Abolition of the Death Penalty

Jeremy Brooks Suzanne Gerbasi Coms 101-37 10/30/12 Persuasive Speech Topic: Abolition of the Death Penalty General Purpose: To Persuade Specific purpose: To persuade my audience that we should abolish the death penalty in California. Central Idea: The death penalty should be abolished because of the inefficiency of the legal system, its high economic cost, and its moral implications. I. Introduction When I joined the current debate team in high school, I knew I would have to learn to respect and accept points of view different than my own.Arguing both sides of a hot topic taught me to value the merit of my opposition’s points. With much research and an open-mind, I even came to change my opinions on many issues—including my support of California’s death penalty. After getting down to brass tacks and really looking at the facts, I concluded that the negatives far outweigh any positives of the death penalty. Along with the extremely high costs, it uses up countless hours of court time and often discriminates against certain groups of people.While other countries have moved forward and outlawed this practice, we remain clinging to an idea that is no longer practical or ethical in today’s world. California needs to abolish the death penalty and save our time, tax dollars, and innocent people’s lives. You would think that keeping someone alive for the rest of their life would be a greater financial burden then simply condemning them to their death, right? Wrong. In this counter-intuitive situation, executing a person is a much more complicated process than it seems.When you add up the costs of pre-trial legalities, the actual trials themselves, appeal court cases, and the necessary incarceration of convicts in maximum-security prisons, the total has robbed Californians of an exorbitant amount of money. Exactly how much is that? Well, a study by Judge Arthur Alarcon and Prof. Paula Mitchell  concluded that the death penalty in Cal ifornia has cost us more than $4 billion since 1978. Furthermore, according to the California Commission on the Fair Administration of Justice, the death penalty policy is currently costing our state at least $137 million each year.Now compare this to the cost of a life without parole system-which would only cost the state $11. 5 million a year. Do the math; a switch to this kind of system would save more than $125 million dollars annually- that isn’t mere pocket change. Now let’s take a look at how well the death penalty works in practice. To give you a picture of how inefficient California’s death penalty system is, according to the Death Penalty Information Center- 86% of inmates die from other causes before they can be executed.This is because inmates spend their time appealing, finding expert witnesses, and looking for loopholes in the system to drag out the court process. This takes up the valuable time of our limited resources of qualified judges and lawy ers. By switching to a system that gives convicted felons life without parole, we would bring inmates to a similar standard of other prisoners convicted of serious felonies. This would restore valuable court time to judges and lawyers while still making sure that the lawbreakers are given the punishment they deserve.So what happens when it actually comes to executing people? The death penalty has proven to be unfairly biased in many ways by the human rights organization Amnesty International. First of all, it is racially biased. Amnesty International’s research has found that, â€Å"Since 1977, the overwhelming majority of death row defendants (77%) have been executed for killing white victims, even though African-Americans make up about half of all homicide victims. † Secondly, the death penalty doesn’t take mental illness into account. Therefore, dozens of prisoners have been executed despite their disabilities.Third, most people sentenced to death cannot affo rd to hire their own attorney. This means the state has to provide them with an unmotivated lawyer who will not likely present his best case possible. In addition, political factors, chance, and location can all decide whether a person lives or dies. Do we really want to make such an important decision- condemning a person to death- when such arbitrary conditions are present? Take into account that I have not even mentioned up to now the many times we have gotten it wrong and executed or had to release innocent victims.Amnesty reports that more than 140 people have been cleared from crimes after being sentenced to die. I certainly don’t want that hanging over my conscience. To be fair, since I have said why we should abolish the death penalty I suppose it is fair to give the two main arguments in favor of the death penalty a chance. One main reason I hear people say they support the death penalty is because it is a deterrent that scares people into cooperating. However, there is no evidence to suggest that this is true. In fact, there is evidence to support that opposite.FBI data shows that the states without a death penalty have lower homicide rates on average. Also, most homicides happen on a whim- meaning the killer probably isn’t clearly thinking through the consequences of his or her actions at the time of the crime. The other argument I hear is that it is cheaper to kill someone than take care of him or her until they die. Based on the data I provided earlier we know this is false. With a strong case for the abolition of the death penalty in California, it is time to let you know what you can do to make this happen.Besides educating your friends, protesting the death penalty, and joining nonprofit organizations like Amnesty International, the most effective step you can take today to stop the death penalty is mark a yes on your ballot next to Proposition 34. Prop 34 would change our flawed policy to the life without parole option I mentione d. This would save valuable court time, taxpayers’ dollars, and ensure that we aren’t being racially biased or murdering innocent people. Any way you look at it, the death penalty needs to die.

Banana Fibre Manual

Waste to Wealth : Craft Development Using Banana Fibre A PEOPLE’S MANUAL WASTE TO WEALTH : CRAFT DEVELOPMENT USING BANANA FIBRE CAPRE FOUNDATION | Page 1 www. caprefoundation. org A People’s Manual Waste to Wealth : Craft Development Using Banana Fibre About CAPRE Foundation CAPRE Foundation is a non-profit, voluntary organization registered in 1999 under Section 21 of the Societies Registrations Act, 1860. It was founded by grass roots people including tribals with a social conscience to work for socio-economic, cultural and educational upliftment of marginalized/underprivileged people.The foundation has been actively involved in social concerns such as sustainable livelihood, health and non formal education and is working on development programmes in rural areas of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand and Delhi. Mission Creating Awareness Programs to promote development as a liberating force aimed at inclusivity, social justice, economic growth and selfreliance for the upl iftment of rural marginalized and underprivileged people. Vision To create global awareness about the exclusion that underprivileged people suffer in India together with becoming a leading organization in transparency, good governance and best practice ________, Editor  © CAPRE Foundation, Allahabad Address Registered Office : 24 Strachey Road Civil Lines Dist. – Allahabad – 211001 (UP) Field Office : Professor’s Colony, Near Manavi, Shiv Pahar, Dumka – 814101, Jharkhand E-mail : [email  protected] com Website : www. caprefoundation. org Printed By : Page 2 A People’s Manual Waste to Wealth : Craft Development Using Banana Fibre Contents The Tree The Fibre Fibre Extraction Characteristics of Banana fibre Applications of Banana fibre Cost Benefit Analysis CAPRE Foundation ‘s efforts promote banana fibre craft A few products being developed by CAPRE Foundation 4 4 5 5 6 7 8 9Page 3 A People’s Manual Waste to Wealth : Craft Developmen t Using Banana Fibre The tree Banana is the common name for herbaceous plants of the genus Musa and for the fruit they produce. Bananas come in a variety of sizes and colors when ripe, including yellow, purple, and red. Almost all modern edible parthenocarpic bananas come from the two wild species Musa acuminata and Musa balbisiana. The scientific names of bananas are Musa acuminata, Musa balbisiana or hybrids Musa acuminata ? balbisiana, depending on their genomic constitution.The old scientific names Musa sapientum and Musa paradisiaca are no longer used. The major banana producing states of India are Tamilnadu, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh, Assam and Madhya Pradesh. The Fibre Banana plant not only gives the delicious fruit but it also provides textile fiber, the banana fiber. It grows easily as it sets out young shoots and is most commonly found in hot tropical climates. All varieties of banana plants have fibers in abundance. These fibers are obtained after th e fruit is harvested and fall in the group of bast fibers.This plant has long been a good source for high quality textiles in many parts of the world including India. After the fruit and the leaves are harvested, the bark of the tree is used which otherwise would have gone waste. The fibre is extracted from the bark of the tree which is the mother of so many beautiful handcrafted banana fibre products. Page 4 A People’s Manual Waste to Wealth : Craft Development Using Banana Fibre The banana fibre is composed of cellulose – 62%, lignin – 29%, hemicellulose 3%, rectin – 2%, miscellaneous – 4%. By-products of the fibre are : fabrics, ags, various types of mats, interior decoration items, window blinds, cushion covers, bolster covers, table lamps and folders, to name a few. The products are completely eco-friendly and bio-degradable. There is no consumption of electricity while making the products as it is made on the handlooms. Also, no chemicals are used in the manufacture. It is an excellent substitute for plastic and paper. Fibre Extraction Banana Fiber is extracted from Banana tree bark. The trunk is peeled. Browngreen skin is thrown away retaining the cleaner or white portion which will be processed into knotted fibers.The fibers are extracted through hand extraction machine composed of either serrated or non serrated knives. The peel is clamped between the wood plank and knife and hand-pulled through, removing the resinous material. The extracted fibers are sun-dried which whitens the fiber. Once dried, the fibers are ready for knotting. A bunch of fibers are mounted or clamped on a stick to facilitate segregation. Each fiber is separated according to fiber sizes and grouped accordingly. To knot the fiber, each fiber is separated and knotted to the end of another fiber manually.The separation and knotting is repeated until bunches of unknotted fibers are finished to form a long continuous strand. This fiber can now be use d for making various products. Characteristics of Banana fibre Banana fiber is a natural bast fiber. It has its own physical and chemical characteristics and many other properties that make it a fine quality fiber. ? Appearance of banana fiber is similar to that of bamboo fiber and ramie fiber, but its fineness and spinnability is better than the two. ? The chemical composition of banana fiber is cellulose, hemicellulose, and lignin.Page 5 A People’s Manual Waste to Wealth : Craft Development Using Banana Fibre ? It is highly strong fiber. ? It has smaller elongation. ? It has somewhat shiny appearance depending upon the extraction & spinning process. ? It is light weight. ? It has strong moisture absorption quality. It absorbs as well as releases moisture very fast. ? It is bio-degradable and has no negative effect on environment and thus can be categorized as eco-friendly fiber. ? Its average fineness is 2400Nm. ? It can be spun through almost all the methods of spinning in cluding ring spinning, open-end spinning, bast iber spinning, and semi-worsted spinning among others. Applications of Banana fibre In the recent past, banana fiber had a very limited application and was primarily used for making items like ropes, mats, and some other composite materials. With the increasing environmental awareness and growing importance of eco-friendly fabrics, banana fiber has also been recognized for all its good qualities and now its application is increasing in other fields too such as apparel garments and home furnishings. Banana fiber is also used to make fine cushion covers, Necties, bags, table cloths, curtains etc.Rugs made from banana silk yarn fibers are also very popular world over. Different applications of the fibre are – ? Banana fibre has great potentialities for paper making special demand of Hand made paper. ? Its fibre has used like rope, mats and other composite materials. ? Banana fibre has recognined for apparels and home furnishings. Pa ge 6 A People’s Manual Waste to Wealth : Craft Development Using Banana Fibre ? Polypropylene reinforced with banana fibre is used by automobile companies for making underfloor protection panels in luxurious cars like Mercedes. Banana fibre mostly used in making handicrafts and home decorative. ? Composite material of banana fibre used in building boards and fire resistance boards. ? Banana fibre is making products like paper bags, filter paper, greeting cards, decorative papers, pen stands, lamp stand and many more. ? Banana fibre in used currency notes in Germany and trial run in India also. ? During the research, it was found that paper made out of this fiber has shelf life of over 100 years as it is the strongest of the long fibres ever found amidst natural fibres.It can be folded for as many as 3,000 times. It can used currency and value-able documents like manuscript document preserver (Pundulipies). Cost benefit analysis (These costs are average estimates) Input cost: Nil Fixed Cost: Fibre Extraction Machine : Rs. 40,000 Variable cost: Plant cutting and useable raw material cost (Rs/acre): 3000 Labour cost (Rs/ month): 5000 Electricity charges (Rs/month): 1000 Other charges (Rs/months): 1000 Total cost (Rs/month): 10000 Output : Income from banana fibre (Rs/ Acre): 8000 Income from banana ibre (Rs/month): 16000 Income from Manure (Rs/Acre waste): 2000 Page 7 A People’s Manual Waste to Wealth : Craft Development Using Banana Fibre Total income: 18000 Net Income Rs : Output- Input : 8000 CAPRE Foundation ‘s efforts promote banana fibre craft The latest innovative idea being pushed by CAPRE Foundation is teaching women how to produce banana fiber and craft items from this fiber in Shankargarh and Kaurihar II block in Allahabad district with collaboration from Eco Green Unit of Coimbatore.Considerable work has been done in the field of direct use and product development from banana fruits. However, not much attention has been focused on effective utilization of the huge biomass generated in the form of pseudostem, leaves, suckers etc. In India, presently this biomass is dumped on roadside or burnt or left in situ causing detrimental impact on environment. Though, the technologies for extraction of fibres and paper making from pseudostem are available, not much has been done in northern India in this regard whilst Southern India is the leader in banana fibre craft.Capre Foundation has taken the lead and in collaboration with ECO GREEN UNIT from Coimbatore. However, there exists a vast potential of extracting fibres from pseudostem and using the fibre in making craft such as coasters, mats rugs wall hangings which CAPRE is already implementing with an effective marketing strategy in place with 100 per cent buy back by Eco Green Unit in Coimbatore. Page 8 A People’s Manual Waste to Wealth : Craft Development Using Banana Fibre A few products being developed by CAPRE Foundation Page 9 A People’s Manual

Power and Places Type

We are going to talk about power and places type: -> The power is necessarily an opposition between ruler and a ruled. There are many forms and places of power: Among the places of power, there are the White House, the Buckingham Palace, the Pentagon†¦ ? These places are powerful because they have political and military influence. Government is a governor who exercises his power through institutions such as the courts or prisons In this case, the governed are citizens who obey the laws of the government.But sometimes there is abuse of power,and we see resistances to power, as when there was apartheid in South Africa. Indeed, there was a racial discrimination between blacks and whites. The great figure of the resistance in South Africa was Nelson Mandela: he fought all his life against discrimination against black, he was imprisoned for several years. ==========================================================================Among the forms of power, there is, for example, the pow er of the media.Indeed, the media play a very important role within today's society. Media consists of books, television, movies, music, internet, radio, magazines, newspapers etc * Media have positive aspects: we can stay informed about political, social events very easily, you can have fun watching movies and listening to the music. (Through newspapers, TV, radio †¦) * But media have also bad/negative aspects. Indeed, today, it has become a great weapon to influence the opinions of individuals.For example, electronic media has the power to manipulate information, they can deny certain facts and expose another, they can broadcast in loop a topic to influence the vision of the mass of viewers (the presidential nominee can pay for more exposure on TV†¦) Media display the way of life for those who follows it. So media can influence the dressing manners of teenagers through theirs favorite film actors, etc. For example, children are specifically targeted in the advertisements . We teach them to eat Mc do’s burgers and drink coca cola. We can say that in this case, PEOPLE ARE BRAINWASHED BY MEDIA. In

Film Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words - 4

Film - Essay Example This work gives an analysis of the famous painting by the Polish director Roman Polyansky, who immediately gained recognition in Hollywood. A complex, intricate intrigue (Los Angeles private researcher Jake Gitts is hired by a wealthy young woman Evelyn Mulray to investigate a petty but suspicious affair, and as a result he intervenes in large, stubbornly revealing frauds in land and water speculation) and most importantly gloomy Secrets hidden behind the facade of calm and prosperity. Intentional thickening of colors in the image of the atmosphere of mystery and anxious expectation. The mandatory theme of rock that dominates people persistently pursues them and leaves no hope even for a cheerful, always brilliant "black wit" hired detective who wins professionally, but loses in love and generally in life ... he issue of morals is evidently shown in the movie. Chinatown starts with pictures of a man that cheats on his wife with a different woman. The pictures show the two lovers in different positions of sexual congress, although no private parts are shown (Polanski). As the film proceeds, Gittes and Evelyn are shown in a scene just after completing a sexual act. The scene is very erotically charged, and the viewers may be titillated by what they do not see. In the same movie, some characters smoke cigarettes, but the most eye-catching scene is when Evelyn Mulwray smokes a cigarette in bed next to Gittes. Also, the Chinese happen to receive all the racism attacks in the film noir. One such scene is the long winded sexual joke that was narrated by Gittes about  Chinese men. All these attributes of the style of the film noir are present in the work of Roman Polyansky, and first of all - the motive of evil destiny, embodied in the obsession of the hero about the inevitable defeat in the accursed Chinatown. In "China Town" not only carefully recreated the environment of the 30-ies, but also used various cultural, cinematographic allusions, links, reminders.

Advanced Writing for Marketing Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Advanced Writing for Marketing - Essay Example The document helps the President improve job performance evaluation, in terms of sale manager’s performance. The document is intended to replace the current job evaluation rubric, in terms of the manager’s job benchmarks. The document explains the superiority of the proposed annual report-based benchmark over the current attendance based criteria. It is highly recommended that that annual report, income statement, replace the current job performance benchmark (Weaver 2007 293). The current benchmark pales in comparison with the proposed annual report rubric. The income statement is used by most business entities as job performance yardstick. Judging from the use of the income statement as the standard global criteria, it is highly recommended that you, my president friend, follow suit. Further, implementing your current attendance-based criteria is understandable. You are reducing the manager’s job responsibilities. The human resource department is tasked with collection the attendance reports of the managers. All the managers have to do is to â€Å"time in† by swiping one’s identification card through the attendance machine. When the manager leaves the office, all the manager has to do is to â€Å"log out†. Logging out is done by swiping one’s identification card through the time recording machine strategically located near the entrance / exit pathways. The human resource department presents the attendance report to you, President, indicating your sales managers’ tardiness report. Furthermore, this is comprehensible. Your current impression of the best employee is one who is devoted to one’s job. A loyal employee will normally reduce absences and tardiness to allowable levels. Your company allows excused absences on reasonable ground. Reasonable grounds include unexpected traffic from home to the work area, hurricanes, earthquakes, and other reasonable causes. Lastly, labor law regulations allow absences your employee is

Paper Assignment Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Paper Assignment - Essay Example (e) Presidential vote closely reflects voters’ party loyalties and is not influenced by whether an incumbent is running in a district or how much money the local candidates spend. (+) Districts that voted at least 10 percentage points more Democratic than the nation were classified as safe Democratic; districts that voted at least 10 percentage points more Republican than the nation were classified as safe Republican; districts that were within 5 percentage points of the nation were classified as competitive. (a) House district have become less competitive, but not because of redistricting. Most of the change has occurred between redistricting cycles. For the same reasons that states and counties have become less competitive- Americans are increasingly voting for candidates who reflect those values. (e) on the county level-number of counties dominated by one party and the proportion of voters living in such counties have increased dramatically over the several past decades. Also, growing ideological polarization at the elite level has made it easier for voters to choose a party identification on the basis of their ideological preferences. (+) Polarization=sorting, as voters bring their policy and partisan preferences into alignment (a)Growing financial advantage enjoyed by incumbents also contributes to the low level of competition in recent congressional elections. (e) It now costs over a million dollars to wage a competitive campaign for a U.S. House seat. (+) Most incumbents can raise that kind of money easily, but very few challengers can (they lack the financial resources needed to wage competitive campaigns). The most vulnerable- those in districts that were more supportive of the opposing party’s presidential candidate than the nation. Claims that redistricting does have an effect on the number of competitive congressional districts and, as a case study of redistricting institutions in Arizona illustrates, the choice of redistricting

Globalization and Diversity Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2750 words

Globalization and Diversity - Essay Example This essay discusses the globalisation, that is altering the international economy today. Many activities are local in nature, many people, even today, live and work outside the international economic structure. But the direction of change is clear. The world aims at economic growth and higher returns and in return aids towards poverty reduction. Businesses and companies have spread all around the globe as well as people, each following a different religion and speaking a variety of languages, that come together for the purpose of trade of goods and services. The ability to conduct business internationally is an absolute necessity today. Business globalisation refers to a business expanding its sales and their assets over the national boundaries, involving a surge in capital, labour, goods and services. Coca cola is a perfect example, as they have profitably expanded their business in the global consumer market. Coca cola has used various tactics to achieve this. To reduce their prod uction costs, they have established transnational corporations. They have also focused on product branding and positioning, and revised their prices according to the competition. In conclusion globalisation creates an opportunity for businesses to expand revenue streams, diversify risk and increase brand equity. Many companies have successfully expanded their business as a response to the drivers of globalisation. There has also been a noticed development in the global strategies of companies as a response to globalisation.