President Ford

From its onset, the power to pardon has been controversial because it has been used more often for the sake of political advantage than the correction of judicial error. To the 38th President of the United States, his perusal for the pardon power; granted by the United States Constitution, Article II, Section 2, had to do with the ushering in of peace into a hectic time period. (U. S. Constitution) A number of Presidents throughout American history have used pardon power for various reasons.For example, George Washington granted the first pardon to leaders of the Whiskey Rebellion, while Andrew Johnson granted a number of pardons to thousands of former Confederate officials and military personnel after the American Civil War. Other uses of pardon include, George H. W. Bush's pardons of 75 people in connection with the Iran-Contra affair, Bill Clinton's pardons of convicted FALN terrorists, and most recently George W. Bush's pardoning of Irve Lewis Libby's prison term. (U. S.Dept of J ustice, 2006) Yet in the 20th century, President Gerald Ford granted one of the most memorable pardons to former President Richard Nixon on September 8, 1974, for any crimes he may have committed that gave rise to the Watergate scandal. Many view Ford’s pardon as a corrupt bargain made to elevate him to the Presidency and alleviate Nixon from any responsibility, yet Ford’s speech shows a man of good judgment who’s primary concern was the clearing up of America’s name which had been sullied by Watergate.Ford desired to end of Nixon’s suffering, whom he believed, â€Å"will continue to suffer, no matter what I do. † (Ford Nixon Pardon) In a news conference Ford stated he, â€Å"†¦hoped that our former president who had brought peace to millions would find it for himself. † (Presidents News Conference, 1974) This paper critiques President Ford’s speech entitled â€Å"Remarks on Pardoning Richard Nixon. † Though it has been colored with bias from the media, this critique will help individuals who want to see the story outside of the flashy news headlines.It offers an eye opening view of Ford’s motives for the pardon and a brief look into why he deserves more credit for this act of courage. This paper will discuss the background of events which led to Ford’s pardon, examine his speech, give a Neo-Aristotlelian analysis of the speech, and finally conclude with statements meant to give a distinctive perspective on Fords integrity, trustworthiness, and decision making capabilities.

Discuss How Kafka Evokes Feelings of Sympathy Towards Gregor

Discuss how Kafka evokes feelings of sympathy towards Gregor? ‘The Metamorphosis’ is written by Franz Kafka in 1915, during the time when modernism and existentialism was popular through literature. Kafka uses different devices to induce sympathy towards Gregor’s character by using isolation, his transformation and the different family responses to Gregor’s transformation. Gregor Samsa is the main character of the novel and is the first character the reader learns about. The bizarre beginning of the novel states the transformation that has taken place to Gregor, â€Å"†¦ e found himself changed in his bed into a monstrous vermin. † This immediately puzzles the reader and is the trigger of the sympathy from the reader to Gregor. â€Å"No matter how hard he threw himself onto his right side, he always rocked onto his back again. † The effort Gregor has to do to make himself turn over makes the reader sympathetic towards him because he is fi nding it extremely difficult, as his transformation has changed his ability to move at ease that he before was accustomed to. â€Å"†¦ the change in his voice was nothing more than the first sight of a bad cold†¦ This shows that not only has Gregor’s body transformed into a â€Å"vermin† but his voice has also altered which illustrates that he is losing his human features and is becoming entirely insect. Sympathy is present from the reader because the hope of something human like present in Gregor is out of the question as his struggle to cope with the unsuspected transformation is complete. Gregor’s role in the family is the provider in the household that he shares with his parents and sister. He is selfless, only thinks for others and not himself. This is seen in the start of the novel when his transformation has begun. â€Å"But that would be extremely embarrassing and suspicious†¦ Gregor had not been sick even once. † The panic of not showing up for work and the effects on others and the excuses he may have to make are going through his mind when he wakes up. This creates sympathy as the reader learns the Gregor does not care for himself but cares and acts accordingly to others in his life than rather going with what he wants to do. A paragraph in chapter one, â€Å"Why didn’t his sister go in to the others†¦ uncertainty that was torturing he others and excused their behaviour. † This paragraph backs up evidence that Gregor only thought about others. It also suggests to the reader that he is under a lot of pressure as he has to think about his family as well as his boss and work and at this time the transformation that has just happened to him. Isolation is a major device that Kafka uses to evo ke sympathy towards Gregor. This theme is introduced at the beginning of the novel. Gregor is in his room, alone with the door locked and his family outside when he wakes up and finds himself transformed into a â€Å"vermin†. This physical isolation from within his home is linked to his general isolation from society where his role is to work. His hard work to supply for the home is a factor of his isolation from his family as there is a lack of communication, â€Å"†¦ quiet life his family has been leading†¦ †. His isolation from society after his transformation makes Gregor unhappy as he is unable to help his family and is only allowed to watch selflessly from a distance. â€Å"Gregor spent the days and nights almost entirely without sleep†¦ he would take charge of the family’s affairs again†¦ This creates sympathy as the reader is aware there is nothing Gregor is capable of doing to help his family and that he cannot overcome the change of his body. Gregor’s family’s responses to his surprising transformation are important factors to allowing the reader to sympathise towards Gregor’s character. Gregor’s parents and Gregor seemed to have no relationship as they only saw him as a supplier and not their son, â€Å"That boy has nothing on his mind but the business. † This is said by the mother. It shows that she only cared about the money coming in to the house rather than his well being. The lack of communication between the parents and Gregor is emphasised when Gregor transforms as they make no attempt to see him or communicate with him, and soon he is forgotten to them as he is not as important as he was before. Grete, Gregor’s sister on the other hand had a relationship with Gregor. She cared for him and this is shown in the beginning of the novel when Gregor does not wake up in time to go to work. â€Å"Gregor? Is something the matter with you? † This demonstrates the caring that Grete has towards Gregor. The brother and sister also have another link that brings them closer, their ove for music. This is seen when Grete is playing the violin and Gregor as the transformed vermin finds interest from the music and goes to Grete. The reader later learns that the caring Grete from the start of the novel finds Gregor a pest towards the end, â€Å"†¦ we have to try get rid of it. We’ve done everything humanly possible to take care of it†¦ † This illustrates that Grete has become fed up with Gregor hanging around the house and pestering the family. It seems that she feels that Gregor is a burden on the family and that the â€Å"monstrous vermin† is not Gregor at all. This evokes sympathy as Gregor has no family links and is now completely alone as no one wants him around anymore. When Gregor learns about his family’s decision to get rid of him, he then takes his last breath and dies alone. The death is sudden but expectant to the reader. â€Å"Come and have a look, it’s croaked; it’s lying there, dead as a doornail! † The cleaning woman of the house is the one who finds Gregor dead in the morning. Mr. and Mrs. Samsa are shocked about the death and hurriedly make everyone leave from the house except them and Grete. His death may have been a shock for them but no grief is shown from the family towards him. â€Å"†¦ now we can thank God! † This shows that Mr. Samsa was delighted by the death of Gregor and as if he had been waiting for the end of Gregor for a long time. Gregor’s death did not move the family as they just seemed to go on with their lives. They all leave the house to start their lives a fresh. The lack of grief shown towards Gregor tells the reader that Gregor must have been holding the family back from their potential and that they were finally happy that he had left them. This creates sympathy for Gregor because he is not missed and all the hard work he applied himself for the family was not appreciated by them. He was not seen as a part of the family, just a pay check. In conclusion the two main devices Kaka uses are the transformation of Gregor and the isolation he faced within his home and society are the main roles in evoking sympathy towards him from the reader. Kafka uses these techniques mainly to show that Gregor’s character was a symbol for alienation within the society of that time which therefore creates a considerable amount of sympathy from the reader towards his character.

International business strategy Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3250 words

International business strategy - Assignment Example These large firms account for holding more than 90% of the world’s consulting market. Entering into new markets or acquiring the market share of competitors was one of the leaping strategic challenges before the firm. Moreover, they were already holding great cost and resource advantage in some of the largest emerging countries like India, Philippines and other nations like Eastern Europe and Russia (Plunkett, 2007, p.119). The management of WCS also was faced with a dilemma. This was choosing the right or appropriate model from amongst the several trends and models which different organizations across the globe followed. The challenge was choosing between the following options. First, was to create and generate the consulting capability of the firms and then spin off as a completely independent and different company having no operational connectivity with the parent organization. The second option treated consulting capability as a captive unit. This is followed by the off-sh ooting the existing units of businesses which continues to evolve their own consulting capabilities in the global market. However, units operate under the strong guidance and supervision of the parent organization and uses operations such as human resource management and marketing management from the parent organization itself. After much of the deliberations, the leaders decided that it would need the best features of the two models. This consequently generated the concept of a federated structure. The idea was to provide a certain amount of fundamental autonomy to the consulting business of the firm while maintaining a loose association with the parent organization. According to the organizational leaders such...The challenge was choosing between the following options. First, was to create and generate the consulting capability of the firms and then spin off as a completely independent and different company having no operational connectivity with the parent organization. The secon d option treated consulting capability as a captive unit. This is followed by the off-shooting the existing units of businesses which continues to evolve their own consulting capabilities in the global market. However, units operate under the strong guidance and supervision of the parent organization and uses operations such as human resource management and marketing management from the parent organization itself. After much of the deliberations, the leaders decided that it would need the best features of the two models. This consequently generated the concept of a federated structure. The idea was to provide a certain amount of fundamental autonomy to the consulting business of the firm while maintaining a loose association with the parent organization. According to the organizational leaders such as Mark Payne, this would be the most suitable or appropriate structure for the company. However, creating this structure would be a great challenge for the company with regards to the ex tent of autonomy it would rest with itself and the degree of coupling it would maintain with its parent organization. The positioning of the firms in the strategic consulting space along with the existence of such firms as BCG and McKinsey was challenging and not very easy.

HP at a Strategic Crossroad Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

HP at a Strategic Crossroad - Assignment Example But, the company was not able to take up the challenge thrown up by the rapid advancements in technologies and some of the competitors. Fiorina had proved herself at AT&T by bringing about a successful spin-off at its equipment and research branch. With such a legacy she joined HP and started her mission to refurbish the image of HP and implementing the requisite changes. For introducing changes in an organization and its functioning, the manager is supposed to take into confidence the team leaders, departmental heads and other support staff. The CEO will be able to plan and execute the strategies effectively if she had fullest support from other managers and the governing board. In this case it appears that Carleton Fiorina didn't believe in collaborative or democratic type of functioning. Instead she took pride in imposing her decision and carrying through her plan irrespective of what others have to say on that particular decision. She gained notoriety for placing her interest ove r the interests of the organization. This is a serious shortcoming for being an able and acceptable leader. To manage an organization, the manager has to manage the human resources, the machinery and the strategies. The leader will be termed as successful, if she is able to take active cooperation of the human resources in managing the machinery and planning & executing the strategies. But in this case Fiorina resorted to 'ambush marketing' from the very beginning. Without caring for the tradition or conventions at HP, she started imposing her plans. It can very well be argued that in this era of cut-throat competition, an organization has to plan out its strategies according to the demand from market, but expecting the change to take place overnight, proves detrimental for the health of the organization. This is exactly what Fiorina did after joining HP. It is said that, companies and organizations are made for people and by the people, and obviously their effectiveness depends on the behavior and performance of the people running these companies. Howard Good (2006), the former president of Highland Central School Board in Highland, NY, says, "Being board president brings power and prestige, but you must inspire and help others to be successful". A team leader therefore plays the central role in making or breaking the team. It is the team leader who can synergize the efforts or just wither away the advantage, with his actions. A team leader is supposed to delegate the powers and responsibilities amongst his/ her team mates, inspire the team members by being an example and motivate his team with appropriate motivating factors. A leader can synergize the efforts by; Eliciting the contribution from all concerned Organizing the team members by assigning them the responsibilities, and Developing an information system for monitoring and coordination activities. It can very well be argued that HP had become a bureaucratic type of an organization and was on the verge of loosing the status of being a leader in innovation. World's first scientific calculator was given to the world by HP way back in 1967. The company has been a market leader in printing and imaging business solutions since 1985. But somehow the company could not keep pace with the changing technology and the competitors like IBM and Dell overtook it. The revenue figures started declining. A dynamic leader

Connection between disabilities and poverty Essay

Connection between disabilities and poverty - Essay Example Low income precedes disability. Consequently, poverty among the pregnant women, poor diet, and stressful living increases the incidences of prematurity among the babies. For example, premature births and low birth weight are indicators of future disability (Lustig and Strauser, 195). Together disability and poverty creates a vicious circle. Worldwide over a billion people have some form of disability with majority of the incidents resulting from poverty instances. Once the poor people are disabled, their poverty levels worsen more. Disabled people are subjects of discrimination in the world we live in, and are frequently denied access to employment opportunities, healthcare, and education that they require to lift them out of poverty. Rather the individuals become poorer more. Individuals with a disability remain on the verge edge of existence and their poverty levels cause a greater effect on their disability (Braithwaite and Mont 220). Together disability and poverty creates a vicious circle. However, disabled individuals re often regarded to be a curse in the society and are even considered being as a result of witchcraft and bad luck. Disabled people are often hidden away from others or left even alone to die. The millennium development goal on eradication of poverty can only be achieved if special consideration is given to the disabled

Human Resource Management Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Human Resource Management - Essay Example As an example, there is evidence from a number of countries that a unionized workplace will provide more training to employees than nonunionized workplace. There is also evidence that unions influence formalization in employee recruitment and selection. Workplaces under unions are more likely to employ a formal process to advertise job vacancies and apply more objective tests in selection. Probably, these human resource practices achieve efficiencies foregone by nonunionized companies considering their pursuit of extra objectives such as the desire to stay away from unions. Moreover, unions seem to boost the quantity and quality of voice environments in the firms (Verma, 2005). Union status has a positive relationship with worker voice and voice increases lower the rate of quitting responsibilities. From these observations, the general picture that comes out is one of unionized companies being more formal in adopting some human resource practices that produce efficiencies for HR mana gement. Such practices include employee training, employee voice, selection and recruitment, group incentive strategies such as gain-sharing plans. Therefore, evidence from practice and studies supports positive gains for unions in many areas of HR managerial practice. The positive contribution can well be understood when we consider the case of Wal-Mart and union issues. The megastore has fiercely opposed the unionization of its employees across all its stores. But, what has been the result for this opposition? For the last five years, the firm has been incurring great losses due to court cases involving HR practices which are ruled in favor of the employees. The firm has been accused of its biased practices when recruiting employees. An example of such cases is of an employee in New Jersey who accused a manager of harassing him after realizing his sex-orientation. The store was ordered to pay the employee $2 million. Apparently, the judgments suggest that the HR practices of the c ompany affect the efficiency of management leading to great loses. If the company’s workplace was unionized, it is true that such practices would be improved enabling the firm to counter the issues within individual stores. The firm would adopt HR policies that would improve the management as it responds to the pressures of unions. Paper two When compared with issues on pay and productivity, occupation health and safety receive secondary attention despite its importance to an organization. This is because the issue has indirect benefits to the organization unlike pay and productivity. Occupation health and safety issue is about promoting and maintain of physical, social and mental health of employees in all occupations as well preventing and protection of health effects resulting from their working conditions (Burke, Cooper & Clarke, 2011). This suggests that the issue has direct benefits to employees rather than the organization. In addition, organizations are aware that occ upation health and safety practices incur high cost either directly or indirectly. Naturally, the firms will not give high priority to issues that incur high costs, yet their benefits are not clearly stated. They would rather pursue those issues that add to profitability. On the other hand, issues like pay and productivity have direct benefits to organizations. If a company does not address pay problems, it becomes hard for it to attract and retain employees. By having the right people, the company is aware of high overall performance and profitability. Productivity is directly connected to profitability. Since many profit organizations seek to increase profitability, they would consider the issues that satisfy this desire first. Furthermore,

Kellner and Kahn Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Kellner and Kahn - Essay Example lots of persons rely on the internet for information Among the users of the internet are the politicians, who are also not spared from meaningful contribution to the society. With the campaigns of the hactivists as Durham &Kellne indicates, one would argue that a lot still needs to be done to deal with hacking on the internet that leads to the spread of negative information (599). Since the internet is being used by the politicians, politics is spread on the internet, notably the Bush administration that used the internet to spread capitalism ideologies (Durham &Kellne 599).The internet has also been responsible for creating a community of opposition politics that represents a group of people that feel that their views are not listened to by the present governments. Technopolitcs is at its peak with the internet providing a chance for every individual to air their views. Through massive circulation the internet, there emerged an internet community that is well versed with the on-goings in the present day political world (Durham &Kellne