Organizational Culture in Libraries Essay Example for Free

Organizational Culture in Libraries Essay Assignment Topic: One of the main ways in which the ‘veil of incorporation’ can be lifted is when directors breach their duties. This essay question is set around the duty to prevent insolvent trading. You will need to have read the chapter in your prescribed text that deals with this duty and have then researched more widely by looking at other textbooks, the relevant CCH online library, articles from the internet and journal articles. You must answer both parts of this topic. Please make sure you have REFERENCED in the body of your work ACCURATELY,. Remember, referencing shows you have researched and thought about what material will be relevant to assist you in answering the questions. Read the following scenario and answer BOTH parts (questions) at the end. OHS Solutions Pty. Ltd. is a company formed by three friends (Des, Satish and Emma) who bring different skills and abilities to the business. Emma is an accounting graduate, Des has expertise in occupational health and safety (OHS) and Satish has an IT degree. They decided to start up a business which would provide a portal through which the public and businesses could access (for free) information on all aspects of OHS. OHS Solutions would finance its business, and make profits, by charging businesses to advertise via their website. The directors of OHS Solutions are: Managing Director – Des Finance Director – Emma (non executive) Director – Satish (executive – employed also to run the technological side of the business) Director – Ying (non executive) – a friend of Des’ and director of Support Pty. Ltd. (Support Pty. Ltd. has gone guarantor for a $50,000 loan from the Business Bank Ltd. to OHS Solutions) The Shareholders of OHS Solutions (holding equal amounts of ordinary shares) are Des, Emma, Satish and Support Pty. Ltd. As at January 2007 OHS Solutions had been operating for six months. It had  some initial IT problems which prevented some of the advertisers’ material from being accessed. In order to try to help overcome these technical problems Satish engaged Trouble Shooters Pty. Ltd. At the February Board meeting, Satish reported that two businesses who had paid to advertise on the website were dissatisfied with what was happening and were threatening to sue for breach of contract. Emma was unable to table any financial information as the employee who had been doing the accounts had been sick and when Emma looked at the records she found that they seemed to be in a bit of a mess. She did find a large account from Trouble Shooters that was over due. Des reported that he was disturbed by this news. He had been told by Satish that the IT problems had been fixed since Trouble Shooters had been engaged, and he had just signed a $10,000 advertising contract with Promotions Plus Pty. Ltd. to advertise the website and signed up to go to a trade show to be held in conjunction with a forthcoming OHS conference. He said this was needed because a number of high profile advertisers were threatening to discontinue their association with OHS Solutions unless the portal became better known. Ying just listens in disbelief at the March Board meeting. It seemed to her that OHS Solutions is being poorly managed and is failing to make the most of a potentially profitable business opportunity. This could present an opportunity for Support Pty. Ltd. to make an offer to buy OHS Solutions at a good price. On the other hand Support Pty. Ltd. is exposed as a guarantor. Assume she consults you, an accountant, for your preliminary view about the predicament of OHS Solutions and what she should do. Assume also that the first thing that comes to your mind is whether Ying herself may be vulnerable as a director of OHS Solutions for failing to prevent OHS Solutions from trading when it is insolvent.

Biography of Mother Teresa Essay -- Influential People Biographies Rel

Biography of Mother Teresa Mother Teresa was a wonderful woman and a great influence on the world today. She was born in 1910 in Macedonia with the name Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu. She was born into a family of deeply religious Catholics. Agnes felt she got the calling to work for God at the young age of fourteen. She joined the Loreto order and went to Bengal, India, to start her studies. In 1937, Agnes took her final vows to become a nun and has done much great work in the world since. Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu was born on August 27, 1910 to Nikola and Drana Bojaxhiu in Skopje, Macedonia. Drana and Nikola were Albanian and both were very deeply religious Roman Catholics. Nikola was a popular merchant and a partner to an Italian merchant. He owned several houses and was a member of the Skopje town council. Whenever Agnes’ father would return from a trip, he would always bring his children presents. Also, he promoted his daughters’ education, which was uncommon in that time period. Nikola also was involve d in an underground organization that worked to gain independence for the Albanians from the Ottoman Turks, who ruled Macedonia around the time Agnes was born. Agnes grew up around much fighting. When she was born, there were Albanian protests against the Turkish government. When she was two, she witnessed the First Balkan War. In that war, the Ottomans were defeated, but Macedonia was divided among the conquerors: Bulgaria, Greece, Montenegero, and Serbia. The city of Skopje was distributed to Serbia. Albania received its independence in 1912, but Nikola continued his nationalist work. He joined a movement determined to incorporate Serbia into the Albanian nation. In 1914, when Agnes was only four years old, World War I began. In 1918, her father was killed. Some people believe that he was poisoned by enemies. Many people mourned his death because of his kindness and generosity. Drana Bojaxhiu and the family were left with little money and no means of income. Drana worked hard to p rovide for her family. To get enough money, she became a dressmaker. Even though she had to work extra hard to make ends meet, Drana still found time and money to give to the lonely. When Agnes was young, she used to go on trips with her mother to visit the elderly, sick, and the poor. It is said that their mother’s generosity may have had the greatest influence on Agnes, her sister, an... ...eedy people. I feel that Mother Teresa will live on in the hearts of the people she helped as well as many other people. Mother Teresa had a tremendous effect on our world and I think she deserves much honor and praise for her work. Mother Teresa is a wonderful role-model for anyone. She has literally helped people all over the world. In a world so hateful and dishonest, a person like Mother Teresa is a rare occurrence. Overall, Mother Teresa was a wonderful person who helped the world a great deal Bibliography Bibliography Clucas, Joan Graff. Mother Teresa. New York: Chelsea House Publishers, 1988. Egan, Eileen. Such a Vision of the Street. New York: Doubleday, 1985. "Mother Teresa." Encarta. 1997-2000. Muggeridge, Malcolm. Something Beautiful for God. New York: Image Books, 1977. Mukherjee, Bharati. "Mother Teresa." Time June 14, 1999: 88-90. Playfoot, Janet N. "My Life for the Poor: Mother Teresa of Calcutta." The Great American Bathroom Book, vol 1. Stevens W. Anderson. Salt Lake City: Compact Classics Inc., 1991. Serrou, Robert. Teresa of Calcutta. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1981. Spink, Kathryn. The Miracle of Love. San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1981. Word Count: 4206

A Critical Analysis of the Arthurian Tale Sir Gawain and The Green Knight in the context of Literary Theory

This story is in the tradition of Arthurian stories about the Legendary King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table. This is a alliterative poem belonging to the romantic genre of Arthurian legends.The author is anonymous and is simply referred to as the Gawain poet or the Pearl poet and is dated Ca. 1340-1400 from West Midlands in England, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight tells a tale of how Sir Gawain, a member of the esteemed Knights of the Round Table in King Arthur’s court at Camelot, accepted a challenge from a mysterious stranger, referred to as the Green Knight, who suddenly barges in on a merry feast in King Arthur’s Court.The story contains points, both in a Feminist and in a Marxist reading, that exhibit both positive and negative symbolisms, thus, inevitably furthering the contention that this is also very Deconstructivist; which is another literary theory and reading of the story. Certain symbolisms, themes and tones in the story show this is so, by being capable of having both pro and anti- Feminist and Marxist elements, which would be discussed in a more detailed manner in the following pages.FEMINISIT READINGâ€Å"Women are systematically degraded by receiving the trivial attentions which men think it manly to pay to the sex, when, in fact, men are insultingly supporting their own superiority.† (Wollstonecraft, 1759)Much can be gleaned when giving this piece a feminist reading. To start with, this belonging to the classic Medieval Age Romance and it being one of the Arthurian Legend makes it a very easy target for being tagged as anti Feminist.The very concept of the Medieval Age, and the mere mention of Arthurian Legends is in itself enough subject of anti Feminist repartee’s. The very fact alone that this era is characterized by patriarchal dominance and machismo is a strong enough qualification to label this outright as an anti Feminist story, without even going to the analysis of the story. The most obvious of a ll is the general tone and obvious patriarchal system of the story.There is a King who is high and mighty, and he rules over his subjects. The most loyal, admired and feared heroes are the Knights of the Round Table, whom, are all men. The Queen Guinevere is described as if she was a wall flower in all these brave bold display of masculine superiority, and is even deemed to be quiet, and not to say anything. In some translations of the story she is even said to sit beside Gawain, and not beside his supposed husband.The mention in the text that she presides over the festivities is merely titular, if at all, a token too trifle. With such a patriarchal system, it follows that the story also shows phallocentrism. If Camelot, the supposed Utopia is all patriarchal, what more could be expected of in the ‘real’ world?When Sir Gawain left on his quest to fulfill his vow to the Green Knight, he came upon a castle, where the lord of the castle, Bertilak of Hautdesert told him to give to him whatever he gets in exchange for the game he hunted. While the lord is away, the lady of the castle is left idling away on the castle, and falls to seducing the visitor. This brings to mind another archetypal typecasting or stereotyping of women; the Sinner/Saint stereotypes.In this story, Guinevere is the pure maiden; the saintly woman of virtue, while the Lady Bertilak is typecast as the sinner/slut/whore impure woman. There is an imposition of impossible virtues to the women as patently due to a macho image and in contrast to how a man should be chivalrous and upright.The seduction of the Lady Bertilak as opposed to the chastity of Queen Guinevere is clearly a male imposed virtue and rule of morals to how women should act. They should silently preside over ceremonies, as Guinevere does, or should patiently wait for his husband to come home, as the Lady Bertilak should have done.   

The 1893 Lynching by Fire of Henry Smith

Lynchings occurred with regularity in the late 19th century America, and hundreds took place, primarily in the South. Distant newspapers would carry accounts of them, typically  as small items of a few paragraphs. One lynching in Texas in 1893 received far  more attention. It was so brutal, and involved so many otherwise ordinary people, that newspapers carried extensive stories about it, often on the front page. The lynching of Henry Smith, a black laborer in Paris, Texas, on February 1, 1893, was extraordinarily grotesque. Accused of raping and murdering a four-year-old girl, Smith was hunted down by a posse. When returned to town, the local citizens proudly  announced they would burn him alive. That boast was reported in news stories which traveled by telegraph and appeared in newspapers from coast to coast. The killing of Smith was carefully orchestrated. The townspeople constructed a large wooden platform near the center of town. And in view of thousands of spectators, Smith was tortured with hot irons for nearly an hour before being soaked with kerosene and set ablaze. The extreme nature  of Smiths killing, and a  celebratory parade that preceded it received attention which included an extensive front-page account in the New York Times. And the noted anti-lynching journalist Ida B. Wells wrote about the Smith lynching in her landmark book, The Red Record. Never in the history of civilization has any Christian people stooped to such shocking brutality and indescribable barbarism as that which characterized the people of Paris, Texas, and adjacent communities on the first of February, 1893. Photographs of the torture and burning of Smith were taken and were later sold as prints and  postcards. And according to some accounts, his agonized screams were recorded on a primitive graphophone and later played before audiences as images of his killing were projected on a screen. Despite the horror of the incident, and the revulsion felt throughout much of America, reactions to the outrageous event did virtually nothing to stop lynchings. The extra-judicial executions of black Americans continued for decades. And the horrendous spectacle of burning black Americans alive before vengeful crowds also continued. The Killing of Myrtle Vance According to widely circulated newspaper reports, the crime committed by Henry Smith, the murder of four-year-old Myrtle Vance, was particularly violent. The published accounts strongly hinted that the child had been raped and that she had been killed by literally being torn apart. The account published by Ida B. Wells, which was based on reports from local residents, was that Smith had indeed strangled the child to death. But the grisly details were invented by the childs relatives and neighbors. There is little doubt that Smith did murder the child. He had been seen walking with the girl prior to her body being discovered. The childs father, a former town policeman, had reportedly arrested Smith at some earlier point and had beaten him while he was in custody. So Smith, who was rumored to be mentally retarded, may have wanted to get revenge. The day after the murder Smith ate breakfast at his house, with his wife, and then disappeared from town. It was believed he had fled by freight train, and a posse was formed to go find him. The local railroad offered free passage to those searching for Smith. Smith Brought Back to Texas Henry Smith was located at a train station along the Arkansas and Louisiana Railway, about 20 miles from Hope, Arkansas. News was telegraphed that Smith, who was referred to as the ravisher, was captured and would be returned by the civilian posse to Paris, Texas. Along the way back to Paris crowds gathered to see Smith. At one station someone tried to attack him with a knife when he looked out the train window. Smith was reportedly told that he would be tortured and burned to death, and he begged members of the posse to shoot him dead. On February 1, 1893, the New York Times carried a small item on its front page headlined To Be Burned Alive.   The news item read: The negro Henry Smith, who assaulted and murdered four-year-old Myrtle Vance, has been caught and will be brought here tomorrow.He will be burned alive at the scene of his crime tomorrow evening.All the preparations are being made. The Public Spectacle On February 1, 1893, the townspeople of Paris, Texas, assembled in a large crowd  to witness the lynching. An article on the front page of the New York Times the following morning described how the city government cooperated with the bizarre event, even closing the local schools (presumably so the children could attend with the parents): Hundreds of people poured into the city from the adjoining country, and the word passed from lip to lip that the punishment should fit the crime, and that death by fire was the penalty Smith should pay for the most atrocious murder and outrage in Texas history.Curious and sympathizing alike came on trains and wagons, on horse and on foot, to see what was to be done.Whisky shops were closed, and unruly mobs were dispersed. Schools were dismissed by a proclamation from the mayor, and everything was  done in a business-like manner. Newspaper reporters estimated that a crowd of 10,000 had gathered by the time the train carrying Smith arrived in Paris at noon on February 1. A scaffold had been built, about ten feet high, upon which he would be burned in full view of the spectators. Before being taken to the scaffold, Smith was first paraded through the town, according to the account in the New York Times: The negro was placed upon a carnival float, in mockery of a king upon his throne, and followed by the immense crowd, was escorted through the city so that all might see. A tradition at lynchings at which the victim was alleged to have attacked a white woman was to have the womans relatives extract vengeance. The lynching of Henry Smith followed that pattern. Myrtle Vances father, the former town policeman, and other male relatives appeared on the scaffold. Henry Smith was led up the stairs and tied to a post in the middle of the scaffold. The father of Myrtle Vance then tortured Smith with hot irons applied to his skin.   Most of the newspaper descriptions of the scene are disturbing. But a Texas newspaper, the Fort Worth Gazette, printed an account that seems to have been crafted to excite the readers and make them feel as if they were part of a sporting event. Particular phrases were rendered in capital letters, and the description of the torture of Smith is gruesome and ghastly. Text from the front page of the Fort Worth Gazette of February 2, 1893, describing the scene on the scaffold as Vance tortured Smith; the capitalization has been preserved: A tinners furnace was brought on with IRONS HEATED WHITE.Taking one, Vance thrust it under first one and then the other side of his victims feet, who, helpless, writhed as the flesh SCARRED AND PEELED  from the bones.Slowly, inch by inch, up his legs the iron was drawn and redrawn, only the nervous jerky twist of the muscles showing the agony being induced. When his body was reached and the iron was pressed to the most tender part of his body he broke silence for the first time and a prolonged SCREAM OF AGONY rent the air.Slowly, across and around the body, slowly upward traced the irons. The withered scarred flesh marked the progress of the awful punishmen. By turns Smith screamed, prayed, begged and cursed his tormentors. When his face was reached HIS TONGUE WAS SILENCED by fire and thenceforth he only moaned or gave a cry that echoed over the prairie like the wail of a wild animal.Then his EYES WERE PUT OUT, not a finger breath of his body being unscathed. His executioners gave way. They were Vance, his brother-in-law, and Vances song, a boy of 15 years of age. When they gave over punishing Smith they left the platform. After the prolonged torture, Smith was still alive. His body was then soaked with kerosene and he was set on fire. According to the newspaper reports, the flames burned through the heavy ropes that bound him. Free from the ropes, he fell to the platform and began to roll about while engulfed in flames. A front-page item in the New York Evening World detailed the shocking event that happened next: To the surprise of all he pulled himself up by the railing of the scaffold, stood up, passed his hand over his face, and then jumped from the scaffold and rolled out of the fire below. Men on the ground thrust him into the burning mass again, and life became extinct. Smith finally died and his body continued to burn. Spectators then picked through his charred remains, grabbing pieces as souvenirs. Impact of the Burning of Henry Smith What was done to Henry Smith shocked many Americans who read about it in their newspapers. But the perpetrators of the lynching, which of course included men who were readily identified, were never punished. The governor of Texas wrote a letter expressing some mild condemnation of the event. And that was the extent of any official action in the matter. A number of newspapers in the South published editorials essentially defending the citizens of Paris, Texas. For Ida B. Wells, the lynching of Smith was one of many such cases she would investigate and write about. Later in 1893, she embarked on a lecture tour in Britain, and the horror of the Smith lynching, and the way it had been widely reported, no doubt gave credibility to her cause. Her detractors, especially in the American South, accused her of making up lurid stories of lynchings. But the way Henry Smith was tortured and burned alive couldnt be avoided. Despite the revulsion many Americans felt over their fellow citizens burning a black man alive before a large crowd, lynching continued for decades in America. And its worth noting that Henry Smith was hardly the first lynching victim to be burned alive. The headline on the top of the front page of the New York Times on February 2, 1893, was Another Negro Burned. Research in archival copies of the New York Times shows that other blacks were burned alive, some as late as 1919. What happened in Paris, Texas, in 1893 has largely been forgotten. But it fits a pattern of injustice shown to black Americans throughout the 19th century, from the days of slavery to the broken promises following the Civil War, to the collapse of Reconstruction, to the legalization of Jim Crow in the Supreme Court case of Plessy v. Ferguson. Sources Burned at the Stake: A Black Man Pays for a Towns Outrage.ANOTHER NEGRO BURNED; HENRY SMITH DIES AT THE STAKE.The Evening World. (New York, N.Y.) 1887-1931, February 02, 1893.Fort Worth Gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1891-1898, February 02, 1893.