Habeas Corpus and the War on Terror Essay

The law of Habeas Corpus was created to permit the guilty to present their case in court and to be tried fairly. In today’s war on terror, the amount of such enemy combatants who were detained indefinitely without any trial has raised. The courts are split up on following the law by the letter or to practically change it according to the situation’s needs. I feel it’s necessary to follow these laws in the same context in which they were written, and the pragmatic approach leaves room for reckless changes. To deny an enemy combatant his or her day in court cannot be justified as taking the pragmatic approach in dealing with war criminals. This paper is an attempt to present the state of law today towards war criminals and the implications of denying the basic right of Habeas Corpus to suspected terrorists. Ever since the onset of civilization, arguments have routinely erupted between various members, families, factions, and groups within civilizations and between civilizations. In ancient times, arguments would be resolved by crude means, means not limited to the powerful person using brute force to show he was in the right. The stronger person would always have, say for example, the first right to food, to agricultural produce, cattle and to wealth etc. The weak wouldn’t dare pick an argument over the stronger person in fear for their life. But as civilizations grew and advanced over time, a code of ethics and laws began to form. Societies began to incorporate and adapt these laws in their daily functioning. Drawing inspiration from religion, past civilization practices and their mistakes, it was only natural that basic human rights were thought about and codified. The rights were guaranteed to all human beings, irrespective of who was physically stronger. The American Revolution has beyond doubt shaped the basic structure of human rights for the entire world to follow. Among many undeniable rights to citizens, the writ of Habeas Corpus was identified and established very early on in the Revolution. In Europe, the writ of Habeas Corpus was first traced to be used around the 12th and 13th centuries during the medieval period. Habeas Corpus translates from Latin to mean â€Å"you may have the body† or you may examine the body. It is essentially a writ that requires any person detained by law enforcers to be tried in a court of law and have his detention validated (Bbc. com, 2005). The writ doesn’t decide whether the accused is guilty or not, it merely stipulates that the accused be tried and detained if only found guilty of the crime being accused for. The US inherited this law from the English and codified it in the constitution in Article 1, section 9. The UN later incorporated it in their international human rights in 1952. The point of contention with the habeas corpus right is to whom it applies. The law stipulates that this right be never be suspended or denied except in cases of rebellion, invasion or when perceived as a threat to public safety. Surprisingly, this writ has been previously suspended twice in the past for seemingly similar reasons. President Lincoln suspended the writ in 1861 to prosecute the war prisoners captured during the American Civil war. His argument was that the confederates were a threat to the union and hence issued the order (Dueholm, 2008). This law was later restored after the war ended in 1866. President Bush in 2006 issued a similar suspension of the habeas corpus writ to detain enemy combatants captured in the global war against terror. It deemed these accused terrorists as a threat to national security and denied them the right to be presented and tried in court. This paper will focus on the consequences faced by the accused and the validity of enforcing such a suspension. Just suspending the writ wouldn’t seem very harmful when looked at by itself. But consider for a moment who the government arrests. American policy makers routinely count any military age males as enemy combatants. Drone strikes assume anyone in the vicinity of a drone strike of military age to be a enemy combatant first and then when sufficient intelligence is available to the contrary, they are posthumously declared civilians (Balko, 2012). In a likewise fashion, arrests were also made based on the very broad physical description of an age group, or depending on where they are and who they interact with, were picked up after being accused of terrorism. Next, consider the location of their detention. Accused terrorists were detained at prison, run by US military personnel backed by US administration; set up in a foreign land i. . Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. The single reason for maintaining such an institution away from US soil was to escape the jurisdiction of laws that govern detainees which would apply if held on US soil. Laws of detention stipulate not only the kind of treatment but also the punishment meted out to convicted terrorists. The captors were free to torture their captives in any way they saw fit to gather any amount of relevant information, regardless of whether the person accused is an actual terrorist holding any real information to share. Terms such as enhanced interrogation techniques had to be invented to pass them as legal and humane methods in congress. Add to this polarized scenario, the suspension of the one single law that could serve as the difference between life and death of an innocent civilian – the suspension of the writ of habeas corpus. The suspension took away with it the only chance an innocent civilian had to prove his innocence. In short, simply standing at the wrong place at the wrong time can get you to serve a lifetime of torture with not even a hint of a fair trial. Naturally, concern about the handling of such detainees grew and petitions filed by family and friends of detainees finally began to reach the courts. The Supreme Court finally in a landmark case of Boumediene v. Bush ruled against the suspension of habeas corpus for the detainees with a 5-4 majority. It declared that the suspension of the writ was indeed unconstitutional. Justice Kennedy who ruled with the majority supported his stand with examples from the history of the writ back in the 12th century and its recent applicability in territories outside the border of US but still falling in its control, such as Chanel Islands. His summary also compared the legality of this writ in Scotland, which is a sovereign nation and yet still under English laws. Once US jurisdiction was proved, Justice Scoter, Ginsburg and Bryer pointed out that it would have to be one that was based on the constitution or no jurisdiction at all. Justice Scalia argued that the habeas corpus law was in fact protected by the Detainee Treatment Act, and refuted the entire judicial intervention. He was supported by Chief Justice Roberts and Justices Alito and Thomas. The Justices did a fine job of evaluating the suspension of the writ. From establishing jurisdiction and what kind of jurisdiction, to an alternate mechanism to protect the habeas corpus in spirit, all avenues were thoroughly investigated. The courts also recognized the extremely difficult nature of assessing an individual in a warzone to be a combatant or a civilian in a foreign location. And yet, the writ cannot be suspended out of fear of failure in acquiring adequate proof against the detainee. Personally, I feel strongly that the writ of habeas corpus is a right so basic that it cannot be suspended in any scenario. The very least an accuser can do is to offer a fair trial to the accused. I feel that the President was wrong to remove the last ray of hope of an innocent civilian that might have been unfairly detained. The case also established the judicial soundness of our nation even at times of war, and the entire exercise in judiciary coming in between the functioning of Congress was an example to the world. Denying such a basic right makes us no different than the terrorists who accuse and punish others that broadly fit their own enemy description. Living as a part of a civilized nation for over 200 years, we owe it to ourselves to act in a dignified manner, even with our captives.

Human Goodness & Beauty Essay

You ever wonder why people can be so harsh but yet still do good things for people? Do things they wouldn’t normally do that’s nice, but they did it anyways or are not suppose to do? The Book Thief is a book that describes lots of this and this paper will explain the main theme of the book. The Book Thief’s main theme is Human Goodness and Beauty because the book has lots of goodness in people, people looking out for one another, and bring each other joy through actions or words. With people showing Human Goodness they do good deeds to help other people or animals. This can go from helping a dog stuck in a fence to a person in a car accident. Even a guy/girl that is a real pain all the time will help someone that is in danger because they don’t wanna be the witness of a death or something/someone being hurt. Say for example that someone doesn’t have anything to do, and a person talks with that person finds something to give them to do they will usually grab it for them shown here, â€Å"the weekly edition of the Molching Express, she lifted it out took home, presenting it to Max,† (Zuzak 221). This shows the expression by someone getting someone something for another person that they don’t normally have and giving it to them. Most of the time they will be happy for you doing this. In the world there is good/bad people but that doesn’t matter because they will still do something good for someone eventually no matter what it is. In the book Rosa Hubermann is a good example of this, â€Å"Rosa Hubermann, brown hair, in a bun, atrocious cooking, washes clothing for the rich, and hard headed but soft hearted women,† (Zusak 34). This quote shows that even though Rosa is a mean person, she is still nice to people at times. So Even a bad person will look out for a good person at times as well. For example they will save someone in a life or death situation because they are a nice person and don’t care if that person is mean, they are saving someones life and inturn thats what matters to them. Also people can bring other people joy through actions or words by, saying something that is really nice, or helping someone out that might be in the  need of it, but doesn’t ask. Even just doing a simple action that someone is not expecting can make them feel happy and overjoyed. â€Å"The Jew stood before him, expecting another handful of derision, but he watched with everyone else as Hans Hubermann held his hand out and presented a piece of bread, like magic,† (Zusak 394). This action of Hans shows that certain small things can bring people joy and peace. His action showed that small things can bring people joy because the jew was never expecting this, but the jew took it joyfully and thanked him for the bread. Not only does this show kindness but also shows that good people will sometimes not care what other people think and do what feels right. In conclusion, The Book Thief’s main theme is Human Goodness and Beauty because the book has lots of goodness in people, people looking out for one another, and bring each other joy through actions or words. Like lots of people have done and said it doesn’t madder if you’re nice or mean everybody will help someone, somewhere, and at sometime in life no matter how old or young you are. The body was created for many purposes and one of those purposes is helping another human being no matter the situation, or if its words or actions they are helping with.

How Can Resourcing and Development Add Value in the Modern Workplace Essay

According to Ann Marie E. McSwain, Assistant Professor at Lincoln University, â€Å"leadership is about capacity: the capacity of leaders to listen and observe, to use their expertise as a starting point to encourage dialogue between all levels of decision-making, to establish processes and transparency in decision-making, to articulate their own value and visions clearly but not impose them. Leadership is about setting and not just reacting to agendas, identifying problems, and initiating change that makes for substantial improvement rather than managing change. In the modern workplace, a good leader can lead the team to success and vice versa. The importance of a good leader in an organization cannot be doubted. However, one of the most challenging issues in the modern workplace is keeping talents. Talents or leaders may leave the organization for better offer or higher rate of pay. If no successor to drive it once the leader or key person leaves, the organization may get into troubles. In order to maintain the morale and loyalty for the other employees, another good, competent with respect of others should be appointed as leader. Other than leaders, junior grading employee should also be prepared to develop their career to some senior positions. This can explain why a career management (include succession plan for experienced staff) is so essential in an organization as a way of people sourcing. Career management is the combination of structured planning and the management choice for one’s own professional career. It is a process for employees to become aware of their interests, values, strengths and weaknesses, to get information about job opportunities within the organization, helps to identify the career goals, establish an action plan to achieve the career goals. Succession plan is a process to identify and develop internal potential employee to fill up the key or critical organizational positions. The main purpose of succession plan is to ensure the availability of competent, capable and experienced employee to prepare to be appointed to those positions when they become vacant. Succession planning meaning that prepare the experienced employees to undertake some key roles, focus on leadership continuity and sharing knowledge, provide a more effective and efficient monitoring and tracking of employees’ proficiency levels and the skill gaps and counter the increasing difficulty of recruiting talents externally. Succession plan is a very important and necessary part of an organization to reduce risk, create a proven leadership model, increase employees’ working morale and help the business to run smooth continuity and expand. Both people sourcing way are aids to develop talent and long-term growth, improve the capabilities and overall performance of workforce, create employee retention, meet the career development requirement of existing employee and improve support to employees throughout their employment. Career management is important in the eye of the organization and the employee. From the organization’s view, the failure to motivate their employees to plan for their career may result in shortage of employees to fill up the vacant, lower the employees’ commitment and inappropriate use of money which allocated for the training and development programs. From the employee’s view, lacking of career management may result in frustration, having a feeling that they are not value in the organization and unable to find some other suitable employment when the job nature changed, no matter due to mergers, acquisitions, restructuring or downsizing. The outcome for a successful career management includes employees’ personal fulfillment, goals achievement and a newly promotional theme in the modern workplace which is work-life balance. Different practices of people sourcing method can be used in different size of an organization. Entrepreneurship, partnership and limited company are some practices of forming an organization. Entrepreneurship means the one who undertakes innovations, finance and business acumen in an effort to transform innovations into economic goods. The most obvious formation of entrepreneurship is to start a new business. Entrepreneurship means that the business is run by an owner which call entrepreneur. Partnership is similar to entrepreneurship other than the organization is managed by at least two or above owners. Limited company means it is an organization which shareholders whose liability is limited by shares. Entrepreneurship is usually some small business and has fewer employees than limited organization which runs large business. If the business runs smooth and expand, entrepreneurship can turn into a limited organization. After choosing the right method of people sourcing within an organization, the organization can benefit from different kinds of advantages. With the right practice of people sourcing method in the right size of organization, the organization will be added value. Add value† can mean contributing directly to organization goals and deliver business objectives. Every organization has its goal and objective because these goals and objective can help the organization to define business and drive itself to success. Since the organization’s goal and objective are uses to lead itself to success, all the policies and procedures should follow its direction, including its employee sourcing way. Thomson, a pioneer in the old print economy, helped to create the electronic age with online system and CD-ROM products. One of the goals of his company, Thomson Corporation, is to become the dominant global e-information and solutions business. In order to make the growth strategy become successful, Thomson has to keep some key employees and motivate some junior employees because he believes that the essence to have employee retention includes creating a satisfying an challenging work environment, maintaining the right fit between the employees and their jobs and making sure that his employees have the right tools to perform their jobs successfully. Another goal of his company is to facilitate employees’ career development. In order to achieve this goal, Thomson had to educate his employees that career opportunities are available within the company and he had made it easier for employees to move within the company. By executing the career development within the company, Thomson had developed an online career center for his employees. The website includes seven hundred to nine hundred jobs listing every month. His employee can go to this website and choose specify preferred locations and full time or part time job. Meanwhile, a personal search agent would notify the employee whenever a new opening related jobs or career interests are posted automatically. The website had been developed to include self assessments so that the employees can decide whether they if they have the required skills. If the employees found that he needs some education or training to quality for a position, the website will link them to some courses. The design of the website is a kind of career management for the employees which can retain and motivate employees. After that, their supervisor will conduct performance appraisal annually to review their performance. As the career management systems start from self assessment, reality check, goal setting and finally the action planning, every employee in Thomson Corporation develop their career through the above steps. Self assessment refers to the use of information by the employees to found out their career interests, values, aptitudes and behavioral tendencies and it usually involves some psychological tests. In Thomson Corporation, employees can identify their occupational and job interests, e. . work in different types of environments and identify the relative value they place on work and the leisure activities through the career centre. Through the self assessment, employees may start to consider where they are in their careers, identify the future plans and assess them to fit in the current job with available resources. Reality check means the information that the employees receive about how their organization evaluates their knowledge and skills which help them to fit into organization’s plan. The said information is given by their supervisor as part of the performance appraisal process which included the performance review and employee’s career interests, strengths and possible development plans. Goal setting mean the process of employees developing short term and long term career objective. The goals usually relate to desired positions, level of skill application, work setting or skill acquisition. Employees in Thomson Corporation may have chance to achieve skill acquisition through specify training. Besides, development plan may be written out after the performance appraisal. The development plans include the descriptions of strengths and weakness, career goals and development plans for reaching the career goals. Action planning means how the employees determine their way to achieve short term or long term goals. An action plan usually involves in enrolling to some training courses, conducting information interviews or applying for a vacant within the organization. The information in the website is useful for ensuring the employees’ abilities, skills and nterests matches their jobs. If there is a mismatch, the website will provide some related training information and courses details for them to develop their skills. Other than the employee can benefit from such activities, the organization will benefit from the systems too. Firstly, it can reach a large number of potential job seekers after they post a vacant. Secondly, the website had provided detailed accessible information about the jobs which can facilitates employees’ development. Employees will then aware of what knowledge and skills are needed for the job. Thirdly, the system encourages employees responsible for an active role in the career management. This is congruent with a psychological contract and protean career. Career management is uses for junior grading employees and succession planning is designed for experienced or senior employees. Career management is usually applied to some small entrepreneurship and succession planning is applying to some large size limited companies. As large companies usually divided into few sections and each section will be managed by a line manager, an effective succession plan should be used. Motorola, Inc is an electronic and wireless communications company. In 1991, Motorola restructure itself and set out some new objectives and goals. Meanwhile, Motorola had promoted a succession plan named Organization and Management Development Review (OMDR). The objective would be diversity and sought to accelerate the advancement of women and minorities within the organization. The company goal which is within ten years the number of women and minorities at all levels of management should be representative of the number of women and minorities in the available talent pool. They also made a commitment that every year that at least three women and minorities would be appointed as vice-president among the twenty to forty people. In OMDR, the process of identifying the high potentials would be requires each section to submit a list of candidates in four categories: white men, women, minorities and technical staff. The succession plans are prepared for each high potential and their progress within the organization is being tracked. If the high potential leave or fall out of the list in the future, their supervisor must explain why this would happen. In order to counter the erception that most of the women and minorities are still in the feeder pool, a replacement chart had identifies some key positions and three people who could fill each one was developed. The first priority would be an immediate successor. The second priority would be a person who should success the incumbent if the organization had three to five years to prepare. The third priority would be the most qualified woman or minority candidate at that time, in addition to any women or minorities had already on the first two priorities. Women and minorities must be included even needs to hire externally. Besides the replacement chart, there are some other key elements of the program such as career planning. All individuals would receive a guidance to set out the career goals and develop some strategies to achieve them. The guidance of the program is give by managers through some informal mentoring and through the organization’s women’s leadership conference. In this case, Motorola had show the linkage between the succession planning initiative and the organization’s business goals which emphasis was placed on the business success that can flow from having a socially diverse workforce. Since Motorola sees diversity as a business initiative and not only human resources department but all line managers are responsible for the program’s implementation. Senior managers are required to keep tracking of the representation of women and minorities in their units. The succession planning is then effective because of the cooperation of all employees. Effective career management and succession plan can drive small size company or large size company to success through adding value to it. It can help the employers and employees to fulfill the company objectives and goals. In order to make the plan effective in the company, the below ten points should be noted. First, the organization must define the targets and goals clearly. It should set a time frame and numbers creates impetus for action. Without a clear direction, employee may not know what or how they should do to go for success. When the employee knows the company objective and goal and the time frame, they can set out their own career development plan. Second, the organization should define the details and meaning of the succession plan to include the widest talent pool. Succession plan is not yet common in modern workplace. High potential will be attracted to work in those companies with succession plan in order to get higher achievement. Third, the organization should inform the employee about the succession plan and to let them know that they should be ready all the times. It is because when they are on the radar, they will ask more questions about their development and it is harder for them to be lost within the organization. Fourth, the organization should implement the career management careful and have strategic planning for targeted individuals’ career development. Since being identified is not enough, the organization should consider the potential benefits of encourage informal mentoring. Fifth, the organization should ensure there is strong leadership and commitment from senior management. This is because initial and ongoing personal involvement of the director is an important criterion to lead the plan to success. Sixth, the career management and succession plan must be integrate into the business objective and positioned as a response to the business need. A clear linkage between the business goal and the desired results of the career management will help to gain commitment from the organization and employee. Career management must be success when it portrayed as a core issue. Seventh, the organization should make all the line managers accountable for the success of the initiative. Since the career management is a business initiative, all employees should be responsible and accountable for its delivery, especially the line managers. Eighth, the organization should encourage the employees to take an active role in the career management. The organization should let the employee know that the career management is a tool to help them to get higher achievement which is benefiting them. Ninth, the evaluation should be an on-going one which uses to get improvement. Tenth, career management should be linked to other human resources practices such as performance management, training and recruiting systems. The organization may evaluate the career management through several outcomes. First, the reactions of the managers and the employees who use the career management can be determined through some surveys. Second, some more information with objective related to the results of the career management system can be tracked such as the time needs to fill up a vacant, the percentage of usage of the system. Talent management is a new direction in the modern workplace. Career management and succession plan can help both the small size organization and large size organization to add value through contributing directly to organization objective and goal. In order to success, all organization should focus on the career development of employee more than business since employees are the most valuable assets within an organization

The Glass Menagerie Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 1

The Glass Menagerie - Essay Example The Glass Menagerie is â€Å"his most intimate and personal play† , and this intimacy allows the audience to enter some of the more vulnerable sides of what may be argued to be Williams’s own character through Laura. We see the delicacy of her mind in the most intimate detail, and come away from the play understanding our own vulnerabilities better. Laura is crippled in two ways: physically and emotionally. The weight of her psychological problems is embodied by her physical condition, which never allows the audience to forget what miseries the world may bring to an individual. One might contrast the effect of her crippled self on her with that of Shakespeare’s Richard III . He loathes the world and seeks vengeance upon it because of what fate has dealt to him, she reveals an almost martyr-like compassion towards others because of her misfortune. Thus she sheds genuine tears of sadness over Tom’s unhappiness, as is revealed by Amanda in Scene 4. She is a stark contrast to the embittered selfishness of most of the characters. Williams uses an effective dramatic technique to make her even more mysterious: he gives her the fewest lines and yet much of the plot seems to revolve around her. As one online source puts it, â€Å"she is the axis around which the plot turns, and the most prominent symbols – blue roses, the glass unicorn, the entire glass menagerie – all in some sense represent her.† Laura may the fulcrum around which the other characters revolve, but she is also deeply involved in their lives. Laura is used by other characters to valorize their own feelings, or to recapture aspects of their personality that they think they have lost. For example, Amanda contrasts herself with Laura’s poor physical state in order to exemplify the joyous glamour of her own youth and to suggest that she can also somehow rekindle that youth through Laura. Echoes of Miss Havisham

Natural Rights of Human Beings Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Natural Rights of Human Beings - Essay Example The countries have their own regulations and the people have a certain level of freedom to do things. Every human has the liberty to do whatever he wants, as long as it does not lead to any problem. The basic human rights have gone through a development phase since a country's independence. Human rights were not given much importance in the initial years before a gained its independence. (Locke 1980).The concept of natural rights has definitely expanded over the years. During the initial stages of the formation of government, the humans did not have the rights to express their opinion and they were not given due respect. After some years, public had the liberty to enter into politics. This was a well received change in the history of human rights. Since then, there has been a drastic improvement in the natural rights of human beings. The government permitted people to lead a life with utmost freedom. At the same time, the government imposed certain laws, and failing to follow them will result in remitting a fine to the government. The British government followed this procedure and this was the first phase of development in the human rights. (British Constitution 1689). The government passed various amendments to help the people and a separate department to address the grievances of the public. These improvements in human rights paved way to a better living for the people around the world. Natural human rights further developed and people were granted the rights beyond the political and social levels. People had the freedom and liberty to enter into various fields like education, business and politics. This clearly depicts the development and improvement in the natural rights of the human beings as they earned rights of which they were deprived before. Though there has been a drastic improvement in the human rights, people must have a clear understanding of their rights. Without proper understanding and knowledge, people cannot experience the benefit of their rights. People must realize their responsibilities in building a better world and should come forward to utilize these rights in order to lead a better life. The Bill of Rights includes the various laws and amendments passed by the government of United States. This Bill of Rights contains the existing laws and it is updated each time a new amendment of human rights is passed. The public must follow the existing rules and must also adhere to the new regulation passed by the government. The Bill of Rights must include even the minor rights of the public. The bill must be prepared keeping in mind the welfare of the public instead of merely thinking about the benefits to the government. (United Nations 1948). The rights should be favorable to the public and they must not feel difficulty in following the regulations. The amendments passed by the government have to be according to the current development of the country. The existing human rights have to be modified to suit the public and the current situation. The rules and regulations are meant to help the people and not to make the situation worse. The rights can be lenient in a way to help the public in performing their duties without any problems. They must enable

PERFORMANCE AND CULTURE Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

PERFORMANCE AND CULTURE - Essay Example Brecht invented and introduced the use of alienation effects in the theatre and plays. He is among the pioneer artist to develop a form of drama that has been called epic theatre in which ideas and didactic lessons are supposed to be more important and attention catching as compared with the other features and elements of the play (Frederic, 1992). Bertolt Brecht used his invented technique in many plays to attain his aim to encouraging people to think about the end, lesson and message rather focusing upon the emotions and characters. The following essay aim to discuss the way Brecht changed the traditional style in which the plays were written and staged. In this regard, the essay describes the efforts of Brecht in innovating new technique and style for the theatre and its use in his dramas. It has been unveiled that in the beginning Brecht was not completely successful to practice the alienation technique for gaining the desired results however; as his work grew mature he proved th e significance of the technique in form of several successful epic plays (Frederic, 1992). Bertolt Brecht and modernist theatre – Alienation technique and epic plays Bertolt Brecht held the firm belief that the actors should always strive to produce alienation effects in the drama in order to discard the traditional style of persuading the audiences with their characters in the play. Rather putting the audience into a trance the actors should go into the trace their selves so that they can present natural and lively performance in front of the audience. He believes that the way of speaking and the movements of the artists must be convincing and effective enough that audience can feel the real message behind the play rather getting lost in the fabrication of dialogues delivery. His dramas are considered as most importance and original work pieces in the European drama and he has widely recognized as most influential and prominent European materialist writer of the 20th century (Weber, 1984). The theatre practice of the twentieth century was heavily influenced and developed from the contributions of Brecht to the theatrical production and dramaturgy. He spent several decades in experimenting and developing the theory and practice of his epic theatre and devoted lot of time and efforts to bring something new and useful in the process of play making. He was inspired from the ideas of early theorists Erwin Piscator and Vrevolod Mayerhold regarding the use of theatre for as platform for the propagation of the political ideas. He believes that drama and theatre are medium for the transmission of ideas and thoughts and the audience should not stop thinking when the drama ends but the drama should be meaningful enough that the audience could initiate the thinking process during and after watching the drama (Willett, 1977). Brecht wants to support re-functioning of theatre in to a social use rather becoming a source of entertainment. His concentrated efforts and research work around the topic have resulted in the evolution and popularity of Brechtian theories and techniques that were widely uses in the theatre and cinematic practice. In the early days of his career in theatre and play making Brecht was more interested in doing experiments with dada and expressionism. However, as he proceeds with his work he attained maturity and new ideas and within few years he succeeded to develop a unique style of

LEGAL AND FINANCIAL ENVIRONMENT FOR BUSINESS STUDY Case

LEGAL AND FINANCIAL ENVIRONMENT FOR BUSINESS - Case Study Example The firm is aiming to expand their business so they are going to face complex structure for the employment contracts and recruiting efficient employees. Employment contracts are the most important legal requirement for employing new people in the operational process. Mainly, legal obligation of the firms are outlining different terms like employment conditions, rights of the parties involved, sharing responsibilities and duties among the parties. It is observed that employment contracts of the UK are having two parties like employer and employees (Aggarwal, 2003). Employer: In the current context, Grace and Taylor is the employer party of the employment contract. Grace and Taylor have to be responsible for compensating new and existing employee. In addition, the UK government is empowering local employment with lawsuits. As per the contracts, Grace and Taylor have to evaluate that predetermined employment standards are maintained in the workplace (Gov.uk, 2015). Major terms of the employment contracts are expressed and implied. Employment contract of the Grace and Taylor will be outlining compensation rate. Payment mode or frequencies for the new recruits are also outlined. The statement must include the leave list and absence payment options. The contract statement will outline the number of working days in a week and month. Working hours are also stated to the employee along with the location of joining (Gov.uk, 2015). Employment contract of Grace and Taylor are outlining the employees duties in terms of setting up potential operational targets. In addition, new recruit have to be informed about the particulars of pension scheme of the firms and other additional payments. The statement should be outlining probationary period applied on new recruits. Such contract papers will disseminate the details of termination, regulation and accusation policies of Grace and Taylor (Cohen & Lou, 2012). The UK legislation is using

Environmental Degradation Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3500 words

Environmental Degradation - Essay Example The most common types of environmental degradation include pollution, soil erosion, desertification, and deforestation. Pollution can be classified into air pollution, and water pollution. These types of environmental degradation are interdependent such that the presence of one type acts as a causative agent of the other. Causes of environmental degradation can either be natural and human factors. The dilemmas experienced in environmental conservation are caused by differences in interests and the necessity for survival of some environmental destruction activities. Regardless of the numerous causes of environmental destruction across the world, governments and citizens continuously strive to ensure environmental sustainability for future generations. Causes and Impacts of Environmental degradation Environmentalists classify causes of environmental degradation into human causes and natural causes. Human causes include burning fossil fuels, industrial activities, construction of infrastructures, agriculture, oil spillage, and transport activities. Natural causes, on the other hand include natural disasters, global warming, and volcanicity. Burning fossil fuels and transport activities The current trade generation is characterized by massive transportation of people, goods, and services. Cars, heavy-duty tracks, airplanes, trains, and shipping vessels burn a lot of fossil fuels to produce energy for their motion (Gautam, 2010).

Jackson Pollock as an artist Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Jackson Pollock as an artist - Essay Example Jackson Pollock introduced a new metamorphism in the post world war two era of art because he came up with new diversification of abstract art and figurative imagery. Apparently he introduced the new concept of abstract art in which concepts of â€Å"pour† painting were introduced. As an artist he revolutionized the field of art in America due to his unique style of painting in whole body was involved. As an artist there are two phases of him in which he transformed. Firstly he was staunch advocate of representational art working like that of Picasso and his role models were mural artworks of Mexican artist but then his life took a new turn when he married a famous artist named Krasner.After marriage his thought process evolved and he worked in a new domain known as â€Å"drip painting†. Drip painting involved using of the most unconventional forms of art ever practiced. IT was later known as action painting. Jackson used to pour the paint on the canvas and let the drip pings freeze so that they can give a good look on the canvas. Literally everything could be used as brush from a simple lipstick to a hardened brush from a tree. Jackson Pollock eventually became characterized by this technique and used it at maximum optimal usage. It is because of Jackson Pollock that world of art saw the alluring forms of adroitness like sand painting and under- painting. Using of gestures, which was later became a proper field in art deployed the concept of â€Å"gestural lines† through which all the mess of three views, foreground, background and side view was vanished. Jackson said that the lines should be used in such a way the viscosity of the fluid can be used optimally. He also started a new technique in the design process which used painting the canvas horizontally rather than vertically in order to save the paint and color combinations. Jackson Pollock really did great services to art because of his ideas, people started to perceive the canvas as a workspace where they can actually â€Å"perform† some art at run time rather than just sticking to the conventional ways to follow and draw a design. Jackson Pollock was later on appreciated by many gurus of art and he is regarded as pioneer of â€Å"action painting† in the modern era. Jackson Pollock in his personal life As a man in his personal life, he can be regarded as a person exceptionally volatile. Because of his early tough life and childhood, he could never get a chance to actually settle to a routine or idea. He is said to be drunk excessively, cruise and agile personality. Drinking became the main cause of his accidental death later on and this great legend of art was no more with us to draw his talent on the canvas. â€Å"I am Nature† Jackson Pollock just used to entwine nature in his art works. Once he said to an artist on a reaction to a demand which said to work more outside the nature, â€Å"I am nature†. The meaning of this quote can be easily seen by having few glimpses of his canvas. He just used to dwell in the art work and â€Å"drip† the paint, swayed his body all around and made maximum use of nature to express what was inside him. Using of tree brushes, syringes to paint, and leaves to depict is a sign that point towards an ideology, which later on made some standards in the modern American field of art. Jackson Pollock was of the view that art work should be such painted that it does not need explanations, technical faults, unnecessary details rather the viewer can only admire the allure of the scene just like he does when he sees a bed of roses. The captivating beauty of abstract art and action painting by Jackson Pollock approves this thesis if we just have a bird’s eye view of such of his masterpieces. Pensive feathers, animal dancing, springs of long island are examples of his love for nature. Quote There are numerous and ample quotes of Jackson Pollock about abstract art because this was his primary field of interest. Choice is difficult to make among so many astute quotes but one

Morality Essay Essay Example for Free

Morality Essay Essay In 1994 Kevin Carter won the Pulitzer Prize for Photography thanks to a photograph that he took in the village of Ayod in Sudan of a child crawling towards a feeding center. Whether it was morally right for him to have captured that moment instead of helping the child is a debate with many people. Some people believe that it was right because it helped stop the famine in Africa, others believe it was wrong because he did not aid the child after taking the picture. It is understood that there was thousands of refugees walking and crawling towards the food center, so was he suppose to help everyone or just that child? In philosophy class we have been talking about Morality in Kant’s point of view which is the Categorical Imperative and also about the Morality point of view based on Consequentialism. I believe that it was not morally permissible for Kevin Carter to leave the child because of Kant’s point of view on Morality, and that he should have not won the Pulitzer Prize for Photography based on this photo and I will explain why in this essay. According to Kant we should base morality on the Universal Law which means we should universalize our actions. This law is the same as the Golden Rule; Treat others the way you want to be treated. What Kant established basically was that we should respect all persons morally equal. The Consequentialism point of view on morality on the other hand is that we should base it on the principle of utilitarianism which means that for an action to be moral it must produce â€Å"The Greatest amount of Good for the Greatest amount of people†. Even though I agree with the consquentialism point of view on morality I do not agree with it this time. Why? Because I believe that at all times we should treat others the way we want to be treated and that all humans are equal. This is why when answering our question I based my answer on Kant’s point of view based on morality. I believe that it was not morally permissible for Kevin Carter to leave the child after he took the picture. First of all I believe that Kevin should have not taken the picture period, he should have right away went to aid the child. Like Kant said we should treat others the way we want to be treated, if Carter was in a position like that he would have not liked to be left there to his own luck. I understand that Carter had a professional obligation where he is only an observer not a participant, which means he was only there to observe and take pictures of the whole situation. I also understand that he was there illegally and that he did not want to get caught yet he had a personal responsibility to help the child. In passage given to us by Professor Jordan it is said that Carter was with a group of photojournalist called â€Å"the Bang-Bang Club† by a Johannesburg magazine. These people wanted to make the world aware of all the issues of injustice. There is where I believe that Carter’s personal responsibility plays role. Carter wanted the world do be aware of all the issues going around the world and for them to help. They were there because they wanted other countries all around the world to stop the famine, yet he did not help a child when it was in his hands to help that child and just left. Carter here was contradicting his believes to start with. Carter did not only just take the picture but waited several minutes for the vulture to spread his wings so he could get a more dramatic shot. Carter did not only use the child to get a picture but waited patiently to get a better picture instead of scaring the vulture right away from the child and helping him or her. There were more pictures that could have impacted us, and I am sure that if he looked around he would have found this is why I do not believe he should have taken the picture. I do not believe that he should have won the Pulitzer Prize for Photography based on that photo. I think that it was wrong to win a prize by using other people. Carter used the child and did not even aid the child. Considering that I believe that it was wrong for Carter to have even taken that picture I strongly do not believe that he should have won that prize. Carter could have used any other photograph to get his point across yet he decided to use that one and take his sweet time to take it anyways, he used the child and did not help her. I honestly do no believe that he should have one that prize. In Conclusion I believe that Carter should have not used the child to take that picture, and he shouldn’t have won the prize. I believe that Carter had the responsibility to help the child because he saw the child suffering and in danger of getting attacked by the vulture. Given the fact that he was the only one there he had the responsibility to help the child. We should do unto others what we would like to be done to us. If I was in that child’s position I would have liked to be helped like I am sure Carter would have too. I think that if Carter would have helped the child he would have not been depressed and committer suicide because he would have known he did something good by helping the child. Like I said before I am pretty sure he could have chosen another photograph to get his point across to have people help stop the famine. Besides he wanted people to help yet it was in his reach to help this child and he did not? He was going against his own believes in my opinion. I believe that it was morally wrong for Carter to not help the child get to the food bank or at least a safer place, closer to were that child could get the help needed.

Comparison On Higher Education Between China And America Education Essay

Comparison On Higher Education Between China And America Education Essay The paper is set out to compare the difference of higher education between China and America from educational ideology. The author points out that the main differences of higher education between China and America from educational ideology are displayed in entrance selection system, teaching method, concept of private and public university, curriculums, evaluation criteria to students, and education on students personal characteristics and morality. In conclusion, the paper holds that both China and America have to adopt different reform measures to advance the quality of respective higher education. Moreover, the integration of these two different higher educations is also very necessary, especially for the perfection and improvement of higher education of China. Keywords: Higher Education, Difference, China, America 1 Introduction China, as one of the Brick Countries, has shocked the whole world by its rapid development in recent decades. America, as NO.1 super power since the end of the Cold War, has remained its hegemony in the world in terms of many aspects, including national politics, economy, science, technology, culture, higher education, etc. Since higher education is the symbol of national strength of one country and a vital way of cultivating its talents for the future, we Chinese ought to compare our higher education system with Americas from educational ideology and then take advantage of Americas strong points and close the gap. Higher education is the important source of power of social development on the ground that it cultivates talents and provides human resources for the social development. Therefore, only through continual improvement of higher education can China finally achieve the great rejuvenation of China. 2 Comparison of Higher Education Between China and America The difference of higher education between China and America can originate from their different historic and cultural background. 2.1 Background of Higher Education 2.1.1 Historic Background The Chinese higher education of the ancient times is mainly based on Legalist and Confucian ideals. As a matter of fact, Confucius played an important role and has shaped the overall Chinese mindset for the past 2500 years. The mode of Chinese ancient higher education was The Unity of Higher Education and Politics-which reflects the combination of government and educational structure. From Han Dynasty, China carried out the rejecting the other schools of thought and respecting only Confucianism. Since ancient Chinese Empire regarded higher education as the foundation of empowering a country, Chinese held imperial examinations to select the talents regularly. In fact ¼Ã…’Imperial examination in Qing Dynasty has formed the integral and tightening system. The Burning of Opium Stocks in Humen in 1839 marked the eruption of The First Opium War and the opening of Chinese modern tines, which, however, ended with the failure of the Qing government and then made Chinese intellectuals disc over the numerous western advances in science and technology. This new information influenced the higher education system and curriculum a lot. It is widely accepted that the first modern Chinese university was established in 1895, right after the Sino-Japanese War (1894-95), which shifted the dominant influence in Asia from China to Japan. Beiyang University (now Tianjin University) was established in the city of the same name in 1895, followed by Qiushi Academy (currently Zhejiang University) in 1897, and Jingshi University (now Beijing University) in 1898. By the time the Peoples Republic of China was founded, there were 227 higher institutions in China. The Chinese higher education of contemporary times has gone through enormous changes. From 1967 to 1976, Chinas Cultural Revolution took another toll on Chinese higher education, which was devastated more than any other sector of the country. The enrollment of postsecondary students can be used as example to illustrate the impacts. The number dropped from 674,400 to 47,800. The decline in educational quality was profound. In 1977, Deng Xiaoping made the decision of resuming the National Higher Education Entrance Examination (Gao Kao), having profound impact on Chinese higher education in history. From the 1980s on, Chinese higher education has undergone a series of reforms that have slowly brought improvement. The historic background of American higher education, however, is quiet diverse from that of China on account of its much shorter history (only 236 years). Puritanism was a religious reform movement that arose within the Church of England in the late sixteenth century. In the early 17th century, thousands of English Puritans settled in North America, mainly in New England. Puritans value the higher education very much. Thus, American higher education at that time was certainly the matrix of Puritan thinking. In 1636, Harvard was founded as the first university by vote of the Great and General Court of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, making it the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States. The Ivy League is an athletic conference composed of sports teams from eight private institutions of higher education in the Northeastern United States ,which includes Brown University, Columbia University, Cornell University, Dartmouth College, Harvard University, Princeton University, the University of Pennsylvania, and Yale University. The Ivy League, ranks among the top universities in both USA and worldwide, is well known as the symbol of American higher education. American higher education has gone through a great expansion and democratization over the past several decades. In 1900, only four percent of high school graduates attended college. Nowadays, 75 percent of high school graduates will continue their educations in colleges. American higher education opened to women in 1836.Some of the men school handled a subsidiary of the Womens College, such as Barnard College of Columbia University (1889) and Radcliffe College of Harvard University (1894). The girls gradually entered Medical and Legal vocational schools. In 1969, the Supreme Court mandatorily canceled the black-and-white segregated schools. Congress allocated large sums of money to reward the schools of enrolling both the black and white, trying to change the racial discrimination in education in the past three hundred years. According to statistics, in 1976, the black youths of school age in colleges and universities accounted for about 20% and white youths accounted for about 25%. 2.1.2 Social Background and Culture Tradition There are three important factors which exert intense influence on American higher education: Individualism, pragmatism, creative humanities. American higher education system emphasizes the actual effect and encourages their university students to expose themselves to social practice, which accounts for the equal social position of white collars and blue collars in America. The American university has set the progress of economy, the research of science and improvement of life standard together as three targets of higher education. American universities only set up the curriculums and majors meeting the needs of society. Moreover, students influenced by American higher education boast full creative humanities spirit. For example, the rise of Information Technology marked by some famous corporations in silicon valley such as Microsoft, Facebook , Apple are prominent evidences of the good result of American higher education of creative humanities spirit because all of those entrepreneu rs went to American universities, receive the higher education and then establish the corporation by their extreme creativities. With all these factors contemplated, the American higher education, to some degree, has caused Americas fast development, high technology and economic level. Chinese Higher education, however, is more collectivism, formalism and Copinism compared with that of USA. American higher education seeks diversity and individuation while Chinese ones chase unity. Therefore, Chinese students intend to interpret cases according to standard answers while American ones adopt critical thinking. In China, the reputation of ones Alma Mater can cast a great influence on the social position, occupation, even marriage because the brand of university is closely bound to Chinese typical faceproblem, which easily explain the different social position of white collars and blue collars. Chinese higher education also emphasizes the reform and improvement of higher education to meet the needs of social, economic and scientific development, but it changes so little and blindly copies too much from Americas instead of forming a perfect system suitable for Chinese current condition. 2.2 Differences of Higher Education 2.2.1 Different Entrance Selection System America has no uniform examinations for enrolling students.The five major parts of admission are ACT/SAT scores, GPA, College Application, Essay, and Letters of Recommendation. Not all colleges require essays or letters of recommendation, though they are often proven to increase chances of acceptance. American students can choose their major according to their own hobbies and the plans of development; they may also continuously finish all curriculums in universities or choose to have some gap years outside the campus till they want to come back to school and precede their higher education. To be different from the entrance selection standard of China, America has more flexible and objective one. However, the competition of The Ivy League is very fierce which demands more to students and it is quite difficult to attain the degree of a good university. On the contrary, China has a uniform system of selecting students for higher institutions by National Higher Education Entrance Examination (Gao Kao),once described asà £Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ a powerful army single-plank bridgeà £Ã¢â€š ¬Ã… ¾.However, once one step into the gate of a university, it is easy to be accessible to the degree. Being different from the individualism of American students, Chinese students tend to be more of collectivism-which means they would choose their major by the standard of common value of Chinese society in stead of their interest. Thats why some prevailing majors such as economics, finances, management require much higher score than other majors. 2.2.2 Different Teaching Method In US, teachers duty is not what they have taught the students, but to help them construct knowledge. The teaching process takes the students independent thoughts and encourages them to propose something new and different. In the teaching method, emphasizing indefinite teaching methods, teachers encourage the students to participate in the teaching process, and even encourage them to challenge the academic authority. In this kind of free and loose environment, students can be more positive on studies and initiative concretion, applying theory to the practice easily. But in China, many teachers still adopt force-feed type teaching method. They teach with sweat streaming, while the students hear drowsily. This kind of teaching method, not only has violated the original intention of teaching and studying, but leads students comprehensive quality and the lifelong study skills to sell at a discount greatly. Teachers sing the one-man show in the teaching process phenomenon, while in the Am erican university this phenomenon is extremely rare. Whether students can make great progress or not, the teaching method plays an important role. 2.2.3 Different Curriculums In the United States, liberal arts colleges are schools emphasizing undergraduate study in the liberal arts. After four years of full-time study in general, students earned either a Bachelor of Arts degree or a Bachelor of Science degree. Liberal Education is an approach to learning that empowers individuals and prepares them to deal with complexity, diversity, and change. It provides students with broad knowledge of the wider world (e.g. science, culture, and society) as well as in-depth study in a specific area of interest. A liberal education aims to make students build up social responsibility, strong and transferable intellectual practical skills. Students could also grasp communication, analytical and problem-solving skills, and a demonstrated ability to apply knowledge and skills in working. American Universitys courses are made up of general education courses, professional foundation courses and elective courses. General education courses take up about 35% -50% and elective courses almost 1/3 among the whole courses, which aims to strengthen general education and endeavor to cultivate the comprehensive knowledge and skills to solve practical problems. Nevertheless, Chinas higher education, due to the limitation of economic and scientific level, focuses on implementing so-called the professional educationin other words, the employment education. It aims to affect ones value as a tool. Though the structure of course is close, the content and quality are far behind. General education courses or, we say public courses, including Politics, ideological and Moral class, Military Theory and P.E in Chinese university, are compulsory to whole students with a unified standard, accounting for about 18-24 credits; the applied foundation courses are mainly in English, Computers, Advanced Mathematics, and Chinese, accounting for about 20-26 credits. It is obvious implied that the proportion of general education courses is too low, the novelty is not enough and the system is so messy. Selective courses are neglected or regarded as something unimportant in China, whereas they are necessary and essential in American universities as an approach to getting exposure with other knowledge of other fields or majors. For want of basic attainment and general knowledge, Chinese graduates tend to become workers but not creators. China is globally well known as World Factory because Chinese higher education focuses the cultivation of labor skills. If China wants to trans fer from World Factory to world Designer, there will be a long way to go for the reforms and improvement of curriculums. 2.2.4 Different Concept of Public and Private University America boasts more than 1500 public universities and the number of private ones is up to 1600. Chinese public higher institutions take up 87 ¹Ã‚ ª, whereas the private ones is as low as 13 ¹Ã‚ ª. In USA, the most prestigious schools are almost private ones such as Harvard University, Yale University, Princeton University, Columbia University, the University of Chicago, Duke University and Stanford University. China underestimates the position of private universities because the enrollment mark is comparatively low. However, for want of high qualified private universities, China confronts intense obstacles in the path of the strategy of strengthening the country by education on the ground that private universities possess the flexible management, sufficient funds, free academic surroundings and excellent faculties which are exactly the shortage of public universities. The income of America private universities is mainly form four channels: the tuition, the government funding, the sponsorship of alumni and the sales and service of patent. The sufficient fund and free academic surrounding make it easy for American private universities to support scientific research, establish the new subjects and attractive great masters in each field. Moreover, private universities are not only successful educational institutions but also the cores of industries. The rise of Silicon Valley depending on Stanford University and the boom of high-tech industry around Boston attributed to IMF can be illustrated as two good examples. 2.2.5 Different Evaluation Criteria to Students The standard of inspecting the students of American high institutions is the capability to analyze and solve the problems, but not the ability of mechanical memorizing, which means American students do not need to cram up before final examinations. Chinese universities, however, adhere to the principle of learning everything by rote, especially for preparation of final examination. What is far worse is that high score becomes the one and only standard of evaluating students in China. It can be predicted that this kind of one-sided evaluation criteria has written off lots of students creativities, enthusiasm and desire to do better. American students are allowed to take some pieces of cards in the fixed size recording intricate expressions and theories to attend the final examinations. The aim of examination is very clear in American universities: it is practice but not memorizing. Some expressions would even be listed on the paper because reciting of expressions is not required, which is so incredible in China. As long as students work out the questions correctly, they would attain the due score. In China, the situation turns out to be opposite. As a matter of fact, the examination emphasizing mechanical memorizing has seriously ruined the students enthusiasm of studies, leading to excessive attention to pure theory and neglect the real practice of knowledge. The score of final examination accounts for different proportion in GPA between Chinese universities and American ones .GPA stands for Grade Point Average and it is a standard method of measuring academic achievement. The way of calculating GPA in American universities is distinct from that of China. The GPA of American universities are made up of many parts and the final examination is just one of it. One wouldnt get low GPA even though he or she plays below par as long as the assignments have been finished perfectly according to the teachers requirements, because the score of final examination only occupies 35% in the calculation of GPA, however, which closes to 70% in most Chinese universities. The standard of American universities is more objective and fair as the evaluation to students. It is high time that China abandoned the old and ossified evaluation criteria to students. There is still a long way to go before rote learning and test-taking turn into innovation by far. 2.2.6 Different Education on Students Personal Characteristics and Morality In America, volunteering and community service are two important standards of measuring ones personal characteristics and morality. Though technically not a requirement, many colleges make community service an unofficial requirement for acceptance. However, some colleges prefer work experience over community service, and some require that their students also continue community service for some specific number of hours to graduate. American universities encourage students to participate in the social and through which raise their citizen consciousness. Volunteering is also an essential part while enterprises employing new staffs, so American students are very willing to be volunteers. Certain academic honor societies such as Delta Epsilon Sigma have rejected 4.0 GPA students that lacked community service experiences on their applications because they honor community service so much. In China, volunteering and community service are not as important as in America. Chinese universities have never set the time of volunteering and community as one of the requirements of getting the diploma. However, the awareness of volunteering and community has increased by leaps and bounds. For example, 2008 Beijing Olympic Games and 2010 Shanghai World Expo has witnessed the function of volunteers, and most of them are university students. In order to continue the volunteering sprit of 2010 Shanghai World Expo, Shanghai has set up many city volunteers service stations in the tourist attractions to provide the service for tourists, which offer a good opportunity to university students. Rare as social activities are in China, Chinese university has endeavored to improve the personal characteristics and morality by making more volunteering chances. 3 Prospective of Chinese and American Higher Education 3.1 Reform Measures for Chinese Higher Education Education reform in China has reached a new and crucial stage. The driving force is the need to produce an increasingly knowledgeable workforce equipped to handle the challenges of an economy that is not only growing extremely rapidly, but also becoming increasingly diversified and sophisticated. The latest reforms are outlined in a comprehensive plan formally called State Guidelines for Medium-to-Long-Term Education Reform and Development Plan between 2010 and 2020, otherwise known as the Development Plan.1 A second round of national discussion of the Development Plan has just been completed, and more than 30,000 suggestions were collected, reflecting national involvement in such an important issue. This plan is enormous and comprehensive, and is based on studies of various educational models. Two aspects for higher education reform are key: a relaxation of central control, and opening up of the college admission process. The Development Plan specifically calls for the government to release central control, give universities autonomy, and allow presidents and faculty to run their schools. The Development Plan states that it will change from the one-exam-decides-all method to a thorough evaluation of a student as a whole person using multiple tests and factors. The plan is divided into four sections. Each section covers several chapters and each chapter includes numerous issues. Section One describes the plans overall strategy. Section Two lays out missions to accomplish and goals to achieve. Section Three outlines the reform of the educational infrastructure. Section Four provides measurements to ensure implementation. Six chapters are devoted to specific measures, which include the following: strengthening the quality of teaching faculty; increasing the government funding of education to 4% of GDP by 2012; completing education laws and regulations; and ensuring every step of the reform meets the laws and regulations. In order to accomplish these missions and goals, the Development Plan encourages educational institutions to design their own reform programs and policies. (Guo-hua Wang ,April 20,2010) 3.2 Reform Measures for American Higher Education In his State of the Union address, President Obama laid out a blueprint for an economy thats built to last an economy built on American manufacturing, American energy, skills for American workers, and a renewal of American values. As an important part of keeping the American promise alive, the President called for a comprehensive approach to tackling rising college costs. In todays global economy, a college education is no longer just a privilege for some, but rather a prerequisite for all. Reforming student aid to promote affordability and value: To keep tuition from spiraling too high and drive greater value, the President will propose reforms to federal campus-based air programs to shift aid away from colleges that fail to keep net tuition down, and toward those colleges and universities that do their fair share to keep tuition affordable, provide good value, and serve needy students well. These changes in federal aid to campuses will leverage $10 billion annually to keep tuition down. Creating a Race to the Top for college affordability and completion: The president will create incentives for states and colleges to keep costs under control through a $1billion investment in a new challenge to states to spur higher education reform focused on affordability and improved outcomes across state colleges and universities. A first in the World competition to model innovation and quality on college campuses: The president will invest $55 million in a new First in the World competition, to support the public and private colleges and non-profit organizations as they work to develop and test the next breakthrough strategy that will boost higher education attainment and student outcomes Better data for families choose the right college for them: The president will call for a College Scorecard for all degree-granting institutions, designed to provide the essential information about college costs, graduation rates, and potential earnings, all in an easy-to-read format that will help students and families choose a college that is well suited to their needs, priced affordably and consistent with their career and educational goals. Federal support to tackle college costs: The president has already made the biggest investments in student aid since the G.I Bill through increases to the Pell grant, and by shoring up the direct loan and income-based repayment programs. This reform will reward colleges that are succeeding in meeting the following principles: Setting responsible tuition policy, offering relatively lower net tuition prices and/or restraining tuition growth. Providing good value to students and families, offering quality education and training that prepares graduates to obtain employment and repay their loans. 3) Serving low-income students, enrolling and graduating relatively higher numbers of Pell-eligible students.( The White House, Office of the Press Secretary, January 27, 2012) 4 Integration of Chinese and American Higher Education China launched curriculum and teaching reform in the 1990s, resulting in great interest in studies of American university curriculum reforms and instructional systems. When China launched the 211 Project and 985 Project, this served as a great spur to Chinese studies of American research universities. New York and Duke University are building campuses in Shanghai, offering full-time programs to students there, and executive education courses are already a proven success, Harvards Senior Executive Program in Shanghai among them. There have been many joint venture programs with American colleges on the campuses of Chinese higher institutions; however, the trend toward larger-scale initiatives seems clear. In the mean time, America should also learn from China. America has always taken a laissez-faire approach to higher education-in many ways, with excellent results. But it may wish to consider whether new competition justifies a new approach. China may soon outpace the United States not only in the number of university graduates it produces, but also in the world-class universities it creates. From 1995 to 2000, levels of the Chinese government invested about $20-billion in select universities to improve their facilities and curricula. In the following years, 38 of those universities received additional money. For example, two top institutions, Peking University and Tsinghua University, each received $225-million from 1999 to 2003. American college leaders should prepare themselves psychologically for a world in which a key success factor will be partnerships with Asian universities. The good news is that Asian institutions welcome such new partnerships. 5. Conclusion Higher Education is the backbone of a country on the ground of sustaining its development through fostering talents. Without any shadow of doubt, both China and America lay great emphasis on higher education, by different form and method, though. China, as one of the emerging power in the Asian-Pacific region, ought to learn a lot from America, including higher education, in terms of entrance selection system, private universities, the position of higher educational function, evaluation criteria to students and the education to students personal characteristics and morality and campus culture .Both these two countries shoulder great responsibility to higher educational reform in the future to confront the fierce competition.