Pompey :: essays research papers

Question: Account for Pompey’s ascend to political unmistakable quality between 78-62 BC. You are to look at and investigate political ruses of Pompey and endeavor to disclose how he figured out how to satisfy his desire. You should build up an away from of the complexities of the political circumstance and the impacts of the Civil War. Gnaeus Pompeius Crassus, otherwise called Pompey, or Pompey the Great, was conceived on September the twentieth, 106 BC. Pompey was a Roman general and legislator, the recent partner of Julius Caesar, yet later his most despised opponent for power. Pompey was conceived in Rome into a senatorial family, and built up a great military record. He stopped the Servile War incited by the slave Spartacus; freed the Mediterranean Sea from privateers; vanquished the realms of Pontus, Armenia and Syria; and caught Jerusalem in 61 BC. He entered Rome in triumph, yet experienced restriction from the Senate. Pompey at that point shaped a collusion, generally called the First Triumvirate, with Julius Caesar and Marcus Licinius Crassus. The profession of Pompeius opened in extortion and savagery. It was impelled, in war and harmony, through wrongdoing and bad form. Pompey was an incredible general, however a terrible government official. Pompey assisted with closure the slave revolt of Spartacus in 72 BC. Due to his authority capacities, Pompey was chosen delegate in 70 BC. Be that as it may, he ran into resistance in the senate, particularly from Marcus Crassus, and came back to driving the military to more successes. Pompey was a go getter, he worked without anyone else, at the same time driving the senate to imagine that he was working with them. He controlled the senate to make out that Caesar was hazardous. Pompey turned into the most influential man in Rome. During the hour of his political conspicuousness, the senate was frail. In view of Pompeys ubiquity with the general population and his military capacity, alongside his advantage, he rose to this political unmistakable quality by his political maneuvers. The Civil War between Gnaeus Marius and Lucius Sulla was a central point that affected his political circumstance. Pompey was a youthful, sure man who had a propensity to flaunt the greatness of his clientela, to publicize rulers and countries bound to his own devotion. (Advertisement fam. 9, 9, 2: ‘regum air conditioning nationum clientelis quas oestentare crebro solebat). Pompey had from Thrance to the Causasus and down to Egypt recognizing his power. The love of intensity, gave recognition to Pompey as a divine being, a guardian angel and a sponsor, formulating after a short time a novel title, ‘the superintendent of earth and sea’.

Never say Never :: essays research papers

A Jury of Her Peers "A Jury of Her Peers" is a story rigid with brutality. At no time do we see blood; there is no shouting; there are no cadavers; there are none of the trappings our Gothic minds have generally expected. But in this unattractive little anecdote about sewing and canning and pet canaries, the mental pressure is practically horrendous - and a significant part of the strain spins around sexual orientation explicit methods of seeing the world. The story concerns a rancher, John Wright, who is discovered choked in his bed; his significant other is captured for the homicide. The story⠡â ¯s activity starts the next day, when the sheriff, the region lawyer, the sheriff⠡â ¯s spouse, and a neighbor couple come back to the Wrights⠡â ¯ house. The ladies are there to select some garments for the charged spouse to wear in jail; the men, to look at over the wrongdoing scene. In spite of the fact that the story⠡â ¯s reason for existing is to enter the thought process in Mrs. Wright⠡â ¯s murder of her significant other, the sheriff⠡â ¯s spouse, Mrs. Subsides, and the neighbor Mrs. Solidness possess the all important focal point - and it is actually their story. Sheriff Peters and Mr. Solidness meander in and out, for the most part going through as they move from one piece of the house to the next, remarking about the sloppy housekeeping and the general demeanor of somberness. From the start plainly the ladies would prefer not to be here, either; the house is excessively cold excessively still, and what occurred here the day preceding was excessively dreadful. The ladies feel protective in this house, somewhat on account of the belittling way the men allude to the little subtleties of Mrs. Wright⠡â ¯s life. The men chuckle at their wives⠡â ¯ profound respect of Mrs. Wright⠡â ¯s fine sewing on her blanket, and when the ladies express misery over Mrs. Wright⠡â ¯s broken containers of jam, Sheriff Peters discovers this hugely hilarious: "Well, would you be able to beat the ladies! Held for homicide, and stressing over her jam. . . . I surmise before we⠡â ¯re through with her she may have something more genuine than jelly to stress about." "Oh, well," said Mrs. Solidness' better half, with well-intentioned predominance, "women are accustomed to stressing over trifles." In any case, it is accurately these sorts of "trifles" that in the end demonstrate to them that Mrs. Wright killed her better half, and why. It additionally persuades the two ladies to remain quiet about that data, in case it demonstrate implicating to this lady they scarcely know, however whom they feel certain was completely advocated in her demonstration.

Engineering Education in Ghana Free Essays

string(120) is other than extremely essential to thwart high traffic nations in schoolroom structures, for example, squander container countries. 2.2.4 Education Instruction fills in as a motor for monetary becoming through the gradual addition of human capital. We will compose a custom article test on Designing Education in Ghana or on the other hand any comparative theme just for you Request Now Instruction is emphatically connected with boosting degrees of cultural capital ( Campbell, 2006 ) . the demonstration or technique of leaving or geting general cognizance, building up the forces of finishing up and judgment, and all things considered of fixing oneself or others mentally for develop life ( Dictionary.com, 2014 ) . 2.2.5 ENGINEERING Education Designing guidance is the action of learning insight and rules identified with the expert example of innovation. It incorporates the underlying guidance for going an applied researcher and any propelled guidance and specializations that follow. Building guidance is ordinarily joined by additional investigations and directed arrangement as the requests for an expert innovation permit. 2.3 Technology Education IN GHANA OVER THE YEARS Designing guidance in the so Gold Coast goes back to the 1930’s. In August 1931, the Colonial Government mentioned Achimota College in Accra to frame an innovation class to create Africans for senior assignments in the Public Works Department, the railways and along these lines, the mines. The class, which depended on the outer evaluation course of investigation of the University of London, comprised of four and a half mature ages of study at Achimota, trailed by somewhere in the range of three and four mature ages of organized post-graduation handy planning. At first, the class offered at Achimota prompted reviews in electrical, mechanical and common innovation, however with the expansion of exercises in the uncovering area in the Gold Coast, it got important for the School to spread out its group contributions to incorporate exhuming innovation. In noxiousness of the difficulties it encountered, the Achimota Engineering School figured out how to turn out a whole of 25 applie d researchers before the beginning of the Second World War constrained it to shut down. These applied researchers were to play cardinal capacities in the prompt post-autonomy advancement of Ghana furthermore served in other African expresses each piece great as working for universal agencies. With the constitution of the University College of the Gold Coast in Legon, Accra in 1948, college guidance was eliminated of the Achimota College grounds. Tragically, no stipulation was made for the transportation of the innovation classs to the new University College, hence the readiness of applied researchers was hindered somewhere in the range of 1948 and 1952 when a School of Engineering was again settled as part of the new Kumasi College of Technology and the hardware, and some staff of the Achimota Engineering School moved to Kumasi to arrange the karyon of the new school. From 1952 to 1955, the School of Engineering arranged its students for rank of the various Professional Institutions in the United Kingdom. The proper planning of former student applied researchers of arranged specializations started in 1955 specifically relationship with the University of London and understudies were set up to take Partss I, II and III of the University of London Bachelor of Science ( Engineering ) External evaluation investigations. The principal proficient applied researchers created by the Kumasi School of Engineering, who were all considerate applied researchers, graduated with the college of London External B.Sc. ( Eng. ) grade in June 1959. The School of Engineering started to introduce its ain innovation reviews in June 1964. 2.3.1 Technology Education FOR NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT Importance of innovation plans to the requests of industry has some of the time been deciphered as a situation in which the stocks of an innovation plan are to be prepared to be of quick utilization to industry after little or no post-graduation arrangement. Weights, subsequently, be given to be put on African innovation modules to eliminate the substance of the hypothetical aspects of their classs for professional features †power per unit zones which are, in twist, as often as possible savagely opposed by innovation educators. However, innovation designs in African Universities remain to infer immensely when there is dynamic co-activity between innovation teachers and the main buyers of innovation work power dependent on basic respect and away from of the elements of the various partners. It is other than foreseen that the mechanical spread between the created and the immature universe will go considerably more extensive in the twenty-first Century, in this way, doing innovatio n planning much more circumstance explicit. This will plan that Ghana will hold to depend significantly more on her national foundations for the arrangement of the innovation work power pertinent to their advancement requests. It will, subsequently, be essential for the expert affiliations and the readiness foundations in Africa to co-work much more intently in indicating the substance of the innovation course of investigation of the twenty-first Century. 2.4 DESIGNING AN ENGINEERING SCHOOL 2.4.1CONDUSIVE TEACHING Environment To prevent the varying occupations students and lectors face in the schoolroom, it is of import to set into thought the understanding of the schoolroom. Savage 2009 shows that, the physical understanding of schoolrooms plays a prima work in the character characterizing of understudies and goes a long way in bettering the scholarly open introduction of students. On the off chance that a schoolroom is non acceptable structured, it influences the finished result of students, henceforth blocking on the plan for which talks are expected. The examination on schoolroom conditions recommends that schoolrooms ought to be sorted out to suit a combination of exercises all through the twenty-four hours and to run into the teacher’s instructional finishes ( Savage, 1999 ; Weinstein, 1992 ) . The measures for finding what spacial spread out is generally proper to bring through these maps include: approaches to augment the teacher’s capacity to see and be seen by all their students ; ease effortlessness of movement all through the schoolroom ; limit interruptions so understudies are best ready to effectively indict in employees ; flexibly every understudy and the educator with their ain individual unbounded ; and guaranting that every understudy can see introductions and stuffs posted in the schoolroom. Seating understanding in talk corridors are extremely significant since it demonstrates whether there will be cultural trades in the classification is task typically enchanting. It is other than extremely essential to thwart high traffic nations in schoolroom structures, for example, squander bushel nations. You read Building Education in Ghana in class Article models Critically, it is extremely of import that, understudies have an away from of the lector at each point in cut ( Quin et al. , 2000 ) . In making in this way, the lector ought to other than be giving opportunity in his movement through the discussion room or schoolroom. There is a few grounds that it is utile to limit visual and audile incitement that may redirect understudies with joining in and conduct occupations ( Bettenhausen, 1998 ; Cummings, Quinn et al. , 2000 ) . The physical understanding of the schoolroom can work as an incredible setting occasion for providing students solid course and encourage ( or hinder ) positive guidance or learning communications. Similarly as with different aspects of heading, the physical understanding of the schoolroom ought to be agonizing of the assorted social and lingual highlights of the students and be steady with explicit researcher requests. 2.4.2 STAIRWAYS Stairwaies are viewed as associations between at any rate two unique degrees. Vertical risers and flat paces are associated with stairss over a slope. It can other than be characterized as an arrangement of stairss by which individuals and items may experience starting with one level of a building then onto the next. One of the most basic pieces of school traffic configuration is the flight of stairs, which ought to be situated comparable to the comprehensive traffic structure, keeping up in head trouble dissemination, wellbeing, finish of understudies among periods and riddance of cross traffic. The flights of stairs ought to be intended for unsophisticated, quick, and safe movement of male childs and misss. Flights of stairs non only flexibly course to and from grouped floor degrees, yet they are utilized at each period for the opposite flow of understudies modifying classes. It is of import that flights of stairs ought to be intended to ensure that male childs and misss with books under their weaponries may walk one next to the other to keep away from clog ; an expansiveness of 4 pess 8 crawls to 5 pess between handrails is suggested. Stairwaies ought to be of flame resistant structure, removing directly to the from doorss. They ought to be furnished with smoke-control establishments, partitioning the flights of stairs from the halls which they serve. 2.4.3 Corridor A very much planned school has passages that oblige the free and casual movement of students. The limited hallway regularly requires formal, controlled, and administered traffic stream. The dividers of passageways ought to be liberated from all projections. Warmth units, guzzling wellsprings, fire asphyxiators, cupboards, entryways, and show examples ought to be recessed in the association of understudy wellbeing. Acoustic belongingss are alluring to chop down lobby commotion. Halls ought to be acceptable lit, with exigency stipulation in case of boss force disappointment. Floor covering ought to be enduring, nonskid, and simple to keep. The maximal length of whole halls ought to non rise above 150 pess to 200 pess longer developments give an undesirable position. 2.5 FORMAL SPACES 2.5.1 CLASSROOMS Study halls have nearly clear requests: view, great acoustics, and a point of convergence at the forepart of the room helping as the stage for educators to talk. Physical

College Campuses Where Movies Were Filmed

Lights, Camera, Action! Colleges across the country have had the opportunity to play host to Hollywood movie sets. While the University of Southern California and the University of California-Los Angeles are the most frequented campuses because of their proximity to Hollywood studios, many other schools have been used to depict the classic college campus. While most college and university names are fictional, the campuses at which these movies are filmed are real, and sometimes feature actual students as extras! Here’s where some popular movies have been filmed. University of Oregon, Eugene, OR – Animal House (1978) Before Animal House became one of the most well-known and popular college movies of all time, the production team had a hard time finding a college that would allow filming. They approached the University of Oregon and were granted permission to film on campus because the school had previously denied one request to film there before and thought they’d give it a shot this time (that previous film was The Graduate). Greek housing played a major part of filming at Oregon. All the exterior scenes of the Delta house were of the Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity house, which no longer exists, and interior shots were of the neighboring Sigma Nu house. The famous food fight scene was shot at one of the school’s dining halls, known as the â€Å"Fishbowl,† and campus housing, libraries, and academic buildings also make appearances. The University of Oregon is a large public university located near the Pacific Ocean and the Cascade Mountains just two hours outside of Portland. The school has over 260 academic programs and an array of research facilities including the Oregon Institute of Marine Biology and Pine Mountain Observatory. Oregon’s architecture school ranks consistently high, and their program for sustainable design practice and principles is number one in the nation. Berry College, Mt. Berry, GA - Remember the Titans (2000) The Titans’ summer training camp was filmed at Berry College in Georgia. While the movie takes place in Virginia, Berry lent their campus, athletic fields, and women’s dormitory to the film. Many of the Titan football games were also filmed at Berry, as well as at other high schools around Georgia. While Berry has never had a football team, the school’s Board of Trustees voted to institute a football program beginning in Fall 2013. Berry was founded in 1902, and sits on 27,000 acres as the largest contiguous campus in the world. The Georgia Department of Natural Resources oversees 16,000 acres of Berry’s campus, and the school boasts 80 miles of hiking, biking, and horseback riding trails. Lavender Mountain and Berry’s own Victory Lake campground give students a variety of outdoor adventure possibilities. Berry’s Student-Operated Enterprises program and Work Experience program allow students to gain hands on work and business management skills while enrolled in classes. Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, LA - Pitch Perfect (2012) LSU’s most recent Hollywood appearance was in the a cappella hit Pitch Perfect. Many students, especially those already part of the school’s Program for Film and Media Arts, benefitted from this movie being filmed on campus. As production assistants, crew members, and extras, LSU students can spot themselves, and friends, in addition to many campus hotspots, in the movie. The movie was filmed during football season, which caused some logistical problems and made it difficult to hide any school apparel in many scenes. However, this allowed the cast to enjoy Tiger tailgates and games during their time in Baton Rouge. LSU is a large public university located in Louisiana’s capital city. The school’s over 24,000 undergraduate students may participate in its extensive research projects, totaling in more than 800 across various disciplines, through agencies such as the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and the National Endowment for the Humanities. LSU’s football team has won multiple national championships and Tiger Stadium is known as â€Å"death valley† due to the deafening noise-level produced by hundreds of thousands of fans at each game. College of Charleston, Charleston, SC - The Notebook (2004) In this tear jerker, the two main characters, Allie and Noah, have to separate after their summer of love when Allie goes off to college. While in the movie, Allie attends Sarah Lawrence College in New York, the scenes of her on campus were actually filmed at College of Charleston in Charleston, South Carolina. Much of The Notebook was filmed in this stunning southern city. Boone Hall Plantation serves as Allie’s summer home, scenes of Allie and Noah walking in town were filmed on King’s Street, and the house Noah rebuilds is actually Martins Point Plantation on Wadmalaw Island. College of Charleston is one of the oldest colleges in the United States and was founded in 1770 by many future signers of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. Today, this public university maintains strong ties with its liberal arts foundation, emphasizing core courses in languages, history, science, literature, and the arts. The School of the Arts houses one of the country’s only arts management programs, as well as a prominent program in historic preservation and community planning, and the School of Languages, Cultures, and World Affairs offers extensive language concentrations. Wellesley College, Wellesley, MA - Mona Lisa Smile (2003) Set at the all-female college in the 1950s, Mona Lisa Smile was able to complete much of its filming on Wellesley’s campus. Large casting calls allowed many Wellesley students to portray their predecessors in the film, and popular campus traditions such as hoop rolling, were depicted in the film to pay homage to the school’s rich history. While many alumni of the school who graduated in the early 1950s claimed the film did not depict enough of the school’s progressive history, they did say the filmmakers captured the tradition, beauty, and sophistication of Wellesley’s campus that remains today. Wellesley was founded as a part of the â€Å"Seven Sisters Colleges† to parallel the then all-male Ivy League. Located just west of Boston, Wellesley partners on research projects and has cross-registration programs with many other Boston-area schools including Harvard, MIT, and Brandeis. With a small student body of just under 2,500, high importance is placed on campus tradition and community with 98% of students living on-campus. College campuses provide an often scenic and authentic setting for films. Ivy-covered buildings, students reading books in the grass, and bustling campus facilities from arenas to dining halls create the kind of collegiate atmosphere that is hard for filmmakers to recreate. But you don’t need to watch these movies to check out campuses; spring is a great time for college visits, so get out there and experience the college environment in person!

Explain the rise of corruption and organised crime

Sample details Pages: 32 Words: 9487 Downloads: 2 Date added: 2017/06/26 Category Statistics Essay Did you like this example? Corruption as will be examined was nothing new in the post-Soviet economy for its perceived rise and that of organised crime had their origins in the Soviet era. In the Soviet Union private enterprise on an individual or business basis had officially not been allowed from when the New Economic Policy was abandoned in the 1920s and with the forced collectivization of agriculture during the 1930s. Under the Stalinist State the economy was planned and commanded by the Communist Party via the Soviet Unions statestructure. In theory the Soviet State controlled every aspect of the Soviet economy. It set prices; it controlled industrial outputs, banking services and foreign exchange rates. However, in practice therewas a flourishing black market in luxury goods and foreign exchangerates before the political and economic reforms started by Mikhail Gorbachev in the 1980s. His twin policies of Glasnost and Perestroika, political openness and economic restructuring were intended to prolong the Soviet Union. Instead the Soviet Union would collapse leaving its successor states working towards democracy and capitalism whilst facing up to the problem of increasing corruption and organised crime. Don’t waste time! Our writers will create an original "Explain the rise of corruption and organised crime | Politics Dissertation" essay for you Create order The level of corruption if not organised crime during the Soviet era might not be too easy to establish exactly. The Soviet authorities after all kept the true state of the economy hidden from the West even if its citizens experienced hardships and shortages. The leading members of the politburo had being the only ones with a realistic view of the economy. The liberalisation of the economy in all parts of the former Soviet Union since 1991 have generally led to an increase of corruption and organised crime. Clampdowns on organised crime and corruption have often been half hearted when they have been carried out both during and after the Soviet era. Explanations for this rise in corruption and organised crime will now be described and examined. Some of these causes pre-date the collapse of the Soviet Union whilst others emerged later. Black markets existed prior to the collapse of the Soviet Union often bringing consumers goods that were unavailable in the state run shops, goods that were sometimes exchanged instead of sold to avoid breaking the law. Hand in hand with the black markets went corruption and bribery. Black marketers frequently resorted to bribing communist party officials, the police and the KGB or they in turn extorted money off the black marketers. The KGB sometimes recruited some of the black marketers to inform on their rivals and their customers. The more the Soviet economy faltered the faster the black-market grew, providing people with goods not available in the shops. Those marketers that did not bribe officials often found their homes or businesses raided or got put in jail, those that paid up were allowed to go about their business undisturbed. The Soviet leadership started to have concerns about economic stagnation, organised crime and to a lesser extent corruption in the early 1980s but n one of them seemed to understand the extent of the economic malaise. The long years of stagnation continued until despite the rapid deaths of three general secretaries of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) between 1982-1985. Leonid Brezhnev during his time in charge had done nothing to halt economic decline and in fact worsened it by accelerating the arms race with the United States and invading Afghanistan. It has been estimated that as much as 50% of the Soviet Unions annual budges was spent on defence or related products and projects. However that was money that the Soviet Union no longer had to spare. His immediate successor Yuri Andropov started a campaign against bribery and corruption that petered out with his death in 1984. When Gorbachev replaced Konstantin Chernenko a year later he pledged to reform the Soviet Union. Instead his policies would promote its collapse and lead to increased corruption and organised crime in the sixteen successor states. The problem with Stalinist economic planning was that it created and perpetuated a shortage economy motivated only by harsh orders from the centre. It kept most of the people equally poor except for those that found ways around the system. By the 1980s the idea of abandoning the communist command economy in favour of capitalism and liberal democracy gained ground not only in the Soviet Union but also in Central and Eastern Europe. For the reformers could look at the neo-liberal experience of the Thatcher and Reagan administrations, perhaps the devastating social and economic effects in parts of Latin America would have been more relevant. There was of course the example of the New Economic Policy that had allowed the Soviet economy to recover from the ravages of civil war, an attractive example to communists that wanted to reform the system but also for the non-communists that wished to replace it. There was one group of pro-capitalist economists that hoped to bring in a market system to Russia, they were the young reformers. Yeger Gaider whose family was amongst the elites of the Soviet nomenklatura ironically enough headed the young reformers. They were just looking for somebody to carry out their plans and not power for themselves, and would eventually team up with Boris Yeltsin a highly effective (when healthy) populist politician with only a limited understanding of economics. Alongside Yeltsin, they had the dream of dismantling communism. However the way in which communism was dismantled across the former Soviet Union would contribute greatly to the rise of organised crime alongside the already high levels of corruption. In the first years of Gorbachevs rule his government attempted topreserve the Soviet political system whilst reforming its economicsystem, little realising that these reforms would fail and thuscontribute to the rise of corruption and organised crime as well as thedisintegration of the Soviet Union. He wanted to make the system workto its full capacity without moving to a capitalist economy or inducingeconomic suffering. The government attempted to increase productivityby reducing alcohol consumption and the sickness that was oftenconnected to it, but he did not run an anti corruption campaignimmediately. Gorbachev would have banned vodka but feared the ban wouldbe circumvented by organised crime gangs, plus the tax revenues thatkept the Soviet government solvent. One man who had started ananti-corruption campaign was Boris Yeltsin who was the Moscow partyboss until his sudden dismissal by Gorbachev during November 1987.Gorbachev believed he had removed his greatest rival but had in factmade a very basic political blunder, as Yeltsin was no longercontrollable and determined to avenge his fall from power. By 1989 it became clear that the Soviet economic system wasunsustainable or beyond reforming and Gorbachev introduced somecapitalist measures. Those measures included allowing small privatebusinesses to operate from August 1990 and a series of de-regulationsand privatisations between October 1990 and July 1991. Economic reformsbrought increased opportunities to organised criminals and buddingcapitalist entrepreneurs, a distinction in the former Soviet Union thatis not always clear. The sudden creations of small businesses increasedchances for investments and money laundering or even to takeoverprivatised companies. Decades of communist economic and politicalrule left a legacy that was difficult to shake off immediately in thepost-Soviet era. Yeltsin and his contemporaries found it difficult tosee the world from outside of a communist perspective. The communistlegacy of patronage, privileges, corruption and perks would contributeto the rise of corruption and organised crime in the pos t-Soviet era.As the system started to collapse across the Soviet Union law and orderbegan to decline with it thus allowing increased opportunities fororganised crime and corruption as well as increased nationalist andethnic tensions. The political disintegration of the Soviet Union went hand in hand withits economic disintegration and declining levels of law and order inall the successor republics. The end of the Soviet Union was hastenedby the failure of the communist coup in August 1991. The Baltic Stateshad already broke away from the Soviet Union and was already on theirway to capitalist economies. Russian president Boris Yeltsin seemingto stand for the twin transition from communist state to liberaldemocracy and planned socialist economy to neo-liberal capitalismalthough this is not exactly what happened. Contrary to MikhailGorbachev, Boris Yeltsin had believed that the break up of the SovietUnion could be a positive rather than a disastrous event although manyof his Russian compatriots might not have agreed with him. For theother former republics it was a case of independence at last. Perhapsthose that took advantage of the break up through organised crime orcorruption would have agreed with him. The Yeltsi n government at firstenthusiastically backed rapid and radical reforms, radical economicscarried out by a group of advisors dubbed the the young reformers.Russia and the other former republics of the Soviet Union had veryprimitive banking and financial systems that presented apparently idealopportunities for Russian and foreign investors. Those acting as gobetweens in business deals could make small fortunes by doing so. Thetransition to capitalism offered the prospect of making millions, italso led to the increase in organised crime and corruption as gangstersthreatened investors, businesses and often fought each other. TheRussian and other governments seemed incapable of monitoring,containing or preventing that rise. The Yeltsin government was hampered in its efforts to control andadminister the regions let alone fight the rise in crime because theremaining regional governors were by and large communist nomenklaturaand apparatchiks and unwilling to do as Moscow commanded. Thesebureaucrats forged links with industrialists in their region providinga basis for ongoing and future corruption. The bitter power strugglesbetween President and Parliament during the 1992-1993 period distractedthem from trying to solve the countrys problems and allowed theregions greater autonomy and the increasing number of organised crimegangs free rein across much of Russia and the rest of the former SovietUnion. They also spent much time and effort trying to persuade thepublic the other side was more corrupt and had greater links toorganised crime than they did. One deputy governor indicated thescale of corruption in the remoter parts of Siberia that to start acompany you probably have to bribe forty bureaucrats. Organised crime gangs used the decline in government control toorganise protection rackets to fleece investors and small businesses.There was an alarming increase in violent crimes and murders as gangscompeted for control of their victims and clients or punished thosethat would not pay for their dubious protection. The number of killingsrelated to gang warfare escalated dramatically. Moscow and the newlyrenamed St Petersburg have been the centres of most of that gangwarfare. Corruption was not merely confined to the Mafia gangs it alsoextended to the police, the armed forces and civil servants. In Russiatraffic police were involved in robbing motorists also teaming up withlocal gangs to force motorists to hand over their cars, or to pay themfines for non-existent offences or face their cars being confiscated.Corruption and the buying and selling of any thing and everything wasso widespread that young female university students would aim to becomehard currency call girls or the mistre sses of oligarchs or wealthybusinessmen, whilst jobless youths would advertise their services forcontract killings. One ruthless organised crime gang even went as far as murdering carowners and disposing of their bodies to steal their cars. Organisedcrime and the number of crime gangs increased dramatically as thepolitical elites spent more time arguing amongst each other rather thanfighting crime and corruption. Nobody in the public or the mediabelieved that Boris Yeltsin would succeed in rooting out organisedcrime and corruption, after all every single Soviet leader had promisedto do the same since 1917. After all his only previous crack down oncorruption and organised crime in Moscow had been stopped it its tracksby Gorbachev when he was sacked as the Moscow party boss. The officialcrime figures for 1992 give a strong indication of the deterioratinglaw and order situation. The number of murders had increased by 40%whilst there was an even larger increase in robbery up by 60%. The overall number of registered crimes, bearing in mind that many crimesremained unreported went up to 2.76 million. In fact the contendingelites accused each other of corruption to score points off each otherwhilst the public were not interested in their squabbles and the 3,000or so crime gangs carried on regardless. Of the newly private runbusiness in Russia and the Commonwealth of Independent States those3,000 gangs were able to pocket perhaps as much as 40 % of the turnoveras early as 1993. Corruption was never to far from the surface in the former SovietUnion. It should have not been a surprise therefore that corruption andorganised crime would rise in the post-Soviet as they already hadstrong foundations and connections to outside crime gangs. During theSoviet era if an individual knew or bribed the right officials theycould get the best luxury items, property deals or their children intothe finest schools or universities. So nobody could doubt that therewould be greater levels of corruption when the restraints of the Sovietsystem were removed. In fact corruption dated back into the ImperialRussian past, were the civil service had been unsalaried but able toaccept gifts or payments in kind. The CPSU may have claimed to beresponsible for the leading role in society and the economy, some ofits members took a leading role in the black market or for a smallbribe get people things that would not normally be available. In Belarus the movement towards independence was given a new impetus bythe desire to be rid of greedy and corrupt communist party leaders.The unraveling of the Soviet hegemony over Eastern Europe gave anopportunity for the more entrepreneurial members of the withdrawingSoviet army to make their fortunes. The pickings could be rich for theSoviet army had large areas of land and housing to sell. When Gorbachevmade a deal with the West German government to sell Soviet militarybases in the former East Germany back to them most of the best pickingshad already gone. The Soviet defence minister Dmitrii Yazov happilyjoined in the schemes that led to the disappearance of the Soviet armyassets without a trace. Yazov may have enjoyed making money forhimself but he was wholeheartedly against political and economicreform. He would be one of the main leaders of the August 1991 coup.After all under the Soviet system the higher an individuals positionwithin the party, the KGB or the armed forces the y could expect agreater share of the perks and the spoils. Just how much money the corrupt communist party members made may not beknown exactly, much of the evidence was destroyed just before the finalfailed coup of August 1991. Those party members that did not get intotrouble following the coup could find themselves in a good position tomake money in the brave new post -Soviet world. That was because theyalready knew how to operate in corrupt systems and some already hadlinks with organised crime. For many of the small traders that operatedlargely illegally during the Soviet era the only real differencebetween the past and the post-Soviet present was whom they paid for theprivilege of staying in business. Now they had to pay organised crimegangs to stay in business and to stay alive rather than bribe communistparty officials or members of the KGB, or if they were unlucky theywould have to pay them all. Corruption and organised crime increased inthe post-Soviet era but it had great potential during the Soviet eraand the right conditions woul d fuel a massive expansion. For much of the former Soviet Union these conditions were present inthe early 1990s. Petty crime was rumored to be rife amongst civilservants and state employees, for instance in 1993 the Russian InteriorMinistry recorded 13,000 such crimes, that was thought to be the tip ofthe iceberg. It was estimated that virtually all shops paid protectionand perhaps four fifths of businesses and financial institutes did thesame. The organised crime gangs had a virtual free reign on theirprospective victims, as the number of untainted police was inadequateeven if they could find any brave or foolish enough to testify. Themore successful entrepreneurs could hire bodyguards but that was not anoption for the smaller traders who had to pay up or face theconsequences. In Russia neither the transition to democracy and the switch to acapitalist economy has developed as the Russians and those in the restof the world that were interested hoped or expected. These transitionsunintentionally led to increased corruption and organised crime.Through a combination of the collapse of the archaic economic system,assets stripping by the Russians that brought utilities at cheapprices, government failings and last but no means least corruption.Russia was in a worse economic position than the Soviet Union had been,as were the majority of the former Soviet republics. Inward foreigninvestment during the 1990s did not make up for the vast sums that leftRussia of between $100 billion and $150 billion made by the oligarchsthat asset stripped Russias industries and infra-structure and doesnot include any of the profits made the organised crime gangs. Foreign investors, the more sensible ones at least were put off thepossibility of investing in Russia and other parts of the former SovietUnion by the high risk of their investment been ruined by having to paybribes to officials and protection to crime gangs. It seems that theonly people prospering in post-Soviet Russia are those that becamenouveau riche by their investments or those that made their money lesshonestly through extortion or corruption. Poverty and unemployment thatdid not officially exist during the Soviet era increased alarminglyduring the 1990s. Even if the poverty line is measured below a monthlyincome of less than $30 a month up to 40 million Russians appear tolive in poverty. That is alarming for a country that has the largestpart of the Soviet Union that had been a military superpower until1991. Economically Russias decline was remarkable for its severity,producing less than Belgium and barely a quarter more than Poland. In the immediate post-Soviet period the situation was more chaoticbecause all the former republics were still maintaining the old Sovietcurrency and printing money as if it was going out of fashion, addingto the inflationary consequences of ending price controls. The chaoticsituation increased the ease in which organised crime gangs couldoperate in the former Soviet Union. Whilst the resulting hyperinflation(added to by the removal of price controls) meant that many moreordinary people had to find alternative methods of supplementing theirincomes. Russia was not the slowest country to reform its economy orpolitical institutions Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan and Belarus accordingto European Bank of Reconstruction and Development were amongst theleast reformed and most poverty struck. In contrast the Baltic Statesof Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia progressed well enough to be admittedin the European Union by 2004. The adoption of free market capitalism brought an end to queuing inempty shops and replaced it with full shops where most people could notafford to actually buy anything. Hence people were searching for legalor illegal means of boosting their incomes and thus more likely tobecome involved in corruption and bribery. Uneconomic factories wereshut making millions unemployed. Under the Soviet system people hadless money but there was better state provisions and prices were fixedso inflation was virtually non-existent. The Soviet system had givenprivileges to countless petty state workers and junior party members.They were known as apparatchiks, whilst high ranking officials andsenior party members with better perks were known as nomenklatura. Withthe end of the Soviet system some of these apparatchiks andnomenklatura exchanged their privileges for money, those still in stateemployment that had remained honest now exchanged favours for bribes.Corruption increased during the post-Soviet er a simply out of economicnecessity right across all of the former Soviet Union as ordinarycitizens and government officials found that they did not enough tolive on. Throughout the former Soviet Union the pace of economicliberalisation varied. By the middle of 1994 the Baltic States and Russia in terms of thetotal percentage of gross domestic product generated by the privatesector of the economy were well ahead of the Asian republics, Belarusand Moldova. In Estonia and Latvia it was 55%, in Russia and Lithuania50 % with Belarus, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan lagged far behind ononly 15%. In post-Soviet Russia nomenklatura were better placed thanmost to survive the harsher economic climate particularly those thatlived in regions such as Siberia found it harder to survive especiallywhen state subsidies ended leaving food and fuel far more expensivethan in the major cities. The collapse of communism cut off many of theremote industrial and mining areas from the central government leadingto social and economic decay. Such neglect has allowed for the growthof organised crime and corruption as desperate people turn to drugs andalcohol. Drug and alcohol abuse leads to health problems or addiction.To counter some of the incursions i nto those remote areas by crimegangs the Putin government once more restricted travel in to thoseareas. A factor that contributed to the rise of organised crime in thepost-Soviet was the wide availability of weapons for organised crimegangs and individual gangsters or thugs to use. Weapons were oftenobtained from members of the armed forces. Military and naval personnelwere increasingly eager to sell weapons to supplement their wages,assuming they had been paid on time. The Russian commanders are said tohave done worse during the first Chechen war of 1994 -1996. They soldGrozny back to the rebels in August 1996 leading to the deaths ofdefenceless conscripts. Corruption within the Russian military seemsto be endemic, which given its role in maintaining central governmentauthority and internal security in some of the remoter regions of theRussian Federation certainly permitted and even encouraged organisedcrime to rise, for instance in Chechnya. During the second Chechen warthat began in 1999 the local police observed the illicit trade betweenRussian soldiers and local black marketers. These soldiers would exchange boxes of ammunition for locally distilledvodka or locally grown cannabis with the tacit approval of theirsuperior officers. Indeed officers often accompanied their men whenthese exchanges took place. The black marketers then sell theammunition to the Chechen fighters. Local police could intervene andarrest everybody but they have either been told not to or bribed notto. The army was supposed to keep all the roads into Chechnya secureto prevent the rebels escaping or gaining supplies and money. However,the reporter Anna Politkovskaya was told one person on foot must pay100 roubles; a light vehicle costs about 500-600 roubles.Politkovskaya did not readily accept those claims until shesuccessfully bribed the soldiers to get past the checkpoint. The greedand corruption of the army must have been counterproductive. They soldammunition that was used by the Chechens and they allowed access torestricted areas to anybody who could have smuggled weapons in andpeop le out. The corruption of the Russian armed forces in the area inand around Chechnya lowered the security and containment of Chechenfighters and contributed to the apparent ease in which rebels were ableto take hostages in the Moscow theatre during October 2002. Morehorrifically the siege of a Beslan high school in September 2004 showedthat the Russian military were incompetent as well as riddled withcorruption. Gangsters did not always buy weapons; they could often steal weaponsfrom poorly guarded or neglected military bases. Due to the SovietUnion having national service most of the organised crime gang memberscould already use weapons. Troops leaving the army could also consideremployment as either bodyguards for the newly rich and the justifiablyconcerned business owners or joining the organised crime gangsthemselves as thugs and assassins. Violent crime is probably not asprevalent as people in the West might believe, however crime gangswould have no qualms about settling accounts with intimidation, assaultand murder. Some murders have shown that the crime gangs and contractkillers are able to gain hold of sophisticated weapons such as rocketlaunchers to kill bodyguards as well as their bosses in St Petersburg.Gangs have to be well connected as well as rich to acquire suchweapons. The dramatic rise in the murder rate witnessed not only the deaths ofpoliticians (three members of the Duma were shot dead in cold blood)but also businessmen and journalists. Business executives and morelowly bank employees could be and were at risk of being killed due tothe rise in corruption and organised crime. Not many gang members wereafraid of being caught and convicted, for they were confident that evenif the police did catch them that either the police or the courts couldbe persuaded to let them get away with it. In the period between 1992and 1995, the number of killed bank workers ranging from clerks tosenior executives was 46. The most publicized killing was that of IvanKivelidi who had been the president of Rosbiznesbank. Kivelidi waspoisoned in August 1995 for not complying with the demands of organisedcriminals. There are still a high number of deaths as a result offighting between rival gangs still demonstrating that there are enoughguns and money up for grabs to make t he high risks of being killed seemworthwhile. Over 2,000 gang members are gunned down every year in gangwars in the Moscow region alone. Until the Putin presidency thesituation in St Petersburg had been worse although Putin seems to wantto clean up his home city. The difficulty and the danger of uncovering the true level of crimesbeing committed aided the rise in organised crime and corruption. Withso many bureaucrats, police and politicians involved or thought to beinvolved in corruption much of the uncovering of crimes and evidence ofcorruption came from the press and journalists or even rarelyindependently minded politicians. For journalists it was dangerous touncover and attempt to publish evidence and articles concerningorganised crime gangs and the high levels of corruption. Consideringthe increasing control of the media by the state or by oligarchs whoseown positions could be undermined by revelations of corruption ororganised crime it has not always been easy for reporters to go publicwith evidence they have gathered. To illustrate the dangerous positionjournalists found themselves in, 36 were killed between January 1994and May 1995 throughout the former Soviet Union whilst doing their jobsand reporting on not only corruption and orga nised crime but also theconflict in Chechnya. The uncovering of evidence of the corruption and fraud within theSoviet army during its time in East Germany and before its departureappeared to be a major scope for the Moskovskii komsomolets and itsinvestigative journalist Dmitrii Kholodov. For Kholodov it proved onestory too far as a bomb blew up him and his office during October1994. Even television reporters and journalists were not immune fromdanger. Following his research into the corrupt or dishonest sellingof television advertising Vladimir Listev was gunned down in March 1995before he could broadcast all his findings. At other timespoliticians, bureaucrats and business executives would inform or leakinformation about their rivals real or presumed links with organisedcrime and corruption for their own gain rather than in the publicinterest or to fight corruption itself. Whilst these bouts ofaccusations and counter accusations occupied the politicians and pressattentions they occasionally removed the expendable politicians an dbureaucrats whilst leaving the level of overall corruption untouched. As noted below the Books affair would be used to force the resignationsof some of the young reformers in 1999. Accusations of corruptionwould also be leaked to the press after an individual had lost theapproval of either President Yeltsin or President Putin. The primeexample of this were the accusations leveled against Boris Berezovskyafter he fell out with Putin, or more aptly when Putin regarded him asno longer useful to the Kremlin. Berezovsky is claimed to have stolenmillions from his companies and state run companies such as Aeroflot.All these events were from the early 1990s so the Russian governmenthad plenty of time to prove them or clear him. Berezovsky who went toexile in London has retaliated by campaigning against the Putingovernments increasing control of power. In Russia it appears thatthose involved in corruption or organised crime are relatively immunefrom arrest as long as they do not upset the Kremlin or theirpunishment becomes politically expedient for the governme nt. PresidentPutin is arguably searching for levers that will work to have inplace a national authority that functions as normal governments do. Corruption was a fact of life in the Soviet era and now seems even moreendemic in the post-Soviet period; ordinary Soviet citizens werecynical about the financial honesty of their political masters and thehigher-ranking communist party officials, a cynicism that continueswith post-Soviet politicians and officials. Evidence of corruption andbribery would often be collected by the KGB and used if the individualsconcerned fall out of favour senior party members, its successor stillcollects such information only now some its officers are more likely tosell sensitive information to the highest bidders. President Yeltsinonly renamed the KGB the FSB instead of abolishing it. He also retainedcontrol of the KGB records and evidence of the corruption theycontained Timely uncovering of bribe taking and corruption have oftenbeen used to discredit rivals and justify the dismissal of ministersand officials. Therefore presumably there is usually enough evidenceto act against many of those involved in corruption or organised crimebut not always the political will or judicial authority to do so. ManyRussians believe that most if not all government ministers andofficials are corrupt and susceptible to bribes. Officials are willingto risk public safety and even national security as well as theirreputations for the sake of bribes. Allegations and counterallegations of corruption were used in the 1990s during the powerstruggle between President Yeltsin and hard-liners such as Rutskoy andKhasbulatov. Corruption both in the Soviet era and afterwards existed and increasedbecause the majority of those accepting bribes or using their positionfor gain position or cash believed that they would not get caught. Evenif they did get caught the rate of convictions were not that high.Soviet era clampdowns on corruption under Andropov and Gorbachev onlycaught small fry and the same could apply during the post-Soviet era.The only notable high ranking communist to be convicted for corruptionwas Yuri Churbanov in 1988. Churbanovs father in law was the lateLeonid Brezhnev, the one time Soviet leader and General Secretary thattolerated corruption more than any other Soviet era leader. Churbanovgot caught taking $1 million in bribes. Perhaps the dishonest officialswere working on their version of Marxism, such as all bureaucrats arecorrupt but some are more corrupt than others are. The chairman of theKGB, Chebrikov was widely seen to be increasingly corrupt the more theSoviet Union imploded. Yeltsi n seemed unable if not unwilling toprevent corruption and organised crime increasing added to belief ofmany that they could get away with it. The rise of corruption and organised crime in the post-Soviet era canbe accounted for partly as a result of the previous illegality ofprivate enterprise. The sudden adoption of shock therapy in 1992occurred before any new corporate or financial regulations could beintroduced to ensure that competition between businesses would be freeand fair or those financial transactions could be above board and leavean audit trail. The government had not forewarned the Russian peopleabout the likely consequences of economic reforms. Hyper inflation andunemployment meant many of them got power, after all pensions, pay orbenefit payments could not keep pace with 245% inflation (that wasJanuary 1992 monthly total and equated to an annual rate well over2,000%). Soviet era political and economic elites away from the mainurban areas would often team up with local organised crime gangs. Theydid that to make up as much money as possible from the conversion tocapitalism. The switch to capitalism gave forme r party members andofficials chances to grab their share of the crumbling Sovietinfrastructures. Whilst people such as Boris Berezovsky and RomanAbramovich were on their way to making billions the Russian governmentwas running out of money. So short of money in fact that it had toreceive a $10.2 billion loan from the International Monetary Fund in1996. The problem for Yeltsin and the other leaders of the post-Soviet stateswas that the spine of the Soviet State had been the communist party.The power and influence of the Russian central government graduallywithered away during Yeltsins two terms as President. Poorly equippedand lowly paid Russian conscripts sold their weapons to Chechen rebels,in the city of Tver armed gangs extracted tolls from motorists;regional governors and companies, kept taxes that should have gone tothe Kremlin. Civil servants, teachers and health visitors moonlightedfor private businesses, as their wages were too low. Having publicsector employers on the payroll has proved highly invaluable fororganised crime and businesses. When bidding for local and centralgovernment contracts or highly sensitive information, senior officialand ministers have been known to provide organised crime gangs andbusiness executives with security permits that prevent their arrests.Another common fraud was for companies to set up fa ke non-existentrivals when they bid for central, regional and local governmentcontracts, ensuring they won the contracts. It was an alternative tobribing officials, which could prove expensive and did not always gainthe contracts anyway. The collapse in central government authorityextended to the law courts, if the defendant knew the right people orpaid the highest bribes they could get away with murder, fraud ortheft. According to Freeland Russia developed a kind of Hobbesiancapitalism, red in tooth and claw in which businesses preyed on smallerones and apparatchiks and racketeers preyed on everyone. Economic growth in Russia and peoples real monetary worth is hard tomeasure due to corruption, dishonesty, and the lack of a coherentbanking system and the lack of savings in bank accounts. Even if the central government took action against officials they couldoften be found jobs in local and regional government. Local mayors andgovernors especially those of Moscow and St Petersburg had lucrativecontracts to award for reconstruction and building projects. TheMoscow city council in particular gained a reputation for high spendingand legally dubious contract awards. The mayor of Moscow, Yuri Luzhkovwould often give contracts to companies that had connections with hiswife. Luzhkov had presidential ambitions at one stage and was noadmirer of Boris Yeltsin but has better relations with Vladimir Putin.Not only was Boris Yeltsin unable to halt the rise of organised crimeand corruption in post-Soviet Russia he actually contributed to theproblem. Yeltsin contributed to the problem in various ways someaccidental others less so. He was unable to halt the decline in thepower of the central government, having spent most of his first term asPresident competing for control with the Ru ssian Supreme Soviet andthen the Duma. His second term was beset by his worsening health thatpartly explained his decision to retire early. Another contribution tothe failure to combat organised crime and corruption was the almostconstant changing of government ministers. Instability and uncertainlycontinued to plague central government meaning it was unable to controlthe country properly thus hampering any efforts to fight crime. WhenYeltsin did find capable Prime Ministers he would fire them if hethought they were getting too powerful and ambitious e.g. YevgenyPrimakov and Viktor Chernomyrdin. Of all his Prime Ministers the onlyone he trusted was the one man who would succeed him as President,Vladimir Putin. Finally there was the links with the so-calledoligarchs that Boris Yeltsin and his family had. The young reformers who had been out of power and influence since 1993still argued that further privatisations and action against corruptionwas needed to ensure Russias economic stability and well being.However with Boris Yeltsins re-election in 1996 they regainedinfluence particularly through Anatoly Chubais and Kokh, even the PrimeMinister Chernomyrdin believed they undermined his position. Forwhatever reason the Russian public believed that these young reformersshould be impeccably honest without any doubts about being corrupt. Onthe other hand ordinary Russians were expecting the older politiciansto be more likely to be corrupt. That public belief about the integrity of the young reformers stemmedfrom their claims to be clearing Russia of the unhealthy and unethicalrelationship between big businesses and the highest reaches of theKremlin and central government. They also hoped to clean out thebribery and corruption out of the Russian civil service and governmentdepartments. The young reformers intended actions seemed to threatenthe position of oligarchs such as Vladimir Gusinsky and BorisBerezovsky. However the oligarchs were able to break the youngreformers with a pre-emptive strike, ironically links between one ofthe young reformers and an oligarch gave Boris Berezovsky hisopportunity. Using their connections with the press the oligarchs wereable to discredit and then destroy the image of the young reformers asbeing incorruptible. Alfred Kokh was discovered to have received amodest $100,000 advance payment to write a payment on market reformsand privatisations in Russia. Kokh seemed to have helped (it wass uggested) his friend, the oligarch Vladimir Potanin to acquire stateenterprises namely Sviazinvest and Norilsk Nickel. Seeing thedirection events were moving in Kokh had the good sense to leave thegovernment and find elsewhere (but not as a writer). The youngreformers seemed to have resisted the oligarchs attempts to removethem from government and even persuaded Boris Yeltsin to sack BorisBerezovsky from his government post. That was until advances foranother book about economic policy were revealed on the radio and inthe press. Anatoly Chubais and four of his colleagues lost their jobs as a resultof the $450,000 fees they received from a book company directlycontrolled by one of Vladimir Potanins corporations. With thedeparture of the young reformers went the chance of any serious actionagainst corruption and organised crime until the emergence of the Putinpresidency, although he continued their economic reforms and policieswhilst he was Prime Minister. It was another example of corruption orfinancial irregularity being highlighted for political rather thaneconomic or legal reasons. The figures used to condemn Chubais and theothers would appear paltry compared to the sums that Berezovsky andother leading oligarchs were accused of taking after they fell out offavour with Putin. However for those Russians with good memories theallegations against Chubais were nothing new. He had been accused in1992 of selling state property to organised crime gangs and wealthyforeigners at amazingly reduced prices. Putin to t he surprise of someof the richest and most powerful in Russia turned out not to be the manto keep the cash flowing into the right pockets. Just how much Boris Yeltsins family and friends were closely liked toorganised crime and corruption became more apparent during August 1999.Two scandals showed that Boris Yeltsin either knew about or did notstop the rising level of corruption linked to the Kremlin. The firstone could have proved very problematic; Boris Yeltsin was so concernedhe almost ended his fishing holiday early. The Mabetex affair hadactually started to emerge at the start of 1999. There had been moneylaundering and corruption on such a vast scale that even the cynicalRussians were surprised. The first person to fall victim to thefollowing investigation was the chief of the Kremlin PropertyDevelopment, Pavel Borodin. Borodin was close to Boris Yeltsin but evencloser to both Boris Yeltsins daughters and son in laws. Borodin wasbelieved to have awarded billion dollar contracts on the basis that thehighest bribers, such as Behgjet Pacolli won them. The other scandal actually brought to public attention in the Unit edStates. Articles in the New York Times claimed that Russian organisedcrime gangs in conjunction with Russian government officials were usingAmerican banks to launder vast sums of their illegal earnings. Furtherinvestigations uncovered only a fraction of the $10billion claimed tohave gone through the Bank of New York. The Mabetex affair was far moreserious as Borodin had control of $600 billion. A Swiss court found himguilty of taking $30 million of bribes from Swiss companies in 2001. Since gaining the Presidency in 2000 Vladimir Putin has tried toreverse the rise in organised crime and corruption Putin regarded theweakness of the central government as being responsible for that rise.Not only did he wish to restore the states power to fight crime andcorruption he also wished to restore Russias economic andinternational position. His efforts to do this have met with domesticopposition and complaints from abroad due to the authoritarian methodsadopted to do so. Putin may have owed his swift rise to power to thepatronage of Boris Yeltsin and his powerful associates but Putinsoutlook owes a great deal to his career in the KGB and its successorthe FSB. Putin was unswervingly loyal towards Yeltsin who in turn didhis best to ensure Putin gained the presidential succession. Putin didnot believe he owed any such loyalty to the oligarchs that surroundedPresident Yeltsin and the Yeltsin family. Once in power Putin decidedto launch campaigns against organised crime and corrup tion, influencedperhaps by the similar anti-corruption campaign of one of his formerheroes Yuri Andropov. Unlike either Yeltsin or Andropov, Putin appearedto have age and health on his side. Putin is also a man capable ofmanipulating Russias incomplete and flawed democracy for his ownends. Before becoming Prime Minister, Putin had returned to head theFSB to ensure its loyalty to Boris Yeltsin and later himself. He spendhis second spell at the FSB prudently gaining information on hispotential rivals and opponents but it must also surely given him aninsight into the extent of corruption and organised crime in Russia. Putins image as been a tough leader in terms of trying to restore theKremlins authority, crushing the Chechen separatists and restoring lawand order contributed to his presidential election victories in 2000and 2004. In 2000 the victory was narrower with speculation if noproof that the election was not entirely free with some press claimsthat Putins popularity extended beyond the grave to more than amillion deceased voters. His margin of victory in 2004 was greater andapparently with only the votes of the living, when he got over 70% ofthe vote. Corruption and organised crime increased after the end of the Sovietera because it could be highly lucrative with little chance of beingcaught breaking the law. The oligarchs such as Boris Berezovsky (whomade his fortune from selling cars, aluminum and a media empire) orRoman Abramovich (who made his fortune in oil and aluminum) may or maynot have made their fortunes legally but they provided Boris Yeltsinwith support and favours for his family. In return Boris Yeltsin soldthem state oil and mining enterprises on the cheap. They would haveargued that was their reward for working and supporting the government.They would have preferred to call it influence rather than corruption.They had also helped the central government out of its worst financialposition by loaning it money in return for free or heavily subsidizedshares in soon to be privatised state enterprises. Yeltsin would havepreferred to take loans off the oligarchs rather than the InternationalMonetary Fund because they would not insist on social and economicreforms or restrict payments due to fears over human rights abuses inChechnya. The basic concept behind the loans for shares scheme wasthat the oligarchs got shares in public companies in return for lendingthe government money and bank rolling Yeltsins re-election campaign in1996. Yeltsin kept his promises and they got the rest of their shares.Their influence seemed complete when Potanin joined the government andChubais returned to office. Although the oligarchs were not corrupttheir power was not particularly healthy for democracy (or economic andmoral integrity). Such close links between government and big businesswould have raised major concerns in more established democracies. Thegreater economic stability of the Putins first presidential term meanthe longer needed their loans as much as Yeltsin had. There were however others whose fortunes were made by more definitecriminal methods. Russian investors have been the victims of scams andmass fraud on numerous occasions. One such scam was organised bySergei Mavrodi. He set up a bogus investment company known as MMMinvestments that defrauded many millions of Russians of their savings.The scam was a pyramid scheme that defrauded its millions of investorsof up to $15 million, only it was a Russian variant in that Mavrodi didnot get all the money. Although Mavrodi had masterminded the scheme helost 90% of his ill-gotten proceeds to private businesses taking theircut and paying off dishonest government officials. These unknown anduncaught officials would have threatened Mavrodi with jail if he didnot pay them, just like in the Soviet era but with much money atstake. That was how easy it could be to become a millionaire in BorisYeltsins Russia, providing you could afford to bribe enough people tostay in business. The only problem for Mavrodi was that the fraud had been on such alarge scale that his crimes could not remain undetected. He waseventually caught after five years on the run and went to jail. Russiais also a favorite destination for cars stolen from the rest of Europe,a form of organised crime aided by corruption that was on the rise inthe post-Soviet era. In Soviet days there was a long waiting list forcars but since then car ownership has spread. Russia is the idealdestination for exporting these stolen cars to, as it is such a vastcountry, has plenty of potential customers who do not ask questions,plus a high level of corruption amongst officials. The complicity andcorruption of high-ranking civil servants and police mean that theorganised crime gangs involved make a tidy profit without any fear ofbeing caught. Corrupt government officials even buy and use the carsthemselves both for private and official use. Vladimir Putin did not want as a first priority to reverse the rise oforganised crime and corruption seen during the post-Soviet period. Hedid however wish to regain as much of the central governments economicand political power plus its freedom of action. By driving Berezovskyinto self imposed exile and jailing Mikhail Khodorkovsky. Putin managedto subdue the other oligarchs into doing nothing to upset him or flaunttheir political leverage. Putin could not realistically over turn theeconomic changes of the Yeltsin era. The oligarchs may have achievedtheir vast fortunes due to the weakness of the Russian State andperhaps dubious ways of making money but Putin can hardly takeeverything back off them. The sheer number of privatisations had aidedthe astute, the dishonest as well as the corrupt to gain their unfairshare of the loot. The redistribution of state enterprises andbusinesses into private ownership was great, amounting to 88% of theSoviet era state sector in Russia alone. Putin admired the men thattried to make the Russian State strong like Peter the Great, Lenin andAndropov. For Putin rebuilding the infrastructure of the Russian Stateis a priority, as the collapse of Soviet authority was largelyresponsible for the rise of organised crime and corruption in the post-Soviet era. In some ways Putin is a throwback to a Stalinistapparatchick in that in his view the State is more important thanindividuals. Putin claims to be a democrat but his concept ofdemocracy is one were order and the state take precedence over people.On the other hand it means that restoration of state power should fillthe power vacuum that allowed the extraordinary growth of organisedcrime and corruption during the 1990s Another aspect to the rise in organised crime and corruption in thepost-Soviet economy was the increase in the hard drugs trade, which hadnot officially been recognised as existing in the Soviet Union.Illegal drugs and the trafficking of them were supposed to only happenin the capitalist decadence of Western Europe and North America. Sincethe collapse of communism the Russia and other former Soviet stateshave had as much trouble in countering the rise in the drugs trade.Ironically the production of opium and heroin originating fromAfghanistan and Pakistan increased greatly after the Soviet Unionsinvasion of Afghanistan in 1979. Proceeds from the drugs trade inWestern Europe and North America proved very lucrative to organisedcrime gangs that started to enter the Soviet Union. Money the opiumgrowers made from the trade was used to fund the Afghan resistance tothe Soviet occupation forces. When that was added to by unlimitedAmerican military and financial aid it was no wonder that the Afghanwar played a large role in the collapse of the Soviet Union. Thechaotic and sudden collapse of the Soviet Union made it easier tosmuggle, supply and sell drugs and then launder the proceeds in theformer Soviet republics. St Petersburg was the main city to be affected by drug addiction, witharound 70,000 users by the end of the 1980s. Drug addiction hadalready been increasing before the end of the Soviet era but wideravailability of drug supplies and gangs supplying them worsened thesituation. Organised crime gangs were sure of making profits with somany addicts needing to feed their habits, plus they could control theprostitution and robberies that desperate addicts resorted to pay fordrugs. The harsh economic factors and the dullness of life after theend of the Soviet era led to an increase in alcohol and hard drug abuseas people tried to forget how awful their lives were. The high profitsand low risks of getting caught attracted rival gangs to the formerSoviet Union. Aside from corruption and organised crime the hard drugsexplosion has left Russia with another increasing problem the spread ofHIV and AIDS. The Russian government has failed to promote needleexchanges or safe sex, and if the estimates of 5 million people beinginfected by 2007 prove accurate it could pose a greater threat toRussias future than corruption, organised crime or Chechen terrorists. In the post-Soviet era organised crime and corruption affected andcarried out by ordinary citizens. Open-air markets sprang up in citiessuch as Moscow and St Petersburg particularly at the weekends, aspeople exercised their newfound rights to buy and sell in public. Itwas an ideal way for people to make tax-free cash in hand quickly. Themarkets were also a good opportunity for organised crime gangs as theycould recruit people to sell their fake and pirated goods at the sametime as laundering their money. The unregulated nature of the marketsof course presented the organised crime gangs the opportunity forextorting cash out of traders selling their own goods. These marketswere the ideal place to sell and obtain forgeries and fake goods at thefraction of the cost of original brands or to dispose of stolen goods.The trend bares a remarkable similarity to the markets and car bootsales across Europe. There are other ways in which ordinary Russians could make money tomaintain or improve their standard of living in light of harshereconomic conditions. For instance motorists were more than happy touse their cars as ad hoc and unauthorized taxis in Moscow whilstpensioners or the ill would sell their medical prescriptions to drugaddicts. In Russia there has been a rising trend of tax evasionamongst the rich, the poor, the powerful and the powerless. The richunder declare their income, or send their money to off shore tax havenswhilst the poor either two or three jobs or a main job were the bulk oftheir pay is given cash in hand. Pavel Borodin when he was not busytaking bribes claimed that at least 300 members of the Duma officiallyonly owned the Russian built Volga cars but were in fact the owners ofluxury European or American built cars that would have cost far morethan their official income. Falling government revenues canfinancially weaken the state and lessen the funds to combat c orruptionand organised crime. Therefore various factors contributed, aided and permitted the rise oforganised crime and corruption within the economic sector of the formerSoviet Union republics in the post-Soviet era. Whilst privateenterprise had been outlawed for virtually the entire Soviet era exceptduring the New Economic Policy and the last years of the Soviet Unioncorruption was already well established. Organised crime had also beenpresent although on a lesser scale during the Soviet era, as witnessedby the existence of the black market and the availability of harddrugs. Clampdowns on illegal traders were random and targeted at thosethat had not paid bribes to the relevant police or officials. The yearsof stagnation and corruption in the Soviet Union were sure to influenceeconomic and political shape of the former Soviet republics. Gorbachevfailed to keep the Soviet Union existing with the policies of glasnostand perestroika but the subsequent collapse of the Soviet system was acurse for the leaders of the successor states. However, it was an idealopportunity for the astute emerging business classes, organised crimegangs and those bureaucrats that were surprisingly easy to bribe tomake their fortune. Sometimes the distinction and links between thesegroups were difficult to detect or distinguish. When the Soviet Union finished its legacy financial and bankingsystems were backward and open to vast amounts of fraud and moneylaundering. Organised crime gangs were well positioned to takeadvantage of what remained of the old system before new systems wereput into operation, where they encountered people who got in their waythey found violence, threats and bribery effective means to get whatthey wanted. Through extortion, investment and takeovers theycontrolled much of the income from the new private enterprises. Economic decline and the threat to peoples livelihoods made acontribution to the rise of organised crime and corruption in thepost-Soviet economics of the former Soviet Union. When faced withhyperinflation, under employment and unemployment ordinary peopleresorted to second and third jobs, mass tax evasion or settingthemselves up as market traders. Those that worked as minor officialsor in the police could always make other people pay fees or fines andincrease the level of corruption yet further. Crime gangs andindividual fraudsters took advantage of corrupt officials, police andjudges to profit from their extortions and scams. Russia and the otherformer Soviet republics to a lesser extent seemed to be convulsed by anextreme form of economic Darwinism. In that economic Darwinism only themost ruthless, the meanest and the most immoral survived, the restwould go under. In the new Russia rich and poor seemed to forget all oftheir morals in the search for money. The primary reason for the rise in organised crime and corruption onthe post-Soviet economy was the economic and political vacuum thatdeveloped with the end of communism. New leaders such as Boris Yeltsinand Leonid Kravchuk in the Ukraine headed governments that introducedeconomic reforms that provided ideal opportunities for organised crimeand increased whilst reducing the power of their respective states.Gangs were able to exploit the lack of law and order to run protectionrackets, car stealing rings and intimidate or murder any journalist,politician or business people that got in their way. Many people tookthe physically safer option of doing as they were told and those thattook bribes counted their money stayed quiet. The relative weakness ofthe central governments especially in Russia meant local and regionalgovernors would often become linked with organised crime gangs andgladly reaped the rewards of their corruption. The hasty privatisationled to the emergence of billionaire b usiness tycoons such as BorisBerezovsky, Mikhail Khodorkovsky and Roman Abramovich who boosteddwindling government funding by lending it money and buying stateenterprises at greatly discounted prices. The oligarchs had massed agreat deal of economic power and political influence especially underthe Yeltsin presidency. Corruption was rife in the Kremlin as well asin the cities and the regions most notably when Pavel Borodin wascaught in a multimillion scandal awarding contracts to the highestbribers. Conversely Vladimir Putin has restored the Kremlins power andattempted to counter the rise of organised crime and corruption. Putin has to some extent succeeded in controlling the oligarchs eventhough his crackdown has been selective, only targeting those that areno longer of use to his government. It would still seem that everybodyin Russia has a price, bribery and corruption are widespread, itappears to be deeply ingrained in Russian society whilst organisedcrime seems certain to continue as long there are vast sums of money tobe made. The profits from extortion, money laundering, the drugs trade,gun running and prostitution mean that rival gangs will continue withtheir violent turf wars. It is a sad indictment on the Russiangovernment that the crime gangs are in more danger from each other thanthey are from the forces of law and order. Civil servants, the police,government and the FSB all seemed willing to make money on the side.Even in the former Soviet republics that have made the most successfulswitch to liberal democracy and capitalism, namely Estonia, Latvia andLithuania organised crime still exists as it does throughout theWestern world. Governments can not prevent the basic economic factthat crime does pay for those that do not get caught. Bibliography Dejevsky, M. Putins critics would do well to revisit the past The Independent Friday 11 March 2005 Dukes, P. A History of Russia c. 882-1996 3rd edition (1998) Macmillan, Basingstoke Dunbabin, J.P.D the Cold War The Great powers and their allies (1994) Longman Group, London Freeland, C. Sale of the Century The Inside Story of the Second Russian Revolution (2000) Little, Brown and Company, London Harvey, R. the Rise and Fall of World Communism (2003) John Murray, London Henderson, K. and Robinson, N. Post-Communist Politics an Introduction (1997) Prentice Hall, London Hobsbawm, E. Age of Extremes the Short Twentieth Century (1994) Michael Joseph, London Holmes, L. Post-Communism an Introduction (1997) Polity Press, Cambridge Jack, J. Inside Putins Russia (2000) Granta Books, London Kampfner, J. Inside Yeltsins Russia (1994) Cassell, London Khasbulatov, R. the Struggle for Russia Power Change in the Democratic Revolution (1993) Routledge, London Marples, D.R the Collapse of the Soviet Union 1985 1991 (2003) Pearson Longman, Harlow Martin, V The oligarchs revenge The Guardian Saturday 19, 2005 Meir, A. Black Earth Russia after the fall (2004) Harper Perennial, London Milner, M. Former Soviet states fail to reform The Guardian Monday November 25, 2002 Politkovskaya, A. A Dirty War A Russian Reporter in Chechnya (2001) The Harvil Press, London Service, R. A History of Modern Russia from Nicholas II to Putin-new edition (2003) Penguin, London Solotov, V Klepikova E. Boris Yeltsin A Political Biography (1992) Weidenfeld and Noicholson, London Templeton Thorpe Business Intelligence Report, Volume 2 Number 39, 5 February 2003. The Economist Very like a Bear December 23rd 1999 The Times, Register Obituaries Aslan Maskhadov, Chechen leader thatbeat the Russians in war but failed to win the peace Thursday March10 2005 White, S. Rose, R and McAllister, I. How Russia Votes (1997) Chatham House Publishers, New Jersey

The Differences Between The German Philosophers And...

Both of the German philosophers, Friedrich Nietzsche and Karl Marx, have spoken levels on the nature and purpose of human beings, however, the defining difference in their criticisms and teachings is the idea of where ‘power’ comes from and what man is supposed to do with it. Despite the fact that the philosophers had separate objectives in mind when inditing their literature, their comparative delivery presents similarities due to the subjects that have seemed to fallen prey to criticism in their writings. However, their difference in ideology is particularly significant due to the manner in which they address their main quodlibet of the power of human beings with either a targeted attack or invocation of herd-mentality to support their provocative theories. The contrasting severity of views by both philosophers on human power can be demonstrated through the analysis of their distinct characterizations of human beings and how they express the necessity of all humans to either commit to solidarity or solitude. Due to the apparent focus both authors place on religion and how it affects the manner in which people think and their subsequent actions, the comparison of how faith is critiqued by both Marx and Nietzsche may allow one to secern their respective characterization of the default state of mind of humans and why they should change it. Nietzsche’s orotund and detailed rhetoric on religion is seen as the main focus of his argument: â€Å"This eternal accusation againstShow MoreRelatedKarl Marx And The German Ideology1437 Words   |  6 PagesINTRODUCTION Long before our time, two prominent German philosophers emerged at the forefront of ideology and thinking. These two men were Karl Marx and Friedrich Nietzsche who pioneered the idea of truths, religion, reality, etc. Karl Marx’s essay, â€Å"The German Ideology,† otherwise known as Marxism, focused upon the materialistic processes that brought life into our world and the abuse of the burgeouse on the proletariat. This theory later went on to found the core beliefs of communism and playedRead MoreBranches of Philosophy8343 Words   |  34 PagesTraditional branches are cosmology and ontology. †¢ Epistemology is concerned with the nature and scope of knowledge, and whether knowledge is possible. Among its central concerns has been the challenge posed by skepticism and the relationships between truth, belief, and justification. †¢ Ethics, or moral philosophy, is concerned with questions of how persons ought to act or if such questions are answerable. The main branches of ethics are meta-ethics, normative ethics, and applied ethics.Read MoreThe Universal Declaration Of Human Rights3323 Words   |  14 PagesHowever, we can already see how this laid the foundation for a detrimental rights theory. By focusing on the fact that there could be only one value of truth, he was excluding anything which was different from that. (Hayden 2000:10) However, the philosopher with the most coherent body of work regarding natural law justice and ethics was Aquinas who stated â€Å"that which is correct in the works of justice is constituted by a reference to the other person. It is the case therefore, that in our works, whatRead MoreExistentialism vs Essentialism23287 Words   |  94 Pagesor goal. In this sense, humans are free to choose their own destiny.   * is a philosophical term which asserts that there is a distinction between essential and non-essential (contingent or accidental) characteristics of an object. Essentialism assumes that objects have essences and that an object’s identity is its essence. Aristotle distinguished between an object’s essence and its existence. Its essence is â€Å"what a thing is.† Its essence is â€Å"that a thing is.† An object’s essence is the collection

Cloud Solutions for Child Protection Board

Question: Discuss about theCloud Solutions for Child Protection Board. Answer: Introduction A social enterprise, Child Protection Board is situated at Sydney and has 2 branches at Brisbane and Melbourne. Presently, the organizations staff is handling their system of payroll manually, in Excel, and is then transferred via Dropbox. But, the demand for the organizations services have expanded and thus, it has caused new hires and increased payroll data. This expansion makes it hard for the employees to manage the large quantity of data via manual methods, and therefore, a digital payroll solution is required. To make it cost efficient, the management might take into consideration a cloud platform. Additionally, file sharing is a critical process for the organization and thus, the organization wants another cloud solution. The following report will explain the various cloud based payroll options and file sharing. It will make an attempt to comprehend Child Protection Boards cloud based security implications. This report will assist the board to take up a decision regarding the deployment of a cloud based solution for the requirements of the organization. Cloud Delivery and Deployment Modules For Child Protection Board, the cloud deployment model PaaS has been suggested since it will simplify the organizations need to develop and change applications. File transfer, outlines development, (CSA, 2011) and testing of application will be simplified. Additional benefits comprise of more uptime, enhanced security, software adaptability, and cost adequacy. On top of that, the model will be used for a private cloud deployment that can be utilized remotely. This will permit the organization attain enhanced security, acquire dedicated assets, and acquire enhanced personalization. Impact on the Staff The Child Protection Board employees will have certain advantages due to the models of the cloud based service. The advantages are Employees will have the capability to work externally. The services will be present online and this will enhance their productivity. With the operations digitized, specific manual processes will be automated via the cloud based applications. This will make work faster and easier (Bughin, et al., 2011).. As the data will be present in the cloud, the data will always remain intact, and therefore, kept safe even in cases of local machines getting damaged or local data being lost. Document transfer will become faster and easier. Additionally, this will permit integration with outside individuals for file transfer. Comparison of Cloud Vendor Data Transfer Solution Type Intuit QuickBooks MYOB Xero Basic $12/month Cost of Operations $50/month Cost of Operations $9/month Cost of Operations Advanced/Premium $21/month Cost of Operations $99/month Cost of Operations $70/month Cost of Operations Payroll Services Solution Payment Model Cloud Central Ninefold Optus CPU/hr. Model of Payment Starting from $0.025/hr. Starting from $0.002/hr. Starting from $0.0175 Model of Storage Based Payment Allowance for storage Starting from $0.092/hr. Starting from $0.3 Information Security A major concern for any kind of data based solution that is utilized by a company is security. Therefore, it is crucial to analyse the levels of information security offered by the cloud vendors prior to making a choice. The table given below explain various security components of the solutions compared Cloud Solution Security Characteristics Intuit QuickBooks 24-hour data protection via automated monitoring which monitors server performance. Dedicated staff present at all times for management of alarms and video surveillance in case of data breaches. All user login activities are assessed and recorded via features such as Audit Trial, and Always-on Activity Logging. MYOB Password protection via User Account feature offered by AccountRight. Administrators chooses user rights in relation to performance of tasks and access to files. File changes can be prevented via locking of organization files which have are present online. Xero Xero servers are protected physically by official employees, 24-hour security staff, and biometric security. Cloud security is regularly audited and reviewed by experts. Cloud access is done via 2-factor process of authentication authenticator code and password generated via the users smartphone app. Multiple security layers are offered by the organization via routers, firewalls, and system of intrusion detection. Cloud Central A secured private network is utilized for file transfer via cloud. Servers offer complete root-level access and thus an individual has full control over the manner of utilization of data and numerous process are done via cloud. Nine Fold Macquire cloud services acquired NineFold and they have locally retained service data centres which are physically protected. Optus It offers extensive security solutions which can be achieved separately. It consists of 6 elements of security which include secure remote access, site-to-site VPN, anti-virus, application control and content security, intrusion prevention and detection, and firewall protection. The organizations firewall is a next-gen firewall which has provision such as address translation, central administrative traffic, audit logs, anti-spoofing, advanced-level layer filters, and stateful inspections. Additionally, the solution provides an extensive performance reporting which comprises of system uptime report, reports on network security, reports of threat prevention, IPS reports, and reports on URL filtering. The above comparison amongst the various cloud based solution for management of payroll and file transfer recommends that Intuit QuickBooks is the minimum cost service model of data exchange with great security characteristics. For payroll services, Ninefold is the cheapest, however, it has been withdrawn, and the organization has been taken up by another organization. The next best choice will be Optus which is quite cheap and it has some great features of security. References Bughin, J., Corb, L., Manyika, J., Nottebohm, O., Chui, M., Barbat, B. d., Said, R. (2011). The impact of Internet technologies: Search. McKinsey Company. CloudCentral. (2016, September 13). Cloud Servers. Retrieved from Cloud Central: https://www.cloudcentral.com.au/products/infrastructure-as-a-service/cloud-servers/ CSA. (2011). Security Guidance for Critical for areas of focus in cloud computingV3.0. CSA. Intuit QuickBooks. (2014). Security you can trust7 reasons to believe. Intuit QuickBooks. Macquarie Telecom . (2016, September 13). Private Cloud. This ones just for you. Retrieved from Macquarie Cloud Services: https://macquariecloudservices.com/private-cloud/ MYOB. (2016, September 13). Company file security. Retrieved from MYOB: https://help.myob.com/wiki/display/ar/Company+file+security MYOB. (2016, September 13). Protecting your confidential information. Retrieved from MYOB: https://myob.com.au/myob/australia/myob-security-recommendations-1257829253909 Optus. (2016). Security in the cloud. Optus. Xero. (2016, September 13). Your data is safe with multiple layers of security. Retrieved from Xero: https://www.xero.com/accounting-software/security/ t