Unemployment statistics in US Essay Example for Free

Unemployment statistics in US Essay Unemployment refers to a situation whereby a person who is able and willing to work is currently without a job. The total number of employed people plus the number of unemployed persons who are seeking work is referred to as labor force (US Bureau of Labour Statistics, 2010). The participation rate is the labor force divided by the total number of working age population that is not institutionalized (US Department of Labour, 2010). The unemployment level is the difference between the labor force and the total number of people who are currently employed. The unemployment rate is the level of unemployed divided by the total number of working population. There are different types of unemployment types in the overall macro-economy. They include frictional unemployment, structural unemployment, natural rate of unemployment and demand deficient unemployment. Frictional unemployment reflects the time taken by individuals to find and get settled in their new jobs. Structural unemployment is the difference between the skills and other attributes possessed by the labor force and what the employers actually demand. This type of unemployment considers employees who are undergoing re-training in order to start a new job as being unemployed. It is usually increased by technological changes. Natural rate of unemployment is the sum total of frictional and structural unemployment. It is considered to be the lowest rate of unemployment that is expected to be achieved by a stable economy. Demand deficient unemployment is the level of unemployment which is beyond the natural rate unemployment. Causes of unemployment According to Keynesian economics, unemployment results from deficit in effective demand for both goods and services in an economy (US Bureau of Labour Statistics, 2010). Other schools of thought attribute unemployment to structural problems and inefficiencies which are common in the labor markets. Classical economics attribute unemployment to rigidities in labor markets resulting from external environment such as unionization of workers, taxes, minimum wages and other factors that may limit hiring of new employees (US Department of Labour, 2010). Other economists view unemployment as a voluntary choice of the unemployed and the time it takes them to find a new job also referred to as frictional unemployment. Efficiency wages and sticky wages are seen by behavioral economists to be a cause of unemployment. Unemployment level in US Unemployment in 27 US states was reported to have increased in February 2010 while seven states reported a drop in unemployment. There was an increase in unemployment in the state of Mississippi by 0. 4 percent (highest increase). The unemployment in Detroit fell from 15. 3 to 14. 8. The unemployment nationally by February 2010 was reported by Labor Department to be 9. 7 percent. However, job layoffs were fewer than previously anticipated (Trading Economics, 2010). Since the onset of recession in December 2007, 8. 4 million jobs had been lost by March 2010. The US official unemployment was reported to be 9. 5% in June 2010. This accounted for about 14. 6 million unemployed Americans. The black teens were leading with unemployment of 39. 9% Asians had the lowest unemployment rate of 7. 7%. The total number of officially unemployed and the hidden unemployment (29. 1 million) account for 18. 2% of the labor force. The graph below illustrates the levels of unemployment in US between 1999 and 2009.

The Great Healthcare Debate: Liberalism versus Conservatism

The Great Healthcare Debate: Liberalism versus Conservatism Alex Fisher A large issue in todays society is healthcare. The clashing ideas about what should be done within the realm of healthcare is such a big deal now more than ever since we have a recently elected president. Much like other issues, there are clashing ideas from different political parties; this case will highlight those of liberals and conservatives. It is important to note that liberals and conservatives tend to clash on all aspects of healthcare such as: amount of government intervention, access or entitlement to healthcare, and federally mandated insurance. Furthermore, it must be stated that each partys stance on these aspects demonstrates a key idea or pillar of their party. The first main aspect of the healthcare debate between the two parties is the amount or level of government involvement. The conservative side argues for minimal government involvement so that healthcare, just like the overall economy, runs like a free market. This facet of the conservative healthcare argument can be traced back to the concept that the conservative perceives the need for prudent restraints upon power and upon human passions (Kirk, 4). Kirk further explains this point of view by stating that The conservative endeavors to so limit and balance political power that anarchy or tyranny may not arise (4). Additionally, this point of view can also be traced back to the conservative concept that there must survive orders and classes, differences in material condition, and many sorts of inequality attempts at levelling must lead, at best, to social stagnation (3). Essentially, Kirk is explaining that conservatives believe that unless there is a natural hierarchy with competiti on, a society will stagnate or lose the ability to progress. After piecing together these pillars of conservative view, it is not surprising that the current conservative argument is for healthcare to be run like any other business in our economy with free market ideals. With this being said, there is a liberal side to the argument of government involvement in healthcare. Their point of view is the complete opposite of the conservatives in that they believe that everyone in the healthcare field should be equal, therefore getting rid of the competition that fuels the free market. The liberal background that influences this point of view is a bit more complex than that of conservatives. One concept in liberalism is that there is a natural state in which mankind falls into. This state of nature involves a natural hierarchy of physical and mental strength; however, it must be stated that this hierarchy will lead to competition; For as to the strength of body, the weakest has strength enough to kill the strongest, wither by secret machination or by confederacy with others that are in the same danger with himself (Hobbes, 1). At first, this concept seems to parallel with the competition and free market ideals of conservatism. However, there is a caveat to this liberal view. Liberals recognize this state of nature, and then argue that mankind should forgo this state for the good of society. Hobbes explains that during the time men live without a common power to keep them all in awe, they are in that condition which is called war (2). This statement explains the idea that the duration in which mankind is living without a governing power, they are in constant war with each other due to the high levels of competition in the state of nature. Furthermore: In such condition there is no place for industry, because the fruit thereof is uncertain: and consequently no culture of the earth no knowledge of the face of the earth; no account of time; no arts; no letters; no society; and continual fear, and danger of violent death (Hobbes, 2) Essentially, this concept in liberalism is that mankind must forgo the vicious competition and violence found in the natural state in order for society, industry, and culture to even exist. These aspects cannot be established if man is more concerned with preserving his own life, and ending that of others to get ahead. For this reason, the liberals are arguing for more equality and less of a business or free market model in the healthcare field. The second main point of contention in the healthcare debate is the question of who should and should not be entitled to healthcare. It is important to note that both liberals and conservatives agree that everyone should get healthcare. The difference in views is found when it comes the financial aspect of healthcare entitlement. Conservatives believe that if you have money to pay for healthcare, you should be paying for it. They do not believe in government assistance for healthcare if you can pay for it yourself. Essentially, it goes back to the old adage that there is no such thing as a free lunch; except in this case its healthcare instead of lunch. This concept can be explained through the conservative concept that conservatives are guided by their principle of prudence (Kirk, 3). What this means that Any public measure ought to be judged by its probable long-run consequences, not merely by temporary advantage or popularity (3). Conservatives do not want to just start handing ou t healthcare for free or at discounted prices because it would have a hefty impact on the economy in the long-run. In the present time, the general population would love to have free or even cheap healthcare, but the United States economy is not in the position to be able to do that. This is what the conservatives are thinking about when refusing to give handouts. Conversely, the liberal view is that even if you could pay for healthcare, you should not go broke for it. This concept can be traced back to the liberalistic idea that the whole purpose of government is the preservation of property (Locke, 3). Furthermore, this connects to their idea of abandoning the state of nature because The great purpose for which men enter into society is to be safe and at peace in their use of their property (Locke, 3). Forcing people to pay for healthcare until they reach bankruptcy violates these ideas. By making people give up all their money for such a basic right like healthcare, the government is no longer preserving the property (or money) of the people in the society. To take this concept even further, there are things that liberals believe a governing body cannot do. Among this list is it doesnt and cant possibly have absolutely arbitrary power over the lives and fortunes of the people (Locke, 4). It should also be noted that Locke stated that legislature can never have a right to destroy, enslave, or deliberately impoverish the subjects (5). Making people pay for healthcare until they no longer can, instead of giving government assistance completely goes against these liberal ideals. It is for this reason that liberals prefer to provide assistance for healthcare even if the person has the ability to pay for it. The third focus of the healthcare debate is the concept of federally mandated insurance. This refers to whether decisions about laws involving healthcare and health insurance should be left to the federal government or if it should be an issue that is decided on a state by state basis. According to an article by Michael Bihari, MD: Mandated health insurance laws passed at either the federal or state level usually fall into one of three categories: Health care services or treatments that must be covered, such as substance abuse treatment. Healthcare providers other than physicians, such as acupuncturists. Dependents and other related individuals, such as adopted children Essentially, what Dr. Bihari is saying is that the most common mandated healthcare laws involve the coverage of necessary treatments, specialists, and dependents. After getting a good idea of what these mandated healthcare laws typically are, it should be aware that the most common debate on this aspect is who gets to decide if the law gets passed or not. Should each state get to choose if they want to pass and recognize the laws set forth or should the federal government pass healthcare laws for the entire nation? A subset of this question is should people face financial penalties if they fail to comply with these mandates? The conservative view on this matter is that these decisions should be made on the state level, not federal. Furthermore, the conservative party argues against any form of monetary penalties if people fail to adhere to these healthcare laws. For example, under the Affordable Care Act, there is fine for people that do not have health insurance. The conservative view is against this concept of health insurance mandate compliance. This side of the argument can be traced back to the conservative pillar that conservatives uphold voluntary community, quite as they oppose involuntary collectivism (Kirk, 4). Additionally, conservatives believe that: the decisions most directly affecting the lives of citizens are made locally and voluntarily. Some of these functions are carried out by local political bodies, others by private associations; so long as they are kept local, and are marked by the general agreement of those affected, they constitute healthy community. (Kirk, 4) In laymans terms, conservatives believe that decisions that greatly impact citizens, such as healthcare, should be decided by a governing body close to the population. This big of a decision cannot and should not be made by the federal governing body since each state has a different set of circumstances. There is no way that the federal government is completely aware of the needs of the people of each state. Furthermore, conservatives are against forced collectivism. Leaving healthcare mandates to the federal level means that these decisions are being made for the entire nation. It is forced collectivism by means of the nation instead of the individuality of each state. Moreover, giving that kind of collective power to the federal government gives way to a standardizing process hostile to freedom and human dignity (Kirk, 4). Each state should have the freedom and ability to decide what is best to uphold or bolster the standard of living created in each. Furthermore, each person shoul d be given the freedom to make their own choices about a personal matter such as healthcare. Penalizing people for not complying with healthcare mandates takes away this freedom of decision. On the contrary, liberals argue for healthcare mandates on the federal level. They also support the idea of monetary penalties for noncompliance. This aligns with the current themes seen in the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare. The Affordable Care Act is a federally mandated healthcare act that penalizes people that do not have insurance. This view can be explained by the classical liberal idea that: The only way to erect such a common power, as may be able to defend them from the invasion of foreigners, and the injuries of one another, and thereby to secure them in such sort as that by their own industry and by the fruits of the earth they may nourish themselves and live contentedly, is to confer all their power and strength upon one man, or upon one assembly of men, thay may reduce all their wills, by plurality of voices, unto one will. (Hobbes, 3) What Hobbes is saying is that in order to organize the chaos of the state of nature, the people must decide on a person or group of people to represent all their voices and decisions in one. Additionally, Hobbes further explains the scope of this assembly of men: every one to own and acknowledge himself to be author of whatsoever he that so beareth their person shall act in those things which concern the common peace and safety; and therein submit their wills and their judgements to his judgement. (3) This further explanation translates into the concept that liberals believe that government should have a large amount of power and intervention. This is the reason why the liberals are arguing for federally mandated healthcare laws. Another level of that increased government power and intervention is the aspect of financial penalty for noncompliance. These fines are ensuring that everyone is following their mandates. In conclusion, the debate on healthcare has been going on for several years and has shown no signs of stopping anytime soon. The liberal and conservative parties have clashing views on aspects of this debate such as the amount of government involvement, access or entitlement to healthcare, and if healthcare should be federally mandated. The views or arguments of these parties can be explained and traced back to key ideas or pillars of their party. Conservatives favor less government intervention, prudent reform, and local governing bodies whereas liberals favor more government intervention, equality or less competition, and that a government should not deliberately impoverish their community. https://www.verywell.com/mandated-health-insurance-benefits-1738931

The Emergence Of Education For Sustainable Development Education Essay

The Emergence Of Education For Sustainable Development Education Essay Education is an essential component of achieving sustainability. All over the world, societies are coming to recognize that current development trends are not sustainable, and that public awareness through education and training is a key element to moving our increasingly globalized society towards achieving sustainability. Education for sustainable development (ESD), education for sustainability (ES), and sustainability education (SE) are three terms often used synonymously and interchangeably in referencing sustainability educational programmes. ESD efforts may be named or described in a variety of ways because of language and/or cultural differences, but ESD is the terminology used most frequently at the international level and within UN documents, and is therefore the term used most throughout this document (UNESCO, 2006). All education must serve some purpose or else societies would not invest in it. ESD has the capacity to secure a more liveable world for present and future generations. The nature of ESD is oriented to giving people knowledge and skills for lifelong learning they need to help them find effective solutions to their environmental, economic, and social issues, and the effective use of technology is an essential element to increasing the efficiency of education institutions to achieve these aims (UNESCO, 2006). Diverse perspectives help societies worldwide to determine how individual issues of ESD are dealt with in individual cultures. These perspectives have significant influences on the way people live, behave, and relate to one another; and relationships to outside cultures are in a constant state of change. ESD should help us to understand ourselves as well as others better and how local sustainability issues link to the wider, global environmental view. Everyone is a stakeholder in Education for Sustainable Development; we all share in the long-term effects, both good and bad, of environmental decisions (UNESCO, 2006). Though the benefits of environment sustainability may be relatively well defined, the effective implementation of plans of action for education programmes need to take into account specific local, regional, and national contexts (Scoullos, 1998). The practise of tailoring of ESD training programmes to individual cultures is common, yet there are specific common elements that are essential to all sustainability training programmes regardless of where they are administered. Key elements of ESD programmes include the following (Tilbury and Wortman, 2004) : ESD is the primary agent of transformation towards sustainable development. The promotion of increasing the capacities of people to transform their visions for society into reality. Education fosters the values, behaviours, and lifestyles that are required for a sustainable future. Education for sustainable development is a process of learning how to make decisions that consider the long-term future of the equity, economy, and ecology of all communities. Education builds the capacity for such futures-oriented thinking. 1.4.3 Definitions Sustainable development is a challenging concept to define, especially since the field is continually evolving. The Brundtland Commission is often credited with one of the first and most commonly cited descriptions of sustainable development: Sustainable development is development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs (World Commission on Environment and Development, 1987). Sustainable development was at one time generally believed to have three main elements: environment, society, and economy. However, in recent years, an additional culture pillar has emerged, complimentary to the social pillar, yet a distinct consideration. These four pillars are closely interrelated with one another and are therefore not completely separate elements. The sustainability paradigm challenges the argument that environmental and social problems are an inevitable and acceptable consequence of economic development. The perspective that advocates the concept that human development and the quality of the environment are not compatible with one another is in direct opposition to the basic the principles of sustainable development (Pace, 2009). Dr A. Ghafoor Ghaznaw, former chief of UNESCOs Environmental Education Section, defined environmental education at a UNESCO consultation meeting held in Malta in 1989 as, the educational process through which is imparted to its target groups the sensitivity, awareness, knowledge, skills, attitudes, commitment for actions and ethical responsibilities for the rational use of the environment and its resources and for the protection and improvement of the environment for the present and future generations (Schembri, Ventura, Calleja, 1989) . 1.4.4 Application Regardless of how life affirming the high ideals of sustainability education objectives may be, and despite the significant support and many years of effort behind the work to achieve environmental sustainability ideals, the long-term record of accomplishment in achieving any significant progress in these efforts has been reported to be disappointingly less than expected by many. Although environmental education has frequently been proposed during numerous international conferences as a key element to major strategies intended to promote environmental objectives, there has nonetheless been a significant discrepancy between the efforts spent on education and the results that have be achieved to date (Pace, 2009). Some feel that most of what needed to be said about environmental education was said in the Tbilisi Conference in 1977, and that any new elaborations are really just a repeat of the same principles under a new guise (Pace, 2010). The characteristics of and commitment towards sustainable development were reconfirmed 10 years after the Tbilisi conference at the International Congress on Environmental Education and Training in 1987 in Moscow, and again 10 years later at the International Conference on Environment and Society: Education and Public Awareness for Sustainability in 1997 at Thessaloniki. Although the recommendations and action plans proposed by the aforementioned conferences were still valid, the question arose as to whether the framework originally developed to support environmental education initiatives had instead become an standalone of irrelevant academic exercises (Pace, 2010). Part of the problem may lie in the fact that environmental education, much like the concept of sustainable development, can never arrive at a precise definition of the concept due to its evolving nature (Pace, 2010). The issue of how best to approach environmental education has been unclear. Although it has been well established that learning is not normally a linear experience, a significant number of educational programmes have adopted linear approaches. Linear approaches fail to acknowledge the fact that individuals learn in different ways and through different experiences (Pace, 2010). Moreover, although it is widely acknowledged that degradation of the environmental is firstly due t o the results of unsustainable lifestyles. Environmental education also recognises this fact and espouses the concept that the environment it is every citizens responsibility, and therefore in order to be effective, environmental education programmes should target individuals with learner centred learning. Environmental education programmes committed to promoting sustainable development require the transformation of principle theories into actions. Learner centred programmes, based on competency development prepare learners to take concrete steps towards discovering their own sustainable life patterns. Development of learner centred pedagogies designed to transform passive individuals into independent, critical-thinking lifelong learners committed to taking action is the next phase in the evolution of environmental education (Pace, 2010). 1.4.1 Historical Context The origins of Education for Sustainable Development lie in two distinct areas of interest in the United Nations: education and sustainable development. The Declaration of Human Rights stated in 1948 that, Everyone has the right to education. This right to an education was later reinforced in 1989 by the Convention on the Right of the Child (CRC), which declared that primary education should be compulsory and available free to all. In 1990, the Jomtien Declaration on Education for All (EFA) declared, Basic education should be provided to all children, youth, and adults. International Development Targets (IDT) related to quality education have been also developed. The Dakar Framework for Action lists as one of its six important educational goals as the Improving all aspects of the quality of education so that recognized and measurable learning outcomes are achieved, especially, in literacy, numeracy and essential life skills. The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) also address educat ion. MDG 2 is designed to Achieve universal primary education. Furthermore, the UNGA declared the years 2003 to 2012 to be the United Nations Decade of Literacy (UNLD).The importance of education for all has clearly been repeatedly emphasised by the United Nations repeatedly over the course of its long history. Several milestones have marked the progress of sustainable development, including the landmark 1972 United Nations Conference on Human Environment in Stockholm, which led to the establishment of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and many other environmental protection agencies. Nations came to realize that the widespread growth of environmental degradation required international attention and collaboration rather than isolated national approaches and solutions. Within 10 years after Stockholm, the world began to realize that addressing environmental concerns separately from development needs was not an effective means to managing the welfare of the environment for human society, and by the mid 1980s the United Nations began to search for a larger strategy to address the needs of both society and the environment. This resulted in now well-known report on sustainable development from the Brundtland Commission in 1987, entitled Our Common Future. This report was endorsed a t all levels of government as an overarching framework for future development policy. During this time, the United Nations General Assembly concurrently explored a parallel concept of utilising education to support sustainable development (UNESCO, 2005). The concepts of sustainable development continued to progress with committees discussing and negotiating the terms of the 40 chapters that eventually came to know as the Agenda 21, where it was presented to the public in 1992 at the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED). The link between education and sustainability was first conceptualised in Chapter 36 of Agenda 21. Entitled Promoting Education, Public Awareness, and Training, the chapter was an enabling and implementation strategy for Education for Sustainable Development and stressed the importance of integrating education into every one of the other 40 chapters that also comprised of the Agenda 21, which was reaffirmed in each of the subsequent conventions that arose from the initial Earth Summit as (UNESCO, 2005). All nine of the major United Nations Conferences that convened in the 1990s to further address and refine sustainability issues also correspondingly identified education as a crucial elemen t to implementation (UNESCO, 2005). The Johannesburg World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD), convened in 2002, helped to deepen international commitments towards sustainable development at all levels, and it was at this the Decade of Education for Sustainable development (DESD) was proposed, thereby reaffirming education as an important and central principle to effective approaches for sustainable development strategies. That same year the Rio+20 Conference 2012 was held in Rio de Janeiro. Otherwise known as the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development, and Earth Summit 2012, a draft resolution entitled The Future We Want was presented, which reaffirmed prior commitments to education by strengthening international cooperation to achieve universal access to primary education, which is considered an essential condition for achieving sustainable development, as well for the achieving internationally agreed upon development goals, including the Millennium Development Goals. This draft resolution also re solved to improve the capacity of education systems to prepare students to pursue sustainable development careers, which included enhanced teacher training, curricula developed around sound sustainability principles, and more effective use of information and communication technologies to enhance learning outcomes. The document further resolved to promote Education for Sustainable Development and to integrate it more actively into education beyond the United Nations Decade of Education for Sustainable Development plans, and strongly encouraged educational institutions to teach sustainable development as an integrated component across disciplines. The importance of environmental concerns first gained international recognition with the Stockholm Declaration in 1972. It consisted of 7 proclamations and 26 principles to inspire people of the world to preserve and enhance the worlds and enhancement of the human environment. The International Workshop on Environmental Education was held shortly after Stockholm Convention at Belgrade, Serbia in 1975. The resulting Belgrade charter was the outcome of the event and built upon the Stockholm Declaration, with additional goals, objectives, and guiding principles for environmental education programmes. An important aspect to this work was the inclusion of the public as part of the defined target audience for environmental education. The worlds first intergovernmental conference on environmental education was organized by the United Nations Education, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) in cooperation with the U.N. Environment Programme (UNEP) in 1977, and was convened in Tbilisi, Georgia (USSR).The Tbilisi Declaration was a result of this conference, with the declaration updating and clarifying the Stockholm Declaration and the Belgrade Charter. The Tbilisi Declaration recommended that environmental education develops the necessary skills for societies to deal with environmental challenges, and promotes the attitudes and commitments required to make the most informed decisions and responsible actions towards the environment. The declaration emphasised the important roles of education to preserving the planets environment and balanced development of communities, and declared that, by its very nature, environmental education can make a powerful contribution to the renovation of the educational process. The document also recommended that environmental education should be integrated into the entire system of formal education at all levels to provide the necessary knowledge, understanding, values, and skills needed for participation in devising solutions to environmental questions. Ten years after the Tbilisi Conference, a follow-up conference was convened in Moscow, otherwise known as the Moscow Conference, to determine a specific international plan of action for environmental education and training. The Moscow Conference report was based upon input from international studies and surveys, and outlined an international strategy of action to develop environmental education and training programmes for the 1990s. The plan defined requirements for education and training programmes, and reaffirmed the Tbilisi Conferences declaration that environmental education should be made an integral part of the entire educational process and aimed at every category of the population in member states. The Rio+5 or Earth Summit+5 Conference was convened in 1997 to appraise the progress the Agenda 21 plans over the five years that had passed since its initial approval. It was determined by the assembly that progress was thus far uneven, and identified several key negative trends affecting the environment, which included continuing globalisation, widening of gaps in economic incomes, and a continuing deterioration of the global environment. This conference brought to light a new international consensus with a new vision of education that involved more public awareness and training, and conceptualised education as an essential element of sustainable development, with the support of advances in other related areas such as science, technology, and policy (UNESCO, 1997b). Twenty years after the Tbilisi Declaration and five years after the Rio Conference, a third environmental education conference was also held in 1997 at Thessaloniki, Greece. The purpose of this conference was to reiterate the important role of education and public awareness to achieving the aims of sustainability. The declaration of Thessaloniki reaffirmed commitments, recommendations, and action plans from previous conferences, yet at the same time also recognized that insufficient progress had been made in the five years since the Rio conference had concluded. Despite this disappointment however, there was a recommitment to involving national governments, civil society, the United Nations, and other international organisations to working towards the intentions of sustainability, and established a global agenda for upcoming Decade of Education for Sustainable Development (DESD) as declared by the UN. In the conference, they reaffirmed that sufficient education and public awareness should be recognised as one of the main pillars of sustainability, together with legislation, technology, and the economy. It was also recommended that special emphasis should be given to strengthen teacher training programmes and the identification and sharing of innovative practices. Support was also recommended for research in interdisciplinary teaching methodologies and assessments of the impact of relevant educational programmes (UNESCO, 1997a). 1.4.2 The UN Decade of Education for Sustainable Development (DESD) Following the World Summit on Sustainable Development in 2002, and based upon recommendations from chapter 36 of the Agenda 21 document, the United Nations declared 2005 to 2014 the Decade of Education for Sustainable Development (DESD) in 2002. During the decade declared by the UN, many goals have been set forth in conjunction with strategies towards outcomes that are intended affect millions of people from communities all over the world for many years to come through inspiring all individuals at all levels of society to contribute to helping to make sustainable development a realistic reality. Planned outcomes during the Decade include raising public awareness, updating educational systems, and the integration of ESD into all elements of developmental planning (The United Nations, 2010). The DESD is also linked to other international educational priorities as well. The United Nations has launched four global initiatives since 2000, all of which focus on education. The four initiatives are the Millennium Development Goals (MDG), Education for All (EFA), the United Nations Literacy Decade, and the United Nations Decade of Education for Sustainable Development. UNESCO is the coordinating agency for three of the four goals. While the initiatives are unique in certain respects, what they all have in common is a commitment to education and an emphasis on the importance of the participatory role of each individual in education and sustainable development (UNESCO, 2009). The Fourth International Conference on Environmental Education, also referred to as the Tbilisi+30, was held at the Centre for Environment Education (CEE) in Ahmedabad, India in 2007. During the conference, several work group sessions were convened, along with special sessions for solely for government agencies. The conference was intended to promote a vision that education that prevents and resolves conflicts, and to provide assistance in building partnerships and facilitating shared experiences and a collective knowledgebase required to refine a vision of sustainability that expands its practice globally, and reaffirm that education is a crucial element to bringing about the global transitions required to make sustainability a realistic reality (UNESCO, UNEP Govt. of India, 2007) . Environmental education supports education for sustainable development, and encourages a shift from viewing education as a delivery mechanism, to a lifelong, holistic, and all-inclusive process (UNESCO, UNEP Govt. of India, 2007) . The following is a list of Working Group Session Reports Recommendations and Workshop Presentations available from the Tbilisi+30 Conference: Reorienting Formal Education towards ESD (Strategies, Pedagogy, and Assessment). Teacher Education: A crucial contribution to the UNDESD. Supporting Sustainable Development through Open and Distance Learning, including Technology Mediated Open and Distance Education (TechMODE). Education for Innovation and Technology. Integrating Values of Sustainability into education. Monitoring and Evaluating Progress during the UN DESD. Education for Sustainable Consumption through the DESD. The World Conference on Education for Sustainable Development was held in Bonn, Germany, in 2009. The conference was organised by UNESCO, the German Ministry of Education and Research, and the German Commission for UNESCO. The World Conference on ESD marked the beginning of the second half of the UN Decade on Education for Sustainable Development. The purpose of the conference was to discuss and exchange best practices on Education for Sustainable Development from all world regions. The conference had four objectives: To highlight the relevance of ESD to all of education. To promote international exchange on ESD, especially between the North and the South. To carry out a stocktaking of the implementation of the UN Decade. To develop strategies for the way ahead. Strategies were developed during the conference to highlight key focus areas in order to put knowledge into action and promote further progress of ESD in the following five years remaining of the Decade. Post-conference strategies included: Re-orienting education and training to address sustainability concerns. Building and sharing knowledge, and generating new knowledge through research. Advocating for ESD through increasing awareness and understanding of sustainability, and reinforcing/enhancing synergies between different education and development initiatives. Extending and strengthening ESD partnerships. As the global coordinator of the DESD, UNESCOs role is to facilitate new partnerships and encourage exchange between Member States on ESD, share best practices, encourage monitoring and evaluation efforts, encourage development of ESD research agendas, and provide strategic guidance. Many activities have been undertaken by a broad range of stakeholders since the start of the DESD, including setting up National Committees, establishing networks, developing and disseminating education materials, identifying and highlighting good practices, and arranging meetings to encourage international exchange (UNESCO World Conference on Education for Sustainable Development, 2009). Although much work remains to be done before ESD completely occupies a central place in educational and learning processes in order to realise its full potential to improve the quality of education as a whole, there has been notable progress since the beginning of the Decade in 2005. Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) was a key outcome from the Rio Earth Summit held in 1992. A review halfway through the DESD indicated that the need for ESD had become well established in national policy frameworks and that national ESD coordinating agencies had been created almost 100 countries across all UN regions (UNESCO DESD Monitoring Evaluation, 2012) . Networks and organisations both within and outside the UN system have been established globally to encourage and support increasing ESD in schools, universities, and communities, and in the process, ESD has gained international recognition as an education relevant to addressing todays Sustainable Development challenges, (UNESCO DESD Monitoring Evaluation, 2012) . More recent reports indicated that there is been an increased recognition that environmental challenges cannot be solved exclusively through technological advances and new policy frameworks, in order to achieve sustainable success efforts must be accompanied by changes in mind-sets, values, and lifestyles of societies (UNESCO DESD Monitoring Evaluation, 2012) . ESD is being increasingly viewed as a means to renew teaching and learning in ways that allow schools and communities to more effectively address the challenges sustainable development and the environment. In some parts of the world, ESD has been a part of a co-evolution of teaching methods and has arguably become a catalyst for educational change and innovation (UNESCO DESD Monitoring Evaluation, 2012) . There has been a shift from viewing ESD as something to add-on to education to ESD as a mechanism for rethinking education and learning (UNESCO DESD Monitoring Evaluation, 2012). Sustainability challenges require more integrative and exploratory forms of learning. As a result, the boundaries between schools, universities, and communities are increasingly blurring in many areas of the world now due to a number of recent trends, including increased focuses on lifelong learning; globalization; and ICT facilitated social networking education. These boundary-crossing phenomena are resulting in a reconfiguration of formal, informal, and non-formal learning processes, and changing the roles and relationships stakeholders Earlier in the Decade the emphasis was on finding a niche among education institutions, whereas today ESD is viewed more as a potential umbrella for all educations (including global citizenship education) concerned with the well-being of the planet and its inhabitants (UNE SCO DESD Monitoring Evaluation, 2012). Despite all the positive progress being made however, there are new challenges to resolve. For instance, the E in ESD is conceptualized in different ways depending on the availability of individual societies for participation, self-determination, and autonomous thinking (UNESCO DESD Monitoring Evaluation, 2012). Local situations may vary in these respects globally, which often leads to different interpretations and implementations of ESD. Within more restrictive environments, more transmission-oriented pedagogies are more likely, with a strong emphasis forms of instruction centred around knowledge transfer, and in more open environments, ESD is more typically characterized by higher levels of participation, self-determination, autonomous thinking, and knowledge co-creation. The latter versions of ESD require alternative forms of teaching and learning, and higher levels of stakeholder interaction. 1.5 Applying TEL Concepts in ESD Contexts 1.5.1 Uptake Extent of Use The eMerge One-to-One Laptop Learning Project was initiated by the Government of Albertas Ministry of Education to explore the effectiveness of wireless computing for learning and teaching. The project was anticipated to affect 2,502 students, 173 teachers, and 47 administrators within 50 schools in the 20 Alberta jurisdictions. Data collected during the course of the research period supported the following findings (Government of Alberta, 2010): By the end of Year Three there was a significant shift in participating classrooms toward 21st Century Learning skills, with students in the project significantly increasing their readiness to thrive in a complex, global, high-tech society. The educators involved in the progress have made steady progress over the course of three year in their proficiency with technology and 21st Century Learning, and in the process, increased the frequency at which technology was used to keep students engaged in deep, complex, authentic, and relevant learning activities. The eMerge project included a range of professional development models. One of the most highly valued by teachers was the community of practice that linked teachers to one another. There were also key shifts with students in their independence in learning and increased collaboration with other students. Teachers and administrators developed a deeper understanding of and commitment to the vision for 21st Century learning. Over the course of the first three years of the eMerge, the perception of teachers on the relevance of the 21st Century Skills shifted from valuing productivity to placing more value on the use of skills in critical thinking, creativity, and ethical use. European Schoolnet is a not-for-profit organisation comprised of 30 Ministries of Education in Europe. The organisation is dedicated to supporting collaboration and networking among schools in Europe using new technologies, and contributing to the development of technology-enhanced learning in schools. In 15 years since its founding, European Schoolnet has become one of the key organisations involved in transforming teaching and learning at schools in Europe using the integration of ICT into learning and teaching (European Schoolnet, 2011). European Schoolnet provides services through its partnerships with ministries of Education and the European Commission. The services offered to schools provide opportunities for teachers to become actively involved in exploring how ICT can enhance the teaching and learning experience. Recent initiatives have focused on raising awareness among teachers of the benefits of school collaboration activities for both the pupils learning and the teachers own professional development (European Schoolnet, 2011). European Schoolnet is currently facilitating several project initiatives. The Scientix project is a European Schoolnet initiative that provides a web-based information platform for science education in Europe to disseminate knowledge and share best practices in science education. The Scientix web portal is available in six European languages and targets anyone involved in science and maths education, from policy-makers to science education teachers. The Spice project, funded by the European Commission under the Lifelong Learning programme, collects, analyses, shares innovative pedagogical practices focused on inquiry-based learning and improving student interest in the sciences (European Schoolnet, 2011). eTwinning is an online community for schools in Europe that provides a host of online educational tools for teachers from participating countries to locate potential school partnerships, arrange virtual meetings, exchange best practice ideas, and opportunities learn together with on line-based projects. An eTwinning project allows at least two schools from at least two different European countries create a project and use Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) to carry out their work (eTwinning, 2011). The We teach together eTwinning project is a partnership between schools in the Czech Republic and Portugal that incorporated the integration of the school subjects of Chemistry, Biology, and Environmental Education. This project brought teachers and classrooms together to teach topic of photosynthesis. The primary objective of the project was to facilitate a teaching practice in an unusual way that would enhance the motivation of students to learn otherwise less popular

Essay --

Drew Foster Foster 1 Mrs. Bueno Honors English 14 December 2013 Darrin M. Mcmahon the author of the article, â€Å"In Pursuit of Unhappiness†, was born in 1963. Darrin broke out of the order of saying â€Å"Happy New Year!† and realized they are only expected words that are said without any meaning behind them. Even around the holidays where people are expected to be happy, they think the words â€Å"Happy New Year!† are just words that are supposed to be said. If you think about the words â€Å"Happy New Year†, year does not only mean one day, so the words are meant to wish a whole year of happiness. But instead, people just reserve their happiness only for the holidays. John Stuart Mill, Carlyle's long-time rival who are both philosophers makes a valid statement about those who have their focus set on something other than happiness are only happy. For example, setting your goal on being happy is risking being happy, because when you don't achieve it you lose even more happiness. Thomas Carlyle and John Stuart Mill both have similar concepts on happiness. Carlyle, who is a Scottish Philosopher, notices the wrong idea of religion before 17th century. Many disregarded the ideas of religion that put misery into their lives, but some people recognized God's care very satisfying. Earthly satisfaction, McMahon states, was an attempt to bring heavenly felicity down to the earth. This religious change was to replace the feeling of misery with happiness. John Stuart Mill, who is an English philosopher, explains another way of achieving happiness based off of his personal experience. After suffering from a d... ...for such books is a strong indication that they aren’t working.† Setting your goal and being determined or even being desperate to find happiness is dangerous and is risking your happiness. If and when you do not achieve happiness, you lose all of it and even become unhappy. Focus your mind on something other than your own happiness and you will achieve true happiness. Darrin M. McMahon says to â€Å"...Have dinner with your family or walk in the park with friends...put in some good hours t the office or at your favorite charity, temple or church. Work on your jump shot or your child’s model trains. With luck, you’ll find happiness by the by.† So instead of saying â€Å"Happy New Year†, Darrin M. McMahon says â€Å"‘Don’t have a happy new year!’†, because â€Å"Those only are happy who have their minds fixed on some object other than their own happiness† says John Stuart Mill.

MacBeth :: essays research papers

I do not agree with the statement because I do think that Macbeth was unimaginative I think that he had quite an imagination and this was shown at least twice in the book. I also do not really think that he was a monster he was really just trying to save his own life. Also I thought he was timid because a lot of the time his wife put him up to things that he did not really want to do.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Macbeth was portrayed by Shakespeare to be a strong war hero who drove the Norwegians out of Scotland, and caught the traitor the Thane of Cawdor, when really he was just a timid person who was putting on an act to please people like the king, his wife, and his friends. Although Macbeth is portrayed to be physically strong he is mentally quite weak, and this is shown when he believes every word that the witches say, and he ends up resting, thinking that no one can take him off the throne.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Macbeth is shown to be timid quite a few times in the book, in that he lacks the mental strength to do things, so his wife questions his manhood and calls him weak. After she insulted him, he thinks that he is wrong and she is right, so he go against his own conscience, in the end he was right and Lady Macbeth wrong. Lady Macbeth tells Macbeth when the king is in their castle to “Your hand, your tongue: look like th’ innocent flower, but be serpent under’t.'; What this meant was that Macbeth looked and talked like an innocent little flower, but under that fake mask he was an evil serpent. I agree that Macbeth was unimaginative to a degree but then again he had an imagination because he saw the daggers before he killed King Duncan, and after he got Banquo killed he saw the image of Banquo in his seat. An example of this is stated here: ';Is this a dagger which I see before me, The handle toward my hand? Come, let me clutch Thee. I have thee not, and yet I see thee still. Art thou not, fatal vision, sensible To feeling as to sight, or art thou but A dagger of the mind, a false creation, Proceeding from the heat oppressed brain?'; This is where Macbeth is imagining that there is a dagger in front of him. I think that this shows that he does actually have an imagination and sometimes it gets the better of him.

The Manhattan Project :: essays research papers

The Manhattan Project   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Nuclear research all started when the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, and the United States entered into World War II. When the United States realized that Germany attempted to build an atomic bomb, Americans began to concentrate on their research about creating an atomic bomb more heavily. President Franklin D. Roosevelt created the Manhattan Project, which included a group of top scientists, under General Leslie R. Groves, who worked around the clock to try to develop an atomic bomb within three years (Bondi 493). The Americans and the British combined their efforts to research the development of the bomb and created plants and factories to work in (â€Å"The Atomic Bomb†¦Ã¢â‚¬  257). They created plants for three separate processes: electromagnetic, gaseous diffusion, and thermal diffusion. These plants helped create the plutonium and uranium 235 needed to manufacture the atomic bomb (Gerdes 142). The secrecy of the Manhattan Project was essential in order to develop the atomic bombs to end World War II. The United States and Great Britain kept the development of the atomic bomb a secret (Bondi 493). In order to keep the secret, Groves spread the work out between laboratories so that the people working on the bomb could not figure out they were manufacturing. The members of the Manhattan Project asked the scientists questions about the bomb, and they gave answers back, but they did not know what the responses were for. The project consisted of so many restrictions for the employees in order to keep the secrecy of the project. They could not hold private conversations about the material they were working on because after awhile, people might have been able to put it together and determine that they were creating a bomb. Employees worked on tasks that had nothing to do with what the others around them were doing. Even the officials on the War Production Board remained unaware of the bomb (â€Å"The Atomic Bomb†¦Ã¢â‚¬  258). As with everything, problems occurred during the development process. The plutonium needed for the bombs was only in microscopic sizes, which was very difficult to handle. Plutonium’s properties were unknown, and scientists knew very little about uranium 235. The plants needed to be run by machinery because the materials were â€Å"radioactive, poisonous, violently corrosive, or all three† (Gerdes 143). After scientists studied and became familiar with plutonium and uranium 235, they were able to begin the manufacturing process (Gerdes 91).

Internal Accountant’s Report to Management Essay

Introduction Since our company is preparing for an upcoming government contract bid, management has decided that a full Financial Status Review (FSR) prior to the release of the bid is essential. This report is to provide supporting information prior to the bid in order to evaluate if any irregularities with regard to fraud and/or abuse of the company have taken place and if so, to what effect. The report is divided into four sections, which will cover information on the effect of potential occupational fraud and abuse on the company. It will also discuss U.S. government oversight of accounting fraud and abuse and its effect on the company. Section three will provide potential corruption schemes to be aware of in the company. Finally, some recommendations will be given of types of accounting evidence and methods of gathering evidence to support the FSR and to provide reasonable assurance that no irregularities have occurred. Occupational fraud and abuse According to 2009 Global Fraud Survey organizations lose about 5% of its gross revenues to all forms of fraud and abuse in the workplace. Moreover, having to report fraud is very unhealthy for the company and its stakeholders. It can result in some negative effects like remunerations and salaries, employee base, employee benefits, but also morale and profits. Also occupational frauds and abuses usually have an adverse effect on the reputation of the company. In case of a very significant fraud it may even lead to bankruptcy. U.S. governmental oversight of accounting fraud and abuse There have been many significant accounting scandals, like Enron, Computer Associates, Xerox, Adelphia, WorldCom and Royal Ahold, that have had extensive press coverage and, despite the fact that some of them are already some years in the past, they are still being discussed. Since then many new, different and strict accounting regulations and rules have been created in order to prevent or defer fraud, abuse or waste. Many of the frauds were with regard to revenue recognition, which has led to many improvements by now. Noticeable changes have been made in the way firms from particular industries book revenues as a result of the heightened SEC scrutiny of revenue accounting; companies have become more conservative when it comes to the timing of the revenue recognition. Particularly many Internet companies have reduced the total amount of the revenue being recognized compared to the situation before the heightened scrutiny. According to a survey in FORBES, less fraud cases have been reported recently. Enforcement cases and prosecutions over the last decade were very well publicized which had a positive effect on the attitude of many companies’ senior management. Also it is said that government’s enforcement efforts have had a deterring effect. Moreover, additional requirements imposed by Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX) made senior executives more concerned about the financial results reported and on which they have to sign off. It is clear that the US financial reporting environment has changed and based on the positive current events, constantly improving reporting requirements, rules and regulations, even greater changes are expected in the future. Corruption schemes Corruption has unfortunately been a very common phenomenon in the work environment throughout the years. It is defined as  ¨an intent to gain particular personal advantage at the cost of organization ¨ he/she represents. Corruption schemes are usually divided into 4 main categories: * Bribery and Kickbacks * Commercial bribery is the offering, giving, receiving or soliciting of anything of value to influence the outcome of a business transaction * It usually involves the submission of invoices that are overpriced or fictitious * Is usually undertaken by employees such as purchasing agents * Economic Extortion * Money extortion from a potential purchaser or supplier * Example: a corrupt purchasing officer demanding a payment in exchange to make a decision in the vendor’s favor * Conflicts of Interest * The situation occurs when an employee, manager or executive has an undisclosed personal or economic interest (with a negative effect on the company) * For example, the victim organization is not informed that its employees have divided royalties * This scheme includes the exertion of the insider’s influence to the detriment of the entity * Illegal Gratuities * This type of scheme is similar to bribery schemes. The only difference is that there is an intent to reward a business decision, rather than influence it * A common example is when purchasing agents are promised expensive vacations, etc. after a vendor’s contact is approved Accounting evidence and evidence gathering methods Gathering accounting evidence is a very common activity in auditing. Accounting evidence is being collected using investigative and auditing practices. For investigations, this is the evidence that lawyers and government officials can rely on for very important and high profile cases. For more routine reviews as the FSR prior to the bid, it is the type of evidence that we can rely on to give reasonable assurance that no irregularities have occurred. In both situations, the accounting evidence should be based on the following important qualities: * Relevance * Materiality * Competency The types of accounting evidence we are referring to include: * Physical evidence * Third-party representations * Documentary evidence * Computations * Data Interrelationships * Client representations * Accounting Records Since this is a FSR and not an investigative procedure, I recommend the following auditing methods to gather evidence that will provide reasonable assurance that no irregularities have occurred and that our financial statements are relevant and have been compiled in a competent manner and contain no material misstatements: * Compliance testing – to ensure that we have an adequate internal control system and that it is working effectively; an adequate level of transaction testing will have to be performed to provide this assurance * Substantive testing – a. Test of detail – for the purpose of the FSR I recommend these only when and where the internal control system does not provide the assurance we desire b. Analytical testing – I recommend these to provide further assurance that our financial statements adequately reflect the financial position of our company References: Wells, J. (2011). Principles of fraud examination (3rd ed). Hoboken, NJ: Wiley. Singleton, T. W., Singleton, A. J. (2010). Fraud auditing and forensic accounting. (4th ed.). Hoboken, NJ: Wiley. Online Source: http://safeside.ch/safeside.info/index.php/fraud-schemes/corruption/224-corruption-schemes-