Positive Behaviour Support Essay

As Willert & Willert suggest, ‘positive behaviour supports developed through the implementation of simple reinforcement strategies†¦can have a significant influence on the social climate of an entire school. ’ (As cited in Zirpoli, 2012, p. 257). With this in mind, this paper aims to analyse and compare the School’s management, welfare, and discipline policies with positive behaviour support models, specifically Mayer’s (1999) constructive discipline approach. The School reflects the view that the world is multifaceted and ever changing. If you only have one way for your classroom to ‘be right’ you are setting yourself up for continued frustration and failure. Skilled teachers understand that the classroom is a complex, unpredictable, messy, and non-linear, working environment. They’ve realised, long ago, that control –especially over others is an illusion. (Gordon, as cited in School Policy, 2012, p. 2). As this is the foundation of the School’s policies it indicates that the strategies enforced have reference to ideas held within various positive behaviour support models. The School, situated in Queensland, has a student enrolment of approximately 800, catering for students from Preparatory Year to Year 7. As schools are important environments for all members to learn, teach, and grow, the School is ‘based on the belief that all students can learn and the staff accepts the responsibility to teach all students, regardless of differences, the fundamental skills required for success in the 21st Century. ’ (School Policy, 2012, p. 4). Read more:  Essays About Promote Positive Behaviour The purpose of the policy is to foster a school culture that assists its students in the development of social and emotional skills, including the ability to exercise self management and responsibility for their behavioural choices. Mayer (1999) suggests that basic student welfare policies, particularly behvaiour management, list ‘the behavioural standards required of students. ’ (p. 37). Furthermore, Mayer aptly states ‘the better ones specify the consequences for violating and following the rules [affecting and influencing] how students behave and how educators respond when students violate or follow rules. ’ (1999, p. 37). Furthermore, Turnbull & Smith-Bird explain that effective schools ‘focus on building a culture of positive reinforcement. ’ (As cited in Zirpoli, 2012, p. 327). Drawing on research, this discussion will reflect the School’s policies in regards to the development of effective school wide rules and strategies, and their consistency among all staff in the school context. (Zirpoli, 2012, p. 329). The policy starts with a brief introductory letter signed from the principal stating that ‘this document has been endorsed and developed in collaboration with all stakeholders of [the School], particularly the school’s Behaviour Management Committee. (School, 2012, p. 3). Through a general acknowledgment, the principal displays appreciation for staff and members of the school community. This introductory letters sets an inclusive tone, which is present throughout the document. The policies are ultimately aimed at the welfare of the students, and have been written as guidelines for staff and teachers. They are indicators for the parents, and general public, of the expectations placed on all members of the school community. A major factor for a supportive learning environment is communication and relationship building between parents/caregivers and the school. Cavaretta (states that ‘there is widespread support among educators and the community for the view that parents have a major role to play in education. ’ (As cited in Marsh, 2010, p. 293). There appears to be no parental voice within the document although the School documents that the philosophy is ‘to build relationships among staff, students, parents, and the community in order to maintain [the] goal of creating a peaceful environment. (School Policy, 2012, p. 6). However, the student voice is represented in the document through a Student Representative Council elected by the student body and teachers each year, ‘students who form the council will present meetings with teachers, deputies and the principal in order to voice the opinion of the student body. ’ (School Policy, 2012, p. 7). Education Queensland’s Code of School Behvaiour (Queensland Government, n. d. has provided the framework on which the School’s Responsible Behvaiour Plan (RBP) is based, defining ‘responsibilities that all members of the school community are expected to uphold and recognises the significance of appropriate and meaningful relationships. ’ (Queensland Government, n. d. ). Eclectic in composition, combining theories, strategies and practices of several educational professionals, the aim of the RBP is to ‘develop a comprehensive policy and practice that meets the holistic and varied needs of all those in the school community. ’ (School Policy, 2012, p. 8). Effective whole school rules and strategies are developed and practiced by all staff. These are universal strategies, referred to in tier one of the three-tier model of School-Wide Positive Behaviour Support (SWPBS). (Zirpoli, 2012, p. 329). The policy, in line with SWPBS states that ‘it is important that rather than follow a reactive approach to behaviour [the staff will] be proactive in dealing with inappropriate classroom and playground behaviours. ’ (School Policy, 2012, p. 8). To ensure that this criterion is met, the School has incorporated desirable behaviours into their own hierarchy of social development. To create a common language and way of discussing behaviour, the School ‘displays this hierarchy through a level ladder from A to E. Where A represents excellent behaviour, B represents good behaviour, C represents satisfactory behvaiour, D represents behaviour that needs attention and E represent unacceptable behaviour. ’ (School Policy, 2012, p. 8). While some schools adhere exclusively to one particular model, the School, using effective school wide behaviour support programs, draws its content from various dominant models. These include Glasser’s Choice Theory; in which people are responsible for their own behaviour, Restorative Justice; to bring resolution, restitution, and restoration of relationships damaged by behaviour, Ford’s Responsible Thinking Process; where students are responsible for their behaviour and need to find ways to achieve goals without disrupting others, and Roger’s Positive Behaviour Leadership; which includes the establishment of clear rules, rights, and responsibilities. (School Policy, 2012, p. 9). The theoretical basis of the policies are consistent with Mayer’s (1999) Constructive Discipline approach of which the ‘emphasis is on prevention and teaching desirable behaviour rather than punishing, reducing or eliminating undesirable behaviour. ’ (p. 38). The School policy states that ‘values and rules have prominence when students are faced with making decisions and judgments about how they should behave and relate to others. ’ (2012, p. 10). Based on the National Goals for Schooling in Australia, the School values are acceptance, self-discipline, honesty, manners, opportunity, respect, and excellence. This reinforces the constructive discipline approach, as ‘the list should be kept simple and to the point. ’ (Mayer, 1999, p. 39). These values coincide with the rules of each year level. However, the policy did not detail the student input in classroom rules, contradicting the constructive approach where ‘all relevant parties should be†¦involved in the development of rules’ (Mayer, 1999, p. 39). The documents provide a program of rules in relation to each of the values, for all year levels. In accordance with Rademacher, Callhan and Pederson-Seelye (1998, p. 86) rules are positively stated, with a verb at the beginning. For example, the rule applied to the value ‘opportunity’ for a Year 1 student is stated as ‘allow others to learn by listening and not interrupting,’ (School Policy, 2012, p. 68), while that of a Year 7 student is ‘display initiative. ’ (School Policy, 2012, p. 74). The School Rules include ‘respect, safety, learning, communication, and problem solving’ (School Policy, 2012, p. 13). The document goes on to explain ‘there are no rights without responsibilities,’ (2012, p. 4), stating the rights and responsibilities in accordance to the rule. The policy takes in to account the constructive discipline approach that conveys the need for rules to be to the point and positive. Mayer states ‘a positive list will guide students in how to behave in reference to how not to behave –a more instructive and less suppressive approach. ’ (1999, p. 39). The behvaiour management coalition, in conjunction with the school community, recognises that ‘one of the keys to a harmonious environment is being able to identify when and how relationships need repair. ’ (School Policy, 2012, p. 6 ). In the policy is a flow chart of the SWPBS, the three tiered model, incorporating whole school behaviour support, target ed behaviour support and intensive behaviour support. Under each of these tiers the policy lists ‘proactive school processes and proactive classroom processes. ’ (School Policy, 2012, p. 17). In the School, typically, each classroom develops individual plans that incorporate a series of steps that responds to positive and rule abiding behaviours. This can include ‘verbal praise, acknowledgement, positive reinforcement, or a gold slip. ’ (School Policy, 2012, p. 9). This is in accordance with the constructive discipline approach where ‘the school environment becomes more reinforcing and less punitive. ’ (Mayer, 1999, p. 38). On the other hand, students who exhibit unacceptable behaviours move through steps of responses that may include ‘warning and rule reminder, time out in the classroom, time out in another behaviour time out classroom, or an incident behaviour slip. ’ (School Policy, 2012, p. 20). This contradicts the constructive discipline approach as parental support is not brought in until an incident behaviour slip is given. Whereas Mayer believes ‘continued parental support is helpful for classroom and schoolwide rules to be effective. ’ (1999, p. 40). Behaviour feedback sheets are used to ‘make students accountable for their behaviour choices’ (School Policy, 2012, p. 24). Similarly, the peacemakers program ‘is a preventative approach to encourage responsible behaviour in the playground. ’ (School Policy, 2012, p. 26). Students who are in need of intensive behaviour support, tier three of the SWPBS, will have imminent action where teachers liaise with parents, chaplian, guidance officers and outside agencies. The Policy provides an intervention flow chart where ‘appropriate intervention is implemented’ (School Policy, 2012, p. 38) once the student has been sent to ‘time out in another classroom’ a minimum of five times. Studies have shown that ‘removal from instruction constitutes negative reinforcement for both student and teacher. ’ (Scott, Nelson, Liaupsin, 2001, p. 314). This is reinforced as Zirpoli states ‘students are frequently sent to timeout for periods of time that are too long and serve only to provide teachers with a break from the student. (2012, p. 374). As a reactive approach to behaviour management, removal from the classroom contradicts the constructive discipline. The School Policy does, however provide cnsideration of individual circumstances stating that ‘the academic, social, behavioural, emotional, physical, and cultural needs of students are considered when structuring and delivering all learning experiences’ which consists with Pacchiano (2000) teachers ‘have to be willing to look at comprehensive instructional variable and their relationship with the students problem behaviour. The policy concludes that responses to inappropriate behaviour are also flexible in that ‘consideration is given to the particular situation, context, preceding events, a student’s individual circumstances, the actions of the student and the needs and rights of the school community members. ’ (School Policy, 2012, p. 38). This is evident in practice as consequential responses are decided upon after discussion, case conferencing and by utilizing a restorative practice framework rather than just implementing a punitive measure . Drawn from data collection, including frequency, duration, rate and the intensity of the behaviour (School Policy, 2012, p. 13) provided by teachers, members of staff, and outside agencies Furthermore the School’s welfare, management and discipline policy includes policies for the appropriate use of own electronic medium, SunSmart, acceptable usage of information technology, lockdown, homework, dress code, cyber safety, and anti-bullying, all of which must be signed by both the student and parent/caregiver upon enrolment of the School. Along with this the school offers a variety of student services and support programs including chaplaincy, guidance officer, learning enrichment team, special education programs, speech language pathologist, and the workshop (a hands on manual arts experience). In conclusion, evidence has been provided to display both contradictory and consistent elements of the School’s policy in accordance with the constructive discipline approach.

Blue Parker Original Writing: The Blitz

It started out as a normal day; birds were singing and the autumn leaves were falling, each golden, crisply leaf floating to the golden carpet of the woodland. Everyone in the village smiled and said, â€Å"Hello† as you passed them by, the sun was shining like a shimmering coin. Trees were dancing in the mid-day breeze which lightly blew through the perfect air†¦ That was until a growing cloud started to shroud my village and eclipsed the sun. That was until the rain shot down like bullets. That was until my home was blitzed by the German army. The quiet and tranquil morning was suddenly replaced with chaos and fear. No longer did the citizens not stop to say hello, instead they dashed into their homes. No longer did bird song echo on the breeze. Now only the sound of chaos and fear remained. The black mist closed upon my village; it was in complete darkness. Then I saw them; the fighter planes which elegantly swooped down like a graceful yet vicious swarm. The planes dived and ducked to violently attack my home land. In the air I could smell fear mixed with a smoky blitz of burning buildings; the odour of engine oil, gunpowder, smoke; the unforgettable stench of dust which ate through the smoky polluted air. The silent clouds above sneaked through the frozen sky. The scent of tense anticipation hung in the air, until †¦.. Crash†¦. Boom! The bullets and blaze covered my village in a thunderous crackling wave of panic and despair. The inferno took hold and the flames flared like grotesque dancers approaching the finale of their show. The cold morning was replaced with an orange glow as the flames began to devour the village. The buildings burned one by one leading up to the church, where the priests stayed vainly believing that they would be safe in the 400 year old masterpiece. The cathedral was as white as snow and stood at a staggering height, apposing the fire until the moment of reckoning finally came: the church was defeated by the orange, glowing demon which got stronger and stronger as it ate through my village. My usually quiet village was in ruins the perfect landscape ruined. Roads became blackened dirt tracks, houses became shacks and people†¦ became corpses. Flashes of red and orange ate the buildings throughout the village, buildings were falling, crashing and burning. Was it a horrible dream? I didn’t care; I had to run. I kept running towards the safest place which ironically was the tallest building in the whole of the village. As I stumbled over the hill, which blocked the telephone tower‘s view, I was astonished to find it their, sizzling in the soaring heat that beamed down. It was just lying there like a sleighed knight. My plan was a failure. What now? Everyone around me raced towards the next town (Greenford) it was every man for himself people frantically clawed passed each other. Desperate people fled the village, there were no attempts to calm or put out the blazing monster which tore the village apart, nobody helped the trapped helpless people that were taken captive by the evil red monster. As for me, I followed the desperate horde of people to safety. But would the next village get bombed then the next then where do we go? The next day came. All around me I could see nothing but death and destruction. The village was ruined. Buildings, once standing proud and beautiful were nothing more that blackened shells. Lone people, hysterically crying, wandered from building to building in the hope that they might salvage something. The German planes had left hours ago, flying away safely and smugly satisfied with the havoc and devastation they had reeked. The enemy had gone but the consequences of war remained.

Milgram Obedience Review Essay

â€Å"Obedience is as basic an element in the structure of social life as one can point to. Some system of authority is a requirement of all communal living, and it is only the person dwelling in isolation who is not forced to respond, with defiance or submission, to the commands of others. For many people, obedience is a deeply ingrained behavior tendency, indeed a potent impulse overriding training in ethics, sympathy, and moral conduct. The dilemma inherent in submission to authority is ancient, as old as the story of Abraham, and the question of whether one should obey when commands conflict with conscience has been argued by Plato, dramatized in Antigone, and treated to philosophic analysis in almost every historical epoch. Conservative philosophers argue that the very fabric of society is threatened by disobedience, while humanists stress the primacy of the individual conscience. The legal and philosophic aspects of obedience are of enormous import, but they say very little about how most people behave in concrete situations. I set up a simple experiment at Yale University to test how much pain an ordinary citizen would inflict on another person simply because he was ordered to by an experimental scientist. Stark authority was pitted against the subjects’ strongest moral imperatives against hurting others, and, with the subjects’ ears ringing with the screams of the victims, authority won more often than not. The extreme willingness of adults to go to almost any lengths on the command of an authority constitutes the chief finding of the study and the fact most urgently demanding explanation.† This is from ‘perils of obedience’ by Stanley milgram. I enjoyed this article.

Company Law Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words - 1

Company Law - Essay Example However, under certain circumstances, it has been identified that courts may disregard this principle. Correspondingly, corporate veil is a legal notion that separates the characteristics of a business from that of the characteristics of its shareholders, which further defends the shareholder from becoming liable for the debts and other legal obligations associated with the company. It simply signifies that the creditors of the company cannot claim personal assets of the owner; instead, they could claim only for the assets related to the entity2. In this regard, lifting the corporate veil is another legal notion of the company law enacted in the UK which is intended to signify that there is no distinction between the rights and duties of a corporate body and its members. In this context, it has been noted that, lifting the corporate veil will no longer make the owner or investors of the company to enjoy the benefits or protection as per the law related to the corporate body. Simultan eously, the notion of lifting the corporate veil will also make shareholders of the company liable for any probable debts and liability owned by the corporate body3. Based on this context, the paper will highlight the various aspects related with the company law of the UK and the reluctance of the UK courts to lift the corporate veil, except in the most exceptional cases. U.K Company Law and Corporate Veil The UK company law comprises specific standards and regulations regarding the corporate operations in the UK. One of the prime intentions of the law is to set regulations regarding the claims of the corporate body. It has been noted that there are various approaches, which companies adopt in order to conduct their business; out of which, certain approaches might not be in favour of the stakeholders of the company. In order to limit those approaches, the government of the country are often engaged in developing the company laws. The laws mainly intend to ensure proper conduct of th e companies, which are both legal as well as ethical at the same time. The companies in the UK are primarily governed under the Company Act 2006, which was recently amended in the year 2009. The updated or revised presentation of the UK company law is further observed to be quite simple as well as more flexible, which further facilitates in easy understanding of the rules and regulations by the corporate members. The revised edition of the law aims at enhancing the liabilities of the shareholders towards its various business operations4 5. Lifting the Corporate veil is one of the sections or contents of the UK company law that falls under the Companies Act 2006. It is fundamentally referred to the decision of the law, which signifies that any claim or the liability of the corporate body is separable to the members of the corporate entity. Accordingly, when a creditor of the company discovers that a debtor or the company is insolvent, the creditor of the company usually seeks to reco ver the debt from the members of the company including directors, shareholders and at times, with the associate of the company. In such scenario, when assets of the company are insufficient to meet the claims of creditors, the court may make the members of th

The art and Science of Teaching Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words - 1

The art and Science of Teaching - Essay Example Because of this, the academia has continuously tried to define and categorize teaching, in order to determine and improve its efficacy. These attempts of categorization have often led to perceiving teaching variously as â€Å"science† and â€Å"art†, pitting one definition against the other. Students can be from different age groups, regions, social backgrounds, may be eager or not so keen to learn, may have different personalities. The same goes for teachers. Subjects may vary from micro biology to dancing and all the other things between and beyond. Despite this diversity, or perhaps because of it, there is an undeniable need for standardized teaching techniques, so that the extraneous factors affect the learning process but little, and maximum knowledge is imparted effectively to maximum number of students, in the shortest possible time. This calls for a scientific approach to teaching, which recommends the use of a pre-determined methodology to aid learning. The application of operant conditioning to education is simple and direct. Teaching is the arrangement of contingencies of reinforcement under which students learn.....Teachers arrange special contingencies which expedite learning, hastening the appearance of behavior which would otherwise be acquired slowly. (Skinner, 1968) Proponents who perceive teaching as a science believe that it is possible to eliminate chance from the process of education, which can be ordered, monitored and controlled, much like in a scientific experiment. According to them, this can be achieved by the careful choice of learning materials and the rate at which they are introduced, modulated student-teacher interactions, and most importantly, an unbiased focus on learning outcomes. Teaching, like science, is at its best when it is passionate. But like good scientists (and unlike artists) teachers need not--should not be captivated by their own performance.

Urban Transportation Problems Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Urban Transportation Problems - Assignment Example g this, there are two policies that present problems: the first, that city governments mismanage curb parking, and second, that city governments required developers to provide free parking or extensive off-street parking (Klein, 2006). In truth, free parking is not free, since easily the required parking for a business establishment, such as a restaurant, may occupy a space three times that of the establishment itself. In the US, the subsidy to parking may easily reach $127 billion to $374 billion annually, not yet counting curb parking which is either free or underpriced (Shoup, 2005). Furthermore, it makes people feel that they are entitled to free parking as a right. Free parking and off-street parking, when carried to excess, tends to â€Å"increase traffic congestion and air pollution, distort urban form, degrade urban design, increase housing costs, limit homeownership, damage the urban economy, harm the central business district, and penalize poor families (Shoup, 2005:592). More importantly, it has an effect on the demand for public mass transportation facilities. Because parking becomes convenient, there is a general tendency for people to choose to travel in their own private cars, instead of taking public transportation, or even in lieu of cycling and walking (Shoup, 2005:2-3). It was found that in urban neighbourhoods that are required to provide parking spaces, residents were 28% more likely to travel by automobile than residents in areas where parking supply is optional and therefore less (Litman, January 2010). Since private cars would be able to carry travellers from their homes to within close proximity to their destination, the c onvenience afforded by free parking makes it the transportation medium of choice. Pursuant to Anthony Down’s triple convergence principle, there are three types of convergence: spatial convergence, when drivers tend to come together at peak hours to a principal thoroughfare; time convergence, when more cars elect to

Five Ways Leading to the Mystical Union Assignment

Five Ways Leading to the Mystical Union - Assignment Example St. Teresa said let me suffer or die. They look at their old selves with disgust. In raising oneself to purity one has to be ready, for example poverty is common, so one has to endure pain and suffering. This phase has two components; mortification and detachment. The later refers to voluntary poverty, which according to the Catholic Church is chastity where, there is cleansing of the soul from all personal desires. Finally one must obey the voice and teachings of God. A good example is the biblical beatitude that says, blessed are the poor in spirit, for they shall receive the kingdom of God. The mystic must detach from all material stuff and aim for purity, because God is pure. Mystics here choose to associate with only clean creatures. Material possessions usually cloud our aim for reaching purity. According to St. John of The Cross, we are nothing; we have nothing and therefore lack nothing. Mortification on the other hand is purification, to ensure the death of old habits of the old self, which prevents oneself from becoming a new being. Any necessary physical and mental torture is required to free oneself from earthly pleasures and satisfaction. It can only stop when one has shed selfhood. Love of all people and creatures, plus service to humanity is important. Old days had the step of physical torture, which included several ways of crucifying oneself. 3) Illumination. This stage transfers self centeredness into a God-centered world. Once detached from earthly attathchments, the mystic is sure of the existence of God. The mystic and the superior being are not yet one, the relationship can be compared to betrothal but not marriage. There is consciousness of the presence of God; therefore there is joy and pleasure. It is a... The essay "Five Ways Leading to the Mystical Union" describes five ways to achieve the state of union with reality and considers the nature of mysticism. According to Evelyn Underhill, mysticism is the state of union with reality. But in order for mysticism to occur there has to be changed in an individual’s life, after the experience beyond human description. The first way 'The awakening of self' is a stage much higher than religious conversion. A person moves from a stage of physical limitations, placed on them by the world and moves to a state of greater revelation. People find meaning in life. The second one is 'Purgation of self'. The awakened parson goes higher, on the slow spiritual journey in order to arrive at a higher consciousness of reality. The path involves shedding off older, evil self of the world and embracing God. The next way 'Illumination' transfers self-centeredness into a God-centered world. Once detached from earthly attachments, the mystic is sure of the existence of God. The mystic and the superior being are not yet one, the relationship can be compared to betrothal but not marriage. 'The dark night of the soul' is the fourth way which is a purification of the spirit before it merges with the absolute. There is no joy but fatigue, deprivation, and darkness. The old temptation of mystics’ desire for earthly desires creeps in, due to exhaustion from friends and family. And the final way 'The unitive life' comes after years of destruction of selfhood. Here the old self is replaced by the divine self.

It took a long time, but there is now a good standard of protection Essay

It took a long time, but there is now a good standard of protection against unfair standard contract terms imposed by one par - Essay Example In the past, one party to a contract could violate the contract by exploiting the loopholes in the English Law. But today, legal safeguards are in place to stem such practices (Gretchen 2000, p.67). UK has various statutes stating that when one of the parties to a contract disobeys the contract, the other is at liberty to seek legal redress. Contract law encompasses issues as whether a validly executed contract is in place, what it entails, whether the actions of a party amounts to contract violation, and the level of compensation that a victim of contract violation is entitled to. Historical development Standard clauses were in a contract conceived out of the need for discipline among parties in business practices; however, it was insignificant in pre-commercial practices (Howells, and Weatherill, 2005p.p.101). In ancient times, the largely primitive societies employed other methods of implementing the dedication of parties to an agreement. Before the advent of contract law, deals a nd promises between individuals were done through familial connections or under religious organizations. In the ancient system premised upon barter, transactions were self-enforcing since transactions would be deemed complete by both parties at once. In contrast, Blythe (2005, p.77) argued that many parties is such transactions would notice problems with the commodities after the transaction was complete, but these historical challenges have been usually arbitrated through property law. The lack of fair standard terms in contact law would complicate the issue, since clear rules guiding the promise such as the conduct of both parties was lacking. In the ancient English law, the then primitive society continued to employ notions of issues to do with property instead of a pledge (Gretchen 2000, p.67). In the society’s ancient forms of transactions involving informal contracts, familial connections helped in securing the credit in as much the same way as when a community or an et hnic group provided hostages for the period within which the debt was to be settled. Other types of security included promising a property such as land or giving away individuals as pawns (Bar 2004, p.54). Some credit options were basically commonly accepted across board: livestock, for example, would be assigned to a concierge whose services were paid with a fixed proportion of the animal’s young ones. The problems arising from the quantification of values of assets impacted the enforceability of the largely casual agreements, especially following the expansion of business transactions beyond familial connections in the second half of the twentieth century. These business activities eventually led the development of solid, enforceable, binding laws of contracts in the modern United Kingdom (Heidemann 2007, p.35). Modern statutes put in place enforceable promises, which basically went hand in hand with the expansion of the country’s market economy. In contrast though, cases of violations of standard terms of contract even after the enactment of the first major contract law in 1977 persisted. The Unfair Contract Terms Act 1977, which basically aimed to streamline the behaviour of parties in a contract were still rampant in the United Kingdom (Forte 1999, p.121). Legal safeguards The English law of contract has sections dealing with unfair standard terms

The legend of Sleepy Hollow Washington Irving Research Paper

The legend of Sleepy Hollow Washington Irving - Research Paper Example It is also worth noting that the comedic and foolish nature of Ichabod is detectable from the strength of his imaginations. The writer uses this story for the main purpose of accentuating the fact that imaginations form a significant part of human life. Just like any other aspect of life, imaginations can lead to failure or success of the subject individual as depicted by Ichabod. The story shows that imaginations can have influence on lifestyle of an individual and may end up alienating him or her. Further the writer also shows the impotence nature of Ichabod as an element of his much involvement in imaginations. This research paper cites some of the instances used by Irvins to illustrate the power imagination in â€Å"The Legend of Sleepy Hollow†. Imaginations reinforce a lifestyle Irving also uses the allegory to show that imagination may also reinforce a way of life into an individual. As depicted in the story, Ichabod’s imagination about ghosts, demons and witches, acts as the main reason for his preference in reading the ghost stories. His imaginations make him feel that the ghosts are real thereby increasing interest for knowing about them. Most of his life he sits down to read and hear about the ghostly stories. Intuitively, these stories make him believe that anything around him is supernatural. His affection for the stories is also evident when he goes to apply everything he reads about in the real world. He walks out during the night believing that there are ghosts roaming in the midst. Just as stated by the stories he always read. The writer also depict his love for the ghostly stories, when instead of contributing to the harvest party, he divert his attention to listening to ghostly legends told by Brom (Damon-Bach & Lucinda, 38). Even though owning the farm and proposing to Katrina was the major aim for attending the harvest party, Ichabod wholly diverts to his darling stories about the ghosts. Just like the environment and family ba ckground can shape individual’s lifestyle, Ichabod’s imaginations models his love for the ghostly stories. He believes that reading the ghostly stories is the only fulfilling way he can live his daily life. The incidences show that there is no day Ichabod would have changed his lifestyle because of the belief that the ghost exist in the real world. As shown through Ichabod’s experience, in the whole story, it is true that the imaginations held by individuals can serve in alienating their life from the usual. Ichabod, whose imaginations concentrates around the existence of ghosts, lives a tough life albeit living among other human beings. He easily gets frightened at littlest things which a normal human being will always assume. When walking home during the darkest hours, he gets frightened most of the time, by the invisible thing because his imaginations had made him believe that there is a headless horseman who usually rides back in quest for his head. This sho ws a clear alienation of Ichabod from the reality just because of the imagination he holds. His alienation is also detectable in the relic that people of the society associate to him. His brand in the society was a wandering horse, trampled saddle, discarded hat, and a mysterious shattered pumpkin (Irving & Jane 56). Naturally, an individual can only associate these paraphernalia to an insane person who has lost in his societal ways. However, it is worth noting

Critically evaluate the main ideas and theories in 'The Communist Essay

Critically evaluate the main ideas and theories in 'The Communist Manifesto' by Marx and Engels - Essay Example he communist manifesto and it implications to our modern times, let us look into the theories of capitalism and communism that served as the foundations of the manifesto. Capitalism is one of the most widely discussed theories in the Communist manifesto. Here, Marx discussed at length the effects of capitalism in relation to labor. Marx considers capitalism as a specific mode of production whereby productivity is dictated by the people who controlled the mode of production (Burnham, Peter (2003). Marx sees the "bourgeois society" as advanced form of social organization whereby the people who controls the wealth also controls production (Marx and Engels, 1948). To distinguish the value of commodities, Marx presented the idea that value of use of commodities is different from their exchange value in the market. He believed that capital is created to when one purchases commodities to create another commodity that can command a higher value in the market. According to Marx, labor becomes like any other commodity under a capitalist society in the sense that labor earns less value for its service compared to the value that the capitalist derived from labor. A good example of this scenario is a person who offers his or her service to a big manufacturing company in exchange for minimum wage. Marx argued that the difference in the value of the service rendered by the employee and the value derived by the employee from the service rendered by the employee is surplus value which the capitalist earned on the expense of labor. (Marx, 1909). Under this principle, since labor has less influence and power over production, labor is continuously exploited. All throughout the discussions in the communist manifesto, Marx struggled to present how the labor sector is exploited by reason of its status in society which gives it less bargaining powers compared to the "bourgeois". For anti-capitalists, the Communist manifesto represents the history of the struggle of the proletariat and

Germany’s Violations of the Versailles Treaty Essay Example for Free

Germany’s Violations of the Versailles Treaty Essay Adolf Hitler rose to power after Germany was defeated in the First World War. There are a number of things that led Germany to be defeated in the war. For example, the British and French armies kept on advancing against Germany, the joining of the United States in the war which affected Germany greatly, the economy of Germany had already collapsed and people were starving and finally there were a lot of divisions in the army which rendered the army dis-united. After Germany was defeated in the First World War the victorious nations met in Paris where they agreed on various things and how they would deal with Germany. Under this treaty, Germany was given some conditions which it was expected to comply. For example, its army size was to be reduced to 100000 men, to accept to be responsible for the war outbreak and therefore to pay for damages that were caused by the war. These were called reparations and were to be divided amongst the victorious nations which included: Britain, French, Belgium and Italy. Hitler believed that if his army was not divided then, he could not have been defeated. He thought Germany was defeated because it was betrayed by the army but not because it was defeated by the Allies. Because of these reasons he violated the Versailles treaty by re arming. In this essay, I am going to discuss on the relationship between Germany’s aggression and her weapons or how arming his army led to the Second World War. Hitler was the leader of the Nazi party. He became a chancellor of Germany in 1933 and in 1934 he became its leader. He remained in power from that time until he committed suicide in 1945. Hitler used his oratorical skills, charisma and propagandas in putting hope to the population of Germany that had been traumatized by the war. Hitler started building up his army again increasing its size more than it was agreed. He revived the economy and also refused to accept that he was solely responsible for the First World War. He accepted only when he was promised another war by British and France. Those nations thought that by Germany paying the reparations, they could reverse their economic statuses which had been destroyed by the war but Germany refused to pay. The treaty of Versailles was signed on 28th June 1919 in the palace of Versailles near Paris. The victorious or the allied powers forced two Germans to accept the terms on behalf of the Germany. This treaty refused Germany to join the League of Nations. The territories it had conquered were taken by the allies and then shared amongst them. Germany was not allowed to have submarine and air force. The navy was to have only six war ships. Its army was limited to only 100000 men. Also Rhineland –an area of 50 miles wide was declared no man’s land or a buffer zone and Germany was not allowed to place its army there (Hoover A. J. ,1994) This treaty backfired because instead of making the world a better and safer place, it caused more problems and helped Hitler to ascend to power. Germany was not happy with those terms. They complained against its army size that it was vulnerable to attacks. It refused to pay the reparations giving the reason that its economy had been destroyed by the war, it was also bitter because it lost a tenth of its land to the victorious nations. Other nations even smaller than Germany were given free determination as opposed to Germany. The German in other states were not allowed to unite for example, the Australian Germans. They felt they were not to be blamed for the Russia was responsible. They also hated it because they were not allowed to be in the conference. This treaty created a political atmosphere for they blamed everything that went sour to the treaty and the lost war. Also whenever Hitler violated the Versailles treaty he shouted that ‘Germans have refused or want no more. He stated to them openly that he would do away with the oppressive treaty of Versailles. He promised to rearm and unite all Germans who were in other smaller nations. Germany was technical keeping to the terms but in real sense he was not. Hitler violated this treaty in many ways. For example in 1925 under the Locarno treaty he agreed that he would not cross the area bordering France, Belgium and the demilitarized Rhine land but on 7th March1936, Hitler violated this treaty by marching on to Rhineland. Britain and France complained but neither of them took action. In 1932 at a conference at Lausanne, Germany France and Britain signed a treaty to cancel the reparations that Germany was supposed to pay the allied powers. In 1935 Hitler introduced a compulsory military conscription thus mobilizing his army. These included the new navy and air force. Also in 1935 in appeasing Germany who had already started rearming himself, the treaty was violated again by allowing Germany to have submarines. This happened when Germany and Britain signed Anglo Germany Naval Agreement. In 1936, Hitler took the demilitarized territories especially in the Rhineland. In 1938, 12th March Germany entered Austria after gaining a lot mass support. On the following day, he conquered Austria and it became part of Germany. In 1938 Hitler wanted to break war unless he was allowed to take Sudetenland which was on its border. Also in the same year on September 29 the allied powers allowed Germany to take The Sedeten land and on 29th September 1938 they allowed Germany to move ahead but on condition that he would maintain world peace. At first Czechoslovakia refused but it was pressurized to accept that. In 1939 Hitler violated this treaty and occupied Czech province and Slovakia became independent. Later Hungary invaded and Czechoslovakia ceased to exist. In 1939 Hitler made demands on Poland because he wanted the Danzig province and be given a route for accessing it through the Polish Corridor. Since the time Hitler started to violate the treaty, the allies were trying to appease Germany but it proved that Germany’s desires were insatiable. Whenever he was allowed to take a section of its former colonies it insisted on all of it. When it gave an ultimatum to attack Poland, another war was promised by the allies to Germany and when he refused to bow down, he was attacked and the second war broke out in September 1939. There was a relationship between the way Hitler armed himself and the way he resulted to be aggressive. The more he equipped his army the more he became aggressive because he thought he would attack and defeat other nations. In his 2001 book Breuer says that Hitler armed himself more than before in terms of research and development. He even trained new crew members in the U-boat business. Something that was contrary to the treaty. The Germany’s military which had so many limitations after the First World War started developing new and most efficient tactics. They started using tanks and aircraft for the ground warfare. Germany also learned about more advanced ideas from British military scholars. In 1929 a German infantry officer was given the task of administering the German-Russian school which was located in Kazan. Its goal was to train Germans on how to operate tanks in Russia. Hitler was militarily creative and wanted the future war to be a totally different from the First World War (Breuer W. B. , 2001) It can be said that Hitler was sorely responsible for starting the war of 1939 because immediately he became the Chancellor of Germany in 1933 he began building up his army secretly. He also started compulsory army conscription. All these moves were against the Versailles treaty and although the allies were aware of this, they tried to appease Hitler so that he could help them fight against the spread of communism which had proved to be a big threat to them. They thought that by making Germany stronger, it would check the spread of communism. This policy of appeasement continued until Germany went as too far as to attack Poland (Weinberg G. , 1994) Hitler felt that he was fully prepared for the war because of the loyalty he received from his people plus the outstanding army he had built. He had a very potent army and his air force had become second to none in the whole world. He prepared his army with the new war strategy called blitzkrieg (lightning war) where by heavy ground armies were established and many war aircrafts accompanied these men who were highly mobile. This was a new strategy which had never been seen before. He believed that he was a great power in Europe and thus there was a need to strengthen his army. That is why in 1933 he ordered war planes to be increased to one thousand and army barracks were built. He even quit the Geneva conference after his plan of having his army to re-arm to the level of French or French to his level was refused. For the next two years his military might expand in secret and by 1935 march, he felt that he was prepared enough to arm his Nazi army publicly thus violating the Versailles treaty. As time went by, Germany had 300,000 army men and 2,500 war planes in Luftwaffe and Wehrmacht respectively. He ordered the army to be comprised of 550,000 men. In 1936, he repossessed the Rhineland, in 1938 he annexed Austria and in 1938 he demanded to be allowed to occupy Sudeten land at Munich. In 1939 he took over Bohemia and Monrovia and then made strident move to acquire back his territory –Danzig at the Polish Corridor. The attack he made on Poland is what led to the Second World War outbreak. To conclude this essay, we can say that Hitler idea of building up his army made him to feel that he was ready to face any other nation that appeared to be a threat to him. He assumed that no other nation especially the allied powers would dare attack him and that is why he went ahead to reclaim all the territories that had been taken from him and were now being administered by the victorious powers like France and Britain. If the Versailles treaty was not violated, perhaps then there could not have been a second world war. Reference: 1) Breurer W. B. ,( 2001) Deception of World War II, New York: John Wiley and Sons Inc 2) Hoover A. J. , God (1999) Britain and Hitler in World War II: the view of the British clergy, 1939-1945. Praeger publishers. 3) Weinberg G. L, (1994) A World at Arms: A global history of World War II, Cabridge, Cabridge University Press.

Domestic reforms in the period up to 1529 Essay Example for Free

Domestic reforms in the period up to 1529 Essay With what success did Wolsey carry through his domestic reforms in the period up to 1529? Wolsey was a fortunate man and with some success carried through the domestic reforms. He usually had the aim to achieve greater power and more control. In this essay I will study how successful Wolsey actually was and why. Wolsey became Lord Chancellor in 1515, which gained him the most important office of the State. He was also at the very centre of government. Living so close to West Minster and the Royal Courts of Justice gave Wolsey the opportunity to parade around and demonstrate the power he had as Henry VIIIs chief minister and leading chairman. Wolsey managed to retain the kings favour and was therefore with some success able to carry through his own domestic reforms. He certainly didnt want many people influencing the king and so kept and eye on the gentlemen of the Privy Chamber. Henry VIII used the Privy Chamber as Henry VII had done but rather than being alone he liked to be surrounded by gentlemen of his own age. These men were extremely close to the king and could exercise considerable influence. By 1518 Wolsey became concerned by this and so placed his own man, Richard Pace to be gentlemen in audience of the King. After this he seized his chance and expelled many of the minions for bad influence or sent them to do jobs away from the centre of power. Wolsey had managed to keep his power by encouraging the King in his pleasures and therefore had his chance to strike again, this time with the suggestion of reforming the government. Henry interested in this willingly agreed. Wolsey managed to expel the minions with such success that he had no need to carry on reforming. This suggests that Wolsey tried to maintain sole influence over the King. I think that because Henry wasnt a great deal interested, Wolsey had a better chance of success and having had the power to persuade the king also helped him to succeed. In 1526 Wolsey also proposed to reform the royal household, the Eltham Ordinances were introduced. Theses were designed to give Wolsey as much control as possible over those close to the king and reduce the size of the Privy Chamber. Wolsey was successful with this as the amount of people went from 12 down to 6. He managed to remove his chief enemy, William Compton, and replace him with Henry Norris. Wolsey also devised a council attendant on the king but made sure they were always busy elsewhere. Wolsey was successful in reforming the household and this is shown by the things he managed to do. The changes were meant to cut costs but once he had achieved his objectives and removed the people who may influence the king he had no reason to proceed. Wolseys greatest impact was in legal reform. In 1516 he put forward a reforming plan which was intended to end the corruption in the legal system and provide cheap and impartial justice. This reform was a success in that he exposed and punished many individuals. He based the centre of his work with the court of the Star Chamber. Wolsey made this court very popular and the evidence to prove this is that it had 120 cases per year, which was 10 times the annual total Henry VII had in his reign. Wolsey was successful as he put the Earl of Northumberland into prison for corruption of the court and in 1517 he sent a royal chancellor, Sir Robert Sheffield, to the tower for being an accessory to a crime. Respect for Wolsey increased because of this, but enemies were also made. A quote from Wolsey to the King shows how successful he was and how much power he did have to exercise. And for your realm, Our Lord be thanked, it was never in such peace or tranquillity: for all this summer I have neither of riot, felony, nor forcible entry, but that your laws be in every place indifferently (fairly) ministered, without leaning in any manner. The letter goes on to say how successful in reforming the laws in the Star Chamber but also that he had some power over the King as he writes how he is going to deal with the two men rather than asking what he should do. He explains that people will understand the new law of the Star Chamber. Wolsey also had some success with the Court of Chancery as he managed to increase the work. Wolsey has been credited with making a major contribution to English law through his decisions, which created precedents. He managed to establish a permanent judical committee dealing with cases brought by the poor, who he favoured, which created enemies of richer people. Wolsey wanted to see courts available for the poor and weak, since they stood little chance against the rich and strong in common law courts where large sums of money was required to succeed. Yet within these courts many honest people were put on trial. A contemporary source, the Chronicle of Edward Hall dated 1526 explains how Wolsey letting the poor people have a court led to innocent people being punished. The poor people perceived that he punished the rich, then they complained without number, and brought many an honest man to trouble and vexation. Here I think Wolsey achieved his objectives and also achieved successfully reforming the Court of Chancery. Wolsey managed to reform administration and finance with some success. He built up the Kings affinity in each locality by appointing the kings servants or his own to key country positions. In local government he gained his centralising drive with some accomplishment as the local officials responded more rapidly and efficiently to royal instructions. Wolsey wanted to have control in every sector and with the reformations he did manage to achieve his objectives with many successes. It is said that Wolsey made an important contribution to Tudor finance. He managed to develop the tax, which is now known as a subsidiary. Wolsey also changed the inadequate fixed rates and yields for a flexible system based on accurate valuations of taxpayers wealth. This proved very successful as people were only paying what they could afford. Wolsey wasnt able to manage parliament well, which was probably because of his temperament and the impossibility of winning taxation for wars that had already happened. This domestic policy did create enemies and for this reason it was quite unsuccessful in the early 1520s. Wolsey soon lacked humility and lost some ability of being able to persuade, so economic benefit for the crown was little and people became hostile. Wolsey demanded the Amicable Grant. It was a non-parliamentary tax, but it did not prove successful as he had hoped. It led to rebellion in East Anglia and many other places just refused to pay. This was a huge failure for Wolsey as the rebels won and the Amicable Grant was abandoned. Wolsey was also relatively unsuccessful when he tried to change the law about enclosures. He saw them as a moral evil as many Tudor commentators had done. Unfortunately Wolsey saw the enclosures as the landowners being greedy and didnt see them as a long term economic change that was producing inflation. Yet he did still try to be an economic reformer. A letter to Wolsey from the Bishop of Lincoln in September 1528 explains how badly villages have been affected for the worst by the enclosures. Your heart would mourn to see the towns, villages, hamlets, manor places, in ruin and decay, the people gone, the ploughs laid down, the living of many honest husbandmen in one mans hand, ht common in many places taken away from then poor people. The Bishop of Lincoln in the letter also explains how he is supporting the reformation and how the people pray for it. Never saw people so glad as they are now, hoping the King and Wolsey will see reformation made. They pray for the King and your Grace everywhere. With the enclosures I think Wolsey was seeing only what he wanted to see and since he favoured poor people only saw in favour of them, this is why this domestic reform was unsuccessful. Although, he did prove himself to be energetic and well intentioned, even if he did fail. Wolsey did come up with other ways to carry through his domestic reforms. One of the ways was to reform the church. He was the most powerful churchman in England and so in 1519 he said he was going to reform the clergy. He wanted to improve both church and state when he was dealing with political enemies at court in that year. This plan was not very successful as he made plans but nothing really became of them. There were great demands for reforming clerical life and Wolsey knew this, he also knew that the privileged status of the clergy was resented. Wolsey wasnt terribly successful in reforming the church and he said that he may not have paid enough attention to it. He said, If I had served God as diligently as I have done the King This suggests that he didnt pay enough attention it, as he would have liked. However, he did pave the way for what happened in the 1530s, as he was involved in all aspects of the church. Churchmen became used to orders and enquiries from the crown, but the disadvantages of this was that their independence was reduced and therefore it became harder to re assert in time of a crisis. In conclusion, Wolsey did carry through some of his domestic reforms with some success. The only reason some of them werent successful is because of how he reacted in certain situations, for example the enclosures. Wolsey was a very powerful man and knew how to persuade the King, and this was usually how he achieved success, the people that got in the way were his enemies. Even though he did have some failures he did carry on, but usually for his own interest, to gain full power. In certain ways he did improve things for others, he especially tried to improve things for the poor. I think this is because he used to be poor himself and so wanted to make a better life for others. Overall Wolsey did carry through domestic policies with some success, even if he was trying to fulfil his own objectives.

Porosity Architecture in Public Spaces

Porosity Architecture in Public Spaces Introduction The connection between the built and the unbuilt / between the â€Å"indoor† and the â€Å"outdoor†/ between the mass and the void is a very sensitive and debatable topic. The experience of a space can be severely affected by the ways its edges are treated, i.e. by controlling how a person enters/exits the space. Transitional experience plays a vital role in overall feel and experience of spaces. Different types of spaces require different types of treatments on their edge conditions. A city needs to be imagined as a space occupied by diverse sets of people with diverse needs and aspirations. The quality of a city has to be judged by what it offers to its residents the right to live, move around and work with dignity and safety. Porosity is one of the many guiding factors in designing a space, specially public places, which are the key strategic spaces in providing the area/city its character. Not only does careful design of such spaces increase the aesthetic quality of the place, but also plays a major role in increasing the standards of functionality, safety, quality and many such factors under which a city can be categorised. Porosity, is one spatial quality that can definitely benefit the public spaces, specially in places like Delhi, where the individual is getting isolated from the community in his efforts to cope up with the pace of life that the city has to offer. Also, with the increasing gap between the two extreme income groups of the city, the spaces, which are meant to be ‘public’, cater only to a certain section of the society, neglecting those which fail to fulfil the ‘entrant requirements’ . Apart from giving spaces back to all the sections of the society, increasing porosity in community spaces can also act as a measure against increasing crime rates in the city, as it opens up the space to a larger section of the society. Topic: Porosity in public spaces Research Question: How can porosity in public spaces be increased to enhance their utility for the society in general ? Public Spaces Public spaces are an inevitable component of human settlements. Parks, plazas, roads, beaches, etc are typically considered public spaces. They are the common ground for people to interact with others, share knowledge or goods, or carry out their daily rituals, be it daily routine or occasional festivities. By definition, they are spaces that should be accessible to all the members of the society, irrespective of their economic strength. It was stated that: Regarding the criterion of access, public space is a place which is open to all. This means its resources, the activities that take place in it, and information about it are available to everybody. Concerning the criterion of agency, public space is a place controlled by public actors (i.e., agents or agencies that act on behalf of a community, city, commonwealth or state) and used by the public (i.e., the people in general). As for interest, public space is a place which serves the public interest (i.e., its benefits are controlled and received by all members of the society) (Akkar, Z 2005).   Ã‚   Of course, these definitions refer to an ideal public space, while the urban atmosphere is not entirely composed of rigidly public and private spaces; instead, it is an amalgamation of public and private spaces with different degrees of publicness. Accepting that the relation between public and private space is a continuum, it is possible to define public spaces as having various degrees of publicness. Regarding the dimensions of access, actor and interest, the extent of publicness will depend on three categories: the degree to which the public space and its resources, as well as the activities occurring in it and information about it, are available to all; the degree to which it is managed and controlled by public actors and used by the public; and the degree to which it serves the public interest. Life in public spaces, not only has a function in the society as a whole, but it is also a rich source of individual amusement, pleasure and play. One criticism of the prevailing socio-functional approach towards urban public space can be that the individuals perspective is often disregarded. To what extent do city dwellers like to meet other urbanites in public places? Hardly any planner, architect or urban administrator seems to be interested in that question. Planners and city councils are eager to speak about public spaces as meeting places. They find it an attractive idea to conceive of public spaces as a unifying element where all sectors of the urban population meet. With the help of that image they can present their cities as communities, despite all the contrasts and differences. Most social scientists dealing with urban public space also tend to regard processes that take place in the public realm as a contribution to the social organization, as a fulfilment of societal nee ds. This top-down-view, however, neglects the daily users perspective. Do city dwellers wish to get together with all their co-urbanites? Everybody who has ever been in a city knows the answer: no, certainly not with everyone. On the other hand, it cannot be denied that at least some individuals derive great pleasure from being in public. Whether a space will function well depends on a range of aspects that include scale, use, safety and comfort, density and links. In many cases it is the individuals experience of walking or dancing down a street, and the quality of environment, that is the most important element. Design then becomes about maximizing choice and trying to provide for different individuals goals. Mitchell, D (1995) adds another dimension to public space by putting forward the point that public spaces are also, and very importantly, spaces for representation. That is, public space is a place within which a political movement can stake out the space that allows it to be seen. In public space, political organizations can represent themselves to a larger population. By claiming space in public, by creating public spaces, social groups themselves become public. Only in public spaces can the homeless, for example, represent themselves as a legitimate part of the public† Public sphere is best imag- ined as the suite of institutions and activities that mediate the relations between society and the state (Howell 1993). Problems with public spaces Despite the resurgence of interest in public spaces, urban design and planning litera- ture has frequently hinted at the diminishing publicness of public spaces in modern cities. Some researchers have pointed out the threat of recent privatization policies, and claimed that public spaces, traditionally open to all segments of the population, are increasingly being developed and managed by private agencies to produce profit for the private sector and serve the interests of particular sections of the population (Punter, J 1990). Others have commented on the high degree of control now maintained over access and use of public spaces through surveillance cameras and other measures intended to improve their security (Reeve, A 1996). Still others have argued that contemporary public spaces increasingly serve a homogenous public and promote social filtering. These open-access public spaces are precious because they enable city residents to move about and engage in recreation and face-to-face communication. But, because an open-access space is one everyone can enter, public spaces are classic sites for tragedy, to invoke Garrett Hardins famous metaphor for a commons (H, Garrrett 1968, cited Ellickson, R 1996) A space that all can enter, however, is a space that each is tempted to abuse. Societies therefore impose rules-of-the-road for public spaces. While these rules are increasingly articulated in legal codes, most begin as informal norms of public etiquette (Taylor, R 1984, cited Ellickson, R 1996). Rules of proper street behaviour are not an impediment to freedom, but a foundation of it (Ellickson, R 1996) Oosterman, J (1992), in his journal Play and Entertainment in Urban Public Space: The Example of the Sidewalk Cafà ©, points out that since 1989, several cities and towns in the Netherlands have invested millions of guilders in the design and redesign of plazas, streets and parks. These designs are also meant to have a social impact. Many discussion sessions are held about the nature of social life in urban public space and its function in the greater urban society. This is the case in debates among policy-makers and planners as well as among social scientists and architects. Although the concepts used in these sessions do not always deserve a prize for clarity, some characteristics appear through the haze: urban public places should be accessible, or even democratic places. Other participants in the discussion about public space do not share this belief in the possibilities of changing urban society by changing its public spaces. Richard Sennett (1990, p.201) for example is rather pessimistic in his latest book The Conscience of the Eye. People no longer seem to be able to cope with the social and cultural differences of the modern city. They maintain their network of personal relations within physically and visibly segregated social worlds: sealed communities as he calls them. According to Sennett, urban public spaces cannot bridge the gap between those worlds, even though they are supposed to do so. Today one cannot open a book about public space design without coming across a picture of either the Piazza San Marco in Venice or the Campo in Siena: two beautifully designed plazas referring to the romantic ideal of free, accessible public space, where everybody meets anybody. Comparing their idealistic model of a real public space with the contemporary city makes authors like Habermas and Sennett rather pessimistic about contemporary urban culture. The citys urban territory is too privatized and inaccessible. This pessimism is not surprising. Over time, the scale of society grew, the mobility of the population increased and new means of communication developed and disseminated among the population. These and other conditions led to different claims on urban public spaces Solutions William H. Whyte argues that cities should exert no controls on undesirables, including beggars and aggressive eccentrics. In his words:The biggest single obstacle to the provision of better spaces is the undesirables problem. They are themselves not too much of a problem. It is the actions taken to combat them that is the problem. The people have the right freely to assemble together, to consult for the common good, to make known their opinions to their representatives and to petition for redress of grievances. In their study with the Jagori, Kalpana Viswanath and Surabhi Tandon Mehrotra concluded that Womens ability and right to access and use public spaces is dependent on the kinds of boundaries imposed upon them due to nature of the space and its usage. Thus having a mixed usage of space is more conducive to free and easy access. Very strict zoning leads to separation of spaces for living, commerce and leisure. This increases the likelihood of some spaces being closed to women and other vulnerable groups such as children. For example in Delhi, we ( Viswanath, K Mehrotra,S) found that vendors selling everyday items make a space safer, whether in the subway, residential areas or bus stops. The local bread and egg seller gave a sense of comfort to women who returned home at night. Similarly vendors provided light and a crowd around bus stops which tend to become increasingly empty and dark as it gets later. But this phenomenon of safety provided by the hawkers is not understood by all govt authorities. Anjaria, J (2006) tells the story of condition of street hawkers in Mumbai. They are frequently described by civic activists, municipal officials and journalists as a nuisance; and are seen to represent the chaos of the citys streets and the cause of the citys notorious congestion. On the other hand, to others they represent an undeserved claim of the poor on the citys public spaces. This despite the fact that even a cursory look at the citys streets and footpaths shows that parked, privately-owned cars are by far the citys greatest encroachers of public space, and the greatest obstruction to the movement of pedestrians. However. to the self-proclaimed defenders of public space, the civic activists and the NGOs bent on removing hawkers from the citys streets, these facts are irrelevant. Neighbourhood by neighbourhood, the citys footpaths must be reconfigured, disorderly footpaths must be made monofunctional. The crime of the hawker is to contradict this dream. And, thus they have become a public nuisance because, by working on the street, they are engaged in an activity that contradicts the supposed universal ideals of the modern public space. The question may be how do we bring the ethos of privatized space that we have become used to together with the return to more democratic values that many people aspire to for the Millennium? Kath Shonfield in her recent contribution to the Demos series on the Richness of Cities (Shonfield, 1998) focuses on public space and what she calls the new urbanity. She promotes the urban right to roam and suggests change to urban policy that would include urban rights to access, extending public access as a principle of new developments, and re visiting the idea of the arcade as an urban design model to be explored. (cited Jon, R 1999) In order to shape the design, size and form of public spaces in town centres, it is necessary to understand their roles and functions. Public spaces in town centres can be classified in two broad categories: links and nodes. Links are roads, pavements or pedestrianized areas which constitute routes allowing movement between land uses and attractions. Nodes are cross roads where a number of links meet in the form of public spaces such as market squares or plazas. There have been different models of gender conscious planning adopted by cities to respond to violence against women and womens fear of violence. The broken windows approach focuses on zero-tolerance to crime, closed circuit televisions (CCTV) and an exclusionary approach to creating safer spaces [Mitchell, D 2003]. This approach criminalises certain kinds of people and behaviour such as gay men. The safer communities model on the other hand, puts forth a vision of making public spaces safer through activities, land use, social mix and involving users in designing strategies and initiatives for safer public spaces. These are seen to be more conducive to building ownership rather than the top-down approach of the broken windows. The safer communities initiatives emphasise activity, land use and social mix (Whitzman, C 2006, cited Viswanath, K and Mehrotra, S 2007) Stavros Stavrides (2007) says: Instead of thinking of social identities as bounded regions one can consider them as interdependent and communicating areas. In an effort to describe urban space as a process rather than a series of physical entities, we can discover practices that oppose a dominant will to fix spatial meanings and uses. These practices mould space and create new spatial articulations since they tend to produce threshold spaces, those in-between areas that relate rather than separate. Urban porosity may be the result of such practices that perforate a secluding perimeter, providing us with an alternative model to the modern city of urban enclaves. A city of thresholds could thus represent the spatiality of a public culture of mutually aware, interdependent and involved identities. Walter Benjamin, in his essay entitled Naples, explored the idea of vitality and variety in the modern city. The porous rocks of Naples offered him an image for a city’s public life: â€Å"As porous as this stone is the architecture. Building and action interpenetrate in the courtyards, arcades and stairways† (Benjamin,W 1985). Porosity seems to describe, in this passage, the way in which urban space is performed in the process of being appropriated (Sennett 1995). It is not that action is contained in space. Rather, a rich network of practices transforms every available space into a potential theater of expressive acts of encounter. A â€Å"passion for improvisation† as Benjamin describes this public behavior, penetrates and articulates urban space, loosening socially programmed correspondences between function and place. Porosity is thus an essential characteristic of space in Naples because life in the city is full of acts that overflow into each other. Defyin g any clear demarcation, spaces are separated and simultaneously connected by porous boundaries, through which everyday life takes form in mutually dependant public performances. Thus, â€Å"just as the living room reappears on the street, with chairs, hearth and altar, so, only much more loudly, the street migrates into the living room† (Benjamin 1985). Porosity characterizes above all the relationship between private and public space, as well as the relationship between indoor and outdoor space. For Benjamin porosity is not limited to spatial experience. Urban life is not only located in spaces that communicate through passages (â€Å"pores†), but life is performed in a tempo that fails to completely separate acts or events. A temporal porosity is experienced while eating in the street, taking a nap in a shady corner, or drinking a quick espresso standing in a Neapolitan cafà ©. It is as if acts are both separated and connected through temporal passages that represe nt the precarious fleeting experience of occasion. Everyday occasions thus seem to shift and rearrange rhythms and itineraries of use (de Certeau 1984). only located in spaces that communicate through passages (â€Å"pores†), but life is performed in a tempo that fails to completely separate acts or events. A temporal porosity is experienced while eating in the street, taking a nap in a shady corner, or drinking a quick espresso. It is as if acts are both separated and connected through temporal passages that represent the precarious fleeting experience of occasion. Everyday occasions thus seem to shift and rearrange rhythms and itineraries of use (de Certeau 1984, cited Stavrides, S 2007) According to Starvides, Porosity may therefore be considered an experience of habitation, which articulates urban life while it also loosens the borders which are erected to preserve a strict spatial and temporal social order. Thresholds, thus play an important role in materialising the play of connection and sepration between spaces. A study of thresholds can help reveal the actual correspondence and interdependence between spatial identities. In post-colonial Asian cities like Hong Kong similar conditions of urban porosity exist. Hong Kongs urban environment is devoid of the cultural conditions that mark the traditional world cities of the West. There are no memorable public spaces, no refined residential fabric, and no exemplary monuments to religion, politics, art, knowledge or culture. â€Å"Urban life in Hong Kong is traditionally linear in form. The roles of parks, piazzas and gardens in Hong Kong take on functions that change with the time of the day. They are by nature multipurpose spaces, festival grounds, concert sites, and improvised sports arenas. While these open spaces are fully utilized in key times, they lack any identity and are usually barren and lifeless when not in use.† (Lu, L 2005)

Body and Nature as Metaphor in A Thousand Acres Essay -- Smiley Thousa

Body and Nature as Metaphor in A Thousand Acres Most issues on a farm return to the issue of keeping up appearances. (Smiley p.199) [T]he female body is a reservoir, a virgin patch of still, pooled water where the fetus comes to term. (Paglia p.27) [A] fetus is a benign tumor, a vampire who steals in order to live. (Paglia p.11) The epigraph to this novel is from "The Ancient People and the Newly Come": The body repeats the landscape. They are the source of each other and create each other. We were marked by the seasonal body of earth, by the terrible migrations of people, by the swift turn of a century, verging on change never before experienced on this greening planet. This encompasses much of what the novel is about, every phrase having some significance for its project. Human bodies, as well as the "body of earth", are subject to both seasonal and social change. I argue elsewhere how Ginny's body becomes a signifying system for social intercourse, as does the scenery surrounding her. Here, I would like to explore the multiplex meanings of the motif of the tiles. When Ginny's ancestors arrived, their land was marshy, wet, impossible to farm. Laying down tiles drained the water and became the basis for their wealth- "magically, tile produced prosperity"(15). This signifies the control that capitalist industrial farming exerts toward nature, a control that ultimately becomes destructive. As Jess tells Ginny, the way Larry farms has poisoned the land and its people: "People have known for ten years or more that nitrates in well water cause miscarriages and death of infants. Don't you know that the fertilizer runoff drains into the aquifer?" (165). The surface richness and the treacherous, wet p... ...y to turn the destructive forces to her advantage. The important difference, bringing together issues of body and nature in the novel, is that her poison is not chemical, but natural: the root of water hemlock. Ginny envisions her poisoning of Rose's body as the inevitable result of the incest of Rose, but it is indirectly also the result of the abuse of her: "I thought [...] of that cell dividing in the dark and then living rather than dying, subdividing, multiplying, growing, Rose's real third child [...]. Her dark child, the child of her union with Daddy."(323) When she destroys the jar of poison, the only remaining object of her past life and the metaphoric container of that life's destructive path, she stops the spreading of social and filial poison, hindering its influence on the lives of the future generation: Pammy and Linda. That is the hope of the future. Body and Nature as Metaphor in A Thousand Acres Essay -- Smiley Thousa Body and Nature as Metaphor in A Thousand Acres Most issues on a farm return to the issue of keeping up appearances. (Smiley p.199) [T]he female body is a reservoir, a virgin patch of still, pooled water where the fetus comes to term. (Paglia p.27) [A] fetus is a benign tumor, a vampire who steals in order to live. (Paglia p.11) The epigraph to this novel is from "The Ancient People and the Newly Come": The body repeats the landscape. They are the source of each other and create each other. We were marked by the seasonal body of earth, by the terrible migrations of people, by the swift turn of a century, verging on change never before experienced on this greening planet. This encompasses much of what the novel is about, every phrase having some significance for its project. Human bodies, as well as the "body of earth", are subject to both seasonal and social change. I argue elsewhere how Ginny's body becomes a signifying system for social intercourse, as does the scenery surrounding her. Here, I would like to explore the multiplex meanings of the motif of the tiles. When Ginny's ancestors arrived, their land was marshy, wet, impossible to farm. Laying down tiles drained the water and became the basis for their wealth- "magically, tile produced prosperity"(15). This signifies the control that capitalist industrial farming exerts toward nature, a control that ultimately becomes destructive. As Jess tells Ginny, the way Larry farms has poisoned the land and its people: "People have known for ten years or more that nitrates in well water cause miscarriages and death of infants. Don't you know that the fertilizer runoff drains into the aquifer?" (165). The surface richness and the treacherous, wet p... ...y to turn the destructive forces to her advantage. The important difference, bringing together issues of body and nature in the novel, is that her poison is not chemical, but natural: the root of water hemlock. Ginny envisions her poisoning of Rose's body as the inevitable result of the incest of Rose, but it is indirectly also the result of the abuse of her: "I thought [...] of that cell dividing in the dark and then living rather than dying, subdividing, multiplying, growing, Rose's real third child [...]. Her dark child, the child of her union with Daddy."(323) When she destroys the jar of poison, the only remaining object of her past life and the metaphoric container of that life's destructive path, she stops the spreading of social and filial poison, hindering its influence on the lives of the future generation: Pammy and Linda. That is the hope of the future.

Bridge to Terabithia :: essays research papers

Bridge to Terabithia† is set in rural Virginia in the mid-1970's. The story revolves around characters; the Aarons, the Burkes, the students and faculty in the elementary school. Jess Aaron, is one of the central characters. He has four sisters, two older and two younger leaving him in the middle. Brenda and Ellie are the older teenage sisters that have a strong bond with their mother and don’t pay much mind to Jess. Joyce Ann and May Belle are his little sisters that look up to Jess. Mr. Aarons is always away from home working in a city nearby leaving Mrs. Aarons to hold many of the responsibilities. Since she believes in the men taking care of the men jobs Jess always has work to do in place of his father. The girls never seem to have to do any work and Jess feels he is unappreciated and the black sheep of the family. The Burkes move from Washington D. C to rural Virginia. They are well off and move to the area to re-evaluate their family values. Leslie is the other main character who is looking for a sense of belonging and friendship. Bill and Judy are here parents that are writers. They are consumed with their work and don’t pay much attention until their book is completed. Jess and Leslie attend the same Elementary school where they become friends resulting from a race that Leslie won. The two become inseparable and have a special place in the woods called â€Å"Terabithia.† To get to their perfect imaginary world you must swing across the creek on a rope. The lake becomes flooded from the constant rainfall and starts to concern Jess. He continues to be quite and swing across the dangerous water since Leslie is so fearless and he doesn’t want to look like he is afraid of anything. Later, Jess’s music teacher invites him to spend a day in Washington D.C. while Leslie travels to Terabithia without him and the rope breaks and she drowns. Jess returns home that night to find out that his best friend Leslie is dead. Jess goes through the emotions of grieving, angry, to upset, from this incident. A few days later he returns to Terabithia so he can place a funeral wreath for Leslie. Without Jess knowing May Belle has followed him but cries for help since she was stuck in the creek.

Essay --

Everglades National Park is sanction to some of the most exceptional animal and plant ecosystems. From the tall, sunny rock pinelands to the humid, lush hardwood hammocks to the tropical, sawgrass marsh, the everglades is believed to be one of the most diverse and astonishing ecosystems in the United States. Sounds of birds tickle your eardrums, beautiful flowers bloom in the radiant morning sun, animals graze peacefully as they go about their day in their natural habitat. It is a breath taking sight and the most popular place for sightseers to go observe the wildlife or kick back and relax and take in the soothing fresh air. As you travel deeper into the hammocks you start to notice over population of certain plants. These types of plants are called invasive species, which are plants that are brought form other countries and other ecosystems and inserted into the everglades ecosystem. These plants begin to take over the everglades and eventually kill off and prevent native plants from growing. Plants like the Brazilian pepper, which kills all surrounding vegetation and can cause skin irritation, are of the highest threat to the everglades. They currently cover about 700,000 acres of north and southern Florida, and about 400,000 acres just in the Everglades National Park. Roughly 18,000 plants species are native to the numerous ecosystems of North America. Our native flora, United States native plants, allocates the infrastructure of the historic American landscape and determines the diverse ecosystems and regions of our country. These plants also supply natural sources of food, fiber, and other elements that we rely on for everyday life. The communities of various native plants have been significantly minimized as a result of ... ...r controlled activities. Natural upheaval such as fires, floods, tornadoes, and tree falls also provide way for invasive species to grow. The huge change brought upon the Florida landscape over the last few hundred years has set things out of balance. Without exotic species, native species and ecosystems would normally benefit from natural disturbances because they provide a chance for genetic mixing and nutrient recycling to occur. In early 2008, Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission and Everglades National Park joined together to initiate a Florida Invaders, a program used to raise awareness about what’s being done and what we should do to help stop invasive flora and fauna from spreading. â€Å"The program was a good start but they should further raise awareness of the seriousness of the problem,† said Christine Beck, Ecology teaching assistant and FIU.

Financial Crisis Recovery Essay

1997-1998 Financial Crisis The weaknesses in Asian financial systems were at the root of the crisis that caused largely by the lack of incentives for effective risk management created by implicit or explicit government guarantees against failure. The weaknesses of the financial sector also were masked by rapid growth and accentuated by large capital inflows, which were partly encouraged by pegged exchange rates. In the mid-1990s, a series of external shocks began to change the economic environment – the devaluation of the Chinese Renminbi and the Japanese Yen, rising of U.S. interest rates which led to a strong U.S. dollar, the sharp decline in semiconductor prices; adversely affected their growth. The crisis began in Thailand when the Thai baht collapse of in July 1997 with a series of speculative attacks on the baht extended after quite a few decades of outstanding economic performance in Asia. As the U.S. economy recovered from a recession in the early 1990s, the U.S. Federal Reserve Bank under Alan Greenspan began to raise U.S. interest rates to head off inflation. This made the U.S. a more attractive investment destination relative to Southeast Asia, which had been attracting hot money flows through high short-term interest rates, and raised the value of the U.S. dollar. For the Southeast Asian nations which had currencies pegged to the U.S. dollar, the higher U.S. dollar caused their own exports to become more expensive and less competitive in the global markets. At the same time, Southeast Asia’s export growth slowed dramatically in the spring of 1996, deteriorating their current account position. Many economists believe that the Asian crisis was created not by market psychology or technology, but by policies that distorted incentives within the lender–borrower relationship. Impacts of the crisis to the South East Asia Most of Southeast Asia and Japan having currency depreciation, devalued stock markets and other asset prices, and a precipitous rise in private debt. It were resulting large quantities of credit became available generated a highly leveraged economic climate, and pushed up asset prices to an unsustainable level. These asset prices eventually began to collapse, causing individuals, financial institutions and corporations in the affected countries were bankrupt. A change in market sentiment could and did lead into a violent of currency depreciation, insolvency, and capital outflows, which was difficult to stop. In the year after collapse of the baht peg, the value of the most affected East Asian currencies fell 35-83% against the U.S. dollar (measured in dollars per unit of the Asian currency), and the most serious stock declines were as great as 40-60%. Lenders led to a large withdrawal of credit from the crisis countries, causing a credit crunch and further bankruptcies. Foreign investors attempted to withdraw their money; the exchange market was flooded with the currencies of the crisis countries, putting depreciative pressure on their exchange rates. As a result, short-term economic activity has slowed or contracted severely in the most affected economies like inflation and rising in unemployment. It impossible that the government doing nothing when the crisis happened to their country. To prevent currency values collapsing, countries governments raised fiscal spending in domestic interest rates to exceedingly high levels (to help diminish flight of capital by making lending more attractive to investors) and to intervene in the exchange market, buying up any excess domestic currency at the fixed exchange rate with foreign reserves. But when interest rates were very high, it can be extremely damaging to an economy that is healthy, wreaked further havoc on economies in an already fragile state, while the central banks were hemorrhaging foreign reserves, of which they had finite amounts. As a strategy to maintain competitiveness, policies to strengthen the country’s balance-of-payments account were pursued. For example, exports were encouraged and imports were discouraged, the latter through an increase in import taxes on certain goods and services. Measures to increase exports for providing handouts directly to people affected included reducing the cost of doing business through such means as tax incentives to boost the manufacturing, agriculture, and services sectors. In the case Malaysia for example, there are policies regarding 1997 crisis: Denial and hesitation, the Malaysian government denied that there was a crisis in the first place; Tight fiscal and monetary policies, and restructuring the banking system; Government proposed to use regional currencies instead of the US dollars in inter-ASEAN bilateral trade; and Financing the recovery programs with the total cost of all measures was RM62 billion. While in the case of Indonesia, the government providing assistance to the poor like efforts to shield poor and vulnerable sections of society from the worst of the crisis, by deepening and widening social safety nets and devoting substantial budgetary resources to increasing subsidies on basic commodities such as rice; measures to increase transparency in the financial, corporate, and government sectors; and steps to improve the efficiency of markets and increase competition. Another example of helping the poor and needy, government must be fair and redistribute the wealth equally to them according their basic necessities of life. In Malaysia, the practicing of zakat system and waqaf contribution to help the poor and needy indirectly will benefit the society. Moreover, Bank Rakyat and ar-rahnu market on Islamic pawn-broking will help the small and medium enterprise to expend their business. Government also must allocate the budget expenditure for subsidizing mainly on education, healthcare and housing for the people. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) is an international organization that provides financial assistance and advice to member countries. It was created out of a need to prevent economic crises like the Great Depression. With its sister organization, the World Bank, the IMF is the largest public lender of funds in the world. It is a specialized agency of the United Nations and is run by its 186 member countries. Membership is open to any country that conducts foreign policy and accepts the organization’s statutes. The IMF is responsible for the creation and maintenance of the international monetary system, the system by which international payments among countries take place. A core responsibility of the IMF is to provide loans to member countries experiencing actual or potential balance of payments problems. This financial assistance enables countries to rebuild their international reserves, stabilize their currencies, continue paying for imports, and restore conditions for strong economic growth, while undertaking policies to correct underlying problems. Unlike development banks, the IMF does not lend for specific projects. It thus strives to provide a systematic mechanism for foreign exchange transactions in order to foster investment and promote balanced global economic trade. To achieve these goals, the IMF focuses and advises on the macroeconomic policies of a country, which aff ect its exchange rate and its government’s budget, money and credit management. The IMF will also appraise a country’s financial sector and its regulatory policies, as well as structural policies within the macroeconomic that relate to the labor market and employment. In addition, as a fund, it may offer financial assistance to nations in need of correcting balance of payments discrepancies. The IMF is thus entrusted with nurturing economic growth and maintaining high levels of employment within countries. The large financial packages which the IMF has arranged for countries affected by the Asian crisis and its result have stimulated a debate both among policy-makers and academics as to their costs and benefits. The IMF’s role in providing financial assistance to its members in overcoming short-term balance-of-payment difficulties generally has been evident. Advantages and disadvantages of IMF The IMF offers its assistance which it conducts on a yearly basis for individual countries, regions and the global economy as a whole. However, a country may ask for financial assistance if it finds itself in an economic crisis, whether caused by a sudden shock to its economy or poor macroeconomic planning. A financial crisis will result in severe devaluation of the country’s currency or a major depletion of the nation’s foreign reserves. In return for the IMF’s help, a country is usually required to embark on an IMF-monitored economic reform program, otherwise known as Structural Adjustment Policies (SAPs). An IMF loan provides a cushion that eases the adjustment policies and reforms that a country must make to correct its balance of payments problem and restore conditions for strong economic growth. Supporters argue that the IMF can also impose necessary reforms on an economy. Reforms such as privatization, fiscal responsibility, control of Money supply, and attacking corruption. These policies may cause short term pain, but, are essential for preventing future crisis and long term development. Substantial financial advantages are attached to IMF credits because debtor countries benefit from lower debt service costs. Moreover, commercial banks often demand agreement with the IMF before lending is resumed and generally will charge lower interest rates to countries with an IMF program. The benefits attached to the IMF loan can be regarded as a compensation for the policy adjustments which the debtor countries carry through. At the same time, thanks to the unique role the IMF can play, the costs involved for the creditor countries seem to be rather limited, as the opportunity costs of forgoing the proceeds of alternative investments are relatively small. By temporarily providing finance and at the same time fostering adjustment, member countries could overcome external problems without overly detrimental measures either for their own population or for other countries. The interest rates charged by the IMF in normal circumstances can be relatively low, because the special role of the IMF in the international financial system reduces the risks for the IMF itself as well as for the creditor countries which have provided the resources. Because of its special position the IMF can mitigate the risks attached to its loans. Helped by its low funding costs, the IMF can charge debtor countries lower interest rates than private sector participants which have to charge high spreads because of the sovereign risks involved. Over time, the IMF has been subject to a range of criticisms, generally focused on the conditions of its loans. The IMF has also been criticized for its lack of accountability and willingness to lend to countries with bad human rights record. On giving loans to countries, the IMF makes the loan conditional on the implementation of certain economic policies. These policies tend to involve: * Reducing government borrowing – Higher taxes and lower spending * Higher interest rates to stabilize the currency. * Allow failing firms to go bankrupt. * Structural adjustment. Privatizations deregulation, reducing corruption and bureaucracy. The problem is that these policies of structural adjustment and macroeconomic intervention make the situation worse. For example, in the Asian crisis of 1997, many countries such as Indonesia, Korea and Thailand were required by IMF to pursue tight monetary policy (higher interest rates) and tight fiscal policy to reduce the budget deficit and strengthen exchange rates. However, these policies caused a minor slowdown to turn into a serious recession with mass unemployment. The IMF have been criticized for imposing policy with little or no consultation with affected countries. Jeffrey Sachs, the head of the Harvard Institute for International Development said: â€Å"In Korea the IMF insisted that all presidential candidates immediately â€Å"endorse† an agreement which they had no part in drafting or negotiating, and no time to understand. The situation is out of hand. It defies logic to believe the small group of 1,000 economists on 19th Street in Washington should dictate the economic conditions of life to 75 developing countries with around 1.4 billion people.† Because the IMF lends its money with â€Å"strings attached† in the form of its SAPs, many people and organizations are vehemently opposed to its activities. Opposition groups claim that structural adjustment is an undemocratic and inhumane means of loaning funds to countries facing economic failure. Debtor countries to the IMF are often faced with having to put financial concerns ahead of social ones. Thus, by being required to open up their economies to foreign investment, to privatize public enterprises, and to cut government spending, these countries suffer an inability to properly fund their education and health programs. Moreover, foreign corporations often exploit the situation by taking advantage of local cheap labor while showing no regard for the environment. The oppositional groups say that locally cultivated programs, with a more grassroots approach towards development, would provide greater relief to these economies. Critics of the IMF say that, as it stands now, the IMF is only deepening the rift between the wealthy and the poor nations of the world. Indeed, it seems that many countries cannot end the spiral of debt and devaluation. The relatively low interest rates charged by the IMF can lead to moral hazard behavior on the part of the debtor countries. This is largely reduced through the tough policy measures which the IMF imposes as a condition for its programmers. In practice, most countries do not turn to the IMF if not forced by adverse circumstances. Decisions about which countries may borrow money are made by rich countries. Poor countries have little say about loans and the conditions attached to them. The IMF will only lend money to countries if they agree to certain conditions. These conditions increase poverty. The livelihoods of people in poorer countries are destroyed by unfair competition from foreign goods and services. The IMF does not give good financial advice. Countries have suffered by following it. IMF East Asia Case The IMF was involved in one of the worst East-Asian economic crises thus far. Everything started when Thailand was experiencing difficulties in meeting foreign liability obligations so the IMF intervened by suggested to devalue the Baht. The same suggestion was made to Indonesia, Korea and the Philippine. Soon, South Korea and Taiwan jumped in the trend and Hong Kong and Singapore dollars faced speculative attack. The crisis spread all the way to South America where Brazil and Argentina currency came under attack, but they both stood their grounds and refused to devalue which might have prevented a global financial crisis. Other aspects of the handling of the case that were looked down upon were the issue of the bail-out and the political situation of the borrowing country had once again been ignored. Thailand had already borrowed from the IMF and they were bailed-out very publicly which gave an incentive for surrounding countries to follow very risky projects or decisions, believing that the IMF would be a safety net as opposed to a lender of last resort. This is what happened in South Korea when large, unprofitable investment projects were undertaken, largely due in part to the conglomerates of businesses that are close to the bureaucracy but more importantly, sponsored by the IMF. Likewise, Fund officials protested that many East-Asian countries needed a reform in the banking system and governance, where bad banking, nepotism and corruption do not help create stable and efficient economies. During August – December 1997, the International Monetary Fund signed three emergency lending agreements with Thailand (August), Indonesia (November), and Korea (December). These programs established packages of international financial support at an unprecedented cumulative sum of approximately $110 billion, based on the financing commitments. During the period August to December, the IMF programs failed dramatically to meet the objective of restoring market confidence. In all three countries, the exchange rate was expected to stabilize, but in fact quickly depreciated far below the targets set in the program, and this despite a very sharp increase in interest rates. Foreign investors remained unconvinced about the debt servicing capacity of the private debtors despite the announced availability of IMF loans, and continued to demand the repayment of short-term loans as they fell due. The IMF programs failed to achieve their goal of maintaining moderate economic growth in the Asian countries. The programs also failed on several intermediate goals, including the preservation of creditworthiness, the continuation of debt payments, and the stabilization of the exchange rate at levels that prevailed upon the signing of the original lending agreements Indonesia was deeply affected by the 1997–1998 crises, more so than its East Asian neighbors. Its economic contraction was deeper and more prolonged. It was the only one to experience a (temporary) loss of macroeconomic control. Eight years have passed since the collapse of Suharto’s New Order regime on the heels of the economic crisis of 1997–1998. During that time, Indonesia’s economy contracted by over 13% in 1998 alone. This followed three decades of virtually uninterrupted rapid economic growth and led to deep social and political crises. Although countries such as South Korea and Thailand were able to overcome their economic crises in a few years, Indonesia’s crisis resolution has been complicated by political instability, at least until 2004, and by a slower recovery. Indonesia was formally under International Monetary Fund management from 1997 to the end of 2003. But the presence of the IMF actually increased the severity of the Indonesian economy, not more than one year after that; there were capital flight out of the country that led to massive unemployment, compounded by the drastic decline in the exchange rate. At the end of 1998 more than 50% of Indonesia’s population lives below the poverty line. One of the IMF’s policy prescriptions is to close 16 banks and it caused the anger of people and withdraws their money in national banks and some foreign banks. In May 1998, due to an agreement between the IMF and Suharto, the government revoked subsidies for food, and raises the price of oil and electricity. This policy had a strong opposition from the people and not long after that, Suharto regime fell. During Megawati regime, in August 2003 the government finally decided not to continue the IMF program and choose to enter the post-program monitoring. The government option raises the consequences that are not much different. IMF can still continue to dictate economic policy in Indonesia because the government still had to consult every economic policy that will be taken with IMF. The Indonesian government announced that they would pay the remaining debt to the IMF, totaling U.S. $ 7.8 billion, within 2 years. It seems to be the correct political decision to break away from the economic policy interventions that has continued since the crisis in 1997. 2008 Financial Crisis Triggered by events in The US and EU The cause or trigger of the 2008 global financial crisis was the boom of the United States housing bubble which peaked in approximately 2005–2006. Since banks began to give out more loans to potential home owners, housing prices began to increase. The increase in house price and improvement of construction activity started around 1992. At that time the Federal Reserve was holding its policy interest rate at an unusually low level by the standards of the past few decades. The good times lasted until 2005, when monetary policy was tightening after another spell of low interest rates. Over that period, construction activity contributed 1/5 percentage points annually to the growth rate of real GDP, and the share of employment in construction and finance, out of the total workforce, rose from 10 ¼ percent to 11 ¾ percent. That is, over this period, of the 27.4 million people added to work rolls (which ended 2006 with a total of 136 million), 4.8 million were directly related to construction and fifi nance. Finally, the nation was left with an excess stock of housing. A contraction in construction transpired to wind down the inventory overhang, which is often a feature of economic slowdowns and recessions. In addition to that, easy lending standards also contributed to the Real estate bubble. Loans of various types (e.g., mortgage, credit card, and auto) were easy to obtain. As part of the housing and credit booms, the number of financial agreements called mortgage-backed securities (MBS) and collateralized debt obligations (CDO), which derived their value from mortgage payments and housing prices, greatly increased. That kind of financial innovation attracted institutions and investors around the world to invest in the U.S. housing market. As housing prices declined, major global financial institutions that had borrowed and invested heavily in subprime MBS reported significant losses. While the housing and credit bubbles were expanding, US Government was going a process called financialization. US Government policy from the 1970s onward has emphasized deregulation to encourage business, which resulted in less oversight of activities and less disclosure of information about new activities undertaken by banks and other evolving financial institutions. Thus, policymakers did not immediately recognize the increasingly important role played by financial institutions such as investment banks and hedge funds, also known as the shadow banking system. These institutions, as well as certain regulated banks, had also assumed significant debt burdens while providing the loans described above and did not have a financial cushion sufficient to absorb large loan defaults or MBS losses. These losses impacted the ability of financial institutions to lend, slowing economic activity. The U.S. Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission reported its findings in January 2011. It concluded that â€Å"the crisis was avoidable and was caused by: 1. Widespread failures in financial regulation, including the Federal Reserve’s failure to stem the tide of toxic mortgages; 2. Dramatic breakdowns in corporate governance including too many financial firms acting recklessly and taking on too much risk; 3. An explosive mix of excessive borrowing and risk by households and Wall Street that put the financial system on a collision course with crisis; 4. Key policy makers ill prepared for the crisis, 5. Lacking a full understanding of the financial system they oversaw; and systemic breaches in accountability and ethics at all levels.†[35][36] Table 1 The Causes and Impacts of Global Financial Crisis Taken from Takatoshi Ito â€Å"Comparison of the Financial Crises: Japan and Asia in 1997-1998 vs. U.S. 2008-09† The Collapse of World Trade Although the crisis is originally from financial sector, trade had great implication that hit countries around the world. Exports collapsed in nearly every major trading country, and total world trade fell faster than it did during the Great Depression. From a peak in July 2008 to the low in February 2009, the nominal value of world goods exports fell 36 percent; the nominal value of U.S. goods exports fell 28 percent (imports fell 38 percent) over the same period. Even a country such as Germany, which did not experience their own housing bubble, experienced substantial trade contractions, which helped spread the crisis. The collapse in net export in Germany contributed to the decline in their GDP which put the country into recession. In the fourth quarter of 2008, Germany’s drop in net exports contributed 8.1 percentage points to a 9.4 percent decline in GDP (at an annual rate); Japan’s net exports contributed 9.0 percentage points to a 10.2 percent GDP decline. Real exports fell even faster in the first quarter of 2009. The Decline in Output Around the Globe The financial crisis was rapidly transmitted to the real economy. The financial disruption was so strong and swift in most countries so that their confidence level in economy fell as well. Confidence levels are measured in different ways across countries, but they were generally falling throughout 2008 and reached recent lows in the fall of 2008 and winter of 2009. As noted, world GDP is estimated to have fallen roughly 1.1 percent in 2009 from the year before. In advanced economies, the crisis was even deeper; the IMF expects GDP to have contracted 3.4 percent in advanced economies for all of 2009. For OECD member countries, GDP fell at an annual rate of 7.2 percent in the fourth quarter of 2008 and 8.4 percent in the first quarter of 2009. Despite the historic nature of its collapse, the U.S. economy actually fared better than about half of OECD economies during those quarters. The decline in industrial production across major economies, each of these economies in January 2009 was more than 10 percent below its January 2008 level, and Japan faring far worse relative to the other major economies. Impact on Developing Countries The impact of the crisis on developing countries will affect different types of international resource flows: private capital flows such as Foreign Direct Investment (FDI), portfolio flows and international lending; official flows such as development finance institutions; and capital and current transfers such as official development assistance and remittances. The World Association of Investment Promotion Agencies foresees a 15% drop in FDI 2009. FDI to Turkey has already fallen 40% over the last year and FDI to India dropped by 40% in the first six months of 2008. FDI to China was $6.6 billion in September 2008, 20% down from the monthly average in year 2008 so far, and mining investments in South Africa and Zambia have been put on hold. The crisis has led to a drop in bond and equity issuances and the sell-off of risky assets in developing countries. The average volume of bond issuances by developing countries was only $6 billion between July 2007 and March 2008, down from $ 15 billion over the same period in 2006. Between January and March 2008, equity issuance by developing countries stood at $5 billion, its lowest level in five years. As a result, World Bank research suggests some 91 International Public Offerings have been withdrawn or postponed in 2008. However, not all developing countries were effected tremendously by 2008 financial crisis. In South East Asia we may take a look Indonesia performance towards the 2008 financial crisis. Indonesia experienced a significant macroeconomic shock at the end of 2008. But, of course, Indonesia was not on its own. Indeed, Indonesia was one of the least affected countries in South East Asia. Although GDP growth slowed markedly to 4.4% in the first quarter of 2009, it did not experience the collapse in growth experienced by countries such a Korea, Thailand and Malaysia. Indonesia’s growth in recent years has been driven predominantly by non-tradeables rather than tradeables, and, although the crisis reduced growth across the board, sectors such as transport and communications, and utilities have continued to grow in double digits. At the same time, the tradeable sector which has performed best is agriculture, which, at 4.8%, has experienced its strongest growth since the East Asian crisis, helping to compensate for the effects of the crisis. Indonesia has learnt from 1997 crisis so that they can manage 2008 financial crisis well. The Role of International Institutions of The G-20 The G-20, which includes 19 nations plus the European Union, is the the main nations of much of the coordination on trade policy, financial policy, and crisis response. Its membership is composed of most of the world’s largest economies and makes up nearly 90 percent of world gross national product. The first G-20 leaders’ summit was held at the peak of the crisis in November 2008. At that point, G-20 countries committed to keep their markets open, adopt policies to support the global economy, and stabilize the financial sector. The second G-20 leaders’ summit took place in April 2009 at the height of concern about rapid falls in GDP and trade. Leaders of the world’s largest economies pledged to â€Å"do everything necessary to ensure recovery, to repair our financial systems and to maintain the global flow of capital.† Furthermore, they committed to work together on tax and financial policies. Perhaps the most notable act of world coordination was the decision to provide substantial new funding to the IMF. U.S. leadership helped secure a commitment by the G-20 leaders to provide over $800 billion to fund multilateral banks broadly, with over $500 billion of those funds allocated to the IMF in particular. In September 2009, the G-20 leaders met in Pittsburgh. They noted that international cooperation and national action had been critical in arresting the crisis and putting the world’s economies on the path toward recovery. They also recognized that continued action was necessary, pledged to â€Å"sustain our strong policy response until a durable recovery is secured,† and committed to avoid premature withdrawal of stimulus. They launched a new Framework for Strong, Sustainable, and Balanced Growth that committed the G-20 countries to work together to assess how their policies fit together and evaluate whether they were â€Å"collectively consistent with more sustainable and balanced growth.† Further, the leaders committed to act together to improve the global financial system through financial regulatory reforms and actions to increase capital in the system. It set up emergency lines of credit (called Flexible Credit Lines) with Colombia, Mexico, and Poland, which in total are worth over $80 billion. These lines were intended to provide immediate liquidity in the event of a run by investors, but also to signal to the markets that funds were available, making a run less likely. In each of these countries, markets responded positively to the announcement of the credit lines, with the cost of insuring the countries’ bonds narrowing (International Monetary Fund 2009b). The IMF also negotiated a set of standby agreements with 15 countries, committing a total of $75 billion to help them survive the economic crisis by smoothing current account adjustments and mitigating liquidity pressures. IMF analysis suggests that this program discouraged large exchange-rate f in fluctuate in these countries (International Monetary Fund 2009). These actions as well as the very existence of a better-funded global lender may have helped to keep the contraction short and to prevent sustained currency crises in many emerging nations. The Government Responses The U.S. executed two stimulus packages, totaling nearly $1 trillion during 2008 and 2009. The U.S. Federal Reserve’s new and expanded liquidity facilities were intended to enable the central bank to fulfill its traditional lender-of-last-resort role during the crisis while mitigating stigma, broadening the set of institutions with access to liquidity, and increasing the flexibility with which institutions could tap such liquidity. United States President Barack Obama and key advisers introduced a series of regulatory proposals in June 2009. The proposals address consumer protection, executive pay, bank financial cushions or capital requirements, expanded regulation of the shadow banking system and derivatives, and enhanced authority for the Federal Reserve to safely wind-down systemically important institutions, among others. The response of the Federal Reserve, the European Central Bank, and other central banks was taken shortly and dramatic. During the last quarter of 2008, these central banks purchased US$2.5 trillion of government debt and troubled private assets from banks. The governments of European nations and the USA also raised the capital of their national banking systems by $1.5 trillion, by purchasing newly issued preferred stock in their major banks. In October 2010, Nobel laureate Joseph Stiglitz explained how the U.S. Federal Reserve was implementing another monetary policy —creating currency— as a method to combat the liquidity trap. By creating $600,000,000,000 and inserting this directly into banks, the Federal Reserve intended to spur banks to finance more domestic loans and refinance mortgages. However, banks instead were spending the money in more profitable areas by investing internationally in emerging markets. The bank bailout, more formally called the Troubled Asset Relief Program, failed to achieve the ultimate goal. The goal of these bailouts from the perspective of the largest financial institution is billions of dollars in taxpayer money allowed institutions that were on the brink of collapse not only to survive but even to flourish. The legislation that created TARP, the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act, had far broader goals, including protecting home values and preserving homeownership. Congress was told that TARP would be used to purchase up to $700 billion of mortgages and to obtain the necessary votes, Treasury promised that it would modify those mortgages to assist struggling homeowners. However, almost immediately, as permitted by the broad language of the act, Treasury’s plan for TARP shifted from the purchase of mortgages to the infusion of hundreds of billions of dollars into the nation’s largest financial institutions, a shift that came with the express promise that it would restore lending. Treasury, however, provided the money to banks with no effective policy or effort to force the extension of credit. There were no strings attached: no requirement or even incentive to increase lending to home buyers, and against our strong recommendation, not even a request that banks report how they used TARP funds. It raised the issues on accountability in providing the bailouts. Lesson Learnt from 2008 Crisis There are several lessons that can be learnt from 2008 financial crisis. Those lessons are stated below : 1. Aggregate volatility is part of market system. There is a need to have more depth study of aggregate volatility. 2. Long lived large firms (such as financial institutions) may not be fully trusted. We should rethink the role of reputation of firms in market transactions. In addition, we need to revisit the key elements of the economy of organization so that reputation should be derived from the behavior not merely from the asset. 3. Economic growth will only take place if there is real increase in the real commodities not financial commodities. 4. People mistakenly equated free markets with unregulated markets. 5. Policy makers should be flexible in their policies and guided by overall national objectives. 6. All trading countries should diversify both their exports composition as well as export destination. 7. World financial system is becoming fragile so that there is a need to reform the current financial system. Islamic based economy system has great opportunity to alter the existing financial system. Islamic perspective From Islamic perspective, the approach that most suitable which is providing handout to the poor and directly to people affected by financial contracts. There were horrible gaps between the rich and the poor all over the world, which remained existent all the time, even after the fall of the planned economy. It goes without saying that the position in developing and under developed countries is even worse. This uneven and unjust system of distribution needs to be reformed on a conceptual basis. The entire world today is crying on the present financial crisis, but few people have realized that this is basically a crisis of rich people who were playing with loads of wealth, and all of a sudden, their income faced a steep fall. So far as poor people are concerned, they have been living in perpetual crisis all the times, but no one care for them, The present crisis should not be examined within the relatively narrow confines of debt; rather, it is fundamentally a question of social justi ce, a concept that is paramount in Islam. Social justice includes three aspects, namely a fair and equitable distribution of wealth; the provision of basic necessities of life to the poor and the needy; and protection of the weak against economic exploitation by the strong. The debt burden, however, is increasing inequality between rich and poor countries and is tantamount to exploitation. It also means that poor countries are often unable to provide the most basic services for their citizens. The huge debt that currently burdens poor countries has arisen from loans that have charged interest and have not shared risk between the lender and the borrower and have, therefore, contravened the two most fundamental principles of Islamic finance. Islamic commands to refrain from charging interest and to share financial risk seek to avoid the concentration of wealth and the economic exploitation of the weak and thereby prevent situations such as the current debt crisis from arising in the first place. The core belief in Islamic finance is that money should not in itself be an earning asset; therefore, Islam prohibits any and all forms of interest. There are also other systems which prevent an economic crisis of pandemic proportions to arise; contractual relationships in business, finance or trade must be based on trust and familiarity of networks of common experiences (takaful) which implies that debts cannot be repackaged and resold as assets globally to faceless investors while profit must be redistributed directly to the poor (zakat) in the Holy month of Ramadan to build and strengthen social safety nets through institutions of charity welfare and education. Over and above zakat, all Muslims pay zakat fitrah to the poor, during the month of Ramadan, either through state collection centers or direct contributions to the poor. There is a trend within rural areas to identify destitute families and the disabled within the underserved rural areas of the State where they reside. Over the last few years, increasing realization of a topic poverty during an economic crisis creating the new poor among the Muslim working classes and a bnormally high repayment rates through unlicensed loan-sharks and licensed money-lenders have made national banking institutions which serve the poorer rural communities shift their services to the Ar-Rahnu market or Islamic pawn-broking market. Currently four Islamic financial institutions, Bank Rakyat (The People’s Bank); the Yayasan Pembangunan Ekonomi Islam Malaysia (Islamic Foundation of Economic Development, Malaysia); Permodalan Kelantan Bhd (Kelantan Investment Co.); and the Agro bank offer such services to the rural and urban working classes. It has established an Ar-Rahnu X’Change Franchise Network, where it plans to provide an Ar-Rahnu franchise throughout the country, managed by reputable cooperatives of the working classes. Given the acute dependency of the working classes on ready cash in times of emergency and the high rates of interest in regular pawn-broking market, there seems to be few alternatives except to expand the Ar-Rahnu market among Muslims and non-Muslims and charge the poor for ‘safekeeping’ services, rather than interest. Despite the fact that loan disbursements of Bank Rakyat alone is among the services which have contributed to Bank Rakyat’s amazing rise as a successful national cooperative bank, giving out higher than normal dividends to its share holders, loan sharks are virtually setting up desks outside flats and apartment buildings of the Muslim poor in towns and cities to offer cash and carry’ facilities to the desperately poor. This lucrative market speaks volumes of the rise of atopic poverty among those on or below the poverty line, the inadequacy of zakat and disbursements of zakat, the high dependency on regular income earners among the middle classes for welfare driven services and products and unclear nature of the rising wealth of the Muslim and non-Muslim upper classes in Malaysia The Islamic finance can bring on significant gains in money released into public capital and infrastructure. The redistributive mechanisms of surplus are instituted into welfare based institutions such as free or subsidized education, health and child care, education, and even publicly directed employment. Its principles may differ from modern welfare economics except the gains at the far end of the redistributive machinery are similarly directed towards the poor. The policies of the New Economic Policy in Malaysia, state welfares in Brunei, or publicly instituted employment as in MENA countries are more Islamic than regul ar, except they are part of the post-colonial ‘reformist’ policies of Muslim states which preceded the modern up-beat drive towards Syaria’ah compliant finance. Islamic finance, however, has not demonstrated a clear connectivity with redistributive justice as in the post-colonial political economy except through instituted deductions of zakat from dividends of shareholders. Profits from credit or financial corporations are not necessarily redistributed through zakat. Furthermore, for borrowers, the appreciated value of assets and services as forecasted and built into systems and rates of repayments which compensate for the lack of interest and, in reality, repayment rates may even out with the regular—rates are generally fixed in advance unlike regular interest rates which are more flexible, varying according to market conditions. However, it does allow more capital to be released into projects immediately, allowing a more extensive amount of goods and services to be produced, without the worry of serving loans. One, however, has to be assured of significant productivity even in the early stages of the loan but payments of zakat accruing from successful investment, from the financier or production from the borrower are fixed at a low rate of 2.5%. It is also consensual rather than forced (as in income taxation) and Muslim countries in general pur sue income tax collections as the more important thrust of national revenue. There are generally two disparate systems at work in Muslim countries Islamic finance and post-colonial welfare instituted economics. The welfare inputs in Islamic countries which are operational today proceed whether or not there are institutions of Islamic finance in the country. In Malaysia, Brunei, and the MENA countries discussed in this paper, components of welfare economics in heavily subsidized education, health, housing, farming, and welfare for the poor, are part of a post-colonial legacy of social reform to institute economic parity across groups and classes. In these Muslim nations, the public sector has played an important role in employment for Muslim or indigenous citizens, often acting as a social safety net in times of economic crises. However, these welfare driven policies are subject to much criticism since they favour the poor, encourage low productivity, and a non-competitive public sector. As Islamic institutions of welfare catch on with progressive social educa tion through media and networks and become an alternative system of welfare for poorer Muslims through zakat and other contributions, welfare increasingly becomes a social responsibility of the Muslim middle classes. There is hardly any data on how the profits earned by larger corporations of Islamic finance actually become instituted into a system of welfare economics based in Islam. Private investment trusts of political elites or national trusts controlled by them. In a properly instituted system of redistribution, through wages, salaries, educational, and health subsidies and so on, there should be very little wealth differential between the owners of political Capital and citizens but economic disparities are significant in these Muslim countries and it has been shown how gains among the lowest 20% may be offset by higher or equivalent gains among the top 20% income earners of these nations. The production of stable professional middle classes in these nations has led to an enrichment of social capital and welfare driven redistributive institutions through social networks but Islamic conscientisation had sometimes moved this ‘spiritual gain’ as an objective reality. The belief i n ibadah or ‘to do good’ may outweigh the call for greater transparency in the use of national collections of zakat and so on. Many Muslims in Malaysia pay both income tax and zakat, rather than ask for exemption from income tax. They also maintain Islamic voluntary organizations with personal funds, donate to mosques and charities, and make endless food contributions to orphans and the poor. There is very little data gathered on the actual amounts paid privately or anonymously and state-directed contributions, although increasing, are not reflective of actual payments contributed by the middle classes towards Islamic charitable institutions. On the other hand, Muslim based banking and financial institutions are obscure in their social responsibility towards the poor, including their own clients who may be victims of topic poverty during times of economic crises. In conclusion, Islamic institutions of trusts which are state directed or privately administered by banking and credit agencies contain more humanistic principles of investment and redistribution of profits except that there is a missing component—between the principles of redistribution of surplus or profits in Islam finance and the actual mechanisms to provide welfare to the people who are not share-holders or stake-holders. In Malaysia, Brunei, and the MENA countries of the Middle East and North Africa, state agencies assume trusteeships over compulsory collections like the zakat but do not have any institutional mechanisms to enforce private corporations local or foreign to contribute towards the welfare of the poor. Conclusion The first Financial crisis was began in July 1997 when the Thai baht collapse with a series of speculative attacks on the baht extended after quite a few decades of outstanding economic performance in Asia and most of Southeast Asia and Japan having currency depreciation. There some approach to help financial recovery, It is impossible that the government doing nothing when the crisis happened to their country. To prevent currency values collapsing, governments raised fiscal spending in domestic interest rates to exceedingly high levels. And last approach Government providing handouts directly to people affected and providing assistance to the poor like efforts to shield poor and vulnerable sections of society from the worst of the crisis The International Monetary Fund (IMF) is an international organization that provides financial assistance and advice to member countries. It was created out of a need to prevent economic crises like the Great Depression. The large financial packages which the IMF has arranged for countries affected by the Asian crisis and its result have stimulated a debate both among policy-makers and academics as to their costs and benefits. However, IMF has also been criticized for its lack of accountability and willingness to lend to countries with bad human rights record Debtor countries to the IMF are often faced with having to put financial concerns ahead of social ones The cause or trigger of the 2008 global financial crisis was the boom of the United States housing bubble which peaked in approximately 2005–2006. The impact of the crisis on developing countries will affect different types of international resource flows: private capital flows such as Foreign Direct Investment (FDI). However, not all developing countries were effected tremendously by 2008 financial crisis, Indonesia was one of the least affected countries in South East Asia. The G-20, is the the main nations of much of the coordination on trade policy, financial policy, and crisis responses. The first G-20 leaders’ summit was held at the peak of the crisis in November 2008. The bank bailout, more formally called the Troubled Asset Relief Program, failed to achieve the ultimate goal From Islamic perspective approach that most suitable which is providing handout to the poor and directly to people affected by financial contracts the present crisis should not be examined within the relatively narrow confines of debt, rather it is fundamentally a question of social justice, a concept that is paramount in Islam. The practicing of zakat system and waqf contribution to help the poor and needy indirectly will benefit the society. And this is the best approach that government should do by providing help directly to the poor and people affected by financial contract namely firms and banks. If government reduced the amount tax to be paid, cost of production will decrease level of employment and production will increase. Meanwhile, banks will bail out to save company and people indirectly reduced the worry of public causing the level of borrowing and consumption raises. So, as a result, it can stimulate the capital investment of the economy to increase the economic growth and level of GPD. 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INWENT/DIE/BMZ conference in Berlin, 11 December 2008. [ 29 ]. Ibid [ 30 ]. Ibid [ 31 ]. Ibid [ 32 ]. Ibid