Free Speech Controversy Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Free Speech Controversy - Essay Example The mother then reported the content of that book to a local news station known as KOAT, which was said to have been biased on how it reported the case. As the case remains undecided, the book may have been removed from the shelves of the library because they found out that it violated school district policies. She brought the book to the attention of other authority bodies such as the Public School officials from Rio Rancho who also agreed on the inappropriateness of the content. On one side of the debate are Catreena Lopez and the Public School officials who are against the book remaining at easy reach of under age students who should not be exposed to pornographic content. On the other side is CBLF that is fighting the challenge and ensuring that the school district of Rio Rancho abides by its pre-established challenge policy (Williams). This policy concerns requesting of reconsideration on library materials as well as the formation of a review committee that should decide the appropriateness of the book and whether it should remain in the library. In this case, the remedy being sought is amendment of the constitution. This is because the challengers would lose the case if the First Amendment stands behind the author of the work in question. The first amendment eliminates governmental constraints to speech implying that it is protecting the author of the book in question (First Amendment).This seems to imply that the only way the book can be kept completel y out of the library shelves is to amend the constitution and include clauses that would forbid the content in that book. Therefore, the challengers are seeking the amendment of the constitution to accommodate their claims of what inappropriateness is and may even prompt the removal of other materials if the amendment goes through. This is not the first time that such a case has been brought up but CNN also highlighted a

Israeli and Arab conflict Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Israeli and Arab conflict - Essay Example It starts with the Biblical story of Abraham who moved from the land of Ur in present-day Iraq/Iran to the land of Canaan as it was then called. According to Biblical traditions, Abraham was promised the whole land adjacent to the Red Sea and within the west of the Jordan river. However, there were some native Canaanites on the land. Abraham's grandson, Jacob (Israel) moved to Egypt with his children and grandchildren. They lived in Egypt for a few hundreds of years and became a great and populous nation. They then returned to the land of Canaan a few generations after Abraham. The descendants of Abraham became known as the Israelite community. They lived side-by-side with the natives of the land of Canaan. This include the Philistines, the Jebusites, the Hittites and many other native tribes. After a few centuries, the Israelite community became more numerous in the land and with the rise of David as king and leader of the community, it was transformed to a state and its capital was established in Jerusalem. The State of Israel was however divided into two: Judah in the South and the Northern Kingdom. The northern Kingdom was destroyed and the people were sold into nations around the world. The people from Judah however remained a united state around the capital Jerusalem. Eventually, the Roman defeated Judah in AD63 and the remnants of Judah were sold as slave in the Diaspora (Safrai 1). In the Diaspora, the people of Judah continued to maintain their traditional practices and maintained their identity. They became known as the Jews. Meanwhile, the Romans renamed the State of Israel Palaestina which became known as Palestine (Safrai 1). As the Roman power faded, the land of Palestine was inhabited by people from other Middle Eastern origins and this include the Canaanites, Philistines and others who lived in the land before Abraham moved onto it. After the Romans, the land came under the control of the founder of Islam and his successors. As a result of that, they converted to Islam and assimilated to the main sphere of Arab communities. However, the land of Canaan/Israel became known as the Holy Lands and it changed hands for generations before the Crusaders contested over the land for generations. Eventually, it became part of the Ottoman Empire in the 1500s and it remained under Ottoman rule until 1918. British Rule & Palestine The Ottomans were Muslims, however, they never considered themselves Arabs (Willner et al 487). There was therefore a clear distinction between Ottomans or Turkish Muslims and Arabs of the Middle East and North America. During the era of the Ottoman domination of the Middle East and North America, the Arabs were ruled by Ottoman governors. Hence, the British defeat of the Ottoman Empire came with a promise of liberating the Arabs after the war (Willner et al 489). Britain used a complicated system of forming alliances and diplomatic ties with different peoples around the world during the First World War period which was fought between 1913 and 1917. The defeat of the Ottoman Empire was part of the â€Å"Asian Theater† of a larger war that was fought in Europe and other parts of the world. Britain had used the help of the Americans, Monarchical Russia and many others to defeat the Germans in the European War. They had also promised the Jewish Group seeking a homeland for the Jewish people known as the Zionists in Europe and around the world that they will help

Sociological perspectives of family and household

Sociological perspectives of family and household Introduction For the purpose of the assignment title I aim to explain four sociological perspectives of the family and the household. I will also try and evaluate each perspective and give my own opinions of their views. I will then go onto explaining how childrens roles and the roles and relationships have changed within the family over time, and give a brief overview of how the family in todays society has changed through diversity and multi-cultural structures. Functionalism Functionalists view the family as a nuclear family structure, i.e. a mother, father and 1 or 2 children. Murdock surveyed 250 societies from the small hunting tribes to the large industrialised societies. He found that in every society there was some form of a nuclear family, he concluded from this study that the nuclear family was universal. Murdocks definition of a nuclear family is The nuclear family is a universal human social grouping. Either as the sole prevailing form of the family or as the basic unit from which more complex forms are compounded. It exists as a distinct and strongly functional group in every known society, (Murdock cited in Haralambos, M. 1985. 326) Within the framework of the nuclear family, Murdock identified with four family functions which if were ignored, society would not exist. Sexual, Reproduction, Economic and Education were the four functions. Similar to Murdock, Tallcott Parsons another functionalist had his own views of what functions the nuclear family should contribute to society. He believed that there were two important roles within the family Expressive and Instrumental. The womens role was the Expressive role as she was the one who raised, nurtured and taught the children the norms and values within the home. The mans role was the Instrumental role because he went out to work to provide financial security for his family. Parsons also identified the family as being the primary agent of socialisation and came up with the warm bath theory primary socialisation (norms and values) and stabilisation of adult personalities (support and love for the adults within the family. Criticisms Functionalists view of the family is similar to a fairy tale, because they ignore the family dynamics and in some families the darker side i.e. abuse, neglect and violence through male domination. Marxism A Marxist perspective of the family saw the family as a means of production and cheap labour whereby they are influenced by capitalism in a capitalist society. Marxists identified three main functions which they saw as a way for the family to fulfil for capitalism. Inheritance of Property means that in order for property to be handed down to a legitimate heir, sexual relationships need to be restricted to one person, thus the offspring would be blood related. For this to happen, The monogamous nuclear family developed with the emergence of private property, in particular the private ownership of the forces of production, and the advent of the state, (cited in Haralambos, M. 1985. 340) The second function is the Ideological Functions which families need to fulfil by socialising children with the ideas that there will always be bosses and workers within a capitalist society. The last function looks at the Unit of Consumption whereby families work to produce goods, which are bought by the families to enable them to be fed and clothed, which bring greater profit for the capitalists. Criticisms Marxists ignore the different structures of families which are found in todays society and with this the different roles within the family. Feminism Feministic views of the family are split into 3 groups, similar to that of the key perspectives. Liberal feminists believe that both the male and the females have equal roles within the family when it comes to the household chores and childcare. Marxist feminists view the women as the producer of future workers and womens oppression stems from capitalism and not the family. Radical feminists view of the family structure is one of patriarchal and that men are seen as the enemy. This type of family within society is also seen by feminists as the key institution in its contribution to maintaining social control Criticisms All three branches of feminism view the nuclear family as the most dominant unit within society, as well as believing that all members of the family serve society, performing different functions. Post Modernist A post modernistic view of the family is at the opposite ends of the scale to functionalism. Post modernists believe that in most societies there are diverse and multi-cultural types of families where members within these units are free to make their own life choices as to how, what and where they live, work and socialise within society. Post modernists also believe that everyone is entitled to the same opportunities in education, healthcare and family support as in their view, there are no class divisions (working and ruling classes), in most societies. Zietlin et al summarises this view of the world, The post modern world is shaped by pluralism, democracy, religious freedom, consumerism, mobility and increasing access to news and entertainment, (Zietlin class handout 2009. 92) Criticisms Because of their views of equal opportunities and freedom of speech and choices they ignore the fact that some people can and do make wrong choices with regards to ignoring the norms and values which are passed down the generations which inevitably upsets the social control aspects in some societies. How the roles and relationships of the family have change over time. Sociologists view childhood as Social Construction because they are biologically distinct from adults, (Harris, M. 2008.44) For this reason I will explain the question in two parts. Children The role of the child within a pre-industrial family (pre 1750), was one of equal standing. As soon as the child could walk and talk they were taught the family trade and were expected to carry on the family tradition. After the industrial revolution came the emergence of the industrial family (1800-1900), when children as young as 6 or 7 were sent to work in factories and down coal mines to bring money into the family home, however this brought about higher mortality rates because children werent as strong as adults. The mortality rates went into decline when the modern industrial family emerged (1900-2000), this is because children were starting to be seen as children and not as cheap labour. Experiences of childhood began to emerge for the majority of children within families, however there are still some societies today that still send their children out to work, but this is now not the norm in todays world. Gender roles and relationships During the pre-industrial years both men and women worked together with other family members. However this all changed between 1750 and 1900 when women were expected to stay at home and be responsible for household chores, childcare and producing the future workforce. This type of family structure was very patriarchal the men had the power so they were the dominators in the family. However this started to change when the modern industrial family emerged between 1900 and 2000, as more women were given the opportunity to become educated, this led to more women in the workforce. This led the family to share the household chores and the childcare and sometimes swap roles within the family if the man became unemployed. Diversity of the contemporary family structure What is a family? This question has been raised by many sociologists and the majority of these have all had different opinion. However in answer to this question, a family can be the nuclear or extended type of family, which are 2 or 3 generations living under one roof. This type of family was more common pre-1750 when families worked with and supported each other, and which still does happen in some cultures and societies i.e. Asian families. Other types of family structures which are more common in Britain today are the one parent families, the step families, the divorced families and the gay and lesbian families who have children. Families today are extremely diverse and multi-cultural through social influences from the media, education and global improvements. Conclusion Throughout this assignment I have paid particular attention to the different views of Functionalism, Marxism, Feminism and Post Modernism. I have given an evaluation of each perspective and have briefly described the changes in roles, relationships and structures within families. I have concluded in my evaluation that my opinion of families and households is one that in todays society of choice, freedom, diversity and multi-cultural structures that post modernism is by far the best view and explanation of society today. BIBLIOGRAPHY Haralambos, M Heald, R. (1985) Sociology Themes and Perspectives, (2nd ed), London, Unwin Hyman Limited. Harris, S (2008) Sociology AS A2 Revision, (3rd ed) Essex, Pearson Education Limited. Ritzer, G (1996) Modern Sociological Theory, (4th ed) Singapore, McGraw-Hill Book Co. Taylor, P. et al (1995) Sociology in Focus, Bath, Bath Press Zietlin, M. et al (1995) Strengthening the Family Implications for International Development, Tokyo, United Nations University Press www.sociologyonline.co.uk www.sociology.org.uk

Childhood Obesity Essay -- Health, Diseases, Overweight

The World Health Organization (2006, WHO) defines obesity as a body mass index (weight-for-height) equal to or more than 30. In the UK the prevalence of obesity in childhood has significantly increased over the past twenty five years. A study commissioned by The Health Survey for England (HSE) showed that between 1996 and 2001 the proportion of obese children aged six to fifteen rose by 3.5 per cent from 20 per cent to 23.5 per cent of the population in that age bracket; there is no reason to suspect that the children of England are not representative of the United Kingdom as a whole. Concern has grown that because of this increase obesity-related diseases, such as diabetes and heart disorders, will, in due course, occur in more adults than at present and that they will be diagnosed at a much earlier age. There has been strong government action to address the problem of childhood obesity, most notably as one of the five outcomes sought within Every Child Matters (DfES,2003,ECM). This was established in 2004 by the Department of Children, Schools and Families, with the intention of working together with other with other children’s services in order to approach and promote the well being of children. Further evidence is becoming available of more detailed analyses of the incidence of obesity by age, sex and geographical region. Using graph (i) below, produced for the National Child Measurement Programme from the NHS Information Centre (2009), we can see that the percentages of children falling into the â€Å"underweight†, â€Å"overweight† and â€Å"obese† categories remain generally stable over the three years reviewed, except that there was an increase of just over 1% in the â€Å"obese† category between 2006/07 and 2008/09. It is, however, disturb... ...iet and therefore stronger government action and funding would be needed in order to reverse the current trend. Moreover, parents need to be more aware as there is evidence from the Forecasting Obesity 2010 (2006) documents that suggest that for both boys and girls, a significant number of children who live with parents who are classified as overweight or obese tended to be obese themselves. Little evidence is yet to suggest a high success rate, although Jamie Oliver has had a relevant impact on healthy food within the school environment. This could eventually, therefore, show a stabilisation of percentage of obese children. Nevertheless, this is based on limited data over a three year period and for this to be established, or even improved, there needs to be several more years of relevant data to prove that this is, in fact, a trend rather than a periodical error.

Film Critique The Queen Essay

Movie roles performed by high caliber actors and actresses of living icons are always the hardest to portray. Helen Mirren’s portrayal of HRH Queen Elizabeth II, has given us an amazing resemblance (although without as much effects and make-up the resemblance ended) and an in-depth visual and emotional recognition of the British royal who was considered to be so distant and ethereal. I am more than glad that the Reston Multiplex Movie Theatre was comparably filled with older adults than the usual teenage movie goers so I was afforded the chance to concentrate on the film. Generally, the film may not appeal to the younger audience for its lack of pound for pound action and intrigue. However it does gives us an idea of how the British monarchy behaves, as the apex of the British class system. We seldom see portrayals that are free from bias especially when the subjects are as famous and influential as the Queen and her family. But the events that catapulted them into the public eye may have relieved them of their tight bond to maintain their feelings to themselves. Diana’s death has given us glimpses into their private lives which the Queen vehemently tried to seclude her family from the curious and even blatant questions of the public and the press. We see how the Queen reacted and tried in earnest to maintain her stance and tradition to shy away from the camera and the public even as the image-conscious PM Tony Blair continued to cajole the Queen and her family out of their shells. It has also given us an insight to the life the British Royal couple has led all these years which shows support for each other and a husband who is willing to stay behind the shadow of his wife and yet live admirably together in harmony. The family’s traditional and puritan values saw the British monarch trying to distance herself away from the prying eye of the media upon news of Diana’s death. The queen’s immediate concerns were for the â€Å"boys† alone after learning of the tradgedy while vacationing at Balmoral Castle, Scotland. Apparently Diana had fallen off from the royal family to warrant the kind of behavior and almost distant hatred even after learning the news of her accidental death. Public sentiment against the monarchy grew as the Queen and family continued to be absent from the public eye even as Britain grieved for the death of their princess. Seemingly, Diana had been closer to the Britons because she showed what it was like to live a fairy tale life in the beginning and showed to the world that the monarchy was not as invincible as it seems. Profoundly Diana has created a breathing, real life princess capable of feelings thereby creating a certain link of reality to the masses and thereby showing that the monarchy was no different from anyone. Eventually as grief poured, sentiments against the monarchy grew, which PM Tony Blair handled superbly thereby surging his popularity in tune with the national mood. He became closer to the British public and the world. His continued calls for the queen and the family to at least make statements were left ignored at first with Lord Mountbatten (James Cromwell) seemingly disgruntled over PM Blair’s (Michael Sheen) insistence. The Queen explained her position to Blair that Diana lost her relation to the royal family when she divorced her son, the Prince of Wales and insisted that mourning should be a private matter handled by her own family and not by the British Crown. Later on, the Queen who was known to stick to her principle gave in after mistakenly assuming that the public sentiment will slowly ebb over time. After so much criticism from the British tabloids for failing to offer any sign of condolence, and advice from Blair on how the royals should conduct out of public respect, the Queen finally gave in despite disagreement from her mother and gave a speech praising Diana’s life and work. The British flag was also allowed to fly at half mast and a public funeral was hosted in memory of Diana. The queen was then pushed into public view as Mirren’s brilliant performance showed her exact reaction while coming out to look at the flowers in front of the curious British public who was equally assailed with mixed emotions. It was a moment that I held my breath because I had seen the actual a dozen times on television and hardly noticed any difference. The scene showed Elizabeth’s graceful human side and strength both at the same time. Her candid response to the flowers given to her showed her awe that revealed her human nature that no amount of pretense a queen could mask. In effect, the movie was critical of the monarchy but candid and transparent in its portrayal that was sometimes funny and empathic. It evoked the true nature of the royal family’s behavior and sometimes leaves us questions of their simplicity or sarcasm in public statements. Martin Sheen’s portrayal of a young and enthusiastic Tony Blair also showed a generous amount of political set-up reminiscent of the time when PM Blair suddenly gained massive popularity following Diana’s death. His behavior was indeed fitted with the contemporary mixture of grief that called for human decency and respect during Diana’s death which the royal family had mixed initial feelings of. In summary, the movie showed to the world the importance of adapting to change as opposed to the views of rigid tradition which could have led to stagnation. It also showed us that family traditions and values are being questioned in the face of common contemporary behavior and modes. Public figures are always subjected to observation and ridicule because the public always love to know how public icons behave in the face of adversities and criticize any actions for consumption. The Queen (2006) Movie. Starring Helen Mirren as the Queen Elizabeth II; James Cromwell as Lord Mountbatten and Martin Sheen as PM Tony Blair.

After earth review Essay

In this review, we will discuss Will Smith’s movie â€Å"After Earth† directed by M. Night Shyamalan. Smith’s movie is about a military father and his teenage son. One thousand years after cataclysmic events forced humanity’s escape from Earth, Nova Prime has become mankind’s new home. Legendary General Cypher Raige returns from an extended tour of duty to his estranged family, ready to be a father to his 13-year-old son, Kitai. When an asteroid storm damages Cypher and Kitai’s craft, they crash-land on a now unfamiliar and dangerous Earth. As his father lies dying in the cockpit, Kitai must trek across the hostile terrain to recover their rescue beacon. In Kitai’s whole life, he has wanted nothing more than to be a ranger like his father. After watching Smith’s movie, we shall be claiming that human can fly on the sky. Besides, we also agree that space does not contain oxygen. In the movie, we do agree that earth contain gravitational force. Moreover, the love of a father is one of the moral value that we agree in this movie. However, we disagree with some points in the movie especially the decrement of the temperature in the earth. Other than that, we also disagree the function of the video-audio system. Will Smith’s movie is about in the near future, an environmental cataclysm forces the human race to abandon Earth and settle on a new world, Nova Prime. In this movie, the main characters are General Cypher Raige and his son Kitai Raige. One thousand years later, the alien creatures plan to attack the Nova Prime and take over the planet by using Ursas, blind predatory creatures that hunt and kill the human by sensing or smelling the fears from human. They struggle against the Ursas until General Cypher learns how to completely suppress his fear by a technique called â€Å"ghosting†. After teaching this technique to the other Rangers, he leads the Rangers to victory. General Cypher brings his son with him and the Rangers for the â€Å"ghosting† training. However, the spaceship is caught by an asteroid shower forcing them to crash-land on the Earth. But both Cypher’s legs are broken. Furthermore, he and his son are the only survivors . Cypher gives a mission to his son to find the tail of the spaceship and get the space-signal device. During the mission, his son, Kitai Raige, fight against many challenges to reach the tail of the spaceship. Unfortunately, the cage of the Ursas broke and it escapes to hunt for Kitai, but at the end Kitai learn to suppress his fear in order to kill the Ursa and send the signal back to his planet. Finally, he successes to do so. From the movie, the first point that we agree is human can fly on the sky. In the movie, the main character, Kitai jumped from the cliff after quarrelling with his father. He flied on the sky and chased by an huge eagle. This was because he got a small ‘wing’ at his back. Otto Lilienthal (23 May 1848 – 10 August 1896) was a German pioneer of aviation who became known as the Glider King. He was the first person to make well-documented, repeated, successful gliding flights. Thus, the main character in the movie applied the concept and theory that proved by Otto Lilienthal. Furthermore, we agree that space does not contain oxygen. In the movie, Kitai and his father used oxygen supply at spacecraft. They needed breath through oxygen supply. On our outer space there isn’t oxygen because it is related to the formation of life on our planet. And the oxygen layer goes up to 50 kilometers from the Earth. From this point to upwards there isn’t oxygen. This layer of oxygen was formed taking on account the amount of dead organisms in the beginning of the life formation. This process took millions of years to produce enough amount of O2 necessary to the life. For example, all the spaceman in the world still need to carry big oxygen container in order to breath at space. Other than that, we totally agree that earth contain gravitational force. As mentioned by General Cypher Raige in the movie, earth contain high gravitational force than other planet. If earth does not contain gravitational force, all the living things and non-living things will float on the sky. In 1687, Sir Isaac Newton, who discovered gravity, was a mathematician physicist. Many people have the image that he was sitting under an apple tree when an apple fell and hit him on the head, thus giving him the idea for gravity. In reality what he discovered was that there existed a force that is required to change the speed or direction of a moving object. After much further experimentation he wrote his theories of gravity. They have been the basic mathematical solutions for the way that things attract and repel for hundreds of years now. Besides that, we also agree a moral value which is the love of a father to his son. In the movie, we can see that General Cypher loved his son very much. Before his son carried out his mission, Cypher taught him how to survive and guided him through the screen. Cypher did not take the pain killer although both of his legs broke. This was because he will feel sleepy and cannot see clearly after taking it as he want to protect his son through the screen in the spaceship. As mentioned in the movie, the temperature at earth will decrease 5  °C for every 10minutes during night time. We disagree with that statement. In the movie, the surrounding of the forest freeze when temperature dropped. However, if according to the statement mentioned in the movie, the surrounding impossible will freeze. For example, during night time, temperature of earth is 27  °C and the temperature decrease 5  °C for every 10minutes. After 10minutes, the temperature will become 22 °C. After 20minutes, the temperature will drop till 17 °C. From the calculation, we can conclude that the surrounding will not freeze in a short time. This is because the temperature is decrease gradually and it need long time to freeze the surrounding. In addition, we disagree the function of the video-audio system in the movie. In the movie, Kitai’s father put a small camera at his back in order to guild Kitai. However, there got some scenes that General Cypher can observe his son from front view. This was no logic because the camera was set at the back of Kitai. In this review we have discussed Will Smith’s movie â€Å"After Earth†. Smith’s review covers several points such as human can fly on the sky. He show us the moral value about the love of a father. He also claim that space does not contain oxygen and earth has gravitational force. However, we do not agree with his claim that temperature at earth will decrease 5  °C for every 10minutes during night time and the function of video-audio system.