School Of Assassins Essays - Human Rights Abuses,

School Of Assassins Due to the incredible amounts of human rights violations committed by graduates of the School of the Americas as a direct effect of their training funded by U.S. tax dollars, the School of the Americas must be closed down. The school is a cold war dinosaur that needs to be brought to the attention of the American taxpaying public. The people of our nation need to be aware that every time they get a paycheck, they are contributing to the oppression and killing of the indigenous peoples of Latin America by their own leaders. The School of Americas was formed in 1946 in Panama. It was originally formed so that the United States would have ties in Central America to keep Castro under control in Cuba. In 1984, the school moved to Fort Benning, Georgia. The students at the school are taught counterinsurgency tactics such as combat skills, sniper fire, military intelligence, commando tactics, and psychological operations. Recent revelations have shown that the school also actively teaches torture tactics. In September of 1996, the Pentagon, under intense social pressure, released SOA training manuals that were previously unavailable to the public. A group called the Latin America Working Group issued a translated copy of the manuals. The manuals recommended interrogation techniques like torture, execution, blackmail, and arresting the relatives of parties involved. They suggested the use of truth serums on prisoners to get them to answer questions. The manuals recommend the infiltration of work unions, political parties, youth groups, religious groups, and all other organizations subversive to the national government (Fact Sheet). The governments of these nations recognize anyone who promotes social change and betterment as a terrorist threat. "One manual describes 60's activist Tom Hayden, currently a California State Senator, as ?one of the masters of terrorist planning.' It is precisely this identification of activist for social change as terrorists that led death squads to kill thousands of religious leaders, students, union members and human rights activists" (Haugaard 15) These manuals and recommendations hardly seem to be in line with the democratic seed that the U.S. government is supposedly trying to sow in Latin America. In the 70's when Nixon spyed on and infiltrated an opposing political party, he came up under impeachment chrges. This was a very serious ordeal, but the United States is promoting this behavior in other countries (Latin America Working Group). Our country that we believe is the noble protecter of the world is involved in some of the greatest massacres in the history of Latin America. The soldiers are trained to fight insurgents, but what insurgents are left in the poverty-stricken culture of Latin America? The only insurgents now are the religious leaders and the poor people who want to take a stand for what should be theirs. The rich and powerful in Latin American nations want to keep their wealth and status. They don't want to give the poor citizens of their nation anything. When the poor rise up to try and alter the position they're in, the military rulers are ready to squash their efforts by any means necessary. There have been many cases in the last twenty years of massacres and assassinations of religious leaders whose only threat was that of the empowerment of the poor. The military accused the leaders as heads of guerilla movements and executed them. A prime example of a religious leader who fought for the betterment of his people was Archbishop Oscar Romero of El Salvador. He spoke out against the violence against and oppression of the poor. He had and seen enough and was taking a stand. He made a plea over a radio station which broadcast throughout Latin America asking the governments to stop the killing and oppression. The very next day, while performing mass, he was assassinated by a graduate of the SOA ("School of Assassins." 2) Another example of martyrs slain by graduates of the SOA were three nuns and a layworker who were abducted, raped, and murdered in El Salvador on December 2, 1980. They were Ita Ford, Dorothy Kazel, Maura Clarke, and Jean Donovan. They were in El Salvador to work with the poor. These were four women. They were not a threat to the government except that they were attempting to elevate the poor. Recently the four soldiers who were imprisoned for the murders indicated that they were following orders from above. This means that the actual perpetrators were the upper echelon commanders that ordered the attack. It has come to the light that General Jose Guillermo Garcia

A Clockwork Orange

A Clockwork Orange Free Online Research Papers In A Clockwork Orange, a young fifteen year old droog named Alex is a thug on the streets. He and his fellow droogs Pete, Dim, and Georgie do every single horrendous thing possible: raping innocent women, breaking into houses, picking on men that were simply minding their own business, stealing cars, spending stolen money on drinks for women, getting into violent fights, and more. After a whole mist of chaos, his three droogs betray him and Alex is sent to prison for fourteen years. In the prison, Alex meets a chaplain and the chaplain allows him to read the Bible and listen to classical music, for Alex loved classical music before he went to prison. When he was in prison, he was intrigued with the Bible simply because of all of the drinking, sex, and violence that was told in it. After murdering another prisoner in the cell, Alex is â€Å"the first candidate for the Ludovico’s Technique.† The Ludovico’s Technique is a brainwashing system that was designed to make stubborn prisoners becomes harmless. After two years, Alex is released from prison since he has already transformed from a vicious thug to a helpless young man. He also realizes that he is defenseless because Dim and his enemy from the past, Billyboy, are now policemen and take every chance to attack him since he cannot do anything back to them. Finally, the novel ends when the government turns him back into the person he was before because a man named F. Alexander gets the word out that the government used the Ludovico’s Technique on him. He forms a new gang but after finding Pete again and finding out that Pete has led a â€Å"normal† life (which includes being married), Alex realizes that is all he wants to do now is have a so called â€Å"normal† life with a family, regular job, and what he calls a â€Å"grown-up goloss.† This book, as we know, is mainly about a fifteen year old boy named Alex. Alex is the leader of his gang that includes Dim, Georgie, and Pete. At night, they feel that they rule the streets. This is evident because most of the incidents, if not all, take place in the night, such as the raping of F. Alexander’s wife while holding her husband down to watch, the ripping of the manuscript A Clockwork Orange by F. Alexander (though we do not know that that is his name at the time of the ripping of the manuscript), stealing cars, drinking milk laced with other drugs at the Korova Milkbar, and as Alex would say, â€Å"all that cal.† This may also demonstrate that Alex feels a high sense of security during the nighttime rather than the daytime since most of the incidents, if not all, happen at night. Alex seems to be programmed to rob people and rape women, since he does it so automatically. At one point in this novel, Alex rapes two ten year old girls who always cut school, listen to pop music, and in my opinion, are truly naà ¯ve. I think that the girls are naà ¯ve because they believe that Alex is only taking them to go eat and have them listen to music: â€Å"‘What you got back home, little sisters, to play your fuzzy warbles on?’ Because I could viddy the discs they were buying were these teeny pop veshches. ‘I bet you got little save tiny portable like picnic spinners.’ And they sort of pushed their lower lips out at that. ‘Come with uncle,’ I said, ‘and hear all proper. Hear angel trumpets and devil trombones. You are invited.’ And I liked bowed. They giggled again and one said: ‘Oh, but we’re so hungry. Oh, but we could so eat.’ The other said: ‘Yah, she can say that, can’t she just.’ So I said: ‘Eat with uncle. Name your place.’† Later on, they STILL do not seem to get the fact that Alex may do something bad to them such as, oh, I would guess, RAPE them: â€Å"‘Righty right, Marty and Sonietta. Time for the big spin. Come.’ When we were outside on the cold street they thought they would not go by autobus, oh no, but by taxi, so I gave them the humour, though with a real horrorshow in-grin, and I called a taxi from the rank near Center. The driver, a starry whiskery veck in very stained platties, said: ‘No tearing up, now. No nonsense with them seats. Just re-upholstered they are.’ I quieted his gloopy fears and off we spun to Municipal Flatblock 18A, these two bold little ptitsas giggling and whispering†¦ Then I pulled the lovely Ninth out of its sleeve, so that Ludwig van was now nagoy too, and I set the needle hissing on to the last movement, which was all bliss. There it was then, the bass strings like govoreeting away from under my bed at the rest of the orchestra, and then the male human goloss coming in and telling them all to be joyful, and then the lovely blissful tune all about Joy being a glorious spark of heaven, and then I felt the old tigers leap in me and then I leapt on these two young ptitsas. This time they thought nothing fun and stopped creeching with high mirth, and had to submit to the strange and weird desires of Alexander the Large which, what with the Ninth and the hypo jab, were choodnessny and zammechat and very demanding, O my brothers. But they were both very very drunken and could hardly feel very much. The way Alex is with raping women and other crimes is almost as if it were like weed to an addict: You feel the urge to have it even if the urge is not really there. I believe this is so because what Alex does is so automatic: at night, he meets up with his friends, they all go to the Korova Milkbar, get drugged up, and then they run around doing crazy things. Though Alex does all of these thuggish things, surprisingly, I found out that Alex enjoyed classical music. However, I believe that the classical music is symbolic in the way that the bits in the story that talked about classical music were arranged just like music. For example, at one point, when he is trying to pick out a record to listen to, he repeats over and over again, â€Å"What’s it going to be then, eh?† with different â€Å"stanzas† in between. When reading this, I recalled playing a Rondo by Beethoven when I was younger. It followed that sort of pattern, A B A C A B A. Also, the classical music may be some sort of a trance for Alex because whenever he did something gruesome, he would have classical music on, such as the part where he is about to attempt to commit suicide: â€Å"It was a symphony that I knew real horrorshow but had not slooshied for many a year, namely the Symphony Number Three of the Danish veck Otto Skadelig, a very gromky and violent piece, especially in the first movement, which was playing now†¦The music was still pouring in all brass and drums and the violins miles up through the wall. The window in the room where I had laid down was open. I ittied to it and viddied a fair drop to the autos and buses and walking chellovecks bellow. I creeched out to the word: ‘Goodbye, goodbye, may Bog forgive you for a ruined life.’ Then I got on to the sill, the music blasting away to my left, and I shut my glazzies and felt the cold wind on my litso, then I jumped.† Also, when he is raping Marty and Sonietta, he puts on Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony: Then I pulled the lovely Ninth out of its sleeve, so that Ludwig van was now nagoy too, and I set the needle hissing on to the last movement, which was all bliss. There it was then, the bass strings like govoreeting away from under my bed at the rest of the orchestra, and then the male human goloss coming in and telling them all to be joyful, and then the lovely blissful tune all about Joy being a glorious spark of heaven, and then I felt the old tigers leap in me and then I leapt on these two young ptitsas. This time they thought nothing fun and stopped creeching with high mirth, and had to submit to the strange and weird desires of Alexander the Large which, what with the Ninth and the hypo jab, were choodnessny and zammechat and very demanding, O my brothers. But they were both very very drunken and could hardly feel very much. From analyzing the Classical Music in A Clockwork Orange, I learnt that the one thing that you love most can be turned against you. Of course, I knew that before, but while reading A Clockwork Orange for the second or third time, I realized that since Alex loved classical music so much, when the doctors were experimenting Ludovico’s Technique on him, they injected medicine into him that made him nauseous, made him listen to classical music, and watch violent films. I believe that this may be a form of Neuro-Linguistic Programming, or for short, NLP. Basically, the doctors associated violent films and classical music with the nauseous feelings such as vomiting, migraines, and â€Å"all that cal.† According to the book, the Ludovico’s Technique was an experiment from the government that wanted to try this new formula. Since they released Alex after he served prison time for only two years and they did not call him back, this signifies that the experiment was a success. Also, Alex was completely defenseless when he came out of Ludovico’s Technique process. Through all of this, I am sure that the government is simply trying to find ways to control people no matter what the stakes are and that is the true reality of the world. In my opinion, this is very sad because the United States of America is a Union. Though this story takes place in London, to do this would be tyrannical and that would be such a shame. Another main character in this novel is the second droog named Pete, a friend of Alex’s. Though we learn at the end of the book that Pete is a couple of years older than Alex, I find it queer that Alex would be the leader of the gang. Perhaps Alex had more of the leadership type and I do think that Pete was the only one that was loyal to Alex, probably because they had been such great friends, though there are no examples that can be quoted from the text. However, it is apparent that Pete and Alex were closer friends than the others. I think that Peter was the only loyal friend because the other two droogs bailed out on Alex and it was because of them in the first place that actually got Alex into jail. Dim may have been the one to put Alex in jail, but I think that it was actually almost all Georgie’s fault: â€Å"’Away,’ I creeched to Dim. ‘The rozzes are coming.’ Dim said: ‘You stay to meet them huh huh huh,’ and then I viddied that he had his oozy out, and then he upped with it and it snaked whishhhhh and he chained me gentle and artistic like on the glazlids, me just closing them up in time. Then I was howling around trying to viddy with this howling great pain, and Dim said: ‘I don’t like you should do what you done, old droogy. Not right it wasn’t to get on to me like the way you done, brat.’† Now that is some serious backstabbing. However, the reader must remember that Dim is not his real name and though we do not know his real name, we can safely assume that his name is what he is because later on in the story when Alex is released from jail, Dim is â€Å"friends† with who used to be their enemy, Billyboy since they are both police officers. Now, as I thought for a moment, what are the chances of an enemy being friends with an enemy from before, and for what reasons would they do such a thing? My guess was that either both Dim and Billyboy were both motivated to kill Alex, or Billyboy saw how dim Dim was and was tempted to use him. Well, in the beginning of this novel, Alex says: There was me, that is Alex, and my three droogs, that is Pete, Georgie, and Dim, Dim being really dim†¦ So therefore, we already know that Dim really is dim, so the better answer of the two, at least with my logic, is that Dim was only â€Å"friends† with Billyboy because Billyboy could use him. Therefore, if Billyboy could be so possessive of Dim and they used to be arch enemies, would it not be easier for Georgie to possess Dim, since they were already friends? I believe that Georgie took control over Dim and made him hit Alex with his chain because Georgie knew that Dim would take orders from him. Perhaps Georgie had brainwashed Dim in some way to make him go against Alex; I do no know. Also, that may be one factor but I also think that maybe Alex might have bossed them around a lot and had air that he was their gang leader. This is only a guess; however, I think there had to be some kind of reason that they would do such a thing as to turn in their own fellow droog to the police. That is why I think that Pete is the only loyal one in the group. Even after Alex ha s his brainwashing reversed, when Alex finds Pete, Pete does not turn him away and instead, he introduces Alex to â€Å"the better side of life†: a clean, gangster-free life with a wife, near-perfect speech (in the days where they were always on the streets, they spoke Nadsat), and a steady job. It is Pete that inspires Alex to take what most people would think as â€Å"the right path.† Before, I did not know what Nadsat was until I did some deeper research. I noticed that there were many words that I did not know in A Clockwork Orange. Therefore, I did a search for â€Å"A Clockwork Orange Speech† and found out that the language that they were speaking was called Nadsat which is basically a combination of English, transliterated Russian, and Cockney English. Nadsat was invented by the author of A Clockwork Orange, Anthony Burgess. Though I am not entirely sure, I believe that Jesus Christ may be symbolic in this story just because when Alex attempted suicide by throwing himself out the window, this may have been an act of sacrifice for the government’s wrongdoings. F. Alexander was trying to get Alex to kill himself by playing classical music full blast because at this time, the brainwashing was still intact. If Alex killed himself, F. Alexander could blame the government because they â€Å"drove him to insanity† by performing Ludovico’s Technique. Therefore, if Alex threw himself out and died, it would be like sacrificing himself to reveal the terrible, terrible government. I also think that the milk is symbolic. Whenever I think of milk, I think of cookies and the phrase â€Å"cookies and milk† seems somewhat childish because it would seem like the type of snack that children would have after school. Therefore, the milk may represent how young Alex and his droogs really are. However, in the milk are other drugs to â€Å"spike† the milk and when I think of drugs, I think of â€Å"adolescent† or â€Å"young adult† which may signify that though they are young, they still have the lives of adolescents. At one point, a peculiar thought came across my mind: In Nadsat, the word â€Å"God† becomes â€Å"Bog.† In British slang, â€Å"bogs† mean the bathroom. I am not sure if this would make any sense at all, but would this be pushing God farther down in any way? There is one part of the book that is unclear to me. Though this is supposed to take place in â€Å"Anthony Burgess’s nightmare vision of the future,† in the story, there is a part that says, â€Å"We haven’t a telephone.† How is that possible when even today, not finding a telephone in the house is uncommon? Overall, I believe that this book was very thrilling and great, yet terrible and horrific at the same time. The stories that Burgesses tells about Alex’s life and the brainwashing are awful and truth be told, I had to do all of my book report in the period between the morning and the evening; never at nightIn this book, a young fifteen year old droog named Alex is a thug on the streets. He and his fellow droogs Pete, Dim, and Georgie do every single horrendous thing possible: raping innocent women, breaking into houses, picking on men that were simply minding their own business, stealing cars, spending stolen money on drinks for women, getting into violent fights, and more. After a whole mist of chaos, his three droogs betray him and Alex is sent to prison for fourteen years. In the prison, Alex meets a chaplain and the chaplain allows him to read the Bible and listen to classical music, for Alex loved classical music before he went to prison. When he was in prison, he was intrigued with the Bible simply because of all of the drinking, sex, and violence that was told in it. After murdering another prisoner in the cell, Alex is â€Å"the first candidate for the Ludovico’s Technique.† The Ludovico’s Technique is a brainwashing system that was designed to make stubborn prisoners becomes harmless. After two years, Alex is released from prison since he has already transformed from a vicious thug to a helpless young man. He also realizes that he is defenseless because Dim and his enemy from the past, Billyboy, are now policemen and take every chance to attack him since he cannot do anything back to them. Finally, the novel ends when the government turns him back into the person he was before because a man named F. Alexander gets the word out that the government used the Ludovico’s Technique on him. He forms a new gang but after finding Pete again and finding out that Pete has led a â€Å"normal† life (which includes being married), Alex realizes that is all he wants to do now is have a so called â€Å"normal† life with a family, regular job, and what he calls a â€Å"grown-up goloss.† This book, as we know, is mainly about a fifteen year old boy named Alex. Alex is the leader of his gang that includes Dim, Georgie, and Pete. At night, they feel that they rule the streets. This is evident because most of the incidents, if not all, take place in the night, such as the raping of F. Alexander’s wife while holding her husband down to watch, the ripping of the manuscript A Clockwork Orange by F. Alexander (though we do not know that that is his name at the time of the ripping of the manuscript), stealing cars, drinking milk laced with other drugs at the Korova Milkbar, and as Alex would say, â€Å"all that cal.† This may also demonstrate that Alex feels a high sense of security during the nighttime rather than the daytime since most of the incidents, if not all, happen at night. Alex seems to be programmed to rob people and rape women, since he does it so automatically. At one point in this novel, Alex rapes two ten year old girls who always cut school, listen to pop music, and in my opinion, are truly naà ¯ve. I think that the girls are naà ¯ve because they believe that Alex is only taking them to go eat and have them listen to music: â€Å"‘What you got back home, little sisters, to play your fuzzy warbles on?’ Because I could viddy the discs they were buying were these teeny pop veshches. ‘I bet you got little save tiny portable like picnic spinners.’ And they sort of pushed their lower lips out at that. ‘Come with uncle,’ I said, ‘and hear all proper. Hear angel trumpets and devil trombones. You are invited.’ And I liked bowed. They giggled again and one said: ‘Oh, but we’re so hungry. Oh, but we could so eat.’ The other said: ‘Yah, she can say that, can’t she just.’ So I said: ‘Eat with uncle. Name your place.’† Later on, they STILL do not seem to get the fact that Alex may do something bad to them such as, oh, I would guess, RAPE them: â€Å"‘Righty right, Marty and Sonietta. Time for the big spin. Come.’ When we were outside on the cold street they thought they would not go by autobus, oh no, but by taxi, so I gave them the humour, though with a real horrorshow in-grin, and I called a taxi from the rank near Center. The driver, a starry whiskery veck in very stained platties, said: ‘No tearing up, now. No nonsense with them seats. Just re-upholstered they are.’ I quieted his gloopy fears and off we spun to Municipal Flatblock 18A, these two bold little ptitsas giggling and whispering†¦ Then I pulled the lovely Ninth out of its sleeve, so that Ludwig van was now nagoy too, and I set the needle hissing on to the last movement, which was all bliss. There it was then, the bass strings like govoreeting away from under my bed at the rest of the orchestra, and then the male human goloss coming in and telling them all to be joyful, and then the lovely blissful tune all about Joy being a glorious spark of heaven, and then I felt the old tigers leap in me and then I leapt on these two young ptitsas. This time they thought nothing fun and stopped creeching with high mirth, and had to submit to the strange and weird desires of Alexander the Large which, what with the Ninth and the hypo jab, were choodnessny and zammechat and very demanding, O my brothers. But they were both very very drunken and could hardly feel very much. The way Alex is with raping women and other crimes is almost as if it were like weed to an addict: You feel the urge to have it even if the urge is not really there. I believe this is so because what Alex does is so automatic: at night, he meets up with his friends, they all go to the Korova Milkbar, get drugged up, and then they run around doing crazy things. Though Alex does all of these thuggish things, surprisingly, I found out that Alex enjoyed classical music. However, I believe that the classical music is symbolic in the way that the bits in the story that talked about classical music were arranged just like music. For example, at one point, when he is trying to pick out a record to listen to, he repeats over and over again, â€Å"What’s it going to be then, eh?† with different â€Å"stanzas† in between. When reading this, I recalled playing a Rondo by Beethoven when I was younger. It followed that sort of pattern, A B A C A B A. Also, the classical music may be some sort of a trance for Alex because whenever he did something gruesome, he would have classical music on, such as the part where he is about to attempt to commit suicide: â€Å"It was a symphony that I knew real horrorshow but had not slooshied for many a year, namely the Symphony Number Three of the Danish veck Otto Skadelig, a very gromky and violent piece, especially in the first movement, which was playing now†¦The music was still pouring in all brass and drums and the violins miles up through the wall. The window in the room where I had laid down was open. I ittied to it and viddied a fair drop to the autos and buses and walking chellovecks bellow. I creeched out to the word: ‘Goodbye, goodbye, may Bog forgive you for a ruined life.’ Then I got on to the sill, the music blasting away to my left, and I shut my glazzies and felt the cold wind on my litso, then I jumped.† Also, when he is raping Marty and Sonietta, he puts on Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony: Then I pulled the lovely Ninth out of its sleeve, so that Ludwig van was now nagoy too, and I set the needle hissing on to the last movement, which was all bliss. There it was then, the bass strings like govoreeting away from under my bed at the rest of the orchestra, and then the male human goloss coming in and telling them all to be joyful, and then the lovely blissful tune all about Joy being a glorious spark of heaven, and then I felt the old tigers leap in me and then I leapt on these two young ptitsas. This time they thought nothing fun and stopped creeching with high mirth, and had to submit to the strange and weird desires of Alexander the Large which, what with the Ninth and the hypo jab, were choodnessny and zammechat and very demanding, O my brothers. But they were both very very drunken and could hardly feel very much. From analyzing the Classical Music in A Clockwork Orange, I learnt that the one thing that you love most can be turned against you. Of course, I knew that before, but while reading A Clockwork Orange for the second or third time, I realized that since Alex loved classical music so much, when the doctors were experimenting Ludovico’s Technique on him, they injected medicine into him that made him nauseous, made him listen to classical music, and watch violent films. I believe that this may be a form of Neuro-Linguistic Programming, or for short, NLP. Basically, the doctors associated violent films and classical music with the nauseous feelings such as vomiting, migraines, and â€Å"all that cal.† According to the book, the Ludovico’s Technique was an experiment from the government that wanted to try this new formula. Since they released Alex after he served prison time for only two years and they did not call him back, this signifies that the experiment was a success. Also, Alex was completely defenseless when he came out of Ludovico’s Technique process. Through all of this, I am sure that the government is simply trying to find ways to control people no matter what the stakes are and that is the true reality of the world. In my opinion, this is very sad because the United States of America is a Union. Though this story takes place in London, to do this would be tyrannical and that would be such a shame. Another main character in this novel is the second droog named Pete, a friend of Alex’s. Though we learn at the end of the book that Pete is a couple of years older than Alex, one may find it queer that Alex would be the leader of the gang. Perhaps Alex had more of the leadership type and Pete was the only one that was loyal to Alex, probably because they had been such great friends, though there are no examples that can be quoted from the text. However, it is apparent that Pete and Alex were closer friends than the others. One may think that Peter was the only loyal friend because the other two droogs bailed out on Alex and it was because of them in the first place that actually got Alex into jail. Dim may have been the one to put Alex in jail, but one may think that it was actually almost all Georgie’s fault: â€Å"’Away,’ I creeched to Dim. ‘The rozzes are coming.’ Dim said: ‘You stay to meet them huh huh huh,’ and then I viddied that he had his oozy out, and then he upped with it and it snaked whishhhhh and he chained me gentle and artistic like on the glazlids, me just closing them up in time. Then I was howling around trying to viddy with this howling great pain, and Dim said: ‘I don’t like you should do what you done, old droogy. Not right it wasn’t to get on to me like the way you done, brat.’† Now that is some serious backstabbing. However, the reader must remember that Dim is not his real name and though we do not know his real name, we can safely assume that his name is what he is because later on in the story when Alex is released from jail, Dim is â€Å"friends† with who used to be their enemy, Billyboy since they are both police officers. Now, as I thought for a moment, what are the chances of an enemy being friends with an enemy from before, and for what reasons would they do such a thing? My guess was that either both Dim and Billyboy were both motivated to kill Alex, or Billyboy saw how dim Dim was and was tempted to use him. Well, in the beginning of this novel, Alex says: There was me, that is Alex, and my three droogs, that is Pete, Georgie, and Dim, Dim being really dim. So therefore, we already know that Dim really is dim, so the better answer of the two, at least with my logic, is that Dim was only â€Å"friends† with Billyboy because Billyboy could use him. Therefore, if Billyboy could be so possessive of Dim and they used to be arch enemies, would it not be easier for Georgie to possess Dim, since they were already friends? Georgie took control over Dim and made him hit Alex with his chain because Georgie knew that Dim would take orders from him. Perhaps Georgie had brainwashed Dim in some way to make him go against Alex. Also, that may be one factor but also, Alex might have bossed them around a lot and had air that he was their gang leader. This is only a guess; however, I think there had to be some kind of reason that they would do such a thing as to turn in their own fellow droog to the police. That is why Pete may be the only loyal one in the group. Even after Alex has his brainwashing reversed, when Alex finds Pete, Pete does not turn him away and instead, he introduces Alex to â€Å"the better side of life†: a clean, gangster-free life with a wife, near-perfect speech (in the days where they were always on the streets, they spoke Nadsat), and a steady job. It is Pete that inspires Alex to take what most people would think as â€Å"the right path.† The language that they were speaking was called Nadsat which is basically a combination of English, transliterated Russian, and Cockney English. Nadsat was invented by the author of A Clockwork Orange, Anthony Burgess. Jesus Christ may be symbolic in this story just because when Alex attempted suicide by throwing himself out the window, this may have been an act of sacrifice for the government’s wrongdoings. F. Alexander was trying to get Alex to kill himself by playing classical music full blast because at this time, the brainwashing was still intact. If Alex killed himself, F. Alexander could blame the government because they â€Å"drove him to insanity† by performing Ludovico’s Technique. Therefore, if Alex threw himself out and died, it would be like sacrificing himself to reveal the terrible, terrible government. The milk is symbolic. Whenever a person thinks of milk, they think of cookies and the phrase â€Å"cookies and milk† seems somewhat childish because it would seem like the type of snack that children would have after school. Therefore, the milk may represent how young Alex and his droogs really are. However, in the milk are other drugs to â€Å"spike† the milk and when one thinks of drugs, he or she thinks of â€Å"adolescent† or â€Å"young adult† which may signify that though they are young, they still have the lives of adolescents. At one point, a peculiar thought came across my mind: In Nadsat, the word â€Å"God† becomes â€Å"Bog.† In British slang, â€Å"bogs† mean the bathroom. I am not sure if this would make any sense at all, but would this be pushing God farther down in any way? There is one part of the book that is unclear to me. Though this is supposed to take place in â€Å"Anthony Burgess’s nightmare vision of the future,† in the story, there is a part that says, â€Å"We haven’t a telephone.† How is that possible when even today, not finding a telephone in the house is uncommon? Research Papers on A Clockwork OrangeThe Fifth HorsemanHip-Hop is ArtThe Effects of Illegal ImmigrationThe Relationship Between Delinquency and Drug UseQuebec and CanadaComparison: Letter from Birmingham and Crito19 Century Society: A Deeply Divided EraEffects of Television Violence on ChildrenWhere Wild and West MeetBringing Democracy to Africa

Public Health Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Public Health - Essay Example In any society, a situation becomes more of a ‘Nada’ and less of a ‘hurrah’, if ubiquitously you look and people are putting on microbes in the air and interspersing globules of germs in your face. It does not sound enjoyable at all, does it? Of course not now! Why would anything put up the shutters to being a bacteria hub or the public polluter and slayer sound pleasant? But do we really care? The response might be full of enthusiastic affirmatives but the truth is the condition of the public health sector is becoming worse day after day. People are getting grimy, they are fetching diseases and in the worst case scenario, they are ‘dying’. Why all of this? The answer to this hoisted ambiguity refers to many causes out of which ‘unawareness’ tops the list. Nadin (1998) verifies this point by saying â€Å"The end of literacy - ­Ã‚ ­Ã‚ ­ a chasm between a not-so-distant yesterday and the exciting, though confusing, tomorrow  œ is probably more difficult to understand than to live with† (3). Therefore, shall the former expression be phrased as ‘Should we really care?’ Yes! Is what we say and as soon as the answer is provided we confront another important question, which is ‘What is a health problem?’ The definition and clarification of what a health problem is can be validated by the definition â€Å"It is a condition in which an individual’s body is not able to execute by and large. A health problem might even cause throbbing in an individual’s body.† Therefore health problems can be considered such a part of a society which can lead a society towards havoc. All the institutions of a society are affected by health problems i.e. political, economic, educational and religious institutions. Hence, when a single individual is affected, the entire society is too. As Lucas, Makrides and Ziegler (2010) have explained â€Å"While we may be interested in the consequences of growth, the literature mostly provides information about size† (73) In

Rules of Engagement in Terrorism Threats Literature review

Rules of Engagement in Terrorism Threats - Literature review Example According to Cole, Drew, McLaughlin & Mandsager ( ), ‘Rules of Engagement’ (ROE) refers to those policies, which play a key role in determining the situations, extent, and approach that the armed forces have to exercise while conducting their actions. In short, the rules of engagement are such rules that are framed to limit the use of military services by the armed forces and restricting their use to a considerable extent. The rules of engagement are considered as lawful commands. In context to the present scenario OHCHR ( ), the country-specific government frames ROE that decides the manner in which the military forces of a nation, must deal while indulging in high-level of terrorist activities. Furthermore, ROE is designed to gauge preventive measures that would enable the armed forces to take preventive steps in dealing with terrorists and keeping in mind the duty to safeguard the lives of civilians. The ROE can act as a major facilitator in restricting the effectiveness of military functions and preventing the public from being injured in conflicts between military and terrorist groups. The government of a nation reserves the sole responsibility of determining the ROE, with regards to conflicts that involve public members and wherein, the lives of the public remains threatened. Hence, in order to minimize the effect of clashes between the terrorists and military forces, the government frames ROE for the benefit of the civilians. According to Broadstone ( ), a number of key determinants act as the basis upon which the government of a nation frames the ROE. Some of them are the law concerning armed forces of a nation, the operational factors, political scenario, domestic laws as well as values of the country. These factors further determine that ROE serves its political purpose by ensuring that the military activities are in accordance with the political intentions.

The Life and Times of Pat Brown Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

The Life and Times of Pat Brown - Essay Example And it all began because of one man's unselfish and noble direction to produce the best results for California disregarding the growing population and his own political career. Edmund Gerald Brown had an early prediction of having a business and political career set before his eyes. He was the grandson of Augustus Schuckman and Joseph Brown, the father of his father, Edmund Joseph Brown who were one of the early successful business men who came to California in the 1800s (Rarick, "California Rising" 8-14). Resembling the same courage and desire as his ancestors', Edmund Brown abandoned his old life, hunted for a brighter future in the West, and considered California as his homeland. Edmund learned how to become a young entrepreneur from his father. Edmund and his brother learned the world of commerce by selling newspapers and snapped cheap pictures in the streets. During the World War I, Edmund encouraged people to buy liberty bonds by giving four-minute speeches in school. During this time, he acquired the name Patrick Henry Brown that has shortened to "Pat" because at the end of his speech, he would shout: "Give me liberty or give me death!" In high scho ol, he had used his organizing skills by being a leader of the groups he joined into. When he graduated in 1923, he worked for his father as a cashier for awhile before he decided to pursue law in San Francisco Law School. Because public speaking was a gift for him, he was given the roles of the yell leader and debating club president. While he was studying at law school, he was offered a job as a personal assistant by a blind lawyer named Milton Schmitt. He graduated law, top-notching his class. And upon Schmitt's death, he took over the practice. Pat Brown's political career started when he altered from being a republican to a democrat. He believed that prioritizing the nation's woes are necessary (Rarick, "California Rising" 25-26). "For the first time in his life, he was a democrat, the political label that would define his career. In the long years that follow, he never thought of going back." He stated that, "changing parties was akin to finding a new religion" which meant that he wanted to become a democrat for the rest of his life and "wanted to do things for people and felt that the government had a part in it, felt that the government should aid and assist." Brown took on campaign chores for the democrats' candidate for governor, Culbert Olson. He headed his fund-raising committee and speaker's bureau for all of North California and he won. But Brown did not land a job with Olson and though disappointed, he built his own course instead in hometown politics. In 1939, he had run for incumbent district attorney in San F rancisco as a democrat still though he had no experience in criminal issues. Even though he lost, he considered it as "an opening wedge." In 1943, he pushed his luck again and won, serving for seven years. He became the Attorney General of California after that for eight whole years. In 1958, he was the democratic nominee for Governor of California. Pat Brown became the "activist governor" of California in 1959 when he defeated William F. Knowland. His first term was regarded to be full of vigour and accomplishment (Rarick, "California Rising" 3). He funded the development of public colleges and universities, built vast system of dams and

Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act

Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act Erica D’Souza The Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act:  Impediments of Implementation Introduction to the Subject: The present paper basically focuses on the problems and impediments that have been faced in the implementation of the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act (RTE) in India. The paper primarily analyses and utilizes the secondary data available in the form of scholarly and newspaper articles on the concerned subject. The paper also attempts to understand, in a reverse mode, the advantages and drawbacks of the RTE Act. A new ray of hope became visible for the largely-undermined Public Education System in India when the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act came into force on 1st April, 2010. It has made free and compulsory education a fundamental right of every child in the (6 14) age group, irrespective of gender or social category (The Gazette 3). Now, it is a shared responsibility of both Central and State Governments to provide free and compulsory education to all children by all means. If a child is not getting access to the education, the State as well as the Central government will be responsible for it. The RTE Act also states that the responsibility of enrollment, attendance and completion of 8 years of schooling of every child will also be borne by the State. There is a special provision for the differently-able children in the Act. They will also be educated in the ordinary schools as well as up to the age of 18 (Soni and Rahman 6). Some important features of the act in brief (Gazette of India II): Every child belonging to the age group of 6-14 has the right to free and compulsory education. Private school will also have to take 25% of their class strength from the weaker section and the underprivileged groups of the society and that is also through a random selection process. It also states that there should not be any vacant seat in 25% quota in private schools. Moreover, these children from weaker background should be treated equally in all ways. Every school will have to follow norms and standards prescribed in the Act and school that does not follow these standards within 3 years will not be permitted to function further. No admission test or interview will be taken for children or parents in order to secure admission. A fixed student and teacher ratio is to be maintained suggested by the central government. The ratio is (30:1). The Government must ensure a Primary school within 1 KM and secondary school in 3 KM of all the territory of the State to ensure 100% enrollment. Impediments of Implementations: Different organizations have carried out various studies to find out status of implementation of the RTE Act focusing both on the educational infrastructure and quality of education. The most comprehensive and important survey is the Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) which is carried out by Pratham, an education foundation bringing such annual report since 2005. ASER is carried out carried out by a local institution in every rural district in India. It is carried out each year in two months: September and November. In 2012, the survey reached 567 districts, 16,166 villages, 331,881 households and 5,96,846 children. About 500 organizations and 25,000 volunteers participated in this effort (Status 7). The ASER report for the status of implementation of the RTE Act in Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan reveals two major findings which are not very gratifying for the implementation of the RTE Act in India and universalization of education: poor quality of education and privatization (8). The reports also provides some specific findings such as: turn down trend in student and teacher attendance; enrolment is high, but proportion of out-of-school children also high, first choice was given for private schools and declining reading skill, private tution in demand etc. In his article â€Å"Advantages and Disadvantages of RTE Act†, published in The Hindu on 21 May 2013, Mohamed Imranullah S. argues that despite 25% reservation for children from the weaker sections of the society in private schools, they do not end up enrolling themselves in the lack of proper information about it (Imaranullah 2). It shows that lack of awareness regarding the RTE Act and facilities which one can avail under this right is one of the major impediments in the successful implementation of the RTE Act. Siddhartha Shome in her article â€Å"What is Wrong with the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act† draws our attention to a discrepancy inherent in the law itself which may also affect the proper implementation of the Act itself. She point out that if a private school fails to meet the required norms and standards, it will be fined heavily. But, in the same condition, a government run school will face no punishment (Shome 4). This inherent discrepancy, I feel, will also affect the attitudes of authorities in charge as they will not be responsible to provide answers if they fail to meet the given standards. And that will surely affect the education of children too. In their jointly written article â€Å"Feasibility of Implementation of Right to Education Act† and published in Economic and Political Weekly, Pankaj S Jain and Ravindra H Dholakia argue that insufficient allocation of the funds for the universal school system also weakens the proper impleme ntation of the RTE Act (Jain and Dholakia 38). They argue that government school system is inefficient to fulfill the dream nurtured by the Act and as a kind of solution to this problem they suggest to â€Å"rely on low cost private schools as a significant instrument of the government education policy† (Jain and Dholakia 38-43). In response to their article’s argument, Vimala Ramachandran in her article â€Å"Right to Education Act: A Comment† argues that reliance on alternative schools or private schooling will condemn the poor and marginalized to a second-rate education as they can never afford private and expensive schooling (Vimala 155). Status of Implementation of the RTE Act (2013): The study carried out in the year 2013 in Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan regarding the implementation of the RTE Act reveals two major impediments in the implementation of the RTE Act: 1) The role of the state and 2) the coordination between the implementing agencies (The Status 26-27). The report reveals that the state is not very much willing to spend money on the proper implementation and there is a lack of coordination between implementing agencies such as the Labor Ministry and the police, the Human Resource Development Ministry, the child rights commissions in each state, etc. For example, In Uttar-Pradesh, the state has no intention of contributing towards implementation of Act and is wholly depended on the central government (Rai 3). The RTE Act states that a child must have access to a school near their home. How many schools would we have to build to meet the needs of the population? Dilara Sayeed in her article â €Å"Hurdles in implementation of Right to Education Act in India† draws our attention towards this problem. She argues that proper infrastructure, poor distribution of budget, acute shortage of teachers and great heterogeneity of citizenry all make proper and smooth implementation of RTE Act very difficult (Sayeed 4). According to her the lack of schools is a major hurdle for the implementation. She argues that for educating every Indian as proposed in RTE Act, not many schools have been built up by the centre or state government to meet the needs of the population (5). Moreover, the alarming growth of private tution-based education with heavy load of fee is also another reason. And because of it children of the poor class lag behind (6). Ramakant Rai in his article â€Å"Challenges in Implementing the RTE Act† draws our attention to another fragile issue which obstructs the smooth implementation of the RTE Act in India. He argues that the Indian Constitution has clear ly stated that implementation of RTE Act cannot be only done by the state but the Centre will have to contribute equally. Lack of funds cannot be the only hurdle for its implementation but lack of intent and political will is the primary obstacle. There is improvement seen in the facilities provided by schools and in infrastructure facilities but still quality of learning could not bring remarkable change over the period of nine years (Madhav Chavan- ASER report). There are many accusations against government school being questioned with mismanagement, skipping, negligence and of appointment made on political expediency (RTE Wiki). The act has provision for orphans to provide admission without seeking any certificates but still schools are not admitting students without required documents (RTE). It has also been argued that the RTE Act has been hastily drafted without concerning many expertise scholars in the field of education. Moreover, it did not properly mention the actual defin ition for quality education. Bibliography: The Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009 (RTE Act, 2009). The Gazette of India. Web. http://www.ncte-india.org/Norms/RTE-1.pdf>. Soni, R.B.L. and Md. Atiqur Rahman. Status of Implementation of RTE Act-2009 in Context of Disadvantaged Children at Elementary Stage. Deptt. of Elementary Education. National Council of Educational Research and Training. Delhi. The Annual Status of Education Report (ASER). Pratham. Jain, Pankaj S and Ravindra H. Dholakia. â€Å"Feasibility of Implementation of Right to Education Act.† EPW 44.25 (2009):38-43. Print. Ramchandran, Vimala. â€Å"Right to Education Act: A Comment.† EPW. 44.28 (2009): 155-157. Print. Imaranulllah, Mohamed S. â€Å"Advantages and Disadvantages of RTE Act.† The Hindu. May 21, 2013. Sarkar, Chanchal Chand. â€Å"Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009 and Its Implementation.† India’s Infrastructure Report 2012. Shome, Sidhartha. â€Å"What is Wrong with the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act.† Manushi: Working Towards Solutions. http://www.manushi.in/ articles.php.> Accessed on October 18 2014. Status of Implementation of the RTE Act: Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan. Web. https://socialissuesindia.files.wordpress.com/2013/04/status-of-implementation-of-rte-2013.pdf>. Srivastava, Prachi and Claire Noronha. â€Å"Institutional Framing of the Right to Education Act: Contestation, Controversy and Concessions.† EPW 49.18 (2014): 442-456. Print. Rai, Ramakant. â€Å"Challenges in implementing the RTE Act.† Infochange News Features. May 2012. Web. http://infochangeindia.org/education/backgrounders/challenges-in-implementing-the-rte-act.html>. Sayeed, Dilara. â€Å"Hurdels in Implementation of Right to Education Act in India.† India Tribune. Web.http://www.indiatribune.com/index.php?option=com_contentview=articleid=7659:hurdles-in-implementation-of-right-to-education-act-in-india-catid=30:opinionItemid=460>.

population :: essays research papers

The Immigration Debate   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Migration is a natural condition of humankind. People have traditionally moved voluntarily hope of freedom and economical, cultural and educational opportunities. As of recent there has been a conflict of interest in terms of immigration. Mr. John Isbister shows both sides in his book, The Immigration Debate. Although Mr. Isbister shows both sides on immigration, he is clearly proimmigration. He says, â€Å"immigrantscontribute positively to the quality of American life and that immigration is consistent with the moral values that Americans hold closest†isbister 4). He says immigratswill continue to add to America’s melting pot theory.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  He starts his book talking abouhistory ofnited States policy. The Alien and Sedition Acts of 1798 wereenacted as part to deny asylum toEuropean supporters of Democracy. The Immigration Act of 1924 was the first permanet limitation on immigration, established the â€Å" national origins quota system†(). This act set a quota of immigrants to the United States at two percent of the number of persons of a given nationality residing in the United States. Since quotas were based on the proportions of the U.S. population, the system greatly favored northern Europeans and discriminate against Asians. The quota system was finally abolished in The Migration Refugee Assistance Act of 1962. The act opened opportunities for families to reunify. Many refugees came from Cuba and Latin America. This actr surprisingly increased the number of non white immigrants. Now crowds of Hispanic and Asains can be found throughout the entire nation. Mr. Isbister says that the new infl ux of Hispanics and Asains is cyclical and that the population will control itself. The first cycle happened from 1820 to 1967, nearly 90 percent of all immigrants were from Canada or Europe. From the Migration Refugee Assistane Act of 1962, Mexico and other Central American countries were the maority of immigrants. Only thirteen percent of immigrants were from Europe.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Now there happens to be a huge influx of illegal immigrants. To control the illegal aliens Congress passed the Immigration Reform and Control Act in 1986. This act punished employers who hired undocumented immigrants. It also granted citizenship to illegal aliens who had been residing in the United States for several years. No one really knows how many illegal immigrants there are living in the United States, but estimates say there are about four to five million illegals leaving here, almost all of them are non-white.