Statistics on US Professors: Liberals outnumber conservatives 18 to one at Brown University. At Cornell University, the number is even higher, with liberals outnumbering conservatives more than 26 times. Penn State displayed a bit more balance, with the ratio of liberals to conservatives being six to one. Even the smallest disparity, at the University of Houston, had a ratio of three liberals to one conservative.
Of the 166 professors examined at Cornell University, only six were conservatives, with no conservatives at all in the fields of history and sociology. There were likewise no conservatives in these fields at Brown University.
Some of the largest disparities were found in the University of California system. UCLA, for instance, has only nine conservatives for 141 liberals. UC-Santa Barbara had only one conservative professor in the 73 examined. At the four UC schools surveyed, there were only five conservative political science professors compared to 90 liberals.
At UC-Berkeley, only seven of the 66 professors noted were conservatives, with none in the department of sociology. "It's not surprising to a lot of the more conservative students on campus because you often find classes where it seems very apparent," the editor-in-chief of Berkeley's student newspaper The California Patriot, James Gallagher, told Campus Report. "The problem is, a professor has the right to be in any party, ideology they want to be. But when they let ideology come over into their teaching that's when we have a problem.... Because there is such a bias, because there are so many professors who do identify with more of the Left that you have a lot of professors out there who let their ideology interfere with how they teach a class. That's not really learning, that's not really seeking any truth."
"Conservatives are exposed to [prejudice] because we are a minority. And as a minority you just have to be prepared to defend yourself," Berkeley Political Science Professor A. James Gregor told Campus Report. He thinks that conservative professors are a "minority" and that in his own experience Berkeley has gone out of its way to attract liberal professors. "All these things I think are in-house problems in any academic institution. Most of conservatives are located in the natural sciences because they don't have to deal with popular opinions, prejudices, and so forth. In the talky, chatty sciences, you find liberal thought."
Tuesday, May 1, 2007
Final Exam on Option 1
The Dominant Social Paradigm: In “What” You Trust?
My best friend sometimes surprises me with his remark that black people in America are being treated with more privileges than white in the public sphere. The thing that irritates me most is the way he says it in a matter-of-factly tone. My response is always the same: “Are you crazy? Do you know how white people discriminate, hate and humiliate other minority ethnic groups here?” As each word is spilt out of my mouth, there is an ambiguous feeling that keeps nagging at my brain. Where did this perception come from? Is it my own knowledge or the knowledge that passed by me as randomly as an early breeze? Indeed, knowledge is not what is born but created. In this sense, human’s mind works in a way that not only complicates the whole social picture, it creates layer upon layer of illusion and fallacy. What one person perceives as the truth, or reality, might not be the truth as others see it. Then, what is really the truth when the statistical truth can be a source of subjective lies by itself? This uncertainty is ultimately the starting point where divisions and conflicts arise. So, who am I to further exacerbate this state of being by leaning on one reality against another? Thus, the assertion that “The “dominant social paradigm” has little to do with reality, which it claims to portray. It is an ideological device that blunts moral reactions to injustice and cruelty; diverts attention from real human empowerment onto consumerism, money, and the power to disempower others; terrorizes the population with over-represented and graphic depictions of violence; atrophies the capacity to imagine and act thoughtfully and responsibly on what one imagines; sustains a form of American, upper class, white, male, supremicism that makes everyone else pay for the terror and denial of vulnerabilities and complex inner emotional realities; and encourages all of the subjects of the supremicism to participate in their own form of denial by commodifying their souls. The “DSP” is a distorted holographic projection of unreality which threatens to destroy reality altogether.” is both reasonable and unreasonable to me at the same time. As in academics, I will go along with the statistical truth of numerical analysis.
First, it is impetuous to link the assumption above with the “dominant social paradigm” without having a thoroughful understanding of the definition of “DSP” in American society today. The “DSP” is as bleak as ever in such a dynamic, changing environment where new generation after generation is instilled with disdain toward the past. It is not surprising that the traditional structures of society are at the mercy of the people who overtly question them. It is the fact that criticisms and calls for change often emanate from personal and systematical confusion rather than the quest for a betterment of human lives that nullify the authentication of the calling. The “dominant social paradigm” is the set of common values, beliefs, and shared wisdoms about the physical and social environments that constitutes a society’s basic worldview. The DSP diffuses itself through institutional socialization on the basis of inter-generation transmission. The DSP also provides general guidance for individual and social behavior. But the thing that really invokes the inquisition into its benevolent nature is because DSP serves to legitimate and justify institutions and practices in society, hence, functions as an ideology. Yes, people these days have problems with ideology. DSP is not restricted to some simple concepts of social norms and structures as most people think it should be. DSP is more than just gender roles, religious values, and social etiquettes. The established DSP contains six major areas with each area associated with some important categories. The six major areas revolve around Core Values, Economy, Polity, Society, Nature and Knowledge. All six areas are concerned with specific categories such as Core Values indulges material (economic growth), natural environment valued as a resource, and domination over nature; Economy exults market forces, risk and reward, rewards for achievement, differentials, and individual self-help; Polity promotes authoritarian structures for experts influential, hierarchical, law and order; Society is perceived as centralized, large scale, associational, and ordered; Nature is seen as having ample reserves, nature hostile/neutral, and the environment is controllable; Knowledge imbues us with confidence in science and technology, rationality of means, and separation of thought/feeling and fact/value.
For all that matters, the DSP has a lot to do with reality which renders the main assumption unreasonable. The fact that people are obsessed with material, resource consumption, and the disposition to win over nature is undeniable. The heralded alternative paradigm (AP) is obviously incongruous and implausible in regard of the current state of human nature. AP is supposedly designed to convey a nirvana state of immaterial, environment blending, and harmony with nature that do not exist in our earthly world. For no matter how much society tries to decry the desire and greed of getting wealthy and wealthier, people are still vying for a materialistic life even at the cost of reducing spiritual wealth. People have a tendency to attack other people’s wealth out of jealousy but when the same people become rich themselves and surrounded by materials, they reveal the same kind of behaviors. Hypocrisy is at a high level whereas the most vocal proponents of AP; or to tell the truth, the DSP opponents are the people that fundamentally revert to their old-selves. Was it not Al Gore trying to blame everybody for neglecting global warming while his private house consumes an amount of electricity that shocks even his peers? Was it not some of the Oxfam members I saw throwing food around the table during lunch and left many half-eaten only days after hunger awareness? Or was I wrong at the fact that almost all people in this country are extremely proud of overcoming the nature or fate, or whatever constraints they perceive? On the other hand, natural environment regarded as resources is the reason that there are many conflicts and wars in the world today. In “Resource Wars,” Klare focuses exclusively on the claiming for ownership or purchasing influence, and rights to transport of and access to natural resources all over the world by many different countries and entities as a path to wealth. Recent and future conflicts are directly or indirectly derived from the greed for resources as economization of security, increasing worldwide demand, scarcity of resources, and ownership disputes are driving resources to become more critical to global conflicts than we may think. In “Blood Diamonds” the storyline is connected to the business of trading natural diamonds in Africa. Diamonds are valuable resources that are being dried up by the people. This true statement about resources is enhanced by another book by Klare: “Blood for oil” in which the historic tie between the US and Saudi over oil was discovered. “Syriana” is another movie which link human greed to resources.
In recent developments, there is an increasing resistance against DSP with accusation that the system bends moral reactions to injustice and cruelty. I believe there is truth in this bold statement. In the area of Economy, the toleration of the people about globalization can be traced directly to DSP. Globalization has become more of a struggle between the Global Haves and the Global Have-nots as multi-national corporations are gaining more and more power over the states and across borders. In this sense, globalization is highly connected and even continuous with the imperialism of prior centuries. As in the colonization process, globalization gives corporations from other countries the rights to exploit human and natural resources of a local country. The difference is only states being replaced by private sector. While globalization is making the economic gap between the rich and the poor wider than ever, DSP is creating an atmosphere of achievement and success for smart people who deserve to be rewarded. “The yes men” are a typical realization of the anti-DSP in action in which they dispose the dark side of globalization in a satirical way. “The yes men” laugh at the naïve compliance of the majority of intelligent people to whatever they hear from the World Trade Organization. Nevertheless, there is more to this issue because everything happens will include a trade-off. While some people might be worse off, many others will have a chance to improve their lives. The object view is to look at the aggregate picture to see if the living standard for average people is better or not.
In “The Pentagon’s New Map”, Barnett employs the reasoning of economic differentials in the DSP between the functional Core and the non-integrating Gap, the two parts of the world, as the primary reason for current and future conflicts. The Core, economically advanced countries bound together by the norms of international trade, is separated from the poor Gap where countries are either hesitant or forthrightly hostile toward opening up for international trade. This difference is to be used to placate and explain why past, current and future conflicts between the twos are justified and inescapable. Closely-related to this dividing strategy is Derek Gregory’s notion of imagined geographies in “Colonial Present”. Under imagined geographies, the world is cut into half, occupied by the Occident, or the Core, and the Orient, the Gap. The Occident tries to negatively depict or dehumanize the Orient in a way that greatly distances the twos. The people inside the Occident will eventually see the people in the Orient through this glass. The subjective view of the Occident proceeds to Orientalism, spawning hatreds and conflicts while pacifying people to be complicit with the infliction of violence and injustice on the people from the other side; vice versa.
More than anything, the concept of society in DSP is the inflammatory topic that induces much contempt and apprehension. The importance and influence of the nation-states’ identity and the affiliation of civilizations among countries have always played an integral part in turning people against peace, justice as well as moral conscience. In the history of human being, most people have always put their national identity above the empathy towards other people. The genocide of the Jews in WWII was known but ignored by most Germans. The Palestine-Israel conflict has continuously produced bloodshed for both sizes but the citizens of the respective countries have barely raised their voices out of their dedication for the country. What is currently happening in Iraq and Afghanistan where hundreds of thousands of people are being killed get a blind eye from many Americans who think that the wars serve properly the “National Security Strategy of The United States” and the country’s interest. The association of people to classes and structures has indeed propelled contemporary global conflict of cultural difference as well. These days, people lose their appetite on humanity by frequently hearing things such as “Clash of Civilizations” or “Jihad vs McWorld” all the time.
Another dimension of society which profligates injustice and cruelty is the “power elite” in accordance with the Polity area of DSP; the elite are said to be the powerful and wealthy families who have a strong influence in American politics or the small group of upper-classes who hold the decision-making ability and the associated privileges. Because of the belief in rigid structure of the world order, of hierarchical, and of expert’s influential knowledge, the majority of people tolerate the elite because the system instills in people a hunch that the elite are meant to be on the top and that having them in control is actually a boon. Ostensibly, this social dissonance between the less privilege and the elite is explored carefully in the book “Power”. Historically, even in progressive countries like the US, where the masses have much more voices in determining their power over the basic rights and freedoms of self-interests, the power allocated to these people are very limited. Because the people in power, out of their self-interest, will try to create and preserve more power for themselves, this behavior comes at an expense of other unprivileged people who normally comprise the majority of a society. This is injustice. People might jump right on the bandwagon and declare that the country needs Marxism. Marxism, nonetheless, died because it was impractical. Marxism sees only opposite interests between the upper and the working classes leading to class struggle while downgrading other options and opportunities for change. Strategically, authoritarian structures can utilize power to disempower others. Electoral voting system, the tyranny of the majority, welfare reform, and regulation of labors are typical means that are used by governments or businesses to limit power distribution to the mass.
In “Peace by Peaceful Means”, Galtung refers to the Polity influence on violence as part of the indirect violence. Cultures to legitimate and structural violence are the two major types of this Macro level. Galtung’s suggestion for a solution is a radical, complete change to positive peace. Moreover, the skepticism about DSP can also be found in his analysis of Patriarchy, or the domination of male violence in the relationship with female. Galtung constructs female as high empathy-horizontal-centripetal disposes for peace; and male as low empathy-vertical-centrifugal for violence. Galtung chastises society for failure to perceive the reality of patriarchy, which can turn to direct, structural, and cultural violence. To Galtung, DSP helps ingrain and develop the perception of male sexuality and male aggressiveness which contribute greatly to various forms of violence today.
When it comes to consumerism and money, media commercials are not to be extricated. Marx is also well-known for his theory of “The Fetishism of The Commodity” in “Power”, which discusses the pursuit of happiness through materials. Materialism is always at the forefront of the motivation for consumption. People’s lives are gradually attached to the flow of products as the level of greed and requirements increase overtime. In "No Logo", Mrs Klein points out the fact that American corporations have created ideas and lifestyles in reflection with products to penetrate deep into the everyday life of the normal consumers. This strategy is very important to the successful consumerization of the society by corporations.
As it does to consumerism, the media plays a critical rule in forming the mind of our society today. The accusation that DSP “terrorizes the population with over-represented and graphic depictions of violence; atrophies the capacity to imagine and act thoughtfully and responsibly on what one imagines” can be partly attained to the constant reminding of the threat of terrorism by the media, the depiction of black people committing crime on “Cops”, and the promotion of gun culture in the country. Determined by this vision, Michael Moore set off with a movie called “Bowling for Columbine” in which he attacked everything from the TV show on Fox, the NRA to the gun culture, hissing at the so-called DSP.
In reality, the movies was proved to be full of falsehood and inaccuracies, but the most surprising to me is that I can not see any people criticizes DSP of the sex and violence on TV, internet, video games. Moreover, it would be ridiculous to say that the current DSP still portrays “a form of American, upper class, white, male, supremicism that makes everyone else pay for the terror and denial of vulnerabilities and complex inner emotional realities; and encourages all of the subjects of the supremicism to participate in their own form of denial by commodifying their souls” because the prevalent evidences show that black are recognized as equally as white at least in the public agenda. For example, The Duke rape case ends up with no black reverends even attempt a sorry sentence while Imus was fired immediately after his somehow derogatory comment on young black girls.
After all, people can see that there are many flaws with the current DSP. However, these flaws are not the results of the system; they are the results of the misinterpretation or intentional distortion of human’s mind. For example, DSP is more about the naturally biological strength of male’s bodies rather than the emphasis on aggressiveness. In avoiding the fact that not all are created equal, the critics of DSP undermine the process of nature in our lives. For our society to progress, we must not only try to change but know why, how and in what way that the change will result in the betterment of our lives. To go wailing about problems that come from personal perception for personal selfish objective should be rejected!
My best friend sometimes surprises me with his remark that black people in America are being treated with more privileges than white in the public sphere. The thing that irritates me most is the way he says it in a matter-of-factly tone. My response is always the same: “Are you crazy? Do you know how white people discriminate, hate and humiliate other minority ethnic groups here?” As each word is spilt out of my mouth, there is an ambiguous feeling that keeps nagging at my brain. Where did this perception come from? Is it my own knowledge or the knowledge that passed by me as randomly as an early breeze? Indeed, knowledge is not what is born but created. In this sense, human’s mind works in a way that not only complicates the whole social picture, it creates layer upon layer of illusion and fallacy. What one person perceives as the truth, or reality, might not be the truth as others see it. Then, what is really the truth when the statistical truth can be a source of subjective lies by itself? This uncertainty is ultimately the starting point where divisions and conflicts arise. So, who am I to further exacerbate this state of being by leaning on one reality against another? Thus, the assertion that “The “dominant social paradigm” has little to do with reality, which it claims to portray. It is an ideological device that blunts moral reactions to injustice and cruelty; diverts attention from real human empowerment onto consumerism, money, and the power to disempower others; terrorizes the population with over-represented and graphic depictions of violence; atrophies the capacity to imagine and act thoughtfully and responsibly on what one imagines; sustains a form of American, upper class, white, male, supremicism that makes everyone else pay for the terror and denial of vulnerabilities and complex inner emotional realities; and encourages all of the subjects of the supremicism to participate in their own form of denial by commodifying their souls. The “DSP” is a distorted holographic projection of unreality which threatens to destroy reality altogether.” is both reasonable and unreasonable to me at the same time. As in academics, I will go along with the statistical truth of numerical analysis.
First, it is impetuous to link the assumption above with the “dominant social paradigm” without having a thoroughful understanding of the definition of “DSP” in American society today. The “DSP” is as bleak as ever in such a dynamic, changing environment where new generation after generation is instilled with disdain toward the past. It is not surprising that the traditional structures of society are at the mercy of the people who overtly question them. It is the fact that criticisms and calls for change often emanate from personal and systematical confusion rather than the quest for a betterment of human lives that nullify the authentication of the calling. The “dominant social paradigm” is the set of common values, beliefs, and shared wisdoms about the physical and social environments that constitutes a society’s basic worldview. The DSP diffuses itself through institutional socialization on the basis of inter-generation transmission. The DSP also provides general guidance for individual and social behavior. But the thing that really invokes the inquisition into its benevolent nature is because DSP serves to legitimate and justify institutions and practices in society, hence, functions as an ideology. Yes, people these days have problems with ideology. DSP is not restricted to some simple concepts of social norms and structures as most people think it should be. DSP is more than just gender roles, religious values, and social etiquettes. The established DSP contains six major areas with each area associated with some important categories. The six major areas revolve around Core Values, Economy, Polity, Society, Nature and Knowledge. All six areas are concerned with specific categories such as Core Values indulges material (economic growth), natural environment valued as a resource, and domination over nature; Economy exults market forces, risk and reward, rewards for achievement, differentials, and individual self-help; Polity promotes authoritarian structures for experts influential, hierarchical, law and order; Society is perceived as centralized, large scale, associational, and ordered; Nature is seen as having ample reserves, nature hostile/neutral, and the environment is controllable; Knowledge imbues us with confidence in science and technology, rationality of means, and separation of thought/feeling and fact/value.
For all that matters, the DSP has a lot to do with reality which renders the main assumption unreasonable. The fact that people are obsessed with material, resource consumption, and the disposition to win over nature is undeniable. The heralded alternative paradigm (AP) is obviously incongruous and implausible in regard of the current state of human nature. AP is supposedly designed to convey a nirvana state of immaterial, environment blending, and harmony with nature that do not exist in our earthly world. For no matter how much society tries to decry the desire and greed of getting wealthy and wealthier, people are still vying for a materialistic life even at the cost of reducing spiritual wealth. People have a tendency to attack other people’s wealth out of jealousy but when the same people become rich themselves and surrounded by materials, they reveal the same kind of behaviors. Hypocrisy is at a high level whereas the most vocal proponents of AP; or to tell the truth, the DSP opponents are the people that fundamentally revert to their old-selves. Was it not Al Gore trying to blame everybody for neglecting global warming while his private house consumes an amount of electricity that shocks even his peers? Was it not some of the Oxfam members I saw throwing food around the table during lunch and left many half-eaten only days after hunger awareness? Or was I wrong at the fact that almost all people in this country are extremely proud of overcoming the nature or fate, or whatever constraints they perceive? On the other hand, natural environment regarded as resources is the reason that there are many conflicts and wars in the world today. In “Resource Wars,” Klare focuses exclusively on the claiming for ownership or purchasing influence, and rights to transport of and access to natural resources all over the world by many different countries and entities as a path to wealth. Recent and future conflicts are directly or indirectly derived from the greed for resources as economization of security, increasing worldwide demand, scarcity of resources, and ownership disputes are driving resources to become more critical to global conflicts than we may think. In “Blood Diamonds” the storyline is connected to the business of trading natural diamonds in Africa. Diamonds are valuable resources that are being dried up by the people. This true statement about resources is enhanced by another book by Klare: “Blood for oil” in which the historic tie between the US and Saudi over oil was discovered. “Syriana” is another movie which link human greed to resources.
In recent developments, there is an increasing resistance against DSP with accusation that the system bends moral reactions to injustice and cruelty. I believe there is truth in this bold statement. In the area of Economy, the toleration of the people about globalization can be traced directly to DSP. Globalization has become more of a struggle between the Global Haves and the Global Have-nots as multi-national corporations are gaining more and more power over the states and across borders. In this sense, globalization is highly connected and even continuous with the imperialism of prior centuries. As in the colonization process, globalization gives corporations from other countries the rights to exploit human and natural resources of a local country. The difference is only states being replaced by private sector. While globalization is making the economic gap between the rich and the poor wider than ever, DSP is creating an atmosphere of achievement and success for smart people who deserve to be rewarded. “The yes men” are a typical realization of the anti-DSP in action in which they dispose the dark side of globalization in a satirical way. “The yes men” laugh at the naïve compliance of the majority of intelligent people to whatever they hear from the World Trade Organization. Nevertheless, there is more to this issue because everything happens will include a trade-off. While some people might be worse off, many others will have a chance to improve their lives. The object view is to look at the aggregate picture to see if the living standard for average people is better or not.
In “The Pentagon’s New Map”, Barnett employs the reasoning of economic differentials in the DSP between the functional Core and the non-integrating Gap, the two parts of the world, as the primary reason for current and future conflicts. The Core, economically advanced countries bound together by the norms of international trade, is separated from the poor Gap where countries are either hesitant or forthrightly hostile toward opening up for international trade. This difference is to be used to placate and explain why past, current and future conflicts between the twos are justified and inescapable. Closely-related to this dividing strategy is Derek Gregory’s notion of imagined geographies in “Colonial Present”. Under imagined geographies, the world is cut into half, occupied by the Occident, or the Core, and the Orient, the Gap. The Occident tries to negatively depict or dehumanize the Orient in a way that greatly distances the twos. The people inside the Occident will eventually see the people in the Orient through this glass. The subjective view of the Occident proceeds to Orientalism, spawning hatreds and conflicts while pacifying people to be complicit with the infliction of violence and injustice on the people from the other side; vice versa.
More than anything, the concept of society in DSP is the inflammatory topic that induces much contempt and apprehension. The importance and influence of the nation-states’ identity and the affiliation of civilizations among countries have always played an integral part in turning people against peace, justice as well as moral conscience. In the history of human being, most people have always put their national identity above the empathy towards other people. The genocide of the Jews in WWII was known but ignored by most Germans. The Palestine-Israel conflict has continuously produced bloodshed for both sizes but the citizens of the respective countries have barely raised their voices out of their dedication for the country. What is currently happening in Iraq and Afghanistan where hundreds of thousands of people are being killed get a blind eye from many Americans who think that the wars serve properly the “National Security Strategy of The United States” and the country’s interest. The association of people to classes and structures has indeed propelled contemporary global conflict of cultural difference as well. These days, people lose their appetite on humanity by frequently hearing things such as “Clash of Civilizations” or “Jihad vs McWorld” all the time.
Another dimension of society which profligates injustice and cruelty is the “power elite” in accordance with the Polity area of DSP; the elite are said to be the powerful and wealthy families who have a strong influence in American politics or the small group of upper-classes who hold the decision-making ability and the associated privileges. Because of the belief in rigid structure of the world order, of hierarchical, and of expert’s influential knowledge, the majority of people tolerate the elite because the system instills in people a hunch that the elite are meant to be on the top and that having them in control is actually a boon. Ostensibly, this social dissonance between the less privilege and the elite is explored carefully in the book “Power”. Historically, even in progressive countries like the US, where the masses have much more voices in determining their power over the basic rights and freedoms of self-interests, the power allocated to these people are very limited. Because the people in power, out of their self-interest, will try to create and preserve more power for themselves, this behavior comes at an expense of other unprivileged people who normally comprise the majority of a society. This is injustice. People might jump right on the bandwagon and declare that the country needs Marxism. Marxism, nonetheless, died because it was impractical. Marxism sees only opposite interests between the upper and the working classes leading to class struggle while downgrading other options and opportunities for change. Strategically, authoritarian structures can utilize power to disempower others. Electoral voting system, the tyranny of the majority, welfare reform, and regulation of labors are typical means that are used by governments or businesses to limit power distribution to the mass.
In “Peace by Peaceful Means”, Galtung refers to the Polity influence on violence as part of the indirect violence. Cultures to legitimate and structural violence are the two major types of this Macro level. Galtung’s suggestion for a solution is a radical, complete change to positive peace. Moreover, the skepticism about DSP can also be found in his analysis of Patriarchy, or the domination of male violence in the relationship with female. Galtung constructs female as high empathy-horizontal-centripetal disposes for peace; and male as low empathy-vertical-centrifugal for violence. Galtung chastises society for failure to perceive the reality of patriarchy, which can turn to direct, structural, and cultural violence. To Galtung, DSP helps ingrain and develop the perception of male sexuality and male aggressiveness which contribute greatly to various forms of violence today.
When it comes to consumerism and money, media commercials are not to be extricated. Marx is also well-known for his theory of “The Fetishism of The Commodity” in “Power”, which discusses the pursuit of happiness through materials. Materialism is always at the forefront of the motivation for consumption. People’s lives are gradually attached to the flow of products as the level of greed and requirements increase overtime. In "No Logo", Mrs Klein points out the fact that American corporations have created ideas and lifestyles in reflection with products to penetrate deep into the everyday life of the normal consumers. This strategy is very important to the successful consumerization of the society by corporations.
As it does to consumerism, the media plays a critical rule in forming the mind of our society today. The accusation that DSP “terrorizes the population with over-represented and graphic depictions of violence; atrophies the capacity to imagine and act thoughtfully and responsibly on what one imagines” can be partly attained to the constant reminding of the threat of terrorism by the media, the depiction of black people committing crime on “Cops”, and the promotion of gun culture in the country. Determined by this vision, Michael Moore set off with a movie called “Bowling for Columbine” in which he attacked everything from the TV show on Fox, the NRA to the gun culture, hissing at the so-called DSP.
In reality, the movies was proved to be full of falsehood and inaccuracies, but the most surprising to me is that I can not see any people criticizes DSP of the sex and violence on TV, internet, video games. Moreover, it would be ridiculous to say that the current DSP still portrays “a form of American, upper class, white, male, supremicism that makes everyone else pay for the terror and denial of vulnerabilities and complex inner emotional realities; and encourages all of the subjects of the supremicism to participate in their own form of denial by commodifying their souls” because the prevalent evidences show that black are recognized as equally as white at least in the public agenda. For example, The Duke rape case ends up with no black reverends even attempt a sorry sentence while Imus was fired immediately after his somehow derogatory comment on young black girls.
After all, people can see that there are many flaws with the current DSP. However, these flaws are not the results of the system; they are the results of the misinterpretation or intentional distortion of human’s mind. For example, DSP is more about the naturally biological strength of male’s bodies rather than the emphasis on aggressiveness. In avoiding the fact that not all are created equal, the critics of DSP undermine the process of nature in our lives. For our society to progress, we must not only try to change but know why, how and in what way that the change will result in the betterment of our lives. To go wailing about problems that come from personal perception for personal selfish objective should be rejected!
Saturday, April 21, 2007
Finland Agrarian reform
During the interwar years Finland, to a much greater extent than the rest of the Nordic countries, was an agrarian country. In 1918, 70 percent of the population was employed in agriculture and forestry, and by 1940 the figure was still as high as 57 percent. Paper and wooden articles were Finland's most important export commodities. By the Smallholdings Law of 1918 and by land reform in 1922, which allowed the expropriation of estates of more than 495 acres (200 hectares), an attempt was made to give tenant farmers and landless labourers their own smallholdings. More than 90,000 smallholdings were created, and since then the independent smallholders, who form the majority of the Agrarian Party (now the Centre Party), have been a major factor in Finnish politics.
www.britannica.com/eb/article-26099/Finland
www.britannica.com/eb/article-26099/Finland
Somalia: News Collection
During this time of heightened debate and crisis over the war on terrorism all over the world, Somalia is one of the battlefields that involves both antagonists forces continously in motion. The new deadly attack in a failed assassination attempt on Somalia's transitional president, Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed, left eleven people killed, with the president's brother and six of the attackers among the dead. This incident is just a small examples of a series of terrorist attacks in the country in the recent years including one of my previous post in this blog. The list of recent terrorist attacks in Somalia can be found at: via Guardian Unlimited.
With the backing of the US and a representative of Christianity, Ethiopia collides against Eritrea, a Muslim country which is trying to impose influence on Somalia and mobilize an uprising of Islam by supporting Islamic forces in nearby countries. These two countries are threatening to rift apart not only Somalia but the East African bloc as a whole. Links: Available on Topix from Reuters.
Nearly 400 people were killed in recent clashes because of the escalation of fighting in Mogadishu despite the presence of the African Union peacekeeping force. In response to this tragedy, some Civil society organisations in Somalia have launched a campaign to help thousands of desperate civilians displaced by the fighting. The volunteer groups, including many business organizations, are driving food, medicines and water to many refugee camps between Mogadishu and Afgoye, south of the capital. These groups believe they have to act quickly as they can not continue to passively wait for the international help from groups such as the International Committee of the Red Cross, Danish Refugee Council and Daryeel Bulsho Guud (a local NGO backed by German agencies). Links: via AllAfrica.com.
Some developments in the conflict include a new cease-fire in Mogadishu and many neutral contact groups on Somalia calling for reconciliation between the transitional government and the Muslim insurgency. Links can be found at: via Australian Broadcasting Corporation and via The Norway Post
With the backing of the US and a representative of Christianity, Ethiopia collides against Eritrea, a Muslim country which is trying to impose influence on Somalia and mobilize an uprising of Islam by supporting Islamic forces in nearby countries. These two countries are threatening to rift apart not only Somalia but the East African bloc as a whole. Links: Available on Topix from Reuters.
Nearly 400 people were killed in recent clashes because of the escalation of fighting in Mogadishu despite the presence of the African Union peacekeeping force. In response to this tragedy, some Civil society organisations in Somalia have launched a campaign to help thousands of desperate civilians displaced by the fighting. The volunteer groups, including many business organizations, are driving food, medicines and water to many refugee camps between Mogadishu and Afgoye, south of the capital. These groups believe they have to act quickly as they can not continue to passively wait for the international help from groups such as the International Committee of the Red Cross, Danish Refugee Council and Daryeel Bulsho Guud (a local NGO backed by German agencies). Links: via AllAfrica.com.
Some developments in the conflict include a new cease-fire in Mogadishu and many neutral contact groups on Somalia calling for reconciliation between the transitional government and the Muslim insurgency. Links can be found at: via Australian Broadcasting Corporation and via The Norway Post
Sunday, April 15, 2007
SOMALIA Week 12 updated
The future of this country is very bleak now as fightings are still widespread around the country. The forces that drive the war are still very hostile towards each other and the conflicts are very hard to settle. Unless there is a significant change in the mindset of all participating sides: the extreme Islamic army and the Transitional Government-Ethiopia coalition, the war will last for a long time and will displace more and more people out of the country or into complete poverty. On the other hand, if the United Nation pays more attention to the country and its dilemma, there is a chance that the problem can be solved or a truce can be achieved. Under current circumstances, the prospect is minimal.
Tuesday, April 10, 2007
Mogadishu clashes 'killed 1,000'
More than 1,000 people have been killed in recent clashes in the Somali capital, Mogadishu, according to elders from the city's main clan.
Hawiye clan spokesman Hussein Aden Korgab also said more than 4,000 had been injured in some of the heaviest fighting in 15 years.
The clashes came as the government and Ethiopian soldiers battled insurgents - both Islamists and Hawiye fighters.
Meanwhile, Eritrea has confirmed that a Somali Islamist leader is there.
The Union of Islamic Courts was driven out of Mogadishu in December by an alliance of Somalia's transitional government and Ethiopia.
Eritrea, Ethiopia's regional rival, has always denied backing the Islamists but has now admitted that Islamist leader Sheikh Sharif Ahmed has held talks with President Isaias Afewerki in Asmara.
"We are not all prepared to allow invaders to trample upon our sacred rights and bring us under submission," he said, according to a statement on the website of Eritrea's information ministry.
Somalia has not had an effective national government for 16 years.
War crimes probe
BBC Somali service editor Yusuf Garaad says the figure of more than 1,000 dead does not come as a surprise as heavy artillery were used in residential areas during the fighting.
Most of the clashes took place near the main stadium in Mogadishu and al-Kamin neighbourhood in the south of the capital, according to human rights groups.
African Union troops are supposed to replace the Ethiopians"We assessed battle fields, spoke to civilians, visited hospital and areas that were affected by the clashes," Mr Korgab told the AFP news agency, explaining how the clan elders reached a figure for the number of casualties.
The United Nations refugee agency says some 124,000 people have fled the city.
Last week, US Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Jendayi Frazer while on a visit in Somalia accused Eritrea of destabilising Somalia, by backing the insurgents.
Ms Frazer who met the president and prime minister in Baidoa, called for a permanent ceasefire to be established through dialogue between the interim government and affected communities.
The European Union representative in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, Eric van der Linden, has called for investigations to establish if the Ethiopian and Somali forces committed war crimes during the fighting.
Hawiye clan elders and commanders from Ethiopian forces are expected to hold further talks on Tuesday about their implementing the ceasefire they agreed last week.
But fears are high that fighting could be imminent following reports that both sides have been digging trenches in parts of the city they control.
African Union (AU) troops are supposed to be replacing the Ethiopian soldiers but so far only 1,200 Ugandans have arrived, of the planned 8,000-strong force.
Hawiye clan spokesman Hussein Aden Korgab also said more than 4,000 had been injured in some of the heaviest fighting in 15 years.
The clashes came as the government and Ethiopian soldiers battled insurgents - both Islamists and Hawiye fighters.
Meanwhile, Eritrea has confirmed that a Somali Islamist leader is there.
The Union of Islamic Courts was driven out of Mogadishu in December by an alliance of Somalia's transitional government and Ethiopia.
Eritrea, Ethiopia's regional rival, has always denied backing the Islamists but has now admitted that Islamist leader Sheikh Sharif Ahmed has held talks with President Isaias Afewerki in Asmara.
"We are not all prepared to allow invaders to trample upon our sacred rights and bring us under submission," he said, according to a statement on the website of Eritrea's information ministry.
Somalia has not had an effective national government for 16 years.
War crimes probe
BBC Somali service editor Yusuf Garaad says the figure of more than 1,000 dead does not come as a surprise as heavy artillery were used in residential areas during the fighting.
Most of the clashes took place near the main stadium in Mogadishu and al-Kamin neighbourhood in the south of the capital, according to human rights groups.
African Union troops are supposed to replace the Ethiopians"We assessed battle fields, spoke to civilians, visited hospital and areas that were affected by the clashes," Mr Korgab told the AFP news agency, explaining how the clan elders reached a figure for the number of casualties.
The United Nations refugee agency says some 124,000 people have fled the city.
Last week, US Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Jendayi Frazer while on a visit in Somalia accused Eritrea of destabilising Somalia, by backing the insurgents.
Ms Frazer who met the president and prime minister in Baidoa, called for a permanent ceasefire to be established through dialogue between the interim government and affected communities.
The European Union representative in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, Eric van der Linden, has called for investigations to establish if the Ethiopian and Somali forces committed war crimes during the fighting.
Hawiye clan elders and commanders from Ethiopian forces are expected to hold further talks on Tuesday about their implementing the ceasefire they agreed last week.
But fears are high that fighting could be imminent following reports that both sides have been digging trenches in parts of the city they control.
African Union (AU) troops are supposed to be replacing the Ethiopian soldiers but so far only 1,200 Ugandans have arrived, of the planned 8,000-strong force.
SOMALIA Week 11 updated
Somalia is taking its part in a partnership for sustainable development with the African Union Initiative On Promotion and Development and the Partnership for Clean Fuels and Vehicles in the region. Also, the country is also a close member of the Food Administration Organization. Development priorities for the partnership between Somaliland and UNDP for 2007: democratic governance, rule of law and security and poverty reduction and sustainable livelihoods; with HIV and AIDS, gender and human rights as cross-cutting themes are topics of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in 2007. The development bank also gives good credit to the nation:
In million UA
African Development Bank Group 2004
1967-2004
Loan and Grant Approvals -150.77
Loan and Grant Disbursements-83.78
African Development Bank
2004
1967-2004
Loan and Grant Approvals
-
7.87
Loan and Grant Disbursements
-
7.18
African Development Fund
2004
1974-2004
Loan and Grant Approvals
-
136.90
Loan and Grant Disbursements
-
75.69
Nigeria Trust Fund
2004
1976-2004
Loan Approvals
-
6.00
Loan Disbursements
-
0.90
In million UA
African Development Bank Group 2004
1967-2004
Loan and Grant Approvals -150.77
Loan and Grant Disbursements-83.78
African Development Bank
2004
1967-2004
Loan and Grant Approvals
-
7.87
Loan and Grant Disbursements
-
7.18
African Development Fund
2004
1974-2004
Loan and Grant Approvals
-
136.90
Loan and Grant Disbursements
-
75.69
Nigeria Trust Fund
2004
1976-2004
Loan Approvals
-
6.00
Loan Disbursements
-
0.90
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