Miranda v. Arizona Essay

Supreme Court Decision: The Supreme Court ruled 5-4 in favor of Miranda and it also enforced the Miranda warning to be given to a person being interrogated while in the custody of the police. Miranda Warning: You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say or do can and will be held against you in a court of law. You have the right to speak to an attorney. If you cannot afford an attorney, one will be appointed for you. Do you understand these rights as they have been read to you? The Supreme Court held that Miranda’s constitutional rights were not violated during interrogation. Case Background: A Mexican immigrant residing in Phoenix, Arizona, Ernesto Miranda, was identified to be a suspect in the line-up of a woman who accused him of rape and kidnapping. Police then arrested and interrogated Miranda. It took up to at least two hours of interrogation by police until Miranda the confessed to the crimes. The confession was written. During the two hours of interrogation, police did not once mention Miranda’s neither Fifth Amendment Protection against self-incrimination nor his Sixth amendment right to have the right to an attorney. After Miranda’s confession the case was then taken to trial hosted by Arizona state court an prosecutors used the oral and written confession as evidence against Miranda. Miranda was then found guilty and he was convicted and sentenced to 20-30 years in prison on each count. The conviction was then upheld due to the fact the Miranda’s attorney appealed to Arizona’s Supreme Court which then led to the case being appealed to the United States Supreme Court which also connected the case with four other similar ones. The court later came to an agreement that it is mandatory that the police have the role of protecting the rights of the accused suspect guaranteed by the Fifth and Sixth Amendments. After the Supreme Court came to the ruling, the rights to be read were the named the Miranda Rights in honor of Ernesto Miranda.

Advantages and disadvantagesof city life Essay

A city no doubt offers many tempting comforts and conveniences, pleasures and pass times, openings and opportunities, and that is why people from the country-side are pouring into it in thousands. In a city, there are schools, colleges, business houses and technical institutes, hospitals, charitable institutions, hospitals, cinemas, play – grounds, stadiums, parks, gardens and easy means of transport and communication. If we have sufficient money, we can have the best food and clothing, the best accommodation, the best education, the best of medical treatment and the best of entertainment. Disadvantages Even though the city life has its advantages, city life is far from being all good. The city is overpopulated, polluted, noisy, contaminated, filthy and smoky. The life can be disrupted by pollution, noise, corruptions and crime. City living can be very rushed and worried. Also in the city money is admired and money is indeed the core of all evils. The city with its insane pursuit for money and pleasures. It doesn’t accommodate the best environment for everyone; considering the development of the young. Some of the young residents fall into bad crowds, in a busy environment it’s easier to be introduced to smoking, drinking, gambling, drug taking etc. These conditions of a city life can pose a great threat to social harmony and advancements. A society that’s filled with crime and violence can make it difficult for some to grow and be successful. In the city it’s easier to be surrounded by all these corruptions than in the mild and calm country life. Some people prefer to live in a small town. Others prefer to live in a big city. Which place would you prefer to live in? Use specific reasons and details to support your answer. Read more: Village and city life essay There are undeniable advantages to both life in a big city and in a small town. The former offers more excitement and convenience while the latter offers a cleaner, quieter and often friendlier place to live. However, despite the advantages of small town life, I prefer to live in a big city for several reasons. First, life in the city is more convenient. More goods are available and stores are open later. Also, there is better public transportation so it is easier to get around. I can find almost anything I want easily in the city. Second, there are more ways to spend leisure time in the city. There are many places I can go to meet friends and have fun. Finally, and most importantly, the city offers more educational and career opportunities. The city often attracts the best teachers and the best companies. There is also a wider choice of jobs so it is easier to move up the career ladder. For all of these reasons, I prefer to live in the city. Although I sometimes miss the fresh air and quiet life of a small town, nothing can make up for the opportunities that the city offers me. If one wants to be successful, I believe the best place to live is the city. Advantages and disadvantages of city life Last update on March 23, 2013 under Bangladesh, Composition William Cowper, the famous English poet, wrote, â€Å"God made the country and man-made the town. † So, man has attraction to city life because he can enjoy more advantages by living in city. City Life More opportunities for work and employment: In a city there are more opportunities for work and employment. There are many offices, industries and factories in a city. Better scope of education: There are more schools and colleges in a city. So there is better scope of education. More and better medical facilities: In a city people get more and better medical facilities than the people of village. In a city there are more hospitals and clinics . there are more qualified doctors in a city. Easier communication: Science has made the world smaller. It has invented and discovered many means and ways of communication. So communication has become easier, in a city people can communicate with one another over telephone. Telex, fax etc. , through less inconvenience. Easier transportation: In a city people need not go to distant places on foot. There are various types of vehicles in a city by which people can reach a place earlier and faster with less trouble. More scope for art. Culture and literature: People in a city have more scope of practicing art culture and literature. There are more cultural centres and literary clubs. More scope of cultivating intellect: Since most of the people in a city have more scope of practicing art culture and literature. There are more cultural centres and literary clubs. More recreational facilities: In a city people enjoy more recreational facilities, there are many cinema halls. Theatre, clubs, parks etc. More comfortable domestic life: In a city domestic life is more comfortable . woman needs not go to bring water, to collect fire wood etc. to light kerosene lamp etc. More civic facilities: In a city people enjoy more civic facilities; they get everything at their hand Disadvantages: There is no unmixed blessing on earth. Everything has its merits and demerits. Similarly city life has some demerits than merits. Pollution: Air is more polluted in a city. It gets polluted in many ways, people cannot breath in pure air. Besides this, there arewater pollution and sound pollution. Higher standard of living: In a city the standard of living is costlier and higher, people of limited income lead income their life through much hardship, the price of things are very higher. More violence and crime: More violence and crime take place in a city, the criminals do not hesitate to commit crime, violence, killing, hijacking and so many crimes and anti-social activities. More in secured life: Life in a city is more in secures. People have no safety and security, less scope of enjoying of natural beautiful flowers and murmuring streams on the earth below. He cannot hear the sweet songs of birds. More traffic jam: Sometimes people in a city get stuck in a traffic jam and as a result they suffer more. Less scope of getting fresh things: there is less scope of getting fresh things, in a city there is adulteration in everything. Less scope of enjoying life: he is always in a hurry as if some invisible demon, the demon of materialism, drives him on with a whip in hand. In short, life here is so artificial that man soon loses his divine origin and becomes almost a machine. Above all, a city is a veritable university for men who like to acquire wisdom from observation and experience. Someone has truly said: if you would be known and not know, live in a village; if you would know and be unknown, live in a city.

A League of Their Own

The film begins with the commencement of the second world war and female baseball players are drafted into the All American Girls Baseball League, in the attempt to save the sport. With the induction of this league, the girls obtained the chance to show how women deserve an equal chance in sports, an opportunity to show their hard work and perseverance, and free themselves from the clutches of lower class life through success in the sport. The value of family was portrayed throughout the film and became a top priority for some of the players. In achieving a spot on a team the girls also had to conform to the rules and requirements that the owners of the league were demanding. To give this league the popularity it needed, the girls needed to work hard to be the leagues top players in every team. They all acquired the chance to go to training camps and try out for teams that would be placed into the league. The amount of work they displayed to get placed on the team showed that they wanted to earn the respect of the country and show that women could do more than just care for kids or be in charge of the kitchen. They worked extremely hard to show that women could play the sport as easily as men could. For example, this hardworking value was best portrayed by Kit, one of the individuals who played for the league. She got her sister to play because that was the only way they would take her and she did not want to stay on a farm for the rest of her life. Her persistent attitude helped her reach her goal and she became one of the top players of her time just like her sister. The family values are expressed greatly throughout the film by all the characters, but particularly by Dotti. Many of the women on the team had spouses in the army or back home. Dotti was the protagonist who was a girl with beauty and love of the sport like no other girl. What was different about her, besides being extremely skillful in the sport and never having a bad game, was that in her mind she was only playing while her husband was in the war. She loved the game, but her husband and family were always more important for her. The conflict between winning and her sister’s loyalty ended with her realizing that being friends with her sister was far more important than winning or playing in a baseball league. The women dealt with external conformity within the league because of the rules and regulations that the owners had placed on apparel and style of play. The women were required to wear a skirt outfit and makeup while they were playing. They were all forced to take etiquette classes and learn how to act like â€Å"ladies†. The women were upset with this because they had joined the league to play the sport they loved not to go out on the field and model for the fans. This movie was used to display that women were not inferior to men and to show how the game of baseball was used as more than publicity. The hard work and perseverance gave women in the united states a sense of hope and desire to succeed in a male dominated world.

East European Jews Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

East European Jews - Essay Example They were greeted with hostility the moment they landed in New Amsterdam. The government of the day also treated them with contempt and denied them religious freedom as is evident from Governor Peter Stuyvesant’s view that â€Å"If we grant liberties to the Jews, we will have to grant them also to the Lutherans and the Papists† (Kampelman 586). It was indeed a long and hard struggle for the community to gain basic rights. â€Å"What shall we do with these rejected and condemned people, the Jews?† (Noble) Surprisingly, these were the words of Martin Luther King Jr., the champion of the civil rights movement and an iconic figure in American history. In his speech, he goes on to propose- â€Å"synagogues should be burned to the ground; their houses destroyed; their prayer books seized; their rabbis forbidden to teach on pain of death †¦ they should be prevented from traveling in the countryside and their wealth confiscated †¦ the young and strong should be forced to do menial work in order to prevent them feasting and farting †¦ we should toss out these rogues by the seat of their pants† (Noble) Across the Atlantic, the Nazis did not miss this propaganda opportunity. Hitler mentions in Mein Kampf that Luther is a â€Å"great historical protagonist† and someone he admired greatly. Irrespective of his real intentions, Martin Luther offered in his writings a historical and intellectual justification for the Holocaust, which the Nazis took pains to exploit† (Noble). The attacks in West Hartford, Connecticut and New York City stand out among numerous other occurrences in the 1980’s. There was a series of such incidents leaving behind burnt synagogues, destitute families and shattered livelihoods. The expressway shootout was another example of such pattern of events where Yeshiva students and other Jews, descendents of East European Jews, were targeted in 4 such shootouts during a 3 month period (Time 18). The disappointing fact about anti-Semitism in America

How do you define success Do you feel that you have been successful Essay

How do you define success Do you feel that you have been successful How would you work to achieve greater success both professionally and personally - Essay Example I feel very disheartened when I see people who have started very well early on in their careers, excelled at the threshold of their professional lives but fizzle out very soon. Is it due to the clutches of materialism? Or does the initial spurt of success get the better of their consciousness? I would not know. I for one have been fortunate to be blessed with little successes along the way – enough to motivate me and keep me going, yet scarce enough to play the role of appetizers, making me crave for more. At the very beginning of my career, as an employee of the Building Permit Department of Kuwait Municipality along with issuing approvals for building designs, an occasional client who could not afford an engineering consultancy would ask me to design. Thus, I began discovering my inherent creativity, my natural desire to create and my deep-rooted love for real estate. I did feel a little sense of achievement doing this, but success would not be the right word to describe the feeling. I went on to establish a trading firm in partnership and became the managing partner. We diversified into a lot of businesses. From taking sub-franchisees of an ice-cream company to taking the distributorship of an automotive company, our mainstay of course being buying and selling real estate – dealing in land and building on them. My initial experience with my own business taught me that I have a natural instinct to manage and run a business and a positive attitude towards dealing with people and getting work done. It also made me realize that the only way to understand the concept of Business Management on your own is to actually be in the thick of the action. Since it was my own money and assets involved, my commitment could not be questioned. I feel I have the necessary qualities to be a successful manager. An Executive MBA program, besides honing my technical skills, will give me an insight into markets and the financial world. This

Planet of the Apes Coursework Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Planet of the Apes - Coursework Example These fossils suggest that two Eurasian ape lineages, the Siyapithecus and the Dryopithecus, are the ancestors of great apes and humans. The Siyapithecus are the presumably the forebears of the orangutan. The Dryopithecus are the ancestors of the African apes and humans. Unlike in Africa, full fossils of primates in Eurasia are not as abundant. The fossils of primates in Eurasia are mostly mandibles, teeth, and partial bone fragments. The first fossil primate found and named was Adapis parisiensis Cuvier 1822. This was a lemur found from the chalk mines of Paris. Cuvier, because of the mistaken belief that human origin came from Africa, thought his find was an ungulate. It was not until after Cuvier’s death that his student, Édouard Lartet, identified this first fossil as a higher primate. The Adapis parisiensis is now know as Pliopithecus. The Pliopithecus is a jaw. This and other evidence has convinced the skeptical scholars that these higher primates had once lived in Europe. The first fossil great ape, Dryopithecus, from the French Pyrà ©nà ©es was discovered in 1872. Many more ape jaws and teeth fragments, along with a few limb bones were found all over Europe during the 19th and 20th centuries. These fossils suggest that two Euras ian ape lineages, the Siyapithecus and the Dryopithecus, are the ancestors of great apes and humans. A primitive ape and great ape’s differences began with their body size. A primitive ape is smaller than a great ape. A primitive ape had a body shaped like a monkey. This allowed treetop traveling, using all four limbs. With a long lower back, a flexible back, and a deep rib cage, treetop traveling was easy. Power and speed was enabled by flexible elbow, shoulder, and hip joints. These joints kept the limbs under the body. The arms and legs on a primitive ape were the same size. On the other hand, great apes were built to hang and swing from branch to branch. The

Tourism Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Tourism - Essay Example The government should ensure that there is a maximum security for both domestic and international tourists. This will automatically increase the number of tourists visiting the region because they will feel safe. The government can also spread a good word about the destination by holding conferences both locally and internationally. B. The private sector should not be left behind in the promotion of tourism. This is because the benefits of booming tourist activities will not only benefit the government, but also the private sector. Therefore, through seminars and other forms of publications, the private sector can also play a vital role in the promotion of tourism. A. The whole process of promoting a region, though cumbersome, has a lot of reward. Advertising is one of the most effective ways of promoting a region as a tourist destination. Using both local and international mass media to advertise tourism packages is one of the most effect ways of promoting Kenyan tourism. A. The city of Mombasa has a wide variety activities and towns that will definitely satisfy the visiting people. This ranges from the fringed coastal beaches to the many old Swahili towns that served as residential areas for the early inhabitants of the coastal city. A. Tourism can also play a vital role to rid the city of its negatives, for example, the arrival of tourists from antidrug agencies such as the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) can promote the fight against drug abuse in Mombasa though sports and holding of educative conferences. B. Eco tourism is also another tourist activity that will impact positively, tourists visiting the fragile and relatively undisturbed areas and providing funds for ecological conservation will lead to economic development. B. The economy of the region will also improve as the money from outside will be spent in local hotels, restaurants and other businesses thereby leading to the rise in the economy and development of the region. A. To ensure

Violent Video Games Make Kids Violent Research Paper

Violent Video Games Make Kids Violent - Research Paper Example Majority of the studies agree, nevertheless, that violent video games can have significant impact on aggression among children (Bartholow et al; Carnagey et al.; Funk et al.; Polman et al.). Although not all children who play violent video games develop aggressive behaviors, several studies showed that violent video games can make kids violent, including those who do not have aggressive traits, because it decreases their capacity for empathy, it desensitizes them to violence, and it develops antisocial behaviors. Playing violent video games reduces children’s ability to show empathy to others, which can make them more aggressive toward other people. Violent video games commonly show lack of empathy for others, where players can attack authorities and other human beings with ease and without consideration for laws and other psychological effects of their actions. Funk et al. studied the effects of playing violent video games on participants’ responses to vignettes, or fictional stories that contain violence. The vignettes included empathy and aggression stories. Empathy refers to â€Å"self-conscious† emotions when making moral judgments (Funk et al. 417). It is about being able to feel for someone in a different situation and responding properly to that person because of empathy (Funk et al. 417). The study of Funk et al. included 35 students with ages ranging eight to twelve years old. They surveyed the video game playing habits of these children. Then, they were made t o play one or two violent video games, and then asked to respond to vignettes on empathy and aggression. To increase identification with the actors of the vignettes, they were made specific to the gender of the participants. For instance, if the participant was a girl, then the vignette has girl characters. Findings showed that playing violent video games in the long run had significant effects on aggression because it could decrease empathy levels (Funk et al. 429). Because of playing

Amal Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Amal - Assignment Example In the career-development world, Holland, Super, Gottfredson, Brown, and Krumboltz shed some light on process-goals. Process-goals are steps that lead to career development goals. In order for individuals to implement these strategies, it is crucial that they get exposed to real-life scenarios in which they can be able to compare and contrast their acquired skills set. For instance, increasing their proficiency would mean sitting down them individually or in small groups and explaining the concepts to them through real-life methodology. All of them also agree that collaborating is undoubtedly essential in order to thrive in any profession as the thoughts of ideas, knowledge, and practices are exchanged. They tend to agree that individuals must follow a network of collaboration, goal-setting, and practical theory that enables them to harness their career. The traditional career development model is to educate first and then apply these skills, which can be problematic because of nurtu re and nature development. Most careers entail long coursework, which may or may not be relevant to that particular skillset. This holds true in some of the technical careers, especially the ones around the automotive career involve more of practice work. I think it is crucial to understand that some immigrant families have a hard time assimilating. 2. Choose a particular population for one of the following aspects of diversity: age, gender, sexual orientation, or disability, and discuss the issues which you will need to be aware of in order to deliver career counseling effectively. Also, how will your own background and identity be a factor for you in working with this particular population? You will need to utilize a minimum of two journal articles for this question. A huge issue that only plagues immigrant, especially women immigrants as business owners is gender inequality. I have first-hand witnessed gender inequality, which has become

Financial Crisis Recovery Essay Example for Free

Financial Crisis Recovery Essay 1997-1998 Financial Crisis The weaknesses in Asian financial systems were at the root of the crisis that caused largely by the lack of incentives for effective risk management created by implicit or explicit government guarantees against failure. The weaknesses of the financial sector also were masked by rapid growth and accentuated by large capital inflows, which were partly encouraged by pegged exchange rates. In the mid-1990s, a series of external shocks began to change the economic environment the devaluation of the Chinese Renminbi and the Japanese Yen, rising of U. S. interest rates which led to a strong U.S. dollar, the sharp decline in semiconductor prices; adversely affected their growth. The crisis began in Thailand when the Thai baht collapse of in July 1997 with a series of speculative attacks on the baht extended after quite a few decades of outstanding economic performance in Asia. As the U.S. economy recovered from a recession in the early 1990s, the U.S. Federal Reserve Bank under Alan Greenspan began to raise U.S. interest rates to head off inflation. This made the U.S. a more attractive investment destination relative to Southeast Asia, which had been attracting hot money flows through high short-term interest rates, and raised the value of the U.S. dollar. For the Southeast Asian nations which had currencies pegged to the U.S. dollar, the higher U.S. dollar caused their own exports to become more expensive and less competitive in the global markets. At the same time, Southeast Asias export growth slowed dramatically in the spring of 1996, deteriorating their current account position. Many economists believe that the Asian crisis was created not by market psychology or technology, but by policies that distorted incentives within the lender–borrower relationship. Impacts of the crisis to the South East Asia Most of Southeast Asia and Japan having currency depreciation, devalued stock markets and other asset prices, and a precipitous rise in private debt. It were resulting large quantities of credit became available generated a highly leveraged economic climate, and pushed up asset prices to an unsustainable level. These asset prices eventually began to collapse, causing individuals, financial institutions and corporations in the affected countries were bankrupt. A change in market sentiment could and did lead into a violent of currency depreciation, insolvency, and capital outflows, which was difficult to stop. In the year after collapse of the baht peg, the value of the most affected East Asian currencies fell 35-83% against the U.S. dollar (measured in dollars per unit of the Asian currency), and the most serious stock declines were as great as 40-60%. Lenders led to a large withdrawal of credit from the crisis countries, causing a credit crunch and further bankruptcies. Foreign investors attempted to withdraw their money; the exchange market was flooded with the currencies of the crisis countries, putting depreciative pressure on their exchange rates. As a result, short-term economic activity has slowed or contracted severely in the most affected economies like inflation and rising in unemployment. It impossible that the government doing nothing when the crisis happened to their country. To prevent currency values collapsing, countries governments raised fiscal spending in domestic interest rates to exceedingly high levels (to help diminish flight of capital by making lending more attractive to investors) and to intervene in the exchange market, buying up any excess domestic currency at the fixed exchange rate with foreign reserves. But when interest rates were very high, it can be extremely damaging to an economy that is healthy, wreaked further havoc on economies in an already fragile state, while the central banks were hemorrhaging foreign reserves, of which they had finite amounts. As a strategy to maintain competitiveness, policies to strengthen the country’s balance-of-payments account were pursued. For example, exports were encouraged and imports were discouraged, the latter through an increase in import taxes on certain goods and services. Measures to increase exports for providing handouts directly to people affected included reducing the cost of doing business through such means as tax incentives to boost the manufacturing, agriculture, and services sectors. In the case Malaysia for example, there are policies regarding 1997 crisis: Denial and hesitation, the Malaysian government denied that there was a crisis in the first place; Tight fiscal and monetary policies, and restructuring the banking system; Government proposed to use regional currencies instead of the US dollars in inter-ASEAN bilateral trade; and Financing the recovery programs with the total cost of all measures was RM62 billion. While in the case of Indonesia, the government providing assistance to the poor like efforts to shield poor and vulnerable sections of society from the worst of the crisis, by deepening and widening social safety nets and devoting substantial budgetary resources to increasing subsidies on basic commodities such as rice; measures to increase transparency in the financial, corporate, and government sectors; and steps to improve the efficiency of markets and increase competition. Another example of helping the poor and needy, government must be fair and redistribute the wealth equally to them according their basic necessities of life. In Malaysia, the practicing of zakat system and waqaf contribution to help the poor and needy indirectly will benefit the society. Moreover, Bank Rakyat and ar-rahnu market on Islamic pawn-broking will help the small and medium enterprise to expend their business. Government also must allocate the budget expenditure for subsidizing mainly on education, healthcare and housing for the people. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) is an international organization that provides financial assistance and advice to member countries. It was created out of a need to prevent economic crises like the Great Depression. With its sister organization, the World Bank, the IMF is the largest public lender of funds in the world. It is a specialized agency of the United Nations and is run by its 186 member countries. Membership is open to any country that conducts foreign policy and accepts the organizations statutes. The IMF is responsible for the creation and maintenance of the international monetary system, the system by which international payments among countries take place. A core responsibility of the IMF is to provide loans to member countries experiencing actual or potential balance of payments problems. This financial assistance enables countries to rebuild their international reserves, stabilize their currencies, continue paying for imports, and restore conditions for strong economic growth, while undertaking policies to correct underlying problems. Unlike development banks, the IMF does not lend for specific projects. It thus strives to provide a systematic mechanism for foreign exchange transactions in order to foster investment and promote balanced global economic trade. To achieve these goals, the IMF focuses and advises on the macroeconomic policies of a country, which affect its exchange rate and its governments budget, money and credit management. The IMF will also appraise a countrys financial sector and its regulatory policies, as well as structural policies within the macroeconomic that relate to the labor market and employment. In addition, as a fund, it may offer financial assistance to nations in need of correcting balance of payments discrepancies. The IMF is thus entrusted with nurturing economic growth and maintaining high levels of employment within countries. The large financial packages which the IMF has arranged for countries affected by the Asian crisis and its result have stimulated a debate both among policy-makers and academics as to their costs and benefits. The IMF’s role in providing financial assistance to its members in overcoming short-term balance-of-payment difficulties generally has been evident. Advantages and disadvantages of IMF The IMF offers its assistance which it conducts on a yearly basis for individual countries, regions and the global economy as a whole. However, a country may ask for financial assistance if it finds itself in an economic crisis, whether caused by a sudden shock to its economy or poor macroeconomic planning. A financial crisis will result in severe devaluation of the countrys currency or a major depletion of the nations foreign reserves. In return for the IMFs help, a country is usually required to embark on an IMF-monitored economic reform program, otherwise known as Structural Adjustment Policies (SAPs). An IMF loan provides a cushion that eases the adjustment policies and reforms that a country must make to correct its balance of payments problem and restore conditions for strong economic growth. Supporters argue that the IMF can also impose necessary reforms on an economy. Reforms such as privatization, fiscal responsibility, control of Money supply, and attacking corruption. These policies may cause short term pain, but, are essential for preventing future crisis and long term development. Substantial financial advantages are attached to IMF credits because debtor countries benefit from lower debt service costs. Moreover, commercial banks often demand agreement with the IMF before lending is resumed and generally will charge lower interest rates to countries with an IMF program. The benefits attached to the IMF loan can be regarded as a compensation for the policy adjustments which the debtor countries carry through. At the same time, thanks to the unique role the IMF can play, the costs involved for the creditor countries seem to be rather limited, as the opportunity costs of forgoing the proceeds of alternative investments are relatively small. By temporarily providing finance and at the same time fostering adjustment, member countries could overcome external problems without overly detrimental measures either for their own population or for other countries. The interest rates charged by the IMF in normal circumstances can be relatively low, because the special role of the IMF in the international financial system reduces the risks for the IMF itself as well as for the creditor countries which have provided the resources. Because of its special position the IMF can mitigate the risks attached to its loans. Helped by its low funding costs, the IMF can charge debtor countries lower interest rates than private sector participants which have to charge high spreads because of the sovereign risks involved. Over time, the IMF has been subject to a range of criticisms, generally focused on the conditions of its loans. The IMF has also been criticized for its lack of accountability and willingness to lend to countries with bad human rights record. On giving loans to countries, the IMF makes the loan conditional on the implementation of certain economic policies. These policies tend to involve: * Reducing government borrowing Higher taxes and lower spending * Higher interest rates to stabilize the currency. * Allow failing firms to go bankrupt. * Structural adjustment. Privatizations deregulation, reducing corruption and bureaucracy. The problem is that these policies of structural adjustment and macroeconomic intervention make the situation worse. For example, in the Asian crisis of 1997, many countries such as Indonesia, Korea and Thailand were required by IMF to pursue tight monetary policy (higher interest rates) and tight fiscal policy to reduce the budget deficit and strengthen exchange rates. However, these policies caused a minor slowdown to turn into a serious recession with mass unemployment. The IMF have been criticized for imposing policy with little or no consultation with affected countries. Jeffrey Sachs, the head of the Harvard Institute for International Development said: In Korea the IMF insisted that all presidential candidates immediately endorse an agreement which they had no part in drafting or negotiating, and no time to understand. The situation is out of hand. It defies logic to believe the small group of 1,000 economists on 19th Street in Washington should dictate the economic conditions of life to 75 developing countries with around 1.4 billion people. Because the IMF lends its money with strings attached in the form of its SAPs, many people and organizations are vehemently opposed to its activities. Opposition groups claim that structural adjustment is an undemocratic and inhumane means of loaning funds to countries facing economic failure. Debtor countries to the IMF are often faced with having to put financial concerns ahead of social ones. Thus, by being required to open up their economies to foreign investment, to privatize public enterprises, and to cut government spending, these countries suffer an inability to properly fund their education and health programs. Moreover, foreign corporations often exploit the situation by taking advantage of local cheap labor while showing no regard for the environment. The oppositional groups say that locally cultivated programs, with a more grassroots approach towards development, would provide greater relief to these economies. Critics of the IMF say that, as it stands now, the IMF is only deepening the rift between the wealthy and the poor nations of the world. Indeed, it seems that many countries cannot end the spiral of debt and devaluation. The relatively low interest rates charged by the IMF can lead to moral hazard behavior on the part of the debtor countries. This is largely reduced through the tough policy measures which the IMF imposes as a condition for its programmers. In practice, most countries do not turn to the IMF if not forced by adverse circumstances. Decisions about which countries may borrow money are made by rich countries. Poor countries have little say about loans and the conditions attached to them. The IMF will only lend money to countries if they agree to certain conditions. These conditions increase poverty. The livelihoods of people in poorer countries are destroyed by unfair competition from foreign goods and services. The IMF does not give good financial advice. Countries have suffered by following it. IMF East Asia Case The IMF was involved in one of the worst East-Asian economic crises thus far. Everything started when Thailand was experiencing difficulties in meeting foreign liability obligations so the IMF intervened by suggested to devalue the Baht. The same suggestion was made to Indonesia, Korea and the Philippine. Soon, South Korea and Taiwan jumped in the trend and Hong Kong and Singapore dollars faced speculative attack. The crisis spread all the way to South America where Brazil and Argentina currency came under attack, but they both stood their grounds and refused to devalue which might have prevented a global financial crisis. Other aspects of the handling of the case that were looked down upon were the issue of the bail-out and the political situation of the borrowing country had once again been ignored. Thailand had already borrowed from the IMF and they were bailed-out very publicly which gave an incentive for surrounding countries to follow very risky projects or decisions, believing that the IMF would be a safety net as opposed to a lender of last resort. This is what happened in South Korea when large, unprofitable investment projects were undertaken, largely due in part to the conglomerates of businesses that are close to the bureaucracy but more importantly, sponsored by the IMF. Likewise, Fund officials protested that many East-Asian countries needed a reform in the banking system and governance, where bad banking, nepotism and corruption do not help create stable and efficient economies. During August December 1997, the International Monetary Fund signed three emergency lending agreements with Thailand (August), Indonesia (November), and Korea (December). These programs established packages of international financial support at an unprecedented cumulative sum of approximately $110 billion, based on the financing commitments. During the period August to December, the IMF programs failed dramatically to meet the objective of restoring market confidence. In all three countries, the exchange rate was expected to stabilize, but in fact quickly depreciated far below the targets set in the program, and this despite a very sharp increase in interest rates. Foreign investors remained unconvinced about the debt servicing capacity of the private debtors despite the announced availability of IMF loans, and continued to demand the repayment of short-term loans as they fell due. The IMF programs failed to achieve their goal of maintaining moderate economic growth in the Asian countries. The programs also failed on several intermediate goals, including the preservation of creditworthiness, the continuation of debt payments, and the stabilization of the exchange rate at levels that prevailed upon the signing of the original lending agreements Indonesia was deeply affected by the 1997–1998 crises, more so than its East Asian neighbors. Its economic contraction was deeper and more prolonged. It was the only one to experience a (temporary) loss of macroeconomic control. Eight years have passed since the collapse of Suharto’s New Order regime on the heels of the economic crisis of 1997–1998. During that time, Indonesia’s economy contracted by over 13% in 1998 alone. This followed three decades of virtually uninterrupted rapid economic growth and led to deep social and political crises. Although countries such as South Korea and Thailand were able to overcome their economic crises in a few years, Indonesia’s crisis resolution has been complicated by political instability, at least until 2004, and by a slower recovery. Indonesia was formally under International Monetary Fund management from 1997 to the end of 2003. But the presence of the IMF actually increased the severity of the Indonesian economy, not more than one year after that; there were capital flight out of the country that led to massive unemployment, compounded by the drastic decline in the exchange rate. At the end of 1998 more than 50% of Indonesias population lives below the poverty line. One of the IMFs policy prescriptions is to close 16 banks and it caused the anger of people and withdraws their money in national banks and some foreign banks. In May 1998, due to an agreement between the IMF and Suharto, the government revoked subsidies for food, and raises the price of oil and electricity. This policy had a strong opposition from the people and not long after that, Suharto regime fell. During Megawati regime, in August 2003 the government finally decided not to continue the IMF program and choose to enter the post-program monitoring. The government option raises the consequences that are not much different. IMF can still continue to dictate economic policy in Indonesia because the government still had to consult every economic policy that will be taken with IMF. The Indonesian government announced that they would pay the remaining debt to the IMF, totaling U.S. $ 7.8 billion, within 2 years. It seems to be the correct political decision to break away from the economic policy interventions that has continued since the crisis in 1997. 2008 Financial Crisis Triggered by events in The US and EU The cause or trigger of the 2008 global financial crisis was the boom of the United States housing bubble which peaked in approximately 2005–2006. Since banks began to give out more loans to potential home owners, housing prices began to increase. The increase in house price and improvement of construction activity started around 1992. At that time the Federal Reserve was holding its policy interest rate at an unusually low level by the standards of the past few decades. The good times lasted until 2005, when monetary policy was tightening after another spell of low interest rates. Over that period, construction activity contributed 1/5 percentage points annually to the growth rate of real GDP, and the share of employment in construction and finance, out of the total workforce, rose from 10 ¼ percent to 11 ¾ percent. That is, over this period, of the 27.4 million people added to work rolls (which ended 2006 with a total of 136 million), 4.8 million were directly related to construction and fifi nance. Finally, the nation was left with an excess stock of housing. A contraction in construction transpired to wind down the inventory overhang, which is often a feature of economic slowdowns and recessions. In addition to that, easy lending standards also contributed to the Real estate bubble. Loans of various types (e.g., mortgage, credit card, and auto) were easy to obtain. As part of the housing and credit booms, the number of financial agreements called mortgage-backed securities (MBS) and collateralized debt obligations (CDO), which derived their value from mortgage payments and housing prices, greatly increased. That kind of financial innovation attracted institutions and investors around the world to invest in the U.S. housing market. As housing prices declined, major global financial institutions that had borrowed and invested heavily in subprime MBS reported significant losses. While the housing and credit bubbles were expanding, US Government was going a process called financialization. US Government policy from the 1970s onward has emphasized deregulation to encourage business, which resulted in less oversight of activities and less disclosure of information about new activities undertaken by banks and other evolving financial institutions. Thus, policymakers did not immediately recognize the increasingly important role played by financial institutions such as investment banks and hedge funds, also known as the shadow banking system. These institutions, as well as certain regulated banks, had also assumed significant debt burdens while providing the loans described above and did not have a financial cushion sufficient to absorb large loan defaults or MBS losses. These losses impacted the ability of financial institutions to lend, slowing economic activity. The U.S. Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission reported its findings in January 2011. It concluded that the crisis was avoidable and was caused by: 1. Widespread failures in financial regulation, including the Federal Reserve’s failure to stem the tide of toxic mortgages; 2. Dramatic breakdowns in corporate governance including too many financial firms acting recklessly and taking on too much risk; 3. An explosive mix of excessive borrowing and risk by households and Wall Street that put the financial system on a collision course with crisis; 4. Key policy makers ill prepared for the crisis, 5. Lacking a full understanding of the financial system they oversaw; and systemic breaches in accountability and ethics at all levels.[35][36] Table 1 The Causes and Impacts of Global Financial Crisis Taken from Takatoshi Ito â€Å"Comparison of the Financial Crises: Japan and Asia in 1997-1998 vs. U.S. 2008-09† The Collapse of World Trade Although the crisis is originally from financial sector, trade had great implication that hit countries around the world. Exports collapsed in nearly every major trading country, and total world trade fell faster than it did during the Great Depression. From a peak in July 2008 to the low in February 2009, the nominal value of world goods exports fell 36 percent; the nominal value of U.S. goods exports fell 28 percent (imports fell 38 percent) over the same period. Even a country such as Germany, which did not experience their own housing bubble, experienced substantial trade contractions, which helped spread the crisis. The collapse in net export in Germany contributed to the decline in their GDP which put the country into recession. In the fourth quarter of 2008, Germany’s drop in net exports contributed 8.1 percentage points to a 9.4 percent decline in GDP (at an annual rate); Japan’s net exports contributed 9.0 percentage points to a 10.2 percent GDP decline. Real exports fell even faster in the first quarter of 2009. The Decline in Output Around the Globe The financial crisis was rapidly transmitted to the real economy. The financial disruption was so strong and swift in most countries so that their confidence level in economy fell as well. Confidence levels are measured in different ways across countries, but they were generally falling throughout 2008 and reached recent lows in the fall of 2008 and winter of 2009. As noted, world GDP is estimated to have fallen roughly 1.1 percent in 2009 from the year before. In advanced economies, the crisis was even deeper; the IMF expects GDP to have contracted 3.4 percent in advanced economies for all of 2009. For OECD member countries, GDP fell at an annual rate of 7.2 percent in the fourth quarter of 2008 and 8.4 percent in the first quarter of 2009. Despite the historic nature of its collapse, the U.S. economy actually fared better than about half of OECD economies during those quarters. The decline in industrial production across major economies, each of these economies in January 2009 was more than 10 percent below its January 2008 level, and Japan faring far worse relative to the other major economies. Impact on Developing Countries The impact of the crisis on developing countries will affect different types of international resource flows: private capital flows such as Foreign Direct Investment (FDI), portfolio flows and international lending; official flows such as development finance institutions; and capital and current transfers such as official development assistance and remittances. The World Association of Investment Promotion Agencies foresees a 15% drop in FDI 2009. FDI to Turkey has already fallen 40% over the last year and FDI to India dropped by 40% in the first six months of 2008. FDI to China was $6.6 billion in September 2008, 20% down from the monthly average in year 2008 so far, and mining investments in South Africa and Zambia have been put on hold. The crisis has led to a drop in bond and equity issuances and the sell-off of risky assets in developing countries. The average volume of bond issuances by developing countries was only $6 billion between July 2007 and March 2008, down from $ 15 billion over the same period in 2006. Between January and March 2008, equity issuance by developing countries stood at $5 billion, its lowest level in five years. As a result, World Bank research suggests some 91 International Public Offerings have been withdrawn or postponed in 2008. However, not all developing countries were effected tremendously by 2008 financial crisis. In South East Asia we may take a look Indonesia performance towards the 2008 financial crisis. Indonesia experienced a significant macroeconomic shock at the end of 2008. But, of course, Indonesia was not on its own. Indeed, Indonesia was one of the least affected countries in South East Asia. Although GDP growth slowed markedly to 4.4% in the first quarter of 2009, it did not experience the collapse in growth experienced by countries such a Korea, Thailand and Malaysia. Indonesia’s growth in recent years has been driven predominantly by non-tradeables rather than tradeables, and, although the crisis reduced growth across the board, sectors such as transport and communications, and utilities have continued to grow in double digits. At the same time, the tradeable sector which has performed best is agriculture, which, at 4.8%, has experienced its strongest growth since the East Asian crisis, helping to compensate for the effects of the crisis. Indonesia has learnt from 1997 crisis so that they can manage 2008 financial crisis well. The Role of International Institutions of The G-20 The G-20, which includes 19 nations plus the European Union, is the the main nations of much of the coordination on trade policy, financial policy, and crisis response. Its membership is composed of most of the world’s largest economies and makes up nearly 90 percent of world gross national product. The first G-20 leaders’ summit was held at the peak of the crisis in November 2008. At that point, G-20 countries committed to keep their markets open, adopt policies to support the global economy, and stabilize the financial sector. The second G-20 leaders’ summit took place in April 2009 at the height of concern about rapid falls in GDP and trade. Leaders of the world’s largest economies pledged to â€Å"do everything necessary to ensure recovery, to repair our financial systems and to maintain the global flow of capital.† Furthermore, they committed to work together on tax and financial policies. Perhaps the most notable act of world coordination was the decision to provide substantial new funding to the IMF. U.S. leadership helped secure a commitment by the G-20 leaders to provide over $800 billion to fund multilateral banks broadly, with over $500 billion of those funds allocated to the IMF in particular. In September 2009, the G-20 leaders met in Pittsburgh. They noted that international cooperation and national action had been critical in arresting the crisis and putting the world’s economies on the path toward recovery. They also recognized that continued action was necessary, pledged to â€Å"sustain our strong policy response until a durable recovery is secured,† and committed to avoid premature withdrawal of stimulus. They launched a new Framework for Strong, Sustainable, and Balanced Growth that committed the G-20 countries to work together to assess how their policies fit together and evaluate whether they were â€Å"collectively consistent with more sustainable and balanced growth.† Further, the leaders committed to act together to improve the global financial system through financial regulatory reforms and actions to increase capital in the system. It set up emergency lines of credit (called Flexible Credit Lines) with Colombia, Mexico, and Poland, which in total are worth over $80 billion. These lines were intended to provide immediate liquidity in the event of a run by investors, but also to signal to the markets that funds were available, making a run less likely. In each of these countries, markets responded positively to the announcement of the credit lines, with the cost of insuring the countries’ bonds narrowing (International Monetary Fund 2009b). The IMF also negotiated a set of standby agreements with 15 countries, committing a total of $75 billion to help them survive the economic crisis by smoothing current account adjustments and mitigating liquidity pressures. IMF analysis suggests that this program discouraged large exchange-rate f in fluctuate in these countries (International Monetary Fund 2009). These actions as well as the very existence of a better-funded global lender may have helped to keep the contraction short and to prevent sustained currency crises in many emerging nations. The Government Responses The U.S. executed two stimulus packages, totaling nearly $1 trillion during 2008 and 2009. The U.S. Federal Reserves new and expanded liquidity facilities were intended to enable the central bank to fulfill its traditional lender-of-last-resort role during the crisis while mitigating stigma, broadening the set of institutions with access to liquidity, and increasing the flexibility with which institutions could tap such liquidity. United States President Barack Obama and key advisers introduced a series of regulatory proposals in June 2009. The proposals address consumer protection, executive pay, bank financial cushions or capital requirements, expanded regulation of the shadow banking system and derivatives, and enhanced authority for the Federal Reserve to safely wind-down systemically important institutions, among others. The response of the Federal Reserve, the European Central Bank, and other central banks was taken shortly and dramatic. During the last quarter of 2008, these central banks purchased US$2.5 trillion of government debt and troubled private assets from banks. The governments of European nations and the USA also raised the capital of their national banking systems by $1.5 trillion, by purchasing newly issued preferred stock in their major banks. In October 2010, Nobel laureate Joseph Stiglitz explained how the U.S. Federal Reserve was implementing another monetary policy —creating currency— as a method to combat the liquidity trap. By creating $600,000,000,000 and inserting this directly into banks, the Federal Reserve intended to spur banks to finance more domestic loans and refinance mortgages. However, banks instead were spending the money in more profitable areas by investing internationally in emerging markets. The bank bailout, more formally called the Troubled Asset Relief Program, failed to achieve the ultimate goal. The goal of these bailouts from the perspective of the largest financial institution is billions of dollars in taxpayer money allowed institutions that were on the brink of collapse not only to survive but even to flourish. The legislation that created TARP, the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act, had far broader goals, including protecting home values and preserving homeownership. Congress was told that TARP would be used to purchase up to $700 billion of mortgages and to obtain the necessary votes, Treasury promised that it would modify those mortgages to assist struggling homeowners. However, almost immediately, as permitted by the broad language of the act, Treasury’s plan for TARP shifted from the purchase of mortgages to the infusion of hundreds of billions of dollars into the nation’s largest financial institutions, a shift that came with the express promise that it would restore lending. Treasury, however, provided the money to banks with no effective policy or effort to force the extension of credit. There were no strings attached: no requirement or even incentive to increase lending to home buyers, and against our strong recommendation, not even a request that banks report how they used TARP funds. It raised the issues on accountability in providing the bailouts. Lesson Learnt from 2008 Crisis There are several lessons that can be learnt from 2008 financial crisis. Those lessons are stated below : 1. Aggregate volatility is part of market system. There is a need to have more depth study of aggregate volatility. 2. Long lived large firms (such as financial institutions) may not be fully trusted. We should rethink the role of reputation of firms in market transactions. In addition, we need to revisit the key elements of the economy of organization so that reputation should be derived from the behavior not merely from the asset. 3. Economic growth will only take place if there is real increase in the real commodities not financial commodities. 4. People mistakenly equated free markets with unregulated markets. 5. Policy makers should be flexible in their policies and guided by overall national objectives. 6. All trading countries should diversify both their exports composition as well as export destination. 7. World financial system is becoming fragile so that there is a need to reform the current financial system. Islamic based economy system has great opportunity to alter the existing financial system. Islamic perspective From Islamic perspective, the approach that most suitable which is providing handout to the poor and directly to people affected by financial contracts. There were horrible gaps between the rich and the poor all over the world, which remained existent all the time, even after the fall of the planned economy. It goes without saying that the position in developing and under developed countries is even worse. This uneven and unjust system of distribution needs to be reformed on a conceptual basis. The entire world today is crying on the present financial crisis, but few people have realized that this is basically a crisis of rich people who were playing with loads of wealth, and all of a sudden, their income faced a steep fall. So far as poor people are concerned, they have been living in perpetual crisis all the times, but no one care for them, The present crisis should not be examined within the relatively narrow confines of debt; rather, it is fundamentally a question of social justi ce, a concept that is paramount in Islam. Social justice includes three aspects, namely a fair and equitable distribution of wealth; the provision of basic necessities of life to the poor and the needy; and protection of the weak against economic exploitation by the strong. The debt burden, however, is increasing inequality between rich and poor countries and is tantamount to exploitation. It also means that poor countries are often unable to provide the most basic services for their citizens. The huge debt that currently burdens poor countries has arisen from loans that have charged interest and have not shared risk between the lender and the borrower and have, therefore, contravened the two most fundamental principles of Islamic finance. Islamic commands to refrain from charging interest and to share financial risk seek to avoid the concentration of wealth and the economic exploitation of the weak and thereby prevent situations such as the current debt crisis from arising in the first place. The core belief in Islamic finance is that money should not in itself be an earning asset; therefore, Islam prohibits any and all forms of interest. There are also other systems which prevent an economic crisis of pandemic proportions to arise; contractual relationships in business, finance or trade must be based on trust and familiarity of networks of common experiences (takaful) which implies that debts cannot be repackaged and resold as assets globally to faceless investors while profit must be redistributed directly to the poor (zakat) in the Holy month of Ramadan to build and strengthen social safety nets through institutions of charity welfare and education. Over and above zakat, all Muslims pay zakat fitrah to the poor, during the month of Ramadan, either through state collection centers or direct contributions to the poor. There is a trend within rural areas to identify destitute families and the disabled within the underserved rural areas of the State where they reside. Over the last few years, increasing realization of a topic poverty during an economic crisis creating the new poor among the Muslim working classes and a bnormally high repayment rates through unlicensed loan-sharks and licensed money-lenders have made national banking institutions which serve the poorer rural communities shift their services to the Ar-Rahnu market or Islamic pawn-broking market. Currently four Islamic financial institutions, Bank Rakyat (The People’s Bank); the Yayasan Pembangunan Ekonomi Islam Malaysia (Islamic Foundation of Economic Development, Malaysia); Permodalan Kelantan Bhd (Kelantan Investment Co.); and the Agro bank offer such services to the rural and urban working classes. It has established an Ar-Rahnu X’Change Franchise Network, where it plans to provide an Ar-Rahnu franchise throughout the country, managed by reputable cooperatives of the working classes. Given the acute dependency of the working classes on ready cash in times of emergency and the high rates of interest in regular pawn-broking market, there seems to be few alternatives except to expand the Ar-Rahnu market among Muslims and non-Muslims and charge the poor for ‘safekeeping’ services, rather than interest. Despite the fact that loan disbursements of Bank Rakyat alone is among the services which have contributed to Bank Rakyat’s amazing rise as a successful national cooperative bank, giving out higher than normal dividends to its share holders, loan sharks are virtually setting up desks outside flats and apartment buildings of the Muslim poor in towns and cities to offer cash and carry’ facilities to the desperately poor. This lucrative market speaks volumes of the rise of atopic poverty among those on or below the poverty line, the inadequacy of zakat and disbursements of zakat, the high dependency on regular income earners among the middle classes for welfare driven services and products and unclear nature of the rising wealth of the Muslim and non-Muslim upper classes in Malaysia The Islamic finance can bring on significant gains in money released into public capital and infrastructure. The redistributive mechanisms of surplus are instituted into welfare based institutions such as free or subsidized education, health and child care, education, and even publicly directed employment. Its principles may differ from modern welfare economics except the gains at the far end of the redistributive machinery are similarly directed towards the poor. The policies of the New Economic Policy in Malaysia, state welfares in Brunei, or publicly instituted employment as in MENA countries are more Islamic than regul ar, except they are part of the post-colonial ‘reformist’ policies of Muslim states which preceded the modern up-beat drive towards Syaria’ah compliant finance. Islamic finance, however, has not demonstrated a clear connectivity with redistributive justice as in the post-colonial political economy except through instituted deductions of zakat from dividends of shareholders. Profits from credit or financial corporations are not necessarily redistributed through zakat. Furthermore, for borrowers, the appreciated value of assets and services as forecasted and built into systems and rates of repayments which compensate for the lack of interest and, in reality, repayment rates may even out with the regular—rates are generally fixed in advance unlike regular interest rates which are more flexible, varying according to market conditions. However, it does allow more capital to be released into projects immediately, allowing a more extensive amount of goods and services to be produced, without the worry of serving loans. One, however, has to be assured of significant productivity even in the early stages of the loan but payments of zakat accruing from successful investment, from the financier or production from the borrower are fixed at a low rate of 2.5%. It is also consensual rather than forced (as in income taxation) and Muslim countries in general pur sue income tax collections as the more important thrust of national revenue. There are generally two disparate systems at work in Muslim countries Islamic finance and post-colonial welfare instituted economics. The welfare inputs in Islamic countries which are operational today proceed whether or not there are institutions of Islamic finance in the country. In Malaysia, Brunei, and the MENA countries discussed in this paper, components of welfare economics in heavily subsidized education, health, housing, farming, and welfare for the poor, are part of a post-colonial legacy of social reform to institute economic parity across groups and classes. In these Muslim nations, the public sector has played an important role in employment for Muslim or indigenous citizens, often acting as a social safety net in times of economic crises. However, these welfare driven policies are subject to much criticism since they favour the poor, encourage low productivity, and a non-competitive public sector. As Islamic institutions of welfare catch on with progressive social educa tion through media and networks and become an alternative system of welfare for poorer Muslims through zakat and other contributions, welfare increasingly becomes a social responsibility of the Muslim middle classes. There is hardly any data on how the profits earned by larger corporations of Islamic finance actually become instituted into a system of welfare economics based in Islam. Private investment trusts of political elites or national trusts controlled by them. In a properly instituted system of redistribution, through wages, salaries, educational, and health subsidies and so on, there should be very little wealth differential between the owners of political Capital and citizens but economic disparities are significant in these Muslim countries and it has been shown how gains among the lowest 20% may be offset by higher or equivalent gains among the top 20% income earners of these nations. The production of stable professional middle classes in these nations has led to an enrichment of social capital and welfare driven redistributive institutions through social networks but Islamic conscientisation had sometimes moved this ‘spiritual gain’ as an objective reality. The belief i n ibadah or ‘to do good’ may outweigh the call for greater transparency in the use of national collections of zakat and so on. Many Muslims in Malaysia pay both income tax and zakat, rather than ask for exemption from income tax. They also maintain Islamic voluntary organizations with personal funds, donate to mosques and charities, and make endless food contributions to orphans and the poor. There is very little data gathered on the actual amounts paid privately or anonymously and state-directed contributions, although increasing, are not reflective of actual payments contributed by the middle classes towards Islamic charitable institutions. On the other hand, Muslim based banking and financial institutions are obscure in their social responsibility towards the poor, including their own clients who may be victims of topic poverty during times of economic crises. In conclusion, Islamic institutions of trusts which are state directed or privately administered by banking and credit agencies contain more humanistic principles of investment and redistribution of profits except that there is a missing component—between the principles of redistribution of surplus or profits in Islam finance and the actual mechanisms to provide welfare to the people who are not share-holders or stake-holders. In Malaysia, Brunei, and the MENA countries of the Middle East and North Africa, state agencies assume trusteeships over compulsory collections like the zakat but do not have any institutional mechanisms to enforce private corporations local or foreign to contribute towards the welfare of the poor. Conclusion The first Financial crisis was began in July 1997 when the Thai baht collapse with a series of speculative attacks on the baht extended after quite a few decades of outstanding economic performance in Asia and most of Southeast Asia and Japan having currency depreciation. There some approach to help financial recovery, It is impossible that the government doing nothing when the crisis happened to their country. To prevent currency values collapsing, governments raised fiscal spending in domestic interest rates to exceedingly high levels. And last approach Government providing handouts directly to people affected and providing assistance to the poor like efforts to shield poor and vulnerable sections of society from the worst of the crisis The International Monetary Fund (IMF) is an international organization that provides financial assistance and advice to member countries. It was created out of a need to prevent economic crises like the Great Depression. The large financial packages which the IMF has arranged for countries affected by the Asian crisis and its result have stimulated a debate both among policy-makers and academics as to their costs and benefits. However, IMF has also been criticized for its lack of accountability and willingness to lend to countries with bad human rights record Debtor countries to the IMF are often faced with having to put financial concerns ahead of social ones The cause or trigger of the 2008 global financial crisis was the boom of the United States housing bubble which peaked in approximately 2005–2006. The impact of the crisis on developing countries will affect different types of international resource flows: private capital flows such as Foreign Direct Investment (FDI). However, not all developing countries were effected tremendously by 2008 financial crisis, Indonesia was one of the least affected countries in South East Asia. The G-20, is the the main nations of much of the coordination on trade policy, financial policy, and crisis responses. The first G-20 leaders’ summit was held at the peak of the crisis in November 2008. The bank bailout, more formally called the Troubled Asset Relief Program, failed to achieve the ultimate goal From Islamic perspective approach that most suitable which is providing handout to the poor and directly to people affected by financial contracts the present crisis should not be examined within the relatively narrow confines of debt, rather it is fundamentally a question of social justice, a concept that is paramount in Islam. The practicing of zakat system and waqf contribution to help the poor and needy indirectly will benefit the society. And this is the best approach that government should do by providing help directly to the poor and people affected by financial contract namely firms and banks. If government reduced the amount tax to be paid, cost of production will decrease level of employment and production will increase. Meanwhile, banks will bail out to save company and people indirectly reduced the worry of public causing the level of borrowing and consumption raises. So, as a result, it can stimulate the capital investment of the economy to increase the economic growth and level of GPD. References Fadillah Putra, â€Å"Economic Development and Crisis Policy Responses in Southeast Asia (Comparative study of Asian Crisis 1997 and Global Financial Crisis 2008 in Malaysia, Thailand and the Philippines)† (2008), Public Administration Department, Brawijaya University Federal Reserved Bank of San Francisco Economic Letter †What Caused East Asia’s Financial Crisis?† 98-24; August 7, (1998) Hussein Alasrag, â€Å"Global Financial crisis and Islamic finance† (2007) http://www.muftitaqiusmani.com/index.php?option=com_contentview=articleid=41:present-financial-crisis-causes-and-remedies-from-islamic-perspective-catid=12:economicsItemid=15,retrieve on 11 November 2012 http://www.academia.edu/1133515/Global_Financial_Crisis_An_Islamic_Perspectiv e, retrieve on 4 November 2012 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Financial_crisis_of_2007%E2%80%932008#cite_note IMF_Loss_Estimates-31, retrieve on 4 November 2012 Mohamed Ariff, Syarisa Yanti Abubakar,†The Malaysian Financial Crisis: Economic Impact and Recovery Prospects† (1999) The Developing Economies, XXXVII-4: 417–38 Reinhart, V. (2011). A year of living dangerously : The Management of the Financial Crisis in 2008. Journal of Economic Perspective.25 (1). Pg 71-90. Ibid Recovery from the Asian Crisis and the Role of the IMF, IMF Staff (2000) http:// www.investopedia.com/articles/economics/09/international- monetary-fund imf.asp#axzz2EQhoHzz9, retrieve on 4 November 2012 http://www.nrcc.org/default/Issues2012/2012_Issues_Book_Chapter_Financial_Crisis_Bailouts_and_Financial_Reforms [ 1 ]. Federal Reserved Bank of San Francisco Economic Letter: What Caused East Asia’s Financial Crisis? 98-24; August 7, 1998 [ 2 ]. Federal Reserved Bank of San Francisco Economic Letter: What Caused East Asia’s Financial Crisis? 98-24; August 7, 1998 [ 3 ]. www.wikipedia.com [ 4 ]. www.wikipedia.com [ 5 ]. www.wikipedia.com [ 6 ]. Federal Reserved Bank of San Francisco Economic Letter: What Caused East Asia’s Financial Crisis? 98-24; August 7, 1998 [ 7 ]. www.wikipedia.com [ 8 ]. Mohamed Ariff, Syarisa Yanti Abubakar, (1999) The Malaysian Financial Crisis: Economic Impact and Recovery Prospects: The Developing Economies, XXXVII-4: 417–38 [ 9 ]. Economic Development and Crisis Policy Responses in Southeast Asia (Comparative study of Asian Crisis 1997 and Global Financial Crisis 2008 in Malaysia, Thailand and the Philippines) Fadillah Putra, Public Administration Department, Brawijaya University [ 10 ]. Recovery from the Asian Crisis and the Role of the IMF, IMF Staff (2000) [ 11 ]. http://www.investopedia.com/articles/economics/09/international-monetary-fund-imf.asp#axzz2EQhoHzz9 [ 12 ]. http://www.twnside.org.sg/title/sick-cn.htm [ 13 ]. Reinhart, V. (2011). A year of living dangerously : The Management of the Financial Crisis in 2008. Journal of Economic Perspective.25 (1). Pg 71-90. [ 14 ]. Ibid [ 15 ]. Ibid [ 16 ]. Ibid [ 17 ]. Wikipedia. Financial Crisis 2007. Taken from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Financial_crisis_of_2007%E2%80%932008#cite_note-ssrn-8 [ 18 ]. Wikipedia. Financial Crisis 2007. Taken from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Financial_crisis_of_2007%E2%80%932008#cite_note-IMF_Loss_Estimates-31 [ 19 ]. Ibid [ 20 ]. Greenspan-We Need a Better Cushion Against Risk. Financial Times. March 26, 2009. Taken from http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/9c158a92-1a3c-11de-9f91-0000779fd2ac.html. [ 21 ]. FCIC Report-Conclusions Excerpt-January 2011. Taken from http://c0182732.cdn1.cloudfiles.rackspacecloud.com/fcic_final_report_conclusions.pdf [ 22 ]. CRISIS AND RECOVERY IN THE WORLD ECONOMY. Taken from http://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/microsites/economic-report-president-chapter-3r2.pdf [ 23 ]. Ibid [ 24 ]. Ibid [ 25 ]. Ibid [ 26 ]. Ibid [ 27 ]. Ibid [ 28 ]. Velde, D. W. (2008). Effects of the Global Financial Crisis on Developing Countries and Emerging Markets. Policy responses to the crisis. INWENT/DIE/BMZ conference in Berlin, 11 December 2008. [ 29 ]. Ibid [ 30 ]. Ibid [ 31 ]. Ibid [ 32 ]. Ibid

An Exploration Of The Poems Of Keats English Literature Essay

An Exploration Of The Poems Of Keats English Literature Essay John Keats was an English poet who was born and died in 31st October 1795 23rd February 1821. He died of tuberculosis at a very young age but produced some amazing poetry in his time. He was one of the main figures of the Romantic Movement and along with Lord Byron and Percy Bysshe Shelley he was one of the second generation Romantic poets. Keatss poetry was characterised by elaborate word choice and sensual imagery. His poems remain among the most popular poems in English literature. All three of these poems relate and they all contain imagery of beauty of the earth and nature. This may have been due to the fact that Keats was part of the Romantics along with William Blake, William Wordsworth, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, George Gordon or sometimes known as Lord Byron and Percy Bysshe Shelley. John Keats is very good at the effect of imagery as when you read his poems a visual picture is created in your mind. Also he uses onomatopoeia to create sound within the poem though this effect is mainly within To Autumn. An example of this is at the end of To Autumn on line 33 and gathering swallows twitter in the skies which not only is an onomatopoeia but also it shows the beauty of nature and the season of autumn. This poem is full of these features and this gives the poem life making you think and also maybe remember if you have experienced the same in your lifetime. As well as sensory imagery Keats has used many different techniques in all his writing for example alliteration, enjambment, metaphors, emotive language, repetition, personification and onomatopoeia. I found the poem above called To the Nile and the first thing that caught my eyes was pyramid and crocodile! I realised that in nature respects it was very similar to the other two poems I am studying but it was about a completely different topic which I thought might be a good change. To Autumn and La Belle Dame sans Merci are both about autumn, weather, England etc so Egypt with the strong sun was as far from it. The Nile is personified. It is praised as a beautiful river having a great effect on nature due to the river helping the surrounding land with water to help everything grow and flourish. To Autumn is a beautiful poem describing all the joys of nature and describing a day with the maturing sun and how the air is drowsd with the fume of poppies. When I was reading it I thought that it may relate to his death as he is relating it to his life and he says that he is in autumn and winter is the end/death and he knows he is near his death bed. This is due to tuberculosis which most of his family had suffered from. To Autumn contains many onomatopoeias for example flowers for the bees giving the zzz sound in the word bees which creates the effect that the bees are in the same room. Also oozing creating an overflowing thought as you read it. Keats creates many sounds and gives a visual picture of what he is talking about by including many techniques such as onomatopoeia, personification, For example To autumn which is saying it is written two somebody called autumn or possibly the sun which conspires together and this is how plants get their energy. Also there are examples of alliteration for example clammy cells or hours by hours. The way he uses all of these techniques and the colourful picture he portrays shows why his poems remain among the most popular poems in English literature. I think that in this poem Keats is saying that he regrets that he did not make the most of the days of summer and all that is on offer full-grown lambs loud bleat from hilly bourn. This is also onomatopoeia because is it expressing sounds. La Belle Dame Sans Merci translates as the beautiful woman with no mercy. This is shown in the poem in lines 35 to 48. The emotive language used by Keats shows the suffering. Words like ail, lily, haggard and woebegone. He has used the poem as a metaphor for his life and here he has used flowers to link his love for nature with his health for example Lily on thy brow on line 9. A lily is the flower which presents death but is also links to nature which is continued throughout the poem. Another example of using flowers for the link is a fading rose on line 11. This means the rose which is normally a very bright colour very often red is dying because as flowers die they lose their colour and the whole flower weakens and the flower head falls down to face the ground rather than stay up straight due to the loss of water and nutrients which normally keeps a flower alive. He says the rose is fading so this translates to the fact that he is also dying and losing health day by day. This poem is a very sad poem which is the complete opposite of To Autumn because it is talking about how he loses the love of his life which could be referring to his life and that the woman that he is slowly losing is relating to his life and how his life due to his condition of tuberculosis is fading away and slipping from his hands. Another interpretation of this poem is that he is relating the poem to Fanny Brawne who during his life time was the love of his life. They met when Keats moved house and ended up being fannys next door neighbour after the death of Tom Keats (his brother). Keats had a complete undying love for this woman however this did not bring fulfilled happiness for him. If it is about a woman but not fanny then it may be about a fantasy woman that he is seduced by she took me to her elfin grot there she wept and sighd full sore but then as death approached this dream is pulled away from him by his illness and death. The love is showed in this poem by the things that he does for her I made her a garland for her head and she found me roots of relish sweet. These two quotes are showing how much he loved her and how they were exchanging gifts to one another to portray their love for each other. In both To Autumn and La Belle Dame Sans Merci Keats talks about sweetness. In La Belle Dame Sans Merci roots of relish sweet and her elfin grot which are two great examples of the sweetness portrayed. In To Autumn however you can hear the full-grown lambs loud bleat from the hilly bourn and all its twinà ¨d flowers. These are very helpful to make the poem flow and so create a soft lullaby feeling which makes you want to read on. To the Nile is a sonnet because it has 14 lines. Sonnets are very short and are a compressed version of a poem. They contain many ideas in a small space and this means it is quite a powerful way of portraying an idea. To autumn there is a consistent rhyme scheme of A, B, A, B, C, D, C, D etc however La Belle Dan Sans Merci does not have any rhyme scheme. To conclude I think that Keats was a very powerful poet. He expressed his feelings in his writing and although he did not live long due to tuberculosis he produced some outstanding work. He moved to Italy in 1820 with a friend called Joseph Severn due to his condition and the doctor had advised to his that he needed to get away from London air. This change of country prolonged his life alone and palely loitering. Through studying the three poems that I have used in this essay I have realised the strength in each of the poems and the feelings Keats was trying to portray. I found that all three poems linked in many ways and I now have a much clearer understanding of each of these poems.

Decision Making Strategies Essay -- essays research papers

Strategic thinking is an essential leadership skill. Our learning team has learned to consider our current decision-making strategies, and examine our options for choosing the best strategy for any situation be it one-sided, compromise, collaboration and deciding-by-majority rule. As a learning team we will identify any problem someone on the team may have such as being shy, not very talkative and hesitate about having to stand in front of the class while presenting our presentation. Being part of a well functioning learning team identifying the problem(s) and wanting to do something about it is the first step. Analyze all parts of the situation to figure out what is stopping a team member(s) from getting what the team need to solve the problem. As a team make up a list of the varies sol...

My City on the Mountain :: Personal Narrative College Flagstaff Essays

My City on the Mountain Flagstaff, Arizona to me has been â€Å"The City on the Hill† with its seemingly beautiful light shining down on to me in the Valley of the Sun. I have planned my get away up the mountain (as Phoenicians refer to going to Flagstaff) as long as I can remember. Ever since I was old enough to know what a college really was I have known I was going to be attending Northern Arizona University in the fall of 2004. The thought of cool mountain air blowing against my face each morning, sure made the wall of heat that actually surrounded my body each time I stepped out side seem unbearable. Living in a place with pine tree and four seasons filled my every dream. Northern Arizona University was to be my escape from Chandler and my place for a new start. Once there I expected to find new friends, new and better classes, and a place where I could spread my wings. When the day finally came to make my big move to Flagstaff, I was more nervous than I ever imagined was possible. Questions continually came to mind. What if I forgot something important from my room? What if I didn’t like my roommate? What if I did not make friends? And the what-if’s didn’t end there, but they were softened when I finally reached campus and was warmly welcomed by those who had moved in before me. Yet, the fears of actual friendship loomed in the back of my mind. As welcome week progressed I was able to start to meet people more and more like me. Although at times it seemed unbearably hard being as shy as I can be. Through each activity I was involved in I met people I liked, and even some that really were not the type of people I was interested in. Dreams of friends were becoming a reality and the fears in the back of my mind were slowly being quieted.

Global Social Change Manifesto Essay -- Society

Change, without a doubt, is ongoing constantly on a Global scale throughout Society. The great need for and the urgency of coming to understand this phenomenon is becoming increasingly obvious. Religion and philosophy have, since the dawn of civilization, sought to direct the Change in a way that would be beneficial to mankind as a whole. They have failed to make any significant change in the way Society is progressing. The way Society is going now is controlled by a ‘few’ who have control of vast resources for directing and manipulating the masses. And they have violent oppression of those who will not submit to their structured system of control as a back up resource. Revolution is not the answer. Revolution is a building block of the way Society is now. The power of control simply shifts hands and continues on a slightly altered path. ‘Power to the people’ is a common thread that runs through revolutionary manifestos, and is lost as soon as the current oppressors are vanquished and the new ‘few’ assume power. The great sedatives of the masses, religion and philosophy, teach that the way to change the way of Society is to change yourself. Be what you think is good and don’t rock the boat. They are right about rocking the boat, it isn’t the way to do any good. Self improvement good. Self improvement fine. It’s not going to change the world. No mater how much you shine. The methods of self-improvement that dogmas advocate as the only way to effect changes in the big picture are proven to be ineffective. They have been practiced for thousands of years and for every one that does improve themselves there is another who will equally digress to take advantage of them. There is a solution. If we look at Society as an entity ... ...e this key common knowledge throughout Society to attain critical mass for Change. We have to cross the barriers of languages and cultures. We can do that with a universal symbol to represent the idea we want to convey. So we need to have a symbol, a word will work, that must remain the same in all languages while the simple meaning, â€Å"acknowledge the Feeling† will be translated in to all different languages. Then all we have to do is, â€Å"Teach the world a word†. Since English is the international language of business and we have the business of changing the â€Å"direction† of Society at hand, we can use English to construct our universal word/symbol. At the Bottom Line in our decision making process we want the outcome to Turn Right. BLTR makes the acronym BLitTeR. BLitTeR –â€Å"acknowledge the Feeling† â€Å"Teach the world a word†, to change the â€Å"direction† of Society.

Concern of Government Trade Policy Essay

Whose interests should be the paramount concern of government trade policy – the interests of producers (the business and the employees) or of the consumers? This is a very interesting question. I would hope that the policies that are in place by the government would help not only the producers but in the long run would also help the consumers. The government has a responsibility to ensure that businesses will get that competitive advantage in the global business world. That said, if governments place were to place too much of its interest in businesses, the consumers would definitely suffer immensely. Historically, the United States has made many mistakes where we have protected the producers and companies and have developed many policies to ensure American companies do not fail. The book discusses the steel industry and how government placed an Ad Valorem Tariff on steel. It talked about how we wanted to protect domestic steel producers and how government had too many policies in place. That eventually was counterproductive and it raised the cost of production. This then caused the output to fail miserably and before we know it, we eliminated that tariff within two years. Can we learn from this mistake in the future? Sure we can. But you need the right people for the job. We need to make sure better policy-making decisions are made and that local content requirement is occurring. The book talks about government intervention. When it does, it seems to me, that it is talking about protecting the inefficient companies, people’s jobs, and industries from unfair foreign competition. While employees may well lose their jobs if there are more well-organized and competent foreign competitors, I would argue that this is the nature of competition, and that the role of government should be to help these employees get jobs where they can be efficiently employed rather than to protect them from reality. Government intervention can also lead to trade wars. Government intervention  usually ends up not working. The European Common Agriculture Policy by European farmers backfired and has cost consumers greatly. One the other side of the spectrum, if government does not set policies to protect the interests of businesses then global firms, companies, may come in and take an unfair advantage, a.k.a. the Steel industry in 2002.

Case Study on Euthanasia: Elderly cancer patient

In most evangelical Christian opinions, in cases where patients are terminally ill, death appears imminent and treatment offers no medical hope for a cure, it could be argued that it is morally appropriate to request the withdrawal of life-support systems, allowing natural death to occur. In such cases, every effort should be made to keep the patient free of pain and suffering, with emotional and spiritual support being provided until the patient dies.But in this case where the cancer patient seems to still have a chance, although quite small, it is critical that we not only understand what is going on in the world around us but that we also understand what the Bible clearly teaches about, life, death, pain, suffering, and the value of each human life. First, the Bible teaches that we are made in the image of God and therefore, every human life is sacred (Genesis 1:26). In Psalm 139:13-16 we learn that each of us is fearfully and wonderfully made. God himself has knit us together in our mother's womb.We must be very important to Him if He has taken such care to bring us into existence. Second, the Bible is very clear that God is sovereign over life, death and judgement. In Deuteronomy 32:39 The Lord says, â€Å"See now that I myself am He! There is no god besides me, I put to death and I bring to life, I have wounded and I will heal, and no one can deliver out of my hand. † Psalm 139:16 says that it is God who has ordained all of our days before there is even one of them. Paul says essentially the same thing in Ephesians 1:11. Third, God's purposes are beyond our understanding.We often appeal to God as to why some tragedy has happened to us or someone we know. Yet listen to Job's reply to the Lord in Job 42:1-3: I know that you can do all things; no plan of yours can be thwarted. [You asked,] ‘Who is this that obscures My counsel without knowledge? ‘ Surely I spoke of things I did not understand,things too wonderful for me to know. We forget that our minds are finite and His is infinite. We cannot always expect to understand all of what God is about. To think that we can step in and declare that someone's life is no longer worth living is simply not our decision to make.Only God knows when it is time. In Isaiah 55:8-9 the Lord declares, â€Å"For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways. As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher your ways and my thoughts higher than your thoughts. † Fourth, our bodies belong to God anyway. Paul reminds us in 1 Corinthians 6:15,19 that we are members of Christ's body and that we have been bought with a price. Therefore we should glorify God with our bodies. Lastly, suffering draws us closer to God.In light of the euthanasia controversy, listen to Paul's words from 2 Corinthians 1:8 We were under great pressure, far beyond our ability to endure, so that we despaired even of life. Indeed, in our hearts we felt the sentence of death. But this happened that we might not rely on ourselves but on God, who raises the dead. Joni Earickson Tada's book ‘When is it Right to Die? ’ (Zondervan, 1992) shows her testimony and clear thinking is in stark contrast to the conventional wisdom of the world today. Being a Christian and having pro-life sympathies, I believe this Christian daughter should take the same wisdom and proceed with dialysis.

The Hard Times by Charles Dickens

The book Hard Times written by Charles Dickens is a story about a Lancashire Mill Town in the 1840†³s. The novel is divided into three books. Dickens titles the books accordingly to prepare the reader for what is about to come, and throughout the novel he shows the effects of the education system, the setup of the caste system, and the Industrial Revolution had on society through this small town of Coketown. The main characters of the novel show the English caste system of the 19th century by showing how one influences the other and the amount of power the bourgeois now have in society. They own the factories. Therefore, they have the money and, because of the changes coming from the revolution, have some power in society. The titles of the three books, â€Å"Sowing†, â€Å"Reaping†, and â€Å"Garnering† shows significance in the way Dickens is trying to help the reader get an understanding of what is to come. Dickens shows the way the working classes are fighting for a say in the way they are treated at work by forming unions and how a bad negotiator can ruin things. He shows from the start that the education system is based on â€Å"fact† and not â€Å"fancy. The breakdown of the â€Å"fact† based education is shown when Gradgrind himself asked a question that is not fact based. In the end, the whole system of education is reversed and the â€Å"fancy† is fancied. The novel can be summarized as a book about two struggles. One struggle is between fact and imagination and the other is the struggle between two classes. Thomas Gradgrind, the father of Louisa, Tom, and June not only stresses facts in the classroom in which he teaches, but also at home to his family. He has brought up his children to know only the â€Å"facts. Everything is black and white, right or wrong with nothing in between. Gradgrind does not like the idea of going to the circus or having flowered carpet. Everyone knows a person cannot have flowered carpet. He would trample all over them and they would end up dying. The second struggle is between the classes is illustrated between Stephen Blackpool and Bounderby. Blackpool represents the working class and Bounderby the bourgeois or middle class. He is a warm-hearted man who feels he deserves this mediocre life. Blackpool was once an employee under Bounderby and was fired for standing up for his beliefs. He believed that the union was taking anything that was given to them because they could not expect anything better. Stephen stands up for his fellow workers asking for reform and this makes Bounderby mad so he fires Stephen. This was typical during the Industrial Revolution. The run down society Dickens speaks of is that created by the Industrial Revolution. The air is filled with smoke that the working class have to breath. The water is turning colors with pollution caused by the factories. The people who are most effected by this are people like Blackpool, the lower class. Dickens shows Stephen and Bounderby as a typical worker-employer relationship. Dickens shows the way in which the factories were run at this period. A person could lose their job simply by disagreeing with what he felt was wrong because the employer did not really care about the employee. This is the way the workers were treated with no respect. In contrast to the industrial revolution, it would be highly unlikely that a middle class citizen such as Bounderby to employ an aristocrat. The titles of the three books (â€Å"Sowing†, â€Å"Reaping†, and â€Å"Garnering†) are named in a way of giving a special reference to the upbringing and the education of the children. The titles together show the basic plot of the story. â€Å"Sowing,† suggests that in the 1st book the idea of the children being sown with facts and it also lays the foundation of the plot of the novel. They are being taught fact. Where 2+2= 4 and nothing else matters, there is no gray area. Everything is either black or white and nothing else. They are not taught emotion. The 2nd book talks of the reaping or harvesting. In this book, Dickens shows that whatever was sown in the first book, the consequences are now being seen. For example, Louisa Gradgrind Bounderby was sown with the seeds of Fact. She used facts to decide upon marrying Bounderby. It would help Tom out and get him a high position in Bounderby†s bank. We can tell that she did not want to marry Bounderby when she said, â€Å"There seems to be nothing there but languid and monotonous smoke. Yet when the night comes, fired bursts out, father! † This seems be symbolism to a negative view of marrying Bounderby. In other words, she is saying that there would be repressed feelings of passionate love and if this marriage would to happen and deny her the opportunity of love. She would be susceptible to being seduced. This almost happens with Mr. James Harthouse. Here Dickens is referring to the Bible where there is a concept of â€Å"whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap†(Galatians 6:7). Thus, being married to Bounderby, Louisa had harvested an unhappy marriage. The 3rd book, â€Å"Garnering†, is about how characters are starting to pick of the broken pieces of their lives. Mr. Gradgrind starts to help his children put together pieces of their lives by promising to teach them the â€Å"fancy† or emotional side of life along with the â€Å"facts. † The main characters in the story are representative of the 19th century caste system. The aristocracy is represented through Mrs. Sparsit and Mr. Harthouse. Mrs. Sparsit is motivated by an underlining jealousy towards Bounderby; she works for him, throughout the book. During this time in history, there was a conflict of power going on. The middle class was gaining it and the aristocracy was losing it. Mrs. Sparsit despises Bounderby and his philosophy that he is a â€Å"self-made man. † Mr. Harthouse lives the life of a typical aristocrat. He lives the idle life, only moving to Coketown to find something to occupy him. He tried to steal Louisa away from Bounderby. This shows that Harthouse still felt that the rules didn't apply to him being aristocratic. Bounderby, Thomas Gradgrind, Tom Gradgind, and Louisa Gradgrind represent the middle class. Bounderby is the typical successful middle class citizen of this time. He has a lot of wealth and influence and he does not care about his employees. The father, Gradgrind, is driven by a firm belief in his educational system. Therefore, pounds facts into his children. Tom Gradgrind is later revealed as very weak and becomes a person only interested in what he can get no matter how it affects other. He is heartless. Louisa is a poor girl trapped in the middle. Both her father and brother push her to marry Bounderby. She only does this to make them happy, but we see throughout the book that she has an interest in the fancy side of life. Sissy Jupe and Stephen Blackpool represent the lower class. Sissy Jupe is orphaned at the beginning. Blackpool is a worker for Bounderby. Both are very uneducated, but very compassionate people. Blackpool and Jupe show throughout the book the typical lower class citizen. They were very compassionate towards their fellow man and help whenever they could. In looking at the aspects of the 19th century. Dickens gives a description about how the â€Å"hands†, or the workers, were being mistreated and that there was little hope that they would be helped. Dickens† views towards unions at this time are that they were just as corrupt as the employers. Slackbridge is one of the union agitators. He claims to be for the union, but Dickens describes him as a false prophet. He was not a very good negotiator for the union. Even his name suggests that he is a very poor â€Å"bridge† between the workers and the owners. Slackbridge takes whatever is offered and that is not much at all. The Gradgrind education system backfires on Gradgrind himself. This is seen through an ironic situation between him and Bitzer, Bitzer was an excellent product of the â€Å"system. † Bitzer had stopped Gradgrind†s son Tom from leaving town. Tom had been caught stealing money from Bounderby†s bank. By this time Gradgrind has become a more emotional man, torn down by the constant failure in life by his own children. In an effort to save Tom from any jail time, he was planning to send Tom away from town. The emotions felt by Gradgrind become too much for him and in a â€Å"broken down and submissive† manner asks Bitzer, â€Å"have you no heart. † Bitzer replies. â€Å"No man, sir, acquainted with the facts established by Harvey relating to the circulation of the blood can doubt that I have a heart. † The irony is that Gradgrind taught Bitzer to think in this manner. Bitzer uses facts to undermine a question clearly related to compassion, which Bitzer does not have. Gradgrind would have answered the question the same way at the beginning of the novel. Toward the end of the book, fact and fancy became reversed. Why was that? It was because of the realization that the Gradgrind education system failed. Teaching only facts was not the best way of eduacating the children. Gradgrind himself figures this out when he sees his own children failing at life. Dickens illustrates that the education system of this time was educating people to not think on their own. Their imaginations were suppressed and that it also was not interested in making well-rounded students, but denying children their childhood. The significance of the ending being in the circus is that is the complete opposite of everything that was being taught at the beginning. The institution of the school of fact is totally gone. A new way of looking at life has arisen. Facts can no longer the only thing in life. The necessity of compassion, love, and understanding are now shown to be of more importance that learning facts alone. The entire Gradgrind system of facts proved to be a failure, and Gradgrind learns that emotions and imagination are the controlling forces in everyone's life. Gradgrind is filled with repentance for ruining the lives of his children, as he decided to make â€Å"his facts and figures subservient to Faith, Hope, and charity. † In Dickens three books in the novel, we are shown the effects of the education system, the caste system, and the Industrial Revolution had on society through this small town of Coketown To me the book was a good portrayal of what life in the 19th century would have been like. The breakdown of society from a single towns standpoint through the eyes of Dickens is amazing. In my opinion, I felt that the voice of Gradgrind had the most impact throughout the novel. As the novel progresses, so does the attitude of Gradgrind. He slowly faded away from his idea of education of nothing but fact, to completely abandoning that philosophy and promises to intertwine the two. Also, he showed that he was a stronger man, by standing up to Bounderby when Louisa came home. He allowed her to stay and Bounderby divorced her. Gradgrind did this out of love and with no concern about what Bounderby thought or would â€Å"say† about it.