GGP of Russia for the past year Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

GGP of Russia for the past year - Essay Example This is especially the case in Russia. When GDP shrinks, that means a country’s economy is in serious trouble and a recession is looming. As the world continues to freefall in the current economic crisis, many country’s GDPs are shrinking. Russia, which for many years had been riding the recent increase in energy prices, has an economy and GDP which have been growing substantially over the last few years; however, this may not continue because of the way energy prices have seriously tumbled. The Gross Domestic Product of Russia is $1.29 trillion. This is one of the largest GDPs in the world, definitely in the top fifteen of all countries. It grew 5.8 per cent in 2008 which was one of the lowest rates of growth in several years and was largely due to the decrease in the price of oil and other resource of which Russia has a lot. Now the IMF has been predicting that the Russian economy will contract 0.7% in 2009 which is very bad for Russians who are hoping to see their country continue to grow and become more powerful.1 Part of the problem is that the Russian economy is not very diversified. Unlike more developed economies that have a good mix between resources, manufacturing, and services—Russia mostly exports gas and minerals and not much else. That means the economy is very dependent on international prices which it has little control over. A Russia continues to develop hopefully its economy will become more

Whether or not to Prepare for Disaster Research Proposal

Whether or not to Prepare for Disaster - Research Proposal Example A disaster can take many forms such as terrorist attacks, earthquakes, snowstorms, floods, among others. Therefore, it is  crucial  to make a decision on whether or not to prepare for a disaster before it occurs. Preparing for a disaster provides better  management  of crises and enables people to be well prepared when the actual  disaster  occurs. It also enables faster and effective response to disasters, and faster recovery of  business  after a disaster. Moreover, it is necessary to  create  an emergency plan and  ensure  it  is backed  daily on-site or off-site in a secure location (Ferrell and Linda, 2010). However, some people may not  find  it necessary to prepare for disaster due to various reasons. Others may fail to  prepare  due to lack of resources like money and time. Hence, it advisable to choose the  best  decision making model in order to make a  proper  judgment. This paper will explain how the 5-step decision making model can be used to make a decision on whether or not to prepare for disaster. The 5-step decision making model The 5-step model is straightforward and easy to use when making a decision compared to other models.  It consumes less time than other models because it consists of only five steps to follow when making a decision.  The first step is to  define  the  situation  or to identify the problem. ... It is the most time consuming  stage  in the process of decision making, which makes it a challenge to the decision maker. However, when it is not possible to get all the information, people  are forced  to rely on their intuition. The third step involves gathering alternatives (Brassard and Ritter, 2010).  When making a decision, there are other alternatives that a person can use;  thus, it is necessary to  list  other available options.  The list should  contain  other options that one is seriously considering and those that  fit  the main objective of the decision making process.  Listing many  unnecessary  options only makes the decision making process more difficult than it should be,  and also  prolongs the time it should  take  to make a decision. After developing a list of other available alternatives, evaluate the options.  This is the fourth  step  which involves assessing and ranking of the listed options. Single out the most p owerful options then  develop  a list of criterions to use when assessing these options. When ranking the options,  choose  an appropriate  scale  such as a 10  point  or 100 point scale, depending on the complexity of  the  decision  and the  total number of criterions that  have been used  to  assess  the options (Graduate school of business Administration, 2010).  After ranking the options against the chosen criterion, assign weight followed by  specific  scores to each option.  Finally multiply the scale score with the assigned weights then add the total scores of each option and make a decision. The decision making  step  is the final  stage  when making a decision using the 5-step model. However, it is the most difficult step that many

Climate Change Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Climate Change - Research Paper Example It cannot be denied that GLOBAL WARMING was under consideration by almost every country and different measures are been taken to prevent but it is required on a very large scale with a contribution of every individual living in. It can be done in a lot of ways for example promote plantation, avoid using plastic products as it a non-biodegradable item and a main source of pollution, energy conservation, recycling of goods, preservation of natural resources, and banning the burning of fossil fuels which contributes highly in the destruction of the ozone layer which works as an umbrella or a shelter from strong sun radiations affecting the globe directly .All these factors are causing Global Warming which works as a driving force for the fluctuations in Climatic System. Climatic change does not only affect the nature but majorly affects the living beings. Whereas, drastic changes are coming up because of the activities done by the masses for worldly pleasures for which natural resources are continuously been misused and immeasurably been wasted. There are some major changes in the climatic system which occurs because of the rise in temperatures of the living world. Human Influences is directly propostional to the global warming. Following are Sub-reasons for the change in climate cycle: Orbital Variations Solar Output Volcanism Ocean Variability Plate Tectonics These are the regions where fluctuations occurs and affect the globe and each will be discussed thoroughly further in this report. It is recorded previously in surveys that Climatic Changes are affecting adversely on Biodiversity. This is alarming for the species which are already left with a handful numbers like Polar Bears, Indus Dolphins and many more. They are getting affected because of the change in eco-system occurring because of the changes in the earth’s crust. As the global temperature rises, it starts throwing off to cool down. Volcanic Eruptions is one of the cooling processes, when done with the eruption, the temperature of the globe drops down to 0.5 degrees. Same is the case is with Earthquakes and Ocean Variability. Footnote: (Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia) Historical and Archeological Evidences: It is studied in the continuous research being done in this aspect and different historical and archeological evidences are pouring in that how the climate used to be in a particular region and how it has become after several years. Civilization changes also predict to a certain level of how the climate probably was. According to archeological evidences, researchers have put their efforts on different areas of life through which they might get to the key. Some of the under consideration areas of life which can predict or can give a clue to the present world that climatic cycle have changed to what extent and whether good or bad. The following are: Glacier changes: Glaciers are the most sensitive indicator of the climate change because of its immediate reaction to any changes in the temperature. There are two things which can contribute in the shrinkage and growth of the glaciers, they are orbital variability and external forcing. Evidences are found because glaciers leaves moraines that contain an anonymous amount of material including organic matter

Crime and Poverty Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

Crime and Poverty - Research Paper Example The genesis of the crime Before reviewing some sources related to poverty and crime, it is important to determine the evolution and genesis of the crime. As mentioned above, poverty is a social phenomenon. This means that it is socially constructed. According to Obeidallah & Brooks-Gunn, the cases of crime have been rising drastically since the advent of agrarian revolution (1475). Crime is an activity that occurs when a person uses unaccepted means to solicit resources, money or to benefit him or herself. Poverty limits one from getting basic needs hence encouraging crime Inability to meet the basic needs is one of the major factors fuelling crime. A person who does not have means of making life comfortable or sustaining life would opt into engaging him or herself in activities that would enable him or her to acquire the basic needs. However, these activities are usually not socially accepted. They are classified as crime. Poverty is the main factor that limits people from using the legal means to acquire their daily bread. It does this by limiting the access to resources such as money that can be used to pay fees, access good schools and finish education. According to Hannon & DeFina, education is a means through which a person can get money and other resources necessary in offsetting the daily expenses that relate to life matters (53). However, because of poverty, some people would find it difficult to pursue their education to the expected level. The chances of such people getting employed become limited. Consequently, such people would have to opt into those activities that are not socially and legally accepted, crime. In a study conducted in Dubuque to find out the trends and perceptions of crime in conjunction with poverty, it was found... The intention of this study is crime as an unaccepted social activity that entails doing things or activities that are against the expectation of society. A number of studies related to crime and poverty have been conducted but most of them normally focus on these social phenomenons individually. Few researches have tried to find out the link between the two. However, none of the researches is comprehensive and intensive enough to explain the relationship between crime and poverty. From the foregoing discussion, it is clear that poverty play an important role in creating an environment that fuels crime activities. However, the discussion implies that there is no direct relationship between poverty and crime. This means that poverty fuel crime by limiting man from accessing resources that are necessary in development of an ideal life. One interesting idea that should be noted as far as poverty and crime is that crime is a short cut of meeting ones basic needs. It is closely related to lazy and poor people who cannot work hard through the normal legal and socially accepted process. This implies that the best way of mitigating the crime rate is by helping people navigate through their education so that they can acquire better ways of dealing with life challenges as well as better means of earning their livelihood. The discussion also implies that criminal justice system should not be handled independently because it does not provide long term solution to the crime rates. Conversely, combining the criminal justice system and the welfare system would bring a relatively long term solution to the rising crime rates

Why People Should Read Books Essay Example for Free

Why People Should Read Books Essay It is a disappointment that people read books less often in these days of widespread technological reliance. Books were the primary source of intellectual entertainment just a hundred years ago, but with the invention of radio, television, cinematography, and the Internet and computer games, it seems that reading books is no longer a popular leisure activity. However, I believe that books are an irreplaceable part of our lives, and the role that masterfully-written books play on the personal growth and development of a particular person throughout one’s life is a remarkable one. Books directly expand our consciousness of how we live and where we live, enrich our power to express ourselves, supply us with inspiration in a way that other mediums cannot compete with. Books expand our knowledge and conception of the world around us. One may argue that films and TV documentaries do that too, but I believe that books are a much better alternative, since they allow each reader to experience the same story using one’s own imagination. When a hundred people watch a film or a TV show, they see the same content – whatever the director and the producer wish to show. Books are different. The experience achieved through reading is richer and more personal, since the same description and the same word choice will result in as many different interpretations as there are readers. We are all unique, and books allow us to experience whatever is narrated in the light of our own personal values, through our ideas and our imagination. In addition, books enrich our vocabulary, introduce us to new notions and offer a wider choice of words to us. With every book we read, we become more intelligent. Even reading one seemingly more primitive pulp fiction book per month can enrich one’s personal vocabulary with dozens of new words, help us build more concise sentences on our own and express oneself better, make one’s speech more intelligent. Watching certain TV programs and documentary films can also widen one’s vocabulary, but hardly as effectively as books do, since reading operates with both more sophisticated visual and audio (if reading aloud) receptors. Moreover, our imagination reproduces mental pictures of what we are reading about, so a new word automatically links to a certain image and a particular feeling that it relates to. Therefore, reading books is a wonderful tool when it comes to learning and developing one’s vocabulary at any age. Books are a fantastic source of inspiration. Unlike fine art, architecture or travelling, books help us create our own mental illustration for what we read on paper. In a way, books make us all artists and creators of our own mental cartoons, movies or illustration collections. Every image we create ourselves is automatically allotted a certain emotion, whether a simple or a more complicated one. Every mental image that a written word projects is vibrant with feelings and emotions. This is what makes books powerful and memorable. Books are an endless source of inspiration and motivation to become a better person. I am certain that creating a system of symbols and eventually an alphabet, words, and books was the greatest series of inventions of humankind. The books I am talking about are classics, those that do not have an expiration date and will be priceless for any generation. They will continue sparking new ideas, inspiring new deeds and enriching the lives of every generation to come. I am positive that books will eventually regain their popularity with today’s youth, since unlike the popular kinds of entertainment in fashion today, books are those roots to which people will go back, in search of the motivation, inspiration and aspiration, to find the true meaning and value of life.

Ontological And Cosmological Arguments The Existence Of God Philosophy Essay

Ontological And Cosmological Arguments The Existence Of God Philosophy Essay Since the very beginning of human life, man has tried to identify the source of everything. Who am I?, What made me?, Did man create the stars? If not, there must be a higher being than humans, but who? Humans have always felt the need to rely on a higher being, a god, each culture identifying him either as one or many gods working together, but ultimately they provide protection, resources and strength to everyone and everything. But who IS God? Questions such as these prompted philosophers to ponder on the existence of a God; two of the arguments produced in reference to Gods existence shall be discussed. The two approaches of the arguments are based around the a priori and a  posteriori  reasoning. An a priori argument is one where the truth of the proposition does not depend on prior experience. It relies on knowledge collected outside of our own experiences. This is said by some to be an innate knowledge. The ontological argument is based around this reasoning. The basis of the argument itself depends on ones understanding of the nature of God. The Cosmological argument on the other hand, is a  a posteriori  based argument  [1]  . They argue that the truth of a proposition may only be known to be true after empirical knowledge is utilised to prove the statement true or false.  Ã‚  [2]   Renà © Descartes,  often called the father of modern philosophy, developed Anselms argument, in attempting to prove Gods existence from simply the meaning of the word God. The ontological argument is a priori  argument. The basis of these arguments depends upon ones understanding of the nature of God. Anselms definition of God being a supremely perfect being, is the basis of his argument. God must be such a thing that cannot be thought not to exist if he is: Than that which nothing greater can be conceived. (Anslem) Descartes points out that if you imagine a triangle, one of its main properties is that it has three sides and three corners. These are the predicates of a triangle. Descartes expands his point, this time referring to the properties of God. If something perfect is imagined, it must be even more perfect if it was in existence. Furthermore, the most perfect thing has all properties including existence. Descartes, therefore,  believes,  that a supremely perfect being has  all  predicates. Hence, if a perfect being has all predicates one of the properties must surely be existence. Therefore, if God is the greatest conceivable being and has all qualities, he must have all predicates, one of them being existence, therefore God must surely exist. Descartes says that trying to imagine God without the predicate of existence is illogical, like imagining a triangle without three sides!  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The ontological argument, in whichever version, has been the object of a great deal of philosophical criticism. Traditionally, the objection posed by the 18th-century philosopher Immanuel Kant has been thought to be one of the most decisive. Kant argued that the problem with the argument lay in its claim that existence is a predicate. (A predicate term describes something done by a subject; so, in the sentence John is eating the predicate is eating describes something that the subject, John, is doing.) Kant argued that existence cannot be a predicate because it does not add any new information to an understanding of the subject. To be told  that John is bald, that he is eating, and  that he is angry is to add three things to the stock of information about him. However, to be told that he exists does not genuinely communicate something about him. Likewise with God; to state simply that Gods existence follows from thinking about him is to have said nothing other than that God exists. Kant argued that nothing of philosophical consequence has been learnt. It is for this reason that many modern-day philosophers have held the ontological argument to be in error. In conclusion to  Descartess  argument, if the most perfect thing has all predicates, then one of those properties must be existence. God is the most perfect and flawless being, hence, he must exist. Similar to the ontological argument, the cosmological argument, also known as the first cause argument, is a classical argument for the existence of God. However, unlike the ontological argument, it derives the conclusion that God exists from a posterior premise (with evidence), as it is based on what can be seen in the world and the universe. It points the belief that there is a first cause behind the existence of the universe. The cosmological argument is based on contingency (dependent on something else) and points out  that things  come into existence because something has caused them to happen. The argument also states that things are caused to exist but they do not have to exist and that there is a chain of causes that goes back to the beginning of time. Time began with the creation of the universe, which came into existence about 15 billion years ago. Plato argued one of the Cosmological arguments earliest forms. He argued that the power to produce movement logically comes before the power to receive it and pass it on  [3]  Ã‚  This basically means that if there if movement, then something has to have caused this. This could not logically go on for infinity, so there has to be a single solitary being that caused this chain of events. This he calls the First Mover. Aristotle also believed in the Prime mover, the uncaused cause, the original cause. In this respect the two arguments are very similar. St Thomas Aquinas developed the cosmological argument. He developed five ways, the Demonstratio, to prove the existence of God. The first three ways forms the cosmological argument as a proof of the existence of God. These three ways are, motion or change, cause and contingency. In the first way, Aquinas states that anything which is in motion is moved or changed by something else. The object causing this push in movement is also given motion by another object. According to Aquinas, infinite regress is logically impossible, and because of this there must be something at the beginning which caused this motion, without being affected itself. This is God. It is certain, that in the world some things are in motion. Now whatever is moved is moved by another (Aquinas Summa  Theologica  [4]  ) From this quote, Aquinas clearly points out that, an object only moved when an external force was applied to it. He continued that objects only changed because some external force had brought about the change. He spoke of things achieving their potential through an external influence.  Ã‚  Aquinas used the example of fire making wood hot. When fire is applied to wood, it changes the wood to achieve its potential in becoming hot. Aquinas, in relation to the fire, stated that in order for a thing to change, actuality is required. If it did not, the thing would have to start the change itself, hence it would require both actuality and potential. However, Aquinas saw this as a contradiction, i.e. if wood could make itself hot then it would be hot already. Wood cannot be hot to beginwith,  otherwise it would not change and become hot. Therefore, Aquinas is emphasising the fact that wood is not hot already is its actuality. Moreover, something must have made the fire change and come  about,  hence each change is the result of an earlier change. However, Aquinas reported that these early changes did not go on to infinity, so there must have been a prime mover He concluded this first mover to be no other but God. In the second way, Aquinas says that God must be an uncaused causer, because if God were the efficient cause, and physically giving the object a push, rather than being The Final Cause, the push would affect God, meaning it would be contingent rather than necessary. To help explain this argument of motion, Aquinas uses the idea of dominoes. One force knocking domino causes the whole line of them to fall. For the objects to go from Potentiality to Actuality there needs to be something in the beginning which has already possessed Actuality. à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦it is necessary to arrive at a first mover, moved by no other; and this everyone understands to be God (Aquinas) In the third way, Aquinas brings up the point of contingency of matter in the universe. He identifies that things come in to existence but then stop existing. He states that there must have surely been a time when nothing existed, however, for these to start existing,  the universe must have always existed. Aquinas states: à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦if at one time nothing was in existence, it would have been impossible for anything to have begun to existà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦therefore we cannot but admit the existence of some being having of itself its own necessityà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ Furthermore, there must have been a necessary being to bring about this existence, this being God. He evaluated that if God did not exist, then nothing would exist. In conclusion, Aquinas presents in his three ways of proving the existence of God that nothing could have existed without the existence of another. Moreover, something else must have caused the existence of this cause. Hence, a chain of causes is brought about. However, Aquinas emphasises that there must a beginning to the chain of causes. If the chain of causes is finite, then it means that this being does not have to rely on anything else to come into existence. There is only one such beingà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦God.

Existentialist View Of Human Condition :: essays research papers

Existentialist View of Human Condition Two of the main principles of Existentialist Human Condition are: That man exists and then creates himself and what man chooses for himself he chooses for everyone else as well. Lets examine the first principle: man exists and then defines himself. What it means is that man is created on this earth and is nothing but a body, blood and guts. What he chooses to do and to be is what makes him a man. If a man comes into this world and chooses to steal, cheat, kill and lie then that is what that man has made himself to be. While society may see him as a "evil" person, that is what is right for him. Now on the other hand if a person chooses to be generous, kind, honest and loving, society may see him as a "good" person while it is still right for him. According to the Existentialists, a person is placed on this earth with no predisposed "good" or "evil" values, one man is not created with any more good or evil than the next. By the decisions we make in life we create ourselves. Next the second view, what man chooses for himself he chooses for everyone else. This is a view I really believe in. Everything we do in life effects someone else, whether we no it or not. Every time we drive our car. Every time we eat something, spend money, go for a jog someone else is effected. For an example: a man goes to the store and buys a stereo. First of all the clerk the clerk is effected because they have to check you out, so you have taken some of their time. The store is effected because they are minus one radio from their store. The manufacturer now has to make one more to replace the one that was bought from the store. The manufacturing employees are effected because put the radio together, and so on. On the other hand a man who chooses to steal that same stereo will effect even more people.