Introduction to Business Law and Ethics

Introduction to Business Law and Ethics Susana Silvestri Grand Canyon University BUS-340 October 17, 2010 Introduction to Business Law and Ethics Statutory interpretation was critical to the Supreme Court of Colorado’s resolution of a 2007 case, Pringle v. Valdez. Using an online source or sources, locate the Pringle decision. Then do the following: 1. Read Justice Bender’s majority opinion and prepare a case brief of the sort described in this chapter’s appendix on â€Å"Reading and Briefing Cases. 2. Read the dissenting opinion authored by Justice Coats. Then prepare a one-page essay that (a) summarizes the principal arguments made in the dissenting opinion; (b) sets forth your view on which analysis—the majority opinion’s or the dissenting opinion’s—is better; and (c) Provide the reasons for the view you have expressed in (b). 1. Case Briefing Pringle v. Valdez 06SC92 (2007) Court: Supreme Court Class: Civil Facts: Pringle lost con trol of the vehicle while taking Valdez home.Valdez was not wearing his seatbelt causing a series of injuries when ejected of the vehicle. Valdez requested compensation for impairment and disfigurement, and noneconomic losses. The argument lays on the â€Å"Noneconomic losses† which might fall under the â€Å"pain and suffering† under the seatbelt defense. Issue: The wording used involving â€Å"pain and suffering† and â€Å"noneconomic damages† referred to in the Seatbelt defense provision Holding: Awarding of $400,000 for physical disfigurement and impairment. Rule:The wording in dispute â€Å"pain and suffering† and â€Å"noneconomic damages† will be further evaluated. Analysis: â€Å"Pain and Suffering† and â€Å"noneconomic damages† are many times considered to be similar and by studying the demand of the case it can be ruled as been the same but using a different name. Conclusion: Non-award of $100,000 for noneconomic dam ages. Award of $400,00 for physical impairment and disfigurement. Pringle v. Valdez is obviously at first a case of Majority Opinion which in an appeal court was turned into a dissenting opinion.Part of the case held while the other was discussed, studied and adjust for an accurate ruling, in order to explain and grant a decision by the jurors and the judge according with the Statutory Interpretation of the case. Mallor, J. P. , Barnes, A. J. , Bowers, T. & Langvardt, A. W. , 2010, p. 24 http://www. courts. state. co. us/Courts/Supreme_Court/opinions/2006/06SC92. pdf Jerrie Gray worked at a Tyson Foods plant where she was exposed to comments, gestures, and physical contact that, she alleged, constituted sexual harassment.Tyson disputed the allegation, arguing that the behavior was not unwelcome, that the complained about conduct was not based on sex, that the conduct did not affect a term, condition, or privilege of employment, and that proper remedial action was taken in response t o any complaint by Gray of sexual harassment. During the trial in federal court, a witness for Gray repeatedly volunteered inadmissible testimony that the judge had to tell the jury to disregard. At one point, upon an objection from the defendant’s counsel, the witness asked, â€Å"May I say something here? The judge told her she could not. Finally, after the jury left the courtroom, the witness had an angry outburst that continued into the hallway, in view of some of the jurors. The jury awarded Gray $185,000 in compensatory and $800,000 in punitive damages. Tyson believed that it should not have been liable, that the awards of damages were excessive and unsupported by evidence, and that the inadmissible evidence and improper conduct had tainted the proceedings. What courses of action may Tyson pursue? Tyson Foods entered a trial in a Federal Court after a sexual harassment case was filed.Tyson Foods follow protocol and tried to solve the issue ahead of time. During trial t he witness continued to make comments that were dismissed which were then awarded based on comments made after the hearing was completed and the company was liable to pay almost $1,000,000. 00. Based on Tyson Foods believes they should appeal the Federal Court decision due to the fact that the claims were unsupported by evidence. Also they should add the fact that the inadmissible evidence and improper conduct of the witness had tainted the proceedings issuing an unfair ruling.You own a consulting firm with 32 employees and annual billings of $29,000,000. One of your clients, whom you bill an average of $1,200,000 annually, has asked you to hire her grandson. You know that the grandson has been recently graduated from a top-20 business school. He is 31 years old, has a solid academic record, and possesses the personal and professional skills to be successful as a consultant. You also know, however, that he is a recovering cocaine addict, having struggled with the addiction for five years prior to his attending business school.Your firm has a strict no-drugs policy, which you usually interpret to exclude those who previously abused drugs. Using justice theory, justify a decision to exempt the grandson from your firm’s no-drugs policy. Could you make the same decision as a profit maximizer? This decision can doors to law suits for discrimination to previous applicants which applications had been denied. On the other hand, the company has the risk to loose a good client. As owner, I will first make sure to read, examine and adjust any clause related to hiring and the no-drugs policy. The words â€Å"recovering† and â€Å"recovered† are different.Hiring someone in the recovering stage, the company is breaking the no-drugs policy. If adjustments are made to the policy to accommodate applicants from this point on that are â€Å"recovering† or â€Å"recovered† drug addicts, it will be to implementing random drug tests weekly. This w ill be costly to the firm but will guarantee the no-drug policy to remain unbroken; the potential new employee must agree to this practice and the consequences based on the results. Justice Theory is based on â€Å"the protection of those who are least advantaged in society† (Mallor, J. P. , Barnes, A. J. , Bowers, T. & Langvardt, A. W. , 2010, p. 5), making changes and adjusting the policy will fall under this category. Giving a second chance to those in disadvantage in society. Maximizer â€Å"requires a decision maker to maximize a business’s long-run profits within the limits of the law†(Mallor, J. P. , Barnes, A. J. , Bowers, T. & Langvardt, A. W. , 2010, p. 95) if this potential employee is capable to obey the policy and continue a successful recovery it could mean a win-win situation. You are assigned by your employer, Jay-Mart Corporation, an international discount retailer, to supervise the construction of ten new retail superstores in Shanghai, China.A ll construction is being done by a Chinese-owned contractor in compliance with Ja to those iny-Mart’s construction standards. After an earthquake in China kills over 70,000 people, China’s legislature passes a statute requiring new buildings to have a greater ability to withstand a large earthquake. The Chinese contractor has approached you and suggested that the new Chinese construction standards are unnecessarily high, that Jay-Mart’s construction standards are sufficient to protect against any earthquake likely to occur, and that the cost of complying with the new Chinese construction standards will increase construction costs 20 percent.What do you do if you believe that ethical behavior requires you to maximize Jay-Mart’s profits? A â€Å"profit maximization results in ethical conduct because it requires society’s members to act within the constraints of the law. A profit maximizer, therefore, acts ethically by complying with society’s mores as expressed in its laws. † (2) (Mallor, J. P. , Barnes, A. J. , Bowers, T. & Langvardt, A. W. , 2010, p. 7) With this in mind the supervisor of the construction site, the decision has to be made were the company’s profit could be reduced to 20% due to the increase of the construction. This change should be shown to the company’s finance department. The profits at short term could be affected by going with the construction based on the laws standards. By actually continue with the original plan the company could be liable to law suits if another natural disaster occur and the construction standards were not followed, this could affect the long run profits of the company.There are many ways to cut expenses; one that could be proposed can be to build 8 stores instead of the 10 originally proposed, this will absorbed the 20% increase to maintain the project under the stipulated budget without affecting the short term profit.References Mallor, J. P. , Barnes, A. J. , Bowers, T. & Langvardt, A. W. (2010). Business Law (14th ed. ). Boston, MA: McGraw-Hill Irwin http://www. courts. state. co. us/Courts/Supreme_Court/opinions/2006/06SC92. pdf (Retrieved October 12, 2010)

Punctuation error in your writing. Essay

Making mistakes in subject-verb agreement has always been my weakness when it comes to the grammar of my writing. I keep on doing the same grammatical lapses again and again. There are several rules regarding subject-verb agreement, of course, and being ignorant of one or two of them is forgivable, but what is unforgivable if you know the rule and yet continue to make the same mistake. The simple rule which I keep slipping n is the agreement of subject and verb in terms of number, especially in a present tense sentence. The rule states that when the subject is singular, the verb should also be singular. Inversely, when the subject is plural, the verb should also be plural. The difference between a singular and a plural verb is one letter â€Å"s† and oftentimes I would omit, usually unknowingly or by carelessness, putting that one letter. I have tried to correct the bad habit by being more conscious about my writing, during and after writing. While writing and every time I am to write an action word, I would constantly remind myself to look back to the subject of the verb. During revision of what I wrote, I would run through the entire piece with the one purpose of looking for subject-verb agreement mistakes. I would check for errors in punctuation, spelling, and style during the first revision, but focus on subject-verb agreement on the second run-through.

Plato Republic Discussion Question

In platos republic, book VI, platos tells the story of Allegory of the cave. This story tells of what plato believes true education is. First plato tells what education is not. â€Å"Education isn’t what some people declare it to be, namly, putting knowledge into souls that lack it, like putting sight into blind eyes†(518b) then plato describes what he thinks education is. â€Å"Then education is the craft concerned with doing this very thing, this turning around, and with how the soul can most easily and effectively be made to do it.It isn’t the craft of putting sight into the soul. Education takes for granted that sight is there but that it isn’t turned the right way or looking where it ought to look, and it tries to redirect it appropriately. † (518d)I believe in the story, the effect on one who goes into education is that he possesses the spiritual enlightenment of the form of the good. Education is up to man himself and can only learn to a cert ain limit. In the sensible realm, the lowest on the list is the shadows, imagers, and reflections.In the story the prisoners can only see the shadows and nothing else. This effects their soul because they are only limited to that and the soul has nothing to grow upon. Education is like the metaphor of the sun, being able to see clearly and in reality. I think platos view of education is sensible to me. I understand how plato is explaining how the shadows and darkness is like being limited and unless you find the light you will not be successful. Once you find the light it will help you to get away from the shadows and be able to â€Å"see† more clearly.

Critical Assessment Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Critical Assessment - Essay Example From an engineer who is deeply worried about climate change, it is easy to judge that such as from this article will never take place and feeding our atmosphere with sulfuric acid is way off the scale of "achievable" to be a fraction of a significant discourse on reversing or slowing even climate change. Someone would anticipate for much better writing than this in an article written by three professors from Cambridge Center, Carnegie Mellon University and Harvard University. I could not help but marvel whether this article was hurriedly brought to press in response to a number of the references in the article such as Barker et al. (2007), Blackstock et al. (2009), Robock (2008), Royal Society (2009), and Nordhaus (2008), which were all significant publications concerning this topic of climate change. All this books which the article referenced gave revealing arguments against climate engineering/geoengineering and the authors made them clearly, movingly, persuasively, and without ty pos, unlike McClellan, Keith & Apt (2012). This article fails to make the point that a majority of geoengineerings vocal supporters only have a financial concern in the field. There is tons of cash to be made in this field if the idea of geoengineering finally takes off. McClellan, Keith & Apt (2012) fail to acknowledge they indeed do have such a financial concern in a firm working on eliminating carbon dioxide from the environment, but then they brush that aside through saying their financial concern is not in solar-radiation managing, which is the center of this article. I would opt to read a thoughtful article by any scholar with no financial concern in climate engineering in any way. The authors are obviously charmed with the lost cost, easiness of tunability and implementation of SRM. However, there is modest discussion of the diverse

Information Security analysis Dissertation Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 21750 words

Information Security analysis - Dissertation Example The researcher states that of the 124 organizations involved in the present study, majority are public sector organizations from the education sector with a size of more than 1000 employees which have been in operation for more than three decades. Majority of the organizations have IT departments and employs at least one person knowledgeable about information security. Majority of the IT department staff in the respective organizations hold bachelor degrees, working in non-technical tasks, and whose working experience in the IT field is in the range of one to five years. The knowledge level of employees working with information security in the respective organizations is neutral (neither poor nor good) broken down as follows: security management, neither poor nor good; access control, neither poor nor good; cryptography, poor; security models and architecture, neither poor nor good; telecommunications and networking, good; applications and system development, neither poor nor good; b usiness continuity, neither poor nor good; law investigations and ethics, neither poor nor good; physical security, neither poor nor good; and operations security, neither poor nor good. Given that the knowledge level of IT staff among the organization is mediocre (not poor, but not good either), majority of them either have no plans to acquire certifications in security or have plans but specified no definite time frame. As to information security, majority of the 124 organizations do not apply any information security standards and this majority is undecided whether or not to apply InfoSec standards in the future. ... 5 Health Services 10 8.1 8.1 72.6 Food & Agriculture 4 3.2 3.2 75.8 Transportation 4 3.2 3.2 79.0 Electricity 3 2.4 2.4 81.5 Water 3 2.4 2.4 83.9 Foreign Affairs Sector 1 .8 .8 84.7 Labour Sector 2 1.6 1.6 86.3 Tourism 4 3.2 3.2 89.5 Social Affairs Sector 4 3.2 3.2 92.7 Justice Sector 2 1.6 1.6 94.4 Islamic Affairs Sector 2 1.6 1.6 96.0 Media Sector 5 4.0 4.0 100.0 Total 124 100.0 100.0 As shown in Table 2, organizations from the education, military, trading and contracting, and banking and finance sectors represent 23.4%, 10.5%, 10.5%, and 8.9% of the total number organizations considered in the study, respectively. Cumulatively, the aforementioned figures represent 53.3% of the total. The Embassy of Switzerland (2011) identified the following major sectors in Saudi Arabia: oil and gas, financial services, engineering and construction, medical equipment and healthcare, insurance, transport, electrical power systems, water resources equipment, telecommunication, food and beverage, an d education. Table 3 shows the frequency and percentage distribution of the 124 organization when they are grouped with respect to size. The organizations were categorized into five groups: 1 to 50 employees, 51 to 100 employees, 101 to 500 employees, 501 to 1000 employees, and more than 1000 employees. Table 3. Distribution of organizations according to size. Size of your organization Frequency Percent Valid Percent Cumulative Percent Valid 1 - 50 Employees 17 13.7 13.7 13.7 51 – 100 Employees 25 20.2 20.2 33.9 101 – 500 Employees 27 21.8 21.8 55.6 501 - 1000 Employees 11 8.9 8.9 64.5 More than 1000 Employees 44 35.5 35.5 100.0 Total 124 100.0 100.0 It may be gleaned from Table 3 that 44 out of 124 organizations or more than one third of the organizations considered in the present

Buckingham palace Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Buckingham palace - Essay Example Later on, when it became the Queen’s House, thousands of people worked accumulatively over time on what it is today. Brickwork was the main method used to built most of the faà §ade of the palace. This grand architectural masterpiece is mainly built with red bricks with stone details. Some of the facades of the palace are made out of different kinds of limestones. Most of the interior design of the residence uses lapis and scagliola, but has since been partly redesigned with a gold color scheme. Today, it has a total of more than seven hundred rooms, twenty state rooms, fifty royal and guest bedrooms, two-hundred staff bedrooms, ninety offices and about eighty restrooms. All in all, there’s a total of approximately a thousand rooms and it was in 1883 when electricity was first put there, with over 40,000 lightbulbs and installations. Represeting a great deal of baroque style and design, it firmly stands today as a true architectural

Functions of modern management Article Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Functions of modern management - Article Example Hence, it could be noted that leaders are never born. Instead, they are made. The skills and the attitudes towards work that the present leaders of the current human society have is what make them prominent enough to be known by others through their leadership capabilities. Naturally, a leader then is expected to address to the outmost important needs of the people that he governs upon. Political as it may seem, as a leader is someone people would look up to, he has to have the capability of understanding and providing what other people need. Yes, through the picture of leadership outlined herein, it could be concluded that becoming a real leader requires effort and enough determination not only to succeed as an individual but also to succeed as a part of a growing and developing society. In the field of business, leadership is an essential part of business continuum. Once the owner, the acting leader, the appointed president of the business organization has the right attitude of a person who could govern over others, then the existence of a particular business organization could be prolonged. ... The main problem that would be addressed in this study is the "effectiveness of leadership approaches towards the different types of business organizations present within the society today". By addressing to this issue, this study is expected to come up with a refined result of study that would be guiding the present leaders towards a more productive process of organizing their business constituents. 1.2 Purpose of the Study The primary reason for the commencement of this study is to: Overcome the different issues that relate leadership with the current demands of organizations from several business leaders. Discover what part of business leadership needs improvement for the sake of organizational progress. Refine the current understanding of the essence of fine leadership towards business organizations. 1.3 Significance of the Study As mentioned earlier, leadership is one of the primary factors that determine the success of present business organizations. Through this study, the people who are directly affected and are involved within the progressive procedures that are suggested herein could actually relate to the study as it does apply to their own field of career. 1.4 Research Questions To specifically address the issues involved in the topic being discussed, the following questions shall be considered within the text that follows: 1. Who are managers and what are their major roles in business organizations' 2. How are managers supposed to face the challenge of creating policies for the people of their organization' 3. How should ethical practices of manager affect the activity of managers that is related to policy making' These questions shall be utilized by the author of this paper as a primary guideline for the structure of the

Seasory Perceptions Term Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Seasory Perceptions - Term Paper Example The nature has laid down this error free network of neurons in such a way that there is no reason left why we should not believe in the accuracy of our sensory perceptions. (2) The law of size constancy is another reason why sensory information is always correct. Even if the visual angle of the object changes, its size as perceived by our sense of sight always remains the same. Visual angle is the size of that inverted image that is formed on the retina of the eye by the light reflected from the object. This perception of an object size even after a change in its visual angle is accurate enough even in an infant of a few weeks. (3) Human ear is able to perceive sounds that are as deep as 16 cycles per second and as high in pitch as 28,000 cycles per second. â€Å"Some people have "perfect pitch", which is the ability to map a tone precisely on the musical scale without reference to an external standard† (Zamora, 2006). This makes us believe that sensory perception is very accu rate. Factors contributing to the accuracy of sensory data The biggest factor that contributes to the accuracy of the sensory data is Nature itself. Nature has provided man with best and perfect tools like eye for sight, nose for smell, ears for hearing, tongue to taste, and fingers and skin to sense touch. These tools and their senses are so perfect that nobody can dare to challenge the accuracy of these. There is nothing compatible to Nature. Other factors that contribute to the accuracy of sensory data perception involve genetics obviously. Genes tend to pass on traits from one generation to the next. It is seen that individuals are different from each other because of their genetic makeup granted to them by their parents. Some can perceive information in a better way than others. This is because their genetic traits carry such information in them that help those individuals to perceive and think in a better way. Also, the accuracy of sensory data depends upon the correctness of sensory organs too. If there is a fault in the eye like â€Å"certain corneal injuries† (Miller, 2006, p.54), the vision is disturbed. If an ear is faulty, hearing is affected. This is the case with all the senses. Thus, the accuracy of sensory information also depends on the accuracy of the sensory organs. Roles of â€Å"nature† and â€Å"nurture† in the interpretation and evaluation of sensory data Sleeper and Chudler (2007, p.14) assert that â€Å"nature refers to skills humans are born with, and nurture refers to skills humans learn.† Every human being has some inborn or hereditary qualities that are passed over to him through genes; but, there are a lot of other qualities that he learns over time through knowledge and experience. Some researchers support the argument that nature is responsible for the makeup of an individual’s behavioral patterns which help him perceive, interpret and analyze sensory data. Opponents of this approach argue that this interpretation of sensory information has nothing to do with genes because a human being and his sensory perception of knowledge can be modified into whatever kind the nurturer wants him to grow into. We believe that both perspectives are correct. As stated earlier, genes tend to gift a person such traits that help him to use his sensory organs in the best way. Also, a person’s sensory interpretation can be improved through artificial ways like training sessions,

Probability Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Probability - Essay Example The word probability originated form the Latin word probare that means informal. It means that is there is nothing certain and exact associated with an event, and that happenings are uncertain and there are probabilities that are associated with them. Probability can be defined as the study that is concerned with locating certainty in uncertain events. Probability is known as the method of weighing evidence and opinion about uncertain and complex environment. Christiaan Huygens is supposed to be the first person to treat probability with scientific principles to provide a more refined form of the term in the year of 1657. There are several functions of probabilities. Distributions are considered one of them. These functions are used to assign the possible and probable events to the entire series of the events. There are several types of distribution too, that is continuous and discrete distribution. Probabilities distribution can be categorized into two classes: discrete and continuo us. There are many ways to divide probability up in an equal and proportionate manner but the best possible method is to use the probability density function (Fadyen, 2003). Development in this field is taking place continuously and rapidly. The world is changing as never before due to technologies, and these technologies are dramatically affecting the speed and complexity of probability calculations. Computers and spreadsheets are just two important examples of this shift. The major gains in communication complexity and speed have also played an important role. And this is apositive aspect because the development in the field of statistical data analysis is often caused by advancement in the other fields in which the various methods of statistical data analysis are productively applied. Probability is a statistical technique which is used for analyzing the situations that are confined by random events. For quantitative analysis of many human activities, which generally

How do you think magic makes itself felt in contemporary life Essay

How do you think magic makes itself felt in contemporary life - Essay Example But how can we truly say that a certain situation or feeling is truly magic Like in the movies, one seems to be cast on a spell as we hold our breaths and take in every scene and make it our own. We can see the story unfold before our eyes as how the director sees it in his mind. We are transported into another world, another dimension with each character that somehow looks surreal. We find traces of personality that is distinct and personal, as if our own. And with these movies we can escape even for a few hours, a few minutes the commonplace tragedies that beset our everyday lives. It is also the question of a supernatural being that has created characters such as vampires. These creatures have long been associated as evil and ungodly from the creative minds of writers. Man's fascination with the unknown has spawned various characters, but in today's fiction these characters are given a more human touch than the stories written centuries ago. Creatures long depicted as human predators are given a human side and can experience the same pains and anguish as that of a common man. The idea of vampires living amongst us is another magical transformation.

Ocean Park Brand Equity Essay Example for Free

Ocean Park Brand Equity Essay I am genuinely tank to Mr. Nicholas Tam for supporting me all the time and spending many hours on my final year project. This was totally appreciated that he provided many professional and useful advices and recommendations to me. Otherwise, I would also like to thanks Mr. C. N. Lo as my second marker and give me suggestion to improve my project. ABSTRACT Ocean Park Hong Kong is a home-grown treasure. It is also one of the most popular amusement parks in the world, providing educational, conservation and entertainment. Ocean Park Hong Kong has brought joy to local and overseas visitors throughout her 30-year history. She lets everyone in Hong Kong has a special and memorable experiences. In these 30 years, it experienced many impacts that are occurred by outside and inside of the organization. They also recorded a deficit for a certain years. But it was carried out the revolutions continually. Afterwards, the business is still running. Recently, some information indicated that the ranking of the most popular amusement park of the world, which is the Ocean Park Hong Kong higher than Hong Kong Disneyland. Finally, through survey, focus group interview and brands performance measures, to conclude that the brand equity of Ocean Park was better. Better leadership, better quality, builds up customer loyalty. CHAPTER I – INTRODUCTION Ocean Park is one of the theme parks in Hong Kong. â€Å"Marine† is the majority theme of the park. It is located at the Southern District of Hong Kong, and it was opened on 10 January 1977. It was constructed at a land granted by the government, and then the funding of construction is granted by the Hong Kong Jockey Club (HKJC), and it also operated by HKJC. In January 1979, Ocean Park introduced a Killer Whale for the visitors. It becomes a one of the selling points of the park. In the inception stage, there is not enough amusement rides for the public. But, there was expanded their scale of the park, and increased much more amusement rides into the park. The operating capital of Ocean Park was depends on the revenue from tickets and donation from HKJC in earlier stage. It also has a significant deficit for a long time because the price is set on the low side. In 1 July 1987, the â€Å"Ocean Park Ordinance† is constituted by the government. HKJC will granted that they are established the trust with $200M funding. In this time, Ocean Park becomes a non-profit making organization and needs to self-finance. The park changed their business to commercial-oriented, and increasing its ticket price. Thus, the park enhanced its financial conditions to be positive. In 1998, the park recorded deficit again caused by some factors, such as East Asian Financial Crisis. Although it received 2 pandas from China, it still could not increase the visitor’s attraction of the park. The park also closed the water attractions and the Middle Kingdom. And then, it introduced more amusement rises for visitors especially for the teenagers such as the Abyss Turbo Drop and the Mine Train. In Fiscal Year 2004/2005, there are more than 4 million visitors during a year. This is renewing the record since the park is opened. It is caused that PRC government implemented the â€Å"Individual Visit Scheme† under CEPA. Ocean Park revealed its redevelopment plan in 2005, which will upgrades the quality and availability of features at the park. This is response the impacts from the opening of Disneyland. Ocean Park is also held a groundbreaking ceremony for its redevelopment project in November of 2006. According to the Attraction Attendance 2008 releases by Economics Research Associates (ERA) and Themed Entertainment Association (TEA) on 16 April, Ocean Park is the world’s number 15 theme park, Asia’s 5th theme park (Judith Rubin, 2009). (Appendix 1b) 1. Industry Background The tourism industry is one of the four key industries in the Hong Kong economy. There were two types of tourism which were inbound tourism and outbound. For inbound tourism, there were 5 groups of sub-industries which included retail trade, hotels and boarding houses, Restaurants, Cross-boundary passenger transport services and others. The value added of tourism in 2006 and 2007 were HK$45,300 Million and HK$52,300 Million. There was increased around 14% from 2006 to 2007. And the employment in this industry in 2006 and 2007 was 176,300 and 193,800. There was increased around more than 8% from 2006 to 2007 (Census and Statistics Department, HKSAR, 2009). (Appendix 9) In order to support the poor economic condition, Hong Kong government was provided some supporting projects to the tourism industry such as â€Å"the Closer Economic Partnership Arrangement (CEPA)† and â€Å"Individual Visit Scheme†. These projects both were cooperated with PRC. Ocean Park is one of the participators in the amusement park market. Its major competitor is Hong Kong Disneyland. Before Disneyland involved its business in Hong Kong, Ocean Park was the only one participator in this market during the other amusement parks were closed their business such as Lai Chi Kok Amusement Park. On the other hand, the amusement park from neighbor country should also be the major competitors for Ocean Park such as Happy Valley from Shenzhen, PRC. As a famous landmark of Hong Kong, Ocean Park was a successful company in this industry. In accordance with the Attraction Attendance 2008, the 2008 attendance was equal to 5. 03 Million. It was a leading brand of the amusement park market (Judith Rubin, 2009) (Appendix 1b). In conclusion, Ocean Park should be capturing the opportunity derived from increasing attendance and the supporting from government, and focus its competence for facing the threat generated by intensive competition from the neighbor country. 2. Statement of issue In past certain years, Ocean Park faced impacts in different period of time, for example, East Asian Financial Crisis, SARS, and external environment. For the financial issue, Ocean Park was faced the financial distress on past certain years especially for the East Asian financial crisis. Besides, for the external environmental issue, Ocean Park should also be faced to the new entrants of Hong Kong amusement park market that was Disneyland. Ocean Park was a domestic famous brand in Hong Kong. On the other hand, Disneyland was an international famous brand. The overall size of organization of Ocean Park should be smaller than Disneyland. 3. Purpose of the study Propose of this study is to understand customer’s brand equity of Ocean Park. A result of questionnaire survey is to ascertain the sources (Brand Equity Ten) of brand equity of Ocean Park. Base on the findings of the survey, propose that the critical success factor of the theme park. CHAPTER II – LITERATURE REVIEW The Brand Equity Ten will be applying in this study, which is an effective method to evaluate brand equity. Ten sets of measures grouped into five categories, are shown in Table 1. The first four categories are to measure customer perceptions of the brand. The four categories of brand equity are including loyalty, perceived quality, associations, and awareness. The last category is to collect information from the market based information rather than directly from customers (D. Aaker, 1996). 1. Loyalty Measures Since it is now widely recognized that it is much less costly and much more profitable to keep existing customers than to win new ones, customer retention become an important goal for most organizations. In principle its simple: you just have to keep your existing customer (N. Hill, J. Alexander, 2006). The Hong Kong amusement park industry was created a monopoly loyalty during there was only two participators in the market, such as Ocean Park and Disneyland. The loyalty of these two amusement parks might be generated by devotion of its customers, for instance, the customer would be sought some adventure experiences at Ocean park during there was provided many thrill rides. Besides, if the customer would be found some story of fairy tales, they would go to Disneyland, it is because customer can be met many famous characters like Mickey Mouse. 1. Price Premium â€Å"A basic indicator of loyalty is the amount a customer will pay for the brand in comparison with another brand (or set of comparison brands) offering similar benefits†(D.Aaker, 1996). For the admission fees of both Ocean Park and Disneyland, there was a large difference between parks. For instance, in the adult’s general admission fees, Ocean Park was HK$208, and Disneyland was HK$350. Therefore, the price premium should be HK$142. 1. Perceived Quality/Leadership Measures â€Å"Perceived quality is often the key positioning dimension for corporate brands (such as Toshiba or Ford) and other brands that range over product classes (such as Weight Watchers, Kraft, and store brands such as Safeway Select). Because these brands span product classes, they are less likely to be driven by functional benefits, and perceived quality is likely to play a larger role. (D. Aaker, 2009) For Ocean Park, it provided different amusement facilities to visitors. Besides, Disneyland provided the story of fairy tales to visitors. Visitors could earn the different experiences during they are visiting these two parks. They would use the last experience to evaluate the perceived quality of the parks. â€Å"Leading brands are perceived to be relevant, unique and compelling. They inspire customer loyalty and enable organizations to charge price premiums. They increase bargaining power with business partners, make it easier to hire and retain talented employees and provide organizations with clear strategic direction and platforms for future growth. †(B. VanAuken, 2007) Both Ocean Park and Disneyland were performed their services at a unique and compelling ways. For example, Ocean Park provides a lot of amusement facilities for visitors; some facilities were very unique in Hong Kong such as Giant Panda Habitat. On the other hand, Disneyland arranges many owned international famous characters that visitors may take some photos with them. 2. Associations/ Differentiation Measures â€Å"The key associations/differentiation component of brand equity usually involves image dimensions that are unique to a product class or to a brand. The challenge, then, is to generate general measures that will work across product classes. † (D. Aaker, 1996) Since Ocean Park was opened, it was established a personal image for visitors that it was provided some messages like ocean protection and education, exciting experience. Visitors had no doubtful that the meaning of Ocean Park, and they was knew that it was not an amusement park only. Also, Disneyland was generated a dreaming place for visitors to enjoy a childlike and entertaining tour for their each visit. But it was not provided other functional characters to the public such as educational activities. 3. Awareness Measures â€Å"Brand awareness measures the accessibility of the brand in memory. Brand awareness can measured through brand recall or brand recognition. Brand recall reflects the ability of consumers to retrieve the brand from memory when given the product category. † (P. Chandon, 2003) Both Ocean Park and Disneyland were achieved to brand awareness. For Ocean Park, visitors may be bethought its owned characters when they were went to it such as Dolphin, Giant Panda, thrill rides and etc. On the other hand, also, Disneyland was gained the high level of international attention. Visitors were recall its owned characters like Winnie the Pooh, Stitch, and they can be got this memory outside it such as TV and other side-products of its owned characters. The dimension of differentiation in the association category is a summary of brand associations (D.Aaker, 1996). 4. Market Behavior Measures 1. Market Share â€Å"The performance of a brand as measured by market share (and/or sales) often provides a valid and sensitive reflection of the brand’s standing with customers. When the brand has a relative advantage in the minds of customers, its market share should increase or at least not decrease. † (D. Aaker, 1996) The performance of an amusement park can be measured by some elements such as its functions, service level, customer relationship management and etc. It can be grew its admission income during the higher service performance that it can be performed. 2. Price and Distribution Indices â€Å"Market share can be a particularly deceptive brand equity measure when it increases as a result of reduced prices or price promotions. Thus, it is important to measure the relative market price at which the brand is being sold. † (D. Aaker, 1996). â€Å"Market share or sales data are also extremely sensitive to distribution coverage. Sales may be dramatically affected when a brand gains or loses a major market or expands into another geographic region. A measure of distribution coverage is thus a second logical companion measure to market share. † (D. Aaker, 1996). As an amusement park, the market price data was equal to the admission income of a year, because this was majority source for capturing its operating resources. Besides, it indicated that the admission income might be affected by the change in attendance directly. On the other hand, the price and distribution indices should be reflected the market share that can be evaluated by admission attendance during a year. This may be found out the true picture of the growth of admission attendance rather than depends on admission income. CHAPTER III – METHODOLOGY 1. Sample Design Data will be collected by using a questionnaire. It is use to measure customer perceptions of the brand along with the four categories (D. Aaker, 1996). The questionnaire is use to survey those people who are visited Hong Kong Ocean Park and Hong Kong Disneyland before. It is to ensure that the data from respondents are effective and reliable. The questionnaire will be distributed to them through e-mail, and the respondents are classmates, teachers, familiars, friends, and colleagues. 100 samples were collected through this survey. 2. Questionnaire Design First, questionnaire is used to measure the four categories, which are Loyalty Measures (price premium and satisfaction/loyalty), Perceived Quality/Leadership Measures (perceived quality, and leadership), Associations/Differentiation Measures (perceived value, brand personality, organizational associations, and differentiation), and Awareness Measures (brand awareness). Second, setting demographic factors, respondents were required to answer their personal information, including gender, age, monthly income, occupation and education. It is in order to compare the general information with the 25 items, and find out the critical success factor of Ocean Park. Nine dimensions including 25 items, plus 5 items of general information, there are totally 30 questions. Third, this study will compare with Disneyland because it is the mainly competitor in Hong Kong. The questionnaire format is Part A is Ocean Park, Part B is Disneyland, and Part C is the general information. â€Å"5-point Likert Scale† is usually used in questionnaires, and is the most widely used scale in survey research. †. There were used 5 choices of answer question for respondents to answer their questionnaire except general information. It was included â€Å"Strongly Disagree†, â€Å"Disagree†, â€Å"Neutral†, â€Å"Agree† and â€Å"Strongly agree†. (Answers. com, 2009) Fourth, set â€Å"Missing Data†. It is to reduce or ignore the answer of unclear, ambiguous or answer more than one choice, etc. The questionnaire format could refer to Appendix 7. 3. Statistical Package for the Social Science(SPSS) SPSS was established in 1968 by Norman H. Nie, C. Hadlai (Tex) Hull and Dale H. Bent. They want developed a revolutionary software system in order to turn raw data into representative information in an easily way. According to the SPSS’s website, â€Å"This revolutionary statistical software system was called SPSS, which stood for the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences. Nie, Hull and Bent developed SPSS out of the need to quickly analyze volumes of social science data gathered through various methods of research. † (SPSS INC. , 2009). In addition to statistics analysis, the features of the base software, which are included Descriptive statistics (Cross tabulation, Frequencies, Descriptives, Explore, Descriptive Ratio Statistics), Bivariate statistics (Means, t-test, ANOVA, Correlation (bivariate, partial, distances), Nonparametric tests), Prediction for numerical outcomes (Linear regression), and Prediction for identifying groups (Factor analysis, cluster analysis (two-step, K-means, hierarchical), Discriminant) (Wikipedia, 2009). In this report, there was using SPSS to analyze the statistical information, there are included Cronbach Alpha Reliability Analysis, Mean and Standard Deviation, Crosstab Test. 1. Reverse Scoring In order to calculate some opposite data in one dimension, there should be rescored the negative data to turn into positive data. This can be increasing the reliability and correlation among data in one dimension. â€Å"Items that are negatively worded in a scale must be rescored in a positive direction in order to match the other items in a scale† (S. Stark, et. al. , 2001). In the questionnaire, Question 22 25 of Part A and B was used this function that in order to find out the reliable and correlated data, and these sets of data should be opposite to other data in same dimension. 2. Cronbach’s Alpha Reliability Analysis â€Å"Cronbachs alpha measures how well a set of items (or variables) measures a single unidimensional latent construct. When data have a multidimensional structure, Cronbachs alpha will usually be low. Technically speaking, Cronbachs alpha is not a statistical test it is a coefficient of reliability (or consistency). (UCLA Academic Technology Services) There were used the Cronbach’s Alpha Reliability Analysis to find out the reliability. The output table will then be displayed the Cronbach’s Alpha of the dimension. 3. Mean and Standard Deviation â€Å"The mean, indicated by ? (a lower case Greek mu), is the statisticians jargon for the average value of a signal. It is found just as you would expect: add all of the samples together, and divide by N. † (S. Smith, 2007) It is the use to find out the average in a group of population. There were calculated the means by all of the scoring of each question. Afterwards, added up the separate mean from all dimensions which were found out the total mean of each category. â€Å"The standard deviation is one of several indices of variability that statisticians use to characterize the dispersion among the measures in a given population. To calculate the standard deviation of a population it is first necessary to calculate that populations variance. Numerically, the standard deviation is the square root of the variance. Unlike the variance, which is a somewhat abstract measure of variability, the standard deviation can be readily conceptualized as a distance along the scale of measurement. † (R. Hoffman, 2002) Besides, the standard deviation was displayed on the output table of SPSS in order to analyze the dispersion of the result of nine dimensions. 4. Crosstab Test â€Å"Cross-tabulations give us much more insight into the data than do simple profiles or frequency distributions. Cross-tabulations are an example of bivariate analysis (i. e. , examining the relationship between two variables). However, cross-tabulations are of limited value, too, because we are realistically restricted to examining the relationship between only two variables at a time (e. g. , customer status and age; customer status and income; etc.). If we try to examine a cross-tabulation of more than two variables at a time, the results are very difficult to visualize and interpret meaningfully. † (SmartDrill, 2008) There was used the crosstabulation to compare the variability of general information. This can be easily found out the difference between two set of data. 4. Focus Group â€Å"Focus groups are a powerful means to evaluate services or test new ideas. Basically, focus groups are interviews, but of 6-10 people at the same time in the same group. One can get a great deal of information during a focus group session. † (C. McNamara, 2006) 5. Data Analysis. 1. Calculated the mean and standard deviation for all of 9 dimensions in order to find out the overall performance of both Ocean Park and Disneyland. 2. Used SPSS reverse scoring function in order to make some conflict data that reversed into same way. This can make that the reliability must higher than origin data. Besides, Cronbach’s Alpha Reliability Analysis can be found out the reliability of all of the dimensions, and ignored some irrelative items in the dimensions. This can improve the reliability for each dimensions that if deleted the items. 3. Calculate the mean with both Ocean Park and Disneyland. 4. Used crosstabulation to compare which the general information of both Ocean Park and Disneyland such as age, gender and income, 5. After used of SPSS, there were formed a focus group that was invited 7 interviewees in order to discuss the issues that occurred in the result from SPSS. 6. Besides, found some corporate information of Ocean Park and Disneyland which how to performed the market behavior. 7. Match the result of mean analysis and the result of crosstabutaion analysis, in order to find out the source of brand equity and the critical successful factor of the theme park. CHAPTER IV – RESULTS. 4 Sample and Descriptive Statistics This survey totally collected 100 samples, 57 respondents are male and 43 respondents are female. The majority respondents aged between 20 to 24 years olds (83%). In the monthly income group, nearly 50% of respondents their salaries were $5,001 to $10,000 per month. Monthly income was â€Å"less than $5,000† which had 41% of respondents. Many of respondents were students and workers (80%). Over a half of respondents had education level at diploma levels or associate degree, and 37% of respondents had education level at undergraduate or postgraduate. (Appendix 2) 2. Cronbach Alpha Reliability Analysis. This research has nine dimensions which are belong to the four categories. The dimensions are including 25 items. Use the Cronbach Alpha Reliability Analysis to find out the reliabilities between the 25 items and the nine dimensions. The reliability test in order to define questions whether it is fit/relative to the nine dimensions. This can find out which items can be more significant and which are the insignificant. The existence of the items was whether or not to affect the result of the dimensions such as completion, reliability and accuracy. (Appendix 3) 3. Mean and Standard Deviations Table 2: Comparison of Mean and S. D. of dimensions with Ocean Park and Disneyland |Categories |Dimensions |Ocean Park |Disneyland |Mean Differences |Ranking | | | |Mean |Std. Deviation |Mean |Std. Deviation | | | |Loyalty Measures | |Dimensions |Ocean Park |Disneyland | |Price Premium |Medium |High (Negative) | |Satisfaction/ Loyalty |High (Positive) |High (Negative) | |Perceived Quality |High (Positive) |High (Negative) | |Leadership |High (Positive) |High (Negative) | |Perceived Value |Medium |High (Negative) | |Brand Personality |High (Positive) |Medium | |Organizational Associations |Medium |Medium | |Brand Awareness |High (Positive) |High (Negative). | |Market Share |- |- | |Price and Distribution Indices |Medium |Medium | 1. Loyalty According to the result after crosstab the items, it found that in the loyalty category, the effect of price premium for Ocean Park was medium. The acceptability of the admission price for Ocean Park was relatively higher than the Disneyland. Its admission price was cheaper than Disneyland. Comparatively speaking, the effect of price premium for Disneyland was high. The acceptability of the admission price was low, that was relatively expensive. The influence of price premium on Disneyland is negative. Besides, the result reflected that price was not the determining factor for respondents to switch brand. On the other hands, the effect of satisfaction for Ocean Park was high. The park was better than Disneyland in satisfied customers needs and wants. Loyalty was built by a cumulative result, which were the customers’ past visit experiences with the brands. The result indicated that the opportunity of respondents’ revisit the parks was based on their last visit experiences. Ocean Park was better than Disneyland, respondents were willing to recommend Ocean Park to others rather than Disneyland. The influence of satisfaction on Ocean Park is positive. However, the effect of satisfaction for Disneyland was high. It brings a negative influence on the park. In satisfied customers needs and wants, Disneyland was worse than Ocean Park. Respondents were unsatisfied with their last visit experience. Only seldom of respondents would revisit the park on the next opportunity and recommend the park to others. During the result of satisfaction was negative, the management from Disneyland would improve the quality for satisfying customers’ needs and wants. 2. Perceived Quality/Leadership. The result reflected that there was a linkage between perceived quality and leadership, Compare with Disneyland, Ocean Park was popular and more innovative, it was the leading brand in Hong Kong, and overall Ocean Park was better in quality. It implied that better leadership, better quality. It helps Ocean Park to keep closer relationship with loyal customers and less of switchers. The effect of perceived quality/leadership for Ocean Park was medium. Oppositely, Disneyland was worse, it was not innovative enough and not much popular than Ocean Park, and therefore Disneyland was not the leading brand in Hong Kong. One of reasons might cause by the negative news about the park. The effect of perceives quality/leadership for Disneyland was high and negative. 3. Associations/Differentiation Ocean Park could provide good value for the money. The effect of perceived value for Ocean Park was medium. Disneyland could not provide good value for the money. The effect of perceived value for the park was high and negative. Ocean Park had its own personality and it was interesting. Respondents had a clear image of the type of person who would visit the park. The effect of personality for Ocean Park was high and positive. Disneyland also had its own personality. However, seldom of respondents were agreed the park was interesting. Normally, respondents had a clear image for what type of person would visit the park. The personality of Disneyland was medium. The personality of Disneyland was indistinct. It could reflect the respondents’ imagery, which was a key driver of brand personality. About the organization management of Ocean Park, the results reflected that respondents were answered â€Å"neutral† about the organization trust and admire the Ocean Park Company. But the respondents thought that the organization association with Ocean Park had credibility. The effect of organization for the park was medium. On the other hand, many respondents were answered â€Å"neutral† about the organization trust with Disneyland, and admire the Disneyland Company, and the credibility of organization association. The results implied that the respondents were lack of knowledge about the organization management beheld Disneyland. The effect of organization for the park was medium. Organization management back of the theme parks is usually ignored by the visitors. It is because its lack of attractive for the visitors associated with its services. Therefore, the effect of this dimension with both companies was medium. Overall, Ocean Park and Disneyland were different. 4. Awareness Recognition of Ocean Park and Disneyland were high. Respondents had heard of the two parks, it was important for the exist brands. Moreover, respondents were knew what the parks stand for, it reflected that customers had a level of brand knowledge. Besides, respondents were no opinion about Ocean Park, but respondents had opinion with Disneyland. The result of brand opinion implied that respondents were less confidence with Disneyland. The effect of awareness for Ocean Park was high and positive, and for Disneyland was high and negative. . 5. Market Behavior For the market share measure, there was lack of information to compare the sales performance between Ocean Park and Disneyland. Therefore, the effect of market for both Ocean and Disneyland would not be evaluated. As the result, the market price was not compared between Ocean Park and Disneyland, because Disneyland’s admission income was not being provided in the Annual Report individually. The financial information of Hong Kong Disneyland was combined with European Disneyland. In the distribution coverage, the result of Attraction Attendance 2007 and 2008 (Appendix 1a b) indicated that Ocean Park had higher indicated that Ocean Park had recorded higher attendance rather than Disneyland. It is implied that Ocean Park should be more successful on the admission income, and gained a large number of visitors rather than Disneyland. On the other hand, Disneyland had higher distribution coverage on the world, because it involved that its operations were involved 5 countries in the world. Besides, Ocean Park had lower distribution coverage in the market, because it only had one amusement in the world. As a result, both of Ocean Park and Disneyland were medium in the effect of market price/ distribution indices. To conclude that after use high/low method to compare with the two parks, it found that the brand equity of Ocean Park was better. Table 3 shown each category has a key driver of influence. Loyalty, the key driver is satisfaction. Perceived quality and leadership measures, leadership variable in this category should be considered. The key component of associations and differentiation measures is including the personality. In the category of awareness measures, brand awareness is the important component. Attendance of distribution coverage in market behavior is the most important. Matching mean analysis with crosstab test analysis, it found out that the loyalty is the most influence category among the brand equity of Ocean Park. The dimension of satisfaction in the loyalty category is the critical success factor of Ocean Park. CHAPTER VI – DISCUSSION During the study, there were faced such problems. This part of discussion would point out the problems, in order to share the editor’s opinions with those people who would having study or survey in the future. 1. Questionnaire Setting 1. Sample of the survey is not many, only collected 100 samples, representation of the result is low. 2. The method of collecting the data is not good enough. It is because through e-mail, which is inconvenience, low efficiency, and usually will ignore by addressees. E-mail is a passive method, and the respondents their replies are also passive. 3. Questionnaire is distributed to visitors through e-mail. Some respondents had their feedback about the questionnaire, such as wrong words, the questionnaire format, etc. 4. Focus on the questionnaire design, it could be improved. For example, in the price premium, the questionnaire did not ask respondents some questions about the â€Å"dollar metric†, and market research approach (conjoint/ â€Å"trade-off† analysis). Therefore, the dimension of price premium can not be accurately and clearly to analysis whether it can build up customer loyalty and whether it is important part of loyalty measures. 2. Information Collection 1. In the category of Market Behavior, there were not found some accurate information about the â€Å"Market Share† and â€Å"Market Price†. That is the admission price of Disneyland. According to the Disneyland Annual Report 2008, the financial information about Hong Kong Disneyland was displayed that it was combined the financial information associated with European Disneyland. This is indicated that the financial information should not be compared with Ocean Park directly, because any changes of the financial information may be occurred by both Hong Kong and European one. Therefore, the related information should not be really reflected the true information especially for Hong Kong Disneyland. 3. SPSS Data Entry and Output 1. When setting the questionnaires, sometimes, may need to set some reverse questions. For example, asking respondents that â€Å"Ocean Park is different from Disneyland† and â€Å"Ocean Park is basically the same as Disneyland†, that is reverse question.

War Prayer Response Essay Example for Free

War Prayer Response Essay God does not choose sides. The word, choose, is listed in the dictionary as â€Å"to pick by preference.† God has no preferences. He has an all knowing and understanding, compassionate heart, which is free of any illusory appeals. God only serves the beings on earth so as to teach them about themselves. Self-actualization is the only thing that can bring humans into full control over ourselves. Humans often do not understand what it is they hope for; if they were to fully understand the implications of it, they would be unable to continue to stand for the wrong doings they wished to be. This is observed in, Mark Twain’s, War Prayer. In the short story, War Prayer, a messenger of god is sent to explain exactly what a mass of people is praying. The people use euphemisms, seemingly unknowingly, in their chants to ask God for victory in the Philippines, during the Spanish American war. The hymns contained phrases such as â€Å" thunder thy clarion and lighting thy sword.† After the messenger speaks the true meaning of the words, the prayer becomes a romanticized and misrepresented portrayal of the true nature of war. At the very end of the messenger’s address, to the people, he asks them, â€Å"Ye have prayed it, if ye still desire it, speak! The messenger of the most high awaits.† The people respond, or rather lack there of, with silence. The messenger is later thought to be a lunatic. Though God tried to explain to them their actions, they failed to see the truth and benevolent power than enveloped the words. The one who knows, sees, and understands all granted the opportunity of a second chance, and the humans once again took the opportunity for granted. God does not choose sides; he gives those who he wishes to learn the opportunity to do so for themselves.

Creation Of The Csi Effect Criminology Essay

Creation Of The Csi Effect Criminology Essay Known as the CSI-Effect, the medias representation of criminal proceedings manipulates and distorts the deliberations made by juries resulting in unrealistic expectations of contemporary forensic science. The CSI-Effect has evolved and perpetuated through the emergence of popular crime dramas, such as CSI, NCIS, Bones and Criminal Minds that obscure the juries perspective of authentic, credible forensic science. Consequently, juries now perceive forensic evidence as, objective, reliable and infallible. (Wise, 2010, p. 384) This has resulted in an increased demand for prosecution to produce viable and tangible forensic evidence, in order to satisfy the high standard of proof in criminal proceedings. Jurors therefore, fail to distinguish between the medias stylized portrayal of forensic science and the current limitations and restrictions of forensics within the legal framework. Jurors are now susceptible to the unrealistic view that forensic testing is the most superior, probative for m of evidential proof and therefore, afford greater reliability to expert witnesses and examiners. Juries may demand forensic testing or evidence examination in unnecessary cases without regard to the time or financial restrictions placed on lab facilities and testing resources. Similarly, jurors now expect that current forensic experts have access to similar advanced technology and resources as investigators portrayed in televised crime dramas. As the medias representation of crime fiction continues to inaccurately inform juries perspectives the role of forensic science in the criminal justice system will remain obscured and misinterpreted. Creation of the CSI-Effect The CSI-Effect represents the relationship between popular crime television programs and the deliberations made by juries in criminal court proceedings. The medias portrayal of crime fiction can be observed through programs including, CSI, Bones, Forensic Files and Criminal Minds. As demonstrated by Nielson Media Research, the Top 10 American Broadcast TV Rankings between June 1st and June 7th, 2009 included Law and Order: SVU with 11,562000 viewers, alongside NCIS with 11,256000 viewers. (Nielson, 2009) Due to the CSI-Effect, jurors falsely associate the forensic capabilities presented in such programs as a reflection of current discipline standards and resources. Therefore, it is commonly assumed in court proceedings that all criminal offences can be resolved using forensic evidence. As argued by Mann, 2006, television as a highly influential form of mass media, has significantly shaped the public perception of the criminal justice system. Many are convinced that in this modern age of forensic science, the CSI effect, which refers to the hit CBS television show CSI: Crime Scene Investigation gives jurors heightened and unrealistic expectations of how conclusively forensic science can determine innocence or guilt. (Mann, 2006, p. 211) The CSI-Effect relies heavily on the popularity of law-orientated television programs in accordance to the fictitious, unrealistic representation of forensic science and criminal investigation issues. The manner in which jurors now determine judgements and assess evidence in criminal proceedings has been irrevocably altered. Thus, the CSI-Effect has resulted in a severe distortion of the criminal investigative process and the extent to which credible, forensic evidence can be perceived by jurors in the legal framework. Higher acquittal rates The CSI-Effect has produced an elevated standard of proof in criminal proceedings for prosecution to present substantial forensic evidence to gain a conviction. As supported by Cole and Dioso-Villa, 2009, this is evidenced by heightened acquittal rates amongst juries, subsequent to the advent of crime dramas, such as CSI. Jurors now hold exaggerated views regarding the probative merit of forensic science. Therefore, in certain situations the verdict is dependent on forensic factors such as DNA typing, fingerprints, bloodstain pattern analysis and ballistics. Mann, 2006 discusses the development of forensic evidence in comparison to the prosecutions traditional reliance on witness testimonies and statements. The medias concentration on the infallibility of forensic science has resulted in juries affording the professional opinions and testimonies of expert witnesses more probative value. Due to the CSI-Effect, jurors seek slam-dunk evidence (Podlas, 2009, p. 432) in criminal trials an d proceedings, as conveyed in relatively all crime dramas. [The CSI-Effect] focuses on the way that CSI elevates scientific evidence to an unsupported level of certainty thus bolstering the prosecutions case. (Podlas, 2009, p. 433) In reality, a large amount of obtainable evidence is difficult to achieve in certain criminal investigations. In the absence of material forensic evidence, jurors now perceive the arguments presented by prosecution to be invalid or inapplicable. The public is continually inundated with stylized portrayals of forensic science as flawless and precise. Accordingly, this has similarly affected the juries approach in demanding substantial and viable forensic evidence in order to successfully convict an individual. Everyones an Expert The existence of the CSI-Effect has remained a highly contentious and controversial issue in the contemporary legal system. In specific regards to heightened acquittal rates amongst juries, Tyler (2006, p.74) hypothesised that, [I]t is equally plausible to argue that watching CSI has, in fact, the opposite effect on jurorsincreasing their tendency to convict defendants. Tyler claims that crime television programs, such as CSI aim to deliver certainty through the achievement of justice and the ability of investigators to catch the bad guy. Tyler suggests that the juries aspirations for justice may also lead to leniency in conviction, rather than acquittal. (Tyler, 2006) However, Tyler failed to address the principal issue of forensic science and evidential proof within his criticisms of the CSI-Effect. The CSI-Effect has led to jurors with inflated perceptions of his/her own expertise in the field of forensic science. As supported by Wise, 2010 jurors consider themselves somewhat edu cated and informed in the forensic discipline through regular observation of the techniques and practices displayed in televised crime dramas. Consequently, jurors are highly likely to acquit a defendant if prosecutors fail to obtain reliable, probative forensic evidence to support the case. Juror ignorance: limitations As a consequence of the CSI-Effect, juries now hold unrealistic, impractical expectations of the field of forensic science in the existing legal system. The CSI-Effect is partially generated by the juries failure to appropriately consider the various limitations and restrictions placed on forensic testing facilities and resources. In many criminal proceedings, juries may demand forensic testing on particular evidence articles without regard to time availability or government financial expenses. This can directly influence the judicial deliberations made by juries in relation to reaching acquittals, based solely on the lack of forensic evidential proof. As supported by Heinrick, 2006, juries can demand unnecessary and costly testing for fingerprints, DNA and handwriting analyses. If such requirements are not fulfilled in criminal proceedings, jurors may be more willing to acquit accused individuals. Dissimilar to the fictional forensic techniques and procedures portrayed in crime dram as, forensic tests can take extended periods of time to complete and evidence analysis is an extremely long, time consuming process. (Heinrick, 2006) The Maricopia County Attorneys Office (MCAO) recently conducted an extensive study into typical juror behaviour in relation to the CSI-Effect. MCAO conducted interview-based surveys on approximately 102 prosecutors with professional experience with juries in criminal trials. Each prosecutor was assessed on their previous experiences with juries whom they considered to exhibit signs of the CSI-Effect. (Heinrick, 2006) MCAO concluded that, More than half (61%) of prosecutors who ask jurors if they watch forensic crime television shows feel jurors seem to believe the shows are mostly true. (Maricopia County Attorneys Office, 2005) Conclusion The existence of the CSI-Effect in the contemporary legal system can be observed through juries obscured perceptions and understanding of credible forensic evidence. The ascending popularity and public appeal of fictional crime-orientated television programs has resulted in a heightened standard of proof for prosecution to obtain actual evidence in criminal proceedings. Consequently, acquittal rates amongst current juries have increased since the development of the CSI franchise. (Cole Dioso-Villa, 2009) The CSI-Effect encompasses the growing reliance on forensic evidence in comparison to traditional prosecution approaches, such as witness testimonies. Arguments have emerged that debate the influence of the CSI-Effect. For example, Tyler argued that jurors would be more susceptible to convicting a defendant in criminal proceedings, due to the strong focus on the achievement of justice in crime dramas. (Tyler, 2006) However, jurors aim to acquire material, forensic evidence in crimin al proceedings in order to support a conviction. If this element is not satisfied, it is highly probable that an acquittal will occur. (Wise, 2010) As a subsequent result of the CSI-Effect, jurors are more susceptible to demanding unnecessary and highly expensive forensic testing, with minimal regard or consideration for the limitations placed on forensic testing facilities and resources. Essentially, the CSI-Effect can be directly attributed with misleading jurors to, reach [judicial conclusions] contrary to the interests of justice. (MCAO, 2005) A large portion of the public audience misinterpret and misperceive programs such as, CSI or Criminal Minds as accurately portraying the capabilities of authentic, current forensic science. Thus, the CSI-Effect will remain a highly significant influence in the decision making and judicial deliberations of jurors in both a global and domestic context.

Earthquakes and their Effects :: Environment, Science, Informative

An earthquake is a trembling or a shaking movement of the Earth's surface. The dictionary meaning of the word earthquake is â€Å"shaking and vibration at the surface of the earth resulting from underground movement along a fault plane of from volcanic activity†. The word earthquake is also widely used to indicate the source region itself. The solid earth is in slow but constant motion and earthquakes occur where the resulting stress exceeds the capacity of Earth materials to support it. Earthquakes produce various damaging effects to the areas they act upon. This includes damage to buildings and in worst cases the loss of human life. The effects of the rumbling produced by earthquakes usually leads to the destruction of structures such as buildings, bridges, and dams. They can also trigger landslides. Earthquakes have varied effects, including changes in geologic features, damage to man-made structures, and impact on human and animal life. Earthquakes often cause dramatic and geomorphological changes, including ground movements either vertical or horizontal along geologic fault traces, rising, dropping, and tilting of the ground surface, changes in the flow of groundwater. Besides producing floods and destroying buildings, earthquakes that take place under the ocean can sometimes cause tsunamis, or tidal waves. Tsunamis are high and long walls of water which travel at a very rapid rate. They are notorious for destroying entire populations and cities near coastlines. In 1896 Sanriku, Japan, with a population of 20,000, suffered such a fate. Several thousand stations monitor earthquakes all over the world. Each station contains an instrument, called a seismograph, used to detect arrival times and record seismic waves.

On Emotion and Value in David Hume and Max Scheler Essay -- David Hume

On Emotion and Value in David Hume and Max Scheler ABSTRACT: While some philosophers tend to exclude any significance of emotion for the moral life, others place them in the center of both the moral life and the theory of value judgment. This paper presents a confrontation of two classic positions of the second type, namely the position of Hume and Scheler. The ultimate goal of this confrontation is metatheoretical — particularly as it concerns the analysis of the relations between the idea of emotion and the idea of value in this kind of theory of value judgment. In conclusion, I point to some important theoretical assumptions which underlie the positions of both thinkers despite all the other differences between them. In at least four types of ethical theories emotions and feelings are regarded as a vital factor in explaining the nature of both value judgement and value itself. Such types of ethical theories, however, offer not only different theories of value and valuation but they also assume or imply quite different theories of emotions and feelings. A look at the history of philosophical psychology can convince us that there has been no generally accepted theory of emotion but the idea of emotion has been changing together with the idea of mind or soul. (1) One could expect that there is a correlation between the idea of emotion and the idea of value or the good in each type of the above mentioned theories. In what follows, I shall discuss this correlation for two ethical theories in greater detail. I shall consider the moral philosophy of David Hume which I construe as psychological naturalism of non-relativistic type. (2) I shall also consider the case of emotional intuitionism exemplified by Max Scheler. Both H... ...the objects of emotion see: Sousa, de R. - The Rationality of Emotion, The MIT Press, Cambridge MA, 1990. (9) For excellent discussion of this point see: Hudson, S. D. - Humean Pleasure Reconsidered, "Canadian Journal of Philosophy" 5 (1975), no 4, pp. 545-62; Fieser, J. - Hume's Classification of the Passions and Its Precursors, "Hume Studies" 18 (1992), no 1, pp. 1-17. (10) See note 8 above. (11) Scheler, Max - Der Formalismus in der Ethik und die materiale Wertethik, Gesammelte Werke, Bd. 2, Francke Verlag, Bern - MÃ ¼nchen 1954, pp. 256-278; hereafter cited as F. (12) F, pp. 341-356. See also: Smith, Q. - Scheler's Stratification of Emotional Life and Strawson's Person, "Philosophical Studies" (Irleand), 25 (1977), pp. 103-127. (13) F, pp. 125 -130. (14) Cf. Calhoun, Ch., Solomon, R. C. - What is an Emotion, Oxford University Press, New York 1984.

Relationship between Caliban and Prospero in Act I of The Tempest Essay

The short extract taken from â€Å"The Tempest† helps us learn a lot about the characters Prospero and Caliban and their relationship within the play. Prospero, when we first meet him, emerges as a very controlling and dominant figure on the island, mainly because he refers to the character Caliban as his â€Å"slave†. This shows us that Prospero must be a powerful man and that he has authority over the island and its people. Prospero uses his power to abuse Caliban, and he threatens him with phrases such as â€Å"thou shalt have cramps, side-stitches...† if he does not comply with his orders. But when Caliban refuses to obey him, Prospero resorts to insults in order to control him because he tells Miranda, his daughter, â€Å"But, as ‘tis/We cannot miss him† meaning that they cannot survive on the island themselves. Through the language used, we quickly learn how Prospero believe that he is â€Å"above† Caliban, because he calls him names like â€Å"savage†, â€Å"hag-seed† and â€Å"poisonous†. Caliban, however, is not a weak and passive slave as one might expect. Instead he threatens both Prospero and his daughter, â€Å"...

English Language Learners at the Elementary Level Essay

During English learning sessions, learners who are not native English speakers or those who English is not their first language have been identified to have anxiety and a sense of being alienated in to a language they do not belong or understand, have found themselves in crisis when trying to pass information using a language they are not certain and much concerns have been raised over the self-typifying era of being uncertain in whatever they do. All these have been recognized as themes of the philosophy of existentialism. These themes have significant implications for practicing education practice in learning English language. This philosophical paper has a number of purposes. First, it seeks to clarify the five philosophies of education. Their definition and explanation of what they are and what they are not forms one of the aims for this research paper. The position of existentialism is explained in relation to those other philosophies. This philosophy is clarified explicitly and the most common deviations from what the philosophy is are highlighted. Too often, existentialism is by mistake assumed to refer to an individual’s atomistic view. Such individual is assumed or imagined to be in a capacity to exercise his or her absolute right of freedom. The clarification of this issue is made by three philosophers namely Kierkegaard, Nietzsche and Heidegger. Secondly, this philosophical paper aims at applying the philosophies of education in the context of learners of English language at elementary level. It presents an outline of an existential framework which is structures mainly around and about the notion of English language learner who Is specifically at elementary level who is depicted as being in relation, embedded to a certain notion and language culture, a learner who is totally alienated in a world or environment where English is the popular and desirable language and is determined to make meaning out of his or her current status of being meaningless. These attributes have one on one implication for the ideal ‘English speaking and writers’. These impacted people are those who have been taught English as their mother tongue language or have learned the language sufficiently such that it is almost impossible to identify those who were born and taught English as the language of the earth and those who just perfected their English skills at a later stage of their lives, either at primary or secondary level of education. Again, these attributes have impact on the so called ‘English man’ which is more often than not articulated as the aim of introducing English lessons in most of the worlds education programmes. Attaining utmost understanding of English and being in a position to communicate as perfect as ‘Irish man’ using English according to this framework means being authentic, critical and having attained a personal identity as an English language speaker. A third aim of this paper is make argument on how English language learners at elementary level may usefully and successfully apply the philosophy of existentialism in creating identities in English language classes and practice sessions. By applying the philosophy, learners stand a chance of self discovery through active participation and while they enjoy the freedom of choosing what they feel is best for them. The existentialism philosophy is in support of the ideas of pedagogical approaches in education. English learning requires such an approach and by this means, learners are able to effectively examine the approaches by use of crises and anxiety generated from existentialism philosophy. English language syllabus for elementary level as well as other programmes and policies that support English learning stand a chance of being critiqued using the philosophy. Research Questions This research paper shall try to answer few questions that arise whenever the subject of educational philosophy is put on table. First, what is the definition of existentialism as a philosophy in education? What does existentialism entail? What cannot be referred when defining existentialism and what is antagonistic to existentialism? Which of the educational philosophies can be applied in the process of learning English as language? Of all the applicable philosophies, which one is the best to adopt while teaching or learning English language?

Explain the Differences Between Pangloss’s Philosophy Essay

Pangloss’s philosophy of life is that all is for the best in the â€Å"best of all possible worlds. † This optimistic philosophy actually is the key element of Voltaire’s satire. Pangloss’s philosophy is against the ideas of the Enlightenment period. Pangloss believes that a powerful God had created the world and that, therefore, the world must be perfect. When creatures of the world, see something as wrong or evil, it is because they do not understand the ultimate good that will come out of it. Voltaire satirically shows the reader that Pangloss is not a believable character. Voltaire illustrates this by showing us that he keeps his optimistic thought even when he is imprisoned. Pangloss ignores any evidence that contradicts his initial opinion. He also uses illogical arguments to support his beliefs. Pangloss’s philosophy tries to impose a passive attitude toward all that is wrong in the world. If the world is the best one possible, then there is no reason to make any effort to change things. Martin is more believable than Pangloss, not because he is more sophisticated, but because he is smarter and more likely to draw conclusions with which we can identify. Martin had been robbed by his wife and beaten by his son and deserted by his daughter and also lived financial setbacks, and therefore he’s a pessimist whereas Pangloss is an optimist. He uses his experiences to judge the world whereas Pangloss was merely using a theory. As a result, Martin is more insightful than Pangloss to foresee events that will happen. Even though Martin’s philosophy is more believable than Pangloss’s, he’s still not good at predicting how some people will behave because his philosophy is coming from extreme pessimism. Therefore it might not be wrong to say that Voltaire is trying to prove that we need flexible thought in our lives based on real evidence. Both philosophers will ultimately fail because there’s no room for exceptions in their beliefs. Candide starts his journey with the influence of Pangloss’s belief of â€Å"best of all possible worlds†. Pangloss and Candide, suffer and witness a wide variety of horrors and tragedies together. During these tragedies, Pangloss’s s philosophy proves to be useless and even destructive at the end, because it prevents them from making realistic judgments. For example while Jacques was drowning, Pangloss doesn’t let Candide save him by saying that the bay of Lisbon had been formed for this Anabaptist to drown in. Also when Candide was buried under the rubble of the Lisbon earthquake, he asked for oil and wine because he was dying, but Pangloss ignored him and still tried to reason with the causes of the earthquake. At the end Candide rejects his philosophy of optimism and as he and his servant Cacambo travel and go through more horrors, Candide starts believing a pessimistic view of life. When Candide meets Martin, they set sail together and Martin is just the opposite of Pangloss. He does not believe that everything is for the best in this world. Even though Candide tries to oppose Martin by talking about free will but it does not solve the problem of presence of evil in the world. In general, Martin’s arguments seem more reasonable than Pangloss’s ideas. But, like Pangloss, Martin believes so firmly in his own view of the world that he is not flexible and usually dismisses real evidence that contradicts his philosophy. When Candide cannot find Cunegonde, Martin shows the bad influence of his pessimism. Instead of attempting to comfort his friend, Martin uses Candide’s distress to further confirm his own world-view. Just like Pangloss’s optimism, Martin’s pessimism also keeps him from taking initiative to improve the world.

Impact of Terrorism and Violence on Global Tourism

Introduction According to World Travel and Tourism Council 1997, â€Å"Tourism Industry is the world’s prominent industries contributing $3. 6 trillion to the global gross domestic product (GDP) and employing 255 million people†. (Apostolopoulos, Sonmez &Tarlow 1999). It is also considered one of the most exciting and progressive industries which has a big impact on all other industries. Although tourism industry has shown tremendous growth in recent years providing incredible experiences to its consumers yet it remains highly prone to natural (e. g. Tsunami, Hurricane & volcanic eruptions) and human caused calamities (e. g. war, crime & terrorism). This essay therefore discusses about terrorism in relation to tourism. It focuses on the impacts of terrorism on global tourism and provides an understanding of the relationship between political instability, terrorism and tourism. Tourism, Political Instability and Violence Definition of terrorism† : ?† The US Department of State defines terrorism as â€Å". . . premeditated, politically motivated violence perpetrated against civilians and unarmed military personnel by sub national groups†¦ sually intended to influence an audience†Ã¢â‚¬  ? (Sihmez 1998)   Definition of political instability† : ?† Political instability describes the condition of a country where a government â€Å"has been toppled, or is controlled by factions following a coup, or where basic functional pre-requisites for social-order control and maintenance are unstable and periodica lly disrupted†Ã¢â‚¬  ? (Cook 1990, cited in Sihmez 1998). The study of D’Amore & Anuza 1986 states that, â€Å"Closer scrutiny of terrorism- for the purpose of understanding some of its underlying currents-begs a look at world conditions. As a new millennium is about to begin, nations wrestle with hunger, disease, and numerous other socioeconomic and environmental problems, which are further exacerbated by the alarming growth in the world’s population rate, the combination of which may nurture terrorism. It is suggested that terrorist organizations can easily recruit members by offering better conditions to people living in undesirable circumstances in undeveloped nations†. Therefore, in a situation where terrorism is on rise, safety and stability are the two factors that cannot be ignored while undertaking travel to other countries. Over the years, tourism industry has undergone tremendous changes wherein crime and violence have increased to a great extent. Such exertions have had a big impact on tourists altering their travel. Political instability can be categorised into various forms such as: international war, riots, social unrest, civil war, terrorism etc. â€Å"Most of the evidence on tourist motivations points to fear and insecurity as a major barrier to travel and thus a limitation on the growth of the industry. In addition to the openly stated fear there is often an expression of lack of interest in travel, which can mask an underlying fear. In these circumstances, the possibility of terrorism, however remote, will have an effect on the tourism demand of a large number of potential tourists. † (eds Mansfeld & Pizam1996) Political instability and tourism can be best explained with an example of crackdown by Chinese government on students who protested in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square In a volume edited by Mansfeld & Pizam (1996), â€Å"The sight of tanks rolling into the Square; the violent battles between students and troops; the steadfastly uncompromising attitude of Chinese authorities; it was all watched by the world on prime-time television. And most people living in free societies felt revulsion and anger; those planning holidays to China cancelled, while those with a vague notion of visiting the country put it on hold for the distant future- if ever† General impacts of terrorism and political disturbances upon the tourism industry Even its demonstrated economic success does not shield international tourism from the sinister power of terrorism† (Sonmez, Sevil F. , 1998). No country is safe from the threat of terrorism and research has shown that no part of the world has been spared by it. The fear of a totally unexpected terrorist attack grips the mind of today’s tourist, irrespective of region he is travelling to. Terrorism started to t ake its toll on tourism from mid 80’s, when international tourism was at its peak (Sonmez, Sevil F. 1998), and it became a major concern for many countries. Its impacts vary from direct to indirect and individual to global. Usually, after a terrorist attack or violence erupted due to political clashes, a destination recovers back to its normal inflow of tourists in about a quarter, but some major incidents can also affect tourist visitation for a longer period of time, the reason being over popularity by the media (Sihmez, 1998). For example, India was overexposed in the media after the Mumbai attacks in November 2008 which has had a negative effect on inbound tourism to India during the first quarter of 2009 (Tourism Forecasting Committee, 2008). Political disturbance, on the other hand, has long-term and deeper effects on a destination as it threatens the economy, the law and the society as a whole, thus jeopardizing the potential of a country as a tourism destination (Sihmez 1998). Economic impacts Terrorism and political turmoil mainly affect the economy of a country or a region. Worst hit are the countries, which are majorly dependent on the tourism industry. A good example can be given from 1986, when 54% of Americans who planned to go to Europe, cancelled their bookings because of the risks implied by the rise of terrorist activities during that period (D’Amore and Anuza 1986, cited in Sihmez 1998). Furthermore, countries located nearby a politically agitated country may suffer from a perceived lack of safety by tourists who associate the neighbouring countries due to geographical proximity, although travelling in the former may be without any risk. Countries often have to bear the costs of terrorism, in terms of investments in security, terrorism risk insurance premium, airport screening opportunity costs and consumer welfare losses to ensure safety and security for their people (Keefer P. , 2008). Psychological impacts Impacts of terrorism on tourist behaviour and decision-making process (Sihmez, 1998 pg. 13) however, depend on the type of tourists: business travellers and leisure travellers will not react the same way in regards to risk, as they do not have the same motivations and needs for travel. Image deterioration / Negative images Natural events such as floods, tsunami or earthquakes do not have the same impact on a country’s image as a terrorist attack has. Natural calamities may draw sympathy, and may affect inflow of tourists for a short period, but people know that natural disasters are unavoidable, so the image they form of a destination is different. Fall in tourist arrivals in these destinations may recover earlier because these destinations are not perceived as ‘unsafe’, as in case of a destination, where terrorist activity is prominent. Politically unstable environment of a destination usually has a negative and a much stronger impact on people’s mind over a longer period of time because human action is deliberate and physical injury is most of the time the aim of these actions. Examples and focus on a particular region or destination There are a lot of tourist destinations which suffer from terrorist attacks. Egypt which had almost 4 billion dollars in tourist receipts in 1999 depended a lot on the tourism revenue. However, the revenue from this sector of economy decreased due to the terrorist attacks by al-Gama’a al-Islamiya. The first attack occurred on October 1, 1992. One British tourist was killed and two others were wounded. During the five year period about 100 tourists were killed in the attacks including the tourists from Germany, Greece, Switzerland, Japan and Great Britain. One year after the first attack tourism revenue in Egypt felt by 11 percent. However, it increased by four percent in 1994 and by 34 percent in 1995. Moreover, net increase in tourist receipts between 1993 and 1997 was 93 percent (Essner, 2003). The Egyptian government managed to sustain its tourism sector and contribute to the GSP by 5% (Weaver). The factors of this success are the huge historic and cultural heritage of Egypt that keeps drawing international visitors, but also incentive measures taken by the industry in order to sustain inbound tourism. For instance, the national airline, EgyptAir, cut its airfares by 50% after the 1997 Luxor massacre of 58 tourists (Weaver). â€Å"Event in New York City and Washington D. C. on September 11, 2001 was one of the most significant terrorism attacks which occurred recently. This event influenced the economies of states which depended on the tourism industry a lot. Furthermore, the whole economy of the USA was demolished which led to the global economic slump† (Pizam, 2002). Certain sectors of the tourism industry suffered from the terrorist attack. Hotel occupancy rates decreased dramatically. It â€Å"plummeted to 41. 8 percent the week following the attacks, a 52-percent decrease from the same period in 2000† (Stafford et al, 2002). In total, 3016 people died including passengers and crew on the planes, people within or beneath the Twin Towers and on the ground at the Pentagon. This attack has certain impacts on travel and tourism industry in the USA. Security measures at the places where large number of people including tourists are likely to gather were reconsidered. The number of US National guards in the airports increased and other security measures in the airports such as better screening and checking of passengers and baggage technologies were introduced. Security measures were improved in seaports, bus stations and train station as well. It included increasing of the surveillance cameras and checkpoints. The number of security guards in these places grew up as well. Moreover, the Federal Aviation Administration set up the program of increasing the number of bomb-sniffing dogs. The FAA trained 175 dogs for 39 airports (Goodrich, 2002). Many other countries which have high rates in tourism receipts also suffered from the terrorist attacks. Establishing of an Islamic Palestinian State in place of Israel resulted in the attacks initiated by both Israelis and Palestinians. This disturbance led to dramatic drop in 1996 in the number of tourists which grew steadily between 1970 and 1994 (Sihmez Sevil F. 1998). Another example of suffering from terrorism attack is Peru. Attacks by the Sendero Luminoso (Shining Path), a Maoist terrorist group caused the decrease in number of tourists from 350,000 in 1989 to 33,000 in 1991 (Sihmez Sevil F. 1998). Word of mouth and previous experience Media Reporting & Image making Intergovernmental relationsGovernment policies and interests Figure 1: Political instability, violence and the imaging process Hall &O’Sullivan study (cited in Mansfeld & Pizam 1996) The above figure is a model of various factors that lead to image creation of the political stability of the destination region. Three factors: word of mouth, media and the government lead to the images creation of destination, in the tourist generating regions. Domestic tourism is equally affected by the occurrence of any kind of violence or terrorist activity. Many factors such as: promotion, tourist attractions, development, new routes, travel prices contribute in to reasonable changes in domestic as well as international tourism. As per the study of Bar-on (cited in Mansfeld and Pizam 1996), act of violence can affect tourism in following ways: â€Å"Tourists may fear being killed or injured. † Security checks, especially at airports, may take a long time and even be unpleasant for some tourists. † â€Å"Tour operators, travel agents and airlines may not want to risk organizing trips to specific regions. † â€Å"Travel insurance of tourists and airlines may be difficult, limited or expensive. † â€Å"Friends or relatives at the destination may advice against the proposed trip. à ¢â‚¬  This is also supported by Hall and O’ Sullivan study (cited in Mansfeld & Pizam 1996) which states that, â€Å". . . tourism may decline precipitously when political conditions appear unsettled. Tourists simply choose alternative destinations. Unfortunately, many national leaders and planners either do not understand or will not accept the fact that political serenity, not scenic or cultural attractions, constitute the first and central requirement of tourism. † Although, political violence may not last for a longer period yet it has the tendency to leave a formidable impact on the tourism industry for many years which further can affect the confidence of the tourists and also the investors in tourism industry. Crisis management and recovery methods employed by the tourism industry Tourism has been a way for under-developed and developing countries to get more revenue. Therefore tourists are a potential target for terrorist groups looking to destabilise and undermine these countries by cutting the revenue they get from tourism activities. Recent events such as 9/11, the Southeast Asian tsunami and the Bali bombings have had devastating consequences upon the tourism industry and have shown crisis management and recovery measures have become critical in managing a destination (Robson 2008). According to Santana (cited in Weber 1998), crisis management comprehends five steps: signal detection, preparation/prevention, containment/damage limitation, recovery and learning. Planning and training before, during and after the crisis have also been highlighted (Santana, cited in Weber 1998). On the one hand, research has shown the tourism industry was able to fully recover from terrorist assaults in a period of six to twelve months, at the condition these events were not repeated in the future (Pizam and Fleischer, cited in Arana 2008). However, appropriate management methods must be employed and applied by destination managers in order to ensure image destination rehabilitation. To this end, the management and coordination of human and financial resources as well as public relations through the media for example are critical when it comes to managing terrorist events at a destination (Stafford et al 2002). For instance, a set of recommendations compiling crisis management, preventive management and recovery methods through marketing could be useful for the tourism industry to restore a destination’s image (Sonmez 1998) and prevent any negative publicity from spreading (Stafford et al 2002). Furthermore, collaboration between tourism industry actors and government organisations can often be preventive and mitigate the impacts of the crisis (Stafford et al. 2002). In terms of preventive and recovery methods, tourism destinations should promote the use of information for locals and visitors (Weber 1998) in order to ensure their own safety, for example by signalling any suspicious piece of luggage in a public space through the use of official signs posted in public areas such as airports, railway stations and stadiums. The role of advertising and education as recovery methods is also of importance. For example, the ‘Vigipirate Plan’ was put in place by the French government in 1991 after several terrorist attacks took place in Europe in the nineties. It is made up of 4 levels of emergency (yellow, orange, red and purple) and has been greatly promoted in France at the local administration levels as well as to the general public, especially after massive terrorist attacks such as the March 2004 Madrid attacks and the July 2005 London bombings. Furthermore, government initiatives such as the Australian travel advisory (smartraveller. gov. au) which issues travel recommendations to destinations presenting a certain degree of risk is a preventive way to avoid any accidental or dangerous event. For example, the Australian Government gives tips about Cyprus in terms of safety and security in both the Cypriot and Turkish part of the island, as well as details about local laws, entry and exit requirements and health issues (Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade 2009). On the other hand, tourism may be a way to enhance peace, mitigate tensions between countries and recover from any negative effects of terrorism. An example of this is given by the situation between North and South Korea (Kim 2007). Research was conducted in order to evaluate the reactions of South Koreans after visiting a natural site, Mt Gumgang, an emerging tourist destination located in North Korea. The findings suggested that South Korean visitors to North Korea had a better image of the country and the people after their tourist trip, although both countries have technically been at war for decades (Kim 2007). To conclude, tourist destinations have the possibility to prevent terrorism actions from happening or mitigate their effects through combined policies of crisis management involving different participants such as governments and private/public tourism bodies. Nevertheless, although tourism is often a victim of terrorism and political disturbances, it can also be used as a tool to promote and enhance peace between countries affected by political tensions. References Adams, S. 2004, All the Troubles: Terrorism, War and the World after 9/11, Simon Adams, Australia Arana J. , 2008, The impact of terrorism on tourism demand, Annals of Tourism Research, Vol. 35, No. 2, pp. 299–315. Apostolopolous Y. , Sonmez S. & Tarlow P. 1999, Tourism In Crisis: Managing the Effects of Tourism, Journal of Travel Research, Vol. 38, No. 1, viewed 17 May, http://jtr. sagepub. com. ezproxy. lib. uts. edu. au/cgi/content/abstract/38/1/13 Bar-On R. , ‘Measuring the effects on tourism of violence and of promotion following violent acts’, in Mansfeld Y. & Pizam A (eds), Tourism, Crime and International Security Issues, John Wiley & Sons Ltd. , pp. 159-160 Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade 2009, last viewed May 17th 2009, http://www. smartraveller. gov. au/ Essner J. 2003, Terrorism’s Impact on Tourism: What the Industry May Learn from Egypt’s Struggle with al-Gama’a al-Islamiya, viewed on May 15,2009, http://sand. miis. edu/research/student_research/Essner_Tourist%20Terrorism. pdf Hall C. & O’ Sullivan V. , ‘Tourism, political instability and violence’, in Mansfeld Y. & Pizam A (eds), Tourism, Crime and International Security Issues, John Wiley & Sons Ltd. , pp. 105-114 Kim S. , 2007, Using tourism to promote peace on the Korean peninsula, Annals of Tourism Research, Vol. 34, No. 2, pp. 291–309. Mansfeld Y. & Pizam A. , ‘Conclusions and Recommendations’, Tourism, Crime and International Security Issues, John Wiley & Sons Ltd. , pp. 311-312 Mueller J. 2007, Reacting to Terrorism: Probabilities, Consequences and the persistence of Fear, Ohio State University, viewed 17 May, http://scholar. google. com. ezproxy. lib. uts. edu. au/scholar? hl=en&lr=&q=REACTING+TO+TERRORISM%3A+PROBABILITIES%2C+CONSEQUENCES%2C+AND+THE+PERSISTENCE+OF+FEAR&btnG=Search Pizam A. 2002, Tourism and Terrorism, Hospitality Management, Vol. 21, No 1–3 Robson, L. , 2008, Crisis Management in Tourism, Annals of Tourism Research, Vol. 35, No. 2, pp. 600–601. Sihmez Sevil F. 1998, Tourism, Terrorism and Political Instability, Annals of Tourism Research, Vol. 25, No. 2. Sonmez, S. F. 1998, Tourism, Terrorism and Political Instability, Annals of Tourism Research, Vol. 25, No. 2. Stafford, G. Et al, 2002, Crisis Management and Recovery, Cornell Hotel and Restaurant Administration Quarterly 27, Cornell University Tourism Forecasting Committee, 2008, Forecast 2008, Issue 2, Tourism Forecasting Committee, Canberra, pp 91-92 Weaver D. , Tourism Management, 2000 Weber, S. 1998, War, Terrorism and Tourism, Annals of Tourism Research, Volume 25, Issue 3, Pages 760-763 ———————– Tourists Destination Region Generating Region Media Government