Pearl Harbor Essay Example for Free

Pearl Harbor Essay Though the attack was focused on Pearl Harbor a Japanese fighter plane crashed on the island of Niihau. The Niihau Incident (or Battle of Niihau) occurred on December 7, 1941, when a Japanese pilot, Shigenori Nishikaichi, crash-landed on the island of Niihau after participating in the attack on Pearl Harbor. He crashed 19 feet from where Hawila Kaleohano, a native, was standing. Unaware of the current attack on Pearl Harbor but knowing the US had bad blood with Japan, Kaleohano seized the opportunity of taking the pilots papers and pistol while the pilot was still incapacitated. In Hawaiian tradition, Nishikaichi was later treated with the upmost respect. Since his English was limited the Hawaiian natives could not understand him so they sent a Japanese born man who only exchanged a few words with Nishikaichi, seemingly disturbed the first interpreter walked away. The second interpreter, Yoshio Harada, undisturbed listened to what the pilot had to say and decided to take up arms with him. Some days later on Saturday, December 13, Harada and Nishikaichi captured Ben Kanahele and his wife, Ella Kanahele. They ordered Kanahele to find Kaleohano, keeping Ella as a hostage. Kanahele knew that Kaleohano was rowing toward Kauai, but made a charade of looking for him. He soon became concerned about Ella and returned to her. Harada told Kanahele that the pilot would kill him and everyone in the village if Kaleohano was not found. Kanahele, noticing the fatigue and discouragement of his two captors, took advantage of the brief distraction as the pilot handed the shotgun to Harada. He and his wife leapt at the pilot. Nishikaichi pulled his pistol out of his boot. Ella Kanahele grabbed his arm and brought it down. Harada pulled her off the pilot, who then shot Ben Kanahele three times: in the groin, stomach, and upper leg. Ben Kanahele then picked Nishikaichi up hurling him into a stone wall. Ella Kanahele then bashed him in the head with a rock, and Ben slit his throat with his hunting knife. Harada then turned the shotgun on himself, committing suicide. Ben Kanahele was taken to Waimea Hospital on Kaua? i to recuperate; he was awarded with the Medal for Merit and the Purple Heart, but his wife, Ella, did not receive any official recognition. The news of the attacks did not travel fast to the other islands, as technology there was very limited especially on the smaller islands. Charles Owens, living on the island of Maui during the attacks, says â€Å"I didn’t hear of the attacks immediately, I only heard of them a while after, I didn’t really know what to think. How could something so big go without us hearing about it until days after, so that was kind of messed up. † Back on Oahu, the two hour attack was straining on. Their first order of business to blow away all aircraft to eliminate the possibilities of a counter-attack. They bombed all the plans that were sitting wingtip to wing tip also bombing mess halls and killing hundreds of unsuspecting people. Some US pilots were able to get their planes off the ground but once they reached the skies they realized how outnumbered they were, still they fought for their country and fired as best they could. Since the Japanese finished bombing their intended targets of aircraft carriers; they went to their next chief target, the battleships. The eight battleships were all hit, the USS Nevada, Tennessee, California, Arizona, Oklahoma, Maryland, West Virginia, and by far the worst loss the USS Arizona. The battleship row was destroyed. The people on them were quick to react and fought hard, but the ruthless Japanese bombed the ships into oblivion. The Japanese were sending America a message, that they were the superiors and were ready to destroy America along with the rest of the world with its Axis power allies. The Japanese had also launched out five midget submarines, these could only hold a two man crew, but they were all sunk at the beginning of the battle by the US pacific fleet. At 9:45 a. m. he Japanese felt that their mission was complete. They returned back to their air craft carriers feeling pride in destroying copious amounts of people’s lives and completely taking away others. The total death count for them was 78, a death count which paled in comparison of the almost 4,000 US lives lost. The military people of Hawaii fought long and hard to save their home but little could be done since it was a surprise and they didn’t have any proper time to react. Thi s day would mark a turn in history. This day would be a day that was often thought of in war, a day that was a reminder of what the soldiers of America were fighting for. This was the day that pushed America into World War II with a fighting vengeance. A saying often used in newspapers was â€Å"Remember Pearl Harbor. Work. Fight. Sacrifice!! We’ll remember and by God, you WON’T forget! †The day following the attack, President Roosevelt addressed the congress and asked for a declaration on war against Japan and he got it, marking the day the US officially became a part of World War II. In Hawaii, on the 16th of December, Adm.  Kimmel and Gen. Short were stripped of their commands and in 1942 they were found guilty of neglect of duty and held exclusively responsible for the catastrophe that was Pearl Harbor by the Roberts Commission. Later in October of 1944 Kimmel and Short were found not guilty due to a Naval Court thinking they acted appropriately to the situation with the knowledge they had received. This was later overruled by the Chief of Naval Operations, claiming if Kimmel had done aerial reconnaissance he may have found the Japanese fleet located a mere 250 miles off Hawaii. In decmeber of 1955 a Defense Department investigation reveals others share responsibility with Kimmel and Short but does not divulge the information on whom these ‘others’ are. It was not until the year 2000 that an amendment to the Defense Appropriations Act found Kimmel and Short performed to the best of their abilities in the situation that they were given and their ranking was restored. February 19, 142, executive order 9066 was signed; this was the order that called for the internment of all Japanese Americans living on the west coast during World War II. Ironically no Japanese-Americans were taken from Hawaii. It was strange to most people in Hawaii, like Bernadine and Charles, that people uninvolved were being punished. Why America would be fighting for equality and against oppression when it was so willing to oppress their own brethren? It boggled the minds of the still young Bernadine and Charles who still could not fully comprehend what the attacks had done. The internment camps were horrible, the conditions were poor, the food was rationed and below nutritional. The children in the internment camps went to school and the thought of patriotism was pushed deep into their minds. The adults could work for 5 dollars a day or were given the option of joining the army. The latter option was not popular as many no longer felt they wanted to die for their country. Internment camps were looked at as a wartime necessity. Many Americans were plagued with a fear of a second attack or the Japanese working from the inside out to destroy them. This was and would become a continual theme in American history of oppressing people because of the fear of a possibility. It wasn’t until 1988 that congress tried to financially apologize to the Japanese-Americans that were affected by the internment camps by granting them each 20,000 dollars. Thought the camps never reached the atrocities preformed in Nazi death camps in World War II, they still left a scar on American history. In whole the attacks on Pearl Harbor caused the death of 3,500 American citizens, the destruction of 18 ships (including all 8 of the fleet), and 350 destroyed aircrafts. The only thing sparred that day were the air craft carriers.

The Concept To The Contemporary Security Agenda Politics Essay

The Concept To The Contemporary Security Agenda Politics Essay Is the concept of human security, which is the most controversial and debated issue in international organizations since 1994, simply hot air, as seen by its critics? Or does it contribute to the concept of contemporary security agenda where the whole world is increasingly interconnected (Paris, 2001). This paper introduces to the international theories which can help understand human security better and the extent to which human security contributes the contemporary security agenda. There is no single definition of human security as human security goes beyond traditional notions of security to focus on such issues as development and respect for human rights. Definition of human security remains an open question. The simplest definition of security is absence of insecurity and threats (Shahrbanou, 2004 cited in McIntosh, Hunter, 2004: 139). In context, to have security is to have freedom from both fear of psychological, physical or sexual abuse and from want of food, employment and health. Human security therefore deals with the capacity to identify threats and to avoid them when possible. It means to help people cope with the insecurities resulting from wars, conflicts human rights, violations or massive underdevelopment (Owen, 2004: 15). The on-going debate of human security among its advocates is that there should be a shift of attention from a state centric to a human centric approach to security. That is, concern with the security of state orders should give way to concern with the security of the people who live within those borders (McDonald, 2002: 279). Traditionally, in state- centric or realist view security means protection of sovereignty and territorial integrity of states from external military threats, rather than the protection of individuals (Newman, 2010: 85). By contrast human centric or liberalist view places individuals at their main priority and proposes some essential conditions, for example adoption of universal human rights to ensure the protection of the people. Thus in 1970s and 1980s, people responding to the Middle East oil crisis and the growing awareness of environmental degradation, began to think of security in broader, non- military terms. After the end of the Cold War, many scholars st arted to see state- centric security as essentially in narrow terms (Hough, 2004).Thus the concept of human security developed which attempted to redefine and expand the meaning of security. However, it does not challenge the relevance of state- centric arguments in so far as these concern the protection of the state from external military violence and accept the state as the main provider of security. Some analysts still argue that external military threats are bigger than ever in the post-Cold War era as there is no balance of power which for years ensured state and individual security (Hough, 2004). However, even if these threats are bigger at the moment, they definitely are not the only threat to the lives of people all around the world. Issues like environmental degradation, diseases, and famines are also huge threats affecting people (Shahrbanou, 2005: 30). Constructivism is also one of the theories in international relations which can be adopted as way of interpreting human security. It provides a useful framework for understanding the true nature of issues relating to human security such as race, class, violence and gender (Conteh-Morgan, 2005 cited in Tsai, 2009: 28). Constructivism can be found to be more beneficial in approaching the concept of human security, in contrast to structural realism. Constructivism believes that language, customs, norms and culture can change the behaviours and interests of people living in that country. Unlike realism, which sees anarchy as the inescapable outcome of self-help, constructivism sees it as state created which can be changed by state intervention (Wendt, 1992 cited in Tsai, 2009: 24). Onuf stresses on language and the role that plays in constructing human beings, interests and principles. He considers language and rules as the fundamental norm of constructivism, and regards the human being as the first point of research and the hub of human security. In the contemporary world with the growing knowledge, language has become one of the key elements of building human security. Onuf also stated that people use language to interpret the rules and therefore it is the most important way of constructing a society (Onuf, 1989). For instance, the on-going interaction of human society has been eventually generated into international norms (Bedeski, 2007: 46). Peter J. Katzenstein also challenges the traditional realist theories of security by emphasising the norms and culture of constructivism as his main concern in solving the human security issue in international relations theories. He states that the concept of culture defines the state actors in the system and the intera ctive associations among actors and society. Katzenstein asserts that culture can be defined by looking at the social customs and laws of that society (Katzenstein 2005: 6). For example, Due to the lack of knowledge of internal factors within the Soviet Union, neo-realism and neo-liberalism failed to predict the collapse of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War. Thus culture can play a major role in influencing state actors, institutions and even respect for international law and human rights. More recently, analysts, following the United Nations Development Programmes (UNDP) 1994 Human Development Report and their notion of security as freedom from fear and want (Hough, 2004), have settled on the phrase human security to emphasise the people-centred aspect of these efforts. In 1994, Human Development Report (HDR) issued by the United Nations Development Programs (UNDP) presented a different philosophy about the integration of security issues and globalization. Thus, this report defined human security according to seven dimensions such as economic security, environmental security; personal, political, community, health, and food security .The report also adopted a people-centric security concept instead of the traditional state-centred concept (UNDP, 1994: 24-33). Realist would contend that the above list has clear military security implications. The report makes it clear that the real security protects individuals from threats such as disease, hunger, unemployment, politi cal oppression and environmental degradation (Tsai and Tan, 2007: 8-9). Due to the broadness of the concept, the human security includes both traditional and non-traditional elements of security (Paris, 2001: 88). On the contrary, to the critics, the concept and definition provided by UNDP is very broad. Gary King and Christopher Murray criticizes the overly broad and understanding of human security. By broad it means trying to include all the well-beings, which makes no sense. For example, the seven dimensions of human security defined by UNDP indicates a ray of dimensions centred on human-dignity, which are potentially interrelated and overlapped, and fails to provide a coherent construction with a single and integrated concept'(King Murray, 2002). For Roland Paris human security is nothing more than hot air. In his view those who support the concept of human security are the ones who want to keep the broadness and fuzziness of the concept just for their motive (Paris, 2001). Lincoln Chen has a similar opinion as well. In his view the concept is so wide and broad that it is difficult to make a choice which threat should be taken as first priority and which can be neglected (Chen Narasimhan , 2003). Deriving from the UNDPs interpretation of the human security concept and putting aside the differences between state-centric and human-centric positions for the moment, the meaning of human security is also contested by different schools of human security. The dispute over types of threats that should be included has divided advocates into the narrow and the broad schools. Mack, an advocate of narrow school, argues that threat of violence to people by the state or any other institution or a political actor is the proper focus for the concept of human security. On the other hand, Thakur a proponent of broad theory, asserts that human security is concerned with the protection of people from critical life-threatening dangers, regardless of whether the threat are rooted in anthropogenic activities or natural events, whether they lie within or outside states, and whether they are direct or definition of narrow school can be simplified as freedom from fear, similarly broad school can be de fined as freedom from fear but also from want which is also the focus of human development in UNDP Report (UNDP, 1993: 2). Japan promotes the human security idea of freedom from want whereas Norway, Canada and other members of the human security network promotes freedom from fear (Shinoda, 2007, Dedring, 2008 cited in Tsai, 2009).Thus Kofi Annan has pointed out the three pillars of this wider conception of human security, freedom from want, freedom from fear, and freedom to live in dignity. However, the differences between the two conceptions of human security can be exaggerated, as both perceive the individual as the main object of the security and stresses on safety from violence. Both of them even acknowledges the role of globalization and its changing nature of armed conflict that is generating new threats to human security, besides both calls for a rethinking of state sovereignty as an important part of promoting human security. Therefore, both the concepts overlap each other as here to a large extent. Seeking freedom from fear without addressing freedom from want would amount to addressing symptoms without the cause (Baylis, Smith, Owins, 2011: 483). With the on-going wars, conflicts and problems, human security also deals with issues like climatic change and environmental degradation as everything is interconnected with one another. Death caused by armed conflicts has declined in relation to other challenges to the safety of individual. Wars and violent conflict often leads to environmental degradation, economic disruption or levels of poverty. For example Vietnam War or the Gulf War in which Saddam Hussein burned Kuwaiti oil which ultimately led to air pollution and land degradation. Similarly, environmental problems also lead to wars and conflicts. Such as scarcity of resources in over populated countries like India, Pakistan leads to dispute. For example Indo- Pakistan dispute over the Wular Barrage. While no direct link can be found between terrorism and poverty, terrorists often exploit poverty and exclusion in order to tap into popular discontent -taking advantage of fragile states such as Somalia, or undemocratic regime s uch as Afghanistan in the 1990s, to plan violence'(UNDP 2005: 47). Poverty and lack of economic opportunity can also lead to terrorism. For example, Orissa in India is the perfect example of how poverty deprivation can trigger acts of terrorism, signifying how freedom from fear and freedom from want are intricately connected (Baylis, Smith, Owins, 2011: 486). In the contemporary world climatic change or natural disasters has also emerged as a human security agenda especially for the western countries. Potential disasters like global warming or tsunami pose a threat to individuals and societies around the world. Most scholars tend to view this challenge as a national security challenge rather than human security. However, climate change and natural disasters can be linked to human securities issues like state failure, food shortage, water crisis, which are genuine human security issues. Communicable disease like the severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) which alarmed the whole world in 2003 became the main issue of concern in the human security agenda (Curley, Thomas, 2004: 18). Diseases can travel rapidly across borders. It has become a major global issue and no country can protect the human security of individuals and communities within its national borders on its own. Another issue which falls under human security is protection of wo men against violence, womens human rights, gender inequalities in control over resource or inequalities in power and decision making. Recent conflicts have shown women as victims of rape, sexual slavery and torture. Such violence against women is now recognised as a crime against humanity (Rehn, Sirleaf 2002 cited in Baylis, Smith, Owins, 2011: 488). The aspect of human security has become irresistible nowadays .It deals with so many issues and it is so broad that it includes almost all type of human securities even if it is criticised over and over again. Weather viewed as freedom from fear or freedom from want, the concept of human security has not replaced national security. The Human Development Report estimates the rich countries of the world spend more in the military budget than in contentious issues like HIV/AIDS. However, it reflects a number of developments that have constantly challenged the traditional view of security as the protection of states from military attack. It originally began as a rejection of orthodox notions of economic growth in favour of a broader notion of human development, but now has been reinforced by new security threats such as genocide in the Balkans and Africa (Baylis, Smith, Owins, 2011: 491). Human Security has grown into an important aspect in the contemporary security agenda. Responsibility to protect is an issue that supports human security and its three practical objectives, the responsibility to prevent, reach and rebuild. It was developed in the 2001 report The Responsibility to Protect which was produced by Commission on Intervention and State Sovereignty. The commission argued that the primary responsibility to protect their citizens is in the hands of the state. If a state is unable or unwilling to do so or if they deliberately terrify their citizen then this leads to the international responsibility to protect the citizens of that particular state through humanitarian intervention. Development of this agenda for human security through the Right to Protection agenda is a point of debate and some contention (Gottwald, 2012: 9). Humanitarian intervention to protect state sovereignty is one of the most important attribute of human security. The concept of humanitarian intervention was endorsed by the report of the UN Secretary Generals High-level Panel on Threats, Challenges and Change. It was developed to help the state and its citizens from any threats external or internal. Despite the valuable articulation of such responsibility, Humanitarian intervention can always not be justified. An intervention can be manipulated and inevitably shaped by powerful actors. Skilled lawyers or diplomats can convince arguments, both for and against particular interventions, like they did in the case of Darfur (Bellamy 2010). Just by accepting the idea of human security and treating it positively, the state cannot be benefitted. They have to make certain effort to implement the human security concerns in its political practices (McDonald, 2002).Canadian government made the same move and exploited the state human security aspect. Canadas middle power status in the world system indicates that accepting the security theory of such agrees basically with its national interests. Based on the claims of Jockel and Sololsky, Canadas acceptance of the idea of human security altered the political nature of intervention. The Canadian government have continued to intervene in the name of human security anytime anywhere (Newman, 2001). As some scholars have already noted, there is risk in confusing the pursuit of human security concerns with the pursuit of traditional security concerns. NATO intervention in Federal Republic of Yugoslavia with as said was for the objective of preventing ethnic cleansing in Kosovo. However Ramesh Thakur argues that, it is still questionable that whether this intervention actually produced more damage than benefit (Thakur, 2002 cited in Glusac, 2010: 90).Noam Chomsky shares a similar view and sharply criticises the war against Yugoslavia. He believes that the bombing campaign only hastened the flow of refugees from Kosovo. The consequences of bombing campaign included the collateral damage in the form of refugees and long-term damage caused to the economy, which caused a creation of a state which ultimately became dependent on foreign aid. Multiple refuges, broken infrastructure, damage incurred by economy were the direct consequences of the bombing campaign (Chomsky, 1999: 81). Keeping this in mind, its difficult to say that the goal of human security was reached by this intervention. If we recall the seven dimension of human security that was pointed out in the Human Development Report, we can draw a conclusion that the bombing campaign has affected almost all of them, and surely not favourably. US invasion of Iraq can be another example of humanitarian intervention. Although US intentions for invasion were always unclear but when the post invasion period accelerated into the chaos the US raised the human security agenda as a justification for the war in Iraq, arguing that the US aim was to rescue the people of Iraq from the human insecurities caused by Saddam Hussein. However even USA did little to restore law and order through implementing pol justice procedure (Collins, 2007: 130). Therefore, if the goal of an intervention is to protect the human security and the avenue to achieve these goals are the same that affect the human security, then the question that should be asked here is whether we have chosen the wrong means. To conclude, Human security can be best understood under liberalists and constructivists theories. Realism therefore cannot be considered as the dominant theory of security. Human security has a long way to go before being universally accepted by everybody. The connections between wars, famines, disease, poverty and environmental degradation are still not understood by many, thus needs more clarification and explanation. Data from the Human Security Report Project shows there has been a remarkable decline in internal and global political violence since the mid-1990. If the world had to do without such aspect of human security, it would have been fairly difficult to deal the with the on-going security problems.

Bias In Printmedia :: essays research papers

Print media provides its readers with information, but what the reader very often does not recognize is the bias within the articles. Bias is not so easily recognized. Writers have the gift to blend the bias in with their work. It is so well done, that in order to see the bias, one must thoroughly analyze the article. A person must also know what the types of bias are and how they are used. There are many different types of bias that are used in health related articles such as statistics and crowd counts, word choice and tone, and through omission. Print media demonstrates these types of bias in many articles.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  One method of bias being used is print media is through statistics and crowd counts. A writer can manipulate the reader into thinking that the results are very high or very low in some cases. In The Toronto Star on October 23, 1999, the article â€Å" Pregnancy biggest threat to women, V.N. says† uses statistics to give an estimation, â€Å" an estimated 585,000 women do every year†. This article explains how pregnancy affects many women. By using this statistic, it gives the reader an approximation, but not an exact number. This is used to make the reader think that the statistic is very high. Another article in The Toronto Star, â€Å"Tamil health crisis probed†, on October 29, 1999,demostrates bias by saying, â€Å" At least 70,000 people†. The article is talking about the Tamil community and how 70,000 people have been affected, but it does not give the amount of people in that community. This type of bias is often used in print med ia to make an article more important than it is.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Bias through word choice and tone is often used in print media sources. By choosing specific words, the writer can easily influence the reader’s opinion about the article. Certain words give the reader a different meaning. In an article, â€Å"Health care to receive $3.8 billion injection†, in The Toronto Star, on October 22, 1999, the Governor, Hilary Weston, is reading a passage from a â€Å"throne speech† given by the government to introduce a Patient’s Bill of Rights. By using the word, throne, the writer suggests that the speech given is very important. During this speech, there is a â€Å"caucus chuckle† from a Liberal at the meeting. The writer uses caucus to indicate that it is more than a normal chuckle during an important speech.

The Battle of Stalingrad- A Turning Point in the Second World War Essay

The battle of Stalingrad raged from August 1942 until the German surrender on 2 February 1943. Significantly, it was the first catastrophic defeat to befall the Wermacht Army who not only lost the battle but were severely humiliated. Indeed, the German Army never fully recovered from this blow to its morale. Upwards of 270,000 troops were killed and 91,000 prisoners were taken by the Red Army; included in this latter number were 23 German Generals. Conversely, morale in the Red Army soared as a consequence of Stalingrad giving the Russians increased strength and confidence. This battle represented a turning point in the Second World War. By successfully defending the city of Stalingrad the Soviet Union were able to deny Hitler his summer 1942 objective of paralysing the Soviet war effort by interrupting Russian oil supplies and seizing the Caucasus oil fields. This achievement was made possible through the stubborn and ferocious resistance of the Red Army within the confines of Stalingrad and the meticulously planned counteroffensive which led to the encirclement of the entire 6th army outside the city. In addition, compared with their German counterparts, the Red Army were highly organized, they had superior lines of communication and were better equipped. Stalingrad, reduced to a burning shell within days of the first German assault, was defended by the Soviet 62nd Army led by General Chuikov. Although German troops captured 90% of the city, Chuikov maintained his hold on a strip of land a mile long. Stalin had issued the order 'not a step backwards' therefore discipline was harsh and traitors were killed without sentiment. The Red Army were merciless, executing over 13,000 of their own men. It was however the counteroff... ...man POWs. Stalin personally took credit for the victory and military defeats prior to Stalingrad were depicted as part of his pre-arranged plan. Stalingrad was a turning point in the war but not a decisive one. Stalin believed victory placed him in a greater position of strength within the Grand Alliance. He was therefore more confident during 1943 in pushing negotiations for the opening of a second front. The Red Army fought with renewed vigor on the 'E' front and within 18 months had recovered all Russian territory taken by Germany. In 1943, the question was no longer 'if' Germany could be defeated but 'when'. However, Stalingrad alone did not turn the tide of war in favor of the allies. The battle did play a vital role but other factors must be considered; American victories in the Pacific, allied landings in North Africa and the defeat of Rommel at el-Alamein.

Executing the Innocent :: capital punishment essays

The risk of executing innocent persons is a decisive objection to the institution of capital punishment in the United States. Consequentialist arguments for the death penalty are inconclusive at best; the strongest justification is a retributive one. However, this argument is seriously undercut if a significant risk of executing the innocent exists. Any criminal justice system carries the risk of punishing innocent persons, but the punishment of death is unique and requires greater precautions. Retributive justifications for the death penalty are grounded in respect for innocent victims of homicide; but accepting serious risks of mistaken executions demonstrates disrespect for innocent human life. United States Supreme Court decisions of the 1990’s (Coleman v. Thompson and Herrara v. Collins) illustrate the existence of serious risk and suggest some explanations for it. I live in a city (Philadelphia, PA) whose District Attorney seeks the death penalty more often, and with greater success, than any other D.A. in the United States. In Philadelphia, as elsewhere in the U.S., the majority of defendants in capital trials are poor, and rely on court appointed defense lawyers paid by the local jurisdiction. It is no coincidence that a city which sends large numbers of convicted murderers to death row has "an unusually impoverished system" for representing indigent defendants. According to Tina Rosenberg, where private attorneys "routinely" charge $50,000 to defend a capital case, Philadelphia pays court-appointed lawyers a $1700 flat fee for preparation and $400 for each day in court. The executive administrator of Philadelphia's courts reckons that this averages $3519 a case.(1) Those numbers help to explain why District Attorney Lynn Abraham's department has such a high percentage of homicide defendants sentenced to death. They also suggest that Philadelphia runs an especially great risk of sending to death row some persons who are innocent of the crime for which they were convicted. But why does Philadelphia ask for the death penalty so often—in Rosenberg's words, "virtually as often as the law will allow"? (320) D.A. Abraham says that she considers herself the representative of the victim and the victim's family, and that the death penalty is the right thing to do for them. (321) This is essentially a retributive rationale for capital punishment. The risk of executing innocent human beings is the focus of this paper. I believe that this risk is so significant that it constitutes a decisive reason for the abolition of capital punishment in the United States.

How far was Henrys foreign policy merely defensive in the years between 1487 and 1509?

Henry worked hard to establish, consolidate and recover many foreign relations within his reign. This was mostly defensive due to pretenders threatening Henry’s throne which meant a lot of Henry’s foreign relations were defensive. However, Henry did also establish policies to help other factors during his reign. One way in which Henry did establish relations out of defence was to rid of short term pretenders and threats to his throne. An example of this would be the Treaty of Etaples which was made in 1492 with France.This treaty outlined neither country would support imposters which resulted in France having to stop supporting and give up Perkin Warbeck who was at the time pretending to be Richard, Duke of York. The treaty was a defensive manoeuvre to ensure the pretender was stopped to reduce the threat to Henry’s throne and this helped Henry a lot as France did not particularly like Henry at the time so the Treaty meant they would no longer support Warbeck whi ch helped Henry protect his security well. However, some of Henry’s actions could have been seen as an attack rather than defence.The treaty of Etaples also meant Henry demanded money resulting in France had to pay an annual pension of 50,000 crowns (?5,000). The money was given due to Henry reasserting an ancient claim to French lands and besieging Boulogne which was quite assertive and was this part of the treaty was more of an attack towards France. This is why it is debatable whether Henry was more defensive or attacking in foreign policy as the Treaty of Etaples did both as it forced France to give up pretenders, protecting Henry, but also demanding money, an attack of France.However, it is clear that indeed, henry did use the treaty to attack France but overall used it as a defence. Another reason Henry instated foreign policy completely as a defence was to secure his dynasty through marriages and treaties and make peace for his and others future rule. The Treaty of Ayt on, made in 1497, established Anglo-Scottish harmony which matured into a formal peace Treaty in 1502 and the long term strength was symbolised with the marriage of Princess Margaret, Henry’s daughter, and James IV in 1503.This was entirely to put a stop to the on-going conflict on the Scottish border and ensure a lasting truce and alliance with Scotland for his dynasty and future security. Yet on the other hand, Henry also established foreign policies and agreements to help improve England’s trade. Due to Margaret of Burgundy showing continuous support for Warbeck, Henry issued an embargo on English trade with Burgundy that lasted until 1496.Henry then later dealt with this with the Intercursus Magnus also known as the Great Settlement in 1846 as both Henry and Philip had suffered from the commercial restrictions and needed each other’s trade again. This cannot be seen as defensive as relations did not improve massively as Philip continued to harbour Yorkists m eaning this agreement was purely made to improve trade and English profits and did not benefit Henry in securing his throne nor dynasty. This clearly means Henrys foreign policy was not entirely defensive but was placed to improve trade as well.In conclusion, Henry worked hard to establish foreign policies for different reasons. It is clear that Henry’s main priority was as defence but also that it was not the total reason and foreign policy was not used completely for defence as Henry did make some agreements to assist trade and as a form of attack on countries to instate and show power. However, it is fair to say Henry’s foreign policy was defensive to help secure his throne but mostly to provide and protect his dynasty.

McDonaldization

Weber viewed bureaucracies as such a powerful form of social organization that he predicted they would come to dominate social life.   He called this process the rationalization of society, meaning that bureaucracies, with their rules, regulations, and emphasis on results would increasingly govern our lives.   Sociologist George Ritzer (2006) see the thousands of McDonald’s restaurants that are in the United States and more and more around the globe as having much greater significance than simply convenience of burgers and shakes. McDonaldization is defined as the process of how the principle of the fast-food restaurant is coming to take over more and more sectors of American society as well as the rest of the globe.   Ritzer holds that predictability, calculability and control over people through the replacement of human and non-human technology are the elements behind Weber’s formal rationality. Ritzer compares the fast-food restaurant with the home-made meal, and finds it to be more expensive and less pleasant.   You could also compare it to the traditional cuisine restaurant.   By comparison fast-food restaurants are obviously cheaper, more informal and more accessible to more people.   In such a comparison the fast-food restaurants may be seen as a kind of democratization of the restaurant services. And it is certainly something that Americans see as predictable, calculable and having control over society. Fast food restaurants have replaced the social interaction that was once a tradition of Mom staying home to cook and all sitting down to eat at a certain time (and usually when Dad had come home from work after a long day at work).   Now with the two parents working family the fast food restaurant has helped bureaucracies to expand and develop the twenty-four hour society.   The growth of the fast-food industry has also been one of the factors both enabling and resulting in the growth of female out of the home paid employment. According to Ritzer the credit car is the most important American icon, because it is a means to obtaining other American icons.   Ritzer uses the credit card as a window to get a better view of American society and culture, it expresses something about America.   It speeding planting around the globe gives other cultures and societies an American express or appearance.   Through the use of the cards other cultures, according to Ritzer, are Americanized. Through the credit card has it good points, Ritzer focuses on the darker side and attendant problems such as consumerism and debt, fraud, invasion of privacy, rationalization and homogenization in the shape of Americanization.   The money economy is associated with a temptation to imprudence and a resulting risk of overspending and going deeply into debt.   According to Ritzer, both the intangibility of money and the swiftness of transactions increase with the use of credit cards.   As a result credit cards will lead to even greater levels of imprudence. The author shows that credit card debt has become the most common form of financial liability in the U.S.   Even though the risks of imprudence are more or less intrinsic to the cards he also blames the credit card industry for luring people even deeper into debt problems.   Ritzer lays out the malaise of the American consumer society, criticizing the credit card companies for their exploitative conduct and the American government for their unwillingness to regulate industry and to give consumers adequate protection. Reference: Ritzer, G. (2006).   McDonaldization: The Reader.   New York: Sage Publication.    McDonaldization McDonaldization was a term originated by sociologist George Ritzer in his book The McDonaldization of Society (1995). In this book, he described the process through which a society takes shape the characteristics of a fast-food restaurant. For Ritzer McDonaldization displayed a rationalization, or moving from traditional to rational modes of thought, and scientific management. In his theory,   Max Weber displayed the model of the bureaucracy to represent the direction of this changing society, through this Ritzer saw the fast-food restaurant to become a more representative contemporary paradigm. According to Ritzer there were four main components of McDonaldization. This he described to be efficiency, calculability, predictability and control. In efficiency he described the optimal method for accomplishing a task. Here Ritzer pertained to the best method that would help you reach the efficiency of reaching the fastest method to get from point A to point B. This is being displayed in your typical McDonald’s customers set up; that the fastest way to get from being hungry to being full is to eat at McDonald’s. In Calculability Ritzer showed that the main objective should be quantifiable which can be displayed through sales rather than subjective for example taste. In the rise of McDonaldization, it developed the notion that quantity should be equal to quality. This sprung from the typical goal of a business enterprise to serve a large amount of goods to deliver to its customer in a short amount of time. It was interpreted that this should be the same as high quality goods. This generally gave the people the impression that of how much they’re getting verses how much they’re paying in purchasing goods. Through this organizations want consumers to believe that they are getting a larger amount of goods for a smaller amount of money. Thus workers in these organizations also can be judged by how fast they are in production instead of the quality of work they do. Predictability – standardized and uniform services. In describing predictability Ritzer pertained to the predictability and uniformity of receiving the same service and receiving the same goods every time a person purchases anything at any â€Å"McDonaldized† organization. It is also reflected in the performance of the workers in those said organizations. Each person and organization is tasked to maintain a level of highly repetitive, highly routined, and predictable tasks. In control Ritzer showed the display of standardized and uniform employees, which was the replacement of human by non-human technologies. Through this each â€Å"McDonalized† organization is in control of it operations very carefully to achieve the predictable goals it set for itself. These four processes shows a strategy which is rational within a narrow scope but can also lead to outcomes that are harmful or irrational. In Ritzer’s book, the process of McDonaldization can be summarized as the way in which â€Å"the principles of the fast-food restaurant are coming to dominate more and more sectors of American society as well as of the rest of the world.† (Ritzer, 1996). Through this it is manifested how society is being shaped through the principles being set to us by the standards and values of the popular fast food chain called McDonald’s. It was not only through the domination of the McDonalds food chain can we attribute the McDonaldization of society, it is by how the trend of the McDonalds phenomenon of success where in we can see the reflection why such food chain has given such a large impact to society. In McDonaldization that the pattern of being set by the popular fast food chain McDonald’s is not being restricted to the domain of the fast-food market. It is even quite evident in the modernizing society that this wave of McDonaldization can be seen in the manifestations of the supermarket. It is now evident that supermarkets has now come be the replacement for the corner store and has since itself been superseded by all sorts of hypermarkets. In the world of entertainment video shop chains and Disneyland are can display McDonaldization. While in the arena of healthcare it has been also noticeable how house doctors has been irretrievably replaced by a much more streamlined, effective, all-encompassing, but, alas, also a much more impersonal system of health care. In the world of printing press, the American nationwide newspaper USA Today is sometimes referred to as McPaper (Ritzer, 1996, p. 7). This paper exemplifies how the news can be perfected through its presentation of the current events in a standardized manner, this way it is more easily digestible for the readers. This way a very specific and easily recognizable layout, and shorter pieces with no continuation of reports on later pages, as well as a number of other measures, can ensure absolute predictability and thus efficiency. Just as much as tomorrow's Big Mac in LA will be the same as yesterday's in New York, so much will USA Today live up to your expectations. â€Å"USA Today gives its readers only what they want. No spinach, no bran, no liver.† (Ritzer, 1996, p. 76) Probably, one of the most notable and important institution that was McDonalized should be the domain of higher education. Initially, we could only begin to imagine ho shocking implications of McDonaldization can pose to us and our kids. Despite that, this is exactly what McDonaldization poses to our students having that grade point averages and the ranking of institutions, giving us trends of modernized education. It is predictability is a clear manifestation that even our education system has been McDonalized through time in modernization. Through this efficiency is more and more accomplished by means of multi-choice tests and even more, by standardized textbooks and preset tests that accompany them. Modernization of the education arena is clearly making our students lose a personal and cultural touch in the spheres of learning specially when it comes to discussions of history, culture and heritage. Specifically in the context of the creation and distribution of scientific information, the ever-present spectre of â€Å"publish or perish† must be mentioned. One can hardly overemphasize the detrimental effects such policies, founded as it’s in a paradigm of quantification, has on the quality of the information disseminated in scientific journals. While the efficiency in the aspect of the different spheres of society being imposed by McDonaldization can be advantageous to man kind, I think the McWorld is being taken into to many levels by most institutions that we are revolving around today. While it may be true that a McDonald’s happy meal is an efficient way to satisfy one’s hunger, I believe we are slowly but surely losing touch of the original nutritional value that can be manifested in the cultural degradation which is evident all around the world in the manifestation of the new wave of globalization. These days it the cultural display amongst younger people of different races and religions can barely be seen as the youth is now packaged in to one technological generation where in culture can only be displayed by one standardized McMTV generation where the genre has been set by pioneers of the entertainment industry. Negative manifestations can be seen through this as the youth has now set a trend of detachment to the world around them. The rampant display of violence and sex in media doesn’t help at all as escalating levels of juvenile delinquency is now more evident in the lifestyle of today’s youth. The consumer culture is now at a wide spread like wild fire catching ablaze all that is in sight in one quick round. It is true that the McDonaldization is evident in society today. Its fast domination of the world is not only amuzing but more alarming if you ask me. Different organizations across the globe is now in a totally different level of competitiveness that they begin to lose touch of the goals and mission while focusing on how to cope with the wave of coping with the big player of each modernized and changing Mcfield of the world that is now crossing barriers of culture religion and any differences that used to divide the world for both good and bad reasons. While it is a good concept that the world can be united as one, unfortunately now Mcdonaldization is dividing it more in ways that can be irepairable as we now lose touch of our personal individuality in the mass scale of Mcpattenting each person to be one big global market. Ritzer was right that the world was being Mcdonalized, what we can only hope for now is that this trend wont get big enough for our lives to be turned into packaged happy meals because that way we lose touch of so many important levels of our individuality that we should appreciate and embrace in our daily lives. References: Ritzer, G. (1996). The McDonaldization of Society. Revised ed. Thousand Oaks, Calif. : Pine Forge. 265p. Alfino, M.,Caputo J., & Wynyard R. (1996). McDonaldization Revisited: Critical Essays on Consumer Culture, Westport: Praege