Determinants of Morality Essay

The determinants are essential features of morality that point to the rightness or wrongness of an action. It enables us to perceive the specificity of morality. Only human person act for a reason, a purpose, and for an intention or goal because it is only the human persons who are created with the intelligence and the freedom to choose from good and evil. The three determinants of morality are the Object of the Act (Finis Operis), End of the Agent (Finis Operantis), and Circumstances B1. What are Circumstances Circumstances are the situational factors surrounding the concurrent of the act. These circumstances may either increase or diminish our responsibility in doing the act. There are seven types of circumstances affecting the act that human people do. These are what, who, where, by what means, why, how, and when. â€Å"What† refers to the nature of the act (Quid). â€Å"Who† refers to the person/doer/agent and the recipient of the act (Quis). â€Å"Where† refers to the locus of the act or the place where the action took place (Ubi). â€Å"By What Means† refers to the instruments used in the performance of the act (Quidis Auxiliis). â€Å"Why† refers to the reason in doing the act (Cur). â€Å"How† refers to the manner or the process of performing the act (Quomodo). And lastly, â€Å"When† refers to the time element in the commission of the act (Quando). There are also three kinds of circumstances. First is aggravating, which intensifies the gravity of the act. Second is mitigating, this lessens the culpability of the act. Third is exempting, it has culpability but is no applicable for the given time. Lastly justifying, which means no more culpability is involved. B2. Principles to Remember The principles to remember in circumstances are it is positive because it can make better an act good or even indifferent in its object and it is negative because it can make worse an act evil or indifferent in its object. It can also make less good or less evil an act good in itself. The act may be morally good, all three determinants must be without a flaw. B3. Examples Examples of circumstances is when one is poor. It is an example of circumstance because it is a situational factor which could increase one’s responsibility to work harder and earn so that he/she could have a living. Another example of circumstance is when one is sick. It is also an example of circumstances because when one is sick, the person will be more responsible in taking care of him/herself.

African American Theatre Essay

Harlem Renaissance was the name of the African American cultural movement that gained its popularity in the 1920s and early 1930s. It got its name because it took its roots in Harlem of New York, an area which had been always associated with the African American inhabitants. It emerged toward the end of World War I in 1918, blossomed in the mid- to late 1920s, and then faded in the mid-1930s (Encarta, 2006). Harlem Renaissance as a movement attracted serious attention of the publishers to the African American cultural phenomena. It was the starting point to consider the African American art and literature to be a substantial part of the entire American culture. It attracted serious attention of the American nation to the culture of the huge part of American citizens, African Americans. It was initially a literature movement but it was also related to the African American music, theatre, art and politics. Harlem Renaissance emerged in the early 20’s of the 20th century, during a period of serious political, social and economic upheavals in the African American community. There were several social and political factors which gave the basis for the raise of the African American culture. The end of the Civil War (1861-1865) created specific attitude towards African Americans. They gained new opportunities for development of their culture; they got access to the proper education, they got qualitatively new self esteem and self respect. They got equal rights guaranteed by the Declaration of the Independence which stated the basis of the American society, â€Å"all men are created equal†. The Great Migration gave hundreds of thousands black Americans an opportunity to move from the from an economically depressed rural South to industrial cities of the North to take advantages of the employment opportunities created by World War I. Harlem became the place of settlement for educated and socially conscious blacks. It developed into the political and cultural centre of the black Americans. â€Å"Equally important, during the 1910s a new political agenda advocating racial equality arose in the African American community, particularly in its growing middle class. Championing the agenda were black historian and sociologist W. E. B. Du Bois and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), which was founded in 1909 to advance the rights of blacks. This agenda was also reflected in the efforts of Jamaican-born black nationalist Marcus Garvey, whose â€Å"Back to Africa† movement inspired racial pride among blacks in the United States. † (Encarta, 2006). Harlem Renaissance was the most creative period in African-American cultural life which influenced greatly the entire American culture. It impacted the American culture, American social life and race relations in the United States. It was a period of flourishing of artistic expression and cultural activity. The interracial relations in the United States found their new manifestation during the Harlem Renaissance. The rise of the black culture would be impossible without the recognition of it by the representatives of the white American community. â€Å"White authors writing about African-Americans; white patrons and supporters of the Harlem Renaissance; white publishers, producers, and booking agents; white critics and promoters-these all influenced African-American culture for better or worse. A closely related subject is the interaction between blacks and whites: most often black artists reacting with white publishers, promoters, and critics; but also the more complex interaction between the black intelligentsia and black writers and white publishers and intellectuals. Both W. E. B. Du Bois and James Weldon Johnson were black civil rights leaders, novelists, and poets in their own right, and both published, promoted, and critiqued the work of black artists and writers. Carl Van Vechten, a white novelist, wrote a major Harlem novel of the period and also served as a patron and promoter of black literature, art, and music, and as a documenter of the Harlem Renaissance. † (Cary D. Wintz, Paul Finkelman, 2004). During the 20’s Harlem became the center of the black culture rise. The unprecedented attention was attracted to Harlem due to its uniqueness as a world center of the black culture, culture being developed on the principles of freedom. The period of Harlem Renaissance came between the Emancipation Proclamation of 1862 and the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960’s. â€Å"The term â€Å"Renaissance† might be considered a misnomer for the Harlem Renaissance because it was more of a birth than a rebirth. Its artistic production was based upon a powerful sense of intense race consciousness and pride in black heritage and community. † (Patricia Flynn, 2006). It was impossible to promote the black culture before the period known as Harlem Renaissance. The American society had not got rid of the racial prejudices, segregation etc. Jim Crow laws created the obstacles for the full scale integration of the American blacks into the society and consequently stopped the cultural development of the African Americans. The Ku Klux Klan in the South promoted the racial segregation. The violent nature of the Ku Klux Klan and similar groups tried to renew the gloomy traditions of slavery. The legislation of the South differed greatly from that of North and Harlem of New York symbolized the freedom, an American dream for African Americans. Harlem of New York City became the area of accommodation for the African Americans moving from the South. â€Å"As Southern blacks moved into the area, a power struggle developed between white and black capital. Whites deserted Harlem and prices of property fell. Blacks bought up the properties. By the 1920’s, the two square mile area between Eighth Avenue (West) and Fifth Avenue(East), and 125th Street North to 145th Street held 200,000 blacks. † (Patricia Flynn, 2006). During the World War I black soldiers in Europe recognized the interest to the traditional black music jazz. They started realizing their African American cultural heritage. The war had created a demand for workers. The image of proud and independent â€Å"New Negro† in black community replaced the comic image of the plantation slave created by the white culture. One of the leading black philosophers who called African Americans to recognize the pride for their African heritage was Alain Locke. â€Å"Alain Locke was probably the foremost spokesman for artists and writers of the Harlem Renaissance. He was highly educated as a philosopher at Harvard University, and the first black American Rhodes Scholar (1907-1910). He chaired the Philosophy Department at Howard University. His theories of black art encouraged black artists to recognize and incorporate their African heritage within their work. He powerfully wrote and lectured that African artistic heritage was at the center of the black experience. African art had made a contribution to modern art in Europe, and it should have an even deeper and more historical meaning to black artists in America. Locke felt that black artists needed to be liberated, free to express their heritage. † (Patricia Flynn, 2006). Alain Locke organized the financial support of the African American artists. This financial support was one of the most controversial issues of Harlem Renaissance. On one hand the philosophic ideas of the black self identity as opposed to the white one was the core of the philosophy of Harlem Renaissance and on the other hand the financial aid came from the white philanthropists, who were the representatives of the white culture.

Club IT, Part 2 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Club IT, Part 2 - Essay Example Vendors will have the ability to restock for the owner at the appropriate time. In the paper, l am using the traditional systems development life cycle which â€Å"provides the user with a tentative system for experimental purposes at the earliest possible time.† (Kellen and Night, 2001, pg 51 ) Keywords: website optimization Club IT Technical Issues Club IT has done a very good renovation of its club and have in turn attracted a very good clientele to their club which is a big step. The technical aspects of club improvement include hardware and operating systems, networking, data management systems, and applications software. The lack of a good quality Internet is a big hurdle. During my observation night, l had to deal with slow Internet which was a dial up type in a cramped room. This really slowed down my research that evening and putting into consideration the type of clients that this club attracts, it needs an improvement. If the club can acquire a better type of Intern et, it would also service Club IT’s customers who mostly are Net Generation and Millennials. These customers regularly use mobile technologies such as Blackberries, PDAs, camera phones, and other wireless communication devices. Club IT should also consider having wired and secure network connections for their offices. The club owners should also consider expanding their offices and using fewer machines in their offices. The club produces its own merchandise which is displayed on its website. Although this is a good thing, they should include a shopping cart and snippet code to ensure easy location of required products. Since most of their clients shop online, this would increase traffic to their website and attract their competitor’s customers and get the niche they need to gain the competitive advantage over the rest. For the site to be secured, the user should be provided with a unique username and a password which is alphanumeric to ensure security. His password sho uld expire after a period of one month to ensure that they are not hacked easily. Relocation of ticket sales should be made so that they can also take advantage of these resources. The company’s website has limited its access to only the administrators. This has served as a shortcoming to its vendors who could play key role in developing the cost benefit of the company. By giving access to its suppliers they will be able to notice the various market changes as well as enable them to find an array of reports that provide analysis of how their products are selling. In the future, the club owners will be able to exchange information with the vendors directly ensuring that they have the competitive advantage over their competitors. Over time, this type of system enables the website owners to keep track of their individual sales and their respective curve chains. Each department should get their own portal on the website to enable accountability. The different departments should a lso be accessible to each other to make it simple to communicate with each other e.g. the accounts department accessing the staff portal to pay them. The staff should also be given unique passwords and usernames which cannot be compromised. A virtual firewall should be implemented to avoid unauthorized access. Recommended project development methodology The recommended development methodology is the linear methodology. This type of methodology divides the project into sequential phases which

2. The balance of international payments is a book-keeping tautology Essay

2. The balance of international payments is a book-keeping tautology which is essentially irrelevant to a market economy. Discuss - Essay Example Conversely, a more vital concept of the balance of payments equilibrium is the basic balance, which is based on the presence of autonomous items in BOP. The autonomous items include items that cannot be influenced easily by the Government and are determined by certain long-term factors. Basic balance regards autonomous, the long-term capital shifts both on Government or private account held in the capital account and excludes items in the current account balance of payments. Conversely, in the capital account short-term movements such as the use of special drawing rights, borrowing from Central Banks or IMF, change in foreign exchange reserves are of accommodating the nature and transitory. Therefore, they are excluded from equilibrium and the concept of basic balance (McConnell & Brue, 2013). An alternative to these accommodating items (compensatory items) has to be made to ensure equality of foreign exchange receipts and payments. A change in the compensatory elements is essential to offset the surplus or deficit in the autonomous items. Autonomous movements cancel out over some suitable period and therefore there lacks the need for compensatory changes and in such a case the balance of payments is said to be in equilibrium (McConnell & Brue,

Psychology insight paper Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Psychology insight paper - Essay Example Another example is in sports, there are students which evidently have the potential to be an athlete but others excel more. One observation related to the reason for such cases is the initiative of a person to work and excel in specific areas. One student who is always reviewing math problems tend to join activities that can enhance the skills he has. On the other hand, the student who has more innate logical and mathematical skills achieves relatively lower marks. A realization regarding the matter came up when I personally inquired the reason why the student perceived to have more potential fails to enhance his skills and he gave a response that was based on his self perception. He perceived that he is not capable of excelling in the subject matter. Self-perception then became the focus of personal reflection. This is the manner by which a person sees himself. This can affect different aspect of his behavior and attitude. Generally, it can affect a person’s performance. If t he person perceives himself to be less than what he really is, his success and achievements are limited and hindered. On the other hand, when a person perceives himself to be more than his innate skills and talents, he can excel.

Dances with Wolves (1990) Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Dances with Wolves (1990) - Essay Example The story tells that the most remarkable aspect of this movie has been that the director has aesthetically explored the emotional facets of a co-culture, the Lakota culture. The writer has stimulated, without using preachy techniques, compassion and thoughtful consideration of this culture. There are some small scenes that bring forward the human sensitivities that are inherent in Lakota culture. There was a scene where the tribe’s medicine man, Kicking Bird, and his wife were lying on the bed and viewers could sense anxiety and uncertainty in his expression. It was then shown that Kicking Bird pulled out one of his children’s dolls on which he had lain upon. This small and seemingly insignificant scene exposes to the viewers that parental feelings that common people experience in their lives are also present in a profound sense within the Lakota culture. With scenes like this, the director has successfully managed to portray the human side of this culture and such scen es have demonstrated that humanity is a common element inherent to all people regardless of their caste and community. The movie has managed to convey the message that the tendency of one culture to see the other cultures as inferior. In conclusion, a solution to multicultural conflicts can come from an understanding of the cultural perceptions of the other culture. This is the ultimate message of this movie. John gets accepted by the Lakota Indians as a respected guest only when he learns their language, and with an open heart acknowledges their lifestyle and customs.

The Role of Financial and Accounting Management Essay

The Role of Financial and Accounting Management - Essay Example The income statements are prepared to measure the net income of the organization during a specific period. It compares the revenues and expenses related to the specified period for the purpose of measuring the performance of the firm in terms of profitability, costs incurred and revenues generated. Using this statement, the managers are enabled to compare the previous periods’ results with that of the current period and measure the performance of the firm on the basis of the differences that occurred. For instance, an increase in expenses may help the managers analyze the situations that resulted in excess expenditure. The possible reasons may include increased losses due to poor working conditions, poor employee performance, change of material, increase in production and sales or so on. Hence, the statement of comprehensive income helps in measuring the performance of the business with its own past performance and provides help to the managers with the identification of risk elements that are affecting the performance of the firm. Ratio analysis is another important measure that helps in the measurement of the performance within the organization by comparing the current period’s results with the past results. The statement of changes in equity also helps in the measurement of the changes that occurred in the owner’s equity and the trends that are seen in the contributed capital and retained earnings of the firm. An increase or decrease in the equity shows the performance of the firm over a period of time.

Book Report about Too Much of a Good Thing by Dan Kindlon Essay

Book Report about Too Much of a Good Thing by Dan Kindlon - Essay Example In the name of protecting their children, parents actually drag them away from facing challenges and fighting against failures. This really shatters their growth and strength and finally they loose their mental stability at times of depression. He says that many of them blame their parents for being too protective, and just because of this they loose all the chances of meeting new and varied challenges. In this way, the book also examines children’s attitude towards their parents. "What we want for our children is a perfect life devoid of hardship and pain," Kindlon states. "But their happiness as adults is largely dependent on the tools we give them, tools that will allow them to develop emotional maturity-to be honest with themselves, to be empathetic, to take initiative, to delay gratification, to learn from failure and move on, to accept their flaws, and to face the consequences when theyve done something wrong." The book stresses on the point that parents should spend much of their time with children discussing about their actions, desires and so on. They should talk to them freely and must always create a friendly atmosphere. The book also teaches how parents can reach out to their children, teach them engagement in rewarding activity, and promote emotional maturity and a sense of self-worth. The book, in my opinion is really a wonderful expression of the relationship between parent and child. The main focus of the author is on the parents, who according to him are too indulgent towards their children. Being protective and indulgent is not wrong but, when it is goes out of control, the children are really affected. Children do not have the opportunity of facing the problems by themselves. And as the children grow, they become more dependent towards their parents and develop less courage to face the world. Parents should leave their children to sort out things by themselves, so that they will be able to get more knowledge out

The location of businesses Essay Example for Free

The location of businesses Essay Businesses can choose where to locate. Sometimes choice of location is critical. In other cases it is less important. What is the difference? And what happens when a right choice suddenly becomes a wrong choice? Factors influencing location Every business locates where it thinks it will be successful. If you remember that businesses need:   staff to work there   raw materials to produce finished products * customers   to keep their costs as low as possible then their reasons for choosing a particular location begin to make sense. Local labour supply All organizations need to be able to employ staff. So it makes sense to locate where people live. A factory in a remote part of the Scottish Highlands would have trouble finding anyone to work there. Motorway service stations have to pay to transport their staff from local towns and villages to the station itself, a cost which other businesses can avoid. The factors which influence a particular area are often local skills and cost of labour. Local skills In some parts of the country particular skills are a tradition. If you wanted to set up a business making pottery you would be sensible to locate in the Midlands, around Stoke-On-Trent. If you wanted to make cutlery, then Sheffield is the place. If you were making boots or shoes then Northamptonshire is the area for you. Probably the most famous examples today are in the United States. Silicon Valley and Seattle are renowned for their computer industries, so this is where whiz-kid programmers head for. California is the home of the film industry, so if you were keen to work on special effects and digital technology, this is where you would go. Britains Silicon Valley is located along the M4. The area is also famous for Formula One motor racing firms. Scotland has its own Silicon Glen and Cambridge is building a reputation for and is now known as Silicon Fen. Firms wanting to specialize in these particular industries know that if they locate in these areas they will be able to recruit staff with skills they need. The City Of London is renowned for its financial skills and expertise, so this is where you would find large international banks, stockbrokers and insurance firms. Other firms dont need particular skills or maybe willing to train unskilled staff. Firms doing light assembly work often locate where there is a ready supply of cheap (often female) labour. Many of these have set up where traditional industries, such as mining, have closed. Areas with high unemployment have lower wage rates the competition for jobs keeps wage rates down. At the north of Celynen Colliery in Wales, Aiwa employs 1,000 people making videos and in the Rhondda Valley the heart of the old Welsh mining industry Taxdata employs 250 people making CD packaging. In the Dearne Valley in South Yorkshire, at a former colliery, over 2,000 people work for Ventura part of the Next group companies. Ventura is a call centre and mail-handling company which handles over seven million customer accounts for various clients such as Cellnet and the Cooperative bank. Call centres employ operators equipped with a computer and telephone whose task is to answer telephone enquiries or telephone existing or potential customers to generate more sales for companies. Today approximately 150,000 people in the UK work in call centres. Most of these are located in parts of the country where wage rates are lower. However, in some places, such as Tyneside, Leeds and Glasgow, where many call centres have been set up, competition for experienced is now increasing and pay rates are rising. So the pool of skilled labour in the area is affecting the cost for firms. The cost of labour will always be more important to businesses that are more labour intensive than those which are capital intensive. A labour intensive is one which needs a higher number of staff such as call centres or schools and colleges. A capital intensive business is one where machines or technology do most of the work as in a modern electricity generating plant. Here the cost of labour is less important in the choice of location. The Cost of Premises The cost of premises is determined by the forces of demand and supply. The greater the demand for premises and the fewer there are available the higher the cost. For that purpose, premises in city centres especially in London are much more expensive than the cost of premises in the suburbs or in the regions. For example, the lease of a large store (60,000 square feet) in Oxford Street, London, was on sale for i 12,000,000 in 1997! This is because Oxford Street is a prime site in a town a large high street store would be less but not cheap. In 1997, Mark Spencer bought 19 high street stores from Littlewoods for i 192,500,000, paying over the odds for the stores it wanted. They were actually valued at around i 80,000,000. Premises on major town centre shopping routes are always more expensive than on secondary side streets simply because shoppers stay on the high street. Areas of high employment with a surplus of skilled labour Newbury, in Berkshire, is a typical example are more expensive places to locate than areas where unemployment is high and the area depressed, as in some parts of the north east. The result is that companies that have no reason to locate in London or the south east will move to other towns and cities. Those businesses which arent dependant on passing trade will locate outside town and city centres in cheaper areas or on industrial estates. Within Britain, many local authorities offer packages to encourage businesses to locate in their area. They may offer financial assistance for large firms and reduced rents for small enterprises. Specialist rental and leasing companies will offer attractive packages enabling businesses to locate easily in special workspace sites, office complexes, business or retail centres. Some centres are managed with a central reception area, business services and shared meeting rooms. Retail units may be available on short-term license agreements, payable weekly. All these attract organizations to locate where costs will be lowest and where, hopefully, they will be able to expand their business without substantially increasing their costs. Financial Help from the Government If you live in London, south-east, or the east of England (e. g. Norwich), then you live in an officially prosperous area. If you live anywhere else, the situation is different, although in Scotland, Northern-Ireland, the West-Midlands and the south-west, prosperity rose above the UK average between 1986 and 1996. However the north-east, north-west, Yorkshire and Humberside, the East-Midlands and Wales all declined below the national average. The European Union and the government are concerned about such inequalities. They would like all regions to be equally prosperous. For some time in the UK there have been assisted areas. These are areas of Britain where regional aid may be given under European Community law. Regional Selective Assistance (RSA) is the main form of such an aid in Britain. This is a discretionary grant awarded to support a project which will stimulate employment opportunities, increase regional competitiveness and improve prosperity. Between 1985 and 1988, the scheme created 100,000 jobs, reducing employment by 0. 5 per cent in the Assisted Areas, at a cost of i 130,000,000 a year. In 1998 the European guidelines on regional aid changed and all member states were asked to propose new Assisted Areas to operate from 1st January 2000. In July 1999 the Department of Trade and Industry put forward the new proposals which included the following.   Tier One (maximum) assistance for Cornwall, Merseyside, South-Yorkshire and West-Wales and the Valleys. Here grants of up to 40 per cent of the project cost will be available. The government has also proposed that Northern Ireland be treated as an exceptional case for assistance. Tier Two assistance for areas most in need of employment creation, investment and regeneration. For these areas a 20 per cent assistance grant will be available. This includes the Highlands and Islands and various areas in England, Wales and Scotland. Rather than designate towns or cities the government has used ward boundaries (which denote voting areas).   Tier Three assistance for Enterprise Grant Areas where assistance will be available to businesses employing up to 250 people. The aim is to encourage the development of small businesses as these are seen as vital for improving employment and prosperity long term. Once the new Assisted Areas have been agreed by the European Commission, they will remain in force from 1st January 2000 to 31st December 2006. Transport Links for Suppliers and Distribution.

Motivation Through Acknowledgement Essay Example for Free

Motivation Through Acknowledgement Essay Impact of being a charismatic leader Leadership is about the ability to influence people by personal attributes and behaviours; different leadership qualities may be needed in different circumstances. Charismatic leadership: A charismatic leader is a leader whose followers are attracted to his or her personality and charm. People using this leadership style excel at working a room and making others feel that they are truly important and needed for the leader (and the cause) to be successful. These magnetic leaders do this through actions such as: Direct eye contact Remembering personal details about the person they are speaking with e. g. use of name or enquiry after family/social matters Giving their complete focus to the other person for the time they are with them Reading their surroundings and being skilled at detecting the moods of the audience and Adjusting his or her behaviours and speech to suit the situation at hand. Their approach when leading teams is to have their enthusiasm rubs off on their team members by being extremely positive and energetic. Teams do, however, need more than just a charming leader to keep them sustainable over the long term. Impacts of Charismatic Leadership Selling The Vision: These leaders are often exceptional at selling the vision and getting people to come along for the ride. They are geniuses at helping people to see possibilities and potentials to buy into something bigger than themselves. They are generally masters at weaving stories and anecdotes that enable people to buy into a big dream e.g. JFK leading a nation to put the first man on the moon Inspiring: Their generally optimistic and positive nature draws people to them like a moth to a flame. Often these leaders do inspire people to be at their best and the work environments they create can be very motivating to employees and colleagues alike. Drive Results. A highly charismatic leader can have people willing to walk over hot coals for him or her. Because of this they can achieve results and often get things done that other leadership styles may not. Think Hitler, Lee Iacocca Charismatic leadership is certainly a dynamic and empowering form of leadership, and combined with other styles of leadership, it creates a powerful force that gives people the enthusiasm and  self-management to achieve great results. A leader is a person who has a vision, a drive and a commitment to achieve that vision, and the skills to make it happen. A leader is a person who influences a group of people towards the achievement of a goal.

Profitability and Corporate Leverage Policy of Firms

Profitability and Corporate Leverage Policy of Firms Abstract This study attempts to determine the relationship between the profitability and leverage policy of firms of Fuel and Energy sector of Pakistan. The analysis was implemented on 27 firms in the Fuel and energy sector listed at the Karachi Stock Exchange for the period 2003-2008. Regression was used to find out the relationship between the independent variable (Profitability) and dependent variable (Leverage). We expect the negative relationship between the Profitability and the Leverage Policy of firms in the Fuel and Energy sector of Pakistan, confirming the pecking order theory of capital structure. The results found in our study were not as expected. The results showed that there is inverse relationship between profitability and leverage but our results were not that much significant to accept our hypothesis. So we rejected our pecking order theory hypothesis. Therefore we conclude that because of certain factors such as economic situation of the Pakistan, rising prices of oil all a round the world, interests rates and reliance of firms financing needs mostly on bank financing, pecking order theory model becomes insignificant in the Energy and Fuel sector of Pakistan. Chapter-1 Introduction Capital structure involves different decisions taken by a firm in financing its assets. Generally, a firm can solve this issue through different mixes of debts, equity, or other financial arrangements. It can also combine bonds, TFCs, lease financing, bank loans or many other options with equity in order to boost the market value of the firm. 1.1 Importance of the topic: Optimal capital structure plays a vital role in the overall value maximization of a firm. The strategic management of capital structure ensures access to the capital needed to fund future growth and enhance financial performance. Our focus in this study is to correlate the profit of the firm with its leverage. Importance of the study is to find out that which source of funds either retained earnings, debt or equity, a firm in the Fuel and Energy sector should prefer in order to optimize the profit and the value of the firm. In Pakistan, firms usually prefer short-term borrowing, because commercial banks are the major lenders and they do not encourage long-term loans. Up to 1994 firms did not rely on market based debt; in mid 1994 the government amended the Company Law to help companies to raise debt directly from the market in the form of TFCs (Term Finance Certificates). 1.2 Background of the study: Various capital structure theories had been discussed by many authors to explain the variation of capital structure of different firms. So many researches had also been taken place in order to solve the mystery of optimal capital structure in Pakistani firms. A thorough research study relating to the capital structure was carried by two Pakistani professors Shah and Tahir (2004) which attempted to answer the question of what determines the capital structure of Pakistani Listed firms other than those in financial sector. Booth, et. Al (2001) had also worked on the determinants of capital structures of 10 developing countries including Pakistan, but their data analyzed the firms that were included in the KSE-100 Index from 1980 to 1987. Shah and Tahir (2004) analyzed the data of non-financial firms for the period of 1997-2001 while our study differs from theirs on grounds of different sector, variables and period. 1.3 Objective of the study: The objective of this study is to find out the relationship between the profitability and the corporate leverage policy of firms in the Fuel and Energy sector of Pakistan. We are trying to figure out that the firms that have more profits in the Fuel and Energy sector have lower leverage. Our main focus in this study is to correlate the profit of the firm with its leverage in the context of pecking order theory. According to pecking order hypothesis firms tend to use internally generated funds first and than resort to external financing. This implies that profitable firms will have less amount of leverage. Therefore we expect a negative relationship between profitability and debt of a firm i.e. higher the profits of a firm, the lesser will be its debt. 1.4 Scope of the study: This study is limited on the Fuel and Energy sector of Pakistan. There are 27 firms of that sector which are listed on the Karachi Stock Exchange. But after screening the firms with incomplete data, we have selected 22 firms having complete data for six years from 2003-2008 as the study covers the period from 2003 to 2008. 1.5 Disposition of the study: This study is organized into five stages. In first stage we have described the background of our topic. In second stage review of literature has been done. In next stage we have explained our data and variables used in our analysis. At fourth stage we have discussed the model and the statistical test to be used. While the last stage concludes the results of the test. Chapter 2 Literature Review In this chapter we have gone through the various research studies regarding the leverage and well known capital structure theories. Capital structure refers to specific mixture of debt and equity a firm needs to finance its operations and optimal capital structure plays a vital role in the overall value maximization of a firm. This has given birth to different capital structure theories that attempt to explain the variation in capital structures of firms. The Miller Modigliani theorem showed that the market value of a firm is determined by the risk of its underlying assets and its earning power and is independent of the choices to finance its investments i.e the value of the firm is independent of the capital structure it takes on. But Myers suggested the contemporary thinking on capital structure in form of Static Tradeoff Theory. This explained that a firm initially following a target debt-equity ratio behaves accordingly. The costs and benefits related to the debt option make this target ratio. The costs and benefits are cost of financial distress, tax shields and agency cost. There are different theories that are used to explain the capital structure decisions which are based n the asymmetric information, tax benefits associated with the debt, bankruptcy cost and agency cost. The asymmetric information is related with pecking order framework and the other three are rooted in static trade-off choice. Under the trade off theory firms tried to equate the marginal benefits of an additional unit of debt with the related marginal cost, while holding the firms assets and investments plans. Under this model the key benefits are debt tax deductibility and the mitigation of agency cost while the main cost of additional debt is bankruptcy. Green, Murinde and Suppakitjarak (2002) observed that the tax policy also effect the capital structure decision of firms. Firm are allowed to deduct interest on debt in computing taxable profit under tax ordinance while the payments associated with the equity such as dividends are not tax deductible. Therefore, the tax effect encourages the debt usage by the firm if the rates are higher and more debt increases cash savings in form of after tax proceeds to the owner. Usage of debt in the capital structure of the firm also leads to agency cost which arises as a result of relationship between the share holder and manager while the firms management is the agent and the share holder being the principal. Agent may not choose to maximize their principals wealth. The conflict arises as the managers have less than 100% of the residual claim. Thus, managers may invest in projects that reduce the value of the firm while enhancing their control over its resources. Additional cash flow is the prime source of the agency cost. Debt helps to mitigate this agency cost as the firm is committed to pay out excess cash in the form of interest payments. The probability of bankruptcy increases with the increase in the level of the debt. If the firm goes beyond the optimum level of debt, then it is more likely that the firm will default on the repayment of the loan. As a result of that, the control of the firm will be shifted from share holders to the bond holders or the creditors who will liquidate the firm in order to recover their investment. There are also direct and indirect costs associated with the bankruptcy. Direct cost includes administrative costs of bankruptcy and costs of reorganization in the event of insolvency. While the indirect cost arises when the firm gets into financial distress. It may arise because of the change in the investment policies of the firm if firm foresees possible bankruptcy. In order to avoid the possible financial distress it will cut down the expenditure on certain departments like research and development, training of employees and advertisements etc. Therefore, if a firm is perceived to be close d to bankruptcy customers may be less willing to buy its goods because of low perceived quality of goods and the risk that the firm will not be able to meet its warranty obligation. Employees may also be less interested to work for the firm and creditors are less inclined to extend trade credit. Hence under the static trade off theory the optimal capital structure represents a level of leverage that balances the bankruptcy and the benefits of tax deductibility and mitigation of the agency costs. While The Pecking Order Theory of Myers (1984) and Myers and Majluf (1984), stated that firm while establishing its capital structure follow a hierarchy of financial decisions. First of all firm uses its internal financing i.e. retained earnings in order to finances its projects. In case of need of external financing, they prefer a bank loan first then go for the public debt. Thus in accordance with the Pecking Order Theory, profitable firms while having the available internal funds prefers not to incur debt for new projects. A study was carried by Benito, (2002) which considered the two most influential approaches, the trade off and packing order theories, in understanding capital structure decisions of firms of Spain and United Kingdom. This study made a valuable contribution to our study because of the same objective of testing Pecking Order Theory with reference to capital structure of firms. The resulting data included 6417 Spanish companies over period of 1985-2000 and 1784 British quoted non-financial companies over period of 1973-2000. The results provided significance in favor of pecking order theory, concluding debt ratios found to be significantly inversely related to cash flow and profitability of the firm and vary positively with its investment. In order to find the best empirical explanation for the capital structure of Brazilian firms Medeiros and Cecilio (2004) tested a model to represent the Static Trade-off Theory and Peking Order theory. This theory is helpful for our study because of the same independent variables that is profitability. Profitability all the STT streams sustain that a positive relationship must exist between profitability and debt. The stream based on bankruptcy costs states that these costs increase when earnings fall so that leverage tends to be lower for less profitable firms or those with higher earnings volatility. For the stream focusing on tax benefits, the more profitable the firm the more it benefits from the tax shield provided by interest payments. The agency stream believes that large amounts of free cash flows build up the dispute between shareholders and managers, which make those firms to issue more debt in order to diminish the problem (Fama and French, 2003). According to the POT, retained earnings are the firms best financing option. This type of resource does not produce information asymmetries and can be used promptly for new projects. The information asymmetry caused by equity issues or by more complex securities that require a higher degree of communication with the market is the basis of the POT. It is exactly to dodge the adverse selection premium brought by the information asymmetry that firms opt for internal financing as their major source of resources (Myers, 1984). The relationship between these two variables must be therefore negative. Medeiros and Cecilio (2004) The sample of their study included 371 non-financial firms with shares listed in the Brazilian stock exchanges from 1995 to 2002. The analysis of results of the study led to the conclusion that the pecking order theory provides the best explanation for the capital structure of those firms Another study on the capital structure was carried by Abor, (2008) comparing the capital structure of large un-quoted firms, small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and publicly quoted firms in Ghana using a panel regression model. On the grounds of the similar independent variable this study made a useful contribution to our review literature. The results showed insignificant difference between the capital structures of large unquoted firms and publicly quoted firms. The results of all sample groups showed that the total debt has relatively a high proportion of short-term debt. The results of the regression test indicated that age and size of the firm, profitability, risk, asset structure and managerial ownership are significant influencers in decisions regarding the capital structure of Ghanaian firms. Chiarella et.al (1991) conducted a study in Australia on the determinants of corporate capital structure by seeking to provide evidence on the significance of capital structure determinants in Australian context. This study provided a great support for writing review literature of our study. The analysis was carried on a sample of 226 Australian firms from 1977-1985. The results showed that company non-debt tax shields display a negative relationship with debt ratios. The results also supported the pecking order hypothesis of Myers and Majluf (1984) showing significant negative relationship of profitability with debt ratios and indicating that firms prefer to finance investments with internally retained earnings before issuing debts. The results provided some evidence of size effect indicating that the larger firms tend to employ more debts in their capital structure. Results showed positive but insignificant relationship between cash holdings and debt ratios while confirming the fre e cash flow hypothesis of Jensen (1986). Simultaneously results did not provide any support for growth opportunity and collateral value attributes as determinants of debt ratios. A study on the Malaysian companies regarding the capital structure and the firm characteristics was carried by an Indian professor Pandey (2000). This study is useful for our study because of one of the same independent variable i.e. profitability. The study was carried on Malaysian companies in order to examine their determinants of capital structure using data from 1984 to 1999 while classifying the data into four periods that relates to different stages of capital market of Malaysia. Results of the regression clarified that profitability, size; growth, risk tangible variables have significant impact on all debt types. Results showed persistent and consistent negative relationship of profitability with all debt ratios in all periods, thus accepting the prediction capital structure according to the pecking order theory. A research relating to the capital structure was carried by two Pakistani professors Shah and Tahir (2004) which attempted to answer the question of what determines the capital structure of Pakistani Listed firms other than those in financial sector. Because this study was also carried in Pakistan so it provided a support to a great extent in order to understand the capital structure according to Pakistans environment. A sample of 445 listed firms on KSE were taken and their five year data from 1997-2001 were taken into consideration. Pooled regression results indicated that assets tangibility is positively correlated with debt, concluding that asset structure does not matter in determination of capital structure of Pakistani firms. Size was positively correlated with leverage suggesting that large firms would employ more debt. Growth was found to be negatively correlated with leverage that supports the simple version of pecking order theory that growing firms finance their investmen t opportunities first by their internally generated funds. There was strong relationship between profitability and leverage. Profitability was negatively correlated with leverage that supports the pecking order theory. A study in Hong Kong was carried by Hung, et.al (2002) examing the inter-relationship between profitability, cost of capital and capital structure among property developers and contractors in Hong Kong. The results showed that capital gearing is positively related with assets but negatively with profit margins. Bartholdy and Cesario (2006) analysed the decisions regarding the capital structure of Portuguese non-listed bank financed firms. Primary purpose of the research was to find out the impact of debt tax shield on the decisions regarding capital structure of small non-listed firms. The secondary purpose was to find out that whether the determinants of capital structure of larger listed firms were also same as in case of smaller non-listed firms. The research explained that the solution of two big problems (agency and asymmetric information) for large firms are apparent on the balance sheet as restriction on debt. On the other hand it is less apparent on the balance sheet of smaller firms. This provided the smaller firms with the benefit of tax shield due to more debt. This research has provided a great support in writing our review literature and understanding the relationship between profitability and debt to a great extent. The sample of their research consisted 998 firms with 7765 fi rm years observations. The results concluded that the tax provisions regarding the carry forward of tax losses and debt tax shield play a vital role in determining the capital structure of small non-listed firms. It was also concluded that in order to solve agency problem traditional balance sheet variables were significant in large listed firms but were insignificant for the small non-listed firms with the exception of variables required to solve bankruptcy risk. A research study was conducted in Greece by Eriotis, et.al (2007) aiming to isolate the firm characteristics that effect capital structure. The investigation was performed using panel data for a sample of 129 Greek companies listed on Athens Stock Exchange during 1997-2001. The findings justified a negative relationship between the debt ratio of the firms and their growth, and size appeared to have a positive relation. Gropp and Florian (2008) conducted research study regarding the determinants of the capital structure of banks by examining the capital structure of banks from the prospective of empirical capital structure literature for non-financial firms. The sample of the study includes 200 largest listed banks (100 from US and 100 from EU) from the sixteen different countries (US and 15 EU members) from 1991 to 2004. The results suggest that the capital requirements may only be of second importance for banks capital structures and confirm the robustness of corporate finance findings in a holdout sample of banks. In order to examine the capital structure across countries a study was carried by Rajan and Luigi (1994). The primary objective of the study was to establish whether the choice of capital structure in other countries is based on the factors similar to those influencing capital structure of US firms. Study was on the 8000 non-financial corporations of G-7 countries (USA, Germany, Japan, France, UK, Italy and Canada) for the period of 1987-1991. After correcting the differences ranging from accounting practices to legal and institutional environments between the countries. results of the study showed extent to which firms are levered is fairly similar across the G-7 countries except UK and Germany being relatively less levered. Sakuragawa (2001) conducted another study regarding the capital structure of banks under non-diversifiable risk. The purpose of the research was to study the design of optimal capital structure of a large financial corporation when it faces a non-diversifiable risk. When there is a non-diversifiable risk the intermediary finds it profitable to issue equity because by issuing equity it can reduce the cost and the probability of banks failure. The intermediary designs the optimal capital structure by balancing the marginal benefit of reducing probability of banks failure against the marginal cost of debt-equity swap. Results showed that a large corporation under weaker conditions realizes more efficient allocation by issuing both debt and equity than by issuing only debt. An African study was conducted by cole-man (2007) whose aim was to examine the impact of capital structure on the performance of microfinance institutions. Panel data covering the ten-year period 1995-2004 were analyzed within the framework of fixed- and random-effects techniques. Results showed that the most of the microfinance institutions employ high leverage and finance their operations with long-term as against short-term debt. Results also revealed that the highly leveraged microfinance institutions perform better by reaching out to more clientele, enjoy scale economies, and therefore are better able to deal with moral hazard and adverse selection, enhancing their ability to deal with risk. Fernandez (2003) analyzed the driving forces of capital structure in Chile for the period 1990-2002. The purpose of the research was to study aggregate leverage and interest-bearing liabilities in isolation for all firms, and firms segmented by economic sector. Their sample of the study consisted of 64 firms having the complete information for the whole sample period of 1990-2002. Results while supporting the trade-off theory revealed that the firms favored equity over debt issues to cover their financing deficit because of the Chiles tax and monetary policies. In order to find out the determinants of very small firms financial leverage Barbosa and Cristiana (2003) carried a research. They described the relationship between profitability and financial leverage as: As far as profitability is concerned, the most common expectation in the financial structure literature is for a negative relationship with financial leverage. Toy and others (1974 p.877), Marsh (1982 p.126 footnote 22), Friend and Lang (1988 p.277), Titman and Wessels (1988 p.6) and Barton and others (1989 p.40) all say that in different words. According to them, a firm with a high profit rate, ceteris paribus, would maintain a relatively lower debt ratio because of its ability to finance itself from internally generated funds. The preference for raising capital first from retained earnings may be due, according to Titman and Wessels (1988 p.6), to the costs of issuing new equity or debt that arise because of asymmetric information or transaction costs. Marsh (1982 p.126 footnote 22) raises the possibility that the impact may be due to the tendency of firms to issue new equity immediately after periods of abnormally good performance. Hall and Weiss (1967 p.328) assert that relativel y profitable firms take some of their exceptional returns in the form of reduced risk, through retaining earnings, and, therefore, show lower debt to assets ratios. Rajan and Zingales (1995 p.1451) cite Jensen (1986) who predicts that, if the market for corporate control is ineffective, managers of profitable firms prefer to avoid the disciplinary role of debt. This preference would lead to a negative correlation between profitability and debt. Gupta (1969 p.522) speaks of a theory that extends the first belief above mentioned from the firm level to the industry level. Accordingly, profitable industries, because of the greater availability of internally generated funds related to their high profitability; tend to have lower debt in their financial structure. Last, Gale (1972 p.417-8) interprets leverage as representing the degree of risk or otherwise in the industries in which the firm competes and hypothesizes that leverage should then be negatively related to profitability. This a uthor himself acknowledges that his reasoning is somewhat at odds with previous discussions and theory, though. According to him, low debt to total capital ratios would reflect high industry risk because of two aspects. First, the corresponding capital structures would be the result of higher investment on the part of entrepreneurs, who, differently from lenders, place a lower value on security relative to rewards. Second, high-risk industries are, at least theoretically, associated with higher profitability. Barbosa and Cristiana (2003) Results of their research concluded that the growth, entrepreneurs risk tolerance, size and operational cycle were positively correlated with the financial leverage whereas asset composition, inflation, profitability and business risk are negatively correlated with financial leverage of very small firms. Chapter-3 Methodology In this section, we have explained the source of data, sample size, explanation and measurement of the variables, and the regression model. 3.1 Source of Data In this study financial data of firms listed on the Karachi Stock Exchange under Fuel and Energy sector of Pakistan is taken from the State Bank of Pakistan Publications Balance Sheet Analysis of Joint Stock Companies Listed on the Karachi Stock Exchange 2003-2008. 3.2 Sample size This study is carried on the Fuel and Energy sector of Pakistan. There are 27 firms of that sector which are listed on the Karachi Stock Exchange. But after screening the firms with incomplete data, we have selected 22 firms having complete data for six years from 2003-2008 as our study covers the period from 2003-2008. So we have 132 firm years for the panel data analysis. 3.3 Explanation and Measurement of the variables Basically our study follows the framework of Shah and Tahir (2005). We include only two variables in our study. First variable is leverage (dependent variable) and another is profitability (Independent variable). In this section we describe these two variables and explain how they are measured. 3.3.1 Leverage (Dependent variable) Leverage is explained as percentage of assets financed by debts. Different researchers have measured leverage differently. Frank and Goyal (2003) differentiated between two debt ratios, one based on market value while the other on book value. Debt ratio based on market value relates with the firms future situation whereas on the other hand debt ratio based on book value tends to reflect the past situation. While in our study measuring leverage through book value, we have mainly two reasons in our mind. First, one of the main benefits of debt is tax shield that is the interest payments are tax deductible expense, resulting in cash savings. Once the debt is issued these tax shield advantages do not vary by the market value of the debt. Second point in our mind while measuring leverage through book value is the relationship of debt with bankruptcy risk. The probability of bankruptcy increases with the increase in the debt. Moreover, in case of bankruptcy of a firm, the value of the debt through the book value of the debt is more relevant than the market value of debt. While measuring the financial leverage we faced a problem of choosing either total debt or only long term debt as percentage of total assets. Interestingly many capital structure theories favor long term debt but we have used total debt because the average firm size in Pakistan is small which limits their access to capital market because of technical difficulties and cost involved. So the firms in Pakistan prefer short term borrowing because of the fact that the major lenders in Pakistan are commercial banks and they discourage long term borrowing. Firms in Pakistan did not rely on the market based debt upto 1994, but in the mid of 1994 Government while amending Company Law, allowed firms to raise debt directly in the form of TFCs (Term Finance Certificates) from the market. Thus in our study we have measured the leverage through total debt to total asset ratio. 3.3.2 Profitability (Independent Variable) Profitability has been the main point of distinction between the Static Trade-off Theory and the Pecking Order Theory. Static Trade-off Theory explains that the firm with higher profitability has more reasons to issue more debt while taking tax shield benefit. While on the other hand, Pecking Order Theory presupposes that firms with larger earnings tend to use its internally generated funds i.e. retained earnings initially to fulfill their financial needs then they go for debt. Thus, Static Trade-off Theory expects a positive and direct relationship between profitability and leverage of a firm while Pecking Order Theory suggests negative relationship between the two above said variables. We have measured the profitability as the ratio of Net Income before Tax divided by the total assets. 3.4 Research hypothesis This research study supports the Pecking Order Theory hypothesis and our proposed research hypothesis is There is significant negative relationship between profitability and leverage of a firm. Ho: There is significant negative relationship between profitability and leverage of a firm 3.5 Regression Model Linear Regression analysis has been used in this study. Basically we have used pooled regression type of panel data analysis. By saying this we mean that the companys financial data and time series data are pooled together in a column. The equation for our regression model will be LG= ÃŽ ²0 + ÃŽ ²1 (PF) + ÃŽ µ. Where LG= Leverage ÃŽ ²0= Constant PF= Profitability ÃŽ µ= Error term Chapter 4 Results of the test and interpretation. This chapter contains the results of the descriptive statistics and linear regression test. There are 27 firms in Energy and fuel sector which are listed on the Karachi Stock Exchange. But after screening the firms with incomplete data, we have selected 22 firms having complete data for the six years from 2003-2008 as our study covers that specified period. So we have 132 firm years for the panel data analysis. 4.1 Data Consideration: For data consideration to be suitable for linear regression we graph the P-P plot of dependent and independent variable in order to check that the data is normally distributed. The P-P plots of profitability and leverage are as follows. Above Normal P-P Plot of Independent variable (Profitability) shows that the variable follows a normal distribution. On the other hand dependent variable (leverage) is also said to be fairly normally distributed. In order to show the linear regression model is appropriate for the data or not we graph a scatter plot between profitability and leverage which is as follows: Scatter plot shows that whether linear regression model is appropriate for the data or not. However above scatter plot appears to be suitable for linear regression. 4.2 Results of the test: After running the linear regression test on SPSS we have the following results. Table-1 Descriptive Statistics Total No: Minimum Maximum Mean Standard Deviation Profitability (PF) 132 -0.22 0.43 0.0515 0.12441 Leverage (LV) 132 .00 1.27 0.5588 0.27425 Valid No: (list wise) 132 Table-1 contains the descriptive

Essays --

The Revolutionary War The revolutionary war is a revolution that occurred in the thirteen British colonies located in North America, which was a follow of the British Empire during the eighteenth century. The colonies were settled by immigrants from Europe especially from England and interpreted by the right to secede from the British and conduct their affairs by themselves. The war began on April 19, 1775, when the American revolutionists clashed with the British army in the cities of Lexington and Concord in Massachusetts, and lasted eight years and ended on September 3, 1783 at the signing of the Treaty of Paris between Britain and the United States, Which Britain declared the independence of the United States. The main reasons for the birth of the American democracy were because of the economic policy pursued by British government at that time and the taxes that were on tea. A law was passed in the year of 1651 provides for move all the exports from the colonies to England on ships owned by Englishmen and also operated by Englishmen. Additionally...

Mass Media :: Violence Technology Papers

Mass Media Part I: The Problem. In the aftermath of the Columbine school shootings, parents were eager to find someone or something to take the blame for the tragedy. We as Americans are a culture that has to be able to control the outcome of our everyday lives. When something happens that catches us off guard, we get frightened and jump to conclusions. With no closure in sight from the columbine shootings, parents across the country wanted answers. Instead of evaluating their own parenting, people began to say that video games, movie and television were the problem. The idea was that by eliminating the violence on TV and that will stop kids from being violent. The news media, fearing for its ratings took this idea and ran with it doing in depth stories and all types of special reports. The goal of this newsletter is not to place blame on anyone, but to bring to the realization that the only way to help our youth is to not blame outside factors for behavior but approach the problem directly, in the home, face to face with the child. Columbine: The tragedy On a sunny spring day in April 1999, a suburban high school in Jefferson County, Colorado, found itself under attack by two of its own. In less than fifteen minutes of the first-lunch period on that Tuesday, two student gunmen killed 13 and wounded 21 before they turned the guns on themselves in the most devastating school shooting in U.S. history. Columbine High School is one of three in the unincorporated southeast portion of Jefferson County. The county itself lies on the west side of the Denver metropolitan area and is the most populated county in the state. The large unincorporated region along the county’s southern plains and foothills has a population of nearly 100,000 residents - 1,945 of who attended Columbine High School. The two student gunmen were Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold. Their plans for attacking the school, recovered by investigators after the tragedy had taken place, evolved over one year’s time. In those plans, Klebold and Harris outlined a mission to kill as many students and faculty as possible. They would set off destructive bombs inside the school and then shoot any survivors trying to run out. Bombs inside their cars would explode later, killing law enforcement, fire or medical personnel responding to the scene.

CDR Engineer

I had worked as vascular support engineer to support the cardio vascular imaging systems in the region assigned to me. I had taken the responsibility to manage the overall service delivery and ensure the customer satisfaction to the optimum level. I provided expert phone and/or onsite technical support to field service and customers to minimize equipment downtime while improving customer satisfaction. I had taken additional responsibility to connect and configure all the imaging systems to the remote online centre through broad band and virtual private network connectivity.Since I was the technical support for the region, I had the responsibility to take care of the difficult technical issues which could not be solved by the field service engineers. I had taken initiative to perform the power and grounding audit for the southern region of India. I had been responsible to build the technical support team. i had reported on solid line to the regional service manager and dotted line to all India service manager. I had been assigned to handle and solve the frequent failure in mobile cardiac catheterization imaging system in one of our important end user site.This system had multiple breakdown and image quality issues. I had to solve the issue and bring back the customer confidence level in our equipment quality and service delivery. I had taken it as a challenge and started the work at the site. This Free CDR Template is brought to your courtesy of gettingdownunder. com – Free Australian Immigration advice and resources for those looking to make the move down under. Personal Workplace Activity: Prior to start the service work , i had gone through the service log books and the error log files of the system to know the root cause of the multiple  and frequent failure of the system.The data analysis from the log book and the service files, I found some serious power quality and grounding issue on the site. I had decided to conduct the preliminary power and qu ality audit in the site. I inspected the power distribution panel and found the power cable size was under rated and unable to take the load. During the imaging system usage these power feeding cables started heating up and resulted in cable insulation meltdown. So I recommended to change the power feeding cables with the correct size to withstand the load.I measured the ground impedance and found it extremely high. So I inspected the earth pit and found the bonding between the earth wire and the earth rod open. The electrical maintenance department of the hospital informed and corrective action had been taken immediately. Once the corrective action was taken, I measured the ground impedance again and found within the recommended level. I had booted up the imaging system and run the system diagnostic tests to isolate the problem. From the diagnostic test results, I suspected the problem in the High voltage and the control electronics.The high voltage circuit consists of inverter cir cuit, HV voltage tank with the filament transformer, HV cables for the anode and the cathode, and the x-ray tube. The block diagram as follows Since there was no x-ray output from the tube, I started the troubleshooting from the snubber board which feed the primary side of the HV tank. The snubber board contains four Insulated Gate Bipolar Transistors that switches the very large currents applied to the input of the large step – up transformer in the High voltage tank.This pcb is designed with very low DC resistance and inductance to minimize the voltage drops at high currents. The resistorcapacitor-diode network on the board is used to damp the IGBT switch spikes. P. E. 2. 8 Due to the absence of x-ray generation, the system displayed low MA and low KV error message on the console monitor. This is due to absence of output from the secondary side of the HV tank. So I switched off the entire system and I checked the 400v, 70amps semiconductor fuse on the snubber board and foun d it defective.This fuse might be blown due to the fault current generated from the x-ray tube spit. The x-ray tube spit is generated in the glass tube insert of the x-ray due to the formation of metallization on the glass walls. Then I checked This Free CDR Template is brought to your courtesy of gettingdownunder. com – Free Australian Immigration advice and resources for those looking to make the move down under. resistance between IGBT emitter terminal and the chassis ground with the true RMS multimeter and found short. This indicated the damage of wire insulation in the IGBT.I found both the IGBT module faulty with the emitter to chassis ground short. So I replaced the IGBT module with the new one. After the replacement of IGBT module, I removed the anode and cathode HV cable on the tube side and inspected the HV cable connector and found lot of carbon deposits due to the tube spit. The carbon deposit on the HV cable pins hamper the effective conductivity, so I cleaned th e connectors with Chemotronics Electro-wash solution. I checked the HV receptacle well on the xray tube and found it completely damaged.The insulation between the filament supply and grid was completely lost. So I found it not repairable and the entire x ray tube assembly needed the replacement. I replaced the x-ray tube assembly with the new one. Before the power on, I decided to double check the HV tank which is the main part of HV Circuit. The HV tank develops the extremely high voltage necessary to operate the x-ray tube (up to 125kv). The tank includes resonant step up transformer, high voltage rectifiers, x-ray tube filament transformers, output ma and KV sensors and connectors.I checked the rectifiers and the primary and secondary windings of the transformer for any defect and found everything ok. P. E. 2. 11 Then I decided to do the KV in Open Loop test in HV tank. So I removed the HV cables on the HV tank output and filled the HV tank output receptacle with mineral oil. Lat er I switched on the system and run the KV open loop test and it passed ok. Then I restored the HV cable connection between the tank and the x-ray tube in system off state. P. E. 2. 12 The x-ray tube and IGBT module replacement required the following calibration and adjustments for the normal and safe function of the systemIGBT Module Dead time wave form adjustments Filament Calibration KV and MA metering calibration Radiation dose calibration First I had to adjust the dead time between the KV drives signals on each of the IGBT pairs to proceed with the other calibration properly. The improper dead time adjustment might lead to damage of IGBT and the Generator driver board (which supplies the trigger pulse to the IGBT module). I connected the dual trace oscilloscope on the test points on the Generator driver board and observed the waveform of both the IGBT drive signal.I found the drive signal between the base and emitter of the IGBTs out of tolerance during the peak load. So this m ight lead to cross-conduction in the IGBT module and the destruction of IGBT module. This Free CDR Template is brought to your courtesy of gettingdownunder. com – Free Australian Immigration advice and resources for those looking to make the move down under. The Generator driver PCB’s primary job is to convert the KVP drive signal from the High Voltage Supply regulator PCB to the levels necessary to drive the IGBTs on the SNUBBER PCB.So I connected the oscilloscope in the high voltage regulator PCB test points and found the amplitude and frequency of the waveforms normal. So the root cause was isolated and identified with the Generator driver PCB. The problem was found on two of comparator’s output drives the gate transformers, which provide isolation from the high current circuitry and from high voltages present on each of the IGBT module. The defective comparator IC chips were removed and replaced with the new one. After the replacement of the comparator IC ch ips the drive signals were found normal.I had proceeded with the IGBT dead time adjustment with the scope meter connected with the generator driver PCB and set it within the safer limit. I had checked the waveforms on the scope meter during the peak load condition and found ok. I performed the filament calibration at different KV and Ma station and updated the system filament drive database. This updated database might be used by the filament driver PCB to drive the filament transformer to output correct x-ray tube current according the radiation technique.After the filament calibration, I adjusted the KV and MA metering adjustment to sense and display the correct KV and MA value of X-ray tube on the console during the time radiation exposure. Also I aligned the X-ray beam with the image intensifier in different Field of views. Subsequently I had run the collimator calibration for adjusting the collimator blades in different field of views. The camera Iris opening is adjusted to set the radiation dose at a safer limit recommended by the manufacturer. The image quality was tuned to optimum level. SummaryI had checked and tuned the imaging system for the optimum image quality. I run different exposure techniques with the Image Quality Signature Test Phantom and found the values within the specification. The customer was delighted with the performance and the This Free CDR Template is brought to your courtesy of gettingdownunder. com – Free Australian Immigration advice and resources for those looking to make the move down under. image quality of the system after the completion of the service work. It was a challenge for me to troubleshoot the system with multiple failures.During the course of trouble shooting I analyzed the circuits and isolated the problem areas with the help of the knowledge acquired from my field experience and engineering course. I had learnt and applied different troubleshooting techniques to solve this issues. In nutshell I had cons idered this project as important milestone in my learning process and in my career advancement. This Free CDR Template is brought to your courtesy of gettingdownunder. com – Free Australian Immigration advice and resources for those looking to make the move down under.

Reproductive Health Bill Essay

Couple of years passed since Albay 1st district Representative Edcel Lagman and Senator Miriam Defensor Santiago introduced two senate bills, respectively House Bill No. 4244 or an Act providing for a Comprehensive Policy on Reproductive Health, and Population and Development, and for Other Purposes, and Senate Bill No. 2378 or An Act Providing For a National Policy on Reproductive Health and Population and Development. Also, couple of years passed since divisive arguments started mocking our ears. The pros and cons continually play tug of war in debate of whether passing the bill or not. The Reproduction Health bills, or RH bills, as they are commonly called, aim to guarantee universal access to methods and information on birth control and maternal care. In a medical sense, life begins when fertilization takes place. One of its prime components is the use of artificial methods in order to prevent fertilization to occur. In a biblical sense, we know it is a mortal sin to end one’s life. Ladies and gentlemen, I believe that sex is sacred, even to the natural laws itself and is bestowed only to two persons who share mutual values as well as commitment to God and themselves. With the use of artificial contraceptives, spouses do not put their total trust and gift of personal fertility to their own partners. Rather than putting out hopes on contraceptive methods, let us opt to uphold responsible parenthood. Rather than relying on abortifacient pills, let us choose to push proper discipline and self-control. On the other hand, I remember a commercial advertisement which showed children who don’t frequently eat meals with their parents, children who don’t often have chance to talk with their parents are the one who often get in caught in problems like early pregnancy. Parents, you have the greatest responsibility in the wellbeing of the youth. Open your hands, lend your ears and nurture them with pieces of advice. Water them with love; pull off the hindrances of their development. Be the farmers the cream of the crop of our society. Moreover, the use of contraceptive agents such as pills poses rick to the health and safety of the women. Failure of the pills may lead to post-fertilization effects that may be operative prevent clinically recognized pregnancy. Thus, it contradicts the goal of the RH bills to protect the life of the mother as well as the life of the unborn from conception. Imprisonment or about half a year and fine of fifty thousand pesos – such actions may be implied if health care service providers fail to give reproductive health care services like ligation or vasectomy. For me, it is sad to think that we Filipinos may be deprived to practice our right of freedom, our own right of liberal choice and self-conscience. On the other hand, the RH bills also intends to lessen the alarming proportion of rapidly rising population in the country, which is deemed one of the main causes of poverty and economic breakdown. However, according to scholars, most economic analysis of statistical correlation between economic growth and population show that there is little, if not none, significant connection at all. It is just that the bigger the population density, the less resources that we can use for production; and may lead to scarcity of the basic necessities of life. Why don’t we venture to delve into utilizing indigenous resource materials? If the nationwide resources aren’t sufficient enough to sustain the needs of the Filipino people, then let us think and make programs that will answer the problem into reality. Why don’t we put more efforts in promoting and establishing quality education in order to bring up economically active and productive citizens? It is a big investment to produce globally competitive Filipinos that will contribute to the economic growth. Successful graduates may establish their own business enterprise and generate job opportunities to us countrymen. The people of Juan dela Cruz opt to work abroad and leave his family and friends. These modern day heroes suffer the trials of being countries away from their loved ones. It may be because of the deficiency of employment opportunities here in the Philippines. Moreover, the salary in the foreign countries is believed to be considerably at a better cost. Why don’t we place our endeavor onto creating many jobs possible to prevent Filipinos from choosing to overseas to work, and stop nation’s brain drain as well? We can invest on our national budget into more significant outcomes. There are lot more solutions to the challenges we are facing today I believe most of us prefer to satisfy our vital needs in life and meet our real preferences.. We should buy food rather than pills. We should buy clothes rather than condoms. We intend to buy what really need. To a certain extent, I think this forgoing issue will somehow be an excuse to the nation’s lacking capability to accomplish its goal of serving its constituents by mainly lifting their social condition. The foremost reason is not the vast number of the poor. Otherwise, the poor are the victims of the cancerous cell of our society- poverty. Poverty caused by the abuse of power by those with authority. My fellowmen, I suppose it is quite selfish to sacrifice other’s lives for our own sake. We may tend to break the promise of reaching and fulfilling other’s dreams; we somehow deprive the unborn to even use pens and draw their dreams. â€Å"Ang kabataan ay ang pag-asa ng bayan†. I believe in our national hero, Dr. Jose P. Rizal. The young generation is the very prodigy of the promise we have for the better tomorrow. As a Christian country, I believe that we, Filipinos, have firm devotion and faith on the Almighty God. It is said, that life is the greatest gift God ever given to man. His Holiness also gifted us with intellectual power and will to decide and determine right from wrong. Our decision has vital part in the real progress of our country, in the lives of many Filipinos and the future of the youth and the future of this country. Ladies and gentlemen, I may not be a national hero. I may not be a national leader or someone with great social standing. I am just an average Filipino citizen. I am here, my fellow Filipinos, in front of you, as rhetoric medium, as a catalyst of change, as a citizen who cares for his country, as someone that cares for the well-being of my fellow countrymen. I beg you to understand the true value of life. I beg you to open your eyes to the true crisis we face. I beg you to lend your ears to the true cries the nation want us to diminish. My dearest friends, I ask you again to listen to the voice of the youth.

Religious views on death penalty Essay

This is issue of death penalty has been talked of the town since it was started. All religious groups are not silent about such issue whether they are against on it or not but instead, they really demonstrated their strong conviction to disagree or agree on such act. Other religious groups consider it as inhumane and see ourselves having no right to stop the lives of others while other religious groups are on the opposite side. But most of the religious groups around the world have one cry which is to stop the death penalty practiced. In connection of this issue, there are sixteen principal religious organizations in the United States of America which have more than 1 million advocates that consists twelve Christian faith organizations, Atheism, Islam, Judaism and the group of people who do not have the religious identification. However, Christian groups have different perceptions regarding the death penalty issue. Below are the perceptions they projected regarding the death penalty: ? Some of the Evangelical congregations and Fundamentalist are showing support on death penalty which named as the â€Å"retentionist position†, while the Mennonites and Amish are on the different direction. The Conservative Protestants are known to be pro-life and even fight the idea of abortion yet in general; they are in favor on death penalty which comprises the taking of lives of those convicts. But they justified their being pro-life by opposing taking one’s life of innocent human being like embryo, fetus, newborn, child and others. But an individual who sits on the death row is guilty of offensive crimes and deserves to be punished of what he did (see â€Å"Present-Day Religious Group’s Policies Concerning the death Penalty†. Ontario Consultants on Religious Tolerance. Religious Tolerance. org). ? The mainline & liberal denominations and the Roman Catholic Church are against on death penalty (see â€Å"Present-Day Religious Group’s Policies Concerning the death Penalty†. Ontario Consultants on Religious Tolerance. Religious Tolerance. org). a. 1 Religious grounds. There are several passages in the Hebrew Scriptures that sentenced individuals to death if they go along with other spiritual path. From the King James Version of the Bible, Jehovah declared such execution for: a. 1. 1 following another religion: Exodus chapter 22 verse 20 says: â€Å"He that sacrificeth unto any god, save unto the Lord only, he shall be utterly destroyed† (see â€Å"The Death Penalty/Capital Punishment in the Hebrew Scriptures (Old Testament). Ontario Consultants on Religious Tolerance. Religious Tolerance. Org). a. 1. 2 a stranger entering the temple: Numbers chapter 1 verse 51 says: â€Å"†¦when the tabernacle is to be pitched, the Levites shall set it up: and the stranger that cometh nigh shall be put to death† (see â€Å"The Death Penalty/Capital Punishment in the Hebrew Scriptures (Old Testament). Ontario Consultants on Religious Tolerance. Religious Tolerance. Org). a. 1. 3 proselytizing: Deuteronomy chapter 13 verses 1-10 says that if an individual who attempts to persuade an Israelite to change his belief should be put to death (see â€Å"The Death Penalty/Capital Punishment in the Hebrew Scriptures (Old Testament). Ontario Consultants on Religious Tolerance. Religious Tolerance. Org). d. 1. 4 communicating with the dead: Leviticus chapter 20 verse 27 medium and spiritists whether male or female are executed by stoning (see â€Å"The Death Penalty/Capital Punishment in the Hebrew Scriptures (Old Testament). Ontario Consultants on Religious Tolerance. Religious Tolerance. Org). a. 1. 5 black magic: Exodus chapter 22 verse 18 says: â€Å"Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live (see â€Å"The Death Penalty/Capital Punishment in the Hebrew Scriptures (Old Testament). Ontario Consultants on Religious Tolerance. Religious Tolerance. Org). B. Problems arise due to death penalty a) Racism Wherever we go, racism is always present. The worst thing is, when racism also exists in giving a death penalty sentence to an accused. Does this â€Å"extreme penalization† applied fairly regardless to the class or race? Obvious and manifest racism is observed and witness too in courtrooms around the nation. In death penalty circumstances, the practice of pejorative and critical disgrace stirs up the flames of bias and partiality and to some extent permits the jury to adjudge unsympathetically and insensitively those they desire to incriminate for the said dilemma of the offense. There are several illustrations that can be given as examples: 1. â€Å"One of you two is going to hang for this. Since you’re the nigger, you’re elected. † These were the words enunciated by a Texas police officer to Clarence Brandley who was penalized in murdering of a white high school girl. And in 1990, Brandley was found guiltless after ten years on death row (Bailey, Harris, & Jones, 2005). 2. Another circumstance was when there was a preparation going on for the penalty phase of an African-American defendant’s trial, a white judge from Florida stated in an open court: â€Å"Since the nigger mom and dad are here anyway, why don’t we go ahead and do the penalty phase today instead of having to subpoena them back at cost to the state. † Anthony Peek received a death penalty sentence from the court and in 1986; the Florida Supreme Court established and confirmed the sentenced for a review due to his claim of racial bias (Bailey, Harris, & Jones, 2005). 3. A certain prosecutor from Alabama provided his justification and cause for striking number possible jurors the verity that they were associated with Alabama State University, mainly black organization. The said excuse and ground were deliberated race neutral by the said reviewing court. 4. An election campaign happened in 1997 for Philadelphia’s Distinct Attorney; it was divulged and made known that one of the said candidates had wrought – serves as an Assistant D. A. – a preparation video for recent prosecuting attorneys in which he commanded them about whom to keep out and leave out in the cold from the adjudicators which noted that â€Å"young black women are very bad† on the adjudicators for a prosecuting attorney and further stated â€Å"blacks from low-income areas are less likely to convict. † 5. Judge Earl Blackwell in Missouri gave out a signed press release all about his jurisdictional election proclaiming his recent association with the Republican Party at the same time ruling over a death penalty circumstance in opposition to a jobless African-American perpetrator. The mentioned press release specified and indicated that: [T]he Democrat party places far too much emphasis on representing minorities . . . people who don’t’ (sic) want to work, and people with a skin that’s any color but white . . . . The magistrate has repudiated a motion to rescue himself from the said trial. Brian Kinder-the perpetrator- was found guilty and punished to death and in 1996, Missouri’s Supreme Court asserted it (Bailey, Harris, & Jones, 2005). These were just the illustrations given which are figurative of a more methodical and orderly racism and they give us the scenarios of how racism and insensitivity occurred when somebody is facing an execution. According to Richard C. Dieter in his article entitled â€Å"The Death Penalty in Black and White: Who Lives, Who Dies, Who Decides† stated that â€Å"In Philadelphia, the death sentences’ raw data in the middle of 1983 and 1993 gives the primary piece of alarming and distressing indication that racism is still happening. The rate mentioned of qualified black defendants who were penalize to death reached about 40 percent compared to the rates for other qualified defendants. Below is chart taken from http://www. deathpenaltyinfo. org/article. php? scid=45&did=539. There is another statistical data in Death Penalty States which shows a risk of Racial Discrimination and was taken again from http://www. deathpenaltyinfo. org/article. php? scid=45&did=539. ** The state which has no death penalty race data is accessible. *** The state which has no death sentences enforced as of January 1, 1998. =Solitary findings whose calculations were statistically important and substantial, or where the ratio amongst death sentencing -or prosecutorial charging- rates (example amongst black victim and white victim circumstances) was 1. 5 or greater and having an example dimension of at least 10 cases in every group, were contained within. The differences and inequalities in nine states-SC, MS, GA, KY, CA, NJ, NC, PA and CO-are based on well-controlled investigation and analysis. The calculations in different states are from less well-controlled findings and are lone evocative. =The total race of victim difference apart from solitary, Delaware, were in the route of more death sentences in white victim cases. =the total race of defendant difference apart from two, Tennessee and Florida, were in the route of more death sentences for black defendants or accused. Another article written by Dudley Sharp advocated that â€Å"despite the fact that whites and blacks include about an equal number of murder victims, the relation or proportion of white-to-black injured parties in death-penalty situations is about 7-to-1. † b) Myth of Racism in Death Penalty In an article entitled â€Å"Myth of racism in Death Penalty† published in one of the websites in the internet explained that â€Å"regardless of the assertions of death penalty adversaries, there is still slight indication and confirmation that prejudiced prosecuting attorneys are more obsessive and fervent on the order of pursuing the death penalty in opposition to the African-Americans- commented by the legal observers- or which adjudicators are directing blacks to death row frequently. The substantiation implies black murder perpetrators are no supplementary like to get death sentences compared to whites even though at the end part of the year 1996, there was about 42 percent of death row convicts were African-Americans. According to federal statistics in 1996, there were 43. 2 percent of pugnacious offense cases and 54. 9 percent of all offense cases, and the criminals involved were African-Americans, predominantly due to the fact that young black males perpetrate an inconsistent number of offenses mainly in opposition to other blacks. On the other hand, according to the U. S. Justice Department’s Bureau of Justice Statistics whites took into custody for manslaughter or homicide- other than inattentive homicide- are more susceptible to death sentence compared to blacks, about 1. 6 percent of whites against 1. 2 percent of blacks. And white death-sentence convicts are supplementary like to be put to death since 1977 until 1996; about 7. 2 percent of white convicts were put to death in comparison to 5. 9 percent of blacks. Another study presents that the federal death penalty is exercised excessively and unreasonably in opposition to minorities most especially to African Americans and which it is put into practiced in a topographically random and subjective way-with several states such as Texas and Virginia- reporting for an enormous share of death penalty trials and hearings. According to DOJ information and statistics that it is approximately 80 percent of prisoners on federal death row are Hispanic, Black or from other smaller or lesser group. Smaller groups report and explain for 74 percent of the cases in which federal prosecuting attorneys search and strive for death penalty. The worst scenario is when racism also presents in giving death sentence to a defendant. Does this â€Å"intense penalization† practiced justly regardless to its race? In death penalty situations, the practice of critical and pejorative disgrace stirs up the flames of bias and partiality and to some extent allows the jury to convict insensitively and unsympathetically to those who they wish implicate such punishment (see Dieter, R. C. â€Å"The Death Penalty in Black and White: Who Lives, Who Dies, Who Decides†. June 1998). The newest exoneration is of John Ballard, no. 123 of Florida on the 23rd day of February 2006. The table below shows the exonerations by race and was taken from â€Å"Innocence and the Death Penalty: DPIC (http://www. deathpenaltyinfo. org/article. php? did=412&scid=6#inn-yr-rc). Race Number of Exonerations Black 62 White 48 Latino 12 Other 1 c. ) Who Gets the Death Sentence? According to an article entitled â€Å"How Racism Riddles the U. S. Death Penalty† explained that â€Å"in 1972, the U. S. Supreme Court was stricken down almost altogether death penalization in the state due to its reason that found them to be unpredictable and capricious and intensely not fair-Furman v. Georgia. In a cracked 5-4 judgment, every Justice wrote his own point of view and several cited indications of racial prejudices. In Gregg v. Georgia, the Court has proven and established a recent generation of capital decrees which assure and guarantee equal impartiality. At present, there are 38 states that practiced death penalty. Since Greg, there was about 5,000 people have been sentenced to death and about 682 executions have been performed. Most of those on the death row are the people who have different races. There was about 42 percent solely for the Black men of all death row prisoners even though they report for only 6 percent of people who live in the United States of America. Racism is found not only in the Southern part where most of the United States implementation and execution are taking place. In a study made by George Woodwort and David Baldus showed that blacks who reside in Philadelphia are four times more likely to receive the death penalty compared to other defendants or accused who execute the same murders. The Philadelphia has put 133 people on the death row which is more than most southern states. About 89 percent of the said qualified defendants or accused for death sentence are people of color. d. ) Who Receives an Execution? Since 1976, approximately half of the executed have been people of different race together with sole blacks’ record for about 35 percent. Everybody said that about 82 percent have been executed to death for the murder of a white person. And compared to white, only 1. 8 percent was executed because the defendant was convicted of killing of an African, an Asian, or Latin descent. In every two persons executed, one is a black since 1930. Since the conception of death penalty, problems regarding such punishment have never ended. The questions start popping up from different walks of life whether death penalty involves racism or not, the risks in executing the innocent and the debates of pro and anti. However, as we can see the chart below, it simply shows that the death penalty penalization to Black Americans lessens for almost four decades (chart below was taken from http://www. ojp. usdoj. gov/bjs/glance/drrace. htm). e.) Risks on executing the innocent Another problem that arises is the risk of executing an innocent man. We cannot say how many of the 1,000 individuals sentenced with capital punishment since 1976 may possibly innocent. The courts will not think about and entertain the claims of innocence if the accused is already executed. The defense attorneys of the defendant, who is still alive, will move on other cases to save his/her client from such punishment. An example of case was of Ruben Cantu of Texas. He was convicted in 1985 and executed in 1993. The accused Ruben Cantu determinedly and insistently claimed that he was innocent from the crime and was 17 years of age when accused with capital murder for killing a man from San Antonio and attempted robbery cases. After the execution, the jury and the prosecutor have shown their doubts regarding the case. In addition, the witness against Cantu and the co-defendant of Cantu have come into conclusion that Cantu was an innocent man (see â€Å"Additional Innocence Information: Executed but Possibly Innocent†. Death penalty information Center). If this scenario continuously happens, it is not surprising why we still have rallies against death penalty. f. ) The debates of pro and anti This issue between the anti and pro regarding death penalty practice never dies because of different beliefs, principles and experiences and both sides have an argument and stand points. The anti and pro both want justice for people they are defending. F. Public opinion polls on the death penalty In a survey conducted by Harris poll in 1965, there was approximately 38% of United States poll respondents are pro and supported death penalty while there were about 47% who are against of it. But in 2001, the atmosphere changed. From 38% of death penalty advocates, it increased up to 67% while the anti decreased from 47% down to 26%. But just this year of 2006, there was a great increased on the side of those who believed on death penalty. A census made by Sam Houston State University discovered that there were approximately 73. 4% of respondents countrywide that are in favored on death penalty for individuals charged with murder while for those 20. 1% anti-death penalty believed on life imprisonment without parole (see â€Å"Public Opinion Polls on the Death Penalty†. Death Penalty Statistics, March 24, 2005). G. Death penalty statistics From the 23rd day of February 2006, there have been 123 exonerations in different states in the United States of America. The chart below shows the denominations of convicts sentenced by death penalty (see â€Å"Exonerations by State†. Innocence and the Death Penalty. DPIC). STATE NO. STATE NO. Florida 22 Massachusetts 3 Illinois 18 Missouri 3 Louisiana 8 Indiana 2 Texas 8 So. Carolina 2 Arizona 8 Idaho 1 Oklahoma 7 Kentucky 1 Pennsylvania 6 Maryland 1 Georgia 5 Mississippi 2 No. Carolina 5 Nebraska 1 Alabama 5 Nevada 1 Ohio 5 Virginia 1 New Mexico 4 Washington 1 California 3. Every year, the rate of exonerations rose drastically. But the irony is that, the more it is practiced and applied, the more the people commit crimes and offenses. The more they are aware of such act, the more they become â€Å"rebellious† and commit crimes without hesitation. From 1973 up to 1998, the average of exonerations every year was 2. 96. But since 1998 up until 2003, the average has increased from 2. 96 to 7. 60 exonerations. In 2004, there were about 6 exonerations. The graph below is accurate as of 11th of July 2006 and shows the number of exonerations every year (see â€Å"Exonerations by Year†. Innocence and the Death Penalty. DPIC). III. Recommendations A. Possible remedies or alternatives to abolish death penalty. There are several remedies on how to abolish death penalty. One of these is life imprisonment. The anti-death penalty group views and believes that life imprisonment is an efficient alternative for capital punishment, that death penalty will just lead to insufficient of justice and violates the rights of the convicts (Bumiller, 1999). Moreover, death penalty is more costly than having life imprisonment. In a 1993 Duke University study presented that the capital punishment in North Carolina amounts more than 2. 16 million dollars in every execution compared to life imprisonment. The New Mexico State Republic Defender Department approximated the state in 1996 that if there will be no death penalty; there will be a saving of 1 to 2. 5 USD million dollars on the Public Defender (see â€Å"Murder Victims’ Families for Reconciliation, Inc. May 24, 2006). Additionally, the Floridians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty (FADP) acknowledges and advocates the society’s responsibility to defend every person from individuals who are treacherous especially those who are convicts. Not only that, FDAP also looks after the welfare of the convicts. FADP views death penalty as a negative public policy. The organization suggested a practical and worthwhile alternative for capital punishment. This is when an individual charged with capital murder, he must serve in the prison for 25 years before he can receive the possible reconsideration for parole. And while the convict is in prison, he should be given a job that is dignified. And a fraction of his earnings must be used to pay for his incarceration and another fraction will go to a funding for the victims of ferocious crimes. The funds also give financial assistance to those families that have lost their â€Å"bread winner† because of crimes (see â€Å"Yes Friends, there is an alternative to the death penalty! † Floridians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty (FADP). IV. Conclusion We should always remember that every action we do have a consequence, whether it is good or bad. As I study this issue, I learned that I should not be one sided but be opened for any different views regarding death penalty issue. My views were widened that both pro and anti are having valid reasons why they fight and stand out for their beliefs and principles. But, I have noticed that the more death penalty is practiced, the crime rates increase instead of decreasing. So, as my conclusion, it is better to stop death penalty not because I am against or pro but because the crime rates did not lessen as what others think of. Moreover, if in case death penalty will not be abolished, I would suggest that the judge must be careful in giving such punishment. They must review the death sentence they have given to the accused to avoid mistakes and spare the lives of the innocence. And for the legislators, they should think-through the laws they make. They should not make laws which are always in favor in their race or color. References 1. â€Å"Human Rights: Death Penalty†. Derechos Human Rights. http://www. derechos. org/dp/ 2. â€Å"Early Death Penalty Laws†. History of the Death Penalty, p. 1. http://deathpenaltyinfo. msu. edu/c/about/history/history-1. htm 3. Executions in the U. S. 1608-1978: The Espy File. DPIC, 2006 http://www. deathpenaltyinfo. org/article. php? scid=8&did=269 4. â€Å"Methods used to execute people†. Facts about capital punishment: Part 1: Data and Trends. Religious Tolerance. org. http://www. religioustolerance. org/execut3. htm#met 5. â€Å"Present-Day Religious Group’s Policies Concerning the death Penalty†. Ontario Consultants on Religious Tolerance. Religious Tolerance. org). http://www. religioustolerance. org/execut7. htm 6. â€Å"The Death Penalty/Capital Punishment in the Hebrew Scriptures (Old Testament). Ontario Consultants on Religious Tolerance. Religious Tolerance. Org. http://www. religioustolerance. org/exe_bibl1. htm 7. Dieter, R. C. â€Å"The Death Penalty in Black and White: Who Lives, Who Dies, Who Decides†. June 1998. http://www. deathpenaltyinfo. org/article. php? scid=45&did=539 8. â€Å"Additional Innocence Information: Executed but Possibly Innocent†. Death penalty information Center. http://www. deathpenaltyinfo. org/article. php? scid=6&did=111#executed 9. â€Å"Public Opinion Polls on the Death Penalty†. Death Penalty Statistics, March 24, 2005. http://justice. uaa. alaska. edu/death/stats. html 10. â€Å"Exonerations by State†. Innocence and the Death Penalty. DPIC. http://www. deathpenaltyinfo. org/article. php? did=412&scid=6 11. â€Å"Exonerations by Year†. Innocence and the Death Penalty. DPIC. http://www. deathpenaltyinfo. org/article. php? did=412&scid=6 12. â€Å"Murder Victims’ Families for Reconciliation, Inc. May 24, 2006. http://www. mvfr. org/DeathPenaltyFacts. htm 13. â€Å"Yes Friends, there is an alternative to the death penalty! † Floridians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty (FADP). http://72. 14. 253. 104/search? q=cache: YUqcUlOTl9MJ:www. fadp. org/docs/alternatives. pdf+Alternative+for+death+ penalty&hl=en&gl=ph&ct=clnk&cd=4&client=firefox-a 14. Bailey, S. H. , Harris, D. J. , and Jones, B. L. Civil Liberties: Cases and Materials. 2d ed. , 2005. London: Butterworths. Standard legal textbook referring principally to British law. 15. Bumiller, Kristin. The Civil Rights Society: the Social Construction of Victims. Baltimore; London: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1999. Concise scholarly study.