Journal Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 18

Journal - Assignment Example Harry Truman had warned earlier. It became prevalent because of the â€Å"guilt by association† principle without any solid proof of disloyalty (Faragher et al. 694). Anybody is a suspect and it was relatively easy for anyone to accuse someone of being a communist such as members of labor unions. . The extensiveness of the red scare at home can perhaps be partly explained by mass hysteria. People were not sure who is whom, or who were the card-carrying members of the Communist Party in America. At any rate, the rise of McCarthyism, as it came to be called, was basically an unacceptable form of ideological and political extremism. In the words of the observers, it was essentially demagoguery combined with witch-hunting. It was extensive since anyone could accuse anybody and â€Å" . . . it was an irresponsible and dangerous tactic . . . the reckless persecution of innocent or relatively harmless dissidents . . . â€Å" (Jenkins 2). When people are not sure who is the enemy, then anybody can become a suspect. Fears can become exaggerated when people lacked information and so imagination and irrationality took over. In those dangerous times, communism was on the march and it seemed unstoppable. People were attracted to its ideology of equality for all of whatever race or class (Fitzgerald 24). Joseph â€Å"Joe† R. McCarthy (1908-1957) was a Republican senator from the state of Wisconsin. He was a rarity among American politicians because he was a devout Catholic and a part of his religious beliefs was strong opposition to communism because it was atheistic that is opposed to any kind of organized religion. Communists like to call religion as an opiate (or opium) that deprives normal people the faculty to think clearly and rationally so they do not believe in a god or any supreme being who determines human affairs. Rather, the main logic of communists is that the people themselves can chart their own destiny. McCarthy was

Population Control and The Origins of the 3rd World Essay

Population Control and The Origins of the 3rd World - Essay Example This Malthusian presumption exists in the contemporary times as a popular clarification for environmental degradation and poverty. The third world is presumed to have resulted from the consequence of wealth and income disparities that were established in the final parts of the nineteenth century. This was when famous non-European peasants were incorporated in the world financial system (Davies 1). Malthus exonerates the unit of individuals who own property and the political economic system by implying that the productivity of the underprivileged is the foremost source of their underprivileged position, and that the productivity of the underprivileged cannot be tremendously affected by human involvement. In India, after 1876, the collective terror of the drought-famine extension from southern Indian cost to the North Western Provinces semi-arid areas of India. The loss of food products in a number of districts was disastrous. The peasants in every district traded the frames of their d oors and windows, field apparatus, the hatch of the roofs, and bullocks to stay alive during the initial period of the drought (Davies 2). They could not make use of the minimal rain produced between April and May due to lack of adequate means of production. Question 2 Malthusian reasoning still prevails because of a number of reasons. First, archeologists illustrate that societies surface when cultivators can produce an extra amount of food than they and their households can consume. It is the surplus of the cultivators that makes a society probable. Nevertheless, there are a number of minimal omissions where individuals have different products apart from agriculture with which they can exchange, for example, copper, automobile, or gold. Nonetheless, it is similar in all instances, if there is no product surplus, there will be no society (Davies 7). In addition, the thinking is still relevant because food is essential to the survival of humans. Also, the passion among the sexes is significant, and will linger in its current form. The law on food and passion among the sexes seem to have been permanent rules of the human nature. Moreover, human beings cannot conclude that these laws will stop being what they are without an instant act of influence in that being for the benefit of human beings and the system of the globe. By the rule of human nature which makes foodstuff essential to the existence of human beings, the impacts of the uneven influences should be kept at per. This entails a stout and continuously functioning assessment on population from the complexity of survival (Davies 23). This complexity should be placed somewhere, and should unavoidably be extremely felt by a significant section of humans. Moreover, the persistent endeavor towards population enhances the number of humans prior to the increment of the means of subsistence. Question 3 Malthusian views assert that disease and famine are the consequence of overreproduction, so victims should not be prevented from perishing. It is this Malthusian reasoning that has caused large amounts of death in several parts of the globe. First, there is forced inclusion of smallholder making into financial circuits and products all over the globe supervised from out of the countries. This destabilizes conventional food security. The underprivileged are compelled into progressive decline of circumstances of loss of property

Value of Diversity in the workplace Paper Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Value of Diversity in the workplace Paper - Essay Example Looking at the demographic analysis of our customer base we realized that we had been way off the mark as far as the targets and the results were concerned. The potential turnover was huge considering the Hispanic population count in the territory. We could have had double the turnover and did not know what we were doing wrong or what more we could do to include the target population. This put question mark not only the results but also on the efficacy of the funds spent on the campaign, which did not achieve the desired results, and as a corollary, the achieved results would have been there even without this added expense. It was a classic case of blind leading the blind. We had got somewhere but did not know how and it was not where we wanted to be in the first place. The days that followed were very critical for all of us including the advertisement agency hired for creating awareness about the product amongst the target population. Numerous brain storming sessions took place; we tried out all the tricks in the book to come up with a credible hypothesis of what had happened and the best way forward but could not come up with any plausible conclusion. There was a Hispanic salesman on our team. He was very quiet, conscious of his "different' background and mostly kept to himself.

Black Codes Essay Example for Free

Black Codes Essay ‘Black~Codes’ were legal statutes and constitutional amendments enacted by the ex~Confederate states following the Civil War that sought to restrict the liberties of newly freed sIaves, to ensure a supply of inexpensive agriculturaI Iabor; and maintain a white dominated hierarchy. However; the history of Black Codes did not begin wIth the coIIapse of the Confederacy. Prior to the Civil War, $tates in the south enacted Slave Codes to regulate the institution of slavery. Furthermore, northern, non~slave holding states enacted laws to limit the [emailprotected] political power and social mobility. For example~ in 1804, Ohio enacted Iaws prohibitin black people from immigrating into states. In 1813, the State of lllinois enacted a law banning free BIacks outright from immigrating into the $tate. Black Codes adopted after the Civil War borrowed elements from the antebellum slave laws and from the laws of the northern states used to regulate free blacks. Some Black Codes incorporated morality clauses based on antebellum slave laws into Back Code labor laws. For example, in Texas, a morality clause was used to make it crime for laborers to use offensive language in the presence of their employers, his agents, or his family members. Borrowing from the Ohio and Illinois codes, Arkansas enacted an ordinance banning free blacks from immigrating into the state. In the end, the Black Codes were largely extinguished when Radical Republican Reconstruction efforts began in 1866-67, and with the passage of the Fourteenth Amendment and civil rights legislation. Though the statutory lives of the Black Codes were short-lived, they are significant in that they served as precursors to the Jim Crow laws and social segregation among whites and blacks. For example, Arkansas passed a law prohibiting black children from 1attending school with children. The Texas legislature enacted a law requiring railroad companies to set aside a passenger car for black passengers. While each ex-Confederate state enacted its own set of Black Codes, all of them shared certain features. First, they defined the term person of color. Second, they prevented blacks from voting, holding office, or serving on juries. Third, they prevented blacks from serving in state militias. Fourth, they mandated for poor, unemployed persons (usually blacks) be arrested for vagrancy or bound as apprentices. Fifth, they mandated and regulated labor contracts between whites and free blacks. Sixth, they prohibited interracial marriages between whites and blacks. All of the Black Codes defined what it meant to be a â€Å"person of color. † However, these definitions were far from consistent. The Virginia legislature decreed that any person with onefourth Negro blood in their veins was a person of color. Georgia set the limit at one-eighth. Still yet, the Tennessee legislature declared anyone having any Negro blood at all made an individual a person of color. The leaders of the ex-Confederacy made no qualms about their desire to keep blacks out of the political process. To this end, all of the ex-Confederate states prevented blacks from voting, holding political office, or serving in the state militias. This view had some measure of support in the North. In an article appearing in the New York Times, an author wrote, â€Å"The denial of suffrage to the freedmen, we believe, cannot be made a bar to admission of the Southern representatives, for the reason is that it is no real denial of justice. No man, white or black, has title to a civil power which he has not the intelligence to exercise. † The Black Codes also prohibited blacks from serving in state militias. A principle reasons for these laws was probably a concern for insurrections and armed violence. However, a 2corollary concern was that the presence of armed black soldiers encouraged undesirable attitudes in blacks. For example, in Florida, the state legislature drafted resolution requesting that black Union Army troops be withdrawn from their lands because their presence alarmed whites and encouraged insubordination among blacks. Florida also passed laws prohibiting blacks from carry fire-arms or weapons. If blacks wanted to own a gun, these laws often required blacks to obtain a license from the county judge and to have witnesses, usually white, vouch for their nonviolent temperament. The vagrancy statutes were particularly harsh on freed blacks. While these statutes did not specifically target blacks in their language, they were predominately applied to blacks because of their impoverished condition. In general, vagrancy statutes stipulated that any person a law enforcement officer or judge deemed to be unemployed and not owning property could be arrested and charged as a vagrant. It was easy to arrest blacks for violating vagrancy laws because the freed blacks lacked wealth and land owning to their previous condition of servitude, and to a lesser extent because the federal government reneged on its promise to deliver forty acres and a mule to 40,000 freed slaves. Once arrested and convicted of vagrancy, a person would be forced into conditions nearly identical to slavery. They were either hired out to private individuals or forced to work public projects. They were not paid for their labor. In Florida, disobedience, tardiness, or running away could be punished by imprisonment, standing in the pillory or stockade, or flogging. Punishment by flogging usually consisted of receiving 39 lashes, a number frequently used when flogging slaves. Apprentice statutes functioned along with vagrancy statutes to ensure a steady supply of inexpensive labor. Under apprentice laws, minors of poor parents, or parents deemed to be 3vagrants, could be taken as wards of the court and bound out to a master for varying lengths of time. Males were usually bound until the age of twenty-one, females until the age of eighteen. Apprentices frequently had no choice in the trade they would be required to learn, however, masters were required to teach the apprentice a trade, provide for the apprentice’s living expenses, and provide the apprentice with a basic elementary level education. Some states even required the master to provide the apprentice with a monetary gift when the apprenticeship expired. Apprentices who violated apprentice laws by running away being disobedient to their master could be imprisoned, flogged, or forced to pay damages. The regulation of labor contracts with blacks was another hallmark of the Black Codes. In article appearing in a popular magazine of the time, a Southern author wrote of black people, â€Å"We should be satisfied to compel them to engage in coarse, common manual labor, and to punish them for dereliction of duty or non fulfillment of their contracts with such severity, as to make them useful, productive laborers. † Under the Black Code labor regime, blacks were free to work for any one they chose, but they were required to sign contracts that bound them to the employer at least a year. Once the contract was signed, blacks could not get out of the contract unless a court first declared the master violated the contract first. This deprived blacks of the opportunity to accept better paying jobs if they arose, and insured landowners had a steady supply of cheap labor. Punishment for blacks who broke their labor contracts included payment of damages, imprisonment. In states like Florida, it also included standing in the stockade or floggings. In Florida, behavior that constituted a breach of the contract included laziness, failure to appear for work, using offensive language with the employer, or running away. Most of the slave codes also made it a criminal offense for anyone to entice or encourage a black laborer to break an existing labor contract. Criminal laws also played an important aspect in the Black Codes. To varying degrees, ex-Confederate states passed criminal laws that prohibited petty that blacks were more likely to commit due to their immediate condition. For example, the Louisiana Penal Codes specifically criminalized trespassing on plantations. Because free blacks often had no place to live other than on their previous master’s plantation, they were more likely to be arrested under these statutes. Penal Codes also specifically targeted blacks by inflicting harsher punishments for some crimes than whites convicted of the same crime. Unequal punishment was important for keeping blacks in a condition of servitude. For example, a North Carolina statute made it a capital offense for a black person to assault a white woman with intent to rape. Finally, the Black Codes uniformly prohibited interracial marriages between blacks and whites. For example, in Texas anti-interracial marriage laws called for the punishment of both spouses with a fine, imprisonment or both. It was a criminal offense, as it was in Georgia, for anyone to knowingly marry a white and black person. And frequently county clerks were required to record marriages of blacks and whites in separate registries. Conversely, the Black Codes also uniformly recognized black marriages and the legitimacy of children born to black parents. However, many Black Codes made it a criminal offense under adultery and fornication laws for blacks to live together without getting married or registering as a married couple with the county clerk. These statutes were frequently applied to blacks living in rural areas who were living together as result of their impoverished condition.

Analysis Of Guantanamo Bay

Analysis Of Guantanamo Bay Guantanamo Bays detention center is a United States operated detainment facility located on the southern tip of Cuba. It became primarily newsworthy post 9/11 when many Americans felt threatened by the uncertainty of terrorism. Guantanamo Bay has been sharply criticized by human rights activists such as Amnesty International and the debate includes some very major political figures. Although it was brought to the United States Supreme Court recently, most major political figures have historically seemed to stray away from the subject due to its controversial nature. The major topic which I will discuss in this paper is the legal sovereignty of Guantanamo Bay and the fine line the United States government walks between national security and civil liberties. From the acquisition of Guantanamo to the current legal standing to the various positions from major political figures worldwide, basically every aspect of this issue remains debated and extremely controversial. I will attempt in m y paper to present an unbiased, factual account of Guantanamo Bay and its current world standing. The United States first acquired Guantanamo Bay in 1898 when it intervened against Spain to assist Cuba in their independence. Ironically, the United States stepped in to assist Cuba with their fight for independence from Spain but ended up playing a role very similar to Spains role. Since the United States historically was not major world play it needed Cuba and the Spanish-American War to secure its own impact on Latin America and it subsequently became a major impact on every Cuban decision for the next sixty years. In 1901, the U.S government signed into law the Platt Amendment which was an amendment added to the 1901 Army Appropriations Act. This amendment outlined the conditions of future Cuban- U.S relations and gave the United States the legal rights to, among other things, Guantanamo Bay.  [1]  The agreement between the United States and Cuba states: To enable the United States to maintain the independence of Cuba, and to protect the people thereof, as well as for its own defense, the Cuban Government will sell or lease to the United States the lands necessary for coaling or naval stations, at certain specified points, to be agreed upon with the President of the United States.  [2]   Although this was signed by the President of Cuba and the President of the United States in 1903, the legality has since been called into question. The United States diplomatic pressure, backed by military occupation at the time was a huge impact on the agreement in question. Although the United States agreed to pay a nominal rent of 3,386.25 per year to Cuba, the agreement was largely in favor of the U.S government. In 1960, when Fidel Castro came into power he immediately refused to accept any further payment and publically bashed the United States occupation of Guantanamo Bay. According to Article 52 of the 1969 Vienna Law of Treaties, A treaty is void if its conclusion has been procured by the threat or use of force in violation of the principles of international law embodied in the Charter of the United Nations.  [3]  At the time Cuba agreed to lease Guantanamo Bay to the United States, the U.S had just assisted them in gaining their independence from Spain and was still a h uge influence in their government. Cuba was not in the position to tell them no, regardless of Cubas preference on the matter. However, the United States has argued that according to Article 4, Without prejudice to the application of any rules set forth in the present Convention to which treaties would be subject under international law independently of the Convention, the Convention applies only to treaties which are concluded by States after the entry into force of the present Convention with regard to such States.  [4]   the treated is still in effect and should be honored. Since Cuba still does not have the force or military capability to make the United States leave, the United States is still occupying Guantanamo. The topic received further attention post 9/11 with President Bushs War on Terrorism. At this point, no one really knew where Guantanamo Bay fell in terms of ultimate sovereignty and whos rules applied to the base. Also, since the military was in charge of the use of the land, there was very little transparency about what was actually going on there. Finally in June of 2004, the United States Supreme Court ruled in Rasul v. Bush, that U.S Courts do have the jurisdiction to handle cases involving foreign nationals wrongfully held in Guantanamo Bay saying that to determine the legality of the Executives potentially indefinite detention of individuals who claim to be wholly innocent of wrongdoing. After many decades, detainees, or enemy combatants as they were formerly known, had the right and access to challenge the legality of their detention.  [5]   Guantanamo Bays detention facility is a heavy topic that spans across all levels of government. Former President Bush and the current president, Barack Obama have both been very vocal about their opinions on the subject. The Bush administration and the Justice Department carefully prepared the legal groundwork for Guantanamo Bay post 9/11. They claimed that the Republic of Cuba has ultimate sovereignty over Guantanamo. As a result of this, they had no obligation to uphold the United States constitution and the detainees had no legal rights in U.S courts. However, they also argued that Cuban law has no effect in Guantanamo, so the area in effect was basically lawless. President Obama on the other hand, took a completely different position on Guantanamo Bay. Within his first weeks as President he vowed to shut down Guantanamo Bay within the year. In view of the significant concerns raised by these detentions, both within the United States and internationally, prompt and appropriate disposition of the individuals currently detained at Guantanamo and closure of the facility would further the national security and foreign policy interests of the United States and the interests of justice,  [6]   Although it has been over a year, the Obama administration maintains that it is still their intention to shut down the detention center. They also issued a long awaited new rule book for the Obama-era war court that put an end to pre-confinement detention counting toward post Guantanamo sentences(to avoid situations like Salim Hamdan which I will discuss later)  [7]  . The legislative branch does not seem to play nearly as large as a role as the executive and judicial branch in this scenario. However, Attorney General Eric Holder Jr. blamed Congress for not coming to a consensus on where a replacement facility for Guantanamo should be and for not approving funding for the new detention center in a timely manner. The bottom line is these techniques have hurt our image around the world, the damage they have done to our interests far outweighed whatever benefit they gave us and they are not essential to our national security.  [8]  Although their role is not as significant, they definitely make a lot of voters question the Obama Administration and his promise to close Guantanamo Bay within one year of his presidency. In a major rebuke to President Barack Obama, the Senate voted overwhelmingly on Wednesday to block the transfer of Guantanamo detainees to the United States and denied the administration the millions it sought to close the prison. The 90-6 Senate vote-paired with similar House action last week-was a clear sign to Obama that he faces a tough fight getting the Democratic-controlled Congress to agree with his plans to shut down the detention center and move the 240 detainees.  [9]   The main problem they face is that forty-eight detainees left still need to be held indefinitely and they have nowhere to put them if they leave Cuba. We have to have an option, and that will require congressional support for the funding request we have made, Holder said.  [10]   The judicial branch, as seen in Rasul v. Bush, has chosen to hear a few Guantanamo Bay cases although, historically most cases were heard by military courts. Although Rasul v. Bush was a huge landmark case, there were a few other decisions decided around this time period that gave rights to the prisoners in Guantanamo as well. Hamdi v. Rumsfeld, which was actually decided on the same day, June 28, 2004 (although argued a week after) as Rasul v. Bush, ruled on the legality of holding a United States citizen indefinitely as an enemy combatant. The Supreme Court ruled that although Hamdis detention was authorized, the Fifth Amendments due process gives all citizens the right to challenge their detention. This cased differed from many of the Guantanamo Bay cases because Hamdi was actually a U.S citizen instead of a foreign national. Bourmediene v. Bush was another landmark case for Guantanamo Bays detainees and was decided recently in 2008. The Supreme Court decided in Bourmediene v. Bus h that ALL detainees at Guantanamo Bay should have a right to challenge their detention through U.S Federal Courts.  [11]   Navi Pillay who is the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights was extremely happy about Obamas decision to close Guantanamo Bay. The fact that President [Barack] Obama has placed such a high priority on closing Guantà ¡namo and set in motion a system to safeguard the fundamental rights of the detainees there is extremely encouraging, she stated. The High Commission for Human Rights also wants the United States to change its approach on tactics used to detain individuals abroad. Pillay even went far enough to raise the issue of compensation for those judged to be innocent and called for a thorough investigation into allegations of torture at the Guantà ¡namo centre.  [12]  Although the United Nations does not have any physical way to enforce their recommendations, they are an extremely influential organization and hold a lot of weight internationally. They are expected to be unbiased with their recommendations and are portrayed as an international law and human rights peace keeper to facilitate achieving world peace. The last major players in this controversial situation are human rights interest groups such as Amnesty International. Amnesty International has been a huge, non-governmental player in the debate and was notably quoted for calling Guantanamo Bay a human rights scandal. They actually have an entire section on their website dedicated to Guantanamo Bay and quotes from various officials and organizations describing the torture and speaking out about the legality of Guantanamo. The war on terror does not justify violations of international human rights law. The Counter Terror with Justice campaign works to stop torture; close Guantà ¡namo; end illegal U.S. detentions; stop extraordinary rendition; restore fair trials and habeas corpus; and hold accountable all those who authorized and implemented these human rights abuses.  [13]   Even though Amnesty International is only a non-governmental organization, they have an incredible standing worldwide and they are consistently setting the standard for other human rights organizations.  [14]  They also have a huge following internationally and receive a lot of volunteer and monetary support. Although they have had a lot of success and received the Nobel Peace Prize for their campaign against torture, they have also been criticized by many political figures and even religious organizations such as the Catholic Church. They have also lately been mixed up with alleged ties to a former Guantanamo Bay detainee and his pro-jihad group which forced a senior Amnesty International official to resign her position because of her disappointment in the organization.  [15]   Rumsfeld, while still the U.S Secretary of Defense, was quoted by saying the prisoners in Guantanamo Bay were the most dangerous, best-trained, vicious killers on the face of the earth. Although this is clearly biased because the Bush administration was very pro-keeping Guantanamo Bay open, Rumsfeld does make a valid point. While doing my research, I noticed a time line that the Washington Post published on Guantanamo Bay. Salim Hamdan, who was allegedly Osama bin Ladens driver and very active in the planning of various terrorist activities, was released to Yemen from Guantanamo in November of 2008 and was to be tried for his crimes by the Yemen courts. He ended up getting only five and a half years confinement and a little over five years was credited because of his previous imprisonment in Guantanamo and various U.S custody locations. He was actually released a little over a month after his transfer to Yemen and was free to do whatever he wanted. I also read a lot on Yemen and thei r position on the War on Terrorism. When the United States offered to return prisoners to Yemen last year, Yemen officials demanded money for a rehabilitation center. The Yemeni government uses terrorism and fighting terrorism as a tool to get political and financial benefit, said Khaled Alansi. They did not have anything to market themselves to the world, especially the United States, except fighting terrorism.  [16]   Prior to all my research on Guantanamo Bay, I thought the idea behind the detention center was completely ridiculous. It was basically a lawless black hole where the United States government could do whatever they wanted. In addition, very few reports were issued by the government because of confidentiality and the nature of their crimes so it was very hard to tell what was really going on there. From what I read, there had been suicides by multiple prisoners and even reports of guards defacing the Muslim holy book, the Quran. Although my opinion is still in favor of shutting down Guantanamo, I do understand the severity of the issue at hand a little better now. I think the biggest factor that changed my opinion was the example of Hamdan(which I discussed earlier) and Yemens position on the matter. I am afraid that once released, many prisoners will walk free with an even deeper hatred for the United States and a greater passion for punishing us. Torture and abuse cost American livesI learned in Iraq that the No. 1 reason foreign fighters flocked there to fight were the abuses carried out at Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo. Our policy of torture was directly and swiftly recruiting fighters for al-Qaeda in IraqHow anyone can say that torture keeps Americans safe is beyond me unless you dont count American soldiers as Americans.  [17]   In one sense, Guantanamo Bay is a catch 22. If we keep the prisoners locked away in Guantanamo we wont have to worry about prisoners being releases and beginning to plan terrorist attacks again. However, if we dont release them we are alienating so many in the Middle East that we will eventually have many new threats. Regardless of national security, laws are in place for a reason and what we have been doing in Guantanamo seems to be highly unethical and should be illegal. Since the United States does have complete control over the territory, I believe that U.S laws should definitely apply. The United States is a country that has always prided itself on human rights and our legal system and there should not be a loophole created when the government deems it necessary. Although the process is slow, the courts have seemed to be regulating the United States militarys full control over Guantanamo. Like I discussed previously, the Obama administration has actually pledged to shut down Guantanamo Bay anyway so the problem is not nearly severe as it was under the Bush, more conservative, administration. So much of the previous information we have on Guantanamos sovereignty and who has complete control seems to be lost in translation. A sensible policy for future use would be to either put Guantanamo under our constitutions regulation or possibly draft new legislation for the area. Also, in regards to possession of Guantanamo, I believe the United States should set a time period by which they pledge to give Guantanamo Bay back to Cuba. The grounds in which the United States was given Guantanamo Bay was shaky as it was since Cuba were still under U.S rule and it does not seem right to allow a country to make a treaty with itself. Since the primary purpose of Guantanamo post cold-war has been to detain suspected terrorist and the Obama Administration decided to no longer use it for that purpose, it is not nearly as important anymore for the U.S military. In addition, it was a perfect location in the beginning of the 1900s since we wanted to expand into South America and exert our dominance but global positioning is no longer a primary goal. Then again, during the Cold War, Guantanamo was a prime strategic location if we were to go to war with Cuba but we are no longer at the brink of nuclear war and if we felt the need to intervene in South America (I hope not) w e would not necessarily need Cuba. Although I do not plan to get involved in this situation, I believe the best way to fix an issue such as this would be through the legal system. Since I have always been extremely interested in law, I read part of Guantanamo and the Abuse of Presidential Power by Joseph Margulies. Margulies was the lead council in Rasul v. Bush and talked about his experiences throughout most of the book. Every year, the Supreme Court agrees to review only a tiny fraction of the cases clamoring for its attention. For that reason, many lawyers believe, not without reason, that the most important document in a case is the one that asks the court to accept review, call the petition for writ of certiorari. The petition in Rasul, drafted in the summer of 2003, went through more than dozen drafts, and in the final product, my colleagues and I tried to capture not simply the legal reasons for review, but the moral consequences if the Court were to remain silent. My greatest fear was that the Bush Administration would simply forget about the prisoners, in the vain hope the world would too.  [18]   Margulies describes in detail how much time and thought went into this brief. Not only was it almost impossible to get the Supreme Court to recognize the issue and the case but also it was not like a typical writ of certiorari. It was drafted more than a dozen times and contained not only the legal grounds as to why it should be heard but the ethical and moral justifications as well. This is not a law suit that anyone can get through to the Supreme Court. I think the main way I could personally get involved, a side from getting my law degree and going into international civil rights law, is spreading awareness. I could try writing to my local senator or possibly even get published in a local newspaper or magazine. The President and Congresss main goal is to get reelected so theyll ultimately do what is important to the voters.

Paul Hindemith :: essays research papers fc

  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Paul was born in the German town of Hanau in 1895, on December Sixteen. We might assume that Hindemith felt a pull in the musical direction from a very early age; Paul’s father was a painter and did not want his son becoming a musician, so our little composer-to-be ran away at the age of 11, and started his own life. Paul taught himself the violin and viola, and began earning his living by playing at Cafes and other such establishments. Eventually, Hindemith learned the rudiments of all the instruments that mattered, so he could play them at least passably-- but he was surely a virtuoso at his viola and viola d’amore.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Eventually, Hindemith ended up at the Frankfurt Conservatory, where he studied his music performance under the tutelage of people like Arnold Mendelssohn. While there, Hindemith showed increasing interest in the field of composition-- he began writing in earnest around the time he completed his courses at the Conservatory, and began establishing himself in the music culture through chamber music and expressionistic opera.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Paul landed a pretty major job in the Frankfurt Opera Orchestra... he was first concertmaster, and then conductor over the years 1915-1923. After this, he founded his Amar String Quartet, for which he was violist-- the group became pretty celebrated and performed successfully throughout Europe. It’s agreed that 1921 was when Hindemith began to come into his own, and emerge as well-known into the world as a composer and performer. Hindemith appeared regularly at the Donaueschingen Festival starting that year, and in 1922-24 his Chamber Works were performed at the Salzburg Festival (which I assume was a fairly big deal at the time).   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Up until about 1925, Hindemith was pretty conventional, going along more or less complacently with the musical norms of his time. But in 1925, he came out with â€Å"Kammermusik†, his first openly atonal composition. The piece was representative of new ideas, and roused lots of talk when it was performed at the Venice Festival of the International Society of Contemporary Music. Before he knew it, Paul was a sort of pioneer, a figurehead of the advancing frontier in â€Å"Modern Music†.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ah-- during these years of his life, Hindemith was working as a professor of Composition at the Berlin Hochschule.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  It was around 1934 that Hindemith started having some trouble with the Nazis. For one, they didn’t like his music. In fact, Alfred Rosenberg, who was Chief of Nazi Foreign Affairs, said his musics were the â€Å"foulest perversions of German music.† Obviously, the Nazis gave his career

Egypt :: essays research papers

Egypt   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Egypt is a Middle Eastern country located in the northeast corner of Africa. A small part of Egypt, called the Sinai Peninsula, is located in Asia. Deserts cover most of Egypt, so it gets little rain, but the longest river in the world, the Nile River, flows through the desert and is key to living for many Egyptians. Almost all of Egypt’s population, about 99%, is located near the Nile or along the Suez Canal, another body of water important to Egyptian life, although together they cover only four percent of Egypt’s total land. The largest city, Cairo, has a population of about 6 million. About 10 million people live in the Cairo metropolitan area. Alexandria, a port city, is the second largest. Egyptian cities are extremely crowded and have inadequate public transportation, causing lots of traffic. They do have crowded streetcars and trains, though.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Many Egyptians consider themselves Arabs. The Bedouins, who are nomads, make up a distinct ethnic minority among the Arab population. Most have settled down on farms, but some tribes still wander. The major non-Arab minority are the Nubians. They originally lived in villages along the Nile in northern Sudan and the very bottom of Egypt, called the Nubian Valley. When the Aswan High Dam was constructed in the 1960’s, it forced the Nubians to move higher up on the Nile.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Arabic is the official language of Egypt. Regional Arabic dialects have their own variations of sounds and words. The most widely used dialect is that of Cairo’s. The Bedouin dialect is different from the settled residents of the Nile Valley. Some people in desert villages even speak Berber. Many educated Egyptians also speak English or French in addition to Arabic.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Egyptian city life is much different than its village life. City residents deal with normal city problems such as housing shortages and traffic. Most of city residents live in poverty, although others enjoy special conveniences and services. Villagers regularly live much like their ancestors did hundreds of years ago, getting by growing crops and tending animals.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Egyptian cities have a wide range of wealth. Good-looking residential areas exist near widespread slums. Lack of satisfactory housing is a major problem. Many people live together in small apartments. Others build makeshift huts on land that belongs to others, or on roofs of apartments. Some of Cairo’s poorest citizens take shelter in historic tombs on the outskirts of the city, in a place call the City of the Dead.