Argo

The Movie Argon did not win the Oscar for the best movie Just because people liked It. Argon Is a movie directed and produced by Ben Fleck, In the movie Ben Fleck also plays the role of a main character along with Bryan Cranston, Alan Irking, and John Goodman. The movie plays during the time Iran's Revolution. The movie based Itself on 6 Americans that work in the US embassy In Tehran and when the Iranian protesters break Into It they manage to escape and take shelter In the Canadian ambassadors souse.The CIA decides to collaborate with Hollywood and created a fake movie called Argon and the plan they had consisted In Glenn the 6 Americans fake passports, visas and take them out of the country Like If they where crew from the movie. I really enjoyed Argon but the things I like the more will be the acting, the set design and the movie plot. In my opinion the best thing about Argon will definitely be the story plot. The movie attracts many people because based on a true story movies ma ke people want to see t because you can actually see what happened with the people that lived thru those moments.It shows how one thing led to another, and the exact details, for example when the main actor (Ben Fleck) comes up with the idea while he talks with his son on the phone and they both watch a movie about space invaders. The set design in Argon makes the movie even more fascinating. All the scenes in the movie where supposed to be filmed in Tehran where actually in the US and I bet most people really thought they where filmed on Tehran, it can even be passed as a documentary limed by someone at the moment.The actors where also perfect in the movie, starting by Ben Fleck, he played the role of Tony Mended from the CIA and he is the one who extracts the Americans from Iran. He's character made a really good part because he made Tony Mended look like a passionate man, passionate for his work, his family, but also he was really smart and seemed to be professional at making str ategies In situations like the ones In Iran. Goodman and Irking play the role of the producer and the director of the fake movie.Many laughs come from them, they give the movie a comedy part even though the movie has nothing to do with comedy, both actors give an example of Hollywood people, mean but comedy mean and they have enemies and of course both of them are rich people. Even though Argon won the Oscar for the best picture and for many people It was with out doubt the best movie, there will still be people that disagree with this decision and of course the movie has its flaws because for what I know no movie has There exist a problem, Argon makes the situation look like if the extraction of the 6Americans was all thanks to Tony Mended and the CIA, when on the true story people like the Canadian ambassador had more to loose than its reputation. In defense to Argon the movie can certainly be bias, and since Americans made the movie and they save Americans they want to make the U S the protagonist of the movie, but that does not mean they say that Canada and other places had nothing to do with the extraction. I have also heard people say that they find offensive the fact that Goodman and Irking laugh about the situation when they are next to the pool in theirBeverly Hills mansion, and not in a live or die situation. Again in Argos defense those parts only give the characters characteristics and gives us a taste of a Hollywood life. Argon definitely deserved the Oscar for best picture; even though it had flaws it still makes a fabulous movie. The movie fabulously comes from its set design, acting and plot. But lets also give credit to the amazing actor and director the movie had, Ben Fleck. So liked or not the movie people can't deny â€Å"argon buck yourself† caused tremendous laughs in people.

Marketing Plan: Zara Essay

I. Executive Summary Zara is the largest retail company owned and run by Inditex, largest Spanish corporation and the world’s largest fashion group. The way Zara has runs its company is by following a vertical integrated operation that has the  advantage to shorten the time in making decisions. Inventories in the stores depend on the geographic area in which the store is located; and the way Zara does their marketing is by just displaying posters at stores and by their windows display. This approach to make business has work very well for Zara; they show an economic growth despite the strong crisis suffer in the United States. The problem that Zara faces is whether to update their existing software or to keep the current software but running in the misfortune that the only DOS supplier will cease to maintain the software. Several benefits and economical costs are described to observe either it would be a wise move or not. II. Situational Analysis III. Target Market Zara sells apparel, footwear and accessories for women, men and children. Product lines were segmented into these three categories, with further segmentation within the women’s line as it was considered the strongest out of the three, with an overwhelming majority of women in the target market (78%). Zara’s consumers are young, value conscious and highly sensitive to the latest fashion trends in the industry. An advantage that the brand has over conventional retailers is that they do not define and segment their target market by ages resulting in designs and styles that can reach a broader market. Zara offers cutting edge fashion at affordable prices by following the most up-to-date fashion trends and identifying consumers’ demand, and quickly getting the latest designs into stores. IV. Swot Analysis V. Marketing Objective and Goals â€Å"The original business idea was very simple. Link customer demand to manufacturing, and link manufacturing to distribution. That is the idea we still live by.† (Jose Maria Castellano Rios, Inditex CEO) Zara’s CEO and founder, Amancio Ortega, saw the great importance of having retailing and manufacturing closely together in the apparel industry and from his view; Zara was able to position itself as a company with vertical integration control system. It covers all phases of the fashion process: design, manufacture, logistics and distribution to its own managed stores. It is also characterized by their strong focus on their customers. Vision â€Å"ZARA is committed to satisfying the desires of our customers. As a result we pledge to continuously innovate our business to improve your experience. We promise to provide new designs made from quality materials that are affordable† Mission Statement​ â€Å"Through Zara’s business model, we aim to contribute to the sustainable development of society and that of the environment with which we interacts.† VI. Marketing Strategy and Tactics Competitive Advantage: Market-oriented Strategy Most of Zara’s designs are based on the latest trends and they are ever changing according to the immediate feedback from customers. Zara employs its service staff in listening to customers’ preferences and reacts very quickly to them. It is only a matter of weeks before the designs get altered, manufactured and restocked in the stores. If a design is largely unpopular, Zara will not hesitate to withdraw them from the shelves. Its global establishment also provides an extensive network of shopper-feedback which allows them to be ahead of competitors in spotting global fashion trends. Product: Fast Moving Fashion Zara prides itself on fast moving fashion with new designs restocked in limited quantity every two weeks. This encourages consumers to frequent the stores for new designs and to snap up interesting outfits on the spot in order to guarantee themselves a piece. This provides a sense of exclusivity to shoppers. Process: Industry Leader in Lead Time Creative teams consisting of designers, sourcing specialist and product development personnel, develop design collections. The teams work simultaneously on different clothing, building and improving on styles previously available. Zara’s designers are trained to limit the number of changes made by lowering the number of samples required, minimizing cost and turnover time. Its demand based production or Just-in-time (JIT) production reduces the amount of inventory available, lowering Zara’s storage cost. Zara’s outstanding lead time is unbeatable in the industry at the moment. Furthermore, Zara eliminated the traditional design process, where design and development overrides fabric procurement. In Zara, the design teams work with the available fabric, allowing for faster fashion. Price: Low Cost, High Fashion Zara believes in offering high fashion at a low cost. Prices range from $79.90 to $539.00 for both Womenswear and Menswear while the Kids segment has coats starting from $65.00 and these prices can start from $30 during a sale. Taking quality and cost into account, Zara prides itself in providing high fashion at an affordable cost, making its customers’ purchases value-worthy. Place: Prime Retail Locations Zara, like its competitor brands, is located in prime retail areas like Ion Orchard, Orchard Road, 313@Somerset where human traffic is high. As aforementioned, Zara invests in prime locations as they place great emphasis on the presentation of its storefronts. Zara also has an online store, which increases accessibility to its customers, allowing them to make purchases conveniently on the go. However, this function is currently not available to Singaporean customers. Promotion: Minimum Advertising Zara uses 0.3% of sales revenue on advertising, minimal when compared to its competitors (3-4% of sales revenue). Instead of relying on traditional mass-marketing mediums, Zara uses prime retail locations to attract its customers. It also ensures that storefronts and window displays are attractive and fresh to customers by making frequent changes to the items on display. The interior of the store is also clean and bright, with spacious  lanes in between racks. This provides a very comfortable shopping experience. Having a good image projection of the store is vital as this is Zara’s most effective marketing communications tool. When customers walk into a store, Zara wants to portray to customers that the latest fashion is always available. VII. Implementation and Control 1975-1995: Since its inception in 1975 till 1995 Zara has followed the method of inspection in order to keep a check on the quality of its products. Zara’s designing team has worked closely with customers and have spend their time in spotting the latest trends in demand. An instant sketch of the design has been analysed and the accordingly produced. The quality control teams at Zara inspected the designs before placing them in stores. M995 till date: After 1995 Zara has implemented the practice of Total Quality Management. In this practice Zara’s vertically integrated supply chain tries to achieve Continuous Improvement of their processes, which includes spotting of the fashion trends, designing, and procurement of their materials, the CAD technology they use for designing, their improved inventory management and finally their centralised logistics and distribution system. Each of the components of the supply chain process has been explained below. Implementation Effect iveness Zara choose to invest within its own software rather than buying new technology simply because the company’s operations were unique and commercial packages would not fit; also the fact that Zara is a global company, it deals with various currencies that standard accounting packaged would have to be extensively customized and comprehensive. Zara’s operating system, DOS, is obsolete from the market affecting the firm with no reliable system for future forecasting; â€Å"not keeping up any historical date means being unable to predict sells, plan or estimate loses/gains and margin on particular designs (Anonymous, n.d). Unreliable fax machines that were taking too long and costing too much to fax order forms back and forth to stores caused delays and frustration. The use of telephones is greatly affected by miscommunication and mishearing. From the above it can be deducted that Zara’s internally application is not a good match for the firm’s needs because: t heir internally developedapplications are not easy to  upgrade and are not compatible with other applications, POS terminals are outdated and stores need POS terminals that will insure no infrastructure problems and its IT department is relatively small for the size of the firm. Evaluation of IS Implementation In this case, Zara believes less is more and makes minimal use and investment in IT. The competitive advantage Zara has over its competitors is not so much due the use of IT, but because of its quick response to the changing market. Zara does not have a chief information officer or any formal process for setting an IT budget. Castellano estimated Inditex’s IT budget for 2002 was 0.5 % of the revenue, as compared to the 2% of the revenue of other North American retailers (McAfee et al., 2007). As there is no formal justification of IT efforts, there is also not any cost/benefit analysis. However, to maintain business competitiveness is the most important factor to consider when making any decision regarding the upgrade of IS. Zara needs to analyze and compare the Tangible (quantitative) costs and benefits as well as the Intangible (qualitative) costs and benefits of the old system and the new system.

Buenavista Plywood Corporation

Buenavista Plywood Corporation The Problem The problem confronting Mr. Antonio Garcia, the Plant Superintendent of Buenavista Plywood Corporation is how to deal with the absentee rates of the employees from Bohol such that the production of the plant will operate at capacity, with adequate workforce and the interests of the company and employees be served. Objectives More specifically, the problem resolves itself into the following objectives which Mr. Garcia has to achieve in the course of action he has to take: 1. To maintain a stable and reliable workforce; 2.To protect the company’s reputation by avoiding confrontation with formal union groups; 3. To address production problems and costs; 4. To meet the rated capacity of the plant; 5. To safeguard the long-run profitability and stability of Buenavista Plywood Corporation. Situational Analysis The Buenavista Plywood Corporation was organized in Cagayan de Oro City in 1950 by the Santiago Family. Don Jose Santiago, the prese nt head of the family, was well qualified to carry the traditions of this prominent family. The Santiagos have been involved in politics in nearby Bohol, the ancestral home.They had been pioneering industrialists in the plywood business. Don Jose had been an early advocate of local processing of lumber as opposed to the shipping of log abroad. VISTAWOOD, the trademark chosen for their plywood, was one of the first export plywood production in the Philippines. Late in the fall of 1960, at a time when the plant was operating at capacity, working three shifts a day, some representatives of a national labor organization gained the allegiance of a large group of workers to establish a union at VISTAWOOD.Over the period of several months, the union activists who were assigned to the logging concessions left the company at their own initiative. These events marked the end of any organized activity at VISTAWOOD. As a matter of general policy, management preferred to hire people from Bohol a nd even tolerate some irregularities due to this peculiar working arrangement, than to risk another confrontation with formal union organizations. In fact, Don Jose soon began to rely on political leverage this group of workers afforded him in his election campaigns in Bohol. Late in 1967, VISTAWOOD was facing serious production problems.Rated capacity and management profit goals had not been attained for several years. Fierce competition in the export market and decreasing selling prices, coupled with new duties being levied by importing countries had aggravated the situation. It was apparent to management that the only source of improvement would have to be the production function. Costs of operating the plant had been steadily rising without no accompanying rise in production volume. Mr. Antonio Garcia was brought to VISTAWOOD Superintendent in the hope that he could bring some improvements in the plywood plant.Discovering the absentee rate of the plant, Mr. Garcia began to exami ne this and other related problems at VISTAWOOD. It became increasingly clear that: (1) production was low and highly erratic and (2) one of the main causes of this gloomy situation was the unstable and unreliable workforce. The absentee rates fluctuated between 50% during Monday and Saturday nights and 30% during the rest of the week. Daily production was so adversely affected by this shifting workforce, that Sundays had to be regarded as regular work days but with higher labor costs. Mr.Garcia was convinced that the plant could be run on a six-day schedule and meets the rated capacity if an adequate workforce could be maintained in the ratio of 3:2. Decision Framework Constraints Given the problematic framework on situation described, Mr. Garcia now had to decide what to do with the problem on the imported workers from Bohol. The fluctuating absentee rates of these employees has resulted to serious problems such as the unstable, unreliable and inadequate workforce unable to meet t he rated capacity at the plant and resulted to low and highly erratic roduction. Rated capacity and management profit goals had not been attained for several years. Aside from the fierce competition in the export market, decreasing selling prices, and rising production costs, imported workers from Bohol have created greater problems. Increasing the production volume through having an adequate stable workforce is the only solution to the problems faced by the company. And that would mean to fire those workers from Bohol who have absentee problems. These people create greater inefficiencies for the company.However, this will risk the company to face formal union organizations. And these would mean putting the company in bad public image ore reputation. Retaining the employees from Bohol will protect the company’s reputation but the absentee rates of these employees affect production costs and volume. And if not addressed will result to financial ruin for the company. Mr. Garcia is therefore caught in a seemingly difficult dilemma and has to formulate a decision which would both safeguard stability and profitability at the company and at the same time, protect the reputation of the company.DECISION ALTERNATIVES The following choices are open to Mr. Garcia: 1. Fine the employees from Bohol who have absentee problems but spell ruin on the company’s reputation; or 2. Retain the employees from Bohol but creates problems on the production costs and volume and eventually spell financial ruin to the company. RECOMMENDATION The first alternative to fine employees from Bohol is preferable given the following considerations: 1.It will decrease absentee rates of employees and having a stable and reliable workforce will result in meeting the rated capacity and volume of the plant. 2. It will dissociate political expediency from management decisions. 3. Mr. Garcia could talk to the workforce from Bohol to avoid establishing a union at VISTAWOOD. CONCLUSION Firin g the workers from Bohol will address production problems of the company and insure the long-run stability and profitability of VISTAWOOD. Such a course of action, therefore, would achieve all the objectives set out earlier in the present dilemma.

'Memory is simply biased, inaccurate history.' Discuss Essay

'Memory is simply biased, inaccurate history.' Discuss - Essay Example Memory denotes a distinctive and new field of study and a new method of conceptualization of the history as a generic field of inquiry (Cubitt, 2007). History is fundamentally remembered by the new generation by reading the accounts of the historians. It is not uncommon to find the pieces of literature giving completely different information from each other though they are all related to the same event. The main reason why there is so much difference between the historic accounts related to the same events is that different historians have made their accounts solely depending on their own memories. This paper discusses the statement â€Å"memory is simply biased, inaccurate history† drawing upon the elements that incorporate biasness in the memory and make its status as history inaccurate. In the recent years, the notion of memory has attained the status of a leading term in the cultural history. The notion of memory is used with varying levels of sophistication and is practic ed more than theorized. It has been used to study the memory of people that experienced such great and memorable events as the Holocaust survivors (Confino, 1997, p. 1386). In addition to that, memory has denoted past’s representation and its making into a knowledge of shared culture by the successive generations in such vehicles of memory as films, books, commemorations, and different forms and mediums of literature. The pageantry surrounding the British monarchy in the manifestations of its public ceremonies are seemingly the most ancient and related to an immemorial past. It is a product of the last two centuries in its modern form. Traditions that claim to be ancient are sometimes invented or are recently made. People who know about the colleges of the ancient British universities can visualize these traditions on a local scale (Hobsbawm, 1983, p. 1). Along with the rapid advancement of the world, the study of nationalism has also undergone a massive transformation in ter ms of scale, quantity, method, and level of sophistication (Anderson, 1983, p. xii). There is a tendency in human beings known as confirmation bias that causes them to favor the information by which their beliefs are confirmed. People make use of the confirmation bias upon collecting or remembering the information in a selective manner or while interpreting the information in a biased manner. Issues that are emotionally charged have a stronger effect as well as for the beliefs that are deeply entrenched. For instance, people generally use the sources that are in favor of their existing attitudes towards and perceptions of politics. Ambiguous evidence is also interpreted as supportive of people’s existing position. Memory, biased research, and interpretation have all been summoned to explain the polarization of behavior when different parties have the same evidence and yet they disagree with one another, perseverance of belief when it persists after the evidence has turned out to be false, illusionary correlation 0when people misunderstand the link between different events and situations, and the irrational primacy effect that refers to a greater reliance on the earlier encountered information in a series. During the 1960s, a series of experiments showed how biased people are toward supporting their current beliefs. Results of these researches were re-interpreted later as a tendency to evaluate the concepts in a one-sided

The Evolution of GIS Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

The Evolution of GIS - Essay Example terature on this subject, it is clear that these two are the core components of the system and the manner by which they rapidly evolve has driven the pace by which GIS has changed and will change over time. This is supported by the evidences that follows. Essentially, GIS is defined as â€Å"the system of computer hardware, software, personnel, organizations, and business processes designed to support the capture, management, manipulation, analysis, modeling and display of spatially referenced data† (TRB, p.10). As with any type of computing technology, the GIS's own system is consisted of three basic parts, namely, the UI or the user interface, the tools, which is differentiated according to functions, and, finally, the data manager. Put in another way, the components of the system can be said to include data, technology, application and humans (Lloyd and Bunch, 2003, p.828). All of which have their respective and equally important functions. While the GIS could run in a sing le computer terminal, the optimum framework requires several computers for GIS operations - desktop, client server, centralized desktop and centralized server (Longley et al. 2005, p.158). These variables and operational framework underscore why hardware and software are critical in the progression of the GIS development. Hardware The invention of the silicon chip back in the 1970s launched the fast paced computer development (Pasewark and Pinard, 2007, p. 263). It led to the viability of personal computers, which became the precursor of the current technology typified by smaller, faster, powerful and cheap hardware. To put this environment in context, there is the so-called Moore’s Law which states that computer processing chips double in power almost every 18 months, making computer more... Thi essay stresses that the evolution of the GIS system can be attributed to several important technological developments. First, there are the advances in computing hardware, which made computers affordable and powerful. Today, many people and organizations can buy desktop systems not just in workplaces but even for home use. These are computers that can perform complicated tasks and functions with apparent ease. This report makes a conclusion that in order to depict the significance of the evolution of GIS in the past twenty years, it is important to go back to the importance of geographic information. Accurate and reliable geographic data do not only mean effective geographic expeditions or land mapping initiatives. Rather, they are imperative in many other endeavors such as in running a city or in predicting a catastrophe. This is the reason why GIS is an important technological tool and how its evolution should be of interest for people. In the past twenty years, there were significant achievements and the evolutionary path points to a more sophisticated and intuitive system that would help people to make sense not just of the Earth but also beyond. It is worth noting that today there are just numerous geographies or approaches to geography. One of GIS’ greatest contributions, as evidenced by its evolution, is the universalization and consistency of geographic information.

No Country for Old Men Movie Review Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

No Country for Old Men - Movie Review Example This can be substantiated through his killing of the boss and other rivals coming his way concerning money. Moss tries to keep away from the drug dealer, although what follows is extensive blood spills while he tries to get Moss to give him the lost money. It comes as a surprise for Moss as he tries to run away from the relentless Chigurh (Chisholm). In the meantime, Sherriff Bell supervises and directs all the investigations concerning the case in order to prevent similar crimes that had been on the argument within the region. In the movie, Bell has managed miniature, concerning delivery of justice in one case that the convicted person got death row judgment. He considers that the region has a different viewpoint although while handling the case a lot seems to have changed (Chisholm). Every aspect of the society had considerably transformed into something that cannot be explained in a more profound manner than what is depicted. Chigurh dispatches his hit men to kill Moss and his you ng wife and take the satchel back. However, they are unable to execute the plan since Moss and wife manage to run away from the hit men dispatched to recuperate the lost satchel. The events that transpire in the region catch Bell by surprise since, in the time that he has lived in that region, there were little cases of violence (Chisholm). The region gets marred with violence in the period that Chigurh and his gunmen undertake the task of recapturing their moneybag. The community that Bell knew was quiet and peaceful with little misfortunes although, at that time, it had turned into something majorly dissimilar. The source of the violence that the region experiences are from Aton Chigurh as he tries to repossess the satchel with the assistance of a radio transponder that had been implanted on the bag. The transponder allows Chigurh, and the other gunmen to track the movement of Moss although Moss is unconscious of the device on the satchel. Chigurh is considered a psychopath since, in previous dealings, he had killed many people who he considered having ties with his monies. The violence that occurs within the movie can be profoundly linked to the actuality that he has access to homemade weapons for instance, silencer guns that allow him to execute people with little attention to the locals and authorities (Chisholm). The character is considered the most creations according to critics because most themes are linked to him especially the genre of violence. Violence dominates most scenes of the movie with other genres being considered inferior to violence, which is contemplated principal in the creation of the story. Chigurh not only kills the people who mess with his money but also individuals who offer comments that he does not like. Bell informs Moss and his wife about the violence that ensues within the region as well as the peril that the couple has to face with the drug dealers and other arsonists. However, Moss is convinced that he can take Chigurh and h is clue down through the experiences and intelligence that he had earlier obtained in Vietnam as a war veteran (Chisholm). Moss seems experienced through numerous tasks that he undertakes in Vietnam with other war veterans. However, the violence that ensues around the place that Bell seeks to reexamine the situation concerning his capacities to undertake certain measures. He feels obliged to deal with the fresh criminal brutality that ensues in his place of

Analysis of Sustainability in Practice Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Analysis of Sustainability in Practice - Essay Example As a technology company, Siemens worldwide aims to capture opportunities for sustainable advancement of customers and the organization. Corporate social responsibility generates sustained value for the betterment of society. Siemens is a future-oriented company which believes in sustainable development and responsibilities towards the society and has undergone out of the way to fulfill its commitment to the welfare of people, earth and the business. Sustainable development is beautifully explained as â€Å"Meeting present needs without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs† (Grayson et. al 2012). Sustainability is seen as the eco-development approach for the preservation of resources. Moreover, social responsibility is an obligation to assume corporate duties for the welfare of society (Ebner & Baumgartner 2006). Seeking economic benefits stays as the mission for the existence of any business. However, CSR provides societal development which in directly supports the motive of the business. By long-term value creation for the society, businesses fulfill their duty as a member and contribute to the growth of the firm. Proponents of sustainable development suggest that resources are scarce so sustainable use is crucial for growth otherwise the quality of life will worsen (Blewitt 2008). For instance, if a tree is slashed without planting another one, this will eventually turn a forest into a desert. The issue of sustainability has become even more challenging with the massive growth in population because it will raise the consumption and demand for resources. Sustainability involves a firm commitment towards needs of the poor along with economic and social improvement and also realizing the limited nature of resources. Corporate Social Responsibility is an ethical  obligation to the community at large.

Paper Entrepreneurialism and Enrons Collapse Essay

Paper Entrepreneurialism and Enrons Collapse - Essay Example A critical analysis of each has been conducted in this assignment to explain how cases like Enron exist and how lay people do not seem to realize the issues in such companies before hand. Reich argues in his article, Paper Entrepreneurialism that accountants and financial experts are particularly trained to manipulate books and numbers. As a result, they have a number of innovative schemes through which an organization can stand to gain through various means. Such paper entrepreneurs manage finances through the usage of paperwork, like establishing holding companies and joint ventures, conducting spinoffs or divestitures, developing mutual funds or conducting exercises that hide realities of the organization under the paperwork and the numbers. Reich suggests that there are other types of entrepreneurs as well which he terms as product entrepreneurs. He believes that these entrepreneurs are developers of products and services that people may want or need. They are innovators of products, and sell such to the consumers. He states that economy has a need for both of them but because paper entrepreneurialism is on the rise, it is expected that organizations will manage to cook up financial gains when competition has become increasingly strong, particularly due to globalization. (Reich) Salter states that Enron is a classic example of deceit and corruption where most of the stakeholders focused on personal gains rather than the organizational gains because of which the shareholders suffered. The problems were deep rooted in ethical and administrative failures, along with lack of corporate governance. As a result, when financial incentives are part of the executives and the board, ethical discipline will definitely be lacking within an organization which was the case in Enron. In such a scenario, Salter explains that corporate governance failure was the key reason why Enron failed and this is the primary way an organization can avoid such a scenario.

Conflict Diamond Speech or Presentation Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Conflict Diamond - Speech or Presentation Example In the late 1990s, this trade caught the attention of the world as the protracted conflict in Sierra Leone reached its devastating climax. It is not just Sierra Leone that has suffered – diamonds have fuelled or exacerbated conflicts in Angola, Liberia, Ivory Coast, the Democratic Republic of Congo and the Republic of Congo. These diamonds are regularly produced through the forced labor of men, women and children, or stolen during violent attacks on legitimate mining operations (geology.com). They have, on several occasions, been the main source of funding for brutal rebel groups. Due to the huge amount of money at stake in the illegal diamond trade, bribes, threats and torture often accompany the mining. In Liberia, between 1989 and 2003, there were two civil wars which killed perhaps 250,000 people, while displacing a further 1.3 million (globalwitness.org). Former Liberian President Charles Taylor has used his diamond mines to fund a military campaign against civilians in L iberia and Sierra Leone, and is currently on trial in the International Court of Human Rights. In Ivory Coast, a civil war was sparked off in 2002, and even now, the country remains divided, with widespread human rights violations. Sierra Leone is perhaps the worst example of what blood diamonds can do to a country. Legitimate diamonds once provided the mainstay of the government’s revenues. Gradually, as rebel groups in the east of the country gained control over the mines, these revenues were reduced to nothing. By August 1993, even before the civil war had escalated, the total revenues reaching the government in Freetown amounted to some $8,000 (Dowden, 294). Meanwhile, in the mines, children were being sent down into tiny tunnels, while soft gravel above them regularly collapsed and buried them. The greed engendered by the illegitimate trade in diamonds led to a breakdown of traditional society. Visiting a village in 1993, Richard Dowden spoke to a local doctor who commen ted, ‘There is no trust – not even between these brothers who dig together. We have many killings. A lot of people disappear’ (296). Once Civil War broke out, all this worsened. The Revolutionary United Front (RUF) ruined the country’s interior. Bankrolled by diamonds, it raided villages, killing the inhabitants or cutting off their hands. Children were forced to become soldiers, and to kill their families and take drugs. They murdered and raped their way through the country, so that, by the end of the war, it was at the bottom of the United Nations Development Index. Let us consider the alternative. If diamonds are mined legitimately, under license from a popularly-elected and accountable government, and processed legitimately, and sold legitimately, to Western jewelers who insist upon certificates confirming the provenance of the diamonds, the revenues from these sales will be fed back into the revenues of the resource-rich states. A country currently re eling from decades of devastating war can use such revenues to build and rebuild schools, hospitals, roads, railways, and even to rebuild lives, by offering those scarred by the conflict a second chance. By taking the diamonds out of the hands of brutal militias, and into the hands of legitimate governments, we can promote sustainable development in a troubled and impoverished region. For confirmation of this, we need only look to those African countries which have managed their

College and career goals and why I should receive this schlorship Essay

College and career goals and why I should receive this schlorship - Essay Example I decided to pursue a career in acting at an early age and my first experience was when I was in third grade. I took part in the third grade talent show, my performance was exemplary, and the audience together with my teacher was thoroughly impressed and encouraged me to pursue a career in acting. Since then I have taken acting classes at KD Studios in Dallas. Additionally, I have taken part in a movie (A Race against Time- The Sharla Bulter Story Extra MSD Production Directed by Maurice Durham) as an extra and several school plays. I am also a member of the National Thespian Society and was the President of the Desoto Chapter Of the National Thespian Society (2013/14) and won the Award for All Star Cast (Lead) – UIL One Act Play â€Å"The Insanity of Mary Girard† (2013) Dancing (Hip Hop). I always keep myself updated with the developments taking place in the acting (Conley 99). My academic performance is satisfactory and I have a 3.3 GPA. I am also an avid learner who is willing to do all it takes to excel in my studies. While I continuously looking for ways to improve my proficiency in acting, this scholarship would transform my life and help me achieve my career goals. The institution’s rationale for choosing Justin as the best candidate for the scholarship lies behind the fact that he is a talented, motivated and experienced actor who is willing to do all that it take to improve his acting

Accountability, Responsibility and Respect Essay Example for Free

Accountability, Responsibility and Respect Essay Running Head: Accountability, Respresponsibility, and Respect 3 Essay on Accountability, Responsibility, and Respect Among military members and civilians alike, there are personal qualities that determine how you act professionally and also how you act in your personal life. These qualities also determine how other people view you and judge your abilities in both aspects previously stated. In the military, certain qualities are especially prudent because of the nature of the work we complete, and the monetary value of the equipment that we work with. According to Eagle1 Fox2 (2008) Our organization is 1,394,311 soldiers strong, and in order to keep order and, discipline, key values are instilled into us from the day we start our careers, in basic training. Among these values, i am writing about 3 in particular; Accountability, Reponsibility and Respect. See more: Experiment on polytropic process Essay The Value of accountability can be applied to all facets of life. Dictionary.com (2012) defines Accountability as â€Å"The Quality or state of being accountable; especially : an obligation or willingness to accept responsibility or to account for ones actions.† The military uses the word Acccountability with a broader definition. Being accountable gives your command the ability to trust you with tasks and equipment. It also provides them with an accurate idea of where you are at, at all times. If all soldiers were accountable, the military would operate at a much higher performance level. Time for orders to be given, and time it takes for the orders to be carried out would drop. Allowing the military to free resources and also cut monetary spending. Leading to a more productive and cheaper military.

Personal Healthy Living Plan Essay Example for Free

Personal Healthy Living Plan Essay

Black Hawk Down: Narrative Theory Analysis

Black Hawk Down: Narrative Theory Analysis In 1993, over one hundred US soldiers were dropped into the urban heart of Mogadishu, Somalia. The purpose was to perform an operation to capture a violent warlord by the name of Mohamed Farrah Aidid and his closest members. The purpose of the operation was to quell the ongoing civil war. The war was taking a devastating toll on the civilian population as supply and food shipments from Red Cross agencies were hoarded. Starvation was the warlords main weapon. It was decided by the US that intervention was the only way to prevent the continuation of the atrocities. Unfortunately, the US soldiers were not prepared to face the tactical nightmare Mogadishu would become when two of their helicopters were shot down during the operation. All the stories of the soldiers involved were later recorded and written in a book by Mark Bowden, entitled Black Hawk Down. It was this book that a screenplay and eventually a feature film would be based on in the 2001 adaptation Black Hawk Down, directed b y Ridley Scott. If anyone had previously seen a Ridley Scott film, they would know that he is meticulous in creating detail and realism. Black Hawk Down does nothing less than emanate this style of directing. He has helped push a new wave in directing style, where realism in situations and characters account for as much of the movie as the plot. These both apply to narrative and genre theories. The new elements that have been inserted into the creation of the war movie genre and narrative have added new depth and meaning to what we see and understand about the people who fight our wars. The image of the US soldier has been elevated to almost mythic proportions, partly due to ad campaigns, but also to the portrayal of war and the realism that moves us closer to the fighting than we can ever imagine. The beauty is that the answers are explained by philosophical geniuses who have all contributed theories to understanding why we think in certain ways and experience certain pleasures. Ev erything we interpret is relative to our own experiences. The purpose of this essay is to analyze Black Hawk Down using the various narrative theories of these intellectuals. Some provide thoughts on the narration of the story such as Propp, Todorov, Barthes and Levi Strauss, while others look at the genres and their various approaches to creation and production; finally, semiotic analysis allows us to know how we interpret the images we see (both syntagmatically and paradigmatically). Narrative theory applies to the structure of the production, whether it is in film, television, literature or radio. Analysts of narrative theory usually grasp the basic structure of the particular genre before viewing the production based on formulaic series of events associated with that genre. These series of events that have an appearance of repetition, according to Valdimir Propp, are called narratemes. According to Propp, depending on the medium/genre, the events can be predetermined by using his 32 narrative functions and 8 spheres of action. The medium does not have to include all 32 of his functions, but the ones they do contain will always happen in a specific order. Another theorist by the name of Todorov came along and simplified what Propp had been writing about. He generalized narratives to follow the path of equilibrium-disequilibrium-equilibrium. This is where Black Hawk Down takes a turn to the unique side. Because of the nature of the conflict, equilibrium never tru ly existed from the beginning. There may have been equilibrium in the US troops position, but the overall conflict presides over any minuscule balance. The movie begins panning over malnourished Somalis affected by the starvation campaign of Farrah Aidid while text scrolls across the screen explaining the situation. The first glimpse of US troops occurs here when the viewer watches them fly overhead in an SH-60 Black Hawk helicopter. The troops begin to watch a Red Cross shipment of food and supplies getting hoarded by the warlord Aidids men. The disequilibrium we had set in the beginning of the movie gets thrown to another level when civilians are shot attempting to take some food. This is where the movie continues to present its uniqueness. As the movie progresses, nothing goes as planned during the operation to capture the warlord. In the process of putting troops on the ground, two helicopters are shot out of the sky by Somali guerillas, further pushing the stability of the movi e. This is why Todorov generalized about the narrative theory: not everything follows a standard, and the ones that dont stand out, good or bad. In this case, the movie created a cinematic experience like most great war movies: immersive, intense and filled with feminine and masculine narratives (discussed later on). The movie eventually reached as much equilibrium as allotted due to the situation. In the end, 17 soldiers had been killed for an operation that was meant to be more than a grab-and-go. But one key aspect to Todorovs theory is that the ending is ideologically significant. How it achieves this closure reveals how narratives function to maintain/challenge established power relations in society. Quite close to how the movie began, it ended, but this time with closure and equilibrium. The music and setting were serene with a feeling of despair, fitting the mood of both dying and/or dead civilians/soldiers because of the conflict in Mogadishu. To the soldiers at the end of t he movie, it no longer became a fight for their own lives, but that for their fellow soldiers. A bond throughout the movie was created between them, and although some were lost to the fighting, the bond never disappeared. This is visible at the end of the movie when Josh Harnetts character Eversmann spoke to a fallen soldier about returning home and talking to his parents about who he was, what he did, and why they should be proud of him. It was an underhanded way of making us look at relationships the soldiers built instead of letting us take a step back and ask why they were there in the first place. What makes this so ideologically significant? It is in the beginning of the movie when disequilibrium was first established: there were soldiers that were aware of this situation and asked what the purpose of the occupation was. This is why the ending of the movie is ideologically significant to established power relations, those between soldiers and their commanders, and how it came to a sincere closure to make everything seem justified. The idea that there are characters within a scripted movie that are given these lines reflects the observational talent the screenplay writers and directors have. It makes a bold statement to society that we are aware. Along with Propp and Todorov, another man by the name of Roland Barthes came and attempted, successfully, to answer the question of the narrative theory. In Roland Barthes theory, he used five codes in order to form a network of meaning. This network, in turn, provides a framework for analyzing texts or in our case, a war movie. The codes are as following: action, enigma, semic, symbolic and cultural. Lets begin with the idea of a cultural code. The cultural code is constituted by the points at which the text refers to common bodies of knowledge through a social construct. This makes the viewer have to have prior knowledge in order to understand the reference. These references are easily-identified traditions that could be scholarly, historical, mythological or stereotypical. In this case, the reference, and respectively the entire movie, was based on a time period in 1993 when the US attempted to quell a civil war. So between the traditions of history, scholar, myth, and stereotyping, history plays a large role. Black Hawk Down was created almost 10 years after the event. This gave the public enough time to move past the events, but also after only 10 years, it could still be on the minds of people who were old enough to comprehend and understand the conflict. To continue with Barthes codes, symbolic would be the next easiest to interpret. It exists to explicate the complexities of an element in the text. One of the most important entrance points into the symbolic is the antithetical because concepts suggest their opposites, which is argued by Levi-Strauss in the binary opposites theory. But the symbolic code does not merely break the code into binaries; instead it eradicates the boundary between opposites creating a disturbance in classification. (Coward) There are many elements to this movie that can be seen as symbolic. As stated earlier, the image of a US soldier means so much more that what can be seen on the surface. This movie attempts, and in reality, accomplishes, the symbolic image of a soldier. The image gets elevated to another level, the level of being mythic. To quote Eric Bana who plays Hoot, Whe n I get home peoplell ask me, Hey Hoot, why do ya do it man? Why? Just some war junkie? Ya know what Ill say? I wont say a goddamn word. Why? They wont understand. They wont understand why we do it. They wont understand that its about the men next to you, and thats it. This is what embodies the American soldier today. It is about defending the country, yes, but more so about keeping the man next to you alive so he can go back home someday. Another symbolic image, which is the basis for the movie, is the downing of not one, but two of our helicopters. We have two massive machines facilitating the most advanced technology available that get shot down by a bunch of ill-trained guerillas from a country torn by war. More so than just that, after the second helicopter was overrun by guerillas and civilians, the military machine became nothing more than a toy with young kids jumping on the rotors. The image of this alone creates more than a feeling of defeat because it was scaled down from being a symbol of Americas productive might to nothing. Two more codes written by Barthes include the semic and action (also known as proairetic). These codes are easily interlaced with other theories. Semic is closely related to semiotic analysis which focuses upon pieces of data in order to suggest abstract concepts. Semiotic analysis is on the conscious of the person viewing the object or product. We see or hear something and chose to recognize it as we have been taught. If we do not recognize it, we try to group it into a category in which we do understand. Semiotics will always be an interesting concept to study because of its conscious and subconscious nature. We recognize that the movie is based on real events, with that being the sign, but the individual stories paint the signified. On the other end, to look at syntagmatic codes, all you have to do is look at the narrative because it refers to how the product uses/used a series of images to create meaning in the viewers mind. The proairetic code is closely related to the texts nar rative structure. The basis of the proairetic is the dependency of syntagmatic codes along with the narrative theory (already discussed) as to understand the meaning of the images. The final code in Barthes theory is enigma, or hermeneutic. Elements of the text that contribute to these codes are the devices used to define and then reveal or solve a mystery. What keeps us intrigued is the process in which they solve the mystery presented in the beginning of the episode, hence the hermeneutic code. Ricoeur distinguishes between two forms of hermeneutics: a hermeneutics of faith which aims to restore meaning to a text and a hermeneutics of suspicion which attempts to decode meanings that are disguised. (Josselson) Finally, another contributor to the criticism and theory of the narration in stories was Levi-Strauss. He believed in the theory of binary oppositions, underscoring the concept of differences. From birth, we learn differences rather than relations. Males distinguish themselves by images and understanding that they are not like their mothers, rather than the fact they are like their fathers. Barthes has a sound theory in the case of narratives, but it can also be tied into Todorovs. Although through Barthes we look at the minuscule vs. the big picture, little equilibriums can be found through binary oppositions. The idea is that binary opposition is an inherent, structurally based concept on the Western tendency to group into hierarchy. This is a conception derived from Ferdinand de Saussure, a Swiss linguist whose ideas laid the foundation for many of the significant developments in linguistics in the 20th century. His work in structuralism is a tangible point of departure that moves us into the post-structural criticism that is deconstruction. Throughout the movie there are little battles between these binary oppositions that create balance to the characters and plot, and therefore, the narrative. It is in this way that characters create conflict and story. Because of the nature of military action, you will always have a mix of young and old, those who are eager to get into a fight and those wish to make it back. There is a sense of wisdom in the older characters where little things make a difference. One great example would be after the convoy, coming back from Mogadishu, refuels and rearms to get back to the fight. The leader Struecker says very little to a young man who has lost the will to continue because he has seen death around him. Its what you do now that makes a difference. That is the kind of wisdom expected from leaders. They push a person to think hard about how they want to be remembered. In this case, the young man Thomas, heroically grabs his g ear and jumps into one of the last Humvees to return to the fight. It is here where the little battles are won. Another great example of the binary opposite would be the difference between America and Somalia. In the movie, you have a highly trained force of soldiers who become quickly outnumbered by ill-trained guerillas. Looking beyond that, the conflict can be portrayed as a Third World country versus an international superpower. Along with the theories, there is 1 more key point that needs to be made on narrative theories. Narrative structures are experienced differently from person to person, but there are two groups where the content allows us to make generalizations (while there still may be some anomalies): male and female genders. Producers of the content that is viewed, read, or listened to by these two distinct audiences must appreciate the differences between the genders. The feminine narrative appeals to women because it involves relationships and complex issues with characters while masculine narratives appeal to men based on action and multiple climax points. Black Hawk Down cannot be labeled as a chick flick, but it is feminine narrative. This can be determined by the relationships and complex emotions displayed between the soldiers to each other. The movie has many climactic moments, but it also reaches out to the audience to be understanding of the position the men have been put in to. It is ho w they interact that will determine their fate giving an aura of brotherhood. But, in recent years complications have arisen as how to define shows or movies. Movies can no longer be just feminine or masculine or else the audience will not be pulled in. This can be attributed to the change in social behavior and norms. We are becoming progressively equal in the male/female world. Falling back to the 1950s at the height of streamlined sexism, creating a movie appealing to one sex or the other would have been appropriate. But today as audiences tend to be more socially adept, directors and writers must look to create not just a movie, but a complex experience. This is why narratives are beginning to have very complex, multi-episodic stories that are not only using both gender narratives, but also the blending of genres. Black Hawk Down was a blending of fact and fiction into an action/war drama. The US/UN mission in Somalia had originally been to assist in the distribution of food and supplies to thousands of starving Somalis. Farrah Aidid was the warlord who used this aid to consolidate his power base. It was this reason that led the US to create the operation. But instead of a one-hour operation, the US soldiers walked into the middle of a Somali civil war. This movie had not only the cooperation of the US military, but also the use of weapon systems and soldiers, some of whom were involved in Somalia. The movie is unique, and historical. It demonstrates the heroism that continues to this day, of those Americans who volunteer to serve their country, and to be willing to sacrifice their lives for people in countries not their ownà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦The movie highlights the officers and NCOs who fought their way out of hell, some who returned a second time to ensure that no one was left behind. This cost them dearly. Their families and brothers in arms today keep their memories alive by honoring them with decorations ranging from the Medal of Honor to the Purple Heart. I was privileged to know and serve beside some of them. While this movie was being filmed, cast members and crew were asked to do their best in portraying the real heroes, keeping cliches at a minimum, and honor the memory of those lost. While there are composites of participants, there are also real people who carry on the traditions of the services today, from Col. McKnight to W/O Durant and others. Though a Blackhawk went down, the Rangers today still Lead The Way. -Jim Banzai McClain. If it were not for philosophers who have contributed theories to understanding why we think in certain ways and experience certain pleasures, nothing could be logically explained. Everything we interpret is relative to our own experiences. Propp, Todorov, Barthes and Levi Strauss, all made narrative theory the driving factor in crit ical analysis of modern media. Bruner, Jerome. Acts of meaning; 1990, Cambridge, Massachussets : Harvard University Press. Freeman, M. Why narrative? Hermeneutics, historical understanding, and the significance of stories; Journal of Narrative and Life History; 1997 Vol. 7, p169-176, 8p. Grà ¼nbaum, Thor. Action between Plot and Discourse. Semiotica 165.1-4 (2007): 295-314. Hà ¤nninen, Vilma. A Model of Narrative Circulation. Narrative Inquiry 14.1 (2004): 69-85. Human Communication as Narration: Toward a Philosophy of Reason, Value, and Action; Fisher, Walter R.; 1987, Columbia : U of South Carolina. Josselson, Ruthellen. The Hermeneutics of Faith and the Hermeneutics of Suspicion. Narrative Inquiry 14.1 (2004): 1-28. Redick, Kip, and Lori Underwood. Rationality and Narrative: A Relationship of Priority. Philosophy Rhetoric 40.4 (2007): 394-405. S/Z By: Coward, Rosalind; pp. 176-81 IN: Newton, K. M. (ed.); Twentieth-Century Literary Theory: A Reader. New York, NY: St. Martins; 1997. xix, 306 pp. The Way We Think: Conceptual Blending and the Minds Hidden Complexities; Fauconnier, Gilles; Turner, Mark; 2002, New York. Wyatt, Neal. Exploring Nonfiction. Library Journal 132.3 (2007): 32.

Whos Your Congressman? :: essays research papers

Who’s Your Congressman? After several laps in circles in my head, I decided to give up. I did not know the person who was representing my district. The first step involved jumping on the internet and surfing for a "Congressman finder", if you will. I type the word congressman in the space provided. The search engine displayed several different topics to choose from and finally I see the site for a general purpose. Voila! I had become one step closer to find my Representative. After clicking in different places, I landed on the Postal Office web site. Why? You might ask yourself. This general site was to find my "guy" by typing in a five-digit zip code. I was thrilled and could hardly contain myself. I enter the code and it gives me an answer of "There are multiple Representatives who share your 5-digit ZIP code ( 21234 ). Please use the Postal Services ZIP+4 Lookup to determine your 9-digit ZIP code." In other words, I still could not locate this person who is representing my d istrict. I decided to actually do something smart. Look on my mail with the rest of my zip code. I put the code in and finally after thirty minutes of fighting for the truth, "The Honorable Benjamin L. Cardin, Maryland, 3rd" (www.house.gov) appeared. I was beside myself. The truth brought me Ben Cardin, a man with 57 years of age and fourteen consecutive years as the 3rd-District Congressman. How embarrassing is that? He has served seven terms and I found this news several days ago. The life of Ben Cardin began on â€Å"October 5, 1943† (The Sun, Sec B). After searching several books, magazines, and internet sites, I could not find any information about his life until 1964. In other words, twenty-one years of his life are not recorded publicly. In 1964, he "earned his BA degree from the University of Pittsburgh† (www.house.gov/cardin/bio 1), soon after he earns another degree. Only three years later in 1967, he becomes a "graduate of the University of Maryland Law School† (www.house.gov/cardin/bio 1). After the success of earning his BA and his Law Degree he decides he will serve in the Maryland House of Delegates. Mr. Cardin was a Delegate from 1967 until 1986. Following his â€Å"father’s and uncle’s footsteps† (The Sun, B) it seemed almost natural. During his time as a Delegate he was the "chairman of the Ways and Means Committee from 1974-1979† (www.

Alice Munro :: Biography Biographies Essays

Alice Munro Alice Munro’s fiction receives its strength from her vivid sense of regional focus, the majority of her stories take place in Huron County, Ontario, and through the sense of her narrators she illuminates and gives personal significance to each story. Many of Munro’s themes are centered around adolescent girls dealing with the ideas of loving, growing up, and losing innocence in a small town. Munro steps away from the adolescent girl and in her most recent work focuses on problems of the middle aged, such as women alone and those of the elderly. Munro is most famous for her works that deal with the adolescent girl and it has been said that Lives of Girls and Women is nearer her autobiography than it is a work of fiction. Munro has been known to say it is "autobiographical in form, but not in fact." As mentioned above many of Munro’s themes are centered around young girls, but the overlying theme is power. Munro defines the power of her artistic vision as the direc t result of her lack of power as a woman. Munro state’s "A subject race has a kind of clarity of vision and I feel that women have always had a clarity of vision which men were denied. And, in a way, this is a gift, it goes along with lack of power." At the end of Lives of Girls and Women, Del, the narrator, is trying to write fiction but finally rejects her unwritten novel as an "unreliable structure." The Lives of Girls and Women is a novel that focuses on the young Del Jordan, who is struggling with the problems of becoming a young woman. Munro takes the reader through Del’s carefree childhood to an uneasy adolescence in search of love and sexual experience. Munro’s ability to use Del as the narrator and to capture the perfection of local speech makes the reader feel that it is not Del’s life that is being told, but every young adolescent girl’s. In Lives of Girls and Women, Munro uses metaphors to organize the sequences of the fiction into a larger picture.. Metaphors of fire and electric power are used to associate fleshly humiliation of death and in Lives of Girls and Women are associated with sexual experience as in the climatic chapter "Baptizing." The most pronounced metaphor Munro uses is that of drowning. Munro uses a splitting metaphor to describe two kinds of power, sexual power and the power of death.

Software Patents and the European Union :: Software Technology Europe Essays

Software Patents and the European Union Introduction The European Council recently approved changes to the European Union’s Software Patents Directive that will lead the way to widespread patenting of software in Europe.[1] If the changes are ratified without modification, then the European Patent Office (EPO) will have the ability to grant software patents in much the same manner as the United States Patent Office (USPO). This will lead to many of the problems that have arisen in the United States. For instance, the USPO is infamous for issuing patents for obvious software process, such as Amazon’s 1-click shopping. The granting of these obvious patents has led to a flurry of litigation, where the patent holder tries to extort licensing fees for alleged â€Å"patent infringement†. This has led to corporations to try and patent â€Å"everything under the sun†, in order to protect them from getting sued and to create a platform to launch their own litigation/licensing extortion from their competitors. I t has also created a flood of patent applications for software, giving the overworked USPO little time to examine and research for any â€Å"prior art† that would invalidate the patent application. After giving a background on software patent history in the European Union, this paper will attempt to analyze the ethical issues of software patents. Do they bring more harm to society than good? Do they promote innovation and research or do they stifle invention? These questions, along with other issues dealing with software patents, will be examined from a variety of ethical perspectives. Background Initially, software was not patentable under European law. This was decreed in the Article 52 of the European Patent Convention of 1973, which states that â€Å"mathematical methods, intellectual methods, business methods, computer programs, presentation of information etc are not inventions in the sense of patent law.† [2] However, small changes in European Patent law over the years has led to the patentability of â€Å"process claims†, â€Å"program claims†, and even â€Å"computer-implemented inventions†, which has led to 30,000 software related process patents.[3] In 2002, the European Commission's Directorate for the Internal Market proposed the creation of a Directive to clarify the patentability of computer-implemented inventions and reduce excess at the EPO. However, the Directive only put on paper what the EPO had already been practicing, which was granting unlimited patentability. In September of 2003, a set of amendments to the Directive were voted in by the European Parliament.

Critique of Artificial Intelligence Essay

Journalist John Markoff wrote the article â€Å"Computer Wins On ‘Jeopardy!’: Trivial, It’s Not†. He discusses how the super computer â€Å"Watson† defeated the all time champion of â€Å"Jeopardy!† Ken Jennings. The author, throughout the article, agrees that the supercomputer â€Å"Watson† was a fair match against Ken Jennings. I disagree with Markoff for multiple reasons. This was in no way a fair match because the computer had a remarkable ability to answer questions at super speeds. Also, the computer has access to all available questions and the ability to answer them. This was in no way a fair battle between the computer and Ken Jennings. The author’s main idea of this article is mainly to say how the supercomputer was a fair match between the two. The computer has ways to answer questions that humans have no way of doing. The computer can answer questions within seconds and even milliseconds when the question is asked. It has a super speed ability to answer these questions, which gives no time for the competitor to even have a chance to answer the questions given. So, when the competitor has no time to even have an attempt to answer the question, there is no way to win. â€Å"Watson† is so smart that almost every question that is asked, he answers correctly. Since I don’t agree with Markoff’s statement about â€Å"Watson†, I don’t think his argument is valid. The reason I don’t believe his argument and points are valid is that a computer that has remarkable and inhuman-like abilities is obviously going to win in a competition of speed and knowledge. Ken Jennings had no chance against this computer. So, if a human has no chance against a machine, how can anyone call this a fair fight? Now, Markoff did define his terms clearly and specifically describe his reasons for why he thinks what he thinks, so I do give him credit for that. Still, I disagree with his argument. I disagree with most of Markoff’s view about the competition between the computer and Jennings. His main point of the fair competition is totally undebatable. â€Å"Watson, on the other hand, does not anticipate the light, but has a weighted scheme that allows it, when it is highly confident, to hit  the buzzer in as little as 10 milliseconds, making it hard for humans to beat† (Markoff 212). This statement made by Markoff proves that this was in no way possible for Jennings to beat the super computer. The computer can buzz in at amazing speeds as little as 10 milliseconds, which is way faster than any other human could possibly buzz in. Plus, the computer is programmed with so much information, that it would most likely be able to defeat Jennings, just because of the intelligence of this machine that the creators programmed into it. Overall, I do not believe that this piece published by John Markoff is in anyway valid. Markoff does however succeed in persuading people his ideas and describing his ideas and arguments very specifically. He does a good job with his argument and stating what he thinks. I do not agree with his argument though. My reaction to this piece is actually astonished because I am not sure how anyone could think that a computer competing against a very intelligent human was fair at all. The weakness of this passage is probably how it can be hard for someone to understand how a computer can manage to accomplish all this, but the strengths are good description and expression of the passage. Although he argues very well of his points, I in no way agree with his argument that the battle between â€Å"Watson† and Ken Jennings was fair.

Othello and Oedipus Essay

Othello: the Moor of Venice and Oedipus are masterpiece tragedies that were written by great authors of yesteryear including William Shakespeare and Sophocles. These books are laden with varied themes which are still applicable today as they are still played in both community and professional theatres worldwide. Othello was a renowned general in the Venetian army whose military exploits were widely acclaimed whereas Oedipus was the new sovereign of the city of Thebes. While these two great men share a lot in common, the differences between them also abound. The most significant trait that both characters share is that they are heroes. The deeds they carry out are great and daring and they both possess tremendous strength. Case in point is when Othello vanquishes the enemies of Venice and Oedipus defeats the Sphinx and frees Thebes from the tyranny of the gods and the heavy taxation that they had endured for eternity. This has earned them a lot of admiration and respect from their communities. For example, Oedipus was considered a savior to his people who turned to him for solace and answers to their suffering. This is described in the following quote from the priest, â€Å"You are a man, not a god–I know. We all know this, the young kneeling here before you know it, too, but we know how great you are, Oedipus, greater than any man. When crisis struck, you saved us here in Thebes; you faced the mysterious, strange disasters hammered against us by the gods. This is our history-we paid our own flesh to the Sphinx until you set us free. You knew no more than anyone, but you knew. There was a god in it, a god in you. †( â€Å"Qtd in†Berg & Clay,1988,25) Othello is regarded highly by the Venetian senate which calls for his leadership when the state is faced by the threat of imminent aggression. This is illustrated when the Duke of Venice ordered Othello to prepare for immediate deployment against the Ottoman enemy. â€Å"The Turk with a most mighty preparation makes for Cyprus. Othello, the fortitude of the place is best known to you; and though we have there a substitute of most allowed sufficiency, yet opinion, a sovereign mistress of effects, throws a more safer voice on you: you must therefore be content to slubber the gloss of your new fortunes with this more stubborn and boisterous expedition. †(Othello , 1. 3. 56) Both Oedipus and Othello have the enviable character of making duty their main concern. They both derive honor from fully committing to the personal quests in their lives, regardless of the repercussions. Oedipus’ consuming quest for instance, is the tracking down and punishing of the murderers of his predecessor. In the process of chasing his quest, Oedipus wrongs his brother- in- law, Creon, branding him a traitor. He also succeeds in alienating his twin sons and all of Thebes. On the other hand, Othello’s’ overriding mission is the sacredness of his marriage vows and there is no end he will not go to protect their sanctity. Othello is depicted as naive. Throughout the play, Iago takes every opportunity to exploit Othello’s naivety. Iago tells Roderigo, â€Å"O, Sir, content you. I follow him to serve my turn upon him†. (Othello,1. 1. 38) This means that Iago will readily use Othello to achieve his ends and dump him when he achieves his desires. Othello on his part readily believes Iago each time even when Othello could have exercised better judgment. For instance, he heeds the deception of the wicked Iago and ignores Desdemona’s oaths and the small still voice in his heart and conscience. Othello’s’ naivety is in stark contrast with Oedipus who trusts his own wisdom in arriving at any decision. This fact is illustrated when he pays a visit to the Oracle who confirms the worst. He still believes so much in his own reason and determines that he was the one to blame for his fate and thus accepted the consequences of his actions. Oedipus is depicted as very adamant and rigid since he will not compromise once he has decided on a course of action regardless of the cost and what any other person may think. The two legends destroy their lives courtesy of their incurable natural flaws. Their Achilles heel comes in the form of their overwhelming pride and obsession which is driven by their overinflated egos and personalities. Oedipus on one side is so proud of his intelligence, which is considerable, that he tries to run from a dreadful fate. Othello on the other hand prides himself as the paragon of courage and integrity and thus fails to recognize his violent temper which proves fatal in the end. Throughout the play, Othello is portrayed as a man who is calm under pressure and therefore in control of every situation. This trait comes out clearly when Brabanito goes to his house with the intent to kill him. However, before anything grave happens Othello exclaims, â€Å"Hold your hands, both of you of my inclining and the rest. Were it my cue to fight I should have known it without a prompter†(Othello,1. 2. 80-3) Oedipus is very dramatic and emotional in crisis and cannot compare to Othello’s calm under pressure. When King Lauis dies he is quoted as saying, â€Å"I fight for Apollo, I fight for the dead man. You see me, you hear me, moving against the killer. My words are his doom. Whether he did it alone, and escaped unseen, whether others helped him kill, it makes no difference-let my hatred burn out his life, hatred, always. Make him an ember of suffering† (â€Å" qtd in†Arrowsmith&Golder,1988,34,) By any standards, Othello and Oedipus were truly great men. However, in spite of all the exceptional accomplishments and awesome qualities that they were gifted with, their very nature ended up consuming them in the end. Indeed, these two men give life to the old truism that pride comes before a fall. Works Cited Arrowsmith William and Golder H. The Greek tragedy in new translations. New York,NY, 1988 Berg, Stephen and Clay, Dickins. Sophocles’ Oedipus the King New York,NY, 1988 McCauley Janie. Shakespeare’s Othello An educational outreach of Bob Jones University, 2002. Shakespeare, William. Othello; The Moor of Venice Electronic Text Center, University of Virginia Library, http://etext. virginia. edu/etcbin/toccer-new2? id=MobOthe. sgm&images=images/modeng&data=/texts/english/modeng/parsed&tag=public&part=all

Psycho Shower Scene Symbolic Analysis Essay

Psycho has many memorable scenes and objects, from the skeleton in the basement, the dark and creepy house to the first horrific murder in fictional movie history which takes place in the infamous shower scene. The shower scene of Psycho was one of the most controversial scenes in the movie, the era and possibly of all time. The point of the scene begins as the protagonist, Marion Crane, decides to return the money the has stolen and mulling the thoughts over, has a shower. But at closer scrutiny it is revealed that the shower is washing away the darkness and guilt of her crime and seems that she is becoming her innocent self again. The shower is almost unanimously all white, except the bright silver tap, now the white symbolises Marion’s innocence and goodness and that the guilt and evil of her crimes are being washed away, Until half way through the scene, the audience feels that this scene will be a bright and happy scene, until a dark blemish appears on the shower curtain. If light represents goodness, than logically darkness symbolises evil, the audience feels this as a dark spot is revealed on the curtain, which slowly grows larger and larger, showing that the danger is increasing as does the size of the darkness, this is what builds the suspense as consciously the audience is seeing a dark figure approach while their subconscious minds register the symbolism causing twice the tension as would be caused without the rest of the scene. The bathroom light is also visible from this angle and causes the shadow to appear that it is approaching the light. Soon the darkness is large enough to make out the figure of a person. A dark figure trying to destroy the light, it stands there, just long enough to give the audience time to try and work out who did it but their attention is then wrenched back to the movie by the loud piercing sound of screeching violins with only half formed suspicions racing through their minds as they watch in horror as the protagonist is horrifically murdered before their eyes, and a feeling of uselessness as the protagonist squeals her agonized cries and the audience can do nothing but sit and watch. In her last moments, Marion seems to be reaching for something, perhaps she feels herself slipping from this world and needs to feel a material object to maintain her grip on this world, either that, or she also could be reaching for the audience as if she is trying to say â€Å"why didn’t you help me? † She then proceeds to slowly sink to the floor as low pitch, sombre music starts to play. Her hand finally manages to find the shower curtain and wrenches it from the rail as she topples over the edge of the bath. The scene than shows that the one part of the shower that wasn’t white, the tap, the symbol of cleanliness puts on a darker purpose, washing away Marion’s blood, this shows that the symbolism of cleanliness can be used to both purge darkness but also to scrub one clean of it’s life. (petty morbid when you think about it) The final part of this scene begins with an extreme close up of Marion’s un-moving, unseeing, unblinking eye. The fact that the audience realise that their staring into death is quite unnerving, along with the fact that there appears to be a single tear on her face, which shows the immense sadness of the scene, one of the main reasons of the sadness was because the audience had bonded with her and that she had died leaving so much left to complete. After all that was the first time that a movie had killed off the main character as of yet. At the end of the scene, the camera pans around to reveal the money, left unnoticed, never to be revealed to anyone or reveal the truth of Marion’s true intentions. This reveals a sense of loneliness and unfulfilled purpose. If you really scrutinise the scene, it almost appears like the symbology has a story of its own†¦ A grey woman, torn between light and darkness, she had once been white but was lured by temptation and grew darker, now here she sits, realising all she had done and decides to rid herself of the darkness. The lets the darkness drop off her body and begins to cleanse herself till she sparkles once more, she surrounds herself with light and silver and feels the darkness ebbing away. A shadow appears behind her, approaching the her, it pulls back the light and ends her life, the woman reaches for something to hold, an anchor to the material world, to feel for one last time before she departs but ultimately just drags it with her. Then darkness, at the time too weak to change the light manipulates the silver, darkening it and using it to leech away whatever life the white woman had remaining, and leave nothing but a husk, an empty shell that once contained the woman in grey. The body of the woman sheds a tear in the memory of what it had once been, as the tempter gloats, covered in light on the outside yet shady and dark underneath.

Marriage and Family Therapy Essay

This paper will also evaluate five major themes relevant to Marriage and Family Therapy which include: ethical dilemmas in marriage and family counseling, premarital counseling qualifications of marriage and family therapists including licensure and certification. The biblical insight related to marriage and family therapy will also be explored as well as my personal reflections about this topic. History and Development of Marriage Counseling Marriage counseling was established in the early 1930’s. Counselors recognized the advantages and effectiveness of treating married couples in joined sessions. This growing appreciation for patterns of relationships in families led to numerous studies on marital conflict and dynamics and the effects on children’s development. In 1932, there were three marital clinics said to open. They worked with individuals and their difficulties adhering to traditional gender role expectations. Developed and founded in the late 1970’s was the Marriage and Family Therapy’s code of ethics which is called The American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy (AAMFT). The organization’s philosophy was that marriage and family therapy were two separate areas, each with their own histories, concepts and differing practices. (AAMFT, 2012) Introduction of Marriage and Family Counseling Counseling is to help persons understand and clarify their views of their life space, and to learn to reach their self-determined goals through meaningful, well-informed choices and through resolution or problems of an emotional or interpersonal nature. (Burks and Steffire, 1979 . Focusing on a broader field in counseling, What is Marriage and Family Counseling? Marriage and family counselors work with couples and families on a wide range of clinical problems including, but not limited to, depression, marital strife, communication, and anxiety and child-parent problems. Marriage and family counseling is not just for unhappy or struggling couples, couple’s therapy can be used proactively to strengthen bonds and to gain a better understanding of one other. In addition, before a marriage begins pre-marital counseling can help couples achieve a deeper understanding of each other and iron out differences before their wedding day. They also help families learn to solve their problems by managing their relationships effectively. Family therapists often work with individuals, the couple and parents and children to get a better perspective of patterns that affect the entire system to develop strategies for modification. (Corey, Corey ;amp; Callanan p. 450 2011). Family Counseling is important to the counseling field this therapy can help people within the family to resolve their disputes and quarrels through effective communication. Proper communication with the help of a therapist or a counselor can help family members discuss their problems and issues with each other. The importance of the family in our development as whole and healthy individuals is recognized as a basic truth by. In most cases, however, a disturbed and distressed client will have some difficult, challenging relationships within his/her family and these will need to be explored and addressed if the client is to discover and create relief and resolution of their problem. Biblical Insights related to Marriage and Family Therapy In the book, Competent Christian Counseling it states that â€Å"To understand the individual, the one must see the individual in the context of his or her system of relationships† This implies that the quality of a individual is much more than one person, the person is a part of a social system that begins with family. (Clinton ;amp; Ohlsclager p. 518 2002). From a biblical aspect Family is described as a social system that progressed by forming a set of rules, roles, power structure. Forms of communication and way to solve problems. There are four key principles that a Christian counselors point out when approaching any family. The first one is â€Å"The family, in is social dimensions, reflects God†. Meaning that The Father, Son and Holy Spirit all have unique distinctiveness however they are â€Å"one† as God; this is compared to the Family. A family can consist of a mother, father and children or a mother and husband. If thought they are their own persons, they are considered â€Å"one†. The second key principle that is describe is â€Å"Family health, individual health, and maturity are inseparably entwined†. This key principle entails that the powers of family identity and socialization is significant for growth and development among each family member, which can ultimately lead to healthy family living. â€Å"The Family is also like the church is that next basic principle, meaning that a family has functions like the church. Finally, the last key principle describes states that â€Å"Trouble is reproduced, but can also be stopped, in families and in generations of families†. This key principle indicates that there is a psychosocial and spiritual relation among family reproduction pertaining to alcoholism and other issues as describes in Competent Christian Counseling as â€Å"generational curses†. Christians believe that these issues within families from generation to generation can be transformed through Christ. A example is that of Abraham found in Genesis 20. Abrahams family was said to show favoritism to certain children, which continued for three generations. When it comes to marriage counseling, Christian counselors believe marriage counseling helps couples to understand God’s pattern for husband-wife relationships, diagnoses unbiblical patterns and their root causes, and prescribes God’s solutions for soul change that leads to relational growth. Biblical marriage counseling should result in enhanced relationship: closeness with Christ, intimacy with your spouse, and a sense of greater peace. Biblical insights involving to family counseling, the focus is solutions, not simply external solutions. Your counselor will help you to understand God’s design for healthy family living, will assist you to assess unhealthy and unbiblical ways of relating as parents and children, and will equip you to reconcile and grow in your family relationships. Counselor Identity, Functions and Ethics of Marriage and Family Counseling The practice of Marriage and Family counseling rest on the foundation of systems theory, which views psychological problems as arising from within the person’s present environment and intergenerational family system. Corey, Corey, Callanan p. 449 2011). The systems theory is very similar to the views on Christian Counselors as stated earlier; â€Å"Trouble is reproduced, but can also be stopped, in families and in generations of families†. Marriage and Family therapists follow a specific code of ethics know as The American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy (AAMFT). Founded in 1942 as the American Association of Marriage Counselors, the A AMFT has been involved with the problems, needs and changing patterns of couples and family relationships. The association focuses on increasing understanding, research and education in the field of marriage and family therapy, and ensuring the quality training of marriage and family therapists. AAMFT members meet standards for education and training and are held to the ethical standards of the profession. (AAMFT, 2011) AAMFT ethics are broken down in eight core areas. The first area is the responsibility to Clients. Marriage and family therapist have a responsibility to the welfare of both the family and individuals in the family. Therapists are to make reasonable efforts to guarantee their services are used properly and accordingly. Confidentiality is the next core area, which applies to all code of ethics pertaining to the counseling field. Confidentially in Marriage and Family is distinctive because the therapist is dealing with a group of people. However, the AAMFT insist on therapists to respect the confidentiality of each individual client. Although, confidentiality is essential, there are some exceptions. Those exceptions include, mandates by the law pertaining to cases of child and elderly abuse, incest, or abuse to persons with disabilities. A therapist has an exemption from confidentially when it is necessary to protect clients from hurting themselves and others (AAMFT, 2011). When working with a family, all family members must agree concerning the release of any information. Some therapists, in fact, arrange for sessions with individual family members to actively encourage the sharing of â€Å"secrets† to better understand what is occurring in the family. The therapist then may work with the individual client in the hope of enabling that person to disclose the same information in the family session. Marriage and family therapists are to maintain high standards if professional competence and integrity. Therapists must remain current on any developments and advances relevant to their field of practice. They can do this by continuing education, training, workshops and interacting with other professionals in the marriage and family therapy field. (Corey, Corey ;amp; Callanan p. 452 2011). Therapists also have a responsibility to students and supervisees. They are not to manipulate the trust and dependency of the students and supervisees in which there are working with. Responsibility to the profession is the next core is in the AAMFT code of ethics. This includes reporting people practicing without a license and contributing to community service for advancement of the society. The next core area is financial arrangements. Marriage and family therapists are not to misuse clients financially for services. Issues and Ethics in the Helping Professions states that clients are to be â€Å"truthful in representing facts to clients and to third parties regarding any services rendered†. The last core area in the ethical standards of Marriage and family therapy is advertising. Therapists are able to truthfully represent their competence, education, training and experience in marriage and family therapy. Nevertheless, they should not advertise themselves as specialists with show evidence and supporting this assertion. The therapist’s primary responsibilities are to protect the rights and to promote the welfare of his or her clients. The dilemma with multiple clients is that in some situations an intervention that serves one person’s best interests may be conflicting to another. Indeed, the very reason that families tend to seek therapy is because they have conflicting goals and interests. The family therapist must insure that improvement in the status of one family member does not Occur at the expense of another family member. Other therapists implement the policy of not keeping secrets from other family members. They clearly discourage the sharing of any information that might lead to a special alliance with one individual and that excludes the remaining uninformed family members. The impact of the therapist’s values, unavoidable in any counseling process, can play a particularly role in marriage and family therapies. Issues discussed in family therapy elicit very important personal, familial, and societal values regarding preservation of the family system, extramarital relationships, and sex roles. Dealing with these values is not easy, particularly when the therapist confronts a conflict in values among different family members and is inclined to reinforce the beliefs and attitudes of one family member over another (Hines & Hare p. 65 1978). Premarital Counseling Couples now face more demands and have fewer supports than ever before. The typical complex marriage includes managing two careers while rearing children – really requires that couples have very strong, well-established abilities to communicate, resolve issues, maintain support and set goals. Without this foundation, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed by stress and time pressures . Problems can intrude much more easily than most couples realize. Therefore, premarital counseling is recommended for couples looking to eventually get married. Research shows that premarital counseling reduces the risk of divorce by up to 30% . Premarital counseling is a type of therapy that helps couples prepare for marriage. Premarital counseling can help ensure that you and your partner have a strong, healthy relationship, giving you a better chance for a stable and satisfying marriage. Premarital counseling can also help you identify weaknesses that could become bigger problems during marriage. There are a variety of formats of counseling through local psychology and counseling centers, including individual counseling, small group counseling and interactive seminars where couples participate with a large number of other couples. (Wright p. 65 1992) Characteristics and Qualifications of Marriage and Family Therapists To be qualified as a marriage and family therapist requires not just that you get the right degree, pass the right tests and meet the licensing requirements, but that you possess qualities that prove you to be both sensitive and firm. Corey, Corey and Callanan in Issues and Ethics in the Helping Professions identifies personal characteristics for effective marriage and family therapists as being assertive, confident, accepting, appreciating the influence of diversity to just name a few. Self knowledge is predominantly vital for marriage and family therapists because when working with a family, their reactions and perceptions are influenced by their own regard to family of origin issues. Marriage and Family Therapists must be sensitive to dealing with people’s most personal and graphic secrets, shame, guilt and rage. A Marriage and Family therapist should be embarrassed to hear about these things or make distasteful comments about a chosen lifestyle or action, otherwise she risks shutting out the patient. An effective marriage and family therapists must listen to stories that are painful to hear but should remember that those stories are always more painful for the teller than the listener. An important quality in an marriage and family therapists is recognizing the difference between judging and advising. A good marriage and family therapist will help the patient with insights into sensible decisions that lead to greater personal happiness and responsibility but will not tell the patient what choice to make or ask the patient to adhere to the therapist’s own likes and dislikes. An marriage and family therapist should distinguish between dysfunctional qualities in a patient and those that are simply non-normative. Marriage and family therapists may hear confessions of illegal activity or hear from the victims of crimes, and legal codes dictate what they have to report. A therapist’s job is not just to listen but to encourage the patient to take action in his life to get the patient to see their actions in a clear light and make good decisions in turn. Marriage and family therapist can become eligible for state certification, or licensure, upon completion of their internship. First, candidates must register with the Association of Marital and Therapy Regulatory Boards. The Regulatory board will examine the applicant’s credentials, education and experience to establish competency before the applicant can qualify for testing. State certification costs vary from state to state. Each state has different rules regarding retesting if the candidate does not pass the test on his or her first attempt. Upon completion of the test, scores are validated and mailed to the candidate. A candidate who has passed the state exam is called a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist and is free to practice in a private or clinical setting. The educational requirements to become a Marriage and Family Therapist are regulated by each state and thus may vary; however, most will require a master’s degree or higher in Marriage and Family Therapy or a related field from an accredited institution. It is essential for students to gain experience in working with a selection of families from different ethnic and socioeconomic backgrounds. A program that offers a all-inclusive course work and clinical supervision provides the ideal learning situation. Corey, Corey & Callanan p. 457 2011) Ethical Dilemmas is Marriage and Family Counseling Couples counselors and family and marriage therapists are likely to encounter many ethical dilemmas throughout their careers. Because of the nature of couple’s therapy, issues pertaining to informed consent, confidentiality, multiple relationships, and value systems can have a damaging effect of the counselor-client relationship if they aren’t handled appropriately and dis cussed by both parties at the beginning of the counseling relationship. Informed consent refers to the process of informing clients about the therapeutic process. Issues such as fees and payment schedules, appointment cancellation policy, theoretical framework that the counselor employs in his practice, approaches and techniques the counselor intends to use with clients and the limits of confidentiality should all be discussed. In addition to discussing verbal consultation, clients also should be given an informed consent package detailing all the information discussed in session. Clients should be asked to sign an informed consent document for both the client and counselor’s records. In couple’s counseling, informed consent prevents misunderstandings, disagreements and hostility between the counselor and the client. (AAMFT, 2011) One of the biggest ethical dilemmas in any kind of counseling is confidentiality. This is particularly complicated when it comes to couples counseling in which couples receive both individual and couple counseling. It is important for the counselor to determine early on in the counseling process whether information disclosed in individual counseling sessions will be kept confidential or if both individuals will sign waivers allowing what’s discussed in private sessions to be brought up in couples counseling. According to the AAMFT Code of Ethics, counselors must discuss the limits of confidentiality with their clients and make sure clients understand these limits. Article 2. of the AAMFT Code of Ethics states that â€Å"marriage and family therapists do not disclose client confidences except by written authorization or waiver, or where mandated or permitted by law. Verbal authorization will not be sufficient except in emergency situations, unless prohibited by law. When providing couple, family or group treatment, the therapist does not disclose information outside the treatment context without a written authorization from each individual competent to execute a waiver. In the context of couple, family or group treatment, the therapist may not reveal any individual’s confidences to others in the client unit without the prior written permission of that individual. † (AAMFT, 2011) In counseling, multiple relationships refer to a situation when the counselor and client are engaged in a sexual or nonsexual relationship outside the counseling relationship. Multiple relationships are often unavoidable, especially in small towns; as a counselor, you may attend the same church as your clients, your children might be on the same soccer team or you may serve on the same board or council. However, multiple relationships should always be avoided when possible. In couples counseling, multiple relationships can further complicate the counseling relationship if the counselor is involved in a multiple relationship with one client but not the other. The client that is not involved in the multiple relationships may feel that the counselor is taking sides or treating her unfairly. (Corey, Corey ;amp; Callanan 2011) At some point in their careers, counselors are likely to encounter couples with a value and belief system that differs significantly from their own. Within the counseling relationship, the counselor has a position of authority; the counselor must not take advantage of this position by trying to impose his values on the client or clients. Counselors must understand that individuals from different backgrounds, cultures, ethnicities and religions than their own may have different value systems. It is not the counselor’s job to change his client’s value system; it is only the counselor’s job to help clients become comfortable with the decisions they make within their personal value systems. Article 1. of the AAMFT Code of ethics states that â€Å"marriage and family counselors respect the rights of clients to make decisions and help them to understand the consequences of these decisions. (AAMFT, 2011). Personal Reflections In today’s world more and more people are experiencing life struggles when it comes to family. These issues can range from problems in a marriage, how to deal with your children issues and understand yourself and how to deal with your family and certain issues. The area of marriage and family counseling/therapy has had an outbreak over the past decade. The counselors are expected to work effectively with families experiencing a variety of issues and problems. In marriage and family therapy/counseling there are so many different types of techniques that are out there but should be used and looked upon not a cure, but a method to help mobilize the family. Choosing this topic wasn’t hard for me because of the love I have my family and evaluating what I believe needs to be repaired and what I believe stands strong for us. I believe in saving marriages and families, I think it is really important. Having strong family and a stable marriage plays such a major part in kids lives today, they need a solid foundation in order to have a healthy life. Watching so many young couples get divorce after less than two years of marriage and seeing how the kids suffer really from the break up of the family. I believe that if younger therapist/counselors were out there and start getting involved in the community, church and conducting seminars relating to marriage and families this could be the beginning of change. This is why I chose this topic to research.