Company Research -JP Morgan Chase Bank Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Company -JP Morgan Chase Bank - Research Paper Example Since its foundation in the year 1799, the company has excelled in every field as a financial establishment. It was established on the foundation of more than 1200 antecedent organizations. The amalgamation of these organizations has led to the formation of today’s JP Morgan Chase & Co. However the real formation occurred in the year 2000 when JP Morgan & Co. and The Chase Manhattan Corp were merged as a single company. This merger brought together four largest banking organizations i.e. JP Morgan, Chemical, Chase and Manufacturers Hanover under the umbrella of JP Morgan Chase & CO (JP Morgan Chase, â€Å"History of Our Firm†). Aaron Burr & J. Pierpont Morgan is the two persons behind the foundation of JP Morgan Chase & Co. The company over the years has seen unprecedented growth in its stature and structure. It has grown immensely in terms of its assets which now stand at $2 trillion and still increasing. All this has not been achieved overnight but with business principles based on sheer dedication, hard work, creating a friendly working environment and last but not the least the innovation factor. Along with success the company has also had its share of hiccups. It faced a major setback when it was accused for being involved in manipulation of mortgage papers related to insolvent cases and had to be bailed out after the recession of 2008. Despite this JP Morgan has been rated as one of the most desired company to work with apart from being the best in terms of job satisfaction for the employees and has a long list of accomplishments. JP Morgan Chase & Co. has reached the pinnacle of financial services not only in the native USA but across the globe. This can very well be supported with the finances of the organization over the past one year. The company’s total assets were calculated to be $2,265,792,000 (as of 31 December, 2011).The company has seen no negative goodwill which reaffirms its dominance in the business world. The stock prices of the

Reading response paper 2 Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Reading response paper 2 - Assignment Example It never mattered if a piece of work was ornamental or representational, but the significance was the quality of aliveness. The quality that appears from artistic value does not necessarily depend on subject matter or motif. The first attempt to come up with realistic scenes in a pictorial form is found during the period of warring states (The Great Painters of China 3). The scenes are found in relieve and intaglio on bronze, which represent the figures of warriors, hunters, boats men, and musicians. Figure 6 is a clay title from Szechwam that shows less imposing objects. These objects are a clear representation of birds’ hunters at the lake at the upper side while the lower side is a representation of people harvesting in the field. The lake is symbolized by flowering lotus and big fish instead of being represented. On the other hand, the sky is full of wild ducks in flight and there is no appearance of a distant shoreline (The Great Painters of China 5). The harvesters are seen standing on a tilted position and this is evident through simple device thinning rows of the plants on them. In addition, while most of the figures are seen on an imaginary ground near the lower edge, one of the men is seen at the deeper space. Originally, it is evident that painting was concentrated on ornamental design. However, during the early parts of Han dynasty, there was a change by representation of reality in pictorial form from various sources. The most important thing was creating expressive conversation. The scene showed in figure 13 represents the story of a grandson Yuan Ku who in a period of starvation saved his grandfather from dying in the wilderness. In addition, he saved his father from the guilt of parricide. At the left side of the picture, the grand father is seen squatting abandoned under a cedar tree by the stream. Yuan Ku picks an empty stretcher to go and fetch his grandfather, but his father yells at him saying that the

On issue of reconstruction of Iraq after war Essay Example for Free

On issue of reconstruction of Iraq after war Essay One year after the war on Iraq was launched; the promise of improved human rights for Iraqi citizens remain far from realized, concludes a new report by Amnesty International. Twelve months on from the invasion of Iraq by the US-led coalition, the Iraqi people still suffer from serious human rights violations. The past year has seen scores of unarmed people killed due to excessive or unnecessary use of lethal force by Coalition forces during public demonstrations, at check points and in house raids. Thousands of people have been detained, often under harsh conditions, and subjected to prolonged and often unacknowledged detention. Many have been tortured or ill-treated and some have died in custody. Violence is endemic, whether in the form of attacks by armed groups or abuses by the occupying forces. Millions of people have suffered the consequences of destroyed or looted infrastructure, mass unemployment and uncertainty about their future. There is little or no confidence that all those responsible for human rights abuses, both past and present, will be brought to justice. After a year of war, lawlessness, spiralling violence and economic hardship, Iraqis face an uncertain future. For the next year to be better than the last, the occupying forces, Iraqi political and religious leaders and the international community must make a real commitment to protecting and promoting human rights in Iraq. A year after the war began Iraqi civilians are still being killed every day. Over 10,000 Iraqi civilians are estimated to have been killed since 18 March 2003 as a direct result of the military intervention in Iraq, either during the war or during the subsequent occupation. The figure is an estimate as the authorities are unwilling or unable to catalogue killings. Scores of civilians have been killed apparently as a result of excessive use of force by US troops, or have been shot dead in disputed circumstances. No US soldier has been prosecuted for illegally killing an Iraqi civilian. Iraqi courts, because of an order issued by the US-led authority in Baghdad in June 2003, are forbidden from hearing cases against US soldiers or any other foreign troops or foreign officials in Iraq. In effect, US soldiers are operating with total impunity. Iraqi civilians have also faced danger in the form of attacks, apparently carried out by armed groups that have been a growing feature of life in Iraq since the occupation began. The attacks have targeted the US military, Iraqi security personnel, Iraqi-controlled police stations, religious leaders and buildings, media workers, non-governmental organizations and UN agencies. They have resulted in the deaths of at least hundreds of civilians. To the extent that these bombings are part of a widespread or systematic attack on the civilian population of Iraq in furtherance of an organizations policy, they would constitute crimes against humanity. The lack of law and order continues to be a major concern in many areas of Iraq. Ensuring justice is fundamental for the countless victims of human rights violations in Iraq. Iraqis have suffered decades of grave violations by their government as well as abuses committed during the course of several conflicts, including the recent war and its aftermath. Fundamental changes to Iraq’s legal, judicial and penal systems are needed. Human rights must be at the centre of all efforts to rebuild and reconstruct Iraq. A failure to fully protect human rights in the process of change would be a betrayal of the Iraqi people, who have suffered so much in the past. CURRENT RECONSTRUCTION MOVEMENT The hopes to American and British plans of reconstruction of Iraq have cast serious doubts whether it will serve the rights of the Iraqis or the economic ends of US and UK. George Bush and company having a clear idea of the destruction they will unleash on the Iraqi people is beyond doubt. However, that does not deter them from following this disastrous course of action. The US government is prepared to spend around $12bn on attacking Iraq. So far it has only offered $65 million to provide them with the basics of life. This $65 million is expected to last less than 6 months but that is all right according to the calculations of the Bush administration. By then, the world media would have moved on to some new crisis, just as Afghanistan is now relegated to the inner most pages of newspapers. This $65 million should help contain the misery of the Iraqi people within some parameters for the brief period of time that they expect the world to pay attention to Iraq. The real â€Å"reconstruction† of Iraq has the US and UK, along with their cronies, salivating. In the name of reconstruction they will receive lucrative contracts for their respective private sectors. In the case of Iraq, the oil company Halliburton, which incidentally was headed by US Vice President Dick Cheney between 1995-2000, has already been awarded a multi-million dollar contract to clean up the Iraqi oilfields after the devastation of war, especially if a retreating Iraqi army puts them to fire. Other American and British oil companies are likely to exert complete control of Iraqi oilfields. Since the market for oil is relatively price-inelastic, and does not lend itself well to brand differentiation, control of supplies is everything in this industry. The prizes dont come any bigger than the Iraqi oilfields. Other equally substantial payoffs await these companies in the future. For instance, apart from the immediate profits and control of natural resources, first mover advantages in these markets are bound to be enormous. As Steven Schooner, a George Washington University law professor maintains the most sophisticated firms that come in first, and establish good will with the locals obviously will reap huge benefits down the road. These are going to become brand names in Iraq.

Requirements for Human Resource Planning in Healthcare

Requirements for Human Resource Planning in Healthcare PHOEBE COLETO TASK ONE – INDIVIDUAL RESEARCH REPORT Considers the following types of business factors that underpin human resource planning in a healthcare organisation business growth, decline, change, competition; impact of technology and labour market competition and employee development. Planning is one of the important factors in our life. Surely we all practice planning in our daily lives activities, careers, budgets and others. However we do it, planning is one of the important factor in the organization it is step by step to achieve a desirable outcome. This is typically refer to as business planning in corporate environment, accepting the more systematic and disciplined approach. The plan is to reach the achievement, programs and develop new services. The quality of such plans are organisational route maps to get business to some defined point, or points, in the future. Strategic planning is something that has grown steadily and one of the important part of modern business and organisational cycle. Human resources planning is an integration that define the current and future human resources needs for an organization to achieve its goals. Human resources planning should connect the human resources management and the whole strategic plan of an organization. BUSINESS GROWTH Cost has been more important theme in healthcare organizations. Organizations realize that future profitability will not be achieved by simply cutting the cost. Healthcare organization s system are starting to express and implement business growth strategies to implement effective profit and referral opportunities. Enhancing the business approach to working with clients, different organizations are investing in business growth strategies to promote better services, client expectations and gain customer loyalty and trust. Growth of the organization is depend on the ability of your team to develop services that meet client’s expectations; packaging the services for the benefit of the customer. The healthcare systems must differentiate the value and benefits of their services. The staff ability to meet this challenge is rejective to the organization’s to maintain successful growth. Therefore, in order the achieve the highest of success it needs strict implementation of plans. Implementation of training employees and hiring qualified staff will make an additional overall growth of the business. Through aiming for the quality of service and uniqueness of the service will give impression to client that this company is better to the other company. People will begin to be loyal to the services provided and will surely increase the business growth. DECLINE Doubt is ever present on business. Business decline refers to downward trend of business profit or revenue. The reasons of business unstable are generally caused by decline of service value, customer satisfaction, global and local competition, and new regulatory. On the other hand, it may result to business bankruptcy or closure of the company. The human resource management must do steps to prevent the decline or downfall of business. The business that flourishes in the middle of uncertainty times is the one who looks at the situation, change accordingly and define existing sales techniques to face the test of the business. This is the best method of willing to change and responsive. CHANGE â€Å"The ability to find new and non-traditional avenues to apply our strength is fundamental to our ability to remain competitive and responsive† by Stefan Kohn. Changes in the business is always part of the economy. It is an expected part of the business cycle. If there is a change it is important to consider people of the organization. Without the right people being willing, ready for the change, the solutions will never be implemented successfully. Usually changes struggles fail due to absence of attention. As quoted â€Å" The better you know your customer the better you are able to gauge what matters most in defining a positive customer experience† says Michelle Cox, head of contract centres at MBF (part of Bupa Australia). â€Å"Such customer – centricity is core to competitiveness in today’s market, helping to direct innovation, create value, and ensure flexibility and nimbleness in decision-making,† says Ms. Cox. Attending to the people dy namics should be completed as an equate factor of the design and administer of the change. The progression fit the change for success; measure through the designed solutions, implementation, planning, and testing. The key to achieve success is unruly designing the change process to handle all the content and people as one. COMPETITION The healthcare market faces many challenges. The impact increase the competition with quality and cost is not transparent. The relation between quality of healthcare provided to customer and system cost of giving health care is not explained. In every business there is rivalry to sales, profit, market and price, quality and service. In healthcare setting, the quality product or service would be the main reason to be a competitive. The human resource management should know the market or who they competing. It will help the Human resource to produce the quality services, marketing, and unique products. It will also accredit them to set a competitive cost and marketing campaigns. Create marketing strategies to the rivalry weakness and will improved the organization performance. Being a realistic in attaining goals will help aiming the success. IMPACT OF TECHNOLOGY The use of technology to help ensure quality and control cost plays important role in every business. Technological advancement are used in healthcare industries to achieve efficiency and effectiveness in care. It is believe that to improve the system is through innovation and entrepreneurism. Client were given information and power, reshaping how care is delivered, and changing the services. It has helped give clear meanings and every record right from the billing to diagnostic and treatment can be maintain through easy access by healthcare providers. Using software and tools, profiles of patients can be created so doctors can give standardized treatment. This improves the client outcome and reduces cost of health care. This proves that technology touches each and every stages of our lives. Technology has amazingly enhanced of life and boost economy of the world. LABOUR MARKET COMPETITION In New Zealand, healthcare is very competitive market due to shortage of specialised staff. They were facility gives poor services due to fast turnover of staff. The reason behind this is the load of work they have does not compensate with the wages they received. Planning and developing a competitive rate will develop the attitude of competitiveness. Categorize the load of work and compensating it with correct incentive creates satisfaction of employee. Good governance of the manager and good relationship to the staff will also prevent fast turnover. Working together as one unit in this competitive environment and giving importance to staff will give positive outcome. EMPLOYEE DEVELOPMENT A staff who receives the advance training is better able to perform her job. She becomes more knowledgeable about safety and proper procedures. The training also build the employees confidence because she has now a stronger understanding and the responsibilities of her job. The confidence will push the staff to perform even better and think of new ideas to excel. Continuous training also keeps your employees to retain and attract. Staff who are competent and on top of changing environment will help the company hold a position as a leader and strong competitor. Considers the following types of human resource requirements and factors that underpin human resource planning in a healthcare organisation Identifying internal personnel requirements, internal and external factors in matching personnel to organisational requirements; government policies and labour market competition. Workforce plays vital role in the business. The performance of the employee and the quality of service gives determines the stand of the organisation. The steps of hiring starts with advance planning to detect the needed staff in the organisation. The effective determinant of a management’s ability to respond in time to a changing and unstable business work environment is know how to be flexible and adaptable. The health care system is highly intensive with regards to labour. The effective health care system must have the exact number and mix of health care provider and must be with motivation and skills to perform the job assigned. Other countries are now in crisis for scarcity of qualified health care staff and that involves availability. The three dimension which relate to right health care workers ; distribution of skilful, which relate with the recruitment and retention of health care workers who is most needed; and the performance, which relates to a health care worker productivity and quality of the health care workers provide. IDENTIFYING INTERNAL PERSONNEL REQUIREMENTS The organizations may want to fill position or vacancies with their current employees. Usually a company will allow current employees to apply for the vacancies inside the firm. The vacancies are advertised around the organization and can be applied by any employee who they are qualified The intuitions usually needed investigation and assessment if require an additional qualified staff. Performance increase plays important role to assess the performance and quality of work of an employee in a specific duties and responsibilities. This process enhance the employee skills and opportunity for promotion if needed. Also, it gives appropriate experience. Arranging or rearranging the organisation is a hard task. The human resource will retain the staff who is fit to the job, also it another option is hire new skilful employee. It can be done by identifying, assessing and implementing the problem. INTERNAL AND EXTERNAL PERSONNEL REQUIREMENTS IN MATCHING PERSONNEL TO ORGANISATIONAL REQUIREMENTS An internal personnel need a specific position that match to the need of specific organisation. The balance in organisation is important that bring the demand and supply, so that the scarcity and over staffing will be solved. Pool of applicants must eliminate and select the right person to occupy the right position or vacancy. An External factor is the people that are needed for the job. It describes the people who will be qualified to the position as internal requirement of the management. Planning gives perspective and make sure the accurate amount of staff that are present to gives the necessary outcome of the organisation. GOVERNMENT POLICIES AND LABOUR MARKET COMPETITION Government policies and guidelines are producing well for promotion of the safety of the staff and management. These legislation will have a big impact with process of hiring, training, compensation and discipline of the people in the organization. Due to the competition of labour market there is a set of specific compensation depending on the level or work. Wages are set for specific positions and jobs, however, in this competitive environment people will look that provides a better salary. Labour market economics involves studying the different dimensions of labour supply and demand, which collaborate with wages, employment and unemployment. It can be understood as process of human labour as bought and also sold, means labour demand is equal to labour supply. Which means it’s the process between the workers and the organisation. This puts pressure to the governments to decrease the regulation of the business pratices, including the people protection legislation, to make sure that the organization are best able to answer to changes in labour market. The governments have responsibility to protect the workers and force to implement balance in the economic interest and employee protection. This is shown in the issues of the right for agency and temporary/contractual staff. The flexible labours market has the ability to accept and fire workers and offer poor compensation and employment conditions. REFERENCES: The Labour Market Context of HRM http://www.sagepub.com/wilton/The%20Labour%20Market%20Context.pdf Internal Control Integrated Framework http://www.coso.org/documents/Internal Control-Integrated Framework.pdf HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT AND INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS http://www.victoria.ac.nz/st_services/careers/pdf/career-view/career-view-human-resource-management-and-industrial-relations-web.pdf Why do health labour market forces matter? http://www.who.int/bulletin/volumes/91/11/13-118794/en/ Workplaces that Work http://hrcouncil.ca/hr-toolkit/workplaces-interpersonal.cfm

The Aesthetic, the Postmodern and the Ugly: The Rustle of Language in William S. Burroughs’ The Soft Machine and The Ticket That Exploded :: Essays Papeers

The Aesthetic, the Postmodern and the Ugly: The Rustle of Language in William S. Burroughs’ The Soft Machine and The Ticket That Exploded Ugliness is everywhere. It is on the sidewalks—the black tar phlegm of old flattened bubblegum—squashed beneath the scraped soles of suited foot soldiers on salary. It is in the straddled stares of stubborn strangers. It is in the cancer-coated clouds that gloss the sweet-tooth sky of the Los Angeles Basin with bathtub scum sunsets rosier than any Homer finger-painted dawn. Like the treble yell of helpless children, ugliness is piercing, unavoidable, everywhere. Yet, some powerful pieces of literature, with the assistance of paroxysmal words juxtaposed against brutal vistas and bitter emotions, have transformed the ugly into the beautiful. Here are some obvious examples: the monomania of Ahab in Herman Melville’s Moby-Dick ; Rhoda’s descent towards suicide in Virginia Woolf’s The Waves ; Walt Whitman’s telling of the shipwreck of the San Francisco in â€Å"Song of Myself†Ã¢â‚¬â€in these works, the lilting power of lang uage, with its ability to moisten raw and tender flesh, exposes the friction between unsightly sores and the soaring majesty of the greatest art—the ability to transform the ugly into the beautiful. What I describe in the previous paragraph pertains to the literary realm of the aesthetic. George Levine frames the aesthetic scene as being composed mostly of moments when readers â€Å"have felt overwhelmed, perhaps on the verge of tears, the whole body thrillingly interested† (4). Geoffrey Galt Harpham describes it in the following terms: â€Å"[Precisely] as ‘theoretical confusion,’ as the undecidablitity between object and subject, freedom and the repressive law, critical and uncritical passages, grievous and necessary misreadings, even art and ideology† (135). Yet, in certain theoretical writings about postmodernism, there seems to be no confusion at all. Instead, what has been described appears as an-aesthetic: a style, or a poetics, that deadens and numbs a tendency towards the aesthetic in postmodern literature. Jean-Franà §ois Lyotard describes postmodern writing as putting â€Å"forward the unpresentable in presenatation itself; that which denies itself the solace of good forms† (81). Linda Hutcheon even suggests that postmodern poetics might, instead, be referred to as â€Å"a ‘problematics’† (224). In her book The Poetics of Postmodernism, Hutcheon focuses on an-aesthetic forms in the critical and literary writings on and within postmodernism without any consideration of the aesthetic.

Hamlet Essay -- essays research papers

Prince Hamlet is depressed. Having been summoned home to Denmark from school in Germany to attend his father’s funeral, he is shocked to find his mother Gertrude already remarried. The Queen has wed Hamlet’s Uncle Claudius, the dead king’s brother. To Hamlet, the marriage is â€Å"foul incest.† Worse still, Claudius has had himself crowned King despite the fact that Hamlet was his father’s heir to the throne. Hamlet suspects foul play. When his father’s ghost visits the castle, Hamlet’s suspicions are confirmed. The Ghost complains that he is unable to rest in peace because he was murdered. Claudius, says the Ghost, poured poison in King Hamlet’s ear while the old king napped. Unable to confess and find salvation, King Hamlet is now consigned, for a time, to spend his days in Purgatory and walk the earth by night. He entreats Hamlet to avenge his death, but to spare Gertrude, to let Heaven decide her fate. Hamlet vows to affect madness—puts â€Å"an antic disposition on†Ã¢â‚¬â€to wear a mask that will enable him to observe the interactions in the castle, but finds himself more confused than ever. In his persistent confusion, he questions the Ghost’s trustworthiness. What if the Ghost is not a true spirit, but rather an agent of the devil sent to tempt him? What if killing Claudius results in Hamlet’s having to relive his memories for all eternity? Hamlet agonizes over what he perceives as his cowardice because he cannot stop himself from thinking. Words immobilize Hamlet, but the world h...

A Right Against Torture? Essay

Explain how you would try to justify an absolute right against torture, and how you would try to meet the main objections to such a proposed right. This essay sets out to deal with the very important issues raised by the practice of torture in today’s society. More precisely, the point of this paper is to defend a right against torture, of which all people should benefit, and not just any kind of right, but one of an absolute nature. In order to deal with these issues the essay will firstly justify why and absolute right against torture is mandatory from a philosophical point of view as well as a methodological one. Secondly, this essay aims to present its defences and critiques against the main objections to this proposed absolute right. In achieving both goals the paper will present empirical and normative evidence of why people from all over the world should benefit from this absolute right, and not just in writing, but also in practice. Before venturing forth with the arguments necessary to defend the absolute right against torture I will explain the term of ‘absolute right’ as it is needed so that everyone understands the importance of such a right and even more, so that everyone can acknowledge the gravity of infringing upon such a right. An absolute right is a right that cannot be infringed upon under absolutely any circumstances. The right against torture qualifies as such an absolute right under agreements such as the ECHR (European Convention on Human Rights), the UKHRA (UK Harm Reduction Alliance) and the UDHR (Universal Declaration of Human Rights). There are today 192 signatory states of the UDHR; these states are legally bound to respect all of the articles of this document. The main problem is that even though all of these states have signed the declaration, there have been reports between 1997 and 2001 of torture being practiced in 140 countries. It is therefore sad when we come to the conclusion that even though this right is one from which these people should have been protected from, that has not happened and it has not been enforced, but severely infringed upon in many of the states it should be guaranteed. An absolute right against torture as far as I am concerned should not even be defended in any kind of way, but instead it should be implied, it should be a given and it should not be a topic of conversation in any corner of the world. The reasons why I will always try and be a stalwart defender of such a right are many. The two main arguments I would like to propose in order to defend this right are the fact that torture constitutes an incredibly immoral and degrading practice, and that furthermore, torture practised in today’s society will halt, at least on some level, the capability of human beings to progress. The world has evolved from all points of view, today we live in a world that has significantly improved technologically, a world that has seen major improvements in ways of thinking, a world that is now more human rights based than ever, and yet the same world cannot seem to be able to let go of one of the most backwards practices it has ever invented, torture. The status-quo of today’s world is not violence as it was in the Middle Ages, on the contrary, we live in a world that has more and more tried to enhance its defence of human rights and to reduce the as much as possible the unnecessar y use of force, terror and violence against humanity and not only. Perhaps if we had all lived in the Middle Ages, the practice of torture would not seem as appalling as it does to so many people today. I strongly believe that torture is wrong no matter what approach I take. Torture is immoral and fundamentally wrong and it has both short-term and long-term disastrous consequences on all human beings – not just those people it is used against. Although torture has been declared an illegal it has been used many times. This means it happens in an undisclosed manner, people do not really know when and where it happens most of the times, and if they find out it is because some mistakes have been made. With the technological advancements today it is easier to capture and present to the public such acts of violence than it was before. One of the discourses on torture has been on what kind of approach should be taken. The solutions when dealing with torture are as follows: make torture legal and resort to it when needed; never resort to torture no m atter what the circumstances; declare torture illegal and always declare that torture will not be used but resort to practicing it when needed but only ‘under the radar’. The only reasonable approach as far as I am concerned is to never under any circumstances resort to torture. Using a process of elimination this is still the only reasonable opinion in regards to torture as the other two options are immoral. First of all, making torture legal should again require no arguments as to why this is immoral. The arguments are plenty and yet its defences are few if any, but first let us address the arguments against making torture a legal act in any society. This is a case that need be taken in consideration in democratic states and not autocratic ones since in those cases there is no system of checks and balances in place and the state does not answer to its citizens (who are even viewed and treated as mere subjects in some cases). In a democratic society, making torture legal seems a rather impossible task as far as I am concerned. I do not have an actual statistic regarding people’s views on torture and yet I feel confident enough to say that the majority of people would vote against it. Even if that were not the case, people would still need to know what they are voting for. Let us consider a situation where a country would like to make torture legal. The party that would like to propose such a legalization of torture would present its case and try to hide as many realities concerning torture as possible and instil a sense of constant fear into the people, explaining that many deaths would be avoided if they would be allowed to resort to torture procedures and last but not least explain the ‘ticking bomb scenario’ (to which I will come back later) and try to make it seem like a general rule rather than the exception it really is. The opposition would in this case only need to present torture as the immoral, degrading and humiliating practice it is. The best way for this would be to present acts of torture on television so that all the people that were thinking of voting in favour see what torture really is. I find it hard to believe that after such a spectacle anyone would even consider voting in order to pass the legalization of torture. For the sake of the argument let us however consider that the people, even after watching the gruesome shows of torture would still vote on behalf of making torture legal. In that situation, all we need to do is resort to Alan Dershowitz`s argument and ask ourselves whether we really want to create such a society in which someone has a right to torture. We would need to train people in special torture techniques, have companies produce torture equipment, torture rooms would no longer need to be hidden, maybe even build them in the centre of the city with glass walls so that everyone can witness what is happening in there and so even more instil fear in potential terrorists. Children would no longer say they want to be policemen, firemen, astronauts or race car drivers, but torture experts. Institutionalizing torture would lead to an increasingly violen t society, a society where normality would shift towards violence. Today many people believe and adhere to the idea that violence is not the answer; not only people, but entire societies try and uphold this idea of non-violent responses, yet by legalizing the practice of torture we would help build a society where indeed violence would be the answer. Even if no other matters, laws or practices would suffer changes directly with the exception of torture being legal that can arguably lead to a more violent society by constantly being in the minds of people as a regular occurrence. One of the major problems today that need be addressed when taking into consideration the possibility of people agreeing to make torture legal is the fact that people are most of the times concerned mainly about their own wellbeing and are hypocritical. People often judge facts or disregard certain realities because of a ‘what they don`t know won`t hurt them’ mentality. This is why they must be presented with the real humiliating act of torture; they must witnes s it in order to truly appreciate its immoral and degrading nature so that in the end they may be able to cast a vote that truly reflects their thoughts and feelings regarding this matter. This is one of the reasons why we need to have an absolute right against torture, since without it we would live in a slowly morally degrading society that allows for such horrendous acts to happen, a society that sacrifices its morals to gain what it misleadingly believes to be protection against terrorist threats. The second choice when confronted with torture would be for the government to allow for it to happen ‘under the radar’ while publicly organizing fake propaganda against it for the people. This again is very immoral. In order for a government to allow for torture to happen would mean that it is renouncing its liberal and democratic values since it would be doing something it does not have approval from its citizens to do. Torture is in all aspects immoral and should always be considered to be immoral. Torture is immoral because it dehumanizes everyone involved in it. It dehumanizes and degrades the victim, the same victim who is humiliated and treated in a way not even animals should ever be treated. It is immoral because it is an assault on human dignity. Furthermore, torture does not only dehumanize the victim, but the torturer as well. This entire process, even if done ‘under the radar’ or with public support, degrades the society as a whole with its practices and implications. The major pro torture defences are self-defence and the ‘ticking bomb scenario’. A democratic society cannot allow for torture to happen in any of these scenarios, as appealing as they might seem at a first glance. In order to understand why an outright ban should be imposed against torture and an absolute right against it be adopted we need to take a deeper look at what these scenarios bring to the negotiation table. In the self-defence scenario, where someone knows the whereabouts of a person that will die if not helped soon, some people will say that by torturing the person who is withholding the information might get them the location of the person in need of saving. This is again immoral since we`ve seen the very big problems th at come with institutionalizing torture but let`s think beyond that. Why would it ever be right to torture one person in order to save another? Sure, it is self-defence when someone assaults you and you fight back and eventually end up injuring or killing the person that tried to assault you, and it would qualify as self-defence. It would even qualify as self-defence if someone were to hold your wife at gunpoint and you would eventually manage to save her and again injure or kill the attacker because in that situation laws in most countries extend the self-defence to the person that was the victim in the first place. But there is however a difference between someone holding a gun to your loved one`s head, and that same person withholding knowledge as to where the loved one is being held and they might die if not helped in time. The difference between the above mentioned cases lies with the certainty factor and how direct the two possible crimes are. It`s one thing to have a gun held at someone`s head, where you could maybe even see the attacker pull the trigger, while a person held somewhere deprived of air maybe is not a direct ‘trigger’ being pulled; not to mention the fact that when seeing the attacker holding the gun aimed at someone makes you almost certain of their intention, while one can never be sure that the attacker even has information as to the whereabouts of the victim. Even if torture would not be completely immoral and encumbered with so many ‘plagues’ against society, the uncertainty and the level of direct or indirect connection to the crime should be enough to outright ban torture. The ‘ticking bomb scenario’ is arguably the strongest defence of pro torture theorists. For this reason I will address it now and try to explain why this case should not allow torture to happen under any circumstances and even with this scenario in mind an absolute right against torture is needed. The main argument of this scenario is that indeed a terrorist believed to have information about the location of a time bomb that will go off in a crowded place should be tortured in order to find out where the bomb is. I find this scenario quite poor in its convincing capabilities but that is not the case for many people confronted with the idea so the problem requires addressing. This scenario is ultimately used as a trap for liberals that out of principle refuse torture on any kind of basis, be it the case of legalization or of it happening ‘under the radar’. When confronted with this situation some liberals cannot hold back out of principle and beliefs anymore and indeed give in to a hypothetical situation where the torture of one terrorist would save the lives of thousands or even maybe more. This scenario is so overstretched and made to sound so simplistic that it could no longer be deemed as realistic. Sure, maybe most of the people confronted with this largely unrealistic situation mentioned above would give in; after all, it is a no brainer right? Torture one, save thousands, even more. Things are not like that though and other factors need to be taken into consideration when debating on whether or not torture should be allowed at least in these extreme situations. In this situation the overlooked factors are of decisive importance. Pro torture theorists’ make two very big mistakes (on purpose of course to mislead people); they transform this scenario into a general rule, a regular occurrence with which most of the people will be confronted at some point in their livelihood, instead of the exception it actually is. There has only been one case recorded where the Philippine authorities have tortured a terrorist for sixty-seven days in order to get information ou t of him that may have stopped an attempt to assassinate the pope and crash eleven planes into the Pacific Ocean. The planes had approximately four thousand passengers. The first problem is that this extreme act of terrorism is an exceptional occurrence and by no means a regular one, and leads us to the second huge flaw of this ‘ticking bomb scenario’, the fact that it is riddled with uncertainty. The Philippine authorities have tortured the man for such a long a time that they were themselves amazed that he was still alive when he gave them the information; so they tortured him without even being sure that he knows anything, without being sure that he would survive to give them any information at all and without actually being sure that the information he would maybe provide would indeed prove to be useful. How can it therefore ever be right even in this scenario to torture someone? It is close to impossible to ever be sure that a person actually has any useful information; it is also never a certain thing that even if he provides some information that information is true. No one s hould ever be humiliated and treated in such a way as a tortured person is since nothing can ever be one hundred per cent certain when it comes to torture because a person in the pains of torture would say anything to put an end to the pain. What if the tortured person actually does not know anything about a plot? What then? The torturer will never stop since he has to get the information out therefore he tortures with the certainty that the tortured has the information while he might actually know nothing. Should in this situation the torturer be allowed to torture the wife, children and other relatives in order to get the information out? Where would this entire process stop? After all he might know something; even if after he has been tortured and watched his wife be tortured and killed in front of him he still says no, the torturer is still sure that he is withholding information so he continues with his children. If he still does not say anything the torturer might think that he is a very well trained terrorist and very loyal to his cause, so why stop? The torturer can be just as determined and loyal to his cause in return and continue to torture as many relatives of the victim as he possibly can to get the informat ion out of him. This is a built-in problem of the whole ‘ticking bomb scenario’, a problem because the terrorist might know something that if he might disclose to the torturer, might prove as valuable information. Not only does the ‘ticking bomb scenario’ almost never arise, but even in the extreme eventuality that it does, getting the information, and not just any information but the right one seems as probable as finding a needle in a haystack while being blindfolded and wearing boxing gloves; and yet some people are still not convinced and would, even in these given situations, employ the degrading and inhumane act of torture. If so, why not make even make it a fun thing to try and alleviate the gravity of such a situation and allow people to bet on whether or not the victim will give out the right information and foil the plot; a person would easily be offered really good odds and be able to win fortunes with a mere penny. Furthermore, again in the area of how everything related to torture is uncertain and holds no guarantee we must acknowledge that even if after all those presented above, we succumb to the use of torture, we allow for it to happen, we get the information which eventually proves to be right and stops a bombing, the terrorists could just as well plan another bombing, or maybe even more to revenge their tortured friend? As far as I am concerned under no circumstances should torture ever be used? Not only should it always be illegal but no matter how pro-torture theorists try to sugar coat it, it will always be immoral. It degrades everyone involved in it, as well as the entire society, it makes everyone a part of an inhumane act that can never guarantee anything. It should not happen ‘under the radar’ because it would mean that the elected officials that allow it to take place renounce their democratic beliefs and abandon their morals. It should not happen with the approval of the people because then everyone renounces their democratic ideologies and morals; the entire society would become more violent which is not something to overlook even if it raises by a very small degree; an entire torture related authority and mentality would be born that would only sadden and inherently take its toll on everyone`s daily livelihood. As we have seen there are no possible situations that might warrant a use of torture since in all given scenarios the trade-off in the long run would always prove to be a very bad one. Humanity should never trade its morals, its principles and its liberal and democratic values for the smallest odds of saving one, ten, or one million lives. The best way to express this is by thinking about the situation in which the Prime Minister of Italy, Aldo Moro, was kidnapped and when someone suggested the use of torture to find out where he is being held, General Carlo Alberto Dalla Chiesa replied: â€Å"Italy can survive the loss of Aldo Moro. It would not survive the introduction of torture.† It is not only Italy that could not survive the introduction of torture, but the entire civilized world. For all the arguments employed above against the use of torture in any kind of scenario, even in the strictly utilitarian one where torture should be used as long as the number of people saved is higher than the number of people tortured and killed, we can draw the humane and moral conclusion that torture should always be unlawful and immoral and therefore an absolute right against torture is warranted.