Americans with Disabilities Act 1

Americans with Disabilities Act The Americans with Disabilities Act Overview of the ADA of 1990 including its intended purpose, and what governmental agency oversees ADA claims The Americans with Disability Act (ADA) of 1990 was enacted by the United States Congress, signed into law by George H. W. Bush on July 26, 1990, and amended in 2009 where some changes were introduced to the act. ADA is a civil rights’ law that was intended to check against discrimination that can be encountered by disabled persons in the course of accessing certain services or taking part in day-to-day activities. It safeguards disabled persons against any form of bias or prejudice with respect to their condition. Whatever falls under category of disability is normally made on case-to-case basis. However, current substance abuse and visual impairment that can be remedied by lenses are not considered as disabilities by the ADA of 1990. The law was initially intended to guarantee civil right protection for people who were permanently disabled and their disabilities could not be reversed or weakened. The law was enacted enable disable persons access services enjoyed by persons who are not disabled thereby opening their horizons to all types of careers. The drafters wanted the law to be flexible to guard against eminent weakening by future case laws. To enable disabled persons enjoy equal rights with everyone else, President G. W. Bush signed ADA Amendments Act (ADAAA) into law on September 2008 (Matt, 1). Title I of the ADA 1990 deals with employment. It empowers people with disability with requisite qualifications to seek for employment in covered entities. People with disabilities can be hired, discharged, compensated, and trained just like any other worker without being discriminated. Agencies that are covered by the law include an employment agencies, labor organizations, and labor management committees. As per Title I, discrimination entails restricting job application in a manner contrary to convention, preventing qualified persons people from applying or taking up job opportunities, or making irrational and illegal job requirements to limit persons with disabilities. If entrance medical examinations have to be done, everybody else should be subjected to the process and the medical records must be treated with a lot of confidentiality. This title does not offer protection to individuals currently engaged in illegal use of drugs (Matt, 1). Title II of the Act deals with Public entities. This title prohibits any form of discrimination that can be met on the people with disability by public entities at local and state levels. Access here implies both physical and pragmatic access. It is supposed to check against discriminatory policies instituted by such public entities. It applies to public transportation that public entities offer (Matt, 1). Title III captures public accommodation and commercial facilities. The title criminalizes discrimination based on disability with special focus on full and equal enjoyment of the goods, services, facilities, or accommodations of any public accommodation by the proprietors, leasers, or operators. Public accommodation here means recreational facilities, lodgings, transportation, educational, and places of public displays. Under this title, all new constructions have to comply with Americans with Disabilities Act Accessibility Guidelines anchored in the Code of Federal Regulations. This title also applies to existing facilities. Exemptions to the regulation provided in the title include private clubs and religious organizations. However, historical properties and other public and private buildings must comply with the provisions of this title and failure may lead to legal proceedings. However, if following usual standards threaten to destroy historical significance of the feature of the building, they are under obligation to use other standards (Matt, 2). Title IV of the ADA deals with telecommunications. This title amended the Communications Act of 1934. All telecommunication companies are required to cater for the needs of the disabled especially the deaf and those with speech impairment (Matt, 3). Title V of ADA deals with miscellaneous provisions that are basically technical provisions. It also includes anti-retaliation or coercion provisions. Many government agencies act in concert to ensure that the ADA of 1990 is implemented. The United States Equal Employment Opportunity Commission presides over employment related ADA provisions. The Department of Transportation regulates statutes related transportation. Other agencies include United States Department of Agriculture, Department of labor, Department of Education, United States Department of Interior, United States Department of Housing and Urban Development, United States Department of Health and Human Services, and Federal Communications Commission (Matt, 4). Statutory definition of â€Å"disability† and â€Å"reasonable accommodation† under the ADA of 1990 The ADA Act of 1990 defines disability as an impairment that substantially limits major life activity. ADA defines impairment as a physiological disorder or condition, cosmetic disfigurement, anatomical, neurological, musculoskeletal, respiratory, cardiovascular, reproductive losses. The Act further defines impairment as a mental or psychological disorder. Nevertheless, the explanations of impairment under the ADA regulation do not include physical traits, common personality traits, cultural and economic aspects as these elements come naturally and cannot be altered by man (Matt, 1). The Act excludes certain statutory requirements while trying to define disability like those currently using illegal drugs. Emotional acts such as thought, focus, and making contact with others also make up major life activities in reference to the EEOC. The phrase substantially limits features in the ADA definition of disability. An impairment on qualifies to be a disability if it limits life activities. For an impairment to be referred to as a disability, a person must be meaningfully limited in his or her competency to undertake certain activities relative to the average person drawn from the general public. Some of the very essential aspects to consider in this area are nature and extent of the disability, the time interval that the persons has been disabled, and how the impairment affects the individual’s ability to partake in everyday tasks (Acemoglu and Angrist 920). Reasonable accommodation in the ADA of 1990 protects persons with disabilities by ensuring that other than provision of physical access to buildings and provision of equal access to programs and services, this category of citizens access auxiliary services, aids, and removal of barriers in public utilities provided that this does not create undue administrative or financial burdens. The ADA 1990 defines reasonable ccommodation to entail â€Å"making existing facilities used by employees readily accessible and usable by disabled persons, job restructuring, part time or modified work schedules, re-advertisement to vacant person, acquisition or modification of equipment or devices and appropriate adjustment or modification of examination† (Matt, 5). Discuss the Supreme Court's decisions in Sutton and Toyota Manufacturing In Williams’s case, The Supreme Court visited the question of severity of a condition that qualifies it to be a protected disability. The Supreme Court held that the employee’s medical condition known as carpal tunnel syndrome was not a disability because it was not substantially limiting. It was further stated that for an impairment to be referred to as a disability, it has to prevent or severely restrict a person from undertaking in tasks that are of essential value to a person in everyday life. The court underscored the need for strict interpretation of the phrase ‘’substantially limits. ’ The ruling in Williams’s case brought into fore the inability of ADA to accommodate cases characterized by dismissal of many disability cases (Raddatz, 2). In Sutton v. United Airlines, the plaintiff sued for discriminative acts by a potential employer. In the case, the plaintiffs were two twin myopic sisters who had applied for employment as commercial pilots but their request was rejected because they did not attain the minimum value for uncorrected eyesight. The Supreme Court held that the question of whether somebody is disabled and thus be protected by ADA must be looked at with reference to all mitigating measures. For instance, if a person is severely limited in undertaking day-to-day activities without medical intervention but is only slightly limited to undertaking these tasks after medical interventions, the medical intervention serves to negate the impairment from being referred to as a disability as outlined in the ADA (Raddatz, 1). The ADAAA of 2008 including its intended purpose and significant changes from the ADA of 1990 The ADAAA 2008 is an Act of the Congress that went into operation on January 1, 2009. It amended the ADA of 1990 and other nondiscrimination laws that were drafted for the good of people with disability at state and federal levels. The amendment was introduced with respect to myriad Supreme Court rulings on ADA 1990. THE Supreme Court decisions were viewed by the members of the United States Congress as limiting the rights of people with disabilities (Schall, pp. 192). The ADAAA indeed reversed those decisions. With respect to ADA Title I, ADAAA changed the definition of disability. It clarified and broadened its definition. One notable contribution of this amendment is to take into consideration of both the employer and employee. With ADAAA 2008, courts are expected to interpret ADA and other Federal disability non-discrimination laws and determine whether the covered entity has discriminated. This law preserves the original meaning definition of law as written in the ADA but alters the way that statutory term should be construed (Matt, 5). Legal analysis of Billy and Mandy's requests applying both the ADA and ADAAA Based on the Americans with Disability Act of 1990, Mandy’s request should not be honored because she is not substantially limited in her daily activities without using medical interventions like consulting an optician to initiate corrective measures to remedy far sightedness. However, with the ADAAA, her request should be granted because the Act prohibits consideration of medication and low vision devices in determining whether a condition is a disability. Billy Beer’s request has to be granted because according to the Reasonable Accommodation and from the definition of disability in Title I, Billy’s condition is covered and indeed considered a disability. Moreover, ADAAA prioritizes discrimination initiated by covered entity as opposed to whether the person seeking protection under law has impairment that fits the statutory definition of disability. Works Cited Acemoglu, Daron and Angrist, Joshua D. Consequences of Employment Protection? The Case of the Americans with Disabilities Act. Journal of Political Economy 109(6), 2001, 915–957. Matt, Susan. Reasonable Accommodation: What does the Law Really Require. Journal of the Association of Medical Professionals with hearing Loses, 1(1), 2003, 1-13 Raddatz, Alissa. ADA Amendments overrule Supreme Court Decisions on What Constitutes Disability. 2009. Web. 3 Dec. 2011. Schall, Carol M. The Americans with Disabilities Act—Are We Keeping Our Promise? An Analysis of the Effect of the ADA on the Employment of Persons with Disabilities. Journal of Vocational Rehabilitation 10(9), 1998, 191-203.

Is Tourism Considered an Import or an Export?

Is tourism import or export? Tourism is now one of the fastest growing sectors of the economies of many countries, especially for the developed regions. What is the majority of their income of the tourism industry comes from? In fact, their income is came form importing and exporting tourism. However, is tourism solely export or import? Our group holds the view that tourism is both import and export. Exporting tourism means that tourists from other places travel to the host country and consume goods and services. In addition, according to book ‘Tourism Principles and Practice (second edition)’, it is said that international tourist expenditure can be seen as an invisible export from the other countries. To explain, let us take Macau as an example. Macau, as an international city with its fast-developing tourism industry, attracts tourists all around the world. At the day when tourists first arrive Macau until they leave, they will have fundamental needs of transportation, accommodation and food and beverages. When tourists go to different scenic spots, they will need transportation and they may buy souvenirs. Moreover, some of them will visit the casinos for entertainment, and eventually they will need to eat and to have a place to stay (e. g. hotel). As they are enjoying all these services, Macau is exporting tourism for Macau provides these services. On the other hand, importing tourism means that people from the host country travel to the other places and consume goods and services there. In fact, import of tourism is exactly the opposite of export of tourism. Domestic citizens of the host country travel to other places and surely they will also need accommodation and transportation. Therefore, we are importing tourism from other places. In conclusion, according to the above information provided, our group strongly agrees that tourism should include both import and export. Furthermore, import and export should be maintained in an equilibrium state.

Business Law Essay Example for Free (#16)

Business Law Essay What is Business Law? Businesses interact in many and varied ways. To name just a few types of business transactions, there are contracts, mergers and acquisitions, leasing, etc. How these transactions are carried out is overseen by Business Law. Additionally, how businesses are formed is a large part of Business law. This area of law is very wide-ranging, although it deals primarily with defining the rights and responsibilities of businesses, rather than enforcing these laws. Because of its extensive scope, Business law has spawned a large number of legal practice area subcategories, which include Sales and Secured Transactions, Banking, Landlord-Tenant, Mortgages, Real Estate Transactions, Debtor and Creditor, Bankruptcy, Consumer Credit, Negotiable Instruments, and Contracts. Business law and Commercial law are very closely related, so much so that the terms are often used interchangeably and the legal issues they address frequently overlap. The Uniform Commercial Code (UCC) is the principal presiding authority over commercial transactions. Business.gov helps small businesses understand their legal requirements and locate government services from federal, state and local agencies. Business.gov is an official site of the U.S. Small Business Administration. * Commercial Law / Business Law – Definition Commercial law (sometimes known as business law) is the body of law that governs business and commercial transactions. It is often considered to be a branch of civil law and deals with issues of both private law and public law. Commercial law includes within its compass such titles as principal and agent; carriage by land and sea; merchant shipping; guarantee; marine, fire, life, and accident insurance; bills of exchange and partnership. It can also be understood to regulate corporate contracts, hiring practices, and the manufacture and sales of consumer goods. Most aspects of running a business have some legal consequences. Whether your business is just starting up, expanding, or winding down, you must comply with the federal, state, and local laws that govern your business activities. A great many common law rulings, statutes, administrative rules and legislation make up the practice and interpretation of employment law. Its governance falls under the umbrella of both federal and state statutes, as well as administrative regulation and judicial precedent. When workers file claims for employment discrimination, unemployment compensation and workers’ compensation, these claims fall under employment law. Likewise, overseeing workplace safety and standards, fair wages, retirement and pensions, employee benefits, and much more, are part of this wide-ranging legal area. Employment law deals with both the employer and the employee’s actions, rights and responsibilities, as well as their relationship with one another. A well-known, prevalent administrative regulatory body for employment law is the Department of Labor, which exists on both the federal and the state level.The elaws Advisors are interactive e-tools that provide easy-to-understand information about a number of federal employment laws. Each Advisor simulates the interaction you might have with an employment law expert. It asks questions and provides answers based on responses given. Self-Employment Assistance offers dislocated workers the opportunity for early re-employment. The program is designed to encourage and enable unemployed workers to create their own jobs by starting their own small businesses. Under these programs, States can pay a self-employed allowance, instead of regular unemployment insurance benefits, to help unemployed workers while they are establishing businesses and becoming self-employed. Participants receive weekly allowances while they are getting their businesses off the ground. A corporation is a legal entity created through the laws of its state of incorporation. Individual states have the power to promulgate laws relating to the creation, organization and dissolution of corporations. Many states follow the Model Business Corporation Act.State corporation laws require articles of incorporation to document the corporation’s creation and to provide provisions regarding the management of internal affairs. Most state corporation statutes also operate under the assumption that each corporation will adopt bylaws to define the rights and obligations of officers, persons and groups within its structure. States also have registration laws requiring corporations that incorporate in other states to request permission to do in-state business.There has also been a significant component of Federal corporations law since Congress passed the Securities Act of 1933, which regulates how corporate securities are issued and sold. Federal securities law also governs req uirements of fiduciary conduct such as requiring corporations to make full disclosures to shareholders and investors. The law treats a corporation as a legal â€Å"person† that has standing to sue and be sued, distinct from its stockholders. The legal independence of a corporation prevents shareholders from being personally liable for corporate debts. It also allows stockholders to sue the corporation through a derivative suit and makes ownership in the company (shares) easily transferable. The legal â€Å"person† status of corporations gives the business perpetual life; deaths of officials or stockholders do not alter the corporation’s structure.Corporations are taxable entities that fall under a different scheme from individuals. Although corporations have a â€Å"double tax† problem — both corporate profits and shareholder dividends are taxed — corporate profits are taxed at a lower rate than the rates for individuals.Corporate law has important intersections with contracts and commercial transactions law. A generic term for shares of stock, bonds, and debentures issued by corporations and governments to evidence ownership and terms of payment of dividends or final payoff. They are called securities because the assets or profits of the corporation or the credit of the government stand as security for payment. However, unlike secured transactions in which specific property is pledged, securities are only as good as the future profitability of the corporation or the management of the governmental agency. Most securities are traded on various stock or bond markets. Securities law exists because of unique informational needs of investors. Securities are not inherently valuable; their worth comes only from the claims they entitle their owner to make upon the assets and earnings of the issuer or the voting power that accompanies such claims. The value of securities depends on the issuer’s financial condition, products and markets, management, and the competitive and regulatory climate. Securities laws and regulations aim at ensuring that investors receive accurate and necessary information regarding the type and value of the interest under consideration for purchase. Securities exist in the form of notes, stocks, treasury stocks, bonds, certificates of interest or participation in profit sharing agreements, collateral trust certificates, preorganization certificates or subscriptions, transferable shares, investment contracts, voting trust certificates, certificates of deposit for a security, and a fractional undivided interest in gas, oil, or other mineral rights. Certain types of notes, such as a note secured by a home mortgage or a note secured by accounts receivable or other business assets, are not securities. * The Setting for Buying and Trading Two principle settings for buying and selling securities exist – issuer transactions and trading transactions. On the one hand, issuer transactions are the means by which businesses raise capital. These transactions involve the sale of securities by the issuer to investors. On the other hand, trading transactions refers to the purchasing and selling of outstanding securities among investors. Investors trade outstanding securities through securities markets that can be either stock exchanges or â€Å"over-the-counter.† Stock exchanges provide a place, rules, and procedures for buying and selling securities, and the government heavily regulates them. Generally, to have their securities sold and bought on a stock exchange, a company must list its securities on a given exchange. The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) must approve the stock exchange’s rules before they take effect. Transactions that do not take place on a stock exchange occur in the the residual securities market, known as the over-the-counter market. Only dealers and brokers registered with the SEC may engage in securities business both on stock exchanges and in over-the-counter markets. Most of the broker-dealers serving the public used to be members of the National Association of Securities Dealers (NASD), which served the NASDAQ stock market, but in 2007, the NASD merged with the dealers from the New York Stock Exchange to form the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) a national securities association registered with SEC. Securities regulations focus mainly on the market for common stocks. Both federal and state laws regulate securities. On the heels of the Great Depression, Congress enacted the first of the federal securities laws, the Federal Securities Act of 1933, which regulates the public offering and sale of securities in interstate commerce. This Act also prohibits the offer or sale of a security not registered with the Securities Exchange Commission and requires the disclosure of certain information to the prospective securities’ purchaser. Then, needing an agency to enforce those regulations, Congress established the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, which created the SEC. Since then, Congress has charged the SEC with administering federal securities laws. The 1933 Act’s registration requirements aimed to enable purchasers to make reasoned decisions by requiring companies to provide reliable information. The Securities Exchange Act of 1934 also regulates officers, directors, and principal share holders in an attempt to maintain fair and honest markets. The Act requires that issuers, subject to certain exemptions, register with the SEC if they want to have their securities traded on a national exchange. Issuers of securities registered under the 1934 Act must file various reports with the SEC in order to provide the public with adequate information about companies with publicly traded stocks. The 1934 Act permits the SEC to promulgate rules and regulations to protect the public and investors by prohibiting manipulative devices and contrivances via the mail system or other means of interstate commerce A partnership is a for-profit business association of two or more persons. Because the business component is defined broadly by state laws and because â€Å"persons† can include individuals, groups of individuals, companies, and corporations, partnerships are highly adaptable in form and vary in complexity. Each partner shares directly in the organization’s profits and shares control of the business operation. The consequence of this profit sharing is that partners are jointly and independently liable for the partnership’s debts.Creation, organization, and dissolution of partnerships are governed by state law. Many states have adopted the Uniform Partnership Act. A partner relationship is generally the result of a contract either express or implied with no formal requirements (such as a signed document). This is not the case of a limited partnership where one or more general partners manage business operations and assume personally liable for partnership debts while other contributing/profit sharing partners take no part in running the business and incur no liability beyond contribution obligations.) Limited partnerships are governed in many states by the Uniform Limited Partnership Act . State property law also impacts partnerships by defining ownership in a partnership and determining how the death of a partner changes the partnership structure. Federal law plays a minimal role in partnership law except in the context of a diversity action, or in instances where a partnership agreement contains an effective choice-of-law provision designating the application of federal law. Federal law also governs whether a partnership exists for federal tax purposes. For state and federal tax purposes, a partnership is not a taxable entity. Partnership income is taxable to the partners in proport ion to their share in the company’s profits. Despite their importance to the economy, small businesses are heavily burdened by the costs of government regulation and excessive paperwork. Advocacy research shows that firms with fewer than 20 employees annually spend 45 percent more per employee than larger firms do to comply with federal regulations. Advocacy is an independent voice for small business within the federal government and is the watchdog for the Regulatory Flexibility Act (RFA). Advocacy advances the views and concerns of small business before Congress, the White House, the federal agencies, the federal courts and state policy makers. An arrangement under which a borrower puts up the title to real estate as security (collateral) for a loan to buy the real estate. The borrower typically agrees to make regular payments of principal and interest to repay the loan. If the borrower falls behind (defaults) on the payments, the lender can foreclose on the real estate and have it sold to pay off the loan. A mortgage involves the transfer of an interest in land as security for a loan or other obligation. It is the most common method of financing real estate transactions. The mortgagor is the party transferring the interest in land. The mortgagee, usually a financial institution, is the provider of the loan or other interest given in exchange for the security interest. Normally, a mortgage is paid in installments that include both interest and a payment on the principle amount that was borrowed. Failure to make payments results in the foreclosure of the mortgage. Foreclosure allows the mortgagee to declare that the entire m ortgage debt is due and must be paid immediately. This is accomplished through an acceleration clause in the mortgage. Failure to pay the mortgage debt once foreclosure of the land occurs leads to seizure of the security interest and its sale to pay for any remaining mortgage debt. The foreclosure process depends on state law and the terms of the mortgage. The most common processes are court proceedings (judicial foreclosure) or grants of power to the mortgagee to sell the property (power of sale foreclosure). Many states regulate acceleration clauses and allow late payments to avoid foreclosure. Some states use instruments called deeds of trust instead of traditional mortgages. Three theories exist regarding who has legal title to a mortgaged property. Under the title theory title to the security interest rests with the mortgagee. Most states, however, follow the lien theory under which the legal title remains with the mortgagor unless there is foreclosure. Finally, the intermediate theory applies the lien theory until there is a default on the mortgage whereupon the title theory applies. The mortgagor and the mortgagee generally have the right to transfer their interest in the mortgage. Some states hold that even when the purchaser of a property subject to a mortgage does not explicitly take over the mortgage the transfer is assumed. Mortgages employ due-on-sale and due-on-encumbrance clauses to prevent the transfer of mortgages. These clauses allow acceleration (having the principal and interest become due immediately) of the mortgage. The law of contracts and property govern the transfer of the mortgage’s interest. If the mortgage being foreclosed is not the only lien on the property then state law determines the priority of the property interests. For example, Article 9 of the Uniform Commercial Code governs conflicts between mortgages on real property and liens on fixtures (personal property attached to a piece of real estate). When a mortgage is a negotiable instrument it is governed by Article 3 of the Uniform Commercial Code. A mortgage may be used as a security interest by the mortgage. * Strangely enough, the word mortgage comes from the French word â€Å"mort† which means â€Å"dead† and â€Å"gage† from Old English, which means pledge. The term came from the doubtfulness of whether or not the mortgagor would pay the debt. In the 1500’s, if the mortgagor did not pay, then the land pledged as security for the debt was taken away. The land was then considered â€Å"dead† to the mortgagor. Nowadays, the term mortgage is used as a term for purchasing a property. We no longer associate anyone’s death with it. Although a few lucky people may be in a position to pay all cash for a property, home mortgages are required to purchase a home. Mortgages all have a term (typically 15, 20 or 30 years) representing the length of time before your home is paid off and a rate which determines the principal and interest payment that will be required to be paid during this term. Bankruptcy law provides for the development of a plan that allows a debtor, who is unable to pay his creditors, to resolve his debts through the division of his assets among his creditors. This supervised division also allows the interests of all creditors to be treated with some measure of equality. Certain bankruptcy proceedings allow a debtor to stay in business and use revenue generated to resolve his or her debts. An additional purpose of bankruptcy law is to allow certain debtors to free themselves (to be discharged) of the financial obligations they have accumulated, after their assets are distributed, even if their debts have not been paid in full. Bankruptcy law is federal statutory law contained in Title 11 of the United States Code. Congress passed the Bankruptcy Code under its Constitutional grant of authority to â€Å"establish uniform laws on the subject of Bankruptcy throughout the United States.States may not regulate bankruptcy though they may pass laws that govern other aspects of the debtor-creditor relationship. There are two basic types of Bankruptcy proceedings. A filing under Chapter 7 is called liquidation. It is the most common type of bankruptcy proceeding. Liquidation involves the appointment of a trustee who collects the non-exempt property of the debtor, sells it and distributes the proceeds to the creditors. Bankruptcy involve the rehabilitation of the debtor to allow him or her to use future earnings to pay off creditors. Under Chapter 7, 12, 13, and some 11 proceedings, a trustee is appointed to supervise the assets of the debtor. A bankruptcy proceeding can either be entered into voluntarily by a debtor or initiated by creditors. After a bankruptcy proceeding is filed, creditors, for the most part, may not seek to collect their debts outside of the proceeding. The debtor is not allowed to transfer property that has been declared part of the estate subject to proceedings. Furthermore, certain pre-proceeding transfers of property, secured interests, and liens may be delayed or invalidated. Various provisions of the Bankruptcy Code a lso establish the priority of creditors’ interests. * Small Business Financing – Loans and Grants Federal, state and local governments offer a wide range of financing programs to help small businesses start and grow their operations. These programs include low-interest loans, venture capital, and scientific and economic development grants. The Uniform Commercial Code (UCC or the Code), first published in 1952, is one of a number of uniform acts that have been promulgated in conjunction with efforts to harmonize the law of sales and other commercial transactions in all 50 states within the United States of America. The goal of harmonizing state law is important because of the prevalence of commercial transactions that extend beyond one state. The UCC therefore achieved the goal of substantial uniformity in commercial laws and, at the same time, allowed the states the flexibility to meet local circumstances. The UCC deals primarily with transactions involving personal property (movable property), not real property (immovable property). The U.S. Department of Commerce has a broad mandate to advance economic growth and jobs and opportunities for the American people. It has cross cutting responsibilities in the areas of trade, technology, economic development, environmental stewardship and statistical research and analysis. The products and services the department provides touch the lives of Americans and American companies in many ways, including weather forecasts, the decennial census, and patent and trademark protection for inventors and businesses. The Uniform Commercial Code (UCC), a comprehensive code addressing most aspects of commercial law, is generally viewed as one of the most important developments in American law. The UCC text and draft revisions are written by experts in commercial law and submitted as drafts for approval to the National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws (now referred to as the Uniform Law Commissioners), in collaboration with the American Law Institute. The Commissioners are all attorneys, qualified to practice law, including state and federal judges, legislators and law professors from the United States and its territories. These quasi-public organizations meet and decide whether to endorse these drafts or to send them back to the experts for revision. The revision process may result in several different revisions of the original draft. Once a draft is endorsed, the Uniform Law Commissioners recommend that the states adopt these rules. The UCC is a model code, so it does not have leg al effect in a jurisdiction unless UCC provisions are enacted by the individual legislatures as statutes. Currently, the UCC (in whole or in part) has been enacted, with some local variation, in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and the Virgin Islands. AN ACT to enact the uniform commercial code, relating to certain commercial transactions in or regarding personal property and contracts and other documents concerning them, including sales, commercial paper,bank deposits and collections, letters of credit, bulk transfers, warehouse receipts, bills of lading, other documents of title, investment securities, leases, and secured transactions, including certain sales of accounts and contract rights; to provide for public notice to third parties in certain circumstances; to regulate procedure, evidence and damages in certain court actions involving such transactions, contracts or documents; to make uniform the law with respect there to; to make an appropriation; to provide penalties; and to repeal certain acts and parts of acts. * 1-101. Short Titles. (a) This [Act] may be cited as the Uniform Commercial Code. * 1-102. Scope of Article. This article applies to a transaction to the extent that it is governed by another article of [the Uniform Commercial Code]. * 1-103. Construction of [Uniform Commercial Code] to Promote its Purposes and Policies: Applicability of Supplemental Principles of Law. (a) [The Uniform Commercial Code] must be liberally construed and applied to promote its underlying purposes and policies, which are: (1)to simplify, clarify, and modernize the law governing commercial transactions; (2) to permit the continued expansion of commercial practices through custom, usage, and agreement of the parties; and (3) to make uniform the law among the various jurisdictions. (b) Unless displaced by the particular provisions of [the Uniform Commercial Code], the principles of law and equity, including the law merchant and the law relative to capacity to contract, principal and agent, fraud, misrepresentation,mistake, bankruptcy, and other validating or invalidating cause supplement its provisions. * 1-104. Construction Against Implied Repeal. [The Uniform Commercial Code] being a general act intended as a unified coverage of its subject matter, no part of it shall be deemed to be impliedly repealed by subsequent legislation if such construction can reasonably be avoided. If any provision or clause of [the Uniform Commercial Code] or its application to any person or circumstance is held invalid, the invalidity does not affect other provisions or applications of [the Uniform Commercial Code] which can be given effect without the invalid provision or application, and to this end the provisions of [the Uniform Commercial Code] are severable. * 1-106. Use of Singular and Plural; Gender. In [the Uniform Commercial Code], unless the statutory context otherwise requires: (1) words in the singular number include the plural, and those in the plural include the singular; and (2) words of any gender also refer to any other gender. Section captions are part of [the Uniform Commercial Code]. * 1-108. Relation to Electronic Signatures in Global and National Commerce Act. This article modifies, limits, and supersedes the federal Electronic Signatures in Global and National Commerce Act, 15 U.S.C. Section 7001 et seq., except that nothing in this article modifies, limits, or supersedes Section 7001(c) of that Act or authorizes electronic delivery of any of the notices described in Section 7003(b) of that Act. (a) Unless the context otherwise requires, words or phrases defined in this section, or in the additional definitions contained in other articles of [the Uniform Commercial Code] that apply to particular articles or parts thereof, have the meanings stated. (b) Subject to definitions contained in other articles of [the Uniform Commercial Code] that apply to particular articles or parts thereof: (1) â€Å"Action†, in the sense of a judicial proceeding, includes recoupment, counterclaim, set-off, suit in equity, and any other proceeding in which rights are determined. (2) â€Å"Aggrieved party† means a party entitled to pursue a remedy. (3) â€Å"Agreement†, as distinguished from â€Å"contract†, means the bargain of the parties in fact, as found in their language or inferred from other circumstances, including course of performance, course of dealing, or usage of trade as provided in Section 1-303. (4) â€Å"Bank† means a person engaged in the busines s of banking and includes a savings bank, savings and loan association, credit union, and trust company. (5) â€Å"Bearer† means a person in possession of a negotiable instrument, document of title, or certificated security that is payable to bearer or indorsed in blank. (6) â€Å"Bill of lading† means a document evidencing the receipt of goods for shipment issued by a person engaged in the business of transporting or forwarding goods. (7) â€Å"Branch† includes a separately incorporated foreign branch of a bank. (8) â€Å"Burden of establishing† a fact means the burden of persuading the trier of fact that the existence of the fact is more probable than its nonexistence. (9) â€Å"Buyer in ordinary course of business† means a person that buys goods in good faith, without knowledge that the sale violates the rights of another person in the goods, and in the ordinary course from a person, other than a pawnbroker, in the business of selling goods of that kind. A person buys goods in the ordinary course if the sale to the person comports with the usual or customary practices in the kind of business in which the seller is engaged or with the seller’s own usual or customary practices. A person that sells oil, gas, or othe r minerals at the wellhead or minehead is a person in the business of selling goods of that kind. A buyer in ordinary course of business may buy for cash, by exchange of other property, or on secured or unsecured credit, and may acquire goods or documents of title under a preexisting contract for sale. Only a buyer that takes possession of the goods or has a right to recover the goods from the seller under Article 2 may be a buyer in ordinary course of business. (10) â€Å"Conspicuous†, with reference to a term, means so written, displayed, or presented that a reasonable person against which it is to operate ought to have noticed it. Whether a term is â€Å"conspicuous† or not is a decision for the court. Conspicuous terms include the following: (A) a heading in capitals equal to or greater in size than the surrounding text, or in contrasting type, font, or color to the surrounding text of the same or lesser size; and (B) language in the body of a record or display in larger type than the surrounding text, or in contrasting type, font, or color to the surrounding te xt of the same size, or set off from surrounding text of the same size by symbols or other marks that call attention to the language. (11) â€Å"Consumer† means an individual who enters into a transaction primarily for personal, family, or household purposes. (12) â€Å"Contract†, as distinguished from â€Å"agreement†, means the total legal obligation that results from the parties’ agreement as determined by [the Uniform Commercial Code] as supplemented by any other applicable laws. (13) â€Å"Creditor† includes a general creditor, a secured creditor, and any representative of creditors, including an assignee for the benefit of creditors, a receiver in equity, and an executor or administrator of an insolvent debtor’s or assignor’s estate. (14) â€Å"Defendant† includes a person in the position of defendant in a counterclaim, cross-claim, or third-party claim. (15) â€Å"Delivery†, with respect to an instrument, document of title, or chattel paper, means voluntary transfer of possession. Includes the appropriate rules and customs for handling trade between countries. However, it is also used in legal writings as trade between private sectors, which is not right. This branch of law is now an independent field of study as most governments has become part of the world trade, as members of the World Trade Organization (WTO). Since the transaction between private sectors of different countries is important part of the WTO activities, this latter branch of law is now very important part of the academic works and is under study in many universities across the world. International trade law should be distinguished from the broader field of international economic law. The latter could be said to encompass not only WTO law, but also law governing the international monetary system and currency regulation, as well as the law of international development. The body of rules for transnational trade in the 21st century derives from medieval commercial laws called the lex mercatoria and lex maritima — respectively, â€Å"the law for merchants on land† and â€Å"the law for merchants on sea.† Modern trade law (extending beyond bilateral treaties) began shortly after the Second World War, with the negotiation of a multilateral treaty to deal with trade in goods: the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT). International trade law is based on theories of economic liberalism developed in Europe and later the United States from the 18th century onwards. International Trade Law is an aggregate of legal rules of â€Å"international legislation† and new lex mercatoria, regulating relations in international trade. â€Å"International legislation† – international treaties and acts of international intergovernmental organizations regulating relations in international trade. lex mercatoria – â€Å"the law for merchants on land†. Alok Narayan defines â€Å"lex mercatoria† as â€Å"any law relating to businesses† which was criticised by Professor Julius Stone. and lex maritima – â€Å"the law for merchants on sea. Alok in his recent article criticised this definition to be â€Å"too narrow† and â€Å"merely-creative†. Professor Dodd and Professor Malcolm Shaw of Leeds University supported this proposition. Contract: the elements of a contract The first step in a contract question is always to make sure that a contract actually exists. There are certain elements that must be present for a legally binding contract to be in place. The first two are the most obvious: * An offer: an expression of willingness to contract on a specific set of terms, made by the offeror with the intention that, if the offer is accepted, he or she will be bound by a contract. * Acceptance: an expression of absolute and unconditional agreement to all the terms set out in the offer. It can be oral or in writing. The acceptance must exactly mirror the original offer made. * A counter-offer is not the same as an acceptance. A counter-offer extinguishes the original offer: you can’t make a counter-offer and then decide to accept the original offer! But†¦ * A request for information is not a counter-offer. If you ask the offeror for information or clarification about the offer, that doesn’t extinguish the offer; you’re still free to accept it if you want. It is very important to distinguish an offer from an invitation to treat – that is, an invitation for other people to submit offers. Some everyday situations which we might think are offers are in fact invitations to treat: * Goods displayed in a shop window or on a shelf. * When a book is placed in a shop window priced at  £7.99, the bookshop owner has made an invitation to treat. * When I pick up that book and take it to the till, I make the offer to buy the book for  £7.99. * When the person at the till takes my money, the shop accepts my offer, and a contract comes into being. * Adverts basically work in the same way as the scenario above. Advertising something is like putting it in a shop window. * The original advertising of the auction is just an invitation to treat. * When I make a bid, I am making an offer. * When the hammer falls, the winning ‘offer’ has been accepted. The seller now has a legally binding contract with the winning bidder (so long as there is no reserve price that hasn’t been reached) An offer can be revoked at any time before it is accepted, so long as you inform the person you made the offer to that the offer no longer stands. * Consideration: each party to the contract must receive something of value.Consideration is the price paid for the other’s promise. There are four legal maxims that apply to consideration: * Consideration must move from the promisor; * Consideration need not move to the promisee; * Past consideration is not good consideration; * The consideration given must be sufficient, but it need not be adequate. Arrangements of a social nature are presumed not to be legally binding, whilse commercial arrangements are presumed to be intended as binding contracts. Of course, these presumptions can always be rebutted in court by producing evidence to the contrary. It is essential to know about business law before starting a business, as it will help you operate your business without the hindrances of ignorance. It is better to seek the expert guidance of an accountant and an attorney to learn about the latest business laws that will affect your business.. There are different laws for different business entities. Be certain you learn about the business laws that govern the kind of business entity that you choose to start. The major types of businesses are C, S and closed corporations, limited liability companies, and sole proprietorships. Zoning Laws: It is essential to know about zoning laws, as certain zones are restricted in certain areas. It deals with the kind or type of business allowed in certain areas, how the land surrounding a business is used, signboards, advertisements, and parking. Licensing Laws: In order to operate a business certain licenses are required and there are some important business laws you need to know. If a business operates without these licenses, it is illegal and the business may be dissolved or forced to close. Trademark and Patent Laws: These are laws that deal with ownership; intellectual property rights, and inventions. They are necessary to protect the business. Employment Laws: These are laws regarding the hiring and firing of employees, their rights, compensation, safety, work place discrimination, child labor laws, overtime pay structure, disability laws and unemployment laws. Tax Laws: This section deals with filing of tax returns and depends on the kind of business entity and the state the business operates in, sales tax. These include franchise tax, income tax and other state and federal tax requirements of a business. These are very important business laws you need to know before starting a business. Environmental Laws: The government enforces the environmental laws for the discharge of hazardous waste and the recycling laws pertaining to the business. Health Department Permits: This is necessary if your business deals with food products. You must get health department permits to operate your business. Fire Department Permits and Air and Water Pollution Control Permits: There are laws that certain kinds of business entities must get permits from these departments to operate. The list above contains basic business laws you need to know before starting a company. It is necessary to take precautions that you are not violating any law by operating your business. You must obtain all the necessary permits and licenses from the appropriate authority. Business Law. (2017, Feb 07). 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Standardizing Data Center Energy Efficiency Metrics in Preparation for Term Paper

Standardizing Data Center Energy Efficiency Metrics in Preparation for Global Competition - Term Paper Example Information technology is believed to provide the benefit of operational brilliance, fresh services, products, business models, customer as well as supplier familiarity, enhanced decision making, competitive advantage and most importantly sustained survival in the industry. Information technology is also being applied in the field of community services or rather in the area of humanities as well as social sciences. Thus, this paper will intend to focus on a particular technology along with its application in terms of business problems in the field of community services or development. The business problem selected for the study will be related to the management of information services or communication for the elderly in various areas that includes health, finance and entertainment along with sports. The technology or strategy that has been chosen for the reason of overcoming this problem is reshaping of the data center. Therefore, the paper will intend to substantiate and to validate the application of the technology of reshaping the data center for the purpose of enhancing a social-related cause (Girju, â€Å"Toward a New Generation of Tools and Technologies for Social Sciences: The Intertwined Roles of the Humanities, Social Sciences and Engineering†). ... For instance, the current discoveries made in the fields of neuroscience, imaging, genomics and computing along with various other fields have formulated the need for fresh tools with regard to the purpose of conducting scientific study in SBE. It has been observed in this regard that various sectors such as sports, finance, health and entertainment are extensively making the use of information technology. The businesses carrying out operations for the reason of providing the mentioned kind of services are constantly identifying the need of applying relevant technologies that are believed to enhance their business operations. The recent state of affairs in relation to information technologies with regard to SBE researches are measured to call for the requirement of a fresh generation of technologies, infrastructure and tools. It turns out to be imperative to mention in this regard that this stated fresh iteration has been measured to recognize the need for the involvement of humanist ic consciousness in association with the prevailing computational systems. Therefore, the need of new and sophisticated technologies in the field of humanities as well as social sciences can be well identified from the provided explanation (Girju, â€Å"Toward a New Generation of Tools and Technologies for Social Sciences: The Intertwined Roles of the Humanities, Social Sciences and Engineering†). Business Idea The sector of information technology is learnt to be growing presently across the globe extensively but it also has been observed in this respect that the existing companies providing services of offering custom made technologies for business houses often fail to cater to the overall requirements of the organizations or the clients owing to the lack of comprehension of the

Wrtie an executive summary based on Why It's So Hard to be Fair for Essay

Wrtie an executive summary based on Why It's So Hard to be Fair for your supervisor who is having trouble rallying his team - Essay Example ve the underlying reasons as to why employees are being laid off or if they do, time is not taken to allow for questions or even employees’ input on the matter. Firm B employees are further advanced good layoff packages as a sign of consolation. The employees of company B later file law suits claiming unlawful layoffs while none or just a few from firm A file similar suits (122-23). Firm B fund itself using a lot of resources in the lawsuits over and above the funds and benefits granted to the laid off workers. The difference in the above outcome was solely based on the approach taken to handle the situation and this is in regards to process fairness. This entails the manager treating the employees fairly and for the employees to feel that they have been treated as so. After the layoffs it was noted that for firm A the productivity increased for those who were left while in firm B it reduced. This therefore means that the employees who were left were affected by either in a positive manner or negatively. Those of firm A increased productivity because they believed that they had a responsibility toward enhancing organisational growth and felt that if they fail to work hard everyone stands to lose in one way or the other. In firm B workers felt that the laying off process was unjust as no much explanation was give and this reduced their morale a great deal (Brockner 123). As seen above time, resources and productivity was lost simply because the manager in firm B did not take time to be courteous enough to explain the issue at hand or even listen and discuss the situation with employees. The firm also ended up losing a great deal of money in the process. Employees need to feel in such situations their views are taken into consideration as well as their plight. This calls for the management to involve employees in decision making more so in areas that will affect their wellbeing. This scenario is also true with customers who need to feel that they have been

Introduction to Tourism and Leisure Analysis Essay

Introduction to Tourism and Leisure Analysis - Essay Example During the course of this investigation, the goal of the research will be to gather information that will be relevant to the council. This information will be necessary for the council to determine the tourism factors and reasons for the growth in Victoria. In order to do this information regarding socio-demographic characteristics, in addition to what places people visit, and the main aims of visitation. Tourism has emerged as one of the most remarkable economic and social drivers of the 20th century. (Tourismvic.com 2006) In order to meet the intended objectives the council must first ask what tourism is. The answer to that question is "Tourism is a very difficult term to define. Several scholars have attempted to answer what tourism is; however, there is not a widely accepted definition." (Ballarat, 2006) Actually, some researchers have argued that such a definition is impossible to formula (Krzysztof, 1999 p 9) positively, since tourism is studied by different disciplines according to each of its facets, many authors have provided a partial rather than a holistic approach Ibid. page 11 It is important to take economic growth when evaluating the growth of tourism in Victoria. When evaluating economic growth in Victoria and how vital of a role each has on the other some important factors need to be in clouded in the study so that the council can get an accurate idea of rhe significance of the existing tourism in Victoria and what to expect in the future. The majority of the literature on industry clusters is focused on the actual definition of a cluster. In order to do this the council should cluster tourism in the present economy of Victoria. The very basic definition of an industry cluster is "geographical concentrations of industries that gain performance advantages through co-location (Doeringer and Terkla 1995, pg.225)." Porter (1997) has proposed incorporating industry cluster policy into city economic development and tourism will be included in these city-planning projects. If this is done, it will enable city planners and councils to gain a competitive advantage from the location. Porter suggests that economic developers should

Sustainability and visual arts Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Sustainability and visual arts - Essay Example The paper tells that nature has had a long history of influencing art, one that has extended from the masters bringing their palettes into their gardens to the contemporary earthworks of Andy Goldsworthy and others. However, in order for art to continue to be influenced by nature there must be nature to be influenced by. In a society where the population and urban landscapes are every burgeoning, Susan Leibovitz Steinman creates new landscapes out of urban devastation to promote sustainability and environmental education. Unlike other artist, who work in sites that can be difficult for the average viewer to experience firsthand, Steinman works in the heart of cities. In Mandela Artscape, Steinman literally worked in the middle of the street, at the crossroads of industry and ecology. This project involved regrouping West Oakland community members to reclaim a part of their town that had been destroyed by an earthquake in 1989, by turning the site into a creative, interactive, and env ironmentally friendly work of art. Steinman is not the first to transform the horrors ofa natural disaster into a reclamation project. In 1964, the "Great Good Friday Earthquake," the second largest recorded earthquake at that time with a magnitude of 9.2 on the Richter Scale, struck Anchorage, Alaska. One-hundred-and-thirty-one people perished, towns were buried, and tsunamis tore across the area. The only possible positive outcome of such a terrible natural catastrophe is the proactive and innovative reaction of the survivors. (US Geological Survey, 2004). The Anchorage Earthquake Park (figure 2) is the result of one particular reaction. The goal of this park was to reclaim a destroyed area and to educate people about the earthquake. There are bike paths, cross-country ski trails, picnic tables, and most importantly, information panels. In 1973, Smithson congratulated the people who reclaimed the Anchorage site through the creation of a park, stating that this action was "an inter esting way of dealing with the unexpected, and incorporating that into the community"(Smithson in Holt 1979: 192). Figure 2: The Anchorage Earthquake Park (Source: http://www.igougo.com/journal-j34852-Anchorage-The_Seward_Highway_Americas_Most_Scenic_Byway.html) The significance of Steinman's work, and that which distinguishes Mandela Artscape from the Anchorage Earthquake Park, is the interactive nature of the creative process, as people from the community were involved in every aspect of the project. It is also this element of engagement with the public that differentiates Steinman's work from others. Promoting Sustainability Steinman is critical of Western capitalist society. She is involved in many groups that have emerged as a response to the problem that the consumerist ideology presents. The Women Environmental Artists Directory (WEAD), for example, is an artist-produced, non-profit, national and international organization that Steinman and Jo Hanson founded in 1996. The WEAD lists over two hundred artists, all of whom adopt an activist approach to raising environmental awareness through art. Themes involve site, community and habitat specificity, an educational agenda, public participation, and works that are often temporary - many ideas that overlap with the new genre public art ideology (Hanson and Steinman, 2012). Steinman is also involved with a group called "eco art network" Similarly, the mandate of this group is to create ecological works of art that promote sustainability and environmental education (Ecoartnetwork.org, 2012). Consumerism is a basic concern for artists involved in environmental art, sometimes referred to as "ecoart." As stated by artist Ruth Wallen, "much ecoart is motivated by a recognition that current patterns

China's Environmental issue Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

China's Environmental issue - Essay Example Rapid economic development has led to reduction in land that can be cultivated. According to current studies China has lost more than 44.1 million hectares of land since the 1980s. Many jungles, fisheries and ponds have been destroyed. The majority of China’s forests and jungles are suffering from deforestation and destruction. Desertification and salinization are other major problems affecting arable land. Large areas of the Yangtze River have lost its volume. Environmental problems which have affected China’s arable land have led to scarcity of water and diminished agricultural production capacity. Serious concerns have been raised about China’s ability to feed its rising population. Soil erosion, desertification, water scarcity, deforestation are some of the major environmental problems faced by China (Edmonds, 53). China’s rising industrial capacity has led to pollution which threatens the environment. Industrial waste products make up a large portion of pollution in China. Waste products have been released into the environment without proper processing methods. Textile, mining, food, paper, oil industries are the leading producers of waste products which have been dumped into the Huang River. The lack of enforcement of environmental regulation laws had led to the spread of pollution by the industrial sector. China’s industries also lack the modern technology to process industrial waste products. China has ample resources of oil and coal. However it consumes more energy than it produces. A thriving economy has also fed the need for energy resources. This has led to the degradation of the environment. Coal is the main source of energy for China. The demand for crude oil and electricity has increased with the rise in industries. China consumes about 9 percent of the world’s oil supply. It is increasingly dependant upon foreign producers for oil and energy

Personal Statement Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words - 3

Personal Statement Example ’— This issue always bothered me much and I began to make detailed study of sociology of crimes. Reformation and rehabilitation of prison inmates: I was selected to study the conditions in Central Jail Tihar, New Delhi (India) and the amenities available to the jail inmates. I was one among group of 12 college students from different countries chosen by the authorities of the UNESCO Head Office at Paris for a three months study-cum-research project on the subject of â€Å"Reformation and Rehabilitation of Prisoners† and I represented the State of Texas, America. India has a huge Jail population, and Tihar is the biggest Jail in India, with an average population of 14000 inmates spread over 13 Jails in different parts of New Delhi. Our first meeting was with the Public Relations Officer of Tihar Administration. He seemed to have read the thought processes going on in the minds of some of us. He gave us, among other literature, a 4 page pamphlet than began with the following quote from Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, the first Prime Minister of India, which read thus: â€Å"Another error which people indulge in is the fear that ‘if jail conditions are improved people will flock in’! This shows a singular ignorance of human nature. No one wants to go to prison however good the prison might be. To be deprived of liberty and family life and friends and home surroundings is terrible thing. It is well known that the Indian peasant will prefer to stick to his ancestral soil and starve rather than go elsewhere to better his condition.† The technological development and the promised benefits of the materialistic civilization, the youngsters from rural areas of India are migrating to the metropolitan cities. This is the problem before many developing countries. Unable to get proper employment, with poor accommodation facilities, they take to the path of crime to get rich quickly. Once they are arrested and land in Jail, they come across m any hardened criminals who advise them about the â€Å"benefits† of the criminal life. The process of degeneration begins, and this is one of the important reasons for increase in the Jail population. Another stunning revelation was presented before us. Amongst the jail population, the number of actual convicts is just 30% and the rest are under trials. The judicial process is very slow in India and the reasons for that are manifold. On a cursory glance of the literature relating to functioning of the jails, we found that it was due to shortage of the investigating and judicial officers, delay in the submission of the charge sheet and the subsequent hearings take years and the accused remains languished within the four walls of the prison. An unfortunate consequence of the prevailing social and economic conditions in India is the steady increase in the Jail population. Overcrowding in Jails is a serious issue and in some Jails, it is to such an extent, that prisoners sleep in shifts. Gangsters, bride-burners, anti-social elements, petty thieves, and all sorts of criminals are accommodated together, under the brand of under trials. Prisoners are a special kind of humanity and they need individual counselling depending upon the nature of crimes committed by them and as per their mental frame. The next issue is about the judicial process. Those guilty need to be awarded punishment quickly and innocents should not be made to languish in prisons. In the first few days of our study, we interviewed a number of top officials from the prison

Collective unconscious Essay Example for Free

Collective unconscious Essay Carl Jung was born in Kesswyl, Thurgau, Switzerland on July 26, 1875. His father was kind but weak, while his mother was an insecure woman but with two personalities: (a) kind and loving (b) harsh and aloof. Jung was lonely at childhood making him introvert. In 1906 he published The Psychology of Dementia Praecox, a psychoanalytic treatment of schizophrenia. He first met Freud in 1907 and Freud regarded Jung as his son and they travelled and worked together that lasted until 1913. Freud and Jung had an argument that ended their friendship. Freud considered it as the â€Å"Great Loss†. Jung is the first president of International Psychoanalytic Society. Jung established his own school of psychology named â€Å"Analytical Psychology†. Jung begun the structure of personality and made the ego, personal unconscious and the collective unconscious. Dynamics of Personality Carl Jung conceived that the personality or psyche as being a partially closed energy system. Energy from the outside sources must be added into the system and the system will only be perfect and stabilized if it is completely closed. He called psychic energy as the energy by which the work of personality is performed. Psyche – refers to all psychological processes: thoughts, feelings, sensations, wishes, etc. It is also another term for personality. Principle of Equivalence – states that if a particular value weakens the sum of the energy represented by the value will not be lost from the psyche but will reappear in a new value. Principle of Entropy – states that the distribution of energy in the psyche seeks equilibrium and balance. Structure of Personality. 1. Ego – it is one’s conscious mind. It serves as the organized conscious mediator between the person and reality especially by functioning both in the perception of and adaptation to reality. 2. Personal unconscious – the material in the personal unconscious comes from the individual’s past. It consist f experiences that was once conscious but have been repressed. 3. Collective unconscious – is the part of the collective psyche that is unconscious. It is the storehouse of latent memory traces inherited from one’s ancestral past. Archetypes – it is the universal thought form or predisposition to respond to the world in a certain way. It emphasizes potentialities; it represents different potential ways in which we may express our humanities. The Self – it represents the unity of all parts of the personality. It is the central archetype. Self Ultimate unity of personality (the central archetype) Persona Mask or Social Role Shadow Animal instincts or the opposite of Persona Anima Feminine side of male psyche Animus Masculine side of the female psyche. The Persona – refers to the social role that one assumes in society. It is a mask that one wears to adjust to the demands of society. The Shadow – encompasses those unsocial thoughts, feelings and behaviours that we potentially posses and other characteristics that we do not want to accept. The Anima – feminine side of the male psyche. The Animus – masculine side of the female psyche. Word association – a test used by Jung to detect complexes. The test is composed of a list of words; as each word is presented, the patient responds with the first word that comes to his or her mind. Complexes – an organized group of thoughts, feelings and memories about a particular concept that has power to draw new ideas into it and interpret them accordingly. Basic Attitudes Extroverted attitude: a standpoint characterized by an outward flowing of personal energy — an interest in events, in people and things, a relationship with them, and a dependence on them. Introverted attitude: characterized by an inward flowing of personal energy—a withdrawal concentrating on subjective factors. The Four Functions Thinking gives meaning and understanding; actions are a result of an intellectually considered motive; life is based on principles. Feeling a rational function that weighs, values, and attaches a proper value to things. Truth is seen as inter-subjectivity. Sensation emphasis on perception through the senses. It is a reality functions because it yields facts and the representations of the world. Intuition tells of future possibilities and gives information of the atmosphere which surrounds experience. Causality vs. Teleology For Jung both past and the future standpoints are important in determining the present behaviour. Teleology explains the present in terms of the future while causality explains the present in terms of the past. Individuation process of restoring wholeness to the psyche in adult development. Transcendence Function – is capacity to unite all of the opposing trends of the several systems to work toward the perfect wholeness. Self realization – is process of development that involves individuation and transcendence. In the process, the systems of the psyche achieve their fullest most complete differentiation and harmonious blending of all aspects of a human’s total personality. Strengths Jung’s theory as the first to discuss the process of self actualization. He was the first to emphasize the importance of the future in determining human behaviour. He stressed the attainment of selfhood as the main motive in human behaviour. Weaknesses Jung’s method was not systematic and puts too much emphasis on occultism, spiritualism and religion. His theory was said to be unscientific, unclear, inconsistent and contradictory. His self actualization is only applicable to the highly intelligent, well educated and those who have plenty of time to reach a degree of individualism. Sources: Engler, B. (2006). Personality Theories: An Introduction. USA: Houghton Mifflin Company. Hall, C. , Gardner, L. (1975). Theories of Personality. USA: John Wiley Sons, Inc. Burger, J. (2008). Personality. Belmont, California, Wadsworth Clonniger, S. (2004). Theories of Personality: Understanding Persons. USA: Pearson Prentice Hall Mitchell, G. Carl Jung Jungian Analytical Psychology. Retrieved from http://www. trans4mind. com/mind-development/jung. htmlÃ'Ž

Formal Informal Social Support Systems Health And Social Care Essay

Formal Informal Social Support Systems Health And Social Care Essay Realising that it is the natural right that all those who labour should enjoy to the fullest extent the fruits of their labour the Colonial Government of the Gold Coast initiated a package for public service workers who went on retirement after serving in the public service for over 30 years, passed an ordinance as part of the reforms in the colony. That ordinance came to be known as CAP 30. The following category of workers were entitled to enjoy this package, Ghana Armed Forces, Police Service, Fire Service, Ghana Education Service, Ghana Health Service, Civil Service etc. However, by 1972 the law was amended to allow another body, SSNIT to take responsibility of some category of workers contribution towards their retirement. After 1972, employees of the Ghana Education Service, Ghana Health Service, and Judiciary Service amongst others were directly under the SSNIT Pension Scheme with the exception of the Security Services. The Social Security Pension Scheme was established under the PNDC Law 247 of 1991. The Scheme is administered by the Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT) to cater for Civil and Public Servants, Employees in the private sector, Professionals, Traders, Artisans, Farmers and also the self-employed. The Social Security Scheme is the only basic Social Security Scheme that insures a worker against the following contingencies: Old Age, Invalidity and Death. The worker contributes 5% of his/her basic salary and the employer adds 12.5% of the workers basic salary, making a total of 17.5% which is paid to SSNIT. The rate of Contribution for Self-Employed or Voluntary Contributor is 17.5% of declared income. It would interest you to know that Government Pension or cap 30 attracts a huge sum of money than the SSNIT pension which is relatively lower. This disparity in the pension administration has brought about workers agitation for fairness in their retirement benefits. In the public sector a person qualifies for full pension at the age of 60years and you must have made a minimum contribution of 240 months in aggregate but can voluntarily go on retirement at age 55years for reduced pension and must have made a minimum contribution of 240 months. As a result of ill-health one qualifies for invalidity pension. In that case you must have made contributions for not less than 12months in aggregate within the last 36 months and you must have been declared permanently invalid and incapable of any normal gainful employment by a qualified and recognized medical officer and certified by a Regional Medical Board on which a SSNIT Medical Officer is represented. Since 1957 when the country gained independence expatriate officers in the Ghana Civil Service opted to retire and many vacancies occurred. This created the opportunity for Ghanaians who were on pension to be re-engaged in the Civil Service on contract. These officers enjoyed their pension in addition to their remuneration as contract officers. However, in 1968, the Government of Ghana ordered the cessation of the payment of the pension package in addition to the salaries attached to the contract appointment. This measure obviously did not go down well with the affected pensioners who considered it a stab at the back and a breach of faith. ( Tachie-Menson, 2003). In Accra, a group of pensioners engaged the services of lawyers to fight their cause for them. They succeeded and thus the emergence of the Ghana Government Pensioners Association for Accra which also assumed a national status. The way was then opened for branches in all the regional capitals to register members and make payment of part of their monthly dues to Accra. In Wa the pensions Association was formed in 1986 to cater for retired workers in the municipality. Pensioners under the Government Pensions Association are over six hundred as the number keep dwindling due to death. Pensioner with the SSNIT, as at February, 2010 stood at one hundred thousand four hundred and fifty eight with a retirement rate of 0.65%. It was my doubt that some retired public service workers would live uncomfortable lives after long years of contributing meaningfully to mother Ghana as those kinds of assumptions, suggestions, and my personal experience of my aged parents that prompted me to undertake this proposal in this area. STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM There is a general perception out there that retirement from active service in Ghana renders one jobless and with nothing to do which often leads to frustration and early death in life if one does not plan life properly. This is attributed to the fact that people on retirement who do not plan well use their benefits to find shelter for themselves after which they end up living on their meager monthly allowance. It is claimed because most workers are not able to put up shelter during their working lives before they go on retirement. This has been the situation over the last decade and more and has rather impoverished retirees. Such claims are not hard to find in the municipality if one visits these retired workers at their homes. Therefore retired workers whose family members are not there to support them are left to their fate or are forced to put up with neighbours. It is also worrying to find frail looking pensioners go to their banks every fortnight to struggle for their allowance s. In some situations those incapacitated to the extent that they cannot make the journey to the bank would not have access to their money unless they prepare an authority note to be endorsed by the Association and countersigned by the Accountant Generals representative for the bank to effect payment, a process quite laborious. Calculation of retirement benefits of Government Pension which was originally based on the pension constant of 1/960th of ones terminal salary multiplied by the number of years served in months was reviewed in 1946 by the Harragin Salary Commission to 1/600th and has since been increased to 1/480th. The amount arrived at is spilt for 25% to be paid as gratuity and the remaining 75% as pension which is spread over 20 years and is payable monthly. On the death of a pensioner what is due him/her from the remaining period out of the twenty years is paid to his/her beneficiaries as commuted pension. (Tachie-Menson, 2003) For beneficiaries of a deceased pensioner to claim the unexpected portion of the twenty years pension there are three approaches towards that end:- (a)The nomination form filed with his Department while a civil servant in which he indicated his beneficiaries is the first to be used as authority for disbursement. However, the nomination forms can be revised at any time that the person wishes. (b)The will is the next authority to be used for disbursement, if it super cedes the nomination form. (c)In the absence of the two above, Letters of Administration prepared jointly by the head of the pensioners family on one side and the wife and children on the other, must be obtained from the Law Courts with which to claim the commuted pension. As the years roll by for inflation to set in adjustments are made to salaries by the grant of allowances in various forms to the basic salaries of Civil Servants. However, when allowances are added to the basic salaries to mitigate the effect of the rising cost of living, it does not reflect in the pension calculation. This prompts the Ghana Government Pensioners Association to enter into serious negotiations with the Government for pension to be increase. When the consolidated salary was introduced pensioners were left in the lurch. The Associations negotiating machinery was put to the test with the bargaining power of the Public Services Workers Union of which the Association is a Division; Government then consented to the grant of 50%. Therefore to address the issue of social support for the retired public sector workers in the municipality, it is important to know that the enormous concern of this essay is focused on the poor adoption of measures on the part of local authorities and community members to provide additional welfare resources and other social interventions to support the retired. SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY: This research would give an in-depth knowledge of the formal and informal social support systems of retired workers and to know the plight of retired workers so as to come out with remedies to assist these aged citizens. It would also contribute to prepare would- be retirees to adequately plan for their future retirement. Furthermore, before a research of this nature is meaningfully carried out in the municipality of Wa, it is imperative to have some knowledge about what the area under study is made up of. OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY The objectives of the study are as follows: Specific objective: A. To evaluate the adequacy of available formal and informal support and welfare resources to the retired persons at the community level. The investigation will be directed toward the identification of social support systems that would meet the growing and changing needs of the retired. GENERAL OBJECTIVES: 1. To determine, in some Ghanaian communities, social support systems for elderly persons. 2. To study both support providers and the beneficiaries comprehensively in order to understand how poverty and the needs of the retired are distributed, and how they are dealt with in practice. 3. To determine the degree of success of formal interventions of support provision to the elderly. 4. To ascertain the social pattern of relief and support, and to draw the social implications of the existing and changing patterns so that appropriate and adequate social policies may be formulated. RESEARCH QUESTIONS: These specific objectives above will be framed around the following specific and general questions: How adequate are the formal and informal social support and welfare resources of retired public sector workers? GENERAL QUESTIONS: 1. What are the general cultural expectations about the retired person in the community and how are these changing? 2. What resources are available to them? 3. To what extent do retired persons avail themselves of the community resources and at what cost? 4. What factors encourage or discourage utilization of such resources? 5. To what extent do the resources available complement one another to meet the needs of the retired and what needs are left unmet? 6. What are the principles of reciprocity involved in these various support arrangements in the family and the community? LITERATURE REVIEW: In reviewing literature, the study will triangulate conceptual and theoretical frame work of the topic understudy. The operational definition of key concepts include the terms formal, informal, social support systems and public sector workers. I am interested in defining formal as the official government situation in the line of events. Informal means private and unofficial initiative. Social support system means social interventions to the vulnerable. My construct of these concepts is similar to other concepts that are in use. However, in the past Social welfare protection, in the form of insurance and assistance programmes, emerged in Europe in the 1800s in order to provide citizens with an economic safety net during periods of illness, economic hardship, and other shocks as discussed (Palacios Sluchynsky, 2006). Today, nearly every country has some form of social protection developed to provide economic support in times of need (International Social Security Association, 2005). Assistance comes in the form of old-age pensions, survivor benefits, family allowances or other supports. In Africa, the author suggests that social welfare programmes were originally developed in the 1950s and 1960s as a safety net for white workers (Dixon, 1987). Employer-based contributory pensions were the dominant model. Still today, these pensions primarily serve the wealthiest workers who live in urban areas and have secure careers in the public sector (Palacios Sluchynsky, 2006). Those who are excluded from these benefits are left to rely upon the traditional safety net of family aid, mutual support, and communal living. For example, in Kenya, the clan system has operated as a labour union world, pooling resources and providing extra support during vulnerable periods (Dixon, 1987). This informal system has eroded. However, as countries have developed and urbanized, sources of livelihoods have diversified, family sizes shrunk, and the population aged. Moreover, throughout sub-Saharan Africa, poverty has further destabilized households, changed demographic patterns and orphaned enormous numbers of children (UNICEF, 2006). Vulnerable populations face a social protection vacuum when both formal programmes and informal practices fail to provide the safety nets that families need to survive, even though social protection is a proven component in fighting poverty and responding to families overwhelmed by disease or other shocks (Barrientos DeJong, 2004; Bourguignon, Ferreira, Leite, 2002; Chronic Poverty Research Centre, 2005; Skoufias di Maro, 2006). Throughout Africa, social protection programmes could well be mechanisms that enable families to economically survive and help children reach their potential. The reality that social welfare schemes in Africa exclude more people than they cover, has been established (Dixon, 1987; Fultz Pieris, 1999; Taylor, 2001) and yet there are important reasons to revisit this topic. He argues that in the last decade, a growing number of countries have expanded or developed new programmes in an effort to reduce poverty as well as to invest in human and economic development. Evidence of the growing momentum around social protection schemes include the Livingstone Call For Action (2006) where thirteen Eastern and Southern African governments pledged to draft costed national social transfer plans within two to three years. In a related situation, the African Union is driving and supporting efforts to promote the development of better social welfare systems; while heads of states throughout the world, have committed to building, where needed, and supporting the social security systems that protects the aged (United Nations General Assembly, 2006). The purpose of this paper is to investigate the characteristics of existing social welfare policies in Ghana and countries throughout Africa. These policies are described and the characteristics of existing social welfare schemes are analyzed in order to facilitate dialogue on how governments, supported by the international community, can improve current welfare schemes and build new systems that are better aligned with the needs of vulnerable populations, in order to provide a meaningful social safety net. METHODOLOGY: In order to examine the characteristics of government and employer provided social support schemes to retired workers, the research must conduct an enquiry aimed at increasing knowledge based on facts. Therefore to achieve this, a systematic method and instruments of collating and collecting data should be used since the appropriateness of these methods and instruments to a large extent determine the validity and reliability of the data. Also the sample used should be a true representation of the population as well as the instrument utilized in the research. STUDY AREA The Wa Municipality is one of the oldest districts in the region, and the biggest of the nine districts. It is the capital town of the region. The estimated population of Wa Municipality for 2008 is 124,476 as against 105,065 in 2000, an increase of about19%. The population density of the area is 38 persons per square kilometers. It has about 32 communities. Because Wa doubles as the Municipal and Regional capital, it has a high population growth rate of 4% per annum with a greater proportion of the total population of the Municipality and the Region concentrated in it. Wa Municipality covers the Southwestern parts of the region. It stretches from longitude 1Ù’Â °40N to 2Â ° 45N and from latitude 9Â ° 32W to 10Â ° 20W. It covers an area of approximately 5899.30 square kilometers, which is about 32% and 2.56%of the region and the nation respectively. To the South, Southwest and Southeast, Wa Municipality shares common boundaries with Wa West/Wa East, Wa West and Wa East Districts respectively. To the north, Wa Municipality is bordered by Nadwoli District. It has more retired civil and public servants and also suitable in terms of providing sufficient sample sizes of retired persons. TARGET POPULATION The target population for this research is the retired civil and public sector workers in the municipality and their families. Retired civil and public sector workers are of two categories. The first category is made up of pensioners under Government Pension scheme and the second category is made up of pensioners under SSNIT Pension scheme. SAMPLE A number of samples will be drawn for the study. Unlike Census, where the entire population is covered by the study, sampling enables a researcher to study a relatively small part of the target population and yet obtain accurate and detailed data that are representative of the whole at a lower cost (Sarantakos, 2005). . The first sample of respondents will be made up of community members who are 60 years and above. The second respondents will be made up of family members, kin relationship and local authorities. SAMPLING PROCEDURE A snowball sampling procedure will be used. By this method a retired public sector worker is identified within the community and interviewed. This first respondent then leads the researcher to the next respondent who also falls with the target group. The process is continued until the required number of respondents is interviewed. CHOICE OF RESEARCH METHOD Considerable interest is shown in the choice of research methods to use in this research proposal. There is the quantitative data and method approach which often is associated with positivism, the prevailing paradigm in recent times. Under this approach scientific methods can more or less readily represent and measure concepts which seek to predict and explain causal relations among key variables. However, some critics are of the view that positivistic methods reduce the contextual meanings in the process of developing quantified measures of phenomena. Though the issue of empirical approach to research has been justified by its success in measuring quantitative research, in more recent years, scientists have been challenged to explain phenomena that defy measurement and their inability to quantitatively measure some phenomena, and the dissatisfaction with which the results of measurement of other phenomena have led to an intense search for other approaches to study human phenomena. A modern approach, which came to be known as post positivism, is a recent evolution of positivism which focus has been on qualitative methods, and is modeled on positivistic methods and experimental designs (Miles and Huberman, 1993). This approach has led to the acceptance of qualitative research approach which does not need empirical data to discover knowledge. However, one cannot help but to stuck by the success of qualitative research methods in the market place of academic ideas (Atkinson, 1995, p. 117). The tradition of using qualitative methods to study human phenomena is grounded in the social sciences. The tradition came about because aspects of human values, culture, and relationships were unable to be described fully using quantitative research methods. More recently, the practice of qualitative research has expanded to clinical settings because empirical approaches have proven to be of limited service in answering some of the challenges and pressing clinical questions, especially where human subjectivity and interpretation are involved (Thorne, 1997, p. 28). However, the use of qualitative research has its own flaws as well. It is unable to study relationships between variables with the degree of accuracy that is required to establish social trends. For the purpose of this proposal a triangulation of qualitative and quantitative methodology would be used to analyse data. However qualitative method has a more flexible approach in pr ocedure to construction of research design in the sampling, data collection and processing and reporting. DATA COLLECTION Data will be collected from a variety of sources within the selected community, from families, kin, neighbours, educationists, legal and health practitioners, from neighbourhood and community associations, religious groups, welfare agencies, specialised groups such as trade unions, from local councils and other organised groups. Further information gathered will come from retired persons themselves, from their families/kin, extra familial networks, neighbourhood, their community and from state agencies. The material gathered from these levels will be in a complementary relationship to one another in order to approximate a high degree of reliability and validity. The principal data that will be gathered include the followings: (a) Community profile: geographic, demographic, historical, political-social and economic conditions of the community, placed within the national context. (b) Prevailing cultural norms and the expectations concerning the retired persons and their care, conceptions about reciprocity and exchange, family and kinship relationship etc. (c) Inventory and detailed descriptions of indigenous informal support systems and of formal support systems available within the community. Another source of data collection will be a historical review of formal and informal support systems available in the community and local levels. At the formal level, data will include the public services and programmes instituted by the government at different levels. At the informal level, data will include information on the traditional supporting roles played by family, kin, patrons and others. Data collection will proceed by means of primary sources of data such as interviews, questionnaire, and focus group discussions. Secondary data through existing literature will be used by the researcher. In terms of priorities, it is expected that questionnaires will be constructed and pretested. INTERVIEWS The interview is a face to face meeting between a questioner and a respondent, or an oral presentation of an opinion or attitude scale (Zikmund, 1994). Structured interview will be used for meeting the respondents. It will however be inter space with unstructured interviews when interacting with non pensioners. QUESTIONNAIRES A questionnaire is a written instrument that contains a series of questions or statements called items that attempts to collect information on a particular topic. It is useful for large scale surveys that involve collection of data from literate respondents. Questionnaire will be administered to pensioners as well. FOCUS GROUP DISCUSSION Another source of data collection will be focus group discussions. This third phase about 9-12 pensioners will be grouped for discussions about their personal experience before and after active service. The selection of participant will be balance in terms of sex to give it a fair representation. DATA ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION In recording the information or data gathered, I will employ both quantitative and qualitative analysis. Data will be described and in other cases subjected to quantitative analysis regarding trends in each dimension of the topic. Correlations between aspects of the topic and a series of other variables to establish more detailed results will be conducted. Beyond this, the researcher is expected to explain behaviours more extensively and more accurately. Where data needs empirical analysis quantitative model will be used and where it needs description and collection and analysis occur simultaneously, qualitative model will be suitable. INTENDED BENEFITS The Government under the Ministry of Employment and Social Welfare is seriously considering the development of a national policy for the aged. Local authorities should compliment government effort by initiating social and community activities to engage the elderly in the community as well as supplement government efforts of finding welfare resources for them. The results of this study should identify and address gaps in existing interventions. My contribution to the study is to draw to attention that every worker dreams of going on retirement one day. Therefore adequate preparations should be made for the aged who have live most of their life working to develop the country so that they dont retire and still wallow in poverty. My motivation stern from the very experience of having to handle my aged parents who were once public servants and are now on retirement and in addition to relations and friends who are affected in one way or another of their aged relatives. The intention of spending time and money on this exercise is to bring about an improvement of the status quo. TIME PLAN PHASE 1 PHASE 2 PHASE 3 FROM TO FROM TO FROM TO DATA GATHERING METHOD 1 use of questions 2 interviews 3Focus grp Dis. June-July. Pre test Decem.-Jan. Retired workers. June-July Cap 30 Retired Workers Oct. Nov. August-September Commty. profile Feb-Mar. Families Kin. Commty mmb August Sept. SSNIT Retired Workers Octob.- Novem. Prevailng cul. Norm April.-May edu, Leg., Health workrs ANALYSIS METHODS 1 Qualitative Mainly descriptive analysis of data. Often collection and analysis will occur simultaneously. METHODS 2Quantitative Mainly statistical analysis of data. Correlation between aspects of the topic and a series of variables will be established. BUDGET. Activity Quantity/number Frequency Unit Cost Total Cost GHÂ ¢ Internet Browsing Browsing and printing 20.00 Documents acquired 40.00 Travel expenses Fuel for local movement 20.00 Feeding accommodation Rent for two years and food GHÂ ¢ 120.00 240.00 Printing and photo copying questionnaires 15 pages 100 respondents 100.00 Printing 80 pages 8 copies 60GP 384.00 Binding of books 8 copies GHÂ ¢10.00 80.00 Grant Total GHÂ ¢884.00