Maritime Transportation Security Act Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Maritime Transportation Security Act - Essay Example While the attacks focused attention on our aviation system's vulnerability, it became obvious that our maritime domain needed greater attention. Besides being gateways through which dangerous materials could enter, ports are attractive targets because they are often large and sprawling, accessible by water and land, close to crowded centers, and interwoven with highways, roads, factories, and businesses (Flynn, 2004). Security is made difficult by the number of stakeholders involved in port operations, which include local, state, and federal agencies; multiple law enforcement jurisdictions; transportation and trade companies; factories and other businesses. The MTSA imposed an ambitious schedule of requirements on federal agencies and called for a comprehensive framework that included planning, personnel security, and careful monitoring of vessels, facilities, and cargo. Table 1 contains the MTSA's key security-related activities. However, "Haste makes waste", and the urgent nature of the legislative and implementation efforts of the MTSA 2002 proved this to be true (Bouchard, 2005; Ervin, 2006; Haveman et al., 2007). The MTSA 2002, through the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), gave the U.S. Coast Guard (USCG) lead responsibility for most of its requirements. Timetables for implementing the provisions were tight, and adding difficulty was the need to implement MTSA after the most extensive federal reorganization after the Second World War. Most of the 22 agencies with MTSA responsibilities were reorganized into the DHS in March 2003, less than 5 months after enactment. Some departments such as the Transportation Security Agency (TSA) were new, while others such as the USCG, Customs Service, and the Immigration and Naturalization Service were transferred from various executive departments. This recombination of organizational cultures and the need to coordinate with other agencies such as the State, Transportation, and Justice Departments introduced complex chains of command and reporting responsibilities (MTSA,2002; DHS, 2005; USCG, 2007). The deadline for implementing MTSA of July 1, 2004 was tight. Unlike other areas of critical infrastructure security where the government was unwilling to set clear mandates for the private sector and push for meaningful change, the MTSA was a catalyst for action. Unfortunately, in the face of unrealistic deadlines and disjointed implementation milestones, good intentions were not necessarily translated into greater security at the pier. And to add insult to injury, the USCG not only proved incapable of managing the projects designed to improve its capability but became open to graft and corruption and overspending (Economist 2007, p. 36). The priorities

Human Resource Management Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words - 3

Human Resource Management - Essay Example All these features are interrelated. This paper deals with wages and communication as two chief aspects of corporate environment and labor management. Wages and communication also serve as tools for reducing organizational conflict. Thus, organizations need to maintain an effective communication with its employees through discussion and interpersonal relationship for HRM and managing conflicts. 2.0 Introduction Employee- employer relationship has become an integral part of organizational practices at present times. Employee relations are hugely used for business orientation. Within an organization, both the employer as well as the employee desire to maintain a good professional relationship. This has been the reason why numerous organizations are emphasizing on development of relationship- based policies and practices. Changes in corporate business functioning promotes fair and justified behavior on part of management as well as the employees (Gennard and Judge 2005, p. 2- 3). Workpl ace relationship could lead to both harmony and conflict, as because it is based on paid employment. Within the whole process, every employee is trained, motivated, appraised and rewarded. This leads to development of not only formal institutional behavior, but informal interpersonal relationships as well. Factors that commonly affect relationship of employer and employee are labor unions, company culture, communication, wages, level of competencies, organizational objectives, etc. (Dzimbiri 2008, p. 1- 5) Wage could be considered as one of the determinants responsible for maintaining good terms in employer- employee relationship. Communication is yet another that influences professional relationship. This paper attempts to examine the some of the key aspects that influence the professional relationship shared by the employees and the employer. This paper also explores development of such relationship and also workplace environment due to factors like communication and wages. 3.0 Th ere are numerous factors that influence workplace relationships. Some of them are- Economic factors: The relationship shared by the employees and their employer is more unilateral in nature. Business process works by â€Å"downsizing† of the employees and â€Å"rightsizing† on part of the employers. Labor reciprocity has performance, appraisals and results for its basis. From economic perspecyive, business operation smoothly functions on mutual delivery of performance, both on part of the employees as well as of their employers. Economic interests of employees are directed towards personal gains, while that of the organizations are directed towards competence and deliverance. (Singh and Singh n.d., p. 128) Institutional factors: Level of competition highly influences workplace relationships. Distribution of work responsibilities, flexible timings, outsourcing have further influenced it. Professional attitude is the chief driving force. As a matter of fact, present age of globalization prefers one- to- one communication once again, but this time in the form of e-HR. Communication is maintained through electronic medium, in a virtual mode. Certain psychological factors are also interrelated to it. In a performance – driven work culture, employees are constantly driven by fears regarding job security. Thus, in industrial relations, counseling and mentoring has

Ownership of Mobile Phones by Children Essay

Ownership of Mobile Phones by Children Essay Smart phones are becoming more and more popular nowadays, with its user-friendly design and convenient multi-function. Nearly all people in Hong Kong, including elderly and children, have their own smartphone. Nevertheless, should a smartphone been owned by a young child? Since smartphone brings lots negative effect to children on learning, social and health, the children should not be allowed to own a smartphone. The problem of smartphone brings on children has long been concerned by schools. Lots of secondary and primary schools are not allowed their students to bring phone to school because phones take their attention away from their lessons and destroy discipline. Students who bring their phone to school violate the school regulation and their phones will be confiscated by the teacher. This rule does not only focus on smartphone as it has been set for a long time, and there were not smartphone when the rule set. Smartphone has much more functions and applications which lead to a bigger influence on students concentration on study. Some parents do not agree to this banning as they think that owning a mobile phone keeps children safer as they could know where their children are through calls, texts as well as communicating and Global Position System (GPS) applications and be sure if their children are safe. Also, in an emergency, children can call for a help quickly and easily. Indeed, owning a smartphone does not keep children safe but put them into an unsafe situation as they are carrying an expensive fashionable deice which makes them a target for criminals. Millions of people are robbed of cell phone every year while some of the cases are involved with violence. Furthermore, many children spend so much time talking on the phone, texting with friends or playing games, and thus do not aware what is going on around them. Every year children cause car accidents because their attention was on their phone activities but not the traffic while crossing the street. Parents may argue that the smartphone is helpful on learning. Schools nowadays are encouraging liberal learning which requires students to search lots of information themselves. Smartphone is a suitable and useful tool to assist students to achieve the liberal learning and broaden their horizon. It is much more convenient or the student to search for information which is related to their study and helpful for them to take photos and videos to records any new discovery at any time and in any new place. Take for an example, according to a teacher from a primary in United States We have seen an increase in time on task in our fifth-grade students. Students who would normally write a few words or a sentence on paper are now writing paragraphs and beyond on their smartphones. (Dickerson Schad, 2012) Smartphone does give a great help to students on this case, nevertheless such benefit can also be achieved by an e-book and a digital camera. Smartphone is useful but not the only tool on ass isting student learning. Moreover, student will be addicted to smartphones not for learning purpose but for playing games, chatting as well as checking the new status of their friends on facebook. From the survey conducted by Time magazine 84 percent of respondents said that they could not go a single day without their cellphones, and 20 percent of respondents check their phone every 10 minutes as well as 24 percent said they had used text messages to set up a rendezvous with someone they were having an affair with, a number that includes 56 percent of Chinese respondents. (Gilbert, 2012) From the statistic the result that students negligence on their study is foreseeable as their concentration will be putted on the smartphone activities if they are allowed to have their own smartphone. Smartphone just as alcohol and drugs which is addictive and brings harms to human body. Nevertheless, we always only enjoying the convenient bring to us but have ignored the negative aspect of smartphone. Smartphone dose brings lots of negative influence to children. School already set rule to avoid children to be addicted to smartphone, however only by the effort from school is not enough. To protect children and to let them have a better development, government should legislate to ban the children below 16 owning smartphone, and companies should not sell smartphone to children below 16. A government authority has to be established to implement the ordinance as well, otherwise the legislation is meaningless. Government should also do advertisement to educate the public the proper use of smartphone and the consequence of addicted on smartphone. Parents also have their responsibility to protect the children by not giving their smartphone to their children to play. The corporation from government and parents is important on saving children from the harm of smartphone. Some people may oppose to this legislation as they think that smartphone dose let learning easier and interesting which are good to children development. The learning games, dictionary, language learning application and scientific calculator are helpful tools to assist children on learning. Children could find that learning is not such difficult with the assist of these user friendly learning applications. The MLDs  [1]  , an American company providing network service on personal and commercial use, is a good example on that. The MLDs is useful to link the home with the school in ways not possible before (Tomko, 2010). The ability to access information from the palms of their hands, student-to-student conversation has increased. When problems arise, the students ask each other, not the teacher. And students are becoming more self-directed learners, since their lessons are all on their MLDs. They know what their learning tasks are. Nevertheless, the MLDs network and other learning applications can also be accessed through I-pad or e-book, but not only smartphone. Thus, this cannot be a reason on rejecting the banning. Apart from the influence on learning, smartphone also be an obstacle on development childrens social skill. The social area of the children is bounded in the internet social website or social applications as a result of addicting to the use of smartphone. They only communicate with friends through the smartphone but rarely have a face to face communication with the people surrounding. Many people must been in the odd atmosphere in which all the friends around are focusing on their smartphone playing games or whatsapping with their friend during a meal in the restaurant. People around the table are friends and having meal together, however no conversation between them. Growing up in such a non-face-to-face-communicating environment does hinder childrens social ability. Furthermore, using smartphone brings possible long-term health risks, such as behavioral problems on children, increased cancer risk as well as decreased male fertility, especially in children usage. The research led by Dr Siegal Sadetzki, an epidemiologist at Gertner Institute, Chaim Sheba Medical Center, Israel, found that heavy cell phone users had a 50% higher risk of developing a parotid tumor which arise in the salivary gland near the ears and the jaw, a position where cellphones are typically held, and they can be malignant or benign. Because childrens brains and nervous systems are still developing, any possible damage to them is even more serious than for adults. The radio frequency emissions from the phones could cause other health issues in other parts of the body, such as the damage to the central nervous system, and thereby having a negative impact on learning or behavior, or cancers could result in organs other than the brain.  [2]  There are also studies which reve al the negative impact of cell phones on the health of the young ones. For example, quite recently, Dr Kheifets and researchers in Denmark discovered that children who used cell phones and whose mothers had used cellphones during their pregnancy had 80% higher incidence of behavioral issues. These include emotional issues, hyperactivity, inattention and having problems with their peers. Even those children who themselves did not have cellphone exposure except during their mothers pregnancies had 54% higher incidence of such problems. All in all, the harm brings from smartphone has long been a problem which be neglected. Government should legislate to ban the children below 16 owning smartphone as soon as possible in order to avoid children being affected or harmed by smartphone. Only avoiding children to be affected in school is not enough, government and parents have their responsibility on saving children from the harm of smartphone. Only by the corporation of school, government as well as parents can the problem be solved, and can the children have a better development.

Project Mercury :: essays research papers

Project Mercury   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Project Mercury, the first manned U.S. space project, became an official NASA program on October 7, 1958. The Mercury Program was given two main but broad objectives: 1. to investigate man’s ability to survive and perform in the space environment and 2. to develop basic space technology and hardware for manned space flight programs to come.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  NASA also had to find astronauts to fly the spacecraft. In 1959 NASA asked the U.S. military for a list of their members who met certain qualifications. All applicants were required to have had extensive jet aircraft flight experience and engineering training. The applicants could be no more than five feet eleven inches tall, do to the limited amount of cabin space that the Mercury modules provided. All who met these requirements were also required to undergo numerous intense physical and psychological evaluations. Finally, out of a field of 500 people who met the experience, training, and height requirements, NASA selected seven to become U.S. astronauts. There names, Lieutenant M. Scott Carpenter; Air Force Captains L. Gordon Cooper, Jr., Virgil â€Å" Gus† Grissom, and Donald K. â€Å"Deke† Slayton; Marine Lieutenant Colonel John H. Glenn, Jr.; and Navy Lieutenant commanders Walter M. Schirra, Jr., and Alan B. Shepard, Jr. Of these, all flew in Project Mercury except Deke Slayton who was grounded for medical reasons. He later became an American crewmember of the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The Mercury module was a bell shaped craft. Its base measured exactly 74.5 inches wide and it was nine feet tall. For its boosters NASA chose two U.S. military rockets: the Army’s Redstone, which provided 78,000 pounds of thrust, was used for suborbital flights, and the Air Force Atlas, providing 360,000 pounds of thrust, was used for orbital fights. The Mercury craft was fastened to the top of the booster for launch. Upon reaching the limits of Earth’s atmosphere the boosters were released from the module, and fell into uninhabited ocean.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The first Mercury launch was performed on May 5, 1961. The ship, Freedom 7, was the first U.S. craft used for manned space flight. Astronaut Alan Shepard, Jr. remained in suborbital flight for 15 minutes and 22 seconds, with an accumulated distance of 116 miles.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The second and final suborbital mission of the Mercury Project was launched on July 21, 1961. Gus Grissom navigated his ship, Liberty Bell 7, through flight for just 15 seconds longer than the previous mission.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The next Mercury flight was accomplished using an Atlas booster. On February 20,1962 it fired up and launched John Glenn, Jr., inside Friendship 7, into orbit. Glenn orbited Earth three times and when he returned the country

Organizing relationships traditional and emerging perspectives on workplace relationships Essay

Business ethics Introduction                   One of the issues that have raised concerns in business nowadays is the relationship between senior employees, and the junior employees of the opposite sex. For years, senior employees such as managers and directors have been accused of sexually or emotionally abusing the junior employees working under them. Some are even accused of threatening to dismiss the employees who decline their request for sexual favors from them. Though this may be seen as sexual harassment, the case might be something different from that. Simply because the relationship is between senior and a junior employee, it may not be right to rush to a conclusion that the boss is sexually or emotionally exploiting their subject. It may be a relationship that has developed naturally due to the level of intimacy of the two employees of the opposite gender.                   The controversial nature of this issue is clearly portrayed in the mail online article of November 13th, 2013. The article explains that the report of a study carried out by business week has shown that most of these relationships between employees have nothing to do with harassment. During the survey, it was found out that most of the people working in the offices would be up to a sexual relationship with someone from their office if they got the chance. Of the 2500 respondents interviewed during the survey, 85 percent said it was right for employees within the company to be allowed to have sexual relationships. Some even confessed of sexually admiring their coworkers. After all this, why does the Human Resource department discourage intimate relationships between their employees of opposite gender? The answer is that they conclude that one of the parties in the relationship is sexually harassed, especially if one of the parties is the boss of the other .                   Some people may accuse me of supporting the behavior of the bosses to engage in sexual relationships with their colleagues. But if we consider some working conditions in some organizations, we see that the relations originate absolutely from intimacy and not harassment. Consider the case of a male manager, who works with a lady as the personal secretary. It is very possible for the two to engage in an affair due to the intimacy created by the working conditions. The two attend meetings together, go for lunch together, spend time together in the office, sometimes they go together to attend meetings far from their place of work, and many other closely spent times. From all these close relation, is it not against the laws of nature for something more than boss-secretary relationship to happen? Ironically, when a relationship develops between the manager and his secretary, the manager will be accused of sexually harassing the secretary! In my opinion, the bo ss would be emotionally harassing the secretary if he chose to ignore the feelings that develop after been together almost all the time.                   It may also be arguable that boss-subject relationships may adversely affect the performance of the employees. Employees may be reluctant in their work simply because the boss, who is supposed to supervise their work, can not condemn them because of the existing bond. This may be the idea behind the fight by the human resource department against sexual relationships at the workplace. However, this may not always be the case. This relationship may boost the performance of an employee who will always be trying to be the best to impress the boss. The article workplace relationships on Wikipedia explain of a theory, Workplace Relationship Quality and information Experiences, which originated from a study conducted by Patricia Sias. The theory states the most productive employees are the ones with high access to information about their workplace. It is obvious that the employees with a relationship more than the ordinary workplace relationship have a higher a ccess to business information. I may, therefore, be right to say that the boss-subject relationships can play an important part in boosting the productivity of the employees. The article further describes relationships at the workplace as â€Å"workplace romance†. It explains that though these relationships may not make the workplace so comfortable for other employees; it plays a very important part in the working of the parties involved in the affair. It increases performance due to high motivation and overall job satisfaction.                   Even though some senior employees in some business organization sexually exploit their junior colleagues, let us not mistake every relationship for sexual exploitation or harassment. It is good to appreciate that these bosses and their subjects are just ordinary people and what makes their difference is only the working position and titles. When there is a relationship between two junior employees of opposite gender, this is taken to be an ordinary love relationship. Why then do we have to treat the seniors differently? Aren’t they the same as the juniors? What marks the difference is only job level. It is, therefore, necessary to analyze the situation before concluding that a boss is sexually harassing a junior workmate. References Sias, P. M. (2009). Organizing relationships traditional and emerging perspectives on workplace relationships. Los Angeles: SAGE. (https://www.goodreads.com/user/new?remember=true) Sias, P. M. (2008). Organizing Relationships Traditional and Emerging Perspectives on Workplace Relationships.. Thousand Oaks: SAGE Publications. (http://www.amazon.com/Organizing-Relationships-Traditional-Perspectives-Workplace/dp/1412957974) Source document

Change for the Better

Never would he have thought that we would have ended up loving t there, falling in love, and learning about the culture as much as he did. Although a person's perception can be a good a thing, it also can get in the way of having a great friendship, learning something new, and Just being happy. Today's technology is very friendly in meeting new people on different sites like Backbone, Twitter, and Chattahoochee. Some peoples perception of meeting new people with technology that are around the world will get rid of their local cultures, traditions, and control over their cultures communication (Borderer, Borderer & Swollen, 2010, peg. 12). What people don't get Is technology Is one of the ways we learn the most about a culture. A way to get more respect for your culture Is to share It to people and not to be afraid to show It. When making friends you don't want to be the weird one, but for me seeing someone that Is so proud of their cultures Just makes me want to learn more about them . Plus you might be surprised that our cultures have some similarities and are part of the dominant culture. Having something in common is always a good base to a wonderful Friendship. Cultures in the world are what makes the world so interesting.So many different things we can learn and discover where things came from. Now some people are to proud of there country to even take the time to learn about another country because they thing its wrong and their cultures is the right way of doing things. All the different cultures have probably something in common with one an other, and you will probably find out that a lot of them Just a have some tweaks to make them different. Learning about a culture that you are going to go visit Is respectful to the people of that country whether they are Into the big tradition or not.In the end everyone is proud of their country's accomplishments and what they contributed to make the world it is today. Outsourced is a great way on showing how your pe rception affect your attitude and happiness. While Toad just wanting a burger, he went to a Mac Dona's to realize they don't sell burgers. He meets a character, named Bob, who was in the same predicament that Toad was in but for much longer. Bob told Toad that it doesn't get better until you accept Indian's culture. Once Toad finally accepted the culture he wanted to learn more about it and found a way to communicate better with the people of India.Toad was a more happy person, and even found love during his months In India. When you totally accept something, whether it's a different culture or It Is Just the way you look, you become a better and happy person. Perception Is a strong and powerful thing you use to view life situations. It Is always going to be with you whether you want it or not, and is something that we control our actions, and make up our mind about something we heaven full learned about. Perceptions can change your life for the better or for the worst. It comes dow n to how you take your perceptions and whether you let them change your life for the better.

interwar democracy info essays

interwar democracy info essays 1. World War I had ravaged France. 900 000 buildings, 200 coal mines, and 34 iron mines had been damaged or destroyed, 85 percent of the arable land had been devastated, and 94 percent of the cattle had disappeared. The franc had lost about 72 percent of its purchasing power. Frances population decreases from about 39 to 37 million from 1911 to 1921, with a loss of 11 percent in the number of males between the ages of 15 and 50. 2. France attempted to rebuild its economy by forcing reparation payments from Germany and by allowing the Nation Union to govern the country from 1926-29. This strengthened the franc, improved the tax system and raised the general economic position of the nation. 3. Instability caused by the profusion of political parties permitted under the highly democratic form of government plagued France throughout the 1920s and 1930s. Conflicting groups fragmented the French legislature. France had 27 short-lived cabinets between 1918 and January 1933, while England had a mere 7. 4. From 1919-1924, the Bloc National governed France under Premier Raymond Poincar. 5. In 1923, the French premier sent French troops into the Ruhr in an effort to force payments from Germany. 6. France was governed under the Left Block, a coalition of Socialists and other left-wing parties, from 1924-1926, under Premier Poincar. It was not able to solve Frances economic problems. 7. France was governed under the National Union, a coalition of right-center parties, from 1926-1929, under Premier Poincar. This government was able to solve the nations economic problems. 8. From 1931-1935, Frances governments rose and fell with surprising regularity. Right-wing groups sought to gain control of the government during this time of economic collapse. 9. The Popular Front-a coalition of Radical Socialists, Socialists, Communists, and others-was led b ...