150th Birthday of H.G.Wells - Part III

    For the third time I dedicate a third part for the same author, the others authors who deserved three parts were: Charles Dickens and Dante Alighieri. The first summary was published in 2003 at https://www.academia.edu/400254/_Human_Rights_and_Public_Accountability_in_H._G._Wells_Functional_World_State_. The second was published at http://thewire.in/67634/hg-wells-social-predictions/

           As has long been acknowledge, H.G.Wells was one of the twentieth century insistent advocates of a world state. From the publication of Anticipations in 1901 to his death in 1946, Wells evolved a political vision which rejected nationalism and advanced global political institutions. In this chapter an aspect of Wells's thinking and which has been relatively neglected by scholars : the role of human rights protection and government accountability. With the outbreak of the Second World War, Wells saw an opportunity to embark in a practical way upon his project for world unity. This possibility he called the 'Rights of Man' campaign and it was first raised during the discussion of allied war aims in the first few months of the conflict. By 1939 Wells came to realise in The New World Order, when he wrote: "The more highly things are collectivised the more necessary is a legal system embodying the Rights of Man". In promoting human rights, Wells felt a part of that democratic tradition going back to the Magna Carta and Thomas Paine's Rights of Man. There would be no possibility of a static society being created because, through the charter of human rights, the actions of the world state would be constantly challenged, not only defending human rights but being used as a legal mechanism to reinterpret those rights continually in a changing world. In order to achieve the acceptance of the "Rights of Man" worldwide, the humanistic tradition of Britain, France and the U.S.A. would have to be extended to the whole world. With the outbreak of the Second World War, and particularly after 1941 when nazi-fascism and communism ranged their forces against each other, Wells realised the need for in-built guarantees which would protect the rights of individuals and minority groups throughout the world and which would allow a popular voice to directly influence the bureaucracy. Thus, in relation to his world state project, the 'Rights of Man' campaign was aimed at establishing a check to power strong enough to prevent political repression and authoritarian excesses. Wells hoped the 'Rights of Man' would be a bulwark against the totalitarian usurpation, an usurpation he saw increasing around the world: "Throughout the whole world we see variations of this subordination of the individual to the power. Phase by phase these ill-adapted governments are becoming uncontrolled absolutisms, they are killing that free play of the individual mind which is the preservative of human efficiency and happiness. The populations under their sway, after a phase of servile discipline, are plainly doomed to relapse into disorder. Everywhere war and economic exploitation break out, so that those very same increments of power and opportunity which have brought mankind within sight of an age of limitless plenty, seem likely to be lost again, or may be lost forever, in an ultimate social collapse." (Wells[1940]79-80) Wells's opposition to tyranny at this time shows a lasting interest in the protection of fundamental human rights which he demonstrated during the First War with his plea for a human rights charter for colonial peoples, and in the interwar period when, for example, he condemned censorship by the BBC, and was seen 'mingling with hunger marches during the great depression, to deter the police from baton-charging them.' Wells's 'Right of Man' aimed not only at preventing the abuses of power that had been so rifle throughout the interwar period but also at setting in place a guarantee that the world-state dogma could not be turned into a monolithic tyranny through bureaucratic unaccountability. Wells first advocate the 'Rights of Man' in a letter printed in the newspaper The Times in October 1939, he also published a version of the rights in almost all of his books between 1940 and 1944 with slight amendments from draft to draft. Education was also central to Wells's cosmopolitan philosophy. By insisting on the right to knowledge and information for all throughout life, the declaration was enshrining the principle of Wells's Permanent World Encyclopaedia, a mechanism by which all the world's citizens would have access to all knowledge through the micro-photographing of texts and objects, and universal access to microfiche machines. All registration and records about citizens shall be open to their private inspection. "All dossiers shall be accessible to the man concerned and subject to verification and correction".  This clause, although greatly truncated, remains unaltered in principle and becomes merged with clause eight in the final draft. These rights were recognised as fundamental by Wells. He enshrined them in his Five Principles of Liberty as the principle of privacy. In the final charter these principles are condensed thus: 'Secret evidence is not permissible, statements in administrative records are not evidence unless they are proved. A man has the right to protection from any falsehood that may distress or injure him.'

             Many of H.G.Wells's futuristic prophecies have come true, but the one on which his heart was most set, the establishment of a world state, remains unfulfilled. No writer is more renowned for his ability to foresee the future than H.G.Wells. His writing can be seen to have predicted the aeroplane, the tank, space travel, the atomic bomb, satellite TV and the worldwide web. Yet for all these successes, the futuristic prophecy on the establishment of a state world, remains unfulfilled. He envisioned a government which would ensure that every individual would be as well educated as possible, have work which satisfy them, and the freedom to enjoy their private life. His interests in society and technology were closely entwined. Wells's political vision was closely associated with the fantastic transport technologies that Wells is famous for. The Outline of History (1919) claimed to be the first transnational history of the human race, telling the story of human beings from our early evolution. In the hope that his readers would, on learning of the common origin, outgrow the idea of the nation state. While controversially received, The Outline of History was Wells's best-selling book in his own lifetime. Today, given the role that national identity continues to play in human being's efforts for greater self-determination, the prospect of Wells's world state seems even less likely. One surprising legacy remains, however, from Wells's forecasts of a better future for humankind. Letters from Wells to The Times led to the Sankey Committee for Human Rights and Wells's The Right of Man, argued that the only meaningful outcome for the war would be the declaration of human rights and an international court to enforce them. The influence of Wells's work is clear in the U.N. 1948 Declaration of Universal Human Rights. These rights now have legal force, so are perhaps Wells's most significant prophetic aim. While Wells is remembered more now for his science fiction than his ideas of world government, the political Wells still might something to teach us. While political leaders of various stripes use nationhood as a way of putting barriers between human beings, Wells's message of our shared origin, universal human rights and international co-operation might suggest to us a direction for a more hopeful future.

150th Birthday of H.G.Wells - Part II

               The tribute to H.G.Wells goes on. This post is a summary of four articles. The first was published at https://www.britishcouncil.in/father-science-fiction-h-g-wells. The second was published at https://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/nov/20/ali-smith-celebrates-hg-wells-role-creation-un-declaration-of-human-rights. The third was published athttp://www.gradesaver.com/author/hg-wells. The fourth was published at http://www.hyperink.com/Major-Themes-And-Symbols-In-The-Time-Machine-b930a15

              H.G.Wells was a British author four-time Nobel Prize nominee and a journalist. And his work as a science fiction writer created a legacy, which is still felt to this day. Wells is frequently described as the 'father of science fiction'. John Clute, sci-fic historian, describes Wells as the most important writer in the genre's history. He has influenced countless writers, including Isaac Asimov and Arthur Clarke. Wells was an extraordinary prolific author. He worked to establish fictional techniques that authors still use today. 'The Time Machine', for example, popularised time travel as a narrative tool. Wells also wrote popular non-fiction. 'The Outline of History' was a bestseller, and prompted a renewed interest in world history in popular culture. Wells is remembered today for his substantial output of science fiction writing, but also as a champion for human rights and a better society.

           H.G.Wells wrote several classic, visionary novels about the very worst consequences a past and a present can have on a future, and a great deal of what he wrote, though it takes fantasy form, has come to pass, with stunning corollaries with his own time, the time after him, with our own time, and presumably with the as-yet-unwritten time ahead of us too. So, what did the visionary choose to do, at the latter end of his life, when he was in his 70s, the man who had seen and foreseen so much, in his fiction and his political writing, including tanks, global warming, aerial flight and bombardment, visible mass surveillance, invisible mass surveillance, modern germ warfare, radio, TV, video, the internet, the atom bomb, laser beams? What did the far-seeing man do, the man who had been invited to meet and advise both Roosevelt and Stalin, who had worked on ways, in his latter years, to "release a new form of government in the world", a power "without tyranny", one "to hold men's minds together in something like a common interpretation of reality"? He wrote and published in 1940, a book called The Rights of Man. He helped form and sustain PEN, where an internationality of writers would come together and think the world, and fight for and protect each other's freedom to write and to read, He helped form and sustain the National Council for Civil Liberties, to monitor and fight for the freedoms that human beings need, and that weak or bullying governments who want all the power will always want to mess with. Above all, Wells believed that what we needed to do was make and ratify as law an international declaration of human rights. Wells's drafts were closely followed in the eventual drawing up of the wording for the 1948 U.N. Declaration of Human Rights, shortly after his death in 1946. Since 1896, when he was a young man writing The Island of Doctor Moreau, a book about the beast in the human, he had been interested in how at the mercy of the random or self-serving lawmakers we are. In the first year of the second world war, remembering how little the League of Nations had been able to "banish armed conflict from the world", he published The Rights of Man as a call for "a profound reconstruction of the methods of human living". His question, in 1940 was: what are we fighting for? His answer: "a declaration of rights for the common welfare...a code of fundamental human rights which shall be made easily accessible to everyone". His initial draft included most of the things you can still find in our current Human Rights Act, and is especially strong on rights to privacy and dismissal of secrecy. "All registration and records about citizens shall be open to their personal and private inspection. There shall be no secret dossiers in any administrative department." He knew that, as Jose Saramago puts it in his novel Seeing : "rights are not abstractions, they continue to exist even when they are not respected". "There is no source of law," Wells says, "but the people, and since life flows on constantly to new citizens, no generations of the people can in whole or in part surrender the legislative power inherent in mankind."

             Wells was born into poverty in Britain in 1866, and he was not shy about glorifying his lower-class beginnings. He later won a scholarship to what is now part of the Imperial College of Science and Technology. Before the advent of his later works, Wells cultivated his literary potential as both student and educator. Wells's first novel, The Time Machine (1895) was written to relive his poverty. It serves as a harsh critique of capitalism. In the novel, a man travels to the future and finds a nightmarish dystopia in which two distinct species have evolved from the ruling and working classes. The novel struck a chord with Victorian England, a heavily industrialized country of haves and have-nots, and it became a success. Wells soon turned his attention to inflamatory and often contradictory politics. He preached socialism whenever he could, though he later rejected it. He was a stainch supporter of World War I, calling it "the war that will end war", but after World War II found the war-ravaged world he departed in 1946 more horrifying than any of his fictions. Wells became as major player in the political landscape as a writer could become.

              The major themes in the classic The Time Machine are: Class Distinction and Opression - Wells was a child of parents who had worked in wealthy households as servants, so from a young age he was aware of the difference between the classes. It is this observation, as well as his experiences of what class distinction could mean, that led him to explore the theme in this book.The Nature of Man - the time traveler, as the protagonist and hero, represents the inquisitive and constantly questioning mind of man. He feels the need to explore the world and believes that in time, man will have evolved beyond the petty problems experienced in contemporary times. The time traveler is certain that we will experience the wonder of a more evolved future man. At first, he believes his vision has been fulfilled when he encounters the Eloi people,  but they are nor what they seem. they have not evolved, man will instead devolve. they have oppressed the Morlock people to the point of turning them into nocturnal creatures. Here Wells is suggesting that man's nature is to use power over others even if it will eventually damage both, his own future and that of the human race. The Morlock, on the other hand, represent the result of what happens when man is oppressed for too long, he becomes a sickly person. The major symbol is the time machine. The machine is a symbol that Wells uses to explore's man own influence over his destiny and to suggest that man has some control over whether or not we will end up in the future. He creates the machine, expecting to find incredible technological and cultural advances when he arrives in the future. But instead, he finds that the world is quite different than he expected. He hope that with the knowledge of the future he has seen and now shared, man might be able to make changes in the present in order to avoid the horrible future that will otherwise be man's destiny.

           

150th Birthday of H.G.Wells

             A little more than two months ago, the English writer H.G.Wells would complete 150 years old, so this post is a tribute to him. The wide range of his works always concern the improvement of the world, the fight against injustice and for human rights, and a more productive, full and fair existence. This post is a summary of five articles. The first was published at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H._G._Wells, The second was published with the incomplete title above at  https://kcls.org/blogs/post/happy-150th-birthday-to-h-g-wells/. The third was published at http://www.newstatesman.com/node/193726. The fourth was published at http://www.wnrf.org/cms/hgwells.shtml. The fifth was published at http://www.bookslut.com/small_but_perfectly_formed/2005_04_005019.php

               Herbert George Wells (1866-1946) Known as H. G. Wells was a prolific English writer in many genres, including novel, history, politics, social commentary and textbooks. Wells is now best remembered for his science fiction novels  and is called a "father of science fiction, along with Julio Verne. His most notable science fiction works include: The Time Machine (1895), The Island of Doctor Moreau (1896), The Invisible Man (1897), and The War of the Worlds (1898). His later works became increasingly political and didactic. Novels like Kipps and The History of Mr. Polly, which describe lower-middle class life, led to the suggestion that he was a worthy successor to Charles Dickens, but Wells described a range of social strata and even attempted, in Tono-Bungay (1909), a diagnosis of English society as a whole. A diabetic, in 1934, Wells co-funded The Diabetic Association. His father was a shopkeeper and professional cricket player, H.G.Wells was the fourth and last child. When his mother returned to work as a ladys's maid at Uppark, a country house in Sussex. For H. Wells, Uppark had a magnificent library in which he immersed himself, reading many classics works. This would be the beginning of H. Wells's venture into literature. In 1880, Wells won a scholarship to the Normal School of Science in London, studying Biology. He later helped to set up the Royal College of Science Association, of which he became the first president in 1909. Wells studied in his new school until 1887, thanks to his schoolarship, yet in his Experiment in Autobiography, he speaks of constantly being hungry. He was also among the founders of The Science School Journal, a magazine that allow him to express his views on literature and society, as well as trying his hand at fiction; a precursor to his novel The Time Machine was published in the journal under the title "The Chronic Argonauts". In 1890 Wells earned a Bachelor of Science degree in zoology from the University of London, in the same year he finds a post as a teacher at Henley School. His first published work was a text-book of Biology in 1893.  Some of his early novels, called "scientific romances", invented several themes now classic in science fiction. He also wrote realistic novels, including Kipps and Tono-Bungay. Wells also wrote dozens of short stories. According to James Gunn, one of Wells' major contributions to the science fiction was his approach, in his opinion the author should always strive to make the story as credible as possible. Wells also wrote nonfiction. Wells first nonfiction bestseller was Anticipations of the Reaction of Mechanical and Scienctific Progress upon Human Life and Thought (1901) When serialised in a magazine it was subtitled, "An Experiment in Prophecy", and is considered his most explicity futuristic work. Anticipating what the world would be like in the year 2000, the book is interesting both for its hits (trains and cars resulting in the dispersion of population from cities to suburbs; moral restrictions declining as men and women seek greater sexual freedom; the defeat of German militarism, and the existence of European Union) and its misses (he did not expect successful aircraft before 1950 and successful submarines) His bestselling two-volume work, The Outline of History (1920) began a new era of popularised world history. Wells reprised his outline work in 1922 with a much shorter popular work, A Short History of the World. Wells also wrote a dystopian novel, When the sleeper Wakes (1899).

                   In celebration of H.G.Wells' 150th birthday, we present the list of movies based on his creation available. He was the author of many extraordinary stories that , even today, inspire people. "Visionary' is not a grand enough word to describe him. Many of his books are shelved in our Teen Classic Collection, because a lot of American educators believe they are must-reads for our youth.I know this, because students come to our libraries looking for these titles at the beginning of every school year. These are great pieces of history in the science-fiction genre, written before the genre even existed. In the end of his life, Wells was a strong social activist.

                     At the beginning of the second world war, H.G.Wells wrote a letter to the newspaper Times attached to a draft "Declaration of Rights". The celebrated author called for a set of written principles to clarify what people were fighting for. His point was that fundamental rights were not just legal entitlements, but a set of values, perhaps the only values powerful enough to inspire and bind a nation. Wells called for a great debate on the issue, and the newspaper Daily Herald obliged. It made a page a day available for a month for a discussion of the articles in the draft declaration. The final version of the Declaration was published in February 1940. The declaration was translated into 30 languages. After some further lobbying, this goal was reflected in the founding charter of the U.N. Wells traced a line between the Magna carta, the 1689 and his own vision of fundamental rights. One hundred and fifty years before Wells' efforts, Tom Paine's booklet, The Rights of Man, had endorsed France's newly Declaration of Rights. First published in 1791, it was a bestseller. Virtually the entire democratic world incorporated human rights treaties into their laws.

                 The importance of H.G.Wells to the development of future studies lied not only in what he wrote, but in his influence on later thinkers. Every field of study, like every nation, has its founding fathers and mothers. Figures of history, they help give the incoming generations a sense of identity. they supply standards by which to measure the performance of new practitioners. Examples spring easily to mind. In modern physics, Galileo and Newton; in economics, Adam Smith and the French physiocrats; in history as an academic discipline, Leopold von Ranke. But who 'founded' the study of the future? The answer is unsurprising, yet not as obvious as perhaps it should be. The founder of future studies was the English novelist and journalist 'par excellence' H.G.Wells. The keystone of Wells' futurism is a volume now more than eighty years old. Usually cited as Anticipations, it was the first comprehensive and widely read survey of future developments. Wells' book represented a peak in human self-awareness. Anticipations ranged widely in its subject matter, from the future of transport to the future of world order. 

             A little over a century ago, H.G.Wells began the sort of literary career that just does not exist today. Bouncing over modern genre boundaries, he produced a vast number of books: sci-fic, fantasy, mystery, feminist fiction, political novels, social comedies, etc. Though his later books tended to be more didactic, the majority of his works still deserve to be ready today. It is his role as the founding father of sci-fic for which he is perhaps best known. Wells was the first to properly explore the ideas and ramifications of most of sci-fic's preocupations: alien invasion, journeys to other planets, time travel, biological manipulation, nuclear war, bio-weapons, totalitarian states, and more. If you like Wells, the writer with whom he is most often compared, Jules Verne, is in fact a very different sort, more interested in fantastic travelogues than in mind-boogling ideas. It is also worth reading the novels of Arthur Conan Doyle, The Lost World, in particular. Wells' social or problem novels could be fairly compared to those of George Gissing, or  Jerome K. But in many ways, Wells has no peers. He did too much too well for any easy comparisons to be made.

Enhancing Youth Employability

                This post is a summary of the book published in 2013 with the incomplete title above at http://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/---edifp_skills/documents/publication/wcms_213452.pdf

                Skills development is essential for increasing and sustainability of interprises, and improving the employability of workers. In order to secure job as well as navigate in the labour market, young women and men need the technical skills to perform specific tasks as well as core work skills. Employability results from several factors - a foundation of core skills, access to education, availability of training opportunities, ability and support to take advantage of continuous learning. Skills have become increasingly important in the globalized world. The employment situation of young people today is characterized specifically by high unemployment and lower quality jobs and difficult transitions into decent work, which combined, contribute to the detachment of the current generation from the labour market altogether. At the same time as the world struggles with unemployment, paradoxically, it is experiencing a skills shortage. Developing core work skills help individuals to understand the labout market, make more informed choices about their options in education, training, and self-employment. They also help them become better citizens and contribute to their communities. Many young people face difficult in finding a job because of the mismatch between their education/training and labour market requirements. Innovation and market developments have turned the world into a fast-changing environment.  The greatest challenge lies in the technology and knowledge intensive sectors that also have the highest potential for economic growth and employment. Core skills for employability underpin one does - at school, at work and at home. We communicate all the time and use ICT more and more each day. Good quality primary and secondary education, complemented by relevant vocational training and skills development opportunities, prepare future generations for their productive lives, endowing them with the core skills that enable them to continue learning. Secondary school is an important channel through which young people acquire skills that improve opportunities for good jobs. High quality secondary education that caters for the widest possible range of abilities and interests is vital to set young people in the path to the world of work as well as to give countries the educated workforce they need to compete in today's tech driven world. Lower secondary school extends and consolidates the basic skills learned in primary school; upper secondary school deepens general education and adds technical and vocational skills. Given the evidence on the success of innovative quality secondary education and training in transmitting core skills for employability, more needs to be done to get young people into secondary education and help them complete it. For many adolescents the education system is not sufficient flexible to adapt to their needs, and the quality of their basic education is insufficient to allow an easy transition; for others, their families can not afford it. This youth skills deficit is being felt all over the world. In developing countries, unskilled young people are being trapped in poverty for life. In order to address this deficit, disadvantaged youth need good quality training in relevant skills at lower secondary school and the upper secondary school curricula should provide a balance between vocational and technical skills. To improve the opportunities for youth to gain access to good jobs, secondary school has to be more inclusive, offering the widest possible range of opportunities in order to meet young people's different abilities, interests and background. The power of ICT to reach and teach the marginalized has the potential to break down some of existing barriers. Multiple and varied strategies are needed to address complex issues affecting learning for all in the developing world. ICT allows learners to learn inside and outside the classroom, in a greater variety of ways and to be creative. This is a different learning culture, featuring: independent learning, learners producing knowledge themselves, more content available in internet, connection to experts and access to resouces globally, access to learning material, more motivation. The key messages are: 1) The best way to acquire core skills for employability is on the job. But many employers are not prepared to take on new recruits without demonstrated ability in these skills. So individuals and education and training systems must do more. 2) Secondary school is an important channel through which young people acquire skills that improve opportunities for good jobs. High quality secondary school and vocational training that caters for the widest possible range of abilities, interests and backgrounds is vital to set young people on the path to the work. 3) Teaching skills requires innovative ways of integrating these skills into core academic content. 4) Given that innovative secondary education and good quality training can trasmit core skills for employability, more needs to be done to improve access, participation and completion at this level. 5) Improving access to, participation in and completion of secondary education is enhanced by a system that: Improves the quality of primary education, makes more relevant to the world of work, offers technical and vocational training, designs an effective flexible curriculum at upper secondary school, uses hands-on learning techniques and modular course design, combines civic and digital education to empower youth to understand the challenges that face their communites and work together to solve them. offers an online programme for specialized technologies, 

Democratic Reform and Injustice in Latin America: The Citizenship Gap Between Law and Society

               This post is a summary of a report with the title above, published  in 2008  at http://blogs.shu.edu/diplomacy/files/archives/07%20Brysk.pdf

                Latin America is a paradoxical world leader. In the twentieth century, Latin America leads in unjust societies that can not fulfill the promise of universal human rights despite elections and theoretical rule of law. The "citizenship gap" between developed formal entitlements and distorted life conditions, including massive personal insecurity. L.A.'s experience demonstrates how the rule of law can be systematically undermined by displacement of power, as well as incomplete democratization of state institutions. The persistence of injustice demonstrates the interdependence of democratic processes in the public sphere. This essay will argue that injustice in L.A. is a problem of democratic deficits in function - despite the democratic structure of elections and institutions. The citizenship gap is not an inherent insufficiency of democracy for addressing social problems, as some populists claim, but rather an insufficient application of democracy to functional arenas. The democratic deficit in L.A. can be understood as a failure in the indivisibility, universality and accountability of human rights. Indivisibility indicates the relationship between civil and social rights, while universality demands the extension of these interconnected rights to all citizens regardless of class or status. Accountability is the duty of the state to provide rights, which correspond to citizens's entitlement to claim rights. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights lays the foundation for the interdependence of civil and political rights with social and economic rights, by including civil and political freedoms alongside fundamental requisites of human dignity. Poverty is interwined with lack of access to social rights such as health care and education. Education, in turn, empowers political participation and is highly correlated with access to justice. The remainder of this essay will discuss the dimensions of the contemporary human rights gap in L.A., and assess some measures taken to address it. The discussion will concentrate on the civil and political rights abuses and show how they are influenced by the lack of state accountability and the denial of social and economic rights. Every year, tens of thousands of Latins Americans are denial fundamental rights to life, liberty, and personal integrity by direct government action, indirect state sponsorship, or systematic negligence. The persistence of political murders and disappearances, torture, abusive detention and widespread social violence are symptoms of an epidemic inconsistent with democracy. Murder and disappearances are committed by paramilitaries and are often targeted at political activists, human rights advocates, and civil society leaders. Persisting human rights violations under democratic governments have been specifically addressed by the establishment of national human rights institutions, The national human rights institutions of Argentina, Bolivia, Ecuador, Honduras, Mexico, and Peru participate in an international network of such bodies linked to the U.N. Office of the High Commissioner on Human Rights, which encourages capacity-building and directs attention to regional themes such as migration, indigenous people, and disability rights. Another way to gauge policy response is to examine the set of measures taken on a high-risk country or issue basis. Brazil is clearly a hot-spot for numerous types of human rights violations, from indentured servitude to abuse of power, thus in 1996, Brazil launched a National Human Rights Plan. With ongoing persecution of human rights advocates, Brazil then introduced a special Program for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders in 2004, but it has lacked sufficient funding and personnel. What can be done to close the citizenship gap in Latin America and to allow democracy to foster freedom from fear? First of all, we must remind ourselves of the ways in which electoral democracy and rule of law do offer new resources for the defense of human rights. Transition to democracy implies the state's hegemony no longer intrinsically requires physical repression and armed conflict ceases. Even partial rule of law provides channels for institutional redorm and opportunities for social mobilization, hence, the distorted version of citizenship in L.A. has historically offered an avenue for the struggles of dispossessed populations. What institutional democracy without full-spectrum rights can not provide is accountability for the relevant forms of power, such as private and unelected coercive state agents. In an era of globalization, L.A. democracy looks like partially liberalized weak states struggling to cope with rising threats to social control.   The mandated democratic institutions of legislatures and judiciaries lack traction over actors outside the state. They also can not control unaccountable praetorians insulated by the Executive due to its dependency on their repressive services. Contemporary social conditions short-circuit the historic cycle of expansion of citizenship rights that accompained the rise of modern capitalist democracy chronicled by T.H.Marshall, and the extension of liberal human rights to new groups and expansion to new domains. The prospects for effective state-sponsored human rights reform along current lines are tenous at best. Like the coalition that transformed Latin America's dictatorship to democracies, it will take a renewed effort from international and civil society to secure the new human rights agenda of social rights, accountability, and the deepening of democracy. State-sponsored reforms will be most effective to the extent they incorporate citizens, other democracies, and regional networkd, and when they tackle the complex marginality of second-class citizenship. Injustice is a problem of power, and speaking law to power is the unfinished business of real democracy in Latin America.               

120th Birthday of Scott Fitzgerald

              A little more than one month ago, precisely on 24th of September, the American writer Scott Fitzgerald would complete 120 years old, so this post is a tribute to him. Like many realistic writers, his novels contributed to become the world less hypocritical. This post is a summary of three articles. The first was published at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/F._Scott_Fitzgerald. The second was published at http://www.ccsenet.org/journal/index.php/ells/article/viewFile/44230/26674. The third was published athttp://www.bookrags.com/essay-2005/10/28/12454/461/#gsc.tab=0

               Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald (1896-1940) known as F. Scott Fitzgerald, was an American novelist and short story writer, whose works illustrate the called Jazz Age. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest Writers of the 20th century. He finished four novels: This Side of Paradise, The Beautiful and Damned, The Great Gatsby (his best known) and Tender is the Night. Fitzgerald also wrote numerous short stories, many of which treat themes of youth and promise, and age and despair. He spent his childhood in Buffalo, NY. His formative years in Buffalo revealed him to be a boy of unnusual intelligence with a keen early interest in literature. After graduating from the Newman High school in 1913, Fitzgerald decided to stay in New Jersey to continue his artistic development at Princeton University. This Side of Paradise, a semi-autobiographical account of Fitzgerald's undergraduate years at Princeton, was published in March of 1920 and became an instant success. It launched his career as a writer and provided a steady income. He married with Zelda Sayre, the daughter of a judge from Alabama and they had their daughter and only child Frances in October of 1921. Like most professional authors at the time, Fitzgerald supplemented his income by writing short stories for magazines, and sold stories and novels to Hollywood studios. Fitzgerald, an alcoholic since university, became notorious during the 1920s for his heavy drinking, undermining his health by the late 1930s. He died of a heart attack in December of 1940 in Hollywood. His work has inspired writers ever since he was first published. The publication of, The Great Gatsby, prompted T.S. Eliot to write, "It seems to me to be the first step that American fiction has taken since Henry James..." Into the 21st century, millions of copies of The Great Gatsby, a constant best-seller, is required reading in many high school and university classes.

             Fitzgerald's style is completely his own and perhaps the most incomparable aspect of his prose. He frequently exploited and became famous for his material rather than because of his technical innovations. This paper tries to investigate the influence of three important literary movements: Realism, Modernism and Existentialism on Fitzgerald's creative works. The realistic elements are obvious in all Fitzgerald's works. He best represented the Roaring Twenties with his evocative works. Many authors after the First World War created a new literature that shattered conservative taboos in their expression of physical and psychological reality. This was the beginning of Modernism. Fitzgerald developed a modernist literature that was connected to American traditions but, what all the modernists shred was a belief in literature's significance in the contemporary world, and the need for it to be repeatedly vital. Like realists, the modernists and naturalists focused on changes on society and used symbolism to attack society's problems. What is significant about this author is the influence of European Existencialism on his works. The Great Gatsby focused on the applicability of Nietzsche's philosophies of modern civilization. Like the existencialists, Fitzgerald recognizes the inadequacy of American democracy in an increasingly commercial and consumer culture and rejects the capitalistic values, and norms prescribed and reinforced through the oppressive political structures of American culture. For Fitzgerald what are at stake are the individual, the inventive spirit, and the life of the nation and they echoes all the way through his works, a sentiment manifest in their portraits of incapable, lost, aimless, and emotionally unfulfilled characters. Fitzgerald was not a purely objective chronicler of the 1920s and 1930s but instead brought a strong moral perspective to his work. His central characters undergo processes of self-assessment, or they judge others, or they are judged by author himself, who constantly measured the behavior of characters against implicit standards of responsibility, honor and courage. In his novels, Fitzgerald revealed not only the fulfillment of the American dream but also the many ways it could be distorted. His most evocative protagonists, among them Jay Gatsby and Dick Diver, share that quality of the idea and willingness of the heart. Although they are frequently disappointed in their quests, it is not finally the dream that fails them but instead something else, some weakness or corruption in themselves or others. In 1940, Fitzgerald wrote in a letter to his daughter: "Life is essentially a cheat and its conditions are those of defeat... the redeeming things are not 'happiness and pleasure' but the deeper satisfactions that come out of struggle." More than any other author of his era, Fitzgerald was conscious about the influence of money on American life and character. As he wrote solemnly about money, ambition, and love, which were undividable in his work, he has been labeled a materialist. Fitzgerald's sense of being excluded from the freedom and opportunities provided by money had been further intensified by his inability to marry Zelda right away because of his failures in New York following his army discharge. Because Fotzgerald's response to wealth was complex, mixing resentment and strong attraction, his fictional treatment of his material is both profound and extensive. Beside, Fitzgerald with his great sense of pattern was trying to find a way through which he could impose order in the chaotic world he was living in. With the book, This Side of Paradise, Fitzgerald became known as a daring writer primarily because of his themes rather than his technical innovations. His questing young men and courageous young women, who challenged conventional standards of behavior, seemed emblematic of the decade of the 1920s. He was not essentially a modernist, as were many of his contemporaries. He avoided the stream of consciousness, technique perfected by James Joyce and Virgina Woolf. He also rejected the style with short declarative sentences and simple diction of Ernest Hemingway. Fitzgerald was above all, a story teller who achieved a close relationship with the reader through the voice of his fiction, which was intimate, warm, and witty. Trilling defined this quality as 'his power of love:' "There is a tone and pitch to the sentences with suggest his warmth and tenderness, and what is rare nowadays and not likely to be admired, his gentleness without softness. He was gifted with satiric eye, yet we feel that his morality, he was more drawn to celebrate the good than to denounce the bad... we perceive that he loved the good not only with his mind but also with his quick senses and his youthful pride and desire." Commentators have given much attention to Symbolism in Fitzgerald's novels, particularly his expansion of color imagery into large symbolic patterns, his persistent drawing upon figures and episodes from American history, and above all, his pervasive concern with time and mutability, or inevitable change. Fitzgerald like other late 19th century realist writers, tried to show the diverse manners, classes and stratification of life in America and he created this picture by combining a broad variety of details derived from surveillance and documentation to approach the norm of his experience. Along with this technique, he compared the objective or absolute existence in America to that of the universal truths, or observed facts of life. as a result, the realistc elements are apparent in all his works. Fitzgerald directed the modernistic renaissance by using realistis and naturalistic techniques. He is considered as a romantic writer, but he combined these qualities with realism, meaning precision of observation and characterization. Moreover, what is noteworthy about this author is the influence of existentialism and the depth of the cultural moments he captures in his art.   

               While it is argued that Fitzgerald emulated Shakespeare in his novel The Great Gatsby through his incorporation of tragic character flaws, his incorporation of existentialist ideals is much more apparent. The character Jay Gatsby embodies three  main principles of existentialism: Gatsby is nonconformist individual combatting absurdity and inhumanity; he created a second life for himself in order to win Daisy's love; and he preserved his separateness as an emblem of his independence.

Dystopian Literature as Social Evolution

             This post is a summary of a literary analysis of dystopian literature with the incomplete title above and was published in 2015 at http://digitalcommons.otterbein.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1026&context=stu_honor

            In popular culture today, the dystopian literature is experiencing a surge in popularity that is infused with a fervent intensity. Since the publication of, The Hunger Games, dystopians novels have become exceptionally popular, spawning a release of blockbuster movies adaptations and new dystopians series. The popularity of these novels shows an interest in rebellion and revolution, ideas that build the core of dystopians fictions as a genre. The novels provide the possibility of social change in truly horrible societies, thus bringing ideas about social change into young consciousness. These pop culture texts have the potential to develop an examination of society through literary analysis. Literature can be used to ask questions about society, and the development of a better society, because of the way it reflects and questions cultural understandings of social justice, literature can interact more concretely with our ability to work for a better society. Rooted in the history of human rights literature and using the Hunger Games' protagonist Katniss Everden as a model of social change evolution. As defined by the Oxford Dictionary, social justice is, "the objective of creating a fair and equal society on which each individual matters, their rights are recognized and protected, and decisions are made in ways that are fair and honest."  The desire for social justice is the desire to live in a world without oppression and inequality, where individuals are able to participate and be valued in a society no matter what identities they hold. Elizabeth S. Goldberg and Alexandra S. Moore's article "Meditation on a Fractured Terrain: Human Rights  and Literature" established the idea a reading practice for human rights that, "can attend to their material and historical context without instrumentalizing the aesthetic in service to those contexts". A social justice reading of literature aims for a similar practice of reading texts with reference to their ability to establish questions of social change. Literary critics argue not only for the important work literature can do, but for the kind of thinking literature can inspire within readers. According to Greg Mullins' essay "Labors of Literature and Human Rights," readers experience sympathetic emotions of empathy and compassion that work on rationality to "build the human capacity to make sound judgments." Readers, from their experience with literature, will become fairer in their understanding of ethical action. James Dawes attributes these sympathetic emotions to shared inner feelings and desires, a concept he attributes strongly to the form of the novel. Characters in novels define the human as an individual, independent being that is defined by inner feelings that humans implicity share. This understanding leads to the conceptions of natural, equal, and universal human rights based on the inner similarity of our emotions. In the past twenty-five years, literary studies has shown an interesting development in its relation to human rights. Literary theorists argue for the potential for literature to relate to and help readers understand contemporary human rights issues. Literature in human rights circles can be used as a tool for developing a deeper understanding of human rights abuses and for healing those who have experienced the violent loss of their human rights. Literary critics are in a prime position to understand the complexity of abuses and teach others how to empathize with this broader human question. Making these types of arguments about the use of literature in differing contexts, literary critics are calling for a social change in the understanding of how literature can be used. Humans have been dreaming of worlds better than their own since early history, this is a universal human desire. Dystopian fiction has played into these desires. Dystopian works by authors like George Orwell, Ray Bradbury, Aldous Huxley and Margaret Atwood connect deeply to cultural and social problems and the warning about what would happen if we did not act to change the world around us. Issues of government surveillance, totalitarianism, and oppressive power structures are common. In their own way, characters in dystopian texts attempts to rebel against the system, whether from a personal rejection of the power structure, or in a way that directly stands up against the structure and creates a new society. In the end, whether or not the character is successful, the individuals questioning of power hope to develop, as the reader can see the potential for change. Dystopian worlds take the impulse towards utopianism and use that world to create a warning about the future. The dystopian world relies on the specific problems of the present to invoke a warning about the future that could develop. The world generally has the appearance of semblance and order, but it soon is revealed that the world contains serious power imbalances, governmental control, or lack of resources. The situation mirrors certain elements of modern society in such a way that the reader can recognize the problem and starts to critically engage with them, resulting in a desire toward change in their own world. Embedded in the sense of warning is an impulse toward hope in the future for our own society. The characters in dystopian texts typically have the ability to attempt to engage with a possible solution for their terrible society. Thus, even if the heroines are unsuccessful, the reader can envision themselves resisting the dystopian society and escaping from a future like the protagonists. Adolescent readers have been exposed to dystopian fiction for years in ways that encompassed both the power imbalances and the rebellion along with elements of adventure and romance. This allowed readers to become a part of those dystopian worlds and live out their own anxieties and lack of power by watching characters launch rebellions against worlds that strived to push them down. The popularity of the texts resonates with readers in a way that shows a desire for change, although the success and failure of the rebellion in these texts takes place in a separate realm. By examining the ways that social change occurs in these texts, the lead protagonists can model instances of activism, showing how an evolution toward social change can occur within a protagonist that can apply to the readers understanding of social change. A major element of adolescent is "adjusting to a worthy way of life" which requires an adolescent to examine values, beliefs, attitudes, and ideas into a coherent structure that will allow them to develop their own understanding of the world that reflect their own priorities while "accepting standards and values of his society". Literature can clearly serve as an experimental zone in this process of discovery. Literature has the potential to be responsible for developing an understanding of politics and society in a way that has readers exploring social change more in depth. Current dystopian novels provide a phetora of examples of characters that rebel against their oppression in a way that creates a social change. The protagonist of Hunger Games is an interesting subject of examination, because she has a dramatic evolution in her relationship to social change. The evolution of Katniss' relationship to social change models a way for adolescent readers to begin to understand the process of developing social change movements that can allow them to think about their own activism. The massive popularity of the novels suggest an interest in exploring rebellion further in terms of creating change in the world. Katniss acts as a canonical model of how an individual can inspire a change in the world through a personal evolution. Divergent series stars is another strong, defiant female protagonist, but Tris begins the novel already having experienced her own evolution in understand that she can question the power structure and cause a revolution against injustice. The potential to inspire people toward acts of social change is not insignificant, as within days of the writing of this paper, students in Bangkok protested a military coup using the three-fingered salute and were arrested for the use of that symbol. The potential for change is apparent, but the connection of the novel as an example of a broader change of social justice literature could use texts as models of social justice in the broader culture. By critiquing and understanding the movements more deeply, protagonists like Katniss have the potential to inspire the next generation to accomplish more instances of social change.

Effect of Gangsterism

                Few months ago, the media (including internet) talked a lot about the culture of rape, but there is a culture that need to be even more talked. It is the culture of gangsterism. In Brazil there is little study about this evil. We have to fight against the danger of this culture spreading, causing the inversion of values and the dehumanization of the persons. The pride of bad actions, the cult of violence, the contempt for education, for hard work and for human rights, the bullying, the indifference to the victims and their suffering are some of the characteristics of this culture.  This post is a summary of three articles. The first with the title above, was published at http://studymoose.com/effect-of-gangsterism-essay. The second was published at      http://www.ngcrc.com/journalofgangresearch/jour.v18n1.cureton.ms.pdf. The third was published at ot.com.br/2010/06/factor-of-gangsterism-and-how-to     

                Gangsterism is a social phenomenon that occurs widely among the youth. With the rapid rise of this problem, gangsterism have much negative impact on individuals, families, and communities. In term of individual, student who involves themselves with gangsterism will face bad consequences in their future. Most probably they will be detained. this will also affect their life as they will be unable to perform their study in higher level, they will waste their precious life in prison. In communities where gang activity dictates normal living, there are very few signs of progressive life or development. Gangsterism of all levels and types usually has a negative effect on society. The researchers Middleton-Moz and Zawadski (2002) argue that our own lack of awareness often causes us to be both deaf and blind to the pain experienced by many persons and, as a result, many persons too often become the prisoners of their sadness and depression, seeing little possibility for change and no way out. Therefore, it show that our own lack of concern over what had happened make the matter of gangsterism getting worst until the victim of gangsterism are being abuse physically and emotionally. Society is no longer feeling peace and harmony in the country which they had resided. they can not move out freely as they are afraid of those gangster and worried about their safety. Crime does not merely victimise individuals, it impedes and, in extreme cases, even prevents the formation and maintenance of community. By disrupting the delicate nexus of ties, formal and informal, by which we are linked with our neighbours, crimes atomises society and makes of its members mere individuals calculators, estimating their own and only advantage.                                                                                                                                      While in Los Angeles, California conducting research on Crips gang, I watched the interview with professional football player, actor and grass roots activist, Jim Brown. The conversation turned to Mr.Brown's efforts to address the social ills of gangsterism through his "Amer-I-can" organization. Jim Brown suggested that the culture of gangsterism is destructive for scores of alienated urban males. Jim Brown was critical on efforts to help poor cope with gangsterism. Jim Brown criticism seemed similar to those made by Franklin Fraser. This is Mr.Brown's criticism in that many people are perhaps so detached from the realities of residents of the ghetto that are not in a position to effectively address the social realities of the poor. To this end, this article represents a renewed investment of attention on gangsterism with the intent to reengage sociologists, criminologists, behaviorists about the most damaging subculture affecting poor urban. The reality is that gangs and the subculture of gangsterism are deeply rooted in many socially depressed communities in many cities. The root cause of this subculture are inadequate economic support, poor protection from physical attack, few opportunities, low chances of succeeding in conventional institutions, or even denial of the autonomy. The explanations from the specialists all emphasize that gangs can not arise as solutions to these problems. In the struggle for dignified humanity, grass roots activism has provided some examples of how to improve the condition of the poor. In order to effectively address the murderous, criminogenic components of gangsterism. The family is critical to the social, moral and physical development of the child and of the teenager. The mother is the agent of reassurance, confidence and essentially primary in instilling compassion and sensitivity in children. The father is the epitome of masculine performances, instrumental success and stabilizes the household. Whenever economic and household dynamics and social processes becomes dysfunctional children are like to have stresses and strains resulting frustation, anger and irritation. These traits certainly do not lend themselves to conventional choices particularly in gang lands. Tookie's words highlight the importance of the family. The breakdown of the family, the absence of father, the disposition of a mother. Masculinity is more achieved than ascribed, there will be notable differences in the behaviors that ghetto confined boys participate in because they are attempting to become men in environments where gangs are dominant and are the most powerful socializing agent in the community. Following this logic, urban poor males actively participate in criminogenic behaviors in an effort to seize and maintain gang reputation manhood. Young males, who turn to the streets to negotiate and maintain a manly identity can easily be manipulated to voluntarily fight, rob, shoot and sell drugs in the name of the gang, and perhaps in the name of gangsterism in general. According to researches, joining a gang is heavily influenced by the absence of fathers in homes. Having a father or positive male role model is important. The critical question driving this article has been, "what are we failing to communicate about gangsterism?" Attempts to fully address the significant idiosyncratic nuances of gangsterism would be problematic, particularly if the interpreter or researcher had no experienced the everyday routine activities of residency in a gangland. In the end, gangland confined young males do listen to words of wisdom and warning about the gang. However, diverting that gravitation towards gangsterism is more difficult in the absence of resources that improve life chances. Gangsterism remains an attractive alternative partly because mainstream has been an oppressive regulatory legal machine, a distant sympathizer, a limited helper, and often self-appointed gang experts who are on the outside looking in. Hence the solution to the problem of obtaining a true vision of gangsterism may very well be that more persons who have knowledge of the subculture will have to become scholars.

               Nowadays, there are daily ocurrence of gangsterism and bullying in many places. Gangsterism and bullying is an act of opressing others to show one's superiority and strength. Due to this, the crime rate involving youth has increased tremendously. The youth can not concentrate on their studies and they began to lose trust and respect from society. We must prevent the problem of gangsterism from spreading. One of the preventive measures is we should give counseling sessions to the youth. We should also inculcate good moral values in the youth. They should be taught on how to respect others regardless of the race, physical appearance or socio-economic background. Awareness campaigns should be organized to make youth better individuals. The final way to prevent gangsterism in the youth is through strict enforcement by the authorities. In conclusion, gangsterism are the main problems faced by today's youth. The effects are bad. The society has to work hand-in hand to help the government combat these problems.

               

         

What Makes a Good Politician? Part II

               The post of this week is another text about politicians. We have to know how to choose well who will govern our city or our country, because after, our regret will be costly for us and for our children. The people must take care at the election time, but after as well, following the elected and demanding a productive and good job. This post is a summary of four articles. The first was published at   https://siyli.org/what-is-leadership-what-makes-good-leader/. The second was published in August of 2016 at          http://www.governing.com/gov-institute/funkhouser/gov-depression-politics.html, The third was published in October of 2015 at https://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2015/10/23/why-the-victims-of-personal-tragedy-often-make-better-politicians/?utm_term=.1af83137ae41. The fourth was published at ttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Politician

                There are many definitions of leadership. One great definition is: "Leadership is the art of leading other to deliberately create a result that would not happened otherwise." It is not just the creation of results that makes good leadership. Good leaders are able to deliberately create challenging results by enlisting the help of others. What makes a good leader? Here are some of their most important characteristics: 1) Self-Awareness - You have an intimate knowledge of your inner emotional state. You know yourself, including your capabilities and your limitations, which allows you to push yourself to your maximum potential. 2) Self-Direction - You are able to direct yourself effectively and powerfully. You know how to get things done, how to organize tasks and how to avoid procrastination. You know how to generate energy for projects. You can make decisions quickly when necessary, but can also slow to consider all the options on the table. 3) Vision - You're working towards a goal that is greater than yourself. 4) Ability to Motivate - Leaders do not lead by telling people what they have to do. Instead, leaders cause people to want help them. A key part of this is cultivating your own desire to help others. When others sense that you want to help them, they in turn want to help you. 5) Social Awareness - Understanding social nerworks and key influencers in that social network is another key part of leadership. 6) Emotional Intelligence -  Leaders with high E.I. are intrinsically more self-aware. They understand their mental processes and know how to direct themselves. They naturally care more for other and receive more compassion in return.

                 The social stigma of depression has increased over the last several decades. Abraham Lincoln had many crises in his life, in fact his chronic depression was widely recognized. He took no pains to hide his moods. He viewed his condition, as Joshua Wolf wrote in his book, "Lincoln's Melancholy: How Depression Challenged a President and Fueled his Greatness." as part of the natural world, to be studied, understood, and when possible, managed. I have never read that Lincoln's enemies saw his depression as a weakness to be exploited. But somewhere along the way that changed. Depression have been stigmatized and hidden away, especially by those who aspire to positions of leadership. The irony of all this is that an argument can be made that, as Joshua and others believe was true for Lincoln, being depressed can actually make you a better leader. These concurrent crises are complex, but there are at least two things a politician can do. First, recognized the need to build opportunities for people to connect with one another and develop a sense of community and cohesion. Second, lead the way in destigmatizing depression.

                Ken Mehlman, who managed George Bush's 2004 reelection campaign, once observed that voters size up presidential candidates based not on their policy prescriptions but in terms of their characters and "attributes." The attribute I am referring to is, for lack of a better term, personal suffering, or the politics of grief. Grief matters in politics, and not because it makes a candidate more effective. Grief matters because it can serve as the source of public empathy and political authenticity, counteracting and becoming a tonic for much of the cynism that continue to corrode politics. Personal grief has defined and shaped the approach to public affairs of some of our most iconic politicians, including president Franklin D. Roosevelt, senator Robert Kennedy and presidents Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton. The grief politicians experienced often became source of fuel for their work ethic and public achievements. It is hardly armchair psychoanalysis to assert a link between politicians' enduring private pains and righting wrongs in the public arena as a way to compensate for such pain. The pattern has deep roots in our politics. Former three-term N.Y. mayor Fiorello La Guardia lost his infant daughter and his first wife to tuberculosis in 1921, and the adversity lent his politics a fierce focus. In addition, their deaths, caused by a disease typically spread in the city's tenements, crystallized for him the distinction between the wealthy with access to sanitation and those forced to live on the margins, more susceptible to the diseases and poverty's hazards. His suffering helped make him a authentic politician. La Guardia became a workaholic and a champion of underprivileged New Yorkers. His private grief formed his capacity to empathize with ordinary citizens' hardships. Two of his contenporaries, Eleanor and Franklin D. Roosevelt, similarly found their public calling partly as a direct result of their personal suffering. As a young girl, Eleanor lost her parents, including one to alcoholism. As a young married couple in 1909, the Roosevelts lost their newborn son with a heart condition to influenza. Eleanor described her very public work as the best antidote she knew for her private grief, and her pain deepened her already capacious symphathy for others' plight. In 1921, Franklin D. Rooselvelt contracted polio and began using a wheelchair, giving this leader an uncanny ability to grasp and articulate the pain felt by millions of citizens amid the broader suffering inflicted by the Great Depression. Personal tragedies enable much of the public to regard their leaders, who have suffered so, as vulnerable, ordinary people with uncommon reservoirs of resiliency and humanity. Ronald Reagan's alcoholic father, as Reagan suggested in his memoirs, was somebody he felt impelled to help, a parable of a citizen who aids those in their hour of need. Similarly, Clinton reflected that his father's death in a car accident powered his political ambitions, framing his life's work. Losing his father made the president feel "that I had to live for two people" and that his future achievements "somehow could make up for the life he should have had." There is no way to quantify or compare suffering among various politicians. And just because a political leader suffers does not magically transform him or her into an authentic, more empathic tribune for the hopes and setbacks experienced by millions of ordinary citizens. Yet, looking at the 2016 field, it is hard not to notice that few of our political leaders have suffered as much as the vice president Joe Biden has. Most have lived charmed lives. The media's interest on his candidacy, rest upon a sense that he was unusually well-qualified to grasp ordinary people's fears, hardships and daily struggles.

                A politician is a person active in politics. In democratic countries, politicians seek elective positions within a government through elections or, at times, temporary appointment to replace politicians who have died, resigned or have been removed from office. Politicians propose, support and create laws or policies that govern the land and, by extension, its people. Broadly speaking, a politician can be anyone who seeks to achieve political power in any bureacratic institution. Numerous scholars have studied the characteristics of politicians, comparing those at the local and national levels, and comparing the more liberal or the more conservative ones, and comparing the more successful and less successful in terms of elections. In recent years, special attention has focused on the distinctive career path of women politicians. Many critics attacks politicians for being out of touch with the public. Areas of friction include the manner in which politicians speak, which has been described as being overly formal and filled with many euphemistic and metaphorical expressions and commonly perceived as an attempt to "obscure, mislead, and confuse". 

                

What Makes a Good Politician?

               Next 2nd of October there will be election. The future of our city and our country depend on who will be chosen. In this decade of activism I have been trying educate the people about important issues for us citizens, issues to improve our democracy, our citizenship, our development, our lives, so I hope everybody are prepared to make good choices. This post is a summary of four articles. The first with the title above was published at http://centeroncongress.org/what-makes-good-politician. The second was published at http://www.beliefnet.com/inspiration/galleries/top-5-qualities-of-good-political-leaders.aspx. The third was published at http://www.leadershipexpert.co.uk/political-leader.html. The fourth was published at http://www.pinoyguyguide.com/2010/05/choosing-the-right-candidate-for-the-elections.html

               Members of Congress play a central role in our lives. They shape our health-care system, make crucial decisions about the economy, and represent the hopes and interest of every citizen in the capital. Given this fact, I am always surprised that little attention is focused on examining closely whether someone serving in or running for Congress or City Council has the personal attributes it takes to be an effective member of the institutions. If someone's behavior is shady or unsavory, that will make the news, But the qualities and skills that set good politicians apart should draw more notice. Chief among those qualities is honesty. The public may believe that politics is a dirty business, but effective members of Congress must be trustworthy. They understand that to work     together over the years, they must level with their colleagues. The same is true in their dealings with citizens. The best politicians also sustain an unusually high energy level and an ability to focus on the task at hand. They tend to have few hobbies, for the simple reason that public office is all-consuming. Most good politicians are also ambitious, on fire with the wish to make something of themselves, and though many see this in personal terms, it usually means policy ambitious as well. They want to have a hand in contributing to the success of the nation and in finding ways of making life better for the people they represent. They also understand the limits of their power, both what a legislator can realistic accomplish, and the fact that legislators might react to events but rarely can control them. This ability to keep oneself in perspective is crucial to a politician. After years in office, it is tempting to think of a legislative seat as an entitlement, as something held by right. It is not. Good politicians understand that. They are good comunicators who genuinely like all kinds of people and are confortarble talking in all kinds of environments. They are accessible to the grand and the humble alike. They are sensitive to the mood in a room, know how to read an audience, and are quickly ro respond. They are open to other points of view. And perhaps most important, they understand that politics involves give and take, and the ability to find common ground. A good politician listen very carefully to those on the other side, not only to learn their arguments,. This is why politics puts a premiun on resourcefulness and intelligence, and tends, over time, to discourage ideological blinkers. Finally, they never forget where they are from and fight hard not to succumb to power fever. They remain loyal to their constituents, and have an abiding faith in the decency, intelligence and patriotism of the voters.

                What are the qualities or characteristics good political leaders should possess? Here are the top 5 characteristics of some of the world's most successful political leaders. 1) HONESTY - Being honesty can sometimes be difficult because it makes individuals vulnerable. Honesty develops character and builds credibility and trust, which are the foundation to evoke confidence and respect from those around you. 2) COMPASSION - Compassion is the humane quality of understanding the suffering of others and wanting to do something to alleviate that suffering. Good leaders use compassion to see the needs and to determine the course of action that would be of greatest benefit to all those involved. 3) INTEGRITY - The word integrity is defined as 'the adherence to moral and ethical principles. It is a synonym for honesty and uprightness, and a vital characteristic for those in political leadership. 4) CONFIDENCE - Having confidence in a political leader is about havinf faith or belief that he will act in a proper, or effective way. Leaders who possess this quality inspire others, drawing on a level of trust which sparks the motivation to get others on board and get the job done. 5) FLEXIBILITY - Good politicians listen to all sides, to not only hear their arguments but to lratn what it all parties involved to reach consensus. This also allows politicians to recognize setbacks and criticism, to learn from them and move forward.

                  Political leaders are vitally important, through the authority of government, they assess the distribution of power and resources, build relationships with other stakeholders and make decisions that can have great impact on the well-being of a nation and its people. Leadership in the political framework require a focus on the long-term good of a country, above ahead of any personal short-term gains. Leadership in a political framework require also 'statesmanship', as opposed to just being a 'politician', this mean having the integrity and willingness to stand up for what is right. So, a good political leader is: 1) Someone who serves as an example of integrity and loyalty to the people they represent. 2) Someone with good communications skills and inter-personal skills, who can work with a range of other people, regardless of political party or opinion. 3) Someone who can resist the various temptations and lures of the political arena. 4) Someone of strong character, with both conscience and charisma. 5) Someone willing to listen to the needs of the common people and represent them faithfully. 6) Someone with the courage to stand up and say what needs to be said. Accountability is crucial to effective political leadership, as without this, there will be not respect. A good politician is someone who will be honest and responsible. They will focus their energy and time on representing the people rather than spending all the time "covering their backs" and critising others.

                  In my opinion there are some characteristics of a good or an ideal leader. They are: 1) Has proven track record of accomplishments - Remember that being a politician is also a job, we nned to find out if the person we are voting for is fit to become a leader of our country or city. Does he/she have enough experience? What he/she done so far? We should be diligent enough to find out the personal background of each candidate. 2) Is honest - I am tired of hearing of vote-buying and all those cheating. We need honest leaders. 3) Is not corrupt - We need to spare our country from the humiliation that we are facing globally regarding corrupt leaders. 4) Can represent our country to the world - We need a leader who knows how to converse intelligently. We need a leader who can carry himself well and can stand up like he is implicitly saying "I am Brazilian and proud". We need someone who can uplift the Brazilian image to other countries. 5) Can not be manipulated - No matter how honest a leader is, it will all go to waste when he can easily be manipulated and influenced by people close to him. Vote for someone who can stand up for his own decisions. 6) Has genuine passion to serve - All politicians are there to serve. They are there to uplift the condition of the people and to do what is best for their fellow countrymen. Choose a leader who has been serving already before he has even begun his political career. 7) Has a strong desire to make our country or our city a better place - It is true that many nations have already surpassed Brazil. Many nations have prospered and let us behind. I want a leader who has a strong desire to improve our nation especially in terms of education, infrastructure, poverty, employment, economy, science, technology, health-care and even sports.

Horror Worlds

            This post is a summary of three articles. The first was published with the title above in 2010 at http://www.economist.com/node/17388328. The second was published at ww.scu.edu/ethics/focus-areas/internet-ethics/resources/why-we-care-about-privacy/. The third was published at http://www.salon.com/2012/08/05/privacy_why_it_matters_much_more_than_you_think/

            The concern that technology will slowly but surely undermine human freedom is shared by quite a few mainstream thinkers. As this special report has argued, smart systems will improve efficiency. Yet if those systems seriously impinge on people's freedom, many people will balk. The protests against smart meters in Bakerfield and elsewhere may be only the start. Smart systems are rekindling old fears. Top of the list are loss of privacy and goverment surveillance. Internet users have only recently begun to realise that every single thing they do online leaves a digital trace. With smart systems the same thing will increasingly apply to the offline world, Google's Street View is only the beginning. Even the defenders of a smarter planet admit as much. "Some citizens have expressed discomfort at living in not a safer society, but in a 'surveillance society'," said Sam Palmisano, the boss of IBM, in a speech earlier this year. He cited a newspaper article recounting that there are now 32 closed-circuit cameras within 200 yards of the London flat in which George Orwell wrote his book "1984". Mr. Palmisano would be in the wrong job, however, he had not gone on to say that such concerns have to be rethought and to stress the economic and social benefits of smart systems. On the other hand smart systems are also undeniably useful as an instrument of control. Singapore has made an impressive job smartening up its physical infrastructure, but its network of security cameras could also be used for enforcing rules more objectionable than a ban on chewing gum. Similarly, the operations centres for local governments in China being built by Cisco, IBM and others beg the question whether their only purpose is to make these cities smarter. Other deep fears brought on by smart systems is that machines could be hacked, spin out of control and even take over the world, as they did in the film "The Matrix".  And there is a more subtle danger too: that people will come to rely too much on smart systems, Because humans can not cope with the huge amounts of data produced by machines, the machines themselves will increasingly make the decisions, cautions Frank Schirrmacher of the German daily in his recent book. A further worry is that smart technology will ultimately lead to greater inequality. Paul Saffo, a noted Silicon Valley technology forecaster, expects ubiquitous sensors to give a huge boost to productivity, at the expense of human monitors. "We are likely to see more jobless recoveries," he says. Whether computers will indeed to eliminate more jobs than they create remains to be seen. But smart systems certainly represent a conceptual change. So far IT has been used to automate and optimise processes within firms and other organizations as well as the dealings between them. Still, technology progress is not some force of nature that can not be guided. "We can and we should exercise control, by democratic consensus, " says Mr. Gelernter. Yet for a consensus to be reached, there must be openness. The biggest risk is that smart systems becomes black boxes, closed even to citizens who have skills to understand them. Smart systems will make the world more transparent only if they themselves are transparent.

              Privacy is important for a number of reasons. People can be harmed or debilitated if there is no restriction on the public's access to and use of personal information. Other reasons are more fundamental, touching the essence of human personhood. Reverence for the human person as an end in itself and as an autonomous being requires respect for personal privacy. To lose control of one's personal information is in some measure to lose control of one's life and one's dignity. There are many ways a person can be harmed by the revelation of sensitive personal information. Medical records, interviews, financial records, welfare records, sites visited on the internet and a variety of other sources hold many intimate details of a person's life. The revelation of such informaton can leave the subjects vulnerable to many abuses. The information can be misused, or even used for malicious purposes. The insensitive behavior of others can cause the person serious distress and embarrassment. Privacy protection is necessary to safeguard against abuses. Privacy is also needed in the ordinary conduct of human affairs, to facilitate social interchange. Privacy is an essential prerequisite for forming relationships. The degree of intimacy in a relationship is determined in part by how much personal information is revealed. What one tells one's spouse is quite different from what one would discuss with one's employer. If they were always under observation, they could not enjoy the degree of intimacy that a marriage should have. Charles Fried puts it more broadly. Privacy, he writes, is "necessary to relations of the most fundamental sort: respect, love, friendship and trust...without privacy they are simply inconceivable." The analysis suggest a deeper and more fundamental issue: personal freedom. As Deborah Johnson has observed, "To recognize an individual as an autonomous being, an end in himself, entails letting that individual live his life as he chooses. Of course, there are limits to this, but one of the critical ways that an individual controls his life is by choosing with whom he will have relationships and what kind of relationships these will be. Information mediates relationships. Thus when one can not control who has information about one, one loses considerable autonomy". Even if the person never found out about their prying, the person has lost some of his freedom. The person did not want them to have access to his personal life, but they seized it anyway. Autonomy is part of the broader issue of human dignity, that is, the obligation to treat people not merely as means, to be bought and sold and used, but as valuable and worthy of respect in themselves. Personal information is an extension of the person. To have access to that information is to have access to the person in a particularly intimate way. When some person information is taken and sold, it is as if some part of the person has been alienated and turned into a commodity. In that way the person is treated merely as a thing, a means to be used for some other end. Privacy is even more necessary as a safeguard of freedom in the relationships between individuals and groups. Surveillance is powerful instrument of social control. Under these circumstances they findd it better simply to conform. This is the situation characterized in George Orwell's book 1984, where the pervasive surveillance of "Big Brother" was enough to keep most citizens under rigid control. The ability to develop one's unique individuality is especially important in a democracy, which values and depends on creativity, noncorformism and the free interchange of diverse ideas. That is where a democracy gets its vitality. Just as a social balance favoring surveillance over privacy is a functional necessity for totalitarian systems, so a balance that ensures strong citadels of individual privacy and limits surveillance is a prerequisite for democratic societies. Even apparently harmless gossip, when widely and persistently circulated, is potent for evil. It belittles by inverting the relative importance of things, thus dwarfing the thoughts and aspirations of a people. When personal gossip attains the dignity of print, and crowds the space available for matters of real interest to the community, what wonder that the ignorant and thoughtless mistake its relative importance. Triviality destroy at once robustness of thought and delicacy of feeling. No enthusiasm can flourish, no generous impulse can survive under its blighting influence. For Warren, privacy was a means of protecting the freedom of the virtuous to maintain their values against the corrupting influence of the mass media that catered to people's basest instincts. Although the degrading effect of the mass media is still a problem, there is another serious threat to freedom comes from governments and other large institutions.  For example, Ignazio Silone, in his book Bread and Wine, described the use of surveillance in Fascist Italy in this way: On this degradation of man into a frightened animal, who quivers with fear and hates his neighbor in his fear, and watches him, betrays him, sells him, and then lives in fear of discovery, the dictatorship is based. The real organization on which the system in this country is based is the secret manipulation of fear. While totalitarian regimes may not seem as powerful or as sinister as they did 50 years ago, surveillance is still used in many places as an instrument of oppression. When we speak of privacy, particularly as a right, we focus on the individual. The individual must be shielded from the prying curiosity of others and from discrimination. The individual's autonomy and control over his or her person must be preserved. The individual must be protected from intimidation and coercion. 

               The greatest threat to privacy is a pervasive, shrugging indifference. Many (though not all) citizens are willing to give up a certain amount of their personal information to obtain credit cards, rent movies, post phootos and look at web pages. After all, if you are not doing anything wrong, what do you have to hide? Garret Keizer's book "Privacy" encourages its readers to reframe how they think of privacy before it is too late. Read it to jolt your imagination into new territory, and to understand why the privacy that many of us sacrifice so readily ought to be held more dear. Keizer aims to show that privacy, and respect for privacy, are core humanist values that should be enshrined in the heart of any society aspiring to social justice. He argues this against two distinct points of view that treat privacy as unimportant. The first, and by far the most common regards privacy as a relatively minor right that can  and often should cede in favor of commerce or security. But there is another type of skepticism towards privacy rights, who dismiss it as a bourgeoise concern. There is an abundance of thought in  the book "Privacy". Keizer has a way of turning lazy notions inside out to exhibit their fallacies. To the tech moguls who seems to think we ought to blithely hand over our personal information, he retorts, "were privacy not a good thing, the wealthier among us would not enjoy more of it than the less wealthy do." Mark Zuckerberg does not live in a fishbowl. Keizer's observations on the embattled privacy of the poor, the distinctions between privacy and loneliness and the essential link between the degradation of life and disrespect for the sanctuary of private life will serve readers of all political flavors. I am convinced by Keizer's argument that a society that does not value our personal privacy can not plausibly claim to value our humanity. This may be a far bigger conundrum than one book can solve, but "Privacy" is a step in the right direction.

The Importance of Dystopian Literature

          This post is a little class about dystopian literature. I know very well what it is, and I hope all the readers of my blog can understand more about this evil. In order to value more democracy, human rights, an independent judiciary(justice), and solidarity, we have to know what must be avoided. Unpunished human rights violation, a dysfunctional democracy, the people afraid and a corrupt government is the first step to become a dystopia.   This post is a summary of three articles, The first with the title above, was published in May of 2015 at http://emertainmentmonthly.com/index.php/the-importance-of-dystopian-literature. The second was published at https://deegarretson.wordpress.com/2012/01/16/why-ya-dystopian-fiction-is-important/. The third was published in 2014 at http://scholarworks.wmich.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=3460&context=honors_theses

            The recent surge of dystopian literature that has gained massive attention and reeled in huge profits at the box office has also brought many crucial issues and ideas to the forefront of the media. For one point, dystopian literature like The Hunger Games and Divergent have given young women their own place to be action stars and to save the world, where very few question their gender, and instead focus on their determination and strength. Dystopian literature has helped to also highlight many social ills that society can use as red flags to determine if the power system has gone too far. Things such as declaring love a disease, where people are "cured" to prevent them from acting on passion, as in Delirium trilogy, or the brutality of sending children into an arena to fight to the death as in The Hunger Games, are very clearly wrong, and the government overstepping their boundaries. Readers immediately recognize that doing such things are clear infringements on human rights. While the issues commonly found in dystopia shed light on the horrors of the denial of basic human rights, the fascination that comes from consuming these forms of media raises a drastic problem. The Hunger Games franchise has made millions of dollars, and it has also spawned a very problematic culture, where consumers can find dolls of heroes like Katniss and Peeta, and make up by the label of "Capital Couture," based off the very institution within Panen that sends children to die in the first place. Readers and viewers are often looking at these dystopian societies and thinking, "This could never happen in real life", but the unfortunate truth is that it already is. On a smaller scale, particularly to minority groups, these infringements on civil rights are already happening every day, and unfortunately, one does not have to look much further to see that. Among the dystopia genre, a very large portion of the young leading rebellions and fighting oppression are ladies. They fight with bravery and determination, and readers sympathize with them and understand that they are being deprived of their basic human rights. But it raises the question: is dystopia what we get when the struggles and oppression faced by minority groups happen to people of all genders, races, backgound, and orientations? The dystopia genre has provided an incredible platform for young girls to finally picture themselves as the heroes, to take down oppressive governments, to stand up for what they believe, and make a difference, which was a much needed change. As reader take in the words on the page and viewers on the screen and both are horrified by the atrocities being committed, it should also be a cue to look at their own world and recognize when the same atrocities are happening on a smaller scale. The enjoyment and thrill that readers get from reading about these adventures does come at an expense, and the expense that some of these events are happening already, right under their noses. While these books serve as a warning and a view of what the world could become, they should also be opening eyes, and opening them wide enough to see what is happening right now. 

              Some of the most memorable books I read as a teen were dystopian stories, what were categorized most often as science fiction back when I was reading them. I have been fascinated to see the rise in popularity of dystopian fiction in recent years. My conflicted feelings about dystopians, and the change in how I read them made me wonder what exactly it is about them that pulls people in. Clearly, the intensity of the emotion is one reason, and with so many good stories, the feeling of wondering how you, the reader, would feel and act if you were in those situations. Dystopians are important beyond the story though, because outside of getting drawn into fascinating and unique situations, these types of books show that the world as we know it is not the only possibility. These stories raise the questions of "what if?" what if a science experiment had gone wrong? What if a disease that could not be controlled? What if a crazy person had come to power and others had not tried to fight him? What if we let only a few dictate the rules of society? While no one is purposefully reading dystopians for the lessons they can teach, they can make readers aware that paying attention to how society functions is important. They can show us that we can not assume the future will follow a perfect path, and we maybe be able to influence a part of it in what we choose to do with our lives, in how involved we get in the political process, in how we raise our children, or in what we study and pursue as a career. All in all, they expand the bubble each of us live in to see the greater world beyond us. And that is a good thing. I want my own children to read these books. If you are looking for some classic dystopian books to read to see what came before the current dystopia trend, here is a list of a few possibilities: 1) Brave New World by Aldous Haxley. 2) Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell. 3) Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury. 4) On the Beach by Nevil Shute. 5) Earth Abides by George Stewart. 

                 Dystopian literature is a trend, after Suzanne Collins's The Hunger Games, dystopian literature has become the forefront of teen reading, especially with the adapted film versions of the trilogy. Citizens in a dystopian world have to deal with "harshly repressive societies" that constrict any free thought or individuality. A dystopia is usually a future world that extends and distorts modern day issues into a dehumanized state in which controls have been forced upon society and its inhabitants through social and physical limitations that restrict many aspects of life. The influence of Collins' trilogy has created a desire within teens to start picking up more dystopian texts and find connections and solutions within their own lives, which is one of the genre's main purposes. Dystopian literature is didactic in nature in a sense that the "first-person narration, engaging dialoguue, or even diary entries imparting accessible messages" not only draws readers in but also encourages them to think critically about injustices in their communities  and in the world at large. In every successful dystopian novel, readers can count on encountering one or more of these major commonalities: 1) individuals in charge with absolute power. 2) a strong protagonist who has been shaped by his or her current situation. 3) a dismal conclusion that leaves the reader feeling slightly uneasy. Whether it is the government, a police force, or overbearing rules imposed on the society, the oppressive force, which also can be the society itself, is so strong that most people living in the given story have lost the ability to think for themselves. Another common trend within dystopian literature is the conformity that almost completely erases any trace of individual thoughts or behaviors. The lack of individual thinking stems from the dystopian society's "embrace their uniformity out of a fear that diversity breeds conflict". The oppressive powers within the dystopia posit the fact that if everyone is in consent and there is no contention with one another, then no problems will occur. Conformity in dystopia is used to show the effects that ensue when the government has pushed the boundary between unity and blindly obeying without question or concern. While conformity traps individuals's right to expression, there is also enslavement and silencing. Mind control, economic constraint, and emotional restrictions depict societies that dehumanize the citizens, creating a sense of need that keeps the inhabitants perpetually in debt. Dystopian genre has been on the rise, understanding the genre and what the trends imply for readers is important.