Accounting theory and practice Speech or Presentation

Accounting theory and practice - Speech or Presentation Example Q1 (I): since the preference share is short-lived (it is to be redeemed in 2013, thus not a permanent source of capital), it can be classified under temporary equity. The following journal entries should be made in 2010, 2011, 2012 and 2013 (Swart 2002, pp. 140-176). Q1 (II): the preference shares are redeemable and the shareholders have exclusive rights to dividends (2%) of the par value. Therefore, it is treated as a debt and would be recorded as below in the financial statements (Swart 2002, pp. 140-176) In the above process of determining the amortized costs, the cash flow = (2%*25M) except for the year 2013, which contains the principal amount (25M) plus the cash flow (500,000). Second, the cash flows are discounted using the presumed interest rate of 10% to get the opening amount (18,659,900). In the row marked 2010, the opening amount is multiplied by 10% to get the interest payable (1,865,990). The difference between interest payable and cash flow for that year is added to the opening for that year, to get the closing amount (20,025,890). The closing amount for 2010 becomes the opening amount for 2011. Follow the same process up to year 2012. Since the shares are redeemed in the year 2013, there will not be a closing amount for the year. Part B: the general accounting rules require that financial items be treated as liabilities if it obligates a company to part with cash or other financial assets. Secondly, if the issuer (a company), has no control over factors that leads to its maturity date. Lastly, if the requirement to pay principal amount may induce a contractual obligation to pay interest on dividends. However, the internal accounting standard has done major reviews on the mentioned regulations to include other emerging issues. The review of the rules regulating the accounting treatment of liabilities paved way

Theories of Morality in Punishment Essay Example for Free

Theories of Morality in Punishment Essay As a society, we have different responses to treating untoward incidences and behaviors. We have different means in which we sanction or punish the doers of the action; yet these mean are all reflected on various theories of morality. Different countries or cultures have different systems of punishment as according to what they conform as morally acceptable to people of their kind. Some sanction death penalty, others rehabilitation, imprisonment or other ways like public humiliation and the like. The following are some theories of morality where such systems of punishments are grounded. Stoicism considers passionate emotions like fear or envy as results of errors in judgment and that a person of moral and intellectual perfection would not have to exhibit such emotions. This theory has something to do with giving verdict to people who have committed criminal case. For example, after court hearings, the jury finds that the accused has done the crime while he was not in the proper line of thinking or was insane, the sanction would be different from those who have found guilty of the same crime. The judge might recommend for rehabilitation or medical treatment instead of imprisonment or death penalty that might jeopardize the rationality of the person. Egoism, on the other hand, claims that persons act in response to self-interest. That is, the verdict to a case can be motivated by the interest of the jury to satisfy his own self or if he will be benefited from the result of the punishment. For example, the judge has been paid to overturn his verdict on a certain case; if the judge is thinking of his personal interest, he will do such in the name of money. Who would not want to get money for just a single court decision? Concurrent to egoism is hedonism, which states that only pleasure or its opposite, pain, motivates persons in their decision. Our responses to certain bad behavior done to us or to others depends whether we can get pleasure or we experienced pain. The response could be brutal when it is motivated by pain or the other way around when it is motivated by pleasure. In these three theories, the central subject is the self; where the measure for morality depends on what is most acceptable to the â€Å"self†. Other theories that affect decisions about morality include a gender-based one. Carol Gilligan on his work In a Different Voice states that men and women use different approaches to morality. According to her, the male approach is that individuals have certain basic rights and you are respecting those rights. Morality in this case imposes restrictions on what you can do to punish a person; while female approach is that people have responsibilities toward others; thus giving judgment depends on the care for others. On the other hand, Lawrence Kohlberg theorized about the stages of moral development that includes: punishment and obedience, instrumental exchange, interpersonal conformity, law and order, prior rights and social contract, and universal ethical principles. All these have something to do respect to laws and conformity to individual rights. The first stage for instance is the opposite of each other, meaning, when anyone breaks the rule or law or disobeys it, he or she will be punished according to the fifth stage prior rights and social contract. Social contract could be written or unwritten but these are contracts that state the punishments of any untoward behavior as a violation to the individual rights of persons. The above theories stipulate that justice systems are products of moral judgment anchored to the rights of individuals or the interest of people to the rights of others — either exploitation or preservation. References: Cory, Rachel. (2006). Kolhberg’s Stages of Moral Development. Retrieved December 2, 2008 from http://www. aggelia. com/htdocs/kohlberg. shtml Cypher, Allen. (____). Notes on In a Different Voice by Carol Gilligan. Retrieved December 2, 2008 from http://acypher. com/BookNotes/Gilligan. html Stoicism, Egoism and Hedonism. Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. http://plato. stanford. edu/entries/

Types of Child Abuse :: Violence Against Children

Child abuse can cause horrible physical and emotional effects on a child. Often times these emotional effects will stay with them forever. There are several types of child abuse including physical, emotional, sexual, and general abuse. Detecting and reporting child abuse is one of the most important steps in saving an innocent child’s life. Child abuse is a growing a problem in the United States. Child abuse can go undetected for many years. By knowing the different types of abuse or how to detect abuse, you can save a life. Physical Abuse What are the different types of child abuse? The most well known type of abuse is physical abuse. This is because it is the most obvious. Physical abuse is purposeful abuse inflicted on a child. Examples include bruises or welts shaped like an object, bruises in unusual places (back, eyes, mouth, buttocks, genital areas, thighs, and calves), layers of different colored bruises in the same general area. "Sock" or "glove" burns on feet or hands or doughnut shaped burns on buttocks (from forcing the child into hot water). Small round burns from cigarettes, burns in the shape of an object (iron, fireplace tool, or heater), and rope burns on ankles, wrists, or torso, adult sized bite marks, or suspicious fractures. Most of the parents who cause physical harm to their children say they are doing it to discipline their child. Some effects of physical child abuse include stomachaches, migraines, gut problems or other physical symptoms not directly caused by the abuse. These are called psych osomatic indicators. Abused kids often feel exhausted, starving, or sick most of the time (Kienlen). Physical abuse is more than just the obvious physical damage, it also takes a toll on the child emotional and psychologically. It can cause depression, rage, and feelings of isolation in a child. About 80% of depressed teenagers do not get help. They are more likely to suffer depression in their early 20s, and abuse drugs and alcohol (American Psychiatric Association). Anger not expressed appropriately can be vented out in other ways, or can stay bottled up inside them and cause depression. One possible effect of physical child abuse is passive aggressive behavior. Meaning the abused child goes out of their way to get back at that person such as burning the pizza or not putting the right amount of cream in the coffee.

Food Inc Essay

Food Inc. opens in an American supermarket and draws attention to the unnatural nature of year-round tomatoes and boneless meat. It pulls aside the curtain that is concealing the truth about food from the consumer. After the brief intro, the movie shifts its focus to the topic of fast food and its impact on the meat industries. Fast food virtually started with McDonald’s. When they decided to simplify their menu and hire employees that repeated one task over and over for minimum wage, the result was the fast food phenomenon that swept the United States, and then the world. Today, McDonald’s is the largest purchaser of beef and potatoes in the United States, and is one of the largest purchasers of pork, chicken, tomatoes, and apples. Though an unintentional consequence, this has had a drastic impact on the way all food is processed. The top four meat packers now control over 80% of the market, the Tyson Corporation being the largest of them all. The documentary next takes us to a Chicken farm in Kentucky and explains that, since the 1950s, chickens have doubled in size, and they reach that incredible size in half the time it used to take them to reach their more natural size. Chickens today are genetically modified to have larger breasts in response to the consumer preference for white meat. The chickens grow at such a rate that their bones and organs can’t keep up with the rapid growth of the muscles, or the meat. The original farmer that was followed in the documentary was unable to take the filmmakers inside the chicken houses. After being visited multiple times by Tyson representatives, the farmer informed the filmmakers that he would be unable to escort them inside. After a long search, a woman finally stepped forward and agreed to take the filmmakers inside an overly-crowded coop and behind the veil of the modern chicken industry. The next veil that is lifted by the film is that of the corn industry. Corn can be chemically engineered into many different products, such as the extremely unhealthy high-fructose corn syrup. Corn costs more to make than it is worth, so it is subsidized by the government, encouraging even more of its use. Corn is the number one grain used to feed animals for slaughter. Feeding cows corn instead of their natural diet lead to the unintentional creation of 157H7 E. coli, a deadly bacteria that can kill. The film reveals how food standards have dropped, with only 9,164 safety inspections from the FDA each year as compared to over 50,000 in 1972. The food industry has become consolidated to the point of a few companies having a great deal of power and influence via the government. The USDA is no longer able to shutdown plants with contaminated meat. A bill titled â€Å"Kevin’s Law† had the intent of changing that, but, after 6 years, the bill still has not been passed. Food companies have made some attempts to reduce E. coli by cleaning their meats in an ammonia solution. However, unhealthy food is being subsidized and contributing to American obesity and the rise of type 2 diabetes in adolescents. The film then travels to a hog processing plant that kills 32,000 hogs a day. They expose the strategy of the company to hire extremely poor and illegal immigrants who can’t afford to quit their jobs, despite problems with frequent infections of the hands and fingernails, a side effect of poor sanitation standards. We then discover that it has been legal to patent life since the 1980s, and learn about the company Monsanto’s round up resistant soybean that now makes up 90% of the soybean market. Monsanto systematically sues offenders that break copyright laws. Private investigators are hired to monitor and find any infringements. Even if infringement was unavoidable, smaller, neighboring farmers are forced to purchase the round up resistant seeds. Monsanto has a great deal of political influence, with close ties to both parties. Both the Bush and Clinton administrations had close ties with Monsanto. Only the consolidated power of consumers can overcome the political and economical power of the large food processing companies. We owe it to ourselves to use that power to demand healthier, organic foods. In a free economy, the consumer has the ultimate power. Just as the tobacco industry was exposed and its power drastically reduced, so too can the substandard food industry be wrangled into submission.

African American Theatre 2 Essay

African American Theater started out, hundreds of years ago, as a foundation of amusement for the black community. The theater was a place where African Americans, equally men and women, could work, study, and perfect their expertise. The beginning of African American theater set in motion back in the 1830’s, and it eventually became one of America’s most prevalent sources of entertainment Over the course of over one and a half decades, there has been an apparent transformation within the dominion of African American theater. For example, African Americans have prevailed over the intense burden of subjugation in forms such as political affairs, comfortable residency and most significantly, equal human rights. One of the most apparent leisure pursuits that were in remission from African-Americans came in the appearance of the performing arts, more particularly film. During this time, the society in general would not permit, for example, blacks to drink from the same water fountain, so to share the same onstage experiences or television effects was, without a doubt, not even simply prohibited but unheard of. However, as time went by, the potency of the hopeful African American actors and actresses weighed down the greater part of the general society, and society ceased being able to keep African Americans from appearing on stage and on television. For the longest time, the stage became and stayed the only way for African Americans to communicate the deep sorrow and oppression that the society, particularly the white population, had placed in front of them. Through acting, in addition to both singing and dancing, African Americans were able to, mentally and spiritually, go to a place that no tormenter could find them. With this new form of communication, African Americans found a new method of endurance, and acting was the fundamental technique. Even though the African American actors and actresses were forced to take the road of continued existence in the theater to gain self contentment, it was, as an understatement, not unproblematic. For the longest moments in time, African American actors and actresses were not permitted to step foot on stage. However, black actors were instead ridiculed by Caucasian actors in what they called â€Å"black face. † Black face was a performance where white actors and actresses would literally conceal their faces with black paint and makeup, so as to imitate an African American actor. From this falsification of the hopeful actors, derogatory names such as Tom, Mulatto, Mammy, Coon, and Buck resulted. Similar to Black Face, there was what is called Minstrel Shows. Minstrel shows, which consisted of comic skits, variety acts, dancing, and music, ridiculed and made fun of African Americans in the most disapproving ways. According to these shows, black people were looked upon as ignorant, lazy, and unreasonable, but also cheerful and melodious. Broadway, which is the heart of theater for Americans, had been closed to blacks for more than a decade. However, this was only until the African American musical â€Å"Shuffle Along† turned out to be a runaway success, which some historians believe was the beginning of the Harlem Renaissance. The first African American play to be produced on Broadway was â€Å"The Chip Woman’s Fortune† in 1923, written by Willis Richardson. In the year of 1959, Lorraine Hansberry, a famous playwright, became the first African American woman to have her play produced and performed on Broadway. Hansberry’s play, titled â€Å"A Raisin in the Sun,† became an outlet for a continual assembly of plays by African American playwrights who often brought their own individual occurrences in the great effort in opposition to racial discrimination to the theater plays that they produced. . By the revolving of this period, the minstrel show enjoyed but a shadow of its former popularity, having been replaced for the most part by vaudeville. It survived as professional entertainment until about 1910; amateur performances continued until the 1960s in high schools, fraternities, and local theaters. As blacks began to score legal and social victories against racism and to successfully assert political power, minstrelsy lost popularity. The typical minstrel performance followed a three-act structure. The troupe first danced onto stage then exchanged wisecracks and sang songs. The second part featured a variety of entertainments, including the pun-filled stump speech. The final act consisted of a slapstick musical plantation skit or a send-up of a popular play. Minstrel songs and sketches featured several stock characters, most popularly the slave and the dandy. These were further divided into sub-archetypes such as the mammy, her counterpart the old darky, the provocative mulatto wench, and the black soldier. Minstrels claimed that their songs and dances were authentically black, although the extent of the black influence remains debated. Spirituals (known as jubilees) entered the repertoire in the 1870s, marking the first undeniably black music to be used in minstrelsy. Blackface minstrelsy was the first distinctly American theatrical form. In the 1830s and 1840s, it was at the core of the rise of an American music industry, and for several decades it provided the lens through which white America saw black America. On the one hand, it had strong racist aspects; on the other, it afforded white Americans a singular and broad awareness of significant aspects of African American culture.

Fowlers Toad essays

Fowler's Toad essays Zebra mussels are filter feeders, and they are capable of filtering about one litre of water per day while feeding primarily on algae. They were transported from Europe as stowaways in the ballast water of transoceanic ships and pose significant social, economic The zebra mussel disrupts natures food chain. They remove nearly all particle matter, by removing significant amounts of plankton from the water. They remove food for microscopic zooplankton, which in turn are food for fish larvae, juvenile fishes, and other plankton-feeding forage fish. These forage fish support sport and commercial fisheries. This competition for plankton, the base of the marine food chain, could have a lasting effect on the fish populations of the Great Lakes. Most rocky areas of Lake Erie are almost completely covered in the mussel several inches deep. In a laboratory observation, the accumulation in these beds makes a foul environment with very acidic water. Positive/Negative Effects on the Ecosystem In Lake Erie the zebra mussel has already reduced native mussels. The dirty water will reduce energy reserves of fish because they have to work harder to stay alive. It will also increase vulnerability to the other environment stresses. Such as extreme water temperatures, lack of food, or parasites and disease. As zebra mussel spread, they may eliminate rarer species of mussels. The zebra mussel has improved the water clarity of Lake Erie. The filtering of water may increase the exposure humans and animals have to organic pollutants. Early studies have shown that the zebra mussel can accumulate organic pollutants in their tissue to more then 300,000 times greater than concentrations in the environment. They then deposit these pollutants in their waste. These are then passed up the food chain so any fish or waterfowl who co ...

Armada essays

Armada essays From 1586-1588 King Phillip II prepared a large fleet of ships to sail from Spain to the straits of Dover. The war ships of the Armada (armed feet), were to carry extra soldiers and protect the duke of Parmas Spanish army. The Spanish Armada of 1588 attacked England on July 12th. One hundred and thirty massive ships failed in its mission to end English meddling in Spanish affairs. King Phillip II of Spain saw England as a dangerous nuisance. King Phillip had many reasons to want to get rid of Queen Elizabeth. For twenty years English ships had attacked Spanish treasure ships and raiding some Spanish towns in the Americas. Queen Elizabeth refused to punish the privateers and would not give the riches back. King Phillip thought that it was wrong to punish the Catholics in England. Also Elizabeth funded money to the Spanish enemies and she had English soldiers fight along with the Dutch rebels. Kings Phillips plan to invade was actually a good plan but it wasnt well thought out by his soldiers. Phillip brought together a large army of soldiers in the Netherlands under the Duke of Parma and then got them ready to invade England. He had a large fleet of ships carry fighting men, equipment and supplies from Spain to the straits of Dover and join up with the Duke of Parmas army. As a result of the Armada England was a much more powerful nation. Elizabeth could be reasonably secure in the knowledge that another invasion was not likely, certainly within the next few years. The Spanish had fewer ships with which they could protect their trading ships and so English sailors could plunder with greater ease. The failure of the Armada made England a much more powerful nation. ...