Laws and Policies affecting Oil Gas industry

Laws and Policies affecting Oil Gas industry Every oil and gas industry are working according to the oil and gas laws, the law covers every aspects of the oil industry for example , ranging from licencing, operational issues, joint venture, project contracts, service contract and construction , disposal, acquisition, farm -in, marketing and sales , oil and gas transportation and diligence work. There are three major laws shown below Downstream Energy Law and Policy The Downstream Energy Law and Policy, the legislation and regulation are implementing implement policy for down stream energy industries. . The importance of this the policy decision is to restructure the electricity and gas industries it will change the legislation, the approach of regulators. The law can makes working environment better Environmental Law and Policy for Natural Resources and Energy This policy deals with national and international environmental policy and power generation, consumption of natural resources and production. Example there may be problem rising in production sector, mining activities, transportation of petroleum, use of new clear energy, global climate effects and air pollution and d ad regulatory systems International and Comparative Petroleum Law and Policy This is law and policy implementing in the international petroleum industry, The main part of this law are oil company, investors and host government. In this law financial investor and international corporate are faced in a open and practical way, The stake holders are very much interested on the financial development of petroleum resources .The law fully supporting the taxation issues also solve the variety issues , economic , lawyer , accountants , engineers and geologists in A brief introduction is provided to petroleum taxation issues. Private and Government Policy Some factors should be considered before deciding to choose a private or government policy. 1. Private company wont have a nationality requirement ie not be a citizen of host country also they provide insurance without regard to countrys economic development level or investment economic effect. 2. Private companies insure both existing and new ones whereas government insure only new project or expansion of the existing one. Also if we want a government policy for the project we must register our project with the government company at an earlier stage. 3.The government usually write policies for a long term(15-20 years)whereas private one write only for short usually three years basis and is renewed at the end of each year for an additional year so that there is always a three year basis. Currently political risk insurers provide coverages at a fixed rate .Most recently private companies offer coverage up to 15 years 4. Government insurance cost is cheaper than private ones. 5. Private offers more flexibility and opportunities to change the conditions of policy whereas government is not willing to change the rules from a standard form 6. The government polices inform the host government about the coverage .But private firms forbid the investor from disclosing the information regarding the investment because disclosure will make the policy invalid. For some investors it is advantageous to use both private and official markets to meet their needs in securing investments. Government insurers such as MIGA and OPIC encourage public private partnerships and syndicated insurances in cooperation with private companies. http://www.dundee.ac.uk/cepmlp/academic/FT-MBA-Oil%20and%20Gas%20Mgt.php Development strategy achieved through transforming corporate governance I took Halliburton petroleum industry to analyse the structure, performance and management. It is the one of the richest refinery in US .is the prime responsibility of the Top level directorial board to ensure the benefits of its share holders and the main duties includes The evaluation of the chief executive officers performance and commitment and to take adequate action which includes dismissal , removal etc.In this main duty of the board in the executive section in each boad meeting is to evaluate the chief executive officers performance by the main director and the evaluation includes both qualitative and quantitve work area of the chief executive .The quatitive and qualitive ares includes leadership ,following managent development ,Integrity,perfomance of the business, informing the board matters that effects that Halliburton and its operation unit The final evaluation department made by the main director will present in the compensation commity after being communicated with chief executive officer and the duies if the compensation community includes the review of the evaluation of the report and and provide the recommendation for the coming year and Setting the compensation of the chief executive officer.The compensation is made according to the recommendation made by the compensation community The setting and evaluation of compensation of the executive management Annual revaluation and review of the plans and development program for the executive management The monitoring performance of the corporate against strategy and business plans Innovation Management in oil and gas Industry Innovation is not simply start the business but is a business of creativity ,It has some thing new , it is a new art .Innovation is strongly support the performance of the business ,Innovation is the result of hard work, efficiency. I choose BP to explain innovation management .BP is a UK company based company and it the 4th largest company in the world and also largest private energy corporation in the world. Innovative characteristics Now BP is gain an important place in the world oil industry. it was founded by George Reynolds. BP gain momentum in innovative process in nineties and it has got enough investment and is declaring now but 2001/2000 it was on its peak .BP is the biggest 10 company in the world constantly alter its technology by updating the new and latest .Bp using ultra modern technology to keep themselves at top. Innovation Strategy of The Company Dedication shown by the senior management with in the business strategy. Dedication by the employment is very important to implement innovative process. The main innovative steps are Performance Progressive Health and Safety-which ensure no harm to the people of environment Innovative- transformation new business ,bottom line performance and HSE expected a achievement are I part and factor of innovative process BP achieved innovation by abandonment of effective management and process added heavy stress and multi performance to the staff and which effects the working pattern of the company .Every motivated individual are the great and strength of every business sector but pressure of the management will effect their performance .BP creating campaign to make aware every employer that about priority and making comfortable in their own way to provide effectiveness and innovation Innovation requires knowledge of customer and user, BP providing training programs for understanding the innovation application in their working field by this new technology BP achieved performance management, new idea will be a risky factor to companies .Innovation occurs motivation .Innovation need encouragement for the new idea in the driving force for the innovation. BP providing innovation needs, active support to improve employees skills. Innovation is long term process involve lot of money and time BP investing millions of pounds for theses activities 2009 was the worst economical year in oil and gas industry>The recession hit all over the world . Demand of the energy resources doesnt gone down but even through the production goes down .It is reported that world will use 45% of energy by 2030 there may be some challenges which need ultimate solution to the innovation strategic level , some example are invest more money on innovation , a alternative fuels like wing , solar ,increase innovation process Sustainable Development in Oil and Gas Industry I am analysing Zadco oil company to examine about the corprote Overview of Sustainable development .It is the second largest oil company in U.A.E. The main objecitive of the Suitable Development of the development of the present generation and meet the development future generation Economic Sustainability Zadco is producing approximately one by fourth of U.A.E oil , Upper Zakum field which is the fourth largest oil in the field is the main assets of the Zadcos maily depend upon the growth Social Sustainability Zadco contribute for the social sustainability and some contribution in includes employement opportunity, community welfare project , promation of educational institution Enviromental Sustainability Zadco has strictily maintaint its effort to reduce the environment pollution, it also monitor its emission and discharges constantly to to reduce the harmful effect in the ecosystem http://www.halliburton.com/AboutUs/default.aspx?navid=973pageid=2305 Business Planning Processes The success of an organization depends on how effectively their strategies are implemented and how it works. The main function of the business plan is to identify and develop strategy to support the companys mission and vision. It may be long time or short time. The corporate performance focussing the development of companies in all area.The corporative planning team interfaces every group in the business units. http://www.zadco.com/CMS/AboutZADCO/CorporateOverviewMissionVisionValues/BusinessPlanning/tabid/251/Default.aspx Operation management in oil and gas industry The basic ethics and idea of operation management in the framework of the upstream Oil and Gas business is to enable executives to carry out a decisive evaluation of their concerns contrive and supply chain to comprehend the ways in which strategic goals are interpreted into decision-making. Decipher calculated objectives into rational calculated verdict associated to effective placing, viewed within a global context for the oil and gas sector. Transmit and converse the relation between manufactured goods and development design, and examine and construct strategies for re-engineering effective and supply chain practices to gather diverse market needs. Evaluate and expand stratagem for facility development and classify deliver chain arrangement and control worth planning, manage and skill management. Competent of effort out troubles relating to strategic operational decisions leading to the achievement of competitive advantage through an effective operational strategy. Characteristics , The model of transformation, how cooperate strategy links with operation strategy, operations by strategic drives, project appraisal, project management, location of operations, planning capacity, capacity strategies: methods of forecasting demand; Operational Scheduling; aggregate plan formulation; capacity strategies; purchasing and supply chain strategies, global sourcing and supplier selection; inventory management; MRP/MRPII/ERP; quality and environmental policy: quality management; quality control and international standards for quality systems; environmental policy; risk management; measuring performance, performance metrics, improvement strategies. Strategies for Facilities Management; Total Productive Maintenance (TPM). QUALITY MANAGMENT The industry handles hazardous fluids and gases through a variety of processes. Considering the personal safety for both staff and public, protection of the environment and business continuity (maintenance of revenue streams, both for companies and for national economies) require a high level of operational integrity. A solution element in the reassurance of appropriate products being supplied is the quality management system operated by the goods dealer and service contractor. The experience of previous editions of API Q1 has proven that requirements additional to ISO 9001:2000 are necessary to provide assurance with high opinion to quality of products and services on a consistent and global basis. It is a collaboration between the American Petroleum Institute (API) and ISO technical committee ISO/TC 67, Materials, equipment and offshore structures for petroleum, petrochemical and natural gas industries. According to John Modine, Director Certification Programs, American Petroleum Institute (API), ISO/TS 29001 is expected to result in Increased international acceptance of time-tested sector-specific quality system requirements on a broad scale for the worldwide oil and gas industry. He defines it as: One industry one standard. We knew that API Spec Q1 (6th Edition) contained extremely valuable quality system requirements for the oil and gas industry and we wanted to help disseminate those sector-specific quality requirements to the international oil and gas industry. We concluded that the best way to do that would be to draft the next version of API Spec Q1 (7th Edition) with a joint API/ISO committee with the final result being a joint publication of API Spec Q1 and ISO/TS 29001. The final goal is to obtain worldwide receipt and use of the standard. The new technical specification aims at the growth of a quality management system that provides for frequent improvement, highlight defect prevention and the reduction of variation and waste in the supply chain and from service providers. Incorporating the requirements of ISO 9001:2000, ISO/TS 29001:2003, it also includes detailed, sector-specific requirements for design, development, production, installation and service of products. To assist the user, the requirements of ISO 9001:2000 are given in boxed text, followed by specific direction and additional requirements for its implementation within the industry. Although some of the supplementary requirements may be viewed as not specific to this industry, they are needed in TS 29001 in order to ensure that the requirement(s) are explicit and can be audited. ISO/TS 29001 is obtainable for use by manufacturers of oil industry utensils and materials (upstream and downstream), service providers to the oil and gas industry, purchasers of utensils, materials and services and organizations who could use the criterion for assessments and certification. Major risks in oil and gas industry One of the main consideration in any global investment is the political risk .It is mainly focus on oil and gas or energy sector. This sector is very large and controversial most of the all countries energy sector is privatized, when Investing money on foreign country the investor should evaluate the political risks, economical, and geological risks. The oil companies producing the hydrocarbons in reasonable profit at right time. An contract signed with the government for particular time that should be a longer time than the present government. A upcoming government might ready to western companies and allow a more autonomist policy for their general resources. Once geological survey finished the economists will analyze finance budget, i company management will assess the major risk in a new project and resolve that risk in an suitable way, Political risks has been changing according to their political and socio-economic situation of their own country, For example in1990s Enron Corp in India and1980s Belco Petroleum Corp Peru in both cases present government changed and new government came and adopt new anti foreign investment policies because of that they dropped their project. There are mainly two types of risks one is Country specific political risks and another is firm political risks .Firm specific risks are directly connected to the company, for an example government might chance to cancel the project or terrorist group may decided to attack the Industry. But in the country specific politics risks is not directly connected the firm but it will effect national wide, for example the government decision will effect money fluctuation or civil war Dfferent types of l risks are shown below . Government Risks Instability Risks Firm exact Risks unfair regulations damage Creeping expropriation Kidnappings break of contract Firm particular boycotts County Level Risks Mass nationalizations labour strikes Regulatory change rural rioting Risk Management There are number of essential ways to protect the investment firms from the political risk, economic risks, environmental risks, and technological risks. Assessment factors can strongly influence the companys fiscal performance. Political risk is mainly managed by two ways one is actual political risk insurance and another is De facto insurance. De facto insurance is the protection from strategic partnering and planning. Political insurance is covering all part of the investment .In De facto insurances is mainly preventing the loss in risky areas for example exploration and production , money fluctuations, civil war etc. Two important sections in a political risk policy constitutes event of loss and the measure of damages and it wil be as a result of the type of coverage that is purchased. So it is important to understand the types of political risk insurance coverages. These coverages generally includes expropriation, currency inconvertibility, war and civil disturbance, trade disruption and breach of contract.all these should be closely examined Expropriation coverage protects against patial or total loss of investment caused by host government which eliminates insureds ownership or exercise of its rights with respect to the investment. Coverages can also used against creeping expropriations which had effect of preventing the investor of its ownership.to its investments. The amount of loss wil be the investments net book value. While discussing the amount of loss based on a particular coverage the concept of book value become important and it determines how much will be recovered in the event of loss For example in US there are two methods of accounting for drilling results. An oil company can either use an accounting under which dry hole costs are written off in the year incurred, or the full cost method of accounting whereby all drilling costs are capitalized and written off over the economic life of the reserve. Both methods will produce different results. So it is important to discuss a definition for net book value that will produce a promising financial result for the insured. Expropriation can take the following forms Confiscation of Fixed Assets and Bank Accounts Many companies have investments in the form of subsidies or joint venture .In order to attract foreign direct investment government will give some concessions or signed agreement with the company .But w hen the government changes some changes will happen in investment regulations and the locally held assests will undergo some unfairly actions imposed by the new government which restricts its operations. Share holder loans invested by the companies are at the risk of legal penality. Insurance is needed to protect such loans. Expropriation coverages also include losses due to material change imposed by the host government. The following agreements are mentioned Drilling Rights Long term agreements should contain remedy to protect against future disputes because such licenses may be cancelled later. The contract should significantly relay on qualitity of arbitration provision to secure against legal indebtness through court. Exploration/Exploitation (Production Sharing Agreements) When overseas government attract western companies to share in the travel of discovery of the potential field this agreement will comprise the unfair treatment at the next phase. Thus this agreement will identify how the oil revenues are split between the company and the government. At the time of struugle the government will undergo any of these agreements and identify the indebteness of the government and coverage is available on grounds similar to drilling rights Proven Reserve In situations where future oil revenues are included in the balance sheet and the underwriters are satisfied with the accounting principles it is possible to include loss of future earnings as a part of net asset value in the event of expropriation by the host government .2. Confiscation of Mobile Assets Contractors who take specialized mobile plants or equipments such as barge from overseas will re-export it after the completion of their project. Before re-exporting he needs permission and license from host government. If he refused the permitted the permission he will be exposed to a potential loss caused by confiscation and deprivation. 2.Currency inconvertibility coverage helps the investor to meet the loss arise due to his inability to convert local currency into the foreign currency specified in the policy, which is usually United States dollars, or the investors home currency,to transfer aborad. The coverages include excessive delays (usually expressed in terms of a stated time period), adverse changes in local laws or regulations, and an adverse change in the conditions governing the conversion to foreign exchange. The risk of devaluvation is for the insurance company.the investor will pay over the blocked currency to the company in exchange for the foreign currency. 3. War and civil disturbance coverage protects against damage or destruction due to war or any other disturbances. This coverage includes revolution, insurrection, coup detats, sabotage and terrorism. The damage may not be actual but the investment is considered as a total loss.The measure of loss will be investors net book value of the assets destroyed or damaged. The company also needs a option to replace the destroyed ones or a reasonable price for the maintenance of the damaged ones. 4. Breach of contract coverage protects the host countrys repudiation against investors contract.this coverage will provide a process for resolution of disputed and the investor can obtain an award for damages. If it is not paid with the state period of time, the investor can then demand for net book value of investment under the policy. Future loss in profit is not covered 5. Project finance Majority of overseas project requires bank finance on a limited or non-recourse basis. Private companies now offer a coverage of 10 years to protect banks giving loans to such projects. . The project sponsors will be seeking finance from the lenders where the assets of the project are assigned as collateral and the cash flows derived used to repay financing. 6. Border closures, blockades and sanctions will not cause a loss of the local investment Two possible consequences that tailores the insurance programs are loss of profit and increase in operating costs .

Hooded Americanism: The First Century of the Ku Klux Klan Essay

In â€Å"Hooded Americanism,† David M. Chalmers narrates the olden times of the Ku Klux Klan in every single one of its personifications from right away following the Civil War to the belatedly 1970s. Mr. Chalmers moreover talks about the Klan’s expansion and accomplishments in all of the states throughout its strongest era in the 1920s to 1930s. Mr. Chalmers furthermore discusses in great detail the tumultuous 1960s and how the Klan lends a hand unintentionally to produce the Civil Rights legislation for which it struggled so toughly against the opposition. Comprehensively investigated and finely written, â€Å"Hooded Americanism† is based on facts and peeps into the life of a contentious association and into the survival of the men and women who made it achievable. Summary of the Book: In the book â€Å"Hooded Americanism†, according to the author, David M. Chalmers, â€Å"it is not possible under American law to forbid the existence of an organization such as the Klan. Only the overt deeds of individuals, not organizations and opinions, are punishable† (David Mark Chalmers, 391). In other expressions it is practically not possible to pin the activities of a company on one human being. In result, the group gets away with monstrous and dreadful actions of violent behavior and no one is penalized for it. They have extended an effectual and successful approach and it is one of terrorization. All the way through the past, the Ku Klux Klan has instilled terror in others compelling them to give the impression to be substandard and defenseless. Not including the capability to threaten civilization, the Klan may perhaps still subsist, but it would obtain no authority above others. David Chalmers’ Hooded Americanism is in spite of everything, a standard history of the Ku Klux Klan. His 1981 modified version traced the indistinguishable territory all the way through its fourth period, peaking with the late-1970s resurrection directed by new leaders like David Duke and manifested by the assassinators of five anti-Klan protesters at a 1979 war of words in Greensboro, North Carolina â€Å"Greensboro† readdresses here. Greensboro, North Carolina is a municipality in the U. S. state of North Carolina. Subsequently Klan relationships previously again forced, even though hard-core Klansmen soldiered into the new millennium by setting of connections crossways the chauvinistic Right, counterfeiting associations with Christian distinctiveness supporters, armed force combatants Nordic paganists, and neo-Nazi demagogues. Thesis of the book:  In spite of the civil rights modifications being approved greater than 40 years ago, racial discrimination persists to continue living to a great extent in America. A good example of this is the book â€Å"Hooded Americanism†. This book is based on the southern-based group known as the Ku Klux Klan. Instantaneously subsequent to the Civil War, this group moved towards the Modernization Period. The Ku Klux Klan (KKK) is one of America’s oldest and mainly one of the most apprehended groups. Determined by the vision of a world with simply one master ethnic group, the KKK frequently makes use of violent behavior, aggression and tactics exceeding the law to encourage their cause: white domination. Believe it or not, the innovative components intended for the KKK, were supposed to be an entertaining communal association that would be occupied of meaningless excitement and enjoyment despite the fact that in later years the KKK grew to be identified for their violent behavior and brutality in opposition to inhabitants outside the white nation and public who connected with them. With the times gone by that image Americans have of the KKK is hard to accept as true that it was on track for the reason that a small number of inhabitants wanting to have some childlike enjoyment, not because they were determined to establish a procession of hostility on anybody outside the white ethnic group. The Klan was extremely mysterious; all of the components were protected from individuals meaningful in their real characteristics (if that was their desire). Because of this confidentiality they obtained the alternate substitute name of â€Å"The Invisible Empire†. Even though slavery was brought to a conclusion, racial discrimination was not. The KKK was decived by the U. S. Government when it established and started being familiar with African-Americans as more than simply slaves. The KKK started their remonstration by execution, tar and feathering, thrashing, pounding and assassinating African-Americans in the South. The Klan doesn’t make use of the similar strategies as they did years and years ago. At that instant the KKK grasps nonviolent complaints in front of civil rights organization structures, the White House, and so on. For the reason that of their further diplomatic and more knowledgeable sounding loom, the Klan gets further encouraging awareness from brainless southerners. Subsequent to the removal of the U. S. Government hordes from the South in the late 1800’s, the Klan accomplished its objective. Numerous of the groups separated. Following the turn of the century, it started happening another time. This instant the objective was a lot superior, emancipation of America from all non-white, Christian Americans. This is the Ku Klux Klan we are familiar with at the moment. The Klan hasn’t been as authoritative from the time when they began, but for the past 50 years it has had a lot of reincarnation and plunges. All the way through the history, the KKK has tried to put a stop to the correspondence of America. They will maintain to do well by pleading with further inexperienced and unqualified Americans to stick together with them. It is correct that racial discrimination still continues to exist in the United States, but there will at all times be men and women of every color and shade struggling in opposition to group similar to the KKK. Provided that there are dissimilarities linking people on this earth, there will forever be revulsion. And the KKK will be there to nourish on this abhorrence and take advantage of it in each and every way probable. They might be noiseless for numerous years, but you can calculate on the reality that they are there. They are â€Å"The Invisible Empire† and will for eternity be the dark and mysterious side to American History. The book goes in length into the Klan’s spreading out into numerous nations and documents their accomplishments/collapses and the universal communal response of the group of people the Klan was entering. The novelist despite the fact that appeared to have a pro-Klan prejudice, and this is sensed just by the title and the understanding of the within jacket. He infrequently spots out the tribulations of the Klan’s philosophy (throughout his utilization of expressions, particularly exclusion of such words as â€Å"racist† and â€Å"bigot†, which a lot of Klan associates gave the impression to symbolize), and glamorizes the Klan’s analyses on white preeminence as a standard, contemporary inspection of white Christians (a little exceptionally distant from the reality). It glamorizes Klan violent behavior and intimidation of aggression, and in more than a small number of places it blames those adjacent to the Klan as unpatriotic Americans, or unappreciative colonizers or minorities. Mr. Chalmers furthermore highlights community brutality not in favor of Klan action as the actual erroneous and wickedness, something I believe is a usual response to these ‘pseudo-Christian revolutionary law enforcers’ who wish for time (and America) to stand still and static for them. A number of areas furthermore intimate towards the writer’s support for the Klan’s principles. The foremost Klan was established in 1865 by veterans of the co-conspirator defense force. Its rationale was to reinstate white incomparability in the consequences of the American Civil War. The Klan opposed Reconstruction by threatening â€Å"carpetbaggers†, â€Å"troublemakers† and freedmen. The KKK promptly accepted aggressive techniques. The increase in assassinations finally resulted in a counterattack between Southern leaders who observed the Klan’s immoderation as an explanation for centralized troops to prolong occupation. The association refused from 1868 to 1870 and was shattered by President Ulysses S. Grant’s route and enforcement of the Civil Rights Act of 1871. In 1915, the following Klan was established. It developed quickly in a different period of postwar social apprehensions. After World War I, a lot of Americans managed with successful development rates in main metropolis, where plentiful influence of refugees from southern and Eastern Europe and the Great Migration of Southern blacks and whites were being captivated. Subsequent to World War I, labor anxiety increased as veterans attempted to reenter the work energy. In response to these new groups of migrants and refugees, the second KKK urged racial discrimination, anti-Catholicism, anti-Communism, nativism, and anti-Semitism. Conclusion: Mr. Chalmers creates exceptional use of modern newspaper descriptions and perspectives to cover the Klan and its reputation in a specified group of people. What I found particularly fascinating was the Klan’s demographics. Mr. Chalmers acquaints with investigation that disproves long-held confidences that the Klan was for all time strongest in the South; in actual fact the Klan, at times, lined the authorized administrations of the Midwest. Mr. Chalmers furthermore talks about how different state governments and councils struggled with the Klan or sided with them. Yet again, I was astonished at how numerous administrations in reality attempted to restrain the enlargement of the Klan in their states throughout anti-mask commandments and other legislation. Mr. Chalmers has printed an outstanding history that includes in huge detail the 100 years subsequent to the Civil War. I look forward to that he is at an effort on modernizing this essential work.

Sartre Revised

Being condemned to be free is ironic. Condemn and free are two words not usually seen together in one sentence making a coherent and firm statement. To condemn is to declare to be reprehensible, wrong, or evil usually after weighing evidence and without reservation. And to be free is to have the legal and political rights of a citizen. Joined together the words will over right their meaning. And yet philosopher Jean – Paul Sartre managed to make his point stand out and be heard by everyone, outliving 64 years of earthly, human living. What Sartre is trying to tell us, his thoughts and ideas about life here on earth, about our responsibilities, about the trifle things and actions in our everyday lives that we tend to ignore because we think life is bigger than us, that there's a bigger picture, is what being condemned to be free is all about. In today's modern world, freedom has become a necessity and has taken on many forms. Gone were the days when women are not allowed to vote, engage in politics and other manly jobs, cannot have a career and is obliged to stay home and manage the household, and be thrown to unwanted marriages arranged by their parents. Now everybody can choose. And many have viewed this right to choose as a form of freedom. One has the right to choose their schools, their career paths to take, their spouses, how many children are they going to have, what will they name their kids, it is just a matter of choosing and directing this freedom to what we think is the right thing to do. After all, not all of us are using this freedom to choose our actions wisely. It all starts with human beings being born free and equal in dignity and rights, the first article from the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Men are created equal, and it’s funny that there are people born carrying within them the royal blood. It already raises their political and monetary position above all the common men. They carry with them the noun King, Queen, Prince, Princess, Emperor, and Empress among others before their birth names. They have all the advantages in the world, not having to sit through traffic, not having to be the front liner in a war, not having to work hard to earn a living. In fact, they just sit and everything is done for them, all they have to do is make sure they keep their countries the same as it was before they were born. Up to what extent is this equality in dignity and rights applicable? Now that everybody seems to have a complete grasp of liberty, it appears that being free is not as wanted as it was before. History taught us well enough to know that there have been a number of wars fought for freedom and religion. The tales of man then tells us how others will try to conquer the lands where they have been born, and a leader will fight for their land and in the end they either merge with the conquerors or greatly celebrate their freedom. Religion, too, has been a great propeller of wars. Different beliefs, different doctrines, a different God for every religion, set the plot for a more massive movement that outlasted every century up to now, still counting fatalities. â€Å"The historical reality is that where religious freedom is denied, so too are other basic human rights. † (Why Religious Freedom? ) Religious freedom is just one of the many forms of freedom people are indulging in today. There is also what we call academic freedom. â€Å"The notion of academic freedom is invoked to justify statements by faculties that offend politicians, religious leaders, corporate executives, parents of students, and citizens. (Academic Freedom in the United States) That immediately removes your right as a person to say what you want to say, it obviously is a threat to be opinionated now a days. And it is not just academic; the press is also encountering some form of suppression. According to the Freedom House organization, there are several reasons as to why the media i s being stripped off of its independence. The media can be a source of political opposition, political upheaval, victims of violence, and finally, they can be threats to national security. (Map of Press Freedom) With all the overwhelming talk about freedom, liberty and human rights, one man tries to summarize all this into man being condemned to be free. Jean-Paul Sartre is said to be one of the brightest philosophers of the twentieth century. â€Å"French novelist, playwright, existentialist philosopher, and literary critic. Sartre was awarded the Nobel Prize for literature in 1964, but he declined the honor in protest of the values of bourgeois society. His longtime companion was Simone de Beauvoir (1908-1986), whom he met at the Ecole Normale Superieure in 1929. â€Å"(Jean-Paul Sartre 1905-1980) An Existentialist, Sartre is known for his public lecture, Existentialism and Humanism and his magnum opus, Being and Nothingness. Sartre's greatest work, Being and Nothingness is subtitled: Phenomenological Ontology. He starts his discussion with the description of two kinds of being. According to him there is the in-itself and the for-itself. The beings-in-themselves are the ordinary objects, while the being-for-itself are the human agents. (Jean-Paul Sartre) The beings-in-themselves or ordinary objects do not have the capability to change or create. A chair is nothing more than what it is, it cannot change its appearance on its own, nor can it create something out of its being. A human agent is a being-for-itself because it is a being with conscious plans, purposes and intentions. It is able to project forward from a given situation to a future possibility that is not yet realized. The uncertainty of human life and purpose, the venturing into the unknown is what makes and defines human life distinct from the others. As human life progresses, the things that he do, what kinds of act he gets himself involved in, becomes his definition, becomes his being. A person is born not knowing that he will pursue a career in medicine. As he grows up and goes to medical school he is defined. He has found a definition for his life, that of a doctor. For Sartre, if a being-for-itself starts to question its purpose and meaning, it starts to have a consciousness. The consciousness makes it possible for the human to know everything around him, and everything that is not around him. As it now knows that it is not an ordinary object but something else. Something undefined, something that is not yet known to him. So starts the journey to fill in an empty palette. In not knowing, in a human's nothingness, he is free. There is this whole notion that if you are inside a prison cell, you are not free. You are bounded by rows and rows of bars, controlled by correctional officers, undermined by more experienced inmates. But if we were to use Sartre's definition of freedom, no Alcatraz can set limits on our liberty. In fact, this will even define the person and not limit his being free. The core idea of the text is that man is condemned to be free, meaning that in this freedom that we have, we are still responsible for our actions. We cannot evade our responsibilities and say that we did not choose it to happen, because our actions are unmistakably ours alone. Nobody does our actions but us. Even if we are not inside jail cells, we are still attached to obligations and duties which we can only be held responsible to bringing upon ourselves. â€Å"Man being condemned to be free carries the weight of the world on his shoulders; he is responsible for the world and for himself as a way of being. † Every action that we do, we know and we are conscious of us doing it. We cannot clean our hands and say that we did not want that to happen. We are abandoned in the sense that we cannot but the blame on somebody else. We carry the burden; nobody can help us with it. Sartre pointed out a few arguments to support his view. He mentioned three reasons why human-reality is free. Human – reality is free because it is not enough. Human – reality is free because it is perpetually wrenched away from itself and because it has been separated by a nothingness from what it is and from what it will be. And finally, human – reality is free because its present being is itself a nothingness in the form of the reflection-reflecting. Basically what he is trying to say is that our life here on earth is not enough to explore everything that this world can offer us. We continue to be free in spite and despite of the fact that there is a limit to everything. Freedom is the nothingness which is made-to-be at the heart of man, it forces human – reality to make itself instead of to be. For human – reality to be is to choose oneself. Sartre tells us that if a person should make something out of his nothingness, then he makes use of his freedom. He has to make himself something out of this freedom. His freedom opens his world to a lot of choices. What one would want to do, what one would make out of the small money one has, what one will do when one wakes up in the morning. These things that one chooses to do will give him the being of man. Man cannot be sometimes slave and sometimes free; he is wholly and forever free or he is not free at all. For to be wholly free is to be given responsibility. And to not be free, one is not given responsibility, which will never be the case because only the beings-in-themselves or the ordinary objects are those that cannot assume responsibility. He must assume the situation with the proud consciousness of being the author of it. Our lives are like books. They have a plot, a setting and characters. But who makes things happen? Is it not us? We are the author of our own books, we make things happen. However bad the situation that we find ourselves in, we must assume responsibility and get through the challenge. Absolute responsibility is not resignation; it is the logical requirement of the consequences of our freedom. When free, man chooses to do things. And when man chooses to do things, these things will always have consequences. For example, man chooses to swim at high noon. After awhile, he finds himself with his skin burning from being exposed to the sun too long. This is the consequence of his actions. His freedom to choose his actions makes him absolutely responsible for whatever it brings to him. There is no non-human situation because all decisions are human. Even if we say that man does inhuman things, like that of nuclear war, murder and rape, this will never be a non-human situation simply because the decision to get involved is of human nature. You try to reason with yourself that maybe what you are doing is wrong and not just, and yet you still decide to do it. It is still a human who is behind the act; hence, it is not a non-human situation. There are no accidents in life. For lack of getting out of it, I have chosen it. It is a matter of choice. Here Sartre points out that what happens in life does not happen by chance. We get ourselves involved by our choice, and if we say we do not have a choice, and we cannot get ourselves out of it, we still have chosen it. Because we always have a choice. Even if that choice is suicide or not doing our duties, it is still an option to get out of a situation. Human – reality is without excuse. Lastly, Sartre tell us that one cannot ask, â€Å"Why was I born? or curse the day of his birth or declare that he did not ask to be born, for these various attitudes toward his birth – i. e. , toward the fact that he realizes a presence in the world – are absolutely nothing else but ways of assuming this birth in full responsibility and of making it his. When man becomes conscious of his p resence and being in this world, it follows that he accepts responsibility. Because now he knows and is fully aware of the things that he is doing, his freedom, and once aware of his freedom, he is found to be responsible. I think that Jean-Paul Sartre wants to find meaning in life just like everybody else. The answer to the question, â€Å"Why was I born? † Sartre answered simply. Unlike other schools of thought, namely the determinists and the proponents of free will, Sartre focused on man’s is being condemned to be free but with full responsibility. Sartre said that the proponents of free will are concerned with finding cases of decision for which there exists no prior cause or deliberations concerning two opposed acts which are equally possible and possess causes or motives of the same weight. Hence they try to reason that a person is born with the free will to find a cause for himself. However, the determinists reply saying that there is no action without a cause and that the most insignificant gesture refers to causes and motives which confer its meaning upon it. So for them, man is born with a cause already. Sartre simply answered this question when he said that man is born out of nothingness, and in this nothingness, he is free. And like most philosophical view points, Sartre is very much ridiculed for his existentialist values. There are objections to him mostly because of his atheistic ideals saying that he believes that we are living in a universe with no God, no morality, nothing absolute. Abandonment: Condemned to be Free) His stand on being free that leaves us with a feeling of abandonment because we are solely responsible for everything, comes from his realization that there is no supreme being, being God that guides us and supports us every step of the way. We are alone and we cannot ask for a God to help us in situations that we cannot possibly escape f rom. His definition of freedom permits everybody to do whatever we want, because we all have choices and responsibilities to bear. And if we have chosen to be a part of a non-human situation, we would still find ourselves deciding humanely. For example, a man participates in murdering another man, it is his choice to participate in the killing, and nobody forces him to do so. The other man is now dead, because man is free to choose what to do; he is not judged as doing something wrong. Instead, as long as he deems himself responsible for the killing, he is free. What we do not understand much is that our being free has to come with responsibility. Yes we get to do whatever we want, but we still have to consider the consequences and assume responsibility for it. By then, we cannot dare say that we did not want this. Nobody else is responsible for the things we do but ourselves. We choose, even if we say that we left it all to chance. Leaving it to chance is still an option that we choose. The life given to us, it is a choice. Everything we do, we do without regrets or remorse. There should be no excuses, for we are the authors of our situation, nobody else but us. In my own opinion, I greatly value Sartre’s work. He proves that there are so many reasons why we should enjoy our life here on earth and how much freedom we have. He points out a great deal of effort as to why we do things not needing a direct cause or a cause not to do it. But I do also possess a great amount of respect to the Supreme Being. I know that there are people who believe that they do not need a God, who believes that life here on earth is just passing and not really owed to him. But for me, that is not the case. I believe that we are not alone, and that there is someone out there who gives us hope and who makes us keep our faith. Yes, we have to be responsible for the things that we do. But that responsibility comes with great respect and consideration for other people around us. We just cannot hastily do things and hope that we do not get in the way of somebody. Life is governed by rules, by the law. If there will be none of these rules and laws, there is definitely chaos. And I do not think that suicide is neither an option nor a last resort. We cannot simply find the easy way out. What is the thrill in just killing yourself if you cannot overcome challenges and obstacles in your life? Why do you have family and significant others to share your dilemma with? I believe that our troubles are our responsibilities, but it does not stop us from asking help. There are now numerous numbers to call in case we decide not to confide to our family members or to our closest friends, especially if we want to remain anonymous. If other people find ways to help other people, especially those who established organizations like alcoholics anonymous, etc. , why can we not indulge in these as well? Yes we always have a choice, and suicide is not one of them. Yes we have the freedom to do that, but if you believe that everybody is given an equal and a second chance, would you do it? We do have our own burdens and crosses to carry, but everything is possible as long as we have faith. Faith in ourselves, to always have the courage to face our problems, faith in life, that it may not let us down and faith in the Supreme Being, to whom we know we are always taken care of.

George Orwells 1984 - 1168 Words

George Orwell author of 1984 recently made it on Amazon’s list of â€Å"100 books to read before you die† for his widely read novel with thought provoking subjects like: the dangers of totalitarianism, physical control, psychological manipulation, manipulation of information and history, and technology. Through the themes in 1984, George Orwell demonstrates that a dystopian society created by totalitarian rule can infiltrate the minds of its citizens through various mediums. The famous novel falls into the same dystopian genre as other great works such as Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury, Brave New World by Aldus Huxley , and Orwell’s very own allegorical Animal Farm. However, 1984 is hailed by many for its continuity as a classic work†¦show more content†¦The Party’s true power is finally revealed in the Ministry of Love as O’Brien questions Winston. It shares a philosophy similar to The Antichrist, Nietzsche: What is good? Everything that heightens the feeling of power in man, the will to power, power itself. What is bad? Everything that is born of weakness. What is happiness? The feeling that power is growing, that resistance is overcome. [The true human being should seek] not contentedness but more power; not peace but war; not virtue but fitness†¦.What is more harmful than any vice? Active pity for all the failures and all the weak. (http://archive.org/) In the concluding chapters, Winston faces the leader of the party O’Brien who had been spying on him since the beginning of his rebellion. O’Brien embodies the ideas of power mentioned in Nietzsche’s writing on behalf of the party. It was he who had complete control and trapped Winston into joining the fake resisting party. Ultimately, Winston was the only person who valued the truth in history and believed in the defeat of the totalitarian government. Oceania is an example of a perfect dystopia. The Party managed to completely break down any enemy of the state including Winston who symbolized the spirit of man; it strove for complete control and at the end achieved happiness which is defined as the feeling of growing power. Orwell’s novel has played a significant role throughout history. At the time of its authorship in 1949 some countries were exhibiting horrificShow MoreRelatedGeorge Orwells 19841138 Words   |  5 PagesGeorge Orwell’s â€Å"1 984† perfectly captures a potential dystopia that would occur to the human race if a totalitarian government was present. As a result of this, Orwell identifies the purpose of the novel: to warn people what could possibly happen if they were not careful. A totalitarian government is similar to a dictatorship and demands complete obedience. Orwell focused on what type of plot would be most beneficial, how the plot would impact the audience, and how the subplot builds on a conflictRead MoreGeorge Orwells 19842185 Words   |  9 PagesLiterary Analysis The author of the novel 1984, George Orwell, is a political critic. Therefore, he used very precise descriptions of situations and words to provide the reader a clear understanding of the entity he is criticizing. When Winston describes the destruction of past records to create new ones to Julia, he says: â€Å"Every record has been destroyed or falsified, every book has been rewritten, every picture has been repainted, every statue and street and building has been renamed, every dateRead MoreThe Themes Of 1984 And George Orwells 19841237 Words   |  5 Pages In many ways, George Orwell used real problems in the world to write his novels. Orwell lived through many events that inspired some of the main topics in his book, 1984. 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In 1984, written by George Orwell, Big Brother is a dictator who gives the Oceanian population no personal freedoms and strictly dominates all of the country for their own selfish ways. Unlike OceaniaRead MoreSymbolism In George Orwells 19841349 Words   |  6 Pages Symbolism in 1984 Literary concepts are often used in books to make the reading experience more enjoyable. In George Orwell’s 1984, Orwell uses a key literary element, symbolism, to do this. Orwell does this in a unique way. He makes the reader want to think one way, when the reality is far different. This causes the reader to be surprised when the truth of the matter is revealed. He is able to do this by having certain objects represent one thing, and then later reveal it is something far differentRead MoreSurveillance In George Orwells 19841219 Words   |  5 PagesSurveillance, or a close watch kept over someone or something for a specific purpose, features prominently in George Orwell’s dystopian novel 1984. The book follows Winston Smith, a middle-aged man who lives in the futuristic society of Oceania, where the government of the Party, under the leadership of Big Brother, maintains strict control of the people and prevents free thought through propaganda, censorship, and surveil lance. Winston tries to think freely while evading detection and succeeds for