Category: Uncategorized

Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE)

NameInstitution

The FIRE (Foundation for Individual Rights in Education) is a non-profit making organization that was founded by 1999 in the United States. The organization focused on the civil liberties mainly in academic and learning institutions in the United States. The primary goal of FIRE is “to sustain and defend individual rights and freedoms at America’s universities and colleges,” including individual rights to “legal equality, religious liberty, sanctity of one’s conscience- an essential individual dignity and liberty quality, freedom to speech, and due process” ( HYPERLINK “http://www.thefire.org/index.php/article/123.html” Columbia University Unable to Defend Policy in Public, 2001). America’s universities and colleges are theoretically described as the institutions that are essential in developing critical and intellectual minds and furthering of core liberty values, legal equality, and protection of individual rights and freedoms. Unfortunately, these learning institutions have become the barriers to these fundamental pursuits and qualities by denying the faculty and students their voices, individual humanity, and their fundamental rights and freedoms as constitutionally granted. The universities and colleges therefore advocate for legal inequality, political indoctrination, and assaults to moral reality orthodoxies ( HYPERLINK “http://www.thefire.org/index.php/article/123.html” Columbia University Unable to Defend Policy in Public, 2001). The illiberal universities and colleges’ practices and policies must therefore be abolished and exposed to the public scrutiny and criticism in order to create awareness among the public on the violations of students’ basic rights and freedoms that have become common practices in these institutions of higher learning in the United States. After receiving a number of pleas for help and communications from students who were victims of illiberal institutional policies and practices that violated the students’ rights and intruded on their private consciences, Harvey Silverglate (civil-liberties legal expert at Cambridge) and Alan Charles Kros (University of Pennsylvania professor) founded FIRE to respond to these violations and to help in cultural transformation (Sarabyn, 2008).

FIRE decisively and effectively defends the American liberties particularly on behalf of the faculty members and university students who are often oppressed with the rigid institutional policies that limit their freedoms and basic rights. FIRE therefore comes in a legal body that fights against these institutional policies that infringe on the rights of its members. FIRE is responsible for bringing about favorable and desired resolutions for these groups of students and university teaching staff who are challenged by institutions, universities and colleges’ policies that deny them their liberties and fundamental rights ( HYPERLINK “http://www.thefire.org/index.php/article/123.html” Columbia University Unable to Defend Policy in Public, 2001). Besides working for individuals, this non-profit making organization, FIRE, nationally works to create public awareness on the liberty fates in the higher learning institutions in the U.S. FIRE primary responsibility is the protection of fundamental rights of students and teaching staff both at the university and college institutions (Sarabyn, 2008). In so doing, FIRE focuses on four main areas: freedom of association and religious liberty, freedom of expression and speech, legal equality and due process on campus, and freedom of conscience. Therefore, FIRE primary goal is to bring to an end debilitating fatalism in the institutions of higher education that paralyzes the faculty and the student body through the provision of legal protection to the helpless victims of such abuses and by exposing to the public these issues surrounding violations of fundamental rights of the faculty staff and students (Sarabyn, 2008). This has been achieved by criticizing the university and college administrators whose activities and principles, in the view of FIRE, constitutes violation of due process rights and freedoms or free speech of the university and college students and the faculty team as outlined under the HYPERLINK “http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fourteenth_Amendment_to_the_United_States_Constitution” o “Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution” Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution.

References

” HYPERLINK “http://www.thefire.org/index.php/article/123.html” Columbia University Unable to Defend Policy in Public”, Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, Press Release, March 13, 2001. Accessed October 31, 2013.

Sarabyn, K. (2008). HYPERLINK “http://www.thefire.org/index.php/article/9041.html” “Yale Caves into Its Women’s Center’s Speech-Repressing Demands”. Foundation for Individual Rights in Education. Retrieved 2008-03-25.

Student’s name

Name of lecturer

Course Number

Date of assignment

Foundational Knowledge

My goal for foundational knowledge was to gain insight about how an international student, who has made a big change of life by deciding to study abroad, can be able to adapt to the new environment and learn. Dr. Flink is of the opinion that for one to build a good foundation for learning he or she must be able to understand and remember the ideas and information they receive. This really helped me as I had to learn the language of the country I had gone to study in given that my language was different from theirs. The main achievement that I gained at this stage was the ability to learn and use the foreign language effectively as this was the basis for all my education. All the classes are offered in this language. I also had to understand the culture of the people in my new environment in order to blend well with them.

Application and integration

My objective here was to improve my language and cultural skills and come up with effective ways of using the knowledge I obtained at the foundational stage to better my learning environment in my new school. In the course of measuring the application process, I evaluated the things I mostly needed to review, how I could review them and the accompanying consequences of my intended changes. To continue applying my new learned language, I had to keep on speaking and make sure that there was someone who could correct me, when I went wrong. I also had close relations with the native people in order to get to understand their culture better. Instead of getting discouraged at my failure to adapt to the new culture and language, I took it in stride, and used it as an avenue to better understanding. Through the integration of the skills I had previously attained at my home country and the ones I was learning here, I was able to form a cordial relationship between myself and the other students. I had also to manage may time very well so that I could get some extra time to catch up with my leaning.

Human dimension

My objective in the human dimension of learning was the rethink how my relationship with the other students had been in the past. Of emphasis, will be how these relationships I had developed would benefit both me and the other people around me in school. I will also consider the fate of these relationships in future whether they will remain to be strong or they will fade with time. From the information acquired here, I will be able to understand the dynamics of having to deal with people of diverse cultures, and how we can blend perfectly to avoid any confrontations on personality grounds. Iam also able to understand that the best way to navigate away from personal differences is to make sure that you air your views in a way that everybody will understand and appreciate you. This will form the right and strong basis on which one ban move forward successfully.

Caring

From the beginning when I embarked on the journey of education, my main aim was to get education that will help me better the lives of my people in my native land. Being a girl that came from a society that puts less emphasis on girl’s education, my main aim will be to advocate for change in this area having experienced different cultures and languages while at school. I wanted to experience education in new cultures and language so that I can have a feel of what other cultures and people feel about the different cultures. This will help me come up with appropriate and efficient ways of managing education in my home country. I care more about making commitments to this change and I greatly feel that I owe it to my country men who have given me the opportunity to go out and learn and eventually bring change that will make their lives better

Learning How to Learn

One of the most important attributes of learning is to understand how to learn. For one to understand how to learn, there are several things that one has to be involved in. First, the person must be able to participate actively in the learning process. Secondly, they should be able to reflect on what they have been taught. Lastly, the person must be able to embrace the change that has been brought about by the education. By actively interacting with the classmates and being able to understand the Dr Fink’s approach to learning, I have learnedsomething. The completion of this project is also a good indicator that i am learning to learn. This is because initially I could not use this language, but through leaning I have been able to tackle this assignment with great success. Through this I can be able to tackle other assignments, that I initially could not tackle.

Foundations of Behavior 

One interesting perspective of psychology that ardently offers an explanation to the foundation of behavior is the evolutionary psychology. This idea gave an explanation to varying psychological traits as adaptation responses to natural selection. The perspective of evolutionary psychology has a merging point with evolutionary biology where both have a related view of physiological mechanisms such as the immune system and other aspects like perception or language (Crawford and Krebs 1998). Thus, evolved psychological mechanisms are based on the idea that cognition has a functional structure similar to that of immune systems, lungs and hearts which have by proximity evolved through the process of natural selection. The evolutionary psychology can be looked at in giving explanation to behavior on the level of a particular individual or particular specie level (Krill, 2007). The categories that play a major role in determination of the functional structure the individual or the specific species are: the adaptation which the behavior serves, the phylogeny which gave birth to the adaptation, the ontogeny or the development of the individual and lastly the proximate mechanism.

Evolutionary psychology sprouted from (among other disciplines) cognitive psychology in the sense that each of the two disciplines offer explanations to the cognition of the individual behavior. The insight of the evolutionary psychology is based on the very foundation of the evolution of behavior through cognition which interact to give explain the behavior of individuals or species (Krill, 2007). The cultural inputs that individuals or species use to produce specific behaviors through the cognitive psychology nevertheless lead us to an idea that does not concur with the notion that the human mental faculties are universal-purpose learning mechanisms.

Reference List:

Crawford, B. C., and Krebs D., L. (1998) “Evolutionary Psychology: Ideas, Issues, and Applications” Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum,

Krill, L., A., (2007). “Evolutionary Psychology” <http://www.epjournal.net/filestore/EP05232256.pdf.>

Foundations Of English Law And European Law

Introduction

The end of strong parliamentary majorities era demonstrated in the general election of may 2010 in Britain and adoption of a coalition system of Government should surely be welcomed. The dominance of the political process in parliamentary law making was clearly inadequate for producing well structured and effective laws for England and Wales as is demonstrated by the poor quality of the legislation produced. With both Labour and conservatives gaining similar strengths in the parliamentary elections, it become impossible to determine who among the two principals i.e. conservative leader and the Labour leader should become the Prime Minister. In Britain, the parliament particularly the House of Commons is the body responsible for making laws that govern the land. However, before any bill becomes a law it has to pass through several stages.

In parliament terms, Parliament (2010) puts that “a bill is a proposal for a new law or a proposal to change an existing law presented for debate before parliament”. After the introduction of the bill in parliament, it goes through three stages; first reading, second reading which is divided into two again i.e. committee stage and report stage and then the last stage which is third reading.

At the first reading, there is little that is done to the bill since the bill is read out and is then published. It then proceeds to the second stage where by Members of Parliament debate the main principles contained in the bill. The opposition parties give their opinions on the bill and it is then decided upon by voting. If the majority likes the bill, it proceeds to the next stage. At this point, the parliamentary process of making law have some inadequacies since bills that are produced by the government who in most cases have the majority in the house have an easy task of swaying the vote in their favour without necessarily examining the bill thoroughly and making necessary amendments to it. This always leads to the passage of bills that have some lope holes.

It is at this point that the coalition system of government is welcomed since there is no one single side of the house that can easily sway the direction of the bill. This therefore calls for thorough analysis and necessary amendments before a bill can get the acknowledgement of the majority at this stage. This therefore provides for a good platform for making sound legislations for the land.

In addition, the government bills are in most cases timetabled after they have passed through the second reading. With the coalition government in place, it will be healthy for formulation of sound bills since each side will have to scrutinize the bills that are introduced with the other partner before they are agreed upon as the government. It is healthy since within the coalition government itself; there exist checks and balances which is good in crafting of sound legislations for the country.

However, to this point it is also important to note that with the adoption of a coalition government, the opposition in the house was weakened and therefore the critical role that the opposition is supposed to play is not being accomplished. This is likely to impair the quality of laws that are enacted in parliament. For example, in parliament, there are days that are spared for the opposition to question the government. Since two major political parties are in a joint government, there will be weak opposition that will be in a position to positively critique the government on its legislations and other matters of accountability.

There exist inadequacies in the composition and function of the House of Commons. A house of common with a more “balanced mix of parties might become powerful in relation to government and undesirable in development …as a strong parliament might as well assist in making government more open, accountable and effective”. One party government has in most cases been less accountable and less effective.

The composition of the House of Commons gives an opportunity for people from diverse social groups to hold public offices. The house of commons also gives a representation of diverse groups. However, in most cases, the decisions made and crafted in the House of Commons are determined by the party with the majority in the house. With the UK traditions and constitution, the party with the majority in the house usually forms the government. In relation to this, legislations and bills that belong to the sitting government usually gets their easy way as their majority party members support their enactment in parliament. This has in most cases led to enactment of poor legislations that fail to stand the test of time as they are only meant to serve the interests of the sitting government.

However, following the May 2010 elections where major parties gained similar strengths in the House of Commons, bills and legislations meant to serve specific party and government interests at the time will be avoided. This gives some hope of enactment and passage of laws that put the country first and which are free from partisan interests.

The House of Commons have four major functions under its mandate. The first function is the prime political forum. This provides for the platform where views are exchanged between the government side and the opposition. In relation to this function, in a situation where one party has the majority of members in the house, there is no constructive exchange of ideas since the ruling party only passes their view and in most cases it leads to a ruling party dictatorial style of leadership in parliament.

The second function of the House of Commons is to make legislations. The sole source of legislation in United Kingdom is the parliament. Most of these legislations are usually initiated by the government and the house of commons is only left with the role to deliberate on them. It is therefore important to note that with the government having the majority in the house, the contribution of the opposition to the bill is usually minimal and in most cases therefore, laws are passed in the house which are not good enough. However, the only remedy for this state of affair is the coalition government where by a government bill will be exhaustively deliberated on the government side before being forward to the House of Commons.

The third function for the House of Commons is to scrutinize administration and policies. This entails scrutinizing the government administration and its policies. This is an important function since the house acts as a check and balance to the government. However, with the ruling party having the majority in the house, this function is usually put in jeopardy as most members in the ruling party put their party interests first.

The final important function of the House of Commons is redress of grievances Page. All members of House of Commons are representatives of a certain group of people; they therefore represent the concern of their constituents to the government. It has been a long tradition that the government prioritizes these grievances but higher priorities goes to those that are allied to the ruling party. However, with the coalition government in place, all major parties are part of the government therefore discrimination will not be exhibited. This will force the government to be dealing with matters according to their weight and not as per the political affiliation as was the case in one party government.

It is also important to note that inadequacy in the law making emanates from the process MPs are elected. Elections are held when parliament is dissolved, following the dissolution, every seat in the House of Commons becomes vacant and a general election is held where by each consistency in the UK is supposed to elect one Member of Parliament. However, for one to vie for this seat in house of commons, one has to be allied to one of the political party in UK. Despite one having his own policies and agendas for his constituency and the country at large, one is obliged to abide by the policies of the party sponsoring him or her. For example, when the bills of the party are brought to the floor of the house, the M.P. is required to support them irrespective to the personal principles that one holds. This compromises the standards of law enacted by the parliament as they are not directed by the personal judgment of each law maker but the group ideology in their party which may be for the partisan interests and not for the better of the country at large

Therefore, there exist several changes that need to be instituted to the parliamentary and the political system as a whole. With the formation of a coalition government, the two coalition partners “resolved to put a motion before the House of Commons stating the next general election on the first Thursday of May 2015…this legislation will also provide for dissolution if 55% or more of the house votes in favour”. Since no side of the government did not have vast majority, this meant that there is no side that can walk out of the government at will and that all parties should be committed in the government issues until the end of the five years.

The coalition government also agreed to bring forth a referendum bill that will tackle the electoral reform in the country. The reforms include allowing voters to petition an MP who is not performing in parliament and force a bye election. This kind of reforms will be highly welcomed if the coalition government can whip their members to support the idea. This will make sure that the MPs deliver during the five stipulated period of time. In doing so, it will be beneficial both to the constituents and to the country at large since we will have committed Members of Parliament.

Basing on the inadequacies of law s made from the current law making process in parliament, it is paramount that the general public be involved in the parliamentary process. This will help in ensuring that all major laws made in parliament have a popular view from the general public. It will also guard against passage of legislations that are only in the interest of the political party with the majority in the house.

In addition, the current procedure of timetabling business in the house is opaque since it takes place between chief whips. In most cases, these chief whips are representatives of major political parties and therefore, they prioritize the interests of their parties. Reformation should be done in the legislation process to ensure that before the bill is timetabled, it is scrutinized by independent select committee which should incorporate members of the minority parties so as to remove the partisan interests.

In conclusion, the British law that the party with the majority of the seats in parliament should proceed to form the government has been widely criticized and has failed to properly work well in practice. This law led to a constitutional crisis where by the informal arrangement had to be arrived at to make a coalition government. It is therefore proper that this part of legislation be revised to cover other political eventualities so that another constitutional crisis does not arise again.

Bibliography

Hansard Society, ‘Promoting Democracy: Strengthening Parliament’ HYPERLINK “http://www.hansardsociety.org.uk/” http://www.hansardsociety.org.uk/ accessed 5 January 2011.

Parliament, ‘Passage of a Bill’ HYPERLINK “http://www.parliament.uk/about/how/laws/passage-bill/” http://www.parliament.uk/about/how/laws/passage-bill/ accessed 4 January 2011.

S Weiver and D Beetham, Political Power and Democratic Control in Britain (Routledge, London 1999)

Cases

AC Page, M.P.s and the redress of grievance [1985] Public Law 1

Foundations of Psychology

Name

Institution

Foundations of Psychology

Introduction

Psychology is an academic discipline that deals with the study of mental processes and human behavior. It tends to explain the principles and factors that influence the behavior of individuals. Initially, psychologists defined psychology as a science that was different from philosophy and biology. However, psychologists have come up with theories that give a deeper meaning to psychology. Many schools of thought explain the foundations of psychology. The schools of psychology represent the main theories of psychology. Each theory has its own propositions, but it is common for most psychologists to combine several theories in their arguments. New theories are mostly critics or advancements of previous theories. This essay looks at the major schools of thought in psychology and their assumptions. It will also explain the biological foundations of psychology linked to behavior.

Major schools of thought in psychology

The earliest schools of thought that are the foundations of psychology are structuralism and functionalism. These are the theories that explained psychology when it was founded. However, psychologists have been advancing and criticizing these classical schools of thought to come up with modern or improved schools of thought.

Structuralism

Structuralism is the earliest school of thought in psychology. Its main interest was to establish psychology as an independent science. This school focused on understanding the mental processes of the mind besides the five senses in order to understand the structure of the mind. Its focus was breaking down the mental process into distinct stages and elements through an analysis of experiences and perception. This school applied the scientific theory of introspection, which involves having a detailed analysis of something and then drawing conclusions based on conscience and experiences. The main assumption of this school of thought is that two individuals will have the same perception on an occurrence or a thing. This assumption is the basis of criticism that psychologists and other parties have leveled against structuralism. Perception depends on an individual, and it is wrong to assume that different people will have the same perception of thing.

Functionalism

This school invests in the limitations of the structuralism theory. It acknowledges that consciousness and perception keep on changing thereby challenging any efforts to study the structure of the mind. The founders of this school of thought argued that the only way of understanding the mind was through the study of its functions. The main assumption of this school is that the brain functions lead to adaptation to a certain environment. Unlike the structuralism theory, which concentrated on defining psychology as an independent science, the functionalism theory concentrated on the application of psychology in solving real problems. Functionalism depends on introspection despite its limitations. Therefore, the two classical theories have received criticism on their ability to explain psychology.

Primary biological foundations of psychology linked to behavior

The limitations of the above school of thoughts influenced psychologists in coming up with other modernized thoughts about psychology. These modern schools of thoughts towards psychology include behaviorism, psychodynamic perspective, cognitive perspective, humanistic perspective and gestalt perspective among others. These theories have one thing in common. All of them try to explain the behavior of different behaviors. Therefore, they are the biological foundations of explaining behavior in philosophy. The new schools of thought are able to propose their ideas through an analysis of the weaknesses and limitations of the classical schools. However, most of them concentrate on understanding human behaviors by looking at the biological foundations of psychology.

Behaviorism

Behaviorism suggests that the environment influences the behavior of human beings. It suggests that the internal structures of the brain and the human body have no effect on behavior. This theory uses animals as experiments of natural science. Its main assumption is that human beings will display the same features of behavior. The theory argues that the environment has some events (stimuli), which trigger behaviors seen in people (responses). Different scientists used this theory to develop their work. For instance, Charles Darwin used this school of thought to study the adaptation of animals to their environment (Westen & Kowalski, 2011).

Psychodynamic perspective

Sigmund Freud developed this school of thought. He noted the three elements of the human mind, which are the id, the ego and the superego. The id determines the urges to a behavioral pattern; the ego determines personality and reality while the superego is a collection of values and attitudes that man borrows from parents and culture. According to Freud, the three factors interact with each other and influence human behavior. Thus, the school of thought stresses the effect of the unconscious mind in determining human behavior. Individuals are not aware of the factors that influence their behavior because they cannot control the factors.

Cognitive perspective

This school of thought uses the limitations of behaviorism in its arguments. Behaviorism does not outline the role of internal functions and processes in influencing human behavior. This school examines how people think and how they perceive and remember what they learn. The school of thought examines how people perceive and process information in understanding how the brain works. However, cognitive psychology has many similarities with behaviorism. The two schools highlight the importance of the environment in determining and influencing the behavior of human beings.

Evolutionary perspective and biopsychology

Evolutionary perspective foundation of philosophy suggests that the ability of humans to perceive and respond to certain issues in the environment is a result of evolution over time. The school of thought explains how evolution helps in passing adaptive characteristics from parents to their offsprings (Westen & Kowalski, 2011). Different scientists used this theory to explain the process of evolution and heredity. The theory highlights the effect of the environment in influencing behavior just like the behaviorist perspective. Biopsychology school of thought uses the nervous system in explaining human behavior. This foundation of human behavior analyzes the limits of the brain in determining psychological functions. The school uses the example of an individual with a brain injury to show the relationship between the brain and the cognitive functions of the body.

Conclusion

The essay has outlined the main schools of thought in psychology and the basic assumptions that the theories use in their arguments. Structuralism and functionalism are the earliest theories that explain the foundations of psychology. The focus of these theories was to distinguish between psychology and other sciences. For example, the structuralism school of thought explains the difference between psychology and biology (Westen & Kowalski, 2011, p. 6). The essay has also examined the interplay of different schools of thought and their effects on human behavior. Different schools of thought lay the biological foundations of understanding human behavior. Different schools of thought of psychology focus on giving their meaning of psychology while sidelining others. However, they do not achieve this because in the end all of them narrow to the same understanding of psychology.

The combination of all schools of thought leads to new perspectives of understanding psychology, for example, the clinical and physiological perspectives. The physiological perspective focuses on the effects of the brain on behavior and the how effects of behavior on the brain. The clinical perspective is a combination of several schools of thought aimed at diversifying the field of psychology. The schools of thought are mostly the foundation of explaining human behavior. Individuals portray different characteristics due to factors that the schools of thought highlight. For instance, the environment and adaptation determines the behavior of individuals. Human beings have different ways of perceiving and understanding certain aspects and things in life. Different views of reality and the ability of individuals to make their own choices influences their behavior.

References

Westen, D., & Kowalski, R. (2011). Psychology. Chichester: John Wiley and Sons Ltd.

Foreign Countries interest in SMEs in UAE

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Affiliation

Many countries in the East amid other foreign nations are working hard to ensure that they are in accordance with UAE laws and other regulations as they try to meet their needs of becoming one of the SMEs partners. The countries reasons as to why they are going forth for this endeavors vary from country to country. Therefore for the essence of this paper, there will be an analysis of the main reasons as to why the country is expecting or has got many proposals for help in SMEs investment in the country.

One of the reasons as to why foreign countries are investing heavily or are on the eve of coming to UAE to invest in SMEs is that they are looking for business ventures that exist in the country. The country is currently at its peak of economic success hence their exist room of development as compared to their homes countries that exploited this business opportunity before.

The other reason is that other nations are seeking international relationship with UAE so that they could be able to benefit from the oil and gas industry that is the heart of UAE. The last reason based on the article is that the UAE have very advanced strategies that call for real time tourism industry, therefore an exchange of SMEs ideas will have an exchange of tourism strategies.

For this reason, the article offers a business overview and well as the potentials of UAE SME industry.

Reference

http://gulfnews.com/business/general/countries-abroad-seek-stronger-sme-ties-with-uae-1.1234685

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Formalism paper about Raphael paintings

This paper goes back into history and evaluates Raphael’s paintings through exploring their formalism. The formalism of Raphael’s paintings will be evaluated in this paper through contrasting their perception, structure, visual characteristics and their style.

All of Raphael’s paintings were in his sense of form where it was evident in his generation of human terms for divine truths. His earliest paintings were of traditional subjects; a marriage of the virgin, an altar piece of Tolentino’s St. Nicholas, the virgin’s coronation and a crucifixion. He painted them under Perugino’s strong influence for as a 50 year old man he had matured in his powers and his great crucifixion was in Sta. His 1496 painting in Florence of Maria Maddalena Dei Pazzi portrays his art at its best. These figures were bathed in space, and the landscape ahead of them had a splendid sense of distance thus creating the forms of line, quality, color and shape. They exhibited little passion or emotion. A somber placidity engulfs them which render a restrained meditation not of the distress of the cross (Boase 907).

This kind of quietism that was common to Francia’s followers in Bologna and to Perugino’s school which deeply impacted Raphael. He mutually partook of this withdrawal, the uninterested depiction of the sacred themes, the Umbrian recess before the full revulsion of Northern incursions broke into Italy. In 1503 the year he painted his own crucifixion he had not been in Florence yet. He had thus not perceived Perugino’s furthermost depiction of the subject; however, he was already proficient in his master’s style. He uses the same balanced design, the same mannered figures and the same distant landscape creating the forms of line, quality, color and shape (Boase 908).

Raphael never painted the crucifixion again. He never attempted action and violence scenes. The subject that preoccupied him for five years was about the child and the virgin. His treatment of this theme implied his believes in the incarnation doctrine. In some paintings he emphasized on the virgin’s humanity. Where the virgin acts as the medium through which the word becomes flesh and dwells amongst humanity. In other instances Raphael presents her as the Epiphany Virgin who presented her child to be adored by the world. In other paintings he presents her in form of the Virgin Mediatrix who because of her mother hood becomes the greatest mankind intercessor (Boase 909).

In the Madonna Della Sedia painting Raphael included a tondo form which he often applied to in order to project a final statement in this painting. Typical of him, he used drawings in the Albertina to enable his audiences to perceive his mind at work. He initially designed it as a rectangle, where the mother and her child formed a triangle, solidly founded on the virgin’s hand that rested on a book which lied on the table ahead of her. This was Raphael’s instance of firmly anchoring his figures, which he built internally through the opposing leanings of the two heads. This original design appears more satisfactory in comparison to the one he converted into a tondo. Something about its certainty is not clear; however, the creativity of its adaptation is substantial. In this particular painting Raphael makes the child more upright, his body is made to form a curve that is completed by the virgin’s bending arm. The tree branches also bend in compassion. It is this creative use of line, quality, color and shape to come up with ingenious forms that endears the audience to his works (Boase 912).

The creativity by which Raphael clad abstract ideas into forms of beauty and life is portrayed better in his Pythagorean picture. Pythagoras is pictured writing his discoveries in numbers and harmony while seated. The oriental figure that peers over his shoulder represents the impact of the East’s mysticism over his thinking. The boy that holds several diagrams before his master symbolizes the hope that the apparent nature’s complexity is just as uncomplicated as a child’s arithmetic. The mechanisms and spirit that typify learning and teaching at its finest are beautifully exemplified in the line, quality, color and shape (form) of the picture thus giving it its contemporary name the school of Athens (Watson 12).

Conclusion

Raphael had a great borrowing for academic motifs; he inexorably shared in the contempt of academic art. However, he managed to retain by virtue of all fluctuations of sophisticated taste; his deep rooted popularity amongst simpler minds. The Madonna Della Sedia and the Sistine Madonna which have been regenerated a record countless times in various inappropriate media are images that are so entrenched in both protestant and catholic Christianity that no dynamic aesthetics can dislodge them as religious symbols. After doing many religious themes he graduated into painting people as was the case with Pythagoras. His paintings captured all formalism elements. In all his works people can identify with forms such as line, quality, color and shape.

Works Cited

Boase T. S. R. Twenty First Century enlightenment, Journal of the Royal Society of Arts Vol. 110. (1962): 907-912. Print.

Watson E.C. Science in Art, Raphael’s School of Athens. Prentice Hall: London. (2010): 12. Print.

Foreign Direct Investment

Name:

College:

Foreign Direct Investment

1.0 Introduction

Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) simply refers to the process whereby a company in one country invests in another country. It involves movement of capital across borders and is characterized by ownership and control (Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development, 2002, p. 55). Companies engaging in FDI build production factories in foreign countries but which are under control and supervision of headquarters in one nation, usually, the parent country. This paper discusses the underlying reasons for undertaking FDI and examines its benefits and costs to both the home and host nations. The paper also examines the welfare impacts of FDI on both home and host countries.

2.0 Underlying Reasons for FDI

There are numerous reasons as to why companies undertake FDI. One major reason is to secure access to raw materials in a foreign nation, a process known as vertical FDI (Hess, 2008, p. 73). Vertical FDI enables a company to secure market in a foreign nation, which is a second reason for engaging in FDI. Another reason for engaging in vertical FDI is to avoid entry barriers such as tariffs and quotas which are levied on importers.

Horizontal FDI is the other form of FDI and it occurs when a company invests in the same industry in another nation (Hess, 2008, p. 73). One of the reasons why companies engage in horizontal FDI is to cut down various costs such as transportation costs, tariffs as well as costs related to risk of losing knowhow. Another major reason for engaging in horizontal FDI is to avoid trade barriers placed by host country.

Apart from the above reasons, companies engage in FDI to avoid harsh or unfavorable regulations in the home country and to enjoy incentives which may be present for industries in the host nation (Hess, 2008, p. 9). Also, companies engage in FDI to cope with situation where the production of a product switches from the exporting to importing country. Risk diversification, where a company mixes a wide variety of investments in different countries is another common reason for FDI. Finally, as John Dunning explained in the eclectic paradigm theory, companies often engage in FDI to exploit a mix Ownership, location and Internationalisation advantages in the host country.

3.0 Benefits, costs and disadvantages of FDI to host and home countries

3.1 The benefits to host countries:

Benefits to host country

Increased aggregate output

Increased employment

Increased revenue from taxation

Realization of economies of scale,

Increased exports leading to improvement of Balance of Payments, especially when FDI is in exports sector

Importation of new technology and also technical and managerial skills

Increased competition, thereby encouraging free market competition

3.2 Costs to host countries:

Loss of jobs in the domestic market

Loss of tax revenues

3.3 Disadvantages to host countries

Sometimes, FDI undermines technological superiority of home countries

Companies may avoid adhering to domestic monetary policies as they access international capital market

3.4 Benefits to home countries

Will enjoy returns on investment

Improvement Gross National Product

3.5 Costs to home countries

Loss of domestic jobs

Loss of tax revenue

3.6 Disadvantages to home countries

Undermining the technological superiority of home countries,

Circumvent domestic monetary policies by their access to international capital market (Hess, 2008, p. 7)

4.0 The welfare impacts of capital movement for both investing and host countries

One remarkable impact of FDI is that it helps to increase income of the host country (Faeth, 2010, p. 201). As expressed in Vernon’s Product cycle hypothesis, when a company invests in a foreign nation and locates its production process in that country, the host country turns switches from importing to exporting. This helps to boost the economic welfare of the host nation. However, (Faeth, 2010, p. 201) noted that when FDI is import substituting, productive efficiency in the host country may not be achieved. In such a case, the economic welfare of the host country is likely to deteriorate.

The impact of FDI on the investor country depends on various factors including the extent of utilization of investing firm’s resources, the climate of industrial relations in the host nation, the existence of relaxed or restrictive practices and the quality of manpower (Faeth, 2010, p. 201). If all these conditions are favorable, the investor will achieve productivity efficiency and higher returns and hence, enjoy welfare gains. If both the host and the investor countries achieve economic growth, the result will be an increase in overall world output. The following diagram describes the interaction between capital stocks of an investing and host countries and the value that this has on productivity and welfare:

Welfare impact of FDI

5.0 Summary

In summary, FDI is a process whereby a company invests in a foreign nation. There are numerous reasons as to why companies undertake FDI including to gain access to raw materials, access to markets, to avoid entry barriers to host nation, to cut costs, to avoid regulations in the home country, to take advantage of various incentives in the host nation, to avoid risk diversification and to avoid trade barriers. As noted in the paper, there are numerous benefits, costs and disadvantages that are experienced by both the host and home countries during FDI. Under favorable conditions, FDI can help to improve income of both host and investor countries and the result will be an improvement in overall economic welfare.

References

Hess, M. L. (2008), Doorways to Development: Foreign Direct Investment Policies in

Developing Countries, ProQuest, Washington DC

Faeth, I., (2010), Foreign Direct Investment in Australia: Determinants and Consequences, UoM

Custom Book Centre, Sydney

Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development (2002), Foreign Direct Investment

and the Environment: Lessons from the Mining Sector, OECD Publishing, New York

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Formalism Paper about Raphael’s School Of Athens Painting

This paper goes back into history and evaluates Raphael’s School of Athens painting through exploring its formalism. The formalism of this painting will be evaluated in this paper through contrasting its perception, structure, visual characteristics, and style. The school of Athens was a fresco painting because it was done in sections on fresh plaster. It is highlighted in one of the Stanza della Segnatura rooms’ wall in the Vatican palace that had been identified to accommodate the papal Library. Raphael employed the fresco technique to bring out form in this painting.

The fresco technique entailed the preparation of a cartoon in the preliminary stages. Upon drawing the cartoon, the section of the wall that is readied for the painting is covered with wet plaster. The design’s outline is then transferred onto the fresh plaster through pressing dry pigment on the cartoon’s perforations. Upon getting this outline, an artist can then paint the picture’s full design. The pigments are physically integrated into the plaster after it dries. This ensures that the fresco becomes stable for centuries (Haas 8).

Raphael’s School of Athens painting brought life into the Library collection through his imagined scene of the outstanding Greek philosophers in actions like conversing, thinking, and writing. He used faces of renowned classical statutes and in other figures, he employed models of his own contemporaries. Through the creative use of line, quality, color, and shape, Raphael managed to come with an outstanding form. The picture contained about 60 individuals, but he still combined them in a befitting, harmonious, and clear design. This brought out the dignity and classic significance of this form (Haas 8).

Plato is at the picture’s center and is seen gesturing at his ideals in heaven and Aristotle who gestures to the actual world on the earth. Since each of the two men is pictured with one of their famous books, their identities are not ambiguous. However, the most significant part of this picture is that Raphael has creatively captured the fundamental nature of the two outstanding men’s philosophies in instantaneously readable forms through their gestures. The picture then smartly divides into two where Aristotle and his perceived group of realists are on the right while Plato with his perceived idealists is seen on the left (Haas 9).

Socrates is depicted on the left of Plato prolifically arguing with his disciples who included Alcibiades, Phaedo, and Crito. Epicurus, the arch-epicurean, is perceived to be at the lower left leaning on the marble block. He has a satisfied grin on his chubby face and is clad in a crown of fig leaves. Next to this is the Pope’s Librarian whose portrait was finished by fine oil portrait. On the rear left of the picture is Pythagoras whose little disciple is seen holding a mystic formulae and diagramming musical intervals (Haas 9).

The creativity by which Raphael clad abstract ideas into forms of beauty and life is portrayed better in his Pythagorean picture. Pythagoras is pictured writing his discoveries in numbers and harmony while seated. The oriental figure that peers over his shoulder represents the impact of the East’s mysticism over his thinking. The boy that holds several diagrams before his master symbolizes the hope that the apparent nature’s complexity is just as uncomplicated as a child’s arithmetic. The mechanisms and spirit that typify learning and teaching at its finest are beautifully exemplified in the line, quality, color and shape (form) of the picture thus giving it its contemporary name the school of Athens (Watson 12).

The lawgiver Solon is pictured standing secluded at the top far right swathed in his thoughts and cloak. Two painters enter from the far right corner; Raphael’s face is depicted as the left one who is perceived to be asking if the audience like his painting. Apart from the painters, two astronomers, Strabo and Ptolemy, are pictured holding the sky and earth globes. Finally, the person standing next to them is Euclid, who demonstrates a geometric edifice to his captivated disciples. Arches in Raphael’s paintings are typified by half circles through which he brings out form (Haas 10).

All the four walls in the Stanza della Segnatura contain Raphael’s decorations of fresco paintings. Directly opposite the School of Athens wall is a wall containing a religious fresco christened La Disputa. It depicts the Eucharist celebrated by saints and popes on earth, and biblical characters in the heavens as well as God in the trinity. The stanza fresco, which Raphael uses to ingeniously create this painting, forms a unified program. The incredible Greek thinkers in the Athens school generate optimum truths obtainable only through intellect. This truth then emerges as fulfilled and completed in faith on the opposite wall. This entirety incredibly portrays Raphael’s ingenuity to bring forth complex forms into pictured life (Haas 11).

Conclusion

Raphael had a great borrowing for academic motifs; he inexorably shared in the contempt of academic art. However, he managed to retain by virtue of all fluctuations of sophisticated taste; his deep-rooted popularity amongst simpler minds. After developing many religious themes, he graduated into painting people as is the case in the school of Athens painting. In the school of Athens painting, Raphael captured all formalism elements. In this painting people can identify with forms such as line, quality, color, and shape.

Works Cited

Haas, Robert. Raphael’s School of Athens: A theorem in a Painting. Journal of humanistic mathematics. Vol 2, No 2, July 2012: 8-11. Print.

Watson E.C. Science in Art, Raphael’s School of Athens. Prentice Hall: London. (2010): 12. Print.



Foreign Direct Investment and Economic Growth

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October 19th, 2013.

Does Direct Foreign Investment speed up economic growth?

It is no doubt that foreign direct investment (FDI) especially in developing world has consistently gone up since the 1980s. Many economies have gone up to offer attractive tax incentives with a calculated aim of netting more foreign cash flow into their countries. However, what remains to be ascertained is, does FDI spur economic growth in a recipient country? Could there be other factors that must be prevalent in a given economy for it to realize positive economic transformation as a result of FDI? Theoretical; literature and empirical has provided divergent and pessimistic predictions as pertains to the implications of direct foreign investment in a given country. The economic justification for the issuance of attractive tax incentives to penitential foreign investors is always informed by the mere belief that FDI comes with beneficial economic growth stimulants like; technological advancements, highly trained and skilled personnel together with a different and unique approach to production matters. There is a strong possibility that the aforementioned, together with other factors can spur economic growth in an economy (Rommer 1993). However, some literature professes otherwise. Four instance, Breacher (1983) and Boyd and Smith (1999) gives a pessimistic prediction that growth effects of FDI will always be dictated by the already prevalent factors within the recipient country.

Firm-level research that has been conducted in some countries has shown that there is no tangible evidence that direct foreign investment has boosted the economic status of a given country.  For example, Hamson (1999) did not locate any serious positive implication of DFI on the recipient country’s economy-Venezuela. In fact, according to other researchers, like Germidis (1977) who notes that, direct foreign investment can be a source of other crude business practices like black market in an economy. 

FDI may not necessarily spur economic growth in a country perhaps due to a number of factors. 

One of the downfalls of FDI is profit repatriation. Levine, Loayza and Beck (2000) argue that number of studies have demonstrated how multi-national organizations, in collusion with corrupt officials have always circumvented legal loopholes to repatriate profits instead of re-ingesting in the recipient country. In such cases, it can be argued that, an organization can heavily invest in an economy. However, the most pertinent question is who will be benefiting from this investment. Therefore, to mitigate this, there ought proper policy frameworks to guide the stakeholders on what ought to be done.

In other instances is when foreign investors, after realizing that the terms of their tax incentives accorded to them is ending, they just pack their things and leave for other countries where they are likely to be offered the same tax incentives. In all these cases, the statistics are there to support capital flow to an economy yet the economy of these countries remains just the same or little growth can be noted.

According to Levine, Loayza; and T Beck (2000) the culture of impunity, corruption and other crude practices can also be other factors that can impede economic transformation as a result of direct foreign investment in a given country. These elements are very pronounced especially in developing world. Take an example of a country that has heavily attracted foreign investment but sadly ridden with corrupt tendencies. The foreign investor may have every intention of not only reaping profits but also positively transforming the economy of the recipient country. However, such noble undertakings of the investor may be overshadowed by the deep rooted corrupt tendencies in the country. In such case, will the investor be held liable as to why that specific country has not experienced economic growth?

The success of direct foreign investment on the economic growth of a country can also be dictated by political events in that particular economy. It is a bit unfathomable that some economies, especially sub-Saharan Africa economies like the Democratic Republic of Congo and others, have continued to lag behind economically yet they keep on receiving heavy direct foreign investment in form of cash flow. In such cases, the effects of FDI is always diluted and down played by issues like coups and counter coups, secessions attempts and other aspects that can compromise the security. Therefore, political developments in an economy can play an integral role in the determination of an economic growth path of a country and that direct foreign investment in a country does not guarantee economic success especially when political stability is elusive. Therefore, economies that are in anticipation of tapping FDI so as develop economically ought to ensure that strong institutions are in place so that FDI can contribute towards economic transformation of an economy and without which, FDI will remain a statistics and not an economic growth stimulant.

Studies have demonstrated that direct foreign investment will have a positive impact on an economy that has higher levels of human capital (Brecher 1983). This is because of the fact that this human capital will be vital in tapping and exploiting the technological advantages that are associated with direct foreign investment.

DFI when perceived from an international business setting will have some implications on the international financial management. Basically, international financial management entails the practice of carrying out trade that involves countries from different geographical areas. These effects in most cases will depend on the volume of foreign investment that is to be invested in a given economy. For instance, if the amount of foreign capital that is being invested in a given country is higher, the effect will be that, the business transaction that is involved in this case will be high and chances are that the profit margins will be high. Therefore, through this, it can be noted that increased capital in form of DFI will affect the international financial management in a positive way. However, when foreign investment is low, the implication will be that, there will be decreased international business meaning that even the profit margins will have to shrink. it is important that DFI is encouraged and it’s complementarities put in place so as to stimulate international financial transactions.

In summary, direct foreign investment especially in the developing world has been going up especially since the 1980s. These upward trends can be attributed to charm offensive measures that have been consistently adopted by respective governments so as to attract maximum direct foreign investments into their economies. These measures are always informed by a belief that FDI comes together with positive packages like; technological advancements, highly skilled manpower and unique approaches towards production matters that can be very beneficial in accelerating the economic growth of a country. Though many microeconomic studies have painted a dull and pessimistic picture of the real effects of direct foreign investment on an economy however, other studies have suggested otherwise.

Finally, after many statistical challenges have been overcome, it is clearly demonstrated FDI inflows critically depend on other prevalent factors like; political stability ethical behaviors and other factors for them to radically and positively transform the economies of the recipient countries

References

Brecher, R., 1983, “Second-Best Policy for International Trade and Investment,” Journal of

International Economics, 14, 313-320.

Levine, R.; N. Loayza; and T. Beck, 2000, “Financial Intermediation and Growth: Causality and

Causes,” Journal of Monetary Economics, 46, pp. 31-77

Romer, P., 1993, Idea gaps and object gaps in economic development. Journal of Monetary Economics 32, No.3.December.