Black, White, and Color

Who am I? That is the hardest question to answer for a college freshman. In a sense my life has just begun. I am finally on my own trying to figure out who I am and what I want to do with my life. Does anyone find out who they are as a person at the age of eighteen? This is the age where a major transition is made from teen to a legal adult. I am going from being a child to being on my own making my own decisions. When I look at myself I see so many different things, some are things I learned in the past and I carry with me and others are things I hope to achieve or become. In Core 110 this year I learned that I could connect myself into what we were learning through studying psychology and science. At the beginning of the year I didn’t understand why we were learning psychology and science together but now I understand they go together. Without science there would be no psychological evidence and without psychology scientist would not be able to test certain theories. Because of Core 110 I can look deeper into myself by the insight I gained by studying psychology and science. In the book Forty Studies That Changed Psychology, by Roger Hock, he discusses Julian Rotter’s Locus of control theory of how individuals place the responsibility for what happens to them. Rotter explains that there are two types of people: internal locus of control and external locus of control (Hock 192). â€Å"When people interpret the consequences of their behavior to be controlled by luck, fate, or powerful others, this indicates a belief in what Rotter called an external locus of control. Conversely, he maintained that if people interpret their own choices and personality as responsible for their behavioral consequences, they believe in internal locus of control† (Hock 192). This is basically saying do you believe that your destiny is controlled by yourself or by external forces? Rotter believed that if a person’s likelihood to view events from an internal, versus an external, locus of control is fundamental to who we are and can be explained from a social learning theory perspective (Hock 192). In his view, as a person develops from infancy through childhood, behaviors in a given situation are learned because they are followed by some form or reward, or reinforcement† (192 Hock). From the rewards and reinforcements you learn from as a child follow you throughout life and make you develop an external or internal interpretation of the consequences of your behavior. Rotter wanted to demonstrate two points; first, make a test to measure how individuals posses an internal or an external locus of control orientation towards life. Second, is to show how internals and externals display differences in their interpretations of the causes of reinforcements in the same situations (Hock 193). Rotter came up with a test called the I-E Scale, which measured the extent to which a person possesses the personality characteristics of internal or external locus of control. He did this by asking certain questions that internal people would only answer a certain way and vice versa for the external people (Hock 193). In Rotter’s theory of locus of control I believe I have an internal locus of control because I control my own fate and destiny. My parent were very strict and always made sure I knew from right and wrong or else I would be punished. I grew up realizing I wouldn’t win the lottery and I had to work hard to become successful. My locus of control is very grounded and I don’t believe in luck. My portrait shows me on the playground looking towards the city in the background. It shows my goals and what I want to achieve but I am still in black and white; I’m not there yet. Being at college has only given me a taste of what it means to be an adult and be independent. I will one day achieve all my goals, but until then I’m still a kid stuck on the playground until one day I can reach the exciting city life. Another example from Roger Hock’s book is the study done by Langer and Rodin who look at the effects of choice and how it affects people. Everyday a person makes a choice or decision, â€Å"When your sense of control is threatened, you experience negative feelings (anger, outrage, indignation) and will rebel by behaving in ways that will restore your perception of personal freedom† (Hock 150). It’s like what kids do when they are told to do something or forbidden to do something, they either refuse to do it or do the exact opposite. Hock states, â€Å"What it all boils down to is that we are happier and more effective people when we have the power to choose† (Hock 151). This is a problem for both teens and elderly people, the only exception is that elderly people lose their rights where teens just aren’t old enough to get them yet. Elderly people lose their rights and control when they enter a nursing home. Langer and Rodin thought, â€Å"If the loss of personal responsibility for one’s life causes a person to be less happy and healthy, then increasing control and power should have the opposite effect† (Hock 151). They wanted to test this by directly enhancing personal power and choice for a group of nursing home residents. They predicted that the patients who were given the control should demonstrate improvements in mental alertness, activity level, satisfaction with life, and other positive measures of behavior and attitude (Hock 153). Langer and Rodin compared two floors of a nursing home, one given privileges the other stayed the same. The floors were given questionnaires about how they were treated by the end of the three weeks. The results showed (on chart 20-1 on page 154) that the differences in the two groups were extreme, which proved Langer and Rodin’s theory correct about the positive effects of choice and personal power (Hock 153). Langer and Rodin pointed out that their study, combined with other previous research, demonstrated that peoples’ lives improve when they are given a greater sense of personal responsibility (Hock 153). Being in control is a big thing for everyone. When I turned eighteen last year nothing changed for me except I was one year older and I could vote. My parents still treated me the same and I still had the same curfew. In their eye I was still a child. However, everything changed when I went to college. I became in control of almost everything except I still had to go to school. Being in control is such a powerful thing. I couldn’t imagine losing all my control like the elderly do. When I went home for Thanksgiving I lost most of my control to my parents and it upset me. I felt like the elderly people. My picture shows a divided line between black and white side and the color side showing I can’t get to what I want to be until I completely grow up and my parents treat me like a true adult. I’m stuck on the dark side wanting control, wanting color. In the book Accidental Mind, by David J. Linden, he discusses how perception is tied to emotion. Linden states, â€Å"Clearly, the perception/emotion distinction cuts deep into the way we think about the brain and the ways we deal with its dysfunctions† (Linden 98). He is basically saying that the time we realize or are aware of a sensation, emotions are already engaged. Two examples are Capgras Syndrome and people who have been blinded by damage to the primary visual cortex. Capgras syndrome is when someone can still visually identify objects and human faces, but they don’t evoke any emotional feeling. People who are blinded by damage to the primary visual cortex can accurately locate an object in their visual field even though they have no conscious awareness of seeing anything (Linden 99). The important point here is that visual information is rapidly fed into emotional centers in the brain, which make it impossible to separate emotion from perception in experience† (Linden 100). Linden concludes that the examples may only use vision, the principle still applies broadly to all of the sense, â€Å"emotions is integral to sensation and the two are not easily separated† (Linden 100). In my self-portrait everything is pastel t o show that where I am in my life is distorted yet connected and flows. I’m transitioning from being a teen to almost an adult. I see and experience things that are fair and also unfair. The color is so close to me yet I still have to wait for it. I am stuck on the playground trying to amuse myself until I am allowed to enter the real world. The playground and city are tied together because I will one day play on both. Another example from Linden’s book is the study on identical twins. Linden states that in certain cases some mental and behavioral traits come from genes. In the experiment they used identical twins (monozygotic twins) who were separated after birth and raised by different families and monozygotic twins who were raised together to compare with (Linden 53). â€Å"For example, identical twins given psychological tests to pin-point personality traits, such as extroversion or conscientiousness or openness, showed that identical twins have tended to share many of these traits whether or not the twins were raised together† (Linden 53). The point was to see if twins in the same environment and twins in separate environments were tested on being similar. Lindens conclusion was that, â€Å"in children and young adults from middle class or affluent families, in studies that have used a combination of twins, identical and nonidentical, raised together and apart, about 50 percent of â€Å"general intelligence† can attribute to genes, with the remainder determined by environmental factors† (Linden 54). Basically, genes influence general intelligence but to a lesser degree than they influence personality (Linden 54). When dealing with general intelligence, â€Å"both genes and environment contribute, but in the extreme case of environment deprivation seen in the poorest household, the effects of environment become much greater and largely overcome the effects of genes† (Linden 54). In the end the tests concluded that, â€Å"identical twins raised apart are significantly more alike in measures of personality than nonidentical twins raised apart† (Linden 54). This can conclude that there is some contribution due to genes. The main point of the twin experiment was to show that twins who grew up in separate environments were surprisingly more similar then expected. No matter what environment I am in I am still the same person. I can be on the playground playing or in the city working but no matter what I am still me. I grew up on the playground and learned many lessons that I will carry with me when I leave there. No matter how old I become or how aged I become I will still have the same personality and drive to achieve all my goals and dreams. Anything can happen if I set my mind to it and be patient. Eventually I’ll be in color like Mickey Mouse. My self-portrait shows the growth a person going from a child to a young adult. In humanity it is normal for a child to continually get frustrated about their age. A twelve-year-old is almost a teen, eighteen-year-old is a legal adult but not a true adult, and a twenty-year-old is so close to being twenty-one. Being a teen at any age is rough but every year is a year closer to something different. I may be stuck as a legal adult thriving to be ndependent from my parents but in reality I’m not even close to being able to be on my own. I’m stuck, like most of the other eighteen-year-olds in the world, trying to figure out who they are. I am just one of millions who feel this way, yet in reality what would I even do with all my independence and freedom? I am a freshman in college who really doesn’t know what I want to do with my life. I wont know until I figure out who I am as a person. This is why my self-portrait is in transition because before I can do anything with my life I have to answer the question: who am I?

Division of Household Labor Essay

Using information presented in class lectures, discuss the division of household labor (DoHL) in the United States. Specifically, discuss: a) how the DoHL has changed since 1965 (with particular emphasis on core versus â€Å"other† tasks); b) the five factors that explain the DoHL; c) the effects of the DoHL on psychological well-being; and d) how the DoHL affects couples’ marital quality and stability (including material from class lectures and Hochschild’s Second Shift). The DoHL changes after having children which tends to be more equitable between the man and woman since they have to split their time to make sure that they can work on a safe and happy environment for everybody, especially children. The change in DoHL between 1965 to present has drastically changed because women started to have their own careers, so for example in 1965 women would put in 7. 2 hrs more than fathers in taking care of the household and in 1985, women would put in only 2 more hours than fathers. The reason that is, is because most women in 1965 were committed housewives whereas as time progressed, with more women rights, women were focused on establishing their own career path. The core tasks are tasks that simply cannot be ignored, so for example cooking, cleaning, dishes and laundry are core tasks and now it has changed because it would usually be the women doing all of that back in the 60’s. Currently they don’t have time to do that so they learn how to split the chores with their husband. That’s why in the gender outline, you see the total hours under fathers generally increasing and the total hours under mothers decreasing as the years go by. If they are both working long hours, if they have enough money, they can hire someone to come and do the core tasks. There are five factors that explain DoHL; husbands’ and wives’ gender role attitudes, educational level, race and ethnicity, wives’ employment and presence of minor children. Starting with attitudes, it all starts with traditionalism. If the wife is a traditionalist, then by large she will do a lot more household labors compared to a wife who isn’t a traditionalist. If the wife isn’t a traditionalist, and her husband is, then there will be a struggle in DoHL, most likely she will end up doing most of the housework. Most successful marriages are when they are both non-traditionalists. Next factor is education, on average, the more education they have the more liberal attitudes they will hold on social issues in general, therefore being less traditional. However if they have quite some money, then gender attitudes may change, so for example, if he can support the whole family with a high salary, she may not see a need to work and would decide to stay at home with the children. In race and ethnicity white men tend to have the most traditional beliefs, black men have the least. Looking at core tasks, black men do the most, Hispanics next, then white last. Another factor, wives employment does change it because if she has a career the less time she will have to do the core tasks. If the wife is employed, her core tasks and her husband’s core tasks go down because of less time on both people. In other tasks (like paying bills), which is less time consuming, the numbers increased. The last factor is the presence of minor children, if they don’t have children, then as what we would expect, the disparity in terms of household labor is very small, however if they are both working and have children with childcare, then there is noticeable discrepancy, since women put in almost twice as many hours as men. The effects of DoHL on psychological well being varies. It can be very hard on both when they are tired and snappy from a long day at work and just not feeling like doing the â€Å"second shift† The single best predictor of long term relationships stability is common values and backgrounds because they would typically share similar interests and values. Now by looking at core tasks and distribution, the hours put in core tasks doesn’t effect the woman’s psychological well being however if the distribution is uneven (ie. She does more than 50 percent of the work) then the lower her psychologically well being. For men, it’s the opposite, it’s the hours that affected them even if the distribution was uneven. So the higher number of hours he puts in, the lower his well being psychologically. Looking at the studies on the effects of division of household labor on marital quality and stability, they found that in couples, if the wife perceived the DoHL as unfair at time one, they were 3 times more likely to get divorced 8 years later, however if the husbands perception of the DoHL was unfair at time one, it didn’t really affect the marriage, its mainly the wife’s perception that matters. In conclusion, if they both thought that the DoHL was fair, then it would predict their marital quality as good. Take for example, Nancy and Evan Holt in the book, â€Å"The Second Shift†, they would fight a lot based on DoHL, she was a feminist and he was a traditionalist, so having non common values didn’t help their fighting but because equality was so important to her, didn’t want to get divorced, and wanted things to be fair, she decided to do the upstairs (mainly the core tasks) and he would do the downstairs (other tasks, like cleaning the garage and taking care of the dog). Did the DoHL between them end up working? Yes because equality was so important to Nancy. For Carmen and Frank, the DoHL didn’t really bother them, first of all they both had similar values but its also because they really needed each other’s money and help. He did about half of the work especially cooking rice, using the ATM machine and doing bills simply because she wasn’t good at those things. She did the other tasks that she was good at, so there was truly quite a fair division; therefore their marriage was content.

How Industrialization is Evaluated in Relation to the Industrial Assignment

How Industrialization is Evaluated in Relation to the Industrial Worker - Assignment Example Elizabeth Poole Sanford the middle class women were also affected by industrialization. The wealth and position of this women rose in a changing economic environment. An excerpt from Woman in Her Social and Domestic Character (1842), written by Mrs. John Sanford can draw arguments on how industrialization should be evaluated from a woman’s perspective. The excerpt considers the woman’s ideal function in relation to her husband. The debate in this case can revolve around the superstition that men have towards women and work, the role of a husband in relation to his wife. With industrialization and women trying to work would mean that she would become independent which was not the case before industrialization. In the excerpt â€Å"a really sensible woman feels her dependence, she does what she can; but she is conscious of inferiority and therefore grateful for support†¦Ã¢â‚¬ The debate would therefore be narrowed down to the power of woman in the arena of industri alization. Ch. 23, Q.2Conservatism and liberalism was characterized by the many political developments that occurred during the period when there was numerous eruption of revolution in Europe. Romanticism was the most important of these reflecting in different ways, both conservatism and liberalism. . Romanticism rejected the formalism of the previously dominant classical style and it didn’t limit itself to the enlightenment rationalism or the stark realism of everyday life, and emphasized emotion and freedom.

Short paper on Mill Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Short paper on Mill - Essay Example Additionally, it is a consequentialist form that states that means get justified by the end. The view can be combined or contrasted with virtues, intentions and compliance with rules as significant to ethics (Rachels & Rachels (2012). The main philosophical position of Mill’s word is that the action’s merits depend on the reference of the consequence (Soifer, 2009). Thus, the theory requires people to have certain knowledge about the future. Hence, the theory can be interpreted as a moral reform manifesto that advocates for a better, enlightened ways of settling ethical issues. Additionally, the theory can act as an analytic doctrine that aims at making explicit the sound moral canons of thinking followed by a good moral reflection. Is it possible to identify the actions that may lead to a great amount of happiness to many people without referring to future knowledge? According to Mill, it is a fact that individuals who are equally capable and acquainted to appreciate and enjoy, give the expectation of happiness in their manner of existence. A few people would consent on changing into any of bad behaviors for the fullest pleasures allowance. Thus, no intelligent person may choose to be a fool in order to attain happiness. People with higher faculties tend to need more to be happy and are capable of having more suffering compared to inferior people (Rachels & Rachels (2012). Therefore, some actions can determine the amount of happiness without referring to the future knowledge as Mill suggests. Utilitarianism suggests that an event or act is right and good when it is beneficial to many people. Hence, a righteous act will fully maximize the greatest utility (Soifer, 2009). Therefore, the case of enslavement of a small group for the happiness of a larger group will be considered as moral. According to James Mill, the ruled, along with the rulers are the perfect example

The Correlation Between Crime And Poverty Research Paper

The Correlation Between Crime And Poverty - Research Paper Example Poverty and crime have been given widespread attention in literature and almost all philosophers have dwelt on this twin subjects. Poverty and crime have become major social issues pervading all countries and entire continents. The one issue which will be omnipresent among the countries is about the correlation between crime and poverty. The debate about whether the poverty is the primary cause for the eruption of crime or crime breeds the poverty is going on. The poverty, inequality, unequal distribution of wealth, unemployment, lack of opportunities and exclusion from the mainstream of the society increases the incidence of crime, and at the same time crime restricts and inhibits the growth and economic development of the geographical area where the crime is prevalent. The perpetrator of the crime face exclusion from society and are denied the economical benefits with its association which in turn leads to poverty. Studies say that people from poor areas often resort to crime. Statistics taken about inmates of prisons reveal that 53 percent of inmates were earning less than $10000 per year before they were sent to jail. People say crime does not pay, but crime pays for the poor. For a given level of crime if the punishment or sentence is less deterrent then, the committing of crime becomes profitable. For people from poor areas where there is a lack of opportunities for gainful employment committing gives them more economic benefits than any measly paid jobs available to them. Crimes against people for gain as well as against property are associated with poverty. Many studies and researches on this subject reveal that social, economic inequality and poverty increases the rate of crime and they are best understood in economic more than cultural terms. Almost all studies have observed that crime rates were comparatively higher in poor slum than any other urban environment. Analysis should be done on what social conditions make the many people to commit crime rather than on what type of individual tend to do it. Background Crime is defined s an act committed or omitted in violation of law. Crime is invariably identified with violence, harm to individuals, theft or destruction of property etc. Definitions of crime vary from country to country and it differs across the cross section of culture. Poverty is defined as lack of resources and inability to have basic goods and services necessary for survival. The definitions of poverty vary with society, race and geographical area. The approach to define poverty is about the consumption need of individual like food, cloth and shelter etc. Criminologist point out that there is a link between unemployment, income level, education and living condition. The economic level and concentration of wealth in certain geographical areas contribute the condition towards unrest and crime. In equalities in social science creates aggressive attitud e towards the people who are better off which results in violent crimes of social tension. In equalities in social sense means divide and segregation on racial, color and ethnic

Local lawsuit Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Local lawsuit - Essay Example In one of such incidents, Monsanto had incorrectly advertised its herbicide as being biodegradable and further asserted that it left the soil clean. The event happened in the year 2009 and it had to pay a fine of 15000 Euros (BBC, 2009). It has also been identified that the senior manager of Monsanto ordered one of the consulting firms which is in Indonesia to offer a bribe of $50000 to a top bureaucrat working with environment ministry of Indonesia in the year 2002. Therefore, in this regard, Monsanto had to pay a fine of $1.5m (BBC, 2009). Risk Management Strategies Companies often face with lawsuits as they tend to violate the governments’ requirements or tend to break the criminal laws. Once the companies have identified the risks, it becomes significant to minimize the risks and thus manage them to a greater extent. The company needs to ensure that there is better supervision and therefore there must be clear communication of the policies. The key to reduce the risks of w orkplace related lawsuits is to be proactive. It becomes significant for the companies to execute policies and trainings which are designed to avoid the lawsuits (Pakroo & Pakroo, 2011). Risk management can be identified as a procedure meant to prevent any sort of physical, financial and time loss in an organization (Chan, 2010). Monsanto should not have advertised wrongly since doing so not only leads to lawsuits but also ruins the reputation of the company. The company could have ensured that the staffs are made aware of the problems of such illegal activities and therefore should have provided the staffs with proper information on risks and consequences of such illegal activities. Such risks could have as well been avoided if Monsanto was capable of identifying the critical point in the business processes where such illegal activities are likely to occur. The company could as well designate internal structures so that the staffs can report problems, risks and people those are sus pected with such activities. If all these strategies were adopted by Monsanto previously, then lawsuits could have avoided. Ethical Considerations Reflected In the Laws Applicable To This Case The case is related to fraudulent trade practices and bribery. Therefore, the laws related to these two illegal trade practices need to be considered. The ethics and anti-bribery rules try to raise the problems of ethical and moral attitude towards both bribery and corruption. In the ethical considerations related in the laws, offering bribes is as offensive as receiving it (Sosnow & Narayanan, n.d.). According to US law of deceptive advertisement, it is unethical if any company communicates a deceptive claim to 20-25 percent or greater than this amount of the target audience. Deceptive advertising is considered as wrong since it harms competitors, consumers as well as society as a whole. Deceptive advertisement is considered as wrong since the person practicing it tends to violate the need of morality (Carson, 2002). Sources of Law The cases are related to bribery and deceptive advertising practices. Therefore, bribery law of US has been demonstrated under 18 U.S. C. Â § 201 (United States Office of Government Ethics, 2011). It has been found that both the state and federal laws are responsible to regulate deceptive advertising. It is the Lanham Trademark Act that controls false advertising at the federal level. The Federal Trade Commission and state consumer protection agencies are mainly

Course Project Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Course Project - Case Study Example While trying to identify the reasons associated with the success of the strategies for Apple IPod, focus has to be given on a number of issues. The first reason that needs to be highlighted is that the company Apple provides a lot of focus on introducing innovation in its products (Travlos, 2013). Secondly, the company prefers to promote simplicity in its product offerings. By having a highly simplistic kind of a user interface for the IPod, the company was able to create a favourable point of difference for its music product (Bajarin, 2012). The third factor is that the IPod was launched in the market along with a bundled free service offering. The free service offering which is popularly known as iTunes, helped in a great way in enhancing the customer experience for the product (LePage, 2006). The fourth factor that administered success to the IPod is the unique way of product marketing and branding by Apple. Since marketing is all about generating interest in the minds of the cons umers, the marketing approach of Apple was more focused on generating the buzz for the new product offering of the company at the time of launch. Also, the company focused on positioning the product as a fashion accessory, thereby triggering a further demand for the product (Weisbein, 2008). Finally, the last reason for success of the Apple IPod is the ability of the company to create a captive audience. By designing the highly fashionable lifestyle natured music device in a way, that it will accept only inputs from the company’s music website, helped in a great way in creating a captive audience, which automatically generated a huge amount of revenue for the company (Schulhof, 2006, p. 2). Mini Case 2: Failure The second mini case focuses on discussing the reasons leading to failure for a strategy of a particular company. For the purpose of relevance, the company that has been selected is Nokia, which is a globally present mobile manufacturing and marketing company. Talking more about the company, it needs special highlighting that Nokia in the last couple of years, has lost its market dominance position to various other competitors like Apple, Samsung, etc. On conducting an in-depth analysis, various points of flaws have been revealed. The first factor that has to be considered is that the telecom company lost its product related edge in the market. While its competitors focused on strongly promoting products which are high on innovative features, the company took a laid back approach (ET Bureau, 2013). Secondly, the company failed in a great way to identify the changing and rapidly evolving global mobile market. While the market was to Smartphones with touch features developed by its competitors, Nokia stuck for a considerable amount of time to with promoting Smartphones that lacked uniqueness in its product offering (News, 2012). Thirdly, the factor of brand positioning has to be taken into consideration. The bulky phone presented by Nokia lost its edge in the market when competing with other popular brands which are high on style and product appeal. Over a period of time, due to loss of brand appeal, Nokia’s products looked very old fashioned as compared to the rival’s homogenous and alternative product offerings (Chang, 2012). Cross Case analysis For the purpose of conducting a cross case analysis, it needs to be mentioned that both Apple and Nokia fall in the industry category of electronics.

History 1492-1860 Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

History 1492-1860 - Research Paper Example The event is significant in history because it shows that the United States was not always a cohesive country. Surprisingly few changes occured after the massacre took place, and not many people were even punished even in the larger conflict. In fact, there is still some controversy over exactly what went on, and exactly who was involved, to this very day. To really understand what happened during the Mountain Meadows Massacre, it is necessary to get a clear view of what was going on otherwise in Utah at the time it occurred The massacre was not just some random act, but one that was caused by many circumstances. It was set within the period of the Utah War, which was an "armed confrontation over power and authority during 1857–58 between the civil-religious leadership of Utah Territory, led by Governor Brigham Young, and the administration of President James Buchanan."1 This conflict itself had been caused by tensions between Mormon and non-Mormon Americans. Non-Mormons thought that the Mormons were heretics, while Mormons felt they were being unfairly criticized because of their correct religious beliefs. These two circumstances led to "a cultural clash between themselves and their neighbors ... and Mormons attempting to defend themselves or strike back before being overwhelmed in a still larger wave of violence."2 Some other reasons for the conflict include incompetence on the behalf of both President Buchanan and Governor Brigham Young, who was also the supreme leader of the Mormon Church. Buchanan "new shockingly little in 1857 about either conditions in Utah or Brigham Youngs likely reaction to his removal as governor" and also made bad choices about who he put in charge of the situation.3 Young, on the other hand, exaggerated things a lot, and his "hostile, violent rhetoric as governor" very quickly created the sort of environment where Mormon settlers who looked to

Issues, concerns, and challenges in environmental adjucation in the philippine court system Essay Example for Free

Issues, concerns, and challenges in environmental adjucation in the philippine court system Essay Introduction The court system is an integral part of environmental enforcement in the Philippines and has made many important contributions to the field. However, environmental cases do not always progress smoothly through the judicial system. This paper is intended to identify important legal issues in the judicial system that affect or limit environmental adjudication. 2 The issues are divided between access to and competency of justice, and legal procedures. While many of these issues could be analyzed further, this paper will highlight the ones to which attention should be paid in any more comprehensive study of Philippine environmental case law. 3 This paper will also use examples and case studies from the United States to illustrate important legal points, since the U. S. and Philippines have similar legal systems. II. Issues A. Legal Procedure and Rules of the Court Because of their unique and complex nature, environmental cases are sometimes hindered by legal mechanisms and rules of procedure designed for non-environmental cases. These include rules on standing and class action suits that often do not take into account the fact that environmental damage impacts all citizens. Furthermore, the nature and science of environmental violations often means that statutes of limitations, evidentiary rules, and burdens of proof are not suitable. Some of these issues can be handled internally by the judicial system by instructing lower courts to apply rules liberally. The impact of all of these issues, and how many actually present problems for plaintiffs, is crucial. 1. Standing of Plaintiffs and Citizens Suits In environmental cases, a plaintiff may not necessarily be legally injured in the traditional sense by an act of environ-mental destruction to impair his livelihood. For example, plaintiffs cannot recover damages for fish killed by pollution because they lack standing, despite the obvious economic loss they suffered. 4 While the destruction of natural aesthetic beauty is a moral outrage that indirectly harms all citizens, under traditional legal standing person no would have standing to sue. 5 Furthermore, environmental laws are designed to prevent catastrophic harm that is often not imminent or contained to one geographic area, as opposed to the narrow, immediate harms that provide the basis of most standing requirements. 6 Strict rulings on standing could stifle environmental enforcement, especially since the Philippines lacks sufficient enforcement capacity and personnel. The Philippine Supreme Court has held that standing requires: Such personal stake in the outcome of the controversy as to assure that concrete adverseness which sharpens the presentation of issues upon which the court depends for illumination of difficult constitutional questions. 7 The plaintiff himself must have some cognizable and redressable injury. Litigating for a general public interest, or â€Å"mere invocation†¦ of [plaintiff’s] duty to preserve the rule of law†¦ is not sufficient to clothe it with standing†¦. †8 However, the standing requirement is considered a technicality that courts may waive if the case concerns a â€Å"paramount public interest. †9 In its dictum in Oposa v. Factorum, the Court said that children might even have intergenerational standing to sue to prevent the destruction of forests for future generations. 10 There are questions as to the strength of these to reduce the standing threshold for environmental plaintiffs. While courts may waive technical standing provisions when a case deals with a paramount public interest, it is not required to do so. 11 Furthermore, judges may reasonably differ on what constitutes a â€Å"paramount public interest† since there is no overriding theme o define it. For example, in Kilosbayan, the Court found that determining the legality of an online lottery system fell within this definition, whereas in Integrated Bar, it held that determining whether deploying marines for crime deterrence violates the Constitution does not. 12 The Court did reduce some of this ambiguity in Oposa by declaring that the right to a balanced and healthful ecology concerns nothing less than self-preservation and self-perpetuation, presumably a â€Å"paramount public interest. †13 However, because the Court’s discussion on standing in Oposa was dictum, neither this claim nor the right to intergenerational standing is binding law upon the lower courts. 14 Without further guidance from the Court, it is likely that many lower court judges would be reluctant to act boldly by declaring that a particular issue is a â€Å"paramount public interest† and would deny standing. Congress tried to reduce the standing threshold with citizen suit provisions in environmental statutes, but these have been of limited use thus far. First, only the Philippine Clean Air and Ecological Solid Waste Management Acts contain citizen suit provisions;15 notably, the Philippine Clean Water Act, enacted after these two laws, does not. 16 Second, citizens still bear the risk of paying a winning defendant’s attorney’s fees, which could be costly enough to discourage even valid suits. Most importantly, these suits are still subject to the â€Å"actual controversy† requirement of the Constitution. 17 What this means in the context of citizen suits has not yet been heavily litigated in the Philippines. However, lower court judges often require plaintiffs to show actual injury in the narrow or traditional legal sense. 18 Likewise, when prosecutors deputize citizens to enforce a suit, judges sometimes insist that such deputization is only valid for a single case or even invalid under the Rules of the Court. 19 As a result, citizens suit provisions have been largely unused. 20 Standing under environmental laws is hotly contested in the U. S. 21 The U. S. has put citizens’ suit provisions into almost all of its environmental laws. 22 Plaintiffs are required to show 1) an injury in fact, 2) causation between the injury and the defendant’s actions, and 3) redressability in court. 23 NGOs can sue upon a showing that any of their members would have had standing to sue. 24 The focus is not on the injury to the environment, but rather the injury to the plaintiff or NGO representing him. However, the injury can be economic or non-pecuniary, including aesthetic or recreational value. 25 The Court also held that civil penalties payable to the U. S. Treasury serve as redress as they deter polluters. 26 Causation is often the more difficult element to prove, which will be discussed below in  § 4. In New Zealand, the Environment Court has taken a more radical approach. It has eliminated formal standing provisions, requiring only that a plaintiff have a greater interest than the public generally in a controversy or that he represents a relevant public interest. 27 This makes citizen enforcement very easy. However, one might also be concerned about whether this would overburden the court; granting standing is a fine balance between permitting valid environmental claims and risking frivolous litigation. 2. Class Actions and Large Number of Plaintiffs As the notorious mudslide at Ormoc in 1991 and Marcopper mine tailings in Marinduque show, injuries from environmental damage can be grave, costly, and affect a huge number of persons. 28 Even in less publicized events, the number of injured persons may often make individual litigation burdensome and complex. Furthermore, some members of an injured class may be too poor to prosecute their claims individually. Class action suits can facilitate litigation of such situations by providing for: [T]he protection of the defendant from inconsistent obligations, the protection of the interests of absentees, the provision of a convenient and economical means for disposing of similar lawsuits, and the facilitation of the spreading of litigation costs among numerous litigants with similar claims. 29 Other studies have shown that class action suits can provide important social benefits and encourage citizen enforcement to supplement agency regulation. 30 Class actions may the discourage attorney disloyalty that encourages lawyers to plea bargain for less than the actual injury. As happened in the Chinese poachers case in Palawan, lawyers or prosecutors may not seek full compensation for the damage caused because they have an incentive to expend less time and money on a small case. 31 However, because class actions provide aggregate incentives for lawyers, and fees and settlements undergo higher judicial scrutiny, such â€Å"disloyal† settlements are less likely to occur. 32 While the Philippine Rules of the Court provide for class action suits,33 judges will sometimes be reluctant to certify classes and instead treat the injuries of plaintiffs as separate, despite any common questions of law or fact. In Newsweek, Inc. v. IAC, the Supreme Court ruled that a defamatory remark directed at 8,500 sugar planters do not necessarily apply to every individual in a group, and therefore are not actionable as a class action. 34 Likewise, a judge might refuse to certify a class of pollution victims because they suffer different types of physical injuries, even if the source was the same pollution. In a more litigated legal system, there would be more case law to guide judges on the appropriateness of class actions. However, in the Philippines, this does not yet exist. Add to this the high cost for lawyers, and class actions become even less feasible for most Philippine plaintiffs. 35 In the U. S. , it is much easier to litigate environmental class action suits. The Supreme Court has clearly instructed courts to construe its class action rules liberally and encourage class action suits. 36 This limits judicial discretion in refusing to certify classes to only extreme situations. Furthermore, the rules allow plaintiffs to join by default rather than affirmatively. 37 For environmental cases, the courts will look at the potential number of plaintiffs or the size of the estimated areas that a pollutant has infected to see if plaintiffs have met the numerosity requirement, but they are not required to meet a certain minimum number. 38 For the Philippines, which, unlike the U. S. , has too few environmental class action suits, adopting some of these mechanisms may create a more efficient adjudication process for plaintiffs, defendants, and the courts. 3. Statute of Limitations and Delayed Injuries Unlike a traditional tort or crime, many environmental injuries are not discrete events but only manifest themselves after many years. Pollutants may build up in soils, waters, or human bodies for years without reaching a dangerous level. Cleanup of such sites can take even longer. For example, when the U. S. military left Subic Bay in 1992, it left behind hazardous waste sites with contaminated water that continue to poison the land over a decade later. 39 However, for environmental torts, the statute of limitations is four years, a relatively brief time. This could preclude the litigation of injuries from pollutants with an onset delayed for many years. Thus far statutes of limitation issues have not been a significant factor in environmental litigation. The Philippine Supreme Court addresses similar problems in other fields of law with the discovery rule, allowing the statute of limitations to run when the plaintiff actually or should reasonably have discovered the injury. 40 However, as the courts handle more brown environment cases, it will have to address the tensions between punishing past violators and protecting defendants from time-barred claims. 41 U. S. courts have adopted the due diligence discovery rule, particularly for Clean Water Act and wetlands violations. Because immediate detection of pollution or illegal fill into a wetlands is almost impossible, applying a statute of limitations strictly would defeat the remedial purpose of the act. 42 Courts try to effectuate the Congressional purpose of the statute with the due diligence discovery rule and giving the government a chance to file action against the polluter once the violation is reported to the EPA. 43 Some courts44 realize that a statute of limitation may be inappropriate for cases when pollution continues to cause problems over time. These courts argue that a: Defendants unpermitted discharge of dredged or fill materials into wetlands on the site is a continuing violation for as long as the fill remains. Accordingly, the five-year statute of limitations †¦ has not yet begun to run. 45 The statute of limitation will not run for as long as the pollution remains. Many courts will also treat common law tort nuisances as continuing violations. 46 This approach has the added benefit of allowing the government to fine violators for each day the pollution remains, capturing the more of the costs of environmental destruction. 47 Much of U. S. case law regarding the effect of statutes of limitations on environmental issues comes from ambiguities in the statute of limitation for complex processes, particularly the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act (CERCLA), or Superfund law. 48 Because Congress anticipated the complexity and long-term nature of site cleanups, it structured the statute of limitations in a flexible manner, allowing the court hear an initial cost recovery action prior to issuing a declaratory judgment to avoid letting the statute run. It also allows the plaintiff to file subsequent cost-recovery actions to recapture further response costs incurred at the site. 49 However, the law’s different statutes of limitation for remedial and removal actions phases of the cleanup has led to confusion over how the phases are defined. Courts often defer to EPA determinations in characterizing the type of action due to its technical expertise, rather than making that judgment itself. 50 4. Meeting the Burden of Proof In environmental cases, there may be no line of direct evidence from the perpetrator to the harm. In pollution cases it is often impossible to prove that the plaintiff’s harm was caused by his exposure to the toxic material. 51 For example, if several factories dump pollution into Manila Bay, it is impossible to determine which caused a particular environmental harm. Furthermore, the courts cannot expect absolute scientific certainty on the effects of a health risk such as electro-magnetic fields from power cables. 52 Given these problems, the traditional burden of proof standards, preponderance for civil cases and beyond a reasonable doubt for criminal,53 may prove to be prohibitively high. Philippine courts employ liability-shifting mechanisms to manage this difficulty in environmental cases. For example, pursuant to the Fisheries Code, courts use reverse burden of proof to place the burden of exculpation on defendants found with high-explosive or cyanide fishing gear. 54 Furthermore, the courts have begun to experiment with the precautionary principle, placing the constitutional rights to health and safety above development. 55 The courts also employs res ipsa loquitor in tort suits,56 although this has not been a prominent feature of environmental litigation. Plaintiffs may also hold multiple defendants jointly and severally liable for an act of environmental destruction that cannot be traced to a single defendant company, such as the pollution in Manila Bay. 57 Until recently, Philippine lawmakers did not see a need to introduce a strict liability58 regime into environmental laws. 59 Strict liability was employed in other fields, but not environ-mental laws. More recent anti-pollution laws such as the Clean Air and Solid Waste Management Acts establish that a violation of the standard is actionable through citizen suits. 60 In U. S. , because of its common law tradition, courts are more willing to employ strict liability. Generally, when a defendant, â€Å"though without fault, has engaged in [a] perilous activity †¦, there is no justification for relieving it of liability. †61 Such â€Å"perilous activities† include operating explosives, nuclear energy, hydropower, fire, high-energy explosives, poisons, and other extremely hazardous materials. 62 For citizens suits under environmental statutes, plaintiffs need only show that the law was violated, not prove fault or any actual or threatened harm, without regard to mens rea. 63 When it is impossible to determine the proportion of fault of a large number of defendants, U. S. courts may approximate fault through other indicators, including market share and production output. For example, in Hymowitz v. Eli Lilly ; Co. , the New York Court of Appeals calculated the size of each defendant drug company’s market share for DES to determine their fault in the injuries caused by the drug. 64 This also allows courts to address injuries sustained in the past by approximating past fault through data available in the present. The Environment Court in New Zealand has adopted an even more radical approach and done away with formal burdens of proof. It focuses instead on obtaining the best possible evidence for a case. This makes it easier for plaintiffs appealing to the court to dislodge an unfavorable opinion from a lower court. 65 While the Philippine Supreme Court may not wish to go this far, the court could more strict liability for hazardous materials and market share liability tools. 5. Damages and Remedies Even if a plaintiff wins damages from a defendant, if the defendant keeps polluting or cutting trees, the damage will continue. 66 In the Philippines, this is particularly problematic as the fines and penalties imposed under law are often not enough to change a company’s behavior. In order to encourage development, Congress prohibited temporary restraining orders against government projects. 67 Since government infrastructure projects can cause massive damage to ecosystems, this prohibition is significant. Some courts try to avoid this loophole by claiming that the prohibition cannot violate a person’s constitutional right to health or safety. 68 The extent of this loophole is unclear. Finally, even if a plaintiff or prosecution wins its case, most of the time the true costs of the defendant’s actions will not be reflected in the award. Damages in civil cases and punishments in criminal cases generally capture the costs of any suffering caused to humans, not animals or plants. While some settlements may include forcing a defendant to install pollution-control equipment or contribute money to conservation programs, this still likely does not recoup the full extent of damage to the environment. It is difficult to regenerate natural forest, coral reefs, or populations of endangered animals. The judicial system does not have much power to remedy this problem. The decision on the purpose of environmental laws and how much plaintiffs recover is for the Congress. However, it is important for judges to understand that environmental cases deal with only a fraction of the true costs of environmental damage. This may convince some judges to be more sympathetic toward environmental cases. While punishments for defendants may seem exorbitant, understanding the unaccounted costs of environmental damage puts these into perspective. B. Access to and Competency of Justice Aside from the legal issues described above, in any country, there are a host of practical and logistical issues that impede the judicial system’s ability to handle environmental cases. This includes the lack of financial resources of plaintiffs, particularly in poorer parts of the Philippines. Plaintiffs and their lawyers must also feel safe from physical and financial harassment while litigating their case. On the other hand, both courts and lawyers are often unfamiliar with environmental laws and science, limiting their ability to adjudicate in the field. Finally, court dockets are often congested, and environmental cases are not given priority. The judicial system’s role in addressing these issues ranges from fairly involved to almost no role. Yet, in attempting to understand environmental adjudication in the Philippines, it is crucial to recognize the role these practical realities play. 1. Financial Costs of Adjudication In any legal system, filing and litigating a case takes an enormous amount of time and money. Philippine courts impose a filing and transcript fee, although these are waived for citizens suits. Reflecting on his experiences, famous environmental attorney Antonio Oposa suggested that these costs were the greatest inhibitions for most plaintiffs. 69 Furthermore, for injunctive remedies, plaintiffs must post a bond to cover the defendant’s potential damages, which may be too large for a poor plaintiff with livestock and property as his only assets. 70 Most Philippine lawyers do not use a contingency fee system, so plaintiffs must be able to pay for legal services up front and over the lengthy litigation process. 71 On top of this, there is the risk of financially crushing harassment suits from defendants, or Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation (SLAPP). Even the logistics of feeding and housing witnesses, and their lost time from work, poses significant problems for predominantly poorer plaintiffs. In the U. S. , NGOs often receive enough donations to allow them to engage in litigation and have staff lawyers. More importantly, plaintiffs’ attorneys often work on a contingency basis, allowing poorer plaintiffs to avoid large financial risk. Furthermore, NGOs and environmental groups seeking injunctive remedies are often required only to pay a nominal bond or may be exempted completely. 72 While some might worry this makes litigation in the U. S. too easy, it drastically improves poor people’s access to justice. Pursuant to the Constitution’s emphasis on the poor, the Supreme Court of the Philippines has taken some efforts to alleviate this problem. Poorer plaintiffs are exempted from paying docket, transcript, and other fees and are granted free legal counsel. Furthermore, the Court provides an annual grant to the Integrated Bar of the Philippines’ Free Legal Aid Program. 73 However, not all environmental plaintiffs qualify as poor, particularly NGOs, even though they often have limited financial resources. Furthermore, even though the amount of the bond is under the discretion of the judge, judges are reluctant to do this because they worry about being accused of abusing their discretion. 74 2. Harassment of Plaintiffs and Lawyers Because of the high stakes involved in environmental cases, defendants may go to extraordinary means to intimidate and harass plaintiffs and their lawyers. It is not uncommon for defendants to lodge harassment or SLAPP suits against environmental plaintiffs or DENR prosecutors to attempt to force them to drop their charges. 75 Enforcers who confiscate the equipment of criminals are often sued for robbery. 76 Some defendants take even more extreme means such as physical violence or even murder. 77 Such dangers were recently illustrated by the murder of environmental advocate Elpidio de la Victoria and death threats against attorney Oposa. 78 This makes lawyers unwilling to take on difficult environmental cases. To stifle SLAPP suits, the courts should promptly apply the anti-SLAPP provisions in the Philippine Clean Air and Ecological Solid Waste Management Acts when applicable. 79 This means dismissing any harassment suits as quickly as possible. However, plaintiffs relying on other laws have less protection. 80 Congress must expand the use of anti-SLAPP provisions to other environmental laws. Furthermore, law enforcement must vigorously prosecute any defendants who resort to violence. In short, to facilitate environmental cases, the court must protect the ones bringing the cases. 3. Technical Knowledge Among Judges and Attorneys Judges must decide questions of science as well as law in order to dispose of most environmental cases. This is particularly true for brown issues, which involve uncertain science regarding the exact effects of a pollutant. In the U. S. , scientific understanding of pollutants led to new classes of trespass and tort suits that held emitters liable for their actions. 81 However, both sides in a case will try to use any scientific uncertainty to their advantage, or even create scientific uncertainty even when it does not exist in order to confuse the court. Judges must understand what scientific evidence should be admitted and what is not valid. 82 Judges and lawyers need to understand the science well enough to determine which arguments are unfounded and which are plausible. Because general the courts have general jurisdiction and are not specialized in environmental issues, this problem will have to be addressed by providing judges and lawyers with supplemental training in environmental sciences and law. PHILJA and other organizations are already successfully doing this. 83 Eventually, however, this problem may be resolved through a change in the adjudication system. If the Philippines moves toward environmental courts or administrative adjudication84 (as is being considered), judges would be trained specifically to handle environmental cases. 4. Obtaining and Preserving Evidence For green issues, preserving evidence may be difficult. After an illegal logger or fisher is captured, DENR can confiscate the logs and fish. These goods rot or deteriorate over time. Proper procedure requires taking pictures of the logs and fish for admission into court. Specially trained fish examiners prepare reports on the cause of death of fish. When done correctly, this preserves the evidence for use at court. However, some areas may not have fish examiners on hand or the prosecution may not properly prepare the pictures for admissible evidence. It is not uncommon for custodians of the confiscated items to lose track of them over time. Because cases take so long in the court system, this can be a real problem. 85 It is also difficult for enforcement agents to find and confiscate the equipment and vehicles used in environmental crimes, as the boats and trucks perpetrators use are highly mobile. Despite the inconvenience it may cause defendants, such equipment must be held as evidence and to prevent further environmental damage. The accused, or unindicted conspirators, will often petition for the release of their equipment. 86 Unfortunately, sympathetic lower court judges may sometimes grant these requests, despite the contravening case law. 87 Moreover, prosecutors must have the vehicles stored in a safe area despite the lack of storage space. Finally, it is important for enforcers to determine the location of violators, particularly close to the boundaries of natural parks. Community enforcers may not be trained in determining the exact location of where they apprehended the violators. Wealthier units can use GPS, but often the location of apprehension is disputed. 88 Any doubt in this area can destroy the prosecution’s case. 5. Docket Congestion In many countries, including the Philippines, courts are overburdened with cases. Yet, the Philippines’ forests and animals are already disappearing quickly. Irreversible damage to ecosystems can occur much more quickly than the many years it may take the court system to resolve a case. As Prof. La Vina noted, the environment cannot wait for the court system. 89 According to Justice Nazario, the Philippines needs over 300 trial court judges to fill the vacancies and resolve pending cases. 90 Low pay discourages the few who are qualified. Many of these vacancies are in remote parts of the country, such as Nueva Ecija, Occidental Mindoro, and Surigao Norte, where much of the fishing and forestry violations occur. Furthermore, the Supreme Court is burdened by the large amount of cases granted review each year, including the automatic review for death penalty cases. 91 Given this burdensome congestion, environmental cases are not given any special treatment on their own merits. Criminal environmental cases may be somewhat more expedited because they involve criminal punishments, but most judges and lawyers show no urgency with regard to environmental cases. 92 The Supreme Court attempted to alleviate this problem with Administrative Order No. 150B-93, setting up special courts to handle illegal logging, but these remain underutilized. 93 Until cases can move through the court system more quickly, the enforcement of environmental law will be delayed. III. Conclusion This paper has highlighted important legal and practical issues preventing efficient adjudication of environmental cases in the Philippines. However, due to logistical and budgetary constraints, this paper focused mostly on case law from the Supreme Court and the personal experiences of lawyers. In order to fully understand environmental adjudication throughout the court system, further research should ideally analyze environmental cases from all Municipal and Regional Trial Courts, Courts of Appeal, and the Supreme Court. It is important to see how cases area actually treated, particularly with respect to the issues examined in this paper. Furthermore, there may be important regional variations, particularly between areas with more natural resources and more urban areas. Even before such a study is undertaken, the courts can apply several lessons from this paper in the near future. First, while the courts have already taken commendable steps to waive filing fees and other costs for paupers, as mentioned above the definition of pauper may be under inclusive by not including NGOs. The courts should consider other definitions to reflect the realities of environmental NGOs. 94 Second, the Supreme Court should instruct the courts to dismiss SLAPP suits expeditiously. While the natural resource laws may not have anti-SLAPP provisions, Congress clearly did not intend to encourage such suits and there is nothing legally preventing the courts from dismissing them faster. Finally, the courts can address standing for citizens and class action suits. In particular, it should set out a clear position on standing in environmental cases. Other challenges will require long-term planning for the courts. Reducing the docket congestion is critical to expedite justice, although doing this will likely take years and require more judges. Likewise, the ongoing effort to train judges and lawyers in environmental law and science must continue, particularly as new judges and lawyers enter the judicial system. The courts should also familiarize themselves with the legal mechanisms available to them, particularly in shifting the burden of proof. However, this will be most useful in pollution cases as they become more common in the future. Ultimately, the challenges described above will require multifaceted solutions from various stakeholders in the Philippine legal system. For example, Congress must work to improve standing and citizens suit provisions in other environmental laws. To reduce the financial risk of brining a suit, law firms could move toward a contingency fee system. Furthermore, it is the responsibility of DENR and environmental agencies to ensure that evidence is properly recorded and preserved. Finally, as the Philippine grows and wealth spreads, more plaintiffs will be able to undergo the financial costs of adjudication. Eventually, the best solution to these challenges may come not from within the courts but from a new adjudication system. The U. S. has worked successfully with administrative adjudication for environmental issues in the EPA and Department of Interior. Other countries have set up independent environment courts. Based on the results of further studies and the needs of the country, the Philippines may move to adopt one of these models. This would allow expert adjudicators to handle cases under rules that make sense for environmental issues. Finally, it is important for judges at all levels of the judicial system to understand the severity of environmental degradation in the Philippines. The only redress environmental plaintiffs or prosecutors may have is in their court. Thus, they should not be reluctant to grant standing or award large damages, when appropriate, because doing so will ensure that both humans and the environment have their proper day in court.

Throckmorten Furniture Essay Example for Free

Throckmorten Furniture Essay Question # 1 Before the customer buys a product that is very important to him and is quite expensive he will go through a process. This process commences when the customer feel a sort of deprivation, a motive to buy that commodity. Once that motive becomes more intense it becomes a drive and forces him to take a course of action as to attain the product. So now the customer’s starts gathering information about the good he wants to buy. After that he will weight the pros and cons of all the alternatives he could think of as to decide upon the best possible alternative. After he is confident about his decision, with the support of his findings, he will actually make the purchase. The process doesn’t stop quite yet the consumer will also experience a post purchase satisfaction or dissatisfaction as per his experience with the product he bought. If he feels that his money spent was well spent then he will spread positive word of mouth about the product and where he got it from and hence become a loyal customer. Else, he will provide negative publicity for the company and its products and this in turn will stain the image of the company. Likewise to the above stated process our consumers who buy furniture will also go through the same experience. The need to buy the furniture can be aroused from many sources like a magazine. If the consumer sees a magazine in which there is a living room which is so nicely decorated he might feel that his own living room isn’t good enough and feels that he also has to upgrade. Nevertheless the drive to get new furniture could also be building up in the consumer for many years but due to the fact that he couldn’t afford it, the barrier coming in between him and his purchase. The need arousal for the furniture can be countless depending on the personality types of different consumers. After the urge to get the new furniture is strong the customer will go to various sources to collect information on the furniture type. He will pay more attention to advertisement which emphasizes the benefit of a particular type of furniture material. He will also seek advice from friends and family as he feels that their advice is more â€Å"original† as there is nothing in it for them if they recommend a particular furniture type. Whereas if the sales person of a particular store recommends the same thing to the customer he would look at it with more skepticisms as he feel that there is something in it for the sales person a commission or a bonus. Hence the customer always looks towards friends and family for the best possible advice. At times some of the members in the family are opinion leaders who the consumer thinks knows everything and will help him make the right decision. Nevertheless, the internet is also a very popular source for seeking information in this present day and age. With just a click the consumer can get all the possible information about the best raw material, the best prices, etc. the reason why the consumers goes to such a length to seek information is that he has no idea about furnitures. He wants to make the best decision but for this he first needs to educate himself. The consumers will evaluate furniture of varying stores keeping in mind the image of the store, the image of the brand, sales of the furniture piece, comparative advantage of the brand with competition, etc. After the various brands have been compared the time comes to make the final decision. It’s logical to assume that the consumer will select that brand which has the highest rating on the criteria’s that are most important to him. After this the consumer will realize how good or bad his decision was after the furniture’s being used. If he feel that the furniture looks and feels good and friends and relatives has showered him with praises on his decision then he will be delighted with his judgment. Else he will just be stuck with something because he spent a lot of money on it. Question # 2 Throckmorten Furniture has established itself as a unique designer and expensive store. It aims to cover the upper –middle class. Its furniture is expensive but nevertheless it enhances the prestige of the customer. The furniture is meant to satisfy the consumer’s emotional desire of having a unique one of its kind product. Throckmorten Furniture provides its consumers the benefit of its products uniqueness and exclusiveness which is provided by the furniture fabulous shape and design and durable quality. The consumers know that if they buy the furniture from this store they will be getting something more than furniture and that very fact becomes their motive to buy from Throckmorten. Furthermore, the services that Throckmorten provides to its consumers have given it the edge of retaining and further attracting consumer. Throckmorten Furniture feels that the consumers are the most valuable asset which they have to take care of that is why they have always stayed proactive and hired a well equipped sales force which knows how to treat their customers. The corporation follows the marketing principle that is why it makes the furniture types that the consumers would like to see in their houses. Their constant endeavor to strive for excellence has provided them with an edge that makes it so popular. Throckmorten Furniture is able to provide this unique value to their customers by continuously focusing on the quality of its products, may it be raw material, work in process or finished goods Throckmorten has always tried to make the process more efficient by reducing wastages but in that attempt not compromising on the products quality. Quality is very important for this company and it knows that very well that is why they have quality control at each part of the process. Throckmorten Furniture provides the service value to its consumer by spending a lot of money in hiring the right salesperson. They have places a handsome amount of money in the training of their sales staff as well. Question # 3 Throckmorten can offer its customers guarantee for their furniture. The customers can get a money back or exchange for their furniture if they are not satisfied. This will decrease the fear that normally creeps into consumers’ mind when they buy such expensive furniture that â€Å"they would be stuck with it even if they don’t like it†. This would be a unique value that the company would be providing to its customers and would definitely give them an edge as far as competition is concerned. Doing this will be a bit more complicated as now the corporate would have to examine the furniture to see that’s it not damaged and will also have to tackle fraudulent claims by some customers who want to misuse this facility. This after sales service would prove to the customers that Throckmorten is very confident about its products. Not many furniture companies would be willing to take such a step and that is the very fact that would lead to positive publicity for Throckmorten. Question # 4 Promotion of the product is very important for the furniture industry as the consumers have little knowledge about varying furniture types they maybe scared of making a purchase decision. So it’s the job of the industry to educate them of the specification of this industry. As various survey indicate the customers likes the experience of shopping for furniture they find it enjoying but nonetheless when the point comes to make the final decision they just feel that they aren’t ready for that. The loss they would experience is too immense, so this is why the furniture industry has to show the consumers how easy the task really is. The home furnishing council print advertisement was a fantastic way to put the consumer at ease. After reading it the consumer feels that buying new furniture isn’t that difficult or scary. Hence the company should focus on promoting the product. The more the customers see the print advertisement, the more familiar they will become with the brand. This will lead to the creation of a sort of bond that would compel the customer to buy from that particular store as they feel that the brand has to be good as they have â€Å"heard† of it a lot. For instance, if the customer seeks unique design in exclusive magazines if they like it they will be bound to buy it. Hence the power of mass media should not be under estimated. The company should therefore promote its furniture in all the right places, as it tend to fulfill the requirement of the upper class it cant just advertise in any magazine but only exclusive ones which their target audience views. The same goes with TV ad’s the advertisement should be placed in between those TV soaps that are viewed by the target market. Additionally Personal Selling of the product should also be focused by training the sales person as to how to interact with clients. The salesperson shouldn’t pressurize the client yet he should give them the time and space they desire. The placement of the furniture, the store layout and environment should also be given due consideration as these are the elements that are self speaking prompting element for Throckmorten Furniture. But, the marketer should always remember that they shouldn’t overdue their promotion efforts. If they flood the consumers with varying sorts of promotion efforts than that would just lead to the waste of their efforts as they wouldn’t notice them. Moreover, nowadays   with the TiVo and other digital devices the consumers can easily block the marketers efforts hence they need to be more clever in making a promotional appeal that is short yet effective, that’s the key to success! References: Kotler , Philip , Armstrong, Gary (2007). Principles of Marketing,.Prentice Hall; 12 edition. Schiffman , Leon , Kanuk, Leslie (2006). Consumer Behavior .Prentice Hall; 9 edition . Blythe , Jim (1997). The Essence of Consumer Behaviour (Essence of Management Series) . Prentice Hall PTR.

Environmental Degradation In Mauritius

Environmental Degradation In Mauritius Environmental degradation is the deterioration of the environment through depletion of resources such as air, water and soil; the destruction of ecosystems and the extinction of wildlife. It is defined as any change or disturbance to the environment perceived to be deleterious or undesirable. The main environmental problems facing Mauritius are water pollution, soil erosion, and preservation of its wildlife. The sources of water pollution are sewage and agricultural chemicals. Mauritius cities produce 0.1 million tons of solid waste annually. The erosion of the soil occurs through deforestation. The Ministry of Housing, Lands, and the Environment has principal responsibility in environmental matters. As of 2001, only about 1.8% of the nations total land area is protected. According to UN reports, Mauritius ranked third in the world on the list of countries with the most endangered species in the mid-1990s. In 2002, there were 44 extinct species. As of the mid-1990s, 3 of Mauritius mammal species and 10 of its bird species were endangered, as well as 269 of its plant species. Endangered species on the island of Mauritius include the pink pigeon, Round Island boa and keel-scaled boa, green sea turtle, and Mauritius varieties of kestrel, parakeet, and fody. Extinct species include the Mauritian duck, the Mauritius blue pigeon, and the red rail. One of the biggest threats that the environment faces today is environmental degradation. One of the main reasons for environmental degradation is human activity. Rampant burning of fossil fuel and deforestation are major causes of this degradation. Also, over hunting, expansion of residential areas, increasing population and industrialization are degrading the environment beyond repair. The toxic chemicals let out by industries end up contaminating the water bodies. This, in turn, makes the water bodies polluted and the water is not fit for drinking or irrigating land. Also, greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide, are contributing to the gradual warming of the planet, a process known as global warming. This warming is having a negative impact on the climate and we can observe climate change everywhere. Agricultural activities are wreaking havoc with the environment. Agriculture is leading to degradation of the soil and contamination of ground water due to excessive use of chemical fertilizers. Strong economic development Strong economic development on a small territory is generating threats on environment. In a developing country, there is often a gap between development and prevention or correction measures. In Mauritius, we have very fast development simultaneously causing numerous problems, a lack of human resources and frequent undeserved privileges. There are various conflicts of interest on a small space, particularly on the coastal zone, between various activities. Tourism in Mauritius The tourism service provider in Mauritius is heavily dependent on natural resources, that the physical environment. The traditional marketing approach of sand, sea and sun has created a mindset that led to the concentration of tourist facilities in coastal areas. Coupled with an economys growing dependence on tourism revenues and the agglomeration of hotels on the coastline, tourism has developed into a sector of the economy in its own right which has led to a greater use of coastal and marine resources. This dependence is not without cost, both for the economy and industry. According to Empretec Mauritius, the tourism industry has undoubtedly contributed to the degradation of coastal and marine environment. The actions of the tourism industry have a close relationship with the coastal and marine resources and are heavily dependent on coastal and marine resources. As there are fragile ecosystems and which are interconnected in coastal areas, they are experiencing increased stress due to human activities such as fishing in the lagoon, pollution, erosion, overexploitation of coastal waters and coral. The actual construction of hotels directly on the beach head has significant environmental impacts. Very often, there are sediment run-offs into the lagoon and haphazard disposal of construction wastes into wetlands. When permission is given for works directly in the lagoon, such works very often involves dredging and excavation which increases turbidity when mud is disturbed and is carried away by currents to be deposited somewhere else in the lagoon, on corals for instance. Furthermore, often Government grants permission to remove beach rocks to create bathing areas as was carried out in the south of the island a few years back (2004-2005). Such works interfere with beach dynamics and interestingly enough, this has often resulted in beach erosion. A few years later the hotel promoters were forced to replace some of the rocks to mitigate the beach erosion they created in the first place. Heavy construction works in lagoon 2005 west coast In the seventies and eighties it was very common for hotels and bungalows to build jetties that impeded greatly the long shore current which in turn caused local accumulation of sand in one place and sand erosion in another. These jetties also impede the free passage of the public up and down the seashore. At times there were even high walls that descended right into the sea so as to physically prevent people from walking in front of a number of bungalows. It took energetic action in the early nineties from authorities to gradually put an end to this disgraceful practice. Indeed, government workers were sent together with officials to pull down those walls and jetties thereby re-establishing long shore currents and also permitting the free passage of the public. Example: Grand Gaube By 1992, hotels with more than 75 rooms must have, by law, a water treatment plant on site, it is not known whether all the different hotels treatment plants are really adequate to cope with the load or whether some seepage does occur at times which could have adverse effects on the lagoon. Sometimes sewage treatment plants were built close to the seashore as was the case in 1990 in the north. Sand erosion caused by the construction of piers and other hard structures close to the sea shore and by sand mining (thankfully banned in October 2001) is a significant problem as detailed in the Baird report of 2005. The seriousness of the problem can be gauged by the fact that the Government has, over the past years, built sea defenses at certain places round the coast like Grand Baie, Cap Malheureux and Flic en Flac. The defenses consist of placing at selected places gabions which are wire netting cages 1 metre cube in volume filled with rocks. The objective of this method is to hold sand in place and permit the local accumulation of sand. Unfortunately gabions tend to disintegrate with time for instance at Flic en Flac. The clearing of sea weeds, corals and other rocks in the lagoon close to the shore has regularly been carried out to create suitable bathing areas or sky lanes for hotels. Though, in some cases, the clearing is fairly innocuous, on a couple of occasions, it cannot be said to be so. It needs reminding that sea grass beds are nurseries for fishes and other sea creatures. In 1993, the Touessrok Hotel at Trou Deau Douce (east coast) carried out very important works in the lagoon with the necessary Environmental Impact Assessment report. The government of that time informed the management that the ministry has no objection to the implementation of the proposed works in relation to (i) the dredging of the inner cover and of the two channels (ii) dredged material treatment and handling onshore (iii) beach recharging and widening (iv) erection of a groyne and (v) the construction of an artificial breakwater to protect the cove beach, provided that the following conditions are observed (Le Week End 20th of June 1993). Though the local fishermen went to court to obtain an injunction, it does not appear that they managed to influence the course of things. From 1995 till 2000, promoters fought hard to have a hotel built on ilot des deux cocos in Blue Bay Marine Park. Their initial works in August 2000 did cause damage to coral fields in the vicinity. However for once Government had the initial works stopped and subsequently rejected their Environment Impact Assessment report in April 2001. It is worth mentioning that it is the first time that a hotel project had been rejected by the Authorities on purely environmental grounds. It is undoubtedly a landmark in environmental management in Mauritius. It is possible that from then on promoters might be a little more aware of the importance of sound environmental management for the tourism industry. Unfortunately, little is at present known on the impacts of hotel development on the coastal and lagoon ecology. Yet there is anecdotal evidence that points to sewage seepage from hotels into nearby lagoons in spite of most hotels having primary and secondary sewage treatment plants. In several places, bungalows and even hotels have been built on wetlands or marshy grounds, for example at Flic en Flac or Grand Baie. This has resulted in a drastic reduction of wetlands around the coast, hence wetlands are no longer there to act as natural filtering systems of either sewage or storm waters. The water table at Grand Baie has risen significantly, for example, and is now only a metre deep. Flooding and pollution by sewage is now a reality in parts of Grand Baie. At Flic en Flac also, construction of hotels and bungalows has been going on for years on marshy lands. And now certain parts of Flic En Flac are regularly flooded after heavy rains with little scope for a permanent solution to the despair of residents. It is important to realise that wetlands act as natural filter beds cleaning storm or rain waters before they enter the lagoon system. Lack of wetlands inland can lead to sediments finding their way into the lagoon thereby polluting it. Environmental Impact of the Recreational Use of Beaches One of the main impacts of the use of beaches by the public on the environment is the fact that a fair proportion of the public fails to use the dust bins provided on the beaches for the proper disposal of solid waste. Hence, at times and on certain beaches, there is solid waste accumulating on site. This waste, apart from being unsightly and a source of bad smells attracting rodents, can drift into the lagoon waters thereby polluting it. Furthermore, at certain places, the lagoon is used by some people as a huge and uncontrolled dumping ground. Regularly, non governmental organisations working in the field of the environment and professional divers team up to remove from the lagoon bottom large quantities of solid waste which found its way there. For example on the 7th of June 1997, during the World Environment Day divers removed from the lagoon of Blue Bay ( South of the island ) car and truck tyres, old nets, discarded plastic bags and bottles, broken plates and even radio sets. At low tide, it is common for locals or tourists to go reef walking sometimes even at night. The potential for coral damage is evident. In the nineties undersea walking was introduced as a tourist attraction. This activity has lead to localized coral reef damage. Nowadays authorities have ceased to issue new permits for this activity, though previous operators appear to continue their activities. Environmental Impacts of pleasure Boats Operations Anchor damage by pleasure crafts or fishing boats is thought to be a significant factor in the destruction of corals whilst oil seepage from motor boats can have an impact on lagoon health, especially in places like Grand Baie where there are lots of boats at mooring. Over the years there has been a fairly widespread effort to install mooring buoys especially at popular diving sites in order to limit anchor damage. There is evidence that this measure has helped to a certain extent. Boating operations in lagoons have often created conflicts with swimmers on public beaches when boat operators openly flout safety regulations and common sense by loading and offloading passengers for boat trips directly from public beaches and travelling at high speed close to the sea shore. Authorities had to demarcate bathing areas along popular beaches to limit accidents. Coastal zones are undoubtedly under heavy use, and pressure will not cease in the foreseeable future as long as there are significant increases in tourism arrivals and with more of the population going to the sea side for leisure activities. With the world economic and financial crisis of 2008 2009, tourism arrivals have begun to drop. Although no-one knows how far or how deep this present crisis will be, reductions in tourism arrivals will lessen pressures on coastal zones, thereby opening up a window of opportunity to put in place a coherent coastal zone management plan.

Project Coast: South Africa’s Top Secret Chemical and Biological Weapon

To protect the safety of the country and people of South Africa, those who hold authority or control in the decision making process sometimes are faced with making tough decisions. When it comes to South Africa, President P. W. Botha decided that to best protect the welfare of the citizens, a defensive measure must be established that was secure and efficient. The idea of such measures brought on an evolution of a secret chemical and biological weapons program which became known as Project Coast. The personnel that knew of its existence hid the program from the world and used various measures to ensure that this program remained their little secret. However, no secret lays dormant forever. The idea of S. Africa partaking in such measures shined a distasteful light on a country that was already divided and fighting amongst each itself. Project Coast was against all the morals of what the United Nations had established and stood for peace and working together unified. The S. Af rican government knew this; the pride and protection of their well-being outweighed what was right. South Africa’s choice to begin a Chemical and Biological Weapons Program (CBW) was unsound but this was not the first time the country experimented with such lethal weapons. History reveals that during World War II, South Africa participated in the manufacturing of mustard gas when the Smuts government assisted Great Britain (Gould & Folb, 2002). There were two manufacturing plants that produced the gas, but by 1945 production ended and the plants were closed. When these plants were closed the idea of research still lingered on the minds of those who held office. Some years later, in 1960, a company called Mechem was founded and headed by Dr. J. P. ... ...asson. Project Coast is a reason why there are so many sanctions on chemical, biological and nuclear weapons. The intention to study and research may be good, but the idea of it getting in the wrong hands can be detrimental. Reference Bale, J. Monterey Institue of International Studies, (2006). South Africa’s Project Coast: â€Å"Death Squad’s,† Covert State-Sponsored poisonings, and the Dangers of CBW Proliferation (10.1080/1741916060623434). Retrieved from Taylor & Francis Group, LLC website: http://www.miis.edu/media/view/18941/orgianal/balecoastarticle.pdf Buger, M., & Gould, C. (2002). Secrets and Lies: Wouter Basson and South Africa’s Chemical and Biological Warfare Programme. Zebra Press. Folb, P., & Gould, C. (2002). Project Coast: Apartheid’s Chemical and Biological Warfare Programme. United Nations Publication. Retrieved from www.unog.ch/bwc

A Seperate Peace :: essays research papers

The book, A Separate Peace, written by John Knowles, can be related to adolescence in several ways. The attendants of this school face many new experiences during the course of their stay, many of which occur in their last year. This is where the book picks up. The book takes place at the Devon School, in the summer session of 1942. Throughout this book, the children are constantly fighting and fearing adulthood and their future. The pressure to be successful and layout a plan for the future is always upon students in school. Also, the constant reminder of World War || lays like heavy blankets over them, smothering at all times. Many of the students at the Devon School accept this pressure and continue to press on, while others may crack. Adolescence is conveyed throughout this book through many points. One of which is the society established by both Gene and Finny, known as the Super Suicide Society of the Summer Session.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The Super Suicide Society of the Summer Session was the main activity that kept the student's minds off the war. Their society was established on the banks of the Devon River, a river that passed through school grounds. This river was quite the opposite of the Naguamsett River. The Naguamsett was rough, cloudy, and unpredictable, much like the students' futures. The Devon River was smooth and fresh, with clear waters, and was pure like their childhood. To join the society, you would have to jump from the tree into the river, testing your courage. Once it had been done, everyone else wanted to try and out-jump the prior jumper. This changed the student's perception of the tree from soldier training to fun and games. Finny established this game because he was not one to let the depression of the war overcome him. He always tried to make others happy, going to any extreme to get a laugh. He was the sign of peace, childhood and fun at Devon. Without Finny, the students would soon lose to uch with their childhood, turning all their attention onto the war. Adolescence was also shown through Finny's clothing. Finny had no inhibitions, which was conveyed very well through his pink shirt and tie-belt. The pink shirt and tie-belt served as an emblem, because news had just arrived of the bombing overseas. Finny wore this to tea, something no one else would dare ever do.

Aig Scandal

[pic] THE INTERNAL CONTROLS AND FINANCIAL ACTIVITIES THAT LED TO THE BAILOUT OF OUR NATION’S LARGEST INSURANCE COMPANY By: Monte Schwartz PREFACE Anyone who watches TV has most likely seen the American International Group (hereinafter AIG) commercial with the little boy who walks into his parent’s room while they are sleeping. When his mother asks if he had a nightmare, he says â€Å"no† and that he’s worried about his parent’s financial future. After a twenty-second spiel about his worries, the father says, â€Å"Buddy, we’re with AIG† and he goes, â€Å"Oh! and walks out of the room and (assuming) back to his bedroom. [1] AIG, established as a Delaware corporation in 1921 by Maurice â€Å"Hank† Greenburg, is primarily engaged in insurance-related and financial activities in the United States and European countries (over 130 combined total); including but not limited to home insurance, car insurance, life insurance and various investments. Imagine that this boys parents’ discover one day with their financial planners that they lost all of their investments and insurances in which they paid dearly.The parents had agreed to make an investment so they and their children could have a secured future protection against market risks. Well, it became a reality for many Americans. This devastating loss left many taxpayers with misappropriated assets along with a burden to pay the â€Å"bill† for the bailout of AIG. PART I: HOUSING MARKET SCANDAL: VIOLATIONS IN BUSINESS OPERATIONS To understand the accounting scandal of AIG, one must first understand its business transactions and operations leading up to the SEC investigations. In 1993, President Bill Clinton signed into law the OmnibusBudget Reconciliation Act, commonly known as the OBRA-93 or the Deficit Reduction Act. Part XIII, is our primary focus, the Revenue Reconciliation Act which allows limitations on executive compensations by limiting the deductible for tax purposes to $1 Million unless the compensation was earned through performance, bonuses or equity: ultimately increasing the average executives paycheck. [2] When an executive’s paycheck percentage is primarily a bonus, those profits can lead to decisions that are not in the best interest, short-term and long-term, of taxpayers or shareholders.You may think what this Act has to do with AIG, but this act is the very essence of why AIG failed as a business. AIG had paid its top executives a whopping $165 million in bonuses after it had received bailout funds. In early 1995, the Clinton Administration issued new and revised regulations to the Community Reinvestment Act, or CRA (in which was created by the Jimmy Carter administration) which de-emphasize a lender to make subjective assessment measures in favor of strictly numerical quotas, or as others may say, racial quotas. 3] In simpler terms, private banks were compelled to provide loans to low income famili es and minority neighborhoods as long as the person was making some sort of income to repay the loan and did not require any initiation of a credit check. In more ways than one, this was a Federal scheme that pressured and extorted banks into loaning money to people at high-risk. The new regulations also instructed lenders to take into account how well they responded to complaints from groups such as Minority Community Activist organizations like ACORN.In December of the same year, Henry Cisneros (herinafter Cisneros), then head of Department of Housing and Urban Development (hereinafter HUD), moved Fanny Mae and Freddie Mac towards a requirement that 42% of the mortgages would now serve predominantly minority neighborhoods and low to moderate income families. In 2000, Andrew Cuomo (hereinafter Cuomo), Cisneros’ successor, established an even more aggressive social-engineering goal by increasing the number of mortgages to 50% by method of dramatically hiking Fanny Mae’ s and Freddie Mac’s mandates to buy mortgages to under-serve neighborhoods for the very low income. 4] Cuomo also encouraged them to strongly enter the sub-prime loan markets, which are credit-default swap markets. And who sold the credit-default swaps? AIG did, because it was an insurance on bonds. Large banks buy bonds and insurance policies so that if a company, say General Electric, should declare bankruptcy, the large bank is out on whatever premium amount it paid and receives money from whoever sold the insurance policy, which in this case was AIG since AIG was the biggest underwriter of credit-default swaps. 5] Take for instance, as an example, General Electric (GE)[6]. There are only two (2) reasons as to why a bank would purchase credit-default swaps. Either they do not want to provide the full credit amount as it may be a risk or they are looking to hide something, like a cash transaction. Suppose that Bank A wants to better its business relationship with GE and so GE asks for $70 million on credit. The bank, in return, speaks to their senior credit manager that the maximum they can provide is $50 million, due to risk exposure.However, in order to satisfy the customer, the bank lends the $70 million anyway and writes off the $20 million difference by purchasing a credit-default swap from Bank B. The only problem is, GE believes the entire $70 million came from Bank A. Now, Bank B was â€Å"AIG Financial Products† (hereinafter AIGFP), a division of AIG. Bank A was Bank of America, Wells Fargo, JP Morgan Chase, etc. PART II: THE ACCOUNTING SCANDAL: VIOLATIONS OF INTERNAL CONTROL There are four (4) most common ways of distorting a company’s financial condition.They are revenue recognition, cost or expense recognition, accounting for reserves and accounting related to business combinations. [7] AIG distorted their financials via accounting for reserves. What does that mean though? In accounting, companies use reserves to cover future costs such as taxes, possible litigation and pay-off debts or other liabilities. When a company intentionally falsifies information and misleads auditors of true financial reports, these fake transactions are better known as â€Å"sham transactions†.In 2001, the Securities Exchange Commission (herein after SEC) began investigating and making allegations that AIG was providing investors, shareholders and auditors with false financial statements, showing two sham schemes where the company altered its balance sheets through bogus transactions in efforts to conceal the company’s losses on investments related to the credit default swaps. By September of 2003, the SEC filed a lawsuit against a company known as Brightpoint Inc. (hereinafter Brightpoint), in which is a wholesale distributor of electronics.Their allegations included, but not limited to, improper use of insurance policies in attempting to reduce a loss by 11. 9 Million in efforts to show the public a smaller lo ss. As a result, Brightpoint’s Financial Statements overstated their net income. The SEC found their net income overstated by 61%. [8] It was revealed later in the discovery period that AIG was involved in assisting Brightpoint to spread out their losses over a time period. This technique is known as â€Å"retroactive insurance† which combined two policies into one.The two policies were the Retroactive Coverage and a Prospective Coverage. The â€Å"policy† was supposed to cover the cost of losses over a three-year term. The idea was to â€Å"smooth† the financial statement so that the public did not see such an impact of losses by AIG clients. Brightpoint paid a monthly premium for this policy of $15 Million. This tactic, while completely fraudulent, allowed Brightpoint to show an Insurance Receivable of $11. 9 Million. See, SEC v. Brightpoint (2003). Retroactive Coverage is not insurance.It just moved cash from one place to another, which the SEC called a â€Å"round-trip of cash†. Brightpoint deposited monies with AIG and later on, AIG would return the funds; yet mark it off in their books as if they made an Insurance Claim Payment. There was no risk being transferred. Once Auditors realized that this policy wasn’t quite an Insurance Policy, Brightpoint began making â€Å"restatements† to their financial statements. It is obvious that there is fraud when the books require numerous â€Å"restatements†. After the SEC had filed their lawsuit, AIG quickly made agreements to settle for $10 Million.This was only a civil penalty. No criminal penalties were administered by the Federal Courts for this â€Å"Retro-active Policy†. This payment of $10 Million resulted in AIG’s profit a mere $100,000. See, SEC v. Brightpoint (2003). Brightpoint was not the only company received â€Å"assistance† from AIG around the same time frame. Another company, known as PNC Financial Services Group Inc. (her einafter PNC), was also involved. In short, PNC was a Pennsylvania bank holding company. AIG helped PNC to move $762 million of assets off of the balance sheets. 9] By now, it seems AIG was a â€Å"pro† at distorting balance sheets. They didn’t like low net incomes and they helped others by sharing their tactics of â€Å"distortion†. The SEC calls these â€Å"PAGIC† transactions, since net incomes magically show profit. PNC had transferred their assets to another entity which PNC held major interest. They had created three (3) transactions which were intended to reduce their losses in regards to loans and venture capital investments by â€Å"transferring†, according to the SEC summary findings.PNC had then failed to account for these transfers as an asset or a loan which failed to appear on their balance sheets. This reduced their exposure to â€Å"troubled loans and volatile assets†. (See SEC v. PNC Financial Services, Inc. ) These transact ions were obviously structured to benefit PNC and its interested entities by increasing the value of their net income. Recently, as of January 2010, the SEC has also filed a complaint against a company known as Gen Re (General Reinsurance Corporation) which SEC has evidence of involvement in assisting AIG and other Financial Companies in using this sham scheme.The SEC makes allegations that Gen Re â€Å"knowingly provided substantial assistance to both AIG and Prudential in connection with their own violations of the books and records and internal control provisions of the federal securities laws, Sections 13(b)(2)(A) and 13(b)(2)(B) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1932. †[10] AIG falsely reported on its financial statements increases to both loss reserves and premiums written via sham reinsurance transactions. Gen Re helped AIG’s balance sheet transactions appear as thought AIG had an increase in loss reserves[11] by $500 million, which obviously was far from the ac tuality.The loss reserves should have been $250 million – half of the claimed amount – according to the SEC findings. There is also another accounting scandal involving AIG and the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. The individual parties involved Hank Greenberg, the CEO and founder of AIG and Timothy Geithner, then President of the NY Fed. Bank. The party investigating was the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee (hereinafter Committee), whose senior chairman is Darrell Issa, also Republican Representative of California.Over twenty-two (22) hearings, discovery proceedings, interrogatories were produced on behalf of the Committee towards Timothy Geithner in why the Federal Reserve ordered AIG to refrain from disclosing in the notes of the financial statements all the facts of the bailout. Geithner, in hearings, attempted to defend the bailout by suggesting that had AIG collapsed, America would face a Great Depression. This answer was something the Committee h ad heard numerous times before. They demanded a new answer.Even if the case is true, that America would have faced a Great Depression, the Committee smelled a bad scene unfolding, especially since two of Geithner’s closest advisors, Mark Patterson (chief of staff) and Henry Paulson Jr. (former ex-chairman of the Federal Reserve), were both ex-employees of Goldman Sachs. In AIG’s bailout, Goldman Sachs had received $13 Billion. In defense to the bailout, Timothy Geithner’s general counsel had claimed that the disclosures were unnecessary since the company’s regulatory filings had offered more detailed information.In opposition to this statement, Issa released a five-page list of derivative transactions, also known as â€Å"Schedule A†[12] which is a comparative list of notional value, total collateral and negative mark to market values, respectively. Notional value is the value of the derivatives underlying assets at spot price (current price). The total collateral posted is the total securities for the guaranteed repayment of a loan and the negative mark to market measures the fair market value of accounts, which can change overtime.Between the three comparisons, it is clear that â€Å"Schedule A† shows little reason for the Federal Reserve Bank of New York insisted that information should be kept private. PART III: THE RESULTS: BAILOUT & BONUSES A â€Å"bailout† is the giving of financial assistance (via the Fed, therefore taxpayers) to a failing business to save it from collapse. A bailout can be through the use of cash or a loan; however it can only happen when a company faces potential bankruptcy.With AIG’s housing market scandal and accounting scandal, it faced bankruptcy because it reported an overstatement of net revenue on its annual financial statements leading investors and shareholders to believe the company was a success. AIG initially received $85 Billion from the government as a loan, and th en sometime in March 2009, they received another $88 Billion. Now that we know what financial assistance was received, term $173 Billion, what did AIG do with all the bailout money? Well, now we can look closer at Figure 1-1 in determine where the money has gone. 44 Million went back into the Banks of the United States. AIG paid itself $600 Million. Golden Sachs received $13 Billion and Merrill Lynch: $7 Billion. The chart also includes bailout money that each of the 50 states received, totaling $12 Billion, even though they were originally supposed to receive $15 Billion. $113 Billion went to guarantees, such as bond guarantees and securities guarantees. If you look closer, you will see that foreign banks and countries received more bailout money than the United States did. France, Germany and the United Kingdom received the bulk of the funds, a whopping $49 Billion.These countries received, rounded, 80% of the AIG foreign funds. See below figure for details of the funds AIG disbur sed to large banks and foreign countries. [pic] And what about that $165 Million â€Å"bonus† contract AIG had? Senior Judicial Analyst, Judge Andrew Napolitano states that (1) the â€Å"existence of a contract is the building block to our commercial society† and that (2) therefore, the contract to pay top executives a $165 million cannot be broken because the â€Å"constitution prohibits the government, federal and state, from interfering with valid contracts and these contracts were valid when they were signed. [13] Much of the debate of where all of the taxpayer bailout funds come into scrutiny but that is another issue of AIG. The majority of the housing market and accounting scandals began during the Jimmy Carter administration when he enacted the CRA. Then, in the Bill Clinton administration, while he may have had good faith intentions to help the minority communities, he literally forced banks to handout loans when the applier had a high credit risk.Then, Cuomo increased the percentage of mortgages that were required to serve minorities via credit-default swaps which AIG were the primary underwriters. This factor, along with the sham balance sheet insurance transactions was the reason AIG nearly went bankrupt. While the bailout certainly helped AIG in avoiding bankruptcy, thousands of American citizens who file and pay annual income tax returns (the 50%), lost their investments and insurances to secure their futures all due to tax-schemers and executives who are high on themselves and want a bigger return. PART IV: AIG:WHAT IT IS NOW Since the discovery of AIG’s fraudulent behaviors in business and financial activities in 2001, the company has had to face many lawsuits from investors and shareholders; some are still pending. The CEO of AIG, Hank Greenburg as well as a few top executives were forced to resign. Some executives received a two (2) year prison term, which isn’t a very long time when considering how much money was misappropriated. Just recently, Oct 2, 2012, the company revealed a new image for their name. They have changed their logo which is the cover image above.They claim the new logo is â€Å"transparent† and â€Å"simplistic†. Does a new logo change the history of a company though? In a company that had so much potential yet failed to secure the futures of the Americans who they insured, the reputation is irreparably damaged and until it repays the billions of dollars back to the government (or, taxpayers). Until then, AIG is owned by the Federal Government. ———————– [1] â€Å"AIG Commercial†  © 2005 < http://www. youtube. com/watch? v=9VvGW98D3XA> [2] Korzenik, Jeffrey D. Forbes. om â€Å"The Tax Code Encourages Big Wall Street Bonuses† Feb 2009. < http://www. forbes. com/2009/02/04/wall-street-bonuses-opinions-contributors_0204_jeffrey_korzenik. html> [3] Money Gather: â€Å"Bill Clinton Helped Cau se the Housing Crisis† September 2008. [4] Morris, Dick. Take Back America. Pg 266, Harper, April 13, 2010. Print. > [5] The Big Picture. â€Å"Credit Default Swaps are Insurance Products. It’s Time we Regulated them as Much. † March 2012. [6] General Electric was in no way shape or form related to the AIG scandal; this is strictly an example. 7] See Pricewaterhouse Coopers LLP, 2009 Securities Litigation Study 30 (2009), available at http://10b5. pwc. com/PDF/NY-10-0559%20SEC%20LIT%20STUDY_V7%20PRINT. PDF. [8] Securities Exchange Commission v. Brightpoint Inc. , (2003) http://www. sec. gov/litigation/complaints/comp18340. htm [9] Securities and Exchange Commission v. PNC Financial Services Inc. http://www. sec. gov/litigation/admin/33-8112. htm [10] Securities and Exchange Commission v General Re Corporation, 10 CV 458, PACER [11] Loss reserves in the Insurance industry are an estimate of the value of a claim or group of claims not yet paid. [12]