Harshad Mehta Scam

Harshad Mehta scam: Harshad Mehta  was an Indian stockbroker and is alleged to have engineered the rise in the BSE stock exchange in the year 1992. Exploiting several loopholes in the banking system, Harshad and his associates siphoned off funds from inter-bank transactions and bought shares heavily at a premium across many segments, triggering a rise in the Sensex. When the scheme was exposed, the banks started demanding the money back, causing the collapse. He was later charged with 72 criminal offenses and more than 600 civil action suits were filed against him.He died in 2002 with many litigations still pending against him. 3. 1 Ready Forward Deal (RF): †¢ The crucial mechanism through which the scam was effected was the Ready Forward deal. †¢ The Ready Forward Deal (RF) is in essence a secured short term (typically 15 day) loan from one bank to another bank. The lending is done against Government Securities exactly the way a pawnbroker lends against jewelry. †¢ In fact one can say that the borrowing bank actually sells the securities to the lending bank and buys them back at the end of the period of the loan at (typically) a slightly higher price. It was this RF deal that Harshad Mehta and his associates used with great success to channel money from banking system. 3. 2 The Mechanics of the Scam: As explained above, a ready forward deal is, in substance, a secured loan from one bank to another.To make the scam possible , the RF had to undergo a complete change. In other words it practically had to become an unsecured loan to broker. This was wonderfully engineered by the brokers. To give a better understanding of the mechanism, the whole process has been segregated into 3 different parts. . The settlement process 2. Payment cheques 3. Dispensing the security 1. The settlement Process: ? The normal settlement process in government securities is that the transacting banks make payments and deliver the securities directly to each other. ? Dur ing the scam, however, the banks or at least some banks adopted an alternative settlement process which was similar to the process used for settling transactions in the stock market. ? In this settlement process, deliveries of securities and payments are made through the broker.That is, the seller hands over the securities to the broker who passes them on to the buyer, while the buyer gives the cheque to the broker who then makes the payment to the seller. ? In this settlement process, the buyer and the seller may not even know whom they have traded with, both being known only to the broker. ? There were two important reasons why the broker intermediated settlement began to be used in the government securities markets. ? The brokers instead of merely bringing buyers and sellers together started taking positions in the market.In other words, they started trading on their own account, and in a sense became market makers in some securities thereby imparting greater liquidity to the mar kets. ? When a bank wanted to conceal the fact that it was doing an RF deal, the broker came in handy. The broker provided contract notes for this purpose with fictitious counter parties, but arranged for the actual settlement to take place with the correct counter party. 2. Payment Cheques: ? A broker intermediated settlement allowed the broker to lay his hands on the cheque as it went from one bank to another through him.The hurdle now was to find a way of crediting the cheque to his account though it was drawn in favor of a bank and was crossed account payee. ? As it happens, it is purely a matter of banking custom that an account payee cheque is paid only to the payee mentioned on the cheque. In fact, exceptions were being made to this norm, well before the scam came to light. ? Privileged (corporate) customers were routinely allowed to credit account payee cheques in favour of a bank into their own accounts to avoid clearing delays, thereby reducing the interest lost on the amo unt. Normally, if a customer obtains a cheque in his own favour and deposits it into his own account, it may take a day or two for the cheque to be cleared and for the funds to become available to the customer. At 15% interest, the interest loss on a clearing delay of two days for a Rs. 100 crores cheque is about Rs. 8 lakhs. ? On the other hand, when banks make payments to each other by writing cheques on their account with the RBI, these cheques are cleared on the same day. ? The practice which thus emerged was that a customer would obtain a cheque drawn on the RBI favoring not himself but his bank.The bank would get the money and credit his account the same day. ? This was the practice which the brokers in the money market exploited to their benefit. 3. Dispensing the security: ? The brokers thus found a way of getting hold of the cheques as they went from one bank to another and crediting the amounts to their accounts. This effectively transformed an RF into a loan to a broker r ather than to a bank. ? But this, by itself, would not have led to the scam because the RF after all is a secured loan, and a secured loan to a broker is still secured. What was necessary now was to find a way of eliminating the security itself! There are three routes adopted for this purpose: 1. Some banks (or rather their officials) were persuaded to part with cheques without actually receiving securities in return. A simple explanation of this is that the officials concerned were bribed and/or negligent. A more intriguing possibility is that the banks' senior/top management were aware of this and turned a Nelson's eye to it to benefit from higher returns the brokers could offer by diverting the funds to the stock market. One must recognize that as long as the scam lasted, the banks benefited from such an arrangement.The management of banks might have been sorely tempted to adopt this route to higher profitability. 2. The second route was to replace the actual securities by a wort hless piece of paper – a fake Bank Receipt (BR). This is discussed in greater detail in the next section. 3. The third method was simply to forge the securities themselves. In many cases, PSU bonds were represented only by allotment letters rather than certificates on security paper. And it is easier to forge an allotment letter for Rs. 100 crores worth of securities than it is to forge a 100 rupee note!Outright forgery of this kind however accounted for only a very small part of the total funds misappropriated 3. Bank Receipt: ? In an RF deal, as we have discussed it so far, the borrowing bank delivers the actual securities to the lender and takes them back on repayment of the loan. In practice, however, this is not usually done. Instead, the borrower gives a Bank Receipt (BR) which serves three functions: ? The BR confirms the sale of securities. ? It acts as a receipt for the money received by the selling bank. Hence the name – bank receipt. ? It promises to deliver the securities to the buyer.It also states that in the meantime the seller holds the securities in trust for the buyer. ? In short, a BR is something like an IOU (I owe you securities! ), and the use of the BR de facto converts an RF deal into an unsecured loan. The lending bank no longer has the securities; it has only the borrower's assurance that the borrower has the securities which can/will be delivered if/when the need arises. BRs issued without Backing of Securities: ? As stated earlier, a BR is supposed to imply that the issuer actually has the securities and holds them in trust for the buyer.But in reality the issuer may not have the securities at all. ? There are two reasons why a bank may issue a BR, which is not backed by actual securities: 1. A bank may short sell securities, that is, it sells securities it does not have. This would be done if the bank thinks that the prices of these securities would decrease. Since this would be an outright sale (not an RF! ), the ban k issues a BR. When the securities do fall in value, the bank buys them at lower prices and discharges the BR by delivering the securities sold. Short selling in some form is an integral part of most bond markets in the world.It can be argued that some amount of shortselling subject to some degree of regulation is a desirable feature of a bond market. In our opinion, an outright sale using a BR, which is not backed by securities, is not harmful per se though it violates the RBI guidelines. 2. The second reason is that the bank may simply want an unsecured loan. It may then do an RF deal issuing a â€Å"fake† BR which is a BR without any securities to back them. The lending bank would be under a mistaken impression that it is making a secured loan when it is actually advancing an unsecured loan.Obviously, lenders should have taken measures to protect themselves from such a possibility During the scam, the brokers perfected the art of using fake BRs to obtain unsecured loans fr om the banking system. They persuaded some small and little known banks – the Bank of Karad (BOK) and the Metropolitan Cooperative Bank (MCB) – to issue BRs as and when required. These BRs could then be used to do RF deals with other banks. The cheques in favour of BOK were, of course, credited into the brokers' accounts. In effect, several arge banks made huge unsecured loans to the BOK/MCB which in turn made the money available to the brokers. 4. Breakdown of the Control system in scam: ? The scam was made possible by a complete breakdown of the control system both within the commercial banks as well as the control system of the RBI itself. ? We shall examine these control systems to understand how these failed to function effectively and what lessons can be learnt to prevent failure of control systems in the future. ? The internal control system of the commercial banks involves the following features: 1. Separation of Functions:The different aspects of securities tr ansactions of a bank, namely dealing, custody and accounting are carried out by different persons. 2. Counterparty Limits: The moment an RF deal is done on the basis of a BR rather than actual securities, the lending bank has to contend with the possibility that the BR received may not be backed by any/adequate securities. In effect, therefore, it may be making an unsecured loan, and it must do the RF only if it is prepared to make an unsecured loan. This requires assessing the creditworthiness of the borrower and assigning him a â€Å"credit limit† up to which the bank is prepared to lend.Technically, this is known as a counterparty limit. 5. Other Aspects of the scam: ? There are several aspects of the scam which are closely related to the securities markets, but which are different from the operational aspect of the markets. ? These pertain to information that can cause significant changes in the prices of securities as well as the information supplied by the commercial ba nks on their financial performance. ? On each occasion the coupon rate was increased by 1/2%, thereby raising the coupon rate from 11. 5% to 13% during this ten month period.The major implication of raising interest rate on new borrowings is that it would trigger a fall in the market prices of the old loans which are pegged at the old (lower) interest rates. The price of the 11. 5% Government Loan 2010 dropped by 3% to 5% with each coupon rate hike. If anyone has advance information about these changes in the coupon rates, he could make enormous amounts of riskless profit by short selling the old securities just before the announcement of rate hike and buying back (covering his position) after the prices have fallen. ? Somebody who took a short position of Rs. 00 crores before the coupon hike of September 1991 could have made a profit of Rs. 15 crores, practically overnight! Since several persons in the Finance Ministry and the RBI are likely to be aware of the impending hike in the coupon rate, the chance of leakage of this all important information is always there. ? There have been several allegations in this regard. However, it will probably be very difficult to prove with any degree of certainty that there was insider trading based on information about coupon rate changes, because of the size of the market. With a daily trading volume of Rs. 3000 – 4000 crores, it would have been very easy for anyone to take a position (based on inside information) of Rs. 500 or even Rs. 1000 crores without anyone suspecting anything untoward. 6. Impact of the scam: ? The immediate impact of the scam was a sharp fall in the share prices. The index fell from 4500 to 2500 representing a loss of Rs. 100,000 crores in market capitalization. [pic] ? Since the accused were active brokers in the stock markets, the number of shares which had passed through their hands in the last one year was colossal.All these shares became â€Å"tainted† shares, and overnight they became worthless pieces of paper as they could not be delivered in the market. Genuine investors who had bought these shares well before the scam came to light and even got them registered in their names found themselves being robbed by the government. This resulted in a chaotic situation in the market since no one was certain as to which shares were tainted and which were not. ? The government's liberalization policies came under severe criticism after the scam, with Harshad Mehta and others being described as the products of these policies. Bowing to the political pressures and the bad press it received during the scam, the liberalization policies were put on hold for a while by the government. The Securities Exchange Board of India (SEBI) postponed sanctioning of private sector mutual funds. ? The much talked about entry of foreign pension funds and mutual funds became more remote than ever. The Euro-issues planned by several Indian companies were delayed since the ability of In dian companies to raise equity capital in world markets was severely compromised. Harshad Mehta Scam Harshad Mehta scam: Harshad Mehta  was an Indian stockbroker and is alleged to have engineered the rise in the BSE stock exchange in the year 1992. Exploiting several loopholes in the banking system, Harshad and his associates siphoned off funds from inter-bank transactions and bought shares heavily at a premium across many segments, triggering a rise in the Sensex. When the scheme was exposed, the banks started demanding the money back, causing the collapse. He was later charged with 72 criminal offenses and more than 600 civil action suits were filed against him.He died in 2002 with many litigations still pending against him. 3. 1 Ready Forward Deal (RF): †¢ The crucial mechanism through which the scam was effected was the Ready Forward deal. †¢ The Ready Forward Deal (RF) is in essence a secured short term (typically 15 day) loan from one bank to another bank. The lending is done against Government Securities exactly the way a pawnbroker lends against jewelry. †¢ In fact one can say that the borrowing bank actually sells the securities to the lending bank and buys them back at the end of the period of the loan at (typically) a slightly higher price. It was this RF deal that Harshad Mehta and his associates used with great success to channel money from banking system. 3. 2 The Mechanics of the Scam: As explained above, a ready forward deal is, in substance, a secured loan from one bank to another.To make the scam possible , the RF had to undergo a complete change. In other words it practically had to become an unsecured loan to broker. This was wonderfully engineered by the brokers. To give a better understanding of the mechanism, the whole process has been segregated into 3 different parts. . The settlement process 2. Payment cheques 3. Dispensing the security 1. The settlement Process: ? The normal settlement process in government securities is that the transacting banks make payments and deliver the securities directly to each other. ? Dur ing the scam, however, the banks or at least some banks adopted an alternative settlement process which was similar to the process used for settling transactions in the stock market. ? In this settlement process, deliveries of securities and payments are made through the broker.That is, the seller hands over the securities to the broker who passes them on to the buyer, while the buyer gives the cheque to the broker who then makes the payment to the seller. ? In this settlement process, the buyer and the seller may not even know whom they have traded with, both being known only to the broker. ? There were two important reasons why the broker intermediated settlement began to be used in the government securities markets. ? The brokers instead of merely bringing buyers and sellers together started taking positions in the market.In other words, they started trading on their own account, and in a sense became market makers in some securities thereby imparting greater liquidity to the mar kets. ? When a bank wanted to conceal the fact that it was doing an RF deal, the broker came in handy. The broker provided contract notes for this purpose with fictitious counter parties, but arranged for the actual settlement to take place with the correct counter party. 2. Payment Cheques: ? A broker intermediated settlement allowed the broker to lay his hands on the cheque as it went from one bank to another through him.The hurdle now was to find a way of crediting the cheque to his account though it was drawn in favor of a bank and was crossed account payee. ? As it happens, it is purely a matter of banking custom that an account payee cheque is paid only to the payee mentioned on the cheque. In fact, exceptions were being made to this norm, well before the scam came to light. ? Privileged (corporate) customers were routinely allowed to credit account payee cheques in favour of a bank into their own accounts to avoid clearing delays, thereby reducing the interest lost on the amo unt. Normally, if a customer obtains a cheque in his own favour and deposits it into his own account, it may take a day or two for the cheque to be cleared and for the funds to become available to the customer. At 15% interest, the interest loss on a clearing delay of two days for a Rs. 100 crores cheque is about Rs. 8 lakhs. ? On the other hand, when banks make payments to each other by writing cheques on their account with the RBI, these cheques are cleared on the same day. ? The practice which thus emerged was that a customer would obtain a cheque drawn on the RBI favoring not himself but his bank.The bank would get the money and credit his account the same day. ? This was the practice which the brokers in the money market exploited to their benefit. 3. Dispensing the security: ? The brokers thus found a way of getting hold of the cheques as they went from one bank to another and crediting the amounts to their accounts. This effectively transformed an RF into a loan to a broker r ather than to a bank. ? But this, by itself, would not have led to the scam because the RF after all is a secured loan, and a secured loan to a broker is still secured. What was necessary now was to find a way of eliminating the security itself! There are three routes adopted for this purpose: 1. Some banks (or rather their officials) were persuaded to part with cheques without actually receiving securities in return. A simple explanation of this is that the officials concerned were bribed and/or negligent. A more intriguing possibility is that the banks' senior/top management were aware of this and turned a Nelson's eye to it to benefit from higher returns the brokers could offer by diverting the funds to the stock market. One must recognize that as long as the scam lasted, the banks benefited from such an arrangement.The management of banks might have been sorely tempted to adopt this route to higher profitability. 2. The second route was to replace the actual securities by a wort hless piece of paper – a fake Bank Receipt (BR). This is discussed in greater detail in the next section. 3. The third method was simply to forge the securities themselves. In many cases, PSU bonds were represented only by allotment letters rather than certificates on security paper. And it is easier to forge an allotment letter for Rs. 100 crores worth of securities than it is to forge a 100 rupee note!Outright forgery of this kind however accounted for only a very small part of the total funds misappropriated 3. Bank Receipt: ? In an RF deal, as we have discussed it so far, the borrowing bank delivers the actual securities to the lender and takes them back on repayment of the loan. In practice, however, this is not usually done. Instead, the borrower gives a Bank Receipt (BR) which serves three functions: ? The BR confirms the sale of securities. ? It acts as a receipt for the money received by the selling bank. Hence the name – bank receipt. ? It promises to deliver the securities to the buyer.It also states that in the meantime the seller holds the securities in trust for the buyer. ? In short, a BR is something like an IOU (I owe you securities! ), and the use of the BR de facto converts an RF deal into an unsecured loan. The lending bank no longer has the securities; it has only the borrower's assurance that the borrower has the securities which can/will be delivered if/when the need arises. BRs issued without Backing of Securities: ? As stated earlier, a BR is supposed to imply that the issuer actually has the securities and holds them in trust for the buyer.But in reality the issuer may not have the securities at all. ? There are two reasons why a bank may issue a BR, which is not backed by actual securities: 1. A bank may short sell securities, that is, it sells securities it does not have. This would be done if the bank thinks that the prices of these securities would decrease. Since this would be an outright sale (not an RF! ), the ban k issues a BR. When the securities do fall in value, the bank buys them at lower prices and discharges the BR by delivering the securities sold. Short selling in some form is an integral part of most bond markets in the world.It can be argued that some amount of shortselling subject to some degree of regulation is a desirable feature of a bond market. In our opinion, an outright sale using a BR, which is not backed by securities, is not harmful per se though it violates the RBI guidelines. 2. The second reason is that the bank may simply want an unsecured loan. It may then do an RF deal issuing a â€Å"fake† BR which is a BR without any securities to back them. The lending bank would be under a mistaken impression that it is making a secured loan when it is actually advancing an unsecured loan.Obviously, lenders should have taken measures to protect themselves from such a possibility During the scam, the brokers perfected the art of using fake BRs to obtain unsecured loans fr om the banking system. They persuaded some small and little known banks – the Bank of Karad (BOK) and the Metropolitan Cooperative Bank (MCB) – to issue BRs as and when required. These BRs could then be used to do RF deals with other banks. The cheques in favour of BOK were, of course, credited into the brokers' accounts. In effect, several arge banks made huge unsecured loans to the BOK/MCB which in turn made the money available to the brokers. 4. Breakdown of the Control system in scam: ? The scam was made possible by a complete breakdown of the control system both within the commercial banks as well as the control system of the RBI itself. ? We shall examine these control systems to understand how these failed to function effectively and what lessons can be learnt to prevent failure of control systems in the future. ? The internal control system of the commercial banks involves the following features: 1. Separation of Functions:The different aspects of securities tr ansactions of a bank, namely dealing, custody and accounting are carried out by different persons. 2. Counterparty Limits: The moment an RF deal is done on the basis of a BR rather than actual securities, the lending bank has to contend with the possibility that the BR received may not be backed by any/adequate securities. In effect, therefore, it may be making an unsecured loan, and it must do the RF only if it is prepared to make an unsecured loan. This requires assessing the creditworthiness of the borrower and assigning him a â€Å"credit limit† up to which the bank is prepared to lend.Technically, this is known as a counterparty limit. 5. Other Aspects of the scam: ? There are several aspects of the scam which are closely related to the securities markets, but which are different from the operational aspect of the markets. ? These pertain to information that can cause significant changes in the prices of securities as well as the information supplied by the commercial ba nks on their financial performance. ? On each occasion the coupon rate was increased by 1/2%, thereby raising the coupon rate from 11. 5% to 13% during this ten month period.The major implication of raising interest rate on new borrowings is that it would trigger a fall in the market prices of the old loans which are pegged at the old (lower) interest rates. The price of the 11. 5% Government Loan 2010 dropped by 3% to 5% with each coupon rate hike. If anyone has advance information about these changes in the coupon rates, he could make enormous amounts of riskless profit by short selling the old securities just before the announcement of rate hike and buying back (covering his position) after the prices have fallen. ? Somebody who took a short position of Rs. 00 crores before the coupon hike of September 1991 could have made a profit of Rs. 15 crores, practically overnight! Since several persons in the Finance Ministry and the RBI are likely to be aware of the impending hike in the coupon rate, the chance of leakage of this all important information is always there. ? There have been several allegations in this regard. However, it will probably be very difficult to prove with any degree of certainty that there was insider trading based on information about coupon rate changes, because of the size of the market. With a daily trading volume of Rs. 3000 – 4000 crores, it would have been very easy for anyone to take a position (based on inside information) of Rs. 500 or even Rs. 1000 crores without anyone suspecting anything untoward. 6. Impact of the scam: ? The immediate impact of the scam was a sharp fall in the share prices. The index fell from 4500 to 2500 representing a loss of Rs. 100,000 crores in market capitalization. [pic] ? Since the accused were active brokers in the stock markets, the number of shares which had passed through their hands in the last one year was colossal.All these shares became â€Å"tainted† shares, and overnight they became worthless pieces of paper as they could not be delivered in the market. Genuine investors who had bought these shares well before the scam came to light and even got them registered in their names found themselves being robbed by the government. This resulted in a chaotic situation in the market since no one was certain as to which shares were tainted and which were not. ? The government's liberalization policies came under severe criticism after the scam, with Harshad Mehta and others being described as the products of these policies. Bowing to the political pressures and the bad press it received during the scam, the liberalization policies were put on hold for a while by the government. The Securities Exchange Board of India (SEBI) postponed sanctioning of private sector mutual funds. ? The much talked about entry of foreign pension funds and mutual funds became more remote than ever. The Euro-issues planned by several Indian companies were delayed since the ability of In dian companies to raise equity capital in world markets was severely compromised.

The History of the Freedom Riders Movement

The History of the Freedom Riders Movement In 1961, men and women from throughout the nation arrived in Washington, D.C. to end Jim Crow  on interstate travel by embarking on what were called â€Å"Freedom Rides.†Ã‚  On such rides, racially mixed activists traveled together throughout the Deep South- ignoring signs marked â€Å"for whites† and â€Å"for colored† in buses and bus terminals. The riders endured beatings and arson attempts from white supremacist mobs, but their struggles paid off when segregationist policies on interstate bus and rail lines were struck down. Despite these achievements, the Freedom Riders aren’t the household names like Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King Jr., but they’re civil rights heroes nonetheless. Both Parks and King would be heralded as heroes for their roles in ending segregated bus seating  in Montgomery, Ala.   How the Freedom Rides Got Started In the 1960 case Boynton v. Virginia, the U.S. Supreme Court declared segregation in interstate bus and rail stations unconstitutional. But the high court’s ruling didn’t stop segregation on interstate bus and rail lines in the South from persisting. Enter the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), a civil rights group. CORE sent seven blacks and six whites on two public buses headed for the South on May 4, 1961. The goal? To test the Supreme Court ruling on segregated interstate travel in the Confederate states. For two weeks, the activists planned to flout Jim Crow laws by sitting on the front of buses and in â€Å"whites only† waiting rooms in bus terminals. â€Å"Boarding that Greyhound bus to travel to the Deep South, I felt good. I felt happy,† Rep. John Lewis recalled during a May 2011  appearance on â€Å"The Oprah Winfrey Show.† Then a seminary student, Lewis would go on to become a U.S. congressman. During the first few days of their trip, the mixed-race group of activists traveled largely without incident. They didn’t have security and didn’t need it- yet. After arriving in Atlanta on May 13, 1961, they even attended a reception hosted by the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., but the celebration took on a decidedly ominous tone when King alerted them that the Ku Klux Klan was organizing against them in Alabama. Despite King’s warning, the Freedom Rides did not change their course. As expected, when they reached Alabama, their journey took a turn for the worse. A Perilous Journey On the outskirts of Anniston, Alabama, members of a white supremacist mob showed just what they thought about the Freedom Riders by bashing in their bus and slashing its tires. To boot, the Alabama Klansmen set the bus on fire and blocked the exits to trap the Freedom Riders inside. It wasn’t until the bus’ fuel tank exploded that the mob dispersed and the Freedom Riders were able to escape. After a similar mob attacked the Freedom Riders in Birmingham, the U.S. Justice Department stepped in and evacuated the activists to New Orleans. The federal government did not want more harm to come to the riders. The Second Wave Due to the amount of violence inflicted on Freedom Riders, the leaders of CORE had to abandon the Freedom Rides or continue sending activists into harm’s way. Ultimately, CORE officials decided to send more volunteers on the rides.  Diane Nash, an activist who helped to organize Freedom Rides, explained  to Oprah Winfrey: â€Å"It was clear to me that if we allowed the Freedom Ride to stop at that point, just after so much violence had been inflicted, the message would have been sent that all you have to do to stop a nonviolent campaign is inflict massive violence.† On the second wave of rides, activists journeyed from Birmingham to Montgomery, Alabama in relative peace. Once the activists touched down in Montgomery, though, a mob of more than 1,000 attacked the riders. Later, in Mississippi, Freedom Riders were arrested for entering a whites-only waiting room in a Jackson bus terminal. For this act of defiance, authorities arrested the Freedom Riders, housing them in one of Mississippi’s most notorious correctional facilities- Parchman State Prison Farm. â€Å"The reputation of Parchman is that it’s a place that a lot of people get sent . . . and don’t come back,† former Freedom Rider Carol Ruth told Winfrey. During the summer of 1961, 300 Freedom Riders were imprisoned there. An Inspiration Then and Now The struggles of the Freedom Riders garnered nationwide publicity. Rather than intimidate other activists, however, the brutality the riders encountered inspired others to take up the cause. Before long, dozens of Americans were volunteering to travel on Freedom Rides. In the end, an estimated 436 people took such rides. The efforts of the Freedom Riders were finally rewarded when the Interstate Commerce Commission decided on Sept. 22, 1961, to ban segregation in interstate travel. Today, the contributions the Freedom Riders made to civil rights are the subject of a PBS documentary called Freedom Riders. In addition, in 2011, 40 students commemorated the Freedom Rides of 50 years before by boarding buses that retraced the journey of the first set of Freedom Riders.

Evolution of music essays

Evolution of music essays In the video we saw in class we learned about the advancement of music with the development of technology. The first thing that we saw was how the bell makers now use computers to eliminate the unwanted sounds from bells by creating bells of different shape. Also we saw how the organ manipulates sound by sending it through different tubes of different diameters and by decreasing or increasing the size of the tubes then we saw how technology manipulates all those sounds by using filters. How those filters work. Sound is converted into a digital signal of ones and zeros that that signal can be filtered using hardware or software. Since sound is already converted into ones and zeroes, using software we can eliminate parts of sound for which we already know how the signal would lock like in numbers. Hardware wise I dont really know how it is done. Then we saw how a professor from a university was given the task of finding out the quemical components of the varnish and of the wood of Stradivarius violins that way we could reproduce those. When locking into the varnish he found out that the varnish contained powder made from precious stones. Then when he locked into the chemical components of the wood of the violine he found out that the wood was wood of fresh just cut wood that was marinated since it was fir a time in salt water probably do to that the wood was transported by drag in it through the sea to the place of its destination. The professor theory is that the two famous violin makers didnt really knew or specifically choose the wood and the varnish it was gust luck and being at right place at the right time. ...

Strict Censorship Policies of Google Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Strict Censorship Policies of Google - Case Study Example The world’s largest search engine then announced redirecting to an uncensored version located in Hong Kong in the hopes of circumventing mainland China’s laws which only heightened Chinese officials’ ire. Furthermore, regardless of Google’s act of leaving China, it remained to be a far competitor from the Haidu, China’s most popular search engine. In the same vein, Google did not lose as much revenue as the Chinese market represented only a small fraction of what comprised the company (Heft and Barboza). As reported by the prevalently government lenient news agency, Xinhua, the government sees that â€Å"regulation on the Internet is a sovereign issue† and that Google has no right to attempt or to impose its own standard on what the government should and should not censor (Na, Yunlu, and Hao, par. 5). There seems to be a great disparity between the conception of human rights as viewed in a Western concept especially among Americans and the en cumbrance of Chinese law which majority of its citizens tend to dismiss. To reiterate, it is difficult to point out people’s rights when they are in fact unaware that such rights do exist.The world’s largest search engine then announced redirecting to an uncensored version located in Hong Kong in the hopes of circumventing mainland China’s laws which only heightened Chinese officials’ ire. Furthermore, regardless of Google’s act of leaving China, it remained to be a far competitor from the Haidu, China’s most popular search engine. In the same vein, Google did not lose as much revenue as the Chinese market represented only a small fraction of what comprised the company (Heft and Barboza). As reported by the prevalently government lenient news agency, Xinhua, the government sees that â€Å"regulation on the Internet is a sovereign issue† and that Google has no right to attempt or to impose its own standard on what the government should and should not censor (Na, Yunlu, and Hao, par. 5). There seems to be a great disparity between the conception of human rights as viewed in a Western concept especially among Americans and, the encumbrance of Chinese law which majority of its citizens tend to dismiss. To reiterate, it is difficult to point out people’s rights when they are in fact unaware that such rights do exist. A country’s business climate must be understood by a business professional in order to have a greater perspective on how to conduct one’s self and how to carry out one’s business in a certain location. This would be applicable on specific matters as people and cultures are diverse. More than this, laws are also an integral part that must be kept in mind to avoid complications that could lead to lawsuits and legal dilemmas. The instant case presents us with two sides of an argument where a company’s very own principle goes against a country’s law and regulations. What may be a common practice in one country may be absolutely prohibited in another and where a company cannot make amends with this fact, then there is inevitably the meandering situation where things are bound not to work out.  

Jesus & Mohammed Paper Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Jesus & Mohammed Paper - Assignment Example Jesus and Mohammed singlehandedly made a greatest impact on the society of their time and shaped the course of history for over two thousand years. Their religions reflected similarities and differences in lives and deaths of both Jesus and Mohammed. Jesus was born 4BC from Virgin Mary and did not have an earthly father but was raised by his mother and stepfather. Mohammed was born 570 CE (Common Era), almost 6 centuries after Jesus, from Abdullah and Aminah, and was raised mostly by his nurse as was customary in the desert countries, as well as grandfather and uncle because his parents and other closest relatives had died when he was just a boy. (Rodinson, 2002, p.46) The lives of these great religious leaders were described in hagiographical books: Jesus’ in Gospels and Mohammed’s in Suras. Jesus was a carpenter and Mohammed was first shepherd and then caravan trader. (Rodinson, 2002, p.58) Jesus was speaking Aramaic, Hebrew and Greek (Peters, 2011, p.45) but did not write any book himself; Mohammed spoke Arabic and left records that were compiled into Quran (Phipps, 1999, p.81). Jesus started his ministry at 30 and continued it for the next 3 years. Most of the time, he was staying in Galilee. It is believed that Mohammed have received a revelation and a call at 40 and ministered for 22 years traveling more widely due to his occupation. (Peters, 2011, p.65) Both Jesus and Mohammed performed miracles. The first miracle Jesus performed was turning water into wine at the wedding party (John 2:1-11); to contrast, Mohammed forbade wine drinking as he considered it â€Å"an abomination of Satan's work† (Quran, Sura 5:90). Jesus attracted people by miracles, signs and sermons (Peters, 2011, p.47) and Mohammed - by his teaching and wisdom. In the Gospel, Jesus is often described in the presence of women; however, there is not a single mention about any relationship or wife. Jesus did not have a wife; he was a celibate (Peters, 2011, p.46). The n umber of Mohammed’s wives is uncertain as they go in Quran unnamed and uncounted (Peters, 2011, p.180). Both spiritual leaders caused religious disruption and brought change to the traditional establishments. Their ministries and teachings led to the new religion creation rather than reformation of the old. Jesus shook Judaism, stating that he was the Son of God, while Mohammed never made such claims. Their messages were contrasting in many ways. Jesus himself did not wage any war and never ordered to kill anyone. To the contrary, he taught to â€Å"turn the other cheek†, did not resist the arrest and discouraged his disciples from the fight. Jesus’ legacy is the religion of pardon, tolerance and love even for the enemies. On the opposite, Mohammed fought in a number of battles, converting captives into Islam; he was granting them forgiveness in exchange for conversion. He wore â€Å"two coats of mail†, swinging the sword and leading Muslims into war (Phi pps, 1999, p.62) He believed that Allah gave him permission to cut infidels (The Quran, Sura 9:5, 29), calling his actions â€Å"Jihad† – â€Å"holy war†. Jesus death was public: he was crucified by Romans at the age 33 as one of the worst criminals, suffered an excruciating pain, was forsaken by all and a mob was spitting on him. However, after such a terrible death, Jesus resurrected and ascended to Heaven. The tomb he was buried in was opened three days after his death by angels. Mohammed

Online learning and cultural issues Research Paper

Online learning and cultural issues - Research Paper Example Also effect sizes were found to be larger for studies that had the online instruction as collaborative or instructor-directed, as compared to those where online learners worked independently. Student learning outcomes were least impacted in the way in which various studies conducted online learning. Across various content and learner types, the effectiveness of the approaches of learning online appears to be massive. Another research of experimental and semi-experimental studies that compares various types of online learning standards report that candidate learning is usually comparable in both distance learning and face to face learning if a study compares a mixture of both to purely online conditions. It also concludes that objects such as video feed or online tests do not seem to impact the amount that students tend to learn in online classes. Online learning can be made effective by giving students control of their interactions with media and requesting for learner interaction as well. When a couple of students group together to learn online, support techniques such as guiding queries usually impact the way students interact, but does not influence the amount they learn (Means, et al., 2010). There were about half a dozen studies conducted from 1989-2004 that actually met the criteria for experimental validation to compare online and traditional courses. Based on this, the National Survey of Student Engagement research concluded that online learners have deeper approaches to learning as compared to classroom-based learners and they also claim to have experienced better use of polished thinking skills, combine thinking process and reflective learning (Susan and Allison, 2009). Another study describes strategies to build and maintain online learning communities. They suggest the effectiveness of setting aims, tasks and their results, role of an instructor, enhancing social comfort and scaffolding. The issues they addressed were cultural and individual differe nces, verbalization, and intimidation of technical skills to operate and interact online. They conclude by suggesting not to expect a radical change overnight to address the issues but further research on overcoming the issues from both the instructor’s end and the learners’ end (Ruth and Wing, 2002). Applications: There are many applications in use today for e-learning. They all emphasize in providing the qualities that would provide ease in communication and to bridge gaps between the student and teacher by employing effective techniques. eFront is the most widely used as it provides features to instructors as creating and managing lectures via visual content editors that support images, video and sound. It also provides a file sharing space which is organized by a file manager. It also provides the flexibility to assign assignments and generate surveys. Another tool is Moodle and its popularity is attributed to the fact that it is open source. Apart from course mana gement features, it provides support for chat between teachers and students. Dokeos is a tool that provides video conferencing capability along with chat and course management features. Claroline is the only tool to be translated in 35 other languages. It

Portlend Cancer Center Case Essay Example for Free

Portlend Cancer Center Case Essay The model calculates the NAL (or NPV) and IRR of the lease for both parties on the basis of relevant input data. The invoice price and lease rental payments must be the same for both parties, but the other input variables may be different for each party. The model also examines the differential profitability to the lessee between conventional and per procedure leases. The model consists of a complete base case analysisno changes need to be made to the existing MODEL-GENERATED DATA section. However, all values in the student version INPUT DATA section have been replaced with zeros. Thus, students must determine the appropriate input values and enter them into the model. These cells are colored red. When this is done, any error cells will be corrected and the base case solution will appear. Note that the model does not contain any risk analyses, so students will have to create their own if required by the case. Furthermore, students must create their own graphics (charts) as needed to present their results. Both instructor and student versions contains a sheet (Figure 1) that plots lessees NAL, lessors NPV, and total contract value versus the size of the lease payment.