Opression in a Thousand Splendid Suns Essay Example for Free

Opression in a Thousand Splendid Suns Essay Taslima Nasrin once said: â€Å"Those religions that are oppressive to women are also against democracy, human rights, and freedom of expression. † This quote also applies to a book called a thousand splendid suns by Khaled hosseini and Deepa Metha’s Film Water. A thousand splendid suns in a book about two women in Afghanistan with an abusive husband. They struggle for survival and for their human rights that have been overlooked by the Taliban and a patriarchal society. Water is a movie about widows living in India. They are sent to the country side to live with other widows supposedly so they can live pure lives. In actuality they are cast aside and denied the basic respect all humans deserve. Ironically, the only way they can make enough money to survive is by committing acts as impure as it gets. They are forced to turn to prostitution. These two stories show that a cultural society’s refusal to change religious practices causes the oppression of women. The characters Mariam, kalyani, and chuyia demonstrate this. Mariam is a woman living in Afghanistan from the book A Thousand Splendid Suns. Mariam grew up very poor living in a small hut excluded from society. As a child she was taught only to endure and was never given the opportunity to stand up for herself. Mariam was the daughter of a maid that her father Jalil had an affair with and he was very ashamed of this. To solve this â€Å"problem† he got rid of her. Jalil married her off to a much older man named Rasheed. Shortly after the start of their marriage, Rasheed rapes her. He justifies it with the Quran. â€Å"‘It’s what married people do. It’s what the prophet himself and his wives did. There is no shame. ’† (Hosseini, 77). In this quote Rasheed refers to the prophet Muhammad in the Quran. This shows how Rasheed perverted the events Quran, the sacred Islamic text, to justify the rape of a young girl who hadn’t even turned 16. Marrying young girls still in their teens is an old custom that is embedded in Islam and the Afghan culture. Society’s refusal to change this practice caused the ruthless humiliation of a young girl and in the long run made the oppression of all women an accepted practice. Kalyani is a character in the movie Water. She is a widow most likely in her 20s who never met her husband. Her husband died shortly after her marriage and was sent to the ashram as a young girl. Since she is the only young widow in the ashram she is forced to turn to prostitution to bring in extra money so the widows can at least have enough money for 1 meal a day. Her entire life story shows the subjugation of women. She was married at around the age of 10 because of religious traditions that have not changed in hundreds of years. This tradition has given men the power to oppress women. This oppression is shown through the death of the husband. If the husband dies before the wife, the wife is sent away. If the opposite happen the husband is free to remarry as he pleases. This happens because of the religious belief that when a husband dies, half of the woman also dies. This makes it easier to mistreat women because it makes them seem less than human. It is also believed that the death of a husband is punishment for something done in a previous life. Society’s refusal to change theses Hindi beliefs and practices create the oppression of women by making their mistreatment seem justified and by making them seem less than human. Chuyia is a young girl who was married at the age of 8 and was widowed the next day. She doesn’t even remember getting married but is forced to suffer the same fate as Kalyani. She is young and innocent and her innocence causes her to question practices that everyone else simply accepts. Deepa Metha uses this character to point out inconsistencies in the Hindi religion and traditional society. At one point in the story she asks why there isn’t a place for men to go if they are widowed. She is quickly ridiculed by both men and women. This event shows that the refusal to change religious practices has brainwashed both men and women to accept and even endorse the oppression of women. Taslima Nasrin words are clearly tied to the theme of these two stories. She explains in her quote that a religion cannot be providing people basic rights if it discriminates against women. The theme reiterates the same message by declaring that religion can sometimes cause oppression of women. These three characters show how traditions and old religious practices have made the oppression of women possible all over the world. By displaying this message in the authors’ books and movies, the authors hope to encourage all people around the world to not follow blindly old traditions and practices. They want people to decide for themselves what is right and what is wrong. When people fail to do this, bad things start happening such as the oppression, humiliation, and subjugation of women who are actually just as intelligent, strong, and able as any man.

Generalists Social Work and Rape Survivors

Generalists Social Work and Rape Survivors Introduction Generalist social work practice is one of the conceptual framework developed to guide social workers on social delivery. This approach was developed following the Milford conferences in 1990s. By definition, generalist social work entails a way of viewing practice. It focus on the association between system, on a client-centered and use of appropriate theories and approaches meant to improve people’s well being (Council on Social Work Education 2008). It is always expected that the social work should entail multifaceted approach and that any social worker employing generalist perspective must be ready to engage in direct and indirect intervention based on multilevel assessment (Council on Social Work Education 2008). The generalist social work is also expected to be client-centered and problem-focused in process of helping the client advance social functioning. It should be based on research. As it shall turn out, generalist social worker must be able to skillfully select and apply multifaceted intervention modes and should carry out multilevel assessments and intervene at one or more levels depending on client situation. A generalist social worker should be well-versed with the individual, group, family, community and institutional intervention methods. Generalists social worker should be competent in different treatment skills (Council on Social Work Education 2008). He or she should be able to intervene with complex activities than only referral and should engage in the full spectrum of direct services. He should be even competent in policy and program development, organizational and community development. The generalists social worker should work based on evidence based research rather than traditional chores, which comprises only of referral Generalists social work should help different groups in the society experiencing social problems or needs. Rape victims are example of individuals who need the assistance of the generalist social worker. Victims of violent crimes are most vulnerable to many conditions and should be assisted accordingly (Council on Social Work Education 2008). Social workers are expected to identify these victims and take necessary and appropriate measures to assist them recover from trauma. Before exploring the generalists social work practice with victims if violent crime, this paper will first elaborate who the victims of violent crimes and why they deserve special attention from generalist social worker. Rapeis a form of forced sexual intercourse whereby the resistance of the female is prevented by threats of great and immediate bodily harm such as use of knife or gun. It is very common crime. The choice of this group of victims is prompted by the fact that rape is one of the most serious assault and is characterized by stigmatization (Council on Social Work Education 2008). In fact the victims of rape may decide not to seek any medical assistance because of the stigma. In addition, rape is not only associated with physical injuries but also with the psychological torture and trauma. Fortunately, rape victims may seek help from multiple formal social systems, which include the legal, medical, and mental health system including the rape crisis centers (Council on Social Work Education 2008). This means that the victims of rape deserve special assistance from social workers. Rape also takes place mainly when there is political instabilities. For example, Ghitis (2010) reveals that in any battle ground, rape must take place. He adds that possibly millions of women who have suffered rape during wars are now telling their stories and taking action with the help of legal specialists and womens rights groups. History also justifies that sexual assault inevitably accompanies armed conflict and war. In fact some researchers has used rape to mean a weapon of war and as a phenomenon with important tactical and strategic dimensions (Council on Social Work Education 2008). For example, rape during Bosnian War was used to change the ethnic make-up of the conquered territory. Similarly, rape during Rwandan genocide was strategically done to clear Tutsi population. In Rwanda, for example, the number of rape victims is estimated to be about 500,000. The incidence and frequency of rape is also significantly high. The study by the Federal Bureau of Investigation reveals that a rape case occurs in every ten minutes but is underreported. The analysis also shows that 1 in every 15 women will be raped sometime during her life if the current trend continues. It is also important to note that most of the attention is focused on the rapists. Most policies are designed to punish the rapists. Little has been done to help the rape victims. Rape being a social factor, generalist social worker is considered the most appropriate person to assist the rape victims. The next section of the paper presents the intervention that the generalist social work profession can make to address or intervene in the problem of rape. The analysis would be based on the framework proposed by the Council on Social Work Education, which places emphasis on the use of evidence to inform practice and practice to inform research (Council on Social Work Education 2008). According to the CSWE, the generalists social work should take the role of a broker, an advocate, a mediator, educator, social actionist and also as a clinician (Council on Social Work Education 2008). Evidence based practice of generalists social worker in helping rape victims As indicated, the general social work practice should no longer entail the traditional roles such as referral. Firstly, the generalists should diagnose and identify the needs of the rape survivors or victims that should be addressed. There are many problems that the rape victims could wish to be solved. The first need is that most rape victims may encounter rape ordeal when they were not expecting. This means that the need to be informed about what to do and where to seek medical, mental health and social and legal services (Schatz, Jenkins, Sheafor, 1990). The second need is that after medical treatment, the rape victim needs to go through professional counselling for emotional trauma and its consequent social disruption. They also need legal assistances in aspects such as information about rights, advocacy and representation in the criminal justice system. Rape is also associated with consequences such as unwanted pregnancy and also HIV and other venereal diseases. They need thoro ugh intervention on these matters (Schatz, Jenkins, Sheafor, 1990). Based on these needs, it is apparent that rape victims needs a comprehensive range of services from different fields such as law, mental health, and social life. The only challenge is that most of the rape victims are in a state of extreme emotional crisis. They are not prepared to go through all these fields and may even have little knowledge on what to do altogether. Generalist social worker act as a coordinator and referee Generalist social worker is considered an integral agency who should take the responsibility for developing the program and for organizing and coordinating additional support services. Social worker should be the one to guide the victim of rape on where to seek primary care and where to seek the secondary care. It is indisputable that many services may be available in the community already. However, accessing these services may be the major obstacle. Generalist social worker, according to Council on Social Work Education (2008), should be the one addressing the obstacles barring the rape victim from accessing the appropriate services. The generalist social worker should act as a coordinator and should bridge different facilities with an aim of improving management of rape victims. For example, the hospitals may be ready to manage patients and families in crisis but may face financial limitation as an obstacle and hence may not be able to sypport all the services necessary for a compr ehensive rape-treatment program (Schatz, Jenkins, Sheafor, 1990). However, with the intervention or help of generalist social work, the victims can get assistance from the financial programs and facilities that are meant to aid the patient in accessing necessary treatment. Generalist social work is therefore acting as a coordinator who should coordinate different programs together and also as a referral agent who should refer the victims to the relevant services. Generalist social work as a counselor Council on Social Work Education (2008) considers counselling as an integral part evidence based practice in the management of rape victims or rape survivors. The experiences that such victim go following disclosure of their problems is always unbearable. It has been shown that most of them undergo different forms of victimization. They also receive insensitive treatment, survivor blame and most of them are not offered adequate social services. All these can worsen their state of health. In fact it has been shown that most of them undergo what is called second rape or second sexual assault based on the nature of victimization they experience (Schatz, Jenkins, Sheafor, 1990). For example, it has been shown that survivors experience with medical and criminal justice agencies closely mimic the nature and /or dynamics of actual rape experiences and can be even more re-traumatizing Collings, 2009). The generalist social work is meant to counsel the rape victims on the best way of contain ing the situation. The generalist social work should offer appropriate counselling to the rape survivors and make them understand the situation and also value the importance of social services. There generalist social work should be a source of hope to the rape survivors because they usually receive a lot of resistance not only from society but even from their mothers, in case the rape survivor is a child (Schatz, Jenkins, Sheafor, 1990). They should help the rape survivors recover from the otherwise second rape by counselling them that their future is still bright and assuring them that there exists many social services apart from the medical services that can be utilized (Schatz, Jenkins, Sheafor, 1990). During counselling process, the counsellor should provide the victim of rape with current data regarding the value and responsiveness of the support services. They should also help in educational process. They can, for example give seminars on the emotional trauma of rape. It is always important fo r social worker to be knowledgeable about the criminal justice system. Generalist social worker as a clinician in helping rape survivors As stated earlier, generalists social worker should have clinical competence. Rape victims or survivors normally require medical assistance. Despite the fact that there are hospitals, those working in the hospital may not have enough expertise to handle the rape victims. Many researchers have proved that healthcare providers are not trained on how to handle the case of rape victims (Schatz, Jenkins, Sheafor, 1990). For example, instead of sympathizing and emphasizing with them, the healthcare practitioners may victimize the rape survivors. This is evidenced by the study by Collings (2009), which indicate that most of rape survivors undergo different forms of victimization in the hospitals. They also receive insensitive treatment, survivor blame and most of them are not offered adequate social services. All these can worsen their state of health. In fact it has been shown that most of them undergo what is called second rape or second sexual assault based on the nature of victimization they experience. For example, it has been shown that survivors experience with with medical and criminal justice agencies closely mimic the nature and /or dynamics of actual rape experiences and can be even more re-traumatizing. This means that generalists social worker could be the best clinician to address the medical needs of the rape survivors because generalist social worker is not only trained in clinical competence but also in how to handle the victim of rape without imposing any form of victimization or secondary rape. Generalist social work should therefore diagnose the physical injuries sustained by rape victim or survivor and administer appropriate intervention. The generalist social worker should also test whether the victim contracted the venereal and STI and administer the appropriate int ervention. Generalist social worker as a broker in helping rape victims It is indisputable that the rape victims are in need of many resources and services. However, most of them may not have information as to where to obtain such resources and services. It is therefore the role of the generalist social worker to act as a bridge and to let the rape survivors access the required services and resources. As a broker, generalists social worker should not have personal vested interests. When broking, they should be guided by a number elements. Firstly, they should recognize the victim as an individual with fear and preferences which should be solved at the end of plan or brokerage process. They should also turn the brokerage plan into reality and should take into consideration the risks and benefits of the brokerage process. Generalists’ social worker as a mediator in helping rape victims As stated earlier, rape victims undergo different forms of victimization. They also receive insensitive treatment, survivor blame and most of them are not offered adequate social services. It is also shown that survivors experience with medical and criminal justice agencies closely mimic the nature and /or dynamics of actual rape experiences and can be even more re-traumatizing (Schatz, Jenkins, Sheafor, 1990). Because of this, most of the rape cases are underreported despite the fact that they occur in every ten minutes. The stigma and the traumatizing experiences that the rape victims go through prevent them from even seeking medical assistance. Generalists social worker is therefore expected to mediate the process and help make decisions that are meant to benefit the rape survivor. In fact in court cases, the generalist social worker should be the one representing the client. Ethical considerations It should be noted that the generalists social worker should work towards benefiting all the affected groups. He or she should promote social justice by ensuring that all members of society access the societal resources that a society offers (Schatz, Jenkins, Sheafor, 1990). They should help the most vulnerable groups in the society. Despite the fact that they may act as brokers, they should not use this role to benefit themselves. They should expand institutional resources such as adequate education, political participation and should strive to promote fairness and respect. They should not cause further trauma to the rape victims (Schatz, Jenkins, Sheafor, 1990). It is also important to note that most professionals may defy their professionalism and perceive the rape victim as the cause of problem and hence the professional and personal values conflict. In such case, the generalist social worker should try to maintain his or her professional values. References Ghitis, F. (2010). Pushing Back Against Rape as a Weapon of War. World Politics Review (Selective Content), 1. Collings, S. J. (2009). Where the streets have no names: factors associated with the provision of counselling and social work services for child rape survivors in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. Journal of Child Adolescent Mental Health, 21(2), 139-146. Schatz, M. S., Jenkins, L. E., Sheafor, B. W. (1990). Milford Redefined: A Model of Initial and Advanced Generalist Social Work. Journal of Social Work Education, 26(3), 217-231. Council on Social Work Education. (2008). Education policy and accreditation standards. Retrieved from http://www.cswe.org/Accreditation/2008EPASDescription.aspx

Absorption spectroscopy and acetic acid

Absorption spectroscopy and acetic acid The absorbance of light, wavelength 632nm, was measured in an indicator solution at varying pH, and varying concentration, allowing for a Beer-Lambert plot to be constructed. This was then used to measure acetic acid uptake at the surface of deionised water and octan-1-ol coated water, allowing pH, and hence concentration, to be calculated from absorbance of the liquid. Introduction Surfactants are molecules which are able to form a surface across a liquid, and stop the interaction of foreign molecules with the solution without interacting with these molecules first. These are extremely useful since they often contain a hydrophobic and hydrophilic aspect, which interact differently to different molecules. Surfactants are used in the manufacture of paper, textiles and construction among others.[1] They are the main ingredient of detergents and they allow non-polar molecules to dissolve in polar molecules, such as oil into water. On the surface of the liquid, the surfactant will interact slightly differently. It will create a surface of hydrophobic tails. This will stop polar molecules from entering the liquid, since the liquid will appear to be a poor solution for the polar molecule to interact with. They also increase decrease tension of the liquid.[4] This barrier is expected to stop the acetic acid, used in part 3 of the experiment, interacting with the water solvent. If it does interact, the pH of the solution will lower due to acetic acids presence, and the indicator will show a change in colour. If no acetic acid enters the solution, no change should be observed or measured. Experimental Using de-ionised water, a reference light intensity was recorded. A 250ml solution (1) of 0.005% wt bromocresol green was then prepared, and absorbance was measured. 100ml was removed, and the pH adjusted using 0.1M sodium hydroxide and glacial acetic acid, and absorbance was noted at pHs between 3-6 at 0.3 increments. 50ml of remaining solution (1) was further diluted to solutions of 0.0025%, 0.00125%, 0.000625% and 0.0003125% concentration. Spectroscopic analysis of these concentrations was made, and a Beer Lambert graph plotted. A solution of unknown concentration was then spectroscopically analysed and its approximate concentration determined. This solution was then enclosed in a container with acetic acid, and spectroscopic readings taken every 30 seconds. This was repeated with fresh solution, with the addition of 0.2ml of octan-1-ol to the surface of the cuvette. Results The results for the pH change showed a curve, going from lower pH on the left to high pH on the right. This is a more quantifiable way of showing that as the Bromocresol turned blue at higher pH. This shows absorption toward the end of the spectrum of lower energy, (ie higher wavelength). So as pH increased, the absorbance of Bromocresol at 632nm increased too as it became blue. The next aspect of the experiment was to analyse how concentration affected the absorbance of Bromocresol green. As concentration of bromocresol green was altered, it was possible to draw a Beer-Lambert plot detailing how the absorption of the light changed with concentration of the Bromocresol Green. As would be expected, there is a straight line relationship between Bromocresol concentration and Absorbance except at higher concentrations, where the solution plateaus and becomes non-linear. Excluding this end point it is possible to derive the gradient, and hence the value of ?L. This was determined to be 36600. The Bromocresol solution of unknown concentration transmitted 0.222, making a LOG(Io/I) value of 0.67. Dividing this by the gradient gave the Bromocresol solution concentration to be 4.5710-6moldm-3. From this it is possible to determine the acidity of the solution using the Beer-Lambert plot as given above. Using an original pH, it is then possible to determine the concentration of the acetic acid on top of this, using simple equations associated with pKa and pH. From the information of Ka and pH, it is possible to calculate the concentration of acetic acid in the solvent. Error analysis Using error analysis and standard errors of instrumentation used, it is possible to construct the same graphs as above but with error bars. These are shown below. Discussion The calculations and graphs suggest that coating a solvent in octan-1-ol would encourage uptake of acetic acid, rather than inhibit it. This may be due to dimerzation or trimerzation of acetic acid (1) as it evaporates from the surface, making it more soluble in the partially polar octan-1-ol solution. Single carbon-oxygen bonds display less polarisation than carbonyl bonds do, and so it is likely that in this dimerised arrangement acetic acid more readily dissolved in the oil, in addition to acetic acid readily dissolving in organic solvents. Because of these reasons it readily crossed over from the relatively non-polar octanol to the polar water solvent, decreasing the pH of the Bromocresol containing solution in both the uncoated and octanol coated solutions. It is, however, most likely that the experiment was not successful. Alternative indicators, such as NH3, would have readily dissolved in water and increased the pH of the solution. It would also not have been able to dissolve in the octanol due to the higher polarity and availability of the nitrogen lone pair. Because of this it would have been a better indicator of the presence of a surfactant than acetic acid. Acknowledgements I would like to thank my demonstrators M. Azwani Mat Lazim and Miss Olesya Myakonkaya for their advice on the experiment. References R. J. Farn, Chemistry and Technology, Blackwell Publishing (2006) pp. 6. L. L. Schramm, Surfactants: fundamentals and applications in the petroleum industry, Cambridge University Press (2000) pp. 7. R. J. Farn, Chemistry and Technology, Blackwell Publishing (2006) pp. 6. K. S. Birdi, Handbook of surface and colloid chemistry, CRC Press (1997) pp. 338. P. Atkins, J. De Paulo, Atkins Physical Chemistry 8th Edition, Oxford Publishing (2006) pp. 432. P. M. S Monk, Physical chemistry: understanding our chemical world, John Wiley Sons (2004) pp. 225. V. H. Agreda, J. R. Zoeller, Acetic acid and its derivatives Volume 49 of Chemical industries, CRC Press (1993) pp. 96.

creative short stories Essay examples -- essays research papers

MacBeth’s Transformation from "Brave Macbeth to "This dead Butcher" William Shakespeare's play "MacBeth" tells the story of Macbeth change from a brave general, to a vicious murderer. At the start of the play Macbeth is acknowledge by the king as a brave and honourable general, after he heard of Macbeth's great victory in the battlefield. He promotes Macbeth to Thane of Cawdor, which was still unknown by both Macbeth and Banquo when they came across the three weird sisters. "All Hail Macbeth, hail to thee Thane of Cawdor" (I:III:51) "All Hail Macbeth, that shalt be king hereafter" (I:III:53) Macbeth was sceptical about these prophecies, however developed faith in them when Ross, following the king's orders titles him Thane of Cawdor. Macbeth does not let on to anyone about his ever-increasing desire to become king. "If chance will have me king, why chance will crown me." (I:III:154) Macbeth tells his lady about the prophecies and she is instantly enthusiastic about the prospect of Macbeth becoming king. "Great Glamis, Worthy Cawdor! Greater than both by the all-hail hereafter! Thy letters have transported me beyond this ignorant present and I feel now the future is an instant." (I:V:58) Macbeth's desire turns to an obsession and with...

Nursing Errors and The Stakes Essays -- Nursing, Medical Errors

Every day there is a constant trust adhered to many different people in the profession of Nursing—the decision of what will help patients in terms of medicine, and the confidence to make these decisions. One false act or one slight misdiagnoses of medication to a patient could be the prime factor in whether the patient lives or dies. Nurses in hospitals across the country are spread thin, and thus makes the probability of mistakes higher. If a medicinal dose is off by even one decimal a patient could die, so the only real answer is for nurses to not be afraid to ask for assistance, always follow procedure and voice opinion is they feel something is wrong. Firstly, every year there are many deaths associated with medical errors. Sarah Loughran writes, â€Å"An average of 195,000 people in the USA died due to potentially preventable, in-hospital medical errors in each of the years 2000, 2001 and 2002†¦Ã¢â‚¬  (medicalnewstoday.com) and this was just in 2000, 2001, and 2002 with the numbers bouncing higher or lower each year; nevertheless, there seems to be no end in sight for errors in the medical field. There is a way to lower these numbers drastically. The way to do this is by leveling the doctor to nurse ratio in hospitals thereby eliminating the stress factors on most nurses whom often have several patients to attend by themselves but no help in doing so. While demand for nurses may be high, there also comes a breaking point for any human being, â€Å"†¦factors including the high acuity of patients, inadequate nurse to patient ratios, increased work demand, and decreased resources.† (American Journal of Critical Care, 503.) The leading causes of most errors among stress and interruption are other factors such as: wrong dosage, dose omissi... ...rking in the hospitals all across the nation, and employing confident employees to those positions will make a large impact on how well people are treated in medical facilities. Every nurse should follow procedure and focus on the job at hand—healing people. Works Cited JB McKenzie, et al. "STRATEGIES USED BY CRITICAL CARE NURSES TO IDENTIFY, INTERRUPT, AND CORRECT MEDICAL ERRORS." American Journal of Critical Care 19.6 (2010): 500-509. CINAHL Plus with Full Text. EBSCO. Web. 7 Mar. 2011. Loughran, Sarah. "In Hospital Deaths from Medical Errors at 195,000 per Year USA." medicalnewstoday.com. Medical News Today, 09 Aug. 2004. Web. 7 Mar. 2011. Agyemang, REO, and A While. "Medication errors: types, causes and impact on nursing practice." British Journal of Nursing (BJN) 19.6 (2010): 380-385. CINAHL Plus with Full Text. EBSCO. Web. 7 Mar. 2011.

An analysis of attempts deal with the problem of smuggling of human beings Essay

1. Introduction There are many factors that entice some people to use illegal means to reach the United States, the member states of the European Union and other countries. One of the illegal means is through human smuggling. Two of the main reasons are pegged on social as well as economic ties. Other reasons could be   the political instability, armed conflict, rapid population growth, environmental degradation, widening economic disparities between countries, and a worsening unemployment crisis in the Asia Pacific region are only a few of the reasons that have sparked several waves of human smuggling activities. Human smuggling always entails people leaving their home country where their loved ones are waiting for them to send back home money to pay for their family’s daily expenses. For, humans exhort to violating the immigration laws of their decision countries by entering through the smuggling channels because in order to acquire that elusive bag of gold offered in the destination country. In Congo, humans are smuggled to Europe by passing them off as musicians and dancers (Bafalikike 2003, 65).   This bag of gold includes protection from dangers to their life back home, employment, higher wages and a better life. Thus, these people are forced to leave their country of origin either voluntarily or   even involuntarily to improve their life to secure their lives, to secure their families and friends and their properties back home (Hampson, and Hay 2004). 2. Smuggling Operation-The Organisation Human Smuggling   from China to the United States has a long history. This started with the United States interpretation of the term refugee in 1996. Consequently, the last ten years saw the human smuggling of Chinese citizens   has increased   from a small –scale regional movement to a major global enterprise (Kung 2000, 1271). The Chinese smuggling network is run by big snakeheads that have institutionalized networks of small snakeheads, debt collectors and enforcers. With the good relationship with local Chinese government officials, many snakeheads   present themselves as philanthropists for they donate large sums of corruption money to improve their chosen home villages (Smith 2002). The smuggled humans do not ever meet these snakeheads but are only in communication with the snakeheads’ representatives or employees. Some of the smaller snakeheads are local Chinese residents who entice customers and collect down payments. In addition, droves of middlemen   tour the human smuggles from one transit point to the next until they reach their destination – United States. Upon arrival on the United States shores, these human smuggles are then imprisoned by the tour guides until they pay their fees. The big snakeheads normally hire gang members to collect the human smuggles’ debts. However, there is no flagrant evidence that organized crime holds the strings in the Chinese human smuggling business (Ruddock 2001). Evidently, the Chinese human smuggling business is controlled by so -called enterpreneurs who are involved in several criminal activities(Jandl, 2004). The tour guides and entrepreneurs juicily talk to their hapless victims that they have to pay only a small monetary price in exchange for a richer life in the United States. Thus, the willing Chinese victims endure the dangerous travel by sea, air and land in inhuman conditions that are worsened by the violent abuses of the enforcers (Chu 2000, 111). The entrepreneurs or Chinese smugglers   charges very exorbitant fees ranging from $30,000 to $60,000 for each person for their human smuggling services. To ensure success, the human smuggles pay   the smugglers lots of money in exchange for   passage through the high seas. The Chinese smuggles then are not forced to as indentured servants in American food services establishments or sweatshops to pay their smugglers. In fact, human smuggling has increased in alarming rate more (O’Rourke 2002, p1). For, the smugglers immediately collect the human smuggles’ debts from the friends and relatives of the newly arrived Chinese human smuggles in full upon arrival in the United States. Consequently, the smugglers will torture the human smuggles and inform the relatives that further harm will continue thus forcing their relatives and friends to pay the human smuggles’ debts if payment has not been made generally in one week’s time (Jandl, 2004). Usually, the Chinese human smuggles come from the Chinese province of Fujian. The smuggling networks starting the 1980s have already smuggled more than ten thousand Fujians into the United States. Fujian lies along the coastal Mainland side of China which is the main Chinese shipping route for export and import of goods.   In fact, Fujian is the birthplace of the founder of the Chinese Triad, San Lian Hui, which is the center of Chinese Smuggling. Human smuggling here was ignited when the war brought about by the Qing dynasty in the 19th century where thousands of Fujians fled the island to escape the war   and financial hardships then. The main source of the Fujian human smuggles are people living around Fuzhou City in the northern part of Fujian province. Here, several villages are housed many Chinese whose relatives are in the United States. The residents here are dependent on the money sent from their relatives in the United States. Unquestionably, money is the push factor that has forced many Chinese to illegally enter the United States. Along this line, many Chinese officials are being corrupted to allow a smooth transfer of the Chinese smuggles outside of China which weakens most levels of the Chinese society (Jandl, 2004). Further, one expert clarified that corruption of Chinese government officials plus the decentralization of the Chinese economy erupted into a massive unrest in the Chinese Society. Thus, this unrest increased the number of Chinese smuggled outside of China. The Chinese government could not stop the human smuggling because the Chinese officials in the smuggling areas were corrupt and cared more about the money they will receive through bribes than implementing the Chinese government’s efforts to curtail human smuggling in China. The ordinary Chinese citizen finds it an uphill climb in terms of procuring travel documents to enter the United States. On the other hand, the rich, educated and professional Chinese residents can easily travel abroad including the United States and members of the European Union States. For, the Chinese government are very strict in giving out passports to Chinese people applying for permission to go abroad. Normally, the legal way to go the United States includes applying for a passport from their local village officials. Then, the visa and passport applicant will apply at the United States Embassy in Beijing or the Consulate in Guangzhou.   After, the Chinese applicant must   apply with the Public Security Bureau for the final document needed to leave China. The final paper is the exit permit. However, there are many bureaucratic obstacles hounding the application in every step of the application process (Lubbers 2002). The human smugglers ply their trade by giving their clients fake documents   and passage to the United States.   Also, the lax immigration checkpoints in China and the transit countries until the United States have made human smuggling a very profitable and happy encounter. For, the smugglers make lots of money in return for a happy arrival into the United States. In addition, other authorities offer high prices to give their passports to clients. In addition, Chinese government officials themselves pay the human smugglers to smuggle their families and friends into the United States at an obviously discounted price.   The human smuggling travel passes through several transit points. There are dangers along bend of the way. The trip takes from a few weeks to even a year. The ride passes through Southeast Asian countries, Europe and South or Central America The human smuggles are at the mercy of the snakeheads and the enforcers. Not all human smuggling was successful. On June, 1993, the freighter Golden Venture ran aground in New York. It was discovered that more than three hundred Chinese smuggles were packed in 800 square feet of cargo space and had been at sea for more than three months with little food and water, no lifer preservers and only one ladder as escape route in case of danger. Upon discovery, an estimated two hundred Chinese smuggles jumped ship and swim across the literally ice –cold New York waters ashore where more than ten people died from froze bite   swimming in the freezing water. Ten of the migrants died while trying to reach the shore(Schneider, Steiner, and Romaine 2003). In addition, the early nineties saw thirty two ships carrying a total of more than five thousand Chinese migrants traveling towards the United States that were caught   many stop –over points in Asia, South America and Europe. After the Golden Venture Crackdown, still continued to brave the odds that were heavily stocked in miniscule fashion in the Chinese smuggles’ favour in fishing boats. In fact, one United States INS   officer   stated that at any given point in time, thirty thousand Chinese are   literary packed in sardine like safe houses around the world waiting for that rare and opportune time to enter the United States through the discreet smuggle entry points. Importantly, any clear and fast distinction between human smuggling and human trafficking seems spurious (Skeldon 2003 p.1). In 1998, the United States INS service uncovered a criminal syndicate that focused on smuggling up to one hundred fifty Chinese people per month into the United States through the Canadian border (Smart, 994, p 98). The criminal syndicate’s network encompassed five continents because they earn lots of money in this illegal activity. The method was to smuggle the Chinese through Canada by giving them fake passports. The Chinese smuggles then   were sent to New York City passing through the Saint Regis Mohawk Territory at Akwesasne. This was an American Indian Reserve the lies between the boundary of the United States and Canada.   This smuggling was busted and thirty seven members of the smuggling ring were jailed.   After the Canada bust, the smugglers focused their entry point through Mexico City (Cholewinski 1997, 4). Smuggling humans through Mexico had declined during the Great Depression of 1929 (Hansen 2006; Spener and Staudt 1998, null5). Recently, the Chinese smuggling ring is using Guam as its stop –over point (Jandl, 2004). Furthermore, many human smugglers use commercial airplanes to deliver their human smuggles so that the coast guard and the border patrol could not find them. Flying the human smuggles through the air lanes was more successful and comfortable as compared to the overly tight border patrols. The Chinese smuggles would wait an average of two months for their fake travel documents to arrives so they could fly to the United States passing through Asia, Europe and other transit points. It is difficult to estimate the magnitude of the human smuggles because of their discreet operations (Guiraudon and Joppke 2001, 107). When caught by the INS people, the Snake heads instruct their Chinese smuggles to say that they are applying for political asylum because they are escaping China’s one child policy (Newman and Van Selm 2003, 9). Then, the snake heads hire lawyers to get the smuggles on parole and out of jail. After leaving jail, the Chinese Smuggles then disappear in the Chinese communities hide from detection. In reality though, the United States benefits from the cheap labor that these Chinese smuggles offer (Jandl, 2004). 3. Protocols The United States INS detention centers could not keep the overbulging Chinese human smuggles who come in droves and in regularly smuggled fashion.   The current US jails could not keep the surge of Chinese human smuggles arriving.   And, a Chinese woman was jailed by the United States INS in October 24, 1999 who gave birth in a United States Jail. The jail guards rushed the pregnant mother to the nearest hospital. Naturally, many human rights groups including the American Civil Liberties Union have complained that jailing the human smuggles are a violation of their human rights. For, the jail was a harsh environment taking into consideration the hardships these Chinese had to face for three or more months inside inhuman ocean going containers. Despite the eighteen arrests of Chinese Stowaways in another ship in Seattle and the detention of more then two hundred Chinese human smuggles found in container vans bound for the United States and Canada, there are still more that have not be caught. The series of successful detection of the Chinese smuggles that were smuggled as part of cargo in ships is used by the United States INS as proof that they are successful in their endeavor to decrease or even stop the rampant human smuggling into the United States passing through the European Union countries, Asia, Canada, Mexico and the like. The difficulty in detecting the Chinese smuggles is because there are too many cargoes loaded in a Cargo ship. In addition, many of the shipping companies and their crew do not know if their ship is carrying human smuggles. In response, the United States INS are holding responsible the shipping lines if human smuggles are discovered hiding in their ships. To stave off the proliferation of human smuggling, the United States makes it a criminal offense for anyone to bring or to aid in bringing human smuggles into the United States.   Likewise, it is considered a violation of the United States law if a person aids in the smuggling of persons into the United States. In addition, any person who entices another to enter the United States illegally will be punished with the full strength of the United States law. The penalty for human smuggling could reach up to five years. In addition, the enticing human smuggler will pay dearly if his human smuggle dies on board. However, if the human smuggling is done on a large scale or business –like basis, the penalty would be fifty dollars. However, these sentences will not stop the Chinese smuggles from entering the United States through sheer luck.   The United States Congress in 1996 placed human smuggling and immigration related visa fraud as RICO predicate offense. The RICO approach focuses on the leaders of the smuggling rings and not on the smuggling middle men. The violation of the RICO protocol will give out a fine that may include imprisonment of up to twenty years (Jandl, 2004). The United States had partnered with the United States address human smuggling. However, the focus on the United Nations is on the human trafficking of women and children and also white slavery. Combating human smuggling is a combined world –wide effort. However, corruption of local governments officials in China and other countries had made the curtailment of human smuggling next to nothing.     Ã‚  In reality, the detection of Chinese human smuggles are generally successful if someone secretly tips the border patrols on possible hideouts of the jail escapees   (Kyle, 2003). Developed countries are trying to find ways to curtail human smuggling. However, they   are against any policy that would reduce the demand for illegal workers. Evidently, the more there are strict immigration policies, the more will be the smuggler’s will to smuggle people because of the money involved (Kyle, 2003).

Article Critique Essay

The thought that peer exclusion is correlated with children’s classroom achievements and adjustment has been hypothesized since the 1930’s. Much research and empirical evidence for such hypotheses have since been collected, and seem to agree with the premise of the correlation. Peer acceptance is the main measurement of this study. In contrast with other types of peer relationships, peer group acceptance, or rejection, is strongly connected with academic readiness and achievement. This article focuses on peer sentiments and its effect on children’s adjustment. It differs from past studies in that its approach is to measure non-observable feelings about classmates, rather than only the observable interactions. The article begins by outlining past research, and developing a premise for the study from those previous studies. The main study that this research builds upon is that of a 2001 study by Eric S. Buhs and Gary W. Ladd, who also conduct this study along with Sarah L. Herald. The premise of the study, based on the 2001 study, is that once classmates express negative feelings and actions upon a peer, those feelings and actions act as a visible marker for further rejection by the larger peer group, and the rejected child as well; as a result, the rejected peers are flagged by their peers, and are left out of classroom interactions, and as a consequence, the rejected child’s learning is impacted ultimately leading to lower levels of achievement (Buhs, Ladd, and Herald, 2006, p. 2). The prior 2001 study found that â€Å"early peer rejection was negatively related to later achievement and that this association was partially mediated through peer maltreatment and declining classroom participation, respectively† (Buhs et al. , 2006, p. 2). The authors developed a hypothesis that built upon their previous study. Their hypothesis was stated as, â€Å"it was hypothesized that prolonged peer maltreatment increases the probability that children will disengage from classrooms (or the school context) and that increasing disengagement impairs children’s achievement. Thus, it was predicted that longer rather than shorter histories of peer maltreatment, after controlling for contemporary exclusion or abuse, would mediate the link between early peer rejection and later classroom disengagement† (Buhs et al. , 2006, p. 3). The authors further state that their purpose for conducting this study was to bridge the gap between the limitations of the previous study (it was only a one year study that attempted to predict students future outcomes) by conducting a more comprehensive longitudinal study over a six year period (kindergarten through fifth grade). Methodology The research study constructed six variables to measure the children with. They include, peer group acceptance/rejection, peer exclusion, peer abuse, classroom participation, school avoidance, and achievement. Peer group acceptance/rejection was conceptualized to mean â€Å"the extent to which individuals were liked/ disliked by classroom peers,† and operationalized by sociometric ratings that were collected from peers during kindergarten. One problem with this operationalization is the ability to comprehensively scale the true feelings of one peer toward another, especially during younger years. Scales, questionnaires, and observations might be too incomplete to capture the true meaning behind the dynamics of peer to peer interactions. Another issue is of how to evaluate separate peer groups. Many times classrooms encompass only a selection of developed peer groupings throughout the grade, and might be unfairly balanced toward one group. An example of groupings would be defined by the terms, â€Å"popular,† â€Å"punk,† or â€Å"nerds. † The research might be biased toward one group, if only because they were over represented in a class room. The variable Peer Exclusion was conceptualized as â€Å"the extent to which children were the target of peers’ nonaggressive rejecting behaviors, including behaviors such as ignoring, avoiding, or refusing to associate with them in the classroom context† (Buhs et al. , 2006, p. 3). The Variable Peer Abuse—the second form of peer mistreatment—was conceptualized to mean â€Å"the extent to which children were recipients of classmate’s aggressive and harassing behaviors† (Buhs et al. , 2006, p. 3). These two variables contained indicators to distinguish between chronic peer abuse, and situational peer abuse. Again, the issue that arises is the effectiveness of these measures. The interactions between childhood peers are complex, and can change daily. The variables Classroom Participation, and School Avoidance were used to measure disengagement from the classroom environment. A large issue with this is how to distinguish individuals who might be avoiding class as an outcome of separate circumstances. If poor participation and avoidance was only observed from the angle of peer interactions, then this view is biased toward the study. The study is seeking a correlation, and if outside factors aren’t controlled for, then they will biasly effect the results of their study. A child’s family life, neighborhood, economic status, innate ability, among other factors, could influence all of the variables that this study examines. The last variable, Achievement, was defined as â€Å"the accuracy with which children could solve progressively more advanced reading, mathematics, and spelling problems on an individualized achievement test† (Buhs et al. , 2006, p. 4). The issue that comes to mind with this variable is the way it uses tests to gauge â€Å"achievement†. Some students fare better on tests than others, while some students take time to develop adequate test taking skills. Another problem is how to control for separate curriculums in different classrooms, and the quality of what is being taught. Data (From the text) Buhs et al. , 2006, p. 5 Participants The data used in this investigation were gathered from a total sample of 380 children (190 girls These children were followed longitudinally from age 5 (kindergarten) to age 11 (fifth grade31 kindergarten class rooms across 10 schools, and by the fifth-grade data collection period, children were in 162 different classrooms across 32 schools. The sample contained nearly equal proportions of families from urban, suburban, or rural midwestern communities, and the sample’s ethnic composition was 17. 4% African American, 77. 1% Caucasian, 1. 6% Hispanic, and 3. 9% â€Å"other. † Family incomes were distributed as follows: 10. 9% of the sample reported total household incomes from $0 to $10,000, 10. 9% reported incomes from $10,000 to $20,000, 12. 6% reported incomes from $20,000 to $30,000, 12. 6% from $30,000 to $40,000, 12. 9% from $40,000 to $50,000, and 40. 3% reported incomes above $50,000. Results The study reports it’s results as, â€Å"peer group rejection is predictive of a range of chronic, negative peer behaviors that may alter both the social environment of the classroom and children’s adaptive responses within that context across the elementary school years. † (Buhs et al. , 2006, p. 11). It suggests that the facet of peer exclusion leading to reduced participation, and ultimately delayed achievements needs further study. It goes on to say that with further study, and thus more knowledge, an empirically based intervention program can be developed. Conclusion It can be argued that to have a complete understanding of the ever evolving and complex world of the social interactions in a school environment is close to impossible. The authors came into their study with a set premise, and expectations of the outcomes, and have seemed to found what they were searching for. The question becomes, how valid are the author’s findings, and can they be applied in a general manner across learning environments. I believe studies that look at complex interactions between children over several years, such as this study, might have too many outside interactionary forces that could effect the data and results. Works Cited Buhs, Eric S. , Ladd, Gary W. , and Herald, Sarah L. (2006). Peer Exclusion and Victimization: Processes That Mediate the Relation Between Peer Group Rejection and Children’s Classroom Engagement and Achievement?. journal of Educational Psychology 2006, Vol. 98, No. 1, 1–13.