The Applicability of Death Penalty Essay Example for Free

The Applicability of Death Penalty EssayThe question of terminal penalisation being a part of the judicial formation of the American nation and of most countries in the world has remained a huge debate from the very beginning it was raised. Religious and secular groups have rallied toward the complete abolition of this kind of penalization, and others who did non actively participate also agreed that the act is a form of cruelty.In 1972 during the case of Furman versus Georgia, the Supreme Court declared that therefore the act violated the cruel and unusual punishment provision of the eight amendment. This court ruling has lead to the lifting of more than 600 death destines, complete abolition of the sentence to some states and illegalization of mandatory death penalty (Longley, 1997). The illegalization of mandatory death sentences involves the thorough investigation of any case in which the defendant has already been sentenced to death or is about(predicate) to be sente nced to death. This states that everything must be taken into account before a person is declared to be deserving of death penalty. Pieces of evidence must point to the said judgment as well as the attitude of the defendant (Death Penalty Information Center, 2008). A state which plans to have death penalty as part of their justice system may consider murder as a hatred punishable by death for this crime involves taking the animation of another person. This may be said to be most applicable especially when the victim is an innocent civilian or a shaver and the criminal is not rueful of the act. By deliberately taking another persons life, the murderer deprives the victim of the unspoilt to live.For the child-victims, murder takes away the right to be protected and be taken care of. It also deprives the young of all the opportunities that may have been encountered through years of existence. Also, without any form of regret on the part of the proven perpetrator of the crime, s ympathy should not be extended and as such death sentence becomes most appropriate (Holmes and Holmes, 1998). The punishment by death should also include any type of multicide like mass murder, spree murder and serial murder. Criminals who commit such murders should be sentenced to death for they have taken what could have been meaningful and prosperous lives.This may be said to be also the case in infanticide or the killing of a child not more than three months old. The innocent victim deserves justice. As all murders are believed to be pre-meditated or carefully planned, proven murderers deserve the sermon they have given to their victims and as such, if there is not any form of regret or apology extended to the remaining relatives of victims, death penalty is except righteous (Holmes and Holmes, 1998). Another crime that should be penalized by death is statutory rape or the rape of a child. Since a child is innocent and in the stage of discovery, even a single incident of viole nce may alter his entire perception of life. An incident of rape may bring about not only unforgettable physical damage but also mental trauma. Its effects on a childs perception may ultimately decide the childs future (Rape Victim Advocates, 2008).According to the Michigan Family Impact seminars, 90 percent of teen prostitutes have been familiarly maltreated when they were younger. (Rape Victim Advocates, 2008). This clearly shows how much sexual abuse or rape can destroy an innocents life. Even without actually taking the life of the child, it deprives the child of what would have been a better future.This also shows that anyone who was proven a rapist through empirical analysis and investigation deserves to be sentenced to death. In cases where the proven criminal apologizes or shows signs of regret, the opinion of the relatives should be taken to account and the decision should be as according to the desired justice of the offended party.Another crime that deserves penalty by death is the crime of rape with murder against a child. As this crime not only tortured the child through the sexual abuse, it also took away an innocent life. It has also incurred great pain to people surrounding the victim, especially if the child-victim was a stranger and the parents had taken care of the child to the utmost. early(a) than the crimes mentioned above, it would be disproportional to sentence a criminal to death. Only very explicit crimes and life-changing offenses should be sentenced to death, for a life that is altered may already be considered as a life taken away. It should be considered that murder is not merely killing and incurring death of the physical body, rather, the death of the spirit and self-worth is worsened than physical death. This is the death incurred to a rape victim, and it is worse than murder.As such, not only murderers but also rapists should be sentenced to death. However, since mandatory death sentence is not allowed, empirical data should be thoroughly checked and taken to account as well as the attitude of the suspect towards his crime before the verdict is given and implemented. In this way, justice shall be served for both the offending and the offended parties.ReferencesDeath Penalty Information Center. (2008). Death penalty for Offenses Other than Murder. Retrieved January 14, 2009, from http//www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/death-penalty-offenses-other-murderHolmes, R.M. and Holmes, S.T. (1998). Serial Murder. unite States SAGE Publications.Longley, R. (1997). Recent Legal History of the Death Penalty in America. US Government Info. Retrieved January 14, 2009, from http//usgovinfo.about.com/library/weekly/bldeathpenalty.htmRape Victim Advocates. (2008). Children Sexual Violence. Retrieved January 14, 2009, from http//www.rapevictimadvocates.org/children.asp

Pro-social effects of the media Essay Example for Free

Pro- favorable effects of the media EssayOne explanation of the professional-social effects of the media on conduct comes from Banduras Social Learning Theory. Banduras inquiry suggests that children learn through detect a behaviour, then later imitating it if the expectation of reward is high. For example the child implys to pay attention to a role model for example comprehend a super hero, then there needs to be retention of the information into the LTM, reproduction, so the child imitates the same type of behaviour such as helping others, and finally the child needs to be motivated to imitate the behaviour such as, being the same gender. The process of social learning plant in the same way for learning pro-social acts as seen on television as it does for learning anti-social acts (vicarious reinforcement). Unlike the depiction of anti-social acts, however, the depiction of pro-social acts (such as generosity or helping) is likely to be in accord with established social norms (e.g., the need to be helpful and generous to others). Assuming that these social norms have been internalised by the viewer, the false of these acts, therefore, is likely to be associated with the expectation of social reinforcement, and so the child is motivated to repeat these actions in their own vitality. Further more, Bandura would also suggest that the pro-social effects of the media derives from reciprocal determinism whereby volume who watch programmes about helping people will make friends with people who watch similar TV programmes.A second explanation of how the media influences pro-social behaviour comes from question into developmental trends. Pro social behaviours have been shown to be contingent on the development of pro social skills, such as perspective taking, empathy and a high level or moral reasoning which continue to develop through adolescence, which increase with age (Eisenberg, 1990). E.g., research has shown that young children ar less able to recognize the emotional state of others and are less sure of how to help. It has also been found that children have difficulty recognising and understanding pro-social messages, and may be less affected by pro social messages if these portrayals are more complex than the simple modelling of specific behaviour (Mares, 1996).One strength of media influences on pro social behaviour comes from further empirical support from Woodward (1999). In their study they found that US programmes for pre-school children had high levels of pro-social content 77% of programmes surveyed contained at least integrity pro social lesson. This suggests that there is wider academic credibility for the influence media has on pro-social behaviour.A further strength of LST comes from further empirical support provided by Mares and Woodward (2001). They found from their research that children are most affected when they are able to see exact steps for positive behaviour, such as when someone donates tokens. Th is could be because they can remember cover acts better than abstract ones. This suggests that there is wider academic credibility for the idea of imitating pro-social behaviour. Furthermore, the explanations into the media effects on pro-social behaviour is that there are practical applications. For example, Johnston et al. Found that learning pro social behaviour was best when there were follow up discussions.For example, when Johnson showed students a TV programme in a classroom and accompanied by teacher- guide discussions students were more willing to help. This suggests that using SLT of media can improve the quality of peoples lives who are anti-social. Finally, the research into media effects on pro-social behaviour is that it has high reliability. The reason for this is because the research is carried out in a laboratory study, where there is control over the IV and DV and most extraneous variables are reduced. This suggests that if the research was tested and re-tested th en the same results would be achieved.However, one weakness of the SLT is that because the theory is based in research from the laboratory is it lacks ecological validity. Huston (1983) argues that some programmes foster only limited types of pro-social behaviour that do not rattling apply in real tone. For the best effect stories need to depict ordinary everyday kindness and helping and, after the programme adults in the childrens life need to discuss the programme content with them and role model pro-social behaviour in the course of play. This suggests that the findings from this research could not be applied to real life situations.Another weakness of Johnstons research is that there is contradictory evidence provided by Rubenstein et al. (1982). They found that in a study of adolescents hospitalised for psychiatric problems, found that post-viewing discussion led to decreased altruism, possibly because the adolescents wanted to take up a view that was contrary to that held by adults. Moreover, the effects of media on pro-social behaviour is that it is reductionist.The reason for this is because other factors need to be involved, for example personality and temperament of the child and parents. This suggests that the research is oversimplistic when explaining helping behaviour. A final weakness is that the research is culturally specific. The reason for this because the majority of the research has been carried out in the USA and therefore the criteria of pro-social behaviour may be different to non-western societies. This suggests that the research cannot be generalised to the whole population.

Differences between Child and Adult

Differences between Child and AdultIn recent days, utilize of Internet has tot bothy changed the environment in which where we survive, learn and work. Simultaneously, small fryren atomic number 18 frequently using the Internet and all atomic number 18 always accessing the online. Notably, children contract limited acquaintance for browsing the randomness what they want and more difficult to search and retrieve the results than the adults. So, young children are being forced to man come along the forms that require complex typing, unblemished spelling, advanced reading skills, and understanding of abstract concepts or content realizeledge that lies beyond their still-developing abilities (Moore and George, 1991 Solomon, 1993 Walter et al., 1996). found on Jakob Nielsen et al. (2010), the differences between children and adult in applying the externalise are the children use Internet for entertainment although the adult is use for communication with people and their comm unities, children usually use 12, 14 insinuate and adult use 10 point (up to 14 for seniors) for font size, children have slowly typing and poor mouse control than the adult who offer do like as able, children like energy and sound effects for their normaling but adult approximatelyly disliked and age-targeted design is importance between child groups but non necessary for adult.1.2 analyse preferences of childrenAccording to Dina Demner et al. (2001), children use computing devices and Internet for different purposes and functions which are depend on their like, dislikes, ages, interest, behavior, characteristics and habits. The group of children sackister be classified into four groups 3-5 years old pre-readers (only teach the data that they learned before a day), 5-8 years old beginning readers (start to play cooperatively with other people), 8-12 years old children (become more concentrate on connection between people) and teenagers ( go forthing to analyze the new things but usage of Internet is less than the adult person).Currently, developers who designed for children do not consider the childrens skills and preferences. As a result, the applications may not be easily learned and used by children who have rare have sexledge (Hutchinson, Bederson, 2005). Besides that, majority of the tools available are for the expert users which are not suitable for novice users like as children exceptionally for children who have precise limited knowledge in computer. The inter actions of children with the technologies depend on their age levels. Based on (Acuff and Reiher, 1997), the children between 8 and 12 change their interests from fantasy to reality. They start to understand more abstract terms, longer terms and more complex terms. Researcher (Inkpen, 2001) studied that the children who ages from 9 to 13 like point and click rather than drag and drop. Moreover, (Read, J.C., MacFarlane, S.J., Casey, C, 2001) discussed the various kinds of text inp ut techniques for children. This research is restricted and compared to the alike(p) research for adults.In addition, colour preference is also one of the key issues to investigate the preference of children. Colour has a great impact on our live from early childhood onwards. Colour alters, evokes emotions, and affects our perception. Besides, preferable colour can increase the cognitive processes (Boyatzis, C.J., Varghese, R. 1993). An audition (Chung, H. Y., et al. 2009) implemented the colour preferences among children revealed that boys preferred vivid colours for yellow, red, and blue, and silver light tones for yellow, green, and purple. On the other contribute girls preferred light tones for yellow, green, and purple and pale tones for red and blue. Design should be based on its targeted users rather than mark on discussion with users and the children are not interested in the User Interface design guidelines (Shneiderman, 1998). Therefore, designers should be focused o n searching the useful designs which will provide for childrens preferences such as development, health, tender activities.2.1 Why sport important for childrenExercise can reduce stress that the children who has stress, depression, anxiety as adult have. However, sport, not exercise, encourages growth and contributes to improve physical and emotional health. Sport psychologist (Dr. Glyn Roberts of the University of Illinois) emphasizes that sport is an important thing to learn the environment for children. Besides, sport provides various kinds of functions and can attain semiprecious things that can apply in their life. They learn to work hard for winning, study how to cope with life if face with problems, how to continue after failing, learn to listen, to stay concentrated, to adjust rules and regulations and some things that can help them to grow into mentally healthier persons. Another benefit is emotional development which contains how to cope with winning and losing, how to try again if it is fail. In addition, team sport also provides the friendship skills that mean if the children want to win, he or she must help other members to finish their part of work and that can help to success in their daily life and also future life. Sport provide healthy, physically and socially growth of children as salutary as emotionally and social skills. Moreover, the attitudes and behaviour taught to children in sports carry over to adult life. Participation in sports can get many benefits from being physically active voice for children. It can improve health, develop quality of strong bones and muscles and reduce obesity to maintain a healthy weight, reduce obesity to maintain a healthy weight, improve cardiovascular fitness, provide friendship among people, reduce stress and help relaxation, improve self-esteem.2.2 Sport rates for childrenSport sites in Internet are very useful for children because every child can contribute from its contents. Besides, it does no t need to have materials that support for sport and can play just only have computer and broadband internet connection and developing mobile services. There are many available sport sites for children in net. In our constitution, we address or so useful sport sites for children called http//www.nflrush.com and http//bettersoccermorefun.com. These meshsites are official sites and made especially for children. It contains about the positions for football, how to play them, information about fun facts, getting advices and tips. realize1 Main Form of nflrush websiteFigure 2 Main Form of Bettersoccermorefun website3. Design a sports site for children3.1 Usage of internet by childrenWith the ubiquitous internet access, children have more opportunities been exposed in the light of internet and carried out various online activities. According to Livingstone and Helpsper (2007), the amount of children accessing the internet has continuously increased and internet has become an indispens able tool for them to acquire information and communicate. Comparing with traditional resources, web source is more preferred and used by children (Bilal,1998). Some data about childrens web use has been analyzed, for instance, one regard (Johnson, 2010) investigated among children whose average age is 10.7 revealed that most children prefer playing online games and visiting websites in a community brand like peers house.3.2 Sports sites for childrenThe fun and learning opportunities that provided by the Web sites is the big concern of children between 6 and 14 years old according to Baumgarten (2003). Besides, a good site should also consider expanding somewhat utmost of complexity to meet childrens self-recognition and different developmental levels (Demner, 2001). Therefore, a high quality sports site can go far beyond providing sports related knowledge and skills, actually, it has frequently to offer to children, for instance, fun, relaxation, chances of communicate and coll aborate with peers and develop their interests. This perspective may give a guideline to the designers and help them understand better about the users tasks and adjust design to meet their goals.Therefore, understanding our users, testing and maximizing the degree of usability of the site is sarcastic. After analyzing the particular aspects of children and their unique features, all these should been given high consideration when designing the sports sites. Based on the data (Livingstone Helpsper, 2007) collected among Britain children between 9-19 years old, it has been found that generally boys and young-age teenagers use the internet more often and spend more time on it when comparing with girls and older teens. Another widely accepted fact is that boys spend more time in football games ( ), thus as the main users of the site, the site design should cater for their favours, while at the same time not ignoring their female counterparts. Thus the features of boys should be the fo cus of designers.3.3 Usability of web sitesAs the definition of usability (ISO 9241), it presents the effectiveness, efficiency, and delight with which specified users achieve specified goals in particular environments.Brinck et al. (2001) has proposed some features that a successful web design should include, it should support independent exploration and communication, encourage the users accomplishing their objectives in a fast, efficient and easy way. All these features can also be considered when trying to design a sports site for children.Many existing studies have select participatory deign with children, which means the children actively and directly involved in the design process and act as design testers and partners, have found fur-bearing results (Read, 2002). The usability engineers in Microsoft (Hanna, L. et.al, 1999) have researched in usability testing by working with groups of children, and have concluded several design guidelines of computer products in the crit eria of activity, instruction and screen design. For instance, the activities provided should be interesting and constitute some reward scheme to encourage children to interact with, and supportive operating instructions should be easy to comprehend. All these can be adopted for planning a sports site for children.Considering the inhibited reading skills and comprehension ability of children, web contents transferred through splanchnic formats like animation and audio is necessary. An experiment (Khknen Oyaska, 2006) implemented among children has revealed that children are more likely to learn from animation instructions, as they expect to explore the functionality and have fun from the site. However, according to their research achievement, a crew with simple textual instructions is also important, as children may confused and feel lose something if only animation can be shown.3.4 Interaction and collaborative learning of web sitesIn a survey (Jonson, 2010), researchers have f ound that, respectively 60.7% and 62.9% of investigated children prefer to visit web sites and play online games in peers houses. Allen (2003) also pointed that the social motivation, sense of attachment, winning friends and recognition, for instance, is a vital factor for sports involvement of children in teenage. In addition, football is a team sports, most children may seek online usance play games together. Therefore, entertainment feature of collaborative learning and interaction of the site is another essential matter before beginning the design step. Based on the research approach of a collaborative learning project (Ivan Michal, 2006), maintaining connection among participants, recording their characters and behavior, and then establishing efficient communication tools for them is the premise for formulating an effective collaborative online environment. exclusively putting this into practice, a football site for children may construct membership scheme to attract partici pation, diverse role play games which can arouse enthusiasm, intuitive interactive activities, in addition, a corner for children to communicate with each other, like discussion boards, online chat rooms are also praiseful.4. Childrens online behaviour4.1 childrens online seeking behaviourFrom the perspective of designers, identifying how children use the internet and their online behaviours is crucial as all these things will directly influence the design issues. Many studies have been done in this area, for instance, in one investigation carried out among British children between 9-19 years old, Livingstone and Helpsper (2007) have found that, the frequency and time spent of internet using by boys and young-age teenagers is a lot higher when comparing with girls and older teens. Another finding is that boys accessing to the internet in more places than their female counterparts.During the research process of childrens online behaviour, Bilal (2000) has found that invalid switches (e.g. frequently geological fault back and forth, visiting sites), continual looping and minimal navigation are the prevalent problems encountered among childrens using of the sites. The main reason has been attributed to the abstract and complex representation of the web information. In this context, straightforward icons and childrens familiar metaphors can be used to alleviate frustration of iterate actions and support their efficient navigation in the site, as well as a good arrangement of content categories.According to the outcome released by another experiment (Khknen Oyaska, 2006), researchers found that due to the limit learnability of help function, most children rarely use this part in the web sites. However, considering the cognitive capacity of children and their levels of computer experience, a useful help function is necessary and it is a critical part for their acceptance of a sports site. Thus, for this special group, the help part should be provided in a directi ve and intuitive way, long and tedious texts, abstract concepts, suspicious categories should be avoided. Besides, effective real time help is more helpful.4.2. Participation of ParentsParents participation is very important for children, according to the Eccles expectancy-value model (Eccles Harold, 1991), parents influence their child choices by providing differential levels of support for activities. They also proposed that the level of support is based on expectations of the likelihood that their child will be successful in that area, and the personal beliefs about the value of success in that domain. The degree of involvement of parents in their children sport activities is also important. Most of the parents under involve and most of the parents over involve in their children activities. Under involvement means parents watch on sidelines and they do not actively participate in their children programs. Over involved parents excessively involve in the running program of their children. They emphasize on winning and motivate their children to get success in their running programs. Parents participation in their children sport make the child to get competitive advantage, the children can actively involve and can do happily their activities with the support of their parents.(include features for the participation of parents , teachers, interactive games, information the site provided)5. Design Principles for ChildrenSince designers design the arrangement, they must know clearly Who are the users using the system? If the system is for various users who have different knowledge about it, they need to focus on from different perspective like what are the user needs and interests depending on users profiles and personas.(children)Norman (1988) defined user-centered design as a philosophy based on the needs and interests of the users, with an emphasis on making products usable and understandable. He added that easy to understand and easy to use of the products are pointing out the user to let them know what to do and the user can clearly understand what is going on. According to the Rubin (1944), user-centered design is techniques and procedures for designing usable systems with the user at the centre of the process. User-centered design principles place increased attention on developing products that are ease of use and ease of understand by focusing on the user throughout the design process (Dumas Redish, 1993 Eason, 1988 Gould Lewis, 1985 Shackel, 1991).If users are elderly, text font size should be larger than usual as they cannot see the small font size clearly, voice siding should be provided more longer than as usual or instead of voice output, text output with large text font should be used as the elderly may be lost in hearing.For users with disabilities, the system designers need to use more flexible computer software package in suppose to support special tools for them. For low vision or blind users, voice output should be provided instead of message output. For the users who have trouble in hand function, using mice and trackballs can be a problem for them. Instead of using these input devices, speech recognition device like voice input can solve the problems for disabled children.There are many important interaction design principles and there are many way to apply those principles. As our paper focuses on children, we will describe some of the principles and point out what designers should take into account when designing the interface design for children. According to the (Heim, 2007), two main categories can be used to present the principles in a systematic and structured way namely effectiveness principles and efficiency principles. He defined efficiency as a design that enable users to accomplish their tasks in the easiest and quickest way as much as possible without having to do overly complex or extraneous procedures. Efficiency and effectiveness are the principles that support usability. Ac cording to the (Usability), the term usability means The level of ease with which people can employ a particular device in order to attain and increase usability. There are many design principle that are applied in human computer interaction. There are three main design principles which support usability such as learnability, flexibility and robustness. Under each of these categories, there are many cuneus principles that affect them (usability). Among these principles, the principles that are required for children will be discussed.Learn ability is the primary goal of the user interface design and it is the very important design principles for children. It they do not know clearly how to use the system and if it is very difficult for them to use, they can get confusion and they will not use this system anymore. For good example, if too many clicks are required to complete a task, children cannot memorize at once and it can get them confused. Next time they visit back, they will n ot be sure how to go through to complete their tasks.Responsiveness is also one of the design principles in which the response time of the system should not take long as users are children. If system response time is slow, they may think that the system cannot provide what they want and it cannot work properly.Children cannot memorize many things at one time like the adult. They can memorize well only one thing at a time. For example, when installing the software, many travel are required to finish. Users need to click on Next button to move forward and need to choose location to place the installed softwares icon. After all the steps have been done, users need to click Finish button. Software installation process should not be different. It should be consistent. If installation process for different software is not the same, it can be problems for users to memorize what should they do for this software to install and what should they perform for other software. If the installation process is similar for different software, users can visit how should they move on by calling memory on past interaction history.As the focus users are children, the designers should know the characteristics of children and should design the site to abide them ease of use and should provide required functionality. From the examples of Heim (2007), the design for a drawing program should enumerate all of the tools required to create digital drawings, another example is that in a website, all the information must be provided that are required by the visitor in order to accomplish his or her goals.For the children who are less than five year cannot read the instructions in the form of message. Designers need to consider this factor. Instead of displaying instruction in the form of message, audio, video, animation should be used to let them know what should they do to complete their tasks. For younger children rather than older children, Sears Jacko (2008) stated that To eliminate t he need for mouse clicking, the cursor is transformed into a big yellow star with room for five small stars inside it. As the mouse is held over a target, the small stars appear once at a time. When the fifth star appears, it counts as clicking on that target. If the child does click, the process simply moves faster. For the adult, double-clicking is not a problem for them. For the kids, they do not know the action of double-clicking. Single click action should be provided instead of double clicking.ConclusionThe following are design issues for children that should be considered when designing the system for children.Multiple navigations should be avoided because it can be a problem for children and they can get confusion on it.In sport sites, if text font size of guideline instructions such as rules and regulations for each sport is 12, they cannot focus on it. So, text font size should be larger than as usual.Youngest kids do not know how to scroll up and scroll down. This is the big problem for them. Instead of using scrolling, multiple pages should be used.Radio buttons and checkboxes should not be used as they do not have ability which option to choose.Search box should not be provided. They do not know how to search and they are slow in typing. Instead of search box, the required functions should be put together on the screen.

Can Democracy Stop Terrorism?

Can Democracy Stop Terrorism?There is a general and growing concern near Terrorism and the solicitude it is spreading all over the ground. Fighting it is one of nowadays main priorities and the most effective slipway of doing it are being discussed by scholars, governments and people in general.The concept of disquietudeist act has evolved throughout the years and no consensual definition has been reached. There are however certain features that clearly characterizes these un exitd for(predicate) and, many times, devastating as yetts. Yet similarly the way terrorists are operating and the tools theyre using has been changing, which makes even more elusive to find the better way to incorporate them.When the huge and powerful elected country USA became the fanny of one of the major attacks from all times, then many things were interviewed and the sense that no one and no country were safe got easily spread among public opinion. Are Democracies more vulner equal to(p) to Terrorism? Is this type of regime the best one to stop the military force? Is Terrorism, or the measures to annihilate it, limiting the rights and liberties that res publica is meant to provide? These are intriguing questions.In this Essay, I provide firstly explain what I mean by terrorist act and democracy, before analysing the existence of a link amongst both. Then I will present arguments for and against the head that democratizing the countries where terrorism comes from might be the firmness of purpose to this reverence spreading phenomenon. I will then show that wishly it is not the baptistry and that ending terrorism might involve much deeper measures than a simple change of semipolitical strategy. Finally, and to represent whether or not Terrorism is weakening democracies and its main guarantees, I will show recent examples that might seize us to understand it better.Throughout the paper I will also find in theories and great authors, like Hobbes and Schmitt er, the necessary help to better understand these two complex yet challenging and sure concepts.Defining democracy and terrorismDemocracy can be defined as the political system where political authority belongs to people. The word comes from the Greek, where demos means people and kratos means authority. There are however different types of democracy and in this essay whenever I appertain to democracy, I mean grown democracy. This later concept adds to the general concept of representative democracy (in which people through elections decide their representatives) the detail (among another(prenominal)s, scarcely this is probably the most distinguish adapted) that thither is the protection of liberties and rights through a constitution. Among those rights and freedoms there are the freedom of speech and religion, equality before law and others. Confusion between democracy and liberal democracy happens quite often because democracy is the word that resonates in peoples minds and springs from their lips as they struggle for freedom and a better way of life1. nonetheless what they look for in fact is a political system that combines democracy on one hand with freedom, the rule of law, and good governance on the other hand in other words, liberal democracy.2Although terrorism is a operose concept to define there are some common features among terrorist attacks that can be stressed they involve an ideological component, use violence or at least a scourge of violence, are generally conducted by an organized multitude (or at least by a group constituted by a strong leader and faithful followers), and aim, usually, civilians rather than belligerent groups. The main idea is to spread the fear in a generalized way and thats why their targets are common citizens that usually dont even know their purposes just now sense fear and the unexpectedness of their acts more profoundly. consort to Willem Schinkel3terrorism works bottom up, that means, that civilians ar e used as a mean to achieve their real earshot (usually states, as symbols of a certain ideology or states themselves in cases of independence fights, like ETA in Spain).Depending on the populationality of those (people and institutions) involved in the attacks, we can differentiate two types of terrorism transnational terrorism and domestic terrorism. In the former the incident takes place in one country and involves perpetrators, victims, institutions, governments, or citizens of another country, in the latter it involves perpetrators, victims, and an audience of the country in which the incident occurs4. For the purpose of my research I will mainly focus on transnational terrorism. Since within transnational terrorism there are different types, I will mainly focus my analysis on the one played by radical Islamist movements, like Al-Qaeda, for example.As it has already been said, the concept of terrorism has evolved through times. Namely the way fear and terror are being perpetr ated is getting more sophisticated. The most common attacks are characterized by bombings, kidnapping and hijacking exclusively the fear of weapons of mass destruction being used turns the finding of solutions even more urgent. Yet, what is frighteningly challenging in this sore wave of terrorism is that fear is in the majority of cases unilateral (considering, like it was said before, terrorist groups like Al Qaeda). We can say that in this case fear wont probably be plenteous to end war, as Hobbes would say. According to this author, the society is composed by selfish beings and so the normal state is a state of war, but the war itself can be prevented because what also characterizes human beings is that they fear things, they fear death for example. However, in the case of terrorism (or in the case of one of the most common forms of it), its actors are not driven by fear, they are trained to face death if necessary and for the interestingness of what they believe to be a high er purpose.5Will Democracy be qualified to stop Terrorism?Mostly after 9/11 attacks in USA, that killed around cardinal thousand people in both New Yorks World Trade Center and Pentagon, the majority of President Bushs speeches regarding the fight against terrorism involved the idea that nevertheless through the democratization of the countries generators of terrorism would that fight be successful. In February 2003, for example, in the American Enterpascent Institute, Bush stated that The world has a clear pertain in the spread of democratic values, because stable and free nations do not breed the ideologies of murder.There is then a great discussion regarding the capability of liberal democracies to end the grievances that feed terrorists actions. Assuming that the majority of terrorist attacks perpetrators come from the Middle East, where theres an needed lack of democratic principles, can then a link be make between these two phenomena? Would the democratization of these co untries result in less terrorist events?Natan Sharansky in his book The Case of Democracy The Power of freedom to overcome tyranny and terror defends that it would. He considers that the lack of democracy in these countries favours the flourishment of angry and frustrated minds and urges violence in station to achieve ones goals. He believes that democracy would bring peace to those nations and goes even further by saying that it is Wests responsibility to help the democratization process. According to Sharansky, and supporting Bushs intentions, the west and democratic world should make efforts towards the implementation of a democratic political system where it was never experienced and this would be the most effective way of ending this terrorism era.6Like Sharansky also Quan Li7defends that democracy would lower frustrations and contravene by expanding political opportunities through elections and according to Rudolph Rummel living in a liberal democratic country would per se reduce conflict between people, because the interaction between people in a context of freedom is favourable to all(prenominal)one. So, would a higher political participation contribute to the reduction of terrorist incidents?According to Michael Freeman8the mechanisms that drive transnational terrorist groups like Al-Qaeda are four military, cultural, economic and political. The organized terrorist attacks are then the result of a sense of threat towards Islamic lands (military), a sense of threat towards Islamic elaboration and identity (cultural), a sense of frustration towards modernization and globalization, which the western world represent and that in the Middle East failed to improve the economy (economic) and a sense of inability to make themselves heard and to reach their demands (political).Considering these four mechanisms, democracy apparently seems to be able to have positive results but most likely wouldnt be enough to stop terrorism. I agree with Gregory Gause9when he argues that this political system would provide the adventure of a political participation from these groups but there is no guarantee that they would have enough support for their political agenda. And in that case, the question is whether they would accept peoples extract or would that situation make them even more frustrated and incite them to return to their previous modus operandi and attack their democracy and other nations too in order to get the accomplishment of their goals. Besides this uncertainty regarding terrorists reaction before unsuccessful elections, there is also the ideological component of their aims. And that is something that cannot be ignored. It is not just a question of being heard and achieving political representation, I would even risk saying that it is their minor priority. There is a rooted hatred towards what the western culture represents. Religious issues and fundamentalism are definitely on the basis of part of that hatred and that is somethi ng that should be smoothen namely by education. Islamism is far from the extremist ideas that these organizations stand for and children and juvenility people should learn within an understanding and tolerant environment. Living in a free country, where rights and liberties are assured might not be enough if the mentality remains attached to the idea that Islamism is being threatened by countries like the USA and that that justifies the so called jihad.A crucial step to be interpreted is also the resolution of the Israel-Palestine conflict. Osama Bin Laden assumed that this conflict was one of the main reasons for attacking the USA in 2001. This is a very sensitive question which generates great part of the sense of threat towards Islamic lands. It is then important to establish a peaceful relationship between Israel and Palestine so that a calmer Middle East can be achieved.Besides everything said before, the theories that see democracy as the solution for terrorism do not conside r an undeniable reality there are democracies that still have terrorist groups IRA in Ireland and ETA in Spain are two of the most resounding examples. Even though these are domestic terrorism organizations, they are examples of how it is possible that terrorist groups (with different purposes but with similar ways of terrorizing people) can emerge within a democratic system.Are Democracies worthy more fragile as a result of Terrorism?There is a strong discussion regarding the vulnerability of democracies before terrorism. The arguments in favour of a higher vulnerability of democracies when compared to other political systems are mainly two. First, some authors for example Paul Wilkinson10defend that the particular features of a liberal democratic nation such as free press, freedom of political organization and of movement facilitate the organization of terrorist attacks. Also Bianchi and Keller stated that the irony is that their democracies distinguishing traits and foundationa l tenets in many ways constitute fertile ground for international terrorism.11Namely the free speech right might be able to raise some violent reactions from the outside, when for example, like in Denmark, cartoons with Mohammed wearing a turban with a shape of a bomb (among other cartoons with the prophet) were drawn. This happened in 2005 and for several weeks not only the cartoonist responsible for the drawings was target of direct death threats and attempts but also Danish embassies throughout the world (namely the Muslim world) were burned. What started to be the result of a mans creativity and freedom of drawing whatever he wanted to (or the result of any other motivations, which Im not discussing here) turned out to be one of the biggest international crisis for Denmark after II World War, as Danishs Prime Minister at the time stated. The second argument regarding the higher vulnerability of democracies is defended by some authors who consider that it is not the result of de mocracies particular features (because in that case they would be as vulnerable to domestic terrorism as to transnational terrorism and they defend it is not the case) but the result of how they position themselves in the world, i.e., the result of their foreign policies. Democracies tend to engage themselves in foreign issues and get involved in conflicts, to which they believe they can give a positive contribute. This fight might create certain resentments12. As B. Savun and B. Phillips statedThe more frequently a state engages in conflict with other states, the more likely that it will create resentment and hostility abroad. Although this resentment may be most pronounced among the people who are directly affected by such opponent actions, it is likely that such hostile actions result in a broader resentment and negativity toward the participants of such crises.13Whether it is because of one type of argument or the other the fact is that many democracies have been throughout th e years target of terrorist attacks. And this brings me to another question At what extent are these attacks and the counterterrorism measures that they induce to be taken, making democracies weaker and making them turn a loss some of their most important features, by obliging governments to restrict certain civil and political rights? This makes us rethink about governments priorities security versus liberty. Should the state provide security, as being the most important good, like Hobbes would completeer, or should it be more worried with guaranteeing liberty for its citizens, above anything else, like Locke defended? My intention is not to range between these two values but understand if there really is a trade off between both, i.e., if fighting against terrorism is in fact limiting some liberties.Some authors have tested that and reached some conclusions (like for example Weinberg and Eubank14). First I would like to say that in this particular study of Eubank and Weinberg, democracy was measured by using Polity IV scales, civil liberties and political rights were measured according to Freedom House and Terrorism (please note that Im always referring to global Terrorism) was measured using the number of attacks occurred per year between 1968 and 2005. They included 24 countries in this test from West European countries to Latin America and South Asia. The results indicated a poor relationship between terrorism and civil liberties and political rights, indicating that probably there is no trade-off after all. These results were then against the authors first perception (that political rights and civil liberties have been suffering a reduction as a result of the spread of terrorism). In my opinion, however, (and even though the regressions might not be statistically significant in proving that there is an inverted relationship between terrorism and political and civil rights) a more empirical analysis would suggest that it can really exist and might ev en embody a trend to getting worse in next years.Statistics may not draw out certain modifications and policies, which after a more careful analysis might be considered as reducing certain liberties, for example, in terms of privacy rights. For the sake of a safer country for example in the United States and since 9/11 attacks, several measures have been taken with controversial effects in ones privacy wiretaps in private telephones, databases of phone calls made in American soil, inspections with warrant in suspicious packages received by Post. More recently, a failed attempt to blow up a Northwest Airlines airplane in its flight from Amsterdam to Detroit stressed the major preoccupation regarding the possibility of terrorists hiding explosive engines in their bodies and being able to carry them to the airplane. This incident brought to the discussion a new technology that is being developed, consisting in a full-body scanner. This scanner is able to see through clothes and do the same thing to a human body like the x-ray engine does to the luggage. Some say this is a clear invasion of privacy but theres a quite majority (among public opinion and states responsibles) believing that this is a necessary evil, regarding how terrorism is evolving and how, besides all the level of protection, a terrorist was still able to bring explosives to the airplane. Counterterrorism policies will evolve accordingly to terrorism threats. And this is the main reason why I said that not only terrorism is jeopardizing certain liberties and rights but also it will keep doing it even more, as terrorist methodologies keep improving and surprising police authorities.Besides privacy rights issues, terrorism is also contributing to the rise of prejudice demonstrations around the world. One may often understand this everyday, mainly against people coming from Middle East. Since some of the more recent and major terrorist attacks (USA in September 2001, Madrid in March 2004 and London in July 2005) were perpetrated by Muslims or Muslims descendents, a climate of anti-muslim and anti-arab feelings was installed. These feelings are reflected in some common citizens reactions and attitudes towards Muslims but also in a wider attention from authorities in relation to them. This is a clear restriction to ones right of being equally treated.Conclusioncoincidentally or not both terrorism and democracy have become more frequent in the last decades. Terrorism has been assuming new shapes, hit apparently stronger targets and spreading fear throughout the world, at a growing rhythm. In a similar rhythm have been countries all over the world turning their political systems into democratic ones.My goal in this Essay was to analyse the link between democracy and terrorism from two different perspectives.First, I attempt to understand whether the implementation of a democratic regime in the countries where terrorism is mainly generated would stop terrorism. I concluded that i t could help but it surely wouldnt be enough. I exposed the four mechanisms that stimulate terrorism and theyre not only related to political reasons of lack of participation and week democratic principles, they have also a deep ideological, cultural and religious component that turn it even more difficult to understand and, as consequence, to contain terrorism. I suggested that higher efforts could be put on education in what concerns to religious and cultural tolerance. Moreover, I consider, as well as different heads of state, that in fact it is important that the conflict between Israel and Palestine is solved, since this conflict is, most probably, the highest responsible for the instability in the Middle East.Second, I analysed if democracies are getting weaker as a result of terrorism or more specifically as a result of counterterrorism policies. Said by other words, what I wanted to understand was whether certain rights and liberties were being express or not by the terrori sm environment that characterizes modern times. I presented one study, whose results do not prove the existence of a trade off between rights and liberties and terrorism. However, even though statistics do not corroborate my argument, and this I believe is a consequence of the fact that indicators do not catch every single law modification, I substantiated it through practical examples, where the reduction of privacy rights, for example, are quite visible.At the end of this essay I realized how difficult it is to define a concept so broad and always in constant evolution like terrorism. Making a link between this difficult concept and the political system that in last decades has been conquering more and more countries throughout the world is very challenging. I am sure that the current era of insecurity that were living nowadays together with the technological development speed will certainly add many chapters to this discussion in a near future.

Discrimination In The English Language

Discrimination In The side of meat LanguageThere exists subject and racial variety in the English dustup. Such kind of diversity ordure be reflected by run-in, expressions and excessively bywords. This lingual phenomenon has profound historical and cultural background, reflects bailiwick bias, conflicts and hatred, and indeed provides us information or so historical relationships among nations. This paper analyses ca wasting diseases and con nonations of bailiwick and racial slurs, and shows the potential negative effects of the slurs on international contacts. It also deals with the current accede of linguistic discrimination in modern society and the efforts race make to eliminate the phenomenon.Language primarily functions as the communication tool and information transmitter, and is close linked to ethnic. Every ethnic group in this world has its own language which may be either slightly or totally distinct from opposite groups. Language is the carrier of ethnic bill and social culture, and evolves to worryher with the society where it is employ. So to speak, the development of the ethnic is the fundamental cause and basic jibe of the development of the language. Since language and ethnic are so profoundly interrelated, it is no wonder that language is influenced by ethnic disembodied spiritings and the latter are fully embody in the former.1.2 National and racial discrimination in the English languageAs a common social phenomenon, national and racial discrimination against different ethnic groups would inevitably exert influence on languages. Thus, slurs come down into be in al near both language in the world. Among these languages, English is a in particular striking example which contains many national and racial slurs.It is clearly seen that in the English language, part of its large vocabulary is concerned with nations and races. Unpleasantly, this part often carries a connotation of national and racial discrimination. We house readily escort slurs with various forms such(prenominal) as vocabulary, phrase, address, proverb, etc. Take the Dutch idioms for example. If a per discussion says to you, you do beat the Dutch (Liu, 2003131), he intends to mean that you are excellent.When the great unwashed use the Dutch idioms, they may wonder how those idioms originate. In fact, the slurs in the English language beget profound historical background. Though causes of slurs are rather complicatedyet we can relieve sort out them. Among these complex causes, ethnocentrism, wars and racial differences are the most important 1s.1.3 Objectives of the studyThe study focuses on the phenomenon of national and racial discrimination in theEnglish language. We will look into the reason why the slurs come into being and the connotations that they tend. Once we get a discover idea of their connotations, we can know whether it is proper to use them in public. Hence, we can punctuate to avoid misunderstandings in cros s-cultural communication and improve our competence.Since there are so many slurs in English, we project to be very careful most them.We may wonder to the highest degree the following questions. What consequence would they cause when used improperly? Are they still used frequently in daily life? Or are they t atomic number 53 ending to fade out from the English language?2. Causes of national and racial slurs in the English language2.1 Obsession of ethnocentrism in the unite Kingdom and United StatesIn Oxford Advanced Learners English-Chinese Dictionary, ethnocentrism is based on the ideas and beliefs of one particular culture and using these to judge other cultures. (Hornby Wehmeier, 2004580) Strong sense of national pride is one of the principal(prenominal) causes of national discrimination. A nation with ethnocentrism believes in the transcendence of its own culture including values, norms, languages, etc., and considers other nations as inferior to it. Since National fee lings are closely interlinked with national language, national discrimination finds expression in the latter.The USA and the UK are considered to be very proud nations. We can tell ethnocentrism from the two countries names. (Jiao, 200957) The USA is short for the United States of America. despite the fact that the denomination America stands for the whole continent including Canada and Mexico, the USA employs it as a component of its country name. When people say Americans today, they generally refer to the people of the USA and exclude Canadian and Mexican. The British is no less proud than the Americans. They used to claim their country to be the empire on which the sun neer sets and the mistress of the seas (Mao, 2003141) The full name of its nation is the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. The British prefer to call their country Great Britain. The UK is actually a small country but it is the only country around the world using great in its countrys name.S ome proverbs in English are the accredited portrayal of the excessively proud mind of the British. For instance, the English are a nation of shop-keepers all countries stand in need of Britain, and Britain of none one Englishman can beat three Frenchmen. (Mao, 2003143) From these proverbs, we can see this island country is completely indulged in self-admiration. It assumes that whatever in its country is considerably and useful epoch those in other countries are odd. More often than not, it despises other countries curiously those once at war with it such as France and the Netherlands. Even two of the world major powers, Russia and the United States cannot escape the fate of being derided. As the proverb says, An American will go to hell for a bag of coffee. Scratch a Russian, and you will find a tarter. (Jiao, 200959)Ethnocentrism endows the English language with a predilection towards the UK and the USA, and a bias against other nations or races. An excess of national pride gl orifies a country while shows discourtesy for the virtues of other countries. In reality, it is fair to say that any ethnic group in the world is worryly to show undue pride of nationalism of various degrees, consciously or not. Nonethelessethnocentrism negatively bear ons international relations and goes against peaceful coexistence.2.2 National resentment caused by warsHistorical events have undoubtedly make their contribution to the development of English lexicology. New expressions often emerge from times of war when national emotion is running high. In most cases, they continue to encumbrance in the language in the process of social development even if hundreds of familys have passed. The French and Dutch expressions and proverbs are the classic examples.From a geographical perspective, France faces the United Kingdom across the English Channel. From 1377 to 1453, France and England were engaged in wars over territory and economic benefit. (Dai, 2003) The hundred-year wa r ended in a victory for France. This sure gave rise to resentment from Englishmen toward France. English people found expression for their hatred in the English vocabulary. They considered the word French as a derogative one and created many terms containing the word. Even today, we can still see the French expressions usually used as pejorative in the English language. For instance, the proverb one Englishman can beat three Frenchmen means defeating enemy troops with a force inferior in number. Some French phrases are connected with put forward and eroticism. A French postcard/novel (Hou, 200964) is a pornographic photo/book. French gout (Hou, 200964) is syphilis.Not only the term French but also Dutch fall into this category. Dated back to 16th nose candy, England had been friendly with the Netherlands. It was not until the 17th century that the Netherlands became one of the largest colonial empires in the world and a squiffy competitor of England for maritime trade. (Dai, 2 003) It was inevit fitted that growing commercial rivalry between England and the United Netherlands led to the outbreak of wars. There were three Anglo-Dutch Wars fought in the 17th century. after(prenominal) the wars, the United Kingdom of Great Britain achieved maritime supremacy. Due to the wars, dislike persisted for years between the two countries. Many Dutch expressions and proverbs represent English feelings toward the Dutch. For instance, Dutch allayer/consolation (Liu, 2003131) means no comfort/consolation at all. If something is double Dutch (Liu, 2003131) to a person, he can hardly understand it.2.3 Racial differencesThe legal age of Native English speakers are clear people. White racists consider their ancestry is sacred and of higher quality than others. They believe that their race possesses absolute and remarkable superiority when compared to others. As a consequence, they disparage other races in the world. This kind of emotion can be called racial discriminati on and is sufficiently reflected in the English language. quite a little can name racial slurs, many of which are related with African Americans, Native Americans and Asians. Expressions and proverbs containing such words as Negro, ringtail and Indian often carry a connotation of contempt.Particularly in the American English, we can recognize the serious racial discrimination phenomenon. The United States is described to be a heroic melting pot, into which immigrants from all around the world have come together and blended their cultures and traditions. People of different nationalities, races, colors and faiths inhabit in the same community, contacting, influencing and incorporate mutually. Altogether, they create a dynamic, multi-ethnic, and multi-cultural society, and make their specific contribution to the American history. Yetthis predominantly white country has been faced with racial contradictions and conflicts throughout its history. Strong hostility and prejudice betwee n different racial groups, mostly the white and the colored, has resulted in racism in the English language and led to a rapid growing of discriminatory vocabulary.2.4 National traitsFrom the micro point of view, it is a common practice among people to remark on others physiological features, and make fun of them about their looks, shapes, and dressing. In a coarse perspective, one ethnic group may tease another about its distinctive physiological feature which appears to be strange. It is conceivable that national traits (physiological features and characters) can also be a source of slurs in the English language.It is not surprising that Japanese, smaller in stature than the westernerget the family name little-yellow-man (Liu, 2003129) from the Americans. The Russians are nicknamed polar bears (Liu, 2003129) because on one side part of Russia is located in the cold Arctic Circle, where polar bears often haunt, and on the other the Russians had a reputation for being strong and aggressive.Although these make sense, making fun of others about their distinctive traits is improperinconsiderate and even cruel after all. From the perspective of nation, every ethnic group is unique in its traits due to the interactions of heredity, environment and other factors. A nation is inclined to discriminate others on condition that it assumes its traits are better than any other nations. It is unfair and wrong to measure other nations by the standard of ones own nation.2.5 Spatiotemporal differencesOwing to spatiotemporal differences, countries face different environments which affect their knowledge about others. Therefore, the lack of knowledge of other areas would give rise to wrong interpretations and misunderstandings of people in those areas.Sometimes a countrys geographical backgrounds can turn over a popular topic and laughingstock to other countries. We may have comprehend the saying, Finland is the devils country (Mao, 2003143) and wondered about its origin. As is known, Finland is situated at high latitudes of Federal hemisphere with cold climatic conditions. The special geographical location leaves an impression on the English-speaking people that Finland is uninhabitable and only devils dare live there.In the English language, Chinese puzzle (Mao, 2003142) refers to a complicated thing or problem. The phrase stems from the history when America and China had little contact. The Americans felt confused about China and had a poor understanding of the country. Hence, it is imaginable that they attached a sense of complexity to the word Chinese.3.Wordsexpressions and proverbs mirroring ethical prejudiceIn what way can words, expressions and proverbs reflect national and racial discrimination? From the point of modern English lexicology, there are four common tendencies of semantic flip-flop in words restriction of meaning (specialization), extension of meaning (generalization), degeneration of meaning (pejoration), and elevation of mean ing (amelioration). (Zhang, 1987269) Among these four, degeneration of meaning refers to the condition that words once respectable or neutral may shift to a less respectable or even derogatory meaning. (Zhang, 1987277) This is the most common method used in linguistic discrimination. For instance, the Dutch idioms in Chapter 3.1.1 have derogatory meanings because the word Dutch is degraded into negative sense.In English, there are so many idioms concerned about ethical prejudice that it would be difficult to cover all of them. Let us have a look at some of them from two broad categories.3.1 Reflection of national discriminationBefore moving on, I would like to state that all the idioms in the following paragraphs come from On National preconceived idea in Language by Liu Baojun omit those with special interlinear notes.3.1.1 The Dutch idiomsThere are many Dutch expressions in English. We probably have heard or said them in daily life. However, we may have little idea about when th ey were first used and how they came into being. Dutch is explained by the unpleasant associations of veritable historical events, namely, the Anglo-Dutch wars and rivalry at sea in the seventeenth century. Many of the Dutch expressions were first used in England at that time, during fierce naval tilt between England and the Netherlands. British people used Dutch to refer to something bad. Now, of course, the British and the Dutch have a friendly relation. But the word Dutch is still used in almost the same way as it once was long time ago.The Dutch idioms can be classified into several types. starting time of all, some of the Dutch expressions are related to wine because the Dutch were regarded as bibber. The phrase Dutch courage is a slang term for courage gained after drinking alcohol. It is synonymous with liquid courage. The term is purported to have its origin in the battles of the seas. (Liu, 2003131) It is said that the Dutch navy feared all other navies especially the Eng lish navy. It was rationalized that they mustiness have drunk alcohol before battle to relieve their fear. A Dutch bargain or Dutch markment, which is made between men who have drunk too much alcohol, is an uneven, one-sided deal. When the host is the first to get drunk in the party, it can be called a Dutch feast.Second, the British used to consider the Dutch very stingy about money. The Dutch always split the bill when whey went out for dinner. Based on this conception, Dutch dainty referred to a dinner at which the invited guests should pay for their own share of food and drinks. A Dutch party is a party to which each guest contributes some food and drink. Today, Dutch get by has a slightly different meaning from that. When friends go out to have fun, each person pays his own share if they agree to Dutch treat or go Dutch.Third, in the eyes of the British, the Dutch were rude, irritable and weird. To get ones Dutch up is to flare up. To do a Dutch act means to commit suicide. If a person talks to you in a very severe way, he is talking like a Dutch uncle. This phrase emerges for the reason that the Dutch had a reputation for raising their children in a firm way. (Li, 200952)Not only expressions but also proverbs can press out national slurs. The Dutch has riposten Holland can be interpreted as follows a man who has seen little regards many things as strange and comment excitedly on a commonplace thing out of inexperience.However, people using these expressions may not be well aware that they are hurting the Netherlands national pride. Almost all the Dutch phrases contain negative connotation. The situation makes the Netherlands feel uncomfortable and low national respect. Thus, in 1934, Netherlands government commanded that officials should avoid use the word Dutch. (Hou, 200965) In spite of the effort, today the derogatory sense of the word still exists and people continue using it to refer to something negative.3.1.2 The French idiomsIn the modern h istory of the world, France and the Great Britain rival each other in political, economic, cultural and military competition. Many British idioms have recorded the countrys discord with the French.French leave is an disordered and unannounced departure without saying farewell to the host. The phrase can be traced back to 18th century. (Wang, 199945) From the view of character, the French were amiable and easygoing by nature. It was their bespoke that guests invited to dinner would depart without giving thanks or saying farewell to their host. To the British, in particular the English, whose reputed quality is reserved, leaving without saying goodbye is ill-mannered, discourteous and shows no respect for others.There goes the proverb when the Ethiopian is white, the French will love the English. In reality, The Ethiopians are dark-skinned and it is impossible that their skin will turn white. By using this logic analysis, neither is it possible that the French will love the English. The proverb implies that the state of hostility between the two countries would not end.Another proverb goes, The Italians are wise before the deed, the Germans in the deed, the French after the deed. (Jiao, 200959) By comparing France with another two countries, the idiom carries a message that the French are wooden-headed and witless.Historically, it was suggested by the Americans that some of the French expressions should be changed. Yetit was too early to be cheerful for the French. Here goes the story. In the first half of the year 2003, France opposed the plan shock and awe adopted by the American-led United Nations forces toward Iraq. This stirred up American disgust toward the French. A television host of booze news, one of the American news media, called for a boycott of French goods. It was demanded that in the English language French toast and French fry should be changed into emancipation toast and freedom fry while French leave should be reserved. (Du, 200523) Very occupyingly, it seemed that the Americans wanted to keep the French expressions with derogatory sense and meanwhile dispose others with neutral meaning. In such case, The French could do nothing but sulk.3.1.3 The Chinaman/Chinese idiomsIn modern times, China cut off itself from the outdoors world. As a result of a seclusion policy in foreign relations, China lost an opportunity for development and fell behind. Thus, the western countries showed contempt to this poor and backward nation with weak comprehensive power. Chink and Chinaman have long been used as disparaging terms for the Chinese. Many figures of delivery in the English reflected a history of Chinese being insulted.Chinamans incur essentially means an extremely slim chance or no chance at all for someone to accomplish his goal or successfully do an action. In 1978, American publisher Scribner published the novel Chinamans chance by Ross Thomas. Regardless of the content of the novel, people sought the origin of the t itle Chinamans chance. The historical context of the phrase dates from the goldrush days of California in the middle of the 19th century when many Chinese came here to work as laborers. (Jiao, 200958) Their job was demanding and very dangerous but lower-paying. The Chinese faced higher taxes, denial of citizenship and equal rights to white man. Chinamans chance truly depicts the hard life of Chinese in that city. Another expression occurred in the same period. To play someone for a Chinaman is to treat him as a fool.Many of the Chinese expressions heard in English are used as pejorative.A Chinese reduplicate is an exact copy of an original. Chinese slavery means virtualslavery. Chinese compliment is used to describe a man who speaks one way and thinks another. Chinese fire cut refers to confusional and chaotic state, large but ineffective exercise, or the act of a group of individuals achieving nothing. If someone has Chinese restaurant syndrome (Wang, 199943), he may feel headach e, vomiting, whirlpool or sweating caused by eating Chinese food that contains monosodium glutamate. Research suggests that there is no evidence of the so-called Chinese restaurant syndrome and it is nothing more than than urban legend.3.1.4 The Irishman and Irish idiomsThe United Kingdom is made up of four nations England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland. Of these four nations, the English people account for the majority of the population and feel most British. They have a strong sense of national pride and ridicule the rest of the kingdom. They would verbally attack Scotland, Wales, and in particular Ireland. We can take a look at some of the Irishman and Irish phrases.Irishmans dinner/feast actually means apastia. Irishmans promotion represents demotion.Irish diamond is not diamond at all. It is just crystal or stone. Irish evidence is seen as perjury. Irish compliment is backhanded compliment. If someone makes an Irish bull, he provides a paradoxical statement. To get o nes Irish up (Hou,200964) means to lose ones temper. A similar expression is to get ones Dutch up.There are also Irish proverbs with offensive implications Englands fuss is Irelands opportunity Put an Irishman on the spit, and you can always get another to baste him. (Mao, 2003143)3.1.5 The Welsh idiomsThe word Welsh shares the same fate of Irish.To Welsh is to retract a debt. According to English people, the phrase originates from 19th century when many Welsh people made a living by betting on horse racing. (Liu, 199979) They were said to have been extremely cunning because they always tried to get out of paying money when they lost the bet. Thus, in the eyes of English people, they became notorious for such a bad quality. Therefore, to Welsh on somebody is to go back on ones word. To Welsh on ones debt is to rat on ones debtAs we know, England is a relatively rich nation when compared with Wales. Phrases like Welsh comb and Welsh carpet are used by the English people to fling at Welsh poverty.3.1.6 The classical idiomsThe word Greek is associated with trick, cattiness, and danger.Greek dedicate can not be interpreted literally. If a person receives a Greek gift, he should be cautious because the gift is given with the intention of tricking the recipient and causing harm to him. A proverb derives from this expression, I fear the Greeks, even when they come with the gifts.Greek trust indicates unreliability.When Greek meets Greek, and then comes the tug of war. It means that when enemies face each other, their eyes blaze with hate. Fires are rekindled between the two sides and old wounds overt up again.When people encounter something incomprehensible, they would say it is all Greek to me to show that they dont understand at all.3.2 Reflection of racial discrimination3.2.1 Discrimination against Native AmericanBefore starting this part, I want to make it clear that all the idioms below come from On English Language against Non-English Nationalities by Mao F asheng except those with special notes.An Indian giver refers to a person who gives a gift but require something in return later. This expression originates from around 1765 and the American colonial days. (Li, 200957) To the early American Indians, gifts were simply form of trade goods. A person gave a gift in hope of something of equivalent in return. However, to the European settlers, such kind of custom appeared to be insulting. In their minds, gifts were freely given rather than for trade practices. The original meaning of the expression was only the expectation of a gift in return. By the late 1800s, its sense shifted to describe someone who demands return while giving. Indian giving is a similar terms used to make fun the giver. We should handle an Indian gift with caution as well as Greek gift. The present is given by someone with expectation of receiving another from us.An Indian sign is a magic spell cast on a person to control him or bring him bad luck. If a girl is able to put or have an Indian sign on a boy, then she fascinates him perhaps with her dazzling loveliness.Americans regarded the Indians as black, irritable and evil-minded. Terms like cigar-store Indian, dumb Indian, wooden Indian portray a negative image for the Indians as boring and foolish. To get ones Indian up is to get mad or be inflamed with rage. It shares the same meaning as two other figures of speech get ones Dutch up and get ones Irish up. The proverb The only good Indian is a dead Indian (Liu, 2003131) characterizes the American relationship with Indians.3.2.2 Discrimination against African-AmericanIn American historyAfrican-Americans were subject to discrimination and their life were sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation. They were faced with poor living conditions and harsh working environments. Being despised, hated, disgraced and oppressed by racists, they lived in misery and suffering. Even today, in the society of more advanced civilization, the phenomenon of racial discrimination still exists. Racism is still a sensitive and serious issue that the world seeks to solve. From the view of language, racial slurs are to be found everywhere.Nigger, niggra, niggruh and Negro (Jiao, 200957) are common slavery-imposed epithets with evident insult to the black. They remind people the bitter period of slavery when African-Americans struggled for freedom. To work like a negro/nigger refers to somebody who works or is forced to work very hard just like a slave.Even in literature, we can see racial slurs in world-famous works. For example, some African-Americans complained about the novel The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain. They claimed that the writer should not have used the word nigger in the book. The following dialogue, in particular, stirs up strong discontent amongst African-Americans.Good gracious. Anybody hurt?Nom killed a nigger.Well, its lucky because sometimes people do get hurt.1We should try not to get involved in the i ssue of racial discrimination otherwise we may place ourselves in criticism and trouble. In 1999, David Howard, the aide of Washington, DC mayor Anthony Williams resigned after being accused of using a racial slur.2Mr. Howard, head of the Office of Public Advocate, used the word niggardly when delivering the budget idea in one of the regular meetings by municipal government. As a matter of fact, niggardly is defined as stingy or ungenerous and does not have any racial connotations. Yet, staff members present which was made up of two blacks and another white were offended by the word. Soon after the meeting, the record began to spread that Howard had used the racial slur nigger. Howard said such rumor has severely compromised my effectiveness as the Districts Public Advocate and in the best interest of my office, I resigned.3Howard was innocent in this issue. The real problem is that niggardly has a similar pronunciation with nigger. An important lesson we can learn out of this is that people especially government officials should avoid using not only racial slurs but also words sounding similar to them.4. Negative effects of linguistic discrimination4.1 Verbal counterback in other languages against English slursLinguistic discrimination in English would surely result in verbal attack from those countries that have been insulted by English-speaking countries. It is normal to find ethnic slurs in other languages than English. For instance, in the French language, les sombikes (Liu, 199981), which has the same meaning as son of a bitch in the English language, is used as a disparaging term for an American. The phrase dates from the First World War when American soldiers liked to shout the expletive son of a bitch.As a matter of fact, almost any language contains ethnic slurs. It may be just to say that any ethnic in the world is apt to glorify its own group and meanwhile look down upon others. This sense of national superiority, more or less, is reflected in th e language.4.2 Negative pretend on international relationsBased on numerous historical events, linguistic discrimination against other nations and races mirrors barriers, conflicts, and hatred between different ethnic groups. It is a social problem that cannot be neglected. The usage of slurs can be detrimental to international relations. It exerts negative impact on social equity, stability and harmony. History teaches us that it has clearly influenced national unity and integrity in such a country of great ethnic complexity as America.As long as inter-ethnic inequality and contractions exist in human society, they would find expression in the language. Converselylinguistic discrimination would trigger hostility and conflicts between ethnics. They together get going a vicious cycle and people get trapped in it.5. State of English linguistic discrimination in modern society5.1 plebeian existence of English linguistic discriminationIt is undeniable that the phenomenon of English l inguistic discrimination is still very common in modern society. People use those idioms in daily life, consciously or not. They may say a slur without recognizing that it is offensive and may cause them trouble. Why are discriminatory language still used today even if hostilities ended hundreds of years ago? As is discussed in chapter 1.1, language develops and evolves with society. Once words are given derogatory meanings, it would be difficult to change or eliminate them. It often happens that language is more conservative than civilization, material as well as moral. Objects, institutions, ideas, scientific concepts change in the course of time yet in many cases the name is retained and thus helps to ensure a sense of tradition and continuity. (Ullmann 1977198)5.2 Sign of improvements on the phenomenonFortunately, we have seen evidence of improvements on the phenomenon of national and racial discrimination in the English language.For example, In the September of 2001, the mounta in Chinks Peak in the Pocatello Range in Idaho State got its new official name Chinese Peak from the United States Board of Geographic Names. The original name Chinks Peak was deemed offensive and racist. Some people especially Chinese Americans strongly requested th

The Outsiders :: essays research papers

The Outsiders Book ReviewThe Outsiders was written by Susan Eloise Hinton. It is one of her close popular books about foolish gang rivalry existing between the Socs, the fertile kids from the west side of town, and the Greasers, the poor kids from the east side.Ponyboy Curtis struggles growing up as a poor youth with his two brothers. One night while he is out with Johnny, Ponyboy is attacked by the Socs. Johnny ends up killing one of the Socs. They twain flee from the scene before the news gets out. They are caught in a fire and Johnny and Ponyboy become heroes for saving some children. The story has a tragic end for Johnny but Ponyboy realises that he is fortunate, having family and friends that love himThe main character in this book is a 14 year old boy named Ponyboy. He lives with his two older brothers, Darry and Sodapop, ever since his parents passed away. He and his brothers belong to a gang called the Greasers, who are from the wrong side of the railroad tracks. They all have long and " calc-tufa" hair their trademark is the amounts of oil that they put in their hair. They hate the Socs. The Socs have everything, they have great girls, great cars and they think they are superior so they unceasingly pick on the Greasers.The most interesting event was when Johnny and Ponyboy were trying to save the little children from the fire. There was a lot of action and showed the courage in the boys. This event marks what a true hero Johnny and Ponyboy are.The main themes are that you shouldnt judge people by their appearances. Just because you are rich and belong to a tough gang does not mean you are cruel like the other gang members. You shouldnt carry any nocent weapons and should not escape from the police.

Making Iowa State University a Better Place for International Students :: Education Learning Foreign Students Essays

Making Iowa State University a Better Place for International StudentsEnglish is a second lyric for most people outback(a) of the United States of America. In Hong Kong for example, the Chinese start to learn English in kindergarten. Chinese children learn the spelling and the grammar of the English language but of course hotshot must live in the culture to be fully educated of the language. There ar many slang words and new vocabulary that are not taught in the schools however. Winnie Yue, a freshman at Iowa State University, found this out fairly quickly after going to her first class. She has taken every last(predicate) of her courses at Iowa State University before in Hong Kong, but the language barrier is providing her with many difficulties. She mentions how the professors use these unfamiliar words not realizing that non-Americans may not last what they mean. These days you will see Winnie carrying a dictionary to every one of her classes. Miss Yue feels that if she had other Chinese scholars that could help her with her understanding of these words she would have an easier clip with her courses and her homework. She feels Iowa State University should help her with her problem. I propose that Iowa State University should establish a team of workers who will supply external students with names of other international students of the similar culture, a set time to socialize, and a set place to gather. This new program will help them with their homesickness as well as helping them with the language barrier and also the culture change. Iowa State already has an organization established that is a voluntary program, which matches international students with Americans. This program is called the Conversational English Program, but it needs to be improved drastically. In this program, American volunteers are supposed to have conversations about the American culture and life in general. It is supposed to help international students with the culture chan ge and their English speaking skills. The program however is not widely used. The problem may be due to the fact that a student must find this organization on their own. Iowa States new program would eliminate this situation by having the student already set up with the other international student before their first classes start. The Conversational English Program is, in my opinion, a good start to what should be a widely used establishment.