Information Sensitivity and Protection of Data Essay - 5

Information Sensitivity and Protection of Data - Essay Example ael Deaconess Medical Center uses in handling sensitive data, as appearing in Managing Information Privacy & Security: Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Technology Resources Policy (2007) are against the following: Access to vital information is a key concern by these organizations. There are policies put in place that emphasize of access of information to authorized personnel only. In most cases, there are access control measures allowing specific personnel access to them. Hacking or breaking into somewhere are means of accessing information illegally, leading to further means of access control such as power switches and anti-hacking software. Disclosure of crucial information is critical in healthcare. It may have serious consequences on the patient or their relatives (Herdman, 2006). It is therefore wise to keep it as discreet as possible. In large firms with different departments, restricting disclosure to the less involved ones is a possible way of curbing disclosure. There are also restrictions of unauthorized disclosure of institutional information beyond it, mostly by export through electronic means. The issue of data alteration is a key concerning the three organizations. Altering data interferes with crucial conclusions or actions of healthcare institutions (Iyer, Levin, Shea & Ashton, 2006). Alteration occurs intentionally by malicious staff and is preventable by having monitoring systems such as CCTV cameras in safe rooms. Accidental alterations occur in some cases such as virus attacks on databases, leading to restriction of digital uses that may expose information to such. Destruction of data is likely to occur in any organization in form of crises such as fire, system failure, or virus attacks. Luckily, these are preventable by having fire-fighting equipment, computer back up systems and proper anti-virus software, or in the case of electronic data loss, data recovery mechanisms are available. It is evident that most of the policies applied in data

Riding a wave of creative destruction reflections on Ecology and Essay

Riding a wave of creative destruction reflections on Ecology and Society - Essay Example The comparison between academic exercises carried out and stored on paper with the new trend of doing the same thing electronically is done in this article in a systematic way. The overall position taken by this article is in favor of the use of electronic medium in academic exercises. As the present use of the electronic medium in academic research is full of controversies, and has always been questioned in terms of credibility and authenticity, this article has tried to prove it otherwise. A step-by-step explanation is offered on all the aspects of credibility and authenticity. This is why it is asserted by the authors (Gunderson, Folke, and Lee) that â€Å"Ecology and Society (has) set out to become a credible scientific outlet by asking respected scientists to be members of the editorial board, and implementing a double-blind review process for each manuscript.† This article, also stresses another important feature of going electronic in academic research. It is reminded t hat electronic publishing involves less technical hurdles and less financial liabilities, thereby enabling the publisher to disseminate information and knowledge for free. There is also the acknowledgement that the new approach in academic research is here to stay- whereby the â€Å"interdisciplinary niche† is established (Gunderson, Folke, and Lee).

Financial Analysis of Target Corp. and JCPenney Research Paper

Financial Analysis of Target Corp. and JCPenney - Research Paper Example Presently, headquarter of the company is situated in Minneapolis. The company has been ranked 22nd by the Fortune magazine within its list under the category of â€Å"World’s Most Admired Companies†. Also it has been titled as the 23rd by Forbes magazine within its list under the category of â€Å"America’s Most Reputable Companies†. There are many subsidiaries of the Target Corporation: Financial and Retail Services (FRS), Target Sourcing Services (TSS), Target Commercial Interiors, Target Brands and Target.com. Target had declared its expansion into Canada and has plans to inaugurate around 100 to 150 stores over there by the year 2013. The total revenue of the company during the year 2010 was $67.4 billion (My Target, 2010). Background of J. C. Penney Company, Inc J. C Penney Company, Inc., better known as JCPenney is one amongst many big retailers in the Unites States. The company operates with its 1100 departmental stores situated all around America a nd Puerto Rico. JCPenney also has sites on the internet for its trading in the retail sections of home furnishings and apparels. The company is headquartered in Plano, TX and has 150000 associates. The company offers a wide variety of brands inclusive of private brands, national brands and exclusive brands to more than 50 percent of the American people. The company depicted annual revenue of $17.8 billion during the year 2010 (JCPenney, 2010). Calculation of Ratio for Target Corporation and J. C. Penney Company, Inc Ratios Target Corporation (in millions $ except number of shares) J. C. Penney Company, Inc (in millions $ except number of shares) Book Value Per Share Ratio = (Total shareholder equity – Preferred equity) / Total outstanding shares (15487-0) / 704038218 = 0.000022 (5460-0) / 237000000 = 0.000023 Current ratio = Current asset / Current liabilities 17213 / 10070 = 1.71 6370 / 2647 = 2.41 Net Profit Margin on Sales = Net Earnings / Sales 2920 / 67390 = 0.043 389 / 17759 = 0.022 Earnings per Share = (Net income- Dividends on preferred stock) Average outstanding shares 2920 / 704038218 = 4.00 (Diluted earnings per share) 389/ 237000000 = 1.64 (Diluted earnings per share) EBITDA per share = EBITDA / Outstanding shares 7336 / 704038218 = 10.4 1343 / 237000000 = 5.67 Debt/Equity Ratio = Long term debt / Common stock equity 3954 / 3370 = 1.17 3099 / 4043 = 0.77 Interpretation and Description of the Findings From analyzing the book value per share ratio of a company, not many facts can be interpreted. Book value is rather the accounting value of the shares of a company. This value is considerably different from the market value of the shares. Book values are determined on the basis of the company’s retained earnings and costs whereas market values are determined on the basis of expectations of investors. On comparing the book value and the market value of the company’s shares, inferences can be derived as to whether the company’ s stock is overvalued or undervalued. The only situation when book value can be useful is when the market value of the company’s stock is lower than the book value of the stock. This situation seldom arises but if this arises, then the investors anticipate the company to be undervalued and are attracted to buy. The market value of Target Corporation is $51.19 and the book value would be approximately $22. This

Personal Reflection Journal Assignment Unit 6, 7, 8, and 9

Personal Reflection Journal Unit 6, 7, 8, and 9 - Assignment Example Now, I am aware that these strengths will be my keys to success in my career and personal life. I did not really need an assessment to tell me that. However, it surely motivated me to go on and even try harder at what I do. I do not have an excuse to be mediocre. How can I apply the results of the strengths-finder assessment in my personal life and career? As a relator, I am a people-person. I am not one to shy away from meeting new people and getting to know them for various purposes. This definitely helps me in my networking activities. As an achiever, engaging in tasks drives me to do more. The exhilaration of completing them excellently is very fulfilling. Being analytical can make me appear cynical of other people’s ideas. I need to consider all options and possibilities before I finally give my nod. I know it keeps people on their toes, and for me, that is a good thing so they also strive to do their best with me. I can link this to being an arranger. I strive to iron everything out so operations run without glitches. Lastly, being in command ensures that I get things done. I can take charge of things, and assume a leadership position with confidence because of my other strengths that contribute to my credibility. Given a choice, I would opt to be an Operations Manager instead of my current job as Technical Advisor. I believe my strengths as a commander, relator and achiever will greatly benefit the position. Being in command enables me to act out decisions with ease because I know I take action and not merely think. My being an achiever makes sure of that. Being a relator helps me connect with people and place them where they are best suited. I am confident that as an operations manager, I will excel with the help of my strengths. As for my weaknesses, I need to keep reflecting on my performance to know where I need improvement on. My self-evaluation will help me identify these weaknesses

Schedule Work Essay Example for Free

Schedule Work Essay Carter Cleaning Centers does not have a formal wage structure nor does it have rate ranges or use compensable factors. Wage rates are based mostly on those prevailing in the surrounding community and are tampered with an attempt on the part of Jack Carter to maintain some semblance of equity between what workers with different responsibilities in the stores are paid. Needless to say, carter does not make any formal surveys when determining what his company should pay. He peruses the want ads almost every day and conducts informal surveys among his friends in the local chapter of the Laundry and Cleaning Trade association. While Jack has taken a â€Å"seat – of – the pants† approach to paying employees, his salary schedule has been guided by several basic pay policies. While many of his colleagues adhere to a policy of paying absolutely minimum rates, Jack has always followed a policy of paying his employees about 10% above what he feels are the prevailing rates, a policy that he believes reduces turnover while fostering employee loyalty. Of some what more concern to Jennifer is her father’s informal policy of paying men about 20% more than women for same job. Her father’s explanation is, â€Å"They’re Stronger and can work harder for longer hours, and besides they all have families to support.†The New Pay Plan:The New Pay Plan:

Concepts of Health: Analysis of the Family

Concepts of Health: Analysis of the Family Health concepts in my family are very important. My family is consisting of three people, just my parents and me as other siblings have been married off. We believe that health is how we maintain ourselves every day and how we take care of our needs and important resources such as water, food and shelter. Well-being is considered to be how we take care of our relationships with each other. We believe that our spiritual beliefs and our thinking shape us on our behavior and attitude. Health and wellbeing in my family is also affected by how we feel most of the time. For example; whenever there is my argument at home, we all will not feel good and feel disturbed all the time until it is solved. Figure 1. Chand, K. (2010). Family Photo. (Personal photograph). This is my family photo which was taken at a wedding. In my life, family means a lot and they are the reason why I want to study and become someone better and they are also the reason for my existence. Without them my life is not possible and my family has been with me more than anyone else as they really understand me very well. Basically, my family is my resource for my everyday life and they are my number one needs and wants. When I looked at my family I see lots of hope in their eyes for me and I want to make sure that I am able to fulfill those hopes one day. Family is said to be working like chains which is repeated every now and then. The younger ones learns from elder ones while elder members of the family have their hopes high from the younger members and this chain is always repeated when younger members starts their own family later on (Asif,.n.d) Even though my sisters are married, they have moved to a new house and have their own family, we all three are in touch every day so anyone of us do not miss anything, we share what is happening in our lives and be update with each other always. My family belief it is best to be united with each other and this is done by either a small prayer on Tuesday at any one’s place or by a small get together every weekend. We bring gifts and sweets to each other’s place whenever any gathering happens. From a nursing perspective I will ensure that the patients I am working with will have their family around them because I really understand what family means and they are the only thing we all wish when unwell. Family can encourage you to get better and give hope to live life. When caring for a patient, a health practitioner should not only care for the patient but also be able to care for the whole family as the family is also affected (WebMD, 2014). Therefore, I will consider caring for the whole family as my patient and try to solve their problems and give support to them all. Figure 2. Chand, K. (2014). Friends Photo. (Personal Photograph) This is photo of my really close and best friends Shazyana and Manjani. I have known them for last one year and I really value their stay in my life. Friends are important to me because they are the ones I turned up to when in trouble or when I am lost and not sure of what I want. They are the only people I share my feelings with when I know that it is not safe to share at home or with any of the family members. They are always there for me like a family and I consider them as my sisters since both of them are older than me and they have always taken care of me as a little sister. For me, having true friends like them is a blessing and something to be proud of. Only true friends will stand during good and bad times and also face the rough phases of our lives and they are ones who can bring laughter and joy in our life (friendshipscolours,. n.d). My friends enhance my health as they always are there to support me and give me the right treatment. Whenever I talk to them I get mentally relaxed and feel prepared to fight any problem. From my nursing perspective, I believe that friends can help one to recover soon and they are the biggest support other than families. I would like to encourage my patients and try to become their friend but in staying in my professional limit all the time. Personal relationships play an important role in healing someone and strong relationships can lead to long and healthy relationships (University of Minnesota, 2013). Figure 3. Chand, K. (2015). Nieces and Nephew. (Personal Photograph). This picture is of my nieces and nephew, they are my elder sister’s children. The one in middle is eleven years old and her name is Anusha, the boy is nine years old and his name is Chetan whereas the one in the side is six years old and she is Shivwali. These children are very important to me and they mean my life not because I am their aunty but because how they see me. They consider me not less than their mum as all three of them shares things with me, their feelings and we all have our little secrets with each other. Some kids also find talking to their aunties more easier than talking to their mum (home and family, n.d.). I have seen them growing up and I am really proud to say that they are the best children I have ever seen and no one can replace them in my life not even my own kids when I will have my own family. They hold a very special place in my life and these children are full of life and are very innocent. My nieces and nephews health and wellbeing are very important to me because if anything happens to them I will not be able to handle it and also their wellbeing and health affects my health and wellbeing. When they are sick or having any troubles I feel the pain aswell because I feel emotionally connected with them. For example; in 2011 when Chetan broke his arm and was in pain for many days, I was not able to concreate on my studies and even though I was at school my mind was with him full time. Whenever I communicate with them and I see them I feel relaxed and I feel that yes I got a reason to live for. They are my inspirational and my motivation, they are the ones who have taught me to live life and also taught how to fight towards any odd. From nursing perspective, I will make sure that all my patients also have a inspiration in their life to make them wanting to live and get better. It may not only be the patients who are sick and suffering from illness but also the ones who are mentally and emotional disturbed and I am also interested i working with patients like them. This is because I have also went though depression in past due to boyfriend problems and I was at a point where I just want to end my life and that moment not knowingly my nieces and nephew had taught me valuable lesson for life. I saw how much they loved me and how much they had cared for me than I realized that when small children know how to live and love everyone than why us adults cannot be strong enough. I will try to treat my patients with the same love and care I have for my little ones and hopefully be able to teach them the valuable means of life my nieces and nephew have taught me. Just how these kids have saved my life once I want to save m any lives ahead. Figure 4. Temple Photo, (2015). Google Images. This is a photo of temple for us Indians and it is a scared place. Temple is said to be a place where we can find answers to all our questions and a place where we can also find peace. I personally like going to temple because for me I can relax and communicate with our gods. That heart to heart communication between me and my gods is very important because I share all my problems with them but not with the intention of getting it solved but receiving the strength to be strong during my fight. It is my family belief that when god has given us problems than he has also open doors to many solutions, but we just need to relax and find those ways to the doors of the solution. And also we have a mini temple at our home to worship gods and keep their photos and statues. I have noticed that whenever I talk to gods I can always see some differences on their faces, I do not find it stranger because it might be because that is how I see it. My wellbeing and health is affect by my beliefs in go ds because whenever I am sick I know that god will recover me in any way and that sharing my problems with them gives me a peace of mind and gives me hope and strength. Trusting god is like a belief that he has the power to help you and he will help you (Joyce Meyer, n.d) From a nursing perspective I believe that every individual will have belief like i do and these beliefs can enhance their health and wellbeing. Research shows that people who have spiritual beliefs have less chances of stress and do not think of harming themselves at all, they may get depressed in difficult solutions but their spiritual beliefs will keep them going (The Nemours Foundation, 2015). I would respect their beliefs because I know that their spiritual belief can enhance their health and wellbeing like it does to me. I will also encourage my patients to follow their spiritual beliefs and make sure that they meet their needs on time. Figure 5. Glucose meter, (2015). Google Images. This is a photo of a glucose machine which is used for measuring sugar levels in the blood. This machine will tell the amount of glucose in blood just by putting a drop of blood on a strip and inserting in the machine, the meter can generate the results in either two ways. One way is where it will measure the amount of electricity which is in the sample or the other one is where it will measure the amount of light reflects from the sample (MedicineNet, n.d). Maintaining sugar levels is very important to me because my dad is a diabetic patient. He has type two diabetic and his sugar levels is high most the time. He is not allowed to eat sweets and anything that contains sugar in it. My family is also strict on that matter with dad and dad always gets scolding whenever he tries to eat sweets. Diabetes affects me and my family’s health and wellbeing because it worries us about dad’s health and also that it is in our genes so we are scared most of the time that we children and our children in future will not have it. It affects our wellbeing because dad always wants to have sweets as he likes to eat sweets and when he is not able to eat than he gets angry and sad. We know that he is mentally disturbed and worried and he is craving for sweets but unfortunately we cannot do much help to him. From my nursing perspective, I will make sure that all of my patients sugar levels are normal and whoever has diabetes I would like them to view it as positive thing than a negative one because if they will take it negatively than they will not want the treatment for it and diabetes will kill them emotionally and mentally inside. Some patients might feel afraid of it and some might also feel depressed too but I will try to be on their side all the time and help them fight diabetes. When the person who has diabetes has the support and love of close ones than they are better to manage it probably as it is hard to fight disease like that alone ( National Diabetes Education Program, n.d) Figure 6. Music (2015),. Google Images Music is something which is important to me and my health and wellbeing. I love music and I believe that it relaxes me and makes me forget my problems for a while. Music is very beneficial because it can lead to creatively, it is the language of the universe, it has spiritual powers, and it can change moods and music brings people together (dotan negrin, n.d.). Music is also important because it is in our culture as well. We Hindus sing songs for gods at every occasion, and it is a belief that you get more close to gods and pleased them with music. Most of the mantra we say while praying is in songs so we pray to gods while singing songs and playing some music instruments. Music affects my wellbeing and health because whenever I am upset or sad I listen to music and I get relaxed and I try to forget my problems and gather the strength to fight it back. Music plays the same role in my life which temple and gods do. When in problem or not in good mood I take them on board and they make me feel relax. Also health wise, when I am sick or not feeling well I try listening to music which works for me as I start feeling better and maybe not start recovering but I feel fresh and alive. From my nursing perspective, I believe that music can help in treatment and I am saying this from my own personal experience. I will try encouraging my patients to listen to music of their own choice to help them feel better. Research has shown that music has worked its magic in the past and it has been used to get people back to their right state of mind and it has reduced stress and tension in patients (Collingwood, J. 2007). I am sure that we all like music and songs and it is going to be advantage to me while treating my patients in future because I am going to make them listen to music and let them relax. In conclusion my health and wellbeing is affected by my family, friends, my nieces and nephews, our Indian temple, glucose meter and music. All these things help me to keep healthy and keep me emotionally well. REFERENCES Asif,.(n.d). Importance of family in our lives. Retrieved on Febraury 25, 2015, from http://myefforts.hubpages.com/hub/Importance-of-Family-in-our-lives. Collingwood, J. (2007). The Power of Music to Reduce Stress-Psych Central. Retrieved on February 27, 2015, from http://psychcentral.com/lib/the-power-of-music-to-reduce stress/000930 Dotan., Negrin,.(n.d). Piano Around the World. Retrieved on Febraury 22,2015 from http://www.pianoaroundtheworld.com/. Friendships Colours,.(n.d). Friends Importance in Life. Retreieved on Ferbruary 26 2015 from http://sites.google.com/site/friendshipcolours/friend-importance-in-life. Joyce Meyer,. (n.d). How trusting god can transform your life. Retrievd on Febraury 26 2015from http://www.joycemeyer.org/articles/ea.aspx?aritcle.howtrustinggodcantransformyourlife. MedicineNet,.(n.d). Diabetes: Choosing and Using your Glucose Meter. Retrieved on February 23 2015 from http://www.medicinenet.com/script/main/art.asp?articlekey.20554. National Diabetes Education Program,. (n.d). How to help a loved one cope with diabetes. Retrieved on Febraury 17 2015 from http://ndep.nih.gov/publications/publishcationdetail.aspx?pubid=45. The Nemours Foudation,. (n.d). How can spirituality affect your familys health. Retrived on February 23 2015. WebMD,.(2014). Family Therapy. Retrieved on Febrauary 15 2015 from http://wwwwebmd.com/balance/family-thearpy-6301. University of Minnesota,. (2014). Why Personal Relationship are Important. Retrievd on Ferbraury 25 2015 from http://www.takingcharge.csh.umn.edu/enhance-your-wellbeing/relationships/why-personal-relationships.are-important. 1

The Concept Of Identity Politics

The Concept Of Identity Politics Identity is about belonging, about what you have in common with some people and what differentiates you from others. At its most basic it gives you a sense of personal location, the stable core to your individuality. But it is also about your social relationships, your complex involvement with others, and in the modern world these have become ever more complex and confusing. Each of us live with a variety of potentially contradictory identities, which battle within us for allegiance: as men or women, black or white, straight or gay, able-bodied or disabled, British or European The list is potentially infinite, and so therefore are our possible belongings. Which of them we focus on, bring to the fore, identify with, depends on a host of factors. At the centre, however, are the values we share or wish to share with others. Identity politics was initially defined by and for the new social movements that came to public consciousness from the late 1960s: the black movement, feminism, lesbian and gay liberation and so on. The question of integrating these creative but diffuse and potentially divisive forces into the political mainstream has been part of the agony of the Left during the last decade. Issues of identity are now, however, at the centre of modern politics. When Mrs Thatcher utters anathemas against Brussels and all its works, or interfers in the details of the history curriculum, she is engaged in an exercise in delineating a cultural and political identity, in this case of Britishness, which she wants us to share. When President Gorbachev discourses on our common European home he is striving to re-form our perception of the Soviet identity, and to re-fashion our idea of Europe. When the Bradford mullahs organize simultaneously affirming and fashioning an identity as Muslims, but also as a bla ck British community entitled to the protection of the blasphemy laws like Anglicans and Catholics and evangelicals. When we mourn with students in Beijing, or express solidarity with black South Africans, or run (or sing, or joke) for the world, we are striving to realise our identities as members of the global village, as citizens of the world. Identities are not neutral. Behind the quest for identity are different, and often conflicting values. By saying who we are, we are also striving to express what we are, what we believe and what we desire. The problem is that these beliefs, needs and desires are often patently in conflict, not only between different communities but within individuals themselves. All this makes debates over values particularly fraught and delicate: they are not simply speculations about the world and our place in it; they touch on fundamental, and deeply felt, issues about who we are and what we want to be and become. They also pose major political questions: how to achieve a reconciliation between our collective needs as human beings and our specific needs as individuals and members of diverse communities, how to balance the universal and the particular. These are not new questions, but they are likely, nevertheless, to loom ever-larger as we engage with the certainty of uncertainty that characterise s new times. The Return of Values This is the background to a new concern with values in mainstream politics. Most notoriously, Mrs Thatcher has invoked Victorian values and has pronounced about everything from soccer hooliganism, to religion, to litter. Even the Labour Party, in an uncharacteristic burst of philosophising, has produced a statement on Democratic Socialist Aims and Values. And these are but the tips of an iceberg. Such flurries have not been entirely absent in the past from British political and cultural history. But on the whole, from the Second World War until recently, the political class eschewed too searching a discussion of values, preferring, in Harold Macmillans world-weary remark, to leave that to the bishops. During the years of the social-democratic consensus, welfarism, with its commitment to altruism and caring, provided a framework for social policy, but offered little guidance on the purposes of the good society. Similarly, in the sphere of private life, the most coherent framework of moral regulation, that enshrined in the permissive reforms in the 1960s of the laws relating to homosexuality, abortion, censorship etc, is based on a deliberate suspension of any querying of what is right or wrong. It relies instead on subtle distinctions between what the law may accept for public behaviour in upholding public decency, and what can be tolerated in private when the curtains are closed. Most of us are probably quietly grateful for such small mercies. As the postwar consensus has crumbled, however, the search for more or less coherent value-systems has become rather more fevered. On a personal level some people have moved promiscuously through drugs and alternative lifestyles to health fads and religion; a number seek to be born again. Perhaps most of us just share a vague feeling that things are not quite right. On the level of politics, various fundamentalisms, on Left and Right, have burst fort h, each articulating their own truth, whether it be about the perils of pornography, the wrongs done to animals, the rights and wrongs of this or that religion, or the marvels of the market economy.   There is a new climate where values matter, and politicians, willy-nilly, are being drawn into the debate. Speaking of values, as the philosopher Paul Feyerabend has said, is a roundabout way of describing the kind of life one wants to lead or thinks one wants to lead. 1 Mrs Thatcher has been clearer about the sort of life she wants us to lead than any other recent political leader. She does not trust her bishops, so the values of the corner-shop and the cautious housewife have expanded inexorably into the culture of enterprise and the spiritual significance of capitalism. From her paean to Victorian values in the run-up to the 1983 General Election to her address to the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland in May 1988, Mrs Thatchers moral outlook has had, in Jonathan Rabans phrase, a peculiar integrity. 2 Questions of value have traditionally been more central to socialist debates than to conservatism but during the 1970s and early 1980s the nervous collapse of the Left allowed little room for such niceties. Recently, there have been welcome signs of a revival of concern with basic values. The Labour Partys 1988 statement, Democratic Socialist Aims and Values, intended to frame the partys policy review, may have been too bland for many peoples taste (The true purpose of democratic socialism is the creation of a genuinely free society) but it was the first time since 1917 that the Party had attempted to define its purposes, and in a recognizable philosophical tradition (essentially the rights based liberalism of the American philosopher, John Rawls). At the same time the Party seems to be attempting to resurrect the half-buried collectivist traditions of the British population. The lyrical Kinnock election broadcast in 1987 subliminally told us of the importance of rootedness and be longing as the basis for political advance. The Labour Partys poster campaign early in 1989 The Labour Party. Our party similarly articulated a sense of shared values, of communal spirit, lying latent in the collective unconscious. In part, of course, these Labour Party innovations illustrate the wizardry of ad-agency skills, but it is not too fanciful to see them as a reflection of broader tendencies towards reasserting universal humanistic values, which transcend conventional political divisions. In their different ways, President Gorbachev and green politics have made an impact because of their expression of a human solidarity underlying the divisions of the world. Gorbachevs address to the United Nations in 1988 turned on a call to respect universal human values, and looked forward to an ending of the arbitrary divisions between peoples. Green philosophy calls on the same sense of our common destiny and interdependence, as human beings and as fellow inhabitants of spaceship ea rth, and in doing so claims to displace traditional divisions between Left and Right. It is impossible to underestimate the power of these various (and perhaps sometimes contradictory) appeals to human solidarity after a decade dominated by an ethic of human selfishness. We are reminded that what we have in common as human beings is more important than what divides us as individuals or members of other collectivities. Difference Nevertheless there are difficulties for the Left in an all-embracing humanism. As a philosophical position it may be a good starting point, but it does not readily tell us how to deal with difference. As President Gorbachev could bitterly affirm, it is difference economic, national, linguistic, ethnic, religious and the conflicting identities and demands that diversity gives rise to, that poses a major threat to perestroika, and to human solidarity. If ever-growing social complexity, cultural diversity and a proliferation of identities are indeed a mark of the postmodern world, then all the appeals to our common interest as humans will be as naught unless we can at the same time learn to live with difference. This should be the crux of modern debates over values. In confronting the challenge of social and moral diversity, the responses of Left and Right are significantly different. The Right has a coherent, if in the long run untenable, view of the moral economy. At its most extrem e, expressed in Mrs Thatchers dictum that there is no such thing as society, only individuals and their families, difference becomes merely a matter of individual quirks or pathologies. Social goods are products of individual wills or desires, mediated by family responsibilities. In the economic sphere, this leads to a privileging of individual choice, the essence as Mrs Thatcher put it during the 1987 election campaign of morality. Rut moral choice, in turn, particularly with regard to issues such as sexuality, is limited by the commitment to a traditional concept of domestic obligation, in and through the family. The Left, on the other hand, is heir to a strong sense of collective identities, of powerful inherited solidarities derived from class and work communities, and of different social constituencies, however inadequately in the past it has been able to deal with them. Multi-culturalism, as it was articulated from the 1960s in the legislation on racial equality, embodied a notion of different communities evolving gradually into a harmonious society where difference was both acknowledged and irrelevant. In rather less hopeful times, the commitment to the co-existence of different value-systems is implied in the statement on Democratic Socialist Aims and Values: Socialists rejoice in human diversity. But the Left has been less confident and sure-footed when faced by the reality of difference. When the Livingstone-led Greater London Council attempted to let a hundred flowers bloom at County Hall in pursuit of a new majority of minorities, the response of the Labour Party establishment varied from the sceptical to the horrified. Nor should we be entirely surprised at that: despite its political daring, and commendable commitment to those hitherto excluded from the political mainstream, it was difficult to detect behind the GLC policy anything more coherent than the belief that grass-roots activity and difference in itself were prime goods. Empowerment, yes; but whom should the Left empower? The Salman Rushdie crisis has dramatised the absence of any clear-cut philosophy on the Left. The Rushdie affair is important for socialists not simply because it concerns the fate of an individual (and an individual of the Left at that) but because it underscores in the most painful way the dil emmas of diversity. At its simplest we have an apparent conflict of absolutes: the right of an author to freedom of speech, to challenge whomsoever he wishes in a democratic society, set against the claims of a distinctive moral community not to have its fundamental religious beliefs attacked and undermined. Rut of course the real divisions are more complex and profound. The Left has not on the whole been willing to endorse an absolute right of free speech. On the contrary it has supported campaigns against racist and sexist literature, whilst a strong minority has supported the banning of pornography.   On the other side, the Muslim communities at the centre of the crisis are themselves not monolithic, bisected as they inevitably are by antagonisms of class and gender, and by political conflicts. At the same time the issues raised do not exist only in a meta-realm of principle: they work their way through the murky world of politics, in this case the complexities of international politics as well as the ward by ward, constituency by constituency problems of Labour politicians. Nevertheless, there is a central question at the heart of the Rushdie affair, and it concerns the possibilities and limits of pluralism in a complex society. Lets take as an example the question of religious education in schools: the government by insisting under the 1988 Education Reform Act that there should be a daily act of Christian worship in maintained schools is in effect asserting the centrality of the Christian tradition to, in Mrs Thatchers words, our national heritage For centuries it has been our very life-blood. People with other faiths and cultures are always, of course, welcome in our land, but their beliefs can only, by implication, ever hope to have a secondary position in relation to ours. Labour, however, accepts a less monolithic view of our religious past and present. As a result it seems prepared to support the principle of state-funding of separate fundamentalist Muslim schools. There is a certain multi-cultural rationale in this: if Anglican, Jewish and Roman Catholic schools are supported by the state, there seems no logic in not supporting the schools of other faiths as well. But schools transmit cultural values, some of which in the case of fundamentalists run counter to oft-declared values of the Left. In this case, the schools will be based on a principle of sex-segregation which elsewhere Labour opposes. As a letter to the Guardian from Southall Black Sisters put it, the Labour Party is prepared to abandon the principle of equality where black women are concerned. Instead, they deliver us into the hands of male, conservative and religious forces within our communities, who deny us our right to live as we please.5 This underlines the danger of seeing communi ties as unified wholes, rather than as the locus of debate and divisions. Not surprisingly, the multi-culturalist values of the Labour Party seem as likely to cause confusion, conflict and distrust as the explicitly mono-culturalist views of the Right. It is ironically appropriate that these dilemmas should have been brought to the surface by the publication of, and reaction to, Rushdies The Satanic Verses. Not only was the book written by an immigrant and about immigrants, but the book itself, as Malise Ruthven argued on its publication, is about changing identities, about the transformations of identities that affect migrants who leave the familiar reference points of their homeland and find themselves in a place where the rules are different, and all the markers have been changed. This is not simply the experience of the migrant: the sense of dislocation and disorientation, of the rules of the game subtly changing, of the co-existence within us of conflicting needs, desires and i dentities, is becoming a major cultural experience for us all. Choice The basic issue can be stated quite simply: by what criteria can we choose between the conflicting claims of different loyalties? To ask the question immediately underlines the poverty of our thinking about this. Can the rights of a group obliterate the rights of an individual? Should the morality of one sector of the population be allowed to limit the freedom of other citizens. To what extent should one particular definition of the good and the just prevail over others? These are ancient questions, but the alarming fact is that the Left lacks a common language for addressing them, let alone resolving them. There have been two characteristic approaches on the Left in confronting these dilemmas. Firstly, there is the discourse of rights, probably still the most potent mobilising force in the worlds of politics and morality. In the United States the protection of individual rights is enshrined in the constitution, and the claim to group rights has become the basis of many of the transf orming currents of recent American politics, from the civil rights and black power movements to the womens movement and lesbian and gay liberation. Elsewhere in the West, a rights-based politics is similarly enshrined in written constitutions, bills of rights, constitutional courts, and so on. In Britain, the tradition is enfeebled. Individual rights, though much bandied around in the political rough and tumble, are not entrenched in a constitutional settlement, and the concept of group rights barely exists. Rights are, however, clearly back on the agenda of the Left: the response to the launch of Charter 88, with its appeal for a new constitutional settlement, with government subordinate to the law and basic rights guaranteed, suggests there is a strongly felt need for a codification and protection of fundamental rights. Unfortunately, the claim to right, however well established at a constitutional level, does not help when rights are seen to be in conflict. To take the issue of a bortion (yet again the focus of moral debate in America and Britain), here the conflict is between two violently conflicting claims to right: the rights of the unborn child against the rights of a woman to control her own body. In these stark terms the conflict is unresolvable, because two value-systems tug in quite different directions. The problem is that rights do not spring fully armed from nature. They cannot find a justification simply because they are claimed. Rights are products of human association, social organisation, traditions of struggle, and historical definitions of needs and obligations: whatever their claims to universality, they are limited by the philosophical system to which they belong, and the social and political context in which they are asserted. This is not to deny the importance of rights-based arguments. But if we are to take rights seriously we must begin to articulate the sort of rights and the type of political culture we want. This is the starting point for the second major approach to the dilemma of choice, the politics of emancipation. In his essay On the Jewish Question in the 1840s Marx counterposed to the morality of Rights a morality of emancipation, and even more powerfully than the claim to rights this has proved a potent mobilising force.8 It offers a vision of a totally free society, where everyones potentiality is fully realised, and a powerful analysis of the constraints on the realisation of human emancipation. At its heart is a denial that want, division, selfishness and conflict are essential parts of human nature. True human nature, it claims, can flourish in a truly emancipated society. Most of us who are socialist must have been inspired by this vision. As a politics of liberation it shaped the rhetoric of the social movements that emerged in the 1960s. It is still latent in the hungerfor utopia and for the transcendence of difference that shades our politics. The difficulty is that the p ractice has rarely kept up with the vision, particularly in the history of Marxism. The Marxist tradition has been reluctant to define the nature of the emancipated society, and has been noticeably blind to questions of nationalism, ethnicity, gender and sexuality. Nor do the experiences of the soi disant socialist countries offer much confidence in the attainability of emancipation in the terms offered by the tradition so far. We must not confuse a noble goal with the sordid practices of particular regimes, but we need to ponder whether the very project of human emancipation as conventionally set forth is not itself the fundamental problem. The glorious goal has all too often justified dubious means, whilst the absence of any detailed exposition of the meaning of emancipation has left us floundering when faced by the reality of conflicting claims to right and justice.