of America (HCA). Hospital Corporation of America .2011. Web. Rodengen, Jeffrey. The legend of HCA: Hospital Corporation of America. (Florida, FL: Write Stuff Enterprises, 2003), 24. This essay on Hospital Corporation of America (HCA) was written and submitted by user Gilbert Melton to help you with your own studies. You are free to use it for research and reference purposes in order to write your own paper; however, you must cite it accordingly. You can donate your paper here.

Ernest Hemingway Essay Example

Ernest Hemingway Essay Example Ernest Hemingway Essay Ernest Hemingway Essay Essay Topic: A Farewell to Arms Everything Is Illuminated For Whom the Bell Tolls Ernest Hemingway is one of the most legendary figures in American literature. known for his authorship every bit good as his love of the dangerous- deep sea fishing. large game hunting. tauromachy in Spain. etc. As an writer. he covers countless capable affair in a really typical manner. His sentences are short and non-descriptive. and the reader must work to bring out literary elements like subject. Dialogue is his existent forte. He uses really few descriptive inside informations. His novels tend to be more about masculine topics and based on his escapades while his short narratives are known for his geographic expedition of functions between work forces and adult females. His novels tend to be based on his experiences. In fact. as the Hemingway Resource Center provinces. When you want to happen the truth about Hemingway’s life. look first to his fiction ( Hemingway resource centre ) . In Our Time was published in 1925 and contained some really noteworthy short narratives. such as Big Two-Hearted River. Work force Without Women was published in 1927. The Sun Besides Rises was one of the first books he published. and the capable affair was a group of immature people populating in Spain. expatriates populating abroad. The chief character was in love with a adult female who was besides in love with a toreador. The Sun Besides Rises introduced the universe to the lost generation and was a critical and commercial success. Set in Paris and Spain. the book was a narrative of unrequitable love against a background of bars and bullfighting ( Hemingway Resource Center ) . Soon after that in 1929 came A Farewell to Arms. which some would state is the best book to come out of the experience of World War I. The tragic stoping really comes from one of Hemingway’s married womans ( Pauline ) and her battles with childbearing. And after that came his thesis called Death in the Afternoon. all about bullfighting. Hemingway says that. It is intended as an debut to the modern Spanish corrida and efforts to explicate that spectacle both emotionally and practically. It was written because there was no book which did this in Spanish or in English. In this thesis he began to organize his thought of the true hero as grace under force per unit area. He besides outlined his theory of omission or iceberg rule. which is a theory really of import to future literature. He states: If a author of prose knows plenty about what he is composing about he may exclude things that he knows and the reader. if the author is composing genuinely plenty. will hold a feeling of those things every bit strongly as though the author had stated them. The self-respect of motion of the iceberg is due to merely one-eighth of it being above H2O. The author who omits things because he does non cognize them merely makes hollow topographic points in his authorship. ( Hemingway Resource Center ) . His novel called The Green Hills of Africa in 1935 came from the captivation Hemingway had with Teddy Roosevelt’s African runing campaign. With borrowed money from his wife’s uncle. Hemingway spent three months in Africa on a campaign of his ain. The novel comes from this. 1940 brought For Whom the Bell Tolls. a novel about the Spanish Civil War. Many of his novels were truly about that whole thought of the Hemingway hero. The Hemingway hero must confront decease courageously and unrecorded life to the fullest even in the presence of decease. Hemingway suffered through a long period of non being favored by the critics and was determined to derive back his old position. This is when he published The Old Man and the Sea. the quintessential novel of bravery and continuity. This book sold over 5 million transcripts in a really short clip. and all of a sudden Hemingway was on top of the pile one time once more. This book about a man’s battle with a banging marlin even won the Pulitzer Prize in 1953. He merely could non double the glare of this book once more. His nonfiction studies of Paris in the 1920s called A Moveable Feast ( 1964 ) did nil to progress his repute. Unfortunately. due to age and medical jobs Hemingway neer wrote anything near to this once more. He ended up killing himself due to depression and medical jobs. While the subjects of his novels tend to go around around his experience. his short narratives do so excessively but to a lesser extent. His focal point in many of his celebrated short narratives tends to be more about the deficiency of communicating between males and females. For illustration. His short narratives The Snows of Kilimanjaro and The Short Happy Life of Frances Macomber both come from the safari experience every bit good although the focal point is different. In Snows of Kilimanjaro. Hemingway’s chief male character is a author who has fundamentally wasted his endowment by going sexually involved with a rich adult female who buys him everything he needs. This short narrative can surely be seen as Hemingway himself keening the manner that he was wasted his endowment as a write although some say it is about F. Scott Fitzgerald. His male character. Harry. is a chauvinistic hog while the female character attends to his every demand. She is weak. and this allows the author to take entire advantage of her. Again. the reader can’t aid but inquire how much of this is autobiographical. Another short narrative that has gained much attending is from the 1927 book called work forces without Women. This narrative is called Hills Like White Elephants shows how much of a narrative Hemingway could state with really small. It defines his minimalist manner. In authoritative Hemingway manner a twosome sits at the saloon of a train station discoursing an unknown topic. Part of the beauty of the narrative is that the reader must work to bring out the topic of their conversation. but besides that every item in the scene. in the narrative itself goes toward doing significance. It besides shows the communicating dislocation between adult male and adult female. For illustration. the really fact that the narrative is set in a train station is pure beauty. This twosome must do a determination about the issue before them ( abortion ) . There is no traveling back and there is non standing still. They must acquire on whichever train they are acquiring on without vacillation. As the miss looks out one side of the station. she sees green. fertile land. As she looks out the other side. she sees dry barrenness. Again. the symbolic significance is clear. The twosome has an full conversation and neer references the word abortion. nor do they look at each other. They look at everything else which shows the extent to which they are uncomfortable with the topic and each other. They repeat the same phrases over and over once more without any true apprehension. although the miss does look to catch on in the terminal. This is authoritative Hemingway to demo the deficiency of communicating even between two people who are supposed to be near. A sample of Hemingway’s consummate duologue follows: Well. ’ the adult male said. if you don’t want to you don’t have to. I wouldn’t have you do it if you didn’t want to. But I know it’s absolutely simple. And you truly desire to? ’ I think it’s the best thing to make. But I don’t want you to make it if you don’t truly want to. ’ And if I do it you’ll be happy and things will be like they were and you’ll love me? ’ I love you now. You know I love you. ’ I know. But if I do it. so it will be nice once more if I say things are like white elephants. and you’ll like it? ’ I’ll love it. I love it now but I merely can’t think about it. You know how I get when I worry. ’ If I do it you won’t of all time worry? ’ I won’t concern about that because it’s absolutely simple. ’ To state that this adult male and girl do non understand each other is pure understatement. They are speaking in circles and are merely non pass oning. Hemingway’s short narratives are full of this sort of duologue. Another celebrated narrative called Cat in the Rain discusses the sense of isolation for an American married woman. As Darren Felty provinces. The work revolves around the desire of Hemingway’s supporter. an American married woman holidaying in Italy. to deliver a cat from an afternoon rain storm. She fails in her effort. disclosure in the procedure the emotional distance she feels from her hubby and the attenders at the hotel. The narrative employs a composite of barriers. enclosures. and geometrically defined inside informations to stand for the emotional and psychological boundaries that restrict character interaction ( Felty ) . This apparently simple narrative uses barriers to typify the relationship between the adult male and adult female. Once once more. communicating is a immense job. While the married woman tells her hubby of this hapless pool in the rain. he hardly looks up from his paper. Finally she ends in a fit. much like Hills Like White Elephants in order to be heard. But the inside informations of puting that Hemingway utilizations are genius to demo the disaffection of the characters. This narrative is told to hone satisfaction in two pages. In following with a really of import subject of Hemingway is Big Two-Hearted River. In this narrative. the reader follows Nick from artlessness to knowledge. Basically Nick returns to a topographic point he fished when he was younger. but the whole country has been destroyed by fire. However. by returning to this topographic point of artlessness from his young person. Nick is able to travel frontward in life as Hemingway’s heroes are. The subject of disaffection is played out chillingly good in A Clean Illuminated Place. Again. we see a Hemingway hero populating his life but accepting decease. In this narrative an old adult male comes to this diner every dark. He arrives tardily one dark as the immature server is shuting up. but the immature server doesn’t want to allow him hold a drink. An older server. the voice of experience. allows him to hold a drink because he understands merely how of import it is for everyone to hold a clean illuminated place that is unfastened every bit long as possible. In other words. he understands solitariness in a manner the younger server could neer conceive of. Lastly. an of import short narrative is The Short and Happy Life of Frances Macomber. In this narrative. Hemingway’s thought of a hero is played out. On this campaign. French republics is really frightened. He is besides ruled by his married woman. However. he stands up to his married woman and is happy for a few seconds until he is killed. Like Hemingway’s codification hero. he becomes weather ( if merely for a minute ) . He faces his fright and overcomes it ; it matters non that he dies shortly after. F. Scott Fitzgerald criticized Hemingway for composing narratives in which nil happens. That is true in a manner. There is non much action in Hemingway’s novels or short narratives. but the duologue and the scene state the reader so much. Hemingway is known for his consummate usage of duologue and his sparse inside informations to state more than a complete narrative. He describes this in his iceberg rule. If it is any usage to cognize it. I ever try to compose on the rule of the iceberg. There is seven-eighths of it submerged for every portion that shows. Anything you know you can extinguish and it merely strengthens your iceberg. It is the portion that doesn’t show. If a author omits something because he does non cognize it so there is a hole in the story ( Hemingway ) . Overall. Hemingway is one of the greatest American authors the universe has seen.

Sample size calculation Math Problem Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

Sample size calculation - Math Problem Example Sampling is important in that we involve fewer respondents than using the entire population, the sample saves time and money and an appropriate sample will represent the population in that the results derived from the sample will explain the population with less error. A large sample will waste time and money while a small sample will give inaccurate results. In any given study if we were to determine the mean of the population and the mean of the sample there means are not the same, the difference between the two is termed as an error, therefore when determining the sample size we need to consider the expected error that will result to these differences. The other factor to consider is the margin of this error, this represents the maximum possible difference between the sample mean and the population mean. We consider also consider the standard deviation of the population, the reason why we consider the standard deviation is because we assume that the population assumes a normal distribution which is depicted by the central limit theorem that states that as the number of variables increase indefinitely then the variables assumes a normal distribution. For a clustered study there is need to consider the sampling design when calculating the sample size, we consider the number of clusters after calculating the sample size, after determining the sample size as shown above we multiply the results by the number of clusters, the results of this are then mu... n = [(1.96/2 . 6.9) /(0.4)] 2 n = 285.779 In this case therefore we will use a sample size n =286 derived from rounding off the figure into the nearest whole number. Cluster sampling: For a clustered study there is need to consider the sampling design when calculating the sample size, we consider the number of clusters after calculating the sample size, after determining the sample size as shown above we multiply the results by the number of clusters, the results of this are then multiplied by the an expected non response or error, example use 5%. After multiplying we then divide the results by the number of clusters to determine the number of n in each cluster. Example assumes that we have 10 clusters and we assume the level of error is 5% from our above results; the following will be the results: 285.779 X 10 = 2857.79 2857.79 X 1.05 = 3000.68 We will consider a 3,000 sample size and for each cluster we will have n = 300 Formula 2: The other formula that can be used is where we have the prevalence of the variable being studies, in this case for example we have a prevalence rate of 40% of a disease and we use the following formula: n = [Z2. x (1-x)]/ E2 Where Z is the confidence interval where if we choose 95% the area under the normal curve will be 1.96 E is the expected margin error and x is the expected prevalence of the variable being studied. Formula 3: Cochran (1963) formulated a formula that could be used in the calculation of the sample size in a study, the formula is as follows: n = (Z2 PQ)/ e2 Where n is the sample size, Z is the confidence interval, P is the estimated proportion of the attribute under study, q is derived from 1 - p and finally e is the precision level. He further stated that the above sample would further be

Answer 2 questions in form of essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Answer 2 questions in form of - Essay Example This is because the arguments between jurors makes others question their initial instincts which were formulated from actual case arguments, but now they are just arguing among themselves in a fight for achieving personal motives. Where once opinion was based on perceived facts of the case, quests for social dominance have changed facts to merely opinion which is impact whether the youth will get a fair trial. The idea that there are many interpretations of â€Å"the facts† is easily applied to real-life situations. For example, in the educational environment, teachers are responsible for dealing with interpersonal issues between different students at the same age level. In many situations, what the teacher is being told by each student is merely their own interpretation of what actually occurred. In order to make a decision, the teacher must realize that there is always more than just one side of the story and it might become necessary for research to decide what really occurred. A teacher could not give out reward or punishment effectively by drawing on student perceptions of fact. It would be better for the teacher to do first-hand investigation before coming to a decision. 12 Angry Men proved that civility will encourage your opponents to keep listening to you. In the movie, Jurors began to get frustrated by being unable to come to a mutual agreement about the youth’s guilt. Some people were strongly for their position of being not guilty while others simply wanted to come to some decision just to end the deliberations and go home. Juror #10 begins ranting ridiculously in a bigoted tirade, lashing out at others. This tirade makes everyone in the room stop listening to the Juror #10 and his reputation as a competent juror is damaged. Simply because people in the room did not agree with his position, one of the jurors lost their influence to coerce others in the group in order to reach a mutually-satisfying decision about the case. In real-life situations,

ECOMMERCE PROJECT MANAGEMENT Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

ECOMMERCE PROJECT MANAGEMENT - Essay Example The first challenge of project management is ensuring that a project is delivered within the defined constraints. The second challenge is the optimized allocation and integration of the inputs needed to meet those pre-defined objectives. (The Gale Group 2002) The goal of the project is to create the initial planning documentation required to be established for all contract negotiations. This will include: project title, sponsor, main stakeholders involved and their contact details, the project manager and major deliverables expected. The project will be designed under the following circumstances: The individual in charge of the project has been assigned as the Principal Consultant (of a 10 person team) to a new eCommerce project contracted by Brisbane City Council The goal of this person is to: 1. To create the initial planning documentation required to be established for all contract negotiations. This will include: project title, sponsor, main stakeholders involved and their contact details, the project manager and major deliverables expected. 2. The planning document will include a Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) that will be utilized for the project. The WBS will require identification of ALL activities & tasks in the project and their description; person[s] responsible for each task; estimated and/or actual cost of all tasks; phase of the project. Project scope simply refers to the size of the project in terms of what will be included and what will not. For the purpose of building a website for our imaginary online Halloween-goods business, let's say that our project scope will include: A Web site design 5 pages of content 1 contact-us form A Web store Now that we know the scope of our ambitious one-month project, in terms of what will be included and the time we have to complete it, I will brainstorm a list of things outside the scope of this project - the inclusion of these things (or anything else) outside the scope of your project would constitute what's called scope creep. Let's say that our project scope will not include: anything stored in a database Multimedia like video or Flash Automatic shipping/distribution ability (Hammer) Project: SV who needs "how-to" instructions for migrating from your current skills and applications to open standards-based skills and applications, you're at the right place! Our migration tracks guide you through the resources that will accelerate your migration from proprietary technologies to an e-business on demand environment. These resources include tools, technical articles, online tutorials, classes, forums, Web casts, customized services, and other forms

The Legality of the Police Stop and Search Powers

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

Essay on the Downfall of Man in John Miltons Paradise Lost

The classic tragedy Paradise Lost, written by John Milton, demonstrates how the fallen angels lose the paradise they have been given, and how this fall directly effects the downfall of man as well. Before anything ever was, all matter was chaos; utter darkness and filth. A mighty being, God, rose up out of chaos and created the firmament called Heaven, and all the universe (4). The angels, and archangels that populated Heaven, danced in the realms of the magnificent light (8). Lucifer, the highest archangel, stepped fourth and accused God of his power, jealously tying to take it from him. Almighty God cast him, and his followers out of the sublime realm. The fallen angels transcended back into the filth of chaos. This chaos being the exact opposite of paradise, Hell. This establishes how paradise was lost.    "To mortal men, he with his horrid crew Lay vanquished, rolling in the fiery gulf Confounded though immortal. But his doom Reserved him to more wrath; for now the thought Both of lost happiness and lasting pain Torments him; round he throws his baleful eyes, That witnessed huge affliction and dismay Mixed with obdurate pride and steadfast hate" (8).    God gave Lucifer the appearance of a serpent, and called that serpent Satan. Satan, unable to rise from chaos, built a palace that was called Pandemonium (5). Satan gathers a council of his fallen colleagues to further wage war against God in order to take Heaven.    "High on a throne of royal state, which far Outshown the wealth of Ormus and of Ind Or where the gorgeous East with richest hand Showers on her kings barbaric pearl and gold, Satan exalted sat, by merit raised To that bad eminence... ...econd edn. NY: Norton, 1993. Frye,   Northrop.   "The Return of Eden", Buffalo: Univ. of Toronto, 1965, 39-43 Kermode, Frank. Ed. "Adam Unparadised" in The Living Milton: Essays by Various Hands, London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1960. Lewalski, Barbara. Paradise Lost and the Rhetoric of Literary Forms Princeton: Princeton U. , 1985, 174. Lieb, Michael. Poetics of the Holy: A Reading of Paradise Lost. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1981. Lovejoy, Arthur O.   "Milton and the Paradox of the Fortunate Fall," ELH 4 (1937), 161-179. Mahood, M. M. "Milton's Heroes," in Alan Rudrum, ed., Milton: Modern Judgements, London: Macmillan, 1968, 262-63. Milton, John. Paradise Lost in The Portable Milton. Editor Douglas Bush, New York: Viking Press, 1977. Patrides, C.A. Milton and The Christian Tradition. (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1966)

Global Issues in Crime and Justice: The War and Genocide in Darfur

Global Issues in Crime and Justice The war and genocide in Darfur (Sudan) (2003-2010) The conflict in Darfur officially started in February of 2003 when a rebel group launched an attack on Golo. This rebel group refers to themselves as Sudan Liberation Army (SLA). Not long after, another Darfur rebel group arose, identifying itself as the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM). The uprisings from the rebel groups, however, did not draw immediate reaction from the Sudanese Government. The turning point for the conflict which led to a war was the raid on al Fashir air base by both the Sudan Liberation Army and Justice and Equality Movement.According to Daly, 2010, military planes and helicopter gunships were destroyed, vehicles and weapons were seized, soldiers were killed and the base commander was captured. The SLA and JEM continued their attacks in Tine, Kutum and Mellit in May 2003. After the attack, the Sudanese government carried out a counter-insurgency campaign by coordinating a à ¢â‚¬Ëœspecial task force’ , composed of Arab militia men named Janjaweed. The Janjaweed militia was backed by government troops. Their task was to attack the Africans in Darfur and destroy their villages.The bombing of villages, rape and mass killing became the means to destroy the Africans in Darfur. Those who survived were displaced from their homes and moved into displacement camps in Sudan. However, assistance provided to the African survivors were minimal, the humanitarian aid workers were aggressively pressured and it was difficult to bring food and medicine supply into the camps. According to Hagan and Rymond-Richmond in 2009, more than 200, 000 displaced persons were pushed over the border into refugee camps in Chad. On the other side, the amount of deaths in Darfur varied.In fall of 2004, World Health Organization (WHO) estimated 70,000 deaths within seven months since the beginning of the war. However, this estimate is likely to only involve people who died in and a round camps. On the other hand, the State Department’s Atrocities Document Survey (ADS) provided data on people who died in the attack but does not include people who died in the camps. To obtain a more accurate picture, Hagan and McCarty (2009) combined the WHO and ADS data. The result is at least 200, 000 people had died in Darfur and the amount could have reached to 400, 000.There were many parties involved in the war and genocide in Darfur but there were definitely only two sides. The first side is the rebel groups, they are Sudan Liberation Army and Justice and Equality Movement. The other side of the conflict is the Janjaweed and the government of Sudan and its troops. The Sudan Liberation Army (SLA) was first formed in 2002 by an alliance of Fur and Zaghawa with Abdel Wahid as its first chairman and Abdalla Abaker as its chief of staff. The SLA consisted of Zaghawa and Fur but their relation was sour.The inexperience leadership, disorganized infrastructure and tension and conflict within the SLA only made matters worse. By mid-2003, there were no longer communications made betwen the Zaghawa and the Fur resulting to division of the movement into two groups. After the death of Abdalla Abaker, Minnawi announced himself as the secretary general. There were then two factions of SLA – the SLA under Abdel Wahid and the SLA under Minnawi. The second group that entered the conflict in Darfur in 2003 was the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM). Its origin can be traced back to the mid-1990s.Having been marginalized, the Darfurians felt disappointed towards Islamist leaders in Sudan. The group consisted of mainly rebellious members of National Islamic Front in 1989. The JEM was formed in 2001 with Khalil Ibrahim as the leader holding the position of the chairman of the JEM. In response to the rebellion, the Sudanese government created a military force named Janjaweed which consisted of both Arab and Non-Arab groups. The Janjaweed became a ‘sta te security organs’ and the administrative system in Darfur became ‘military command’.They implemented a strategy where attacks would be made on African civilian in their towns and villages. Not only that, the Janjaweed was given a license to kill which allows them to kill and torture whoever they want with no limits imposed. The role of Sudanese government and its army would be to provide assistance to Janjaweed. This include from air support to cleaning up the crime scenes in Darfur. Despite the obvious proofs that genocide had taken place, the Sudanese government claimed that what happened was merely a counter-insurgency tactic to stop the rebellion and the blame was placed on the rebel groups.The rebel groups shared neither the same motivation nor the same goal. However, both SLA and JEM aimed to use armed rebellion as means to achieve their goals. For the SLA, the 1991 rebellion in Darfur convinced them to make changes in Darfur through armed rebellion. They were then motivated by the ideology of the ‘New Sudan’ and so were determined to make the ‘New Sudan’ as their goal. It was a concept suggested by Sudan People’s Liberation Army. It demanded a secular, democratic and decentralized government as well as equality in power and wealth.In contrast, the JEM was motivated by a document that was created in May 2000, The Black Book Imbalance of Power and Wealth in Sudan which gave a clear analysis of the underdevelopment of Darfur and the government’s lack of concern. The group’s goals were to call for ‘radical constitutional reform, regional empowerment and social democaracy’ excluding separation of state and religion. In contrast to SLA, their focus was on Sudan as a whole rather than solely on Darfur. The motivation behind the creation of Janjaweed by the Sudanese government was difficult to establish.The Sudanese government had repeatedly argued that its destructive behavior an d violent attacks on civilians were merely counter-insurgency tactics. However, it is believed that racial intent is used as motivating factor behind the destruction of African groups in Darfur . Daly in 2010 described that the goals of the Sudanese government as well as its troops and Janjaweed were to destroy settlements and property, evacuation of the land by killing the men, women and children or stigmatizing the women by raping them, and forced displacement of the survivors.There were many factors that may have caused the uprisings in Darfur however its immediate cause were the African’s experience of being marginalized, invaded, exploited and neglected. It is reasonable to believe that the factors which led to the formation of rebel group had also resulted to the occurrence of the first event in the war in Darfur: the uprisings. Among the factors were political and economic marginalization experienced by the Darfurians as described in the Black Book.The Sudanese governm ent did little attempt to help the economy of Darfur and the positions in government institution were mainly dominated by those from the Norths and Arabs. Another factor would be the increasing insecurity in Darfur caused by attacks on African villages carried out by Arab nomads. This was the main reason why the Zaghawa joined the Fur to form the SLA. The failure of the Sudanese government to solve the conflict between the Arabs and the African had resulted to a rebellion in 2003. The Sudanese government’s action escalated the rebellion turning it into a war and genocide.The government’s mistake was its failure to acknowledge the rebel groups and accept their demand. Furthermore, its decision to use the Janjaweed militia as a counter-insurgency tactic caused a creation of the ‘worst humanitarian crisis’. It is the way the Sudanese government reacted to the rebellion that based a basis of genocide in Darfur. Apart from the above factors, there were also oth er underlying factors that contribute to the conflict in Darfur. These factors existed long before the start of the rebellions in 2003.These factors include the drought in Darfur since the 1970s which caused a struggle of land and Arab supremacism in Darfur. Tensions between Africans and Arabs burst into violence when Darfur suffered from numerous droughts since the early 1970s. The increasing desertification had resulted to loss of produce, grazing land and livestock. This had caused conflict between the African farmers and Arab herders over territories and access to water. The droughts had forced the Arab herders to intrude on the lands of the African farmers causing a clash between them.The ethnic conflict was further intensified with the introduction of small arms that transformed the means of violence in Darfur. Favored groups were allowed to possess arms for the purpose of self-defense. Unfair policies were introduced to give legal protection to the Arabs and the policy itself undoubtedly showed favoritism towards the Arabs especially over matters relating to land. It is undeniable that the government had played a primary role in stimulating the ethnic conflict. In Darfur, the Arabs were often seen as superior to all others, which make those who are not Arab as inferior.The Arabs in Sudan dominated all aspect of life ranging from politics to social life. The relations between Arabs and Africans in Darfur became even tenser as the ideology of Arab supremacy led to ‘both the demonization and disenfranchisement of certain groups’ , in particular the Africans. One significant factor to include would probably be the disenfranchisement of Darfur. Darfur had been neglected by Sudan. Schools, medical facilities and the roads provided in Darfur were very minimal if compared to those provided in the north of Sudan.Even worst, there was no attempt to include the African in the politic and administration of Darfur or Sudan. The Africans have suffered di scrimination, prejudice and exclusion. These sufferings might have added to the conflicts that turned into rebellions and then war and genocide in 2003. The case of Darfur had frequently been labeled as crime against humanity due to the pattern of mass killing in Darfur. Maier-Katkin et al in 2009 presented a theory to explain the crimes against humanity. There are 6 suggested factors as to how crimes against humanity could have occurred.The first factor is the development of societal strain and anger depression. Secondly, the formation of primary group affiliations where tensions emerged between two groups- between the self and the other, or most commonly known as between us versus them. The third factor is the socialization and normalization of idea in the primary group. The next factor is the continuation of the previous factor, socialization of individuals into roles within the group makes them more incline to conform and follow orders from the authority.The fifth factor is that the possibility of the occurrence of crimes against humanity when there is a technique of neutralization. Lastly, where the target or victim is not threatening, crimes are easier to commit. In the case of Darfur, the second, third, fifth and sixth factor could be applied to explain the crimes of humanity committed against the Africans. Tension had developed between the Africans and Arabs long before the start of the war in 2003. The two groups had always clashed and thus satisfying the second factor.Secondly, the belief of the people in Sudan and Darfur is that Arabs are always superior to the Africans which make the African less valuable to the country. This idea had been normalized into the life of every person in Sudan. Not only that, technique of neutralization had clearly been used by the Sudanese government and the Janjaweed. Racial epithets expressed toward the Africans were commonly heard during the attacks. This is an act of dehumanizing the victims. The sixth factor refer s to the fact that the victims in the case of Darfur are civilian.They do not have the means to attack back and therefore no risk is associated with the perpetrators. Denials were used by the Government of Sudan in response to its Human Right violation. Stanley Cohen in 2001 presented 6 types of denial: denial of knowledge, denial of responsibility, denial of injury, denial of the victim, condemnation of the condemners, appeal to higher loyalty and moral indifference. It is possible that the Janjaweed and military forces of the Sudanese government had relied on the denial of responsibility and victim to justify their destructive actions.Whereas the Government of Sudan may have justified their action based on denial of knowledge, denial of victim and the condemnation of the condemners. Other than committing a crime against humanity, the Janjaweed had also committed crimes of obedience by following the order of Sudanese government to attack African civilian. No attempts were made to c hallenge the authority and the decision to obey was not done out of fright towards the government but was likely to be caused by hatred that developed between the ethnic lines. BibliographyCohen, S. , 2001. States of Denial. Cambridge University Press. Daly, M. W. , 2010. Darfur’s Sorrow: The Forgotten History of a Humaniatarian Disaster. 2nd ed. New York: Cambridge University Press. Flint, J. , Darfur’s Armed Movement. In: A. De Waal, ed. 2007. War in Darfur and the Search for Peace. Harvard University Press, p 140-172 Hagan, J. , Rymond-Richmond, W. , and Parker, P. , 2005. The Criminology of Genocide: The Death and Rape of Darfur, Criminology, 43(3), p 525. Haggar, A. , The Origins and Organization of the Janjawiiid in Darfur.In: A. De Waal, ed. 2007. War in Darfur and the Search for Peace. Harvard University Press, p 113-139 Hagan, J. and Rymond-Richmond, W. , 2009. Darfur and the Crime of Genocide. New York: Cambridge University Press. Maier-Katkin, D. , Mears, D. P. , and Bernard, T. J. , (2009) Towards a Criminology of Crimes Against Humanity, Theoretical Criminology 13(2) p 227-256 McCarty, B. and Hagan, J. , Counting the Deaths in Darfur Pitfalls on the Pathway to a Public Sociology. In V. Jeffries, ed. 2009. Handbook of Public Sociology.United States: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc. p 319-337 Tar, U. A. , 2006. Old Conflict, New Complex Emergency: An Analysis of Darfur Crisis, Western Sudan, Nordic Journal of African Studies, 15(3), p 406-427 Totten, S. , The Darfur Genocide. In: S. Totten and W. S. Parsons, ed. 2009. Century of Genocide: Critical essays and Eyewitness Accounts. 3rd ed. New York: Routledge. Tubiana, J. , A Conflict for Land? In: A. De Waal, ed. 2007. War in Darfur and the Search for Peace. Harvard University Press, p 68-91

Salem Witch Trials Essays - Salem Witch Trials, Witchcraft, Tituba

Salem Witch Trials Essays - Salem Witch Trials, Witchcraft, Tituba Salem Witch Trials Chadwick Hansen. Witchcraft at Salem. New York: George Braziller, INC., 1969. 252pp. Many people believe that the witch-hunt of Salem, Massachusetts in 1692, was based upon mere delusions of a few frightened teenage girls. Despite the popular viewpoint of many other historians, Chadwick Hansen's book, Witchcraft at Salem, offers a generally discarded point of view. He uses exhausted research and well-written material to argue that the events of 1692 were true signs of witchcraft. Hansen proves this thesis by elaborate descriptions of the girls who were afflicted and by extensive trial evidence. In many historical writings the girls that were afflicted by the witches were usually branded as liars, who were afraid of the repercussion of taking part in the craft. Hansen, however, takes the stand that the girls were, for the most part, believable. The convulsive fits were so grotesque that eyewitnesses agreed that it was impossible for the girls to be acting (1). The girls were believed above all others because the courts could not bear the thought that the fits and loss of memory, appetite, hearing, sight, and speech were false. Hansen goes on to describe the torment that the girls faced. They felt themselves pinched and bitten, and often there were actual marks upon the skin (1). Hansen's ability to describe to the girl's afflictions in such detail lends the reader to believe that actual witches caused the torture of the girls. For markings to appear upon the skin of the girls, where nothing physically had touched their skin, Hansen concludes that it could only be a result of supernatural beings. Hansen's well-researched trial evidence is a very convincing argument. He presents the reader with numerous cases and the process each went through. There were two cases unparticular as to which Hansen writes about explicitly. He writes of a maidservant, Tituba, and of a woman of the community, Dorcas Good. Both Tituba and Dorcas Good admitted to being involved in the art of witchcraft. Hansen uses these confessions and other numerous convictions for his basis that there was witchcraft in Salem. Fifty-two people were indicted for witchcraft, for which many of them were accused due to spectral evidence (205). Hansen relies greatly on spectral evidence as a basis for conviction, because for the majority of the time that was generally (if not only) all the evidence the court had to decide upon. The extensive sources Hansen cited for the foundation of his theory are historical writings. Many of the works he cited dated back to the late 1600's and early 1700's; however there are some that were as recent as the 1960's. There is a wide variety of material, with over 175 sources cited. Hansen went to great lengths to ensure that the material was accurate. He took a year off from teaching at Pennsylvania State University, and traveled to the Massachusetts area to work with more desirable information. His sources were well documented and extensively researched. There were witches in Salem, however there were not a significant number. Some of the girls were acting out of fear of the consequence of their actions in the craft. He has provided much evidence on many different trials but failed to point out a significant number of confessed witches. His weighty reliance on spectral evidence, as support to the convictions of the accused women, is a serious misjudgment. Furthermore spectral evidence was later viewed as an unreliable source due to the Devil's ability to impersonate anyone. The witch trials were an important event in Puritan society; however, it is hard to believe that among such a small number of people, there were a significant number who practiced witchcraft. Furthermore, medical knowledge of seizures and their cause was little known at this time. This avenue of thought would have enlightened known physical actions of the women. Lastly the Puritan religion was a strict religion with some fanatic beliefs which can cause people to m anifest ideas in their thinking. Hansen's work on the trials proves that a few people practiced witchcraft, however, that could not have true of fifty-two people

Forecasting Canadas GDP Essays

Forecasting Canadas GDP Essays Forecasting Canadas GDP Essay Forecasting Canadas GDP Essay Two recessions can be observed from the Time Series plot from above, one in 1980 lasting up until 1982. The other recession was in 1989 lasting for 3 years till 1992. Canada had changed from a country producing and exporting mainly primary products to one that is increasingly producing and exporting manufactured goods. In the 1980s, machinery and equipment joined automotive products among the countrys leading exports; at the same time, the importance of natural resource product declined. Canada was hard hit by the recession of the early 1980s, with interest rates, unemployment, and inflation all running higher than in the United States. The effects of the recession on minerals and manufacturing were especially severe. By the end of 1982, all mining operations in the Yukon were closed, and throughout the country, more than 70,000 of 115,000 miners were unemployed. The economy recovered during the mid-1980s, and Canadas economic growth rate was amongst the highest of OECD countries during 1984-86. The recession of the early 1990s was an economic recession that hit much of the world in 1990-91. The Canadian economy had been affected by the gulf war. A Value Added Tax, the free trade agreement with the U.S and a tight monetary policy that culminated in a serious recession. The recession that occurs in the third quarter of 2008 was another economic recession that hit most of the world. : Between the third quarter of 2008 and the third quarter of last year, the countrys real GDP in Canada fell 3. 3 per cent, compared with 3. 7 per cent in the United States and bigger declines in Europe and Japan. 3 The Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in Canada expanded 0. 30 percent in the third quarter of 2010 over the previous quarter. From 1961 until 2010, Canadas average quarterly GDP Growth was 0.84 percent reaching an historical high of 3. 33 percent in December of 1963 and a record low of -1. 80 percent in March of 2009. Canadas economy is diversified and highly developed. Measures of Forecasting Errors The mean absolute deviation (MAD) measures forecast accuracy by averaging the magnitudes of the forecast errors (the absolute value of errors). The MAD is the same in the units as the original series and provides an average size of the miss regardless of direction. Equation 1: Mean Absolute Deviation MAD= The mean squared error (MSE) is another method for evaluating a forecasting technique. Each error or residual is squared; these are then summed and divided by the number of observations. This approach penalizes large forecasting errors, since errors are squared. This is important as the technique that produces moderate errors may well be preferable to one that usually has small errors but occasionally yields extremely large ones. Equation 2: Mean Squared Error MSE= The mean absolute percentage error (MAPE) is computed by finding the absolute error in each period, dividing this by the actual observed value for that period, and averaging these absolute percentage errors. The result is then multiplied by 100 and expressed as a percentage. This approach is useful when the error relative to the respective size of the time series value is important in evaluating the accuracy of the forecast. The MAPE is especially useful when the Yt values are large. The MAPE has no units of measurements (it is a percentage) and can be used to compare the accuracy of the same or different techniques on two entirely different series. MAPE cannot be calculated if any of the Yt are zero. Equation 3: Mean Absolute Percentage Error MAPE= To determine whether a forecasting method is biased (consistently forecasting low or high). The mean percentage error (MPE) is used in these cases. It is computed by finding the error in each period, dividing this by the actual value for that period, and then averaging these percentage errors. The result is typically multiplied by 100 and expressed as a percentage. If the forecasting approach is unbiased, the MPE will produce a number that is close to zero. If the result is a large negative percentage, the forecasting method is consistently overestimating. If the result is a large positive percentage, the forecasting method is consistently underestimating.

Literacy Narrative Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words - 2

Literacy Narrative - Essay Example I couldnt stop figuring out how it could be if I won in a foreign land, and was branded the best singer of the year. I was very determined to win and, therefore, I dedicated myself and spent sleepless nights practicing. The song was quite challenging since it was not easy to translate all the words. I kept on forgetting some parts of the song, and I had to refer to my script uncountable times. Giving up was not an alternative; I had to win thee challenge. One month prior the talent show day, I sacrificed having fun with my friends and visiting the gym. I utilized this time to perfect my presentation. Finally, the long awaited day came. After class that day, I rushed to my room to freshen up. I dressed to the occasion and started the journey. My family had travelled to cheer me as I presented. We drove to the venue, my younger brother and mom sang the song all the way. This assisted me since I was able to grasp every word as they sang. My father helped me that my effort would be rewarded, and I would win. We arrived, and my family went to the audience hall when I joined the other contestants. The contestant looked so sure of themselves, and this made me feel nervous. Their mastery for English was very good, and they were so eloquent in their presentation. My dads words lingered at the back of my mind, and this encouraged me. I was the second presenter, and as the first presenter left the stage, there was a loud applause. I was nervous and wondered whether the audience would applause me. As I marched forward to the stage, I spotted my mother from the crowd. There was very much pri de in her eyes, and I heard an inner voice say, "Time has come. Make your mother proud." I stood behind the microphone and held my guitar tighter. This time, I was very composed and sure of my eloquence. I started the song and amazingly, I did not forget even a single word. It seemed as if English was using my native language. The judges starred at me with

Emily Dickinson Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words - 1

Emily Dickinson - Essay Example This piece is fundamentally significant and is named first as it is written in such a way that it capably yet briefly discusses virtually any and all things relevant to life on this earth. The very first line ushers the reader into an immediate mixture of nouns representing it seems, everything taking place in the world all at once, â€Å"Forms, qualities, lives, humanity, language, thoughts†(Whitman, 1). Discussing this poem first lays the groundwork for the integration of 11 other poems which utilize imagery and monologue within the same or similar context. The next poem chosen to compose this project is titled Adam Means Earth by Samuel Menashe. This poem discusses the name ’Adam’ which is given to the biblical character introduced in Genesis, who essentially is the origin of mankind. By returning to the very beginning of time based on biblical lure, the poet manages to devise a foundation which encompasses all things as he alludes to the fact that the very name ’Adam’ translates to earth. The vivid contrast of earth, or the physical sum of all things, against the backdrop of a disembodied name which is far removed from tangibility, allows the reader to derive an essential meaning based on physical existence and spirituality on a fundamental level. The poet is able however, to remove the ideology of religion and still utilize biblical reference and imagery. He uses it to his advantage and it works well. Continuing with the theme of an elemental approach routed in earthy language, the poem entitled A Chagall Postcard written by Peter Porter, begins with a personification of the ’night’ drawing a similar connection between the physical and the intangible or disembodied idea of something such as the case with Menashe’s ’Adam’ compared to earth itself and Whitman’s first line coupling of pieces of life as we know them and tangible existence. Porter begins the piece with â€Å"The