Torture Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Torture - Essay Example But after a while we start to wonder what security can possibly mean, when so much of what people have struggled to secure in this country—the Constitution, basic human rights, and the rule of law—seems to be going out the window. Convention Against Torture (http://www.hrweb.org/legal/cat.html) Article 3 1. No State Party shall expel, return ("refouler") or extradite a person to another State where there are substantial grounds for believing that he would be in danger of being subjected to torture. 2. For the purpose of determining whether there are such grounds, the competent authorities shall take into account all relevant considerations including, where applicable, the existence in the State concerned of a consistent pattern of gross, flagrant or mass violations of human rights. Article 4 1. Each State Party shall ensure that all acts of torture are offences under its criminal law. The same shall apply to an attempt to commit torture and to an act by any person which constitutes complicity or participation in torture. 2. Each State Party shall make these offences punishable by appropriate penalties which take into account their grave nature. Christopher Hitchens (http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/features/2008/08/hitchens200808?currentPage=2) Torture advocates hide behind the argument that an open discussion about specific American interrogation techniques will aid the enemy. Yet, convicted Al Qaeda members and innocent captives who were released to their host nations have already debriefed the world through hundreds of interviews, movies and documentaries on exactly what methods they were subjected to and how they endured. Our own missteps have created a cadre of highly experienced lecturers for Al Qaeda’s own virtual  sere  school for terrorists. Which returns us to my starting point, about the distinction between training  for something and training to resist it. One used to be told—and surely with truth—that the lethal fanatics of al-Qaeda were schooled to lie, and instructed to claim that they had been tortured and maltreated whether they had been tortured and maltreated or not. Did we notice what a frontier we had crossed when we admitted and even proclaimed that their stories might in fact be true? I had only a very slight encounter on that frontier, but I still wish that my experience were the only way in which the words â€Å"waterboard† and â€Å"American† could be mentioned in the same (gasping and sobbing) breath. Michael Levin (http://people.brandeis.edu/~teuber/torture.html) There are situations in which torture is not merely permissible but morally mandatory. Moreover, these situations are moving from the realm of imagination to fact. Suppose a terrorist has hidden an atomic bomb on Manhattan Island which will detonate at noon on July 4 unless ... here follow the usual demands for money and release of his friends from jail. Suppose, further, that he is caught at 10 a.m on the fateful day, but preferring death to failure, won't disclose where the bomb is. What do we do? If we follow due process, wait for his lawyer, arraign him, millions of people will die. If the only way to save those lives is to subject the terrorist to the most excruciating possible pain, what grounds can there be for not doing so? I suggest there are none. In any case, I ask

Written Analysis Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Written Analysis - Essay Example Germany was severely punished which led to World War II as many historians believe. There are many articles and books that contain writings including poets about the war with different themes. In this paper I will try explaining different themes according to different sources used and relate them to contemporary issues of gender, war and trauma. In addition to the many events that marked the beginning of the First World War, Stephen MacDonald wrote a play known as Not About Heroes that takes a courageous glance into the lives and works of Wilfred Owen and Siegfried Sassoon who were war poets. The play is based upon their time in Craiglockhart War Hospital in 1917 where Owen was recovering from shell-shock also known as neurasthenia while Sassoon was being kept in there after he made a declaration against the war which was announced in the House of Commons and was declared to be suffering from shell-shock to provide an explanation of his outbursts. Sassoon is a well established and connected man and Owen a timid, stammering fan that grows to a confident determined poet whose creativity was unlocked after meeting his friend Sassoon. This book portrays the friendship of the two men and their war poems. The strong relationship formed between soldiers, the memories and experiences they had, the writings and literature skills and the sacrifices made by the soldiers in the war are among the themes in this book. Owen says that he is only concerned with the war and not poetry, for him poetry is in the pity. He is not concerned with honor or power or fame and glory, just War.† MacDonald tries to shun open reference to the sexuality of either the two. He represents their relationship as emotional which somehow seems to embarrass them this is seen when Siegfried feels glad that he was not seen embracing Wilfred and also in the description of Sassoon in his letters as â€Å"Dearest of Friends† Owen shows shyness and his determination by saying he will be a poet and he

Child Abandonment: Causes and Responses

Child Abandonment: Causes and Responses While many people consider babies as their blessing from the God, but there are others still consider them as burden and a shame. The abandoned babys cases are become more serious in our country. Besides that, the situation has reached a worrying state where babies are abandoned in the most unbelievable manner by their mothers in rivers, rubbish dumps, doorstep, bas stop and even mosques. Some newborns make it and some die while others are killed before being dumped. Whether we admit it or not, nowadays many women lose their virginity a very young age. This is because human relationship are began to deteriorate. Teenagers lack of family care or attention from their families may cause them out look for spiritual comfort. It will cause them far away from their families and started affect by their soul mate. The rise in teenage pregnancies is becoming a disturbing trend. From January to April this year, 111 such cases were reported to the Welfare Department, compared with 131 cases last year and 107 cases in 2008.According to MCA Public Services and Complaints Department head Datuk Michael Chong, the statistics provided by the Welfare Department may only be the tip of the iceberg. Such incidents are a sign of deterioration in moral values and, if not addressed urgently, will lead to the destruction of societys moral fabric. Everyone must be held responsible for this the parents, youth and teenagers, the authorities and society. The National Registration Department registered some 257,000 births between 2000 and July 2008 without the names of parents, which translated into 2,500 babies born out of wedlock monthly or 84 cases daily. We cannot allow teenagers and others to kill innocent babies born out of wedlock. But we also cannot allow babies to be born out of wedlock without people taking responsibility for their actions. Young people get pregnant because of having the unprotected sex. Besides that, they did not fully realize what the true meaning of sex and pregnancy is. A girl may get pregnant not just because of you touch her hand or you kiss her face but it is because a in depth kind of relationship. Due to lack of knowledge about this relevant topic may cause many young people did not aware about the seriousness of this problem. If they are knowledgeable and educated, they can at least avoid the most unpleasant consequences. Besides that, apart from that many career women living in cities oblige their boyfriends request when they are asked to watch pornographic VCD and then engage in sexual activities out of wedlock. When the girl gets pregnant, the boyfriend will do a vanishing act to absolve himself of all responsibilities. The unfortunate girl is left alone with the baby. The fear of their secrets being discovered by their families makes them resort to the unthinkable and so that may cause them just abandoned the newborn. When the mother abandon the newborn is consider as murder. Government should seriously look upon this issue rather than just concentrate on other issues such as corruption, cronyism, nepotism or wasteful expenditure. We need to nip this problem in the bud in order to prevent the problem getting worse and until it out of control. Plenty of effort we can done in many aspect to stop this problem spread. Besides of parent, government and society also should be responsible upon this issue. On the other hands, religious and belief also play an important role on this problem. If the young people are a devout believer, at least they may think twice before they want to engage in sexual activities. Government should enforce the law to stop the mother from abandoning the baby. Example government can fine the mother who had abandoned their baby. For more serious, the government can also put the mother into prison or ask them to do public service as a punishment. To make this more effective, the head of police should allocate more police to patrol at night. Other than this, government can fixed some camera at the place or lane that is no people pass by and also the place where people normally abandon their baby. By doing this, it will help the government in taking action on the mother who abandoned their baby because when the mother abandon their baby, the camera may capture the whole process or one of the police may saw it during patrol, then the mother will be get arrested. Other than this, the government should also set a higher age limit for a person to have sex with someone. For example, as we know in Malaysia the age limit for a person to have sex is 16 years old and now the government should increase the age limit to 21 years old. On the other hand government should also increase the penalty for the people who have sex with a person when they are still under age and also increase the penalty for the people who have sex with a person who is under age, so that they will think twice when they want to do so. By doing this, it can help in solving the issues of abandon baby because as we know normally the mother who abandon her baby is the mother which is not mature enough and under age. So, if our government increases the age limit of having sex and also the penalty, it will cause people not dare to have a sexual relationship with someone who is under age and what will happen is the number of people having baby when they are not mature enough will decre ase and it will definitely reduce the problem of abandon baby. Besides that, government should have a baby hatch system. This baby hatch system had implemented in several country such as Pakistan, Germany, and Japan. Baby Hatch is actually a place where the parent can left their child there anonymously. In order to implement this system, government should provide several small spaces for a person to put the baby in the provided locations. The small space must have a door, a soft bed, and a sensor on the bed so that it will alert the staffs to let them know there is a baby inside the small space. Basically the whole idea of baby hatch is trying to rescue the abandoned baby. If the government does not have this kind of system the parent will just abandon their baby at the road side or anywhere else and the baby will be very pity. So, if our government has this kind of system, the parents can donate their baby to the government, so that the government can help to take care of the babies and help the baby to find a suitable family. This is better th an abandon the baby beside the road. Having a baby hatch system may help to reduce the number of abandoned babies dramatically and the rate of infant mortality will decrease because the government is taking good care of the baby and the baby will not die because of hungry, sick or any other reason. Nowadays, the curiosity of teenagers or even though young adult about the sex is gradually increased due to the drama or the movie they watched. The number of teenage pregnancies also on the rise. So, the sex education is necessary to implement in school, colleges, universities to enhancing their knowledge, attitude and behaviour about sex and the consequences of having sex before marriage. A student who doing well in school is very promising, however, it does not mean that he or she will be a responsible adult in future. Therefore, sex education is important now to get children and teenagers to learn the proper social skill especially sex in order to let them know the responsibility when they choose to have sexual relationship but not to teach them how to do. Sex education is the process of acquiring information about sex, sexual identity and sexual relationship. Beside that, sex education also can help teenagers to protect themselves against abuse or unintended pregnancies, prevent unsafe abortion or abandoned babies and the transmission of the infection. The purpose of sex education is to reduce the risk of negative outcomes from sexual behaviour such as unwanted or unplanned pregnancies. Besides that, sex education is also to provide accurate information about the risk of having sexual relationship before marriage, information about birth control and the contraception. Sex education also finds out what the teenagers already know and correcting any incorrect information that they may have. Through the sex education, it can increase the knowledge of teenagers about sexuality. Teenagers who had received the sex education will have lower risk of intended pregnancy and less likely to having sex relationship at early age. In addition, sex education programme can also promote the safer sex practise. Safer sex practise is the practise that the people take precaution when having sex relationship to protect themselves against the transmission of HIV and AIDS. Safer sex can reduce the risk of getting the HIV or AIDS when having the sex relationship. Safer sex practise can get through by using condom when having sex relationship with partner. By using condom can reduce the risk to get the HIV and AIDS, unintended pregnancy. This can reduce the number of abortion and abandoned babies issues. Beginning the sex education at an early age is very important. By giving some basic information about sex to children such as how was a people grow and change over time, how a baby came from. For those teenagers, teacher can give more complex information on sex such as the transmission of HIV and AIDS, the consequences of having sexual relationship before marriage. However, sex education at early age does not mean that encourages teenagers to have sex but is to let teenagers to store up information provided for a time when they need it in the future. Sex education not only can get through school but also can take place through various people. Different people have the different responsibility to provide sex education to teenagers and children. As a parents, they can face-to-face discuss with their children on specific issues or question on sex. Besides that, parents should educate their children about self-respect, moral values and self-protection. Some parents (In Asia) are reluctant to talk about sex issues to their children due to shy or do not know how to begin the topic about sex. Parents should not avoid this subject if not their children may relying on incorrect information they get and it will put them on risk of unwanted sex, unintended pregnancies. Therefore, the discussion between parents and their children is important because the discussion, the parents may know more what their childrens thinking is. The good communication between parents and their children about sexual matter can lead to their children have more awa reness to the seriousness of having sex before marriage. Besides that, teachers also have the responsibility to provide sex education to teenagers. The teachers who are going to provide sex education must be well trained so the teachers will not feel shy to provide the sex education. Beside that, a well trained teacher can provide more accurate information about sex matter to teenagers. Teacher should also educate students the danger of premarital sex and the consequences of premarital sex. Cases of child abandonment usually results from unwanted pregnancies. In most cases, it involves teenage girls who became pregnant outside wedlock and are compelled to commit the act in desperation and fear of the consequences. So what are the main reasons for abortion? Many women and teens worry about their future plans. Some women and teens do not feel they can afford a child. Deciding what to do about an unplanned pregnancy can be difficult. Furthermore, even having a family member at hand does not provide an environment that encourages a pregnant teen to openly seek help. Shame, fear of blame from parents or health staff and the presence of traditional religious and conservative norms make it difficult. There for, a family member must accompany teens seeking counselling. This is because they need someone who can support them, because their condition is very unstable. As the parent of a pregnant teen, you may be feeling many of the same emotions as your daughter such as shock, anger, fear or uncertainty. Maybe your teen was scared to tell you about her pregnancy, or maybe she came to you right away. In either case, your child will need to learn on you for support as she makes decisions that will affect the rest of her life. Parents may play a very important role in a pregnant teens decision. Pregnant teens often need the support and help of their closest family and friends as well. Besides, the pregnant teens can go for an option counselor. An option counselor can help both women and girls with this decision. They will not make the decision or try to convince you to choose a particular course of action. Rather, they help all women decide for themselves. They will find a best way to help you to solve the problems and helps you to learn better social skills. As a role of schools, it is possible to implement programs to assist pregnant teenagers during and after their pregnancies ant this is specifically for only pregnant teens and young mothers. It can provide child care, parenting courses and a high school curriculum to make it as easy as possible for the students to attend school. On the other hand, with support from state and private sources, the government can implement some prevention campaign like adolescent Pregnancy Program and health care program to those pregnant teens. The program is to give teenage parents and their children access to health care. The program links with community-based services for teenaged parents and provides much-needed immunizations, parenting education and physical checkups for parents and their children. Furthermore, Media can be the way to pregnant teens to seek for the information. There are many websites, forums and online communities are available on the Internet. These sites are places where pregnant teens can go to learn more about their condition and to talk to others in a similar situation. Some are designed to offer support and to provide information to pregnant teens.

Examining the American Culture Essay -- Papers

Examining the American Culture In order to understand this immense country that we call America, we need to study the culture. More specifically, we need to study the form of society in America. Is this society changing, or does it remain fixed throughout time? There are many aspects of our society, some of which are: traditions, values, and religion. The many realms of society contribute to a conglomerate culture, which cannot be described simply. The American culture is diverse and constantly evolving due to many various aspects of society, including, but not limited to, religion. It cannot be said that there is one American culture because there is no national language in America. Also, the lack of a single culture is displayed by the strong need for political correctness in America. Finally, it is evident that the culture in America has changed through the years due to changes in American religion. Since language is an essential part of culture, and America has no national language, then America is not tied together with one culture. There are reasons why the U.S. Government has not declared an official language. The most important being that an official language of English would promote xenophobia, making the English speaking afraid of new immigrants or vice versa. It would also deprive the American citizens who do not speak English of some of their basic rights. For example, how could someone vote, or take a driving test, if they do not know the language. On the other hand, immigrants would benefit if they were forced to learn a national language in America. They would be able to receive a better education, find a better job, and participate more completely in society (Gallegos, 1994). The fact that h... ...chings have also been a strong influence on our ignorant society, especially on those who haven’t taken the time to research the doctrines of various religions. Because of the diversity in America, there is no prevalent culture, nor does the culture of tomorrow replicate the culture of yesterday. Bibliography: BIBLIOGRAPHY Gallegos, Bee. (Ed.). (1994). English: Our official Language. New York: The H. W. Wilson Company. Heston, Charlton. (1999). Winning the Culture War, [Online]. Available: http://www.mere-christianity.org [1999, July 5]. Wolfe, Alan. (Ed.). (1991). America At Century’s End. Los Angeles: University of California Press. Author Unnamed. (1999). Roman Catholicism: Christian or Pagan, [Online]. Available: http://www.personal.s1.umich.edu [1999, July 7]. Wickham, R. (1999). Lecture Notes. R/ST 302I. [1999, June 24, July 7].

Wal-Mart and Country Wide Poverty (Precis)

Wal Mart and Country Wide Poverty Ever since its existence, much controversy and debate have surrounded the benefits and downfalls of the Wal Mart corporation within society. The purpose of this precis is to summarize the article â€Å"Wal-Mart and Country-Wide Poverty† by Stephen J. Gotez and Hema Swaminathan. â€Å"Wal Mart† is the most successful â€Å"Big box† retailer in the world with 4750 stores worldwide and 3,600 in the United States. Much of its success arises from the fact that it offers lower prices to consumers. At face value this is a good thing because it makes consumer goods more easy to purchase, therefore encouraging people to spend money and stimulate the economy. This has been proven to reduce annual inflation rates, lower the absolute poverty threshold and contribute to economy-wide productivity gains. Unfortunatley, the price of this is destroying up and coming â€Å"mom and pop† small buisineses that find it difficult to compete with larger corporations such as wal mart. By doing this, they are taking away meaningful employment from many people. Some of these people include the wholesalers for these small companies, employees and of course the business owners themselves. All of whom have invested a lot of time, money and effort only to be put out of a job. The ironic part is that most of these unemployed individuals are turning to Wal Mart itself to replace their former jobs, as Wal Mart employs about 2% of the average countries workforce. Unfortunatley, these jobs often pay low wages, and offer part time work rather than full time work. This results in many people failing to earn enough money to make ends meet. As a result, the poor and unemployed are living from government income such as EI and Welfare for survival. This is a problem because these services are paid for indirectly by the taxpayers of the country. Furthermore, the government could be putting that tax money towards things that could advance themselves as a nation, such as education, healthcare and scientific developments. It seems that by failing to accommodate the public with available work, we are slowing down overall progress towards a brighter future and better society. In sum, while Wal Mart offers lower prices and increased convenience to the public, we must remember to read between the lines and realize that there is more to the story than this. We as a society must decide if the cost for convenience is too great to be paid, and if not, then what can we do about it? Reading articles such as this will provide consumers with valuble insight towards â€Å"Big box companies† and encourage thinking with a â€Å"sociological mind† when choosing where to shop.

Advantage and Disadvantage of Ojt Essay

What is OJT ? * OJT (On-the-Job Training), sometimes called direct instruction, is one of the earliest forms of training (observational learning is probably the earliest,). It is a one-on-one training located at the job site, where someone who knows how to do a task shows another how to perform it. In antiquity, the kind of work that people did was mainly unskilled or semiskilled work that did not require specialized knowledge. Parents or other community members, who knew how to do a job necessary for survival, passed their knowledge on to the children through direct instruction. Advantages : * Trainees are provided with job experience, an invaluable asset for achieving gainful employment. * Trainees are exposed to the numerous advantages that are associated with being employed. They earn an income through a stipend but they also become more familiar with interpersonal relationships, networking, responsibility and the importance of interdependence within the working environment. * Trainees get an opportunity to prove themselves to an employer and, based on their work performance and the existence of vacancies within the organization, they may eventually be employed on a more permanent basis. * Training time is reduced when compared to traditional off site learning. * From an employer’s prospective, OJT can be an advantage in that it can increase the productivity of workers. Well-trained employees will be better at performing their jobs no matter what type of job they hold. Even though it is costly to train employees, the investment can pay off in the future as workers employ their new skills. Work that is low quality or performed improperly can also be costly; training can help eliminate these issues. Disadvantage: * Traditional OJT relies heavily on an experienced employee to provide the instruction based on what they feel are the most important topics. What is important to one employee may not be important to another. The result is what is learned may vary greatly, depending on who is assigned as the trainer. * Without a structured lesson guide, OJT trainers often forget to cover important information. What is learned is likely to be based on what happened that day rather than on what a new employee needs to know to be safe and productive. * While the hands-on aspect of OJT may appeal to the practical learner, often the underlying theories of operation are not covered in sufficient detail or accuracy. Without this foundation of knowledge, trainees often learn what to do, not why they are doing it, resulting in poor decision making when things don’t go exactly right. * The trainee observes and may adopt the trainer’s habits and attitudes about all aspects of the job including safety, quality, customer service, and relationship with management. Poorly selected trainers can have many unintended consequences. * More prone to errors and risk .