Obama’s Education Promise, a Rhetorical Analysis Essay

â€Å"Education is the best provision for the journey to old age.† – Aristotle Today, 314.5 million people call themselves Americans. Each of them, with God permitting, will make the journey to old age. However, in this huge set of individuals, roughly fifteen percent of adults over the age of twenty-five have not received a high school diploma (â€Å"Educational Attainment in the United States: 2009†). By itself, this percentage feels rather small, and so we as Americans pride ourselves in our educational system. After crunching the numbers, however, this measly percentage actually represents twenty-nine million Americans, twenty-nine million individuals who lack an accomplished high school education. Aristotle would be displeased to say the least. In 2008, then senator Barack Obama delivered a speech to the Mapleton Expeditionary School of the Arts titled â€Å"What’s Possible for our Children.† Though intended for his election campaign, the speech also reflected this introduction’s attitude, calling attention to the gaping holes in American education. More specifically, however, Obama promoted educational reform based on a three-point platform: â€Å"fixing† No Child Left Behind (an act which encourages state standardized tests to measure and regulate primary and secondary education in the United States), encouraging teacher reforms and furthering teaching employment, and increasing opportunities for minor ethnicities and other disadvantaged students. In retrospect, his speech met with great optimism and is often quoted by leaders in education. To explain this speech’s success more fully requires an analysis of Obama’s seasoned rhetorica l strategies, of ethos, logos, and pathos—respectively, as well as an explanation of how each of these three strategies establishes an effective speech. Obama sprinkles ethos, or ethical proof, throughout his three-point platform. In doing so, he gears his audience’s attention towards his assessment of the ethical standards in American education to inspire  motivation and change. For example, in the introduction, Obama states, â€Å"This kind of America is morally unacceptable for our children† (qtd. in â€Å"Full text of Obama’s education speech†). Through this statement, Obama assumes the role of an ethical mediator; he creates situated ethos whereby, as a presidential candidate, he has the power to tell us as a society where we are correct and where we can improve. By equating American education with moral irresponsibility, he calls society to consider the issues he addresses later in his speech. One such issue is No Child Left Behind, his first premise. In discussing the problems within the act passed by former President Bush in 2001, Obama repeats the phrase â€Å"we must† almost religiously. Must is a strong word choice; it implies an obligation to something. As an audience member, we make the connection that the obligation is precisely what Obama stated in the introduction. We must make our educational standards higher for our children; thus, we become motivated to fix No Child Left Behind. Likewise, in his second point, which promises teacher reforms and employment, Obama begins with a simple commonplace: Individuals who do good jobs should be rewarded. Using the ethos from his introduction, he concludes that teachers who do good jobs should be rewarded, which gives motivation for teachers to do well. Obama even goes so far as to inspire change in education among ethnic minorities, his final point. In this point, he calls upon hope—hope that disadvantaged students will one day rise from the bottom with his new learning opportunity programs. His optimism and confidence calls us, his audience, to change. Obama further generalizes this notion of change during his conclusion when he states, â€Å"We have to hold ourselves accountable† (qtd. in â€Å"Full text of Obama’s education speech†). By holding the audience accountable, educational reform becomes both a private and public matter. Therefore, the audience, 314.5 million Americans, feel more personally compelled, motivated even, to follow his advice—to change No Child Left Behind, to reward teachers for good work, and to give more opportunities to disadvantaged students—to reform much of the current educational model, in effect. Logos and pathos, however, are still needed to solidify such an undertaking. Realizing he is delivering a speech about education, an intellectual topic, Obama adds several textbook examples of logos, or logical proof, to his  speech. Simply put, after he explains the unacceptable educational current model to his audience using ethos, he uses logos to depict the reality of how unacceptable the system is. In his introduction, for instance, Obama equates knowledge to the â€Å"currency† of the Information Age, stating that an individual should use his or her knowledge to â€Å"sell† himself or herself to a career position. A cause-and-effect relationship soon follows to support this extended metaphor: â€Å"If the more than 16,000 Colorado students who dropped out of high school last year had only finished, the economy in th[e] state would have seen an additional $4.1 billion in wages over these students’ lifetime† (qtd. in â€Å"Full text of Obama’s education speech). Logically, we as the audience then deduce that education , in reality, is profitable. It is in our interest to be well-educated, but as of now, we are losing money from being uneducated. From there, Obama makes a more explicit logical deduction to support his first premise. If we as Americans want to help the economy, we should fix No Child Left Behind. His logical reasoning for fixing the program stems from its seemingly insufficient economic policy, which stifles the paychecks of teachers who we as a society want to inspire. Because of such, he suggests that, while No Child Left Behind’s goals are noble on paper, its functional mechanics are illogical and unacceptable in the real world. By doing so, he gains more support from educators and economists. Obama also uses logos in his third premise, albeit implicitly. Back in the introduction, Obama quotes the following from Thomas Jefferson, a well-respected president from American history: â€Å"[T]alent and virtue, needed in a free society, should be educated regardless of wealth or birth† (qtd. in â€Å"Full text of Obama’s education speech). Obama knows that the general public will agree with anything Thomas Jefferson says because he is so well respected in American history. Therefore, when he discusses the current issues of ethnic minorities, he conjures support from a broader spectrum of Americans because he is in accordance with Thomas Jefferson. In that respect, he is able to use logos as a means to show the unacceptable truth behind the educational system—to showcase the relationship between revenue and education as well as highlight student-teacher discrimination—to the widely diverse American people. Among all the strategies Obama uses in his speech, pathos, or emotional  proof, is the most commonly used, especially in the introduction and conclusion. The reason for this distinct placement of pathos is elementary: In order to grab the audience’s attention and illustrate the realities of America’s educational system, of which both processes require ethos and logos, Obama must connect to the audience’s emotions—to bring about changes in thought and heart. His most effective strategy that does so is his appeal to children. Countless numbers of times, Obama urges us as older Americans to provide better education for our posterity. By doing so, he uses our unconditional love for children, perhaps seeing our own children in other children, in a way that grabs our attention so that we may listen and critically think about what he has to say regarding education. On top of using the obligation to children as the basis for attention, Obama also invokes imagery during his oration. An example of this imagery is found in his third premise: â€Å"When they [students at disadvantages] look around and see that no one has lifted a finger to fix their school since the 19th century, when they are pushed out the door at the sound of the last bell—some into a virtual war zone—is it any wonder they don’t think their education is important? Is it any wonder that they are dropping out in rates we’ve never seen before?† (qtd. in â€Å"Full text of Obama’s education speech†) The very thought of a neglected child, or a child in a â€Å"war zone† for that matter, tugs at the hearts in the audience. By using such imagery in the third premise, the audience is helpless, for not many people can resist such raw emotion. The audience’s helplessness makes them vulnerable to changes in thought. In this case, the audience’s thoughts will largely favor Obama’s intent to dampen the disadvantages of ethnical minorities and mentally handicapped students. To conclude his emotional journey and to leave his audience emotionally â€Å"fulfilled,† Obama taps into the biggest patriotic commonplace in America—the â€Å"American dream.† He takes the one idealistic value that all 314.5 million Americans hold in common and equates the chance to educate oneself with that core value. It leaves a powerful, lasting impression on his audience and, alongside all the other pathetic strategies mentioned previously, heightens the audience’s interest in investing in educational reform. Hence, after looking extensively at all these different strategies at work,  is it any wonder why the speech did not meet with such critical acclaim? Ethos persuaded us as the audience that our educational system was ethically unacceptable. Logos described the current state of the educational system in a way that made us want to change it to Obama’s standards. Pathos sweetened our perception of that change, making us believe that educational reform will correct the current unacceptable model. Together, the three major strategies mixed in just the right proportions to yield instantaneous changes in audience perception and evaluation of America’s educational standards. It created waves which propagated Obama’s educational reform ideals to all parts of the United States. In fact, these waves continue to ripple throughout the American political arena; one needs to look no further than the 2012 presidential debates to confirm such a statement. Ultimately, education is on the minds of everyone, as well it should be. True as it is to say that agriculture started civilization, it is equally as true to say that education started modern civilization. Therefore, we as citizens of the entire world should be concerned with the development of our education, for when we lose our education, we lose our modern civilization. Aristotle is correct. As humanity matures, it ages. How does humanity mature? It educates itself. Without education the future remains uncertain, for there are no provisions to account for the uncertainty. As Americans, all 314.5 million of us would like to believe that the future of our nation is determined to stay. To claim such a belief with any amount of certainty, however, requires all 314.5 million individuals to be educated. Until then, we continue to build provisions for the hazy future that awaits us. Works Cited â€Å"Educational Attainment in the United States: 2009.† U.S. Census Bureau. Feb. 2012. Digital file. â€Å"Full text of Obama’s education speech.† denverpost.com. 2 Dec. 2008. Web. 2 Oct. 2012.

Barriers Of Entering A Foreign Market

Going abroad with our business has been the talk of the globalization age. In this global society, there are growing reasons of why we should expand our business to foreign markets. First, companies are like continuously growing organisms. It cannot exist without the search of growth or of potentials of growth.This is why mangers cannot afford to live in the illusion that their local markets will be sufficient to sustain the need for continuous growth (Khan, 2005). Second, having an established business overseas will strengthen companies’ financial safety significantly by offsetting domestic seasonal fluctuations.Third, expanding to foreign markets is an excellent choice for enhancing companies’ market shares. Fourth, with the extensive promotion of globalization and US’ effort to combat trade protections, there are significantly more enhanced facilities to support foreign investments today compare to a decade ago. In short, entering foreign markets is an importa nt and contemporary discussion subject (Zacharakis, 1996). However, managers have also realized that the decision to internationalize market shares contains considerable amount of risks and barriers.Some of the most recognizable barriers are cultural and language barriers, environmental issues, political issues, etc. In this paper, we are detailing those barriers and providing case examples to strengthen the arguments. II. Barriers of Entering a Foreign Market II. 1. Cultural and Language Barriers In this discussion, we will start with what is probably the strongest factor that influences expansion to foreign markets. Managers have long accepted that in internationalization considerations, differences between home culture and the culture of foreign countries are significant.Culture is a complex term. It consists of various factors like languages, religions, social norms etc. Thus, companies generally spend considerable portion of their time learning about the culture of the foreign target markets. This is also true whether managers decided to establish new firms in foreign markets or collaborating with foreign partners. Studies also indicated that cultural issues influence the manner in which companies perform their international expansion. Firms generally increase their commitment in investing to a particular foreign target market in predictable stages.First, they will use export agents to learn about the country’s culture. This type of foreign investment will change along with time and enhanced knowledge about local culture of the target market. II. 2. Business Environment Barriers The local business environment has also been an influential factor that strongly affects foreign expansion activities. For instance, companies can have the problem of not having the sufficient good image in a society that has local preferences. Reputation is the issue resulted from the local business environment condition of several markets with local preferences.Some consu mers have more confidence or tendency to purchase local products rather than foreign made. Despite the extensive marketing efforts performed by foreign companies to take away local market share, they still lagged behind local products, even ones with less marketing budget. II. 3. Political and Government Regulations Barriers Other barriers are political in nature. Governmental policies can create enormous effect on company’s success or failure in entering foreign markets. China is the most apparent example of this premise.The Chinese markets have been closed from foreign investors for decades before a massive governmental revolution created opportunities for foreign investment. The government opens chances for FDI inflow. Furthermore, supports foreign investment by means of incentives, property rights protections, etc. Afterwards, economic records indicated that the country has been experiencing one of the most rapid growths in the world, with an average annual GDP growth per centage of 10% for the last decade. In short, governmental policies have significant importance in international expansion.III. Several Cases from 2001-2006 In this paper, I will provide several examples of cases involving foreign entry barriers mentioned above. Despite the similar nature of barriers in each cases, each country has their own tendency of foreign trade barriers. III. 1. Entering Indonesian Markets Indonesian is seen as one of the most economically potential markets in Asia today. Its abundant amount of human resources and cheap labor has been considerable attractions for international investors since the country recovered from its economic crisis.Nevertheless, the country is recorded to have several issues that might hamper international investment toward local markets. First, in terms of governmental policies, the country is still enacting several import and export restrictions to protect local consumers and to ensure that local necessities are fulfilled before forei gn investors could take a share of the market. This could mean higher tariffs, longer bureaucracy, etc. Second, the country has a unique set of culture.Cultural analysts and foreign managers operating in local markets described the country as being comfortable in doing things their own way and refuse to have it challenged (Forrest, 2001). The importance of physical presence of superiors, the lack appreciation toward punctuality and the respect for age and seniority is several of many things that must be learned about Indonesian culture before entering local markets. Learning informal business etiquettes are often as important as learning formal ones, or sometimes more important.For example, there is a significant cultural practice in Indonesia when commonly, Indonesian managers tend to hire their relatives and friends regardless their competences. This situation is inappropriate for Australian or American companies since they consider it as nepotism (Dowling & De Cieri, 1989). III. 2. Japanese Firms Entering US Markets In the case of Japan companies’ expansion to US markets, the case lies in condition of US’ business environment. Most US consumers prefer national products rather than foreign ones. This creates significant challenges for Japanese companies targeting US markets.Some Japan companies perform large marketing effort to facilitate their presence in US local markets. However, as mentioned previously, some of these efforts did not work as planned. Locals could still easily take control of the market share. This is identified as the barrier of reputation. The study of Japanese companies who enters US market revealed that some Japan companies chose collaboration with local brands in order to win local preferences rather than performing endless marketing campaigns that could have weak effects (Chen, 2003).Concerning the decision making, for example, Japanese managers tend explore the roots of problem before making a particular decision. In c ontrast, American managers are likely to adopt straightforward approach (judgmental behavior) that is much efficient than Japanese approach but less effective. Following link, inform the practice of Japanese culture in terms of big typhoon etc (http://www. brovision. com/) and http://www. mccombs. utexas. edu/research/ciber/executivevideotapes. asp. sssIn foreign countries, for instances, Japanese companies like Toyota and Honda that realize their HR practices are unacceptable by non-Japanese culture may come up with an unfortunate solution by hiring employees under distinct employment categories that lack of job security (Hersey, 1972). III. 3. United States and China In the recent case of United State’s commerce department and the government of China, another foreign trade issues caused by local business environment appear. US Department of Commerce’s assistant secretary stated that China has been using technical regulations as a barrier of trade barriers.This is don e by imposing certain quality standards that would effectively band certain products from entering the Chinese local markets. US department of commerce are currently fighting to oppose this type of trade barriers using diplomatic means (‘United States’, 2005). Bibliography Chen, Shih-Fen. Zeng Ming. 2003. ‘Japanese Investor’s Choice of Acquisition vs Startup in the US: The Role of Reputation Barriers and Advertising Outlays’. International Journal of Research in Marketing. Retrieved February 14, 2007 from brandeis. edu/ibs/faculty_publications/chen/japanese_acquisitions.pdf Dowling, P. J. , Welch, D. E. & De Cieri, H. 1989, ‘International joint ventures: a new challenge for human management’, Proceedings of the fifteenth conference of the European international business association. Helsinki, December, 1989 Forrest, W. , Bidgood, M. 2001. Cultural Aspects of Business. American Indonesia Chamber of Commerce. www. aiccusa. org Fiedler, Fre d E. 1965. Engineer the Job to Fit the Manager. Harvard Business Review. Vol. 43 Hersey, Paul. Blanchard, Kenneth H. 1972. Management of Organization Behavior. New Jersey: Prentic- Hall Inc. Kenna, Peggy.Sondra, Lacy. 1994. Business Japan: A Practical Guide to Understanding Japanese Business Culture. McGraw-Hill Khan, Asim. 2005. Business Management Inc. Retrieved February 14, 2007 from www. themanager. org/strategy/Deciding_to_Go_International. pdf ‘United States Combating Use of Standards as Trade Barriers’. 2005. US INFO. STATE. GOV. Retrieved February 14, 2007 from http://usinfo. state. gov/xarchives/display. html? p=washfile-english&y=2005&m=May&x=20050513162339ajesroM0. 5901605&t=livefeeds/wf-latest. html Zacharakis, Andrew. 1996. Academy of Management Executive. 10(4): 109-110.

Immigration to the United States Essay

What reasons motivate people to immigrate to the United States? We know that most newcomers leave behind poverty and unemployment in their homelands in search of better fortunes in America. However, research on this subject suggest that the causes of immigration are often more complex and numerous than most assume. The capacity of natural disasters, environmental crises, overpopulation, wars, and civil unrest to uproot and set in motion millions of people around the globe and refugee and asylum policies that extend relief to some non-citizens fleeing political, ethnic, religious, and gender persecution. This is but a short list of the different reasons to mass immigration to the United States today. Evaluating the causes of U.S. immigration can reveal a great deal about recent immigrants, their homelands, and America’s image abroad. Daniel Tichenor from the Rutgers University states in his essay U.S.A. Immigration, â€Å"The story of the American people is a story of immigration and diversity.† Each immigrant in this country has a different reason of why he or she came to the  United States. Throughout the years the reasons change for the new immigrants; according to the American Immigration Web Page, â€Å"from 1607-1830 the major reasons were political freedom, religious tolerance, economic opportunity, people wanting a better life, better job, more money and some were forced to leave because of slavery.† There are two types of motivation for immigration â€Å"push† and â€Å"pull† factors. According to Daniel Tichenor, push factor is â€Å"the need to leave in order to survive.† Push factor is the case of the people that was mentioned before, the people that have to leave their country for political freedom, religious tolerance, and the slavery. An example of this is the case of Turkey, Morocco, Egypt, and Senegal. â€Å"These countries involve men looking for a job education, and escaping from persecution, and over a period the process is followed by family reunification migration and family formation migration†Ã‚  (push and pull factors of International Migration web page). Pull factor is when the people are attracted for what they could have in other country, like economic opportunity, better opportunity of to get a career, they want a better life. It is the case of Mexico. When Mexicans immigrants came to the United States; they are looking for better economic life. The difference between the dollar and the peso (Mexican coin) is too much, one dollar in the actuality are around eleven pesos with fifty cents, so Mexican men came to the U.S.A. to get a job, and they usually send the money they earn to their families in Mexico. In some of the cases after a few years, they bring all their family to the U.S.A. for family reunification. In some cases people have both â€Å"pull† and â€Å"push† motivations to immigrate to the United States; it is the case of Cubans. Cubans come to the United States for political freedom, escaping from Fidel Castro, and looking for a better life and more economic opportunities. As we can see, both â€Å"pull† and â€Å"push† factors in most of the cases end with the same phrase â€Å"family reunification.† Everyone who goes to other country looking for freedom or a better life need more than that, they need a family who share all the good things with, but someone who wants to live in the United States needs a citizenship or at least a residency to do it. Some of the countries have more facilities than others to get the necessary documents to live in the U.S.A. For example, for Cuba it is easier than for other countries to get the residency. â€Å"Until 1985, there was no quota for Cubans entering the United States via normal immigration procedures as there was for other immigrant groups.† In the past, both documented and undocumented Cubans who came to the U.S.A. were welcome, â€Å"Cuban undocumented entrants have always had special status, while entrants from other countries have been required to demonstrate that they were fleeing political persecution to be granted refugee status.† It is known for all around the  world that Cuba has very strong political problems, and this is the reason of why they have this special status, since 1996 â€Å"the Attorney General has had discretionary power to guarantee permanent residency to any Cuban who has been in the United States for a year, including those on visitor’s visas who have overstayed the period delineated in their  visas.† (All quotes are from the Web Page, Cubans have a very strong sense of cultural identity.) For other countries it is more difficult to get the U.S.A. residency, for example the case of Mexico. In the past if a child had been born in the United States, the parents become U.S.A. citizens as same as the child. Over the years this rule changed, in the actuality there are just two ways to become a citizen for the Mexicans, the firs one is that you by yourself submit the application to the U.S.A. embassy, and wait until all the process is ready and they’ll call you for the interview, they the people who works in the embassy, check all your status, and if you cover all the requirements they will give you the U.S.A. residency. The second way is that someone of your family, and it has to be a parent or a brother, send to the embassy a request that say that they want you to be in the country, after this it is the same process than the first one, but you have more opportunity to be accept because one member of your family is requiring you to be in the country. Only after 5 yea rs you can apply for the citizenship. A problem that new generations could find is the lost of traditions. For example in the past, the children of immigrants learned English, but they didn’t learn their parents’ first language. But this problem could be resolve; recently, Americans have placed greater value on diversity, ethnic groups having renewing and celebrating their heritage, and the children of immigrants often growing up being bilingual. The United States has welcomed more immigrants than any other country, more than 50 million in all, and still admits between 500,000 to 1 million  persons a year. Although for some countries is too difficult to be legally in the United States, more  people want to come, and it is good for the country, because we need this people, they are the labors, the workers, important people. It is the people who make the difference in the country. Work Cited Page. Tichenor, Daniel J. U.S.A. Immigration, Rutgers University, February, 2000. (Immigration Web page.) NIDI/EUROSTAT. Push and pull Factor of International Migration, Eurostat. May, 2000 (Push and Pull factors web page.) Cubans have a very strong sense of cultural identity. Cuban Immigration to the United States. February 18, 2004 (Web Page of Cuban Immigration, the date shown is the last day the page was updated.)

Mockingbirds Life Styles

A child in 1930's Alabama had a life much different than the life of a child growing up in today's modern society. As opposed to today's standards, education was less civilized. Their home life was not as privileged or as entertaining, and their place in society was much more trivial, and planned out. The lifestyles of a 1930's Alabama youth were much different than today's modern child. In Harper Lee's Novel To Kill A Mockingbird, three youths struggle to grow up in post depression Maycomb, Alabama. Their school is, by today's standards, much less evolved. Not only were special needs not embraced, they were ignored. Whereas today's society has no problems adapting education so that everybody could learn. There were less career options for children as well. We live in a time where the idea is â€Å"You can be whatever you set your mind to.† However, the slogan 70 years ago was more like â€Å"You will be what we want you to be, and when we want you to be it, but only if you're white.† Luckily, education criteria have changed since then, as well as home life and society. Home life in the novel is very foreign to us. First of all, we don't have a cook or servant unless we are very wealthy. The Finch's had Calpurnia to fix their meals. There was more of a family closeness attitude back then too, whereas today families are often split up, and kids can become less and less attached to their families. Independence is a common denominator in both time periods. Rites of passage again, were another similarity in both time periods. Children had a very limited role in society back in post-depression Alabama. They hadn't much of a say in what they were going to be, nor their activities, opinions, or much else in life. When Jem and Scout passed by Mrs. DuBose's house, they were to be proper and polite when she was rude to them, where in today's society, there is a possibility that the youth could be rude, and suffer no consequences. Hence, life for a youth in 1930's had a different lifestyle than young people today. Education was not as systematic, home and family life was dramatically foreign, and they had a trivial place in society. Times have changed since then, and they will in the coming years.

Interview with Xiaochu of BenMo Public Relations Essay

Interview with Xiaochu of BenMo Public Relations - Essay Example Since I participated so actively in society, I was able to get a good idea of what society wants. I noticed that most PR companies did not seem to really be providing what the public actally wanted, they didn’t have that knowledge of the Chinese people that was necessary to make a true connection. Most of those foreign PR companies saw the potential in our country of almost 1.6 billion people and most of the time, and my idea was to adapt their professionalism and experience to provide a PR experience and service that was specifically tailored for our country .† Everyone knows PR. What we need here is something â€Å"by the people for the people† so to speak. I wanted to create a widespread, quintessentially Chinese central network, where a central figure was available whom the public could relate to and have access to. â€Å" I want my company to grow like a big tree and now, I am the seed. We have a long way to go.† X: You know, I have never really seen money as my main goal in any of the work that I have done or that I am doing. As I started my business, I never really bothered about how much money I made on an individual job, the only consideration I would bear in mind is how large a segment of the public I was able to gain access to, through my PR work. My theory was, â€Å"the bigger you get, the more jobs you get and the money will come naturally.† X: Well I have always believed in the strength of the word of mouth kind of advertising. â€Å"â€Å" Clients are our number 1 strategy in promotion of the BenMo. Word-of-mouth plays a central role of great influence, and clients are more likely to trust a friend or family member’s recommendation as opposed to an advertisement. X: Well, I would say the secret is knowledge of the media. As an ancient Chinese proverb says, you have to â€Å"know the inches† – in other words, deliver only the news you can support

Security, Privacy and Ethical Issues in Information Systems Essay

Security, Privacy and Ethical Issues in Information Systems - Essay Example Whenever a user travels the cyberspace, (s)he leaves his/her identity at almost every step of the way (Privacy Rights Clearing House, 2006). Whether one is signing up for internet service with Internet Service Provider (ISP), sending emails, browsing internet sites, or using a search engine to locate required information, the identity of the machine is being shared, and it can be misused by someone masquerading as someone else (Webliminal.com, 2007). There is a growing concern about the security of personal and private information over the internet and web-based applications; spy-ware, viruses, worms, trojans and information leakage through social engineering are all evils generated one way or the other by the internet. In addition, many businesses gather and store personal information of the potentially new and existing customers in their systems which give rise to privacy and information security issues. When anyone attempts to make a payment online using credit cards and other ins truments, the security and confidentiality of the transaction is perhaps, the biggest concern. As a result, the consumers' trust in the web-based applications has declined. ... Several techniques have been developed to ensure the security of private information over the internet and to mitigate the risk of personal information misuse. A formal security policy governs the management's ideology, direction and operating procedures towards ensuring security and privacy of information. Many organizations now employ encryption mechanism like Secure Socket Layer (SSL) for transmission security and Digital Certificates to ensure non-repudiation and third-party assurance in the form of digital certificate (Newmann, 2003). Several privacy laws and regulations have been developed to regain customers' trust in e-commerce systems and online information sharing. The most accepted standard for ensuring information security and privacy is the British Standard Institute (BSI) guidelines called ISO27001 Information Security Management Systems. This standard deals with the applying adequate controls to ensure confidentiality, availability, and integrity of information; and pr otection of legal, privacy and security rights of the customers. Other regulations include copyright infringement laws and related policies that address the issues of information theft. 1.4 Computer Ethics In addition to security and privacy laws and regulations, companies also adopt information ethical standards to strengthen their systems of internal controls. An ethical problem can be defined as the argument with regard to one's values, in selecting one of the two paths based on the pressure and demands of a situation (Charlesworth Sewry, 2002, p.163).  

EU Environmental Law - Carbon Emissions and Sustainable cement & Essay

EU Environmental Law - Carbon Emissions and Sustainable cement & concrete - Essay Example Accordingly, some 70 percent of EU-27’s cement kilns were commissioned. Today, EU27 has about 270 cement plants and 380 kilns. Their production capacities vary from between 200 to several thousands of metric tons per day. Dry process kilns supply about 90 percent of the cement production in Europe, while the remaining is manufactured in semi-wet and semi-dry kilns. According to Rootzà ©n (2012), over the last decade, the yearly production of cement has remained between 230 and 270 metric tons. Rootzà ©n (2012) however argues that this was except for 2009 when the industry was affected by the economic depression in Europe, dropping by over 20 percent in the fiscal year 2007/2009. In addition, internal cement trade by the EU countries have relatively been limited, even as concerns have been raised on competition from countries with little carbon emission control measures and policies such as those in North Africa. Most EU cement producing countries operate on a global level and regard the United States as their major trading partner. Other top destinations include Thailand, China and Philippines. Dependent on the demand of the building materials such as cement, the industry is a major source of direct employment in the manufacturing processes and in the building and construction sector. This means that environmental concerns are important in the cement sector. Studies indicate that output in this industry has dramatically risen in the last decade by over 23 percent. For instance, the total metric tons of cement produced in the EU were over 267.1 million in 2006, with a value of about â‚ ¬ 19 billion. The output rose to 272 million tons the following year, representing nearly 0.5 percent of total value added, and about 0.25 percent of employment in the industry. It is thus perceivable that cement demand is cyclical and majorly depends on the building requirements. It is also worth noting th at employment has been on the