Global Warming or Global Warning? Essay

One of the controversial issues in the United States in particular and in the world in general is global warming. A polemic has been going on whether the concept of global warming is real or not, and some believe that the phenomenon is caused by human activities while other denies that assertion. Whether we believe in it or not, global warming is now a well known concept in our society. Encyclopedia Britannica states that global warming is â€Å"an increase in the global average surface temperature resulting from an increase in the amount of carbon dioxide, methane, and certain other trace gases in the atmosphere. † In a simple version, the planet temperature is rising due to chemical reactions occurring in the nature. Is this assertion true? And what are the factors that favor the happening of chemical reactions? Although the Earth’s temperature increase is a natural phenomenon, several other catalyzers participate to speed up the natural reaction, including human activity. According to Global Warming Newspaper Archives, tens of thousands years ago, the Earth was covered by a layer of ice, and that time was called the â€Å"Ice Age. † As the planet temperature began to rise, the whole layer of ice disappeared giving place to the â€Å"Little Ice Age† characterized by extreme cold and harsh conditions in poles and in uplands. The French mathematician and physicist Jean Baptist Joseph Fourier was the first to introduce the concept of global warming in 1824 when he noticed that the planet temperature was increasing. Fourier brought up the â€Å"Greenhouse effect† theory which explains how â€Å"carbon dioxide traps heat in the Earths atmosphere† (Global Warming Newspaper Archives). In 1950, Guy Stewart Callendar the British engineer supported the â€Å"greenhouse effect† and warned about the seriousness of global warming which led to the beginning of the environmental activism. Several predictions on the future of the Earth came up pushing the United Nations to hold an environmental conference in 1992 where countries were asked to engage themselves to reduce carbon dioxide emissions. Since the effects of the 1992 Conference weren’t significant, the United Nations created the Kyoto Protocol the first international commitment to fight against global warming. 125 countries have ratified the Kyoto Protocol, but the United States the world largest greenhouse gases producer never signed for the global climate treaty. Global warming is a well understood concept because it is a reality. The change of the average weather condition of the planet in a long period of time is a strong indicator of the global warming phenomenon. This change usually concerns the temperature in particular, sea level, and natural phenomena in the second place. In the American Meteorological Society Bulletin, an Arctic sea ice extend average chart shows that from 1961 to 1990, for July-September and April-June, the ice extend has decreased. These periods correspond to the hottest period of the year. However, for October to December and January-March, the ice extend did not change even tough it had been subject of fluctuation over the years. The decreased of ice extend in the two first time period proves that the ice in the Arctic sea is melting. Scientifically, a material change is state from solid to liquid if it is exposed to an increase of ambient temperature. Another chart from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report shows the global average temperature of -0. 3 degree Celsius in 1850 and 14. 5 degree Celsius in 2000; the global average sea level of -125 millimeters in 1870 and 55 millimeters in 2000. The same chart also shows the decrease of Northern hemisphere snow cover from 37 million of kilometer square in 1925 to 35 million of kilometer square in 2000. These results clearly shows that the world is warmer than before, pole ice is melting, and sea level is going up shrinking at the same time the area of the living ground. Global warming is a reality daily noticeable. After recognizing the existence of global warming, many people believe that human activities are the main cause of the whole situation. According to MacMillan Social Science Library global warming is characterized by the fact that â€Å"certain gases trap heat from the sun in the earths atmosphere through a process known as the greenhouse effect which occurs naturally. † The greenhouse effect is a cyclic process that allows the Earth to stay warm and livable for beings when occurring naturally. It becomes a problem when human activities such as burning of hydrocarbons, use of chemical fertilizers, and decomposition of certain waste material pollute the atmosphere and increased the volume of greenhouse gases. Since the industrialization era started, human had been producing waste, and gases through his factories. The emission of gases is more observable in industrialized countries. Gases liberated in the atmosphere by the industries participate in the greenhouse gases scenario. The most known greenhouse gases are carbon dioxide, nitrous oxide, methane and water vapor. The carbon dioxide is known as a gas that absorbs infrared radiation. An increase of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere leads to more energy absorption and accompany with an increase in planet’s temperature. According to the article â€Å"How Global Warming†, The World Watch Institute affirms that the world carbon dioxide emissions have increased from 1 billion tons in 1900 to 7 billion tons in 1995. The result of that is the increase of the Earth temperature from 14. 5 degrees Celsius in 1860 to 15. 3 degrees Celsius in 1985. Nitrous oxide produces by fertilizers and methane gas result of waste decomposition have the same energy absorbing quality as the carbon dioxide. Although humans don’t produce a huge amount of nitrous oxide, methane gas is abundantly produced on Earth. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change in a chart in page 15 of the report presents the increased of the methane emissions from 750 ppb in 1900 to 1750 ppb in 2000 (â€Å"Climate Change 2007†). These indicators significantly accredit the fact that mankind activities gravely impact the global warming effect. Some people don’t believe that global warming is real. The skeptics of global warming say that the increase of the world temperature as an argument in favor of pro global warming is a fallacy, because global warming is a natural phenomenon. So, global warming is not an environmental problem. The fact that scientists don’t have a consensus on global warming issue entertains the polemic. â€Å"The IPCC report is not evidence of a scientific consensus on global warming† (â€Å"Global Warming is Not a Serious Threat†). The Heartland Institute a con global warming organization says that â€Å"NASA released a study in October 2007 demonstrating that the recent decline in Arctic sea ice is due to unusual localized wind patterns rather than global warming † (Taylor). It means that the predictions and results on the gravity of global warming are not true because an official report of the NASA contradicts former assertion. Heartland Institute even affirms that â€Å"The December 2005 issue of Journal of Glaciology reports that the Greenland ice sheet is growing rather than shrinking† (Taylor). For con global warming, the topic is still a theory; it is not a fact yet because scientific research shows the contradiction on the subject. Global warming is not caused by human activities. Environmentalists have exaggerated the dangers of fossil fuels use predicting the â€Å"apocalypse. † Global warming advocates utilize the topic for political reasons. In the United Kingdom, Al Gore â€Å"An Inconvenient Truth† is banned from school projection without disclaimer because of misleading and factual errors contain in the film. The British High Court believes that the film is too partisan and political. Jonathan Adler in False Apocalypse says that â€Å"William Gray of Colorado State University, one of the foremost hurricane experts in the world, insists that any increase in hurricane activity during the last few years is the result of natural variability, not human-induced climate change. † Those who believe that hurricanes are the result of global warming can learn that human activities have nothing to do with what happened in New Orleans, in Florida or in Texas. Natural disasters occurring in these days are not related to global warming; instead, they are inexplicable and remain a mystery since their causes are natural. Most of the scientific predictive effects of global warming did not occur. For instance, in 1995, Robert Shope, a virologist and director of Yale University Arbovirus Research Unit predicted an epidemical spread of yellow fever and cholera in North America due to temperature risings (Taubes). This disaster never happened even though the world temperature has risen. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change reveals that human activities are the cause of an excessive amount of greenhouse gases release in the atmosphere; instead, Sallie Baliunas and Willie Soon, researchers from the George C. Marshall Institute say that â€Å"Most of the warming of the last 100 years has natural causes as its explanation. ` This is another board of researchers which confirms that the heating of the blue planet is not due to human activities, but by natural phenomena. President Bill Clinton says, â€Å"The overwhelming balance of evidence and scientific opinion is that it is no longer a theory but now a fact that global warming is for real. ` Base on different arguments from pro and con global warming â€Å"theory†, one can understand that pro global warming arguments weigh than con’s opinions. The fact that global warming skeptics acknowledge the existence of global warming is an important sign of the reality of the problem. Their arguments to prove that global warming does not exist are not convincing, and moreover they are based on refutation of pro global warming ideas. Global warming advocates clearly explain the correlation between the Earth’s temperature increase and human being actions. Before the industrial era, the world was less polluted than it is now. Emission of gases and decomposition of waste gravely pollute the atmosphere. The result of it is hotter summers, lesser snow in winters, and sometimes unpredictable weather especially here in the Metropolitan Area. Furthermore, car engine emission and inspection procedures have been put in place in order to reduce pollution which indicates that the government is aware of the fact that global warming is caused by human activities. The green seal logo is now given to business organizations that respect and practice waste recycling. This demarche shows the overwhelming concern for human’s survival in a planet in danger. Global warming is real for global warming advocates, and it is a misleading notion for con global warming advocates. Arguments from both sides of the aisle lead to a convincing opinion from global warming advocates. The world is confronted to a major menace called global warming; it is a global warning for humanity to consider the danger of the phenomenon and to get ready to fight it by reducing our waste, recycling in a daily basis, and to come up with an appropriate energy consuming policy that will help to keep our world safer and livable for future generations.

Child Marriage: Reasons and Consequences Essay

Acknowledgement I am highly indebted to my Professor who gave me such an interesting project and who helped me in every way possible to complete the project. I owe my deepest sense of gratitude to my parents who influenced me and helped me to complete this project. I would also like to thank the library staff who helped me finding the reference texts. Introduction Child marriage in India, according to Indian law, is a marriage where either the woman is below age 18 or the man is below age 21. Most child marriages involve underage women, many of whom are in poor socio-economic conditions. Child marriages are prevalent in India. Estimates vary widely between sources as to the extent and scale of child marriages. The International Centre for Research on Women-UNICEF publications have estimated India’s child marriage rate to be 47% from small sample surveys of 1998, while the United Nations reports it to be 30% in 2005. The Census of India has counted and reported married women by age, with proportion of females in child marriage falling in each 10 year census period since 1981. In its 2001 census report, India stated zero married girls below age 10, 1.4 million married girls out of 59.2 million girls in the age 10-14, and 11.3 million married girls out of 46.3 million girls in the age 15-19 (which includes 18-19 age groups). Since 2001, child marriage rates in India have fallen another 46%, reaching an overall nationwide average 7% child marriage rates by 2009. Jharkhand is the state with highest child marriage rates in  India (14.1%), while Kerala is the only state where child marriage rates have increased in recent years, particularly in its Muslim community. Rural rates of child marriages were three times higher than urban India rates in 2009. Child marriage was outlawed in 1929, under Indian law. However, in the British colonial times, the legal minimum age of marriage was set at 15 for girls and 18 for boys. Under protests from Muslim organizations in the undivided British India, a personal law Shariat Act was passed in 1937 that allowed child marriages with consent from girl’s guardian. After independence and adoption of Indian constitution in 1950, the child marriage act has undergone several revisions. The minimum legal age for marriage, since 1978, has been 18 for women and 21 for men. The child marriage prevention laws have been challenged in Indian courts, with some Muslim Indian organizations seeking no minimum age and that the age matter is left to their personal law. Child marriage is an active political subject as well as a subject of continuing cases under review in the highest courts of India. The children are forced into the institution of marriage without knowing about its significance in the long run. Though parents are of the opinion that they involve their children in such rituals because it is an age old custom and it will also secure the future of their children but the reality is not so. Though in some cases parents believe in such superstitions and dogmas in other cases greed is the most significant factor. How can a girl’s future become secured if she gets married to a man who is 60 years of age while the girl herself is barely 14 or 15? Only their parent’s future will be secured with the amount of money the man and his family pay in return of the girl. This heinous crime cannot be termed as marriage it is simply selling of the girl child. The man will molest her at a tender age and at the same time he will kiss death pretty soon. The girl will end up being so horrified with the custom of marriage that she will dare not enter the institution again. A whole future filled with frustration and anger will result thereby. The sad news is that the institution of child marriage is still present in India in a number of villages and districts. Though the government has taken strict actions and child marriage has been declared as a big crime, still this practise is prevalent till today. Definition of child marriage India The definition of child marriage was last updated by India with its The Prohibition of Child Marriage Act of 2006, which applies only (a) to Hindus, Christians, Jains, Buddhists and those who are non-Muslims of India, and (b) outside the state of Jammu and Kashmir. For Muslims of India, child marriage definition and regulations based on Sharia and Nikah has been claimed as a personal law subject. For all others, The Prohibition of Child Marriage Act of 2006 defines â€Å"child marriage† means a marriage, or a marriage about to be solemnized, to which either of the contracting parties is a child; and child for purposes of marriage is defined based on gender of the person – if a male, it is 21 years of age, and if a female, 18 years of age. World UNICEF defines child marriage as a formal marriage or informal union before 18 years of age. UN Women has proposed that child marriage be defined as a forced marriage because they believe children under age 18 are incapable of giving a legally valid consent. Statistics The small sample surveys have different methods of estimating overall child marriages in India, some using multi-year basis data. For example, NFHS-3 data for 2005 mentioned in above table, used a survey of women aged 20–24, where they were asked if they were married before they were 18. The NFHS-3 also surveyed older women, up to the age of 49, asking the same question. The survey found that many more 40-49 were married before they turned 18, than 20-24 age women who were interviewed. In 1970s, the minimum legal age of marriage, in India, for women was 15. The states with highest observed marriage rates for under-18 girls in 2009, according to a Registrar General of India report, were Jharkhand (14.1%), West Bengal (13.6%), Bihar (9.3%), Uttar Pradesh (8.9%) and Assam (8.8%). According to this report, despite sharp reductions in child marriage rates since 1991, still 7% of women passing the age of 18 in India were married as of 2009. UNICEF India has played a significant role in highlighting the Indian child marriage rate prevalence data from its 1990s study. According to 2011 nationwide census of India, the average age of marriage for women in India is 21. In the age group 15-19, 69.6% of all women surveyed in India had never been married. WHY DOES CHILD MARRIAGE HAPPEN? (Reasons) Tradition: Child marriage is a traditional practice that in many places happens simply because it has happened for generations – and straying from tradition could mean exclusion from the community. In study sites, pressure to abide by  societal norms was also cited as a reason for the persistence of early marriage. While these norms were clearly internalized by parents, neighbours and others in the community also exerted overt pressure on parents to get their daughters married at a young age. Such pressure included enquiring from parents why they were not getting their daughters married, passing unpleasant comments about the unmarried girl and her parents or bringing them proposals for marriage. But as Graà §a Machel, widow of Nelson Mandela, says, traditions are made by people – we can change them. Institution of patriarchy In many communities where child marriage is practised, girls are not valued as much as boys – they are seen as a burden. The challenge will be to change parents’ attitudes and emphasise that girls who avoid early marriage and stay in school will likely be able to make a greater contribution to their family and their community in the long term. It is important to view the phenomenon of child marriage within the context of patriarchy. â€Å"Patriarchy has a strong hold on Indian Society. It operates at all levels on the basis of sex, age and caste and contributes in lowering the status of women in every possible manner. Stratification and differentiation on the basis of gender are integral features of Patriarchy in India† Gender differences are reflected in the sexual division of labour between the productive and reproductive activities. The collective effect of patriarchy reinforces the subordination of women in the name of care, protection and welfare and makes them dependent on men throughout their lives. Child marriages for women, comparative seniority of husbands, and patrilocal residence upon marriage are thus the attributes of the patriarchal institution. Poverty (Dowry & economic determinants) Where poverty is acute, giving a daughter in marriage allows parents to reduce family expenses by ensuring they have one less person to feed, clothe and educate. In communities where a dowry or ‘bride price’ is paid, it is often welcome income for poor families; in those where the bride’s family pay the groom a dowry, they often have to pay less money if the bride is young and uneducated. Apart from religious considerations, the other reason for child marriages among the higher caste is dowry. Traditionally, dowry  was not prevalent among lower castes, most of whom followed the opposite custom of bride price. Most Brahmans also did not practice dowry, but in recent years this custom has extended itself among both higher and some lower castes. Even non-Hindu communities have not escaped from its evil influence. â€Å"It has been found that quantum of dowry increases with the age and educational level of the perspective brides. Some upper castes parents prefer to keep their daughters uneducated and marry them off young to avoid heavy dowry demand† Parents who are poor and have more than one daughter often arrange the marriage of all their daughters collectively, in one ceremony, to reduce marriage costs. To avoid more expenditure by marrying her at a later age, parents prefer to marry her off at an earlier age. Therefore, the system of dowry perpetuates child marriages. Security: Many parents marry off their daughters young because they feel it is in her best interest, often to ensure her safety in areas where girls are at high risk of physical or sexual assault. Parents of a child entering into a child marriage are often poor and use the marriage as a way to make her future better, especially in areas with little economic opportunities. Dowry is a practice in India where the bride’s family transfers wealth to the groom; in many cases, it is a demand and condition of marriage from the groom’s family. Dowry is found among all religious faiths in India, and the amount of dowry demanded and given by the bride’s family has been correlated to the age of girl. Nagi, in 1993, suggested that the practice of dowry creates a fear and pressure to avoid late marriages, and encourages early marriage. Poverty in India has been cited as a cause of early marriages. Child marriages of girls are a way out of desperate economic conditions, and way to reduce the expenses of a poor family. In some parts of India, the existence of personal laws for Muslims is a cause of child marriages. For example, in Kerala, 3400 girls of 13-18 ages were married in 2012 in the district of Malappuram. Of these, 2800 were Muslim (82%). Efforts to stop this practice with law enforcement have been protested and challenged in courts by Indian Union Muslim League and other Islamic organizations, with the petition that setting a minimum age for marriage of Muslim girls challenges their religious rights. What is the impact of Child Marriage? (Consequences) Child marriage has lasting consequences on girls, which last well beyond adolescence. Women married in their teens or earlier, struggle with the health effects of getting pregnant too young and too often. Early marriages followed by teen pregnancy also significantly increase birth complications and social isolation. In poor countries, early pregnancy limits or eliminates their education options. This affects their economic independence. Girls in child marriages are more likely to suffer from domestic violence, child sexual abuse, and marital rape. EDUCATION Child marriage often means the end of education for girls. It is closely linked to girls dropping out of school, denying children their right to the education they need for their personal development, their preparation for adulthood, and their ability to contribute to their family and community. Out of school and in marriage, child brides are denied the ability to learn the skills that could help them earn an income and lift them and their children out of poverty. Married girls who would like to continue schooling may be both practically and legally excluded from doing so. Child marriage is a major barrier to progress on girls’ education. Over sixty per cent of child brides in developing countries have had no formal education. Many girls aren’t in education because schools are inaccessible or expensive, because of the traditional role girls are expected to play in the household, or simply because parents don’t see the value of education for their daughters. Child marriage and a lack of education for girls are both underpinned by girls’ low status. Little or no schooling strongly correlates with being married at a young age. Conversely, attending school and having higher levels of education protect girls from the possibility of early marriage. In many countries, educating girls often is less of a priority than educating boys. When a woman’s most important role is considered to be that of a wife, mother and homemaker, schooling girls and preparing them for the jobs may be given short shrift. And even when poor families want to send their daughters to school, they often lack access to nearby, quality schools and the ability to pay school fees. It is usually safer and economically more rewarding to spend limited resources on educating sons than daughters.  This boxes families into early marriage as the only viable option for girls. HEALTH Child marriage can have devastating consequences for a girl’s health. It encourages the initiation of sexual activity at an age when girls’ bodies are still developing and when they know little about their sexual and reproductive health. Neither physically or emotionally ready to give birth, child brides face higher risk of death in childbirth and are particularly vulnerable to pregnancy-related injuries such as obstetric fistula. It is extremely difficult for child brides to assert their wishes and needs to their usually older husbands, particularly when it comes to negotiating safe sexual practices and the use of family planning methods. Child brides often face intense social pressure to prove their fertility. When a girl marries as a child, the health of her children suffers too. The children of child brides are at substantially greater risk of perinatal infant mortality and morbidity, and stillbirths and new-born deaths are 50% higher in mothers younger than 20 years than in women who give birth later. There is little doubt that reducing child marriage will help to ensure more children survive into adulthood. POVERTY Poverty is one of the main drivers of child marriage. Child brides are more likely to be poor and to remain poor. Where poverty is acute, giving a daughter in marriage allows parents to reduce family expenses by ensuring they have one less person to feed, clothe and educate. In communities where economic transactions are integral to the marriage process, a dowry or ‘bride price’ is often welcome income for poor families. Child marriage traps girls and their families in a cycle of poverty. Girls who marry young do not receive the educational and economic opportunities that help lift them and their families out of poverty and their children are more likely to undergo the same fate. Domestic violence Married teenage girls with low levels of education suffer greater risk of social isolation, domestic violence and sexual violence from their spouses, than more educated women who marry as adults. Domestic and sexual violence from their husbands has lifelong, devastating mental health consequences for  young girls because they are at a formative stage of psychological development. Child brides, particularly in situations such as vani, also face social isolation, emotional abuse and discrimination in the homes of their husbands and in-laws. Women’s rights Child marriages impact a range of women’s rights such as access to education, freedom of movement, freedom from violence, reproductive rights, and the right to consensual marriage. The consequence of these violations impacts not only the woman, but her children and broader society. Trafficking and sale of girls Child marriage also results in the trafficking of children for various purposes, including prostitution, labour and exploitation. Young girls are lured/forced into marriage for the purpose of selling them to other states. Rajib Haldar, Secretary, Prayas, says: ‘Trafficking of married girls’ is rampant in Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and even Kerala.†. Also, a survey of victims of trafficking revealed that 71.8 per cent of the respondents were married when they were children (i.e., when they were less than 18 years of age). This suggests that child marriage is among the key factors that make women and children vulnerable to trafficking Laws against child marriage The Child Marriage Restraint Act of 1929 The Child Marriage Restraint Act, also called the Sarda Act, was a law to restrict the practice of child marriage. It was enacted on 1 April 1930, extended across the whole nation, with the exceptions of the states of Jammu and Kashmir, and applied to every Indian citizen. Its goal was to eliminate the dangers placed on young girls who could not handle the stress of married life and avoid early deaths. This Act defined a male child as 21 years or younger, a female child as 18 years or younger, and a minor as a child of either sex 18 years or younger. The punishment for a male between 18 and 21 years marrying a child became imprisonment of up to 15 days, a fine of 1,000 rupees, or both. The punishment for a male above 21 years of age became imprisonment of up to three months and a possible fine. The punishment for anyone who performed or directed a child marriage ceremony became  imprisonment of up to three months and a possible fine, unless he could prove the marriage he performed was not a child marriage. The punishment for a parent or guardian of a child taking place in the marriage became imprisonment of up to three months or a possible fine. It was amended in 1940 and 1978 to continue rising the ages of male and female children. The Prohibition of Child Marriage Act, 2006 In response to the plea (Writ Petition (C) 212/2003) of the Forum for Fact-finding Documentation and Advocacy at the Supreme Court, the Government of India brought the Prohibition of Child Marriage Act (PCMA) in 2006, and it came into effect on 1 November 2007 to address and fix the shortcomings of the Child Marriage Restraint Act. The change in name was meant to reflect the prevention and prohibition of child marriage, rather than restraining it. The previous Act also made it difficult and time consuming to act against child marriages and did not focus on authorities as possible figures for preventing the marriages. This Act kept the ages of adult males and females the same but made some significant changes to further protect the children. Boys and girls forced into child marriages as minors have the option of voiding their marriage up to two years after reaching adulthood, and in certain circumstances, marriages of minors can be null and void before they reach adulthood. All valuables, money, and gifts must be returned if the marriage is nullified, and the girl must be provided with a place of residency until she marries or becomes an adult. Children born from child marriages are considered legitimate, and the courts are expected to give parental custody with the children’s best interests in mind. Any male over 18 years of age who enters into a marriage with a minor or anyone who directs or conducts a child marriage ceremony can be punished with up to two years of imprisonment or a fine. Applicability Muslim organizations of India have long argued that Indian laws, passed by its parliament, such as the 2006 child marriage law do not apply to Muslims, because marriage is a personal law subject. The Delhi High Court, as well as other state high courts of India, have disagreed. The Delhi Court, for example, ruled that Prohibition of Child Marriage Act, 2006 overrides all personal laws and governs each and every citizen of India. The ruling stated  that an under-age marriage, where either the man or woman is over 16 years old, would not be a void marriage but voidable one, which would become valid if no steps are taken by such court has option to order otherwise. In case either of the parties is less than 16 years old, the marriage is void, given the age of consent is 16 in India, sex with minors under the age of 16 is a statutory crime under Section 376 of Indian Penal Code. Legal Action on Legal Confusion There is a standing legal confusion as to Marital Rape within prohibited Child Marriages in India. Marital rape per se is not a crime in India; but the position with regard to children is confusing. While the exception under the criminal law (section 375, Indian Penal Code, 1860) applicable to adults puts an exception and allows marital rape of a girl child between the age of 15–18 years by her husband; another new and progressive legislation Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, 2012 disallows any such sexual relationships and puts such crimes with marriages as an aggravated offense. A Public Interest Litigation filled by Independent Thought – www.ithought.in an organization working on child rights law, is being heard in the Hon’ble Supreme Court of India for declaring the exception allowing marital rape within prohibited child marriages as unconstitutional; Independent Thought vs. Union of India [W.P(civil) 382 of 2013]. CEDAW The Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, commonly known as CEDAW, is an international bill attempting to end discrimination against women. Article 16, Marriage and Family Life, states that all women, as well as men, have the right to choose their spouse, to have the same responsibilities, and to decide on how many children and the spacing between them. This convention states that child marriage should not have a legal effect, all action must be taken to enforce a minimum age, and that all marriages must be put into an official registry. India signed the convention on 30 July 1980 but made the declaration that, because of the nation’s size and amount of people, it’s impractical to have a registration of marriages. Conclusion Child marriage is an age old practice that is still prevalent in India, especially in the state of Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, and Haryana till today. The development and modernization of India and with the implementation of the strict rules of marriageable age to be 18 for girls and 21 for boys has resulted in a considerable downfall in the number of child marriages. Still there is a lack of awareness in small villages where the illegal practice of Child marriage is prevalent. The legal age for marriage in India is 18 years for girls and 21 for boys. Any marriage of a person younger than this is banned under the Child Marriage Prevention Act, 1929. It is an incontrovertible fact that a large number of child marriages are performed in violation of the existing provisions of the law, particularly on ‘Akha Teej’ or ‘Akshaya Tritiya’. When child marriage takes place, the children are too young to understand what marriage means. It is true that the re is a large body of social opinion and customary practice that sanctions early marriage. It is a religious tradition in many places in India and therefore difficult to change. The dire consequences that follow child marriage, particularly for girls are – the child’s education is sacrificed, girls become more vulnerable to domestic violence and due to early pregnancies their health gets much worse. The babies born to girls under 16 are more likely to die during their first year of life. UNICEF describes child marriage as a â€Å"gross violation of all categories of child rights.† It is a social evil that has degraded the status of girl child in our society. Child marriage is against the law but the marriage itself is valid once performed, even if the child was as young as 5 years at the time. Police cannot make arrests without applying for a Magistrate’s order. The present provision for simple imprisonment for 3 months and a fine has proved totally inadequate. To stop this menace, the law must make registration of all marriages mandatory. Stringency of punishment is the next important element in the strategy to tackle this menace. The appointment of anti-child marriage officers in every State, and making it a law that anyone who attends a child marriage has to report it, would help in checking child marriage What is required on the part of the citizens and the government in general is to join hands and raise a movement so wide that every parent could only visualize themselves locked up in jails even if they think of committing such a crime. It is essential on the part of the citizens to  remain active. People who witness child marriages should be determined enough to launch a police complaint against the parents of both the bride and groom. It is essential on the part of the government to award the people who inform about the conduction of child marriages and also to enforce harder laws to discourage this practice. Thus by helping two children from entering into such a horrendous affair, you are assuring a brighter future not only for these children but for India as a whole. Bibliography 1) Jaya Sagade, â€Å"Child Marriage in India† Oxford University Press, New Delhi. 2) http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:http://www.girlsnotbrides.org/child-marriage/india/&gws_rd=cr&ei=cBktVaSCGI6QuASvsIDwBQ 3) http://www.csrindia.org/child-marriage-in-india 4) http://middleeast.about.com/od/humanrightsdemocracy/a/child-brides.htm

Reasons for Implementing Basel III and Its Costs Essay

The global financial crisis (GFC) was a painful wound that marked the twentieth century. It was the greatest crisis the humanity has witnessed since 1930 (the great depression). It first started in the United States and spread then to the entire world and caused a considerable slowdown in most developed countries and has affected the financial markets and the growth prospects in developing countries. It is called the doubled jeopardy crisis as it spread rapidly with a contagious effect to the other countries of the world. Despite the efforts exerted by governments and central banks to rescue the economy from this huge recession through aggressive fiscal and monetary policies, demand in the macroeconomic level dropped. This huge crisis wasn’t the result of a person’s mistake but it was the result of cumulative effect of poor regulations from the financial institutions and from central banks, unregulated hedge funds, multilayered mortgages and the overrating by the credit firms. It first started by the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers in September 2008 due to the large losses they sustained on the US subprime mortgage market and was followed by the failure of the seventeen largest banks in the US â€Å"the too big to fail† and six hundred other banks in the US. The federal bank was urged to rescue the too big to fail as their failure would have destroyed the whole world economy. The strong interconnectedness between the world countries through the stock market, foreign exchange and international trade led to a contagious crisis in the other countries. Houses prices in USA collapsed with a loss of $2. 4 trillion during eight months hitting the balance sheets of banks exposed to the housing sector, which affected the entire US financial sector, and then, in turn, other developed and developing countries. A sharp decrease in the international trade and in the international stock markets by 50% to 75% from their peaks occurred which resulted in a decrease in the rate of investment and an increase in the rate of unemployment. The USA lost equities worth $16. 2 trillion in 2008. Investment banks collapsed and the IMF began to support countries such as Hungary, Iceland and Ukraine. However the impact of the crisis on developing countries varied depending on their direct or indirect trade links to crisis affected countries. Although governors claim that the global financial crisis didn’t affect Egypt, we discovered that it affected the emerging markets heavily as exports and capital flow have been lower than expected. The real GDP growth of the emerging economies fell from 8. 3% in 2007 to 6. 1% in 2008 and just 2. 4% in 2009. As we can see in the graph, Egypt’s GDP has witnessed a drop of 2. 5% after the global financial crisis. Also the weak financial systems of the emerging markets will take years and years to restore and fewer funds would be available for investment and innovation. In addition the aid that these countries used to get from the large donors set to fall as well as exports who decreased by 20% which explains the decrease of the GDP. This financial crisis is not a shock that damaged banks and financial institutions but actually it damaged many people’s lives. Although the worst of it appeared to happen in the past, its effects are sustainable and long lasting. Employment rate decreased sharply which reflected in an increase in the percentage of people living under the poverty line. Around 120 million people are living on less than $2 a day and 89 million more on less than $1. 25 a day. Same scenario applies for Egypt; we can see in the graph that the unemployment rose from 8. 9% in 2007 to 9. 4% in 2009. This high poverty rate led to higher mortality rates, higher number of depressed and ill people. Another result of this high unemployment rate is a decrease in consumption, businesses will downsize and more unemployed people will be. It is a vicious cycle of recession. That’s why World Bank and financial institutions are urged to find ways out of this crisis and to create stable financial systems that protect the humanity from such disasters. To avoid a reoccurrence of a financial crisis with that expansion and to protect the human beings from its withdrawals the committee of Basel decided to reform the Basel II and to upgrade it to a stricter system with more regulations on the market. Basel committee consists of a group of banks representatives that meet once every three months to enhance the efficiency of the banking sector in a fair and consistent framework. They started by drafting Basel I in 1988, then upgraded it to a more sophisticated one in 2006 and finally drafted Basel III in 2011. This latter is our concern in this term paper. Basel committee on banking supervision and the financial stability board, which consists of 29 members: 2 non-voting and 27 voting, tailored Basel III accord. All through 2008 and 2009 they studied and design the Basel III requirement and revised it through extensive consultation over the year 2010. After the global financial crisis and after feeling its huge negative impacts on people lives, the implementation of Basel accord III became mandatory and the country that wont abide by it won’t have access to loans nor from large donors nations, nor from commercial banks, nor from IMF and World Bank. Also these countries won’t be allowed to issue any foreign derivatives. By the year 2013 each country should be ready to start implementing Basel III requirement and meeting them on 2019. The Basel Committee designed some requirements to be met in order to raise the flexibility of the banking sector and improve its ability to absorb shocks by strengthening the regulatory capital framework, building on the three pillars of the Basel II framework. Basel III mainly consists of raising the quality and level of the capital base, to enhance risk capture and to contain excessive leverage and to introduce new liquidity standards for the global banking system. Basel III consists of an upgrading for the three pillars of Basel II. The first pillar consists of enhancing the minimum capital and liquidity framework. Banks’ risk exposures should be backed up by a high quality capital base and avoid overrated capital. Concerning capital management, banks are asked to have a minimum of 4. 5% common stocks of their risk-weighted assets (RWA) to ensure that they can absorb risks better, they should also raise their new capital conservation to 2. % of RWA to cover any unanticipated risks and a countercyclical buffer of 0% to 2. 5% by the January 2019. Banks should enhance their risk coverage by strengthening the capital requirements for counterparty credit exposures arising from banks’ derivatives, repo and securities financing activities. These reforms will help reduce systemic risk across the financial system and they provide incentives to strengthen the risk management of counterparty credit exposures. After the global financial cris is, the importance of conserving a countercyclical buffer rose. That’s why Basel III accounts for crisis by conserving capital to build buffers for individual banks and the banking sector that can be used in stress and serve as a shock absorber instead of transmitter of risk to the financial system and the broader economy. During the financial crisis, a number of banks continued to make large distributions of dividend as a way to reassure investors although the sector was deteriorating which made individual banks and the sector as a whole weaker. That’s why Basel III introduced a framework that gives supervisors stronger tools to promote capital conservation in the banking sector. Also a leverage ratio requirement is introduced in order to limit leverage in the banking sector and help it to mitigate the risk of deleveraging process that can be harmful to the economy. The second part of the first pillar basically consists of developing two minimum standards for funding liquidity. The first is the liquidity coverage ratio, which promotes the availability of sufficient high quality liquid assets for one-month survival in case of a stress scenario. Banks will cover these liquidity need through tier 1 assets which comprise of cash, central bank reserves and high- quality sovereign debt, and tier 2 assets which consists of high-quality corporate and covered bonds, with min AA- credit-rating and non-zero-risk-weighted sovereign debt. The second is the net stable funding ratio (NSFR) which aims limit over-reliance on short term funding and encourage banks to fund their activities through longer term with a minimum of a year of stable sources of funding on an ongoing structural basis. The NSFR should be covered first through tier 1 which is capital and liabilities with effective maturity of one year or longer (corporate), tier 2 which consists of capital and liabilities with effective maturity of one year or longer (non corporate), stable deposits of retailers and small business customers and finally through wholesalers who are the less unstable source of funding. Pillar two that should be followed by banks consists of enhanced supervisory review process for firm wide risk management and capital planning. Central banks are required to draft a code of governance for their banks and make sure that they abide by this code, that there is a total separation between management and ownership and they should also put a cap for the executives’ remuneration. Finally pillar three requires some disclosure requirements from banks to help improve transparency of regulatory capital and improve market discipline. A full settlement of all regulatory capital elements should be backed to the balance sheet in the audited financial statements. These are basically the requirement of Basel III. Each country’s banks should show a complete abidance by its requirements by 2019. However these changes will cost countries a deer price. Although the implementation of Basel III will protect the banking system from default and will enhance its efficiency, it will cost the global economy a deer price. We will first discuss the cost of Basel III implementation on the developed nations then on Egypt as a developing country. For the G3 â€Å"United States, Euro Area and Japan†, the implementation of Basel III would subtract an annual average of 0. 3 percentage points from their growth path over the full ten-year period (2011-2020). According to the size and the significance of the banking system relative to the economy and the extent to which they will need to adjust to meet the new requirements of Basel III, the Euro Area will be hit the hardest and the Japan the least. Especially during the transition period (2011-2013), there would be an indirect slow down in the employment resulting from the lower GDP growth. First, although the US banking system recovered rapidly after the financial crisis phase in the middle of 2007, the crisis created a considerable increase in its liquidity and capital ratios. To perform the changes in regulation, the US liquid asset ratio should be increased to 22% in 2012, maintained at that level through 2013, and trimmed steadily back to 18% thereafter. To abide by Basel III requirement this will cost the banking sector net interest margin to be squeezed (a decrease in ROE from 12% to 10. 4% in 2020) which will be reflected in a higher lending rate and as a result a lower demand for bank credit, which will accordingly affect the investment, business will downsize, GDP will decrease and employment as well. A heavy price for this regulatory change will be paid which is an increase in the number of unemployed people by 4. 6 million by 2015. Also the US should abide by NSFR requirement by greater reliance on longer-term wholesale funding rather than short-term. Second, the Euro Zone, the largest banking system in the world with a total asset of â‚ ¬31. 1 trillion at the end of 2009, will incur huge costs by implementing Basel III. By applying Basel III requirements the nominal GDP of the Euro Zone will end up about â‚ ¬853 billion lower by 2020 with a cumulative loss of 4. 5% of the average annual GDP growth. As a result the Euro Zone will have about 4. 8 million less jobs being created over the coming years. All these compulsory restraints on the banks are enough to keep the economy in a recession over the year 2014. This implies a loss in the nominal income and consequently a loss in tax revenue about â‚ ¬300 billion (3% of GDP). In addition, when banks boost their holdings of liquid assets and improve their risk weighted capital ratios, this means that they will favor banks lending to governments, which will cause a greater allocation of bank lending toward governments, and crowds out lending to the private sector. Besides, Basel III proposal will have a negative twist to bank credit flows to Emerging Europe (OECD2) in the years ahead as lending them will incur more charges allocated to credit and because maintaining operations in Emerging Europe would become more and more expensive. The third developed country is Japan which will suffer the less from applying these regulatory changes this is because Japan’s banking system stood relatively stable through crisis and the disorder in the Japanese money market was minimal compared to others as they learnt from their crisis of 1980s. The regulatory measures that the Japanese took in the last decade would serve as a good road map for applying Basel III. According to Basel III the Japanese banks should increase their capital by issuing extra ? 15 trillion of Tier 1 (common) equity during the five coming years, but they will face a problem which is that Japanese investors prefer buying debt instruments rather than equity and also the low profitability of Japanese banks makes the issuance of more common stocks unattractive to them. This means that banks would pay a high cost, as they will be forced to cut their balance sheets and downside deflation risks. Banks will also impose higher fees, require additional costs for financial operations, and they may as well reduce their size and their balance sheets by reducing repos, loans, trading assets and securities, which will affect pricing negatively. In addition, the Japanese economy will be negatively affected, as their average cumulative annual growth would decrease by 1. 5% by 2020 and their number of unemployed people will increase. The cost of Basel III implementation will be multiplied by the effect of the weaker growth in credit and nominal income that will consequently weaken tax revenue (loss of 0. 6% of GDP) and compound the Japanese government’s budget deficit and debt difficulties and will deepen deflation risk in Japan as well. Although Japan is the least country affected by this regulatory changes but the price they will pay seem to be price significant especially for an economy where the banking system did not perform poorly through the recent crisis, or reveal itself to be a source of global systemic risk. Not only developed countries will incur the costs of Basel III but also developing countries will do as well including Egypt. Most emerging market banking system are going to incur lower costs than mature markets that’s because their banking systems are well capitalized and maintain ratios of regulatory capital to risk-weighted assets well above the current 8% minimum of the Basel II requirements. Egypt exceeded the minimum capital requirements of Basel II (8% of RWA), as its capital requirement was 11. % of RWA, which may help it to have an easier time to abide by Basel III. That’s why an increase in the minimum requirement of two percentage points, to 10% of risk- weighted assets would not appear to be a significant burden on the Egyptian banking systems that is currently quite well capitalized. However a price should also be paid by the Egyptian banking system, as it has to increase it common stock from 3. 6% of RWA to 4. 5% of RWA which means that investors will get a lower return in comparison their high risk (lower profit by share). As the majority of banks won’t be able to issue more capital, they will be obliged to decrease their RWA by having less banking services, by downsizing their branches, reducing their assets, decreasing their lending and imposing higher fees. Also Egypt will be challenged to meet the net stable funding rule requirements (NSFR), which may lead to an increase in its banks’ overall funding costs. Besides, the potential application of a leverage ratio to off-balance sheet assets such as letters of credit and guarantee for small and medium- sized enterprises and trade finance instruments could have a penalizing effect. Moreover, because Egypt has unstable economic conditions it needs to increase its countercyclical buffer from 0% to 2. 5% of RWA in order to account for any recession and it needs to raise its new conservation buffer from 0% to 2. 5% of RWA. These figures mean that Egypt would be obliged to raise its total capital by around 3. 5% of RWA in additional capital which will reflect in a decrease of Egypt’s GDP by 6% over 2013 to 2019. Egypt will incur an additional cost of Basel III because of the compounded effects generated by the indirect effects of Basel III application. Lending to emerging markets such as Egypt became a costly job for mature markets economies (lending to NON OECD costs 50% risk), which may result in a shortage of Egypt’s liquidity and indirectly inflation pressure would be untamable for food prices. Unfortunately, I have to say that after the glamorous revolution of the 25th of January Egypt’s costs of implementing Basel III will dramatically increase. Because the revolution resulted in a decrease in the Egyptian GDP y 6% in few months, the central bank is using aggressive monetary policy to increase consumption by â€Å"increasing lending† which will consequently cause a higher RWA and will put Egypt in a deeper trouble to apply Basel III requirements. Egypt will pay a triple cost, first the above stated costs of Basel III implementation, then the indirect costs caused by the mature markets who will decrease their lending to Egypt and finally the cost of the revolution that lowered our credit rating from a BB- to BBB+ (junk) which will increase our cost of borrowing from other nations. In my own opinion, Egyptians should wake up, stop riding and start building their economy by hard work, which should be reflected in a high productivity rate that allows firms to increase their sizes instead of downsizing and generating job opportunities. I think the central bank of Egypt (CBE) should start by giving all its attention to solve the current crisis and should seek the Basel committee and beg them to giving Egypt a larger period of implementation in order to be able to meet their requirements. To restructure the current situation of Egypt, the CBE should start by seeking a source of funding in order to satisfy the basic human needs of food and shelter. The CBE could seek the IMF and large donors and urge them to take long term loans in order to rescue the current situation and avoid hunger. Another way to raise funding is to issue bonds in the stock market (unconventional monetary policy tool). This way CBE could obtain some necessary liquidity to import the needed food and to pump more money in the market to create a money illusion so that people start spending. Second, the CBE should start solving the real problem of the Egyptians, which is poor income distribution by giving higher return for post office depositors and by extending their loans. Another way to have a better redistribution of wealth is to enhance the SMES to enlarge their investment and open up new job opportunities by enhancing commercial banks to lend them with low credit rate. I personally think that pumping money in the hand of poor people, although it is a costly process to raise salaries, but it is a rewarding one as the poor population is the one that will use the increase in wealth in consumption rather than savings and hence increase GDP growth. On the long run, after stability takes place in Egypt, huge reforms will be needed in order to rebuild the Egyptian economic system. A decrease in the inflation rate would be recommended. Ã' CBE could use its two conventional monetary olicy tools, which are to decrease the discount rate and the LRR to encourage banks to give loans with lower interest rates, and to minimize the inflation rise hence enhancing consumption and increasing investment and as a result a rise in the GDP will take place. Using aggressive monetary policy can help alleviate the current situation but only a fundamental reform of the educational system, and an efficient allocation of resources would help Egypt to take place among developed countries one day. Egypt is a country with rich resources and with a high labor force that if used efficiently could form a developed nation.

Reaction and reasons Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Reaction and reasons - Assignment Example It would appear that somebody is regularly striking something on the surface, like a workman at his work, striking with a hammer. You never know how it will end, or if it is just the beginning of something, but as time moves, it appears endless and boring as one finds difficulty in getting absorbed in the whole experience. When it reached 25-30 seconds in the time count, the tones suddenly falls down and there is a bit of struggling to get the tone. Like the beginning, the tone is not continuous, and there is a pause from the first sound to the next. However, there pitch is uniform, and the tones coming at regular intervals. The struggle you put in makes you absorbed in the proceedings in a way and it feels your mind with the feelings of sadness. The sadness is inexplicable but may be due to the the level of the tones and the strokes coming out of the music. On the other hand, you may imagine a scenario where one is travelling on a lonely path, all alone and losing hope. This then changes at between 33-35 seconds when the tone rises sharply. The sharp rise brings a lot of difference to the feelings. You get interested in the music as the sound of thumbing appears to be coming out of the music. It gives a feeling of happiness and expectations of something better. The mind becomes lively for once s you get involved and absorbed in the music. In this instance I began to imagine a music event I attended back where there was a lot of dancing and partying. Essentially, there was happiness and this was accentuated even more with the fast pace of the strokes coming from the music. At 55-56 seconds, the tone changes to very low pitch, which is dragging unlike in the beginning where the pitch was sharp. This is a bit continuous. But besides, it comes at regular intervals, each time repeating the same pattern. It brings to mind images of struggle. Like an old vehicle struggle to move uphill, each time making small progress. The process

What was the Impact of the Holocaust on Postwar Art and Culture Essay

What was the Impact of the Holocaust on Postwar Art and Culture - Essay Example This figure represented two thirds of the total European Jewish population and a third of the world’s total. Causes Germany was forced to sign the humiliating Versailles Treaty, at the end of the First World War, in which the country was forced to cut down on its armed forces, its prewar territory was reduced, and Germans were forced to admit guilt for the war. They were also forced to pay reparations to the allied forces for losses incurred during the war. The country was also forced to adopt a parliamentary governing system, and it is through this system that Adolf Hitler became a Chancellor, or prime minister, in 1932. Soon after, his government started propagating hate campaign against Jews, claiming that they were the source of all German problems and, therefore, needed to be exterminated as a race from the world. This is what led to the Holocaust, a tragedy that peaked during the war and only ended with Germany’s defeat, by the allied forces, in 1945 (AICE). ... Other museums across the world have set aside sections that keep these objects too. Paintings and Pictures Visual representations have also been done through paintings, photography and films. Evidence from the concentration camps indicates that the detainees engaged in the art to express their feelings and sufferings, and to avoid getting bored. Though some of this work was discovered by the Nazis and destroyed claiming it was part of ‘horror propaganda’, and the artists punished severely, however, some of it survived. This includes Josef Nassy’s 200 drawings which he painted while at Bavaria’s Laufen and Tittmoning concentration camps. His pieces of art survived the concentration camps and these help in capturing an eye witness’ account of the dehumanizing nature in which Nazis treated the Jews. ‘No names’ are paintings by Alice Lok Cahana, a Hungarian Holocaust survivor who tells her story as a teenage detainee. Her work is preserved i n the Collection of Modern Religious Art gallery, at the Vatican Museum. Some other artists helped in producing paintings of life at Bergen-Belsen concentration camp months after its liberation and these include Mary Kessell, Leslie Cole, and Sargeant Eric Taylor who was one of the camp's liberators. A lot of these paintings have been done over time including those by contemporary artists and are on display in different museums and art galleries across the globe (Zelizer 8). Photography Photography has also been used extensively to preserve memories of the Holocaust. Among these is the more than 10,000 photos taken secretly by Mendel Grossman while at the death camps. Though he died in the same camps; however, the negatives were used to develop photos

Opening Exercise Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Opening Exercise - Essay Example The guesser will have to think creatively to pinpoint the word and concepts written on the paper. If a certain concept or word is unclear, team members can either research for clarification or better yet, ask the teacher to help explain and clarify the word or concept. Still, the participants are learning. The restrategizing aspect of the game will teach the players about their lapse in their communication techniques and from their mistakes apply remedial measures to improve performance just like in an organization. They could also learn from the other team. Each teams will also learn how to communicate properly so that they could guess the word and concept given the limited feedback of â€Å"YES, NO or COULD BE†. This would make the players appreciate how susceptible people are to miscommunication. The process will also teach the students the value of clear communication in an organization realizing the difficulty of guessing concepts and ideas when handicapped by less than ideal situations such as having noise in communication, not having all the information needed, and not clearly transmitted thoughts. The game can be applied to any subject. Only the words can be changed to suit the need of a particular subject. The game can also be made more challenging by letting the opposing team write the words that their opponents will have to guess. Of course they would naturally make the concept more difficult for other team to guess pushing the learning process to extend to more complicated concepts that would entice the students to study more to win the game without them realizing that they are already studying the

How to Be a Better Learner Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

How to Be a Better Learner - Essay Example The researcher states that every one of us has his own unique good or bad style of learning new things. Learning preferences change depending upon past experience more than the cognitive differences. â€Å"Style changes over time†, says Dr. Sarah Church. While it is possible to recognize different essential features of a learning style, it must be known that the learning process modifies with the passage of time at the individual level. Robotham also asserts that once students develop a learning style, they tend to refine that style based on three factors: unconscious modifications made by the learner himself, conscious modifications made by the learner, and modifications made by some outside element. The researcher’s past experience tells him that he has adapted quite a few learning styles over time. When the author was a child, he used to enjoy the audio learning style because he enjoyed listening to poems over the cassette player when he had to learn them. But today, the author categorizes himself as a visual independent learner and an assimilator of Kolb’s learning styles. Independent learning is the type of learning in which the learner takes charge of his learning process, according to Holec. This learning style makes the learner responsible as he knows that he is accountable to himself of the consequences. Independent learners are able to make a decision and make informed choices without relying on their teachers and colleagues. Dependent learning style is one in which the learner only does what is required and shows little curiosity in knowing more. Dependent learners are always looking up to their peers, teachers and authority figures for support and guidance.

Importance of Orgazined Management Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Importance of Orgazined Management - Essay Example In addition, every organization depends on group effort. Joint efforts and group action have become essential in every aspect of life. Therefore, management is necessary wherever two or more individuals work together to accomplish common goals. The achievement in group efforts is dependent on mutual cooperation among people in a group. Management establishes coordination and teamwork among specialized efforts. Management is crucial in all organizations whether a club, business firm, a college, a government, or a business firm. Management is a resourceful tool which plays a part in the optimum use of resources. Organized managerial leadership alone can transform the chaotic resources of machinery, men, materials, and money into an industrious enterprise. An organization is simply a collection of machinery, men, materials, and money in the absence of management. In addition, management is required to organize, plan, control, and direct group efforts. Also, management offers motivation and leadership to people. As an inventive force, management performs an identical function in an organization like a brain does in the body of a human being. It is the primary coordinating mechanism that underlies organized venture. The significance of management has augmented enormously in recent years because of the increase in the complexity and size of the organizations, growing responsibilities and turbulent environment of business. All in all, an organized management will play a significant part in minimizing costs and maximizing output. An organized management maintains a vibrant equilibrium between an organization and its ever changing environment. Management is responsible for the formation, endurance, and expansion of organizations. This means that there is the constant need for management in any organization (Holtzman, Puerta & Lazarus, 2011). This paper will look at the importance of organized management. The paper will achieve this by examining the different levels of m anagement, roles of management, and the significance of organized management. Many organizations are made up of three levels of management: top-level management, middle-level management, and first-level management. The managers are organized in a chain of command of authority, and engage in a number of tasks. In numerous organizations, the number of managers in each level is similar to a pyramid. The top-level management is made up of chief executive officers, board of directors, president, vice-president, and other members of the C-level executives. These people are responsible for overseeing and controlling the whole organization. This level of management is responsible for setting a tone at the top and establishes strategic plans, policies of the organization, and reach decisions on the direction of the organization. Additionally, top-level managers play an essential part in the mobilization of external resources and are answerable to the general public and shareholders. The boar d of directors is characteristically primarily made up of non-executives which owe a fiduciary responsibility to stakeholders and are not directly engaged in the daily functions of the organization, even though this is different based on the culture, form, and size of the organization (Martindale, 2011). Also, these directors are tentatively answerable for violations of that duty and normally insured under directors and officers liability insurance. In addition, the board

Critically analyse the competing views articulated by Essay

Critically analyse the competing views articulated by capital-exporting countries and capital-importing countries in relation to the nature of compensation for the expropriation of foreign property - Essay Example and other countries. Similarly, Mexico nationalised all American interests in 1938 and refused to pay compensation to the property owners. Their stand, as capital importing countries was that when they initiated economic and social reforms both the nationals and foreign entities suffered or enjoyed equally and hence, there was no question of compensation especially when they had no sources or means or capacity to compensate the parties. On the other hand, capital exporting countries insisted that they were entitled to minimum standard of treatment which should not be just equal to the treatment given to the nationals. Many equitable principles have evolved in the process each of which has been fairly argued for and against. The capital importing countries held the view that when foreign entities enter into their states they are supposed to merge their destiny along with nationals and work together for the country’s betterment and therefore cannot expect any better treatment th an available to nationals. All these controversies had been due to absence of settled international law prior to world war period and during the immediate post war period. As a solution to the much vexed issue, bilateral and multilateral treaties have come to stay as contracts with legal binding to address similar situations during their operating periods. This paper proposes to examine the views of the capital exporting and capital importing countries in the matter of compensation payable for taking of the foreign investor’s (capital exporting) properties by the host states (capital importing). Since there is no enactment of international law as such, only by the customary law and equitable principles, it can be decided whether an expropriation resorted to by the host state is justifiable or not. With this perspective, this paper will examine the customary law and various instances of expropriations across the world and

The Black Panther Party Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

The Black Panther Party - Research Paper Example They were the victims of constant harassment and violence orchestrated by white mobs such as the Ku Klux Klan and the government, especially the police, who arrested them arbitrarily without any justifiable reason to do so (Claver 29). It is for these reasons that these people found it necessary to come together and form an organization, which would be well equipped to protect them and to offer leadership necessary in improving their livelihoods. This paper is a critical evaluation of the Black Panther Party and its activities in the US from 1966 to 1982. The Black Panther Party The Black Panther Party was a political organization in the US, which existed between 1966 and 1982. It was established by Huey Newton and Bobby Seale as a movement to fight for the liberation of black people, who were going through racial discrimination and violence orchestrated by organizations, which advocated for white supremacy (Hilliard 18). The African American society at this time faced numerous chall enges such as police brutality, racism, poverty and lack of political representation among others and, therefore, it was necessary for them to unite under a common agenda in order to defend themselves and protect their interests. To achieve these objectives, the party adopted a socialistic ideology, which led to the foundation of school feeding programs for pupils, whereby, more than 15000 children were beneficiaries. The party also felt the need to establish health facilities to cater for the African American people who were usually neglected by the national government and the white society as a whole, which perceived them as second class citizens, who did not deserve any compassion or sympathy (Hilliard 22). As earlier stated, police brutality against the African Americans was a common phenomenon. This was one of the issues that the party wanted to solve and to that end, members of the party organized themselves into several armed groups, which were to engage in patrols aimed at n eutralizing inhumane police activities (Claver 44). The groups followed police officers whenever they were on patrol and if they dared arrest or harass a member of the community without a justifiable reason, then, the police were to be beaten and chased away from the vicinity. This led to occasional exchange of fire between the police and the vigilantes sometimes resulting to injuries and death. For example, in 1967, one of the founders of the party, Huey, was injured and hospitalized after a shooting incident involving the Oakland police and the party members. Later, while in hospital, he was accused of causing the death of a police officer during the incident. Similarly, the police officers ambushed several party members from the same department in 1968 for no apparent reason. The police just started firing at the persons’ vehicle, thereby, forcing people such as Eldridge Cleaver and Bobby Hutton, to take refuge in a basement of a nearby house. The police fired at them for a long time after which they threw teargas into the basement forcing Hutton to come out lifting his hands as a sign of surrender but the police sprayed him with bullets killing him instantly. This is proof of how government instruments disregarded human life with respect to the black society. In fact, it may be noted that the authorities, including the FBI, adopted numerous inhumane ways, such as assassination,

Health Promotion Activity Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Health Promotion Activity - Essay Example Also the organization would have low employee turnover as the employees appreciate the organization’s concern about their wellbeing (Infinite Wellness Solutions, 2008) At present numerous health issues need to be addressed and selecting one among those is a challenging task. However, in recent times obesity has garnered the attention of everyone as this medical condition leads to many complications such as cardiac problems and diabetes. There have been a lot of studies which have demonstrated the prevalence of the condition in most of the families in America. Statistics reveal that in 2003-2004, the risk of overweight percentage in children and adolescents was 33.6% with the percentage of overweight children being 17.1%. This is a considerable increase when compared to the results of the year 1999-2000 (Ortiz, 2006). The prevalence of the condition has increased in the recent times due to the fast pace of life, increased consumption of junk food and lack of physical activity. However, this condition can be brought under control with lifestyle changes and support and would offer a lot of positive outcomes for both the employee and the organization. After identifying the problem that needs to be addressed the next step is to garner the support of the management. The organization should understand the significance of the health promotion activity and should be able to allot adequate funds for the implementation of the same. The next step would be to set goals for the activity and then form a health promotion team or a planning committee (Infinite Wellness Solutions, 2008). Goals need to be established in order to proceed and accomplish what you hope the program will do. It serves as a sort of framework identifying the current situation and the future course after the implementation of the program. A person would head the committee and would focus primarily on the activity, strategies for making the program work and to meet the

Knowledge and the sources provided Essay Example for Free

Knowledge and the sources provided Essay Evacuation was both successful and unsuccessful. The Government did manage to secure its objectives of keeping children safe and keeping the war machine going without the threat of children being killed which was a successful aspect of evacuation. Although the conditions on the train were cramped and there was a lack of facilities, a vast amount of children were transported out of the cities quickly and efficiently. Most of the children who were evacuated also benefited from it although some did have bad experiences. However a major problem with evacuation was that a significant number of children either did not go or returned back to the danger-zones. Despite the government propaganda for instance the How and Why pamphlet, which contributed to the efficient way in which children were evacuated many parents refused to allow their children to leave. In Hope and Glory a mother agrees to evacuate her children but then becomes overcome with emotion and unable to part with her children. This was quite a common occurrence and some parents did not even consider evacuating their children due to preconceived ideas. Source E highlights this; the man being interviewed would not send his child away as he thought that they cant be looked after where theyre sending them. This man, like many other citizens had preconceptions of the countryside such as theyve nothing there; they were starving there before the war Many children who were evacuated returned home, some because they were unhappy and some because their parents did not see the need for them to remain there because of the phoney war in which no bombs were dropped on cities. This meant that they would be back in danger zones, which was not a success from the governments point of view. The actual transportation of the children was very well organised; the children were all registered in advance and were put onto the trains efficiently. Source A depicts evacuees walking to the station in London. This suggests that evacuation was well-ordered as all the children are walking in an orderly fashion; they are all smiling and a few are waving. This shows that the children were content in being evacuated. However one must take into account the fact that the source is a photograph hence it could have been staged. Source B contradicts this and suggests that evacuation was a nerve-racking experience for the children involved as they were too afraid to talk. The source also states that the children didnt know where they were going; this is a negative factor as it would cause angst amongst the children and suggests disorganisation. As well as simply the organisation and official objectives behind evacuation; there are other aspects which one must consider. Many children gained a lot of new experiences and there were many long-term benefits. Some long-term benefits include broadened horizons of the children, increased understanding between classes and a raised awareness of urban poverty. Many country dwellers did not know how city children lived and evacuation was an opportunity for them to find out. Source C, an extract from Carries War by Nina Bowden highlights a misconception about evacuees as the child in the novel says she thinks were poor children, too poor to afford slippers. However this source is not really a primary source, as although it is based on reality, it is a fictitious novel. A lot of evacuees had positive experiences such as enjoying healthier, safer surroundings than the cities as well as developing a life-long love of the countryside. On the other hand some children were just treated like servants by their foster families or made to feel very unwelcome. These children experienced some of the negative factors of country life. Many of the foster families had negative experiences such as bad-mannered children or children with poor personal hygiene. These experiences are both positive and negative; although they were unpleasant, they resulted in raised awareness of urban childrens welfare. This raised awareness of poverty resulted in the introduction of the Welfare State Shortly after W. W. II. Many foster families and evacuees enjoyed the experience of evacuation and treasured memories of it for many years. The evacuees were predominantly grateful, Source D, a government advertisement suggests that the foster families were doing a real service for the nation; this evokes patriotism and causes people to come together and help each other, which is another positive outcome of evacuation. This advertisement encouraged people to take in evacuees thus making the arrangements easier and more orderly, increasing the successfulness of evacuation. When looking at all the evidence available to us it is clear that although evacuation was not a great success as there were a great deal of setbacks, such as the children who did not go and children who returned home it was quite successful as the government did secure the objective of reducing civilian casualties. Many other benefits were as a result of evacuation and it was an enlightening experience for all those concerned. There were a few negative effects for certain individuals but as a whole, this nation benefited from evacuation.

The Christians Doctrine Of Trinity

The Christians Doctrine Of Trinity During my a yearlong stay in Australia in 2009, once I happened to visit St Marys Cathedral in Sydney and witness Sunday Services, a formalized way of communal worship by the followers of worlds largest and celebrated religion the Christianity. The services involved singing of hymns, reading of verses from the Holy Scriptures and possibly a Psalm, a sermon by the Archbishop and then Baptisms of a few young believers. The services were followed by a very informative guided tour of the Cathedral giving a quick insight into the history of the Christianity in Australia in general and of St Marys Cathedral in particular. Impressed by the enriched history of the Christianity and captivated by this very orderly and benevolent way of offering prayers by the Christians Catholic community, I aimed to study the Christian religion in detail and explore its various aspects. However, the most vital factor which led me to write this paper is my eagerness to understand and analyze a shadowy and controversial yet vital Christians Doctrine of the Trinity, as during my visit to the Cathedral I was amazed to view the sermon and hymns glorifying the God, the Christ and the Holy Spirit while putting them all at equal to one and another, despite of the fact that the Christianity, besides Judaism and Islam, is a Monotheistic religion which believes in only one God. In pursuance to my eagerness to understand and research on the subject matter, I went through a number of books and research articles about Christianity in general and the Doctrine of Trinity in particular written by numerous writers professing differing school of thoughts. Having gone through all these writings, my understanding about the Doctrine of Trinity remained as bewildering as ever before. However, being a student of MPhil in Socio-Cultural Anthropology once I tried to analyse the subject matter in anthropological perspective, my understanding of the issue became much explicit and I could make sense of many underlying facts about this mysterious faith of Christianity. While doing my research work and writing this paper I have used the secondary data. However, I fully acknowledge and thank for the continual assistance provided by my instructors, my class fellows, and the Bahria Universitys library staff during my drawn-out research work. Introduction The most debated mystery of the Christian faith has been the Doctrine of Trinity, which defines God as three divine persons God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. These three persons, though distinct from one another, co-exist in unity and are co-equal, co-eternal and consubstantial. Most Christians often say they believe in the Trinity, yet they differ in their understanding of it. There are numerous Trinitarian conceptions that exist today, but generally the Trinity belief is that in the Godhead there are three persons, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost; yet, together they are but one God. Supporters of the Trinity say that it is founded not only on religious tradition but also on teachings of the Bible. The Greek Orthodox Church calls the Trinity the fundamental doctrine of Christianity, even saying Christians are those who accept Christ as God. In the book Our Orthodox Christian Faith the same Church declares: God is triune . . . . The Father is totally God. The Son is totally God. The Holy Spirit is totally God. The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church describes the Trinity as the central dogma of Christian theology. On the other hand, the critics of the Doctrine of Trinity say it false and man self-fabricated, as the God Almighty stands alone as a separate, eternal, and all-powerful being. They argue that Jesus in his prehumen existence was, like the angels, a separate spirit person created by God, and for this reason he must have had a beginning, i.e. there was a time when he was not. They instill that Jesus has never been Almighty Gods equal in any sense; he has always been subject to God and still is. They also believe that the Holy Ghost is not a person but Gods spirit, his active force. The opponents of the doctrine claim that it is not a Bible teaching, one history source even declaring the origin of the Trinity as entirely pagan. Since the inception of doctrine of Trinity into Christianity about fifteen centuries ago, most Christians who believe in this doctrine have never actually checked it out to see why they believe it. They just assume that it must be true because it is what most churches teach. In addition, many people think it is wrong to question doctrines like this. But the reality is that many Christians who accept the doctrine of Trinity, remain confused and even those who have a deeper understanding of it admit that they do not understand it completely and cant defend it when challenged. Once stuck, their eventual response is that the Trinity is hard to understand because God is beyond human thinking. There is another disturbing aspect of this debate that many Christians believe in different Trinity doctrines or at least they understand this doctrine in different ways. Some believe that God is one being that shows himself in three different ways, like water shows itself in the form of ice, steam, and liquid. Others believe that the Trinity is made up of three distinct personalities and these three are in complete unity in love and purpose. Notwithstanding the above, the aim of this paper is to explore and comprehend the Christians Doctrine of Trinity from different aspects including the anthropological perspective. In doing so, I will first briefly glance at Christianity as a religion while looking into its origin, brief history and the basic beliefs. Then I will deliberate upon one of Christianitys most controversial yet pivotal teachings, i.e. the Doctrine of Trinity. In this part of the paper, I will address some of vital questions concerning the Doctrine of Trinity and will try to find their answers from the available texts and writings. Thereupon, I will analyse the said doctrine from anthropological perspective while applying a French social theorist Michael Foucaults renowned theory on knowledge is power. I will also highlight perspectives about religion by a few other great philosophers like Ludwig Feuerbach, Karl Marx, Emile Durkheim and Sigmund Freud. At the end I will draw my conclusion. Christianity at a Glance Its Origin, Brief History and Basic Beliefs The Christianity is a monotheistic and Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of a Jewish preacher named Yeshua, commonly known as Jesus Christ, who lived in Nazareth, a small town in Galilee of Roman province Judaea, about 2,000 years ago. Yeshua was born to a Virgin Mary probably between 7 and 4 BCE, and was executed in Jerusalem in the spring of the year 30 CE on the orders of the Roman Prefect, Pontius Pilate. After Yeshuas death, his apostles formed the Jewish Christian movement, concentrated in Jerusalem. One of Yeshuas Apostles Simon Peter and then James, who is viewed as either Yeshuas brother or cousin, headed the group. They regarded themselves as a reform movement within Judaism; as they continued to sacrifice at the temple, circumcise their male children, and follow Jewish kosher food laws etc. Around 34 CE, Saul of Tarsus, originally a persecutor of the Jewish Christians, while travelling on the road from Jerusalem to Damascus on a mission to apprehend the Jewish Christians had a vision of the resurrected Jesus in a great light. He converted to Christianity and adopted the new name of Paul the Apostle, and became the greatest theologian of the early Christian movement. His writings, along with those of the author(s) of the Gospel of John, provided much of the theological foundation for what has been called Pauline Christianity, a movement that spread throughout the northern and eastern Mediterranean basin. Paul Christianity, which started around 37 CE, was directed primarily to Gentiles, i.e. non-Jews. The third contesting belief system was Gnostic Christianity, which taught that Jesus was a spirit sent by God to impart knowledge to humans so that they could escape the miseries of life on earth. In addition to Jewish, Pauline and Gnostic Christianity, there were many other versions of Christianity being taught. However, after the destruction of Jerusalem by the Roman Army in 70 CE, the Jewish Christian movement was largely dissipated which left Pauline and Gnostic Christianity as the dominant Christian groups. Gentiles within the movement took over control of the former movement. As compare to other beliefs systems, the Pauline Christianity grew quickly in size and influence over a few decades, and by 313 CE Roman Empire recognized it was a valid religion and by 387 CE it became the official religion of the Roman Empire, replacing other forms of religions earlier being practiced under the Roman rule. Gnostic Christianity was severely persecuted, both by the Roman Empire and the Pauline Christian churches. During the Middle-Ages, most of the Europe was Christianized. Following the Age of Discovery, through colonization and missionary work, Christianity spread to the American subcontinents, Australasia, sub-Saharan Africa, and the rest of the world. As of today, the Christianity is the most popular and largest religion in the world with around 2.34 billion followers, constituting 33.35 % of worlds total population and growing further at the rate of 1.38 % per annum. It is the predominant religion in Europe, the Americas and Southern Africa, and, in one form or another, is the sole state religion of several countries. During the 7th century CE, power in the Christian world became polarized in Constantinople and Rome. These two Christian centers gradually grew apart in belief and practice. In 1054 CE, a split was formalized between the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches. Later on, in the 16th century various schisms including the Protestant Reformation led to a fragmentation within the Western Church. The Protestant movement has since splintered into what is now many groups of denominations, and tens of thousands of individual denominations. Consequently, as of today there are three main groups practicing Christianity worldwide; the Roman Catholic Church, the Eastern Orthodox Church, and the Protestant Churches. There are other Christian groups as well that do not fit neatly into any one of these primary categories, like Oriental Orthodox, Assyrian Church. Of all the Christians in the world today about half are Roman Catholic. Though, there are many differences of interpretation and opinion of the Bible on which the Christianity is based, Christians share a set of beliefs that they hold as essential to their faith. The central tenet of Christianity is the belief in Jesus as the Son of God and the Messiah (Christ). The title Messiah comes from the Hebrew word mÄ Ãƒâ€¦Ã‚ ¡ià ¡Ãƒâ€ž meaning anointed one. Christians believe that Jesus, as the Messiah, was anointed by God as saviour of humanity, and hold that Jesus coming was the fulfillment of messianic prophecies of the Old Testament. The foundation of Christian theology is expressed in the early Christian ecumenical creeds which contain claims predominantly accepted by followers of the Christian faith. These professions state that Jesus was conceived by the Holy Spirit and born from the Virgin Mary, was crucified, buried, and resurrected from the dead in order to grant eternal life to those who believe in him and trust him for the remission of their sins. They further maintain that Jesus bodily ascended into heaven where he rules and reigns with God the Father. Most denominations teach that Jesus will return to judge all humans, living and dead, and grant eternal life to his followers. He is considered the model of a virtuous life, and both the revealer and physical incarnation of God. Christianity has played a pivotal role in shaping of the worlds socio-cultural, political and economic scenario, especially the Western civilization. In words of a renowned American scholar Sam Pascoe, Christianity started out in Palestine as a fellowship; it moved to Greece and became a philosophy; it moved to Italy and became an institution; it moved to Europe and became a culture; it came to America and became an enterprise. The Doctrine of Trinity Exploring the Doctrine of Trinity The Christian Doctrine of the Trinity defines God as three divine persons, the Father, the Son (Jesus Christ), and the Holy Spirit. The three persons are distinct yet coexist in unity, and are co-equal, co-eternal and consubstantial. According to this doctrine, there is only one God in three persons. Each of them is said to be without beginning having existed for eternity. Each is said to be Almighty, neither greater nor lesser than the others. Each is said to be a complete God in every sense of the word which includes Gods attributes and all are equal in time, position, power and knowledge. Together, these three persons are sometimes called the Godhead. In the words of the Athanasian Creed, an early statement of Christian belief, the Father is God, the Son is God, and the Holy Spirit is God, and yet there are not three Gods but one God. According this Doctrine, though distinct from one another, the three persons cannot be divided from one another in being or in operation. In other words, God is not divided in the sense that each person has a third of the whole; rather, each person is considered to be fully God. The distinction lies in their relations, the Father being un-begotten; the Son being begotten of the Father; and the Holy Spirit proceeding from the Father and (in Western Christian theology) from the Son. Regardless of this apparent difference, the three persons are each eternal and omnipotent. While distinct in their relations with one another, they are one in all else. This ancient diagram explains the Trinity quite well. According to researchers, the word Trinity is not mentioned anywhere in the Holy Scripture, but used by the ancient Christian theologians to express the doctrine of the unity of God as subsisting in three distinct Persons. Some historians are of the view that the English word Trinity is derived from the Greek word trias, meaning a set of three or the number three and its first recorded use in Christian theology was by Theophilus of Antioch in about 170 AD. However, some researchers argue that the word Trinity came from the Latin word Trinitas, meaning the number three, a triad, and was first used by a Latin theologian Tertullian in 220 AD to express this doctrine. Development of Trinity into a Christian Doctrine Up until the end of the second century at least, most of the Christians were united in one basic belief; i.e. they all believed in the supremacy of the God Father. They all regarded God the Father Almighty as alone supreme, immutable, ineffable and without beginning. However, with the passing of those second century religious theologians and leaders, the Church found itself slipping slowly but inexorably toward trinity. Most of the researchers are of the view that the origin of the trinity doctrine is linked to a controversy, often known as the Arian controversy, that occurred in the city of Alexandria in the early part of the fourth century. A certain Alexander was bishop of Alexandria, Egypt who attempted to explain the unity of the Holy Trinity that whether the Son of God, is of the same substance, or only of like substance, with the Father. Alexander professed that The Son is immutable and unchangeable, all-sufficient and perfect, like the Father, differing only in this one respect that the Father is un-begotten and the Son was begotten. In explaining how the Son was begotten, Alexander quoted Jesus saying that He proceeded from the Father. Arius, who was a presbyter in charge of a parish church in the same city, dissented from the views set forth by Alexander. This disagreement reached the level of confrontation between Bishop Alexander of Alexandria and his presbyter Arius. So at a synod held at Alexandria in 321 C.E., in which Arius was deposed and excommunicated. However, Arius still had much support outside Egypt. Many of the important bishops theologically agree with Arius: Jesus Christ is not God. The sustained controversy caused unrest in the whole Roman Empire and Constantine the Great, in order to resolve the issue invited all bishops of the Christian Church (around 300 at that time) to Nicaea (which is now in modern Turkey) in May 325 C.E. Consequently, the creed of Nicaea was signed by 218 bishops who endorsed the Son as co-equal to God. However, the controversy over the nature of Jesus continued for next more than sixty years and gradually involved every conceivable authority; general councils, Popes, Emperors, bishops alone or in parties, and the faithful at large. A second ecumenical council met in Constantinople in the year 381 CE. This Council gave the finishing touch to the doctrine of three persons in one God stating that Jesus and God were co-equal, co-eternal and the deity of the Holy Spirit. From that time the Roman Emperors resolved and proclaimed they would punish all Christians who would not believe in and worship three persons in one God. Thus, the doctrine of the Trinity came to be formally established as the basic foundation of Christian faith for the next fifteen centuries. Subsequently, the doctrine of the veneration of Mary as the mother of God and bearer of God was also formulated at the Second Council of Constantinople (553 C.E.) and the title of Eternal Virgin was added. In the prayers and hymns of the Orthodox Church the name of the mother of God is invoked as often as in the name of Christ and the Holy Trinityà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦. In the Roman Catholic doctrine, Mary, the mother of God, was identified with the figure of the divine Wisdom. The process of deifying the mother of God went a step further here, in that Mary is treated like a divine hypostasis (substance), the figure of heavenly Wisdom. All through this period of development there had been protests made by those who wished to preserve the truth of the Gospel from the innovations; but they were gradually overborne, until at length, when the innovators were strong enough, they called other Christians Heretics, and persecuted them. Factors that Influenced the Doctrine of Trinity According to most of the researchers the prime factor that influenced the doctrine of Trinity to formulate into a fundamental belief of Christianity has been its connections with the paganism. Throughout the ancient world, as far back as Babylon, it was common for pagans to worship triad gods. This practice was also prevalent before, during and after Christ in Egypt (Horus, Osiris Isis), India (Siva, Brahma Vishnu), and Babylon (Ishtar, Sin Shamash). With the spread of Christianity especially the Paulines ministry during the first two centuries CE, most of the pagans in the Mediterranean basin converted to Christianity. They brought with them their centuries old socio-cultural traditions and religious beliefs. After the death of the Apostles, such pagan beliefs began to creep in Christianity. One may think that Paganism was dominated by Christianity, but it is perhaps more accurate to say that Christianity adapted it. Even the fact that Christians worship on Sunday was the adoptio n of a Pagan festival, because the Jews used to worship on Saturday. Some researchers are also of the view that one of the factor behind formulation of doctrine of Trinity as Christians fundamental faith had been the personal interest of the Roman emperors to wield maximum powers over masses by exploiting religion through the use of Church as a tool. It was in this context that the Constantine the Great, after coming into power in 312 CE, ended the persecution of the Christians and the suppression of the early Church which were continuing since the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Through conversion to Christianity special favors were offered to the people in the form of political, military and social gains. As a result, thousands of non-Christians joined the Church and enabled Constantine to exercise great power over the Church affairs. Constantines involvement in religious affairs was to such an extent that he himself presided over the proceedings of the Council of Nicaea and exercised his political power to bring to bear the bishops to accept his theo logical position. The Encyclopedia Britannica summarizes the proceedings of the Council of Niacea as follows: The Council of Niacea met on May 20, 325. Constantine himself presiding, actively guiding the discussion, and personally proposed (no doubt on Ossius prompting) the crucial formula expressing the relation of Christ to God in the creed issued by the council, of one substance with the Father. Over-awed by the emperor, the bishops, with two exceptions only, signed the creed, many of them against their inclination. Justifications by the Trinitarians about the Doctrine of Trinity The people who support the Doctrine of Trinity, commonly known as the Trinitarians, justify it on the basis that some verses in the Holy Bible, of which a few mentioned below, have specific reference to the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit as distinct entities in a single narrative. As soon as Jesus Christ was baptized, he went up out of the water. At that moment heaven was opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and landing on him. And a voice from heaven said, This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased. The angel answered and said to her, The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; and for that reason the holy Child shall be called the Son of God. How much more, then, will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to death, so that we may serve the living God! The Trinitarians interpret these verses as support for the doctrine of Trinity, because these verses speak of distinct entities mentioned by name in a single nerative. They argue, though the New Testament does not use the word ÃŽÂ ¤Ãƒ Ã‚ ÃƒÅ½Ã‚ ¹ÃƒÅ½Ã‚ ¬Ãƒ Ã¢â‚¬Å¡ (Trinity) nor explicitly teach it, yet it provides the referencing material upon which the doctrine of the Trinity could be formulated. In addition, the Old Testament has also been interpreted as foreshadowing the Trinity, by referring to Gods word, his spirit, and Wisdom, as well as narratives such as the appearance of the three men to Abraham, which the Trinitarians view as support of a Trinity. Rejection of Doctrine of Trinity by the Non-Trinitarians Many groups in Christianity, commonly known as non-Trinitarians, do not believe in the Doctrine of Trinity or the way the God is described in the Trinity and His relation with Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit. Non-Trinitarian groups also differ from one another in their views about the nature of Jesus Christ, depicting him variously as a divine being second only to God the Father, as God but not eternally God, as Son of God but inferior to the Father (versus co-equal), as a prophet, or simply as a holy man. The non-Trinitarians reject the Doctrine of Trinity on the basis that the expression God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit were not known or advocated by Jesus or the early Christians. They argue that the Apostolic Fathers and those of the succeeding generations up to the last quarter of the 4th century CE never have thought of a triune God. They believed in One Omnificent, Omnipotent, Omniscient and Transcendent Creator Who alone is to be worshipped. Some Christian history researchers and scholars also dispute the authenticity of the Trinity and argue that the doctrine is the result of later theological interpretations of Christs nature and function. In their view, the doctrine of the Trinity was coined by the Christians about three hundred years after Jesus. The four Canonical Gospels, written between 70 and 115 CE, contain no reference to the Trinity. Even Saint Paul, who imported many foreign ideas into Christianity, knew nothing of the Triune God. The New Catholic Encyclopedia admits that the doctrine of the Trinity was unknown to the early Christians and that it was formulated in the last quarter of the 4th century. At first the Christian faith was not Trinitarian . . . It was not so in the apostolic and sub-apostolic ages, as reflected in the New Testament and other early Christian writings. The early Christians, however, did not at first think of applying the (Trinity) idea to their own faith. They paid their devotions to God the Father and to Jesus Christ, the Son of God, and they recognized the Holy Spirit; but there was no thought of these three being an actual Trinity, co-equal and united in One. Denouncement of Doctrine of Trinity by the Holy Quran Islams holy book the Quran denounces the concept of Trinity as an over-reverence by Christians of Gods Word, the prophet and Messiah Jesus Christ son of the Virgin Mary. The Quran declares Jesus as one of the most important and respected prophets and Messengers of God, primarily sent to prevent the Jews from changing the Torah, and to refresh and reaffirm his original message as revealed to Moses and earlier prophets. The Quran reveals that the creation of Jesus is framed similar to the creation of Adam out of dust, but with Jesus birth meaning his creation excludes male human intervention rather than creation completely without human participation. According to Quran teachings belief in Jesus as a prophet, as well as belief in the original Gospel and Torah and belief in Jesus virgin birth are core criterion of being a Muslim and Quranic criterion for salvation in the hereafter along with belief in the Prophet Muhammad and all the prior prophets. In short, in Quran the God is seen as being both perfect and indivisible. He can therefore have no peer or equal. Jesus, being Gods creation, can never be considered to be equal with God or a part of God. So, any believe in the concept of Trinity is considered as blasphemy in Islam. Anthropological Perspective about the Doctrine of Trinity In the preceding paragraphs I have tried to explore the Christians Doctrine of Trinity from different historians and researchers point of view. The study confirmed that this doctrine had no roots in the teachings of Jesus Christ, his Apostles or the early Christian theologians. It was gradually evolved and formulated after at least three hundred years of Christ resurrection. No doubt, this doctrine has been in hot discussion in the Christian world for centuries and has retained the central most space in Christian theology. Though, tons of literature has been written down to analyse this Trinitarian doctrine, but its understanding remains as bewildering as ever before. Now, in order to comprehend this doctrine from anthropological perspective I will try to deconstruct it by going through its contents and by discourse analyses while applying Michael Foucaults theory on knowledge is power. In order to do that I will apply his structural theory to deconstruct this doctrine as power is employed to analyse knowledge, i.e. the concept of discursive formations. Foucault has a unique lens to see the world, societies, and its different institutions, and to use his own perspective about the knowledge and power. His philosophical theories addressed what power is and how it works, the manner in which it controls knowledge and vice versa, and how it is used as a form of social control. His first argument is that all relationships are the relationships of power which are diffused in the fabric of society ontologically, and its intrinsic urge to control others, everyone, and everything. He argues that in the human cultural history irrespective of time and space as a major rule human wants to control human by nature. Foucault divides all human history in three episteme; pre-historic, religious and scientific episteme respectively. He describes religion as a tool to control people. I n his view, knowledge such as scriptures, symbols, myths and rituals play a pivotal role to prove legitimacy of any religion. Knowledge is information and skills acquired through experience and education. Foucault describes four types of contesting knowledge that exist at parallel in a society; i.e. dominant, subordinate, marginalized and muted knowledge. According to Foucault, knowledge as power is used very carefully and politically by the knowledge creators to control human mind. Dominant knowledge creators are the drivers of the society as an elite class in the Marxist paradigm. Dominant knowledge producers create knowledge as discourse which elect some people, and give them the gaze to judge masses in the society, which means society is panoptical and individuals are under constant surveillance that they are doing their jobs properly. If some deviate from their role then the system declare them unfit and put them into asylum. In Foucaults perspective the society is held up in illusion and false consciousness. He annihilates all beliefs, norms, traditions and rules as discourse created by the dominant knowledge producers which are overwhelmingly imposed on the society. He proclaims that no knowledge is authentic, all are socially constructed. In line with many other postmodernists, Foucault argues that the reason to contest between knowledge is that there is a gap between the surface knowledge and living knowledge. Through discourse analysis, power structures may be uncovered and questioned by way of analyzing the corresponding fields of knowledge through which they are legitimized. This is one of the ways that Foucaults work is linked to critical theory. The corollary of the concepts of Foucault is ruling under the rubric of knowledge as power to dominate the thoughts of society. Now applying Foucaults theory on to the Doctrine of Trinity, we would evaluate its legitimacy as divine revelation or socially constructed theology. As we explored earlier, the doctrine of Trinity came into existence through a gradual evolution that took over two centuries. The Christianity that started its career as a pure monotheistic religion drifted slowly but inexorably toward polytheistic beliefs under the influence of pagan traditions and the dominant class of that time, i.e. the Roman emperors. The earlier Christian theologians and council of Bishops like Gnostic (50 CE), Justin Martyr (150 CE), Theophilus (169 CE), Irenaeus (177 CE), Tertullian (192 CE), Clement (215 CE), Hippolytus (220 CE), Origen (230 CE), Sibellius (255 CE), Arius (320 CE), Council of Nicaea (325 CE), Council of Constantinople (381 CE), Council of Chalcedon (451 CE) played their role in the formulation of doctrine of Trinity by continuously defining and re-defining the nature of God, Jesus Christ, and th e Holy Spirit and their relations to one another. Throughout this process the dominant class of that time used its political muscles to keep the doctrine in line with the state mechanism. In short, the knowledge created by the religious theologians and scholars in collaboration with the ruling class was employed to wield maximum power, and that power was used to control the masses. Now we will exchange the lens of Michael Foucault with other great philosophers of nineteenth and twentieth centuries in order to analyze this doctrine in their own conceptions and perceptions. One of the great figure the social philosopher and the most influential political atheist Karl Marx has a very unique materialistic world view to see the processes in the society. He proclaims a conflict view of religion as the sigh of the oppressed creature, the illusory happiness of men, the reflex of real world, the opium of