How the Zomia interacts with Thailand politics Research Paper

How the Zomia interacts with Thailand politics - Research Paper Example The 2006 coup de tat and other physical elements have been attributed to the two camps. The strategic position of Thailand in Zomia has been seen as a key element that has shaped the nature of politics of this nation, as some elements of the past are still prevalent. Thailand is situated in the epicenter of Indochina peninsula in the Southeastern part of Asia. Thailand politics has attracted attention all over the world. It has a monarchy kind of leadership with the current leader being King Bhumibol Adulyalje, Rama IX (McCargo & Hongladarom, 2004). The king has served the country since 1946 and has been termed all over the world as the longest serving personality in his capacity as the head of state. His monarch has served the longest in the history of monarchy in Thailand. The nation is at present ruled by a military junta that seized power in 2014. The politics in Thailand are characterized by a number of elements as influenced by the culture of the one Zomia and those from the lowlands. The recent political crisis in the country since the wake of 2005 has seen the onset of two perspectives; the yellow shirts and the red shirts (CNN, 2008). People’s Alliance for Democracy (PAD) and the Peoples Power Party (PPP) have played a big role i n the recent political crisis. The conflict between the two parties would later translate to a conflict between Democratic Party led by the Prime Minster Abhisit Vejjajiva government and the National United Front for Democracy against Dictatorship (UDD). UDD followers normally dress in Red Shirts while PAD followers dress in Yellow shirts (BBC, 2012). The yellow color is preordained to embody the royal aspect of the reigning king of the nation. The UDD red code is a sign of support to Thaksin Shinawatra, a deposed prime minister. Thailand is a center of two bitter camps, the Red Shirts, and the Yellow Shirts. The birth of the color codes is more dependent on

Perceptions of Organized Crime Groups Essay Example for Free

Perceptions of Organized Crime Groups Essay The United States is run by a democratic government that has laws in place to ensure order and organization. However, there are certain people and groups that wish to compromise and profit personally from breaking these laws. According to Understanding Organized Crime (2007), organized crime can be defined by the members and the activities of a group. There are many crimes in which organized crime might be involved, but what separates individual crime from crimes committed by groups of people is the term organized or organization. Organization has been described as a group of people who cooperate to accomplish objectives or goals. Organized crime has been around for centuries; from Outlaw gangs in the western days that robbed stage coaches, the pony express, and passengers of trains to today’s Blood and Crip gangs that dominate public streets for power over territories and drug sales. Gangs have been around for a long time imposing on the lives and liberties of law abiding citizens that wish to obey laws. Law abiding citizens have to live in imminent fear that their lives are not disrupted by the actions of these criminal organizations that wish to indulge in crime. In this paper, we will explore the various definitions, perception, characteristics of organized crime, and explore some high profile groups that indulge in different types of crimes. Perception of Organized Crime A University of Phoenix student named was asked how she defined organized crime. ’s perception of organized crime has some of the dynamics right such as profit, power, and hatred, but the reading further states that organized crime has no real black and white meaning, besides a group of people uniting for a common goal. Her answer was simple; she stated that organized crime is when a group of people break laws and/or violate others in order to gain power, profit, or promote hatred. Organized crime groups incarcerated within the prison system such as Nuestra Familia and Mexican Mafia, break laws to gain power that lead to some form of profit; depending on what they need such as drugs, cigarettes, or privileges from others. Drug Cartels as the Shower Posse and Spangler Posse of Jamaica, involved themselves in organize crime to profit from illegal drug activity, and groups like the Ku Klux Klan and Aryan Brotherhood are driven by hatred. Author’s Perception Compare to the Definitions in the Readings The author’s perception of the definition in the reading is similar in the meaning of criminal organization, but the book states that crime can be defined by the members and the activities of a group. This means that crime is what each club sees it to be. This is an interesting point, but very true. Many people (e.g. club members) in society commit crimes for different reasons. Some feel it is necessary to break laws due to their limited necessities in life. It does, in no means make it right, but it is the perception of many. The prisons are filled with individuals/criminals that feel they were doing what they needed to do to defend themselves, take care of themselves, or just was presented with opportunity. Some of them sit in prison for years and still feel that their actions of breaking the law were justified. This is the mentality of most organized crime gangs. All they care about is what they want at the time, and not what the implications of breaking the law ca n lead to, until it hits home. has personal knowledge of different biker groups and 2 Outlaw Motorcycle Gang’s (OMG’s) and was raised in and around the biker atmosphere, but none of those groups that are mentioned in the book. She has heard the mentality of the OMG’s as opposed to regular Biker Clubs. The 1% clubs run their clubs totally different with no regard for breaking the law, indulging in violence, or starting trouble. 1% Outlaw Biker Gangs One of the clubs that she knows of is called the Chosen Few. The Chosen Few is a 1% motorcycle gang that -has first-hand knowledge of. She has known some of their members for a long time and has witnessed how their club is run, aside from other biker clubs that do charitable work in and around their communities, such as toy runs, mentorships, feeding, and clothing the homeless and disable children. In a recent article, from 2010, the Chosen Few M.C. was involved in 3 murders. After this incident, law enforcement officials began to keep a close eye on them and found even more illegal affiliations. The article by Chris Vogel (2011), points out several incidents with Chosen Few members that had negitive run-ins with the law. The article states that agents used confidential informants to buy drugs and guns from members, a member was arrested with more than a kilo of coke, police discovered that a DMV worker was making fake identifications for club members to use in order to buy guns, and a member was arrested with a gallon of PCP which led federal agents to Detroit, where another six gallons of PCP were seized. (Feds Catch Chosen Few Motorcycle Club Members Selling Guns PCP, 2011) According to the characteristics of organized crime with Outlaw Motorcycle Gangs (OMG’s) the Chosen Few, fits the criteria. Characteristics Associated with Organized Criminal Behavior There are certain characteristics of organized criminal behaviors that range from commitment to eminent structure. Commitment is an oath and allegiance to what these clubs, good or bad stand for. It is needed to protect and serve the honor of the organization and all its secrets. Along with this it comes with a sense of power, pride, and protection. Survival is a trait that many organized crime member’s exhibit. It is sometimes used to partake in illegal activities to sustain the worldly goods that obtained. For OMG’s, it may consist of the clubhouse, due paying members, and motorcycles. Punishment is a characteristic that is prevalent in discouraging members from disloyalty, disobedience, or dishonor. These punishments can be in the form of death, beat downs, or in the case of OMG’s fines or snatching of colors. Structure is the final characteristic that needed for an organize crime group to be successful. Like a business is run with a CEO, CFO, and other people in place to ensure order, organized crime groups are ran alike. With a chief officer in place and other members in position to handle different aspects of business to make sure there is no breakdown in with members. In conclusion, organize crime has unique characteristics that has been in place for centuries, and although law enforcement has been investigating the structures of this organizations, it is too many to stop. They are intricate organizations with different reasons as to why they chose to break the law. This is why there is no clear cut definition of organize crime. Mallory, S. (2007). Understanding Organized Crime. Retrieved from University of Phoenix. Vogel, C. (2011). Feds Catch Chosen Few Motorcycle Club Members Selling Guns PCP. Retrieved from http://blogs.laweekly.com/informer/2011/07/black_biker_gang_chosen_few.php

How Does The Media Influence Young Girls Media Essay

How Does The Media Influence Young Girls Media Essay There are many programs and magazines, such as Americas next top model and Seventeen magazine, that are watched and read by many teenage girls. These girls are insecure and want to be popular, handsome and well-liked. The young women are therefore easily influenced by the information they receive from the media. An average teenage girl hides herself using tons of make-up and beautiful clothes, because she is insecure about her outer appearance. Every morning she has to get herself prepared for the day. She decides to skip her breakfast, an extra hour of sleep, or even her first lesson. She takes a shower, puts on enough make-up and dresses herself well. These girls are influenced by the beautiful and perfect women, whose pictures are showed in advertisements and on TV. A variety of programs show us public images of how you should dress, look and act. The young girls wish that they are also perfect, with the perfect dress and with the perfect make-up; so that they are attractive to boys and that they look like the girls and women on TV. Well known make-up artists such as Rimmel London and Max Factor present their make-up with skinny girls, who have the perfect skin and the perfect look. So the question is, are they selling the product, the make-up, or are they selling the beautiful woman? The advertisements are indeed selling the product, but they are also selling the image of the ideal woman. They emphasize thinness as part of the females beauty. These women, who are on the covers of the magazines, serve as an example for the teenage girls. They also want to be thin, have big boobs, and a beautiful skin. These images affect the girls own self-image. Not only the models have a great influence on the girls, also the articles written in the popular teenage magazines have a great influence on the young women. The articles explain the girls about the ideal appearance. Articles like How to look attractive to boys and How to achieve the perfect look, hair and face are extremely normal. An article on the website of Seventeen magazine gives you the perfect example of such an article, à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã… ¾New Makeup Promise to Boost Your Mood!  [1]  This article is about a new make-up that promises to make you happy. It explains about the ingredients, such as Euphoryl, Murumuru Seed Butter and Theobroma Grandiflorum, whatever they are, and I am sure that girls, who read this article, think about buying this make-up, without realising if these ingredients really work! Outer appearance has become very important throughout the years for everyone, because of the media. They emphasize the importance of the physical appearance and that is the way advertisers sell beauty products such as day and night creams and make-up. Women and teenage girls therefore strive to achieve the ideal outer appearance presented by the media. They are not satisfied with their own body and are doing anything to become beautiful. Do you recognize these young women? I bet that almost two third of the teenage girls could be compared to the average teenage girl who has been influenced by the media. These girls are boring and not outstanding. Thus, the media should stop offering false information to young women about the perfect body. The media encourages the girls to have a negative self-image. In fact, a person who is fat and walks like a duck has probably a more beautiful personality than the other girls. Although these girls are not to blame, the media is. (617 words) By writing an opinion column, I wanted to express my opinion about how the media influences young women, because advertisements, commercials, TV programs and magazines are all influencing the teenage girls by giving them false information. An opinion column should not be written in a particular style. As a columnist you are free to write in your own style, although it still has to be worth reading. So my first objective was to write a convincing opinion column that would be easy to read for most people. Therefore I didnt use many difficult words and tried to be convincing by giving the reader important information about the influence of the media. My second objective was to inform the people about the influence of the media on teenage girls. I explained the average, insecure teenage girl who can be easily influenced by beautiful models printed on the cover of the popular teenage magazines. As an example I described a daily morning of an average teenage girl. Every morning she has to get herself prepared for the day (paragraph 2). The girls strive for having the perfect face; therefore they skip their breakfast to prepare for school. To support my opinion about the influence of media I used another example. On the website of Seventeen magazine, an American magazine for teenagers, I found an article that was called: New Makeup Promise to Boost Your Mood! (see stimulus material). This article is about a special make-up that would make the girls happier. Young teenage girls are easily influenced by this text and by the convincing title, because the title makes a certain promise to you. My third objective was to explain what image the advertisements and commercials are selling. I explained the ideal outer appearance and why it has become more popular over the years. They emphasize thinness as part of the females beauty. (paragraph 3) My last objective was to imitate the layout of a newspaper, using columns and an appropriate title. To accomplish this objective I looked at other opinion columns, and imitated the layout of the page. Stimulus material: article New Makeup Promises to Boost Your Mood! January 4, 2011 at 2:58:00 PM by Seventeen Magazine Its no surprise that when youre happy or excited you ace a test, your boyfriend sends over flowers for no reason, your face has a gorgeous glow. (Feeling beautiful = looking beautiful!) But what about a makeup product that produces the same effect? The Happy Booster Glow Mood Boosting Blush and Face Powder by Physicians Formula promises to lift your spirits. Its the first-ever makeup line developed to stimulate happy thoughts through mood-enhancing ingredients, color therapy, aroma therapy, and texture therapy. Basically, it copies the effect of endorphins, aka happy molecules, which produce a sense of well-being. (Your body releases endorphins during exercise, which is what makes you feel great afterward.) Other ingredients include Euphoryl, which is an anti-depressant packed with Omega-3, as well as Murumuru Seed Butter and Theobroma Grandiflorum Seed Butter, which make skin feel silky-smooth and appear luminous. Finally, its blend of floral scents refreshes your mood. And how cute is this packaging?! All this happiness is contained in a heart-shaped plastic compact with a pink metallic base. It comes in a face powder (see above), blush, and bronzer, and each is a variety of overlapping different-colored hearts. So, the big question: can you buy happiness? For $11.95-13.95 at select drugstores, you just might come close!

My Experiences in a Nursing Career Essay -- Personal Essays Career

Nursing   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã¢â‚¬Å"Nursing is an art: and if it is to be made an art, It requires an exclusive devotion as hard a preparation, as any painter ´s or sculptor ´s work; for what is the having to do with dead canvas or dead marble, compared with having to do with the living body, the temple of God ´s spirit? It is one of the Fine Arts: I had almost said, the finest of Fine Arts.† Spoken by a true nurse, Florence Nightingale; a pioneer of nursing and a reformer of hospital sanitation methods.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚     Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  I have many goals in life such as to have a good strong career and family. What is important to me is graduating Central high school and go on to UND. While at UND I plan to get my nursing degree and specialize in pediatrics and truama. I have already started to make short term goals that will lead me in to the life of nursing.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚     Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  I have volunteered at Altru hospital since I was in the eight grade. I have been on most of the floors from surgery to pediatrics, terminally ill to yearly check ups. This has influenced me greatly, encouraging me to go in to nursing and also to go in to a more specialized area. Volunteering helped me search my future my career until I was old enough to get my CNA and go in to the health careers class. A CNA is a certified nursing assistant. When I turned sixteen i applied for the CNA class. Three months later I became a CNA. As a junior I also took a health careers class. This class gave me a more indepth look at the choices that I could make a...

Police officer Essay

Inspector Goole has an air of mystery around him from the start. Mr. Birling is on the bench and knows all the police officers but has never seen Inspector Goole. The Inspector tells him that he is new â€Å"Only recently transferred.† This makes us wonder, is it a coincidence that he has just started working in Brumley at the same time as this investigation is going on? Or maybe he knew Eva Smith personally and wanted to find out more about what drove her to suicide. We don’t really know who he is and there is no evidence that he is a real Inspector so the audience are confused whether to believe him or not. We do not know enough about his character to trust him. He also has a very mysterious nature for example the way he talks to people. â€Å"He chooses his words carefully and speaks weightily.† He does this so that he makes sure that he is saying what he wants to say and means it. Everything he says has a rather matter of fact tome to it making the other characters think that he is always right and knows what he is talking about. Also he has a disconcerting habit of looking at the person that he is talking to. This makes them uneasy. It is like the Inspector is searching them internally and can see what they are thinking. The name of the Inspector â€Å"Inspector Goole† adds to the dramatic tension of the play. The name Goole is a homophone to the word ghoul which is often related to a ghost. A ghost is a disembodied spirit of a dead person i.e. it is not really there. Ghosts and ghouls are thought to be fictional to scare children. Therefore is the Inspector real or not? Is â€Å"Goole† his real name or is he just using the name to scare the Birlings? These questions remain unanswered throughout the play. Inspector Goole has a very awkward yet methodical way of questioning each member of the family. He concentrates on one person at a time and does not let them go until he is satisfied with the information that he has gained. When he is questioning one person he does not like to disturbed. He has a photograph in his pocket which he says is of Eva Smith and he says he found it in her lodgings. He only shows it to one person at a time and makes sure that no one else can see it. When he shows Mr. Birling the photograph Gerald and Eric are eager to see it as well but he blocks their view. When they ask him why they can’t see the photograph he replies â€Å"It’s the way I like to go to work. One person and one line of enquiry at a time. Otherwise there is a muddle.† This shows the methodical side to his questioning. Throughout his enquiries, the Inspector has remained in control. At times he has massively taken charge.† In social status, the Inspector is lower than the Birlings although throughout most of the play the Birlings are inferior to the Inspector as they do not know all the information like he does. What we do not know is how much the inspector already knows before arriving at the house. Whenever he asks a question, he already seems to know the otherwise he would not be questioning them. The information he has gathered before coming to the house is by reading the diary that Eva Smith left. Maybe some pages of the diary were missing, hence the lack of information in the Inspector. There is not really any evidence that what the inspector says is true apart from everyone admitting to what they did to Eva Smith. He doesn’t even show the Birlings so called diary. Therefore we aren’t sure if there even was a diary or if he made it all up. We are force to believe that he is telling the truth because how else would he have got that information? The audience answer to it â€Å"Anyhow I already knew.† He obviously has bits of the puzzle missing do not learn a great about Inspector Goole in the play. All they learn about is his character and personality; he is imposing and intimidating. We do not know any background information on him e.g. where he is from. All this does not matter because even though he is the main character the play is not about him it is about Eva Smith. The audience probably do feel a bit curious about the mysterious Inspector but their curiosity soon subsides as they try to keep up with the fast pace of the play. Before the Inspector goes he says â€Å"One Eva Smith has gone but there are millions and millions of Eva Smiths left with us.† From this, the family learn that they might have led someone to suicide but there are plenty more vulnerable people like Eva Smith left in the world that needs their help.  John Priestley was born on September 13th 1894. He grew up into a family who enjoyed debates. At a very young age he was caught up in debates with his friends. They all discussed politics from a socialist point of view. He expresses these ideas and beliefs in the play. In the play his socialist ideas are expressed through the characters and by exploiting some techniques and devices. Now I am going to write about the social and political climate of the day. Priestley wrote this play ‘An Inspector Calls’ in 1944, but the play was set in 1912. Priestley took into account the political and social climate of not just 1944 but also when the play was set in 1912. Because of the time in between the two periods Priestley could use historical events and facts for his own use in the play. An example of this is when Birling says, â€Å"I’m talking as a hard headed, practical man of business. And I say there isn’t a chance of war. â€Å"And in the Inspectors final speech when he talks about everyone being responsible for each other’s actions and the world is a whole and people shouldn’t be divided up into classes and social groups. â€Å"I tell you that the time will come when, if men will not learn that lesson, then they will be taught in fire and blood and anguish.† In both these quotes Priestley touches on the subject of war. This would have attracted the audience to what Birling was saying and they would have started to dislike him and his ideas, since the Second World War would have just finished the audience would have been upset about their lost ones and would have been interested in peoples opinions and views leading up to the start of World War One.

Hotel Rwanda

Roberto Cutout. It was released into the United States on December 22, 2004, but it released elsewhere in the world throughout 2005. The three main stars of the movie were Don Cheated, who plays Paul Reassigning the hotel manager, Sophie Conned, who plays Titian Reassigning, Pall's wife, and Nick Molten who plays Colonel Oliver, the United Nations peacekeeper.I watched this movie about a week ago on July 27th with a few of my friends who are also taking this course. The movie is not part of a series, but it is based on a true story. It is inspired by the novel An Ordinary Man by Paul Reassigning and Hotel Rwanda: Bringing the True Story of an African Hero to Film by Keri Pearson and Terry George. In Rwanda, there are two main ethnic groups, the Tutsis and the Huts , who are constantly fighting for power and control of Rwanda. Genocide constantly cleanses Rwanda streets as people turn away in fear.Paul Reassigning is a hotel manager for the Hotel Des Mille Isoclines in Kigali, Rwanda. He being a Hut helps his family and other people they know, most Tutsis like his wife, take refuge from the Hut army in his hotel. Before they even reach the hotel, they get taken by the Huts and Paul has to pay General Beginning one hundred thousand Francs to spare the lives of his Tutsis friends that first took shelter in their home and another ten thousand Francs for his wife and kids' lives.As they try to settle the few amounts of people they have in the hotel already plus the current guests, the Red Cross and other Huts and Tutsis arrive at the hotel taking refuge adding the total from one hundred to over eight hundred Rwanda. As the genocide increases, the Europeans staying at the hotel are flown out of Rwanda by the United Nations and sent back home to avoid the danger. Paul tries to get help from the Belgians and the French after the fighting grows, but the countries refuse to get themselves caught up in Rwanda problems. The U. N. Sakes a list of refugees able to leave the country and attempt to take them on trucks across the border, but Tutsis rebels ambush the trucks forcing them to return to the hotel. Paul and his family later get to escape to a U. N. Refugee camp where they find Titan's nieces, but her brother and sister-in-law nowhere to be found. They end up crossing past the rebel nine and drive to their new home in Tanzania, away from the war. In ten years, one million Rwanda, both Hut and Tutsis, were left for dead because of the genocide and hatred between these two ethnic groups.Which I believe is an unreasonably irrational thing to happen all due to hatred between human beings. The characters in â€Å"Hotel Rwanda† are based on real people and events that actually happened in Rwanda during the sass. Paul Reassigning was a real person that actually took care of hundreds of people in his hotel in Kigali, Rwanda. The people played in the film were accurate as to the real situation in the sass. The dates in the film were also right. So me online people, mostly Rwanda, say that the movie does not tell the story of the genocide correctly as it happened.These sources are not official since they are only people of Rwanda that live there and claim they fully and correctly know the story of the genocide and what happened with Paul Reassigning and his family. The events in the film were based on true events that happened in Rwanda during the sass, ending in 1994. â€Å"Hotel Rwanda† was mainly filmed on the spot in Kigali, Rwanda and Johannesburg, South Africa. The Hotel Des Mille Isoclines set was filmed in South Africa, but the original Hotel Des Mille Isoclines is located in Kigali, Rwanda.The scenes showing the city streets and most fighting scenes are shot in Kigali. The camp scenes along with some road scenes were filmed in South Africa. These locations were shown very accurately since they filmed part of the movie in the actual city where the movie takes place. The movie was filmed during 2004 and it releas ed on December 22, 2004. The wardrobes of the people shown in the film are accurately represented like the Huts, Tutsis, and militias wore during the sass in Rwanda. The ears and clothes of the people were portrayed very well as to how they were back then.The producers did a great Job of showing the time period during the movie Just by the clothes the actors wore. All around this movie was accurately shot and shown as the real actual thing. â€Å"Hotel Rwanda† was a very dampening movie because of the killing of innocent people and children, but it was very good. The actors were great, especially Don Cheated, playing Paul Reassigning, the most important role in the movie. The strongest points in the movie were how real they represented and filmed the Unicode as well as the emotions in the characters throughout each scene.The weakest point in the movie, I believe, is the ending where it ends with the Russianness on the road after they got off the bus. I was curious why they di dn't show the rest of their Journey to their new home in Tanzania and what happens after they get there. Which is most likely due to the length of the movie, which is understandable. It was kind of like a cliff hanger for me, so I did not really like the ending as much as I expected I would. I also enjoyed how the movie rose to a great lima and then stayed at a climax for a while until it dived towards the end once the family reached the U.N. Camp. The movie really kept me on â€Å"the edge of my seat† throughout the whole thing . After watching â€Å"Hotel Rwanda†, I was well aware of what happened with the Hut and Tutsis genocide. I did not realize how much damage was caused in Just one hundred days of the killings. The movie would have been better if it continued on about the Russianness' lives in Tanzania and how they managed to survive. I would definitely recommend â€Å"Hotel Rwanda† to anyone that enjoys watching historic events that keep you on the edge of your seat. Hotel Rwanda Textual Analysis: Hotel Rwanda (Terry George, 2004) The horrible evidence of what Kant variously called the wickedness, corruption and perversity of the human heart is, unfortunately, not encountered only in memory, it is also met with among our current experiences. We are daily obliged to witness fresh atrocities as ethnic and racial hatreds seek to express themselves in the annihilation of their proponents’ enemies. Copjec, 1996;9) The above quote effectively demonstrates that debates on evil are not only still suitable for the issues emerging in a post-modern world, but are perhaps more suitable than ever before. The film which I will be discussing, Hotel Rwanda (2004), relates the true story of Paul Rusesabagina, a man who sheltered over a thousand refugees in the hotel he managed during the Rwandan genocide of 1994.The film is useful as a focus point for the discussion of evil since the situation surrounding the events that took place during those months are often referre d to in terms of evil – not only on the part of the Hutu militia that perpetrated the atrocities, but also of the international community and the UN in particular, which did not intervene to stop the massacre – and it would be useful to analyse a couple of key points in this film more closely.After World War II, it was believed that the genocide perpetrated by the Nazis would never be allowed to happen again, but events in Yugoslavia and Rwanda, to name but two examples, have proven that the potential for acts of evil of this magnitude to occur are not specific to one culture or even to a place in time, but are expressions of – to use the words of Immanuel Kant – ‘a natural propensity to evil’ (1960;20) that is embedded in the human race.It might therefore prove useful to turn to psychoanalysis for a partial explanation with regards to how it is possible for people to change their behaviour in such radical ways, readily adopting new moral max ims that often oppose their previously adopted ones. According to Freud, when in a group situation, ‘the individual gives up his ego ideal and substitutes for it the group ideal as embodied in the leader’ The other members of the group are, according to this theory, ‘carried away with the rest by ‘suggestion’, that is to say, by means of identification’ (1921;161-162).According to this theory, the group – small or large – surrenders its free will to that of the leader, which makes them less likely to make their own moral judgements with regards to their actions and more likely to blindly follow the leader as well as the other members of their group. The issues of identity and legitimisation are also crucial to understanding how the Hutus felt justified in brutally murdering their former friends and neighbours. As is explained in the film, tensions between Tutsis and Hutus were virtually nonexistent prior to the arrival of the Belg ian colonists. The two ethnic groups are actually very similar – they speak the same language, inhabit the same areas and follow the same traditions†¦It was the Belgian colonists who saw Hutus and Tutsis as ‘distinct entities, and even produced identity cards classifying people according to their ethnicity’ (BBC News Website). In other words, there were no violent issues of ethnic difference until the Tutsis were made – to use the definition provided by Richard Kearney – into â€Å"aliens†.For Kearney, this term refers to ‘that experience of alterity associated with selection†¦or sometimes with suspicion’ (2000;101). He goes on to say that ‘Aliens proliferate where anxieties loom as to who we are and how we demarcate ourselves from others (who are not us)’ (2000;102). This means that, in order to legitimise their own identity, groups must necessarily create a group of ‘aliens’ with whom they ca n misidentify. The tendency to use members of this group as scapegoats and perceive them as threats is clearly demonstrated in the build-up to the Rwanda massacre.As the economic situation in the country worsened, Tutsis were used to divert anger from the Hutu government. Subsequently, when the airplane carrying the Rwandan president Juvenal Habyarimana was shot down, the incident was used to make Hutus feel as if they were under attack. As one Hutu – who actively took part in the massacre – later relates; ‘Because the RPF were blamed for the death of President Habyarimana, we thought that they had started with the high-ranking officials and that they were going to end up doing the same to us ordinary people’ (BBC News Website).In other words, ‘When faced with a threatening outsider, the best mode of defence becomes attack’ (Kearney, 2000;104). The other side of evil as portrayed in the film, however, is the international community’s fa ilure to act. The UN soldiers in Rwanda are portrayed as good people who have their hands tied, yet their refusal to go against their orders is portrayed almost as cowardice in that they are failing to ‘do what is right’ and use their weapons in order to save lives.In a scene where the UN convoy – transporting refugees from the hotel to a secure camp – gets stopped at a militia roadblock, the refugees’ lives are in dire peril, and the fact that the soldiers will not shoot the Hutus that are about to kill unarmed men, women and children stands for what is now widely thought of as shameful unwillingness of the Western nations to recognise and stop the genocide. The outcome of this particular scene is that the UN soldiers do not use their weapons but most of the refugees are saved by the belatedly arrived local police force.The outcome of the lack of intervention from Western nations was the death of an estimated 1 million people. The crucial question for the purpose of this paper is whether the actions of those soldiers were evil. It could be argued that if they had used their guns against their explicit orders, many lives could have been saved, but it could also be said, on the other hand, that this act would have give the hostile militias a justification to kill the UN soldiers as well, which would have saved even fewer lives.In determining the evil nature of actions or people, should we consider first and foremost the intention or the consequence of action? It might prove useful at this point to outline a practical definition of morals in contrast to ethics in relation to this particular example. I would argue that morals are result-orientated whilst ethics in the true Kantian sense are interested solely in the consistent obedience of the law, a maxim which once adopted by an individual must be followed for its own sake, regardless of consequence or relative circumstances.Whilst morals must consider a situation in light not o nly of the law, but also taking into account the surrounding circumstances and possible outcomes, ethics dictate that anything short of upholding the law for the law’s sake is evil. Within this framework it is then possible to argue that the soldier’s actions were ethical but not moral. While it would have been impossible for them not to consider the outcome of their action, we could conclude that their decision to uphold the law overrode their need to help the refugees.Operating under a law that dictated that they would not use their weapons to protect the refugees, going against that would be – in Kantian terms – evil, as they would be breaking the law, and even if countless lives were saved as a result of that, Kant’s unforgiving sense of ethics would not spare them in the least, for the outcome of actions simply does not feature in his theoretical framework. By choosing to uphold the law the soldiers fulfil another crucial requirement of Kantia n ethical behaviour (or as he calls it, the ‘moral law’); the categorical imperative.In stating that one should never act except in such a way that they should will that their maxim should become universal law, Kant established that the most important factor of his ethics is consistency, as no double standards can be tolerated. It would seem reasonable to assume that the moral maxim of the soldiers in question is that violence without due procedure and full backing of the law is never justifiable.With that in mind, it could be argued that they would be happy to see that moral maxim adopted as universal law, since a world in which this maxim was universally adopted would most probably not have seen the Rwanda genocide taking place. BIBLIOGRAPHY Copjec, J. (1996) (Ed. ) Radical Evil, Varso Books Freud, S. (1991) Civilization, Society and Religions: ‘Group Psychology and the Analysis of the Ego’, ‘Future of an Illusion’ and ‘Civilization and its Discontents’ (The Penguin Freud Library) Penguin Books Kant, I. 1960) Religion Within the Limits of Reason Alone, New York, Harper Collins Torchbooks, Australia Kearney, R. (2000) ‘Others and Aliens: Between Good and Evil’, in: Geddes, J. (Ed. ) Evil After Postmodernism: Histories, Narratives, and Ethics, Routledge Singer, P. (2004) The President of Good and Evil: Taking George W. Bush Seriously, London, Granta Books ‘Taken Over By Satan’ http://news. bbc. co. uk/1/hi/programmes/panorama/3582011. stm Accessed on 14/03/2006 ‘Rwanda: How the genocide happened’ http://news. bbc. co. uk/1/hi/world/africa/1288230. stm Accessed on 17/03/2006 Hotel Rwanda Textual Analysis: Hotel Rwanda (Terry George, 2004) The horrible evidence of what Kant variously called the wickedness, corruption and perversity of the human heart is, unfortunately, not encountered only in memory, it is also met with among our current experiences. We are daily obliged to witness fresh atrocities as ethnic and racial hatreds seek to express themselves in the annihilation of their proponents’ enemies. Copjec, 1996;9) The above quote effectively demonstrates that debates on evil are not only still suitable for the issues emerging in a post-modern world, but are perhaps more suitable than ever before. The film which I will be discussing, Hotel Rwanda (2004), relates the true story of Paul Rusesabagina, a man who sheltered over a thousand refugees in the hotel he managed during the Rwandan genocide of 1994.The film is useful as a focus point for the discussion of evil since the situation surrounding the events that took place during those months are often referre d to in terms of evil – not only on the part of the Hutu militia that perpetrated the atrocities, but also of the international community and the UN in particular, which did not intervene to stop the massacre – and it would be useful to analyse a couple of key points in this film more closely.After World War II, it was believed that the genocide perpetrated by the Nazis would never be allowed to happen again, but events in Yugoslavia and Rwanda, to name but two examples, have proven that the potential for acts of evil of this magnitude to occur are not specific to one culture or even to a place in time, but are expressions of – to use the words of Immanuel Kant – ‘a natural propensity to evil’ (1960;20) that is embedded in the human race.It might therefore prove useful to turn to psychoanalysis for a partial explanation with regards to how it is possible for people to change their behaviour in such radical ways, readily adopting new moral max ims that often oppose their previously adopted ones. According to Freud, when in a group situation, ‘the individual gives up his ego ideal and substitutes for it the group ideal as embodied in the leader’ The other members of the group are, according to this theory, ‘carried away with the rest by ‘suggestion’, that is to say, by means of identification’ (1921;161-162).According to this theory, the group – small or large – surrenders its free will to that of the leader, which makes them less likely to make their own moral judgements with regards to their actions and more likely to blindly follow the leader as well as the other members of their group. The issues of identity and legitimisation are also crucial to understanding how the Hutus felt justified in brutally murdering their former friends and neighbours. As is explained in the film, tensions between Tutsis and Hutus were virtually nonexistent prior to the arrival of the Belg ian colonists. The two ethnic groups are actually very similar – they speak the same language, inhabit the same areas and follow the same traditions†¦It was the Belgian colonists who saw Hutus and Tutsis as ‘distinct entities, and even produced identity cards classifying people according to their ethnicity’ (BBC News Website). In other words, there were no violent issues of ethnic difference until the Tutsis were made – to use the definition provided by Richard Kearney – into â€Å"aliens†.For Kearney, this term refers to ‘that experience of alterity associated with selection†¦or sometimes with suspicion’ (2000;101). He goes on to say that ‘Aliens proliferate where anxieties loom as to who we are and how we demarcate ourselves from others (who are not us)’ (2000;102). This means that, in order to legitimise their own identity, groups must necessarily create a group of ‘aliens’ with whom they ca n misidentify. The tendency to use members of this group as scapegoats and perceive them as threats is clearly demonstrated in the build-up to the Rwanda massacre.As the economic situation in the country worsened, Tutsis were used to divert anger from the Hutu government. Subsequently, when the airplane carrying the Rwandan president Juvenal Habyarimana was shot down, the incident was used to make Hutus feel as if they were under attack. As one Hutu – who actively took part in the massacre – later relates; ‘Because the RPF were blamed for the death of President Habyarimana, we thought that they had started with the high-ranking officials and that they were going to end up doing the same to us ordinary people’ (BBC News Website).In other words, ‘When faced with a threatening outsider, the best mode of defence becomes attack’ (Kearney, 2000;104). The other side of evil as portrayed in the film, however, is the international community’s fa ilure to act. The UN soldiers in Rwanda are portrayed as good people who have their hands tied, yet their refusal to go against their orders is portrayed almost as cowardice in that they are failing to ‘do what is right’ and use their weapons in order to save lives.In a scene where the UN convoy – transporting refugees from the hotel to a secure camp – gets stopped at a militia roadblock, the refugees’ lives are in dire peril, and the fact that the soldiers will not shoot the Hutus that are about to kill unarmed men, women and children stands for what is now widely thought of as shameful unwillingness of the Western nations to recognise and stop the genocide. The outcome of this particular scene is that the UN soldiers do not use their weapons but most of the refugees are saved by the belatedly arrived local police force.The outcome of the lack of intervention from Western nations was the death of an estimated 1 million people. The crucial question for the purpose of this paper is whether the actions of those soldiers were evil. It could be argued that if they had used their guns against their explicit orders, many lives could have been saved, but it could also be said, on the other hand, that this act would have give the hostile militias a justification to kill the UN soldiers as well, which would have saved even fewer lives.In determining the evil nature of actions or people, should we consider first and foremost the intention or the consequence of action? It might prove useful at this point to outline a practical definition of morals in contrast to ethics in relation to this particular example. I would argue that morals are result-orientated whilst ethics in the true Kantian sense are interested solely in the consistent obedience of the law, a maxim which once adopted by an individual must be followed for its own sake, regardless of consequence or relative circumstances.Whilst morals must consider a situation in light not o nly of the law, but also taking into account the surrounding circumstances and possible outcomes, ethics dictate that anything short of upholding the law for the law’s sake is evil. Within this framework it is then possible to argue that the soldier’s actions were ethical but not moral. While it would have been impossible for them not to consider the outcome of their action, we could conclude that their decision to uphold the law overrode their need to help the refugees.Operating under a law that dictated that they would not use their weapons to protect the refugees, going against that would be – in Kantian terms – evil, as they would be breaking the law, and even if countless lives were saved as a result of that, Kant’s unforgiving sense of ethics would not spare them in the least, for the outcome of actions simply does not feature in his theoretical framework. By choosing to uphold the law the soldiers fulfil another crucial requirement of Kantia n ethical behaviour (or as he calls it, the ‘moral law’); the categorical imperative.In stating that one should never act except in such a way that they should will that their maxim should become universal law, Kant established that the most important factor of his ethics is consistency, as no double standards can be tolerated. It would seem reasonable to assume that the moral maxim of the soldiers in question is that violence without due procedure and full backing of the law is never justifiable.With that in mind, it could be argued that they would be happy to see that moral maxim adopted as universal law, since a world in which this maxim was universally adopted would most probably not have seen the Rwanda genocide taking place. BIBLIOGRAPHY Copjec, J. (1996) (Ed. ) Radical Evil, Varso Books Freud, S. (1991) Civilization, Society and Religions: ‘Group Psychology and the Analysis of the Ego’, ‘Future of an Illusion’ and ‘Civilization and its Discontents’ (The Penguin Freud Library) Penguin Books Kant, I. 1960) Religion Within the Limits of Reason Alone, New York, Harper Collins Torchbooks, Australia Kearney, R. (2000) ‘Others and Aliens: Between Good and Evil’, in: Geddes, J. (Ed. ) Evil After Postmodernism: Histories, Narratives, and Ethics, Routledge Singer, P. (2004) The President of Good and Evil: Taking George W. Bush Seriously, London, Granta Books ‘Taken Over By Satan’ http://news. bbc. co. uk/1/hi/programmes/panorama/3582011. stm Accessed on 14/03/2006 ‘Rwanda: How the genocide happened’ http://news. bbc. co. uk/1/hi/world/africa/1288230. stm Accessed on 17/03/2006

The Catcher in the Rye Quotes

'The Catcher in the Rye' Quotes J.D. Salinger’s use of informal language in The Catcher in the Rye is part of the novel’s enduring popularity. But the writing style wasn’t chosen simply to make it accessible; Salinger mimics the patterns and rhythm of a story being told orally, giving readers the almost subliminal sense that they’re listening to Holden Caulfield instead of reading a book. The result is a powerful sense of the character despite his obvious unreliability and tendency to lie, and the ability to pull almost any quote from the novel and find plenty of meaning and symbolism. â€Å"‛Up home we wear a hat like that to shoot deer in, for Chrissake,’ he said. ‛That’s a deer shooting hat.Like hell it is.’ I took it off and looked at it. I sort of closed one eye, like I was taking aim at it. ‛This is a people shooting hat,’ I said. ‛I shoot people in this hat.’† Holden’s red hunting cap is ridiculous, and there is plenty of evidence that he’s aware of that fact, aware that walking around an urban setting wearing a bright red hunting cap is weird. On a surface level- surface because it’s the obvious reason for the cap that Holden himself admits to- the cap symbolizes Holden’s independent spirit, his determination to not be like everyone else. This quote demonstrates Holden’s own perception of the hat as a disruptive tool, a layer of protective armor that allows him to attack the people he meets, if only in his mind. Holden’s misanthropy grows steadily throughout the novel as people he admires disappoint him and those he despises confirm his suspicions, and the red hunting cap symbolizes his willingness to shoot those people, or attack them and insult them. â€Å"The trouble was, that kind of junk is sort of fascinating to watch, even if you don’t want it to be.† As Holden observes the perverts at the hotel, he feels conflicted. He admits to being fascinated, but he’s also clearly disapproving. His sense of helplessness is part of his emotional collapse- Holden doesn’t want to grow up, but his body is outside his control, which is terrifying to him. â€Å"The best thing, though, in that museum was that everything always stayed right where it was. Nobody’d move ... Nobody’d be different. The only thing that would be different would be you.† Unlike the ducks, which disturb Holden due to their regular disappearance, he finds comfort in the museum he takes Phoebe to, reveling in its static nature. No matter how long he stays away, the exhibits and the experience remain the same. This is comforting to Holden, who is terrified of change and who feels wholly unprepared to grow up and accept his mortality- and his responsibility. â€Å"The part that got me was, there was a lady sitting next to me that cried all through the goddam picture. The phonier it got, the more she cried. Youd have thought she did it because she was kindhearted as hell, but I was sitting right next to her, and she wasnt. She had this little kid with her that was bored as hell and had to go to the bathroom, but she wouldnt take him. She kept telling him to sit still and behave himself. She was about as kindhearted as a goddam wolf.† There are many quotes about the phonies that Holden meets and his low opinion of them, but this quote in the middle of the story expresses Holden’s true problem with it. It’s not so much that people put on airs and pretend to be something they’re not, it’s that they care about the wrong things. For Holden, what offends him here is that the woman is becoming emotional about the fake people on the screen while ignoring her unhappy child. To Holden, it should always be the other way around. This gets to the core of Holden’s war against time and maturity. As people get older, he sees them consistently ignoring what he thinks is important in favor of things he considers less so. He worries that by giving in and growing up he will forget Allie and start caring about fake things like the movies instead. â€Å"I walked all around the whole damn lake – I damn near fell in once, in fact – but I didnt see a single duck. I thought maybe if there were any around, they might be asleep or something near the edge of the water, near the grass and all. Thats how I nearly fell in. But I couldnt find any.† Holden’s obsession with death and mortality drives the entire story, as it’s heavily implied that his emotional troubles and difficulties in school began when his brother Allie died a few years before the story opens. Holden is terrified that nothing lasts, that everything- including himself- will die and disappear like his brother did. The ducks symbolize this fear, as they are a feature of his past, a fond memory that is suddenly gone, leaving no trace. At the same time, the ducks are also a sign of hope for Holden. They represent a comforting constant, because Holden knows that when the weather warms up again the ducks will return. This adds a faint note of hope that is amplified by the revelation at the end of the novel that Holden is telling his story from a place of safety and calm, implying that for Holden the ducks have finally returned. â€Å"Anyway, I keep picturing all these little kids playing some game in this big field of rye and all. Thousands of little kids, and nobodys around- nobody big, I mean- except me. And Im standing on the edge of some crazy cliff. What I have to do, I have to catch everybody if they start to go over the cliff- I mean if theyre running and they dont look where theyre going I have to come out from somewhere and catch them. Thats all Id do all day. Id just be the catcher in the rye and all. I know its crazy, but thats the only thing Id really like to be. I know its crazy.† This quote not only gives the novel its title, it explains Holden’s fundamental issue in a beautiful, poetic way. Holden sees maturity as inherently bad- growing up leads to corruption and phoniness, and finally death. Everything Holden has observed in his life has told him that his brother Allie and his sister Phoebe are perfect in their childhood innocence, but will become like all of Holden’s despised schoolmates, teachers, and other adults in due time. He wishes to stop that passage of time and freeze everyone at a more innocent point in their lives. Crucially, Holden sees himself as all alone in this endeavor- the only person willing to attempt this feat, or qualified to do so. The fact that the song Holden’s mis-remembers- Coming Through the Rye- is actually about people sneaking into the fields to have illicit sexual encounters makes Holden’s immaturity obvious. It’s also another example of something Holden believes to be pure and innocent being corrupted and ruined by adult sensibilities, even if he’s not aware of the fact in the story.