Latin American History and Politics Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 1

Latin American History and Politics - Essay Example One of the most remarkable features of the Latino culture concerns the values and perceptions involved with family. Based from Skidmore’s discourse, one is able to understand how this social unit is the source or an influence to its various features and characteristics. The closely-knit Latino communities, the Latino’s perspectives in life, education and relationships – these are all embodied within the larger familial dynamics that permeate in this ethnic group. 3. Cuba casts a very large shadow over Latin America. What is going on in Latin America today?   Is it changing ideologically? How would you describe Cuba’s influence over Latin America?  Ã‚  Is it largely positive or negative?  Ã‚  What is Cuba’s  relationship like with Venezuela?  Ã‚  What has been the long-term impact of Fidel Castro on Cubans and on Latinos overall? I believe that much of the ideological influence that Cuba has had over Latin America could be attributed to Fidel Castro. This was reflected with how scholars see Castro not just as the embodiment of military and political leadership but also of the entire Cuban revolution that have seized the imagination of many in Latin America, inspiring some to launch their and continue their own revolutionary causes (Venegas, 2010, p. 183). In some cases, it is a positive development as such influence steered Latin American countries towards self-determination, as it offered a counter to American influence. The strong bilateral relationship between Cuba and Venezuela demonstrates this point. The latter – in its objective to oppose the US – sought a agreements with military dimensions (Corrales & Romero, 2013, p. 27). On the other hand, it exerted negative impact particularly with the nature and frequency of political conflicts in the region. All in all, without Castro, the Cuban influence is

An Analysis Of The Freedom Of Expression Politics Essay

An Analysis Of The Freedom Of Expression Politics Essay Ever since the idea of freedom of expression flourished, there has always been that small irritating voice at the back of the governments head, contemplating as to whether or not freedom of expression could one way or another lead to the citizens taking advantage of their democratic rights. To stop such circumstance from happening, governments tend to put limits to the said advantage, the limits usually varying with religious or cultural backgrounds that the government belongs to. So what exactly is freedom of expression? Precisely, the term alone says it all: it is basically having the right to express ones thoughts, whether it is through speech, text or media, without having to worry about the consequences that one would have to face for not putting a boundary on the message being conveyed due to the lack of censorship and restrictions imposed on the state. The intention of freedom of expression is to stir the citizens of a state into comprehending truth on their own, making it an aspect of self realization or human dignity (Freedom of Expression in Canada 1963). This leads to self development, which on some basis would be a beneficial point, if it was not for the risk that self development might also lead to the realization of how corrupt a state may be on some terms, or how much a state lacks a certain foundation. To illustrate this further, it is most always likely that a state which supports freedom of expression to be a democratic state the government of the people, ruled by the people for the citizens make their own decisions, whether political or nonpolitical, through their freedom rights (Ray 2004). However, that does not necessarily mean that any state which claims to be democratic actually supports its citizens when it comes to freedom of expression. A small number of political analysts believe that the main reason that more than plenty of Arab countries do not follow a democratic regime is for the cause that these Arab countries are also at the same time Islamic countries (Otterman 2003). Conversely, an excerpt from the Islamic Quran deems this piece of misleading fact to be false; Islam clearly states that freedom of speech in all cases should be accepted within a society, unless the claims being made are evil, obscene, immoral, or hurtful to others that is if it is not done to serve the cause of justice (Kamali 1997). That being said, it is acceptable to say that there are in fact states in the Middle East which practice a democratic regime, such as Turkey. However, we do have other cases in the Arab world which lack democracy and the comfort of the government allowing its citizens to freely express themselves for other reasons, such as the fear of citizens overthrowing the government. One state which can exemplify this notio n would be Egypt. The Republic of Turkey is one of the very few democratic states in the Middle East which decidedly supports a democratic regime hand in hand with freedom of expression. This piece of information unfortunately goes incorrect. The start of a democratic regime in Turkey was not easy; journalists would try to express their thoughts via newspapers, only to be oppressed by the government by being forced to shut down their newspapers, or being prosecuted or arrested (Obituary: Hrant Dink 2007). Mustafa Kemal Ataturk the father of all Turks then came into the picture; he came into power in the early 1920s, being elected president of The Grand National Assembly of Turkey. He claimed Turkey as a Republic state in October 29th, 1923 before initiating democracy in Turkey a year later; in the years from 1924 up until 1938, he introduced to the state a series of radical reforms in the countrys political, social, and economic life known as the Ataturk Reforms, in attempt to turn Turkey into a westernized, democratic and secular state (Sansal 1996-2010). Throughout these reforms, he succeeded in adopting general European policies, such as accepting new penal codes, and changing the Islamic prayer call and the Quran readings from the regular Arabic to the Turkish language. He even insisted on getting the citizens to dress like the Europeans did, and overall live a basic European lifestyle. The people of Turkey easily succumbed to all the changes that Ataturk developed, devoted to the ideas he proposed, and so they accepted the new implemented courses of action with arms wide open. During his reign in power, Ataturk managed banning the religious brotherhoods; giving civil rights to the women of the country through a new civil code, and also the right to vote and run in parliamentary elections; introducing Secularism into Turkey; banning the public use of the Arabic script; and joining the League of Nations. The changes he implemented upon the country still remain until today and forever on in the hearts of Turkish people, for it was he who had modernized and democratized the nation state. He established elections, which gave the right for the people of Turkey to voice their own opinion as to who they think should be Prime Minister or President of the state (MidEastWeb for Coexistence RA. n.d.). While the public sees Turkey as an all democratic state, on the other hand the citizens in the state are actually in fact being oppressed by the media, not being able to voice their opinions. In the year 2005, Turkey established a new penal code Article 301 which summed up that it is officially illegal for a Turk to insult any sort of Turkishness, whether it is the ethnicity, government institutions, or just general criticism against the government. The penalty for breaking the code would be an imprisonment of a period between six months and three years. This Article caused an up riot, since it got in the way of democracy and freedom of expression; it even disqualified Turkeys request to be a part of the European Union. A number of journalists were prosecuted, some sentenced to imprisonment; such as Hrant Dink, a famous Turkish journalist who was put on a suspended sentence; and Noam Chomsky, who was put on a trial but was soon after cleared of all charges (Armenian Assembly of Ame rica 2009). A second Middle Eastern state that also claims to be democratic, as mentioned above, is Egypt. Yes, elections do take place in Egypt, and, yes, several candidates do step up to have their say. It is a multi-party government, and people are always expressing their love for the country freely, whether it is shown on TV or in the newspapers. All of this is with the exception that the citizens of Egypt are actually living genuinely oppressed lives, and being led on by the government to think that Egypt is a democratic country, when in fact the government plays its way around and acts for itself from behind the scenes (Consolatore 2005). The declaration of the Republic of Egypt was proposed in the year 1953 by Muhammad Naguib and Gamal Abdel Nasser. Nasser had then taken Naguibs position as president, and made several further attempts to transform Egypt from a Dictatorial Republic state to a Democratic Republic one. However, Egypt was at the time a police state, and remained being one up until the 1980s. Under both Nassers and Anwar Sadats, the third president of Egypt, rule, the freedom to express ones thoughts was completely prohibited; such laws concludes that Nassers accomplishments happened to fall short of democracy (Guindy and Shukrallah 2000). Despite Nassers many accomplishments of which he nationalized all industry, banned the Muslim Brotherhood and the communists, and gave women more political rights people argue that he could have still done and sacrificed more for the country. He had the power, and the opportunity to fully democratize Egypt for once and for all, since people were liberal back then, and were more open-minded to freedom (Totten 2005). However, what Nasser did was ban all political parties, eliminating any other competition. Former presidents added on to Nassers mistakes; Sadat, by bringing back the Muslim Brotherhood into the state of Egypt; and Hosni Mubarak, the latest President of Egypt, by oppressing all liberals (Totten 2005). As a result, a great number of people were put on trials due to freedom of expression, from under Gamal Abdel Nassers era, to Anwar Sadats, and up to the present day, Hosni Mubaraks. In an interview done by The Arabic Network for Human Rights Information, the legal advisor for the syndicate of journalists stated that there have been more than one thousand cases, and the number of trials is about five hundreds (Arabic Network for Human Rights Information 2007). Protests have been held against the government, but journalists and women are attacked by the police, as if doing so would justify all means. Strangely enough, on top of all the oppression and the prosecutions taking place, a number of people in Egypt believe that the lack of freedom of expression is all for the best and not for Islamic reasons! These people believe that if competitions and elections were fair, and that the balloting was not toyed with, then there would be more than a fifty percent chance that the Muslim Brotherhood would get most votes, being the party to take hold of the country. This being done would completely wipe out the idea of Egypt having any freedom whatsoever; by becoming an Islamic state, this means that books would be banned, just so that people would not get any new or crazy ideas; and women would be forced to wear the headscarf (Totten 2005). The other percentage of Egyptians who do not vote for the Muslim Brotherhood are completely against the idea of Egypt becoming an Islamic state, which is why not much is being done to enhance the freedom of expression in Egypt. There is also the idea t hat Egypt has to go through Islamism in order to reach liberalism, just like Afghanistan had done, but the idea is clearly too much of a risk (Totten 2005). If one were to talk about democracy as a whole, regarding Egypts and Turkeys current condition, then it should be obvious that Turkey is much better off on the subject of competition they have between their candidates; the political participation that the citizens of Turkey obtain; the rights, equality and fairness that they are given as a group; and furthermore, the confidence in knowing that the voting procedures and the balloting are to be trusted, instead of being deceitful. A citizen accustomed to Western or European democratic standards might reflect that neither Turkey nor Egypt should be labeled as a democratic state at all in the first place, due to the restrictions imposed on the citizens living there. Still, there are levels to freedom of expression which should be considered before jumping to a conclusion. First, many people confuse freedom of expression with freedom of criticism, or biased unthinking. That sort of operation is often overlooked and mistaken to be legitimate and politically moral. For instance, there was the case in the year 2005 when twelve comical caricatures of the Prophet Mohammed were drawn and published in a Danish newspaper, evidently offending the Muslims and causing an up riot for obvious reasons. This act of freedom of expression was deliberately provocative towards Muslims, winding up in a massive outrage throughout the different Islamic countries, resulting in deaths and destruction (Asser 2010). Many people might argue that there should be no limits to freedom of expression whatsoever. One must agree that each person should not feel permit to free his or her own opinions, but as long as it does not reach the borders of criticism. Limits should be applied in order to protect the rights of others; in the end, it is all also a matter of respecting others. Giving the people the right to freely criticize one another creates a spark of hatred between the community, which could eventually lead to unnecessary rebellion and riot.

Poetry appreciation of Death of a naturalist Essay -- English Literatu

Poetry appreciation of Death of a naturalist This poem ‘Death of a Naturalist’ by Seamus Heaney is about the lifecycle of frogs and a child’s interest in nature. As the child grows up he looses interest in all aspects of nature. It is as if ‘Death of a Naturalist’ was referring to the loss of innocence of the child and the love of nature he once had died inside him. Not only that, he now has respect for nature but not necessarily disliking it; nor loving it either. The atmosphere of the first stanza is quite positive. A phrase such as ‘There were dragon-flies, spotted butterflies,’ suggests a happy mood and refers to pleasant memories to Heaney as a child. Diction such as the ‘warm thick slobber’ indicates to me the child-likeness theme of this poem. Which proves that it is from an adult’s perspective looking back at his childhood. Heaney has done this by using the ‘child-like’ vocabulary as well as a more complex and mature tone to the poem. He has done this so that we as the reader can recognise the difference of the fascination of a child and a simpler explanation of things from an adult. For example as the first stanza draws to a close we learn that by frogs we can tell the weather ‘For they were yellow in the sun and brown/in rain.’ This is the typical child learning something new in school, and then assuming they know it all. From that I get the image of the child telling its mother ‘mum did you know†¦Ã¢â‚¬â„¢ Where as an adult would dismiss it as merely a fact. By the second stanza the poem takes a rather dark turn. All the positivity in the first stanza has been replaced with a sinister and morbid tone. The beginning of the stanza ‘ Then one hot day†¦fields were rank’ suggests the dramatic change in ... ...ts changed and I realised that the poem was not all about frogs. It was a case of reading between the lines. Heaney’s overall message fascinated me and urged me to delve more into the subject of ‘loss of innocence’. Which set me on a train of thought. One thing in particular that made the poem more enjoyable for myself was Heaney’s flair for style. The way in which he concentrates on the onomatopoeia in the poem is very effective. As I had not previously read any other of Heaney’s poems this immediately drew my attention. Another thing I liked was the images he created in my mind. One of those images were (in the second stanza); a battlefield where the child is on one side and the frogs are his opposition and the frogs are invading the land-similar to a war scenario. Therefore I would highly recommend this poet simply for Heaney’s unique style of writing.

Cellular Phones: A Reliable Source In Society Today Essay

In today’s society it is hard to find someone who does not own a cell phone. It is almost like cell phones appeared over night, since we used to see nothing but rich guys in the 80’s carrying around large, chunky mobile phones to now where we have a variety assortment of smaller cell phones that we can choose from. Now a days, cell phones are used in just about every aspect of life, from work, to school, to emergencies, to browsing the web to get information, to playing games or just plain talking with a loved one, we use our cell phones. Some families have even gone strictly cellular and do not own a separate home phone. This is how popular cellular phones have become. Can one say that it is a form of technology that has enhanced our society? One would say â€Å"yes† it is. Just a few years ago, pagers were the thing to have, now with the advance technology of cellular phones, who needs pagers anymore? It has come to the point that now you will see a 10 year old with a cellular phone. Many parents feel better if their child has a phone to where they can reach them at any given point. However, is this really necessary? I mean, when I was 10, if I was not at home with my mom, I was either in school or over a relative’s house, nonetheless, my mother knew where I was at all times. This is just one example of how cell phones have become heavily relied upon in society. Let us explore how useful cellular phones have become and how we as a society rely upon their use each and every day. To begin let us go back into history of how cellular phones came about. According to Jamie Brown at Yahoo! Yahoo! Voices. Contributor Network, Cell Phone History: Technology and Innovation Over the Years. (January 12, 2009). Retrieved from: http://voices. yahoo. com/cell-phone-history-technology-innovation-over-2414208. html. â€Å"The very first cell phone was developed in April 1973 by Dr. Martin Cooper, a manager at Motorola, and a group of fellow inventors. Cooper called his competitor on the cell phone he had just invented. The technology was called AMPS (Advanced Mobile Phone Service). It took ten more years for the first analog cell phone to be developed for commercial use by a company called Ameritech. As I have done my research on the use of cellular phones today, I have come to find that much of society have many uses for the cellular phones. Many own a Smartphone and some may be like me and still own a basic phone. Nonetheless, just to own a cellular phone is a plus, and you are looked at strange if you say you do not own one. As I was reading an article on CNN Tech, by Amy Gahran, October 22, 2010, she referred to her â€Å"aha! † moment when she realized how the significant cellular phones were back in spring of 2009. She told the story of when she was on the bus sitting across from an elderly gentlemen who looked homeless. When all of a sudden a cell phone rang, and the man reached into his pocket and pulled out a flip phone and commenced to having a conversation, confirming an appointment to get off the streets. Now just looking at this, I realized that there are many people out there who may not have a place live, actually living in shelters, but they will have a cell phone. When I asked my husband Michael how prevalent are cell phones in shelters (because he used to be in one through the Salvation Army back in 2010), he stated: â€Å"yes there were plenty of people in there who had cell phones, they had to have a way for people to get in contact with them. And you have to realize, there are so many government programs that issue out free cell phones, anyone could have one. † Now based on that fact alone, I realized that our society, really could not function properly without the use of cellular devices. Since their inception, technology has evolved to where we basically need the use of cellular devices, just to get by in our day to day lives. Thinking back when I was younger and wished I had a way to get in contact with my mom, about when to pick me up from school. Only way I could reach out to her was to call the house, not realizing if she was not at home she would not receive my message. Oh boy, how I wished we had the luxury of small mobile cellular devices back then, instead, we had the big bag mobile devices, that only those who could afford it carried them around. After further research, there are many who believe that cellular phones have been a very much needed and great asset to our society. According to Foram Mehta, on an article done on Buzzle website titled: How Cell Phones are Changing Our Society. They do break it down on how society has been using cellular devices and for what reasons.

Learning by Experience Essay

Project Synopsis This project involves the study of social and cultural background of Maheshwar Situated in a town in Khargone district of Madhya Pradesh through this project we are expected to reflect upon the experience which we had gained by engaging in a field work in the town Maheshwar and inculcating the good aspects which we have learned so that we could cater to the need of the society which demands the managers with sociological perspective, change agents and societal leaders. REVIEW OF LITERATURE Maheshwar is a town in Khargone district of Madhya Pradesh state, in central India. It is located 91 km from Indore, the commercial capital of the state. The town lies on the north bank of the Narmada River. Maheshwar is on the bank of mighty Narmada River and is famous for its Maheshwar temple and Fort. The fort was built by renowned queen Ahilayabai Holkar. The beauty of Narmada River and the fort is worth seeing. Maheshwar has been a centre of handloom weaving. Maheshwar is also famous for its finely woven Maheshwari Sarees. Maheshwari sarees were introduced 250 years ago by Rani Ahilyabai, the ruler of princely Indore State from 1765 to 1795. She brought in weavers from Surat in Gujarat and Mandu and established them at Maheshwar, to weavespecial nine-yard saris for the ladies of royal household, and turban fabric. Rani Ahilyabai moved her capital to Maheshwar, constructing the splendid 18th century Maratha-architecture based, Ahilya Fort, on the banks of the sacred Narmada River . Besides her capital being an industrial enterprise for textile, it was also a thriving destination for literary, sculpture, music and arts. Fort Built by Mata Ahilyabai Holkar Ahilya Fort is a magnificent structure that is around 250 years old. Overlooking the Narmada River, it is perched-up high on a hill and thus offers an amazing view of the ghats below. The fort includes ancient- style  courtyards, verandahs and stone walkways. It was once the residence of Ahilya Bai Holkar, one of the most celebrated women rulers of India during the 18th century Handloom in Maheshwar Handloom weaving in Maheshwar has an ancient history dating back more than 1500 years. The current tradition owes its resurgence to Maharani Ahilyabai Holkar, who ruled the state of Indore from 1765 to 1795, and it was under her patronage that the weavers prospered. Baneshwar Mahadev Temple On an island in the middle of the river stands the Baneshwar Mahadev Temple. It is believed that a heavenly line (an axis of sorts) from the North Star passes through this temple to the earth’s centre