Singapore and Its Legal System Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Singapore and Its Legal System - Essay Example Some of their beliefs have influenced the way the country handles issues to do with discipline and the respect for nature, and has differentiated Singapore’s laws and rules from those of other countries like Australia. People say that Singapore has fine cities because of their fines, but it is really more of common sense and good etiquette. Tan (2007), highlights that â€Å"the most powerful judicial institutions in Singapore is made up of Supreme and subordinate courts†. The president does appointment of judges in Singapore, and the prime minister recommends other judges after consultations with the chief justice. Specialist judges were appointed to the bench in the year 2006, drawn from legal practitioners and academia with an aim of supplementing expertise to the subordinate courts (Tan & Chan, 2007). However, since 1992, capital offences trials have been heard and addressed by a single judge after amendment of the constitution. Capital punishment is still legally in force in Singapore, and offenders are executed according to the laws of the land. The United Nations terms the executions in Singapore to have the highest rates in the world, which are executed by hanging at down on Friday. The practice of capital punishment in Singapore was borrowed from Britain since Singapore was a British colony, and this is different from what other countries in Europe, America and Australia do(Tan & Chan, 2007). The legal system in Singapore includes the common law and higher courts decisions are binding to other less status courts. The judiciary system is made up of â€Å"the court of appeal, the high court, the constitutional tribunal, the subordinate courts, the district and magistrates’ courts, the small claims tribunals and the family courts† (Tan & Chan, 2007). â€Å"The court of appeal is the highest court,† and is mandated to hear civil and criminal appeals, which come from the high court and other subordinate courts (SamSim, 2007 ). The high court in Singapore comprises of judges who have security of tenure and contracted judicial commissioners. The high court in Singapore has powers to hear civil and criminal cases and their appeals. In addition, the high court has specialist roles of specializing in arbitration cases. The constitutional tribunal was founded in the Supreme Court with jurisdiction of hearing cases and issues that the president refers on the effect of provisions of the constitution (SamSim, 2007). All other courts and small claims tribunals in the country make up the subordinate courts. In addition, there are criminal and commercial civil courts that were established under the subordinate courts and they deal with business transactions and complex cases (SamSim, 2007). The district and magistrates’ courts both have equal powers over jurisdictions such as claims on debts, damages, and monies recovery actions. Their difference is on the monetary limits jurisdiction of each, and the power s on criminal sentences. The small claims tribunals are courts that have jurisdiction on small claims cases with $ 20,000 limits, and they offer faster and cheaper administration of justice (Tan & Chan, 2007). Finally, there are family courts which have jurisdiction on divorce, maintenance child and property custody and adoption cases. There are various laws and rules observed in Singapore in order to avoid legal actions and penalties. However, some of these laws and rules are

What is faith Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

What is faith - Essay Example In many cases, faith becomes the equivalent of what we call a "world view," a context or framework within which life can be lived. The world view need not be optimistic, as it is above. Faith now includes trust and reliance on an authority, even though all the experience of the speaker suggests that the authority is wrong. The extent of the trust has now been enlarged. The evidence that a compass offers has a high degree of assurance behind it; compasses do not lie, cheat, change their minds, or get fooled very often. There is greater risk involved in this kind of faith, for it is trust in a person. Trust (and risk) has now been further enlarged (Cimino, Latin 2001). The same thing happens when a person (a) undergoes anesthesia and surgery, (b) sits in the back seat of a moving vehicle, (c) eats a meal someone else has prepared, (d) marries, (e) shares a secret. These random examples cumulatively begin to tell us something about the meaning of faith as we ordinarily use the word, and what they tell us will be useful when we develop a working definition. Faith clearly has some sort of content, drawn out of our own experience or out of the common experience of the past, and our engagement with it involves us in varying degrees of commitment to that content, involving both trust and risk. Consequently we act on the basis of the degree of trust we possess: we continue the lab experiments, we endure dungeon, fire, and sword, we sail north-northeast, we buy the painting, we stay out of the airplane, we remain confident in the space capsule. There are many number of ways to argue that faith must lead to action, that action is the proving ground of faith, and that what we affirm in our hearts or minds is not truly affirmed until it is translated into deed. Those who say love and who live hate are not only denying their neighbors but negating their affirmations as well. Better still, they are demonstrating what their true affirmations are, when put to the test (Dennett 2006). The incident is instructive in many ways, not least for indicating that it often takes someone else to confront us with the kind of challenge that puts our faith to the test and insists that we act upon it. In religion, faith plays a special role determining the course of actions and moral behavior of followers. In religion, faith is associated with God and his divine power. To believe in God is to believe that he is on the side of the oppressed, which means in turn that the believer must be on the side of the oppressed unless he wishes to deny his belief. The struggle for faith involves him in faith for the struggle. Faith for the struggle, involvement in the concerns of love and justice, vindicates the ongoing struggle for faith. For religious believers, faith and action become virtually indistinguishable from one another; a key word is "praxis" (Dennett 2006) reflection and action to transform the world. In religion, faith symbolizes universal knowledge and truth. Faith can be described as "God's benevolence," his goodwill toward his children (Dennett 2006). This is not merely a psychological insight propounded to protect mortal men from prideful assertions that they can create faith themselves or work their way up into God's presence by dutiful striving. Rather, the recognition that faith is a gift is one of the consequences of the content of this particular kind of faith. The nature of this particular promise is that it comes to us in personal terms, in a life to which we can make response. It comes to us, more importantly, in a

Reforms in the Constitutional Reform Bill

Reforms in the Constitutional Reform Bill Will the reforms in the Constitutional Reform Bill achieve the aims set out in Lord Falconer’s statement of 26th January 2004? The Constitutional Reform Bill is the illegitimate progeny of the botched Cabinet reshuffle of June 2003 which led to the hasty removal of Lord Irvine and the appointment of Lord Falconer as Lord Chancellor with a mandate to abolish himself! Its principle limbs are: The abolition of the Judicial Committee of the House of Lords and its replacement by a new Supreme Court (separating Legislature and Executive); The establishment of a Judicial Appointments Commission to assume the functions of the Lord Chancellor in the appointment of judges (separating Judiciary and Executive) The abolition of the post of Lord Chancellor (separating Legislature, Executive and Judiciary). It is highly doubtful whether the proposed reforms will achieve Lord Falconer’s stated aims principally because the intended changes are susceptible to the colloquial criticism, â€Å"If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it!†. It has to be admitted that the current role of the House of Lords in the judicial process is an historical anomaly. The Judicial Committee is the ultimate appellate court in the UK and Commonwealth but it continues to sit in the Palace of Westminster. More controversially, its members remain an integral part of the second legislative chamber. This has led to the apparently plausible criticism that the arrangement represents a breach of the doctrine of separation of powers and gives rise to the populist criticism that the Law Lords are making laws which in their judicial capacity they will then have to interpret and enforce. In reality, their Lordships have proved to be scrupulous in refraining from debate where this is likely to generate a conflict of interest between their judicial and legislative roles. The Government’s stance is that complete separation between politicians and the judiciary is essential in order to maintain public trust and it is sought to emphasise this di vision by the relocation of the ultimate appeal court to a new and doubtless stratospherically expensive building. This is costly window dressing. Nowhere in the current debate is there any compelling evidence of public disquiet at a system that has endured without significant criticism of this type for centuries. Further, Lord Woolf, the most senior judge in England and Wales has condemned the proposal as exchanging a first class final appeals court for a second class supreme court. The Supreme Court of the USA is extolled as a role model but it is conveniently forgotten that the proposed UK Supreme Court would not possess the power of its transatlantic cousin to strike down legislation and will therefore be bereft of much of the influence of the latter. At best a great deal of money will be spent in replicating for all practical purposes the existing set-up. Far from endorsing the independence of the new court, Woolf fears that it will reduce the judiciary to â€Å"a department o f the Home Office† as a result of becoming answerable through the Department of Constitutional Affairs. This reform may be regarded as a product of the political dogma which dictates the dismantling at all costs of the ancient structure and operations of the House of Lords. The proposal to establish a Judicial Appointments Commission while not similarly politically motivated is equally flawed in its present form. Traditionally the Lord Chancellor is the head of the judiciary and responsible for the appointment and supervision of judges. Admittedly there has been criticism by the public and, in particular, members of the legal profession of the process of appointing High Court Judges with allegations of â€Å"secret files† and a lack of transparency in the recruitment process. It cannot be denied that the Lord Chancellor (at the very latest upon appointment) becomes a career politician with a seat in the Cabinet and thus at the very heart of the government of the day. While this is apparently unsatisfactory, criticisms of judicial appointments do not contain allegations that they are driven by party political considerations. This is in stark contrast to the position in the USA where appointments to the Supreme Court are in the gift of the Presiden t and there is intense interest in and scrutiny of the political composition of the court. In a lecture to the UCL Constitution Unit in November 2003, the Chairman of the Bar of England and Wales, Matthias Kelly, QC, expressed concern at the proposed operational structure of the Commission. He argued that it should be â€Å"a non-departmental public body with a supporting agency† accountable to Parliament for its activities but not specifically accountable for the selection of particular individuals. There is a danger that scrutiny of the activities of the Commission may become akin to unseemly American-style confirmation hearings. The DCA Consultation Paper, Constitutional reform: a new way of appointing judges, (July 2003) suggests that â€Å"the Commission should be a recommending Commission, putting up a short-list of candidates for appointment to the Secretary of State†. It is hard to understand how the involvement in this way of the Department of Constitutional A ffairs would assuage the supposed public concern at political involvement in the judicial appointment process. Every discussion of separation of powers in the UK constitution (Legislature, Judiciary and Executive) highlights the anomalous position of the Lord Chancellor who (with remarkable physiological ingenuity!) maintains a foot in all three camps. It has to be conceded that given the strict prohibition of judges holding party political affiliations, the sight of a member of the government of the day dispensing justice in the ultimate appellate court is incongruous. This is a major reason why it was proposed to replace the Lord Chancellor with a Secretary of State for Constitutional affairs and remove him from the House of Lords and, in particular, its judicial function. However, again the necessity for this is questionable. Even Lord Hailsham a thoroughly political animal appeared to manage appropriate detachment from the political imperatives of the day when giving judgment in the House of Lords. It now seems that we are to retain a Lord Chancellor but that he need not be a Law Lord o r even a lawyer. Enter a rehabilitated former Home Secretary perhaps? Bibliography BBC News, Lords Inflict Supreme Court Blow, 9 March 2004, www.news.bbc.co.uk BBC News, Q A: Supreme Court Row, 9 March 2004, www.news.bbc.co.uk Constitutional Reform Bill, www.publications.parliament.uk DCA, Constitutional Reform: a new way of appointing judges, July 2003 Elliott, C. Quinn, F., English Legal System, (4th Ed., 2002) Kelly, M., QC, Where are we heading with Constitutional Reform?, Lecture to UCL Constitution Unit, 18 November 2003 The Guardian, Q A: the constitutional reform bill, 8 March 2004 www.dca.gov.uk www.gnn.gov.uk 1

Guess Jeans E-commerce :: GCSE Business Marketing Coursework

Guess Jeans Ecommerce Guess?, Inc. designs, markets, and distributes clothing apparel and accessories for men and women. It was created by three brothers, known as the Marciano brothers who grew up in Southern France. Maurice Marciano oversees the company’s design direction, Paul Marciano is the Co-Chairman and Co-chief officer, and Armand Marciano is the Senior Executive Vice President . They were inspired by the American western tradition to begin the clothing designs of Guess ?. After Bloomingdale’s agreed to purchase two dozen of their jeans as a favor they were sold out with in hours. That’s when, in 1981, the official Guess ? label was born, and would become one of the most recognized brand names. Guess ? uses historical trends within the market to develop a sales plan for designs and as a guide to the number of sales per garmet. With the sales plan in mind they seek out the best quality product at the best possible price. Once the materials are gathered the cost of the item is determined. Including manufacturing labor, fabric, trims, and various other details included in the production of the clothing a rough cost is agreed upon. After the cost is found Guess ? then determines on a style merchandising cost, which is based on raising or lowering prices to maximize sales and profits. As of today Guess ? has product licenses all over the world. Also it has distributors in North America, South America, Europe, Asia, Africa, and Australia. Guess ? can be found in many department, retail, specialty, and factory stores and as of January 1995 online. Guess’s ? online store is created in Los Angeles, were its E-Commerce department is located. Their responsibility is to create texts, graphics, researches of new technologies, and track online sales. The Guess?.Com website is updated every two to three months so the most accurate information is always available to consumers. On the Guess ? website they support electronic security clearly stated at the bottom of the page. They have security measures set up to protect the consumer from any loss or misuse of information under their control. Credit card information and sign-in passwords are always stored in an unreadable, encrypted format. Also, the site is protected by a multi-layer firewall based security system. So any consumer information personal or not is well protected. Guess Jeans E-commerce :: GCSE Business Marketing Coursework Guess Jeans Ecommerce Guess?, Inc. designs, markets, and distributes clothing apparel and accessories for men and women. It was created by three brothers, known as the Marciano brothers who grew up in Southern France. Maurice Marciano oversees the company’s design direction, Paul Marciano is the Co-Chairman and Co-chief officer, and Armand Marciano is the Senior Executive Vice President . They were inspired by the American western tradition to begin the clothing designs of Guess ?. After Bloomingdale’s agreed to purchase two dozen of their jeans as a favor they were sold out with in hours. That’s when, in 1981, the official Guess ? label was born, and would become one of the most recognized brand names. Guess ? uses historical trends within the market to develop a sales plan for designs and as a guide to the number of sales per garmet. With the sales plan in mind they seek out the best quality product at the best possible price. Once the materials are gathered the cost of the item is determined. Including manufacturing labor, fabric, trims, and various other details included in the production of the clothing a rough cost is agreed upon. After the cost is found Guess ? then determines on a style merchandising cost, which is based on raising or lowering prices to maximize sales and profits. As of today Guess ? has product licenses all over the world. Also it has distributors in North America, South America, Europe, Asia, Africa, and Australia. Guess ? can be found in many department, retail, specialty, and factory stores and as of January 1995 online. Guess’s ? online store is created in Los Angeles, were its E-Commerce department is located. Their responsibility is to create texts, graphics, researches of new technologies, and track online sales. The Guess?.Com website is updated every two to three months so the most accurate information is always available to consumers. On the Guess ? website they support electronic security clearly stated at the bottom of the page. They have security measures set up to protect the consumer from any loss or misuse of information under their control. Credit card information and sign-in passwords are always stored in an unreadable, encrypted format. Also, the site is protected by a multi-layer firewall based security system. So any consumer information personal or not is well protected.

International Marketing Concepts Essay

How does the â€Å"standardized versus localized† debate apply to advertising? Communication takes place only when the intended meaning transfers from the source to the receiver. This can be a problem when a standardized approach is used. The message is not able to get through to the receiver due to different reasons such as lack of knowledge of the audience. There are people who feel an advertisement can be used anywhere in the world due to the converging tastes and preferences. The â€Å"standardized verses local debate† is very important in analyzing when advertising internationally. A standardized approach may be misinterpreted and/or misunderstood by certain cultures when the message is not altered to their values and beliefs. On the other hand, an advertisement using a localized or adaptation approach is able to reach a particular audience by portraying a message that is understood and comprehended. A localized approach is only meant for a particular audience so i t may cost more and it is not able to be used anywhere else. 3.) What is the difference between an advertising appeal and creative execution? The audience appeal is the communications approach that relates to the motives of the target audience. For example, ads based on a rational appeal depend on logic and speak to the audience’s intellect. Rational appeals are based on consumers’ needs for information. In contrast, ads using an emotional appeal may tug at the heartstrings or tickle the funny bone of the intended audience and evoke a feeling response that will direct purchase behavior. Creative execution is the way an appeal or proposition is presented. There can be differences between what one says and how one says it. There are a variety of executions including straight sell, scientific evidence, demonstration, comparison, testimonial, slice of life, animation, fantasy, and dramatization. The responsibility for deciding on the appeal, the selling proposition, and the appropriate execution lies with creatives, a term that appli es to art directors and copywriters. 5.) When creating advertising for world markets, what are some of the issues that art directors and copywriters should take into account? Art directors are in charge of choosing graphics, pictures, type styles, and other visual elements that appear in an advertisement. They must make sure that visual executions are not inappropriately extended into markets. For example, when I was in Europe I saw commercials for beer brands where the actors/actresses  were drinking the beer. In the United States, it is against the law to show people actually drinking beer in the commercial. Copywriters are language specialists who develop the headlines, subheads, and body copy used in print advertising and the scripts containing the words that are delivered by the talents in broadcast ads. A copywriter needs to be able to think in the target language and understand the consumers in the target country. A copywriter has the responsibility of accurately putting a message into writing that the target market is able to comprehend and understand. Both the role of the art director and copywriter have important roles in order for an advertisement to be successful. 7.) How does public relations differ from advertising? Why is PR especially important for global companies? Public relations is the department or function responsible for evaluating public opinion about, and attitudes toward, the organization and its products or brands. Public relations personnel also are responsible for fostering goodwill, understanding, and acceptance among a company’s various constituents and publics. One of the tasks of PR is to generate favorable publicity. PR is also responsible for handling issues and complications that arise in the media around the world that involve their company/product/service. PR is not responsible for any advertising, rather using different outlets to handle public relations related activities. PR is vital for global companies as they serve many different roles. They are called upon to build consensus and understanding, create trust and harmony, articulate and influence public opinion, anticipate conflicts, and resolve disputes. There are many differences between PR practices around the world. 8.) What are some of the ways public relations practices vary in different parts of the world? Public relations are affected by cultural traditions, social and political contexts, and economic environments. There are different ways to communicate in developing countries versus communicating in the United States. In the United States, PR is increasingly viewed as a separate management function. However, in Europe PR professionals are viewed as part of the marketing department. China is a country that lacks strong public relations. They are not able to handle damaging media content and they are not able to publicly explain their views.

HR Case Study of Yamaha Motors

Change, in any organization is routed through it’s Human Resource Department. Thereare always disgruntled employees who complain that change has adversely affected them. There are employees who believe in status Quo and believe that if a system is working,there is no point in changing it. Escorts going out and Yamaha coming in was a change that influenced each other andevery employee working on all levels. Strangely though, the resistance to this majorchange and to all subsequent decisions taken to enforce the change was minimized,. Itonly depicts the success of the H. R. epartment in educating all employees. Change wasviewed as mandatory rather than optional. Employees were made to believe that theirfuture bread and butter depended upon the success of this change. Almost everyemployee understood the need for this broad change. There were some voices ofdiscontent regarding small details which had to be worked out. The H. R. department’srole in handling the entire proces s of change is summarized below : 1. Agreement with the Union : Escorts left behind a strong labour union which wasknown to use aggressive tactics to get it’s demand met.Yamaha suspended the oldagreement with the union and entered into a new one after taking over. Theagreement covered various aspects like pay packages, increments, working hours,leaves schedule etc. Yamaha also offered V. R. S. ( Voluntary retirement schemes)to those who did not wanted to continue with the organization. However, theattraction rate of labour and managers was very low. What Yamaha ensuredthrough was there are no dissatisfied employees in the organization.Yamaha knewthat workers will be facing a cultural change soon and only wanted thoseemployees who were ready and willing to accept change in it’s true spirit. 2. Training of employees in Japan : Not every employee looks upon training inJapan as an opportunity or value addition. Certain employees are reluctant toleave their families back in India for a period of 6 months. People used to thesocial and cultural environment of India find it difficult to adjust to a foreigncountry. The challenge for the H. R. Department was to motivate such employees.These employees were assured that their families will be taken care of. While trainees will receive salary for their work in Japan, their families will be a paid afixed amount periodically by the company during the [period of training. Securewit the knowledge that their families are taken care of, employees were motivatedto undergo training in Japan. 3. Networking with dealers : Yamaha is currently in process of networking all it’sdealer all over India. Dealers are seen as valuable channel partners and not meresupply chain members.The purpose of this online network queries on a perpetual basis. Dealers are encouraged to report all complaints, suggestions, ideas throughthis network. The network will also be used for online order processing. Prof . Nomita Kapoor Page 14 How Organizations Handle Change – Yamaha Motors India 4. Routing bills through Tedfel : Dealers were not happy with Yamaha routing it’sbills through Tedfel. Earlier, dealers were not asked to pay until the motor cycleswere actually sold. Now Tedfel only offered a 15 days credit period to the dealers.Presently, may dealers have already approached Yamaha and have asked to revertback to the old system. At the time of our research, the dialogue between thedealers and the company was still on. Yamaha still believes in the companyvalidity of hiring an outside agency for bill payments and wants to bring aroundthe dealers to its way of thinking. Yamaha has also followed the policy that Indian managers are best equipped to handleIndian work force. The Japanese presence in the H. R. department is bare minimum. Language barrier is a significant constraint in this regard.So, while the company boastsof presence of Japanese professionals in production, quality assurance and financed epartment, the H. R. department is still completely handled by their Indian counterparts. Reference: http://www. scribd. com/doc/2165100/Yamaha HONDA His employees soon came to understand that poor performance would not be tolerated. People recognized his total determination to succeed and to establish an engineering business. Honda was a true leader with vision and passion. He was sufficiently aware of his own managerial shortcomings. The employees called Honda ‘Mr.Thunder’ for his bursts of anger in answer to their mistakes. His employees loved him but they were afraid of his anger. Honda was not a perfect man. He admitted his mistakes: ‘When I look back at my work I understand I have made mistakes – many blunders, serious omissions. However, I am proud of my achievements. Although I made one mistake after the other, these mistakes and failures did not happen in connection with one and the same thing. ’ (Peters & Waterman 1982) As a transformationa l leader Honda tended to see the big picture, but not the details.Motivation is one of the major concepts of the human resource management. The research of motivation and its necessity for organization is closely connected with the Behavioral Management that arouse at the end of the Scientific Management era. Human resource management views an employee not as a machine but as a personality with its own goals and aspirations. The objective of managers is to build relationships in which workers would see themselves working with the manager, rather than working for a manager. Motivation can be defined as the process of arousing, directing, and maintaining behavior toward a goal.He points out that people are motivated to fulfill their needs. Companies view workers as being interdependent, meaning, managers cannot do their job without workers, and workers depend on their managers. Consequently, instead of management treating employees like machines, organizations should take a genuine in terest in the employee and help them reach their goals. Human resource management supposes that if employees are happier at work the production would increase. Soichiro Honda placed human initiative and attention to all workers on the first place.He tried to create a better environment for his employees, attract specialists and motivate them to do their work in the best possible way. Honda paid much attention to experimental work and did not accept attempts to control him or his corporation via the traditional caste system. He was the innovator and was against the hierarchy management structure: ‘On the whole, people work better if they are not forced and controlled. ’ (Peters & Waterman 1982) This thought is proven by psychologists and new styles of management are very effective and should be used by others.Honda understood that encouraging his worker’s personal development, their wish for self-actualization will bring him success in business. He was a passionat e person. Honda did not admit defeat and could risk everything he had achieved for the sake of his beliefs and ideas. He is the embodiment of persistence. Soichiro Honda was a man with modern mentality and readiness to risk in order to invent something new. He is the example of persistence, modesty, and the ability to see his own mistakes as the most valuable achievements.

Compare and Contrast Scientific Rationality and Religious Belief

Compare and Contrast Scientific Rationality and Religious Belief Free Online Research Papers Like worst enemies and best friends, there are between science and religion as many binds as ruptures/breaks whether approaching or separating them with shared similarities and contrasts. In a general way, science addresses to the observable and physical world understanding through rational thought, generating hypotheses and testing them by means of experimentation and scientific method. Conversely, religion concerns more with the invisible order that gives meaning to the visible world, demanding the acceptance of truth according only to faith and belief, whether proven or disproved. Although apparently contradictory they both share a similar end, understanding the surrounding world, through different abstract means, rationality or belief. But then to what extent do these means differ from each other? Doesn’t science entails a kind of â€Å"religious† belief in rationality and the validity of scientific rules and methods? And isn’t religion just a kind of metaphysical rationality that also systematizes and intellectualizes the world through meaningful â€Å"hypothesis†? The answer to these questions requires as much rationality as belief for each question entails multiple answers and each answer bears a new question, according to the psychological, historical, social and cultural lens through which one looks at the phenomena. Comparisons between science and religion are as divergent and varied as that amount of scholars concerned with it. For this reason, I’ll try to interpret some of these thoughts, drawing the affinities and collisions that link or exclude religion from science and vice-versa, and ideally reach or, at least, search for a personal meaning yet rooted in a kernel of doubt: Both gods and doubt are widespread, transversal (if not universal) aspects of culture, the result not of inbuilt processes but of the interaction between language-using human beings and their social and natural environment (†¦) this fact is part of the social universe that humanity creates for itself by the very use of language, a universe which re-presents experience in a totally transforming way and always contains a kernel of doubt. (Goody (1996):679) Faithfully rational or rationally faithful? The truth is that science is organized like any other discourse, on the basis of a conventional logic, but it demands for its justification, like any other ideological discourse, a real â€Å"objective† reference, in a process of substance. (†¦) Science accounts for things previously encircled and formalized so as to be sure to obey it. â€Å"Objectivity† is nothing else than that, and the ethic which comes to sanction this objective knowledge is nothing less than a system of defence and imposed ignorance, whose goal is to preserve this vicious circle intact. â€Å"Down with all hypotheses that have allowed the belief in a true world†, said Nietzsche. (Baudrillard, 1983: 114-115) In the beginning of the eighteen century the world assists to turbulent and agitated times where change and progress were the ruling words. A era of great revolutions with the collapse of monarchies and empires; a time of great social experience and intense intellectual curiosity; the sprouting of nation states, democracy and market economy, in short, an unstable and changing century woven by dramatic transformations, which altogether enlightened humankind by showing it paths hitherto obscured and unseen. It was in the Enlightenment that reason and rationality shone upon men and its history, giving birth to a new era of rationalisation, secularisation, mechanisation and market rationality. Several thinkers were debating the definition of this new era, and all of them shared the optimistic vision and utopian hope that things were infinitely progressing towards an ideal of unlimited improvement, driven by science and its rationality. According to Kant’s metanarrative, men would finally attain freedom through the exercise of scientific reason, which understood the phenomena of the natural world through the categories of understanding (Morris (1987): 56). He believed that in the earlier stage people find it easier to be told what to do instead of reason by themselves, and therefore they were ruled by kings, emperors or church leaders. At some point of the future, people would learn to exercise reason and religion would no longer determine people’s choices, because they would be able to make take responsibility by themselves and finally reach freedom. Later on Hegel envisions the demise of religion considering it as just an absolute idea, our imperfect way of knowing that we can be better, that is to say, a kind of vehicle through which humanity could contemplate the ideal aspired. And finally Nietzsche announces that â€Å"God is dead† and the world once enlightened begins to be â€Å"disench anted†, as Webber puts it, by the increasing systematization of religious ideas and concepts, the growth of ethical rationalism, and the progressive decline of ritual and â€Å"magical† elements in religion (Morris, B. (1987): 69). Without defining such a complex phenomena as religion, Webber notes that supernatural belief is primordial and universal since it is present in all early forms of society. He considered rationalisation as typical of western society and the core of modernity, inciting abstracts, calculative, logical and empirical ways of looking at reality. This rationality entails a â€Å"legal-rational authority† in industrial society whereby explicit, intellectually calculable rules and procedures are systematized and specified, and increasingly substituted for sentiment and tradition. (ibid: 68). The protestant Ethic and the spirit of Capitalism of Webber is a wonderful example of how rationality and faith might be more connected and complementary that contrary to each other. Here, he draws the elective affinity between certain forms of religious thought and certain kinds of economics structures and activities, namely the ascetic ethic of Protestantism and the intellectual rationality of capitalism: One of the fundamental elements of the spirit of modern capitalism, and not only of that but of all modern culture: rational conduct on the basis of the idea of the calling, was born (†¦) from the spirit of Christian asceticism.(†¦)For when asceticism was carried out of monastic cells into everyday life, and began to dominate worldly morality, it did its part in building the tremendous cosmos of the modern economic order.(†¦) Today the spirit of religious asceticism (†¦) has escaped from the cage. But victorious capitalism, since it rests on mechanical foundations, needs its support no longer. (Lambek (2002): 58-59) Differently from this individualism incited by a religious ethic, Durkheim emphasizes the social function of religion in binding people together in moral terms. Following the evolutionary assumption that to understand the whole organism you must first study each cell, Durkheim argued that a complex religion such as Christianity should first be studied from its most primitive and simple form – totemism. He found in totemism a notion of an impersonal power or force – the totemic principle – that was represented by a totem and its symbol as a way of categorising how the group fits in the â€Å"greater† world of nature. This symbolic object, the totem, recognised by everyone and evoked through ritual, unleashed a strong and powerful religious sentiment that linked people together as a group. Therefore, the totem is the emblem of the group who, through religious ritual, is exhilarated by a collective force giving them a belonging and secure feeling among them. The strength of this collective solidarity, created by religion, is perceived as an impersonal and external force that leads people to perceive it as God’s creation, when actually God is nothing but the clan/group itself, personified and represented into their imaginations in the visible and tangible form of the Totem: God is only a figurative expression of the society and, therefore, all social phenomena are religious in nature because they unify people around a symbol in moral terms. In this way, Durkheim thought religion was best understood as â€Å"metaphorical and symbolic† and that the concrete and living reality that it expressed was the social group. (Morris (1987): 119-120), which in turn leads us to its definition of religion as a unified system of beliefs and pratices relative to sacred things, that is to say, things set apart and forbidden, beliefs and practices which unite one single moral community called a Church, all those who adhere to them (†¦) religion must be an eminently collective thing(Lambek (2002): 46) Durkeim’s approach to religion, as a social phenomena with countable causes and implications, opposes to the intellectualists’ categorization of knowledge in evolutionary terms, for example, the evolutionary scheme drawn by Frazer that begins in magic, as a primitive science, followed by religion, considered a bad science and finally ending in science. This kind of categorization leads to discrimination of so called â€Å"primitive† tribes as irrational and in The Savage Mind, Levi-Strauss, following Durkheim’s thought, plainly argues against this ethnocentric view: Magical thought is not to be regarded as a beginning, a rudiment, a sketch, a part of a whole which was not yet materialised. It forms a well-articulated system, and is in this respect independent of that other system which constitutes science, except for the purely formal analogy which brings them together and makes the former a sort of metaphorical expression of the latter. It is therefore better, instead of contrasting magic and science, to compare them as two parallel modes of acquiring knowledge. (Levi-Strauss(1972): 13). Levi-Strauss concerns in demonstrate the systematical observational knowledge of the natural world within preliterate societies, which largely supersedes their organic or economic needs. Thus, religious thought is, like science, preoccupied with an intellectual understanding of the world but through different logics and applied to different types of phenomena: one is supremely abstract and relates to modern science and rationality, the other is analogical and supremely concrete and relates to magico-religious thought: (†¦) there are two distinct modes of scientific thought (†¦): one roughly adapted to that of perception and the imagination: the other at a remove from it. It is as if the necessary connections which are the object of all science, Neolithic or modern, could be arrived at by two different routes, one very close to, and the other more remote from, sensible intuition. (Levi-Strauss (1972): 15) He defines mythical thought as a kind of bricolage where the savage, in search for a meaning, builds up structures by connecting together the remains of the events which he restlessly orders and re-orders imprisoned in the events and experiences. Differently, science operates by creating means and results in the form of events through hypothesis and theories which are its structures: (†¦) the scientist creating events (changing the world) by means of structures and the â€Å"bricoleur† creating structures by means of events (Levi-Strauss (1972): 22) Although being imprisoned in the events mythical thought also acts as a liberator that refutes the idea, assumed by science, that anything can be meaningless. Agreeing with Levi-Strauss that symbolic mechanism is the â€Å"bricouleur† of the mind, Sperber, in Rethinking symbolism, proposes an alternative to semiological views of symbolism. He assumes that human mind has various forms of thought and distinguishes encyclopaedia knowledge, related to the concrete world, from the symbolical thought. Symbolical though is a universal feature of human mind, that deals with things outside the domain of our knowledge and experience; thus we resort to it when ordinary reasoning is insufficient like, for instance, towards the existence of God: it isn’t verifiable but we build a mental picture and construct hypothesis of what he is like. Thus, symbolical domain is like a reservation where we put things that are not certain for us, until such a time we may be able to decide whether it is true or not: (†¦) the symbolic mechanism does not try to decode the information it processes. It is precisely because this information has partly escaped the conceptual code (†¦)that it is, in the final analysis, submitted to it.(†¦) A representation is symbolic precisely to the extent that it is not entirely explicable, that is to say, expressible by semantic means. (pg113). In a way, symbolical thinking, on which all religion is based, is the second representation of a conceptual representation, i.e., the new object created by the symbolic mechanism when the conceptual one fails in integrating information into acquired knowledge. To this assumed objectiveness of conceptual and scientific knowledge opposed to the subjectiveness of symbolical thought, Bourdieu suggests that science is not as objective as it assumes to be. He legitimely asserts that, within the field of science, there are all kinds of social hierarchies and structures which decide what can be studied, what can be said, who is a legitimate scientist and who isn’t†¦thus, the objectiveness presumed by science is as conditioned to power relations as religion itself: Scientific thought has no foundation other than the collective belief in its foundations that the very functioning of the scientific field produces and presupposes. (†¦) finds its basis in the totality of the institutional mechanism ensuring the social and academic selection of legitimate scholars (†¦), the training of the agents selected, and control over acess to the instrument of research and publication, etc. (Bourdieu (1991): 8-9) While Bourdieu talks about the social side of scientific establishment and religion, Gell is more concerned about the human mind and how both magic and technology are rooted in a similar way of thinking. Defining technology as those forms of social relationships which make it socially necessary to produce, distribute and consume goods and services using technical processes (Gell (1988) : 6), Gell distinguishes different types of techonologies – productive, reproductive and of enchantment. This latter is like magic and exploits psychological biases so as to enchant the other person and cause him/her to perceive social reality in a way favourable to the social interests of the enchanter (ibid: 7). Like magic, technology is also enchanted since it derives from the idea of achieving something without any effort or labour, aiming to make everything magically easy; therefore, they are both rooted in the creative and playful side of human mind that imagines something that has never e xisted before and puts it into practice: It is technology which sustains magic, even as magic inspires fresh technical efforts. The magical apotheosis of ideal, costless, production is to be attained technically, because magical production is only a very flattering image of the production which is actually achievable by technical means. (Gell (1988): 9) So it is evident that also in our society, although purged from supernatural forces, new forms of magic exist, for example, advertising that mythologizes commodities with unlimited possibilities and inventions: And if we no longer recognize magic explicitly, it is because technology and magic, for us, are one and the same (Gell (1988): 9) Charles Taylor’s Rationality and Relativism also provides a very cultural relativist approach towards the rationality of science. He shows how science is a very peculiar and unique phenomenon rooted in particular traditions of thought and historical conditions. He makes us see how science, rather than religion, constitutes a bizarre outlook of reality, developed from the strange attempt to theorise the world and progressively separating ourselves from it. Thus, he concerns with knowing if there are valid, universal standards of rationality and to what extent can we make transcultural judgments of rationality. He defines rationality by a logical consistency and articulation of ideas which demand for an activity of theoretical understanding, inherent to Western’s legacy from ancient Greece: (†¦) we have a rational grasp of something when we can articulate it, that means, distinguish and lay out the different features of the matter in perspicuous order. (Taylor (1982): 90) By this preoccupation of describing the world through reasoning and creating a theoretical framework of comprehension we intend to achieve a â€Å"disengaged perspective†: We are not trying to understand things merely as they impinge on us, or are relevant to the purposes we are pursuing, but rather grasp them as they are, outside the immediate perspective of our goals and desires and activities. (†¦) we come to distinguish this disengaged perspective from our ordinary stances of engagement, and that one values it as offering a higher – or in some sense superior – view of reality. (Taylor (1982): 89) Therefore, by our own standards of a theoretical culture, we tempt to judge other cultures that show a complete disinterest of a theoretical knowledge from the world. But, as Taylor asks, ‘why must the universe exhibit some meaningful order (†¦)?†. There are simply different ways of engaging to the world: a theoretical way, through the scientific study of reality, and an atheoretical way, â€Å"in which we try to come to terms with the world (Taylor (1982): 97) and assume a meaningful order. The first, at the core of modern science, purges any expressive dimensions or meaningful order by the understanding laws of physical nature and its technological control; the second, underlying primitive magic, links together knowledge and wisdom, that is to say, understanding the world and attuning with it: Science could only be carried on by a kind of ascesis, where we discipline ourselves to register the way things are without regards to the meanings they might have for us. (Taylor (1982): 97) Before these differences one can make ethnocentric judgments of superiority arguing that western science and technology are more successful in mastering the world and attaining its aims, but it is also a fact that we have been made progressively more estranged from ourselves and our world in technological civilization (Taylor (1982): 103). Thus, whatever judgments of superiority are made, scientific rationality and magico-religious belief are, not only different standards of reality, but also incommensurable perspectives and activities. In a similar way, Tambiah questions the notion and limits of rationality itself and criticizes science for being a carrier of Western ideology that serves the interest of elite. In Magic, science, religion and the scope of rationality he concerns with the demarcation, differentiation and overlap of this different ways of understanding the world, offering a brief historical account from early Christianity to the nineteenth century. He starts by asking himself: How do we understand and represent the modes of thought and action of other societies, other cultures? Since we have to undertake this task from a Western baseline so to say, how are we to achieve â€Å"the translation of cultures†, i.e., understand other cultures (Tambiah (1990): 3) With this in mind, he criticizes the division between religion and magic, made by early anthropologists, arguing that it derived from the Judaeo-Christian and Greek thought biases, inherited by Western thought; so, since other religions lack this distinction, it is not fair to assume that religion and magic are separate. He notes that even the Greeks did not completely separate magic from science and religion because, although science arose from magical practices when people began to perceive nature and natural laws, instead of God, as the ground of all causality, they still believed that the divine principle pervaded all phenomena. Therefore, the evolutionary distinction of â€Å"religion† from â€Å"magic† is clearly political, for it supports racism and the discrimination of primitive cultures by western colonizers. In this way he notes the â€Å"faith† inherent to scientific rationality: A commitment to the notion of nature as the ground of causality, of nature as a uniform domain subject to regular laws, can function as a belief system without its guaranteeing a verified â€Å"objective truth† as modern science may define it. In other words, the appeal to â€Å"nature† or â€Å"science† can serve as a legitimation of a belief and action system like any other ideological and normative system. (Tambiah (1990): 10) Similarly to Taylor, Tambiah also regards to magico-religious practices and science as different attempts of people to act upon the world and change it, suggesting that they should be seen as different things with different goals and means to achieve them. Magic hasn’t the purpose to admit hypothesis and verify them, instead, it only makes symbolic statements that express the desired results; besides that, magical ritual cannot be disproved as scientific experiments. Thus, magic and religion rely on symbolic thought and action and have a particular and universal way of thinking analogical thought. Analogical thought is a kind of wishful thought, because it consists in observing a similarity between two things, make hypothesis according to that similarity and simply assume it instead of, like science, test it to find whether it is valid or not. Like Bourdieu, Tambiah also argues that magic and religion are not academic subjects but things that people do, therefore, they can only be understood within the context of people’s lives. In academia there are intellectual biases that tempt scholars to subtract things from practice and experience in order to exam them, but magical or religious beliefs are not meant literally, because they are non-literal symbolical and performative actions, related to cosmology and metaphysical concerns: The distinctive feature of religion as a generic concept lies not in the domain of belief and its â€Å"rational accounting† of the workings of the universe, but in a special awareness of the transcendent, and the acts of symbolic communication that attempt to realize that awareness and live by its promptings (Tambiah (1990): 16) Bourdieu also adverts to the social implications of a scholastic point of view, that determines and subdues our way of looking at a particular phenomenon, and entails a certain theoretical adjustment to the reality itself: Thus what (†¦)all those whose professions is to think and/or speak about the world have the most chance of overlooking are the social presuppositions that are inscribed in the scholastic point of view (†¦)the unconscious dispositions, productive of unconscious theses, which are acquired through an academic or scholastic experience(†¦) (Bourdieu (1991) : 381) Finally, he also suggests that science is not as objective as it assumes to be, asserting legitimely that, within the field of science, there are all kinds of social hierarchies and structures which decide what can be studied, what can be said, who is a legitimate scientist and who isn’t†¦thus, the objectiveness presumed by science is as conditioned to intrinsic power relations as religion itself: Scientific thought has no foundation other than the collective belief in its foundations that the very functioning of the scientific field produces and presupposes. (†¦)the totality of the institutional mechanism ensuring the social and academic selection of legitimate scholars (†¦), the training of the agents selected, and control over acess to the instrument of research and publication, etc. (Bourdieu (1991): 8-9) Overall, in spite of the lack of agreement between all these different perspectives and ideas, there is one thing that they all account for: how these cultural variations prove that religion still remains an essential facet of the human mind and how, far from being disenchanted, our modern world creates its own enchantments where religion, â€Å"re-semantized† in new contexts, remains an integral part of these multiple modernities. Conclusion: From this evidence, I tend to think that both science and religion are a way of giving sense to the world we perceive, that both result from the human demand for ordering and giving meaning to the apparent chaos of the world and both entail a kind of intellectual exclusion from the world in order to be included in it, through a distance that allows us to analyse and understanding it better, like we distance ourselves from a painting in order to contemplate it better. Nevertheless, scientific rationality tries to achieve this by changing the world and its surrounding nature, by mastering it according to the insatisfactions, desires and needs that disquiet human beings through a rational and systematical understanding applied in technology. Differently, religious belief achieves this, not by changing the external world, but instead by changing the world within ourselves, changing that same disturbing insatisfactions, needs and desires through a metaphysical and meaningful knowledge applied in a moral discipline. So, while the former tries to â€Å"tidy up† the exterior world by changing its disposition through knowledge of the external and physical order; the latter concerns in tiding up the interior world we perceive with knowledge of the interior and spiritual order. In short, while science and rationality leads us to master the world and modifying it to the shape of our needs, religion and belief teach us how to master ourselves and modify ourselves to the shape of the world we live in; the former revolutionizes, the latter conforms. Also, science tends to be more auto-destructive, in the sense that the emergence of a paradigm entails its surpassing by a new one, whereas religion, although suffering changes from a re-contextualization and â€Å"re-semanthization†, tends to an idealistic stabilization and immutability that, because it is disproved, excludes a constant testing and verification. Nevertheless, for all this reason it seems to me that religion and science are not as contradictory as they are complementary to one another, since a merely inner speculation can leads us to stagnation, while a merely outer one might increase infinitely our insatisfaction. By this I mean that it seems to be a preoccupant unlevelling between our scientific-technological development and our ethical-moral progression, since the former evolves at an incredibly fast pace that the latter not always follows. And I think dramatic events such as the ones assisted recently by terrorism are a clear prove of that. But even most illustrative for me is what happened in Hiroshima sixty years ago, which alarmingly shows how we, as human beings, might not yet be prepared to hold the incommensurable power that science and technology put uncontrollably at our disposal. Thus, I think it is crucial to think as Webber did of â€Å"science as a vocation† and questioning it as our rationality once di d with religion: Natural science gives us an answer to the question of what we must do if we wish to master life technically. It leaves quite aside, or assumes for its purposes, whether we should and do wish to master life technically and whether it ultimately makes sense to do so. (pg8) As Weber observes, science preoccupies itself with the field of techniques and technologies aiming to control life, rather then looking for its meaning. Science explains but lacks of significance, providing only a meaningless and disenchanted interpretation of the world on behalf of its rational understanding. Instead, religion entails the intellectual sacrifice of knowing without explaining, of believing on unconditional devotion on behalf of a meaningful knowledge. To this I add the notion that as religion entails this intellectual sacrifice so science entails a spiritual sacrifice of attuning with the world. Returning to the painting comparison, science can explains us every concrete detail of the painting materials, the exact way in which the painter moved his brush and the perfect examination of the canvas’s state but in this rational, analytical and systematical observation it failed the most important thing – to contemplate and passionately penetrate in its beaut y, perfectly understanding it instead of imperfectly explain it. What then is it more valuable and worthier: to know without believing or to believe with knowing? A meaningless explanation or a unexplained meaning? I think the answer is in between, where scientific rationality and religious belief blend with each other in a â€Å"faithfull† rationality that believes and a â€Å"rational† faith that explains – a â€Å"love poem† yet to be written in the history of humankind and re-enchant the world†¦ BIBLIOGRAPHY Christian Blog Site. 2007. Daily Shepherd – Christian Blog Site. dailyshepherd.com Baudrillard (1983) Simulations. New York : Semiotext[e] Bourdieu, Pierre (1991) The peculiar history of scientific reason Sociological Forum 6 (1) Bourdieu, Pierre (1990) The Scholastic Point of view in Cultural Anthropology 5 (4) (Nov.1990), pp. 380-391 Dan, Sperber (1974) Rethinking Symbolism Gell, Alfred (1988) â€Å"Techonology and Magic† in Anthropology Today 4 (2) : 6-9 Goody, Jack (1996) A kernel of doubt in The Journal of The Royal Anthropological Institute, vol.2, No.4 Levi-Strauss, Claude (1972) The Savage Mind, London: Weidenfeld Nicolson Lambek, M. (ed.) (2002) A reader in the Anthropology of Religion Oxford : Blackwell Morris, Brian (1987) Anthropological studies of religion: an introductory text New York : Cambridge University Press Tambiah, Stanley J. (1990) Magic, science, Religion and the Scope of Rationality Taylor, C. (1982) Rationality. In Rationality and relativism Hollis M. S. Lukes eds Weber, Max (2001) A à ©tica protestante e o espirito do capitalismo Lisboa : Editorial Presenà §a Research Papers on Compare and Contrast Scientific Rationality and Religious BeliefCanaanite Influence on the Early Israelite ReligionRelationship between Media Coverage and Social andComparison: Letter from Birmingham and CritoAnalysis Of A Cosmetics AdvertisementAssess the importance of Nationalism 1815-1850 EuropeThree Concepts of PsychodynamicEffects of Television Violence on ChildrenMind TravelResearch Process Part OneCapital Punishment

The power of the fist essays

The power of the fist essays * Black Power is a phrase that has instilled both pride and hope *into the souls of black people, while simultaneously striking fear into *the hearts of whites. 'No two words in contemporary American society have *been more controversial or misunderstood than Black Power' (Fager, cover). *This "misunderstanding" is what made the Black Power Movement so receptive *among African-Americans, but threatening to whites. After *African-Americans became disenchanted with the Civil Rights Movement, a *new concept rose to the forefront of black ideology. The Black Power *Movement began to reshape black consciousness during the mid-sixties, and *left an everlasting impression on American society. According to Maulana *Karenga, The Black Power Movement can be " divided into three basic *tendencies or thrusts: 1) the religious thrusts; 2) the cultural thrust; *and 3) the political thrust" (Karenga, pg.172). These three thrusts *united a mass of black people, who shared a common struggle, common *concerns, and a common consciousness. Throughout this paper I will *explore these indispensable components of The Black Power Movement, *focusing on each ones theories and contributions to the struggle for *economic, political, and social change. * The strong religious content within the Black Power Movement is *what really allowed this social movement to appeal to the masses. Without *this religious element, it is very difficult to assembly a mass movement. *A key component in the Movements success was its redefining of the current *world order and providing a moral justification for the struggle. At the *forefront of this new perspective was both Christian and Islamic *leadership. The most vocal religious leader during The Black Power *Movement was the Nation of Islam's' Malcolm X. Malcolm preached Elijah *Muhammads bold gospel, which painted God black and labeled *African-Americans as Gods cho...

Understanding Irregular -ER French Verbs

Understanding Irregular -ER French Verbs There are a lot of French verbs that end in -ER and there are a lot of irregular French verbs, but there is only one irregular -ER verb. However, there are three groups of -ER verbs that have some irregularities. One True Irregular -ER Verb Aller (to go) is the only truly irregular -er verb in French - its conjugations are unique and, according to some, very odd. Spelling Change Verbs Spelling change verbs  are verbs that end in -cer or -ger. Their stem formation and verb endings are the same as for regular -er verbs, but there is a slight spelling change for pronunciation purposes in certain conjugations. Stem-Changing Verbs Stem-changing verbs  are -er verbs that take the regular endings but have two different radicals. There are five categories of French stem-changing verbs: -yer, -eler, -eter, -e_er, and -à ©_er. -IER Verbs There is nothing actually irregular about the conjugation of -ier verbs - they are conjugated like regular -er verbs, but some of their forms look strange.

Chocolate's Bittersweet Economy Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Chocolate's Bittersweet Economy - Case Study Example Within international perspectives wherein trans-national organizations are at work, the situation may become more difficult as not directly controlling the stakes in various countries or rather at various steps of supply chain absolve most of the international organizations from their true responsibilities and accountabilities. This case study discusses some of the issues and concerns at child labor and how different stakeholders including large international importers of cocoa from Ivory Coast. The relative ethical considerations of each stakeholder and how they are contributing towards achieving the intended objectives of reducing or rather abolishing child labor from Cocoa fields is also discussed at great length. Issues discussed in the case study are diversified in nature and focus on multiple issues to provide a comprehensive understanding of the ethical issues surrounding the cocoa trade in Ivory Coast. Every government has the responsibility and moral obligation to provide basic necessities including clean water, health, education as well as safety of its citizens. The moral obligations of the government therefore require that it must act in a way which can ensure that every citizen has the access to basic and fundamental necessities. Government is a stakeholder in this case because it has to ensure that the children working in the forms are getting proper education as well as access to health. Further, government is also obliged to act on the international legislations barring child labor into the cocoa fields. It is also obligatory for the government to ensure that the taxes that it collects from the cocoa producers are spent on the development of physical infrastructure as well as other facilities such as building schools so that children can go to school besides a general improvement in the standards of living happens. Local suppliers serve as the middle men in this whole cycle and they are the entities which basically coordinate with the

Company Law case Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Company Law case - Essay Example In addition, a promoter is also expected to disclose any secret profits that he may have made in the process of promoting the company. This is illustrated in the case of Erlanger V New Sombrero Phosphates company limited (1878)2. In this case,Syndicate Erlanger purchased an island that was rich in phosphates at a price of 55,000 pounds; he later promoted a company and sold the sand island to the company he formed at 110,000 pounds which later failed. During the formation of the company, two of the directors were abroad while the rest had been nominated by Erlanger himself. When new directors took over the company, they filed a motion to rescind Erlanger. The court held that no proper disclosure on the sale was made and for this reason the company had a right to rescind the contract. Ricky is the individual who put everything together and saw to Ricky`s footwear becoming a legal company and is therefore the promoter of the company. He sold premises and stock and assets from his former business and made huge profits from the sales. The fiduciary duties that he owes the company would dictate that he discloses these profits. He however did not disclose them to either the members of an independent board or to all the new owners of the company as per the prospectus as was expected of him. For this reason, Ricky`s footwear limited has a legal claim against its promoter for making secret profits which is a breach of his obligations and it is therefore advisable that they pursue the matter in the relevant court of law. However, the company would not have had a case against Ricky had he disclosed the profits. In the event that Ricky`s footwear limited decides to file a motion against Ricky there are certain possible remedies that are available to the company at law should the court rule in their favor. These are: Under this remedy, the contract in question is reverted and relevant efforts are made

Exchange Rate Cooperation Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Exchange Rate Cooperation - Essay Example On the other hand, capital mobility hypothesis explains policymakers choice of exchange rate stability and monetary policy autonomy. Additionally, they explain European Community monetary policies congregated within Bundesbanks price stability standard. However, there are weaknesses in the development of the exchange rate cooperation. The weaknesses develop from the creation and evolution of exchange rate institutions and the policymakers’ ability in stabilizing exchange rates within the institutions. In solving these problems, domestic politics concerned with models of monetary policies and bargaining power needs to be developed. Exchange rate cooperation revolves around the dynamics of neoliberal institutions and capital mobility hypothesis. It is vital for the institution and capital mobility to have proper legislative in monetary politics to enable for the stability of exchange rate cooperation. In the book, Currency of Ideas and Monetary Politics, Kathleen R. McNamara argues that neoliberal consensus theory is not a function that directly raises capital; instead, it is the product of European political leaders’ interpretations of shared ideas (Kathleen 7). Additionally, an example of monetarist paradigm and German policy is used in explaining neoliberal consensus. Kathleen uses paradigms in explaining exchange rate cooperation across the world. Moreover, Kathleen argues that international economy shapes the terrain in which politics unfold. The interpretation of the structure and ideational processes dictate crucial choices of policy content and form. The book cautions against the making of assumptions about effects of economic interdependence on political results without tracing linkages of rising trade and capital flows. This uncertainty has very crucial consequences in the politics of monetary cooperation. Uncertainty obscures the distribution of effects in differ ences of exchange rate regimes (Kathleen 8). It has the high potential of depolarizing policy process by decreasing societal pressures for specific policies and insulating policymakers from public scrutiny.

An Organisational and Strategic Analysis of British Airways Essay

An Organisational and Strategic Analysis of British Airways - Essay Example British Airways realises its strong position on the international airlines market, however, its management is also well aware of the constant competition with other companies. Therefore, over the last decade we were able to follow the well-considered steps of the BA management aimed to hold the position of the company and advance it further of the airlines market. Let’s for example, investigate the technical advancement of the company. Realising that currently the market conditions remain for the greater part unchanged the management of BA decided to perfect in the technical perspective. Thus, Strategic Development British Airways began the expansion of the longhaul fleet of the company. The first step in this was the decision of purchase four Boeing 777-200 ER aircraft, which are supposed to make the first flights in early 2009. These technical advances aim to provide better competitive position of the company on the international market / About British Airways, 2007/. However, in this research I’m not going to dwell on the introduction of technical news and expansion of the air fleet of the company. Instead I would like to discuss the changes, which were introduced in the structure, organisation and management of the company, which are aimed to prompt the development and better performance of the company. British Airways realizes the necessity to improve its management and the qualification level of its employees. Therefore, I can say that BA is indeed able to foresee its future needs by identifying the skills and knowledge requirements to each employee and then match need with opportunity. British Airways views the work as a proper occasion to train its employees. In order to provide decent training and enable the employees to learn the company researches and develops new techniques) and seeks to obtain external

Case Study Denver International Airport (DIA) Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Denver International Airport (DIA) - Case Study Example Such changes may also delay completion of a project and inflate involved costs. This paper summarizes a case study on Denver International Airport in which the original plan that was formulated without incorporating stakeholders’ interest and ideas led to subsequent reviews of developed plan and consequences on the stakeholders. The paper also discusses relevant topics to the case and possible incorporation of the topics’ concepts into the case. Summary of the case The case involves a decision that was made for construction of the Denver International Airport and the involved consequences on the construction process and stakeholders to the decision. The decision followed increasing demand for services in the city and the construction offered benefits to both Denver and the Federal Aviation Administration that recognized the poor condition of the then city’s airport and its vulnerability to bad weather conditions. Original plans were developed and implementation b egan without incorporation of airlines that preferred operations from the then existing airport. The airlines alienated themselves from the plans because they were opposed to the project but sought involvement after noting that the project was bound for implementation. Such an entry prompted changes such as alteration of baggage handling system with a resultant delay in the official opening of the airport. Major issues in the case are development of the project’s strategic plan, financing of the plan and implementation of the plan. Strategic planning The Denver International Airport project was realistic because of the need that it offered to meet in the city’s air transport. The city is geographically away from other cities and air transport is the most suitable means. Denver also needed expansion in air transport facilities because of demand that was projected to increase and could undermine the then Stapleton Airport and its backup at Front Range Airport. Expansion of the airport further offered investment opportunities from international airlines and its strategic location for international flights enhanced its potentials. The project’s strengths included modern design and layout, optimization potentials, expansion potentials, support from the city, FAA and United Airlines, and high borrowing potential. Other strengths include environmental conservation and easy traffic control. Major weaknesses for the project were long distance from other cities, reliance on borrowed capital, high costs, lack of close industrial packs and possibility of unavailability qualities labor. Major opportunities were growth probability, creation of employment opportunities, commitment from cargo carriers, facilitated investments in the surrounding and development of a centre for air transport while identifiable weaknesses included poor passenger flow, high maintenance costs unhealthy competitions among airlines and competition from Front Range Airport. The D enver city, Denver International Airport management, airlines, and the Federal Aviation Administration were the stakeholders to the in the case. The United Airline did not support the plan until its realization was eminent and United Airline opposed the plan to expand Front Range Airport because the government’s involvement would liberalize operations and disadvantage high cost carriers. The airlines’

JOB STRESS, SATISFACTION AND INTENTION TO LEAVE AMONG NEW SAUDI NURSES Research Proposal

JOB STRESS, SATISFACTION AND INTENTION TO LEAVE AMONG NEW SAUDI NURSES - Research Proposal Example The author further associates stress with a positive effect on employee turnover rate. Aflab (2013, p. 12) explains possible factors to the association between workplace stress and both employee’s satisfaction and turnover. According to the author, stress increaser â€Å"safety and healthiness hazards† (12) whose effects include poor psychological health and increased susceptibility to injury and diseases. Cheng (2009, p. 11) supports the role of workplace stress in increasing employee turnover rate and introduces an interaction effect between stress and employee satisfaction to in influencing turnover rate. With reference to the role of organizational change on employees, the author argues that employees’ values influence their stress on job. Stress and job satisfaction then affect each other before they, each, influence employee turnover rate. Empirical studies shows existence of many factors to job stress, job satisfaction, and employees’ intention to leave their organizations, observations that could be indicative of the environment in the nursing profession. A study that aimed at investigating relationship between job stress and depressive symptoms among nurses in Korea established significance of job stress that translates to the symptoms. The symptoms further relates to some work environment factors such as job security and absence of reward. These imply significance of pleasure at work on employees stress that the depressive symptoms can detect (Yoon and Kim 2013, p. 171- 173). Vijay and Vazirani (2012, p. 48- 50) also explains significance of job stress in the nursing environment. Based on empirical results from a study on causes and moderators of stress, the authors note that job environment such as dealing with difficult associates of patients, poor remuneration, and challenges in interpersonal relations i nfluences level of stress in nurses. The level of stress

Case Study Denver International Airport (DIA) Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Denver International Airport (DIA) - Case Study Example Such changes may also delay completion of a project and inflate involved costs. This paper summarizes a case study on Denver International Airport in which the original plan that was formulated without incorporating stakeholders’ interest and ideas led to subsequent reviews of developed plan and consequences on the stakeholders. The paper also discusses relevant topics to the case and possible incorporation of the topics’ concepts into the case. Summary of the case The case involves a decision that was made for construction of the Denver International Airport and the involved consequences on the construction process and stakeholders to the decision. The decision followed increasing demand for services in the city and the construction offered benefits to both Denver and the Federal Aviation Administration that recognized the poor condition of the then city’s airport and its vulnerability to bad weather conditions. Original plans were developed and implementation b egan without incorporation of airlines that preferred operations from the then existing airport. The airlines alienated themselves from the plans because they were opposed to the project but sought involvement after noting that the project was bound for implementation. Such an entry prompted changes such as alteration of baggage handling system with a resultant delay in the official opening of the airport. Major issues in the case are development of the project’s strategic plan, financing of the plan and implementation of the plan. Strategic planning The Denver International Airport project was realistic because of the need that it offered to meet in the city’s air transport. The city is geographically away from other cities and air transport is the most suitable means. Denver also needed expansion in air transport facilities because of demand that was projected to increase and could undermine the then Stapleton Airport and its backup at Front Range Airport. Expansion of the airport further offered investment opportunities from international airlines and its strategic location for international flights enhanced its potentials. The project’s strengths included modern design and layout, optimization potentials, expansion potentials, support from the city, FAA and United Airlines, and high borrowing potential. Other strengths include environmental conservation and easy traffic control. Major weaknesses for the project were long distance from other cities, reliance on borrowed capital, high costs, lack of close industrial packs and possibility of unavailability qualities labor. Major opportunities were growth probability, creation of employment opportunities, commitment from cargo carriers, facilitated investments in the surrounding and development of a centre for air transport while identifiable weaknesses included poor passenger flow, high maintenance costs unhealthy competitions among airlines and competition from Front Range Airport. The D enver city, Denver International Airport management, airlines, and the Federal Aviation Administration were the stakeholders to the in the case. The United Airline did not support the plan until its realization was eminent and United Airline opposed the plan to expand Front Range Airport because the government’s involvement would liberalize operations and disadvantage high cost carriers. The airlines’

Historic tenets of urban planning Essay Example for Free

Historic tenets of urban planning Essay The Third World Cities have seen extra- ordinary growth in their urban expansion since 1950. The world 10 most populous cities are located in the third world countries. The urbanization has changed the way of life for the people living there. On one side these megacities have become economic giant for their countries, on other they have also created problems such as disease, congested traffic, pollution and sacristy of resources with a huge gap among haves and have not. As these cities are unplanned and this urbanization is a sudden experience, it is natural for the Third world countries to be surrounded by these surmounting troubles, unless they choose the way out. Historic tenets of urban planning The evidence of urban planning can be found the ancient cultures such as Roman and Greek cities and in ancient cities in India and Egypt as well. The Indus civilization in Pakistan is recognized as the first civilization to have a completely developed urban planning. In 2600 BC, before the arrival of Harapa and Mojodharo, the small towns grew into bigger towns and eventually became cities with thousands of people living in. These people did not have agricultural society as their cities depicts, showing a homogenous culture, however diapered suddenly from the course of history with their cities still intact. These cities are well planned and follow a consistent design, which clearly shows that they were built according to a conscious plan, and is considered the first developed urban plan. Similarly the Romans used to built their cities according to a proper city plan, with military and civil defense and many European cities still appear to follow that pattern. In their plan, the city has a central plaza or market, which is surrounded by streets and walls with short cuts to cut the time short for pedestrians and often the city, has river or stream in the center to provide water and carry sewage out of the city (Crouch, 2003) During the last two hundred years the Western world urban planning has gone through extensive changes in its planning and design. In the industrial age, the control of the city was held by the wealthy few, while the rest of the population lived in slums and sewage. In the 20th century a movement started to change this urban structure and to provide healthy environment to its people. Thus arose the concept of garden city, which were small in size but were basically model towns with few thousand people. In the early 1920s the concept of modern city emerges, such as Paris but they were destroyed during World Wars (Gaffikin, 1999). It was only after WWII that the new cities started to take shape place, however it was not until 1970s, that cheap block construction created an easy and efficient way of creating new buildings. The main objective of the concept of modern planning is to regulate the building activities and set the limits on building and neighborhoods. According to Hopkins (2001) the postmodern planning is composed of the following essential elements: Aesthetics Planning In postmodern urban plans, the most essential element is taking aesthetics more seriously, which meant to add beauty to homes and building. The important aspect of a city planning is zoning, maximizing and managing the use of land and pace of urban development. Safety The houses in modern urban plans are designed to incorporate well with existing municipal services. The cities extreme zones are planned in a way that such dangers can be defused and houses in such areas are equipped with emergency operation and secure evacuation centers. Transport Planning A good urban plan has well developed transport system which cater to the needs of it commuters. Good transport system avoids traffic congestions and effectively carries commuters into different parts of the city without hassle. And automobiles in a city are well suited it meets its requirement, such as spacious roads and parking lanes, which can handle traffic in rush hours. Effective Sub-urban Planning A successful urban plan brings benefit to larger city area by making the towns and urban environment spacious. Planning and the environment In advanced urban or village planning models, taking care of ecology is inevitable. The modern urban planning includes pastures and gardens to keep natural environment consistent with the city.

Extracting DNA From Living Samples

Extracting DNA From Living Samples Karen Stevenson Introduction Collecting DNA samples from animals is often difficult and stressful for the animal, so non-invasive methods of collection are needed. Extracting DNA from animals usually involves one of three methods: Destructive sampling involves the organism having to be killed to get the tissues needed for genetic analysis.  Non-destructive or invasive methods require a tissue biopsy or blood sample. These are the most ethically acceptable and humane ways to extract DNA from living organisms as they do not destroy the animal or its habitat and often any DNA from feathers, hair, skin, droppings, etc. can be used, although DNA samples do degrade over time which will subsequently decrease the accuracy of test results. Freeland (2005) discusses a number of processes for DNA preservation including the method we used in the class experiment which is described in this report. High quality DNA shows up in bright contrasting bands on the electrophoresis gel but poor quality DNA displays a blurred or smudged look. Gender will show up as either one or two separate bands. Unlike in mammals where the heterogametic male (XY) will show up as two bands and the homogametic female (XX) will show up on the gel as one band, with birds, this is the opposite and the male is the homogametic and his ZZ genotype shows up as one distinct band while the heterogametic female ZW genotype shows up as two distinct bands on the gel. It is very difficult to determine the gender of very young chicks because there are no visible dimorphisms yet and poultry producers need to determine the sexes well before the animals begin to mature. Modern molecular genetic methods mean we can profile for individual genomes from very small amounts of DNA, whereas historically much larger samples were needed to get accurate results. In this experiment we followed procedures outlined by Hogan, Loke Sherman (2012) in our Prac manual to extract DNA from three tissue types of a domestic chicken to determine the sex of the sample and also to compare the quality and amount of DNA from the three samples. Materials and Methods Tissue Samples. Feathers, muscle tissue and blood samples were supplied by the technicians in the lab. The tissues were taken from a domestic chicken Gallus gallus domesticus. DNA Extraction from Blood, Feather and Muscle Samples We extracted our Our DNA with the Quiagen DNA purification kit DNeasy Blood Tissue Kit (2012). PCR is a faster and more sensitive method of amplifying DNA than cloning, and it produces similar results. We used bird sexing primers to build up the gender-specific loci CHD1W and CHD1Z, which allowed us to determine the gender of the chicken from a method developed by Fridolfsson and Ellegren (1999) using universal avian sexing primers 2250F and 2718R. The class results were collected and graphed so that our individual results could be compared. Negative control, male and female controls were used to conclude whether our hypothesis that Blood and tissue samples would yield a better quality of DNA than feather even though these methods are more invasive than extracting DNA from the blood spot in a feather shaft. In this experiment we extracted DNA from a blood clot in the feather as in the Horvath, Martinez-Cruz, Negro and Goday (2005) procedure, which showed that this was more successful than using material from the tip and this blood clot sample took longer to deteriorate than the tip sample. We did not know how old the feathers were, nor the age of the bird. DNA extraction procedures work by lysing cells, which causes the cell membrane to break free from the cell. Proteinase K can be added to detach the proteins and RNA can be removed with the RNAse. The DNA is then precipitated out using ethanol and further improved using PCR methods and visualized using the electrophoresis procedure. The Section containing the blood spot was cut out using a sharp pair of scissors and cut into tiny pieces and added to 180 µL of Buffer ATL before digestion with Proteinase K (180 µL pipetted into a sterile 1.5 mL microfuge tube) was then incubated at 56ËÅ ¡C for 30 minutes (briefly mixed in the vortex every 10 minutes), after which the cells had been lysed. To precipitate the DNA we added 200 µL of 95% ethanol (AR grade) and mixed in the vortex for a further 15 seconds. The lysed DNA was then pipetted into the DNeasy Mini spin column and centrifuged at 8000 rpm (6000 x g) for 1 minute, binding the DNA to the membrane in the spin column, ready for washing. The spin column was placed in a new microfuge collection tube in which 500 µL Buffer AW1 was pipetted, centrifuged for 1 minute at 6000 x g (8000rpm) and the flow-through was discarded. Again the DNeasy spin column was placed into a new collection tube, 500 µL of Buffer AW2 added and centrifuged for 3 minutes at maxi mum speed (13 – 14,000 rpm), removed from the flow-through (which was discarded in hazardous waste receptacle), placed back into the collection tube and centrifuged again at maximum speed for a further minute to remove any ethanol. The spin column was then removed from the tube (which was discarded). After placing the spin column into a clean 1.5mL collection tube it was labelled appropriately and 100 µL of Buffer AE was pipetted straight onto the centre of the DNeasy membrane and incubated at room temperature for 1 minute, centrifuged for 1 minute at 6000 x g (8000 rpm) to elute it. The DNA was now pelleted in the bottom of the tube, so the spin column was discarded and the pellet stored in its tube in a cold box at -20ËÅ ¡C. Electrophoresis Method During electrophoresis, the negatively charged DNA fragments travelled towards the positive cathode causing the smaller protein fragments to move quicker than larger particles. The DNA was visualized as bright bands on the gel, which had been stained with GelRed which is a chemical used to increase mutation rates, multiplies the product and is assumed to be carcinogenic. The agar gel and TAE buffer had been prepared earlier in the microwave and allowing the gel to cool to 50 °C. GelRed was carefully added to 150mL of gel for a final concentration of 0.5 µL mL-1.The casting tray was carefully put into the gel tank with the black moulding gates at both ends. The comb was inserted after the gel had been poured into the tray inserted, then left for 30 minutes at room temperature to set. 10 µL of the DNA chicken feather sample we extracted previously was mixed with the 6x loading dye into a fresh microfuge tube. Wearing rubber gloves, we removed the black casting plates and the comb and then added the TAE buffer until the entire gel was submerged by 5mm. The first and last wells had molecular weight markers ÃŽ »HindIIIand 2-log ladder added and our DNA samples were pipetted into an empty well, noting the position. We applied the cover and connected to the power unit and ran it for 60 minutes at 120V. The DNA proceeded to float from the negative cathode (black cable) to the positive anode (red cable). When finished, we removed the gel tray and transferred it on a plastic container to the Gel Doc System for visualizing the images. PCR method We used the Polymerase Chain Reaction method to expand the DNA so that it could be viewed using electrophoresis. The PCR procedure involved cycles of heating then cooling the DNA which enabled the helix to unwind and bind. We prepared the Mastermix negative and positive controls using 40 µL of the PCR Mastermix and 10 µL of the DNA sample mixed into a 0.2mL PCR tube. Each group had individually calculated amounts using the chart in the Prac manual. We prepared tubes for male control, female control and one negative control (these were provided by the lab). We then placed the tubes into a thermo-cycler and initiated the program which had been perfected to augment the CHD1W and CHD1Z genes using the primers. When this was done, the DNA was then put on a 1% agar gel comb (that had been microwaved and cooled to 50ËÅ ¡C) in a 1 x SB buffer solution for 20 minutes. Wearing gloves, we added 15 µL of 3 x GelRed solution to 150mL of agar gel. We prepared the DNA samples by mixing 10 µL of PCR with 2 µL of 6x loading dye, pipetted it into the gel combined with 5 µL of a 100bp molecular weight marker. The sample was pipetted into an empty well in the gel, location documented and after closing and securing the lid, the electrophoresis unit was run at 300V for 20 minutes. When the gel had finished running the power was turned off, gel removed carefully and put into a plastic container and transported to the Gel Doc unit. The bands were then visualised using the Gel Doc System. Results The class groups successfully extracted DNA from all three types of tissue. Due to incorrect or absent labelling of DNA samples, we were unable to use some of the gel images in our report. Figure 1 shows the Gel electrophoresis from a co-operative class Muscle and Blood DNA extraction using Qiagen 2012, DNeasy Blood Tissue Kit, with blood showing up in more distinctive bands, muscle failing to show clear bands and feather samples extracted (on a separate gel image) displayed poorly using electrophoresis. Hogan, Loke Sherman (2012) explain how the DNA concentrations are measured by comparing the brightness of the sample to the 2log Molecular Weight Marker over the amount of DNA pipetted into the well. Figure 1: Blood muscle DNA extraction using (Qiagen 2012, DNeasy Blood Tissue Kit) Figure 2: Feather DNA extraction using (Qiagen 2012, DNeasy Blood Tissue Kit) After extraction and visualization using electrophoresis, our samples were diluted give comparable concentrations. If the band was too faint or not even visible we left it undiluted but most of muscle and blood samples were dilute. Figure 2 shows the Gel electrophoresis from our feather DNA extraction sample with no discernible results. This was expected. Table 1: Mean nucleic acid concentrations muscle, blood and feather DNA extraction using nanodrop technique From table 1, results show us the average DNA concentration of the three tissue types and reveals that compared to feather, muscle samples provided the best quality of extracted DNA, followed closely by the blood samples. Our test yielded 5 muscle samples, 6 feather samples and 8 blood samples as well as the 2 unspecified class samples. Because 1 feather sample and 1 blood sample failed to clearly show any visible DNA (see figures 1 2), they influence the averages. In the face of this, however, the resulting average sample DNA concentrations reveal that muscle still produced the highest class of extracted DNA in comparison to the blood samples. The feather sample still showed the poorest DNA quality, which related with our expected outcomes. Ladder Male control Female control Negative control Jack’s sample DNA Sample DNA Karen Feather DNA Sample Negative control Female control Male control Ladder Figure 3 shows the Gel electrophoresis from our feather DNA extraction sample with the male, female and negative controls. DNA had been amplified from the extraction and visualized using electrophoresis to determine the sex of the bird that our sample was taken from. Results successfully indicate that sexes were able to be determined. Our PCR result matched the expected result and we determined our sample to be ZW female and Jack’s sample to be ZZ male. This experiment matched the Fridolfsson and Ellegren (1999) procedure except that we used a 1% agar gel to visualize the DNA fragments via electrophoresis and Fridolfsson and Ellegren used a 3% gel as well as our use of a commercial kit (Quiagen 2012). Discussion The quality of DNA extracted varied between our different tissue samples although all we were able to amplify all of them using the non-invasive technique PCR. Extracting DNA from a blood clot of a feather is an option when alternative methods (blood or muscle) are not suitable. The destructive muscle samples provided a better class and measure of DNA in comparison to the feather samples, however destructive methods of DNA extraction necessitate the slaughter of the organism and is not typically ethically acceptable particularly when endangered species are involved. Invasive blood sampling provided a high quality of DNA in terms of results and should be used in preference to destructive methods if non-invasive methods are not possible. The disadvantage of blood sampling is that if the procedure is done in the field, it necessitates the capture of the organism to extract the blood sample as well as the storage while out in the field as DNA deteriorates over time. Although DNA from fea ther samples gives a lower quality than the other two methods discussed, they are usually easier to obtain in the field because capture, plucking and release are far less invasive that taking blood or killing the animal for muscle tissue (Mundy et al. 1997) and usually can be collected from nests or off the ground without having to involve capturing the animal at all. This experiment was conducted over a number of weeks. DNA deteriorates over time and storage is therefore very important. Freeland (2005) discusses the importance of preserving DNA to circumvent DNA molecules from re-arranging and so affect the results when amplified by the PCR technique. We froze the DNA at -20 °C to preserve the samples in between both practical sessions. While performing the practical sessions, our DNA was generally kept at room temperature which could possibly have caused some deterioration but this is not very likely to cause large variations of DNA quality as all our samples were exposed to the same conditions. Cold-boxes were used to store the DNA samples but all products including the DNA were kept at room temperature for the duration of both practical’s and this could easily have been avoided by asking the students to me mindful of the importance of preserving the DNA in order to get better quality DNA for extraction. References Freeland, J (2005).  Molecular Ecology. Wiley. Chichester. Fridolfsson, A and Ellegren, H. (1999). A simple and universal method for molecular sexing of non-ratite birds. Journal of Avian Biology. 30, 116 – 121. Hogan, F., Loke, S., and Sherman, C. (2012)  SLE254 Genetics: Practical Manual 2012~ Sex Determination of the Domestic Chicken (Gallus Gallus).Deakin University. Burwood. 1-46. Horvath, M. Martinez-Cruz, B. Negro, J. Kalmar, L and Goday, J. (2005). An overlooked DNA source for non-invasive genetic analysis in birds. Journal of Avian Biology. 36, 84-88. Mundy, N. Unitt, P., and Woodruff, D. (1997). Skin from feet of museum specimens as a non-destructive source of DNA for avian genotyping. Auk 114, 126-129. Qiagen. (2012).  Sample Assay Technologies: DNeasy Blood Tissue Kit.Retrieved September, 11th2012 Taberlet, P. Waits, L. and Luikart, G. (1999). Noninvasive genetic sampling: look before you leap. Trends in Ecology and Evolution. 14, 323 – 327.