Naipauls The Mimic Men: Mimicking Decultivation

Naipauls The Mimic Men: Mimicking Decultivation Naipauls The Mimic Men: Mimicking Decultivation The Mimic Men sets the tone of Naipaulian malaise of the New World conditions and their deep impact on ones psyche. For it is important to remember that Ralph Ranjit Kripal Sing, the exiled ex-politician hero of The Mimic Men is an insider, one who has practiced the most dubious forms of colonial mimicry as a politician and dandy, as husband and businessman and sees through the charade of politics, the deep humiliation and self contempt that results from defeat and failure. Naipauls The Mimic Men is divided into three parts and surprisingly the author has kept the name of the protagonist a secret until the beginning of the second part. The action of the first part takes place in London in the protagonist Ralph Sings youth. He has come there as a student on a scholarship. He lived in the boarding house owned by one Mr. Shylock. The house-keeper is a Maltese woman known as Lieni. The narrator counts plenty of experience to save himself from extinction and the resulting dust to dust; rags to rags; fear to fear ( Mimic Men 48). In fact, the word extinction has been used in a number of times in the novel. The situation where the narrator finds himself is an existential nothingness and he says, The tragedy of power like mine is that there is no way down. There can be only extinction (Mimic Men 48). By the time the narrator looks back and begins to write his past, he is forty. Later when the narrator took to writing like his creator Naipaul himself, he says, that he did so in order to give expression to the restlessness, the deep disorderwhich this great upheaval has brought about. ( Mimic Men 38) Part II of the novel talks about the protagonists unhappy childhood, unenterprising boyhood and the pressures that exerted him to leave his native island Isabella. He hailed from a poor family background in his words, On Isabella when I was a child it was a disgrace to be poor (Mimic Men 101). He descended from generation of idlers and failures. That caused him deep, silent shame (Mimic Men 101). Though his father was a schoolteacher and poor, his mother was from a rich family. Her brother Cecil was at school with the protagonist. He used to imagine that his father had landed on the island after his ship had been wrecked and he had lost all hopes of going back. Part II also talks about his Aryan background in India and how he added another name to his original name of Ranjit Kripal Sing. Ralph Sing is the example of thoroughly, psychologically colonized man, one who knows both the hurts and the excitements of the short-lived euphoria of inconsequential empires of our times. The burd en of guilt and betrayal, the consciousness of a collective shipwreck which all imitative and third-rate mimic societies suffer, makes Ralph Sing the voice of a quiet acceptance of colonial complicity. Ralph is the mimic man raised through a thorough-bred colonial education. The vision of disorder that haunts Sing is not only political, though. He can see no link between action and its result, man and landscape, the perennial reminders of slavery and brutalization. So, in the end a kind of neurosis sets in to carry Sing to the limits of self- derision. In part III the narrator Ralph Sing shares the ups and downs of his eventful life in Isabella soon after his coming over to that island nation with Sandra his wife from London. His marriage and his entry into politics were aberrations, whimsical, arbitrary acts(Mimic Men 219). Sandra quietly left him on a shopping trip to Miami. She never returned. And he never heard about her after that. It was with the instigation of one of his friends Browne that he became a politician. Browne was a man of the people. He was editing a newspaper called Socialist and was regularly contributing articles in it. Like Browne, Ralph Sing was not a thorough politician. He did not want to make a quick buck. The prospect of power in Isabella fatigued him. He felt he had no hold with the earth. He had no positive vision and hope. He had only a vision of a disorder which it was beyond any one man to put it right (Mimic Men 248). After 4 long years Ralph Sing was in a dilemma whether to return to Isabella as a failed politician or to stay back in London. In order to get some respite from his terrible loneliness and to boost up his self-image, he went to a brothel. With her also he failed as a sexual partner. His partner, to quote his words, was in despair. The smile of hysteria was replaced by tears; she reproached her self for my failure (Mimic Men 283). Quite secretly he went back to Isabella. He had thrown away his power. Such a state psychologically decolonized him. The mimic mans emancipation is impossibility, knowing the degree to which he has betrayed and violated himself, killing all truth and native purities. The precariousness of colonial or post-colonial leader, highlighted in The Mimic Men, is his slavery to the West on the one hand and his unease with his portion of the world. The imported culture, economy, industry, institutions and education are the mark of societies that Sing or Browne hoped to retrieve from disorder. Sings escape, his stay-back in London after the delegation has gone back to Isabella follows a penultimate, short visit to Isabella. But his ultimate exile in England is the most fruitful for him, for he is once again, as he says, in well-organised country and he has no wish to go back to the cycle of events he has freed himself from. Ralph Sing, the mover between cultures and geographies, politics and exile, finally turns a complete colonial, waiting perhaps to work on a history of the British Empire. Sings trying to find a settled role in a society defined by the extremes of Negro proletariat on the one hand and the ex-colonial Creole aristocracy on the other, presents the difficulty to place himself and the world he has come to. The attitude of the reader to Sings renouncing of public life, rejecting its emotions as fraudulent and settling down to write a memoir, will naturally be confused. Naipauls tendency for engraving and supplanting one narrative over the other reaches a limit in The Mimic Men. V.S. Naipauls postcolonial citizen helplessly reveals doubleness of identity in his existence whether in his island Isabella or in his city of choice and dream, London. Along with doubleness, irony and black humour also go with it. In fact such are the popular devices of Naipaul in all his fictional works. Ralph Sings increasing tension and alienation wherever he is, is a result of this awareness. He is also not able to identify with the colonizer though he find himself in his own colonizers state and gets the colonizers education and speaks the colonizers own language. The case of Ralph Sing it is simply not possible for him to shake off disposition and disunity. He chose London because he thought that a glamorous city like London could help him beat his sense of alienation. But London fails because Ralph Sing does not have a distinctive cultural identity with one particular culture. What Shashi Kamra points out as the general characteristics of a Naipaulian protagonist quite aptly fits in Ralph Sing ofThe Mimic Men: Naipauls narrator, subverting the chronological and objective order he has created through subjective ordering of his protagonists life and by questioning that order in his tone of irony and satire, creates the terror of placelessness and timelessness as a void- a pit without bottom. (79) Works Cited Kamra, Shashi. The Novels of V.S. Naipaul: A Study in Theme and Form. New Delhi: Prestige Books, 1990. Naipaul, V.S. The Mimic Men. Harmondasworth: Penguin, 1969. Should Guns be Permitted in Colleges? Should Guns be Permitted in Colleges? There are many debates over the question Should guns be permitted on college campuses. They should not be permitted because there are people with anger issues, violence , kills caused by alcohol, and committing suicide from depression/stress. Anger issues is one of many examples of why guns should not be permitted on college campuses. Having such an issue is already dangerous because people tend to take that anger out with yelling or fighting. People with that problem tend to snap quickly with just the wrong use of words. So theres no way of telling what might go through a persons mind having a gun on him. Would they take it out with shooting someone for a miss understanding? For example theres a class going on and everyone except one of the students is working, and the teacher tells one of the students to turn his phone in to her because he was on it instead of working. The teacher ask several times but the students decide to keep refusing to hand it to her. When the teacher decides to walk over and ask one last time he can easily take that as a threat because the teacher is in his personal space. When that goes on he decides to pull out his gun and shoots the teacher because of a problem so small. Not only is the teache r dead but the other people in the class are in danger as well. To prevent this from happening the option of weapons allowed shouldnt be allowed to the students. Another reason guns shouldnt be permitted is because of the use of alcohol. When being consumed with too much alcohol you dont think straight, which may cause you to make a bad decision, at the wrong time. There are many parties in colleges where students are introduced to huge amounts   of alcohol.   For example one of the most popular students on campus throws a huge party in one of the dorms where there is a lot of acholic beverages. After a couple of hours when everyone is drunk a guy gets a drink spilt on him. His reaction to the situation is going to be a lot different because of the fact that he is under the use of a high amount of alcohol. So when the drink is spilt on him he gets extremely mad so without thinking twice he pulls out a gun and shoots the person that spilt the drink on him. After this happens he starts freaking out because he realizes what he did so he gets scared and starts shooting all the witnesses there. From him carrying that gun caused him to put ever yones life at risk and because of him being highly influenced by the alcohol at the party. Theres already enough dangerous situations because of drunk driving at the campuses no need to put more dangerous situations. Another dangerous situation that can be caused is if there are people with violent behavior. Violent behavior can be defined as the use of physical force with the intent of physical force. An example would be if there was a class going on and one of the students in there is one of the violent students that dont like being told what to do. The teacher is giving the class because he was being loud and all the students were paying attention to him instead of the teacher. When the teacher decides to get on to him he tells him that no one tells him what to do that he doesnt care who it is and who ever disrespects him like that will pay the price. The teacher replys by saying that is his class and he talks to anyone however he wants. The arguing continues until the student finally gets tired of him he decides to reach in his bag and shoot the teacher. He just killed someone in front of a whole bunch of witnesses. So now he could either put his gun down and surrender or turn even more viole nt because there are witnesses around. Another option he could do is keep them hostages and keep them there until the authorities meet his commands. Everyones lives are at risk now because the opportunity was given to him to bring a lethal weapon. One of the biggest and most dangerous situations come from   depression and   stress. Most of the schools shootings that happened the year of 2015 were because of depression. There are plenty amount of shooting cases happen because of the amount of bulling going on in the schools from elementary schools to colleges. A great example is if theres a student being bullied throughout the whole school year just because he has no friends and always tries to fit in with the rest of the kids. He gets bullied because the way he dresses and because his parents arent financially   stable. Hes been holding all that anger of getting bullied ever since he was little because he knows in a fist fight he wont win against the other guys. In college he gets messed with too but even though it isnt as bad as it was in high school the other students still play pranks on him. Ever since the bullying started he would write down the names of the kids bulling just so he could remember who they were and the pain and embarrassment the would make him go through. One day in the middle of the year of his sophomore year of college he just had enough he was going through depression beca use he had no friends and he was going through a lot of stress because he was trying to keep his grades up but the other students would throw paper balls at him or just   laugh at his clothes theyd do anything to keep him from learning. The day he had enough though he started planning on what he was going to do to stop the problem. He would go to pawn shops and buy guns to help him go forward with his plan and since the college had permitted the students to carry concealed weapons,   he would have no problem getting in the college with the gun. After he buys his ammunition and guns now he just waits for the day of the plan to come and to finally get his revenge on all the students that made him go through depression and that would bully him into lots of stress. Next thing you know the day of the plan comes and he prepares everything he puts the small guns in his pockets and the bigger ones in his back pack. He pulls up to the college and goes to class like if it was any other regular day of school and as the class starts the students that always mess with him start throwing paper balls and spit balls at him. He gets up and turns to look at the group of guys. He reaches in his pocket and pulls the first weapon out and starts shooting one by one the students go down dead. Then he starts walking around the campus looking for the rest of the students on the list. After hes finished killing as many of the students as he can, he may commit suicide because he doesnt want to accept the consequences and hes juts tired of being bulli ed and stressed and just believes that its the only way out. The option of weapons allowed in   colleges shouldnt even be in mind. There are a lot of cases where there are people killed because of fire arm accidents and why put peoples lives even more at risk when theres no need to. Work Cited A Bullet for Teacher: Violence in Schools. Economist 24 July 1993: A26. General OneFile. Web. 8 Feb. 2017. Fear Factors The Three F Words. Officer.com Feb. 2017: n. pag. General OneFile. Web. 10 Feb. 2017. OMeara, Kelly Patricia. Antidepressants May Trigger School Shootings. School Shootings. Ed. Susan Hunnicutt. Detroit: Greenhaven, 2006. N. pag. At Issue. Opposing Viewpoints In Context. Web. 10 Feb. 2017. OMeara, Kelly Patricia. Antidepressants May Trigger School Shootings. School Shootings. Ed. Susan Hunnicutt. Detroit: Greenhaven, 2006. N. pag. At Issue. Opposing Viewpoints In Context. Web. 10 Feb. 2017. Students, Administrators Share Thoughts, Questions on Proposed Conceal Carry. Janesville Gazette [Janesville, WI] 15 Oct. 2015: n. pag. General OneFile. Web. 6 Feb. 2017. Three Wounded in Shooting at Texas College; Not Designed to Bring Us Together; GOP: Obama Wants Era of Liberalism; Reports: Two. Situation Room [CNN] 22 Jan. 2013: n. pag. General OneFile. Web. 6 Feb. 2017

Importance of Family Essay

THE FAMILY AS THE BASIC UNIT OF SOCIETY The family unit – principally a man and a woman living together in harmony and peace – is and always will be the basic social organization or unit of any society. This relationship alone provides stability in a sexual, emotional, intellectual and social way as no other can. This statement may seem prejudiced or biased against other forms of social organization, but it has proven true over hundreds and even thousands of years. Other forms of societal organization include most people remaining single or unattached, homosexuality, or various forms of collective living arrangements that are called free love societies, communes, kibbutz living in some cases, and others. To the best of my knowledge, none of these have worked out on a large scale nearly as well as what is called a monogamous man-woman relationship in terms of stability and happiness for the couple, and for the society as a whole. When the families are strong, society is strong, as a rule. When families are weak, societies begin to break down. This is the important concept of this article. EXACTLY WHAT IS MEANT BY A FAMILY? A family is a unit of two dedicated to healing, even if they do not enunciate it or even understand it fully. It means two who are happy to be together, who want to be together, and who deeply love one another, even though it can just be friends, for example, or a parent and a child. This is what is meant by a family in this article. Stated differently, the definition of family is two living in a close personal relationship. Close relationships most often exist between family members, but not always by any means. Couples may live together for years and not be that close, for example. In fact, close relationships often develop among friends of either sex, work colleagues, and perhaps in other situations such as members of a sports team who work and play together constantly, for example. This is important to understand. They don’t even need to live in the same town or know each other personally, as long as they love each other enough. Also, those living under the same roof must be in a close relationship. Just because two are roommates, for example, or even sexual partners living together, married, church-going, or just â€Å"shacking up†, as they call it, does not mean they are a family because they must be in a close, loving relationship with each other. One in relationship with the other, if it is not returned, is not good enough. They both must feel the same way about each other, and this is the key. The rest of this article deals with various topics related to those living in families, or in close relationships, as explained in the preceding paragraphs. HEALING WITHIN FAMILIES – EMPATHIC BLENDING IN FAMILIES An interesting phenomenon that can be used for healing, but which can also have negative effects, is called empathic blending. It occurs in all close relationships, including, of course, within many families. It is a slight blending of the aura or energy fields of individuals who live together or even those who just work together or recreate together. However, it is much stronger in those who are in intimate relationships and having sex together. This interesting phenomenon has been known for thousands of years, but is rarely discussed. It can help bind a family or relationship together and help heal all members of a family. Unfortunately, it sometimes also causes problems in families if the man and woman are not that compatible. What  this means is that at times, two in a relationship have issues that do not blend well. Each can bring out the worst aspects of another, for example, instead of the best. For more on this topic, read Empathic Blending on this website. MALE-FEMALE BLENDING IN FAMILIES This is a subset or type of empathic blending that occurs only between members of the opposite sex. It does not occur in homosexual relationships, and it is one reason these relationships are always inferior to a good man-woman relationship. Two of the same sex may blend empathically, and often do. But only a man and a woman can blend in a very special way. For the same reason, it will not occur in members of an all-male or all-female sports team, work team, etc. This type of blending is similar to other empathic blending, but much stronger and much more able to cause healing in both parties. It is a powerful advantage to having friends of the opposite sex, a wife or husband, and even having children, at times. Children and parents. Interestingly, this type of blending can be done between a male parent and a female child, and conversely, between a female parent and a male child. It can even occur between siblings of the opposite sex, too, although this is not nearly as common. To read more about this very exciting method of healing, read Male-Female Blending on this website. OTHER TYPES OF UNUSUAL HEALING IN FAMILIES AND IN OTHER CLOSE RELATIONSHIPS A phenomenon we observe within families, and within all close relationships, is that when one person begins to heal, particularly a parent, often the partner and the children also experience a degree of healing. This occurs even when the others are not following a nutritional balancing program at all. I call it healing by osmosis, because I don’t know what else to name it. This phenomenon may be due to empathic blending, described in a paragraph above. However, it may be also be due to other factors, such as less stress in the home, better food in the home, more of a healing atmosphere in the home, or something else. In addition to these reasons, other reasons help explain unusual healing in those who in close relationships such as in families. For example, as one heals, he or she serves as an example to the other and perhaps as an inspiration to the other. As one heals, the body becomes more capable of love, and this felt by the other As one heals, some nutrients are actually transferred to the other in sexual fluids, for example, or in saliva in kissing. This may sound odd, but these are factors in healing within families or close relationships only. THE TRADITIONAL FAMILY UNDER ATTACK EVERYWHERE For the past 100 years of so, the family unit in America and Europe, in particular, has been under constant attack. The attack has been coming from work outside of the home, two parents having to work, the school system that takes away authority of parents, and a much more intrusive government that also takes away the rights and powers of parents to control their children and even their homes. Unemployment is very hard on families, and there is plenty of that in Europe, particularly. Pressure from Anti-Christian groups such as gay rights advocates and even some women’s advocate groups has also forced the passage of laws that discourage marriage. The growth of the welfare system is another anti-family factor. These systems often contain incentives to have children out of wedlock, for example, in order to collect more money from the government. Asia has much less of these pressures, but they are growing on a daily basis. Communism, for example, practiced still today in Russia, China, and other large nations, has a devastating effect on the family. Also, Asia has other problems, such as a traditional hierarchical male-dominated culture that may  seem to support the family, but really is very hard on women, and impedes the development of deep love between men and women among the population. Other nations, such as those in the Middle East, insist on rules and regulations that are so rigid and strict that they may hold society together, but they stop love from developing because the roles of man and wife are too rigidly defined. The Muslim world has some serious family problems. Here the family unit is strong, but in some homes the male dominates and the women are treated so badly that they cannot love their husbands and children correctly. I hope someday soon this will stop. Some of the best family units are found among the Jewish families and some of the Asian cultures, such as the Chinese and Koreans. Even here, however, divorce rates are rising and the traditional family is under attack. THE NEED TO RESTORE THE INTEGRITY OF THE FAMILY The above leads us to the need to clarify, correct and realize the importance of the traditional family unit and restore it legally, culturally, socially, and in every other way as well. This is also a goal of nutritional balancing science. It must begin with each person understanding the need for very high-quality relationships, and then acting at all levels of society to push for a more family-friendly society. The kind of reforms needed in society include: 1. Legislative action and tax reform to encourage marriage. This means that married couples should have tax advantages, which is not true today. Often it is the opposite. Also laws must clearly define marriage as the relationship between one many and one woman. All other arrangements of living and sexuality must not be given equal recognition or equal treatment under the law. This means no gay marriage, no homosexual or gay rights laws, and no gay-friendly legislation at all. This sounds harsh, but gay rights laws are the worst thing for the traditional family today. It also means that polygamy must be banned altogether. It does not matter if all members of a polygamous community like the arrangement. It does not work well and it is usually a cult. For more on this topic, read Cults and Terror Societies on this site. Tax credits should be given for having children, but only if a couple is married and filing jointly. Society should not be giving tax credits to single parent households of the same magnitude, as it encourages promiscuity and single-parent households. I know this is a difficult area, but it is important to strengthen and protect traditional marriage. 2. Legislative action and tax reform to strengthen families. Here are examples of laws and tax arrangements that favor the family unit in society: Smaller government favors families. This is because power in society is always shared between individuals and their families, and the government. The more power and scope of the government, the less power and scope the family will have. Laws that should be abolished to assist the family are all laws that allow schools to give out condoms and birth control pills without parental consent, and all laws that allow minor children to obtain abortions and even driver’s licenses without parental consent. Some states claim they can vaccinate children without parental consent, and some allow medical treatment without parental consent. All these laws destroy the integrity and strength of the family unit and ought to be repealed. I realize that repealing these laws will permit some abuse by uncaring or unthinking parents. However, this is better than an across-the-board rule that damages the family, which is still the best hope for children in the entire world. Government welfare agencies do not do a good job, overall, and I would not expect them to do so. They are too distant and too â€Å"professional† to care deeply enough about the children. Similarly, judges and juries should not have the right to remove minor children from the home unless the abuse is obvious and severe. Low taxes strongly favor the family unit and family integrity. Much higher taxes for everyone today is forcing two parents to work outside of the home and to send children to government or private daycare centers and pre-schools. This is horrendous for families. While in some nations, the poor and even middle classes do not pay income taxes, they pay for taxes that are hidden in every product and service that they buy. This is the case especially in America and Europe where corporate taxes are high. These are hidden taxes on all products that can account for up to half the cost of the product such as a car, food, clothing, building materials and other necessities. This is why corporate tax rates should be zero. Tax income, tax consumption, or tax imports and exports, but do not tax in hidden ways such as corporate taxes that no one can see and that are regressive, meaning they harm the poor much more than they harm the wealthy because the poor must spend a lot more of their income on necessities, while the rich can easily afford the taxes on goods and services such as electricity, etc. Laws that permit, encourage and even pay one parent to stay at home with children and teach them favor the family strongly. Parents should be discouraged from both working outside the home, and young children should be at home. If a parent does not want to raise a child at home, he or she should not become a parent. It is that simple. Home schooling favors the family unit. In the same vein, home schooling must be encouraged, not attacked, as it is in many nations, including the United States of America. Home schooling is the ideal, and should not be considered a deviant or religious or unusual concept. It is far better, according to statistics, than any school situation. Home schooling parents should not have to pay school taxes, for example, and perhaps should be compensated so that a parent can stay home and teach rather than have to take a job outside the home and send the child to public or private schools. No death taxes favor the family. Death taxes are also called estate taxes. They do not allow some families to pass on their wealth to their children,  or anyone else. Instead, the government takes a large portion of their money, even though they have already paid taxes on that income. Families should be permitted to pass on their wealth, as it is theirs and they often worked hard for it. The government has no right to it, having already taxed it once or perhaps twice. Tort reform strongly favors families and employment. It is important that if one is truly injured, that one can sue for damages. However, the situation in America, in particular, but also in Europe in which attorneys are able to sue basically innocent people for all sorts of frivolous reasons places great strain and a huge financial burden on everyone. It raises the price of all goods and services, frightens away many businesses and keeps good products off the market. It also supports a class of parasitic attorneys who make good money often by ruining other people’s lives. There are simple answers for this problem, but the trial lawyers lobby, and their political allies – the Democratic party – has so far prevented them from being implemented, especially in the United States. The solutions include: 1. Simplify legal proceedings so that people do not need attorneys to represent them and can handle simple cases themselves. This is certainly possible, but judges and attorneys don’t like the idea. It is similar to learning how to take care of your health, which the doctor’s don’t like. Court proceedings, rules of evidence, rules of discovery, motions, and so on can be made simpler. 2. The loser in a suit should pay all court and attorney fees. This is the system in Great Britain and some other nations. It can stop some frivolous lawsuits, especially in the health care area, but also in product safety. 3. Attorneys must not be allowed to disqualify jurors at their whim. The only reason to disqualify a juror should be a direct conflict of interest, perhaps. The current system today allows sharp attorneys to get rid of potential jurors whom they sense they cannot manipulate or influence. This  should not be the way the jury system works and it makes a mockery of the jury system. 4. It may be necessary to place a cap on damages. This is more complex, especially in a class action lawsuit but sometimes juries are talked into awarding far too much money for damages because attorneys take a percentage for themselves. A capitalist economic system, with controls to prevent corporate raiding and cheating, tends to favor families, while socialism is usually even more corrupt and it destroys families. It does this because the government gains so much power that the family becomes secondary to government, which becomes the nanny, the provider, the police force and everything else. This must be taught and the reasons for it thoroughly understood in society. The basic reason is that a large, powerful government always competes for power with the family, so it is inherently inimical to the family. In contrast, a weak government allows the family unit to have more power over itself and over society. It is not an accident that the weakest families occur in communist and socialist nations, while the strongest are found in the capitalist nations. Private and not socialized, nationalized or â€Å"universal† health care helps the family unit. Caring for one’s health and that of the children are extremely important issues that are best handled within families. This is because they have to do with diet, lifestyle, thinking patterns and other personal habits that are learned and practiced in families. In general, when people are forced into a governmental system, the family loses a lot of power and control over this important area of life. If the government system were perfect, it would not be so bad. However, all governmental systems are more costly, the dietary recommendations are often poor, bureaucrats are distant and don’t care as much for people as private doctoring arrangements, and waste and corruption are worse. Also, just turning over control of this vital area of life is a bad idea. Even the HMO or PPO system in the USA, which is based on private insurance but herds people into groups with little choice in health care, is not good for family integrity and strength. This is just one reason why Obamacare, for example, in the USA, will not work and must be repealed at once before it further bankrupts the USA, which it is doing and with no good results. It is just socialism, and that is harmful for families, as explained above. Freedom, in general, is wonderful for the family. Repression in society works against families. Freedoms of religion, of speech, of assembly, the right to bear arms and all the freedoms that some nations permit are helpful for the family as they weaken governmental power and encourage responsibility and power to be centered in the family. Denying the people freedom weakens the family in all cases. Traditional religions and, in general, religious freedom tend to favor the family unit. However, too much repression in the religion harms families by several means. Repressing women, for example, leads to anger and hatred of women for men and for the religious leaders. Also, if the family roles are so rigidly defined, some will rebel and avoid families altogether. They also, of course, may just leave the religion, but this is not always possible, as with Islam. As these legal and other changes occur, and only when they occur, we can expect to see great improvements and restoration of our societies. They will be safer, more sane, healthier, with far more emphasis on spiritual values and the dignity of each individual soul. All will be happier and life will be far more worthwhile and enjoyable for women, in particular, for our children, and for everyone. Easy divorce laws have mixed effects upon families. On one hand, they make it easy for a selfish parent to basically abandon their children or â€Å"steal† them from a partner. They may also leave a former partner stranded without financial support at all, or very little. On the other hand, very strict divorce laws that existed in the past kept families together where there was physical or emotional abuse, or just terrible unhappiness. This is not ideal for families, either. Many people say that the traditional family is dead, as evidenced by the high divorce rates in the Western world, in particular. However, they forget that although the divorce rate is high, the remarriage rate is also very high. In other words, many people do not want to be single. They just want to be with the right type of person. If they are not, then they are more likely today than in the past to split up and move on to what is often, though not always, a better marriage the second time around. When children are involved, the situation is more complex. Children need a stable home and they need love – plenty of it. So it is more complicated. Here one must use good judgment and try to avoid selfishness. Selfishness is often the problem and the reason that a couple does not blend and heal one another. Laws favoring easy abortions probably harm families. This is an ongoing debate in the USA, though not much in Europe. ALL abortions terminate a life, and some women suffer psychological damage from abortions, even if they are not fully aware of it. I particularly dislike the Planned Parenthood approach, often, in which young women are just told they can get their abortion right away, no one needs to know about it, and that is all there is to it. However, those who favor abortions rightly point out that women perhaps should have more control over their reproductive abilities, especially in case of rape, incest, and all conditions in which the health and well-being of the mother or even the father is at stake. So I suspect this issue will be debated for many years. I believe anti-abortion laws are there to protect women in many cases, and this is how they should be â€Å"sold† or promoted. They help women avoid psychological damage that comes with abortions, they help prevent infections and other problems of abortions, and they help the family in many cases, which helps women the most. If the family does not want another child, then put it up for adoption. Encouraging monogamous man-woman relationships is by far best for the family. Sadly, this is not what is taught in schools today. Politically correct teachers often stress that homosexuality, communal living, open marriage and other â€Å"alternatives† are just as good as the traditional one man-one woman relationship. I believe this is a lie in most cases, due to the nature and construction of human beings. I believe there exist certain differences between men and women that are often subtle, but very real. Living together, they tend to balance one another, help one another, heal one another, and love one another better than any other type of arrangement. This does not mean that in a few cases a different type of relationship is best, but I am speaking in general terms of what seems to work best for the great majority of people in our world. I strongly believe that if this were not so, we would see around the world plenty of societies in which marriage is not supported or practiced much, and instead we would see much more of other living arrangements such as homosexuality or just staying single and living alone or in one’s family of origin during one’s entire lifespan. But we do not see this very much among the thousands of human societies of every race and religion. This is not an indictment of other ways to live socially, just an observation. For this reason, I want to suggest that laws should protect, proclaim, educate and demand that the young are taught this truth, and nothing else.

Hotel Rwanda Essay

The movie â€Å"Hotel Rwanda† is a pathetic story of perhaps the most recent large-scale genocide that should act as a constant reminder to humanity. The atrocities of the Hutu tribesmen relentlessly wiping out the alien Tutsi tribe impress anyone with a heart for human suffering. However, the film is also a tale of human courage and will, in particular the qualities demonstrated by the hotel manager Paul Rusesabagina. This character skilfully portrayed by Don Cheadle leaves an indelible impression on the viewers, showing them how a person can transform from an ordinary selfless man into a leader capable of protecting people from the terror reigning outside. Paul Rusesabagina starts out with the desire to protect his family. He remains sympathetic but passive when he sees a neighbour taken by the Hutu police just because he is a Tutsi. However, with his own wife being of the Tutsi ethnicity, he can no longer remain aside from what is going on in the nation. The Hutu police clamp down on Tutsis, chasing and killing them throughout the country. In days, there are corpses all around and the nation is reverberating with horror. Faced with this terror, Paul is also confronted with the challenge of a thousand of Tutsi refugees in his luxurious hotel. The most upscale hotel in the nation becomes home to a thousand of helpless poor people unable to protect themselves. A different man could have driven them out, but Paul is not the one: he risks incurring the displeasure of the Hutu police. When things get wrong, and the Hutus are raiding his hotel, he hangs on to the only link to survival he has, the phone connection to Belgium. Through what seems almost a miracle, the danger retreats, and Paul and his â€Å"guests† remain in the same suspended position. In this little accident, he acts like a real leader. His leadership does not arise from a commanding posture; instead, he leads people with his vision and ability to be human. Paul clearly shows that he is ready to endanger his personal fate to save others, and people are even more encouraged to trust. This is a very courageous step as, being a Hutu and the manager of a top-notch hotel, he could have been able to save not only himself, but perhaps also his wife and kids. This would become even more realistic if he had kept a low profile. This is not what he was going to do when his hotel housed numerous Tutsis desperately clinging to him as their only way to salvation. This realisation that people depend on him has led him to give up the opportunity to rescue when the UN contingent was taking people to planes and out of the hotel. At the very last moment, Paul screams to his wife that he was not going to join the rest as they were going on their way to salvation. Paul is also the one to house the survivors when it turns out that they cannot make it to the planes. Paul, with his courage and will to counteract the terror that reigns outside, remains the only support for his â€Å"dependents†. The world including the NATO peacekeeping force refuses to interfere. The Colonel of the â€Å"Blue Helmets† feels shamed and dismayed telling Paul that they have abandoned him. Yet Paul does not give up, nor does he flee; he stays in his place, attending to the daunting task of harbouring the people. He even has the wisdom to tell his people that they should call all the influential people they know all over the world and create the pathetic image as if they are holding their hand. Letting this hand loose would mean that Rwandans die – and this could act as inspiration for these important people to act for the sake of the remote African country. Paul Rusesabagina acts like a strong man whose strength stems from his love of people. His appreciation of human life, its intrinsic value, and humane character make him an outstanding example of the art of being human. Displaying unwavering courage and will power in the face of life-threatening savages, the manager of Hotel Rwanda has won himself fame of a selfless and powerful man. Bibliography Hotel Rwanda. Dir. Terry George. With Don Cheadle and Sophie Okonedo. WGA, 2004. Hotel Rwanda. Official Website. 11 Mar. 06 .

Ethical Issues in the Collapse of Lehman Brothers

Serge IRAGUHA Business and Society November 25, 2012 Ethical Issues in the Collapse of Lehman Brothers Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. used to trade on the NYSE under the symbol LEH as the fourth largest investment bank in the US. It provided global financial services in investment banking, fixed income sales, trading US treasury securities, investment management, private equity, and banking. But on September 12, 2008 it found itself under financial predicaments when it filed for bankruptcy. With $600 billion in debt, LEH stands as the largest bankruptcy in world history. The company experienced an alienation of most of its clients, drastic losses in its stock, and loss of its assets when it got devaluated by credit rating agencies. This†¦show more content†¦According to Attorney Tony Valukas, who led the investigation into the collapse of Lehman Brothers, they were shipping assets to London during difficult times to make loans appear like revenue. Surprisingly, the practice was technically legal and within the rules, but was it ethical? There is a blur area between what†™s legal and ethical. The blurred area was the gap that allowed many financial institutions to cause the global financial crisis, Lehman Brothers included. The collapse of Lehman Brothers was sudden and caught a lot of investors by surprise; consequently everybody tried to bail out as soon as they could. The market did not have enough time to digest the news, which led to panic. If Lehman Brothers had disclosed their financial standing clearly, they could have found a collaborative way to deal with the crisis with the different stakeholders of the company. This process would have been smoother and the consequences would have been minimized. By not disclosing information to the public, Lehman Brothers made its downfall steeper. When their unethical practices came to light, everybody panicked and reacted accordingly. Worth mentioning is the culture at Lehman Brothers that rewarded risk taking; the company had a bonus system that compensated people for generating stellar returns when the company was performing very well, but when theShow MoreRelatedLessons from Lehman Brothers: Will We Ever Learn1047 Words   |  5 Pages1. Describe the situation at Lehman Brothers from an ethics perspective. What’s your opinion of what happened here? The collapse of Lehman Brothers was the results of ethical failures which were rooted in its corporate culture. Lehman Brothers’ risk-oriented culture encouraged unethical decision for financial gain, therefore the risk-taking ideal and the overlook of questionable behaviors. Professional ethics was put behind profit, with employees ‘making questionable deals hailed and treated asRead MoreLehman Brothers1021 Words   |  5 PagesLessons from Lehman Brothers: Will We Ever Learn? 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This type of culture started at the top and flowed down as the firm’s leadership made the company’s problems worse by their incompetencyRead MoreLehman752 Words   |  4 Pages From this case study, it showed how Lehman Brothers walked down to the end of it business. Through Lehman Brothers’ case, it reflects the ugly side of a corporate. A big recognized company collapse due to it unsuccessful leadership management, culture and dishonesty by it people caused the company walked down to the end of it business. There are several points showed how it gone bankrupted. By using the ethical perspective to look at Lehman Brothers’ situation, it showed that the companyRead MoreLessons from Lehman Brothers: Will We Ever Learn? Essay734 Words   |  3 Pagesoutside of Lehman’s New York City offices and handed out markers to employees and pedestrians so they could write a message regarding the firm’s announcement that it was filing for bankruptcy. 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A numerous amount of the general public lost their employment, while investors lost their money during this crisis. By the Lehman Brothers commercial real estate investments failing, they were not able to efficiently finance its operations. This was all because of the 2008 commercial mortgage financial disaster. In this research, I will use Assignments 1 research as the foundation to exp lain how the Lehman Brother crisis affects business, to giveRead MoreLehman Brothers : The Third Largest Global Investment Bank Essay1694 Words   |  7 PagesLehman Brothers, based in New York City, was the fourth largest global investment bank until 2008. They provided financial investment services, banking, and management around the globe. Prior to its defunct, its management consisted of: Chief Executive Officer, Richard (Dick) S. Fuld; Chief Financial Officer, Erin Callan; with accounting auditor, Ernst Young. The collapse of this 158 year old firm sent the US economic market into turmoil. Their demise left 25,000 people unemployed and millionsRead MoreToo Big to Fail: The 2008 World Financial Crisis and Its Aftermath1779 Words   |  7 Pagescould not really afford, particularly after rates began to creep up again. The worst of the crisis begin with the collapse of Lehman Brothers, one of the most famous investment firms on Wall Street with a 158-year old history. After Lehman Brothers announced it was filing for Chapter 11, seemingly every day for about month, a different legendary financial company teetered on collapse. Stocks recorded some of their most dramatic drops in history, including the Dows epic 778-point drop on Sept. 29Read MoreThe Role of Audit in the Collapse of Enron and Lehman Brother2959 Words   |  12 Pagesfailure 6 Lehman Brothers failure 6 Ernst amp; Young failure 7 Detection of fraud 7 Going Concern 7 MINIMISING LITIGATION RISK 7 Obstruction of Justice 8 Consultancy service 8 Conservative Audit 8 Conclusion 8 References 9 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY In the UK, European Union and the United States the Global Financial Crises has sparked a series of high level inquiries into the role and effectiveness of Audit. It is noted that several large organisations including Lehman Brothers and Enron