Sociology

The brief background of affirmative action

Affirmative action is a result of the civil rights movement of more than three decades ago. The main aim of this movement is to grant equal opportunities for minorities and women in such areas as education and employment. Because of the controversy surrounding its constitutionality, the policy has often been subjected to heated debates.

The lawsuits against the University of Michigan’s Law School (Grutter vs. Bollinger) and undergraduate admissions program (Gratz vs. Bollinger), confronted the constitutionality of race as a factor in the admissions process. Barbara Grutter was denied admittance to the Michigan law school in 1996 and Jennifer Gratz was denied a place in the university’s undergraduate program in 1995. Both plaintiffs disputed that their academic qualifications and extracurricular activities should have awarded them a mark at the University. Instead of fulfilling their claims, they were subjected to a form of reverse discrimination due to affirmative action policies. The University of Michigan stated that its admissions criteria was constitutional and fostered a racially and ethnically diverse student body.

More than 300 organizations filed some 64 written briefs supporting the undergraduate and law school admissions policies at the University of Michigan. Harvard, Microsoft, and General Norman Schwarzkopf were among the many proponents of the program that included academics, labour unions, Fortune 500 companies, and more than 30 retired military personnel. All stated that a racially diverse, well-educated workforce was essential to the success of their operations.

Concepts against

Affirmative action is mistaken and is not able to solve the problem of racial minorities. One of the reasons is that the policy of affirmative action is discriminative itself, and provides deeper discrimination. It makes more harm than use in present-day society. Moreover, lots of people do not enjoy it and do not see it to be advantageous. Also, it appears that affirmative action can actually be damaging to employees health. First of all, affirmative action is discrimination, there is no denying it. When a student is taken because he or she is a minority, even if someone else is more qualified, it is discrimination. It is called reverse discrimination when whites are discriminated against and minorities are being discriminated against. Affirmative action legalizes discrimination. Also, if this discrimination continues, racism in the United States may worsen. Just imagine your feelings, when you can not enter a university or apply for a job even just because you are white, but not black or Hispanic. Thus, the policy of affirmative action is contradictory, as trying to prevent racism, it provides the “reverse racial discrimination” and this way worsens the attitude of whites towards all the black. It is possible that because of affirmative action, racism will continue to grow until history repeats itself and our society ends up living under Jim Crow laws again. Discrimination is harmful in both ways, when blacks were the ones getting the short end of the stick, or when whites are discriminated against. Two wrongs don’t make a right. Affirmative action in college is the most discriminating thing this country has ever seen since the Jim Crow laws many years ago. At ivy league colleges the medium GPA of applicants in UC-Berkeley is close to 4.0 and S.A.T.’s are close to 1300, minorities are let in with GPA’s less than 3.0 and S.A.T.’s less than 1000. The only way for colleges to gain ethnic proportionalism is to downplay or abandon merit criteria and to accept students from typically underrepresented groups, such as blacks, Hispanics, and American Indians, over better-qualified students from whites and Asian Americans.

Most evidently, affirmative action is allowing non-educated, or undereducated citizens to get into college the qualified enough people aren’t getting accepted. When the equal opportunities law was accepted, it did not claim to treat different races differently, it means that all people should be treated as equals, affirmative action violates this statement. If we simplify acceptance standards for minorities, we should set up the same standards for everyone. But in spite of that nobody regards that we should raise the standard for minorities.

Moreover, if affirmative action gets its way, it will do more harm than good. If low-qualified students are accepted to any university, most probably they will be sent down, and more qualified will enter instead. That is why, affirmative action is a short term action, and will not be able to live long. Also, affirmative action doesn’t work because it doesn’t change anything. If there is racism nowadays, then racism will always be present and affirmative action will not be able to change anything. Furthermore, if we need to discriminate against whites to give jobs to minorities now, affirmative action will only worsen the situation, and deepen racism.

Only enrolling more minorities in Berkley does not mean coping with racism. If someone is not good enough to get into a college, he/she is out of the league when they get in. Only 150f black and 220f Hispanic affirmative action students accepted to Berkeley in 2000 graduated. To give minorities a better life we have to fix the moral decay caused by the absence of two-parent families to help minorities.

Affirmative action is usually regarded as discriminatory by minorities themselves, as they need help to enter University, and they feel inferior, or inadequate for the university they are entering. It is much better, when a student realizes, he/she has been accepted because he/she is suitable and qualified, but not Hispanic or black.

Affirmative action alone will not be able to solve the problems faced by minorities. In combination with these policies, public education must be improved so that the problems of minorities (mainly African Americans) are hit both through increased opportunities for jobs and increased the qualification for those positions. Affirmative action alone creates a position in which people receive jobs or enter universities exclusively on the basis of race.

The fact is, the USA is a state with great national diversity, and while the affirmative action programs are founded on very worthy goals, America can not achieve social equality, or even agreement, by yielding privileges to one group over another. Perhaps, instead of having quotas imposed on them, businesses suspected of discrimination could have their hiring practices monitored by an outside official from the government, or be penalized through fines and restrictions.

References

1. Ezorsky, Gertrude. Racism and Justice: The Case for Affirmative Action. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2000.
2. Graham, Hugh Davis. Collision Course: The Strange Convergence of Affirmative Action and Immigration Policy in America. New York: Oxford University Press, 2003.
3. Lynch, Frederick R. Invisible Victims: White Males and the Crisis of Affirmative Action. New York: Praeger, 2004.
4. Raza, M. Ali, A. Janell Anderson, and Harry Glynn Custred. The Ups and Downs of Affirmative Action Preferences. Westport, CT: Praeger Publishers, 2006.

Introduction

The idea of human rights is the mother’s milk of the global group of people. Problem is, these existing human rights come in more flavors than chocolate or yielding drinks. Would you like the Asian, Islamic, native, economic, European, or U.S. description? And how would you like your human rights served: with authorizing regime change, business window bandage, or good traditional moral suasion? Here’s a look at the majority effective–and the majority misguided–recipes for promoting human honor around the earth.

However, its universal claims become a subject of fierce discussion in the 1980s. Asian and African countries time and again think of human rights as an “artefact of Western civilisation”,(3) and this site has been unbreakable by the Western connection of human rights and monetary hold-up. The Bangkok Declaration, the account of the regional Asian meeting previous to the UN Conference on Human Rights in Vienna (1993), emphasized nationwide dominion and criticized the use of human rights as a condition to development aid. At the meeting in Vienna, Asian countries like China and Indonesia protest fervently alongside the Western-biased formulation of human fights and the attendant moral power of the West; they have spoken their own intelligence of a distinctive individuality in this field. Asian countries have paying attention to “duties” versus “rights” and on the rights of the collectivity, counting the state, versus rights of the person, telling these as “Asian values”. Hence, though the term “human rights” is widely conventional (by the Indonesian government, in the middle of others), happiness varies according to the following and cultural background. General notions of fairness may form the ordinary earth for the worldwide debate, but the local situation and obtainable authority structures, counting the chronological heritage, decide national practices about human rights. Here, as by means of other fashionable socio-economic issues, the worldwide and the local get together on contested topography.

Human Rights

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights was complete for each living human in this world to go after and mind. These rights originated following WW2 since they didn’t want such inhumanity to happen once more. By the world approving to this statement, it is approximately sure the lives of so a lot of populace weren’t be lost once more for a needless cause. The major reason for these rights is to enforce impartial rights of all populace. Making certain that all humans have the right to liberty, justice, and calm in this world. Not only to contain these rights but to be able to take pleasure in the rights with absent any fear.

According to the expert analysis, these rights were a good idea for the entire world to follow. The world needs amazing to make sure that everybody is being treated moderately, and with respect. Even although the poorer countries are having problems putting into effect some of these rights at the smallest amount they are there. One daylight hours these rights shall be compulsory more powerfully on those countries, creation their life easier for them (Thomas L. Kennedy S. S, 2003).

These rights are a high-quality way for all nations to expand a friendly association. By all the nations being welcoming to every other, more admiration is gained. These rights have in addition helped a number of countries lose abhorrence between every other. Which income will be fewer evils for all. As well as that it might reduce the figure of wars and maybe add to the figure of world proceedings.

International Organizations

If we analyzed then we come to know that the state collaboration in regimes and in international organizations are immediately for establishing the agreement and arrange in international structure and avoid disorder and discords.

International organizations which purposes safety and for this aspire there are official and less-formal types of international organizations similar to coalitions and alliances.

Non-governmental international organization’s aim is dissimilar than the other, they are performance also in socioeconomic troubles, human rights, human wellbeing issues-poverty, unemployment, and physical condition, etc…And NGOs have a big significance in influencing and monitoring international organizations.

For building safety and collaboration worldwide; the powerful, as the crow flies and authoritative units have to be shaped which determination purpose for better world supremacy, and there has to be cooperation inside alliances and coalitions for gathering collective protection disputes (Zink, J, 2002). Also, there has to be participation in many-sided collective sanctuary and peace custody measures to go forward the rule of law and international law enforcement international organizations and regime to deal functionally by means of a lot of dissimilar on 21st century.

Comparative Analysis of Few Countries and Human Rights

United States of America

The idea that human rights abuses in the U.S. strength be the thing of a question by a human rights organization that frequently deals with countries whose practices deserve concentrated, critical information proved offensive to some in the U.S. Just following the community let go of the book Rights for All, which was in print to escort the U.S. campaign, Representative Tom Lantos, Democrat of California, 12th District, points to that it was hardly the place of AI to appear at human rights in this state, where rights are well recognized to be extremely held and generally observed. Representative Lantos’ anxiety went to the inappropriateness of putting this state in the same spotlight that is, he believes, additional properly shone on countries similar to Tunisia or Colombia. The combination of the high-quality person’s name of Lantos’ adopted state with that of oppressive states roused the devoted representative to self-righteous outrage. As longtime co-chair of the Congressional Human Rights Conclave of the House of Representatives, Lantos considers himself no unfamiliar person to labors to end mistreatments of rights in other countries. (4) Coincidentally, Representative Lantos had immediately weeks previous sent a particular thank-you to AIUSA members in California from side to side his legislative helper. Hans Hogrefe addressed the association via e-mail and calls the labors of the AIUSA groups “critical” to the passageway of the Human Rights in sequence Act, a House Resolution bring in by Representative Lantos to generate a procedure to appraisal and declassify U.S. documents concerning human rights violations in Honduras and Guatemala.

Indonesia and Human Rights

Indonesia gives an illuminating instance of the collision of worldwide tendencies and nationwide intervention in this field. This article will center on one feature of this restricted interference: the heritage of times gone by, or more precisely, of the colonial administration. Although the regal period covers now a short time span of Indonesian the past and though native concepts of fairness and human self-respect (dating from both pre-colonial and regal times) are at the origin of present-day human rights ideas in Indonesia, the colonial pressure is, in my estimation, a lawful subject of research. It offers the option of testing the maintain of the universality of human rights. In the Western globe, the formulation of human rights and human brawls policies developed jointly with the configuration of the nation-state. Because royally state configuration followed the European prototype, albeit, with hesitancies and unwillingness, it is pertinent to seem at the genesis of human rights in a regal context and to think the traces it might have left on postcolonial Indonesian condition strategy.

To what degree is it possible to converse of a heritage of Dutch human rights policies in Indonesia? What were the regal attitudes and opinions towards human brawls that heads post-colonial put into practice in Indonesia? Until now, merely a limited numeral of authors has studied the crash of colonialism on contemporary human rights. In Indonesia itself, the discussion on human rights in the past has been restricted mainly to the postwar era of self-government. If colonialism – weaving its web of message stuck between European and Asian and African countries – is viewed as a forerunner of globalization, these queries are still more pertinent, for the answers exemplify some of the evils surrounding the widespread maintains of human rights.

China and Human Rights

Even since the theatrical post-1949 changes in China concerning the role of women, China has remained paternalistic in its attitudes and social realism. Like a lot of other states, China unavoidably has been deeply concerned about human rights government at the international level in new decades. During this era of time, the Chinese government has been more and more active in participating in the international human rights government. China has so far connected seventeen human rights meetings, the U.N. Human Rights Commission, and has spoken its respect for international human rights law. In 1997 China signed the International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights, and in 1998 China signed the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.

Different Kinds of International Organizations

The world’s history has been foam through the turmoil of all kinds such as wars and depression culminating in the wish to set in place convinced mechanisms from side to side which the swap between the nations of the earth can take place comparatively gratis of disaccord. States have been tirelessly pushed in the way of positive alter to make sure that the mistakes of history are not reincarnating and thus frequent. A major example in the past of this shift towards modify is the famous meeting at the Palace of Versailles to draw up calm treaties (Zink, J, 2002). The aspire of this gathering was the growth of a master diagram, which would create it impossible for any nation to thrust the world into war once more. This master diagram as it was referred to the form of an international organization, the League of Nations.

Continuing in this vein the tip can be made that the length of with the momentum toward global constancy it was the expectation that said mechanisms could provide specific rules and events that would direct the events of states. The world via trends similar to globalization can be likened to a group of people, an international group of people, whose members or state states interrelate with and look for to coexist with every other in a state of family member harmony. The average through which swap takes put to be it social, economic, following, or otherwise is referred to as international organizations. International organizations engage in recreation a role in international family members, and their pressure varies according to the subject and state of relationships confronted.

A clear unambiguous and hypothetically satisfactory meaning of an International organization is one in, which from side to side various processes approximates Government directive of relations in the middle of state states and non-state actors. Initially from side to side Rounds and later from side to side the painting of conferencing these organizations effort to give solutions to worldwide troubles facing the world whilst recognizing, at least in hypothesis, the constraints compulsory by state sovereignty (Richelson, J., and Michael E, 2000). In spirit, international organizations have been instituted to control international relations primarily through nonviolent settlements of disputes in the middle of country states. One such instance is the United Nations World Court.

Given the natural earth of the international system, the creation of an international organization requires tangible action by states, typically though not always, such proceedings are consecrated in an agreement. In any case, an understanding has to be achieved concerning what is to be complete and how. While there is a convinced level of accord about the function of the organization when an international organization is being created, it is not essential for all parties to split the same conception of the accord. On contrary, there are frequently sharp differences, and these differences can supply an essential catalyst to prospect dynamic developments in international organizations.

Health Organization and the World Trade Organization

The Economic and Social Council of the United Nations defined Non-governmental organizations (NGO) as international organizations, which are not recognized by the inter-governmental accord. In other words, the NGOs are different from that of their frontage IGOs in terms of their membership, with the former’s life form constituted if the confidential citizen in service on a communal level whereas the last membership hails from states in service on an international height. Examples of such institutions are Environment Management Authority (EMA). However present is NGO that purpose inside the kingdom of the international earth they are referred to as an international non-governmental (INGO) organization, as the person’s name suggests it has international relations or members. Popular examples include the Roman Catholic Church and the International Red Cross.

If we analyzed then we come to know that one more method of classifying international organizations is according to their association potential and their range of reasons. International organizations such as the United Nations (UN) are intended for the worldwide association, ideally meant to count all states in the world. Such organizations do not merely have a universal association but also a general reason, which is wide and distant attainment.

Conversely, there are a number of international organizations whose association is more warning in other words it might be incomplete, as are many local organizations similar to the Caribbean (CARICOM) and the European Union. In such luggage where an association is restrictive, the reason may be general looking for to deal with a variety of matters moving its members. On the other end of the range, specific reason organizations may be restricted to one difficulty or one region but have its association open or general, connotation that no exact criteria want to be met in arrange to become an associate state (Zink, J, 2002). Hence this group of international organizations tends to be objective-directed focus only on the exacting area that is of significance to the preponderance.

International organizations can also be divided in terms of the way in which they carry out exacting tasks. Some organizations are recognized to provide a forum or structure for talks and decisions, other to provide exact services. This dichotomy recognized two perfect types the meeting organization and the repair organization. Organizations in the first group give a framework for associate states to take on May different behavior ranging from the swap of views to the negotiation of compulsory legal instruments. States also frequently employ such forums for the communal legitimating of their rule. Organizations in the subsequent group behavior themselves, they give common or personal services or together.

Amnesty International Report 1998 (Report 1998) particulars in 395 pages the human rights violations in 140 countries. By difference, a brief look reverse to an near the beginning AI Annual Report points up the quantitative enlargement that has distorted what was a well-motivated, well-planned, modest civil-political rights association into today’s broader-spectrum human rights association. In the AI Annual Report 1970-71, one sheet was enough to test every one of the eight missions complete by human rights experts to a lot of countries. Today, in excess of three pages are wanted in the Report 1998 to list AI delegates’ additional than 100 “visits” to dozens of countries for the reason of “research, talks with the administration, and permissible proceedings.”

Looking at the U.S. through the similar international human rights lens, and by the similar methodological move toward it employs with admiration to other countries, AI focuses on the degree to which completion of human rights fell short in the U.S. in 1998. The major push of the four-page part on the U.S. in Report 1998 goes to the human rights state of affairs in prisons and jails in the U.S. Specifics are cited of violations connecting restricted, state, and federal governments were, in information, legal norms and obligations often failed to be upheld. Report 1998 centers on such abuses as torture and unkind, inhuman, or humiliating treatment; the correct to live; and the correct to autonomy from arbitrary custody. These abuses are the majority evident in situations connecting police in prisons and jails, and asylum-seekers, and additional immigrants.

Right through the primary years of the international human rights association, concentration tended to focus additional on violations in immature countries than in industrialized countries. However, AI had in fact begun to observe human rights in the U.S. in the early 1960s, with the magazine of Justice in the American South, in print by 1965. In the superseding years, AI has in print hundreds of information on human rights concerns in the U.S.

Relationship between Human Rights And Gender

The relationship flanked by human rights and sexual category has to turn out to be increasingly significant, and the case learns discussed below to exemplify regal human rights policies – women’s correct to express following opinions and more especially their correct to vote – is drawn from that area. In 1948 Eleanor Roosevelt distorted the word “rights of men” to “human rights” in order to reproduce the inclusion of women. With the exemption of exact rights for women, human rights have been representing as gender-neutral because then, an move toward which has more and more come beneath attack for creation women invisible. With the enlargement of human rights as an instrument of global policy, feminist groups have claimed that “women’s rights are human rights”, thus forge a planned alliance in emancipatory concerns. Feminist groups in the Third World contain also reverted to this caption, since “human rights” is a more well-liked notion than feminism, which is recognized through the hegemonic Western women’s release movements leaning on the corpse or on the conversation.

Another cause to focus on human rights and sexual category is the approach of the Indonesian administration towards these issues. Indonesia has been an associate of the United Nations because achieving independence and was a party to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948). However, it has not signed other UN human rights conventions of a compulsory nature: the International Covenant on Citizen’s and Political Rights (ICCPR) and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and educational Rights (ICESCR), both dates from 1966. The Sukarno and Suharto regimes did approve two UN conventions on women, however: the 1952 Convention on Political Rights of Women (Law 68/1958) and the 1979 UN Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination next to Women, approves in 1984. This interesting place also raises questions about a likely heritage concerning lawful fights and women.

I intend to quarrel in the first put that the colonial administration did itself create a gender-based distinction in yielding the right of following participation: it barred women from taking part in an election for additional than twenty years. However, in the share of gender-neutral human rights such as liberty of expression and of friendship, only slight metaphorical differences can be discerned. in its place of focusing on “law and arrange” to legitimize limits of human rights, the Dutch used influence based on custom, stressing what would now be called “Asian principles” as found in adat (usual law) and Islam. Secondly, I will try to demonstrate that the regal administration already favored the “local” argument over the worldwide move toward following fights. The Indonesian administration has thus at smallest amount a twice inheritance: a regal and a Javanese or Indonesian one. Before rotating to the case of the taking part in an election for women, I determination border this subject by making a number of universal points about human fights in regal Indonesia.

Human Rights of Chinese Women and Role of International Organizations

According to PRC government surveys, women’s salaries have been established to average 77% of men’s, and the majority of women employed in manufacturing work in low-skill and low-paying jobs. An estimated 70 to 80% of workers laid off as a consequence of downsizing in factories have been women, and, though women make up 38% of the work power, they are 60% of the unemployed. At job fairs, employer openly promotes positions for men merely, and university site recruiters often state that they determination does not hire women. Employers give a good reason for such favoritism by saying that they cannot afford the reimbursement they are necessary to provide for with youngster women, nursing mothers, and babies.

The amount of women to men declines at each instructive tier, with women comprising a number of 25% of undergraduates in universities. Institutions of senior teaching that have a big amount of female applicants, such as overseas language institutes; have been recognized to necessitate higher entry examination grades from women. Although China has law permissions that required primary teaching, rising numbers of country girls are not life shape sent to school. Rural parents frequently do not want to “waste” cash on school fees for girls who will “belong” to one more relation when they get married. According to bureaucrat statistics, about 70% of illiterates in China are feminine.

“Human Rights Are Irreconcilable with the War on Global Terrorism”

On the contrary. In a number of instances, the defense of human rights must be capable, or perhaps even balanced, because of the odd urgencies of meeting the confront of worldwide terrorism–but such examples are comparatively few. Due to the secret natural world of al Qaeda operations and targets, in order enjoys the highest best, and one of the few bases of potentially useful in order is the questioning of detained terrorist suspects or operatives. Such a realism may give a good reason for a number of relaxation of the usual treatment of prisoners of conflict but it certainly does not authenticate the sort of embarrassing and vindictive circumstances of confinement linked with Camp X-Ray on the U.S. Naval Base Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, or the move of prisoners by U.S. bureaucrats to Egypt and other countries that have few reserves concerning relying upon torment to extract wanted in order.

The war against worldwide terrorism is far more a following and moral disagreement than it is an armed one. Adherence to human rights, still for those accused or supposed of radical involvement, would sign Washington’s admiration for life and human self-respect. To act otherwise–holding populace without urgent charges or right of entry to lawyers, or rising vague charges with no supporting proof discloses a kind of secular fundamentalism that blurs the natural earth of the conflict. Part of come again? Should be protected is exactly an admiration for human rights. Departures from that usual in legislative performance, legal deed, and administrative strategy should bear a serious burden of influence. So far, because September 11, the U.S. Congress, media, and community have been unwilling to confront the work out of decision-making power in a show of excessive respect that has weakened human rights with no intensification nationwide safety.

Colonial Human Rights Policies

Human rights are not a creation of the UN, nor does the word date merely from 1948. They have bottomless roots in the European civilization of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries forward. These olden times of the brawl of freedom of look and of the following contribution validate the learning of its genesis in a colonial background as healthy.

The association between human rights and colonialism may appear inconsistent, for colonialism is usually identified with racial discrimination and pecking arrange in socio-political relations, even as human rights are linked with notions of parity. However, colonialism was in addition accountable for introducing the motto of the French Revolution – “liberty, parity, and organization” – which would in the end result in anti-colonial antagonism in the settlement as healthy as the “mother state”. The question consequently is not so a great contract whether the regal government introduced or incomplete human rights but in what form, to what degree, and beneath what situation it did so.

Human Rights and Women: The Vote

Rights of friendship and freedom of look were gender-neutral: they enclosed men as healthy as women, though women apparently were hardly ever involved in legal prosecution and trials, and the majority of the “victims” were a gentleman. When focusing on women, we should turn to their correct to participate in the following process, sense the vote. While the struggles for this correct have scored far above the earth on the feminist program in the West, they have been small studied in the non-Western world, particularly in the case of regal Indonesia. The discussion echoed Western voices and noises, but they were forever complex by the junction of notions of the contest, class, and sexual category.

As in most Western countries, women in the Netherlands won the taking part in a vote at the finish of the First World War, in 1919. This correct was not automatically comprehensive to the Indies. In British India, the taking part in an election for women, though limited by possessions and literacy qualifications, was introduce almost at a similar occasion as in the United Kingdom – stuck between 1920 and 1929, albeit merely by and for the local legislature. Here a prearranged women’s movement, in service from side to side the Women’s Indian friendship and additional women’s groups and support by a supporter of independence social gathering (the Muslim League included) and British women’s organizations, had put force on the administration in London to comprise women in the permit. Women in the Indies had to stay awaiting 1941 previous to they won this right – and then for metropolis council selection only.

The U.N. Commission on Human Rights

A continuing mechanism in the endorsement and defense of human rights inside the global organization takes place in the annual gathering of the Commission on Human Rights (the Commission). The Commission meets for six weeks every year in March and April to talk about a long, complex, and frequently politics-driven human rights program. The Commission’s 53 legislative bodies are chosen by the Economic and Social Council to stand for their government.

The Commission meets for its 55th sitting preliminary on March 22, 1999, with a program that ranged generally, as always, across items counting the Right to Development; the correct of popular to self-determination (counting those in occupied Palestine and in Western Sahara); torment and custody, disappearances, and précis executions; religious bigotry; violence next to women; racial discrimination; and the rights and self-respect of all refugee workers (with particular stress on violence alongside women refugee workers).

U.S. government legislative body had a jolt, at what time the first week of the 1999 session began through an attack from pal and foe alike. Germany’s envoy announces that the 15-member European Union for the primary time would present an anti-death punishment decree to the Human Rights Commission. He told delegates from the 53 associate countries that the resolution was future to prevent “the implementation of minors, of the spiritually ill, enforcement before the conclusion of ongoing procedures, and exile to countries where the bereavement sentence is in force.” Although the United States was not singled out by person’s name, it was well recognized that Germany had protested when Arizona executes two German-born men previous this year, in spite of German administration protests that the implementation was “barbarism.” The U.S. human rights evidence was further excoriated by longtime competitor Cuba since of police cruelty, violations against populace in detention, and greater than before information of implementations.

Conclusion

Everyone deserves a right to live, in liberty and justice. So the churches have a lot of reasons why they are supposed to bother. It is simple to say can’t be worried, or why should I? Picture if you were in the state of affairs wouldn’t you want an important person to trouble and care about you? There are two sayings that I believe play a huge portion of why we are theoretical to bother. They are ‘Do to others what you desire them to do to you’ and ‘what goes about comes around.’ The first saying is effective for us to treat others the way we desire to be treated. So if luxury Aboriginal populace as though they are nobodies we should wait for to get the similar action back, but if we treat them as although they are equal, we too will be treated the similar. The next saying is effective us if we do something pleasant a nice thing will come to reverse our way. So if we desire to live a good and fulfilling existence we have to be ready to help others and treat them moderately.

Work Cited

Bob de Graaff, “Kalm temidden van woedende golven”. Het ministerie van Kolonien en zijn taakomgeving, 1912-1940.

Ali Murtopo, Strategi Pembangunan Nasional (Jakarta: CSIS, 1984) p. 368, quoted in Lubis, In Search of Human Rights, p. 152.

Todung Mulya Lubis, In Search of, 1993), p. 33.

Article Title: Human Rights. Contributors: Richard Human Rights. Legal-Political Dilemmas of Indonesia’s New Order, 1966-1990 (Jakarta: Gramedia/SPES Foundation Falk – author. Magazine Title: Foreign Policy. Issue: 141. Publication Date: 2004. Page Number: 18+. Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

Article Title: The Colonial Heritage of Human Rights in Indonesia: The Case of the Vote for Women, 1916-41. Contributors: Elsbeth Locher-Scholten – author. Journal Title: Journal of Southeast Asian Studies. Volume: 30. Issue: 1. Publication Year: 1999. Page Number: 54. Singapore University Press Pte Ltd.

Richelson, J., and Michael E. “Tiananmen Square, 2003 The DeclassifiedHistory.” National Security Archive Electronic Briefing Book No. 16. 1999. Web.

Terrill, R. (2001). “The China Difference.” New York, NY: Harper and Row.

“The Only Child.” (2002). The Toronto Star, p.D2.

“Universal Declaration of Human Rights.” 2003. Web.

Affirmative action was introduced 46 years ago by President Kennedy, who sought to set equality not just as the right or the theory, but as the fact. In its long history, affirmative action has been both complimented and pilloried. Recent research indicates that affirmative action has failed and does not protect or guarantee equality. Just as in 1961, discrimination persists in spite of the civil rights laws and constitutional guarantees. However, society has changed; the labor market and demographic situation are different today as well. Shifts in immigration policy, the aging of the baby boomers generation, and the increasing diversity of the American population dictate the need to introduce the new program aimed at meeting the needs of all social segments. Affirmative action should be fundamentally revised or replaced by new initiatives to become more advantageous for every member of the community and help all people who are underprivileged.

History Overview

John Kennedy (1961) was the first to use affirmative action as the instruction for federal contractors to ensure that all applicants were treated equally. This initiative was aimed at protecting human rights to employment despite race, sex, color, or ethnic origin. Three years later, the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was signed into law which prohibited discrimination by employers with over 15 subordinates. President Johnson supported affirmative action and further expanded it, requiring all contractors to hire minorities and women. Under President Nixon, flexible goals were applied to make sure that women and minorities had the opportunity to uncover their full potential at the workplace (Bowen and Bok, p. 58).

Affirmative action was initially focused on the education and employment market and sought to become the foundation of active measures to ensure that minorities and women were granted the same opportunities. Ideally, it was seen as the temporary policy which would finally end discrimination and ensure that all employees were granted the same opportunities for bonuses, salary increases, and promotions, as well as all students, were equally eligible for scholarships and admissions. Despite its honorable aims, affirmative action gave birth to reverse discrimination by the late 1970s. Recalling the Bakke case, the white male was rejected by the medical school while less qualified minority representatives were accepted because two separate admission policies existed for them. Notably, in this case, the court outlawed the quota system, while in the same ruling, the legality of affirmative action was upheld (Bowen and Bok, p. 58).

Many white people started campaigns against affirmative action. Conservatives viewed affirmative action as the door for minorities to jobs and education. At the same time, others thought that preferential treatment received by minorities is unfair to the majority. Liberals referred to the history of African Americans (245 years in slavery and 100 years of legal discrimination) and stated that affirmative action took away jobs from whites. Looking back at recent history, many states have banned affirmative action plans even though both the House of Representatives and Senate inhibited attempts to eliminate affirmative action plans in 1998. The same year, the University of California banned affirmative action in admissions. Voters in Washington and Florida supported this initiative and banned affirmative action in hiring, education, and contracting.

Affirmative Action advantages and disadvantages

Supporters of affirmative action claim that it is the myth that the only way to create discrimination in society is to adopt discriminative policies. In fact, affirmative action puts racial minorities at an advantage. Employment policies protect while employees because most of the senior supervisors are whites. The same situation is with the colleges: college admission favors white students because they have more educational advantages. Nevertheless, these claims are not based on the real situation and affirmative action does not correct the racial discrimination; it rather reinforces it (Plus, p. 206). If during the first years of its existence, affirmative action succeeded in increasing minority representation in employment and educational spheres, today there is no need for it because all organizations and colleges eliminated employment and admission quotas granting equal rights and rules to all American citizens despite their race.

Affirmative action has been vital for the economy and political life 20 years ago because minorities and women were treated with inferiority. Even though today women continue to earn only 75 percent for every male dollar and black people still have an unemployment rate twice bigger than whites (Plus, p. 207), these figures are not caused by discriminative policies as well as affirmative action is not the solution to this situation. According to the polls, the majority of the American population supports affirmative action: 80 percent of all respondents felt that affirmative action should be continued for women and minorities. Here are some of the questions and results of the survey (the U.S. Bureau of the Census, p. 22):

1. Do you favor affirmative action programs in the workplace? 58% favor, 36% oppose
2. Do you favor affirmative action programs for admission? 56% favor, 39% oppose
3. Should affirmative action programs left as they are, changed, or banned? 42% favored leaving at they are, 43% favored changing, and 25% favored banning.

It is clear that society is divided in its attitude towards affirmative action. Affirmative action, therefore, is the superficial solution to discrimination and does not address societal problems. It is merely one of the tools to redistribute opportunity and develop educational and employment equality. Affirmative action is not the solution to inequality but is aimed at eliminating discriminatory practices in hiring and university admissions. As Edward Kellough has noted, if action supports people who do not receive encouragement to the same extent as others, society has moral reason to give affirmation to this action.

The central idea that individuals benefiting from affirmative action are not able to get the same support in another way. Thus, those people who are in a harder position than others get the opportunity to get into better universities or get the job they would not otherwise get. As the result of affirmative action, minorities receive the benefits that would not have been given to them; if it was not so, then the question about racial preferences would appear. On the other side, minority representatives receive the benefits without any effort and would not be able to get them if the standards were not lowered for them. Thus, they are allowed not to work as hard as others to get into good schools and be employed.

Affirmative action shows both encouragement and approval. Minority representatives and females feel happy about getting into a better university or hired for a job of their dreams. At the same time, not all minorities get into universities because of affirmative action, and they manage to get into college because they satisfy all of the standards and requirements (Kellough, p. 147). If less suitable people are hired for work while more experienced candidates are rejected, it is neither good for the company nor for the person who is not capable of contributing to the organizational success. Employment and hiring decisions should not be made based on skin color or ethnic origin. It is against laws and moral reasoning, while affirmative action forces the decision-makers to consider race and favor those who are in a minor position. Every college or employer pays attention to the final result, not to the race of the one who achieved this result.

Banning Affirmative Action

Florida

Affirmative action has been banned to some extent in many states because both the majority and minority representatives agreed that setting the specific quota on admissions or hiring does not help any party. In the year 2000, Florida has implemented the so-called “One Florida” Plan, which canceled affirmative action in the state. The plan was intended to be applied to graduate school, law, and medical school with the focus on banning affirmative action in admissions. The plan has also introduced the “Talented 20” initiative which guaranteed admission to the top 20 percent of all students in graduating class of each school in the state, and such factor as race, sex or ethnic background was not to be taken into account (Stewart, p. 2). Thus, the issue of the minority was totally eliminated.

Most of the people living in the state of Florida supported the new plan, however, some of the activists noted that previously “Talented 20” was applied only to the undergraduate level, and affirmative action was banned at the graduate level, it was not replaced with anything. In addition, the study of minority enrollment was not conducted, and the effect of the new program was not evaluated or measured. At the same time, most of the universities in the state have similar practices and increase recruitment efforts. The “One Florida” plan went into action at the beginning of the school year, and its effect was seen only in 2001. According to the attorney Steven Uhlfelder, there has been an increase in the number of African American enrollments compared to the previous year when affirmative action was practiced (Stewart, p. 2).

Texas

Texas has supported the initiative introduced in Florida, and the top ten percents of all high school graduates are automatically eligible for public universities and colleges admissions. As Hockstader has noted, race-based admission has become the main feature of public education in the United States, and while Supreme Court has not yet ruled on the constitutionality of the affirmative action, the new system implemented in the state of Texas has the potential to replace the existing affirmative action (Hockstader, p. 1). Notably, a similar law was applied in early 1998 in California and covered the state-funded colleges, while other states have started to follow this initiative only five years later.

The initial aim of the new program to ensure diversity among public universities students without the need to change the constitution. Thus, minority representatives are guaranteed places at universities without affirmative action plans. On the other side, university officials express some regret about the ban on affirmative action, even though they agree that the new program is the means to achieve social justice without emphasis made on race. For many applicants, the 10 percent rule has eliminated the anxiety with college applications. If previously many students argued that affirmative action granted minorities the rights they did not deserve (did not work hard enough), the new program gives a chance to successful students to enter universities on their own, independently (Hockstader, p. 1).

Nevertheless, there is another side of the issue. With the major emphasis being made on GPA, a course such as a choir (easy A’s) has become very popular, and students are more focused on grades rather than knowledge and experience. Hockstader notes that the new law has benefited Asian Americans the most: nearly 15 percent of the freshman class at UT-Austin are Asians, even though only 2.7 percent of the whole population in the state are Asian Americans. Moreover, UT-Austin has adopted several initiatives to attract more blacks: free test preparation classes, advanced placement course, and other.

Michigan

Michigan has recently banned race and sex-based admissions to public colleges and universities; however, the US Court of Appeals has declined the ban, and public universities still have to apply affirmative action. Notably, it has never been said that the states are required to follow affirmative actions plans. The current situation in Michigan is that public universities have either to accept the smaller enrollment of minority representatives or find a way to overreach the ban (Flagler, p.12). Based on the new programs introduced in Florida, California, and Washington State, Michigan is not far from adopting the new program as well. The vast majority of the Michigan population agree that admissions to colleges and universities must be race-blind, while affirmative action is initially race-based.

Alternatives to Affirmative Action

Returning to the time when affirmative action was the foundation of most admission policies in the country, President Clinton was already proposing alternatives to it. In the year 1997, the University of California in San Diego has banned racial preferences, and the enrollment rates have much dropped. In particular, the admission rate of African Americans has dropped by 85 percent (Horowitz, p.1). Public opinion has changed since that time, and today society agrees that affirmative action promotes the system of racial preferences and is based on racial discrimination. As a result, new programs and initiatives are introduced, and states support the ban of affirmative action.

Class-Based Affirmative Action

It is a fact that Latino and African-American students mostly pooper than white students. Poverty is the key reason why disadvantaged groups score lass on standard tests. Therefore, affirmative action based on class has the potential to increase minority representation without stressing racial differences. Class-based affirmative action is more targeted. It gives the opportunity to be enrolled into the universities and colleges to those individuals who need it the most, to those who do not have the same educational opportunities as kids of richer families. Nevertheless, the key problem related to class-based affirmative action is that it does not work well. School performance is directly related to the socioeconomic status of families as well as the performance difference between the minority representatives and whites exists.

The research indicates that culture, social position, and parental education do have an impact on the enrollment rate. Class-based affirmative action is a very weak substitute for race-based affirmative action. Harvey Gee, on the other side, argued that university admissions should be based only on the class while race and sex should not be considered at all (p.273). He supported the initiative to give representatives of low-income families an additional plus during admission. He further adds that class-based affirmative action is easier to implement in the educational field because university officials have detailed information about students. While class-based affirmative action may not work in the employment field because of the lack of this information about the candidates.

Class-based affirmative action and diversity

Affirmative action has failed to increase diversity in education and employment fields. Class-based affirmative action, similar to race-based affirmative action, does not succeed in this direction as well. Alternatively, the emphasis of affirmative action plans should be shifted from race and class to diversity, even though Gee notes that it is a problematic task. For example, many universities have active programs on recruiting foreign students, even though most of them are not disadvantaged (Gee, p.273). Current diversity programs are based either on race, ethnicity, or social class, and they proved to be a failure. Neither race-based nor class-based affirmative action plans can contribute to increasing diversity.

Other programs

Many states have tried to implement the programs alternative to affirmative action. Nevertheless, most of the programs have proved to be preferential and based on the assumption that women and minorities are underrepresented in employment and education fields. Thus, the qualified individuals from these groups should be granted the position and be preferred over men and majority representatives (Selden, p. 14). For example, open admissions and lotteries are race-neutral means to ensure that minority students have the opportunity to be accepted in the universities of their choice. More than 80 percent of all American students are enrolled through open admission programs. Thus, without using race-based policies, universities guarantee the representation of minority students.

Percentage plans (the new programs) which are already successfully implemented in many states have proved to be fair admission policies not based on race, ethnic origin, or social status. The new programs are mostly based on the ten-percent rule: the top ten percent of graduates of all state schools are guaranteed acceptance in the public university of their choice. The diversity is further increased by the additional recruitment efforts, and the minority representation has much improved. For example, in the state of Texas, the new programs have changed the composition of the public universities: the majority of students are top ten performers. Even though the ten percent initiative is not applied in graduate and professional schools, it is the best alternative to affirmative action so far.

Affirmative action as the tool to increase diversity has many limitations. Its purpose to eliminate educational segregation: exclusion of racial minorities and women from educational and occupation sectors. It has partially achieved this goal, and many minority representatives were able to go to the colleges they wanted to as well as many disadvantaged social groups have been employed. If affirmative action was all about a positive impact on American society, the debate over its effectiveness was not raised by the community, and now the discussion would be shifted to finding the ways to expand affirmative action to other fields.

The future of Affirmative Action: Concluding note

Affirmative action does not work any work. It was and is race-based and promotes the preference on race, therefore, it promotes reverse discrimination. Society stresses the importance of personal achievement, while affirmative action undermines this core value of American culture. Affirmative action will not survive in the 21^st century, and the new programs initiated in Florida, Michigan, Texas, and other states have proved to be more successful in increasing diversity at the workplace and public colleges. Affirmative action did not take into account the social issues, even though it had an honorable mission. Today most colleges provide all necessary resources to the students of all races, ethnic origins, and social positions who are willing to prepare themselves for college admission (Wydick, p. 27). Affirmative action did not decrease discrimination; on the contrary, it further promoted race-based preferences and, therefore, should be banned.

Works Cited

1. Bowen, W., and D. Bok. The shape of the river: Long-term consequences of considering race in college and university admissions. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1998.
2. Fliegler, Caryn. “Affirmative action and Michigan.” University Business 9.10 (2006): 12.
3. Gee, Harvey. “A class-based remedy.” Howard Law Journal (2000): 273-275
4. Hockstader, Lee. “Texas Colleges’ Diversity Plan May Be New Model.” Washington Post 2002: A01
5. Horowitz, David. “Alternatives to Affirmative Action?” FrontPageMagazine.com 1997.
6. Kellough, J. Edward. Understanding Affirmative Action: Politics, Discrimination, and the Search for Justice. Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press, 2006.
7. Plous, S. Understanding Prejudice and Discrimination. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2003.
8. Selden, Sally. “A solution in Search of a Problem? Discrimination, Affirmative Action, and the New Public Service.” Public Administration Review 66.6 (2006): 12-18.
9. Stewart, Pearl. “NAACP Files Brief Against “One Florida” Plan – plan cancels affirmative action.” Black Issues in Higher Education  2001: 2.
10. U.S. Bureau of the Census. Statistical abstract of the United States: 2000 (120th ed.). Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, 2000.
11. Wydick, Bruce. “The case for a new affiramtive action.” San Francisco Chronicle 2001: A27.

Introduction

During the 20th century, illegal immigration has been the major social and economic problem of the state. The main problem is that it is difficult to control illegal immigration and flows of foreigners coming each month to Americas. Also, it is difficult to predict economic problems and changes caused by illegal immigration. Many illegal immigrants coming to American have poor language skills and need additional training. Illegal immigration becomes a real burden for education system which has to increase annual budgets and reduce expenditures per pupil (Watts 43).

Problem Identification

The problem is that illegal immigration demands additional spending and financial investments in education because of the increasing number of students. For instance, Minnesota’s Education Board increased budgets from $118.14 million to $157.53 million during 2003-2004 years. The main state that suffered from illegal immigration in California, which spends additional $3,220,200 on illegal students. Texas spends $1,645,400, New York – $1,306,300 and Illinois – $834,000 a year (Nevins 29). These questions raise not merely narrowly economic but also moral-philosophical and sociological issues since they involve in an essential way the relationship between individuals and nation-states. Because of increased expenditures, schools cannot introduce innovative solutions and improve quality of education for native citizens. The ethical dilemma is that native-born citizens cannot receive good education and improve their knowledge and skills because of increased number of illegal immigrants aimed to receive American education and enter the labor force. The case studies made by De Souza Campos (2006) and Fujiwara (1998) show that illegal immigration does more harm than good for local communities and urban public schools.

The Senate and the House of Representatives, and public figures who followed their deliberations, agreed that popular education must elevate and improve and purify American life by teaching freedmen and white illiterates and immigrants their duties and responsibilities as citizens (Watts 72). Advocates of federal aid continued to speak from time to time in the accents of the common school awakening, with its emphasis on the protection of individual liberty and the encouragement of individual prosperity, but even the most generous spokesmen among them portrayed an education that would limit rather than multiply the paths that the democracy might take (Som 286). In every sense the first national attempt to stimulate public education since the days of the founding fathers was both conservative and republican. Thus, many native citizens and students who oppose illegal immigration seen it as the main threat fro their life opportunities and education (Watts 71).

Positive Outcomes

The positive outcomes of this problem are that the state would spend enough money and support schools in innovative solutions and technologies. From moral standpoint, a common finding in studies of migration is that better-educated individuals have a higher propensity to migrate. This finding may be due partly to more educated individuals being more likely to have better information concerning alternative areas. Moreover, persons with higher educational attainment may be better able to adapt to the requirements faced when entering a new occupational environment. Overall education would benefit the country and allow illegal immigrants to enter the labor force (Porter 66). From economic standpoint, the incremental value that the U.S. labor market assigns to a prospective immigrant’s education, which is acquired in his respective home country, maybe less than the incremental value of the education if used in the native country. If this argument is valid, the effect of education is less clear. Another important consideration is that the effect of educational attainment may differ considerably across occupational categories.

Occupational knowledge is not perfectly transferable from another country to the United States. It is therefore noteworthy that the rate of immigration to the United States is higher for persons from English-speaking countries. From legal standpoint, support of illegal immigration and access to schools would lead to increased number of newcomers and additional burden for the country. This evidence is compatible with the hypothesis that, if a prospective immigrant is from an English-speaking country, the costs of adjustment to the U.S. labor market are reduced. Hence, the incentive to migrate is greater (Som 286). Moreover, receiving an education at a U.S. university would certainly increase the probability that the accumulated knowledge will be transferable, without substantial losses, to the U.S. labor market. As a consequence, increasing the proportion of natives from a country who receive a college education in the United States appears to increase the flow of immigrants who enter the United States to perform work. In this relationship, however, the causality may be subject to question. If a prospective immigrant wants to migrate to the United States, the move may be facilitated by first coming to the United States as a student (Porter 66).

Possible Solutions

1. One of the possible solutions is to tax illegal immigrants (force them to pay for education). The essence of my proposal for taxing migrants makes sense, however, on a different rationale that requires neither that the countries of emigration are damaged by the outmigration nor that the incomes received abroad by the migrants represent economic rents. There is no reason why citizens who reside or work abroad, no matter what their legal status as migrants or their intentions about the length of stay, should be exempt from the national tax obligation of the country whose nationality they hold (De Souza Campos 539).
2. Another solution is to find a beneficiary (employer) who will pay for school education. This is not a common solution but it will help education system to collect money and improve the quality of education for all students. Education is surely essential to any kind of achievement, but the reasons people seek education are also important. It may be that the many illegal immigrants sought education as an asset to the making of money but that the others turned to education as the result of having made money. Each individual can help schools by granting some money or books when leaving school. It can be a small donation but it will help illegal immigrants and schools to reduce cost of education. Also, volunteers can teach illegal immigrants the basic language skills and history of the country (Nevins 65).

Evaluation of the Proposed Solutions

Interns of Utilitarianism, the first solution is the most desirable because it will help the state to avoid financial burden and additional spending on education. The aim of this approach is to promotion of the best long-term interest of everyone. They attempt to maximize good right) over. In terms of Kant’s categorical imperative, one should take that action that he or she would wish everyone to take in all circumstances, irrespective of the consequences of the single, individual action. This ethical theory would deny this solution because it harms illegal immigrants and limit their future opportunities. Many immigrants and their states would not pay for education abroad. In terms of Rawl’s theory of justice this solution is wrong because it does not reflect ideas of equality and liberty. Libertarianism states that people should be able to do whatever they wish, so the proposed solution is disadvantageous for illegal immigrants so they are unable to pay for education. In terms of Aristotelian ethics, the state would accept this solution as the most desirable for the state and education system. Aristotle supposed that the heist good is “desirable for its own sake” (Nevins 88).

The solution to finding a beneficiary (employer) who will pay for education is problematic but the most disabled for the state and education system. It will ensure employment of the illegal immigrant and will free the state from the army of unemployed and poor. Utilitarianism will approve this solution the concept that rights and duties have no independent standing; that they derive from the goal of maximizing the overall good. This solution will maximize the overall good: of the state, education system and illegal immigrants. In terms of Kant’s categorical imperative, this solution is irrespective of the consequences, since we would have chaos in society. To the categorical imperative Kant added the “practical imperative,” that in considering actions one must treat all persons, including oneself, as an end and never as a means. in terms of Rawl’s theory of justice, this solution is desirable but it will limit freedoms and equality of the citizens: illegal immigrants. Libertarianism will reject this solution because it limits individual liberty and freedoms. In terms of Aristotelian ethics, this solution will be the heist good for the state but not for illegal immigrants. Illegal immigrants will be limited by obligations to work for a particular employer or a company for a certain number of years.

My Proposed Solution

The best solution is to limit access to or exclude illegal immigrants from schools and educational institutions. Special schools for illegal immigrants located in their communities will help to solve the problem. The immigrant community, however, tends in time to dissolve. Often the foreign-born move to secondary areas of settlement within the city. In the days of heavy illegal immigration, their place often was taken by new immigrant arrivals. But this is no longer the case, and immigrant communities are rapidly dissolving. Though the foreign-born individual himself may never be completely divorced from the immigrant community and from ties with his European countrymen, this is not true of his native-born children. The rapidity with which second-generation Americans draw away from the traditions of their foreign-born fathers has often been commented upon (Nevins 29).

That this rejection of the parental traditions may sometimes be a cause of conflict between the children and parents and be responsible for certain personality problems is not surprising. Perhaps the greatest agency for the adjustment of the foreign-born in the system of compulsory education which, while educating the child in the ways of American life, indirectly influences the parent. Night classes in English and in citizenship for adults also contribute their share. In recent years the adjustment process has been speeded up. Often the stage of living in an immigrant community is omitted entirely, the immigrants now being dispersed more widely among the native-born residents. Skilled professional workers employed by immigrant-aid agencies assist new arrivals in choosing a place of residence, often in the less congested regions of the country, and in securing their first jobs and setting up a normal family life. Apart from the reduction in the volume of immigration, the development of the agencies of communication and the dynamic tempo of American life makes isolation of the immigrant much less of a problem than it was a generation ago (Porter 66).

It is known fact that the immigration depresses the wages of unskilled workers, a larger proportion of native unskilled workers qualify for some benefits, and some of those already receiving benefits may receive a larger transfer. It will be assumed that the income transfer system is invariant with the immigration policy; that is, the criteria for eligibility and the schedule of benefits do not change as the number and characteristics of the immigrants change (Porter 66). Excluded from education system and schools, illegal immigrants will not enter labor force and probably return to their native countries. This is a non-democratic solution but it will help to protect native-born citizens and improve quality of education.

In sum, illegal immigration has a negative impact on schools and quality of education so only strict and immediate actions can help to solve the problem. The nature of illegal immigration to this country itself has been at once a cause and a result of the superior appeal exercised by the United States over other nations seeking immigrants. Immigration to this country has been unique not only by reason of its volume but also because of the diversity of its composition. Education and access to schools should be limited because it is the main ‘tool’ and ‘way’ which helps illegal immigrants to enter labor force and stay in the country.

Works Cited

De Souza Campos, M. S. Brazilian and Immigrant Families in Sao Paulo City: Education and Work. Journal of Comparative Family Studies, 37 (2006): 539.

Fujiwara, L. h. The Impact of Welfare Reform on Asian Immigrant Communities. Social Justice, 25 (1998): 82-84.

Nevins, J. Operation Gatekeeper: The Rise of the “Illegal Alien” and the Making of the U.S.-Mexico Boundary. Joseph; Routledge, 2002.

Porter, L. Illegal Immigrant Should Not Receive Social Services. International Social Science Review, 81 (2006), 66.

Som, S. O. The Immigration Reform Debate. Eileen Momblanco; Social Education, 70 (2006): 286.

Watts, J. R. Immigration Policy and the Challenge of Globalization: Unions and Employers in Unlikely Alliance. Cornell University Press, 2002.

Introduction

In an organization, age discrimination manifests itself when a person’s age is considered while recruiting, promoting or offering specific job benefits. In America, this discrimination mostly affects aged people who are often singled out in preference of the young recruits. Conversely, there have been several incidences where young workers have been fired and their positions were taken by older people. According to a report filed jointly by Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development and Chartered Management Institute, sixty percent of those interviewed confessed to having experienced some form of age discrimination in their respective workplaces. However, this problem has been reducing with time over the last few years, probably because of changes in the population structure of the American working group. In 1967, the United States Congress passed the Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA). This was done in order to curb the behavior of employers discriminating against those aged above forty-five years while recruiting new employees. The Act protects employees aged between forty to sixty-five years against being discriminated against during the processes of hiring, promoting, giving benefits, and training. Congress went further and made some amendments that banned compulsory retirement or any other method of age discrimination before the age of seventy (Falk & Falk, 1997, pp.23-34).

Causes of age discrimination

Generally, age discrimination in the workplace occurs due to increased demand for labor and the general belief by many employers that the aged are less productive. In addition, many companies believe that it is too costly to employ older people due to their special requirements such as health care, pension and other extreme benefits. They also complain of the inflexibility associated with older people. Generally, the old is believed to be technically incapable. However, studies on the older worker’’ capabilities have been seen to dispute these common ideologies among employers. They argue that, although some mental and physical capabilities decline as one grows old, the rate is minute until later age. This can however be substituted with a better experience (Peter & Jenifer, 2002, par.6-7).

Latest court rulings in America have retaliated that retirees are also protected against age discrimination. The law states that the employees’ benefits include benefits provided to the present employees of a firm and its retirees. This has resulted in an increase in court cases concerning retirees and age discrimination. Employees are required to provide comments made at the workplace as evidence of age discrimination. This could be from their supervisors, co-workers, management personnel or the firm’s chief executive officers (U.S Legal Definitions, 2009, par. 1-5).

Cases of age discrimination

According to a survey conducted to determine the annual age at work in Chicago on November 10, 2008, 80% of the executives admitted that there was still far too harsh age discrimination in the United States workplaces. From the survey, Gray Hair Management found that most of the executives lost their jobs due to their age. The survey discovered that, when persons clock the age of fifty years, it becomes a problem for them to be hired by most of the companies in America. However, there are some of the executives who believe that their age played a vital role in their enrollment to their current jobs. As a result, some people have gone to an extent of making adjustments to their ages to help them stand better chances of being recruited (Shafer, 2009, par. 1-6).

Conclusion

People have diverse capabilities at different phases of their life, and therefore employers ought to make their employment decisions based on job type rather than considering the ages. This will ensure that they have fully utilized employees’ skills.

Reference

Falk, U. A. and Falk, G. (1997). Ageism, the Aged and Aging in America. Springfield, Ill: Charles C. Thomas Publisher, Ltd.

Peter, U. & Jenifer, H. (2002). Age Discrimination. Encyclopedia of Aging. 2009. Web.

Shafer, K. K. (2009). Survey: Age Discrimination Still a Problem at Top Ranks of Corporate America. Web.

U.S Legal Definitions. (2009). Age Discrimination Law & Legal Definition. Web.

Introduction

Frank Zappa was born in Baltimore on 21^st December 1940 to a Sicilian father, Francis Vincent Zappa and a French-Italian mother, Rose Marie Colimore. Both were immigrants in the United States. Tired of poverty, the family had moved to Baltimore from Partinico, a small town West of Perlamo in Sicily. Despite the poverty in their early lives in Baltimore, the Zappas worked hard to better their lives. It was from this background that the music maestro Frank Zappa was born. During his early years, Zappa experienced health problems including asthma and earaches. Despite this, he started his formal education which he would later abandon terming it inappropriate. It was in high school that he started his singing career which later bloomed to great magnitudes. Apart from being a musician, Zappa was also a social critic of the government and the church. He even had ambitions of running for the American presidency. He later died in 1993 at age 52 in Los Angeles, CA (Milles 2).

The difference between caffeine, nicotine and other drugs

Despite his successful career, Zappa was a heavy consumer of caffeine and also a great chain smoker. Contrarily, none of his band members was allowed to consume any form of substance on the road. Sobriety was a prerequisite for membership in Zappa’s band. Considering this, could it be said that Zappa was applying double standards by prohibiting the use of drugs in his band while he used caffeine and nicotine? Or could we say that these two do not qualify to be ranked among drugs that can result in substantial insensitivity or sub-awareness? To answer these questions, we could use Zappa’s own approach to drugs. It should be noted that Zappa never used any other form of hard drugs. This shows that according to him, coffee and cigarettes were substances that never caused insensitivity. This is also evidenced in one of his statements where he argued that on their own, drugs are simply chemical compounds. Trouble comes when a person tries to use them as “a license” to behave in an inappropriate manner (Milles 46). This could identify why Zappa applied his zero-tolerance rule on drugs. He abhorred uncouth behavior that could result from the use of hard drugs. Without a doubt, caffeine and nicotine can rarely lead to such behavior.

Zappa’s view on drugs

To some extend, Zappa could be said to have missed something in his regard to drugs. He completely approached drugs from a moralistic point of view. He abhorred drug use that could lead to insensitivity. However, Zappa failed to view drugs from a health point of view. This could be attributed to his overuse of drugs that are suspected to have been the cause of his death from prostate cancer. In addition, his moralistic approach could also be attributed to his refusal to allow the use of drugs by his band members. By using drugs, he feared that they could behave inappropriately in public. This means that Zappa’s view on drugs was one-sided (Milles 49).

Role of his childhood life to his stand on drugs

Milles, in his analysis of Zappa’s, points out that his character of zero tolerance to drugs was an attribute of his experience with incarceration and also his resolve to avoid being caught on the wrong side of the law. This argument is strong considering the fact that Zappa spends most of his life moving from one area to another. He even had to live in drugs and gang-filled naval bases (Milles 43). Zappa narrated later that one had to act like the gangs otherwise one could suffer from the acts of the other gang members. It is therefore relevant to argue that Zappa developed this negative attitude towards drugs because he experienced what hard drugs made people do. Life in gang neighborhoods made him understand the implication of negative association. These two made him not hate drugs but hate people using drugs as a license to commit evil.

Conclusion

In conclusion, the life of Zappa contributed to his stand towards drugs. However, his stand was far much moralistic than health. This resulted in the banning of the use of drugs and also his dying from drugs.

Works Cited

Miles, Barry. Frank Zappa. London: Atlantic Books, 2004.

The issue of abortion has a lot of controversies. One being that, if there is conflict between two rights then the most fundamental and important one ought to prevail. The right to life may pose as the most important human right. Scientific indications are that every individual life is unique in its nature and weigh more over other life contemplations.

According to Domino (4), on “managing spontaneous abortion”, abortion may be defined as an extreme act of violation which is permanent and devastating to the unborn child. It is an act against infants’ livelihood which is justifiable for all unborn children and it continues to the early childhood development. It entails complete expulsion which is referred to as the spontaneous abortion or it can also be partial termination. The question most people including professional would raise concerns the point where the circumstances are viable.

The issue of foetal viability has become a burning legal or scientific debate with varying laws and suggestions among states. The basic or most dominant argument regarding the morality of abortion is that the act is justifiable if the mother’s life is in danger. Considering the dispute that, people should choose the lesser of any two evils in a given situation, the argument would prevail. Morally the conclusion to the argument may be that abortion is a selfish act. Rhetorically, does this quantify the act of caring the unborn child through out the gestation period regardless of whether the challenges or risks involve less evil?

According to Domino (4), there is a difference between threatened and inevitable abortion but it differs because of the organizational differences regarding the cultural believes and interpretations. According to him “dilatation, rupture of membranes, or expulsion of products in the presence of vaginal bleeding portends inevitable abortion.” Abortion is recommended when there is profuse virginal bleeding during pregnancies regardless of whether the contractions are present or not. This can be due to these ruptured membranes, expelled products of conceptions, or dilated membranes.

Does one’s control over her body overshadow the fundamental right to life? One argument over this would be non-existent right to such kind of control. Considerably the situation would indicate that this person’s right, if it exists would be outweighed by the rights to life.

Some of the least expected arguments especially with legalization of abortion would be the issue of unwanted children. The issue of quality life may be absurd in this context since hard work is what is supposedly meant to redeem poor quality and life has got value regardless of quality. Most people would argument this to be a selfish act since it denies the child its right to live, so that the life of those in existence can improve. Logically, doest this imply that we can eliminate those lacking quality life so that those who enjoy some quality can have an improvement?

Is aborting a private act? It is reasonable to state that a child belongs to the society and terminating its life is a loss to the society. Termination of its life in the name of “a private act” would haunt not only the victim but the society as well since the cultural believes and acts reach that we ought to allow moral value to any human being or we face suffering from humanity or values.

Lastly is the argument posted in the Fundamental Issues of Abortion by Sprengel (4), which indicated the probability of unwanted children being prone to criminal acts. Would it be sensible to support abortion on this argument? Justice states that one is innocent until proven otherwise. Probably the argument would be unjust. The unwanted children who are in existence are still given a chance to reform. Allowing abortion over such a possibility would presume that the death penalty should be used for much less criminal charges than murder. This is an act that would indicate lack of love or concern for humanity.

In line with Sprengel (4), it is a scientific fact that a child is a unique human being with a right to life. This is more important and fundamental over other rights but the disagreement to it would call for a definition of abortion that portrays the act as permissible. According to him “the strength of pro-life is not because of cleaver artificial definitions that make things convenient but one that acknowledges unique individual life.”

Don Marquis theory argument

In his theory “future-like-ours”, Marquis (183) has a slight advancement to the potentiality argument where he condemns the act of abortion on the basis that it deprives the foetus its humanitarian rights over activities, joyous experiences and lifetime projects. The outstanding feature of Marquis emphasizes a human being’s future as a fundamental ethical core element. His argument does not coincide with the normal factors of the argument such as the consciousness. Contrary His theory is based on probability where he state that largest leap is the probability of conceiving an ethically meaningful life and this is the right point of defining life as equal among all.

Judith Jarvis Thomson argument

In her writing, Thomson argues on the basis of a difference between claim on the rights of a foetus and that ethically, it is obligatory for a mother to take all necessary measures to keeping it alive. According to Thomson (5), “the foetus is an ethically relevant person and with a right to life but the ethical legitimacy of abortion survives the concession”. This led to a heated debate criticizing it especially the examples of the scenarios she uses to explain her argument. She depicts some irrelevant ethical choices out of coercion. Her final verdict is that abortion is not always ethically permissible.

Susan Sherwin argument

According to Sherwin, (99) the discussion of abortion overlooks, “the distinctive analysis of feminists’ ethics”. She indicates that most authors will presume acquaintance with common arguments to overshadow women’s right of choosing abortion. The feminists’ ethics arguments are focused upon broader frameworks as opposed to moral and general consideration of legal tolerability. There is ignorance over the overall struggle especially within the sexists’ societies over control of women productivity. Women are supposed to respond to their inner feelings and relationships with others. Sherwin states that non-feminists will question the issue of abortion based on some definitions such as that of a foetus which in this case would be irrelevant. They will primarily focus on the general moral status of the foetus regardless of their support for “Women’s’ rights to choose abortion.”

In line with Sherwin’s writing (101), there is a lot of tension on the issue of abortion. “No matter how appalling and dangerous the conditions, women form widely diverse cultures and historical periods have pursued abortions.” She expresses her concern that if abortion is not legalized, made safe and accessible to society, then women will continue to seek illegal and life-threatening acts of termination behind the law.

Activists who are against abortion dismiss her point of view. They are willing to meet the cost of avoiding reality. On the other hand, feminists value women and it is their fundamental concern over loss of women’s lives due to the restrictive policies. The difference here is on feeling, believes and cultural backgrounds. Activists view the act as women’s frivolous or irresponsible decision making procedure alternatively feminists view the act as being catalysed by compelling viable reasons. “Feminists ethics demand effects of abortion policies on the oppression of women as the principal consideration of ethical evaluation” (Sherwin, 105)

Peter Singer argument

According to his writing, Singer (135) indicates that suffering exceeds pain since it is governed by the conscious awareness. Suffering evokes past experiences with a memory on freedom from suffering. The memories are accompanied by anticipated expectations and understandings. In such cases, the person analyses the possible options that may be available to overcome the suffering.

Argumentatively the foetus has no such expressible feeling, preferences and subsequently no conscious suffering. This indicates that other people preferences over the unborn child’s survival should not be a barrier to termination of the pregnancy as long as the procedures remain painless. Singer argument that people will place their stands on abortion on morally impregnable situations should be the reason why they view women’s interests and rights as overriding those of the foetus. The argument Singer portrays is that the unborn child cannot understand life and its preferences and therefore if someone has preferences over its existence, preferably within the first month of the development period, then termination would be justifiable. (142)

He includes his ethics of “Replacability”, where there can be ample reasons why a child may be unwanted. The procedure for making decisions pertaining abortion would be profoundly influenced if the termination allowed another chance or freedom for a different child to replace the aborted. Arguably his view would be taken as discriminatory especially for the disabled who would be long replaced if it applied.

Personal view over the arguments

According to various moral controversies concerning the issue of abortion investigated in this paper, a personal view would be that the act ought to be permissible over special scenarios which should correlate to the laws of the country or state. There ought to be clarity and certainty that pertains the law over such critical matters.

Most ruling would lack clarity over lawful abortion and the extent on prohibition of the same. The law must provide a straight forward legal setting for physicians to conduct their operations. This would include analysis of the woman’s circumstances. All actions ought to be supportive to the best interest of the patient. Women suffer from distress and humiliation on the hands of physicians because of the stigma associated with the act especially when it is not well elaborated and thus their thinking consider the act as a criminal offence.

Arguments against and defending the personal thought

Some of the arguments defer with the personal thought such that, if the act was to be legalized under certain conditions, then the law would be bent easily to allow some non-special cases. Another thought would be that, the act may not be taken ethically as illegal especially when it is performed frequently since it may deteriorate the law and the respect it deserves.

Some organizations may support the argument in totally reasoning that the act it is already available on demand and rules are flouted by professionals’ day-in-day-out especially in the private sector. There are suggestions that, abortion be allowed but limited to the public health sectors to ensure safety and logical cases.

Lastly is the argument that linearization of abortion is not the reason behind low maternal related deaths. It is the regulation of the antibiotic usage and thus there is no correlation between the backyard abortion and criminal penalty. (Victoria Law Reform Commission, 74)

Works cited

Domino, Frank. The 5-minutes clinical consult: Abortion, Spontaneous. 16^th Ed Washington DC. Lippincott Williams and Wilkins publishers 2007

Marquis, Don. ‘Why Abortion is Immoral’. The Journal of Philosophy 86 (4) 183, 189. 1989

Singer, Peter. Taking Life: The Embryo and the Fetus’ in Practical Ethics (2nd Ed, 1993.

Sprengel, Mark. K. Fundamental Issues of Abortion. Heritage house’76 inc. 1999. Web.

Susan Sherwin. No Longer Patient: Feminist Ethics and Health Care, Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1992.

Thomson, Judith Jarvis. Abortion. Boston Review, 2008. Web.

Victoria Law Reform Commission. Laws of Abortion. Melbourne Victoria 2^nd Ed 2002. Web.