Tuesday, December 31, 2019

Goals Of Black Lives Matter Movement - Free Essay Example

Sample details Pages: 9 Words: 2651 Downloads: 1 Date added: 2019/04/04 Category Society Essay Level High school Tags: Black Lives Matter Essay Did you like this example? In the United States in February of 2012, the nation felt a mixture of emotions. This including being both disturbed and confused about the recent and horrifying tragedy of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin. In the area that Martin had been staying at in Sanford, Florida, a neighborhood watch had been formed in response to the high crime rate that had been frequently occurring. Don’t waste time! Our writers will create an original "Goals Of Black Lives Matter Movement" essay for you Create order George Zimmerman regularly watched over the neighborhood with his firearm that he was licensed to carry and was the man on duty the night that Trayvon Martin died. According to CNN journalist Greg Botelho, Zimmerman had followed Martin who had left his home at night to go shop at 7-Eleven. Zimmerman was instructed by the policemen he had contacted to not follow the 17-year-old, but he disobeyed their orders. Martin, who had been running at times on his way back home, knowing that he was being followed, was fatally shot in the chest by Zimmerman. Zimmerman would go on to say that he acted out of self-defense however, further police investigations as well as the 7-Eleven camera footage of Martin shows that there is no evidence that Martin was acting in a threatening way to anyone. With that said, Martins family, along with thousands of others, believe that Zimmerman had racially profiled Trayvon Martin and that was the reason that he was targeted (Botelho 2012). George Zimmerman was arrested for his actions however, on July 13, 2013, he was acquitted and rendered not guilty on all counts. After this, social activists began to spring up in hopes to seek both justice and change. In the United States, the social movement that is the most recognizable is Black Lives Matter. This movement wanted to change the urgent issue in the United States of racial injustices inflicted towards African Americans, which still exists today. However, many Americans are unsure of how to feel about this movement and they question its productivity in achieving any of its main goals. I believe that the Black Lives Matter Movement has achieved most of the goals it set up upon its creation in 2013, making the movement relatively successful. Narration Alicia Garza, Patrisse Cullors, and Opal Tometi were the three women who started the Black Lives Matter Movement, in response to the acquittal of George Zimmerman. According to the official Black Lives Matter website, Black Lives Matter is an ideological and political intervention in a world where Black lives are systematically and intentionally targeted for demise. It began as a call to action, or as author Nikita Carney called it in the journal Humanity and Society, The call for Black lives to matter is a rallying cry for ALL Black lives striving for liberation (Carney 180-199). To summarize this concisely, these quotes mean that the main goals of the movement when it first formed were to create an awareness of systemic racism towards blacks in America, to allow blacks to struggle through this together, and to stop the rampant and deliberate violence inflicted on us by the state (Herstory 2014). It is important to define key terms like systemic racism because they are vital to unde rstanding the bigger picture. Systemic racism means that there are core racist realities that are manifested in each of societys major parts. This includes individual, institutional, and structural forms of racism in the United States (Cole 2018). Partition Once again, the Black Lives Matter Movements main goals upon its creation in 2013 included creating an awareness of the systemic racism towards African Americans in the United States, allowing blacks to struggle through this together, and stopping the rampant and deliberate violence inflicted upon African Americans by the state. I will fully examine each of these goals to determine if they have been achieved. This is necessary in determining if the movement has been successful. Firstly, I will argue that the movement has created an awareness of systemic racism by looking at the growth of the movement over the years. Then, I will argue that the movement has allowed blacks to struggle together due to the number of organized protests set up throughout the country. Finally, although there are many statistics out there that provide different numbers and types of statistics, there are estimates that show that the number of African Americans shot and killed by police enforcement in the Unit ed States has decreased over the past few years. With these three things taken into consideration, I will come to the conclusion that the Black Lives Matter Movement has fulfilled its main goals, thereby making it an overall success. I will also address the common opposing argument which says that the movement has been unsuccessful because it has not achieved its main goal of decreasing the number of African Americans killed by police enforcement in the United States. Confirmation A whole new dimension of the Black Lives Matter Movement was created following the tragic death of Michael Brown who was fatally shot by police officer, Darren Wilson, in Ferguson, Missouri. The Black Life Matters Ride was organized and held in Ferguson a few weeks after the tragic death of Michael Brown, in an effort to protest this type of police brutality. For fifteen days, the protestors stood their ground in the streets of Ferguson despite being tear gassed and pepper sprayed day after day. When the protest concluded, eighteen people went back to their home cities and set up Black Lives Matter chapters there. There are now over thirty chapters set up in the United States. This ultimately helps their cause to grow, as does the attention it receives on the social media platform Twitter (Herstory 2014). #BlackLivesMatter was trending all over social media after Michael Browns death, helping to spread awareness to millions of people globally. Celebrities and athletes all over the wo rld also often took to Twitter to publicly share their support for the cause. This was important because they were the ones who supported the movement publicly. This included arguably the most recognizable athlete on the planet, LeBron James, who would often remain silent on certain issues during his interviews, and later make his voice heard by tweeting out a hashtag having to do with them (Cassilo 427). From July 18, 2016 through May 1, 2018, the #BlackLivesMatter hashtag has been used on Twitter an average of 15,856 times daily. Tweets with this hashtag would usually consist of one of the following topics; fatal police-related encounters, violent acts in general, police and law enforcement, national politicians and political parties, race, or protests (Anderson 2018). Over the past five years the hashtag has consistently remained relevant, which proves that it has not lost its ability to create public awareness. There is no denying the growth that this movement has seen as shown in the number of chapters set up throughout the country, along with the amount of attention it received on social media. This is why I believe that the Black Lives Matter Movement has successfully achieved its first goal of creating a nationwide awareness of the systemic racism inflicted upon African Americans in the United States. The movements next main goal was to allow African Americans in the United States to struggle together. The way that they have achieved this is through the peaceful protests that were organized all across the country. University of Kent professor, Dr. Richard Norman, wrote an article in 2017 where he discussed the reasons why protests in general are so important. In this article, he talks about how protests start a debate. I believe that they first create and awareness of a potential issue which leads to debate, which ideally would lead to a change being made. He also states that by protesting, people realize that they are not alone (Norman 2012). I could not agree more with Dr. Normans statement. This is because I believe that there is a sense of unity among any protesters, which can be reassuring to them that they are not alone. It will also provide them with hope that they will overcome the issue that they are protesting. In this case of course, the protests pertain to specific injustices inflicted upon African Americans in the United States. The most common example of this that the country has seen is police brutality. Over the past 1,580 days, there have been at least 2,588 Black Lives Matter protests in the United States (Robinson 2018). This amount of protests, held at different times throughout the year, and held at different locations all throughout the United States ensures that all African Americans, or anyone who wants to support the movement, has the opportunity to attend if they wish to do so. This is the reason why I argue that the Black Lives Matter Movement has achieved its second main goal of allowing blacks to struggle though this together. The third and final main goal the movement upon its creation in 2013, was to stop the rampant and deliberate violence inflicted upon African Americans in the United States. I believe that the movement has also successfully achieved this goal. Firstly, I will have to determine what exactly is meant by rampant and deliberate violence (Herstory 2014). Because of all of the media coverage over the past five years, the topics discussed in the tweets that had #BlackLivesMatter in them, and the purposes of all of the protests throughout the country, I am concluding that the rampant and deliberate violence means police brutality shown towards African Americans. Police brutality is the use of excessive and/or unnecessary force by police (Mastrine 2018). The most serious form of police brutality and the form that has sparked a large amount of Black Lives Matter protests in response is when an innocent or non-threatening civilian is fatally shot by law enforcement. To stop anything that is on a s large of a scale as this may just about be impossible, or at the very least it would take a lot longer than a couple of years to accomplish. Therefore, I am measuring the success of this goal by determining if the number of this form of police brutality over the past few years has stopped increasing. It is easy for some people to assume that African Americans are killed a much higher rate than any other race in the United States, because of all the media coverage on tragic shooting and Black Lives Matter protests. However, it may be surprising for these people to hear that this is not the case. In fact, whites are killed at a significantly higher rate by law enforcement than African Americans. However, this does not mean that African Americans are not killed at an alarming rate. The reason why the number of African Americans killed by the police is so disturbing is because African Americans only make up thirteen percent of the entire United States population. This correlation between the low population and high amount of deaths by law enforcement is exactly why the Black Lives Matter Movement first began. According to senior reporter of the Guardian, Jon Swaine, in 2015 there were 1,136 deaths at the hands of law enforcement. African Americans made up twenty seven percent of this total. These statistics show that African Americans were killed at a much higher rate than any other race in the United States. Unarmed black Americans were killed at five times the rate of unarmed white Americans in 2015. The following year in 2016, Swaine reported that there were 1,091 deaths at the hands of law enforcement in the United States. The percentage of African Americans killed in this year decreased from twenty seven percent to twenty four percent. In 2017 however, the percentage rose back up to twenty seven percent as 1,129 deaths were recorded (DOnofrio 2018). This means that the number of African Americans fatally killed by police officers in the United States has not increased over the past few years. It is for this reason why I believe that the movement has successfully achieved its third ma in goal. Refutation There are obviously arguments that opposes the one that I have made concerning this issue. I find that it is important to address the most common of these arguments to further support my conclusion. This opposing argument says that the Black Lives Matter Movement has not been successful as it has not achieved the most important goal that it set upon its creation in 2013. Those that believe in this often say that the most important goal set up by the movement was to stop police brutality against African Americans in the United States, or at least see a significant decrease over the past few years. They will argue that all of the statistics that exist on the issue are remarkably unreliable and do not show a significant decrease. I personally believe that even if there is not a significant decrease in police brutality against blacks, that the Black Lives Matter Movement has still been a success. This is because they did achieve their other two main goals and there has not been an increa se in police brutality against blacks in the past few years. There is one part of the opposing argument that I recognize I will have to concede to. It is, in fact, true that there is no single source that keeps reliable records of this kind of information. The information I am examining simply comes from whatever those sources were able to record over the years. Every source may have different types of statistics or the same type, yet they may come to a different conclusion because their numbers are different. This is most definitely a problem and needs to be addressed sooner than later. The FBI does not require police officers to report the racial demographics of a person involved in a fatal incident. Police can also opt out of reporting other details of these fatal incidents that would be important, such as how and why a person was killed (Swaine McCarthy 2017). These pieces of information are vital in examining whether police brutality towards African Americans has increased or decreased over the past few years. This is the part of the opposing argument that both sides can agree that coming up with a conclusion to the third main goal of the movement would be much easier to do if there was this information existed and was reliable and accessible. Therefore, Im sure people on both sides of the argument would like to see the FBI require police officers to report all of the information when a fatal incident occurs. Conclusion To conclude my argument, I will review what the issue was and what my position on the issue consists of. The Black Lives Matter Movement was created in 2013 in response to the tragic death of Trayvon Martin and the acquittal of George Zimmerman. Martin was unarmed and innocent yet was fatally shot by George Zimmerman. Thousands of other situations like this occurred, such as the killing Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri. Nationwide, people turned to the movement to bring about a positive change to injustes like these. Upon its creation, the movement created three main goals that they would set out to achieve. These issues were: to create an awareness of systemic racism towards blacks in America, to allow blacks to struggle through this together, and to stop the rampant and deliberate violence inflicted upon blacks. I have come to the conclusion that the Black Lives Matter Movement can be considered a success due to the success it has had in achieving its main goals. The movement created an awareness of systemic racism in the United States through social media platforms as well as through the thirty chapters set up throughout the country. The movement has also allowed blacks to struggle together through the thousands of protests that have taken place in the last three years. Finally, there has not been an increase in police brutality against African Americans over the past four years. The way that I interpreted this, this fulfills their third main goal of stopping the rampant and deliberate violence inflicted upon African Americans.

Sunday, December 22, 2019

Drinking Age A Huge Problem That Affects The Entire World

Today alcohol, is a huge problem that affects the entire world. In particular, in America it seemed a good idea to increase the legal drinking age to 21 years old, to lower accidents that may be caused by alcohol consumers. The issue is to understand if this decision actually helped, or if the USA should reconsider to lower the drinking age to 18 years old again. Making something illegal for such a long time, does actually preserve people to not be overtaken by it once it becomes permitted? Allowing them to get to know alcohol when they are younger, and learn how to control it, will actually help? These are the questions that arise when the drinking age in America is brought up. The drinking age was raised at 21 years old for some†¦show more content†¦This era ended just in 1933 when Congress passed the 21st Amendment, that gave to each state the power to regulate alcohol inside their borders.(LegalFlip, n.d.). During the Vietnam War, that lasted from 1959 to 1975, the legal drinking age issue arose again. The main point was that if people were able to go to war at 18 years old they should be allowed to drink too. For this reason, a lot of states stated 18 years old as the permitted drinking age. Around the 80s though, Organizations like Mothers Against Drunk Driving, started to push for rising the drinking age. That was related to two different problems: drinking and driving, and studies that showed how brain is not completely formed until around 20 years old. As a result of this, Reagan signed the National Minimum Drinking Age Act of 1984, that stated 21 years old as the legal age for drinking. (Trex, 2008). Even if States didn’t need to necessarily to set it as a drinking age, if they weren’t doing it the government would have had removed 10% of annual federal highway funding from states that chose an age below 21. For this reason, everyone set 21 as the minimum drinking a ge. Studies Several studies support the decision National Minimum Drinking Age Act. Those studies are also the ones that in some way managed to keep this Act still active, even if a lot of people are asking for lowering the drinking age at 18

Saturday, December 14, 2019

Drug Prevention Program Free Essays

string(57) " problems or else it will affect our future generations\." Business Concept Proposal| Drug Prevention Program For| Executive summary This report is a business concept proposal that will help us develop a business plan for our organization which is NBK and that eventually will benefit them. The CSR project that we have chosen is a â€Å"Drug Prevention Program† that will benefit both NBK and society. In this proposal we first gave a small introduction about the company and what other CSRs the company is doing and then we included our aim and purpose of this project which is to increase the awareness level about this problem and provide some possible solutions and also to break all the cultural and society barriers about this specific issue. We will write a custom essay sample on Drug Prevention Program or any similar topic only for you Order Now Then we went on our 4 SMART objectives which are what exactly we are aiming to achieve by the end of the project. In order for us to analysis the market for our proposal we did a Macro and Micro analysis that will help us determine what is our strength and weakness points and what could be the opportunities and threats that we are facing. Another important part of this proposal is the financial projections. We did an estimated budget including profit and loss account and cash flow. After that we mentioned the requirements considered to ensure our project can be implemented like the logistical and operational requirements and how this may impact on the success of our project. In the viability part we showed our costs and benefit to the organization and its return on investment. Last but not least we talked about the competitive and economic viability on how the different activities that we do will mark us as a strong competitor in the business and on an economic perspective this project is going to benefit the economy as it will provide new jobs for Kuwaiti people and even give them the opportunity to work at NBK. Introduction National Bank of Kuwait is holding an event called â€Å"Drugs Prevention program†. This program is nonprofit event. This event is setup to spread awareness and take an actual action to people on drugs; or people that doesn’t know about drugs. Many people don’t release how it’s dangerous, serious issue and can cause death. Drug prevention program is will be arrange to give advices and nonprofit rehabs that can be beneficial for drug addicts. Those rehabs will be very helpful to the addicts we as the drug prevention program organizers will provides brochures with full details and contact information. Why we chose NBK? NBK is the oldest bank in Kuwait and it has a very good reputation. Also it has been through a lot of CSR events in various sectors. The campaigns NBK did are Support of National Labor is our first priority, environmental initiative, health care initiative, sport initiative and contributions, education initiative, social care and philanthropic initiative, and conferences and seminars. The activities lies under the support of National Labor are NBK Academy, which intensive training for fresh graduate that joined the bank and High flier’s leadership program; this program is to develop future leaders. As for environmental initiatives activities are hand-in-hand to preserve our beaches, this campaign launch to clean the beaches of Kuwait and Put your energy into saving energy NBK commenced its energy saving awareness campaign: ‘Put your energy into saving energy’, with staff and summer interns from NBK giving away more than 10,000 long life energy-saving light bulbs at the Avenues Mall. Health care initiative campaigns are breast cancer awareness give discounts for female employees to have a checkups and lectures and seminars for awareness and blood donation; many NBK employees donated blood for the blood hospital in Kuwait. Sport initiative and contribution NBK organized walkathon to encourage people to have a better health and lifestyle. Whereas for education initiative; NBK has hosted high schools and universities to learn day to day operations. Social and philanthropic initiative events done by NBK are Do Good Deeds in Ramdan this campaign offer free ftr banquets and Somalia famine relief campaign was launched to donate money. The last but not least the conferences and seminars which were set to increase awareness about currents issue in the society. One of the seminars was on the Global Financial Crisis and its Impact on the Region; which discussed the international outlook. Aim of the project The aim of this project â€Å"Drug Prevention Program† is to benefit the society and this fits in with NBK’s mission statement, which is to serve the national needs as a priority. This program will be good for the society as it will increase the awareness level by defining the problem, which is drug usage and then it introduces society to the ways they or the people they know can prevent it and help them find possible solutions and lead them to the right places where they can find treatments. After we make sure people have enough knowledge to prevent this problem, we can expect drug usage to decrease, because they have been introduced to this problem and know all the negatives effects drugs have on the human body. There are a lot of controversial issues in our society and drugs is one of them, so it is very important to bring this topic up to the public and let them know that there is no shame for a drug abuser to admit that they have a problem and that they need to seek therapy. There are also a lot of cultural and traditional barriers that could affect the processing of this program, so our goal is to breach and break all these barriers and expose a problem that is considered as a â€Å"Taboo† topic. It is essential to make a step now, because as we all see, it is a growing issue and the accessibility for drugs is really easy nowadays, that is why our society needs to open up their minds to these kind of problems or else it will affect our future generations. You read "Drug Prevention Program" in category "Essay examples" Key Objectives Setting objectives is really important for any organization or a project because it will let us know what we are trying to achieve and it will increase our chances of success. Our objectives will deliver major benefits to this program and the most important one that it will define the purpose of this project. We set for our project 4 different objectives for our program (Operational, Marketing, Financial and CSR) and they are all SMART objectives. * Operational Objective: Conduct a seminar every two week in a different location each time while having diverse guest speakers in each location. Marketing Objective: To increase awareness and publicity of the program through sponsored events and media notifications by 20% within the next 3 months. * Financial Objective: To increase customer base of the firm by 7% by the end of the program as a result of the program’s positive effect on society. * CSR Objective: Increase community welfare by decreasing level of society’s drug administration 15% by the end of program. Having these objectives is like a powerful tool that will help us succeed and it will keep our team motivated and seeks more accomplishments. Feasibility Analysis Macro Before venturing into a new project, it is important to assess the external environment of a business and what possible impacts can affect the project. The threats and opportunities are external factors that guide a project towards taking certain decisions over others. Social factors: Kuwait, as compared to the rest of the world, receives a generally higher average income. This shows that the majority of the population in Kuwait is on the higher side of the income range. Within the lifestyle changes are the increasing popularity of social media and its different usages within societies. It is a powerful tool to reach as many people within society as possible. Social trends in Kuwait can affect the way people look at the Drug Prevention Program (DPP). Since drug abuse is a taboo topic, tackling it publicly would face some kind of hesitance by the public. Ensuring that local positive public figures as a part of our program would change the attitudes of people in Kuwait. It would garner more publicity and receive more entrants within the program. Technological factors: The increasing usage of technology in these times means more coverage for the DPP. People surfing the net, using social media and/or browsing through the various forms of technologies can find (or be exposed to) items and events that are happening around them and more information about each finding. In order to reach a bigger range of people, the program needs to be technologically updated in terms of websites, social media and pop-up ads if necessary. Technology must also be used to enhance the quality of whatever is being presented and also to improve the organization and efficiency of what is being accomplished. There is no firm, program or organization deemed to be successful without the usage of thorough technology. The marketplace for whatever that needs to be launched today needs strict technological requirements that need to be met so that it can connect to a wider audience. Environmental factors: There are many factors that influence industries and the industries affected by environmental factors (weather and climate changes) include tourism, agriculture and economic industries. However, there should not be much stress on what environmental aspects can affect the DPP because its nature is not affected by climate changes. As long as there will not be any significant hazard, the environmental factors can be considered as off the radar for this type of DPP. Economic factors: An economy affects the way a society behave and it obviously alternate their decisions depending upon how high or low it is. If the local economy has resulted in higher interest rates, this will mean that firms will be less likely to invest in what might seem like an unpredictable gamble. This DPP needs sponsorship and is based on fund-raiser events to continue the progress of the program, and not much participation will happen if the economic times are low. Another factor of economy is the strength of the currency. Kuwait has a very strong currency and its affects import/export activities, but that will not be an issue because the program does not need much of these activities. If inflation occurs, staff will need higher salaries and this will affect the planned budget. The salaries need to be raised so that the staff can be satisfied when being compared to other raised salaries within the fields and industries. Political factors: When political factors are mentioned, one automatically thinks of the laws and regulations that restrict an action or a project from fully taking shape. Since drug abuse is a taboo topic, there are bound to be limits to what can be done through the project. The law in Kuwait prohibits the live showcase of drugs and substances that can be abused. This can somewhat hinder our performance because it will limit what the group can show a live audience to enlighten them on what needs to be stayed away from. If guest speakers in the form of previous users need to be brought in to enlighten the participants, there will be restrictions due to the law not allowing prisoners to exit their cells and talk about experiences only once their period is over. This means that only ex-abusers who have finished their trials and prison time can enlighten the participants, the newly caught addicts will not be able to. It must be noted that the DPP will not focus much on current abusers who were caught abusing rather than those who willingly wanted to quit drug and substance abuse. Before continuing further with this project, legal framework needs to be conducted so that the project is validated and under the microscopic view of the government ensuring that no illegal limits are surpassed. Legal factors: Laws banning against age and race discrimination will not affect the DPP heavily as the participation has no kind of restriction whatsoever. A participant does not even have to be an abuser, or even in contact with one. Since the jobs offered to the staff will not be permanent, there will not be a minimum wage assigned to what the individual salary amount is. There is a law in Kuwait that states: any Kuwaiti national working in the private sector will receive a fixed amount each month as an addition to what a firm is handing over as a salary. This law will not be applied to the DPP because the vacant jobs offered are not permanent positions; it is only in the duration of the events that the assigned staff will be a part of the program. Permission needs to be granted from the governmental censors to give the program the green light to go ahead with the project. After permission has been granted, the banquet hall owners need to be aware of the purpose and activities of the DPP. Macro SWOT Analysis Strengths: * Controversial * Good Cause * Society’s Benefit Weaknesses: * No monetary ROI Costly * Taboo Opportunities: * Program Expansion * Rehab Formation * Brand Image Threats: * Public Decline * Influential Competition * Insufficient funding to continue This drug prevention program has strengths and weakness. The strengths are it controversial many people might disagree to expose the idea or issue; which is currently available and increasing radically. The good cause is that it spreading awareness and leading drug addi cts to the right direction. This will benefit the society by having a better living and health. The weakness are that there aren’t monetary ROI; zero profit and it cost a lot there will be a loss in return because this campaign is setup to have better youth to have better society. Its taboo because people in the Arab region see it as shame and don’t attempt that it exists. There are many opportunities for the program; which are to expand the program and format a rehab and boost brand image. The threats are the public decline which is the society not accepting the idea. Influential competition is another threat which other companies or banks can launch a campaign similar to ours. The last threat is the insufficient funding; not having enough money or if NBK stops funding us. NBK’s CSR programs are successful due to the reason that it encompasses as many fields as it can possibly be a positive addition to. The strengths are the variety of areas that NBK is participating in to achieve and maintain an improved society. It has a diverse selection of activities: social, educational, philanthropic, sports-related and more. NBK has built a positive reputation for itself as a pioneer in merging its daily activities along with CSR activities for the improvement of society. Currently, a weakness is that NBK is not a part of any project or program that supports the fight against drug and substance abuse. The DPP is the right step and opportunity to turn this weakness into strength. Another weakness for the CSR of NBK is that it does not necessarily include the entire society. Without this program, people into drug and substance abuse are sidelined and not given any help or guidance. The opportunities resulting from external factors are that NBK can further push its CSR boundaries and continue in pursuing other untapped fields that need to be brought to the general public’s eye. NBK releases a CSR annual report that showcases their social responsibilities towards society. It lists what NBK has done the previous year in terms of initiatives and activities. This shows how the private sectors in Kuwait are competing to be the best CSR champions with the most good done to society. This benefits the society more than it benefits the firms competing to help and improve. An opportunity in the form of program continual rises due to the strong need for initiatives upping society’s standards. The next phase of the project can be adopted by NBK’s rival if the program proves to be a success. Drug and substance abuse is a taboo topic in Kuwait even today. Not wholeheartedly knowing what the general public’s reaction is means that a threat is opposing the DPP. There are bound to be people who do not want to associate themselves with taboo topics such as drugs which mean that there will be some kind of a decline from a section of the public. It is vital to assess how the threats and weaknesses fare against the strengths and opportunities of this program. Financial Projections Cash flow| |   | Year 1| Year 2| Year 3| | | | | |   | Net profit| | | 105,050 | 105,050 | 105,050 | Depreciation| | | 105,050 | 105,050 | 105,050 | Office Rent| | | 2,100 | 2,100 | 2,100 | Media costs| | | 93,500 | 93,500 | 93,500 | Staff| | | 11,000 | 11,000 | 11,000 | Transportation| | | 200 | 200 | 200 | Cash profits| | | 0 | 0 | 0 | Increase in CA| | | n/a| n/a| n/a| Net cash from operating activities| | | 0 | 0 | 0 | Renovations| | | 0 | 0 | 0 | change in FA| | | (850,000)|   |   | Net cash after investing activities| | | (850,000)| 0 | 0 | Capital induction| | | 105,050 | 0 | 0 | change in advance rentals| | | 6,300 | (417,600)| (104,400)| Net increase in cash| | | (738,650)| (417,600)| (104,400)| | | | | |   | Opening cash balance| | | 0 | (738,650)| (1,156,250)| Closing cash balance| | | (738,650)| (1,156,250)| (1,260,650)| | | | | | | | | | (745,350)| (1,281,750)| (1,831,890)| | | | | | | Net Profit| |   | 26,933 | 479,733 | 493,473 | Inv Capital|   | | 0| 0| 0| ROI|   | | #DIV/0! | #DIV/0! | #DIV/0! | | | | | | | Net cashflow from operations| | | 26,933 | 479,733 | 493,473 |   | | | | | | | | | | | | Requirements In order for the project to be implemented, there are a few requirements that need to be taken in to consideration. To further promote this program, it has been decided that seminars will be held at different schools and universities. To proceed with this we will need knowledgeable staff or speakers, and/or former addicts to speak at these seminars. Another requirement would be setting up booths and banners in Avenues, Marina Mall, and 360. Also for spreading the word about this program in less expensive way we will be designing different brochures and handing them out at the seminars and booths. Some of the other activities that will be done are fundraisers and getting different sponsorship’s to boost the program. For this to be done operationally speaking we will need sufficient staff to arry out the tasks and/or guest speakers, money for printing and equipment, vehicles, and having meetings and presentations. The staff will need to be able to design the brochures and banners, set up booths, and be knowledgeable about the program to deliver the message in meetings and presentations. Like most projects money is a key factor to get the job done. We will need money for gas, staff, printing, and other equipme nt. Technically the program is going to require computers for emailing and organizing with school officials and NBK members also to stay financially organized with sufficient data. For this program to run smoothly we must also focus on logistics. Organization and planning are a must for determining which schools or universities and which dates are the most appropriate and effective. As mentioned earlier the three malls were chosen for the banners and booths, because they are the most popular and seem to be the most effective for reaching the target audience. Some good locations for the seminars could be reception halls and popular locations that can be rented, for the presentations and meetings on the other the NBK meeting room seems to be most suitable for our program. Viability In terms of Return on Investment Viability, our project will not be gaining any monetary returns directly since it is a non-profit program. For the ROI formula we will calculate zero (no profit) divided by 105,050 (for one year) which will be equal to zero percent financial gain. The total investment required is 315,150 for the three years of the program. Our ROI for the first year will be zero. Competitive Viability Like any project, the Drug program will need to be viable and sustainable with regards to competition. This means that our program can survive long-term and eventually gain profit while competing with similar programs in Kuwait. In Kuwait however, there is already some competition. One major competitor is the National Anti-Drug Committee. This committee was founded in 1989, and their main goals are similar to our program’s goals, which are to focus on the youth and the protection of the health of society. Also similar to our goals is the fact that they are trying to introduce some awareness amongst the education fields. Although there is some competition already in the market, we believe that program can become more competitive nce introduced, because we will be working with NBK which is a very popular bank, especially among the youth. The National Anti-Drug Committee is not well known in Kuwait, yet has been around for many years. Although this is true about the National Anti-Drug Committee, our program will still have a competitive advantage working with NBK. Also we are goin g to be introducing many guest speakers at different seminars through different schools. We will be bringing people who have abused drugs and overcame these issues, which will have a great impact on people in a society like Kuwait. Another thing that our program is going to offer is setting up different fundraisers throughout Kuwait to raise awareness about the serious nature of drug abuse. These different activities that our project will be conducting will give our company and program a more competitive edge in the market. Economic Viability In order for our drug program to be viable economically, it will need to create different job opportunities and possibly attract people to work at NBK. This program is an extremely controversial activity in a society like Kuwait where the issue of drugs and drug abuse is a taboo subject. By confronting the matter and showing people how serious and spread out this problem is in Kuwait already, we can show people that NBK cares about this and is not afraid to be associated with fighting it. The project for NBK will require staff and/or volunteers. This will create job openings for anyone interested. It may even attract people to work for NBK, because it shows that they care about and are giving back to society. This further promotes NBK’s vision to benefit the society where they function. References * Fattahova, N. (2012). Awareness campaign to prevent drug abuse . ttp://news. kuwaittimes. net/2012/08/22/awareness-campaign-to-prevent-drug-abuse/. Last accessed 11th Nov 2012. * Kuwait. nbk. (2012). About NBK. http://www. kuwait. nbk. com/about/disclosures/default_en_gb. aspx. Last accessed 10th Nov 2012. * Murray, J. (2012). Viability (of a business). http://biztaxlaw. about. com/od/glossaryv/g/viability. htm. Last accessed 9th Nov 2012. * Vyakarnam, S . Writing a business plan, clarification and preparation – the market approach. http://https://docs. google. com/viewer/. Last accessed 14th Nov 2012 Appendix Cashflow| |   | Year 1| Year 2| Year 3| | | | | |   | Net profit| | | 105,050 | 105,050 | 105,050 | Depreciation| | | 105,050 | 105,050 | 105,050 | Office Rent| | | 2,100 | 2,100 | 2,100 | Media costs| | | 93,500 | 93,500 | 93,500 | Staff| | | 11,000 | 11,000 | 11,000 | Transportation| | | 200 | 200 | 200 | Cash profits| | | 0 | 0 | 0 | Increasein CA| | | n/a| n/a| n/a| Net cash from operating activities| | | 0 | 0 | 0 | Renovations| | | 0 | 0 | 0 | change in FA| | | (850,000)|   |   | Net cash after investing activities| | | (850,000)| 0 | 0 | Capital induction| | | 105,050 | 0 | 0 | hange in advance rentals| | | 6,300 | (417,600)| (104,400)| Net increase in cash| | | (738,650)| (417,600)| (104,400)| | | | | |   | Opening cash balance| | | 0 | (738,650)| (1,156,250)| Closing cash balance| | | (738,650)| (1,156,250)| (1,260,650)| | | | | | | | | | (745,350)| (1,281,750)| (1,831,890)| | | | | | | Net Profit| |   | 26,933 | 479,733 | 493,473 | Inv Capital|   | | 0| 0| 0| ROI|   | | #DIV/0! | #DIV/0! | #DIV/0! | | | | | | | Net cashflow from operations| | | 26,933 | 479,733 | 493,473 |   | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | ROI Calculation Amount of Financial Gain Total Investment Amount 0 0 105. 050 How to cite Drug Prevention Program, Essay examples

Friday, December 6, 2019

An Evaluation of Public Sector Reform of Ireland

Question: Describe about purpose of public sector reform in Ireland and administrative reform? Answer: Introduction Public sector reforms are necessary for every government to change the course of its operation. The areas of the implementation of the public sector reform are welfare, the healthcare sector, government administration and those areas where the government has substantial stake. The reasons for such public sector can be multidimensional. It can be due to budgetary reasons, political reasons, or because of the need to improve the service of the government. The public sector reform are often implemented and launched by the politicians who are in charge of government service. (Nolan, 2001) Such ideological public sector reform is for putting a stamp of the political party. This can be explained by an example. A government whose main focus is on business then it would aim to reduce the operation of a healthcare department or enable companies to control issues like useless spending, immigration and many more issues related to the government. Then again a government can act in a different wa y by encouraging the health service department or nationalize whole industries. Our report aims to explore the Public Sector reform implemented by Ireland. (Killian and Eklund, 2008) Purpose Of Public Sector Reform In Ireland Before we start analyzing the need for the public sector reform in Ireland, we must gain knowledge about the country. Ireland is considered to be a small country having a population of about 4.6 million. The government of Ireland is dependent on the Westminster and Whitehall public interest and follows common tradition of law. It has a written Constitution and the president of Ireland is an elected one possessing limited powers. The ministerial responsibility is the link of accountability between the political and administrative arena. The other form of government is the local government which also performs limited functions. (Guthrie, 2005) Over the last five years, Ireland had witnessed significant alteration in the public services. There has been reduction in the working staffs by 10 percent. Other changes that had occurred n the public services is cut in wages and also changes were brought about in the terms and conditions of employment. In this regard, a public sector reform was most needed and the government of Ireland has implemented one such reform. The objective of the reform is improving the public service efficiency and upgrading the quality of public service to the residents of the country. (Mazars.ie, 2015) Administrative Reform The international and national fiscal crisis had created an atmosphere for reform in the public administration. The direction of the public sector reform prior to fiscal crisis was different than the environment of public sector reform after the fiscal crisis. The National Recovery Plan (2010) stated that the GDP and GNP was 11 percent and 15 percent below the rates in the year 2007 (in real terms). The rate of employment had fallen by 13 percent from its previous year 2007 which depicted a peak in the level of employment. Accordingly there was a rise in the unemployment rate from 4.6 percent to 13.5 percent. (Curristine, 2008) The response of the government to the financial crisis by the end of the year 2010 was by signing a memorandum of understanding with the European Union for financial support of 85 billion to Ireland through the European Financial stability Fund. The government also took loans from the UK, Sweden and Denmark and through the Extended Fund Facility of IMF requested to them to support Ireland. This programme of support meant that Irish government was limiting their fiscal factors and framework for a period of three years. This phase of Ireland forced them to reassess its priority by reforming the public services and general operations and functions of the public administration. (Andrews, Downe and Guarneros-Meza, 2013) The first step that the government of Ireland had taken to mitigate the crisis is the reduction in employment and pay cuts in public service. The main aim of this reform was to control the government expenditure which was already under distress due to the support programme that gave financial hand to the Ireland. The Public Service Agreement in 2010 planned to cut down workers and their wages and also to revise the terms and conditions of work. This agreement was again extended by the title Public Service Stability Agreement 2013-2016 which was implemented by the Labour Relations Commission 2013. The basic framework of such extension was to increase savings for the public service payments and pension bill of 1 billion by the year 2016 for the purpose of achieving fiscal targets. The result of the reform and its extension was significant. The employment of the residents of Ireland was at its peak in 2008 and dropped by 10 percent which was from 320,000 to 287,780 in 2013. Due to the r eduction in the wage and employment, the public service expenditure also reduced from 18.7 billion to 16.6 billion in 2013. But due to the ever increasing population of Ireland, the employment-population ratio has dropped from its stable position between 70-73 public sector employees per thousand populations in the year 2008 to 63.2 per thousand populations in the year 2013. (Birrell, 2010) The next step taken by the Irish government apart from pay cut and employment removal was redeployment of workers within the public administration. This was because of the removal of employees the functioning of departments was the cut was high, was not able to function properly. So, the reshuffling of employees and their functions was required. In this context it was necessary for the public service officials to improve their flexibility, productivity and mobility to perform tasks in different sectors, organizations and boundaries in professions. The Public Sector Reform implemented by the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform in 2011 that aimed at reorienting the operations and functions of the public service. (Boyle, 2014) The plan identified five areas of priorities which are improvement in the customer service, innovation of service delivery channels, reduction in cost, improvement in leadership skills and organizational skills and upgrading the implementation of services. Other issues that were included in the reform are the developing the shared services, outsourcing and procurement procedures. The reform may have witnessed progress but significant problems still remain in this plan. The pool reduction of employees below the age of 30 was indicated as an issue which must be catered soon. The problem can be solved if proper monitoring and individuals with desired caliber are hired for the betterment of the future of the public service. (Birrell, 2012) The Department of Public Expenditure and Reform announced another reform initiative in January 2014. It named it Public Service Reform Plan 2014-16 which focuses on rendering advanced outcomes, reform dividend by which the savings must be utilized to invest in innovative services, digitalization and openness and accountability. (Jacobs, 2001) Evaluation of Public Service Reform Plan 2014-2016 The public service has complemented the national recovery of the country and thus it has always played the central role in combating the challenges with strategic management. The new public service reform was set out with the ambition of new phase in the reformatory world. There are four priorities of the plan which are discussed below: (Reformplan.per.gov.ie, 2015) 1. Improved outcomes- the previous plan focused on the reduction of cost of public service whereas this plan also follows the same rule but with the view to implement improved outcome delivery by using alternative models of service delivery, commission on particular outcomes, services being more digitalized and improvements in the delivery of service at sectoral as well as organizational levels.2. Reform dividend- the new plan focuses on the issues of protecting and enhancing public services and its emphasis is on releasing resources by delivering cost effective and efficient delivery with the help of savings that will eventually be invested for the better.3. Digitalization- with the advent of technological upgradation the public service by maximum utilization of the technology to digitalize and use open data to deliver quality service and bring about innovation in information. The government has initiated a new ICT Strategy that aims at government using the emerging technologies and ensure eGovernance to improve its functioning. (ODonnell, 2015)4. Openness and accountability- the functioning of the public service must cater to the openness, aspect of transparency and accountability in order to gain the trust of the of the citizens. This also focuses on maintaining improved governance. In this regard a consultation paper has been released that concentrates on the strengthening the accountability and performance of Civil Service. Apart from these issues the Public service reform also focuses on implementing models of share service, reforming the procedure of public procurement, rationing of properties, improving aspect of leadership in the governance of public service and also bringing reforms in the Human Resource Department. (Action Plan for Public Service Reform 2014 - 2016, 2015) Sectoral Reforms: The public service is of three tier - the Executive, the Legislative and the Judiciary which works to serve the welfare of the citizens of the Ireland. The public services of Ireland include civil, health, education, local government, prison, courts, defence and other non commercial services. Among the public servants are teachers, nurses, doctors, planners, welfare officers, defence forces, engineers, tax collectors, economic regulators, police and many more. Since a large number of human resources are engaged to the public services, this gives importance to the sectoral reform for the proper implementation of the Public service reform. (https://www.accaglobal.com, 2015) We have discussed what are reformed in this context and the reason behind such reform. Some sectors that contribute to the sectoral reform are: (Reformplan.per.gov.ie, 2015) Civil service- the contribution of civil service in Ireland is important. It deals with advising the government in times of economic distress and challenges, formulating important policies and programmes, regulating services, catering to the interest of the Ireland outside the country and serving the common people. Since the population is increasing which exerting an upward pressure on the economy, hence the need to renew the mission and strategy of the civil service must be on the run. The reformatory phase enabled the civil service to be transparent and open so that the change in the sector can impact the needs of the Ireland in a positive way. Health service- the human development index of a country takes into account the life expectancy rate. This means that the health service must be improved. The recovery of Ireland also includes the health aspect which is supported by a scheme of Universal Health Insurance (UHI). With the huge debts of Ireland, the government aimed to cut dow n cost from all sectors including the health. Thus, the financial as well as the increasing demand pressurized the health system to step towards reform. The health reform focuses on four key elements: wellbeing, service reform by implementation of Positive Ageing Strategy, structural reform by revising the model of healthcare to UHI and tax funding model. Education- during the financial distress of Ireland education had played a significant role in knowledge building and improves the financial condition of the country towards economic growth. Hence, the need to improve the education and the training sector was much needed. The four central theme of the educational reform are: learning for life to provide education universally, improve the quality and accountability by rendering high quality education and training, inclusion and diversity in the sector which focused on including disable children, children with different culture, language, social status must also be included, building infrastructure to accommodate sufficient children and also educate children with the use of technology. In this regard National Literacy and Numeracy Strategy aimed to achieve improvement targets by 2020. Local government- the need for reforming the local government is because for the recovery of Ireland overall economic development, funding from taxation, efficient delivery of services and all other public services are to be performed by the local government. So the reformation of the local government is based on Putting People First, which is the action plan of the Irish government which emphasizes on four aspects which are: focusing on economy, organization and local community by promoting economic development, creating jobs and improving the community status, to strengthening the local government system so that efficient performance is delivered to the society and building good governance, improving leadership and maintaining accountability by developing policies and ethics. Justice and Equality sector- the judiciary system of a country impacts the lives of the people by protecting life and property, preventing crimes, delivery justice, promoting and fair and equal justice and ma ny more aspect. All these play an important role in Ireland which requires this sector to reform. In order to perform justice efficiently and effectively and to solve the problems related to demography, social changes and significance reduction in budgets, the Ireland Minister of Justice and Equality implemented a reformatory programme that aimed at: focusing the citizens welfare, valuing money, maximum usage of ICT and utilize shared and common service. They key reforms that are taken are tackling crime by incorporating National Anti-Crime Strategy to achieve target by 2018. Conclusion The detrimental realities of Ireland can be detected from the rise in the debt which was around 124% of GDP in 2013 and it is expected that this debt will reduce by 2015 which will be around 122% of the GDP. (Northernireland.gov.uk, 2015) In this regard the public sector reform plays a crucial role in combating the challenges. The public sector reform requires concentrating on the service levels of the residents of Ireland. It is also important to review the reforms from time to time so that the efficiency and effectiveness of them are measured and if required can be amended with extensions. (wiseGEEK, 2015) From the report we find that the public sector reform was much needed by Ireland due to its economic distress after the financial crisis. The Public service reform has focused on all the sector s of the country in order to distribute the reformation throughout the country. (Hardiman, n.d.) References Action Plan for Public Service Reform 2014 - 2016. (2015). 1st ed. [ebook] Available at: https://www.reformplan.per.gov.ie/2014/resources/Action-Plan.pdf [Accessed 21 Mar. 2015]. Andrews, R., Downe, J. and Guarneros-Meza, V. (2013).Public Sector Reform in the UK: Views and Experiences from Senior Executives. [online] https://www.cocops.eu. Available at: https://www.cocops.eu/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/UK_WP3-Country-Report.pdf [Accessed 21 Mar. 2015]. Birrell, D. (2010). Public sector reform in Northern Ireland: policy copying or a distinctive model of public sector modernization?.Public Money Management, 30(2), pp.109-116. Birrell, D. (2012). Policy Copying and Public Sector Reform in Northern Ireland.Regional Federal Studies, 22(3), pp.309-321. Boyle, R. (2014).Public Sector Reform in Ireland: Views and Experiences from Local Government Senior Executives. [online] https://ipa.ie/. Available at: https://ipa.ie/pdf/PublicSectorReform_LocalGovViews.pdf [Accessed 21 Mar. 2015]. Curristine, T. (2008).Ireland. Paris: OECD. Guthrie, J. (2005).International public financial management reform. Greenwich, Conn.: Information Age Pub. Hardiman, N. (n.d.). Economic Crisis and Public Sector Reform: Lessons from Ireland.SSRN Journal. https://www.accaglobal.com, A. (2015).Northern Ireland finance minister says innovative reform is needed to tranform the public sector | ACCA Global. [online] Accaglobal.com. Available at: https://www.accaglobal.com/hk/en/discover/news/2014/12/hamilton-public.html [Accessed 21 Mar. 2015]. Jacobs, S. (2001).Regulatory reform in Ireland. Paris: Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. Killian, J. and Eklund, N. (2008).Handbook of administrative reform. Boca Raton: CRC Press. Mazars.ie, (2015).Implementing Public Sector Reform - Mazars - Ireland. [online] Available at: https://www.mazars.ie/Home/News/Latest-News/2014-News-Archive/Implementing-Public-Sector-Reform [Accessed 21 Mar. 2015]. Nolan, B. (2001).Public sector reform. Houndmills [England]: Palgrave. Northernireland.gov.uk, (2015).25 November 2014 - Ground-breaking review will support reform - Hamilton | Northern Ireland Executive. [online] Available at: https://www.northernireland.gov.uk/news-dfp-251114-ground-breaking-review [Accessed 21 Mar. 2015]. ODonnell, O. (2015).Innovation in the Irish public sector. 1st ed. [ebook] Institute of Public Administration. Available at: https://www.cpmr.gov.ie/documents/innovation%20in%20the%20irish%20public%20sector.pdf [Accessed 21 Mar. 2015]. Reformplan.per.gov.ie, (2015).Public Service Reform Plan 2014-2016. [online] Available at: https://reformplan.per.gov.ie/ [Accessed 21 Mar. 2015]. Reformplan.per.gov.ie, (2015).Public Service Reform Plan 2014-2016. [online] Available at: https://www.reformplan.per.gov.ie/2014/exec_summary/exec_summary.html [Accessed 21 Mar. 2015]. wiseGEEK, (2015).What Are Public Sector Reforms? (with picture). [online] Available at: https://www.wisegeek.com/what-are-public-sector-reforms.htm [Accessed 21 Mar. 2015].