Makah Indians Essays - Whaling, Animal Rights, Makah, Clallam County

Makah Indians The Makah are a Native Indian tribe who have recently decided to enact their treaty rights, and start to hunt for whales. These actions have caused an uproar in North America. The Natives state that they are not doing anything but exercising their legal rights. Opponents to their hunting of whales argue that the Makah are a group of uncivilized and inhumane individuals, and that they are harming nature. The reportage of the controversy surrounding the Makah can be seen as ethnocentric in many ways. Through the language used by the media involved in the controversy, one can constantly see the Native people being viewed as inhumane savages. In turn, this language allows readers to be sent mixed messages about the Makah and their position in the whaling dispute. Finally, the protestors themselves have contradictory arguments which leads one to question the motivating factors behind their position. In order to fully understand the whaling controversy, it is necessary to understand the history of the Makah. They were a group of Native people who hunted gray whales. As a result of their increased trade with the Europeans, the 'white man' decided to also enter this hunt for the whale. This competition between the Makah and the'white man' lead to the whale coming close to extinction. Due to their love for nature and respect for the whale, the Makah decided to voluntarily refrain from hunting whales. It is important to note however, that in 1855, the Governor of Washington State agreed to the Treaty Of Neah Bay, which gave the Makah a right to hunt for whales. This is what is at the heart of the controversy. The Makah have recently enacted their hunting rights of the whale after seventy years, and are now resuming their hunt for whales. The Makah reasoning is a relatively simple one. In 1946, the gray whale population was 2000, and now their count is over 26,000. They believe that it is safe to hunt for whales again. The Makah have been a group of people who have relied on whale hunting. . They used the blubber from the whale to feed their families, and they used the rest of the whale to provide themselves with shelter and tools. However, their opponents have dismissed this practice of hunting whales as inhumane. Through the language that is being used by the media, one can see Native people being viewed as savages. The language being used is not blatantly discriminatory against the Native people, but is done in a subtle, yet powerful way, in order to evoke a message that Native people are inhumane. One of the reasons for this negative commentary regarding Native people hunting for whales could be due to ethnocentrism. This is the belief that one's own culture is considered to be normal, therefore, other cultures are considered abnormal. The media carefully uses words that show their bias towards the Native People. The media tries to make the Makah look like a band of savages. While writing about a recent anti-whaling demonstration, Peggy Andersen writes, "In a simmering dispute that ended with a scuffle and arrests, angry Makah Indians pelted a protest boat with rocks as the two sides bickered over a tribal plan to hunt gray whales." The wording of this opening paragraph leads the reader to think that it was Makah who were causing trouble, and that they were the one's that were arrested. However, if one were to complete the article, they would realize that this was not the case. Another example of media bias against the Makah people is when Jonathan Dube writes, "As much as it's possible for one dead animal to give new life to an entire nation, that's what has happened here." Dube is implying that it is impossible for an animal that has died to bring life to a nation, however, that is what has occurred. He does not understand how killing this whale could give life to the Makah, and therefore, he conveys this message of doubt to his readers. Dube is indirectly stating that the Makah need to kill in order to have life. Many readers and viewers of the media are being sent mixed messages about the Makah and the whaling situation. As seen above, the media is using certain language that portrays the Makah in an unflattering manner. However, this also has another major impact. The true message, and plight of the Makah is being lost and overshadowed by this harsh, and biased language. People reading newspaper articles probably

Themes of Macbeth

Themes of Macbeth Free Online Research Papers In the Play Macbeth written by William Shakespeare there are many themes, which are fueled by motifs. One of the more popular motifs is blood. Blood represents a lot of things death, revenge, guilt, fear, and life. This is popular because in this play there are many people who are murdered in cold blood. This motif really helps the reader understand what the atmosphere is like. In the second scene of the play, a â€Å"bloody man† delivers the report of Macbeth’s heroic victory. After that we see and hear of much more blood. Like in Act 2 scene 1 when Macbeth kills King Duncan to become king. Macbeth’s hands are covered in Duncan’s blood. He asks himself if all the water in the world can wash away the blood: Will all great Neptunes ocean wash this blood / Clean from my hand? And he answers his own question: No, this my hand will rather / the multitudinous seas incarnadine, / Making the green one red (2.2.57-60). This really tells me that it is a dark moment in the play and that King Duncan has been killed. When reading/watching the play I can see that Macbeth is not really happy with what he has done and is kind of going mad at the thought of it. In Macbeth the showing of blood usually means something bad has or happened. You can figure this out in act one scene four when the apparitions appear; we see blood on two of them. First comes an armed head, then a bloody child that tells Macbeth to Be bloody, bold, and resolute; laugh to scorn / the power of man, for none of woman born / shall harm Macbeth (4.1.79-81). In act five scene one we find Lady Macbeth sleepwalking. She is sleeping because she is probably having a dream about King Duncan’s murder. As the sleepwalking scene continues, Lady Macbeth complains that she cant get the blood off of her hands. What, will these hands neer be clean? (5.1.44), She asks, and then she is devastated when she realizes that the blood will never come out: Heres the smell of the blood still: all the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this lit tle hand. O, O, O! (5.1.50-52). With these two quotes it appeared to me as if Lady Macbeth and Macbeth have switched feelings in the play. Lady Macbeth is regretting that she convinced her husband to kill King Duncan, while Macbeth doesn’t refer to it any more. In act five scene two Malcolm and Macduff are marching to Birnam Woods Meinteith is among those in the Scottish forces marching to join the English army at Birnam wood. Menteith says of Malcolm and Macduff, Revenges burn in them; for their dear causes / would to the bleeding and the grim alarm / Excite the mortified man (5.2.3-5). When a frightened servant comes to tell Macbeth of the approach of ten thousand English soldiers, Macbeth is enraged by the servants face, which is pale with fear. He tells the servant, Go prick thy face, and over-red thy fear, / Thou lily-liverd boy (5.3.14-15). When I read this quote I could tell that Macbeth was both going to die or be thrown of the throne and Malcolm was to be the next king. Macduff catches up with Macbeth and challenges him, calling out, Turn, hell-hound, turn! (5.8.3). Macbeth answers, Of all men else I have avoided thee: / But get thee back; my soul is too much charged / with blood of thine (5.8.5-7). Blood is not mentioned again in the scene but it is seen both when Macbeth dies, and when Macduff carries in his head on a pole. The motif Blood drove this play and really made it interesting. It also drove the theme destructive nature on blind ambition because all the murders happened because to help improve Macbeth’s rein as king. Research Papers on Themes of MacbethHonest Iagos Truth through DeceptionComparison: Letter from Birmingham and CritoMind TravelWhere Wild and West MeetThe Masque of the Red Death Room meaningsHarry Potter and the Deathly Hallows EssayBringing Democracy to AfricaCanaanite Influence on the Early Israelite ReligionCapital PunishmentThe Spring and Autumn

How to prevent identity theft Speech or Presentation

How to prevent identity theft - Speech or Presentation Example While such crimes are easy to commit, their complexity makes them hard to investigate and prosecute them. It calls for each of us to identify-smart and make sure such crimes are stopped from spreading. It is a challenging task, but easy to win. What simply needs to be done is to follow the tips given by the experts, exercise extra care and we shall all be ahead of these identity thieves by a big step. It is a responsibility of each of us to rise to the occasion to prevent identity theft. But before we are ready to take up the task, we need to be informed of what identity theft mean. This paper is a presentation of how to prevent an identity thief. Identity theft, or identity fraud, according to the United States Department of Justice, are terms that are used when referring to all forms of crime in which an individual wrongfully obtains and makes use of personal data of that other person in some way involving deception typically for personal, economic gains (National Crime Prevention Council, 2005). Research has shown that by 2004, there were on average twenty million incidents involving identity theft in the U.S alone (Joseph, 2005). How this happens with all the securities in place, is a question everyone would want to know its exact answer. However, according to a study that was released by two research bodies (Better Business Bureau and Javelin Strategy), in early January 2005, most of the theft do take place offline, which is quite opposite of what majority of people might think (Joseph, 2005). The study found out that online information theft only accounts for about 11.6% of the total identity fraud cases. This, in essence, implies that limiting your use of own computer does not help much. Nonetheless, rushing into grabbing headline scandal that involve theft of thousands of personal records, coupled with the advent of pharming and phishing these involved in the theft might go a long way to the above figures dramatically. The findings of these studies, on the other hand, are extremely troubling. These studies indicate that almost half of the identity thefts are often committed by those people known to the victims. One other study in 2004, reported that on average 655,000 complaints that were registered with the agency, 60 percent were to do with fraud and 40 percent involving complaints of theft identity. Basing on the figures released by this study, the predominant form of identity theft was that of Credit card fraud that accounts for 30 percent of the theft reported. Utilities fraud was ranked second accounting for 20 percent of the identity theft. This was followed by Bank fraud that account for 17percent of identity theft. The FTC, as well conducted some study concerning theft committed on the internet, and it came up with 206,568 as a figure for the internet identity theft. It was also noted that about 89 percent of the victims said they suffered a financial loss, which was averaged at $1,440. Basing on these study Phoenix-Mesa- Scottsdale, Bernardino-Ontario, Las Vegas-paradise, and Riverside-San reported the highest number of identity theft. The FTC found out that of all that reported having been victimized in the U.S 8 percent aged 60 years and above with the largest number, 30 percent, falling in the range between 18 to 30 age group (Joseph, 2005). Following those figures, it becomes clear that identity theft is real and

Globalization of aviation services Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Globalization of aviation services - Essay Example This is done in order to create a world economy that is borderless and open. He further defines globalization as the spread of supra-territoriality and explains that it involves reconfiguring geography in such a way that people stop mapping social space wholly in terms of territorial borders, territorial distances and territorial places. Through globalization, one part of the world’s cultural, technological, political, environmental and economic events become significant in other parts of the globe. The major contributors of globalization are improved information technologies, transportation and communication. Globalization also entails the development of transnational corporations and multinational corporations. In aviation, globalization is demonstrated by marketing, technical and commercial coalitions among airlines. It sometimes involves control and ownership issues beyond nationalized boundaries. One of the forces that can impede the globalization of aviation services is protectionism, a system in which countries impose duties on imports or on other countries wanting to set up their industries in them. Despite the fact that the world is drifting from protected and managed trade in most services and goods, aviation industry remains often intensely protected and regulated greatly. This dates back to the end of World War II when the United States failed to attain the open skies goal as part of a liberal post-war order. Other governments resisted the idea since the U.S was the only country that was able to mount a worldwide air transportation endeavor at that time. This opposition against domination of the airways by the United States was strengthened by the argument that skies control was a crucial security matter (Baliles, 1997). Protectionism involves such practices as countries introducing public subsidies into their flag carriers, cabotage which is the restriction of

Zara Technoligy can Change Everything Term Paper

Zara Technoligy can Change Everything - Term Paper Example So he integrated forward, opening the first Zara store in La Coruna in 1975(Mcafee et al., 2007, p.3). The growth of Zara was phenomenal since its establishment in 1975. The success of first Zara store encouraged Ortega to open more clothing stores across Spain. It is often said that the innovation and ability to produce new products and services are decisive factors in boosting the growth of an organization. Zara did succeed in introducing new clothing products and trends in the market quite rapidly. Moreover, Ortega gave more emphasize to the production of new designs based on the rapidly changing industry trends, which helped him to compete effectively in the market. 1985 was a year which has huge importance in the history of Zara. Two major events occurred in this year that changed the entire face of the company. â€Å"First, Inditex (Industria de Diseno Textil) was formed as a holding company atop Zara, other retail chains and a network of internally owned suppliers. Second, Jo se Maria Castellano Rios joined the company† (Mcafee et al., 2007, p.3). Being an expert in IT, Castellano did everything possible to incorporate computer related technologies at every corners of the company. He had realized that without computers and internet, no industry can look forward and he changed the face of the company from a low end clothing company to a high end technology based clothing company. It should be noted that the net margin of Inditex increased from 7.21% to 11.2% during the period of 1996 to 2002 (Mcafee et al., 2007, p.16). The above statistics clearly suggest that the company is growing in the right direction since the introduction as a result of the innovative business strategies and the judicious use of technology in all the functional departments. â€Å"At the beginning of 2003, Inditex operated 1,558 stores in 45 countries, of which nearly 550 were part of the Zara chain. For its fiscal-year 2002, Inditex had posted a net income of A438 millionâ⠂¬  (Mcafee et al., 2007, p.5). The growth of Zara can be better understood with the help of Michael Porter’s five forces model. Zara and Porter’s five forces model Michael Porter’s famous five forces model is used extensively at present in business sectors to analyze the competitive power of an organization in the market. It helps business people to realize their strengths and weaknesses. Since market is changing rapidly because of the rapid technological growth, no organization can secure their top spot in the market, if they are reluctant in making periodical changes in their business strategies. For example, the rivalry between Apple and Microsoft is famous. Even though Microsoft concentrated only in the operating system market, Apple diversified its portfolios to many other fields and they became the most valuable technology company in the world at present, pushing Microsoft far behind. In other words, organizations should make changes in their business st rategies based on the changes in the market in order to keep their competitive power intact all the time. Porter’s five force model helps organizations to measure their competitive power at a given time period. Porter model can be used to foresee the future threats and opportunities and the organizations can plan well accordingly. According to Michael Porter, five competitive forces that may affect an organization are; Threat of substitute products, Threat of new entrants, Intense rivalry among existing players, Bargaining power of suppliers and Bargaining power of Buyers (Porter’s Five Forces Model, 2009). The following illustration makes these points clearer. (Porter’

Womens Democracatisation and Democracy in India

Womens Democracatisation and Democracy in India Problematising Democracatisation and Democracy in India Visions of political development demands/desires democracy and participation as innate to its discourse. Development in this sense thus needs democratic decisions making, informed and active civil society and inclusive political structure to reach its goal. In the Indian context the process of democratization with inclusive participation is desired through the 73rd- 74th amendment Act of Indian constitution, 1992. The Act fosters the strengthening of local government by creating opportunities for inclusive participation. It provides rights to Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes and women, the most marginalised in the hierarchical Indian society to participate in local government. Aiming to redress the gender and caste inequities the Act provides 33% reservation to the aforementioned categories to participate in local bodies. Post implementation of the Act that has now passed sixteen years, womens participation has been remarkably visible. This has recently resulted in Union cabinet approving a proposal of a constitutional amendment bill for increasing quota (50%) for women in Panchayats at all tiers (DNA 29th August, 2009). Media reports estimate more than 1.4 million women to occupy 2,52,000 Panchayat seats in future. It also states, at present out of the total elected representatives of panchayat numbering around 2.8 million, 36.87% are women. The Panchayat raj ministry report indicates a significant role played by reservation in bringing women into mainstream (ibid). According to this report, about four-fifth of all women representatives in panchayat elections got elected from reserved seats and about 83% of them entered politics through quota. Positive impact of entering politics and working as a panchayat raj functionary is visible as 79% of women representatives reported better self-esteem, 81% rep orted confidence building and 74% stated increase of decision-making abilities (ibid). Such a positive report gives a picture of better and inclusive governance that India is moving towards by applying gender and development approach. This step foresees increased active-participation of women in public sphere and their empowerment. However, we need to look critically at the political participation that is envisioned and the actual implementation. Would political participation also facilitate womens participation at decision-making? What would participation entail especially for Dalit women in terms of the dire consequences of their earnest assertion to realize their rights? What is the role that the 73rd Amendment Act envisages for Scheduled Caste and what is the role they end up playing? At the backdrop of increased efforts from the state for inclusive governance these are the lines of enquiry I intend to draw upon.   Dr. Ambedkar in the constituent Assembly, 1948 expressed his views on Indian villages What is a village but a sink of localism, a den of ignorance, narrow mindedness and communalism? (Mathew,G. Nayak,R.1996: 1). He questioned the why should the village become the locus of the political structure?(Palanithurai 2003: 27) Villages ruled by its dominant elites and upper caste have been very conservative and are based on traditional caste structure. Local self government thus would reinforce the villages as unites of elite captures exploiting the downtrodden at grassroots. Problem Statement/Justification/Purpose of research: Sixteen years of the passing of the 73rd constitutional amendment Act has brought about a remarkable change in local governance. The formal participation and involvement of Dalit and women has increased in local politics. At this juncture there is a need to undertake a reality check. Does formal participation means actual representation of Dalit women? Is the process of political participation inclusive and empowering? Does assertion of Dalit women leads to violence against them as they are not meant to participate actively? The paper looks at Dalit womens experiences of political participation in panchayat raj and its impact on their empowerment. My interest in the issue of Dalit women comes from a number of different sources. First, from a personal experience as inter alia a Dalit woman. I, see several facets to the Dalit womens experiences having been brought up with this identity and being from the same background. Secondly, experience of working with civil society organisations on Gender Justice and rights of Dalit women during the graduation as a part of field work, internship with CHR and volunteering in Dalit movement in India drew my attention to Dalit womens issues more prominently. During the process I met Dalit women activists from rural Maharashtra working at grass-roots and saw the constant problems they faced for they challenged the systemic oppression. The intersectionality of caste and gendered hierarchy that gets intensified as Dalit women enter the public sphere came forward as a new learning. The socio-cultural positioning and significantly the caste-class-gender interplay make Dalit womens experiences specific. I therefore wanted to document the experiences of Dalit women who enter the public sphere for the first time through formal mean such as political participation. Finally and most importantly my focus on Dalit womens political participation in Panchayat is because at policy level although the introduction of reservation to marginalised groups (Women, SCs, STs) at local body envisions inclusive democracy and better governance, in practice the local level politics is a crudest unit of oppression. Thus the need to study Dalit womens experiences of political participation arose from my own understanding and experience of the issue as well as Specificity of Being Dalit Women: Intersectionality Dalit women in India today number 80.517 million or approximately 48% of the total Dalit population, 16% of the total female population and 8% of the total Indian Population (Irudayam et al., 2006:1). Dalit women face discrimination on a daily basis, as a Dalit, as women and as a poor they are in extremely vulnerable position (National Campaign on Dalit Human Rights 2006:1). Dalit women make majority of unorganised labourer in urban settings and landless labourers in rural. Systemic violence against Dalit women can be seen as a mechanism to keep Dalit in a subordinated position. It is built in to the structure of the dominant society, which does not acknowledge the basic human rights of Dalit in general and Dalit women in particular. There is a clash between the expected role of Dalit women and the role they achieve because of the differential ways in which they negotiate their social status and gender norms. The new public role that the 1992 Act assigns them generates a clash betwee n traditional norms and the achieved political rights of Dalit women. Dalit women who have the ambition to occupy a political position frequently encounter resistance from the society. General discouragement becomes violence as soon as they show too much initiative, speak up and gain support from the larger community. Political participation for Dalit women is seen as a threat by the dominant caste groups. Dalit womens entry in politics is perceived as them securing entitlement to public resources. Strong Casteist and patriarchal biases against Dalit result in violent attacks, restraining Dalit women from exercising their rights through various mechanisms. There fore at academic level, I believe there is an urgent need to study the experiences of Dalit women participating in politics. It is at the village level that caste and gendered hierarchy plays out in crudest forms) With this premise I form objectives of my study the broad objective being: Study the experiences of Dalit womens right to political participation in rural Panchayat Raj system. I have following specific objective for the study: Explore the factors that restrain or facilitate participation of Dalit women in rural Panchayat Raj. Examine the impact of political participation on Dalit women in Panchayat Raj. Study the empowerment process of Dalit women through the political participation in Panchayat Raj. To suggest recommendations for effective participation of Dalit women in Panchayat Raj Research Question: Based on the objectives of study I formulated my research question for the enquiry What are the experiences of Dalit women participating in panchayat raj? Has the political participation impacted Dalit womens empowerment? What have been the attributing/restraining factors for the empowerment of Dalit women? What are the achievements of their political participation for themselves and for the Dalit community they represent and for the society in general? Feminist approach: Within feminist social science research, qualitative data, in particular in-depth interviews have  ´held a prominent place in the history of feminist inquiry ´ (Rabinowitz and Martin, 2001:44 in Kitzenger2003:126). Focus groups methods are also employed along with such talk about experiences. These are self-report methods. My choice of topic and feminist orientation required to utilize this method. This goes back to second wave of feminism (1970s) that emphasized the reclaiming and validation of womens experiences through listening womens voices (Kitzenger, 2003:125, Kirsch, 1999:4). The personal experiences of women have also been recognized in political context since then. Further Feminist social science researcher made it general to base their studies on womens voices and experiences. In fact feminist researches aimed at listening to womens different voices ´ (Gilligan, 1982 in Kitzenger, 2003:126) and  ´to address womens lives and experiences in their own terms, to create theory grounded in the actual experiences and language of women (DuBois, 1983: 108 in Kitzenger, 2003:126). With this historical reference I decided to apply feminist approach a most suitable analytic framework in my study of Dalit women sharing their experiences of Political participation. Methodology: This section methodology brings out the processes through which data is collected, collated, analyzed and interpreted. This is aimed at increasing the reliability of the study for the further validation as research is performed in order to be used. The study primarily adopts a qualitative approach as it helps to understand the subject of study through the experiences of the Dalit women. The paper focuses on the political participation and its impact on Dalit women.   It attempts to look critically at political participation of Dalit women and the trends of political participation at local level since the 73rd amendment Act, 1992. It does it so by documenting experiences of Dalit women and analyzing the complexities involved due to caste-class-gender interplay in the political participation process of Dalit women. These questions will only be answered by talking to Dalit women who have participated in the political processes. A systematic and comprehensive documentation of Dalit womens experiences at local governance is thus needed. For this purpose I decided to conduct a focused study based on qualitative primary data collected through field work. Methodology is one of the important sections of my research paper as the process of qualitative enquiry through field work has taught me more about my research topic along with the literature. After a considerable thinking process I decided that the method should be suitable to the research questions that I intend to address. As the research focuses on Dalit womens experiences the best method was to record their experiences through in-depth interviews. I intentionally kept the interviews unstructured as its being qualitative in nature, provides greater breadth. In-depth unstructured interviews allow researcher to explore a theme without being restricted to a series of questions. I being from a Dalit community and having worked on the Dalit womens issues came to my advantages as the discussions with Dalit women were focused at the same time gave scope to them to talk out their experiences without any hindrances. The rapport building and trust was achieved very easily. I lived in the f ield place with respondents and in special cases (there are three main cases) I stayed with the respondents for more than two days in order to understand and document the various dimensions involved in political participation of Dalit women. I used a question guideline that was formulated through the discussion with the expert in the field of research methodology and local governance[1] Sampling: The purposive (non-probability) sampling was utilized based on focus of my study to document and assess the experiences of Dalit womens political participation in local politics. Intentional and directed selection of Dalit women at grassroots politics was employed.   CHR, SPMM activists helped me identify data. Only one woman declined to give interview. The reason she declined itself interprets the problem faced by Dalit woman, I was informed by the activists that she Eighteen Dalit women in total were identified from three blocks of Beed district out of ten blocks and one block of Latur district. I selected ten out of eighteen Dalit women on the basis of sampling objectivity and representation of differences within Dalit women. Also, their diverse experiences of political participation were considered.   The sample was based on following interconnecting criteria. Panchayats at village level (Gram-Panchayats) newly elected Scheduled caste women President at village level SC women who had been Ex-Presidents Dalit women serving more than one tenure Dalit woman who tried but not succeeded in accessing panchayat post Cases where no-confidence motion was exercised on the Dalit women presidents Cases where abuse, beating up and atrocity inflicted Success-stories of active participation Finally 9 Dalit women from Beed District and one from Latur district of Marathwada region were selected. Three cases emerged as a main focus during my field work due to the special experiences of respondents. Though the sample was purposive I balanced sub-castes within scheduled castes by having respondents from Mahar and Mang (major scheduled castes of Maharashtra). Efforts were taken to include respondents with wide range of age in this study. Data collection: In the month of July, 2009 I visited the identified field place, Beed District, Marathwada region, Maharashtra. I already had established contacts with a human rights organization Campaign for Human Rights in Beed and its sister organization, Savitribai Phule Mahila Mandal (SPMM) which works on the issue of gender justice and womens empowerment through self help group.   With the consultation of Manisha Tokle (The founding secretary of SPMM) and Ashok Tangade (National secretary of CHR) I identified potential respondents from the selected blocks of Beed Distict. They also put me in contact with the field workers of CHR who handled these blocks. Manisha, Ashok and field workers gave me enriched information based on their field work experiences. Being well-versed with the area made them experts in the psycho-social behavior of people and the cultural challenges. Their guidance and discussions after interviews has been very important as something new would always emerge out of these d iscussions which I might not had thought during the interview. Their interpretations of the cases gave me crystallized views.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   CHR field activists from respective blocks accompanied me for every interview. They worked as informants. Their good rapports with the respondents, understanding of the region and the cultural meanings made my task easier. My own background being a Dalit woman was helpful in getting support from the respondents, establishing rapport and gaining their trust. In-depth unstructured interviews were recorded on the digital voice recorder. I maintained notes during and after every interview which helped me over come the problems in data analysis. The documentation of experiences of women was backed by my notes and suggestions from the field workers who discussed their interpretations after every interview. Informed consent: Before using the recorder I fully informed the respondents about the purpose of my study and the necessity to use the recorder Pictures of the respondents and the evidentiary documents wherever needed were taken for documentation. Interviews with expertise/ Key-Informants: I also consulted my ideas and paper with expertise as well as I interviewed key informants to gather their experiences in the field, on the issue FGD Area of study: The area of study was identified based on the characteristics of the region. The Marathwada region of the Maharashtra state was selected for the very peculiar reasons. First, Marathwada region being one of the most backward, feudal and atrocity prone regions of the Maharashtra state, second, a very special history of Dalit movement and violence against Dalits in the region and very importantly the right based work of Human rights organisations such as CHR, SPMM for the Dalit and womens upliftment. According to the first hand investigation and identification of cases I selected the following Blocks in Beed District and I took one exceptional case from Latur district that comes in Marathwada region itself.   1.1 Introduction The paper looks at how Dalit women, compared to women in general, are a different entity when they participate in Indias local self-governing institutions, known as Panchayat Raj Institutions. The 73rd Amendment of the Constitutional Act 1992, came into force in April 1993, providing an opportunity for Dalits and women – the most marginalised in the hierarchical Indian society – to participate in local-body elections at the village level. The Act, seeking to redress gender and caste inequities in rural India, provides 33% reservation to women, Scheduled Castes, and Scheduled Tribes in local bodies. Within this 33%, Dalit women are provided reserved seats on a rotating basis (meaning, every five or ten years the constituencies reserved for dalits and women are changed). After more than 15 years of the Act, Dalit and Dalit womens participation has been remarkably visible. However, we need to look critically at the term participation and what it entails—especially i n terms of the consequences dalit women face when they earnestly assert their rights. What is the role that the 73rd Amendment Act envisages for women and what is the real role they end up playing? There is a clash between the expected role of women and Dalit women because of the differential ways in which they negotiate their social status and gender norms. The new public role that the 1992 Act assigns them generates a clash between traditional norms and the achieved political rights of Dalit women. Violence exercised against women, and specifically against Dalit women, when they participate in political work, in indicative of the stratifications that obtain in the Indian social order. Vulnerably positioned at the bottom of Indias caste, class and gender hierarchies, Dalit women experience endemic gender and caste discrimination and violence as the outcome of severely imbalanced social, economic and political power equations (Irudayam et al 2006, pp.3). Within the oppressive social structure Dalit women become victim of violence if they transgress their rights and try to challenge their lower status. As gender violence, like any violence there are contexts, in relation to violence against Dalit women, the nature and dynamics of these contexts, relating to power and force, make them vulnerable and functions as a constrain to their agency and voice. This structural violence is an outcome of gender based inequalities perpetuated by patriarchal power relation also shaped, compounded and intensified by caste discrimination. Violence acts as a crucial social mechanism to maintain Dalit womens caste-gender subordination to men and that of the dominant caste men thereby subjugating both Dalit women and through them their community. Violence against women is gender-based and gender biased (Irudayam et al., 2006: 17) in the sense it the devaluates womens status in social order perpetuated by patriarchy and justified on the basis of perceived differences between male and female sexuality. In Indian context the caste ladder descending from purity to pollution, purest Caste men being on the top of the ladder whereas the polluted caste placed on the lower rung women are pushed even further down to the lowest rung. It works against their integrity as an individual; this is a violation of womens rights, such as their identity as a woman and dignity as an individual. Therefore violence in this sense means denial of rights as an individual and hindering womans development at various levels of integrity, as an Individual, as a woman in a family, a woman belonging to certain community and culture. Norwegian sociologist Johan Galtung defines Violence as avoidable insult to basic human needs; he identifies the basic human ne eds as survival, well-being, identity, and freedom (Galtung 1990 pp 292). 1.2 Being a Dalit and a Woman:   Caste-Gender Nexus Dalit women face collective and public threat or act of violence which discourage them from demanding their rights, it is effects of structures on individual agency that results in the gap between potential and actual fulfilment of rights. Retaliatory violence is exercised in response to dalit womens assertions for their rights by defying caste, untouchability norms or asserting their rights to cultural, economic and political resources. Dominant caste women tend to be subjected to violence more within the family due to strict control over their sexuality and freedom of movement again due to the caste factors, in order to preserve the purity and status of their caste. There have been movements through out the country making Dalits aware of their rights and also there have been feminist movements in India which took up issues of women subordination however looking at Dalit women as an imagined category (Rao, 2003: 1) and analysing the premises which prevent them from exercising their agency is yet the area of exploration. Imagining Dalit women as a different category as Bhagvat mentions is needed, because these feminist movements and Dalit movements lack a critical dimension from Dalit womans standpoint. Guru emphasises on this Point while he talks about politics of difference to bring out the specificity of Dalit womens subjugation. This subjugation is characterised by their experience of two distinct patriarchal structures a Brahmanical form of patriarchy that deeply stigmatizes Dalit women because of their caste status, as well as the control by Dalit men over the sexual and economic labour of their women (Guru in Rao 2003: 1). Political Participation for women means securing their entitlement to public resources, the economic resources they will avail as a result of participation for them and their community, the social and political benefits such as Development of the Dalit community in village, implementation of government schemes for Dalit more democratically due their representation.   With the strong patriarchal biases against women and marginalised Dalit, the dominant caste male members would not want these sections to equally enjoy the resources over which they had monopoly since long. There has a lot been written and debated around political participation of women and Dalits, conclusions are made that there has been fairly good representation in terms of number but the mere participation doesnt help these sections to exercise their rights. Nature of participation and effectiveness of the act has been assessed too, although with limited vision of looking only at the quantitative aspect of political participation. Very little has been studied on the gender-Caste nexus which denies the right of economic, political, social liberties to Dalit community as a whole and Dalit women within it. Political participation through Panchayat Raj Institution has given space for women to come out and talk about their grievances. The reservation has limited itself to space creation even though it implied the empowerment of women and there by making them equal partners in enjoyment of political, social, economical resource. It is seen that the oppressive social structures have reaffirmed their superiority by attacking women through new ways of oppression such as criminalisation of politics, starting right from the election process to making women mere proxies of their male counterparts. Violence in the process of Political participation to ensure womens non- participate and exercise their agency is a crucial aspect to study and to enhance policies which will cut across the structural inequalities of caste-class-gender and give dalit women an equal status. I want to study Violence experienced by women at different levels of participation and look at the specificity of violence experienced by Dalit women being trice oppressed due to their marginalised status as a Dalit, as a woman and as a lower class. Doing so my focus is at specificities of violence, Violence faced by women in general which is within their families and is built around the family prestige, there by controlling womens sexuality for the purity of their lineage and superior status. whereas dalit women not only face violence from their own family and community also from the dominant caste forces who ensure their superiority and control over resources by keeping the Lowest strata at its place who according to them are worth no social, economical and political rights. 1.3 Problem Statement According to the 2001 census there are 167 million Dalits (referred to the census as scheduled castes) in India, who remain vulnerable to discrimination, exploitation, and violence because of their socially marginal position assigned by Hindu social order. Indias hidden apartheid relegates Dalits to a life time of segregation and abuse. Caste-based divisions continue to dominate in housing, marriage, employment, and general social interaction—divisions that are reinforced through economic boycotts and physical violence (Hidden Apartheid 2007). The dalit woman faces Caste, Class and Gender discrimination because she is an untouchable, of a poor class and is a woman.   (National Campaign on Dalit Human Rights 2006) Dalit women in India today number 80.517 million or approximately 48% of the total Dalit population, 16% of the total female population and 8% of the total Indian Population (Irudayam et al., 2006). They make majority of unorganised labourer in urban settings and landless labourers in rural. They face discrimination on a daily basis, as a Dalit, as women and as a poor they are in extremely vulnerable position. Systemic violence against Dalit women can be seen as a mechanism to keep Dalit in a subordinated position. It is built in to the total structure of the dominant society, which does not acknowledge the basic human rights of Dalit in general and Dalit women in particular. The 73rd -74th Amendments, former being for rural local bodies and later for urban local councils brought about radical changes in womens representation in local bodies. The method of co-option where women are elected for the reserved seats on the consensus of the members of local panchayat body or nomination, Balwant Rai Mehta committee report proposed two women representatives each from Scheduled caste and scheduled tribe to be co-opted, these two procedures through which womens representation was ensured hitherto in the local bodies, has changed. Under the previous system, womens representation in local bodies was low and most women nominated to these bodies could hardly perform any functions. All the states except for Bihar (Santha, 1999) had conducted the elections to the local bodies in accordance with the 73rd-74th Amendments act, 1992 and almost one million women have been elected to the Panchayat Raj institutions and urban local bodies (I am focusing only at 73rd constitutio nal amendment act 1992 and PRIs and not on urban councils covered by the 74th Amendment, where he dynamics are different). This brought about a social change in terms of the traditional role of women; which used to be to take care of house hold chores and raise children and be inside the four walls all her life. Womens political empowerment finally seemed to be receiving some attention from both government and non-government organisations. Serious efforts are being made towards documenting womens political participation although it is limited to the Local self government. Questions of feasibility remain unanswered such as womens active participation, hidden domination (gender blindness) for instance in the budgeting process but also even in considering women as political entities, many treated women elected through reservation as a temporary members in Local body. The consequences of assertion resulting in discouragement, fragmentation and discrimination inflicting violence are yet to explore. Violence against Dalit women is utilised to deny them opportunities, choices and freedoms at multiple levels, undermining not only dalit womens dignity and self respect, but also their right to develop. An intersectional caste violence and atrocities against Dalit women occur at two levels: as an inherent part of the caste system whereby violence is utilised to reinforce caste norms and Dalit women are seen as legitimate target for all forms of violence, especially sexual violence, and when they transgress caste norms, such as caste endogamy or untouchability norms, or assert their rights over resources, public spaces or cultural spaces. In other words, the process of Dalit womens empowerment itself is perceived as a challenge to caste and patriarchal structures, and provides fertile ground for punitive violence committed by dominant castes. (Irudayam et al., 2006) Factors such as socio-cultural notion of womens role act as impediments in effective political participation hindering political empowerment of Women; When it comes to Dalit women these factors play much intense role and are specific for Dalit women due to their social status, denial and even no recognition to Dalit womens political rights result into violence. Cases such as denial from villagers for flag hoisting by Dalit women councillors on Independence Day, not being allowed to sit on the chair along with other members let alone talking in the meeting, Ignoring while they talk, use of abusing and discriminatory language, and humiliation on daily basis are experienced by most of the Dalit women who participate as elected members in local political arena. After encountering this reality one would question that would the thousands years old socially, culturally, economically and most importantly politically entrenched patriarchal caste system ensured the representation of disadvantaged groups in politics?   1.4 Rationale: Being a Dalit and a Woman My interest in the issue of Dalit Women comes from several different sources; first and foremost me being a Dalit woman. Being brought up with this identity and background, I got exposure to the problem faced by elders of the family and community. I feel my study would contribute in critically assess structural inequality causing Dalit suppression and specifically of the Dalit women in local politics. In the name of social discipline, social balance and to maintain this social balance, Dalits in general and Dalit wom

Computer Ethics Essay -- Ethics Morals Morality

As of September 2003, there were approximately 70 million Americans or about 62 percent of the American population had at least one home computer. Another statistic is that about 55% of people also have internet on there home computers. In everyday life it is important for a person to have good ethics; this is also true about computer usage. Due to the fact that more then half of the American population owns computers, computer ethics are a growing concern in a rapidly changing society. Computer ethics can be broken down in to many topics including piracy, hacking, viruses, spam, phishing, and responsibility of use of software, cyber porn, and invasion of privacy and the use of the computer in the work place. Also there are many issues both moral and professional that a person who uses a computer might face. Piracy which by definition is reproduction, distribution and use of software without permission of the owner of copyright, poses some serious ethical problems. The free exchange of copyrighted materials is piracy as it undermines the ability of copyright holders (and their representatives) to control the sale and distribution of goods to which theyÂâ€"and only theyÂâ€"own the rights. Probably the best known and most widely practiced form of piracy is the distribution of copyright protected music files via popular file sharing programs such as Kazaa and Limewire. As bandwidth increases, the "sharing" of movies and television shows on the Internet is likely to increase as well. Although file sharing is quite common, that does not mean it is okay. Another ethical problem with computers is hacking. Hacking is the computer equivalent of breaking and entering. A computer hacker uses his or her skills to gain unauthorized access t... ...rious consequences could surface which could ultimately lead to a loss of ones job. There are certain times and places were looking at different websites is ok and other times were it is just not acceptable. As previously mentioned, computer ethics in some peoples eyes greatly changed based on were the computer you are on is located. There is a completely different set of ethics for work computers. Not only do ethics come into play in workplace with computer use but so do morals. It is very important for a person to be able to know the fine line between what is ok for work and what is not acceptable. This can vary from harassment through things like email to just visiting the wrong kinds of site. In my research I have found that many companies are actually coming up with ethical commandments for the work place to further define the line between right and wrong.