Gerrymandering: United States and Congressional Apportionment Essay

Congressional Apportionment is the process by which the United States House of Representatives are redistricted the fifty states following each constitutionally mandated decennial census. Each state is guaranteed at least one seat and all the other seats are divided among the rest of the states based on their population. Congressional Apportionment is important to the states because the more representatives a state has the more influence they have in the House and vice versa the states do not want to lose seats in the House. Congressional redistricting is the process of redrawing district boundaries when a state has more representatives than districts. The Senate does not take part in the redistricting process. Redistricting occurs every ten years, with the national census. Gerrymandering is a practice that attempts to establish a political advantage for a particular political party or group by manipulating geographic boundaries to create partisan, incumbent-protected districts. In order to protect incumbents and to discourage challengers by creating a district that is more populated with a certain political ideology over another to insure a politician’s chance of winning. Gerrymandering is also used in order, to enhance a political party’s strength by having a certain political parties in a district to ensure that the Democrats or Republicans win every election. The Supreme Court has placed limits on racial gerrymandering and ensuring that the districts are equally populated. Racial gerrymandering is the drawing of a district to favor one racial group over another. The Supreme Court outlawed racial gerrymandering, which prevented Southern African Americans from voting and becoming the majority. The Supreme Court also disallows majority-minority districts. The Supreme Court has also ruled that the districts must be equally populated; the districts are required to have the same number of people, so each state takes the number of people they found in the census and divides that by the number of districts.

The Battle of Algiers (1966): Movie Review

[Author] [Course Code] [Instructor] [Date] The Battle of Algiers (1966): Movie Review On the 1st of November 1954, FLN guerillas attacked civilian and military installations in several parts of Algeria. The FLN hierarchy called on the Muslims in Algeria to restore the dignity and independence of the Algerian state. It was a bad opportunity to negotiate for independence.Just a few months ago, the French government had liquidated its claims in Indochina. On the 12th of November, the French National Assembly voted for the partial militarization of Algeria.The FLN were comprised of nationalist groups which asserted for the independence of Algeria. The FLN was a ‘sick’ organization, as one European observer noted. It was ruthless, subjective, and idealistic. It coerced students, farmers, and the masses to join in the independence movement. It also garnered support from both Communists and right-wing nationalists, without due consideration of repercussions. The movie begins wi th a short narrative of captured guerillas.The civil war between the Muslim Algerians and the Europeans had become a regional conflict. The French government ordered the deployment of French paratroopers to destroy the National Liberation Front. The paratroopers successfully hunted down members of the FLN. Indeed, many of its leaders were either assassinated or illegally detained. The film portrays France as the victor. However, the film ends with a short sequel portraying massive civil unrest and demonstrations against French rule in Algeria.The ruthlessness of the French Army had fueled the anger of the Algerian people. Although France won the Battle of Algiers, it had clearly lost the war. The movie is filmed in black and white. Its visual sense approaches that of a documentary, or rather the movie ‘The Desert Fox’ (1950). The apparent purpose is to create an atmosphere of despair and anxiety – to provoke the viewer to take sides and assert for interpretive au tonomy. Music and sound are important elements of imagery.The director uses classical motifs to highlight important events in the film and to heighten its emotional appeal. This is also done to evoke image parallelism – the elegance of music as representation of mass murder and torture. Indigenous Algerian music is added to emphasize the ‘danger of nationalistic terrorism’ or rather to symbolize the quest for independence. The FLN insurgents used guerilla warfare to wear the French down. But unlike in Vietnam, the French were able to contain FLN attacks.The reason is obvious. Guerilla warfare was not suited in Algerian geography. FLN guerrilla warfare was directed to top French military and political officials. The idea was to destroy the French hierarchy and replace it with a more palpable political organization. French counterinsurgency program was divided into two phases: liquidate the FLN in rural areas, and contain FLN threat in urban areas. Both strategies failed because the FLN were massively supported by the civilian population.

Business Practices of Woolworths and Wesfarmers

The Australian retail industry is dominated by big game players. There is no chance of a small retail brand to ever grow and prosper in the retail market of Australia. The big brands dominate the entire market with their ‘House products', the products labeled under their brand and exclusively available in their stores only (Gas price regulation for a retail market administrator 2004). The Australian retail market constitutes liquor sales, tobacco, and grocery retail. The big players dominate 60 per cent of the Retail trade, 50 percent of the tobacco trade and 80 per cent of Liquor and vintage alcohol sales. The promotion of their in-house products can be devastating for generic brands. The supermarket brands downgrade and run campaigns against generic brands. The supermarket brands have a huge impact on the flow of liquid cash from the hands of the wealthy to the poor segments. The supermarket brands have also been associated with the tag of highest growing grocery prices in th e entire world. The first brand that we have selected for this study and discussion is Woolworths and Wesfarmers. The brand has been dominating the retail trade since its inception. The Coles supermarket brand is owned by Woolworths and Wesfarmers. The Coles has the largest number of grocery retail outlets in entire Australia (Sinapuelas and Robinson 2008). This brand is a common name that we come across each and every day, but we do not pause to think and ponder about the downfall of the economy that this company and its counterparts have brought to our nation. This segment of the industry is dominated by the cash rich and big names who have been major players since their inception. The companies like Coles offer high degrees of resistance to small details and their products by motivating the customers to buy only their products. The second company we have selected for our discussion regarding its ethical pursuance of business is Metcash (AÃ…Â ¾man and GomiÃ… ¡Ãƒâ€žÃ‚ ek 2012). Metcash is a company which operates in the distribution and whole selling of grocery and retail. Besides, Metcash operates in the Automotive and luxury car servicing segment. The company has invested time and effort in agreeing to the policy of good packing and has been playing a key role in up keeping the deals made at the Australian Packaging Covenant signatory. The company has made an excellent reputation in the way they package their product. The company has been an outstanding player in upgrading themselves and their way of packaging to a level of utmost importance. The importance they give for their packaging of the product plays a key role for the customer at the final moment of the choice of buying is made. The company has been involved in many overseas trade agreements with many third world nations (Supply chain technologies – at Woolworths 2003). The commitments have been made regarding direct cooperation to technical knowledge transfer and consultation. The involvements in Bangladesh and Vietnam for direct purchase of their country made cotton and other products. The Uzbek Cotton commitment is one such agreement, the company ahs signed for a direct role in involvement and cooperation. Apart from this; the company has earned the ranking of 67.4 % from the Greenweek rankings. The score is an overall reflection of the environmental commitments and implementation that the company has been engaged in. The Woolworths and Wesfarmers have the largest number of poker machines in Australia. The company earns huge revenue from the sale of chips and gambling (Prospectus for the 1 for 8 Entitlement Offer of approximately 89 million New Wesfarmers Ordinary Shares at an Offer Price of $29.00 per New Wesfarmers Ordinary Share to raise approximately $2.57 billion 2008). The company has been accused many times of robbing the money of its countries' citizens by luring them to earn some money. The customers have complained that they always fail to win money. The company has earned a lot from the sale of poker chips country full. It's time the company makes some effort to stop robbing the people of their hard earned money by stopping these poker centers, and allowing only visitors of other nations to engage in this gambling activity.   The Australian legislature can also make some notable changes to stop this trade of poker and gambling. The Nepal government has restrictions in place which bars its countrymen and women from the casinos spread all over the city. The locals are allowed only on the New Years Eve, Christmas and other special days (Prus 2004). The casinos in Nepal are major revenue generators but only at the expense of foreigners. The Australian legislature may take heed of the matter. The company has been criticized by industry experts and public forums for misleading the customers on many matters.   The act of negatively influencing the customers has a significant disadvantage for the company and its brand perception. The company often urges the customers in their supermarkets to buy their particular products. This act affects the companies offering generic products or own products a significant loss of revenue and client base. The company has also been fined regarding the above matter. The company we must say has not yet learned to form its mistakes, and continue to embark on its current trend of misleading the consumers. The Coles have been criticized and fined huge amounts by the competent authorities for misconduct and bad behavior towards its customers. The company has had a reputation of mistreating its employees and customers on the premises and various grounds. There have been police investigations on many matters. The company has also been charged with a fine for anticompetitive product and conduct. There might be individual rivalries among many business groups, but the company has been fined for negative conduct. The company earns huge revenue from the direct sale of tobacco and alcohol. The company owned and operated about two-thirds of the total alcohol sales (Paynter and Edwards 2009). The negative health impact the company creates by promoting its alcohol sales and tobacco usage is very harmful to the overall growth and health of the society. This brand has also been getting awards consistently on its good packaging practices. The quality of the packaging has been lauded to be pretty good. The company is also a principal signatory of the Australian Packaging Covenant (Ahmed 2009). That marks the company to strictly adhering to its good packaging practices. The company signed the deal promising to supply packaging which is healthy for the customer’s yet environmental friendly when disposed of as garbage.   The company promotes the use of GE-free products in its retail lineup. The company has been using the GE free products before any company in the entire industry. The company believes in the goodness of the GE free products in edible items. The company bagged the Packaging Award of 2015 for the healthiest and safest packaging in all of their products. The company policy of Genetically Modified crops or products is quite satisfactory (Clow and Baack 2004). The companies’ commitment to the cause of the environment is also well known. The company must embark on a strategy of sustainable progress and development. The company cannot succeed in the long term without implementing the policies of the sustainable business. The aspects of the business which make the industry comment on the negative aspects of Metcash’s business practices are related to gaming. The causes of significant revenue for the company apparently come from the gambling industry. The company relies heavily on its gambling trade for its generation of major revenue annually. The trade is a major hit among the countries citizens. But the trade heavily drains out money from the pockets of the poor and middle class. The company owned and operated major casinos all over Australia. The citizens must not only be discouraged from gambling, but these broad casinos must be closed urgently (Revenue 2005). The downfall of the economy can be attributed by some to gambling and massive spending. The company also accounts for almost major tobacco trade. The company has been tremendously criticized for its direct involvement in tobacco and alcohol promotion. The company portrays the image of alcoholism and gambling along with smoking tobacco as a positive aspect of this culture, except that in reality it's not. The company is involved in the grocery. The company sources its palm oil from unreliable and uncertified sources. The palm oil cultivations in Indonesia and Java, Sumatra are done by burning forest tracts and cultivating on them. The lungs of South Asia, which are the tropical rainforests of these countries suck out significant carbon dioxide and greenhouse gasses (Jope 2012). The clearing of these forests for the cultivation of palm trees is harmful to the environment. Moreover, where palm trees are planted, the soil is rendered ineffective for any advancement in future times. The company must stop these unsustainable business practices at the earliest or must face destruction (Saharjo et al. 2006). The company cannot survive with all these negative criticism in the long run. The company must embark on the strategies of free trade and must promote competitive behavior among its contemporaries. It is high time, the company is made to realize this, and amend on its mistakes or it may suffer massive losses regarding the brand value and public perception. Ahmed, A. (2009). Good manufacturing practices.  ISBT Science Series, 4(1), pp.6-10. AÃ…Â ¾man, S. and GomiÃ… ¡Ãƒâ€žÃ‚ ek, B. (2012). Asymmetric and Nonlinear Impact of Attribute-Level Performance on Overall Customer Satisfaction in the Context of Car Servicing of Four European Automotive Brands in Slovenia.  Organizacija, 45(2). Clow, K. and Baack, D. (2004).  Integrated advertising, promotion & marketing communications. Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Pearson Prentice Hall. Gas price regulation for a retail market administrator. (2004). Adelaide: Essential Services Commission of South Australia. Jope, J. (2012). Special Edition: International Palm Oil Sustainability Conference 2012 Abstracts.  Palm Scent, 3(6), pp.51-74. Paynter, J. and Edwards, R. (2009). The impact of tobacco promotion at the point of sale: A systematic review.  Nicotine & Tobacco Research, 11(1), pp.25-35. Prospectus for the 1 for 8 Entitlement Offer of approximately 89 million New Wesfarmers Ordinary Shares at an Offer Price of $29.00 per New Wesfarmers Ordinary Share to raise approximately $2.57 billion. (2008). Perth, W.A.: Wesfarmers. Prus, R. (2004). Gambling as activity: Subcultural life-worlds, personal intrigues and persistent involvements 1.  Journal of Gambling Issues, 10. Revenue. (2005). Kuala Lumpur: Lembaga Piawaian Perakaunan Malaysia. Saharjo, B., Sudo, S., Yonemura, S. and Tsuruta, H. (2006). Greenhouse gasses produced during burning in the land preparation area using fire in peat area belong to the community.  Forest Ecology and Management, 234, p.S247. Sinapuelas, I. and Robinson, W. (2008). Entry for supermarket feature me-too brands: An empirical explanation of incidence and timing.  Marketing Letters, 20(2), pp.183-196. Supply chain technologies – at Woolworths. (2003).  Work Study, 52(1).

Transaction Security in E-commerce Research Paper

Transaction Security in E-commerce - Research Paper Example This research will begin with the statement that E-commerce refers to the business deals between organizations and individuals carried out through the digital technologies. Normally, it is acknowledged as the Internet-based electronic commerce. According to this scenario, e-commerce offers numerous benefits for businesses to carry out business activities on the Internet. E-commerce has been offering to the worldwide economy very much, all through the past decade, as more companies and corporate owners and entrepreneurs have started building their own web based Business Empire. In view of the fact that the Internet carries on to grow, and more and more people began to utilize the Internet for a wide variety of reasons, thus, businesses in all the industries are starting to compete extensively for clients on the World-Wide-Web. In addition, it forms a situation where hundreds and thousands of web based transactions happen on a daily basis, with millions of dollars being spent in online transactions. According to this scenario, the majority of people do not understand that the job of protecting similar business transactions is completely up to the web hosting supplier, who is actually responsible for making use of the suitable applications, implementing safety and security measures, and technological advancements to ensure security of customers’ financial particulars of their customers. At the present, the majority of business organizations are largely making use of the Internet for communicating and establishing profitable relationships with their customers to entertain them with their products and value added services. With the advancement in information and communication technologies, electronic commerce has emerged to provide the customers with the services to perform the transactions from any location over the internet. In the same way, electronic banking provides its customers with 24-hour access to cash through an automated teller machine (ATM) or a direct deposit of paychecks into the checking or savings accounts (Biswas, Taleb and Shinwary; Turban, Leidner and McLean; Pourshahid and Tran). This paper will discuss some of the important aspects that are associated with â€Å"transaction security in e-commerce†. According to this scenario, this paper will address some of the important security issues that can emerge during online transactions (e-commerce transactions). This paper will outline some of the main security vulnerabilities regarding those security areas and aspects. Security Specification in Web Service These days, the most authorized and wide-ranging web service security principles and standard for the (Web Services Security) are based on WS-Security guidelines that were published by IBM in cooperation with Microsoft and Verisign. Basically, the security of web based services and business transaction is based on these principles and it as well puts together the frequently established security models, methods a nd technical supports. According to this scenario, the basic purpose of implementing web services security is to ensure the confidentiality and reliability of the data processing through application programs as well as to recommend the expansion and message header of the SOAP. In addition, the Web Services Security unites a wide variety of security configurations, models and methods. It is one of the service oriented standard conditions. Some system is capable to make sure to be equally compatible with others throughout the platform and the technique autonomous of language (Farshchi, Gharib and Ziyaee; Whitman and Mattord). Client-side Security Issues Client-side security has always been one of the major issues from users’ point of view. Generally, client-side security necessitates utilization of customary computer security technologies, like that suitable user authorization and authentication, anti-virus and access control

The benefits of starting a greenfield investment for pharmaceutical Essay

The benefits of starting a greenfield investment for pharmaceutical packaging firms undertaking foreign direct investments - Essay Example and the market, which was worth $ 219.9 billion in 2012 is forecast to reach $ 374.8 billion by 2018, indicating a compounded annual growth rate of 9.1 percent (Freedonia 32-303; Markets And Markets 21-78; TLL Media) Local pharmaceutical manufacturers supply 50 percent of the requirement, and imports meet the other demand. The per capita expenditure on drugs is 130 Euros, in comparison of 300 Euros for western European regions Segmentation is also seen in the types of containers such as vials, ampoules, inhalers, powders, tubes, special closers and dispensers, caps, tamper proof caps, etc., and in the packaging process, types of drugs packed, and other factors. Pharmaceutical firms give importance to the quality and integrity of the packaging firm, dispensing errors and dosing, and the industry is very price sensitive. Hence, the packaging firms need to control cost, and maintain very strict control over the dosing and dispensing in each pack. The PESTLE analysis is used to analyse the external environmental forces that impact an industry. The forces analysed are political, economic, social, technology, legal, and environmental (Williamson, et al, 3-4). In this section, the PESTLE analysis is applied for the pharmaceutical packaging industry in Serbia. Since the past five years, Serbia has received more than $ 16 billion FDI. Various taxes such as Salary tax at 12%; corporate income tax rate at 10%, Property tax 0.4%, VAT 18% is the lowest in the region. Many foreign firms such as Fiat, US Steel, Lafarge, Coca Cola, Microsoft, Siemens, Nestle, and others have set up manufacturing plants and FDI inflows in 2013 stood at $ 3.01 billion. About 97 percent of western investors look at Serbia as the favoured destination for FDI. People are well educated, with a large number of schools and colleges offering high quality education. The brain drain, when thousands of talented Serbian graduates migrated to other European countries has reduced This section provides a

Controversial issues in education Literature review

Controversial issues in education - Literature review Example This group thinks that spiritual and ethical teachings play a significant role in schooling as it is contributing to the behavior of students in a positive way. The prayers and belief can help them in different stages of lives and therefore there is a need of religious motivation in our students. The other group of people who are not supporting prayers in schools think that organizing prayers that are against the children’s religious belief and can create confusion in the children’s mind about their religious beliefs, and therefore to avoid such matters prayers should be kept away from the public schools. According to a law in US, organizing prayers in school is considered illegal. Another controversial issue is whether sexual education should be a part of educational curriculum or not. This is the most challenging issue faced by different educational institutions around the globe. I think that the children should be given proper sexual education by their schools so that they can make accountable and decent decisions. However some people think that this knowledge should be provided by their parents, but in most cases parents are not comfortable while sharing this information with their children. By providing the children with sexual information they can deal with the stresses related to different sexual activities and can make responsible decisions. Therefore sexual education is made a necessary part of our education system to avoid young pregnancies and sexually transmitted diseases (Curtis, 2008). Another important issue related to education is whether uniform should be mandatory in schools. According to a research, uniforms should be mandatory for all the students as it represents the school’s image and esteem. The school uniform eliminates the gap between financially advantaged and disadvantaged students and it has been reported that 65% students

Digital Marketing Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Digital Marketing - Assignment Example Radio advertisement has two advantages. One is that the turnaround time on getting an advertisement on air is exceptionally short (Buckingham, 2008). A basic time period of a radio advertisement is three weeks generation and two weeks to create an aggregate media purchase. This is to process an advertisement of solid quality and to purchase noteworthy broadcast appointment. Little organizations can frequently transform and put on notice in simply a couple of days. Both the Capital FM and Magic FM could be moderate enough to permit redundancy of Gap 360 offer. Capital FM and Magic FM are selected accurately due to their demographics which is Manchester and home in target group which are adults within the age 18 to 35 years. You can select a station pretty correctly by its demographics and home in on your intended interest group. Commercial processing expenses are low. Its a prompt medium along these lines works well for advertising occasions, for example, an uncommon deal, on the day. By taking into consideration of the daily papers audience figures and demographics the Manchester, Metro and Guardian papers were picked. The higher the number of audience of a newspaper in given location of interest should be considered. Production expenses might be low however one requires a smarts design that can attract and hold attention of the intended target. In case of Manchester evening news: the circulation, reach, and cost of promotion are higher compared with Metro. From the table 2 we can deduce that the rate of response in the same for both local and national press. At the point when considering the types of advertisement, two elements to keep in mind are frequency and reach. Gap 360 needs advertisement that will reach the maximum possible number of individuals, and also want individuals to see their advertisement often with the goal that they remember Gap 360 and its product. The newspaper ads will enable Gap 360 to advertise to certain