Tuesday, April 1, 2014

Is War Inevitable?

Is War Inevitable?

British troops negotiate a trench as they go forward in support of an attack on the village of Morval during the Battle of the Somme in 1916

Throughout human history, war has taken the lives of many people, lump sum of cash and brought great cities to chaos. But even though the long list of conflicts from ancient times to modern day, psychologists suggest that in fact war is inevitable. 
Extensive research has focused on the many causes of war and how to deal with its effects. But three political psychologists at the University of Massachusetts Amherst have provided a better description of the psychological roots of war “can increase the likelihood of avoiding violence as a way to resolve conflicts with others.”

Bernhard Leidner suggests that

Syria Rebels"Research shows, he said, that those who tend to “glorify their country” – a kind of nationalism – are more likely to choose a violent solution. It’s not everything that you think about your country that has bad impacts. It’s usually only this aspect of glorifying your country. That you perceive other countries as more threatening. That you are more likely to be aggressive to them. On the other hand, if you’re just committed to your country in a more healthy way then you actually do not show these tendencies.”



War in fact is inevitable due to the fact that many countries have a sense of pride and ambitions to improve their current living conditions. Although many people over the years have promoted peace and unity, the intentions of politicians are different and seek always to have the upper hand on other countries. As stated by Bernhard Leidner “Since all these attitudes and behavioral tendencies of people are very malleable, obviously the media and also politicians can actually gear them in a good or bad way, so to speak.” 









Tuesday, March 11, 2014

Industrial Revolution Through Today's Eyes


The era known as the Industrial Revolution was a period from the 18th to the 19th century in which fundamental changes occurred in agriculture, textile and metal manufacture, transportation, economic policies and the social structure in England. The Industrial Revolution marks a major turning point in human history, almost every aspect of daily life was eventually had an impact in some other way. Most recognizable is that the average income and population began to manifest in unseen substantial growth. 




The introduction of steam power fueled only by coal, wider utilization of water wheels and powered machinery. The progression of all-metal machine tools in the first two decades of the 19th century made it possible for the manufacture of more production machines for assemble in other industries. The effects spread throughout Western Europe and North America during the 19th century, eventually affecting most of the world, a process that continues as industrialization. The influence of this change on society was immense. 


Working Conditions

For the first generation of workers from the 1790s to the 1840s their working conditions were very tough, and sometimes saddening. Most grunts worked 10 to 14 hours a day, six days a week, with no paid vacation or holidays. Each industry had safety hazards to the process of purifying iron, for example, demanded that workers exert oneself amongst temperatures as high as 130 degrees in the coolest part of the ironworks. Under such dangerous conditions, accidents on the job occurred frequently. A report commissioned by the British House of Commons in 1832 observed that "there are factories, no means few in number, nor confined to the smaller mills, in which serious accidents are continually occurring, and in which, in spite of the fact that, dangerous parts of the machinery are allowed to remain "unfenced". The report contributed the information that workers were often "abandoned from the moment that an accident occurs; their wages are stopped, no medical attendance is provided, and whatever the extent of the injury, no compensation is afforded". As the Sadler report shows, injured workers would usually lose their jobs and also receive no financial compensation for their injury to pay for much needed health care. Many of the unemployed or underemployed were skilled workers, such as hand weavers, whose talents and experience became futile because they couldn't take part with the efficiency of the new textile machines. In 1832, one observer saw how the skilled hand weavers had lost their way and were reduced to starvation. “It is truly lamentable to behold so many thousands of men who formerly earned 20 to 30 shillings per week, now compelled to live on 5, 4, or even less”. In 1799 and 1800, the British Parliament passed the Combination Acts, which made it illegal for workers to unionize, or combine, as a group to ask for better working conditions.

Since the Industrial Revolution began around 1750, human activities have been the direct cause of climate change by adding CO2 and many other heat-trapping gases into the atmosphere. These greenhouse gas discharge have increased the greenhouse effect and caused Earth’s temperature to rise. The pro-dominate human activity affecting the amount and rate of climate change are the greenhouse gas release from the burning of fossil fuels.


                                                                            The Greenhouse Effect










Child Labor Today




Child Labor


Child labor is work that harms children or keeps them from attending school. Around the world and in the U. S., growing gaps between rich and poor in recent decades have forced millions of young children out of school and into work. The International Labor Organization estimates that 215 million children between the ages of 5 and 17 currently work under conditions that are considered illegitimate, hazardous, or extremely abusive. Underage children work at all sorts of jobs around the world, usually because they and their families are extremely poor. Large numbers of children work in commercial agriculture, fishing, manufacturing, mining, and domestic service. Some children work in illegal activities like the drug trade and prostitution or other traumatic activities such as serving as soldiers.
Forms of child labor, including indentured servitude and child slavery, have existed throughout American history. As industrialization moved workers from farms and home workshops into urban areas and factory work, children were often preferred, because factory owners viewed them as more manageable, cheaper, and less likely to strike. Growing opposition to child labor in the North caused many factories to move to the South. By 1900, states varied considerably in whether they had child labor standards and in their content and degree of enforcement. By then, American children worked in large numbers in mines, glass factories, textiles, agriculture, canneries, home industries, and as newsboys, messengers, bootblacks, and peddlers. 



Characteristics of Child Labor

  • Violates a nation’s minimum age laws
  • Threatens children’s physical, mental, or emotional well-being
  • Involves unacceptable abuse, such as child slavery, child trafficking, forced labor, or illegal activities
  • Prevents children from going to school
  • The use of children to undermine labor standards

Child Labor Reform and the U.S. Labor Movement


  • 1832 New England unions condemn child labor
The New England Association of Farmers, Mechanics and Other Workingmen resolve that “Children should not be allowed to labor in the factories from morning till night, without any time for healthy recreation and mental culture,” for it “endangers their . . . well-being and health”.


  • 1836 Early trade unions propose state minimum age laws
Union members at the National Trades’ Union Convention make the first formal, public proposal recommending that states establish minimum ages for factory work.


  • 1836 First state child labor law

Massachusetts requires children under 15 working in factories to attend school at least 3 months/year.




  • 1842 States begin limiting children’s work days
Massachusetts limits children’s work days to 10 hours; other states soon pass similar laws—but most of these laws are not consistently enforced.
  • 1876 Labor movement urges minimum age law
Working Men’s Party proposes banning the employment of children under the age of 14.
  • 1881 Newly formed AFL supports state minimum age laws
The first national convention of the American Federation of Labor passes a resolution calling on states to ban children under 14 from all gainful employment.
  • 1883 New York unions win state reform
Led by Samuel Gompers, the New York labor movement successfully sponsors legislation prohibiting cigar making in tenements, where thousands of young children work in the trade.
  • 1892 Democrats adopt union recommendations
Democratic Party adopts platform plank based on union recommendations to ban factory employment for children under 15.


  • 1904 National Child Labor Committee forms

Aggressive national campaign for federal child labor law reform begins.



  • 1916 New federal law sanctions state violators
First federal child labor law prohibits movement of goods across state lines if the minimum age laws are violated (law in effect only until 1918, when it’s declared unconstitutional, then reviewed, passed, and declared unconstitutional again).

  • 1924 First attempt to gain federal regulation fails
Congress passes a constitutional amendment giving the federal government authority to regulate child labor, but too few states approve and it never takes effect.

  • 1936 Federal purchasing law passes
Walsh-Healey Act states U.S. government won't purchase goods made by underage children.

  • 1937 Second attempt to gain federal regulation fails
Second attempt to approve constitutional amendment by giving federal government authority to regulate child labor falls just short of getting necessary votes.

  • 1937 New federal law sanctions growers
Sugar Act makes sugar beet growers not allowed to from benefit payments if they violate state minimum age and hours of work standards.

  • 1938 Federal regulation of child labor achieved in Fair Labor Standards Act
For the first time, minimum ages of employment and hours of work for children are regulated by federal law.

Child Labor in the world today

  • Asia and the Pacific in fact still has the largest numbers (almost 78 million) but Sub-Saharan Africa continues to be the region with the highest occurrence of child labor (59 million) that's over 21%.
  • There are 13 million of children in child labor in Latin America and the Caribbean and in the Middle East and North Africa there are 9.2 million that's about 8.4%.

  • Child labor in India makes up 3.6% of the country’s total work force.
  • In Bangladesh the number is 30.1%.
  • China child labor is at 11.6%.
  • Pakistan it is 17.7%.
  • Kenya it is 41.3%.










Sources:


Wednesday, November 6, 2013

Socrates, the son of a sculptor (or stone-cutter)  and a midwife, was a young boy when the rise to power of Pericles brought on the dawning of the "Golden Age of Greece."   As a young man, Socrates saw a fundamental power shift, as Pericles--perhaps history's first liberal politician--acted on his belief that the masses, and not just property-owning aristocrats, deserved liberty.  Pericles created the people's courts and used the public treasury to promote the arts.  He pushed ahead with an unprecedented building program designed not only to demonstrate the glory that was Greece, but also to ensure full employment and provide opportunities for wealth creation among the propertied class.  The rebuilding of the Acropolis and the construction of the Parthenon were the two best known of Pericles' many ambitious building projects.
A general amnesty issued in 403 meant that Socrates could not be prosecuted for any of his actions during or before the reign of the Thirty Tyrants.  He could only be charged for his actions during the four years preceding his trial in 399 B.C.E.   It appears that Socrates, unchastened by the antidemocratic revolts and their aftermaths, resumed his teachings and once again began attracting a similar band of youthful followers.  The final straw may well have been an another antidemocratic uprising--this one unsuccessful--in 401.  Athens finally had enough of "Socratified" youth.