Real World

by | Mar 19, 2021 | Government

1a Identify 2 nonprofits, 2 general purpose governments, and 2 special purpose governments in your local area (do not list the same entity as Question 2).
1b Describe what differentiates a non-profit from a government. Describe what differentiates non-profits and governments from a for-profit business.
2 Explore the website for Outlook Nebraska, Inc. (https://www.outlookne.org) The annual report and Form 990s can be found under the About/Stewardship path. Answer the following questions:
2a Is Outlook Nebraska, Inc. a nonprofit, government, or business? What characteristics of the organization helped you identify the type of organization?
2b “Describe how the following elements apply to Outlook Nebraska, Inc.:
1) Profit motive
2) Expectations of resource providers
3) Ownership interest”
2c What is Outlook Nebraska, Inc.’s main activity and revenue source?
3 Obtain the Douglas County, Nebraska CAFR. Answer the following questions
3a Does the CAFR contain both government-wide and fund financial statements? How many financial statements have been included as part of the basic financial statement section of the CAFR?
3b “How many of each of the following funds does Douglas County have?
• General Fund
• Special Revenue Funds
• Capital Project Funds
• Debt Services Funds
• Permanent Funds
• Enterprise Funds
• Internal Service Funds”
3c What are the main revenue sources of the County?
3d Do the financial statements provide evidence that the governmental, proprietary, and fiduciary funds use the appropriate basis of accounting? How can you determine this through review of the financial statements?
3e What are the revenue recognition criteria for the County?
3f How do the footnotes define the term “available for paying current period obligations?
3g Which financial statements present expenditures instead of expenses?
4 In your opinion, what are the most important information needs that a government annual report should fulfill for members of the elected officials?
5 Consider how the current pandemic is impacting state and local governments. Describe in your own words how the impact on state and local governments may be similar to that of for-profit businesses and how it may be different.
6 Locate one current event article that describes the impact of COVID-19 on a state or local government. Provide a link and brief summary of the article.

Notes
The Douglas County CAFR can be found on the County Clerk/Comptroller’s website. Follow the path below:
• https://www.douglascountyclerk.org/
• Select “County Financial Reports” in the links to the left.
• Select the link to the June 30, 2019 CAFR.

Sample Solution

Sample solution

Dante Alighieri played a critical role in the literature world through his poem Divine Comedy that was written in the 14th century. The poem contains Inferno, Purgatorio, and Paradiso. The Inferno is a description of the nine circles of torment that are found on the earth. It depicts the realms of the people that have gone against the spiritual values and who, instead, have chosen bestial appetite, violence, or fraud and malice. The nine circles of hell are limbo, lust, gluttony, greed and wrath. Others are heresy, violence, fraud, and treachery. The purpose of this paper is to examine the Dante’s Inferno in the perspective of its portrayal of God’s image and the justification of hell. 

In this epic poem, God is portrayed as a super being guilty of multiple weaknesses including being egotistic, unjust, and hypocritical. Dante, in this poem, depicts God as being more human than divine by challenging God’s omnipotence. Additionally, the manner in which Dante describes Hell is in full contradiction to the morals of God as written in the Bible. When god arranges Hell to flatter Himself, He commits egotism, a sin that is common among human beings (Cheney, 2016). The weakness is depicted in Limbo and on the Gate of Hell where, for instance, God sends those who do not worship Him to Hell. This implies that failure to worship Him is a sin.


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God is also depicted as lacking justice in His actions thus removing the godly image. The injustice is portrayed by the manner in which the sodomites and opportunists are treated. The opportunists are subjected to banner chasing in their lives after death followed by being stung by insects and maggots. They are known to having done neither good nor bad during their lifetimes and, therefore, justice could have demanded that they be granted a neutral punishment having lived a neutral life. The sodomites are also punished unfairly by God when Brunetto Lattini is condemned to hell despite being a good leader (Babor, T. F., McGovern, T., & Robaina, K. (2017). While he commited sodomy, God chooses to ignore all the other good deeds that Brunetto did.

Finally, God is also portrayed as being hypocritical in His actions, a sin that further diminishes His godliness and makes Him more human. A case in point is when God condemns the sin of egotism and goes ahead to commit it repeatedly. Proverbs 29:23 states that “arrogance will bring your downfall, but if you are humble, you will be respected.” When Slattery condemns Dante’s human state as being weak, doubtful, and limited, he is proving God’s hypocrisy because He is also human (Verdicchio, 2015). The actions of God in Hell as portrayed by Dante are inconsistent with the Biblical literature. Both Dante and God are prone to making mistakes, something common among human beings thus making God more human.

To wrap it up, Dante portrays God is more human since He commits the same sins that humans commit: egotism, hypocrisy, and injustice. Hell is justified as being a destination for victims of the mistakes committed by God. The Hell is presented as being a totally different place as compared to what is written about it in the Bible. As a result, reading through the text gives an image of God who is prone to the very mistakes common to humans thus ripping Him off His lofty status of divine and, instead, making Him a mere human. Whether or not Dante did it intentionally is subject to debate but one thing is clear in the poem: the misconstrued notion of God is revealed to future generations.

 

References

Babor, T. F., McGovern, T., & Robaina, K. (2017). Dante’s inferno: Seven deadly sins in scientific publishing and how to avoid them. Addiction Science: A Guide for the Perplexed, 267.

Cheney, L. D. G. (2016). Illustrations for Dante’s Inferno: A Comparative Study of Sandro Botticelli, Giovanni Stradano, and Federico Zuccaro. Cultural and Religious Studies, 4(8), 487.

Verdicchio, M. (2015). Irony and Desire in Dante’s” Inferno” 27. Italica, 285-297.

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