Child Labor

Everything from the brand new shoes on your feet, to the baseball cap on your head to the bad your caring around your shoulder is the work of the some of the biggest name brands in the fashion industry. They look appealing, comfortable and of course fashionable, but no one ever stops and thinks where they actually come from and how they got on your body. You didn’t know how many hours it took to make that one garment or what they working conditions were like that they had to sweat over so you could look good for a day, and the worst part of it is that they are simply children. Child labor is a growing industry, which employs millions of children across the globe. Big manufacturing countries outsource to third world countries thinking that they can get cheap labor in producing their products. How ever they don’t realize the effects on the kids that they are exploiting. From their everyday schedule to their gruesome living standards and limited pay, this is not the life that people should have to be living in. With these conditions, it’s amazing that they are able to survive at all with the extreme conditions. With child labor, human rights are being exploited and unnecessary actions are being used to exploit these children. Even with efforts from different universal organizations such as UNICEF, their needs and demands are still not being met; there is always more that can be done to end child labor. Through different efforts and causes to end child labor, their basic human rights are constantly being abused and violated as they are forced into labor.

            Child labor, a growing problem around the world, is a violation of everyone’s basic human rights. Every person is granted certain rights that are not allowed to be violated or taken away in any circumstance.  For example, when was it ever right to push hundreds of children into crowded workrooms with heavy machine for long workdays? They are given little food and are unable to function and are putting their young lives in danger. With so many countries around the world involved with child labor, the global society needs a wake up call to reevaluate what they are sentencing their kids to do.  In the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights states,

“ Everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration, without distinction of any kind, such as race, colour, sex, language, religion, political of other opinion national or social origin, property, birth, or other status,”(Weston).

Everyone, including children, is given rights that every basic human being is granted. Many however, claim that children are not eligible for these rights simply because they are not adults and that they don’t get the same protection and rights that everyone else does. Since no specific age is mention with the rights, it gives them every opportunity to encourage and promote child labor across the globe. However, there are still activists trying to get child labor to become illegal. According to the International Labor Organization, it states “the ‘child labor’ of concern is generally employment that prevents effective school attendance, and which is often performed under conditions hazardous to the physical and mental health of the child” (United States Department of Labor). It is saying that children are allowed to do work, such as family businesses or work that does not interfere with school or harm them, but as soon as any of these conditions are violated and the child is put in danger, that is when child labor becomes a problem and needs to be stopped. However most companies don’t care about the regulations or rules that prevent child labor and keep kids safe. They don’t agree with the basic human rights law or the fact that they are violating children.  Many people take for granted that the live in the United States where child labor is completely unacceptable, and they never truly think about how children in other countries are constantly working in unfair conditions just to survive. Acclaimed photojournalist David L. Parker stated that “250 million children worldwide still labour (sic) to sustain basic needs”(Parker). It’s amazing that as many human rights activists there are in the world, there are still so many children forced into unlawful working. It’s a practice that obviously needs to be stopped and fortunately there are organizations that are trying to prevent this terrible practice.

            UNICEF, the United Nations Children’s Education Fund, is an organization whose efforts include preventing child labor around the globe. Their efforts are numerous and are really targeted towards creating a better environment for the children, claiming that “child labour as the rising tide on the international agenda”(Fyfe, 31). They are involved in many different programs and organizations to help prevent children from entering child labor. They created projects such as the “Mou Project”, which protected kids in the garment industry, to Basic Education for Hard to Reach Urban Children (BEHTRUC) project in Bangladesh, which allows children to receive, and education instead of entering the work force (Dukess). These problems create opportunities for kids around the world to be educated and to feel safe and protected within their own environment. This organization gives children the opportunity to be relieved of child labor and be able to actually grow up as children. UNICEF’S Executive Director Ann M. Venema said, “Children who are compelled to work are robbed of childhood itself,” (qtd. Dukess).  With these specific efforts made my UNICEF, they are essentially giving the children back their childhood, a human right that had been taken away from them. Children across the globe have benefited from their great effort to end child labor throughout the globe. In UNICEF’S facilitating position at the 2002 UNGASS (United Nations General Assembly Special Session) opening they made a statement saying, “education is a human right and a key factor to reducing poverty and child labour,”(Fyfe, 33). Whatever their efforts maybe, UNICEF puts forth their best effort in promoting and trying to end child labor.

         Another important organization to help end child labor is that of the ILO (International Labor Organization) works to create new programs in efforts to educate the world on the issues and tries to put an end to the child labor. One of their main missions, in association with IPEC (International Progamme on the Elimination of Child Labour), is to monitor child labor and to prevent children from working in inhumane conditions. Under their program called CLM (child labouring monitoring) they “mobilize and train community members to monitor child labour and link the monitoring activity to local government and official enforcement systems, especially labour inspection, so that the information on child labour can be used effectively,” (International Labor Organization). With this system and work to prevent child labor, they are clearly making a difference in what they want and what they expect to regard child labor. This is one of the programs used to help prevent child labor. They even instated an ILO convention in which they came up with specific rights about child labor that is unlawful land not allowed to be violated. For example Article 3 of ILO Convention 182 states that:

(a)   all forms of slavery or practices similar to slavery, such as the sale and trafficking of children, debt bondage and serfdom and forced or compulsory labour, including forced or compulsory recruitment of children for use in armed conflict;

(b)  (b) the use, procuring or offering of a child for prostitution, for the production of pornography or for pornographic performances;

(c)   (c) the use, procuring or offering of a child for illicit activities, in particular for the production and trafficking of drugs as defined in the relevant international treaties;

(d)  (d) work which, by its nature or the circumstances in which it is carried out, is likely to harm the health, safety or morals of children. (International Labor Organization).

With laws such as these, that specifically break down and give information on what counts as violating child labor laws, one would assume that these wouldn’t be broken, however that is rarely the case.

North Korea

Derek Mclea

English150

Ms. Cowley

7-28-09

North Korea

Throughout the years North Korea has always been viewed as the equivalent of a pest to the rest of the world. This view has been brought upon themselves for their irrational behaviors and terrible foreign relations policies. Within North Koreas policies and so forth there is a leader that is coordinating such actions, and this terrible person is ll-Jong Kim. He is indeed a vicious dictator that cares only about his military. He cares nothing about the well being of the people of his country or the rest of the world. The outside worldly views from the UN and the views of North Korea on what they do are totally different. North Korea believes that everything they do is for the best while the rest of the world views them as borderline terrorists.

The countries surrounding North Korea are very distraught by what’s going within North Korea’s borders. One major issue that has raised the eye brows of many countries is the fact that North Korea has initiated their nuclear arms testing. This is widely frowned upon by the rest of the world and action regarding North Koreas actions is taking place immediately. Many negotiations have been sought after for the cooperation with North Korea and their nuclear arms programs but North Korea insists on proceeding with such a program because they have the well being of their homeland in mind.

wind turbines

Sam Johnston

Wind Turbines
Windmills are an ancient form of power production. They have been used for irrigation in 5th century Persia and for grinding grain in the Medieval Europe. (Chiras) Electricity was first created from wind in 1931 and turbines were popular in rural America before they were replaced by transmission lines of the spreading power grid. (Chiras) Now in this day and age they are making a comeback. With theories of global warming along with predictions of oil shortages countries throughout the world are turning to the wind. Due to increased investments United States has recently become the leader in wind power producing 25,369 megawatts of power. (Seipel) Wind energy has been lauded as our savior from global warming and oil dependency. They have also been criticized for increased federal spending higher electricity bills. Who is right? Is wind energy environmentally friendly and cost effective? And if so how should the government influence the energy market. These questions and through analysis a conclusion can be drawn. Wind turbines are the future of energy and their construction should be maximized.
Global Warming is a sensitive issue and one that has the scientific community along with the general population divided. It is a fact that carbon dioxide is a greenhouse gas which has the property of trapping heat (Farrar 8). Studies have shown that when carbon dioxide is released into a room it will block the heat of a given object and cause that objects thermal image to fade.(?) Greenhouse gases are not a bad thing in fact without them the average temperature of the world would be only .4 degrees Fahrenheit. (Farrar 9) It is a fact that human carbon dioxide emissions have exponentially increased in the past hundred years; these emissions refer to the increased burning of fossil fuels such as oil, coal and natural gas. It is also a fact that atmospheric carbon levels have increased by about 25% in the past 100 years. (Lankford) It is also a fact that in recent years the earth has been getting warmer; the average temperature of the earth has gone up 1.4 degrees Fahrenheit in the past 150 years. (Farrar 7) The debate is has the increase in greenhouse gases the cause of global warming.
Environmentalists argue that the correlation between carbon dioxide increase and temperature increase is proof that we are causing global warming. They argue that unless immediate emissions reductions take place we could see various catastrophes. Polar melting is one of the biggest concerns because raised sea levels could cause flooding of major coastal population centers. (Farrar 47) Environmentalists also claim that increased heat will lead to increased tropical storms; they point to Hurricane Katrina as an indicator that global warming is getting worse. (Farrar 40) Others argue that global warming is a natural cycle and is unrelated to fossil fuel emissions. (Inhofe) They claim that much of the evidence used by environmentalists has been tampered with. (Inhofe) It is a fact that the media has been extremely slanted in favor of environmentalists and giving no thought to introducing any counter arguments. (Inhofe) This is called feared tactics; the media will make more money if they broadcast stories that will terrify people. (Inhofe) Although both sides have valid claims this issue is not as essential to wind turbine construction as most people think.
Although global warming has been used to argue for increased wind turbine production it is not the only validity. Even if carbon dioxide emissions aren’t causing global warming they still reflect a method of thinking that has failed in the past. We cannot treat the sky as an endless void where we can dump all our waste; it is this same attitude that caused massive pollution of our oceans when garbage barges where used. Fossil fuels may not have caused global warming but they still are not the best source of energy and they are a finite resource.
There are many different kinds of energy. Some have been used for hundreds of years and some are recent additions; however, all of them have advantages and disadvantages. Coal is one of the earliest types of energy and it is widely used in power plants to produce electricity. Oil is a popular energy choice because of it’s availability and it’s cheap cost. However a lesson from the past that we can take is that oil is a weapon that can be used to manipulate nations that are dependent on it. In 1973 OPEC initiated an oil embargo that crippled the US economy. (Fogel 2) This is a manifestation that our dependence on oil is a liability and should not continue. Furthermore, oil is a finite resource and it’s future availability is being predicted by experts. A common methed for predicting oil production is the Hubbert’s bell curve model. (Maugeri 202) This predicts that oil production steadily rises until it reaches a peak; after the peak production steadily declines. (Maugeri 202) This causes a roughly symmetrical bell curve graph. (Maugeri 202) This means that a severe oil crises won’t happen when we run out of oil but when we reach a peak of production, when demand is steady or increasing but supply is shrinking. So when will oil production reach its peak? Although Hubbert accurately predicted the America’s production peak he failed miserably when trying to predict the world production. (Maugeri 205) There are so many factors that influence oil production and this makes it hard to predict. However, the fact that production will decline after the peak means that we need to be ready otherwise we will have an energy crises on our hands.
Coal is a good choice for America because it is local and we control a quarter of total world coal. (fogel 24) The disadvantages to coal include it’s environmental effects. Global warming aside, coal has had negative impacts on the environment. Chemicals realized from burning coal include sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide.(Fogel 27) This pollutants mix with moisture in the sky causing acid rain which is harmful to crops ecosystems and stone building (Fogel 27) Also like oil coal is a finite resource and cannot last us forever. Nuclear power offers cheap electricity that can be produced without any air pollutants. (Fogel 47)However, the buildup of nuclear waste and the possibility of meltdowns are risk factors that have caused experts to question it’s reliability. (Fogel 47) Furthermore, uranium is also a finite resource that will eventually run out. (Fogel 49) Solar energy is promising but it is the first type of electric production method that doesn’t involve a spinning turbine, because of this it is years behind wind power. Although these other sources have potential wind power makes the most sense. It is clean renewable and nearing economic feasibility. (Fogel 70) James H. Mailinowski of Pacific Gas and Electric says that: “Of all the emerging alternate energy technology, wind is the closest to true commercialization”. (Fogel 70)

radio

Radio

“If the freedom of speech is taken away then dumb and silent we may be led, like sheep to the slaughter.” This powerful quote declared by the first president of the United States of America, George Washington, beautifully articulates the necessity of this cherished freedom to the well-being of the United States. Without it, America would certainly not consider herself the land of the truly free. The freedom of speech and expression is one that is coveted by all, and in recent times has proven to be one that is neglected by its possessors. Several recent events have sparked an uprising against the moderate restrictions on public radio. Events such as: Don Imus’ racial slurs directed toward the Rutger’s ladies basketball team, the Texas talk-radio ethnic slurs aimed at Hispanics and finally (find other example of radio offensive) The irresponsibility and flat-out immaturity expressed by these radio hosts have caused public outrage, and thus resulting in increased lobbying attempts to get legislation passed to limit speech on the radio. The reasons for these attempts are justified, however the proposed solution is not. America walks on thin ice when the decision is made to start restraining freedoms such as the freedom of unrestricted speech. Although people will choose to be offended over the radio’s decisions on word choices, the continual practice of free speech on the radio in America is imperative in order for all the liberties and freedoms practiced herein to be maintained.

The catalyst for this debate rising to the national level was the infamous verbal attack by Don Imus towards the Ladies Basketball team at Rutger University in early 2007. The result of the attack got Imus kicked off his own radio show for nearly eight months, and a reputation for being insensitive, and offensive. Imus degraded the black community, and offended the entire country. Now, in the aftermath of all this, many people are pushing for even more legislation to get passed that would further prohibit freedom of speech on the radio.

Speech on the radio already has its limits. According to Chris Reed an expert on broadcast radio, “Broadcasters do, indeed, have the same First Amendment rights that you and I do. But, the courts have held over the years, that because of the unique character of the broadcast medium, broadcasters' First Amendment rights are somewhat limited.” What this means is there are limited stations available on the radio to broadcast on, so naturally the government reserves the right to regulate what is broadcasted to the national audience. It is important to note that the radio already is not a completely free stream. Nevertheless, many people now are lobbying for even more restrictions to be placed on the radio. Many avid listeners of every day talk-radio feel that there are too many instances of racial and ethnic slurs occurring on the radio, and that it is time to start making more restrictions, and harsher punishments for those guilty.

In the case of Don Imus, the racist comments he made about the Women’s Basketball team at Rutgers really set the stage for the punishments of letting your tongue slip while on the radio. In addition to being fired for eight months, Imus was humiliated, forced to apologize, and scrutinized for the rest of his career. According to a poll conducted by MSNBC, 54 percent of America thought the punishment was about right, 32 percent said it was too tough and about 8 percent said it was not tough enough (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18209464/). This particular case set a precedent of radio cases like these in which the radio-host made a bad mistake, and launched into some kind of offensive diatribe. Another case similar to this occurring after the Don Imus expulsion from talk-radio was a Texas radio morning broadcast called “Todd and Don.” On this particular broadcast, the radio-hosts referred to illegal immigrants as “wetbacks,” thus resulting in no work or pay for two weeks for the convicted rradio-hosts. Many “Hispanic leaders” were not satisfied with this punishment however. Hispanics in the area lobbied to get these radio-hosts permanently removed from the radio air waves, and sited the Imus case as reason for more extreme punishment.

What these cases demonstrate is the public’s reaction to offensive words spoken on national lines. In nearly every case in which there is any sort of harmful rant, a universal feeling of discontent and outrage is expressed by all who hear it. The freedom of speech on the radio is one that can really prove offensive to listeners. When a radio-host has freedom to say what pops into his or her head, it isn’t unreasonable to assume people tuned in have the potential to be offended. Even with the few radio-laws prohibiting it, it still happens.

When freedoms granted in the Constitution begin to be distorted, the result is a gradual tilt away from reason. The liberty declared therein is inspired from God, and should be treated as a precious God-given gift. The very thought of trying to limit speech in America is preposterous, and if the steps are taken to do it by starting first with radio censorship, then the wonderful country known as America has already begun her downfall. Sexist and racist remarks are becoming all too common on the radio, who’s jockey’s delight in “bringing private behavior out into public,” and delivering the listener “the thrill of crossing that line,” this is all according to John Baugh, a professor of linguistics at Washington University in St. Louis.

Effects of child-targeted advertising

Gabe Machen
Section 14
Katherine Cowley
7/29/09

Effects of Child-Targeted Advertising

In our society advertising plays a huge role in the economy, social life, and our general perceptions about products, people, and morals. The influence of advertising is everywhere. It pops up on billboards while we drive, commercials while we watch television, and side panel ads while surfing the net. This bombardment is all well and good if we know how to perceive deception and fraud in these ads. Unfortunately, our children have no such abilities and there is a need for exploration on just what effects dangerous advertising is having on our children’s perceptions of the different industries that target them. An article on the harmful effects of advertising on children stated that, “By the late 1970s, research indicated that children had trouble distinguishing between television programs and commercials. Most had little or no understanding of ads' persuasive intentions, thus making them highly vulnerable to commercial claims and appeals (Fox,1).” Obviously this could create a problem when it comes to buying food or toys as well as their future choices in the areas of smoking and underage drinking. It is important to examine just what kind of impressions our children our left with when we allow advertisements to enter our homes and what effects the advertisements have on their present and future choices. Although marketing has become an essential part of our society in general, the effects that advertising, especially specifically targeted advertising, has on young impressionable children are singularly negative as they promote greed and materialism while downplaying the dangers of risky behaviors. Research has shown that the advertising industry has had affected the rise of child obesity by astounding rates. Studies between the requests of children and their parents responses directly correlates with the things children see on television as well as the way they are presented for parents. With all the tobacco and alcoholic product ads on television children become more and more likely to smoke or drink underage as they get older. This, of course, is supplemented but the growing callousness in the attitude of parents towards such things as high school drinking parties and low-risk drug use. Children in this day make bad choices because of many factors but one of the biggest factors is deceptive advertising that causes them to think they need one of the many luxuries that plague this country.
The first and perhaps most presently dangerous issue is childhood obesity and the influence that advertising has on it. In Faith McLellan’s article on the subject she paraphrase’s from a Harvard Medical School Professor who “said that in the early 20th century, children did hard physical work in factories, with the result that companies essentially owned their bodies. Now marketers are attempting to own children’s minds (McLellan,1001).” This quote essentially shows exactly the problem with this type of advertising. Instead of simply presenting a product the advertising shows children exactly how to get their parent to buy the product. This method of advertising shows a direct correlation to the rise of obesity. McLellan makes this point as her article continues, “The relentless onslaught of advertising for food products contributed to the unprecedented weight gain seen during the past 2 decades in children in genetically stable populations (1001).” American advertising is even starting to have a poll on other nations and while Americans may have built up some type of tolerance for such horrible junk foods, places like China where the traditional food is very healthy are drastically gaining weight as American junk food seeps into their society. An article on the rise of junk food penetration in Asian countries said that, “a survey across six Asian countries including Malaysia conducted by Consumers International observed that there has been increased production and marketing of fatty and sugary food aimed at children (Kulasagaran,1).” This increase has resulted in a higher child obesity level which is the direct result of clever advertising. John Eighmey wrote an article entitled “Deception and Unfairness in Children’s Advertising” in which he outlined the main reasons that child-targeted advertising is deceptive.
1. Premium distracting attention from the product;
2. Brevity of commercials-insufficient comprehension;
3. Comparative advertising may leave deceptive impressions;
4. Stereotyping;
5. Excessive use of emotions;
6. Reliance on nonsense without product information;
7. Similarities taken too literally;
8. Deceptive juxstaposition of products with contexts or persons;
9. Unfamiliar terms or phrases; and
10. Global uniqueness claims. (Eighmey, 17)
These deceptive techniques contribute heavily to the food industry advertisements and are an important part of their methods. Especially number two concerning the brevity of commercials leading to an insufficient knowledge on the subject is important. If the commercial is so short that it shows only the good and not the overwhelming bad then how are we supposed to distinguish between those things that are real and those that are fraudulent.

College Napping- Scott

Scott McGrath
English 150 Section 14
Kathy Cowley
July 28, 2009
College Nap Time
Late night study sessions and early morning classes’ leads to sleep deprivation and loss of attention. This is what many call the normal college student life. However, there are many different views on how this lack of sleep is not only harming college student’s bodies physically but affecting their grades and success as well. In doing my research I found many different articles that talked about how serious of a problem sleep deprivation is and its many different effects on the body. With many college students lacking the right amount of sleep needed don’t you think a nap would be a great way to help? In many different studies naps have been proven to help students be more alert and stay awake during class time. I think that if students need to stay awake late working on homework than a nap is a great way to catch up on missed sleep.
A major factor in college students’ lives is evolved around stress and time management. We all know how good we feel when you finish that long paper or map out your time just right so you can get everything done for the day. Elizabeth Scott an expert on stress management with college students stated, “And research shows that you can make yourself more alert reduce stress and improve cognitive functioning with a nap. Mid-day sleep, or a ‘power nap’, means more patience, less stress, better reaction time, increased learning, more efficiency and better health” (Scott). In this quote she is talking about all of the positives that come from napping and catching up on loss sleep. However, on the flip side there are some very serious symptoms that may result from lack of sleep as well. The reason I have narrowed my topic down to specifically college students, is because they are a rather large group that lacks the most sleep.
As stated in the Scotts’ quote, napping can be extremely helpful for the body to make it more alert and attentive. Doesn’t this sound exactly like something every college student could use? If by simply taking a short nap a day to make up for loss sleep over night and help you be more alert in class, wouldn’t this be very helpful? By napping, college students will be more alert in class and pay more attention to specific details which in return should show a positive correlation with their grades. By simply adding a few more minutes of sleep a day could largely change your overall out come or grade in the class. This is one thing almost all college students’ desire: better grades.
Increased alertness would really help college students with staying awake in class, paying attention, taking notes, reading, quizzes and tests. I know from first hand that when I don’t get enough sleep the next day it is extremely hard for me to stay awake in my classes and I don’t learn much because of this. “Research shows that a midday snooze can increase productivity and alertness” (Kliff). Imagine what it would be like if all college students took a midday nap everyday. Grades would sky rocket and the students’ mentality on college campuses would completely change.
Taking a nap will help increase learning which in the long run will help raise your grades. One study found that “researchers who have studied college students' sleeping patterns have found that ZZZ's translate to A's” (Anas). This study was done at Colorado Universtiy where they have made a new nap room for college students to catch up on sleep which in return will help them with their grades. This just shows how important it is to get the right amount of sleep when in college. I think that the napping room is a really good idea and more colleges should input these around campuses. Although it may cost more money to make nap rooms on college campuses, it will be improving students’ health as well as grades which will make the college look much better.
Sleep deprivation is not healthy for your body to function correctly and our bodies need the right amount of sleep. Sleeping is very good for our bodies and is needed to stay healthy. "Sleep is part of good health, as important as nutrition and exercise to overall well-being," (Wasowicz). This is a very strong point she makes, because people are always worried about watching what they eat and exercising but you never see people worry much about their sleep. This is very bad for college students who don’t get enough sleep because not only are the tired and run down the next day; they are harming their bodies as well. If more people looked at sleep in this manner I think that many would take it much more seriously and make sure they got the right amount of sleep per night.
If a quick twenty minute nap can really help increase learning, reduce stress, more patience and better health why doesn’t everyone nap? Many people think that napping isn’t helpful at all and that it can actually be harmful to the person. Many people whose “sleep is lighter and marked by more frequent awakenings. This situation is exacerbated by afternoon napping” (therapeutics). Frequent awakenings and lighter sleeping is a major reason why people don’t nap. Another reason many don’t nap is because many people nap for hours at a time and wake up feeling groggy and more tired than before. This is very common and even though naps are making up for missed sleep, they do not need to be much longer than twenty to thirty minutes. Naps longer than twenty to thirty minutes go into your later stages of sleep cycle and even into REM where the body is completely asleep and relaxed. Trying to wake up in the later stages of the sleep cycle will be hard and make you feel very groggy because your body wants to keep sleeping.

Am I Too Fat?

We live in a culture where it is not surprising to go to the grocery store and while standing in line to buy your food you see all the magazines with the headlines talking about how this star is a size 2 and this other one needs to lose weight, who is only a size 6. There is so much attention given to weight and beauty that it seems as if the two go hand in hand. For many one might get the impression that for one to be considered beautiful in this culture then one must be thin by Hollywood’s standards. One only has to turn on the TV and they will see news reports on which stars in Hollywood are overweight (who may only be a size 4), which have the best bikini bodies, and which are the sexiest slim stars in Hollywood. Reality TV shows, which by the sounds of it are suppose to be showing reality, are giving people a very distorted view of what reality really is. According to a commercial for a new TV show on Fox it says that the average size of a female on a reality TV program is a size 2, but the average size of a women in the United States is a size 14. These so called reality shows are doing anything but showing what real reality is in the world. However, one has to wonder who this focus on weight and beauty is affecting the most in this culture? Continually studies show that the group of people affected most by all of this pressure of what size one needs to be is teenage girls. Teenage girls have become so affected by all of this pressure that now studies are showing that they are more affected by many psychological because of this pressure, such as depression and eating disorders. Although the media may help provide entertainment in people’s lives, the psychological effects, such as depression and eating disorders that it causes in the lives of teenage girls need to be noticed and understood.


Ok, so this is only the first paragharph of the paper. I am working on it, it is just I write different and I am not sure how much of this I am even going to be changing. So, please give me insight that you have on how I can change anything that you might not like in this or not understand. Thanks!

Homosexuality in the political process

Homosexuality is a very touchy subject. It hits close to home with almost everyone. We all know people who come down on one side or another on the issues brought to the public arena by this lifestyle choice. We as a society have an obligation to be accepting of others. Acceptance of another for who they are does not, however, mean we should put aside our beliefs and accept everything that they wish to do or say for the sake of acceptance. Homosexuals are an obviously growing force in our country. They command a large voice that some would say dictate a disproportionate amount of public policy. Has the tone in the country changed as regards to homosexuals and their so called agenda? How has their growing influence changed the course of public policy? Do racial and/or ethnic views on homosexuals affect the way people of diverse ethnic backgrounds vote on those issues? These are the questions that will be discussed in this paper. The questions raised by the issues at hand are important ones to find answers to. We need to be politically aware of what goes on in our country, and the policies of the homosexual movement have the potential to change the course of our countries policies in ways that many consider the wrong direction.
The only way to understand the homosexual movement is to exam its origins. In the late 1980s a book was written by Marshall K. Kirk and Hunter Madsen detailing how the homosexual movement could become mainstream and detailing exactly how this could happen. Before this time homosexuals were “in the closet.” Theirs was a lifestyle not discuss in polite company. This book helped to change the way homosexuals presented themselves to the public. They presented three major ways in which to accomplish their goals: desensitization, jamming, and conversion.
“If gays present themselves-- or allow themselves to be presented--as overwhelmingly different and threatening, they will put straights on a triple-red alert, driving them to overt acts of political oppression or physical violence. If, however, gays can live alongside straights, visibly but as inoffensively as possible, they will arouse a low-grade alert only, which, though annoying to straights, will eventually diminish for purely psychological reasons. Straights will be desensitized.” ( "After the Ball - How America will conquer its fear and hatred of Gays in the 90s." - Penguin Books, 1989 pp. 147-157.by Marshall K. Kirk and Hunter Madsen) The desensitization factor of their agenda has been very successful. There used to be no instances of homosexual activity on television. One of the most popular sitcoms in recent years has been “Will and Grace.” This is a program that would have been, even in the 80s, too crude with a subject matter too taboo for television. It is now acceptable to announce to the world that one has same sex attraction. Something that even ten years ago was very controversial. People are now almost ridiculed if they “stay in the closet.”

Everything from the brand new shoes on your feet, to the baseball cap on your head to the bad your caring around your shoulder is the work of the some of the biggest name brands in the fashion industry. They look appealing, comfortable and of course fashionable, but no one ever stops and thinks where they actually come from and how they got on your body. You didn’t know how many hours it took to make that one garment or what they working conditions were like that they had to sweat over so you could look good for a day, and the worst part of it is that they are simply children. Child labor is a growing industry, which employs millions of children across the globe. Big manufacturing countries outsource to third world countries thinking that they can get cheap labor in producing their products. How ever they don’t realize the effects on the kids that they are exploiting. In Latin American countries, the effects of child labor are astonishing and completely disturbing. From their everyday schedule to their gruesome living standards and limited pay, this is not the life that people should have to be living in. With these conditions, its is amazing that they are able to survive at all with the extreme conditions. With child labor, human rights are being exploited and unnecessary               

Precautions are being used to make clothes that aren’t even needed.

            Child labor around the globe is violating the basic of human rights and needs an evaluation about what they are doing to innocent children around the globe. For example, when was it ever right to push hundreds of children into crowded workrooms with heavy machine for long workdays. They are given little food and are unable to function and are putting their young lives in danger. With so many countries around the world involved with child labor, a certain definition needs to define what that actually means. According to the International Labor Organization, it states “the ‘child labor’ of concern is generally employment that prevents effective school attendance, and which is often performed under conditions hazardous to the physical and mental health of the child (United States Department of Labor). It is saying that children are allowed to do work, such as family businesses or work that does not interfere with school or harm them, but as soon as any of these conditions are violated and the child is put in danger, that is when child labor becomes a problem and needs to be stopped. However most companies don’t care about the regulations or rules that prevent child labor and keep kids safe. Many people take for granted that the live in the United States where child labor is completely unacceptable, and they never truly think about how children in other countries are constantly working in unfair conditions just to survive. David L. Parker stated that “250 million children

Worldwide still labour (sic) to sustain basic needs”(Street Children and Labor around the world). Some children are still in work because they need the money to survive, though they may be killing themselves to get it.

         The reality of the working conditions is unbearable and the reasons that the kids need to work are once again alarming. The garment industry, one of the most popular forms of child labor within the world, is constantly looking to outsource because of the demanding marketing prices. In our society today, competition leads to the constant fall of prices and the lower the prices equals the continuing lowering the price of the workers, which leads to the exploitation of children in the labor force. The ILO (International Labor Organization states

         ...the competition between an increasing number of developing countries to win contracts has a downward effect on wages and working conditions in enterprises specialized in providing low-range articles - for which the production cost must be as low as possible. Only by filling a slot in the market for higher-range goods can these enterprises break out of this vicious circle in which production costs must be compressed for them to remain competitive. (United States Bureau of International Affairs).

This statement accounts for the rising number of child labor within the constantly growing and changing work force.

 

Deaf Schools Are an Endangered Species

In the world today, people believe that everything needs to be integrated. This is not the best way of action in some circumstances. One of the major ones is for children who are deaf and cannot have hearing implements. The government is saying that it is too expensive to keep these deaf schools open any longer in this economy. They are starting to be shut down which will effect the deaf community more than the government realizes. Although these schools are very expensive, the effects that they have upon those who are deaf severely outweighs the costs.

Most children who have moderate to severe hearing loss who are not able to use hearing implements, such as cochlear implants, have lost one of the senses that is fundamental in their emergent literacy. This is so because they are not able to grow up in as academically challenging of an environment as hearing children. An academically challenging environment is cultivated by parents who teach their kids to do mathematics through games or puzzles, who help their children grow academically before they are sent off to school (McKenzie). Unfortunately the children who are deaf are not able to be fostered in such an environment because their learning is retarded over the fact that they cannot hear.

Children learn by example, they learn by listening to their parents talk. Sadly deaf children cannot hear so they can only learn through sight. Though if the deaf children are taught simultaneously through speaking and signing, they are able to learn faster and more efficiently because then sign language becomes their first language. In a study done at the University of Illinois and the University of Rochester by Jenny L. Singleton and Elissa L. Newport they found that:

Simon [who] is a deaf child whose deaf parents both learned American Sign Language (ASL) after age 15. Simon’s only ASL input is provided by his late-learner parents. The study examines Simon’s performance at age 7 on an ASL morphology task, compared with eight children who have native signing parents, and also compared with Simon’s own parents. The results show that Simon’s production of ASL substantially surpasses that of his parents. (370)

Simon is a perfect example of what should happen to children who are deaf. He was able to be taught early enough that he was able to perform to a better capability than his own parents. Sadly for Simon, there is not a deaf school for him to go to.

Simon is in a classroom where he teacher does not know full ASL, she only knows simultaneous communication which is not proper ASL, it is directly translated from speaking to sign, without any change of grammar to ASL grammar. On top of this, Simon is “mainstreamed with hearing children for Physical Education and Art classes and recess” (380). Being mainstreamed like this is detrimental to deaf children’s social abilities. The vast majority of the people, outside of his class for deaf students, are hearing and have hearing parents, so there has been no reason for them to ever learn ASL. Thus Simon and his fellow hearing impaired peers are left to fend for themselves for communication between themselves and their hearing peers.

This is what is going to happen to all of the children who currently go to schools like the Eastern North Carolina School for the Deaf in Wilson, North Carolina. This school is in the process of being shut down. Most people outside of Wilson, don’t even care. But the residents of Wilson are afraid that their community “will be lost, scattered and torn apart if the School for the Deaf closes as part of budgetary cuts proposed by the state Department of Health and Human Services” (Moore). This community has grown together. The majority of its inhabitants are deaf. This little town has become a family to its citizens. The state has proposed that they consolidate its two Schools for the Deaf into one in the middle of the state. This fact that they are even considering doing this is quite appalling.

Closing down these schools will force these families to make one of the largest decisions of their lives; they will have to choose between moving to an unknown city, or forcing their children to go to public schools. The Eastern North Carolina School for the deaf has a residential program that allows their students to choose if they want to go home either daily or weekly. It is not considered a boarding school, but has the capabilities of any hospital or boarding school. Some of the services that are offered at ENCSD, as stated in their school website, include “audiology,... child psychiatry,... independent living skills,... literacy, medical care, occupational and physical therapy, orientation and mobility,... sensory integration, speech and language therapy,... and therapeutic horseback riding.”

The ENCSD offers more than just a normal deaf school. The Reverend Daniel Johnson graduated from ENCSD and fully endorses the school saying, “deaf people feel the school is home” (Moore). The entire country needs to realize that although these schools cost more, the effect that they have upon the population and how they have helped a community come together and become a family, is more important than the extra money it costs to keep these facilities in use. The United States should not force people like Simon to endure through years of public school where no one understand them. America should realize how much these schools help the deaf community as a whole and support them more fully.

What do we owe Africa?

No matter how much digging people do it seems that the roots of American racism are hard to reach. Slavery was part of the British Empire before the American colonies even existed, but sources say that British enslavement of Africans was more a matter of convenience and economy than of a stance of white superiority. This issue is certainly not dead, and cogent arguments range wide across it. Several years ago at the 2001 United Nations’ World Conference several African countries claimed that they deserved some form of reparations from the countries that mistreated their ancestors through the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade years ago (Howard-Hassman p.1). These reparations are not likely to be granted because of the ambiguity of the history of the slave trade (Howard-Hassman p.1). Even so, the argument is interesting: if these reparations were to take place, who would owe the most to the mistreated African countries? Evidence shows that although the practice of African enslavement began on the British Isles, the American colonies were the ones who actually developed a racist attitude against the African people that led to the largest forced exodus of people in the history of the world.

History is a tricky thing because it can be easily misinterpreted through the eyes of the historian who is from a different time and in a different situation than the people he is studying. This is most certainly the case with the study of American racism. Racism is, and has been, such a hot issue that historians such as Carl Deglar have had a tough time viewing the past in the context of those times without relying on the knowledge of the eventual outcome of the particular issue (Breen 25-26). In other words, it’s difficult to not view every action and law against an African slave as overt racism, because of the well-known outcome that eventuated from various actions. Author Rhoda Howard-Hassman notes that even the simplest issues dealing with racism and slavery are hard to understand. She notes that the estimates of slaves transported from Africa during the era of the slave-trade range from 12 million to about 100 million slaves forcefully taken from the continent (Howard-Hassman p.2-3). This being the case, it is much more difficult for the historians to pinpoint the exact time and place that racist attitudes emerged from the practice of slavery. It is necessary to view arguments and counter-arguments of this issue to gain the fullest understanding of the evidences and interpretations of evidences that can lead to the most realistic opinion of how and where racism developed.

Winthrop D. Jordan’s book White over Black: American Attitudes toward the Negro explores the development of racism in America from the years 1550-1812, and it is a common springboard used by other writers and historians to leap, not only into the analysis of Jordan’s work, but also into the issue of American racism in general. In his analysis of Jordan’s thesis, Karl Westhauser notes that Jordan displayed the necessary understanding of the subject by realizing “that to discover the origins of American racism, he would first have to trace the development of English attitudes toward Africans (Westhauser p. 112).” Jordan began naturally from the beginning – the British ideas of the Africans during their first encounter in 1550. The darkness of the color of the skin of the African peoples was of extreme interest the Englishmen because it was so far from anything they had ever seen. This meeting came at a time when the difference between white and black – light and dark – in the mind of the Englishmen carried heavy significance. Jordan notes that “White and black connoted purity and filthiness, virginity and sin, virtue and baseness, beauty and ugliness, beneficence and evil, God and the devil (Jordan p.7).” Jordan explains that this was not an uncommon train of thought among different peoples and cultures. This being the case, Africans naturally found themselves to be the most beautiful while the white Europeans weren’t attractive to them in the least. Their views were “inverse to the European’s (Jordan p.10).” Despite the difference in opinions regarding the beauty and meaning of different colors, the two cultures didn’t automatically regard the other as fitting a specific role – the Europeans didn’t “[prejudge] the Negro as a slave, at least not as a slave of Englishmen. Rather, Englishmen met Negroes merely as another sort of men (Jordan p.4).” The view of racism that assigned the Negro to the position as an inferior human being designated for work as a slave didn’t come along until relations between black and white men were much more developed.

From this realization Jordan researched and proved “that English ideas about black people were fluid well into the seventeenth century, grounding the rise of racism in contingency rather than the certainty of hindsight (Westhauser p.112-113).” Jordan’s interpretation of the development of racism eschews the idea that the American colonists’ attitudes were already founded upon the idea of white-supremacy when they established the colonies in America. To further the point first illustrated by Jordan, Westhauser states that the British’s practices of slavery and attitudes of racism only correlated with the development of that in the colonies to a certain degree. He notes:
Yet some doors that closed in the Americas remained open in England, creating meaningful opportunities for black people and for the development of race relations. Most importantly, no legislation establishing slavery was ever enacted in England; the laws enacted in the colonies found no parallel at home…. English courts had to decide over and over again, case by case, whether to uphold rights of property or of liberty; their decisions differed from one case to another. (Westhauser pp. 113-114)
Westhauser’s evidence buttresses Jordan’s idea by proving that in statutory law the British didn’t enact anything of the same magnitude and racial discrimination that the American colonies did. If the Americans received their racist attitudes from the British then it would have been more likely that the British would have displayed a similar amount of brutality and racism towards Africans that the Americans did.

The American colonies inherited the idea of slavery from the British, but how the Americans fused all Africans to the position as slaves and thus created white-supremacist ideals requires some investigation. Perhaps it was bound to happen to some degree, because even the British developed racist attitudes toward Africans, although these attitudes weren’t near the same degree as what the Americans. However, this idea supposes that even if America was bound to develop some form of racist attitude, they still had power over how deep they would allow this racism to run in their society. Considering that the American colonies and the British differed in the extent of their racism then it also leads to the idea of the possibility that each society was actually in control of whether or not racism developed and found place in their statutes at all.

Meditation

In societies throughout the world, there are many problems emerging as a result of the downturn many economies have taken in the last several years. There is one in particular that has affected many people even though they may not even realize its influence. What is this problem? Stress. Stress and anxiety are two very well known issues which have been around since man can remember. They are unavoidable. Any kind of emotional or physical threat can cause stress or anxiety in a person, resulting in irritability, fatigue, headaches, loss of energy, or high blood pressure and heart rate. If stress is not managed properly it can have a serious affect on a person’s well-being mentally and emotionally, as well as physically. There have been many different suggestions for stress management presented by doctors, specialists, mothers, fathers and friends. Popular methods for stress reduction include exercise or medication. However, there have been alternative means of medicine that doctors have been experimenting with for many years now. One alternative to medication is meditation. Doctors have been researching its affects on high blood pressure and heart rate due to stress.
While many people still think of meditation as a bunch of “humms” and “owms” that hippies or Buddhists practice, there is much more to it than that. It is more than just sitting cross-legged on the floor. It is an intellectually based exercise to help focus and concentrate on oneself or ones conscious (Robert). Buddhist meditation is one of the oldest forms of meditation that originally was practiced for religious purposes to become closer to nature and God, and calm one’s mind. The art of Zen takes practice and discipline in order to perfect the meditative processes. (Masao 122). What doctors have been researching more recently are the actual psychological and physiological affects that meditation can have on someone. Experiments and research has led many doctors to believe that meditation can be used for more than just “finding oneself” or getting to know a god. Meditation can be a useful practice for the treatment of stress and anxiety because of its calming affects which can reduce heart rate and blood pressure. Many people may not think it is a very practical means of alternative medicine for anxiety or stress but when practiced seriously and correctly meditation can be calming for more than just the spirit of a person. It can physically and psychologically calm their body and mind (Hyuk 190).
There are many different types of meditation that are being found to be very affective for stress management. One of which is transcendental meditation. Transcendental meditation is a more modern method of meditation that was first taught by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi from India. It involves the use of a sound or “mantra” that is meant to draw ones attention back to a specific thought or idea. As the mantra is repeated it is supposed to focus the mind and awaken the less active parts of the brain (Michaels 1242). When applied by patients with anxiety this type of meditation can help them focus and take control in order to slow breathing and heart rate.