Examining The Definition Of Western Orientalism Cultural Studies Essay

Examining The Definition Of Western Orientalism Cultural Studies Essay Orientalism transfigures the study of Middle East. Edward Said defines, Orientalism as the ethnocentric way Europe approaches the Asian regions.  Europeans looked upon the people of the Orient or the East and Arabic states as gullible and devoid of energy and initiative.   The invasion of European nations proved a radical decline in the natural prosperity of every nation they stumbled upon. The matters of the European sense of superiority and interest in control can also be seen in orientalist scholarship. Backward and barbaric, fundamentally incapable of social, political, or technological modernization, these were the descriptions of the non-western societies given to them by the people of west. Orientalism is the term that signifies the existing dislike and discrimination at the bottom of the political, economic, social and cultural discourses that were created to justify the imperialist Wests invasion and domination over the non-West. In other words, Orientalism was brought o ut as a matter of historical judgment. He illustrates Asian and Islamic Cultures during European imperialism and Europes goals of maintaining power and domination of non-Europeans.He argued that Europe used the Orient and imperialism as a symbol of its strength and superiority. Said suggested that Orientalists are treated as others-in this case, Muslims and Asians-and as objects defined not in terms of their own discourses, but solely in terms of standards and definitions imposed on them from outside. Among the influences underlying these definitions was, in Saids view, a long-standing Western concern with presenting Islam as opposed to Christianity. Said divided orientalism into two categories, one is the latent Orientalism which  is the unconscious, untouchable certainty about what the Orient is. Its basic content is static and unanimous. The Orient is seen as separate, eccentric, backward, silently different, sensual, and passive. It has a tendency towards despotism and away from progress. It displays feminine penetrability and supine malleability. Its progress and value are judged in terms of, and in comparison to, the West, so it is always the other, the conquerable, and the inferior whereas manifest Orientalism  is what is spoken and acted upon. It includes information and changes in knowledge about the Orient as well as policy decisions founded in Orientalist thinking. It is the expression in words and actions of Latent Orientalism. Any humanist would see that before the west intervened, each individual culture followed to their habitat, past experiences, and past knowledge.   Even though they were not modernized they still would have survived on their own just as they had been doing it for centuries.  Ã‚   However, a race of people could not be heartless enough to admit their destruction with a clear conscious and no remorse.   They would not pack their bags and leave a deserted crippled country. Orientalism and Western domination of the rest of the world. Understanding Orientalism is useful in the context of South Asia, as it enables us to understand the relationship between political hegemony and knowledge. Said says Orientalism exposes the European will to domination to create an orderly discipline of study a set of institutions, a latent vocabulary a subject matter, and subject races. It represents the power to make philological distinctions and the institutional force to make statements about Oriental mentality, the inscrutable Oriental, the unreliable and degenerate Oriental. The concept of Orientalism is useful in analysing prevailing literature, generalised and essentialised ideas such as Hinduism and Islam. It is also important in understanding womens movements and feminist discourses in South Asia. Many South Asian women used the criticism of Orientalism to criticise literature, imaginations and situations affecting women. Yet, the idea of Orientalism and the Western imagery of the Orient can be used ideologically by extremis t nationalists and fundamentalists who suppress the freedom of thought under the pretence of defending the Orient and fighting with the West. Misunderstanding the project of Orientalism may increase hostility between people and glorify myths such as West and Orient. It is no longer desirable, in our globalised world, to say that only South Asians can talk about South Asia, or only Hindu can talk about Hinduism and explain Indian religious traditions. For example, Tibetan Buddhism was scorned again during the Victorian period, when Buddhist studies were growing into an academic discipline. As depicted by Prof Lopez, The nineteenth-century constructions of Tibetan Buddhism are part of the heritage of Orientalism, described by Edward Said as a European mode for gaining authority over the Orient, a mode whereby Orientals were controlledpolitically and epistemologicallyby scholars in Europe and colonial officials in Asia. An important part of this scholarship was the self-aggrandizing ab ility of European scholars to write histories of Oriental civilizations that identified their origins, their classical periods, and their decline. The last of these (also called the modern period) was marked by decay and impotence. The modern period was also contemporaneous with European colonialism, one of whose products for the West was knowledge about the East. According to the exponents of this new field of knowledge, the facts and artefacts of the classical period were rescued by the emergent Western scholarship from the custody of the Orientals, who failed to recognize them for what they were and hence lost any right to them. The Orientalist would henceforth speak for the Oriental through heredity of scholarship whose task it was to represent the Orient because the Orient was incapable of representing itself. This representation of the East by the West carried with it the valuation of what was true and what was false, what was worthy and what was worthless. Furthermore, accord ing to Edward Saids  Orientalism, the texts produced by European Orientalists had the power to create not only knowledge but also the very reality they appear to define by delimiting the object of knowledge. Said argues that Orientalism also had more directly political effects: its representations of the Orient provided a justification for imperialism and a foundation for colonial policies and institutions. (Prof Donald S. Lopez Jr, 1994) Iraq is the ultimate illustration of how Orientalist conventional wisdom had it wrong.   Arguing that this Orientalism has driven America to contempt and discriminate against the Orient, and eventually to invade Afghanistan and Iraq as well as arousing certain public opinion against North Korea, may be criticized for its ignorance or exaggeration, especially when the world has observed the events of September attack (9/11) and the North Korean nuclear weapon issue.During the past two centuries Europe has ideologically constituted Asia in relation to itself with the purpose of putting its hand in it. In the past decade, Asian music and culture has spread throughout the West like poppies. The problem is that this Orientalism is still present, long after the imperialist invasions. Bushs policies are the evidence for the existence of Orientalism. The Bush administration invaded Iraq claiming that Iraq had Weapon of Mass destruction (WMD) and that Saddam Hussein was an unforgivable dict ator. As the supposed Weapon of mass destruction (WMD) have not yet been found and as Hussein was the representative of Iraq, chosen by its people, it is natural that the Iraqi people pronounce curse against Bush. With the amount of west intervention in Iraq, it was not possible for the US military force to occupy Iraq forever. During the Bush administration, he announced that the US military force will be withdrawn upon the establishment of a democratic government in Iraq, the US will probably still try to dominate Iraq in one way or another as long as they have an oil interest in Iraq. Their dominance, however, will not last for long, and the US army cannot help but leave Iraq. This is just a matter of time. Americans or people in the world felt over 9/11 attack. Nobody can deny that 9/11 was an atrocity that aroused anger around the world. The world, however, is aware that the broad antagonism of the west especially Americans against the Arab world was one of the main causes of 9 /11, and that the terrorist Bin Laden himself was, in the past nurtured by the US to fight against the USSR. In other words, 9/11 was a trap set by the US themselves then. The war in Iraq, perceptions have proven particularly relevant to the conduct of military operations. However, because Western outlook of this critical region, and forming the personal collection of most Westerners, are predetermined by each individuals experience within his/her culture. This experience is mostly shaped by the images, ideas and impressions retained from exposure to popular culture, media and more or less elaborate programmes or readings, and depending on ones educational accomplishments, personal or professional interests. The common characteristic between all these individual experiences, as far as the Middle-East is concerned, is that they are all immersed in a predominant consensus or discourse about the representation of this critical region of the world. Likewise, the launch of the Arabic lan guage Al-Jazeera satellite channel nearly ten years ago, transformed the television landscape in the Middle East. And over the past three years the channel has gained global reputation and became a name which governments and decision-makers across the world can hardly ignore. Even, In  The Lord of the Rings  film trilogy, the costumes of the Haradrims, a human race who allies itself with the enemy, are Middle-Eastern in style. When children are fed this kind of negative bias against the Middle-East, the subliminal cultural consciousness of whole generations is enduringly and profoundly impacted. The normality of such bad depictions clearly illustrates what several Western intellectuals qualify at best as acceptable political in correctness directed against Middle-Easterner The war declared on terrorism after the massacre of 9/11 in New York, with the subsequent military operations in Afghanistan and in Iraq, revives this tradition of improving interventionism by carrying on the old orientalist-related topic. Far from destroying the Great Divide between the West and the Rest, the wars of a new type support and separate the division between civilized and barbaric in the era of globalization. The explanation of ideology of the American, according to which there would no longer be outside or inside, because no country would now be released from terrorism. What now prevails is a sober vision of globalization, that of a fight to the death between two worlds, extending over all continents, between America, and the Islamic terrorism. But this originality goes back to schemes that are as old as the United States itself, insofar as this self-proclaimed exceptional, autonomous and providential imperial republic has an idealistic or ideal component qualified as es sential. Edward Said also refers to the medias ability to control and filter information as an invisible screen, releasing what it wants people to know and blacking out what it does not want them to know. To accomplish his goal Said sets up a methodological argument within which he addresses three main concepts. First, that imperialism is not about a specific moment in history, but rather a continuing interdependent dialogue between subject peoples and the dominant hegemony of the empire. Secondly, through the production of popular western literature authors have maintained a sense of continued supremacy upon subject peoples. This theorization that postcolonial domination has been institutionalized within western literature is a reference to the idea of a continuing interchange of ideas between dominant culture and oppressed peoples. Lastly, Saids comparison of colonialism to racism is integral to his argument about the continuation of oppression in a postcolonial environment. Throughout his analysis of culture, he focuses on the limitations of subjugated peoples within western culture and the reasons for their continued oppression. In Covering Islam (1997), Said postulates that, if knowledge is power, those who control the modern Western media (visual and print) are most powerful because they are able to determine what people like or dislike, what they wear and how they wear it, and what they should know and must not know about themselves. Said claims that untruth and falsehood about Islam and the Muslim world are consistently propagated in the media, in the name of objectivity, liberalism, freedom, democracy and progress Conclusion In this contemporary world, there is at least more than fifty percent intervention of the west towards the rest of the world. Edward Said argues in Orientalism, his landmark 1978 study of the relationship between the production of knowledge and the exercise of imperial power, the attitudes and images created by this tradition compose a closely bound system of created knowledge, of willed human work, about the Eastern other which the imperial powers of Europe and North America have historically used to invite and justify political and economic intervention and imperialism. Critics who have studied Orientalism in Europe, especially in nineteenth-century literature, have pointed out that there is much that can be learned about the Wests image of itself through the way Western writers have depicted the Orient. The influential popular magazine, The National Geographic, established in 1988 used to represent a window on the world for millions of middle class Americans at a time when movies and televisions were either not yet invented or in their infancy. The plain picturesque coverage of the Middle-East, by this magazine, showed the Arabs as exotic Orientals Mass media and movie industry developed throughout the twentieth century to become the main spreader of information, images and attitudes about the region to the public at large. The Arab Muslim progressively became a figure in American popular culture. No one can deny that orientalism has made great contributions to the study of Arab culture and history, and to the religion of Islam. Orientalists were and still are standing as experts in Arab-Islamic culture. They accumulated very rich knowledge and experience in this field of inquiry. In fact they made tremendous contribution to research, translation, and ultimately to the preservation and indexing of Arab-Islamic heritage.

Raves :: Free Essay Writer

Raves What is a rave? A rave usually refers to an all night party, open to the general public, where loud â€Å"techno† music is mostly played and many people can partake in a number of different chemicals (Official). Raves are fairly decent and you don’t hear much about them on the streets. Yet some people who go to the raves try to sell their drugs to ravers and that’s what makes the word rave so bad. Because of those people Mayor Daley has planned crack down on jailing building owners and managers who let their properties be used for raves where drugs are peddled. They approved of this Thursday, April 19, 2001. The range for jail term runs from two weeks to six months (Rave). But why are raves getting the reputation they are? Raves are getting bad reputations because of the drug peddlers that go to the raves to sell their ecstasy and stamina enhancing drugs. According to a website called Dancesafe.com ecstasy is a safe drug if you stay away from the listed k inds of ecstasy. The parents of the kids going to these raves are not saying a word about the drug situation there. They still let their kids go because they know it is safer than being out on the street or at some drinking party getting drunk and then having the risk of them driving home. If you ask me raves aren’t so bad, I’ve been to several of them and out of all of the ones I have gone I have only seen two peddlers selling X. They were all-night raves and tons of people and everyone was all wired and dancing and moving around like mad. â€Å"It’s a love circle, It’s like a 1960’s scene – all the races together, dancing, having a communal experience.† says Laze (Gracia). At raves there are different rooms. One room is the main room where the dancing goes on and all the music is spun and where most of the people are. Some of the music that is played there is House, Techno (most common), breakbeat, Trance, Tribal, and Progressive. The visual eff ects and a lot at the raves. Most of them use laser shows, others use laser that goes with the beat, and of course the classic strobe light. Then there is another room called the â€Å"cool down room† where you can buy water and energy drinks and sit down and talk to all the other ravers there and meet different girls and stuff.

The Road Not Taken Essay -- essays research papers

Choices of Life All people are travelers, all choosing their paths on a map of their life. â€Å"The great thing about man for Frost is that he has the power of standing still where he is.† There is never a straight road there are always curves and turns in which one must encounter and act upon. Readers can interpret the poem â€Å"The Road Not Taken† in many ways. It is a persons past, present and the way one see things, which determines their choices and paths they follow. This poem shows how Frost believes that it is the road that you choose that makes you the person you are. Decisions are always hard to make. It is impossible not to wonder what would have happened before you made your decision and what could have happened after you made your decision. Frost shows this in the line â€Å"And sorry I ...

Ethical Issues in Accounting Essay

â€Å"Accountants and the accountancy profession exist as a means of public service; the distinction which separates a profession from a mere means of livelihood is that the profession is accountable to standards of the public interest, and beyond the compensation paid by clients.† —Robert H. Montgomery, describing ethics in accounting. Accounting ethics is primarily a field of applied ethics, the study of moral values and judgments as they apply to accountancy. It is an example of professional ethics. Accounting ethics were first introduced by Luca Pacioli, and later expanded by government groups, professional organizations, and independent companies. Ethics are taught in accounting courses at higher education institutions as well as by companies training accountants and auditors. Due to the diverse range of accounting services and recent corporate collapses, attention has been drawn to ethical standards accepted within the accounting profession. These collapses have resulted in a widespread disregard for the reputation of the accounting profession. To combat the criticism and prevent fraudulent accounting, various accounting organizations and governments have developed regulations and remedies for improved ethics among the accounting profession. Importance of Ethics in Accounting The nature of the work carried out by accountants and auditors requires a high level of ethics. Shareholders, potential shareholders, and other users of the financial statements rely heavily on the yearly financial statements of a company as they can use this information to make an informed decision about investment. They rely on the opinion of the accountants who prepared the statements, as well as the auditors that verified it, to present a true and fair view of the company. Knowledge of ethics can help accountants and auditors to overcome ethical dilemmas, allowing for the right choice that, although it may not benefit the company, will benefit the public who relies on the accountant/auditor’s reporting. History Luca Pacioli, the â€Å"Father of Accounting†, wrote on accounting ethics in his first book Summa de arithmetica, geometria, proportioni, et proportionalita, published in 1494. Ethical standards have since then been developed through government groups, professional organizations, and independent companies. These various groups have led accountants to follow several codes of ethics to perform their duties in a professional work environment. Accountants must follow the code of ethics set out by the professional body of which they are a member. United States accounting societies such as the Association of Government Accountants, Institute of Internal Auditors, and the National Association of Accountants all have codes of ethics, and many accountants are members of one or more of these societies. In 1887, the American Association of Public Accountants (AAPA) was created; it was the first step in developing professionalism in the United States accounting industry. By 1905, the AAPA’s first ethical codes were formulated to educate its members. During its twentieth anniversary meeting in October 1907, ethics was a major topic of the conference among its members. As a result of discussions, a list of professional ethics was incorporated into the organization’s bylaws. However, because membership to the organization was voluntary, the association could not require individuals to conform to the suggested behaviors. Other accounting organizations, such as the Illinois Institute of Accountants, also pursued discussion on the importance of ethics for the field. The AAPA was renamed several times throughout its history, before becoming the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) as its named today. The AICPA developed five divisions of ethical principles that its members should follow: â€Å"independence, integrity, and objectivity†; â€Å"competence and technical standards†; â€Å"responsibilities to clients†; â€Å"responsibilities to colleagues†; as well as â€Å"other responsibilities and practices†. Each of these divisions provided guidelines on how a Certified Public Accountant (CPA) should act as a professional. Failure to comply with the guidelines could have caused an accountant to be barred from practicing. When developing the ethical principles, the AICPA also considered how the profession would be viewed by those outside of the accounting industry. Teaching Ethics Universities began teaching business ethics in the 1980s. Courses on this subject have grown significantly in the last couple of decades. Teaching accountants about ethics can involve role playing, lectures, case studies, guest lectures, as well as other mediums. Recent studies indicate that nearly all accounting textbooks touch on ethics in some way. In 1993, the first United States center that focused on the study of ethics in the accounting profession opened at State University of New York at Binghamton. Starting in 1999, several U.S. states began requiring ethics classes prior to taking the CPA exam. Seven goals of accounting ethics education †¢ Relate accounting education to moral issues. †¢ Recognize issues in accounting that have ethical implications. †¢ Develop â€Å"a sense of moral obligation† or responsibility. †¢ Develop the abilities needed to deal with ethical conflicts or dilemmas. †¢ Learn to deal with the uncertainties of the accounting profession. †¢ â€Å"Set the stage for† a change in ethical behavior. †¢ Appreciate and understand the history and composition of all aspects of accounting ethics and their relationship to the general field of ethics. —Stephen E. Loeb In 1988, Stephen E. Loeb proposed that accounting ethics education should include seven goals (adapted from a list by Daniel Callahan). To implement these goals, he pointed out that accounting ethics could be taught throughout accounting curriculum or in an individual class tailored to the subject. Requiring it be taught throughout the curriculum would necessitate all accounting teachers to have knowledge on the subject (which may require training). A single course has issues as to where to include the course in a student’s education (for example, before preliminary accounting classes or near the end of a student’s degree requirements), whether there is enough material to cover in a semester class, and whether most universities have room in a four-year curriculum for a single class on the subject. There has been debate on whether ethics should be taught in a university setting. Supporters point out that ethics are important to the profession, and should be taught to accountants entering the field.[18] In addition, the education would help to reinforce students’ ethical values and inspire them to prevent others from making unethical decisions. Critics argue that an individual is ethical or not, and that teaching an ethics course would serve no purpose. Despite opposition, instruction on accounting ethics by universities and conferences, has been encouraged by professional organizations and accounting firms. The Accounting Education Change Commission (AECC) has called for students to â€Å"know and understand the ethics of the profession and be able to make value-based judgments.† Phillip G. Cottel argued that in order to uphold strong ethics, an accountant â€Å"must have a strong sense of values, the ability to reflect on a situation to determine the ethical implications, and a commitment to the well-being of others.† Iris Stuart recommends an ethics model consisting of four steps: the accountant must recognize that an ethical dilemma is occurring; identify the parties that would be interested in the outcome of the dilemma; determine alternatives and evaluate its effect on each alternative on the interested parties; and then select the best alternative. Accounting Scandals Accounting ethics has been deemed difficult to control as accountants and auditors must consider the interest of the public (which relies on the information gathered in audits) while ensuring that they remained employed by the company they are auditing. They must consider how to best apply accounting standards even when faced with issues that could cause a company to face a significant loss or even be discontinued. Due to several accounting scandals within the profession, critics of accountants have stated that when asked by a client â€Å"what does two plus two equal?† the accountant would be likely to respond â€Å"what would you like it to be?† This thought process along with other criticisms of the profession’s issues with conflict of interest, have led to various increased standards of professionalism while stressing ethics in the work environment. The role of accountants is critical to society. Accountants serve as financial reporters and intermediaries in the capital markets and owe their primary obligation to the public interest. The information they provide is crucial in aiding managers, investors and others in making critical economic decisions. Accordingly, ethical improprieties by accountants can be detrimental to society, resulting in distrust by the public and disruption of efficient capital market operations. â€Å"Every company in the country is fiddling its profits. Every set of published accounts is based on books which have been gently cooked or completely roasted. The figures which are fed twice a year to the investing public have all been changed in order to protect the guilty. It is the biggest con trick since the Trojan horse. †¦ In fact this deception is all in perfectly good taste. It is totally legitimate. It is creative accounting.† —Ian Griffiths in 1986, describing creative accounting From the 1980s to the present there have been multiple accounting scandals that were widely reported on by the media and resulted in fraud charges, bankruptcy protection requests, and the closure of companies and accounting firms. The scandals were the result of creative accounting, misleading financial analysis, as well as bribery. Various companies had issues with fraudulent accounting practices, including Nugan Hand Bank, Phar-Mor, WorldCom, and AIG. One of the most widely-reported violation of accounting ethics involved Enron, a multinational company, that for several years had not shown a true or fair view of their financial statements. Their auditor Arthur Andersen, an accounting firm considered one of the â€Å"Big Five†, signed off on the validity of the accounts despite the inaccuracies in the financial statements. When the unethical activities were reported, not only did Enron dissolve but Arthur Andersen also went out of business. Enron’s shareholders lost $25 billion as a result of the company’s bankruptcy. Although only a fraction of Arthur Anderson’s employees were involved with the scandal, the closure of the firm resulted in the loss of 85,000 jobs. Causes Fraudulent accounting can arise from a variety of issues. These problems usually come to light eventually and could ruin not only the company but also the auditors for not discovering or revealing the misstatements. Several studies have proposed that a firm’s corporate culture as well as the values it stresses may negatively alter an accountant’s behavior. This environment could contribute to the degradation of ethical values that were learned from universities. Until 1977, ethics rules prevented accounting and auditing firms from advertising to clients. When the rules were lifted, spending by the largest CPA firms on advertisements rose from US$4 million in the 1980s to more than $100 million in the 2000s. Critics claimed that, by allowing the firms to advertise, the business side overstepped the professional side of the profession, which led to a conflict of interest. This focus allowed for occurrences of fraud, and caused the firms, according to Arthur Bowman, â€Å"†¦ to offer services that made them more consultants and business advisers than auditors.† As accounting firms became less interested in the lower-paying audits due to more focus on higher earning services such as consulting, problems arose. This disregard for the lack of time spent on audits resulted in a lack of attention to catching creative and fraudulent accounting. A 2007 article in Managerial Auditing Journal determined the top nine factors that contributed to ethical failures for accountants based on a survey of 66 members of the International Federation of Accountants. The factors include (in order of most significant): â€Å"self-interest, failure to maintain objectivity and independence, inappropriate professional judgment, lack of ethical sensitivity, improper leadership and ill-culture, failure to withstand advocacy threats, lack of competence, lack of organizational and peer support, and lack of professional body support.† The main factor, self-interest, is the motivation by an accountant to act in his/her best interest or when facing a conflict of interest. For example, if an auditor has an issue with an account he/she is auditing, but is receiving financial incentives to ignore these issues, the auditor may act unethically. Principles- vs. rules-based â€Å"When people need a doctor, or a lawyer, or a certified public accountant, they seek someone whom they can trust to do a good job — not for himself, but for them. They have to trust him, since they cannot appraise the quality of his ‘product’. To trust him they must believe that he is competent, and that his primary motive is to help them.† —John L. Carey, describing ethics in accounting The International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) are standards and interpretations developed by the International Accounting Standards Board, which are principle-based. IFRS are used by over 115 countries including the European Union, Australia, and Hong Kong. The United States Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP), the standard framework of guidelines for financial accounting, is largely rule-based. Critics have stated that the rules-based GAAP is partly responsible for the number of scandals that the United States has suffered. The principles-based approach to monitoring requires more professional judgment than the rules-based approach. There are many stakeholders in many countries such as The United States who report several concerns in the usage of rules-based accounting. According to recent studies, many believe that the principles-based approach in financial reporting would not only improve but would also support an auditor upon dealing with client’s pressure. As a result, financial reports could be viewed with fairness and transparency. When the U.S. switched to International accounting standards, they are composed that this would bring change. However, as a new chairperson of the SEC takes over the system, the transition brings a stronger review about the pros and cons of rules- based accounting. While the move towards international standards progresses, there are small amount of research that examines the effect of principle- based standards in an auditor’s decision- making process. According to 114 auditing experts, most are willing to allow clients to manage their net income based on rules- ba sed standards. These results offers insight to the SEC, IASB and FASB in weighing the arguments in the debate of principles- vs. rules based- accounting. IFRS is based on â€Å"understandability, relevance, materiality, reliability, and comparability†. Since IFRS has not been adopted by all countries, these practices do not make the international standards viable in the world domain. In particular, the United States has not yet conformed and still uses GAAP which makes comparing principles and rules difficult. In August 2008, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) proposed that the United States switch from GAAP to IFRS, starting in 2014. Responses to scandals Since the major accounting scandals, new reforms, regulations, and calls for increased higher education have been introduced to combat the dangers of unethical behavior. By educating accountants on ethics before entering the workforce, such as through higher education or initial training at companies, it is believed it will help to improve the credibility of the accounting profession. Companies and accounting organizations have expanded their assistance with educators by providing education materials to assist professors in educating students. New regulations in response to the scandals include the Corporate Law Economic Reform Program Act 2004 in Australia as well as the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, developed by the United States. Sarbanes-Oxley limits the level of work which can be carried out by accounting firms. In addition, the Act put a limit on the fee which a firm can receive from one client as a percentage of their total fees. This ensures that companies are not wholly reliant on one firm for its income, in the hope that they do not need to act unethically to keep a steady income. The act also protects whistleblowers and requires senior management in public companies to sign off on the accuracy of its company’s accounting records. In 2002, the five members of the Public Oversight Board (POB), which oversaw ethics within the accounting profession, resigned after critics deemed the board ineffective and the SEC proposed developing a new panel, the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB). The PCAOB wa s developed through the Act, and replaced the POB. In 2003, the International Federation of Accountants (IFAC) released a report entitled Rebuilding Public Confidence in Financial Reporting: An International Perspective. By studying the international company collapses as a result of accounting issues, it determined areas for improvement within organizations as well as recommendations for companies to develop more effective ethics codes. The report also recommended that companies pursue options that would improve training and support so accountants could better handle ethical dilemmas. A collaborative effort by members of the international financial regulatory community led by Michel Prada, Chairman of the French Financial Markets Authority, resulting in establishment of the Public Interest Oversight Board (PIOB) on 1 March 2005. The PIOB provides oversight of the IFAC standards-setting boards: the International Auditing and Assurance Standards Board (IAASB), the International Accounting Education Standards Board (IAESB) and the Inter national Ethics Standards Board for Accountants(IESBA). The most recent reform came into effect in July 2010 when President Obama signed â€Å"The Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act†. The act covers a broad range of changes. The highlights of the legislation are consumer protections with authority and independence, ends too big to fail bail outs, advance warning system, transparency and accountability for exotic instruments, executive compensation and corporate governance, protects investors, and enforces regulations on the books. The legislation also resulted in the Office of the Whistleblower, which was established to administer the SEC’s whistleblower program. Congress authorized the SEC to provide monetary awards to whistleblowers who come forward with information that results in a minimum of a $1,000,000 sanction. The rewards are between 10% and 30% of the dollar amount collected. Whistleblowers help identify fraud and other unethical behaviors early on. The result is less harm to investors, quick ly holding offenders responsible, and to maintain the integrity of the U.S. markets.

Cisco Erp

Cisco Systems Inc. : Implementing ERP come ride with us your cowboys: bill atkinson denisa kubricka edmond lui georg wittenburg iman sharif Company Background †¢ Founded in 1984 by two Stanford computer scientists †¢ Became publicly traded in 1990 †¢ Primary product is â€Å"router† †¢ By 1997, Cisco was ranked top five companies in return on revenues and ROA in Fortune 500 †¢ In 1998, market capitalization was over $100 billion Markets Cisco was a key infrastructure supplier for the â€Å"New Economy† in the mid-90s. †¢ That market went through a period of amazing growth since Cisco formed. †¢ This fast growth rate was directly reflected in Cisco’s sales figures. †¢ The future was looking bright. Company Structure †¢ Three functional divisions: – Order Entry – Finance – Manufacturing †¢ Initial IT Strategy: – Let division take care of themselves. – Overall architecture is shared , enabling sharing of data. History of IT at Cisco UNIX-based software package to support its core transaction processing: – Functional areas supported: financial, manufacturing and order entry systems – Used common architecture and common databases †¢ Growth of Cisco resulted in scalability problems. †¢ Cisco was the largest single costumer of that vendor, resulting in a strategic weakness. Point Blank †¢ Would the software developed for a $300 million company fit the use of a $1 billion company? Point Blank †¢ Why would a multi-million dollar company want to avoid ERP?A Big Need †¢ Recognized the need for change, but left actions to each functional division: †¢ Thus: – Little progress was made in the year – Each functional area was reluctant to replace the legacy system because of high risk involved – Systems outages became routine – Unauthorized method for accessing the core application database malfunctioned , corrupting Cisco’s central database †¢ Company was shut down for two days Selecting an ERP product †¢ The planning was driven only by timing constraints and panic. There was no business case †¢ Cisco emphasized the need for: – – – – Strong team Strong partners Speedy decision making Getting Executive & Board approval Project Team & Partners †¢ Team: – Know that very best people are needed – Pulled best business & IT people out of their current jobs at Cisco †¢ Partners: – Important that partner could work on the selection as well as implementation of project – KPMG as integration partner – KPMG team of 20 (highly experienced; not â€Å"greenies†)Teams selection strategy †¢ Teams strategy – use experiences of other companies and best practices to accumulate knowledge †¢ Selected five packages within 2 days †¢ After a week of high level evaluation – two packages selected: ORACLE and another major player in the ERP market †¢ 10 days on request for proposals Point Blank †¢ Is it wise to make a decision so quickly? Are there things that should be done to mitigate the risk? Did they do due diligence? Team Selection Strategy Cont’d Oracle & other vendor given two weeks to respond to RFP †¢ Current vendor customers were visited by the team during these two weeks †¢ After response, received a 3-day software demonstration by each vendor (used Cisco’s sample data) †¢ Goal is to show how software meets or does not meet Cisco’s requirements Final Vendor Selection Criteria †¢ Three main criteria used: – Manufacturing capability – Long-term development of functionality of package – Flexibility of Oracle’s being close by (location wise) Other motivations – Oracle’s first release of new ERP product – if Cisco project goes well, favorable product la unch of Oracle ERP package †¢ Oracle chosen – team decision, no management approval at this point Time †¢ After 75 days from start of project, major TODOs are: – Negotiations between Oracle & Cisco – Write up a Proposal to Board of Directors †¢ Time and non-interference with annual accounting as main considerations. †¢ Famous last words: – â€Å"†¦ there’s no way we’re going to take 15 months to get this done. That’s ridiculous. † – â€Å"Well, can we do it in five months?That just didn’t seem right. † – Let’s try nine. Point Blank †¢ Was nine months realistic? Should other criteria have been used to estimate the time, rather than quarters as primarily criteria? Costs †¢ No formal business case for project †¢ Concentrating on system failure as motivation to project start †¢ $15 million budget estimated †¢ Not approached from the justification p rospective (no cost/benefit analysis) †¢ Costs:  »  »  »  » Software 16% Hardware 32% Headcount 14% System integration 38% Point Blank †¢ How do you think should project costs be estimated for Cisco’s project?Getting Approval From Board †¢ Met with CEO – comment about ‘jobs lost over much lesser amounts of money’ †¢ Got CEO’s support †¢ Met with Board of Directors – chairman says ‘show me the money’ as first thing †¢ Board approves project †¢ Single largest project ever undertaken by company †¢ CEO makes project priority for Cisco Building implementation team †¢ As not enough time & KPMG performed well during planning phase †¢ KPMG relationship extended for implementation †¢ Extra 80 team members added on from the Cisco’s business community †¢ Five tracks (process area teams) used: Order Entry Track  » Manufacturing Track  » Finance Track  » Sales/Re porting Track  » Technology Track Point Blank †¢ Was it worth removing important people from the regular business positions to work on the IT project? How can an IT department in another company convince upper management that this is worthwhile? Steering Committee †¢ High level execs from Cisco, Oracle, and KPMG †¢ Shows commitment and importance of project Point Blank †¢ How important is it to have support of upper management to ensure success?Implementing Oracle †¢ A development technique known as â€Å"rapid iterative prototyping† †¢ Implementation broken into a series of phases called â€Å"Conference Room Pilots† (CRPs): – CRP 0 / 1: Build on previous work to develop a deeper understanding of the software and how it functioned – CRP 2 / 3: Implement the ERP system. CRP0 †¢ Training the implementation team and setting up the technical environment †¢ Two parallel efforts: – Training the team in the Oracl e applications Normal 5 day training pushed to two 16-hour days! Getting the application up and running by a small â€Å"tiger team† CPR0 †¢ †¢ †¢ †¢ †¢ Configuring the Oracle package Hundreds of parameters in the applications Team members â€Å"locked† together for two days 1 % effort with 80 percent accuracy Completed one week after the meeting, leading to the realization that changes to the software were needed to support the company effectively Point Blank †¢ Do you think that having 80% accuracy with only 1% effort was just a matter of luck?Taking into account that typical ERP system configuration takes up to 6 months, not 2 days!! Any risks involved with this approach? CPR1 †¢ Goal of this phase each track makes the system work within its specific area †¢ Details and procedures for completing a process were created †¢ Realized that a lot of business processes were not supported by the software needed modifications â₠¬ ¢ Modifications were classified into: †¢ Green †¢ Yellow †¢ Red, needed to go to the steering committee for approval there were few reds CRP1 30 developers needed for 3 months to modify Oracle †¢ Modifications led to unplanned changes in the project plan and budget †¢ Realized that Oracle could not support the after-sales support needs †¢ Chose a service support package and planned to lunch both packages together Point Blank †¢ Would it have been possible to avoid most of these major changes and the need for a new service package had they spent more time in their initial design and decision making? †¢ Does it help to prioritize the required changes and control scope? CRP2 Continued scope change †¢ Major technical issues †¢ Creation of data warehouse for centralized data communication CRP2 †¢ 100-person IT department started decommitting from other projects †¢ Bore most of the responsibility for the project additions †¢ â€Å"IT did nothing else that year† Point Blank †¢ Is it wise to commit all of your resources to a new project, when your existing systems are barely scraping by? CRP3 †¢ Focus on testing the full system †¢ Assess readiness to ‘go live’ †¢ Captured one day’s worth of actual business data and ‘re-running’ it on a SaturdayPoint Blank †¢ Would you consider one day of testing adequate (with a subset of data), if you were planning a clean cutover of your entire IT infrastructure? The Aftermath †¢ The new ERP system went live on January 30, 1995, but it took two months before it was operating at a reasonable level of quality. †¢ Problematic areas were hardware architecture and sizing. – Test hat only been run sequentially and with a subset of the real database. †¢ Side-note: How is it possible that no one in the team noticed this before? Cisco Systems (1995) Cisco Systems creates five distinct busin ess units that reflect its major networking product groups — Workgroup, ATM High End, Access, Core and IBM Internetworking. †¢ â€Å"While leveraging economies of scale in areas like manufacturing, sales and support, the business units can move quickly in product development and expedite time to market. † †¢ Cisco Systems is the first major supplier of internetworking products to be awarded global ISO 9001 certification. Cisco Systems (2004) †¢ John Chambers, president and CEO: â€Å"Our strong position in the core switching and routing business continues to be complemented by positive momentum in our Advanced Technologies, especially this quarter in storage, security, wireless and IP telephony. † †¢ Positive Q2 2004 figures: – Q2 Net Sales: $5. 4 Billion (14. 5% increase year over year; 5. 8% increase quarter over quarter) – Q2 Operating Cash Flows: $1. 7 Billion Oracle Corp. (2004) †¢ Third quarter revenues were up 9% to $2. 5 billion while net income grew 11% to $635 million as compared to the third quarter last year. Chairman and CFO Jeff Henley: – â€Å"Oracle's fiscal third quarter was another solid quarter, with new software license revenue growth of 12%, which is identical to last quarter. † †¢ Oracle CEO Larry Ellison: – â€Å"This was a very strong quarter for our database business. † groupthink Point Blank †¢ Would they be able to do it again? – Which were to key factors to the success of the project? – At which points could it have failed? – Are these one-time events or can we generalize them? Pete Solvik CIO of Cisco Systems †¢ Heads the Internet Business Solutions Group (IBSG) †¢ One of the top 25 unsung heroes of the Net by [email  protected] Week Pete’s Tips for CIOs †¢ Make sure that the company's â€Å"business owners† make and fund IT spending decissions. †¢ Use infrastructure as a strateg ic enabler. †¢ Tie IT's objectives and rewards to the goals of the company business units. †¢ â€Å"Pete Solvik's Three Tips for CIOs† http://www. voicendata. com/content/top_stories/101010311. asp Thank you for your time!

CSR – Fast Food Industry

Since the late 1960's and early 1970's, the term â€Å"corporate social responsibility† has come into common. The concept of CSR has attracted considerable attention in recent years. However, CSR may have confused many corporations whether CSR brings benefits to the corporations, whether it is worthwhile to contribute organizational resources to CSR. Different studies have brought different answers to those questions. In the following paragraphs, we will briefly discuss whether CSR are necessary and the effectiveness of CSR. As the competitors have started showing they are socially responsible, it becomes necessary for a fast food corporation to consider the need and importance of CSR if it wants to stay at an advantaged position in the fast food industry. As consumers have more choices due to globalization and consider more today, it may be necessary for a corporation to show it is socially responsible to attract consumers. According to Scalet and Kelly (2010), people are demanding CSR, the market incentives are following consumer preferences for CSR activities and the market is producing it. In related to the fast food industry, Schroder and McEachern(2005) ‘s research suggests that â€Å"Most respondents favoured an involvement of global fast-food companies in CSR, whether in the context of providing healthy choices, assuring animal welfare or the sponsoring of community activities. They also suggest that fast-food retailers for example McDonald’s and KFC should emphasize on customer health, food quality and CSR activities in order to maintain and have new customers. On the other hand, some studies argue CSR may not be helpful in developing corporations’ brand and gaining advantages. Nicola (2007) describes â€Å"awareness of CR policies is low† and â€Å"consumers do not act on their beliefs about CR – they will continue to buy brands they know to be irresponsible. Product quality and consumer fairness are more important than CSR in consumers’ mind, most consumers agree corporations should have CSR, but only one-third of them consider CSR when shopping and not more than 4% would really not purchase a product due to the corporation's ethical policy (Peter 2007). John (2006) mentions Milton Friedman, the famous economist, has said â€Å"few trends could so thoroughly undermine the very foundations of our free society as the acceptance by corporate officials of a social responsibility other than to make as much money for their stockholders as possible†. Corporation should not have conscience like a human being as a corporation's nature is to maximize returns to its shareholder without breaching the law. These perspectives supporting the need of CSR show the consumers today choose our products not only depending on the quality of our products and service, but also depending on our contribution to CSR activities. As the whole market is producing it, a corporation has to fulfill the consumer demand of CSR in order to remain competitive. However, it assumes consumers are rational and act like what they think about CSR. In fact, consumers are not always rational and their consuming behavior may not consist with their thought. At the same time, there are some other perspectives showing the corporation contribution to CSR may be useless in gaining advantages. It strongly states that consumers focus much more on the product quality and consumer fairness, rather than CSR. Even the consumers know the corporation is irresponsible, they would still buy its products. It makes CSR seems to be less important than what scholars have described. However, CSR not gaining advantages to the corporation doesn’t mean not gaining advantages to the society. As a responsible corporation, it should have a conscience to keep on committing itself to CSR activities. These perspectives focus too much on what a corporation can gain from a society, but not on what a corporation can give to the society. Only obeying to the law is not enough for a responsible corporation. In conclusion, different perspectives may have certain strengths as well as weaknesses in their arguments. These perspectives supporting CSR provide a clear picture of the necessity of CSR by showing the consumers’ demand for CSR activities and indicating fast food corporations should have more CSR activities to maintain their competitiveness. However, it ignores the fact that consumers are not always rational and they may behave differ from what they think. Those perspectives questioning the effectiveness of CSR place a strong emphasis on that fact that CSR is not consumers' priority and the role of a corporation is to maximum profits. However, it focuses too much on the benefits of the corporation rather than the benefits of the society as it puts the role of corporations in a too utilitarian position. On the whole, although we understand much about CSR through the process of analyzing different claims, it is still hard to have a clear conclusion on those perspectives as obvious contradictory findings do exist and it may need a further research.

Discuss the challenges that global warming presents to both Essay

Discuss the challenges that global warming presents to both governments and business - Essay Example Lord Stern further pointed out that the increasing levels of carbon dioxide and other toxic chemicals into our atmosphere seems to represent a ‘business-as-usual’ attitude which does not bode well for our environment. He calculates that every ton of carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere implies a $30 charge for the social cost and if not stopped, about 1-2% of our global GDP per year would be reduced. Our industries would also have to suffer the higher cost of climate change through adjustments in their carbon emissions (Meister, 2008). The tourist industry would also likely be impacted by global warming because businesses would incur losses or closures caused by waves, hurricanes, floods, and storms. These weather disturbances would likely reduce â€Å"international outbound and inbound tourist traffic† (Meister, 2008). Many heritage sites which are top tourist draws are also often damaged by these weather disturbances. In the end, these areas will lose the ir attractiveness; and as a result fewer tourists would visit these places (Meister, 2008). The challenge for the tourist industry would now be on how to stay economically viable despite global warming conditions. This would likely prompt these businesses to either find alternative sources of business or to help maintain such tourist spots and prevent them from deteriorating. The areas which would likely be impacted significantly by the global warming phenomenon are the third world nations like Bangladesh and areas like Mumbai in India and Indonesia; these areas have low coastlines and would likely be affected the most by global warming (Webber, 2002). The floods caused by monsoon rains as well as the droughts in some parts of the world are just some of the occurrences which are likely to be seen with more frequency in the coming years. The challenge for businesses in these areas would be on how to stay afloat amidst these weather disturbances which may destroy their crops and disru pt their supply chains. Insurers have a major share in companies, including those in the oil industry. The challenge for them is on the pressure they can exert on these companies in order to prompt them to recover their losses amidst natural disasters and also how these insurance companies can still gain profits (Webber, 2002). The challenge for businesses is on the switch to fuels which they have to implement in order to help reduce the emissions of toxic chemicals. The challenge is for them to use alternative sources of fuel which would create less greenhouse gases. Fuel switching would be a costly venture for most businesses because these sources of fuel are limited sources and would require more than the usual processing (Webber, 2002). Moreover, these alternative sources of fuel would cost millions to structure in to the industries. In the end, these financial costs are often passed to the consumers – consumers who are already undergoing various economic difficulties in recent years. Economists also point out that for companies who are located in areas which are often visited by droughts or floods, insurance companies may eventually find them uninsurable (Hagen, 2007). Many farmers would also likely invest in new areas which may be