Environmental Groups Essay Example for Free

Environmental Groups Essay Environmental Groups Tiffany Tremaine May 2, 2011 Environmental Policies 310 Instructor: David Monda Environmental Working Group known as EWG is an Environmental interest group working to protect kids from toxic chemicals in our food, water, air, and other products we use every day. The mission of the Environmental Working Group is to use the power of public information to protect public health and the environment. EWG is a 501(c) (3) non-profit organization, founded in 1993 by Ken Cook and Richard Wiles. In 2002, we founded the EWG Action Fund, a 501(c) (4) organization that advocates on Capitol Hill for health-protective and subsidy-shifting policies. EWG specializes in providing useful resources (like Skin Deep and the EWGs Shoppers Guide to Pesticidesâ„ ¢) to consumers while simultaneously pushing for national policy change. EWG two main goals are to protect the most vulnerable segments of the human population—children, babies, and infants in the womb—from health problems attributed to a wide array of toxic contaminants and to replace federal policies, including government subsidies that damage the environment and natural resources, with policies that invest in conservation and sustainable development. Their research brings to light unsettling facts that you have a right to know. It shames and shakes up polluters and their lobbyists. It rattles politicians and shapes policy. It persuades bureaucracies to rethink science and strengthen regulation. It provides practical information you can use to protect your family and community. And because our investigations and interactive websites tend to make news, youve probably heard about them. EWG primary funding is donations, grants, corporations backing, as well as interest and support from every day people. The cost is whatever the member (supporter) would like to donate. There are many different ways to donate and the donations can either be tax right offs or not. EWG gives many ways to donate, credit card or check, and their supporters can either make a one-time contribution or pay monthly. The donation helps support EWG Action Funds Kid-Safe Chemicals Campaign fight for organic produce, get dangerous chemicals out of your food and water, and protect your favorite national parks from mining destruction. In 2009 and 2010 EWG have accomplished Toxic chemical reform, Energy policy, Banning BPA, Highlighting cell phone radiation risks, Shedding light on secret chemicals, Pushing for more effective sunscreens, Banning phthalates, Phasing out Deca, Protecting ground water from gas-drilling chemicals, Saving the Grand Canyon, and Fighting for safer tap water. EWG motives, viewpoints, and organizational features make them successful in the public policy arena. This Environmental Working Group is successful in the public policy arena. After researching just a couple of their accomplishments are in the public arena. References Z. Smith, 2009, The Environmental Policy Paradox, 5th Edition 1993, http://www. ewg. org/

Psychology Of The Fraudster Profile Of Fraudsters Criminology Essay

Psychology Of The Fraudster Profile Of Fraudsters Criminology Essay It is important to understand the profile of a typical fraudster, by type of fraud he/she has committed, in order to control and detect a fraud. In case of an asset fraud, the person is generally someone who was not suspected, oftentimes least suspected. The profile of white-collar criminals is very different from blue-collar criminals, or street criminals. This statement makes fraud even more difficult to inhibit or identify. Who Commits Fraud? According to the principles mentioned above, one might conclude that fraud is caused mainly by factors external to the individual that include financial, economic, social, and political factors, and poor controls. But, what about the individuals? Are some people more inclined to to commit fraud than others? And if so, is that a more serious cause of fraud than the external and internal environmental aspects as discussed earlier? Data obtained from criminology and sociology gives the same impression. Start by making a broad view about people: Some individuals are honest all the time. Some individuals are deceitful all the time. Most individuals are honest some of the time. Some individuals are honest most of the time. A study was conducted to ask employees whether they are honest at work. Forty percent said they would not steal, 30 percent said they would, and 30 percent said they might. A part from those overviews about people, what can one say about fraud committers? About Lying, Cheating and Stealing, Gwynn Nettler, suggestions these understandings on cheaters and deceivers: People who have experienced failure are prone to cheat. People who are not liked and who hate themselves are more likely to be more deceitful. People who are thoughtless, capable of being distracted and unable to delay fulfilments are more likely to involve in deceitful crimes. People who have a sense of right and wrong (fear of anxiety and punishment; that is, awareness of disclosure) are more resistant to commit a crime. Intelligent people are more likely to be honest than uneducated people. Middle and elite-class people tend to be more honest than lower-class people. The easier it is to fraud and cheat, the more people will do so. Individuals have different needs and levels at which they will be adequately driven to lie, cheat, or steal. Lying, cheating, and theft increase when people are under stress to attain important objectives. The struggle to survive leads to deceit. Individuals lie, steal and cheat on the job in a variety of individual and administrative situations. The ways that are followed are: Personal variables Skills/abilities Attitudes/favourites Personal requirements/needs Morals/principles Organizational variables Type/scope of the job (meaningful work) Preparation/training provided Credit/acknowledgment system Significance of administration and management Clarity of duties Clarity of job-related objectives Interactive trust Motivational and moral environment (ethics and values of superiors and co-workers) External variables Amount of competition in the industry General financial conditions Social values (ethics of challengers and of social and political role models) The question rises; Why Do Workers Lie, Steal and Cheat on the Work? There are 25 reasons behind employee crimes that are looked by authorities in white-collar crime (criminologists, sociologists, psychologists, auditors, risk managers, police, and security experts): The employee believes he can escape from it. The employee thinks he/she badly needs or desires the money or articles that are stolen. The employee feels unsatisfied or disappointed about some part of the job. The employee feels upset or unhappy about some aspect of his personal life that is not related to job. The employee feels mistreated by the employer and wants to get even. The employee fails to think through the penalties of being caught. The employee thinks: everybody else cheats, so why not me? The employee thinks: theyre so big, stealing a little bit wont damage them. The employee doesnt know how to manage his/her own income so is always penniless and ready to steal. The employee feels that defeating the organization is a contest and experiment and not a matter of financial advantage alone. The employee was economically, socially, or traditionally deprived during childhood. The employee is compensating for an emptiness felt in his personal life and needs love, care, and friendship. The employee has no willpower and steals out of an impulse. The employee believes a friend at work has been subjected to embarrassment or misuse or has been treated unethically. The employee is just simply lethargic and will not work hard to earn enough to buy what he/she desires or needs. The organizations internal controls are so relaxed that everyone is attracted to steal. No one has ever been put on trial for stealing from the organization. Most employee thieves are caught by coincidence rather than by audit or design. Therefore, fright of being caught is not a warning to theft. Employees are not encouraged to discuss personal or financial problems at work or to seek managements advice and guidance on such matters. Employee stealing is a situational phenomenon. Each theft has its own former situations, and each thief has his/her own purposes. Employees steal for any reason the human mind and thoughts can call up. Employees never go to jail or get strict prison punishments for stealing, deceiving, or cheating from their employers. Human beings are weak and susceptible to to sin. Employees nowadays are morally, ethically, and mentally ruined and bankrupt. Employees tend to follow their superiors. If their superiors steal or cheat, then they are most likely to do the same. Laws must be sensible, fair in application and applied quickly and efficiently to be respected and obeyed. Company strategies that relate to employee honesty, like criminal laws in general must be sensible, reasonable, and projected to serve the companys best economic interests. The test of reasonableness for any company fraud policy is whether its terms are understandable, whether its punishments or preventions are appropriate to a real and serious matter, and whether its application is possible in a well-organized and legally effective way. But what particular employee actions are serious enough to be banned and/or punished? Any act that could or does result in significant loss, damage, or destruction of company assets should be forbidden. What is acceptable or considered significant will vary by organization, but wherever the limitations are defined, they must be well conversed, demonstrated by upper management, and applied as essential. The greatest warning to criminal conduct is a guaranteed and impartial justice; that means immediate detection and uneasiness, a quick and fair trial, and punishment according to the crime: loss of civil rights, honours, property, individual freedom, or societal approval. Having said all that, why is it that, regardless of the terrible consequences of criminal conduct, it still happens? Obviously, it is because the rewards obtained frequently go beyond the risk of uneasiness and punishment; that is, the troubles caused by punishment are not as severe as the pleasures of criminal conduct. The latter seems to be mainly true in cases of financial or white-collar crimes. Many times, when a fraud is noticed, the extent of punishment and penalty of the crime is sometimes without even paying back the fraud damages. So while prospective white collar criminals may believe they might get trapped, but still the consequences are below the satisfaction which they get by committing the crime. High-Level and Low-Level Thieves At high levels of administrative life, it is easy to steal because controls can be avoided or bypassed. The amounts that high-level managers steal, therefore, is likely to be greater than the amounts low-level employees steal. For example, according to the 2008 ACFE (Association of Certified Fraud Examiners) RTTN, executives average about  £834,000 per fraud, managers about  £150,000, and employees about  £70,000. The number of events of theft, however, is greater at low levels of administrations because of the large number of employees found there. The ACFE RTTN has gathered a profile of fraudsters based on the information collected from CFEs (Certified Fraud Examiner) in its assessments. The more expensive frauds, in terms of cost or losses, are committed by fraudsters who (a) have been working with the company for a long time, (b) receive a high earnings, (c) are males, (d) are above 60 years of age, (e) are well educated (the higher the educational degree completed, the higher the damages), (f) work in groups rather than alone, and (g) have never been accused with anything criminal. The most common frauds, however, are done by fraudsters with a different profile. These fraudsters (a) have been a worker for about the same amount of time as the high-level thieves, (b) earn much less, (c) could be either male or female (sex doesnt matter), (d) are between the ages of 41 and 50, (e) have completed high school, (f) work alone, (g) and have generally not been charged with any criminal conduct. Hall and Singleton provide a similar profile for a usual fraudster in general. These criminals are (a) in an important position in the company, (b) are usually male, (c) are over 50 years old, (d) are married, and (e) are well educated. This profile is similar to the one from the ACFE RTTN, and leads us to this general conclusion: A white-collar criminal does not look like a criminal! Who Is Victimised By Fraud Most Often? Measures to protect against fraud by either organization insiders or outside dealers, suppliers, and contractors must be sufficient; that is, they must achieve the goal of control-cost-feasible protection of assets against damage, loss, or destruction. Cost-feasible protection means minimal expenses for full protection. Generating an organizational police state would be too much control. A sensible viewpoint on controls and countermeasures is the best, and may require involving staffs in creating control policies, plans, and procedures. A well-adjusted viewpoint considers the costs and benefits of the proposed new controls while developing a trusting culture that includes loyalty and honesty. A distrusting culture is often associated with frauds. However, complete trust with no answerability is the main cause of fraud. Fraud is therefore most widespread in organizations that have no controls, no trust, no ethical values, no profits, and no prospect. Similarly, the more these situations exist, the higher the risk of fraud. Observed evidence shows that the most common factor in all frauds committed is the lack of setting apart of duties with no compensating control- a situation commonly presents in small business units. Small businesses and establishments (e.g., charities) have a higher risk of fraud than any other size business, because they are more likely to have one accountant, no isolation of duties, and no compensating control, and those factors are the most common in fraud. Start with the amusing hypothesis that most people are honest. Its a nice way to look at the world, and it recalls childhood memories about learning that honesty is the best policy and George Washington telling his father, I cannot tell a lie. Unhappy to say, human past and human nature tell a different story, and so do the statistics that study them. While most societies clearly dislike violent crime and physical harm, many societies hold financial fraud, whatever its scale, as a less disgraceful offense. Charles Ponzi, creator of the Ponzi scheme, was famous in some regions as a folk hero and praised by many of the people he helped. Investors and executives, whose frauds can upset thousands or tens of thousands of lives, have historically been punished with comparatively light punishments or serve their time at a low-security federal tennis camp. Some scholars have called this attitude toward white-collar crime a falsification of our general societal admiration for intelligence. During much of the past century, psychologists and sociologists worked hard to understand the inner workings of people who commit white-collar crime. Edwin Sutherlands White Collar Crime, the most significant work in the field argued in 1939 that an individuals personality has no relevance to a tendency to commit such crimes. Somewhat, he said, economic crimes create from the situations and social bonds within an organization, not from the biological and psychological features of the individual. Sutherland also made the useful and obvious, observation that criminality is not limited to the lower classes and to social misfits but spreads out, particularly where financial fraud is concerned, to upper-class, socially well-adjusted people. Over the many decades since White Collar Crime was published, convincing studies have concluded that two aspects should be kept in mind while analysing the psychology and personality of the fraudster: The natural abilities of an individual, which differ widely and influence behaviour, including social behaviour The social abilities that are derived from people and in turn shape how the individual deals with other people From these studies of psychology, two common forms of financial fraudster have been noted: Calculating criminals who want to compete and to affirm themselves Situation-dependent criminals who are anxious to protect themselves, their families, or their businesses from a disaster Since these studies were published, a third form of criminal has appeared out of disastrous business failures and humiliations. We will call them power brokers. Calculating Criminals Calculating criminals are hunters. They tend to be repeat criminal acts, they have higher-than-average intellect, and theyre relatively well educated. They typically start their careers in crime later in life than other criminals. These hunters are generally motivated to risk taking-no surprise there-and they lack feelings of anxiety and sympathy. A correlated view, somewhat different in its prominence, was offered in a 1993 study of Wall Streets insider-trading scandals by a team of psychologists who proposed that individuals eager to commit such crimes had an external locus of control-that is, they do not have inner direction, self-confidence, and self-respect and were driven by their desire to fit in and be accepted. Additionally, the study found that they describe success by others standards. Situation-Dependent Criminals But the main bulk of corporate criminals are not hunters at all. They are situation-dependent offenders: apparently ordinary people who commit crimes without the intending to harm others. This is significant in understanding white-collar crime, because nearly all news reporting and much of the scholarly literature in the area focuses on shocking, highly publicized, and largely a typical cases and ignores the more common and ordinary criminals and offenses that account for most white-collar crimes. Typical White-Collar Criminal Older (30+ years) 55% male, 45% female Appeared to be from a stable family Above-average (postgraduate) education Less likely to have criminal record Good mental health Position of trust Comprehensive and full knowledge of accounting systems and their weaknesses Previous accounting experience Source: ACFE At the start of an investigation, the forensic accounting investigator often sits down with the client and examines the organizational chart. The forensic accounting investigator and the client talk about each employee one by one, about each employees work, and about what is known of the lifestyle of each. What about Amanda? the forensic accounting investigator might say, pointing to an employee on the chart. No, it could not be Amanda. She has been with us for 20 years, the client responds. She is always helping others with their duties. She is nice and rarely takes time off. My wife and I have been to her home. Our sons are on the same football team. The client may believe that what he knows, or thinks he knows, about Amandas character and removes her from the list of suspects of fraud. In fact, an experienced forensic accounting investigator will understand that Amanda fits the profile of a white-collar criminal. This is not to propose that all nice people are criminals but, rathe r, that most white-collar criminals give the appearance of being nice people, thereby fitting the exact profile of Amanda. Power Brokers Many of todays highly placed corporate criminals show features of each of the previous two categories, but they are different enough in their methods and motives to possess a category all their own: power brokers. Like many of us, you have read about their excesses and asked yourself how respected business leaders could have been so fooled as to believe that they could grab the financial and human resources of their companies to line their own pockets and deceive a wide range of investors, including their own employees. Are the U.S. corporate leaders now facing criminal charges, which began their careers with the intention of creating a company that would enrich themselves while finally destroying the dreams and plans of thousands of innocent victims- are employees and investors alike? Were all of them hunters? Probably not. But a combination of hunter characteristics and the circumstances of their positions led them to commit financial crimes. Fraudsters Do Not Intend To Harm Generally speaking, situation-dependent criminals carry out their frauds with no purpose to harm any one. A high-ranking executive of Westinghouse Electric Co. who was accused of price-fixing in 1961 was asked whether he thought his behaviour was illegal. He responded: Illegal? Yes, but not criminal. Criminal action means hurting someone and we did not do that. It is critical to an understanding of the psychology of such people to accept this key point: most of them carry out their frauds with no intention of doing harm, and they believe-they are able to convince themselves-that what theyre doing is not wrong. These people may even convince themselves that what theyre doing is for the good of the company and everyone associated with it, including employees, investors, creditors, and other constituencies. Or they may believe that they deserve the spoils they seize because they rationalize their crimes as immaterial, innocent, or deserved-but not wrong. In most cases, they start small, but with time as the fraud grows in size, usually encompassing more than one scheme. Kinds of Rationalization In many admission-seeking interviews, suspects confess to their crimes, but rarely do they say, I stole the money. Instead, they bring up their rationalization for the crime. Such rationalizations can be of many kinds: à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ It was a loan, and I had every intention of paying it back. See (pulling out a spreadsheet), I kept track of all my loans so that I could pay it all back one day. à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ That accounting rule is confusing and subjective. Accounting for the transactions in the manner I chose is entirely acceptable. à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ My boss has been cheating on his taxes for years. Im just getting my share. à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Everyone in this industry takes kickbacks. Im sure my employer is aware of it, and thats why they dont pay me very much. They expect me to supplement my income with gifts from our suppliers. à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Im the hardest-working employee here, and I know my boss would give me a substantial raise if he could do it without other people knowing. Instead, I take a little bit, but Im actually saving the company money because only I get the raise.' à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ What do you expect me to do? You give me no health insurance coverage, and I need to provide for my children and my parents. They depend on me, and I cant let them down. à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ There are a lot of good people here. If I didnt make up a few entries to give the appearance to corporate that we were making budgeted income, they would close our division and put 50 people out of work. I did it to save their jobs. In sum, rationalization enables a person to take that final step toward crime. Motivations for Fraud à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦..In a 2001 article, The Psychology of Fraud, the authors noted that fraud, like other crime, can best be explained by three factors: a supply of motivated offenders, the availability of suitable targets and the absence of capable guardians-control systems or someone to mind the store. Financial motivators obviously have a big impact on the cause of financial crime. These can range from an employee with an inability to pay her domestic bills to a senior executive under financial strain because he knows that market factors have adversely affected the business and analysts will be watching the latest results with eagerness. In this case, the strain may go beyond pure financial impact, but also to stature and reputation. Take the recent case of Computer Associates and its former CEO, Sanjay Kumar, and two other company executives. The governments indictment noted, Computer Associates prematurely recognized $2.2 b illion in revenue in FY 2000 and FY 2001 and more than $1.1 billion in premature revenue in prior quarters. The government also noted that the SEC alleges that from 1998 to 2000, Computer Associates routinely kept its books open to record revenue from contracts executed after the quarter ended in order to meet Wall Street quarterly earnings estimates. Computer Associates agreed to settlements with the SEC and the Justice Department to the tune of $225 million and agreed to reform its financial accounting controls. Some theorists have taken a big-picture approach and argued that white collar crime is the inevitable outcome of the competitive ethic of capitalism. According to this theory, competition is the field on which egotism and recklessness can have full play. We are constantly bombarded by images of the wealth and success that can be achieved through winning in the great experiment in social Darwinism in which we live. The inevitable result of such competition is the recognition of the economic inequality of winners and losers, which can be internalized as the constant fear of failing. This discontent may be sufficient to make a person see white-collar crime as the great equalizing act. The drive for money and the trappings of success are, therefore, the motivators of the act. The situation in which the potential white-collar offender finds him- or herself plays a most significant role in determining whether a crime will be committed. The corporate culture lived daily at the workplace can often create enormous pressures to commit criminal acts. Examples are common in the famous cases of price-fixing, bribery, and manufacture of dangerous products that occurred throughout the last century. A corrupt corporate culture can lead to the inversion of all values. Loyalty can easily slip into complicity. Criminal behaviour becomes normal. Team-playing becomes conspiracy. Fear of dismissal, ostracism, or losing the favour of superiors can be compelling forces in the world of a department or small company. In such an atmosphere, one learns criminal behaviour in association with those who define such behaviour favourably, as Sutherland contended. These acts cannot be explained by a personal history of instability and deviance since stability and conformity are the principal characteristics of these criminals lives. Even while committing the crimes, white-collar offenders are able to lead their conventional lives, which are, indeed, their camouflage. Their conventionality and stability are the foundation of the trustworthiness that gives them the opportunity to commit the crime in the first place. It is this life of conventionality that gives the criminal act the character of an aberration. It is, however, the white-collar criminals power of rationalization that is one of the most amazing aspects of their behaviour. They are able to behave normally and aberrantly at the same time without feeling conflict. This behaviour is possible through the use of techniques of neutralization. These are acts of mental deftness that allow persons to violate behavioural norms without simultaneously seeing themselves as deviant or criminal. Such self exculpating explanations can occur both before and after the commission of a criminal act. The most common rationalization noted several times already in this unit is that financial crimes do not hurt other people. Embezzlers commonly tell themselves they are merely borrowing the money and intend to return it later without anyone else being affected. Many embezzlers justify it because they had to do it to pay mounting family bills. Everybodys doing it is frequently heard as an argument for systematic wrongful company behaviour. Corporate offenders often consider laws as an unjust or unnecessary form of government interference disrupting free market forces. They may even argue that breaking the law was necessary for the survival of the company. Employees frequently offer a moral justification for their thefts with the argument that their employer owed them the money. Fraud simply expressed their grievance. For example, they feel exploited and underpaid or hurt after receiving a smaller-than-expected bonus. Many feel justified after being passed over for promotion; others feel they can do the job just as well as, if not better than, the person with the higher education. Personal antipathies, anger after a reprimand from the boss, and the like can all be self-serving explanations for fraud. In rare cases, mental illness can drive a person to commit fraud through a wish to damage the company. Others can be motivated by pure egotism; they commit fraud just to show how smart they are. Yet others are driven by anti capitalist ideologies and think they are destroying the system from within. Auditors Need to Understand the Mind of the Fraudster In the introduction to Why Smart People Do Dumb Things, Mortimer Feinberg and John J. Tarrant begin: If you are of above average intelligence-and if you have mastered the use of high intelligence to solve problems and achieve goals-it is the premise of this book that you are at risk [of perpetrating a fraud] because of the strength of your cognitive equipment. The book recounts tale after tale of successful professionals and politicians who did something dumb and ruined their lives. It is also a book that can help auditors understand the mind of the white-collar criminal. Because auditors, within the time at their disposal, cannot verify every transaction, they must make assumptions based on audit evidence gathered until the point of the decision. The more auditors understand about why criminals do what they do, the better prepared they may be to determine the nature, timing, and extent of audit procedures relative to the risks identified during the planning stage and modified, as may be warranted, on the basis of the audit evidence found. Professional skepticism is the attitude that must drive the financial statement audit. If we lived in a perfect world in which no one made mistakes, or lied, or cheated, or stole, audits would be unnecessary. But we dont, and so audits are required. Even with effective auditing, at the end of every audit and forensic accounting investigation, uncertainty will remain. As auditors continue to focus on the fact that smart people do dumb things and on the conditions under which white-collar criminals may act, auditors may be able to better select transactions worthy of expanded testing and know also how to evaluate the results of those tests. The so-called fraud triangle, offers three conditions that tend to be present when frauds occur: à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Incentive or pressure à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Opportunity à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Rationalization and attitude Conclusion As auditors focus on the number of people they encounter in the course of an audit, they would probably agree that a great many of those people would no doubt have opportunities to commit fraud. How many others also have the undisclosed incentive and ability to rationalize that are demonstrably part of the fraud triangle? There is no easy way to judge this. In the design of controls to prevent financial crime and in the performance of audit procedures, it is important to keep in mind the expression, Locks on doors keep out honest people. Predators, as noted earlier, have a good chance of circumventing most of the controls a company puts in place. Fraud deterrence and detection controls are designed, theoretically, to stop everyone else, but they wont, because it is unrealistic to expect controls that can be designed to stop everyone. Collusion, for example, may well defeat a well-designed control and may not be detected in a timely manner by individuals performing daily control activities. The best fraud deterrence mechanism is simple: create the expectation in your organization that wrongdoers will be caught and that punishment will be swift and commensurate with the offense. The emphasis on expectation is important. It can be brought about in a number of ways. Effective training and education on the importance of ethical conduct, background checks on all employees, regular fraud audits by forensic accounting investigators, and a strong internal control system are among the means. To create that perception, employees must also be well aware that their activities are being monitored, and all employees with access to financial assets and transactions must have a healthy respect for the robustness of the control system. If employees believe they will be caught and punished for wrongdoing, that belief may be enough to keep them from adding rationalization to incentive and opportunity.

Food production and export goods

Food production and export goods Assess the advantages and disadvantages for poor country governments of food production over export goods. This essay argues that food production should be on top of the priority list of governments of the poor countries, because of the increase in of food prices globally at a time of global economic downturn and for the purpose of achieving food sovereignty and food security The discussion highlight the failure of export of goods strategies, and complexities related to connecting poor economies with global market as a result of recommendations by IFIs which focus on the advantages international trade. The essay slightly engages with debate around the incapability of those institutions, and their strategies to tackle the implication of world food problem in the context of the poor countries; using conclusion and critique of case studies as disadvantages to draw the food production as a favourable option in response to this problem. What poor countries means? In brief, and in order to identify what meant by poor countries. According to Paul Collier (2007) those countries falls entrapped in four major areas, including conflict affected countries, natural recourses even if the recourses are available they suffer from phenomenon such as Dutch Disease often perceived as miss management of resources, the problem of being landlocked, and poor governance which is combination of corruption and inadequate state administrative capacities together with other governance problems. Additionally to colliers list Foster (1992) outlines weak state infrastructures, which in this essay refers simply to poor or lack of: a transportation network, communication structures and technical capacities, which is axiomatically, refers to education systems and capabilities. For both authors the majority of population are very poor: landless poorly educated commonly superstitious etc. Within these countries the South Centre (2008) estimates that the bulk of population are consuming imported food; the centre argues the poor population are more vulnerable to rising food prices because food represents a high proportion of their total expenditure. In todays globalised world is facing the worse global economic downturn since the great recession of the 1930s. Food is not just an important need for nutritional of humans to survive, it became more of fact reflecting sovereignty and independence of the state; in the case of the poor countries if not in all countries at least for the majority-the state and its governing system is an inherited system from the economical relations of the colonial era. Food sovereignty could be more than a symbol for independence; it could work as basis for fair trade and development. In contrast FAO (2009) report establishes clear link between the global economic downturn and predict that it going to intensify implication on the poor countries as assuming decline in exports or capital inflows will soon occurs while the food import capacity (FDI, remittances and foreign aid).) Patrick Kendall and Marco Petracco (2009) critically assess the impact of food import Caribbean and the dependence on its import has made the region more vulnerable and exposed to international market supply shocks, which are expected to boost again due to increasing volatility nature of food in the global markets. They criticises the shifts from subsistence to cash cropping declined the ratio agriculture export earnings in GDP of the region from 9.7% in 1980 to 4.3% in 2004(p.783) while the ratio of expenditure on food imports to total foreign exchange earnings fell from 15% in 1980 to 9.7% in 2004, and the ratio to total imports fell from 15.5% to 8.7%.(p.785) On the basis of comparative advantages (which is not a static concept  [1]  ), division of labour and free trade was introduced hypothetically it makes all materially better off than they would be if individuals or communities tried to provide everything for themselves (George Kent, 2002). It was also assumed that within the globalization of world economy countries will be able to procure food from diverse sources and they will get the best prices through the open market. As a matter of fact trade does assist in growth of the economies of these countries either regionally (Coe N. M.; Hess M.; Yeung H.W.; Dicken P. and Henderson J. 2004) or globally (WTO, 2010). But this was never the case of food, where income of the poor among other mix variables influence the rate of under-nutrition and consequently it lowers fertility rates, human survival rates, health, and education capabilities of children, security and the overall energy of a country aspires development (Foster 1992). Howe ver, historically as in the case of sub Sub-Saharan Africa during the 1970s and 1980s integration into the world economic system at a time of historically unprecedented volatility in world food, energy, and capital prices. As a result of these burdens, smallholder farmers in Sub-Saharan Africa are very poor and are getting poorer (Delgado 1997 cited in Kent, 2002 p.2). While the world produces enough food for all the mankind currently (Kakar, Raziq, in 2009 FAO estimated that over one billion individuals are undernourished (FAO, 2009). After thirty years of falling global food prices in real terms, food prices have steadily increased since the year 2002. This trend began to increase in 2006 and prices rose even more sharply in 2008 (South Centre, 2008 p.14) indicating that food prices rose by 52 per cent (p.1). Using twenty equation econometric model R. McFall Lamm and Paul C. Westcott study on The Effects of Changing Input Costs on Food Prices proves that changes in factor prices r esults quickly in change of food prices the results also indicates that food prices increase rapidly than non food prices. Consequently, the increase in prices will ultimately lead to unrest in many poor countries; bearing in mind that as result of 2007 food prices increase, 30 countries experienced food riots where the worlds poorest people can no longer afford basic food (Georgia Miller, 2008). Unless international finance and trade institutions namely (WTO, IMF, World Bank) are reformed, there are no hopes for poor countries to compete in the global trade. Free trade remains elusive as long as the rich countries still applying production protection policies such as producers subsidy  [2]  and tariffs which represent at their end reflecting Export restrictions to the developing countries productions, while demanding them to open their market doors for the global trade (Wall 1999; kent 2002, Gowa 1994; OECD 2007; Coote 1996; Lloyd, P. J. 1999). The World Bank (2008) recognises this very well stating By removing their current level of protection, industrial countries would induce annual welfare gains for developing countries estimated to be five times the current annual flow of aid to agriculture and predicting that Poor countries that export cotton or oilseeds, such as Chad, Sudan, Burkina Faso, Mali, and Benin, stand to gain. Among the big expected gainers are Brazil, T hailand, and Vietnam. (p.11) So far no protectionist policies have been lifted. In fact the international finance and trade institutions have no strong influence upon the rich countries polices. Meanwhile, the reform agendas has been extended to cover the whole United Nations systems and structures; whereas the heart of the reform is in financing the global organisation(Gordon 1994; Mà ¼ller 1992). Having people as Jeffery Sachs (2010) the Harvard University Professor of Economics advocating the idea of taxing transactions between banks and financial institutions to raise funds for global issues like poverty. One might argue that the implementation of Aid for Trade programmes would also contribute to solving the crisis as they could help developing countries to integrate into international markets through trade. However, the impact of such programmes in boosting agricultural productivity is not clearly established (South Centre 2008 p.37) In contrast Kevin Danaher (2001) is calling for the abolishment of those financial and trade institutions building his argument in fairness and usefulness. Until the stalled trade negotiations (Hall-Matthews 2010) or reform around those financial institutions reach consensus or at least level of agreement, the situation on poor countries in term of faire trade and food security remain the same as early 1980s since threats of famine became more of curse in countries like Ethiopia (Hancock 1985) and Nigel Twose (1984) ) critics as cited in Hancock 1985 remains valid, when it goes to see the result of an IMF intervention in the third world is the acceleration of change in agricultural practices, resulting in even greater concentration on crops for export, at the expense of food crops for local consumption (p.124); in other words the land that should be feeding their people is producing food for European and north American consumers concluding that these systems lead to deprivation for million(p.127). Ironically, similar conclus ions to the 1980s rhetoric has being reached within the International Development Committee of Great Britain (2009) that the poor countries are losing billions of dollars every year to tax evasion by international companies and they need to be assisted to benefit from their own resources. Indeed that not every single poor country has enough resources for achieving food self-sufficiency which refers to 100% coverage of a nation needs (Dhliwayo 1988 p.15), nether food production refers to agro-grain it can also refers to aqua food such sea food fisheries or managing animal products; bearing in mind the advances in science that mankind has reached, and possible support food producers which could be through protection policies research and extension organisations (p.31) as in the case of farmers. The more they can produce the more secure the country becomes in term of development and stability. In general export of goods and engagement in trade may be an excellent way of making earnings for generating wealth at large scale, but creation of wealth as an end does not necessarily means the fundamental needs of the poor will be served, bearing in mind all the miseries that Europe has gone through during the industrialisation era. Export of goods might it not be a good way for securing fundamental survival necessity for the poor people, such as food and water. The whole Marxist literature is discussing that accumulation of capital makes few people richer; I mentioned this here to highlight that the propensity that expected from good exports and investment in production is contingent by many other factors and expectations such as profitability and success in competition with well established firms within unstable global markets and financial system undergoing a crisis the risk for that choice grows greater and greater. Indeed with the option to grow food there are also great risk s such climate change; which does not necessarily means drought, it could also takes the form of heavy rains and floods or any other natural disasters. At (page 1) I added weak infrastructures to Colliers(2007) similarities of the poor countries, this weak infrastructures hinders trade in global competition more than it affect agriculture, indeed any improvement in those infrastructure and capacities will have positive inputs toward these countries development. A clear example A clear example by Marc Wuyts(1993) who studies the case of Tanzania 1960s up 1970s when Tanzanias economic policy has centred an investment strategy with the aim to speed up economic development with assistance of aid and less concern for its consequences, he argues that not scrutinizing the consequences of the aid-driven state-led investment strategy in the context of an open and structurally fairly inflexible economy (p.160) which relied on few export crops in order to obtain hard currencies, has reduced the country growth rates which was assumed to be attained and has wrecked the economy to become aid dependent in both financing investments and imports of consumer goods. He continues to argue that while agriculture, which was not the main beneficiary of this strategy, it determined its unpleasant ending. Ray Bush (2000) discuss similar case of prioritising cash crops for export in Egypt where the International financial institutions reforms have failed to make the economic prospe rous; instead changes in diets and food purchases to economise on household expenses; extra labour time associated with searching for cheaper food in the souk and sales of livestock, jewellery and other household assets (p.242). He considers Market driven solutions fails to take into account the Egyptian rural people lifestyles and their way to address their uneven access to resources. He noticed that there is inadequate attention by the international agencies to the ongoing market failure, and the ways in which people are adopting themselves with crisis. Instead they are focused on notions of peasant ignorance and poor technology (p.248). Bartra, Roger and Otero, Gerardo (1987) conducted analysis cash crops in contrast with subsistence crops in Mexico, using prices and production data from 1940 to 1983 their analysis reflected a twofold crisis one is deterioration of peasant economy; the second is related the production of cash crops reflect the local capitalist crisis in the field of agriculture. While export of good requires government facilitation of trade processes (Collier 2007) and encouragement commonly understood as less state led interventions accordingly easier to perform. Normally the food production strategy makers expect governmental control and state led interventions; which varies from the level of land reform laws Foster(1992) and protection of producers policies to the level of micro support such as research and extension services for farmers(Ramasamy and Selvaraj 2007). But in principle the governments of poor countries are expected implement state led interventions and play more role than safe guarding the society. Conclusion Oversimplifying some issues How come I ask a poor hungry man to trade and invest?

Origins of the Watch making Industry Essay -- Design and Technology

Origins of the Watch making Industry The production of watches was a major industry of Great Britain for hundreds of years. Watch making originated in Europe in the early 16th century, when coiled springs were first used to power clocks. Clocks were powered by weights originally, and therefore remained stationary. The springs meant that clocks could be moved for the first time, and soon, German clockmakers started to make very small clocks, which are considered as the earliest watches made. Watch making was the most advanced line of the clock making industry, which developed when Blacksmiths started introducing their skills with metal to clock making. Watches were being made in Great Britain from around the middle of Elizabeth 1 reign as Queen of England. (1533 – 1603) It is likely that the success of European Watchmakers encouraged British Watchmakers to start producing Watches to make sure they weren’t behind in technological developments. During this, watches were extremely expensive, and therefore quite rare, they were also quite inaccurate, and only had an hour hand. Most designs for early watches were for the watches to be worn around the neck, on either a cord or ribbon. This was because it was a status symbol to be seen wearing a watch and the watches were still pretty large, and couldn’t fit in the pocket very easily, if the clothes had pockets, as this was also a rarity. It was in the late 17th century that the watch making industry became a much more renowned industry in Britain. Evolution in watch design meant that watches soon became more accurate, which made them much more useful and as a result, the demand increased for British watches. Watch making in Prescot By the 18th century, Prescot was well established as the centre of watch making in England, and for 100 years after, Prescot would become world famous for its product quality. John Wyke and other famous watch makers started their businesses in Prescot, and at the beginning of Queen Victoria’s reign in 1837, Watch making was renowned in Prescot. The area was already well known for its tools most importantly files, and metal works, which made it easier for business to thrive. Extremely high quality tools and metal were required by watchmakers so the industries were set up next to each other to make life simpler. Liverpool became a major c... ... into the Prescot watch making industry in an attempt to keep it competitive, it had all but gone from prescot by the mid 1880s. A decision was made to act, and T.P Hewitt was one of the founding members of the Lancashire Watch Company. The building was completed in 1889, and it was based on the American Factory system of manufacture, where complete watch movements were made, by machines, under one roof. The factory was fitted out with machines to produce the watch parts, powered by a steam engine called the Horologer (Horology is the correct name for the study and production of clocks and watches). They made a range of watches too suit all the poorest of pockets. It lasted into the 20th century and had some success, becoming a major producer of watches in Britain. However, foreign competition was too great and by that time, very well established. This combined with poor marketing, especially overseas led to the company being forced to close its doors in 1910. Some small workshops still produced time pieces in Prescot until the middle of the 20th century, but the watch making industry in Prescot effectively ended with the closure of the Lancashire watch company.

Bao Ninhs Sorrow of War Essay -- Vietnam War Ninh Sorrow War Essays

Bao Ninh's Sorrow of War When we think of the Vietnam War, we think of all the hell and torture that American soldiers went through with little regard to the Vietnamese and the hardships they endured. Reading the Sorrow of War gave me a clear understanding of the Vietnamese people and the suffering that the war caused them. The Sorrow of War is unique and powerful in the sense that it is written by a Vietnam army veteran and gives the perspective of the war from a Vietnamese soldier. It is one of the few novels that has given the Vietnamese people a voice. In this beautiful novel, Bao Ninh manages to put a face on the other side of the conflict and humanize a people who until now have been viewed as faceless â€Å"gooks†. When it comes to the Vietnam War, we only consider how much pain our country went through and the loss American lives, but forget about how much more the Vietnamese people have suffered and lost. From a global perspective, many readers and movie viewers worldwide know only about how American’s have suffered and the amount of pain our war veterans have endured as a result of the war. American films such as Platoon, Full Metal Jacket, Apocalypse Now, Thin Red Line, and We Were Soldiers to name a few, are all Vietnam War movies that portray the loss and suffering of American life. The traditional American made movie or novel about Vietnam fails to show the human side of the struggles that the Vietnamese people both from the north and the south went through....

Behavioural Finance Essay

Hypothesis and the extent to which they can be explained by behavioural finance theories Finance that is based on rational and logical theories, such as the  capital asset pricing model  (CAPM) and the efficient market hypothesis (EMH). These theories assume that people, for the most part, behave rationally and predictably. The Efficient market hypothesis assumes that financial markets incorporate all public information and assets that share prices reflect all relevant to the firm information (Fama, 1970). Relevant information includes past information, publicly available information and private information. Efficient market is divided into three categories. Weak form efficiency is when stock prices reflect only the past information, semi-strong form is when past information and all publicly available information is reflected and strong form is when all the past, publicly available and information only available to company insiders is reflected on the stock prices. However, there are some anomalies and behaviors that couldn’t be explained by EMH. Market participants often behaved very unpredictably. However there is a new study called behavioral finance that is trying to explain all these anomalies. Behavioral finance studies the irrational behavior of the investors. Weber (1999) makes the following observation: ‘Behavioral Finance closely combines individual behavior and market phenomena and uses the knowledge taken from both the psychological field and financial theory’. Behavioral finance attempts to identify the behavioral biases commonly exhibited by investors and also provides strategies to overcome them. Some of the main problems with EMH may be cause by heuristic responses to new information, psychological anchors, overconfidence, social fads, framing and regret avoidance and herd behavior. Overconfidence: According to Nevins (2004), overconfidence suggests that investors overestimate their ability to predict market events, and because of their overconfidence they often take risks without receiving commensurate returns. Odean (1998) finds that investors tend to overestimate their ability, unrealistically optimistic about future events, too positive on self-evaluations, over-weight attention getting information that is consistent with their existing beliefs, and over-estimate the precision of their own private information. Overconfidence about private signals causes overreaction and hence phenomena like the book/market effect and long-run reversals whereas self-attribution maintains overconfidence and allows prices to continue to overreact, creating momentum. In the longer-run there is reversal as prices revert to fundamentals. Psychological Anchors, Overreaction: Good news should raise a business’ share price accordingly, and that gain in share price should not decline if no new information has been released since. Reality, however, tends to contradict this theory. Oftentimes, participants in the stock market predictably overreact to new information, creating a larger-than-appropriate effect on a security’s price. Furthermore, it also appears that this price surge is not a permanent trend – although the price change is usually sudden and sizable, the surge erodes over time. Heuristic responses to new information: Availability heuristic is used to evaluate the frequency or likelihood of an event on the basis of how quickly instances or associations come to mind. When examples or associations are easily brought to mind, this fact leads to an overestimation of the frequency or likelihood of this event. Example: People are overestimating the divorce rate if they can quickly find examples of divorced friends. People tend to be biased by information that is easier to recall. They are swayed by information that is vivid, well-publicized, or recent. People also tend to be biased by examples that they can easily retrieve. ( Tversky and Kahneman, 1974) Confirmation bias  is a cognitive bias whereby one tends to notice and look for information that confirms one’s existing beliefs, whilst ignoring anything that contradicts those beliefs. It is a type of selective thinking. The reason for overconfidence may also have to do with hindsight bias, a tendency to think that one would have known actual events were coming before they happened, had one been present then or had reason to pay attention. Hindsight bias encourages a view of the world as more predictable than it really is (Shiller, 2000). This is the characteristic of investors, when looking back, seeing events that took place in the past as having been more predictable than they seemed before they happened. Likewise, things that didn’t happen seem, with hindsight, much less likely to have happened than they did beforehand. Self-attribution bias occurs when people attribute successful outcomes to their own skill but blame unsuccessful outcomes on bad luck (Shefrin, 1999). Availability bias is the availability deviation is a general rule or a mental shortcut which lets people guess the probability of a result and to what percent it may appear in their daily life. Those who commit such a deviation consider the easily recalled events more probable than those they can hardly imagine or perceive. Availability bias declares the person’s tendency toward deciding and judging based on available and easily accessible data (Tversky and Kahneman, 1982). Herd behavior which is the tendency for individuals to mimic the actions (rational or irrational) of a larger group. Blackmore (1991) states ‘Within an hour of birth , humans engage in imitation’. There are a couple of reasons why herd behavior happens. It’s unlikely that a large group could be wrong. After all, even if you are convinced that a particular idea or course or action is irrational or incorrect, you might still follow the herd, believing they know something that you don’t. Recency bias is the tendency for people to place greater importance on more recent data or experience. This is the problem of putting too much weight on current events or data and not enough weight on past, historic trends. Many investors expect the market to continue rising in a current bull market; likewise, these same investors often expect a current bear market to get worse. Recency is shown in momentum investing when investors buy â€Å"hot† stocks simply on the basis of their recent strong performance. Kahneman and Tversky (1973) find that people usually forecast future uncertain events by focusing on recent history and pay less attention to the possibility that such short history could be generated by chance. It is believed the net effect of the gains and losses involved with each choice are combined to present an overall evaluation of whether a choice is desirable. However, research has found that we don’t actually process information in such a rational way. In 1979, Kahneman and Tversky presented an idea called  prospect theory, which contends that people value gains and losses differently, and, as such, will base decisions on perceived gains rather than perceived losses. Thus, if a person were given two equal choices, one expressed in terms of possible gains and the other in possible losses, people would choose the former – even when they achieve the same economic end result. Regret avoidance is the tendency to avoid actions that could create discomfort over prior decisions, even though those actions may be in the individual’s best interest. Researchers have argued that one of the reasons that investors are reluctant to sell losing positions is because to do so is to admit a bad decision. This reluctance can be linked to both regret avoidance and belief perseverance. To avoid the stress associated with admitting a mistake, the investor holds onto the losing position and hopes for a recovery. According to prospect theory, losses have more emotional impact than an equivalent amount of gains. Prospect theory also explains the occurrence of the disposition effect, which is the tendency for investors to hold on to losing stocks for too long and sell winning stocks too soon. The most logical course of action would be to hold on to winning stocks in order to further gains and to sell losing stocks in order to prevent escalating losses. The flip side of the coin is investors that hold on to losing stocks for too long. Investors are willing to assume a higher level of risk in order to avoid the negative utility of a prospective loss. Unfortunately, many of the losing stocks never recover, and the losses incurred continued to mount, with often disastrous results. The January-Effect is where the average monthly return for small firms is consistently higher in January than any other month of the year; in the UK this is observed in April. This contradicts with EMH, as EMH predicts that stocks should move at a random walk. January returns are greatest due to yearend tax loss selling of shares disproportionally (Branch 1977). Another anomaly of this type is the Weekend-Effect, where Fama (1980) found that returns on Mondays tend to be negative if compared to any other week day, but this has disappeared in the UK by the 1990s. Some theories that explain the effect attribute the tendency for companies to release bad news on Friday after the markets close to depressed stock prices on Monday. Others state that the  weekend effect might be linked to short selling, which would affect stocks with high short interest positions. Alternatively, the effect could simply be a result of traders’ fading optimism between Friday and Monday. Index effect is a phenomenon where the addition to, or deletion from, a stock index causes a change in the price, trading volume, volatility or operating performance of the stock concerned. A stock entering an index will automatically receive increased demand from institutional investors – principally index tracker funds and exchange trade funds (ETFs) – while a deleted stock will experience reduced demand. The fact that a stock jumps in value upon inclusion is once again clear evidence of mispricing: the price of the share changes even though its fundamental value does not. Another anomaly is P/E effect from CAPM model; portfolios with low P/E ratios outperform those with high. The low price-earnings ratio effect occurs because stocks with low price-earnings ratios are often  undervalued and their prices eventually rise because investors become pessimistic about their returns after a bad series of earning or bad news. A company with high price to earning tends to overvalued (De Bondt and Thaler, 1985). Winner-Loser anomaly De Bondt and Thaler (1985) found that shares which initially earn extreme positive return (winners) or extreme negative returns (losers) experience extended reversals in their performance over long horizons. De Bondt and Thaler (1985) suggested the overreaction hypothesis as an explanation of their result. This hypothesis claims that the market overreacts to information. That is, the market overweights the most recent information and underweights earlier information. However, this phenomenon is reversed when it is recognized that the market’s expectations were indeed an overreaction to the information released. This hypothesis also offers an explanation of the P/E effect. Fama and French (1992) showed that a powerful predictor of returns across securities is the ratio of the book value of the firm’s equity to the market value of equity. After controlling for the size and book-to-market effects, beta seemed to have no power to explain average security returns. One explanation is that investors overreact to growth aspects for growth stocks, and value stocks are therefore undervalued. According to some academics, the ratio of market value to book value itself is a risk measure, and therefore the larger returns generated by low MV/BV stocks are simply a compensation for risk. Low MV/BV stocks are often those in some financial distress. All of these anomalies may be explained by behavioral finance. Behavioural finance is the study of the influence of psychology on the behavior of financial practitioners and the subsequent effect on markets. Behavioural finance is of interest because it helps explain why and how markets might be inefficient. There are series of  behavioural biases  Ã¢â‚¬â€œ strange twists in human nature that cause us to act irrationally and against our own interests. On the other hand all of these anomalies may instead be an artifact of data mining. After all, if one reruns the computer database of past returns over and over and examines stock returns along enough dimensions, simple chance will cause some criteria to appear to predict returns. May be this is why some anomalies appear to be lost at some point of time e. g. the weekend effect during the 90s.

Amerindian before Columbus and the Physical Geography of the Caribbean

Much of America history is recorded from the time Columbus and his team of explores landed in the Caribbean region.The first reaction to establishment of Spanish in the Caribbean region was the policy of extermination in which millions of the original inhabitants lost their life.   Although it has become controversial on the exact number of inhabitants living in the region before the coming of the Columbus, it remains clear there were a large number of indigenous people and the coming of Columbus really changed their life.The nature of the Native Americans remains a controversial issue since it is argued that on his arrival Christopher Columbus mistook the inhabitants for Indians. This is because he though he had arrived in East Indies since he was seeking sea route to India.The culture of Amerindian before ColumbusThe pre-Columbian civilization in the region is though to have been quite advances more that what was projected at the time. It has been revealed that there was a high l evel of development from social organization to development in agriculture and other sciences which were applied in agriculture and in political expansion.Notably among this civilization was the expansive Maya empire which had flourished and expanded from Mexico to Central American but which later collapsed owing to social and political strife, diseases and other ecological disasters, and man other factors (Mann, 1999).The geography of the region shows a very fertile soil and seasons of heavy rainfall. This means that the area had a very high agricultural potential which was well exploited by the inhabitants.The economic landscape of the people before the coming of Europeans is mixed. While a good number of the indigenous inhabitants were hunters and gatherers, there was also a good number which practiced aquaculture and agriculture.There is evidence that some of the people lived on mixed agriculture keeping animals and growing crops. Therefore we can say that before the coming of C olumbus, the original inhabitants had their own organized social life and varying economic activities in line with the rich agricultural potential of the land.When the European came and conquered the region, there were several changes that took place. First they immediately realized the rich agricultural potential of the land and their settlement pattern was concentrated in rich agricultural areas. What followed was mass extermination of the indigenous inhabitants so as to set up large scale lands for the Europeans.It is in this land that they grew sugar plantations and other cash crops. This led to massive enslavement of the indigenous people in order to provide labor in these large plantations. The setting up of plantations changed the approach that Europeans were using in dealing with the native.The policy of mass extermination  Ã‚   quickly changed to mass enslavement to provide free labor. There was also discovery of mineral like gold which led toe increased trade and setting up of industries. (Mann, 1999)ConclusionIt is still controversial whether Columbus discovered South America or not. However there were original inhabitants in the land who Columbus referred to as Indians.The inhabitants were social organized and they practiced agriculture although a good number were hunters and gatherers. When European came they realized the agricultural potential of the land and immediately set up large plantation where they enslaved the indigenous people to provide free labor.Reference:Mann, C. (1999): New Revelation of the Americans before Columbus. New York: Knopf Publishing