The Impact of Mobile Banking on the Accounting Profession in Banking Research Paper - 1

The Impact of Mobile Banking on the Accounting Profession in Banking Environment - Research Paper Example It is worth noting that Hello Money, like other mobile banking services, is different from mobile payments, which entail the use of mobile devices to pay for goods. Mobile banking is performed through mobile web or SMS. The service has been particularly facilitated by the evolution of an array of technologies, such as smartphones and web-based technologies, which create the allowance for installation of special features that support mobile banking. The full adoption of mobile banking implies that accounting systems would be automated and this would significantly accounting workplace. The crucial question is then how these changes would affect the banking environment workplace. The trending developments regarding mobile banking are well documented. According to SWIFT (2005), mobile banking is still considered as one of the pertinent topics in the finance industry, as well as for banking institutions. This has been exacerbated by the growing ubiquity of mobile phones across the global population. In a population of about 7 billion people, as many as 5 billion people will be in the possession of mobile phones. At the same time, out of all that population, only 2 billion people will be holding the bank accounts. Consumers are now increasingly using their mobile phones in making payments and bank their money. Mobile banking is described as a growing business, with users expected to increase to about 900 million while the transaction value is expected to exceed 1 trillion dollars by 2015. Many banks have come up with brands of mobile banking. However, the main concerns are inherent challenges. Various entrants, such as PayPal, Vodafone and Google are looking to mobile banking and transactions. However, the business is still immature, considering that only a few initiatives have succeeded in attracting a significant base of users.  

Family And Gender Roles Changing Attitudes Sociology Essay

Family And Gender Roles Changing Attitudes Sociology Essay From this point of view, female employment can be seen as a necessary means of family income and support. But the question remains whether and in which way family life and children will be affected by employed womens temporary absence from the household. Gender has been an important principle of stratification throughout Japanese history, but the cultural elaboration of gender differences has varied over time and among different social classes. After World War II, the fixed image of the Japanese woman has been that of the young office lady, who becomes a housewife and a stay-at-home mother after marriage. But a new generation of educated women is emerging, who are seeking a career as a working woman with a family at home. They continue to have nearly total responsibility for home and children and often justify their employment as an extension of their responsibilities for the care of their families (Molony, 2000). But how are the views on that commitment compared to women in a much more liberal country, such as the Netherlands? The subject of gender equity and working women in the Netherlands is often viewed by known two-tier societies (such as Japan, Austria, Italy and Venezuela) as progressive, maybe even too liberated for the tastes of some governments. Japan generally constitutes a case of low gender equity and low female labour market participation while the Netherlands has moderate to high gender equity and high part-time female labour market participation. This bachelors thesis will therefore attempt to identify whether a link exists between asymmetrical gender division of household labour and low gender equity. Gender equity is the process of being fair to women and men. To ensure fairness, strategies and measures must often be available to compensate for womens historical and social disadvantages that prevent women and men from otherwise operating on a level playing field. Equity leads to equality. Japan and the Netherlands will be very interesting countries to compare, because inequality between men and women in the Netherlands is relatively small compared to the other countries. As you can see, the Netherlands has a relatively high score on the Gender Empowerment Measure (GEM):Arbeidsdeelname vrouwen in de EU, 2009 It comes fourth behind Sweden, Finland and Denmark. Despite anti-discrimination laws and a steadily growing number of employed women, Japan is falling behind the rest of the world on gender equality. Widespread discrimination persists, and has only grown more subtle over the past years. According to the United Nations Development Programme, Japan has consistently ranked as the most unequal of the worlds richest countries. Our means for above endeavor will be the Multidimensional Unfolding technique; can this technique be applied successfully to the large dataset of the ISSP 2002 survey programme: Family and Changing Gender Roles III? This large annual cross-national survey includes questions about attitudes towards gender role distribution, the attitudes towards employment of mothers and married women and management of marriage or partnership. I will also try to give a practical explanation of unfolding and the procedures that are used for this. The first phase of the project will involve an analysis of the ISSP data with SPSS PREFSCAL. With this programme we will try to find a common quantitative scale that allows us to visually examine the relationships between our two sets of objects/countries; Japan and the Netherlands. The main issue of this study is to show how attitudes towards marriage, motherhood, and the morality of family behavior differ across nations, both in the Netherlands and in Japan. What is the difference in attitudes about the changing gender roles in two different cultures? Theory 2.1 Attitudes towards gender equity in Japan and the Netherlands In the beginning, woman was the sun. An authentic person. Today, she is the moon. Living through others. Reflecting the brilliance of others (Sievers, 1983). It was Toshiko Kishida (1863-1901) who said: If it is true that men are better than women because they are stronger, then why arent our sumo wrestlers in the government? (Kishida, 2007) This famous Japanese woman used clever phrases such as this to attack the view that men by nature were superior to women. She became a talented and exciting public speaker and the first woman to travel all over Japan, addressing huge crowds. She was imprisoned for her beliefs, but continued to speak out. She said that a civilized country such as Japan should be ashamed to respect men and yet despise women. When after this the Meiji-Taisho era (1868-1926) began, Japanese leaders were open to new ideas; male nationalists argued that improving the status of women was essential if other technologically advanced nationals (such as the Netherlands) were to accept them. This opened the door for a small group of women who called for new rights and freedoms. The phrase good wife, wise mother was coined, meaning that in order to be good citizens, women had to become educated and take part in public affairs (Sievers, 1983). But even after this, the dominant male-breadwinner family model, accompanied by tax and state benefits for families that favor one-earner couples, and a lack of available or affordable institutionalized childcare make it difficult for Japanese women to combine work and parenthood. When they do attempt this, they take on not only the role of paid worker, but also remain the largest contributor to housework and child-caring tasks (Kreyenfeld Hank, 2000). I dont interfere with my husbands business, not with my mouth, hands or legs. (Jordan, 2002). This statement, made by Kumiko Hashimoto, the wife of former Japanese Prime Minister Ryutario Hashimoto, underlines the traditional role of women in Japan. After this we can conclude that traditional gender roles in Japan are characterized by a strong sense of patriarchy in their society, which accounts for the bifurcation of the productive and reproductive spheres, with a distinct separation of gender roles. In the family, this refers to the idea of the man as the primary breadwinner of the family, and the woman as the primary caregiver in the family (Iwao, 1994). But all this is completely different in the Netherlands. After being oppressed by men in the 19th century women started the first feminist wave here around the year 1870. Wilhelmina Drucker and Aletta Jacobs were the two main women of this wave and both meant a lot for the position of women nowadays. At the end of the first feminist wave women obtained the right to vote and were able to attend college and universities, and had the right to work outdoors. In the 1950s and early 1960s it seemed that the emancipation of women in the Netherlands was completed. Formally, women had the same rights and possibilities to work outdoors as men. Though in practice, married women did not work outdoors and the public opinion was that both men and women had both different competences; women were the ones to take care of the children and men had paid jobs outdoors. In 1980 the law for equal treatment for men and women was finally ratified. Nowadays, the amount of part time jobs has increased massively over the last twelve years. Though, women work much more in part time jobs as men. The government wants to stimulate more women to work more hours a week. Furthermore, men should have the chance to work in part time and take care of children for example as well (Van de Loo, 2005). Most women in the Netherlands today continue to work after the birth of their children, and compared with Japan the employment rate of mothers in the Netherlands is high. The majority of women in the Netherlands do however reduce their working hours after the birth of their first child. This fits in with views in the Netherlands on looking after children; the fact that a mother is working is no longer an issue, but a mother having a full-time job still goes too far for most Dutch people. The majority feel that it is best for children to be looked after exclusively by their own parents, and they are very reserved about formal childcare. In addition, a third of women and more than half of men believe that women are better suited than men to looking after small children. Working part-time offers mothers an opportunity both to participate in the labour market and to look after their children largely or entirely themselves (Versantvoort, 2008). Multi-dimensional Unfolding Technique Unfolding is a data analysis technique that was invented in 1950 by Clyde Hamilton Coombs and his students in one dimension and is later extended to multiple dimensions (Busing, 2010). The unfolding model is a geometric model for preference and choice. It locates individuals and alternatives as points in a joint space, and it predicts that an individual will pick the alternative in the choice set closest to its ideal point. It is perhaps the dominant model in both scaling of preferential choice and attitude scaling. By scaling we refer to the process following data collection, by which numbers are assigned to entities such as items or individuals. Coombs proposed a joint scale for preference data: his J scale positions both judges and items on a single continuum such that an item is located closer to the judge the more it is preferred. Unfolding  is the name he coined for the operation of deriving the joint scale from the individual preference rankings (Coombs, 1950). Coombs ideas were later extended by Bennett and Hays (1960) to the multidimensional case: multidimensional unfolding  becomes then the operation of representing both individuals and preference items as points in a low-dimensional space such that the distance orders re ¬Ã¢â‚¬Å¡ect the rankings. This multidimensional unfolding model, which relies on distances and that is also known as ideal point model, is a very attractive one: it gives a geometric representation of nonmetric data in a sparse way, and with a distance model that is easy to grasp. This statistical method is explorative in the sense that it can identify latent dimensions in a given dataset. The model will find coordinates in a low-dimensional joint space, in the particular case at hand both for respondents and statements about gender equity and inequity. The resulting configurations are very easy to interpret and give a quick first insight into the overall structure of the data and its particularities (Van Deun, Marchal, Heiser, Engelen, Van Mechelen, 2007). The multidimensional unfolding technique computes solutions to the equations of unfolding model. It can be defined as multidimensional scaling of off-diagonal matrices. This means the data are dissimilarities between n row objects and m column objects, collected in an n ÃÆ'- m matrix 1. An important example is preference data, where _i j indicates, for instance, how much individual i dislikes object j . In unfolding we have many of the same distinctions as in general multidimensional scaling: there is uni-dimensional and multidimensional unfolding, metric and nonmetric unfolding, and there are many possible choices of loss functions that can be minimized (De Leeuw, 2011). Unfolding also finds an optimal solution by minimizing what is called a stress function. (To be continued) 2.3 Data This research is a secondary analysis based on the study monitoring survey conducted by ZUMA for the ISSP on the 2002 Family and Changing Gender Roles module. Thirty-four member countries archived the 2002 Family and Changing Gender Roles module; all of them have completed the monitoring questionnaire. The ISSP 2002 module contains 362 variables and 60000 cases. The cases are a multi-stage stratified sample of the (adult) population of thirty-four countries worldwide. The data was essentially collected through face to face interviews, self-completion (with interviewer involvement) or, in some cases, telephone interviews. But these telephone interviews were later on not permitted in the ISSP, so they are not included in the data. Nine countries had advance letters, including Japan; while the Netherlands had a telephone pre-contact. The Netherlands also made use of an incentive (a gift token of 15 euros), while Japan did not use any incentive. With the exception of Japan, countries using interviewer-administered modes back-checked interviews (proportions ranging between 3%-95%). Japan and the Netherlands both had an age cut-off point at 16 years. The Study Monitoring Questionnaire (SMQ) has been modified from year to year. Questions on fieldwork, translation, and sampling have, for example changed and questions on documentation been added. Some countries used old versions of the SMQ, which they had kept. This means that some information for these countries is missing in the report. While the statements in the ISSP questionnaire are about different aspects of family and work life of women, they generally imply that an unequal burden of homemaking activities should lie with the female and/or that a females activities in the labour market are of secondary importance to her role as a homemaker and her husbands role in the labour market. Method The multidimensional unfolding technique usually runs with small datasets with a maximum of 100 subjects. Not much research is done yet on how well PREFSCAL handles larger datasets like the ISSP set with 2341 subjects (only Japan and the Netherlands) Im about to use, so this will be an interesting and instructive endeavor. To investigate whether or not unfolding can be used to make sense of the relations between the different gender-related items (i.e., statements) a first analysis will be done on a restricted sample from the dataset with respondents from the Netherlands and Japan only. Choosing only two countries turned out to be a wise decision, because PREFSCAL cant run smoothly with all thirty-four countries in one data-set, it is simply too much data for SPSS to handle; you will get an error about having insufficient memory to complete the procedure. After that the execution of the command will come to a halt. The next step was making a choice selection from the many variables; I chose seven variables which can best represent the construct of gender equality, these variables are given in table 1. The variables are comparable because they all measure subjects attitudes towards gender equality. V4 A mens job is work, a womans job is the household. V6 When a woman works, the family life suffers. V7 What women really want is a home and kids. V8 Work is the best thing for a womans independence. V9 A working woman should get paid maternity leave V11 Working in the household satisfies just as much as a paid job. V27 If a mom works she can still have a warm relationship with her children. The above questions were presented to each of the subjects, who were asked to indicate their degree of agreement on a 9-point rating scale. This scale goes from Strongly agree to Strongly disagree with an added Cant choose and No answer refused. I chose a (wide) variety of questions from my data; some are very positive about women in the workplace and household and some are very negative about women in the workplace and household. Entries in the following models indicate average similarities and dissimilarities between the Japanese and Dutch people across seven different points of view. The term similarity is used to indicate the degree of agreement between two objects, while dissimilarity indicates the degree of disagreement. I filtered the thirty-four countries with Select-Cases and using the option If condition is satisfied. My variable for country is called v3, with Japan having code 24 and the Netherlands having code 11; so I put in v3=24 OR v3=11. When I wanted to write the cases to a whole new data-set I chose the option copy selected cases to a new data-set in the first tab of Select Cases. Having done this, I had a whole new data-set with only the data from Japan and the Netherlands to work with. When I tried to make some models with PREFSCAL I got a missing data error: Row with only missing data found. This is not allowed. This means that at least one person in my data-set hasnt given a valid answer to the variables/questions Im using for this project. That is why I chose to use only persons that have given a valid answer to at least 50 percent of the questions in my analysis. I did this by going to Compute Variable and creating a filter-variable with Include if case satisfies condition: NVALID (v4, v6, v7, v8, v9, v11, v27)>=4. I simply took the amount of variables I had (7), divided them by two and rounded off upwards to four. Four being the minimal amount of valid answers I wanted in my analysis. After this I filtered my Japan-Netherlands data-set on this new variable (Valid Answers) via Select Cases. SPSS will then filter all the cases that have too little valid answers. When I had finally solved all the problems with my data-set I got the following error: Invariant part of the data found, check, depending on conditionality chosen, your data for constant parts. To solve this problem I made the decision to analyze my data with the option matrix-conditional and transforming the input data row conditionally, whereby tied observations were untied for each row separately. This means that the model was allowed to transform like-wise item scores into different values, as long as the overall order of the item scores was not altered. To better distinguish the difference between males and females on other variables, such as education and religion, I used Select Cases again to create two different data-sets, one with 1106 males and one with 1235 females after correcting for invalid answers again. The first two-dimensional unfolding model of Japan and the Netherlands was created. Its Normalized Stress level was a fair 0,1027924, which is an excellent stress-level for an unfolding model. This stress is intended to be a measure of how well the configuration fits the data. Stress is defined as a Standardized Residual Sum of Squares which should always be positive, and the smaller the better. Kruskal himself suggested the following benchmarks for measuring stress: .20 = poor, .10 = fair, .05 = good, .025 = excellent, and .00 = perfect. These benchmarks are based on experience with experimental and synthetic data (Kruskal, 1964). By adding more variables into my model I wanted to get a better grasp of the cultural differences between Japan and the Netherlands on the subject of gender equity, family life and marriage. I did this by adding these five questions to the seven I already had: V10 Both men and women should attribute to the household income. V12 Men should do a larger share of child care. V13 Men should do a larger share of household work. V19 A bad marriage is better than no marriage at all. V26 People without kids lead empty lives. These questions are aimed more at a mens responsibility in the household and add some more cultural information about attitude about marriage and having children. Before using the Prefscal method in SPSS, first the Correlation Matrix was analyzed. As can be seen in the above matrix table there are quite a few significant correlations between the twelve variables. The highest correlations can be found between questions about working mothers and questions about mens household duties, and also between questions about having children and questions about family life. So there are strong correlations between the variables. This is as expected, because the variables represent unique characteristics of two cultures about gender equity. Since Prefscal itself doesnt give a three-dimensional graphical representation in the SPSS output automatically, I wanted to see if I could find three different dimensions in my data, instead of two (see Figure under construction). Results I will hereby present the results of an attempt to classify 2341 Japanese and Dutch citizens using the unfolding model. The result of the SPSS PREFSCAL unfolding model for the sample from the Dutch and Japanese citizenship values data from the 2002 ISSP Citizenship Programme is a two-dimensional joint plot based on a classical initial scaling configuration, which shows points for 1241 Dutch respondents, 1100 Japanese respondents and twelve statements about gender-equity and inequity. This solution resulted in a great two-dimensional graphical representation which looked very interpretable in terms of the possibilities of interpreting the differences between the two countries in the data set. As you can see, the gender equity positive variables are all on the bottom of the Column Objects model. The negative variables are all at the top, and the one neutral variable is in the middle. The Joint Plot shows the separately derived two-dimensional spaces for the red (Japanese respondents) and blue (Dutch respondents) dots. The twelve statements are represented by black dots. The axes represent the primary and secondary dimensions, shown in normalized units. The interpretation of this unfolding solution is done intuitively. It will be investigated whether the dimensions can be given meaning. A good modeling solution will locate a subjects opinion about gender equity according to the most dominant cross-reference proximities in their answers. By first inspection, it can be readily seen that Prefscal indeed located points corresponding to similar objects close together, while those corresponding to dissimilar objects far apart. This is consistent with our intuition that the countries within the groups havent got much in common. To understand these different contexts, we can again turn to nation-specific contextual explanations. (Insert interpretation of the above model) The highest level of education for the respondent is represented by five comparative categories, not included No answer, dont know. Lowest formal qualification and above lowest qualification represents those who have not completed primary school to those who have completed this level or the first stage of basic education. Higher secondary completed refers to those who have completed higher secondary school or technical training. The above higher level of secondary education group includes those who completed higher secondary school theoretical training up to the last and highest level of tertiary education, University degree completed (i.e., PhD). Van Wel Knijn (2006) maintain that the part-time labour market participation of Dutch mothers is primarily caused by cultural factors and not economic or institutional constraints. They contend that a culture of care dominates, as does the one-and-a-half earner model where the man works full-time and the woman part-time. This model is particularly dominant among people with a lower education. For those with higher education, the tendency is for both partners to attempt to work part-time, although this is only achieved within a very limited group. Based on these institutional and cultural differences, we anticipate that women in Japan will face higher institutional and family constraints than in the Netherlands. As outlined in the main hypothesis, we expect that these constraints will be particularly poignant for Japanese working women who engage in both substantial paid labour combined with a heavy load of household duties. (Insert education model with only females). Conclusion Discussion

Liquor Ads On Tv :: essays research papers

According to Antonia Novello, Surgeon General of the United States, in SIRS Government Reporter, the principle cause of death for those between the ages of 15 and 24 are alcohol related car crashes (1). Doesn't it make sense that we should concentrate our efforts into reducing this problem of alcohol abuse? Apparently DISCUS, the Distilled Spirits Council of the United States, doesn't think so. Worsnop says that on November 7, 1996, they removed their voluntary ban of hard liquor ads on television and radio that had been in affect since 1936 (219). He then states that the removal came right after Seagram, a liquor company, advertised for some of their hard liquor on KRIS-TV in CorpusChrist, Texas (219). This movement is definitely a step in the wrong direction and action should be taken to reinstate this ban, but this time legally. First of all, the removal of the ban gave DISCUS a bad reputation. Already the four major TV networks (NBC, ABC, CBS, and FOX) have vowed not to air ads for hard liquor (Worsnop 219). DISCUS has also lost respect in the field of politics, especially with numerous congressmen and the President, himself. Worsnop said "Beer group representatives think DISCUS' announcement undercut its credibility in Washington" (219). Bill Clinton referred to the decision as "simply irresponsible" (qtd in Worsnop 219).Secondly, many of these advertisements for liquor have been said to target teens. However, Seagram's executive vice president of marketing strategy, Arthur Shapiro, said that Seagram had taken "great pains that our advertising doesn't appeal to or aim at children" (qtd in Krantz 1). This is not so, according to Katherine Prescott, who pointed out the use of animals and a graduation theme in Seagram's commercial. This seems to associate the use of alcohol with academic success when the two rarely coexist (Tannert 2). Clinton also expressed his concern that the ban may cause increased drinking among minors (Facts on File 492 vol 57). Even if teens were not targeted directly in an advertisement, Froehlich says "Teenagers are three times as likely as adults to respond to ads..." This is party due to their self-insecurity (Froehlich 1 Novello in SIRS Researcher 5).It has been suggested that in order to reduce teen response to advertisements, counter-advertising should be used. This is when advertisements are shown that discourage illegal or abusive use or products. Research projects showed that while advertising increased consumption, counter-advertising had a successful, opposite affect (Saffer 4).

Factors Affecting Academic Interest Essay

A NOAA (AOML) in situ pCO2 sensor (SAMI-CO2), attached to a Coral Reef Early Warning System station in Discovery Bay, Jamaica, utilized in conducting ocean acidification studies near coral reef areas Australia Main article: Environmental threats to the Great Barrier Reef The Great Barrier Reef is the world’s largest coral reef system.[46][47][48][49] The reef is located in the Coral Sea. A large part of the reef is protected by the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park. Particular environmental pressures include runoff, salinity fluctuations, climate change, cyclic crown-of-thorns outbreaks, overfishing, and spills or improper ballast discharge. Southeast Asia See also: Southeast Asia coral reefs Southeast Asian coral reefs are at risk from damaging fishing practices (such as cyanide and blast fishing), overfishing, sedimentation, pollution and bleaching. Activities including education, regulation and the establishment of marine protected areas help protect these reefs. Indonesia Indonesia is home to one third of the world’s corals covering nearly 85,000 square kilometres (33,000 sq mi) and one quarter of its fish species. Indonesia’s coral reefs are located in the heart of the Coral Triangle and have fallen victim to destructive fishing, tourism and bleaching. Data from 414 reef monitoring stations in 2000 found that only 6% are in excellent condition, while 24% are in good condition, and approximately 70% are in poor to fair condition.[50] Philippines In 2007, Reef Check, the world’s largest reef conservation organization, stated that only 5% of Philippines 27,000 square kilometres (10,000 sq mi) of coral reef are in â€Å"excellent condition†: Tubbataha Reef, Marine Park in Palawan, Apo Island in Negros Oriental, Apo Reef in Puerto Galera, Mindoro, andVerde Island Passage off Batangas. Philippine coral reefs is Asia’s second largest.[51] Taiwan Coral reefs in Taiwan are being threatened by human population growth. Many corals are affected by untreated sewage and souvenir-hunting tourists, not knowing that this practice destroys habitat and causes disease. Many corals have turned black from disease off Taiwan’s southeast coast.[52]——————————————- Indonesia Indonesia has 2,915,000 square kilometers of marine area. The reef area is 51,020 square kilometers. Of that amount, 82% of it is at risk. Indonesia holds 17% of the world’s total coral reef areas. Blast fishing, which has been illegal since 1985 still goes on today, along with cyanide fishing (1995). Another factor that is hurting the coral reefs in Indonesia is the amount of coral that they export. They are the world’s largest exporter of corals, exporting about 500 tons of coral per year.[16] COREMAP is helping Indonesia with their destruction of corals by working in 9 of the 32 provinces. They want to: 1. Heighten law enforcement to protect coral reefs; 2. Establish coral reef monitoring and information systems, in order to conduct research on the status of coral reefs and more effectively disseminate that information to stakeholder groups; 3. Develop community-based management systems and increase public participation in coral reef resource management; 4. Increase institutional capacity and strengthen inter-institutional coordination in planning and implementing policy that affects coral reef management, and; 5. Enhance public knowledge of the importance of coral reef and motivate people to actively participate in the management and sustainable use of coral reefs. Philippines The Philippines, with more than 7,000 islands and warm ocean waters, surround about 26,000 square kilometers of coral reef. [3] These coral reefs have recently brought the attention of beneficial economic uses to the Philippines government.[4] Benefits of Coral Reefs in Philippines 1. Coral reefs break the waves from the chance of eroding the coastline of the islands; [5] 2. Protection of Communities: â€Å"the reefs act as buffer zones† meaning they decrease the power of typhoons and hurricanes as they approach the Philippine Islands; [6] 3. Economic Benefits: Fishing off the coral reefs, profits from tourism, for example, Diving tours and snorkeling areas on the shallow reefs. These economic benefits create many new jobs and profitable opportunities to the country. State For the past 50 years, the proportion of degraded reefs in Indonesia increased from 10 to 50%. From 1989 to 2000 reefs with over 50% live coral cover declined from 36 to 29%. Western Indonesia, which is more developed and holds the majority of the nation’s population, faces the greatest threats to its coral reefs. Surveys concluded that reef condition improves from west to east. The percentage of reefs in good or excellent condition (live coral cover of 50% or more) is 23% in western Indonesia versus 45% in eastern Indonesia. 65% of surveys taken from the Maluku islands had evidence of bomb damage. In addition, reefs affected by land-based pollution (i.e. sediment discharge into reefs by deforestation, industry, sewage, and fertilizer) show 30-50% less diversity at depths of three meters and 40-60% less diversity at 10 meters in comparison to pristine reefs. The 1997-1998 el Nino event triggered widespread bleaching in Indonesia, with western and west-central Indonesia most af fected. Bleaching was recorded in East Sumatra, Java, Bali, and Lombok. In the Seribu Islands northwest of Jakarta, 90-95% of coral reef from the reef flat down to 25 meters died. Two years later, the Seribu Islands significantly recovered, with live coral cover of 20-30% (2000). Coral reefs in Indonesia are located near Java (Batavia), Nusa Dua, Jakarta and Saribu. [8] 30% of the Philippine’s coral reefs are dead while 39% are dying. The news isn’t all bad: Establishment of the Sumilon Island marine reserve has resulted in a marked comeback of fish in adjacent areas. Along with the establishment of the Sumilon Island marine reserve, there is hope for the Philippines via boosts in ecotourism. In recent years, local Filipino governments have discovered that fishing is not the only economic benefit the reefs can provide. They are confident that with a spread of ecotourism, even local fishermen will reap the financial benefits of this economic sector. A surge in coral reef conservation education is helping the tourism sector provide information to tourists on how to preserve the coral reefs while they enjoy the beauty and serenity of the reefs.[17]The Philippines ecotourism sector is unfortunately stifled at this time due to a limited budget and there are approximately 7,000 islands to patrol for destructive fishing techniques.[8] [9]. Destructive fishing techniques are thought to be the largest contributor to reef degradation in the Philippines. The first ever mass-bleaching event in the Philippines was reported in 1998-99. It began at Batangas, off Luzon, in June 1998 and then proceeded nearly clockwise around the Philippines, correlating with anomalous sea-surface temperatures. Most reefs of northern Luzon, west Palawan, the Visayas, and parts of Mindanao were affected. Subsequent mortalities were highly variable, with decreases in live coral cover ranging from 0.7 to 46 percent and up to 80 percent in Bolinao. Recent surveys in 1997 found a low percentage of reefs to be in excellent condition. They found only 4 percent of Philippine reefs in excellent condition (i.e., over 75 percent hard or soft coral cover), 28 percent in good condition (50-75 percent coral cover), 42 percent in fair condition (25-50 percent coral cover), and 27 percent in poor condition (less than 25 percent coral cover). The Visayas have experienced the most significant decline in coral cover, exhibiting an average of only 11 percent hard coral cover. [10] A study in the early 90’s revealed that coral reefs are damaged by a variety of human activities such as household sewage, industrial waste, and agricultural chemicals from land that are washed to the sea. [11] This was a new finding for the time period in which it was widely believed that the main damage to coral reefs was causes by oil spills or from pollution dumped by ships. This survey was concentrated on SE Asia mainly because it was believed that coral reefs in this region were at great threat of extinction if continued to be unmanaged. In the last thirty years climate change has had the most harmful effect on corals. (Hughes) Currently one of the major issues the Indonesian government is dealing with is climate change. (CIA Worldfactbook) When the ocean warms such as in El Nino, coral bleaching occurs, which kills the coral. (Hughes) The reefs are incredibly important to the economy and people of Southeast Asia. The reefs bring in $1.6 billion a year through fishing, employment, and the tourist industry. (Reefs at Risk in Southeast Asia Key Findings 2002) Today, the coral reefs located in the Philippines and Indonesia are in great danger. Fishermen are constantly practising dangerous methods such as blast fishing and dynamite fishing. These practices prove to be detrimental to the coral reefs as well as the marine life in the surrounding areas. Because of the dangerous methods, fish that are usually near the coral reefs are no longer there any more. Two of these fish are Groupers and snappers. According to David Nockels it was only seven years ago that 30% of the reefs were dead in this region and many more were dying Marine protected areas Amongst the many proposed solutions to the problems plaguing coral reefs in Southeast Asia is the creation of marine protected areas (MPAs). Currently marine protected areas make up around 8% of the area of Southeast Asian coral reefs.[26] The World Commission on Protected Areas [12], amongst other groups, has been active in establishing MPAs in Southeast Asia. However, the success rate of MPAs in Southeast Asia is low, with an estimated 14% of MPAs rated effectively managed.[30] [13] This rate reflects the difficulty of implementing MPAs. Moreover, it shows that much work is still needed to make MPAs successful in Southeast Asia. IUCN has defined an MPA as â€Å"any area of intertidal or subtidal terrain, together with its overlying water and associated flora, fauna, historical and cultural features, which has been reserved by law or other effective means to protect part or all of the enclosed environment†.[31] In other words, an MPA is a marine area in which the water column and all the life that exists in it are protected through laws. These laws restrict certain practices within the MPA, which can differ per MPA. Marine protected areas, in sum, provide a marine sanctuary which can foster an increase in marine biodiversity.[32] (See also: [14]). This increased biodiversity is though to be able to carry over to the non-protected surrounding areas in which fishing can take place. This is important for a number of reasons. In the Southeast Asian context, especially amongst the islands of the Philippines and Indonesia, the sea and people are very much interconnected. As mentioned, the sea provides both a source of income and source of food for the people. In the Philippines, for example, 67% of protein food consumption comes from fish and fish products. Additionally, roughly one million people in the Philippines are employed in the fishing industry.[33] Increased fish stocks resulting from marine protected areas only add to the solutions needed to revitalize Southeast Asian economies, life systems, and coral reefs. In addition, the LMMA (Locally-Managed Marine Area) Network is another organization that takes part in the Southeast Asia marine conservation. Similar to the MPA, the LMMA also provides protection areas in the sea. However, according to the definition above, an LMMA is an example of an MPA because an MPA includes a large space within and close by the area. The LMMA involves members from around the world, and the communities within the managed areas. The goal of LMMA is to allow members and local communities to learn the uses of protected resources.[15] Due to the massive destruction of coral reefs in Southeast Asia, the LMMA has established two areas in Eastern Indonesia: Padaido Islands, Biak, West Papua, and Southern Ambon Island and the Moluccas Islands; and various areas in the Philippines. With the help of the LMMAs, the local communities would learn to preserve their marine goods, and be able to maintain for longer years. Gradually, the communities will accommodate bigger and healthier fish. [16] There are an estimated 400 MPAs in the Philippines. Of the 400 only 16% have yielded an increase in bio-diversity. The high failure rate is due to poor management and a lack of regulation.[34]Despite the numerous failures there have been successes. One of the best known areas is Apo island where a small community has effectively managed an MPA since the mid 1980s. The Apo MPA includes a ban on detrimental fishing practices and a no-take zone covering 10% of their reef. Apo’s reef has thrived giving hope to Philippine reefs.[35] Contributions for management The state of the coral reefs in the Philippines and Indonesia are depleting with every blink of an eye. It is to no one’s surprise that the Philippines have lost more than 80% since the 1920s. In Indonesia it is a little better due to the some drastic actions made by the government. On December 6, 2002 the Asian Development Bank (ADB) approved a US$33 million loan in order to save what is the rest of these important organisms. Over fishing, illegal fishing methods, and overpopulation have all contributed to the decline of the coral reefs both in the Philippines and Indonesia. Along with the loan the Coral Reef Rehabilitation and Management Project (Phase II), the second part of a three phase plan has given us all hope in restoring coral reefs in this part of the region. The Ministry of Marine Affairs and Fisheries will oversee the whole entire project with a due date of June 30, 2009. If it all goes according to plan the fishing industry will be the benefited the most. However, government action is not always necessary to manage reefs. When the community dependent on the resources provided by coral works together to save and restore the fish population, the results can be very good. The community managed reefs of Apo Island, located in the southern Philippines, known worldwide for its success. The waters around Apo Island are home to about 650 species of fish and 400 species of corals. The waters of Apo Island were not always this full of life. Fishing is the major occupation on the island, and even those who do not fish, rely on the catch for their protein. So when a fisherman’s catch began shortening, after years of unregulated fishing, it was very easy for them to resort to destructive methods of fishing,such as blast fishing and cyanide fishing, to get by. These methods almost led to the end of the already dwindling fish stocks. The community began, through education and widespread involvement, the process of making these practices socially unacceptable.[36] People began patrolling the waters in a small area with the intention of allowing fish to flourish and repopulate and then spill over into areas that had been fished out. This informal establishment of a sanctuary was first met with a lot of resistance, eventually though, after seeing the obvious improvements, the island community and local council were able to formalize the sanctuary in 1985, three years after it started. This formalization extended the sanctuary to water surrounding the island up to 500 meters from the shore and declaring a portion a no-take fish sanctuary.[37] To manage the coral reefs effectively to preserve what is left of the beautiful natural resource, individual people must unite. If the marine ornamentals trade is to successfully turn around and begin to sustain more live fish, certain people must perform their jobs to the fullest. Firstly, there if lobbyists are responsible about the issue, they will provide healthy animals, maintain healthy reefs, sustain reef animal populations, and adequately compensate fishing communities for their efforts. Also, responsible industry operators must minimize animal mortality and habitat impacts and focus on animal health and quality collection practices. The problem with this method, though, is that merely trust and word of mouth aren’t enough. If we are to legitimately depleting the coral reefs in Southeast Asia, we must set international standards.

Journal Topics for The Crucible Essay

As you read the play over the next few days, choose any 3 of the following topics and respond to them in a google document or on paper. Each response must be at least 250 words. You must include references to the text and provide support for all of your claims. Please use your best writing- no grammatical/spelling/capitalization errors- divide ideas using paragraphs etc. Each journal entry is 20 pts. You may do one more extra credit. Again, we are working on providing detailed support for your claims. Be specific! 1. Based on what happens throughout Act I, write a brief character description of Abigail Williams. What positive qualities does she seem to possess? What negative qualities does she possess? If she were a Westwood student, where might she â€Å"fit in† in terms of classes, activities, sports, etc.? Or would she? Explain. 2. What types of persuasive techniques does Abigail use to win Proctor’s affection in Act I? What arguments does she present, and what emotional tactics does she employ? Does she build a persuasive argument, or do you find problems with it? Explain. 3. At the end of Act I, Tituba, Abigail, and others accuse some of their neighbors of afflicting them. Give examples of individuals or groups today who accuse others of causing their problems. How would you evaluate their accusations? 4. Consider: how is the relationship between John and Elizabeth Proctor similar to an ice cream cone 5. Explain how Mary Warren’s character changes over the course of the first two Acts. How was she portrayed at the beginning of the play? How is she portrayed now? To what do you attribute these changes? 6. Puritan society pressured individuals to adhere to strict standards of conduct and belief. To what extent do you think society expects you to conform today? Is conformity always a bad thing? Always a good thing? Explain. 7. Almost a century after the witch trials, delegates to the Constitutional Convention decided to make a clear separation between church and state. How might the court proceedings in Act III have differed if that separation had been in place in 1692? In current events following Sept. 11th, is there still a clear separation between church and state? Explain. 8. Explain how the storyline might be different if there were no Governor Danforth. How does his presence in the play affect the storyline? If he were removed, how might that affect the play overall? 9. Mary Warren is subjected to intense peer pressure from Abigail Williams and the other girls. How would you compare the intensity of the peer pressure she faces with that extended on young people today? What reasonable advice might you give Mary Warren for coping with the peer pressure she faces? 10. In Act IV, how does Elizabeth take part of the blame for her husband’s lechery? Is she justified? What does John’s response to Elizabeth tell you about his character development? 11. Think of a 20th-century person who suffered or died for his / her beliefs, and compare this person to John Proctor. 12. The Crucible was first produced in 1953, during Senator Joseph McCarthy’s congressional investigation to root out suspected Communists in the State Department, the entertainment industry, and the U.S. Army. In his pursuit of Communists, McCarthy sometimes accused individuals on the basis of flimsy evidence and innuendo. In what ways do you think The Crucible is a criticism of McCarthy and his ways? Given current events, what can this play teach us about identifying and prosecuting individuals suspected of terrorist activities? Support your opinion with details from the play.