Monday, May 25, 2020

The Religious Motivations of Christopher Marlowes Dr...

The Religious Motivations of Christopher Marlowes Dr Faustus Dr Faustus is a short play written by Christopher Marlowe. The play is a masterful insight into the paradoxical soul of mankind and its ironically self inflicted corruption. The play could be classified as a theological allegory. It can be assumed that the play specifically speaks to the religious motivations of the time, but can be adapted to the present as well. Marlowe portrays Faustus’ ambition as dangerous; it was the cause of his demise. Perhaps Marlowe used the theme of over-ambition as a warning to the audience, who would be likely to be wary of ambition - it was looked down on as a negative personality trait in Christian England (Calvinism) (Munteanu, Class notes).†¦show more content†¦Here we are told of the life of an ordinary man, born to modest people. This piece tells us that in the new age of the Renaissance, a common-born scholar like Faustus, is as important as any king or warrior, and his story is worthy of being told. Also state is that Dr Faustusâ €™s swelling pride will lead to his downfall. Here we are addressed with a precursor of what is about to happen and how it is to be facilitated, again by one mans desire to destroy himself in respect to Godliness. In act one, Marlowe portrays Faustus as being over-ambitious by his turning to magic, which is a much more sinister and much less conventional pursuit than others that he had been discussing previously. Faustus hopes that magic will make him omnipotent and god-like. Through out the next few acts we see Dr Faustus disregard the teachings against the seven deadly sins with his trickery and debauchery. The great doctor Faustus has the seven deadly sins entrenched in his life and they are displayed by his various actions during the play. The first deadly sin was that of pride. Dr Faustus saw himself as in comparison to others in a competitive nature. Pride and vanity are competitive. This was done in Act One when he sits there and tells the audience of his accomplishments and wishes for more glory. The second is covetousness, it is manifested in the play through various actions. Faustus demonstrates this in various scenes, when he evokes

Thursday, May 14, 2020

Bounty Land Warrants From 1775 to 1885

Bounty land warrants were grants of free land issued to veterans in return for military service from the time of the  Ã¢â‚¬â€¹Ã¢â‚¬â€¹Revolutionary War through 1855 in the United States. They contained the surrendered warrant, a letter of assignment if the warrant was transferred to another individual, and other papers pertaining to the transaction. What Are Bounty Land Warrants in Detail Bounty land is a grant of free land from a government given to citizens as a reward for service to their country, generally for military-related service. Most bounty-land warrants in the United States were given to veterans or their survivors for wartime military service performed between 1775 and 3 March 1855. This includes veterans who served in the American Revolution, the War of 1812 and the  Ã¢â‚¬â€¹Mexican War. Bounty land warrants werent automatically issued to every veteran who served. The veteran first had to apply for a warrant and then, if the warrant was granted, he could use the warrant to apply for a land patent. The land patent is the document which granted him ownership of the land. Bounty land warrants could also be transferred or sold to other individuals.   They were also used as a way to provide evidence of military service, especially in cases where a veteran or his widow did not apply for a pension How They Were Awarded Revolutionary War bounty land warrants were first awarded through an  act of Congress on 16 September 1776. They were last awarded for military service in 1858, although the ability to claim bounty land previously earned extended until 1863. A few claims that were tied up in the courts caused lands to be granted as late as 1912. What You Can Learn From Bounty Land Warrants A bounty land warrant application for a veteran of the Revolutionary War, War of 1812 or the Mexican War will include the individuals rank, military unit and period of service. It will also generally provide his age and place of residence at the time of application. If the application was made by the surviving widow, it will usually include her age, place of residence, the date and place of marriage, and her maiden name. Accessing Bounty Land Warrants Federal bounty land warrants are kept at the National Archives in Washington D.C. and can be requested through the mail on NATF Form 85 (Military Pension/Bounty Land Warrant Applications) or ordered online.

Wednesday, May 6, 2020

Essay about Freedom - 917 Words

Freedom â€Å"Freedom is never more than one generation from extinction.† These are the words of Ronald Reagan, former President of the United States of America, speaking on the topic of freedom, a subject he frequently dealt with during his long presidency. Over the years, freedom in the U.S. has become an increasingly controversial topic, and the effectiveness of the government in affording these freedoms has been called into question. Through certain historical documents and events, the government’s effectiveness at ensuring freedoms for all can be confirmed. The occurrences of several major events in the history of America eventually gave all blacks equal rights and fostered a culture of change in American society. The Emancipation†¦show more content†¦Additionally, approximately a century later, bigotry received its final, most important, blow when the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was passed. The act was one of the most important pieces of legislation in Ameri can history, outlawing discrimination of not only blacks, but women, in terms of voting, public education, and workplaces. The passing of this act was a catalyst for social reform, and racial and sexual acceptance. Although delayed and incredibly late, Lincoln and the United States government eventually granted and ensured all American citizens the same freedoms that still exist in the country today. A prime example of the freedom afforded to citizens can be seen through the exploits of the immensely controversial Westboro Baptist Church. The church, according to the Anti-Defamation League, is a â€Å"small virulently homophobic, anti-Semitic hate group that regularly stages protests around the country† (Extremism in America 1). According to Bill Mears with CNN, the church, which has long been a source of controversy, was recently sued for inflicting emotional distress upon a family as a result of protesting at the funeral of a dead marine. However, despite a powerful stateme nt by Chief Justice John Roberts in which he claimed that â€Å"speech is powerful† and that it can â€Å"inflict great pain,† he also said that â€Å"we cannot react to that pain by punishing the speaker† (Mears 1).Show MoreRelatedFreedom Of Exercise And Freedom975 Words   |  4 PagesFreedom of Exercise One of the key principles the United States of America was founded upon was the idea that religious freedom was an inalienable right. Many who sailed to new world were pilgrims who believed the land was a promised land, sacred. They also believed the new world would allow them to escape religious persecution. When the Constitution was developed in 1787, the First Amendment addressed the relationship between the government and religion stating, â€Å"Congress shall make no law respectingRead MoreThe Bill Of Rights And Freedom Of Freedom1470 Words   |  6 PagesThe freedom of religion and expression:the freedom of the press, the right to assemble to protest and petition the government. To me the First Amendment means that you have the right to freedom of expression and be allowed to express who you are without being judged. This amendment was added to The Bill of Rights and it’s for people to have freedoms in the U.S. This Amendment is important because if not there would ha ve been many angry people in the U.S because they wouldn’t have any freedom to doRead MoreFreedom Is The Highest Point Of Freedom1880 Words   |  8 PagesFreedom has its different demographics and views it can perceived into in which I don’t think it can ever justify to a deserved definition. 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Many nations today believe that very strict and regulated system of governing the media and entertainment is the best answer, such as China, where â€Å"censorship was considered a legitimate instrument for regulating the moralRead MoreThe Bill Of Rights And Freedom Of Freedom1470 Words   |  6 PagesThe freedom of religion and expression:the freedom of the press, the right to assemble to protest and petition the government. To me the First Amendment means that you have the right to freedom of expression and be allowed to express who you are without being judged. This amendment was added to The Bill of Rights and it’s for people to have freedoms in the U.S. This Amendment is important because if not there would have been many angry people in the U.S because they wouldn’t have any freedom to doRead MoreFreedom of Speech and Freedom of the Press in Nigeria972 Words   |  4 Pagesconsists of 36 states and its Federal Capital, Abuja. 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Yet, people are in a process to improve democratic society which is not a finished produ ct, and freedom in all its forms improves itself over time. I am going to explainRead MoreAcademic Freedom1508 Words   |  7 PagesAcademic freedom in Kenya Freedom is a basic to education in modern democracies. Freedom in education can be categorized in the various aspects such as; Freedom of the child, academic freedom and freedom to read. Mc’Garry and Ward, (1966) puts it: A free society and a free world imply a free educational system and a freedom within the framework of maximum control. In such a closed society they maintained, freedom in education may consist of ability to say or do in consequential things. The legalRead MoreEssay on Freedom1303 Words   |  6 PagesFreedom remains the sole basis for American society as we know it. Without freedom the great nation of America would have never been founded. To understand the true principles of freedom, one must understand the scope of the word. Philosophical freedom encompasses the ability to make choices without restraints, while political freedom is the state of being free rather than in physical confinement. Despite the importance of these ideas to our founding father s, freedom has lost much of its importanceRead MoreThe Freedom Of Speech703 Words   |  3 Pagescountry. Part of living in the U.S.A. is having the freedom to protest and not being stripped of that right because someone doesnt think its the appropriate time. In 2016, football player, Colin Kaepernick, decided to stand up for his beliefs and not stand for the national anthem. At the beginning he only sat down and nobody noticed, but on his third try, he kneeled. Soon after that he was released from his contract for utilizing his freedom of speech. Before being released, Kaepernick spoke out

Tuesday, May 5, 2020

Audit and Non Audit Services

Question: Describe about audit and non audit services? Answer: Introduction Non-Audit Services (NAS) provided by an auditor has remained a long standing debate. The services other than audit that is provided by an audit firm to their audit client have always been a hotly debated auditor independence issue. It has been reported that providing NAS results in creating an economic bond between the audit firm and their audit client which can lead to impairment of the auditors independence, thus, leading to poor audit quality. Various research reports had in the past shown that NAS does not leads to lower audit quality and found no evidence that providing NAS by the audit firm to their audit client can result in lower financial reporting quality. But recent study and research reports have shown that NAS does results in lowering the audit quality by impairing the independence of the auditor. Auditor independence can suffer due to the fact that potential NAS revenue can lead to leniency by the auditor in conducting the audit, thus, impairing the independence of the auditor (Houghton et al., 2010). The topic has been in debate for many decades with arguments been made from allowing the auditor to provide NAS to calling for a ban on NAS provided by the auditor to their clients. With the businesses growing the demand for NAS has been growing substantially with many audit firms providing more NAS than Audit Services, thus, complete ban or removal of the NAS would have a very negative impact on the pricing and cost structures of both NAS and Audit Services for both Audit Firm and its Audit Client. As it is a very sensitive and hotly debated issue at a same time, many institutes around the world who govern the provisions of audit and issue audit frameworks and standards in their respective countries have issued various guidelines on this issue. But still many problems are cropping up as these guidelines dont seem enough (Abou-Seada, and Hussey, 1996). Audit Independence Independence means that the judgement of a person is not subordinate to wishes of another person. It requires that he should not act under the influence of some other person or body and his opinion is not biased. Thus, he can work in a completely unbiased manner. Thus, it is required for the auditor to be independent in his opinions and judgements so that the quality of financial reporting is high so as to bring out a true and fair view of the financial statements reported as on a particular date. If auditor maintains a high degree of independence, credibility of financial statements is enhanced (Keane, 2014). Independent audit report will be accepted and respected by all stakeholders of the business. Thus, independence of the auditor is the key to achieving satisfactory financial reporting. Advantages of independent audit for various stakeholders are as follows: For management They can control and judge reasons of losses and ensure the general reliability of accounting systems. For employee it discourages them from committing frauds as it acts as a moral check on them. They can also judge the reasonableness of payments w.r.t salary, bonus etc. For lenders Bankers can rely on the audited financial statements while assessing the creditworthiness of loan applicants. For computing taxes Audited financial statements help in determining income tax. Also helpful to compute excise duty, sales tax etc. For owners They get a real picture of profit and losses earned. The share in profits and share valuations can also be known. For investors The prospective investors use these statements to assess the dividend, growth possibilities to make decisions whether they should invest or not. For insurer In the case of losses or damages to property, it helps the insurer to settle the claims. For arbitration In the case of disputes, these audited financial statements help in settling claims (Hae-Young, 2014). Prohibited Relations Audit regulatory bodies around the world have prohibited certain relations between the audit firms and the companies in which audit is conducted by them. These include the following relationships: Employment Relations - Companies cannot hire their auditors as employees when they are working as their Even when these auditors resign and discontinue as their auditor, the companies cannot legally hire them as employees until a certain cooling off period ceases. The same requirement is in place even for the employees of the auditor of the company, the person cannot be employed in the company until the cooling off period ceases. Contingent Fees Auditors cannot be hired on a commission basis or a system where the auditors remuneration would be on a basis of contingent fees. Business Relations Auditors cannot have a business relation with the company, its employees, its officers, significant shareholders or the directors. The relation cannot be direct or even indirect. Thus, the audit committee must check and identify such prohibited relationships. Certain Financial Relations There are certain types of financial relationships that are prohibited between the audit firm and the client company. These types of relations are debtor and creditor, broker and dealer, banking, lender, etc. These relations specify the importance of the auditor to be independent, thus, specifying the importance of the independence of the auditor (Krauy, 2003). Non-Audit Services Growth in businesses and emergence of larger professional firms has led to growing demands for specialist and technical advice by these business houses to achieve their business objectives and to achieve an advantage over the rivals in an increasingly competitive marketplace. Much of this advice is sought from these audit firms because auditors can better understand the dynamic business environment from an external perspective and individual views often shed light on important areas of the conduct of business which an insider sometimes cannot observe. These services provided by the auditor to his audit client are called Non-Audit Services (Doyle, 2012). The auditor provides NAS to its clients falls into three main categories: Services that an Auditor can provide efficiently because of his existing knowledge in that field as these are based on information that is a by-product of the audit Examples are Tax Compliance Services, Reports in acquisitions and mergers, Due Diligence reports, etc. Services that are required by legislation. Example are Regulatory Reports, report on expenditure for grant application purposes, etc. Services which can be provided by many types of professional firms and its incidental that the audit firm has been chosen. Examples are Tax Advisory services, Consultancy services like Human Resource Consultancy, Portfolio Management Consultancy, etc. These services result in the audit firm providing specialist services along with conducting the audit of the client's business. It can happen that the revenue derived by the firm from NAS is more than the revenue derived by conducting an audit. Thus, sometimes auditors independence can be impaired and the auditor may become lenient due to the fact that future NAS work will be given to the audit firm. The expectation of future NAS revenue which might be more than the audit fee itself leads to poor quality of audit and financial reporting quality is damaged. The audit firm and the client can develop an economic bond when a lot of NAS revenue is derived from the client in proportion to the audit revenue. Research has found evidence that high level of NAS revenue resulted in the low quality of the audit. Over the last few years, the proportion of NAS fees paid by the business houses against the Audit fees has been steadily rising which has resulted in turning the audit firms into multidi sciplinary professional services firm. Thus, NAS has resulted in concerns over the auditors independence (Chai, and Jubb, 2000). Whenever a company fails question marks are raised about the quality of audit conducted of its financial statements reported, the auditors independence is also put into question. The Enron scandal showcased how the auditor must be independent enough. Enrons auditor had received total audit fees amounting to 25 million dollars while the fees for NAS provided were 27 million dollars. The audit firm should maintain a level till which it can accept NAS and stricter guidelines over these NAS revenues must be implemented. The NAS revenue has boomed which has resulted in an increased ties between the auditor and the client. The audit firms should, therefore, be more cautious in conducting an audit. Some NAS which involves expressing an opinion like Internal Audit, maintaining the books of accounts should be avoided as it may involve direct conflict interest leadi ng to impairing the independence of auditor (Malek, and Saidin, 2013). Relations between NAS Revenue and Total Earnings There were almost no studies related to NAS Fees and Earnings of the firm to depict any relation between qualities of an audit conducted by the firms to the NAS performed for the business houses. But recently studies have been conducted to show the NAS impacts upon the attributes of total earnings. NAS fees disclosures by the firms have resulted in studies that link NAS fee to client importance. Client Importance is measured as the fees received from a client divided by the total revenue of the firm and the ratio of clients NAS fees to the total revenue of the firm. These findings have shown that when huge revenue is received from NAS then the audit firm may become a little impaired towards the audit client. The proportion of the NAS fees paid by companies in U.K. was more than the Audit fees than the USA based companies (Antle, et al., 2014). The ethical code specifies that a firm should not accept an audit appointment from a client company which provides an unduly large proportion of NAS fees. It has also been advised that a firm should not conduct an audit if a single company provides audit fees that are unduly large in the proportion of the firms gross revenue so that ethical practices are maintained. Shareholders of the company should also be able to assess the ratio of NAS provided by the companys auditor to the audit work conducted by the firm. The net impact resulted from an increase of the NAS fees is that auditor may neglect his duties towards performing the audit and becomes more inclined to perform NAS (Son and Chen, 2005). Joint Provision of Audit Fees and Pricing of Non-Audit Services It has been often noticed that the companies generally engage their auditors to perform related services in finance, tax compliance, advisory and other services even though many other professional firms do exist to provide these services. The reason for the same is that both the auditor and the client company are interested in providing for services related to audit due to economies of scope (Adelopo, 2012). Economies of scope are referred to the cost savings achieved when the same firm or person provides more than one services. The cost of these joint services is lesser when compared with the total cost of audit and NAS from different firms. Joint provision reduces the cost of both ensuring contractual performance and cost of locating a quality consultant. Many companies, thus, nowadays increasingly engage a multi-disciplinary firm to conduct its audit and perform other services as well. The increased competition between audit firms has also led to firms charging their clients lesse r if its services are taken on the basis of bundles and both audit as well as NAS is conducted by the audit firm (Abou-Seada, and Hussey, 1996). But when audit firms conduct both the audit work and NAS then the effort towards the audit may reduce and the firm may become lenient in conducting the audit of the client. The expectation of future NAS work also makes the auditor impaired resulting in poor quality of the audit. Joint Service Provision and Audit Opinion The studies have been conducted to judge whether the audit conducted, audit opinion made by the audit firm and NAS provided by the audit firm are interrelated. Though the studies have not found any significant data to show that level of NAS performed and the audit opinion made by the auditor are interrelated but the auditors can give an incorrect opinion when the expectation of future NAS work received and future NAS fees received is also taken into consideration. The expectation of future NAS work might impair an auditor and an Unqualified Opinion may be granted by the auditor even though the company deserved a Qualified Opinion. Thus, auditors might grant the best opinion to the clients from whom the NAS fees is high and from whom future NAS engagement is also expected resulting in a disparity and poor quality reporting of financial statements. When the fees received by the firm for conducting an audit is lesser in proportion to fees received from the same client for conducting rel ated works and providing NAS then also the auditor may make an opinion better than the opinion deserved by the client (Arrunada, 1999). The auditor should, thus, not accept NAS work from a client if the NAS work increases than audit work to be conducted or he/she should not accept the audit work from the client which provides a substantially large amount of fees for the NAS performed. Conclusion It has proved to be very difficult to provide for evidence related to the impairment of audit when Non-Audit Services are also provided to the client company by the audit firm. This is because of the fact that this evidence is deeply embedded in the organisation and the system as a whole is such that both the audit firm and client company are too happy to complain about it. Even if the auditor becomes lenient in conducting the audit, the client company wont complain as it gains by cost saving and the auditor wont complain because it can gain a considerable amount of revenue from the same company. The system also helps in developing a very trusted relation between the auditor and the company officials, thus, both dont complain about this system. It has been seen that there is an increase in a NAS work performed when a considerable time has elapsed between the engagement of the audit firm and the client company. Thus, it is advisable to make laws strict enough that control the conduct of an audit and the NAS performed for the same client by the auditor. The audit governing bodies around the world are trying to make sure that no impairment occurs due to NAS work assigned to the audit firm. Thus, the institutes should either put a complete ban on these NAS or should make guidelines bring down the NAS to be performed below a certain level. To control the audit failures some hard step should be taken by the governing bodies so that the proper audit is conducted according to all guidelines issued by these governing bodies and the correct opinion is made by the audit firms on which all stakeholders can be proud off (Steinhoff, 2002). Thus, even the expectation of future Non-Audit services to be performed for the company cannot cause the quality of audit to be conducted to be poor. Auditors have a lot of responsibility when conducting an audit, preparing reports and making an opinion which should be respected by them as on the basis of their audited statements many impo rtant financial decisions are made. References Abou-Seada, M. and Hussey, R. (1996). The use of evidence in establishing audit opinion. Bristol: Bristol Business School, the University of the West of England. Adelopo, I. (2012). Auditor independence. Burlington, VT: Gower Pub. Antle, R., Gordon, E., Narayanamoorthy, G. and Zhou, L. (2014). The Joint Determination of Audit Fees, Non-Audit Fees, and Abnormal Accruals. SSRN Electronic Journal. Arrunada, B. (1999). The economics of audit quality. Boston: Kluwer Academic Publishers. Baker, H. Filbeck, G., 2015. Investment Risk Management. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Chai, S. and Jubb, C. (2000). Audit and non-audit service provision. Parkville, Vic.: University of Melbourne, Dept. of Accounting. Deloitte, 2013. Conceptual framework Presentation and disclosure; elements of financial statements; capital maintenance (IASB only). [Online] Available at: https://www.iasplus.com/en/meeting-notes/iasb/2013/march/cf-2 [Accessed 8 10 2015]. Doyle, J. (2012). Audit opinions are important. [Victoria, B.C.]: Office of the Auditor General of British Columbia. Hae-Young, B. (2014). A Study on Audit Fees, Audit Hours, and Corporate Governance Practices. The journal of international trade and commerce, 10(6), pp.103-123. Houghton, K., Jubb, C., Kend, M. and Ng, J. (2010). The Future of audit. Acton, A.C.T.: ANU E Press. Keane, M. (2014). ABNORMAL AUDIT FEES, NON-AUDIT FEES AND AUDITOR-CLIENT RETENTION DECISIONS. IJBR, 14(3), pp.181-190. Krauay, P. (2013). Audit services, non-audit services, and audit firm tenure. [S.l.: s.n.]. Lennox, C. and Park, C. (2007). Audit Firm Appointments, Audit Firm Alumni, and Audit Committee Independence. Contemporary Accounting Research, 24(1), pp.235-258. Malek, M. and Saidin, S. (2013). Audit Services Fee, Non-Audit Services and the Reliability of Earnings. International Journal of Trade, Economics and Finance, pp.259-264. Son, M. and Chen, K. (2005). Do non-audit services influence audit quality?. Steinhoff, J. (2002). Auditor independence. [Washington, D.C.]: U.S. General Accounting Office, Financial Management and Assurance. Schofield, N., 2011. Commodity Derivatives: Markets and Applications. Hoboken, New Jersey: John Wiley Sons. Zaman, M., Hudaib, M. and Haniffa, R. (2011). Corporate Governance Quality, Audit Fees and Non-Audit Services Fees. Journal of Business Finance Accounting, 38(1-2), pp.165-197.