Saturday, November 30, 2019

What to do with parents who abuse their children Essay Example

What to do with parents who abuse their children? Essay In Florida, three year old Caylee Anthony was last reported seen in mid-June of 2008. Caylee’s remains were found a few miles from the home of Caylee’s grandparents. Caylee’s mother, Casey Anthony is alleged with her daughter’s murder (Polonko, n.d.). An Eleven weeks old infant, Aaron was brutally murdered by his father. The stressed father took out his anger on the crying baby  giving him bruises on the brain which killed him (Polonko, n.d.). Somewhere in the Midwest, a distressed girl complains to her mother that her father is harassing her. The father accuses the child of lying and after the mom leaves, he ties his daughter to a tree and runs the lawn mower over the cat after he partly buries her. The child screams at the horrendous sight and promises to be good and take her words back if he lets the poor animal live (Polonko, n.d.). We will write a custom essay sample on What to do with parents who abuse their children? specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page Order now We will write a custom essay sample on What to do with parents who abuse their children? specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer We will write a custom essay sample on What to do with parents who abuse their children? specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer Somewhere else, a little boy’s hands are tied behind his back to discipline him. The father forgets to untie his son’s hand as a result of which the little boy’s hands had to be surgically removed. On returning from the hospital after the treatments, the innocent child promises to behave well and in return pleads for his hands to be given back to him (Polonko, n.d.). In Thailand, an eight year old girl is sold by her parents into sexual slavery where she is required to engage into sexual customers with at least fifteen customers a day. In Abu Dhabi, a couple was sentenced for beating their 9 year old daughter to the point that she became 80% immobile (Polonko, n.d.). These are the stories that no one wants to hear. These are the realities that no one wants to discuss. In the daily newspaper, our eyes are met with gruesome photographs of children who have been assaulted or battered by parents. Parents, the most often perpetrators: According to the reports of National Child Abuse and Neglect Data System, more than 900,000 children became victims of abuse or neglect in the U.S in 2003. In 2006, an estimate number of 905,000 children in the United States were reported to be assaulted and neglected. According to reports, parents which include birth parents, adoptive parents and stepparents were eighty percent of the perpetrators. Child abuse is prevalent in any social, cultural, or economic class. An approximately equal number of men and women abuse children. Although it is important to remember that children can be abused or assaulted by anyone, but most often, when a child is injured, the perpetrator is someone known to the child. Only one in five harmful acts to children are on account of strangers. The finger is in most cases pointed to the child’s primary caregivers- who are most often the child’s parents. In the year 2004 in Texas, parents were the accused perpetrators in 77 percent of the cases of child abuse or neglect. Statistics also show that 80% of child deaths each year are the result of  parental maltreatment (Administration of Children and Families, n.d.). There are numerous reasons why children abuse their children. Abusive parents may themselves have been the subject of abuse as children. With very limited parenting skills, they may have been relying solitarily upon corporal punishment for discipline. These parents want their children to behave ideally and they get frustrated in their efforts. Stress that is associated with divorce, unemployment, or other family crises makes child abuse more likely. Parents who have a tendency to abuse their children are even more likely to do so under stress. Actions to be taken: The nature of the problem of child abuse is severe. Child abuse damages young lives and has serious consequences which may remain as ineffaceable pain throughout the victim’s lifetime. In addition to the injuries inflicted on the children as a direct result of the abuse, they also suffer from a variety of negative problems. These include degraded self esteem, higher levels of aggression and violence, poor academic performance, alcoholism and an increased likelihood of becoming the batterers of the next generation. Every child has the right to grow up healthy and safe. Thus, it becomes necessary to tackle the problem of child abuse. Since parents are the most likely abusers, the question most prominently addressed in the paper will be: What to do with parents who abuse their children? Generally, there two ways directed at parents who abuse and neglect their children. The first is taking criminal action against parents or prosecuting them. The other more humane approach is treatment to help victims of child abuse and their parents (Costin, 1998). Criminal action against parents who abuse their children: In Abu Dhabi, a nine-year old girl, Nouf suffered from burns, bruises and knife cuts at the hands of her parents. Nouf’s father accused the girl of playing with her genital and told authorities that he beat the little girl to discipline her and to prevent her from doing sins. The girl’s parents were charged and sentenced behind bars for 10 years and the court demanded the parents to pay a compensation of Dh160, 000 to the girl, who according to medical report became 80% physically disable as a result of the abuse. Prosecution of parents in such cases is common and justified. Criminal prosecution is mostly used in cases of sexual abuse and fatalities. It is often essential Prosecution of sexual offenders to protect the victim from successive abuse. It is also argued that strict laws should be enforced in order to purge the widespread social problem of child abuse. There has been a call to outlaw corporal punishment in the home. Australian psychologists believe that smacking leads to homicide so if parents were prevented from smacking their children child homicide rates would be slashed. Sweden banned smacking thirty years ago but after 15 years of the imposition there was not a single case of severe child abuse (Costin, 1998). Such laws are seen as effective and people who are for criminal action propose that prosecuting parents and terminating parental rights is an immediate way of ending child abuse whereas during the other approach, treatment, the child is still under the abusive parent and is at risk(Roberts,2004). Treatment is rendered ineffective if the parents do not accept that they have a problem and are reluctant to receive treatment. Before child abuse is diagnosed, parents apprehend getting caught because of the punishment and a good amount of social stigma attached to it. On being told of clinicians concerns, they may express hostility because of criticism directed at their child-rearing practices (Costin, 1998). Treatment of abusive parents involves convincing them to see themselves as sick. Ironically, treating child abuse as a sickness has made it more of a problem which is difficult to cure. Not enough therapists are available to resolve the innumerable diagnosed cases. Furthermore, most abusive parents do not have the time and money to spend on their rehabilitation. Nor do they have a temperament for long-term therapeutic treatment. Many such parents also lack pensive abilities which are required for successful psychological therapy. Also, the resources of the society which are in short supply are diverted to providing services for the rehabilitation of the abused parents (Costin, 1998). Rehabilitation, a better approach to ending child abuse Many states in the U.S have passed special criminal child abuse laws. States are increasingly trying to deal with child abuse and neglect by taking criminal action against the parents rather than providing rehabilitative remedies in family courts. For example in the last several years, child abuse arrests for imperiling the welfare of minors in New York City, has risen by 60 per cent. Although it is relatively rare that a parent is prosecuted and brought to court for child neglect but the message that criminal conviction sends is strong and significant(National district attorneys association,2009). Almost every civilized nation has laws enforced that require that child abuse cases be reported. The states in the U.S. demand that suspected cases are reported by whoever deals with the children and their families for example, physicians and teachers. When child abuse is proven and parents are found guilty, courts normally remove children from their home and sometimes give a jail sentence to the offending parent. Yet, after the sentence is over parents make a court appeal to regain the custody of the children and they do gain their children back. The concluding result is generally the child’s death. Five percent of the children are killed and Thirty Five percent are seriously reinjured if the abused child is returned to his parents and restored into the family without remedial treatment directed at the parents. It becomes plain and clear that mere punishment and strictly enforced law are not good approaches to solving this social problem. Instead, there is a dire need for a m ore humane and multi- disciplinary approach. This should include community efforts to craft support systems for families. Such efforts may consist of parenting education for abusive parents, and counseling and rehabilitation for the criminal parents, and of course the development of self-help groups. If Parents are convinced to see themselves as sick they may develop an agreeable attitude towards seeking help. Parents are more likely to accept themselves as sick than have a criminal label attached to them because there is less social disgrace with the former label (National district attorneys association, 2009). Instead of blaming abusive parents, an effective strategy would be to work to relieve their stress. We saw earlier that taking legal action or prosecution would not help end child abuse; after the sentence is over the parent’s fights to take custody of the child and when that does happen they get back at their children by abusing them or even murdering them.   We will now look at another reason why criminal prosecution does not work for parents who abuse their children. Sometimes, we can identify the underlying cause of child abuse. We can then work upon treating the underlying cause instead of taking criminal action which does not eliminate the underlying cause. Some child abuse cases arise out of poverty. A high and strong correlation exists between poverty and child abuse and neglect. In a case which concerned a mother and her six children who were supported by aids and welfare benefits, the child welfare departments straight away took custody of the mother’s children when her youngest child, Christopher dies from an unidentified cause. The authorities took custody filing a petition that each child was neglected. The petition claimed that the defendant’s apartment was filthy with roaches roaming around and that the children occasionally came to school without having eaten breakfast (Costin, 1998). Now instead of taking action by terminating parental rights of the mother and accusing her of neglect, a better approach would have been to relieve the threat to children which was stemming from their impoverished living conditions. It is both pointless and unfair to impose criminal punishment without addressing the offenders’ deprivation (Child abuse prevention network, 2006). In some cases, the father is sentenced to jail for keeping his children in an unhygienic environment such as a room full of bad odor and urine and feces lying in a bucket in a corner. The poor father who cannot afford a toilet is charged and put behind bars. In such cases, children are better off living in filthy conditions than living without a father supporting them. When dealing with cases of child abuse in indigenous families, an ethical approach would be to address the issue of poverty. Lawbreakers should not be excused because they are poor but proper treatment strategic treatment which involves alleviating poverty should be given to such families rather than springing to action and resorting to prosecution(Costin, 1998). Similarly, if a child is neglected or abused by a parent who is alcoholic or addicted to drugs than proper treatment should be provided to parents such as referring them to rehabilitation programs and making sure they are present in sessions that follow.   Parents sometimes resort to lashing their children if their stress and anger gets out of control. Instead of taking criminal action, a better methodology would be to encourage them to recognize their problem and to register themselves with life skills clinics which have programs for stress, anger and anxiety management (Child abuse prevention network, 2006). Parents who use corporal punishment as a means of disciplining their children should also be treated. They should be educated about better parenting techniques and encouraged to use non-violent methods of disciplining (Amer, 1978). Abusive parents are reluctant to seek help but they do want it. Their only trepidation is that they will be pressed with criminal charges and they will no longer have custody of their children. They need to be informed that help is available and that there will be no consequences they need to fear. The goal of family protection programs is to knit the family together and children are mostly permitted to remain with their parents or in some cases there is a temporary removal of children from homes. We can conclude from this that family protection programs are more sensitive to the feelings of parents and do not hurt families during the process of treatment. Punishment in contrast is harsher and insensitive to the family system (Costin, 1998). Community supports are offered to parents in various forms. There are hotlines on which staffers lend a sympathetic ear for parents who want to talk about what they are going through. This service is provided 24-7 and responses such as sending out a police car or ambulance is also provided. Then, there are emergency shelters which offer children refuge when parents want to take a break. Then, there are homemakers who go into homes and help parents better manage their duties of household and childcare (Child abuse prevention network, 2006). The most successful are self-help groups. The best known of the self-help groups is Parents Anonymous. It is a group run by parents and abusive parents gather and talk about their positions with other parents who have similar problems. It develops a friendly atmosphere where parents accept and assist each other. Therapy can also be recommended to parent where psychotherapists can help parents explore ways of finding happiness; satisfying the needs of their children together with their personal needs (Muehlenberg, 2009). Another reason as to why treatment of parents is a better strategy in ending child abuse than punishment is that it benefits the society. There will be few criminal prosecutions if the society looks at the abusive parents are patients who are sick and want treatment.   The reports of child abuse will then be reported to the welfare department and this will mean that the police department have adequate resources to deal with other society concerns (Costin, 1998). Conclusion: It was not until the 19th century that laws were introduces granting children the same legal status as household animals. These laws were made to protect child cruelty and neglect. All the states in the United States have enforced laws that demand the reporting of suspected child abuse. Statistics reveal that Parents are seen as the most prominent perpetrators of child abuse. Should parents be punished for abusing children or should rehabilitation services be provided for their treatment in order to restore the family system? For cases where child abuse is mild or where children are neglected, remedial treatment for parents through programs would prove effective. For severe abuse cases, a good approach would be to allow state intervention which involves prosecution of the parent followed by corrective treatment of parents. For court intervention without treatment is incomplete and treatment is incomplete without court intervention. Both complement each other in an attempt to restore the family system.

Tuesday, November 26, 2019

Annotated Bibliography on Technology

Annotated Bibliography on Technology Annotated Bibliography on Database Forensics: Data base forensic has various aspects including its process, weaknesses and disadvantages. This research paper aims at explaining the process of data base forensic, its related weaknesses and disadvantages. This is to certify whether the use of database forensics tools will keep the confidentially of the data or not. In the first instance, data base forensic has a unique process in which it is carried out. This shows that data base process has to be enacted so that facts are investigated and established. Rogers, M. (2003). The role of criminal profiling in the computer forensics process. New York. The author of this source document tries to disclose to people that there is a significant role in criminal profiling in computer forensic process. This role is most useful in computer forensic process where information of criminals is stored. He clearly and precisely impacts that knowledge into every reader of his work to make the role understood by many individuals. From the source document, we get to know that criminal profiling involves getting all the required data from criminals for proper investigations and establishment of factual information in criminal and civil courts. Criminal profiling serves a critical purpose since it keeps all information of criminals making it easy to track them even if they escape. Criminal profiling also serves to indicate that certain individuals are criminals. It includes the crime and felony committed by the criminal at hand. This source is useful in to those individuals entrusted with criminology duties. It makes them aware that criminal profiling is necessary for proper management of criminals. It also serves to show that full data and information of criminals should be taken for effective investigation and establishment of factual information concerning criminals. Werrett, J, D. (2000). The National DNA Database. Birmingham: UK. Database forensic puts into action many ways to get criminals. The data base forensic process used may involve many ways of getting the criminals. One of the methods enacted is the DNA testing operation. For the last two years, the Forensic Science Service has established and put into operation a National DNA Database. This operation is meant get criminals who escape after committing their felonies. The data base forensic process involved testing DNA samples of suspected individuals of various crimes. Also, samples were analyzed from stains from gotten from scenes of crime. This shows that the stains were to be analyzed to get the criminal who committed the offense. DNA samples of suspected individuals were tested to prove whether or not they committed the crime they are being suspected of committing. This source will be useful to those individuals who may be suspecting criminals for committing certain crimes. This is because their DNA samples can be analyzed to prove guilty or innocent of the suspected felonies. Gill, P, Curran, J, Elliot, K. (2005). A graphical simulation model of the entire DNA process associated with the analysis of short tandem repeat loci. USA. Database forensic process that deals with DNA analysis provides complete information to DNA and its related tests to arrest criminals. The author of this journal article shows us that there is a prevalent increase in the use of expert system in interpretation of short tandem DNA profiles. It has been proved that this way of getting data from criminal is cumbersome and time-consuming hence invention of the graphical model. This is reference to the Low Copy Number (LCN) applications. The graphical model is used to simulate stochastic variations related to DNA process. From the model, DNA process starts with extraction of sample followed by the preparation of a PCR reaction mixture. This shows that database forensic is becoming complex but faster in DNA process to get information regarding to criminals. This source will, therefore, be useful to those intellectual individuals dealing with criminal investigations. This source document clearly provides a complex but faster way of DNA process to get information from criminals. Willuweit, S. (2007). Y chromosome haplotype reference database (YHRD): Update. Berlin: Germany. This source document shows that Y chromosome haplotype reference database (YHRD): Update is an application of database forensic process. The update is designed for forensic analysts in their work since it is meant to store the Y chromosome haplotypes from global population. This update is mainly useful to those individuals who are interested in family and historic genetics. Since genetics is the scientific study of passage of genetic materials form parents to their offsprings, forensic analysts get to know genetic characteristics of various families. This knowledge can be used to trap criminals since their family genetic characteristics are known. Forensic analysts understand families with law breakers hence they fall suspects of crimes which happen within their reach. This source document will be useful since it gives people a clear knowledge about the Y chromosome haplotype reference database (YHRD) update. It also makes people know that family genetics can be useful in tracking criminals. Rowlingson, R. A Ten Step Process for Forensic Readiness. University of Aston: Birmingham. This research paper gives a ten step process which an individual should undergo to be for database forensic process. The ten processes outlined in the source document are as follows; define business scenario that require digital evidence, identify available resources and different types of evidence, determine the evidence collection requirement, and establish a capability for securely gathering legally admissible evidence to meet the requirement and establish a policy for secure storage and handling of potential evidence. Other steps include ensuring that monitoring and auditing is targeted to detect and deter major incidents, specifying circumstances when escalation to a full formal investigation is required, training staff, presenting an evidence-based case describing the incident and its impact, and ensuring legal review to facilitate action in response to the incident. The source document is useful since it gives researchers the ten step process for data base forensic readiness. This serves to prepare and make it known to individuals joining CID that they have to be prepared to be ready for data base forensic process. Bandelt, H, J, Lahermo, P, Richards, M V. Macaulay, V. (2001). Detecting errors in mtDNA data by phylogenetic analysis. UK. The author of this source document claims that some errors may occur on a forensic mtDNA data base. This error may result in wrong establishment of facts concerning criminals. This error may also lead to passing out wrong judgment to suspected criminals. This implies that innocent suspected criminals may be declared guilty while guilty suspected criminals may be declared innocent. This shows that the error has great effect on the judgment passed on criminals. This source document comes up with a way in which the error on a forensic mtDNA data base can be detected to avoid confusion. This source document will be useful since it gives a way in which the mtDNA error can be detected to avoid confusion and wrong judgment in criminal and civil courts. Researchers and readers can clearly understand the error and the way of detecting it. There are some weaknesses related to database forensic and its related tools. These weaknesses serve to draw back the efforts put in place, by the use of data base forensic, to investigate or establish facts in courts. The weaknesses bring about limitations to the use of forensic data base in investigating and establishing facts in courts. Lee, S, Kim, H, Lee, Lim, J. (2005). Digital evidence collection process in integrity and memory information gathering. Korea University Seoul. South Korea. The author of this source document brings out a weakness that is linked to data base forensic. The weakness is related to the EnCase that was used globally. Its weakness is that modifications can be made on MDC value of digital evidence. This shows that the MDC value is not standard hence can be adjusted resulting to resulting to errors. This led to the proposal of another counter measure. The counter measure proposed was the MDC public system, public authentication system with PKI and MAC system. This source document is useful since it brings out the weakness of the MDC value and its counter measure proposal. Leigland, R W. Krings, W. (2004). A Formalization of Digital Forensics. France. This source document brings out one of the weakness in data base forensic. The weakness limits investigation and some other ways of finding evidence against criminals. The weakness stated in this source document is the unclear use and bounds of digital evidence in legal proceedings. This means that the current techniques, of digital cameras, may not rigorous enough to be used in the courtroom. This limits evidence that is presented against criminals if recorded by digital devices such as digital cameras. This source is helpful since it makes clear the weaknesses of data base forensic. Digital evidence may not be allowed during legal proceedings in courtrooms. Harris, R. (2006). Arriving at an anti-forensics consensus: Examining how to define and control the anti-forensics problem. Purdue University: USA. According to this source document, there are some anti-forensics problems that act as draw backs to data base forensic. Such problems are some of the weaknesses of data base forensic in investigating and establishing facts concerning criminals. This source is helpful since it shows that anti-forensic problems act as weaknesses of data base forensic. Newsham, T, Palmer, C, Stamos, A Burns, J. (2007). Breaking Forensics Software: Weaknesses in Critical Evidence Collection. San Francisco: USA. According to this source, forensic software break down is a common problem. Such breakdown brings about problems in collection of information to be used as evidence. This results in weakness in critical evidence collection. Casey, E. (2003). Network traffic as a source of evidence: tool strengths, weaknesses, and future needs. Knowledge Solutions LLC: USA. The author of this source document mainly focuses on weakness brought about in data base forensic by tools of data base forensic. Since the tools used are not100% effective, they are prone to errors. These errors make data base forensic a defective way of investigating and establishing facts about criminals in criminal and civil courts. This source is, therefore, useful as it informs researchers of the weakness brought in data base forensic b y defective tools used. Thompson, E. (2005). MD5 collisions and the impact on computer forensics. West Lindon: United States of America. Thompson concentrates his writing on the weakness of data base forensic caused by MD5 collisions. These MD5 collisions have an impact on data base forensic since it brings about weaknesses in the MD5 hash algorithm. This leads to the general weakness of data base forensic as a process of investigating and establishing facts on criminals in courts. This source document is useful as it grants researchers and readers the chance to discover that MD5 collisions results in weakness of the data base forensic. Inclusively, there are some disadvantages that come about due to the use of database forensic tools. Nagesh, A. (2006). Distributed Network Forensics using JADE Mobile Agent Framework. Arizona State University: USA. Nagesh says that some disadvantages of data base forensic are brought about by architectures in data base forensic. This is because the architectures create network congestion near the forensics. This leads to unavailability of network in such places. Data base forensic tools and devices which use network cannot operate properly in such places due to lack of network. This interferes with collection of data and information to be used as evidence. This source is helpful since it makes researchers and readers be aware of the disadvantage caused by data base forensic architectures. Haggerty, J, Jones, D, L Taylor, M. (2008). Forweb: file fingerprinting for automated network forensics investigations. Liverpool John Moores University: UK. This source admits that there are many disadvantages connected to data base forensic. This is because some ways of data base forensic make use of approaches that use computationally exhaustive statistical measures. Some of these measures are complex in nature posing a problem in proper establishment and investigation of information to be used as evidence. The source is useful since it clearly shows that file printing for automated network forensic investigations may be intensive hence a predicament in data and information collection. Navarro, P, J, Nickless, B Winkle, L. (1995). Combining Cisco Net Flow Exports with Relational Database Technology for Usage Statistics, Intrusion Detection, and Network Forensics. The author of this source document suggests that some of the disadvantages of data base forensic are caused by the tools used. This means that any defective tool used in data base forensic process results in one or more problems. According to her, data can be lost if the back-end SQL data base is unavailable. This implies that the lack of the back-end SQL data base results to data loss. This source is useful since it equips it readers that data will be lost if the back-end SQL data base is unavailable. Singhal, A Jajodia, S. (2006). Data warehousing and data mining techniques for intrusion detection systems. Gaithersburg: USA. The disadvantage of data base forensic explained in this source document bases on data mining and data warehousing techniques. These techniques improve performance of Usability of Intrusion Detection System (IDS). The problem comes with the current IDS since they do not provide support for historical data summarization and analysis. This means that data collected is not supported hence does not have assurance of being true or false. This source document is useful in its full content of the problem caused by the current Usability of Intrusion Detection Systems. Garfinkel, S, L. (2010). Digital forensics research: The next 10 years. Monterey: USA. The golden age of computer forensic is quickly coming to an end. This calls for careful handling of data base forensic tools. SQL, for example, requires a standardized careful planning for its handling. This means that some of data base tools are delicate and vulnerable hence requires careful handling. Careless handling of such tools may result in their damage hence loss. This source document is useful since it precisely explains the idea careful planning for data base forensic tools such as the SQL data base.

Friday, November 22, 2019

Origins of the Jammu and Kashmir Conflict

Origins of the Jammu and Kashmir Conflict When India and Pakistan became separate and independent nations in August of 1947, theoretically they were divided along sectarian lines. In the Partition of India, Hindus were supposed to live in India, while Muslims lived in Pakistan. However, the horrific ethnic cleansing that followed proved that it was impossible to simply draw a line on the map between followers of the two faiths - they had been living in mixed communities for centuries. One region, where the northern tip of India adjoins Pakistan (and China), chose to opt out of both new nations. This was Jammu and Kashmir. As the British Raj in India ended, Maharaja Hari Singh of the princely state of Jammu and Kashmir refused to join his kingdom to either India or Pakistan. The maharaja himself was Hindu, as were 20% of his subjects, but the overwhelming majority of Kashmiris were Muslim (77%). There were also small minorities of Sikhs and Tibetan Buddhists. Hari Singh declared Jammu and Kashmirs independence as a separate nation in 1947, but Pakistan immediately launched a guerrilla war to free the majority-Muslim region from Hindu rule. The maharaja then appealed to India for aid, signing an agreement to accede to India in October of 1947, and Indian troops cleared the Pakistani guerrillas from much of the area. The newly-formed United Nations intervened in the conflict in 1948, organizing a cease-fire and calling for a referendum of Kashmirs people in order to determine whether the majority wished to join with Pakistan or India. However, that vote has never been taken. Since 1948, Pakistan and India have fought two additional wars over Jammu and Kashmir, in 1965 and in 1999. The region remains divided and claimed by both nations; Pakistan controls the northern and western one-third of the territory, while India has control of the southern area. China and India both also claim a Tibetan enclave in the east of Jammu and Kashmir called Aksai Chin; they fought a war in 1962 over the area, but have since signed agreements to enforce the current Line of Actual Control. Maharaja Hari Singh remained head of state in Jammu and Kashmir until 1952; his son later became the governor of the (Indian-administered) state. The Indian-controlled Kashmir Valleys 4 million people are 95% Muslim and only 4% Hindu, while Jammu is 30% Muslim and 66% Hindu. Pakistani-controlled territory is almost 100% Muslim; however, Pakistans claims include all of the region including Aksia Chin. The future of this long-disputed region is unclear. Since India, Pakistan, and China all possess nuclear weapons, any hot war over Jammu and Kashmir could have devastating results.

Wednesday, November 20, 2019

Privacy in the 21st century Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Privacy in the 21st century - Research Paper Example Security agencies were allowed to do this not only if the threat was to the United States of America only, but also if requested by another country. The bill was introduced to congress by Senator Ted Kennedy in 1977. According to Liu (2011), on December 2005, during the bush administration, the act gained public awareness after an article â€Å"warrantless wiretapping† that blew the whistle on the National Security Agency’s (NSA) domestic surveillance without proper or any court warrants. According to Levy (2007), there have been various amendments on the Foreign Service Intelligence Act (FISA). One of the significant amendments is the Terrorist Surveillance Act of 2007. This amendment was introduced by senators Olympia Snowe, Linsey Graham, Chuck Hugel and Mike DeWine. According to the act, the President of the United States of America was given limited authority to mandate gathering of intelligence through electronic surveillance of people suspected to be involved in terrorism activities in the United States of America. The act however limited the President authority by establishing a congressional oversight. In the same year senator Arlen Specter together with Senator Dianne Feinstein introduced the National Security surveillance bill and Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Improvement and Enhancement bill which were later approved and enacted by congress the same year. The act s allowed for warrantless surveillance and appointed FISA as the body to gather foreign i ntelligence. Another important amendment was the 2007 Protect America Act. President Bush persuaded congress to enact a law that would limit restriction of FISA where the subjects under surveillance involve intercontinental communication. The act allowed the National Security Agency (NSA) director with advice from the attorney general to authorize surveillance of people assumed to

Tuesday, November 19, 2019

History of Slavery in Colonial America Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

History of Slavery in Colonial America - Essay Example The Portuguese first utilized the slave trade around 1562 (Sylvester, 1998). The prime area for slaves was on the west coast of Africa called the Sudan. The peoples inhabiting the Sudan and surrounding areas were known for their skills in agriculture, farming, and mining. Europeans soon realized the commodity these skilled laborers could bring to their countries and began trading them regularly. African tribal wars produced captives, which became a bartering resource in the European slave market. Black and white slave hunters obtained those not captured during war. The main sources of barter used by the Europeans to secure African slaves were glass beads, whiskey, ivory, and guns. The first slaves to arrive in America were brought to the Jamestown settlement in 1619. A Dutch slave trader exchanged his cargo of Africans in that year (Becker, 1999). This was the first time an African set foot in the New World. The first slaves were brought to Jamestown as indentured servants, having to serve seven years for a master before gaining their freedom, the same as white indentured servants. This became a problem in latter years however, when the indentured servants were done with their time, they became competition for their masters and caused outrage among the predominantly white business world. There is some argument a... Some argue however, that the word servant as was used to describe the African slaves by the white settlers was the same inference that the word had in England, which was more akin to the more modern definition of slavery. These same scholars argue that southern plantation owners and slave masters still used the term "servants" to describe their slaves right up until the end of the Civil War. While white indentured servants where still the primary source for cheap labor in the colonies, tensions were growing between the poor workers and the newly emerging merchant class. The merchant class was now able to seize land and hold it as their own, regardless of the poor farmer's objections. The merchant class was also given the right to vote since they were technically landowners. This had the former indentured servants angry, and they were beginning to revolt. Bacon's Rebellion Slavery in the colonies grew in necessity following Bacon's Rebellion. Bacon's Rebellion occurred when a settler named Nathaniel Bacon disobeyed direct orders and seized a tribe of Native Americans for allegedly stealing his corn. Bacon was reprimanded and soon he began leading revolts against the Native Americans who had been attacking small out-lying farmers and their property. While Bacon was repeatedly reprimanded, his attacks continued and grew in their ferociousness. Bacon's rebellion ended when a group of his men surrounded Jamestown and burned it to the ground. The rebellion led the wealthy landowners of the time to begin to look elsewhere for cheap labor, fearing they too would have to endure another rebellion similar to that of Nathaniel Bacon (Bacon's 2005). With the emerging slave class in the colonies, twenty-five thousand and growing by 1700, came new laws

Saturday, November 16, 2019

Hobbes VS. Locke VS. Rousseau Essay Example for Free

Hobbes VS. Locke VS. Rousseau Essay â€Å"I am at the point of believing, that my labor will be as useless as the commonwealth of Plato. For Plato, also is of the opinion that it is impossible for the disorders of the state ever to be taken away until sovereigns be philosophers . . . I recover some hope that one time or other this writing of mine may fall into the hands of a sovereign who will consider it for himself, for it is short, and I think clear. † -The Monster of Malmesbury (Thomas Hobbes), Leviathan1 Thomas Hobbes was born at Westport near Malmesbury in Wiltshire, England. 2 A wealthy uncle paid for his education and sent him to Magdalen Hall, Oxford. 3 Hobbes lived at a time of immense intellectual excitement, and the universities of his day were far from being at the cutting-edge of intellectual advance. 4 The Oxford curriculum still consisted largely of scholastic logic and metaphysics, which he regarded as sterile pedantry and for which he had nothing good to say. 5 Leaving university with a degree in scholastic logic and, it has been said, several more degrees of contempt for Aristotle in particular, and universities in general, Hobbes obtained a post as tutor to the Earl of Devonshire. 6 He travelled widely with the Duke, moving in increasingly aristocratic circles and even meeting the celebrated Italian astronomer Galileo, in 1636. 7 Hobbes also met another important figure, Sir Francis Bacon. Francis Bacon was a philosopher who rejected the Aristotelian logic and system, which basically was a speculative system, started out from some major assumptions and through deductions developed his philosophical system. 8 Thomas Hobbes has a more cynical and realistic, view of human nature than the Greeks. 9 Whilst he agrees that people have regard for their self-interest, there is little else Hobbes will accept from the ancients. 10 Hobbes was considered by many of his contemporaries to be, if not actually an atheist, certainly a heretic. 11 Indeed, after the Great Plague of 1666, in which 60,000 Londoners died, and the Great Fire straight afterwards, a parliamentary committee was set up to investigate whether heresy might have contributed to the two disasters. 12 The list of possible causes includes Hobbes’ writings. 13 Hobbes’ books are a strange mixture of jurisprudence, religious enthusiasm, and political iconoclasm. 14 Hobbes’ political theory, then is that of someone who experienced both the English Civil War and the Scientific Revolution of the seventeenth century. 15 This fact is important to our understanding of it. 16 He formulated his political ideas several times, but it is in Leviathan that they find their most complete and influential statement. 17 His approach to politics is self-consciously scientific. 18 His technique of enquiry is delivered partly from the ‘resolutive-compositive’ method associated with Galileo and Bacon, and partly from the deductive reasoning that had so impressed him in Euclid. 19 If we are to arrive at a sound understanding of politics, we must first analyze or resolve social wholes into their smallest component parts: namely, individual human beings. 20 Then, having studied the properties and behavior of those parts in isolation, we can deduce from them, as it were from first principles, rational conclusions about social and political organization. 21 He breaks down (by analysis) social phenomena into their basic constituents, and only then synthesizes these to produce a new theory. 22 It is this technique, as much as his theory of power as the motivating spring of mankind, that makes Hobbes a distinctly modern thinker. 23 His materialism is central to his account of human behavior. 24 The body of each human being is, he thinks, only a complex mechanism, somewhat like a clock. 25 Hobbes has a mechanistic Weltanschauung. We are bodies in constant motion. 26 He seems in other words, to have a kind of materialistic psychology in which human behavior exhibits the same, as it were, mechanical tendencies as billiard balls that can be understood as obeying, again, geometric or causal processes of cause and effect. 27 Before we proceed to his account of the state of nature, we will explore first some of his important ideas. First, is his skeptical view of knowledge. Hobbes was obsessed with the question about what can I know or, maybe put a different way, what am I entitled to believe, and there are many passages in Leviathan that testify to Hobbes’ fundamentally skeptical view of knowledge. 28 He is a skeptic not because he believes that we can have no foundations for our beliefs, but he is skeptic in the sense that there can be no, on his view, transcendent of nonhuman foundations for our beliefs. 29 We cannot be certain, he thinks, of the ultimate foundations of our knowledge and this explains you may have wondered about this, this explains the importance he attributes to such things as naming and attaching correct definitions to things. 30 Knowledge, in other words, is for Hobbes a human construction and it is always subject to what human beings can be made to agree upon and that skeptical view of knowledge or at least skeptical view of the foundation of knowledge has far reaching consequences for him. 31 This argument of Hobbes resembles the thesis of Berger and Luckmann’s book. The ongoing process of objectivation-externalization-internalization to construct, reconstruct, and deconstruct the world. In other words, knowledge and human reality is ‘socially constructed’. 32 If all knowledge, according to Hobbes, ultimately rests on agreement about shared terms, he infers from that our reason, our rationality, has no share in what Plato or Aristotle would have called the divine Noos, the divine intelligence. 33 Our reason does not testify to some kind of inner voice of conscience or anything that would purport to give it some kind of indubitable foundation. 34 Such certainty as we have about anything is for Hobbes always provisional, discovered on the basis of experience and subject to continual revision in the light of further experience, and that again experiential conception of knowledge. 35 Next, is his idea of the laws of nature. Fear is the basis, even of what Hobbes called the various laws of nature. 36 The laws of nature for Hobbes are described as a precept or a general rule of reason that every man ought to endeavor peace and it is out of fear that we begin to reason and see the advantages of society; reason is dependent upon the passions, upon fear. 37 The natural laws for Hobbes are not divine commands or ordinances, he says, but they are rules of practical reason figured out by us as the optimal means of securing our well-being. 38 Ignorance of the law of nature is no excuse. 39 According to Prof. Bacale-Ocampo LlB, there are two doctrines of the natural law: everyone must seek peace and follow it, and man being able, if others were too. 40 Hobbes also said that there can be no unjust laws. There are two reasons for this proposition, according to Prof. Bacale-Ocampo LlB: law precedes justice, and the sovereign is the embodiment of all the people’s rights. 41 This argument justifies Hobbes’ defense of the absolute and authoritarian power of his sovereign. The power of the sovereign, Hobbes continually insists, must be unlimited. 42 This notion also resembles Art. XVI, Sec. III of the 1987 Philippine Constitution, that, â€Å"The State may not be sued without its consent. † In a very real sense, a suit against the State by its citizens is, in effect, a suit against the rest of the people represented by their common government – an anomalous and absurd situation indeed. 43 Now, let’s go to his notion of the state of nature. The state of nature, a shocking phrase calculated to arouse the wrath of the Church, directly conflicting with the rosy biblical image of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden before the Fall. 44 Hobbes thinks the ‘human machine’ is programmed to direct its energies selfishly. 45 He doubts if it is ever possible for human beings to act altruistically, and even apparently benevolent action is actually self-serving, perhaps an attempt to make them feel good about themselves. 46 Hobbes tells us, â€Å". . . in the first place, I put for a general inclination of all mankind, a perpetual and restless desire of Power after Power, that ceaseth only in Death. †47 The desire for power is the cause of human strife and conflict. 48 Finally, Hobbes most quoted statement, that in the state of nature, â€Å". . . there is no place for Industry; because the fruit thereof is uncertain: and consequently no Culture of the Earth; no Navigation, nor use of the Commodities that may be imported by Sea; no Commodious Building; no instruments of moving, and removing such things as require much force; no knowledge of the face of the Earth; no account of Time; no Arts; no Letters; no Society; and which is worst of all, continual fear, and danger of violent death; And the life of man, solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short. †49 The state of nature is simply a kind of condition of maximum insecurity. 50 Hobbes continues, â€Å"Hereby it is manifest, that during the time men live without a common power to keep them all in awe, they are in that condition which is called War; and such a War, as is of every man against every man . . . the nature of war, consisteth not in actual fighting; but in the known disposition thereto, during all the time there is no assurance to the contrary. †51 There are three principle causes of quarrel. The first is competition, for gain; the second is diffidence and a compulsion for safety; whilst the final one is the compulsion for glory, and for reputation. 52 Yet they all precipitate violence. 53 Hobbes tells us, â€Å"The first use violence, to make themselves Masters of other men’s persons, wives, children, and cattle; the second, to defend them; the third, for trifles, as a word, a smile, a different opinion, and any other sign of undervalue either direct in their Persons, or by reflection in their Kindred, their Friends, their Nation, their Profession, or their Name. †54 Hobbes also asks the readers, â€Å"Let him, the reader, therefore ask himself, when taking a journey he arms himself and seeks to go well accompanied. When going to sleep, he locks his doors even when in his house, and even when in his house he locks his chest and this, when he know, he says, there be laws and public officers armed to avenge all injuries shall be done to him . . . Does he not therefore as much accuse mankind by his action as I do by my words? †55 In short, the members of the Hobbesian state of nature employs the classic prisoner’s dilemma. The strategic interests of the two individuals are antithetical to each other, and that keeps them from forming a social solidarity that would be best for them altogether. 56 The prisoner’s dilemma is analogous to a social world in which public goods would be quite valuable to have, but in which individuals would lose something from contributing to the public good as long as other people do not. 57 There has to be an assurance that the other side will live up to the bargain; but there is no way of knowing that, and in fact one can figure out that other people will act just like oneself. 58 Whether one assumes that the other person is ultimately selfish, or merely distrusting, the outcome is the same. 59 Rational selfish individuals dealing with other rational selfish individuals will never sacrifice anything to the public good, since it would be a waste. 60 That is what makes the situation a dilemma. 61 Hobbes constructed his state of nature, using logic, not using historical data. The state of nature, for him, is rather a kind of thought experiment after the manner of experimental science. 62 Hobbes is the, again, the great founder of what we might call, among others, is the experimental method in social and political science. 63 How can we escape the horror of the Hobbesian state of nature? By establishing a sovereign by means of a social contract. He would understand (1) that it is rationally necessary to seek peace; (2) that the way to secure peace is to enter into an agreement with others not to harm one another; and (3) that having entered into such an agreement, it would be irrational, in the sense of self-defeating, to break it for as long as the others kept it. 64 By this chain of reasoning, society would be created. 65 It would be created by an agreement – a ‘compact’, as Hobbes calls it – made by individuals no one of whom has interest in anyone else’s good per se, but each of whom realizes that his own good can be secured only by agreeing not to harm others in return for their agreement not to harm him. 66 But, there must be an enforcer, because Hobbes argues that, â€Å"Covenants without the sword are but words, and of no strength to secure a man at all. †67 So the people will have to, â€Å"Confer all power and strength upon one Man, or upon one assembly of men, that may reduce all their wills, by plurality of voices, unto one Will . . . This is more than Consent, or Concord; it is a real Unity of them all, in one and the same Person, made by Covenant of every man with every man . . . that Great Leviathan, the Commonwealth, and it comes about when either one man by War subdueth his enemies to his will, or when men agree amongst themselves, to submit to some Man, or Assembly of men, voluntarily, on confidence to be protected by him against all others. †68 The sovereign is created by, but not a party to, the compact. 69 He therefore cannot be got rid of because he is in reach of the compact. 70 If he could be, his power would not, after all, be sovereign. 71 Hobbes remains one of the most impressive and influential of English political theorists. 72 He is also, though he several times twits himself on his own timidity, a writer of considerable intellectual courage, who expressed unpopular views at a time when it was dangerous – mortally dangerous, indeed to do so. 73 He also â€Å"provides an antidote to the high-minded reasoning of the schoolmen and indeed the Ancients. †74 Starting from a pragmatic assessment of human nature, he strengthens the case for a powerful political and social apparatus organizing our lives. 75 And with his interest in the methods of geometry and the natural sciences, he brings a new style of argument to political theorizing that is both more persuasive and more effective. 76 But from Hobbes we also obtain a reminder that social organization, however committed to fairness and equality it may be intended to be, being motivated by a struggle between its members, is also inevitably both authoritarian and inegalitarian. 77 Virtually all subsequent attempts to treat politics and political behavior philosophically have in some sense had to take Hobbes into account. 78 â€Å"Though the water running in the fountain be everyone’s, yet who can doubt but that in the pitcher is his only who drew it out? † -John Locke, Second Treatise79 John Locke was born into a Puritan family in Somerset, England. 80 His father was a country lawyer who raised a troop of horse and fought on the parliamentary side in the Civil War. 81 Locke went up to Christ Church, Oxford, in 1652. 82 Like Hobbes before him, Locke found the old fashioned Scholastic curriculum uncongenial, though his association with Christ Church was to last, with interruptions, for more than thirty years. 83 He became a senior student – that is, a Fellow – in 1659. 84 In 1667 he became medical adviser and general factotum of Anthony Ashley Cooper, created first Earl of Shaftesbury in 1672. 85 When Shaftesbury was appointed Lord Chancellor in 1672, Locke became his secretary. 86 Earl Shaftesbury went on to three notable political achievements: he led the opposition to Charles II, he founded the Whig Party, the forerunner of the Liberals, and he pushed Locke into politics. 87 John Locke is a kind of ‘lowest common denominator’ of political philosophy, the intellectual forebear of much of today’s political orthodoxy, a role that befits a thinker of a naturally orthodox turn of mind. 88 He also â€Å"fitted the times very well (Bertrand Russell even described him as the ‘apostle of the Revolution of 1688’). 89 His philosophy was actively adopted by contemporary politicians and thinkers; his influence was transmitted to eighteenth-century France through the medium of Voltaire’s writings, and inspired the principles of the French Revolution. 90 And his views would spread still more widely, through the writings of Thomas Paine, eventually shaping the American Revolution too. 91 Although Locke’s reputation as a philosopher rests almost entirely on the epistemological doctrines expressed in An Essay Concerning Human Understanding, he made a great and lasting contribution to political thought. 92 This contribution consists mainly in his Two Treatises of Government, especially in the Second Treatise. 93 It is usual to regard the First Treatise as being mainly of antiquarian interest. 94 It is in the Second Treatise that Locke presents his own ideas. 95 The proper title of the treatise is ‘An Essay Concerning the True, Original, Extent, and End of Civil Government. ’96 The master of Locke’s own residential college at Oxford, Balliol College, described Mr. Locke as the ‘master of taciturnity’, because he could not discover, through questioning and so on, Locke’s opinions on religious and political matters. 97 Before we proceed to his notion of the state of nature, we will first explore some of his major ideas. First is his account of the law of nature. There is no modern thinker that I’m aware of who makes natural law as important to his doctrine as does Locke. 98 The law of nature, Locke tells us, â€Å"willeth the peace and preservation of all mankind. †99 Locke adds, the â€Å"law of nature . . . obliges everyone; and reason which is that law, teaches all mankind who will but consult it, that being all equal and independent, no one ought to harm another in his life, health, liberty, or possessions. †100 Locke also offers the three fundamental rights: life, health, and property. These three rights can never be overruled even by the government. They are also our natural rights, they are pre-political, it means that they are already our rights even before the establishment of the government. The interesting thing about these fundamental rights is that it is paradoxical. There are two reasons for this paradox. The first is that, â€Å"our rights are less fully mine. †101 Our rights were given by God. Locke tells us, â€Å"For men, being all the workmanship of one Omnipotent and Infinitely Wise Maker, they are his property whose workmanship they are, made to last during his, not one another’s pleasure. †102 The second reason is that, â€Å"because our rights are unalienable, they are more deeply mine. †103 These three Lockean fundamental rights influenced the famous 1776 U. S. Declaration of Independence, â€Å"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. †104 It’s like the ghost of John Locke who wrote this declaration, not Thomas Jefferson. Every sentence of this declaration has something like a Lockean spirit or fingerprint. This Lockean principle also influenced our present Constitution. Art. III, Sec. I of the 1987 Constitution states that, â€Å"No person shall be deprived of life, liberty, or property without due process of law, nor shall any person be denied the equal protection of the laws. †105 Next, his theory of private property. Locke’s â€Å"account of property; certainly, in many ways, one of the most characteristic doctrines of Lockean political thought. †106 In the beginning the whole world was America, explains Locke, meaning that the world was an unexploited wilderness, before, through the efforts of people, there came farms and manufactures and buildings and cities. 107 With these come trade, and money. 108 But although property is the foundation of political society, Locke traces its origin back not to commerce, but to ‘the conjugal union. ’109 The first society was between man and wife, and later their children. 110 Locke’s view of human nature is that we are very much the property-acquiring animal. 111 Locke tells us, â€Å"Every man has a property in his own person, this nobody has any right to but himself. The labor of his body and the work of his hands, we may say are properly his. †112 This is one of the major premises of Robert Nozick and other libertarian thinkers, that we own ourselves. Locke continues, â€Å"Whatsoever then he removes out of that state of nature has provided and left it in, he has mixed his labor with, and joined to it something that in his own and thereby makes it his property. †113 Locke anticipates Marx’s Labor Theory of Value. Locke continues, â€Å"For this labor being the unquestionable property of the laborer no man but he can hence a right, to what that is once joined to, at least where there is enough and as good left in common for others. †114 Locke adds, â€Å"As much land as a man tills, plants, improves, cultivates and can use the product of, so much is his property. He by his labor, does as it were, enclose it from the common. †115 One of the most famous passages in the Second Treatise is that, â€Å"God gave the world to men in common, but since He gave it to them for their benefit and the greatest conveniences of life that they were capable to draw from it . . . it cannot be supposed He meant it should always remain common and uncultivated. He gave it to the use of the industrious and the rational and not to the fancy or covetousness of the quarrelsome and contentious. †116 Locke seems to suggest, that the state will be a commercial state, that the Lockean republic, the Lockean state will be a commercial republic. 117 Labor becomes, for Locke, his source of all value and our title to common ownership and in a remarkable rhetorical series of shifts, he makes not nature, but rather human labor and acquisition the source of property and of unlimited material possessions. 118 The new politics of the Lockean state will no longer be concerned with glory, honor, thumos, virtue, but Lockean politics will be sober, will be pedestrian, it will be hedonistic, without sublimity or joy. 119 Locke is the author of the doctrine that commerce softens manners, that it makes us less warlike, that it makes us civilized. 120 On the ground of Locke’s claim of self-ownership as the foundation of rights and justice, I will offer one of the major criticisms to this view. This is the ‘difference principle’ of one of my favorite political philosophers, John Rawls. First, â€Å"Lockean theory of justice, broadly speaking, supports a meritocracy sometimes referred to as ‘equality of opportunity’, that is, what a person does with his or her natural assets belongs exclusively to him, the right to rise or fall belongs exclusively to him. †121 Rawls’ principle â€Å"maintains that our natural endowments, our talents, our abilities, our family backgrounds, our history, our unique histories, our place, so to speak, in the social hierarchy, all of these things are from a moral point of view something completely arbitrary. 122 None of these are ours in any strong sense of the term. 123 They do not belong to us but are the result of a more or less kind of random or arbitrary genetic lottery or social lottery of which I or you happen to be the unique beficiaries. 124 No longer can I be regarded as the sole proprietor of my assets or the unique recipient of the advantages or disadvantages I may accrue from them. 125 Rawls concludes, I should not be regarded as a possessor but merely the recipient of what talents, capacities, and abilities that I may, again, purely arbitrary happen to possess. 126 The difference principle is a principle for institutions, not for individuals. 127 This is not to say that the difference principle does not imply duties for individuals – it creates innumerable duties for them. 128 It means rather that the difference principle applies in the first instance to regulate economic conventions and legal institutions, such as the market mechanism, the system of property, contract, inheritance, securities, taxation, and so on. 129 The direct application of the difference principle to structure economic institutions and its indirect application to individual conduct, exhibit what Rawls means when he says that the ‘primary subject of justice is the basic structure of society. ’130 The basic structure of society consists of the arrangement of the political, social, and economic institutions that make social cooperation possible and productive. 131 These institutions have a profound influence on individuals’ everyday lives, their characters, desires, and ambitions, as well as their future prospects. 132 The difference principle also â€Å"requires that economic institutions be designed so that the least advantaged class enjoys a greater share of income, wealth, and economic powers more generally, than it would under any other economic arrangement (with the important qualification that the final distribution is compatible with equal basic liberties and fair equal opportunities). 133 We should follow the principle that would be chose under ideal conditions not because it is rational for us to use such a procedure (in the narrow sense of rationality), and not because doing so would maximize total overall utility, but because doing so embodies fundamental values to which Rawls thinks, we are already committed, the values of freedom and equality. 134 In structuring a just society, we must also employ what Rawls called ‘the veil of ignorance’. The situation where you don’t know who you will be. 135 Using the DP and the veil of ignorance, we can assure that the cake will be sliced equally. There are other important Lockean ideas, that I wish to address, but for the main reason of limiting my paper, I won’t discuss them anymore. These important ideas are the Lockean idea of a limited government (which resembles our present form of government), his ‘Appeal to Heaven’ doctrine or the right of the people to rebel against an unjust government (this doctrine is also embodied in the Art. II, Sec. I, of the 1987 Constitution), and his famous doctrine of consent. Now, let’s proceed to the Lockean version of the state of nature. Like Hobbes, Locke makes use of the idea of a state of nature as an explanatory conceit which to build his political theory. 136 As with Hobbes, and despite some ambiguity of language, the argument is not really a historical one. 137 Locke does not take Hobbes’ pessimistic view of how ungoverned human beings would behave in relation to each other. 138 Unlike Hobbes, he does not depict the state of nature as an intolerable condition in which the amenities of civilization are impossible. 139 The drawbacks of Locke’s state of nature would be no worse than ‘inconveniences’. 140 The ‘continous inconveniences’ is that men in the state of nature were both the judge and executor of the law of nature. Locke tells us, â€Å"The execution of the law of nature is, in that state, put into every man’s hands, whereby everyone has a right to punish the transgressor of that law to such a degree as may hinder its violation. †141 Everyone can enforce the law of nature. Locke adds, â€Å"One may destroy a man who makes war upon him . . . for the same reason that he may kill a wolf or a lion; because such man . . . have no other rule, but that of force and violence, and he may be treated as beasts of prey, those dangerous and noxious creatures, that will be sure to destroy the, whenever he feels into their power. †142 How can we escape the ‘inconveniences’ of Locke’s state of nature? Civil government is the proper remedy for the inconveniences of the state of nature. 143 Just like his great predecessor Hobbes, we must mutually agree to give up our enforcement power by means of a social contract. Locke tells us, â€Å"Men being, as has been said, by nature, all free and equal and independent, no one can be put out of this estate, and subjected to the political power of another, without his own consent . . . when any number of men have, by the consent of every individual, made a community, they have thereby made that community one body, with a power to act as one body, which is only by the will and determination of the majority . . . to move . . . whither the greater force carries it. †144 Locke has no particular view about the form of government should take, as long as it is based on popular consent. 145 It may be a republic, but it could be an oligarchy and there might still be a monarch. 146 But whatever form the government takes, Locke says, it does need to include some ‘separation of powers’, and sets out fairly precisely the distinction to be made between the law-making part of government – the legislature – and the action-taking part – the executive. 147 The executive must have the power to appoint and dismiss the legislature, but it does not make the one superior to the other, rather there exists a ‘fiduciary trust’. 148 According to Locke’s view of government, there are only two parties to the trust: the people, who is both trustor and beneficiary, and the legislature, who is trustee. 149 The principal characteristic of a trust is the fact that the trustee assumes primarily obligations rather than rights. 150 The purpose of the trust is determined by the interest of the beneficiary and not by the will of the trustee. 151 The trustee is little more than a servant of both trustor and beneficiary, and he may be recalled by the trustor in the event of neglect of duty. 152 Locke also tells us that, â€Å"The great and chief end, therefore, of men’s uniting into commonwealths and putting themselves under government is the preservation of their property. †153 Property here is the general term for life, liberty, and estates or possessions. This Lockean idea is also embodied in the famous The Federalist No. 10 of James Madison, â€Å"The diversity in the faculties of men from which the rights of property originate, is not less an insuperable obstacle to a uniformity of interests. The protection of these faculties is the first object of government. †154 Locke – jointly, perhaps, with Hobbes – is the most influential of all English political theorist. 155 His political writing, like all political writing, is a response to the issues and events of a specific time and place, and reflects a particular perception of those issues and events. 156 Locke creates a picture of the world in which ‘rationality’ is the ultimate authority, not God, and certainly not, as Hobbes had insisted brute force. 157 He insists that people have certain fundamental rights and also attempt to return the other half of the human race, the female part, to their proper, equal, place in history, the family and government. 158 Locke’s legacy is the first, essentially practical, even legalistic, framework and analysis of the workings of society. 159 That is his own particular contribution to its evolution. 160 â€Å"Man is born free; and everywhere he is in chains. † -the citizen of Geneva (Jean-Jacques Rousseau), The Social Contract161. Rousseau was born in Geneva in 1712, the son of a Calvinist watchmaker. 162 It was his father who brought him up, his mother having died in childbirth. 163 His father also gave Rousseau a great love of books, but otherwise he had little formal education. 164 At the age of fifteen he ran away from home and began a life of solitary wandering. 165 His was a difficult, hypersensitive personality, with a towering sense of his own genius. 166 Although capable of intense friendship, his relationships never lasted. 167 After leaving Switzerland, Rousseau lived in Savoy and worked in Italy, before gravitating to Paris, at the time the leading intellectual centre in Europe. 168 There he associated with the Enlightenment thinkers – the philosophes – and particularly Diderot. 169 Rousseau contributed articles (mainly on musicology) to their great project, the Encyclopedia, but although he subscribed to some of their beliefs he was never a committed member of the group. 170 He developed his own ideas that differed radically from their fashionable cult of reason and from establishment orthodoxy. 171 Indeed, Rousseau’s most striking characteristic is his originality. 172 He changed the thinking of Europe, having an impact on political theory, education, literature, ethics, ideas about the self and its relationship to nature, and much else. 173 These influences, together with his elevation of emotion and will above reason, make him the major precursor of the Romantic movement. 174 His early ‘Discourses’ offended the philosophes, while his two most famous works, Emile and The Social Contract (both 1762), outraged the authorities, particularly because of their.

Thursday, November 14, 2019

Personal Identity and Psychological Reductionism Essay -- Psychology P

Personal Identity and Psychological Reductionism When we tackle the question of 'What makes us the individual persons that we are?', one approach that we can take is to seek an answer to the question of what it is that is required for a person to continue to exist over time. If we could agree on what is required for it to be true that you continued to exist, then we would have good grounds to believe that we had discovered what makes someone the particular person they are, and by extension, what makes any person the person they are. In essence, what we are searching for are the necessary and sufficient conditions for personal identity over time. In this essay we will focus on the claim that it is in fact, only the psychological characteristics of a person that are essential to personal identity over time. These characteristics include memory, beliefs, intentions and personality. It might also be the case that persons require some kind of body, or at least a physical means of sustaining thought, but it is the thought, not the physical basis of it, which matters. This stance, known as 'Psychological Reductionism', argues that all other features, be it physical or otherwise, are neither necessary nor sufficient for personal identity over time. Looking at the history of Psychological Reductionism may be useful in helping us understand how this view came to be considered as a possible model for personal identity over time. Descartes, in a way, set the scene for Psychological Reductionism by identifying thinking as the essential characteristic of the 'self'. His famous "I think therefore I am" placed at the core of the 'I' the capacity to think. However, by no stretch of the imagination, could we label Descartes a Psyc... ...). Chapter 14. pp. 407-415. Palmer, D.E.. Parfit, the Reductionist View, and Moral Commitment. Twentieth World Congress of Philosophy. Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.A. (1998) http://www.bu.edu/wcp/Papers/PPerPalm.htm Pyle, Andrew. Key Philosophers in Conversation. Routledge.(1999). Chapter 16. pp179-195. Scruton, Roger. Modern Philosophy — An Introduction and Survey. Mandarin.(1994). Chapter 22. pp.304-307. Torriani,T. Continuity without Identity. Rootless Self-Images (Recovering Ethnic Identity) (1998), Section 1.3. http://www.padanialibera.net/torriani/htm/mprft3.htm Warburton, Nigel. Philosophy — The Classics. Routledge.(1998). Chapter 5. pp 55-56. Westphal, Jonathan. Philosophical Propositions. Routledge.(1998). Chapter 7. pp. 89-106. Wilkes, Kathleen. The Systematic Elusiveness of ' I '. The Philosophers' Magazine 12, Autumn 2000. pp. 46-47.

Monday, November 11, 2019

Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Essay

For a long period of time, the agrarian system of Philippines was being controlled by the large landlords. The small farmers in Philippines were struggling for their rights to land and other natural resources. The implementation of Agrarian reforms proceeded at a very slow pace. This was due to the lack of political will. The redistribution of land was also very slow. Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Law: Philippines The Republic Act No. 6657, alternatively called the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Law was signed by President Corazon C. Aquino on 10th June, 1988. The Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Law is responsible for the implementation of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP) in Philippines. The law focused on industrialization in Philippines together with social justice. The Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Law: Objectives. The primary objective of instituting the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform law was to successfully devise land reform in Philippines. It was President Arroyo, who signed the Executive Order No. 456on 23rd August to rename the Department of Land Reform as Department of Agrarian Reform. This had been done to expand the functional area of the law. Apart from land reform, the Department of Agrarian Reform began to supervise other allied activities to improve the economic and social status of the beneficiaries of land reform in Philippines. CARP Meaning Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program of 1988, also known as CARP, is a Philippine state policy that ensures and promotes welfare of landless farmers and farm workers, as well as elevation of social justice and equity among rural areas. Agrarian reform is a 100-year history of unfinished reforms after the United States took over the country from the Spaniards. Before the Hispanic period, there were no owner-cultivators, only communal land owned by the barangay which consisted of a datu, freemen, serfs and slaves. The Spaniards replaced this traditional system of land ownership, similar to existing systems among several indigenous communities today and distributed the land (haciendas) to the Spanish military and the clergy or established encomiendas (administrative districts). The 1935 Constitution addressed the issue of foreign access to land, i. e. corporations must have at least 60% Filipino ownership, and use-rights were limited in time. Other reforms included limitations on interest rates on loans and an increase in the sharecropping share from 50% to 70%. But very little of these laws were really followed in practice and the Huk rebellion was born. Under the Magsaysay and the Macapagal administrations, land reform was again tackled, such as the Mindanao resettlement program and the Land Reform Act of 1955, but no significant results were really achieved in terms of scope and magnitude of land transfer. With martial law, the whole Philippines was declared a land reform area under PD 27. Significant progress was made, but the continued practice of the share tenancy system, coverage limitation to rice and corn lands, the many exemptions allowed and the shortcomings in support systems (although it was Marcos who set up the new Agrarian Reform Department) did much to limit the affectivity of the reforms in addressing the over-concentration of wealth problem and rural poverty. The CARP years since 1988 – for the first time the program covered all agriculture lands regardless of crop and tenurial arrangements. Land distribution increased substantially – about 7 million hectares with about 4. 2 million farmer beneficiaries. But the total figures hide disturbing underperformances. – and only about 1. 5 million hectares of private agricultural lands have been covered for an accomplishment rate of only about 50% after twenty years. – Moreover the lack of support services, funding and infrastructure, is still prevalent. Of the original estimate of P220 billion to complete the program, only P203 billion have been budgeted by Congress, of which only about P170 billion have been released. While there is significant empirical evidence that agrarian reform has yielded significant benefits and has the potential for even greater benefits, the fact is that it has encountered implementation problems. Regardless of the problems encountered by CARP, the point is that CARP is not the cause of the continuing poverty nor the obstacle to solving it. On the contrary, completing CARP in accordance with the mandate of the Constitution is a necessary condition to correct social injustice, and achieve sound agricultural development and economic growth. Of course, agrarian reform is not a panacea that will solve all our problems. Neither is education, nor health care, nor industrialization nor clean elections, nor honest leadership. The fact is that the path to growth with equity is a complex process because we need all the programs working together to succeed. In the final analysis, the future of CARP is a political decision of those in power with respect to two questions: – How much reform is the government willing to implement? – How much resources are government willing to devote to such reforms? Department of Agrarian Reform is the lead implementing agency of Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP). It undertakes land tenure improvement and development of program beneficiaries. DAR conducts land survey in resettlement areas. It undertakes land acquisition and distribution and land management studies. The DAR also orchestrates the delivery of support services to farmer-beneficiaries and promotes the development of viable agrarian reform communities. The DAR logo shows the Departments acronym representing the institution and its role as the lead agency in the implementation of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP). Green stands for fertility and productivity while yellow represents hope and a golden harvest of agrarian reform beneficiaries who are the recipients of the services provided by the Department via CARP. Both colors imply that economic growth and sound rural development can be achieved through agrarian reform. Mandate The Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) leads the implementation of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP) through land tenure improvement, agrarian justice, and coordinated delivery of essential support services to client-beneficiaries. Its Mission: â€Å"To lead in the implementation of agrarian reform and sustainable rural development in the countryside through land tenure improvement and provision of integrated development services to landless farmers, farmworkers and small landowner-cultivators, and the delivery of agrarian justice†, and Vision: â€Å"A nation where there is equitable land ownership and empowered agrarian reform beneficiaries who are effectively managing their economic and social development for a better quality of life†

Saturday, November 9, 2019

Example of Resume and Practical Application Letter Essay

On behalf of the School of Business and Economics, I submit herewith an application for the student mentioned below to conduct his/her industrial training under your esteemed organization. The industrial training program is one of the course requirements for student to complete their Bachelor of Business (with honors) degree at University Malaysia Sabah. For your information, the placement should last for 3 months from 24 June 2013 to 13 September 2013. The main objective of this placement is to expose the student to the working environment in the corporate world, of which can be explained further by the attached â€Å"Program Objectives’’. The following student (enclosed CV) is majoring in Entrepreneurship: 1. BB1011xxxx ALIA UMAIRA BINTI MOHD RAFI (I/C NO: 901228-01-xxxx) For further information, please do not hesitate to contact any number of the practicum coordinator during office hours. In addition, below are few other objectives with regard to practical training: o To brief the trainees the roles and task performed as well as to prepare daily/weekly schedule. o To improve the trainees understanding on the company’s roles and contribution towards the industry. o To provide opportunity for trainees to be involved in the organization operation management and other activities such as briefing/seminars, workshops, exhibition and etc. o To improve communication and public relation techniques in order to enhance better relationship within the company as well as the customers.

Thursday, November 7, 2019

Truckers Your Job Hunt Cheat Sheet

Truckers Your Job Hunt Cheat Sheet Truckers: If you’re looking for your next great gig, why not start with the cream of the crop? Everytruckjob.com did their homework, and recently compiled a list of the top 10 trucking companies in the country- a great place for you to start or continue your job hunt! American FreightwaysA logistics leader with unparalleled shipping and transportation solutions in the industry.SCHNEIDER NationalA shipping capacity titan with a proven on time service delivery record.C.H. RobinsonA true industry veteran with a great reputation and commitment to high quality standards.Con-way TransportationGreat trucking services with deep coverage throughout the U.S., Mexico, and Canada.SAIA LTL FreightA true leader in safety and efficiency, with an impressive array of services for its customers.Fox TransportationGreat, efficient service has put them at the top of the trucking company heap.RyderKnown for superior supply chain management and commercial transportation solutions.MayflowerA consiste nt and reliable player in the freight and transportation industry.J.B Hunt Transport ServicesA top-flight company that understands the value of having qualified employees who can deliver measurable results.WERNERA customized supply chain champion, with a focus on safety and its customers.Consider this your job hunt cheat sheet- any trucker would be well served to work for any of these companies. When you’re looking for your next great trucker job, keep them in mind, do your research and see if any of them have open driver positions, and include them in your job-hunt plan. Best of luck!Top 10 Trucking Companies in The USARead More at www.everytruckjob.com

Monday, November 4, 2019

Cadbury Is A Leading Global Confectionery Company Marketing Essay

Cadbury Is A Leading Global Confectionery Company Marketing Essay Introduction Cadbury is a leading global confectionery company with an outstanding portfolio of chocolate, gum and candy brands. The company employs around 50,000 people and has direct operations in over 60 countries, selling their products in almost every country around the world. The company creates brands people love, brands like Cadbury, Trident and Halls. The company heritage starts back in 1824 when John Cadbury opened a shop in Birmingham selling cocoa and chocolate. Since then Cadbury have expanded the business throughout the world by a program of organic and acquisition leg growth. On 7 May 2008, the separation of Cadbury confectionery and Americas Beverages business was completed creating Cadbury plc with a vision to be the world’s Biggest and Best confectionery company. Mission Statement â€Å"Cadbury means quality† this is the company promise. The company reputation is built upon quality; the company commitment to continuous improvement will ensure that the company promise is delivered. Cadbury has established itself as a company of fairness and integrity, which always attempts to operate as a socially responsible business. Value Performance Cadbury is passionate about winning. The company competes in a tough but fair way. The company is striving, hardworking and makes the most of the abilities. The company is prepared to take risks and act with speed. Quality Cadbury put quality and safety at the heart of all of the activities such as product, people, partnerships and performance. Respect Cadbury genuinely care for the business and the colleagues which like listen, understand and respond. The company is open, friendly and welcoming. The company embraces new ideas and diverse customs and cultures. Integrity Cadbury always strive to do the right thing. The company does the business with honesty; openness and being straight forward characterize the way. Responsibility Cadbury take accountability for the social, economic and environmenta l impact. In this way the company aims to make the business, partners and communities better for the future. Cadbury Business Principles are the code of conduct of the company and also take account of global and local cultural and legal standards. They confirm the company commitment to the highest standards of ethics and business conduct. The core purpose of the company is creating brands people love. The core purpose captures the spirit of what the company is trying to achieve as a business. Market Share By participant, the market is relatively fragmented, with the five largest confectionery companies accounting for around 40% of the market. There are a large number of companies which participate in the markets only a regional or local basis. Cadbury compete against multinational, regional and national companies. The graph shows that Cadbury is the second highest of the total confectionery in the market share. Halls is the largest brands in candy of Cadbury. Cadbury have number one and number two confectionery market position in 20 of the world’s 50 largest confectionery markets by retail sales value. Financial statement The graph shows the financial situation of Cadbury from 2006 to 2009. As we can see in the graph, the revenue is reached  ¿Ã‚ ¡5975 million is year 2009 which is slightly increase about 5% from year 2008. In operating income, year 2009 is the highest compare to previous year which is  ¿Ã‚ ¡507 million. Last but not least, year 2009 having 9% of the operating margin which is slightly increase from year 2008. As a conclusion, In year 2009, the performance is pretty well compare to the previous year due to there a keep increase since year 2006 to 2009.

Saturday, November 2, 2019

Small-scale research study Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Small-scale research study - Essay Example They were requested to return the questionnaires to the researcher upon completion. Since there were just a few teachers who taught mathematics in KS1, they were all recruited for the study, although three were unable to participate due to unavailability and scheduling conflicts. The questions in the questionnaires were a product of the researcher’s secondary research findings and observations of KS1 classes. Responses for the survey questionnaire have been charted (see Appendix 2). The Likert-scale responses were averaged and the percentages were translated into pie charts. The qualitative remarks added by the respondents were categorised likewise, according to the questions and summarised in the presentation of the findings. Analysis of the findings was based on the responses of the study’s participants as well as knowledge gleaned from the review of literature. The items were compared according to the responses of the participants. Presentation & Analysis of Primary Findings: On analysing Questions 1 and 2 on the questionnaire, it was found that all teachers felt their classroom was equipped with teaching aids. 67% agreed this was the case and 33% strongly agreed. The types of materials that classrooms featured include: Number lines to 20,30,100 hundred squares counting/ sorting objects measuring equipment such as rulers, tape measure, weighing scales number cards/ flashcards calculators place value equipment number games 2D and 3D shapes Pegs, boards Fractions equipment. Months and dates calendar Coins Block charts Tally charts Treasure maps Number posters Number books (big teaching books and story books) Workbooks Children’s own work Similar results were obtained in relation to whether teachers felt they had enough manipulative materials to facilitate the development of numeracy skills. 83% agreed with this and 17% strongly agreed. A graph showing these results can be seen below. This shows that while there are materials available in t he classroom, fewer teachers strongly agree that there are enough materials for them to effectively facilitate numeracy skills. It is important to note that the classrooms have enough concrete materials for the children to learn math concepts with, as Ruthven (1987) contends that it is essential to their learning since they think in more concrete ways. This was found out in the secondary research. In the primary findings although everyone agreed that they had enough manipulative materials in their schools, they also said they could always do with more. Some revealed that they also had access to materials which are located in the corridors; however these materials are shared by all classes. This means that sometimes materials may not be available because other classes are using them. The manipulative materials which the teachers believed fostered numeracy skill development are cube blocks, counting items such as beads, puzzle games, weighing scale and weight measures and some Montess ori-inspired materials such as sequencing sets, measuring cups and math board games. It is evident that the teachers in the primary research knew how these manipulative materials are able to serve as scaffolds to independent and more abstract learning of math, as Bruce & Threlfall (2004) mentioned in the secondary research. As children gained more skills in numeracy, these â€Å"scaffolds† may eventually be done without when they are ready to think more abstractly. Childrens Use of Materials The teachers were then asked if children used the materials independently in