The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas by John Boyne and the Holocaust Essay Example for Free

The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas by John Boyne and the Holocaust Essay Author John Boyne published his infamous novel The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas. John Boyne was born in Dublin, Ireland. Boyne attended Trinity College in Dublin where he first studied English Literature and then proceeded to the University of East Anglia in Norwich where he then studied creative writing. He began his published writing career in the year two-thousand with his first published book The Thief of Time. Though The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas separates itself from Boyne’s traditional style of writing by having being written for a younger audience, it was the book that took John Boyne’s career to the successful point it is now at. Using his father’s date of birth as the same for both Shmuel and Bruno, Boyne could further relate the two boys to a familiar story. Demonstrating the truly catastrophic events of the Holocaust in a fictional novel, Boyne captures the torment that two young boys face in a time where their innocence is taken away by one of the most evil acts of humanity. The Holocaust caused the lives of six million Jews to be lost, and the faith of the survivors. The Nazi Germans called this systematic mass killing â€Å"the final solution to the Jewish question. † In nineteen-thirty-three, Anti-Semitism reached its’ peak in Germany â€Å"†¦destruction, which was launched with torchlight parades and accented by speeches that proclaimed the death of Jewish intellectualism and the purification of German culture. Thus, writings by such Jewish intellectuals as Albert Einstein and Sigmund Freud fueled the huge bonfires. Also engulfed in flames was the work of Heinrich Heine, a German poet of Jewish origin. A century earlier Heine had stated, Where books are burned, in the end people will be burned. †¦. his statement would become [true], specifically for the European Jews who found themselves under Nazi domination during the Third Reich. † (The Holocaust Chronicles 53) By July of nineteen-thirty-three, twenty-five thousand Jews amongst other â€Å"unfit† German citizens had been sent to concentration camps or jail. Democracy in Germany had disappeared under Adolf Hitler’s new command with the Nazi Party being the only legal political party. Hitler began a propaganda that the Jew was a threat to the German race, unequal, and inferior, that it must be eliminated in order to restore the power lost during and after the First World War Jewish businesses were boycotted, German citizens began discriminating Jews, physically harming them and humiliating them. Later, German Nazis demanded that all non-Aryan subjects shall retire, â€Å"†¦any person who had a Jewish parent or grandparent was non-Aryan. † (54) The Jews were then places in ghettos, where the living conditions were poor and a preview of their upcoming fate was shown. Forced to wear David’s star as an embroidered badge on their clothing to symbolize their faith, the Jews were publicly isolated for the German citizens to see and attack. This would’ve made many of the Jews feel ashamed and directed them to lose faith in the God they had previously loved and lived by, as that same faith in the religion was what caused their cruel misfortune. Religion is seen repeatedly in both Night by Elie Wiesel and The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas by John Boyne. In Boyne’s work, the two main characters, Bruno and Shmuel, are two nine year old boys who are unfortunately wrapped up in the horrid events that took place during the years of the Holocaust. Bruno’s father is a high ranking officer working for the S. S during the period of the Nazi Party’s ruling in Germany. He doesn’t show clear understanding of what’s going on and what his father is doing, with help of constant deceit from his parents, his sister and instructor, Bruno still sees no difference between him and Shmuel, who is a Jewish prisoner of a concentration camp. Though there is no difference in the two boys, society, family and religion tells them otherwise, and yet their friendship is unbreakable. â€Å"We’re not supposed to be friends, you and me. We’re supposed to be enemies, did you know that? † (The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas 118) Having been disciplined by society to believe in a concept of inequality between the pure German race and the Jewish people, the friendship between Bruno and Shmuel becomes a significantly touching plot, not in the sense that it shouldn’t or couldn’t be, but in a way that demonstrates the innocence that adults tried to deprive from their children, and the loving bond that brings two boys who are meant enemies together, it makes them equal. Religion isn’t understood, hatred isn’t understood and evil acts are not understood; for once, the naive minds of innocence that cannot understand the plot Hitler formed are perfectly right by the similarity of not understanding their nonexistent â€Å"differences. † Both the real events of World War II and the fictional events within the novel feature a lot of deceit. Propaganda was used by the governments of every country involved in the war as well as within Germany against the Jews. This form of subtle manipulation was successful as it used citizens’ issues and fears to provide an excuse for the events occurring. Hitler used slogans and made powerful speeches throughout his dictatorship that convinced the Germans to believe that the Jewish people really were a threat that Germany had to repel. By blaming their economical issues on the Jews, the Germans had more of a reason to desire the exeunt of their race entirely. â€Å"’Propaganda tries to force a doctrine on the whole people Propaganda works on the general public from the standpoint of an idea and makes them ripe for the victory of this idea. ’ Adolf Hitler wrote these words in his book Mein Kampf, in which he first advocated the use of propaganda to spread the ideals of National Socialism among them racism, antisemitism,. ( http://www. ushmm. org ) The novel also shows a pattern of deceit, where Bruno is lied to by his parents when he asks what is behind the fence. Bruno also lies when he denies knowing Shmuel, an act of fear that resurfaces the idea that he is still a child with no desire to be punished. Deceit is a tendency that was believed to be necessary by the furor, Adolf Hitler, in order to proceed with the Final Solution while having his citizens and the rest of the world blind, as they believed his idea was only beneficial to Germany. Hitler and the Nazi Party would have not succeeded had they always been truthful to not only the people within their own borders, but the people outside of them too. It was necessary to deceit in order to succeed, or what he planned to be a success. In Bruno’s case, that same deceit provided him with the loyalty and love to Shmuel to be his friend until death. The accounted Jewish casualties that took place under the furor, Adolf Hitler and commander Heimrich Himmler are an approximate six million, completely exterminating the trace of each and every Jewish family in Germany, for even those who survived left immediately after the Russians set them free from the concentration camps in nineteen-forty-five. Survivors who have testimonies of their experience in the camps, the ghettos, and those who escaped still try to make sense of what happened in the twelve year long battle for survival. Emotionally, they have wounds that will never fully heal over. Mentally, they withhold memories that could only be imagined as the most vivid of nightmares to those of us who didn’t live through the terrorizing events. Spiritually, they are finally free to believe, if they can and most do. They speak of the Holocaust as a test from God, another reason to show their faith to the world. Eliezer Wiesel said in Night, â€Å"That I survived the Holocaust and went on to love beautiful girls, to talk, to write and to have toast and tea and live my life – that is what is abnormal. † Evidently, families were lost and lives were separated, an emotional devastation that one may never come to comprehend. In both of the works, family is demonstrated to be a significant factor. Elie, in Night, speaks fondly of the love for his father and the absolute loss of himself after the loss of his father. In The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas, Bruno’s mother reveals a love for her family so deep that she becomes despaired with the facts of her husband’s work. Shmuel sacrifices himself, at the side of his best friend, Bruno, to find his father and endanger his own life to save one of a family members’. This was the case for each person who died and survived the Holocaust. â€Å"If we bear all this suffering and if there are still Jews left, when it is over, then Jews, instead of being doomed, will be held up as an example. † (Anne Frank)

Cosmetic Surgery Essay Example for Free

Cosmetic Surgery Essay Cosmetic surgery is not solving the problem at route. The problem is the perception that the mind has on what is important. All cosmetic surgery is doing is changing the appearance but not the mental state. Someone who has such a mental disposition to these illnesses will have their offending extremity changed, but they will ultimately always find something they are not happy with. Instead of cosmetic surgery, these people should be offered psychological help. Cosmetic surgery only masks the inner problem. Only in some cases, does it help individuals. Candidates seeking plastic surgery should be routinely screened for mental health problems because of the risk to health, botched surgery, and the need for nobler causes rather than vanity. Plastic, reconstructive, and cosmetic surgery refer to a variety of operations performed in order to repair or restore body parts to look normal, or to change a body part to look better (Espejo 21). They all share common techniques and approaches but have their differences. Plastic surgery is known to repair a body after disfiguring accidents or severe burns such as car accidents or house fires (22). Reconstruction surgery is performed to improve function such as to correct birth defects, infections, or illnesses like breast cancer or tumors (22). It is most likely to be performed in a hospital and be covered by insurance unlike cosmetic surgery where it is not covered by insurance and is done in a surgeon’s office. Cosmetic surgery procedures are performed in order to enhance a person’s appearance to please them (22). It is practice by a variety of doctors from different medical fields. Examples of popular cosmetic surgeries are, Abdominoplasty: reshaping and firming of the abdomen, breast augmentations: increasing breast size, and Rhinoplasty: reshaping of the nose. All three of these procedures are used to reshape, repair, lift, or tuck certain areas of the body or face. Mental health screenings should be mandatory because of possible psychiatric disorders, risk for suicide, and an unstable mental health status. Researchers have discovered that â€Å"22% of all deaths were associated with suicide, psychological disorders, and/or drug and alcohol abuse† (Espejo 76). Breast implants have led to the tripled suicide rates in women and is higher for women forty-five and older (75). Due to possible psychiatric disorders increased screening and monitoring need to take place. Counseling could be in order too because drug and alcohol dependence is usually in use for women (76). Screening the mental health status of a candidate for mood or body image disorders would assure that they are psychiatrically stable and would clear them for surgery. In addition to mental health screenings, observing office behavior of a potential client may caution the surgeon to reconsider them. Under an hour long consultation should take place, which could be a fraud of who they really are by just trying to impress the surgeon to receive the plastic surgery. Therefore, patients who behave differently around a nurse need to be noted and risky behavior such as appointment changes, outside appointments, and only wanting to speak with the surgeon (77). All surgeries, including plastic, reconstruction, or cosmetic surgery, involve risks. General surgical risks are infections, bleeding, reactions to anesthesia, and scarring (Alagna 31). Reactions to anesthesia can result in brain, nerve, or eye damage, a stroke, heart attack, or death (31). All three forms of these surgeries can leave appalling scars on the body, varying in color and taking longer than normal to fade. If scars remain visible further surgery can be done to correct the scar or steroids can be used (33). Plastic surgery risks include the general risks as well as others. These risks include pneumonia, pain, anemia, fat embolisms, rejection of skin grafts, and numbness (31-32). There are risks of fatal surgeries that can occur by having heart difficulties, reacting to medications, and flu like symptoms (33). More in depth common procedure risks are known to follow after procedures such as breast augmentation and liposuction. Breast augmentation is a common surgery in women to increase the size of their breasts. Liposuction is a technique of removing excess fat from under the skin by suction. In 1992 the FDA banned silicone implants from breast augmentation because â€Å"they could lead to health problems† and â€Å"will need them removed within ten years† (Petersen). This ban was due to rupturing implants and the potential to cause disease. Rupturing and leaking is not the only threat of breast augmentation because they could be uneven, cause pain, scar or capsule, or swell (Alagna 36). All of these risks can lead to multiple surgeries and thousands of dollars. Liposuction is one of the most common killers in plastic surgery by deaths resulting 1 in 5,000 (38). Blood clots and heart failure are the main causes of death. These surgical procedures can result in complications ranging from an unattractive or unnatural final result, to scarring or even death. The general population of all women wants the Hollywood look for a bargain deal. They always believe that the horror stories they hear on television will never happen to them but botched plastic surgery can happen to anyone if the right precautions are not taken. Unfortunately precautions are not taken because there are horror stories of botched surgeries. Due to liposuction going wrong, many deaths have occurred because of cardiac arrest, too much tumescent fluid, and blood clots (Alagna 50). One woman named Sandra Ciuffreda shared her horror story about having about five gallons of fat removed. Once out of surgery she had become fragile and discovered she was left with a very noticeable scar (51). Other stories have been shared by women who have had cosmetic surgery gone wrong. An eighteen year old named Julia had undergone two nose jobs with scars left behind and has had her lips redone three different times (52). Another woman named Ellen Ross also encountered botched cosmetic surgery. It began with her just wanting thinner thighs but then was manipulated into thinking she needed her breasts done as well. Ross experienced terrifying results saying, â€Å"I had lumps next to my breasts† (53). In order to correct this surgeon’s mistake she had to undergo eight separate surgeries due to infections and scars and was put back thousands of dollars (52). A graph displays where only XXIII percent of patients come back for more surgery and only XXXVIII percent have multiple procedures done at once nationwide (Tevlin). This can conclude that the surgery was either bad or unneeded. In order to avoid these horror stories, research plastic surgery, have a thorough consultation to be informed about how to stay safe and request for a second, and ask the plastic surgeon about his or her experience and medical training. There is more to experiencing plastic surgery than just for vanity. It can be utilized for more noble causes such as birth defects, disfiguring injuries, reconstruction, and health benefits. Children with birth defects such as cleft palate or ear deformities can benefit from a â€Å"healthy dose† of plastic surgery procedure to correct their defect (Oshaba). Most cleft palates are repaired through specialized plastic surgery techniques, improving the child’s ability to eat, speak, hear and breathe, and to restore a more normal appearance and function. They will be able to grow up feeling more normal due to plastic surgery. Plastic surgery procedures are considered for reconstruction of deformities or from trauma from an accident or illness. Patients who have been in a car wreck can have reconstruction surgery to fix the damaged parts with parts from someone else (Espejo 22). Reconstructive plastic surgery is also accepted in cases where illness such as cancer have women seeking reconstructive breast surgery or to relieve back pain if painfully too large. It can benefit your health if you are overweight. Many people have suffered from obesity and then lost enormous amounts of weight leaving them the need to repair their body or have trouble losing weight. Dr. Jerome Muhumuza a medical doctor says, â€Å"†¦cosmetic surgery can help save your life or at least reduce the risk of health complications† (Oshaba). A gastric bypass is one of the recommended surgeries for those who are overweight or just liposuction in general (Oshaba). A gastric bypass is a surgical operation that involves reducing the size of the stomach and reconnecting the smaller stomach to bypass the first portion of the small intestine so as to restrict food intake and reduce caloric absorption in cases of severe obesity. All surgeries previously mentioned are ways to improve one’s health. Plastic surgery can also encourage and promote a strong, positive self-image with people with clinically proven depression (Weintraub). Even a small change on the outside can create an extraordinary change on the inside, allowing an individuals self-confidence to flourish. Therefore, there is a connection between mood, self-esteem and depression. Plastic surgery can be very beneficial by not only enhancing self-esteem, but curing depression. By just treating someone with Botox a change can occur within them (Weintraub). Surgery, whether it is plastic, reconstruction, or cosmetic has its pros and cons. It can lead to a lot of problems in the future that could affect you physically and mentally, and it has become a doorway to beauty for some people. Many have succumbed to the risks; therefore proper research and preparation are necessary for the surgery. There have been many people that have gone through it and feel worse after and keep striving for perfection but end up becoming a statistic. In some cases, cosmetic surgery does help individuals. Procedures like skin grafts on burn victims, or the correcting of an abnormal feature on the human body. These procedures help people feel more normal. This is how cosmetic surgery was first used. Then people started to use cosmetic surgery, not to look merely normal, but to look perfect. This type of surgery is not healthy and that is why mental health screenings should be mandatory due to health risks, botched surgeries, and the need for nobler causes.

What Extent Are Human Rights Claims Culturally Specific Politics Essay

What Extent Are Human Rights Claims Culturally Specific Politics Essay The atrocities committed against individuals in events such as slavery, the two World Wars, the Holocaust, and the apartheid in South Africa caused the issue of human rights to become a major concern for all nations across the globe, particularly for the western nations. The issue of human rights, however, has its roots in natural law theories of the 17th and 18th centuries and was more firmly established contemporarily in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and other covenants, conventions and declarations that were derived from it. At the core of this issue, is the controversy as to whether human rights are universal or culturally relative. Another area of disputation is the efficiency of the international community in the face of cultural practices that serve to discriminate against individuals, such as female genital mutilation, for example. The use of secondary data was applied in carrying out this research to address the above-mentioned issues. In this essay, I will attempt to find out how can universal human rights exist in a culturally diverse world. As the international community becomes increasingly integrated, how can cultural diversity and integrity are respected? Is the African Union Security Culture effective? There is no universal consensus on the definition of human rights because although human rights speak to everyone, different cultures have different concepts as to what human rights are and what they really mean. Universal human rights do not impose one cultural standard, rather one legal standard of minimum protection necessary for human dignity. As a legal standard adopted through the United Nations, universal human rights represent the hard-won consensus of the international community, not the cultural imperialism of any particular region or set of traditions. Jack Donnelly  [2]  defines human rights as a special class of rights, that is, the rights that one has simply because one is a human being. They are thus moral rights of the highest order. John Humphrey  [3]  states, when we speak of human rights [à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦] we usually have in mind certain rights which pertain to individual men and women because they are human beings and for no other reason. While it may not be true that all human beings are born free and equal, they are born with certain rights. Some of these rights, but not all of them are called human rights. Human rights are those rights without which there can be no human dignity. They derive from the inherent dignity of the human person as mentioned in the preambles to the two United Nations Covenants on human rights. It follows that every one possesses these rights in full equality. Human rights are intended for everyone, in every culture and are the birthright of every person. Human rights also hold that every individual has certain rights protecting him or her against the abuse of power by governments. CULTURAL RIGHTS Culture  [4]  can be defined as a shared, learned, symbolic system of values, beliefs and attitudes that shape and influence perception and behaviour. Culture  [5]  is the totality of knowledge, skills, traditions, and customs, specific to a group of people or a civilization. It is transmitted socially from generation to generation and not by genetic inheritance, and largely determines individual behaviour. It encompasses a very broad aspect of social life: techniques, manners, morals, lifestyle, systems of values, beliefs, religious observances, family organization, etc. Every human being has the right to culture, including the right to enjoy and develop cultural life and identity. Cultural rights, however, are not unlimited. The right to culture is limited at the point to which it infringes on another human right. No right can be used at the expense or destruction of another, in accordance with international law. Similarly, cultural rights do not justify torture, murder, genocide, discrimination on grounds of sex, race, language or religion, or violation of any of the other universal human rights and fundamental freedoms established in international law. Any attempts to justify such violations on the basis of culture have no validity under international law. A Cultural Context These are some of the issues, concerns and questions underlying the debate over universal human rights and cultural relativism. Cultural relativism is the assertion that human values, far from being universal, vary a great deal according to different cultural perspectives. Some would apply this relativism to the promotion, protection, interpretation and application of human rights which could be interpreted differently within different cultural, ethnic and religious traditions. In other words, according to this view, human rights are culturally relative rather than universal. Taken to its extreme, this relativism would pose a dangerous threat to the effectiveness of international human rights laws that has been painstakingly set up with international standards, and consequently widespread disregard, abuse and violation human rights would be given legitimacy. When a traditional culture does effectively provide protection, then human rights by definition would be compatible, posing no threat to the traditional culture. As such, the traditional culture can absorb and apply human rights, and the governing State should be in a better position not only to ratify, but to effectively and fully implement, the international standards. Traditional culture is not a substitute for human rights; it is a cultural context in which human rights must be established, integrated, promoted and protected. Human rights must be approached in a way that is meaningful and relevant in diverse cultural contexts. Rather than limit human rights to suit a given culture, why not draw on traditional cultural values to reinforce the application and relevance of universal human rights? There is an increased need to emphasize the common, core values shared by all cultures: the value of life, social order and protection from arbitrary rule. These basic values are embodied in human rights. Communitarians argued that rights and justice are culturally specific and cannot be applied across borders. For communitarians, human rights cannot be defined universally because they only have meaning in terms of the social fabric of a particular society and culture that proclaim them and does not apply in the real world. Human rights would be something different in Saudi Arabia compared to the UK. Cosmopolitans see rights to have universal meaning when they are based upon human reason and that universal rights prevail over particular values because they express universal reason.  [6]   Make Peace Happen In the last decade, the security culture of the African Union (AU) has developed in some relatively radical ways. There are also new opportunities to advance the responsibility to protect (R2P) agenda adopted by the United Nations General Assembly World Summit in 2005. This agenda commits individual states and the international community to protecting populations from genocide, war crimes, ethnic cleansing, and crimes against humanity. If successfully implemented in Africa, R2P would make a tremendous contribution to promoting stability and peace. The African Union (AU) has declared 2010 the African Year of Peace and Security with its campaigns slogan Make Peace Happen. Turning this statement into reality rests in large part on the members of the AUs Peace and Security Council, the most important African institution for the day-to-day management of peace and security issues. Within the AU, support for the responsibility-to-protect principle emerged from broader concerns with promoting human rights standards on the continent. If a government proves either unable or unwilling to protect its civilians from large scale loss of life [à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦] then international society bears a collective responsibility to protect them and can override the sovereignty of the state in question  [7]  . Security cultures are patterns of thought and argumentation [à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦] concepts of the role, legitimacy and efficacy of particular approaches to protecting values.  [8]  .  [9]   Moreover, security cultures help establish the core assumptions, beliefs and values of decision-makers about how security challenges can and should be dealt with, through the process of socialization. The African Unions Constitutive Act pledges respect for human rights and rejects the widespread impunity that has characterized armed conflict and political repression in many African countries. In grave circumstances such as occurred during the Rwandan genocide, the Constitutive Act authorizes the African Union to intervene. Leading African states in the African Union have also adopted a New Partnership for Africas Development (NEPAD), a program to lift Africa out of poverty that explicitly recognizes the importance of democracy, human rights, and the rule of law for economic development. NEPAD has also developed its own code of governance and system for peer review, but its pledges on human rights remain vague. The African Union will only succeed if it replaces the culture of impunity with the culture of accountability.  [10]   Indeed, the record of the AU was not much more impressive in the field of security-related activities. The organisation was mainly involved in setting norms and standards, but it was never effective in enforcing them. In the few cases of international wars (Somalia/Ethiopia 1977-78 and Eritrea/Ethiopia 1998-2000) the AU played virtually no role. The AU was also committed to the principle of non-alignment, but the fact that no member state ever joined any formal alliance with outside powers is probably mainly due to the fact that no alliance memberships were ever on offer, and the AU certainly failed in preventing the actual involvement of the great powers in conflicts on the continent. Without strong and interventionist versions of international distributive justice and measures associated with subsistence, economic and welfare rights, the AU will be powerless. The constructivists approach to analysing regional security dynamics as summarized by Hurrell, involves a number of central ideas: first, that, in contrast to rationalist theories, we need to pay far more attention to the processes by which both interests and identities are created and evolve, to the ways in which self-images interact with changing material incentives, [à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦] that both interests and identities are shaped by particular histories and cultures, by domestic factors, and by ongoing processes of interaction with others.  [11]   In order to guarantee human security at the personal, institutional, and structural-cultural levels, power relations and relations of power should be underscored within a socio-cultural context. In other words, emancipation or sustainable peace-building occurs when one understands the true nature of social-cultural categories such as class, gender, ethnic equality, etc. A great deal of peace-building deals with issues of security within a positivist-rational epistemology. Human security is therefore a situation or a condition free of injury or threats to an individuals, or communitys well-being, including freedom from direct physical attacks and psychological integrity. To ensure such security involves the understanding of human security located at the structural, institutional, and personal levels of society. It involves an attempt to understand human security or insecurity in terms of those who experience them. What motivates the dissatisfied to agitate and their beliefs as marginalized individuals should be seriously taken into account, instead of merely imposing policies on them. Constructivism as an approach is a useful theoretical lens in understanding the true nature of things such as collective violence, class, gender, and racial issues, among others. Within these units emancipation occurs when the accurate picture of the situation is understood. Constructivists operate on the ontological assumption that actors are shaped by the socio-cultural milieu in which they live. Constructivists try to go beyond the descriptive aspect of a situation to an understanding of the motives of a community in order to explain how they behave and what causes political outcomes. Constructivism is not only limited to the influence of norms and social understandings on different actors (individuals, groups, and states), it also investigates why the norms and inter-subjective beliefs often had different influences on different actors. Many constructivist studies have emphasized the ways in which ideas and norms become more powerful in their effect than conventional conceptions of strong state interests. In conclusion, this essay has considered many different arguments, cultures in the world are in many cases conflicting and the diversities in the world can make it difficult to have a universal consensus, especially when it comes to personal rights. While it is worth considering the western interpretation of human rights, the human rights doctrine should not have to make allowances for differences in morality. When it considers a right to be fundamental and important, this should mean it is universal. The function of Human rights is to improve the individuals life and the way it does this is not to make allowances for customs and traditions that should not be considered acceptable. For the time being it is a virtual impossibility to make economic compatibility a reality, as the differing political systems do not allow for this. However this does not mean that human rights in general are not compatible with multiculturalism. We are all humans, with basic wants and needs. Being granted these wants and needs does not take away anything from the differing cultures on the contrary the Human rights protect our right to be different, through cultural identity and religion amongst other rights. The basic rights of humans should not be based on culture but on what improves peoples life in the most effective way. Diversity does not affect human needs, and therefore should not affect, at least at the most fundamental level, the universal doctrine of human rights. 2194 Words

Is it Money Well Spent? Election 2004 :: essays research papers

We live in a time where more expensive means more desirable. This year’s election spending has gotten out of hand. It is time for future presidents to ask themselves, is all of this spending necessary? The total spending in the 2004 election was at least 1.2 billion dollars and the total costs of the 2005 inauguration to be 50 million dollars. Advertisements and personal luxuries the President elect and their family indulge in are even pricier than anything is. What exactly are the leaders of this free world spending this much money for? Appearance is a big deal when someone is trying to make an impression. A person has to be able to hold him or herself properly, groom themselves properly, and wear the latest outfits to appeal to the many eyes looking up at them. First Lady Laura Bush, along with her two daughters spent a lump sum of 30 thousand dollars on one out of six outfits they wore during the inaugural bashes held on January 19 and 20. The Presidential suite package at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel for inauguration celebrations cost 200 thousand dollars alone. This is 50 thousand dollars more than military necessities that the President claims we desperately need. This includes a fully armored military Humvee and one set of Army body armor. President George W. Bush’s inauguration could have paid for vaccinations and health care for 22 million children impacted by the tsunami disaster, or it could have paid off some of the nation’s 412 billion dollar deficit from last year. Millions of government do llars was spent on construction of the platform, stands at the Capitol, and rigid inauguration security. Is it Money Well Spent? Election 2004 :: essays research papers We live in a time where more expensive means more desirable. This year’s election spending has gotten out of hand. It is time for future presidents to ask themselves, is all of this spending necessary? The total spending in the 2004 election was at least 1.2 billion dollars and the total costs of the 2005 inauguration to be 50 million dollars. Advertisements and personal luxuries the President elect and their family indulge in are even pricier than anything is. What exactly are the leaders of this free world spending this much money for? Appearance is a big deal when someone is trying to make an impression. A person has to be able to hold him or herself properly, groom themselves properly, and wear the latest outfits to appeal to the many eyes looking up at them. First Lady Laura Bush, along with her two daughters spent a lump sum of 30 thousand dollars on one out of six outfits they wore during the inaugural bashes held on January 19 and 20. The Presidential suite package at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel for inauguration celebrations cost 200 thousand dollars alone. This is 50 thousand dollars more than military necessities that the President claims we desperately need. This includes a fully armored military Humvee and one set of Army body armor. President George W. Bush’s inauguration could have paid for vaccinations and health care for 22 million children impacted by the tsunami disaster, or it could have paid off some of the nation’s 412 billion dollar deficit from last year. Millions of government do llars was spent on construction of the platform, stands at the Capitol, and rigid inauguration security.

The Ice Storm Essay -- essays research papers

It is 1973. New Canaan, Connecticut is a prototypical 'bedroom'; community. Modern homes, clean, quiet streets and plenty of greenspace lend an air of contentment to the setting. However, behind the doors of these homes discontent and ennui are thriving.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  '…affluent Americans increasingly clustered in suburban areas, where jobs for women were limited and domestic help was in short supply. Husbands were away from home longer because they had to commute to work, leaving the wives to bear the complete responsibility for the family…The American dream of affluence in a natural, bucolic setting away from urban squalor often made it impossible for women to be anything other than housewives and mothers.'; i. The Ice Storm focuses on two families, the Hoods and the Carvers. Ben Hood, (Kevin Kline), is the aptly-named, self-absorbed patriarch of his family moving through life believing all that matters is what he sees in front of him; his wife, Elena (Joan Allen) is his quietly despairing mate and mother of Paul (Tobey Maguire) and Wendy (Christina Ricci). Jim Carver (Jamey Sheridan) is an enterprising man, who is seldom home long enough to attend to the needs of his wife Jane (Sigourney Weaver) and their two sons Mike (Elijah Wood) and Sandy (Adam Hann-Byrd). These families are linked by relationships, superficially neighborly, but in fact more visceral than they are prepared to admit to even themselves. It takes an outside force, the ice storm, to force them to come to grips with the realities of their lives, both individually and as families. 'The majority of the past and present studies of martial discontent decisively show that non-working married women are much more prone to anxiety, depression, and mental breakdowns than married men, married working women, or single women.'; ii. Elena Hood and Jane Carver are stereotypical suburban wives. Jane is portrayed as a sexual person, her first three appearances show her cleaning spilt wine from Ben Hood's crotch, the next two in bed. She dresses provocatively, in fur, boots, and bangles, her long hair flowing about her shoulders. Elena is shown as a domestic, spending most of the film in the kitchen. Though she is a beautiful, vivacious woman, she locks her emotions away beneath her suburban spousal exterior. She is the prototypical housewife. Both women have husba... ...eir lives learning them. During the Depression and World War II, 'women's work'; became much more than tasks performed at home. The 'go where you want to go, do what you want to do'; mantra of the '60s showed women who felt there was more to life than domesticity that their urge to be 'of the world'; was a viable goal. They wanted, rightly, to be included in the power structure. The obstacle to this end was the existing male-dominated power elite. Men, who through upbringing and experience believed that their position of control was pre-ordained, were too busy convincing themselves and each other of their rectitude to listen to what women wanted. Wendy Carver is a product of all this, a girl blossoming into womanhood, and a person with strong opinions to express. She, in many ways, defines the burgeoning power women felt in their grasp in 1973. They yearned to be part of the great decision-making processes affecting their world. Their perspective, they knew, was vital to making t he necessary changes to the 'boys' club'; mentality that had bred the wars, embargos and political chicanery that plagued America in the early 70s. The world was changing, and it was time to talk about it.

Victimization of Women Essay -- History, Ancient Regime, Sexual Violen

â€Å"People dominate animals, men dominate women.† Each is a relation of hierarchy, an inequality, with particularities and variations within and between them. (Cite Orange book pg. 92.) For centuries, women have been viewed and used as a man’s â€Å"property†, whether it is being used for sexual satisfaction or for the sake of bearing children and taking care of the home. Men are typically perceived as head of the household and whatever they say goes; anything to satisfy their hunger for power and control. Have women ever had a say about what they want to use their bodies for? Laws against rape may have changed over time, but men’s consistent aggressive behavior unfortunately, has not. Dating back to the ancien rà ©gime, referring mainly to the social and political era established in France from the fifteenth century to the eighteenth century, there are several reported cases of women being attacked and sexually harassed by men to the point where the man’s sword was drawn. In fear of their lives, they were unable able to cry for help with a deadly weapon influencing the outcome of their situation. (Cite Book 1) The court systems â€Å"tolerated† this type of violence to the point where the perpetrator had little or few repercussions for his forceful actions. â€Å"Sexual violence was a part of a system where violence reigned almost as a matter of course for no apparent reason [in our eyes]; children were beaten by adults, women by men or by other women, servants by their masters. Sometimes the aggressor broke his stick or his sword on his victim’s back, sometimes he killed him. It would have seemed highly artificial, in such circumstances, to isolate sexual crime from the other forms of aggression that were constantly present, or latent, in ... ...ributions of blame in sexual assault cases. Many lay people assume that a victim will fight back physically to prevent the sexual assault, although research indicates that victims do not struggle physically for various reasons (i.e. drugged, fear, shock, coercion, etc.) In one of the first studies of its kind, it was found that women who did not show obvious resistance were less likely to be viewed as being sexually assaulted. (Cite Article 5) â€Å"Women are the animals of the human kingdom, the mice of men’s world. Both women and animals are identified with nature rather than culture by virtue of biology. Both are imagined in male ideology to be thereby fundamentally inferior to men and humans. . . Qualities considered human and higher are denied to animals at the same time as qualities considered masculine and higher are denied to women† (MacKinnon, 2005).

Absolute and Relative Surplus Value – Seminar

In contemporary social science, the concept of â€Å"value† has attained currency in such disciplines like Economics, Sociology, Political science etc. in these disciplines, value is considered as those essentials needed by members of a society. It is further seen as scarce resources pursued by competing groups. Value in political economy, basically refers to that portion that creates wealth or the so called reward for the â€Å"risk taker†, the entrepreneur.In other words, value refers to that unpaid labour of the worker which the capitalist pockets or recapitalizes. It should be noted that, the concept of value is an integral part of the labour process in general, capitalist commodity production, wear and tear of the working class and of course class antagonism. In essence, the concept of value (Absolute and Relative) cannot be understood without recourse to the mode of production that brings it about as well as the nature of social relations of production.Under capit alism, labour power becomes a commodity and like any commodity, it has its value and use value. The value of any commodity like labour power is determined by the expenditure of social labour on its production and reproduction. Therefore, surplus value is derived from surplus labour of a worker. The worker creates a value which the owner of the means of production appropriates without compensation. Marx’s Das Capital not only revealed the exploitation surrounding the extraction of surplus value, he as well revealed the degree and ratio of exploitation involving the labour power of the workers.In this direction, he maintained that that surplus value can be categorized into â€Å"Absolute and Relative†. With this, Marx gives an analogy of how the value of labour power is used in extending capital. A school master is a productive labour or his labour power becomes of value when he finds himself in a school factory, that he must ensure that teaching and non-teaching staffs become productive as to ensure not only the preservation of capital assets of the owner of the means of production but that they produce surplus value that exceeds the rate of hiring them.Beyond this, Marx situated the social relations of production in historical context which has continued to associate the worker and surplus value creation. From the foregoing, capitalist exploitation of the labour power of workers can be looked at from two angles: the first being the production of Absolute surplus value which becomes possible in the prolongation of the working day. In other words, to Marx, Absolute surplus value is obtained by increasing the amount of time worked per worker in a given time.From one stand point, any distinction between Absolute and Relative surplus value appears illusory. Relative surplus value is Absolute since it compels the absolute prolongation of the working day beyond the labour time necessary to the existence of the labourer himself; While Absolute surplus va lue is relative since it makes necessary such a development of the productiveness of labour, as will allow of the necessary labour time being confined to a portion of the working day.The second way of increasing the degree of the exploitation of labour power through the relative surplus value which is derived by a reduction of the necessary labour time without any changes in the working day. For Marx, it is possible to reduce the labour time primarily by increasing social labour productivity in branches producing means of subsistence for the workers. Consequently, both the Absolute and Relative surplus value are defined within the logic of the establishment of capitalism which perpetually subjects labour to capital.Again, Marx tries to highlight the differences between the Absolute and Relative surplus value, which he says is defined with the establishment of the capitalist mode of production; that is it is the prolongation of the working day beyond the point at which the labourer w ould have produced just an equivalent for the value of his labour power, and the appropriation of that surplus labour by capital. Although, as a special method of reducing relative surplus value, he continues capitalist industries get operated by by the army of workers themselves with the ultimate aim of ensuring the revolution of the entire capitalist production.It is with regard to the forgoing, that the author presupposes that when the above two conditions that creates surplus value for the capitalists are absent or when the labour spends all his labour time for the reproduction of himself, then the cycle of capital reproduction is obstructed and class division disappears. However, Marx goes on to say that the increasing complexity of the needs of society has correspondingly increased the absolute and relative surplus value extracted in the process of production.Regarding the origin of surplus value and labour power from its engagement, Marx is of the opinion that it was influenc ed under two conditions: The first being the subsistence of workers when man gathered natural wealth for subsistence. The second is market conditions when market production got underway, instruments of labour such as navigable rivers, wood, coal, metal etc became important in the capitalist production of goods and services. Inhering from the consequence of commercial production is the issue of climatic change which is caused the excessive demand for consumer goods.So, the lesser the natural wants of man; the greater the fertility of the soil and the suitable climatic conditions and ultimately, the less impoverished the labourer. From the foregoing, the capitalist mode of production, according to Marx, thrives on man’s assertiveness on the wealth of nature. The differentiation of the fertility of the soil and its components such as the changes of the seasons informs social division of labour in societies and by extension multiplied human wants, his capabilities, means of produ ction and surplus value. t therefore follows that human labour is the only source of new economic value since it is indispensable for the conservation and transfer economic value (maintenance and redistribution of capital assets). In other words, the ability of the capitalist to manipulate the surplus labour time in order to produce surplus product is the starting point for the extraction of surplus value. Bourgeois economists such as David Ricardo did not see surplus value as the driving force behind the productiveness of labour rather as an essential part of labour production that determines surplus value.Again, this view of the Bourgeois scholars contrasts from that of the merchantilists which believe that surplus value originates from the aspect of exchange of the labour product above its original value. Another, bourgeois scholar with yet another perspective is John Stuart Mill who sees surplus value as inhering from the duration of the product of labour. In other words, Mill b elieved surplus value can still be made without the exchange value of commodities. But, in reality, surplus value can be derived from subtracting the total expenditure made in the process of production and exchange from the final price of the commodity.Surplus value is in fact the main goal and the driving force of capitalist production. It is also important to note that it is on the basis of the engagement of labour power that surplus value is extracted. Since capital needs a steady flow of labour power to preserve the capital assets and provide surplus value, it is where the mystery of capitalist exploitation lies, it becomes pertinent to examine the views of Karl Marx on the following Sub themes: CHANGES OF MAGNITUDE INTHE PRICE OF LABOUR POWER AND IN SURPLUS VALUE: Labour power is determined by the expenditure of social labour on its production and reproduction. In other words, in order to live and work, a worker has to have food, clothes, housing, etc , in order to meet his nee ds and fulfill his role as a member of society. Essentially, for Marx, there are three important factors that determine the value of labour power: i.The value of the necessaries required by the worker ii. The expenses involved in skills acquisition of the labourer iii. The value of the means of subsistence required to maintain the worker’s family. In addition, labour power has a specific use value which no other commodity possesses. For example, the use value of commodities such as bread, clothes, footwear, writing materials, etc is fully used up in the process of consumption while the use value of labour power has the capacity to produce more value than it has itself.This also constitutes the cradle of capitalist exploitation and appropriation of surplus value. It is based o the above premise that Marx underscores that the Relative magnitudes of surplus value and of price of labour power are determined by three circumstances: a. The length of the working day b. The normal in tensity of labour c. The productiveness of labour The above factors or circumstances could variously be combined. One of the three factors could be constant and the others variable or two constant and one variable or lastly all three simultaneously variable.The following analogy further explains the various combinations that determine the relative magnitudes of surplus value and the value of labour power: LENGTH OF THE WORKING DAY AND INTENSITY OF LABOUR CONSTANT. PRODUCTIVENESS OF LABOUR VARIABLE : The above assumptions are determined by three laws: First, a working day of a given length always creates the same amount of value, irrespective of the productiveness of labour and with it the mass of the product and the price of each of the product may vary.What the capitalist would do in this circumstance in order to extract surplus value is to divide the working day into two parts: The first is the necessary labour time and the other is surplus labour time. The capitalist maximizes th e utility of the surplus labour time in which time the worker expends surplus labour and creates surplus value. Again, Marx added that the outcome of labour process varies with the productiveness of labour. Second, surplus value and the value of labour power vary in opposite directions.A variation in the productiveness of labour, its increase or decrease influence the variation in the opposite direction of the value of labour power and in the same direction in surplus value. In other words, the capitalists through the intensity of labour can reduce the value of labour power, while at the same time increase their extraction of surplus value. Further, the value of labour power cannot fall and consequently surplus value cannot rise without a rise in the productiveness of labour.For instance, a working day of seven hours created a value of #10,000 as a constant. The constant quantity is the sum of the surplus value plus the value of labour power; therefore, neither of them can increase without the other diminishing. It then follows that the value of the labour power cannot decrease from #10,000 to #8,000 unless an increase in the productiveness of labour makes it possible to produce in five hours the same quantity of necessaries as previously required in 7 hours to produce.On the other hand, the value of the labour power cannot rise from #10,000 to #12,000 without a decrease in the productiveness of labour, whereby 9 hours become sufficient to produce the same quantity of necessaries for the production of which 7 hours previously sufficed. Third, increase or diminution in surplus value depends on the corresponding diminution or increase in the value of labour power. Every change of magnitude in surplus value arises from an inverse change of magnitude in the value of labour power.According to this third law, a change in the magnitude of surplus value presupposes a movement in the value of labour power, which movement is brought about by a variation in the productiv eness of labour. WORKING DAY CONSTANT. PRODUCTIVENESS OF LABOUR CONSTANT. INTENSITY OF LABOUR VARIABLE : In this case, increased intensity of labour in a constant working day of 7 hours will amount to more products than one of less intense labour. Productiveness of labour will also result in more products in a given day of 7 hours.Evidently, the mass of surplus value can be increased both by increasing the rate of the exploitation of labour power and by increasing the number of wage workers. In addition, the reduction of the value of the workers means of subsistence and consequently the value of labour power or a reduction of the necessary labour time and increase in the surplus labour time can generate surplus value in the process of capitalist production. Again, technology increases surplus value at the expense of labour power.In fact, capitalism as a social system puts all the achievements of the technical progress at the service of non-working, parasitic classes and dooms the wo rking class to poverty and rightlessness. Machines serve to intensify the exploitation of labour and wear out the human organism at a faster pace. When the value created by a day’s labour increases from #8,000 to #10,000, then the two parts into which this value is divided, ie price of labour power and surplus value may both increase simultaneously, equally or unequally.Here, the rise in the price of labour power does not necessarily imply that the price has risen above the value of labour power. On the contrary, the rise in price may be accompanied by a fall in value. This occurs whenever the rise in the price of labour power does not compensate for its increased wear and tear. PRODUCTIVENESS AND INTENSITY OF LABOUR CONSTANT. LENGTH OF THE WORKING DAY VARIABLE: The length of the working day creates a greater or less amount of value. In addition, every change between the magnitudes of surplus value and the value of labour power arises from a change in the absolute magnitudes of the surplus labour.Furthermore, the absolute value of labour can change only in consequence of the reaction exercised by the prolongation of surplus labour upon the wear and tear of labour power. From the foregoing, one can conclude that: A shortening of the working day under the conditions leaving the value of labour power and its necessary labour time unaltered; it then reduces the surplus labour and surplus value. A change in the productiveness and intensity of labour either precedes or immediately follows a shortening of the working day.Second, if the working day be lengthened say 2 hours and the price of labour power remain altered; the surplus value increases both absolutely and relatively. In other words, the change of relative magnitude in the value of labour power is the result of the change of absolute magnitude in surplus value. The point to be emphasized here is that the wear and tear of workers is not adequately compensated in Nigeria. SIMULTANEUOS VARIATIONS IN THE DURATION, PRODUCTIVENESS AND INTENSITY OF LABOUR The ifferent variations are capable of counteracting one another, either wholly or in part. In speaking of diminishing productiveness of labour, it is in relation with those industries whose products takes care of the subsistence of the worker such as the fertility of the soil and the consequent dearness of its products like food, shelter, clothes, etc. In the latter case, should there be no change in the working day, the capitalists will experience a fall in surplus value because the price of the labour power required for production would have increased.Therefore, with diminishing productiveness of labour and a simultaneous lengthening of the working day, the absolute magnitude of surplus value may continue unaltered, at the same time that its relative magnitude diminishes; its relative magnitude may continue unchanged at the same time that its absolute magnitude increases; both the absolute magnitude and relative magnitude may incre ase in so far as the duration of the working day is sufficient. On the other hand, the increasing productiveness of labour with a simultaneous shortening of the necessary labour time results in the relative surplus value.When the productiveness of labour is as a result of increasing social labour productivity in branches producing means of subsistence for the workers and their families, it serves to reduce the value of labour power and subsequently produces absolute and relative surplus value when the necessary labour time is reduced at the expense of the surplus labour time. However, the more the productiveness of labour increases, the more can the working day be shortened; and the more the working day is shortened , the more can the productiveness of labour increase.VARIOUS FORMULAE FOR THE RATE OF SURPLUS VALUE: The rate of surplus value in production is defined by Marx as the volume of surplus value produced by the workforce divided by the variable capital expended to produce: a Surplus value S = Surplus value = Surplus labour Variable capital V Value of labour power Necessary labour b. Surplus labour =Surplus value =Surplus product Working day Value of the Product Total ProductHere, the intensity and productiveness of labour embodied in a working day depicts the degree of exploitation of labour. The formula for the mass of surplus value (S) is = S’x V, where S is the rate of surplus value and V is the variable capital advanced for the remuneration of all the workers. Evidently, the mass of surplus can be increased both by increasing the rate of the exploitation of labour power and by increasing the number of wage workers. Conclusion: