The Nature, Transmission, Prevention, And Treatment Of The HIV/AIDS Es

The Nature, Transmission, Prevention, and Treatment of the HIV/AIDS The Nature, Transmission, Prevention, and Treatment of the HIV/AIDS Arthur Ashe is an admirable and well known American tennis player who won many championships. He became the first African American male to win the men's Wimbledon title in 1975. Also, he was on the United States Davis Cup team from 1963 until 1984. Some of his other major accomplishments include helping to form what is now the Association of Tennis Professionals and winning the Australian Open, the United States Open, and the French Open. Ashe lived a wonderful and successful life: however, in 1983, disaster struck! Ashe acquired an incurable disease through a tainted blood transfusion. This disease killed him in 1993. What is this incurable disease that still haunts the lives of so many people? This is a disease known as AIDS. AIDS is a fatal disease without a cure and a disease that responds to little treatment. How can the spread of AIDS be stopped? This paper will discuss the nature of the AIDS virus, the transmission and the prevention of transmission, as well as the available treatments for people with this disease. First of all, AIDS is an acronym for Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome. AIDS is acquired which means that it is not passed down from generation to generation through a person's genes. AIDS is a disease that attacks the immune system, a system in the body that produces white blood cells in order to fight off diseases. This disease causes the immune system to be deficient, or weakened, so that it cannot properly fight off diseases. AIDS is a syndrome, or a group of illnesses with many possible symptoms that can occur together in a weakened condition. AIDS is a pandemic, meaning that it can be found on all continents. The disease was discovered in 1983, by a French cancer specialist, Luc Montagnier, along with other scientists, at the Pasteur Institute in Paris. However, there were AIDS cases reported as early as the 1950's. "The 80s will go down as the decade that AIDS began. We want to know, - Why" (Bevan 27)? One of the reasons is the promiscuity of sexually active people during the 1980s and the sharing of intravenous hypodermic needles and syringes by drug users. Secondly, AIDS is caused by the human immunodeficiency virus, or HIV. This virus attacks the antibodies in a person's immune system, thereby disabling that system. HIV works in an unusual way because it uses the immune system to its advantage. Viruses cannot live unless they are inside of a living cell called a host. The virus uses the host cell to reproduce themselves, causing the cell to die in the process. The new virii are then set free. The HIV virus attacks T4 lymphocytes, which are a special type of white blood cell. These cells are the body's method of defense. Without them, humans are susceptible to disease and infection. It is not HIV that kills people, but the opportunistic infections people get because of a weakened immune system. Bevan characterizes HIV by saying, "It's the sneakiest virus of all. It goes for the crucial link in the immune system, the cells at the heart of the fightback effort" (Bevan 24). This is why HIV is so dangerous. Being HIV positive does not mean that a person has full-blown AIDS, and not everyone who gets HIV develops full-blown AIDS. When one fully develops AIDS, the signs and symptoms become more evident. These symptoms include: "a failing immune system, persistent swollen lymph nodes and opportunistic infections" (Stine 114). A common example of a skin disorder caused by AIDS is Kaposi's sarcoma. That is, "a multifocal, spreading cancer of connective tissue, principally involving the skin; it usually begins on the toes or the feet as reddish blue or brownish soft nodules and tumors" (Stine 442). Lymph nodes are gland-like forms that help stop the spread of infection. When they become persistently swollen, one can develop lymphadenopathy syndrome or LAS. This condition can bring on mild symptoms of fever and weight loss. Other signs of full-blown AIDS include oral lesions such as thrush and hairy leukoplakia. People may also develop kidney disorders and gastrointestinal diseases like severe diarrhea that can cause weight loss. Since AIDS is such a serious incurable disease, it is important to know how the disease is transmitted. One method of transmission is via bodily fluids by having sex. This includes all forms of sex: vaginal sex, anal sex, and oral sex. The transmission also occurs in many other sexual activities. The human immunodeficiency virus can

The DIA in Detroit, M Ichigan essays

The DIA in Detroit, M Ichigan essays On Saturday, February 19, 2005 I went to the Detroit Institute of Arts (DIA). The Detroit Institute of Arts is one of the largest art institutions in the nation. It holds over 60,000 art collections ranging from classic to cutting-edge arts. Within this institution the arts are categorized into several categories, such as, European Art, Middle Eastern Islamic and Asian Art. While I was visiting this extravagant institute of arts I was very impressed by all the arts within each category, but I only found three of the categories very fascinating. Those categorize are as follows: European Art, American Art, and African Art and below for the remaining of this essay I will discuss my interest in each of those categories in depth. European Art within the Detroit Institute of Arts is very interesting due to the following: the collections of sculptures and decorative arts contains over 7,000 objects in a wide range of media, including armor, ceramics, furniture, glass, ivories, jewelry, precious metalwork, tapestries, and sculpture in all materials and sizes. The collection spans from the fifth through the 19th centuries and represents all major movements and traditions in European art from the Byzantine and early Christian periods through Art Nouveau. One especially strong concentration is an Italian sculpture, which includes works by Nino Pisano, Donatello, Luca della Robbia, Gianlorenzo Bernini, and other important Italian artists. The medieval collection is also notable for its sculpture, as well as its superb ivories, enamels and stained glass. In addition, there is an important and growing focus on 19th century European sculpture, especially models and rare or unique works by Rude, Carpeaux, Germe, Gauguin, and Rodin. The European Art collection spans centuries and also includes important objects from the classical Mediterranean world, including Greek and Roman sculptures. It is also pa...

Effect of Television on Delivery of News Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Effect of Television on Delivery of News - Essay Example This information needs to be fair, precise, and just. The public relies on this information to know what exactly is going on around them, and the world at large. Media is what enables the passage or storage of information. Without it, the world and freedom would be something that people could only whisper about with fear of consequences and/or repercussions. Over the years, the media has been responsible for highlighting all the things that happen truthfully. They spearhead the campaigns against injustices and crimes. This provides them with the correct channels to use in order to find the proper manner in which this information is transferred from one medium to another. The media’s credibility depends on how accurate their information is, and how it may affect the public. It is a cause for worry if the information is biased, lacks neutrality, or is wrong. This may lead to wrong perceptions about the media and all it stands for in today’s world. This paper will examine the effects that television and other media have had on the delivery of news. Neil Postman’s: Amusing Ourselves to Death According to Postman, the rise of electronic media has led to the change in reality. Many people cannot put reality into context because the media is shaping the world into something that was not there. He goes on to insinuate that the media has changed the way in which people view politics, their immediate social setting, the economic standing, among other things. He believes that the media manipulates information for people to have some way of relating to it, even though they did not want to in the first place. In his book, Postman claims that the public’s priorities are altered with uncomplicated forms of entertainment rather than the use of violence, cruelty, and brutality when they want to fight against totalitarian authority. Postman also shows of how the media is responsible for manipulating the public’s social, economic, and political standing by presentation of fictitious information, and facts. All these are methods devised by television and other electronic media to divert the public’s attention away from matters that affect them. The public’s money and energy is directed toward such manipulation, and eventual subjugation through the media without them realising what is happening. This book and all its findings have created the state in which many continents are in today. It is, therefore, only right to say that communication brought through television and other media is biased and provides information which is destructive to the rational minds of individuals. After long periods of television watching, one gets to question and be suspicious of discussions, and arguments. These effects are growing and will continue to mature provided the media is involved in contextualising the lives of people. Matt Quayle’s article; ‘The Method of the Medium is in the Motion.’ In this article, Quayle argues that Postman’s conclusions, though somewhat true, were a little premature. He did not take the time to correctly evaluate all the factors that came into play when writing his book. Today, according to Quayle, many factors contribute to the growth of the medium used to communicate to the public. This is unlike how they did twenty-five years ago. He reiterates the fact that Postman did an exceptional job in finding out what affected the media during that time, but a lot of things have changed. Quayle insists there is a possibility of increasing the public discourse in this modern age of technology. A lot has changed since the last time Postman wrote the book on the media. Quayle asserts that the television news space has fully-grown, and there is more to look for in the

Driving factors for a telecomms operator to move from Single vendor to Research Proposal

Driving factors for a telecomms operator to move from Single vendor to multi-vendor environment - Research Proposal Example These monopolies had many different dimensions. The knowledge was restricted from moving out of one’s own control. This was done by restricting education for foreign students and minimizing the disciplines of certain fields of science; that is when we talk about a national approach. The second method was nationalizing companies which dealt with technology. When the government controlled these companies it automatically meant that their policies could be controlled. These government controlled companies had little innovations and were bureaucratic structures which had the aim of producing everything in-house. The evolution of the business environment has had an impact on many different aspects of doing business. One of the most major impacts has been on supply chains and assembly lines of a manufacturing and service business (Ballow, 1999). This is because the phenomenon of outsourcing has totally changed the landscape (Ballow, 1999). The resource allocation in organizations has greatly changed with the introduction in outsourcing. Not long ago major of every organization resources were used in fixed assets. This reduced room for improvement. This was because once fixed expenditure was made; innovating meant spending more on fixed assets (Ballow, 1999). For example if a company introduced too many changes in model, each time some of its fixed assets became obsolete and it had to make new fixed expenditures. The recent increase in product ranges and continuous model upgrades has only been possible due to the innovation in supply chain management (Ballow, 1999). The companies in this strat egy buy parts from different vendors. These smaller components can then be assembled to form the final product (Ballow, 1999). The product upgrade and new model usually need change of a few components only. The service vendor companies on the other hand can provide outsourcing for many services that a company needs (Ballow, 1999). Network providers usually

The uses of propaganda posters in World War Essay Example for Free

The uses of propaganda posters in World War Essay On the poster you see a man and his two children. A girl is sitting on his lap with an open book, and a boy is sitting on the floor playing with soldiers. The daughter looks at him asking â€Å"Daddy, what did YOU do in the Great War? †. They designed the poster to induce a sense of patriotic guilt. They were trying to capture the British men unwilling to volunteer for the war and make them feel guilty if they didn’t join. The picture depicts a situation in the future, after the war, where the daughter asks her dad expectantly how he contributed to the war. The war on the poster is already over, the dad cant re-do it. This sends a message to the young boys, unwilling to go to war. Making them think what they would tell their children if they asked what he had done for the war. It also shows that he will come home to his family. The family in the poster are smartly dressed and look wealthy. The colours in the poster symbolise the war and army, the curtains have red roses on them and the chair has the sign of the royal coat of arms on it. This would also make the man think because these are marks of patriotism but this man has not done the patriotic thing. Everything in the poster is positive; nothing would put men off from joining the war even the boy’s toy soldiers are all standing up. â€Å"At the front† This poster would stand out to men because it is showing cavalry in battle, with horses reacting to an explosion in the foreground. This poster is trying to make boys interested in joining war to fight for their country. At the front† stands out to all readers, this would seem exciting to boys because they would be fighting at the front with their horses making them brave as the poster states. It also says â€Å"every fit briton should join† this implies that the men that fight in the war are healthy, strong and brave. It also sends out a challenge that is unspoken â€Å"ARE YOU†. This poster is very manly. The colours in this poster ties in to army colours, brown and green. This poster stands out because of the explosion. Most young boys would want be at the front with their horses working as part of a team, it is clear  these men work as comrades together to fulfill their task of bringing up the guns. Both of the posters’ primary purpose is to make men to join the army. During the World War 1, there were many of propaganda posters to persuade men in their country to enlist in the army. In addition, these two posters were one of propaganda poster to convince men to join the army with some of biased truth. Even though two of posters made same primary purpose, each of them has illustrated different intend and feeling. The poster, â€Å"Daddy, what did you do in the Great War† arouses guilt with sarcasm to those men who did not yet join the army so that it leads to men to join the army. Nonetheless, the poster, At the front! † imbue the courage and morale of the men that fight in the war. Personally I think the poster that poster â€Å"Daddy what did you do for the great war? † stands out because it is making you feel guilty with the children although the poster â€Å"At the front† would stand out more to men because it is very manly.

Proof Of The Exsistence of God :: essays research papers

Proof Of The Exsistence of God Either God exists or He doesn't. There is no middle ground. Any attempt to remain neutral in relation to God's existence is automatically synonymous with unbelief. It is far from a "moot" question, for if God does exist, then nothing else really matters; if He does not exist, then nothing really matters at all. If He does exist, then there is an eternal heaven to be gained (Hebrews 11:16) and an eternal Hell to be avoided (Revelation 21:8). The question for God's existence is an extremely important one. One might wonder why it is necessary to present evidence for the existence of God. As Edward Thomson so beautifully stated it: "...the doctrine of the one living and true God, Creator, Preserver, and Benefactor of the universe, as it solves so many problems, resolves so many doubts, banishes so many fears, inspires so many hopes, gives such sublimity to all things, and such spring to all noble powers, we might presume would, as soon as it was announced, be received by e very healthy mind." Some, however, contrary to their higher interests, have refused to have God in their knowledge and thus have become vain in their reasonings and foolish in their philosophy (Romans 1:21,22,28). They do not see the folly (Psalm 14:1) of saying there is no God. The Christian has not only the obligation to "give answer to every man that asketh you a reason concerning the hope that is in you..." (I Peter 3:15), but an obligation to carry the Gospel message to a lost and dying world (Mark 16:15-16, et al.). There will be times when carrying the Gospel message to the world will entail setting forth the case for the existence of God. In addition, we need to remember that Christians are not agnostics. The agnostic is the person who says that God's existence is unknowable. As difficult as it is to believe, some Christians take that same stance in regard to God's existence. They assert that they "believe" there is a God, but that they cannot know i t. They state that God's existence cannot be proved. `This is false!' God's existence is both `knowable' and `provable.' Acceptance of God's existence is not some "blind leap into the dark" as so many have erroneously asserted. The Christian's faith is not a purely emotional, subjective "leap," but instead is a `firm conviction' regarding facts based upon reasonable evidence. Proof Of The Exsistence of God :: essays research papers Proof Of The Exsistence of God Either God exists or He doesn't. There is no middle ground. Any attempt to remain neutral in relation to God's existence is automatically synonymous with unbelief. It is far from a "moot" question, for if God does exist, then nothing else really matters; if He does not exist, then nothing really matters at all. If He does exist, then there is an eternal heaven to be gained (Hebrews 11:16) and an eternal Hell to be avoided (Revelation 21:8). The question for God's existence is an extremely important one. One might wonder why it is necessary to present evidence for the existence of God. As Edward Thomson so beautifully stated it: "...the doctrine of the one living and true God, Creator, Preserver, and Benefactor of the universe, as it solves so many problems, resolves so many doubts, banishes so many fears, inspires so many hopes, gives such sublimity to all things, and such spring to all noble powers, we might presume would, as soon as it was announced, be received by e very healthy mind." Some, however, contrary to their higher interests, have refused to have God in their knowledge and thus have become vain in their reasonings and foolish in their philosophy (Romans 1:21,22,28). They do not see the folly (Psalm 14:1) of saying there is no God. The Christian has not only the obligation to "give answer to every man that asketh you a reason concerning the hope that is in you..." (I Peter 3:15), but an obligation to carry the Gospel message to a lost and dying world (Mark 16:15-16, et al.). There will be times when carrying the Gospel message to the world will entail setting forth the case for the existence of God. In addition, we need to remember that Christians are not agnostics. The agnostic is the person who says that God's existence is unknowable. As difficult as it is to believe, some Christians take that same stance in regard to God's existence. They assert that they "believe" there is a God, but that they cannot know i t. They state that God's existence cannot be proved. `This is false!' God's existence is both `knowable' and `provable.' Acceptance of God's existence is not some "blind leap into the dark" as so many have erroneously asserted. The Christian's faith is not a purely emotional, subjective "leap," but instead is a `firm conviction' regarding facts based upon reasonable evidence.

Minimum Wage and Nike Marketing Phrase

Nike is in many ways the quintessential global corporation. Established in 1972 by former University of Oregon track star Phil Knight, Nike is now one of the leading marketers of athletic shoes and apparel on the planet. In 2006, the company has $15 billion in annual revenues and sold its products in some 140 countries. Nike does not do any manufacturing. Rather, it designs and markets its products, while contracting for their manufacture from a global network of 600 factories scattered around the globe that employ some 650,000 people. This huge corporation has made Knight into one of the richest people in America. The Nike marketing phrase â€Å"Just Do It! † has become as recognizable in popular culture as its â€Å"swoosh† logo or the faces of its celebrity sponsors, such as Michael Jordan and Tiger Woods. For all of its successes, the company has been dogged for more than a decade by repeated and persistent accusations that its products are made in sweatshops where workers, many of them children, slave away in hazardous conditions for less than subsistence wages. Nike's wealth, its detractors claim, has been built upon the backs of the world's poor. To many, Nike has become a symbol of the evils of globalization—a rich Western corporation exploiting the world's poor to provide expensive shoes and apparel to the pampered consumers of the developed world. Nike's â€Å"Niketown† stores have become standard targets for anti-globalization protesters. Several nongovernmental organizations, such as San Francisco–based Global Exchange, a human rights organization dedicated to promoting environmental, political, and social justice around the world, have targeted Nike for repeated criticism and protests. News organizations such as CBS's â€Å"48 Hours† hosted by Dan Rather have run exposes on working conditions in foreign factories that supply Nike. Students on the campuses of several major U. S. universities with which Nike has lucrative sponsorship deals have protested against the ties, citing Nike's use of sweatshop labor. For its part, Nike has taken steps to counter the protests. Yes, it admits, there have been problems in some overseas factories. But the company has signaled a commitment to improving working conditions. It requires that foreign subcontractors meet minimum thresholds for working conditions and pay. It has arranged for factories to be examined by independent auditors. It has terminated contracts with factories that do not comply with its standards. But for all this effort, the company continues to be a target of protests and a symbol of dissent. The Case against Nike Typical of the exposes against Nike was a â€Å"48 Hours† report that aired October 17, 1996. 3 Reporter Roberta Baskin visited a Nike factory in Vietnam. With a shot of the factory, her commentary began: The signs are everywhere of an American invasion in search of cheap labor. Millions of people who are literate, disciplined, and desperate for jobs. This is Nike Town near what use to be called Saigon, one of four factories Nike doesn't own but subcontracts to make a million shoes a month. It takes 25,000 workers, mostly young women, to â€Å"Just Do It. † But the workers here don't share in Nike's huge profits. They work six days a week for only $40 a month, just 20 cents an hour. Baskin interviewed one factory worker, a young woman named Lap. Baskin told viewers: Her basic wage, even as sewing team leader, still doesn't amount to the minimum wage †¦ She's down to 85 pounds. Like most of the young women who make shoes, she has little choice but to accept the low wages and long hours. Nike says that it requires all subcontractors to obey local laws; but Lap has already put in much more overtime than the annual legal limit: 200 hours. Baskin then asked Lap what would happen if she was sick or had something she needed to take care of, such as a sick relative, and needed to leave the factory? Through a translator, Lap replied: It is not possible if you haven't made enough shoes. You have to meet the quota before you can go home. The clear implication of the story was that Nike was at fault here for allowing such working conditions to persist in the Vietnam factory, which was owned by a Korean company. Another attack on Nike's subcontracting practices came in June 1996 from Made in the USA, a foundation largely financed by labor unions and domestic apparel manufacturers that oppose free trade with low-wage countries. According to Joel Joseph, chairman of the foundation, a popular line of high-priced Nike sneakers, the â€Å"Air Jordans,† were put together by 11-year-olds in Indonesia making 14 cents per hour. A Nike spokeswoman, Donna Gibbs, countered that this was false. According to Gibbs, the average worker made 240,000 rupiah ($103) a month working a maximum 54-hour week, or about 45 cents per hour. Gibbs also noted that Nike had staff members in each factory monitoring conditions to make sure the factory obeyed local minimum wage and child labor laws. Another example of the criticism against Nike is the following extract from a newsletter published by Global Exchange:5 During the 1970s, most Nike shoes were made in South Korea and Taiwan. When workers there gained new freedom to organize and wages began to rise, Nike looked for â€Å"greener pastures. † It found them in Indonesia and China, where Nike started producing in the 1980s, and most recently in Vietnam. The majority of Nike shoes are made in Indonesia and China, countries with governments that prohibit independent unions and set the minimum wage at rock bottom. The Indonesian government admits that the minimum wage there does not provide enough to supply the basic needs of one person, let alone a family. In early 1997 the entry-level wage was a miserable $2. 46 a day. Labor groups estimate that a livable wage in Indonesia is about $4. 00 a day. In Vietnam the pay is even less—20 cents an hour, or a mere $1. 60 a day. But in urban Vietnam, three simple meals cost about $2. 10 a day, and then of course there is rent, transportation, clothing, health care, and much more. According to Thuyen Nguyen of Vietnam Labor Watch, a living wage in Vietnam is at least $3 a day. In another attack on Nike's practices, in September 1997 Global Exchange published a report on working conditions in four Nike and Reebok subcontractors in southern China. 6 Global Exchange, in conjunction with two Hong Kong human rights groups, had interviewed workers at the factories in 1995 and again in 1997. According to Global Exchange, in one factory, a Korean owned subcontractor for Nike, workers as young as 13 earning as little as 10 cents an hour toiled up to 17 hours daily in enforced silence. Talking during work was not allowed, with violators fined $1. 20 to $3. 0, according to the report. The practices were in violation of Chinese labor law, which states that no child under 16 may work in a factory, and the Chinese minimum wage requirement of $1. 90 for an eight-hour day. Nike condemned the study as erroneous, stating that the report incorrectly stated the wages of workers and made irresponsible accusations. Global Exchange, however, continued to be a major thorn in Nike's side. In November 1997, the organization obtained and then leaked a confidential report by Ernst & Young of an audit that Nike had commissioned of a factory in Vietnam owned by a  Nike subcontractor. 7 The factory had 9,200 workers and made 400,000 pairs of shoes a month. The Ernst & Young report painted a dismal picture of thousands of young women, most under age 25, laboring 10 1/2 hours a day, six days a week, in excessive heat and noise and in foul air, for slightly more than $10 a week. The report also found that workers with skin or breathing problems had not been transferred to departments free of chemicals and that more than half the workers who dealt with dangerous chemicals did not wear protective masks or gloves. It claimed workers were exposed to carcinogens that exceeded local legal standards by 177 times in parts of the plant and that 77 percent of the employees suffered from respiratory problems. Put on the defensive yet again, Nike called a news conference and pointed out that it had commissioned the report and had acted on it. 8 The company stated it had formulated an action plan to deal with the problems cited in the report, and had slashed overtime, improved safety and ventilation, and reduced the use of toxic chemicals. The company also asserted that the report showed that its internal monitoring system had performed exactly as it should have. According to one spokesman: This shows our system of monitoring works †¦ We have uncovered these issues clearly before anyone else, and we have moved fairly expeditiously to correct them. Nike's Responses Unaccustomed to playing defense, Nike formulated a number of strategies and tactics to deal with the problems of working conditions and pay at subcontractors. In 1996, Nike hired Andrew Young, onetime U. S. mbassador to the United Nations and former Atlanta mayor, to assess working conditions in subcontractors' plants around the world. Young released a mildly critical report of Nike in mid-1997. After completing a two-week tour that covered 15 factories in three countries, Young informed Nike it was doing a good job in treating workers, though it should do better. According to Young, he did not see sweatshops, or hostile conditions †¦ I saw crowded dorms †¦ but the workers were eating at least two meals a day on the job and making what I was told were subsistence wages in those cultures. Young was widely criticized by human rights and labor groups for not taking his own translators and for doing slipshod inspections, an assertion he repeatedly denied. In 1996, Nike joined a presidential task force designed to find a way of banishing sweatshops in the shoe and clothing industries. The task force included industry leaders such as Nike, representatives from human rights groups, and labor leaders. In April 1997, the task force announced an agreement for workers rights that U. S. companies could agree to when manufacturing abroad. The accord limited the work week to 60 hours and called for paying at least the local minimum wage in foreign factories. The task force also agreed to establish an independent monitoring association—later named the Fair Labor Association (FLA)—to assess whether companies are abiding by the code. 10 The FLA now includes among its members the Lawyers Committee for Human Rights, the National Council of Churches, the International Labor Rights Fund, some 135 universities (universities have extensive licensing agreements with sports apparel companies such as Nike), and companies such as Nike, Reebok, and Levi Strauss. In early 1997, Nike also began to commission independent organizations such as Ernst & Young to audit the factories of its subcontractors. In September 1997, Nike tried to show its critics that it was involved in more than just a public relations exercise when it terminated its relationship with four Indonesian subcontractors, stating that they had refused to comply with the company's standard for wage levels and working conditions. Nike identified one of the subcontractors, Seyon, which manufactured specialty sports gloves for Nike. Nike said that Seyon refused to meet a 10. 7 percent increase in the monthly wage, to $70. 0, declared by the Indonesian government in April 1997. 11 On May 12, 1998, in a speech given at the National Press Club, Phil Knight spelled out in detail a series of initiatives designed to improve working conditions for the 500,000 people that make products for Nike. 12 Among the initiatives Knight highlighted were the following: We have effectively changed our minimum age limits from the ILO (International Labor Organization) standards of 15 in most countries and 14 in developing countries to 18 in all footwear manufacturing and 16 in all other types of manufacturing (apparel, accessories, and equipment. . Existing workers legally employed under the former limits were grandfathered into the new requirements. During the past 13 months we have moved to a 100 percent factory audit scheme, where every Nike contract factory will receive an annual check by Pricewaterhouse Coopers teams who are specially trained on our Code of Conduct Owner's Manual and audit/monitoring procedures. To date they have performed about 300 such monitoring visits. In a few instances in apparel factories they have found workers under our age standards. Those factories have been required to raise their standards to 17 years of age, to require three documents certifying age, and to redouble their efforts to ensure workers meet those standards through interviews and records checks. Our goal was to ensure workers around the globe are protected by requiring factories to have no workers exposed to levels above those mandated by the permissible exposure limits (PELs) for chemicals prescribed in the OSHA indoor air quality standards. 3 These moves were applauded in the business press, but they were greeted with a skeptical response from Nike's long-term adversaries in the debate over the use of foreign labor. While conceding that Nike's policies were an improvement, one critic writing in the New York Times noted: Mr. Knight's child labor initiative is †¦ a smoke screen. Child labor has not been a big problem with Nike, and Philip Knight knows that better than anyone. But public relations is public relations. So he screen. Child labor has not been a big problem with Nike, and Philip Knight knows that better than anyone. But public relations is public relations. So he have to keep a close eye on him at all times. The biggest problem with Nike is that its overseas workers make wretched, below-subsistence wages. It's not the minimum age that needs raising, it's the minimum wage. Most of the workers in Nike factories in China and Vietnam make less than $2 a day, well below the subsistence levels in those countries. In Indonesia the pay is less than $1 a day. The company's current strategy is to reshape its public image while doing as little as possible for the workers. Does anyone think it was an accident that Nike set up shop in human rights sinkholes, where labor organizing was viewed as a criminal activity and deeply impoverished workers were willing, even eager, to take their places on assembly lines and work for next to nothing? 14 Other critics question the value of Nike's auditors, Pricewaterhouse Coopers (PwC). Dara O'Rourke, an assistant professor at MIT, followed the PwC auditors around several factories in China, Korea, and Vietnam. He concluded that although the auditors found minor violations of labor laws and codes of conduct, they missed major labor practice issues including hazardous working conditions, violations of overtime laws, and violation of wage laws. The problem, according to O'Rourke, was that the auditors had limited training and relied on factory managers for data and to set up worker interviews, all of which were performed in the factories. The auditors, in other words, were getting an incomplete and somewhat sanitized view of conditions in the factory. 5 The Controversy Continues Fueled perhaps by the unforgiving criticisms of Nike that continued after Phil Knight's May 1998 speech, beginning in 1998 and continuing into 2001, a wave of protests against Nike occurred on many university campuses. The moving force behind the protests was the United Students Against Sweatshops (USAS). The USAS argued that the Fair Labor Association (FLA), which grew out of the presidential task force on sweatshops , was an industry tool, and not a truly independent auditor of foreign factories. The USAS set up an alternative independent auditing organization, the Workers Rights Consortium (WRC), which they charged with auditing factories that produce products under collegiate licensing programs (Nike is a high profile supplier of products under these programs). The WRC is backed, and partly funded, by labor unions and refuses to cooperate with companies, arguing that doing so would jeopardize its independence. By mid-2000, the WRC had persuaded some 48 universities to join the organization, including all nine calmpuses of the University of California system, the University of Michigan, and the University of Oregon, Phil Knight's alma mater. When Knight heard that the University of Oregon would join the WRC, as opposed to the FLA, he withdrew a planned $30 million donation to the university. 16 Despite this, in November 2000, the University of Washington announced it too would join the WRC, although it would also retain its membership in the FLA. 7 Nike continued to push forward with its own initiatives, updating progress on its website. In April 2000, in response to pressure that it was still hiding poor working conditions, Nike announced it would release the complete reports of all independent audits of its subcontractors' plants. Global Exchange continued to criticize the company, arguing in mid-2001 that the company was not living up to Knight's 1998 promises, and that it was intimidati ng workers from speaking out about abuses.