11 GI Bill An In-Depth Analysis

Research Essay Sample on Post 9/11 GI Bill An In-Depth Analysis Introduction In the year 2008, Post 9/11 veterans’ educational assistance act was made law by the congress. This measure was responsible for the amendment of title 38 of the US constitution. This was done so as to include the third chapter which deals with extension of educational benefits for veterans who have been in military service since September 11 2001. It is these education benefits that are commonly referred to as the post 911 GI Bill. Currently people are calling it the new GI BILL. The social condition that the bill seeks to address is emotional and secondary illiteracy among war veterans all over the country. This is done through paying of college fees and providing welfare assistance to veterans in a model similar to that of the original GI Bill that came into force immediately after the Second World War (Budahn, 2011).. The New GI Bill is attempting to address these problems. For veterans who have been in military service for more than three years since 2001, the act provides that they receive 100% funding for a four year undergraduate program. The veterans are also able to transfer the benefits to their spouses and children on condition that they serve for more than ten years. This act was proposed by Senator Jim Webb in 2007. The act was affected on august 2009 with some parts of it earmarked for change. For one to be eligible for the benefits they must be in active military service, they must have attained high school certification. The officers must opt for university or college education (Scoot, 2009). It is the department of veteran affairs that is charged with managing the veterans. For us to talk about the roles, and functions of the department of veteran affairs, we have to understand how it operates and the challenges it is facing. The VA as it is commonly referred to is facing a growing challenge in its operating environment. There has been a significant increase in claims and services per patient while legislative and national security policies are full of uncertainties. By understanding these obstacles and their effects on VA, we will be able to analyze the roles and functions of the VA department. A big challenge to the VA is the changing veteran population. Due to old age, the veterans and their families is developing complex needs with expectations that the VA should be able to provide for them. The Vietnam veterans constitute a significant percentage of veterans with age related complications like prostate cancer and diabetes. This has increased their demand for better health care services. The VA is also expected to provide benefits and services to the families of these ageing veterans (Whitney, 2007). Disability compensation is the area that has been profoundly affected in recent years. This is due to change in nature of wounds inflicted during combat. Most disabilities experienced by veterans’ today e.g.| are more complex and require advanced treatment. TODAY, THE VA PROVIDES THE FOLLOWING SERVICES: Provision of high quality health services to war veterans The VA has maintained the distinction of being the largest integrated health care system in North America. It has grown from 54 hospitals in 1931 to 153 fully furnished hospitals today. There are more than seven hundred outpatient clinics that are community based. Currently, the VA runs two hundred and sixty vet centers across the country. The medical facilities offer a wide range of services ranging from medical to rehabilitation. The VA also provides telemedicine which is intended to increase efficiency in service provision (Gaytan, 2011). Provision of benefits and compensation to veterans Another function of VA is to provide compensation and welfare benefits to the war veterans. These pension and compensation cover about four million veterans. Honoring veterans The VA is also charged with the task of honoring the veterans through establishment of unique cemeteries reserved for the veterans. The agency also undertakes maintenance of the cemeteries and other national shrines. In the year 2010, the agency has maintained more than three million gravesites and one hundred and sixty four properties related to the veterans(Alford, 2010). Eliminating Veteran homelessness Currently, there are about 107000 homeless veterans in the country. The VA plans to reduce this number to zero by the year 2014 through the provision of home support funds. Enabling full delivery of 21st century benefits and services The VA is committed to reducing paperless claims related to disability by the year 2014. It also strives to ensure veterans process their claims in a period shorter than 125 days (Gaytan, 2011). Improvement of veteran mental health 97% of veterans are suffering from alcohol abuse; this is one of VA’s goals to reduce alcohol consumption among veterans. The department ensures that the veterans receive eight sessions of psychotherapy (Alford, 2010). Doing research that enhance long term well being of veterans The department continues with scientific researches that are geared toward service improving and portfolio balance in the NRAC (Bertoni, 2011). Improve health care services while keeping costs low The department is charged with the responsibility of saving cost incurred by the veteran’s health requirements thereby increasing their benefits. It also ensures that the cases of mistaken payments are eliminated. GI Bill analysis and framework In its strategic planning framework, the department of veteran affairs has split the GI policy implementation strategy into four main components. These components are responsible for better discharge of services by the VA. They are the ones that define the functions and roles of the VA. These components include; four strategic goals which are crosscutting, integrated objectives’, integrated strategies and radical initiatives. The first component is not limited to one specific goal. It is charged with the task of providing a common set of premises on which initiatives and operation strategies are based. The objectives are meant to help the VA to build strategies on which the department’s goals of service provision can be achieved. Integrated objectives are courses of action that are meant to realize VA’s vision and objectives in implementing the GI policy (Bergmann, Duggan 2007). Veterans have derived a lot of benefits from the services offered by this agency. First, psychotherapy sessions have been successful in changing their drinking habits while ensuring their mental well being. The department’s collaboration with NRAC is a crucial step in understanding specific needs of veterans. The adoption of seamless interactivity between departments has enabled the veterans to acquire all information without having to move from one office to another (Budahn, 2011). Elimination of homelessness is another benefit that veterans are enjoying under the VA. The intention of this plan is to ensure that each veteran has a house and their families are well catered for. The use of SCIP process has eliminated wastage through unification of the budget affairs. This has increased the departments efficiency in dealing with veteran affairs. Reducing hiring cycle through human capital management has ensured that veterans and their families continue to enjoy their benefits without unnecessary delays. Previously it took more than 125 days to process claims. This has significantly reduced because the veterans can now enjoy the full 21st benefits and services (Bertoni, 2011). The central government through the department of defense has been financing these benefits and services since the adoption of the act. The money is sourced from the taxpayer’s kitty. Historical analysis of the GI Bill After the Second World War, the government passed into law Title 38 which was supposed to cater for all the men and women who had retired from the military so that they could live a comfortable life. In this act, the veterans were to enjoy full benefits of military personnel including free medical care and social services. Although it did not cover the education and spouses’ part, this act went a long way in ensuring that the veterans had a decent life after service. This was the only way of dealing with the problems afflicting the veterans. Supplemental appropriations act of 2008 was adopted through the act of congress in order to introduce modifications to the previous bill. After adopting the act in 2008, the state amended the third part of US code so that retiring military officers who served in the army from 2001 would be able to enjoy more benefits and services. It also opened eligibility to members of the National Guard. The law has also reduced the housing allowance for online learners which has enabled the service members and their spouses to get annual stipend of thousand dollars. The act has also removed the state to state tuition fees for the servicemen who decide to enroll in state colleges. In addition to these benefits, the bill was also modified to set 17000 dollars as the cap for veterans who may desire to attend private colleges (Gaytan, 2011) Historical ineffectiveness of the first GI Bill The original GI bill also provided for college education for veterans although there were some limitations. The ability of the veteran to transfer benefits to the spouse or children was not provided for in the original bill. These two acts were initiated by decorated war veterans turned politicians who felt that it was necessary to safeguard the future of the servicemen and their families. Incorporation of Historical lessons in the new program In his proposal for improvement of the act, Senator Jim Webb who is a decorated Vietnam veteran wanted the war veterans to be accorded better living standards due to the sacrifices they make for the sake of the country. Other prominent people who sponsored the bill are representative Bobby Scott and senator Olympia Snowe. The democrats and a few republicans support the passage of the supplemental bill after a bipartisan deal. The veteran education assistance bill was then passed on June 19 2008 by majority (Bertoni, 2011). The controversy generated has led the bill to face opposition from some politicians. Issues of compensation during the buy up option were a key concern for the opponents of this bill. The bill does not offer any provision on how the contribution is supposed to be incorporated into it when it is fully enforced. The VA has asserted that some service members will not be refunded their contribution of six hundred dollars. The bill faced opposition from some officials from the department of defense, President Bush and senator McCain believed it would impact negatively on military retention which is, critical to the country’s defense (Scoot, 2009). Effective approach to veteran affairs is essential in building the morale of the disciplined forces. It also ensures that no serviceman will be abandoned at his hour of need by the state. The ineffectiveness of the first bill meant that veterans would continue to be locked out of certain aspects of their lives. By denying them a chance to study on subsidized fees, the bill was discriminating against these important members of the American society. The other weakness that promoted ineffectiveness of the first bill was the exclusion of children and spouses from enjoying the veteran’s benefits (Alford, 2010). This meant that the veterans would still suffer since they are the ones expected to provide for their children. Historical records show that most veterans commit suicide due to stress and psychological problems. By offering eight sessions of psychoanalysis to the veterans as one of the benefits, the bill has eliminated cases of suicides. It is also necessary to note that the policy eliminated the stress related to academic achievements because the veterans have been given a chance to pursue higher education, which will enable them to get part-time employment.

15 Major Career Lessons to Learn When Youre Starting Out

15 Major Career Lessons to Learn When Youre Starting Out If done right, a career is a long string of learning opportunities. No one knows everything (despite what they may think or tell you), and the people who are best at what they do understand that there is always something new to be learned- about the job, about the field, about the people. Much of this knowledge is something you have to learn as you go. But there are also a number of realities and hard-fought realizations from others that can make your work life easier as you move through it. 1. Grab opportunities as they come.This one may seem like a no-brainer, but it can be hard to spot opportunities in the wild. It can be harder still to sacrifice a stable status quo to go for one. If you come across a job opening that would be great, if only the timing weren’t a little off, or you meet someone who would be a great network member, if only you had time to grab that drink with them- try not to let those slip by. Inertia can be a choice too (albeit a default one), and you shou ld try to make as many active choices as possible. Your career is yours, and yours alone. Nothing will happen unless you put in the effort to find and take advantage of potential stepping stones.2. Don’t worry about the small stuff.If you’re holding people’s lives in your hands as a healthcare provider or crossing guard, then yes- sweat the small stuff. But if you’re like many of us who have careers that do not directly impact anyone else’s safety, obsessing over small details and mistakes is unlikely to have a major impact. Do the best job you can do, and move on- obsessing over minutiae can distract you from what you really need to be accomplishing.3. Life is short.Wednesdays or staff meetings may seem awfully long sometimes, but in the grand scheme of things, they are not especially long-lasting. It’s important to keep in mind that sticking around around in a bad or unfulfilling work situation (or life situation, for that matter) is not i n your best interest, because it’s time you could have spent being happier and more productive.4. Look away from the screens.Technology is fantastic, and has made virtually every aspect of our lives easier in some respects. That doesn’t mean we don’t need breaks from our many screens every day. Build time into your workday to talk with colleagues about a project instead of emailing, or get away from your desk for a bit. Your eyes- and your stress level- will thank you.5. Make genuine connections.Sites like LinkedIn and other career networking sites are fantastic- they keep us posted on professional development opportunities, and what our networks are up to. However, these digital connections shouldn’t be mistaken for the real thing. Whenever you can, set up time with key members of your network, just to grab a coffee and talk. Even an email can work if they’re not local, as long as it’s personal, individual outreach.6. Challenge yourself.We all have comfort zones: areas of things we know we do well, and feel comfortable doing. Doing things well is going to be an asset to your career, obviously, but you should also not be afraid to experiment with new things that aren’t in that comfort zone. Take on side projects that need you to stretch your skills a little. Take a class in something you never even considered learning before. And if you find yourself saying â€Å"no† to something, ask yourself why, and maybe reconsider.7. Success is not overnight.Especially when you’re just starting out, not having a lot of tangible success up front can be frustrating. But remember: very few people (some Silicon Valley startup wizards aside) see success right away. Career success almost always = hard work + time.8. Neglected networks are not networks.If you just hit someone up when you need job leads, that’s not much of a relationship. Make sure your network is current. Let people know what you’re up to, and ask what they’re up to as well. Engage by sharing articles or information about your field. Send out holiday cards once a year (digital or analog ones) to stay on people’s radar. If you’re just a faceless connection on a website, how useful is that to you or anyone else?9. Your job is not worth your health.Stress can have very real, very unfortunate effects on your health can well-being, like depression, anxiety, lack of sleep, and any number of small issues that can be swept away or dismissed until they’re severe. If you’re sick more often than you used to be, or find yourself waking up at 3 a.m. panicking about whether you sent that email or not, that is not a good situation. Similarly, if you find that your job is taking necessary time away from your family, or making it so that you have very little down time, it may be time to look for something more friendly to creating a work-life balance.10. Advocate for yourself.Learning how to nego tiate is one of the most important things you can do for your career. You are truly your own best advocate, because you know your interests best. Knowing how to negotiate for raises, promotions, or salary will help you take control over your career.11. Failure isn’t forever.Mistakes suck, and they can be humiliating- especially if they lead to losing your job, or other major consequences. But no matter what happened, you can bounce back if you don’t get stuck in the mindset of branding yourself as a â€Å"failure.† Learning from past mistakes, and making changes so that those mistakes don’t get repeated, are actually leadership skills. But you don’t have to take my word for it: plenty of big names have suffered significant failures, and bounced back.12. Diversify yourself.You don’t have to be expert at everything, but try to be good at a lot of different things. That can mean taking classes to build some skills you’ll need to level up at work, or finding a new hobby that lets you build up skills outside of work. The goal is to become someone who can apply skills across a number of different disciplines. Now, more than ever, companies are looking for flexible employees who can solve problems in many different areas.13. Don’t be a lone wolf.Being a good team member is one of the top things hiring managers and recruiters look for in a job candidate. Someone can have all the awesome job skills and experience in the world, but still be a horror show to work with. Companies are looking for people who fit in harmoniously, because conflict is usually a drain on employee productivity, morale, and all the other factors that companies rely on to keep their business moving.14. Make time for things that make you happy.This doesn’t mean playing Candy Crush in the middle of the work day, or quitting your job to follow your favorite band on their European tour. It does mean finding a work-life balance where you ha ve time to volunteer instead of answering emails after hours, or work on creative projects that you just haven’t had the time to do lately. Having outlets other than work can not only help your stress levels, but can also help you become more creative about professional matters while your brain is busy thinking of other things.15. Tearing others down won’t build you up.So when people ask what my favorite movie is, I usually say Caslablanca or another Official Classic. Off the record, my favorite movie is Mean Girls. Why? Because Tina Fey’s truth bomb of a movie held a lot of wisdom about how we interact with people, and how we navigate relationships at all stages of life, not just high school. One of my biggest takeaways from the movie was that your own success and peace of mind are our own, and aren’t helped along by being vicious to others out of a sense of competition. Your colleagues are your team members, they’re not standing in the way of you r success. So it’s important to make sure that you’re not trying to get ahead by slagging others, or making them feel bad. Being a positive team member will get you much further than being the one who throws everyone under the bus.If you’ve found any other bits of wisdom on your career journey, we’d love to hear about it!

Will The Paperless Office Ever Become A Reality Essay

Will The Paperless Office Ever Become A Reality - Essay Example It has been known that the debate on the paperless office becoming a reality has been raging on for quite some time and many individuals involved in this debate have had their own facts & figures that support the stand that they have taken. This essay would therefore work towards using all such reviews found from various articles and internet sources for providing suitable information on how the paperless office is poised to become a reality in the near future. During the past few years, with the introduction of he electronic mediums and with the option of being able to do almost all our work using this medium in the form of computers and software, it has been assumed that many have started to shun using paper wherever possible. On a similar note, there have been instances where people have not been in favor of using the electronic medium for activities such as reading novels, reports etc. of course, e-books continue to be an important form for storing information, but they are limited to technical manuals as on today. In this context, it is interesting to know that around 30-40% of work is done on papers.

Future Of Furniture Companies With Blue Ocean Strategy Essay

Future Of Furniture Companies With Blue Ocean Strategy - Essay Example The water is becoming redder as stores try to win customer dollars. To endure at all, it is not sufficient that the company is good; but it has to be something beyond being good. Blue Oceans has to be created and cultivated so that companies will succeed. Following Blue Ocean, strategies are not pipe dreams. Accurately carried out, they are practical, restricted risk strategies for methodically following and conquering unchallenged Blue Oceans. A very good example of furniture retailers who used Blue Ocean strategies to their benefits is the IKEA. It is an American retailer of furniture. Before IKEA entered the furniture market, the retailers like Thomasville, Rooms To Go etc., believed in high priced furniture and retaining their old customers by providing them with lots of services. But IKEA did not believe in such a strategy. IKEA extended reasonably priced furniture with a good assortment and above average quality followed with little customer service. This helped IKEA to create a blue ocean for them and they became the single retailer of low priced high selection furniture.The company eliminated the idea of retaining old customers by trying to reach customers who were new. In addition, to this IKEA also can create new customers by not focusing on customer differences; instead, they can develop on the powerful commonness’s in what buyer’s measure. 's in what buyer's measure. This will help the companies to develop beyond the existing demand and create more demand thus bringing in customers who were not there before (Kim W.C. et all, 2005.Pp 101-102). There is yet another area of Blue Ocean, which IKEA can venture in the future. Sometimes some companies are prepared to challenge the functional-emotional direction of their industry; they frequently find new market space. It can be observed that sometimes many companies offer many additional products with the main product, but if these additions are stripped off and the actual product is provided at a lesser cost, then such an act would surely bring in more customers. On the other hand, functional sloping industries can repeatedly instill commodity products with new life by contributing a dosage of sentiment and, in so doing, can rouse new demand (Kim W.C. et all, 2005.Pp.69-70). In the same way, IKEA instead of giving any additional product or service can just sell their main products for lesser cost thus bringing in more and more customers. Yet another success for IKEA is through creation and this is through its instruction booklets, which is released with every assembly-required item that a consumer buys from the store. In these instruction booklets, IKEA attempts to demonstrate the process instead of explaining it in words. In reality sometimes, the instructions are with out any words at all. This is done just to show or emphasize the ease with which to construct IKEA furniture and this way the furniture company can save on translation costs too. Furniture companies can also look across its alternative industries. For furniture, stores new retail outlets in places where there are no such shops will have to be developed. Innovations on the part of the furniture manufacturers will create Blue Oceans for them. They will have to look beyond their industry and seek alternatives (Kim W.C. et all, 2005.Pp 49-50). IKEA furniture can also secure its future by reducing its cost of production by a method called collaborating. This way the company can meet its target cost easily. Actually,

Knowledge Management Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 6

Knowledge Management - Essay Example Some of the examples of changing the culture of an organization include how all employees assembled in the main board room every Friday which was to be changed in the up coming quarter, owing to financial expenditures. They discussed organizational matters in a very informal manner but the Managing Director decided to do it in the form of a virtual group which was created and everyone was asked to subscribe it to receive instant updates (Drucker, Garvin, Dorothy, Straus & Brown, 1998). Similar cultural changes do take place within organizations and these are seen as normal measures since organizations are moving ahead with both short term changes as well as the strategic ones. The need is to know what the employees think about them and how ready and willing they would be to embrace the change that is coming about within the organizational cultural realms. As a leader, I would initiate the process of organizational change by finding out what I essentially want to achieve. When I am certain that the aspects that I want to attain are true and genuine for the sake of the organization, and that the change is a positive tangent, then I will manifest it in the truest possible way. I will take all the employees under my aegis and inform them of the management decision. When this has been done, I will ask the middle management to come up with certain policies which are for the betterment of the organization yet are inclined towards attaining a change that is driven by results. I will be making all-out measures to make sure that all employees are on board and provide as much clarity as possible in order to speed up actions. Each of these stages can take up to about 15 days which would mean that the organizational change is a process spanning up to about 3 months. Since there would be five to six different steps that will be undertaken

Comparison of Education Reports of Behavioural Symptoms

Comparison of Education Reports of Behavioural Symptoms Running Head: Teacher, children, and parents reports of behavioral symptoms Comparison between teacher, children, and parents reports of behavioral symptoms associated with disruptive behaviors. Karelyn M. Gonzà ¡lez-Cruz, M.S., Josà © J. Cabiya., Ph.D., Lymaries Padilla, Ph.D. Jovette Sà ¡nchez, M.S. (The project/study described was supported by Grant Number 1 R24 MD00152-01, from the National Center on Minority Health and Health Disparities, National Institutes of Health. It’s contents are solely the responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health.) Key Words: School age children, aggressive behavior, Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, Oppositional Defiant Disorder, impulsiveness depression. Abstract The goal of the present pilot study was to compare the teacher, children, and parents reports of behavioral symptoms associated with disruptive behaviors using the Diagnostic Interview Schedule of Children-Parent version (DISC-P), the Diagnostic Interview Schedule of Children-Youth (DISC-Y) and the Bauermeister School Behavior Inventory (BSBI). The parents of 52 children consented to participate in the DISC-P and DISC-Y interviews. The results showed that parents and children had a moderate degree of agreement in answering symptoms of major depressive episode, symptoms of traumatic stress disorder, and symptoms of generalized anxiety disorder. The results also showed that teachers had a high degree of agreement with children in their report of disruptive symptoms while no agreement was found between teachers and parents reports. Teachers’ reports of disruptive behaviors such as irritability, hostility, distraction, and low motivation had a moderate correlation with children re ports of symptoms related to conduct disorders and ODD. These results might suggest that parents identify more efficiently affective disorders than teachers. On the contrary, teachers appear to identify more efficiently disruptive behaviors than parents do. Comparison between teacher, children, and parents reports of behavioral symptoms associated with disruptive behaviors Assessment of child psychiatric disorders traditionally relies on information obtained from multiple informants, usually the parent, the child, and sometimes others such as teachers and additional family members. These informants may provide different information about the presence, severity, and duration of a childs symptomatology or behavior (Achenbach, McConaughy, Howell, 1987). Several studies have compared parent and child reports of the children psychiatric symptoms in structured diagnostic interviews like the Diagnostic Interview for Children and Adolescents (DICA; Herjanic Reich, 1982; Reich, Herjanic, Welner, Gandy, 1982; Welner, Reich, Herjanic, Jung, Amado, 1987), the Diagnostic Interview Schedule for Children (DISC; Edelbrock, Costello, Dulcan, Calabro Conover, Kalas, 1986; Loeber, Green, Lahey, Stouthamer-Loeber, 1989; Weissman et al., 1987), and the Schedule for Affective Disorders and Schizophrenia for School-age Children (K-SADS; Chambers et al., 1985; Orvaschel , Puig-Antich, Chambers, Tabrizi, Johnson, 1982). These studies have documented low to moderate agreement between parents and children report of psychiatric symptoms. In general, these reports have found that parents report more behavior symptoms about their children than the children report about themselves, whereas children report having more affective and neurotic symptoms than their parents report about them (Edelbrock et al., 1986; Herjanic Reich, 1982). In addition, a meta-analysis of more than 200 studies examined agreement among informants, and reported moderate to poor agreement for most studies, including those in which agreement was assessed along symptom dimensions rather than by categorical diagnoses (Achenbach, McConaughy, Howell, 1987). Somewhat better agreement between parents and children has been observed in clinical samples when semistructured interviews were used by clinicians (Orvaschel, Thompson, Belanger, Prusoff, Kidd, 1982) and for externalizing as compared to internalizing symptoms (Reich, Herjanic, Welner, Gandhy, 1982). Asymmetrical reporting of certain types of symptoms has been found to be the most frequent source of disagreement. Parents tend to report externalizing behaviors or problems more often while children tend to report internalizing depressive or anxiety symptoms with greater frequency Edelbrock et al., 1986; Reich et al., 1982). In addition, a study completed by Bravo, et al. (2001) with a Puerto Rican sample found that parents were generally fair or moderately reliable informants when reporting about their children. Children (11-17 years) were excellent or moderately reliable informants on disruptive and substance-related disorders, but were unreliable when reporting about anxiety and depressive disorders. For lifetime diagnoses, they found that parents were fair reporters of their childrens conduct disorder, as well as substance-related disorders, whereas their children were excellent or moderately reliable reporting about most of these disorders. However, no study was found that have assessed the relationship between the teachers, parents and children report of clinical symptoms related to disruptive disorders. The goal of the present pilot study was to compare the teachers, children, and parents reports of behavioral symptoms associated with disruptive behaviors using the Diagnostic Interview Schedule of Children-Parent version (DISC-P), the Diagnostic Interview Schedule of Children-Youth (DISC-Y) and the Bauermeister School Behavior Inventory (BSBI). Method Participants Fifty two (26 boys and 26 girls) from ages 9 to 12 (mean age was 10) from the San Juan metropolitan area, who were referred by their teacher for disruptive behavior in the classroom, were administered a symptoms checklist based on the DSM-IV-TR diagnostic criteria for disruptive disorders (American Psychiatric Association, 2000). Informed consent to participate in the study was then requested from the parents of these children. The socioeconomic status of all of these children was low. The mean age was 10.06 (SD = 1.07). Of the 52 referred children, 17 children (9 boys and 8 girls) were evaluated with the DISC-Y. The mean age of this group was 10.12 (SD = 1.16). Instruments Bauermeister School Behavior Inventory (BSBI). This inventory consists of six scales for male children and five for female children completed by the teachers that evaluate anxiety symptoms, social alienation, depression, irritability-hostility, distraction-motivation and activity impulsiveness. Internal consistency fluctuates between .74 and .96; test-re-test reliability (four week period fluctuated between .52 to .89. This instrument was developed, validated and standardized for Puerto Rican population (Bauermeister, 1994). Computerized Diagnostic Interview Schedule for Children (C-DISC) (Shafer, D. et al. 2000). The DISC is the most widely used and studied mental health interview that has been tested in both clinical and community populations. It is a comprehensive, structured interview that covers 36 mental health disorders for children adolescents, using DSM-IV criteria. The version used in this study was the most recent Spanish translation of the DISC-IV (Bravo et al., 2001), with parallel youth (DISC-Y) and parent (DISC-P) versions. The test-retest reliability of the DISC-IV has been reported in both Spanish and English-speaking clinic samples yielding comparable results (Bravo et al., 2001; Shaffer, Fisher, Lucas, Dulcan, Schwab-Stone, 2000). The disorders assessed by the DISC were: Generalized anxiety, Panic, Post-traumatic stress, Major Depression, Dysthymia, Attention Deficit Hyperactivity, Oppositional Defiant, Conduct Disorder, Alcohol Abuse / Dependence, Marijuana Abuse / Dependence, Nicot ine Dependence and other Substance Abuse / Dependence. Socio-demographic interview. The questionnaire used in the Research Scientific Institute at the Carlos Albizu University was administered. The questionnaire provides socio-demographic information about the child and his/her family. Procedures Teachers completed the BSBI after the parents consented to participate in the study. The project’s director selected advanced doctoral students in clinical psychology to be trained as interviewers. These students received two day intensive DISC workshops from trainers certified by the Columbia University original developers of the DISC. They were blind to experimental hypotheses. Interviewers contacted by phone the principal caretaker of each child to arrange for the DISC-P interview in the school. They administered first the DISC-P to the parent and afterwards they administered the DISC-Y to the child. The principal caretaker received an compensation of twenty dollars for their participation. The interviews took place in a classroom with comfortable chairs, illumination, tables, and non distractions. Quality control procedures were established to guarantee the integrity of the data gathering process. The project’s director conducted weekly meetings for the supervision of recorded practice DISC interviews according to the DISC instructions manual. The interviewers received recommendations from other trained DISC interviewers, specifically on how to deal with ambiguities, which did arise, and clearly define â€Å"do’s† and â€Å"don’ts† in various situations. Specific situations that lead to deviations from the interview were discussed in the weekly supervisions. Results The correlations between the quantity of symptoms of the different disorders on DISC-P and DISC-Y were as follows: symptoms of inattention on DISC-P and symptoms of inattention on DISC-Y was r = .57 (pr = .70 (pr = .64 (pr = .67 (pr = .75 (p The correlations between the BSBI distraction-motivation scale and ODD symptoms on DISC-Y was r = .87 (pr = .92 (pr = .64 (p Discussion The goal of the present pilot study was to compare the teacher, children, and parents reports of behavioral symptoms associated with disruptive behaviors using the Diagnostic Interview Schedule of Children-Parent version (DISC-P), the Diagnostic Interview Schedule of Children-Youth (DISC-Y) and the Bauermeister School Behavior Inventory (BSBI). Results indicated that parents reported more behavioral symptoms (such as ODD symptoms and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder symptoms) than the children reported. Also, parents reported more affective and anxiety symptoms than their children reported. Even more, the results on DISC-P and DISC-Y showed that parents and children had a moderate degree of agreement in answering symptoms of major depressive episode, symptoms of traumatic stress disorder, and symptoms of generalized anxiety disorder. The results also showed that teachers had a high degree of agreement with children in their report of disruptive symptoms while no agreement was found between teachers and parents reports. Teachers’ reports of disruptive behaviors such as irritability, hostility, distraction, and low motivation had a moderate correlation with children reports of symptoms related to conduct disorders and ODD. These results might suggest that parents identify more efficiently affective disorders than teachers. On the contrary, teachers appear to identify more efficiently disruptive behaviors than parents do. These results are consistent with previous research that documented low to moderate agreement between parents and children in their report of disruptive symptoms (DICA; Herjanic Reich, 1982; Reich, Herjanic, Welner, Gandy, 1982; Welner, Reich, Herjanic, Jung, Amado, 1987; Orvaschel, Thompson, Belanger, Prusoff, Kidd, 1982). In addition, a study with a Puerto Rican sample found similar results, in that parents were generally fair or moderately reliable informants about their children’s affective symptoms (Bravo et. al, 2001). One limitation of the present study was the small size of the study sample. The main reason for this was the fact that many parents that were contacted refused to participate in the study. One possible recommendation for future research is to develop specific strategies to engage more Puerto Ricans in order for them to participate in the phases of research with little immediate benefits that requires extended interviews or evaluations. These strategies could include increasing significantly the monetary compensation. Another strategy is to train the research assistants on specific ways of engaging the parents in a culturally sensitive manner like appealing to â€Å"familism† which Muir, et al. (2004) have found to be essential in engaging Latinos in general including Puerto Ricans in research. Nevertheless, engagement of Latinos including Puerto Ricans in research appears to be a significant challenge and future research needs to address this area by itself in a systematic and comprehensive manner. References Achenbach, T. M., McConaughy, S. H. Howell, C. T. (1987). Child/adolescent behavioral and emotional problems: implications of cross-informant correlations for situational specificity. Psychological Bulletin, 101, 213-232. Bauermeister, J. (1994). Desarrollo y utilizacià ³n del Inventario de Comportamiento Escuela (IDC-E) en la evaluacià ³n de nià ±os puertorriqueà ±os [Development and use of the Bauermeister School Behavior Inventory (BSBI) in assessing Latino children]. San Juan, Puerto Rico: Author. Biederman, J., Faraone, S. Mick, E. Moore, P. (1996). Child Behavior Checklist findings support comorbidity between ADHD and Major Depression in a referred sample. Journal of the American Academy of Child Adolescent Psychiatry, 35 (6), 734-742. Bravo, M., Woodbury-Farina, M. A., Canino, G., Rubio-Stipec, M. (in press). The Diagnostic Interview Schedule for Children DISC): Its translation and adaptation in Puerto Rico. Culture, Medicine and Psychiatry. Bravo, M., Ribera, J., Rubio-Stipec, M., Canino, G., Shrout, P., Ramà ­rez, R. (2001). Test-retests reliability of Spanish version of the Diagnostic Interview Schedule for Children DISC-IV. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 29(5), 433-444. Chambers, W. J., Puig-antich, J., Hirsch, M., Paez, P., Ambrosini, P. J., Tabrizi, M. A., Davies, M. (1985). The assessment of affective disorders in children and adolescents by semistructured interview. Archives of General Psychiatry, 42, 696-702 Cohen (1988). Statistical power analysis for the behavioral sciences. (2nd.ed) Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum. Edelbrock, C., Costello, A. J., Dulcan, M. K., Calabro Conover, N., Kalas, R. (1986). Parent-child agreement on child psychiatric symptoms assessed via structured interviews. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 27, 181-190. Herjanic, B., Herjanic, M., Brown, F., Wheatt, T. (1975). Are children reliable reporters? Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 3, 41-48. Herjanic, B. Reich W. (1982). Development of a structured psychiatric interview for adolescent: Agreement between child and parent on individual symptoms. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 10, 307-324. Kashani, J. H., Orvaschel, H., Burke, J. P., Reid, J. C. (1985). Informant variance: The issue of parent-child disagreement. Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 24, 437-441. Loeber, R., Green, S. M., Lahey, B. B. Stouthamer-Loeber, M. (1989). Optimal informants on childhood disruptive behavior. Development and Psychopathology, 1, 317-337. Orvaschel H., Puig-antich, J., Chambers, W. J., Tabrizi, M.A., Johnson, R. (1982). Retrospective assessment of prepubertal major depression with the Kiddie-SADS-E. Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 21, 392-397. Orvaschel, H., Thompson, W. D., Belanger, A., Prusoff, B. A., Kidd, K. K. (1982). Comparison of the family history method to direct interview: Factors affecting the diagnosis of depression. Journal of Affective Disorders, 4, 49-59. Pliszka, S., Carlson, C. Swanson, J. (1999). ADHD with comorbid disorders: Clinical assessment and management. New York: Guilford Press. Reich, W., Earls, F. (1987). Rules for making psychiatric diagnosis in children on the basis of multiple sources of information: Preliminary strategies. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 15, 601-606. Reich, W., Herjanic, B., Welner, Z., Gandhy, P. R. (1982). Development of a structured psychiatric interview for children: Agreement on diagnosis comparing child and parent interviews. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 10, 325-336. Shaffer, D., Fisher, P., Lucas, C. P., Dulcan, M. K., Schwab-Stone, M. E. (2000). NIMH Diagnostic Interview Schedule for Children Version IV (NIMH DISC-IV): Description, differences from previous versions, and reliability of some common diagnoses. Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 39, 28-38. Weissman, M. M., Wickramaratne, P., Warner, V., John, K, Prusoff, B. A., Merikangas, K. R., Gammon G. D. (1987). Assessing psychiatric disorders in children. Archives of General Psychiatry, 44, 747-753.

European Travel and the Spread of Western Ideology Essay -- European E

European Travel and the Spread of Western Ideology Humans began their existence as travelers, slowly making their way across the earth hunting and gathering. This travel was quite slow and gradual, and could be termed a period of â€Å"human expansion†, as traveling groups rarely encountered other humans. It really wasn’t until the sixteenth century that a new kind of travel developed, a kind that was more global, occurred rapidly, and was filled with many encounters with other civilizations. This sort of travel signified not simply the spreading of humans across the earth, but more the spreading of ideas among people. And during this particular period, the travelers were predominantly European, and so it was Europeans who, believing in their own superiority, most imposed their ideas on others. Overall, therefore, human travel could more accurately be termed European: its effect was to increase both the power and scope of European ideas. These ideas, in turn, affected many different civilizations, changing the thinking, and actions, of people all over the world, and therefore changing their impact on the world. While many civilizations have traveled at various points, it was the Europeans who, beginning in the sixteenth century, began to travel the most. â€Å"It was the Europeans who went out to the peoples of Africa, Asia, and the Americas, and never the reverse† (Adas, p. 2). As soon as European ships could be built that were large enough to endure long voyages, the Europeans set out in them, realizing that this was advantageous: â€Å"the relative advantage of Europeans was on the seas† (Cippola, 138). Through this, they visited many foreign countries, and were usually the ones doing the conquering. Other people were unprepared for t... ..., Michael, "Machines as the Meaure of Men: Science, Technology, and Ideologies of Western Dominance", Cornell Univ. Press 1989. Cipolla, Carlo M., "Guns, Sails, and Empires: Technological Innovation and the Early Phases of European Expansion, 1400-1700" Sunflower Univ. Press, 1996. Diamond, Jared, "Guns, Germs, and Steel" W.W. Norton & Co, 1997. Ponting, Clive. "A Green History of the World," St. Martins Press, NYC, 1991. Pursell, Carroll W. Jr., Ch. 1 and 2 in "Early Stationary Steam Engines in America: a study in the migration of a technology" Smithsonian Inst. Press, 1969, pp. 1-27. Schneider, Jane. Rumpelstilskin's Bargain: Folklore and the Merchant Capitalist Intensification of Linen Manufacture in Early Modern Europe. In Cloth and Human Experience, edited by Annette B. Weiner and Jane Schneider. Washington: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1993.

Article 21 of the Constitution of India After Maneka Gandhi’s Case Essay

INTRODUCTION To a great extent, the Supreme Court of India finds its strength in Article 21 of the Constitution, for the reason that much of its judicial activism has been based on interpreting the scope of this Article. Majority of the PIL cases have been filed under this Article only. The Supreme Court is now known as an activist court. There has been no change in the words used in Article 21, but there has been a change in the way it has been interpreted. The scope of the Article has expanded considerably post the Maneka Gandhi decision. This will be critically analysed in the following few pages. ARTICLE 21 The Article reads- â€Å"No person shall be deprived of his life or personal liberty except according to procedure established by law.† Constituent Assembly Debate Over Article 21 India’s constitutional system was rooted in the traditions of British parliamentary sovereignty and legal positivism. Thus, the emergence of a strong Supreme Court challenging parliamentary legislation via substantive due process was unlikely given this traditional historical context. But aside from the historical legacy of British rule and legal positivism, two specific historical factors directly influenced the Constituent Assembly to explicitly omit a due process clause in the section on Fundamental Rights. The first was the influence of United States Supreme Court Justice Felix Frankfurter on Constitutional Adviser B.N. Rau, who traveled to Britain, Ireland, the United States and Canada in 1947 to meet with jurists regarding the drafting and framing of the Indian Constitution. The second factor was the tumultuous and chaotic period of communal violence that gripped Northern India as a result of the partition of Muslim Pakistan from Hindu India, which led the framers of the Indian Constitution to remove the due process clause from their draft constitution for the protection of individual liberty.1 The Constituent Assembly of India originally included a due process clause in the Fundamental Rights provisions associated with preventive detention and individual liberty in the initial draft version adopted and published in October of 1947. At this point, a majority of members of the Constituent Assembly favored inclusion of a due process clause, because it would provide procedural safeguards against detention of individuals without cause by the government. However, Rau had succeeded in qualifying the phrase liberty with the word â€Å"personal,† effectively limiting the scope of this clause as applying to individual liberties, and not property rights. After this draft version was published, Rau embarked upon a multi-nation trip to the United States, Canada, and Ireland to meet with jurists, constitutional scholars, and other statesmen. In the United States, Rau met with American Supreme Court Justice Felix Frankfurter, a student of Harvard Law professor James Bradley Thayer, whose writings about the pitfalls of due process as weakening the democratic process had already impressed Rau prior to the visit. In his meeting with Rau, Frankfurter indicated that he believed that the power of judicial review implied in the due process clause was both undemocratic and burdensome to the judiciary, because it empowered judges to invalidate legislation enacted by democratic majorities. 2 Frankfurter had a lasting impression on Rau, who upon his return to India, became a forceful proponent for removing the due process clause, ultimately convincing the Drafting Committee to reconsider the language of draft Article 15 (now Article 21) in January 1948. In these meetings Rau apparently was able to convince Ayyar, the crucial swing vote on the committee, of the potential pitfalls associated with substantive interpretation of due process, which Frankfurter had discussed extensively with Rau. Ayyar, in ultimately upholding the new position on the floor of the Assembly in December 1948, supported removing the due process clause on the grounds that substantive due process could â€Å"impede social legislation.† With the switch in Ayyar’s vote, the Drafting Committee endorsed Rau’s new preferred language-replacing the due process clause with the phrase â€Å"according to the procedure established by law,† which was apparently borrowed from the Japanese Constitution.3 Protection of Life and Personal Liberty Gopalan’s Case Immediately after the Constitution became effective, the question of interpretation of the words â€Å"life and personal liberty† arose before the court in the case A.K. Gopalan v. State of Madras.4 In this case, the Petitioner had been detained under the Preventive Detention Act, 1950. The petitioner challenged the validity of his detention on the ground that it was violative of his Right to freedom of movement under Article 19(1)(d), which is the very essence of personal liberty guaranteed by Article 21 of the Constitution. He argued that (i) the words ‘personal liberty’ include the freedom of movement also and therefore the Preventive Detention Act, 1950 must also satisfy the requirements of Article 19(5). (ii) It was further argued that Article 21 and Article 19 should be read together as Article 19 laid out the substantive rights while Article 21 provided procedural rights. (iii) It was also argued that the words â€Å"procedure established by law† actually meant â€Å"due process of law† from the American Constitution which includes principles of natural justice and the impugned law does not satisfy that requirement. Thus the main question was whether Article 21 envisaged any procedure laid down by a law enacted by a legislature, or whether the procedure should be just, fair and reasonable. On behalf of Gopalan, an argument was made to persuade the Supreme Court to hold that the courts could adjudicate upon the reasonableness of the Preventive Detention Act, or for that matter, any law depriving a person of his personal liberty. Majority Decision in Gopalan The Supreme Court ruled by majority that the word ‘law’ in Article 21 could not be read as meaning rules of natural justice. These rules were vague and indefinite and the Constitution could not be read as laying down a vague standard. The Court further interpreted the term ‘law’ as ‘State made law’ and rejected the plea that the term ‘law’ in Article 21 meant jus naturale or principles of natural justice. Justice Fazl Ali’s Dissenting Judgment Justicle Fazl Ali in his dissenting judgment observed that preventive detention is a direct infringement of the right guaranteed in Art. 19 (1) (d), even if a narrow construction is placed on the said sub-clause, and a lawrelating to preventive detention is therefore subject to such limited judicial review as is permitted by Art. 19 (5). There is nothing revolutionary in the view that â€Å"procedure established by law â€Å"must include the four principles of elementary justice which inhere in and are at the root of all civilized systems of law, and which have been stated by the American Courts and jurists as consisting in (1) notice, (2) opportunity to be heard, (3) impartial tribunal and (4) orderly course of procedure. These four principles are really different aspects of the same right, namely, the right to be heard before one is condemned. Hence the words â€Å"procedure established by law â€Å", whatever its exact meaning be, must necessarily include the principle that no person shall be condemned without hearing by an impartial tribunal. Relationship among Articles 21, 22 and 19 An attempt was made in Gopalan to establish a link between these three Articles. The underlying purpose was to persuade the Court to adjudge the reasonableness of the Preventive Detention Act. It was therefore argued that when a person was detained, his several rights under Article 19 were affected and thus, the reasonableness of the law, and the procedure contained therein (regarding reasonable restrictions), should be justiciable with reference to Arts. 19(2) to (6). Rejecting the argument, the Court pointed out that the word ‘personal liberty’ under Article 21 in itself had a comprehensive content and ordinarily, if left alone, would include not only freedom from arrest or detention, but also various freedoms guaranteed by Art. 19. However, reading Articles 19 and 21 together , Article 19 must be held to deal with a few specific freedoms mentioned therein and not with freedom from detention whether punitive or preventive. Similarly, Art. 21 should be held as excluding the freedoms dealt with in Article 19. The Court ruled that Arts. 20 and 22 constituted a comprehensive code and embodied the entire constitutional protection in relation to life and personal liberty and was not controlled by Article 19. Thus, a law depriving personal liberty had to conform with Arts. 20 and 22 and not with Art. 19, which covered a separate and distinct ground. Article 19 could be invoked only by a freeman and not one under arrest. Further, Article 19 could be invoked only when a law directly attempted to control a right mentioned under it. Thus, a law directly controlling a citizen’s right to freedom of speech and expression could be tested under the exception given under Art. 19(2); and a law that does not directly control the fundamental freedoms under Article 19, could not be tested under the clauses (2) to (6) of Article 19. This judicial approach meant that a preventive detention law would be valid, and be within the terms of Article 21, so long as it conformed to Article 22. Due Process of Law The V Amendment of the US Constitution lays down inter alia that â€Å"no person shall be deprived of his life, liberty or property, without due process of law.† The use of the word ‘due’ in this clause is interpreted to mean ‘just’, ‘proper’ or ‘reasonable’ according to judicial review. The courts can pronounce whether a law affecting a person’s life, liberty or property is reasonable or not. The court may declare a law invalid if it does not accord with its notions of what is just, fair and reasonable. Thus, this clause known as the ‘due process clause’ has been the most significant single source of judicial review in the US. It was contended in Gopalan that the expression procedure established by law in Art. 21 was synonymous with the American concept of ‘procedural due process’, and therefore, the reasonableness of the Preventive Detention Act, or for that matter, of any law affecting a person’s life or personal liberty, should comply with the principles of natural justice. The Supreme Court rejected this contention giving several reasons: i) The word ‘due’ was absent from Article 21. ii) The fact that the words ‘due process’ were dropped from draft Article 15 (present Article 21), signified the intention of the Constituent Assembly, that was to avoid the uncertainty surrounding the due process concept in the USA. iii) The American doctrine generated the countervailing but complicated doctrine of police power to restrict the ambit of due process, i.e., the doctrine of governmental power to regulate private rights in public interest. If the doctrine of due process was imported into India, then the doctrine of police power might also have to be imported, and which would make things very complicated. The ruling thus meant that to deprive a person of his life or personal liberty- i) There must be a law ii) It should lay down a procedure iii) The executive should follow this procedure while depriving a person of his life or personal liberty. Criticism Gopalan was characterized as the ‘high-water mark of legal positivism.’ Court’s approach was very static, mechanical, purely literal and was coloured by the positivist or imperative theory of law, which studies the law as it is. Article 21 was interpreted by the majority to mean that Art. 21 constituted a restriction only on the executive which could not act without law and that it was not applicable against legislative power, which could make any law to impose restraints on personal liberty, however arbitrary they may be. GOPALAN TO MANEKA: 1950-1977 Gopalan held the field for almost three decades. It can be observed during this period from the court decisions that the two major points settled in the case [that is, firstly that Articles 19, 21 and 22 are mutually exclusive and independent of each other, and secondly that Article 19 was not to apply to a law affecting personal liberty to which Article 21 would apply] got diluted to a great extent until finally in Maneka Gandhi’s case this position was reversed. The decisions immediately proceeding Gopalan’s case were decided on the same basis. For example, in Ram Singh v. Delhi5, where a person was detained under the Preventive Detention Act for making speeches prejudicial to the maintenance of public order, at a time when public order was not contained under Article 19(2), the Supreme Court refused to assess the validity of preventive detention under Article 22 with reference to Article 19(1)(a) read with Article 19(2) stating that even if a right under Art. 19(1)(a) was abridged, the validity of the preventive detention order could not be considered with reference to Art. 19(2) because of the Gopalan decision that legislation authorizing deprivation of personal liberty did not fall under Art. 19 and its validity was not to be judged by the criteria in Art. 19. The beginning of the new trend can be found in RC Cooper v. Union of India6, where Article 31(2) which had been amended to dilute the protection to property, the Court established a link between Article 19(1)(f) (right to property) and Article 31(2). But the draconian Gopalan ruling found its way back and reached the lowest point in ADM Jabalpur v. Shivkant Shukla7, remembered as the black day in Indian Constitutional history. In this case the political dissenters of the Indira Gandhi government were arrested and Shivkant Shukla contended that this was in violation of their right to life and personal liberty and so the writ of habeas corpus should be issued. Court held that during the period of emergency, a person could be detained and his right to life and personal liberty under Article 21 could be suspended, and such suspension could not be challenged and the writ of habeas corpus could not be issued during the emergency. This case showed that Article 21 could not play any role in providing any protection against any harsh law seeking to deprive a person of his life or liberty. It is the dissenting judgment of Fazl Ali J that was subsequently applied in the decision in Maneka Gandhi’s case and the cases after that, regarding the right to life and personal liberty. MANEKA GANDHI’S CASE In Maneka Gandhi v. Union of India8 and ever since, the Supreme Court has shown greater sensitivity to the protection of personal liberty. The court has reinterpreted Article 21 and overruled its Gopalan decision and which, in the words of MP Jain, can be regarded as a highly creative judicial pronouncement on the part of the Supreme Court. In this case, Maneka Gandhi’s passport was impounded by the Central Government under the Passport Act in the interest of the general public, as was provided under S. 103(c) of the Passport Act. This was challenged on the ground of being arbitrary to Article 21 and also because this was done without affording her a chance to be heard. The Court observed that as the right to travel abroad falls under Article 21, principles of natural justice must be observed and the right of hearing should be given, even though not expressly provided for under the statute. Some of the main propositions laid down by the court in this case are as follows: 1. The court reiterated the proposition that Articles 14, 19 and 21 are inter-related and not mutually exclusive. This means that a law prescribing a procedure to deprive a person of their personal liberty, should conform to the provisions under Article 19. Moreover, the procedure established by law under Article 21 must meet the requirements of Article 14. According to K. Iyer, J, no Article in the Constitution pertaining to a Fundamental Right is an island in itself. Just as a man is not dissectible into separate limbs, cardinal rights in an organic constitution have a synthesis. Here, the dissenting judgment of Justice Fazl Ali in Gopalan’s case was followed. 2. The court emphasized that the expression ‘personal liberty’ was of the widest amplitude covering a variety of rights which go to constitute the personal liberty of man. Some of these attributes have been raised to the status of distinct fundamental rights and given additional protection under Article 19. 3. The most significant aspect of Maneka’s decision is the reinterpretation by the court of the expression ‘procedure established by law’ used in Article 21. It now means that the procedure must satisfy certain requisites in the sense of being fair and reasonable. The procedure cannot be arbitrary, unfair or unreasonable. The reasonableness must be projected in the procedure contemplated by Article 21. IMPACT OF MANEKA GANDHI’S DECISION Article 21 which had lain dormant for nearly three decades was brought to life by the Maneka Gandhi decision. Since then Article 21 has been on its way to emerge as the Indian version of the American concept of due process. It has become the source of many substantive rights and procedural safeguards to the people. Some of the broad fields of this impact will be discussed as below: 1. Interpretation of the Word Life In Francis Coralie9 the Supreme Court, following the principle laid down in Maneka Gandhi’s case, has interpreted the meaning of life as has been interpreted by the US Supreme Court in Munn v. Illinois10, and held that the expression ‘life’ under Article 21 does not connote merely physical or animal existence but embraces something more. As recently as 2006, the Supreme Court has observed that Article 21 embraces within its sweep not only physical existence but also the quality of life. These cases only reflect a part of the scope and ambit of the word ‘life’ under Article 21, which has been extended widely by the Supreme Court over the years proceeding Maneka. There have been a number of areas in which the Supreme Court has related some of the Directive Principles of State Policies to the word ‘life’ under Article 21 and made it enforceable as a fundamental right. A classic example of this is the large number of environment related cases filed by MC Mehta. 2. Personal Liberty It does not mean merely the liberty of body, i.e., freedom from physical restraint or freedom from confinement within the bounds of a prison. The expression ‘personal liberty’ is not used in a narrow sense but as a compendious term to include within it all those variety of rights of a person which go to make personal liberty of a man. To begin with, the expression ‘personal liberty’ in Art. 21 was interpreted so as to exclude the rights mentioned under Article 19. The view was expressed in Kharak Singh v. State of Uttar Pradesh11 that while Art. 19(1) dealt with particular species of that freedom, ‘personal liberty’ in Art. 21 would take in the residue. This view was followed in Gopalan’s case as well. But the minority view expressed by Justice Subba Rao adopted a much wider concept of ‘personal liberty’. He differed from the majority view that Art. 21 excluded what was guaranteed by Art. 19. He pleaded for an overlapping approach of Arts. 21 and 19. In a recent judgment of 2009, Suchita Srivastava v. Chandigarh Administration12, the Supreme Court asserted the strict boundaries of ‘personal liberty’ but that such liberty must also accommodate public interest. A woman’s right to make reproductive choice has been held to be a dimension of ‘perso nal liberty’ within the meaning of Art. 21. 3. Law Ordinarily, the word law in Article 21 denotes an enacted law, i.e., a law made by the Legislature. But in AK Roy v. Union of India13, the question was whether an ordinance in the context of National Security Ordinance, 1980, promulgated by the President to provide for preventive detention in certain cases and connected matters, a law? The petitioner argued that since this was made by an executive it was not law and could not, thus, deprive a person of their ‘personal liberty’. The Supreme Court held that an ordinance passed by an executive is well within the meaning of ‘law’ and must therefore, also be subject to Fundamental Rights, just like an Act of the Legislature. 4. Procedure After Maneka Gandhi, it is now established that the procedure for purposes of Art. 21 has to be reasonable, fair and just. The Supreme Court has reasserted in Kartar Singh v. State of Punjab14 that the procedure contemplated by Art. 21 is that it must be ‘right, just and fair’ and not arbitrary, fanciful or oppressive. In re The Special Courts Bill, 1978, the Special Courts Bill proposed that a special court would be constituted to try certain persons holding high political offices during the emergency of 1975-1977. The special Court was to be presided over by a sitting or retired Judge of a High Court, to be appointed by the Central Government in consultation with the Chief Justice of India. The accused could appeal to the Supreme Court against the verdict of the special Court. For the procedure to be just, fair and reasonable, the Court suggested certain modifications: There should be a provision for transferring a case from one special court to another so as to avoid the possibility of a trial where a judge may be biased against the accused Only a sitting High Court Judge ought to be appointed, for the retired Judge would hold the office as a Judge of the special court during the pleasure of the government, and the â€Å"pleasure doctrine was subversive of judicial independence.† Instead of mere consultation, the Chief Justice’s concurrence should be there, which would inspire confidence not only of the accused but also of the entire community in the special Court. CRIMINAL JUSTICE AFTER MANEKA Arrest In Joginder Kumar v. State of Uttar Pradesh15, the Supreme Court has observed that an arrest can cause incalculable harm to a person’s reputation and self-esteem. Arrest should be made not merely on suspicion but only after a reasonable satisfaction reached after some investigation as to the genuineness and bona fides of the complaint and a reasonable belief to the person’s complicity and even as to the need to effect arrest. Speedy Trial Speedy trial has not been mentioned as a fundamental right in the Constitution. Yet the Court has declared this as a fundamental right in Hussainara Khatoon v. Home Secretary, State of Bihar (I).16 In this case, the undertrials were in prison for a long period of time, awaiting their trials. Bhagwati, J. held that although, unlike the American Constitution speedy trial is not specifically enumerated as a fundamental right, it is implicit in the broad sweep and content of Article 21 as interpreted in Maneka Gandhi’s case. This position was reiterated in Hussainara Khatoon(No. 2) and Hussainara Khatoon(No. 3). In a significant judgment in Abdul Rehman Antulay v. RS Nayak17, the Supreme Court has laid down guidelines for the speedy trial of an accused: i) Fair, just and reasonable procedure implicit in Article 21 of the Constitution creates a right in the accused to be tried speedily. Right to speedy trial is the right of the accused. The fact that a speedy trial is also in public interest or that it serves the societal interest also, does not make it any-the-less the right of the accused. ii) Right to Speedy Trial flowing from Article 21 encompasses all the stages, namely the stage of investigation, inquiry, trial, appeal, revision and retrial. That is how, this Court has understood this right and there is no reason to take a restricted view. iii) The concerns underlying the Right to speedy trial from the point of view of the accused are: (a) the period of remand and pre-conviction detention should be as short as possible. In other words, the accused should not be subjected to unnecessary or unduly long incarceration prior to his conviction; (b) the worry, anxiety, expense and disturbance to his vocation and peace, resulting from an unduly prolonged investigation, inquiry or trial should be minimal; and (c) undue delay may well result in impairment of the ability of the accused to defend himself, whether on account of death, disappearance or non-availability of witnesses or otherwise. In Sunil Batra (II) v. Delhi Administration18, it was held that the practice of keeping undertrials with convicts in jails offended the test of reasonableness in Art. 19 and fairness in Art. 21. Prison Administration In Sunil Batra (I) v. Delhi Administration19, the important question before the court was whether solitary confinement imposed upon prisoners who were under sentence of death, was violative of Articles 14, 19, 20 and 21. It was held that under Sections 73 and 74 of the IPC, solitary confinement is a substantive punishment, which can be imposed by a court of law, and it cannot be left within the caprice of prison authorities. It further observed that if by imposing solitary confinement there is total deprivation of camaraderie amongst co-prisoners, comingling and talking and being talked to, it would offend Article 21 of the Constitution. The liberty to move, mix mingle, talk, share company with co-prisoners if substantially curtailed, would be violative of Article 21 unless curtailment has the backing of law. Here we see the high regard that the Supreme Court gives to human life and personal liberty, notwithstanding a person’s jail sentence. In Prem Shankar v. Delhi Administration20, the Supreme Court has held that handcuffing should be resorted to only when there is clear and present danger of escape. Even when in extreme cases, handcuffing is to be put on the prisoner, the escorting authority must record simultaneously the reasons for doing so, otherwise the procedure would be unfair and bad in law. This is implicit in Article 21 which insists upon fairness, reasonableness and justice in the procedure for deprivation of life and liberty. Legal Aid In Hussainara21, the Supreme Court has observed that it is an essential ingredient of reasonable, fair and just procedure to a prisoner who is to seek his liberation through the court’s process that he should have legal services available to him. Providing free legal service to the poor and the needy is an essential element of any reasonable, fair and just procedure. In Suk Das22, the Court quashed the conviction of the appellant because the accused remained unrepresented by a lawyer and so the trial became vitiated on account of a fatal constitutional infirmity. The court held that free legal assistance at the cost of the State is a Fundamental Right of a person accused of an offence and this requirement is implicit in the requirement of a fair, just and reasonable procedure prescribed by Article 21. Public Interest Litigation One of the most effective instruments evolved by the Supreme Court for attaining social justice is Public Interest Litigation (PIL). Any person with a sufficient interest and acting bona fide can file a PIL in the Supreme Court under Art. 32 or Art. 226. If there is a violation of any fundamental right or legal duties and there is legal injury to a person or a class of persons who are unable to approach the court by ignorance, poverty or by any disability, social or economic, any member of the public can make an application for an appropriate direction or order or writ before the High Court under Article 226 and before the Supreme Court under Article 32 for redressal. This was the gist of the principle laid down in SP Gupta v. Union of India23, in which the Court has given considerable relaxation to the doctrine of locus standi. PILs have played an important role in the fields of prison reforms, gender justice, environment protection, child rights, education, wherein the court has constantly made an attempt to uphold the value of a dignified human life, which is not merely confined to access to food, shelter and clothing, but goes much beyond. For instance, in Vishakha v. State of Rajasthan24, an incident of rape was held to be violative of not only the right to gender equality under Art. 14, but also of the right to life under Article 21. The Supreme Court has laid down specific guidelines as to what constitutes sexual harassment at workplace, placing the responsibility on the employer to ensure the safety of their employees, also making it mandatory for all public offices to have a Women’s Cell, where the women employees could take their grievances. These guidelines can also be found in the Criminal Law Amendment Act 2013. In MC Mehta v. Union of India25, the Supreme Court has developed the concept of absolute liability regarding the payment of compensation by an enterprise engaged in dangerous and hazardous activities. The Supreme Court has also exercised epistolary jurisdiction, wherein a letter has been treated as a petition before the court. In Labourers Working on Salal Hydroelectric Project v. State of Jammu and Kashmir26, litigation was started on the basis of a letter addressed by the People’s Union for Democratic Rights to Mr. Justice D.A. Desai enclosing a copy of the news item which appeared in the issue of Indian Express pointing out that a large number of workmen working on the Salal Hydro Electric Project were denied the benefit of various labour laws and were subjected to exploitation by the contractors to whom different portions of the work were entrusted by the Central Government. In all of these cases, and a number of others, a reflection of Maneka’s decision can be found, wherein the Court has tried to uphold the sanctity of a dignified human life. CRITICAL APPRAISAL OF MANEKA’S DECISION The kind of wide interpretation that has been given to Article 21 post Maneka, has not been given to any other provision. Article 21 read with Articles 32 and 226, has become the most important weapon of judicial activism. By relating Directive Principles of State Policy with Fundamental Rights, court is granting remedies on an ever increasing scale. But it must be remembered that Directive Principles are non-justiciable in nature and cannot be enforced. Yet, the Supreme Court has gone to great lengths to enforce these by relating them to right to life. But balancing of conflicting interests is an important function of law. Function of law is social engineering. This has to be performed by both, the Legislator as well as the Judiciary. Justice Cardozo also says that the court can evolve a process for dealing with the social ills. Thus, where legislators fail to balance the interests, it is the Court which must do it. The court will be criticized for judicial over-reach, that is, for undertaking the power of the legislator and laying down a law, as it happened in Vishakha v. State of Rajasthan. But it must be realized that where the Legislators fail, the court has to step in. The gaps need to be filled. Thus, from the perspective of Roscoe Pound’s social engineering theory, which is very relevant in the present scenario, court’s actions cannot be termed as judicial overreach. CONCLUSION Thus, the decision of the Supreme Court in Maneka Gandhi’s case became the basis of the court’s decisions in subsequent cases pertaining to not only Article 21 expressly, but wherever the court found a relation between life and another aspect of it. The Court developed a theory of ‘inter-relationship of rights’ to hold that governmental action which curtailed either of these rights should meet the designated threshold for restraints on all of them. In this manner, the Courts incorporated the guarantee of ‘substantive due process’ into the language of Article 21. This was followed by a series of decisions, where the conceptions of ‘life’ and ‘personal liberty’ were interpreted liberally to include rights which had not been expressly enumerated in Part III.27 The width of Article 21 will keep expanding as long as our Supreme Court upholds its title of the activist court, and intervenes dutifully to preserve the fundamental rights of the people. The Court has, thus, played the role of a social engineer, constantly making an effort to balance the conflicting interests of the state with those of the society and the individuals. REFERENCES 1. Indian Constitutional Law, M.P. Jain, Sixth Edition (2013). 2. Constitutional Law of India, J.N. Pandey, Forty Third Edition (2006).

Improving our recreational Essays - Bath Rugby, Recreation Ground

Improving our recreational Essays - Bath Rugby, Recreation Ground Improving our recreational centers South Providence Rec Center Student Boards/Student Voice Diverse Programs Diverse Population of Students Improved Technology Equipment Improved online accessibility Keep kids off the streets Importance of Parks and Recreation Community recreation services provide a refuge of safety for at-risk youth, its a place to play which is important in reducing at-risk behavior such as drug use and gang involvement. Recreational programs provide organized, structured, and enjoyable activities for all ages. Kids develop the skill necessary to success and confidently engage in sport, crafts, dance, social activities. Advisory Board The function of an advisory board is a group of people that come together and talk about improving the community. In order to increase community involvement a student advisory board should be created for all Providence Rec Centers. Why is an advisory board important? An advisory board will allow a strong student voice in Rec Center decision making. 72% of the kids we surveyed said its important to have a student voice. 28% of the kids we surveyed said its not important or dont know if its important. Do you go to a rec center? 38% of the kids we surveyed at JSEC go to a rec center. 62% of the kids we surveyed at JSEC dont go to a rec center. Do you go to a rec center? 38% of the kids we surveyed at JSEC go to a rec center. 62% of the kids we surveyed at JSEC dont go to a rec center. What activities or programs would you like to see at the Rec Center? Kids that go to a Rec Center would like to see What programs would attract you to your local Rec Center? If the Rec Center created programs/activities of your interest, would you go? 63% of the kids we surveyed said they would go to a Rec Center if the Rec Center added programs or activities of there interest. 13% of the kids we surveyed said they wouldnt go to a Rec Center even if they added in the programs or activities that theyre interested in. 24% of the kids we surveyed said they would possibly go to a Rec Center if they added in the programs or activities that interest them. Kids suggest that the Gym and Gym floor should be improved or redone. Kids also said they would like for the Rec Center to be more organized. Some kids said they would like for there to be more information about the Rec Center. About 75% of the kids we surveyed said that the staff meets their expectations and do a good job. We also asked kids if they feel welcomed/comfortable at the Rec Center, most of them said yes but some said that they dont. Students would like better equipment. What have you seen at the Rec Center that you would like to change or improve? Here are the percentages of the kids we surveyed that go to each Rec Center. We asked kids What benefits do you think you would get from going to a Rec Center? 19% of kids said to gain Experience. 22% of kids said to learn New Skills. 16% of kids said they would like to lose weight and/or be physically better. 18% of kids said they could make new friends. 25% of kids dont know what benefits they would get.

Calvin and Hobbes essays

Calvin and Hobbes essays Commercialization: A Cheapening of Art Bill Watterson is a man of principles who voices his convictions and enforces them with his actions. This essay lays out the claim of value that commercialization of comics detracts from the quality of the art. Watterson never compromised his vision of how he viewed his characters-even if it meant sacrificing millions of dollars and fighting syndicates for years. Wattersons Calvin and Hobbes was an instant success, too big in fact for Wattersons liking. As soon as he became a household name, his battle with Universal Press Syndicate began. Commercialization is the name of the game in the comic industry. Dolls, mugs, T-shirts, TV cartoons, these were just the tip of the iceberg when it came to turning Calvin and Hobbes into a multi-million dollar profit center. Wattersons opinion on this subject is very different in respect to other cartoonists, I believe licensing cheapens the original creation....nothing dulls the edge of a new and clever cartoon like saturating the market with it (reemst.com 1). He did not want licensing or commercialization whatsoever and literally turned down millions of dollars because of his firm belief in keeping the spirit of the comic fresh. Naturally, his syndicate was not about let this go without a fight, and he spent the next five years trying to maintain control over his own creation. Eventually, his contract was re-negotiated and his wishes respected. When a cartoonist and his or her syndicate have a clash about money, it is usually because the artist wants more, not less. They wanted to exploit the comic and get more exposure, fame, and money from it. However, Watterson made his wishes clear to Universal Syndicates; he wouldn't license "Calvin & Hobbes" for commercial use, no matter what. If they would not abide by his wishes, he would quit the job. The integrity of the characters was the most important...

African Americans in Contemporary Media Landscape Article

African Americans in Contemporary Media Landscape - Article Example Over the years, many people who immigrated to America from various countries and continents in pursuit of various goals are also considered to be African Americans. African Americans are often associated with black skin and Africa. For a long time in the history of America, African Americans were considered to be inferior to their white counterparts and, therefore, suffered the consequences of racial segregation. Furthermore, the Black Americans, as they are sometimes referred to, have greatly been associated with poverty, drugs, violence, ghettos, and crime. African Americans have been subject to a lot of stereotypes since the days of slavery. As a minority group in the U.S., they have mostly been associated with negative aspects, behavior or lifestyles even as their white counterparts are often associated with a lot of good. In many television programs, African Americans always take minor roles or play second fiddle to the main actors. Also, in terms of representation, they are always fewer in number in the television programs in which they are featured. Stereotypes may be positive, neutral or negative. In many cases, the African American is always depicted as being servile, simpleminded, slow-witted, primitive, drug addicts, poor, aggressive, criminal, overweight (for females), lazy, athletic, gifted to make music, and religious as noted by the M3 Foundation (n.d.). This list of stereotypes is all negative except for athletic and musical gift stereotypes. In some cases, African Americans are also depicted as having no jobs in spite of their education which leads them to remain poor. These depictions of the African American in television shows and films generally serve to reinforce the negative attitudes that whites have towards the Black Americans. African American Stereotypes as Presented on Contemporary TV Programs In Bravo's Top Chef, one stereotype that is assigned to the African American is aggression. In the second season of the show, one of the characters in the TV program is an African American male called Cliff. All the while, Cliff is depicted as a very talented chef.  

Create a Business Plan for Your Own Company - With Financial Statement Assignment

Create a Business Plan for Your Own Company - With Financial Statement Data - Assignment Example The company also has other investments in steel and iron businesses such as steel manufacturing operations including electrical furnaces, steel processing service centres that take care of processing and distribution services, steel sales business and production of motor vehicle parts. Apart from manufacture of steel and iron products, the company has other portfolios that include supply of mineral and metal resources to Japan and other areas of the world. The company also has investments in generation of renewable energy, industrial and infrastructure, water treatment and supply, project development in fields such as logistics and social infrastructure. In its integrated transportation systems business unit, the company deals with logistics, financing and sale of motor vehicles, sale and financing of construction machinery, trade and ownership of commercial ships, sale, purchase and leasing of aircrafts and helicopters and rolling stock leasing. The basic chemicals business unit dea ls with manufacture of industrial chemicals and the logistical support for their clients. The performance chemicals business unit deals with manufacture of agricultural chemicals, performance materials such as plastics and synthetics. In addition, the unit also deals with liquid crystal display material and commodities, semiconductors and supplies for printed circuit board. Energy business unit I and II deals with exploration and processing of energy sources such as oil, gas and uranium among others, in addition it also develops environmental business such as carbon credits, biomass ethanol and hydrogen. The food business unit deals with grains for livestock, energy production and human consumption. In addition, it also deals with food ingredients, distribution, retail support services and agri-foods. The consumer service business unit deals with a wide variety of business activities that include medical and health care services, real