The Benefits of Online Activism

                   This post is a summary of two articles. The first was published with the title above at  https://storify.com/Amberlin23/the-benefits-of-online-activism. The second article was published in January of 2017 at  http://www.unpan.org/Regions/AsiaPacific/PublicAdministrationNews/tabid/115/mctl/ArticleView/ModuleId/1467/articleId/53060

           In the past decade, the merits and faults of online activism have been debated among digital media scholars. Some of these scholars believe that net-activism is making it easier than ever to make your voice heard, and therefore increases democracy. Others claim that the internet decreases what they consider to be real-world activism. Essentially, some people believe that online activism will lead to a more active and complete democracy.  This essay will focus on the progressive activist site MoveOn.org to argue that the internet provides an opportunity for increased participation in the democratic process and complements rather than replaces traditional means of political activism.In his article "Small Change: Why the Revolution Will not Be Tweeted," Malcolm Gladwell claims that, as a society, we have forgotten what it means to be an activist. Gladwell does not appear to buy the assertion that online activists are activists. Gladwell seems to think that social media activism rarely leads to high-risk activism and that only high-risk activism can lead to meaningful change. There are two powerful critiques of Gladwell's argument. Depending on the situation, internet activists can be high-risk activists. For example, in an authoritarian state, an internet activist can be involved in high-risk activism. Even in the U.S. internet activists can be considered high-risk activists. Take the case of Aaron Swartz, at just 26 years old Aaron was being made an example of by federal prosecutors after his conviction that information should be free led him to release scholarly articles from JSTOR's database. Facing up to 35 years in prison and up to $1 million in fines, Aaron hanged himself in his apartment in Brooklyn. Certainly online activism can be considered high-risk activism. The second critique to Gladwell's article is the fact that low-risk activism can in fact lead to meaningful change. In his argument, Gladwell calims that the members of the Facebook page for the Save Darfur Coalition have donated, on average, nine cents each. However with over a million members, they have raised over $115,000 which should be considered meaningful. Furthermore, after Aaron Swartz's death, people were empathetic to the cause of free information and online activists redoubled their efforts. Many people express high hope for future of online activism, but people are deeply divided about whether the online activism will bring about positive change. Most everyone can agree that online activism have effect on political future but disagree about what that change will entail. Palfrey and Gassey are clearly optimistic in their article "Activists." They believe that online activism can lead to a better represented citizenry, at least in the media. Despite some concerns, most scholars have settled on the theory that online activism will enhance democracy. Furthermore, the internet has mobilized average citizens into action. Even with people like Siegel expressing the dangers of increased online participation, hopes are running high about the democratizing of online activism. One common assumption, made by those both for and against online activism, is that the internet is a motivation machine, taking previously disengaged people and turning them into political activists. However, a study conducted by Jennifer Orser, Marc Hooghe, and Sophie Marien found that those people who were active online were likely to be active offline as well. For instance, someone who floods your Facebook wall with political comments and reminders to vote correctly is likely to volunteer, contribute to a campaign, or otherwise participate in the political process outside of the internet. Orser, Hooghe and Marien, in their published report of the study, conclude that the internet works more as a reinforcement tool than a mobilization technique. MoveOn.org recognized early that online activity comes along with offline activity and now this webpage works by harnessing the power of over 8 million progressives activits from across the country. Besides providing an opportunity for individuals to be more active in their government, the internet has also helped to level the playing field between activist groups and well-funded organizations. In the article "Activism, information subsidies, and the internet," author Erich Sommerfeldt claims that the internet have helped activist groups gain professionalism and garner more attention with needing the resources they needed in the past. Palfrey and Gasser's article "Activists" expresses a belief that the internet has given activist groups power enough to compete with resource-rich organizations. They even take it a step further, claiming that because of new highly interactive, easy-to-use applications, professional journalists are not the only people who can determine what the nation talks about. Rather, they say, our social agenda is increasingly determined by our own "observations, experiences and concerns." The fact that social policy can be changed by one person starting a petition is demonstrative of Palfrey and Gasser's claims. I think this essay has demonstrated that despite the naysayers, internet activism goes hand-in-hand with traditional activism, increases participatory democracy, and create real social and political change. Though there were always be those who will doubt and those who will pin their hopes too high, activists will continue on, using all the tools at our disposal in order to make changes in the world we live in.

             Online activism emerged in the early 1990s in the USA and later spread very quickly to all countries. It initially consisted of mass email and E-bulletin board campaigns. Later, organizations such as Avaaz, Change.org, MoveOn.org and other brought civic engagement to a new level and put online activism at the center of political and business decisions. Online activism via petitions and campaigns has become an effective way to raise awareness about important political, economic, cultural and social problems and challenges society is facing. Some governments and parliaments are also creating online petition sites. Thanks to them, citizens have a more direct way to influence policy-making. Wikileaks and the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists can be considered different examples of online activism. By revealing thousands of classified documents, these sites are contributing to transparency. Moreover, online political activism is helping to tip the balance in contested electoral campaigns. While online activism is growing in popularity, the rejection this type of activism generates among people also increases. Those people think that online activism is simply encouraging people to passively click in support of a cause rather than take concrete action, which may have a greater impact in bringing about change. We have summarized some of the main advantages and limitations of internet activism. Pros of online activism : 1) Online activism is cost efficient. It requires low effort from the organizers and supporters of a cause. 2) Digital activism is democratizing activism. 3) Online activism is demonstrating the transformational impact of internet on society. There are many examples of online petitions that have worked. 4) As many viral campaigns can attest to, it is an extremely effective means to raise funds if social media campaigns become viral. 5) It generates significant debate and awareness amongst people. "clicktivists" who are simply sharing a link or a post or clicking to endorse a petition, often learn about problems through this process. Some of them will later on find out more about that issue or cause and may end up becoming "fully-fledged activists." The limitations of online activism are: 1) Clicktivists are usually passive activists, they usually get involved because of the hype on social media. 2) Online activism can become hypocritical way of getting peace of mind when we know that we are not doing anything substantial to solve the problems. 3) Although the potential to transform society is real, sometimes the impact of online activism is negative for society. For instance, terrorist groups and xenophobic parties are also using online activism to achieve their goals. 

Human Rights Day 2017

                        Two weeks ago, precisely on Sunday 10th of December all the world celebrated the day of human rights. This post is a summary of four articles. The first was published with the title above at http://www.unesco.org/new/human-rights-day. The second was published at  https://www.daysoftheyear.com/days/human-rights-day/. The third was published at  http://www.un.org/en/events/humanrightsday/sgmessage.shtml. The fourth was published at              https://www.coe.int/en/web/compass/what-are-human-rights-

                In the wake of the Second World War, humanity, together, resolved to uphold human dignity everywhere and always. In this spirit, the United Nations adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights as a common standard of achievement for all peoples and all nations. The Universal Declaration embodies common human aspirations, rooted in different cultures, put clearly in its first words: "the inherent dignity and inalienable rights of all members of the human family is the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world." Today, the Universal Declaration emters its 70th year of existence at a time of rising challenge. Hundreds of millions of women and men are destitute, deprived of basic livehoods and opportunities. Human rights must be the bedrock for all progress moving forward. This must start as early as possible, on the benches of schools. UNESCO is leading human rights education today and is launching its Global Education Monitoring Report on Youth and a campaign encouraging youth to hold governments accountable for ensuring everyone's right to education.

               Every often a thing comes to pass that is of such astounding importance that we must stand up and recognize it. We must place this thing on the pedestal it deserves, and ensure that policies put in place by it are adhered to, appreciated, and spread as far as the human voice will carry. Such is the sort of message sent by Human Rights Day. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) was a shout across the world, stating loud and clear that no matter where we live, what we believe, or how we love, we are each individually deserving of the basic fundamentals of human needs. Every year Human Rights Day marks conferences around the world dedicated to ensuring that these ideals are pursued. The first and foremost way to celebrate Human Rights Day is to take some time to appreciate the effect that this resolution has had on your life. The next step is to get out and make a difference, whether it is simply making a donation or you own help those organizations or people fighting the good fight.

               This year's commemoration of Human Rights Day marks the beginning of a year-long celebration of seven decades since the adoption of one of the world's most far-reaching international agreements. The UDHR establishes the dignity of every human being and stipulates that every government has a core duty to enable all people to enjoy all their inalienable rights and freedoms. We all have a right to live free from all forms of discrimination. We have a right to education, health care, and economic opportunities. We have rights to privacy and justice. These rights are relevant to all of us, every day. Since the proclamation of the UDHR in 1948, human rights have been one of the three pillars of the UN, along with peace and development. While human rights abuses did not end when the UDHR was adopted, the UDHR has helped countless people to gain greater freedom and security. Despite these advances, the UDHR is being tested in all regions. We see rising hostility towards human rights and those who defend them by people who want to profit from exploitation and division. On this Human Rights Day, I, the UN Secretary-General want to acknowledge the brave human rights defenders, who work every day, sometimes in grave peril, to uphold human rights around the world. I urge people and leaders everywhere to stand up for all human rights, civil, political,  and social rights and for the values that underpin our hopes for a fairer, safer and better world for all.

               Human rights are like armour: they protect you; they are like rules, because they tell you how you can behave; and they are like judges, because you can appeal to them. They belong to everyone and they exist no matter what happens. They are like nature because they can be violated; and like the spirit because they can not be destroyed. They offer us respect, and they charge us to treat others with respect. Like goodness, truth and justice, we may sometimes disagree about their definition, but we recognise them when we see them. An acceptance of human rights means accepting that everyone is entitled to make certain claims: I have these rights, no matter what you say or do, because I am a human being, just like you.Human rights are inherent to all human beings as a birthright. Two of the key values that lie at the core of the idea of human rights are human dignity and equality. Human rights can be understood as defining those basic standards which are necessary for a life of dignity. Human rights receive support from every culture in the world, every civilised government and every major religion. It is recognised almost universally that state power can not be unlimited or arbitrary. We shall look at the legal mechanisms that exist for protecting the different areas of people's interests. In Europe, but also and the Americas, there is a court to deal with complaints about violations. One important role in exerting pressure on states is played by associations, NGOs, and other civic initiative groups. Realising rights means facing a range of obstacles. Firstly, some governments, political parties or candidates, social and economic players use the language of human rights without a commitment to human rights objectives. Secondly, governments, political parties or candidates may criticise human rights violations by others but fail to uphold human rights standards themselves. Thirdly, there are cases when human rights are restricted in the name of protecting the rights of others. Exerting your rights should not impinge on other's enjoyment of their rights. An active civil society and an independent judiciary is important in monitoring such cases. 

350th Birthday of Jonathan Swift - Part II

                    The tribute to Swift carries on this week, his novel "Gulliver Travels can be considered as the first dystopian novel written in the world literature. He already was concerned with the injustices and abuse of power in the beginning of the XVIII century. We must work every day to improve democracy, human rights and justice.  This post is a summary of a dissertation, This paper was published  at   http://www.academia.edu/31811384/GULLIVERS_TRAVEL_AS_A_DYSTOPIAN_NOVEL

          Jonathan Swift's "Gulliver Travels" is one of the most famous satires written in the history of English Literature. Unlike utopias, dystopias often refer to totalitarian societies and restricted personal freedom. They appeared in the 19th century and their number increased strongly during the last hundred years. Dystopias critically reflect social imbalances and the lack of essential and personal liberty. This novel contains utopian and dystopian elements within with the broader scope of satire. Jonathan Swift with the use of irony and sarcasm talks about both of an ideal society which is a utopia and of the real world which is dystopia in all the four parts of the novel, through various aspects. Swift generates "parallel universes", inhabited by weird beings and illogical realities, yet this can not be done without the characteristics traits of a world outlined with powerful objectivity. Eventough the novel contains utopian elements, still we find dystopian elements as well, beautifully portrayed by Swift through the images of the Houyhnhms and the Yahoos respectively. The utopian and dystopian outlook has been clearly conveyed in this novel. "Gulliver Travels" is a dystopian novel because Gulliver faces the same ups and downs, witnesses certain human follies as Swift had endured in England. Swift's sufferings and struggles, his wrath against the Queen of England and the English society made him write this great satirical novel. Swift like many others of his age, contributed a great deal to the development of what is called the "modern" prose style. Swift's writing is clear, pointed and precise. Swift's satire is pre-eminently intellectual. He has an incisive power of logic. Even those who have criticised his works, have not denied the "sheer force of his mind." Dystopian novel refers to a society that is dysfunctional and characterized by general suffering of the people, an opposite of utopia. The dystopian stories are often stories of survival, their primary theme is oppression and rebellion. The environment plays an important role in dystopian depiction. Dystopian stories take place in the large cities devastated by pollution. In every dystopian story, there is a back story of war, revolutions, and even some disaster. Dystopian novels consist in few common traits: 1) A hierarchical society where divisions between upper, middle and lower classses are definitive and unbending.  2) A nation-state ruled by an upper class with few democratic ideals. 3) Propaganda controlling people's minds. 4) Free thinking and independent thought is banned.  Many works combine utopias and dystopias. Typically, an observer will travel to another place or time and see one society the author considers ideal, an another representing the worst possible outcome. Dystopias are frequently written as warnings or satires, showing current trends extrapolated to a nightmarish conclusion. Dystopian fiction is the portrayal of a setting that completely disagrees with the author's ethos. Swift's dramatic satire led to the creation of his dystopias which is essentially fruitful, and thus capable of generating an undeniable curative function. Gulliver's Travels is considered one of the most important works in the history of world literature. The general theme is a satirical examination of human nature, man's potential for depravity, and the dangers of the misuse of reason. In this novel, the notion of estrangement can be traced in all four books. in book 1, Gulliver's Travel to Lilliput inhabited by small humans, resembles the world of similar social and political systems of monarchy and hierarchies. This place sounds like a miniature and more absurd England, as the description of the land and government continues it becomes clear that the Lilliputian suffer from the same flaws inherent in English society ( pompous government, rebellions over relatively minor issues, and a tendency to over-regulate the more mundane aspects of life ). By emphasising the short height of the Lilliputians, he graphically diminishes the stature of all human nature. And using the fire in Queen's chamber, the rope dancers, and the inventory of Gulliver's pockets, he presents a series of illusions that were identifiable to his contemporaries as critical of Whig politics. The legal codes in Lilliput are based on European models, but they all have an added clause that differentiates them from England. The Lilliputian decree in one of the important quotes, "All crimes against the state are punished with the utmost severity; but if the person accused make his innocence plainly to appear on his trial, the accuser is put to death, and the person that was accused is compensated for his trouble." The Lilliputians have a well-established class system that is similar to that of England. Gulliver remarks on the fact, "Whoever there can bring sufficient proof that he hath strictly observed the laws of his country for seventy-three moons, hath a claim to certain privileges. This eliminates class privileges." In the second book, Swift reverses the size relationship used in book 1. Now in Brobdingnag, Gulliver is a midget. Swift uses this difference to express a difference in morality. The Brobdingnagians are not perfect but are moral. Only the immature and the psycological deformed are intentionally evil. After relating the details of English society and politics to ttheir king, The king was perfectly astonished with the historical accounts given by conspiracy, murders, massacres, revolutions, the very worst efects that avarice, hypocrisy, cruelty, rage, madness, hatred, lust, envy, mallice and other evil could produce. The king calls the English as "odious vermin." In book 3, the "Floating Island" of Laputa itself contains all science fictional elements. Laputan systematizing is a manifestation of proud rationalism. Swift shows that philology and scholarship betray the best interests of the Luggnaggians; pragmatic scientism fails in Balnibardii; and accumulated experience does not make the Struldbruggs either happy or wise. In his topical political references, Swift demonstrates the viciousness and cruelty, as well as the folly, that arise from abstract political theory imposed by selfish politicians. the common people, Swift says, suffer. In book 4, Gulliver's crew abandons him on an island where he is plunged into a world governed by the Houyhnhnms who live in accordance with pure reason and nature, that is also populated by a race of savage human beings called Yahoos, who live only for vice and squalor. The Houyhnhnms represent utopia and the Yahoos represent dystopia. The Houyhnhnms embody prefection, they have not word in their language to express lying or falsehood. Friendship and benevolence are the two principle virtues among them. Yahoos seem to represent the filth, greed, hatred and selfishness of human nature. These speechless humans and exemplify human flaws in primitive ways. The Yahoos were known to hate one another. They are dual charactered humans. Man is an infinitely complex animal; he is a mixture of intellect and reason, charity and emotion. But few people see Man as the grey matter of varying qualities. Gulliver's Travels represents a "double-edged" satire which simultaneously shows that humanity does not measure up to its own standard. The societies experienced by Gulliver during his voyage have certain flaws more or less similar to the English society. This novel shares some aspects of science fiction genre in its use of the estrangement technique and the use of utopia and dystopia in its context. The questions raised in this book are, our realization of social faults and the depiction of man in several conditions with its strengths and weakness both in body and mind.

350th Birthday of Jonathan Swift

                Almost two weeks ago, precisely on 30th November, the Irish writer Jonathan Swift would complete 350 years old, so this post is a tribute to him. He tried to improve politics and a fairer democracy with respect for human rights. This post is a summary of four articles. The first was published at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jonathan_Swift. The second was published at  http://enlightenment-revolution.org/index.php/Swift%2C_Jonathan. The third was published at  https://freebooksummary.com/pride-and-arrogance-in-gullivers-travels-41488. The fourth was published  http://lup.lub.lu.se/luur/downlofunc=downloadFile&recordOId=8926056&fileOId=89260

               Jonathan Swift (1667-1745) was born in Dublin, Ireland. He was the second child and only son of Jonathan Swift. His father joined his older brother, Godwin, in the practice of law and he died about seven months before his son was born. His mother returned to England after his birth, leaving him in the care of his Uncle Godwin, a close friend of Sir John Temple whose son later employed Swift as his secretary. he attended Dublin University in 1682, financed by Godwin's son Willoughby. The four year course followed a curriculum largely set in the Middle Ages for the priesthood. The lectures were dominated by Aristotelian logic and philosophy. Swift was studying for his master's degree when political troubles in Ireland surrounding the Glorious Revolution forced him to leave for England in 1688, where his mother helped him get a position as secretary and personal assistant of Sir William Temple. Temple was an English diplomat who arranged the Triple Alliance of 1688. During his visits to England in these years, Swift published A Tale of a Tub and The Battle of the Books (1704), and began to gain a reputation as a writer. This led to close, lifelong friendship with Alexander Pope, John Gay, and John Arbuthnot, forming the core of the Scriblerus Club (1713). Swift became increasingly active politically in these years. In 1711, Swift published the political pamphlet The Conduct of the Allies, attacking the Whig government for its inability to end the prolonged war with france. Swift was part of the inner circle of the Tory government, and often acted as mediator between Henry St John, the secretary of state for foreign affairs, and Robert Harley prime minister. Swift recorded his experiences and thoughts during this difficult time in a long series of letters to Esther Johnson, collected and published after his death as A Journal to Stella.  Once in Ireland, Swift began to turn his pamphleteering skills in support of Irish causes, producing some of his most memorable works: Proposal for Universal Use of Irish Manufacture (1720), Drapier's Letters (1724), and A Modest Proposal (1729), earning him the status of an Irish patriot. This new role was unwelcome to the government, which made clumsy attempts to silence him. Also during these years, he began writing his masterpiece, Travels into Several Nations of the World, in Four Parts, by Lemuel Gulliver, better known as Gulliver's Travels. Much of the material reflects his political experiences of the preceding decade. For instance, the episode in which the giant Gulliver puts out the Lilliputian palace fire by urinating on it can be seen as a metaphor for the Tories's illegal peace treaty; having done a good thing in an unfortunate manner.  First published in November 1726, it was an immediate hit, with a total of three printings that year. French, German, and Dutch translations appeared in 1727. As with his other writings, this was published under a pseudonym, the fictional Lemuel Gulliver, a ship's surgeon and later a sea captain. Though it has often mistakenly thought of as a children's book, it is a great and sophisticated satire of human nature based on Swift's experience of his times. Each of the four books, recounting four voyages to mostly fictional exotic lands, has a different theme, but all are attempts to deflate human pride. Critics hail the work as a satiric reflection on the shortcomings of Enlightenment thought.

              Jonathan Swift was one of the eighteenth century's great writers. Alert to all manner of phoniness, endowed with remarkable talents for parody, and skeptical of modern trends, Swift was satirist who exposed the moral failings of his age. Though disappointed he received noecclesiastic appointment in England, he emerged as a major figure in English political and literary life. He advised the leaders of the Tory Party, wrote influential political articles in The Examiner and pamphlets, and helped formed the Scriblerous Club, a literary society. Swift published in 1704 A Tale of a Tub, considered his finest satire by many. The book presents an alegory of religious history through the lives of three brothers, Peter. Martin, and Jack, who respectively represent the catholic church, the Church of England, and Non-Conformism. The story of the quarrelsome brothers illuminates the troubled history of organized Christianity. Swift single out Peter and Jack as satiric targets for their tendency to go to extremes of self-glorification and self-abasement. In 1726 Swift published his masterpiece, Gulliver's Travels. Divided into four parts, each recounting one of Gulliver's voyages, the book offers different analytic perspective on England, history, and humanity.  Part I narrates Gulliver's shipwreck on Lilliput, a land of tiny people that symbolize contemporary English. The Lilliputians's diminutive stature speaks volumes about Swift's assessment of his contemporaries: like the English, they have an inflated sense of themselves, a morally debased political culture, and a limitless lust for power, all of which makes them contemptible and dangerous. Part IV, in which Gulliver discovers a land inhabited by animal-like humans (Yahoos) and rational horses (Houyhnhyms), deepens Swift's critique of his contemporaries. The savage Yahoo represent what humans can become, but Swift also suggest that Europeans are worse, for they have all the Yahoo vices but have institutionalized and magnified them, (e.g., whereas the Yahoos squabble, Europeans wage wars). The ultra-rational Houyhnhyms seem to represent an ideal, but their passionless lives and readiness to exterminate the noxious Yahoos suggest otherwise. That Gulliver's decision to emulate them leads to profound alienation, from his family and all humanity. At the heart of Swift's major writings, which are unmatched in imaginative ingenuity, lies a profound anxiety over Enlightenment. Swift subject to devastating satiric treatment the central tenets of thought, that man is innately good, that guided by modern science human beings will progress, and that progress depend upon deliverance from old beliefs that do not meet the test of reason. Swift believed such thinking was leading humankind terribly astray and constituted a monstrous act of hubris in which man attempted to usurp God's role.

             In Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift, Gulliver's adventures and experiences satirize many aspects of human nature. Pride and arrogance are reoccurring themes that make up the most of Swift's satire. Pride and arrogance is shown by the characters in Gulliver's travels. Politics earn Swift's greatest critical disapprobation. Through his supposed characters's observation, Swift levels an indifferent screed against the pettiness of politics and its degrading nature on the human spirit.He does this by focusing on the monarchy and parliaments of the nations he has created. During the voyages to Lilliput and Brobdingnag, Swift devotes whole passages explicating their political and social customs. These passages serve a satirical purpose by pointing out how petty and ridiculous politics can be. The reader, for who the narrator acts as eyes and ears to the universe he encopunters, is meant to find these social and political customs silly. But there is serious business involved in these passages. Here Swift is satirizing political values and the arrogance with which Europeans regard their form of authority and beliefs. 

              Gulliver's Travels contain satiric examination of the human condition within fantastic or unnatural settings. Swift became known for his loquacious antiestablishmentarian, in the sense that Swift frequently directed his criticism at the upper echelons of English's authoritarian, class-divided and colonial society. As this study will demonstrate, there are separate breaks in the narrative while simultaneously urging the reader's attention to compare the situation with matters of society.  That Swift is criticizing oppression is clear enough. What may not come through without the prerequisite knowledge is that the original criticism was directed at the British colonial rule and its treatment to the Irish population. It is interesting to note that much of Swift's contemporaneous satirical criticism is still applicable to modern society, albeit in a different context. 

            

Democracy: Its Principles and Achievement

               This post is a summary of the book with the title above published by Inter-Parliamentary Union in 1998 at http://archive.ipu.org/PDF/publications/DEMOCRACY_PR_E.pdf

              The word democracy is one of the most used terms of the political vocabulary. This vital concept touches the very fundamentals of the life of human beings in society, has given rise to much comment and reflection; nevertheless, until now there has not been any text adopted at the world-wide level which defined its parameters or established its scope. The Inter-Parliamentary Union is pleased to publish in this book the text of the Universal Declaration on Democracy. The Union's commitment to democracy will, however, be pursued far beyond the approval and publication of a text whose implementation it is now striving to promote assiduously. The U.N. has taken note of this declaration in a resolution adopted by the General Assembly. The Principles of Democracy are: 1) Democracy is a universally recognised ideal as well as a goal, which is based on common values shared by peoples throughout the world. 2) As an ideal, democracy aims essentially to preserve and promote the dignity and fundamental rights of the individual, to achieve social justice, foster economic and social development, strengthen the cohesion of society and enhance national tranquility. 3) A state of democracy ensures that the processes by which power is acceded to, wielded and alternates allow for free political competition and are the product of open, free and non-discriminatory participation by the people. 4) Democracy is founded on the primacy of the law and the exercise of human rights. Economic, social and cultural development are conditions for and fruits of democracy. There is thus interdependence between peace, development, respect for the rule of law and human rights. 5) Democracy is based on the existence of well-structured and well-functioning institutions. 6) It is for democratic institutions to mediate tensions and maintain equilibrium between the competing claims of diversity and uniformity, individuality and collectivity, in order to enhance social cohesion and solidary. 7) Democracy is founded on the right of everyone to take part in the management of public affairs, it therefore requires the existence of representative institutions at all levels. 8) The key element in the exercise of democracy is the holding of free and fair elections at regular intervals enabling the people's will to be expressed. These elections must be held on the basis of secret suffrage so that all voters can choose their representative in conditions of equality, and transparency that stimulate political competition. To that end, civil and political rights are essential, and among them, the right to vote and to be elected. 9) It is an essential function of the state to ensure the enjoyment of civil, cultural, economic, political and social rights to its citizens. 10) Public accountability, which is essential to democracy, applies to all those who hold public authority. Accountability entails a public right to access to information about the activities of government, the right to petition and seek redress through impartial judicial mechanisms. 11) Public life must be stamped by a sense of ethics and by transparency, and appropriate norms and procedures must be established to uphold them. 12) Individual participation in democratic processes at all levels must be regulated fairly and impartially and must avoid any discrimination, as well as the risk of intimidation by state and non-state agents. 13) Judicial institutions and independent, impartial and effective oversight mechanisms are the guarantors for the rule of law on which democracy is founded. 14) While the existence of an active society is an essential element of democracy, the capacity and willingness of individuals to participate in democratic processes can not be taken for granted. It is necessary to develop conditions conducive to the genuine exercise of participatory rights, while also eliminating obstacles that prevent, hinder or inhibit this exercise. 15) A sustainable state of democracy thus require a democratic climate and culture constantly nurtured and reinforced by education and other vehicles of culture and information. 16) The state of democracy presupposes freedom of opinion. 17) Democratic institutions and processes must also foster decentralised government and administration, which is a right and a necessity, and which makes it possible to broaden the base of public participation. 18) A democracy should support democratic principles in international relations. Democracies must refrian from undemocratic conduct, express solidarity with democratic governments and non-state actors which work for democracy and human rights, and extend solidarity to those who are victims of human rights violations. In order to strengthen criminal justice, democracies must reject impunity for serious violations of human rights and support the establishment of a permanent international criminal court. Democracy can not exist without civil society, and civil society ca not exist without a population that has the will and capacity to act in defense of its values and institutions. In the final analysis, however, it is people who make and live democracy, and who can also undo it and destroy it. Thus, people must have the knowledge and capacity to exercise their individual and collective rights in order to bring about democracy, preserve democratic processes, and insure that these processes work effectively and with integrity so that democratic outcomes may be attained. Education is indispensable and allows a citizenry the capacity to develop civil society and to act in defense of its values and institutions. Lack of education is probably the single most factor which causes apathy and indifference in a society. Such apathy and indifference is what allows the few to malgovern, to abuse individual and collective rights, and to exploit their fellow citizens. No genuine democracy can long exist while the citizenry is apathetic or indifferent. Although elections form a key mechanism for the popular control of government, they are of limited effectiveness on their own without institutions that secure a government's continuous accountability to the public. Here, the task of parliament is not only to approve proposals for legislation on behalf of the electorate, but to keep the policies and actions of the executive under continuous scrutiny, and they require independence to do this effectively. A further crucial dimension of accountability is the requirement that all public officials act within competencies explicity authorised by the rule of law, and this in turn depends on the independence of the courts and judiciary. Finally, no effective accountability of government is possible without the openness of their activities to public inspection, according to the pricniple of freedom of information. The system of democracy becomes synonymous with the idea of justice as the glorious words of Daniel Webster thus indicate: "Justice is the greatest interest of man on earth. It is the ligament which holds civilized beings and civilized nations together. Wherever her temple stands, there is a foundation of social security, general happiness and the improvement and progress of our human race. And whoever labours on the edifice with usefulness and distinction, whoever clears its foundation, strengthens its pillars, adores its entablatures or contributes to raise its august dome still higher in the skies, connects himself in the name fame and character with that which is and must be durable as the frame of human society." No society can advance without open conflicts. But if there is to be a clash of ideas, the rational expression of social claims and needs in a free and responsible manner, it is essential for the citizens to have received a minimum of education. Indeed, without it, the citizens would have no awareness of the freedoms and rights to which they are entitled. Such civil and political rights would remain merely theoretical. Consequently, investment in education must be a priority, along with the production of goods and employment. Social marginalisation destroys national cohesion and democratic rule. The prospects for a long-standing democratic political system depend on the ability of leaders to put forward new ideas and to translate into action the diffuse democratic hopes of the populace, these can be ideas and measures designed to accelerate the democratic process or to repair a democratic system which has broken down. But these leaders must be imbued with democratic values. The bedrock of any democratic system lies in the preservation of basic human rights for all. The preservation of human rights, the final objective of the democratic process, demands the integration of political rights with those of an economic, social and cultural nature. Democracy guards against opportunities for abuses of power and ensures that they are rectified should they occur, especially through the system of checks and balances, considered paramount for a viable observance of the principle of separation of powers. Democracy attempts to satisfy the will of the majority without sacrificing the minorities, to favourequality without ignoring differences, to make room for civil society without devaluing the role of the state, to preserve the right of the individual without neglecting the general interest. This delicate balance, this difficult vigilance of the citizen can sometimes lead to lassitude, uncertainty and disappointment. But the ordinary citizen must be virtuous and well-educated and be willing to make an effort, he or she is subjected to estreme stress. As a result of the subtlety of its procedures and the legitimate progress of individual rights, democracy is becoming more complex for the ordinary citizen. It requires a high degree of rationality. It is now up to the political actors themselves to become the agents of their own renaissance. This implies that political life will be reorganized around new choices. This political reconstruction will not be possible unless we become aware of the conditions needed for the existence of democracy and unless we do away with the false opposition between the requirements of world economy and those of social justice. Conversely, only democracy can enable them to blend together and to create for all of us a space of freedom.

Flexibility Gives Students a Better Chance of Success

          This post is a summary of three articles and a handbook. The first with the incomplete title above was published at https://gazette.education.govt.nz/articles/1H9crS-flexibility-and-responsibility-gives-students-a-better-chance-of-success/. The second is a handbook published in 2016 at  https://www.sycamoreschools.org/site/handlers/filedownload.ashxmoduleinstanceid=3596&dataid=225&FileName=CreditFlexHandbook1.pdf. The third was published at  https://education.ohio.gov/getattachment/Topics/School-Choice/Credit-Flexibility-Plan/Credit-Flexibility-Web-Conference-Series/10-12-10-Webinar_Transcript. The fourth was published at  www.ed.gov/oii-news/competency-based-learning-or-personalized-learning

          Students at high school in Taranaki have this year been given a flexible day to do practical learning which gives them a broader career and study options and keeps them engaged in school. Core subjects and traditional academic subjects are taught four days a week. Wednesdays however, have been freed up to allow students to take courses with a vocational focus. "To widen the opportunities available to our students we decided to implement something different and introduced a Flexible Learning Wednesday, now students can experience possible future employment pathways without missing their core subjects." Students are encouraged to select a pathway which links to their future work. This helps students choose subjects relevant to that sector, making their learning more relevant to future work or study options in the university. The principal says vocational pathways are paramount in "meeting the needs of our students and equipping them for the future." "When students study subjects in areas which are more relevant and interesting to them, then they are much more likely to stay at school and remain engaged with their learning," says the Ministry of Education. Planning started last year to restructure the timetable to equip students for the future. The changed timetable structure gives students a considerable degree of self-responsibility of their time and learning. The school has received positive feedback to its "flexible learning." While the programme is still in its infancy, the principal is delighted with what is been achieved so far and says the new approach to preparing students for the outside world is liked by both students and staff. There is a needs to increase the number of young people moving into further education, training and employment. We need to improve the minimum qualification a young person needs to get to be ready for a better future.

             Ohio's plan for credit flexibility is designed to broaden the scope of curricular options available to students, increase the depth of study possible for a particular subject, and allow tailoring of learning time and conditions. These are ways in which aspects of learning can be customized around students interests and needs. Students may now earn credits and this credit flexibility is intended to motivate and increase student learning by allowing: 1) Access to more learning resources, especially real-world experiences. 2) Customization around individual student needs. 3) Use of multiple measures of learning, especially those where students demonstrate what they know and can do, apply their learning or document performance.

          A component directed the State Board of Education to expand the ways that students can learn. Credit Flexibility allows students to demonstrate mastery of learning and this can be instead of traditional hours of classroom instruction. The focus in on performance in mastering the content rather than just the time element of how many hours in the seat students spend, and to certainly begin our commitment to changing education to become student centered so that learning does accommodate different learning styles, paces, interests of students. We are going to do a specific well-defined event for credit-flex and call those information so that we can meet one-on-one with students and help each student define his/her pathways. We're heavily engaged in social media and using our website as a means of communication and put information in terms that people can understand. We created an online place where students and parents who were interested in our programs could go and find out what life wasreally like within our school. They blogged and had blogging assignments that they were responsible for each week. They also took pictures and created a photo albums of their different experiences at school. One thing to ask the student is. What course content are you seeking? What course content is that? Is it arts, construction, sociology, humanities? You have to reach some sense of agreement. But, there is a clear understanding. For example, I am going to do veterinary; well there is a clear pathway as far as it might be an anatomy physiology credit I am looking for. This is individual. They have students now who may be able to work in a much narrower field and much more in depth, which gives the teacher an opportunity to expand their work with students as well and to work with students on some really innovative things that go way beyond what could happen in class. While some of the students are going to take general type classes, there is  an opportunity in credit flex for staff to really expand what they do with students as well. So I think it all goes back to expectations for staff are, what is available to them.

            Transitional away from seat time, in favor of a structure that creates flexibility, allows students to progress as they demonstrate mastery of academic content, regardless of time, place, or pace of learning. Competency-based strategies provide students with personalized learning opportunities. These strategies include online and blended learning, dual enrollment, community-based learning and credit recovery, among others. This type of learning leads to better student engagement because the content is relevant to each student and tailored to their unique needs. It also leads to better student outcomes. By enabling students to master skills, competency-based learning systems help to save both time and money. Depending on the strategy pursued, this system also create multiple pathways to graduation, make better use of infrastructure, support new staff patterns that utilizes teacher skills and interests differently, take advantage of learning opportunities outside of school hours, and help identify target interventions to meet the specific learning needs of students. Each of these presents an opportunity to achieve greater efficiency and increase productivity. 

                

470th Birthday of Miguel de Cervantes - Part III

             This is the third part of the tribute to Miguel Cervantes. This post is a summary of an article with the title of, "Quixotic Utopia of Human Rights Introduction," published in 2017 at   seer.rdl.org.br/index.php/anamps/article/download/316/pdf_

            The gap between theoretical enunciation and actual practice in human rights expresses the need to seek compromised alternatives. This balance can come from a critical and innovative mirage that contains other theoretical possibilities that are especially critical of the role of order in safeguarding human and fundamental rights. Literature emerges as one of these possibilities of analysis in the field of human rights, as emancipation of these in front of the traditional legal rationality. The literary discourse is more diverse, complex, heterodox and imaginative - which allows it greater plasticity, sensitivity and attention to reality. Ingredients that the law needs in order to commit to the reality of those whom it seeks to protect. Literature offers law a vast repertoire of observation of human social relations, as well as bringing freedom to the law by repeatedly dismantling the formalisms of the legal structure. The analysis of literary works, such as Don Quixote de la Mancha offers different perspectives to the interpretation of human rights, especially to those committed to reality. The link between law and literature flourishes in narrative. Norms and rules are worthless without context, without history, without a fact to attribute meaning to it. Thus, the use of literature leads human rights to the real dimension. Literature operates a fundamental refoundation in the legal conception of rights. The possibility of overcoming the practical distance that keeps traditional law through a literary bridge that is able to approximate it to concrete subjects and material justice is what makes it imperative for this simple reflection to deal with the set of ideas above. The aim of this article is to tell the legal discourse of human rights through the emancipatory lens of literature. For that purpose, the work The ingenious nobleman Don Quixote de la Mancha, by Miguel de Cervantes was chosen. By analyzing the literary work , the objective is to draw a parallel between Quixote's struggle and the struggle of human rights in today's world, showing the points of convergence based on the salutary dialogue between law and literature. Don Quixote is a complex work by a complex author. Literature, especially those that, like the Cervantine one, assume a critical posture of the real can be a great driving force to propose and problematize the alteration of social and legal directions. Under the aegis of dogmatism, the social and political effects that stem from the transformative dialogue that literature can have in law and rights have for a long time been enclosed in consonance with a closed view of reality and also rights. Literature as a human product, like legal science, undoubtedly reflects, to a greater or lesser extent, the vicissitudes, peculiarities and idiosyncrasies of its subjects, as well as the context in which it is inserted.  According to Lukács, "there is no composition without conception of the world." The political, critical and liberating dimension of literature is already present in the work of Cervantes, since it was books that disturbed the reason of Alonso Quijano. It is the books that are to blame for the madness of Quixote. On the contrary, it was precisely his readings that opened the possibility of emancipating himself and giving life to Quixote. The criticism of dogma and its transforming sense is in the work represented as madness, which is nothing more than insurgency with the order and the ability to see beyond. It is here that Alonso Quijano  and Quixote are set apart. For Saramago (2005), in his reading of the work, Quijano was just tired of the life he led and deciding radically to change his life, he says he is crazy in the purest act of sanity. Madness is characterized as such by subverting the static, dogmatic and normative order of life. If conflicts are part of reality, they become part of the law, not as something to be excised, but as a constituent element of its own core and not an evil in itself. The agonistic and dialogical dimension of human rights allows us to shed light. The political tension in the exercise of democracy in its radicalism is therefore essential to the notion of human rights. The quixotic vocation to combat injustices, the focus on the vulnerable, the dimension of dialogical alterity, all these marked by the real/ideal tension that stood out in the work and is today the great paradox in the dilemma of the realization of rights. The motive of the work and of Quixote is the denunciation of injustices; The knight reports that is his duty and destiny is to repair the injustices of the world. The Cervantine text is very close to the counter-supremacy vocation of human rights. It is human rights produced from the social dynamics, "in defense of new freedoms against old powers" (Bobbio, 2004), fruits of a "rationality of resistance" (Flores, 2009). The tonic of human rights aimed at balacing the asymmetric relations of power as insurrections against despotisms, from the public or private fields. At the same time, these rights are powerful for the struggle to build a more inclusive society in which everyone is subject to equal respect and consideration. By means of this rationality, the law happens to see the subjects no longer as members of an innominate and undifferentiated fiction, the recipient of the abstraction of the legal texts, but as unique singularities. This is because law as literature tells a story, a story told by human rights is the history of the prevention or combat of human suffering. Associated with the defense of injustice, Quixote defends the weakest and fights for the weary and injured, these are the subjects of rights. The contemporary mark of human rights is linked to the ethics of otherness; to see in the other a being worthy of equal consideration and deep respect, guided by the universal affirmation of dignity and the prevention of human suffering. It is, however, insufficient to treat the individual in a generic, general and abstract way. It is necessary to specify the subject of law, who is now seen in its peculiarity and particularity. Thus, alongside the right to equality, the right to difference with respect to diversity also arises as a fundamental right. The important dimension that opens here and that is very explicit in the metaphorof the mill is the struggle of the dream in relation to reality. It remains to be seen whether our contemporary battle for rights is to break against established windmills. We live paradoxically the triumph of the normative discourse of rights with its universal extension, on the one hand, but, on the other, we live an unprecedented humanitarian crisis in terms of the disposability of rights and their subjects. It is precisely this arc between the applicability of the norm in abstract and the result of its effective applicability that must be traced to overcome the abyssal gap between practice and human rights theory. Human rights are, in their contemporary face, the history of perseverance. It was the breaking of the idea of rights that left us rights after the war. From breakage came protection. Rights thus became "the cry of the oppressed, the exploited, the dispossessed, a kind of imaginary or exceptional right for those who have  nothing else to lean on" Therefore, it is important to look for alternatives that aim to give them concreteness, even if in a utopian way. Thus, utopia is a project, projecting a proposition: it becomes concrete when there is action directed at willing to change. In the terms advocated by the theory of human rights. The utopia can come to fruition. Rights can be reality. Yet another stance is required before the law and the world for this to happen. From the interlocution with the quixotic literary imaginary and the opening it provides, it is possible to construct a critical theory of human rights based on a critical, peripherical, dialogical and utopian posture. As Antonio Avelas Nunes teaches us: The necessary changes do not just happen because we believe a better world is possible. These changes must come as a result of the laws of motion of human societies, and we all know that voluntarism and good intentions have never been the engine of history. But awareness of this does not have to kill our right to utopia and our right to dream. While maintaining its prospective meaning, the protective order of human rights must land on reality as a tangible utopia to those who need an urgent response. The law can not evade this practical commitment to the observance of human rights, essential to a minimally dignified existence, still unknown to a part of the world's population.

470th Birthday of Miguel de Cervantes - Part II

              The tribute to Cervantes carry on. This post is a summary of three articles. The first was published at   https://www.shmoop.com/don-quixote/. The second was published in June of 2016 at  https://www.ft.com/content/570e8b70-282f-11e6-8ba3-cdd781d02d89. The third was published in September 2016 at https://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/09/25/quixote-colbert-and-the-reality-of-fiction/

             When Part 1 of Dom Quixote was first published in 1605, it was an instant hit. In fact, people might have liked the book a little too much, because some unscrupulous jerk decided to write a sequel to the original Dom Quixote... without Cervantes's permission. This irkedCervantes so much that he went and published his own sequel in 1615, which turned into Part 2 we all know and love today. In fact, some critics speculate that Cervantes might not have even written his sequel if it were not for the upstart knock-off artist. If the text of Dom Quixote ever strutted into an office and applied for a job, its résumé would include a impressive entries. For start, the book is considered to be the first example of modern novel. Let's go ahead and say that it just might be the best book ever written. Well, according to a 2002 poll of 100 famous authors, Dom Quixote is "the best book of all time".  It is not surprising that Dom Quixote has received this kind of support, The novel is such a big deal that it is directly referenced on other classic novels like The Three Musketeers, The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Madame Bovary, and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, to name just a few. Apart from the fact that the world's greatest living authors have voted Dom Quixote the "best book of all time," there are plenty of reasons to care about the book. For start, the idea of a regular person wanting to dress up and become a hero is probably even more popular today than it was in Cervantes's time. After all, just look at how many Batman movies they are making. Batman and Don Quixote are both dudes  who use their fortunes to fund their crime fighting.  With the popularity of superhero movies today, maybe this generation could use Don Quixote to help bring audiences back down to earth. It is great walking out of a superhero movie and feeling like you can do anything. But it does not hurt to remind people that they live in the real world, with real world limitations, but Cervantes show us that maybe it is wisest to wake up every morning and be our best selves in a realistic way, rather than always escape into the world of pure fantasy. To clarify, Dom Quixote is an important book for many reasons, but mostly because it was the first book to bring legitimate real-life consequences into the world of literature. In short, this book introduced the world of literature to a pesky little thing called reality.

               In January 1605, an ageing veteran of Spain's wars against the Ottoman Empire published the strangest of books. Unlike the bestsellers of the day, it was not a chivalric romance, a pastoral drama or the fictional confession of an outlaw. instead, it told the story of a gentleman so besotted with reading those kinds of books, especially the ones about knights errants and their magical adventures, that he loses his mind and begins to believe they are real. The Ingenious Gentleman Don Quixote of La Mancha was an immediate and roaring success. Demand for copies was so high that within a few months its author, Miguel de Cervantes, was having the book distributed throughout the Iberian peninsula while his publishers began work on a second edition. Two pirated versions appeared in London, along with two others in Valencia and Zaragoza. While Cervantes may have been surprised by his novel's success, he was certainly not innocent of the fact that his style was something new. We can appreciate something of the disruption that Cervantes wrought to the old Aristotelian categories of poetry and history into which literary texts were supposed to fall. Fantastical in the sense that they were born exclusively of his own imagination, and thus a vehicle for universal, philosophical truths, his stories were also intended to have real pertinence to readers' lives: they aspired to the condition of the highest literature even as they claim to the territory of the most popular. "I have given them the name 'exemplary'," Cervantes wrote of the 12 novellas, "and if you look at it well, there is not one from which you can not take some example." To understand that example, his public would have to approach these stories in a new way, not merely as external judges of an entertaining and false image of the world, but as "attentive readers" attuned to how their own prejudices helped create that image. Today,  more than 400 years after his death, we rightly fête Cervantes as the creator of the modern novel. What is less appreciated is the extent to which his innovations were a response to a media revolution that in some aspects mirror our own. Don Quixote was published at a time when the print industry was booming. Literacy had exploded during the previous century. We see the influence of books in the first pages of Cervantes' novel: not only are they the ostensible cause of Quixote's madness, they also quickly become the subjecty of commentary from almost every character encountered, no matter what his or her station in life. These book and theatrical productions, heavily controlled and often sponsored by the monarchy and its thought police, tended to paint a specific picture of what was right and desirable for a citizen of the Spanish state. Honour was available to all men as long as they were free of even the slightest stain of suspicion concerning the religion or the sexual purity of their women. This insidious ideology metastasised throughout Spanich society almost inverse proportion to the control the Spanish crown was able to exert over its diverse subjects. His entire literary creation is bent on exploring the ramifications of a media age in which everyone has access to multiple, often conflicting portrayals of reality. More than that, though, he was sceptical about the reality readers and theatregoers were being led to believe in. Born in the middle of the 16th ventury in a university town at the heart of what was then the world's most powerful empire, Cervantes was always on the move: In his fifties by the time he published Don Quixote, Cervantes had become deeply disillusioned with the ideals his society trumpeted but failed to live up to. This more than any other single factor accounts for the extraordinary success and innovation of Don Quixote.  For in it, Cervantes created not just a picture of the world but a picture of how people pictured the world and got it wrong. This approach to fiction continues today and extends far beyond the novel. The point to grasp is that Cervantes' innovation was areaction, a brilliant, to a world in which media had blurred the boundaries between fiction and reality. The state-controlled theatre industry and the monarchy's censors and official historians kept a sharp eye on the content of plays and books, and actively propagated a vision of the nation that helped sustain the monarchy's fragile alliance with the landed aristocracy while co-opting a complacent bourgeoisie and peasantry with fantasies of honour and blood purity. Cervantes, clearly unable to reconcile his own experiences with this picture of the world, did something different: he made dissonance the subject of his writing. This is why so many people today who decide to return to that great classic are stunned to find in Don Quixote so much that they consider "modern": a preface in which the author appears as a character, an fictional frame story that insist that what is being recounted is utterly real: characters making mention of the author as if he were another character in the book. What Cervantes realised, and what we should remind ourselves today, is that precisely because media are immersive, they are capable not only of persuading us, but of making us take for reality itself. When media threaten to blur that border, fiction is on all. Its job is to jog our awareness, shake our complacency, and show us how we have taken the bait.

              In his contribution last week, Alex Rosenberg, posed a defense of naturalism, "the philosophical theory that treats science as our most reliable source of knowledge and scientific method as the most effective route to knowledge." At the expense of other theoretical endeavors such as, literary theory. To the question of "whether disciplines like literary theory provide real understanding, Professor Rosenberg's answer it is withering: just like fiction, literary theory can be fun, but neither one qualifies as knowledge. As a literary theorist, I could take umbrage at the calim that my own discipline, while fun, does not rise to the level of knowledge. But what I'd like actually like to argue goes a little further. Not only can literary theory, along with art criticism, sociology, and philosophy produce knowledge of an important and even fundamental nature, but fiction itself, so breezily dismissed in Rosenberg's assertion, has played a profound role in creating the very idea of reality that naturalism seeks to describe. We especially revere Shakespeare in the English-speaking world, but I'd like to focus in the genius of Miguel de Cervantes. He did someting more profound: he crystallized in prose a confluence of changes in how people in early modern Europe understood themselves and the world around them. While writers prior to Cervantes deployed elements of this fictional template, he was the first to use the technique as a basis of a full-blown, extended narrative. In order to do this, Cervantes imported into the art of prose narration a ploy he learned from the theater. In one of the many debates about literature that takes place in Don Quixote, the canon, a staunch critic of the kind of reading that occupies his good friend, says, "For my part I can say that when I read the tales of chivalry, as long as I avoid thinking about the fact that they are all lies and frivolity. And when I realized what they are, I throw the best of them against the wall. As Cervantes realized in the context of the newly born mass culture of the catholic, imperial, Spanish state, irony expertly wielded is the best defense against the manipulation of truth by the media. Its effect was and still is to remind its audience that we are all active participants in the creation and support of a fictional world that is always in danger of being sold to us as reality.     

470th Birthday of Miguel de Cervantes

               One month ago, precisely on 29th September, the Spanish writer Miguel de Cervantes would complete 470 years old, so this post is a tribute to him. When I was in the university I had to analyse his main book, and in order to do this I read almost entirely his masterpiece, and read two others books that analysed his book "Dom Quixote." "The Theory of the Novel," by Gyorgy Lukacs and "Myths of Modern Individualism," by Ian Watt. The subject Theory of Literature was one of my favorite when I was studying Idioms in the university. "Dom Quixote" is one of most read and studied books of all time, and is considered the birth of the modern novel.  This post is a summary of three articles. The first was published at  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miguel_de_Cervantes. The second was published at  https://www.britannica.com/biography/Miguel-de-Cervantes. The third was published at  https://www.expatica.com/es/about/The-enduring-literary-legacy-of-Don-Quixote-writer-Cervantes_453828.html

               Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra (1547-1616) was a Spanish writer who is widely regarded as the greatest writer in Spanish language. His masterpiece Dom Quixote has been translated into more languages than any other book except the Bible. His major work, Dom Quixote is considered the first modern novel, a classic of Western literature, and is regarded among the best works of fiction ever written. In 1569, in forced exile from Castile, Cervantes moved to Rome, where he worked as chamber assistant of a cardinal. Then he enlisted as a soldier and continued his military life until 1575, when he was captured by Barbary pirates. In Rome, he focused his attention on renaissance and knowledge of Italian literature. In Esquivias, Toledo, in 1584, he married Catalina de Salazar. Her uncle Alonso de Quesada is said to have inspired the character of Dom Quixote. Over the next 20 years, Cervantes led a nomadic existence, working as a purchasing agent for the Spanish Armada and as a tax collector. In 1606, Cervantes settled in Madrid, where he remained for the rest of his life. If a remark which Cervantes himself makes in the prologue of Dom Quixote is to be taken literally, the idea of the work occurrred to him while in jail. Cervantes' idea was to give a picture of real life and manners, and to express himself in clear language. The intrusion of everyday speech into a literary context was acclaimed by the reading public. Dom Quixote certainly reveals much narrative power, considerable humour, a mastery of dialogue, and a forceful style. Of the two parts written by Cervantes, perhaps the first is the more popular with the general public, containing the famous episodes of the tilting at windmills, the attack on the flock of sheep, and the episode with the barber and the shaving basin. The second part shows more constructive insight, better delianeation of character, improved style, and more realism and probability in its action.

                   On the voyage his ship was attacked and captured by pirates, Cervantes and his brother were sold into slavery in Algiers. The letters he carried magnified his importance in the eyes of his captors. This had the effect of raising his ransom price, and thus prolonging his captivity, while also, it appears protecting his person from death or mutilation. In 1580, three years after his brother had earned his freedom, Cervantes's family with the aid and intervetion of the Trinitarian friars demanded for his release. Cervantes's striking modern narrative gives vioces to a dazzling assortment of diverse beliefs and perspectives. His inclusion of many differing opinions constitues a provision of multiple voices, who deemed it essential to the development of the modern novel. Cervantes's influence resonates in the popular term "quixotic" and the and the immediately recognizable forms of his two major protagonists, whose adventures reappear continually across the cultural landscape in theatre, film, opera and even comic books. By illuminating the many differences in and surrounding his world. Cervantes placed in doubt the previous ways of portraying that world. Whether those were literary or historical. Criticism in the late 20th century began to focus on Cervantes's preoccupations with contemporary economic and historical events. The 1609 expulsion of the Moriscos, the correct governance of Spain's colonies, and the exploitation of slaves are often considered polemical topics for his readers.

                Spanish writer Miguel de Cervantes, who died in 1616 is considered the father of the modern novel, with his Don Quixote often is listed as one of the world's greatest works of fiction. Cervantes biographer Jean Canavaggio, a literature professor, explains why the author remains an enduring literary figure and what makes Don Quixote popular  more than 400 years after it was written. Is Cervantes a literary giant? Answer: "We say that Cervantes created the modern novel. He let his character speak for themselves instead of a narrator recounting their tale. They somehow internalise their adventures. In the 17th century, his novel was greatly appreciated but he was not considered a major writer. It was translated and enjoyed great success but was seen as typifying Spain at the time. We say that Don Quixote is an encarnation of Spain, a character that embodies its decadence and its missed encounter with modernity. Then in the 18th century things begin to change. People realised that there is something new in the characters and in the telling of their adventures. This revolutionised the novel since it was no longer what was being told but the way in which the character told it. The German romantics will see in Don Quixote the bible of humanity. Various writers in different countries follow in his footsteps - Gustave Flaubert's Madame Bovary is a sort of feminine Don Quixote and there are the Russians with Dostoyevsky. Why is Don Quixote famous world-wide? Answer: This book is well-known for two reasons. Firstly, it has many readers, altough certainly not as many as Harry Potter or Millenium. And then there are those who have heard of the character mainly through his adventures with the windmill. On the other hand, he makes you laugh because he is anachronistic. But on the other hand, he sticks to his ideals. This has captured the imagination of the art world. No other myth in the history of modern literature is as universally recognisable. Not even Faust or Don Juan. 

The Rise of the Right to Know: Politics and the Culture of Transparency

                  The founder of WikiLeaks, Julian Assange, once said, "transparency is for Governments and big corporations, privacy is for individuals." This summarizes his activism for freedom of speech and for governmental and transnational corporations transparency and for individual's privacy. We all must engage in such activism. A better politics and governance, a more democratic  and inclusive political system, and respect for our right to privacy, depend on this fight. This post is a summary of  a book review from the book with the title above and published at  http://ijoc.org/index.php/ijoc/article/viewFile/6227/1787

                 A swarm of research has been buzzing around subjects such as WikiLeaks ( and other platform of digital disclosure), open government initiatives, and antisecrecy advocacy. While communication scholars explicate their theoretical implications and assess their practical effects, the causal factors that helped  spur their development have received little attention. Our field urgently needed a text that, rather than taking for granted the artifacts of today's culture of transparency, puts this culture in a historical and sociological context. The latest book by Michael Schudson valuably fills this need by examining a set of social, political, and cultural shifts from the Cold War era, which propelled a new model of demoracy in which people could, as never before, expect "freedom of information" and transparency from their government. This type of democracy has been characterized alternately as "advocacy democracy," and "monitory democracy." Schudson introduces each of these before ultimately endorsing political scientist John Keane's idea of monitory democracy. He observes how "modern democracies...especially after 1945, have added new mechanisms of representation that allow continuous, rather than episodic, representation; popularly generated rather than party-controlled representation; and many platforms for entrepreneurial democratic action. By his lights, these developments contribute to a democratic practice in which various actors and institutions keep an eye on one another, engendering a political system that is "more representative than ever." We tend to think of the advent of political polling, fact-checking, and watchdog organizations as key players in this new monitorial culture. But we could also think of the way in which politicians send "trackers" with handheld cameras to their opponents' rallies in hopes of recording a gaffe or the way in which news organizations have begun to publicly criticize each other for reporting errors and perceived bias. The bulk of Schdson's book, after all, is concerned with cultural history and media sociology, not political theory. Schudson source and synthesizes seemingly eclectic phenomena from various parts of political and popular culture to craft a comprehensive and compelling analysis. Included in this analysis, to different degrees, are the passage of the Freedom of Information Act in 1996, the emergence of television talk shows, which "incorporated openness as a practice and as a value;" the Inspectors General Act of 1978, which dramatically expanded government accountability; the increasing prevalence and influence of whistleblowers during the Watergate era. Schudson stes out "to sketch the emergence of a culture of disclosure... and institutionalization of civic knowing" and to explain them. He begins his analysis by stalking out a general claim and overarching observation: "In domains public, private, and professional, expanded disclosure practices have become more fully institutionalized in the past half century and the virtue and value of openeness more accepted, enough so to suggest that both the experience of being human and the experience of constructing a democracy have changed in response to a new transparency imperative and a new embrace of a right to know. The reader is then taken on a tour with several fascinating stops. It begins with examination of the origins of the Freedom of Information Act and then is followed by: the advancement of informational rights for consumers, legislative reforms which made the workings of congress more visible, the advent of more independent and contextual journalism, and the broader changes within democratic political norms that accommodated and encouraged new culture of transparency. Schudson's work is distinhuished by a knack for situating sociological analysis within historical research. This makes for engrossing narratives. He acknowledge that sociologists are more confortable investigating social structures and processes, and have much to learn from historians who "may remind us that events, unpredicted but impossible to ignore, and forceful individual personalities, not just generational cohorts or offices and roles, matter." In emphasizing the importance of pivotal events, Schudson's work departs from not only an ahistorical habit within wherein social and cultural dynamics are seen as stable and explicable products of institutional arrangements. But also included are "the happenstance of everyday politics, everyday events, and a "spirit that made right-to-know or disclosure reforms resonants with a changing culture." With a broad analytical perspective, Schudson convincingly demonstrates how individuals and events uniquely contributed to this spirit, or "what British scholar Raymond Williams called a 'structure of feeling', as institutions acted to catalyze and codify it." Schudson's book also departs  from the historian's habit of focusing on the ostensibly "historic" personalities, the presidents and media moguls who championed open government to shine a light on the work of senior bureaucrats and obscure lawmakers, the unsung agents of social change. John Moss was a California Congressman and a "longtime Democratic activist with an indomitable work ethic" who tapped into the patriotism of Cold War to promote the freedom of information legislation that ultimately became the Freedom Information Act. Esther Peterson was the Kennedy and Johnson administration official who pushed for truth-in-packaging bills before heading to work for supermarkets to initiate consumers reforms such as nutritional labeling practices. Richard Conlon was a former journalist who, for decades, headed the Democratic Study Group, a congressional caucus that used research to push progressive policies. Readers who come to this book in a university setting might be satisfied to learn much of the current culture of transparency is attribute to a "mass public with access to a critical culture in higher education" and that the expansion and shifting character of college education helps expalin not only the changing culture (as audiences increasingly obtained college degrees) but also the growing acceptance efforts to keep a more watchful eye on government and sometimes also on corporate that touches consumers directly. In his final chapter, Schudson recalls how he began his research expecting the rise of the transparency movement. A critical reading of this text suggest cultural transformation are not, in fact, as patterned and predictable as some scholars would like to believe. Nor  is this continuity something upon which we can blindly rely. "The rise of cultural support and institutional mechanisms for a right to know need to be a permanent transformation." Schudson warns. Just as those who forget dark parts of history are doomed to repeat them, those who fail to appreciate brighter parts of history are liable to fail to sustain them. "Sometimes the human spirit shifts. When it does, and when it does in a way that enhances human capacities, we should recognize it and accord it the honor it deserves." By giving us such an illuminative book that simultaneously examines a culture of information and openness as well as represents an examplar of that culture, Schudson honor that spirit indeed.

Day of the Teachers 2017

              Today, 15th of October all over Brazil is celebrated the importance of the teachers. The  improvement of education passes through the appreaciation and value their work. So, this post is a tribute to them. This post is a summary of four articles. The first was published at  https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/leading-from-classroom-arne-duncan. The second was published at  https://www.quora.com/What-is-the-importance-of-teacher-in-our-life. The third was published at http://www.ascd.org/publications/books/104136/chapters/The-Power-of-an-Effective-Teacher-and-Why-We-Should-Assess-It.aspx. The fourth was published at  https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/teachers-matter-now-more-_b_5269063.html

              Over the last 8 - 12 years, huge shifts have been ocurring in education. Some changes are positive, such as our nation's record high school graduation rate, narrowing achievement gaps, and a greater number of students attending college. But all types of change, particularly those that have the potential to yield the most positive outcomes, can be challenging. Change requires that we confront the status quo, demands new ways of approaching our work. Now, at a time when educators are courageously raising the bar for student achievement higher than ever before, the job of the teacher has never been more critical to the success of our children and to the prosperity of the nation. Educators frequently share that teaching is the most difficult job that anyone can have, and the most rewarding. Teachers are our nation builders, the strength of every profession in our country grows out of the knowledge and skills that teachers help to instill in our children. And as a nation, we must do much, much more to fully appreciate and support their work. With the transition to more rigorous achievement standards and better student assessment, a focus on data to drive instruction, and the use of technology to learning, teachers are carrying an incredible amount of responsibility. We are in the midst of a new era, one with more engaging lessons, creativity, and innovation, which is bringing joy back into the classroom. the state of teaching is stronger because teachers everywhere are leading from their classroom and taking on new roles to improve education. And we all know, when teaching is stronger, students benefit with increased engagement and achievement. There is no better resource for a school than teachers who are empowered and equipped to solve problems using their own talent and experience. We must do more to encourage teachers who long to share in the responsibility of leading change in our schools. Teaching has never been easy, and it never will be. It takes heart, commitment and passion. But for all the very real challenges, there is reason to be optimistic about where we are going. Why? Because of the teachers who will lead the way. They will shape the state of this profession and the future prospects of our children.

              Whether we realise it or not, a teacher is the most important influence in our life. A teacher is not necessarily one who has taught us in schools or college, they are our parents, mentors and friends too. Whosoever have something to teach is a teacher. We all must offer our gratitude to them. The best teachers are those who show us where to look but don't tell us what to see. Because good teachers educate us and the right education is to know where to look. What we need from education is to awaken intelligence in us. Intelligence is the capacity to perceive the essential, the truth that is all around us but hidden from our view. To awaken this capacity in oneself and in others, is education.  There is really no end to education. It is not about reading a book or passing an examination and say that "my education is finished". Education never ends. It can not end. The whole of life, from the moment we are born to the moment we die, is a movement of learning. 

            The transformative power of an effective teacher is something almost all of us have experienced. If we were fortunate, we had numerous exceptional teachers who made school an interesting place. Those teachers possessed a passion for the subject that they taught and genuine care for the students. They inspired us to play with ideas, and pursue career in a particular field of study. Some exceptional teachers achieve celebrity status, such as Jaime Escalante, the math teacher who inspired the film Stand and Deliver, but thousands of unsung heroes go unrecognized in their work with students on a daily basis. We know intuitively that these effective teachers can have an enriching effect on the daily lives of students and their lifelong educational and career aspirations. We know now empirically that these effective teachers also have a direct influence in enhancing student learning. Years of research on teacher support the fact that effective teachers not only make students feel good about school and learning, but also that their work actually results in increased student achievement. 

             It is not easy being a teacher today. National, state and local politicians, philanthropists, researchers, journalists and many other people that never actually taught a student are deciding how and what teachers should teach and how their effectiveness should be assessed. Teachers have always played an extraordinary role in the development of their students. In recent history, Hellen Keller, Eleanor Rooselvelt, James Earl jones and Magic Johnson are just  a few of the many highly accomplished people who point to a single teacher that set them on a course toward greatness. I know there are countless other lesser-known stories of teachers who encountered troubled students and moved them onto a path toward success. Teachers are challenged to do all of that every day. We ask students, "What matters most to you, and why? It is a invitation for them to bravely share their stories. We learned that students today are not as insulated from the problems of the world as they were 30, 20 and even 10 years ago. There are no more filters, children today are exposed to everything. Third-graders worry about  human trafficking, and sixth graders mention anxiety, depression and body image. They are steadily bombarded with news of tragedies from around the world. Though the world is a safer place than it has ever been, it doesn't seem like that to a young child who consumes so much media as older students do today. Yet, students need the perspective and counsel of teachers more than ever. So how is a teacher to respond to this? 9 things teachers can do. 1) You do what you are called to do.  2) You do what students need you to do.  3) You make time to touch their hearts every day.  4) You look into students' eyes, and they see in yours that you love them.  5) You serve as the voice of reason, courage and hope.  6) You assure them with your presence that they are beautiful creature.  7) You tell them that they matter, that they are geniuses, and that the world needs their contribution.  8) You choose your words carefully, so that those words help students envision success, strech their thinking, and advance independent behaviors and actions. Well-chosen words will stick with your students the rest of their lives.  9) You teach. Your students need you more than ever.

120th Birthday of William Faulkner - Part II

             Faulkner was totally right about his worry with his right to privacy. A nightmare called dystopia starts with violations of basic human rights, and with the helping hand of a dehumanizing big media talking daily about these violations as it were a normal event, so without we realize our rights are being violated and then suddenly,we are already  living in this nightmare. Therefore we all must fight privacy violations, if you know about any of them, record, being a witness, help fight evil, because otherwise you can be the next victim. Join us in this fight, the democracy, the justice, the people and me really appreciate this humanitarian act. We all have to keep the democratic and humanitarian values, we can not tolerate an inversion of values and hypocrisy.  In this post remains the tribute to the American writer William Faulkner. This post is a summary of his essay with the complete title and subtitle of, "On Privacy." The American dream: what happened to it. The second summary was published at  http://www.vqronline.org/essay/faulkner%E2%80%99s-criticism-modern-america. The third was published at http://mwp.olemiss.edu//dir/faulkner_william/

            This was the American dream: a sanctuary on the earth for individual man: a condition in which he could be free not only of the old established closed-corporation hierarchies of arbitrary power which had oppressed him as a mass, but free of that mass into which the hierarchies of church and state had compressed and held him individually thralled and individually impotent. A dream simultaneous among the separate individuals of men so asunder and scattered as to have no contact to match dreams and hopes among the old nations of the old world which existed as nations not on citizenship but subjectship, which endured only on the premise of size and docility of the subject mass; the individual men and women who said as with one simultaneous voice: "We will establish a newland where man can assume that every individual man has inalienable right to individual dignity and freedom within a fabric of individual courage and honorable work and mutual responsibility." Not just a idea, but a condition: a living human condition designed to be co-eval with the birth of America itself. The dream, the hope, the condition which our forefathers did not bequeath to us, their heirs and assigns, but rather bequeathed us, their successors, to the dream and hope. We ourselves heired in our successive generations to the dream by the idea of the dream. And not only we, their sons born in America, but men born in the old alien repudiated lands, also felt that breath, that air, heard that promise, that proffer that there was such a thing as hope for individual man. And the old nations themselves, so old and so long-fixed in the old concepts of man as to have thought themselves beyond all hope of change, making oblation to that new dream of that new concept of man by gifts of monuments and devices to mark the portals of that inalienable right and hope: "There is room for you here from about the earth, for all you individually homeless, individually oppressed, individually unindividualized."  A free gift left to us by those who had travailed and individually endured to create it, we their successors, did not even to nourish and feed it. We needed only to remember that, living, it was therefore perishable and must be defended in its crisis. Because that dream was man's aspiration in the true meaning of the word aspiration. It was not merely the blind and voiceless hope of his heart: it was the actual inbreathe of his lungs, his lights, his living and unsleeping metabolism, so that we actually lived the dream. The dream audible in the strong uninhibited voices which were not afraid to speak, "that all individual men were created equal in one mutual right to freedom." That was the dream. Then we lost it. It abandoned us, which had supported and protected and defended us whicle our new nation of new concepts of human existence. Something happened to the dream. Many things did. This, I think, is a symptom of one of them. About ten years ago a well known literary critic, a good friend of long standing, told me that a wealthy widely circulated magazine had offered him a good price to write about me, not about my work, but about me as a private citizen. I said no, and explained why: until the writer committed a crime, his private life was his own, and not only had he the right to defend his privacy, but the public had the duty to do so since one man's liberty must stop at exactly the point where the next one's begins, and that I believed that anyone of responsibility would agree with me. Across the board in fact, a parlay, a daily triple: truth, freedom and liberty. The point is that America today any organization can postulante to itself immunity to violate the individualness, the individual privacy which he can not be an individual and lacking it which individuality he is not anything at all worth the having or keeping, of anyone who is not himself a member of some organization or group numerous enough or rich enough to frighten them off. There are occupations which are very valuable,  such as writing novels and short stories, which require, demand privacy in order to endure, live. The American sky which was once the topless empyrean of freedom, the American air which was once the living breath of liberty, are now become one vast down-crowding pressure to abolish them both, by destroying the last vestige of privacy without which man can not be an individual.

              Every great novelist has his wisdom, but he imparts it in his own mode. He doesn't make statement and offer arguments. He dramatizes fictional characters. His judgments are normally implicit, not explicit. But they engage human interest in a way in which the abstract statements of the political scientist never can. They make their appeal to the imagination. The work of the great literary artist, as a matter of fact, has never been more necessary than now. In a world which increasingly resembles the innards of a vast IBM machine, a world in which the human integers are likely to feel themselves dehumanized and left at the mercy of forces which are impersonal, we need the rich particularity and the imaginative reach of the literary artist. What he gives us is not life itself, but perhaps the next best thing to life itself: a simulacrum of life that helps us to come to terms with ourselves, to understand our history, and to get a firmer grasp on reality and truth.

            The man himself never stood taller than five feet, six inches tall, but in the realm of American literature, William Faulkner is a giant. More than simply a renowned Mississipi writer, the Nobel Prize-winning novelist is acclaimed throughout the world as one of the 20th century' greatest writers. During what is generally considered his period of greatest artistis acievement, from The Sound and the Fury, in 1929 to Go Down, Moses in 1942, faulkner accomplished in a little over a decade more artistically than most writers accomplish over a lifetime of writing. It is one of the more remarkable feats of American literature, how a young man who never graduated from high school, never received a college degree, living in a small town in the poorest state in the nation, all the while balancing a growing family of dependents and impending financial ruin, could during the Great Depression write a series of novels all set in the same small county in the South, that would one day be recognized as among the greatest novels ever written.