Top Mama's Case Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Top Mama's Case - Essay Example Upon leaving the studio, she was arrested and charged with indecent exposure. Top Mama was found guilty and sentenced to jail term of 30 days. Her conviction in the lower courts was upheld. Reaching this Supreme Court, we should clearly discuss the First and Fourteenth Amendments invoked in this case. According to Mark Stevens (2003), all together, there are six (6) rights guaranteed by the First Amendment -- religion, speech, press, assembly, association, and petition --  Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.  Collectively, they protect what is known as the freedom of expression  (Stevens, 2003). Mark Stevens (2003) stated that association is a derivative right from speech, assembly, and petition. The right to free speech is more commonly referre d to as  freedom of speech.  Ã‚  Justice Hugo Black (1937-1971) was the last to believe the absolutist interpretation of the First Amendment which states that â€Å"Congress shall make no law† means that Congress shall make no law. Such an absolutist interpretation of the First Amendment leaves no restrictions on obscenity, libel, or slander (Stevens, 2003). More predominant interpretations look at speech as distinct from  speech plus  conduct, or the  effects of speech. Congress has every right in the world to control these things (Stevens, 2003). It's also possible to draw upon the social contract theories of the founding fathers to understand that the First Amendment was intended to serve several important social functions. These functions include educational function, safety valve function, truth-seeking function, and lastly, the social obligation function. These social functions indicates that the First Amendment is about protecting the public good rather than individual freedom and that freedom of speech in America has never been absolute (Stevens, 2003). In the case at bar, Top Mama was invoking the First Amendment on freedom of speech, or in her case, the symbolic speech. Symbolic speech is the nonverbal communication similar to speech or conduct that may receive protection under the 1st Amendment. During 1960s and 1970s, the main issue was symbolic speech which Antiwar protesters were not so much saying things as doing things, like burning flag, draft cards, holding sit-ins, love-ins and the like (Stevens, 2003). According to Stevens (2003), one of the first cases which considered whether symbolic speech such as this deserved constitutional protection was the 1968 case of U.S. v. O'Brien. In the  O'Brien Test, governments must have a substantial government interest that is not related to suppressing the message before contemplating action restricting expressive conduct or symbolic speech such as it is unconstitutional to have a flag desecration law if the only reason for having it is that people should respect the flag (Stevens, 2003). This is the most widely-used test. The Court was providing absolute protection to the message, but not the conduct (Stevens, 2003).  O'Brien  involves some deep psychological issues as the  critical test for separating message from conduct (Stevens, 2003).Thought and belief are not subject to government control, but speech is often the link between thought and action (Stevens, 2003). The current situation is that symbolic speech, like  flag-burning, is constitutionally protected. In a narrow 5-4 majority with  Texas v. Johnson (1989), the Court upheld the right to burn the flag, regardless of its symbolism, as long as a disturbance of the peace does not occur (Stevens, 2003).

ETHICALITY & PROFIT MAXIMIZATION Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

ETHICALITY & PROFIT MAXIMIZATION - Essay Example Business enterprises seek to maximize their profits by ensuring that the legal aspects of profit making and ethical practices complement one another. These ethical practices relate to all the stakeholders that influence business operations in one way or another. For instance, a firm that rewards employee performance acts in the interest of both the employees and its own welfare. It is important to note that ethicality in business spreads across the internal and external business environments (Hooker, 2003, p.5). This makes ethicality in profit making a pertinent issue to account for across social and economic business concerns. Disregarding the ethical part of business operations can be fatal to the performance of any given enterprise. To start with, firms highly rely on markets and consumers for their business success. Customers favour firms that act in their interest alongside pursuing their bid to make profits (Ferrell, Fraedrich, & Ferrell, 2012, p.276). Secondly, the same process factors in social corporate responsibility among other concerns. Therefore, ethicality and profit maximization can essentially be complementary as opposed to being ‘enemies’ in the business environment. Ferrell, O. C., Fraedrich, J., & Ferrell, W., 2012. Business Ethics: Ethical Decision Making & Cases, London: Cengage Learning. [Online] Available at: http://books.google.co.ke/books?id=sI1jqoMRW7gC&pg=PA166&dq=business+ethics+and+profit+making&hl=en#v=onepage&q=business%20ethics%20and%20profit%20making&f=false [Accessed November,

Techniques for Providing Fresh Water to Arid Regions

Techniques for Providing Fresh Water to Arid Regions Student ID Number: 36845 Introduction Water is vital as it does not have a substitute and is a finite resource (Kaplan, 2011). The demand for water is ever increasing but the supply is decreasing or is constant. This demand is brought up by factors such as population increase, industrialization and agricultural needs. Some areas receive the right amount of whereas, others do not receive the right amount. These regions are known as arid regions where rainfall and water supply is less yearly causing droughts. The report will examine the feasibility of two techniques namely desalination and building dams and reservoirs for supplying fresh water to arid regions considering factors such as cost, technology, location and water quality. Background Kaplan (2011) points out that there is approximately 36 million cubic kilometres of fresh water available on the earth which equals to 3% and the rest 97% is salt water. 77% of the fresh water available is locked up in the polar icecaps, glaciers and icebergs, less than 1% in fresh water lakes, springs and rivers. The rest is found in plants, atmosphere and human bodies. However, another argument put forward by Kaplan (2011) was that just over a half of the fresh water available on the earth is being used. This means that there is plenty of fresh water available but is inefficiently used, wasted in simpler terms and not evenly distributed across the world. Therefore, arid regions are formed as they do not receive the right amount of water demanded from their population in that area. UNEP (1992) reports about 47% of the surface of the earth being arid or semi-arid. This shows almost half of the world is without water whereas, some places have plenty of fresh water available. Another r eport of UNEP (1997) claims about 2 billion people live in arid regions and in many cases in very poor conditions. This shows the need and importance of development of ideas and techniques to provide fresh water to these regions. Figure 1 Global dry land areas by continent Continent Extension Percentage Arid Semi-arid Dry subhumid Arid Semi-arid Dry subhumid (million ha) Africa 467.60 611.35 219.16 16.21 21.20 7.60 Asia 704.30 727.97 225.51 25.48 26.34 8.16 Oceania 459.50 211.02 38.24 59.72 27.42 4.97 Europe 0.30 94.26 123.47 0.01 1.74 2.27 North/central America 4.27 130.71 382.09 6.09 17.82 4.27 South America 5.97 122.43 250.21 7.11 14.54 5.97 Total 1 641.95 1 897.74 1 238.68 Mha=106ha. Source: FAO (2002) Figure 1 above shows the percentage and the distance in hectares (ha) of the surface of the earth that can be classified as an arid or a semi-arid region. From the table; Africa and Asia have the largest extension of arid zones, they account for more than a half of worlds arid regions (FAO, 2002). Comparison of options: Desalination According to Kucera (2014), desalination is defined as the â€Å"process of removing dissolved solids, such as salts and minerals, from water.† Desalination was used practically first in the sixteenth and the seventeenth centuries by sailors. Desalination is sometimes referred as distillation and sailors back in the sixteenth century used simple distillation technique to evaporate sea water and collecting the fresh water. The figure below from Kucera (2014) shows the total desalination capacity by different countries since 2003. The highest percentages of desalination capacity are led by the Middle East countries i.e. Saudi Arabia and UAE followed closely by; Spain, USA, China, Algeria, Australia, Israel, and India, respectively. Figure 2 Kucera (2014) Figure 2 above also shows that desalination is a process that is mainly operated by the developing countries. Not a single African nation is seen in the figure means that the most arid region of the world is not using desalination process. Keyes , Conrad Fahy, Tansel, Berrin (2012) claim desalination have two major technological methods involved i.e. membrane and evaporative also known as thermal. Middle East use the evaporative technology while, the USA depend on the membrane process of desalination as it is more technologically advanced and has a cost advantage. â€Å"Desalination water treatment plants must be managed in an environmentally compatible manner and requires significant environmental assessment efforts depending on the quality of the concentrate and geographical location of the facility† (ibid, 2012). This shows the process of desalination for providing fresh water to arid region is quite costly and requires attention to the environment as only developing countr ies like the UAE and the USA can afford to use. Building dams reservoirs: A dam is a structure built along rivers or streams that are used to control the water flow and store the water in reservoirs during the rainy season and release as needed during the times of drought. Reservoirs are artificial lakes that store the water (UNEP, 2000). The stored water is used in several ways; irrigation, domestic use, producing hydro-electricity and leisure activities. .Abu-zeid and.El-Shibini (2010) states â€Å"the only main source for Egypt’s water is the River Nile.† Therefore Egypt is also considered part of the arid regions of the world. The Aswan High Dam was built on the River Nile in Egypt to control floods, produce HEP- Hydro-electric power and irrigate their lands in 1971. The dam had positive impacts on rapid growing population of Aswan province. The tourism industry and the fishers noted a growth in their businesses. The majority of the Egyptian population also depends on the river for its water for domestic and industrial use. The figure bel ow represents the area in hectares-ha of irrigation in countries of Africa in 1997. (University of Michigan, n.d.) The figure shows Egypt irrigated 3.3 million hectares in 1997, and that number will keep on increasing as population increases (University of Michigan, n.d). However, some negative impacts are noted by Abu-zeid and El-Shibini (2010) that during the construction of the dam several Egyptian residents and monuments had to immigrate to the cities of Lower Egypt. The dam being 111 metres high and 3830 metres long costs the Egyptian government about 1 billion dollars (Encyclopaedia Britannica, 2014). This shows building dams and reservoirs can have some drawbacks in the short run like cost, re-settlement, natural disasters and water borne diseases but in the long run it also improves the economy of the country and it helps the population of the country in irrigation, power and leisure activities. Recommendation and Conclusion It can be concluded that to provide water to arid regions of the world both the techniques are feasible. Desalination works when the region has a source of salt or seawater. Although, it is quite costly and not very friendly to the environment, it is now widely used in many countries which prove it to be efficient. On the other hand, building dams and reservoirs is very efficient and advantageous to the economy of the country. It attracts tourists, irrigates land, provides hydro-electric power and stores water for domestic use by the population of the country. However, it is also very expensive to build a dam or a reservoir, during the construction people have to be moved, diseases are prone from the water and highly depends whether the region has a source of water like river flowing. Thus, looking at the differences in requirements desalination is better than dams and reservoirs to provide fresh water to arid regions. References: Encyclopedia Britannica. (2014). Aswan High Dam. [online]. Accessed at: 27/03/2015. Available at: www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/40203/Aswan-High-Dam FAO. (2002). Land degradation assessment in drylands LADA project. World soil resources report no.97. ROME Kaplan International Colleges. (2011). Skills for study 2: Water. [podcast][mp3]. Nottingham, UK: KIC Keyes Jr., Conrad G. Fahy, Michael P. Tansel, Berrin (2012). Concentrate management in Desalination-case studies. American Society of Civil Engineering(ASCE). [online]. Accessed at 27/03/2015. Available at: http://app.knovel.com/hotlink/toc/id:kpCMDCS008/concentrate-management/concentrate-management Kucers, J. (2014). Desalination: water from water. Canada. Serivener Publishing Llc. M.A.Abu-zeid and F.Z.El-Shibini (2010). International Journal of water resources development: Egypt’s High Aswan Dam. 13(2). p.p 209-217. University of Michigan. (n.d). Human impacts on the Nile River. [online]. Accessed at 27/03/2015. Available at: http://sitemaker.umich.edu/sec004_gp5/the_aswan_high_dam_benefits UNEP. (1992). World atlas of desertification. 2nd Edition. Nairobi UNEP. (1997). World atlas of desertification. 2nd Edition. Nairobi UNEP(2000). Lakes and Reservoirs: Similarities, Differences and Importance. Osaka: United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP IETC)

Past, Present, and Future of State University :: Argumentative Essays

Past, Present, and Future of State University The structure and workings of the university are ever changing. The university of the past is not like the university of the present and the university of the present will not be like the university of the future. This â€Å"adaptation† to the times is what can make some universities great or make some universities among the worst in the nation. In the past the university was very set in their ways. They did things the way they wanted them done. They paid no heed to the rest of the society and the way the ones paying the bills wanted them done. In the past the professors would lecture endlessly to the students. This endless lecturing often left the students bored and with no idea what was really said to them in the lecture. This is no way to try and teach students, students need interaction with the professors that are paid to teach them. As Paulo Freire believed there needs to be communication between the students and the professors and the class should not be totally memorization. Freire also believes that when the professors are active and the students are passive there is no learning there is only memorization. This is the way that things were done in the past. All classes were based on memorizing the material with no interaction. When all you do is memorize you do not put the material to use you just remember it for a short time and then you forget it forever. Freire says that when the teachers are rated on how well the student memorize the material, they are just passing the students on ignorance. The university should also teach the process of critical thinking not just how to learn facts. In the present many universities have either changed or are changing the way that they run their university. The universities now are taking on many of the beliefs of the major educational philosophers in order to make changes in the teaching methods. Universities are breaking down many of the divides between majors that they offer. By breaking these barriers the universities are becoming less specialized and more diverse. This goes along with the ideas of Berry.

Oriental Food as the Cultural Other Essay

In Coco Fusco’s â€Å"The Other History of Intercultural Performance†, he promotes the idea that â€Å"racial difference is absolutely fundamental to aesthetic interpretation† while giving an explanation of how Western civilization has viewed the cultural Other—meaning, the so-called primitive people often stereotyped as savage and lacking in â€Å"discipline, civilization and industry† (Fusco). From the Western perspective, Oriental food is considered as the Other. The American staple typically consists of processed foods that are readily available such as pizza and burgers. These Western dishes can be found in almost all major cities and towns of the United States which have created a cultural appetite for anything that is ready for consumption. Oriental food, on the other hand, is viewed mostly as an alternative, albeit oftentimes costly, for the average Westerner (Counihan, p. 58). As with most Asian meals, the principle is to cook food from the freshest ingredients available. Typical vegetable dishes are prepared using vegetables that are picked fresh whereas seafood meals are cooked using the freshest fish and seashells for instance. Every food is prepared carefully regardless of the duration of the process, thereby creating the impression that each serving of Oriental food is a handiwork, so to speak, that can hardly be rivalled by fast food chains. Although there is hardly any single ingredient that unifies all the rest of the Oriental cuisines, there are similarities that can be pointed out. For instance, the â€Å"Tom Yum† soup of Thailand, a taste of hot and sour flavours using aromatic herbs, is a mix of spices and leaves of plants that are abundant in the country. As for the more general Thai cuisine, dishes are basically hot and spicy and are prepared using a balance of its five key flavours: salty, sweet, sour, spicy and the optional bitter flavour. Fresh herbs and spices are preferred over dried ones which is perhaps one reason why Thai dishes have that distinct taste. In addition to these single whole dishes, rice is also served as part of each meal with the inclusion of fish sauce such as â€Å"nam pla† and other complementary dishes. Japanese meals are another example of Oriental cuisine. Perhaps the most fundamental and unique characteristic of most Japanese meals is that each dish is served using raw ingredients. For instance, the popular Japanese food â€Å"sashimi† is raw seafood coupled with a dipping sauce. Aside from seafood, meat can also be prepared raw in Japanese meals such as Basashi, a raw horse meat delicacy. â€Å"Sushi† is also one of the more popular dishes in Japanese cuisine. It basically includes vegetable, meat and fish which can be rolled inside dried sheets of seaweed or placed over a bowl of rice. Philippine cuisine as an example of Oriental dishes also includes rice as part of the whole course of every meal. However, most Filipino dishes are prepared using the milk from coconuts and the sauce from tomatoes. Examples of these dishes are â€Å"kaldereta† (goat in tomato stew), â€Å"afritada† (beef or pork simmered in thick tomato sauce) and â€Å"ginataang manok† (chicken in coconut milk). In a way, Philippine and Thai cuisines are similar in the sense that they make use of the ingredients that are naturally found in the surroundings and that these ingredients are harvested and cooked almost the same day. There is the preference for everything fresh instead of dried spices, herbs and main ingredients. Fresh fish and meat is also preferred over frozen ones although the option to make use of the latter is available. More importantly, the techniques involved in preparing these Oriental dishes are unique in their own ways. The way Japanese sushi or sashimi is prepared is different from the way Thai tom yum is prepared. And yet while there are differences, there are also semblances which seem to connect all these Oriental food. Apart from the fact that most Oriental meals include rice as part of the course, these dishes also include spices and herbs which strengthen their flavours. Westerners who have travelled all the way to the Eastern parts of Asia often encounter the strong aroma from Oriental dishes that are distinct from those of Western dishes. It is not surprising that most Americans, for instance, would rather depend on fast food restaurants for their meals. For people living busy lives in the dense urban areas of the United States, time is a precious commodity that should not be wasted in exchange for sumptuous meals in cosy Oriental restaurants. Moreover, Westerners barely have a full idea of how to prepare Oriental meals for themselves without learned skills or the help from other skilled individuals. The knowledge of preparing Oriental food is simply beyond the inherent or immediate environment of Westerners. The fact that not all ingredients for Oriental cuisines are readily available in Western societies adds to the seemingly inaccessible or at least hardly accessible nature of Oriental dishes for Westerners. In general, there are more reasons to believe that Westerners are more inclined to settle for what they have in their immediate surroundings than to learn things outside of their reach as far as cuisines are concerned. What does Oriental food mean? For the most part, Oriental food reflects the culture of Oriental people in many ways. The ingredients used in these dishes reflect the kind of environment that the people have in which they have no other choice but to survive. Every piece of vegetable or leaf of plants in each delicacy indicates the available and usually abundant resources in the people’s native land. In effect, the unique ingredients in Oriental dishes create the identity of these dishes that are distinct and entirely different from Western dishes. Moreover, the very presence of these ingredients easily helps in identifying what is Oriental from what is Western. From a Western perspective, these Oriental dishes appear to be entirely different from the food delicacies which they are accustomed to, creating the impression that what is â€Å"alien† to their taste buds, so to speak, are either exotic or rare. By attributing these qualities of exoticness and rareness to Oriental dishes in a general manner, Westerners have showed the tendency to suffuse some of the ingredients founds in these dishes into their own meals. Moreover, Western societies have found ways to establish food chains that provide supposedly genuine Oriental dishes in their menus. In the United States, for instance, numerous restaurants serving Oriental meals have been put-up primarily for profit. Through the profit-seeking motives of business-minded individuals, Oriental dishes in Western markets have been characterized oftentimes as luxury delicacies or â€Å"alternative† dishes to the more predominant pizza, burgers and other Western meals. In contemporary times, the effect is that Oriental dishes are stereotyped as the cultural â€Å"Other† when in terms of food. The ways in preparing Oriental dishes also reflect the behaviours of individuals and groups in these Oriental regions of Asia. They indicate a â€Å"performance† done in order to create the distinct flavours and tastes of these dishes, the knowledge of which has been passed-on from one generation to another. The skills involved in preparing these dishes have been practiced and perfected through the generations of families that have continued the legacy of preparing Oriental food. For them, preparing these meals is nothing but an ordinary routine that has become a part of their daily survival. From the viewpoint of Westerners, Oriental dishes are rarely part of their daily survival or not at all. That is, they can continue with their lives even if they are not able to relish the taste of Oriental food. These meals that are foreign to Western societies are, in effect, taken for granted or are simply considered as alternative viands to their regular course of Western meals. That attitude reinforces the notion that any plate of Oriental dish is just another â€Å"Other†. It can be said that Western societies can only get as close to so-called authentic Oriental dishes by replicating them through food establishments. Whether consciously aware or not, Western societies are public outlets for contributing to the notion espoused by Fusco; they reinforce the stereotype of â€Å"the primitive† and the Western â€Å"ability to exert control over and extract knowledge from the ‘primitive’ world† (Fusco). Restaurants in Western societies that feature Oriental dishes are not simply established from almost everywhere in these societies without first studying these culinary delicacies. On the contrary, Westerners tend to â€Å"extract knowledge† from such â€Å"primitive† dishes as if Western meals are the bases for identifying a dish as whether a part of civilized world or otherwise. Like Fusco’s public experiment—one that sought to bring into realization the often disregarded observation that â€Å"a substantial portion of the public believed that our fictional identities were real ones† as though these beliefs have never been challenged and has sit firmly well in the collective consciousness of the people—so-called Oriental restaurants in Western societies reinforce the many illusions about Oriental dishes and, more generally, Oriental culture. One of these illusions is the belief that there are Oriental dishes that do not fit well with the palate of Westerners. For instance, there are Oriental delicacies which make use of several animal organs which are rarely used for preparing Western meals. There are even insects that are part of the ordinary Oriental dishes. Westerners tend to develop an aversion towards Oriental dishes with these animal organs and become branded as either exotic or primitive. The larger consequence of such an aversion, apparently, is an aversion towards the people who take pride in preparing and eating such dishes (Smith, p. 486). Nevertheless, the fact that there are restaurants in Western societies that serve Oriental dishes signify that there are attempts to bring these dishes closer to Western societies even if such attempts are only secondary to the intent to profit. Moreover, a notable characteristic of Oriental restaurants situated in Western societies is that they slightly redefine the Oriental dishes that they serve in order to attract potential customers and maintain the patronage of the buying public. They add a Western â€Å"touch†, in a manner of speaking, to these foreign dishes. In consequence, Oriental dishes are given the impression that they are merely subjects of Western consumption and can be subject to change depending on the needs of the Western clients. To a certain degree, it goes to show a form of cultural subjugation or assimilation that distorts the original nature not only of the dishes but also of the Oriental culture from a Western perspective. The dishes that are presented to the Western public are no longer faithful to the original dishes as they were in Oriental countries. Western societies become unknowingly unaware of the original nature of such dishes, thereby treating their false impressions of these Oriental dishes as the so-called â€Å"Other†. On a personal note, I can say that there is a great deal of knowledge that can be derived from studying Oriental dishes as they serve as windows into the cultural aspects of several Asian countries. An awareness of Oriental dishes in terms of their distinct ingredients and unique methods of preparation can help the Western perspective look beyond that false impression that veils the genuine. If we are able to comprehend a significant portion of the stories behind each of these Oriental dishes and the whole array of Oriental food in general, there is a chance that we can gain substantial cultural knowledge of what has been called as the â€Å"Other† (Mintz, p. 104). As the saying goes, you are what you eat—if you know what the â€Å"Other† eats, it is likely that you get to know the â€Å"Other†. Works Cited Counihan, Carole M. â€Å"Food Rules in the United States: Individualism, Control, and Hierarchy.† Anthropological Quarterly 65. 2 (1992): 55-66. Fusco, Coco. â€Å"The Other History of Intercultural Performance†. 1994. November 21 2008. . Mintz, Sidney W. , and Christine M. Du Bois. â€Å"The Anthropology of Food and Eating. † Annual Review of Anthropology 31 (2002): 99-119. Smith, Monica L. â€Å"The Archaeology of Food Preference. † American Anthropologist 108. 3 (2006): 480-93.

He Who Owns Information Owns the World Essay

It is impossible to underestimate the impact of Mass Media on every single person, and a society as a whole. For many centuries, starting with the invention of first printing machine, public opinion was extensively exposed to the influence of mass media. Ideally, mass media should be an independent body, whose main function is to reflect the reality, and provide people with new information, concerning economical, political and cultural aspects of life. But is it true that this is their only goal? However, as everything in the world is influenced by something, mass media is also being influenced, which makes it lose the main purpose which it serves. It is well-known that by means of mass media people’s behavior and beliefs can be adapted to the goals of certain individuals or organizations. Nevertheless the dramatic effect of mass media may seem small at the first sight, because it is a long slow process of adding up necessary information in order to modify public opinion. With the invention of the Internet the interaction between public opinion and mass media has become even stronger; hence, the influence on public opinion has also become more intense. As we know news programs on TV provide us with the current events going on worldwide, but it is already a fact that the same events are interpreted and shown differently in different countries. Before the news can be shown on TV they are altered in order to satisfy somebody’s needs. Thus, it is possible to say, that a process of â€Å"inventing reality† does really exists. To sum up we can see that who owns the information he owns the world. In my opinion the main function of mass media should be just the reflection of reality, without any interpretations, adaptations and other means of misleading the people. But unfortunately nowadays mass media is one more way to control people.