Karen Olsson’s Up Against Wal-Mart Essay

In â€Å"Up Against Wal-Mart† by Karen Olsson, she finds the truth about how Wal-Mart treats its customers and more importantly how the million dollar company treats its employees. In this essay, Olsson strongly believes that Wal-Mart keeps its stores understaffed and their employees overworked and underpaid, with minimal options for reasonable benefits. Olsson begins with an individual employee, Jennifer McLaughlin, who is a mother of one child, and is currently employed with Wal-Mart in Paris, Texas. She is a very hard worker and puts in a lot of effort every day. But she is not able to afford life, with the amount that the company pays her. Health insurance is too much to afford on her wage, so she has to rely on government assistance to give her child the things he needs. She is forced to work over time, is underpaid and also treated unfairly. According to Olsson, â€Å"On a given shift McLaughlin might man a register, hop on a mechanical lift to retrieve something from a high shelf, catch fish from a tank, run over to another department to help locate an item, restock the shelves, dust off the bike racks, or field questions about potting soil and lawn mowers† (607). In other words, Olsson points out that Wal-Mart does not hire enough workers and also overwork its employees. The other issue is the company Wal-Mart is not unionized. The workers at Wal-Mart have started to try to create a union. But a union at Wal-Mart was never formed due to the company’s anti-union group that created by Wal-Mart, which employees who voted for the union were fired. Olsson states that â€Å"Wal-Mart has responded to the union drive by trying to stop workers from organizing—sometimes in violation of federal labor law† (609). Here she proves that Wal-Mart is against the union and will do what it can to stop one from forming. This essay shows that Wal-Mart’s rapid growth rate and lack of change in fair treatment for its employees is only creating more insubstantial jobs for poor people. The topic of Olsson’s opinions about that Wal-Mart treats its employees badly can be approached from several different angles due to its complexity. Some people seem to think that Wal-Mart is bad for the poor people while others tend to consider that Wal-Mart actually helps the poor people. Upon a close examination of both sides of this issue, I have also developed my own point of view. Personally, I disagree with Olsson’s view that Wal-Mart is bad for poor people because she lacks for hearing opinions from both sides. One reason I cannot support the Olsson’s view is Wal-Mart’s â€Å"every day low price.† Wal-Mart’s low cost of goods saves its consumers billions per year. It not only presents job opportunities for poor families, but offers them discounts on food and necessities. Even though Wal-Mart employees are paid low wages, the low cost of food and other basics makes up for the low wages. For me, Wal-Mart in fact helps the lower income families in the world because their prices are more affordable. Wal-Mart’s prices are helping them purchase more food and basic necessities for their families than they would be able to purchase at other retail stores. Works Cited Olsson, Karen. â€Å"Up Against Wal-Mart.† They Say/I Say, with Readings. 2nd ed. Gerald Graff, Cathy Birkenstein, and Russel Durst. New York: Norton, 2012. 606-619. Print.

Abortion – “the Wrong of Abortion”

Abortion is one of the most controversial topics of all times. The definition most people associate with abortion is the termination of unwanted pregnancy. In their essay, â€Å"The Wrong of Abortion†, Patrick Lee and Robert P. George argue that intentional abortion is unjust and therefore objectively immoral no matter the circumstances. Also, they argue that â€Å"the burden of carrying the baby is significantly less than the harm the baby would suffer by being killed; the mother and father have a special responsibility to the child; it follows that intentional abortion (even in few cases where the baby’s death is an unintended but foreseen side effect) is unjust † (24). I am personally in between pro-life and pro-choice. On the one hand, I agree with their argument in that the mother and the father are responsible for their baby and that abortion should not be a choice. However, I disagree with the part where they say that abortion is unjust even if the baby (fetus) may have a defect. Yet, I believe that the choice of abortion is immoral if women use it as their last resort- contraceptive purposes, but I think that abortion should be allowed if the baby (fetus), which is still in the womb, is predicted to have a side effect such as deformation or diseases like Down’s syndrome. For example, if I were to bear a child and I find out later on that my baby has Down’s syndrome; then, in this case, I will choose to get aborted, not for selfish reasons, but because this defect may hurt my baby in the long run. Besides, my baby is the one that has to live with it for the rest of his/her life and it will definitely have a big effect on them in the future. In short, I am pro-life in most cases, especially if women do not take responsibility for their actions, but I am pro-choice if and only if there are side effects with the baby or the mother that might endanger their lives and of course, abortion is permissible in case of incest and rape. Lee and George claim that human embryos (fetuses) are complete human beings that have not fully developed to its mature stage; therefore, a human being is what is killed in abortion. I agree completely that the fetus, or the human embryo, is in fact a living being. Moreover, human embryo is the â€Å"same† as human beings except, the difference between these two is that the embryo is not a full human person because the fetus is not fully developed yet. Every new life, whether it be animal or human, begins at conception. With this being said, no matter what the circumstances of conception, no matter how far along in the pregnancy, abortion, in my opinion, always ends the life of an individual human being. Abortion destroys the lives of helpless and innocent babies that have not done anything wrong. Everyone is raised knowing the difference between right and wrong. Murder is wrong, so why is not abortion? Defenders of abortion argue that it is not murder if the child is unborn. So, why is it that if an infant is destroyed a month before the birth, there is no problem, but if killed a month after birth, it is considered as inhumane murder? Lee and George support their argument by providing three important facts that differentiate a human embryo is, in fact, a human being. First, they say that sex cells and somatic cells are part of a larger organism while the human embryo is a complete or whole organism, though immature (14). Secondly, they say that the embryo is human and has all the characteristics of a human being but the sex and somatic cells are genetically and functionally different because they cannot develop separately while the embryo can. Last but not least, they claim that embryo develops all of the organs and organ systems that are necessary to turn themselves into a mature human being. Above all, the human embryo, from conception onward, is fully programmed actively to develop himself or herself to the mature stage of a human being, unless prevented by disease or violence (14). With these reasons, it can be said that abortion results in the death of a human being. As a result, abortion is murder since the fetus being destroyed is breathing, has a human form, and has feelings. Carol Everett, who is a former abortionist, once said at the conference Meet the Abortion Providers, â€Å"the product abortion, is skillfully marketed and sold to the women at a crisis time in her life. She buys the product, finds it defective and wants to return it for a refund, but it is too late. † In most cases, abortion is intentional killing. Most women use aborting as an easy â€Å"way out† because they want to avoid in becoming a parent. Parents do have a responsibility to make sacrifices for their children, even if they have not voluntary assumed such responsibilities, or given their consent to the personal relationship with the child- this is the authors’ claim (22). I completely agree with their claim because a person should accept the consequences of risks that one knowingly and willingly takes. I believe that it is common sense that both women and men should know that contraceptives are not 100 percent effective; for this reason, if they are willingly having sexual intercourse, then they should know that they are taking the risk in possibly becoming pregnant. Therefore, a woman who becomes pregnant should accept her pregnancy as the consequence of taking the risk involved in sexual intercourse. This means that the woman has a duty or a responsibility of taking care for her child regardless if she wanted the baby or not. Since we have special responsibilities to those with whom we are closely untied, it follows that we in fact do have a special responsibility to our children anterior to our having voluntarily assumed such responsibility or consented to the relationship† (23). Abortion is clearly used to avoid responsibility and the authors call this unjust or intentional killing. Nevertheless, while the authors argue that abortion is intentional killing most of the tim e, they also claim that causing death as a side effect is morally permissible. For example, if the pregnant woman has cancer in her uterus that will surely endanger the woman’s life, then Lee and George claim that, in this case, it can be morally right to remove the cancer with the baby still in her womb, even if the baby (fetus) dies as a result. They consider the baby’s death as a side effect as well as the ending of the pregnancy itself but they claim that the mother’s life is more important. This type of abortion is known as indirect or non-intentional killing (21). However, they also assert that not every death that is caused because of side effects is right. For instance, if the mother or the father have a bad habit of smoking when they know for a fact that this will endanger the baby’s (fetus) development, and for this reason, the woman wants to get an abortion because they find out that their baby has a defect- this choice she is making is an unjust act since she could have avoided it but instead, did not do anything to change; therefore, this is the consequence they have to face. It was immoral for them to continue with their actions when they know this will or might cause harm to their child. The act that would cause the child’s death would avoid harm to the parent but cause a significantly worse harm to his child (21). All in all, the parents have a special responsibility to the child even if they did not want or were not expecting a baby in the first place, they should act responsibly in virtue of being their biological parents. I, however, only partially agree with their argument mentioned above. I agree completely in that abortion should be performed if the woman has a disease that will endanger her life as well as the baby’s. Nonetheless, in the second example, although it was their fault for causing their child to not develop properly, I think that the parents should be given the choice to perform abortion or to keep their child. Like I mentioned in the beginning, if I were to have a child that is deformed or is mentally unstable, then I would get an abortion even if it is 100 percent my fault. I want my baby to be happy, and I know for a fact that my baby might not be happy in the future because of their defect and I will never forgive myself because my child does not deserve to go through hardship because of the actions that I’ve done. For this reason, I would not call it unjust killing in this case. After critically analyzing Lee and George’s argument, I come to a conclusion that it is very difficult to draw a line between keeping one’s life or being responsible for one’s actions. On the one hand, if the woman voluntarily put herself into a situation where it might bring her the existence of a person, then in this case no matter what, she is held responsible and accountable for her actions since to make that ‘choice' after a pregnancy is underway, merely as a matter of birth control, is an immoral act. So, abortion is morally wrong since the mother had sexual intercourse of her own free will. On the other hand, the situation becomes complicated when one has to choose whether it is better to get an abortion if there is something wrong with the baby due to the parent’s actions. Would one save the life or choose to abort although this was also their responsibility? With all my aforementioned reasons, I am still in between pro-life and pro-choice because I believe that abortion can be permissible depending on the situation.

Mubadala Development Company (MDC) Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3500 words

Mubadala Development Company (MDC) - Essay Example This is followed by a critical analysis of its organisational culture in relation to its stated mission and vision and the way it is implemented in its operations so as to ensure optimal performance of the organisation. Recommendations will also be given at the end so as to suggest the best possible ways that can be implemented to ensure that there is compliance between the organisational culture and its stated goals. Basically, the report seeks to explore the extent to which the concept of organisational culture affects the overall performance of the whole organisation MDC is a company owned by the government of Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates. MDC is a catalyst for investment by the government of Abu Dhabi and according to its website, it has so far invested in areas including aerospace, health automotive, telecommunication, building of ships and energy among others. It is a catalyst of economic diversification in Abu Dhabi and the company’s strategy is based on the ma nagement of long term, capital intensive investments that deliver strong financial returns and tangible social benefits for the Emirates. MDC was established in October 2002 as a Public Joint Stock Company in Abu Dhabi through a decree issued by His Highness Sheikh Mohamed Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi. The Government of Abu Dhabi is its sole shareholder. As a Public Joint Stock Company, Mubadala functions much like an incorporated entity in the United States or a â€Å"plc† in the United Kingdom.

Annoted Bibliography on STIs Literature review Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Annoted Bibliography on STIs - Literature review Example In this important countrywide rule document, sexual health remains termed as one of six vital considerations, and the HDA prove summarizations chosen like the origin of data on efficient interventions. During 2005, DH compiled the action arrangement Delivering selecting health, which fixes vital aims around STIs, rolling out Chlamydia screening and access to genitourinary medicine (GUM) clinics inside 48 hours. During 2005, the HDA merged with the National Institute for Clinical Excellence (NICE), to make the current National Institute of Health and Clinical Excellence and maintained the short form NICE (Masters, 2013:194). The latest institution progresses with the dedication to construct on the proof foundation in public health. In the process of the State’s progressive dedication to sexual health and HIV, and the need to base STI control in precise proof, it remained seen important to review the 2004 Evidence Briefing to make sure that the major current update stage proof r emains accessible for arranging services and increasing the sexual health of the people. NICE proof briefings account on reviews of reviews, rarely termed to as tertiary stage study. They constitute contextual descriptions of the advantages and disadvantages of the proof from reviews, spotting of loopholes in the proof, a breakdown of forthcoming major and minor study requirements, and a debate of the effects of the proof for rule and practice (Peate, 2010:6). Summary Article 1: Policy During 2001, the DH authored the initial National Strategy for Sexual Health and HIV. This established five major purposes, together with minimizing the spread of STIs with a countrywide objective of a 25% minimization in lately gonorrhea diseases by 2007, thus lowering dominance of undiagnosed STIs and lowering disgrace related with STIs. In addition, after this, the white paper Choosing Health: making healthy choices easier, constituted sexual wellbeing as one of its main privileges. This has motiva ted a re-energized dedication to deal with sexual disease health, and extra materials have remained offered for acting as such. In the doing arrangement, the State stipulated its goals to increase sexual health services in a latest $300m schedule for the coming three years (Carroll, 2004:340). Article 2: Epidemiology The examination of STIs depends on GUM clinicians accounting for increased figures of chosen states by gender and age, and for a few states, if matters in men are heterosexual of from intercourse between men. These remain delivered quarterly on KC60 forms. Whereas there exists disadvantages of the scheme, it is a precise origin of information on behaviors. Further contextual data remains looked for from extra studies, like the Gonococcal Resistance to Antimicrobials Surveillance Programme (GRASP) study to examine objection to gonorrhea cure and facilitated examination of occurrences of before exceptional diseases like syphilis and lymphogranuloma Venereum (LGV). There a re recently two current vaccines under review, both of which focus to cover versus the two mini-kinds that lead to warts. Detectives of genital warts rose by 3.1% between 2005 and 2006. During 2005, 50% of detectives remained in heterosexual men, 47% in females, and 3% in men who have intercourse with men (MSM)

Treatment of Accounting Issues Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Treatment of Accounting Issues - Case Study Example It is strongly advised to you to take a closer look at every issue along with its relevant treatment and feel free to consult me, had you require any further assistance. Marketing and Advertising Expenses According to the International Financial Reporting Standards, the marketing and advertising expenses should be charged to Income Statements the year which these marketing and advertising expenses incur. In the light of above criteria, the policy adopted by Mr. Julian to expense out 50% of the marketing and advertising expenditures in the profit and loss account while capitalizing the rest of 50% of the expense in the balance sheet and amortizing over the period of 5 years, seems as a deviation from the IFRS. Since, Mr. Julian is mainly interested in presenting the financial statements more profitable, that is why Mr. Julian has adopted this strategy. In this way, he could have avoided the 50% expenditures incurred the current year which would eventually have increased the profits su bstantially. Therefore, Mr. Rafael should disregard this policy of Mr. Julian and should instruct him to rectify the financial statements and charge out the capitalized amount of marketing and advertising expenses for the current year. Slow Moving Inventory The older policy of writing off the slow moving inventory was a bit conservative approach.

Tertiary Education System Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Tertiary Education System - Essay Example The intention of this study is the tertiary education system is a substitute entry trail to undergraduate education at the University level. The course lengths for tertiary programs are mostly half year with about fifteen contact hours every week. Enabling courses are often varied since there are no excessive rules or principles meaning that several people have access to the programmes when they reach that level of education. These enabling programmes are reacting positively to the local requirements and the broader needs of communities. They vary from short introductory programmes, on-going education support to comprehensive preparatory courses. Tertiary education enabling programmes have been established in conjunction with other institutions like TAFE, secondary education among others. Just like any other level of education, the tertiary enabling programmes also require students to prepare well, be motivated and supported to excel. In terms of fees, the tertiary education system v aries from one university to another in terms of course funding. Tertiary enabling programmes are very helpful to students and the communities because they enable students become successful adults after completing their university education, which leaves them with knowledge and skills to handle serious issues such as career and employment. Note that the enabling programmes can work excellently if they are connected to different initiatives for one year. Therefore, it is important to convince faculties to slot in enabling progressions into their undergraduate programs in order to meet the needs of the students and the society. II. Advantages of Enabling Programmes to: a) Institution Enable a higher preservation tempo of the student population in an institution. Enable superior achievement of the students in terms of their scores in class (Carmichael & Taylor, 2005). Reinforces its relationship with the society. The students can become role models to others and improve their performan ce in class. The weak students get motivation and learn ideas to succeed in their

Employee involvement. Do employee involvement programs improve Essay - 3

Employee involvement. Do employee involvement programs improve organizational performance Discuss with reference to a minimum of four empirical studies - Essay Example This study seeks to identify the relationship between gun ownership and the crime levels in various countries of the world. The study classifies crime levels as either serious or less serious and this it explores in relation to gun ownership. It can be obviously concluded that gun ownership tends to increase the chances that it will be used inappropriately in some instances and result into more serious crimes as compared to a situation where the guns are not easily available. This paper examines the rates that such incidences have been involved and the seriousness of the crime by using the available data. From this perspective, it is true that crime levels will be serious in instances of gun ownership but this leaves behind the ownership status whether legal or illegal, (Bruce Wilcox, 1998). Gun licenced users need to be assessed their state of mind among other things before they are offered with the right to use such powerful weapons, (Draper,1981). According to Fessenden (2010), the legal side of gun ownership is a veritable snake pit of good and bad where all the gun owners need to take a crash course. This course is intended to reduce the incidences that are associated with gun misuse whether privately or in public places. Hence the various states that allow gun ownership have different laws that need to be adhered to enable minimisation of casualties to gun victims. This research needs to put across the ideology that there is the necessary training when awarding gun ownership licences in its detailed gun ownership concerns. There is a general assumption in this research that guns facilitate the violence witnessed in majority of the crimes reported in the better parts of the European countries. It is the general assumption of this study too that the European countries discussed are having stringent measures to ensure that the guns available to the

Discuss the rise in importance of FDI for Multinational Enterprises Essay

Discuss the rise in importance of FDI for Multinational Enterprises - Essay Example This deepening and widening economic integration is achieved through three main channels such as trade, foreign direct investment and the international transfer of knowledge and technology. The enterprises, which have dispersed their business processes across the globe through the channel of FDI, are termed as Multinational Enterprises (MNEs). These MNEs are the main pillars in the globalized economies which involved in the world economic activities. Though trade which principally means export-import of goods and services across the geographical regions are there since many years but the concept of foreign direct investment (FDI) is rather of recent origin. Being different from portfolio investment this type of investment entails a firm to open its subsidiary in a foreign land to expand its business activities there. In today's fast moving global economy the scale of FDI made by a multinational enterprise plays a vital role for the growth of developed as well as developing countries across the world. In this essay the rise in FDI as well as its importance for the MNEs has been vividly described in the Section-II and also an analysis of the circumstances under which FDI may or may not be an appropriate strategy for an international business has been made in the Section-III. The conclusion to the discussion has been given in Section-IV. The analysis of the rising trend in the various regions of the world and the possible impact of FDI in the host and home economies has been made in this paper. II. FDI: The Increasing Trend in Global Economy "FDI is defined as a firm based in one country (the 'home country') owning 10 percent or more of the stock of a company located in a foreign country (the 'host country') -- this amount of stock is generally enough to give the home country firm significant control rights over the host country firm. Most FDI is in wholly-owned or nearly wholly-owned subsidiaries." (http://www.populareconomics.org/globalization/html%20/Glossary.html). Thus FDI is different from the portfolio investment which may cross borders but lacks such controls over it. This FDI may be 'Green-field'1 or 'Acquisition/Mergers'2 and also it may be 'horizontal'3 or 'vertical'4. "Thus to create, acquire or expand a foreign subsidiary, MNEs undertake FDI. The total direct capital owned by non-residents in a given country each year constitutes the stock of FDI" (Navaretti & Venables, 3). If one makes a comparison between export and FDI during the last twentieth century one can see that the exports grew much stronger than FDI in the pre 1980 period while the FDI sown an unprecedented rise after 1985. "The worldwide real GDP increased at a rate of 2.5% per year between 1985 and 1999 and worldwide exports by 5.6%, worldwide real inflows of FDI increased by 17.7%." (Navaretti & Venables 3). Also it is seen that the worldwide FDI stocks increased from $794 billion to $1, 768 billion in the second half of the eighties (Table-1). That means they more than doubled in just six years. The inflow of FDI peaked in the year 2000 but suddenly declined from the year 2001 due to slowing down of economy.

Cryptology Advancing National Security Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Cryptology Advancing National Security - Essay Example This essay discusses that there are also problems of implementation as some encryption programs do not ensure that the plaintext data they acquire is destroyed once it has been encrypted. These are acquired when systems use temporary files to protect in instances of data loss when the system crashes and to increase the available memory. The measures taken leave plaintext exposed and accessible on the hard drive and can easily be manipulated. In other cases, the operating system in computers leaves keys on the hard drive in the form of passwords that are easily broken by the user interface. Schneier states that â€Å"there are times when systems use master keys and also one-time session keys, where one is strong and the other is weak, the system is then broken by using partial information of the different keys†. It is clear that Cryptography plays a very integral role not only in securing sensitive government information. Cryptology is an important advancement in technology. In a day and age where people are very keen on computer programs and able to hack into national security databases, it is now more important. Seeing that there is a weakness in the cryptologic systems, data analysts and cryptologists must ensure that they write programs that are foolproof. In the same way that no one wants a thief having their bank details, we also do not want terrorists having sensitive national security information. Technology serves peoples purposes and it must then be used in the best way possible.