Thursday, January 30, 2020
Impact of Wikileaks on the Global Political and Economic Landscape Essay Example for Free
Impact of Wikileaks on the Global Political and Economic Landscape Essay Introduction WikiLeaks website has changed the profession of journalism in the United States and the media perspective with its flow in the information society. The website is a platform that helps unmask all the corruption activities going on in the government offices. Of all the media platforms WikiLeaks is the most famous for the news updates on political matters happening in the states and around the globe. Wilileaks has contributed to several media conflicts especially between the United States and other nations and that is why the government does not support its activities at all. In my essay, I am going to explore the various ways in which WikiLeaks has helped unmask several criminal and corruption activities going on in the country. Although some of its news are a bit compromising to the security and dignity of the nation the platform has given light to the people of the United States of America. Wikileaks is a non-profitable and non-commercial internet platform that was introduced in 2006 by Julia Assage. It relies on online donation for all its functioning and funding. Its main purpose is to upload documents that help expose the government and corporate institutions to the public. These documents are uploaded anonymously by using an online submission form. The importance of this platform is that it has the potential to make known the scale of brutality and violence especially in the military welfare. Political honesty is a virtue that every U S politician should exercise and with the help of Wikileaks they have no option but observe it. In other words, a journalist platform watchdog makes secrets transparent to all and especially those involving the public. Most media organization has tried to view groups like WikiLeaks in several dimensions with most of them considering its concrete actions as one of the online activism and the impacts of its actions. It is important to first note the relationship between the two groups, media and government. In most incidences the media always seems to be conflicting with the government over issues regarding the people. Platforms like WikiLeaks are great threat to the state government especially in issues of corruption and law (Shirky, 2011, p.41). Through their online activism, Anonymous and WikiLeaks groups have their power to â€Å"unmask†power structures like the corrupt police departments in the US, and all the Armison brutality activities. While WikiLeaks has gained fame as a whistle blowing site since its introduction in 2006, its reputation increased when it released the so-called Iraq and Afghanistan war document in 2010. This document contained crucial and important information about the events that took place and the people and nations responsible for the war. The United States government was not happy with the release of these documents as they posed great danger of terror attacks by either Iraq or Afghanistan. These two countries are known for their fierce terrorism activities and interfering with them would be like provoking them. The release of these documents brought about a number of questions concerning the legal implication of journalism freedom with top government officials claiming that too much freedom will lead to misuse of information or misinterpretation of some crucial and sensitive information (Springer, 2014, p.411).Actions of WikiLeaks have affected the media platform in various concrete ways. The likes of Tambini and Lynch have tried to investigate the implication of WikiLeaks work and the measures to regulate the censorship of related sites especially in the UK and US. They argue that whistle blowing organizations should be awarded protection under the law on their ability to â€Å"self-regulate†and â€Å"develop†ethical principles to govern their freedom of publication and decisions they make on their work. The platform poses a great threat to the government and politicians and there are fears that if allowed to continue with its activities it will cause a lot of harm to the U S government by exposing sensitive government secrets to the world. Other nations also feel that WikiLeaks should be restricted on some publications because some of the information it exposes might cause a lot of friction especially between nations. The advancement of WikiLeaks since its establishment up to the publication of the Iraq and Afghanistan document was marked by a degree of media fascination, which made it gain a lot of fame compared to other media platforms. This posed a great threat to the media personalities who felt that WikiLeaks was gaining fame with each passing day making their work very difficult to appeal their audience. Its turnaround moment came in 2010 and continued to 2011 when the organization produced a lot of materials and documents regarding the Iraq war, the Collateral Murder Video and the diplomatic cable. There have been several attempts by media organizations to look down on the role of cites like WikiLeaks and deny them the freedom to post confidential documents although these attempts have not succeeded because the platform is under the media authority which protects all its activities. It also describes itself as a watchdog for the people â€Å"we believe that it is not only the people of the United States who should keep their government honest but also people from other countries†and that is why other countries are also opposing Wikileaks activities. (Pozen, 2013, p.635). We can say that wikiLeaks has played a great role in ensuring that congress does not abuse the powers granted to it and its members. He makes information about organizations that abuse powers granted to them available to the public and so they are aware of what their leaders do this makes leaders very keen on what they do. Anonymous submission of analyzed documents about the various activities going on in public offices and organizations are presented on the WikiLeaks website enabling millions of viewers to have knowledge of what is happening behind the curtains of power. The difference between WikiLeaks and other sites like Wikipedia is that it engages mostly in the political struggles. The use of media has become a trend in the United States making the latter transparent and exposing those who try to abuse office powers granted to them. Today we live in a world where technology is the main aspect to shaping the lives of many people. The internet is now being used as an eye of power to tackle various aspects of crimes performed by leaders especially in third world countries (Coleman, 2014, p.406). Based on various aspects of tradition we can define power as the â€Å"disposition over the means required to influence various processes and decisions in our daily lives.†this means that the power to control several issues like political influences and distribution of resources can be distributed in a more systematic way. Democracy is the only way to ensure there is equal distribution and exercise of both political and cultural powers. Organizations like WikiLeaks exist because we live in an era where political and cultural powers are not exercised fairly as expected. Any government that exercises its powers as expected should not have any worries about organizations set to scan their activities. They should instead be supporting such groups so that they can display their good work on these sites. The United States government highly opposes such organizations like Wikileaks because they are afraid that their dirty linens will be exposed to the public. Analysis shows that the most important element of WikiLeaks is to make the Obama government practice transparency in their works and offices, establish a more transparent, and open government. The platform defines itself as a liberal project that protects the rights of the United States people especially freedom of speech because it strengthens democracy by exposing government corruption. He places his emphasis on documenting government and corporate irresponsibility and abuse of powers. This shows the general public that the corrupt government is the main problem in the world’s economy and is pulling development behind. Instead of improving the livelihood of their nations politicians are busy engaging themselves embezzling funds and resources meant to improve the development of their citizens. There has been an emerging body geared at seeking a framework to examine the works of WikiLeaks and its impact on the current situation in the U S. The widespread use of technology has made his work a success in various ways and has brought a great impact to the world’s economy. Following the publication of the Iraq documents the United States government heavily criticized WikiLeaks work. The government claimed that these documents were a great threat to the security of their country and could put the citizens at a very high risk of terror attacks by the Afghanistan government (Springer, 2014, p.411). The truth about the WikiLeaks documents is that they got the potential and ability to make visible the amount of brutality and violence especially in military horror conflicts during their activities because some use a lot of brutality on their subjects. The site is political based since most of its news come from the political arena, although many view it as a threat to ruling groups and they see it as an enemy. Instead criticizing such cites we should base our efforts in monitoring the governance offered by our political leaders. We should ask ourselves are our political leaders meeting all our demands and expectations. Do they take advantage of the powers granted to them to abuse office? In fact, we should ensure that we capture every activity they undertake so that we can be sure of what they do with our money. They should be aware that the public is watching their every move and be conscious of their actions. There has been a problem with scientists arguing that the journalism powers and freedom granted to these sites are too much and they are using them inappropriately to create biased information. Most leaders are unable to verify the facts stated in the articles because they do not have a strong background. This makes the general public doubt their potential and innocence in the accused incidents. Some of these articles have very confidential information about the government and exposing them is like displaying the secrets of a state. The scientist claims that there should be a certain limit to the freedom of publication of such documents to the internet because they may cause a great damage in future (Gibson 2013, p. 314). In my study, I have explored several things and have learnt that; journalism benefits from a disclosure of the framework in which it is built. A journalism model is bound to directly or in directly affects the model in which leaking of important documents will be exposed to the public. In my opinion, WikiLeaks models are the most effective journalism models since they abide to the entire ethic. Real life cases are always the best examples to handle and solve situations and that is why it is advisable in some situations to leave behind the easy scenarios to get the best outcome to fit in the world. Most critiques of Wikileaks have released their anger by claiming that exposing secret documents will pose great danger to Americans. For instance, if you expose concrete information about a certain terror group the group is bound to take revenge on you by conducting a terror attack on you. Some of the publishers do not look at the possibilities of posing danger to the people but stick to the fact that the public has the right to know what is happening around them regardless of the intensity of the matter. It is therefore advisable that these journalists are cautious of what they publish to the public to avoid any conflicts. I believe that journalists have the right to publish what they want and help the public know about their government on the basis that they abide by the rules put in place to govern their publications. References Curran, G, Gibson, M 2013, WikiLeaks, Anarchism and Technologies of Dissent, Antipode,           45, 2, pp.      294-314, Academic Search Premier, EBSCOhost, viewed 28 November  2014. Springer, S, Chi, H, Crampton, J, McConnell, F, Cupples, J, Glynn, K, Warf, B, Attewell, W           2012, Leaky            Geopolitics: The Ruptures and Transgressions of WikiLeaks, Geopolitics,           17, 3, pp. 681-711,  Academic Search Premier, EBSCOhost, viewed 28 November     2014. Youngblood Coleman, D 2014, United States: 2014 Country Review, United States Country Review, pp.            1-981, Business Source Complete, EBSCOhost, viewed 28 November    2014. Coleman, DY 2014, Afghanistan, Afghanistan Country Review, pp. 2-406, Business Source   Complete,            EBSCOhost, viewed 28 November 2014. Pozen, DE 2013, The Leaky Leviathan: Why The Government Condemns         And Condones            Unlawful Disclosures Of Information, Harvard     Law Review, 127, 2, pp. 512-635,            Academic Search Premier, EBSCOhost, viewed 28           November 2014. Shirky, C 2011, The Political Power of Social Media, Foreign Affairs, 90, 1, pp. 28-41,           Academic Search            Premier, EBSCOhost, viewed 28 November 2014.
Wednesday, January 22, 2020
Leadership Essay -- Leading Leader Essays
Leadership      This short paper is about leadership and management. The initial part of this paper will explore the qualities of leadership and its affect on project management. The next section will investigate some of the CEO’s management styles and their comparable success rates within industry. The reflection of project management’s code of ethics affect on leadership in general concludes the research presentation. The writer concludes with his own summation of leadership. Leadership Effective leaders are rare. They are created through the trials and tribulations of managing or working with people in a variety of settings. Most good leaders have had their fair share of hard knocks that awakened them to the greater potential within their scope of influence. Effective leaders are excellent communicators, able to speak the many languages of the individuals within the groups they lead. Oftentimes the individual perspectives may appear different simply from the type of language they use. A good leader pays attention to the facts and then makes decisions based on objective analysis of those facts. Effective leaders naturally motive people from their actions, which include showing respect, listening, reflecting, and negotiating through conflict. Leaders encourage and empower people to achieve success rather than place blame. Leaders have solid vision and unshakeable persistence in achieving a goal. Their efforts are empowered by their ability to manage and organize both activities and time in their busy schedules.      A good leader is courageous, able to make decisions without hesitation, and maintains integrity of word and deed. Dependability is also a key trait for a leader must always be there for their group. Sound judgment and sensibility are also features of a leader, with loyalty, enthusiasm, endurance, and initiative rounding out the ever expanding list. These characteristics manifest in a variety of presentations and situations, especially for project managers in process. Project Manager Effectiveness      Project managers are leaders of small and large groups destined to complete a strategic project plan. Leadership characteristics described above can make or break a team. In all successful project fulfillments, it is the leadership of the project manager that determines the type of success for the project’s members. The most... ...e attitude of project management reflects this change. The qualities of leadership and project management demonstrate the symbiosis of creating results in life or in industry. There is little difference between the two in our evolving society. Conclusion      It can be said that a good man is worth his weight in gold. This writer proposes that a true leader is priceless. Demonstrating the qualities of leadership not only wins friends and influences people; it sets the standard of behavior within an organization. The writer’s perspective of a true leader is one who leads people through using charisma, tact and skill, with concern for the rights and privileges of others, and cares for the positive impact on people and planet within the scope of their leadership and beyond. References Csikszentmihalyi, Mihaly (1990). Flow – The Psychology of Optimal Experience, New York, NY: Harper and Row Publishing. Gray, Clifford F.; Larson, Erik W., Project Management – The Managerial Process, Copyright  © 2001 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. Tart, Dr. Charles (1986), Waking Up – Overcoming the Obstacles to Human Potential, Copyright  © 1986 by The Institute of Noetic Sciences
Tuesday, January 14, 2020
Financial Management Essay
Part A There are three main areas of decision making for the corporate financial manager: Investment: The choice of projects or assets in which to invest company funds. Competing alternatives have to be assessed using a number of techniques. This type of decision will also be of concern to the private individual when making choices about which shares to buy. Finance: How these investments should be financed. It is necessary to evaluate the possible sources, external and internal, and the effect they will have on the capital structure of the company. Dividend: Whether corporate earnings should be retained or paid out in the form of dividends, and if the latter, when the dividends should be paid. Otherwise, we will cover the risk management as well as the management of a company’s assets and liabilities in its working capital cycle. Assets must be managed effectively so that they generate income and profits, and so that funds are available to pay creditors and take up opportunities for investment. In summary ,therefore, we can say that financial management involves the following areas as investment decisions, funding decisions, including the capital structure of the company, dividend decisions, risk management. This implies that dividend payments and gains made when selling a shareholding are better indicators of shareholder wealth than profits. However, if the dividend payments are not consistent over a period of time, this will not increase confidence in the company shares, and their market price will reflect the variability of dividend payments. When the shareholder sells their investment, they may lose money. The prime objective of the company therefore needs to be adjusted slightly to the maximization of long-term shareholder wealth. This will be indicated by maximisation of dividends over time and reflected in the market value of the ordinary shares. If the share price reflects shareholder wealth, then we can say that any financial decision taken to increase the value of shares will be a decision that maximises shareholder wealth, and will be in keeping with the prime objective of the company, such a decision can involve are using appraisal techniques to assess investment projects and sourcing funding to provide for the company the most appropriate capital structure that can be serviced from available funds and paying dividends that the company can afford, while leaving sufficient retained earnings for investment and managing the risks associated with these decisions. This may leave you with the impression that the managers of a company will carry out its day to day functions efficiently and effectively on behalf of the owners, always asking themselves about the result of the decision maximise shareholder wealth, this is a realistic view because of the tension between ownership and control of company. That is limitations of shareholder wealth maximisation as concern to agency theory. Agency theory is based in the separation of ownership and control that distinguishes the limited liability company from the other two business entities of the sole trader and the partnership. The relationship between shareholders and management is the principal agent relationship, and has given reis to agency theory. Where an agent was defined as a person used to effect a contract between their principal and a third party. The agency problem is that managers may not always act in the best interest of the shareholders, to maximise the latter’s wealth. Offering incentives, such as share options, to managers may reduce this problem. Solving the agency problem When the agency problem exits, therefore, when managers or directors do not act in the best interest of the shareholders to maxmise the latter’s wealth. Management goals could include increasing their rewards. It was suggested in an earlier activity that two ways to ensure that management act in shareholders interests are to vote unacceptable directors off the board, or to offer share options. Shareholder could monitor the actions of managers using independently audited accounts, backed up by additional reporting requirements and external analysts. The managers may not act in the best interest of the shareholders, so they may be offering other such as share options. However, the share options also have some things to consider as the advantages is encourage managers to maximise shareholder wealth since the option may result in their being able to sell shares at a higher price. But the disadvantages is the price of shares is influenced by some factors outside the control of management, so the benefits may accrue despite management actions. Managers may also change accounting polices to improve the performance of the company and influence the share price deliberately. Otherwise, Capital structure refers to the way an entity finances its assets through a combination of equity and debt. An entity’s capital structure is then the composition or structure of its liabilities. Capital structure ratios show an entity’s capital structure and measure its ability to meet its long term obligations. If the entity appears unable to meet its long term obligations, it will be in serious danger of collapse or takeover. Further, long term financial position depends much on an entity’s profitability since, in the long run, the entity will not be able to repay its debts unless it is profitable. The capital gearing ratio is a measure of the financial risk of an entity because of the prior claim that debt capital has on the profits and assets of the entity in the event of liquidation. Also, if the profits are low, the entity may not have sufficient funds available to make dividend payments to the ordinary shareholders. Capital gearing ratio: (preference shares + long term loans) / (shareholder’s funds + long term loans) X 100 The difficulty is the inclusion of preference shares, since they take many different forms. If a company’s preference shares are of the standard type, that is, having no voting rights and conveying nothing but the right to a fixed rate of dividend, they should be included as debt funding. The higher the percentage, the higher the level of gearing. It is advisable to include short term debt such as overdraft if it is used to fund long term investments and is not, therefore, of a temporary nature and bears a financial risk. A highly geared company may also experience difficulties in attracting funds from investors, who are not attracted by the risks involved in a high geared company. In this event, the market price of the company’s shares will fall. The more debt, the more risk for ordinary shareholders and ultimately for everyone, if the company faces liquidation. However, the more debt, the lower the WACC because debt is cheaper than equity. At very high levels of debt, however, the WACC will rise because of the higher levels of risk involved. Reference: Notes of the University of Sunderland APC308 Financial Management Conclusion The areas of corporate financial management are the decisions concerning investment, funding, dividend and working capital. And the company will use the gearing ratio to express the debt funding as a percentage of the total funding, because the high gearing ratio also brings problems associated with the interest rates and the main objective in financial management is the maximisation of long term shareholder wealth that is the market value of the ordinary shares, because it is related to the how many dividends will pay to shareholders. However, the agency problem is a main problem on the managers may not act in the best interest of the shareholders, so they may be offering other such as share options. Part B In Part A, i have explored two of three main areas of decision making for corporate financial managers: the investment decision (NPV) and the finance, or funding, decision. In this part i am concerned with the third area, the dividend decision. The basis for the discussion in this part is the need for dividend policy and the relevance of dividend policies to investors. NPV is a net present value is the present value of the future recipts from a project less any investment made in the project. Modigliani and Miller’s theory: dividends are irrelevant but almost is not quite. MM’s theory of dividend irrelevancy refers not to the payment of the dividends but to the timing of their payment. According to MM, if a company has an investment opportunity giving a positive NPV, it should be taken up using retained earnings rather than paying out a dividend. The company’s value will go up, since share value is a function of the level of earnings, which reflect a company’s investment policy, rather than a function of dividend payments. Similarly, in their theory of dividend irrelevancy they say that shareholders can create their own dividend, if they want to, by selling some of their theory of dividend, if they want to, by selling some of their shares. In a perfect market, shareholders can create a dividend stream to suit themselves, so it works in reverse too: if the company does pay a dividend and the shareholder does not want one, they can reinvest by buying more shares. Otherwise, MM’s view is that it is not the company but the individual shareholder who should decide dividend policy. Therefore, there is no such thing as an optimal dividend policy for a company, only an optimal investment policy. This would be a policy of investing in all projects with a positive NPV. In a perfect capital market, a company with insufficient internal funds could raise the funds required for investment externally. If a company had surplus internal funds, there could be distributed as dividends.
Sunday, January 5, 2020
The Priorities Of The United States Public Policy Making...
The top priorities in the United States’ public policy making process continue to be protection from terrorism, a stronger economy, and the creation of more jobs (Pew Research Center, 2015). However, with a growing concern for public health and safety due to environmental issues, perhaps our policy makers should address the issues we face daily while living in our communities. The environmental issues extend beyond unhealthy, and risky conditions due to waste management and unsustainable lifestyles. The environmental issues we face are dispersed unevenly in communities, especially in urban areas among minorities. The unequitable dispersal of environmental hazards, transforms a physical resource problem into one of social justice and political decisions. David Pellow addresses this issue in his book, Garbage Wars, by providing a history of movements, technology, politics, waste management and waste conflicts in the US to create an understanding of how inequalities emerge and pe rsist. 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