Wednesday, November 27, 2019

Cinema Industry in Palestine Essay

Cinema Industry in Palestine Essay Cinema Industry in Palestine The cinema industry in Palestine is quite young as compared to the cinema industry in the Arab world. This is evidenced by the fact that most Palestinian movies are made with Israeli and European support. These movies may at times have a biased theme due to the origin of the support used in making of the given movie. Palestinian movies have developed through various stages. These include; The first period between 1935-48. The first period highlights the beginning of the Palestinian cinema industry. The first Palestinian film made in the Palestinian cinema industry was a documentary on the visit of King Ibn Saud of Saudi Arabia in 1935 to Palestine. The movie basically showed the kings visit to various locations in the Palestinian nation. This movie compiled by Ibrahim Hassan Sirhan, was not highly publicized and resulted to a low profile movie. This movie was followed by several other movies which were unfortunately lost when Jaffa was bombarded. Some movies lost include A storm at Home. The second period: The era of silence between 1948 to 1967. The Naqba (the massive migration of Palestinians) in 1948 was devastating to the Palestinian society. This included all industries and the nascent film industry was not spared. Cinematic activities required infrastructure, finance and well trained crew crews almost ceased operation for period not less than two decades. Palestinians participated in film-production in the neighboring countries. For example Sirhan was involved in the production of the Jordanian film, The Struggle in Jarash,(1957). During this period Palestinian cinemas were affected by lack of necessary infrastructure and negative attitude to what was viewed as a western idea clipping into Palestine. The 3rd period of cinema in exile, 1968-82. After 1967, the Palestinian cinema was found under the patronage of the PLO and sourcing their funds from Fatah and other many Palestinian organizations. This film festival held in 1973 in Baghdad was aimed at promoting the Palestinian cinema industry. Various organizations created archives for the newly produced Palestinian films with the largest archive being run by PLO's Film Foundation. In 1982, Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) was forced out of Beirut resulting to loss of the archive under unclear circumstances. The fourth period: 1980 to the present. In the 1996 drama, the Chronicle of a Disappearance received international recognition and thus becoming the first Palestinian movie to receiving national release in the United States. A performing film for its kind, the movie won the "New Director's Prize" during the Seattle International Film Festival and the "Luigi De Laurent is Award". In 2008 international efforts were launched to reopen Cinema Jenin, a cinema company located in Jenin Refugee Camp. In 2010, the governing authority of the Gaza Strip Hamas, announced the completion of the film. The Great Liberation which depicts destruction of Israel by Palestinians. Currently, the cinema industry especially in the Gaza street faces major regulations from the governing authority with the requirement that the cinema produces items that only follow or support Hamas edicts.

Saturday, November 23, 2019

Enron Corporation Essays

Enron Corporation Essays Enron Corporation Essay Enron Corporation Essay Enron Corporation Enron Corporation 1. Describe how Enron could have been structured differently to avoid such activities. Public companies are required by law to share transactions with shareholders and the members of the investing public with several documents. Enron did not share facts that were important to understand certain transactions. Enron did not provide complete financial statements or give the CFOâ„ ¢s actual or expected benefits from the large transactions that were taking place. If the organizational structure had not been changed from the original structure things may have been different. Enron decided to hire people from outside the company and give them power to make big decisions. These big decisions would drastically affect the organization. Top performers were given more opportunity for bonuses and stock options when the reward system in the company changed. The system was controlled by internal authority and the people in control were on the same level so no one questioned what was going on. The average workers did not want to make their superiors angry so they would not report a ny wrong doing when the dishonest reviews came out. This is what started the fall of Enron. If the people in control had been on different levels and had to answer to someone, then it would have been harder to get away with dishonest reviews. Also if full financial statements had been furnished then transactions could have been questioned right away and people would have been held accountable. 2. Discuss whether Enronâ„ ¢s officers acted within the scope of their authority. Enronâ„ ¢s officers did not act within the scope of their authority. The scope of authority is limited by what is legal. The officers acted dishonestly and unethically to benefit themselves. The shareholders and other public investors were losing money because of the unethical and dishonest things the officers were doing. Anytime there is a law broken, then you are not within your scope of authority. 3. Describe the corporate culture at Enron. It takes organizational culture and corporate culture working hand in hand to make a corporation work. Corporate culture determines which practices are appropriate and which are not. This develops standards, guidelines, and expectations for individuals within an organization. For years the Enron Corporation was spending big and even when the warnings about the shaky finances began to surface, no one at Enron saw any reason to change. The company had to be better and flashier in everything it did. On Secretariesâ„ ¢ Day, Enron celebrated with gifts of Waterford Crystal and the company set aside $1.5 million for a Christmas party. The companyâ„ ¢s spending reflected a go-go corporate culture. Former employees said top executives cast traditional business controls out the window. Top officers, who insisted they were unaware of financial details and did not pay attention to conflicts, let executives sit on both sides of multimillion-dollar deals. Corporate culture can not be too lo ose or too soft to be real and important. The corporate culture at Enron was corrupt and led to the companyâ„ ¢s downfall. 4. Discuss two alleged irregularities in the actions between sellers of securities and Enron.?   One of the irregularities in the actions between sellers of securities and Enron was the financial statements that did not clearly show operations and finances with shareholders and analysts. With it complex business model and unethical practices required the company use accounting limitations to misrepresent earnings and modify the balance sheet to make the company look better. Another irregularity was how Enron executives were pressured to find new ways to hide debt. Jeffrey Skilling and Andrew Fastow , top executives, created off-balance sheet vehicles, complex financing structures, and deals so complex that few people could understand them. 5. Discuss whether or not Enron was liable for the actions of its agents and employees. A corporation is a legal entity, not an actual being. A corporation can not do anything on their own. Anything a corporation does is through their agents and employees. A corporation can be sued civilly or prosecuted in criminal court for the actions of its agents and employees if those actions constitute a crime. A corporation can not be charge with drunk driving just because he works there but when acting on behalf of the company, fraud can lead to charges for both the employee and the corporation. References http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enron_scandal chron.com/news/specials/enron/

Thursday, November 21, 2019

Increased Labor Demand and the Equilibrium Wage Essay

Increased Labor Demand and the Equilibrium Wage - Essay Example For example, in the given scenario, that the September 11th attacks on the United States altered the perceived need for a particular type of labor, to wit, security personnel, the relevant market shift is an increase in demand. Once the demand has increased, supply and demand are no longer balanced, and the market equilibrium is disrupted. To reset this balance, wage and the value of marginal production must also increase to the point where stability is again achieved. Simply put, and assuming that supply remains unchanged, the greater the demand for a particular type of labor, the greater the marginal value of a particular worker's product, and, thus, the greater must that worker's wage be to achieve market equilibrium. It is logical that the September 11th attacks created a greater demand for security personnel. Society became much more concerned with creating safe environments at locales such as airports, in airplanes, at events where large amounts of people congregate, and at globally-recognized structures.

Wednesday, November 20, 2019

Love - Theory and Practice in Court Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Love - Theory and Practice in Court - Assignment Example Judges employ definite guidelines and philosophies when formulating their verdicts. They are; retribution, test of proportionality, rehabilitation, deterrence and restoration. The drive towards court unification can not ultimately lead to a monolithic system because this will grant the federal court system excessive power. The dual court system is a two tier judiciary system comprising of the State and Federal court structures. The dual-court system is the product of a universal agreement amongst the country's founders concerning the requirement for individual states to maintain considerable legislative power and judicial independence separate from federal control. Unification onto a monolithic court structure appears improbable to occur anytime to combine the state and federal structures, and if it did would likely not be extremely effective. In sentencing, judges are restricted by statutory requirements; guided by existing philosophical rationales, executive considerations, and pre sentence inquiry reports; and subjective to their own individual characteristics. Q1. According to Neubauer and Fradella (2010), the dual court system of the United States comprises federal and state courts, which is a product of federalism. The U.S. Constitution institutes the judicial division of the federal administration and stipulates the power of the federal courts. Federal courts have restricted authority only over definite types of cases, for instance, cases concerning arguments between states, federal laws and cases concerning foreign governments. In other areas, federal courts share authority with state courts. For instance, both federal and state courts might make decisions on cases regarding parties who reside in dissimilar states. State courts cover exclusive authority above a majority of cases. While State courts developed from early colonial arrangements, federal courts where established by the United States constitution. Dual court system has been affected by its acc ount since the model of two court structures still remains. There have been modifications to the individual courts to create them run smoother akin to the three tier homogeneous structure taken up by the state courts. The administration of state courts is by their own constitution and statutes, US Constitution and statutes, rulings and model from superior courts in the state, judgments of the federal courts in their jurisdiction, and by example from the US Supreme Court and federal petition courts in their area of jurisdiction. According to Reid (2011), US Constitution and Statutes, the US Supreme Court, and judgments from the petition courts in their jurisdiction guide the federal courts. The association between federal and state courts is viewed as judicial federalism. Judicial federalism is a hierarchical structure that is commonly understood and has a legal establishment. The federal Constitution institutes a national court structure and specifies that discrepancies between fede ral and state law. These are to be determined in preference of the former, and the judges of the state courts are compiled by this principle. Thus, state courts should give priority to federal over state law, and infer with the federal law in line with existing judgments of the Supreme Court. The Court's fundamental justice and appropriate process guidelines, enunciated to give state courts with the flexibility to extend satisfactory protections of the accused, were regarded as indistinct and subjective. Several state judges made

Sunday, November 17, 2019

Explain Anselm’s Ontological Argument Essay Example for Free

Explain Anselm’s Ontological Argument Essay Explain Anselm’s ontological argument. The ontological argument was put forth at first as a prayer by the eleventh century monk and philosopher Anselm of Canterbury. In his Proslogion, which means discourse, he presented this argument as a prayer for believers to substantiate their belief in god. Anselm uses ‘a priori’ (which means before experience) reasoning, which conveys that it does not rely or depend on experience and so an argument of this sort is more plausible and likely to intrigue and attract philosophers, by not depending on experience or acquaintances it can be understood and derived purely from logic. Furthermore its truth doesn’t depend on anything apart from logic and can be deduced purely from the meaning of the words used in the argument. The ontological argument uses deductive reasoning, which means its conclusion is contained within the premises presented, and if one accepts these premises to be true then one must accept that the conclusion is also correct; an argument of this sort would be: 1. Men are all mortal. 2. Renà © Descartes was a man. 3. Consequently Renà © Descartes is mortal. From this example if we accept the premises (12) then logically we must accept the conclusion (3) so in some form this argument presents a guarantee of the truth of the conclusion. Anselm’s argument said ‘God is that than which nothing greater can be conceived’, by greater he means perfect and by conceived he means to think of, so we can put in other words: God is that than which nothing more perfect can be thought of. When Anselm first wrote this in the Proslogion, his intentions for this were not for it to be used as an argument to prove God’s existence but just a mere prayer for believers, but due to his reliance solely on reason and logic it has become popular and has overcome the test of time as it is still relevant today and is being studied. The argument can take this form: 1. God is that than which nothing more perfect can be thought of. 2. Even a fool can understand this definition. (By fool Anselm most likely meant someone who does not believe in god, and so he said this to show that  this argument is nothing of a complex sort but of a simple nature which can be comprehended by anyone, even a fool as Anselm said.) 3. This fool says that god ceases to exist in reality, merely as an idea. 4. It is greater to exist both in the understanding and in reality, than essentially just in the understanding. 5. The greatest possible being, for it to be the greatest must truly exist in both modes: reality and understanding. 6. Hence god does exist both in reality and in the understanding; therefore we can also conclude that the fool in reality is actually a fool. (The fool is denying the existence of the greatest possible being, this being must exist for it to be the greatest possible being, and if he wasn’t the greatest possible being then surely we could conceive of something greater.) Anselm starts the argument with a definition, and uses this definition to prove god into existence, however this argument relies on a particular definition and analysis of a particular one. There are two fundamental and paramount facets to this argument: one is the understanding of the definition, this is an integral part of the argument, because the argument arises from this start point, and also that it is greater to exist both in reality and in understanding. Anselm understood god in an analytical sense, analytic sense is where the whole meaning of a word or statement is transferred through the words only, like for example, Tom has a brother, you wouldn’t say he has a brother who is a male because the fact that he is a male is already conveyed through the meaning of the word brother. And so likewise, Anselm understood god in the same way, so it isn’t necessary to say ‘god, you know exists’ the aspect of existence is already given away from the word god, and so in a way could be perceived as inseparable from god. This argument mentioned hitherto was found in Proslogion 2, which tried to prove gods existence. A contemporary of his, Gaunilo of Marmoutier who was a monk and also a theist, replied to Anselm’s Proslogion, with a work titled ‘On Behalf of the Fool’, he was truly also a Christian and had a firm belief in god, but he rejected the jump from the definition that god is the greatest being to the conclusion that he must exist. Gaunilo claimed that through Anselm’s reasoning we can potentially prove anything one wishes into  existence by proposing it’s the greatest thing or maximally perfect in its calibre. He used the example of an Island, that if we were to say that there existed an island which was the most excellent and possessed an inestimable wealth, we can easily understand this; even a fool can comprehend this. And therefore it is the most excellent, and it is more excellent to exist both in reality and in understanding moreover this island must exist. He argued even a fool is right to be sceptical about Anselm’s argument, as evidence is required for a matter as great as god. Furthermore he went on to claim that Anselm’s argument is a ‘reducto ad absurdum’, this is Latin for reduced to absurdity. As Anselm was aware of this criticism during his lifetime, he wrote a Reply to Gaunilo, in this he defends his argument and draws up another aspect. He says ‘God cannot be conceived not to exist†¦ That which can be conceived not to exist is not god’. This introduces another matter; Anselm asks whether a god is greater who can be thought of as not existing or a god which cannot be thought of not existing. Furthermore he claims that it is a contradiction for a god who can be thought of not existing if he truly is the greatest possible. Anselm created a dichotomy between the concepts of things: necessary and contingent existences. Anselm himself didn’t use these aforementioned terms himself but were later applied by philosophers but Anselm did split the two as he described the island as physical and therefore he could easily propose that it could cease to exist due to other physical causes like for example the sea levels rising could eradicate the island completely. However he said that it is impossible to imagine the greatest being not existing or ceasing to exist, and then surely it would not be the greatest being. Necessary existences do not depend on any other thing for it to exist, as it is the greatest thing so it is not predisposed to anything else. On the other hand, contingent existences do depend on other things and also there was a time when they didn’t exist, like for example humans, who are a perfect example of a contingent being. However Anselm argued that god was a necessary being, and it cannot be thought of as not existing, it has always exists and always will. It is rather hard to conceive of another necessary being or existence apart from this. Anselm put forward this proposition in Proslogion 3, that god has a necessary existence, and this is the type of god that he is, in this way Anselm shows that Gaunilo was a fool as he didn’t understand the type of god that Anselm discussed.

Friday, November 15, 2019

Bilingual Education :: Politics

The issue of bilingual education is a much debated topic in this country and especially in this state. The Spanish-speaking populace has grown tremendously in these past decades, much of which has immigrated with Spanish as their only language. This has left the public school system with an interesting problem; how to successfully transition Spanish speaking students into an English environment. Public school systems have generally adopted one of two approaches to this problem. One is to allow students several years to develop their English with lessons taught in both languages. The other is a total immersion program where students are thrust into English-only lessons with little time develop their second language. Both approaches have ardent followers with valid arguments for each approach. In immersion programs children are allowed at most one year of English study before being placed in main-stream English-only classes. Proponents of this sink-or-swim approach often site the success of their forbearers who learned English without schools trying to accommodate them with native-language classes. Immersion proponents also cite the fact that the bilingual approach creates a cultural segregation of students. The English language is a tool of national unity, they point out. Supporters of immersion also question the success of students in bilingual education programs. They argue that students never really learn English and instead fall into using the native language all through school. They also site studies that show test scores higher in schools with immersion programs than in school that favor a bilingual approach. The approach of bilingual education is to allow students to study and learn in their native language while they master their understanding of the English language over three to six years. The argument is that it makes sense that a teacher would want to teach a child in a language they understand until they have fully mastered their second language. Supporters also have their studies to quote. In 1998-1999, for the third year in a row, students learning in a bilingual education program scored higher in English reading and comprehension than students enrolled in immersion programs according to the Arizona Department of Education. Opponents to English immersion cite the massive increase of high school dropouts since California passed statewide initiative for all public schools to adopt immersion only programs. Bilingual supporters also note that most students are mainstreamed after just three years of bilingual education while immersion students are often held in immersion program s two to three years longer than the one year term.

Tuesday, November 12, 2019

Anglicisms: Evolution and Degradation Essay

In linguistics, there are two main standpoints when it comes to language changes: evolution and degradation. Evolution supporters see any changes in the language as a natural progression which cannot be stopped. Borrowing from English into Russian is one of progressive parts. However, what we are seeing now in modern Russian is the language being flooded with Anglicisms (a word borrowed from English into another language) via mass media, the Internet, and marketing industry. We want to understand the reasons of such a great flow of Anglicisms in our language First: The emergence of new terminology (computer language, economics, the Internet): due to the rapid development and diffusion of information technology in everyday life, many items that require name: e-mail, laptop, byte, site have appeared. It’s easier to use the existing words of another language than to invent new ones. 2) Borrowings for certain reasons (easier to pronounce, shorter) replaced the previously undeveloped or native Russian language units, such as the price (instead of preckurant), image (instead of obraz) Of course, another point must be a tribute to fashion: the knowledge of English language is considered highly prestigious. And often people use Anglicisms in order to look fashionable thus: presentation, rating, talk shows. 4) The expressiveness of novelty: many firms and companies use Anglicisms as a name to highlight the novelty of sound. — Spheres– As you know, foreign words are one of the major sources of the young people’s language, particularly youth slang. The USA and Great Britain are increasingly becoming the center of attractive goods, especially in the minds of Russian young people. Anglicisms have become a sort of a fashionable hobby; due to it stereotypes and ideals are created by youth society. Adding in the speech English borrowings, teens in some way are attached to American culture and lifestyle. With the advent of social networks there has emerged a certain group of words that people, especially teenagers, are using to communicate. We have analyzed the vocabulary employed in one popular social network. Needless to say, there are words like ok, hi, yes, no, like, thanks, sorry, which are related to the social sphere. Did you know that â€Å"ok† is the most popular word in our world? It was first used as a joke in the Boston Morning Post on March 23, 1839, a shortening of the phrase â€Å"oll korrect,† itself an incorrect spelling of â€Å"all correct.† The joke should have run its course, and OK should have been forgotten but we have been using it every day till now. Conclusion Through this research, we came to the conclusion that the process of borrowing from English into Russian amplified now, because the English language is the basis of a much professional language and as the new Latin of XX century, is widely used in the youth slang. On the one hand, this process is inevitable, but on the other, the cultural basis of any language must be preserved. So, we guess that Anglicisms must meet the following requirements: any borrowing must be necessary, if you can’t find the word in the Russian language, foreign words should be used correctly and accurately in the sense that it has in the original language, it should be clear to those who use it.