Democracy in the USA Essay

Text of the US Constitution does not contain the word â€Å"democracy†. The U.S. Constitution was not a perfect document. Originally it contained provisions that are can be recognized as ambiguous. â€Å"The US Founding Fathers† did not create democracy in the modern sense of the word, but the republic. They did not fully trust the wisdom of the American people and their ability to make sound decisions. For many years America was considered to be an ideal democratic country, however in recent years the situation has drastically changed. Among the most important challenges facing America today is the growing social inequality, discrimination on racial, ethnic or religious grounds, practice of indefinite detention of prisoners without charges, judicial bias, operating outside the law in prison, use of torture, the impact of government agencies on the trials, weak penitentiary system, infringement of freedom of speech, Internet censorship, legalized corruption, limiting of citizens’ voting rights, acts of intolerance based on race and ethnicity, the violation of the rights of children, extraterritorial application of the U.S. law, leading to human rights violations in other countries, kidnapping, tracking dissidents, disproportionate use of force against peaceful demonstrators, application of the death penalty to minors and the mentally ill, etc. At the same time, the international legal obligations of the United States, continues to be reduced to participation in only three of the nine core human rights treaties, providing control mechanisms. The USA has not yet ratified the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights of 1966, the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women in 1979, Convention on the Rights of the Child in 1989, the International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of their Families, 1990, Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, 2006 and the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance, 2006. At the same time, Americans continue to wrongfully position themselves as an absolute authority and unquestioned leader in the field of democracy and human rights. They are engaged in mentoring, trying to teach others how to build their democracy and ensure human rights. Of ten they do this roughly, ignoring the basic international law principle of state sovereignty. Often their attempts to take care of human rights in other countries is bordering on outright interference in the internal affairs. At the same time, in the USA the situation with human rights remains very complicated. Fundamental political rights of Americans in today’s society, are not only exempt from the archaic elements, but they become even more vulnerable. Elections cause the most serious complaints. The U.S. president is still not elected by direct popular election, and by the Electoral College. Many rightly believe this system obsolete and undemocratic. With it, in particular, the voice of a resident of Delaware or North Dakota has mathematically much more weight than the voice of the voters in the larger states, such as California or New York. With this system, three times in the history of the U.S. the candidate with fewer votes than his opponent was elected the President (George W. Bush in 2000). And Gerald Ford has never been elected. At first, he was co-opted by the Republican National Committee instead of thieving Vice President Spiro Agnew, and then automatically took place of Richard Nixon who departed from his position because of the Watergate scandal. In general, the U.S. political system is based on the absolute monopoly of the two political parties which is far enough from the European-style multi-party democracy. More than 5.8 million Americans (2.5% of all potential voters) are deprived of voting rights because of a criminal record. This means that in general every 40th American citizen has no right to vote, among them every 13th African American (7.7% of total), and in some states, such as Kentucky, Virginia and Florida, more than 20 % of black Americans are deprived of voting rights. According to the Census Bureau, of the 75 million eligible citizens who did not use this right in the presidential election in 2008, 60 million were not able to do so due to lack of registration, which is associated with many cumbersome procedures. Currently only the states of Missouri, South Dakota and New Mexico, as well as the District of Columbia have laws that allow the access of international observers during the elections. In other regions, the issue of the activities of foreign observers is in the competence of local authorities. The implicit control over the population is being enhanced. The current U.S. law, in effect, allows the intelligence community to carry out a total censorship of all electronic communications of foreign and U.S. citizens without a warrant. It also requires telecommunications companies to assist the Government in gathering intelligence about foreign objects and to keep the information gathered in secret. Currently under consideration in Congress, the Cyber ​​Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act – CISPA, according to human rights activists, practically does not limit the possibility of the U.S. government to monitor web browsing of individuals. Freedom of speech is being limited. For attacks on journalists covering the action of the Occupy Wall Street movement, NGO â€Å"Reporters without Borders† in January 2012 lowered its rating of the U.S. in its annual global press freedom index for 27 items at once and put the U.S. on the 47th position (57th with the territories in which Washington exercise extraterritorial jurisdiction). According to an investigation of the Coalition of Independent Lawyers (Protest and Assembly Rights Project), only in New York from September 2011 to July 2012 at least 18 accredited reporters have been arrested. The site WikiLeaks was the subject of persecution by the U.S. administration in retaliation for the publication of the diplomatic dispatches. According to the latest Google report on the availability of services of the company, during the period from July to December 2011, the amount of requests for removal of content received by it from the U.S. government has increased by 103% compar ed to the previous reporting period. U.S. law enforcement agencies requested removal from YouTube video sharing hosting of 1.4 thousand videos that â€Å"contain insults.† 6.3 thousand queries required disclosure data of more than 12.2 thousand users of this company. 93% of these requirements were met. Quite specific topic is absolutely abhorrent practice of extrajudicial killings abroad. As part of the â€Å"war on terror† in Washington highly specific approaches have been developed, the application of which caused not only massive violation of many international legal norms, but also killing thousands of innocent people. Crimes against humanity committed by U.S. soldiers abroad often do not receive proper legal assessment of the national judicial system. Illegal abduction and detention of people remain in the arsenal of U.S. intelligence. In September 2006, President Bush acknowledged the existence of secret CIA prisons. As it became known later, in 2002-2003. secret services built about ten such detention facilities, including in foreign countries – Afghanistan, Iraq, Thailand, Morocco, Djibouti, Romania, Lithuania and Poland. In January 2012, a special prison at the naval base at Guantanamo Bay (Cuba) â€Å"celebrated† its 10th anniversary. U.S. President B arack Obama, despite his campaign promise, failed to close it because of counteraction of Congress. The practice of torture condemned by most countries of the world remains legalized in the United States. April 6, 2009 the Department of Justice published four memorandums, prepared in 2002-2005 by the lawyers of this agency. They thoroughly substantiated the legality of application of harsh interrogation techniques to prisoners of CIA prisons in terms of U.S. and international law. Along with other human rights violations in the United States numerous cases of police brutality have been recorded. Human rights activists note that the level of sexual crimes among American police is much higher than among the U.S. population as a whole. Mass practice in the United States have become systematic violations of human rights in detention. Business, which uses the prisoners’ labor flourishes in the USA. One in 10 prisoners in this country is contained in a commercial prison. The other fact demonstrating the low level of democracy in the USA are as follows: 1. In 33 U.S. states the death penalty is still permitted and applied; 2. Hundreds of thousands of children in the U.S. are abused which results in some cases (in 2010 – 1.6 thousand) to a lethal outcome; 3. In the U.S., social and economic rights are seriously disrupted. In the country there are 12.8 million unemployed, 40 million people do not have health insurance, 14.5% of families are experiencing food shortages; 4. According to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, the USA has one of the highest levels of income inequality; 5. One of the most rightless segments of the population of America are migrants, who make up at least half of all those employed in the agricultural sector of the country; This brief review shows that the issue of human rights, facing all of humanity, is acutely relevant for the modern United States. All claims of the United States to be the moral leader in this area require a lot of preliminary work to clear own American â€Å"Augean stables.† Works Cited Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial, Summary or Arbitrary Executions, Study on Targeted Killings, Human Rights Council, 9-11, U.N. Doc. A/HRC/14/24/Add.6 (May 28, 2010).

Biography of Kofi Annan

Kofi Annan was born in the Kofandros section of Kumasi, Ghana – in what was then the British colony of the Gold Coast. He is a twin, which has a respected status in Ghanaian culture. His twin sister Efua Atta, who died in 1991, shares the middle name Atta, which in Fante and Akan means ‘twin'. Annan and his sister were born into one of the country's aristocratic families; both their grandfathers and their uncle were tribal chiefs. [2] In the Akan names tradition, some children are named according to the day of the week on which they were born, and/or in relation to how many children precede them. Kofi in Akan is the name that corresponds with Friday. [3] Pronunciation: Annan has said his surname rhymes with â€Å"cannon† in English. [4] From 1954 to 1957, Annan attended the elite Mfantsipim school, a Methodist boarding school in Cape Coast founded in the 1870s. Annan has said that the school taught him â€Å"that suffering anywhere concerns people everywhere†. [5] In 1957, the year Annan graduated from Mfantsipim, Ghana gained independence from Britain. In 1958, Annan began studying economics at the Kumasi College of Science and Technology, now the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology of Ghana. He received a Ford Foundation grant, enabling him to complete his undergraduate studies at Macalester College in St. Paul, Minnesota, United States, in 1961. Annan then did a DEA degree in International Relations at the Graduate Institute of International Studies in Geneva, Switzerland, from 1961–62. After some years of work experience, he studied at the MIT Sloan School of Management[6] (1971–72) in the Sloan Fellows program and earned a Master of Science (M. S. ) degree. Annan is fluent in English, French, Kru, other dialects of Akan, and other African languages. [

How did the Force Acts attack the Ku Klux Klan Essay

How did the Force Acts attack the Ku Klux Klan - Essay Example The Klan existed in three phases, but all of them focused on the same issues of racism. The success of the group was threatened and wiped by several Acts that were passed to protect the Black and minority in the society. The success of the Klan was due to political support and lack of proper legislation to protect the right of the blacks. With the problem of insecurity, in the slums, it was easier for the group to unleash terror to the Blacks who lived in the slums (Brands, Breen and Williams 390). Additionally, the three generations of the Klan were focused on making the lives of the immigrants worse through abuse and violence with the most affected being the black population. Most of the Klan based their argument on descent by claiming they were from the original British colonial revolutionaries. The Klan was politically linked to the Democratic Party with main support coming from the desire to restore white supremacy (Brands, Breen and Williams 392). The group with the support of political leader killed thousands of Negros. The covering of the face ensured that they evade prosecution, but fear of the southern democrat created a change in the political support. The group was eliminated by the passage of the force bills. These bills offered protection for the Black community and ensured the influence of the Klan was reduced. The force Acts are a series of four Acts passed by the US congress, to protect the rights of the Blacks. They are the 14th and 15th amendments of the American constitution. The act gave power to the federal authorities to penalize any interference in services offered to the African American. The violations produced over 5,000 indictments with the Supreme Court later ruling that some parts of the Acts were unconstitutional. The Acts offered protection to the black through enforcing support and legal redress in case of violations (Brands, Breen and Williams 400). The Act of April 20 1871

Reality television show is presumbly bad for American society Essay

Reality television show is presumbly bad for American society - Essay Example Reality television can be defined as unscripted form of drama or actual events that do not follow any form of sequence involving ordinary people, instead of actors who are professionally trained (Boyd and Emily 2). The origin of reality television is not very vivid in that several undocumented films or television programs have been done in the past some dating back as early as 1950’s (Dimare and Philips 914). However, in 1999 to 2000 reality television become one of the fastest growing television programming in the entertainment scene. In as much as reality television has some positive significance in the lives of several Americans, it is also possible that the same show has numerous effects that are extremely dire to the lives of the entire American population. Scholars and television producers have constantly argued in favor of reality television, terming it as the best for regular television programming. This is because people want to see other ordinary people just acting normal without having to read from a script. Moreover, they can easily relate to such television programming, since it involves ordinary people placed in an exotic place. During the stay, they carry on with their lives as normal, although their actions aired on national or international television channels (Kirszner and Mandell 215). For instance, one of the flourishing and helpful reality television programs that support this argument is â€Å"Extreme Make Over home edition.† This is because they enable real families to own homes, built by an extremely talented crew. Such reality television serves two purposes; it entertains the viewer and utterly transforms the lives of American families who do not have decent living conditions. It has also encouraged viewers to express their opinions and, in some cases, vote for their favorite contestant. As a result, the viewers get involved in the show, and they feel that they have the ability to

Reflection Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 90

Reflection - Essay Example He argues that all black people are forced to be painfully aware of the color of their skin. In fact, he holds that blacks are forced to perceive the whole world through the lens of their skin color. We regularly feel that the migrant story is one of a kind to individuals who have left their homes. However, for the speaker it has progressively turned into an account of individuals who have lost something vital to who they are and need to rehash themselves and choose who they are in the wake of that misfortune. The thought of an immigrant is an exceptionally political term for Mengestu. It does not exist as a genuine meaning of a sure collection of individuals. He recalls living in France for quite a long time and being called an expatriate, not an outsider. In fact, the speaker speaks a lot about the status of an â€Å"expat†. He states that it is amusing how one educated person is actually an expatriate in any country of the world, rather than an immigrant or even a refugee. The thought that one can just claim one space for oneself appears a tiny bit foolhardy, particularly given the outcomes of the diaspora: How we regularly live in more than one place nowadays, and the way that not very many of us have a solitary personality. Mengestu emphasizes that he loves the word â€Å"diaspora†, as it implies the meaning of an individual who has more than one cultural identity.

Semiotic OR discourse analysis of a magazine advertisement OR TV Essay

Semiotic OR discourse analysis of a magazine advertisement OR TV advertisement - Essay Example Semiotic OR discourse analysis of a magazine advertisement OR TV advertisement It can develop ergonomic design in circumstances where it is vital to make certain that individuals can work together more efficiently with their surroundings, whether it is on a big magnitude, as in structural design, or on a small extent, for instance, the arrangement of images and colours in images. Semiotic Analysis of the Dark Knight’s Advertisement This advertisement has the villain of the movie, rather than the hero. The viewers can easily recognize the Joker through his trademarks - his dark trench coat, the bright red lipstick, his mystifying and concealed face, the worn hang gloves, plus his seaweed green hair. However, the most prominent indicator that this is the Joker is that he has shown scribbling his catchphrase, â€Å"Why So Serious?† in the advertisement. By further exploring the picture, one gets the impression that he is inside or around the city. It is quite a dull day, with immense fog that makes visibility difficult. The townscape in the backdrop is hardly noticeable, and it appears to be very far away. The focus drops directly on the Joker himself. His body posture as well as the position of his fingers appears disorderly and strange. The smile that he is drawing with the red paint - or maybe blood - connotes that the Joker might not be a completely normal person. The fog in the image is an apparent indicator. It smudges and alters the vision, making it tougher to make out something or to recognize somebody (Leeuwen & Jawet, p. 94). The fog in the advertisement is a sign of the Joker’s lack of identity. Despite the fact that the fog is helpful in bringing the Joker into focus, it also helps in smudging his facial features, as well as a great deal of his coat. It makes the Joker appears as if he is a part of the fog; and as a result, the indicator draws attention to the reality that the Joker lacks identity. Advertisers use fog to highlight another point, which is gloominess. The shadowy, grumpy colours along with the fog bordering the image imply that it is a dull and murky situation (Mitry, p. 104). This is rather simple to observe. The gloominess itself is the sign of the personality of the Joker. There is a murkiness that encloses him, a sense of malevolence. Exactly similar to the time when something does not look correct on a dull day, something does not look normal with the Joker. It can be assumed that the gloominess itself is a representation for the Joker. The dull shade of blue in addition to foggy depiction is a sign of a threatening feeling of trouble (Lacey, p. 72). This is mainly because of the connotation of the â€Å"shower scene† that has publicized in various horror movies showing a barely visible hand behind the shower curtain or fogged glass surrounded by the mist. At some point, the picture of the Joker standing there connotes that he is in fact waiting outside a window, or even in your own house. He seems to be a psychopath who has been coming up for you. Another in dicator in this advertisement is the utilization of the Joker’s hands. His fingers are crooked and twisted. This depicts two things. First, he is not totally in control of his personal behaviour. This is a representation that he is psychological instable. Secondly, it reveals that he is suspicious as well as unreliable. It seems that his hands as well as fingers

Human Resource Management (CASE STUDY) Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Human Resource Management (CASE STUDY) - Essay Example y the Greater Manchester Police, through unreasonable behaviors and practices like racial profiling and race-based surveillance, which are based on stereotypes. This belief that is characterized by or based on the attitude that ones own group is superior is also a sideline highlighting the tendency of some individuals to view other groups as being a threat, due largely to pervasive stereotyping stemming from lack of experience with the perceived groups. In the case, the police used internal prejudice to advance their own stereotypes at the expense of Mr. Singh-Barker, who was singled out as an immigrant for non promotion. Many people who are prejudiced about their own groups have little contact or experience with the groups they are consciously or unconsciously persecuting. Although people from different races can work together and form alliances in many cases (like different minority students from different populations coming together to protest prejudice at a school), which seek to combat stereotyping and promote unity and understanding between superficially different groups. In this type of setting, cross cultural understanding becomes important. There is a clear line to be drawn between discretion and racial profiling when it comes to a law enforcement officers’ making the decision to investigate a crime or suspect on positive grounds of incongruity, suspicion, or report, not race or ethnicity; this works internally, as well. In practice, unfortunately, this theory does not always stick. In practice, police often color-code their targets and look for immigrant individuals like Singh Bhacke r. The Manchester Police, therefore, are being unreasonable. The Manchester Police force is also guilty of labeling in the case. Labeling is a psycho/sociological theory of deviance, and it is also important to consider biological classifications and their implications. Ethnocentrism is characterized by the attitude that one’s own group is superior to another