Analysing Abuse Of Migrant Domestic Worker Social Work Essay

Analysing Abuse Of Migrant Domestic Worker Social Work Essay In year 2004, the first ever recorded of the nation worst abused and tortured of migrant worker, Nirmala Bonat. The news has brought to light the sad and painful incidents as a 19th year old Indonesian maid told a harrowing story of how she was repeatedly burnt with an iron and scalded with boiling water by her Malaysian employer. The Malaysian image of a caring nation has been tarnished when pictures of abused Indonesian domestic workers were featured in major newspapers. The reports made great impact as it drew series of reaction from disgusted and angry Malaysians who could not believe the fact that members of our very own community could commit such cruel acts. I just could not bear by looking at the images of Nirmala Bonat being brutalized by her employer. What has she done to deserve such severe punishment from her employer? If indeed, Nirmala Bonat is incompetent in her daily routines work, she should have been returned to her agent for replacement. Manhandling a human being or soul, who is here to earn a better life and living is like committing a merciless crime. Five years later in 2009, another similar Nirmala Bonat case making the headlines once again. An Indonesian maid by the name, Siti Hajar was tortured by an old Malaysian lady without any sense of humanity at all towards her. Abusing migrant domestic worker or helper is no longer something new in the society. Siti Hajars plight made the Malaysian and Indonesian media a headlines once more. News says that she being allegedly scalded with boiling water, tortured and starved. The worst still she is only fed with plain rice and occasionally her employer have asked the maid who is a Muslim to digest pork meat is merely unforgivable at all. One after another, Siti Hajar cases has led to an alleged rape, physical abuse, denial of salaries and basic rights of three Indonesian women by their employer in Sungai Siput, Perak. Such acts are simply inhumane. Up to dated, statistics shows more than hundred of thousand Indonesian women are believed to work in Malaysian homes as hoping to earn a better life. Malaysia as the second largest destination for Indonesian maid after Saudi Arabia besides Kuwait, Jordan, Hong Kong and some other countries including maid working in the United States of America. There are few question that I would like to raise up here; are the Indonesian maids working aboard under a good condition? Do they have the right for their salaries or even getting a freedom of human right? Never, I do understand why the Philippines maids were not abused or even being tortured physically. Is it due to the communication breakdown between the maid and the employer? By having a maid or migrant domestic helper, would it make things much easier or difficult for us? Not to forget, most maid from Indonesia which are brought into the country, merely are from a lower grade. This is because a much more skilled and quality ones would be sent to other countries which offer a greater lucrative sum of money, countries like Hong Kong and Saudi Arabia. This would lead to Malaysian employer felt that they are being cheated as they have to be prepared to accept those lower grades migrant domestic worker. While the agents are allowed to capitalize on a lucrative business as they often wash their hands off as soon as the workers are delivered to the employers. Such situation left no option for the employer as they would need to train the lower grades domestic worker in household management from basic; How to get the laundry done? Cleaning up the bathrooms? Getting the rubbish out of the house? Baby-sitting? Helping our wives in the kitchen or even thinking of he lping you and your family with cooking? With all this situations, the employer would end up with lots of burden and misery. Before I go any further in discussing the possible measures that can be taken as to curb these issues effectively, let us take a glance at the Malaysian law and policies on migrant workers. The system that is being practice in Malaysia has put migrant domestic workers at complete disadvantage as far as seeking for justice is concerned. This is because the migrant domestic workers are at a bigger disadvantage as they are not even considered workers and as such do not fall under the provisions of the Employment Act. Laws and policies are enforced with great speed and efficiency when migrant workers violate these laws and the situation is different when the employer does the same offences. Even tough, migrant workers make complaints against their employers, they will be subjected to various form of abuses including verbal and physical threats. This again causes them to live under severe stress and fear. I have seen and heard many cases where workers are immediately got their contract terminated and being repatriated back to their home country where they are laden with huge debts and poverty. Therefore, domestic workers especially would put up with the abuses and torture rather than returning to their countries empty handed. The next point that I would like to include in this essay is the forms of abuses endured by migrant domestic workers in Malaysia. Press reports merely stated that the wages to workers are not paid as per the contract even after they have fulfilled all the contract terms. Nevertheless, migrant domestic workers spend a lot of money to come to this country and most of the wages earned are often used to pay up loans and debts, which they have secured and as to feed their families back home. When employers do not pay the wages, the workers suffer the most. Beside that, migrant domestic workers are often forced to live in cramped, dirty and badly furnished shacks or crowded into houses meant for a small family. Some even sleep on the kitchen floor with just a piece of thin mattress. To be exact, domestic workers are not given a proper rooms of their own and such housing facilities that are not fit for living would lead to promote unhealthy conditions. The situation, which I have pointed out, brought an environment where employers feel they have the immunity power. Hence migrant domestic workers are virtually at the mercy of their employers who are confident that they would be able to get away with almost anything. Some employers are fully aware that even if the matter is brought to the attention of the authorities such as the civil courts or industrial court, the immigrant policies in Malaysia would make it almost impossible for the migrant worker to successfully seek justice or redress without first either running out of money or time both which is completely controlled the policies stipulated by the Immigration Department. It is not until the sole reason of Nirmala Bonats case received so much attention and quick redress was given because the severity of her injuries making the headlines of every local newspaper front page. Public outcry on her case has prompted the Malaysian authorities to swing into immediate action. The responds show that Malaysian can administer justice swiftly and effectively when it chooses to do so. It is pertinent to note that many cases go unreported in the media. High profile cases that drew attention has forced Malaysia taking up the measures to check on maid abuses by inspecting on homes, interviews of maids and employers and also by introducing a helpline. Therefore, as to curb the problems effectively, I call on the government to grant swift action to migrant workers in seeking justice and protection. Employers who break the law must be made accountable. The government should impose heavier punishment to maid abusers. Law and policies that impede or delaying the justice system must be either amended or removed together. The Malaysian government need to ensure that enforcement agencies such as the Immigration Department, Civil or Industrial Court and the Police Force to enforce the law without bias and prejudice. Whereby there are cases been brought to my attention that migrant workers have often been subjected to extortion by enforcement personnel. Enforcement personnel have also been known to take the employers side in coercing workers to comply with unfair terms of employment. These allegations of extortion and gross misconduct by enforcement personnel must be investigated. Enforcement must be carried out swiftly and impartially against employers who do not obey the law. The authorities must not wait till there is a public outrage as to get into action. In other words, all relevant authorities are to stop all type of harassment on migrant domestic workers immediately. I personally think that the government should set minimum work and living environment standards that employers must adhere to. These can be achieved effectively as the government must ratify the International Convention on Protection of the Rights of all Migrant Workers and Members of their Families, which was adopted by the UN General Assembly in 1990 and ensure its full implementation. The cultural differences in Malaysia as for a domestic worker to work 24 hours, seven days a week with no off day while being paid wages below the national poverty line. I would like to urge all migrant domestic workers who have been abused to bravely step forward and expose their employers as to put a stop of mistreating them. The agents too should be accountable for their carelessness and irresponsibility as most Muslims maids who work in non-Muslim homes were required to bath dogs and handled pork. Such act would utterly insensitive on the part of the employers and the agents. The solution would be that non-Muslim employers should be allowed only to hire non-Muslim maids while Muslim employers to bring in Muslim maids. The phrase Learn to live without maids struck my mind as I was watching Nanny 911, a television series of a Nanny assigned to homes as to help out American couples in handling and managing their families. I would like to state that men and children should also do housework. House chores are not as easy as you think it would be. We Malaysian are a lucky lot as we can afford to have maids with affordable rates and yet there are complaints of Indonesian maids now are asking for a little more. Therefore, I would say we should do the daily chores, home and outside ourselves. I have seen how typical it can be as only the women do everything at home as the men and children just laze around. Mind you there are tones of work to be done in the house besides caring for the children. There is the sweeping and mopping, cleaning the toilets, washing dishes, the laundry, the ironing, the cooking, dusting the windows and cabinets and the list goes on. This is not fair to women especially, we should have a balance and as for the men and children should lend a helping hands in assisting with the household chores. I think it is about time for us to learn to do something ourselves as this is something that we should ponder over. I would like to suggest that we should not solely depend on maids from aboard. We could train our local women especially the single mothers or purely a fulltime housewife. We could have them to come over on daily basis or even by the hours as another alternative in curbing the problems. This will lead to a cost effective and less risk of domestic helper or maid being abuse as they are not require to stay with the employer. Career women with families to take care of should change their mindset as placing the whole responsibility of the household works solely to the maid as their servant. Therefore to ease their worries especially those having children could send them to a nursing or a childcare center during the days and pick them up after work. The aspects of managing time with work and household duties are really hard to manage. I would say, why not we do it ourselves as life has become much more easier with new inventions with the latest technology of electrical appliances in doing household works. Children are very much a fast pace learner in everything if they were taught on how to do handle household chores. We should train our children to be more discipline and independent from a younger age as to get rid off the sole hope on maids. Parents can start by telling them how to keep their space clean and tidy, like make up their beds as they got up from sleep, wash their own plates or even get the rubbish out of the house. I would love to Live a life without the maid, the wife should ask the male spouse for assistance, cooperation and shares the responsibility in managing the house and their children. In most develop countries especially the westerner, we could see that the male gender does not feel ashamed when come to household works. The husband and wife would take turns and share equal responsibilities in raising and taking care of the family. It is about time as the long-standing issue on the supply of maids is finally nearing a conclusion between Malaysia and Indonesia with the signing of the Letter of Intent (Lol) on amendments to the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on the Recruitment and Placement of Maids from Indonesia on the 18th May 2010. The Indonesian government is expected to lift its ban since June last year as to allow its citizen to work in Malaysia again. Both government officials have been holding meetings to resolve issues in relation to the maids issue. Among the issues agreed to is that maids in Malaysia will be given one day off weekly and their right to hold on to their passports. However, employer and the maid concern could agree to forego the day off in lieu of compensation and an employer could also hold onto a maids passport if both parties agreed. The only issue that is still pending is the wage paid to migrant domestic workers as it requires more discussions. Finally, I hope the government would recognize Migrant Domestic Workers as workers and grant them all the rights that come with the status. This hopefully will resolve the problem. Perhaps the employers should also be required to sign an undertaking not to physically abuse the maid and if they are unhappy, the maids are to be returned to the agency for further training or getting a new replacement. BIBLIOGRAFI 1. Prof Datuk Dr. Nik Safiah Karim, Head of PERTIWI (2009). The Maids: Ease vs Burden. Pertubuhan Tindakan Wanita Islam (PERTIWI). 2. Prof Madya Dr. Rusinah Siron, Social Analysis. (2009). Overcome your life without Indonesian maid. Universiti Tenaga Malaysia (UNITEN), Kuala Lumpur. 3. Article Maid deal soon, The Star, 19th May 2010. 4. Article Learn to live without maids, The Star, 24th May 2010. 5. Immigration Department of Malaysia. 6. Malaysian Employment Act. 7. http://thestar.com.my/news/story/ Nirmala Bonat case: Housewife found guilty, 18 years jail.

Cindy Sherman Artist Biography

Cindy Sherman Artist Biography No other artist has ever made as extended or complex career of presenting herself to the camera as has Cindy Sherman. Yet, while all of her photographs are taken of Cindy Sherman, it is impossible to class call her works self-portraits. She has transformed and staged herself into as unnamed actresses in undefined B movies, make-believe television characters, pretend porn stars, undifferentiated young women in ambivalent emotional states, fashion mannequins, monsters form fairly tales and those which she has created, bodies with deformities, and numbers of grotesqueries. Her work as been praised and embraced by both feminist political groups and apolitical mainstream art. Essentially, Shermans photography is part of the culture and investigation of sexual and racial identity within the visual arts since the 1970s. It has been said that, The bulk of her workà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦has been constructed as a theater of femininity as it is formed and informed by mass culture (her) pictures insist on the aporia of feminine identity tout court, represented in her pictures as a potentially limitless range of masquerades, roles, projections (Sobieszek 229). Born in Glen Ridge, New Jersey, Cindy Sherman grew up in suburban Huntington Beach on Long Island, the youngest of five children and had a regular American childhood. She was very self-involved, found of costumes, and given to spending hours at the mirror, playing with makeup (Schjeldahl 7). Cindy Sherman attended the state University College at Buffalo, New York, where she first started to create art in the medium of painting. During her college years, she painted self-portraits and realistic copies of images that she saw in photographs and magazines. Yet, she became less, and less interested in painting and became increasingly interested in conceptual, minimal, performance, body art, and film alternatives (Sherman 5). Shermans very first introductory photography class in college was a complete failure for she had difficulties with the technological aspects of making a print. After her disastrous first attempt in photography, Sherman discovered Contemporary Art, which had a profound and lasting effect on the rest of her artistic career (Thames and Hudson 1). Shermans first assignment in her photography class was to photograph something which gave her a problem, thus, Sherman chose to photograph her self naked. While this was difficult, she learned that having an idea was the most important factor in creating her art, not so much the technique that she used. While she was talented at copying with pencils and paints, this artistic method would not allow Sherman to express herself personally. But with a camera, Sherman could use her body as a tool (Sills 64). The young artist became fascinated by the way any image at all, simply being presented, activates a mysterious charge-neither subjective nor objective, but of both (Schjeldahl 7). In college, Sherman became active in the local avant-garde scene, the liveliest of two decades, and especially in Hallwalls, an artist-run alternative exhibition space (Heller 223). In 1975, while still attending college, Cindy She rman created her first series of five photographs entitled, Untitled A-E. Within these first photographs, Sherman attempts to alter her face with makeup and hats, attempting to take on different personas, such as a little girl in Untitled D, and a clown in Untitled A (Thames and Hudson 2). This first series is Shermans first attempt of documenting transformation. The Curator Linda Cathcart, saw the pictures at Hallwalls and put them at the Albright Knox Art Gallery (Heller 225). Because Sherman had such vivid imagination and became fascinated with self-transformation, Sherman often bought vintage clothes and accessories from thrift stores, which helped her to form and create different characters. So it just grew and grew until I was buying and collecting more and more of these things, and suddenly the characters came together just because I had so much of the detritus from them (Thames and Hudson 2 ). Sherman went even as far as wearing the costumes and dressing as different charact ers to gallery openings and events in Buffalo. She wore these costumes because she wanted to see how far she how transformed she could look (Haller 225). Yet, Sherman never considered dressing up for performance purposes because she was not maintaining a character but simply getting dressed up to go out (Thames and Hudson 2). Cindy Sherman began her famous series of Untitled Film Series at the end of 1977. The small black and white photographs are of Sherman impersonating female character types from old B grade movies, which speak to a generation of baby boomer women who had grown up absorbing these glamorous images ay home on their televisions, taking such portrayals as cues for their future (Thames and Hudson 1). Upon graduation of college in 1977, Cindy Sherman and her fellow student Robert Longo moved to Manhattan, New York together. She continued with her interest in role-playing and dressing up as different characters, and began to photograph herself in these different guises among different locations such as her apartment Untitled Film Still #10, in the Southwest in Untitled Film Still #43, and in Long Island in Untitled Film Still # 9. Shermans manipulation of lighting, makeup, and dress make it difficult to believe that all of the characters represented were indeed the same person (Heller 225). A ll of the portraits are of her but none of the works are in any way a self-portrait of Sherman. They are portraits of an identity that Sherman shares with every female who thinks of her life in the way of a cheap movie. For this reason alone, is why her work has been looked at for special by feminist who hold the view that women do not hold theories, but tell stories. In the stills it is important to get a deep and true understanding that her use of photography is more integral to the performance then a photographic record of what took place. (Danto 10-11). Each of the stills is about the girl in trouble, but in the aggregate they touch the myth we each carry out of childhood, of danger, love, and security that defines the human condition. Desire mixed with nostalgia fuels the allure of the Untitled Film Stills-desire for the woman depicted as well as desire to be that woman, during that time (Thames and Hudson 4). Sherman said that the last thing she wanted her pictures to have was emotion. The still only provided a framework through which her deeper artistic impulses found expression (Danto 9). She was most interested in what a character was like when they were completely emotionless (Sherman 8). These black and white photographs were purposely grainy because Sherman wanted them to look like cheap publicity shots. While, Sherman takes most of her own photographs using a remote shutter-release, some of her pictures are also taken by her family and friends. This Untitled Film Series was first exhibited in 1995, in the Hirshborn Museum of Washington D.C. In each of the photographs, Sherman is depicted alone, As a familiar but unidentifiable film heroine in an appropriate setting (Thames and Hudson 2). Some of the many characters depicted are of a perky B-movie librarian in Untitled Film Still #13; a voluptuous lower-class women from an Italian neo-realist film in Untitled Film still #35; and a young secretary in the city Untitled Film Still # 21 (Thames and Hud son 2). In terms of the untitled film still #35 and Untitled Film still #15, both depict Sherman as a seductress, Sherman says To pick a character like that was about my own ambivalence about sexuality-growing up with the woman role models that I had, and a lot of them in films, that were like that character, and yet you were supposed to be a good girl (Thames and Hudson 2). Sherman encourages the viewers participation in constructing their own narratives of her Untitled Film Still #10, Untitled Film Still # 14, and Untitled Film Still #65 (Thames and Hudson 3) Sherman created sixty-nine photographs in total, presenting her works in an array of types. According to Judith Williamson, force upon the viewers that elision of image and identity which women experience all the timeà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ (Thames and Hudson 3). Cindy Shermans Untitled Film Stills are also seen as related to feminist performance work of the 1970s by artists such as Adrian Piper and Eleanor Antin. Sherman is also noted as being heavily influenced by these artists. The Untitled Film Series are not only photographic records of performance but performative accounts of filmic images (Thames and Hudson 4). Sherman ended her sixty-nine photograph scenes in 1980, when she began to realize that she was duplicating previously used characters, clichà ©s, and stereotypes. Cindy Shermans next series or collection of photographs was her first working color called the Rear Screen Projections, which exude the artifice of a television show. With her increasing desire to work at home, Sherman created her photographs in front of a projected screen, which she projected slides of outdoor and indoor scenes. Viewing the photographs one can obviously tell that the background is fake. The very realistic and sometimes quite closely cropped images of Sherman contrast with the blurry and substantial settings, heightening the artifice of the entire scene (Thames and Hudson 5). Her second series concentrates on the 1960s and 1970s rather then the 1950s depicted in the Untitled Film Series. Rather then female victims, the Rear Screen Projections depict women who are confident and independent, usually youthful, middle-class women in the real world. The characters of the Rear Screen Projections are best identified as being counterparts of women in the media of the 1970s s uch as Mary Richards character in The Mary Tyler Moore television series (Thames and Hudson 5). In 1981, after creating a portfolio of images for an issue of Artforum, Sherman became inspired by the magazines horizontal format and produced a series of works that refer to the photo spreads in photographic magazines. This is said to be Shermans first mature work. These large photographs are in color, are cropped and close-up with each image depicting a young woman looking off to the side with a vacant and vulnerable look. She keeps background details to a minimum allowing the attention to be drawn to the figure. Shermans horizontals suggest a profound transgression against form. Within these pictures have there is no coherent point of view (Sobieszek, 25). When Sherman showed this series, she was criticized by some for having created women that reaffirm sexist stereotypes, therefore Artforum rejecting this series. Critics have found Untitled #93 as the most suggestive of all her works. This photograph shows a woman with messy hair and smudged makeup in bed covering her eyes, whil e looking toward the light that shines in her eyes. Although Sherman has stated that She was imagining someone who had just come home in the early morning from being out partying all night, and the sun wakes her shortly after she has gone to bed (Thames and Hudson 6). Critics on the other hand have read this photograph as a rape portrayal. Misreading of the centerfolds became very common because people tried to create stories from them, discovering hidden meanings where none were present (Schjeldahl 9). Much like her earlier works, the centerfolds mimic and repeat mass media modes. In the Pink Robe series, Sherman uses herself once again to imitate the stance of porno models, choosing to pose only in a pink chenille bathrobe. This series conveys a state of loveless intimacy, intimacy without understanding or personal tenderness (Schjeldahl 10). In this series, Sherman responds to the criticism of the centerfold series, and switches to a vertical format in order to do away with the vulnerability of the characters. Yet, the Pink Robe Series is just a continuation of the Centerfold series because Sherman thinks of these images as depiction of the porno model during breaks between posing for nude shots (Thames and Hudson 7). Sherman sits in front of the camera deciding to appear as un-sexy and without makeup or wigs, staring directly toward the viewer. Many critics interpret this series as the real Cindy and most revealing of all of her photographs (Thames and Hudson 7). Sherman has produced four groups of works that quote from fashion photography. In Shermans fashion series, she reminds the viewer that that fashion allows us to create and display a wide range of appearances as if we each possessed a wide range of identities (Sobieszek, 253). Her first fashion series was commissioned in 1983 for a spread in Interview magazine. Provided with designer clothes such as Jean-Paul Gaultier, Sherman undoubtedly provided an antithesis of a glamour ads. The models look silly but utterly delighted in their high fashion frocks. Her second commissioned fashion photographs are even more bizarre from the previous works, with the models looking dejected in Untitled #137, exaggeratedly wrinkled in Untitled #132, and even homicidal in Untitled #138. It appears inevitable that Sherman would be drawn to fashion spreads because fashion is yet another means of masquerade for women, and ads for clothing promise to convert the buyer into a more perfect version of herself ( Thames and Hudson 8). Like all advertisements, fashion photographs manufacture a desire in a woman that could never be filled. Sherman uses her fashion photographs to undermine the desirability of such images by emphasizing their manipulating nature (Thames and Hudson 8). In the fairy tales and monster series, Sherman reminds us of the monsters from childhood memories and may be suggesting through these photographs that everyone harbors a secret, repressed self that can shift form and shape at will (Sobieszek, 253). The undercurrent turned, rather startling in the 1980s into a torrent of gore and rage when she switched to using a larger format and often lurid colors, and to concocting increasingly horrific and surreal images (Kimmelman 142). These images represent a time in her career when her images truly become strange and surreal. These photographs are unusual not only because of their horrific images, but also because a viewer is unaccustomed to seeing such stories represented in photographs. The strangest scene appears in Untitled #150, In which an androgyn with a huge, extended tongue fills the foreground, and tiny figures stand in the landscape behind it, making it seem like a giant among Lilliputians (Thames and Hudson 9). Shermans Fairy Tales do not depict a specific example, but evoke a narrative form. By the early 1990s Sherman had tired of creating these shocking images turning to art history for inspiration. The result was a series of photographic portraits of her returning as the model, transformed by her usual false noses, bosoms, into both male and female figures as painted by various old masters of Western painting (Heller 225). Even when Sherman was creating history portraits she worked out of books, with reproduction, she says that Its the aspect of photography that I appreciate, conceptually: the idea that images can be reproduced and seen anytime, anywhere, by anyone ( Kimmelman 145). Just like all the rest of her works, the history paintings do not depict a particular painting but depicts types for the history genre. Sherman creates the most memorable and humorous pictures of women. Often spoofing the awkward depictions of the female anatomy of the Old Masters paintings. Understanding how ridiculous these history paintings are helps the viewer understand that Sherman is mocking the Western canon and its depiction of royalty and religious figures (Thames and Hudson 12). Shermans next career move was to a raunchy pornographic depiction of individuals called the Sex Pictures. Using mannequins and body parts form medical catalogues, she constructs hybrid dolls. Rather then showing the dolls having sex, Sherman proudly shows the sex. Sherman created these works in response to the controversy over the National Endowment for the arts ands the debates over the constitute obscenity in the arts. Typically, pornography portrays sex as anonymous, but in Shermans series she depicts sex as ridiculous (Thames and Hudson 14). It Shermans work, the notion of self is completely abandoned, replaced by the concept of multiplicity, dissociation, and fluidity. Yet, her portraits do not appear as performances only unstable representations in ambiguous non-narratives making brief appearances, caught in a moment of ambivalent emotional expression (Sobieszek, 253). Much of her work is clearly meant to be ambiguous. Her pictures have been interpreted as feminist indictments of gender stereotyping, but Sherman insists that she is not political (Heller 226). References Danto, Arthur C. Cindy Sherman: Untitled Film Stills. New York: Rizzoli, 1990.. Heller, Nancy G. Women Artists and Illustrated History. New York: Abbeville Press, 1987. Kimmelman, Michael. Portraits. New York: Random House, 1998. Schjeldahl, Peter. Cindy Sherman. New York: Pantheon Books, 1984. Sherman, Cindy. The complete Untitled Film Stills. New York: The museum Of Modern Art, 2003. Sills, Leslie. In Real Life: Six Women Photographers. New York: Holiday House, 2000. Sobieszek, Robert A. Photography and The Human Soul 1850-2000. Los Angles: MIT Press and Los Angles County Museum of Art, 1999 Thames and Hudson. Cindy Sherman Retrospective. Chicago: Museum of Contemporary Art, 1998.

Racism in Amistad, To Kill a Mocking Bird, and Telephone Conversation E

The texts To Kill a Mocking Bird by Harper Lee, Amistad directed by Steven Spielberg and Telephone Conversation by Wole Soyinka explore the issue of racism. These three texts focus on prejudice, discrimination, bias, behaviour and attitude revolving around the issue of discrimination because of the coulour of ones skin and the cultural and social attitudes past on from one generation to another. Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird is a novel set in the southern states of the USA in the 1930’s, a time that is â€Å"Post Abolitionist†, however a time where the culture and social structure is still entrenched with racist attitudes and laws. Lee explores these issues in this setting when Ton Robinson, an African American is accused of raping a young white girl in a small town of Maycomb, Alabama. Racial attitudes are exposed when a lawyer by the name of Atticus Finch is asked to defend to the alleged rapist. Telephone conversation by Wole Soyinka is a poem which uses dialogu e between two people, one in a public telephone box and the other in a public telephone box and the other in a home in London, England to reinforce racial tensions, attitudes and class values. An intelligent, articulate and well educated black man seeking rental accommodation responds to a woman’s advertisement and is challenged by her about the colour of his skin. The poet explores this racial tension with the use of satire and perceptive dialogue. Steven Spielberg directs the film Amistad, and chronicles an incredible journey of a group of enslaved Africans who mutiny an attempt of their capture in order to return to their homeland. Their ship is seized and the slaves are brought to the United States to be charged with murder. Spielberg ensures that the responder is confronte... ...rom the love of his life. This is captured through the music by changing the music from a sorrowful sound to loud powerful music. These techniques used by Spielberg represent how the Negroes are just as human as any other person even though they are black in skin colour. Racism can simply be a mans fear of anything different, a fear of something he doesn’t understand. This fear is embedded or can be embedded in the attitudes reaching from one generation to another. It can be reinforced by ones culture, community and personal experience. These texts have explored all of the above areas and the responder can also appreciate that behaviour is a response to attitudes and the suffering, humiliation and destructive treatment of other human beings can at times be lessened or illuminated by the courage of one man and his or her determination to do what they think is right.

Essay --

Name of the book - India Grows at Night by Gurucharan Das I haven’t read any of the two Gurucharan’s previous books. Besides, this is the first book I will be reviewing for Developmental economics. The title of the Book only caught my attention for two reasons. First it reminded me of the famous speech by Jawaharlal Nehru â€Å"At the stroke of the midnight hour, when the world sleeps, India will awake to life and freedom.† His speech somewhat depicted the reality as India only started to develop at night. Second, it gave me some sort of insight of what I might come across in this book. It’s more of a statement which leads us towards the realness of our country. He begins the first chapter with the example of Haryana and Gurgaon. The unexpected rise of the neglected and underdeveloped Gurgaon in becoming a â€Å"Millennium City â€Å"and the surrender of a would-be planned city Faridabad, later even struggling to capture up with India’s first wave of modernization. It was discussed how private player s took charge in Gurgaon- which arose without an effective state whilst Faridabad with a proper functioning state, withered. Indian model was discussed – which was different than the rest of the world as India got democracy before capitalism. By the end of this chapter, das speaks about the shortcoming of the state and how to move from the private success and public failure in order to become a successful nation. In the next chapter he talks about the Anna Hazare’s movement and how a weak government was shaken to its core by a strong society. Delay in implementation of projects like POSCO – which had been caught in the web of red tape for 5 years. He also mentioned how 168 projects of Coal India had been awaiting clearance – which led to powe... .... In the last section he concludes by giving suggestions on what should be done and redefines the definition of a Strong state and mention that a state is required to grow - no matter how many inefficiencies it may have, he writes â€Å"a weak state is better than no state at all". This book is a brilliant piece by Gurucharan Das, which talks about India’s impressive economic rise despite the presence or rather the absence of a state. With its narrative approach it is easy for readers to understand. Das takes you on a journey beyond 1900 and gives a glimpse of our past and present in order to understand the lacunae that India is facing. The part I disliked is he stressed a lot more in explaining the relevance of a strong state. But this book attempts to show us a path which could help the state deal with governance shortfall effectively. Nishant Sharma Radio stream

Freedom and Reason In Kant Essay -- Philosophy Philosophical Essays

Freedom and Reason in Kant Morality, Kant says, cannot be regarded as a set of rules which prescribe the means necessary to the achievement of a given end; its rules must be obeyed without consideration of the consequences that will follow from doing so or not. A principle that presupposes a desired object as the determinant of the will cannot give rise to a moral law; that is, the morality of an act of will cannot be determined by the matter or content of the will for when the will is materially determined the question of its morality does not arise. This consideration leads Kant to one of his most important theses. If the moral character of willing is not determined by the content of what is willed, it must be determined by the form:" If a rational being can think of his maxims as universal laws, he can do so only by considering them as principles which contain the determining ground of the will because of their form and not because of their matter". Therefore, the morality of a maxim is determined by its functioning as a universal law, applicable as a general rule to every rational agent. Since a moral will must be so in virtue of its form alone, the will must be capable of a purely formal determination; that is, it must be possible for a man to act in a certain way for the sole reason that willing in this way is prescribed by a universal law, no matter what the empirical results will be. A will to which moral considerations apply must be, in the strictest sense, a free will, one that can function independently of the laws of natural causality. The concept of morality, therefore, has to be explained in terms of a universal moral law, and the ability to will in obedience to such a law leads us to postulate the freedom. The freedom which Kant is talking about, is not only a negative freedom consisting in the absence of constraint by empirical causes, it is also a positive freedom which consists in the ability to make acts of will in accordance with the moral law, for no other reason than that they are in accordance with it. Freedom, in this sense, corresponds to Autonomy of the will and its absence ( any situation in which the will is determined by external causes ) is called Heteronomy. In obeying the moral law for the sake of the law alone, the will is autonomous because it is obeying a law which it imposes on itself. .. ...e person, as Reason, as belonging to the intellectual world, is not affected by the laws of Determinism: he is free. This is Kant's proof of Freedom. Is it satisfactory? Later on, in the "Critics of Practical Reason", Kant does not attempt to deduce synthetically Morality from Freedom, as he tried to do in the Grounding by stating that Freedom was the necessary condition for Morality, but he assumes the moral law as a "fact of the reason" from which he infers Freedom. There have been critics blaming Kant of a sort of vicious circle, because he seemed to demonstrate Freedom by means of deduction from Morality and then to show the possibility of the Categorical Imperative deducing it from Freedom. Kant answers that there is no vicious circle because in the ontological order Freedom is the condition for Morality ( it is not possible to follow the duty for the duty if you are not free), but in the order of our knowledge, the moral law is the requirement for Freedom ( we would not consider ourselves free, if we did not think of ourselves as subject to the moral law). Freedom is the ratio essendi of the moral law, but the moral law is the ratio cognoscendi of Freedom. Freedom and Reason In Kant Essay -- Philosophy Philosophical Essays Freedom and Reason in Kant Morality, Kant says, cannot be regarded as a set of rules which prescribe the means necessary to the achievement of a given end; its rules must be obeyed without consideration of the consequences that will follow from doing so or not. A principle that presupposes a desired object as the determinant of the will cannot give rise to a moral law; that is, the morality of an act of will cannot be determined by the matter or content of the will for when the will is materially determined the question of its morality does not arise. This consideration leads Kant to one of his most important theses. If the moral character of willing is not determined by the content of what is willed, it must be determined by the form:" If a rational being can think of his maxims as universal laws, he can do so only by considering them as principles which contain the determining ground of the will because of their form and not because of their matter". Therefore, the morality of a maxim is determined by its functioning as a universal law, applicable as a general rule to every rational agent. Since a moral will must be so in virtue of its form alone, the will must be capable of a purely formal determination; that is, it must be possible for a man to act in a certain way for the sole reason that willing in this way is prescribed by a universal law, no matter what the empirical results will be. A will to which moral considerations apply must be, in the strictest sense, a free will, one that can function independently of the laws of natural causality. The concept of morality, therefore, has to be explained in terms of a universal moral law, and the ability to will in obedience to such a law leads us to postulate the freedom. The freedom which Kant is talking about, is not only a negative freedom consisting in the absence of constraint by empirical causes, it is also a positive freedom which consists in the ability to make acts of will in accordance with the moral law, for no other reason than that they are in accordance with it. Freedom, in this sense, corresponds to Autonomy of the will and its absence ( any situation in which the will is determined by external causes ) is called Heteronomy. In obeying the moral law for the sake of the law alone, the will is autonomous because it is obeying a law which it imposes on itself. .. ...e person, as Reason, as belonging to the intellectual world, is not affected by the laws of Determinism: he is free. This is Kant's proof of Freedom. Is it satisfactory? Later on, in the "Critics of Practical Reason", Kant does not attempt to deduce synthetically Morality from Freedom, as he tried to do in the Grounding by stating that Freedom was the necessary condition for Morality, but he assumes the moral law as a "fact of the reason" from which he infers Freedom. There have been critics blaming Kant of a sort of vicious circle, because he seemed to demonstrate Freedom by means of deduction from Morality and then to show the possibility of the Categorical Imperative deducing it from Freedom. Kant answers that there is no vicious circle because in the ontological order Freedom is the condition for Morality ( it is not possible to follow the duty for the duty if you are not free), but in the order of our knowledge, the moral law is the requirement for Freedom ( we would not consider ourselves free, if we did not think of ourselves as subject to the moral law). Freedom is the ratio essendi of the moral law, but the moral law is the ratio cognoscendi of Freedom.

Non Renewable Energy Sources Environmental Sciences Essay

Electricity can be generated by firing fossil fuels like coal, oil and natural gas. Fossil fuels are burned and the heat produced is used to bring forth steam that drives turbines which run electrical generators. Coal is the most frequently used of these fuels because it is readily available, with big sedimentations all over the universe. There are rich coal sedimentations in the north western parts of South Africa, nevertheless, the remainder of Africa has really limited supplies. Fossil fuels are non-renewable resources and at the current rate of coal ingestion, universe militias are predicted to last about 200 old ages ( Breeze, 2005: 18 ) which has lead to the on-going development of new methods of electricity production concentrating on renewable resources. Despite this, the bulk of electricity production throughout the universe depends on coal. Coal has a figure of advantages, being the cheapest dodo fuel, nevertheless, it is expensive to transport and produces big measures of byproducts when burned. These byproducts include ash, N oxides and C dioxide, which have caused environmental harm worldwide. Coal excavation disturbs big home grounds and can hold a negative consequence on land and surface H2O ( Miller, 2005: 77 ) . As a consequence of the environmental impact, engineering has been developed to take some of the emanations of coal burning and power workss now adhere to strict environmental ordinances. This has increased the cost of constructing coal-burning power workss, but coal still remains the cheapest method of electricity coevals. Harmonizing to the official web site of Eskom, the largest manufacturer of electricity in Africa, 77 % of South Africa ‘s electricity is dependent on coal-burning power Stationss like the Arnot Power Station in Mpumalanga. Nuclear power is a controversial method of electricity coevals. When the karyon of big atoms split, they release monolithic sums of energy that can be used to bring forth steam and thrust turbines and electrical generators. This is known as atomic fission. Nuclear merger, whereby little atoms are fused together, besides releases big sums of energy. Catastrophic accidents in the yesteryear have lead to stringent safety ordinances being implemented in atomic power workss. This has lengthened the clip it takes to build these installations every bit good as increased the costs well ( Breeze, 2005: 249 ) . On the one manus, atomic energy has the disadvantage of toxic waste as a byproduct. To this twenty-four hours, there is no effectual manner of disposing of atomic waste. On the other manus, atomic power Stationss emit no harmful gases into the ambiance, but as of yet, merely a little per centum of the Earth ‘s uranium militias are being utilized for electricity coevals ( Suppes & A ; Storvick, 2007: 54 ) . Uranium is the most normally used component for atomic fission. South Africa boasts the lone atomic power Stationss in Africa at the minute and has tremendous militias of U for atomic fission. Eskom feels this makes South Africa an ideal topographic point to work atomic energy despite the high cost of waste disposal and safety systems, every bit good as the negative public perceptual experience.Renewable Energy BeginningsHydropower is a really undervalued renewable energy beginning due to the big environmental impact of constructing hydroelectric dikes that displace wildlife and disrupt the flow of rivers. This can irreversibly change ecosystems, nevertheless, proper planning of these installations can cut down this environmental impact drastically. Despite the environmental impact, they can still turn out to be good. Hydropower is one of the cheapest beginnings of electricity ( Breeze, 2005: 104 ) . Most of the states on Earth have the possible to profit from hydropower, nevertheless, in order to use hydropower efficaciously, a good site is needed. Sites can change greatly and installations must, hence, be site specific. These sites are normally located far from the country where the electricity is distributed and as a consequence, a good transmittal system must be taken into history when constructing power workss of this nature. The effectivity of a hydroelectric installation depends on the gradient and the volumetric flow rate of the river on which it is built. These locations are normally unaccessible, increasing the cost of building. Hydroelectric installations can either utilize the flowing of a river to drive hydraulic turbines or they can make a reservoir from which to pull H2O to power the turbines. The usage of these methods depends on whether the river flows at a comparatively changeless rate or non. This electricity coevals technique is really flexible, as the end product of dikes can be ramped up or down to suit differen t energy demands. Once built, these installations besides produce no direct waste and have low emanations of harmful gases. The Drakensburg Pumped Storage Scheme is an illustration of hydropower usage in South Africa, However, being a semi-arid state, Eskom states that hydro power is non executable due to the inevitable environmental impact of disrupting the flow of the few possible rivers South Africa has for this intent. Pressure differences in the atmosphere consequence in air current which can exercise a force on and impel turbines. The turbine blades gain mechanical energy when they are rotated and this energy is transferred to an electrical generator. Wind power is already efficaciously utilized in some parts of the universe. In Africa, it has been estimated that air current power could bring forth 10,600 terawatt hours per twelvemonth ( Breeze, 2005: 153 ) and this sum will increase as wind turbines become more efficient. However, the chief restriction of air current power is that it requires big sums of land to be effectual. Higher air current velocities allow greater energy coevals, doing offshore wind farms appealing, nevertheless, the cost of constructing offshore is greater. The tallness of turbines is besides of import as air current velocities vary with tallness. Many turbines have a minimal air current velocity below which they cease to be economical. Accepted wind velocities are normall y from 5 to 6.5 metres per second ( Breeze, 2005: 155 ) . A feasible site for air current farms must besides be level, as uneven terrain can do turbulency which may take to damage of the turbine blades. Making the turbine towers taller reduces the effects of turbulency, by traveling the turbine blades above the turbulent air, but at greater disbursal. Offshore wind turbines must besides be raised above the maximal tallness of the moving ridges. Wind farms have really small environmental impact, utilizing a renewable resource and bring forthing clean energy, but they can make noise and may be unattractive. South Africa ‘s E and west seashores would be ideal for working air current power, and Eskom is executing feasibleness surveies to find whether the benefits outweigh the costs. Most of the energy exploited by adult male can be attributed to solar energy in some signifier or another, with the exclusion of atomic energy, tidal power and geothermic energy ( Breeze, 2005: 184 ) . These derivations of solar energy are all used to bring forth electricity, nevertheless, solar energy can be used for this intent straight every bit good. Heat from the Sun can be used to drive heat engines or, by utilizing semiconducting materials in solar cells, sunlight can be converted straight into electrical energy. The Sun provides an huge sum of energy that surpasses all other energy beginnings on Earth, despite us merely being able to tackle a fraction of the energy available. Solar energy has the largest energy potency of all renewable energy beginnings ( Shioshansi, 2009: 272 ) . Solar power workss require really small land relation to hydroelectric dikes. A good site for solar power workss requires frequent Sun exposure and small cloud screen. Brighter sunlight consequences in increased energy end product. Solar panels that harness solar energy are really various and can be included in the building of edifices. The chief disadvantage of solar energy is that it can merely be harnessed when the Sun is reflecting, hence, hive awaying energy becomes an of import factor to see when utilizing this energy coevals technique. Solar cells have a really simple design, but they are expensive to do, so care must besides be done often to guarantee maximal effectivity. Despite the evident advantages of solar energy, it is hardly used around the universe, nevertheless, this is quickly altering. South Africa has one of the highest solar irradiation degrees in the universe, harmonizing to Eskom, doing it an ideal topographic point to work solar energy for electricity coevalsDeveloping Energy BeginningsTidal power Stationss use the rise and autumn of the tide to bring forth electricity. These installations must be built across estuaries and have many restrictions. This method of electricity coevals is merely effectual in topographic points where there is a important difference in tallness between high and low tide. The cost of constructing tidal power Stationss is besides excessively high to warrant their building in most instances ( Breeze, 2005: 122 ) , doing them wasteful. South Africa has many estuaries but the height difference between tides is about two metres, which would non bring forth a important sum of electricity. Tidal power is, hence, impracticable in South Africa. However, there are other methods of bring forthing electricity utilizing the ocean. The difference in temperature between H2O of different deepnesss can drive a heat engine to bring forth utile work in the signifier of electricity. These temperature differences are normally excessively little for this method to be executable. Larger temperature differences are favored by heat engines and the effectivity of this procedure is, hence, marginally increased closer to the Torrid Zones. Despite all of its disadvantages, the engineering is still undergoing much development because of its possible to run continuously. The motion of moving ridges and submarine currents can besides drive hydraulic turbines to bring forth energy. South Africa has about 2,800 kilometres of coastline which has the potency for use of ocean power. However, the engineering is really new and, hence, the cost and environmental impact of ocean power installations is non yet known. Eskom is busy carry oning research as to whether ocean power is a executable beginning of energy in South Africa. Geothermal energy consequences from heat in the mantle of the Earth radiating towards its crust. This energy can be used to bring forth electricity, but at that place exist merely a few parts on Earth with temperatures high plenty and near plenty to the Earth ‘s surface. The heat from the Earth is used to make steam which can drive turbines that supply energy to electrical generators. Geothermal energy is thought to be a renewable beginning of energy, but this is non needfully true. The heat used for electricity coevals is non replaced, nevertheless, the sum of heat used is negligible in comparing to the sum of heat contained within the Earth. Although geothermic energy has been used for a long clip, the engineering is still being developed in order to go a more effectual beginning of electricity. It has the advantages of being inexpensive and can be exploited easy. Geothermal energy is one of the cleanest signifiers of energy because of the comparative absence of any atmospher ic emanations ( Breeze, 2005: 171 ) . Hot springs and geysers are a good mark of a potentially feasible site for a geothermic power works. Hot springs and geysers are a good mark of a potentially feasible site for a geothermic power works. Higher temperature heat reservoirs are better for working geothermic energy, but are normally deeper down which consequences in higher costs. However, these heat reservoirs can be depleted over clip if the fluids in the reservoir are non replaced. The clip it takes for a reservoir to go low can change greatly, but with the right direction they can be maintained for long periods of clip. If managed falsely, geothermic power workss can hold black effects on the environment. This is chiefly due to pollution of land H2O and take downing the H2O tabular array. Some environmental impacts are ineluctable, but the impact of geothermic workss are normally restricted to the immediate milieus of the works ( DiPippo, 2008: 386 ) unlike traditional power works s. The temperature ranges used in geothermic power workss are much lower compared to traditional power workss, nevertheless, ensuing in a lower energy transition efficiency. Geothermal sites can change greatly and installations, hence, have to be built harmonizing to the conditions of a specific site. South Africa has feasible chances for the usage of geothermic power, but as of yet, no large-scale geothermic energy coevals exists in South Africa ( Smit, 2010 ) .

Group Development Essay

The first stage is the forming stage. During this stage, things are characterized by much uncertainty. There is uncertainty as to what the purpose of the group is, what the structure of the group is, and who the leadership of the group is going to be. Members of the group will want to test the waters and try to determine how far they can go and what they can get away with during this stage of the group development process. The second stage is the storming stage. During this stage of group development, the members of the group accept the existence of the group but are against the restraints put on individual creativity. This can lead to serious problems if there is not some sort of compromise or agreement put in place on allowing individuals to be creative within the guidelines of the project. The third stage is the norming stage. During this stage, relationships among team members are becoming closer and group cohesiveness is coming together. The group identity is really becoming clear. This stage is considered complete when the structure of the group is completely solidified and the members of the group have decided on what is considered proper behavior for members of the group. In my opinion, this is one of the most critical stages in group development. The fourth stage is the performing stage. This stage of group development is really when things start to happen. Members of the team have fully accepted the structure and the team is working towards accomplishing the goals that were set forth initially. The group has gone from getting to know each other to complete understanding and working on accomplishing the  task at hand. The fifth and final stage of group development is the adjourning stage. This is only true for groups that are temporary. Permanent work groups are finished after stage four. This stage is normally when the group finalizes and wraps up the tasks that they have been asked to perform and then they go their separate ways. This stage is hopefully where the project is finalized and the group has been successful at accomplishing the goals that were initially set forth. Problem Identification There are two major problems that I see in this situation. The first problem that I see with this group is that there is going to be conflict of interests from each of the different groups. Each of the groups have different agendas as to how to fully accomplish the goals of the project. This can lead to problems or possibly a severe conflict between one or more of the groups. This differing of opinions and attitudes by the groups could also possibly lead to an overall failure to achieve any of the objectives of the group. The second major problem that I see with this project is demographic diversity. There are such wide and varied demographics in the school district that this project is going to take place. There could be conflicts that one demographic is being favored over another. There could also be problems that stem from this. If one demographic seems to think that another is being favored, then they could cause problems for the overall project and the goals of that project. Retrospective Evaluation The solution for the first problem will be the easiest of the two problems. During the formation of the development group for this project, common goals need to be decided upon by the development team. These goals need to be approved by all of the different entities that have an interest in this project succeeding. There should be one major common goal for the project and all of the groups should agree to this goal. If they cannot agree to a common goal, then there really is no need to go forward with the project. The solution for the second problem is going to be a little harder to solve. I believe that a non-interested third party group should be brought in to oversee the project. This will allow for an impartial representative to make decisions and also to ensure that no one demographic group is being favored more than another. If one groups interests are being pushed and another group see this favoritism, it could lead to problems and thus an overall failure of the project. Therefore, a third party should be placed in charge and there should be no conflicts because they should not favor any one particular group. Reflection The project is all about making things better for the kids of this school district. This could lead to better educational opportunities for all involved within the district. However, there are possible issues that need to be solved for this project to move forward and be a success. If these issues are addressed in the beginning then there should be resolutions and no problems should arise. This will allow a successful project and the enhancement of educational opportunities for the children of the school district.